If this is a reasonable response, why do we need the nation-state? Or, multi-national states?

I just saw this particular piece about insurance companies providing armed escorts and establishing convoys for the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Seems that NATO, the UN, the EU and the various entities in that area have been unable to secure the seas and so private business has turned to the old profit motive. I immediately thought of letters of marque and the use of privateers…in other words, in a world in which austerity by government has passed economy and spiraled down to suicide, DYSTOPIA rules the waves. Now, I claim no expertise concerning the Law of the Sea, but I thought privateers and letters of marque went out with wigs, wooden ships, and the rise of the modern state.

After all, the events that established the United States as a world player if not power were those against pirates in the Mediterranean. Great Britain became great behind the wooden walls of the Royal Navy. Hell,  Julius Caesar first gained notice for action against pirates who had captured and ransomed him; Pompey became a hero of Rome (again) for eradicating the eastern Mediterranean of pirates.  And on, and on  and on…if government can not protect its commerce, care and educate its people, provide for the common defense, provide for the common defense thus securing the blessings of liberty for itself and its people then it has no purpose. Why do we need it? It’s ironic that the the fast patrol boats the article alludes to are surplus Swedish Navy ships…the relevance of the Swedish Monarchy will soon be exceeded by the irrelevance of the nation state.

Ayn Rand is chuckling in hell; Jefferson is shaking his head in heaven with Aristotle and Burke while sipping some suddenly bitter claret; Hobbs and Locke just spit coffee all over each other in shock in response to Drake’s news as he walked in the Spectator Coffee House in Piccadilly ; and, Decatur, Jones and Hull are staring at each other utterly dumbfounded. As they should…

A few things reassure me. Mercenaries have worked so well in the Horn of Africa and middle east in the past. I’m sure this future is as bright as any other flock of tame wild geese in history. Another is that bureaucracies get somewhat irate at threats to their survival. With the EU in economic disarray and the Greeks threatening the Euro, a private navy for rent protecting critical sea lanes might encourage the EU to do something kind of meaningful. Like imitate Jefferson and bitch slap some bad guys.

One of the benefits of the profound ignorance of a large swathe of the American people lies in their inability to recognize irony. So, when a first term member of congress who is probably looking at being a one term member of Congress pulls something out not from the Karl Rove playbook but the Joe McCarthy playbook, people will miss it. Our political discourse has skipped self-satire and gone straight to slapstick. As Gibbs rule number 7 puts it, “when you lie, be specific.”

Allan West, Congressman from Mesron and Florida, is now trying to win a redistricted, largely Democratic district by railing against the Democratic Progressive Caucus as “Communists’ announcing that he’s “heard that 80 member of congress are communists.” You see, the American Communist party, the old Gus Hall

Powerhouse, has said that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is reasonably close to endorsing their goals. (In the spirit of full disclosure, another website  where I write endorsed Gus Hall for President in 2008. Mr Hall died in 2000. In 2004, we endorsed Cthulhu and Anarchist Pastry Chef Crispin Sartwell as the ticket. I’m not sure whom we will endorse this year, but right now, Allen West is shortlisted for something!) I’m not sure what those could be, since the Communist Party of the USA was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics which…no longer exists. Well, the language is degraded by more than West’s blathering, but come on. Read something written by somebody not John Birch or J. Edgar Hoover that explains what Communism is as opposed to what you think it is…a vague threat to take your guns, your government health care, your government pension and your government roads, schools, infrastructure and pollute your precious body fluids while letting your children run wild having abortions and contraception and stuff, especially the gay sex folk. Dudes and Dudettes, Democrats are to Communists in much the way that the Republicans are to the Freemen of Montana.

West also babbled that Barrack Obama is afraid to debate him. Really?  Loudmouthed first termer thinks that the President of the United States should get on a stage in South Florida and debate him? Seriously, if the President has a few spare minutes to waste on West, he should devote it to shooting some hoops with his secret service detail or giving Bo a bath with the girls. Total lunacy… Seriously, the man is a deranged, megalomaniacal dweeb and needs to be kept in government custody to protect himself and his loved ones from his next over the top appearance or action.

Now, as I listened to the video (let’s hold the musing on that trope for another time), I got the sense that a good number of Mr. West’s constituents were laughing at him. It’s possible that this is gem came out not so much as a Michelle Bachmann unsolicited bit of insanity as a response to poking the bear. West is not exactly known for reasoned discourse, a sense of balance or proportion and measured response to provocation.

Now, the guy could have been court martialed for war crimes instead of being given a slap on the wrist and allowed to retire — should have been court martialed for war crimes, since he fired a pistol at a prisoner of war in order to make him provide information — and has disgraced the nation ever since. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in Army; he was in a command position in combat; and he ended up relieved of command and given the opportunity to retire — which he took. I think West is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of an incredible magnitude and should be treated with respect for his service, compassion for his condition while being protected from himself and his demons. Well, Gulf I gave us Timothy McVeigh; Gulf 2 is giving us Allan West, Republican congressman from Florida.

This is where the Republican leadership needs to step up, get West under control or expect a far rougher response than the sort given so far. This is pretty funny, actually. “Chellie is a Democrat, a farmer and a Lutheran but no, she is not a Communist,” said Willy Ritch, spokesman for Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), also a vice chair of the caucus.”

While there is no Dean of the House Irony position, Barney Frank has had fun with West and ilk over the years. He’s gleefully chucking over this one, saying that West was dumber than Joe McCarthy. Well, duh, West was and is an officer, albeit a disgraced officer. No surprise that when he goes stupid, he goes very stupid.

(Note: In the spirit of full disclosure, and as a one-time student of Luther and the Protestant Reformation, I should point out that Luther had some commie-pinko-tendencies prior to the Peasants Revolt. The whole concept of grace in the Pauline-Augustinian-Luther tradition has a pretty strong egalitarian twist to it. But in general, in Wisconsin, yeah equating Lutheran Democrats to Communists is like equating Allen West to Allen A’ Dale, which I guess would make Boehner Robin Hood and Cantor Little John.)

As that great American political commentator Bugs Bunny would put it, “What a maroon!”

CORRECTION: IN MY ORIGINAL PIECE, I REFERRED TO MR. ZIMMERMAN AS A “WHITE GUY.” MR. ZIMMERMAN IS BEING DEFENDED AS BEING OF MIXED DESCENT, WITH BOTH HISPANIC AND ANGLO PARENTS. ACTUALLY, GIVEN THE CONTEXT, I FIND THAT EVEN MORE TRAGIC AND DON’T THINK IT CHANGES THAT MUCH. WHILE READING SOME MORE OF THE COVERAGE, IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT WHAT LOOK LIKE PUBLIC STREETS EITHER AREN’T IN GATED COMMUNITIES OR IT’S NOW OK FOR LOCAL TWITS TO DRIVE AROUND LIKE THE GUY WITH NO SHIRT IN TRAILER PARK BOYS AND BUG PEOPLE, FOLLOWED BY SHOOTING THEM WHICH IS A STRETCH THAT JC TREMBLAY HADN’T QUITE REACHED. YET…

I HAVE met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

That woman’s days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven’s part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse -
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.     –WB Yeats

When did Florida become Ulster or Pretoria 20 years ago?

When I say the name Trayvon Martin, does it mean anything to you?” Melissa Harris-Perry asked her MSNBC audience on Saturday. “If it doesn’t, it should.”

