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SIMS : ROCKS ARE FREE, AND SLINGSHOTS EASILY STOLEN.
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Monday, July 02, 2007
I'm doing a rain dance

Over the weekend, in a story that was little reported, former KGB honcho and current Russian president Vladimir Putin hung out at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport. He was there to discuss the placement of a US missile defense system on European soil. Apparently where we want it and the Russians will tolerate it is a point of dispute.

Fortunately, when Chimpy McFlisghtsuit met Putin the first time, he reported that "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Sure, Putin assassinates political enemies and members of the press, but he's a good guy. You can't get to be a big shot at the KGB if you aren't a real people person.

All of this aside, this isn't really what motivated me to write today. The whole shindig was hosted by former President George H.W. Bush (Those words sound so nice. Former President Bush.), and like any good effete Ivy League Easterner, he knows how to make people feel comfortable. Here's how he explained it to a local radio station:

"What the President wants ... is the ambiance and the background and the life out here just as it is when our family is here . You sit down, no neckties, in a beautiful house looking over the sea and talk frankly without a lot of strap-hangers and note-takers."

"Strap hangers?"

The elitist arrogance of this family never fails to show itself, no matter how much they pretend to be cowboys. The former president and his son are from Milton, Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut respectively. They have not hung from straps all that much. You know who does that sort of thing?

People with jobs. People who go to work every day to make ends meet. People who ride the bus or the train to get to their place of employ, because they actually don't have a limo driver to haul their hungover DWI-having asses to the office.

If the former president was from New York instead of Massachusetts, he might have referred to working scum as "bridge and tunnel types." Fortunately, he had an equally denigrating term to use for people without trust funds.

This entire family has not one clue as to what 98% of the people in this country have to deal with on a daily basis. Anyone recall Barb's analysis of the refugees' situation in Houston after Katrina?

"So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this is working very well for them."

Yeah, living with 20000 others in the Astrodome has got to be an improvement over living in an apartment or home without a sloop for your yacht.

This is more proof to me that there is no god, or at least that there isn't one who gives a damn about the goings on around here. These people of faith, American royalty, who hold such disdain for the poor and those who work, and who make no effort to hide their true feelings...

If there was a god, it should have taken down that whole boat and snuffed out Putin in the bargain.

"Strap-hangers." Fuck you, your highness.

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posted at 11:39 AM

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Thursday, June 07, 2007
Paris Liberated

So, Paris Hilton is out of jail, apparently for health-related issues. Sources tell me that she has a scorching case of Rich White Lady.

But she's not free, lest you be concerned for the safety of your children and prescription pills. She's been confined to her home for the next six and one-half weeks. Now, that might seem harsh to you, but then, you're probably not an heiress.

If you are an heiress, and are a fan of my writing, I would really like to meet you. I believe a mutually beneficial arrangement could be worked out.

But if you are like me, and not the heir to some large fortune or other, then you might think that being confined at home is something of a hardship. Fortunately, her place is a lot nicer than yours. Still, questions remain.

"Will she be allowed out of the house to mow the lawn and other household chores?"

Actually, no. People have been hired to take care of these things for her. They will be paid in cash, under the table.

"Is she to be permitted to go to her place of work?"

Sadly, Paris is currently between jobs, much in the same way that Ronald Reagan is between lives. But with all of these legal problems, how is she supposed to get work?

Paris is free. Maybe there is a God.

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posted at 9:34 AM

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Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Striking It Rich

Things are great, apparently. Every time I look at the news, the economy is good, prosperity abounds, jobs are plentiful, and the stock market is up. I suppose I have to take the President's word for it, since he says it, and keeps saying it. I'll admit, I don't move in the most prestigious circles, but I don't know anyone who is better off financially than they were four or five years ago.

Most of the people I know are doing the same job they've been doing for a few years, and while they may get a lip-service two percent raise (if at all), that doesn't even cover the hike in fuel prices since we invaded Iraq. Lots of people would take better jobs if they existed. I mean, let's face it, if you are trained in a field, and have reached a certain position, it's doubtful you can go across the street to do the same job for another company and expect any type of meaningful boost in pay. Your job pays what it pays, and it's not going to be a great deal more anytime soon, no matter how good you are at it.

But the economy is growing. There are charts and statistics to back it up. So who is prospering? Where is all of this magic happening? Who are the winners? Let's meet these people, and be inspired.

Well, suckers, there are no people.

Who wins? Corporations. Big Business is profiting at record levels, and they aren't doing anything as stupid as rewarding the people whose labor makes it all possible. US companies have the largest cash hoard on hand since the 1920s. Those were good times, sure. As the popular song of the day went, "The rich get richer, the poor get...laid off."

Ain't we got fun?

The 1920s were a wild decade. Bootlegging, flappers, F. Scott Fitzgerald. If you had money, it was high times, indeed. Everything was going really well, and when things are good for the privileged few, everyone knows that those times never end. No one knows what happened in the 30s. That was a long time ago, and I'm sure you're better off not thinking about it. Thinking is bad for you, and can make you depressed.

The crossroads we are at now has to do in large part to the housing bubble in this country, made possible not by quickly rising incomes, but instead by record-low interest rates. A frighteningly large percentage of work in this country has to do with houses: Building them, buying them, selling them, fixing them, improving them, not to mention all of the ancillary industries whose solvency depends on these transactions. We are a country that doesn't actually make anything anymore. If it needs to be made, the Chinese do it for us. The problem with making your living in busywork is that when your services are no longer needed, well, you're screwed.

