Good God! - - It's Paul Ryan

Early this morning Saturday August 11th 2012, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan to be his vice presidential running mate.  I came in on KNX radeio during live coverage a little before six thirty.  I heard MItt Romney in the middle of some big speech, which is unusual for him to make more than a political one-liner at a time.  He introduced contraversial Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate and then Ryan spoke.  Ryan complained that some out there have come to accept high unemployment, increased debt, and falling incomes nation wide as the New Normal, and adds "and this should not Be".  It was a good speech saying all the right things, so I won't fault him for that.  However then I went out and talked to Joe Drisco about it.  Joe is one of those rare birds - "Bomb Iran back to the stone age" people, who is also a Bob  Dylan fan.  Joe doesn't like the idea that our SSI checks may well be cut or eliminated by the Ryan budget, or that my Medi Cal may be cut or eliminate and I be without medical coverage, which just won't do in this place.  Joe sarcastically referred to it as a "Dynamite selection" if you are talking about "blowing up the safety net".  Of all the people Romney could have picked- - - Paul Ryan is the most hated political target of any of them.  As you know there has been talk it would be either Timothy Pwelente or Rob Portman of Ohio, or Jendell down in Louisiana.  There has been more talk lately about getting a well known moderate in the slot.  Paul Ryan is a Catholic and not a born again Protestent like Pawlente, which will make the Romney ticket more attackable on religious grounds.  I remarked to Joe that in 1964 the Goldwater folks wanted Johnson to pick Hubert Humphrey because he was the most attackable liberal.  Sometimes the message is everything and when Humphrey ran as President in 1968 it was Nixon who made the beautiful speeches about having a secret plan to end the Viet Nam war and 'lowering our voices" and his slogan of "Bring us Together".  It was a lovely sentament.  But most of us now agree that the nation would have been better off with Humphrey, just as we would have been a whole lot better off with Al Gore in 2012.  Sometimes, some of your biggest problems can be eliminated ahead of time simply by not voting for their man.  You know many people use the phrase 'IF ONLY" after the fact.  Others like Neil of KFI will say that the "What if" or "If Only" statements should never be used hypothetically.  Neil Savedra hates "hypothetical".  But I say the time TO use the "What IF" statement is Before the Fact, so that you actually have a say in Preventing the adverse situation from occurring in the first place.  And this is the case with Mittens Romney and Paul Ryan.

President Obama gave his Saturday morning speech at 7:06 on KNX on the idea of dealing with the adverse heat wave and drought, which so adversely affects our farmers, and the President undertook numerous measures to help with their situation.  Paul Ryan is dealing in the never-never world of the abstract.  Meanwhile President Obama is dealing with the here and now, just as he did with the immigration issue.  Then at 8:06 we were treated to one of these 'Crying in their beer" speeches by a tea party Republican.  You see the budget deal last year WAS a success.  We issued an iron-clad rule that as a stop gap measure if all else failed, there would be an accross the board cut of ten percent in all Federal Budget items.  This would including the military, as well as everything else.  The President was already planning to cut the military to make it more streamline and efficient, and also because we have ended one war, and are winding down another and hopefully will lead less expenditure on defense.  But don't tell the Republican's that.  When they hear budget cuts they think of one thing and one thing only, and that is cutting out programs for the very poor, such as homeless and the starving and those badly in need of medical care.  These people who are the most helpless and dependant among us are always the first targets among the tea party right.  I don't think Mitt Romney will do one thing to ease the federal deficet when he assumes power next January.  I think even Romney will see the political stupidity of axing such vital programs.  It's the tea party who has become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.  President Obama has done everything he can.  In those areas well under his control such as foreign affairs, we have done admerably these past four years.  But in areas where getting needed legislation passed is like pulling teeth- the President has been unable to enact his plans.  Indeed even now the Republicans will NOT enact the President's jobs plans, and pretty soon it's all going to fall on their Watch, and no longer ours.  Still doing the nomination today was a good day for MItt Romney to goose up his sagging poll numbers.

After this speech I went out and talked with Joe Drisco, who is kind of a Dick Chaney defense hawk, who also likes Bob Dylan, particularly the early stuff- - so go figure.  Maybe it's all the LSD he took in his youth.  It would seem that many people who have run against Mitt Romney have a particular disgust tword him as being an"empty suit" and "without a moral core" and Mike Huckibee is one of these complainers.  Paul Ryan will no doubt provide a lot of ammunition for all the comedians out there, as he has in the past.  His measures were so extreme and draconian even his own Republicans were hesitant to embrace his plan.  But Newt Gingrich was diplomatic in his description of how he felt about Mitt Romney now.  He also noted that Paul Ryan would be an excellent choice, should that occur.  I know for a fact all you have to do sometimes is to deliver the right knock-it-out-of-the-park speech to score really Big with your own constuincy.   Stewart Sutcliffe, the "dead Beatle" appeared and he said "I know you're discouraged, but just remember.  You were right a minute ago when you told Joe that "It's all in God's hands".  Then he said "The stars don't lie."  I kind of nodded.  He then said. "Why dispute a fact with faulty investigation that you have already proved the Truth of with refutable logical deduction?"  He also said, "It all a case of Achem's Razor, you know.  It's Geometric logic when you come down to it."  I wasn't entirely certain what he meant.  Except that Stewart was more certain than ever that the country would go Democratic come November.

This posting will remain the lead one for a number of weeks, most likely in excess of two months.  You people really need to read my material dating back at least the past year and a half, and if you can't manage that just hit the ones done in the past seven months.  These are pure gold.  Dr. Levy is assembling a book of our writings and poetry and art from here and from Founders.  I get the feeling from what he says and shares, that those people in general are more prolific poetry artists than we are.  Dr. Levy suggested I sever relations with A T & T and he could get me a bang-up bargain cell-phone deal.  Dr. Levy was prudent enough not to bring up politics this week.  There is a gradual shift here among the residents I have talked to and more and more of them are turning tword voting for President Obama.   

