US Senate Votes Down Infrastructure Jobs Bill

At noon today the US Senate defeated an infrastructure put-America-back-to-work bill that would levy a seven tenths of a percent tax on millionaires to pay for it. The measure was not even permitted to come up for debate. This is strange considering the Senate is still rules by democrats. Of course you know Mitch McConnell's motto is "Our first priority is to make Barock Obama a one term President". Of course in the long run we'll need all these things like rain transit and fix our potholes to avoid tire damage and bring our bridges and water works up to 21st century standards. The other news of the day is that Rick Perry is the one who brought up the sexual hassarrment issues with Herman Cain. It wasn't the democrats as people like Rush Limbaugh can't stop saying. Of course Rush plays the race card with statements as "The conservative Black in America is a Black who has gotten off the Democratic plantation. Herman Cain refers to President Obama as a Kenyan, which is factually untrue if you are talking about what country he was born in. We have really come to a state of functional political paralysis in this country. So apparently we are going to continue to go on in the state we have been- - - a little longer.

So, is the political tide shifting at all in favor of the democrats? I don't think so. Whatever "major event" people are waiting around for to turn the political tide - - hasn't occurred yet. People like Thom Hartman were saying that the President is up to 49% in the latest polls. This figure surprised me because I'd been hearing the opposite. After checking around my darkest fears were confirmed. The President's disapproval figures are the highest they have ever been and his approval figures are about as low as they ever were. There is now doubt that the focus of American debate has shifted from deficets to whether corporate greed really exists or not. While this is a good thing if the people continue to listen to Fox news and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity they will not be getting the right answers. Hartman today pointed out that these Wall Street camps sometimes offer free medical care and also "educate" the people they come in contact as to the true situation in this country. Personally I think if people really want to be "educated' they will read my blogs. As you know we are still drowning in these tag lines. Now the whole specter of the "dirty hippy" has entered the culture again. People are assuming there is enough general memory of what was going on 40 and 45 years ago that these terms would strike a chord when in reality, much as I hate to face it, you have to be at least middle aged to even remember the hippies. People spoke of the Reagan Revolution as "blow back" against the 'sixties. More likely the Reagan revolution was blow back against a lot of economic regulations that has been passed in the 'seventies. But the situation then is not the situation now. We have not had a lot of new regulations lately and the situation today is quite the opposite. We have been waving regulations as fast as we can. If we can both agree that this slow recovery is caused by the average person not having enough money and also too much business money going overseas, we can best figure out how to correct these two situation. Obviously cutting our domestic wages to levels found in Mexico is not the answer. Building an electrified barbed wire fence at the border will do little. Making English the only language is not the solution and neither is making "In God we Trust" the national motto- - is not the answer. But so far I have not seen any real change in the political climate. If a president does not have at least 55% approval numbers the experts say he's in trouble because while that number supports him, a few of those may vote for another candidate they like better. I am not sure why the Democrats won't consider dumping Obama as the standard bearer in 2012 given what a lightning rod he is. If the President were being attacked for being a liberal crusader that would be one thing. But when he is attacked and he thinks "the most passive I am the less the republicans will hate me" then it's a lose - lose situation. There is no gain in keeping this guy around. But it's almost as if the democratic party has a suicide urge and WANTS to lose to Romney in the election next year, though God knows why. As I said many of these republican candidates have avid supporters. But nobody is enthusiastic about Barock Obama. As I have said most of his life he has faced no formidable opponets. Romney would by far be the strongest opponet he's faced, and I have strong doubts as to whether this president is up to it.

Have you noticed that people who use certain disparaging words to describe others are most often More Guilty of these very things themselves. For instance you hear the word "vitriol" a lot from Rush Limbaugh and he is the master of it. Yesterday Rush said two rather contradictory things. He said that the whole jobs bill was submitted "knowing it would never pass the Senate or anywhere". Rush prides himself that no republican crossed party lines to vote for it. At one point he spoke of some people trying to "trick" republicans by "sweetening the pot" to shake a few loose. But then he said that "actually the whole point of the bill was to lay a guilt trip on republicans who would not pass it to use as an issue in next year's elections". In this view there is some logic to it, if in fact that was the whole goal. As I see it the republicans had a clear choice. Either they would be good Americans and pass this straightforward bill, or else they would revert to their usual asshole state and give it thumbs down. We didn't "trick" them into voting it down, they did that freely of their own will. I just think no matter what happens next year this will go down as one of the darkest political periods in American history when viewed from the perspective of decades from now- such that it will make the Joe Mc Carthy era seem tame in comparrison.

