Monday, December 28, 2009
Keystone Home Land Security
At the risk of sounding nothing less than a right wing nut, it is time to get serious with the terrorist screening thing. An excellent point was made on ABC Sunday morning news show. After that nut tried to blow up a plane with his shoes, the whole flying population needed to take off their shoes. Now we have but another nut, this one with exploding underwear. We can only imagine what are crack home land security team will come up for this one. Funny, no senior white American has been caught with exploding shoes or underwear. The folks attempting to rain havoc on us are radical Islamics who have known links to radical teachings. Hmm. The facts present us with a serious problem expressed in a single question. Should we scrap the bulk of airport security and start focusing on the supposed 500,000 individuals who present threats? Do we have too many “security” personnel and not enough computer specialists scanning and cross referencing visas applications, passports, driver licenses and other documents that are needed for travel with known threat factors. This all out assault on the flying population in the name of security is nothing short than a bureaucratic overreaction. Folks it is time to profile! The reason behind this action is rather simple.
How many times have we heard that we are at war. Hell, we went into Iraq, and we are now ramping up our presence in Afghanistan. To what end? Our leaders tell we must fight the ghouls who are out to destroy us. Now, this war thing is an interesting reference. At one point, we justified torture with this logic. And torture is a bit more harsh that profiling. Now combine the logic of a war with profiling. If we can bomb with sketchy information or even solid information, why don't we apply that same logic to screening at the airports or any other entry point favored by those who feel killing innocent people is a means to an end. Back in the day, when computers were becoming an integral element in our life. We had the old card system. Some may recall the old notice on official documents that warned not to deface the card. Well, all those cards were put into a sorter and alas out of a population of millions, the cards were properly sorted. A spokesperson commenting on the last incident noted that there are 500,000 or more people on the watch list. Well that is who we should focus our attention, not the millions of others who are just trying to get one place to another. Because we were screening the millions, the one out of 500,000 got through the net. What if we had just focused on the 500,000?
What is intelligence? Isn't it identifying potential threats? To return to an earlier question and answer it we need only stop, search, detain, and possibly arrest those who fit the profile and are hellbent on creating havoc. I shouldn't have to take off my shoes nor should any senior citizen. But anyone who is on the list should be pulled aside and strip search, now that they are planting bombs in their shorts. My god, this whole security thing we got going helps not hinders the terrorists. All these sick souls need to do is to outsmart the keystone procedures that are in place. The solution to stopping terrorism is to identify terrorists and not put the entire world under the microscope of supposed security. We need to get real and stop playing the political correctness card. We need real analysts not keystone cops.
How many times have we heard that we are at war. Hell, we went into Iraq, and we are now ramping up our presence in Afghanistan. To what end? Our leaders tell we must fight the ghouls who are out to destroy us. Now, this war thing is an interesting reference. At one point, we justified torture with this logic. And torture is a bit more harsh that profiling. Now combine the logic of a war with profiling. If we can bomb with sketchy information or even solid information, why don't we apply that same logic to screening at the airports or any other entry point favored by those who feel killing innocent people is a means to an end. Back in the day, when computers were becoming an integral element in our life. We had the old card system. Some may recall the old notice on official documents that warned not to deface the card. Well, all those cards were put into a sorter and alas out of a population of millions, the cards were properly sorted. A spokesperson commenting on the last incident noted that there are 500,000 or more people on the watch list. Well that is who we should focus our attention, not the millions of others who are just trying to get one place to another. Because we were screening the millions, the one out of 500,000 got through the net. What if we had just focused on the 500,000?
What is intelligence? Isn't it identifying potential threats? To return to an earlier question and answer it we need only stop, search, detain, and possibly arrest those who fit the profile and are hellbent on creating havoc. I shouldn't have to take off my shoes nor should any senior citizen. But anyone who is on the list should be pulled aside and strip search, now that they are planting bombs in their shorts. My god, this whole security thing we got going helps not hinders the terrorists. All these sick souls need to do is to outsmart the keystone procedures that are in place. The solution to stopping terrorism is to identify terrorists and not put the entire world under the microscope of supposed security. We need to get real and stop playing the political correctness card. We need real analysts not keystone cops.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Obama and the Lottery
Has an extremely large lottery jackpot enticed you to purchase a ticket?
