The New American Militarism...

The following is an excerpt from The New American Militarism by Andrew Bacevich, Director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University, West Point graduate and veteran of Vietnam.

The new American militarism draws much of its sustaining force from myth - stories created to paper over incongruities and contradictions that pervade the American way of life. The exercise of global power by the United States aggravates these incongruities.

Americans want to feel secure, in their homes and where they work. Rather than safety, however, the possession of military might without precedent has in practice yielded a heightened sense of vulnerability.

Americans see themselves as an idealistic people. But the dispatch of U.S. forces to oppose tyranny and create the conditions for peace does not evoke accolades from abroad. Instead, it fuels anti-Americanism and generates suspicion of our motives and intentions.

Americans believe in democracy. But their democracy works such that the divide between rich and poor grows ever wider. In America, the winners control an ever-increasing percentage of the nation's wealth. To be a member of the upper class is to have privileges, among them ensuring that it's someone else's kid who is getting shot at in Iraq or Afghanistan.

These are hard, uncomfortable truths, for which the existing political system does not provide an easily available remedy. So Americans concoct stories to make such truths more palatable. During the past quarter century, American politicians with their eyes firmly fixed on the main chance, assisted by purveyors of popular culture with a well-honed instinct for what sells, have promulgated a host of such stories. One result has been to contrive a sentimentalized version of the American military experience and an idealized image of the American soldier.

These myths make an essential contribution to the new American mlitarism. They create an apparently seamless historical narrative of American soldiers as liberators, with Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003 becoming a sequal to Operation Overlord in June 1944. They divert attention from the reality of U.S. military policy, now having less to do with national defense than with imperial policing. They help to sustain the willingness of American soldiers to shoulder their frequently thankless and seemingly endless burdens in places like th Balkans, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf. Above all, they function as a salve for what remains of the American conscience. Myths offer reassurance that America remains, as Ronald Reagan put it, "still a land of heroes with all the courage and love of freedom that ever was before." They enable us to sustain the belief that the soldiers whom we hire to do the nation's dirty work but whom we do not know are, in fact, bringing peace and light to troubled corners of the earth rather than pushing ever outward the perimeter of an American empire.

The Truth About Taxes...

To many people, taxes are seen as "penalties" to be avoided at all costs. This is a misguided view of what it is that taxes accomplish for society. When one examines just what it is that taxes have done for this country, it is easy to understand that a progressive tax scheme is the only fair approach, and that tax cuts are really just another term for benefit cuts.

Tax money built this country and it's infrastructure. Tax money built the roads in your town and the interstate highways that connect them. Tax money helped to build the airports you fly in and out of. Taxes built the communications infrastructure utilized by every person and corporation in this country. Taxes built the internet infrastructure that helped bring about prosperity in the technology sector. Taxes pay for the court system in this country, a court system with the vast majority of cases dealing with corporate law and the legal framework necessary for a capitalist economy to run. Taxes pay for the protection of the people and their property, from traffic signs and beat cops to billion dollar planes. Without taxes, the United States would not be possible.

As you can see, everyone benefits from taxes. Taxes are part of what we pay for the benefits derived from living in a society. Unfortunately, those benefits are not equally accrued by all. Rather, some become much more prosperous compliments of the infrastructure and system provided by taxpayer money. It is only fair then, that those accruing a greater benefit from the system also pay more for that benefit. It can be likened to seating arrangements at events. The benefit of sitting in the best seats is much greater than the benefit of sitting behind a pillar, thus, patrons pay more for tickets to the best seats than they do for those in the back with an obstructed view. We accept this as fair. This is why a progressive tax scheme is the only fair way to approach taxation.

When people speak of tax cuts, they really speak of benefit cuts, because that is the inevitable result. For instance, returning to our theater analogy, if all tickets are the same price one of two things must happen: (1) the theater cannot maintain itself at peak levels due to the lost revenues; or (2) the single ticket price must be expensive to make up for the lost revenues, thereby forcing those behind the pillar to pay more for the same benefit. We would not accept this as fair. Equal payment is only fair if the benefit is also equal.

The same happens in society, cutting the payments of those receiving the greatest benefits leads to a loss across the board. It also allows those that benefit the most from all that tax dollars provide through increased prosperity and security made possible by the tax-built infrastructure to escape paying a fair share of the upkeep of that infrastructure. In the long-term, that infrastructure will then collapse, which will result in those that rely on it for their benefits to collapse. Without tax dollars to support all that makes America possible, everyone loses.

liberalism is dead, surprise, and proliferation...

this morning while preparing for another week at the office i was confronted with my first political commercial of the season for patsy madrid, the corrupt shitbag running against heather wilson for the privilege to rape and pillage the good people of the 1st congressional district of new mexico, and, if all goes well, the world. patsy madrid, the democrat, the supposed liberal on the ballot, ran her add based on her time as new mexico's attorney general. this is what she bragged about...creating a capital crimes unit and heading up tougher laws directed at methamphetamine. so this is what this country has come to...this is how far towards fascism we have drifted, that state-sanctioned murder and sending folks away for longer prison terms passes as liberal. everyone make sure to run out and vote for patsy madrid...afterall, she has streamlined the process of killing people who have killed people to show that killing people is wrong (nevermind that this state has not executed anyone in some 30 years...which basically means she wasted money, not a surprise for patsy - see below). and lest we forget, she threw meth addicts away for long prison terms to ensure that when they got out they were doomed to further addiction and crime. three chears for the democratic party!

speaking of wasting money...i've probably mentioned this earlier...but patsy madrid recently sent out pamphlets on child molesters...with big old pictures of her all over them. those pamphlets cost about $120,000...money that came from the state. she tried to justify it by claiming it was from the tobacco fund, and thus not tax dollars. (never mind that the tobacco fund still is money that belongs to the tax payers). funny thing though patsy...that tobacco fund pays for school projects in this state. your pathetically disguised campaign add could have paid a new teacher for four years...it could have fixed up a school in one of the many rural, impoverished areas of the state...it could have bought enough updated textbooks for a school in the south valley. but hey...300 people called in to ask about your sex offender bullshit...so i guess that's a fair trade. do us all a favor patsy...whore yourself somewhere else...and make sure not to do it in the name of new mexicans.

it's a bird...it's a plane...no...it's the secretary of state in lebanon...10 days late. and at the risk of sounding sexist...did anyone see the ap photo of her shaking hands? after taking a week and a half to get her ass over there i would at least expect her to not have hairs out of place. i mean...if she was rushed over there completely understandable...but she took her fucking time.

condi plans to offer financial aid to lebanon. anyone who supports this administration needs to think about that statement for a minute...



ok, gave you some time...do you now see the idiocy behind this that i do? financial aid will go to lebanon to rebuild it after israel has destroyed the country...again. interesting...so instead of spending a couple bucks on a long distance phone call that could have stopped this madness, americans will spend millions, if not billions rebuilding a country that was unnecessarily destroyed while we sat back and did nothing. makes you want to run out and salute the flag don't it?

the administration is still spouting the same bullshit line when trying to explain why it is not pressuring a cease fire. "we all agreed that it is urgent, but the framework is clearly to do this in a way that will help the lebanese government exercise sovereignty over all of its territory." just curious condi...how exactly does destroying the infrastructure of a country and pissing off it's citizens so that they are more likely to support radical organizations that will partake in terror tactics helping the lebanese government exercise sovereignty over all of its territory? how can she say this with a straight face while supporting the government that is violating that sovereignty?

of course what do we expect from the cronies of a man who simplistically views the situation as "all that needs to happen is syria to call up hezbollah and say 'hey, quit that shit' and all this shit will stop." nevermind that no hezbollah rockets were sent into israel until a massive air campaign was launched against lebanon. nevermind that syria and the arab world is sitting around saying "all bush needs to do is call up israel and tell them to stop this shit and it will end." and THAT is why they hate us.

pakistan is picking up it's efforts at expanding it's nuclear capabilities. the united states failed to learn the lessons of the cold war...which only ended when the soviet union unilaterally decided under gorby that it would cut way back on it's armed forces, including it's nukes. (which horrified the fucks in this adminstration back when it happened). the united states response...expand the arsenal (under clinton democrats, don't get cocky) and reinvest in "tactical" nuclear weapons and a "defense shield"...then go into countries that don't have the bomb to make sure they don't get the bomb. (oooo...and protect the pakistani government, which, don't forget, had one of it's physicists give the bomb to a whole bunch of characters...like north korea and iran...that government we protect, never did shit about it). so now it is clear that the only way to avoid the united states military is to get a bomb, and get it quick.

and sadly, that is the american legacy after the cold war...a time when we could have worked to clear the planet of nuclear weapons, to expand democracy and prosperity. instead...we push ahead towards armegeddon. a big thank you to both bushes and mr. clinton.

we have arrived too late to play...