Harris-Perry then took some time to explain who Trayvon Martin is: a 17-year-old, unarmed black teenager who wasallegedly shot and killed by a man in Florida in late February, after the man saw him walking down a street and thought he looked suspicious. The case has attracted substantial attention, in part because the man, George Zimmerman, has admitted to shooting Martin but has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

I enjoy listening to Melissa’s work and discussions with her guests. I’m not sure why she was denied promotion to full professor at Princeton – They have a quota on attractive women, Black, Liberal Political Scientists who get opinion gigs on MSNBC and PBS? They still have investments in slavery? Paul Krugman scares them – but their loss is Tulane’s, the nation’s, and MSNBC’s gain. I was steaming over the Trayvon Martin situation anyway, and her commentary pushed a lot of buttons.

Usually at this time of year, I’m writing something about the Irish, or Ireland or Catholicism.  I’ve been following An Problacht, (The Republic) and watching Rugby on both BBC and The Rugby Channel. Caught a brief bit of  Young Cassidy last night on the way out to a very non-Gaelic supper that did include roast beef and cabbage. I wore a dark green  t-shirt, a tweed jacket and a plaid scarf. I looked something like Rod Taylor in the damn movie. I saw some wild pictures of Shane McGowan looking like a punch-drunk old man and heard a bit of the Rocky Road to Dublin. I’ve got a copy of  Fox Crow on  my kindle that seems to be  set in a cross between the Land of the 7 Kingdoms and Donegal. I’ve been getting primed, but what the hell, what for?

watch?v=fUM9J2idxbE

If you’re not sure of the story, or  missed it with the important stuff about Seamus the Irish Setter, transvaginal probes and March Madness, Trayvon Martin was a black  kid with his dad visiting a relative in a nice, gated community in Florida. He was wandering around the neighborhood, and some neighborhood busy body named George Zimmerman decided that there was something wrong when a Black Teenager is walking around his neighborhood. He followed the kid, confronted him, hilarity ensued and this fine representative of white middle class values– Mr. Zimmermanis 28 years old and the “Neighborhood Watch – drew down  on the kid and shot him. Zimmerman supposedly was “in fear of his life” which makes it ok in Florida to kill somebody. Irony does abound amidst tragedy.

Now, the kid was going to the 7-11. He was after a can of soda and a bag of skittles. Anyone is normally allowed the right of self-defense; the idea is appropriate self-defense, balance. Somebody cuts in front of you in a line at Walmart, you probably don’t get to use the excuse that you capped the motherfucker because he was an immediate threat. Zimmerman had been told by the police that they had dispatched a car, and to not pursue him. Zimmerman in fact ignored the order from the police, provoked the kid and killed him. Thuggish behavior of a white wannabe against a black teenager…maybe his pants were too low? He was wearing “gang colors”?

watch?v=2P9GlKf63RA&feature=related

In 1842 a mob of clowns in Boston – Brookline, actually – burned an Ursuline Convent because there were Catholics there. Teaching Catholic stuff…the response of the Bishop of Boston was to call his fellows, the Jesuits, and have them start a high-school and college in Worcester, a joint called College of the Holy Cross. I was kind of surprised to read a piece  on Huff Po that managed to list the top ten Irish schools and skipped us; we were diverse, of course. We had 27 black students, Irish Jocks, Italian Jocks, Polish Jocks, some Hispanics, two Greek kids and three Jews.

watch?v=z63GVU_wta0

The Great Draft Riots of New York City made famous in The Gangs of New York were provoked by the idea that Irish immigrants were treated terribly and now were being drafted to free  slaves while the Micks were being treated at least as badly by the Nativists. This has continued – I was told in a bit of openness by a professor that the reason I didn’t get into a prestigious graduate school was because the chairman had said that he already had enough Irish-Catholics. That was 40 or so years ago, and probably is not so obvious now, but it’s still there.

The Italians, the Poles, the Blacks, the Jews and the Hispanics are all facing the same thing. As generations become accepted, they then become more and more like the intolerant bastards that stood in their way. Hell, while I suspect Zimmerman might be Jewish given the name and ethnicity attached, he’s probably big in the local Tea Party and may even be getting toasted at the local VFW for showing that kid…

I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and I damn all gentlemen
Whose only worth is their father’s name and the sweat of a workin’ man
Well we come from the farms and the city streets and a hundred foreign lands
And we spilled our blood in the battle’s heat
Now we’re all Americans

I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and did I tell you friend I’m a fightin’ man
And I’ll not be back this way again, cause we’re all goin’ down to Dixieland

–Steve Earle

WHEN THE FUCK DID IT BECOME ALL RIGHT TO KILL CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY LOOK DIFFERENT? THEY”RE KIDS!! If A GAGGLE OF EMOS OR GOTHS HAD BEEN WANDERING DOWN THE STREET, WOULD HE HAVE FOLLOWED THEM?

Now, in Ulster, there was a tradition of the Protestants controlling the cops and having an auxillary, the B-Specials who were empowered to go into the Irish neighborhoods and “keep the Paddies in line.” Yeah – that worked fine until 1968 –then things changed in a mass explosion of violence, hatred, blood and atrocity, in the name of keeping the strangers down because they were dangerous.

watch?v=anm9_0Xydaw

For 150 years in South Africa, it was possible for a white settler to shoot a kaffir (black) or mixed race person. South Africa’s treatment of the Indians resulted in a fellow named Mohandmas Ghandi becoming radicalized.

watch?v=YTlzamUlQkg

There is no excuse for this idiot. There’s a prima facie case to indicate that there is at least a problem with civil rights abuses – no equal protection under the law.  Any cop worth his badge should have run him in for any number of things up to and including murder. Certainly hard to prove equivalency of force to threat – however, if Zimmerman found himself driving through a Black neighborhood, would they be entitled to shoot him because he was suspicious?

watch?v=77gFWMsYCrw&feature=related

This is what the bastards have wrought. We are back in Emmett Till territory or worse – we’re back to the burning of convents/mosques and we’re less civilized and tolerant than Ulster or South Africa. If Florida doesn’t act decisively to prevent this sort of crap, then in the dock of God’s justice, Zimmerman should be joined by Wayne LePierre and the Board of the NRA, Rick Scott, and the Tea Party. When Anne Coulter advocates less craziness, you know you have a problem.

Well, when political leaders with a rock solid 30% of the country behind them and the rest of us staring in disbelief, well, strange and sad things happen. No terrible beauty born, just the center not holding…by the way, if Barrack Obama  is a Muslim, going to the Dublin City Pub, hoisting a Guinness and singing Danny Boy would probably be considered apostasy. Drinking alcohol is a violation of Sharia of course, and Islam requires adherence to the rules in a way that would make my Nun-programmers in the 50s and 60s think about the advantages of liberty and freedom.

That said, we need to open our hearts and minds to some of the stuff in the Bible that doesn’t lend itself to believing God is blessing your righteous cause so go smite the sinners, the heathen, the others. And, Trayvon Martin joins a long line of young  people gone for no reason except ignorance, hate and stupidity by ingrate-inbred-liars and thieves. A line that includes Kevin Barry, Bobby Sands, Steve Biko, Emmett Till and Jesus Christ.

