don't call me highness, cause it's a long way down...

good ol' laissez faire capitalism is crumbling...free market economics brought to us by the chicago boys has once again been proven to be a recipe for disaster...economies world-wide are basically in free fall at the moment. and my brain is racing like a pro now...

the national academy of sciences released its report on crime labs. turns out the guy with a badge that took a 5 hour course doesn't really know a damn thing and wings it so that he can add another pelt to his belt. and those of us that live and work in the criminal justice system are wondering how in god's name it took this long for someone to say what we all knew - junk science is sending innocent people to prison. justice be damned...they just want convictions...

take, for instance joshua kezer. the man spent 17 years in prison for murder he always swore he did not commit before being given his freedom. what did the judge have to say? he castigated the prosecutor for withholding evidence at the first trial.

think about that. we get it wrong quite a bit when we give people "all the protections of american citizens." so just how bad are we off when we deprive those protections from people? and shouldn't that make you want to send all those right-wing fuckheads that claim we cannot possibly allow the same process for alleged terrorists as we do for alleged criminals with american citizenship to gitmo themselves?

whenever I hear fucktards like paul celluci (an ambassador to canada, one of the cushiest jobs in the world) say boneheaded things like "canadians in particular are free traders" I want to slap the living hell out of them. what they actually mean to say is that those with obscene amounts of money want an economic system that will continue to bring them disproportionate gains. the guy out of work doesn't give two shits about your free trade...he wants a roof over his head and a peaceful retirement.

people are complaining about the car companies (namely GM) needing money from the feds now because they agreed to a 30 and out retirement plan (30 years in, and you get your full pension for life) because theoretically people are retiring before they hit 50. I'm just wondering - what is the average life expectancy of persons working 30 years in the factory in detriot? are they really living way beyond retirement?

california is going broke. federal courts are ordering they release prisoners being housed in inhumane conditions because they can't afford to lock 'em up and throw away the key. so incredibly close to making the connection, but we still don't get it...

when people start selling pot to cover their regular-ass bills because their full-time job can't cut it anymore you know we are in trouble...

and you can't help but wonder why they go to prison while your bartender gets an extra tip for making your drink strong...

as foreclosures are mounting someone figured out a simple defense...prove it. these assholes repackaged and shipped off these loans so many times that they seem to have lost the documents. makes a little part of you smile...it's ok, fuck them.

ronald reagan is requesting his catch phrase be updated...the new scariest phrase in the english language is "I have an MBA and I am here to help."


everytime the unemployment numbers come out remember this...clinton changed the rules to hide the true numbers. it is actually much higher.

we are all learning that bipartisanship takes two to tango. and the republicans still apparently think it means they should get whatever they want or else they will go pout in the corner. but remember...FDR forcefed a lot of programs down the throats of the elephantile idiocracy. it was not until later that those programs had a go of bipartisan support. so mr. president, let them pout and whine. throw your weight around - at them and your free market boneheaded democrat friends.

I really want to be a member of congress...so I've decided to stop paying my taxes...

after the peanut debacle I was disgusted with the way in which greed and the bottom line has overcome all else. which is the problem with corporations (and why our founders staged a revolt to protest them)...our laws treat them like people, and they aren't people. they have one sole purpose to exist - to make money. of course, in that way they are a lot like people I suppose.

and then I thought - good god, what is going to happen to all those people that work at that factory when the company goes down?

the other day I saw a short story on a little girl that was given a rescue dog because her dad wanted her to have one. dad got shipped to war. yea, we sent your dad to kill and be killed. but here's a dog.

civilian deaths are up in afghanistan...god help us...

just as it is looking like we are stuck in a quagmire afterall - the general is calling it a stalemate. somewhere vladimir putin is chuckling...

speaking of afghanistan, kyrgyzstan is kicking us out. why is this not a bigger story?

is anybody else terrified about the fact that pakistan has nukes?

and what the hell is wrong with mankind that we build such horrifying devices of death and destruction but refuse to make sure kids don't die of hunger?

with all of this, I am sickened that the top news story has been whether whatever the fuck his name is beat up whatever the fuck her name is and missed the grammy's because of it...

you will always remember my name...

stop wasting our money on this insanity...

If only politicians would finally admit to the reality of the "War on Drugs" we might be able to get somewhere. The following is a column by Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star.

