What me worry?

No need to worry about the next election. John Cusak and Danny Glover have already solved that problem for us:

Of course, in 1972 , the Late Great Planet Earth told us that the European Common Market was the next roman empire too-how’s that working out?

Something tells me this movie will be too much power at the start, not enough power in the middle, add lots of power at the ramp.

About douche tea baggers:

Commenting on an upcoming book my Canadian counterpart comes up with a gold nugget.

Much of the professionally stupid Republican blogosphere is going absolutely insane over the following excerpt from the Latimer book.
 

Bush was preparing to give a speech to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The conference is the event of the year for conservative activists; Republican politicians are required to appear and offer their praise of the conservative movement.

Latimer got the assignment to write Bush’s speech. Draft in hand, he and a few other writers met with the president in the Oval Office. Bush was decidedly unenthusiastic.

"What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer.

Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement — the movement that gave rise to groups like CPAC.

Bush seemed perplexed. Latimer elaborated a bit more. Then Bush leaned forward, with a point to make.

"Let me tell you something," the president said. "I whupped Gary Bauer’s ass in 2000. So take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement."

Yep there is no movement-except one who likes the taste of sand  in their mouths. My Canadian counterpart has aptly described what that experience must be like:

In my mind, there’s always been a profound difference between conservatism and Republicanism. Conservatism is primarily about restraint. As Joe Scarborough keeps pointing out, it has classically been predicated on fiscal restraint, restraint in foreign policy, and restraint in rhetoric. Does that sound like any prominent Republican in the last thirty or so years?

No it doesn’t. Republicanism is based on the idea of keeping Jesus freaks and investment bankers happy, regardless of the cost. If doing so shreds the concept of federalism or blows giant holes in the deficit, no biggie. At least they won the election. And they won a lot of elections that way. Until they didn’t.

If you’re at all interested in why I can’t bring myself to take these Tea Party idiots seriously, it’s because they have no credibility whatsoever. The second President Bush spent more money than his seven immediate predecessors combined, but the tea-baggers only seem to have discovered fiscal discipline in January. Furthermore, most of them still applaud Bush’s insane and generally illegal national security policies, none of which were actually conservative under any sane definition of the word.

The Tea Partiers therefore aren’t conservatives as much as they’re assholes.

 Repeated from Invisible Gaijin. Ones that apply to me-or that I have done (or used to before I was exiled to the land of fat women) are in bold:

