7/28/11

Palin cannot resist. Cross hairs. Obama slurs. And now default.

Palin to GOP freshmen: Stick to principles on debt - On Politics - USATODAY.com: "Sarah Palin urged House Republican freshmen today to stick their principles when it comes to today's vote to raise the debt limit, even hinting they could face primary challenges if they don't rein in government spending."

Palin cannot resist. Cross hairs. Obama slurs. And now default. Is it too much to hope she will throw her hat in the ring so her fellow GOP folk can savage her?


Global Online Privacy

Boehner Could Not Get The Votes Most Likely

Daily Kos: BREAKING: No House vote tonight: "House Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) just announced there will be no vote tonight on the Boehner debt bill."

That is the best explanation. I still think it will come down to a simple debt ceiling approval. With the outcome uncertain but the likelihood that the Tea Party in the house will be on the losing end of an affirmative vote. If the whole thing moves toward default it is the 14th Amendment solution. Let Roberts and his cohorts default if they want.


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Angels are what we become

We are all
Angels all
Sometimes disfigured
By the principalities
Sometimes laid low by powers 
Or by temptations we cannot resist 
Or by the fearful flow of evil tides

At times
Anon
Perchance 
Like children
Sleeping
Our faces clear
Wreathed in a glow of peace 
And we look more like angels
Angels
Yes
It's then that
Abba's presence
We confess

Al-Qaida cost us trillions and suckered us into a war on terror as useless as our war on drugs

U.S. intelligence: Al-Qaida near collapse - Topix

And I think this is not a radical but a centrist view. So the idea that we have won much by collapsing the Bin Laden piece of global terror is ironical. The minute George Bush opted for a military solution on the ground, he won. And he will continue to win beyond the grave until we use our minds instead of our precious lifeblood.



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There will be no budget deal. The debt ceiling will be raised.

Boehner Sees Passage of Debt Plan - Reid Vows to Kill It - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — The House and Senate headed for a pivotal showdown on Thursday evening over how to cut spending and increase the debt limit before the federal government loses its ability to borrow."

I think this has been the answer all along. The plans on all sides are posturing. The answer lies in a final one page bill. If the GOP kill the simple Debt Ceiling bill they die. If it passes all this brouhaha has created the context for 2012 and convinced the world that we are aware of the debt problem.

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What if Obama Had Been A Republican All Along?

He would win the Senate in Illinois and become the darling if Republicans who then were at least borderline sane. He would win the nomination for the Presidency in 2008 in a walk. He would win the Presidential  election in a Reagan-like sweep. He would have gotten most of his program through with relative ease citing Republican history and appealing to progressive instincts. Instead of bashing Bush as a Democrat he would simply bided his time as a Republican and done what needed to be done. All told, he might have been smarter to take that route. The result of his being a Democrat who is actually a moderate Republican centrist creates such a ballistic dynamic that the GOP is destroying itself in response. Meanwhile, the Democrats threaten his political future because of their tepid support. None of this has traction in the media because the media accepts the phony GOP rap on the President and thus misses who he actually is and how he actually governs. The whole thing is, on one level, a laugh riot. I am hoping it is not also a crying shame. 

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How we can win the energy race against China

Time is Running Out for U.S. Leadership in Clean-Tech Jobs | Renewable Energy News Article: "Our research shows that China is now home to six of the top 10 global clean-tech pure-play employers, up from just three a year earlier. Clean-energy investments in China reached $34.6 billion last year, more than any other country and almost double the U.S. investment of $18.6 billion, according to a Pew Environment Group report, Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race. China has become "the" country to watch, and ignoring China's clean-tech ambitions and activities puts one's own clean-tech initiatives at great risk."

It's really simple. It would create prosperity. It will never happen.

We move from a car-oil-sprawl-consumer economy to a cyber-city economy where cities, old or new, are car-free, integral and high-tech. Prosperity arises from the replacement of the auto industry by the life industry in which Detroit and other manufacturing centers mass produce all of the pieces needed to create easily built lego-like, matrix-based, eco capable communities, work centers and so forth. It will never happen because the conservative big money is sunk into oil and cars and sprawl. Contemporary capitalism is retrograde and afraid of its own shadow.  

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Charles Sanders Peirce on the Realistic Character of Science

'The field of operations of the scientific method is the objective field of nature, and, as Peirce observed, "belief proper has nothing to do with science." The sudden recollection that the laws of science are not final formulations but are susceptible to later means of the operation of scientific method should not be taken to mean that subjectivity has been reintroduced. The established truths of science merely means "propositions to which no competent man of today demurs" until further applications of scientific method give him reason to do so.' F 48

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Formula for writing a proper spiritual book

Write for the slow reader 
Value the slow learner 
Focus on your reader to the exclusion of all else

Write in manageable bits
Your text a form of truth beyond your ken 
Do not name guidance as such 
Make no special claims
Seek no disciples 

Offer no secret knowledge 
No magic formulae 
Just simple expositions of the way that works for you

Avoid saying what you are doing
Let what you do speak for itself

Mudslides and landmines hobble South Korea

Mudslides spark S. Korea landmine fears; 67 dead - Weather - msnbc.com: "SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans were cautioned Thursday about landmines and explosives that had been unsettled after a series of deadly landslides in and around the capital Seoul swamped military sites, defense officials said."

