The Beltway Sewer

More reasons to hate Republicans

2007-07-13T09:24:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah, like I really need another. Actually, it's just another facet of the same ol' bullshit where the rich get richer. It's the shameless way that political appointees have caved into pressure from the NAB and allowed the Copyright Royalty Board to assist Sony, Columbia, EMI, and ilk to suppress competition to it's corporate-controlled outlets like ClearChannel, Bonneville, RadioOne, et. al. from Internet Radio streamcasts. While done in the name of protecting the rights of the performers, I can assuredly state as a member of AFM that the only thing being protected here is the fat heap of money that big business reaps at the hands of the lowly musician.

Speaking of corporate-run America, how 'bout that auction of "public" airwave spectrum that has the FCC has been shepherding? Now that a portion of the juicy TV wavelengths are available, a corporate feeding frenzy has been taking place. Funny that although the nation's first responders have been clamoring for allocation of part of that spectrum for a unified communications system, it seems that DHS is standing silently by on the sidelines while big players and smaller parasites scoop up the goodies. Odd, too, that the winning bids are remarkably low for what represents multi-billion dollar property. Hell, I could have afforded a slice o' the pie, and I'm broke and bankrupt.

By the way, The Washington Post is becoming a terrible newspaper, falling victim to the the WTOP editorial style. Here's an example of shallow journalism with as little fact-finding as possible as it relates to the Internet Radio Mess. I'd sure like to know which Judge dismissed this case. Guess I'll have to go to the WSJ for relevant information, if I can get there before ol' Rupert does. Another BS article from said DC Post about the fire sale at the FCC leaves out the most interesting part, to me, about the whole story. Where is the money going to go?

Alas, we know goddam well where it's going to go.

A Welcome Funeral

2007-06-26T08:56:00.000-05:00

Normally, funerals are not occasions of joy. This stirring article by Annette John-Hall of the PhilInq sheds a spotlight on a joyous interment and a glimmer of hope on a murky horizon. Rest In Peace.

Why I REALLY HATE This Administration

2007-06-20T08:40:00.001-05:00

I've often ranted about the way that farmers and farms have been treated since the coups in 1980. For some reason, Corporate America seems to think that food comes from supermarkets, and that people like eating plants that have been genetically mutated to allow them to be grown in Jablip, harvested early, ripened by chemicals, shipped at leisure, and sold at a huge profit. Don't worry that they taste like cardboard, contain dubious nutritional value, and perhaps will have horrible evolutionary consequences down the line. Dollars now, we always say.

Anyway, this excellent article by Gilbert M. Gaul and Dan Morgan in WaPo sheds light onto the problem at the Federal level. The problem is, this is supposed to shock us. The fact that it doesn't even raise an eyebrow anymore is severely depressing.

A gift that keeps on giving...

2007-06-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

Just thought you'd like to travel back to a simpler time... 35 years ago, today, right here inside the Beltway, this story in the Washington Post newspaper...

Just when you thought a new wind was a-blowin'

2007-06-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

President Rudy. The only question is, "What's his price?". This BBC News article is perhaps a hint.

I might as well do it now...

2007-06-08T09:58:00.000-05:00

The prediction. Before I do, remember that people scoffed, scoffed, mind you, at me when I predicted the Bush presidency, and the Bush re-nonelection. So laugh at me now, my fellow liberal-tarians, as I predict that our January 20, 2009 celebrations will be tempered by the swearing in of President Rudy Guiliani, and Vice President Gee, Fredd, why do you have 2 "d's" in your name Thompson. I'm a lot more sure of this than my prediction that Phil flips Pauly to get to Tony, then leaves him to swing in the wind with the Feds.

Have a really nice day.

Oh, them...

2007-06-04T12:50:00.000-05:00

Excuse me, but remember the cold war? That's right, there was this other "super-power" know as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or some-such. Yeah, them. Reagan took care of all that, remember?

And now that the United Snakes practices Corporate Board Diplomacy exclusively, it seems that ignoring other countries is working out as well now as it did for Louis and Marie in 1789. Mikhail Gorbachev summed it up nicely on a recent Radio Four interview, the gist of which can be seen in this BBC News article. How can it be that an entire administration simply ignores Vladimir Putin's KGB roots, and continues to operate in a vacuum of politically savvy leadership. Why is it that the cavalier attitude that there is no judgement after the Rapture is allowed to foster a policy of widespread corporate theft and plunder of all wealth on the planet? Hey, how's that extradition treaty with Dubai working out?

