Wednesday, July 28, 2010

SORRY, Ms Dowd, but you didn't mention the question General Mattis should have been asked: Can you estimate, on an annual basis, how many American lives it will take to keep happy the stockholders and employees of Halliburton, Rayethon, Lockheed, GE, the various private contractors and all the other military-industrial hangers-on?

Addendum II...

BUT Andrew, please, we must keep on feeding The Beast — the military-industrial complex that Ike so kindly warned us about in 1956.

Addendum ...

WONDER if the scumbag "dirty trickster's" ego was adequately gratified to be mentioned in Frank Rich's column today.

Here's the most highly reader recommended comment about Rich's column:

Talleyrand
Basel, Switzerland
July 25th, 2010
9:06 am

Hi Frank,

Yes, Vilsack was hasty and not smart and he should, if not resign, then at least learn a solid lesson that he can share at the next cabinet meetings. And that is to take a breath and keep the GOP rats at bay. Because ultimately, it is that so-called party — which, after its despicable performance these past 18 years should never even be close to wielding power — that caused the problem. They are a hindrance to government, they are engaging in frivolous battles against the entire nation at a time when we need cohesion. They are in fact guilty of obstruction, just as if you would drive a tractor purposely in front of an ambulance rushing to the scene of a major disaster.

But they saw their chance: Obama inherited the biggest mess we have had since the early 30s (and back then there were no wars to deal with), and they figured rightly: They can stay in the news, they can slow things down, and a population of voters used to instant gratification at any cost will jest see the symptoms (continuing high unemployment, continuing wars) and not the cause.

Because that is what it is all about. In a nation of well-educated, conscientious voters, the GOP would no longer stand a chance of winning anything in November. But in the Era of the Drama Queen, with the deafening Internet-generated noise in the background, they can somehow draw attention and then deflect the blame. The GOP and most of its candidates for the November run are a disgrace, indecently short-sighted, power- and publicity hungry. And that is what wins.

If you have never been in a good fight, not of words, but of fisticuffs, you'll know that small men are dangerous. I have seen Yorkshire terriers attack large dogs, and they do it in really nasty ways. The GOP is like that. It is filled with small men and women, small in mind. They have no ability to think things through, no real depth, no vision. That is why they purport to hate everything academic or concepts like hope. That is why they always refer to God and pump themselves up with phoney and even fraudulent patriotism, because these are planks that allow them to avoid the hard work of using their heads, of coming up with some intelligent program and real strategy. They are the Party of No, Mr. Rich, and that is 30% shorter than the word Yes.

Even when the GOP is in power it's like that. They always purport to be under attack, when they themselves are attacking. They have started up on the reverse racism issue, re-issuing Archie Bunker for a class of voters that is so hard at work, so distracted by the sheer tsunami of nonsense floating around the Internet, it has no time to pick up a real book and read. A voting class unused and unwilling to think things through.

And our media are unwilling to clear matters up. TV is a noisy crowd of talking heads, one sillier and more uneducated than the next. The Internet is just noisy.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

DANIEL Schoor was the last of the true and great national journalists. There are none these days.

AND here's an essay, in The Nation, that will certainly cheer you up.

Friday, July 23, 2010

REALLY enjoyed this comment in response to Paul Krugman's column in the Times this morning. It's so, well, Coulter-esque:

Karen Garcia
New Paltz, NY
July 22nd, 2010
11:43 pm

Those Bush tax cuts and their vibrancy sure made life a lot better for us hoi polloi, didn't they? Conspicuous consumption by the wealthy just fills me with vicarious joy. I get a thrill every time I see a Mercedes Benz commercial on TV, because I know that every purchase will be for the greater good. According to Mitch McConnell and his friends, we're just so darned ungrateful for being trickled down upon. I await those golden drops of Republican beneficence with baited breath.

The rich folks are getting nervous that their selfless gift of not paying taxes is about to run out — and (gasp!) they're actually starting to cut back on their spending. There was an article right here in the Times just a few days ago about sales of expensive toothpaste tube squeezers unexpectedly increasing. Before you know it, we'll see chauffeured limousines in Walmart parking lots.

It's getting so bad that a record number of millionaires are running for state and national office this year. Otherwise, things just won't get done. Good politician help is so hard to find.

But the most daunting event had to be when not one, but two Abercrombie and Fitch stores in New York became infested with bedbugs recently. The carriers apparently were frat boys who had been reduced to slumming in lower-end shops.

The resurgence of the ultimate frat boy, George Bush, cannot come soon enough. Just don't remind the GOP that it was Daddy who warned about voodoo economics. If you asked Mitch McConnell, he'd probably say Poppy Bush is just so yesterday. It's Junior we want, and Junior we must have.

Addendum II...

IT is always enjoyable to read Andrew Sullivan when he points out the remarkable ignorance and venality of the Palin-Gingrich reactionary right wing. Of course they don't respect — or want — religious freedom. They are as theocratic as the Taliban.

Addendum ...

IF you have an interest in the artistic qualities of urinals, click here.