Cold hard cash…

Cold hard cash… 1 December 2008

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, Culture of Death, DC Politics, France, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.
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3rd c copper coins

Some of the 40,000 copper coins dating from the third century discovered in the garden of a resident of Saint-Germain-les-Arpajon, France [Picture: AFP/GETTY]

Speaking of money (and thank god, as I am out of ideas) a kind person emailed me this tonight… it laughs at the FED. And us… and whoever. Just a snip from the post riding at the top…

No, you didn’t click on The Onion by accident; the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe really did congratulate the United States on their willingness to stuff money into every orifice of the economy:

As Monetary Authorities, we have been humbled and have taken heart in the realization that some leading Central Banks, including those in the USA and the UK, are now not just talking of, but also actually implementing flexible and pragmatic central bank support programmes where these are deemed necessary in their National interests.

That is precisely the path that we began over 4 years ago in pursuit of our own national interest and we have not wavered on that critical path despite the untold misunderstanding, vilification and demonization we have endured from across the political divide.

Here in Zimbabwe we had our near-bank failures a few years ago and we responded by providing the affected Banks with the Troubled Bank Fund (TBF) for which we were heavily criticized even by some multi-lateral institutions who today are silent when the Central Banks of UK and USA are going the same way and doing the same thing under very similar circumstances thereby continuing the unfortunate hypocrisy that what’s good for goose is not good for the gander….

As Monetary Authorities, we commend those of our peers, the world over, who have now seen the light on the need for the adoption of flexible and practical interventions and support to key sectors of the economy when faced with unusual circumstances.

Yup… soon to be face down in the mud with Zimbabwe… or a western facsimile of fditmwZ. I am sure we will steadfastly mumble into the mud that we are standing tall and can see the dawn.

We really have gone totally fucking nuts.

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1. marisacat - 1 December 2008: I know someone linked to this IOZ in the lst thread, but i am just getting there.. Don’t miss Glenn G in the threads:

And, even if you were right that the world is this simple and oh-so-painfully-obvious, that wouldn’t be a reason not to point it out. They claim to be a journalistic outlet and many people think they are. The fact that you and your commenters have the whole simple world all figured out and are so bored with your insight doesn’t mean that everyone has mastered the Unified Theory that Explains Everything.

Well I had not thought of it but “soon to be fditmwZ” as political analysis is close to a unified theory. And I am sticking to it.

Glenn also said this

And then there’s the fact that they are paying millions of dollars a year to prime-time commentators who are vehemently opposed to the war, something you forgot to mention. Using your analogy, that would be like Budweiser paying millions of dollars a year to celebrities to talk about how their beer tastes like shit, is unhealthy, and will make you die in car accidents.

which is beyond mindblowing — I do believe Miss Whatshername, the Rhodes Scholar on MSNBC chortled with delight as Ob said we’d take out our enemies in his Victory Speech.

The War Machine is safe.

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2. marisacat - 1 December 2008: “The effort in Afghanistan is going to be the longest campaign in the long war.” — Petraeus

We are so blessed.

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3. wu ming - 1 December 2008: i don’t know if i missed this being mentioned on an earlier thread, but the false flag theory certainly gets a bump from this article by biju mathew of samar magazine (h/t chapati mystery), that mentions “dead Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) chief, Hemant Karkare, who was heading the investigation against the Hindu Right wings’ terror campaign.”

whoa.

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4. NYCO - 1 December 2008: Love the photo. It reminds me of a British TV show I once saw where someone found out that they had a perfectly intact Roman mosaic beneath their back yard. Talk about way cool.

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5. NYCO - 1 December 2008: From last thread…

The idea is to render places not under “proper Islamic rule” into wildernesses in which no one is safe.

Well, take a bloody number. Vast stretches of inner-city America are wildernesses where no one is safe. I think Muslim extremists who adopt this plan are going to find that they have a lot of competition for General Chaos… economic collapse will produce all kinds of disorder and thuggery, denominational and non-, and their gangs may start having street battles with other gangs who don’t give a hoot about joining Islam. This approach seems politically naive; as if radical Islamists think they’re the only radical elements out there. (Certainly they’re not in India…)

Oh, and didn’t the United States already come up with this concept during Vietnam? Ask the folks in Laos.

