Mother Nature Attacks Nuclear Energy

It looks like Gaia has take a strong dislike to nuclear energy.

• The latest from the Fukushima nuclear plant that was shattered by the earthquake/tsunami in March is that locals (40 km distant) are now pissing radioactive urine.
• The Missouri River is flooding nuclear power plants in Nebraska.
• The largest wildfire in New Mexico history has been threatening the nuclear test facility at Los Alamos, specifically the 30,000 drums of plutonium waste stored there, above ground, covered by a nice, flammable canvas tarp.
• In Scotland, a nuclear power plant has been shut down because the cooling system has been clogged by jellyfish suicide attacks.

Okay, I get it lady. Stop messing with nuclear stuff before you send in Godzilla.

The Gaza Flotilla & Exodus 1947

Just like the Gaza Wall reminds me of the wall built around the Warsaw Ghetto, the Gaza Flotillas remind me of the story of the boat called Exodus.

Just like the Gaza Flotilla, the Exodus was an illegal attempt to run a blockade of the eastern Mediterranean coast.

Both were humanitarian efforts. In 1947, Holocaust survivors were seeking a homeland in Palestine. Today the effort is to get food and building materials into the Gaza Strip.

The British and Israelis saw the boats as a threat to the peace of land they didn't own but did control. Both were kinda right. The British knew that Jewish immigration into the Palestine Mandate would upset the delicate balance between Arabs and Jews as well as provide more soldiers for the Jewish resistance movement in Palestine. Israel knows today that food for the children of Gaza can also feed fighters and material to repair and build homes can also be used to construct defensive bunkers.

Both Israel and Britain used violent military force to stop the ships because, for both the British then and Israelis now, they fear the consequences of humanitarianism far more than they are concerned by genuine human suffering.

King David Hotel Bombing

While reading about the Taliban attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel I couldn't help thinking about the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem 65 years ago next month.

The King David Hotel (KDH) bombing was the work of the Irgun, a Jewish terrorist organization operating in the Palestine British Mandate. One of the Irgun's leaders was the future Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. There is a world of difference between the two attacks.

• The KDH bombing was a more efficient attack, killing 91, than the Kabul attack which appears to have killed six.
• It was not a suicide attack, the Irgun planted its bomb in the basement and left.
• The Irgun did attempt to minimize deaths by calling in three bomb threats, all where ignored. The Taliban gave no warning.
• The bombing was a specific attack against the British authority whose headquarters were in the hotel and the bomb was sited to do the most damage to the British wing of the hotel. The Kabul attack appears mostly random.

The Irgun blamed the British for the high casualty count because of the ignored warnings. However, Irgun Radio announced that while it would mourn the Jewish deaths it would not mourn British victims. The British blamed all Jewish independence organizations.

[We were] facing a cruel, fanatical and cunning enemy, and there was no way of knowing who was friend and who foe. ~ Gen. Bernard Montgomery speaking of the Jewish people

Still, both attacks gain points for audacity and as a sign that there is no place for occupation forces to feel safe.

We Make Tough Soldiers

The history of warfare is replete with soldiers who excelled in extreme weather.

There was Rommel's Afrika Korps versus the British Desert Rats. They fought back and forth across the Sahara for two years in blazing heat and brutal sand storms.

Finnish ski troopers fought off a Soviet invasion during the winter of 1939-40 in temperatures below -40 degrees. It was only with the spring thaw that the outnumbered Finns had to sue for peace.

Then there are the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are spending over $20 billion on air conditioning. Per year. For perspective, that is more than the gross national product of Afghanistan. We could buy the whole freaking country for what it is costing to keep our soldiers comfy.

Captain Obvious Answers

• Does Clarence Thomas have a huge ethics problem? Yep. 
• Is he going to do jack shit about it? Duh, no! 
• Is the Pope Catholic? Yep. 
• Is the Supreme Court Catholic? By a 6-3 vote, yes!
• When was the last time the US declared war? December 8, 1941. 
• When was the last time any country declared war? As best as Captain Obvious knows, August 9, 1945 when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan is the last time any nation anywhere in the world declared war. Every war after than has be undeclared. 
• How many wars is that? Captain Obvious can't count that high.

Final Question: Can Captain Obvious solve the federal debt crisis?

Of course. The United States could eliminate one-third of the national debt overnight by zeroing out the money the federal government has borrowed from itself.

