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Climate vs. Weather

Or, can't see the forest for the trees.

You know how it is, when you're lookin' around and you see little storms brewing, but you don't pay much attention because they seem isolated, they seem disparate and unconnected, and the bigger picture gets lost? I think we're on the verge of seeing them all coalesce into one, big, dark, ugly typhoon.

1. The collapse of state bonds is now being predicted within the next 12 months by a chick on Wall Street, who also happened to predict the housing and bank meltdowns of 2008. The hacks over at CNBC, according to an article over at RawStory, are completely discounting her and calling her an alarmist, as would be expected, because they're soooo good at predicting calamity themselves. 
2. The latest round of former Bush, but now Obama tax cuts, will add a sizable chunk to the massive national debt, giving a huge break to the wealthiest in this country, while raising taxes on the poorest, and which will make it impossible for the Federal government to lend any help to the states or municipalities.
3. The FCC is getting ready to vote against net neutrality, another issue tanked on by Obama, thereby ending the free and open Internet as we know it. It will be a boon to the cable and telecommunications industries, which will now be able to charge higher rates based on usage, while restricting access to those who depend on wireless networks, and which will also allow the companies providing internet services to decide what kind of content they deem appropriate for their service, which in my mind could easily amount to censorship.
4. The US, as revealed today by the NY Times, now wants to expand the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan, which would, in my thinking, be a complete war on the Muslim world, nevermind the "terrorists." Pakistan is a nuclear country, as well, and believe me, the idea of World War III is spinning in the back of my mind.
5. As the WikiLeaks document dump has proved, the United States, in all its empirical glory, is dictating actions and policies to governments and regimes all over the world, while our own country's infrastructure is collapsing, our government is going broke, and our citizenry is being bled dry, except for the top 1-2%, who have amassed the lion's share of the wealth in this country.

In my mind, when you put all of this together, it's a recipe for disaster. I don't see any good coming from this at all, and I think these five items are just the tip of the iceberg.


God, I just want to cry when I think about that vote I cast for Obama. He has been an unmitigated disaster for this country.

The stupid. It burns. Palin style. I hate her.

“This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts.”
~~Sarah Palin on Julian Assange/WikiLeaks

I have to take a few deep breaths before I start writing, because I really do hate this bitch with a passion that knows no bounds ...

In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth.

I'll give her one thing – Assange is un-American.

Dipshit.

Of course, I should be "fair and balanced" and provide context for the above quote, from Jake Tapper and ABC News:

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email.

Hackers in London apparently affiliated with “Operation Payback” – a group of supporters of Julian Assange and Wikileaks – have tried to shut down SarahPac and have disrupted Sarah and Todd Palin’s personal credit card accounts.

“No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange's antics,” Palin emailed. “This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts.”

The irony of that ridiculous, fucktardian** statement is so very painful.

You know, it's not often that I root for people who are obviously knowingly breaking the law, but ...

Go, Operation Payback! Go!

What's OP's tagline? Oh yes. "Freedom of Speech – Priceless. For everything else, there's MasterCard." Catchy. I like it.

Suck it, Palin!

Speaking of MasterCard, and its fraternal twin Visa, they were both taken down today by Operation Payback, as well.

I find this whole thing so very fascinating. You've got the geeky anti-hero, Assange, holed up in a jail cell in England on "allegations" of rape and sexual misconduct. Funny thing about those allegations, though; the women involved didn't intend to file charges against Assange, they simply wanted to track him down to tell him to get tested for STDs (how that morphed into rape charges allegations, I will never understand). Then you have this entire, anonymous subculture of hackers that has arisen to his defense and is attacking the companies, people, etc. who have attacked him. In a way that's the scariest (but oddly inspiring) part, because these people mean business. On their Twitter feed, they announced Visa as a target, gave the ETA, and – BOOM – Visa's website went down.

I'm impressed, and yes, I guess you could say that I'm rooting for them in a way. Power to the People, Man!

**I know I just pulled a Palin and created a new word – fucktardian – but I kinda like it!

Fucktardia - Where Sarah Palin is Queen!

There once was a girl from Fucktardia,
Who had a bad case of giardia,
Retard's her name, unleashed by McCain,
Of dipshit Republican Partia!

Ah well, it's time to pay tribute to a great man. I share a birthday with him and I often wonder what the world would look like had he lived on. 

Rest In Peace, John! We miss you! 

Dreamers of the World: UNITE! Come out and play!

The disappointment...

...is palpable. And painful.

You know, I regretted my vote in 2004 for John Kerry. It was the first time I had voted for a candidate that wasn't from a third party, but I wanted Bush outta there so bad I could taste it, so I held my nose and voted for Kerry, convincing myself that anything, anyone had to be better than Bush. In 2008 I, like every other sucker who voted for Obama, bought into the fancy speeches, the glossy rhetoric, the idea of Yes We Can! and the thought that America could be a respectable country again...

