Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

So, George W. Bush says that Iraq is at a “turning point”.

Interesting he should say that. Another word for turn is spin.

Sit and spin, Georgie.

Maelstroms turn. So do tides.

There is no turning back, they say, but I say that it is never to late to turn around and walk away from a bad decision.

Long ago, this war turned into a farce.

America tried war, and it failed. It’s our turn now, to give peace a try.

Irregular Times has been blogging for a few years now, but the web site goes back, way back, before that. In fact, Irregular Times really had its start as an offline zine back in 1995. In the 1990s, you see, Irregular Times had a different name and a different identity: Irregular Jonathan Speaks.

I was Irregular Jonathan, but we had a couple other writers along for the ride back then too. Jim was there, plus a few others we have parted ways from. For a bit, Irregular Jonathan Speaks was also a weekly news talk show on Free Radio Memphis.

Once upon a time, there was a wide-mouthed hippo serving as the logo of Irregular Jonathan Speaks, but before that, there was this blue gecko with a tongue ready for action.

I don’t know if any of our readers from the days of Irregular Jonathan Speaks are still around, but things have changed a lot since then. What’s remained the same is the dedication to the concept of irregularity in all its permutations.

In reviewing some Posts here on Irregular Times, I find a quote fom former Military officer and current politician John McCain, that “American Workers are lazy”.

It seems that every so often, conservative politicians think it is incumbent upon them to point out to the general public that “the workers are lazy”

Growing up in England, I was constantly reminded of my status as `Working Class,’ by people who had never worked a day in their lives. I have a picture in my mind of Lord Alexander Douglass Hume (Pron. Home) standing in the market square of a rural English town speaking of how the farm laborers `wasted their substance’. This in the 1950’s. It is the same vision that African Americans have of the Plantation owner sitting on the porch sipping mint julep while the slave worked in the field, `it does’nt matter what you do for them, they’r just lazy N*****s.’

In the thirties, the workers of America who built this country were harrased beaten and shot by the same conservatives who deride them for laziness. And this only for having the temerity to ask for better pay and conditions.

I realy started worrying when Americans started reffering to a `Middle Class’. This in the so-called classless society. It reasonably follows, that if we have a `Middle Class’, we must also have a `Working Class’ and an `Upper Class’. (Choose one and stand under that umbrella). The problem is, that the only Class to decide which Class you belong to, are the self appointed members of the Upper Class to which we are all supposed to aspire.

Hold on a minute! Does this mean that the preamble to the Constitution is wrong and we are not `All created equal?’

Yes Johnny. When you establish social strata in society, if you are unfortunate enough to have been born into the lower/laboring class or are a shopkeeper ar bankers clerk in the middle classes, you can at least aspire to a higher station in life, just so long as you do not step above yourself.

People who criticise the `workers’ or any other social or ethnic group are really saying that they, ARE BETTER THAN THE REST OF US! AKA Bigots.

Ask yourselves this. Have any of the critics of miners seeking better and safer conditions, ever worked several hundred feet below the surface of the earth at hard labor in damp unhealthy conditions? I think not. Have the so-called critics of the american worker ever picked cotton or cabages or tobbaco in fields in the hot sun? Have any of the so called leaders of our Great Nation worked in a steel mill where to walk outside on a summers day was a cooling experience.

In my life, I have never met a critic of the Unions and American Workers who actually had to sweat for 50-60 hours in uncomfortable unsafe and unhealthy conditions to feed the greed of Conservative Elite. Oh Yeah, we have all heard the tale of how Johnny Gotbucks had to work a year in his Daddy’s factory to `learn the buisness’ and how he made the same money as the common workers during that year. He forgot however to mention that his pay check would not have to feed a family and pay rent and medical bills.

It is time for the American and Emigrant workers to stand together. We are all after the same thing. Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric about Hispanics or Blacks or Asians taking our jobs. The extreme right and the conservative elitists want the workers to be at each other throats, it diverts attention from the conservative agenda which is to keep all of us at a financial level that only they controll. And if that doesn’t work, we can always start a war and send them off to be killed or rewarded with fancy ribbons for `Service’ to a country that has leaders who do not care about them or their children.

