DisappeARINGSELF

letters to the editor

Letter to the editor submitted 2/13/07:

Next year we pick which rich politician will run this country like they owned it. Half the senate is in the race, more have their paws out. This presidential election is like going to the dog pound. Will it be that wise old white female or that frisky black male? It is hard to think over all the barking. The dogs we have now are useless, neither Bush nor Chaney is safe with a gun and they can’t track for spit. Must be former circus dogs given their dirty tricks, spins, and lies. Maybe we should just pick a known skunk for president so we won’t be disappointed.

Some say we broke Iraq, now we have to stay and keep breaking it, brilliant. Isn’t it time our leaders learned to behave in a china shop.

There was some congressman on c-span saying global warming is just a theory. So is gravity. Try jumping off a cliff. We picked these idiots. To the fiscally responsible compassionate Republicans, I ask, why did you spend my tax surplus on a war? What have you done with the constitution? Wouldn’t elections cost less if candidates had something worthwhile to sell?

Letter to the editor submitted 12/28/06, printed 12/31/06 added to and increased by my more unprintable comments.

It is this use and over use of the term, war that is the problem. We must stop using it so idly. I mean there is this war on terrorism, war on Iraq, war on poverty, on drugs, on ignorance; frankly we will never win any of them. They are not winnable. The war on Vietnam was not winnable. If a war can not be won it should be called something else, stupid, possibly. World War I and II were wars. A war is so terrible it can not be lost. In a war that can not be lost the whole country is mobilized, everything is put on the line, everything is taxed, everyone fights, and no one makes an unfair profit from it. If we are unwilling to commit everything, it is not a war. While we are at it, a war should not be so easy to get into; lies and warmongering should not be enough. We should learn something from this waste in Iraq. For that matter, we should learn something from the Chinese. They know about winning. It is time to go home, George. Ask Rove to throw a spin on it, say we won, declare victory and start packing. END

Well, ok, some didn't get the part about, "We should learn something from the Chinese." Pick up just about anything you own. Turn it upside down. Chances are it says made in China on the bottom. Power and influence tend to come from those who control the means of production. China controls the production of our stuff. China loans us money to buy what they make. That is power. That is capitalism 101. Add to this the common sense not to insult people and you have a winner. You don't have to attack other countries. You don't have to fire a shot. All it takes to be a winner is power and influence properly applied. Winning means achieving a favorable outcome: getting what you want. The Chinese know how to do this, Bush doesn't.

Bush is dragging his feet concerning Iraq; he knows he blew it and can't bring himself to admit it. That's about as positive as I can get regarding Bush's motivation. Were I a bit more pessimistic, I would say the man is an incompetent airhead. It would not be difficult to make a case for criminal conduct. Off hand, I feel confident in calling him a petty criminal in the field of mass murder, much like Suddam without Saddam's stabilizing influence. How crazy is that? How do we hold a twit like Bush accountable for his screw ups? It would make no sense to throw him in prison. Well, it would give me a certain fleeting sense of satisfaction. I am trying to work on that. Unfortunately Bush is not the only one who has exploited the passion of a country to justify violence. Apparently it is easy to do. It has been done often enough in our history; Vietnam and the Spanish-American war come to mind. I don't doubt that terrorist were behind 9/11, but why invade Iraq over it? The battleship Maine blew up because of a bad boiler. How many of our Spanish cousins died for that bit of opportune mechanical failure? LBJ knew within five hours that the Tonkin Gulf incident simply never happened, but hey, that would mean correcting a mistake, admitting a mistake. It isn't about the numbers who die though fifty one thousand died in the four days of fighting at Gettysburg, no one counted the wounded. We had to win that war and we had to lose it. The civil war was anything but civil as all wars are to widows and those lesser, sorry conflicts to which we are prone. And I hear this unspeakable fool say he will not talk to or treat with unworthy foes. Oh my sorrow.

I know it may sound crazy, but I am beginning to think Bush really is caught up in a black and white reality. He is not a bad man. He is much worse. He is incompetent, lacking the ability to separate his interests from the interests of the country. It doesn't get any worse. Ford has been getting a lot to attaboys for pardoning Nixon. People say that pardon allowed a wounded nation to begin to heal. I don't know, but I think it was about them that I began to seriously doubt authority. It happened slowly, over many years, but I have come to have deep skeptism for the interests of those in leadership positions.

It seems we just hanged Saddam. Which of his faults were improved by his extinction? I had quite forgotten him there in his cell. What God is as blood thirsty as those who pray to it?

The question comes down to, how can we know when we are being manipulated by our leaders? Bush's justification for invading Iraq sounded phony, but the bulk of congress managed to ignore the obvious as they leaped on the neo-con band wagon. None of them should be allowed to hold further public office. That might make them think next time. Of course it will never happen. Let's try another approach. What if our country had to act as if it were at war once it was declared we were in one? We must learn to use war sparingly.

For example, take the war on terrorism. Say terrorists do something terrible, whatever they do is unlikely to be as bad as doing nothing about Global Warming, yet no one has suggested declaring war on Global Warming. More's the pity. Global Warming is a war we really can not afford to lose. Unfortunately we must first suffer, then blame. It is easier to do nothing. It is always easier to do nothing, old habits being hard to break and we will have to break quite a few. No one does anything different willingly.

November 9 2006, The Democrats are in charge of the House and Senate, Rumsfeld is fired, Gates is in his place. Bush has started saying what he thinks the public wants to hear. There is no doubt he is angry, very angry, not an arrogant smirk in sight. The political game has become subtle and it is anyone's call as to whether he is up to it. I am curious myself. I think Nancy Pelosi is better at this subtle thing than Bush. I am so excited.

October 21, 2006, Well here is another letter the newspaper rejected. I suspect they had cause. Still, I am starting to get an attitude about it. Actually, after a moments reflection, I find I really don't care. Everyone one has an opinion and all opinions are foolish.

For the last five years this Republican president, supported by a Republican dominated congress has run amok. We are in debt to countries we should not be in debt to. Which countries? The ones thaty have taken our jobs of course. Our reputation as a proponent of the rule of law is in tatters: secret prisons, torture and wiretapping, holding people in prisons without trial. Our constitution has been undermined to increase the power of the executive branch. We have invaded and occupied a country that could do us no harm. The muslim world thinks we are out to get them and maybe we are. Who knows what our team of, "get tough" idiots will do next. Will we invade Iran, or North Korea? Who knows. Bush, Chaney and Rumsfeld are like of pack of dogs running wild. The whole sorry business should be investigated, but we know why it happened, why disasters like these continue to happen. The problem stems from a lack of oversight by congress, which in turn suffers from a bad case of party politics. The greater the majority of the party in power, the greater the likelihood that we the people will go unrepresented.