The Dumbing Dowwn of American Schools

The conservative right was right about one thing.  They said that the enemy would reach society by our school children and the corruption of our educational system.  I had Mike Papentonio on a few minutes ago- and he says that the Texas school system is considering the outright banning of teaching “critical thinking skills” much as they tried to ban evolution in Tennessee.  Of course critical thinking is using logic to analyze any statement and question and evaluate authority.  Because they fear in doing this teachers would be fomenting student revolution and it wouldn’t stop with academics, but they’d go on to question the church, the legal system, and the whole bit.  What Texas wants is sheep-like, docile “empty skulls of mush” to fill with corporate propaganda.  Texas school book sales are so large that the rest of the educational market usually follows their suit.  Of course now they have taken down their web site as “evidence”.  Augustine just came around again with pest control to inject our drawers with insecticide.  Bobby Jendel is that Louisiana republican governor was on one news program a month ago, who struck me as being buddy-buddy with Mitt Romney that I was virtually sure he is the one who was being introduced to the American public.  Of course they know about dumbing down in Louisiana.  Of course we see this appealing to the brainless among us in these Christian movie blockbusters they put out now and then.  In the movie "2016" it will be interesting to go back and look at this movie four years from now when it actually IS 2016, provided that Barock Obama is still president then- - and see how rediculus the claims and portrayals of this movie were and are.  I have not seen this movie yet but it takes very little conjecture and imagination to forecast what is in this movie.  You've heard the accusations against this President.  Now they have a new one.  They say that President Obama, before he married Michelle, was married to a man.  Mike Papentonio says, "expect this one to be making the rounds in the news cycle.  We have heard that Obama has FIMA troops setting up internment camps for the "re-education of tea party members", which by the way wouldn't be a bad idea.  I have told you that if you want Judy's dire predictions of economic "Revolution' to actually come to pass, just elect Mitt Romney and this will greatly increase the liklihood of that coming to pass, because things will get so third worldish in this country it will become Inevitable.  Host Mike says that it used to be "fun to bantor back and forth with these right wingers like Anne Coulter, but no more.  Because now the commercial media accepts these people as normal and main streme.  In an earlier era one listening to Michelle Bachman would say that she was in urgent need of psychiatric therapy.  But no more.  Anne Coulter is said to have claimed that "Timothy Mc Vey should have bombed the NY Times building in New York instead".  And she called the nine - eleven widdows as "harpies" because they are disaffected with President Bush's war policies.  And we know that War with Iran is the first thing on Mitt Romney's foreign policy agenda.  I find it a little strange that nobody wants to touch Syria, which has an agressive, murderous despot leader who has killed so many innocent civilians- - and yet we want to start World War II with Iran, a nation which currently has no Nukes.

Of course don't expect religion to be safe from this dumbing down process.  You know that if Mitt Romney ascends to the White House - two things will happen.  Mormonism will undergo a quantom increase in status and respect, perhaps world wide.  The press, including the Christian press will turn around on a dime on this issue.  Dobson and Prager and Pat Robertson and all these others who say never marry outside your faith, will suddenly scrub all references adverse to Protestents and Mormons marrying.  That will be a taboo reference in a Romney White House.  But you know what I'm really wanting for.  People will bring up the gold tablets and the urem and the thumin and all of that.  I'm waiting for the first Mormon apologist to say "Well of course science can't substiantiate these things.  We receive these matters by Faith.  There are things in the Christian past we can't prove.  There is virtually no evidence that the Christian Church  or Jesus either one existed before the second century- - but we receive this teaching by Faith and nobody, not even the liberals, question it.  And so this is how the world in time will come to accept President Romney's teaching on the early history of the North American continent."  OK, this hasn't happened- - - yet.  Of course air brushing one's past is a common trait for the inherently secretive, like Nancy Reagan.  Nobody questions the enormous hold she held over her husband for their entire relation.  From "turning him completely around politically" during those first crutial years- - to eventually running the White House during Reagan's second term.  Mike Papentonio points out that Bullies are only brave around the weak.  They shy away from the strong.  Mike says it's no good to try and be a "nice guy" around bullies.  The only language they understand is metal and a firm resolve.  Don't give them an inch.  His philosophy differs from my somewhat more tollerant philosophy in this respect.  But in my own case I am in a position of weakness.  I have a sister in law who is virtually "the head of the house" now Politically, since my Dad's passing five years ago.  Judy's power has increased enormously during that time.  Of course I have Dr. Levy as an authority figure, and this being a Christian facility and all.  And you have the occasional ex friend who gets "co opted" knocking out another support.  Many of the things Christians and psychics claim today- - the Church fathers were just too lacking in the mental capacity to even conceive of.  They knew nothing of four-dimensional Time-Space.  They knew almost nothing about "Dimensions' anyhow, and couldn't even tell you what an "uinknown dimension" was.  Walter Martin, in seeking to prove he's logical and that "Nobody believes in ghosts who are invisable and can walk through walls" once said that when Jesus appeared to his desciples- - - he "switched dimensions on them".  People back then believed that the Earth was on "pillars" and that it has "four corners" and yet today we still hear that the Bible is "scientifically accurate and has proved so in every area when challenged".  I kid you not.  Tertulian, a respected theologian in Catholocism, taught that the human soul was inexerably intwined with human genetics, as they understood it them.  So far science has yet to come up with a "soul gene".  There were skills in Greek rhetoric and logic that the average adult is completely unaware of today.  Today networks in their attempt to be "balanced" so as Mike Papentonio says.  They put four conservatives of Forrest Gump mental calibre, and bullies in numbers- - against one of him, and they call it a fair fight.  Never mind "Outcome based education".  The commercial media believes in "Outcome based argument", where of course a person's intelligence would give them an "unfair intellectual advantage" which has to be "balanced off".  If you want to make sure that the things mentioned on this page continue to exist and get more pronounced, all you have to do is vote for Mitt Romney for President.  It's not am America I would want to live in.  Never mind about school children being able to write a coherent paragraph, the question is can Mitt Romney speak in so much as one coherent paragraph without making an ass of himself.  I shudder to think of those poor Republicans that will be expected to make half hour speeches and somehow be able to put some kind of coherent thought-line together.  Once the American people see how these people actually fold under pressure- - it should make their voting decision in November much easier.