Quit crying double-standard over Phelps

By Jason Whitlock - Kansas City Star

There is no bigger fan of racial double-standards than yours truly. But those of you looking for one inside Michael Phelps' bong are misguided, stuck in the 1960s and worship at the Church of Al Sharp-tongue.

Don't send me any more e-mails complaining that if Phelps were black, he'd be dropped by his sponsors, locked in a cell next to O.J. Simpson and banned from all international competition.

If Phelps had dark skin and answered to "Jerome Washington," he'd be headed to Disney World, toting the Super Bowl MVP trophy he stole from James Harrison and Big Ben Roethlisberger.

Yeah, America gives its marketable, talented and wealthy weed-smokers the Santonio Holmes treatment. We forgive and quickly forget. Oh, I know there's a pattern of misbehavior with Michael Phelps. The cops busted him driving under the influence four years ago.

Well,the cops pinched Holmes twice in 2006, busting him for disorderly conduct and domestic violence — the charges were eventually dropped after smooth lawyering — and nabbed him ridin' dirty (three blunts) last October.Mickey Mouse doesn't care, and neither do you.

America's war on drugs is a scam to lock up poor people, a prop to advance political careers and an easy way for corrupt police and politicians to funnel millions of untraceable dollars into their own pockets. And you really want to play the if-so-and-so-was-black game over a dorky white swimmer pulling on a bong? Are you really that simple-minded?

The black president smoked weed. Rush Limbaugh was a junkie. Brett Favre had a fling with prescriptions. In college, I was Saddam Hussein and Crown and Chronic were my weapons of mass destruction.

I'm not going to be a hypocrite and blast this kid for blowing trees. And I'm not going to rip his sponsors for remaining loyal. Michael Phelps knows how to play the game. He's quick with the contrite, toke(n) apology and he maintains a boy-next-door image. Someone e-mailed me saying the media would be tougher on an NBA player captured on Kodak with his lips locked on a three-foot bong. Depends on the player. Shane Battier? We'd forget before tipoff, and we'd forgive without an apology. Now, if it's one of Human Tattoo Billboards or Lil Wayne Wannabes, we'd demand a Senate investigation and expect David Stern to punish him to the full extent of the law.Image is everything whether you're black or white. I got away with so much (spit) in high school simply because I spoke proper English, dressed appropriately, smiled at teachers, captained the football team and attended class. Everyone loved me, gave me the benefit of the doubt when I made a mistake and looked the other way when I spent the last semester of high school celebrating my full-ride scholarship to Ball State. It's not that difficult to play the game. You don't have to sell out. If you want to be a rebel and carry yourself like a recent parolee, then accept the consequences and quit whining. There are decisions I've made with my appearance that limit my chances of hooking up with Beyonce. I could cry about it, talk about how unfair life is for a man three to five pounds above his ideal weight, but no one wants to hear it. The truth is it is Beyonce's loss. I'm sorry. I digress. Rather than bellyaching about a racial double-standard, the Phelps case provides a wonderful platform to call for the legalization of marijuana (and all drugs). Check your 401k. We're broke. Obama's cabinet nominees are cheating on their taxes. We're wasting billions of dollars locking up and providing "free" health care to drug offenders. The government needs to take control of the mega-billion-dollar drug industry and use a portion of the money for rehabilitation facilities and the rest to help get us out of debt. If Michael Phelps just can't say no, why would we expect kids with far more depressing circumstances to avoid getting high? I'm sure many of you are reading this right now after having a legal drink and popping a legal prescription drug and you just don't understand why poor people don't go to the doctor and get a script for Xanax, Lexapro or Prozac. The beauty is, if things keep going the way they are, these middle-class and wealthy hypocrites will soon be poor and they'll have intimate knowledge of why many poor people self-medicate with marijuana and other drugs. I'm not an advocate of drugs. In the near 20 years since I graduated from college, I can count on two fingers how many times I've seen marijuana. I'm not even a regular drinker. I'm high on my life. I love it. Years ago I read a Los Angeles Times story detailing who uses drugs and who gets arrested for buying and selling drugs. The stats were damning, shocking and disturbing along racial and economic lines. My affinity for Crown and Chronic was cured. At the time, I was black, poor and living in a major city — the can't-miss recipe for an American drug arrest. Now, I'm black, relatively wealthy, an admitted former toker and living in the suburbs — a recipe for being elected president. Whitlock in 2012: I'll call for an end to the drug war, and Michael Phelps can be my vice president.

