Sunday, August 29, 2004

Those Pesky Poverty Numbers

I'm watching Bush/FuckYourself campaign chairman Mark Rosicot getting his nuts licked gently by Sheep, er, Wolf, while the two of them discuss what a nifty convention the Republicans are about to have. When Blitzer asks Rosicot about 1.3 Million more Americans living in poverty since last year, the third year in a row that the number of Americans living in poverty has risen.

This is what makes me sick - Rosicot whistles it away with "It's a New Economy" (I don't know what that means... "a more fucked up economy since our boy stuck his fingers in it"... a buzzword I've heard repeated by Bush himself, "a new economy", but absolutely no sympathy for those Americans who fell below the poverty line. No, "our number one priority is helping these Americans get back on their feet", no "our biggest concern is that any American is living below the poverty line", just the newest Bushism and its entrance into the news shows.

Which should say to anybody that such cavalier disregard for Americans living below the poverty line is a reflection of the soul of the Republican Party. "Oh well, you've got to expect some casualties in THE NEW ECONOMY. There are no losers in THE NEW ECONOMY, just passive observers." Doesn't matter to them that Americans are poorer since Bush took office or that greater numbers of Americans are living in poverty, all that matters is how efficiently they can get the NEW ECONOMY meme onto the lips of their sops in the press.

I sincerely hope these soulless shitbags and their media cohorts find themselves, their children, their parents, etc. ALL living in poverty, I really do. If the Republican Party was forced to become the Donner Party, it would be their just desserts.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

A Little Anecdotal High Five

A bunch of people in town last week for a run up Pikes Peak and the "Art Walk". One of the downsides of being a Manitoid is dealing with the tourists; the upside, of course, is meeting people from all over.

I just happened to be out front, reading, when a couple of tourist's pulled up to park, a couple from Arizona. The guy happened to see my Kerry stickers and signs and commented how he had not seen a single Bush sticker in town.

"Yeah," I replied, "And you probably won't... not in this town, at least."

He laughed, "I ought to consider moving here."

He then went on to tell me that he was from a retirement community in Arizona and was one of four Democrats there... out of a few hundred residents. However, he did say that quite a few ("almost all" in his words) of the Republicans he's talked to are saying they won't be voting for Bush. Not supporting Kerry, mind you, but definitely not supporting Bush.

It's not the first time I've heard that. A lot of disaffected Republicans out there, it seems, pissed off about the war, the defecit, the tax cuts, the environment...

Shit's getting weird and I think it's a good weird.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Olympic fever? Well, yeah, maybe it’s a good excuse for me not writing lately but it’s not why I’m HOT. I mean I'm steaming. Pissed off like hell.

Attribute my boiling to the gravity given to the Swift Boat Smeer Team, even the half-assed sort-of dismissal of their claims on Page One (8/20/04) of the NYT, the back and forth yammering of CNN knuckleheads saying essentially NOTHING, like a bunch of sugar-buzzed brats, "they're liars." "uh UH....", uh HUH..., ad non compos mentis (I think it's that, anyway). A seeming yeahsuhwhat," but it wears an ugly face. Pull off a klansman's mask for the same effect. See?

I don't know how many of the SBST are African-American (my quick guess is ZERO) but I do know that the publisher of their book is all about racial purity while the co-author of the book is a notorious bigot. It's all there in, err hmmm, black and white, these nitwits have even identified themselves as racists - with no apology.

Meanwhile, everything I've seen (and it's a substantial amount) that counters these goons goes to their credibility. Contradictory stories, he-said-he-said accounts, "Uh, well, I didn't really mean to say THAT" horseshit and the pesky government records that keeps blowing this third-grade lie. All fine and good as it makes for entertaining news channel chatter but what about the credibility of racist, redneck sacks of crap?

Really, when someone identifies themselves as a racist in this day and age, in these United States of America, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, religious or non-religious, the "crackpot" alarm goes off. Uncle Roy into his second six-pack at Thanksgiving, the smelly guy on the bus, the nail technician on her sixteenth psychiatrist, the crank who sicced his pitbull on the Hersch's Lhasa Apso - freaks.