John Huntsman's Father Fingered Romney

As you know Nevada Senator Harry Reid has been tagged as "a dirty liar" by one guest on the "This Week" show on ABC and ABC has accepted this as fact in subsequent reports.  This is despite the fact that the logical inference is that there is a certain ammount of Totality about Romney's non payment of Federal Income taxes because if there were ANY year in which Mitt Romney HAD paid income taxes, they would have gladly released THOSE years.  The fact they haven't released ANY over the ten years in question is strong inference of - something.  Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House, was told who the source was and she has backed up Reid saying his credibility on the no taxes matter is sound.  Also someone at CNN supposedly knows who it is.  Now there is talk on the Stephanie Miller show this morning that so many republicans are having substantial doubts about Mitt Romney's fitness as a party nominee, that they are looking for someone else.  Of course they know if they, the Republicans don't pick Romney as their nominee after all his minions have gone to the mat for him- - that the Republicans are toast in the November election.  Of course John Huntsman's father is the father of a Mormon who ran against Romney in the primaries and is said to have a lot of good inside dope on Romney.  Meanwhile that female Romney aid who made the statement about "If they only had Romney Care like in Massachusetts" apparently Mitt Romney himself has slipped and said that Romney care wasn't so bad.  I've heard while in Israel, Romney actually praised the Israeli health care program there.  Over three months ago there were roomers that Mitt Romney would go ahead and let Obama care come into full effect in 2014 despite his many promises to repeal it on day one.  The come-back line here is "Since when has Mitt Romney ever kept a promise made in a campaign?"  Romney is slipping badly in the two recent political polls.  Romney is down by seven points in a CNN nation wide poll and in FOX news own poll Romney is down nine points to Obama.  Since this slippage has occurred so suddenly, it looks from here like the beginnings of a political melt-down for Romney.

This whole "2016" movie that is apparently out in theaters now, seems to be just one big flight of fancy.  They talk about Obama's history on several cotenents and how each contenent shaped some vital aspect of the President's extreme socialist philosophy.  Rush Limbaugh continues to speak of "President Obama nationalizing the auto industry".  When the President said "I'd like to see the same positive things for other American manufacturing interests as happened with the auto industry" then Rush said "You see, President Obama wants to Nationalize these industries, too.  This movie promo does the whole dire future routine with 2016 being a year none of us would end up recognizing.  Of course you've heard that people on the right like with Fox have accused the President as "Wanting to keep people in the Military from voting early" and how could the President do this?  And of course now we're hearing how the President is trying to foster laziness, and people on the right think ANY person who merits a government "safety net" program is lazy.  But now apparently Romney's next ad - - it will be his sixth so far that is a flat-out lie- - will be that the President is at heart a Socialist and wants to loose his plan on America next year after he's locked into a safe term.  And I guess the President is going to take everybody's guns from them at the same time.

Before eight I switched to KFI and it was Bill Handel and techy Leo Le Port being interviewed.  Both were commenting on the "perplexity factor" in today's technological divices.  The concencus is that no matter how tech savvy the average American is becoming, the evolution in technology itself is keeping too far ahead for people like myself, for sure, to ever be able to keep up with all of it.  Then it was Neil Savedra and the "Fork Report".  There is a major Los Angeles Food and Wine fest being held for a number of days at this one location where they have crimson red carpeting to hide wine spills.  Bill Handel advises people not to start off the evening with wine but rather to have a little bread in your stomach first.  It's a major event costing five hundred dollars per night but once you get in you are treated to a real gourmet fest of food and wine.  Bill Handel was there with Margerie and Margerie spent most of the time with Neil since Neil didn't bring his "wife".  A red flag went up in my mind because the Wickepedia article said Neil was gay and that he had a "life partner".  I looked for that bio article and found it had been scrubbed.  There were three other biography links on Neil Savedra and all three of them had had the texts scrubbed recently, just like Mitt Romney's computer back in the Massachusetts state house.  Mit Romney is even withholding detales about his time with the Olympic committee ten years ago.  What we basically know is that Mittens got a government hand out to save the Olympics.  Neil Savedra said he was going to speak this Sunday on his show as to "Whether God thinks competetion is a good idea or not".  He better not say the wrong things or he's upset a lot of people - - Rush Limbaugh and me included.  It would seem that those polls I sited in the last paragraph hold up because Bill Handel and Rich Merada repeated them this morning.  Mitt Romney is down nine points in the FOX poll and seven points in the CNN poll.  But as Rich remarks of this "sucky campaign" that it's only in the eight or ten battleground state that matter.  In most of them the President is ahead by at least five points- - beyond the margin of error- - or ballot box tampering.  The idea that the President would even be competetive in Colorado, conservative hot bed that it is, I find astounding.  In Virginia the President is gaining as Virginia as a whole is s state turning from red to "purple" because it's is becomming increasingly techy hence urban, hence Liberal.  It would seem that both Bill Handel and Rich Merada are still for Romney for President at this point- - but that many of the claims tea party people make about the President are false, and that they should knock it off.

I guess the Crypts gang is involved in prostitution rings taking high school girls from Riverside and recruiting them promising a lavish life style, and often older hookers are used to recruit the younger ones.  Of course I have known or been told for a long time that the bloods were the more moral of the two leading gangs, who wear red- - .  Now they are saying that Manuel Dias was involved in this East Anaheim drug gang which was busted yesterday for selling meth and stuff- - was it the Angel gang- - or something?  At any rate dragging Manuel Dias's name into the news report is a low blow in my oppinion but KFI made a point to do it twice.  Of course people have been searching for twenty days for "some connection" of Dias to ANY street gang and so far none have surfaced, and now they come up with this one.  Local gasoline prices are on the rise but nobody is accusing gas station owners of highway robbery.  It seems to violate Adam Smith economic sense of supply and demand.  It would seem that if one oil company had distributions with a pipeline in Wisconsin, the other companies which had no such supply problem would cash in- - and keep prices as the same levels since their profit rate would be untouched so that if they sold more gas taking up the crisis- - they would make more profits.  But it never seems to work that way.  Not so much as one company will break their lock step price synchronization. 

