The Saga of Alaska Cat

Sarah Palin was discussed this morning on TV by Karl Rove and others yet the Bad Poetry muse alit and The Saga of Alaska Cat was written in spite of all their fine punditry.

Can rhyming sagas be brief like thwarted political careers? I think so, especially if they're self-thwarted...meanwhile, back on Earth, pundit Mo Rocca cautions, "Your opinion on the Palin-Letterman feud won't land you a job at McDonald's."

Maybe the following political saga can become part of my Bad Poetry resume if I should need one!


Alaska Cat is out the door
we don't know what she's leaving for
a federal probe? perhaps a scandal
might be just too hot to handle
GOPers if asked why
may voice support when others pry
their real opinions coyly veiled
Alaska Cat has now been nailed.

jc 7.5.09 10:am edt


photo: Zasha unpleased, by Maya at Spring Tree Road

Is a coming Fed indictment why Palin resigned?

It's Independence Day and I'm headed out the door but want to post this link sent me by my friend Alex D'Atria at Modern Astrology (see Astrology links in sidebar) on the story as we know it so far concerning possible federal indictment charges for Palin's squirrely use of Alaska's funds.

Deceptive, fraud-inducing Neptune to her natal Sun and Mars: boundaries have (apparently) been crossed and the feds may be whisking off her Aquarian mask!

If true, it sounds a bit like an alternate reality of what's been going on in the UK government actually - but without the moat.

And do check out interesting readers' comments under the Palin announcement video just below - one has a particularly angry Martian flavor - describing Palin!

Mucho Thanks go to Julie, Donna, Jilly, Clymela, Tango Daddy, and others for keeping an eye on the shenanigans perpetrated here on Stars Over Washington! Jude

Chalmers Johnson: US military bases expand

The Secret Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson is one of my go-to books for inside info on the roots of US imperialism, and July 3, 2009 has brought a report from Mr. Johnson on the escalating costs of new US military bases the number of which is being increased, not decreased, by this Democratic president.

To settle up, state governments in the US are sending out IOUs, many July 4th fireworks displays are cancelled, and the nation is hurting in a thousand ways, but the eagle-soaring imperialists continue to march America on toward perpetual war while charging US taxpayers for war expenses while the power elites pocket the filthy profits.

"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."

Alexis de Tocqueville

Don't look now, Monsieur de Tocqueville, but a political faction in league with the international banking system figured this out decades ago. Or else they've been following your notes and intend to keep the masses enslaved by the chains of perpetual debt.

~:~

Paul Craig Roberts has something to say about Mr. Obama's continuance of Bush's wars, too.

The surrealism of Sarah Palin: the video 7.3.09

Oh yes, today's rambling announcement by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin that she is resigning from her governor's post July 26 and won't run for a second term in 2010 had to be published here so I can be fascinated by it at will. And if my courage holds, I'll be getting all the way through watching it any time now - cringe cringe.

And no, I don't blame David Letterman jokes as some are speculating online!

But yes, a run for president in 2012 may be the ultimate reason, sure, but this is a wacky way to go about it. She does need shiploads of preparation, agreed.

We knew the Neptune transit to her natal Sun and Mars would be trouble, didn't we?

Neptunian confusion and surrealism come through loud and clear to me in her performance today, how about you...any signals from Neptune getting through?

What a toss up for the Political Cringe Awards 2009: Sarah Palin or Mark Sanford? And the year is only half over.

Independence Day 2009 in Washington DC

Here's another in the series of Tom Foreman's Letters to the President, a timely one with a Fourth of July flavor. It concerns independence in the District of Columbia and the Republican v Democrat paradox that makes independence elusive to obtain if not impossible.

Of course, from way down here, it seems all about grasping and retaining power no matter the cost as this mindset on Capitol Hill makes a mockery of the 'independence' and 'freedom' we're supposedly enjoying in this nation. A larger agenda is being followed at the expense of the country's best interests, imho.

I've mentioned here before about a certain junior rep from Georgia who was told early on by party bosses that if he wanted to keep his job, he'd vote how they told him to vote. He did and he did.

But by doing so, he didn't stand up for the people who sent him to DC when he voted the opposite of what he knew the majority of us wanted. So much for representative government. And the trend continues.

It's no small thing that this kind of cynical control over other people's consciences makes Washington's political parties into mobs of thugs who prefer might over right, and as you may know, I have little respect for the majority of them.

So Happy Independence Day indeed. If you can get some.

Former Goldman-Sachs banker new US ambassador to Germany

Lest you think an important post in the Obama administration might have to do without a Goldman-Sachs alumni, former Goldman banker Phil Murphy is soon to be welcomed by Germany as the new US ambassador.

You can go back to your nap now, a Goldman-Sachs rep is in the house. Again.

In fact, if it's true what I've been reading that every financial bubble and collapse since the 1920s has been gamed if not orchestrated by Goldman-Sachs (and the Fed and the World Bank), I'd say that G-S is the house. These manipulators take win-win to the ultimate level.

And speaking of the 2008 presidential campaign, do you remember how Barack Obama's community organizing work was touted as an admirable thing because the brilliantly talented fellow (and he is) could have easily gone right to Wall Street after graduation to roll around and make mega-bucks there instead of working with and for the poorer elements in our society?

