The Daily Panopticon

Geography: Not hard.

Auntie Ranty — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:44:35 +0000

Someone really needs to tell Fox news that Los Angeles is not, in fact, south of San Diego.

Nobama

Auntie Ranty — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:27:18 +0000

Still think he’s on our side?
By all means, stick your head in the sand – just let the rest of us know that you are opting to do so please?

Dear universe, please give me someone good to vote for in 2012 please? Ideally someone good and Electable.

Ice Skating Uphill – the new White House appointees

Auntie Ranty — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:09:41 +0000

Yet another mental midget gets a choice Obamaland appointment – Would-be DOD chief over Afghanistan: War ‘is winnable’.
And this guy hasn’t even started the job yet.

The Army general chosen to take over as top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan told senators Tuesday he believes the war can be won if a proper counterinsurgency campaign is undertaken.

No, really, ignore two thousand years of history telling us that no one has ever managed to take the region (let alone hold it), let’s just site those wacky madcap Soviets and then know, just know we can do better, because we are Americans…..
Seriously, is the Obama administration using a Ouija board to select their appointees of late?

Well, let’s see. I expect that a pretty good total train wreck could come out of a collision between the Sotomayor appointment and the signal to noise discrepancy created in the wake of some religious wingnut on one of their little crusades again.
Though, on that last count, I’m amazed that so many otherwise god- (read: lobbyist) fearing Republicans have actually had the gibbering nod towards sentience to come out against blowing people away. Don’t they normally put pictures of the shooters on their websites and call them patriots or some other jingoistic flag toting thing or other?

While I’m waiting for the Democrats to elect a liberal President*…

Auntie Ranty — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:01:47 +0000

Well, in my absence, what’ve I missed? Not one whole hell of a lot. The sabre rattling continues…..
North Korea wants us to think war is imminent and, um, I guess someone out there is believing it. I think Jong-Il has finally had one Enzyte commercial too many myself….. (Sorry, the ass muppet is a Bond villain – I refuse to give him any more respect than that.)
The US punks out on North Korea. “The line is drawn” or some such empty nonsense – what, did I hear someone say sanctions? From who? We don’t exactly do a vast amount of business with them you know. Calling for sanctions on N. Korea is like threatening to cut someone’s crack off when they don’t do drugs.
Either way, it leaves the dealer holding their genitalia, which isn’t quite dignified.
Tell that to the state department, which spent lots of last week being unable to pick which position they were supposed to be on. I suppose some people don’t see much difference in being unable to pick a tie to wear to work and this. They probably voted for Obama…..

Meanwhile, the Defense Department still hasn’t learned that in the absence of information the people’s minds fill in the blanks just fine. The media, by the way, is fired. Gone is all talk of how wrong torture is….the only thing CNN, Fox, ABC, or any of the majors (save MSNBC which I can no longer see) seem interested in is whether or not The Defense Department Approved Enhanced Intelligence Gathering Techniques (you know, TORTURE) are “effective” or not.
And people wonder why I have no faith on my fellow humans….

Also – and it’s about time – GM is bankrupt. No fanfare, just glad all that pointless biblical handwringing is over.

Sorry for the tardiness of my update, we’re still functionally homeless, living out of a hotel – and the wife is in the late stages of a Warcraft addiction, making the one working laptop we have…..precious. Speaking of which, she sent me the Best Link Ever yesterday – Psychiatrists are moving to classify bitterness as a mental illness.
Remember, happiness is a chemical condition.

* because they really didn’t get one. My present assessment of Mr. Obama is a naked populist who is petrified of making any permanent lasting controversial decisions. Rather like the last Democratic President (You know, Bill?) save that Bill was somewhat more decisive at times.
Wow that makes him look bad doesn’t it?
In any case, please don’t mistake this for some wacky desire for an actually liberal president to come to pass. While I consider the stupid democrats less odious than the stupid republicans, that by no means should be read as an endorsement.

120 seconds

Auntie Ranty — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:23:38 +0000

North Korea claims to have conducted a nuclear test and the media eats it up…because North Kore is right next to President Bush in the dictionary listing of “credibility.” (Which does bring to mind an interesting point. The Bush administration was real big on “North Korea does not have nuclear weapons” which, of course, was and remains bullshit. I’m wondering what the Obama administration’s stance is – i.e. do they dwell in reality?)

How soon til we invade? Oh wait, that’s right, NO OIL. So we won’t.

Speaking of Obama, he’s selected a gravedigger for NASA though speculation about NASA having a future involving real space exploration and utilization seem overly optimistic. We still don’t have a replacement anywhere in sight for the Shuttles, which will be flying their final flight next year.
Of especial humor – the article asks about “Bush’s” plan for manned expedition to Mars – which is the same plan suggested by (of all people) Dan Quayle during his time as VP….which is just a regurgitation of the exact same plan suggested by Spiro Fucking Agnew – “Man on Mars by 1988!” Yeah, that happened.

