giving away your money while you die...

18,000 Americans are needlessly left to die because drug companies feel they need to make 18 cents on the dollar...well beyond healthy profit and well into disgusting profiteering. this has been admitted by Pfizer VP Peter Rost. and in response...the Bush administration pushes Canada into forcing legislation through that would close the "loophole" used by countless Americans that cannot afford medicine to get the drugs they need to survive. afterall...gotta protect that bottom line of Big Drug...

speaking of Big Drug...you and I pay for roughly 1/3 of all research and development. and what is our prize for this generous gift to Big Drug? we pay several times more for medicine compared to any other nation on the planet. they are full of shit when they tell you they need to make 18 cents on the dollar to pay for research and development (because after they pay out their bit for R & D they still are making that 18 cents on the dollar...even after they spend by far more on marketing than on R & D). just like Big Oil, you and I are subsidizing Big Drug to rip us off...

speaking of Big Drug ripping us off...don't forget that this administration and its hacks cared so much about life that while they were bitching about terri shiavo they slipped something into the prescription drug plan that wouldn't let the government behave like a normal business (ironically, seems to be the same people who bitch and moan about the government not acting like a business) and negotiate for medicine in bulk. so there goes tens of billions of our tax dollars a year right into the pockets of Big Drug...

and as long as we are throwing our money at Big Drug for no good reason and at the expense of Americans, why not also do it at the expense of Africans. Bush's grant to fight AIDS in Africa...well, only if they refuse to buy generic drugs...meaning only a fraction of the people that could be saved by that money will be...all so that Big Drug can get another gift of American taxpayer money...

I was recently accused of class warfare for pointing out the above...for pointing out that the supposed "best health care system" in the world leads to higher infant death rates and a lower life expectancy than just about any nation in Europe...but we still got Slovakia nailed. so fuck the 15 percent of Americans now without health insurance...essentially shut out of the health care system all together. yea...our system is fucking fantastic...if you are a rich fat cat. try telling the families of those 18,000 people that died unnecessarily last year how we have the best health care in the world.

well...we are number one at one thing...profiteering in the health care industry. Big Drug is joined by Big Insurance is gouging everyone...doctors included. yea, they love to tell you all about how the reason health care costs so much is because of those outrageous jury awards...there's only one problem. in state's with a cap on jury awards...Big Insurance charges higher premiums to docs than in those without. and jury awards/suits filed are declining anyhow. but Big Insurance still needs the money...hell, they spend tens of millions yearly lobbying...gotta get that money somewhere.

we don't need this fascist groove thing...New Whigs. We are you.

abandoning the elderly and the smartest thing Patsy ever said...

remember back when Bush was making another of his "compassionate" promises about how the his prescription drug plan would be great for the the vulnerable seniors of our nation? seems so very long ago...but seniors remember, those that survived by finding some other source for their prescription drugs that is. this brilliant bill turned into yet another excuse for Bush and his conservative hacks to transfer money from the most vulnerable of our society into the pockets of their disgustingly wealthy friends...again. sure seniors saw their drug prices drop...for about two months. then, they got slammed with a couple thousand page manual on picking their plan and suddenly were paying more for their drugs than they had been before they got a "break" bush style (much like the tax "break" those of us too lazy to make more than $1,000,000 a year got)...

they responded by doing whatever they could to get the drugs they so desparately needed and could no longer afford (mostly because the corporations had already stolen their pensions and they saw their taxes increase because the Bush "cuts" ended up turning into cuts in things like police protection and funding for education...which then had to be made up by the states, which increased taxes on income and everything else to pay for the things Bush was saying they had to do without giving them any of the money for it...an increase that went far beyond the whopping 300 dollar check they got that April). they were chartering buses in mass and heading across the border to stock up on drugs because Canada had realized that a person's health is not a "commodity" and should never be subject to the cruel realities of a "free" market that is driven by one thing and one thing only...how can corporations suck a few more bucks out of the people that can afford it least?

well...apparently the billion dollar profits of drug companies just weren't high enough...and apparently people getting the medicine they needed without skipping meals daily or being thrown out on the street is a bad thing for America...so the government and it's Big Business elite asshole friends set out to change that and make sure that there were no loopholes that would allow the some of the most vulnerable in our society to get the medicine they needed without starving to death to afford it, especially those people that had worked hard their whole lives with the understanding, no, the promise, that the nation would take care of them (not exactly an unfair exchange considering they fought off Hitler and turned the US into the most prosperous nation the world had ever seen...although perhaps that is why Bush and his pals are so against them, everything Bush and his cronies do seems to destroy the prosperity of this nation and everything good that generation once faught for).

so they went to Canada and pushed and pushed and pushed until Canada finally agreed not to sell generic drugs...drugs which do the exact same thing for a hell of a lot less money, thereby providing relief to millions more people than otherwise would be able to afford it. so now the already disgustingly wealthy corporations that milk the US elderly for billions will be able to milk them even further because they have nowhere else to go...(yes, the same people are already working on a similar bill in the UK, and you have to know that Mexico is next). so there you have it...Bush and the conservative movement are in bed with Big Business to the extent that they will refuse to provide for Medicaid and Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to get lower prices for seniors (and for taxpayers might I add...yup, keep on trickling up the money of tax payers...take from the poor and give it over to the fabulously wealthy, its the conservative way) and then take away any hope those vulnerable folks that need medicine the most have for getting their meds without skipping meals or losing their homes.

