selective law enforcement, wondering why I should hate Chavez, and good to be Chicagoan...

those damn uppity brown folks were up to no good again...and not just in Nebraska. but do not fret, because the feds were all over it this time, raiding meet processing plants in six states owned by Swift & Co. - one of the world's biggest meet processors (something to write home about). in Nebraska they carted off almost half of the shift. Republican leaders immediately jumped up and down with glee to celebrate the destruction of brown folks families (because foreigners being allowed to marry will destroy marriage for the rest of us good god-fearing, white Americans - the same people who will proudly declare "love it or leave it" in a rather ironic twist seeing as how they celebrate kicking out people that love it so much they risked life and limb to get here and risk imprisonment to stay...but consistency was never their forte). how many schoolchildren stepped off the bus and didn't find mom and/or dad there at the end of the day? how many got home to the tiny apartment whey were forced into because mom and dad couldn't get a decent paying job only to find their parents weren't coming home? family values my ass.

there is good news to come out of the raids of Swift & Co. however...while hundreds of brown folks will likely be charged and hopefully thrown in prison and then dropped across the border sometime in the future, the good folks that run Swift will not be charged. thank god...I was concerned that Big Business might actually have to answer for once, and then total chaos might break out...I'm talking cats and dogs living together...

I have been trying for months to figure out what it is I am to hate about Hugo Chavez so much so that my government tries to overthrow him (pathetically unsuccessfully might I add) and have him killed...and I just can't do it. I mean, was it providing a real roof over the heads of so many of his people that had been living in boxes? or is it putting food on their tables? maybe it is saving a handful of other nations and their people who were being railroaded by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF into murderous poverty? using the natural resources of a nation to actually rebuild its economy? keeping the capital a country generates within that country to facilitate double-digit growth in its economy in direct contradiction to the "globalization is god" crowd? providing heat for poor, largely minority neighborhoods in major American cities when the US Government won't do shit about people freezing to death because their wages are worthless? that all sounds pretty applaudable to me...helping the poor, using wealth in a fair manner to help those less fortunate...hell, that sounds downright christian (and yet Pat Robertson suggests slaughtering the man). but what do I know...I mean, I only read the Bible myself without relying on some insanely rich preacher telling me I needed to send him money to be saved and telling me what the Bible "actually" says rather than what it clearly means.

I just could not figure out what this man has done to deserve my ire...besides briefly be obsessed with a particularly hideous sweater (but hey, even that was endearing). but then I am not an insanely wealthy profiteer who's only concern is my bottom line, regardless of the death and destruction that I cause. finally, my mind has been eased thanks to Greg Palast. it isn't that Chavez has done all these things (things that have been done by other leaders in the past)...it is that he is copying the blueprint of the quintessential white, european nation...Norway. when will brown folk learn that managed resources and intelligent use of capital to benefit all of society is only for extremely white peoples north of the equator? even if they are all the same measures that US leadership (well....kennedy at least) was pushing for decades ago. so with that in mind...I will do my part as a god-fearing, flag-waving, white American male...fire away Mr. CIA.

and lastly, on a lighter note, it is a damn good time to be a Chicagoan. for those of you who have never met anyone from Chicago...we are forever distressed by the lack of acknowledgement our city gets for being legit. I mean, for god's sake, we are known as the "second city"...and even that status has been taken from us. but we have always had our sports teams to fall back on and rally around in an "us vs. the world" way. and with the cubs' ownership finally realizing that bringing in billions means you should be able to spend a few million, the bulls finding themselves, and the bears returning to form as smashmouth bruisers (the blackhawks are lost forever...really...as a hockey player, how can you strike? nobody cared in the first place, what were you bitching about?) the city - and those of us transplanted elsewhere - is abuzz with the joy that always comes before the tremendous let-down and the return to the realization that Chicago will forever be No. 2. but she'll always be No. 1 in my heart (tear).

this one's for Sweetness...running the ball's like makin' romance (pouring beer onto the ground)...