I don’t think this is a real bus ad, but what I’d give for it to have been so.

the Tea Leaf Dancers escape from the fortress of the flying lotus

Auntie Ranty — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:43:52 +0000

The Obama administration has been denied the funds to close GitMo without further disclosure and I say, well fucking done. The 90-6 senate vote was – somewhat surprisingly – GOP heavy (only somewhat because expecting ideological consistency out of the GOP is a fools’ errand). This should make it that much more difficult for all of those tribunal “terrorists” (sorry but without due process I can’t take that choice of descriptors seriously) to be ferried away to other illegal and secret prisons around the world.
Of course, the reason the GOP did this was to prevent an influx of brown people out of some naieve and extremely misinformed notion of the administration’s intentions. “The American people don’t want these men walking the streets of America’s neighborhoods,” thinks Senator John Thune, an elephant from South Dakota, though he does (at least) go on to say “The American people don’t want these detainees held at a military base or federal prison in their back yard, either.”
So close, but yet so far from…you know, reality. I would opt for mandatory reality checks in congress if I thought it could either be done or be done well, neither of which I believe.
But hey, it beats facing what both parties have done to the world economy I suppose.

Life in Obamaland Day 119

Auntie Ranty — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:37:31 +0000

I intended to start this with a sign of the oncoming end of the universe by mentioning Penn Gillette on Glenn Beck until I hit the internet and found that it was, in fact a rerun. Ah well, I guess the Large Hadron Collider destroyed all life on earth after all.
Still, any time Penn Gillette argues against heterosexual marriage I want to have his baby a little more.

Despite US attempts, photographs slip through their fingers.

So, by raising the price of a car by 1200 dollars we can bail out the auto industry – oh I’m sorry am I supposed to be regarding this as a step forward in energy policy? Because this is a shoddy attempt at trying to write off an auto industry specific bailout as something that it isn’t. If they don’t have the existing infrastructure to do this then who’s paying for it? The government.

The FBI is finally getting comfortable using the Patriot Act – a Seven page report (Warning – pdf) submitted to Congress today detailed 24,744 people who were targeted for warrentless surveillance by the Fed under the Act’s provisions in 2008, up from 16,804 in 2007.

On that note, I’m off to contemplate human extinction

When all things began, the brand name already was. The brand name dwelt with God, and what God was, Disneyland

Auntie Ranty — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:13:28 +0000

Have you read the NY Times 35 minute interview with Obama? You should.
Especially considering he’s opted to continue perpetuating Bush era policies. It is alleged that he’s reinstating military tribunals in favor of actual litigation….but making lots of empty promises regarding greater rights for the accused. Because that makes up for the last seven years. Or something that is only true in his mind.
As it turns out, aides have made a statement that Yes, some GitMo detainees will face tribunals. That’s very ambiguous terminology, which seems to be an increasing hallmark of the Obama administration, especially when it doesn’t want to admit something.
You know, I’m starting to think that what is happening with the Obama presidency is that we’re beginning to see how unprepared he really was for the job he now has. A common observation very early in the campaign was that he lacked enough experience. Which looked at one way is a plus. But I think we’re beginning to see the downside of that.
The recent way he has ham handed his way into the abortion debate is a fine example. He is, in some socially contentious issues (TBLG issues among them) apparently terrified of making a definitive stance…and when he does do so, he concedes to both sides but commits to neither. (The Notre Dame thing is funny because, had he handled it just a liiiiiitle differently, could have been epic. But it fell short, and his silence since encourages all the talking heads talk in the soup.)
And yet we’re waiting on those campaign promises Mr. President. Tick tick tick tick….

Elsewhere…
Blackwater back to its old tricks oh, that’s right they’re called “Xe” now. Either way the score is the same – two civillians dead.

After yesterday’s announcement by Chrysler, GM announces it will be closing 1100 auto dealerships and I can’t help but wonder what happens when all of these creepy guys that sell cars for a living are unleashed on the workforce. In the short term I suspect they’ll wind up telemarketing. Don’t answer your phone.
Either way, in the case of both GM and Chrysler, I’ve got to wonder how much easier it would be to sack one of those million dollar vice presidents instead of close down their franchises.

The U.S. is dispatching special forces ops to Cambodia er, I mean Pakistan. Just remember *we* are the country that destabilized Pakistan, the reason why they’re now in civil war….and Obama’s engagement policy is near identical to Bush’s Iraq policy.