Interest rates are rising now. The housing market is slowing. Americans will not be building new homes in large numbers. If you do construction, you have a problem.

 With a slowing housing market, prices rise less quickly, and often fall. Homeowners will not be selling their homes as readily, if there is not as much profit to be turned by the transaction. If you sell homes for a living, you have a problem.

When interest rates rise, unemployment figures often follow suit. When people are nervous about their jobs, they become less likely to buy new carpet, refrigerators or a new roof to put on the homes that they have decided to stay in. I'll bet you know someone whose job has to do with furnishing or fixing homes.

I don't have the answer to prevent the ugliness that is certain to come. Actually, that is not completely true. There is only one way to prevent it, and that is to actively bring about change, which will be, at least in the short term, even more frightening. Cycles come and go, and the only way to stop it, is to break it. It's time to start over.

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posted at 10:56 PM

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Ethics, Shmethics

"Ethics" is a word you hear bandied about quite a bit these days, and like any word repeated too often, it begins to lose meaning. So let's define it, or better yet, let Webster's do it:

1 plural but singular or plural in construction : the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation
2 a : a set of moral principles or values b : a theory or system of moral values ethic> c plural but singular or plural in construction : the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group ethics> d : a guiding philosophy

So, ethics is a value system. These things will vary from culture to culture, and as time passes. We grow, we learn, we often realize a set of ethics we believed in was completely wrong. I suppose that's all a part of the human experience, as we attempt to acquire wisdom.

Of course, there's a lot more out there to acquire than wisdom. There's money. And there's power. And if you're rich enough and powerful enough, you can decide what is right and wrong. That's the Golden Rule:

He who has the gold, makes the rules.

And no one knows this better than the ruling class in this country. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has directly and indirectly funneled many millions of dollars to politicians in the United States, is going to jail for bribery, fraud, and plenty of other crimes. The beauty of Abramoff's deal is, he's naming names. He's going to roll over on his friends, which is what lowlifes do. This sets the stage for the possibility, however remote, of seeing some current members of Congress marched off to prison. And, oh, this is a group that needs it.

As Abramoff's deal and conviction became imminent, dozens of our representatives are scrambling to give away the money they were given for favors, influence, and God knows what. As if giving dirty money to charity somehow cleans it, or the act of accepting it in the first place. The investigation will continue.

In the meantime, Congress has discovered its love of doing the right thing, and has vowed reform, to clean up the scandals, to make rules that will somehow keep the ownership class of this country away from the people who make policy. As if one could pry these two apart with a crowbar and dynamite. Which is a pleasant thought...

But it's impossible, because they are one and the same. It is difficult to not think back to a time where Americans were only allowed to vote if they were landowners. It was codified that if you didn't own, your opinion was irrelevant. But then, as now, po' folks was still allowed to join the Army. The working class must be kept busy, lest they become restless and disenchanted with the people in charge.

But giving poor people rifles seems counterproductive. Not a problem. Just keep manufacturing pretenses under which we can ask our poor people to shoot other poor people, ideally, ones who dress differently and speak another language.

Forgive my abrupt change in direction, but Martin Luther King Jr's birthday was earlier this week, and I had some time to re-read some of his speeches. These many years later, King is praised as a man who wanted equality among the races, and that is true. But the activist that he had evolved into is rarely spoken of these days. In his last days, King had become focused on class struggle in the United States.

Doctor King had come to the realization that the struggle was not simply black versus white, but ultimately, rich versus poor. And that's how it always is. Malcolm X railed, at times nonsensically, against "white devils" as he fell deeper and deeper into the madness of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad. But after visiting Mecca, and seeing Muslims of all colors praying together peacefully, he reformed his view. Knowledge and truth are powerful tools. In an interview not long before his murder in 1965, Malcolm, when asked about interracial marriage said this:

"I believe in a society in which people can live like human beings on the basis of equality."

So, he wasn't really talking about race anymore. Weeks later, he would be killed. Three years later, King would meet with Mexican farm workers, coal miners from the Appalachians, organized labor and others. In other words, King's fight was not about racial inequality, but class inequality. By the spring of 1968, Martin Luther King would be assassinated, too.

Organizing one group of working people to fight with another group of working people doesn't bother the owners of this country very much. If a black gang wants to fight a Latino gang or a white one, well, no one who matters very much is going to get hurt. But if those three gangs join together, organize, demand societal change, insist on things like a decent wage or health insurance, well, then they are a threat to all things the Christian ruling class holds dear. And that will be when you see real violence, perpetrated once again on the poor, by order of the shareholders in America Inc.

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posted at 9:58 PM

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Saturday, November 19, 2005
Unity
I was driving around the other day, and I look at cars, and the things people slap onto their bumpers, and I started thinking about where we are. As for me, I put nothing on my car, not even my favorite radio station, because I guess I really don't care if anyone knows my opinion about anything. Why would you want people to know that you've been to Rock City, love Jesus, or wake up with Wally on the Big 96?

Side note: My recent favorite is the one that reads, "In event of the Rapture, vehicle will be unmanned." Arrogant to be sure, and obviously leaving your SUV free to plow into a day care center. Good luck getting into heaven with that on your record, you righteous twat.

We're a year past the election, and I still see "W" stickers on people's cars, and I suppose that's just a "My guy won! I'm a winner, too!" I also see the Kerry/Edwards stickers, which I suppose indicate the "I lost, but I'm no loser" sentiment. I can't really speak to that, at least without coughing up blood.

