On Turning Sixty

Yes I can't believe it. Now they are announcing that the very first baby boomers will be turning 65 on January first. This is kind of funny because they have been talking about the whole topic of baby boomers being retired since the Democratic convention of 1996 nearly fifteen years ago. It's all a conspiracy to make us think we're older than we really. We are now in the fourth year of this Bush - Obama recession. Still looking for that recovery. Even in the area of finance and the stock market the Dow Jones Industrials is only back to 11,500 or so, when the high is at 14,000. It can be argued that untill we exceed our old highs we are still in a recession. Now they are talking about the ninety-niners as far as unemployment insurance is concerned. These are people for whom their unemployment has run out. Recent action by congress did nothing to help these people. There are all these varying regulations of state and rules as to just how much these people are helped out by the federal government. Unemployment is at 9.8% and nobody expects that rate to drop, but as I have hinted before the reported rate might actually climb, as those who have given up work reenter the labor market. Happy hunting.

The Senate fillibuster continues to be the fixture in politics. Nicole Sandler says that the fillibuster was used more in the year 2009 than in the whole 1950's and the 1960's combined. Johnson only had a bit problem with the filibuster once. It is noted that the Constitution only spells out five occasions where a two-thirds vote is required. One is to amend the constitution. Another is to impeach a President or Chief Justice. Another is to expel a member. While another is to ratify a treaty with a foreign country. Some on the radio have suggested we make reforms in how the filibuster is used. Two factors that come most immediately to mind is that we should actually make these senators talking and debating whatever bill they are opposing while the American public shouts "The whole world is watching". And secondly they should have an attendance quarem they can not fall below, or else the filibuster immediately ends. You see although legeslation was passed this year, it was weakened from what it should be. A lot of good bills were passed in the house but never even made it to the floor of the Senate for debate. And of the bills that were passed, sure we had financial reform, but not the needed breaking up of the Big Banks. We had unemployment but no help for the ninety-niners. We have a form of a health bill but no public option or single payer. We have a tax giveaway to the rich rather than fiscally sound tax reform. This is the congress we have to live with. And on January 5th of nest year we have two years of gridlock to look forward to, barring any "executive orders", which worry me because you don't know what they might do, with no referendum vote.

I am turning sixty. Just to mention it, this is the first photograph I have used in a blog that was taken with my new camera. Note the detail. I think of that Star Trek episode where that guy Dianna Troy's mother was dating was due to report to the disintigration chamber after being wined and dined for his achievements first. I guess I have about two days left. In the Chinese callendar it is the sixty year grand cycle of the year of the Metal Tiger. Venus as you know traces out a pentagram in the heavens. And if you were to do a Chinese pentagram and label it properly you would have to shuffle the five elements of metal, water, wood, fire, and earth- - -because if you traced the line the pentagram made it would skip over every other element. Of course I talked to my Mom today and she asked what I was going to do on Newyears Eve, which is also my birthday. I just wish they had the New York ball dropping live, that's all I cam say. We go to bed with the chickens around here and more often than not get up with the milkman. Of course for a lot of us they give us sleepy time medication in the evening. I might even sleep through the fireworks and honking of horns. I've done that before while living here. One friend has chronic pain problems and I heard him say something about marijuana the other day so I asked about it in more specificity. He says he could marijuana for $25.00 dollars a joint. I asked how the market could support such a price and he just said, "People pay it". I saw my psychiatrist today and he refused to cut my main anti psychotic medication, Resperidol. I said "I think I'd be a more incisive thinker without it". He said "This drug should be helping you". He asked how I was doing and I said "Just fine" and for him that proved it. The drug is working. It's like the saber tooth tiger charm. And someone says "But there are no saber tooth tigers around here" and the first guy says, "You see, it's working". Lord spare us from circular reasoning.

Then we have Kayla dropping the Bomb on Days of our Lives at the end of today's episode. NBC had already announced that the secret of "Parker's" paternity would become public soon, and at a church service of his baptism. Kayla's mother Caroline went to the church to pray and Kayla followed her, as if the Lord needed reminding what to tell her. And a door opened and all these people were staring at Kayla as she said "Daniel is not the father of Parker". Oopse! So now the lives of two married couples plus one engaged couple, not to mention the infant son, will be ruined all because Kayla couldn't control her impulse tword honesty.