1. You call yourself gaijin because you know it pisses off the newbie gaikokujin.
2. You bow repeatedly when talking on the phone.
3. You offer your business card before shaking hands with a visitor from overseas.
4. You prefer Japanese Big Macs to American Big Macs.
5. You can sing enka perfectly but Japanese colleagues still ask you to sing “Country Road” at karaoke.
6. You freak out folks back home when you take off your shoes at the door.
7. You automatically duck your head when exiting the subway.
8. You ignore other gaijin, especially the tourists who make eye contact and smile.
9. You have pretended you don’t speak English at least three times.
10. You fold the paper wrapper for the chopsticks to make a neat little stand.
11. You put chopsticks back into the paper wrapper AND rewrap the rubber band around the bento box when you’re done.
12. You keep expecting restaurants back home to give you a nice hot towel at the beginning of every meal.
13. You watch Sho-ten, Chibi-Maruko, then Sazae-san on TV every Sunday.
14. You no longer wonder why Americans have such large asses.
15. You still wonder why Japanese don’t have any asses.
16. You recycle plastic bottles, meat trays, cardboard, and milk cartons.
17. You have run outside and bought a yaki-imo during the winter.
18. You find the McDonalds Mr. James stereotype to be mildly amusing and not worth getting upset over.
19. You can name at least 23 Japanese prefectures.
20. You have climbed Mt. Fuji more than once.
21. You sympathize with gaijin tarento on TV even if you find their gei unfunny.
22. You have impressed Japanese friends with a senryu, kotowaza, or yojijukugo once too many times.
23. You frequent at least three izakaya where everybody knows your name.
24. You avoid the American Club like the plague.
25. You know everybody’s name at Tokyo 2.0 and CGM Night.
26. You can tell jokes in Japanese that actually make Japanese people laugh.
27. You can read/write kanji your Japanese friends can’t.
28. You save the plastic bags from the supermarket to use as trash bags.
29. You shake your head when you see people put out moenai gomi on moeru gomi day.
30. You actually like natto, shirako, sazae-no-tsuboyaki, kusaya, or shiokara.
31. You have a favorite brand of Japanese sake, shochu, or beer.
32. You avoid Roppongi because they are too many gaijin.
33. You have been inside one of those “oppai momi-momi” places in Roppongi.
34. You think self-proclaimed otaku you meet online are just silly.
35. You have carried a mikoshi at a local matsuri or danced at obon.
36. You have published at least three photos of “Engrish” signs on your blog.
37. You have a sake story, just as you have a tequila story.
38. You have carried a co-worker onbu-style after a company party at least three times.
39. You know which vending machines have the best prices.
40. You are friends with all the obasan in the neighborhood and they always compliment your nihongo.
41. You go to the gym and stoically pretend not to notice Japanese staring at your private parts.
42. You bathe twice as much here than you used to back home.
43. You prefer Japanese junk food to the stuff you can get back home.
44. You go back home on vacation but wonder why things don’t work like they do in Japan.
45. You know the back-story of Hachiko in Shibuya.
46. You never miss the last train no matter how drunk you get.
47. Japanese people are shocked to discover you’re gaijin when they meet you for the first time in person.
48. You can do a passable regional dialect.
49. You can name at least 17 Sumo waza.
50. You can explain the difference between Kanto and Kansai styles of unagi.
51. You have been to Nikko and can say kekko.
52. You cry watching Japanese dramas on TV but never admit it to gaijin friends.
53. You have at least three books on Japan/Japanese culture that you bought but never read.
54. You have been inside the gates of the Imperial Palace on the Emperor’s birthday or oshogatsu.
55. You don’t bother commenting on stupid blog entries about weird Japan.
56. You know the difference between okonomi-yaki and monja-yaki.
57. You no longer try to explain why you choose to live in Japan to friends back home.
58. You think Tamori is funnier than Sanma.
59. You think, “I should have written that,” when reading a weird Japan story in the New York Times

In Japan, that is.

Earlier this week, Phibian went high order because the new leadership in Japan had threatened to cancel Japan’s support of re-fueling ships in the Indian Ocean in support of the war on (Terror, The Taliban, Islamic Extremists, Fill in the blank). As I noted to him then-most of that rhetoric is for domestic consumption-the alliance with Japan is solid. Unlike our douchebagging teabagging minority over here-the Japanese actually have a much better sense of the center-regardless of who is in power.

There are plenty of reasons to believe that fears of a DPJ reassessment of Japanese foreign and security policy — and relations with the U.S. — were exaggerated. First, Northeast Asia is a scary place. Japanese anxieties have been rising for over a decade and with good reason: the country is surrounded by hostile or potentially hostile neighbors. In this environment, no government is going to undermine the cornerstone of its security system and its foreign policy for the past half century, especially when the alliance has served it so well.

Second, there will be an Upper House election next year. If the DPJ is to stand any chance of consolidating its grip on power, it needs to make sure voters will have no easy reasons to vote against it. That means taking the security issue off the table, hence the signs of "new realism" in DPJ thinking even before the election, with revisions of the party platform that soften objections to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the base realignment plan. Third, what is the alternative? Improved relations with Asia is the mantra; striking a better balance between East and West the goal. That is laudable, but how can Tokyo improve relations with Beijing?

That key relationship has been on the upswing since Koizumi left office and his successors have stayed away from Yasukuni Shrine to avoid offending Chinese (and Korean) sensitivities.

Hatoyama understands-far better than many American observers give him credit for, that its all about the economy stupid.  He’ll find himself in good company with the American head of state as both try to undo the damage to their economy George W Bush caused:

The real issue in this election, the one with the most implications for Japan’s future and its relations with the U.S., is economic policy. In important ways, this election signals Japan’s return to its historical social consensus. The DPJ manifesto and Hatoyama’s now infamous New York Times opinion piece that appeared before the ballot reflect traditional Japanese approaches to foreign and domestic policy.