Congress has been adding ear mark special interest projects onto every bill they pass for companies that support their fund raising efforts. Political power should not be bought and sold to special interest groups, but they are, hand over fist. The oil companies run the energy dept. the drug companies run our drug policy. The rich own the newspapers, the radio and television stations, now they are going after the internet. Where is the FCC? Who cares? The FCC has become a rubber stamp for wealthy corperate interest and worse than useless to the public. Internet neutrality must be maintained for free speech to be meaningful, which isn't likely, but it is all we have left to voice our concerns. Just once congress should be concerned with doing the right thing for this country instead of supporting the party line. What happened to doing the right thing for Anerica? Bring back the ethics committee; conserve our constitution, our freedom. If congress cared about doing the right thing it wouldn't matter who wins in November. The problem is that power corrupts and the power of party politics corrupts absolutely. I voted for Maria Cantwell dispite her voting for the war in Irag. Go to her website and read what she had to say about the war. She sounded like a cheer leader for Bush. Compare that with Patty Murray's position on the war. She lays it all out, sadly she still voted for Bush's war, but at least she thought about it. I think Maria will improve with experience, but then I wait up for Santa too. Anyway, I hope and so, I vote.

Tomorrow the votes are counted. In Washington we vote by mail which takes a certain amount of excitment out of the process. I volunteered to help get out the vote, calling people, leaving messages. It felt odd. If these people have been paying attention they would need nothing from me, the issue3s are clear. It really is about Iraq. It is about arrogance and incompetence. Those who know that will not need me reminding them to vote, or how. The vote will count those who have been paying attention. I hope it will be enough, but I am not optimistic. The first lesson I learned as a child, the first I can remember, is that people do what they want and then make up reasons to support their decision. Perhaps it just defines my understanding of people, of me? It seems a bit cynical, true, but cynical. It is the nature of delusion, it is human nature. Even those results I approve of are a product of this delusion, it should make me humble.

Until Bush, I had always held that it was the bad guys that tortured people in secret prisons, who invaded other countries to “liberate” them, that it was the bad guys who lied, cheated and used fear to control people. Bad guys like the communists, the Russians, Chinese, Viet Cong, Nazis Germany, the Japanese army of world war two, now it is us and I am deeply ashamed, We are the axis of evil today to most of the people in the world. Bush declared a war on terrorists, and then become one, usurping our freedom in the name of security. I would far rather be free and insecure than give up those rights I have always known as an American, like the right to a trial, to hear the evidence, all the evidence against me. To those who say we must do everything it takes to fight these terrorists, to be safe at any cost, that the ends justify the means, I say it does matter how the game is played. We are what we do, and what our government does in our name. Water boarding is torture, George. It is not ok. America must stand for something. Each day Bush comes up with some new way to embarrass me. Where did this fool grow up? Has he no values? I may have disagreed with his daddy, but I respected him. We were right to invade Afghanistan to punish the Taliban who harbored those who attacked us, but there was no reason to invade Iraq. It is becoming increasingly clear in my mind that the atrocities committed by our soldiers in that prison in Iraq were condoned by our leadership. These are the alternative procedures that Bush is urging congress to accept. I am frankly disgusted. We must uphold those values we tell our children, that it matters how you play the game. We must listen carefully to what these people; the Bush administration, are saying and stand up to them by voting into office those who will represent our values and vote out those who have not.

Letter to the Editor, March something 2006

In the name of freedom, the US Army killed an entire family and it was not the first time. We really have to stop doing this.

Eleven killed, including women and children, as US forces search for two suspected insurgents using air and land assets. The roof of the house was blown off, three autos and two cows destroyed. How are we supposed to win this war on terrorist when we act like terrorists? If terrorism is wrong, then we need to stop doing it and get out of that poor miserable country. We can’t blow up a family in the name of democracy and expect democracy to have a good image in peoples mind. What are we thinking? And Bush is beating the same drum against Iran, using the same rhetoric he used against Iraq. He was wrong then and has not gotten any wiser. The man and his policies, all of them, are an embarrassment, if we can’t censure him or impeach him, could we just convince him and his gang to shut up. I have voted Republican in the past, but never again, not for President not for dogcatcher. Our young people are being killed, our reputation is shot, and we are in hock, how many Trillions? Now we kill entire families to catch suspected terrorists. Are we nuts? Whose America is this?

I have put the letters I have written to the editor here in no real order *

October 21, 2006
For the last five years this Republican president, supported by a Republican dominated congress has run amok. We are in debt to countries we should not be in debt to. Our jobs have gone to these same countries. Our reputation as a proponent of the rule of law is in tatters. Our constitution has been undermined by the executive branch. We have invaded and occupied a country that could do us no harm. The whole sorry business should be investigated, but we know why it happened. The problem stems from a lack of oversight by congress, which in turn suffers from a bad case of party politics. The greater the majority of the party in power, the greater the likelihood that we the people go unrepresented. Political power should not be bought and sold to special interest groups. Corporate America has bought the newspapers, the radio and television stations, now it going after the internet. Where is the FCC? Internet neutrality must be maintained for free speech to be meaningful. Just once congress should be concerned with doing the right thing for this country instead of supporting the party line. Bring back the ethics committee; conserve our constitution, our freedom.

September 17, 2006

There is no doubt that losing the war in Iraq will cost America dearly. Far too much has been wagered in this war, too many lives, the credibility of America, the values we hold dearly: honesty, fair play, truth, our rights as free Americans, the financial future of thee next few generations of Americans, all wagered against the personal power, pride, and profits of the very few. Given the stakes involved it would seem reasonable that this wager should have been carefully made. It clearly was not. That the reason(s) for the war were contrived is beyond doubt. We were not in any imminent danger, Iraq was contained, and therefore, the use of force simply could not, and can not, be justified. The use of military force against terrorism is inappropriate because there is nothing to apply military force against, except individuals. A war only ends with some one negotiating, some one winning, some one losing, something, but here is nothing to win in a war on terrorism, unless we intend to kill them all, everyone related to them, everyone angered by such killing and resentful of their loss. All we have created in Iraq is hatred toward America. If you take the position that safety is worth the loss of personal freedom then the Iraqis are worse off now than when we invaded, for no one is safe there now. If it is better to lose your life than your liberty, how can the debasement of our constitution and the dilution of our individual rights by our own government be tolerated? Staying the course in Iraq accomplishes only one goal, it allows our president to avoid taking responsibility for having started it. How many people will have to die to protect that fool’s pride? Bush should be impeached. His entire administration should be impeached, and then the lot of them jailed for illegal and immoral acts against the American and Iraqi people, as well as criminal incompetence. There is no doubt we will lose this gambit into Iraq, it is only a matter of when.

