Back to reality

I've tried to stay away. I've fought the urge to rant - again, again, and then again. But it's just too much. If anyone does anything dumber than what the Israeli government just did, I'm going to explode.

Unless you've been hanging out in a parallel universe or something, you must know that I'm referrring to the strikes on Lebanon the last couple days. I think we can all agree that Israel is probably caught in the worst Catch-22 ever conceived of, and so much like a doctor caring for a terminally ill patient, their gameplan should be to simply manage the pain.

MASSIVE BOMBING OF ONE'S ISLAMIC NEIGHBOR DOES NOT ACCOMPLISH THIS!!
Especially, when you're surrounded by several Islamic nations. President Bush says Israel has a right to - wait a minute, he's now telling them to cool down - wait, what's that, now he's advocating occupying Syria because someone wrote graffiti on the town wall.

I have only one other ridiculous comment to ridicule and then I'm going to go and take a sanity test because everything would be so much easier if I can prove that I'm insane.

Alan Greenspan - very old, very experienced - soon to be very senile or the absolute grand master of propaganda it seems after his latest assessment that fuel prices have not had a profound effect on the economy thus far. Now I realize that government reports run at least 6 months behind reality (and that's just based on the publishing date, mind you), but how much of an ass do you need to be to actually believe such a statement let alone put it out there?!!

Apparently, the government really does believe in the No Child Left Behind Act - they really believe we're all that stupid!

Headlines for March 2006 - in a word - dangerous

Situation #1 - The Line Item Veto debate is back - again
George W. Bush is now pushing ever harder for the passage of a Presidential Line Item bill that will enable him to veto individual bill items on budgets. George Sr. tried to get it and he couldn't get it through Congress (thanks to a Dem. majority). Bill Clinton got it passed, but it was overturned by the Supreme Court. George W. is trying a slightly different approach to line item veto, but it still amounts to the Executive Branch wielding more influence over this crucial process that is entrusted to the House by the Constitution.

With the most recent appointments to the Supreme Court on board, this would probably be the best time for such a move. Personally, I find the timing curious to come up with the latest proposal. Think mid-term elections. If you figure the GOP sees it as possible that they could lose majorities in both houses of Congress, this measure would amount to damage control, allowing the President to effectively stale-mate the Democrats on budget measures for the remainder of his term.

In any case, passing line item veto in any form puts this country on shakier ground in terms of its overall integrity and ability to get the country's political business done.

Situation #2: The Re-birth of "Ma Bell"
Ready to go back to the pre-1978 days of telecommunications? Those days might be just around the corner if the merger between AT&T and Bell South is finalized and goes unchallenged. The company speculates that it may shed in upwards of 10,000 or more jobs after the merger is completed. What does this mean to us? If you think Customer Service at Verizon sucks, just wait. AT&T's service record would likely get worse after the merger. And prices? I don't think anyone really needs a refresher on the evils of monopolies. Given how telecom is a much further-reaching industry now than in 1978, the impact of this could be dire.

Situation #3: South Dakota - first non-abortion state since 1973 - for now
The Governor and State Assembly of South Dakota have now officially laid down the gauntlet on abortion rights. The law makes illegal any abortion except one that is required to save a mother's life. No doubt, the lawmakers there were just waiting for the appointment of Samuel Alito to launch this latest assault on abortion rights.

I don't plan to launch an abortion debate right here, but I simply want to underscore the importance of this scenario in what it tells us about the political climate of this country right now and the possibilties that exist. It is clear that at least one state feels that the landscape has changed enough that a now 30+ year old precedent now be challenged.

There are other dilemmas on the horizon, notably that the term "civil war" is increasingly being thrown around when talking about the Iraq War. Talk of the housing market nearing a crash is also reason for concern.

If you've never written your elected officials before, now might be a good time to start.

Sad But True: The Proposed 2007 U.S. Budget

Everyone who was perhaps wowed and maybe even got a little misty-eyed at the President's most recent State of the Union speech, read closely what I'm about the write.

The President of the this nation does not give a rat's ass about anything that doesn't have to do with furthering the interests of war mongers, oil tycoons, and HMOs. Period. End of statement.

If you read at all into the President's 2007 FY budget proposal, you should have already forgotten about anything written by the conservative pundits or event the skeptical scientists who were momentarily encouraged by vows by the President to pay more attention to moving us away from oil and all the other pie-in-the-sky bullshit. He didn't mean a single word of it and this proposal, which was well-outlined by the Washington Post today on their website, proves this.

Case in point - Within the text of the President's vow to ween us off of oil and focus on alternative energy sources, he cited that more funding will go to developing safer nuclear technology. Want to know what amounts to in tax dollars? A whopping $250 million, not billion, to go to a "global nuclear energy program". Wanna know how that compares to other ticket items in the budget?

