PittsburghThoughts

With patriots like these ...

2008-07-23T14:57:36+02:00

These guys would drag you down into hell rather than admit they are wrong,

John McCain and his handlers, like the peasant's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin's tale of deceit and woe, have been and are busy, night and day, spinning straw into gold, only it's their last straw and fool's gold. You'd have to be a fool to ignore what's actually transpired in favor of McCain's version of an always victorious and just America.

The man, the hand picked Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri-al Maliki, was twice coroneted, once in our minds by the Iraq People and once by President Jalal Talabani.

Former United States Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has stated that Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was also a candidate for Prime Minister of Iraq, was forced to withdraw his nomination for premiership for the permanent government because of accusations of weak leadership from United States President George W. Bush.

Bush, who says, and has said all along, that al-Maliki is our man, now, probably wishes he hadn't and that some secret operative could quickly and quietly put a bullet his head, because ... Maliki agrees with Obama:

In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made international headlines when he endorsed Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months.

But, then, for political reasons, Maliki, through a spokesman, denied he fully agreed with Obama:

On Sunday, however, the U.S. military distributed a vague statement from Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, saying that Maliki’s words had been “misunderstood and mistranslated.” The clarification, however, failed to cite specific examples of errors.

But, lots of buts in this story, huh?

Yesterday, the New York Times casts further doubt on al-Dabbagh’s excuse. The interpreter for the interview worked for Maliki’s office, not Der Spiegel. The Times also double-checked the translation by obtaining an audio recording of Maliki’s interview, which was conducted in Arabic. Directly translated, it reads:

Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq. … Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.

We're gone, gone, gone, solid gone. McCain combats this by making fun of Obama's stance on the surge. He maintains that it's worked but for whatever reason we shouldn't reap the fruits of its success by leaving. In fact, succeeding only makes him want to stay longer and longer. WTF does McCain want?

Bush wants a legacy that doesn't contain the words, "War criminal," and to stay out of jail. That's clear. But McCain???

In this world of faux conservative foregone conclusions gone wild, facts are irrelevant and the irrelevancy is redundantly expressed simply by either ignoring the facts or acting like their non-facts trump everything else. I'd like to slap a whole bunch of these war mongering politicos across their two faces, they are monsters and sociopaths created in the laboratories of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.

It turns out we went to war, just to go to war. Hey, all you dead and maimed motherfuckers, all you mothers and fathers scratching to find gas money, food, housing, health care and a reason to keep trying ... the jokes on you. Gene

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

2008-07-22T21:05:35+02:00

Some pictures to prove we were away! I know how you are! It was in the 90s all weekend, we did a lot, stayed within our budget (sorta) and didn't make a dent on NYC.

Me and my gang

My Gang without me

The Neon Police

Baby Liberty

Ellis Island

Night time street scene

On th boat tour

Waterfall exhibit

The same

An older section of NYC

Neat wall

*Little red lighthouse beneath the George Washington Bridge

**Typhoid Mary's house

At the Sea Side Boardwalk

One kiss my bonny sweetheart!

Mother Gina with the two things she loves; her son and her cigarette

And you know who you are!

*The Little Red Lighthouse stands proudly beneath the George Washington Bridge on the New York shore. She reminds us that all things big or small have a significant place in our world. The children’s book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Big Grey Bridge by Hildegarde Swift taught this lesson well. The Little Red served as a navigational aid before and after the bridge was built.

**Mary Mallon seemed a healthy woman when a health inspector knocked on her door in 1907, yet she was the cause of several typhoid outbreaks. Since Mary was the first "healthy carrier" of typhoid fever in the United States, she did not understand how someone not sick could spread disease -- so she tried to fight back.

After a trial and then a short run from health officials, Mary was recaptured and forced to live in relative seclusion upon North Brother Island off New York.

The new Apple iCar

2008-07-17T18:07:48+02:00

Thanks to Tony White and the great images he posts,

If I can make it there (without running out of gas or having a meltdown) I can make it anywhere

2008-07-17T18:01:07+02:00

Pointer Sisters - I'm So Excited.mp3

The last few days have been hectic, yes, even for me. We're planning to visit our daughter in NJ this weekend. She's 20 minutes by train from NYC so we always take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time sight seeing, in fact, without NYC in the mix, I doubt that we'd visit as frequently (sorry Natalie.)

The expenses will be split between the good, ole credit card, mostly for gas, and the even gooder (sic), older cash. We're planning on taking the Circle Line tour boat around Manhattan Island. Think Gilligan's Island and hum, "A three hour tour ... a three hour tour."

That's Saturday, later, we'll go to the Met if we have any starch left in our jeans. Friday and Saturday they're open late. We've been to the Met several times but I still haven't completely wrapped my mind around it. I mean; the general lay-out, the shape and endless galleries that seem to open up at every turn. (Just one little display case of golden artifacts is all I ask.)

It seems mandatory to go to the beach while we're there and Sunday we will.

