What Recession?

As amazed as I am by the lies, changes in position, and general idiocy of our 2 leading presumptive candidates for President, they are by no means the only shows in town.  The news, which in an archaic theory was to act as a guardian of the public’s interest, has been rapidly dropping to the lowest common denominator as they seek to reap the benefits of higher ratings at the expense of the well-being of humankind. 

And while the news cannot help but report stories such as the mortgage crisis, inflation (at least we are doing better than Zimbabwe at something like 2 million percent inflation), and bank closures, the news can pretend that everything is just fine with the economy.  And indeed, if you earned what the clueless hacks we call T.V. reporters earned, than the economy would seem to have slowed, but things were still O.K. 

So as the politicians who are often wealthy even before taking bribes that go with their elected office, and the down to earth folks earning well into 6 figures or more for reading a teleprompter see it, things may be tough for some, but mostly things are just fine.  Predatory lending practices?  Not their problem.  Payday loan advances that charge a percentage that would make a loan shark drool?  Not their problem.  Insurance companies “disalowing” coverage for reasons no one can figure out?  Not their problem.  Banks like Indymac becoming insolvent?  Still not their problem.  Artificially high fuel costs?  Well, that may be a minor inconvenience, but little more to them.  I guess it is not a recession until the wealthy start running into problems, maybe that is the key.  But the increased number of people who need assistance, even though they are working, well, that’s just too bad.  Life isn’t fair, and to reinforce this ideal, we should simply stop noticing the increased number of homeless families, the money lost in failed institutions, and anything else that doesn’t paint a rosy picture of the world. 

And that is the magic of our massive news conglomerates, because reality is just a minor annoyance to so many of us, as we watch the rosy picture on our glowing screens, assuring us that even though everything costs more, and the money we have is worth less than it used to be by a substantial margin, that we are certainly not in a recession.  Oh yeah, and in other news, another bank has failed.

Is Obama Still a Democrat?

What in the Hell has happened to Obama?  Just over two weeks ago, I went in for some minor surgery, and at that point, Obama was still saying how granting immunity to the telecoms and our current presence in Iraq were huge blunders.  Now, I feel like I am in a “Twilight Zone” marathon, featuring Barack Obama.  Every day seems to bring about a change of heart with this nominee, and I am somewhat perplexed at his reasonings. 

I do remember learning to play chess, and  how vital it was to control the center of the board, and it seems Obama is running his campaign along similar lines, trying to go after the morons who consider themselves “undecided”, for whatever reason.  But the degree to which Obama is trying to move to the center is ridiculous, he seems to be grasping so hard for the center that he is willing to alienate the very reason he is the Democratic candidate, namely the support of those who do not sit on a fence, those who became disgusted at the severe over-reaching powers that our current administration decided to grant to itself.  I don’t know how to break this news to Obama, but people that sit in the undecided middle category are not won over by changes in positions, no these sheep just tend to start running in whichever direction seems to be the popular one.  In other words, just do enough commercials, and you will win the center. 

Some point out that while the Senate has passed a bill with telecom immunity intact, that telecoms could still face criminal investigations.  And if you believe that will ever happen, I have a wonderful bridge to sell you.  I have quickly lost all hope for the next election, and now know that it will not matter which candidate is elected.  But Obama seems to still be making odd statements, like instead of it being a great idea for those immigrants that speak Spanish to learn English, we should all learn Spanish.  Well that is just brilliant, and I’m sure that if by some quirk of fate we had a huge influx of Chinese to this country, that instead of having them learn English, we of course should all learn to speak Chinese. 

I hope that Obama is merely pandering to voters when he says such moronic things, because God help us if he actually means it.  Senator Obama, you are winning the battle for the polls, but you are losing the war.  Does anyone know if he is still half black, or has that changed too?

Forget Drilling for Oil, Lets Drill for Votes!

As the price of gasoline has shot up, and as it is an election year, our representatives have decided to help us out.  To increase the domestic production of oil, our wonderful representatives have decided to say screw the environment, and drill for oil in areas formally off-limits.  After all, that oil is just sitting there, mocking us, as we spend well over 4 dollars for a gallon of gasoline.  And as people struggle to make ends meet, the idea of increased drilling has a definite appeal. 