I may gripe about America but I have to say, for the most part, it's a pretty enlightened society. For the most part, the American people know a klansman's hood covers a pointy head and scant brain. So, if it was all put together on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Christ, even the Times, just connect the goddamn dots and SAY IT... and I know, I KNOW the American people will see these clowns for the icky neanderthals they are.

To facilitate this, I've provided the media this simple little equation:

Let B equal the number of Black guys signed on as members of Slime Vote Veterans.

Let A represent the implications of a "Whites Only" dating website (publisher William Regnery's next little project).

If B is less than A, add M (which is the number of racist comments attributed to Jerry Corsi, co-author of Slime Vote Veterans book).

For extra credit: Add in wingnut Michelle Malkin's high praise of the book along with her tiresome caw of "...why internment and 'profiling' in wartime make sense" and let that coefficient equal !.

No matter how I add it up, it comes out to BAM! A single shot to the mangy cur's skull and it's all over. If anyone thought the Swift Boat Vets were even remotely believable, the unmistakable mark of racism should - SHOULD - convince the American public that it's time to put this dog down.

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Another reason I haven't been posting much is that I've been seeing someone in Denver and having the time of life. She took me to go see The Cure and if you want to see my review of the show, go here for all of that.

Saturday, August 07, 2004

Synoptic Gospel

Vacation? Nah, nothing to write about. I wasn’t too inspired by the convention and the rest of the news has been nitpicky. I’m just going to indulge in synopses and work on my other blogs…

Terror Alert? To me, that’s a win-win situation for Bush. If nothing happens he can take credit for putting out the alert and preventing potential disaster. If something does happen the rethuglicans will use it as a reason why we need our war time preznit to hold the helm. Look folks, Amurkins are motivated by fear and Dubya’s got us by the balls on that account.

Swift Boat Veterans For the Truth? Sure dudes, I’m going to believe your Fred Flintstone asses. First of all, all the guys who actually served with Kerry on that boat are the ones telling the story, for the most part, NOT Kerry. So you’re calling THEM lairs but you’re too chickenshit to say THAT. And for that, I call you chickenshits. Cowards. Liars.

Secondly, Kerry got THREE Purple Hearts and you’re saying he lied about one of them? I mean really, why lie for one of them when you have two others? “Well, he really wanted that first one” doesn’t fly; earning the other two honestly shows he had the cajones and didn’t need to lie about the first one. And thirdly, a couple of the so-called Swift Boat Veterans have equivocated statements in the ads – I mean they can’t even get their own little bullshit story straight! To Mister and Missus Halfabrain Amurka, this still looks like a Right Wing smear job.

Bad economic news? Only 32,000 jobs created, substantially less than the 243,000 that were projected. Of course, Dubya spun it “…the economy has responded to tax cuts and is still growing,” My hunch is (and seems to be backed up by these numbers) that the tax cuts have given rich folk plenty of time to vacation this summer and they’re dropping a wad on snow globes. Unfortunately, they have yet to substantially turn that tax dividend into new jobs or capital investment.

Sadder still is the Bushy response to the news. First Talking Point was BLAME CLINTON… “we were handed this recession by that bad, evil man.” Actually, fuckwits,
the 2000 economy was strong until the end of the fourth quarter and… well, I don’t know if there’s any way to prove this but could the US have been responding to a stolen election? Could consumer and business confidence have been shaken by the fact that their country had suddenly become Nazi Germany? Just asking… but it seems pretty infantile that this administration time and again indulges in finger pointing rather than taking responsibility for its fuck ups.

And the finger pointing persists as the second Talking Point is BLAME 9/11 and begging the question, didn’t 9/11 happen on Bush’s watch? And didn’t Bush ignore the warnings that were handed to him? Do the Democrats not see the opportunity here to bring up the obvious, the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission’s report, the reams of reports from other sources showing that Bu$hCo was asleep at the switch… so there’s no use in blaming 9/11?

To rip off The Daily Show, I’m ending this post with a “Moment of Zen”, Bush doing his usual Bush-speak gig at the signing ceremony for a $417 billion defense spending bill.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."