Highpocrisy

2012

2012-01-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

It would appear we skipped the year-end downer of a post... sorry to say. J has been J, and Rollah has been waiting for the right issue / event to come along worthy of a quick HIGHpocrisy award. [If you thought it would be the GOP train wreck of a campaign, you don't know us. That $#*& writes itself.] We'll kick this 1 off instead with a little pondering of the 2011-ending defense authorization bill, the one with a provision that allows US citizens to be detained indefinitely, without due process, in clear violation of the little ol' Constitution - the document that founded this place. Dear Mr. President, if you had such serious reservations about signing the bill, here's a thought: DON'T SIGN IT !!! In case you're wondering if it will have a chilling effect on ~~free speech~~, ... [ ]
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Some & Others

2011-10-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

Seriously one of the dumbest headlines I can recall coming from the NY Times. Who are these people? Who are the 'some' and who are the 'others'? Are they the same, the some? Or, is there another other?
Again with the false equivalency, oh free press, really? Peaceful sit-in, camp-out style protesters get pepper-sprayed and arrested, but tea-baggers carry guns and signs threatening violence, nothing happens... exactly the same thing. And why exactly shouldn't the D party be moved to the left? That's where it is supposed to be; not the right (conservadems, blue dogs), not even the middle (independents for a reason), not at the intersection of Crazy St. and Nutbar Ave., but as a counter-vailing alternative to the far right movement that re-branded '~~hijacked~~' the opposing political party... Speaking of alternatives, how about a nice story on how the R-led House has not put forth 1 single piece of jobs legislation since last year's election. Not 1. Dem somes of bitches!

PS, Bill Maher was on Rachel last night, saying the same thing about the Dems, that they need a push from the left. Of course he has a forum to say that, he also has a TV show! We have the best little blog that no one ever reads or has ever heard of, so there.

Roots

2011-09-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

Looking at recent entries via ThinkProgress, 4 just within this past week, we acknowledge non-rocker Joe Walsh (R-Splitsville) for his HIGHpocrisy. Happy MNF to another season.

Laugh or cry?

2011-08-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

We were only going to link to the funny; we need to smile once in awhile. But then we could not help ourselves, so here's the sad. What bothers me is how certain this author makes it seem. J knows as well as I do, that enough idiots vote in this country to make the sad a reality. 50 million chose McCain-Palin, willingly! So if there are enough dumass, sums of bitches out there to pick another kit-shicking Texas moron and even dumber Quitter Queen (the new batshade ticket that would literally hit the self-destruct button), that would be as good a time as any to get out. I have not seen the new Planet of the Apes movie, but maybe that Caesar chimp can run as an independent in 2016? On a happier note, there won't be much of a country left to lead if all this comes to pass.

and, Scariest

2011-08-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

We interrupt our new-found call to action with a depressing analysis (one man's opinion) of the current state of our nation and its democratically-elected leader. Hey, we've been there: we said 'lover, not fighter', we bought the rope-a-dope style before, benefit of the doubt and all that. We would still vote for someone smart over someone we can have a beer with, but we can do better. Let's keep moving, let's change the system so one day, we can show them both what real 'progress' looks like.

On Wisconsin post-script, to turn a phrase: lament the 'playahs', hate the game.

Tinkers to Evers to

2011-08-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

no Chance.

[Modern-day, turned from Taibbi to Rich to Krugman; see our earlier posts.]

Maybe the small sliver of 'hope' remaining here is that enough of us are 'fired up' to find a viable 3rd-party candidate who can restore democracy to its rightful place among humanity's greatest achievements, right up there with fire and TiVo.

Back to the well

2011-07-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

We don't check HuffPo anymore, not since the AOL 'merger'. But occasionally, if something there is linked to something in blogs we do read, we can take a gander. For example, this. Agree or disagree?

We've written plenty in our headier, naive days, about expectations; about how maybe we refused to see what Rachel Maddow and others may have seen all along (Obama as corporate centrist, moderate, etc.); look where we came from to where we are; what Bush hath wrought (he enabled Obama's victory). We've talked about making history, albeit too briefly, and we've commented on America being an empire in decline. I guess at this point who cares whether we're right or wrong?

It's not easy being a leader, globally or in your everyday life. Like anything, you need to work at it; you need practice and patience to get better at something. 'You fight the fights you can win'; or, 'You fight the fights that need fighting'. Time to take a stand, set a goal, and get r done. See you out there.

Scarier?

2011-07-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

Just a different kind of scary, but it only matters to those who still cling to seemingly outdated notions of social justice and fundamental fairness ... like us.

Holy Bachshade (June 2011 ed.)

2011-06-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Scary, scary. What more can we say?

Right Bak at Cha (a chat among friends)

2011-06-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

And so the dialogue goes something like this --
Not-so-silent Rollah (NR): hey Mr. Positive, it's me, the pessimist. Remember how I was saying America is an empire in decline and all that? Scroll around our blog, it's got good stuff. Obama may be the smartest guy to be elected Prez. ever, but how smart can he be if he can't get re-elected against this loser crop? We're still in agreement that ending wars might help, right? Whole lotta deficit crap to waste a trillion dollars now and then, but aside from all that, you are welcome to comment. How about something like a quick 'how-to' guide, some steps that we the people can take right now, to help ourselves and a few of our fellow citizens? Leadership is accountability my friend, but you know that. Vancouver: the new Malibu.

"Paul Revered", long-time friend, hopeful new contributor (PR): This was sent to me today on facebook. Now is the moment to change the country. Now is the time to change the system. Now is the time to wake up the masses to the fact that they have lost the class war. The average American is earning less and and can look forward to spending more on everything from gas to water. You heard me... because people are conserving water, like the water companies told us too, we have to pay more because their revenues are down and they cannot afford to deliver water.

NR: I admire your platitudes, but they're a tad vague, n'est ce pas? How are you changing the system? How are you waking up the masses? I haven't had a raise in 5 yrs, in some of my peak earning years as well. What action can I take right now, Mr. Now? How can I help? Re: the article, my take-away in 2 words: "making things" - the US doesn't make anything anymore. Income disparity is at an all-time high, but 1 of the 2 major political parties is morally bankrupt, sometimes outright racist, and opposed to a guy who's about as progressive as a corporate centrist can be. Reagan was not transformative b/c he was the best politician (he wasn't even a good one); he was considered transformative b/c he sold his generation a bill of goods. Court, meet Ball.

J's 'blue' period

2011-06-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

When J speaks, we post. Play along at home: put an 'H' (for HIGHpocrisy) in the post if you spot something --

"I hate to admit it, because I have always prided myself in being a pretty positive person, but I think I have officially sunk to the depths of “Club Cynicism”. I am so tired of the endless suppository of Fox News horse hooey that is routinely torpedoed up the rectums of the mindless idiots that keep bending over for more. Torn and bleeding, these mental midgets continue to wrap themselves in the American Flag and scream about the dangers of socialism and entitlements, gobbling up the heaping tubs of steamy excrement shoveled into their eager mouths by people who really don’t give two shits if these morons instantaneously combusted and disappeared forever. [H]

Worse still are the people who have the power to affect change and can’t manage to summon the intellectual capacity to take on this nonsense. The arguments being made by the GOP are so dishonest and transparent, yet the Dems are at a complete loss to expose them for the malignant cancer they are. This is why the first commandment of the members of C2 is “Distrust All Politicians”. The only thing to conclude is that they are ALL THE SAME. All they care about is getting re-elected and staying in power. And another thing that gets me is this whole idea that politicians are “public servants”. That’s another load of crap. Fat budgets, huge staffs and cushy hours are light years away from the definition of “public service”. Politicians make more money than teachers…….and work far less!

Nope….there is NOTHING we can do but wait for what is sure to be a “Financial Rapture” of enormous proportions that will create a tipping point for drastic change. Maybe the US dollar is no longer the financial currency of the world and it is substituted with the yuan? When Americans’ investments become worth only a fraction of the value their owners calculated them to be…….that is when the revolution will begin and there will be sufficient critical mass for real, meaningful and lasting change. But for now my friends, I am convinced it will get much worse before it ever has a chance to get better again."

abbott & costello?

2011-06-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

J, what is with these NY jews of mine, first Spitzer and now Weiner? Spitzer-Weiner, the jokes write themselves. He better not resign. More BS, more shiny objects that push the Batshade Queen out of the spotlight, but only fleetingly. "Losing one from our team is not the same as losing one from theirs!" -- Paul Revere

Lost my head(er)

2011-06-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Why is this even in any way, shape or form, under the heading of "analysis"? Facts do not enter her mindset, her alternate reality. Otherwise, she wouldn't be queen of the batshade. Facts are for losers, the lamestream media. Here's a better reality check, something we said here long before O'Donnell: she wants money and fame, but without having to work for either. That is not presidential, that is Fox. She can't handle the truth, that is also Fox. Pity me, pity me, pity me. As long as she can keep milking the cash cow, she will keep pretending to run. End of story.

Odd timing aside

2011-05-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

Can we end the wars now and bring all combat troops home? That might save a couple trillion.
Can we get rid of the TSA pat-downs?
Can gas prices go back down again, maybe to $3 a gallon? [Not with Goldman Sachs speculators roaming the streets. Guessing the answers are still 'no'].

Weird imagery, too, via CNN's split-screen, with serious Obama on the right and Americans cheering bin Laden's death on the left... something unsettling here, not quite able to articulate. Closure for some, but craziness for others.

Just what we need,

2011-04-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

another 'win' for corporations, the new people of America. [The people formerly known as people are now less than people. Not to be confused with 'Up with People', or the Village People. And it may take a village, but if certain people had their way, the village would not include those people.] Glaad, we straightened that out ! Yeah, puns ! But there is nothing punny about what the Court has done to this country.

Up to speed?

2011-04-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

What HIGHpocrisy have we missed these past 2 months? [Not that we have any good excuses...]

Huckabee criticized Natalie Portman around the time of the Oscars for getting pregnant, out of wedlock, apparently forgetting that an Oscar-winner's claim to fame can be winning an Oscar; whereas the Huck-ster never criticized Bristol Palin, whose sole claim to fame is getting pregnant, out of wedlock.
Jump to...
Wisconsin - rule of man, not rule of law
Jump to...
Libya - rule of man, not rule of law. The only good part there was watching the adulterer Gingrich's head do a Linda Blair 180 before and after Obama tried the 'No-Fly' zone.
Jump to...
Japan, horrific all around. Nothing to make fun of there.
So, back to Wisconsin - home of media darlin' Rep. Paul Ryan and his amazin' budget plan. Save the rich; let the poor eat cake. We'll pay for unfunded wars by pounding the final nails in the coffins of 90% of this country. Obama can speechify all he wants, but actions will define him more than words. Center-right may not be batshade rightwing, but it's not progress either.

PS, really GE? Really? $14 billion in worldwide profit, 0 taxes, $3+ billion in credits, subsidies, whatever? Since corporations are now people, GE's a d**k. Unless the tea partiers start protesting all the Wall St. thieves -- not 1 of whom has ever faced criminal charges -- they are not even a re-branding of the GOP. They're instead just Koch-ed up gulli-bulls with no credibility to stand on (and by 'stand', we mean sit on their lazy-a$$ medicaid scooters).

A refresher

2011-02-18T16:31:00.000-08:00

on the meaning of "hypocrisy", in honor of President's Day, when Presidents were apparently honorable enough to understand, even back then, that corporations are not persons, and that wars don't pay for themselves:
[via Dictionary.com]
"1. a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.2. a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.3. an act or instance of hypocrisy."

Opening for K.O.

2011-01-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Olbermann,
If taking your voice to the Internet is allowed under the terms of your separation agreement, J and not-so-silent Rollah will welcome you here with open arms. We could not think of a more deserving, more necessary partner. Join at your earliest convenience. We'll even let you have editorial control over content. [smiley face emoticon intentionally omitted]
Kind Regards until we see you again.

2011: return of the batshade?