The Coming Tidal Wave of Economic Disaster

I have slowed down in my blogging because this is the year end. And since it is the end of the old and the beginning of the new we need to look forward to the potential new tidal wave of woes facing us the next two years. We know that President Obama might to slip in a lot of “executive orders” bypassing congress. Some of them we liberals may like. Others, if they restrict our potential for domestic energy output, I might not be so happy about. We know various republicans have put out “executive orders” giving the president new emergency powers in the time of a “crisis”. We could see marshal law a lot sooner than we think. The President has the power. We are pretty much a slave to what our overlords decree concerning food regulation or security to banning individual rights many thought were untouchable. We don’t know how far this “politically correct” speech” thing may go. Is, for instance the use of such words as Nigger, or Faggot, or Queer or Dyke- - going to be made a felony? But there is a more immediate problem that was brought to my attention recently and this has to do with the soundness of the US Dollar. Maybe it just went in one ear and out the other but you know that almost all international trade is conducted in US dollars, even oil. What this means is that a nation like Germany, if they want to import a lot of goods, has to keep the value of their currency high so that they don’t pay more for imported goods and lower the standard of living of the German people. But the US gets a free ride. It doesn’t matter how much our currency is devalued because the dollar is thee standard of exchange. So this is why we run these astronomical trade deficits year after year and never have to pay the piper. In any Adam Smith based economy the US would simply cut the value of the US dollar or other nations would cut it for us. Nixon back in 1971 when gold was selling for a meager $43.00 should have cut the value of the US dollar to match this new gold price so that thirty-five old dollars bought you forty-three new, revalued dollars, that were worth less. With these new dollars we could export more but import less and this would restore our trade balance to it’s proper equilibrium. But that didn’t happen. Now all these nations are holding US dollars and there are roomers of a revolt and nations refusing to accept the dollar as legal trade tender. England has already tried a lot of economic experimentation, with mainly disasterous results. They used to talk about the pound sterling as the International Standard. But that was before World War II, which should make Nazi lovers like Pat Buchannon happy. Many suspect that the nation now will resort to Nixonian economic funny business, and plans may already be in the works to freeze wages and prices, even before the inflation tidal wave hits. If the dollar is no longer accepted as legal international tender, inflation will surely happen because if we had to pay out in dollars what our dollar was really worth, imports, which we live on almost entirely now, would skyrocket and inflation would be here, and suddenly. We aren’t even talking about the US being the world’s leading debtor nation. So far China is happy bankrolling our foolishness. But there is no way of saying how long this will continue. When John Kennedy died in 1963, who would have guessed that the 1964 half dollar would be the only half dollar that was all silver? I said back in the summer of 2007 that “these are the good old days”, with a picture of a house. Well, these may be the “good old days” of carefree international trade. How soon before we pay the piper?

The worst disaster of the year 2010 was the Obama Health Care monstrocity I just wanted to comment on the Death Pannel thing. Apparently there is some fresh memo saying Obama still wants death pannels. I agree if there is any chance at all of "Death Panels" we need to repeal Obama's health care plan. We need to repeal it for financial reasons - we can't afford it, and also it's a giveaway to insurance companies. I never liked that aspect. I also don't like the part about unfunded mandates and regulations everybody has to buy health insurance. That makes a criminal out of healthy people who don't care to buy insurance. As you know last March on that sayings page I said "Half a loaf is not better than no loaf at all, if you're selling shit". I had in mind specifically the Health Care bill when I wrote this. Any positive potential for this bill was long since legislated out of existance. There is no attempt to "bend the cost curve" that everyone talks about. Again, this congress needs to watch Obama's "executive orders" where he could ban domestic energy sources or whatever. Also cap and trade may be dead but we need to make sure of it. We can't afford any carbon tax or energy tax no matter how it's sugar coated under the guise of free trade, which almost makes it seem like something conservatives would welcome. Well I don't. This whole idea of the economic "selling of indulgences" is really a concept Rod Serling would have come up with. The economy can't take this "chemotherapy" because it's just too unhealthy to begin with. (Selah)

START Treaty Achieves Lift-off

. . . and now my personal tweet to Rush Limbaugh

"Nyah - - Nya Nya Nyah - - Nyah"

Samantha: Dr. Did my son make it through the surgery OK? Surely he is all right.

Dr. Kim: Mrs. Hernandez, your son is far from all right. And don't call me Shirley.

President Obama was trying to convince the people he was one hundred percent American and not cow-towing to immigrents, however he did have a minor verbal lapse as follows, "Solomente quierro decir esto. Se recibe las cartes por los ninos toto el tiempo. Se me hace mucho gusto"

I need to consult with the comic book guy on the Simpson's. Maybe he knows a foreign language beside Korean. I at this time want to lay to rest these roomers that disenfranchized tea party members haven't raided Homer Simpson's garage and took a spray can of paint the guy gave him to touch up his car when he gets his little dingers. And they didn't storm the grounds and write "faggot" all over the front of the White House.

Well, President Obama was strutting around and crowing like a rooster on a fence post during his news conference this afternoon. I didn't even know the START treaty had passed the implacable US Senate and was on the way to official ratification. Actually the Republicans got an amendment to allow for "mousefication" only, for a limited eighteen month period. OK I just made that up. This treaty has been a strong bi-partisan Go by people in the pentagon and ex cabinet members from both parties. It will cut our weapons but it will cut theirs, too. People were worried that perhaps it would interfer with new weapons technology development.

