Tombstone Blues

I don't pretend to know what "Tombstone Blues" (Bob Dylan)is about completely, but these verses seem to describe our current situation.

Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, "Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?"

The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, "Death to all those who would whimper and cry"
And dropping a bar bell he points to the sky
Saving, "The sun's not yellow it's chicken"

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for the fuse
I'm in the streets
With the tombstone blues

The king of the Philistines his soldiers to save
Puts jawbones on their tombstones and flatters their graves
Puts the pied pipers in prison and fattens the slaves
Then sends them out to the jungle

Gypsy Davey with a blowtorch he burns out their camps
With his faithful slave Pedro behind him he tramps
With a fantastic collection of stamps
To win friends and influence his uncle

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for the fuse
I'm in the streets
With the tombstone blues

Conservatives are getting hysterical

And not in that funny can't stop the laughter sense. Nope. They are more hysterical in the way the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz was right before he had to reveal he was an ordinary guy. Today David Limbaugh returns to an old buggy-boo popular during and before the war.

"The more the Democratic hopefuls say we're losing the war, thereby weakening the American people's commitment and the morale of our troops, the more likely we are to allow our victory to be undone. But it's not just about Iraq. If we retreat there, we might as well surrender in the War on Terror." So basically, once again, if Liberals would just be good Conservatives and support the President while trying to unseat him. Oh, and if we liberals would all please get a machete and hack ourselves on the back of the legs just above the knees, that would be extra patriotic.

He also accuses the Democrats of obstructionism. An unusual claim, and one worth mentioning. For one thing, how does Howard Dean or Al Sharpton obstruct the president? They don't have any hand on the purse strings do they? Nope. And Congress seems posed to give President Bush the $87 Billion he asked for. So either this charge is to scare Congressional Democrats into voting for the $87 Billion, or its just a big word that sounds ominous.

Steve Bartman

I don't know who this dude is, except that he apparently caught a foul ball and ended a play that could have won the game for the Cubs or something. I'm not too big on sports, as you may or may not have guessed, and when I do get interested it's usually baseball.

Anyway he's started a weblog, but it's not all that coherent. Apparently he's been getting death threats and was supposed to go into the witness protection program. Let me stop for a moment to comment on how full of crap some dude must be before they decide to threaten someone for messing up a baseball game. Anybody who would send a letter like that needs some valium. Or possibly he should listen to DJ Mark Farina.

Mr. Bartman also seems to have a beef with the tax system, at least as near as I can tell. That didn't stop him from cutting and pasting my discussion earlier today of Cal Thomas (scroll down to see it). Cal Thomas wants to lower taxes further for the wealthy and I'm not so big on the idea. I don't necessarily want to raise taxes on anybody, but I want a sound budget policy.

Anyway hope Mr. Bartman pulls through ok. And I hope those people who are hassling him knock it off.

I am going to write Cal Thomas a letter!

Today in his article Cal Thomas takes on the issue of the economy's speedy recovery. Yep the economy is recovering. Those of you who are working at McDonalds today and worked at a nice job two years ago; the economy is recovering speedily. Those of you who can't find work; the economy is recovering speedily. This will console you, realizing that for many the economy has recovered.

Anyway then Thomas goes on to make this statement. "Under Lieberman's plan, the top tax rate would increase 5 percentage points to 43.6 percent. This would send many wealthy (and some who just want to be wealthy, but aren't there yet) back to their tax shelters from which they are only now beginning to emerge. These shelters, along with a reluctance to sell stocks when they are high because of previously large capital gains taxes (also lowered under the Bush administration and Republican Congress), would again deprive government of revenue."

What's funny about this is that conservatives are always telling us that environment plays no roll in crime. If a crime is committed it is because of the poor moral fiber of the criminal, not because of any need for money to eat or a desire for drugs to ease the pain of daily life. Nope.

But these unpatriotic selfish bastards who put their own profit ahead of America are doing it strictly because of environment. If they didn't have to pay such high taxes, they would be happy to pay their taxes. In other words, one of these guys, who's already got his money in an off shore tax dodge is going to say, "Hey, you know, now that only have to give up 38.6 % of my money as opposed to 43.6%, I'm willing to be a patriotic American and pay my taxes.

So I am going to write Cal Thomas a letter and ask him if he as any proof that a) people are putting money back in the US from tax dodges and b) they would put that money back off shore if their taxes were raised. We'll see what kind of response I get.