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6. marisacat - 1 December 2008: 3

Thanks for that wu ming… Karkare died very early, day one and it was reported in the first waves of the battle…. I would guess, don’t remember anymore, someone with him made it out of the Taj pretty quickly… Also three other top or senior cops died. Two were wtih him, iirc… and a 4th died as well, separately.

The official story that has already begun to emerge is one that may have some facts embedded in it. But we must remember that between every two facts is a lot of conjecture. The conjectures that unite the few facts (16 gunmen, AK47s, grenades, passports of multiple nationalities, boats on which at least some of them arrived, a dead Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) chief, Hemant Karkare, who was heading the investigation against the Hindu Right wings’ terror campaign, the gunmen trying to identify British and American citizens) makes the story. The story then is as much a product of the conjecture as it is of the facts. And there are certain stories that we are already oriented towards. The conjectures that create that story – the story we are already prepared for – is the one the State will dole out for our consumption. Already the conjectures that will serve the State, are out there in great profusion.

…

The dead are on the floor. The vultures are moving in. The conjecture will try to unite the country into a series of unexamined positions. That POTA must be recalled. That States must be allowed to pass even more draconian laws. That Hindu terror is not a big issue and must be forgotten for now – especially now that we may not find an honest policeman or woman to head the ATS. That the defense budget must go up. That the coastline must be secured.::snip::

I wandered around in the English language Pakistani press last night. The reports constantly invoke the recent right wing Hindu terror investigations…

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7. marisacat - 1 December 2008: The close of the article:

When I am in Bombay, I always stay at a friend’s on Third Pasta Lane. Each afternoon I would walk out and see the Nariman House. I have wondered what the decrepit building was. I have always contrasted the drabness of the building with the colorful sign on the next building that announces Colaba Sweet House. The next time I won’t wonder. I will know that it was one of the places where the drama that inaugurated India’s renewed march towards fascism unfolded. Unless we act. Unless we act with speed and determination demanding transparency and accountability and a careful rewriting of the story of terror in India. Only a renewed movement can ensure that India doesn’t slide into the same state as post 9/11 USA.

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8. marisacat - 1 December 2008: 4

plus, 40,000 of those coins. Amazing. Hoarding works. In a sense… 😉

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9. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: Yesterday’s Boregonian had some breathless young thing breathlessly going on ad nauseum about “Ten Things Obobo MUST DO By 2012.”

And if he doesn’t, what then, Breathless Young Thing ? You’ll take your ball and go home ? Vote GOP ?

Excuse me. I have to go read about meaningful things now.

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10. NYCO - 1 December 2008: 8. What is funny is that those coins represented Roman inflation in the late empire. Silver coins were minted with less and less silver in them and more and more copper. It was a cheap way to print (cheap) money. And now the American empire is doing the same thing.

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11. marisacat - 1 December 2008: seems uber securitat retread did not tickle the DJI, down 426. I am sure it will catch on to the change and rise.

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12. NYCO - 1 December 2008: And if he doesn’t, what then, Breathless Young Thing ? You’ll take your ball and go home ? Vote GOP ?

I think the prevailing fantasy goes that they’ll create such a storm of netroots anger that the political world has never seen and… er… find better Democrats for 2010! Because, you know, the netroots storm of anger has worked so well in the past. It actually elected a transformative Democrat to the White House who… er… immediately hired every nontransformative Democrat in the place.

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13. NYCO - 1 December 2008: 11. I think the market is in another freefall mode. Too concerned about crappy Black Friday showing and “official” recession call to care about Obama’s daily press conference.

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14. marisacat - 1 December 2008: I actually read a headline over the weekend that Obama’s stick over congress is his army of emailers. It was nto a blog bruit either. A headline. Such pandering. And the typing hordes think they scored a coup with Brennan (Sully takes credit!)… uh no.

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15. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: NYCO:

…Because, you know, the netroots storm of anger has worked so well in the past…

I get the feeling that the point is to not have a past. It’s a perpetual re-set in which you get to start anew each time without actually doing anything that’s more than superficially different.

It’s corporate-owned youth rebellion. Judging by the vast numbers of my contemporaries who keep getting sucked in, it’s not just for actual youth, either.