The unfortunate outcome of all this arrogant cowboy diplomacy is that it will fulfill the accusatory rhetoric of the unscrupulous world "leaders" who will co-opt genuine anger at the good ol' USA for their own despotic purposes. We'll be left behind a technological eight-ball, with an undereducated underclass military, a precarious economy that is largely paper, and a population that is unwilling and unable to defend a way of life that, while deliciously valid, may become irrelevant in yet another new world order.

I'm still fuming

2007-05-31T08:56:00.000-05:00

...over the Imus debacle. One can't seriously argue that the marketplace prevailed, because the numbers for WFAN and MSNBC indicate a downward spiral in the respective ratings. Imus was not the problem, but on a tangential note, Bernie McGuirk needed to be reigned in, and had for some time. I'm a free speech nazi, so I know not to "legislate" taste or morality, but he made me squirm enough to turn the radio dial on more than one occasion. A little management from Imus, who was nominally in charge of the program content, would have made this whole thing unnecessary. I notice that certain people have removed links to The Beltway Sewer from their blogs after I expressed total agreement with Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star over the duplicitous application of Political Correctness vis a vis Imus vs. "Hip-Hop Culture". This brings me to another very excellent article by Thomas Chatterton Williams in the Washington Post about the disintegration of "Black Culture" in America. I grew up a white kid that didn't really see color. I come with the usual cultural and visceral fears to the table, but in general, I try to live my life on an "even playing field". There are aspects of all cultures I like, and I dislike. I have always, in any culture, deplored the glorification of stupidity for it's own sake. I hated it in rock'n'roll, and I hate it in R'n'B. Guess that makes me an intolerant bigot.

Sorry.

About this ''Don't pump gas on May 15th" nonsense...

2007-05-08T19:58:00.000-05:00

Think this through. Read the business news headline of the near future: "Record profits on windfall gas sales day on May 16th".

The price of gas in America is artificially low as it is. Compared to the rest of the world, we pay very little.

Lower petrol prices not only encourage increased consumption, but artificially inflate the reporting of corporate profits vis a vis cost of doing business, perpetuating the inflation of stock prices and the funneling of wealth to the top 1% as it is sucked from the pockets of the poor.

Im no commie, but on this one, Hugo Chavez has it spot on.

Just my 2 cents, or 6 hundredths of a gallons worth.

F

The Reagan Legacy Continues...

2006-08-30T19:34:00.000-05:00

...at an airport in Lexington, KY. Remember PATCO? It was one of the first harbingers of the coups when Ronnie was able to bust the union. Since then, 16 hour shifts, amphetamines, caffeine, and a general mood of "tow the line or else" has been the norm in control towers coast to coast.

Yes, those greedy PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers) unionites wanted a larger piece of a pie that at the time was controlled by tariffs and regulations. I'm sure that the folks pulling the strings on the Puppet President were aware that with deregulation, this vital cog in the infrastructure of air travel would become too big for it's britches, and demand even more of the loot that was soon to be raked in after deregulation.

We won't even begin to discuss physical infrastructure, vis a vis unlit runways at small regional airfields sharing space betwixt commercial jets and itty-bitty lil' single engine yupcrafts. Reminds me of how the bizness community has parked itself on the internet...

So, this 17 year veteran of Air Traffic Control had his back turned as he was doing "administrative duties" (a traffic count... gotta justify that bottom line) that would NEVER have been performed by a professional in a union-defined role. But that can have a deleterious effect on corporate profits (heavens forbid!!!). Instead, we'll just have to settle for the acceptable level of collateral damage: the worst air accident in the US since November 2001, ~~when the Navy accidentally shot down,~~ er, um, sorry, when the AA Jet went down after takeoff from JFK...

Speaking of Hoovers

2006-06-03T17:52:00.000-05:00

On Hoover's watch, of course. What more un-lasting evidence of Republican economic principle do we need than the World War I Veterans' Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

The money for this monument came, not from taxpayers, not from major philanthropists, and certainly not from corporate donors. Oh no, it came from DC School Kids. Dedicated in 1931 by the father of trickle down economics himself, not far from the future site of Hooverville itself, this once proud marble bandstand proclaimed pride and gratitude to the Soldiers of Washington who fought in the first planetary confligration.