Japan is re-embracing its traditional social compact. Hatoyama’s Times comment has repeated references to "non-economic values" and an emphasis on fairness, social welfare, and the failure of "U.S.-led globalization." (Empahsis mine). This is a rejection of the reform agenda that was pushed by the Koizumi administration. That choice is certainly Japan’s to make — and one that a majority of Japanese would endorse; at least the election suggests as much — but it has profound implications for Japan and its alliance partner.

Its interesting, Japan has debt problems that makes ours look small, but you don’t see a million moron march on Kudanshita. No they are going to give the new government some time:

The preference for equality over efficiency signals a turn away from market forces in Japan’s economy and will result in even slower growth. Add a mountain of debt — at 170 percent of GDP, already the biggest among developed nations, and sure to expand with the DPJ’s election promises — a bleak demographic profile, and an inward-looking trade agenda, and Japan looks set to marginalize itself within Asia, those regional ambitions notwithstanding.

Trade issues deserve more attention, especially if the new government wants to raise its Asian profile. If current DPJ policies or promises are realized, the prospect of subsidies to farmers in a (misguided) attempt to increase food self-sufficiency will aggravate trading partners. Promises to exclude agriculture threaten to derail negotiations with Australia; the decision to exclude rice from an FTA with the U.S. dooms prospects for that deal. Japan’s readiness to increase protection for its farmers may win votes, but it makes bilateral and regional deals tougher, and makes a mockery of the Doha round’s call to focus on the needs of developing countries. Japan is not creating "gold standard" trade agreements, nor will it be broadening relations with Asian partners. It certainly won’t be able to match China’s aggressive trade diplomacy.

America’s debt is only 70% of GDP. So what are they whining about?

The simple truth is that its time to re-look at the alliance, and the US needs to be honest about the fact that it is getting more than it is giving in terms of benefits from having ships and aircraft in Japan.

The alliance must diversify and focus less on military issues and more on security broadly defined, whether this is fighting disease, protecting critical infrastructure, stemming the spread of weapons of mass destruction, creating energy security, or trade security. An aggressive and creative agenda, one that Japan helps define and shape, can better balance the two countries’ contributions to a real partnership. And if Japan can put something of equal or greater value on the table, then the capability that Futenma represents should be up for consideration as well.

Evidently it does when you talking about douche teabaggers: 

But yesterday, someone told a real whopper. ABC News, citing the DC fire department, reported that between 60,000 and 70,000 people had attended the tea party rally at the Capitol. By the time this figure reached Michelle Malkin, however, it had been blown up to 2,000,000. There is a big difference, obviously, between 70,000 and 2,000,000. That’s not a twofold or threefold exaggeration — it’s roughly a thirtyfold exaggeration. The way this false estimate came into being is relatively simple: Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, lied, claiming that ABC News had reported numbers of between 1.0 and 1.5 million when they never did anything of the sort. A few tweets later, the numbers had been exaggerated still further to 2 million. Kibbe wasn’t "in error", as Malkin gently puts it. He lied. He did the equivalent of telling people that his penis is 53 inches long.

Malkin, who to her credit later corrected the error, frets that it might be used to by liberals to "discredit the undeniably massive turnout". She’s right to be worried — it absolutely will be used that way. If you don’t want to be discredited, then don’t, as Kibbe did, tell a ridiculous (and easily disprovable) lie.

Malkin herself did not lie; she merely repeated a lie. It does not particularly call into question her character. It does, however, call into question her judgment. The reason is that if there had in fact been 2 million protesters in Washington yesterday, there would have been no need to lie about it — the magnitude of the protests would have been self-evident. I was in Washington for the inauguration, an event at which there really were almost 2 million people present — and let me tell you, it was a Holy Mess. Hotels, charging double or treble their usual rates, were booked weeks in advance. Major stations on the Metro system were shut down for hours at a time. The National Guard was brought in. At least 3,000 people got stuck in a tunnel. Essentially the entirely of the National Mall, from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, was dotted with onlookers. Heaps of trash were left behind. The entire city was basically a warzone for a period of about 20 hours, from midnight through mid-evening.