2011-01-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

UPDATED/edited: On Saturday, I called my friend who lives in Tucson. There are some crazies there, no doubt you've seen and heard. You know who's drawn to crazy? Yep, none other than the Batshade Queen herself, the Motherlode of crazy. Here's my favorite take yet on the quitter queen. But peel all the layers away from all of this mess, and the bottom line is still this: she never was nor will ever be qualified to hold high office, to be President of these United States. Anything else just hides the HIGHpocrisy!
And we're off.
Adding: compare her screed (short version: but enough about me, let's talk about me), to the real President's speech at the memorial tonight. Night and day, black and white, huh? Obama's portion was certainly inspirational, and very respectful. Dare we say, 'presidential'? No way could Batshade pull that off, ever, under any circumstances. She tries to inject herself once more into the limelight, a fleeting starlet wannabe who knows her 15 minutes are up. She won't leave the stage, but she was only ever a puppet to begin with. So, we will try to follow Obama's words and avoid the cynicism that underscores our never-read little site here. We can live up to our children's expectations, and we hope that HIGHpocrisy becomes more farcical, but less disruptive. And we're off, again.

Once more, with feeling!

2010-12-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

We decided against using 'the cave that keeps on caving' as the title of our last 2010 post. Instead, we're using this from the subject header of an email that not-so-silent Rollah sent to Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish (link on the right). We didn't get quoted, so here's what Rollah said, more or less:

I was going to just fire off an "F U" for your condescending label of "whining left and right" ... I know you respect the office of the presidency the way I used to, maybe that is why you are so optimistic about Obama. You think it's long-game. I don't share that hope. I see a country in decline. But let's set aside for the moment any predictions on tax cuts, or the results on health care, or even an issue of extreme importance for you personally: DADT (which should be a civil rights issue for all of us). There is something fundamentally wrong with our government in terms of the way it operates. Obama comes along back in 2008 and promises change. 120 million people vote, incldg. about 55 million for McCain and Palin [whole other post there]. Yet here we are 2 years later, and most of you and your fellow blogger pundits are debating results, not process; when, to some, any change has been incremental, not transformational. The system is rigged to prevent progress, but you don't change the culture when Rahm is COS, and Timmy and Larry are giving econ advice.

OK, you are bright, well-spoken, well-written. I respect your work. You have counterparts and colleagues who are also bright, well-spoken, well-written. What has them so upset and you so upbeat about Obama? Why such contrasts? We're not talking lunatic fringe either. Krugman, Maddow, Thom Hartmann. And [today], Sen. Sanders; he did not spend all day talking so you can feel good about Obama and insult his friends and his foes alike with 1-line throwaways. I am no psychiatrist, though I should play one on TV, but I suspect that there is just so much raw emotion because there are more than just symbols at stake. There are deeply personal issues that affect our daily lives. I have concerns -- they have concerns -- that are valid and our voices need to be heard. I also recognize that not everyone's pet causes will be resolved favorably or equally. He can't please everyone.

But Obama's problem right now is that he's already looking past all of us; he won't hear me or know my opinion (doubt he would care what any 1 single voter has to say); fine. Dismissing all of us, all concerns -- as though he can't be bothered with differences of opinion -- exacerbates and enflames all the more. No one likes feeling ignored, but then to have their feelings invalidated too? Not good. He can rationalize and still be all cerebral, but how about we get a "F-in A" or "bloody well right" once in awhile first? The most emotion he's shown has been chasting "idealists" who only want him to keep the promises he made, how does that help?

Here's something from AP on Yahoo!: "Democrats and Republicans have spent two years gridlocked over the question of extending the expiring tax cuts, and Obama has characterized his compromise with Republicans as a temporary, two-year concession on a policy he opposes." If he opposes, then do something about it! He's the President. He could have had whatever he wanted. Bush got tax cuts passed through reconciliation and they were NOT PAID FOR! So again, here comes Obama now saying whatever he thinks is pragmatic... that's missing the point. People want leadership; they need empathy. That's a tough combo to sell, I admit. He hasnt addressed the real and palpable anger and frustration of a lot of us. Progressives' reaction to Obama's compromising is visceral at this point: he campaigned on these promises to close Gitmo, end war, ~~repeal DADT~~, end the Bush tax cuts, get a public option. He wants the buck to stop with him. He said so.

Perception is reality. He can't say one thing in public and take action that does the opposite in private. And then when challenged, he's going to brush aside or insult his own base? [Sorry, wrong answer]

PS, just so my cynicism doesn't bring you too far down before the holidays, I don't think Palin will run. She doesn't want to work for anything, she just wants the money and the fame. Oh, she'll milk it for as long as possible, but she has been a bully all her life. She won't start a fight she can't win. And if by some hell-swallowing nightmare on Earth she runs, wins the nomination and wins the general, then it won't matter. Because I won't survive the end times and Canada is too cold.

And I thanked him for indulging my whining. Speaking of which, at one point do we move from whining to legitimiate concern? What's the threshold when people's hurt feelings cross over into real differences needing real solutions?

And speaking of the great Senator Sanders from Vermont, here's this gem from Matt Taibbi. Don't forget too, we can run to his eternal Rudeness, The Rude Pundit; go check out his entry from 12/13. And finally, for even the smallest sliver of perspective, courtesy of Steven Weber on Bob Cesca's blog:

"...Indeed, the passing of human lives great and small throws the truth of how we lead our lives into bright relief; the profound personal impact of death should suggest that we live in observance of the lessons such profundity imparts.
But that is not the case. Rather than our mortality humbling us, it can make us arrogant, profane. It provokes a rancor and distrust in people who see life as an competition in which to seek victory rather than as an opportunity to embrace the collective, unifying reality of our brief existences.
More than that, such a result suggests the possibility that certain, if not all, our political ideologies are essentially superficial control-fantasies, frantic attempts to bat away the terrifying reality that our lives are mere, brief flickers of consciousness, mattering little. ..."

As if that needed added context, a friend of the family had to spend this Christmas in the hospital as her sister was dying, unexpectedly, at the age of 42! For the human condition, for peace on earth, we do the best we can with what we're given:

HanuXmaKwanzaFestivus, whatever your faith, and see you next year!

the Full Cynical, 2010

2010-12-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

Has it already been another year? J, have you ever been as disappointed in a politician, let alone a President, as I am in this guy? Compared to W., sure, he was going to appear more to the left, but I never expected him to be a true liberal lion. However, not only has he shown he can't fight, he can't stand up or even clearly convey what he stands for. And now he's already looking punch-drunk, throwing in the towel when the other side hasn't even stepped into the ring. Michael Buffer hasn't started his catchphrase, "Let's get ready to ruuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmble". No, wait, Obama's on the canvas, spitting up blood from punches yet to be thrown from his own shadow-boxing.

Look only at the tax-cut issue as but 1 example: a major political party is holding this hostage (can you guess which one?). Obama is so bad at negotiating [how bad is he? ... ], he is so bad, he's telling the hostage-taker, 'stop! don't do anything rash! I'll kneecap myself first, and then you can take me instead!' It sickens me as a citizen to see what's happening. He reads a paper, he is not stupid or intellectually 'un-curious' (like the guy he replaced)! There has to be a West Wing episode in all of this, where the fictional unlikely hero-candidate wins, then immediately upon taking the oath of office, sits down and says, "Alright, I can't believe we won, so how do we get re-elected in 4 years?" Then the lackey loyalist pipes up, "What about governing? All those campaign promises?" And the President replies, "Say what?" What else could possibly be going on? Thus, we get the Full Cynical 2010. With some Ditto, amen, yes plus, thrown in for good measure.
Happy Holidays, and good luck in 2011.

PS, this. Money quote for me:

Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like moral collapse — a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction.

PPS, quick J, find us a copyright lawyer so we can trademark the Full Cynical before it's too late. Then, we can use the money from said trademark to buy some progressives, right? FDL certainly puts the 'en fuego' in FDL. It's the cave that keeps on caving. [J, maybe I should have saved that last line to title another post?] But 1 more point here (and then I need to be finished): it takes a special kind of person to tick off both sides to the extreme as here. The FDLs of the blogoworld are not alone in lamenting the lack of leadership, the wimpy/wussy theme; at the same time, the batshades on the right still want to call him Hitler and a secret Muslim socialist. Even I get that socialism and fascism are on opposite sides. But if the far-right gets to keep up the HIGHpocritical labeling, and the left gets to come at him from the other side, wow, that is one special conflation of a clusterF^&K.

hell's bells J

2010-11-13T22:56:00.000-08:00

Why didn't we get off our lazy butts and write a book, or something. We've already said all this, just not in literary form.

+1, -2

2010-11-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

= a negative number! Some part of me wanted to wait for the inevitable spin that comes from last night. But man, do we love the Rude Pundit sometimes. Click the link on the right to read his post today.

And then there's this blurb of reporting: so he thought about it, but didn't take action? Sounds about right.

At one point last night, also via the Y! home page, there was a line about how the GOP won with tea party help. So much to say and so little patience to say it with. J may have a different take, but here's mine, and it's as twisted in delivery as can be when trying to make any sense of this coming nightmare: the Republican party co-opted tea party 'anger' and 'resentment' whenever it could; a few movement conservative billionaires duped the very people that would have no business being within a voting booth's throw of any established and sane candidate. To butcher the point another way: all tea party candidates were Republicans; not all Republicans are tea partiers, nor would they ever be. Some nutbars won, some didn't. But none of them will ever govern, because that wasn't the plan. So, you can certainly fool enough of the people, most of the time, to win a mid-term election in a down economy with a no-spine majority. Congratulations, America. Democracy rules, we're #1, yeah !!!
... but just remember, "1 is the loneliest number" ...

Pre PS

2010-11-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

As bad as this night is going for many, here's a quick question to divert attention to some Fox-based a**hattery (might be a new word for the domain): Fox may know how to televise a football game, or maybe not, but did anyone else see all the damn replays of the Giants' players reacting to their World Series win? I mean, Fox had a camera on every single position player, the bench, the coaches, everyone. And they showed each reaction separately, one right after the other. It was cartoonish. [1st base, Bugs Bunny, 2nd base, Bugs Bunny...] For the few people who might have been watching outside the Bay Area, I can't believe they would care to see something as silly as every single player's individual reaction. Baseball is a team sport. Team.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled idiocracy, wherein despite polls showing most Americans hate Rs more than Ds, they vote against their own self-interest and re-elect more suckwads to screw them back into the future. I'm with these commie pinkos, and democracy for all; truth, justice, and ... oh never mind. No one's listening.

Broken record

2010-10-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

He's not the only one. We've been saying the same thing, but you'd think a Nobel Prize might resonate more. If he can't break through the noise machine and all the corporate hell unleashed by you know what, then what chance do we have here?

how bad is it?

2010-10-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

As we have said here before, W was so bad that this country elected a black guy for President. Obama on some level (the non-fighter rope-a-dope level) and too many Dems on other levels have been so bad and/or so disappointing to so many, that despite the minority having its a$$ handed to it in 2 straight elections, the aaRRRgghhhs are about to go back into the majority in at least 1 part of Congress. Yes, there's the wingnut noise machine and all their money, but how bad do you have to be at governing to let these batshades take over again? How bad do you have to be as Senate Majority Leader to even be in a close race with the tea party? Remember when Jon Lovitz was doing his Dukakis on SNL, and he's debating Dana Carvey's bush I, and he says, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy"? Exactly. Gore probably said the same thing; Reid is saying it now. Well, believe it, you're that bad. You didn't have to be, but you are.

- Warren-Feingold 2012 (corrected)

Elections for sale, get yer Elections here!

2010-09-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

A quick +1 to our most recent post, below: what we said about usurping the Teabaggers, one line, Matt Taibbi explains in waaaaaay more detail. He is one of the best writers around, period! This also goes to an older post we did when Citizens United came down. Another blow to democracy, courtesy of the bushies.

