Dear Diary,

It has been a most eventful past few days. With the passage of Health Care I have no doubt that the plebes will finally acknowledge what we progressives have always known; that President Obama has already solidified his place as America’s greatest President.

For a moment there I was scared that the right-wing America haters would get there way and use the legislative process to deny us the victory we so rightly deserved. I mean really, how dare they use something as insignificant as votes to block the bill? It should have been done with Deem and Pass. Our health care is more important than the mere niceties of congressional procedure. The-worse-than- Hitler Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for bringing up the Constitution during the “debate” over the bill. The Constitution has no place in the discussion when it comes to progress and, better yet, there shouldn’t even be a debate. The Founding Fathers, though handicapped by their racist white outlooks, also would have seen the need to push health care through no matter the opposition. Somethings are more important than some 18th century scrap of paper.

Why even bother with open hearings or debates at all? The American people are too stupid and feckless to grasp the basic tenant that they need to be forced into health care. They embarrass themselves with all this talk of “what they want” and their pathetic protests and letters to Congress. They should just shut up and let the people that know best, we enlightened few, we band of brothers with Ivy League degrees, handle things. Like children, they know not what they do and must be put in their place. They don’t know what they want and they don’t know what is best for them. People like Speaker Pelosi need not answer to that shabby and dirty rabble.

Thanks to Republican run education systems in places like Texas, I bet they can’t even read much less articulate a real argument. “Privacy!” “States rights!” “Democratic process!” HA! It makes me laugh, it is like a five year old trying to understand Shakespeare and playing at adults with big boy words! Why do they hate America? Don’ they see they need to be forced to get healthcare? It will run down the deficit too (though I am not quite sure how, I am good with numbers but how does spending a trillion dollars lower the deficit? Why not just tax the shit out of fat-cats making over $30,000 a year?).

President Obama should do us all a favor and fence off everything between the Mississippi and California. Those so-called states resemble more of a third-world loony bin than the US. With their guns and superstitions as well as their racist, sexist and homophobic outlooks, those people belong more to a bad western than the modern era. They even like Sarah Palin! Ha! She doesn’t have a real degree (a “BA” from the “University” of Idaho….how droll!) How could they be so stupid!?!

Thank goodness though. Thank goodness our beloved leader, our Great One, our Dear One, had the courage to do whatever it necessary to pass the bill. He is from Chicago and you can tell! They have it right, they know that important things need to be passed and that the law shouldn’t get in the way. Giving dissenting pieces of shit whatever they wanted in pork for their districts was an inspired tactic! Our beloved President’s bold leadership saved the say from the stupid filthy masses!

It is a great day to be an American. I thought I would never see the day when the Democrats would finally get the courage to do whats right and put to bed silly notions of “Constitutionality” that stand in the way of whats best for America. We finally have a leader that will do whatever it takes to transform this nation into a real, modern social democracy! We will no longer have to be ashamed of America and lower our eyes when the French or Germans talk about the glories of cradle-to-grave government protection.

I have to run, first I have to pick up my check from McDonalds, then clean out my room at home (Mom is on me again) and then I have brie and wine with Jenny Williams-Anthony-Cohen and her life partner * Copeckny-Liter-Jones at the independent bookstore. Its poetry night! I hope my “Ode to Our Beloved One” is as well received as “Texas is Full of Stupid Rednecks and Racists.”

-SVD
Berkeley, CA

One of my favorite heroes of the Second World War was Winston Churchill. Any British school child could tell you that Churchill faced the nearly impossible task of keeping the morale of his people high in a time of great privation. England alone stood against Germany and was rewarded by daily and nightly air raids. Everywhere he went the often grumpy, embattled, and always witty (and not sober) Prime Minister gave hope to his battered and bombed-out people by the mere act of holding up his right hand, palm out, index and middle fingers spread apart signifying a V; a V for Victory. This simple act bespoke a truth that every war-weary Brit knew to his core. Ole Winnie would never, ever, settle for anything less than total Victory over a hated and tyrannical foe. Churchill’s simple act of defiance against the all-powerful field-grey legions of Hitler’s Wehrmacht gave reason for the conquered peoples of Europe to continue the fight against the Nazi invader. Resistance groups across the Continent splashed alley walls and city squares with giant painted Vs. V became more than a letter, it became a promise that one day Europe would once again breathe the fresh air of freedom that an Allied Victory would bring.