The con-elite are dedicated to the disruption and separation of people into smaller groups (Classes) that they can control. And use the press and the media which they own and control to spread dissention. Unfortunately there are those working people who have been led to believe that this conservative concept will eventually benefit us all. When do we get our slice of the pie? The industrial revolution started three hundred years ago and we are still being confronted with the `workers are lazy’ rhetoric.

My Old Dad used to tell me, `There is no shame in honest sweat’. The shame unfortunately is in accepting less than we are worth for our ability, talent and willingness to work and to hope for more for our children and grand children. Daily we see the con-elite attacking the ability of working people to achieve simple goals. Our basic education system has been reduced to an historic low, where talent is suppressed and scholarship derided. The workers of America have lost their place in the new society. We are told by the con-elite that we are lazy, work shy and dishonest and we believe it. Our Unions have been disbanded, our work places dismantled and sent off to countries where workers are payed less than we were for the same work, and we are expected to view those workers as the bad guys. Not so, they are just people like us trying to feed their families. We have been set against each other. Emigrant labor is being imported by the con-elite to reduce wages in the USA while prices rise to a level that will force working people to work for 60-80 hours a week at minimum pay, just to live. And we are expected to believe that it is because American workers are lazy. Whats next, children in the work place?

No Mr. McCain American nor any other workers are not lazy. They are frustrated that the conditions that our fathers worked and fought for are being erroded in the name of the con-elite created American Class system which you support. Go get a job in a factory for a month or so (if there are any left). Go out into the country and watch Americans working. Find a lazy one and he is probably running for Republican candidate somewhere.

Oh and by the way, Liberal Americans are included in the new society, They are considered lower than the working class, They are: LEFT LEANING LIBERALS. I am proud to be one.

Here’s what The Nation has to say about the sudden resignation of Porter Goss and the rapidly expanding sex scandal known as Hookergate:

“Goss may be the first casualty of the expanding investigation into Duke Cunningham, otherwise known as Hookergate. Cunningham’s indicted co-conspirators, defense contractors Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade, provided suites at the Westin and Watergate (sound familiar?) to entertain Congressman and other DC players. According to Ken Silverstein of Harper’s, “party nights began early with poker games and degenerated into what the source described as a “frat party” scene–real bacchanals.” The FBI is investigating whether prostitutes were involved. The Watergate has received multiple subpoenas.

Goss’s #3 man at the CIA, Dusty Foggo, has already admitted to attending “poker parties.” Silverstein, one of the best investigative reporters in Washington, revealed last week that “those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees–including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post.”

Goss certainly fits that bill.”

Let me be frank. The Democratic Party is riding an anti-Bush wave so high that only an idiot could fail to gain victory from its surge. Every damn congressional district in the United States of America should be up for grabs, and there’s only one reason that it ain’t that way:

The leadership of the Democratic Party is the most lily-livered, spineless, cowardly, scaredy-cat, crass and lazy asses bunch of bastards America has ever seen!

The only reason that the Democrats stand a fair chance of retaking Congress this year is that the Republicans are even worse than the Democrats. The Republicans are a bunch of crazy, trigger-happy, Bible-thumping, spiritualist, theocratic, hate-baiting, greedy, corrupt pigs.

The Democrats hope to just ride the surge of populist rejection of the right wing radical agenda. The Republicans are such blind fanatics that they’re actually trying to swim against the tide.

I’m a god-damned liberal, and I don’t care who I offend by saying it, ’cause it’s the bald-butt truth!

Yesterday morning, J. Clifford offered up a bit of a comparison of MySpace with TagWorld - and TagWorld came out on top.

It looks as if J. Clifford is trying to set up a political space for progressives on TagWorld, a way for grassroots people to get together and get organized in a funky space. One of his ideas is to start a page there where people can view progressive-themed videos.

