Hummingbird Nest Documentary - High Quality

Nervouse Wingnuts Postpone Holder Vote

It seems like Senator John Cornyn is on a one man mission to concern troll or make it safe for George Bush and Cheney to retire in this country. Earlier, on the Senate floor Cornyn held up Hillary Clinton's nomination because he was afraid that "future" conflicts of interest could arise between Bill's Global Initiative fundraising and Hillary's duties as Secretary of State, and particulaly with the Middle East. At one point Cornyn went full on Concern Troll, saying he told Hillary, he was blocking things for her own good. LOL.

It struck me as odd for a couple of reasons, first that we heard no such concerns from the GOP about George W. Bush's and his papa George SR. about their deep and intricate financial and personal ties to the Saudi's and others in the region. The infamous and largely secret workings of the Carlyle Group come to mind. And secondly, funny that wingnuts are concerned with problems down the road, when we consider Iraq and other Bush adventures such as the neglect of involvement with the Israel/Palestinian troubles that have led to what we have recently seen.

But the most obvious nervous concern is over the Holder nomination, and Cornyn's and others holding up the vote for a week to get assurances that republicans won't be prosecuted for their crimes during the Bush Administration. All the hand wringing over the Marc Rich pardon and other trivial actions that Holder took that wingers don't approve of, are just a smokescreen for what they really want. A "Get out of Jail Free Card " for republican actions the past 8 years. Especially since Holder has stated flatly that waterboarding is, in fact, torture. By committee rules they can delay it for up to a week, but no longer. I seriously doubt the new Attorney General is going to grant a pardon he's not authorized to grant, before he even gets confirmed. This little Kabbooki dance will be repeated many times the next four years as wingnut convulse themselves into the powerless widjets the American voter has mandated.

The Loyal Opposition, NOT

If this is any indication of the tone of the coming GOP "loyal opposition", I wonder what the unloyal kind might sound like.

Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, promised in a new a YouTube message to be Obama's "worst nightmare" and said it would be the party’s mission for the next four years to "expose" the Democrats for what they "want to do to this country."

And this is before Obama has been sworn in as President. Welcome to the land of wingnut civility Obama. It will only get worse as Dawson explains;

"Whether you're the chairman of the state party or the national committee, your job is to hold Democrats accountable in every way," he told CNN. "That doesn't mean you have to do it in a mean tone of voice or in a way that doesn't offer solutions."

Mean is relative, I suppose.

Sarah Palin Queen Wingnut

Our right wing adversaries have been working hard to resurrect the Republican brand and have anointed a new "Conservative of the Year.
And who better to bestow such a dubious honor than Ann "kill them all" Coulter, who has a few words to say toward bucking up the troops for the big comeback.

The entire presidential election year was kind of a downer for conservatives. Once the “maverick” John McCain won the nomination, the rest of the year was like watching a slow motion car crash. Except at least a slow-motion car crash is occasionally entertaining. So it was going to be a long yea

If Sarah Palin was the highlight of the this years Presidential election, then democrats can breath a sigh of relief that the GOP will remain a minority for some time to come.

Greed, What Is It Good For?

Yes, I have flippantly used the word greed to describe what the basic problem is, even though it doesn’t accurately describe my thoughts on the matter. It’s a single word and connotates a negative, but I also don’t think greed is bad in the context of what business entities should be about.

My own reflections on the current state of affairs has more to do with a kind intellectual and moral laziness brought about by prolonged periods of prosperity, such as we’ve seen since WW2. It was the trauma of the Great Depression that brought about the reforms of how free enterprise should be carried out and is what brought about a large and productive middle class, pretty much unfettered since. It is the illusion that total freedom is the way to go in economic matters and has been championed by the so called Free Trader mentality mostly of Republican Conservative ideology. But I think it was Nietzsche who said something like Total Freedom is the Ultimate Prison. We are learning today of that truth. Nothing like the prospect of an empty pot to focus the mind, and many more people in American are truly afraid their pot may go empty. This is a good thing, as any country, even one as successful as ours, is put in jeopardy when it’s citizens are complacent and take success for granted as permanent.

It is the people who vote for their leaders, who watch the Chicken Coop to keep away the wolves who are most responsible for our current plight, IMHO. And the old maxim of No Pain No Gain will once again prove to be ,hopefully, our friend in the end.

The Auto Maker Mess

I believe we have a chance right now, if it’s not too late, for providing Ford and Chrysler a bridge loan, with a reform structure where they can save themselves. Just throwing TARP money at them, might get the job done, until they can reform themselves, but that is questionable. As for GM, there are signs that they are far more in dire straits from the amount of money they have requested, at least 15 billion I think at one point, and their draconian plan to stop most production for a period of time. And I agree that they cannot be allowed to just fold up and disappear. The small bridge loan to tide them over seems to me not nearly enough to see them through this, even for a short period of time. They are so large and their tentacles reach so far into about every nook and corner of our economy, to let them go under is not an option, imo.

My prediction is at some point the federal gov is going to have to nationalize at least GM for some period of time to prevent them from vanishing. And Cole is right, you can’t screw the retirees out of pensions without it being a national crime. I know the taxpayers made no promises, like it has with the military thru our elected reps to fulfill the constitutional duty of raising and supporting armies, but putting old folks in the poor house is not an option, unless we truly want to return to the 1890’s. Though wingnuts would be tickled pink with that prospect.

We are currently going thru the motions of reviving a dying lifestyle of unlimited prosperity, until we realize that for national survival, we are going to have to make changes at least temporarily to a large degree in the socialist model. Unfettered capitalism is best imo, but without the unfettered part that has brought us to this point. Maybe we will get back to the rational version at some point, but not for some time.

Ennio Morricone - In Concerto - Ripley's Game