which brings me to my second point...patsy madrid is a complete moron. as evidenced by her inability to close out when ahead by 10 points in the polls with a week to go. but during the campaign she gave the most honest statement I believe I have ever heard from a career politician...when asked about taking money from corporations, her answer was basically that taking that money was just to give those people access to her. it was one of those head slapping moments where you wonder what in god's name she was thinking...but it isn't like we don't all know that is the truth about politics in America today. and I, for one, commend Patsy for talking about what the rest of us are too scared to say...for bringing it out into the open rather than keeping it in the closet and forcing us to deal with the sad reality that our representative democracy has become a corporatocracy...

hell, just look at the presidential "front-runners"...we never talk about who has the best ideas, who is the best leader, who is the most qualified, who cares the most about the American people...and never, never do we hear about a presidential front-runner because they represent the majority of Americans. no...we hear about the front-runners as the ones that can raise the most money...and they are proud of it. we have so allowed these people to denigrate our sacred institutions of democracy that it is to the point now that they brag to us that they are more in the pocket of Big Business and the supremely wealthy than any other candidate...and we applaud them for it.

even the "liberal" candidates now must kneel before the god of Big Business and "free" markets at the expense of the vast majority of the American people...and the world community...in order to raise the funds they deem necessary to win office...which has become the goal of politics, not to change the world, not to help people, not to save this country...but to win elections. and after they win the elections...they have debts to pay...and so we get things like the prescription drug bill that takes money from the poor and vulnerable of this nation and gives it to the already disgustingly wealthy Big Drug Companies...and we get no-bid contracts for the military and Iraq while our soldiers march into a warzone without proper equipment or protection...and then we applaud ourselves for kicking out some of the corrupt bastards so we can send other corrupt bastards into office who also owe debts that they will try to pay off...and we, the average American, the person that works their ass off to get by and yet pays more and more in taxes and sees less and less government services for that money while the folks in the gated community down the street gets even richer with our money...we get the shaft.

well...no longer will we take the shaft...as much as they have tried to marginalize us, it is they who are on the margins of society...it is they who have no concept of what it means to be American, or even human...and it is they who work for us, and must answer to us. but until we stand up and demand they answer to us and not to Big Business we will see our once great nation continue its slide into the most powerful banana republic the world has ever seen. so get off your ass and make demands...write to your representatives...write to your editors...run for office...take back the country.

New Whigs. We Are You.

learning from history is for the unexceptional and bush as proliferater-in-chief...

as a friend from an earlier generation once said, it is as if in their youth his generation was in a horrific car crash...and now they have been asked if they want to do it all over again. even Bush is unwittingly (as if he ever does anything with knowledge and intelligence) beginning to recognize that sad reality. this week he visited those damn commies in Vietnam and said some interesting things that so sound like they are condemning his actions one must wonder just how incredibly clueless this pathetic shell of a leader is...

"it's just going to take a long period of time for the ideology that is hopeful, and that is an ideology of freedom, to overcome an ideology of hate" Bush told the Vietnamese...which was only slightly ironic for the fact that he was talking to the very people that spent decades fighting the forces of the United States and a puppet government for their freedom...it was, however, amusingly poignant to the current situation we find ourselves in within America and the fight for the ideals that define America and Americans against the powers that be in the GOP and their efforts to utilize fear, hatred, racism, totalitarianism, and just about every other un-American ideology you can think of to maintain hold on power.

the president came painfully close to acknowledging how back-ass-ward his policies are when he informed the Vietnamese (as if they weren't aware of the situation) that "for decades, you have been torn apart by war...and today the Vietnamese people are at peace and seeing the benefits of reform." interesting how the president almost noticed that the vietnamese people were not seeing peace and the benefits of reform until the decades of war against the United States government and its proxies ended...if only the simpleton could take the next step in logic and recognize that tearing a country apart by war only delays reform.

so the lesson that Bush apparently takes from Vietnam is that freedom takes time...but he fails to acknowledge the other crucial parts of that lesson, that outside occupying and imperialistic powers inevitably stunt the growth of freedom and often find themselves fighting an unwinnable war with a military might that is unbeatable...or perhaps that the domino effect was a bunch of horseshit (which would be a nice lesson to remember now that the reason for the occupation in Iraq is to "not lose" and avoid the entire region falling into chaos). but then what do you expect from an administration with a secretary of state that declares historical parralels are not helpful as condi rice did. so there you have it...these bozos are flouting the fact that they do not study history, have not learned a damn thing from it, and continue to tempt it in disastrous ways...American Exceptionalism at its best - who needs to examine history and its trends? afterall, there is no way American Exceptionalism will lead to the same results that Roman, Spanish, Dutch, German, English, French, etc. exceptionalism lead to...because they weren't really exceptional...only we are.