That’s an awesome idea, I think, and I really like one of the videos that he put up over there. It’s one of a song called War All the Time by the group Thursday. Thursday’s sound kind of reminds me of a New Jersey version of The Cure. Well, kinda. The lyrics to the song go like this:

Standing on the edge of the palisades cliffs

In the shadow of the skyline very far away

A lightning rod that couldn’t pull the storm from me

I was 5 years old my best friends older brother died

He fell from these cliffs

The river washed him away the current pulled him downstream

And our lives float in the headlines, so we parked these cars

Parent’s garage

Listen to the lullaby

Of Carbon Monoxide

War all of the time

In the shadow of the New York skyline

We grew up too fast falling apart

Like the ashes of American flags

The sun doesn’t rise

We replaced it with an h-bomb explosion

A painted jail cell of blood in the sky like Three Mile Island

Nightmares on TV they used to sing us to sleep

They burn on and on like an oil field

Or a memory of what it felt like

To burn on and on and not just fade away

All those nights in the basement the kids are still screaming

On and on and on and on

War all of the time

In the shadow of the New York skyline

We grew up too fast falling apart

Like the ashes of American flags

And we’re blowing in the wind

We don’t know where to land

So we kiss like little kids

We used to be very tall buildings

We’ve been falling for so long

Now your eyes follow the sign on the edge of town

They offer a welcome when you are leaving

War all of the time

In the shadow of the New York skyline

We grew up too fast falling apart

Like the ashes of American flags

The pieces fall it’s like a last day parade

And the fires in our streets start to rage,

so wave, to the people that long to wave back,

from the fabric of a flag that sang “love all of the time”

War all the time

Al Gore for President? Al Gore for President?!? What kind of sick joke is this?

The big corporate news media punditry is running is trying to whip up the idea that liberals like me are a bunch of Al Gore supporters just begging him to run for President. Here at Irregular Times, these meatheads seem to be falling for this sham. They’ve got this page of Al Gore for President stuff. Oh save us, Al! We love that speech in which you too afraid to use the word IMPEACH! Oooh, Al!

Please tell me, who here has witnessed any real American liberals walking around pining and moaning for Al Gore to come back into politics over the last five years? Really? Who? Who has been saying, “Oh, gee, if only we had Al Gore back, then everything would be hunky and dory!”

Remember this, Democrats: In 2000, Al Gore stood with that simpering, Republican-loving Bush lap dog Senator Joe Lieberman. Al Gore was a Democratic Leadership Council right wing Democrat.

Now, Al Gore is trying to remake himself a with a movie and a book in which he tells us what we all already know: The Earth’s biosphere is out of balance! Global warming is a serious problem! The Republicans are ignoring it!

Duh! Really, Al? I’m so glad you filled us in on all these facts, Al, cause none of us have bothered to pick up a newspaper in the last five years, man! Oh, but now that there’s a mooooovie and you’re making all buddy-buddy with smirking George Cloooooney we’re supposed to fawn all over you?

No way, man! I’m, America’s last god-damned liberal, and I say it’s a royal right wing Democratic set-up. Set up city!

I love this statement released by George W. Bush after today’s news about how the Bush Administration has been keeping records of who and when ordinary Americans are calling on the telephone:

“Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaeda and their known affiliates”

So let me get this straight: Strictly targeting Al Quaida and their known affiliates includes keeping records on tens of millions of Americans, tracking who they call on the telephone and when they make those calls?

Well, if that’s Bush’s idea of strictly targeting, I guess that must mean that tens of millions of Americans are known affiliates of Al Quaida!

Betcha didn’t know that you are a special friend of Osama Bin Laden, did you?

Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach.

Yesterday, just a few hours after the news broke that George W. Bush and Michael Hayden have been running a program with the goal to collect information about every single telephone call ever made within the United States, I took a flight up to Toronto, Canada.

As soon as I got through customs, I felt a huge sense of relief that surprised me. I felt that I could relax. I knew that I wasn’t going to be listened to, that my telephone calls were not going to be entered into a database.

Right after that relief came a guilty reaction, and a sadness. I shouldn’t feel relief when taking a trip out of my country. I shouldn’t feel that way about leaving the USA.

It isn’t just America’s reputation in the world that has been damaged by our government’s attacks on liberty. It’s our own sense of pride and dignity.

I feel cleaner now that I’m in Canada on this trip, and that reaction makes me feel dirty.

I’ve been critical of Senator Barack Obama recently. His shilling for Joe Lieberman was not a shining moment of integrity. His response to my letter asking him to support censure of the president was a full-fledged hedge job: sure, he’s no good, but let’s not rock the boat.

I started to think he was becoming exactly what we don’t want: a nice guy with higher ambitions, biting his tongue for political purposes. 

However, in a speech yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reports, Obama got his hackles up.

