you're the one for me, fatty...

so much is happening in the world...and I can't seem to get worked up about any of it anymore...

seems the GOP is admitting that sarah palin was totally unqualified to be vice president...she dropped out of a scheduled interview with univision last fall because she did not have the slightest clue about "issues regarding hispanics and latin america." that says about all you need to know about the modern manifestation of the GOP - it doesn't know a damn thing about issues important to a substantial chunk of the public...particularly if that chunk happens to have the audacity to be born unwhite...

lou dobbs is hinting at a presidential run. the xenophobic know-nothings are reborn...

and how much fun would a palin-dobbs debate be? "its all the mexicans' fault!" - "what's a mexican? I think I skinned one of them in a folksy manner."

a young man in a car accident spent the next 23 years trapped - unable to move, unable to respond, unable to speak. unfortunately, he was not unable to hear, think or feel. think about that for a moment...23 years of being totally aware of your surroundings but being unable to do a single task that involves any physical action on your part. this will unevitably be latched onto by the frightening save terri crowd...but what kind of life are we condemning people to?

the RNC got busted offering its employees a health plan that covered abortions. thats how much the GOP actually cares about your conservative "culture" issues...

not that the DNC is much better. thanks to bill clinton and his ilk the democratic party prefers finance to manufacturing and the DOW to employment...and no, the current administration is not exempt...

combine the two and you have to wonder if you and I ever really stand a chance...

scientists made protons knock boots finally. as of yet, a black hole has not developed over europe. damn.

good morning america dropped adam lambert from its show. apparently they feel unemployed old people won't like simulated gay sex...

a grand jury in albuquerque recently returned a no bill in a case involving a cop that gunned down a young kid armed with a cell phone. (APD sure does have a knack as of late for killing people that aren't armed). somehow I'm thinking if he hadn't been wearing blue he'd be looking at a life sentence...

not that APD would ever be involved in anything questionable. the only reason they have a policy instructing their officers not to put anything in writing relating to police misconduct is to protect the reporting officer. requiring an oral report to superiors that can then determine all actions were justified is completely legitimate. if you have any doubts, just look at how many internal investigations show that the reporting officer was a fibbing. just ignore this blue curtain...

and no, I am not kidding. APD has an established, well-known policy of not reporting illegal conduct of its own. ain't freedom grand?

a judge in northern new mexico recently placed an entire courtroom in contempt. 32 people were sent to jail, the only ones that avoided handcuffs were those with serious medical conditions. their mistake? caring about a loved one.

finally, both the right and the left are awakening to the fact that they are on the same side when it comes to the perverse criminalization of just about anything and everything. somehow in "freedom loving" america it became acceptable for everything to be punishable by prison time (although the multi-billion dollar private prison industry was very grateful for the boost). while I am a little disgusted that it did not occur to many of these people that the criminal justice system was entirely out of control until it cost them a bit of money, happy to finally have some support from those that claim to be freedom's most staunch defenders...

which is particularly pertinent in new mexico now, where a disabled vet recently got convicted of DWI because he tried to sleep it off and a cop knocked on the window. that's right...here in new mexico we have gotten so insane about fighting DWI without ever looking at the underlying causes of it (because it is always easier to just increasingly criminalize this stuff than to legitimately deal with it) that we pop people for DWI when they do the right thing and don't drive. sleep in your car in the parking lot so you don't risk the lives of everyone on the road? you're going down. message to the public? you might as well try to make it home...because you know someone will call the cops on you if you're sleeping in a parking lot. absolutely brilliant use of law.

and so I leave you again, content in the knowledge the world I know continues to slide into oblivion...

you're the one for me, fatty...

strange priorities, jury nullification, and monied cover-ups...

I feel as though I have entered bizarro-america as of late...although maybe its just the same old america I've always known, the same place run by the same crazy fucks that have been in charge of things my entire life. say what you will about Richard Nixon, but his "silent majority" strategy has had some serious lasting power. at a time when the economic well-being of the western world remains hanging by a thread, a time when millions and millions of americans are desperate for a job - any job, a time when the most geo-politically dangerous region on the planet continues to slide closer and closer to a frightening chaotic state...american political and economic leaders remain in some fantasy land where bill clinton knew what he was doing and the secret to happiness is stoking cultural anger of all sorts. there is little wonder that so many have abandoned the american political process...when we need solutions and ideas all it gives us is more shit about abortion.

don't get me wrong...I feel very strongly that stringent restrictions on abortion are not only assinine and a not-so-subtle means of maintaining the gender status quo, but they are also counterproductive and do nothing to attack the legitimate issues and concerns relating to unwanted pregnancies and the disintegration of family and community. but in all honesty, when we are faced with tens of millions of people unable to gain access to health care of any sort, hordes of our children living in disgusting poverty, delapitated schools, crumbling infrastructure, and a very real chance that our economic well-being, the very foundation of american society, is entering a time of serious relative decline, how the hell did our leaders allow themselves to be drawn into a fight over abortion? well, that is an unfair question because I am fairly certain precisely how that happened (although I do have side questions...like how the hell the pro-choice people weren't prepared for this), but that does not relieve our political establishment of responsibility.

seriously, this is a time we should be concerning ourselves with serious solutions to problems that have been festering for decades. (and while the abortion amendment in the house's bill would undoubtedly make it extremely difficult for women of unsubstantial means to obtain a needed procedure...without this bill would they be able to anyways? afterall, it isn't like poor women have legitimate access to serious reproductive health care now). and we are in a position to address it now...the political capital was there to seriously rearrange our priorities, to shift public funds to the public good. hell, with the falling dollar we are even in a position to at least try and salvage our manufacturing infrastructure in a last ditch effort to avoid the fate of so many other economic behemoths before us. instead, we continue our death-spiral virtually unabated while our political leaders bicker over who can get married, and who can avoid having kids. me...I'm just hoping we can hold on long enough for my generation to grab a hold of things since we seem much less likely to give two shits who you fuck in the privacy of your own bedroom and how you deal with the consequences.

a jury recently returned a not guilty verdict for two bear sterns managers...and the government and prosecutors and law enforcement talking heads immediately started complaining about how much of a setback this is for our legal system. and while I believe strongly in prosecuting large white collar cases (if for no other reason because those defendants have the funds to cover substantial attorney's fees), I have to strongly disagree that this is in any way a setback in our criminal justice system. in fact, if the case was truly as strong as the prosecutors apparently thought, the acquittal provides me with a renewed faith in the american criminal justice system because, quite simply, it is proof that jury nullification is alive and well. historically, the petit jury was the last stand of the common man against the over-reaching, over-zealous power of the government displayed through the public prosecutor. it provided a means of a last-ditch effort on the part of the community to stand up and saw "we will not stand for this. regardless of what you say about the law, it is wrong, and we will not support your tyranny." and so we have it again, twelve common people refusing to allow the government to turn two men into a scapegoat for an entire system that the same government encouraged and applauded for decades. as one of the jurors told the press - "The entire market crashed, you can’t blame that on two people." to you twelve, I shall toast.

turns out that when you pay a private company billions of dollars to do the work of your military, they lie, cheat and bribe. never saw that coming. whatever happened to the good old days of the old-fashioned coverup by the chain of command and threats against fellow soldiers? that was way cheaper.

I keep me in a vacant lot...