What concept keeps a government from subverting the interests of those it governs? It isn’t democracy, freedom or liberty, those are its benefits. It isn’t the military, congress, the executive branch or the judicial, those are its concerns. It isn’t the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, that’s what it protects. The concept that protects us, that gives us our security as a free people is that of transparency in our social institutions and government. Freedom of speech is useless without knowing what to oppose, what to support. An authoritarian regime always clouds what they do by denying information to the public. They stifle whistle blowers, throw journalists in jail, classify everything embarrassing or compromising as secret and stonewall difficult inquires citing security needs. How can you agree, disagree, support or oppose what a government does if it keeps secrets that the public should know? It starts with our local government (where is the Zehm videotape) and extends to the Whitehouse (Iraq). We cannot rely upon our city council, our congress or the courts to fend off special interests, greed and corruption. We must have transparency into government decisions and then pay attention to what they do in our name.

An unpublished Letter to the Editor regarding little known weapons and their deadly use: the two liter plastic soda pop bottle. And no, this has nothing to do with trying to board an airplane. It is a local thing, a Spokane thing.

To the untrained eye, a two liter plastic soda pop bottle might not appear to be the assault weapon of choice, had it not been for Officer Karl Thompson, I would have missed its sinister utility entirely. Doubtless he was trained, if not particularly skilled in the ancient urban martial art of Whackado and Tazer too. But, whatever? Maybe if the bottle was frozen, frozen and tied to a six foot rope, I might have grasped its significance. I might well have appreciated the more subtle but deadly intent of this weapon had I walked a mile in Officer Thompson’s jackboots, but jackboots worry me. But prosecutor Steve Tucker was in the know; all it took was a hint for him to bury the case. My goodness another wild eyed long hair, on drugs was he? Wait, wait, I got it, off his drugs, was he? Good thing Officer Thompson got him in time. Anyway, a harmless man is dead and all he wanted was a Snickers bar, maybe a soda. And six more cops joined this feeding frenzy, six. Some people like the use of force far too much, relying on it instead of common sense, or compassion.

Insensitivity breeds insensitivity and we all become more brutal. There is a terrible temptation for those with power to use that power, history proves this to be true. We must be constantly on guard not to allow weak and easily influenced fools to have positions of power.

After 9/11 we wanted to lash out at some thing, some one. Many of our political leaders jumbed on that desire and used it for their own purposes. They cobbled together "reasons" for invading Iraq and now we can't just leave because we broke it, now we own the breakage. So it just gets worse. We have dropped bombs on families in Iraqi homes because we thought insurgents might be hiding inside their house. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? Now our young men have lined up men, women and children and shot them because they proably supported the insurgents. They were close by and our young warriors were frustrated by this stupid war, by the pointlessness of it. I don't blame the soldiers. I blame our leaders who sent them there. Nothing good can come from hatred. Our Leaders have acted in a very dangerous, reckless fashion and they must bear the responsiblity for their actions. The question is, how could they? Nothing and no one can make this terrrible mistake right, but we can end it.

War on terrorism? August 2006

Given that it has been clearly proven that a war on terrorism increases terrorism, one might ask why countries like the United States and Israel continue to engage in it? Habit comes to mind. I can think of no other reason. Ok, one, politics. We the people demand that something tangible be done to teach these terrorist a lesson. We want our government to get tough, give them a good shaking, shock and awe their asses. So we sally forth, killing a few people, or a lot of people, and wonder why the survivors hate us. Terrorism is a police matter, a social matter; there is nothing to war against. Armies require other armies, enemy armies, to do their best work. Armies like to destroy things, big things, and are poorly equipped to deal with small groups and individuals. An army is not set up to deal with revenge, hatred, honor, religious convictions and so forth. Israel should know this considering what the Jews have gone through in the past. Common sense tells us that people resent being invaded and having their country, their home, their families blown up. So why do our leaders do it? Because it make them look like they are doing something, even if it is wrong. Protect us, we scream. Protect us from these crazy people who want to blow us up. Blow them up. People who strap on explosives, people who are willing to die to kill a few of us who did them no harm, these people can not be reasoned with. There is no need to talk with them, to try to understand them. They just got up one morning and said, Today let us blow ourselves up to terrorize these people we know nothing about. All things have a beginning. To stop hatred, you must know how it started. All people want to be heard, all people want justice. The voice of the mob is also a democratic voice, though sometimes crazy. Still, it should be listened to, and even sometimes, obeyed, when their leaders fail them. Peace does not come from the barrel of a gun, only annihilation can be found there, but that is what we are bring on us.

I do not trust those well meaning people of good intentions who tell me not to concern myself, that everything is just dandy in government. I believe in finding truth through trianglation. I want three sources, minimum and I prefer to hear for myself, see for myself. It is not that I think everyone has their own point of view, I know they have their own point of view and it usually isn't mine. You have to ask yourself why someone would spend two hundred thousand bucks to get a forty thousand dollar a year job or a few million for job thaat pays a little over a hundred thousand. And as for the presidency.....Someone is certainly trying to protect their interests and I will bet those interests are not mine.

Whether a plane falling out of the sky, a van filled with explosives, or in a back pack, or strapped to a young woman’s breasts, a bomb is a bomb. Tell me it matters whose death begets or begot whose, and who survived the artillery shell, the rocket, the “intelligent” bomb or whose children died? Whose God started this fight; this war, this holy terror? War is terror. All war is about justifying terror and terrifying the just. Didn’t God, if there is a God, declare peace long ago? In all fairness, in all truth, there will be war as long as we tolerate war, as long as we tolerate terror, and the murdering idiots who justify and support them. It is time to stop this insanity in the middle east. It is time to bring our troops home, somethings are just too broken to fix.

Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July? Is it a love of fireworks, a picnic in the park, a day off from work? Is it a celebration of being free of George? I mean the first King George, George the Third. Freedom means to be secure in our rights as individuals, secure in the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution, which means secure from our government. These rights are under attack by the Bush administration in the name of security, the War on Terror, of secrecy. The Bush administration can do anything it wants in the name of security. It is not why we went into Iraq, but it is why we are staying, though the Iraqis want us to leave, though our own troops want us to leave. Our freedom and democracy is being eroded in the name of freedom and democracy. How ironic? The list of self-evident truths that America used to stand for has grown smaller. Our one great protection is our ability to hold our government accountable. Freedom of the press means nothing without whistleblowers, without people willing to shine a light into the darkness in which the truth is held captive. We are gagging on secrecy, on security. What price have we paid for this security? We know we can not kill everyone who wants to attack us. We cannot lock them all up, or torture them until they have a change of heart. Israel should have proven that by now, if nothing else. Is it possible that any state formed in the name of a particular religion must fail? It certainly fails anyone in that state who is not of that particular religion, but that is another issue.