Last night Mike Meloy talked about how docile the President has been in responding to any attacks from his opponets no matter how prejudiced - ignorant- - or racist.  But Meloy fears that after the President gets reelected next year, which Meloy is sure will happen - - that these hate groups egged on by people like Sean Hannity and Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh will just "take this President out".  Someone will assasenate him early into his second term out of sheer voter frustration.  This is why it's important that the President get a handle on this situation now and take government steps to diffuse it before it gets out of hand.  I would issue any executive order I could barring certain firearms sales.  And I would start FCC investigations of people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.  I would also activate the SEC and do massive government investigations of Wall Street malfeasence.  I noted today that the SEC has decided not to charge Goldman Sachs for any violations of the law.  This adminitration my oppinion has gone way too far in trying to placate the political right and not to touch Wall Street- - OR these hate groups of the right.  Apparently one Homeland Security report was recalled because FOX and the political right put up such a stink.  It was hitting a little too close to home.  We'll need all these mad dog gun toting racist wingnuts to vote for Romney on election day.  After all, who else has he got?  The democrats could win this thing easily if they'd only fight back just a little.  Otherwise America as we know it will cease to exist as a nation.  America will have been turned into a third world nation on another continent, with all that entails.

Randi Rhodes and the Campaign Ad Wars

Today on the Randi Rhodes show she reviewed all four of the leading Romney ads against the President and now all four of them are patently false.  We first had the John Mc Cain quote taken completely out of context where the President is heard to say "If we keep talking about this economy we will lose".  Add number two is the one about the President saying "The Private Sector is doing Fine".  We know what the President meant.  He meant to say that the private sector has had impressive growth during all but the first couple of months of the Obama administration- - particularly corporate profits and the stock market.   Job Growth has climbed steadily month after month.  The third Romney add was the President saying "You didn't build that!" referring to roads and infrastructure and favorable tax laws and fire and police and security and all.  Now we have a new Romney add.  Apparently, according to the ad, President Obama last July 12th "quietly ended the work requirement in the Clinton welfare reform law passed in 1996".  The truth is that two states at least, Nevada and Utah, asked for more state autonomy and flexability in implementing the Welfare law to insure maximum compliance and all that.  And keep in mind there is a lifetime five year limit on Welfare.  But all Mitt Romney could conclude is that "The President is abandoming the work ethic for welfare bums".  But what about Mitt Romney's values and "work ethic".  Would it comply with traditional Puritan values to hire a bunch of lawyers and tax accountants- - to endeavor to get your property in La Jolla in California- the one with the elevator for his car-  - valued at only half the going market rate so as to pay only half the property taxes.  Doesn't the Puritan ethic dictate to be civic minded and pay your obligations gladly?  From a utilitarian stance- - how many of the poor and those in need of a doctor get money or get to see a doctor, with all of the money Romney spent on tax accountants?  And by the way let's end this talk about Mitt Romney having no idea how much he paid in taxes.  If he's honestly curious why doesn't he just release his taxes, and then we would all know how much he paid.  Romney told that ABC reporter, "I'll get back to you on that" but I don't think he ever followed up.  You know in some ways Mitt Romney is Obama's best weapon.  All Mitt Romney has to do is to get out there among the working poor and unemployed and let them ask him questions.  And like I say if Romney's smart he won't even allow the Presidential debates to take place.  But if they do go ahead, why not do as Randi suggests and have the candidates ask questions of each other and have no moderator per se but just someone there with a stop watch to insure that each candidate gets equal time talking.

Some statements are positively Daft - - .  Now conservative women are telling their "sisters" to just get married to a good man, preferably rich, and then "retire" and spend the next twenty years barefoot and pregnent.  Don't work in gainful employment and don't make waves.  There was one caller today on the Randi Rhodes show who stated that the NY Times is a liberal newspaper.  Even though Dick Chaney used the NY Times to "plant" stories.  Judith Miller, an NY Times reporter, later went to work for FOX news because she was a Bush lackey at heart anyhow.  And Randi actually played the taped speech with Grover Norquist saying to a howeling crowd that "We don't need congressmen to write bills.  We can write them ourselves.  And we sure don't lead any qualities in our President such as leadership or independant thinking.  All we need is a President with enough working digits to sign all the bills we place before him.  It's one thing to read the quote- - it's another thing to actually hear the words coming right from the horses' mouth.  Of course we know that the corporate media has gotten increasingly right of center.  Like I say I've switched to NBC Nightly News because I can't hack the ABC news division any more.  The corporate media is strangely false on exposing any of these four campaign laws that are completely false.  And it's funny if the right wing nut jobs have been particularly busy that day throwing wild accusations- - the news headline that evening will be "The President is in deep political trouble from searious new charges laveled", and not say word one about the void of any credibility of the right wing nut jobs hurling the accusations.