Funding Elementary and Secondary Education...

When I was a freshman in high school, I discovered a deep love of history and a desire to share that with others through teaching. In hindsight, I am able to recognize that my World History teacher that year reached me in a way that few others had. At the time I did not realize how lucky I was to be in her class. She was able to find ways to make world history engaging for all the students, especially those that often found little or no reason to find any use in their own education. She was no longer teaching when I graduated from high school.

The exodus of the best teachers is a frightening problem that needs to be addressed, and needs to be addressed now. The stresses on those responsible for educating our youth have multiplied and magnified over the years as close-knit communities and involved parents fade away. (When one is struggling to earn an income suitable for feeding, clothing and sheltering a family, it is near impossible to be active in the community, or even in the home). As our educational system falters, the easiest problem to address is a lack of qualified and dedicated teachers. We demand our teachers be educators, mentors, parents, police, friends, coaches, and pillars of our community. Yet, other than in the richest of districts, they are paid an income making it near impossible to raise a family on. This is lunacy. Dedicating one's life to educating future generations is one of the most noble tasks an individual can undertake. They should be compensated accordingly.

This is especially trouble in the areas of math and science, two crucial subjects when it comes to innovation and ingenuity at the heart of American economic growth. Can we blame the teacher who decides the long hours, low pay, constant fighting, and dealing with inept management is no longer worth it when the private sector offers an immediate fivefold or higher increase in wages? Congress gives themselves an extra $3,000 yearly, yet teachers fail to receive a raise to cover the cost of inflation. This is unacceptable.

The system of funding education in this country is seriously flawed. The localized scheme results in embarrassing inequalities that could easily be addressed by intelligent oversight and a proper distribution of resources to those that need it the most. Affluent neighborhoods inevitably have the highest property tax revenues, and thus the most available funds for their schools. Thus, the children of affluent parents, the same parents who have the time and resources to be involved in the community and in the lives of their children thereby alleviating the need for schools to play such a large role in the child's development, are the only ones to receive a school from an institution properly equipped to play that large role, even if it is unnecessary.

Go to the other corner of town and you will find children of parents working two full-time jobs to simply put food on the table and a roof over their heads. You will find classrooms that are severely overcrowded due to the lack of funds to hire the necessary number of teachers. You will find less qualified teachers with more responsibility because the pay is not suitable for the best and the brightest, even though they are needed there the most. You will find students without supplies, outdated books in insufficient numbers, and dilapidated buildings. Worst of all, you will find a population of students with dwindling hope, stuck in a cycle of poverty. I, for one, refuse to accept that these children are not entitled to all the benefits that I received simply because they were not born into an affluent family. In fact, I believe the head start that my middle class birth provided to me over them provides a greater justification for any inequality of resources to favor those that could gain the largest benefit from it, the children of poverty we too often hide on the other side of the tracks.

I propose not just equal funding of education, but adequate funding of education given the situation within which a particular community finds itself. A distribution of resources in education that realizes the best use of those resources necessarily includes a greater share of them going to those that need them the most, rather than those that never once doubted they would attend college. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So why is it that in education we strengthen the strongest links, and do nothing to strengthen those already straining to hold together?

This is exactly why school vouchers are a misguided approach to helping students in struggling schools. They will lead to yet another drain of much needed resources from the schools that need it the most. Furthermore, the children that would end up leaving these schools will be those with parents that have the time and resources to devote to shuttling their children across town to a different school. These will inevitably be the best students within that school. Thus, not only will there be a drain on resources, but the school will be drained of it's best students, and the remainder of the students will be deprived of the vast benefits accrued through interaction between higher level and lower level students, benefits which have been shown to go both ways, uplifting the educational experience and value of both student groups. I fail to see the logic in saving a struggling school by destroying it.

Thus, my proposal involves a system put into place to ensure resources are distributed in such a way as to create what our founding fathers dreamed of, a well-educated and informed populous, not just a well-educated and informed elite. Each state will be required to collect an amount of funds for educating it's children. These funds need not necessarily be collected through property taxes, thereby alleviating the need for a state like Nevada to implement one. Furthermore, in a state like New Mexico, the federal government will still be required to provide funding based on the amount of federal land within the state as they are now.

From there, a committee which will include members of each district will determine which schools have the greatest need for resources, given the opportunities outside of school for children in the community, the lack or abundance of qualified teaching at that school, the economic circumstances of the area that feeds into that school, etc. With this determination, the funds, collected and supplemented by the federal government, will be distributed to ensure that each school at least meets a base level, and from there, those that are struggling are provided with the resources to turn things around rather than depriving them further. Teacher salaries can be boosted in areas desperately needing the best teachers. Crumbling schools can be provided with the means to provide a welcoming place for children to congregate. After school programs can be financed in those areas where they community is unable to offer them and where it is especially crucial to give students an alternative to the street. Schools filled with children who's families cannot afford textbooks and to supplement those text books with other tools will be provided with the means to purchase those books. Some will tell me such a system of equality of opportunity is an impossibility. If that is the case, I challenge this nation to embrace the impossible and give each and every one of our children the hope of a better future.

sendpaultodc@hotmail.com

if only bush applied morality universally...

king george vetoed a bill that would have helped give hope to millions of people suffering from heartbreaking diseases. his excuse...this would "sacrifice human lives" for the "medical benefit" of others. yea george, it must be a lot easier to sleep at night when you claim being able to move below the waist again as a "medical benefit"...or not slowly dying of cancer as a "medical benefit"...or not having to slowly lose your mind to the horror of yourself and those around you as a "medical benefit"...or being able to physically control your own body as a "medical benefit"...or even the hope of living as a "medical benefit." it is also much easier to ignore these "medical benefits" (i.e. saving and bettering millions of lives) when you lie about stem cell research "ending life." and when you lie to people that adult stem cells hold more promise than embryonic stem cells. (a lot like with things like global warming...instead of finding serious scientists to back up such a claim, they rely on folks that have no scientific background to show that adult stem cells will be better anyways).

if this was really bush's concern...or even if bush was able to universally apply his absolute moral truths to himself...we might here lines such as this...

"fertility clinics will hereby be illegal as unnaturally producing human embryos and throwing thousands of them in the trash to possible create one human child is wrong. it is ending thousands of lives for the possible creation of a child benefit to a couple." afterall, a whopping 150 were adopted (actually less) compared to hundreds of thousands that have not been adopted and will

"israel shall not be allowed to slaughter civilians of another nation to save the lives of a lesser number of israelis...especially considering israel was not being attacked by hezbolah missiles until after it launched a bombing campaing of it's own."