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? –WB Yeats

watch?v=_nHdSK-mB3k&feature=related

One of the things that binds loose collectives of malcontented malevolent dissidents, anarchists and engineers and intellectual dilettantes like blog writers is our general aversion to the impact of the totalitarian mind on life, language and discourse. Particularly when afraid — when they’re afraid, they come unglued with weird explanations of events…Orwell could have had fun with that realization because it is when under pressure from the unknown that the basic spiritual bankruptcy and ontological void that is the totalitarian way becomes most obvious. Case in point, China.

Now, China has the potential to explode at any time. It’s fairly obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of Marxist thought that the victory of the Communist Party in 1948 preceded the rise of the industrial proletariat. Pretty much the way that Communism has spread everywhere, by the way, except for the countries in eastern Europe that were conquered by the Soviet Union. So, since the Party still rules the country as a vicious oligarchy, it should not be surprising that the government is terrified of anything that might blow it all up. Tibet, Western China, displaced living lives of misery in Guangzhou and Shanghai…labor unrest, the incredible imbalance between rich and middle class and middle class and poor…disease, famine, water impossible to drink, etc. etc. The place is an economic dynamo sputtering away on top of a volcano.

Which presents a fair amount of hilarity masquerading as WTF? Not unlike Rush Limbaugh confusing contraception with the adult film industry and Israeli fellow-travellers eagerly sounding the drums for a war with Iran because our last religio-WMD-”Make the world safe”-enterprises have gone so well, the Chinese government is definitely after the root cause of problems at all levels. Jezebel picked up a story from The People’s Daily that really makes it obvious that fantastic explanations for things is not just a Republican plutocratic art but one shared by totalitarians univerally.

Ok, girl one loses a “remote control” to a rolling door for her home. Girl one is obviously fairly rich for China since this looks like a really bad translation of “Garage Door Opener…” although I suppose it could have been a rolling steel shutter door to a patio or perhaps a French Door with a remote to the patio but, WHAT THE HELL?  The silly damn Khardasians don’t have remote controlled French doors; Trump doesn’t have remote controlled French doors. That makes no sense…even in China, which at some levels, times and places is really like Batman’s Gotham City, on meth…So, the kid lost a garage door opener. She decides to kill herself, so she hides in a closet — another sign that we’re dealing with some level of wealth here, there’s actually a closet that is not so much in use that hiding in it is possible — until her little friend comes over. She says she’s going to commit suicide, the little friend says, OK, me too and Girl 1 writes down a note saying that she’s killing herself over the garage door opener and Girl 2 is doing it because, well, they’re friends and it’s Tuesday and there’s nothing on TV and…they are planning on visiting the Qing dynansty to make a movie of the emperor — any emperor — and then going to outer space. Girl 1 tells her sister to “Take Care of the Parents” because it’s all about the parents, and they jump in a pool and drown.

Sister? The Chinese still have their one child rule. Only the very well to do and party elites get to have multiple children. WHAT THE HELL? This passes no reality test…but, the inspiration for the suicide is …TV shows about people travelling in time and marrying royalty.

Yeah, and comic books caused juvenile delinquency and rock and roll and teenage pregnancy and communism. Ask your great, great senile grandmother!

Imagine the dialogue in the TV movie…if you’ve ever listened to the dialogue in a Chinese TV show, as I did by reading subtitles while there — you’ll recognize it.

Chechette: I lost the garage door remote and have brought dishonor on myself and my family. I must kill myself!

Chongette: I am your best friend. I will also kill myself.

Yeah. Now, they could have blamed this on Falung Gong because everybody knows that weird calestenics and such make you crazy. They could have blamed this on the influences of capitalism. They could have blamed it on a lot of things. Hell, blame it on Guy Clark …Time travel on the Chinese equivalent to The Gilmore Girls? Jezebel has an excellent point, by the way.

This sounds like a cautionary tale about parenting — if your kid thinks killing herself is a good response to losing the remote control, you might not be sending the right message about the value of everyday objects. But Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of China Youth and Children Research Center, has a different moral in mind:

Schoolchildren are rich in curiosity but poor in judgment, so this kind of tragedy happens in every era. I have heard of children jumping from high buildings after watching an actor flying in a magic show. This kind of imitative behavior is in the nature of young children, but it’s very dangerous. So we should give some sort of warning for children on TV programs.

I’m actually not sure that killing yourself so you can travel back in time and film an emperor (where do you get the camera?) is a tragedy that “happens in every era.”…

Being not so sure about the impact of TV on suicides — childish deaths from imitating superheroes, pro- wrestlers and such in the west aside — and being slightly alert to conspiracies and coverups, I gotta say, this looks more like a cover-up of something else. There are lots of possibilities — a spree of mass murder of children with or without child rape, a problem with some powerful “Big Bucks” in the local or regional Party-Wealthy Complex, drug-crazed People’s Liberation Army veterans of the unpleasantness in Western China which dwarfs what we are seeing in Afghanistan or saw in Iraq — but TV is a convenient scapegoat. Always has been and always will be…Dr. Who, in Mandarin drag, seducing the young with opium and time travel.

My money is probably on some sort of Child 44 coverup but who the hell knows about these things? Totalitarian countries are weirder than weird and China’s internal dissension, cultural dissonance, and Commie-Confucian-Oligarchic messiness kind of makes it all seem possible, and that’s funny in a weird way…and sad.

Another possibility is that this is just some Politboro thug having a shit fit at time travel TV. Again, the oddities of totalitarianism…

Among the many abominations foisted on us is the merging of Lincoln’s Birthday with Washington’s and calling it President’s Day. Frankly, we need more holidays, and Federal Holidays should be made mandatory paid holidays. Like in civilized countries – double time for workers and everybody else is off doing their thing. Now, celebrating Lincoln and Washington makes a lot of sense – but, Jerry Ford? Grover Cleveland? Warren G. Harding? John Tyler? James Buchanan? Seriously, give us back our holidays and make the bastards give them to workers…

There is method in my madness, by the way. Reduce work hours and you’ll spur hiring to maintain productivity. It’s a fairly simple idea and works very well especially when you’re trying to maximize employment. If you have an idle assembly line, well, if you need a hundred employees to run it, and you cut the hours of 1000 employees enough to reduce productivity to where profit is affected, it will make economic sense to hire more workers. It probably does on a macro scale anyway – as Paul Krugman and other non-Friedmanesque economists keep saying, it’s demand, stupid. No demand, no need for supply to keep up. No money, no demand…why is this hard?

I was wandering through various interweb sites this morning and discovered a number of things at places I don’t always visit. Probably the best way to be exposed to new thought and new thinking is to just go out and look. I recommend Twitter for that – follow some of the links that are twittered and be prepared to be amazed, enlightened and generally entertained.

One of the Malcontents, affiliated with the Defeatists, is a Ron Paul person. Now, his reasoning is based not on economics, where he’s kind of a leveler, but on the legalization of drugs, and Paul’s incredible adherence to George Washington’s idea of foreign policy of non-intervention. So he wasn’t happy about the Maine results. I took a look at the figures from Maine, and wonder why we give a rat’s ass about a 5000 wingnut straw poll in our little corner of Labrador. However, HuffPo then made it interesting…The Paul Campaign still thinks it won, and not with their stay there and get made a delegate strategy discussed the other night on the Maddow show. For a cabal, the Paul Campaign is very open about what it’s doing. Now, while there has been a lot of wonderment as to what the hell Ron Paul wants since he can’t possibly win the nomination because he can’t possibly win the nomination, because, well he can’t so there! So, the Romney Cabal (which is a cabal) decides to cheat and convinces the Republican Party in Maine 50delay counting caucuses in certain strong Paul areas because of snow…UP TO 3 INCHES!! Forecast. SNOWPOCALYPSE…the way these caucus states are acting is amazing. People in Maine wander around in wife-beaters and bikini bottoms when all they have to worry about is 3 inches of snow. I’m from Syracuse, and we didn’t bother about snow until there was at least six inches down…So, now the Republicans have given Ron Paul something to really want – to screw Mitt Romney. REVENGE. They’ve made it look like to the Tea Party like the party is still the establishment doing the same old stuff – Third Party Run anyone? Brokered convention? Picture a Santorum-Cantor ticket? Palin-Bush?