President Obama has come back with an add of his one- - on Bain Capital.  They mentioned this one steel plant in Ohio where this guy had been employed in a good job for 23 years in a stable, well established company.  That's before Bain capital took over and sank the company.  Well, the man lost his job.  But the story doesn't end there.  Being a union man he had good health care and now neither he nor his wife has any.  His wife got employment in a much lower paying job, that appearently did not have health care.  At some point the wife began feeling sick.  She delayed in going to a doctor.  She then went to the emergency room in a crisis and was told she had stage four cancer and died twenty two days later.  The moral of the add was "This is what happens to employees that corporations let go".  But I take issue with Randi Rhodes on one thing.  This was not just your garden variety job loss.  It was deliberately engineered.  You know Judy was telling me months ago that she hates labor unions because "Any Christian employer will naturally see to the welfare of his workers and pay them a living wave".  Just how Christian is it that Romney would not for a moment consider the fates of all the people who lost their jobs as a direct result of his medelling?  That's not Christian.  Apparently Mitt when told of his case made one of the most politically Daft remarks I've heard in years.  His response was "Well, if he lived in Massachusetts he would have had Romney-care".  Is he serious?  I mean how is that for politically cutting your own throat.  Randi points out that one way to make this add even better is to say that "When the Affordable Health Care act falls into full effect- - this sort of life tragedy will never happen again".

I sometimes wonder about people like Bob Dylan and their take, as a Christian, on the tea party.  I can't for the life of me fathom Bob Dylan endorsing in any way a Romney presidency.  In the first place Bob Dylan is a devout spiritual Christian - - and Romney is a Mormon.  But the Christian credentials of the tea party as a whole are pretty weak.  Romney is a Mormon.  Ayan Rand is an Atheist.  Eric Cantor is Jewish.  Sheldon Addelson is sympathetic to the nation of Israel, or so he claims.  As far as Bob Dylan the past 35 years of his life have been pretty wasted as far as song lyrics are concerned.  So basically Bob Dylan had fifteen good years and 35 years of lean and highly pithy years.  As you know who might say, "Two out of three ain't good".  Those of you who haven't read the entry just below this I urge you to do that as soon as we're finished here.  The posting has had a couple of updates today, August 8th in the morning.  You know- - President Obama should really join a food fundamentalist congregation like the Vinyard - if they're still around.  But knowing the tea party they would hire people paying them hansomly for deliberately doing things to foment friction between the President and any newfound Church.  And no doubt the Tea Party would sponsor a "President Obama is a religious hypocrite" comittee.  If this sounds a little sick to you - - remember this is the Tea Party we are talking about and when has that ever stopped them before?  Every day there is some new revelatory news on Romney's latest political doings.  I don't see how come these stories can break like crashing ways day after day and not eventually take their toll on Romney.  There is one new poll that says Mitt Romney's negatives are now at 49% whereas he only gets a 40% positive rating.  That poll number does not augur well for his success.  I guess we'll all just have to stay tuned and see what is next.  Hopefully it's not an earthquake.  We've had two of them around here and neither one is what I could call "little".  They were both substantial jolts, and one only wonders whether they might be a harvenger of coming things.

The Audacity of Exestentialism

"We are searching for something that has already found us" -Jim Morrison

"Jim Morrison liked word salads.  But unlike Dylan, Jim Morrison's word salads actually make sense.  You can follow his train of thought.  My words are more likely to have a higher cholesterol content, and run the risk of giving Tea Preachers heart attacks"

When John Lennon exploded in fury in song against Bob Dylan after he'd announced he was Born Again and had found Jesus, my reaction was, "I wish I had thought of doing that".

Exesteitialism is for people who have too much time on their hands.

An extentialist is a person who If they think it's happened to them then it's happened to everybody- and if it hasn't yet happened to them - then they call everybody whom it Has happened to as either a liar or "being excessively hypothetical".

Exestentialists are like babies who play peek-a-boo and think the whole world spontaniously disappears and re-appears.

The whole point of the song Exestential blues is to point out what assholes exestentialists really are.

Too many people go into a hypnotic trance while listening to the Sumdan sermon, and then when someone else actually comments adversely on the content of the sermon, they accuse them of "having a real Faith problem".

Mind games are fine for a lyrical diversion in song, but when the mind games themselves BECOME the whole reality- - you fall into the pitfall of starting to worship your own accidental error.

The trouble with the clergy and religious teachers is that they don't really want me to Love them, or even like them.  They want me to Worship them!

Too many people such as Bob Dylan are so mentally fucked up that if someone suggests they aren't perfect they say "You're problem is that you are being unloving and judgemental"

Well not to quote Lloyd Benson or anything but, "I knew Jim Morrison.  Jim Morrison was a friend of mine.  And Dr. Levy - - you're no Jim Morrison.  Jim Morrison and I both agree that life is meaningless.  This is just a fact of life every man has to deal with.  But it's not enough to base a whole philosophy on once you've recognized the basic reality of it.  I'm pretty sure neither of us believes that you can Petetion the Lord with Prayer - - like the song says.  Both of us also believe in some sort of a caticlismic end of the world at some point that in no way can be foretold when or where.  Jim Morrison believes the world will end in a firey confligration at Dawn - - "Somewhere in the West".  But right off we are confronted with a logical problem.  Here is what it is.  Though an exestentialist will start with saying that Life is Meaningless- - that is all of that "Meaning of Life" the Zen Buhddists talk about- - - he does not then take the next Logical conclusion step and say "further discussion is pointless".  Rather Dr. Levy is always talking about "discovering the meaning of life' or "finding the meaning of life" or "ways of giving your life meaning".  But as I said it seems to me all too often that people who get into Exestentialism are married men in their mid forties going through a "mid life" crisis and want to "find the meaning of life" and suddenly find reason to be bored with their marriage and loyal wives and families.  So in the name of "finding themselves" they go have one affair after another with young chicks.  These people may call themselves exestentialists- - but a more conceise word for them is Selfish Pigs.  Dr. Levy is always talking about how it's out duty to "get our lives to have meaning".  But I think he's confusing his terms.  What I seek is not "meaning" per se- - more likely I am seeking personal fulfillment, or happiness, or accomplishment, or pleasure or just an improved environment.  Screw the "meaning" of it.  This whole "meaning of life" thing seems to imply the Existance of a God who in fact does not exist.  Who wants to read poetry by a person who claims to be seeking something he's already asserted does not exist.  People want love, - - - and they want things, they want pleasure, and hopefully - influence and relivence. Certantly we can all join some moral cause that "matters" and the political campaign of re electing the President would be an excellent way to start  Some say "worldly things only bring temporary pleasure".  Well I've got news for you buddy, we are ALL "temporary" on this earth.  Contrary to Dr. Levy's teachings these worldly things can and do bring happiness.  You know money brings Dr. Levy happiness because otherwise he wouldn't be a member of the Tea Party.  But I've made this last observation before in that Exestentialism is most dangerous in that it is a "Gateway philosophy" that leads to something off-the-wall like Born Again-ism.  Chuck Smith imagines every unsaved person to be an Exestentialist, which he is most emphatically not.  So right off he would lead you down a false "garden path" or train of thought- - with a surprise ending inside an Orange County fundamentalist church and you have no idea why you're suddenly professing all this bullshit you would have laughed at yesterday.  Exestentialists seem to have an inordenant capacity to Self Pity. I think the healthiest thing you can do mentally is just "get over it" ie. the fact that life has no inherent meaning.  There IS mo "Master plan of a loving God you should be made aware of".  If I write something- - I am qualified to say what it means.  If something happens TO me for either good or bad- - - it's not my job to find "meaning" in it.  Not to be flip or anything but, "That's God's problem".  This implies who ever planned my day that day has some "master agenda" it's my personal duty to discover, - - - that is part of some grand design for the world, and for my life.  Stop batting at the air, and just get on with the Business of Living Life itself.  Life is too short to let it slip through your fingers like sand, while you hold endless pointless debate with yourself on some otherwise unknown "true nature of it".

