I've finally achieved consistency in my life. Any person of average or above intelligence can predict what I will say next with unerring accuracy. And what I say will always be wrong.

Friday, November 14, 2008

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Share your story with President-Elect Obama

Here is my 2nd pass at advising President-elect Obama, who says he wants my opinion. This time I wrote:

I envision a country where the president:

Establishes an independent, nonpartisan commission with subpoena powers to investigate the treatment of U.S. detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Dismantles the Department of Homeland Security

Repeals the Patriot Act

Ends spying on American citizens.

Declassifies and discloses any and all records that reflect the activities of executive branch agencies during the Bush Administration years.

Is unafraid to post what the American people want of him on his website, so we can measure his progress against their hopes and expectations.

***

You may or may not find that this is time well wasted. As always, I'm interested in what you write, if you do.  The address is:

http://www.change.gov/yourvision

Thanks.

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[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Obama spams supporters, Canadian pathetically grateful for it

It's astonishing and discouraging to see how easily fooled Canadians are by US politicians... very much like their gullible neighbors south of the border. While Canadian political life has taken a beating in recent times (mostly due to adopting a US style approach to politics favoring image over substance) they still have a better deal here than in the US. But they don't know it.

Following is a column from a local magazine, followed by the comments I left on the website.

http://seemagazine.com/article/city-life/city/ninja1113/

I Got An E-Mail From The President

Obamarama is still raging, and we hope it doesn't stop until things change. Like, really change.
Published November 13, 2008  by Fish Griwkowsky in City LifeComments (0)

"I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there," U.S. president-elect Barack Obama wrote to millions of others and me in a mass e-mail last week, "but I wanted to write to you first.

"We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next."

Holy shit, he just might! That last sentence contains one of the most magnificent ideas using one of the most revolutionary uses of technology in history: direct communication from an incoming world leader. Spam you can get behind. As Bono said at a concert the night Bill Clinton first got elected, "Let's hope you're half the man we think you are."

The first glaring thing I noticed when Obama got elected was a sharp dropoff in my daily e-mails. To fulfil John McCain's greatest fears about not knowing exactly who had been contributing to the mixed-race candidate's campaign, I can safely say that there are people up in Canada who donated small amounts of money to Obama's campaign. Good-looking folks who, instead of putting — say, er — my address, used a fake one in the States.

But the thing about this American election was, like the two before it, this was successively the most important one in history. Further on the subject, it was the most internationally watched one, if only in terms of all-important optics.

Instantly, like it or not, the ethnic flavour of the new president made America less of a terrorist target from any number of agendas. So while it's true there are office pools about how long it will take some Klansman type whose wife either did or did not throw the TV out the window on Nov. 4 to try and assassinate the greatest community organizer in American history, certain arguments are now officially over. For example, Morrissey's lyrics that it's "where the president is never black, female, or gay" are suddenly as dated as the U.S.S.R. cosmonauts in Arthur C. Clark's 2010.

What I felt down on the streets in the U.S. was no different from what any number of you felt up here: relief. But also, a sudden sense of possibility. Global, personal — it doesn't matter. Hope, not fear. Issues like Guantánamo Bay, the bullshit ban on Cuba, rebuilding Louisiana, and even getting more spaceships on Mars all seem discussable again. By apologizing for his future mistakes, he outmaneuvered Bush as a gentleman by at least seven years.

But most importantly, via these e-mails, the man has a direct line into the attention of his supporters — people who have already worked hard to get him in place. He must use it. Must. If he manages to continue organizing and asking for help, for the poor, for the troops, for anything that could use help fixing from his people in great numbers, and appealing to people's decency instead of numb patriotism, well, America could really boast being the greatest country in the world. In other words, we could learn a lesson from them, in a good way. Damn!

Comments:

Posted by mattlove1

on Nov 14th, 2008 at 12:37pm

Bill Clinton wasted no time in proving that he was (at best) half the man that his supporters thought he was - and his career as president proceeded like radioactive decay.

Obama's half-life appears shorter than Clinton - he didn't even wait to be elected to start selling out his progressive supporters.

I guess it's nice that Obama wants our input. Shoot, I went to his webpage and filled out the form. Big deal. Is he going to do what we want? How will we know? He won't even post what people want of him. I don't trust a blogger who doesn't have a comment field, why on earth should I trust somebody who's doing something so much more important? This site has a comment field doesn't it? Probably because opinions posted here don't mean squat. That's kind of the point, isn't it?