I don't remember seeing so many political stickers on cars so long after an election as I see now. I started thinking about what that might mean. I added that in with the "God Bless America" and "Support Our Troops" magnets, and it really crystallized what has happened here over the past five years.

It is no secret that the US is horribly divided at this point in time. I mean, the rift is huge. There is so little middle ground, it makes it very easy to dismiss a great deal out of hand, and it provides little room for anything to get done. I think of what this administration has accomplished in terms of sowing hate between people of different classes, races, faiths, economic levels, you name it, and it is such a complete job that it could only have been done on purpose.

There is no meaningful political discourse in this country anymore. One side spins something, the other side yells about the lies being told, and back and forth it goes. It's pointless, and boring. I guess if Bush was my guy, I might feel smug and validated, but certainly some supporters must be appalled by the cost, monetarily, in blood, and just in terms of the toxic political landscape we suffer under. No one has any credibility, only power, but I suppose that's the only thing that matters.

I mean, I am trying to understand what the administration is trying to accomplish, and I can't see the point, unless they are just trying to take as much as they can for themselves and their cronies, the future be damned. I honestly can't understand what other goal they could have in mind, and it's doubly beautiful couched in a religious moralism.

"God gave me two hands so that I could take as much as I could with both of them!"

The Democrats have nothing to offer either, and no one knows that better than I do. All I can say in their defense is that:

They don't think science is a passing fad.
Education and knowledge are considered valuable, not a detriment.
Faith is valued, but it is personal and not to be imposed on others.
Democrats don't appear to be hellbent on destroying the environment. It may yet happen on their watch, but I don't believe it will be with forethought and malice.
I don't think they would consider cutting 50 billion dollars from food stamps and other programs for the poor as the GOP voted to do this week, all while offering another $70 billion tax cut for the wealthy.

Those things are enough to tilt me in that general direction. The entirely divisive manner in which things are being run is all the more ironic since George ran on a platform to be a uniter, not a divider. That, and the "compassionate conservative" bit are just stomach-turning when you realize where we are now.

Divide and conquer is not just the wisdom of Sun-Tzu. It is business as usual for the people running the country. And do not kid yourself, if you are not a millionaire, you are on the wrong team, and should hold no hope of any improvement in your situation.

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posted at 4:53 PM

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Thursday, November 03, 2005
"An affront to me, and to the United States of America."
The other night, Senate Democrats pulled a little known maneuver which sent the Senate into a secret session. During this two-hour meeting, Democrats demanded to know the status of the Intelligence Committee's investigation into the White House's run-up to war in Iraq.

Over a year ago, Democrats asked the Republican leadership for a report, and Republicans declined, stating that it was too close to the election to get into. Well, it's been a year, and for some reason, Congress just doesn't seem interested in finding out who is responsible for the volumes of bogus information that George W. Bush used to justify a pre-emptive attack on a helpless Iraq. The result of this action by minority leader Harry Reid, is that a bipartisan committee of senators will report on the progress on November 14th. So, something may yet get done, apparently.

The part that absolutely sends me into fits of giggling is the reaction of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Now, Frist is a bright guy, a doctor even, and he is certainly thinking about running for president in 2008. But apparently, he has been inside the big dome for a little too long, just based on his reaction to the action taken by Democrats.

"This is an affront to me personally," said Frist, a Tennessee Republican. "This is an affront to our leadership. It is an affront to the United States of America, and it is wrong."

An affront? Who speaks like this? I'll tell you who. Royalty. People with a sense of entitlement. Your social and economic betters who believe they should never, ever have their motives and actions questioned. How dare they!

People who work for a living don't suffer from effrontery. We may be offended, or belittled, or lectured to by pompous windbags like Senator Frist, but rarely are we in a position to be affronted. Affront costs, baby.

And the Republican leadership complains of this being a stunt pulled by these unscrupulous Democrats, and I suppose it is. When you have been squelched at every opportunity while trying to investigate possible criminal acts and conspiracies, I guess you may have to turn to desperate measures. Not that the Republicans know anything about stunts.

The President's poll numbers are down! Quick! Raise the terror alert level to magenta!

The middle class wants affordable health care! Get a flag burning amendment on the floor!

We can't find the guy who attacked us on 9/11! Start a war with Iraq, and make up any evidence you need to justify it!

Pot? Meet kettle.

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posted at 3:17 PM

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Saturday, September 03, 2005
What I did last summer

By George W. Bush

"I took a five-week vacation, ignored a bereaved mother, and slept while I should have been ordering National Guard troops to evacuate New Orleans. Then I got ice cream!"

Oh, summer with George. He knows how to take it easy, that's for sure. Remember his back to school essay from summer 2001?

"I took a month-long vacation! I cleared brush, and wore checkered shirts! And I read a memo about some bad man with a beard who wants to fly planes into buildings. But I didn't understand very much of it. Summer rocks!"

Now obviously, these are not the President's writings. I have corrected for grammar and spelling.

But where the hell was George? The hurricane hit New Orleans Monday morning, and they knew it was going to land there on Saturday. What was the administration doing for that 48 hours? Defending Iraq, comparing Pearl Harbor to September 11th (now corrected to have Iraqi pilots in those Mitsubishi planes), and just generally being an absentee landlord. And no one is more sickened than I that my previous posting was so dead-on.

