Before I bid adieu...

What a surprise...

Are you training to perceive victory?

The modern media environment offers noise and calls it information.  
These distractions are designed to cloud our focus.
Stripping away noise and perceiving essential details takes practice.  
Now is a good time to begin.

The modern media environment offers noise and calls it information.  
These distractions are designed to cloud our focus.
In the confusion, it is easy to mistake illusions for reality.  
That is a mistake we cannot make if we wish to win.  

To prevail we must do more than merely see the truth.  
We must be able to perceive it.

Stripping away the noise and perceiving the essential details takes practice.  
Now is a good time to begin.

Now don't get me wrong, I honor John McCain's service.  Apparently that is something the party faithful and lap dog press require everyone to say as an honorific declaration of fealty whenever the topic of military service is broached around John McCain, whose service I honor.  

This fetish for phrasing puzzles me because last time I checked John Kerry served in the same war.  So did Al Gore and Max Cleland and Wesley Clark and Bob Kerry, to name a few.  However, I don't recall anyone - especially Republicans ever using that particular phrase when referring to any of those men.   However, I do recall a lot of disparaging comments about them and their tours of duty.  

Something else is different about the people who vouched for those guys as opposed to the people vouching for McCain, whose service I honor.  Gore, Cleland, John and Bob Kerry all had comrades who actively endorsed them.  Guys who served with them and vouched for them.   This of course raises a question... where are all of John McCain's wartime buddies?

Why is it that all the people heralding his service are chickenhawks?  I'm being serious here.  Look at the list....

Ars Oblivionalis, the Art of Forgetting, is a term coined by Umberto Eco. He claimed it did not exist because active forgetting was impossible.  

Despite the presumed impossibility of that feat, this administration and its apologists practice the Art of Forgetting on a daily basis.  While they may have convinced themselves they create their own reality, the fact is they do not.  Unfortunately, they will continue deluding themselves and those around them into thinking that is true as long as we remain quiet.  That is why we have to actively remember, to hold up the mirror of reality and force them to confront the consequences of their madness.  Ironically, this is where the dead truly find their voice.

I'm sure all you liberal-lily-livered-bin-laden-sympathizing-constitution-as-suicide-pact-surrender-monkey-terrorist- appeasers who used to whine about "profiling" will now cry about Excessive Force!  Some people are just never satisfied.  Instead of complaining, you should be celebrating.  Now the TSA and airport police offer equal opportunity beatings. Yay!

Here's the tape...  Good thing these Uber-Patriots are Protecting The Homeland, right?

But wait, it gets better....

Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I would still be there.  It's about doing the right thing.
-- Gina Gray, American Hero

Who is Gina Gray and why does she make us all proud?

Just got this from a press release issued by Rep. John Culberson's (R-TX) office. The press release focuses on a proposed new rule:

"that would prohibit Americans from viewing content published by Members of Congress on websites that are not "approved" by the Committee on House Administration, the panel that creates rules governing the internal operations of the U.S. House."

Whoah.....
Normally I would dismiss this as asshattery, but given what they are going to do to the 4th amendment today, I am no longer so sanguine about the House protecting our constitutional rights.  So I figured it was worth checking into.  Here is what I found:

Yesterday there was lots of discussion about McCain's habitual high-stakes craps playing.  That was prompted by the observation McCain is so scrupulous he reports 14 bucks in interest as a line item on his 1040, yet he has NEVER reported any winnings or offsetting losses, even though we know he has been an habitual high-stakes gambler for many years.
 
Most of that conversation concentrated on tax implications, questions of judgment, or moral lapses.  We barely touched on the potential corruption angle.  

I want to focus on the corruption angle now because I found something interesting in the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act Database.

Remember those marathon gambling sessions in 2005?  We know he was often in the company of Wes Gullett, a former staffer and now a lobbyist.  If you check the client list on the web site for Gullett's firm you find  nothing strange there -- now.  However, look at their former clients and things get more interesting...

Originally I wondered why there was no form W-2G.  You probably are wondering, "What the heck is IRS Form W-2G, and who cares if McCain ever filed one or not?"  

Those are fair  questions.  IRS Form W-2G is similar to the W-2 form we all know and hate.  However, instead of declaring wages, you use the W-2G to declare Gambling Winnings.  

Now why should anyone care to ask John McCain about his W-2G filings?  Answering that is slightly more complicated given his many years of marathon gambling sessions at the craps table and his ties to the gaming industry.  However, let's start with the fact aides say McCain tends to play for a few thousand dollars at a time!  Over the years that adds up to a big chunk of change.  And that has potential tax consequences.   Apparently, I was asking the wrong question.  The real question is why hasn't he ever declared ANY winnings on his 1040, or any losses on his Schedule A?  So....

UPDATE II - note title change... apparently this is the real mystery. (h/t to Mrick for really spelling this out)

Forget all the talk about what it takes to make it as a POW.  Let's talk about the job McCain is actually running for.  What does it take to make it as Chief Executive?

