No Child Left Behind,Huh?

Frankly, I can almost believe Dubya was a "a child left behind". Sigh. Maybe Andrew Jackson was semi-literate, but Bush seems downright moronic. Cunning he has, thank God. He knows how to make himself look "presidential", and he knows how to talk tough, at least---except it takes a lot more to lead than simple cunning. I will give him credit for stalling on this deal, though. That, however how smart, was merely cunning, even if he manages to win. In this game winning isn't always everything. If Dubai is allowed to handle our ports, no matter how good a job they do, this deal will have set a terrible precedent. What will be for sale next? Our airline terminals, train and bus stations...? Then what?
Call me an alarmist if you wish, but we already have a president who believes "Commander-In-Chief" means he's in command of Congress, the Supreme Court, and every civilian in this country. He's shown that belief by his actions, if not in words. He's said the Constitution is "nothing but a ...piece of paper." He's joked that he "wouldn't mind a dictatorship---as long as [he is] the dictator". Can we continue to trust this man? I think not. Were it not for 9/11, he never would have been reelected. From the start he was an arrogant fool, stumbling along from day to day, too stubborn to admit he'd made mistakes, and he hasn't changed. It's often said that "Crises Make Great Presidents", but Bush's only "greatness" thus far is his determination to smash his way through every obstacle, regardless of consequences. A Republican he might be, an elephant he's not. Ironically enough, his stubbornness equals that of a mule---the mascot of the Democrats! Maybe Dubya's a Republicrat? Sadly, it makes no difference as to political party, or beliefs, when a person is incompetant. Worse, a person who refuses to admit mistakes only makes more. If the Republicans cave in to this deal (and I don't trust the Dems, either), we'll have established something we've always bragged we never had. Instead of a "government of laws, not men", we'll have made Dubya the "law". At that point, folks, Congress and Supreme Court become mere rubber-stamps for whatever the pres and his advisors have decided. Do we really want that?

More Bushwa

Do I apologize for the language I used yesterday? No way! Today, however, I will restrain myself---only because children might be surfing the web.(Kids, don't use yesterday's language at school, or to your elders. Do as I say, not as I do!) Of course, we've all heard that about a zillion times growing up...
At any rate, Bush sucks (some say he even swallows, too, but we won't go into that for decency's sake), and unless he goes, we're screwed. News reports say the Republicans, in true lemming fashion, are ready to make a compromise in order to prop Dubya up. After all, would you want to admit your leader was hopeless? So, in order not to hurt their chances for reelection (uh huh), Republicans may bend over and allow Fearless Leader to---ahem. (I won't be more explicit, but think "Barney Frank") Vershtain? Okay, kids, you don't have to explain that to your elders, and don't giggle out loud or your teacher will send me nasty emails...
As I said yesterday, Democrats are only happy about this because it might help their chances in '08. One wonders if they wouldn't be somehow resentful should Republicans get the credit for blocking the sale. (Three guesses, and the first two don't count) Meanwhile, "democracy" in Iraq has unravelled, Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds are poised for a very uncivil war (thanks to us), and Iran gains leverage due to the majority of Shia as opposed to Sunni in Iraq. Talk about the @#$% hitting the fan! Worse, the fan's blowing our way. How long before our radical Muslims start rioting? Note the modifier "radical", as I certainly do not advocate tarring all of them with the same brush, so to speak. This whole mess is gratis Dubya and his delusions of messiah-hood, bringing democracy to the world (whether they want it or not!) using armies and WMD. Oh, but it's perfectly fine for us to bomb and pillage, y'know. We're the good guys, right? If Clinton had tried any of Dubya's shenanegans, he'd have been impeached in a New York minute. Sooner, even. And how much you wanna bet Rush will blame all this on Bill?
A good 3/4ths of the world's political problems have been caused by our obsession with being the only Super Power, our quasi-religious belief that God has somehow appointed us as his new "Chosen People", and our irrational tendency toward the "one nation---under God" certainty that promoting public religious (Christian) displays confirms our "godliness". (Pardon me while I puke) When are we going to learn? Before, or after the Apocalypse? That fire coming down from heaven won't be God's wrath, but our own hubris coming back at us. What goes around, comes around...

Impeach The Bastard!