Randy Rhodes seemed to be on the same blogger wavelength as me remarking about what a devoid of morality or humanity – lying- sleazebag Mitt Romney was.  Great minds think alike.  She stated plainly that Harry Reed out-ranks her on the Latter Day Saints and there is some kind of a personal vendetta on between the two of them.  Reed told Nancy Pelosi the identity of the guy who informed about Romney’s lack of taxes.  Someone at Cable News Network also was told who it was.  This secret won’t stay secret for long.  The Koch Brothers were being investigated by the Clinton justice department and had 97 charges filed against them basically in the area of benzene pollution and water table contamination and a swath of cancer deaths in its wake.  All Koch had to do was pay a lot of money and the Bush Administration dropped the investigation right away.  That’s what you call pay for play.  As much as they donate to Republicans like Romney- - you can bet for them it’s an investment and they will get a lot more money yield out than they put in.  Pay for play.  And of course Sheldon Addelson is being investigated now by the LA District attorney and by this justice department with any number of really serious charges.  Randy Rhodes read from a lengthly article with all the specifics of the many criminal violations involving leaders of foreign countries.  Of course if Addelson gives Romney enough money- - he can make this all go away.  These naked types of influence peddling don’t bother Judy one bit.  She regards people like this as pure as Jesus Christ.  Perhaps it might be a good idea to reexamine the moral integrity of Jesus Christ.  You know, every day brings something new with Mitt Romney, and there is still lots more to come with revelations about other as yet unknown, seedy aspects of Bain Capital.  We find it all out in time.

That lady host of the morning show used to be a juvenile parole officer.  I just hope she’s fair and doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder or something.  She seemed pissed at some juveniles and said “If my kids tried that kind of balk talk it would be the first and last time”.  It’s like that Mother with the whole child management program that says “And if you talk back to me after this program I will take steps to make sure you never talk back to me again”.  The lady seemed to regard these private “boot camp” delinquent child agencies as just fine, no matter how much the kids are ranted and screamed at.  They’ve done pieces on these sort of pay for correction outfits on Sixty Minutes.  There seems to be a lot of blatent verbal and physical abuse at these camps.  I guess I'm thinking that if I already have "issues" with my family - - all of this isn't going to help. The host suggested it would be a good idea to retrain the parents so that there would be no recurring misbehavior.  That way the child can have the same wonderful environment at home that they- - had to endure in the camps.  All I can say is that if it were me- - suddenly I’d see running away from home as a much more viable- and perhaps self-preservation option.

You know that I think Obama's book title "The Audacity of Hope" is a little too self descriptive for his own good.  Hope without a plan becomes audacity.  It's this old pie in the sky crap that too many Christians preach.  I'm not referring to those who stand by Faith in certain Bible passages that "speak to them" sometimes explicity, about various promises of God.  On the contrary I have no problem with people like Kenneth Copland, Kenneth Hagen, and Joel Olsteen.  However many people are one way in rhetoric yet when you meet them one on one they are anything but positive, as far as how they regard Your future.  Many pastors use this "pie in the sky" rhetoric to cover up the fact that they do not believe At All.  Doubt is not a sign of unbelief.  On the contrary testing and questions and unresolved issues- - are things that people walking a Christian path encounter.  If a person really din't have "Faith" he'd have no problem with doubt.  He would never "try" or "test" God, because he would have already declared him irrelivent.  Dr. Levy likes to talk of being optimistic and upbeat, and yet he is anything But - - when it comes to the US economy, which he is forever forecasting the worst about.  The thing is if you cast your lot with Obama you are positive in that you already Believe- - that we are now on the Right path and we need only to Stay on that path and not deviate from it.  If you believe your salvation lies in Romney, you have to believe we start from scratch from square one.  This is an inherently harder task, mentally.  Especially when Judy says - or has - - that "Things have to get a lot worse before they can get better".  Even though these people plainly admit that the sort of slash and burn government cutbacks they contemplate- - would further harm the economy- - they believe in God, they claim (now) and that somehow God will look down and see our Piety and a hand will come down and rescues us from not only all of our economic problems but presumably solve all of our ecological and race relation problems, too.  Just between you and me- - I much prefer my Hope to be Hope with actual HOPE behind it- - meaning the odds of success are substantially elevated from what they were before said Hope.  I see nothing "Hopeful" or uplifting - and I see no plan - - in anything candidate Romney says or does.

