Dakota Today

*** Desert terrorists, desert car crashes

Mitt Romney and Lie'n Ryan are trying to make a case that the Obama administration and the vast military and intelligence organization Republicans love has somehow failed miserably because the killing of an ambassador in Libya was not predicted and prevented.

How many miserable desert tribal states are there all with insane religious zealolts?  How many of these have a finger of our government stuck in them?

How many cars are on desert highways in Utah?  How many semi-trucks on those highways?  Can Mitt, or Lie'n Ryan predict exactly when some flaming crash there will wipe out a dozen Mormans?  Even if they know that somewhere, sometime, it will happen, they still can't stop it on any particular day, or particular time of day..

Which reminds me, Condoleeza Rice said something after 9-11 tragedies that was a very interesting escape phrase in these situations, but was not appropriate in her and Bush's case.  With great specificity, Condoleeza said something like: " Who would have (or could have?) predicted that on September 11, 2001, that 3 planes would be hijacked to kill Americans and destroy the twin towers and damage the Pentagon?"  Well, probably nobody could have predicted that or for that matter the minute or the second of the attacks.

The Bush Administration had warnings from the previous administration on the specific dangers and Bush was busy ignoring one from his own administration as he strutted around in his cowboy boots on his Texas "ranch".  Condoleeza took advantage of the very specificity of her statement to prevent it from being completely untruthful evasion.  It was not really appropriate however.

But, in a region of lawlessness and religious fanatacism with easy cross-border movement, flaming attacks on embassies, etc. are as specifically unprdictable as a US drone blowing the hell out of some crazy fanatic  intent on being a suicidal tool of his god or simple insane hatred of Western values.

Romney and Ryan are irrelevant and their whole campaign is based on nonsense and outright lies...or rewriting of their own past nutty statements and positions..or conversion of past sensible statements into campaign nuttiness.  Let Mitt tell us when the next full carload or busload of Mormons will die in a Utah flaming desert crash.

*** Stay tuned even if you aren't in the 47% of the US population Mitt holds in utter contempt.--- Doug Wiken

 

*** Even grade schoolers know this

Republican apologists and ignorant, shallow press and media hacks seem to enjoy smugly  saying "Obama is not running against George Bush" as if this irrelevancy is  really effective, deep and profound.  Even grade school kids know this kind of taunt does not even rise to school yard levels and they probably shake their heads wondering how stupid are these so-called adults?

It is obvious to everybody that Obama is not running against George Bush.  That is an irrelevant strawman kind of expression which just diverts attention from the origination of our current economic mess.  Obama is running against the politics and consequences of George Bush which seem to be embraced by Romney and Ryan, Your ticket back to 1929.

When you hear the "George Bush is not running" crap, you should immediately react with ,"Why are you insulting my intellegence with that irrelevant distortion?"

If somebody digs a big hole that is a hazard, and you are newly hired to replace him you would not expect to be blamed for the hole or for labeling it as your predecessor' hole or for doing your best to fill the hazardous hole even if juvenile pranksters keep trying to prevent you from filling the hole.

And, if somebody asks if you are better off now than you were four years ago, you can answer yes or no, but you can also know that our nation is much better off now than it was in the last months of the Bush Administration.  The starting point of the comparison is critical to sensible responses.

*** Stay tuned, the 2012 Election is not over until the fat lady sings better than George Romney-- Doug Wiken.

*** Bush v. Bush...The Parkinson's Wars and the casualties

SDPB-TV has gotten past the most exasperating fund raising in the last week or so and Frontline 2 has actually ran a couple times instead of some snake oil salesman pushing a book or video worth $2 if we will just be generous and dump some more money into public TV to makeup for the GOP desire to make all voters more ignorant.

Anyway, The Frontline 2 program concerned reaarch on Parkinson's disease and fetal stem cell research related to it.  The really disturbing part of it was George W. Bush using about his only veto to effectively kill that research while pandering for votes from sponge-brain square-head fundamentalists. 