"we will not kill iraqi civilians, even as 'collateral damage', to maybe, possibly save the lives of americans at some phantom threat down the line."

this one is a classic from the white house..."it is inappropriate for the federal government to finance what many people think is murder." (t. snow - talking for the president on stem cell research). but he forgot the important "...unless of course it is capital punishment, or the murder of civilians in a far off land that we can cover up by refusing to count "enemy dead" in war...or unless that murder is based on a 'life' that came into being before 2001, an arbitrary line which we have drawn, because god talks to george when he has time off from his conversations with pat robertson."

the white house declared it will not spend more tax dollars on the destruction of life when it comes to embryos...this coming from the government that has spent over 50 trillion dollars on military spending since the end of world war II. 50 trillion dollars...think about that for a minute. 50 trillion federal dollars on the machinery of death and destruction of human life that actually has done such things as become human...tax dollars spent that way according to the white house, totally fine...tax dollars spent instead on "destruction" of a cell that may some day become a human life but is totally incapable of doing so without unnatural help and implantation (and of course even then, only 150 out of about 400,000 have done so) and with the possibility to save and better life in the future, yea, that's no good.

"what we are all trying to do is give that prime minister the ability to control his own territory." (j. bolton, white house cheif of staff). excuse me if i tilt my head scrunch up my forehead look at you like you are nuts mr. bolton and proclaim "arrr?" more impeccable logic from the white house...by destroying the infrastructure of a country we are enhancing their ability to control their country. hmmm...but i thought that bombing campaigns like this were used against iraq and afghanistan to cripple the ability of those governments to control their territory (side note - yea...that was not the best of ideas to begin with seeing as how now we want to control those countries and the infrastructure crucial to that process is gone). apparently lebanon is a magical place where destruction leads to order.

all of this makes me wonder, yet again...do these people listen to themselves? how can anyone listen to their logic and think it works?

"free elections are no guarantee of a democracy." (t. russert). exactly tim...just take a look at this country. or even at this country's refusal to recognize legitimately elected governments.

america...the land of the free and of opportunity, in a just and truthful way...but where the president is never black, female or gay.

poison spews from a speech writer's pen...

was anyone else secretly wishing that the naacp would end up telling the president to fuck himself and not bother coming because they had no interest in what he had to say?

bush's speech writers were mocking him i think...during his speech to the naacp he said "i understand that many african americans distrust my political party." the crowd responded with a hell of a lot of applause. you are damn right they distrust your party george...how else are they supposed to feel when your party pushes blatantly inherently rascist policies?

the people of lebanon have now been shelled for over a week from the south. hundreds dead...many children...the majority civilian. israeli civilian dead is somewhere around twenty. two soldiers were kidnapped by a group not supported by the lebanese government and immediately their return was offered in exchange for arab prisoners in israeli prisons. instead israel responded by destroying the best hope for a new democratic movement across the middle east and shelling innocent civilians. what has the american government done? NOT A FUCKING THING! the administration hasn't even shown up yet. but yea...they really give a fuck about middle eastern peoples. as long as those middle eastern peoples happen to speak hebrew and live in a militaristic society with a stratification of wealth that rivals the united states.

oh...i almost forgot...it's ok that israel is slaughtering innocent people...see, they dropped pamphlets telling the people they were going to be shelled. i can only imagine what these pamphlets said "hey uncircumsized asshole and especially his wife and children...you might want to leave because we are going to drop some big fucking bombs on your house...but you should probably find a way out other than the roads, because we destroyed those...and if you were planning on flying out, well, we took out your airport...and any massing on the beach will probably be taken for a meeting of terrorists, so boat isn't a good way either. so if you can magically transport yourself to another region, like star treck and shit, we suggest you do so." that makes it morally acceptable to kill them. at least that's what we learned from iraq and afghanistan.

oh...by the way...just so israel doesn't run out of bombs to drop on arabs...we're fast tracking a shipment of more. what's the over-under on more bombs getting there before condi rice does?

condi rice says that when she finally goes to the middle east it will be to fashion a lasting peace, not just a temporary cease fire. that is bushspeak for "once israel has demolished the entire country and run out of things and people to blow up i will show up and declare a victory for peace." i know this may be difficult to understand, and seem totally irrational...but how about trying to stop the killing WHILE we fashion a lasting peace. novel idea i know. then again...not sure i trust these bozos to try multitasking...they haven't proved very adept at it as of yet.

it took our government a week to begin to evacuate american citizens from lebanon. if they realized these people would then talk of the horrors they witnessed at the hands of mindless israeli action i'd be willing to bet they would have had them evacuated much sooner. "we lived through horror...i’ve seen little kids burned alive. a country is being destroyed, people are being killed, and the whole world is watching.” (tom charara). "i felt more sadness in the past week than i ever have before in my entire life...the atrocities going on in Lebanon are out of control and are unjustified and unwarranted.” (steven mcierney). "one woman came to me and said please call america, please call america for us." (marion brannon). soon these people will realize america stood by as they were slaughtered and their country was destroyed...the same america that claimed a solidarity with their blossoming democracy. thank george and his friends for another generation of terrorists.

louisiana is suing the feds for the royalties from the oil the government is giving away for free off it's coast...you know, the oil that the american people own, the same oil that is taken without pay and then sold back to it's original owners so a few midland, texas assholes can make record profits. here's hoping the bush administration takes another one on the chin...but i wouldn't count on it...afterall, the government has been practicing how to take resources from a people and not pay them what they are entitled for that resource for centuries...just ask an indian.

the house is investigating the administration because it's boy, who had no background in science but a history of being paid to lobby for oil, edited reports relating to climate for the white house. and these are the people pissed at russia and china for rolling back democracy? we haven't had a crackdown like this on transparency and democracy since...well, since king george replaced some governors a few hundred years ago. hey "patriotic" conservatives...your forefathers started the revolutionary war over less.

turns out chicago cops were torturing suspects for decades...lots of them black. on behalf of anyone who has ever lived in the chicago area, let me just say...no shit. not that we didn't all already know this, but shouldn't there be a hell of a lot more outrage nationally over this? but of course not...not that we now have a culture where torture is expected against people who may have committed a crime.

mayor daley says he had nothing to do with it. i think he meant the perpetrators were just left over from when his dad ran the city.

republicans are pushing school vouchers again. they forget to mention that this is their plan for decimating poor schools even further by removing the best students and the most involved parents along with funding connected to the only parents that can afford to ship their kid across town. a continuation of the impeccable logic of removing funding from poor schools that already are struggling.

speaking of schools...here is a shock...public schools do just as well as private schools. but at public schools your cracker children might have to associate with minorities...and not as cafeteria workers, as equals. the horror of such a thought is enough to move further out in the suburbs to avoid the black and hispanic incursion into your area. may i suggest a gated community.

dick cheney is trying to use the new war (it is hard to say that with a straight face when it is basically the second most powerful army in the world against a handful of guys with bombs on the back of their toyotas) in the middle east as a campaign boost for the republican party. has any group ever been more adept at convincing an incredibly mindless populous that it's complete and utter failures are reasons to support it?

kofi annan is asking the "fighting" to stop in lebanon. the UN, made completely inept by america's refusal to participate in a useful manner, is wagging it's finger again. it is really hard to take it seriously from the guy in charge of overseeing the non-response to rwanda.

let me leave you with this quote from an american president..."wouldn't it be better to save lives than to avenge them?" i know, spoken like a true liberal nutcase. except that came from ronald reagan.

as they take an eye for an eye until no one can see...we must stumble blindly forward repeating history.

Capital punishment is not only draconian...it is counterproductive...

It is extremely difficult for someone without personal experience with the criminal justice system, especially death penalty cases, to fully understand the circumstances. I used to be an advocate of capital punishment...until I informed myself and had to deal with the system. While I could go on for days about the idiocy of capital punishment, I will try to be somewhat brief.