There a a few snags in this idea, not the least of which is the time it would take to start a project as vast as new oil drilling under way.  As much as we would like to think that we could just set up an oil rig and start pumping directly into our cars (who needs refined oil, look how cheap this is!), the truth is that it will take a minimum of 8 to 10 years before ANY oil from a new rig starts entering the supply chain.  But no one seems to bring this little fact up when they are talking about increased drilling, why it is almost as if the oil corporations and the politicians are hiding this.  But I am sure it is merely an oversight, and they will tell us this in about 10 years.  And the 8 to 10 year figure comes from our own Department of Energy, not from some crazed “save this little forest rodent you have never heard of before” group.  But everyone keeps tossing this idea out like it will solve our current problem of expensive gasoline.  And it would not surprise me in the least if after the passage of such of short-sighted bill, that the cost would go down, because at that point, the oil industry has what it wants.  The ability to put up more rigs, and really, that is what this game is all about. 

What is strange here is that there is no shortage of oil supply, the market does have 2 relatively new major consumers of oil, India and China, but even with this increased demand, there is still plenty of oil.  The speculators of this oil are the ones increasing the price to an insane degree, and if oil was simply sold not in terms of oil futures and speculation, but simply in terms of how much there currently is (you know, that supply and demand thingy?), the cost in the U.S. for a gallon of gasoline would drop by over 2 dollars.  But with the speculators in place, OPEC is free to simply say that they are not directly in control of the cost of oil, and that the market is driving the costs.  Of course, OPEC is raking in billions and billions in additional revenue due to this “free market”, so as to why they would remove themselves from this system is not really a mystery.  The so-called “dark markets”, where regulators have no say, is the prime reason why the price of gasoline is so high.  In a moronic effort to de-regulate the market (yeah, because that always works so well), the ”Enron Loophole” was created.  This allowed electronic exchanges by large traders to operate without the normal federal regulations and oversights.  It is roughly equivalent to the corporations that list their corporate address in some tiny island in the Atlantic, and avoid paying millions in taxes in the U.S. because their corporate headquarters is in another country, even if it is only a mailbox. 

But no one seems to be bringing this up in our legislature, all we seem to get from our politicians are ideas that are too stupid to be a reality T.V. show, and out of desperation, the public is buying into it.  Well hell, if you can get people to believe that Obama is a “secret Muslim” whatever the hell that is, I guess you can pretty much say anything you want, and for whatever reasons, people are going to believe it.  I would love to believe that we are too intelligent to fall for such hooey, but listening to the promises being made by the politicians up for re-election or election, it is clear we have no idea what is truly happening in this world.  And maybe we don’t want to.

       

 

Habeus Corpus Pulls a Lazurus

I didn’t think this issue would be visited by the Supreme Court until after the tenure of the current occupant of the White House was over, but in a 5-4 decision, the blinders came off, and the Court ruled that perhaps holding people for an indeterminate length of time may perhaps be a poor way to show the world that this country is a country of laws.  While I have no problem whatsoever in holding someone we can prove is guilty of terrorist acts until they are deceased, I do think there is a problem when we are holding people who have no legal remedy to either show they are guilty or innocent.  While many say that rights such as these are meant for people within the U.S., and such rights should not be extended to possible enemies, the problem with this line of thinking is that it is so short-sighted.  Clearly, innocent people will be captured (and indeed, some of them have died), and to say to anyone that is captured that they simply are to be held indefinitely would seem to be the act of a country that is in no way a just country.  Add to that the fact that we have had rendition programs, prison sights that are a secret, and have even outsourced torture (another U.S. job taken!), and things are looking bleak for all of us.

Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, and stated “Within the Constitution’s separation-of-powers structure, few exercises of judicial power are as legitimate or as necessary as the responsibility to hear challenges to the authority of the Executive to imprison a person.”  Scalia, who to no ones surprise dissented from the majority, wrote that the judiciary was the branch that knew the least about national security concerns.  Of course, had the decision gone the other way, Scalia may have been writing for the majority, and this lack of knowledge would have somehow been overlooked.  Scalia went on to prophetically declare about this decision, that “It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”  Yes, if only all three branches would have marched in lockstep with the current administration, than clearly no Americans would ever be killed again.  Because when has this administration ever done anything but good?  Those fools on the Supreme Court, putting the ideals of law before the political machinations of the GOP.  What on earth could they be thinking?  Didn’t anyone from the Justice Department bother to send them the secret memos?  Another foul-up in our bureaucracy.  Perhaps the attorneys that pen so many disgusting new “rules” could visit the Supreme Court, what are there names- ah yes, Yoo and Addington.  A pair of vipers if ever there were. 

