lookin

I often feel the same way. As I often feel that Pelosi isn't leading and that Reid isn't leading. And yet the Democrats are holding together and, for the last few weeks anyway, looking somewhat less disheveled than the Republicans. If he's doing that without leading, then perhaps overt leadership is overrated.

Mebbe yes, mebbe no. If you told me that the 2008 recession had continued unabated and that the DJIA was still at 8000, I might agree with you. But it didn't and it's not. If you told me that unemployment was still at 10%, I might agree with you. But it isn't. If you told me that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were still going full bore, I might agree with you. But they're not. If you told me that DADT and DOMA were still on the books, I might agree with you. But they're not. If you told me that GM was out of business, I might agree with you. But it isn't. If you told me we hadn't signed a new START treaty with Russia, I might agree with you. But we did. If you told me we still had an Axis of Evil featuring Iran, I might agree with you. But we don't. If you told me we're still the only developed country that doesn't consider universal health care a basic right, I might agree with you. But we're not. If you told me his Democratic party was eating itself alive, as the Republicans seem to enjoy doing, I might agree with you. But it isn't. If you told me he was leading a charge for us to become a less compassionate society, I might agree with you. But he's not. If you told me we were still waterboarding alleged terrorists, I might agree with you. But we're not. Even his failure to close Guantanamo, which still rankles me, isn't quite the abrogation of a promise I had assumed it was. According to this article today, Obama's administration has quietly and successfully prosecuted 125 foreign terrorists in U. S. federal courts, on U. S. soil, since 2009. This has been done even while many Republicans have been swearing up and down that it was impossible, and even while not a single military court prosecution of a Guantanamo detainee has even been completed, let alone resulted in a conviction. If he wasn't able to close it with the stroke of a pen, he's certainly been building a case that there's not much value in keeping it open. Don't get me wrong. I've got some beefs. For example, I think he's on the wrong side of the privacy issue. But I also think he'll listen to the hue and cry and make some adjustments before he's out of office. Still, I have no doubt that many will continue to insist, until the end of time, that the Obama presidency has not a single redeeming feature. But they'll have to ignore a lot of publicly available information to maintain their position.

That too. I don't see anything that looks like a commode in there.

Growing backlash to government surveillance Oct 12, 6:22 PM (ET) By MARTHA MENDOZA From Silicon Valley to the South Pacific, counterattacks to revelations of widespread National Security Agency surveillance are taking shape, from a surge of new encrypted email programs to technology that sprinkles the Internet with red flag terms to confuse would-be snoops. Policy makers, privacy advocates and political leaders around the world have been outraged at the near weekly disclosures from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that expose sweeping U.S. government surveillance programs. . . . Federation of American Scientists secrecy expert Steven Aftergood said it is crucial now for policymakers to clearly define limits. "Are we setting ourselves up for a total surveillance system that may be beyond the possibility of reversal once it is in place?" he asked. "We may be on a road where we don't want to go. I think people are correct to raise an alarm now and not when we're facing a fait accompli." U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who introduced a bipartisan package of proposals to reform the surveillance programs last month, told a Cato Institute gathering Thursday that key parts of the debate are unfolding now. "It's going to take a groundswell of support from lots of Americans across the political spectrum," he said, "communicating that business as usual is no longer OK, and they won't buy the argument that liberty and security are mutually exclusive."

Oh my, I wish I had a Highness like that.

Watch this, Elroy! Daddy's going right between the power lines!

The federal website seemed pretty screwy when I tried it a week ago. Apparently, one of the decisions they made early on was to require folks to register before they could get any data on what plans were available and what they would cost, including subsidies. The feds said that they wanted people to have their actual costs, and that could happen only with prior registration. And it was the registration, with all the passwords and secret questions, that made the system grind to a halt. However, I think I need to call bullshit on their basic premise. A couple of months ago, I was able to browse through a version of the California exchange website and (1) look at the basic plans that were available, (2) enter my age and the hypothetical ages of those in my household, and (3) enter my income. I was then given the monthly cost for the the plan I wanted, as well as the net discounted price. All without having to register. I tried various ages for myself, family sizes and ages, income levels, and plans, just to see what the various costs would be. I learned later that this is the "shopping" mode that the feds decided they didn't want to offer. One of the experienced consultants they hired early in the process told them that it would be vital to offer a "shopping" mode, or they would run into all sorts of problems. Which they have. I am sympathetic to those who make mistakes, even big ones. But it's hard to be sympathetic to those who hire experts to help them avoid big mistakes, and then decide to ignore the experts and make the mistakes. It's not clear, to me anyway, that they can fix these basic design problems in time for a mid-December enrollment of tens of millions of people. I wonder if Obama wouldn't be smart to 'delay' the individual mandate, as the Republicans are asking, in return for some concession from them. If he ends up delaying it anyway, for stupid website design decisions, he'll have nothing to show for it but embarrassment.