When people claim that life imprisonment is less expensive than the death penalty they are ignoring the cost of trial to even get to the point of the years and years of appeals (that your tax dollars end up paying for since capital punishment is sought much more often against the poor, not to mention minorities...and I will not debate that with you, it is a fact that is easily verified by Department of Justice statistics. So look it up and save your breath). For instance, the federal system actually requires three trials to even get to the point where a sentence of death may be imposed. The first is a hearing system put in place before the criminal trial which is used to determine whether a particular defendant will be eligible for the death penalty. For this hearing the government must do extensive investigation, and the defense must do extensive investigation (and remember, the defense must be provided to indigent defendants, which means your tax dollars are being used...if you have no humanity, you most likely have greed and do not like your money wasted). This takes months and a lot of manpower hours that could be used by law enforcement to solve otherwise unsolved crimes. That is right, even at this early stage, capital punishment means less time and money devoted to solving other crimes, thereby leaving more dangerous criminals out on the streets. Then, if the Department of Justice decides the US Attorney for a particular district is authorized to seek the death penalty a criminal trial is the next step. Criminal trials of capital crimes are intense and extremely expensive. They constitutionally require qualified attorneys (two for each defendant in federal cases), which costs the government even more money (for instance, here in New Mexico, there are only a handful of capital qualified defense attorneys...the government has to pay them to represent indigent defendants at a premium according to the requirements of the Constitution and the Criminal Justice Act, along with investigators, mitigation specialists, etc.). Furthermore, they take much more time in the courtroom, and for every day a case is in court, the government loses thousands and thousands of dollars and hours of manpower (federal Marshals must be present in the courtroom, taking them off the streets, not to mention all the investigators who will be witnesses that are then pulled from their jobs). Then, if a guilty verdict is reached, after already having spent a few million tax payer dollars, a third trial occurs, the sentencing trial. The sentencing phase requires hundreds of hours of preparation and investigation on both sides, the defense looking for mitigatory factors, the government looking for aggravating factors. This results in another big bill to taxpayers. Finally, there just might be a sentence of death, which will automatically require years of appeal in accordance with due process guarantees of the Constitution, which means even more money and manpower down the drain. When you focus on the cost of capital punishment only from sentencing to carrying out that sentence, you miss millions of dollars that otherwise would not be spent.

The Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Whether a punishment falls within this category is based upon evolving standards of decency. Standards of decency have most definitely evolved since the time of this Nation’s founding, thereby discounting any argument that capital punishment was plentiful at the time the Constitution was signed. No other industrialized democracy in the world utilizes this draconian punishment. It’s use does, however, give us a bond to countries like Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan under the Taliban, Iraq under Saddam. Not exactly the best company for a country that claims it is the home of freedom and justice.

Capital punishment's only value as a deterrent to further crime is through specific deterrence. This means that the particular individual will not commit further crime. However, this is accomplished by life imprisonment without parole, without the expense of a capital trial and the other problems associated with capital punishment. Any argument that a convicted person sentenced to life without parole still has the opportunity to escape and commit further crime is ludicrous. With a sentence as serious as that, they will be placed in prisons that do not afford for such opportunity, and any escape will be an insanely rare exception that proves the rule. Any argument that escape is somehow a realistic possibility for prisoners sentenced to LWOP is laughable, and I find tends to come from people that have never had experience with prisons in this country.

Since capital punishment made a comeback in this country, violent crime has risen. It is obvious that there is no general deterrent value to capital punishment. Expanding the use of capital punishment may have the opposite effect, creating an environment where criminals no longer have anything left to lose, thereby increasing their dangerousness.

The jury system is not perfect. Awhile ago I did two blogs on men executed in Texas on questionable evidence. Furthermore, a criminal trial has the deck severely stacked against a defendant from the outset, and if you have never been through the process, this is something that is extremely difficult to understand. Trust me on that. This combination is too dangerous to accept the outcome. I tend to believe that it is better to let 10 guilty men go free (or in this case, not so much “go free” as sit in prison for the remainder of their natural lives without hope of parole) then to sentence one innocent man to death.

Also, the process of capital trials and the subsequent appeals has a devastating psychological affect on those involved. Court personnel have noted the anguish they suffer as a result of these cases. I recently heard the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court speak of the mental problems he has had associated with being informed that "the order of the court has been carried out" upon the death of an inmate. Even jurors have noted the anguish they go through knowing they sent someone to their death. Perhaps most poignantly, the process is drawn out and compartmentalized in such a way that it actually prohibits victims from gaining closure. They must endure three trials, a process that will likely take years. After that, they must then endure years of appeal, and the possibility of yet another three-phase trial. The process keeps these wounds open for years and years. It is a system where everybody loses, and it is an embarrassment to our society.

if you don't say it...who will?

chicago is considering a ban on cooking with trans-fat within city limits. trans-fat is known to lead to all sorts of horrible deaths that tend to be drawn out, painful, and costly. in a country where a quarter of adults are obese, which will inevitably lead to some serious strains on the health care industry, you would think we could get ahead of the curb on this. why, in god's name, has the FDA not taken such steps? canada did it...and it really doesn't cost too fucking much to change the type of oil you cook with.

bush seems to have remembered that black people exist. he will actually make a stop at speak to the naacp this year. interesting that it didn't happen until tom delay was virtually useless, his poll numbers were laughingly low, and his party was in danger of losing out in the midterm elections. it seems the republican party has learned from the democrats...when in need of help, make a token effort at pretending you give two shits about black people. but there's a problem georgie...your boys came out against the voting rights act...people tend to remember that you tried to take their right to vote away.

the house rejected the constitutional amendment to write discrimination back into the document for the first time in 150 years. of course well over 200 representatives voted for the ban on gay marriage. and it happened after a day of debate over the issue...which was really moot because the senate had already bonged the idea. way to spend our tax dollars assholes...if you aren't hell-bent on spending them on death and destruction, you waste them on impossible dreams of rolling back equality. hooray for congress.

can someone explain to me why the fuck we are still debating embryonic stem cell research which utilizes embryoes that will otherwise be flushed down the toilet? how is throwing away this shit more respectful to human life than using it in an attempt to cure disease?

speaking of stem-cell research...bush says he will veto the bill. the first time this fuckhead decides to keep his john hancock off something it is to thwart scientific research. let's hear it for religious fundamentalism.

the fbi is bragging that it questioned padilla for three hours before he asked for an attorney. of course in those three hours they didn't bother to tell him he was free to leave or that he was suspected of anything. funny, the second he was informed he was suspected of being tied to a terrorist plot he requested an attorney. i don't know about you...but i feel much more comfortable knowing that our current leadership has fostered a culture which brags about constitutionally questionable activity.

when JFK nominated paul nitze for secretary of the navy he was attacked by a baby congressman during the confirmation hearings for being "soft" on defense because he attended a national council of churches meeting where disarmament was discussed. funny thing is, nitze wrote two of the most hawkish documents every written by a government official that advocated the exact opposite of disarmament in NSC-68 (calling for a ridiculous build up of nuclear arms in response to an exagerated soviet threat) and the Gaither Report (using the "missile gap" which was actually in our favor to advocate an even further build-up of nuclear weapons)...oh, and he also strongly advocated nuclear war through preemptive

Immigration Policy...

Even including illegal immigration, immigration rates are a fraction of what they were a century ago, a time when the influx of immigrants, all of whom would be considered "illegal" under today's laws, spurred the rise of American economic power. At the time it was believed that the growing American population of Irish, German and Italian peoples would destroy the fabric of our society. Now, those boogeymen have proved not to be awaiting in the our nation's closet, our leaders have turned to Mexicans as a scape goat for their failed policies.

I question why the debate is centered solely on the southern border. The northern border is longer and easier to cross. Those with family on either side travel relatively painlessly between the two countries. Traffic across the Canadian border by foreign terrorists would not raise much alarm given the subsantial immigrant population in Canada. Yet our leaders avert our eyes to the southern border and point to the false boogeyman of the Mexican infiltration.

It may suprise many to learn that illegal immigrants in this country are actually far less likely to commit violent crime than American citizens. They also largely become "American" by the second and third generation. They live in close-knit communities and have strong extended family networks. All in all, they are putting together the type of communities and families that America should celebrate.

I ask why we feel it is necessary to severely limit immigration when immigration is part of what makes this nation and furthers the economic growth and well-being of the United States. As long as this country remains the land of opportunity, as long as we proclaim ourselves the land of the free, people will continue to flock here. Why then, do we not embrace these self-proclaimed monikers and truly deliver freedom and opportunity to our neighbors? It is time to live up the words engraved on the tablet held by the Statue of Liberty..."Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." It is this dream of an America, a nation that opens it's doors of opportunity to the world and shares the dream of freedom and prosperity with all that seek it, that drives my views on immigration.

