it wasn't a boom, gas prices, and al-Zarqawi...

ok...i am seriously getting entirely too sick of people calling for a return of the "boom" years of the 90's under clinton. it was not a boom...it was nothing like previous booms in this country that had as their foundation an increase in manufacturing, a strengthening of infrastructure and an expanding middle class with the accompanying shrinking of the gap between salaries...but then nobody gives a rats ass about any of that anymore. all anyone cares about now is the bottom line, how much capital can you generate...that is all that matters. our so-called "boom" was based on a lie, the lie that growth in capital means economic growth...it doesn't, history has consistently shown us that ridiculous growth in capital not accompanied by a lifting of lower classes and a stronger industrial/manufacturing infrastructure is merely the first tell-tale sign of an economy about to fall apart. who are all these people that were so much better off in the 90's? were they the middle class that found it harder and harder to afford a middle class life? were they the blue collar workers that witnesses their salaries stagnate and fall farther and farther behind those of the top executives who were managing to steal their pensions and bankrupt their companies? were they all the people in the inner-city "moved" off the welfare rolls? no...they were the ones that already were booming...the top executives, the richest of the richest. our obsession with capital did not create a boom, it created a crack that is becoming a chasm. so please...stop with the "boom" crap.

gas prices are creeping up and up and set to skyrocket again this summer. i am totally torn when it comes to high gas prices. on one hand, i cannot stand the american gluttonous need for vehicles with ridiculously low gas mileage and the accompanying ridiculously low practicality of those vehicles. so if high gas prices will get the asshole out of his hummer and into a honda, so be it. unfortunately, the asshole is still in his hummer...and it is the poorest that get hit the hardest when gas prices soar. that is especially true in a city/state like this where there has been nothing close to a serious and sufficient investment in public transportation. so what are we to do? i say tax the holy shit out of any new suv or other vehicle that can't get at the very least 20 miles per gallon...seriously, is that too much to ask? make those taxes especially high if you live in an urban area, because that thing is fucking useless to you in the city and only serves to block my view of the skyline and possible holes in traffic i can slip into. then hit them again with higher taxes at the pump, but figure out a way to tax the asshole in the hummer ten times more than the poor schmuck working for minimum wage and driving the beater. how, i don't know, but hell, we're smart inventive folk, we can figure something out. we put people on the moon for christ's sake. next, huge tax credits for the poor to assist in making up the difference, we already do it for natural gas, why not at the pump? of course, the easy solution would be just to tell car manufacturers if the vehicle doesn't get over 30 miles to the gallon they can't sell it here...but then nobody would have the balls to take on that lobby.

al-Zarqawi is responsible for 90 percent of the attacks in iraq according to our intelligence. does this raise a suspicion that perhaps the guy is just some innocent schlub or even non-existent to anyone? not that our middle eastern intelligence isn't fool proof or anything...

jesus rides beside me...he never buys, and he smokes...