CPAC’s straw poll was equally silly and more obviously rigged. Romney generated not enthusiasm but an enthusiasm sink. Not so with Santorum – and yet, he didn’t win. There’s a feeling loudly expressed that Romney’s backers stole the damn thing to avoid the brokered convention. Well, maybe so, but the head of CPAC was gloating about the possibility, of a Chris Christy-Mike Huckabee-Mitch Daniels-Scott Walker-Rick Scott , mud wrestling match. Frankly, if you want to actually look at the numbers from both, the three-four-eight headed goon who is not Mitt Romney won CPAC too. Palin is bitch-slapping Romney and that has got to hurt with the true Tea Party believers.

Now, speaking of Rick “Jiffy Lube” Santorum, I’ve always disliked the guy. Didn’t like him when he was in the news as part of the Gingrich-DeLay leadership; thought he was a buffoon as a Senator and definitely a one-trick pony. I thought he was a one-trick pony, and since he was a total loon about his one issue, he was a complete loser. Then, somehow, we started this Personhood thing followed by the attack on contraception. We need more white babies…what the fuck? Civilization will end because there aren’t enough peasants tossing their gold earrings and wedding bands and widow’s mite in the collection basket at your local intolerance emporium? So, dislike of Romney coupled with sober reflection on the viability of Newt Gingrich and voila! Rick Santorum wins three states. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Well, Vice Magazine nailed the reasons why this dweeb was both popular at CPAC and why he resonates with Republicans . Compared to Robotman, Troll Doll and the Crazy Old Uncle with the Tin Foil Nightcap, Santorum seems normal.

It’s easy to be the high-minded guy when nobody contradicts you.

Rick’s got a lot of things to recommend him. Liberals mainly know him as the feces-and-ass-lube guy, who brought his dead baby home for a sleepover, dresses his daughter in clothing that matches dolls and has a son who looks like he’ll go on to a fine career of standing in the azaleas in people’s front yards and determinedly masturbating. But while Newt plays well to the paranoid, victimized poor GOP, and Mitt does great numbers among the wealthy, Rick’s culture-war populism is appealing to rich and poor alike, as long as they hate gays and Iran.

His rhetoric is all vapor, but it’s spiritually comforting vapor. Santorum seems to think him being elected president would reverse everything that makes China preferable to America for manufacturers, some Americastantiation whereby waving hands in front of factories and muttering incantations will bring back people with metal lunchpails who are still solidly middle class. By his will alone, caring about America will erase the advantages China has in paying workers shit and treating their immediate environment like an open-air sewer and chemical dump.

He sounds smart, too. While it’s tempting to write off Santorum because he’d happily criminalize birth-control pills and onanism, he does his foreign-policy reading. It’s just that, like a bad student or a less donnish Niall Ferguson, he’s managed to study all sides of the issue in order to be wrong about it.

Now, the reason I write for Veterans Today can be summed up in two words – Gordon Duff. Gordon is the creative fount there, and when I inquired about possibly writing, he let me. We don’t agree about a lot of things, except that everything is going to hell and we have a duty as Veterans and as Human Beings to do something about it. Gordon is either more cynical or less naïve than I am and hasn’t met a left-libertarian conspiracy theory he doesn’t at least consider. On the other hand, he’s been around that particular geo-political rodeo for decades and knows a lot of people and a lot of things.

Over the years, people who are “officially credible,” have, under equally official “deniability” informed me that much of this is true. The rationale for such admissions was for me to admire how much the criminal ruling element trusted their discretion and how totally uncredible I must be or I wouldn’t be told such things.

He’s an expert on Southwest Asia and Middle East. His opinions may be starkly different from what you might believe, but that’s ok. He finds it ok that you disagree.

Unlike clowns who just rant and rave, Gordon engages in dialogue with his critics and commentators. I consider his work interesting, provocative and worthy of consideration – I still don’t think the Mossad, for example, was likely behind 9/11 because the Cost/Benefit Analysis doesn’t make any sense. But, the idea of false flags in the mid-east to provide cover for an attack on Iran seems reasonable and probably likely. It’s probably not Mossad running that ball but the political right pushing it. The Technocrats in Mossad can do the math as well as you or I, and have trouble finding the upside. But the true believers…wow. The upside is the return of the Messiah or the Rapture caused by the Return of the Messiah or Armageddon or the 12^th Iman…all we need is a war to get that to happen. Idiots…and, Gordon makes that point. He’s proposing a very radical re-thinking of both policy and politics, both globally and back home. Well, we sure as hell need something different, and what he proposes, a non-ideological, rational approach based on national interests and stated American values to achieve a better world is attractive. Gordon claims to be a “Republican” insider, but his Republican party isn’t the current version – he’s not a Democrat either. He’s a pretty focused “My Country right or wrong and if it’s not right, I die trying to fix it!” kind of guy.

So, Gordon’ piece today was very provocative. I think it’s really worth considering, and if someone wanted to they could develop a pretty good foreign policy from it. Certainly if half of what he discusses or recommends could be implemented, we’d see a radically different and probably safer world. For example:

On Pakistan: It is possible for the US to leave Afghanistan and have a new election with a candidate acceptable to the Taliban, a much smaller group that we are told (America tends to lie a lot), along with other groups including the northern tribes. We can cut a deal with Pakistan that would democratize that country more under Imran Khan and establish broad trade rather than warfare with Afghanistan, end terrorism in both and, this is the bad part, stop the $80 billion in drugs being sent around the world. This is where it is sticky. I know Imran Khan well and that he and President Obama will do much better together than many believe.  Khan has at least 75 IQ points on the last Pakistani leader and takes nothing from anyone.  He is the only person in Pakistan that Afghanistan can or will work with. AXE Comment: Most Americans have no idea who Imran Khan is which is sad, since he’s an actual intelligent and politically powerful guy in Pakistan who’s not afraid of anything and is articulate, intelligently nationalistic (the two characteristics are not mutually exclusive) and capable of accomplishing a lot. However, he said things that were viewed as anti-American after the assassination of bin Laden. So, any effort to team with him will invite character assassination from the Republicans. However, I personally think Obama could handle it. He arranged for the killing of bin Laden (although Gordon believe ObL was a CIA agent, a dupe, a false flag and killed years ago in the Bush Administration and kept on ice until needed. As I say, we disagree about some things.) and could do the necessary chest thumping. Possible, especially since the Republican noise machine has lost credibility on confusing the public between our President and Satan.

