the cat's out of the bag

Let's face it. A great deal of governing is information management. This is one of the reasons that Mr Rush Limbaugh is called by some the face of the GOP. Not because he manages, but because he spews forth so much that anyone in his line of sight is buried in data. (Good or bad is irrelevant here, his data is like the mud that BP wants to use to plug the well in the gulf. If it contains the flow of the opposition, it has done what it is supposed to do, it need not convince the well of anything, just overwhelm it.)

But I digress.

A lot of the information that we haven't been overwhelmed with hit the streets this week regarding the war in Afghanistan. And now we are overwhelmed with it. Kinda like the intelligence community. The voices that we hear are outrage that such a thing could happen, (looking for someone to blame, a well known diversionary tactic); serious doubt as to the reliability of what we are seeing, (they may have a point, but the issue with this line of reasoning is that the people who question the credibility of this stuff are, in many cases, the people who sell us this stuff to begin with...), and a general sense that this will simply mean that we will simply have to redouble our efforts in the region.

I would like to ask a rhetorical question for all who read this. Why is the US in Afghanistan at all? (I have an answer, based in what I was told by a "high ranking government official"). But I want to know what everyone else here thinks.

Regulars and visitors alike. What is our stated goal? Is there something else at work as well?

Just wondering?

I saw this article in Wired magazine that I took to be a parody, but I am not sure. I laughed, but other media outlets are picking this up and taking it seriously.

I am not going to go into a lot of detail, but I don't buy it, at least not without some substantive evidence, (and I don't mean some concerned parents and law enforcement types who don't know what a binaural tone is...), but speaking as a social observer, I think that this might be the next big thing for somebody to make a stink about.

Listen for it on talk radio, any outlet that sells time to preachers with an ax to grind and a convenient 800 number and Faux News.

Remember that it is too ridiculous to take real seriously, but consider just one question, what is the second and third domino if some clown succeeds in getting a website or media file restricted?

rest easy, I'm back

At least one reader will catch the reference, for the other two, it will suffice to say that I am posting again.

I would like to make a couple of short comments about a couple of things, and, I will admit, up front, that these are quick, first impressions, not well reasoned, studied-to-death positions.

First, there seems to be quite a bit of ugly discourse these days along political lines. I would bet that there aren't too many hot-button issues that aren't heavily disguised by so much polarized bullshit that one wonders if it might be profitable to open a fertilizer plant.

Anything that our sitting President does or says is guaranteed to cause a ruckus with somebody, so let me pick a popular, if not well-worn issue. immigration as it pertains to the state of Arizona. for the sake of honesty, I had occasion to spend a few hours in the Grand Canyon state last week, and while I made a point of studiously minding my own business, I listened and observed to what was happening around me while I was there.

I have commented on my perception of the situation and the law, so I will not recap right now, but I will add my impression that for some residents of that state, the problem that presents itself is not the fact of the illegal influx, it is that it costs them money. To these people, I was every bit as much a danger and an annoyance (until I flashed a mastercard or a $50 bill and purchased something) to the little kingdom/country club that they have operating there. The state motto may very well be "Buy something and move along".

I visited one establishment, (a gas station/restaurant, attached to a casino), where I heard an exclamation that led me to the belief that, for that person anyway, the influx of cheap labor was fine, as long as they knew their place, you know, not in our restrooms, hospitals, etc.

It put a slightly different slant on the whole picture. My earlier opinion stands, and I still feel that all parties need to take a step back and see the issue from the other side before hurling all the invective's, (and frankly, everyone else needs to simply shut up).

By the way, I drove for about 400 miles along the border, was stopped more than a couple of times by the Border Patrol, answered numerous questions about where I'd been, where I was going and so on, and never once saw anyone lurking next to the road, waiting for a lull in traffic so they could sprint across. I almost felt cheated.

On a relaxed note, these, among others, are just a few of the things I saw.

I thought while I was in the desert that it was real Clint Eastwood country.

Then there is the Supreme Court.

Elena Kegan is pretty vanilla as nominee's go. She has a pretty strong paper trail that gives several clues as to her thinking, methodology and her "constructionism" in how she applies the law to given circumstances, and has been described by most observers as a confirmable candidate for the high court.

So it has been a pretty tough challenge for the party on the right to come up with a solid ideological argument to stand behind in forming an obstruction, (I'm sorry, a reasoned, principled stand), in her confirmation. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah has boldly stepped up, not being in a contested reelection battle, and has enunciated his problem with this nominee, which, stated in a couple of typed pages is, "she isn't a republican nominee", and "she applies her own judgement" to cases.

Damn!

Can't have that. It is widely known and taught that the Constitution covers every conceivable situation that the nation or a citizen can encounter and that no judgement is needed.

I have wondered why the Court hasn't been replaced by a late-model Cray II computer, (like the IRS), and the colors of the flag changed to black and white.

I respect Sen. Hatch, but this business of making sure that the Congress exists to humiliate and obstruct the other party has to stop someplace, and hopefully soon. Anybody with ideas on how to reform Congress, in a parliamentary fashion, please comment.

Have a nice day. I am going to watch a short video of "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly", as performed by a bunch of limeys with ukulele's....