But there are no accounts of any of those sorts of things happening yesterday. 70 thousand people, rather, is about the number that will attend the Washington Redskins’ home opener next week. That’s a lot of people. Washington — actually Landover, Maryland, where FedEx Field is located — will be inconvenienced. But it won’t be shut down. Business will go on more or less as usual.

This was not a small rally. It was also not, in comparison with something like the 2006 pro-immigration protests, a particularly large rally. It was a business-as-usual sort of rally. Mock the protesters at your peril: business as usual suddenly isn’t so good for Democrats these days, and the sentiments of the 70,000 people who marched on Washington surely mirror those of millions more sitting at home. They were done a disservice by being represented by a liar like Kibbe.

I still have no use for tea baggery-but 70,000 people showing up in DC, despite Freedom Works attempts to inflate their impact, is still a lot and something the Congress in particular needs to be concerned about. But don’t call it a "movement".  I’d also point out that people who think this is about race-like Maureen Dowd-are kidding themselves and setting themselves up for failure next year. This is has nothing to do with race. The fact that Obama is black, gives the nuts in tea bag land something unique to grab onto, but don’t kid yourself. It could be Hillary Clinton in office and the same thing would have happened.

Tea baggery is about the idea that Republicans are entitled to be in the Presidency and any non Republican who occupies the oval office is a usuper-not entitled to be there.  By that line of thinking, the last "legitimate" Democratic President was Lyndon Johnson. Carter, Clinton, and now Barak Obama-are all pretenders to the throne-only present by some colossal deception of the American people. Its vehemence has been accelerated by talk radio and advent of one sided TV hosts who masquerade as journalists. Oh sure, the technique is not unique to the tea bagger’s side-its just that they have raised the ability to drive home a specific message to a high art form. "Anyone who disagrees with them is not just wrong-they are evil". The current parade of communist symbols and Hitlerite mustaches is just the end result of 19 years of conditioning. Only republicans-and only very  conservative Republicans have what it takes to govern America.

Now to be honest-this meme has been helped along the way by none other than the Democrats themselves-with their unique capability for self flagellation and boneheaded antics when close to achieving a goal. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the biggest threat to Obama-not this group of hot heads. As Larry Wilkerson pointed out :"But [Nancy] Pelosi and [Harry] Reid are such feckless leaders they haven’t got any spine. We have no leadership in the legislative branch on either side of the aisle."

So we are left with the message of the day from the tea baggers. Actually, its a lot of messages, cause they can’t seem to focus on just one. All they know, deep down, is that they don’t like the President. It gets easier when you have a President who ran on a mantra of change. That allows them to throw around words like "czars", "socialism", "facisim" and "communism" without any regard for the facts. Especially the fact that in actuality very little has changed-save for the fact that the very actions they decry as "socialist"-has allowed the market and the value of their 401K’s to rebound considerably since last year. Industrial production is now rising; so, probably, is real GDP. Poorly designed or no-the stimulus did that, they ignore what the alternative would have been. Its probably news to a lot of them that they actually lost ground economically during the past eight years. Don’t tell them that though-most of them believe that but for one or two bad breaks-they too could be obscenely rich like the insurance company CEO’s they are defending.

 I’m with Andrew Sullivan-the tea baggers might have a lot more credibility on the fear of government spending if they would be upset about all the spending that got us into this mess:

Here’s a test: when you see as many posters lambasting Bush and Cheney and the GOP for getting us into this crisis in the first place, I will take these people seriously as genuine small government non-partisan conservatives and independents. In so far as they can pressure the Congress and president into taking the debt seriously in the future, good for them. In so far as they are proposing no practical solutions, and echo truly disturbing hatred of a president barely eight months in office, facing huge crises on all fronts, they are doing their own cause far more harm than good.