remember that pesky little treaty which limited the number of nuclear powers in the world and which everyone hoped would lead to the end of nuclear war and its threats...if anything you will likely remember how Bush did everything in his power to dismantle it...the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. well, as if failing to live up to our end of the bargain and expanding rather than retracting our arsenal while developing new and improved "usable" nukes and refusing to assist other nations in peaceful nuclear development was not bad enough, as if pulling out of the treaty was not bad enough...Bush and his boys are intent on assisting India with bulking up their nuke capabilities...India, a non-signatory to the NPT...India, the same nation that is perpetually on the brink of nuclear war with Pakistan in one of the most unstable regions of the world...that India. and so now Bush has not only looked the other way as Pakistan went proliferation happy and provided technology to anyone and everyone (including the "axis of evil") he is pushing to further nuclearize the region. because that is exactly what this world needs...more nukes near the middle east...and the US supporting more nukes in the middle east if the nation happens to not contain an arab majority while threatening war if it does have an arab majority.

but then if your policies make you and your friends obscenely rich and you will likely be dead or too old to care when the world falls apart because of them you don't really have to look past the next quarterly report from KBR and its progeny...

holding on for tomorrow...

keeping "cracker" in cracker barrel, jailing the sick, and catholicism's selective humanity...

a running joke in the crowd I run with involves a rather amusing mental image of younger versions of myself locked arm and arm within a giant blastic yellow cylinder with an etching on the side..."cracker barrel"...just like the old fashioned barrel of monkeys, only with crackers. turns out the good folks at cracker barrel corporate had much the same idea...making it an apparent corporate policy to hate black folk. it's one thing to take "Denny's" and make it a racist pit, but to be so brazen as to actually call your racist establishment "cracker barrel"...well, you would think the feds would have noticed the problem a little sooner. seems the good folks at cracker barrel didn't really want to serve black folk (although it seems the crackers would pawn off black customers on the rare black employee), or have them browse their store, and god forbid they touched anything. the barrel-o-crackers ran into some trouble with the reds...and still has a plethora of suits out there...and I imagine with the disasterous tuesday the Republican Party had recently cracker barrel celebrations were put on hold. with that in mind...go to grab yourself some Denny's.

Jeb Bush's boys got a little jealous of George W. Bush's boys in thumbing their nose at court orders (how nice would it be if normal people could just tell the courts to go fuck themselves? must be nice to be insanely rich and born into the military-industrial-intelligence complex)...so they are telling the courts in Florida to fuck themselves. well, maybe not the courts to fuck themselves, but they are saying that the mentally ill being held in prison unlawfully can fuck themselves (or do anything else to themselves apparently...as long as it doesn't include getting treatment...and if they want help hurting themselves or dying, well the authorities are all over that). so now, keeping with the trend created by the Republican surge in the 1980's and "personal responsibility" at all expense (especially if your mind has no concept of reality), they are having folks that are incompetent to stand trial waste away in prison without any treatment for their mental illness. and yes, you may be thinking "who cares...they are melingering anyhow"...but then you obviously have no concept of just how incredibly insane you need to be to be found incompetent to stand trial (especially in a state run by a Bush)...trust me, these people are crazy with a capital crazy. (side note - these brilliant folks put the suicidal ones in tiny cells with no access to human interaction and only let them out to shower...because that will help a suicidal person with mental issues). but maybe they are right...I mean, it seems apparent we don't give two shits about domestic law and little "technicalities" like, oh, the bill of rights. and just like if you aren't a terrorist you have nothing to worry about with the demise of your rights and torture, if you aren't crazy you have nothing to worry about with the demise of your rights.

it has gotten so bad that Florida officials are going to find themselves in jail on contempt soon (remember, like Judith Miller who wouldn't talk...at least she wasn't illegally jailing people) and the state is being fined in a big way. that sibling rivalry used to be cute until it became a contest to see which Bush brother's government could abuse the constitution and laws they "execute" more while signing the most death warrants and wasting tax payer money.

the Catholic Church in this country had this brilliant idea on "dealing" with homosexuals...you can be gay, just don't be gay. see...there is nothing wrong with being gay...only with being gay. but then I guess that is in line with the ten commandments and not coveting your neighbors wife...so as long as I covet him rather than his wife I am good...as long as I don't go so far as to commit adultery with him. guess lesbians are just fucked.

the Catholic Church did get something right though...the proposed and approved wall on the southern border is an un-American, immoral abomination. cardinal renato martino put it best when he stated simply "I must unfortunately say that in a world that greeted the fall of the berlin wall with joy, new walls are beign built between neighborhood and neighborhood, city and city, nation and nation..." so while Reagan stood there and yelled at Gorbachev (who, oddly enough was way the fuck ahead of the curve) to "tear down this wall!" his party has now responded by yelling to the world "put this wall up!" but then what do you expect from the folks that live in gated communities who ignore certain exits and "those" neighborhoods while on their way to a nice meal at the cracker barrel.

and here I thought I remembered something about all being equal and entitled to certain inalienable rights...must be that failed liberal education I got in the public schools overrun with drug-crazed hippies.