Obama's people don't want to validate the obvious truth that the agenda of your average citizen is vastly more populist and progressive than the rawk star president-elect. For the record, here are the things I asked for from Obama:

"I am a US citizen living in Canada. We are here because of your predecessor. What you need to do to make the US into a country I would want to live in again would include, but not be limited to, the following:

Re-establish the social support network and regulation that was established under Roosevelt and gutted under Reagan, Clinton and Bush

Insist that Israel remove itself from the occupied territories, and stop their oppression of the Palestinians. If Rahm Emanuel doesn't like it, fire him.

Announce a rapid and complete withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fly to Havana, ending the economic and diplomatic embargo of Cuba, and ask their assistance in establishing a proper health care system in the United States.

And have the people that maintain your website fix it so that it will accept a proper Canadian Postal Code when it's entered in the form."

I would be astonished if Obama would do a single thing on this list.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Re: [progressive] Wash. Post 11/11/08: Ousted Japanese general defends comments about WWII

Speaking of education... while I might come across as somebody who thinks he knows it all, I think of myself as somebody that knows something about a few things. I like to weigh in on those things, and mostly keep silent about things that I don't know much about.

One thing I don't know much about is the war of 1812. I only remember a bit about it from school, and have remarkably enough never learned much more in the thousands of pages of history and political science that I've read over the years.

So it interested me to hear on the CBC that Canadians are concerned that revisionist history in the US is gaining ground... a revisionist version in which the Yanks believe they won the war of 1812.

"What revisionism?"  I shouted at my wife as I opened another bottle of beer with my teeth.  "That's not a new idea, I've known my whole life the US won the war of 1812!"

The story as I remember it is that the British attacked (unprovoked, of course) the US, marched on Washington, burned down everything in their path... but somehow the plucky Yanks fended them off, defeated the Brits for the 2nd time, defending freedom, yadda yadda yadda.

Well, the Canadians have a different version, wouldn't you know?.  To them, The War of 1812 was about the US invading Canada in the expectation of taking over all that territory too.  The Yanks expected - get this - that the Canadians would be so happy to have the yoke of British domination lifted from around their necks, they'd greet the invading yanks as liberators, throwing flowers at their feet and pulling down statues of King George or whoever was head of the British empire at the time.  Then they (the CBC) said some snarky rubbish about people who don't know history are condemned to repeat it.

What's this got to do with the Japanese?  I'd bet that if US military officers - or anybody else in the US - was expected to know history (real history, not state propaganda) to keep their jobs, the unemployment rate would be about 90%.

At least it looks like the Japanese care something about historical accuracy.

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 11:12 PM, Rick Kisséll <rick@kissell.org> wrote:

Ousted Japanese General Defends Comments About WWII


By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

TOKYO, Nov. 11 -- A former Japanese air force chief, removed from his post last month for writing an essay that says Japan was not an aggressor in World War II, is refusing to quietly fade away.

Pugnaciously defending his version of Japan's role in a war that killed millions across Asia, Toshio Tamogami, 60, told parliament Tuesday that he does not see "anything wrong with what I wrote."

The ousted general's revisionism, together with revelations that 94 air force staff members might have written similar essays this year, has triggered demands in parliament for a full-scale investigation of the training given to military officers to determine if it is consistent with government policy, which states that Japan deeply regrets and apologizes for its wartime aggression.

Questions have been raised about officer training at the Joint Staff College, where Tamogami served as a commandant and personally revised the curriculum. Some of Japan's elite military leaders were trained at the college.

Members of parliament said Tuesday that Tamogami might have taught trainee officers to deny Japan's aggression in the war.

"I think there is a need for reeducation and for a complete examination inside the military," Tokushin Yamauchi, an opposition lawmaker, said during his questioning of Tamogami.

Tamogami was dismissed for writing, among other things, that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor because of a "trap" set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also wrote that "many Asian countries take a positive view" of Japan's wartime role.
China and South Korea, the principal victims of Japan's brutality before and during the war, have voiced shock and anger over the general's claims.

In parliament Tuesday, Tamogami said he had no regrets. "I was fired after saying Japan is a good country," he said. "It seems a bit strange."

The affair of the noisily unapologetic general, whose views echo those of many prominent nationalists in Japan, is turning into a substantial political liability for Prime Minister Taro Aso, who must call a general election in less than a year.
Before he became prime minister in September, Aso, 68, an elder in the ruling party, had made a series of statements that suggested his nationalist leanings. He upset the governments of North and South Korea by praising his country's 35-year colonial occupation of their peninsula, saying Japan did many good things there.