The following material was typed Wednesday

Yesterday Victor dropped a bomb saying to Henderson that he engineered the theft of Maggie’s eggs and the lying and fraud involved, and didn’t tell her anything and still has told her nothing. This is a form of reproductive rape. If I know Maggie as well as I think I do she’s going to dump him and leave him flat when she hears the news. That’s what I would do. You can’t have such an appalling gap in trust in such an important area. And Victor watched Maggie go through hell over this episode with its ups and downs, and did not intervene. He’s kind of God. He knows the ending but he’s not going to tell us. One might infer that God doesn’t consider you or me close enough friends to confide in even in key areas of our lives. Samantha was telling Brady not to get involved with Madison James. Obviously Brady has a dreary track record with women. Samantha has known him for a long time. Besides this, intre-office dating is just unprofessional, particularly between a boss and a subordenant. But Madison overheard Sammy’s remarks to Brady and lands on her like a ton of bricks. Personally I believe Sammy has every right to be offended. Offended she can not be frank with a long term school chum, and offended that what is only “proper decore” any place else, Madison made it clear if she wants a sex flunkie to play with, Sammy has no say in it.

Well now they say the President is planning to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities because “if they wait too long it will be too late”. They now say that Iran is getting closer to developing a nuclear bomb than we though. They are also saying that we can’t count on Israel to do the job for us. The whole Suxnet Worm thing on their computers has apparently run it’s course and they have reprogrammed. If the President does decide to go ahead and bomb Iran – don’t be expecting Michelle Bachman to be satisfied.

As you know Judy did not vote for Kurt Pringle as mayor of Anaheim, because he favors high speed rail. Judy is more fanatically anti “eminent domain” than even I am. As you know I voted for a proposition a few years ago sponsored by “certain real estate developers’ that would have provided for legal safeguards to insure that a property owner’s rights weren’t being stepped on and that he got a fair market price for his property, and also that if he were “monetarily damaged’ by the government he had the right to legal recourse. All this sounded like a good idea to me but the measure didn’t pass. Of course the advantage of ground transportation such as trains over air transport is that it is less succeptable to the caprise of weather conditions. Also you can’t hijack a train to Cuba or crash a train into a high-rise building. Also fuel wise trains are much more efficient, and the convenience to the riders will also be much improved.

This whole protest scene over the United States is a big mess. People in Colorado tried to vote for a measure that increased education funding but the people voted it down because it would raise taxes. Of course Rush Limbaugh was happy about this. Rush Limbaugh fancies himself as being asked the question “Tell me Rush, do you ever get tired of always being Right?” and Rush says “No”. In Madison it’s even money whether Scott Walker can even be recalled. Of course President Obama could get involved in the issue personally but the President doesn’t want to do that. Unlike all those “Profiles of Courage” films we saw in Jr High, it seems politicians no longer take a strand on what’s right and the consequences be damned. In other words the President has a political yellow streak a mile long. In terms of these Oakland protests they have been saying the cops themselves didn’t want to employ all those repressive police measures such as tear gas, flash bombs, and rubber bullets- - but the lady mayor instructed them to do it. And then you have that Curtess guy from the Guardian Angels who couldn’t get away from terms like defication, urination, and fornication, to describe the protestors.

Possible Smoking Gun in 9 - 11 Conspiracy

This is Tuesday November 1, 2011, or 11-1-11 or Yhatsee snake-eyes day. So we have a Smoking Gun in the whole 9 – 11 thing? I believe so. You will remember the term “Smoking Gun” came into our vocabulary during the Nixon Watergate era when a tape recording came to light of the President ordering the CIA to tell the FBI to “stay the hell out of this investigation”. So did President Bush have foreknowledge of the 9 – 11 attacks? Judge for yourself. Sometimes you see things and it “goes right by you”. The media conditions us NOT to even think of certain things. Somebody asked President Bush when and how he learned of the 9 – 11 attacks. And the President said “Well I was watching the TV and I saw the first plane fly into the first building, and I just chalked it up to pilot error”. Of course you know it was AFTER this he was in that Serasota classroom when Andy Card whispered in his air that a second plane had hit the world trade center, and the President continued to read to the class for another seven minutes or so. Of course you know there WAS no TV coverage of the first attack. So why did the President say there was? How is a self confessed terrorist paranoid NOT concerned at such an event? There WAS no first hit shown on TV and no image was known of it until some French documentary on firefighter safety came to light that they were filming. Also such investment activity would have landed anybody else in jail ten times over. Just think of the slim evidence the Feds used to convict Martha Mitchell. On United Air Lines along they said that “put” activity was ninety times in one day higher than you normally get in a week. And the activity was a little too wide spread for a single case of insider trading, however that would work anyhow. Of course in Europe there were immediately conspiracy theories in their press but in this country such talk was tagged as “Unamerican”. The Wickipedia describes the whole conspiracy business the way for instance a psychology book fifty years ago might host a chapter on “Various types of homosexual deviancy”. Of course you do know that Flight 93 was shot out of the sky and there was virtually no plane wreckage at the “crash site”. Maybe somebody threw a smoke bomb for photographic effect for TV coverage. We know the government likes to generate lies of “hero myths” like the Pat Tillman situation, where he really died of friendly fire. And of course we hear over and over how the people of Flight 93 were all willing to die to serve their country. Flight recorders indicate otherwise. This is just a little reminder. It’s just the tip of the ice berg to think about today.