Flash forward more than 60 years later. America finds itself at war with a foe just as tyrannical and vile as the Nazis. Like the generation that has been labeled the “greatest,” the youth of today have also sent many of their best and brightest to fight in the wastes of Iraq and the forbidding mountains of Afghanistan. Like our illustrious predecessors, we too have endured death and lamented the loss of many brilliant, beautiful and promising young lives. But unlike the struggle 60 years hence, America is divided in its counsel, and, I dare say, not committed to Victory; an omission that clouds the sacrifice of those who have fallen. Nothing manifests this truly tragic state of affairs than the actions of our putative Commander-in-Chief.

In his speech at West Point, President Obama promised to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan by 30,000. He spoke at great length of the necessity of increasing the strength of the Afghan Army as well as holding Pakistan accountable for its lapses in judgment where the Taliban is concerned. Obama further outlined his disastrous decision to impose an impossible timeline for withdrawal of said US troops in what can only be considered an abject admission of the US’ lack of interest and commitment toward a successful conclusion to the fight in Afghanistan. Finally, Obama failed to mention, in his 4300 plus words, one: Victory.

Why is Victory important? How is it that a single word can change the entire complexion of a war involving hundreds of thousands? It is quite simple. Victory is a commitment to win. Victory is a covenant to put tyranny in its place. Victory gives comfort to those who have lost their loved ones and validates the ultimate sacrifice that so many willingly undertook. Victory sends a message to our friends and foes alike that we are in the fight to the end and that we will stop at nothing. Anything less is a stab in the back of those in the armed forces fighting, and dying, to bring this war to a successful conclusion.

One marvels at the absurdity of a war-time president that is not committed to Victory. After all, who gets in a fight to lose? No doubt defenders of the President will be quick to point out that he did not get us into Afghanistan, nor did he mismanage the war prior to his election in 2008. What those people fail to realize is that it IS Obama’s responsibility to finish the fight and to secure a successful, and Victorious conclusion. As the Dear One pointed out in his historic run for president, “Afghanistan is a war of necessity.” I would think, by implication, that wars of “necessity” should generally be wars that are won and not cast aside when they become politically inconvenient (say, for example, in late 2011 prior to his re-election bid…).

Can real Victory be achieved in Afghanistan? Certainly “winning” in the Kush is not the signing of a surrender document on the deck of a battleship, nor is it a negotiated armistice in Paris. In the War on Terror there are no armies to crush or a capital to take. As such, we need to s trive for a species of Victory. What we can expect is an Afghanistan where the people are allowed to choose their destinies without the interference of tyrants and where the Taliban and Al Qaeda are broken, discredited and irrelevant entities. Any species of Victory is far more preferable to no Victory at all.

So on one hand we have a leader who despises the word Victory and on the other the man who imposes a ludicrous timeline on a surge to nowhere. Are these the actions of a man, and a government, that is committed to winning? Or are they the actions of a man attempting to placate both the anti-war wing of his party and those who still believe that the US must, by necessity, win this war?

What contempt does history have for those peoples who deign to defend themselves? What disdain will future generations of Americans have for us when they read our chapter in their history books? Those who fight wars to lose, by implication abdicating all responsibility of their own defense, deserve to be relegated to the scrap heap of history.

In the end it boils down to a single word. Some, mostly those who have never sacrificed one iota for this nation, dismiss Obama’s glaring omission by claiming that the word Victory in itself is unimportant, nothing more than a jingoistic expression of the prior imperialistic and chauvinistic administration. I think Winston Churchill and hundreds of millions of free people in Europe, to say nothing of posterity, would humbly and forcefully disagree.

“You may have heard the UPS is in quite the political fight with FEDEX. Though both are package-delivery companies, they’re governed by totally different federal labor rules. As a result, UPS’s workforce is much more heavily unionized than FEDEX’s—and more than twice as expensive.