On India:  I am theoretically an expert on the region and can’t say this clearly enough…there has to be a settlement over Kashmir, a regional trade zone, and stability from China to Nigeria.Picture the huge arc across the map.  The whole area could explode and the US is not going to be able to do much about it, not with 11 carrier battle groups and shiploads of counterfeit money.The GOP has presented NO candidate with any capability and Obama, if he is re-elected, as it seems now (some skulduggery here, if you haven’t noticed), he has to “grow a pair.” AXE Comment: I’m not an expert but the history of the region points to something different as a solution than whatever the hell it is we’ve got going on there. The idea of open borders, an independent Kashmir in a regional free trade zone between China-India-Kashmir-Pakistan-Afghanistan has appeal economically. Think of it as a NAFTA in Asia. However, the economies China and India will be drivers, and I’m not sure what’s in it for them. It could turn into the Asian version of the Euro crisis. Still, worth trying. If Iran and Iraq were included ultimately, you’d be looking at a powerhouse. Probably practically impossible on the grand scale, but worth considering.

Israel and Palestine. Then again, we can always return to the “third rail” of all time.  America’s biggest nuclear danger comes from India and Israel, not Iran or China. It is time that, first Israel is “de-nuclearized.” If Israel has security issues, simply put in three American bases and nobody can ever attack. Read that one again. Nobody can attack any nation with an American base as that is considered a declaration of war against the United States.  That’s why Iraq is making serious errors if it every throws America out.  That’s why Turkey is so brilliant, with two large American air bases. This is why Israel is so stupid, playing victim, begging money, and now broke and hated. AXE Comment: I’ve seen this before, first time in a Harold Coyle book where I recall one or two of the existing Cavalry Regiments were deployed there under a UN mandate. I also recently head Zbignew Brezinski suggest something very similar as a response to the Iran-Isreal kurfluffle. The de-nuclearization of Israel strikes me a probably not a doable deal, but no reason not to try. If nothing else, put their weapons under US custodial responsibility. It would probably be cheaper than billeting units in Germany, and would be a strong counterpoint to chaos in the region.

George Will adds an interesting counterpoint to this. While Gordon is too cantankerous to be a real Republican insider (as well as too principled and too honest), George Will should be the Republican Party Ideologue on that Cabal’s Politburo. He’s not – he’s too smart. Anyone who can sum football up by describing it exemplifying the worst aspect of American life – violence interrupted by meetings – is entirely too smart and perceptive to be truly be an ideologue. He’s not happy with the Republican field – hell, I’m not happy with the Republican field, I suspect Barrack Obama thinking as a patriot as opposed to politician is not happy with the Republican field. And, he’s really disturbed with the Romney Republican foreign policy. Will writes:

Through 11 presidential elections, beginning with the Democrats’ nomination of George McGovern in 1972, Republicans have enjoyed a presumption of superiority regarding national security. This year, however, events and their rhetoric are dissipating their advantage. Hours — not months, not weeks, hours — after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, vicious political factionalism and sectarian violence intensified. Many Republicans say President Obama’s withdrawal — accompanied by his administration’s foolish praise of Iraq’s “stability” — has jeopardized what has been achieved there. But if it cannot survive a sunrise without fraying, how much of an achievement was it?

Few things so embitter a nation as squandered valor, hence Americans, with much valor spent there, want Iraq to master its fissures. But with America in the second decade of its longest war, the probable Republican nominee is promising to extend it indefinitely.

Mitt Romney opposes negotiations with the Taliban while they “are killing our soldiers.” Which means: No negotiations until the war ends, when there will be nothing about which to negotiate…Since 2001, the United States has waged war in three nations, and some Republicans appear ready to bring the total to five, adding Iran and Syria. (The Weekly Standard, of neoconservative bent, regrets that Obama “is reluctant to intervene to oust Iran’s closest ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”) GOP critics say Obama’s proposed defense cuts will limit America’s ability to engage in troop-intensive nation-building. Most Americans probably say: Good.

In Gordon’s piece, he equates neoconservatism with communism. I don’t see the ideological match, but Will is at least as opposed to the neo-cons as Gordon, and perhaps even more. Will’s column is something I’m liking on Facebook and Twittering, which is not the sort of thing my friends are used to. It’s worth reading and it happens to be something where I find myself absolutely in agreement with Will.

On an utterly unrelated note, except it is, I have taken to following @Philo_Quotes on Twitter. There are so many gems there that make me reconsider my own philosophical journey. I’d like to see more Kierkegaard and Camus and perhaps less Senaca and Montesquieu, but the mix is kind of interesting. Lots of philosophers really come off well in aphorisms – the meat of their argument is best presented that way. Technical philosophers obsessed with method need to be able to see that and scholars need it – human beings as human beings wondering about philosophical questions don’t. Here are a few from the last few days that I think deserve reading and consideration.

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies. ~ Schopenhauer (Comment: No argument here, but worth considering, especially on the part of those who think women in combat related positions will weaken units. Nurturers are stone killers when those they want to protect are in danger.)

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws. ~ Montesquieu (WAR On DRUGS? The Catholic Church’s position on priestly celibacy? Or birth control. Or homosexuality. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Catalog of really stupid institutional or government nonsense. It’s hard to credit the magisterial prowess and right of an institution that does such stupid stuff. The drug was has incarcerated people for nothing except puritanical stupidity.)

If a lion could talk, we could not understand him. ~ Wittgenstein (W is talking about language but it’s a reflection also on ethics and on metaphysics. If a space alien arrives, we’re not going to be able to communicate; nor, for that matter, can we really communicate with those who have totally different realities…which dooms things like Afghanistan.)

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. ~ Marcus Aurelius (Aurelius spent his life being the good man while working at being an emperor. Worth considering as a role.

Wit is educated insolence. ~ Aristotle (Yeah. You gotta problem with that?

Etta James

Music. The incredible Crispin Sartwell and I had a brief discussion of Etta James over at his blog “Why the Selection of Newt Gingrich for Pope is part of my master plan to save the universe?” Crispin’s Blog is highly recommended if you’re looking for a IFC sort of always on, sort of off philosopher with a rock and roll bent. (Except for the damn card tricks, which can rapidly devolve to the level of cat pictures.)  Basically, we agree that Etta James was incredible as a performer although, as with many blues and rock and country and grunting Tibetan throat singers her earlier, simpler stuff was better. Some of her producers were like second rate Chet Atkins adding strings and horns to something that just needed more bass, stronger rhythm and more reverb! There are exceptions to this general rule – musicians mature and get better and more interesting and versatile. Marianne Faithful falls into this category, I think as do The Allman Brothers, Emmy Lou Harris and Steve Earle. But as her range decreased and her weight ballooned and plummeted– cocaine, heroin, abuse, and gastric by-pass add up to a helluva drug combination – she remained a great performer but a different one.

Etta James is definitely in the Edith Piaf-Billie Holliday-Tammy Wynette tradition of female singers on the edge –victimized and exploited but never a victim.  I refuse to see her death as tragic. Pretty sure she ran out of steam – pneumonia, diabetes, dementia, high blood pressure, kidney failure and dialysis –and is no longer in pain. The behavior of her family in fighting over who was going to control her estate testifies to something about human nature…as a general rule, people suck.

In general, 2011 and early 2012 have not been great for the Blues. Lots of incredible talent has died—what I find interesting is that they seem to be surviving to ripe old ages which is kind of re-assuring. Etta James was 73; Johnny Otis was in his late 80s; Hubert Sumlin was in his 80s. While there have been some really smart band leaders like Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Earl Keene over the years who made their musicians pay into Social Security and Medicare, the traditional musician ends up either so rich it doesn’t matter or more likely – very much more likely – dead broke or surviving based on income from some other source like Matt Murphy and Blue Moon Marini, working as fry cooks in a catfish diner.  The Blues Review has a good summary of the folks who crossed over to play in St Michael’s Blues Band in 2011.