No assistance showed up until Thursday. Nothing. The people stranded in the city were completely ignored by the federal government. There is a lot of talk that the reason is because they are black. That's really just part of it. The main issue is that, they are poor. The people with money, that is to say, who vote, got in their cars, and left. If you have no car, it's probably tough to evacuate with five days worth of food, water, and clothing. And it's not as if there was anyplace you could walk to, lugging all of that stuff, that would have been safe.

And now the backlash begins. Against the administration? Don't be stupid. We have to blame the media. "Look at them, covering the looters. What about all the people who got rescued? "

Come on.

The people who got rescued are the saddest of all. They are stuck in areas with far too many other people in the same situation, with no food, no water, no toilets, and all in 90+ degrees and 90% plus humidity. Under normal conditions, New Orleans is unbearable this time of the year. And the stench of death, and shit, and thousands of people stuck in the sun with no soap has got to be stultifying. It is a nightmare.

Could all of it have been prevented? Probably not. But nothing was done in advance. Nothing. I don't think George gave this thing a second thought, and if he did, maybe he prayed for his favorite philosopher to move that big bad hurricane away. Bush is simply disconnected from what the average person goes through. He hasn't got any understanding of what it's like to struggle. I don't know if he looks at all this, and just doesn't care. I think he sees it, and it's like a dog looking at a physics problem. He just doesn't see it, and what he does see, is alien to his mind.

"Your highness, the people have no bread to eat."

"Then let them eat cake."

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posted at 1:58 PM

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Friday, May 20, 2005
What a set of wedding balls!

I've become accustomed to not having a lot of spare money laying around, and even though I'd just assume have a little more to make my life easier, I don't lose any sleep over it. Now after reading the following, I realize how stupid I really am:

http://www.lexpress.mu/display_article_sup.php?news_id=42091

Once again, we are simply destroying ourselves by our own optimism. People want to have storybook or celebrity-quality weddings, and dammit, they are neither celebrities, or living a fairytale existence. What a fucking bummer. Well, no point in letting reality get in the way of your big day, just ask your idiot friends and family to foot the bill!

Let me say something nice here about television. I love it. Like any good relationship, you have to put up with a fair amount of crap, but when things are good, like when the Simpsons is on, ooh baby...Ecstasy.

I can even watch silly crap like MTV's Cribs once in awhile. I kind of don't really give a damn about the celebrities, but it's often interesting to see what people with unlimited budgets do with their private space. Sometimes it's impressive, other times all you can think is, "Well, you can't buy class." It's sort of an Extreme Dos and Don'ts, but occasionally you see something, an architectural layout or a piece of furniture, and it gets you thinking about your own space. No harm in it.

But, I keep my TV inside the tube where it belongs, and I don't let it intrude on my life. TV should be an occasional pleasant distraction, and a babysitter for your kids, but nothing more. It's not a guide to life, especially those church channels. Egad.

It's ok to want things, I suppose. I'm not sure if it's healthy to pine about stuff, but it's fine to desire something lovely, if it will actually make you happy in some way. An aside...

Several years ago, I came into a nice chunk of change, just over ten grand. It was highly unusual to just have that kind of loot on me, and I had no real plans for it. But I was out one day, and I wandered into a contemporary furniture store, and there was lots of cool stuff in there. So, I spot this dining room table, and trust me, it would take far too long to describe it to you, even though the design was fairly simple, but suffice it to say, I wanted the thing. It was just a beautiful piece. The cost? Seven thousand bucks. I'm basically standing there with 11 grand in my pocket, and I could have bought it, and still made the rent. But I knew that I did have some other bills to pay, and even though technically I could afford it, it just wasn't the best use of the money at the time. I had to be realistic, because no one was going to hand me another pile of cash the following month. So, I left the store. I did end up buying an Armani suit, which I still have, so it's not as if I didn't have a little bit of fun with the dough. So shut up.

But it never occurred to me to send out a letter to my loved ones reading, "Dear suckers, my birthday is coming up some time in the next twelve months, and I want this table, so please send cash, and thank you." I feel pretty stupid now, in retrospect. The problem is that I was raised right. Dammit.

Once again, people and their unrealistic expectations are fucking up this country. You are not entitled to an expensive wedding, a fantastic exotic honeymoon, or even one gift! You should stop expecting anything. Figure out what you can afford, and then spend only half that much. Weddings are nice, but the industry is a racket almost beyond compare. Besides, it's the marriage, not the wedding that matters, and you can have a great relationship without a 9-tiered cake.

And if you should receive an invitation to a wedding where they ask you to bring your checkbook, reply promptly that you will be unable to attend, and that the bride and groom are classless and should fuck off and die. Oh, and take the stamp off the return envelope so it gets there postage due.

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posted at 1:27 AM

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Thursday, February 10, 2005
Watch as I save Social Security

Lots of horseshit floating around about Social Security these days. The truth is, the only thing wrong with the system, is that it doesn't pay out enough. The "crisis" which will occur, if absolutely nothing is done before 2042, is that there won't be enough to pay full benefits at that point. I can solve the problem in one sentence:

Raise my Social Security tax a dollar a week.

There I did it. I'm not even going to suggest that rich people should pay more. I'd like to think maybe it would occur to someone with money to give up, hell two bucks a week, but I don't want to engage in "class warfare" by picking on the defenseless wealthy among us. I pity them so much.

A buck a week from all working people leaves Social Security solvent for another 200 years. My alternate solution is to start killing Baby Boomers.

What on Earth could make you say such a thing? Well, let's take a look back...