This has to be one of the smartest places on earth. But there is a smarter way to deal with landmines than leaving them in the ground. And there is a smarter way to build where mudslides are a predictable possibility. This is of a piece with a world inured to warfare and the circulation of lethal products. Pause and reflect world, that would be the spiritual counsel for this problem.

Global Online Privacy

When we spend as much as we do on debt and war, why grouse about health costs?

Gov't: Health tab to hit $4.6 trillion in 2020 - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's health care tab is on track to hit $4.6 trillion in 2020, accounting for about $1 of every $5 in the economy, government number crunchers estimate in a report out Thursday."

When you understand that one fifth goes for health care, is that too much? Really. I think that military spending is too much. That tax loopholes for corporations are too much. That interest on the debt is too much. But one fifth for health is downright reasonable.




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Just when people thought sanity had come to LA

Electric Daisy Carnival premiere: LAPD sets up 'mobile jail' to handle crowd - latimes.com: "As the event got out of hand, large crowds spilled into the street around Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, with some people throwing bottles at police. Witnesses said others were dancing on a police car, taunting police and “planking” -- lying down in the street. Fights among people in the crowd also broke out sporadically. Police in riot gear shut down streets around the theater, while dozens of police cruisers responded to the
disturbance."

This is not Tahrir, it is the underside of the American character in full regalia making an ass of itself.


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My goodness don't tell me the NYT got it wrong

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Case: Maid Listens to Prison Tape - The Daily Beast: "Despite leaks to the contrary, a lawyer for Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accuser says a recording of her conversation with a friend after the alleged attack does not show she schemed to make money."

Not as bad as facilitating the Iraq War. More in a league with Jason Blair.

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Hey Beast here's what Boehner is actually doing

Debt Ceiling: Boehner Whips His Republican Troops Into Line - The Daily Beast: "Just when Washington is denigrating his debt plan and his party wavering, the House speaker may be about to forge a deal that shortchanges the Democrats. Patricia Murphy on how he’s whipping his troops into line."

Blah, blah, blah. He is cooking up the perfect stalemate whose result will be the completion of this farce. That will be: the presentation of that one page bill to raise the ceiling. The House splits. Bipartisan versus Tea Party. Either way, the GOP loses. Obama keeps high ground. But is magnanimous, Stoking GOP anger to unprecedented heights. All in a days'work. Because the 14th Amendment looms. A fine day for the Tea Party, to use the Constitution to do in the misreaders of history.

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When Derek hit 3000

When Derek hit 3000
In the Big Apple where I was born
I watched the game YES 
And worked the same time.
Life is good.

I used to live near 
Wrigley Field 
OnWest Wolfram 
Just off of Halsted Street 
Near to the ivy covered shrine 
I felt like Jean Shepherd walking through those leafy streets 
On sunny afternoons
To catch a game 
With a few thousand scattered fans 
Watch the Cubs go down 
And maybe Ernie get a hit or two
.
When Derek hit 3000 it was perfect
But no more perfect than those lazy afternoons




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When I was young I used to think

When I was young I used to think
Adults had secrets about eternal things that I didn't know
When I grew I found
It isn't so

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Urgent Bug Preservation Poesy

We Need Our Bugs! - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

A tiny bit of history

Obama says Reagan raised debt ceiling 18 times; George W. Bush seven times - Digg

And Obama more than any President is working to see that he does not need to keep raising it. But he is hated so much by the GOP (for stealing their thunder mostly) that we have the current sad display of our lesser selves.

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It could all come down to a one page bill

NYT: Boehner issues warning to debt dissenters - politics - The New York Times - msnbc.com: "WASHINGTON — An increasing number of House members yielded to Speaker John Boehner’s blunt command to line up Wednesday behind his budget bill even as his staff moved frantically to alter it in an attempt to resolve the looming fiscal crisis. Congressional leaders alternately voiced optimism, determination and a haggard frustration as they struggled to make both the dollars and the votes add up."

There is no need to resolve everything. Just to raise the limit. All the rest is posturing on both sides. Posturing is good to soften the country up for austerity and a bit of fairness. MORE





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How about making nice for a while


I thought this first debate might do it 
But I'm a cockeyed optimist
We have been to the edge of a cliff and it is time to start making nice.
But we cannot seem to get off if the dime
I want the days of You Lie and Look at my undies to be over.
We need a good debate 
We need a more productive society 
A leaner more stable government
A more macro-focused,less casino-like private sector
And dare one think the media could also start be be 
A trifle just a trifle less binary.
A mite more Peircelike.
We can dream
We do dream
We wake up every day with hope

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The alleged Manhattan grope you may have missed

I am declaring war on once-snotty Manhattan hotels 
I can remember when the Pierre did not tolerate groping 
Except on the dance floor where it was standard practice
Times change.
I suggest arming the maids and providing bodyguards 
Of such menacing capacities that even brave and macho bankers 
Like these bozos will be intimidated by the very thought.