Yes, I mean it! Dubya has obviously never given a damn about "Homeland Security", and his recent tantrum about the Constitution being "just a goddamned piece of paper" is the real George W Bush. How dare this worthless piece of SHIT (and I only use this kind of language when I'm steamed) piously preach to "We, The People" on God and Country while secretly handing America over to a terrorist state. And he actually threatens to veto any resolution prohibiting this outrage. Do we need any more proof that this asshole aims to be a dictator? He thinks being president gives him the right to sell us into virtual slavery. I swear Dubya must have been Judas Iscariot in a former life, because he'll do anything for 30 shekels. I say this because the Christian blood libel sprang from the lie that Judas betrayed Yushka. Judas, the only one of the apostles who (if you look carefully at the paintings) has a "Jewish" nose. And I'll just bet Jews will be blamed if Dubya's little heist fails. You know, all those "Jewish lobbyists" always trying to sell America to Isreal? Oh yes, you should see the kinds of accusations we get on the Web. Don't worry, the Pat Buchanans will come out with both barrels blazing---at us, at any American who dissents. The Republican Noise Machine has made it clear where "patriots" stand on this. They have shown their true colors---blood red. Yes, they'll gladly sell America for blood money, and they probably have way before this, too.
Except for the handful of courageous Rebublicans (forget the Democrats, folks. This is pure politics for them, I hate to say it) protesting bitterly against this treason and vowing to stop it, the rest of Capitol Hill is already licking their chops over the mess of pottage to be gained from the deal. Billions. Yes, that sure is a "mess of pottage", all right. After squandering our taxpayer dollars on pork-barrel legislation and cuts for the rich, after stealing the huge surplus that Clinton left us for God-knows-what, after selling most of our industries to foreign buyers, and after allowing the banks to run up trillions of dollars in bad loans, they figure they can just sell us all if they have to. Anything for money, y'know. That's what "free markets" are all about.
It doesn't bother them a bit that their hands are stained all the way up to the elbows in the blood of the 9/11 victims. Who are we? To them, we're all capital they can liquidate as needed. As long as they and theirs get the loot, Dubya can be a dictator for all they care. They own us, folks---at least, that's what they think.
Why, just listen to Rush bloviating over the nerve of those who disagree with Fearless Leader. How stupid, he says, to throw away the chance to make a profit. After all, it's not like Dubai will own all of America, just six measely little ports. What's New York, Philadelphia, Miami, etc. when we can cash in like this?! Six major ports, that's all. We must be nuts, he thinks. We must be stupid, he implies underhandedly, to doubt the wisdom of God's Annointed. I'm sure he agrees that the Patriot Act should be forever, since "We, the People" can't be trusted to know what's good for us.
Well, I've had it. If we don't impeach this son-of-a-bitch (and make no mistake, Barbara Bush is a bitch), we'll have only ourselves to blame when the Constitution is flushed down the White House toilet. Come the next 9/11 (conveniently right before the national elections, perhaps?), Dubya will think he's God Almighty (if he doesn't already, that is), and it'll be the final nail in democracy's coffin, kinenahora. Yes "kinenahora", because I pray I'm wrong about the demise of America. Nevertheless, if this under-the-table deal isn't "high crimes and misdemeanors", it damn well should be. Depose "King George IV" now, before the fucker crowns himself.

Is THIS Face "Un-American"?

