rise minions, the houston route, and the "justice" system...

the boy king is one again calling on the masses (well, at least the assholes that are just down the street and working for the same rich assholes as he) to ignore "partisanship"...to rise above politics and ensure that young american men and women continue to be blown apart while they watch (and yes, at times participate) iraqis being slaughtered. we've heard all the same shit before...we need to support the troops, we need to give them what they need to win, we can't let dissent on the homefront lose us another war. (nevermind that the whole "giving the troops what they need to succeed" bit apparently didn't apply when they were sent to die in the first place). anytime a wannabe tyrant informs you to put aside partisanship what he is really saying is "boys...we are forgetting what is important here...delaying this stuff and bickering over these things is losing our campaign contributors valuable funds which could then be funneled in our direction."

and besides...why must we accept that winning wars is the reason to be proud of this country? what was about it that you celebrated about this nation when you were a kid? what is it that we celebrate as our "way of life?" is it the militarism that has overtaken us? or is the myth that we all want to believe, and want to be true...that this nation stood for something special...for truth and justice. but then, I guess when you can no longer hide the fact that you stand for neither truth nor justice...you go with what you got...big guns.

a while back I was flying to chicago with a layover in houston. at the gate the vast majority of the people awaiting the flight were unhealthily large, which was very fitting considering the travel was between two of the fattest cities the world has ever seen. and now it seems the rest of the country is following suit. pretty soon, there will be more overweight people than not in this country...a substantial percentage of them obese. so while we worry about the nicole richies and michelle tanners wasting away to nothing...the real danger is that we, as a nation, are killing ourselves with calories. and these people are going to wind up in emergency rooms with bills they cannot pay that will be pushed on the taxpayers because there is no universal health system in place. and many will die unnecessarily early because they did not have access to proper health care and nuitrition throughout their lives. and we will all be to blame...our consumer culture is killing us...try not to get through the depression with macdonalds.

in another shocking example of how our "justice" system stands for what is right...the authorities in georgia appealed a judge's decision to let a kid out of jail for getting oral sex from another kid, both in high school, agreeably consensual. genarlow wilson was at a party when he was 17 and a 15 year old girl went down on him. he got slapped with a mandatory 10 years in jail for it. he was a good kid...did well in school, athlete...going places. and now, he's a felon with a ten year wait for the sun. only the story broke and georgia changed the law, his actions are now a misdemeanor...no more than a year. and so the judge did the right thing...did what he wanted to do all along...and let wilson go free. but apparently justice is no longer the concern of prosecuting authorities...they appealed the decision to let him out of jail. and the georgia supreme court agreed to hear it (funny since they wouldn't give wilson the time of day when he appealed his ten year sentence originally).

the prosecutor is not worried about whether justice was done in this case...he is not worried with the system working to ensure that no innocent man spends ten years in prison...he is worried that this decision might be an excuse to let other people out of jail. and so the reality of the prosecutor mentallity is there for everyone to see...it is apparently not better to let 10 guilty men go free in order that one innocent man be spared prison...one innocent kid must spend ten years in prison so that some other maybe guilty men aren't given shorter sentences. any way you look at it, this is a perversion of justice...and an embarassment to what it is we claim to stand for as a nation. be ashamed thurbert baker...you are making a mockery of your title, the system itself and the most basic notions of fundamental fairness that form the foundation of our way of life (the mythical one...not the militaristic capitalist elite asshole one which we must abandon partisanship for in favor of more death and destruction for dollars).

sometimes I pray I don't die...I'm a goddamn hypocrite.