*

There is a strong tendency to protect our own. It makes sense on a personal level. It is a problem when a government, or a governmental agency, military, fire, police, tax assessor, what ever, try to protect one of their own. The Bush administration is filled with such sentiment, but then, they have a lot of mistakes to cover up. People know that when the Bush administration makes a mistake it will try to hide it, or spin it. If all else fails, they will push the blame as far down the ladder as possible and call it an isolated incident. On a local level we have the same tendency. There is the sixteen year old girl whose picture was taken having sex with a fireman. What part of, she’s not an adult is confusing here? Then there is the question of how many police officers it takes to subdue a mentally disabled man with no prior history of violence who was not doing anything wrong. Seven, using two tazors and a baton. Sorry, wrong answer, that’s how many it takes to kill him. Confidence in a government administration, at any level, can not long endure in the dark. 6/5/06

A letter to the editor. May 2006

My grandparents busted through a roadblock of gun toting vigilantes determined to keep them out of California. My grandparents were from Oklahoma. People go where the work is. Sometimes the work goes where the people will work for less: China, places like that. China built a wall four thousand miles long to keep people out. It didn’t work. We have people in Washington D.C. passing laws restricting legal immigration and a million employers happy to hire anyone willing to work. That’s how capitalism works in a democracy, hypocritically. We are all guilty. We say what we want to hear, and then do what is convenient and beneficial for our purposes. It works, it doesn’t work very well, but it got a lot of people elected and even more rich. Personally, I am tired of being lied to by people trying to justify screwing me for their own benefit, so I don’t shop at Walmart and I don’t vote Republican. I can’t say it does much good, but I feel better about not doing more. It’s like being against the war in Iraq, but for regime change, Maria. Everyone take a spin.

I suppose I should have added that I don't know how to solve the immigration problem or even if it really is a problem. I don't know what to do about the price of gas either. I do think that people who do think they have the solution to either or both issues are full of crap. But they won't let you say crap in a letter to the editor. I didn't say that I was talking about Senator Maria Cantwell. She thinks the war in Iraq is, actually I am not sure, but she is for regime change. I think she has gotten used to being lied to. I could never be a politician. To me a wrong thing is a wrong thing and war is a wrong thing. I resent being lied to, also. Give the rich a tax cut to stimulate the economy. That's when I knew Bush was up to no good. Actually, it was the first election. He must be the first President appointed by the Supreme court. What have they done to my America?

I am not having much luck get one of my letters accepted by the Spokesman review. It is probably something I am doing wrong. It doesn't make much difference. It would be nice to think that I have something important to say, but I don't. It is important that I say it, whether anyone reads it or not. I am baffled by politics, local and national. People do not think or ask questions. Most people go for the easy answers and don't look very deeply. Iraq was a mistake from the conception. There is no such thing as a friendly invasion. Tax cuts for the very rich. Aside from being unfair there is a whole industry dedicated to finding tax loopholes for the rich thats SOL. Then there is the idea that idealogy is more important than common sense. Christian morality is the rule by rules which were made to be broken.

update letter was in the SR 6/8/06 found out the age of consent in WAshington is sixteen. Sixteen. The fireman wasn't preoscuted because the girl was sixteen and there was no photos because they were erased. no photos, no crime.

Here’s one they ignored

One I am still working on.

If the opposite of “cut and run” is “stay and pay”, at eight billon a day how much longer can we afford to be in Iraq? If we must, “stay the course” I want someone besides Chaney and Rumsfeld at the helm of the good ship Lollipop. They haven’t got it right in four years, there’s no reason to think anything will change while they are in charge. These two jokers have been pulling each other up by the jockstrap for over thirty years, isn’t it time we got rid of them?

It all starts with the best of intentions that go so terribly wrong. For example this noble and patriotic sentiment: April 2006
I have to say right now, right up front, that our system of government has worked fairly well over the last two hundred odd years. The question we face as a country is simply this: can we continue to rely on pure luck to find the right people at the right time to lead this country into its most difficult hours. I for one say no, no, and a thousand times, nope. The leadership of the free world is too important to leave to chance. We need a sure fire solution, one we can depend upon to be there when we need it. As luck would have it there is an answer, yes sir-e Bob . We have the right stuff and the means of keeping a goodly supply close to hand, fresh from brush cutting holding pens in Texas. I am talking cloning here. Let’s clone our current gang of idiots: GW Bush, that Dick Chaney fellow, and Donnie what’s-his-face, C. Rice, the ugly cousin of that pretty girl on Now. Clone them and let them run loose across the outback of Texas until our country faces a challenge where true incompetence is required. Then we just round them up, give them neck ties and panty hose. Then it’s yippy-ki-hayde dody; the four stooges are off to war.

The question that continues to plague me is, what does it take to be thought incompetent in the Bush Administration? It seems any screw up can be denied. We started a war for no reason. That should be a biggie. I can’t think of a bigger mistake. Bush said he was given bad intelligence, though he said it needed doing anyway. He was re-elected. George Tenet got a medal for giving Bush the bad intelligence that Bush wanted. Wolfowitz was made President of the World Bank. What could we be thinking? The rich create reality for the poor and prosper by such deception, while the poor must struggle to live in it. Why on earth do American drugs cost less in Canada? Isn’t it because our government allows it and the Canadian government does not. Our interests have been sold out to support corporate greed and we are told this is a good thing. Now they are after Social Security. Bush wants to make Social Security secure by making it unworkable. All we need is a slogan, a big lie: Clean Air Act, Patriot Act, Democracy, Freedom. Social Security will go the same way as affordable health care, clean air and water, the separation of church and state. The Bush administration exists only through deception, denial and distraction. What really worries me is the possibility that all politicians are about the same; the Bush’s and the Delay’s simply being a tad more disgusting than the rest. Perhaps in tolerating this crowd we have proven that we don’t deserve anything better, that the Great Experiment has gone aground on the shoals of ignorance. The great sadness is that what they do lessens our quality of life and drags the rest of us through the mud of history. For a brief moment in time, America was truly great, but now I fear for our Constitution. I am afraid of the morally Right, the fundamentalist true believer, these people will destroy America. The intolerant religious fundamentalist, the true believer in whatever faith, are my terrorist, be they Christian or Moslem.

Bush points to 9/11 and says we are at war and authorized the NSA to wiretap Americans even though there was a legal method available that was just as quick. The difference being that the legal method required requesting the wiretap of a judge within seventy-two hours. His illegal use of power allows the NSA to wiretap anyone, you, me, anyone. He says it is not being used in this manner, but his administration is based upon deception and denial. How do we know who he is spying upon? When will congress grow a backbone and address this illegal use of presidential power? When will some reporter, some member of congress, someone, anyone, ask him why he thinks security is more dear to Americans than freedom? Are we really a nation of cowards? What does freedom mean if not freedom from being spied upon by our own government? Torture, illegal searches, what does America stand for anymore? If we are not willing to stand up for our rights, for the constitution, for separation of power, we don’t deserve them. Remember, a war on terror is forever. Forever, and we but foolish mortals, what do we know of forever? If you buy the president’s argument that congress gave him special powers to, “fight the war on terrorism,” and given that the threat from terrorists will never go away, when does the president’s special powers expire? When do we suck it up and demand security without loss of freedom. We use the term, ‘War’ too freely. There has been a, War on poverty, a War on drugs, and maybe a few Wars I missed, but the last War that congress declared was on December 8, 1941. Bush is not the first president to take advantage of a threat to expand the power of the executive branch. Lincoln, Truman, Nixon and Johnson come to mind, there may have been others, but Bush is the most secretive, the most devious, and the most authoritarian. Each of previous conflicts had an enemy, a beginning and end. Terrorism is a type of behavior. It is not an enemy that can be fought and destroyed. The Oklahoma City bombing was terrorism. There will always be crazy people who want to kill and destroy those who offend them. They are not worth giving up our freedom over. We must protect our constitution from all threats, especially from within.

