Dissociative in Chief

I've come to think that someone who continually talks up the need for peace, then goes right ahead with his interminable war plans and actions... well, let me just say I believe Barack Obama is now in a dissociative state. You can't preach peace so frequently, then casually add more names to each week's "Tuesday Morning kill list" without experiencing some level of mental aberration. A disorder that was perhaps already latent, but is now fully blown in his presidential life. Seek professional help, Mr. Obama!

The Medea

Well, it turns out Barack Obama doesn't have the Secret Service keep the door barred against Medea Benjamin's entrance. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise that powerhouse of truth and justice would not have gained admittance to the President's latest press briefing - wherein Obama newly informed us - and I'd be absolutely shocked if he really MEANT it - that the 2001 Authorization Of Force enabling apparently permanent "war on terror" needs to end SOME DAY. And Guantanamo must close. And there needs to be SOME level of restraint on unmanned aerial drone warfare. Wow - many of these are positions President-elect Obama maintained... in 2009! And so, Mr. President... we just need to know now that you are really SINCERE. Oh, shucks, never mind. This must be one of Obama's famous tantalizing, tentative verbalisms, nothing more. Still, three cheers for Medea Benjamin, who helped bring about this wondrous change - temporary, of course, just like all those previous about-faces. At least she got Barack Obama to issue forth some relatively positive, progressive, RHETORIC. I doubt, however, that this will result in serious policy transformation. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/code-pink-activist-medea-benjamin-heckles-obama-195521792.html

"Where's my Meals on Wheels?"

I suppose I've seen everything now! Will Barack Obama actually Roll Over And Die for the likes of John Boner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell? Nothing along those lines would surprise me now, here in post-Sequester Amerika. That terrible Sequester, the one that Obama has notably contributed to, with his ceaseless concessions every time Congressional Repubs roll out their chopping block! Still, what the fork just happened? I admit I took a while off of Farcebook, and was kind of away from the bulk of the digital news. Especially after learning Mark Zuckerberg has a new PAC that supports a bunch of bad things, including the Keystone XL Pipeline. I must be dreaming. I mean, Benghazi? Might as well dredge up Teapot Dome, for all that. Hell, at least THAT was a REAL scandal! And remember, RepublicCONs like Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz were the ones who cut the State Department's security budget! It's all a big set-up, apparently - Obama appears to be some kind of a "plant," a right-wing operative in Dem's clothing called upon to "take a fall." Even Jimmy Carter fought harder to maintain his pathetic sinecure! OK, this is just too disgusting to watch, and I'll shut up, but not before asking: Did you notice how many more grey hairs Obama seems to have got on his somewhat pointy head just within the last few weeks? "DUDE, what happened to my Meals on Wheels!?!"

Wisconsin Gulag revisited

This is one of those subjects that can't help but annoy. What's so particularly frustrating about Wisconsin's exceedingly racist, punitive policies? First of all... it doesn't need to be this way! Any number of possible solutions are being... ignored! Amazingly enough, during the Doyle administration, a few promising reforms were proposed. The tone employed within statistically limited but important governing (Dem) sectors was a good sign: "We can't keep on acting as if we're going to lock up the whole state... can we?" That was just a minor evolution from the bad old days of Republican Tommy Thompson and his 1998 "Truth in Sentencing" Craze. It was gratifying to perceive growing recognition among thoughtful individuals that our draconian law enforcement priorities must be altered. Interesting and persistent fact: When our Gulag is discussed at all, one quickly encounters a widely shared belief that this odious "discrepancy" is ONE nation-wide distiction we should seek immediately to change. Change needs to happen where it most matters, at the county level. Simply stop locking people up for victimless crimes, for economic crimes. It's true we need restructuring at a more fundamental socio-economic level; that argument is for another day. For now, just incarcerate fewer people! Culmination? A lot of words were spoken and a lot of meetings held. Certain measures were passed around that time enabling the release of (far too few) non-violent inmates. Doing so would have made sense from the point of view of proportionality, of comon sense. Some of us even believed it was actually gonna happen! Then... in 2011 we got saddled with the de facto racist Scott Walker Regime. A regime that from the very beginning insisted the corrupt and vile Status Quo must not yield. No early release, no mercy, no sanity. Only the peculiar prospect, not easily confronted, of further years inhabiting that most imprisoned society... Ours! Whether inside the Walls or out, no getting away from that disturbing reality. Above all, no Human Decency - least of all from the sick and twisted GOP majority in both Houses. Republicans - with some significant Dem complicity - go on implementing policies that insure the public will continue to subsidize an exorbitant Wisconsin Gulag, at the expense of the Wisconsin Idea. http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/24/178817911/wisconsin-locks-up-