Blue Poo: A new Fouroboros department's maiden post

We haven't been gloating around here about the election because, well, we're better than that. Okay, partly true. We have lots of pre-election predictions and I told you so's, fully linkable and linked aplenty way down there. The reason is there's not much to gloat about. America's still in ditch, in a busted jeep, and the fixing ain't easy. But it's paradise, really, compared agaisnt being a corporal pinned down in Mesopotamian side street in an under-armored Hummer.

Okay, those niceties out of the way, here's the deal: Confidence, Credibility, Consistency. Democrats can't claim or earn those three sustainably without showing they understand their pattern and proof, frailty as well as their power.

The election was about a critical overload of bullshit on the part of many people. Many D, some R, lotsa Independents. But it's really important for smart folk to know and point out that this hucksterism overload isn't specific only to politics. It's cultural--applicable to business, media, politics, and the leaderships within the whole cracked pot.

I think it has a lot to do with a specific age group called Boomers, and I'll be posting some depth on what I think the phenomena is and means in a day or so. (It's sitting in the drafts for a week or so but I'm checking some facts via the day job resources.) Anyway, that cracked pot contains some real Blue stink, or just the appearance or whiffs of it to be chased down, also.

That election was about an American self-identity bent to almost-breaking around a concept (that we all claim, at least) to hold dear: Straight shooting and fairness. The bouncees were bounced due to "corruption" in large measure. But that's a fuller meaning than normally used. The dictionary sez corruption isn't just taking a bribe. It's the general decline of principles, honesty, loyalty, integrity leading to the subversion of truth for gain, or to avoid account for deeds done. It generally unmoors the whole trust/fair/faith/risk/reciprocation thingy. Some people say those words describe healthy markets. I would. Basically, corruption is the opposite of vigorous and healthy growth.

Now, in a way, somone's gotta have some age on them, or have doubts about their own ability to do more healthy growing and creating before "corruption" starts to seem like a viable alternative. Or, somehow, Mom and Dad or DNA really screwed up and that someone just turned out to be a prodigy ratbag scum. Either way, corruption is apolitical but especially attractive for organisms and organizations whose merit is in question.

And every organization's merit is in question. Until they prove otherwise, and continually do so when the situation presents. And situations always present.

Blue Poo #1:

TPMmuckraker:

MuckWatch: We Pick Our Favorite Dems

The Democrats swept into the majority in Congress vowing to fight the culture of corruption. Bad news for the muckraking biz, right? Thankfully, less-than-squeaky pasts don't appear to be a factor in the Dems' reasoning as they divvy up leadership posts and committee chairs. Here are our favorite Democrats poised to take key positions:

Rep. Alan Mollohan (WV): He's set to take the chair of the very appropriations panel in whose purse strings he has already entangled himself. (He has helped steer nearly $500 million in taxpayer money to his rural district, half of which has gone to five organizations Mollohan created with friends.) As a result, he's under FBI investigation. Enough said.

Rep. John Murtha (PA): Likely to chair the Defense Appropriations subcommittee. Murtha's been tagged as a shameless earmarker, spending tens of millions on projects nobody wants to benefit his friends and his district. He's already been caught on tape by the FBI explaining how he works scams, so at least if the Feds pick up his trail again, they'll know what to look for. With massive classified budgets and a long history of wasteful spending, this post is ripe for abuse....

Jack Murtha's covered here, Alcee Hastings too.

Next, it looks like Barack Obama and Harry Reid will be explaining the vagaries of land speculation more clearly. Confidence, Credibility, Consistency boys. Use it or lose it, earn it or burn it.