I got pulled over in west texas so they could look inside my car...he said "are you an american citizen"...I said "yes sir...so far." they made sure I wasn't smuggling someone in from mexico...someone willing to settle for America cause there was nowhere else to go...

keeping baghdad safe, rummy better cancel those travel plans, and a short learning curve...

thank god things are going so well in Iraq...otherwise the American people may be right to worry that their leadership is incredibly inept at occupying a country and putting it back together after dismantling it and then sending all the folks that knew anything about running it home, without pay, with weapons and really, really pissed off (not that creating conditions tailer-made for an effective insurgency should be considered poor planning...I mean, nobody saw this coming, a people pissed off that a foreign power is occupying their nation, that never happens). I mean, just recently about 150 education ministry folks got a free, all-expenses paid trip to the local amusement parks which some troop-hating, anti-American, kook would probably call a "torture chamber." we are doing so well in protecting the major city in the country that boring civil employees have the freedom to take time off...hell, they are going so well that they are forced to take time off...by hooded men with really big guns...

unfortunately, the rash of kidnappings in baghdad (along with that pesky little civil war thing, which, turns out, saddam planned ahead of time when these fucks got back in office...not that they would bother to get intelligence before invading and occupying a country though) has caused Rumsfeld to cancel his vacation plans to Iraq to visit "his" troops (which he loves so much he sends to war undermanned with inadequate equipment, poor planning and absolutely no foresight). instead he planned to take a trip to germany to visit with some people he felt may understand the human propensity to commit grievous war crimes (or at least oversee their commission)...unfortunately, those plans are now on hold as well since the german people are suing to get their prosecutors to look into investigating him and a bunch of other faces you would likely recognize for war crimes. my how the tables have turned...I would say he could try brazil and hang out with other monsters, but now that the germans have turned against it, I wonder how much help he would have in hiding down there. better hope for that pardon and stay between canada and mexico asshole...

south africa...a nation that within my short lifetime was the subject of much worldwide disdain for apartheid and the brutal racist cracker regime that ruled it and their apparent disdain for anything remotely approaching civil rights for anyone who did not happen to be cracker enough...is now whipping past the united states in a crucial area of civil rights...homosexuality. by a margin of 230 to 41 the south african parliament gave the thumbs up to gay marriage (right-wing "christians" across the united states are praying for a smiting at this very moment, so stay tuned)...within a few decades this nation went from brutal discrimination to walking hand in hand with all of four other nations in approving gay marriage - assuming the actions of the parliament take hold...shamefully, the united states is not one of those four.

in supporting gay marriage, the african national congress caucus chairman, Vytjie Mentor, explained that members of his party must vote for the measure regardless of their views towards homosexuality...“how do you give someone permission to discriminate in the name of the anc? how do you allow for someone to vote against the constitution and the policies of the anc, which is antidiscrimination?” is it just me...or should the "a" in "anc" be replaced by an "r" and this message be sent to all republicans...or maybe just replace the whole of "anc" with "christian"...

it is a sad day when America has embraced the policies made famous by Nazi Germany (later famously decried by liberal democracies such as, oh, America, in criminal trials of Nazi leaders) and South Africa speeds by America on the freeway of civil rights recognition...what happened to the ideals that made this country great?

another century spent pointing guns at anything that moves...

George Bush is the biggest threat to your security...

The following is an excerpt from the epilogue of Chain of Command by Seymour Hersh, the reporter that broke the My Lai story (which turned out to be much worse than his initial reports) during Vietnam.

As he campaigned, in the summer of 2004, George Bush repeatedly reassured audiences that his policies had made America safer. "We've turned the corner," was the refrain in his stump speech. "We're moving America forward by extending freedom and peace around the world." Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "are now governed by strong leaders. They're on the path to free elections." America, he added, would engage its enemies around the world "so we do not hae to face them here at home." The President did not mention the missing weapons of mass destruction, the growing G.I. death toll, the civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the devastation to all aspects of civil life in Iraq. He did not mention the adverse Supreme Court decisions in June of 2004 that challenged the legal basis of his postwar prison system, and told him that foreigners, as well as American citizens, were entitled to due process even in a time of war. And he did not discuss growing alienation and bitterness as Americans, already town by racial and religious differences, became increasingly politically and economically divided in the past four years.

We have a president who spent months terrorizing the nation with dire warnings about mushroom clouds emanating from Saddam Hussein's arsenal and then could say, as he did in a campaign speech in August of 2004, that it didn't matter. "We may still find weapons," Bush said. "We haven't found them yet....Let me just say this to you: knowing what I know today, we still would have gone into Iraq." We have a President who can stand aside as the dogs of war are turned loose on prisoners and then declare, as he did in June 2004, that "America stands against and will not tolerate torture. We will investigate and prosecute all acts of torture and undertake to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment in all territory under our jurisdiction" and that "freedom from torture is an inalienable human right." There are many who believe George Bush is a liar, a President who knowingly and deliberately twists facts for political gain. But lying would indicate an undestanding of what is desired, what is possible, and how best to get there. A more plausible explanation is that words have no meaning for this President beyond the immediate moment, and so he believes that his mere utterance of the phrases makes them real. It is a terrifying possibility.

if you're gonna be a terrorist you best be American and trying to take down commies...