New theory, Same experiment

2010-09-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry that we haven't been doing as much of the HHHIGHpocrisy thing as we used to; J has been the silent one as our separate bi-coastal lives and families keep rollah-ing along. Most of every topic these days seems to find hypocrisy all by itself, without us having to dig. But we are trying to develop a more cohesive theory to enlighten our two followers, without relying on links to the pros to do it. Just to prove how amateurish we can be, here are some random musings, such as: the system sucks, of course it's broken! And by 'system', we mean a 2-party political system (no other viable parties) beholden to corporate benefactors (even more unchecked in their influence thanks to a right-wing Supreme Court that gave us Bush v. Gore long before Citizens United), where the minority regularly beats up on the majority by votes of 40 to 56-59, and where the mere threat of a filibuster (not an ACTUAL filibuster) is enough to stop s%^t from getting done. Just once, I'd like to hear a real one, like on The West Wing, where the ol' guy starts reading the recipe book because his grandson has autism, until someone from Jeb Bartlett's office calls in the marker. If only life could imitate art! If only average Americans had a true voice, or a voice that rang true!

But no matter how off-base we are, let's play the blame-game anyway:

- The conserva-Doofs are so afraid of winning a few rounds, they're willing to tank the fight before it begins. Latest example? Not even bringing up a vote on tax cuts for the middle class, until after a mid-term election that some of them won't even win. You can't vote later if you're sitting at home, genius! These are the Ray Guys of Congress (punting reference, get it). You can't tell them to grow some, because that train has sailed. To borrow from a local radio ad, this is one of the biggest no-brainers in the history of mankind. So naturally, Democrats blow it. Or to borrow from old Brooklyn Dodgers fans, "Dem bums". [We can't let go of that whole 'Obama is no Jackie Robinson' thing', it completes us.]

- Another sort of big picture comment re the level of dishonesty among the Republican leadership: it is so staggering, it has to be on purpose. These so-called "leaders" can't possibly believe all the vile crap they're spewing or passively allowing to be spewed. Maybe a few of these old white guys got together one day, looked around in search of a blueprint for success, and said, "Eureka! The WWE!" They call Linda McMahon and tell her she can run for Congress, but they want the script in advance. Or she approaches them, either way, how else to explain it? The whole demonizing of Obama is all for show; all the usurping of the Teabaggers also for show. Politics on steroids, but still just for the money and the ratings. Hey, true story: I interviewed Jesse the Body and a few other pro wrestlers back about 25 years ago, for college radio, remember J? Not one broke character. Same formula works today. These a$$-hats, they know he's not a secret Muslim socialist. He wasn't a commie when he was in the Senate. He wasn't a commie when his books came out or when he delivered his famous race speech. He's not a commie now, but more on that failure at bottom. It's the WWE come to elections: no matter how outrageous the character (Palin, Bachmann, O'Donnell), no matter how weird the costume (tea bags on hats), there's just a good guy vs. a bad guy (often a fer'ner), some oblivious 'ref' distracted in the middle, and the script says the good guy doesn't always get to parade around the arena with the belt on.

Obama's ideas have so many Republican origins, it seems his role model is looking like Reagan, really, not FDR, but Reagan? But he's damned if he does or doesn't. He hasn't ended any wars, hasn't touched defense spending, health care was watered down from the 1970s model, he hasn't fought for social issues that his base supposedly cares most about ('hi DADT, you still here?'), and he's perpetuated some of the worst abuses that his criminal predecessor began. And those are some of his achievements (rim-shot sound effect). Tip your waiters. Speaking of tips, his econ team was Goldman Sachs, it's a miracle any financial reform was able to pass. News flash: it's not about you; they don't care what you do. They are such sore losers, they have to rig the next game in order to win. Country first, my a$$! And they don't want to govern either. So sad that the average person is either too ill-informed or too busy trying to stay afloat but that is what happens when the visceral appeals to the lowest common denominator, it preys on fear and the unknown. These soul-less liars can't stand up to the crazy, either, because that would be too civil. If you say the other side is the anti-Christ, how do you deal in good faith? [Plus, they would have no chance to win again]. So they foment even more Crazy, and the weirdest part is how much money comes in from an elite few, not from any so-called movement.

- So the corporate-owned media has a liberal bias? No way to deal with that level of batshade.

- And lastly, back to the big O himself: we've said this repeatedly, there has been a complete disconnect between Campaign O and Commander O. We're not in the inner sanctum, which presumably has some blame there too, but we're not talking puppet and strings here either. He said the buck stops with him. Well, awesome for you, dude, but the rest of us need our bucks to work and to eat, and to save whatever fading hope that our kids can have better lives. [You know, even if those aren't the same opportunities you had, what happened to rewarding hard work and effort?]

I wish we had the answers. I wish a lot of things. I wish I could come up with a better ending to this post! But no matter what sports analogy we try here, even a theory as implausible as pro wrestling, life is not a game. Go read our older posts: we're witnessing some serious empire decline; and just when we need a system that works the most, we get a couple loud-mouth gasbags throwing chairs into the ring and running off camera while the idiocracy screams and claps for more. You can't write a worse ending.

Another blog?

2010-09-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

With a post like this, we may have to up our blog roll to 14. Red meat, blue meat, it's all American meat. And that is not meat you can beat. [We catch on quick]

Wrong screaming, wrong brother

2010-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

Rollah's peeps got this: numero uno, and part deux in our Disappointment playbook. [Many of our links can link to their links, and so on, and so on... ] But haven't we been saying this for a long time? Or, at least 2 threads below this one?
Good thing J and I never tire of hearing ourselves think out loud!

Scream It, Brother

2010-07-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Obama's centrist pragmatism can be maddening, maddening we say! The same guy who can call out Republicants for their HIGHpocrisy on the deficit [only given a short mention in today's local paper; but still - jerkweeds cry about not extending unemployment benefits that would cost some millions, but wanting to revert back to W-era tax cuts for the rich, without paying for them, costing us billions!], can also order National Guard troops to the southwest border. On the topic of immigration enforcement, not-so-silent Rollah knows of that which he speaks: enforcement only as a matter of policy does NOT work.

BP+Bachshade

2010-07-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Always like us some Bachshade, which, when coupled with the disaster that is, was, and always will be BP, can only bode ill for the rest of this sad social experiment known as 'America'.

Ho hum, all the de-legitimizing must be working. If only he had governed the way he campaigned... could we say that the wingnuttery would not have been this bad? No, we can't.

MIHs

2010-05-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Have we missed any HIGHpocrisy in the last couple of months, as we've decompressed from health care reform? Let's see, Republicans still saying 'no'; isn't financial 'reform' going to pass?
... Big Oil not accepting responsibility for what may prove the worst oil disaster in memory (poor Gulf Coast)
... another nominee for the Supreme Court
... nope, nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

CUBS win! CUBS win! [but no joy in Mudville]

2010-03-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, how about them Dems, huh? Harry Caray would have been proud of some Chi-towners this week. The concept of reforming health care has been around almost as long as the Cubbies' last World Series win in the 19-aughts. Since we've raised the comparison to barrier-breaking Jackie Robinson before (conclusion: Obama's no Jackie), we were all set to analogize to America's pasttime yet again. But a funny thing happened on the way to the ballgame. Some crazy fans started brawling in the cheap seats, and the losing team came out of the dugout to toss a few more bats into the fray.

Seriously, what is up with all this violence and hate on the nutbar right? The process took more than a year; they had their August town halls; Obama wasn't on his game at the beginning, he took single payer off the table, there was no public option at the end... The bill they now call "reform" does some good things, sure, but still needs improvement. It is a moderate fix to a broken, unsustainable system; it was a Republican plan from 40 years ago; Romneycare from 4 years ago. So where is the socialism? Where is the government takeover?

And what is worse, where are 'opposition party' leaders to condemn the fringe? Why is the 2nd of only 2 major political parties in this country if not outright condoning then subliminally encouraging such a rise in right-wing extremism? There is no "Militia" in G-O-P (but there is the "M" in T-E-A...-M). We haven't been unconditional supporters of the Dems, but come on, this faux rage is ri-donk-u-lous! And it's faux, alright, as in Faux News. Check out Steven Benen's Political Animal blog, linked on the right. Or Bob Cesca. If you have the time, read some comments to that HuffPo piece. Some of these folks are just unhinged. [College hoops are not the only Madness this month, by the way. Zing! We're good at sports puns. And how cool is it that Steven Weber, yes the same, is writing on Bob's blog?]

So if there's that much anger at HCR, why aren't the Tea Partiers threatening Wall St. ??? Where are the calls for trying war criminals who committed or authorized torture, or lied the country into war? You know what would have paid for health care reform by now? Not invading and occupying Iraq. We're not shrinks here, and we didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express recently, but if we had to speculate, the racists are really vocal right now. How else to account for it? There are almost zero-to-no people of color at Tea Party rallies; there is no Big Tent. These loons were never going to accept a black President, and thanks to the MSM's horse-race mentality, and to Republican batshades, their paranoid lunacy is being shoved right out onto the open field. The delegitimizing process began before the election in November 2008 and has kept on chugging right up to present day.

So, to the MSM: stop giving these whackjobs a platform; stop with the false equivalency. And to so-called Republicans: stop this cycle of hate, this Naomi Klein Shock Doctrine of a strategery has no place even in the game of politics. [By the way, Keith, your Special Comment was great on Monday night, but the target audience doesn't watch you]. We can only hope that government-run law enforcement is there in time; that government-run fire departments -- all paid for with Tea Party tax dollars -- can travel across public roads to help whenever called. When you bench the best you got, and you bring the crazies up from the minors, when all that's left is co-opted anger and fear, that is one losing team.

Here's a final question to ponder: how many wingnuts does it take to change the scoreboard at Wrigley Field? A>: we never want to find out.

Nature's H

2010-03-01T14:45:00.000-08:00

We are fans of Bill Maher, always watch on TiVo, 1 of the best. He took about 4 months off so last Friday's show was only his 2nd back in this new season. He is a big animal rights guy, so naturally, he tossed out a comment about Tilikum, the killer whale at Orlando SeaWorld, having killed a beloved trainer. [Gist: 'sad for the death, but that's what happens when a big, wild animal is kept in a tiny pen'; Mom agrees. Because the orca's worth so many millions to SeaWorld, they're not putting it down. Sorry, we were distracted by Olivia Wilde, wow is she amazing looking? Wife agrees]. Just wondering aloud, since Queen of Batshade believes dinosaurs and people co-existed about 4,500-6,000 years ago, isn't it amazing that any humans survived? We didn't have health care then, so we must have been even awesomer, you betcha!

So, Bill, you had the disingenuous conservative on, but you let him get away with the usual pivot on the concept of reconciliation. What was that!? Maybe there aren't enough low-information voters who watch your show, or maybe you didn't have time to hammer this home, but here's the problem: on the radio, TO-DAY, in about a 30-second report from CNN 'headlines' at the top of the hour, the reporter said HCR was a "controversial bill" and that Dems might use an "extraordinary measure" known as budget reconciliation. See what we're up against here? The refs have already been gamed!

Controversial? Only among chickensh-t conservadems and people who actually want to fix 1 of the worst abuses this country has ever known. 37th in the world in health care, but 1/6th of our economy. 45,000 dead every year from lack of insurance. There's no controversy.

Extraordinary? You can't throw a shoe at 1 of the blogs we follow without seeing that 'budget' reconciliation has been used before, and often by corporate-owned, white-haired old dudes with '(R-Insurance Giant)' next to their names. The only extraordinary thing here is watching people try to defend the status quo.

Steve Benen's Political Animal is the real animal worth watching: health reform legislation has already been passed last year in both chambers of Congress! Budget reconciliation can be used on stuff that has to do with the budget. Anyone that says otherwise, even some moron at CNN, should be thrown to the fishes. To borrow from Hulk Hogan, "Whatcha gonna do when the pythons run wild on you brother?!"

Buh Bayh 1.0

2010-02-17T22:26:00.000-08:00

I swear, but for some family vacation time, this entry was going to be called "Buh Bayh". How could it not be? Oh well, 538.com beat me to it; they're established and we're not. Nice to be in that company (whether it's 'great minds think alike', or, 'fools seldom differ'). So, in conclusion then, 1 less HIGHpocrite in the Senate.

For J --

2010-02-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

From the dispassionate and detached, to the offensively obvious, with Andrew Sullivan at all points in between, Batshade is as Batshade does.
J, please remember to seek out my family after the end times; help protect them. Remind them often that I love them, always.