A couple evenings ago Al Franken gave a 25 minute speech talking about the perils of Comcast buying out NBC and how it would adversely affect their many customers. Franken pointed out that You Tube may not have secceeded or Facebook either, had there not been NET neutrality at the time. Franken didn't sound optimistic about the FCC making the right decision on NET neutrality because of some compromize that was roomered to be coming down. Indeed it seems the FCC by a three to two vote, strictly along party lines, did opt for this compromize NET neutrality ruling that Al Franken thought would undermine NET neutrality and fair access to all.

The 9 - 11 bill finally got passed. This is the bill that the President even a few days ago would not intervene on behalf of. This bill gives needed aid to health and emergency workers who inhaled toxins and suffered from a multitude of ailments. Apparently the republicans didn't like the idea that this bill would be paid for by taxing foreign corporations. That's a real sacred cow for these tea party people, which is a real irony in itself. We wish these workers well as we extend our continuing gratitude to them.

John Mc Sane continues to oppose "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" and apparently is working for ways to overturn the bill or keep it from taking effect. John Mc Cain was even opposing some suicide prevention program for servicemen. Mc Cain really is turning into a bitter old man. They say even a marine will obey a regulation if instructed that he has to. And that includes injunctions against making racial slurs, or opposing this faggot loving - - light in the loafers bill. "Gee, can't a guy say anything now?"

There have been storms all over the country and all over the world. Europe is experiancing record cold and snow. This seems to be a trend with European winters lately. Around here a strange object appeared in a skies for a minute or two while I was standing outside the Quickymart waiting for Terry to pick me up and take me to the bank so I can deposit ninety dollars. The sun hadn't shown in nearly five days. Once at the bank I had PIN numbers narrowed down to two posible combinations and tried both of them and she said "NO'. As it turns out I went and checked and one of the combinations I HAD tried WAS the right one. But my California ID has been expired for three years. Not that I've driven that much lately. But then I found an old crumpled blank check in my pocket that had been there for a long time, and the account number was on that. Terry suggests using geometric patterns to remember your PIN numbers. I have an old favorite I'd like to go back to, if they let me.

Something For Democrats to Smile About

"Flash: City hall workers are on furlough today"

(Tomorrow they go back to Prison)

Well now you don't have to worry about kissing and telling. "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" is soon to be a thing of the past as the Senate passed this repeal bill last Saturday with votes to spare, as several republicans including Scott Brown, joined the democrats in passing this landmark bill. Still gay advisors are telling their people not to come out of the closet just yet because everything has yet to be nailed down officially. My position on "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" has always been "Whatever the military is comfortable with is fine with me". It's just that if you're counting promises kept, this is a big win for President Obama. In fact the Democrats are on a roll. They are hot and heavy into debating this new START treaty with John Kerry making long-winded detailed speeches. I think the Republicans are finding out what things democrats will do with their backs to the wall. Also passed is some long awaited "aid to Black farmers" bill and also a food safety bill of some kind. But the DREAM act is pretty much history. Some people were saying that Harry Reid could keep the senate in session right up to January 4th because the new Congress will be seated on the fifth. Of course this tax bill is all candy and no spinach, and so you better hope and pray that it works as advertized to stimulate this economy or we're all sunk.

On the winter solistice will be the total eclipse of the moon. It seems with every lunar eclipse lately they say how rare it is. Either it's the first full moon on Christmas in thirty years, or else it's the last eclipse we'll see till 2040 or some such thing. Now they are saying this lunar event will facilitate the finding of life on the surface of the moon, "because this is the identical condition by which we see planets on distant stars". I don't really track with that answer, but if they say so. Maybe again they should tell us just how much water they expect is on the moon.

This is a really bad day in the lives of two soap opera characters, Johnny and Hope. Johnny is about to learn that he has to have his left eye surgically removed. I don't know about you but if I were that little kid I'd look for my next chance, while not sedated, to head for the exit doors. My philosophy in removing body parts goes thussly. I weigh a doubt against a certainty. I know I'm going to lose a leg or a breast or a hand, or in this case an eye- - if I go through with the surgery. And the doctors don't sound real optimistic about this being the end of it. They act as though every hour increases the chance of metastisis and won't be sure they got all the cancer for weeks afterwards. I might just be getting tired of "Playing Pirate" by then. On the other hand if my kid is showing absolutely no sumptums and feels fine I just might say screw the whole thing and forget I heard it. If I'm still alive five years from now the doctors won't care anyway, one way or the other. We turn to Hope in prison. I don't envy the position she's in. The whole cell block hates her and worst of all that includes the warden. They've pretty much put her on notice that her days above the sod may be short. Having a husband and loved ones seems to be of no avail in this series. Having the mayor as a friend of the family doesn't even count. In soap operas the good guys are impotent against the bad guys- and that's just the way it is.