2012 - "The Campaign of Shame"

Today is Monday August 6, 2012 and it could well be that the first of the two party conventions won’t start for another three weeks.  And this is already the second week in August.  The political news will be in hiatus for a few more weeks now.   It seems Rob Portman or Ohio's candidacy would be very ill advised since he was President Bush's budget director.  Now there is a new reason for not voting for Romney courtessy Nicole Sandler.  She says she's been researching the Later Day Saints church, and they make every member of a certain rank swear a "blood oath" that should push come to shove, they will be loyal to the Later Day Saints over and at the expense of the United State's government.  The history books will not be kind to this sick political era at all.  In the first place I honestly can't remember When I heard a word come out of Mitt Romney's mouth that wasn't a blatant Lie.  Lies are rapent now.  Who would guess that so many Catholic women use birth control when - - the idea of having birth control pills covered by Insurance is considered a "disaster" on the scale of Pearl Harbor or 9 - 11.  August first is the day various women's rights became established in the Affordable Health Care act.  I have heard wildly varying numbers in terms of the percentage of Planned Parenthood patients that actually get abortions.  Let me tell you I will not take it kindly should I find that the tea party has lied to me once again on this issue where I have been defending them.  Of course you know that Mitt Romney's lie about whether he paid taxes for ten years or not is going to be exposed by a lie.  Harry Reed could get so pissed it's haul off and "Out" his source.  Of course John Mc Cain knows the facts.  The IRS themselves knows whether Romney paid.  And Romney's church knows whether he paid those taxes or not.  Inferentially- - if there were ANY year where Romney DID pay normal taxes, Romney would proudly have released THAT year.  The fact that Romney hasn't released ANY year is telling.  Ed Schultz said "It would seem to me if you're going to call Harry Reed a liar and appropiate come back would be to say "Well then, if you know Harry Reid is a liar, I can only assume that YOU have seen how much Mitt Romney pays in taxes".  The tea party wants to ban birth control in an era of exploding world population.  They abolished the assault weapons ban.  They overturned all those bank and security regulations passed under FDR.  They cut effective corporate taxes to near nothing.  Now they want to start a Nuclear War in Iran, hopefully getting Israel to do most of the initial dirty work.  You have people openly complaining that "The Catholic Church is being taken over by Latinos" as Pat Buchannon did last Saturday.  You have a niggardly President too scared shitless to move a muscle on getting gun laws passed.  You have people pressing for vastly expanded petroleum drilling in the face of the most glaring evidence of global warming this year.  Now scientists have come out and said that there IS direct cause and effect of certain specific events in Nature to global warming.  People will be reading tomorrow's History books and Encyclopedias will be so filled with revulsion and disgust at this era- - Mitt Romney will be running to Lucifer where he'll be more likely to get mercy bestowed him than from these future US historians in America.  The Republicans are so ashamed of their past Presidents the only guy they will even identify with at all is some highly "idealized" and historically distorted picture of President Ronald Reagan.

Just to review the shooting at the Siek temple in Milwaukee- - the shooter was a forty year old military officer and the lead singer in a White Power metal group and has tattoos on his body that spell cryptic initials.  His name is Wade Michael Page.  He was demoted and given a discharge from the military.  The government has already had him on their radar.  Six people have died so far and use “only” one gun.  A nine millimeter semi automatic pistol.  It would seem that Page mistook them for Moslems, not that that would have made it OK.  The media seems to be more sympathetic when he's white people who are killed by a non white assailant.  The FBI considers this a case of domestic terrorism.  Please clarify for me, is the tea party for or against the FBI now?  I know they hate Eric Holder for enforcing the 1965 Voting rights act.  But just in case you need to be reminded, virtually all of those lone gun nuts turn out to be lily-white males.  Of course people like Nicole Sandler want to know why nobody is taking steps to restrict gun sales.  Today the President informs he wants to bring back the assault weapon ban, but no congressional action will be taken. Back when I was in school - - people who took bold stands om moral issues were hailed as heroes of integrity- - and not denigrated as occurs too often in today's corporate media.

 

The Mars rover right on schedule, just seven seconds late.  It is a much larger craft than previous ones that “look like tinker toys in comparison” as Rush puts it.  Rush mentioned all of the five hundred thousand lines of computer code that have to be written without error, and one little error will screw up the whole operation.  Rush claims he was involved in programming holes in punch tape when he worked at an automated radio station in Kansas City.  People like Nicole want to know why we could not divert some money from the military into other science areas, either research or space exploration.  Others don’t see the point in going to an alien planet at all.  They are the negative Nelly’s like Born Again Christians with their head in the sand, or some other bodily orifice.  Even defense research yields fruits of progress used in products every day.  We would see a lot more of these product research dividends if we increased the space program at least five fold, and in this I am in full sympathy with Rush Limbaugh, who doesn’t understand why President Obama shut down NASA.  When you produce a weapon – boom! -  Boom! – and it’s all gone.   Roads and bridges can last the better part of a century.  But all of this is too logical of thinking for the tea party to countenance.  You know I still say that if President Obama would propose a gun law he could boost his ratings five or six points among his base right off the bat.  And if he’s really serious about sticking it to Mitt Romney in the polls he could begin attending church.  Wouldn’t the tea party be tongue tied on that one.  Mitt Romney would be so tied up in knots he wouldn’t know whether to shit or wind a wrist watch” to quote Jack Nicholson.  Of course the announcement of a rebel triumph in Syria wouldn’t hurt either, but Michelle Bachman wouldn’t be happy about that.  47 years ago was the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights law.  It’s landmark bills like that that boost a President’s rating in the polls.  But I’m not yet entirely convinced this President WANTS to win in November.  Poll numbers indicate that the best way to gain points is to shore up his base like the tea party has so successful and efficiently – I might add- - done, over the past three and a half years.