three Americans were caught in Vietnam in what the government suspected was a terrorist plot to bring down the communist government (you know, the one we "defeated" a few decades ago...guess it's just in its last throws, right Rummy?)...for a year the Vietnamese government held them without charges. seeing as how they are communist, it validates Winston Churchill's declaration that a government with the power to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge is in the highest degee odious and the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist...so far so good.

well, apparently the Bush administration did not take kindly to folks being jailed for terrorism without being charged...no, seriously, they didn't...really, stop snickering, this is not a bit from the daily show...they were pissed. so just try and forget for a minute that this man pushed through legislation that gives him the power to hold folks indefinitely without charges (and has, in fact, been doing that on a large scale for the last five years...although it isn't so much as detaining as it is torturing, beating, killing, etc...but that's just symantics, he prefers to call it "due process")...and forget that the man insisted torture be codified so that the efforts he had been authorizing which were clearly in violation of international law and the federal statute against torture (which makes torture a capital offense...along with some dozens of other federal crimes...only government in the "civilized" world to have so much as one capital offense)...just remember that when three Americans were accussed of being terrorists against the communist government of Vietnam (the one that was defeated) the administration put some serious pressure on the Vietnamese government to make things go quickly and fairly (you remember those good old American values right? speedy trials and due process...I know it has been awhile since they applied, but think way back to the year 1 a.b. - after bush - and you will remember when the constitution still applied).

so these three Americans got a trial finally in Vietnam...and the American consulate even sent a couple observers to make sure everything went peachy. (you remember consulates right? those folks that every nation is required to notify when any foreign national is jailed by them...well, if you were Mexican and charged with a capital crime in the United States you would remember - if you hadn't been killed yet that is, by the only "civilized" nation to execute individuals - because you have probably been asking the consulate be notified ever since you got arrested but this administration has been ignoring its obligations and your requests). and they were convicted, for terrorist activities that were bent on bringing down the government...and with the Americans looking closely and nudging the Vietnamese along towards entrance into the WTO (wouldn't want folks in global organizations that don't follow basic fairness and due process and humanity...that's why the Republicans want us to pull out of all global organizations, then we don't have to listen to people tell us to be fair, and give due process, and show some humanity...we're America for fuck's sake, we would never do anything but God's will, he talks to our president you know) they were sentenced...to time served.

so there you have it...if you are going to be a terrorist, make sure you are an American citizen and trying to bring down the commies that the American government already "defeated" thirty years ago and that is trying to get into the whole "globalization" (neo-lib/con for "stay in your place Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East") and you will be guaranteed a speedy trial, due process and some leniency. just make sure that the illegitimate government you are after isn't being supported and propped up by the United States - or at least the Carlysle Group, Haliburton and KBR - or you may find yourself in the hands of the Americans, and then who knows what will happen...you can forget about your consulate, and we just codified the death of habeas so you can forget about having actual charges against you made, and we know that due process isn't coming since torture is not only condoned, it leads to admissible evidence, and forget a jury, unless your peers happen to be military-intelligence hardasses...

with that in mind...let's reexamine what Mr. Churchill said in 1943...

"The power of the executive to case a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist." well...apparently communists can be fairly easily pressured to change their ways...so I guess it doesn't really apply to commies anymore...which leaves Nazis. hmmm...no charges, no jury trial...uh oh. now I'm confused...the government we "defeated" in Vietnam gives rights our government doesn't and our government takes away rights that were taken away by the government we actually did defeat in Europe in the 1940s...

guess that settles it...Bush is a Nazi.

if you tolerate this, then the your children will be next..

now he'll cooperate, New Mexico in the Axis of Evil, and in the business of racist murder...

so the people of America came out on tuesday to slap that stupid grin off bush's face and take away the "political capital" which he apparently thought he had earned after losing the popular vote once and squeeking in a second time, thanks to two of the worst run campaigns in history. remember all those years ago when he rode into washington declaring himself the great unificator and letting us all know he would work across party lines to get things done. turns out he meant across inner party lines to make sure that everything possible to retain power and push an agenda that a large majority of his constituents disagreed with through without opposition. well...now he doesn't have the mindless sheep of the republican party to count on in giving him anything and everything he wants, no matter the consequences and with no worries to little nicities like constitutionality and morality...and so NOW he wants to unificate again, he says he will find common ground and work with democrats and be bipartisan and all the bullshit we heard from him before...such a cowardly flip-flopper. here's hoping the Democrats shove this victory right up his ass (which may already be full of something...ever notice how he walks around like he shit himself all the time?) and force him to veto bills that are good for the American people and that the American people support...step aside Mr. Elephant, an ass is coming through and the rhino is charging fast...

even if Rummie is gone (and speaking of Rummie, travel tip for you Mr. Rumsfeld...stay within the borders of the US, the folks at the Hague would love for you to touch down in their jurisdiction...and the sight of you pulling the same shenanigans that Milosevich pulled as a defense would be too much fun) folks are still worried that an invasion of Iran is in the works. but they have it all wrong...you don't have to go halfway across the world to find a region rich in oil and gas, loaded with nuclear weapons and with ties to the axis of evil...you just have to stop before you hit the Berlin Wall, er, border. that's right...New Mexico is next, and us good democracy loving folks down here need to be liberated from the oppression of a leader with dark skin, dark hair, a funny accent and access to thousands of nuclear weapons...

