Odd timing aside

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,

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?

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

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.

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?

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!

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!