Since this is a short blog and I'm short on material let me carry on with a topic that I bored my brother with earlier today. I know what the Wickepedia definition of "Monism" is. They just claim that everything is a manifestation of the one, singular reality. My definition is somewhat different. The "Marcus" definition, and why Christianity is dangerous if it adopts it is, I view monism as the belief that there is "God" and "everything else" and by the way "Everything Else" is Evil. This is so extreme that the act of creation by God himself is seen as an act from which only Evil can come. It's as though there is a limited good and so creation OF anything must be evil. The Devolutional doctrine goes that God created the lesser gods, who created angels, who begat mankind, who was at the bottom of the moral ladder. But somehow under Gnosticism, one comes to the "Knowledge" of "The One". This philosophy is a little Aristotelian in that it sees "God" as the First Mover, the unmovable Rock. Of course this is refuted by Newtonian physics. I think this is why fundamentalists are so anti Science.

President Obama Signs Tax Cut Bill Into Law

Today President Obama signed that all sugar and no spinach tax cut bill. If you want to make lemonade out of lemons, my advice is that you stock up on both common securities and also gold coins and bullion, or futures, if you prefer. Everything is going to go up, and I’d add energy and energy stocks to the list. Right now I’d take the stocks over the commodity, which is subject to the erratic whims of speculators. The President seems to have signed the bill at one o clock our time according to C-Span. C-Span has been revamped, you know. Better picture quality but harder to find what you want. In terms of the dire predictions of the far left and far right alike, they are probably accurate. However when Rush Limbaugh talks about voting this bill down and “bringing in the cavalry next month- - this makes me ALMOST inclined to vote for the bill just to spite him. But were I your congressman I would have voted against this bill. I think you already know all of my objections to it. Apparently they tried to slip in an estate tax modification amendment in the House but it was voted down. Now they can turn their focus on “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell”. The house has already passed this and from what I hear the senate is even likely to pass this bill because they know it’s advent is pretty much inevitable for the military. I am against the Dream act. I an not so “off the plantation” that I don’t occasionally listen to Judy on some issues. As you know my philosophy of life is that kids need to learn sooner or later the reality of life their parents live in, so this is just another object lessen for them. They need to know that all their parents may not be married and they might even be dating a member of the opposite sex, who is not their mother or their father. The world does not revolve around children. Children are finding out things like recessions. And now they will learn if they aren’t born in this country they are not US citizens. Children need to learn even when their mother or father may have committed an illegal act and are in trouble with the law. In terms of cap and trade it seems the Governor wants to forge ahead with it. I voted NO on proposition 23 out here and now I’m having second thoughts. Because I don’t believe it’s a good idea to tax carbon usage, even as a traded commodity, as they propose. It kind of smacks of the selling of indulgences in the Middle Ages. Companies that have “been good” may even want to sell credits to their bretheren who haven’t been so accommodating to the environment. All of this sounds novel and interesting but in the end it all amounts to an energy tax we can’t afford. And dare I say it? It will drive businesses out of the State and we don’t need that. I think congress next year should set about to revoke the mandentory insurance provisions of the Obama Health Care act because one judge has already ruled this provision as unconstitutional, and others are sure to follow. I don’t like being labeled a criminal for staying healthy and choosing not to buy medical insurance at this time. It’s gone up 138% in the past ten years. Profits have risen over four hundred percent in seven years (?) from 2000 to 2007. We can’t have this. This health bill does nothing but aid and abet these Health Care organizations. In terms of the START treaty, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. Let they put if off is they must. The world won’t come to an end in the next few weeks. But I still think that the Republicans are being major assholes over this issue.

Christmas Comes Early

Well according to Thom Hartman, our President has finally gotten good at "messaging". The people in the Mc Laughlin group give this tax bill a probability of about a nine of passing, and I'd say the odds now approach metaphysical certitude. I mean, if Pat Buchannon is for the bill, what else needs to be said? The President was able to bump Bernie Sanders off the front page with his nine hour filibuster on Friday when the President like ex president Clinton be "president for a half hour" when he took over the interview position on Friday answering questions for reporters with the white house logo behind him. President Clinton said "If growth was five percent and unemployment were at five & a half percent, we could afford to have a Mexican stand-off in congress". Clinton further said that were the economy in this bad of shape when he was President, he never would have gone for a tax raise, which by the way he got. He said "back in 1994 the interest rates were higher and I found it necessary to reduce the debt which was mounting, as my most important goal". Of course after he passed his tax hike bill, the economy took off. On Sunday Mayer Bloomberg said he would not run for President under any circumstances, to challenge this President. And he went on to say that this tax compromise is a good deal. OK, the president finally has the concept of "messaging" down, even if it's for the wrong thing. President Obama will be the hero for getting a bill passed that everyone can agree with.