DOD Research and Development allocation - $73.2 billion
DOD Weapon System allocation - $84.2 billion
Dept of State Education and Cultural programs (with emphasis on Muslim awareness) - $474 million

Now I'm all about cultural awareness and everything, but if you stood in front of me and said that you could actually develop better nuclear technology for half of what it costs to boost cultural awareness, I'd be olbliged to laugh and then tell you that you're full of shit.

Oh, by the way, out of the $440 billion that the DOD will get this year, the soldiers themselves will get an astounding 2.2 increase in pay. I think that's about on par with what my mother, who works in retail hardware said she was getting this year. Hoo-rah.

Veterans affairs is getting more money in repsonse to the embarrasing shortfalls that occurred this past year - in exchange, the vets get to pay double their current co-pay as well as an annual $250 prescription fee.

It gets better but I'm going to have to continue this later. I'm becoming ill.

Two Sides to Every Story: Say Hello to the Other Side

In recent weeks, I've found myself more and more drawn to reading more of the "inside" stories regarding things like 9/11 and the Iraq War. I've tried to stay away from doing this amount of reading to a greater extent for purposes of keeping up morale, but after being inspired (by what I can't remember at the moment) to re-visit a book called "The War on Freedom" about the 9/11 tragedy and the little-known facts behind the tragedy, I find myself compelled to no longer turn a partial deaf ear to the travesties that have been created and/or nurtured by the current Administration - quite frankly, the most corrupt, dishonest, and reprehensible one ever to run this country - bar none.

We all hear that there's two sides to every story and we all it's true. As of right now, I'm going to dedicate much of this blog to helping spread the side of the story we're not getting from the mass media.

To start, I'm going to post this excerpt from a blog site called "Baghdad Burning", which is maintained by an Iraqi living in Baghdad during these most troubled times. This excerpt is from November 25, 2005. The year's worth entries from this blog have actually been published as a book going by the same title.

In war, you think the unthinkable. You imagine the unimaginable. When you can’t get to sleep at night, your mind wanders to cover various possibilities. Trying to guess and determine the future of a war-torn nation is nearly impossible, so your mind focuses on the more tangible- friends… Near and distant relations. I think that during these last two and a half years, every single Iraqi inside of Iraq has considered the possibility of losing one or more people in the family.

I try to imagine losing the people I love most in the world- whether it’s the possibility of having them buried under the rubble… or the possibility of having them brutally murdered by extremists… or blown to bits by a car bomb… or abducted for ransom… or brutally shot at a checkpoint. All disturbing possibilities.I try to imagine what would happen to me, personally, should this occur. How long would it take for the need for revenge to settle in? How long would it take to be recruited by someone who looks for people who have nothing to lose? People who lost it all to one blow.

What I think the world doesn’t understand is that people don’t become suicide bombers because- like the world is told- they get seventy or however many virgins in paradise. People become suicide bombers because it is a vengeful end to a life no longer worth living- a life probably violently stripped of its humanity by a local terrorist- or a foreign soldier.I hate suicide bombers. I hate the way my heart beats chaotically every time I pass by a suspicious-looking car- and every car looks suspicious these days.

I hate the way Sunni mosques and Shia mosques are being targeted right and left. I hate seeing the bodies pile up in hospitals, teeth clenched in pain, wailing men and women…But I completely understand how people get there.One victim was holding his daughter. "The gunmen told the girl to move then shot the father," said a relative.

Would anyone be surprised if the abovementioned daughter grew up with a hate so vicious and a need for revenge so large, it dominated everything else in her life? Or three days ago when American and Iraqi troops fired at a family traveling from one city to another, killing five members of the family."They are all children. They are not terrorists," shouted one relative. "Look at the children," he said as a morgue official carried a small dead child into a refrigeration room.

Who needs Al-Qaeda to recruit 'terrorists' when you have Da’awa, SCIRI and an American occupation?

This is reality in Baghdad, Ladies and Gentlemen. More to come.

The new standard of the NY Times: Same as everyone else - Complete bullshit

I just finished an article from the New York Times regarding the affordability of housing across the country and I must confess that I am now very close to writing off this newspaper that I once thought rather highly of. It would seem that the Times has reduced itself to shoveling out the same kind of bullshit that most of us have come to expect from places like Fox News.

The article goes on to compare housing costs of today with those of 20 years ago when interest rates were among the highest in history and makes the claim that housing today is more affordable overall. In other words, they're still trying to perpetuate the over-inflated housing market that is being almost solely driven by continued low interest rates.