DNR

2010-01-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

J, do you get it? Monday's post was titled, 'R and D', and today's is DNR. As in, 'Do Not Resuscitate', which is the Republican response to health care reform, especially after last night's SOTU. [What is with all of these abbreviations lately: SOTU, SCOTUS. Oh, they scot'us alright; we're totally scot'ed.]
re Obama's message: nice speechifying! J, don't we know another charismatic African-American who is not President but also a gifted public speaker? Natural born leaders? Well he's got oration, now we just need action to back it up.

R and D

2010-01-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Thom Hartmann is very good. Paraphrasing and oversimplifying from this morning's brief commute: [R]epublicans claim government is the problem; but 'vote for us anyway so we can go clean it up via transfer of power to the private sector's biggest for-profit companies; if you don't vote for us, you'll die'. [D]emocrats claim only government can help solve some of our worst problems; but 'we don't often explain clearly why that is, or how that works; vote for us because we're not Republicans; even though we take a lot of the same money, we want to get better at social justice and make a difference'. Our shining example is now health care reform.
Lots of blurbs are asking (demanding?) that Obama lead on his signature issue. Obama had a D next to his name on the 2008 ballot. Will he show some fight with his actions, not just his words? Or will he give a State of the F.U.? We'll know in 2 days.

SCOTUS HHH - why s%*t matters

2010-01-21T11:42:00.001-08:00

I am no clairvoyant, but I guaran-frikkin-tee that the Founding Fathers would never, EVER, have assigned businesses the same rights and freedoms as individual persons, as the Court just did in Citizens United. Doesn't anyone who takes an oath of office -- to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic -- actually fulfill that oath anymore? 4 of the worst, most HIGHpocritical judges ever appointed to the Supreme Court (+ Kennedy) just flushed that document down the toilet. If you thought corporations had too much control over this country before, just wait another 10 months. Un-be-frikkin-lievable.

UPDATE: Wow, Keith: "our Dred Scott". Happen to agree; a company is not a person. But Roberts has officially sanctioned the cliff dive that began in Iraq. The only Supreme thing here is the irony that if W hadn't been elected by his daddy's court in 2000, Roberts (and Alito) might never have been there to finish us off.

Follow-up: F me!

2010-01-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

Yikes, he's wicked fast. And he seems to echo how I feel, which goes a long way to refining some of my language that may be inconsistent or meandering. I've hit the leadership thing already. But a couple of follow-up points anyway, for some attempt at closure --

1st, voters are morons. And not just in MA. From all I've read so far, Senator-elect Brown seems like a douche, a hard-working, duplicitous, say anything for a vote, empty-suit political douche. He'll be on the Highpocrisy radar for as long as he can stay in his seat (which hopefully won't be past 2012). He's already on record as saying that health care reform will burden the middle class and raise taxes. He's Republican, right? Geez, for a nobody who came from nowhere, why does he already seem a less-Mormony Mitt Romney?

2nd, if this country's screwed anyway, it won't matter who is or was ultimately responsible. A former colleague from many years ago held the view that in all of human history, only a handful of actual humans made enough of a difference in affecting other people's lives. And I thought I was glass half-empty [keep reading]

So we resolve this year to get back to some basic Highpocrisy and ease up on the venting / lamenting. But before that, let us have a fresh plate of perspective. Here's but 1 recipe:
- Haiti
- my friend's mom. She passed away last month after a very brief but too late in detecting bout w/ cancer. Her husband has now lost 2 wives to cancer.
Death is part of the deal. We all want to live happily ever after. The ever after happens anyway, but the human struggle is for the happily part. More hugs, kids eating ice cream or staying up a little later, or laughing at farts. Adults can do these too, by the way. Our capacity to love and to laugh is our best big ticket item!

And thus, we pivot to Highpocrisy's current target, the MSM. Some doof wrote in the NYTimes this morning about all the problems Obama and the Dems now face from the MA results. Whatever. But if the 4th estate had done its job 10 years ago, we might not have had 2 terms of the last moron elected by moron voters (beer buddy is never a legit criterion for elected office). And by extension, maybe we would not have been lied to or sold a war that no one but pond scum sub-human profiteers wanted. $1 trillion saved would have paid for health care instead. Maybe had the MSM called out Wall St.'s greedy, heartless bastards, the economy might not have tanked. That's a lot, OK, so we ask a familiar mantra, how bad Bush must've been for the same morons to vote in the commie-fascist to replace him? So MSM, you Highpocrisy-loving corporate shills, welcome to 2010!

no MLK

2010-01-19T22:30:00.000-08:00

We can be respectful enough of the process to wait our turn, but now that the vote's over in MA, after the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, it's time to draw our impudent conclusion: Obama may yet be a great President, but he's no MLK, and sadly too, he is no Jackie Robinson. I don't think many people voted for him expecting him to be a combination of both. But I'd have settled for some sign that he might or could have been a bit of either. He's also not yet even Reagan in terms of transformational.

'Oh that's not fair, progressives are piling on, he's only had a year to right the horrors of the past 8, the Repos can't get back in power or it will only get worse' ... Maybe all of that is true. But focusing only on Obama as leader of the free world, he doesn't get a break. America is full of fat, drunk, and stupid so I don't care how hard he asked us to work. He has to lead too! We're naive, so what? He has to fight for what we the People want, if not for what he wants. Or at the very least, he has to create the perception that he's fighting. And the perception that I see out there right now is that because he's not fighting, progressives have soured on him or he's selling out to his corporate masters... And we get to vent about it here on this silly little blog.

Remember when Obama referred to the Senate's health care bill as the most important social legislation in 70 years? I don't recall him saying the same thing about the House bill... [please pass along the link if he did; I'm spent]. Let Pharma walk, that deal should not have been made in the 1st place. There might be reform, and it might actually work in the longer-term. But anything that passes, if it passes, could have been so much more if only the President had made the case for the moral necessity to take care of this country's sick. Meaning, we'll never know what he could have accomplished on this front because the perception is he never tried.

Speaking of never trying, how bad do you have to be as the D candidate to lose Ted Kennedy's seat in blue Mass., to some pick-up driving, nude-posing tea party wannabe? As bad as W was in setting the stage for Obama's rise, because this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. Still, tasty pick up there boneheads.

By the way, if only the Senate version matters, why take civics or government or history in school? The answer (via my daily baseball trivia calendar for 2010) -- because Dr. King was quoted in a book about Jackie Robinson saying this:

"Jackie Robinson made it possible for me in the first place. Without him, I
would never have been able to do what I did".

So what's our take-away here? Is it to engage in the blame game? If so, we kinda already did a little, especially with Mr. Buck-stopper himself. No, I would rather read as much as I can, e.g., from this guy, or to TPM's Josh Marshall in his hastily-cobbled but pretty accurate post-script, to then arrive at a more informed decision as to how best to proceed.

We could end up at the Full Cynical, game over, man. Game over. [And we mean that in the 'America's empire is already on the decline' sense; it won't take much more to bankrupt us all. If China doesn't foreclose, climate change should take care of the rest, maybe in 200-300 years if we're lucky?]

But maybe, just maybe, someone in a position of power, say the President (?) could rally the base, the troops and a whole mess in between, and get the $%^ done that we voted him to do. Most humans want the basics in life: health, the pursuit of happiness. Dr. King never took his eyes off the prize; we sometimes do. 40 years later and we're still not there yet. Amazing.

HH, early 2010 'roids edition

2010-01-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

So, Mark McGwire admits he cheated, but could not admit he cheated at the time he may or may not have lied to Congress? We're not just about politics here; we're also about baseball and politics, especially when they converge.

P.S.

2009-12-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

And this from a guy who studied. Leadership is accountability. Whatever health care reform looks like, today or in the future, I cannot imagine seeing Obama's name and the word "leadership" used in unison to describe how we got there. Hope is not the Full Cynical. See you in 2010!

The Full Cynical

2009-12-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

We know you have been waiting patiently for HIGHpocrisy to write at length on this topic, so here goes:

Trying to stay on top of ongoing discussions on health care reform -- on a daily basis and just from the blogs linked up on the right-hand side -- is making my brain hurt! But this week, I heard on Thom Hartmann's radio show the strongest, most obvious explanation about this whole charade that so few in the MSM have even bothered to mention (no surprise): that it's been Obama's goal from the start to honor the deals he and his RahmE. struck with big pharma and big insurance. [Firedoglake has been on this, but no offense, if anything, the MSM would resent any progressive voice doing its job for them. Don't forget, the Senate Finance Committee bill was not the entire Senate's bill; the current Senate bill is not the entire end game either. The House bill is an afterthought, I guess, despite having stronger progressives there than in the dysfunctional prima donna forum.] Why does everyone talk and act as if the Senate deal is the only thing going? Read on...
I'm paraphrasing Thom Hartmann now: 'Obama got elected by a majority of American voters, but before he could focus on governing them, serving their needs, just maybe making their lives a little better, he made Rahm Emanuel his chief of staff, and they had to 1st bolster the chance at getting re-elected.' Back to Rollah: I'm not sure if Obama ever thought about pushing for the best plan ever, but my senses are frying from this ordeal, because we know the plan that's being settled on (compromised away) is nowhere near the best. Not in terms of controlling costs (anything to compete with private insurers a la single-payer, public option or Medicare buy-in?), and not in terms of making affordable care available to those who need it most. More Thom Hartmann (now 2:2 in money quotes, with better paraphrasing by me): "Obama is making the biggest political mistake of his life if he listens to Rahm Emanuel and thinks he can govern like Bill Clinton ... the system is broken, so Obama had 2 bets to make: 1st he could have used his political capital from the election to take on the system, tear it down, change it, really lead the country in a new direction as a new way of governing; or 2nd, to tinker at the margins and be happy, never trying anything bold. Obama placed the 2nd bet, and I think he is going to lose".

Also getting very little coverage: the basic moral imperative at stake here! Forget labels, party affiliation, LIEbermonkey vs. whoever (though, personally, I'm rooting for the lean, Dean, fighting machine). Something as broken as health care has to get fixed, period! That fix has to include some recognition that this country cannot survive without taking care of its sick and infirm. It can't always be about money, or fame. Every other industrialized place on Earth can do that, but we can't because the few are too powerful and greedy? We have to be civil if we are to make it in a civilized society. If we wait for war-profiteers or big whatever to suddenly get all moral and start acting like responsible corporate citizens, we're toast. Principal Ed Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "between grief and nothing, I'll take grief". That's what progressives (the real reformers?) are being asked to support? crap that only gives us grief, but nothing in return!?! [Aside: 'progressive' should include anyone wanting to save lives by making health care affordable, a right not a privilege; profit is OK but not at the cost of human suffering, and not unless you're also helping improve the human condition, stuff like that].

Which brings us back to the newest addition to HIGHpocrisy's lexicon in the title of this entry. Had the WH reneged on its secret deals and come out vocally for what would be best for the majority of the voters who helped elect Obama in the 1st place, we doubt much of this circus would have happened at all. For the top domestic priority, the no-drama-Obama camp has been 1 giant drama-making machine. Why? Why play the victim card, they're so powerless to affect the change they promised, how could they exert any pressure over this process? Shorter Glenn Greenwald: Rahm to Obama in January, "Ya know, we couldn't get health care reform under my pal Clinton because he was trying too hard to impose his own mark on it; let's just sit this one out and hope Congress does its job of, like, legislating and all that". And while plenty of blame can rightly be directed to Emanuel "Can't", he wasn't elected President on a platform of hope and change. So instead, we get all this BS masquerading as hysteria, from just another politician saying whatever he wants to say in order to get anything passed, so he can call it reform, dupe most people into thinking he's with them, but against their corporate puppet-masters, and 'won't everyone's lives be better next year when it's time to vote again'. I.e., just trust him! Well, the Full Cynical goes beyond being disappointed and frustrated with Obama's lack of leadership. Some of the many side effects: LIEberpunk goes unpunished for his lack of any moral compass (Keith Olbermann called him a Senatorial prostitute); progressives are off the reservation; the most important voters to the Dem base (younger and minorities) won't turn out enough next year to keep the Dems in control (talk about disenfranchising!). So the status quo churns, or worse, the corporatist take-over spews the know-nothing party of No to an even faster plummet over the Cliffs of Insanity (Princess Bride reference). I guess the Full Cynical is something like the Full Monty, but you're bent over by some Wall St. banker or Aetna lobbyist, without even the common courtesy of a reach-around... Oh the humanity!