The slogan, a dollar and a dream, is hard to ignore. The dreaming starts when the clerk at the gas station hands you the newly minted ticket. At that moment, the mind can systematically spin out of control while one systematically spends every dime of the winnings. At night, one goes to bed secure in the knowledge that come the dawn, like a lowly crawling caterpillar, one will blossom with gossamer wings of wealth and forever fly above the trials and tribulations of those who have to work for a living. The rude awakening comes when the numbers are checked and then you realize that you got to be in it, to win it can be reduced to the actual two chances you had to cash in on the prize, 1) slim and 2) none. The lottery, as one observer noted, is for the statistically challenged.
So, it was with my belief in the campaign slogan, Change you can believe. To have actually believed in a campaign slogan is to suspend all one's accumulated knowledge. With the young, it is easy. Life's experiences with this population are few. But for one, like me, who has been voting since the election Lydon P. Johnson, to suspend my first hand experiences and to actually believe that the tide of foolishness and corruption in politics that I have witnessed in my lifetime was coming to an end was an act that could be clinically diagnosed as insane.
To think that a politician, any politician, is different is oxymornic. To think that a politician from an established party can usher in change in a system that has been honed by the elite to serve the elite is an act of sheer fantasy. Barack was a lottery ticket for the masses. He was a product, a brand that was skillfully crafted to play upon our most cherished beliefs and hopes. Like the next amazing slimming product, or the soap that will wash out every stain, he was sold to us. And it was easy given the choice, a doddering bitter trigger happy old man and his wacky goofy sexpot. I like millions of others watched as the new candidate Obama went about talking of change. After eight years of the most corrupt and cynical administration in history, the sell wasn't that hard. After all, one need only make a small contribution and dream.
Perhaps Obama is more than a new product. Perhaps he is a man of substance. But the way he has caved in to the likes of Liberman and Nelson indicates a desire for something anything; yet the compromise is a poor substitute for something real. The way he has drawn upon the experiences of the foxes of the new financial order for his economics indicates that he has exposed us chickens to the rapacious predators who have savaged our economy and out currency. The way he has taken the counsel of the Doctors Strangeloves whose only plan is to drop more bombs and sacrifice more young men is an indication that peace is the last option, so much for the peace prize and references to King and Ghandi. And just like the pitchman on an “infomercial” he and his operatives can spin and spin till we buy the product. But the product is only what it is, not what we make it in our mind's eye. We are left with packaging and stained clothes or a ticket whose worth is equal to less than the flimsy paper that held the numbers that we invested so much hope and dreams upon.
To see, the smiling faces of Nelson and Liberman, the two who dashed any hope for meaningful medical reform, is to look into the farcical nature of our political system. To see McCrystal hint that the struggle is not going to be easy, or to hear Gates and then see him kowtow to Karzi is to know that new order is the old order. Insurance executives along with the bankers along with the industrial defense chieftains rubbed their distended bellies preparing for another gluttonous feast at the expense of the masses who placed their lives on hope for it is only hope that we have to spend. In the meantime, our dreams disappear in the light of the reality that is our lot. Like every lottery holder, we must examine the numbers and realize all we bought was but a few moments of revelry for our fate stays in the hands of those who have brought on the miseries we live with.
The slogan, a dollar and a dream, is hard to ignore. The dreaming starts when the clerk at the gas station hands you the newly minted ticket. At that moment, the mind can systematically spin out of control while one systematically spends every dime of the winnings. At night, one goes to bed secure in the knowledge that come the dawn, like a lowly crawling caterpillar, one will blossom with gossamer wings of wealth and forever fly above the trials and tribulations of those who have to work for a living. The rude awakening comes when the numbers are checked and then you realize that you got to be in it, to win it can be reduced to the actual two chances you had to cash in on the prize, 1) slim and 2) none. The lottery, as one observer noted, is for the statistically challenged.
So, it was with my belief in the campaign slogan, Change you can believe. To have actually believed in a campaign slogan is to suspend all one's accumulated knowledge. With the young, it is easy. Life's experiences with this population are few. But for one, like me, who has been voting since the election Lydon P. Johnson, to suspend my first hand experiences and to actually believe that the tide of foolishness and corruption in politics that I have witnessed in my lifetime was coming to an end was an act that could be clinically diagnosed as insane.
