American Exceptionalism; connecting the dots to disaster

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Wednesday May 26, 2010 · 10:47 AM PDT

2010/05/26 · 10:47

Bear with me as I wander through some disparate threads to try and make sense of the alarming disconnect between who we are as a nation, and who we think we are. It is a difficult path, fraught with obstacles, endless forks and false trail markers, and it exposes some truly ludicrous but deeply cherished assumptions we have made about ourselves.
I've been thinking about the BP spill and the relative power of government and industry. I've been thinking about the fact that a sitting senator can say on tv, unremarkedly, that we no longer have a democracy but an oligarchy. I've been thinking about the finding that AIG apparently did nothing wrong in helping to collapse the global economy, and neither did anyone else (except maybe ACORN). I've been thinking about the ignorant outbursts of our respected politicians and pundits, and the useful myth of the liberal media. I've been thinking quite a bit about American mythology. But mostly I've been thinking about what has gone wrong with our sense of balance.

Poll

32 votes Show Results

I

32 votes Vote Now!

I

read the whole long - winded piece

16 votes

skimmed it

11 votes

read the title only

3 votes

respond to all polls by force of habit

2 votes

A beggar at my door

kamarvt

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Tuesday September 01, 2009 · 6:26 AM PDT

2009/09/01 · 06:26

Amidst the growing chants of "It's Over", "It's V R Day" and all the rest of the self-affirming conventional wisdom that All Will Soon Be Clover comes this personal reality check;

Yesterday, a beggar showed up at my door.

Poll

155 votes Show Results

Have you seen people begging recently?

155 votes Vote Now!

Have you seen people begging recently?

Yes, but it's normal where I live

89 votes

Yes, and it's disturbingly abnormal

33 votes

No, and I live in an area where it might be expected

24 votes

No, and I live in an exclusive area where it will never happen

9 votes

WWBD? (What Would Bush Do?)

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday August 19, 2009 · 8:51 AM PDT

2009/08/19 · 08:51

Lately, some people have decided to start bringing guns to presidential appearances. It can't be for hunting, so there must be another reason to arm oneself before a public gathering. Apparently the teabaggers have begun to tire of being laughed at, and are demanding more respect in the only way they know; intimidation through the threat of violence. This alarms many people who fear the worst including among the president's own security detail. Given budget cuts to the Secret Service, and a huge increase in death threats against the current president, clearly, this is a pressing national security concern.

I humbly suggest that there exists a simple and highly effective solution to this serious and growing security challenge.
Mr. Obama, perhaps you should ask yourself: WWBD?

What would Bush do?

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 18, 2009 · 11:22 AM PDT

2009/08/18 · 11:22

Well, whaddaya know. Old John McCain (remember him? Caribou Barbie's sidekick from last season's show) is on a tour of Afghanistan, and he's offering his one-sided, warmongering advice on how to proceed in the most intractable of our two current intractable occupations.
It will surprise no one that he advocates sending more troops into harm's way. After all, McCain never met a problem more soldiers couldn't solve. What might surprise is that until July of 2008, in the heat of the campaign, McCain had not advocated such a move.
Detail of the cravenness of this flipflop, and why nobody should care what Grandpa Screams At Clouds has to say below the fold...

Poll

55 votes Show Results

John McCain, irrelevant has-been, should STFU

55 votes Vote Now!

John McCain, irrelevant has-been, should STFU

agree

33 votes

disagree

2 votes

Who is John McCain? Does he make freedom fries?

20 votes

Pity the Poor, Poor Rich

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 05, 2009 · 10:02 AM PDT

2009/05/05 · 10:02

I came across a particularly galling piece by free marketeer Geoff Colvin on the CNN Money website this morning, and thought I'd share this astounding rehash of Republican campaign season lies, misdirection and doublethink with the community.
The basic premise is rich people aren't rich if they don't feel rich, and that Obama is a socialist, which is bad for the economy.
Oh, and he has coined a very sympathetic term for the poor, poor, pitiful rich in America:

"The Working Rich"

Oh, the humanity!