Thus, my perspective on immigration issues is shaped by a realization that lifting up my neighbor will benefit myself in the long term. Accordingly, I point to the example of post-World War II Europe and Japan and the policy commonly referred to as the Marshall Plan. The economies of these countries were in tatters after years of war, and this posed a problem for the growing American economy. This country spent billions rebuilding the economies of war torn countries. The result was a growing market for American manufacturers and a number of trading partners which served to promote prosperity in each of the nations. By sharing it's own prosperity, America ensured continued prosperity for years to come.

By contrast, agreements such as NAFTA are destroying the viability of the Mexican economy while increasingly sending capital abroad with not much to show for it here. The result is a people desperate, a people willing to risk everything to cross the border for the hope of a better life for their children and themselves. Until the Mexican economy is prosperous in it's own right, these people will continue to cross our borders. Thus, if one's concern is truly to end the migration of peoples north, a strengthening of the Mexican economy must be the first priority.

Not only will aid to Mexico in a Marshall Plan type program assist in curbing illegal immigration, it will provide an opportunity for economic growth here in the United States. Just as the rebuilding of Europe and Japan led to trading partners and markets for American products that can afford to pay for them. This can be part of a program to rebuild the infrastructure of American manufacturing, the key to economic power in an industrialized world and an area where this nation is in serious relative decline. Furthermore, a viable trading partner to the south carries with it the possibility to create a boon for the border states, including New Mexico.

A stronger friend to the south economically tied in a prosperous way with the United States will, in the long-term, increase the security of this nation, much the same way stronger friends in Western Europe and Japan assisted in previous years.

An intelligent approach to comprehensive immigration policies has the possibility to create a safer, more prosperous America.

You can see my long-term approach to the "problem" of illegal immigration over the southern border. That will obviously take time. Here are my thoughts on what can be done in the interim.

While advancing the policies outlined in previous blogs and below, it is important that business are provided with the means to realistically decipher whether or not their workers are legally in the United States. Currently our government seeks to hold employers responsible for hiring illegal workers. Yet when these same employers ask the government for assistance in determining the status of their workers, they are stonewalled. If we are serious about retaining jobs for American workers, it is lunacy to deprive businesses of the means with which to accomplish this.

It is vital that we provide a quicker and easier path to citizenship for people that are established in this country. No good can come out tearing families apart and forcing good, otherwise law-abiding, people into prison and back across the border. Some of the major talking points of those proclaiming the evils of illegal immigration is that these people do not pay taxes and they work jobs for lower pay, pricing Americans out of the labor market. If we fast track those that are established here already into citizenship they will then begin paying taxes on the income earned (which is more than can be said for numerous large corporations) and force companies to pay them the legal minimum wage, thereby alleviating these concerns.

We stand at a crossroads when it comes to those people that have come here through illegal channels in order to establish a better life for themselves and their families. We can either turn them into felons, necessitating a huge expenditure of money to round them up and house them in already overcrowded federal prisons bloated with some 2,000,000 nonviolent offenders, and forcing them further into the shadows of society, a placement that only leads to further problems for society as a whole. Such an approach is baffling when one realizes that immigrants, even those here illegally, are less likely to commit violent crime that American citizens. Or, we can accept that they can be productive members of society, that these families and communities are a positive influence on our culture, and that they become unabashedly American by the second or third generation. We can force them into becoming a drain on society as a prisoner, or we can place them in a position to contribute fully to society. I reject the first option and choose the later. I choose to accept the humanity of my neighbor that has risked everything for the hope that accompanies a promise of freedom and opportunity.

It is this choice that guides my belief that it would be horribly counterproductive to deny education and medicine to immigrants, regardless their status. Some espouse the need for individual responsibility, yet propose to hold children accountable for the actions of their parents. They decry the lack of desire of immigrants to "assimilate" and become productive members of society, and then attempt to deny them the means with which to accomplish these goals. If we truly want immigrant populations to become a strength of this country, we must provide them with the tools to better their position. Not only will this create a better situation for those wishing to gain a foothold in America, but it will lead to a betterment of the whole of our society in the long-term and create strong bonds between newcomers and their new home.

The idea of building a fence on the border is a gross perversion of the ideals with which this nation was founded. One cannot help but remember a time when a wall was erected to prevent people from escaping to freedom, prosperity and a better life. As a child I watched as the German people danced on the remains of that wall. I never imagined members of the United States Congress would propose the turning back the clock and utilizing tactics of oppression which it struggled so long to topple. This country should be embracing freedom seeking peoples of the world, not erect concrete and barbed wire in their path.

What this campaign is about...

Politics in this country have become removed from reality. The folks in Washington are so far removed from the rest of us that they have completely lost touch with America. Look around, the most successful politicians are those that can bring in the most dollars. Unfortunately, to raise barrels of money politicians then begin to vote according to the wishes of those that pay for their campaigns. The vast majority of American's cannot afford to give "meaningful" monetary contributions to political campaigns and, as a result, they are turned away by the political machine, even when they reach out unselfishly. This was the final straw, the last push throwing me into the coliseum, the launching of my candidacy.

I have this vision...a vision of a nation where elections are decided on ideas rather than money, catchy phrases, and straight party line votes. A nation where the people relish their freedom to vote and their freedom to choose because that choice is there. A nation where we reject the notion of voting for the lesser evil, because it only slides the scale farther away from the common good. A nation where leaders are respected for looking past the next quarter or even the next election. A nation with a government that serves the people rather than oversees them.

Hence my vision of a campaign without connection to a party or to monied interests. A campaign based on the lost realization that if you avoid the politics of fear and hatred, that if you give them ideas, if you give them a vision of hope, if you give them a reason, the American people will respond and the greatness of this nation will shine.

Thus, over the course of the next few months I will share with you my ideas. Some are polished, some are rough, some are practical, some are idealistic, none of them are an attempt to pander. There may even be times when my vision shifts, when my ideas are updated, or when new ideas are brought to my attention. This is called "flip-flopping" by some, but those of us who remain connected to the world outside Washington know it to be growth. While you peruse my thoughts, my suggestions, my solutions, I ask that you share with me your own thoughts, your own suggestions, your own solutions.

Spread the word, make some waves, help me in awaking the sleeping giant that is the American electorate.

headlines and tidbits...

Illegal immigration is a hot topic still, and likely will continue until the elections when our politicians can go back to not giving a rat's ass about anything important in America...after all, gays are trying to marry and someone is trying to burn a flag somewhere. Here is the secret that many in Congress don't want you to know...making more things punishable by longer prison terms does not do a damn thing to end illegal activity, it only overcrowds our prisons more and brings us closer to the authoritarian regimes we claim to strive against. Be wary of anyone seeking an approach to illegal immigration that is based in making it a felony and "cracking down" on illegals. Drugs destroy lives, yet people continue to use them despite tougher penalties, do we really believe that people will stop striving for a better life for themselves and their families because it might me jail time? If you really believe immigration is dragging this country down (and for the record, I will not buy into such rascist bullshit) then the only way to end it is to take away America's role as the land of opportunity (a job which the governmen thas been striving to complete for decades). While the United States continues to offer opportunity and liberty, people will continue to come.

Throwing those people in jail and deporting them will only tear apart families and make criminals of good people. Here in New Mexico, go sit in a classroom...realize that stricter penalties and enforcement will mean that some of those children will lose a father, a mother, a brother, an aunt or uncle, a grandparent, or maybe even all of the above. And you call yourselves advocates for family values.