And thus we look to the emotional impact of the Full Cynical. To some of the defenders (not apologists) who dismiss the value of emotion and try to re-direct our attention on the long term ('Obama's had some wins, all of this reform effort is a work in progress, he's not Bush', we get it), Captain James T. Kirk and I have the same reply: "I need my pain", pain is what makes us human. And my pain, btw, is not even real pain, as compared to others'. [It should not have mattered how Obama got there. Once he won, and helped deliver down-ticket wins too, he could govern however he wanted.] My sadness kicks in at the level of what I wanted to believe would be: he would govern aggressively, right out of the chute, punch, not counter-punch or rope-a-dope. Be passionate, but carry the intellectual force and personality to aspire to transformational greatness (a la Jackie Robinson, see older post), and thus become a great President. Dang me for assigning too much short-term emotion to a long-term process. -- When you hire Rahm, Timmy, and Larry, but tune out Krugman and Stiglitz; when you fail to even investigate torture or war crimes, let alone perpetuate some of the worst policies of your predecessor; when you escalate wars instead of ending them; when your tinkering at the margins can't even achieve some of the most basic goals to keep your promises to the base, well it should be obvious that the Full Cynical tears the blinders off an even larger systemic problem. Yes, our 2-party political divide has morphed: progressives are formerly Democrats who want to work for social justice and move the country forward; buttloads of regular rightward-leaning Dems and moderate Republicans are in the muddled middle; and there's the nutbar right-wingers. We're not presuming to know the actual percentage of each group. But, we're all confined to operating within a corporatist oligarchy (me spell good, Beck). That Obama would continue grasping for that faint whiff of bipartisanship no one else can smell, is absurd. He knows damn well that the right will never agree to anything he tries to do.

So it is an emotional issue after all, affecting us humans, who are emotional creatures with our very survival. That is why we get upset over a perceived bail-out of an industry that (a) is not even hurting, and (b) is so viscerally reviled. That is why we can feel like Obama, in making and keeping his secret promises to the fat cats but breaking his ones to the rest of us, has let us down. If only there could be rational debate. We could see the back and forth, we could think, make informed decisions as if we had control over them and our lives. But to so many who only wanted their voices to be heard, not only are we feeling ignored, now we're being belittled by the same people we put our faith and trust in.

Ultimately, then, if Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Howard Dean and now Keith Olbermann all agree that the Senate version of 'reform' sucks, that it does more harm than good, then those are the voices that Rollah is OK hitching his wagon to before they sail away. [We love mixing metaphors]. We're not talking about giving up all reform! We are instead focusing on the fight that has to happen to make things better for the needs of the many [back to Star Trek]. And so, as this crazy year draws to a close, we at HIGHpocrisy say to all: "God bless us, everyone".

annual BCS B.S.

2009-12-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

We hope to make this a brief but annual divergence from all-things typically HIGHpocritical... then again, if we're talking about how this country has become so corporatist, the BCS is a great example.

DID NOT mind seeing little Timmmaaayyy cry at the end of that 'Bama pounding he took; I have a friend who's a Gator, but just got sick of that act. But we digress. 5 Bowl games after but not on New Year's Day?!?! 5, really?!?!? Used to be, in the real America we grew up in, there were lots of Bowl games ON New Year's Day, including 5 that meant something: Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange, and we'll even concede the Fiesta (not the Tostitos-owned). But now? The International, PapaJohns.com, Liberty, Alamo and GMAC bowls all come between 1/1 and 1/7/2010. Parity or purity? We don't see either.

post-turkey geeker

2009-11-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Queen of the Batshade quitting a 5k run halfway through? We get that. [Separate irony that she posed for the Runner's World picture she later objected to when it was used for the Newsweek cover - we sort of get that, too]

But the Commander in Chief escalating yet another un-winnable war for some godforsaken reason? We'll never get that, not in a million years. Which, by the way, humanity doesn't have. And we're not the only ones in shock over this awfulness. J, should we throw in the towel, raise the white flag or take some other action that rhymes with "quit"?

And here's the thing: it would be just as easy, more popular and the actual right thing to do, to withdraw all troops and end all wars! So, when we see glass-half-full lists like this, we have to raise a sobering few of our own, to show what might have been if only hope had met up with audacity: war crimes investigations/prosecutions, Gitmo, state secrets, rendition, DOMA/DADT, not enough stimulus, bank bailouts... and some of those are just things Obama promised during the campaign! Oh, Batshade Queen, end times indeed.

Big Picture 1.0: I, Gluteus

2009-11-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

Following the previous a$$-themed post, sometimes, irony can sound like a broken record. So can HIGHpocrisy. There have been instances of both throughout the health care debacle, but also, we've harped on the leadership question here many times. So it is time to trot out the attributes as outlined in an old post from last November [and courtesy of an even older column in the local paper]:
- leaders are globalists; leaders know themselves; leaders are coaches; leaders influence others; leaders manage change; leaders are strategic; leaders must be managers, too; leaders hold themselves and others accountable ("accountability overrides all other attributes") (our emphasis).
How many of these apply to Obama the President right now?

Or, see if you recognize this exchange from Rob Reiner's The American President (1995!) in any or all of the current uncivil discourse, to then guess where this country is headed.
[If we could figure out how to upload video, this would be more powerful]

Paranoia, self-destroyah

2009-11-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Mr. Krugman's column this morning, "paranoia runs deep", includes the recognition that the lunatic right fringe has no interest in governing. Glad he agrees with us.

Sadly, HHHighpocrisy can run even deeper: the House of Representatives (misnomer of the century), led by a woman, passed an apparently very bad anti-choice amendment in its health care reform plan. Many Dems were on board. Obama's press sec'rety Gibbs punted 4 times in questioning today. So because Rahm was around in '94 when the Clintons supposedly tried to bully their plan through, he's convinced Obama to do the exact opposite, and leave no footprint this time around? Sorry, but a big-a$$ footprint is needed more than ever, especially from the most competent among us, and especially up the big a$$e$ of countless others. We all know Obama's leadership style by now, however, is that he's not the a$$-kicker/name-taker/power puncher we were looking for. Our own paranoia is that rope-a-dope might not be enough to turn this sinking ship around.

oldie but goodie from J

2009-11-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

HHighpocrisy HHalloween

2009-11-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

Dang we meant to post something brief, but it was last Saturday, and we were busy.

the 1-year

2009-11-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

Has it really been 1 year already since Obama won? Has it really been 4 months since Batshade Sarah quit her cushy 'political' job in order to get more involved in politics for "real Americans"? Wow, time really does fly. On these mini-occasions, Matt Taibbi is still a must-read.

And so are any jokes about the LIEberstooge, courtesy of a Taibbi colleague at True Slant.

It Lives to LIE Again

2009-10-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well that was fast. The conclusions may be over the top, and too soon, but another bashwagon on LIEberstooge's latest (since last year, didn't we call him "LIEbertool", or was it "LIEberpunk"?) --
- the very, very clinically cynical says that his personal savior the big O, + fellow jew Rahmbo, are calling in their markers to have lil' joe take 1 for the team (the 'we can't break our secret deals' team); no public option for you, so might as well do the WH's bidding. Evil geniuses!
- the less overtly cynical says the guy was bought already; might as well do the industry's bidding. Not a coinkydink that most big insurers rest their greedy heads in his state.
- and the somewhat naive but still cynical-leaning says he's lied before, he'll lie again. It's not like he's going to get re-elected so what does he care?!
- with just a dash of attention-seeking tantrum thrown in to complete the brew: "Hey, did ya see how my esteemed colleague, the Senator from butt-munch, fared this week? Because now it's my turn! I had to stay quiet for months while so many others got to pitch their hissy fits, how do you think that made me feel? Wah-wah, not fair, wah-wah." Somebody give that guy a big binkie and plug his stinkin pie-hole.

On a broader and still funnier note, there could be LIEberspawn. HIGHpocrisy runneth over.

When Harry Met Spiney

2009-10-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

With today's announcement, Sen. Reid (D-craps table) might've actually put some leading into his leadership role, of the majority party no less?! While HIGHpocrisy may still show up later, it was nice to see no Snowe job [we're in it for the puns]. See prior post below.

disbelief, again?

2009-10-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

We're back to not knowing what to believe and what to ignore. How could that be in this new era of gov't transparency? With all of these conflicting reports on the same day, let's breathe in, hold it, exhale, repeat. Until some news comes along to disspell the latest, though, we'll assign a temporary Highpocrisy to the WH (italicized to demonstrate its fleeting nature), and here's why: no one who's been following this dance gives 1 rat's ass about a Senator from Maine! She was not elected President of even her own state! And, no one who's been following is stupid enough to think that her 1 vote means the winners get to call it "bipartisan"! That's not what the word means. If the big O thinks either the general public is that gullible, or that his Rahm-brokered deals are that fragile, then it won't work anyway.
[That's not to argue that Americans are savvy either; we are just big, dumb animals. Or that Rahm should be brokering serious issues at all; he shouldn't, because he already tried that in the 90's. Just saying]

Obvious

2009-10-12T21:06:00.001-07:00

In a move fooling no one, the health insurance lobby realizes it might not be getting the bazillion, gajillion dollars it wanted to get from merely 1 of the 5 different congressional committees working on fixing what's really broken. So they dropped the kid gloves. Now they want to duke it out? No brainer HIGHpocrisy. Sure hope they don't have to raise premiums, deny or drop coverage, or do other bad things just to survive. The horror, the horror.

Nobel NObama

2009-10-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

I was as 'sur-prized' as anyone that big O got the Nobel; I get that the nominations were back in February but the voting was not done until recently. I get the committee wanting to reward effort; reward should follow effort. I'm not on the Nutbar exit to Crazytown, but I'm just not reconciling the whole 'peace' part of the award with ongoing 'wars' (not to mention rendition, Gitmo, state secrets, FISA and the Patriot Act). Wouldn't it have been easier to give him the award after he brings peace to the process, ya know, by actually ending the wars? Obama doesn't do 'easy' you say, so how could that be? Wars cost so much more these days (!) so here's a suggestion for how to end them:

Yes, as Eric Cartman's eloquence might have even presaged the President's own soaring rhetoric, "Screw you guys, I'm going home".

Updating: eh

'When Good Books Go Bad'?

2009-10-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Or as Don Rumsfeld might suggest, you go to Sunday school with the Bible you have, not the Bible you wish you had.

Krug

2009-10-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

Oh sure, like he has some Nobel prize or something... guess that means someone might want to pay attention once in a while. [Except the batshades, who revel in their own ignorance and prove Krugman's point every time they open their pie-holes]

Back to HH

2009-09-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

We may have been sidetracked by recent events, though there has been HIGHpocrisy in all of stages of this health care 'reform' debacle (we don't use the word 'debate' because that would imply 2 sides making legitimate policy arguments. Can anyone explain what's to defend in giant insurance companies, as if the current system is fine? This morning's AP article on the Senate Finance Comm. has the R talking point as a gov't plan would drive private insurers out of business... really?!?! Blue Cross, Aetna, Utd Health, all too big to fail, really?!?!? Can anyone explain why the already compromised public option would not be a choice ["option" right there in the title!] to help cover almost 1/6th of the entire country? There's no debate. Oops, dang, sidetracked again). We'll have a final post or two on that later.

But getting back to our roots for a moment, we award 2 HHs -- HHighpocrisy -- to Big Oil companies like Chevron whenever they run ads touting their concerns for the environment (or for people). I heard a radio ad from Chevron the other day, 'they're so green, so friendly', blah blah blah. I had a client who worked for Chevron; brilliant man. I have a friend who worked for a local Shell refinery. Can people be good and productive? People can. Can Big Oil concerned only with making money for their shareholders be good corporate citizens? Not so much.

two quick Dishes

2009-09-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

The first is more reader-centric, while the second is more Andrew Sullivan. Last ¶ has the money-quote.

what to believe?