Now most b.s. stories rely on ommission or slanting of facts and figures to make their point, but what is interesting to point out in this case is that the article presents all the facts needed to come to the definitive conclusion that the writer is full of SHIT!!

For whomever is interested, here is a link to the article in question:
http://nytimes.com/2005/12/29/realestate/29afford.html?hp&ex=1135918800&en=915d811937ffbff1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Long story short, it points out that a particualr survey found that on average American families are devoting about 23% of the "family" income to paying their mortgages. This is cited as being better than the 30+% that was being devoted to the cause in the 80s. However, note the use of the term family income. We all know that the number of families that are dual and even triple income families has skyrocketed over the past 20 years. Keep this in mind for the next part.

The article later cites that the average salary has also risen on average by about 50%. This is where you should start scratching your head. If most families are, in fact, two income households, then that would mean that American families should have roughly 100% more income than they did in the 80s. I can buy that part. What stumps me is how those same families are only managing to divert a meager 7% or so more away from their mortgage payments.

Furthermore, the article points out that places like California, New York, and Washington are notable exceptions to the trend as skyrocketing prices there are consuming about half of family incomes and people there are making even more money!!!

Last but not least, this bonehead also has the nerve to claim that people are getting more house for their money these days because the houses they are buying are generally bigger than in past years. Boy, people really do have short memories. In the past generations, when you bought a house, you usually bought it along with this stuff we like to call land, and believe it not the land was what held the real value, and not the stupid house sitting on it.

As usual, I could go on for quite a while shooting holes in this blatant attempt to further the economy at the expense of poor young couples trying to get their lives started the right way and not neck deep in debt, but I think you all get the point.

The obvious message here is to mind what you read and if you have a subscription to the NY Times, CANCEL IT!!!

New York finally achieves it's own orbit!

New Yorkers (city and state) have long since been known for being on a slightly different wavelength than the rest of the planet, but recent events seem to indicate that they have indeed achieved an orbit entirely separate from the rest of us.

The most prominent of these events is the Transit Union Workers strike, which is now in it's second day. Here are a bunch of geniuses who think they're going to get more money out of a city that is going to lose millions this holiday season because them striking, thus prohibiting thousands of people from getting to their favorite shopping destinations. If a union wants to organize a strike, fine; but at least consider a few of the basic rules of economics before you do it.

Of course, we also have the New York Times fiasco that was discussed in the previous post - nothing more need be said on that.

They elected a woman as Senator (The dishonorable Ms. Clinton) who probably couldn't tell you what the various subway lines in the city are nor much else about the rest of the state. By the way, thanks for legitimizing her entry into the national political stage. She'll more than likely pave the way for another Republican administration unless Ross Perot decides it's time to run for President - again; then we're really in deep shit because she might actually win!

They keep going to overpriced ball games as George Steinbrenner is creating a payroll that should soon put ticket prices on par with airfare to most major U.S. cities.

After 4 years of bickering over designs, they still can't decide on how to build a new World Trade Center. Here's a suggestion - try a referendum before the 10 year mark comes and ground hasn't been broken yet. Hell, let Trump build his design if you have to. Just start building something up already before the 9/11 generation is too senile to appreciate it.

Earth to New York, Earth to New York, come in New York! We're losing you!

We Didn't Elect the NYT Editor

Despite being a semi-avid reader of the New York Times and long-time fan of its reporting style, I have to say that I am severely disappointed in the lack of proper judgement shown by its editor in running the story about eavesdropping being done by the NSA without a court order.

Whether the activity was right or wrong, constitutional or unconstitutional, it was part of activities that are directly assciated with national security and that makes reporting on those activities without consent of the government totally improper and illegal. As we speak, the Justice Department should be assessing whether this man can be brought up on charges of treason.

Now that sounds pretty intense to most people reading this, I'm sure. However , this is how it is. The Editor-in-Chief of the New York Times was not elected to his position by the people of this country nor was he appointed by anyone that was elected for the purpose of safeguarding this nation's security. Therefore, he did not possess the authority to make a decision that can directly affect our national security.

Once again, whether or not George W. Bush was doing the right thing in authorizing these wiretaps without a court order is not what I'm talking about here. This administration isn't the first to ask the press to play hush in certain instances and it won't be the last.This is about who has the authority to act on issues of national security.

Apparently, the Times waited for about a year before deciding to run this story, despite calls from the government not to run it when the information was first available; that in itself tells you that there was doubt as to whether this was the right thing to do.

This tells me that the Times was waiting for the right time to run the story, perhaps hoping that they might strike the decisive blow to any GOP hopes of holding onto the White House and Congressional majorities in 2008. If this is true, it makes the activity even more deplorable and more worthy of punishment.

Some people should be getting locked up over this, no doubt about it.