Kim Jong Il is portrayed as a madman in the United States, but his actions are logical and always point to his number one goal, retaining power. He is not firing off missiles now to invite attack or because he plans on striking the first blow. He has watched the Middle East, he recognizes that the country that is not a true threat, Iraq, was overrun, the country that was a true threat, Iran, will get a soft water reactor. There are two ways to stand up to the United States, Chavez and Venezuela are showing one, KJI does not have the oil to deny the United States and cripple her economy, but he has nuclear capabilities...and, at least for the time being, America will listen to that. You want to make sure that KJI actually uses those capabilities, or shares them with groups he would otherwise never associate himself with? Go ahead and talk tough and back him into a corner, leaving him no choice...we did it to Nazi Germany, and they stopped their plans to assasinate Hitler and ramped up the murder of Jews, millions in the last few months. Of course history does not seem to be a strong subject here.

Don't look now, but India just tested some missiles...and they damn sure have nukes.

The government is willing to throw money at preaching abstinence to fight teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, it regulates the living hell out of cigarettes and has warnings slapped on all their packaging...anyone with half a brain can recognize that it ain't working.

What has the government done to combat obesity, the largest threat to the health of the American people and the ability of our health care system to even accomplish what little it can now? An updated food pyramid. God forbid we do something to put a halt to companies skimping to save a penny here or there by injecting you and I with too many calories and too much fat. Am I to believe the executive branch can take us to war, hold people indefinitely without counsel or charges, listen in on every word you or I say on the phone, read our mail (electronic and otherwise), and otherwise trample on the Bill of Rights, but they can't say "no more trans fat"? Does this make sense to anyone?

Here in Albuquerque the Police Department raided a gay gym...it's excuse...cracking down on alcohol. So the swat team came barging in and found a few dozen elderly men eating tacos...obviously criminal activity was afoot, and thus they were made to lie face down on the floor while handcuffed with guns to their heads. This will be the end result of the right's campaign against gay equality...fostering an attitude that leads uniformed officers to swarm old men, basically for no other reason but being gay and enjoying tacos and a beer with other old gay men, then take photos of them and mock them. Put as much window dressing as you want on it, if you are against gay marriage, it is because you are a homophobe.

Bush is excited because the deficit was just below $300 billion this year. Hooray. Good job buddy, you did it. And of course he credits his brilliant tax cuts with the slight reduction in the budget deficit. Never mind that those tax cuts further weaked an already struggling economy through further stratification of wealth and less growth. But hey, maybe now he can set his sights bringing growth up to half a percent. It's alright though, the stress of being the leading economic power was getting to be too much anyhow.

Bush is also saying all prisoners of the United States are entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions. The world community want to say thanks for joining the rest of us. I would not get your hopes up though, expect another fight when he claims he is acting in accord with the Geneva Conventions when he is doing the absolute bare minimum to even consider the question. Well George, unlike you, I am not satisfied with simply "not being as barbaric as them"...which itself is in doubt...rather than gunning for mediocrity, I expect my nation to strive for greatness.

Finally...in 1989 the Berlin Wall was dismantled by dancing Germans. That event lead to largely bloodless wave of democracy throughout the Soviet Empire. Freedom is a powerful enough force to topple authoritarian regimes, but it will not come from the crater left by a depleted uranium shell.

I've made my grave...

what might have been...

Almost four decades ago Robert F. Kennedy was assasinated. He may have been America's last chance to fight off the forces of greed, corruption and imperialism which now hold this country down and keep it from reaching it's potential for greatness. RFK should be a model for us all...when he started his career in law and politics he participated in such atrocities as the House Unamerican Activities Committee and prosecuted labor leaders. However he also took on civil rights cases, and after his brother was assasinated, a new RFK emerged, one which united the country and showed the potential for a populist movement to reclaim American greatness. We can only imagine how the world may be a better place had RFK lived to change the face of American politics before it was too late. Here is a brief collection of a few of my personal favorite RFK-isms.

"Too much, and for too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product is now over $800 billion a year [in 1968]. But that gross national product, if we judge the United States of America by that, counts air pollution, and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and the jails for people who break them. It counts the destruction of redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and Witman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national pruduct does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our passion nor our devotion to our country.

It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America...except why we are proud that we are Americans."

And now our children are without proper medical care, with schools that are failing them and pollution that is slowly killing them. It seems every level of government is poisoned with corruption, and our public debate has been stifled by those in power and by the monied interests they represent. The last forty years could have made America great, instead they have made her a global bully that ignores the needs of even it's own citizens.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not."

This is the problem with politics today, neither side is willing to strive to achieve what this country is capable of achieving. Instead they are content with blaming the state of affairs on the other. We do not get solutions, or even valid attempts at them, we get the same stale, failed propositions under a different name. I refuse to accept that there are those in this country that go to bed hungry, that there are children world wide that know the pain of hunger so that the economic engine of globalization can continue to roll along, that the human race is incapable of dealing with itself without resorting to bloodletting, that we can build a weapon that can instantly anhiliate millions but are unable to lift the impoverished from their dreary lives, that criminal sanctions are the solution to all our problems, that we can spend trillions on death and destruction yet not find a way to power our economy with a resource that would not require the use of our military forces in areas of the world rich in hydrocarbons, that there is anyone in this country that is denied a quality education simply because they cannot afford the tuition, that people must pick themselves up out of poverty without the community providing the means with which to accomplish it, that for so many of our poor the way out is either turning to crime or turning to the military. How can we not do better than this?

"On this generation of Americans falls the burden of proving to the world that we really mean it when we say all men are created free and are equal before the law. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."

America had an opportunity to shape the world in a positive way following the tragedy of September 11th. America could have lived up to it's ideals by taking the moral high ground and reevaluating it's role in promoting un-American actions abroad. Instead, we chose to invade two countries, subjecting their people to further death and destruction. It may be too late to turn the tide, but we must act as though it is not. If we lead the world will follow, whether it be into further armed conflict or serious discussion.

"Democracy is no easy form of government. Few nations have been able to sustain it. For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that menchance error in their search for the truth."

Democracy is not easy, and as a nation we have become complacent in allowing it to erode. While Democrats and Republicans argue over which side is more capable of destroying the fabric of this country, the majority of citizens are so appalled they refuse to exercise their most basic and important right. We can no longer allow ourselves to play the game that politicians wish us to play, to continue choosing the lesser of two evils because we are afraid of what might happen otherwise. There is no other democratic country in the world where third parties have such a difficult time even getting to the ballot. This is unacceptable, but for it to change, we must retake control of our government as a people. No, democracy is not easy, but it is the very least of what we owe to those that came before us, those that perished to protect it, those that perished trying to obtain it, and those that longingly look to the united states for it.

"The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."

Do not let anyone call you un-American because you dream of an America that lives up to your hopes; that lifts her citizens out of poverty, crime and addiction, that works to do the same for peoples around the world; that acknowledges when it has been wrong, and works to correct those wrongs; that uses the power of liberty to compel change rather than the sword. I grew up with a deep love for my country, and while I know my country is not the great, benevolent actor I was taught as a child, I believe it can be.

I'm running for congress...and I need your vote...

I have been lamenting the pathetic souls the Republican and Democratic parties have been putting out front in elections across the country...duping the citizens (those few that feel it worthwhile to vote...most likely because, unlike those that stay home, we have not figured out that whoever is office really doesn't make shit of a difference in our daily lives). Particularly, I look to the congressional seat here in Albuquerque and the surrounding area and am amazed that this is the best the parties could do...Heather Wilson or Patsy Madrid. Excuse me if I refrain from dancing in the streets.

Heather Wilson...perhaps better than some Republicans at independent thought...but really nothing more than another "yes woman" for the current war administration. She has consistently voted for bills that erode our civil liberties and assist those who need it the least over those who need it the most. While the world was going to hell and American service members were dying and people around the globe and in this country were being destroyed by the united states government...Heather Wilson was teary-eyed and mad...at the networks for allowing a split second boob shot on Janet Jackson.