I enlisted as a young man, served my country in a war that need never have been fought and was honorably discharged a little worse for wear, but in one piece.  I have no regrets for having served.  I regret that our political leaders used my service and the service of so many others so poorly. It took ten years to extract us from that mess.  Today we are again involved in a war that should never have been fought with no end in sight.  Once again our political leaders have used the service of so many, poorly.  A war can be lost, but it can not be won. There are no winners in a war, only survivors.  War is not a game.  Any politician who sends our young people off to fight in any war that could have been avoided should be thrown out of office.  Dissent is not simply a right; it is a duty in the face of incompetent, lying leadership.  It is time to just say, no. This war was conceived in deception, no good can come from it, and there will never be a better time than now to end it.  Truth, is not about politics, it is what politicians owe each of us.

p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">Life, if there is any intelligence to this design, it is beyond me.  I have to admit, I am not in the design business. Some would say I am not big on intelligence either.  Truthfully, the best I can do is to ask a few questions like, “What intelligence would create starvation? Why, just for fun?”  Anyone who seriously thinks there is some intelligent design behind this world has to conclude that such intelligence, by definition, is amoral. What great designer would feel a need for malaria, or aids, or the bird flu, or all the really gross stuff that I can’t spell, in their design?  I mean, is old age the best an intelligent designer could come up with?  Or why does every generation have to be born so terribly ignorant?  You would think that with all that dna, a little could be spared for a common memory, some innate aversion to hatred, war, something like that. War.  What great genius decided we needed that one, or greed, or self interest, or all the other words for politics?  If there is a God who created this world, could such a God be anything other than insane?

            Is it a lesson then, all this pain and suffering?  If it is, the poor must be the most learned of people and the rich abysmally ignorant of all life’s little lessons.  The poor suffer the most pain.  They see their children go hungry, some watch their children die of hunger.  It happens quite frequently; as if there is something, something, yet unlearned there.  Surely, if pain and suffering were meant to teach, to instruct, the poor have learned enough. The rich, isolated from all that money can buy suffer little.  You might think that the rich would want to trade with the poor to learn something about life, but no. Maybe they think they can pick it up from TV?  If there is some intelligent design behind what I see on the 6: o clock news it passes my understanding, for which I am grateful.

Intellectually, the intelligent design concept has only two conclusions.  You could say it is simply beyond your understanding or you could say there is intelligence to the design of life because your religious belief requires that there be one.   You will have to say one or the other, but I don’t.  My religion has no creator theory because it doesn’t matter.  It just doesn’t matter.  Because it doesn’t matter, I don’t have to waste my time justifying why an intelligent designer would want children to starve to death or die of any one the thousand horrible diseases that infest this design.  It doesn’t demand that I ask, Is this the best you could came up with, oh great intelligent designer?  No, ultimately you have to either say, if there was intelligence to it, it is way past human understanding, much like calculus is beyond the comprehension of even the smartest goldfish. Perhaps goldfish have no need for calculus?  Anyway, being beyond our comprehension makes it pretty useless as a theory. Or you can take it all on faith and try to justify all this crap.

email from Montana

Musing this morning about how my friends are so hell-bent-for-leather when it comes to travel, outings, reunions, etc., while usually planning the next two adventures before the current one has ended, a phrase I’d read a long time ago spontaneously surfaced in my mind: “Velocity Equals Violence”. I think it was probably from one of the French “post deconstructionists” popular in the 80’s. Then about an hour ago I was pleasantly surprised to read your blog page on “Religious Fundamentalists” and spotted this: “Perhaps this problem is the result of the speed with which we get around,small world and so forth.” A nice coincidence.

In an oversimplified way, I think our recycling local and global troubles comes from the fact that “humanity”-evolution moves at a glacial pace while our technology zooms well ahead of our capacity to control it. However, some evolutionary scientists view language as a separate “replicator” operating similar to our “selfish” genes in that language-math based technology has an evolutionary “mind of its own” without regard to anything other than it’s own survival into the future. In a sobering way, this would mean that technology isn’t “ours” but we are basically projectiles for its advancement (I suppose this would tie in with velocity/violence). I don’t know if this is true but it certainly appears that way sometimes.

When I read this I was reminded that we are symbolic creatures who create reality as a method of explaining it and in the process have lost all control. After giving it some thought this statement seems to be a good definition of Buddhism as I understand it. Thanks Marc, ep

politics and prostitutes and Buddhism

*6/20/2006
Tonight I watched Frontline on PBS concerning how we got into the Iraq war. It was the creation of Don Rumsfeld and Dick Chaney and people who believed as they do that the ends justify the means. Near as I can tell Bush is just a figure head looking for a parade to lead. I felt we were being duped back then and said so, it just seemed wrong. Frontline put the pieces together. The weird thing is that our elected officials went along with it all. I think they were afraid to say this is wrong, I hope because they weren't sure, but I think it was fear of popular opinion. I suppose that's their job. Someone once said, politicians waits to see where the crowd is headed then run to get in fromt of it. I am disappointed by our senators Murray and Cantwell, especially Maria. I haven't decided if I will vote for Maria again. I am sure I will vote for Patty. I would like to see a little more spine in them and a little less CYA. Their job is to work for the well being of Washington and our rights as individuals. You would think Democrats would get that. I think if we have to stay in Iraq, chaney and Rumsfeld should be fired, otherwise we will continue doing the wrong thing from a premise thaat has been proven wrong. Isn't that the definition of insanity; continuing to do the samething over and over and expecting a different result. Something like that.

Both Buddhism and politics require that you know your true nature. For Buddhism it is the first step toward enlightenment and sufficient reason not to go into politics. Still, there are Buddhist with no idea who they are, and of course, there are politicians. I have found merit in good prostitutes, though not lately, bad Buddhists, and politicians who value freedom and the rights of the individual. It is a short list with no feeling of permanence. Politics is not about right or wrong, it is about my right not to have you define those two concepts for me, which is why I value good prostitutes and bad Buddhists.