To quote Ed Koch, "How're we doin'?". Uh, not so well, as it turns out. Seems since the budgetary slash at Interior under the Administration of the Senile Fool and the Two-Watt Bulb, the Memorial deteriorates. It's now overgrown with weeds and the ubiquitous sumac trees, and has made the preservations society's list of endangered buildings.

Republicans are the ultimate proponents of "throw-away" society. Use it up now. Do it cheaply. Make a buck. Make lots of bucks. The future be damned!

What's the difference between a Hoover and a Harley-Davidson?

2006-06-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

The Hoover has the dirtbag on the inside.

Once again, we of the inner Beltway have been subjected to Rolling Chunder, an invasion of lost souls on two wheels who once stood for something real.

I say once. When they endorsed Bush over Kerry, they lost ALL possible credibility, and btw, they better not have any goddam breaks in their tax status. They are now a political action committee. And who is it that encourages, coddles, and promotes this idiocy every year? Why are they allowed to take the forum of the streets in arrogant and discourteous fashion?

Now they have the unmitigated gall (god, I love that phrase; always have...) to complain, complain mind you, about the state of the Veterans Affairs office, and the loss of personal data through this mysterious (and obviously staged) theft of identity records. "What pension, Mr. Dirtbag?" Yes it's obviously coming to that, but I, as usual, digress.

Today's missed point is that after assisting in the process whereby a suit would be ensconced as the head of the agency by the very president whose candidacy they backed, they get a firsthand look at the philosophical havoc wreaked by "soak up" Reaganomic policy. Rather than an advocate with personal experience who looks out for the interest of the Veteran, we have a business administrator whose mission in life is to protect and defend the bottom line. This situation succinctly illustrates one of the very fundamental differences between a Republican, Corporate driven philosophy and the principles of a democratic leadership.

You goddam dirtbags went along with the swift boat crap because it was redneck chic to do so. You got that goddam moron re-not-elected, and now you have the nerve to complain about Straight-Line Pure Republican policy as it relates to you and your livelihood?

You buy into liberal-bashing like Imelda Marcos at a PayLess Sale. Put a muffler on it, and get out of my town.

Oh, really?

2006-05-23T17:05:00.000-05:00

Let it be noted that at 6:02pm EDT, on the CBS Radio World News Roundup, the presenter used the word "snarfed" in conjunction with a story on internet fraud.

I have mixed feelings. The pedant in me screams for an editor. The old man in me says, well, "You're an old man". The rebel in me looks on gleefully at Oxford dons spinning in their graves.

Sign of the apocalypse?

I reported, you decide...

Charge of the Minute Maids

2006-05-16T18:35:00.000-05:00

Border hysteria has reached fever pitch. Somehow this has become the latest distraction in a series of manufactured crises meted out into the American stream of consciousness. Trouble with said stream is that the constriction of the average mind causes a Venturi effect that seems to sweep reason, judgment, and consideration right down the old poop pipe.

It's become chic to spew invective toward "immigrants", so I'd like to offer my little slogan:

"Hey, Minute Men, if you don't like America, go back to Europe where you came from!!!".

You know, if you're not Cherokee, or Inuit, or Cree, or Ute, or, well, any of the once proud tribes that lived here first, you could do us all a favour by shutting the fuck up about the porosity of the borders. And, by the way, why do you only scream about the one that admits Brown people? Seems we have a vast expanse of uncontrolled territorial buffer up at the 48th parallel, or whatever the hell it is that separates us from our Class-Eh brethren (and sistern, or is that a chapel?).

More to the point is a bit of wisdom from my favourite blogstress, Ms. Adele Stan, who states in her ever so excellent blog:

What with the soldiers, the drones, the satellite cameras, the motion detectors, the biometric devices, your blogstress wonders, are they trying to keep the Mexicans out, or preparing the infrastructure for keeping the rest of us in?

This is actually something we may need to worry about sooner than later. What part of the Constitution of the United States authorized "No Fly" lists?

Of course, what I've been shrieking about too tiresomely for too long is that it's both a frontal assault as well as an attack on the flank. What cannot be achieved overtly is also being slowly, methodically accomplished by means of economic dis-empowerment. Can you really afford to get the hell out if you want to, or need to? Not if your name isn't Lay, or Skilling...

David Lynch said it best, with his superb cartoon "The Angriest Dog in the World":
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr".

Excuse me, but isn't that an elephant in your living room?