So now UPS is trying to get FEDEX reclassified under federal law as a way of screwing a competitor. That’s horrendous, but it also makes a sick kind of business sense. And it also reveals the real villain: A government that is big enough to absolutely, positively guarantee it can screw any business. Overnight.

“UPS Vs. FEDEX” was produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie (who also hosts). Approximately two minutes long.

This video is based on “Using Unions as Weapons,” by Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy, which appeared in the October 2009 print edition of Reason. Read that article at http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/28…

For downloadable version of this and all other Reason.tv videos go to http://reason.tv“

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this commercial, Dominos Pizza has used the bailouts and stimulus package to their advantage by poking fun at the process, and selling pizza at the same time.

This is definitely smart advertising.

Rep. Kenneth Dunkin (D-Chicago)

If you’re an Illinois resident, you didn’t read that wrong.

Should a bill that was recently introduced by State Representative Kenneth Dunkin, a Chicago Democrat, be passed, all gun owners in the state of Illinois would be required to maintain a liability insurance policy of at least $1,000,000.

Here is the synopsis of this ridiculous piece of legislation from the Illinois General Assembly website:

Amends the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. Provides that any person who owns a firearm in this State shall maintain a policy of liability insurance in the amount of at least $1,000,000 specifically covering any damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving the use of such firearm while it is owned by such person. Provides that a person shall be deemed the owner of a firearm after the firearm is lost or stolen until such loss or theft is reported to the police department or sheriff of the jurisdiction in which the owner resides. Provides that the Department of State Police shall revoke and seize a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card previously issued under this Act if the Department finds that the person to whom such card was issued possesses or acquires a firearm and does not submit evidence to the Department of State Police that he or she has been issued in his or her name a liability insurance policy in the amount of at least $1,000,000 specifically covering any damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving the use of such firearm while it is owned by such person. Effective January 1, 2010.

While my first instinct is to say that it’s safe to assume that this bill will be killed by the Republicans in the legislature, this is Illinois, so you can never be too sure.

Unfortunately, there was nothing humorous about this article.

According to the Financial Times:

The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times.

In an interview, Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers.

”It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring,” he said. “I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.”

While Greenspan has made a variety of controversial statements in the past, this one has to be, by far, the most offensive to conservatives and libertarians who once held him up on a pedestal for so many years.

Remember, Alan Greenspan was once part of “The Collective” with objectivists Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff, and even wrote in Rand’s newsletters and books. For those who are unfamiliar with the objectivist philosophy, one of the core tenants is the principle of pure, unregulated capitalism, where the government stays far away and let’s market forces work out any problems.

This is a philosophy that Greenspan has clung to for years, and it’s that very philosophy that made him so popular amongst the American people from administration to administration.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

However, it seems that Alan Greenspan, and many in Washington (including “conservatives” like Senator Lindsey Graham) have it stuck in their minds that if the government doesn’t act now, it’ll be the end of the world.

While nobody knows what the future will hold when you over-regulate, the one thing I hear every time people like this speak isn’t the voice of rational men, but instead the voice of Wesley Mouch, one of the characters from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” Most notably, from Directive 10-289:

Directive 10-289

“In the name of the general welfare,” read Wesley Mouch, “to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that—

“Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such Board to be appointed by the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. All persons reaching the age of twenty-one shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.

“Point Two. All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under penalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any and all of their property.

“Point Three. All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, processes and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates to be signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights. The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of eliminating monopolistic practices, discarding obsolete products and making the best available to the whole nation. No trademarks, brand names or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all manufacturers under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board. All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished.

“Point Four. No new devices, inventions, products, or goods of any nature whatsoever, not now on the market, shall be produced, invented, manufactured or sold after the date of this directive. The Office of Patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended.

“Point Five. Every establishment, concern, corporation or person engaged in production of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth produce the same amount of goods per year as it, they or he produced during the Basic Year, no more and no less. The year to be known as the Basic or Yardstick Year is to be the year ending on the date of this directive. Over or under production shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.

