another not-crestfallen pissed-off american

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Who has the grace to admit the Tea Partiers make more sense than the Democrats.

I went to the polling station in the church one block from my house to cast a vote, and found myself in conversation with an ardent local Democrat who was handing out local Democratic sample ballots, and an equally ardent Tea Party guy advocating for a right-wing candidate running for the local congressional seat. I found myself agreeing much more with the Tea Partier.

The Tea Partier said that the government had “lost touch” with ordinary people. I couldn’t agree more. He said that the health bill was a costly and overly bureaucratic disaster. Again, I couldn’t agree more. The Democratic activist countered that Obama and the Democrats in Congress weren’t getting credit for any of the good things they had done in the past two years. I just don’t see it. Judges? Obama named two very mediocre, middle-of-the-road jurists who may even side against liberal positions, like the death penalty, or presidential executive power. The wars? We still have 50,000 troops and an enormous army of mercenaries in Iraq, and a ballooning quagmire in Afghanistan that is looking more like Vietnam every day. That’s change? And education? Show me the money. All we’re hearing is charter schools, and the studies show them to be costly failures that simply suck the life out of the rest of the schools in a district. Jobs? Right. Regulating the banks? There’s a laugh! They are bigger, more concentrated, and more powerful than ever, and engaged in the same crooked behavior that caused the economic crisis.

The good news is that the voters have told Obama, the Democrats, and their oh-so-smart political advisers, “Fuck you!”

That was good to see.

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Ya know-oh, I was going to say something snide about this, but it occurs to me that I don't give a flea on a rat's ass what he says or thinks. He's full of shit. He's a politician. It's all a game. Presidents kill people. It's their job. Get over it. Take pride in that long list of great nothings he has done for us. Yadda yadda yadda. I find myself appalled by how many people still put stock in elections, in voting. I do it because I refuse to cede them that, but for sure I don't put any stock in it. It's not worth discussing. It's like bothering with the subject of that Lohan girl's drug problems and jumbled sexual orientation... as germane to the project of overcoming our issues. No. Really.

Don't forget: I'm out here in the world this last week and have been rubbing elbows with regular people.

I'm on this.

And a full-blooded Pomo actually squealed at me that presidents kill people and there's nothing we can do about it, except try to get them another term to kill more, but it was only sadder to me that she's Pomo. Whites say it plenty too. In fact, I begin to wonder if I'm racist for my soapy ideal that the first black president would be the greatest statesman in our history. That was just always the way I saw it. I never saw it as impossible. I knew it would happen, but I also always saw it that way. I think a drop of my anger has to do with that, but then I realize he's NOT our first black president! He's our first half white one.

We might have just had a great time showing the bastard, but it didn't do anything beside forcing Conyers back into the basement for any hearings he wants to hold. Yep, he earned that one for sure. Yay us. Way too many people who should so know better by now still have their heads stuck in big pots of glue, but at least Lindorff seems to be tugging on his.

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I think I'm making my way home tomorrow. I seem to have lived through my combination food poisoning and too much booze thing... and am feeling sort of creeped-out that I actually caught a snatch of an ad for a radio program dedicated to telling people which restaurants are SAFE to patronize while dabbling in my go cart stereo from the eighth dimension—complete with subwoofer—on the way back here from Berkeley. I mean, I do not have a delicate constitution. I have mighty biotic-fighting juices coursing through my giddy veins. I was sober by the time I fell asleep and sick by a couple hours after that. It was more than the booze. I shoulda listened to that damn radio show. The end is so nigh.

I am forced today to start moving some eggs into the DNA-upgrade-from-the-galactic-core-in-2012 basket. Those of us who have not died from dining out can then live to make reparations with whatever's left alive on our only planet by then.

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Oh, well, okay, I'll say it. Notice how he takes responsibility just like Dubya does? Astonishing what lip flapping can fail to make actual, ain't it?

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Oh, and I almost forgot today's update in how that hopey changey thing is working out for us.

Obama drops plan to limit global warming gases
By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press – 1 hr 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Environmental groups and industry seem headed for another battle over regulation of greenhouse gases, as President Barack Obama said he will look for ways to control global warming pollution other than Congress placing a ceiling on it.

"Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way," Obama said at a news conference Wednesday, a day after Democrats lost control of the House. "I'm going to be looking for other means to address this problem."

Legislation putting a limit on heat-trapping greenhouse gases and then allowing companies to buy and sell pollution permits under that ceiling narrowly passed the House in 2009 as a centerpiece of Obama's domestic agenda, but it stalled in the Senate.

Republicans dubbed the bill "cap-and-tax" because it would raise energy prices. They then used it as a club in the midterm elections against Democrats who voted for it. Thirty of the bill's supporters were among some 50 House Democrats whom voters turned out of office Tuesday.

"It's doubtful that you could get the votes to pass that through the House this year or next year or the year after," Obama said Wednesday.

The new battle over global warming in Congress will target the Environmental Protection Agency, which is poised to regulate greenhouse gases for the first time, after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that it could treat heat-trapping gases as pollutants.

John Engler, a former Michigan governor who leads the National Association of Manufacturers, said he expects a Republican-controlled House to take a "fresh look that will get at a lot of questions" dealing with the EPA's role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, urged Obama to hold his ground.

"While there will be attacks on (EPA's) authority, it is important that there not be any surrender on EPA's ability to do the job," said Trip Van Noppen, president of Earthjustice.

The Senate in June rejected by a 53-47 vote a challenge brought by Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski that would have denied the EPA the authority to move ahead with the rules. Six Democrats voted with Republicans to advance the "resolution of disapproval," which the White House had threatened to veto. A similar resolution has broad support in the House, with 140 co-sponsors.

Engler said efforts to block the EPA will only be strengthened by Tuesday's election results.

Obama, when asked about the EPA's authority Wednesday, said that while a court order gave the EPA jurisdiction, the agency still wants help from Congress.

"I don't think ... the desire is to somehow be protective of their powers here," Obama said.

"One of the things that's very important for me is not to have us ignore the science, but rather to find ways that we can solve these problems that don't hurt the economy, that encourage the development of clean energy in this country, that, in fact, may give us opportunities to create entire new industries and create jobs."

Swell. I mean, I know he'd already dropped it, and that it was not going to be particularly effective, but it's official, now that the GOP has mysteriously taken over the House to bluster about repealing that fascist-friendly insurance enrichment act we suckers thought might improve something for somebody someday....

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love, 99
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