However we need to look at the down side. This bill kind of reminds me of the story of the little girl who played on the jungle jim in a dress and someone said to her, "You can't do that; someone might see your underwear". And the little girl responded "Oh that isn't a problem, because I'm not wearing any". Just one week ago with all that talk about the deficit comission, people were all uptight about the deficet being allowed to rise and how the Republicans protested that if you have a spending bill you're going to have to pay for it. Well not only did Obama give the republicans their 140 billion sloppy kiss- - of granting the rich people their tax cut, but those on the left brag that most of the 900 billion deficit is not this tax cut but is other things. This is a 900 billion dollar deficet bill that almost overnight doubles the 1.4 or whatever deficet we now have. It not only contains every Christmas tree goody but also cuts at the heart of social security with that two percent FICA payroll cut there. This cut was a republican idea, and it's goal is to hasten the day when social security will be insolvent and we'll have to make it volentary or something. The only area where I would take issue with Bernie Sanders is on the idea that the estate tax should be 55% like it was under Clinton. This seems a little conthiscatory to me and bites into a man's substance. But for all his compromise, Obama still didn't get either the START treaty, or an end to "Don't ask; don't tell". This congress has managed to squander a month and a half since the election and they only have another week or so to get everything done and frankly, I don't think they're going to make it. This bill will stimulate the economy and that's what the President and the Republicans are both counting on. So the whole idea was to get Berock elected again, and Katie bar the door after that! Because we are going to have another economic bubble that is going to burst, just like Thom Hartman talks about all the time. And whoever is President in 2013 will have an even bigger mess on his hands because even then no Republican will want to raise any taxes.

In the news they inform us that US trade exports are up. I'm glad. There has been a major winter storm in the midwest making its way east, which covers an impressive land mass area. Snow in Miniapolis collapsed the metrodome roof, and we all have seen the snow cascading through. They will be playing that game in Detroit. In other news you had that "show boat" that ran aground on an island on a lake near Branson because the wind blew the ship off course. They say the ship was undamaged. The photos for the royal couple have been released, one formal and one casual of William and Kate. You had the emotionally wrought Boner on Sixty Minutes. So he cries at the drop of a hat? Does that disqualify a person to be third in line for president? Elizabeth Edwards had her funeral a couple of days ago. Everyone who knew her said what a dynamic, warm, compassionate woman she was.

On the personal front Christmas came early last weekend for me. We had a really warm Indian summer day yesterday for a Sunday that approached perfection, with another one scheduled just like it for today. Sunday was 82 in Los Angeles with higher temperatures at selected locations in the Basin. We here at Shady Rest Institute had our Christmas party on Friday night. The roast beef was overdone as usual. We had the usual instant mashed potatoes and a mish mash of canned peas, ect for vegetables. The two slices of pumpkin pie were the only good part of this meal. But I received a gift of a Chargers football jersey of number 21, Tomlinson, that is way too big for me. Also my brother bought raffle tickets. Give and it will be given unto you. He got some bath oils and bubble bath for his wife, and in a later raffle prize, I gave him the big glass serving tray shaped like a leaf. I had staked out some nice seats but we "had to move to the back of the bus" in the farthest back corner because those seats had been reserved. I had trouble seeing the video because the lights in our part of the room wern't dimmed and there were dangeling Christmas lights and a post in the way, and the screen was too far away for my bad vision. On Saturday night Dr. Levy had his dinner, and I finally got to meet his wife. The meal was much better. We had lazagna and ham, and some kind of exotic fish, and pizza, with three kinds of desert, pumpkin pie, apple pie, which was outstanding, and strawberry cheese cake. Next week I am expecting to receiving a better digital camera from my family when we gather this coming Saturday. It will be an early Christmas.

President Obama Makes the Deal

Harry leaked it, ‘bout a secret

Rendezvous, Rendezvous

He says he found a hooker

She was a real looker

He found her on his tom-tom

And then put on a condom

He’s had it since last Christmas

He put it on his isthmus

You can, too

You can, too

Harry’s jock strap, Harry’s jock strap

It’s brand new, it’s brand new

He really started itching

And then he started bitching

How about a new one

As long as it’s a blue one

He tried to make connections

Feelings of dejection

Run and hide, Run and hide

Harry’s jock strap, Harry’s jock strap

It’s teal blue, it’s teal blue

He went to see the doctor

His name is Mr. Proctor

Maybe an injection

It gave him an erection

How about some ointment

What a disappointment

Run and hide, Run and hide

as performed at the Coitus International Ball Room by Captain Piccard and his female consort, playing the piano.

No Man Is An Island!

(He's a peninsula)