More information on Parkinson's research from producer of the original Frontline Program

And now in the what-goes-around-comes-around or the bird's returning to their own nest, or the bird's crapping in their own nests, reality bites, etc. comes news that George H.W Bush now around 82 is getting around in a scooter because he has a form of Parkinson's diesease.

More than a few people taking care of other's with Parkinson's disease or suffering from it themselves are still furious at George W. Bush for effectively stiffling promising research on Parkinson's disease causing something like a six or eight year delay..  One notes that America is suffering from the effects of short-sighted GOP policies

Now, I don't believe the elder Bush deserves to suffer from a debilitating disease in his old age anymore than I thought my own mother deserved to suffer and die from ALS.  But, one might think that even the wingnut right retrograde Republicans intent on making the rich richer and the rest of society poorer and sicker might re-consider their fundamentalist nonsense when they see one of their elder statesman ironically possibly suffering needlessly because his own son killed valuable research.

Bush 41 gets an award and leaves speaking to others.

What does it take for Republican congress critters to drop their drooling mythology and enter the real world?

*** Stay tuned and I hope that should you get sick, research to help you will not have been killed in the name of Republican retrogressive fundamental nonsense.--- Doug Wiken

 

 

 

*** Kay Bailey Hutchinson blathers mythology

This morning CBS Face the Nation gave Texas US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson a few minutes to prove she is either a blithering idiot or transparent tool of big money, big oil, and old mythology.  She is however proud enough of her performance this morning to note it on her website

She says Obama has failed of course, and that Mitt Romney has a big plan to save the economy and the poor from insurance coverage.  He would immediately approve the XL Pipeline (designed to raise gas prices in the midwest and export Canadian oil to China), and of course kill "ObamaCare"which would leave about 40 million Americans without health insurance.

Contrast that with what Obama has already done to prevent a complete collapse of the economy and plans for more economic stimulus by funding needed infrastructure building and rebuilding and Romney and supporters like Kay Bailey Hutchinson look like empty sack blowhards.

Obama needs to be more aggressive in pushing for infrastructure development which lessen or eliminate our need for imported and domestic fossil fuels.  But don't hold your breath waiting for sensible progressive ideas while Washington,DC is still filled with retrograde, regressive, know-nothing obstructionist congress critters intent on making big business, big finance, and big insurance lords of us all.

*** Stay tuned even if the world is still filled with partisan hacks like Kay Bailey Hutchinson..must be something in the Texas water..petroleum pollution? -- Doug Wiken

 

 

*** Years of digging and John Edwards not convicted. Why?

My "Why?" is not about why he wasn't convicted, but why this political witch hunt ever was tolerated to begin with.  I lost interest in John Edwards when his sexual dalliance and betrayal of his sick wife became apparent.  But,but, but...that stupidity may have made him a choice target for Republicans in government, but did not warrant twisting a campaign finance law or rule into a vindictive tool for corporations and Republicans beaten by John Edwards.  It has seemed to me that much of the attack on John Edwards resulted because he single-handedly handed a bunch of highly paid corporate lawyers their slippery asses and got $millions for his clients.

By now we know what the national GOP organization and connected web stands for, and it is not little kids who get their guts sucked out by defective swimming pool drains.  It is the very rich and the very connected corporate blood suckers  and plutocrats.

Add in that the Republican majority on the SCOTUS decided that money is speech and with the Citizens United case opened the flood gate for all kinds of political contributions many of which would be defined as bribery if they did not involve partisan politics.  They are buying influence in Congress and in elections for congress.  The money John Edwards got did not sway one piece of legislation pro or con for rich or poor.

If you are now looking back on all this and the Citizens United ruling wondering, you may want to look at the links below.  They raise other interesting points.

George Holding, The Republican prosecutor and candidate

Republican candidate calls the Edwards Prosecution a Political abuse of law

Bread, Circuses and the Edwards Trial..Harpers Magazine

FireDog Lake Blogger diary with interesting information on GOP politics and Edwards

Chris Mathews attacked for attacking Edwards Prosecution as something like that in third world corrupt systems.

