Wednesday, September 08, 2004

What's wrong with this picture?

Why is this a big deal? It's 2004 already. In 2001 we were told that Mark Bingham or whoever called their moms and spouses etc from airplanes-in-flight as though it was routine, so why would airlines like American (as in American Flights 11 and 77) announce in 2004 that they might be allowing their use as early as 2006?

Am I missing something?


Very good short essay: Bush's lies cause untold pain

That one was good, but this one is excellent. A collection of good interviews with American writers, about the election.

This sounds like a fun read: Colin Powell calling Dick Cheney, et al., fuckin' crazies

Monday, September 06, 2004

Gee, thanks W!

George W. Bush, a drunken liability.

He presided over the greatest security failure in the history of our country, he played politics with the investigation after trying -and failing- to prevent it, and now he's trying to milk it for votes. He failed. He froze like a deer in the headlights. Thousands died because he panicked, for seven minutes, until his advisors told him what to do.

But that's all in the past.

This guy is shafting your future, your children, to get your vote. Those neat 'tax cuts' you got? Try to remember that 'generosity' after you retire, when you're forced to choose between keeping the electricity on, or keeping your health insurance, coz Medicare ain't gonna cut it for long. Try to remember that generosity when you get laid off, and you have to choose between keeping the electricity on, or going to see the doctor about that cough.

Yeah, thank W for those 'tax cuts' when your property taxes go up (because the local government can't get the help from D.C. anymore). And thank him again when your sales taxes go up -again- and your kid has to get bussed miles to school because the school district had to 'downsize' because gosh, schools just can't seem to turn a profit gol-durnit, so they just have to close.

And thank W yet again when a TB/hepatitus/meningitis/smallpox/polio/flu epidemic fires up among the growing number of homeless, coz those 'tax cuts' could have gone toward a public health program instead of your 'insurance waiver.' So be sure to remember to thank him again, when you have to get immunized against all those lovelies.

And while we're on malaria, thank W again when it comes to your neighborhood, because it probably will. In spite of what W says, our planet is undergoing some serious climatic changes, and W's plan is to ignore it. We really have little idea what to expect, but we know that glaciers are melting at a demonstrably alarming rate, and species once relegated to the Tropics are spreading.

A vote for W is like maxing-out your credit cards at a video arcade: Immediate gratification, to be paid for ...um... later *wink.* He doesn't care about what happens after he's got his share- remember what he said about his place in history? Doesn't matter, he said: "we'll all be dead."

*blink blink*

You are being robbed.
You are being lied to.
You are being conned.

Think about this: without concern for his own safety, John Kerry asked to be sent into hell, to serve his country. Then he came back and told us all just how hellish it was, and asked that his brother soldiers be brought home safely too. Christ, how cool is that? I wish I had balls like that.

After that, he went on to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusets, and then as Senator of that state for eighteen years. Eighteen years. This guy has given his entire adult life, to serve his country. His state has re-elected him again and again, because up close, they can see that he means what he says, and he's trying to be fair.

The core of the Republican ideal is noble: that anybody can get ahead, if they work hard. The problem arises because the people who get ahead, forget about those who did not.

We are not islands, none of us. No gated community, no security system, no Department of Fatherland Defense will protect you or your loved ones, from disease or poverty.

And they'll come.

Coz the core of the Republican ideal is that anybody can get ahead. And that means others get left behind. And in a competetive social climate like that, it's dog-eat-dog, baby. You're a winner or you're a loser. But when things get tight, as they will more and more in coming years (considering environmental degradation, water and fuel shortages, hotter summers, colder winters, less predictable weather, etc), more and more people have to get left behind.

One day it's gonna be you.

Vote Democrat in November. Bring some balance back to Washington.