dems didn't get the memo, neither side gets it, and voodoo science is sending you to jail...

the culture of washington was going to change (for what seems like the 10,000th election cycle in a row). progressive minded folks (true progressive, not left-wing nutjobs or democratic party players) were going to slap some sense into the moronic tendencies of our government, decades overdue of a cleaning, entrenched in their counter-productive and severely damaging ways of throwing money at themselves while they pat themselves on the back. don't get me wrong, my entire life I have had to live under the bullshit ideologies and practices of a republican party that long ago was hijacked by Big Business and all that is wrong with capitalism and america. (lest we forget, republicans always had such a leaning though...even lincoln was a lawyer for Big Railroad). and because of this, I too have a desire for payback...it is only natural. but while the democrats in congress apparently believe that 2006 and 2008 is a blank check for payback on their across-the-isle braindead brethren, I can't help but think they just did not get the memo from the american people. we are at a watershed moment, unfortunately it is not the watershed we had hoped for. our economy, which we falsely believed was eternally unstoppable (thanks to an undying proud ignorance of history), is crumbling...crumbling being too soft a word for the dramatic freefall we have entered. a hundred thousand people a week are receiving pink slips. one hundred thousand a week. millions are being kicked out of their homes. we don't build anything anymore. to say we are up shit creek without a paddle would be a gross understatement. basically, we are royally fucked, we the narrowest of windows to save ourselves, and possibly the world, from a decade of hell (well, there is plenty of the world that life won't change much for, except that we will stop helping). and on the other side? a world in which the united states is no longer the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world...just ask the brits, the dutch, the spanish, the romans...its one hell of a beautifully repeating cycle in western history.

and how do the democrats in congress respond? by butchering a stimulus bill to basically just make it the largest pet-project bill ever imagined. we are not talking about $800,000,000,000 (yea, when you write it out it looks like a lot of fucking money) into a massive public works program, education, and assistance to local and state governments. we are talking too much about an excuse for payback, to get all the crap that the republicans kept for themselves the last 15 years. we are talking about spending that might be a good idea...but not now. we are talking about throwing money desperately needed to put people to work to pay the FBI more for its junk science (see below) along with a load of other crap that suddenly has the american people questioning what the fuck these bozos are doing with our money. all while apparently not a single one of them pays their own goddamn taxes. and this is why I hate the democratic party. this is why, after a few months of hope and apparent insanity, I will once again be removing my name from the party's roll. fuck you and the fucking horse we gave you to ride in on.

not that the republicans are any fucking better...maybe just lucky. do not for a second believe that they "saw the light" and recognized much of this bill for what it is - dem masturbation. (don't get me wrong, there are some very good projects and ideas in this...unfortunately, like most good things that come out of washington, it is accompanied by a host of stupid shit). they are not pissed off at indiscriminately throwing money at anything and everything...they are pissed because they don't make the rules anymore. they are pissed because they got used to shutting their across-the-isle-hopelessly-lost brethren and the american people out of the process. and they are pissed because it is no longer their pet projects that are getting hoards of money. this isn't an ideological stand...this is a fucking tantrum.

but what is their response? tax cuts. are they fucking serious? I am so goddamn sick of this "we must cut taxes" refrain (now accepted in large part by the democrats). did none of these people have to take american history? if cutting taxes was the answer, why is it that the economy crumbles every time we get to the end of a period where cutting taxes was the answer? why is it that after 30 years of cutting taxes we are in this mess? why is it that hastened giant tax cuts over the last 8 years resulted in us leaning over the cliff? can't we add a constitutional amendment to require an IQ test and a basic knowledge of history before we let you help run the country?

changing gears to my typical anger at the criminal "justice" system. anyone involved in criminal law knows that there are an unbelievable number of convictions based on voodoo "science" developed by non-scientists and conducted by idiots. yes, forensics, as practiced in america, is a load of fucking crap. they make it up. we know it, they know it (although they will swear they are never wrong and will testify under oath to a slew of shit that they could never possibly know or understand...and they will get convictions, some of which, thank god, are later overturned thanks to real science). crime labs are a joke. they are factories for convictions. they are designed to find what the detectives and prosecutors tell them needs to be found. I'm actually involved in a case where a crime lab wanted to testify that a man was biting on a hamburger when he was shot because a hamburger fell on the ground from his truck when he got out of it a half mile later...I'm not kidding. and another case when a crime lab wanted to testify that a man was shot while climbing a fence because that was the only explanation for the slightly upward angle of the wound under the arm (thank god for a newer forensic pathologist not yet trained in the whatever-the-police-say ways who noted that any such theory would necessarily be one of countless possible scenarios). blood splatters? bullet analysis? gun powder? they don't know what the fuck they are doing...they make it up and make sure it fits the prosecution's theory.