But the importance of this decision is far more than just the fact that we are living in uncertain times, with hidden enemies.  I’ll let you in on a secret:  There are no “certain” times except in retrospect, and enemies come and go like the tides.  But right now, our lives are on the line, and so the culprit isn’t terrorists, it is vanity.  The thought that our life is so important that we should shred the very documents that protect our rights, what we do not think about are the rights of others.  Not just others in the sense of some one with a name foreign to us held within a cell at Gitmo, but others in the sense of what is to come.  I guess what I mean to say is this, we cannot stop any and all attacks from happening, that is not the nature of the world.  We can do a great deal to stop or minimize some of the attacks, but make no mistake, tragedy at the hands of our enemies will befall this nation from time to time.  None of us will be here forever, and we should be proud to die on our feet, instead of dying cowering on our knees, begging the government to protect us.  And the country that we live and die in should be a country of laws, of justice, not because that is how the world is, but because that is what we want to leave to the next generation. 

Live Free or Die.

           

Chinese Sense of Humor

Recently, 2 U.S. congressmen stated that their computers had been hacked by someone within China.  While this is not really newsworthy, I was floored by the response of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.  A spokesman for the ministry stated : “Is there any evidence?  Do we have such advanced technology?  Even I don’t believe it.”  Now anyone that has seen the inside of any computer in the last decade can tell you one thing for certain.  Somewhere inside the Pandora’s box that is a home or laptop computer, is the sticker “Made in China.”  As to how in the world they would be able to build all of these machines, and yet still not possess the ability to “Have such advanced technology” seems to be a bit of a paradox.  Are we to assume that not even the manufacturer of computers knows how they work?  I know that I have only the dimmest of understandings on how these things work, and that every 5 years brings a new dictionary full of terms that had to be invented as the pace of technology seems to be exceeding the speed of light, leaving us old folks to reminisce about the days before cell phones and computers.  You want to tell scary stories to kids nowadays, tell them that there was only three major channels to watch T.V. on, and that not only were home computers a novelty with only a green screen, but that there was no practical internet until the 1990’s!  And tell them how the only phones that weren’t hardwired into a home were in a few limousines, and Dantana’s car in the old T.V. series of “Vegas.”  But I digress, as usual.

Where the Hell was I?  Right, the unintentionally funny Chinese.  The FBI looked into the hacking of the congressmens’ computers, and indeed found that the hacks originated within China, which isn’t really a surprise to anyone with a pulse.  The congressmen surmised that they had been targeted because they had spoke out in the past about China’s abysmal human rights record.  What is most shocking of all is that both congressmen that were attacked were Republicans, Frank Wolf of Virginia, and Chris Smith of New Jersey.  Well, it shocked me. 

The Chinese Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, went on with his comedic routine.  Qin also said “I’d like to urge some people in the U.S. to not be so paranoid.  They should do more to contribute to mutual understanding, trust and friendship between the U.S. and China.”  At this point, Qin was asked whatever happened to the man that stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen square back in 1989, and naturally Qin had this reporter arrested.  The reporter was later released when it was determined that they were not actually in China, and that only Republicans arrested reporters in the U.S. (See: Valerie Plame)

 

To Concede or Not To Concede

Today’s News regarding the extremely painful process known as selecting the Democratic nominee shows one thing clearly:  We have no idea what is going on.  While some News outlets say that Clinton is ready to concede the race if and when Obama reaches the number of delegates required to win the nomination, others News sources of course say the opposite.  And now the Clinton campaign is directly refuting the stories saying that she will concede.  As to what is truly happening, I doubt anyone actually knows, but they do like to pretend that they know.  After reading conflicting stories like these, I am sure that I have no clear idea of what Hillary Clinton will do, and simply picking a side and hoping that side wins reflects less upon our deductive reasoning skills, and seems to have a lot more to do with wanting whatever side we pick to be right.  Sort of like a horse race, where we do a minimal amount of research into the horses running the race, yet we can say with some confidence that we know our horse will win.  And then of course most of us lose, and those that do win that wager congratulate ourselves as if we were a gambling version of Sherlock Holmes, rather than admitting we simply were lucky that day, and indeed have been wrong in the past, times too numerous to mention.