all those trips by Bill Richardson to hang out with Kim Jong Il and his friends, they weren't to try and convince the north koreans to straighten up their act, they were collaborative efforts to expand the axis of evil now that Saddam was out of the loop. and it makes perfect sense...we all know the mexicans are trying to steal New Mexico from us (even if being the rightful owner to property is an affirmative defense to theft in any jurisdiction), a large portion of the state sits over oil and natural gas, and with the ties to that loony in north korea, we cannot afford to sit back and wait for the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. or, in the case of New Mexico, some 3,000 mushroom clouds...for god's sake, after the United States and Russia, New Mexico has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world...and with their un-American acceptance of bilingualism they will likely give them to Hugo Chavez who obviously hates the American people, I mean, why else would he provide them with things like gas to heat their homes just because their own government would rather they freeze to death? besides, it's been what, three years since Bush started a new war...the tough guy cowboy hasn't become a yellow-bellied coward has he?

texas killed another black man today...their fourteenth of the year, with another scheduled for state-sanctioned murder before the year is out. 24 individuals have been killed by the state of texas in the last year (soon to be 25)...take a wild guess how many were white? five. 20 percent of inmates executed in texas this year will have been white...60 percent will have been black and the other 20 were hispanic. 80 percent of texas executions this year will be minorities...

and it gets better. none of the 5 white men who were executed were convicted of killing other white folks. only 5 of the murders which led to executions were of blacks...and all of those executed also happened to be black.

this leads to one of two conclusions...either minorities, and specifically blacks, have something inherent in their makeup that pushes them to commit henious violent crime...or the system is racist. funny how the only folks that would take the former over the latter are themselves, by definition, racist assholes...

two centuries later, still struggling for equal protection to actually mean equal protection...

the death of a party came as no surprise - thoughts after the election...

finally, the American people stood up and told the Republican Party it had miserably failed with the opportunity it was given...the world is rejoicing with us (except for bin Laden, his business really took off with Bush being able to count on nods from Congress no matter how moronic his policies)...

I never imagined this country would get so incredibly far off track and be so far down the crapper that I would celebrate a victory for the Democrats as a triumph...just remember boys and gals in blue, you did not win so much as they lost...and you're next...

has Obama announced yet?

Mr. Santorum...Mr. Casey has your ass...the good folks of Pennsylvania have asked he hand it to you...

assuming Virginia also follows the advice of the US Air Force and crosses over into the blue...I'm buying stock in kneepads because there are 50 Democrats and their staff that are going to need them when talking to Joe Lieberman about staying in the caucus...

Katherine Harris...we'll make a deal with you...you stay away from the national scene, and the rest of us will forget you ever happened...it will save everyone a lot of embarassment...

Mr. Limbaugh...the people of America and the world thank you for being you...if it weren't for asshole windbags like you, Talent might have pulled it off...

seriously...is Obama official?

to the people of Montana...you should have dragged it out...your 15 minutes are up...and thank you...

as rumors circulate that indictments are forthcoming in Ohio for some folks involved in election "irregularities" (right wing for "federal felonies"), the state is trying to redeem itself by doing its part to swing the senate...

white folk in Tennessee still don't like the idea of black folk speaking for them in Washington, especially if he flirts with a white woman...

wonder if Obama could take Tennessee...he announced his candidacy yet?

kudos to Vermont for sending a socialist to the senate in a double burn for the Republican Party in the state...

so what happens if George Allen wins...and then his staffers get indicted for voter intimidation?

the Republican Party of the millenia, pork, war, theft from tribes, war, handouts to the insanely rich, war, dismantling of the constitution, war, war profiteering, war, blank checks, war, rising poverty levels, war, environmental degredation, war, torture, war, the death of habeas, war, drunken cybersex with young men, war, covering up drunken cybersex with young men, war, profiteering on illegal land deals, war...did I mention war? proof yet again that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

and a little power corrupts a little...but we forgive you Obama...so are you running?

here's wondering if Bush actually realizes there are people that out there that realize he is a disaster now that his policies dismantled his party...

here's wondering if Bush was sitting there all night watching the returns screaming at the television "DIDN'T THEY NOTICE SADDAM IS GOING TO HANG! DON'T TELL ME WE HELD THE VERDICT UP FOR NOTHING!"...

even if Rev. Haggard likes to poke a man now and then...the right is still ridiculously homophobic...

except down here in New Mexico, where they came out and voted again for Heather Wilson...perhaps because they confused her with a white man...

ever notice that Obama's facial structure looks a bit like a young Abe Lincoln? did you say he is officially running?

war criminal tic-tac-toe...one down...two to go...got a bed for you in Bubba's room Mr. Rumsfeld...

Hillary Clinton is not the answer...

unless the question is "name the Democratic hopeful who's election to the presidency in 2008 would most strongly indicate the lesson of history is that we do not learn the lessons of history?"

how fucked up is it that with all the glee the number one thought continually bouncing through my mind is "all he needs to do is stay alive"...and that it is a serious concern...

and if you need to know who "he" is...you haven't been paying attention...but no need to fret, his announcement will come soon enough...

finally the tables are starting to turn...talkin' about a revolution...