Obama mocked the “idea that somehow if you say the words `plan for victory’ and `stay the course’ over and over and over and over again, and you put these subliminal messages behind you that say `victory’ and `victory’ and `victory,’ that somehow people are not going to notice the 2,400 flag-draped coffins that have arrived at the Dover Air Force Base.”

The first-term lawmaker asked the audience: “People, have we flipped? It’s time to say we notice it. It is time to say that we care, and we are not going to settle anymore.”

“I don’t know about you,” he told his audience, referring to Bush’s 2000 campaign comments on possible U.S. military involvement overseas, “but when George Bush said he did not believe in nation building, I did not know he was talking about this nation.”

Obama cited reports that former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, critical of how the GOP was governing in Washington, suggested Democrats could reduce their campaign slogan to two words: “Had enough?”

Sure, it’s safer to be blunt now that the president’s approval ratings are sinking further in the toilet bowl with each flush of public opinion.

But this is the Obama I voted for. How about censure now, Barack?

There are a few things I question about American ideals in general. Well, let’s not beat around the bush, there are a lot of things I question about American ideals. But one thing has always been at the top of my questions: Why do so many Americans hate communism?

Now I know the history about communism and socialism and I know about the two most notorious nations to claim these as their economic systems. Respectively Russia and Germany. And I can understand how the history of those two nations would give communism and socialism a bad name. But the more I’ve come to learn, the more I see a difference and how people mistake Communism with Stalinism. Communism in and of itself is, to the best of my understanding, an economic system in which the wealth is distributed evenly and the means of production is owned by the state and the nation becomes a classless society. Socialism is the economic system in which the means of production is controlled by the workers. I have to ask myself; what is so bad about that?

Around the 1950’s, a fella came into office by the name of Joseph McCarthy and he gained support by whipping up Americans into an anticommunist frenzy. He equated a communist with being a traitor. Doesn’t that go against the constitution and the intention of the founding fathers that you should be free to practice whatever political view you have as well as whatever religious view you have?

More to the point, I have to ask myself; what is so great about capitalism? We live in a capitalist nation (violently capitalist in my opinion) and what has it brought? A few individuals gain wealth at the expense of the masses. The majority of the population is left to struggle or else starve while 1% of the population lives in a mansion that can be as large as a city block and a property line that’ll stretch from here to the west coast. The vast minority of people living in this country get access to the finest medical care available while the majority are left without treatment and basically left to die; gods forbid they need a surgery like a heart transplant. Those upper crust people also have the money to be able to buy votes from politicians to keep the minimum wage from being raised, then reward them with nice jobs once they’re out of office. The CEO of an oil company gets 400 billion dollars in a retirement package while the average guy gets…AARP. Yeah, that’s real equal. To me, the system of capitalism is little more than a modern usage of the ancient European ideas of nobility. The lords of the land (the wealthy 1%) make money from the peasantry (the other 99%) while doing almost none of the work. The only difference here is that the lords have no obligation to protect their peasants. In fact, come war time, they’ll do whatever it takes to keep from fighting.

I look at the examples of communism and I see a much better way of thinking. A classless society, medical care for everyone, a living wage, a standard of living, education for the poor and so forth.

But what gets me is why, why do so many Americans hate communism? What has given them these anticommunist ideals? Why didn’t Americans rally in the streets after Bush turned down Castro’s offer of 1,500 doctors after Katrina? If communism is so bad, why has Venezuela offered us oil so cheaply after the ecological disasters of the last two years?

People tell me “The USSR broke up and Cuba’s citizens are starving; that’s proof that communism doesn’t work” but to me it’s just proof that communism would work if the most powerful nation on the planet wouldn’t refuse trade with anyone who does business with a communist country.

I write this and I’m not sure if I’ll be investigated by the Department of Homeland Insecurity. Has the McCarthyism of the ’50’s and ’60’s died down enough for me to speak freely about counter-capitalist ideals? I strongly doubt it, but I feel I should use my right to free speech and voice my opinion even if it does go against the status-quo. Isn’t that the essence of liberty? Isn’t that the ideals enshrined in the constitution? Is it really treason for people to search for a better way of life if they keep getting screwed by the current system?