Check this out;

Poll

132 votes Show Results

Will Obama's promised tax reform destroy America?

132 votes Vote Now!

Will Obama's promised tax reform destroy America?

Yes, forIi am one of the chosen, and my pain is America's pain

5 votes

Yes, because I'm Joe the Plumber, and my imagined future pain is America's pain

5 votes

No. Even though my taxes will rise, I can afford it in dire times for the good of all

7 votes

No, Because Trickle Down always was bullsh*t

81 votes

No, because kartma's a bitch, and long overdue

13 votes

No, because America is an ideal, not a pocketbook

10 votes

Pie

11 votes

Wingnuts gone Wild in Vermont, and it's not funny

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday April 13, 2009 · 11:23 AM PDT

2009/04/13 · 11:23

Oh. Boy.
It started with Mrs kamarvt bringing home the Sunday local paper. The Easter Sunday local paper, smeared with a full page paid screed from a group calling itself "America Forever".
The ad was appalling enough, full of all kinds of hate speech - exactly what the first thing on their website claims they aren't. Loaded with disinformation and the type of fearmongering that hunter (among others) so expertly quantified here yesterday, the ad seeks to alarm Vermonters into irrational actions.
When I started digging through my local paper's website, I uncovered a seething, ignorant hatred that turned my initial assessment of the local Order of the Wingnuts, (namely, funny and harmless) on its head.

There is danger here.
(more below)

Poll

288 votes Show Results

Wingnut Paranoia; entertainment or something worse?

288 votes Vote Now!

Wingnut Paranoia; entertainment or something worse?

They're harmless and funny

3 votes

They're funny, but I wouldn't leave my kids with them

84 votes

This is getting a little scary

201 votes

Traditional Marriage

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday April 07, 2009 · 12:53 PM PDT

2009/04/07 · 12:53

Today's historic legislative override of Vermont governor Jim Douglas' veto of the marriage equality bill has me doing a very happy dance; married, middle-aged, hetero guy that I am. This action in Vermont moves the ball forward, but not all are with us even here in the People's Republic of Vermont.
During a special Vermont Edition program on Vermont Public Radio shortly after the vote was held, I was subjected to several versions of the same intolerant attitudes spewed by the most skilled 'culture warriors' on hate radio and Wingnut TV. And these came from not only Vermonters, but listeners of public radio, to boot. Most attempted to frame their intolerance in specious terms, alleging some attack on the "traditional" version of marriage, which, after nine years of civil unions in Vermont, I have never heard defined beyond "between one man and one woman".

Let's deconstruct that slogan below the fold...

Poll

65 votes Show Results

Biggest offense to marriage?

65 votes Vote Now!

Biggest offense to marriage?

Britney Spears and whoever it was

21 votes

Anna Nicole and the Old Man of the Sea

8 votes

Princess Diana and Prince Charles

2 votes

Gomez and Morticia Addams

1 vote

Jim and Tammy Faye Baker

7 votes

Man on Dog

10 votes

any marriage for money

6 votes

any marriage for appearances

10 votes

We Will Never Know

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 09, 2008 · 10:06 AM PDT

2008/07/09 · 10:06

As the hopes for keeping alive the Fourth Amendment rest now on the possibility of a chauffer's strike in DC (UPDATE: no such luck), it occurs to me the accompanying hopeless feeling of dread is becoming all too familiar. As I listened to NPR give a one-sentence mention to the "expected to pass" gutting of FISA safeguards speeding through the Senate today, I began to enumerate all the other avenues into open government that have been so effectively closed by the criminal conspiracy occupying the White House.

The list is staggering.

"A republic, if you can keep it" is the oft-quoted reply of Ben Franklin when asked what type of country had been forged in the constitutional convention. There can no longer be any doubt - we have lost the republic. And to a bully, no less. How could this happen? Historians, if their profession persists, may argue about it, but the truth of the matter is that this whole issue has been engineered in such a way that we will never know.

Read below the fold and weep.

Poll

150 votes Show Results

Are we there yet?

150 votes Vote Now!