Message to Winners on Election Day - You Work For Us...

The following is a column by Charles M. Madigan of the Chicago Tribune published in today's paper.

Instead of reaching out and wagging my finger at potential voters, which is a civic duty cliche many columnists turn to on Election Day, I would like to reach out to the people who will finish as winners with a simple message.

You work for me.

Actually, you work for us, the people of this nation, all races, creeds, types, however you want to describe them. It is one of the only political systems in the world that allows the grand mass at the bottom to play the role of boss.

Therefore, I believe we should be taken more seriously.

I'm not one of those characters who thinks political description defines whether you are OK or not. But I have to say if you are one of those Washington Republicans of a certain parasitic stripe these days, you are not OK with me and probably not OK with many of your bosses across the country.

It's not the ideology or the party label that's a problem. It's the behavior.

It seems to me that you have been selling the store over the last few years and it's time for that to stop. I would rather you pay attention to the needs, longings and demands of the masses than the needs, longings and demands of the connected scavengers on K Street, or down in Springfield on that end of things too.

You know who you are in most cases.

I would like to redefine "special interest" for you.

It's me! I'm a special interest, and so is almost everyone else I know. We have our needs and it's time for you to start paying serious attention to them, for a change.

I would like to be able to go to sleep at night feeling certain that you are not involved in a conspiracy to take everything lovely, everything wild, everything wonderful about my country and hand it over to those who would pump, slash, mine, drill and suck every last ounce of glory from it as quickly as they can.

Call me a wild-eyed conservationist, but there you are. It's what I want.

If that means we are just going to have fewer cars, or smaller cars that run on restaurant waste or hydrogen or processed prairie grasses, so be it. It's a good trade-off. I am not yet a geezer but I am headed in that direction, and I don't want my declining years to be defined by our connection to Middle Eastern oil pushers who would just as well see us wiped off the map.

I also don't want you in my house, in particular, in my bedroom, or on my phone line.

What happens in bedrooms is not the business of the government, it's the business of consenting adults. Perhaps you and your church pals think you can find some clarity on this in the Bible, but I would suggest that is not the case. Don't forget, Lot offered his virgin daughters to the horny masses of Sodom in his bid to protect some angels from assault.

I don't think that's good role modeling.

I could say lots more about biblical sex, but it's a good book so why risk banning?

One of the most special interests I would like to bring into play is the American soldier.

I think our soldiers have done a spectacular job in a hopeless war that started out with a big lie and just declined from there. For that reason alone, a lot of you should be out of work by the end of the day.

For those who remain, we in management trust you will start taking this seriously and find a way to get them the hell out of there. You should do what you can as lawmakers to force change in the Bush administration to bring this adventure to an effective end.

The popular solution is to recommend the dismissal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. That's a straw man. The problem is not Rumsfeld, it is, once again, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The whole Iraq mess started with a collection of fabrications, it might as well end on one. Why don't we just conclude the Iraqis are at least as capable of being targets in this situation as we are, declare their competence and start pulling out?

That can't be any more fictional than weapons of mass destruction, can it?

Once we find a way to do that, let's not forget the troops. We in management believe you owe them a huge debt, and they better be treated at least as well as CEOs at health spas.

There is more, of course, but this is enough for now.

pathetic politics, Bush still not working, and "so that's what 'born-again' means"...

well...just when you thought politics in this country could not fall any lower...just when you thought painful attack ads paid for by insanely rich people that will win either way went too far...just when you became physically ill at the blatant race baiting and lying of certain campaigners (cough, cough, mostly republicans, cough, cough)...here comes the Karl Rove machine to bring shameful politics to a whole nother level. the republican party has now taken to crank calls...either posing as pollsters before inundating the poor old lady on the other end of the line with some fox-news-worthy slander or posing as the democratic candidate and harrassing voters in an attempt to piss them off enough to stay home. so there you have it...this is what republican conservatism stands for...steal from the poor and give to the rich, aggressive war, reversing social justice, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and childish pranks. grand old party indeed...if lincoln hadn't already been shot in the head, he would do it himself with what you have done to the ideals he stood for.

speaking off...bush is still taking time away from the office to campaign for the "red" folks in this country. notice he is staying away from anywhere that the republican actually needs the help...perhaps it has something to do with his being the worst. president. ever. or perhaps it is just because in those states they couldn't find a stadium full of white elites to cheer a grown ass man playing cowboy...seriously, when was the last time you saw a person at one of his rallies that wasn't pale? or whose shoes had holes? wonder what the crowd would look like if they truly opened it up to the general public...and what their reaction would be. (well, no, I really don't wonder...the man would be shocked to learn everyone thinks he is a prick). seriously...what the fuck is with an elected leader who is supposed to represent the american people being so inaccessable to the american people?

I've struggled with what exactly "born-again" means...until last week when the good Rev. Ted Haggard, the almighty leader of evangelicals in America, had the courtesy to fill me in. apparently to be "born-again" requires seriously fucked up mind altering substances combined with poking a member of the same sex. the best I can figure, the methamphetamine, also known by its biblical name of "ice", provides you with the necessary will-power to join with your male prostitute in searching the most inner depths of your "soul"...the process seems to entail an overpowering sense of joy throughout your entire body accompanied by convulsions as the spirit of the lord engulfs you and your speaking in tongues (often confused with ape-like grunting and phrases such as "put it in my pooper"). if performed correctly, the seed of the spirit will flow from your partner deep within you.

or...if you are a coward...you can just throw the meth away.