Thank God our daughter has excellent navigation skills, she instinctively knows which way to go and always makes the right connection. Natalie, this Bud's for you!

We'll return poorer and richer, images burnt into our minds and pixels. This is it, our big summer trip and it's here. Gene

Images

2008-07-15T12:39:49+02:00

No smoking

2008-07-14T19:02:47+02:00

Card found in second hand store book

Yes, I'd like some cheese with my whine!

2008-07-14T13:45:51+02:00

When someone who's led a charmed life tells me what a whiner I am, I want to spit in their eye. Unfortunately, I'd run out of spit before they'd run out of eyes. George Will is the latest pundit to pounce.

George Will Sticks Up For Gramm: Americans Are ‘The Cry Babies Of The Western World’»

Last week, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic adviser Phil Gramm sparked controversy by stating that the U.S. is in a “mental recession” created by a “nation of whiners.” In response, McCain quickly tried to distance himself from his long-time friend’s remarks.

Today on ABC’s This Week, conservative columnist George Will acknowledged that the economy had slowed tremendously but nevertheless staunchly defended Gramm’s comments. “Phil Gramm was right of course,” Will declared. “Absolutely”:

WILL: On two points. … We’re not in a recession as commonly defined. That is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We may be running there though. Even Bernanke says so.

WILL: We’re not however. Unemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent. His second point that we’re a nation of whiners: we are the crybabies of the western world. In fact, we have an extraordinarily low pain threshold.

The truth is, that without an outlet for complaints or redress of grievances, any dissension begins to resemble a whine to the ones that have stacked the deck against their workforce, their constituency and the great unwashed, in general. Will counts on a technicality to disqualify us from a recession and then decry's our low pain threshold while nodding in approval as his rich friends and functionaries tighten the vise one more turn on our balls.

I suppose Will would be happier and have more respect if we took up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them, end them? Well I would too, but we already did that. I ask the quintessential question; who would Will have sided with 200 plus years ago? The Colonists or the Loyalists? We have an entire government, starting at the very top, comprised of people sharing the same sentiments as the Loyalists.

To them, nothing is messier than having to deal with their nouveau colonies' complaints without resorting to strong arm tactics ... yet. How do you presume to be a democratic society and quash dissent like a bug? Make it seem unmanly to complain ... ?

If Will can find a technicality to release his party from admitting to failed economic policy, shouldn't he be able to torture his intellect and vocabulary skills for a better term than "whiner" and "crybabies of the world?" How about "Patriot?" Gene

My venom flows

2008-07-13T23:06:01+02:00

Hmmm, let's see, what's on the schedule to write about today ... Disgust with the system? Nope, covered that over and over again. Disgust with the candidates, same deal. Self disgust? Naw, too depressing. Malaise? Ennui? Angst? The heartbreak of psoriasis?

How about a human interest story? There once was a guy that had a puppy and....the puppy....died. Shit.

The puppy frolicked and... the guy died. Double shit. The fucking puppy grew up, turned on his master and ate him. There ... End of story.

**************

On another note, I figured out what the conservatives want. They want to be lied to. NO BAD NEWS ABOUT ANYTHING! They want to be told that America is a fine place and just keeps getting better and better. And, it is for them. They don't want equality or fairness, fuck that, you can't be a rich pig if you're going to be fair!

That's why it's so obvious to those of us who aren't sitting around the pool collecting dividend checks, so obvious that the system is rigged. Why do some conservatives even bother giving lip service to the middle classes. When we're called a nation of whiners, that's how they really see us, but their politicians have the dubious distinction of having to pretend they care.

Today, I watched CNN and of course it was an Obama vs McCain discussion. Pro and con, McCain, Obama, we were shown how their economic plans stack up against one another and how their, tax cuts for the wealthy, or their, tax raises on the over 250,000 set, would be a boon. Both spokespersons talked as if it were possible to find some way out of the mess we're in, neither was corrected by Wolf Blitzer. I say corrected because: we will never be out of the woods economically as long as we owe China and the Saudis 1,000,000,000,000.00 (one trillion) dollars.
>

They bought our bonds and now we OWE THEM. They financed our war and now, there's no money, honey! Geez, wouldn't you think they'd understand something as simple as:

Gene owes Zhu Ken Nuo 100 dollars and Gene wins 50 dollars in the lottery, how much does Gene have?

-50.00 dollars that's minus 50 dollars. I have less then zero. because I owe more than I have or am willing to raise by raising taxes, or fees for drilling for oil or minerals rights on public land.

This supply side fairy tale hasn't worked for you and me, but, it has for the ones at the top, and THEY are the only ones that it was ever truly designed to work for. So don't expect them to rip their blinders off anytime soon. You can expect the same lies that they've been shoving down our throat every time we're stupid enough to give them the chance.

Gene, fulminating on your behalf

This old house of ours

2008-07-12T23:06:16+02:00

I'll be! ... Algee!

2008-07-12T06:42:46+02:00

Thanks to daughter, Natalie (and algee)