I freely admit to being jaded and more or less completely uninterested in these people and their grandiose plans. When their grandiose plans include an understanding that change hasn’t got even a snowball’s chance in the closed shop we’ve got, I might stir myself again.

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16. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Our leader:

“We are now on a glide path to reduce our forces in Iraq,”….

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17. marisacat - 1 December 2008: 13

Well it is delicately not mentioned but two out of three of his pressers last week, the market went down during his time on the Tube of Life. Day three it inched this way and that, and finally made its way to positive territory by close of his time, a move iirc of less than a hundred pts.

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18. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: Oh, Cillizza in Washington Post.
Over and Over again is our lot in the ass,
complete with The Visuals –
the Earnest / Into the Future Gaze of Him
plus another of His upright chin fingered take on Rodin
…in the background …
(with Her at the mic – manning the Implodium?)

The Pics could be worth Thousands of Cilizza’s or anyone else’s words…

President-elect Barack Obama’s decision to name Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of State likely will be viewed as one of the defining moments in the shaping of his administration.

{Why what him do?
Howem DidWad she be? – Edited for Clarity – }

It’s impossible to know the definitive answer to either of these two questions but here’s our take, based on close observation of both politicians over the last two years.
Blah Blagggh Blah Blah
Bla Bla Blah Blahbbby
Blahbbity Jack, Martin,and Bobby Insuferable Blah

At the heart of the new union between one-time rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination is a simple question: Why?Make no mistake: this is the beginning not the end of a fascinating storyline in American politics. And we will be there every step of the way.

This WAS touching within the regurgia…

But, Obama and his advisers clearly believe that they are better served with Hillary and Bill Clinton under the tent rather than throwing stones from the outside.

…ah , the concern for StoneThrowers……Bring On The BullDozers!

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19. NYCO - 1 December 2008: I get the feeling that the point is to not have a past.

An amazing example of this is how Howard Dean’s 2003-04 campaign was Officially Forgotten during the Obama campaign. The whole small-donations, heroic imagery (remember the bat?) and orange hatters were reworked into an Obamafied version, but nobody ever mentioned what had come before. It would have been good for campaign watchers to say “Here’s what Obama’s doing right that Dean did wrong” or something like that… but it was as if 2003 never happened. Completely wiped off the netroots memory card. I thought it was creepy.

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20. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Not exactly a “glide path” in Afghanistan. Nir Rosen has a report up in The National… hard to pick a graf, but this stands contra Petraeus and Ob:

“I’m not optimistic,” a longtime NGO official with more than a dozen years’ experience in the country told me. He said the confidence of the Taliban today is beginning to resemble the swagger of the mujahideen he knew during the war against the Soviets. “You can’t help getting this increased uncomfortable feeling that you are waiting for something terrible to happen.” Another senior NGO staffer with decades of experience in Afghanistan told me there was “a loss of hope.” “Afghans with money,” he said, “want to move their families to Dubai or India; they’re looking at an exit strategy.”

Perhaps, he suggested, America and its allies should start doing the same: “We’re not up to the task of success in Afghanistan.”

It’s a drumbeat of collapse…The description of districts and worse, roads, that fall to the “enemy” is devastating. I just read in an article at Asia Times that we are utterly dependent on Pakistan for the overland route into Afghanistan. The alternative (such as it is) is thru Iran.

Boxed in. Us, not them.

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21. marisacat - 1 December 2008: 19

History begins with Ob.

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22. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: 12

Not true NYCO.

It actually elected a transformative Democrat to the White House who… er… immediately hired every nontransformative Democrat in the place.

You clearly don’t watch C-Span. Dana Houle,
“Contributig Editor of the Dailykos”, no less, was on and , really,
“It’s a Wealth of Options”. He said so.

Oh “It’s a Wealth of Options” all right…
In a disingenuous Bourgeois Asshole kinda way,
not quite so much for Dana though…the Wealth and “Opions”, that is,
not the disingenuous Bourgeois AssHoulery part… .

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23. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: 21

History begins with Ob.….. may end there too..
Skies Part, Second Coming , ‘EEZ ALL DAT.