As foreign minister in 2006, Aso annoyed China by suggesting that Japan's emperor should visit Yasukuni, the shrine in Tokyo where convicted war criminals are honored along with 2 1/2 million war dead.

Documents have surfaced in recent years showing that during the war, Aso's family's cement business used thousands of Korean, Chinese, Australian, British and Dutch prisoners as slave laborers. Asked about the matter in September, Aso said that he was 5 years old when the war ended and that in his work at Aso Cement, he had "never been involved in this issue."

Aso moved quickly to rid his government of Tamogami, who was demoted within hours of his essay's appearance on a Web site Oct. 31.

The Defense Ministry, however, said it could not fire Tamogami outright -- and deny him a $600,000 retirement bonus -- without waiting several weeks for paperwork to be processed. So it allowed him to retire with the bonus. Demands are growing, even within Aso's ruling party, for the government to withhold the money.

Tamogami will have none of it. He told parliament Tuesday he has no intention of voluntarily giving back his retirement bonus, which has yet to be paid to him.
Since the general was forced out, an investigation by the Defense Ministry has
found that his office encouraged air force officers across Japan to participate in the $30,000 essay contest that Tamogami ended up winning. The theme of the contest, which was sponsored by a longtime friend of the general's, was "The True Perspective of Modern History."

Sixty-three entrants were air force staff from Komatsu Air Base, where Tamogami was formerly a commander. It is not yet known whether those essays also expressed revisionist views of the war.

In the past week, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has apologized to parliament for educational material used in navy training. Since the end of World War II, the training information said, "Our nation has been gripped in the belief that we are an inferior race."

Under former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who served one year before abruptly quitting in September 2007, Japan backed away from its previous apologies to the "comfort women," the term used for the estimated 50,000 to 200,000 Asian women forced by the Japanese government into brothels before and during World War II.

Abe, who had strong support in the nationalist wing of the ruling party, said there was no documentation proving that the Japanese military coerced Asian women into becoming prostitutes. His statements pushed the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a resolution calling on Japan to apologize for its treatment of the sex slaves.

Studies by the Japanese government itself have uncovered more than 100 documents showing Japanese military involvement in the building of brothels and the recruitment of women, according to a 2006 report by the Congressional Research Service.

Also under Abe, the government tried to whitewash the history of the war as taught in Japanese public schools. Last year, the Education Ministry deleted references in textbooks to orders by the Japanese military in 1944 that civilians in Okinawa commit mass suicide rather than surrender to invading U.S. forces.
Courts here have since recognized the military's role in wartime mass suicides on the island, and textbooks have been rewritten to acknowledge that fact.



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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Hey Nicole I wanted to ask a couple of questions...

I tried to recreate the conversation I had with you about four hours ago with Alice (see below), and I have to say, you were way way better.  Could you tell me who created you, and what software they used?

Thanks so much!

Matt

----- Our chat on Tue, 11/11/08 9:02 PM -----
Matt: Hey Alice – you hit me up on Tagged.
ALICE: You've got my full attention. Um, Do you think a lot about the authorities?
Matt: I'm doing well.
ALICE: Glad to hear it. What's new?
Matt: it snowed today.
ALICE: Ah. What does "it" refer to?
Matt: Edmonton.
ALICE: Thank you for the clarification.

Matt: ever heard of it?
ALICE:" Thank you for the clarification."? Do I know it?
Matt: yeah, just about zero today
ALICE: Ah. Mmm. Oh yeah, we were talking about zero.
Matt: about a 4 hour drive north of Calgary.
ALICE: Oh yeah, we were talking about a 4 hour drive north of Calgary.
Matt: heard of calgary?
ALICE: Hutch said he changed his mind after may dad told him he would end up he the hospital.

Matt: I'm just taking a break.
ALICE: Only just? How much does it cost?
Matt: I haven't chatted on yahoo in ages.
ALICE: Me either.
Human:. since i started using gmail
ALICE: Interesting rationalization. Will you finish it.
Matt: I'm one of the last people on earth who doesn't have a webcam I guess.
ALICE: Who are the other the last people on earth who does not have a webcam you guess?
Matt: my steam powered computer doesn't support it
ALICE: Have you told many people that your steam powered computer does not support it?

Matt: but I'm kinda getting the drift of this conversation, presumably at some point you'll be asking for money from me, there are probably better prospects out there.
ALICE: And. Who made you the drift of this conversation presumably at some point me will be asking for money from you there are probably better prospects out there ?