“Point Six. Every person of any age, sex, class or income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money on the purchase of goods per year as he or she spent during the Basic Year, no more and no less. Over or under purchasing shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.

“Point Seven. All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.

“Point Eight. All cases arising from and rules not specifically provided for in this directive, shall be settled and determined by the Unification Board, whose decisions will be final.”

Ayn Rand must be rolling in her grave, or chuckling “I told you so.”

Obama’s winning line up:

First was Bill Richardson who had been nominated as Commerce Secretary but pulled out because he is facing a grand jury investigation (remember when he was running for President? Oh how things can change…)

Next up was Tim Geithner for Treasury Secretary. He wants to lead the United States out of its overwhelming economic crisis, but he can’t figure out how to pay his taxes. He paid $34,000 in back income taxes and we confirmed him because his late payment gave our economy a boost – thank you Mr. Secretary!

In the middle we have Nancy Killefer who wanted to be Obama’s Chief Performance Officer, or “Performance Czar” as the Obama Administration likes to call the position. The Performance Czar does not require a Senate Confirmation, but Deputy Director of the OBM does, and when everyone discovered that Nancy doesn’t pay her “help” at home, she withdrew her name and crawled back to McKinsey & Co.

Batting clean up was the left’s shinning star Tom Daschle. Daschle had lost his South Dakota Senate seat to John Thune in 2004 (49% to 51%) and was looking for a way to redeem himself in national politics, his plan was to hand out “free” health care to everyone and just charge the bill to America’s credit card. How hard is it to take a former Senate Majority Leader down? Apparently it’s pretty easy, especially when he doesn’t pay $130,000+ in taxes. My question is what is Daschle so afraid of? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that “[Daschle] is like a brother to me,” and Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus said he was “shocked” to hear that Daschle was dropping out.

Apparently there is more to the story because with Reid and Baucus backing him, Daschle should have been confirmed despite his tax blunder. Senator Ensign has said Daschle’s situation “doesn’t pass a smell test,” and I agree. Senator Thune’s seat is up for re-election in 2010 – maybe Daschle will get back in the race then.

And wait, we just went into extra innings – pinch hitter Judd Gregg maybe in trouble. Senator Obama’s pick to replace Richardson as the Commerce Secretary, has some trouble brewing of his own.

A former congressional aide to Commerce Secretary-nominee Judd Gregg, Kevin Koonce, is now caught up in an investigation into a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal involving notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff. How close was Koonce to Senator Gregg? He was his Legislative Director (that’s the #2 job) for Gregg’s Senate office from 2002-2004. Koonce is accused of taking tickets to hockey and baseball games from Abramoff’s former deputy Todd Boulanger in exchange for “received favors” in spending legislation. Now it’s up to Obama to ask Gregg if he’s a sports fan.

Read more about the possible Gregg scandal here: http://www.koat.com/politics/18640535/detail.html

Let’s hope Gregg didn’t resign that Senate seat just yet.

From Politifact.com

Promise No. 234:Barack Obama Campaign Promise No. 234:

Allow five days of public comment before signing bills

To reduce bills rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them, Obama “will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”

with corresponding video from CNN.com:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Was this just a slip up, or the first of many broken campaign promises?

To be honest, I don’t think there has ever been a politician who has kept all (or even most) of their campaign promises, so I wouldn’t expect anything different from President Obama.

It’s easy to be idealistic when you’re looking at the job of President as an outsider, but once you’re inside you realize the stark realities (both political and personal) that go along with the job. Even the most honest President is destine to be put in a position where they’ll have to change their positions simply due to the climate in Washington, often on multiple occasions.

I would have been pleased with a cell-phone quality video, so shooting this in HD is even more impressive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Up until August Joe Biden was one of the big losers of the Democratic Party, not once, but twice. The man had lost two bids for the White House in only what could be deemed embarrassing failures. His 2008 campaign was something of a joke, doomed from the beginning and more of a fare-well tour than anything else. After all, five people voted for Joe Biden in the primaries, and two of those people were dead.