-Jefferson Airplane

And now a few words from our sponsor

KLOS, 95.5 FM, Los Angeles

She told me not to mess around

But I don't let the deal go down

Well, President Obama really feels triumphant these days waving the agreement with the Republicans around, like Neville Chamberlin waving a peace treaty with the Reich in his hand in an attempt to placate the British people that he'd made a good deal with Hitler. I was a little sick when I first read the terms of the deal. Nobody objects when you're passing out free money but really! Has anybody pondered for a second what this tax deal will do to the federal deficet? Some people like Bill Press and Thom Hartman say Obama made a bad deal and he threw in the sponge before the battle was even engaged. It's just like this President when the other side is trying to obtain a fifteen percent discount in a purchase, Obama gives them twenty percent off right off the bat. This deal will stimulate the economy all right, but it will balloon the deficet like nobody's business and our grand children will grow to resent us as they suffer from our incurred foolishness. To get to the specifics, we all get a two percent cut in our FICA tax. It is undetermined whether our employers can also take a two percent cut. This will mess with the formula Ronald Reagan worked out with Tip Oneil nearly thirty years ago. It will hasten the day when social security is insolvent, which is just what the Republican's want. It will make it harder for this President to ever think about raising taxes again, what with this precedent. The marriage penalty will be waved for two years. You can still take deductions on student loans, and the estate tax will be cut to only 35% after five million instead of the scheduled 45% figure after just one million. So there is a little something for everybody. When you're passing out free money, who complains. This is Jude Waninsky gone nuts. Haven't you heard? Obama's a democrat. It's his turn to play the grinch who stole Christmas. People like Randy Rhodes are Hi-fiving each other. This is because some on the right like Rush Limbaugh and Jim DeMint are still against this agreement. I won't trust anybody who's named after a liquer. Well, nothing is set in concrete yet and people like Bernie Sanders are vowing to oppose it. Rush Limbaugh has been raving mad lately but then again he's always balmy, particularly when it comes to economics where he doesn't know a thing. He says unemployment payments will "insure that these people don't look for a job". Unemployment is for only one year but the tax cuts for the rich are for two years. Rush thinks that during the oil leak crisis the President should have not ordered the shut down of the most dangerous oil platforms. Rush was against TARP but also against the "Government Motors" hand-out. Still in listening to Obama's press conference he reminded me sadly of a whiny little kid who tries to make justifications for his actions when there is none and he knows it. And that line about "this is just like with health care". When he said this my mind flashed to Captain Queeg when he said "This reminds me of the great cheese caper of 1937. You know Captain Queeg, with the strawberries and that line about "I proved to them with geometric logic - that the key to the mess hall ice box really did exist". It does the President no good to remind us of his Previous shortcomings and failure to draw a line in the sand. Now he says "I would have drawn a line over unemployment". He says that now, now that the incident is behind him. He didn't get anything the republicans didn't want him to have.

The other big news of the day is this wikkileaks.com morrass. Allow me to flip flop once more on this issue. I've thought about it- - - a little more and decided what wikkileaks did was a bad thing. If diplomats have a job of gathering intelligence also, this is none of our business and they are entitled to their confidentiality. We may have compromised them. If we get indignent about Valerie whats-her-name being outed from the CIA, we should be consistent and get just as indigient over this. John Kerry kind of turned me around on this issue when he said this case was not at all like the Pentagon Papers case in 1071 which exposed lies and government wrong doing. This outing interferes with the ongoing process of government itself. And like I say, it may have put lives in danger. Of course the founder of wikkileaks.com is in Britain waiting for extradition to Sweden on sex charges. Also we hear that amazon.com may be pulling their server services. And now there is a talk of a doomsday release of any and all government documents wikkileaks has. And all we need to get it is know the 256 character password. Are you sure you made it long enough? Speaking of doomsday, why didn't the democrats use the nuclear option that had them so cowed when the Republicans threatened to use it five years ago? You know, a few well timed prosecutions would go a long way tword placating the left. And those other wikkileaks that talked about abuses in Iraq could be a good place to start. We aren't out of weapons. We just never use them. (Selah)

American People verses a Scrooge Congress

Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection

Send my credentials to the House of Detention

I’ve got some friends inside - - -

Jim Morrison

I made friends with a lot of people

In the Danger Zone

Alice Cooper

Stephanie Miller had a guest who talked about John Lennon as a friend of his and his tragic death thirty years ago this coming Wednesday. John Lennon liked New York because you could be both a celebrity and exist anonamusly in this city and free to walk about and visit all your favorite spots without the hullabaloo. He mentioned that John’s death leaves a hole that can’t be filled and in some ways, it doesn’t get better with time. There is always the supposition of what new brilliant songs John may have written. I’m a bit more of a fatalist than that figuring “Well, that’s the way God, for his own sick reasons decided to write the script”. Of course we know that Mark David Chapman was a man obsessed and who wasn’t going to give up and he would get Lennon later, if not sooner. He believed he WAS John Lennon. He believed the real John Lennon was an imposter and his last album sounded too much like “Wings”. My suggestion is to get a hearing aid. I just now mentioned to Joe that Dr. Levy really ought to start a course in introductory philosophy. Actually that was Joe’s idea and I sort of ran with the ball. I asked him if he didn’t ever enter his mind the question: “How come nothing about the supernatural or heaven has ever been scientifically demonstrated?” Of course I have referred to messages from the dead John Lennon. But none of the really pressing questions were addressed like “what was going through your mind that evening? What were you looking forward to? Are those hollow bodied bullets really painful?” We are told that John was alive but probably died in the ambulance. You wonder what goes through a man’s mind when he senses that the end is about to come.