Right up until 1945, Americans had a trait called personal responsibility. We preferred to be left alone and not bothered by the government, domestic or foreign. But when it was time to step up, Americans sacrificed, shed blood, and did what was necessary to fight for our country. From the Revolutionary War, to the Civil War, World Wars I & II, and all the skirmishes in between, America sucked it up, and stepped to the plate, right up until Germany and Japan were defeated in 1945.

Then the soldiers came home, most of them still in their twenties, and they had earned some normalcy. They had done nothing less than save the world, and the time had come to live the American Dream. They got married, and they bought houses, and they started having kids.

What irony that perhaps the most selfless generation would give birth to the most selfish generation.

These children grew up during the rise of the economic fortune of the Middle Class. They went to school, they came home, and for most of them, life was pretty comfortable. That's pretty much life the way you'd want it.

These Boomers came of age in the 1960's, and they decided that this beautiful world that had been handed to them, still wet with the blood of the previous generation, wasn't good enough. And I'm not talking about the heroes of all shades who marched for civil rights or other just causes. I'm talking about the shiftless bastards who decided that being 18 or 25 or 30 didn't make them adults. Childhood had to be extended for these children, because they were soft. So, they spent ten or fifteen years high and or drunk. Of course, when they started having kids of their own, all they had for you was "Just say no!"

"Oh, sure, the 60s and Disco were great times, and the drugs were phenomenal, but make sure that you never EVER try them! Same thing with casual sex. Just because your parents were slutty trash didn't make it right."

Hypocrites.

And even when their war started, the ones from the "best families" all took a pass. So much prosperity had allowed this myopic generation to go to college, unlike most of their parents, and they clung to it, suddenly filled with the spirit of learning.

"Hmm, stay in school and get high, or go to Vietnam and fight for my country. Fuck it, let the poor kids do it."

Yeah, I'm talking about the goddamned President and Vice President of The United States. But I'm also talking about Bill Clinton and the thousands (millions) of other kids who skated because Daddy was a Senator, or Mommy came from a family that mattered. These people, to quote Dick Cheney had "priorities that lay elsewhere." So as usual, the working class and the poor got to go wade in the shit.

The 80s came along. Some sobered up a bit, but many weren't quite ready to quit the cocaine binges. Wall Street went crazy and this the progeny of great men and women decided to make greed a virtue. Get all you can, as fast as you can. If you can't get rich, you're stupid. By 1990, these spoiled pricks were in positions of power all through American government. They made deals with auto makers and oil companies, and SUVs happened. Finally, a 45 year-old woman living in the suburbs had a 400 horsepower vehicle that could scale a sheer cliff! The fact that it would never get any closer than three feet to a speck of dirt was hardly important.

Once again, it was all about them. Cut down trees, use up the oil, who cares? They realized they weren't going to live forever after all, so they may as well use up as much as they could. Locusts, nothing more.

They also found religion. And "morals." All those years of telling their parents how wrong their values were, and they ended up more conservative that their parents.

"God must love me. After all, he made me the center of the universe."

And now, the same kids who ran from war when it was their turn, have grown consciences, and wish to fight a Crusade against people who pray differently. And by the way, these 40 and 50-somethings are perfectly content to, once again, let the poor kids fight for them. And they have certainly seen to it that we have a huge supply of poor to go this time around. It's a long term strategy, and it's been in play for almost 25 years now.

And it's the same with Social Security. They know they won't need it. Boardroom thievery and sweetheart deals have allowed these miscreants to sock away huge nest eggs. Sure, a lot of people lost their jobs, their homes, or their medical insurance, but that wasn't important. The Boomers got theirs. They don't need a government pension, so they're going to take away yours. They plan to invest all of this money in the stock market, further enriching themselves and their cronies, regardless of the fact that it will undoubtedly be nothing more than a government-approved Ponzi scheme. You may lose all of your money, but the guys holding stock will be just fine, so don't worry.

These are greedy people who justify their avarice with the Bible. They are the worst kind. It is not enough that they already have theirs; they want what little you have for themselves as well. A solution that would cost them a dollar a week is too high a price to pay to ease the suffering of people they don't know, and don't care to know.

Look at it this way: Millions of working people get no medical care. Ultimately, their lives will be shortened as treatable conditions will become life-threatening problems. There will be no safety net. They will die, many before they reach 65. A good 21st century conservative would undoubtedly reply, "See? Problem solved."

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posted at 10:33 PM

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Saturday, November 06, 2004
Very Sleepy

That's how I feel, but I've been slacking on the blog, so I wanted to let you know I hadn't killed myself. I've been working a lot of hours, and let this thing fall by the wayside. But I'll try to do better.

As for the election, it's finally over, and that's good. Having hope for change was kind of wearing me out, and now that Bush has his "mandate" (according to Dick Cheney), and has earned "political capital, which I intend to spend" (according to himself), I can pretty much officially give up. The brain tells me that things are going to get even worse, and yet...

Karl Rove is a genius. He knew that by appealing to the worst instincts of the Republican base, he could get even poor white trash to vote contrary to their own economic interests. That's actually quite an accomplishment, if you think about it. This administration has spent four years demonstrating, with no hemming or hawing, that it is only interested in making things simpler for corporations and the wealthy who own them. And we all understand why people who have to work too hard to stay even ended up voting the way they did. It's been examined to death, and I won't rehash it now. Yeah, the lowest common denominator thing again...