There have been many conservatives and republicans who will, after hearing me voice my liberal opinions, call me a commie. Well shit, if wanting progressive change in the government; wanting the government to ensure a living wage; and feeling that everyone has a right to medical care and education rather than just those who can afford it and let the rest die then yeah, I guess I am a pinko leftist commie. If that’s what being a commie means then I’m as red as a fucking traffic light.

I guess I should sum this up. I don’t understand why so many people hate communism after looking around at what has become of a capitalist country.

The NSA’s program of collecting our phone records is worth the slight effect it has on our so-called “right to privacy.” This war will be won by sacrifice, stamina and new technologies. I am particularly impressed by new methods of monitoring the internet use of private citizens.
[Frank Mullen votes Republican]

Web Data-Mining–“WDM”–is a powerful tool for enhancing homeland security. For instance, it allows the government to keep track of the URLs of websites visited by internet users.
[Frank Mullen supports prayer in schools]

WDM’s sophisticated cross-referencing algorithms identify the authors of online content.
[Frank Mullen is a Christian Fundamentalist]

Web Data-Mining doesn’t just read sites with up-to-date content. Its archive-exploring subroutines can dig up old postings that were written before Americans realized the government was watching.
[Frank Mullen did not do drugs to excess at Franconia College]
[Franconia College is an Assemblies of God seminary]
[Frank Mullen was kidding when he said that appointing John Bolton as ambassador to the UN is like putting Jesse Helms in charge of the NAACP]

Web Data-Mining’s software operates much like internet search engines. It looks at online documents and identifies keywords according to frequency and proximity.
[Frank Mullen big Bush donor]
[Frank Mullen glad sacrifice freedom speech]
[Frank Mullen Focus on Family]

The system is so efficient–and constitutional– that Bush’s people don’t bother to inform you whenever they’ve accessed information by or about you. (That’s just an observation, not a complaint. After all, this is America, where you can trust your government to be discreet with your personal data.)
[Frank Mullen women barefoot pregnant]
[Frank Mullen no abortion not even rape incest]
[Frank Mullen support school prayer AND execute children AND low taxes rich people]

I mean, imagine what an untrustworthy government could do with information about its citizens.
[Frank Mullen accept Jesus Christ personal Savior]

Remember Nixon siccing the IRS on his enemies?
[Frank Mullen donate large sums Pat Robertson]

How about J. Edgar Hoover forwarding names of suspected radicals to the Selective Service?
[Frank Mullen Young Republican]

And they didn’t even have digital databases back then!
[Frank Mullen Campus Christian Crusade]

It’s a good thing those days are over
[Frank Mullen small potatoes]
and power is now in the hands of Godly leaders of probity,
[Frank Mullen minor-league nobody]
character,
[Frank Mullen third-rate non-entity]
and integrity.

Not that I personally have anything to worry about.
[Frank Mullen oppose affirmative action AND oppose mollycoddling criminals AND oppose homosexual marriage]

 

I recently posted an article on communism and socialism and one of the recent visitors to this website left a comment in that post.

In response to one of Comrade Stalin’s flippant remarks in which he has to say

Our Peoples Health care will make sure you could see a doctor Free.
(Of course doctors will receive a Government salary set by me, so
can’t say about quality).

This is another argument I always see against communism and by extension, universal healthcare. However what these people fail to see is that all it would take to ensure quality healthcare for everyone in the USA (yes, that includes you, Bill Gates), is to just take maybe five or ten percent from the military budget. A few billion here and there and everyone can have a decent level of healthcare. And, quite frankly, I think healthcare should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford it.

And now I foresee people screaming at me “If we reduce the military funding we won’t be able to stop the axis of evil!” Bullshit. We already spend more money on the military than the rest of the planet combined, so a few billion ain’t really gonna make much of a difference. Shit, if we cut the military spending by half we could solve all of our domestic problems and most of the problems of the rest of the world. But no, the Navy has to have their new Super Carriers, the Airforce has to get it’s next squadron of F-22s, the Marines just can’t survive without their XM8s and XM-29s and gods forbid the Army has to give up it’s next batch of Abrams tanks and Apache helicopters! Why, without these things, we can’t fight the evil doers! Want to see how utterly fucked up the military budget is? Take a look here.

You honestly telling me that without a fraction of that we can’t fight the evil doers and ensure a standard of medical care? Are you fucking insane?