Last night’s Simpson’s episode was about women obsessed with vengeance. Marge wanted her actor husband to be the lead role in Macbeth. First sideshow Mel gets whacked, and then Dr. Hibbart. But then his wife keeps nagging her hubby to bump off anyone that gets better press than he does in the reviews. It takes a certain kind of personality to kill with absolutely no remourse or fear and do it as methodically and non challently as someone taking out the trash. Samantha Brady, like Mark David Chapman heard the voices going “Do it, do it” and she fired, and then stood there for a moment staring at the body bleeding to death. Then she casually walks out of the house and drops off the gun in the river before going home to climb back in bed with her husband. On this show if you aren’t in favor of doing everything to cover up this murder, you’re one of the bad guys. And they say Vivian Alamaine is the one on the show with no morals!

Contraband cell phones are becoming a real problem in prison. Now even Charles Manson has a cell phone. Manson is 76 and texted people in other states. The authorities are understandably a little freaked. Man got an additional thirty days. (?)

You know, if I were of a certain mind set and I were the President of the United States the next republican who stood up and said “I declare a filibuster” and just walks out and leaves legislation stymied, I’d arrange to have him bumped off and make it look like an accident. And the next guy to filibuster I’d do the same thing to him. Pretty soon they’d get the general idea that some power somewhere doesn’t like what they’re doing.

Now we have the whole mess in Washington to address. Unfortunately we can’t remedy the problem by renting out a giant trash compacter. You have die hards saying that “You shouldn’t institute a change in gay status in the military during a time of war”, which begs the question, “When are we not at war??” And to those who say there are a significant minority of people who don’t feel comfortable with gay people. The rejoinder would be “Since when is ANY decision in the military based on democratic rule, and a minority at that?” Harry Truman issued an executive order desegregated the military though a vast majority of Whites were utterly opposed to it. Compared to Harry, I’m a real pussy cat. The unemployment rate has risen back up to 9.8% The double dip recession is indeed a reality. It could be that the “real unemployment rate” is coming down. So it’s not 17% any more. Suppose it’s only 14%. That’s still a lot worse than they are saying. And this congress is positively Scrooge like disenfranchising people at Christmas time. In this cold weather more people may postpone needed visits to the doctor and who knows how many needless pneumonia cases may arise? How many cases of divorce and desertion could be averted? How many Christmases, however modest, will be spoiled? But the republicans say with their wagging finger, “We want you to pay for it”. I’d like to give them the finger, all right. You know, if the Republicans don’t know how an old fashioned filibuster works, just give us the microphones and the cameras and we’ll show you how it’s done. We have C-Span now and you could suppose this would heighten the people’s perception of the problem. Harry Truman did a lot of rabel rousing in 1948 after all and his most advanced communication device was the whistle stop. Where is the democratic outrage? This whole roll over and play dead – go into doggie submission routine is getting old. And where is our esteemed leader, President Obama. He did what comes naturally to presidents like Nixon or Bush when they get into political trouble. He flees the country. But I thought Obama was above that sort of thing. Our President is in Afghanistan delivering a soft ball lecture to our troops. Now there is even more to be outraged about. Some talk about the 70 Billion cash shortfall in a year from giving millionaires a tax break. The government will as good as be cutting Rush Limbaugh a check for 2.3 million dollars. I guess we can afford that. (if we have to) But the really big bucks were spent by the Bush administration. The figure wasn’t the 700 Billion we were told. The real figure given to the banks and A I G was 3.2 trillion. That’s a mouthful. That’s about a quarter of the entire national debt, and it’s over three times the TOTAL national debt when Jimmy Carter left office. Don’t let the right wingers lie to you. They want us all to feel guilty for “taking money from the rich to give to the poor to redistribute the wealth of the nation in an untested social experiment”. There is no “experimentation” going on. The tax rate when Jimmy Carter left office was seventy percent. You know if you are going to quote John Kennedy on tax cuts quote him on this: “If a society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich”. All we on the left are asking for is to not let the country go bankrupt. Taxes are basically A-moral. You get funding from wherever the money is. Why can’t they see it this way? You know I’ve heard caller after caller on these KTLK radio shows saying “Obama’s apathy now is the last straw as far as I’m concerned. We need to form a new progressive party that will be responsive to the needs of the people. Amen. Let’s go do it.

Now there are compounds in Mono Lake on the back side of the Sierras, where Arsenic has replaced Phosperous in needed compounds of life. Some have speculated there may be a whole planetary system that is arsenic based. Of course we in the Federation talk about the copper in the blood of all Reigelian races, making their blood green. This includes Bajorans, whose home planet, Bajor- - orbits a different star and not Reigel. I guess to me at this point green blood doesn’t seem as strange as arsenic. People have long speculated about a silicon based life form or perhaps even germanium, the next element down, because of the structure of these atoms lending themselves suitable for organic compounds.