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24. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: 20

Aw Shucks. We’ll do Better’n da Russians Did in ‘ghanistan.
It’s not like we’re the French in Viet Nam….

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25. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: #19: …Completely wiped off the netroots memory card. I thought it was creepy.

Presumably with Dean’s approval, too.

Small wonder I’m sticking with all those small-party “egomaniacs” who spit in the soup and don’t bathe. :p

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26. marisacat - 1 December 2008: …who… er… immediately hired every nontransformative Democrat in the place. — NYCO

Well no less a MSM reporter than Jeane Cummings who left WSJ in the first wave for Politico, on the Gwen Ifill (Inside Washinton? I get all the similar names mixed up) Friday, did say no sign of the transformative change promised. Not in the picks. She looked a little disappointed and I had felt in the primaries and GE that she leaned a bit to ob. What a shock.

The excuses are hilarious. One rolled out a lot on KGO is that Ob himself was the change. Regime change is what he promised.

I just read another in a thread somehwere, that the real power is down the line in the agencies. Don;t look at the leaders being installed. Look down ”three levels”.

Well that sounds just so promising.

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27. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: …said Ob himself was the change

Personal Pledges of Loyalty. How’s That Work Out?

{waves at zeno}

Small wonder I’m sticking with all those small-party “egomaniacs” who spit in the soup and don’t bathe. :p

Smells Fine to me. LOL.
My dear, these Tortes are just Wonderful!
WhereEVER did you find them?

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28. NYCO - 1 December 2008: 20. New OB! with Gentle Glide.

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29. marisacat - 1 December 2008: 28

LOL

Ream-a-Rama

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30. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: Sorry. I botched the tagging…

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31. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: Always a pleasure to see ya’, BHHM. Somebody has to redeem Jersey before the world. And it’s far too late for me to do it, unless the shit economy really does drive me back to Mom’s spare room sometime in ’09.

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32. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: …Sounds like a 50’s Buick or a Dildo

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33. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: Somebody has to redeem Jersey before the world.

I’ve been trying xee, been tryin’…But ya know what’s missin’?
Chocolate Mouse Cake…hmmm….. if I only had a…

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34. BooHooHooMan - 1 December 2008: Mouse Cake LOL We HAVE “Mouse” Cake in Jersey-
you know whatI mean the OTHER Kind…

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35. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Life is tough.. (and I see -674 now on the TeeVee)

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Dow Drops More Than 600 Points [3:46 p.m. ET]

For more, go to abcnews.go.com?CMP=EMC-1396

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36. marisacat - 1 December 2008: nasdaq down 80

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37. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: Oh, Callie the Calico majorly perked up at the mention of “Mouse Cake” until it was relegated to typo status. Tsk.

=^..^=

I miss black-and-white cookies myself. Scarcer than unicorns out here.

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38. lucid - 1 December 2008: Hi Boo… nice to see you slithering around these parts.

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39. marisacat - 1 December 2008: NYers here (and whomever else)… any ideas who Paterson will pick to fill the NY junior senator’s seat?

I read yesterday she will nto step down til after confirmation. FWIW…

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40. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Democracy NOW! had a roundtable on Mumbai… including the author, Biju Mathew, of the article wu ming posted up thread:

JUAN GONZALEZ: And could you tell us about the Intelligence chief who was killed early on in the fighting? You were very knowledgeable about his activities.

TEESTA SETALVAD: Yeah, actually he was not the intelligence, he was the anti-terrorism squad chief, a man called Hemant Karkare, who had, in fact, been a lot in the news over the past three or four months. First for his—he’s known, by the way, to be kind of one of those rare breeds in the Indian police; an extremely honest and straightforward policeman who only answers to the Indian constitution and not to his political bosses, whichever ideology they come from. And, he was responsible both for the blast investigation of the Ahmedabad blast and thereafter involved in the Malegaon blast investigation. And he had come into very, very vicious attacks over the matter from the Hindu right-wing parties who had reduced themselves to very, very pathetic levels of slander against him. So, in fact, a couple of days before he was shot dead, he was, in fact, very, very distressed about this attack from this political quarter.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Prashad, if you could elaborate on what Teesta was just talking about, on the killing of anti-terrorism police chief, the context? I think people in this country don’t understand the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India, what this means, what the extreme right-wing Hindu party and parties are in India. And, also, what this means for elections that are just taking place now in India.