But don’t fool yourself-all this saying "its about the President being black" is nonsense- that obscures how really dangerous these people could become. Its not about race-and just knowing that the facts are able to prove you right, won’t be enough as the year drags on. Tea Baggers only want to hear from people who believe their narrative. This is about a desire for a certain order-and order that says only one party has any ideas or ability to be in the White House. As ridicule worthy as these people are-they are not going away.

But they are not monolithic either. Its important to remember that elections are about 10 to 15 million people in the middle. They are not about the far right or the far left. Putting Palin on the ballot probably was the biggest thing McCain did to turn off those middle of the road voters. That’s why McCain is not President. Now its Obama’s turn to turn them off. From the looks of it, he’s off to a good start. But those 70,000 people not part of the group that’s in the middle. And they never will be.

T.R. Reid on health care:

This needs no further explanation.

My Canadian counterpart has figured out who is to blame for the lousy economy.

Some asshole named Grover Norquist:

There was a point in the late 1970s when American conservative politics became completely disconnected from reality, particularly on economic policy. Remember, it was Ronald Reagan who believed that you could cut taxes, spend a veritable shitload of money, run massive deficits, and everything would work out just fine. Some people forget Reagan’s involvement in that, given how George W, Bush and Barack Obama have since turned that retarded philosophy into a retarded science.

Well, everything didn’t end up being all right. The period of the late 70s and early 80s was when the United States transformed itself into a debt-based economy. If you were paying attention last fall, you might have picked up on the fact that it hasn’t worked out that well. And idiots like Grover Norquist helped make that possible.

That might sound harsh, but that, my friends, is reality. All the mindless bitching to the contrary, American voters don’t just like unnecessary spending, they love it. If they didn’t, it would have been stopped by now. That’s why presidential elections are decided by dumb shit that has nothing to do with the presidency, like the Pledge of Allegiance, gay marriage, "Hope" and places called Hope. When someone decides to be a real show-off, they promise to build bridges through time itself.

Maya: No, I- I like to think about the life of wine.
Miles Raymond: Yeah.
Maya: How it’s a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it’s an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I’d opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it’s constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your ’61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline.
Miles Raymond: Hmm.
Maya: And it tastes so fucking good.

That scene is one of my favorite scenes from the movie. Especially the way Virginia Madsen delivers it. ( Although, truth be told, I really have the hots for Sandra Oh).  So it was quite a day to be able to go up and see Solvang and the wine country in person:

Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they’re just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and… ancient on the planet.

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 For the record, I absolutely LOATHE Glenn Beck. Whenever he is on TV I make it a point to change the channel-even at the gym. Which is why this article from Time, struck a nerve with me today:

Don’t Tell Me What 9/12 Means, Glenn Beck

I am over my crankiness of earlier ( well sort of….). So I spent some time with the S.O. tonight, because she deserved some attention and kindness.  We watched the movie Sideways, so we could see where we had been last week. It all looks bigger in the movies.

Today is the anniversary of a horrible event-one that has come to define the entire first decade of the 21st century. That’s both a good and a bad thing but today is not the day to explain that.

Instead-remember, the 3,500 people whose lives were cut tragically short by Islamic foolishness:

Not really-but I do feel really tired.

Plus-the current political cycle has me just plum tuckered out. I don’t think either side is winning anymore-its just the beginning of the long circular slide to utter stupidity. Obama gets voted out of office in 2012? It will be a complete jackass who takes his place from the other side. Like Sarah Palin.

She will drive the economy down in the long haul-but a lot of sleazy guys will get rich in the process. And " Operation Frequent Manhood" will be launched repeatedly,  as she gives her self over to neocon total sycophants and ambitious men who will push her around. War without end amen.

She will be opposed by the Congress who will hamstring her agenda-and the whining will begin again till hell won’t have it.

Then after one or two terms-a Democrat will win, and the whining of Tea Bagger central will begin again. Only it will get more even profane (like its really possible to be any worse that it is right now) and probably more violent. And the whining will begin with different voices until hell won’t have it.

And it will go on and on and on and on. And the sad part is Tea-baggers and net roots alike will think they have the smartest discussions in the world.