Dark Diplomatic Secrets See the Light of Day

You know I had been on the fence concerning this issue of wikkileaks.com. On the one hand I didn’t think it was moral to violate US secrecy in something as delicate as diplomacy, but on the other hand I thought it was a good and informative thing that we the US population knows what our public issues are saying and whether or not that aligns with the truth. We have learned for instance that the Arabs are afraid of Akmedenajab in Iran. They refer to him as crazy to get Nukes and as a potential Hitler. But we aren’t told that by the Obama administration. The administration is much more wary of both the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments than they had told us publicly. And China regards North Korea as dangerous and reactionary and view Kim Jung Il as unstable. And so we now know to what extent to which all these people routinely lie to each other and jerk each other around. What would a Christian purist think of this? They would sure not like it if you lied to them or were duplicitus. Pastors would love it if all of us were under some kind of a bewitched “honesty” hex. Yet somehow it is different for foreign powers. It would be like saying “I will not tolerate a drunk mechanic, but a drunk neurosurgeon is something I come to expect as normal”. It doesn’t make sense, does it? But as I said I was turned around on this whole issue by watching Daniel Elsburg on one of these web sites being interviewed. He says “the same issues that were at stake in 1971 are at stake now as far as freedom of the press is concerned”. “They said all of this compromised security stuff about me, too”. Now we hear that these documents have been screened and redacted, so that they have been “vetted” for compromises of national security. (Unlike Valerie and Joe Wilson) Perhaps the issue is merely who does the screening? Is it the national government or wikkileaks.com? I can’t help but continue to believe that sunshine is the best disinfectant and that we as a people are better off because of these leaks, and that we will be a better nation in the future because of these disclosures. You know, no matter how much as made public, you still have to read it. And the government is counting on the average Joe out there to be to lazy to do that. But as Randy Rhodes and others say, they are interviewing a book author on TV who claims that President Obama has private Philapino slaves to wash his feet for him. People can make up anything they want to about this president, and nobody objects.

President Obazma met yesterday with John Baner and Mitch Mc Conell and they have called it a “productive” meeting. The president’s idea of productive, and his progressive base’s idea of productive may be two quite different things. Once again the president opens up the bidding by giving away the store. He unilitarally announced that Federal pay would be frozen for two years. These are people in high risk jobs including A T F workers and doctors at the V A and FEMA workers and all the others. It sends a poor message that this is what we think of our best and brightest. We are further assailed by the news that yesterday was the final day to act on extending unemployment benefits beyond the end of the year. Now it’s too late, apparently. This is absurd. Another issue is that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should now be acted on because the Armed Forces have issued their official report and Secretary Gates and Admeral Mullen have both signed off on it and agree that the change in gay status will have a manageable adverse impact on the military. Many servicemen think it would either have no impact or possibly even a beneficial impact. Of course I do not know to what extent the Courts have any jurisdiction over the military. In terms of the whole tax thing, I would assume that the democrats will propose a tax cut bill excluding rich people, since the Democrats are still in power. As it turns out such a bill was just released by the Democrats today for discussion. It lets the Bush tax cuts expire on incomes above two hundred & fifty thousand dollars. So the gauntlet has been thrown down; the challenge has been made. As such all the president has to do is say, “You see this bill right here (holding up a bunch of papers) this bill needs to get passed right now”. It will be tough for Republicans to oppose this bill. John Baner once he would go along with such a bill if he had to at a press conference. Then he was "corrected" by other tea bagger republicans, and brought in line. But as Randy Rhodes and others say, “It isn’t politics; it’s the math, stupid”. Figures don’t lie. These Republicans want to “pay” for unemployment benefits, but they didn’t want Bush to pay for two simotanious wars. Those wars were kept off budget. If Obama has the instinct of a boxer who punches and jabs his way top success- - he should be able to get everything passed. Many people in his base are regarding the next three weeks as “President Obama’s last chance to get it right” before they haul off and support another candidate in 2012.

Last night just before retiring the computer I changed the wallpaper from “Tartan” to that Crystal green ice thing. If you will remember Sandy was in the room when I was compiling that photo and I was adjusting the color and asked her “which color do you prefer?” and she said “Green”, so I made the ice green. This morning I thought the modem was conked out. I thought it had died. Judy said to reboot the computer. I did that and it was still the same. But then I traced all the wires down behind my bed and retrieving stray paper slips I had dropped, and fiddled with the connections (the computer one seems somehow loose) and now it is working. That’s one thing to be grateful for. Of course I still didn't get paid yesterday. But I would like to commend Dana for giving me credit on coffee for the week. I learned Dana was Jewish. He makes a good philanthropic example for Jews. I told him I expected to be paid money from Dr. Levy because three months ago I foresaw this day is a major possability and Dr. Levy said "If you don't get paid, I'll pay you the money". I told people that on these cold mornings coffee is almost more important than cigarettes.

We had hamburgers for lunch for the first time in I don’t know how many weeks, and also Fritos and grapes. I got “coffee in a glass” for seconds. Wasn’t there that coffee rum ad that used to appear along with Southern Comfort adds where you had something real dark in a bottle? Laurie agrees that Louise is the most accommodating person. We're coming up on Soap time right now and find out what's going on with Clowie and Sammy and the whole gang.