To think that a politician, any politician, is different is oxymornic. To think that a politician from an established party can usher in change in a system that has been honed by the elite to serve the elite is an act of sheer fantasy. Barack was a lottery ticket for the masses. He was a product, a brand that was skillfully crafted to play upon our most cherished beliefs and hopes. Like the next amazing slimming product, or the soap that will wash out every stain, he was sold to us. And it was easy given the choice, a doddering bitter trigger happy old man and his wacky goofy sexpot. I like millions of others watched as the new candidate Obama went about talking of change. After eight years of the most corrupt and cynical administration in history, the sell wasn't that hard. After all, one need only make a small contribution and dream.
Perhaps Obama is more than a new product. Perhaps he is a man of substance. But the way he has caved in to the likes of Liberman and Nelson indicates a desire for something anything; yet the compromise is a poor substitute for something real. The way he has drawn upon the experiences of the foxes of the new financial order for his economics indicates that he has exposed us chickens to the rapacious predators who have savaged our economy and out currency. The way he has taken the counsel of the Doctors Strangeloves whose only plan is to drop more bombs and sacrifice more young men is an indication that peace is the last option, so much for the peace prize and references to King and Ghandi. And just like the pitchman on an “infomercial” he and his operatives can spin and spin till we buy the product. But the product is only what it is, not what we make it in our mind's eye. We are left with packaging and stained clothes or a ticket whose worth is equal to less than the flimsy paper that held the numbers that we invested so much hope and dreams upon.
To see, the smiling faces of Nelson and Liberman, the two who dashed any hope for meaningful medical reform, is to look into the farcical nature of our political system. To see McCrystal hint that the struggle is not going to be easy, or to hear Gates and then see him kowtow to Karzi is to know that new order is the old order. Insurance executives along with the bankers along with the industrial defense chieftains rubbed their distended bellies preparing for another gluttonous feast at the expense of the masses who placed their lives on hope for it is only hope that we have to spend. In the meantime, our dreams disappear in the light of the reality that is our lot. Like every lottery holder, we must examine the numbers and realize all we bought was but a few moments of revelry for our fate stays in the hands of those who have brought on the miseries we live with.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Too abusrd Not to comment
After the presidential election of 09, there were only a few times that the compulsion to rant about the many and absurd and misleading and outright lies spewing forth from the so called protectors of American values motivated me to add my observation to the debate. The election of Obama mellowed me and in my heart of hearts, I knew that the country was to embark upon a new millennium -- a millennium filled with hope, love, peace, compassion. The words of John Lennon echoed in my mind's eye: You may say I am a dreamer. Yes indeed, a new America would emerge from the flames of excesses and war mongering.
No one could have been more wrong or delusional. No one could have been more naive. Before the tears of pride dried on my cheeks watching a nation honor its newlt elected, intelligent, articulate black man, the buffoons of righteous indignation and stupidity were plotting with corporate slime to keep the country from ever reversing any of the past that allowed the immoral moralists to feed at the trough of the public treasure. Let's face it, in a capitalist country, capital is the only thing that matters. And the prevailing creed among the fat cats is simply, and to quote Mort Sahl, we deserve everything we steal.
The incompetence of the leadership in Congress is only surpassed by the equally bombastic conservative minority. There doesn't seem to be a single statesman in the minority. Equally the majority can't even come to a consensus on a single issue. The count in the senate is so tight that nitwits who crave fame and need to pay of campaign contributions can take center stage. Once there, you can see them perform. Notice too how the heat from the camera lights fills their egos with the sustenance to sustain their absurd and downright greed induced positions. There is always talk about what is good for the country, but the only struggle among those who sit in Washington who is going to gain the majority and thus capture the more prestigious offices on K street. Tom Delay, the master thief, knew that. And the democrats know it as well. This country is doomed because the interest of those who hold office rest only with their pitiful and greedy concerns. These avaricious slugs are only concerned with the next election. And it is obvious that the collected wisdom of this group is limited. Not a single one can address the problem of say health care beyond their petty positions.