VIJAY PRASHAD: You know, there’s a broad sociological story the starts in the 1970s. Until the 1970s, parties that identified themselves as religious parties pretty much had very, very low ability to pull people out to vote for them. In the 1970s, when the Indian government shifted its ability to provide social welfare, to provide agricultural credit to the vast bulk of the people, essentially, when it broke down the Nehruvian part of social development, at that point to gain legitimacy even the Congress Party, which was Nehru’s party, started to bring in religious forms of mobilization to gain legitimacy, but they were outflanked on the right by the Hindu Party, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party, which in the 1980s took off at an unimaginable pace. It created this family of organizations. In a way it outsourced its terror to groups such as the Bajrangdal and most recently to this group that committed, perhaps, the blast in Malegaon, a town northeast of Mumbai, in 2006. This group is called Abinhav Bharat.

So, these groups all across the country have been committing atrocities, mainly against Muslim populations, but not only, also against Christians, also against people who in India are known as tribals, and others. So, there’s been this growth of the kind of Hindu politics, in a way, because the state has been incapable of providing an agenda for the social development, the complete development, of the Indian population.

And, of course, in reaction to this, you’ve seen the growth of Muslim politics, of resentment and anger. One of the groups that was formed in the 1970s was known as SIMI, the Student Islamic Movement of India. At that time, inspired by the Iranian revolution, by the Islamic revolution. But later, the resentment grows and many groups then would come out of there. Young people see no future, turning to hatred and bitterness. And what I find is, for them the politics of the present isn’t often future looking, it’s backward looking. They look to the past, to resentment, to revenge, to rage and there are Hindu forms of terror that have developed which are being met by groups that are, you know, Muslim forms, etc., and this is a soup that is very, very dangerous. And now, of course, the Hindu forms of terror have a political party, which is the one that is breathing fire into the ear of the current government saying, you know, we need a forward policy against Pakistan. So, you know, one mustn’t narrow this down to the Mumbai event currently, but broaden the focus and see how there’s been this sociological shift from a politics of, you might consider, social democracy to a politics of backward-looking hatred against other people, when you can’t provide food, shelter, conviviality to them.

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41. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Right or wrong, at least it makes a bit more sense:

At least five terrorist gunmen have evaded capture in Mumbai and could make a secondary strike on India’s financial capital, it was feared today.

The prospect of more killers being at large added to mounting public anger at the Indian Government’s lax handling of the worst terror strike to hit the country in 15 years. …

However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift off the city shore – suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large. […]

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42. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: This approach seems politically naive;

Religious fundies are, by definition, politically naive.

11 – My big question about those announcements is this: when did the two top diplomatic jobs in the US gov’t become part of the national security apparatus? Isn’t this exactly backwards?

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43. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: from the Chapati Mystery post that highlighted wu ming’s excellent link, there is this interesting note at the bottom of the post, beneath that pic of the gunman in the train station (I think that’s where he was) in Mumbai: I keep seeing Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

youthful testosterone and self-righteous indignation are a dangerous combination, no matter the culture.

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44. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: 39 – I’m no whiz on this issue, but some of the Clinton replacement possibilities bandied about include Andrew Cuomo (State AG and son of former Guv Mario), Kristen Gillibrand (who just got sworn in for her second House term today), Brian Higgins (freshly re-elected US Rep from South Buffalo), and Nassau County executive Tom Suozzi (longtime Paterson pal). The Mayor of Buffalo could also be in the running.

According to the Albany Project, downstate US Rep Nita Loweyhas taken her name out of contention.

Right now, Paterson’s also gotta replace Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who retires from the Court of Appeals (NYS name for its Supremes) in January, and apparently he’s “disturbed” because there’s too many white guys on the nomination list.

So who knows?

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45. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: As the Times-Union blog notes, NYC Rep Nydia Velasquez is also a possibility, but with Chuckie the Brooklyn Schumer being senior Senator already, there seem to be strong strong calls – and Paterson preference, I gather – for an upstate pick (for non-New Yawkers, this means basically anything out of the NYC metro zone).