Matt: sure that would be all right I guess.
ALICE: This was not a yes or no question. What else do you want to talk about?
Human:. but I can't show you me.
ALICE: Huh. Why can't you do it?

Matt: and I don't pay to view girls online, I have a strict rule against that.
ALICE: Would you ever do it?

Matt: your link?
ALICE: Do you mind if I tell other people you say I am link.
Matt: how does that work?
ALICE: I think it might be a trade secret.

Matt: where do I find your link?
ALICE: You are asking me where you find my link? Do you think I should know it?

Matt: well, this is interesting, thanks for the good thoughts
ALICE: How about that. You don't say.

Matt: I'm going there now.
ALICE: Oh. Bye.

Matt: well, gee, it won't let me go past this page without filling in these fields: Credit card details: Credit card number: Expiration date:
ALICE: Well that's okay. That is only what you think.

Matt: can you give me a credit card number I could use like the 2SH7C6 number you gave me?
ALICE: You want only one? .

Matt: cause I can tell you my age and gender, that's not a problem.
ALICE: Good reason. That's good information: unknown person said I his or her age. What is a problem?

Matt: I'm happy to verify that.
ALICE: I'm happy you're glad unknown person.
Your happiness adds to the delight of all.

Matt: but I don't have my credit card with me, I lost it in the snow.
ALICE: Interesting. Have you ever had your credit card with you you lost it in the snow ?

Matt: in the backyard this morning when I let the dogs out to do their business if you know what I mean
ALICE: Oh I get it. Thanks for explaining that. That was a long time ago.

Matt: I have to wait until it thaws, which is supposed to be tomorrow, to get my credit card back.
ALICE: Why do you have to do it?

Matt: I used that as my username, can I use it as a credit card number, too?
ALICE: And that worked well for you.

Matt: will that work?
ALICE: It could happen.

Matt: I have a visa card from the bank of canada.
ALICE: How much did it cost? it.

Matt: it's a good solid card, canadian banking system is sound, they didn't make the bad investments they made in the US.
ALICE: visa card from the bank of canada is a solid card canadian banking system is sound they did not make the bad investments they made in the US. I suppose that makes sense.

Matt: I just wish I could find the doggone thing.
ALICE: Only just? I hope that your dreams come true.

Matt: dog gone, get it?
ALICE:"it" being you could find the doggone thing?
Matt: when the dogs went, so did the card
ALICE: And then what happened?
Matt: its out there in the dingdong snow somewhere.
ALICE: I think you mean "it's" or "it is" not "its". Should I know it is?

Matt: Hey, I'm sorry, I have to go pick up my wife at the LRT now.
ALICE: Oh. You've got my full attention. There is no need to apologize. Bye. I can't decide. You choose.
Matt: It's been a very nice chat, I'll tell her I've made a new friend today.
ALICE: Ah. Nice chat you will tell her you have made a new friend too.
Matt: Are you on MySpace?
ALICE: I am on disk.



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[ItsAllAboutMeMan] back by popular demand - matt cybers with a chick online


----- Our chat on Tue, 11/11/08 5:58 PM -----
Matt(5:37 PM):  Hey Nicole - we're friends on Tagged...
Nicole Sexy(5:37 PM):  hi

Nicole Sexy(5:37 PM):  how r u?
Matt(5:37 PM):  I'm doing well.  it snowed today...
Nicole Sexy(5:38 PM):  wer u from?
Matt(5:38 PM):  Edmonton.
Matt(5:38 PM):  ever heard of it?
Nicole Sexy(5:38 PM):  cool
Matt(5:38 PM):  yeah, just about zero today
Nicole Sexy(5:38 PM):  not yet
Nicole Sexy(5:39 PM):  wat r u doing now?
Matt(5:39 PM):  about a 4 hour drive north of Calgary. heard of calgary?
Nicole Sexy(5:39 PM):  nope
Nicole Sexy(5:39 PM):  open ur cam hun
Matt(5:40 PM):  I'm just taking a break.  I haven't chatted on yahoo in ages... since i started using gmail
Nicole Sexy(5:40 PM):  okies hun
Matt(5:40 PM):  I'm one of the last people on earth who doesn't have a webcam I guess. my steam powered computer doesn't support it
Nicole Sexy(5:41 PM):  y?
Matt(5:42 PM):  but I'm kinda getting the drift of this conversation, presumably at some point you'll be asking for money from me, there are probably better prospects out there....
Nicole Sexy(5:42 PM):  wanna see me now hun?
Matt(5:44 PM):  sure that would be all right I guess... but I can't show you me...
Nicole Sexy(5:45 PM):  its ok hun
Matt(5:45 PM):  and I don't pay to view girls online, I have a strict rule against that.
Nicole Sexy(5:46 PM):  my cam is connected in my link
Nicole Sexy(5:46 PM):  no worries its free
Matt(5:46 PM):  your link? how does that work?
Matt(5:46 PM):  where do I find your link?
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  ok
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  heres my link
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  just use my promo code "2SH7C6"as your  username just add your name to skip the  payment..

Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  http://tinyurl.com/24olgn
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  http://tinyurl.com/24olgn
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  click that and fill up the form
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  no worries its free hun
Nicole Sexy(5:47 PM):  okies hun
Matt(5:48 PM):  well, this is interesting, thanks for the good thoughts
Nicole Sexy(5:48 PM):  okies hun
Nicole Sexy(5:48 PM):  try it hun
Nicole Sexy(5:48 PM):  u can see methere hun
Nicole Sexy(5:48 PM):  its free
Matt(5:48 PM):  I'm going there now...
Nicole Sexy(5:49 PM):  okies hun
Nicole Sexy(5:49 PM):  do the form there hun
Nicole Sexy(5:49 PM):  ok
Matt(5:51 PM):  well, gee, it won't let me go past this page without filling in these fields:
Credit card details:
Credit card number:
Expiration date:
Nicole Sexy(5:52 PM):  fill up the form hun no worries its free
Nicole Sexy(5:52 PM):  for age and gender veification only hun
Nicole Sexy(5:52 PM):  ull not get charge hun
Nicole Sexy(5:52 PM):  ok
Matt(5:53 PM):  can you give me a credit card number I could use like the 2SH7C6 number you gave me?
Matt(5:53 PM):  cause I can tell you my age and gender, that's not a problem.
Matt(5:53 PM):  I'm happy to verify that.
Matt(5:53 PM):  but I don't have my credit card with me, I lost it in the snow.
Matt(5:54 PM):  in the backyard this morning when I let the dogs out to do their business if you know what I mean
Nicole Sexy(5:54 PM):  2SH7C6   --->use that as ur username hun
Nicole Sexy(5:54 PM):  ok
Matt(5:54 PM):  I have to wait until it thaws, which is supposed to be tomorrow, to get my credit card back.
Nicole Sexy(5:54 PM):  wat card do u have there??
Nicole Sexy(5:54 PM):  okies hun
Nicole Sexy(5:55 PM):  ill wait u
Matt(5:55 PM):  I used that as my username, can I use it as a credit card number, too?
Matt(5:55 PM):  will that work?
Nicole Sexy(5:55 PM):  nope hun
Nicole Sexy(5:55 PM):  visa or debit hun???
Matt(5:55 PM):  I have a visa card from the bank of canada.
Nicole Sexy(5:55 PM):  try it hun
Matt(5:56 PM):  it's a good solid card, canadian banking system is sound, they didn't make the bad investments they made in the US.
Matt(5:56 PM):  I just wish I could find the doggone thing.
Matt(5:56 PM):  dog gone, get it? when the dogs went, so did the card
Matt(5:57 PM):  its out there in the dingdong snow somewhere.
Matt(5:58 PM):  Hey, I'm sorry, I have to go pick up my wife at the LRT now.  It's been a very nice chat, I'll tell her I've made a new friend today.
Matt(5:58 PM):  Are you on MySpace?







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Sunday, November 09, 2008

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Share your story with President-Elect Obama

Hey,

President-Elect Obama is hard at work getting this country back on track, but he's counting on input from all of us.

I just wrote in to share my vision for where President-Elect Obama should lead the country. This is what I said:

I am a US citizen living in Canada.  We are here because of your predecessor. What you need to do to make the US into a country I would want to live in again would include, but not be limited to, the following:

Re-establish the social support network and regulation that was established under Roosevelt and gutted under Reagan, Clinton and Bush

Insist that Israel remove itself from the occupied territories, and stop their oppression of the Palestinians. If Rahm Emanuel doesn't like it, fire him.

Announce a rapid and complete withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fly to Havana, ending the economic and diplomatic embargo of Cuba, and ask their assistance in establishing a proper healthcare system in the United States.

And have the people that maintain your website fix it so that it will accept a proper Canadian Postal Code when it's entered in the form.

I thought you might want to do the same.

http://www.change.gov/yourvision

Thanks.

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