Heaven Called

Afghanistan. Norman Mailer wrote an allegorical novel in the late 60s called Why are we in Vietnam? Basically, the answer seemed to be because we can. Not a great answer to an important question, but despite the geo-political nonsense, it really seems that ultimately that was the answer. Somebody had a great fucking idea, and then it went sideways. Well, if Vietnam went sideways, Afghanistan has spun into an entirely different dimension.

You know, the Russians advised us against this; Russian officers asked both formally and informally if we were fucking crazy or what? Well, Afghanistan made sense to destroy al Queida and to kill Bin Laden. Trying to add the Afghans to the ranks of the Muslim Jeffersonian Democracies that the Neocons were inventing in Central Asia was batshit crazy and stupid. The last successful strategic victory in Afghanistan was by the Moguls who just waged a war of virtual extermination and conversion. That was a while ago. The British got their ass handed to them, continuously; the Soviet Union was destroyed as a result of their fun and games — Stinger Missiles and the Muhajadeen did more to make Gorbachov tear down the wall than Reagan was awake for — and now we’re stuck. The Brits are leaving; the French are leaving; the Dutch are leaving. We should be going and get gone.

FFL Anthem from Vietnam and Algeria

Look, some Afghans wanted us to toss the Taliban out and to have some cultural and economic liberation. They got it. Now they want us to leave. The people who wanted us to leave still want us to leave only more so. The people we’re training, arming, feeding and supplying in the Afghan Army and Police Force want us to leave, express hatred for us and are shooting NATO trainers. Karzai is threatening to make a seperate peace with the Taliban and fight with Pakistan against us. Pakistan is having fun cutting the lines of communication. Anybody in the mood for The March of the 10000?

We’re stuck and losing soldiers, money, prestiege and influence in a war we don’t understand and can’t win. Outside of waging a war of extermination and then paving the goddamn place so Pakistan and India can use it as a parking lot, there is no up side and no effective strategy going forward. The war made slightly more sense at the time and was less costly than the Iraq debacle. That didn’t make it a good idea; and every day we’re not withdrawing a lot and figuring out how to disengage is a really bad plan on our part. Afghanistan has been broke since Alexander visited it in 400 BC or so; why did we choose to pick up the Pottery Barn receipt on this one?

It’s a brutal, awful theo-klepto-psycho-cratic place. So, have a wide open asylum program for people who want the hell out. As for the rest, isolate it like the geo-political virus it represents and let them cheerfully kill each other. Let WWIII start somewhere else. Lillehammer is nice, I’m told.

Who’s worried about us?

What the Hell is Going on With the Republican Party? Well, damned if I know, but I suspect that we’re getting to see a rare instance of devolution. I find the symbolic nature of South Carolina’s “war with the Federal Government” to use Rick Perry’s phrase interesting. There most be something about the water in the Gamecock state. I heard a member of the executive branch of State Government say that he’s an Evangelical Christian, a Tea Party Member and a Romney supporter…ok, how can you call yourself a Christian and be a Libertarian? I asked that question on Twitter, wondering if there was some special version of the Bible for these people. Some one responded to me to the effect that there was, most of the Old Testament. Well, Lewis Black had put that to rest a couple of years ago, despite everything else. “Why does he believe that? He read it in the Old Testament which is the book of my people, the Jewish People…which wasn’t good enough for you Christians…was it!?”

Fossil showing and throwing from Lewis Black

So, assuming that it’s possible to somehow be a Christian and cheer for executions and letting people die and not caring for the poor, indigent and helpless but to focus on stoning women and using the bible to spread Free Enterprise, how can you be a Christian-Libertarian and a Romney supporter?

Now, I kinda liked Michelle Bachmann. She’s insane, of course, and kind of attractive in a depressed-MILFy-madwoman kind of way. An evening with Michelle Bachmann would be like taking a car ride with Lucy Jordan on amyl nitrate and Ecstasy…and lots of ritalin. Jon Huntsman seemed like a reasonable guy with a lot of great ideas compared to whatever the hell Perry, Santorum, Paul and Romney had for ideas. But, what the hell, he started babbling in Mandarin, and these people are largely opposed to things like public education…what was he, some kind of Metrosexual Communist? After watching and listening to Santorum a bit, I wonder if he doesn’t realize exactly how crazy he is; could Rick Santorum be a double-agent of the devil, trying to give Evangelical Christians who are Catholics a really bad name?

So, the obvious non-Romney face of the Republican party is actually Newt Gingrich. Barney Frank has     been on the record saying that he had not thought that he had lived a good enough life to deserve a presidential campaign where Newt Gingrich was going to be the Republican nominee. Well, there’s a way to go yet, but I’m betting Barney has a bunch of angry Catholic friends lighting candles all over Boston and Cambridge because nothing short of divine intervention explains the second coming of Newt Gingrich. And now, the third.

Now, as a lifelong Democrat, I have to admit to staying home for the first election I could vote in, George McGovern in 1972. Nor did I vote either time for Jimminy Carter, which I kind of regret. Nor Mondale. Nor Dukakis. However, by the time Clinton ran, I had come to accept that by not voting I was voting — not caring was allowing the greater of two evils or an actual evil or an innocuous with good intentions to triumph with my ok. So, I started voting…but, the Democrats had gone through a period of ideologically driven purity and pie in the sky social engineering dreams that were insanely unsupportable and unelectable. So, a lot of us stayed home for a couple of decades. Well, the left-center-moderates should be able to see and understand what that did for us really well after the Congressional debacle of 2010. It’s really kind of simple — in normal circumstances not including defeating totalitarianism or preserving the union — government will occur best when it’s plus or minus 20-40% from the middle. The pendulum will swing, and the wider the variation from the national consensus the crazier will be the correction.

Squares Make the World

Now, Barrack Obama has advocated policies and programs and legal solutions to the right of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, (two famous American communists, just ask the John Birch Society) which seem to some to radically socialist and Kenyan. Among the some is, of course, Newt Gingrich. Mr. Meglomania. Gingrich is using racial buzzwords, playing to the old Southern Strategy…How can you be Black and a Republican? How can you be Gay and be a Republican? How can you be Mexican and be a Republican? How full of self-loathing do you really have to be? Or how unaware?

The Master of Disaster…so, I think the Republican Party is wandering around in the conspiracy-paranoid riven ideological desert that the Dems spent the 70s and 80s in. Could get interesting…should get interesting…might even get better. For a while…but then you have Democrats cutting education in their Tea Party state budget proposal by $53M but tossing Noah’s Fun’s Family Fun and Dinosaur Theme Park a $50M tax break. How full of self-loathing does a Democratic Governor have to be to recommend some insanity like that? I suppose it might create a few low paying park attendant jobs, more than making up for the loss of teaching positions. Now, if Rand Paul and Yertle Turtle McConnell can get Kaintuck an exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act they can probably hire pre-teens to work there and in the schools for 30 cents an hour. Kinky will have to update his version of El Paso...Cretin from Kentucky?