2006-04-28T16:57:00.000-05:00

More galling news on the home front. This bulletin just in: Americans are mad as hell about oil prices. Oh dear! Now what ever shall we do? Well, just in the nick o' time, here's Dubya with quick, decisive action. Yeah, right. Well, a few suggestions, anyway.

Let's look at the laundry list, shall we? $100 dollar rebates, more drilling in Alaska (this when the oil industry itself decries that it's not supply, but production capacity that is driving the price at the pump), "investigations" into price gouging, and all sorts of pussy-footing around the one true issue: the re-regulation of industry to protect the American public from itself.

Yes, we're addicted to oil. But how does one dare suggest a "tax holiday" from much needed Federal gasoline taxes from one side of the mouth, and from the other, vehemently reject a windfall profit tax on an industry reporting record profits quarter after quarter? Makes you wonder who's running the show here, dunnit?

Exactly when was it that the bottom line became the driving force in American policy? Oh, right; it was 1980, when the corporate cabal hired an actor to play the part of President, distracting the country as they set about the business of ripping any shred of moral or social responsibility from America's statutory conscience. De-regulation was touted as a windfall for the people. Exactly who "the people" were was not discussed.

And yes, Americans use an absolutely insane amount of petrol, and at a severely unrealistic price. It's a shame that no one cares about the obvious sham that allows Joe Corporate to drive a gas-guzzling SUV, get a tax break for having a vehicle that costs more than a house in 3/4 of the world, AND get to write off the fuel used as a "business" expense. And who orchestrated this? Why, the oil executives who run the country, of course. But never mind that.

The beeg picture being missed here is that American government has totally abdicated it's responsibility to the electorate, and has adopted the values of a corporation. Republicans run around decrying government spending, but spending is exactly what the government is both empowered and required to do. The government is supposed to be the guiding conscience that impels petty, parochial, local interests to pay attention to each other's needs. Roads. Medicine. Food. Housing. Energy. Communication.

Although I personally feel the clock is ticking toward the day in less than 13 years when the Chinese march in and take what they will, by that time, own, lock, stock, and barrel, it still makes me wonder why the American populous is so unbelievably stupid that they allow this process of asset liquidation to continue unfettered. How can it be that a true revolution has not materialized where the corporations are told to stop and government is held accountable to it's citizens for it's actions? Dubai ports deals, Haliburton contracts, ad nauseum, are only the symptomatic tips of a huge iceberg of apathy, despair, greed, and fantasy that have overtaken the American collective psyche and rendered it (according to plan) completely irrelevant and powerless.

Still, the yuppies keep popping out kids, developers keep rizzing down forests and squeezing out farms (farms... oh yeah, where the FOOD comes from!!! Idiots!!!), and the emperor parades around in his birthday suit assuring us that Everything, yes Everything is under control and headed in the right direction. For them, it apparently is.

Bollocks.

Everybody RUN

2006-03-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

Er, uh, we have a bit of a problem...

2006-02-15T18:47:00.000-05:00

Indeed. When the billionty-trillionty dollar windfall goes to (envelope please, *gasp*, *dramatic pause*; "Why, wonder of wonders, the OIL INDUSTRY!"), not a peep, not a stinkin' f*ckin' peep is heard from across the aisle. This is the final straw. No one stands in opposition any longer. The Democrats have not had a clear, straight-talking voice since James Carville, and there's good reason: the Dems haven't a thing to say. What the erstwhile opposition refuses to capitulate to is the need to encapsulate their ideas into nano-sized bytes. A statement like "Democrats raise taxes", regardless of truth or context, resonates in the empty scull of the American electorate. I could go on forever, from "Activist Federal Judges" to "Covert Homosexual Agenda", but I digress, and you, if you're reading this blog, already got the point.

But to illustrate, mostly to myself at this point in time, I just surfed over to both the DNC and RNC web sites. From the right, a large picture of the Missing Village Idiot with the American Flag, a white guy in a suit, and a woman of indeterminable ethnicity, and a large caption reading "Reforming Health Care". For emphasis, in case you don't get it, there is a video monitor behind HR Bushness which displays the message "Reforming Health Care for the 21st Century". Hello. This is your brain with a drill bit in it. Middle America vibrates with resonance.

But from the left, we find a headline in a text box telling us that "Fighting Dems Take The Hill", "Ensuring the Future for the Young" (the obligatory Black History article), and notice that Governor Dean is appearing on Face the Nation. Here's what I glean from this comparison.