Coulter Pictures

I couldn't post the picture as a picture of the Coulter Doll, but now I can. Here goes.

Bad Moon Rising

Go read this.

I don't read Atrios all that much--he's got good info, but just don't get around to him as much as I'd like. But whether you are far left or far right or somewhere in the middle, it's not hard to see the dialogue-chilling effect this attempt at a nuisance suit will have on the blogging community.

Not to mention message boards; what if this sort of pain-in-the-ass lawsuit could be brought against them? Anyway hope this ends up being an nothing story, but we'll see.

For those who haven't seen this

There's a new doll coming out.

Coulter

I particularly like this bit. "Swing voters are more appropriately known as the 'idiot voters' because they have no set of philosophical principles. By the age of fourteen, you're either a Conservative or a Liberal if you have an IQ above a toaster." I think President Bush should come out and say this, and I wish every right wing politician and pundit would repeat this mantra ad naseum.

But I guess that's not likely.

The False Choice Revisited

Linda Chavez isn't usually this crazy or deceptive. She starts by comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler (nobody's ever done that before) and saying that if the current crop of Democrats had been in charge in the 1940s we would have given up.

This only works if you believe, as Ms. Chavez does, that Saddam was a direct and immediate threat to the United States. If you believe, against the evidence, that he had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. And if you believe he would happily hand such weapons over to terrorists.

And if you believe the democratic presidential candidates would immediately cut and run, despite the fact that most have specifically stated they wouldn't.

On the other hand, if you believe that the war in Iraq looks like it was sold to the American people on false premises, that Saddam was not a direct threat to the US and that we could have worked with the UN to contain him, well, then maybe Ms. Chavez's argument doesn't hold together.

Quote Page Updated

Hey, updated the quotes page, as promised. Also revamped the Interview with the Founder of this Website.

One Year of Commentating

Today, as referenced before, is the one year anniversary of "Make me a Commentator!!!" I started this website as "Make me a Commentator" but decided I needed the extra exclamation points for pizzazz.

A year ago I wrote, "You may wonder what qualifications I have to commentate on the news of the day. I donÂ’t have any, really. I read commentators often, and I have a MA in American History, but besides that my only real qualification is that I have the overwhelming arrogance to believe that my view points might matter to the random reader." That's still largely true. I've read a lot more commentators, though.

One year ago, I also cut off a sentence in mid thought, and now I can't remember what I meant to say.

There is a growing scorched earth policy between our two political parties. Some Liberals and Conservatives want to defeat their political rivals completely. Eliminate them from America. I'll say that I see this tendency more on the Conservative side but I have Conservative friends who believe completely the opposite. I guess it's easy to believe that a victory for the principles one believes in requires defeating those who hold opposite view points. And I guess there's enough anger on both sides to make that seem reasonable. Even rational.

I find myself drawn into it at times. Imagining an apocalyptic war between Conservatives and Liberals for the Soul of America. But that's nonsense. I believe that most of the fighters on both sides of the ideological divide believe in America as much or more than they believe in their individual ideologies.

The words of Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural have great meaning today. "Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. . . . every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists."

New Quote

I will update the quotes page tonight.

Were We Lied Too

David Limbaugh takes on the Presidential Candidates again; quelle surprise! He takes the tack that it's hypocritical for John Kerry to criticize a war he voted for. "Senator Kerry, the fact is that you did not condition your resolution on any kind of an international coalition. If you think it was irresponsible of President Bush to go to war without the precise coalition of nations you say -- after the fact -- you prefer, then it was irresponsible of you to cast your vote authorizing him to go without that coalition.

Yeah, maybe that vote wasn't the best move Senator Kerry ever made. But at the time you and other Conservatives presented it as a way to force Saddam to let inspectors back in. Then Saddam let inspectors back in. And we invaded anyway, without much of a delay and without the support of the United Nations (although, to be fair, we did have a coalition of the willing made up largely of nations who feared we'd cut off aid if they refused support, and Australia, Great Britain and Poland).

But of course you duck the WMD question, don't you?

Let me tell you a parable. Once upon a time there was a guy who bought a used car. He took it home and realized that it was a piece of crap, and that the dealer had lied to him when he said it was a great car and dependable. So the guy took the car back to the dealer.