Are we there yet?

since forever

14 votes

since 12/2000

68 votes

since 3/2003

13 votes

since today

10 votes

nope, not yet, but we're getting close

38 votes

nope. it's a free country and always will be

7 votes

CPR won't cure economic cancer

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday June 25, 2008 · 7:56 AM PDT

2008/06/25 · 07:56

As the guardians of the economy have slowly woken up to a reality that anyone living in less than three homes can describe from experience, there has been a recent avalanche of "assistance" coming from the ~~government~~ ~~treasury~~ American taxpayers in the form of cash infusions in a desperate, haphazard effort to resuscitate the staggering US economy. As the Fed meets again to decide if any pain should be inflicted on investors, or just dump it all on the consumer, and the Senate debates another attempt to minimize the carnage wrought by unchecked greed in the housing market to the tune of a mere $4 billion, I thought it would be a good time to see just how much CPR the economy has received lately, and whether it's doing any good.

Short answer; It isn't.
Maybe it's time to pronounce.
Cause of death (with links) is under the sheet.

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 19, 2008 · 12:04 PM PDT

2008/06/19 · 12:04

We're all abuzz with the news that Steny Hoyer (D-AT&T) has rammed through a capitulation on FISA reform against his own will, and with no support from democrats.
Key to the success of this clearly corrupt, fraudulent piece of "legislation" is the makeup job/title change designed to make us (FAIL) and our representatives (uh-oh) in congress think that there is some sort of check on unbridled surveillance powers tucked into the bill.
There isn't.
It's worse than the original.
Action item (an easy one) below the fold

Poll

15 votes Show Results

I will make calls

15 votes Vote Now!

I will make calls

to my rep

2 votes

to my rep, Hoyer, and Pelosi

7 votes

to a bunch of reps on that list

1 vote

to all of the above, and my friends to amplify the message

5 votes

Call? I'm headed to the Capitol!!

0 votes

I will call Dick Cheney and report you, hippie!

0 votes

I lost my phone due to gas prices

0 votes

Help Fix FISA - Leave It Alone

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday May 09, 2008 · 4:51 AM PDT

2008/05/09 · 04:51

Just a short diary today. I had a letter in my inbox from Patrick Leahy and John Conyers asking for help in protecting America from At&T, and thought I'd forward it to everyone who didn't get one.

Here it is:

email to senators on FISA update WITHOUT amnesty

Brief description below

Poll

14 votes Show Results

FISA futures market:

14 votes Vote Now!

FISA futures market:

House version is ascendent - telco's tremble

1 vote

Senate version triumphs - Jello Jay wins the day

0 votes

Deadlocked where it is until Liberation Day 1/20/09

11 votes

gwb doesn't care - we're all going to Guantanamo

2 votes

SJC: Leahy Waffling on Mukasey

kamarvt

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 24, 2007 · 6:10 AM PDT

2007/10/24 · 06:10

Vermont Public Radio aired an interview this morning with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). As you likely know, Leahy is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as such has more power over the fate of the nominee for US Attorney General than any other senator (if you didn't know that, let me be the first to say "Welcome to DailyKos!").
It appears that the chairman is having more than a little trouble holding his rubber stamp.
It even appears Mr. Leahy is not ready to take Dick Cheney's advice.

More below

Poll

63 votes Show Results

Does Leahy mean it this time?

63 votes Vote Now!

Does Leahy mean it this time?

Yes. He's had enough

2 votes

Yes. But he'll take anything and call it good enough

16 votes

No. He'll fold like he has over subpoenas

44 votes

No. He's in on it.

1 vote

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American Exceptionalism; connecting the dots to disaster

A beggar at my door

WWBD? (What Would Bush Do?)

The Loser Speaks, Media Fawns

Pity the Poor, Poor Rich

Wingnuts gone Wild in Vermont, and it's not funny

Traditional Marriage

We Will Never Know

CPR won't cure economic cancer

FISA action item: call your rep today

Help Fix FISA - Leave It Alone

SJC: Leahy Waffling on Mukasey