Epistemophobia in Politics

"Should evolution be taught in schools?" was a question asked of Miss USA contestants. Many thought not. Republican candidates Bachmann, Pawlenty, Ron Paul, and Santorum believe in creationism over evolution. Rick Perry has loaded the Texas Board of Education with Young Earth creationists.

Mitt Romney, as is his wont, has taken all sides of the question. He strongly believes in creationism and he also claims that God created evolution. Sarah Palin is a Young Earther who thinks man and dinosaurs coexisted.

I, for one, believe that the theory of gravity is just a theory. If there is such a thing as gravity, how do you explain butterflies? I believe that Intelligent Falling should be taught in schools equally with gravity. Let the students decide which to believe in.

Epistemophobia, by the way, is the fear of knowledge.

Afghanistan

President Obama's Afghanistan speech was both underwhelming and totally expected. Here are a few little truths about America's Afghan war.

• A ten percent reduction in troop levels is insignificant. We'll still have 90,000 soldiers in country.
• The 33,000 soldier withdrawal promised by September, 2012 is nothing new, it is what he promised in 2009 when he "surged" 33,000 troops into Afghanistan.
• Which is just going back to where things were when George Bush Jr. left office.
• If it ever happens.
• The promise to "change [the mission] from combat to support" by 2014 is a meaningless distinction because...
• There will still be over 60,000 soldiers in Afghanistan which is a significant occupation force.

The reason for this speech was to set this very modest draw down in stone because the Pentagon has been resisting removing so much as a single soldier from Afghanistan. The attempt is to shift focus to 2014 (this link is a very good analysis) much like a magician creates an illusion by distraction. The year 2014 is far enough in the future, and beyond the next election cycle, that no one will remember then what was said today.

The final truth is that neither political nor military leaders can envision any way to gracefully extract from Afghanistan. We are stuck in a war that will be measured in decades instead of years.

Stories from the American Police State

Angelic Vision Is Probable Cause

I'd believe her.

In Texas (Where else?) a judge granted a search warrant solely on the word of a woman who claimed that "32 angels" had told her there was a mass grave of murdered children at a specific house. The police scoured the home and found exactly nothing. The woman was up front telling the police that her information came from her angels yet, somehow, she is facing charges for filing a false police report. The problem here is the unnamed judge who thought angels were reliable witnesses.

Share a Bagel, Go to Jail
In Florida people are being arrested for feeding homeless folk in a city park. Apparently in Orlando it is illegal to feed humans, but not pigeons, in parks. I'm guessing here, but I suspect it would have been legal if the people had thrown bread on the grass and forced the homeless to scramble for the food. The law has a problem with treating homeless folk with dignity and respect.

Jury Circus

I've got jury duty next week which mean I will possibly go through the circus that is modern voir dire. Originally, jury selection was a simple process gathering twelve people who had no vested interest in the case to use their collected common sense to judge the facts of a case. Now, "attorneys select jurors who they will be able to persuade, not jurors who will be 'fair and impartial' to both sides" (Source). This has led to the bizarre situation where jury selection is considered more important than the actual facts of a case.

The last time I was in a jury pool both attorneys pitched hypothetical cases at the potential jurors asking them to judge guilt or innocence in these hypothetical cases and, by clear inference, in the case before us that we had not heard a shred of evidence on yet. I refused to play, saying that I would have to stay impartial and hear all the evidence before I would feel comfortable reaching a conclusion. The prosecutor threw me out of the pool.

NATO and Libya

The NATO treaty is a mutual defense treaty.

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all... ~ NATO treaty, Article 5

The NATO war in Afghanistan, however badly it has been run, can be justified as a defensive response to the 9-11 attacks by the al Qaeda/Taliban alliance upon the United States. Libya is different.

There was no attack against any of the 28 member countries. Libya isn't even in Europe. NATO claims it is acting to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1973, specifically clause 4 "protecting civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack." However, even NATO does not try to justify their actions within the wording of the NATO charter. So while individual nations may choose to attack Libya and even use the NATO command structure to coordinate those attacks there is absolutely no treaty obligation requiring participation.

Which leads us to the War Powers Act. The United States is under no legal treaty obligation to assist NATO in the Libyan Adventure. Under the War Powers Act the US can provide munitions, logistical, and intelligence assistance under Presidential discretion without permission of Congress. But, American combat operations over Libya, including armed drones, constitutes acts of war requiring Congressional approval.

