This is just a placeholder so I’ll remember that I want to touch on the disappointment I have with Obama when it comes to his promises to restore the rule of law…broken promises…he is quickly losing me and many other supporters with unprincipled continuation of the Bushies worst abuses….and I’m going to have drinks this aft so I need help remembering….told you I have flaws…
World Cup so far….
Well…the World cup took a turn this morning when Switzerland defeated the heavily favored Spanish team by a score of 1-0. These guys were favored to take it all but I think that rating may have been a little too optimistic given that the US beat them in the Confederations Cup last year. I know, Spain has only lost like 2 games in the last hundred years but these tournaments can be surprising…just look at our tie with England which easily could have been a win for the US.
On thing I have noticed is that there haven’t been any teams, from the matches I’ve seen, that have played up to level that I expected…I was prepared for some elegant soccer like you see in the EPL and Champions league but most of the play looks disjointed, although Spain did put together some short spurts of beauty that you can’t help but marvel at…even Brazil looked ordinary yesterday…maybe we have a chance? Hope so….
The Supremes are at it again….
Well…another case where, when you turn over the rocks that the Bushies hide under, the stench becomes unbearable when their policies of torture and extraordinary rendition are involved. I hope you take the time to read about the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who was kidnapped when traveling through the US by the US government and sent to Syria where he was held and tortured for almost a year until the Canadians determined that the information they provided to the US was false. Now, this is a man whose only crime is having a name that is similar to ones that were on the flawed terrorist watchlists that the Bushies used to terrorize anyone they felt, in their own minds, was a danger to the US.
I find it such an egregious failure to uphold the constitution in this case and I also fault the Obama administration for doing the same damn things that were a breach on international law by the Bushies. Sending the acting solicitor general to argue to the Supreme court that national security issues are involved and thus we can’t allow this to go to court. Did they buy the same playbook that Cheney used to gut our Constitution? The information that they are so concerned about has already been revealed by the investigation that the Canadians did; finding that this man was completely innocent and compensating him over 9 million dollars for his ordeal. When did we give up moral leadership to the rest of the world? Oh, that’s right, when the Bushies decided to torture!
I have to say thanks to the Canadians for setting the example of taking responsibility for their mistakes…something that Obama and his administration have yet to learn…geez….
June 16th
Well…it’s kind of early to be doing this…back up at 5:30 this morning…pretty normal when I think about it, but still a pain in the butt. My daughter did give me some prescription sleeping pills when I was in Chicago last week so we’ll see how they work over the next week or so. Was supposed to have last night off from drinking to get ready for pool with Tom this aft but didn’t…so we’ll see how that works out…only have about 8 bucks in my pocket so it may be a short night…need to get some money coming in…any suggestions? No other plans so far…I might treat myself to a new grill for Father’s day since I miss the one that burned to the ground and you can only bake chicken so many times before the mere sight of it makes you gag. I NEED a rare t-bone…..more later…
The topic for later is more on the torture thing and a recent refusal of the Supreme court to take the case of a Canadian who was kidnapped and tortured by the USA…by mistake…well, all torture is a mistake but you’ll love this one…geez…
Let them talk….
Okay, all you progressives and centrists, I have something I need you to do…please let the righties, loonies, birthers, and the rest have their say…it has been one of their prime bitches that the mainstream media and the left are doing everything in their power to shut them up and they feel so aggrieved and put upon that they are willing to do some pretty crazy stuff to get their point (however pointless) across. So….let them talk..no, encourage them to talk…maybe even pay them to talk….since the best way to expose an idiot is to let him keep talking…just search for Rick Barber…a repub, Tea Party candidate from Alabama who, a couple of days ago, declared war on the US government using some of the founding fathers as surrogates…I’m not making this up….I’m just not that creative…geez…
June 15th
Well…feel like crap this morning after the night out with G…but had a ton of fun so it was worth it. I am getting so tired of hearing those damn horns from the World Cup matches that I may just stop watching. I know it’s kind of tradition for the Africans but they have to know they are annoying and the casual fans will tune out after listening for just a couple of minutes. Hmmm….that’s it for now…I do have some onion peeling to do later but I am happy I didn’t post last night when the depression was running rampant…I know, that might have been the time that I would be the most honest but I’m not ready to reveal that just yet….might sound like a whiner and then you won’t come back…it is kind narcissistic I know…not the least of my flaws believe me…more later…
I think it’s a long con….
Okay…I’m sure you’ve read about the concerted effort from the right to say that the most important thing for the economy right now is to address the deficits and the fear that inflation may be on the horizon. If you’ve studied economics at all, you know that in a recession, what needs to happen is that the government deficit spends to stimulate portions of the economy that the private sector can’t. This has worked in every recession/depression that the tactic was tried but what I see now is the repubs from David Brooks to Boehner and their ilk are calling for cutting government spending and have categorically rejected the latest call for federal funding to states and cities who are laying off people and cutting back services. Now, they may say that this is perfectly consistent with their conservative views but I see it as a plan for them to ensure that the Obama administration fails so they can go back to the tax-cutting, reward the rich policies that have led to where we are today. And they have done a great job of convincing the man on the street that government intervention for any reason is a bad thing. They use for the underpinnings of their argument that the stimulus package is not adding millions of jobs but only 41K in the last month but what they don’t say is that employment is always a lagging indicator, especially in a recession as severe as this one.
I’ll bet you didn’t believe I could work up any outrage today…I’m glad I could prove you wrong…
One thing I can believe is that these guys are using the misery of the unemployed for their own political gain…geez…
June 14th
Well…not much to say this morning..spent all Sunday just lazin around here and getting rested from the traveling along with laundry, etc. The bike is the cleanest it has been in a year after the power wash it got on the back of the car coming home. Yeah…the brain is a little sluggish today…maybe one too many manhattans last night or the combo of two types of sleeping pills…not a good idea so don’t try that at home…more later…
USA, USA, USA!
Well…need to say a few words about the USA/England match from Sat afternoon…walked over to a local bar owned by an Irishman who, when he saw that my son-in-law was English, gave us pretty good service. But, we were there at about 9:30 for the 1:30 game so that was a long wait; especially for me since I could only have a couple of beers with coming back home later in the aft. Had corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast and it was some of the best I’ve had…not the weird tasting stuff you get from a can but really tender, home-cooked corned beef.
Oh, the game, I thought it was a good result for the USA to come away with a tie 1-1, but my son-in-law and the other Englanders were despondent that they could tie with the lowly US. I have to say congrats to Tim Howard, our goaltender, who took what I thought was a red card play when the English player came in studs up and put both feet into his chest. This was early in the match and he stayed in and made so many game saving plays it was hard to count them…doesn’t say much for our defense, though….
Now we just need to beat Slovenia Friday morning and we might get to the knockout stage…..
I forgot this from the trip…..
I just remembered this little tidbit from the trip….while I was on the Indiana Tollroad in the huge rainstorm that I told you about in the last post..(just look down…it’s easy), I had just cleared a group of cars and it was great to get out of the spray since you couldn’t see a thing. Well…I’m in the left lane, starting to make some pretty good time and came on an Explorer that was in the center lane of three, I’m probably 5 or 6 car lengths back and a deer comes flying over the center dividing wall and lands in my lane. The guy in the Explorer locks up his brakes and starts to swerve toward me….I see his headlights pointing at me, the deer is staring at me (in that split second), and the only thing I can think of to do is floor it…..worked out pretty well….