2009-09-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

good bill or bad bill? reform or no reform? wait or don't wait? there's a lot to take in, but here's just 1 place to start. yes, the boxing analogy is in there, too (why can't we get credit?), and so is the "inmates running the asylum" line. [Great minds think alike / fools seldom differ]

We might disagree with a few of the points made therein, but the overall gist is close to what we are currently feeling, so we'll go with that. Why then, is Obama saying the same thing about the 'public option' post-speech, but the media reports on all of the caving from Dem leadership and the WH as if there won't be a public option? And if Rahm gets his way, does that mean Obama doesn't? So what does reform look like? Oh, how we wish we had the answers.

J adding, also from the NYT: "the first paragraph says it all...shameful!" But J, haven't you learned that only elitist, commie pinko lib'ruls read that paper and only when it's not perpetuating the lies that lead to war? Why can't you be more prideful in American ignorance? You wouldn't want your children to listen to a smart person about studying when they can read My Pet Goat instead. Welcome to the 21st Century!

Master Rope-a-doper

2009-09-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Naturally the cynic in me started drafting this entry before Obama's speech to Congress last night. I was going to call it "Epic Fail" if he came out loving and not fighting as I expected. But I gotta admit, from the parts I've heard, seen, and read about, the man is a great politician. I'll get to that below, but first: I had a dream 2 nights ago that I was in a room, tables arranged in a square. To my right at the same table was some faceless Fox blowhole. To his right was Obama. Symbolism? Obama would have to meet me all the way around a circle if anyone thinks he's to the right of Fox. [BTW, socialism is on the left; fascism is on the right.] Back to my dream: I was standing and arguing about health "insurance" reform, shouting down the Fox moron, while Obama sat there grinning. So I thought I had better write that down for posterity.

Back to speech commentary:

On some level, this was about wanting a fighter. Hence the boxing metaphor. About believing he was different, but thinking I was getting the same. It definitely goes beyond health care. He still has his smarts, so I'll never know why he wasted so much time before, when he is a natural leader, thinking he could hang back and let the inmates run the asylum. Just as I'll never know why someone goes in to the WH one way, but somehow, once the doors close, he emerges seemingly beholden to the same special interests that he promised would not keep their stranglehold on politics. Obama said Wednesday morning that he might have made mistakes letting Congress try to act, all grown-up, like legislators or something. Ya think? I want to believe he will do what's right, and for the good of the country. That is the job to which he or any President is always elected: to make people's lives better. It is why Bush failed so miserably (among many other reasons). It is why I could see myself feeling this morning like that Boise State football player who taunted the Oregon running back but then got sucker-punched to the jaw. Go see, it's all over the web. But the other part of that dude's problem, which didn't make it to air, was that he was swinging at his own guys who were trying to get him off the field. He would have gone into the stands if not for his ass't coach, and some police, holding him back. That was what bothered me the most: fighting the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

And now for random eloquence:

The bigger picture here is this: all those people who worked so hard to help Obama get elected; all those young voters who engaged in politics and its discourse; they could have been even more disillusioned. They could have become cynics like me. And if they disengage, if they tune out for another generation, then more would be lost than Obama's presidency. True progress would be lost. The ability to cover 1/6th of the U.S. population with affordable health care would be lost. Hate and crazy would only advance.

So now that Obama has regained some mojo, where does that leave us? Maybe "Wall-E" or "Planet of the Apes" number of years from now, history will have 'decidered' (rendered judgment for those who don't speak W). And history will show that on this issue, fixing 1 of the main things broken in this country, we had a President who spoke like a President, like an adult even, to a room full of petulant children. I've looked at HuffPo, and the links on the right, to see if someone posted a more succinct blog of how I might capture all of this. Haven't found it yet. For me though, I saw the guy I voted for. He's so far above the intellect of all those who seek to hurt him, or have him fail. He never takes the bait; the other side can't help themselves, so they always end up looking even worse than they probably are. All the vile crap, and he just stands there and says, 'you want to keep acting this way, fine, go ahead. I'm not sinking to your level.' Obviously, if he did, the nutbars would trot out the angry black man card. Obama has that calm demeanor that I wish I could have. He's so composed, and the more hate the crazies spew at him, the more he brushes it off. Maybe that is the transformative power of his message? Even if I've been disappointed in a few of his policies, and this health reform has not become law yet, I still give him all the credit for standing there, taking it all in, and never flinching when the punches come right at him. He may never be the most powerful counter-puncher ever, but he has mastered the rope-a-dope. He may never win by knock-out or even TKO, but if he wins all of his major bouts, even by split decision, he still wins. Even if he doesn't go undefeated, he could still be a hall-of-famer. That would help.

Back to HIGHpocrisy soon (we're looking at you, MSM)!

Tempest nothing

2009-09-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

language vs. language. They're both right, in their own ways.

Almost a year ago (Oct. '08), we posted an entry comparing Obama's resolve in the face of all things ugly to the courage of Jackie Robinson. And that was before Obama won! Robinson was a hall of fame athlete with a super-human personality to match. We'll know soon enough if the comparison was apt, because you can't be transformative if the talent never rises to defeat the tempest.

how many times

2009-09-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

and ways am I going to say the same frikkin thing: can anyone explain why Obama would even be considering punking his base when he has to know damn well that the other side will never give him 1 frikkin vote? Repukes -- the ones running the freak show -- do NOT WANT TO GOVERN! They are Bush's petulant offspring; they have already declared they want to both pick up their own ball and go home, at the same time they steal all the candy from the babies on the playground. There is no good faith negotiating. There is no support to be had. They just want failure to restore them to power, to then destroy again, without checks or balances. They do not want to build, to "progress", to create. And my blood is boiling as I refuse to believe Obama cannot see that! He must, so WTF is he after? What's the end game here if his own base has to bend over on every important issue, just so he can appease the lunatic fringe? Do blinders come with the job he was elected to do? AAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHH

Bachshade

2009-09-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Could. not. resist.

deep thoughts

2009-09-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

And hopefully, some final thoughts before next week's make or break speech by the big O. There are just some crazies who will never support anything Obama tries to do. He could go on TV next week and say that water is wet, the grass is green, and the earth revolves around the sun. But nutbars will rush right out to say the opposite. The problem is, too many of these people are actually in what was once the GOP, now unrecognizable. Have they even once proposed a solution of their own, to any serious problem? No, because they don't want to fix what's broken. And they're so far off the HIGHpocrisy scale of 5 Hs, we can't even track it [e.g., what happened to supporting a war-time president?]

The other problem is that the MSM reports the batshade as de facto news. Arianna Huffington has lamented this repeatedly. Not every issue has 2 sides, there can actually be truth and fiction; right and wrong. Ratings, profit, ego, power, all are wrapped up in this neat little package. That's what an oligarchy does (I can spell-check, too); it's why fear-mongering has worked, because it's how you suppress the people from owning up to their responsibility as an informed citizenry.

Enough rambling and incoherence: next week, Obama will either have pulled off the baddest, mother-F^&k*n' rope-a-dope in history, or his entire agenda will be history. As we've said already, if he can't win this one -- with Dem. majorities, popularity and public opinion on his side, not to mention the right thing to do -- what can he win?

duh x3

2009-09-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

Duh to this header, but didn't read it; duh to this header too, would not read it [does anyone even in CT -- J? -- still pay attention when that guy speaks?]. And BIG DUH to this, read it. Especially the parts that refer to the wingnuts doing everything they can to beat Obama, anything to have him fail, b/c after all, government is always the problem when Rs are not in power. It's also the problem when they R in charge, but they just suck at it so bad. Guess we'll find out in a week who gets to decide the health of this country, literally!

Sorry, one more, read it. Will he be a lover or a fighter?

hope

2009-09-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

We know Obama's good at politics. We know he's smart. He's certainly smart enough to know what's going on, and he doesn't want to fail. But man, I sure hope this guy's "right" about all this.

It's not reform if nothing changes

2009-08-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

We're not rushing to hop on the Obama "bashwagon" (new copyrighted term here at Highpocrisy HQ). We also think Howard Fineman is too much of an insider to provide new and useful insight. But he has a take on the current health care debate, here. Money quote to us: "...there are no moderates left in the GOP. Only conservatives who want to deny Obama success or legitimacy. They'll oppose anything he proposes and call it principle." Fineman does mention that Obama might have been too naive to think he could achieve bi-partisanship on this issue.

We might extend that claim to any of his big-ticket issues. We've said before how hard it is for the powerful to relinquish control and power to another. Especially, THE "other". But part of the problem at least for me, is that I wanted to believe Obama was more progressive. Basketball may have been his sport on the campaign trail, but since he took that oath, he seems to have run to the center faster than Usain Bolt. Or did he? Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow said on Real Time a couple weeks ago that she always thought Obama was a moderate. I didn't want to accept that. But Obama has not pushed for any war crimes investigations yet. He lost control of the debate on his own top priority of health care reform. His economic plans have been too timid for the likes of Paul Krugman. And yet, he's still the President! He's the smartest guy in the room, with a pit bull for a Chief of Staff (sans lipstick). I'm just not getting why Obama can't see what's needed here!?! What is the game plan? If he can't win this one, what can he win? It's still way too early in the game, but I really wish he'd take advice from a source in none other than his own hometown of Chicago, courtesy of Sean Connery's Jim Malone in The Untouchables (poetic license taken):

"You wanna know how to get [health care reform]? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. THAT's the *Chicago* way! And that's how you get [health care reform]..." Given the current climate, this could not be more apt. OK, Mr. President, now what are you prepared to do?

supplemental: J and I make a couple of extra points in comments, but keep reading Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. Obama began the whole reform process without his A game, i.e., the single-payer alternative. Never even made it into the gym. If he were really cocky enough to think he could push through the Plan B "public option" (or worse, take credit for any reform that passed), I could at least respect the effort, but still hate the result. We both sure "hope" he hasn't checked his senses at the door to 1600 Pennsylvania.

Go see Bill

2009-08-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

But first, read Paul Krugman in yesterday's NYT op-ed. J provides his own take thusly: "Wonder how those people opposed to Obama's health care reform would react to the idea that they are in the same group of people that are part of the 'birthers' movement? Or, how these same people might react to the idea that they have aligned themselves with a cadre of race-baiting wing-nuts? What a country!"

Well, here's an answer or two, courtesy of Rollah and Bill Maher: the health care debate can't just be labeled as Obama's plan. For one thing, there is no alternative. It's either fix what's broken, or we continue to decline as a country that does not care about the health of its citizens. Forget stupid-ass party affiliation also. Republicans are most likely to play the fear card, but congressional Dems have not exactly been on the path of the virtuous. No, the larger problem is as Bill Maher described it on his show last week. "Dummies talking to other dummies." Bill's been on fire this Summer; we strongly encourage you to watch, or read up via the internets: http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/index.html

This country continues to be run by corporatists (read, older rich white guys), not the will of the people. They are the ones who are most afraid, of losing control and power. They turn that fear over to their constituents, however they can. [Two asides: (1) read Matt Taibbi's long article on Goldman Sachs in last month's Rolling Stone, that's some scary sh^&; and, (2) re Judge Sotomayor's confirmation: old, rich white guys can never claim reverse racism. They have always been the oppressor, never the victim. Ok, (3) add in Jeremy Scahill's account of Blackwater]

You can see where we're headed. As long as greed and selfishness prevail, this place will continue to tank. And the scariest part? Obama could ram anything he wants down Congress' throat. He's that smart, and they're that lame. But if it's not in him to get mean, get nasty, if he stays true to himself and always plays the nice guy, the bipartisan, touchy-feely, Mr. Kumbaya? Then we're all screwed; our kids, their kids, the planet. If you've never seen the movie, Wall-E, go rent it. That's not 700 years down the road if things don't turn around! That's a short trip down I-5 to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland all in 1 stop.