But now that the suckers, ah, the people have spoken, what happens next? I'm no optimist, as regular readers may have divined. But the part of me that still has hope (for some reason) wonders about the following scenario:

George W. Bush was appointed to office by the Supreme Court in 2000, after losing the popular vote. He spends four years, assisted in his quest, if we are to be blunt, by Islamic terrorists, scaring the hell out of Americans, and gutting the civil liberties of those of us too stupid to be moved by fear. He appeals to bigotry and ignorance in many forms, and Real Americans turn out in record numbers on November 2 to save our land from towel-heads and damned liberals.

George has no more elections ahead of him. He has no reason to pander to anyone. I'm sure Ralph Reed feels he is owed something, but in reality, has no way to collect it. So, what if...

What if George decides to appoint moderate judges for the inevitable vacancies that the Supreme Court will have open before 2008? He can always tell his base that he is being statesman-like by compromising, and they believe everything their told, anyway. So, maybe?

What if George decides to go back to the UN and make a pitch for a multilateral effort at ridding the world of terrorists? Would they listen? I just don't know. The problem is, that the world is a big set of scales, and America is the largest thing on them. And as scales wish to stay balanced, the further America moves away from balance, the rest of the world lines itself up in a manner to counterbalance our position. If everyone looks to be moving away from us, well, we're moving away from them, too.

My optimism has limits, of course. Will George start trying to help Americans get good jobs and improved health care? I doubt it. Why should he? This administration has been quite clear in it's disdain for the working man, and they ran out in droves to re-elect him. So, I can't even hope for improvement in an economic sense. The stock market is more important than the supermarket, and ultimately, I can't really afford to dabble in either.

In the meantime, I will take solace in the pending resignation of John Ashcroft, who as Bill Maher speculated, wanted to get back to his first love, "standing on a street corner, ranting about the coming end of the world." I'll be glad to see him go, although we look to be burdened with the so-called Patriot Act for the foreseeable future. Small victories, I guess I should take them where I find them.

So, I probably won't watch too much TV for awhile, and that's likely a good thing. I'll try to discuss other things in this forum, although I probably won't. I'm still pretty irritable, but I am working hard at becoming resigned. And I'm told that I can always find peace in Jesus, and for better or worse, I don't have to even look for him. Apparently, the FBI has already given him my address.

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posted at 11:59 AM

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Thursday, October 21, 2004
It Looms

Each day that goes by, we get more and more stories of voting "irregularities" in certain swing states. It gives you the impression that Florida in 2000 is going to seem utterly quaint by the end of the year.

Missouri - This state has 4.3 million election age voters. Guess how many have registered? 4.2 million. I had no idea Missourians were so civic-minded. (Unlikely)

Ohio - Thousands of absentee ballots already sent out have a typo on them. Why must I nitpick? The typo "inadvertently" involved the disappearance of the letters "K-E-R-R-Y." (Obvious)

Nevada - A judge refuses to reopen registration in Clark County where a Republican-funded group apparently destroyed thousands of voter registration cards on which people had the temerity to select "Democrat" as their affiliation. Clark County is where Las Vegas is, by the way. (Obvious)

And, of course...

Florida - Thousands of, ah, ethnic-sounding names purged from the registration rolls.
Asian-sounding names? Hispanic? No, not so much. But if your name happens to be Leonard Washington, I wouldn't count on making it into the booth this year. The governor's fingerprints are literally all over this one.

In a trial run last week, voting machines malfunctioned and thousands of test votes disappeared. The problem is that they overheated. But you know, it never gets hot in Florida...

How have we come to this? We already allow the ownership class in this country so much leeway. We know that their kids will go to better schools, including college. We know that they will get breaks when it comes to securing jobs. We know that these people always protect one another, unless of course, there is a dollar to be made by stabbing someone in the back.

But why have we ceded to these people the right to choose our leaders? Are we really so lazy and apathetic? I'm not so naive that I believe that the election of one candidate over another will instantly make things better. Frankly, my inclination is to give Bush another four years, and let him clean up his own fucking messes.

Iraq: We won't win if we stay, and we won't win if we leave.
The deficit: No matter who wins, we will be paying interest on this gargantuan thing for decades.
Partisanship: I think we may never go back to a time where people were able to put the good of the nation ahead of the advancement of party politics.

It's pretty depressing, and I understand why people don't participate, I really do. Giving Bush another term would serve him right. If there was any justice, impeachment hearings would have begun 18 months ago.

But since that won't happen, he has to go in November, and I'll again say why: The Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court justices are aging faster than Trump's show, and even with their conservative bent, they are the only thing standing between us and an Ashcroft/Bush Christianization of all public institutions in this country. In his nominations for lower judgeships, Bush has very clearly been promoting not simply conservative judges, but reactionary ones. If you are a woman, a non-Christian, or any sort of minority in this country, you really ought to be frightened. And not like "I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out at Wal-Mart" scared. I'm talking "I hope I don't have to thank Jesus for my textbooks in class" kind of scared.

Think you may want to have an abortion? If Bush gets re-elected, you'd better spend most of December having them, because by 2008, it won't be an option. Want to protest against the war? Better hurry up, because by 2006, that will be considered as treason, and you will be jailed. Feel like writing a blog that doesn't tow the party line? Get it out of your system because even at this point, the FBI has broad powers to invade your privacy, and lock you up. If the so-called PATRIOT Act is renewed or further expanded, dissent in this country will be further criminalized. And please, don't be a Jew, Muslim, or God forbid, an atheist. Those are fake religions, and Jesus tells me so. Well, he tells George W. Bush it's so, and I'm sure the President would never stoop to lying about his deep, DEEP religious convictions. What would he have to gain? Oh, yeah. Another four years in office, bankrupting this country in every sense of the word.