Patsy Madrid...miss cover for your corrupt brethren herself. I find it not at all surprising that Madrid would indict those who testified against her democrat friend, Michael Vigil, a corrupt son of a bitch. While that doesn't seem like a bad thing...there was a mistrial the first time around, and these folks testified against Vigil...and now they will not be around for the second trial, because Madrid went after them based on their testimony. Conveniently close to another looming corruption scandal reported by the local media bit by bit so far this summer. At least she's got the "you scratch my back i'll scratch your's" routine down already.

I, for one, am no longer willing to sit idly back and watch the Republicans and the Democrats argue with each other over which is the better path to American and world decline...I refuse to vote for either of these candidates just because they are not as bad as the other...and everyone out there should do the same. for that...I offer myself, Paul Linnenburger,...unedited...to you...here is the first of a series in my effort to win your confidence.

This is what I can promise you...

I am not now, nor will I ever be, beholden to any monied interests. My staff has been directed to turn down any attempt at monetary campaign contributions. I find it disgusting that the State of New Mexico spends taxpayer money to send a lobbyist to the halls of the United States Capital. That's right, our current representatives are so inept, that we must pay someone else to roam the halls of Congress and look out for New Mexico.

I find it entirely unacceptable that each time the government is looking to cut back on military bases within the United States itself New Mexicans begin to worry that their bases will be taken, and the economy of this state will suffer. Yet the government has no problem building dozens of permanent military bases in and around the Middle East. The beneficiaries become, not the American people, not the good people of New Mexico, but a handful of contractors with ties to even fewer companies that happen to have people like the President's father on the board of directors. If we are going to spend a ridiculously high percentage of our GDP on "defense"...I propose it actually benefit the American people number one, and actually be defensive number two. Bringing some of these bases home.

While the folks in Washington have been using your tax dollars for years to find a way to secure the hydrocarbon resources of the world to support our energy habits, the United States has fallen behind the leaders in researching and developing alternative energy sources. How many trillion does this country currently spend on military ventures to protect our energy interests abroad? A fraction of that money could be spent to fund research and development of alternative energy sources so that this country may be ready for the day when oil becomes too expensive to prop up our economy. A whole lot of this research could and should be done right here at the Sandia Labs, an invaluable resource that is being improperly used by the folks in power now. We built an atomic bomb in the blink of an eye...we put a man on the moon...we can figure out a way to power our lives in a more efficient manner. In fact, our livelihood will eventually depend on it. Capitalism requires energy to power growth, our current energy sources are finite and depleting quickly. If we can get ahead of the curve, not only will it mean growth for the economy in the future, but it will mean we are no longer required to send hundreds of thousands of our troops to hydrocarbon rich regions of the world.

Along those same lines, the State of New Mexico should be leading the country in alternative energy to begin with. The amount of sun and wind this state sees provide an ideal testing ground for the benefits of solar and wind power. Tax incentives to develop these technologies further would provide New Mexico the opportunity to lead the world into the next age, which would, in turn, provide revenues to rival those of the oil and gas lands of the southeastern portion of the state.

Three of the most profitable businesses in this country are currently the illicit drug trade, industry connected to arming the world's armies (not just our own), and the industries connected to developing prisons. Thus, many of the biggest money makers in this country are directly connected to destroying lives or ending them. What does this say about the priorities of the people in Washington? Since the government began the "War on Drugs" illegal drugs have become easier to obtain and of better quality than ever before. Yet the solution seems to be to throw more money at solving crime, which leads to a booming prison industry that includes millions of Americans placed behind bars. If the unemployment numbers in this country were to include those in prison, the rate would climb more than a few percentage points. This is an entirely unproductive way to mobilize society, especially considering there are currently somewhere in the range of 2,000,000 people incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. All of the money spent on fighting drugs and fighting the world is highly unproductive for the overall economy. It is a large part of the reason the United States is teetering on the edge, and it can no longer be condoned.

I would never even dream of voting for a bill that hasn't even been printed for my viewing pleasure yet just because the country is scared and the title is PATRIOT. Such an abrogation of the sacred duty of a representative is repulsive.

A fair tax code, one in which those that can afford to pay more at least pay an equal percentage of their disposable income, should be re-implemented. Stratification of wealth is a serious problem in this country and one which has historically signalled an economy on it's decline. While the stock market continued to climb, your leaders told you live was better, yet you found it harder and harder to make ends meet. All of this while they and their friends fleeced the American taxpayer. Take just a small portion of that back, and our struggling schools just may be supported financially to turn around.

It is idiocy to remove funding from schools that are "failing." The logic of removing needed help from those that require it the most escapes me. No Child Left Behind, while it was at least an effort, was a horrible mistake. It was modeled after the program George Bush set up in Texas. While the test scores improved in Texas, as those students made it to colleges, they were discovering they never learned critical thinking skills and were way behind their classmates from "lesser" schools. Giving our children the ability to take a specific test is not giving them opportunity, it is robbing them of it.

Immigration is at a fraction of the rate it was at this point in the 20th Century. Yet the folks in Washington and Patsy Madrid and Bill Richardson want you to think Mexican workers coming over the border to work hard and establish families that are close-knit, largely church-going, and unequivocally American by the second or third generation, will be the end of the American dream. This is a lie that is perpetuating a racist view of an important ethnic group in this area.

The tribes and pueblos of New Mexico have been cheated by the Federal Government long enough. The fact that these peoples are forced to spend money on lobbyists is disgusting, it is a job our representatives should be doing. The established rules stifle economic growth in Indian Country, leaving them without the opportunity to decide whether or not they are interested in such growth. While the Federal Government claims to be stewards of the Indian, I am at a loss to remember one instance in which it acted as such.

I do not confuse being "soft" on crime with an intelligent approach to combating crime. I refuse to accept wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a single criminal case seeking to kill someone who killed someone to show that killing someone is wrong. I refuse to accept that 2,000,000 nonviolent offenders could not be productive members of society. I refuse to accept that the best and cheapest way to deal with an addict is to throw them in prison rather than help them get off drugs.

I have no party affiliation, I have no affiliation but to the people who trudge to work every day in order to provide for their families.

We have allowed the major parties to play with us long enough, it is time for the true citizens to stand up and take back their government...to once again ensure that it is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

the need to know, reoccupation, and corruption dies...

"let the people know the facts and the country will be safe." - abraham lincoln

republicans love to spout how they aren't now becoming a party of fascist theocracy because abraham lincoln led the party 150 years ago...but they do not hold to any of the ideals he once held dear. here is yet another example...government secrecy destroys the very foundation of a democracy...the only way our system can properly work is if the citizenry know what the hell the government is up to. how does one hold elected officials accountable if they are not aware of what those officials are doing? this is why i applaud the papers around the country that have finally had the balls to stand up to this imperial presidency and tell the administration "enough is enough, we have allowed the executive to destroy this country long enough...and we aren't going to take it anymore."

this is not a republican or democrat issue...it is an ongoing problem with the office of the presidency and it's ties to the pentagon and the american intelligence community. politicians like to spout about the need to know vs. the right to know...and tell us that just because we may have a right to know does not mean we need to know. i say bullshit...we have the right to know because it is information we need to know. any doubt that the american people need to know what their government is up to were dispelled when 3,000 people perished on american soil...when the rest of the world becomes so fed up with the bullshit america pulls to the point that we find thousands dead within our borders we need to know what our government has been up to...otherwise we wind up with the country we have now, too full of mindless sheep running around wondering why "they" hate us...a question that would be all too easily answered if the pentagon and the intelligence community didn't keep it's actions hidden from you.

the executive branch has too long abused the privilege of secrecy in the name of national security. the actions it has taken in secrecy have bred hatred, fear and disdain in the rest of the world. if they are willing to except blowback...they should at least have the courtesy to let the american people know it is coming. it is time to make the entire budget completely transparent...especially any program associated with the pentagon or the intelligence community. go ahead and try and tell me it will mean "they" will know how to get away. if you honestly believe they are unaware of tactics which the american intelligence community and law enforcement community are using...you are an idiot. their leaders were trained by our intelligence officers...hunting down bank records has been used openly against organized crime for a century...bugging phones was such a novel idea...besides, if they are as crazy as you want me to believe, then it won't matter if they know.