Do I have any clear idea what either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama are thinking?  I suppose I like to think that I do, and I may try to estimate what sort of person a candidate really is, but in truth only the candidate knows who they are.  And even then, they may not know themselves as well as even they might think, but that is true for everyone, not just politicians. 

But the question of whether Clinton should concede is a difficult one, as the delegates shuffle about like so many wayward geese.  And superdelgates, which I never in my life remember hearing about before, are another unknown piece of the puzzle.  I keep awaiting the News that the superdelgates have ceded from the union, to form their own country, and someday possibly elect a leader of this new country.   But who am I kidding, the superdelgates would never get around to actually ceding from the union, because they would have to vote to do that.

And News stories still circulate about how Clinton would do better against McCain, and while this may be true in the respect that Clinton would be at least a known quantity to Democrats in the battles that are surely to come against McCain, it seems to overlook something.  While Democrats may know who Hillary Clinton is, and feel at least some degree of comfort with her, the Republicans know who Hillary Clinton is as well, and are probably still salivating at the prospect of running against her.  For those of you that do not remember the 1990’s, the Clintons were a much favored target of the right wing, and the prospect of having such a target again in their sights is an appealing  thought, especially to those in charge of writing the stinging speeches that we all think come from the minds of the candidates themselves.

So what should Hillary Clinton do?  The same thing all Americans should do, whatever they feel is right.  You know, you don’t succeed every time you attempt something, but that should not mean that you don’t give it your best shot.     

 

 

The Taliban in Afghanistan, and Other Disasters

While most of us are busy being disenfranchised by the latest political news, as I was by hearing about how Obama ran his 1996 campaign in Chicago, the rest of the world seems to not realize how important the sound bites and slurs that pass for news are to the U.S.  Those selfish foreign bastards probably don’t even care about “American Idol”, if you can imagine.  But while the conflict in Iraq still draws the media’s eye, Afghanistan seems long forgotten.  Which is fascinating, seeing as how the Taliban keeps reclaiming whole towns, and how the violence within that country seems to not know an end.  Suicide bombers, remote bombs, and attacks on schools in Afghanistan are all on the rise, which should tell you just how good of a job we did routing the Taliban from there.  It would seem that either the Taliban really loved their former homes, or they need to be there to tap into the extremely lucrative drug trade that operates with impunity within Afghanistan.   

But the fun doesn’t end there, Michael Chertoff told BBC reporters that our good friends in Pakistan seem to still have that problem with religious extremists within their borders, and that while there were no immediate warnings as to attacks on the West, groups like Al-Queda were trying to recruit people that would blend in to Western countries without arousing suspicion.   Mr. Chertoff spoke at Oxford, saying that extremists had “hijacked the language of Islam to mask an ideology that in some respects has more in common with the fascist organizations of the 1930’s.”  As to who in the world he was trying to break this to, I could not guess, as we are all pretty much on the same page as regarding Islamic extremists as being completely nuts.  I still to this day cannot fathom how Muslims became so incensed at a cartoon in a Danish newspaper featuring the prophet Mohammed, yet the bloody and extremely violent civil war within Islam between the Shia and Sunni seems to not draw the attention of those same faithful devotees. 

It is difficult as an outsider to accurately gauge just where the political influence of countries like Iran (which is mostly Shia) and Saudi Arabia (mostly Sunni) begins and the religious influence ends.  While both countries would without a shadow of a doubt love to be in control of the staggering amount of oil beneath the sands if Iraq, can the political leadership be held responsible for the actions of those that believe they are fighting for their God?  And why in the heck do those religious warriors not notice what the political and economic ramifications of their actions would be, where their actions to be successful someday?  Which is certainly not to say that our own actions in the region are without consequences, as we are slowly coming to realize the implications of invading a country that was at best, a paper tiger, without the means or resources to be any true threat to our safety.  But some still say our invasion was warranted, even if all the reasons initially given have all proven false.  While Saddam was a despot, and did indeed actually advocate state sponsored terrorism, the number of countries which also do this are numerous, and indeed include some of our current allies.  Perhaps “allies” is too strong a word, lets just call them “countries that we are not currently thinking of bombing and/or invading.”  Yes, that seems to fit the bill a bit better. 