One of the hallmarks of an effective executive is their ability to attract and retain talent.  It doesn't matter whether they work in the public or private sector, whether they are running a sports team or a political campaign.  

Executives with a pattern of churning through talent eventually get a reputation for being difficult to work with and people with real talent start avoiding them.   That's a major problem.  Once you are tagged with that label, it's just a matter of time before the bottom falls out.  No surprise then McCain's campaign is in shambles.  

It's clear the corporate media is going to bend over backwards to avoid looking at this story in detail, so why not take a look for yourself at McCain's history for churning through talent?   Watch your step as you head over the fold ... this guy runs through top advisors the way some people run through wives.

Actually, it is one joke that comes in two versions:  the Zen Buddhist version and the bar version...but first a poll!

They love to tell us we live in the GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH... but like VICTORY IN IRAQ they never bother to explain what exactly that phrase means.   Greatest.... greatest what?  Greatest land mass?  Greatest economy?  Greatest quality of life?  Greatest number of millionaires?  Greatest concentration of wealth?  Greatest military power?  Greatest nuclear power?  

I think we all agree life here is generally good.  Certainly beats the crap out of Haiti or Yemen or Sudan or Zimbabwe.  Hell, we are nowhere near Nigeria in mortality rates (~20%) from botched abortions.  Here abortion is still legal and safe.   There it is illegal.  However, when I was growing up we set the bar a little higher.   We talked about the strength of our economy ... although we worried about the national debt.  We talked about the strength of our schools ... although we worried about the Russians and the Japanese.  We talked about our overall health... and didn't worry about much of anything.   Well, Russia has turned into a kleptocracy, Japan is suffering a long-term economic funk (after a real estate bubble like ours) and now we learn, life expectancy is decreasing in America for men and women...

So why did they bury the story as part of the Friday evening news dump?  First off, because SETTLING the case is not the same as SOLVING the case.  

The anthrax case they settled was brought by Steven Hatfill.  He's the guy Ashcroft identified as a "person of interest" when people were agitating for a real investigation.  Turns out Hatfill was innocent.  That means the government wasted millions of dollars harrassing him, and now they have to pay millions of dollars more to settle the lawsuit he filed for invading his privacy and ruining his life.  Heckuva job Ashcroft!

That is the legacy of this administration when it comes to terrorism.  They don't catch the guys.  They can't even find the guys.  And they blow tons of money pissing people off in the process.  That's all bad, but here's something worse.  The guy who did this is still out there.  And there is a very good case to be made for who the likely suspect really is.  If you think that is important, read on  ...

LEAR:
And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
King Lear, Act V, Scene III

The real tragedy of Carlin's death hit me when I realized his greatest performance was still ahead of him.  Now it's been lost forever.  Only a week ago, America's Court Jester -- the Man Who Never Bought The Bullshit -- was chosen to receive this year's Mark Twain Award.   Twain would have approved, I'm sure.  Carlin was every bit as insightful as Twain and even more inciteful than Menken.  

I was looking forward to the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Awards this year with glee.  The president attends.  The honoree performs.   Everyone laughs.  But this time, everyone wouldn't be laughing because the joke would be on them.  It's hard to explain how daring and confrontational Carlin's humor was to people who grew up with the world already transformed by his wit.   The best I can do is describe what I think Carlin's performance would have been like:  Imagine Colbert showing up to speak at the Correspondent's Dinner with a baseball bat...  

 I was walking through the neighborhood today and came across this car.  A diehard Bush fan.  A hardcore Republican who voted for Ehrlich for governor, and supported Steele's run for the Senate.  (I couldn't fit the Steele bumper sticker in the shot, but you see the start of it on the far right.)   But that's not why I am sharing this.  No....

It's the Obama sticker on the upper left!  I blurred the vanity plate because it's the woman's name.  

So why the conversion?  Why did this hard-working Escort driving Republican decide she is not only going to vote against McCain, she is going to ADVERTISE the fact of her conversion?  Simple.  "McCain means no choice for women!"   I couldn't have said it better myself.   I realize this is totally anecdotal, but you know there are many like her flying under the radar and even more ready to convert.  They just need to hear McCain speak:

Old "Weathervane" McCain said he would run a civil campaign characterized by "straight talk" and transparency.  The general has barely started and he's already 0 for 3!

In an excellent report, davefromqueens described McCain's response to a question about education:

It was laughable when McCain tried to talk about education.  He was ill informed and elitist.  First it was the usual gobbly-gook about private schools and school choice, which of course isn't school choice at all.  Then McCain had the audacity to equate him and Cindy sending their kids to super rich, super well funded private schools as if everybody would have access to this.  It was bizarre.

Let's take a swing at John and Cindy McCain, their taxes and their "charitable" foundation.  This piñata is chock full of goodies.  Here's a real treat:
The McCains received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by their children.  Sweeeet.....

All aboard, The $traight Talk Expre$$ is leaving the station! (h/t to pat208 for a brilliant label!)