Return of the J

2009-07-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought our well of Highpocrisy would dry up after S.C. gov Mark Sanford's "hiking" trip last month, along comes the resident Republican batshade standard-bearer herself, the 'thrilla from Wasilla', with her dress for the press, and on the Friday of the Independence Day weekend, no less (shout-out, Dr. Seuss). Has Countdown taken all the good puns ['Iquitarod' was an instant classic]? We hope not, because here J revives some long-dormant, never before posted quips of his own (and the classics never die). Regardless of whether you believe the Tina Fey wanna-be is going to the talk show circuit, the courtroom, a padded cell or her next helicopter ride up to shoot wolves on her way to Michael Jackson's funeral, J cautions you to be ever-vigilant:

"Countdown has used the 'Palin-tology' graphic before. Sounds remarkably close to paleontology, which is the point of course. If you believe what the soon-to-be former Mrs. Governor of AK believes, there would be no such thing as paleontology. Or, at the very least, she would have you believe that paleontologists, professional wrestlers and celebrity psychics are all cut from the same cloth. And speaking of her cloth... does she still believe that witches and demons walk among us and must be purged from our souls? Hi Memory Lane, it's me, Trip, wanna take a walk?

Sarah Palin supposedly thought it was fine that her aides ignored subpoenas during Trooper-gate. Remember she wanted to bill (did?) rape victims for their medical kits? Foreign policy experience meant seeing a sliver of Russia from her house. Obama's there now. Can she see him waving to her? Does she still think the Founding Fathers were omitting a few powers from the Constitution that only the Vice-President had or knew about 230 years later? Highpocrisy HOF'er on the issue of a woman's right to choose. Downright Bushian in her ability to remain unencumbered by syntax, grammar or the modern English language. You betcha! Quick brain teaser: which was the more rambling, incoherent episode between her VP debate or last Friday's press conference? Trick question, because the answer is, both were G-d's will.

Now it's time for J's blatant rip-off of a top 10 list of reasons why McCain picked her in the 1st place:

10 - Nobody else would
9 - Alaska is the only state where McGeezer didn't have a house
8 - Mcgramps wanted to see the Northern lights for real, not just in his nightmare 'Nam flashbacks
7 - Lost his bet with Phil Gramm that he couldn't find anyone worse than Dan Quayle
6 - Alternative to Viagra
5 - Thought "field dressing a moose" meant something else
4 - Hillary said no
3 - Promised Pat Buchanan he'd pick a running mate who could give him a woodie
2 - Found his intellectual soul-mate
and
1 - Hoping for a 3-way with Cindy"

Wind J up, watch him unleash the pent-up fury. He's baaaack, and he's brought hell with him.

Spawn but not forgotten

2009-05-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

No, we have not forgotten about our little blog of heaven. But yes, we have dropped someone's ball in not updating since end of March. We've missed a lot. Meant to write about Gov. Rick Perry's secessionist nonsense. Still might. Gotta catch up on all the hypocritical goings-on, but life has found a way to keep J and Rollah busy. More to follow because HIGHpocrisy never stops.

NAILed it !

2009-03-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

As in, "nail in the coffin" of this country. I wish there was a way that Matt Taibbi could explain as forcefully what the frikk we're supposed to do now. You'll have plenty of time to read this long piece, meandering amid the ruins of what was once a god-fearing, hard-working upstart nation. But if you don't survive the impending doomsday, here's a short excerpt to drive that final nail home:

That roll of the eyes is a key part of the psychology of Paulsonism. The state is now being asked not just to call off its regulators or give tax breaks or funnel a few contracts to connected companies; it is intervening directly in the economy, for the sole purpose of preserving the influence of the megafirms. In essence, Paulson used the bailout to transform the government into a giant bureaucracy of entitled assholedom, one that would socialize "toxic" risks but keep both the profits and the management
of the bailed-out firms in private hands. Moreover, this whole process would be done in secret, away from the prying eyes of NASCAR dads, broke-ass liberals who read translations of French novels, subprime mortgage holders and other such financial losers.

Morning Joe for the colon blow!

2009-03-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

Every morning while I’m getting ready for work, I turn on those morning buffoons from MSNBC……they are just so darn entertaining. If your regular cup of “morning Joe” isn’t enough to kick-start your system and keep you ….well…. regular, then you should really power up the boob tube and tune into some super duper high intensity, fast acting, fiber rich laxative from the likes of Mika, Willie, Joe, Pat and Mike. Wow, just typing their names makes my sphincter pucker uncontrollably. Remember the old SNL commercial for “Colon Blow” cereal? [Gotta love Phil Hartman......“How many bowls of your cereal would it take to equal the fiber content in new Colon Blow Cereal? ....... It would take over 30,000 bowls ...... With new Super Colon Blow, it would take 2 million bowls”]. Well, unless you’ve seen “Scarborough’s Appalachian Country Fair” lately, you don’t know what diarrhea is! Mika Brzezinski is just like that innocent, little wet fart that precedes the gargantuan dump. You’re never quite sure whether it’s a harmless little squeak or whether that seemingly innocent little blurt is going to let go and bury the audience in an avalanche of hazardous, republican, fecal matter…..she is so vacuously cute, like the Energizer Bunny, desperately trying to contribute anything remotely interesting to the conversation. Just above Mika on the “Morning Joe Doo Doo scale” is the show’s resident spontaneous farter, Wee Willie Geist. You never know what is going to come out of him or when. Non sequitur, lame attempt at a joke or steaming pile of dog squeeze……..he is our adorable little Mr. poopy-pants! Then there’s Pat “Mt. Vitruvius” Buchanan……who could blow at any second. He is the old, constipated, isolationist who hasn’t laid a smooth tread in over a month. Old people are just so darn cute…..but beware, he is just one really good broccoli fart away from covering the entire set, knee deep in his conservative “ma-caca”. And Mike Barnicle……poor, sensitive, Mike Barnicle….accomplished print journalist trying desperately to make the jump to TV while hiding the giant load in his pants from his uncontrollable, high-fiber diet binges. Mike wants to be a good guy and at times he shows signs of wanting to use the potty with the rest of the big boys……but alas, Joe or Pat says something that “moves” him or he catches a whiff of Peggy Noonan’s rank perfume and he can’t help but soil his pants yet again! And how about our fearless leader………..backwoods, banjo playing, freak-on-a-bridge from Deliverance, Joe, “the equal opportunity critic” Scarborough. This guy is such a turd……a living, speaking, walking but barely thinking piece of pure unadulterated excrement! He is our own adorable and retarded version of Mr. Hankey. This morning was just so…..so……so…….cleansing. When vaunted financial analyst Jim “Mad Money – thyroid case” Cramer and Joe Blow-hard started whining about Jon Stewart and the Daily Show I could feel a classic Morning Joe bowel movement “brewing”. Scar-blow actually had the audacity to call Jon Stewart an ideologue and challenged him to appear on “Morning Joe” and explain to the viewers his solution for the economic recovery. These “shit-for-brains” morons appear everyday on TV talking about how Obama is failing to deliver on his promises and how his decisions have caused the worst economy since the great depression! The man has been president for 2 months! It took Bush 8 years to flush this country down the economic, human rights, foreign affairs, health care and education toilet and these freakin hemorrhoids expect things to get better in 2 months! MSNBC needs to install a giant bidet and blast these dingleberries right off the air. Now that was a satisfying dump.
-J

they're not booing, they're saying yooooooooo

2009-03-05T13:19:00.001-08:00

I never doubted that my sublime name-calling could be outdone: use the link on the right and read The Rude Pundit's posts from yesterday and today. Thank goodness I couldn't get in to Boalt; it saved me the trauma of being more ashamed 20 years later now that the school employs this batshade POS.

Em-'bear'-assing level of batshade

2009-03-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

As Cal grads, J and not so silent Rollah respectfully urge Boalt Hall School of Law to summarily dismiss the batshade nutbar disguising himself as a 'law professor'. Any institution of higher learning (esp. ours) should be ashamed for employing anyone who could spit on the U.S. Constitution like this: The country, he argued, was in a "state of armed conflict." The scale of violence, he argued, was unprecedented and "legal and constitutional rules" governing law enforcement—such as the Fourth Amendment prohibition on "unreasonable" searches and seizures—did not apply.

I'm no legal scholar, but I can parse a sentence. The 'country' was not in a state of armed conflict. We were attacked, but Yoo's boss sat and read a kiddie book for 7 minutes, and then told everyone soon thereafter to go shopping. What was the scale of violence compared to the 4250+ U.S. dead, thousands wounded, maybe hundreds of thousands Iraqi civilians dead, 2 million+ refugees since then? That's not teaching we can believe in. I can see Stanford bringing Rummy to the Farm, Condi was already there for a loooong time. But et tu, Boalt?

For more on that sorry excuse for a lawyer, read the Newsweek article, here.

misrememberin' ?

2009-02-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

I must not have heard this right: the 30-something-year-old governor of the state devastated by Katrina claiming that because the Federal gov't failed massively on the watch of the worst president ever (R), that we don't need no stinkin gov't now under Obama (D) to help with anything?
J, is that batshade enough for ya?

Update: thanks for commenting, J. As if to prove your point ...

Empty kool-aid

2009-02-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

There are enough accounts of this travesty to satiate all sides of the blogosphere; even w/in the 10 spots linked on right. I chose ABC's because of how mainstream they're supposed to be; but look at the comments below the blog post. Nothing says 'divided' more than some of these nutbars. Couple this decision with Panetta retracting the torture prosecutions, and Obama letting himself get played by idiots in Congress who have no clue how to fix what they helped break. [Or, maybe they have a clue, but they don't care; they want it to stay broken]. And what you have is 1 empty trough o' kool-aid. No justice, no peace.

Adding: Why can't someone just be honest about their dishonesty, as in, "You can't spell F#ck without U!" There, I said it.

1 classy Dick

2009-02-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

To paraphrase Ron Burgundy, "You stay classy, Dick."

repubes take ball, go home

2009-01-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

I'd show House Rs some respect if they acted like adults once in a while, or ever. But what's the point? These are grown men and women who got elected, or re-elected, as representatives of the people? Not seeing it. And don't rely on the MSM to put these kids in time-out.
Nah gah happen.

En fuego J

2009-01-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

You can't stop him any longer, you can only hope to contain him:

Well played, Mr. Neiwert. You just earned a spot on the J-LEB (J’s List of Enlightened Bloggers). The list is still young but highly exclusive. Heretofore you can call yourself a J-LEBrity.
- J

J's unleashed his hounds, so he's right up there with "batshade" TM. When we combine these 2 newest catch-phrases, we're really on to what will surely be a cultural phenomenon: a "Batshade J-LEBrity".

so basic

2009-01-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

even your Republican hypocrite friends can understand.
- J

Updated: But for those of you who read that lib'rul NYT, here's another basic.

O2

2009-01-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Just to follow on your "single letter theme" ….allow me to buy a vowel and add a number! I experienced what can only be described as someone finally opening a giant window, after eight long years in some dark, dank, oxygen-deprived, bunker somewhere in east, butt-f%&k Texas! It was a strange and painful existence, where incomplete, often incoherent sentences were the norm, and Mr. Whipple’s Charmin was replaced with the constitution to clean up the diarrhetic bile that spewed from the mouths and rectums of W and Dick. Obama is saying all the right things and it is such a breath of fresh air. Let the healing begin!
- J

T

2009-01-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

Wifey says this describes me to a "T". No highpocrisy, just sharing info.

the list

2009-01-15T11:41:00.001-08:00

J probably likes #13 the best, but I am torn among 4, 2 and 1 of course. Having this list in the first place is just a great piece of work, whatever your values.

quickie from J

2009-01-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

Most ironic that Norm "Howdy Doodie" Coleman was so righteously outspoken when he was leading the vote to have Franken concede for the "good of the country" and the "good of Minnesota". Now that he is about to lose he decides to file a lawsuit! He is pulling a "LIE-bermann". What a freakin hypocrite............definitely a triple HHH for Highpocrisy!!!
-J

Note: while this may only be J's 2nd overall contribution, we are still expecting great things in 2009...

BCS edition, 2.0

2009-01-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Alt. title: "Stupid is as stupid does." Last year about this time, I posted on another site, which may or may not still exist, re the stupidity of the BCS system. No re-hash here. But I did want to make an observation, not necessarily Highpocrisy-related, into my truer passion than politics: sports. Driving home from work and listening to the pre-game on radio, I thought maybe Fla. wins 31-21, but then that might be too high-scoring, so more like 24-10. I can be that prescient, because I am that knowledgeable about the sports I follow. I tried to watch some of the game last night betw. Okla and Fla., and I told my older daughter that Fla. was going to win. She asked how I could be so sure when it was only the 1st half. Here's how:

Okla. had to know they were not going to score their 50+ pts. average against that defense. Stoops had to know too, that he'd been pulling an 0-fer on recent BCS games. So what happens? Exhibit A: 1st and goal with this year's Heisman winner at QB, and they run 3 times to no effect. Instead of taking the points in a gimme FG, they try a 4th straight run. TO on downs. Exhibit B: 10 seconds left in the 1st half; another chance for gimme 3 pts., but this time, a passing play that gets deflected for an INT. Game over by halftime.

