What anti-incumbent fever?

Last night, Rachel Maddow talked about the anti-incumbency wave that's "sweeping across America." She listed all incumbents from Congress (the House and the Senate) who have won vs. those who have lost so far in the primaries. Out of 324 races this year, only 7 incumbents have lost. That's an anti-incumbent "sweep" of just over 2%. So that is a 98% re-election rate! The old Cold War Communist Politburo (which we in the the good ol' U.S. of A. thought the "elections" there were obviously rigged) should have been so lucky.

I like her examples of how the press is trying to make this an anti-incumbent year,

Check out this contortion in today‘s “Washington Post” in an article about tomorrow‘s primaries. Quote - see if you can follow this, “The contests offer more evidence that establishment candidates can prosper in this year of the outsider.”

Translation, we‘re still calling it the year of the outsider no matter how many outsiders lose, no matter how many insiders win. We like this story too much to change the headline.

This was another one, another really good one. This was from the Associated Press last week before Washington State‘s primary. Here‘s the quote, “Fighting off anti-incumbent fervor, President Obama is rallying Tuesday for Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.”

And then, after Sen. Murray won that primary, there was this from the “Seattle Times,” quote, “The primary results in both the Senate and Congressional races showed a few signs of the sweeping anti-incumbent sentiment seen in some other states.”

Though, like she said, when you view Fox News (or any other cable news outlet) tomorrow, watch how they will say something like, "John McCain (or any incumbent who wins) beats the national anti-incumbent movement" or some such. Maddow calls it (The national anti-incumbent movement, that is) the "story that won't go away"...

What's amazing is that this Congress has had one of the lowest approval ratings in history. Here's what that says to me. An American thinks that the House of Representatives and the Senate suck big time and are a bunch of egomaniacs who care nothing for the people and everything for the rich and powerful, but not MY Representative nor MY Senators! And the pundits keep saying the people are smart...

Musings for a Monday

1. This is absolutely ridiculous. Our privacy is being ground down to nothing. I mean when Disney does it...is nothing sacred?:

Disney spied on surfing habits

Hopefully, we can come up with a method for deleting "flash cookies" easily.

2. So eight of 15 case have been rejected by the courts due to faulty interrogation evidence. Let alone "coercion-tainted evidence is one obstacle" that the prosecutors are having trouble getting around:

Judges reject interrogation evidence

I still say that the attack on the twin towers should have been handled as a criminal enterprise, not as a "War on Terrorism."

3. Let's see...so now we have a figure of an estimate of 1,366,350 Iraqi deaths on our hands, not to mention an "official count" of 4,732 American deaths in Iraq and 1,999 American deaths in Afghanistan. Terrific...:

Iraqi and Afghanistan death counts



When will the people in the U.S. get it? These wars are purely for profiteering.

What two parties?

Let's face it. Obama and his crew cater to the moneyed power players and that's it. Period. He caved to the Health Insurance Industry (no public option AFTER he dismissed single-payer outright), is balking at having Elizabeth Warren be appointed to the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection agency (he could have appointed her immediately upon the creation of the agency or he could now appoint her while Congress is not in session) and now he won't even comment on the Google/Verizon agreement that's in the wings.

He talked the talk during the campaign for presidency,

"The most important thing we can probably do is to preserve the diversity that's emerging through the Internet...something called net neutrality," he declared in April 2008. "I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality."

but he certainly doesn't walk the walk. Even his Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, is crabbing at the "Professional Left" as he puts it. Gibbs is not even taking back his words. Instead, he uses the lame word "inartful" to describe his comments.

I've written about it before, but the two parties in power are cut from the same cloth. The only difference I see is if the Republicans were in power we would be symbolically hanged immediately by being dropped through the scaffold and snapping our necks. With the Democrats it's more of a case of slow strangulation (the boiling frog analogy). Either way, those of us who are not very rich and powerful are dead.

Lack of education a good thing to the "bubble-heads"

I saw on MSNBC this morning ("The Daily Rundown") a graphic indicating that 40 years ago, the U.S.was number one out of thirty countries in high school graduates. Now it is twenty-first. I'm not surprised.

I'm also sure that those within the power bubble (and I include the Washington Elite, Wall Street and the Military/Industrial Complex among others) are very pleased regarding that statistic.

Why, you ask?

Because the last thing the "bubble-heads" want is to have an educated and informed public paying attention to what they do. Plus, it is much easier to manipulate the uneducated and uninformed. The fear factor that is constantly used to garner support for causes that are detrimental to the public at large is much easier to sell.

Of course, this is a secret delight. The "bubble-heads" will never admit such feelings. Instead, they will dry-wash their hands lamenting the sad statistic whenever asked about it in public and vow to strive to improve our education system. I'm just sayin'...

Freedom of religion is sacrosanct

I just want to add my thoughts about the mosque that's been approved for being build near Ground Zero.

I know many more eloquent than I can say it better, but I want to be another voice in the blogosphere decrying those who would deny equal rights of a religious entity.

I want to say up front that I am not a religious person. I hold no affiliation to any religious group. I personally think that organized religion is ridiculous.

However, I do feel that if one can find peace and happiness through religion or faith (organized or not), great! I wish them the best and hope they have happy lives.

We are a country that has always maintained freedom of religion. There is no reason to slam a religion because some of its extremist followers committed a crime on U.S. soil.

Muslims died in the Towers as well as those of other faiths. I believe we cannot in good conscience deny the right of a religion to erect a place of worship wherever it is legally allowed. If we did, who would be next? It's a slippery slope to start denying a group the same rights as other similar groups. What if the next criminal catastrophe involves another extremist religious group from another faith? Do we start denying them as well?

One of the main reasons our forefathers came here was to escape religious persecution in the Old World. We should maintain that ethic today.