So what are left with? Gridlock. And when gridlock occurs, the small rise in stature and are allowed to proclaim what it is that is needed to get a bill passed. Well, maybe it is time to endorse gridlock. Maybe it is time to draw the line in the sand. Strip these pathetic democrats of all stature. If Liberman wants to be an independent and chum around with Republicans, throw him out of the caucus. Hell you can only appease him by doing what he wants, and what he wants is nothing short of meaningless or but another give away to those who already stripped this country of its economic viability. Throw him out of the caucus. And to irritate, McCain whose Neanderthal positions might very well have thrown us back into stone age, shut him up as much as possible, at least we will be saved from Liberman's nasal whine. As for Ben Nelson, ignore him as if he is doddering old fool. As for the Republicans do all we can to put the ball in their court and let them drool on it. Take the money away from every Republican district when possible. Pull bases, close government offices, the states that vote right get the dough. And in this process, let's keep an eye on the electoral count.
We don't need another civil war. But we need to face the fact that this is not a united country. We are divided. So let's stop pretending. Let the states do what they want. If folks want to adopt conservative laws and run their states accordingly, well let them – who knows maybe that radical Muslims will like it when the women of this country are put in their place and have to listen to old men tell them what is good for them. Of course, the bible will provide the justification for nearly any foolish position or law the red states and its constituents can adopt. And maybe, if the blue states, can really get the bulk of government funding, perhaps, then we can show those who prefer to live in the delusion of a by gone day that never really existed how to manage a country. The only flaw in this logic is that the states are corrupt as well. Seems politics attracts self serving crooks at every level. Which leads me to an old Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times.”
No one could have been more wrong or delusional. No one could have been more naive. Before the tears of pride dried on my cheeks watching a nation honor its newlt elected, intelligent, articulate black man, the buffoons of righteous indignation and stupidity were plotting with corporate slime to keep the country from ever reversing any of the past that allowed the immoral moralists to feed at the trough of the public treasure. Let's face it, in a capitalist country, capital is the only thing that matters. And the prevailing creed among the fat cats is simply, and to quote Mort Sahl, we deserve everything we steal.
The incompetence of the leadership in Congress is only surpassed by the equally bombastic conservative minority. There doesn't seem to be a single statesman in the minority. Equally the majority can't even come to a consensus on a single issue. The count in the senate is so tight that nitwits who crave fame and need to pay of campaign contributions can take center stage. Once there, you can see them perform. Notice too how the heat from the camera lights fills their egos with the sustenance to sustain their absurd and downright greed induced positions. There is always talk about what is good for the country, but the only struggle among those who sit in Washington who is going to gain the majority and thus capture the more prestigious offices on K street. Tom Delay, the master thief, knew that. And the democrats know it as well. This country is doomed because the interest of those who hold office rest only with their pitiful and greedy concerns. These avaricious slugs are only concerned with the next election. And it is obvious that the collected wisdom of this group is limited. Not a single one can address the problem of say health care beyond their petty positions.
So what are left with? Gridlock. And when gridlock occurs, the small rise in stature and are allowed to proclaim what it is that is needed to get a bill passed. Well, maybe it is time to endorse gridlock. Maybe it is time to draw the line in the sand. Strip these pathetic democrats of all stature. If Liberman wants to be an independent and chum around with Republicans, throw him out of the caucus. Hell you can only appease him by doing what he wants, and what he wants is nothing short of meaningless or but another give away to those who already stripped this country of its economic viability. Throw him out of the caucus. And to irritate, McCain whose Neanderthal positions might very well have thrown us back into stone age, shut him up as much as possible, at least we will be saved from Liberman's nasal whine. As for Ben Nelson, ignore him as if he is doddering old fool. As for the Republicans do all we can to put the ball in their court and let them drool on it. Take the money away from every Republican district when possible. Pull bases, close government offices, the states that vote right get the dough. And in this process, let's keep an eye on the electoral count.
We don't need another civil war. But we need to face the fact that this is not a united country. We are divided. So let's stop pretending. Let the states do what they want. If folks want to adopt conservative laws and run their states accordingly, well let them – who knows maybe that radical Muslims will like it when the women of this country are put in their place and have to listen to old men tell them what is good for them. Of course, the bible will provide the justification for nearly any foolish position or law the red states and its constituents can adopt. And maybe, if the blue states, can really get the bulk of government funding, perhaps, then we can show those who prefer to live in the delusion of a by gone day that never really existed how to manage a country. The only flaw in this logic is that the states are corrupt as well. Seems politics attracts self serving crooks at every level. Which leads me to an old Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times.”
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