From the Department of Wah Wah Wah

Code Pink is complaining about the protests against health care at the town meetings:

The right-wing, always so scornful of CODEPINK, has taken a page from our playbook and distorted it by disrupting congressional town hall meetings on health care. While we wholeheartedly support the practice of peaceful dissent, we can't stomach it when that dissent is based on ignorance or when the dissenters are actually thinly disguised lobbyists for the corporate health care industry.

Where to begin. Their "dissent for me but not for thee" attitude? Their smug self-assurance that while their causes are "just," ours our just foolish? Or that anyone who protests nationalized health care is a tool of an "industry" (ie; that old devil big business).

What I find most annoying of all, it's their assumption that most or all of the protests are planned and not outraged citizens waking up and realizing for the first time how close this country is teetering on the brink of socialism and ruin. And in an effort to play by the rules of Democracy, try to approach their representatives with their fears and questions only to get rebuffed and talked down to.

Most protesters are just ordinary people thinking the official who was voted in to represent them should listen to the will of the majority, while many of these officials seem to think they were elected because they are superior and know what's best for their constituency, who should appreciate their inferiority, shut up and allow themselves to be herded.

It's Rational to Ration

It's happened in England. It's happened in Canada. It's happened in every country which nationalized their health care.

But of course it won't happen HERE!

On this 4th, trying to define the problems (and suggest possible solutions)

If the founding fathers could see the American people today, they'd be angered and disappointed. We've squandered our birthright for breads and circuses.

It's not everyone. But enough. Too many for certain. And for far too long.

People who see the way the country is going -- government run health care, government takeover of the auto industry, bailouts, stimulus and running up trillions of dollars of debt -- shake their heads and wonder if the country will be able to turn itself around after four years of Obama.

But this began long before Obama. Even before FDR decided that the "pursuit of happiness" should be supplanted by the "right to happiness" and believed the Federal government had a duty to level the playing field at the expense of our liberties and right to self-determination.

I don't want to make this blog overly long by going into the books and blogs I've read and the incidences others have cited as first steps away from the Republic envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

But I realized, thinking about the state of the country this Fourth of July, I shouldn't be blaming Obama, or Pelosi or Rahm Emanuel or any of the Kennedys great and small.

If I do that, I'm doing the same thing I accuse the liberals, the socialists, the statists of doing. I'm taking too much blame away from those on whose shoulders it should sit.

I'm talking about us. You and me. We the People. This is our mess. It's our apathy, our ignorance, our willingness to give up our autonomy for security. Our willingness to give up maturity for perpetual childhood. Not all of us, and not all to the same degree. There are voices crying out warnings. There are a few actively trying to steer us back on course.

And a percentage of US citizens aren't operating through ignorance or apathy: those liberals, statists, socialists who are actively working to "fix" the Constitution and alter our system of government.

So I am blaming Obama, et al too. But as citizens, not as the leaders who have bullied their way into power. Obama's presidency is a symptom, not the disease. Barney Frank's reelection term after term after term is a symptom.

What's the disease? Diseases.

Voter apathy. The 43.2% who couldn't be bothered to vote last November. Are they right? Is it futile because their candidate didn't make it to the final two, or they didn't like any of the candidates from the beginning? Or because all politicians are crooks so what does it matter?

Or those voters who did turn out and voted for McCain because he was the lesser of two evils? If their candidate was forced to drop out before they got a chance to vote for him or her in their primary, I can understand their frustration. I've felt it myself.

Perhaps the way primaries are conducted need to be changed? Maybe people need to come up with ideas on how to make it fairer, petition their Representatives and the changes could be formally written up, voted upon, implemented.

Or not. Yeah, whatever.

Let's skip over those voters who voted for Obama because they understood and agreed with his plans for this country. They're a problem, but they'd be a much smaller problem if so many of the rest of us weren't apathetic.

Or ignorant.

And those are the other diseases: ignorance and stupidity.

Ignorant people who didn't know Obama's platform and didn't care. We were making history and many of us didn't want to know what he stood for if that meant we wouldn't want to vote for him. Who heard the pretty words and let themselves be lulled into thinking "how bad could it be?"

Stupidity. People who did know what Obama stood for, didn't agree with it, still wanted to make history. Or thought this was the opportunity to right the wrongs of slavery and oppression. Who thought we needed to prove to the world that we have overcome our crass and prejudiced past.

This is the same world, by the way, which still contains numerous dictatorships, autocracies, fascist and communist regimes, socialist experiments which strangle their own people's autonomy in the name of fair distribution of resources. This is a world where most of the countries condoned or participated in slavery in their past also. And where slavery still continues in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

So what's the answer? Are more of us finally noticing our ship of state is sailing into an iceberg? This is a big ship; it can't pivot on a dime. If we're to avoid disaster, we have to start turning now.

How do we turn?

They say recognizing there's a problem is the first step.

The second step? Get involved. Not on the national level. Most of us don't have the clout to affect change at that level.

How about getting involved with local politics? Find out what your city candidates stand for so you're not just filling out the little ovals next to a stranger with a cute name. Or voting for someone who's been the incumbent for so long you shrug and figure he must know what he's doing.

Your state's been blue for so long the populace has passed out and been passed over long ago? You figure what use is it to vote Republican? Or Libertarian? Or Independent?

Try it anyway. If enough habitual non-voters got out and used their votes to register their displeasure, even if the status stayed quo this time, it would send a message.

And speaking of Independent, why not change your affiliation? Since, let's face it, too many in the Republican Party don't stand for the ideals they claim to, a massive number of voters leaving the party would alarm them. Even the Democrats, their contempt for the public notwithstanding, they know who pays their salaries. Or rather, they know whose apathy and blind following gives them a license to steal everything that isn't nailed down.