From the ol' Ghostbusters movie: 'when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!' When you have a chance to get 6 pts via 2 cheap field goals against the best D you've seen all year, you TAKE THE POINTS! QBs and defense win football games. Ya know what else wins? Scoring more than the other team. Okla. deserved to lose. That's the message I could convey with utter confidence. And since there is usually plenty of Highpocrisy in the sports world, we need to stay on top of it whenever possible. So, we will.

As an aside, I hope Bradford stays in school another year. Then my Lions can draft the OL from 'bama with the #1 pick; then KC takes Stafford, and so on. World order restored.

2009

2009-01-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

the 1st post of the year, and it's administrative. Hopefully, I was able to change the page layout to put the picture at bottom, and have the blog list along the right-hand side. Substantive posts to resume shortly. And of course, more importantly: for the privileged few who may have actually stumbled upon us, it's henceforth known as Highpocrisy, in title and now in URL: http://www.highpocrisy.blogspot.com/. Rollah yields.

Walking clusterf&^#, with a capital W

2008-12-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

The long and short of why this guy is the Worst. President. Ever.
No justice means more pain.

J and Not So Silent Rollah wish you and your families a healthy, happy, safe and prosperous 2009!

a little closer to home

2008-12-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

Finally, an easily-identifiable level of Highpocrisy on a topic I actually know something about.

sign of the times

2008-12-12T11:13:00.001-08:00

A backup catcher for the Oakland A's, a guy who hit under .200 last year, can make half a MILLION dollars. A handful of Senators (!) -- each making six figures -- can toy with the fate of entire companies, affecting MILLIONS of U.S. workers and their families, for political reasons only! I can think of a lot of words other than HIGHpocrisy for how whacked this country is; most start with the same 4 letters.

Blago, please!

2008-12-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

I may have borrowed from Bill Maher's Real-Time, but since he's off until February, I'm hoping he doesn't mind. I don't really have anything to contribute to this topic, I just like the title.

And when I wrote below about not having anything new to find in the world of hypocrisy? Of course, there is. There will always be material: 'wars', recession, civil rights, and those are the high-level items. We can't go too far too often, but we also have to make sure we don't blur the fine lines between hypocrisy, irony, and our ol' standby, cynicism. Like I said below, it's the holidays. Peace on Earth, good will toward man. And to all, a good night. And G-d bless us, everyone! Suck on that cup of cheer, Blago, you greedy, ignorant bastard.

not much new

2008-12-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

I discovered that Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, one of our favorite writers, started blogging in October. He has about 13 posts. So we have him beat by about 1 month, and many more articles. Of course, he gets paid for his blog. And he's really good. I've added to the list of followed blogs at bottom of the page. Not much has raised my ire enough to seek the hypocrisy... I must still be in post-Obama election space. Holidays are also a time for being more positive, hopeful, wishful, and we'll keep that going. I suppose I'll have to post about Wal-mart and the stampede soon.

Highpocrisy, Bon Jovi edition

2008-11-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

As in, "Joe gives Dems a bad name, bad name..." He probably doesn't give Jews a bad name, but I don't know. So, what to make of all this LIEbertool stuff?

We have a camp that says, 'Obama knows more than we do, is really smart and a great politician. So, if he wanted LIEberman to stay, he must have a reason, so give peace a chance.' But we also have another camp that says, 'What LIEberman did was so awful, there's no way to justify keeping him.' [I do like the Traitor Joe pic]. Then, we have the competence argument, that his performance as HS Comm. Chair was pathetic, a complete waste, and thus, he should be tossed. But then we also have Lawrence O'Donnell on Rachel Maddow on Monday night saying none of these chairmanships are ever judged on performance. And that's all just this week!

It can be very confusing whether we drill down to the wonk-level or not. I'm not, since I'm in the visceral camp. I likes me the crime and punishment. So here's the thing that bugs me: the politics!!! 1st a quote from Howard Dean, posted among the many blogs, but within the last of the 3 links above:

"But I would line up with Barack. I don't think you were told to go screw yourselves at all. I think he has got to now practice what he preaches during two years of campaigns if he wants to bring America together and as objectionable as Joe's behavior was, and frankly unprincipled, I don't think that this is the thing that should divide us. And I don't think it's about his votes for FISA or anything else. I think it's about what kind of a tone do we want to send..."

Tone? Look, we can all be -- and likely have been -- moved by Obama's words over the past 2 years. The guy has earned his shot. But actions carry weight too, Gov. Dean. The FISA vote counted. The 'no-grudges' tour now means something. You can't preach 'tone' if you're tone-deaf to consequences. That's why this matters. It matters because ordinary people have done extraordinary things to help Obama become President-elect. So if Harry Reid's feelings are hurt, tough too bads. But you can't dismiss the hurt feelings of other citizens simply because they're not Senate Majority Leaders. You have to acknowledge WHY they might feel the way they do, and THEN, you can look to resolve. I must be liberal, I'm so sensitive. [Frankly, with all the Dem-caving history, with their wussiness on display at every turn, how can one not get a sense of deja vu?]

I'd like to believe in the promised change, the hope, the appeal to our better selves; that Obama really is that different. The cynic in me is just not sure that hope deserves another chance. It would be so much easier if Obama just came out and said, 'Ya know what, Joe, I'm going to get two dogs for my girls in the White House: a new puppy, and you!' Maybe he said that in private, that would be cool. While there's another Bon Jovi song called 'Joey', the more appropriate one to end with is, 'Good guys don't always wear white.'

When Harry met a Lying POS

2008-11-18T11:53:00.001-08:00

Oh Harry, you vamp. Does anyone believe you when you speak anymore? I don't. You remember that game 'Hungry Hungry Hippo'? Well, in honor of your latest exploration into the depths of depravity and insult, you can have a new game named after you: Harry Harry Hypocrite. You can't start hypocrisy without an H.

And for 1st initial-only insight, J still knows more than most. Apparently not as much as our Senate 'leaders'. Here's what appeared in an article 9/8/05 in the business section of the San Jose Mercury News (I could not find in their Archives online), regarding leadership characteristics: leaders are globalists, know themselves, are coaches, influence others, manage change, are strategic, and must be managers, too. But the money quote: "...accountability overrides all other attributes..." Ta-da. When accountability is restored in politics, in life, then the Harry Reids can be leaders again. I doubt he makes it that long. Until then, there are just words in a yellowing piece of paper stuck on an office wall somewhere.

So, does that mean the great thing about blogging is that no one will really ever read this? We can all just sit behind our anonymous IDs, protected by these series of tubes, and pretend that venting makes us all feel better. I was about as low and depressed as one could feel when the Dems brought up FISA in June; and Obama supported it. I was about as high and happy when Obama won. See if you can guess, after today's LIEbertool shenanigans, where I am now?

Update: 1 comment that I posted to Bob Cesca's blog, summing up why I can't let go yet: Bad behavior should never be rewarded, PERIOD!

lies, Lies, LIES, yeah

2008-11-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

I don't really have much news to share on LIEbertool at this time. I'm still waiting for J's take direct from CT. There seems to be a broad spectrum of 'opinion' so I might as well chime in again.

Almost every link at the bottom of this site has at least 1 post on the guy, with varying degrees of fact and fancy. I probably lean more toward Rude Pundit's, though AMERICAblog and Kos and TPM all have their points worth reading. I did see Bayh on Rachel last night, and I am glad he didn't get picked for the VP slot. He definitely sounds more like a [P]olitician than most. So what does that say about LIEbertool that they were both pro-war? What if LIEbertool doesn't apologize, sincerely and publicly? And lost in the BS translation, what about Bayh's comment that if the Stooge doesn't play nice, they can still strip him of his chairmanship? That was news.

I got too excited when the FISA crap came up, only to be deflated by all the cave-ins. Then I got excited again when there was a chance that Mukasey wouldn't pass, again only to be deflated by Schumer and Feinstein. That's a whole mess o' jews doin' the deflating. I am not falling for it a 3rd time [go to www.rollah.com for my '3 Strikes' feature, which has not been updated since I started blogging].

I can be vindictive and hold a grudge, it's true. I'm not expecting much retribution here, though. While it's a no-brainer to those of us on the outside, I can still be plenty disappointed if the LIE machine isn't punished. I am sure that among the inner sanctum, however, there's a lot going on that we'll never know about. But that's what separates the blogosphere from the elected officials. I'm not making excuses for Obama. We all know Mr. LIE's just as unfit for public office as his buddy mcnutbar. I've already disowned him as a Jew, so he's not welcome in my tribe. That'll show him.

Bingo!

2008-11-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

Eloquent as usual, but with a dash of I don't want to say urgency, maybe more incredulity? Personally, I'm not a rubbernecker because I'm usually the one driving, but this train wreck really is hard to stop staring at.

Stuff

2008-11-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

No, Highpocrisy - the Blog, cannot leave yet. There is still plenty to go around. While J still has to get credit for more than just 1 post up here, I will dole out a few random HHs:

1) LIEbertool. No longer just the LIEberstooge, he is officially in whack job territory. Know who says so? Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Know how? Because Reid says he's not. And so, too, maybe Chris Dodd, Mr. FISA Filibuster himself. Our take? If the guy had said, 'look, mccain's my friend, i'm going to stand by him', and then he just hung out in the background, behind the scenes, kept quiet, whispering an occasional sweet 'you meant sunni's into mcgramps' ear, maybe, MAYBE, it would've been OK. But that's not what LIEbertool did. He flat out lied in 2006, just to get re-elected. J can tell ya. And then he not only campaigns for his friend, he trashes Obama at the RNC convention and questions the patriotism of his own party's nominee. Our ancestors can tell Joe all about that 40 years of wilderness thing, so, if it were up to me, he'd be out there with the rest of the tools. But now comes word that maybe Obama won't banish him to the Rs. I don't know how this works, but progressives know that LIEbertool would sell his own mother out if it helped him, but Obama is smart enough, has done enough right -- heck, he won!! -- that we'll have to see. I'd just prefer Obama give him 1 of those Fredo kisses on the lips: "I know it was you, Senator, you broke my heart."

2) And speaking of homophopia, what is up with the Prop 8 post-mortem? The Mormon church gave $20-25 million to Yes on 8, because they must believe in the sanctity of 1 man-many wives. But NOW all of a sudden, once it passes, the protests are all over the place. Where was the activism before the election? The reason I buy most so far (more than the 'blacks hate gays' mantra of some) is that liberals and normal people operated in a vacuum -- they never organized enough against this measure. They just figured 'hey, it's California; something like Prop 8 can't pass here.' CA is a big place. Time to wake up and smell the Highpocrisy.

3) And finally, speaking of big places, the AK is still relevant. The Convicted Felon effect is still under way. But oh, the Moosechurian. My earlier posts on how she was playing a part? Notice now that she's back in the literal wilderness, she's not quite the star. She wore a sweatshirt ("AK-grown"?) on the plane home, and her last TV appearance, the hair wasn't up, the clothes weren't the RNC's. Hey gov., the cameras still beam signals back to their stations, and that works all over those NAFTA countries, whatever they're called. If the lights are still on, the party's still going. Spruce it up for the next round, or soon, you'll take the shine right out of Joe the WTF's post-15 minutes. And I don't feel sorry for the anonymous saboteurs, even though tough gal, hockey-mom is calling them mean names, like 'jerks' and 'cowards'. What if they ever came out and said this stuff ON the record? Ooooh, I'd watch that. We're still in sweeps month. And it has been a season of hope.

LIEberpunk

2008-11-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

I can't concentrate on work today; I should be blogging less, not more. And yet, when I come across this, I can't help myself. Kick droopy to the curb, J, have at him. He's in your state for goodness sake. Well, we're waiting...