Earlier this week, on some medium somewhere, I read that a local entrepreneur was holding open auditions for proposed Christian videos, TV shows and Movies. My initial reaction was, By Bless Tiffany’s left tit, what a joke. However, turns out it’s real, and I’m going to cover this as an unpaid staffer for the Crossroads of Opportunity’s Alternative Newspaper, the Mojave Free Press. This will be my first foray into true Gonzo journalism, so we’ll see how this plays out. I’ve seen some “Christian” stuff, and what they lack in aesthetic quality, they make up in perky white-anglo evangelical zeal and nonsense. So, I’m curious as to what is going on here – Why Barstow? A lot of things are filmed around here; for example, Clint Eastwood used the cave systems in the local mountains to film “Letters from Iwo Jima” and I think there are some local shots at various points in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. But, the average Barstonian is neither Biff nor Muffy  and doesn’t conform to the traditional California image. It’s a small, poor, grungy blue collar town that depends on a couple of military bases, a lot of fast food restaurants and hotels, and the Burlington Northern to continue existing. So, this is either some local who spent too long in the sun or it’s a scam.

Next, I was somewhat surprised to discover this morning that it had taken this long for the Lindsay Lohan spread to leak from Playboy. I was more surprised when I followed the link on HuffPo to the pirated material. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if  Playboy’s editorial and marketing staff figured they  could get more of a bump from publicizing her and the leak as opposed from waiting for the reviews of the spread, so they leaked it all.  I feel sorry for Lohan in some ways – she is kind of pathetic. She had lots of potential I guess, as a American Hailey Mills 40 years later. However, we need to remember that the old studio system prevented a lot of nonsense from the child stars. They may have had problems later, but when Walt ran the place, the kids didn’t get into lots of trouble as soon as they were old enough to drive. And, despite obviously dysfunctional situations—Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Danny Bonaduce, Patty Duke and so on – for the most part these people hit 21 with livers, brains and bank balance more or less intact. Lohan’s situations have been weirder by far than her films; and, she doesn’t seem to get it. The Star System in Hollywood has been gone for a long time; what sells now is bad press.

Anyway, the Playboy spread might have been considered sexy and titillating back in the mid-60s. While Playboy is still less graphic than Penthouse, it’s long since started showing public hair and related anatomy. While there are people still who claim to read the damn thing to read the articles, not so much these days. I suspect that Ms. Lohan might have been willing to show more and do more for more money although maybe she has finally gotten some advisors who realize this could degenerate quickly. Her career is teetering; appearing at times like a meth-addled hag with an absolute inability to control her behavior, desires or bodily functions combined with the spoiled diva sense of entitlement that puts a lot of people’s teeth on edge. The pictures are lifeless, continuing her Marilyn Monroe meme and while more risqué than the Vanity Fair shoot, she doesn’t work as well as she did in those photos. So, if I’m Playboy, my thoughts looking at these thing s would have been how tosqueeze the most value out of these things…frankly, she looks embalmed. So, stage an act of piracy of intellectual property and raise hell without ever getting anywhere. Perhaps there’s more stuff, better stuff in the magazine; possibly not. But, this will amp up their sales and possibly the positive impact on her career.

Perhaps she should come to Barstow for the open audition.

Another striking bit of weirdness this week revolves around Karl Rove and the Republican establishment. Rove’s disinformatia operation, American Crossroads decided to go all in on the Scott Brown re-election bid, and ran an ad  in Massachusetts 12 months before the Senatorial election trying to portray her as some kind of progressive reformer in league with the Regulators and OWS and probably the Illuminati and the Communist Internationale to encourage violence, disruption and scare away the “Job Creators.” Well, the complaints were very much over the top – Dr. Warren was a Harvard Professor at Harvard Law and was asked to come into government to administer and regulate TARP. She did and then began lobbying for a consumer protection agency focused on protecting those of us who are buying the financial products the banks and brokerages are dealing. The idea that Massachusetts is populated by tea-sipping, chardonnay bathing, Pekinese sodomizing commie pinko fags is actually pretty funny. Get past Newton, and you’re in pure rustbelt, redneck country. However, it’s a well-educated and pretty smart bunch of rednecks, who may not be politically correct but are pretty savvy. The sole reason that Scott Brown won the special election to replace Ted Kennedy was that the Democrat ran a wretched campaign based on a sense of electoral entitlement. After all, it was Teddy’s seat, so the voters would give it to the anointed Dem…not hardly. Teddy Kennedy always campaigned and campaigned fiercely. So, given the choice between a guy identified as a favorite of the Hedge Fund Managers and somebody who gives the Hedge Fund Managers nightmares, and Dr. Warren has a tremendous following. It helps that she can explain this crap in plain English. So, Rove’s over the top attack ad didn’t have the desired effect. It improved her standing in the polls.

So, they next roll out some bizarre thing about how she’s buddy-buddy with the bankers. Yeah. That will work well – in this age of new media, social networks and a nascent political uprising of progressives united with a pissed off middle and working class, attacking Warren and then being identified with Rove is not terribly helpful. Saying things that are factually absurd is even more damaging. I suspect next, to Dr. Warren’s and her husband’s surpise, Rove will accuse her of either being gay or being anti-gay. We can only hope…

Karl, if you’re listening, Jon Stewart cocking an eyebrow and calling this bullshit will hurt Brown more than this ad could ever help.

Then there was the shock about Albert Pujols not signing with the Cardinals or the Nationals or the Marlins but with the Angels. How could he do that? Fairly simple – he’s an excellent defensive first baseman but I watched the play where he broke his forearm this summer. He’s not stupid, the Angels are in the American League, and they have the designated hitter as an option. They also are in a huge media market and have the money, a quality manager who has National League roots and pretty decent team in a fairly weak division. He could have signed with the Cardinals at any time, but they either didn’t pursue him or they didn’t realize that the guy had alternatives. I’m wondering where Prince Fielder goes, but batting him fourth with Ichiro and Dustin Ackley in front of him would probably give the Mariners another ten or so wins with no other improvements.

Finally, I must say I’m really tired of these “Gambling in Casablanca? I’m shocked, shocked. Arrest the usual suspects…”We’re sending drones over Iran and this is a surprise? To whom? Rick Perry? Michelle Bachmann? John Boenher? Katarina van der Heuvel? A drone malfunctions and the Iranians recover it and try to make it a big deal.

Hell, this is where our media’s occasional lack of historical context and limited attention span come into question. Of course, it was over 60 years ago, but the USSR were able to shoot down a U2 and capture the pilot. Eisenhower caught hell from the nonaligned nations and the world’s press, and the poor CIA contractor-pilot, Francis Gary Powers was vilified for not following the Geneva convention and breaking under interrogation.  But seriously, the shock was that the Soviets had the capability to engage high altitude air craft. If we had the capability to collect intelligence and didn’t then we’d have been wrong.

I’d rather they played this newest iteration of the great game with drones and technology than with human beings. Got enough problems on that front already.

I used to read the Times of London primarily for the book reviews and Jeremy Clarkson’s columns until Murdoch decided to overcharge for the privilege. I do still pull up The Guardian for a variety of reasons. One is that Ana Marie Cox, the equally lovely, younger,equally red-haired version of Dulcinea Dowd who would have been a lot of fun listening to chat with Molly Ivins about Michelle Bachman, has returned to professional blogging and is now doing it for The Guardian. Very cool. The other is that they frequently have columns like this one — the author’s defense of his belief, nay conviction, that the Prime Minister of Great Britian is a slithering reptile.

