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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Saturday, February 07, 2009

The Reality Of A Parable 

...I simply don't have the talent to do it as well as Badtux. All I can say is go read the Snarky Penguin's Parable and pray that people who should know better - despite all evidence to the contrary suggesting that they don't have the simplest clue - will somehow come together to support the need to do the things necessary to save us from ourselves...
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:20 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The Ineffable Power Of Paybacks 

...it's simple enough to say that there aren't special prosecutors enough or time to dig into every little sordid nook and fetid cranny of the vast corrupt scheme that will be known to history as the presidential administration of George W. Bush, but there is at least - every once in a while - the sweet ineffable power of karma. Such power is demonstrated by the strange case of Leslie Hagen, a former Justice Dept. contract lawyer who got canned, apparently because Monica Goodling, best known as God's own proof to Americans that a faith-based legal education is a truly misguided idea, decided that Hagen's sexual orientation was a qualifying factor for continued employment...

Goodling, of course, fired Hagen, which lead to a search for a replacement. That replacement was announced this week and it was.....Leslie Hagen. As those of us who have spent our lives working in the natural world so well understand, reality generally violates the laws of geometry. There really isn't any hope that there will not be a perfect circle formed here. Hagen will never be allowed to lead the prosecution of Monica Goodling for either this act or any of the other equally or even more serious violations of federal regulation and law to which Goodling is accused of having been in proximity over the last few years. That's a shame, really, for reasons having as much to do with the ability of the country to hold people accountable for their actions as it is for reasons of seeing the sort of stone-cold righteous dénouement to a story that history needs to hear so our heirs don't ever allow the sorts of cultural mistakes that lead to the existence of the Bush administration to ever happen again...

The United States vs. Goodling, with Leslie Hagen as the lead prosecutor, would be the truest expression of the ineffable power of paybacks, but we're not going to see that. We'll just have to be satisfied that Hagen has her job back, with better terms of employment than before. Given that President Obama has tried to establish a theme of looking ahead rather than looking back, that will have to be good enough for now....
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:43 PM 0 comments

Monday, February 02, 2009

The Gift That Keeps On Giving 

...it's really hard to keep from bursting out in painful, muscle-pulling laughter at the very thought of this:
Fresh off his stint as a war correspondent in Gaza, Joe the Plumber is now doing political strategy with Republicans...

[snip]

Wurzelbacher, who became a household name during the presidential election, will be focusing his talk on the proposed stimulus package. He's apparently not a fan of the economic rescue package...

This is becoming a joke without a start or a midpoint or a punchline, except for the simple phrase "Joe the Plumber". We have a guy who isn't a plumber and may not necessarily go by the street name "Joe" who managed to stretch a bit of campaign a$$hattery into a gig that makes a pure mockery out of Warhol's whole "15 Minutes" concept. But there he is, in all his reflected glory, offering advice to the Conservative Working Group...

Given the profoundly positive impact he had on the McCain campaign, it's hard to think of doing anything else other than wishing him luck and encouraging the Republicans to keep working him into the mix. It will no doubt help them explain how one of their newly-crafted icons is so much different than people like Tom Daschle or Tim Geithner when it comes to issues of paying taxes, economic stimulus, and Social Security as a value to society...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:34 PM 0 comments

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