The RNC focused on one stupid thing, and hammered it, and it's something that Joe and Jane Sixpack care about. It doesn't matter that the only reforming going on involves funneling copious profits to the Pharmaceutical and Health Maintenance industries, but hey, what the hell, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. (Am I skewing too old here, with 1939 movie references?) The DNC site doesn't blast "Fighting for Soldiers" and hammer it (you had to read the Fighting Dems article, and Messrs Sixpack et. al. don't particularly do that), and the rest is pap. Self serving pap. It's worse than ESPN plugging, well, the shows on ESPN.

Until the un-right side of the political house is willing to get into the trenches and play Spin the Perception with the big guys, nothing gets accomplished. The average American can only concentrate on 2 things per day, and they'd better be bloody simple.

Let's stop here, shall we?

Outrage Outages Reported

2006-02-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

Widespread, I'd say. The silence is deafening. New Orleans is destroyed. Millions of poor African-American citizens are abandoned in an obvious race/class scourge. Issue: forgotten. Hundreds of young Americans are brutally maimed each day in the largest corporate welfare scam in our country's history, and come home to a pat on the back and a wish for good luck from the gub'ment. Issue: ignored. The American Constitution? It went in the shredder after the Enron documents. Issue: dismissed. American citizens have been robbed blind, and all that seems to matter is who's winning the latest American Idol. Where is the opposition party? Frankly, who cares. The Democrats have become completely irrelevant, as have civic responsibility and social awareness. Somehow, those on the left can't seem to shake the image of the pipe-smoking Volvo-driving sycophant who looks on in appreciation at the great social experiment of the lower classes struggling against the corporate oppressors.

Where is MY voice? It's not on Air America. Hell, every single one of their presenters makes me squirm. Even as a life-long Dem, I find that Pat Buchanan and Jack Kemp are easier to listen to than that Clinton woman, or Nancy Pelosi. The opposition seems to half intuitively, half deliberately, position itself unfailingly to be the object of Sunday Morning Scorn, and the punchline for countless tasteless jokes in redneck barrooms across this great land that was once ours.

If it's not Politics as Usual, then how is it that the Republicans are running a successful regime in the fine tradition of Sam Rayburn, Thomas P. O'Niell, and Dan Rostenkowski? They don't even have to have the trash picked up on time. The only rational reason for this happening is ineptitude and apathy on the part of the other side of the aisle.

Or is it deeper? Was there a secret coups that ousted the elected leadership and installed a puppet government in it's place? Oh, that's right, the 2000 election... how could I forget... but I digress.

Have we come to the point in American politics that the next Democratic contender should be chosen on a "Survivor" type of reality show? Is that the only way to get the attention of the public? Can we really believe that Mencken was completely correct in his assessment of the intelligence of the American Public?

Is Joe Biden the closest we can get to Harry Truman?

Time for my prozac...

What's all the hubbub not about?

2006-02-01T20:55:00.000-05:00

Well, look who's posting after a year. It's just that I've become mired in the same apathy that killed the Democratic Party in America. Last night, I went out on the 'net to all the usual and many unusual political sites and blogs expecting a deluge of opinion and reaction to the SOTU address. I waited until la medianoche, EST, figuring it would take a while for the punditry to produce. Nothing. A big, vast, gaping nothing. That's probably the new Republican strategy: numbness. Put them to sleep, they won't notice a thing.

I did not listen to the speech (you in the know will know that I wouldn't watch the damned thing). I was perhaps not alone in being underwhelmed by the prospect of listening to George II prattle on about, well, whatever it is he's on about this year. I'm sure it's staying the good, moral, Christian, righteous course, not backing down to the terrorists, hope and optimism... am I getting this right?... and energy independence from "foriegn oil". Like Texaco.

I even tuned in to the repulsive and dreadful "Air America" network today, hoping for a glimmer in the embers of opposition, but after 8 minutes of meaningless dreck, I tuned back to Jim Rome. It is, after all, Super Bowl week.

I am resigned to life without an opposition party, for at least the next 13 years before and until the Chinese march in and take over. It's just so saddening and maddening that this happened on my watch. Sorry.

Republican Social Security Strategy

2005-02-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

Having read the 103 pages, and taken steps to relieve the headache, I can say this much:

It's painfully obvious that Republican economic analysts are "pained" by this relatively sizeable chunk of the M1 sitting out of reach of the investment community. The rest is just good ol' fashioned "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" effluvia. One-way ticket to Hell, please.