How’s that for Friday afternoon cheer? Don’t forget to donate to the Make-a-Fish Foundation, an utterly fictitious body dedicated to fighting the nonsense that is intelligent design.

Shaving a wet cat with a dull razor – more on torture

Auntie Ranty — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:52:37 +0000

Oh How I Love to watch her TWIST IN THE WIND
Look, no one is debating that the CIA can lie to congress (That is its primary purpose right?) – but in a world where Freecreditreport.com is a lie (don’t believe me? You can’t get that report without having a credit card. Again, without a credit card and thus a line of control from a bank, you are S.O.L.) trying to turn your own lies around on the CIA smells of someone feeling themself sandbagged and having nothing else in their deck to throw into the game.
No great loss really. I remember when Nancy Pelosi as Speaker was accompanied by it’s own particular cult of “She Will Save Us” and I scoffed then too – and was quietly told to let the less cynical enjoy their victory.
Ahem. Fuck that.

Former senator Bob Graham is joining the chorus of I didn’t know likely in exchange for something else later down the line would be my guess.
Jebus, do you have any idea how fucked things are when someone has less credibility than the Central Intelligence Agency? WOW.
Really though, the proof is in the pudding.

Graham is the only other Dem aside from Pelosi to get briefed in 2002, so they are both in effect asserting that no Dem was briefed on the use of EITs that year. The date of the next briefing was in February 2003.

The key word here is DEMOCRAT. Name a single member of the GOP sitting in who can corroborate this? (Not, mind, that they would. After all, the core of the GOP right now is of the masturbates to tortured brown people variety. Right Rush?)

But of course, the Robot has to sound off because he hasn’t done enough this week to end and destroy any tiny vestige of credibility the GOP might still possess.

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) – The CIA on Thursday rejected a request by former Vice President Dick Cheney that it make public documents that he said showed the effectiveness of using harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects.

*QUACK*Torture Works*QUACK*We should show the people how tough and big we are*QUACK* The CIA has a long (over 50 years) history of doing bad things and then not getting caught. But really, maybe just once, we should listen to Dick and watch both the CIA and the socially conservative wingnutjobs of the right wing get sucked into the black hole that would result.
Save of course, that that would insure further Obamanocracy.

It’s great to be back

Auntie Ranty — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:50:52 +0000

well, hopefully. Still straddling the line of being one of those damned “statistics” cited in evening news reports, but my head is yet above water. Damnit.
Not, to say, that much has changed in my absence. For example, Nancy Pelosi is just as full of shit as she was in 2006. Being the ranking democrat on the intelligence committee c. 2002 she attended a briefing on, yes, torture. Having since been called out on this, of course, she’s screaming that she was misled.
I could address this with a series of points but why? Ultimately it boils down to

“We were told that they had legal opinions that it was legal and were not told about other legal opinions to the contrary,” Pelosi said of the briefings

Ah, so it was LEGAL? Right-o. Because a fucking congressperson is just going to, you know, take the CIAs word for it that something like this is of course legal.
But more to the point – who gives a set of dingos kidneys if it’s legal or not? I’d at this point like to lump the current ‘debate’ about whether or not it was effective into the same pot – Torture is wrong regardless of whether or not it’s legal or if it gives intel. Period. End of discussion.

Nancy Pelosi has, of course, felt the need to pull on the asskicking handle in my absence – because hey, it’s not her fault, she was misled. I’d like to instigate at this point a policy whereby public officials get thrown out onto the street without pay or benefit whenever they site how something could not possible be their fault. Dodging out of your own responsibilities stops being a life skill when you gain high office. Unless you are a teenager or a gothy emo fry cook at Dennys in your twenties with no life ambitions, I don’t want to hear that shit.

In related news, it’s apparently perfectly okay for the Obama administration to just refuse to disclose further details and information about “prisoner abuse” (TORTURE) and sweep it under the rug.
And, more infuriatingly, watch the democrat lapdogs who voted for this guy stammer and mumble trying to justify how The One is incapable of error. (What, he’s the Obama 9000? I don’t think so.) The “Left”s precious Obama is now actively dodging the ACLU. Why? Ah yes, to protect Dick Cheney and his cronies. Why? (Again, I gotta wonder what Dick has on Obama….)

Okay, so the photos would provide incontrovertible proof that these things not only happened at Abu Grahib but also happened at GitMo, and happen in Afghanistan. Nice.
See, to release these photos – it would stir anti-American feeling and endanger the troops. His words. Look, the only anti-American feeling it’s going to generate is amongst AMERICANS. Rightfully so. And how will it endanger the troops exactly?
Jesus Christ Mister President, why don’t you just ask us why we hate freedom you jackass.
What else can I add to that?