I do not know why we can’t routinely get it this right… Here are some of the great lines from the piece that should be printed out and posted on every thinking person’s desk when looking for inspiration on how to effectively eviscerate the trolls toiling the bells of American economic justice and freedom.

… writes vividly and from the heart and, if his byline photo is anything to go by, appears to be a perfectly reasonable man (specifically, Ross Kemp). He deserves the benefit of the doubt. But I fear in his rush to reprimand the “Modern Left”, he has overlooked one key fact: David Cameron is a lizard. Yes, David Cameron is a lizard. A lizard that devours live foals in its lair. And as far as Archer is concerned, it’s perfectly fine for this limbless, non-human, Cameron-reptile-beast-thing to squirm across the stone floor of its den merrily excreting the bones of its victims, yet I’m “depraved” simply for writing about it. This is the tragedy of the Modern Right. They’re idiots. Well, let me spell it out: You cannot dehumanise a lizard. Not without humanising it first, by giving it a little top hat, say, or a monocle. Maybe put some lipstick on it. And a wig. Teach it to walk sexy. That’s the way. (Mike’s comment — Like a pitbull, or a momma Grizzly!)

Seriously, we need to spend time practicing to be this good. There is an art, a craft, a honed skill to political commentary and invective, and these awful people deserve the best of that art.

I’m not sure that any of them are left except in the careerist types who went to work for Republican causes like some folks went to work for General Motors, but the rational Republican who rode the Tea Party/Bush/Cheney clown car as a career choice has got to be having second thoughts.

Gone, Gone, Gone[youtube _JCcP-eeC6I nolink]

The news that the only rational person in the Republican field — Jon Huntsman — polled a 0% in the Value Voters thing was kind of amazing.Of course, he’s a Mormon, spells his name wrong if you check the Bible, and actually understands things like, oh, China, trade, economics, oil and has a serious character flaw on top of that. Jon Huntsman has refused to pander to the nutcases and nimrods. I find that admirable…why is this man still a Republican? Ron Paul and the Herminator were the big winners, with Paul winning in a Landslide while Cain came in second by 14 points. Between the two of them, they actually had a majority, 51%. Now, they’re both crazier than Daffy Duck on acid, but hell, at the moment they’re the leaders of this pack of bubble heads. Personally, I think the R’s  need to draft Nikki Haley and either of the pinheads from Oklahoma, but a Paul-Cain ticket would bring clarity.

I was noticing that the junior Senator from Massachusetts was babbling about Elizabeth Warren questioning his appearing in Playgirl while he attended the school of hard knocks. Scott Warren went to Tufts, which is a small, private, elitest school in Boston. He then went to Boston College Law School, which is a an excellent litagator’s school and is private. Very expensive — both of them. Elizabeth Warren went to the University of Houston, which is a working person’s school with very low tuition at the time. She then went to Rutgers Law, a public university. On a scholarship. We need to take a deep breath and laugh loudly at Brown’s claim to be from the school of hard knocks. Remember, he drives a truck to haul his daughter’s horses around. He is a twit, a tool and a weasel. He fits in well in the rear seat of the clown car.

So, once again, I need to leave the last word to Monty…Our surrogate Everyman.

A few months back I read about a truly mind-blowing scandal involving the Bureau of Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco. Apparently the organization had been supplying guns to Mexican drug cartels which – unsurprisingly- had since been used to kill people.

Now in many parts of the world you would assume that corrupt members of the ATF were boosting their income by moonlighting as arms dealers. In Mexico the police, government and gangs are closely interlinked, and nobody is shocked.  In the 1990s some Russian soldiers sold weapons to the Chechen militants they were fighting. Why? Everybody knew: to supplement their miserable earnings.

But America is more complex than that. Apparently the ATF was “walking” the weapons to Mexico to… well, I’m not sure what exactly. I think they were trying to see if American guns were reaching the murderous barbarians who run the cartels. Well obviously they were, because the ATF itself was sending the drug lords THOUSANDS OF GUNS.

But not for cash, no… they wanted to prove a point…. Maybe the ATF was trying to trace the routes by which these weapons made it into Mexico. I’m not sure, the whole story makes so little sense. Tell you what, I’ll Google it. Back in a jiffy…

… alright, I just checked, and it still doesn’t make any sense. According to CNN:

“…the ATF allowed people suspected of being straw-purchasers of weapons to sell their weapons, hoping to build bigger cases against Mexican criminal organizations.”

You got that? They were going after the big fish in another country by selling them lots of lethal weapons. Nah, it still doesn’t make any sense, especially as the US government had neglected to inform the Mexican authorities, and has no jurisdiction over crimes carried out in Mexican territory anyway.

I also take it as a very bad sign that the ATF called this gory farce Operation Fast and Furious, after a very poor Vin Diesel film about cars. I mean, Vin Diesel? At least choose a film from the oeuvre of a major action star such as Schwarzenegger, or Bruce Willis, or Stallone. You know, like Operation Predator or Operation Die Hard or Operation Cop Land.

Expanding upon the Stallone theme perhaps Operation The Expendables might have been a better choice as the ATF inadvertently caused the death of a Border Patrol Agent named Brian Terry. He was gunned down in Arizona in 2010 by a gangster using one of the guns his ATF colleagues had kindly sent across the Rio Grande, one of an estimated 1,400 (out of 2,000) that remain in circulation. The weapons trafficked by the US government south have been linked to 179 crime scenes in Mexico. One of them was even used to shoot at a Mexican military helicopter. Great work guys!

As I said, I first heard about this in June when a Congressman named Darrel Issa chaired hearings into the debacle. Apparently ATF agents had been intercepting the weapons on the way south, only to be told by their superiors to let them through. The thing is, nobody seemed to know who was ultimately responsible. When questioned by the Issa panel, Obama’s hapless Attorney General, Eric Holder, denied all knowledge of his subordinates’ scheme.

At this point I expected the story to explode, since clearly somebody very high up was lying. But as usual I underestimated the servile nature of the press, at least when a Democratic administration is in office. Instead the story went down the memory hole. How is that possible, you ask? I’m not sure myself. It just disappeared.

Conservative bloggers attempted to fan the flames of the scandal, but the White House ignored their criticisms as politically motivated. The Right’s paranoid theorizing that the Fed’s plan was to permit Mexican gangsters to buy guns as an excuse to clamp down on the E-Z access to guns US citizens so enjoy was a little too tinfoil hat for people who do not share their assumptions and values.

And thus you see the perfect alchemical marriage of a cosmically incompetent Federal bureau and a criminally complacent media class acting to shield one of Obama’s key lieutenants from a potentially career destroying scandal.

Recently however a reporter at CBS realized that a Federal Agency supplying Mexican gangsters with thousands of guns is actually a major news story and uncovered documents revealing that the Attorney General had been briefed on the operation in May 2010- which directly contradicted his claim (made under oath) that he had only heard about it a few weeks before Issa’s hearings began.

Isn’t that called perjury? According to CBS news, Holder’s office says no:

“Holder misunderstood that question from the committee – he did know about Fast and Furious – just not the details.”

…this in spite of the fact that he received weekly briefings on the subject starting in July 2010. Guess he was too busy playing The Great Gatsby for Nintendo online. It’s so implausible even ‘serious’ journalists are starting to take notice. We may get to the bottom of this baffling scandal yet.

Originally published at RIA Novosti, the home of awesomeness