Basil Wire

Monday, July 14, 2008

  • The Cover

    As a twenty + year subscriber to the New Yorker (current through September) I admit to being big time pissed off when I saw the cover on line. If the postal mail runs to postal service history, my hard copy due Tuesday is apt to be non-delivered, as was the Rolling Stone issue endorsing Obama. Strangely enough I always get the NYRB.

    I though the New Yorker cover arresting at best, self-satisfied, if not outright smug ......

    But I do like the fact that this autodidact got pimped all day as being intellectual for simply
    subscribing to the rag in question.

    It's always about me.....

    By the way, I also read, hard copy, The Weekly Standard .... oh the shame, but love the quote attributed to Mike Nichols, who said of Obama's neighborhood, Hyde Park..."Black and white, marching arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder against the poor."

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

  • A New Original Sin

    Go ahead, guys and gals. Push back from the computer and road trip to tip toe through cow pie and talk FISA with farmers. Pack a lunch because you're going to be doing a whole lot of back plotting there on the back forty. Spend some four buck plus gas to get ex-burbed and exhaust the downside of retroactive immunity for telecoms with adult patrons of Chuck-E Cheese. A little well-meaning progressivism with bad pizza is a sure fire way to set right the wrongs of the Bush administration, and hold accountable the likes of Barack Obama for backsliding to the center.

    But in all your travels and tidbit talking, don't dare let anyone in on the dirty little secret. The hush-hush you know. Or should be privy to. That neither Senator, by their actions, or lack thereof, should be elevated to the high office of President of the United States. In fact, but with few exceptions, no current federally elected official, and those who served during the Bush administration in either branch of Congress, should ever be considered for future high office.

    To sum up, the Bush administration legacy is simple enough. How in the hell did they get away with it?

    In your heart, you know they were criminal, corrupt, and contemptuous of the Constitution. From torture, to no-bid contracts, to the negligence of the prosecution of the war on terror, to, OK, pissin' on FISA, there is an avalanche of evidence. So why didn't any impeachment groundbreaking take place?

    Where was the Maverick McCain, a torture victim, who cobbled together legislation to bitch slap Bush, but backed off when the President neutered the effort with a signing statement? Where was Barack, who could have played Mr. Smith, but opted for Mr. Cool, noting the political lay and that change was going to come? Where in the hell was Hillary? And you know why I ask. I suggest there was not one Senator with guts enough to go after Bush's bastardization of American governance. But you know all that.

    In the House (I know, it would all start there), there was Dennis, and subsequently dismissed. But what about Pelosi? Why was remedy removed from the table? You know why. The politics of impeachment trumps even the dirtiest of deeds, and the dumbing-down of political discourse makes policies mere pronouncements; just words without real world consequence.

    Evidence, facts, are just the filigree of hyper-partisanship. The ship-of-state is piloted by spin, rumor and lie, twenty-four hour news cycles, and ever rowdy AM radio. Impeachment is reality-based, or should be; our current political landscape is not. But you know that.

    So all is bad, but yes we can, or maybe not, and change that makes you blink. So we couldn't get Bush, let's beat the crap out of Barack. Let McCain's Attorney General investigate what happened at DOJ. Let Phil Graham supply side the shit out of Treasury. Let Duncan Hunter run the Pentagon, and we can live with another Bork clone on the bench. And what the hell, let's hang in Baghdad for a generation or two, while we're at it smart bomb Tehran.

    So how are you coming with the folks? Those security moms understand FISA yet? Got those dairy farmers up to speed on stare decisis? Got those progressives understanding the process?

    You can't govern if you can't win.

  • fan dance


    it's not how close --
    it's that we dance still
    work with rhythm
    even two-stepping
    when no cake walk

    no need to quickstep
    past the dips
    hip to contra danse
    a part of choreography

    we cancan what we can
    to slam dance what's left
    duet

  • Kerry Me Back


    this is your weapon this is your gun
    this is for killin' this is for fun
    remember....
    brought to you by the letters A and K
    and the numbers four and seven

    for Paul or your ghost of someone
    this is for killin' this is for fun
    dismember
    those left standing to inarticulately
    press pass Janus face camp

    this is the history you keep from your son
    this is for killin' this is for fun
    defender
    damn the after action report
    punctuated unaware of the period

    this is the truth that can't be undone
    this is for killin' this is for fun
    pretender
    when wed to the rules of engagement
    you attend a whole lot of funerals



    You might figure it out here...



Monday, July 07, 2008

  • Almost


    I had cut and paste a political story here. I then had second thoughts. Second thoughts are sad.

    I miss you guys. But politics be politics. And I guess I'm a hack.

    Just talking.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

Monday, June 23, 2008

rip & read

Basilwire

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    • Name: Basilwire
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About Me

  • Just a guy on the wrong side of fifty, I’m semi- retired, pseudo-serious, and sometimes literate. I've been on and off line since the days of DOS based bulletin boards. I suffer the ills of a half century of jump-shots,snapshots, and shots of bourbon.... Basel Hayden ....neat. I’ve been to war and worship and nether came out in the wash. I smoke too much. I pray too little. I write too slow. I music too loud.

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