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy Come on, sugar, let me know If you really need me, just reach out and touch me Come on, honey, tell me so . . .

.

Standing by . . .

Wonder what they'd do if boyish lesbians and girlish gay guys walked around kissing. Problem seems to be a serious shortage of progressives among the Russian population, though, and that's probably going to take a generation or more to fix. дерьмо!

You should be here when my cable bill arrives.

Resetting Your Password: "Sorry, your password has been in use for 30 days and has expired - you must register a new one." roses "Sorry, too few characters." pretty roses "Sorry, you must use at least one numerical character." 1 pretty rose "Sorry, you cannot use blank spaces." 1prettyrose "Sorry, you must use at least 10 different characters." 1fuckingprettyrose "Sorry, you must use at least one upper case character." 1FUCKINGprettyrose "Sorry, you cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively." 1FuckingPrettyRose "Sorry, you must use no fewer than 20 total characters." 1FuckingPrettyRoseShovedUpYourAssIfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessRightFuckingNow! "Sorry, you cannot use punctuation." 1FuckingPrettyRoseShovedUpYourAssIfYouDontGiveMeAccessRightFuckingNow "Sorry, that password is already in use."

Alright, you can have your damn G-string back. I was just trying it on. more Turkish oil wrestling >

The Belle of the Casino, MadamSmith feels lucky tonight.

Wouldn't surprise me if it's budgets. When there were only a few networks audiences were larger. These days a show may have a fraction of the audience and less money for writers. If these folks are right, good writing requires good rewriting and, in the push to get a show out the door as cheaply as possible, rewriting may be one of the luxuries that gets dropped even if they hire good writers. More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina. - John Irving I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber. - David McCullough There is no great writing, only great rewriting. - Justice Brandeis I'd also suspect that today's audience may be less aware of good writing. There doesn't seem to be much of a focus on it in many schools. I've tried watching some of the current popular shows and usually can't get through more than a couple of minutes. Even 30 Rock, which I gave a bunch of chances because I so admire Tina Fey, left me wishing she'd had some good partners and maybe some more time. I'm sure I should give these shows more of a chance and no doubt I've missed out on some good ones, much to my own detriment.

And why not? The One-Percent has managed to send most other jobs off-shore, but it's not so easy for the World's Oldest Profession. Now they're finding out if they want to keep screwing the Ninety-nine Percent it's going to cost them. I wouldn't fuck the Koch brothers for a million dollars! . . . . . . . . Here, lemme see that ad.

I learned that, as soon as the site is working without a hitch, OZ will decide to upgrade it.

Indeed! Were you hanging from the chandelier when you took that shot?

If you follow these steps for Safari, you'll toss your cookies for all websites, not only this one. I just opened Safari 'Preferences', clicked the 'Privacy' button, clicked the 'Details' box, then found a couple of cookies that began with Boytoy and removed just those two. So far so good.

At last! Obama challenges Boehner to allow a clean budget vote onto House floor "If Republicans and Speaker Boehner are saying there are not enough votes, then they should prove it," said the president. "Let the bill go to the floor and let's see what happens. Just vote. Let every member of Congress vote their conscience and they can determine whether or not they want to shut the government down."

I wonder if at least some of the high early demand is from folks who figure they better get signed up quick before the Tea Party takes it away. If the Democratic spinmeisters were as crafty as the Republican spinmeisters they'd at least be floating the possibility, though I haven't heard anyone say it yet. I don't really want the Democrats to be craftier than the Republicans, but I wouldn't mind them being a little better at calling out bullshit when they see it. For example, the reason the government has been shut down for six days is because the Speaker of the House refuses to bring a spending bill to the floor and let the members vote on it. But that's the job of the Speaker and the Democrats won't call him out for not doing it. I think Pelosi could be much more vocal here. Of course, as they say on the other site, I'm probably just being an ultracrepidarian.

For me, the real story isn't so much the Republicans as it is the Koch Brothers and their ilk. And, if I were a leader in the Democratic Party, I'd be singing it from the rafters. Find me a piece of mean-spirited, undemocratic legislation anywhere in the U. S., and I'll find you a trail to the Heritage Foundation and les Fréres Koch. The Tea Party whackjobs are their pawns, the ones who actually block democracy in Congress, and I'm not saying they're not willing pawns. But the strings are being pulled by the Koch suckers. This article in yesterday's New York Times shows how they're doing it for repeal of the Affordable Healthcare Act, and yet most Americans haven't a clue. Why the DNC isn't on the air 24/7 with this info is beyond me.

Good gosh! I've been reluctant to post since AdamSmith said number 1917 is inauspicious, but this is important enough to take a chance on something awful happening. To post an image, the first thing you do is find the image you want and copy its URL. Then you click on that little TV-like icon in the lower-middle of the posting tool bar. Paste the image URL in the window that pops up and click OK. You've posted a picture. Now I just hope AdamSmith was wrong about 1917 being a bad number to use on a post.