Never mind that the trillions of dollars we’ve spent on a pointless war could have funded a fucking transatlantic tunnel from New York to England. For the price of the Iraq war, we could have had fucking quality healthcare, funding for cancer research, planned parenthood, AIDS research, as well as being able to feed all the starving children. Yes, I’m going to throw out the christian fundamental belly-achin’ when they see something they don’t like “WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!?” Are these people really telling me that they would rather give the military bottomless funds in the exchange for the illusion of security (a huge advanced army didn’t stop some loons from flying themselves and civilians into those buildings, did it?) rather than give their kids the very real security of healthcare when they need it? When I see christian fundamentalists bitchin’ about homosexuality and sex in the media and start screaming WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN! yet remain silent when the proposal for universal medical care is shot down in congress I have to clench my teeth to keep from screaming at the ceiling because of these sexually repressed homophobes. According to these people, they’d rather let the children die of a preventable illness because they can’t afford the shot but god forbid these youngsters see a couple of dudes swapping saliva!

People say that universal medical care paid for by the government won’t be of the best quality, then tell me why fucking Cuba has a medical and education system that’s second to none? Why is it that most of the civilized world will provide healthcare to it’s citizens free of charge while the USA tells it’s citizens to go die in the gutter. Tell me why the USA has a oh-so-much better system than Cuba, the UK, Canada, etc, etc, etc. Tell me why it’s better to let insurance decide which life-saving treatments it will pay for but not others? Why is Viagra covered in insurance, but not abortion or heart transplants? Yeah, great system of ours. The best of quality in healthcare…but only if you can afford it, otherwise we just have to stabilize you, then boot you out and bill you $50 bucks for an aspirin.

Tell me all of that and tell me against why communism is so bad and capitalism is so great.

~ Damen

Senator John Kerry came out quickly with a response last night to George W. Bush’s plan to put the American military into a non-emergency law enforcement role within the United States, along the border with Mexico:

“This is a moment when the far right is horribly wrong and leadership is required to set a course for common sense. We need a comprehensive answer to immigration that includes tightening border security, but putting another burden on the backs of the National Guard troops who are serving their second tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t the right answer. The National Guard which has borne the burden of a broken policy in Iraq shouldn’t have to bear the burden of an incomplete immigration policy. The right answer is to listen to the 9/11 Commission and put the border patrol agents we need right there on the border. It won’t satisfy the right wing, but it’s the right policy.

That’s why I’m introducing a plan to put an additional 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents on the border next year, plus more than100 helicopters and 250 more power boats to secure our borders.

We know the problem and we know the solution. Rather than try and rescue his poll numbers, President Bush can rescue good immigration policy from the right wing that’s exploited it, and he can provide presidential leadership that’s humane, realistic and responsible.”

I’m not sure what to think of John Kerry’s critique and counterproposal. Not militarizing the border is a good idea. Bush’s use of the military within the United States for law enforcement purposes looks frighteningly like a shadow of martial law. But do we really need the additional 1,000 border patrol agents when they’re already having trouble recruiting? After all, there’s not much indication that there are more illegal immigrants now than there have been in recent years. This whole issue seems like an artificial crisis developed just in time for congressional elections this year.

So, what are we to make of John Kerry’s statement?

So, the big day came in here Oregon this week, and as usual, the institutional Democrats won the contest. Ted Kulongoski has been widely recognized as an ineffective governor, by Democrats and Republicans alike. Yet, what did the the Democratic Party establishment in Oregon do? They stood like stiff wooden planks right by Kulongoski, and used their resources to make sure that he got a victory in the primary on Tuesday.

That’s the way things go, I guess, but there is still one candidate in the race who has the ideals of progressives truly at heart. Joe Keating is running for Governor of Oregon as a member of the Pacific Green Party.

Joe Keating has real guts. He’s calling for Ted Kulongoski to recall the Oregon National Guard out of the Iraq War, and back home where it belongs. That takes real courage, so Joe Keating has my vote.

As for those establishment Democrats who tell me that my vote for Keating is a waste, I say screw them! Screw them! My freedom to choose how to cast my own vote for myself is never a waste.

You all probably know me, at least by name. I’m God and I’m going to borrow Damen’s account for a little while. I know this goes against my usual method of butting out of humanity’s business (after the New Testament, of course. I was a pissed off old bastard way back when) but fuck it, I’m God and I’ll do whatever the hell I want.