As to how or when we will ever actually apprehend or kill those immediately responsible for the attack on 9/11, no one seems to know.  You would think that would be important, but it seems you would be wrong.  Silly you.

  

 

      

Scott McClellan? Is That You?

This is too weird.  Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary, went off his meds (or ran out of kool-aid) and did something nuts.  He spilled his guts like he was looking at a 25 year sentence for murder, and told of how things were run in the Bush administration.  While it is not uncommon for former personnel to write tell-all books about the administrations they served in, the fact that Bush is still in office makes this case just a tad different. 

I remember watching McClellan as the press secretary ducking questions, giving useless information away, and spinning like a top when something went wrong.  But McClellan evidently had some misgivings about what was happening, and so he wrote a book about it.  The right wing of course went into damage control mode, saying that if McClellan had such misgivings, he should have spoke up sooner.  Which is truly an amazing statement from the party that ruthlessly attacked anyone that expressed reservations or doubts regarding what the White House was saying.  I guess they would have preferred McClellan to fall on his sword instead of actually telling the truth, which really isn’t much of a surprise. 

Scott McClellan is looking to sell his book, and this should be taken into account, but it hardly excuses the abuses and lies that we all know did occur, and indeed are still occurring today.  If anything, these “revelations” would fall into the category of things we already knew, just not from inside the machinery of the White House itself.  Now McClellan states that he actually believed most of what he said in the press conferences, and had even personally asked both Karl Rove and Scooter Libby if they had been involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity.  They both said they had nothing to do with it, and for whatever reason, McClellan believed them.  I personally wouldn’t trust Rove to watch over used toilet paper, but that is just me. 

McClellan also stated that “You’re in a bubble atmosphere” regarding the inner workings of the White House, and those still within the administration labled McClellan a turncoat.  “Puzzling and sad” is how the White House described McClellan’s book, which is funny when you think of what they have said and done of the last 8 years.  I guess honesty is more honored in the breach than in the obseravnce, but that goes for so many things which have occurred in the tenure of this administration.

While this book is a another thorn in the side of this administration, it will no doubt be all but forgotten when election time is here, because if there is one thing we can count on from the population at large, it would be the lack of any long-term memory regarding those in office, or those seeking it.  We are either very forgiving, or we simply have resigned ourselves to the fate of having politicians that seem to only notice wrongdoings from their political opponents. 

And this of course is what is so fascinating about McClellan, he was not an opponent of the administration, but the mouthpiece of it.  To have someone that was clearly in favor of the President speak against him is shocking, and so McClellan is the flavor of the day.  Of course no one seems to notice that McClellan’s words are actionable ones, in that his statements actually show a conspiracy (actually more than just one) within the White House.  Although at this late date, starting impeachment proceedings would seem to be an absolute waste of time, seeing as how the President only has a little more time before his second term is over. 

    

   

GI Bill

It is no great secret that the military and their families are the only ones that are really sacrificing anything in the war on terror, as it is known.  In spite of the global nature of the threat of terrorism, since terrorists are essentially criminals, it is difficult to hold the world accountable for the acts of the violence that occur.  And while our President said that we would no longer discriminate between the terrorists, and the countries that gave them save harbor, this speech seems to have excluded a great many countries.  Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Hell, most of the Middle East would be fair game were that doctrine to be pursued in any meaningful way.  But the countries of origin for most of the 9/11 terrorists were not attacked, and our only offensive actionagainst Al-Queda was the action taken in Afghanistan, which we of course pulled most of our forces out of to invade Iraq.  Not that the job is Afghanistan was anywhere near complete, mind you. 

