Archive for February, 2008

 A little boy goes to his dad and asks, ‘What is Politics?’ Dad says, ‘Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I am the head of the family, so call me The President. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the government. We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future. Now think about that and see if it makes sense.’ So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parent’s room and finds his mother asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy say’s to his father, ‘Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.’ The father says, ‘Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.’

The little boy replies, ‘The President is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit.’

Well said.

             There have been some unexpected consequences to an administration gone bad or mad or both.  The first of these is an unusual vocal disrespect for the President, as witnessed by popular TV shows like Bill Maher, Keith Obermann, and Bill Moyer.  A few of these men have come out calling the gruesome twosome, Bush and Cheney, outright fascists.  While it has always been popular for late-night hosts to poke fun at the president, especially Bill Clinton, never before has there been such a torrent of rage and disgust.  Our nation’s leaders are being held in outright contempt.  This must signal a new low for the country. The next president will have a great deal more than just the economy to fix.

          How about the invasion of our privacy?  Whether or not we have anything to hide, most people feel uncomfortable knowing someone is (in effect) opening their mail and listening in on their phone conversations.  Again, the benefit to our security is hard to estimate but tangible results don’t seem to be forthcoming.  Tapping our phones and e-mails is as offensive to most people as requiring public disrobing would be.

          How about the tailspin our dollar is experiencing against the world’s major currencies?  In the not so distant past, we had the strongest currency on the planet.  Now an economy as small as Canada’s has a currency stronger than the dollar.  Our stock market, real estate market, and financial markets seem to be in lockstep with the decline of the dollar.  America’s assets are selling at a huge discount; the equivalent of buying Tiffany jewelry at Kmart prices.

          Another phenomenon, according to Chris Matthews’s popular Hardball TV series, is the conferencing going on around the nation’s water coolers.  Office worker gossip has been replaced with earnest discussions about the candidates and their positions over wide variety of national issues.  Issues like the expansion or contraction of the war can be expected to be hot topics.  But not around the water cooler.  National health care and the stumbling economy likewise are hot topics usually reserved for the cocktail hour.

          And still another consequence to this administration is the early start to the presidential campaign.  Whether or not the early stumping is a result of a reaction to the war in Iraq is hard to determine.  One thing is clear.  Candidates of both parties began their countrywide sweep for delegates nearly a year ahead of schedule.  Perhaps the Democrats saw an opportunity to capitalize on a 75% disapproval rating for a Republican president.  How they will turn this in their favor is hard to imagine, since the democratically controlled Congress enjoys an even lower rating than the president.

          Anyone who has traveled lately has experienced the incredible inconvenience thrust upon our air traveling public.  The debate is about whether any of these additional disruptions to our routine are accomplishing anything at all.  On every occasion the Homeland Security’s additional measures were tested they failed miserably.  Agents posing as terrorists were able to smuggle components for all kinds of explosive devices through customs and onboard airplanes.  On a cost to benefit ratio the cost is astronomical, and the benefit is near zero.

          Lastly, how about the nations fear factor?  Homegrown terrorists like those from Montana or Waco Texas have done extraordinary damage in the past, but never before have our leaders felt it was necessary to remind us on a daily basis to tremble in our boots.  Nor have they used such occasions to strip us of our rights and dignity.  We have plowed billions into a Gestapo like bureaucracy, Homeland security, which was supposed to have made us more secure.  In my opinion, and that of almost every national commentator I listen to, it has had the opposite effect.  Once these bureaucracies are built it is next to impossible to dismantle them.  Putting all of our security forces under one umbrella, answerable only to the president, is a fascist move if there ever was one.  I felt more secure when all of our nations spy agencies were running their own shows. At least then there were checks and balances.