Of course not! But, according to many right-wing "patriots" (too many to list here), and their equally pin-headed left-wing "humanitarian" (AKA: Isreal is the real reason for Palestinian woes, ad nauseum) wackos, Jews are somehow collectively guilty of whatever it is that doesn't seem to make sense to them. To the right-wing religious nuts, Jews are "wicked" for rejecting Christ (and, please, spare me all that tripe about Christianity being "the religion of love", because I've been there), so countless Christian dimbulbs thrill to the leaden prose of LEFT BEHIND, which leaves no stomach unturned in its zestful descriptions of the END TIMES. I won't assault your sensibilities by repeating some of the literary- religio-porn splashed all over the series pages like aborted fetuses (oh yes, there's at least one Christian Fundy website that offers images of, among other things, the Pope holding a "Last Supper" with said fetuses as the main dish. Yum!). On a later date, I'll try to list a few of these "Four-Square Gospel" and related leftist hate sites here, but I may run out of space even so. Yes, sadly, there are that many.
As always, these pernicious politico-fascist fetishists fasten onto the historically simple, yet factually far-out solution of Jews being the cause of all their problems. And what, pray tell, is their proof? Why, THE PROTOCALS, naturally. Y'see, they say gleefully, it's gotta be true 'cuz it's the minutes of an actual meeting of those 33 nasty rabbis that secretly rule the world! Sure, and I'm the Anti-Christ, too. But, hard as we may laugh at this stupidity, it's here, has been here for God-knows-how-long, and isn't going away. Not today, not tomorrow, not next year. Because, notwithstanding the falsity of its claims, this belief in Jewish world-control is easy to understand, simple in operation (after all, didn't Charles Dickens himself have an unnamed Jewish rag-picker in league with Fagin? Of course Jews all know each other, right?), and virtually unassailable in its "us against them" logic. Try convincing a believer that all those obviously "Jewish" names at the head of major corporations aren't up to no good. So how'd they all get there? Your run-of-the-rut bigot will demand. Not that he's asking. He knows the answer: Jews only help other Jews, he'll retort. Shake your head in disbelief at him and he'll produce---drum roll---a copy of THE PROTOCALS, or some other screed downloaded from the rabid-right-wing/loonytoon-left conspiracy sites. Hopeless, me thinks.
I believe Umberto Eco, in his THE NAME OF THE ROSE, gave about the best answer as to why these people insist on seeing a mere 3% (it may be slightly higher) of the world's population to blame for almost everything. He places, in the mouth of an illiterate peasant, the sublimly simple sentence that haunts me as I write this: "When your enemies are powerful, you have to chose weaker ones", he states unself-consciously (I am not quoting verbatim, of course). There, you have it---choose an enemy that (preferably) can't fight back. For all we have Isreal, we Jews still stand mostly out-numbered and out-gunned, even here in America. It was thus when we arrived on these shores penniless and pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as it were. Jews were never poor, many Christians believe (including my sister and brother-in-law). Jews hid money in the lining of their clothes, they say. (oh, sure, wads and wads of rubels, marks, and other foreign currancy that was worthless over here). Uh huh, and I suppose they stuffed their brogans full of gold coins, too (which explains why so many of them walked funny, I presume?)
Nevertheless, such intellectually-myopic hordes are to be feared because they outnumber us. Worse, they have panderers like Falwell, LaHaye, and Robertson who, while they might not openly preach hatred (or suger-coat it if they do), endorse whole-heartedly the "kikes are gonna get it when Jaysus returns" approach to God's Justice. And not only us but gays, Buddhists, Muslims, etc., as well. God's going to need one humongous Fry-Daddy come Judgement Day, according to the Fundies, who can't wait. Considering that most of our Repubican elected officials court these Fundies for their votes, rely heavily on their contributions, and even share some of the same beliefs---I say we'd better arm ourselves. Because you just know what's going to happen when the "wrong" messiah shows up...

Capitalism=Homeland Security?

Our wonderful prez is all set to outsource a completely useless and cost-ineffective port authority with a private company. WoW! Isn't Capitalism great? No more paperwork, keeping track of all those ships. No more overtime pay for all the cops needed to police the docks and, best of all----no more unions! Just look at all the money we'll save. I mean, can this get any better or what?
Oh sure, Dubai is an arab nation and all that, but George knows they won't let in any terrorists. Besides, Dubai is an ally of ours, right? Just like Saudi Arabia, so of course we can trust them! I mean, it's Syria and Iran that are the bad guys now. Everybody knows the 9/11 terrorists all came from Iraq, and that's why we went after Saddam, y'know? And those ports will still be ours, even if the guys with the guns are foreigners, so, like, who cares! Our government wouldn't sell us out. No siree, the Republicans don't let minor considerations like bribes, etc. influence their decisions. If they're bought, they make sure it's an American company. And they're honest, too. Once they're bought they stay bought.
Hey, let's outsource everything! Y'know, like the military, the FBI, CIA---what the hell. It's money saved, isn't it? Our tax dollars! Like, we could even get big IRS refunds if this deal goes through. Well, yeah, I know that the rich will get theirs first, but it all trickles down eventually, right? So let's all give a big cheer to Dubya. Yippee, we're all gonna die!

Killer Cartoon

So, this is the terrible insult that Muslims are using as yet another excuse to riot/throw tantrums, scream "Death To Denmark!" in the streets, and generally act like radical college students in the 60's over. My, my, how quaint. Seems like only yesterday when we Boomers threw public tantrums about perceived injustices to our generation and threatened to invade Congress. Alas, we have "invaded" government---only to find we're no better at it than our parents. Sigh.
Yes, rioting and tantrums do feel good when you're downtrodden, but that kind of childish behavior doesn't change anything. Take it from an old hippie/Yippie/has-been, and stop this stupidity before you find yourself facing your own "Kent State", as it were. We thought we were invincible, too, but bullets don't respect character. We found that out the hard way. Sure, yell all you want, but be careful when you think to burn down buildings, behead people, that sort of thing, in God's name, because God isn't going to act as your "human shield". You risk getting peaceful Denmark angry, and angry people can strike back at Muslims, both innocent and guilty, as the American government struck back at us college radicals.
Besides, why should we respect your prophet when your newspapers show similar cartoons about our religions? Face it, as I've said before, God or Allah is a big boy, and he can smite "infidels", sinners, etc. without human help. Or don't you believe God is great? Be careful, he might not want to "get involved", y'know. Salami, salami, baloney, baloney....