I ask myself, how can anyone be wrong all the time. I ask this pondering the Bush administration. The only explanation I have found is that it must depend upon their point of view. The point from which a person veiws reality will invariably determine what they see. Given this universal and obvious fact, the Bush administration must be standing in a hole, a hole filled with money. The choices it makes are short sighted, instant gratification choices. Kid in a candy store choices. They build the roof before laying a foundation because it is raining, or the sun is too bright. The war on terror is their get out of jail free card. They frighten me. From where they stand, any act can be justified on the basis of national security. No act is beyond the legal exercise of power of the excutive branch. I think it is the money, the Bush administration just can not see past the money in any situation. It is a problem common to most politicians, Republican or Democrat, but I think more often than not it is the Republican that has abused the system of checks and balances in America the most. They stand in that hole with all that money and suddenly the idea that the ends justify the means makes sense. It works, sorta, if you are successful. It gets pretty ugly is you are not successful. All those promises coming due, their ends in sight and in no position to justify the means. So what do you do? You have to change the subject. What about a same sex marriage ban. Lets over turn Roe vs Wade. The Estate tax. What about a war with Iran or North Korea, damn muslims, damn atheist, damn 'em all. Wait too much war is bad for business. Something else, what could it be? War on Terror. Where would the Bush administration be without a few good terrorist? Sometimes I think the Bush administration has deliberately put us so far in debt to justify cutting social programs, they do hate social programs. Otherwise how could they explain spending all that money, I mean they are conservatives are they not, b ut it seems the only thing they are conserving is the power and position of the rich. Were the tax cuts for the rich supposed to bail us out? It stimulated the economy but not enough to pay back what they had to borrow. I think if you put all the pieces together the Republicans are trying to create, no consoliodate, power in the wealthy few. They want to create a class structure based upon wealth that will rule America.

If America is to be saved, the power of the President must be curtailed sharply and the rich must be taxed heavily. Money is power. We the people like to be told sweet lies far too much, and then we are cowards. It is so easy to play upon our fears. They lay us down on a bed of bull shit grows like the sightless mushroom, warm and happy in the dark. It is time we sit up and look around. I hope Al Gore runs again.

And Buddhism

I tell people I’m a Buddhist. They don’t believe me. Buddhist shave their heads and do Buddhist things, never saying what they feel, they kiss and hug. I’m not like that. Who was this Buddha everyone talks about? People want answers, easy answers, to hear again what they have already heard. It’s not like that, was never like that. The Buddha was never this Jesus we want him to be. Buddhism is not Christianity. The Buddha was never your Christ. The Buddha wants you to think, to question, to raise your voice and cry, “This is crap.” Meditate on that. This life, experience it. What is it telling you? That is Buddhism.

Intelligent design

Life, if there is any intelligence to this design, it is beyond me.  I have to admit, I am not in the design business. Some would say I am not big on intelligence either.  Truthfully, the best I can do is to ask a few questions like, “What intelligence would create starvation? Why, just for fun?”  Anyone who seriously thinks there is some intelligent design behind this world has to conclude that such intelligence, by definition, is amoral. What great designer would feel a need for malaria, or aids, or the bird flu, or all the really gross stuff that I can’t spell, in their design?  I mean, is old age the best an intelligent designer could come up with?  Or why does every generation have to be born so terribly ignorant?  You would think that with all that dna, a little could be spared for a common memory, some innate aversion to hatred, war, something like that. War.  What great genius decided we needed that one, or greed, or self interest, or all the other words for politics?  If there is a God who created this world, could such a God be anything other than insane?

            Is it a lesson then, all this pain and suffering?  If it is, the poor must be the most learned of people and the rich abysmally ignorant of all life’s little lessons.  The poor suffer the most pain.  They see their children go hungry, some watch their children die of hunger.  It happens quite frequently; as if there is something, something, yet unlearned there.  Surely, if pain and suffering were meant to teach, to instruct, the poor have learned enough. The rich, isolated from all that money can buy suffer little.  You might think that the rich would want to trade with the poor to learn something about life, but no. Maybe they think they can pick it up from TV?  If there is some intelligent design behind what I see on the 6: o clock news it passes my understanding, for which I am grateful.

Intellectually, the intelligent design concept has only two conclusions.  You could say it is simply beyond your understanding or you could say there is intelligence to the design of life because your religious belief requires that there be one.   You will have to say one or the other, but I don’t.  My religion has no creator theory because it doesn’t matter.  It just doesn’t matter.  Because it doesn’t matter, I don’t have to waste my time justifying why an intelligent designer would want children to starve to death or die of any one the thousand horrible diseases that infest this design.  It doesn’t demand that I ask, Is this the best you could came up with, oh great intelligent designer?  No, ultimately you have to either say, if there was intelligence to it, it is way past human understanding, much like calculus is beyond the comprehension of even the smartest goldfish. Perhaps goldfish have no need for calculus?  Anyway, being beyond our comprehension makes it pretty useless as a theory. Or you can take it all on faith and try to justify all this crap.

My ongoing opinion of Bush

I believe that questioning the self will allow us to untangle those problems we have created with reality without creating more with answers.  This has to sound strange to someone hearing this for the first time.  Blogs tend to be backward.  Anyway, the same principle of critical self examination applies to government.  I am not trying to impose any answer, the questions themselves will create an awareness more meaningful than trying to establish, then justify, any passing conclusion.    I think George W. Bush is a danger to America not because he is a Republican, but because the man and his administration avoid questions.  The best they can do is restate their conclusions in a manner that sounds like a question, but isn't.  "Isn't it better to fight terrorist in Iraq than in America?   Not a very helpful line of questioning.  It isn't anymore helpful to ask the same type of questions of your self.  Does this shirt make me look fat, or old, or what ever? Not a useful line of questioning.  Anyway.

My objection to the fiasco in Iraq is not political, it is not because Bush is Republican, it is because the reason given for why we went to war with Iraq was clearly contrived from the beginning. Bush used the horror of 9/11 to focus our anger and then directed it toward Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11. The reasons he gave for that declaration of war have all proved to be false. We did not go to war because Saddam was a bad man, or to liberate the people of Iraq, it was because Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat to the USA. Those of you who get your information from right wing radio shows may be shocked to read this, but check it out, read the 9/11 commission report, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. We as a nation, congress and our embedded press in particular did a pitiful job of asking questions regarding the reasons for this war.  I support our troops and I want them back home alive. The reality of Iraq is complex. We cannot fix them with a dose of imposed democracy. We invaded their country, nobody likes an invader. Forget why we went there for a moment, why are we still there?  If it was a bad idea to go there, staying there can't make anymore sense.  More importantly, we can not support Bush’s War At Any Cost craziness and clean up after Katrina, without raising taxes on the rich, the poor have given enough.. I wonder who he will blame for Katrina, Iran, or maybe North Korea.   I can only hope he won't be able to pull that twice. 