John Edwards said after the trial that he thanked the legal system.  I suppose he had to say that and make is personal guilty of marital sin admission.  He should have thanked the jurors who apparently recognized this Edwards prosecution as an unwarranted witch hunt fueled by giving a man who allegedly stole $1 milllion from the Edwards campaign immunity for his testimony.  Jurors must have wondered what kind of priorities the federal prosecutors had and why three years time for something like 40 lawyers wasting taxpayers money.

A few more links [added June 1, 2012] with some expert analysis of the trial.  A comment in one of the links is interesting..something to the effect of "It is one thing to ask jurors to through the book at somebody, it is another thing to ask them to write the book."  That relates to this being the first prosecution of this kind that had no quid pro quo impacts of the money involved, and also had the FEC disagreeing with the Justice Department.

US NEWS-- The Verdict on the Verdict"

ABC NEWS--First Comments from Jurors

National Review' s Happy Warrior Detests Edwards..BUT..

Last sentence from the "Happy Warrior":

What it is not is a crime. As bad as Edwards's behavior is, the Justice Department's is worse. The urge to ensnare in legalisms every aspect of human existence — including John Edwards's rutting — will consume American liberty.

Liberal, conservative, middle of the road, we should all be concerned when the US Justice Department has nearly unlimited resources to pursue a partisan-motivated witch hunt.

Politico finds a juror who thought Edwards guilty, but Government Failed to Prove. Hmmm?

Sunlight perspective on the poisonous effects of money on politics..Edwards as Example

New York Times view and review of Justice Department failed prosecutions

So much for beating that dead horse.  But, consider the costs of using government to enforce religious ideals always with the wrong tools. [[[ And, if you have any actual information on how many million dollars and lawyer hours were wasted on this fool's errand, please let me know]]]

 

*** Stay tuned maybe I will find some sin-free politician to defend..someday--- Doug Wiken

 

*** Earthly confluence

Really not much of a confluence, but somewhat interesting anyway.  This morning I got an Esquire magazine and read the politics column on page 80 of the May issue. The conclusion of the article laid heavy responsibility on Democrats to save the country from current GOP insanity.

The Democratic party has an obligation to beat the Republican party so badly, over and over again, that rationality once again becomes a quality to be desired. It must be done by persuading the country of this simple fact. It cannot be done by reasoning with the Republicans, because the next two generations of them are too far gone. The state legislators now passing all manner of crazy laws represent the next generation of national Republican leaders. They are proudly unknowing. They are certain, because it is impossible.

Read the whole column here Esquire Democrats' Duty: Bring Back the GOP from Crazy by Charles P. Pierce.  Of course I like that because I have probably written something too similar for several years..only more in the injunction form of "Send the GOP howling in the Wilderness for the next 50 years.".

And, Pierce wrote a paragraph that fit right in with PBS  "Earth: The Operator's Manual today on SDPB-TV

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Republican party, root and branch, from its deepest grass roots to its highest levels, has become completely demented. This does not mean that it is incapable of winning elections; on the contrary, the 2010 midterms, as well as the statewide elections around the country, ushered in a class of politicians so thoroughly dedicated to turning nonsense into public policy that future historians are going to marvel at our ability to survive what we wrought upon ourselves. It is now impossible to become an elected Republican politician in this country if, for example, you believe in the overwhelming scientific consensus that exists behind the concept of anthropogenic global warming. Just recently, birth control, an issue most people thought pretty well had been settled in the 1960s, became yet another litmus test for Republican candidates, as did the Keystone XL pipeline, to which every Republican presidential candidate pledged unyielding fealty despite the fact that several prairie Republicans and an army of conservative farmers and ranchers are scared to death of the thing. ( And another link not in above text to Pierce concerning unnecessary voter ID restrictions. )

The PBS "Earth Manual" seemed at least to make a rather scientific case that man-made factors have greatly influenced our climate..which Pierce calls "The concept of anthropogenic global warming".   Buy the DVD at PBS Store.