Continuing those operations into today without Congressional action violates United States law. Period. And, yes, that is an impeachable offense.

Greece and Libya

Lest we forget, all the rioting and economic distress in Greece began when Goldman Sachs committed its creative talents to managing the Greek public debt. Goldman profited mightily, Greece plunged into serial default, and the Greek people continue to be screwed like the only goat at a hillbilly convention.

Today is when America is legally required to either disengage from the Libyan Adventure or receive an approving vote from the US Congress. Neither will happen. I'm actually blaming Congress more here than President Bush Obama. Of course Bush Obama would rather just barge ahead without asking permission. But there is nothing in the Constitution that says Congress isn't allowed to pipe in on its own on little matters like declaring (or not declaring) war.

Obama's Lawyers

There are two kinds of lawyers in Washington DC. The careerists come with the bureaucracy. Their legal opinions are based on twenty years of interpreting the law and Constitution for numerous presidents. Then there are the political hacks who come to town to serve one specific president and leave when he does.

Neither is the brightest tool in the shed, the good lawyers are making millions in the private sector. The careerists are civil servants, can't be fired on a whim, and do a pretty good job at telling the truth without fear or favor. The hacks are political appointees and can be canned because the president's hemorrhoids are acting up. Their best skill is eating toads and contorting the law to fit what the president wants to hear.

White House Counsel Robert Bauer

The careerists work at their jobs and retire to a moderate government pension. The hacks generally go to academia where they hide their legal ineptitude by surrounding themselves with snot-nosed law students. A notorious example is John Yoo.

All this is the long way to explain how it is that, while all the experienced career lawyers advised President Obama that the War Powers Act applied to the Libyan Adventure, the President was still able to find a handful of lawyers willing to tell him that firing missiles from drones in support of one side of a civil war is in no way a "hostile" act.

There was no "robust process" nor "healthy" disagreement. The careerists interpreted the law in a straightforward manner while the hacks twisted the facts into a surreal art form. President Obama preferred the warped view to reality.

Art is Salvador Dali's "Visage of War."

Short Takes

Is Romney Unemployed?
In short, bullshit! He is the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation formed to market his sorry ass to the American people. He is a product that is less useful than toothpaste and more disgusting than the Magic Poop Collector. While he doesn't draw a salary he is royally compensated. He doesn't pay for his travel, hotels, food, or clothing. Even his expensive hair stylist, with never a strand out of place and just the right touch of grey, is paid by the campaign. It's a golden gig.

Pawlenty and Romney
There is a word for Tim Pawlenty - snivler. Although, pussy also applies. Here is a man (I use the word loosely) who is all brave words when his opponent is 1,000 miles away. Put them in the same room and Pawlenty is cowering in the corner pissing himself.

Weiner Lessons
Never post anything on Twitter or Facebook you would be embarrassed seeing posted on the supermarket bulletin board. Same goes for e-mail. Also, it's probably a good idea to never count on porn actresses to be discrete.

California's Budget Farce
California has this new law where state legislators don't get paid if they fail to pass a budget on time. So they passed a budget which the governor promptly vetoed. Now the legislators can get paid and everybody gets to fart around for months like usual.

Libya and the War Powers Act

President Obama says it does not apply.

In the absence of a declaration of war, in any case in which United States Armed Forces are introduced—

(1) into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances;

(2) into the territory, airspace or waters of a foreign nation, while equipped for combat, except for deployments which relate solely to supply, replacement, repair, or training of such forces. ~ US Code Title 50, Chapter 33,  Section 1543

Dropping bombs with the intention destroying military assets as we side with the rebels in a civil war qualifies as hostilities by any definition. Troops do not need to be on the ground. Sending armed drones fits the wording of the law.

A Joint Resolution should have been introduced authorizing the Libyan intervention in April. By law, unless Congress authorizes continuing action military action must cease on June 19. There is no wiggle room here. If US military action over Libyan airspace continues after that date President Obama is in violation of the law and the Constitution.

Yes, I was willing to support the Libyan rebels and still do. But only under the rule of law and if the President cannot make his case to Congress and/or the American people (and up to now he hasn't bothered) then we need to quit the conflict. Now!