I don't care what you believe in, honestly. Whatever gets you through the day without killing someone else is a good thing. But if you honestly believe in this country, and care about it at all, we have to change course. Stop taking it for granted, and stand up for your own freedom. Ask around, it can be taken away.

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posted at 6:29 AM

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Thursday, October 14, 2004
Pay up, bitch.

To begin with, I did not see the debate last night, so I won't comment on it. Unfortunately, I had to work.

And as I drove in, I noticed that gas has gone up about twenty-five cents in the past month. I regretted that I'd be missing the final debate of the 2004 presidential race, as I was hoping to hear what Uncle George was going to do about this problem. But I knew that he'd be too busy spouting off about how Kerry was going to tax and spend us back to the Stone Age to say anything substantive.

Remember back in early 2001 when Dick Cheney had his private meetings with Ken Lay of Enron and a dozen other corporate criminals, as they set the energy policy for the US? Well, even though no one will discuss what went on at the meetings, the Bush administration's energy policy has become readily apparent:

Two dollar a gallon gasoline.
Fifty-plus dollar a barrel oil.
Begging the Saudi royal family to pump more oil.

And you staunch Republicans out there might pacify yourself with the notion that if that's what the market will bear, then that's just how it is. So you are willing to pay 100 bucks a week to keep your Hummer rolling, and maybe that's patriotic in it's own warped way. And yet, you are so opposed to taxes.

Why is that? Do you really believe that your personal comfort, which would only be minimally impacted by driving a reasonable vehicle, is more important than the fiscal condition of your country? Life is better with a poorly educated citizenry? You are comfortable with cutbacks in police and fire protection? You're ok with porous borders, and next to no regulation of shipping containers coming in to the country? Are you honestly so selfish?

And how do you jibe that with your so-called Christianity? Aren't you somehow compelled/obligated to do right by those less fortunate? I know that in reality your view is "I got mine, fuck you," but if that's the case, why do you put any real stake in a candidate's "values?" In your view, Bush is a better Christian than Kerry. Why? Because he says so? Is it Christian to make things harder for the sick and poor? Is it Christian to have 45 million people without health insurance, so many of then kids? Is it Christian to waste precious resources like oil? Is it Christian to let your government send poorer Christians to go fight Muslims, so you have the freedom to waste even more oil? How do you reconcile that?

And after all, the government's lax policies in the area of fuel conservation, in conjunction with our failed foreign policy, have basically resulted in a tax on fuel. Compared to four years ago, you now pay a seventy-five cent per gallon tax every time you fill your vehicle. You pay it when you get your electric bill. You pay it at the grocery store, and everyplace else, because it costs them more to get their products to the shelf. Virtually all plastics, which includes clothing fibers, are derived from petroleum, so they cost more, too. Everything costs more, and the only way to avoid this de facto tax is to not spend, and that would make you a bad American.

Your government is taxing you, and it never shows up on your check stub. It's showing up on your receipts. It's showing up in your dwindling checking account. And it shows up in the lint at the bottom of your pockets. This administration wants to be your friend so much that it lies to you. And you enable it by going along with half-truths and outright lies, because you have been told it is unpatriotic to do otherwise. With George Bush, you don't have to wait until April to pay taxes. You get to pay every day of the year. And not just in money. You pay in credibility, of which America is nearly bereft. You pay in increased terrorist activity. And if we continue down this blindly reactionary path, you will pay for it with the blood of your sons and daughters. The future of America is happening in Fallujah. The reports will eventually come from Amman, or Pyongyang, or Tehran, but they will come.

There are truly dangerous people in the world, who honestly don't care whether you live or die. And some of them live and work on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

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posted at 7:42 PM

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Friday, October 08, 2004
Debate 10/8

Well, we finished up the second of three presidential debates earlier tonight. I initially thought that the town hall format would favor George Bush, but really, I didn't notice anything that gave him or Kerry a clear advantage. Senator Kerry did a lot of things that indicated his past debate experience; Addressing the questioner by name, linking one answer to a previous question, etc. And the president was typically on message, although less so than the first debate.

I never watch these things expecting anything too shocking, but I have to admit there was something that surprised the hell out of me. I'm going to have to review the program to see what the topic was, but President Bush was asked a question, then Kerry responded. Something he said infuriated Bush, and Charles Gibson, the moderator, was about to give George some time to respond to Kerry. All of a sudden, Bush is out of his chair, waving his arms around, yelling, "I'd like to respond!"

And Gibson is trying to give Bush the floor, and the President keeps getting louder, and louder, as he advanced in Gibson's direction. It was creepy, and completely outside of any behavior I had expected to see. George was livid, and obviously so. So much for all of that good breeding and charm school.

I don't watch the post-debate spin shows, so I don't know if the talking heads focused on that, but I'm sure it'll be obvious tomorrow in the paper. The man was clearly knocked off stride, and his reaction gave you a real idea of the way he truly is.

George W. Bush is a son of privilege. He has had every advantage. He has been coddled his entire life. No one ever bothered to say "no" to him. And it's all because of who he is, not what he's done. He is the finest example why we formed a democracy, to stop kings passing rule to their idiot, inbred offspring. The idea that each citizen of this amazing place can grow up to be president is debunked. It probably has been for a long time, really.

So, maybe I'm the one in denial. I don't want to be president, but it'd be sort of cool to think that I could be.

