Nom de plume: Rivrdog

Small fish's in the cooler, now go for the lunker

The Army prosecutors appear to have the case against WikiLeaks snitch Pvt. Bradley Manning firmly in hand, and as a result of their evidence, seem to have solid evidence linking Manning and Julian Assange.

Why isn't Assange in the stockade, here or in Gitmo?

If we hand the Brits a proper extradition request for Assange, are they going to honor it?

Will Anonymous start to have organized fun and games with the DOD cyber-war folks if the Brits put the habeus grabbus on Assange?

Stay tuned. This one WILL get interesting.

Weekend at Bernie's (Pyongyang Edition)

The North Korean people are starving, so what does the new young-Un leader do? Throw a long party featuring a corpse.

Oops, I almost forgot. That's right out of the standard commie playbook of 1924

Guesses on Korea?

My best guess: young-Un's "advisor", appointed by dead Papa, better have a decent will written...

Young-Un will be pre-occupied for a while discovering all of Papa's porn stashes and sampling the wares in Dead Dad's harem of whores, while his accountants try to round up all the available cash and get it under his control. After THAT, maybe time for some international intrigue, but hey, he's a kid, and hey, there's some strange poo-ying to bed, so I don't think we'll see much of him for a while.

Advice for the young-Un?

Stay off of Nork trains...

OWS Manual of How to do it right...

...how to do it correctly, I guess they would be offended at just the mention of the word "right". This is a free offer to the OWS. No, I don't want to join OR lead your Movement, but it could become a valued stakeholder in our political process if it matures, so here's how to mature it.

OK, to analyze what this movement has done wrong so far:

• They've tried to pull us all into their political web with the "1% vs 99%" ploy. Nice try, but it's bee-ess and they can't sell it. Out here in the real world, we're not moved.
• They have decided to park their movement in town squares, etc, so as to be visible to town leaders and TeeVee cameras, I guess. Problem is in the details. They have created eyesores with their camps. Eyesores don't impress anyone except eye doctors.
• The movement welcomes all, even some they should be rejecting, such as criminals and raving lunatics. Once again, drags the movement down.
• They have decided, likely for reasons of ducking fiscal responsibility for damages caused by the movement, to not have visible leaders. They have spokesmouths instead. Bad idea. The camps are crying out for leadership, and there is none.
• The "general assembly" way of deciding movement objectives, etc, has failed (like it's model, the United Nations). Sitting around for hours in a circle debating, with no time limits, and allowing deranged people to join in with dis-jointed rants to confuse the issues, doesn't substitute for leadership.
• The adoption of marxism as the underlying flavor of the movement is wrong, wrong, wrong. Marxism is STILL an enemy, and most of we "99%-ers" still believe it is.

OK, then, R-dog, what have they done correctly so far? Glad you asked, because there IS grist here to feed into a political mill:

• We HAVE been bent over the table by global corporate hegemony usurping both individual and government rights, and it's beginning to get nasty to the point that something, like this movement, had to arise to counter it. The right beef at the right time.
• The super-rich DO lead lives of excess, and here in the USA, they tend to separate themselves from general society to a greater degree, making themselves into a separate class. That form of classism is morally repugnant to the rest of us, and needs to be countered with the doctrine of inclusion. Giving the movement the benefit of the doubt, I think that it would LIKE to project inclusion as a solution. 

So, with the plusses and minues on the table, how do we coach this movement back to both sanity and effectiveness? The movement spokemouths are correct, the movement's NOT going away. It will be around in some form, probably for decades, so, despite this bad start, it needs a makeover, and should get one.

This pundit's advice for the movement, in order of necessity to implement:

1. Lose the "Flea Party" image. Lose it now! Declare the "occupation" a success and close the camps. Raise money to fix the damages and/or offer your people's strong backs to do the job.
2. Elect leaders. Real leaders, leading via a real Committee, out in the open, with real addresses and websites, not just Facebook and Twitter. The Earth First! and eco-terror tactics of "no visible leadership" has to go. We, the bulk of the "99%", want to see your leaders, listen to them, have a chance to respect what they have to say.
3. Lose the Marxist ideals. The "1%" is NOT going to sit still and turn over all their wealth for re-distribution, Communist-style. They have great power, and know how to use it to prevent such robbery. While you're at it, your new leaders should sit down with the two major political parties and offer your services to whichever of the parties can come up with the best and most workable plan for supporting the idea of de-fanging and de-clawing the corporate giants. The Democrats will, of course, court you immediately, but don't be surprised if the GOP sends a serious envoy bearing a nice offer as well.
4. Lose the anarchists you have allied yourselves with. You're not likely to succeed with the lukewarm support of the anarchists that you have now, and if that support were to get warmer, so will the opposition to it. Most of us in the "99%" don't like the anarchists, their methods or their nihilistic way of thinking, and it's us you have to impress, not the Black Hood Brigades.
5. Lose the crazies and the thugs. You have attracted, to every camp, a number of high-profile emotionally-disturbed individuals and criminals. Show them the door, however you must. Crazies can't be trusted to follow orders, but CAN be trusted to give you a very bad image. The local TeeVee stations, who should be showing inspiring sound bites from your bright and articulate leaders, are instead showing shots of ugly whackos and felons the po-po has culled out of your camps. You've had the good sense not to oppose the police in these arrests, so go the extra mile and ask the cops how you can keep them out of your outfit. They will have ideas for you to try.

You've timed it right, OWS-movement. The one thing you've done PERFECTLY so far is get your timing right. Build on that by adopting the above suggestions, and you will see your movement flourish.

Or, ignore this manual of proper operations, continue your bone-headed ways, and the movement will not rate a historical graffitti on a public lavatory wall.

Flourish or perish. It's up to you, OWS Movement.

Rivrsis rants on the MSM

The Rivrsis reads my blog. She is not on the political right and sometimes I have a hard time defining her position on things. Sometimes, however, her rants ring like a bell.

Take this rant, for instance, which she has agreed to let me post here:

"THE --- MEDIA --- ARE --- *NOT*--- LIBERAL --- AFTER --- ALL *!!!!!*

Just because there are a few "liberal" talking heads on TV doesn't make it liberal.  The media are full of mushy right-wingers like that Glenn Beck idiot, and fake-reformed-bigot people like that Pat Robertson, and the insulting-to-behold-on-TV puppets like Oliver North, and all the blonde and official-ethnic bimbos on Fox, with their collagen-puffed lips pouting right-wingish nasties in SUCH a Texas-sexy American way, like news was a big beauty contest, really.

And get this fact thru your pate: the media aren't anti-Christian, they are pro-conflict.  Conflict and error and malfeasance and violence sell much more ad time than polite discourse or fair-mindedness.  There's a conflict between the Huckabish folk who are busy being busybodies into everyone's lives, plus making a helluva lot of money, until the Rapture takes them up to heaven (or is it Heaven?), and the people who foolishly think that having learned about the Constitution in school (if they were so lucky), it actually obtains in the real world.  Therefore, it's a fit TV (and other media, podcasts, Dick Tracy wristwatches, iPhones, etc.) topic, and can be prolonged indefinitely, as the 2 sides (and their various grey-level hangers-on in the mid-zone) are stubbornly locked into their beliefs in opposition to each other.

Hey, let's put some snake-handlin' and bible-thumpin' in class and after school and before Friday naht football, and by the flagpole, and under the hangin' tree.  No, no, don't do that, my boy might become a Hindu, or a Jew."

Fine rant, sis.

You can see the fambly resemblance here, no?

Now, if only my Dad were still alive and trusted these heah innarTubes, he would have outdone the both of us.