Dealer says, "Hey you hypocrite. You were satisfied with the car when you left. How can you come back now and complain? Why should anybody believe your complaints are real if you are this inconsistent?" Well, the guy got angry at having been deceived, but even angrier at the deciphers gall. So he went to the bank and with the support of the people bought out the car dealer and set the dealership back on the course to honest government that at least pretends the American people aren't total morons.

One Year Anniversery Spectacular

Well, it was exactly one year ago today that this website opened its metaphorical doors to the public. In celebration of that anniversary I am creating a special page dedicated to the woman who started it all, sort of. Ms. Ann Coulter.

Anyway it's essentially my reaction to Ms. Ann Coulter's articles over the past year, the ones I responded to anyway. In one convenient location.

Enjoy!

Final thoughts on New York

Wrote this on Friday, but didn't get around to posting it till today. Assuming my vanity holds out, I'll probably combine the posts with some other pictures and make a page for them. But that will have to wait--tomorrow is my one year anniversary and I have a special page to get ready. Look for it to appear tomorrow.

Written from the JFK Airport Terminal, listening to REM. Well it’s been an interesting week, no doubt about that.

Yesterday I went to the Museum of Modern Art, mainly to confirm that it had moved to Queens. But I did go to the museum of art and design store. And then I went shopping. An all American experience. And I saw School of Rock which was surprisingly fun. So that was a full day.

Rode into the airport today with a Ukranian Taxicab driver—who described himself as Russian. We talked about Gambling and agreed that some get carried away gambling. Hard to deny, actually.

One thing I’ve noticed while being here. Ann Coulters book, Treason, which is apparently hugely popular in my home town, is not nearly as popular here. I am basing this strictly on the fact that I see copies of Treason everywhere in Tallahassee, prominently displayed, while other best sellers from Liberal authors are not nearly as prominent. Well the opposite is true. And since I consider Ms. Coulters work largely fictional and crap—well, it’s a positive move in my mind.

Also there are a lot of great restaurants in New York. Had Tibetan and Korean Food, both of which were good. Had some lousy food too, but mostly from places I didn’t expect a lot out of (where I was trying to stretch my budget to accommodate more CDs.

Bought a ton of CD Singles—including the new Bad Day Single by REM, the Golden Path by The Chemical Brothers, Girl by Pepe Deluxe (great, GREAT band), Staging the Plaguing of the Raised Platform by Cornershop, and Just a Few Things that I Ain’t, by the Beautiful South (another Great band, but one I’m resigned to the fact that I’m the only one (in the USA) that likes them.

So over all—I like New York.

On the Economy

Conservatives would like you to remember that the economy is recovering.

Bob Herbert at the New York Times isn't so convinced. "The administration can spin its "recovery" any way it wants. But working families can't pay their bills with data about the gross domestic product. They need the income from steady employment. And when it comes to employment, the Bush administration has compiled the worst record since the Great Depression."

Herbert mentions that the job figures disguise the fact that millions aren't looking for work, and millions have moved from full time to part time work. So the situation is worse than it appears.

But, still, if the Stock Market goes up a little today (and I hope it does), conservatives will want you to take that as proof that the economy is recovering, and ignore all these niggling questions.

Public Urination; A Modest Proposal

Here is my proposal. Any body making over $500,000.00 a year or worth over $5,000,000.00 should be immune to any penalties imposed by a municipal, county, state or federal ordinance prohibiting Public Urination.

Some of you might think that this proposal makes no sense; I would argue that it is a necessity for America to remain strong. You see the Wealthy drive this country, drive our economy. They are necessary for the machinery of capitalism to work. And if we deny them the right to pee as and when they like, they may leave this country. And thus they must be exempt from public urination laws.

Some might say that we are nation of laws and not men. Balderdash. Do laws make the wheels of industry turn? Do laws make water come out of our facets or power come out of our generators? Do laws provide us the food we need to survive? Have laws ever made a car, an airplane, a tank? No! It is men who have done these things. Wealthy men. And if a little public urination is what it takes to keep them working for America, than that is a sacrifice we should all be willing to make.

Some might say that it is unfair to enforce laws on the poor and the middle class and exempt the rich. Think if the hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on lawsuits already. Everybody knows that the American Justice System favors the rich. Why not, in this instance, cut them out. I admit the wealthy may not be guilty of many counts of Public Urination, but if we can lessen the burden on the court even a little, isn't it worth it?