          In the final analysis I believe the goodness and common sense of the American public will come to the aid of the republic in time to stave off disaster. The damage done to the nation’s prestige and self-respect won’t be restored overnight. But a talking American public is a healthy sign that we are taking stock of our perilous position and intend to do something about it. In the upcoming election there is a promise of change. One change which cannot be overestimated is the introduction of the internet into the equation. I believe the incredible amount of support and money raised by the grassroots/internet campaign waged by Ron Paul has not gone unnoticed, although he apparently has. When candidates feel the need to distance themselves from special interest groups and refuse their money, as has been done by Barack Obama, and can successfully run their campaigns without that fragrant grease, we are headed in the right direction.

          Hoorah!

          Whether we choose to believe it or not, the facts are in.  America has a split personality.  For the most part, the good people of this country are in denial.  While we deserve to be congratulated for the good deeds we do as free citizens, we refuse to acknowledge the evil done by our government in our name.  Our hearts and our money pour out to the less fortunate, and to the victims of atrocities like genocide perpetrated by misguided regimes in Third World countries. Meanwhile these lawless regimes are more often than not supported by our own state department.  We then invade sovereign nations whose religious convictions run contrary to ours, under false pretenses. After blowing up our ”alleged” enemies, at a cost in the billions, we then follow up by spending even larger amounts  to rebuild and repair the damage we did.
 
          Private institutions and individuals provide massive assistance to the malaria and HIV victims in Africa.  We are in the process of providing laptop computers to the most remote villages on the planet to speed their arrival into the 21st century.  We give aid to disaster victims everywhere; no disaster worldwide goes without our support and assistance. These are great acts of kindness done by private people and institutions in our country’s name.
 
          Our alter ego, on the other hand, invades countries (Iraq is not the first and more than likely not the last) in an attempt to steal their natural resources.  Our rich corporations export pollution and take advantage of cheap foreign labor.  We export our jobs solely to take advantage of the poor and starving in less developed countries.  Our continual military campaigns cause death, destruction, and dislocation to millions of innocent civilians. For our trouble we get a gross and bloated military budget.  We give lip service to a war on terror in spite of the fact that we haven’t had a terrorist attack in over six years in our own country.  We commit war crimes in the name of national security; crimes which were deemed so heinous they were banned from use by the Geneva Convention during World War II.  We send our children to die in countries which were our allies and imprison and spy on our own citizens.
 
          While the good people in this country strive to do the best we can for all people everywhere, a few disgrace our country and give us a black eye the world over.  Their sole ambition is to increase their own wealth and power at everyone else’s expense.  They manipulate our government and our media and seek to undo the very principles which made our country the envy of all the world a few short decades ago.
 
          We need to regain control of our evil twin, before all is lost.  We need to dismantle an ever larger war machine.  A machine which is being used as an instrument of destruction and mayhem. A machine which is sucking up so many resources we are bankrupting ourselves and putting the entire world economy at risk. We need to put our resources into projects like clean air and renewable energy resources. Projects which will provide a secure and constructive future for our next generations. If we learn nothing else from history, we must learn the consequences of a government with an irresponsible military agenda, and which is controlled by big business interests. This could be the first generation of a lasting peace throughout the world.  But first, we must put Mr. Hyde behind bars where he belongs, and throw away the key.
 
 
 
 

Only on Valentine’s Day… At Saint Mary’s Catholic Church they have a weekly husband’s marriage seminar. At the session last week, the Priest asked Luigi, who was approaching his 50th wedding anniversary, to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he had managed to stay married to the same woman all these years.

Luigi replied to the assembled husbands, “Well, I’ve a-tried to treat-a her nice, spend-a da money on her, but best of all is that I took-a her to Italy for the 20th anniversary!”

The Priest responded, “Luigi, you are an amazing inspiration to all the husbands here! Please tell us what you are planning for your wife for your 50th anniversary.”

Luigi proudly replied, “I’m a-gonna go and get her.”

What is a Billion?! This is too true to be very funny!
 
The next time you hear a politician use the word “billion” in a casual manner, think about whether you want the “politicians” spending OUR tax money.  A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let’s take a look at New Orleans. It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division. Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans.  An  interesting  number,  but what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of
     New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you
     each get $516,528.
B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in
     New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C. HELLO!!! … Are all your calculators broken???