Well, No We Can't, apparently.

What's that old saying? Hind sight is 20-20? God, if I'd known that Obama was gonna morph into Bush 2.0, On Fucking Steroids, I never would have voted for him. That vote for Obama literally makes me want to crawl on the floor, curl up into a fetal position and cry.

Bill Maher said on CNN the other day that he thought Obama looked beaten, wimpy, wussy. I think that was a bit kind, because I think Obama looks like a cynical politician who is doing the politically expedient thing to protect his position of power. I think he looks like a man who forgot every word he said, every promise he made on the campaign trail the minute he took that oath. I'm not saying that he would have been able to keep every promise he made while he campaigned, but I am saying that the guy has no backbone, no fight, no balls, no nothin'! Either that, or he really is just a Republican in Democratic clothes.

Massive Fails - Let's just look at the list:

1. Health Care - Fail

2. Financial Reform - Fail

3. Help for Mortgage Holders - Fail

4. Guantanamo - Fail

5. Extraordinary Rendition/Torture - Fail (In fact, he's worse than Bush, e.g. ordering the assassination(s) of American-born citizens with no due process)

6. Respect for the Rule of Law - Fail

7. Environment/Climate Change - Fail

8. Protection For the Middle/Working Class - Fail

It's fucking depressing. And the thing that's truly scary? Because of all this, we could actually end up with a President Dipshit Palin, or Romney, or Gingrich, or Huckabee, and then we'll really be up shit creek without a paddle. The aggregate effect of all of this is really starting to sink in, and the reality of an America in decline becomes very sharp and more defined with every day that passes.

Wiki, Wiki, WikiLeaks

It sounds like a Hawaiian hula dance!

But if you were to listen to the news, you'd think the United States was about to explode in a nuclear cloud. I for one am pretty glad that WikiLeaks is around because, god knows, our media couldn't hold our government accountable for shit, much less investigate their way out of a paper bag. I find it amusing, but don't really understand, all of the rhetoric coming from the politicians and the media over this thing. Some people are calling for this Julian Assange dude to be tried for treason, even though he's not an American citizen (Thanks, Sarah Palin! Another winning missive outta your pie-hole!), some are calling for the plain and simple execution of Assange, with no charges, due process, trial, etc., some are saying that if Assange is hiding in a foreign country, we should invade that country to catch him, even if said country is an ally ...

Ka-blooey! There goes the collective American brain in a single puff of insanity!

Honestly, are the documents, or cables telling us anything we didn't know already? Aside from the fact that employees and diplomats with the State Department are a bunch of petty, backstabbing little high school mean girls? There were a couple of things that surprised me, like Hilary Clinton (and Condoleezza Rice) asking our diplomats to spy on their peers, to the point of collecting DNA, at the United Nations. If I were from another country, I'd be more than a little pissed about that one. I mean, honestly ... DNA? What the fuck?! What are they?! Fuckin' E.T.?! (Phone home! I would, but she just pricked my dialing finger with a needle!!!)

Then of course there was this shocker: Saudi Arabia, while one of our biggest "allies," was also begging the US to strike Iran over their nuke program, while at the same time funding al Qaeda. Boy, oh boy! We sure know how to pick 'em, don't we?!

You know, over the Thanksgiving weekend I watched All The President's Men with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, portraying Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, respectively, and their Watergate story that blew the top off that chain of events. What happened to that kind of journalism? That dogged, pit bull, I'm-gonna-grab-ya-by-the-jugular-then-rip-your-face-off kind of reporting. It's so incestuous now. The media feeds off the politicians, the politicians feed off the media ... but then the people are fed this regurgitated shit-sandwich they call the news ... it's disgusting ... but we keep on swallowin' it.

Personally, I'm thankful for WikiLeaks. I'm glad to see what our government is doing behind closed doors, and to see someone actually hold their feet to the fire, albeit in a round about sort of way. After all, I'm the one paying for it, as is every other tax-paying American in this country. And to know that my country is conducting itself in a not-so-dignified manner, at yours and my expense, pisses me off to no end.

Oh, but wait. I just remembered ... the other thing that's sticking in my craw, courtesy of Judson Phillips, President of the Tea Party Nation:

PHILLIPS: The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

Ahem, excuse me, I have something in my throat ... *cough*

FUCK YOU!

Up the ass, you fucking asshole ... 

Challenge my right to vote!
I dare you!

Happy place! Happy place! I need my happy place!!! Arrrggghhh!

A new home...

... that I apparently started a few months ago. Hmmm ... short term memory's always the first to go. Ah well, all good things show up in their due time, I guess, or something like that. I'm glad to have a place here, though. I needed a new place to blog. I was starting to feel confined at the other spot and I'm feeling the need to move on to a place where I can start fresh.

So, here we are.