the second you and i became targets our right to know became our need to know.

on a slightly related note...israel is reoccupying gaza. all it took was a single soldier being "kidnapped" (notice, when we hold them it is a "war" and they are "illegal combatants"...when we or our friends hold them it is criminal acts and they are "kidnapping"...gee, i wonder how the credibility of the united states hit the shits?) for israel to begin taking over settlements they claimed to have abandoned in an effort to move towards peace. bullshit...israel never expected to give palestine a viable state...when they left they only gave over fragmented and unconnected parts. the israeli army is going in with attack helicopters, tanks, and guns blazing...weapons supplied by the united states. and once again the violence will escalate...and the palestinian people will be left in squalor (those that aren't confined to wheelchairs and run over by the tanks) and israel and the united states will bitch about a single missing soldier as justification for murdering hundreds, if not thousands. there's a rogue nation in the middle east...it has nuclear weapons and it has launched aggressive wars in the past and ignored nearly 70 united nations resolutions...it's our closest ally on the planet. and THAT is why "they" hate us.

ken lay conveniently collapsed and died of a heart attack a few months before he was to be sentenced. here is the kicker...he was at his lakefront vacation home when it happened. how wonderful to be filthy rich, have destroyed thousands of people's lives...and be at your vacation home while awaiting sentencing. yet the guy caught with a single rock on the street never sees the outside of a prison wall again.

i'm pining for the moon...

end of days...

if you live on the pacific coast send a thank you letter to the white house for playing games with your life. tell ol' georgy and his cronies "thanks for acting in a way to all but ensure my being vaporized by the most horrific invention mankind ever thought up. really...you guys are fantastic...i can feel the love."

north korea's media sent a warning to the united states...any "preemptive" strike will be countered with an "annihilating strike and nuclear war." normally i would believe leaders in the united states would not be so brazen as to play with a lunatic with nothing to lose and really, really big guns...especially since north korea really doesn't have anything to offer (cough, cough...oil...cough, cough...natural gas). but with this current crop of complete fucking nutbags i am not so sure.

american troops have been quietly moved back from the infamous 38th parallel. at first glance one is tempted to think "oh good...we are finally learning that military might isn't the best way to protect ourselves and our future" (unless of course you are incredibly short-sighted...like, for instance, just about anyone in washington). but then you think again, and realize that the american troops near the 38th parallel were within artillery range of the north korean lines. so by pulling troops back out of range, they are protected from the inevitable artillery onslaught that would accompany any bombing campaign from the united states. that artillery is north korea's only defense against an invasion from the south...except for one thing...fucking big bombs. and now the north koreans may have missiles that are capable of sending a present to hawaii, california, washington, oregon, and maybe further. thanks george!

of course it may just be a ploy to further the cause of the military industrial complex. see...south korea wants to buy patriot missiles...and we want to sell some missile defense stuff to japan now (which is amusing since japan has virtually no need for self defense while half the united states navy protects it's shores). those sales will likely come out to hundreds of millions of dollars. and i would be willing to bet haliburton, brown & root, and/or the carlysle group will be involved in the profits. hmmm...go figure.

either way, we've really backed ourselves into a corner now. if we don't go after north korea we telegraph to the world, even more so, that the only way to escape american wrath is by possessing nuclear weapons. (of course it doesn't hurt not have oil or natural gas reserves and not be along a proposed pipeline for those resources). so now everyone realizes they need nuclear weapons to hold off the american empire...proliferation gone wild. although at this point the rest of the world very much realizes this...hell, gw said as much every time he talked shit about that guy that tried to kill his dad. so we could attack north korea...and hasten the end of the human race. i gotta admit...sometimes i think that might not be such a bad thing in the end.

in the meantime...iran was given a deadline to drop it's efforts to enrich uranium. the threat...sanctions. yup...those things that worked so brilliantly against saddam. those same sanctions that effectively murdered hundreds of thousands within iraq, destroyed the middle class (necessary for a real revolution and democratic change), consolidated power even more under saddam, and made the people completely dependent on saddam for any hope of survival...not to mention helped to solidify anti-american sentiment. although after a decade of destruction it made it easy to overrun the country...of course we are having problems controlling things now...and people came from all over the world to fight against us. having an empire is a bitch.

why are your's fluffier than mine?

omitting the truth is lying...

ever wonder why the government is so concerned about meth? maybe it has something to do with the traumatic effects on your brain...maybe it is because, unlike marijuana, herion, and cocaine...they can't get their piece of the pie.

"when richard nixon started the war on drugs in 1972 the federal budget allocation for the war on drugs was $101 million. today the federal budget allocation is $20 billion. and yet today there are more drugs in this country, they are less expensive, and they are of better quality than they were in 1972." - j. mcnamara, former san jose police chief.

if the government keeps fighting the "war on terror" like it does the "war on drugs" every major city in america will be leveled before i hit my mid-life crisis.

"it is useless, while sitting in chicago, to start driving east with a wishful expectation of getting to el paso. and yet, millions of americans are doing just that when they insist that the united states is a great and free nation; that it didn't do anything wrong; that its economy is the best, the healthiest, and the cleanest in the world; and that it never victimizes other nations." - m. ruppert.

contrary to popular bumper sticker rhetoric, people in fact did die when clinton lied. of course the vast majority of them were poor and in countries necessary for control of the world oil supply and the stock market was soaring...either that or starving in the third world compliments of globalization...so i guess they don't really count.

american soldiers dead in iraq - over 2,500. american soldiers seriously injured in iraq (including serious mental illness) - approximately 60,000. iraq civilians dead since the united states invaded iraq - over 125,000. even if saddam actually had a connection to 9/11...which he didn't...at what point to we call it even?

the war in afghanistan had nothing to do with oil and gas reserves...really, it is completely coincidence that the major military installations in the country just happen to be right along the route of the proposed unocal pipeline. and relations with the taliban just happened to go sour right around the time we figured out the oil reserves in kazakstan weren't as big as thought and the taliban wanted too much for a natural gas pipeline.

to be fair the taliban had just put a stop to opium production about that time too. the year of the american invasion opiate production in afghanistan shot up over 400%. hmmm...

you could double the population of albuquerque and still not have the number of nonviolent offenders serving time in prison in the united states. land of the free.

as the prison population continues to climb, the amount of your money spent on the upkeep in the criminal justice system has climbed about 400% in the last decade. talk about a productive way to spend money.

anywhere the united states intelligence community goes...illicit drug traffic skyrockets. hooray for american values.

over the last decade american philanthropy among the richest of the rich has dropped significantly. more and more are hoarding away larger and larger portions of their fortunes. the more money you have the more you need to hold on to. ain't capitalism grand?

so obviously we need to get away with the estate tax. i mean who wants people to have to actually earn their wealth through good old fashioned ingenuity and hard work? hell...if your great-great grandfather got rich of a war...why should you have to do the same?

the vatican wants to excommunicate people working on stem cell research. nothing says godliness like thwarting scientific advancement. of course maybe the vatican is onto something, scientific advancement hasn't done much for the planet or the human race. "after ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it has generated neros, gengis khans, and hitlers. this, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return." - bertrand russell.

a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the flag failed in the senate by one vote. that's right...66 of your senators voted to add an amendment to the constitution that removes political speech from the first amendment. thank god for that 34th senator.

now that the supreme court has declared we actually have to give some semblence of rights to folks being held indefinitely at gitmo people are complaining that if we give them all these rights it will be tough to get a conviction. no shit. that's the point. "the power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether nazi or communist." - winston churchill (1943). good thing we "defeated" fascism and communism.

capitalism is based on infinite growth possibilities...the problem is that growth needs to be fueled by energy...the world's energy reserves are not infinite, especially not given the vitality of oil and natural gas to our current technological state. but really...keep using it all up at record rates..just hope you are dead in 20 years when it all comes crashing down.

i thought you'd ask me not to leave...