Worship Ceiling Cat

Ceiling Cat iz mai sheprd (which is funni if u knowz teh joek about herdin catz LOL.)
He givz me evrithin I need. ~ Psalm 23, LOLCat Bible

I'm lazy today and don't want to think so here is the Bible, the whole freaking Bible, translated into Cat. I mean even the boring parts of Deuteronomy. I've wasted my life on some shit in my time but this is just weird.

I know the Bible is being translated into Klingon. That makes a little sense because you never know when we may need to proselytize them. But they are no where near finished yet.

I will continue to worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster when I'm not praying to the demon spawn of Goldman Sachs.

Stanley Cup

Game seven is tonight. The winner gets the glory of busting a 40-year drought, the losers get absolutely nothing to salve the horrible bruising they've taken in this series.

Lord Stanley
Freddy to his friends. The 16th Earl of Derby to his toadies. Governor General of Canada for five years late in Queen Victoria's reign.

The Cup
The original cup was a sterling silver candy dish that Lord Stanley bought for $50 because his kids loved this silly little Canadian game played on ice. The original cup is locked away in the Hockey Hall of Fame like some religious icon and has not seen actual ice for 42 years.

The Teams
The Boston Bruins are one of the Original Six NHL teams. The first NHL team to use a Zamboni. The doormat of the league during those early years, they had only four winning seasons from 1947-1967. Their best player in history was Bobby Orr. Last won the Cup in 1972.

The Vancouver Canucks entered the NHL in 1970. The last Canadian team in the finals was Ottawa in 2007, the last to win the cup was Montreal in 1993. Their best player was....That's a toughie. Mark Messier played for them when he was well past his prime. Probably their best player was Markus Naslund.

What's a Canuck?

A Canuck is a Canadian in the same way a Hoosier is an Indianan. To English speakers from Toronto a Canuck used to be a French Canadian backwoodsman who knew more about skinning a beaver than wearing a beaver hat. In time all Canadians took on the word as a badge of honor. During World War II the Canadian equivalent to Captain America was Johnny Canuck.

By the by, Vancouver is the better team but Boston will win tonight on the skates of goalie Tim Thomas.

Post Debate Analysis

It's way easier if you don't waste an evening watching it. Just read a bit and you can get the flavor of the evening.

Leno or Conan? ~ Actual question asked of Mitt Romney

1. The quality of the questions asked by the professional TV journalists is getting dumber.
2. Tim Pawlenty is a timid little mouse who ran from the fight. 
3. CNN is to news what Marvel Comics is to literature - all flash, no substance.
4. Bachmann won the debate while Romney was first among the sane people on the stage.
5. Anyone who watched the debate missed a good hockey game.

Presidential Debate Season

Damn! Another year of presidential debates have started. As they are now run these debates are a combination of serial press conferences, circus clown car, and the gang rape of democracy.

The Moderators
Four years ago I criticized the "professional journalist" moderators as stupid fucks who dumb down an already dumb process.

Do you prefer diamonds or pearls? ~ an actual question asked of Hillary Clinton in a 2007 debate

It wouldn't be so bad if the "journalists" weren't bigger egocentric pricks than the candidates. The questions vacillate between  predictable pablum (How would you fix the economy?) and the totally vacuous surprises (What Sarah Palin calls "gotcha questions").

The Crowd
In a debate where over a half-dozen clowns are fighting for attention the biggest Bozo is the one who will get noticed, like Jimmy McMillan and the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. Figure Herm Cain beating out Backmann for the red nose award. Seven candidates, plus moderators who love the sound of their own voices, plus commercials and each candidate will get something like eight minutes to speak during the two-hour debate.

A Better Way
The link above was my suggestion four years ago. It still stands. Let the candidates choose the topics. Have a limited number of topics, like four, during a two-hour debate and announce the topics beforehand. Allow the candidates to respectfully question each other. And when we get to the two and three candidate debates nothing beats the traditional Lincoln-Douglas format.

I'm not delusional, things will never change. The news organizations like the current system because it showcases their celebrity talking heads. The candidates like it because it is a beauty contest that puts superficiality (which they are good at) above substance (which they generally suck at).

They could at least add swimwear.

Westward Ho!

Bored with politics (and trying to avoid wiener jokes) so let's dive into history.

Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country. ~ Horace Greeley, 1865

Oregon Trail

The first cross country mass transit system was foot and wagon. More than 50,000 pioneers trekked west on the Oregon Trail from Missouri to the Pacific coast. The more wealthy could afford to stock their adventure with wagon and oxen (pulling wagons with horses was extravagant), figure a minimum of $600 ($15,500 in 2010 dollars).  Others traveled the 2,000 miles pulling handcarts. The Mormon Trail to Salt Lake and Southern California and the California Trail to Sacramento were branches of the Oregon Trail.

Union Pacific Railroad

The first transcontinental railroad was the linking of the Central and Union Pacific lines at Promontory Summit Utah  in 1869. The construction route east to west mostly used Irish labor; the west to east route used Chinese workers. Like today's economy, the government paid private companies to build the rail lines and corruption was rife. Some of the great Robber Barons, like Leland Sanford, grew rich scamming the government. It cost $97.50 in coin or $130 in paper money to travel first class from Chicago to Sacramento in 1869.

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe

Included entirely because they had the coolest engine design in American history. In the first half of the 20th century, this was the way west. An Academy Award winning song was written about it. It was the inspiration for Ayn Rand's opus to boredom, Atlas Shrugged. For the better part of the 20th century the AT&SF was the ultimate in luxury travel.

Route 66

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six. ~ Route 66 by Bobby Troupe

A classic song, a classic road, and a classic TV show. Something vibrant was lost by America when highways that traveled through towns and cities were replaced by soulless interstates that passed them by. From Michigan Ave. in Chicago to Santa Monica Blvd. in LA, Route 66 brought people into the center of life in western America. Then there were the motels. Unique, even quirky.

What kid wouldn't thrill to stay at the Wigwam Motel in San Bernadino.

Interstates 10 and 80

With interstates, you can drive from Teaneck to San Francisco (I-80) or from Jacksonville to Santa Monica (I-10) without ever having to interact with any of your fellow citizens. Something lost.

DC-2

Of course, you can still fly and run the risk of way too much interaction with your overly friendly TSA agent.

Gingrich's Cruise

The Seabourn Odyssey must be sinking because the rats (aka Gingrich's senior campaign staff) have jumped ship and are frantically rowing to safe harbors. It takes a lot of fail for your entire staff to flee the campaign just four weeks after starting.

Killing Social Security

And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this fucking place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. ~ George Carlin

Six months ago when a "temporary" cut in the Social Security payroll tax was being chatted up I predicted that Republicans would use it as the camel's nose in the tent to cut business contributions to Social Security as well and that would be the death knell for the program.

I was too hard on Republicans. Sure, Republicans wanted to do this, they were just smart enough to know it had zero chance of popular approval. It's President Obama and Democrats offering the sacrifice. Obama is even deluding himself into believing it's his idea. It's death by a thousand cuts. If the President has his way he will be responsible for the collapse of Social Security and, oddly, become a hero to the Tea Party movement.

Barak Obama, the Great Compromiser. He'll compromise his principles and he'll compromise his compromises.

Just Another Wildfire

It's not that I don't sympathize with Arizona. I do. Wildfires this massive are a genuine hell on earth. It's just that I've lived through worse.

Arizona
Arizona's Wallow Fire has burned over 311,000 acres, destroyed 10 buildings, and as far as I can tell, killed no one. Their Horseshoe Two Fire had burned 104,000 acres and six buildings. Then there is the relatively tiny Murphy Fire, only 50,000 acres.

Arizona's Wallow Fire

Arizona also saw the Rodeo-Chediski Fire in 2002 burn 732 square miles.

California
In 2003, the Cedar Fire burned 273,000 acres through suburban San Diego. Thirteen people died, 2,232 home and 588 other buildings were destroyed as the wildfire burned Tierrasanta, Scripps Ranch, Poway, Alpine, Julian, and points in between. I remember the smoke being so thick you could look at the sun directly, at noon, without any protection, and see sunspots.

Two other fires raged at the same time (the Paradise and Otay Fires) that killed two and burned 222 homes. San Diego had huge firestorms in 2005 and 2007 as well. The summer of 2008 saw thousands of fires raging the length and breadth of California burning 1.5 million acres (2400 square miles), an area the size of the state of Delaware. There was a number of other fires in November of 2008. Add in the Station Fire north of Los Angeles in 2009 (160,000 acres).