Now Brother Bush is saying that he will not increase taxes and the cost of cleaning up after Katrina will have to come from budget cuts.  Cuts in Medicare, cuts in money to local government, what hasn't been cut?      

The Bush administration represents the worst in political thinking.  Well, I suppose that is unfair.   Hitler, Stalin, Mao, that kind of unregulated, uncontroled  power, that is worse.  Still, I don't think there has been a more terrible threat to our constitution than the Bush administration.

Religious fundamentalists

Help me understand religious fundamentalists.  As I understand it, three religions came out of the Middle East: Jews, Christians, and Moslems.  Each has a fundamentalist aspect that says, my way or the highway; eternal damnation.  These folks feel obliged to kill anyone who worships differently.  Now I have nothing against Christians, Jews, or Moslems, still, these fundamentalist worry me.  A fundamentalist believes that they are absolutely right, without a doubt right, right without tolerance.  How can there be peace while these people feel that killing those who disagree with them is acceptable?  Each has used bombs against the other, some dropped from planes, some delivered personally.  Each calls the other, Terrorist.  I think that they are all terrorists. They all terrify me.  Sadly, one of them sits in the white house. He has declared war on all terrorists; kill them all, no need to understand them, no need to understand what might drive some teenager to surround his/her body with explosives. Hatred breeds hatred, violence breeds violence, and only love and understanding will stop this process.  In declaring war we have closed our minds, excluded all possibility of understanding, and love is left with no voice.

Perhaps this problem is the result of the speed with which we get around,small world and so forth.  Maybe, but I don't think so.  I suspect that some people just get hung up on answers.  Being right is a terrible thing to the ignorant and powerless, and being god right is overwhelming. It must be quite the temptation.  Ignorance then, must be the measurement of blind faith, no thought, no reservations, just blind obedience.  This is a hate thing, it can not come from love.  I think people often confuse the two.  Killing people for their own good has issues to my mind. I don't have much faith in good intentions, even less when it is the good intentions of government.

Being Buddhist changes people.  It has made me less sure, more doubtful, more willing to question.  True, I have a poor opinion of authority.  I have known too many people who passed themselves off as knowing, of having answers.  Religious authorities are the worse, followed by politicians.  Any religious authority worth listening to, will be reluctant to speak, and then only to suggest.  Delusion is a tricky thing.  It is hard to seperate what we wish to see from what is there, hard to know when we are adding to the problem.  Some one once said, "Don't muddy the water, you may have to drink it."  I think it was a Buddhist.   

Every generation is born ignorant

Ignorance. It is one of those laws of nature, like gravity or the speed of light, that every baby is born ignorant and self-centered, some stay that way, perhaps we all do.  The fact that the little heathens get domesticated at all is truly the product of dumb luck.  There is no explanation beyond the strength of love, of love and by example? Love is the greatest vehicle for this humanization process, and in most cases this means love of the family or would if the family still existed in American culture.

By families, I mean grandmothers and grandfathers, who else has the time? I haven’t heard much thought given of late to the concept that a break down in the civilizing influences of the family is the primary source of great and small criminal behavior.  I want to fix that right now, correct this grievous oversight.

The road to prison or high political office begins with small crimes, social crimes.  Few felons learn to keep their mouths shut while eating, to say nothing of picking up their socks.  A politician’s behavior is marked with tendencies to interrupt the conversations of others, and kindred behavior, behaviors indicative of a lack of respect for the rights and privacy of others. Such social crimes bend the twig that becomes the old stunted Republican.  These behaviors form the basis of larger crimes in the future, deceptions and falsehoods, broken political promises, certainly broken political promises, no, least of all broken political promises, no one expects them to be kept anyway. Another sorry state of affairs for which I have no explanation.

While it may be true that all, or most, certainly some, animals undergo polite herd and pack behavior instruction, the concept culminates in the human species.  No other animal must pick up his or her socks or lower the toilet seat.  It is this day to day behavior modification, passed down mother to son, big’uns to little’uns, that defines us, that separates us from all other animals and renders us human, and thus capable of, of, shopping, I suppose. 

Civilization may simply be the process that teaches us to take responsibility for lessening the impact of our lives on others, to purchase deodorant and such.  Perhaps civilization is only the aggrandizement of guilt, though I hope not.  Guilt sells and selling is the pulse, if not the heart, of civilization.

Politics is sales, run by the same people who sell us all those other forms of social insecurity, borders and social safety nets with big holes. Politicians are in the business of selling political solutions to social issues and concerns. They’re in this business because people have a misguided notion that there’s a political solution to all social problems.  Politicians espouse this notion when it’s convenient and deny it when it’s not, depending upon the polls. Fear and aversion are the main products of all politicians.  There ought to be a law, is their slogan.  They write laws.  Laws are like gold, they get their value from scarcity; less being more.  And here these fool are flooding the market.  Anyway, when there is a social problem, politicians want to have a solution.  We all do, but politicians are the wholesalers of the social fix it plans, and they do things in bulk.  To do this they must define the problem as appropriate to their market; ban or impose something on innocent society. Individual behavior has laws, many more than the original “thou shalt not’s” and all are still on the books, however broken and abused.

Step one is to restructure reality by making something other than a person responsible.  If ‘something’ is responsible, you can fix the problem by chucking the ‘thing’.  The trick is to confuse the physical attributes of an object with the ethical results of an action in which the object was involved.  For example: We have solved that nasty old behavior problem when we eliminate the most ppopular method of engaging in it.  The problem of people killing is satisfied when there are no firearms to kill with.  Think, think, think.  What are we saying?  People are good, things are bad.  The responsibility for committing an action rests with the object with which the action was carried out, not the person performing the action.  This is like saying the cure for rape is to whack off the penis, all penises, even well behaved penises.  Whoa, the imagery here is backing up on me. It is so very difficult to teach boys to behave, still this seems extreme.  Sure seems the real problem is how some people relate to power, to greed, to a badly warped self image. 

We must require people to be responsible for their behavior.  Deal with the behavior.  We do not get rid of socks because they are on the floor, we teach our young to pick them up.  That is how we kicked butt, and took over the world. 

There was an article in the local paper about an incident of road rage.  After the ritual exchange of insults at a red light, one idiot tried to kill another idiot with a knife and was almost killed when the other guy used a screwdriver on him.  It only sounds like a joke.

Is it easier to kill with a firearm than with a knife?  It certainly is for most people.  Theoretically, it is easier to kill someone with a knife than with a screwdriver, but apparently there are those who will rise to any challenge.  Do we then equate the ease with which an act is performed to the morality of the action?  Easier is bad.  Nonsense, killing is bad, and beating someone to death with a banana does not make it less bad for having a high degree of difficulty.  And no, if I were attacked with a banana, I would not want a banana with which to defend my self.  I would want a screwdriver.

It's tough being a Buddhist.  Change the subject.