Now they are saying that if you eat at your desk you are risking a lot of bacteria because there are 400 times as many germs on the average office desk as on a toilet. We seem to be treated to statistics every so often. Now they have special wipes for it. Personally to me it seems silly not to get up from your desk and at least walk around and go outside or something, if you are given the opportunity.

Phyllis Green said at noon that she heard on an FM radio station that Dick Chaney was the one that “engineered 9 – 11”. I could not find any confirmation on that under Chaney – so there is no immediate news. Dick Chaney says he is against President Obama pulling out all our troops out of Iraq because “even though we in the Bush administration on the same timetable, we also had a second provision that we were to make agreements concerning training troops left behind”. Well as you know the Obama administration tried to negotiate with Iraq on troops left behind but talks snagged over the idea of immunization for liability so we said, “OK, we’re pulling them all out”. Secretary Rice has a book out where she “returns the favor” and criticizes Chaney saying that she took exception to all this “disappearing of prisoners” held at Guantanamo Bay. Rice is only a slighter saner version of Dick Chaney and President Bush.

Congressman Udall of New Mexico had just introduced a new constitutional amendment abolishing the Citizen’s United ruling of 2010. Also our side takes strong exception to the Buckley vs Valejo ruling in 1976. This amendment has all the necessary stipulative leagelese that Randy Rhodes thinks is unnecessary, but I’m glad it’s there because it eliminates possible ambiguities later on. Chuck Schumer sponsored this bill or “seconded it” or whatever. I don’t see why giving ANY money to a congressman not specified for a particular purpose- - shouldn’t be illegal. Don’t bige us this bullshit about “It’s just good government” or “Civic Mindedness”. We aren’t that stupid. Once the American People hear about this amendment they’ll support it.

In Arizona they have a problem. The people of the state voted clearly they wanted fair districts drawn next time. But now right wing legislators are taking exception to having to follow through. So they are bringing impeachment charges against individual people of the commission in attempt to invalidate their whole plan. In Arizona you can apparently be impeached for wearing the wrong color tie to work that day. Now the courts will get involved and their ruling will hopefully save the day.

They have been playing stuff by Rick Perry on the radio trying to show that he’s on drugs or disoriented or something. Roomers persist that there is a whole pandora’s box of stuff on Perry that has yet to come to light. They say now that Rick Perry is trailing in the polls even in Texas. I have no idea when the next debate will be. I'm still hearing roomers that Karl Rove is really for Romney and not a backer of Rick Perry. Since Rove is so influencial it would figure that anybody that Karl Rove backed at this point would win the Republican nomination.

The defense and the prosecution have both rested in the Dr. Conrad Murray mal practice case. Dr. White got a very hostile reception from Jackson fans. Dr. White was fined a thousand dollars for violating explicit court instructions. Dr. Murray decided not to testify in his own defense. They say you should not draw any “adverse opinion” from this but basically it’s the nail in the coffin for Murray. Tomorrow they are taking the day off and on Thursday, closing arguments will commence. Of course they have to “work out” what specific instructions the judge will give to the jury.

The stock market has now taken a downward dip this week of hundreds of points in two days. This author is still not concerned about it - - yet. Many people on the other side are holding their breath in anticipation of the all coveted double dip recession. That’s not going to happen. Of course there has been a setback in the debt crisis in Greece because last Thursday they hammered out an agreement with other European nations to “push the debt off into the future” as I understand it. But the Greek people will not give voter approval of anything that requires “austerity measures” and apparently don’t want to face reality even if the economic future of the nation depends on it. All of these European debt problems I see as transitory; they will pass.

According to Thom Hartman some parts of the four part trade agreement package that was given thumbs up by the tea party and the President has signed into law- - actually might be good. Apparently it contains a jobs retraining program. However part of it makes Panama banks more accessable to rich people as another place to stash their money without governmental complications. In the part of the deal involving Columbia we support drug running businesses who kill labor union leaders. In the South Korean part of the deal it is said that we indeed might actually be able to increase our exports to that country and that S C has made genuine concessions in that area. I’m still not enthusiastic about this bill and it’s a case of “I’ll believe it when I see it”.