but now we finally have some real scientists to tell the truth. the National Academy of Sciences put together a report mocking "forensics" used to convict - including fingerprints, firearms, bite marks, blood splatter, hair, handwriting, etc. in a no brainer to those of us working within the system, the NYT reports that the NAS report "says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained tecnhicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court." of course the law enforcement community and the department of justice did everything they could to derail this effort. because the last thing prosecutors and police want is real scientists looking at their junk science and calling bullshit when they see it. once again, the false advertisement of "halls of justice" is exposed. and it couldn't come soon enough.

mandatory minimum sentencing...cause he got caught with a pocket full of medicine...

perpetually hoodwinked democrats, golden reefer, and more bodies...

claire mccaskill, senator from the ludicrously named "show-me" state, has introduced a bill to limit wall street fuckwads to a mere $400,000 a year after they've again ran off with billions in bonuses - most of which necessarily came from our tax dollars since they lost insane amounts of money and needed a few hundred billion from you and I to make "ends" meet (and by ends, I mean million dollar office renevations, million dollar junkets, private jets, and enormous bonuses to those driving the bus off the cliff). sure, its all well and good that someone is finally listening to us folks that have been screaming for years that clinton's so-called "booming economy" was a disaster waiting to happen and that skyrocketing executive payment is a sign of the growing wealth chasm, which always appears before a global hegemon takes one on the chin. but sen. mccaskill went on a rant, well-intended I am sure (as most feigned righteous outrage is from politicians these days...they are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore...at least not on camera), that exemplified why, despite the emergence of the president, I cannot stand the democratic party and why we never should trust those fuckwads. here is what she had to say about limiting executive pay - "We should have done it in the first place. But I don't think any of us thought these guys were this stupid. I don't think any of us believed that they would take billions of dollars in bonuses while their institutions were literally days from being wiped out. But they did. And we've learned our lesson." does that sound familiar to anyone? two of the most massively important votes by democrats during my lifetime, both of which they rushed and were bullied into - war in iraq and throwing tax dollars at crumbling financial institutions without any strings. and it is the same fucking excuse - "we didn't think they would actually do it." war in iraq? yea, they voted for it, but they didn't think the president would actually do it without a UN resolution and global support, even if they did give him the authority to run in there any second for any reason. and now...even more classic - "we didn't think the greedy sons of bitches that have run the economy into the ground so they could milk it for every cent possible would take tax dollars without strings attach and spend it on themselves like there were no strings attached." (insert slap of forehead here). tell me senator, how many more fucking expensive and devestating lessons must you and your party learn at the country's expense?

michael phelps is a physical freak, one of the greatest athletes (the way most would define "athlete" - personally, I reserve that mostly for decathaletes, triathletes, and gymnasts) in the world, also happens to like his ganga. the horror. executives and stock owners of private prison corporations everywhere are shuddering to think that society might just figure out that you can smoke pot and be productive, hell, one of the top olympians ever. and if society figures out that marijuana does not inevitably lead to a life of destitution, burglary, domestic violence, unemployment, etc....then maybe society will figure out that sending someone to prison for years because they relax at the end of the day with a joint rather than a glass of scotch is one of the most fucking idiotic and counterproductive ideas ever concocted by our "moral" law makers. legalize it, regulate it, tax the living fuck out of it, use that money to fund schools and social programs. in the process, put a cartel or two out of business.

the UN released its numbers on civilian deaths in afghanistan...2,100 in 2008. and no, I have no idea how many of those were the result of an american bomb dropped by some poor kid from rural tennessee and how many were the result of a resurgent resistance. but does it really matter? is the death of an innocent person any less disturbing if it comes at the hands of someone with darker skin and a different heritage? I often wonder how we, as a society, have come to the point where 2,100 civilian deaths in a year thanks to a war we are participating in is the kind of news that is buried deep within the paper, if reported at all. patrick henry purportedly boldly declared "give me liberty or give me death." in the process of trying to give the former, are we too accepting of producing the latter?

if you have something to say, say it to me now...