Years ago in another context, the slogan was "Stop the Insanity".  That phrase applies well to the current collection of retrograde Republicans including John Thune, Kristi Noem, Willard "Mitt" Romney, Sarah Palin, ...oh, and sadly the list could go on and on.

The current GOP party view of their ideal American can be summed up by "Government of the Patriots, by the theocrats and hack Mythologists, and for the Plutocrats.".

Sorry (well not really) if this did not meet your high standards for "confluence".

*** Stay tuned. There is enough GOP insanity to write a modern bible--- Doug Wiken

 

 

 

*** GOP Hypocrisy on Fuel price increases....another aspect or two

GOP presidential and congressional opposition and roadblocks to CAFE standards are also a factor in fuel prices. The GOP nonsense in the face of evidence and reality also made it easy for the US auto industry to get lackadaisical about safety and fuel economy. They are still playing catchup with the rest of the world automakers.

Hundreds and perhaps thousands of people have died needlessly in vehicles because of GOP opposition to even cheap safety design features. They are not only responsible for higher fuel prices, but the social costs of needless traffic fatalities and insurance costs.

Their current GOP hypocrisy, mythology, and denial of reality on these issues is (to use hyperbolic Santorum speak) enough to make a person want to vomit.

A note about this post: A friend reminded me of the GOP CAFE standards hypocrisy this morning.  I made the above comments relevant to that first at Mt. Blogmore.  And, if you want to read a good post by Kevin Woster at Mt. Blogmore that is also in a category of long-ever-do reality checks, take a look at:

Woster on Rush Limbaugh and his vituperative attack on a Female Congressional Witness

Truly, at "long last", I could not have written it better myself...well maybe, but little need to go over that again.

*** Stay tuned even if all I do is reference you to better ideas--- Doug Wiken

*** Assassination by flying drone or religious drone

Recently a US drone plane killed an enemy of the US in Yemen.  That has churned up a blizzard of issues since the piece of crap killed had once been a US citizen.

Now, the Obama administration claims a Moslem in the US was part of a plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US by hiring Mexican drug gangs..  Outrage is the middle name of the US response.

NPR had a discussion with incoming calls today.  Unfortunately for the Obama administration, the fact that Bush and Cheny used a smoking turd collection of lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, the Obama Administration inherits doubts of their charges.

I don't know what to think for sure about this, but the combination of flying drone assassination, religious drones assassinations and mad bombing, and ideological drones blombing innocents, Iran hiring contract killers, past overnment lies and distortion,etc all are a terribly tangled skein.  

Nobody seems to have clean hands in these matters.  That is going to be a problem for the US until international rules on assassination by governments are established...if they don't already exist.

*** Stay tuned even if you have never heard of a tangled skein and did not know it was fiction written about Nazi Occupation of Norway --- Doug Wiken

9-11 and all that

In the media runup to the anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy, commentators were wondering what listeners had learned or decided was significant to individuals now years after.

I thought about that and decided the most important lesson for Americans to come out of the tragedy was that our American political critters will exploit any kind of tragedy for incredibly expensive extraneous partisan political goals.

Then we have the Florida minister threatening to burn a Koran just for the hell of it...well actually to protest the idea that Islamicists want to build a mosque a few blocks away from "ground zero".  What you ask may we have learned from that?

Well, from my warped perspective, it appears we should be burning every religious document or words of every religion since they seem to all be useful mainly to lunatics and scoundrels, and social retrogression.  Burn the Koran, burn the Bible, burn whatever Jews think are significant.

Or in the area of less broad a broadside, If the Florida minister is a Christian fanatic, the Islamicists who threaten to kill Americans because of the Florida fanatical lunacy demonstrate their own complete lunacy, ignorance, barbarism, primitiveness, and dangerous retrogression.

If there really are moderate Muslims, they should be condemning  those  who exploit their religion for pure unadulterated evil and primitive nonsense.

And, in my annual pissing into the wind, I again suggest that September 11 should become the new Labor Day to celebrate the lives of those who went to work and were killed by primitive barbarian religious insanity.