Elsewhere in the US
Oregon had the Biscuit Fire in 2002 burn a half-million acres. Alaska had over 6.6 million acres (the size of Massachusetts) in 2004. Georgia/Florida had the Bugaboo Fire in 2007 total over 660,000 acres and be the largest wildfire in both state's histories. Utah, also 2007, had  their largest historic wildfire - Milford Flats Fire 360,000 acres.

And the World
Greece, in 2007 and again 2009, had massive wildfires rage across their small country. In Russia in 2010, fires burned large areas of the country. A killer heatwave in Russia has been blamed.

Russian forest fire, Aug. 2010

Australia seems to have annual bushfires that get worse and worse every year. In 2009 bushfires burns 1.1 million acres and killed 173 people. Bolivia, in 2010, had 25,000 fires swept across their country burning over 3.7 million acres (the size of Connecticut).

The point of this long rendition is that these many, growing wildfires are a natural effect of global climate change. They are really nothing special or newsworthy anymore. Like hurricanes in Florida and killer tornadoes in Kansas, fire is just another consequence of humanity being careless twits poisoning our only planet. Either choose to do something about it or stop whining.

Palin as Religion

We live our life in our own way,
Never really listened to what they say,
The kind of faith that doesn't fade away
We are the true believers ~ Bouncing Souls, "True Believers"

There is a little bit more to the Sarah Palin/Paul Revere story. When it was revealed that Palin, yet again, had failed an American history pop quiz, her faithful began an amazing effort to rewrite history. The last few days has seen a flurry of activity by Palinites to change the Paul Revere entry to Wikipedia to make it agree with Palin, going so far as to cite Palin's ramblings as a source.

This goes beyond anything political. It's really more of a Popish thing, that by the mere fact that she is Palin, she is incapable of human error. It's funny, sad, and more than a little terrifying.

Palin, Revere, and Truth

it cannot hope to be useful or informative on all matters, it does at least make the reassuring claim, that where it is inaccurate it is at least definitively inaccurate. In cases of major discrepancy it's always reality that's got it wrong. ~ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

You've got to respect Sarah Palin's self-confidence. She knows that if there is a conflict between history and what she believes, it is history that's got it wrong.

According to Palin, in 1775 Paul Revere rode through the Boston countryside ringing bells and shooting guns to warn the British not to try to take to take American guns.

According to history, Paul Revere was tasked with warning Sam Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them and on the way he stopped to knock on doors and rouse the Sons of Liberty militia to action. Revere encountered the British at one point but outran them and escaped without shouting a single warning.

After warning Adams and Hancock, Revere and two others continued riding on arousing the militia. On this ride Revere was captured by British troops. While a pistol was being held to his head, Revere confessed his actions and told the British that the militia had been warned of their movement and would be ready to fight.

After holding Revere for a while they took his horse and left Revere on foot. Revere ran across a pasture and graveyard to again reach the house where Adams and Hancock had been where he helped hide John Hancock's trunk. (Paul Revere's own account)

Palin continues to insist that her version is more aesthetically pleasing than the historical accounts and, hence, is the more truthy.

It's Where Cockroaches Hide

What part of "under the table" does Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) not understand? She has introduced an amendment to require companies doing business with the federal government to fully disclose all political donations. This would completely disrupt the US corporate environment.

The current business model has companies secretly slipping bribes (campaign support) to congressmen through various PACs. The congressmen pay back these corporations by secretly slipping sweetheart contracts worth billions into legislation. This business compact is consummated when the congressman retires and he is hired back as a lobbyist where he is paid millions of dollars to eat lunch with his old friends on Capitol Hill.

The corporations make fortunes. The congressmen make fortunes. And Medicare is slashed because the country can't afford to help poor old folk when it's main business is making rich people even richer.

Millions and billions of dollars are passed under the table where everything is hidden in shadows and decent people don't want to look because that is where cockroaches are most comfortable.

Then Again, Maybe She Is That Stupid

Sarah Palin, so they say, kicked off her presidential campaign by attending a biker rally.

They are an untapped source of pro-gun voters.

She followed it up with a secret meeting (at a pizza joint) with that political pawnpower-broker, Donald Trump.

They eat pizza with forks. Pretentious much?

While there is talk of a Palin/Trump Dream Ticket (albeit mostly from Democrats) I still think that Caribou Barbie is just an attention whore, like Combover Ken. They were probably discussing a guest appearance on the next season of Celebrity Apprentice.