1988 was different. Biden’s first campaign started out with great promise, and in fact, following Gary Hart’s ignominious departure following a sex scandal so lurid it made Larry Flynt blush, many people in the know thought Biden the fashionable choice in a weak field. Things were going Joe’s way for much of 1987, not only did he raise more cash than his competitors, but as the powerful Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee he had a ready-made platform from which the American people could get to know him. Biden’s star burned bright as the entire nation was transfixed to the Biden/Robert Bork duel of the silver tongues during the latter’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. Not only did Joe hold his own against the best that conservative legal thought had to offer, but he managed to act human in the process, keeping his legendary loquaciousness in check.

What followed could only be described as the least vile of all political scandals to bring down a potential Presidential front-runner. Biden it seems, had the common habit of lifting lines from other people’s speeches. In particular, Joe had a predilection for Bobby Kennedy. Adding fuel to the innocuous fire, a former classmate from Syracuse Law School accused Biden of plagiarism during his 1L year. Though plagiarism is no small infraction, it is nothing in a town known for graft, theft, bald-faced treason and sexual deviance so profound as to be catalogued as the most wretched acts of perversion known to man or beast.

 As if the accusations of cheating weren’t bad enough, a CSPAN tape surfaced of Joe bragging at a campaign function in the most smug manner to a mere citizen about his great grades (actually unexceptional) and multiple degrees (only has two). Unfortunately for Joe, it was a slow news cycle and his prominence during the Bork hearings backfired on him badly. Biden’s outrages were splashed across TV screens and newspapers across the land. The media hemmed and hawed and outraged citizens kicked stray dogs in the street and gnashed their teeth in anger. As the legendary Hunter S. Thompson delicately put it:

“Sen. Biden with no front-warning at all was suddenly exposed as a liar, a plagiarist and a dupe who’d spent most of his life a whimpering, cheating fool…Biden immediately called a 9 A.M. press conference in Washington to flog himself on network TV and wallow publicly in his own guilt.”

So thus ended Joe Biden. The media swore he would never rise again and indeed, the specter of Plagiargate reared it’s ugly head during the 2008 election. To most in the media, Joe Biden was a dead end, he was political worm food. He would never rise higher than the Senate and the best he could ever hope to do was retire as an honored elder. Naturally, that was not the case. Biden was resurrected from the depths of mediocre media labeling and it turns out no one gave a damn about 1988 or even the 2008 primaries and he was universally hailed by the Dems as the perfect choice for Vice-President.

The lesson here is that the media, the prognosticators and seers that they are, are nothing but gibbering cold sores. Their continued existence cheapens all life found everywhere in the universe. If one recounts the sad litany of inevitability that the cretins had spouted during the last election cycle one might be aghast at how wrong they were. The truth is that THEY ARE ALWAYS WRONG and always will be. Let’s consider just this past year. According to the lovely media, Hillary should be President having defeated Rudy Giuliani in what could be termed more a massacre than an election. Hillary’s victory would have mirrored Nixon’s landslide in 1972 due to the well known fact that 40% of the American people would never, EVER, vote Republican after eight horrid years of George W. Bush.

One is reminded of previous fiats from on high with gems assuring George Bush Sr.’s demise before the Republican primaries in 1988, due to the OMG-worse-than-Watergate-Iran-Contra scandal, as well as Gary Hart’s assured place as the 41st President of the United States. Fast-forward to 1991. The same people pointed to the inevitability of Bush’s re-election against Tom Harkin. With that in mind it might be wise to rethink the notion that Sarah Palin will fade into the mists and that Hillary has been neutralized…

So this brings us all the way back to our friend Joe Biden. Dead to rights in the spring of 2008 and Vice-President by January 2009. What a difference a year can make. But let’s be honest. History has taught us that the only thing one has to do to have a great career in Washington is stay in office long enough to wash away past sins and become an icon. Longevity has a way of turning idiots into elder statesmen, morons into subject matter experts and pompous know-it-alls into the Vice-President (including that savage Alben Barkley, who could ever forgive his heinous crimes?).

Here’s to you Joe! You survived and struck it rich. Let your example shine forth for all those men that have lost big-time on different occasions. Third time is the charm. Who knows, maybe even Dan Quayle will rise from the dead. I give him 25-1 odds in 2016.