Using the site of a successful terrorist attack as a memorial area also seems passing strange to me.  It appears to be announcing to the world annually that terrorists were successful.  Rebuild the buildings or turn ground zero into a park.  Build a memorial honoring those who died on the highest hill in the nearby area.  Add a notice at the ground zero site that those killed by the religious insanity are memorialized at the high hill memorial.  Have all memorial ceremonies at that memorial high ground site instead of at "ground zero".

We don't turn areas with many killed by tornadoes or hurricanes into "sacred" memorial areas, and we ought not turn other catastrophic tragedy areas into memorials...especially if those areas primarily give joy to the religiously insane whose terrorism killed thousands of innocent workers.

September 11 in the boondocks is mainly another reminder that Osama bin Laden is still running loose somewhere laughing in perverse glee at the poltical pilgrimage to the site of his most insane "triumph" and at the incredible amount of money the US and other western countries have squandered in unsuccessful pursuit of his sorry ass.

The US Congress should pass a law especially for bin Laden if he is captured.  The law should allow his victim's relatives  to chop him into bite-sized pieces and feed them to hungry pigs.  Then bury the resulting hog manure under building foundations at "ground zero".

** Stay tuned even if problem solutions involving hog feeding spoil your taste for pork--- Doug Wiken

**Economist "Engineer" Robert Shiller finds danger in growing US wealth inequality

Recently, economist Robert Shiller was interviewed on the Charlie Rose show. It was an interesting hour based loosely on his new book "Animal Spirits" which is not quite what you might expect from the title. Robert Shiller correctly predicted the economic meltdown. He is an astute observer and listening to him, I really could not say if he particularly liberal or conservative. He considers himself an "economic engineer" who is not interested in destroying capitalism nor in destroying government, but in making them work better and in protecting them from future catastrophe.

I ordered his book "Animal Spirits" and a couple others on the economy. Hopefully, they can be the basis of some somewhat more informed posts here and elsewhere.

Shiller views the current economic meltdown as serious, but views the increasing concentration of more and more wealth in fewer and fewer hands as being even more serious in the long term. The inequality of wealth distribution has increased to historical highs. Shiller, I think, implies that such inequality and the government policies generating it breeds resentment and also a decline in effort on the part of those unable to accumulate wealth and finding that effort more and more difficult.. in short weakening of the "work ethic".

My question at this time for those conservatives and very rich and of politicians protecting the inequality of wealth and who often label any improvement proposals as "class warfare" or "economic war" follows.

At what point will conservatives be satisfied that the very rich have gotten control of enough of the wealth to satisfy them? 

This Tax Policy group, probably at Brookings Institution indicates the top marginal tax rates by year from 1919 to 2009.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213

This link provides multiple forms of information on personal wealth. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/listdocs.cfm?topic2id=49

Wealth estimates from 2001 estate tax filings. May not relate directly to current situation. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=556&Topic2id=49

Download a complex pdf from the federal reserve. Charts and graphs with lots of data manipulation aimed at providing a better picture of true wealth. http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2006/200613/200613pap.pdf

Easier to understand compilation from the federal reserve info above http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/04/change_in_the_d.html

More analysis of some of the data contained in above with additional info and perspective. http://www.wealthandwant.com/

This is a perhaps shaky source, but suspect the income data on the "Fortunate 400" if not the interpretation is correct anyway.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/rich-m07.shtml

Some information on actual control of wealth: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

This from census data may be unbiased if you have time to download and dig through it

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/wealth/wealth.html

This may indicate the problems with large family size and wealth accumulation and may thus suggest that the mal-distribution of wealth is related to family..I read only the abstract.

http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpma/0004051.html

This might have the most interesting and useful information.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/4Inequality.htm

You may choose to be ignorant of income disparity if you wish, but the information is available and sticking your head in the conservative wingnut sand pile does not change anything for the better or even change the information. We may however disagree on the future impact of continued worsening of wealth disparity based on our ideology. 

[[Note: Most of the above post was apparently viewed as too controversial to be posted at Mt. Blogmore for reasons I don't understand. ]]

**Stay tuned, paw through the data, and please report back with comments-- Doug Wiken