Spike ran a post a few days back- which reminded me that , having been to the mountain top-its hard for a boy to go back to the farm again:

SINCE 2005 Jim O’Rourke, the once perennially busy American musician and producer, has lived in a small apartment in Japan, keeping to himself. He had flown there for work at least 50 times in earlier years; every time he returned to the United States, he said, his mood sank. At first his relocation was on and off, during the long process of acquiring an artist’s work visa. Now it seems pretty permanent. “It’s the only place I’m happy,” he said during a recent telephone interview, with a perfectionist’s mordant cackle.

I know exactly how he feels. And as my continued sniffing around of opportunities to get back, hits brick wall after brick wall-my despair level goes up proportionately.

The S.O. is happy though. She gets to putter around the house-tend to her flowers and vacuuming-she’s not even made the motions of looking for a job. And as for tending to her real purpose for existence in my life? Save for on a trip, forget it. Oh she is still great company and all that-but a roommate with occasional benefits is not exactly what I need. I need to be passionate about life again. When I was in Japan- I was passionate about travel, about work, about lots of things. Here? Work is just work. Ok- but nothing to stir a fire deep down in the belly. You never know how lucky you have it till its gone. For some 30 years, I was lucky enough to do something I really felt passionately about. I wonder if I have the guts to stretch out and go for a big risk one more time in my life. Or is this the beginning of the slow slide down the hill?

It dawned on me the other day-the whole of my adult life, I’ve been nothing but a life support system for women.

No wonder I am sick. Now excuse me-I have to go cry myself to sleep.

Home at last-LAX to Chicago, thence to Shopping Mall. Plane to Shopping mall was 1 hour late departing. Go figure. In a normal world-no big deal. Just start drinking beer. S.O. in tow-that’s not such an easy option. It really pissed me off watching women drinking with ease……

Anyway………..

When I first went to Japan, a long time ago and in a galaxy far away, as is the Navy way- I was scheduled to leave Reno at 10 in the morning. Now mind you, my MAC flight out of LAX-known not so affectionately as the "Patriot Express" ( or "Lowest bidder airlines") did not depart from LAX till 10:45 that evening. There was no way I was staying in the airport for twelve hours, so I stuffed all of my luggage into a wide variety of lockers. ( This was well before 9-11) and jumped into a cab. Instructions? "Go to Santa Monica".

Back in the day, when the E-2 community was forcibly evicted from its outstanding digs at Miramar, I had to go to LA from time to time. So I had done some prowling before and decided that Santa Monica was for me. I had hit the Hollywood club scene-and while the women were stunningly gorgeous, they also were not looking for someone like me, who could not even offer them the entry to a casting couch-much less the ability to do anything on one-so I had to look elsewhere.  Plus I was on the long side of 40 without the wallet, or the six pack abs-the places in Hollywood require,Other locations were too far away and Santa Monica offered easy access to the PCH when I had to head up to Ventura County where my business most often was.

So out of curiosity, I dragged the S.O. with me-through Hollywood and Beverly Hills-down to the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica. I wanted to see what had changed. Fortunately, not very much. It’s still as good a place as any for people watching in LA:

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My apologies about the lack of posts. I was out here in California for business and brought the S.O. with me. She wanted to see the "left coast" since it had been over twenty years since she had seen anything but the inside of LAX. Plus we needed some "Love love" time together.

Work completed, we "cruised the Miracle Mile" ( Truth be told I don’t see what is so miraculous about it), saw Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, and Santa Monica. Yesterday evening we drove up here to the Santa Barbara Wine country-so we could re-trace the steps of Jack and Miles. (See the movie Sideways for explanation..).

P.S. I don’t see how Mile’s could afford to be a wine snob on a teacher’s salary-we went to the Hitching Post for dinner last night. Don’t ask what the check was. Suffice it to say, tonight is McDonalds or nothing………….

>

The S.O. is up now. Gotta go. Time for some "love love".  

Enjoy your weekend! Please come back Monday to see the pictures!

Now get out of the house, away from the computer, and enjoy some time outside. Gov Schwarzenager told me so…………….