Well, apparently he did (or didn't), but he's just doing it from the White House. Yet didn't Goldman-Sachs install their man Barack in the Oval Office to do their bidding?

Ever since BHO appointed Clintonites like Larry Summers and that other guy to be on his 'Economic Team' - and then G-Sachs' Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury - it feels to me as if President Goldman-Sachs, with a current not former, Wall Street address to his credit, has coup'd the Oval Office and now plays the role of US commander-in-thief.

~:~

'Commander-in-thief' is a reference I first heard on a Radiohead album just after Bush first coup'd the White House, and since the (orchestrated) financial collapse of 2008, new levels of meaning accrue to the word, 'thief' in the USA - and it began under Bush.

Washington's Mortgage Reform fizzles like dud sparklers on the 4th of July

And How the American People Can Save Big Money in Washington

When the mortgage and sub-prime fiascoes began to hit the country in 2007 and into 2008, everyone agreed that reform would be on the menu and the sooner the better. The financial collapse which the housing market crash led to with its resulting unemployment, retail slumps, and slowdowns in all sectors of the economy and the life of the nation, made mortgage reform seem a given. Who could argue?

Well, not so fast - it's the US Congress on the case which means there are no guarantees of improvements or of corrections of the fraudulent, America.

Unlike the upcoming Fourth of July fireworks, no-brainer mortgage reform is now said to be fizzling on Capitol Hill and Senator Dodd says they have other things to do. Or did he say 'better' things to do?

Either way, thanks for nuthin' oh elitist ones.

So I've made up a timely yet brief list of To-Dos in case anyone wants the economy to work out better than Congress has planned for us:

Want mortgage reform?

Call your reps and senators on Capitol Hill and tell them what time you and your family of 3/4/5/6+++ will be turning up at their swanky digs for a long stay....just till you "find a place." They don't need kicks in the pants on Capitol Hill, they need moocher roommates and lots of them. Besides, thanks to years of outsourcing US jobs bwo Congress, you're broke because you lost your job, and there are None To Be Had. Except marching in the military or on Capitol Hill, if my further ideas are followed...

Want health care reform from Capitol Hill?

Demand that all House members' insurance companies triple the deductibles on their state-of-the-art insurance policies, and limit the number of surgeries allowed for the next few years; totally exclude cosmetic surgeries and treatments, of course, and forget free meds and exotic cruises. And while you're at it, have the premiums auto-drafted from their paychecks from now on.

Want ethics and accountability to return to our nation's capital?

Then we'll have to kick out 98% of the bums on Capitol Hill, their staffers, aides, and favorite lobbyists - and sign up to serve ourselves, citizens of America!

But Senator Al Franken can stay (until he proves his metal) since he hasn't sat down at the trough just yet. And maybe Dennis Kucinich. I can't decide about him. Ron Paul, maybe. Not sure but probably. And keep a few junior ones who have yet to underwhelm us with their craven truckling to party bosses and poor judgments.

Thing is, since it was Capitol Hill denizens who dumped us into the crises in which we're now stewing (in collusion with their Wall Street buds), what makes them think the nation can afford them with their exalted lifestyles and their expensive ways? If we're looking for places to 'cut back' in the national budget, how about firing every one of the political culprits who helped cause it?

Washington Loves Ceremonies

I have yet to get a cost estimate on enough tar and feathers for the lot of them, but it couldn't be any higher than congressional paychecks, sell-outs, give-aways, and heistings, now could it?

Oh, and again I shall wish you a Happy 233rd birthday, America!

All the gold in Fort Knox may be pilfered away, but you don't look a day past 200. (Botox not covered, as above.)

Creeping round the White House

Wednesday Aternoon Update: found this on Helen Thomas, the repected White House reporter, who voiced her opinion on the White House's set-up questions and 'call-aheads' to alert reporters they'll be asking a question at an Obama presser, or in today's case, at a 'townhall meeting.'

You'll remember Bush's fear of Ms. Thomas who was put in the back row during the Bush-Cheney administration's pressers which often seemed to me to be sneakily embedded with softball questions that were set-up, if not called-ahead.

Above link contains a video of Ms. Thomas' comments which made W-H press secretary Robert Gibbs squirm, along with Chip Reid's complaints. Good.

Original post begins here:

Today NPR is reporting that the Obama administration is making the same argument in court that the Bush-Cheney administration made to keep secret the logs on who visits the White House.

The argument didn't go over well for Bush & Co. so it's a head-scratcher that Team Obama can't come up with a new reason with which to frustrate the American people and their expectation of a much more open government including what's really going on at what's supposedly our White Lodge...er, House.

Putting it down to 'campaign promises are hard to keep' doesn't work for me, does it work for you?

Perhaps they could set up a VIP Back Door For Slick Operators (aka, advisers, consultants, and special interest lobbyists) who come and go freely on the sly with their missions unknown but which have results we-the-people so often end up suffering from and, because of such secrecy, have trouble finding out the true source of our problems (which makes them impossible to repair.)

But let's leave all US sovereignty and Constitution underminers to walk in the Front Door with cameras flashing in their treasonous snoots.

There. I've said it.

Well, I'm still disappointed in the way 'open government' has turned out to be only a campaign promise that sounded at the time too good to be true to my suspicious astrologer's nature - and it was. And it is.