Second Open Letter to President Bush...

Dear Mr. Bush:

While great leaders of the past in the time of crisis have instructed us to be not afraid, that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, you told us to be very, very afraid, you told us to be cowards, and then exploited that fear in launching your assault on our democracy.

You preached fear to stoke the flames of xenophobic nativism and smiled for the cameras as you signed into law a wall to exclude brown-skinned spanish speaking immigrants. You exploited the fear you and your cronies created to repeal the words on the plaque Lady Liberty holds. Now, her cheeks rust with the tears of a broken heart as her lamp which once beaconed the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the homeless and the tempest-tost has gone dark and the golden door which it once illuminated slammed in the face of those seeking the promise and hope America once offered.

You preached fear to exploit for support in abandoning mankind’s efforts to limit the scourge of war and launch an aggressive war as an experiment in placing a friendly regime in power over the world’s second largest oil reserves, your plan was to utilize this immoral war as a means to further the interests of your big corporate friends at the likes of KBR (the company that made your family rich), the Carlysle Group (with its historical ties to your family), and Haliburton (with its ties to your friends). Unfortunately for you, America had embraced the notion set forth by Justice Jackson at Nuremberg that no grievances or policies can justify aggressive war, utterly renouncing and condemning it as an instrument of policy. And so you terrorized the American public so they might believe your cause was something other than immoral. We soon learned the fear you planted and exploited had no basis in reality, yet you still preach fear so that we might accept 3,000 American service men and women returning home in flag draped coffins which you refuse to dignify by so much as acknowledging their return to the nation they gave their lives for based on your lying word. You again preach fear so that we might accept the thousands returning home physically and mentally maimed from the occupation which resulted from your lying word. You again preach fear so that we might disregard hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings now horribly disfigured, maimed and slaughtered based upon your lying word as collateral damage.

You preached fear to push through ridiculously large budgets for the military so that you could take money from the American people, from the poor mother working two jobs to support her family, from the children stuck in crumbling schools and without opportunity, from the soldiers who saw their combat pay decreased just as they were being sent into combat without proper protection, from the families of those soldiers who saw their benefits slashed, from the veterans, 45,000 of whom have returned injured from Iraq, who were told they would not receive necessary medical care because the record budgets were just a means to transfer what was owed to them into the pockets of your elite corporate friends. MLK warned us that a nation spending more money on the machinery of death and destruction than on programs of social uplift is a nation approaching spiritual death. Your occupation of Iraq now costs the American people almost $1 billion each week and you use that price tag as an excuse to ask us to sacrifice for the common good by leaving our poor neighbors to fend for themselves, all the while giving trillions of dollars back to your already disgustingly rich contributors. All of this while you boldly claim God’s blessing and endorsement of your despicable war and occupation while Lincoln instructed us not to blindly believe God was on our side, but to sincerely pray that we were on his.

And now you have planted and exploited fear to denigrate our Constitution and its ideals in violation of the very solemn oath you twice uttered. And you exploited the very fear you planted with your lies and your despicable labeling of patriotism as treason to repeal the very law you swore to uphold. You could barely contain your excitement as you signed torture and the death of freedom into law, perhaps remembering that no act of terrorism ever brought down a democracy such as ours, but acts of parliament have managed to close a few.

We cannot defend our freedoms by repealing them. Under your directive the government is spying on your own citizens without establishing probable cause, people are being jailed without charges or due process, and people are being horribly tortured. You tell us it is necessary, trying again to appeal to fear and vengeance. But we are not to be fooled Mr. Bush, for we love our freedom and know that a government willing to treat foreigners unjustly will inevitably treat its own unjustly. We remember Winston Churchill’s words when he declared “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 in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government” and we deplore your mocking of the sacrifice of generations past in demanding such power.

When asked what form of Government the Constitution created, in recognition of how frail the grand doctrines of democracy and freedom can be, Benjamin Franklin replied “A republic...if you can keep it.” Well Mr. Bush, despite the efforts of this sham Congress filled with faux representatives in ceding that republic and our freedoms to your whim, the American People will keep it and the freedom, life, liberty, justice, opportunity and hope it offers. We recognize that no act of terror has ever brought down a democracy such as ours, but that acts of parliament have closed a few. You do not represent America Mr. Bush, end your campaign of fear and vengeance which so denigrates her ideals. We will not allow your to terrorize the people into accepting your tyranny any longer.

Finally, I again offer my sincerest hopes for you and your memory...

May your God forgive you for your blasphemous perversion of his teachings in the furtherance of your campaign of destruction...

May true Americans, past, present and future, condemn you for the carnage you have done in their name, both to their nation and their world...

And may history remember you as the architect of a horrendous attack on the best of humanity from it's most base emotions of fear and vengeance, the most disastrous and apocalyptic of results only narrowly averted by the better angels of our nature.

Sincerely,

Paul Linnenburger