welcome to chicago senators, a real stimulus, and where to find the money...

the united states senate has for years (hell, decades...centuries even) been a lofty perch for a handful of blowhard white male holdouts desperately clinging to the good ol' boy life and the knowledge that they are blessed and better than anyone that would come out of a true meritocracy. yes, the united states senate is the depository for our home-grown aristocracy. and that is why I am grateful to illinois gov. rod blagojevich for giving them a dose of good old fashioned hard nosed blue collar chicago politics. ever since blago and his hair were led into the dark SUV in handcuffs, the senators have been on their self-imposed pillars talking down to the rest of us (as if the vast majority of them aren't crooks...hell, harry reid, the loudest shitbag of them all on this issue hails from neveda, that bastion of good and ethical politics) and declaring that blago will not get to fulfill his duties and the people of illinois will be without a second voice in the senate because they decide who gets in the club. (on a side note, I am amazed at how little I heard from the talking heads about how frightening it was that the senate was effectively telling the american people its elections and laws ..ing united states senators were null and void anytime those already in the exclusive club decided they did not like a candidate...or even worse, the people lawfully picking that candidate...and this from the purportedly "liberal" party which has been crying about the loss of democracy during the rule of the uber-wealthy. and this my friends, is why the democratic party should burn in hellfire). well, the hair showed washington that it doesn't have shit on chicago. box them in, embarrass them, force your will upon them. its the chicago way. and now the senate is backing down (thanks in part to another chicago strong-arm...the president-elect). take note all of you that worried that obama is not tough enough...the man rose from chicago politics and forced his way onto the national scene and into the white house. fuck with him, and he will end you. welcome to chicago.

there is plenty of talk about economic stimulus over the last few months. (the amusing part of it being that everyone talking about it was ignoring the ground work for a future stimulus and shouting how prosperity was everywhere and the market was high so all was well and would be forever. and now we have nothing to stimulate except other nations that build things. woot.) and I am all for pumping the economy in a last ditch hope that we haven't crossed the rubicon (although I am fully willing to accept that relative economic decline is inevitable, and, in the long term, can actually be beneficial to a former worldwide economic hegemon). but when it is coupled with all this crap about tax cuts (because if there is any kool-aid which washington just cannot put down it is the tax cut crap and the brain dead, now yet again proven false friedmanomics) I become very worried. that supposed "stimulus" of tax cuts the last few times was just one more example of the cute word play of those that don't give a shit about the masses or poverty or the growing chasm between the shrinking number of haves and everybody else. it was a wealth transfer...from those without to those with too much. it was a stealthy attack in the class war that they have fomented against us for centuries. ask yourself...if you get a refund check or a break in your taxes where is that money going to go? not into your savings...because your insurance and your loan rates are too high. it will go right back to the same insanely bloated institutions that already took hundreds of billions of tax payer money and then said "thanks...and no, you cannot know where the money went or what we did with it or why we are still refusing to do the socially responsible - and long-term business savvy - thing and loan any money to anyone worthy." claiming right does not trump doing wrong.

and if we are going to get a real stimulus...an infusion into education, manufacturing, infrastructure development, small business (actual small business, not the current definition, which includes dick cheney) growth...now that the deficit under the party against big spending has skyrocketed...where do we find the money? drugs. little noticed story recently - the feds are planning to "surge" the border in the war on drugs. and we all know how well this particular war has worked...and how effective prohibition was at developing a huge class of gangsters. so we spend billions and billions to ward of drugs. in the process, we effectively divert about as much as a kid digging a hole with his hands on the banks of the mississippi...we aren't stopping shit. and we spend billions putting addicts and those that supply them in prison - where it is actually easier to get drugs than on the street. ensuring that when they get out they cannot find work, leading to depression and right back to drugs. and in the meantime we have turned other nations into living hells, we have turned border towns into death traps where 40 murders in a weekend is no longer news and if the chief of police lasts more than a week he should get his retirement. and yet we look to london, where herione is given to addicts free of charge, putting dealers out of business, crushing crime and avoiding the danger of the impurities (pure opiates don't tend to kill people near as much as the crap to cut them). and how much revenue is made on taxes for cigarettes and alcohol? when was the last time you heard of someone killing a family for a cigar and a shot of whiskey? you could tax the hell out of these things, regulate their manufacture and distribution to keep them as pure and safe as is possible, keep prices low enough to put dealers out of business, and still make a fortune. and don't give me this crap about how we will become a nation of addicts if drugs are legalized. we are a nation of addicts now. it is not hard to get drugs anywhere in this country. if you think it is I envy your sheltered existence.

I'm just breakin' down...