Most of these forrest fires that have ravaged the west were started by dry lightning, and not ninety percent by people, as they falsely have claimed.  We live in a world where people claim so many things.  Dennis Prager has stated it as incontrovertible fact that the whole “second hand smoke” argument is completely bogus.  I would like to believe him.  Certain people like Nicole Sandler like to say that the Civil War was fought basically over the issue of Slavery.  If that were really true than I’d imagine slaves in droves would leave the South to join the Union Army.  That didn’t happen.  Many slaves actually defended the South.  Only a small percentage of the people in the South were even slave holders.  Let’s face it- - the Republicans loved a good war then as they do now- - (which is why they carried on so many active wars of aggression against plains Indians)  -and winning a war became the ONLY concern of President Lincoln as he later plainly admitted.  Assuming the Union won the war they “lost the peace” with the election deal to get Rutherford B Hayes into power in 1877.  Clearly the Republicans then as now valued political power over principle.  Don’t be fooled by Larry Elder’s Niggardly research habits.  Of course when it comes to myths these diet and health freaks live in some parrellel universe.  Does Dr. Oz ever NOT do a show based on diet and lowing weight?  Men need about 2,200 or twenty two hundred calories a day.  One third of those calories would make a caloric count in the seven hundreds.  So Dr. Oz spends the show touting meals around 350 calories.  One more myth that needs busting is that if you’re 200 pounds and diet down to 150 you have to perpetually consume 25% less food or your weight will go right back up.  That’s a bunch of crap.  Your calorie and energy needs are virtually identical at 150 pounds as they were at 200.  You’re still the same body with the same nutritional needs.  Figure it out.  How long could a person go on their Dr. Oz diets with every meal reduced forty to fifty percent in calories, if not more- - without becoming thin as a rail soon.  These Dr. Oz types are as obsessive and one sided on this issue as the tea party is on such issues as “The ideal government tax rate should be zero”.

Red Flagg Allertt!

"Honey pray for sunny skies, so I can see the rainbows in your eyes"

Today's Breakfast with the Beatles lyric of the day

You know I wasn't sure whether I even wanted to do this posting because it was triggered by some rather assenine commentary on that KFI show that airs before six on Sunday morning.  But then I thought 'You know, you can even learn life lessons from a jack-ass if God wills it" as evidenced by the story of Baalam and his ass - in the Bible, with or without the additional commentary in "Jude" later on. I'm not referring to the Mc Cartney song, but even there you can find useful amplification of the theme.  "Get on with the fascenation - the underlying theme".  So right now we're going to talk about Rush, the radio commentator, that is and a little "challenge" he issued to democrats last week.  I'd like to take him up on it.  Rush Limbaugh said last week "Someone just called me up doing the break and informed me that President Obama got failing grades at his time in Harvard - - and the media is covering it up".  This is in response to Harry Reed's alligation that Mitt Romney did not pay taxes for some ten years during his time with Bain Capital and an investor of Bain Capital says so.  So I'll make a deal with Rush.  I will go around telling people that the President got failing grades at Harvard- - IF Rush will get on his fifty thousand watt blow torch and announce on his show that he was wrong about Romney and it is in fact True that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for some ten years in a row, and that if Mitt wants to put up an argument all he has to do is to release his taxes and remove all of this needless doubt.  ABC has taken to worshipping the great god two-side by giving equal credence to Republicans and Democratic arguments, when any objective person can plainly see that there IS no equivelence.  This commentator on KFI says that President Obama is the worse President since Millard Fillmore or Franklin Pierce, names nobody ever heard of, who were US Presidents.  He says "Well - - back in the 1850's railroads only ran 45 mph and we have about sunk back to that speed now".  What he omits in this argument is that if the President had his way- - high speed railroads would be built as a much higher rate if the Republican congress would only get off the dime and approve it.  Also it's the republican congress that has blocked so many good bills, including many jobs bills, that would bring down the US unemployment rate at least another whole percentage point.  President Obama was not wholly wrong in saying "The Private sector is doing fine" because the private sector is doing much better than the public sector, which is actually contributing negative jobs to the overall job creation numbers.  Of course this idea of Romney that the fact that people aren't hiring is Romney's fault is silly because not even the President has the power to force people to hire and to spend- - if they don't want to, and the argue that any President DOES have this power is a fool's erand.  The President had done everything he physically can to spur jobs growth but he is hemmed in on all sides.  Some will argue that "What we need is investment" however - - Bain Capital "invested" in companies- - by creating artificial debt and then bankrupting them.  Far from encourage economy- - like President Bush- - Bain Capitol deliberately created debt to bankrupt companies and drive people into the unemployment lines, just as the Bush economic policies did.  We work under false "memes" such as the idea that "government spending kills jobs".  No, government spending by its very nature almost ALWAYS increases employment because by its very nature it puts more money into circulation.  Mitt Romney has no plan to reduce unemployment.  By this way this line about "returning to traditional American values" - - by people like Newt - - does he mean bringing back slavery- - or state run Churches like we had at the time of the Colonies or Newt's notion that "education with out religious indoctrination is dangerous"?  Do these people mean voting should be restricted to white, male, property owners?  Ask yourself.  So now let's just look at Messers Pierce and Fillmore- - and see if they were really as BAD as this KFI host claims.  Did the economy undergo some major recession this period?  No.  Was there any major political scandal going on.  No.  Were we at war?  No.  Was there the major genocide of Indian tribes we witnessed later in the 'sixties and 'seventies during this period?  No.  Were slave conditions made worse during this period?  No.  Was the US importing a lot of slaves during this period?  No.  Was Dread Scott decided or was John Brown executed during the terms of either President?  No.  Was it Pierce of Fillmore that ignored southern states when they seceeded?  No.  So it seems that these two really were NOT the "worst presidents of all time".  This KFI host says that the smart thing to do is NOT to vote for either candidate.  But in NOT voting you play into the hands of the tea party, and you'll remember how well that worked for us in 2010 with electing the tea party congress.  Do we really want to have another experiance like that again?  No.  Do we want Romney picking the next Supreme Court justices?  No.  Basically this guy on before six on Sunday mornings doesn't know what he's talking about- - on just about anything.