I just want to clear a few things up tonight. First off, I did not talk to Pat Robertson. He heard a voice in his head telling him that if he puts his fingers to his scalp and squints really hard he’ll look like a gypsy and get money. What do you know, but it worked. If I were going to tell anyone My plans for the human race, who in their right mind would think I’d tell a doofus like Pat Robertson?

Secondly, Pat Robertson is not one of my children. He sold his soul to Lucifer back when he was 14 to clear up his pimples and for a lay from Lilith. The devil cleared up the acne for an hour, but Lilith wouldn’t go near him. Someone tell me why I kicked her out of Eden again? That girl’s got brains and standards.

Now, for those of you who live in Virginia, I’m sorry I sent that hurricane your way. I was just getting really pissed at Patty and I kinda went Old Testament on his ass. Back in the day I could have got him with that hurricane or maybe a lightning bolt but I threw my arm out when at the Holy Baseball game. I tried to trick Chronus with a sliding curve and pulled a muscle. I’ve never been able to send My wrath exactly where I want it since then. And to make matters worse, Chronus ended up hitting the winning home run anyway.

Also, I wanted everyone to know that F.G. Fitzer was right and to look out for storks with their tongues hanging out of their beaks.

~ God

P.S. I am not infallible and I don’t have a personal hand in creating every human on earth. If I did, do you honestly think I would create George Bush?

Yesterday, the United States Senate joined the House of Representatives in voting for legislation that makes English the only official language of the United States of America, and authorizes the denial of government services to anyone, even American citizens, who do not speak English.

This is not just nationalism. It is hateful nationalism. It is nationalism fueled by ethnic-based hatred.

There is no real crisis in immigration. There is no real problem with people choosing what language they want to speak.

The real crisis is hatred. Our government is now encouraging a gigantic wave anti-Hispanic hatred. Watch out! When the truth about the war and about the programs to spy on us citizens gets too much for the government to handle, they come out with a new campaign of hate. Most Americans seem to be loving it.

Hispanics are the new scapegoats in George W. Bush’s War on Terror. We’re told to fear the Hispanics, to hate them for not surrendering their own culture to join ours, and so the Republicans, with some significant help from the Democrats, are now beginning to say that it is the Hispanics who are the real danger to America, and that if only it weren’t for the Hispanics here, speaking their dirty Spanish language, America could be great once again. So, they propose a series of measures to purge America of Hispanic influence, to make America ethically pure once again…

Does this not seem familiar to anybody here? Come on! The Hispanics are beginning to play the same role for our right wing government that the Jews played for the Nazis. The White House and Congress are making Hispanics the ethnic scapegoat, the group to blame for everything that goes wrong, and they must be purged, purged, purged…

We need to stop this anti-Hispanic campaign of hate!

America is descending into right wing nationalist fascism. Pay attention!

We have government spies used against us. We have the use of war as a political tool to create unity behind our leaders. We have the military being used within our borders for law enforcement. We have the special powers for corporations beloved in fascism. We have ethnic-based hatred, and the beginning of cultural purges. We have our own leaders telling us that we need to give up some of our freedoms for the sake of the Homeland.

Wake up, America! Can’t you see what’s happening?

This is history repeating itself. Don’t just watch it. Push back, damn it! Push back hard.

Do you ever think about cows? I do. Let’s see what cows can teach us about politics.

LIBERAL
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Instead of giving your neighbor one of your cows, you write to
your congressman, demanding that he pass legislation for more
government programs to help your neighbor get a cow.
You hold a concert to raise awareness for the cow-lessness.
Barbara Streisand sings for the cow-less, who couldn’t attend
because ticket prices are so expensive that only people with 3
or 4 cows can afford to attend. You wear a ribbon that signifies that
you care about cow-less people, even though you really haven’t done
anything to help them at all.

CONSERVATIVE
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
You cram four cows into the space for one and get more cows.
Cows get sick –hey, pump ‘em full of antibiotics and you save money.
Feed them ground-up sheep brains and you save more.
Fatten them fast on growth hormone, then butcher quick before they die.
Deny any link between sick consumers and your practices.
Hire spin artists to dismiss Mad Cow disease.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to
support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow,
which was a gift from your government.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other,
pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.