But as another election time draws annoyingly closer (annoying because of the commercials, mostly), the fight for the voters has begun in earnest.  The bill to allow soldiers to go to school because they have not been killed has found quite a bit of traction this election year, which is surprising to no one.  But the GOP Presidential nominee has made a decisive error.  McCain himself said he was not for the GI Bill in it’s current form, which entitled soldiers to help pay for college after 3 years of service following 9/11.  Now McCain says that such an offer would harm retention in the military, lowering it by 16%.  The Democratic sponsors of the bill cited  Congressinal Budget Office, which by a strange coincidence said that the GI Bill would help boost enlistment by 16%.  As to how both parties could come to the same 16%, but in opposite directions is troubling, but in probably explains our current national debt. 

GOP strategist Ed Rollins stated ”I think John McCain has been outmaneuvered”, also saying that ”Sometimes in politics, there are intellectual issues and emotional issues.”  Sort of like the inheritance tax being renamed the “Death Tax”, I suppose.  Only this time, instead of giving a break to people wealthy enough to actually leave an inheritance, this break was given to men and women in the armed forces. 

But instead of listening to the gas bags that we call politicians, or even their advisers, we could perhaps actually listen to the men and women currently serving in the military.  Some told of how their college loans had gone to collections while they were in Iraq, others that the financial assistance promised was never to be found.  When Veteran’s groups are telling you that this would help those in the service, maybe we should be listening to them a little more closely, as opposed to the snakes that writhe about trying to sell us their oil, and ask us to  re-elect them.       

3322 vs Byzantine Foothold

While I do not often read magazines like “Business Week”, I was stuck in a Doctor’s office, and they did not have a single car magazine (cretins).  But lo and behold, this magazine actually had a great article, about the growing threat of government sponsored electronic espionage.  While attacks on government websites are nothing new, the sophistication and pace of these attacks show that they are more than simply kids with too much time on their hands.  These attacks are incredibly complex, involving observation of the target of the attack, and emails that can easily pass the scrutiny of the person reading them, because they seem to be genuine in every respect. 

Now if I had to bet, I would have said North Korea was behind attacks such as these, because lets face it, their leader is nuts.  But according to officials with CERT (computer emergency readines team) and the Pentagon, most attacks are traced to China.  And for some reason, a fair amount of these attacks come from a server known as 3322.org.  While 3322.org is theoretically simply a site where you can register a domain name (as in whatever.com), it seems to be quite the favorite of those launching e-attacks on the U.S.  The founder says he can not possibly be responsible for the actions of those who simply register a domain name with him, it is somewhat of a paradox as to how Chinese authorities who strictly regulate the Internet have not noticed these attacks, or at least the malicious code.  This would seem to be “plausible deniability” brought to the implausible level.    

While some say that criminal elements are behind such attacks, there isn’t a great deal of logic to that.  Organized crime, no matter what country it was in, would seem to profit very little from such large scale electronic espionage, and as to why organized crime would target governement sites like the Pentagon is any ones guess.  I suppose they could hack into government sites, and then sell this information, but as to how they would successfully thwart the interference of the Chinese government is another matter.  Plus, organized crime is the enemy of essentially every government, so I doubt it would be very long before even the bitterest of enemies would join forces to eradicate such a threat. 

While the U.S. government has enacted a project known as “Byzantine Foothold” in order to make the nations most sensitive information more secure, many security experts worry that the Internet has become too unwieldy to be tamed, and whatever measures are taken will of course be defeated given enough time and effort.  On January 8, President Bush signed the “Cyber Initiative” order, the aim of which is to significantly overhaul security protocols within the government.  And knowing our government, we will farm this work out to foreign countries because they can do it cheaper.    

For years, military planners kept pushing for new technology and better synergy between elements of our armed forces, and while these systems are supposedly secure, in the world of computers, nothing is ever so secure that it cannot be hacked.  While these cyber attacks are worrisome, what really bothers me is that we’ve found them.  It’s like we found these exploits too soon, and China is a long way off from using such exploits to defeat such technology on the battlefield.  Not that they won’t have that power soon if we do not figure out a way at least to slow them down, but I can’t help but wonder if the actual aim of the cyber attacks is not merely to gain the information in the files, but more importantly, our response.  If they can counter any response, and can gain control of the electronics we now count on, then they have already won the next battle, if not the war.