What would it say to the politicians of both parties if, starting this Monday, people started registered as Independents? If the rolls of registered Democrats and Republicans began dropping? And continued to drop till next November?

Most politicians are pragmatists. Most of the true socialist fanatics don't run; they work behind the scenes, influencing politicians, picking candidates who both believe as they do and have the charisma and best combination of qualities to put themselves over with the electorate.

So, if we can panic the politicians, it may be a beginning.

That, and taking more action, increasing our knowledge of local and state candidates. Even presidential candidates were local politicians once.

We have to begin somewhere. We get the government we deserve. It's up to you. And me.

From the White House blog

Guess it's not just for lobbyists any more. I'll post the whole blog below in case the link inconveniently 'disappears' or the blog is later altered. I'm sure plenty of people know enough to take screen captures when dealing with the gov*.

Update on Recovery Act Lobbying Rules: New Limits on Special Interest Influence
Another update from Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, in the spirit of transparency as always:

I am writing with an update on the President’s March 20, 2009 Memorandum on Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds. Section 3 of the Memorandum required all oral communications between federally registered lobbyists and government officials concerning Recovery Act policy to be disclosed on the Internet; barred registered lobbyists from having oral communications with government officials about specific Recovery Act projects or applications and instead required those communications to be in writing; and also required those written communications to be posted on the Internet. That Memorandum instructed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to review the initial 60 days of implementation of the stimulus lobbying restrictions, to evaluate the data, and to recommend modifications.

Following OMB’s review, the Administration has decided to make a number of changes to the rules that we think make them even tougher on special interests and more focused on merits-based decision making.

First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest –after competitive grant applications are submitted and before awards are made. Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits. To that end, comments (unless initiated by an agency official) must be in writing and will be posted on the Internet for every American to see.

Third, we will continue to require immediate internet disclosure of all other communications with registered lobbyists. If registered lobbyists have conversations or meetings before an application is filed, a form must be completed and posted to each agency’s website documenting the contact.

OMB will be consulting with agencies, outside experts and others about these principles and will publish detailed guidance, but we wanted to update interested parties on the outcome of the initial review. We consulted very broadly both within and outside of government (including as reflected in previous posts on the White House blog) and we are grateful to all those who participated in the process.

*Gov as in our federal government. Any resemblance to this gov is completely coincidental:

Some short questions, observations, etc.

China has been buying up our debt and the government wants them to continue to keep buying up our debt. So if they buy up enough of our debt, do they own us? Does the United States become a wholly owned subsidiary of China, Inc.?

*****

The new DVD of Pinocchio has an interactive bonus that takes children to Pleasure Island. I heard the commercials enthusing about the fun of playing on Pleasure Island.

Spoiler alert.

Pleasure Island was the place that bad, lazy little boys who didn't want to go to school were lured to. Once there, they became stupider and lazier until they turned into donkeys and were sold as beasts of burden. I find it disturbing that the new DVD has a game which seems to have reworked the whole concept into a Disneyesque fun-time theme park with no bad consequences. It was supposed to be a lesson, Mickey!

*****

A couple of years ago, Matthew Pearl came out with a fiction book (The Poe Shadow) in which Edgar Allen Poe was a main character.

Right around the same time, Louis Bayard's The Pale Blue Eye was published. Also a fiction with EAP as a main character.

Now Matthew Pearl's novel The Last Dickens has just been issued, a fictional mystery about Dickens' final, incomplete novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

It follows upon the publication last month of Drood: A Novel by Dan Simmons.

It's just a coincidence, but Pearl must be getting pretty annoyed by now.

*****

Speaking of Louis Bayard, I ought to give the man credit publically. I read and enjoyed his novel The Black Tower, in spite of the fact that it was written in present tense.

Usually anything written in present tense affects me like fingernails down a blackboard. It's not so much the choose-your-own-adventure-ness of it. I've never been able to work out in my mind exactly why it irks me, so I can't articulate it here.

But anyway, Black Tower was a terrific book. The way he wrote present tense wasn't as intrusive somehow.

*****

Google's smartened up on their phony, idiot stunt from last year's Earth Hour.

We won’t be turning out the lights on our homepage again this year. Our users come first, and while we received lots of enthusiastic feedback last year, some found an all-black Google.com to be a little confusing. (Also, darkened screens don’t actually save energy — modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.)

They haven't smartened up that the thing's an idiot stunt to make people feel that they're making an impact about something that isn't the problem Gore et al have inflated it to be. But yesterday they celebrated it in a less stupid way.

National Anthem Day (United States)

In honor of the day, the full lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner:

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Website

I was going to title this "Website of the Week" but I doubt I'd have the discipline -- or find a recommendable website every single week -- so plain old Website it is.

Before you click on the link, language alert. Which, if you hovered over the link to see the name of the website pop up, you already can figure out.

But, if you enjoy unhinged rants about pictures of cute little animals that are trying to steal our souls and kill us with cuteness, this is the site for you. For me, it actually became funnier as I continued looking at previous posts. But that may just be me.

Ah, well. Enjoy. Or not. It's up to you.

Amazon Mailings

I realize when you shop for stuff on Amazon, you get sent emails based on your past purchases. "As someone who has bought the collected works of Rufus T. Firefly, you might enjoy these other books by crooked lawyers..."

They also appear to send email based on stuff you've just looked at, casually. "As someone who has shown an interest in Bavarian flugal horns..."

But I can't understand the one I got this morning: "As someone who has shown an interest in woodworking tools..." I swear I have never looked at a woodworking tool on Amazon or anywhere else. Oh, well, maybe I looked at some music which featured a song about awls.