Egyptian businessman Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting maid at posh Pierre Hotel - NYPOST.com: "Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar -- the 74-year-old former chairman of Egypt's Bank of Alexandria -- allegedly groped and 'gyrated' against the maid in Room 1027 at The Pierre hotel on Fifth Avenue, a law-enforcement source told The Post."


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Drones are wonderful they don't kill us

Drones are wonderful they don't kill us
Unless an enemy sends one our way
Which means when someone has power to equal us
Fair is fair when power is what holds sway

"Here we go again. Officials said Monday that the CIA is preparing to launch predator drone strikes in Yemen to kill al Qaeda militants, taking advantage of that country's power vacuum. The U.S. previously has operated strikes against militants in Yemen - the country is home to the radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki - but these were conducted with the knowledge of Yemen's government. The CIA program will have different legal restrictions, and will be modeled after the Pakistan strikes - conducted without express permission of the country." 

From a Daily Beast Email SOURCE

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But damn there is that itch in me

But damn there is that itch in me 
the itch that no one sees 
the need to not be here too long 
The need to move to the next thing 
the cosmos see the cosmos at my feet 
And god 
I just might end up being human after all
Once this most restless unhappiness 
is in its cage
I just might be

Biography of Sarah Palin Conclusion

Oh god the gun I love the gun

Oh god the gun 
I love the gun 
I love all sorts of gun 
I do not like the world of women 
flocking all around and 
chattering and nattering 
Give me a gun 
a moose 
a promontory 
virginal and sere 
and I shall show you paradise 
in a handful of Tweets

Biography of Sarah Palin Part Five


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I'll beard that bastard in his den

I'll beard that bastard in his den 
and eat his lunch 
Besides this country is a 
piece of cake 
I am a natural 
God how they love me 
How easy to make it 
Step by step 
Even the pummeling I get moves me 
from strength to strength 
There's not a challenge I can't meet 
or overcome 
Why I can even be the President 
Over the objections of all the people 
If I can just make nice to the right ones

Biography of Sarah Palin Part Four


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Veering here and there with babies in my womb

Veering here and there with babies in my womb 
and notes I must refer to when I speak 
why am I here 
I could be there 
I have resources no one knows about 
god help me 
how I fell from this to that 
a mystery 
I think I'll run for something 
maybe mayor

Biography of Sarah Palin Part Three

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The Lawrence O'Donnell Solution

Very simple
Raising the limit has more often than not been 
a one page bill where you 
write in the figure and it passes 
both Houses 
just like that
If we do that all the wingnuts
Can say their no and suffer the consequences
If it passes 
Our faith and credit will be fine
Because we have spent a month saying to all the world that we intend
To do something about our deficit
If it does not pass the President still has
The Fourteenth Amendment which says
When people try to hijack our fiscal being 
he can protect it
Or words to that effect
Either way as has always been the case
Our masterful President
Battling spoiled children
Prevails
Good call Lawrence
It beats being instructed on false premises by Rachel Maddow

Global Online Privacy

Written shortly before her death.

Good grief Elizabeth just see what you've been through
Enough to sink at least a regiment or two
I doff my cap and make my bow in praise and reverence
And thank my stars for your endurance and omnipotence
If you think I exaggerate read on:

"Elizabeth Taylor's 79th birthday: watching Oscars from hospital bed - Celebrity Circuit - CBS News For the past five years, Taylor has been using a wheelchair due to chronic pain after breaking her back four times. In addition to congestive heart failure, she has also had to deal with three hip-replacement operations, a benign brain tumor, skin cancer and pneumonia, according to Reuters."

Elizabeth Taylor's 79th birthday: watching Oscars from hospital bed - Celebrity Circuit - CBS News.

She looked good to herself in every mirror

She looked good to herself in every mirror 
Oh good enough for politics perhaps
Or maybe for some runway 
Or something else that's big 
Like TV-like 
She felt an itch 
To grow up past this 
Awkward time 
And get the show 
Out on the road.

The Biography of Sarah Palin Part Two

I do not want to go she said but she went anyway

I do not want to go she said but she went anyway 
And the subjects eluded her one by one 
There was a restlessness inside her
She could not understand 
It made her leave no sooner than she got there 
Just pack up 
And leave 
And go 
To the next place

Biography of Sarah Palin - Part One

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There's a flash in the pan named Scott Walker

There's a flash in the pan named Scott Walker
His chances go down day by day
The recall is building and soon will take place
Victory for people for him a disgrace

Recall the GOP Senators in Wisconsin


We all are reasoners from cradle to the grave

We all are reasoners from cradle to the grave
Our suppositions but proved by experience
And knowing "truth" as but a temporary fix
Pending amendment as time passes in the mix

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There is a searcher who wants nothing but a truth that she can hold

There is a searcher who wants nothing but a truth that she can hold
And the results she gets for products and "how to" just leave her cold
She is the searcher I would most like to talk to
And why I hope the Web evolves and sees us through

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press