Well, why can't you be, blog-boy?

1) I am not, and have never been a millionaire.

Another telling sign that we don't really prefer democracy over plutocracy is evidenced by who we elect, and even who runs for high office.

George W. Bush - millionaire
John Kerry - millionaire
Al Gore - millionaire
Bill Clinton - Well, the next thing you know, old Jed's a, yeah, you see a trend here.

We want to be ruled by our betters. And we judge human worth in America the same way we measure net worth. If you're rich, you must be smart. Also, charming, beautiful and worth following.

2) I am not an attorney.

Every single one of these bastards is a lawyer. I'm not fundamentally opposed to lawyers, although I am properly cynical about them. And I suppose if you are going to make laws, you should have an advanced understanding of them. Still, I believe that the study of the law is more than anything, likely to make you distrustful of the meaning of words. You understand their power, and ability to obfuscate and deceive.

3) I am not a Christian.

I don't really know if I even believe in a god or not. I suppose that makes me agnostic, and that's ok. There are lots of things I don't know about, and the meaning of life and the nature of the universe are right at the top of the list. The bible doesn't answer my questions. It's not the word of god. It's the word of men who had a vested interest in keeping other men in line.

And I won't pretend to love Jesus just to pander to people who do. It's the most disgusting thing imaginable, to try and sneak into people's confidence by professing belief. I'll allow that maybe these dicks who make it to the top of the political pile may believe in god, but that just makes them hypocrites. Bush spent his life between the ages of 15 and 45 being drunk, high, irresponsible, and living in a way completely devoid of value. But like criminals who find Allah in prison, George found Jesus under a Pabst keg outside of Midland, Texas. And now, he's president of the United States.

Why can't the small business owner who pays his employees decently and provides health coverage ever be president? What about the factory worker who gets his college degree at night school? Why not a nurse? How did we get stuck in this awful cycle of righteous, two-faced weasels? What did we do to deserve this?

Answer if you want. Otherwise, I'll just add another entry.

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posted at 9:18 PM

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Saturday, July 17, 2004
Ken Lay

It was awfully nice to see Kenny-Boy doing his perp walk, although rather belatedly. I mean, when did Enron finally eat it? November 2001? That seems like a ridiculously long time between starting an investigation of massive fraud, and finally getting around to indicting the CEO that made it happen. My guess is, either the feds are likely too inept to put together a decent case despite the voluminous evidence against Lay, or, you know, maybe Kenny has friends in high places or something. Could be a combo of the two...

So, during the first months of the Bush administration, when Lay and his cronies were given all-expenses paid trips to Washington DC to set the energy policy for the entire fucking country, it must have been just unbelievably grand for Kenny-Boy. These guys must have felt like a pedophile that was just put in charge of a Boy Scout troop. You can just see these bastards, sitting around with Dick Cheney, smoking cigars, and laughing their asses off at the prospect of absolutely RAPING Americans by creating false energy shortages.

"So, we have carte blanche to steal billions from working people? Hooray! We'll be slightly richer!"

But, like so often happens with criminals, they got greedy, tried to steal too much, and their scam imploded. Enron, one of the ten largest corporations in the US, went kaflooey, thousands of employees lost lucrative jobs, and millions of people whose pensions depended on Enron's made up profit reports will now be able to retire approximately ten years after they die. Americans were incensed, and demanded justice. No one forms an angrier lynch mob than we do, and at times like this, you grab a rope and start at the top.

Jeffrey Skilling! Gotcha, bitch!
Steven and Leah Fastow? Gotcha, bitches! Wait a minute...

These people were certainly in powerful jobs at Enron, but they weren't The Boss. That's weird, why didn't the government go after the CEO for nearly three years? I mean, aside from being in charge, we also know that Kenny-Boy gave his employees and investors a glowing state of the company speech literally moments before dumping tens of millions of dollars of his own Enron stock. I'm sure it must have been hard for him to dump his own company's shares, but he was brave enough to sell while the price was high. Showing indecision at a time like that, and hesitating could have really cost him a lot of dough. This bastard piloted an ocean liner onto a reef, and floated away on a mountain of cash so large as to be nearly incomprehensible to stupid assholes like you who work for a living. So really, try not to think about it, you'll just get angry. And it seems like we didn't.

But, I guess the mountain of evidence has piled too high, and now, the feds have to go after the president's dear friend. I'm glad George and Dick kept the prosecutors off of Lay for all this time, because now they can spend the rest of this election year answering questions about it. They should have cut this guy loose immediately, but these are men who feel they can do anything they want and never suffer consequences. For the most part, they've been right. Ideally, it will cost Bush the election. You'd like to think that the millions of poor and middle class white Americans who consider themselves conservative would wake up and realize one important fact: Republicans, while seemingly trying to make everything an issue of race and/or "values" are actually only interested in economic class. These people aren't patently racist. If you are black or Hispanic, and you think the Republicans have nothing to offer you, it's not because you're brown. It's because you aren't rich.

If Americans would just wake up and see this, we could actually start growing this country again, and become the envy of the world, instead of a rogue nation that fights wars of choice, and justifies them by invoking god at every opportunity. We need to boot this ignorant, elitist, CRIMINAL administration. The only downside, unfortunately, is that if we make George a one-termer like his dad, he'll probably pardon Kenny-Boy and all of these other scumbags, and they'll all go back to Texas, drink margaritas, and find another way to fuck America. They've been doing it for decades, after all.

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posted at 1:35 PM

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