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46. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: Shoot, I always have to doublecheck it.

Kirsten, , not Kristen.

Gillibrand’s former boss, Judge Roger Miner, dropped a not so subtle Senate succession hint to cheers after the ceremony. Governor Paterson has said a qualified upstate candidate could make sense.

“I think that it is important that he choose the right person for the job, that he thinks have all the things so we have a good balance in our state,” said Gillibrand.

Gillibrand wouldn’t say if she is interested, but did say she hasn’t spoken with the Governor’s office about the job. She says she, like everyone who’s name is out there, is waiting for a decision.

The Buffalo Mayor is Byron Brown.

(Over to you, west-upstaters!)

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47. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: Republicans Broke Law to ‘Guard’ Convention

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48. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: Walgreens Jerks You Around When You Try To Buy Plan B

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49. marisacat - 1 December 2008: 44

thnaks IB!

****

sorry Madman, your first comment was stuck in moderation.. 😉

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50. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: I think there are some “upstate” Noo Yawkers in the mawd pawd.

BTW, one of the Great American Dynasties could be fed if Paterson gave the gig to Carolyn Kennedy!

You kids would all like that, right?

Special to ms_xeno – sympathies for current travails. BTW – a friend visited en holiday route the other day, and had a vivid dream about human-eating monsters and Wonder Woman when she slept on my rock-hard spare futon. She’s a writer and comic fan, too, but she woke up amazed, saying she never dreams of the characters involved.

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51. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Sorry IB, WP caught you twice… out now… 8)

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52. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: when did the two top diplomatic jobs in the US gov’t become part of the national security apparatus? Isn’t this exactly backwards?

Why, yes, Madman, it is!

But look – over there – Republicans are breaking the law!

I’ve been pleased to see the television ads for Plan B recently. Hell, at this point, they feel like PSAs.

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53. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: Thanks Marisa! WordPress must have been inspired by your pro-hoarding stance.

🙂

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54. marisacat - 1 December 2008: I was reminded of Caroline K today when they let Biden out of his box.

LOL… so no… no reason to nominate her (not that I htink she Holder and Johnson were much involved with the Veepessa other than window dressing) for anything..

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55. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: Perrin: An All New Season Of . .

Back when he sort of mattered, George Will, attacking what he saw as domestic queasiness with war, wondered if Americans would’ve thrown in the towel had the Civil War been televised. This assumes that 1860s television would’ve shown graphic images from Gettysburg instead of uplifting propaganda films (Confederate TV doubtless would’ve aired an early version of “Hee-Haw,” using slaves as slapstick props), but Will’s main point was that Americans were too soft to be a serious warrior race, so the media had to help shape us were we ever to realize our imperial destiny.

Will’s thesis was offered when the US relied on surrogates like the Contras and the Afghan mujahedeen to kill commies, relieving its own citizens of this necessary, national responsibility. Today, Americans are in the thick of many foreign battles, with more to follow, so Will was ahead of the imperial curve, sharpened by the 9/11 attacks. Indeed, those attacks disproved much of Will’s argument, as Americans watched the planes endlessly hit hit hit the Towers, their collapse seen from every available angle and speed. Thousands died right before our eyes, and far from making us squeamish, we went batshit insane, well beyond anything Will might’ve hoped for a quarter century ago. Our malleable minds were ready for shaping, and corporate media outlets performed their institutional function beautifully. It didn’t last — we’re Americans after all — but it wouldn’t take much to wind us up again. Indeed, we’re long overdue for another national freak out.

Some discussion of the rightwing drumbeating of the Mumbai attacks, then he closes with:

But this is Terror War time, and the prospect of Pakistani involvement fits nicely with hostilities already brewing against Pakistan, a hot front that our new president has promised to stoke, despite the fading dreams of those peaceniks who still believe Obama is antiwar.

Speaking of which — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Let that roll around in your mouth a bit before uttering it. I don’t know about you, but I’m very pleased with this selection. The hollow points are in the chamber; the safety’s off; Happy Hour will soon be enforced by law. Minds are being shaped once again. The terrorists in Mumbai played their role, hitting a Westernized target, which is the real outrage. President Change is preparing to play his. And Hillary? Are you fucking kidding me?