The greatest danger to a Republic is not from terrorists.  We can bury our dead, care for our wounded, comfort those who can be comforted.  It is not from foreign invaders.  The greatest danger comes from our own government.  Our freedoms, our rights, are our rights not to be treated unjustly by our own government, to be free of oppression.  This is why we have the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, separation of church and state, the three branches of government, a free press.  Perhaps the most important is the free press, but large corporation gobble up the newspapers, the radio stations, television, cable. News and information is easily stifled, bent to serve the will of corporate profit.  It is not difficult; dissenters are simply passed over, ignored.  The strength of a free people is really quite fragile, it is information, knowledge.  A government that operates behind closed doors, that fears the unscripted question, the challenges of a free press is a government that seeks to oppress the rights of a free people.  Conversely, government transparency is the defender of liberty.  So ask why the Bush administration is attacking PBS.  Ask why the Bush administration is so secretive.   

I don't fear the great goose stepping hordes, I fear the quiet meetings of the moral, those  to whom God speaks directly, secret meetings to which heathens are not invited.   

What is social integrity

I keep adding to this whenever I have a few moments, changing what ever needs changing.

Letter to the Editor May 9, 2005, in the Spokesman Review:

The actions of the Bush administration have caused me to feel embarrassment to be an American. I suppose it is my own fault. I believe in what I thought were basic American values, call them John Wayne values if you will. I believe in taking responsibility for my actions, I believe that greed must be tempered by compassion.  I believe in fair play. I believe in the power of truth. I believe in a government of the people, for the betterment and well being of the people. I believe that taxes should be determined by a person’s ability to pay them. The Bush administration has violated all of these basic values. He has allowed his arrogant self-righteousness to take us to war, to set aside our freedom, to make the poor more responsible for their debt than the rich, to dismantle our social security, to condone torture, to place corporate profits above the needs of the old and sick, to place corporate profits above the environment, above the health of all living beings, above common decency. It is a damning list. Then there is just plain hypocrisy, Mr. West. You Republicans; is this the America you want? We should all be ashamed.

For the life of me, I just can't understand why people vote for people who are out to abuse their interests.  Most politicians support the interests of those who have supported their campaign and then say they don't, that they really care about you, you the little guy, and your well being.  sadly, these are the ones you have to keep your eye on, watch what they do. 

I saw a magic show once, this magician put a young woman inside a box and then made a big show of sticking these swords and big knives, one by one, through the box.  He stuck maybe twenty, thirty, of these things through that box where the girl was supposed to be, without a peep out of her.  Well, I sat there amazed.  I figured someone was going to arrest his ass for murder right there.  Except there was no blood, no screaming.  I would have screamed my head off at the first poke.  Hell, I wouldn't have got in the box.  But, she did, and the way she hopped right in there, made me feel she had done this sort of thing before.  Then he commenced to stick all that cutlery through the box, enough to be sure he got her, I suppose.  Anyway, when he pulled all those stickers out and opened the door, she came bouncing out, looking mighty pleased with herself.  I figured she had reason, being alive and all.  Still, I figured it out. If it was what it was supposed to be, there would have been a good deal of screaming, blood all over the place and the show closed for lack of an act.  My point is, you have to watch politicians the same way.  They say whatever they think will keep us amused while doing what they please.  It may not look or sound quite right, but if we want to be sold, we will be.  Sometimes I get the feeling that we are all sheep and with the price being down on wool and up on mutton, surely things are about to end badly for you and me. 

I watch C-span whenever I can,  C-span is the first and best reality show.  The Senate banking committee was grilling Julie Williams, who is the head of the federal agency that oversees banking practices, her and another guy in charge of Federal Reserve Banks, didn't catch his name.  Anyway these two people are supposed to watch out for the public interest in banking matters.  They were discussing credit card companies.  I watched in disbelief, in fear and loathing, in awe. The abuses of credit card companies were exhibited, one foul and underhanded deceit after another.  It became clear that credit card companies have been doing whatever makes them a profit without the slightest interference.  There is no doubt that the banking industry has been screwing the public. What is worse is that these two star witnesses were very sure that the banking industry did not need regulation.   No, not at all.  Interest rates can be increased from 3 to 35% at the whim of some banking cleric, for any reason, including no reason, and this is OK?  Who is looking out for our interests?  No one.  No government agency is doing anything to stop this abuse of power, then President Bush signed the Bankruptcy Reform act into law making it harder for us to escape from this abuse by the banking industry.     It is like putting the lid on the box just in case that broken legged frog still had something in him.       

I am far from done with this, but I am getting pissed, besides it is late. 

Liberty

It flew by

All in a rage

Desperate, as I,

a frog in a wordy cage,

sat turning my head.

She called out my name

a whisper, no more, and was gone

Still, I answered “here”

Disappearing.

I caught only a glimpse

a corner of the eye, glimpse

that speaks of more,

just the tip of it.

You, growing bolder

say, “And what of

the diamonds in her hair,

the lace she wore,

the crack of the whip,

the groan of the gilded carriage?

You saw none of it?

And all you could say was, “here?”

There is something in the Bush approach to politics that reminds me of hamburgers and fries, aside from the fact that I don't eat hamburgers at all and rarely fries.  Maybe, it's just that Bush satisfies those minds that want quick solutions?  Maybe it is the cheapness?  Maybe, Bush appeals to some unconscious need to self-destruct; call it the suicide of self-interest?  Maybe, it is the massive advertising? Maybe it's because I am not rich, not Christian, not a meat eater that the idea of killing people to set them free seems, odd.  I don't see how so many people bought the Bush cowboy agenda.  Bush is for the one percent of the population that has ninety percent of the money.  That's the money that bought the hearts and minds of fifty one percent of the population.  It is all in the packaging, I guess.  Money rules America.  There is only one political party, the Money party.   It is about telling us what we want to hear.  Sometimes, it is hard not to think that it is all just about the money, that maybe we are who we say we are,  but it is hard to stay there.  The Spinners have such contempt for us.  We believe the most foolish lies, the more outragous the lie the better.

What is this Conservative thing about anyway?  As far as I can tell it means those who have, want to keep it, and nothing else matters.  It means me, me, me, me, me, me, me, dressed up in noble sounding verbiage.  Personally, I want to preserve the constitution, the balance of power,  the bill of rights,  free speech, the right to dissent, as well as the responsibility to act with tolerence toward others.  For these reasons and many more, I think of my self as being conservative.  I want to conserve my rights to be free of undo interference from the government.  I want to conserve every person's right to health care, to be free of poverty, to live with dignity and respect and worship as they please.  I believe we must all contribute to the good of all.  The good of all means no one goes hungry.  It means everyone deserves the same quality of health care.  It means that corperate greed must be regulated for the good of society.  It means that truth, justice and fairness must out weigh the power of money and influence.  The right thing to do should be done for the good of everyone, even those who believe differently?