And lets not forget the Africa awaits after we’re done fucking up Pakistan …

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56. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: re: 48

I meant to add that I find it a hopeful sign that the Plan B bullshit is being presented noting the consumer POV, since that is the ONLY POV that matters in this benighted country.

Hands off the fundies UNTIL they get in the way of buying shit … then they’ve gone too far! Which, by the way, is why eventually they’re gonna lose the gay marriage battle … there is WAY too much money involved in events that end up with the same little gender’d figures standing on top of the overpriced cake.

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57. marisacat - 1 December 2008: I’ve been pleased to see the television ads for Plan B recently. Hell, at this point, they feel like PSAs. — IB

I have not seen those out here… oddly.

I wondered when I read that article, there is a Walgreens just a few blocks from me and I wondered if they would dare try to deny Plan B, here in SF. Or have a fundie on staff in the pharmacy. They get a wide range of clientele… all colors and ages. The total gamut.

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58. marisacat - 1 December 2008: And lets not forget the Africa awaits after we’re done fucking up Pakistan …

hmm after reading the US UK and Indian media the past few days, we should just cut to the chase and wrap Pakistan up as a gift — and give it to Israel. Hanukah is coming. That’ll show those intemperate anti Semitic Islamofascists.

Meanwhile India is rife with wingerism and fascism. What a mess it all is.

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59. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: Well, I thought of linking to some stupid foot-stamping tantrum I just saw about how everyone who’s mean to Obama should STFU because John Lewis got beaten up marching for civil rights. JOHN LEWIS SHED TEARS OF JOY OVER OBAMA SO ZOMFG U OBAMA HATRS R RACIST SWINE !!

I shit you not. But fuck it. What you really need to see is another fantabulous review of a cut-rate horror flick about Killer Kitties !!

[sings]Alan Smithee, won’t you pleeeease come hooooooome ![/sings]

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60. Intermittent Bystander - 1 December 2008: Might be able to find the ad somewhere on here: Plan B.

Because the unexpected happens

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61. ms_xeno - 1 December 2008: Hello, IB !!

I’m out of booze tonight. Drinking cranberry juice mocktail. (cran juice + black cherry juice + water. The water makes it proto-Depression worthy despite the initial outlay of funds for two bottles of juice.)

I will not discuss the people in tights and spangles who appear in my dreams, because it’s bad enough that I’m racist. I can’t be a pervert, too. 😦

However, I do fondly recall this one Wonder Woman comic I owned as a tot. She had to run through this gauntlet filled with giant exploding teeth. Also she got tied up with her own lasso, which all faithful readers of Superdickery now know is kind of like remarking that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

Ah, youth… :p

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62. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Please NO:

There is talk of Bill C being put in the Hillary seat.

We are dead or at least dying. Dynasties are the reveal.

Elvis never died. This has to be a sick float.

[when asked, Bill C deferred questions to the office of the Governor… no flat denial)

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63. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 December 2008: 62 – It would also explain why suddenly he was willing to share more info about his donors … it would come up if he gets the seat, anyway. Might also explain all the public dithering, putting pressure on the Obamites to put pressure on Patterson etc.

EVERYTHING is a deal cut between gangsters.

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64. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Agree Madman…

Not that I believe the Clintons would hard and fast adhere to the agreements they made about CGI and the Foundation and so on, going forward, but my read of it, it has some serious possiblity to greatly hobble him.

The Ob camp wanted all sorts of oversight over speeches and foreign government related donations and so on. I think it got watered down some — and as Clinton camp, rightfully I thought, pointed out it was more than GHW was required to do as his family member was pretzel… He relies big time on that that bullshit for strutting. But if he were thinking of pulling the Diva act in the senate… well then, the agreement is more understandable..

What a stupid damned mess, everything is.

BTW, IOZ is a hoot.. couple of posts on “Black Reagan”… and quick rundown of best and worst of his 6 days or so with the family out here in SF and wine country.

http://www.whoisioz.blogspot.com

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65. marisacat - 1 December 2008: Thailand’s constitutional court says the party of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat should be dissolved, amid an escalating political crisis.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

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66. marisacat - 2 December 2008: gnu thread…………….

LINK

…………….. 8) ……………………

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