I Fought The Law And The Law Won

Good news! Apparently the state of Arizona, which can't afford to help poor people desperately in need of life saving organ transplants, and has never adequately funded it education system, can afford to build another new for-profit prison. Even though there is already sufficient capacity at existing prisons. And even though all 5 of the companies likely to bid for the contract to build the new prison have checkered records. (In this case "checkered" means an unusually high number of escapes, insufficient medical staff, unexplained deaths, or all of the above.)

The budget for the Arizona Department of Corrections is just over one billion dollars. It was one of the few departments that didn't face any cuts during the last round of budget talks. In fact, its funding was increased. Thank God we have our priorities straight.

Coincidentally, the for profit prison industry was very supportive of SB1070--probably because they reportedly helped write it. And two of Jan Brewer's closest advisers used to be lobbyists for one of the largest private prison concerns. Of course this has no influence on any of her decisions.

Jan only wants what's best for the people of Arizona. And more empty prison beds managed by incompetents is what's best for us.

News Of The World

This is how bad the cell phone hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's English newspaper, News of the World, must be: he shut the paper down. No, "oh we're sorry and we promise not to do it again" bullshit mea culpa.

He shut the paper down. The biggest selling paper in the UK, gone. Now, the paper itself is 99% crap, like all Murdoch enterprises. So we're not losing anything substantive. But this guy is one of the primo capitalist pigs of our time, wallowing around in any money pit that will have him. And yet he told his kid to pull the plug, just like that.

This must mean that the scandal is so ugly, and so deep, that old Rupe thinks he need extreme damage control right now. Because if it bleeds over into his TV deals, he'll take a real hit financially. Not just in the UK, but in the US, and maybe even China too. And the money and power are all that really matter to Murdoch. Certainly not the journalist's search for the truth. The nightly orgy of lies that is Fox News is all the proof you need of that.

I would like to hope that this is the beginning of the end for this shameless piece of Aussie scum, but I'm not holding my breath. He has billions of dollars, pound, euros--whatever, to buy his way out of most anything. And apparently lots of boot lickers willing to fall on their swords for him. However, it is nice to think that maybe the old pirate is losing a little sleep right now.

Deja Vu all over again

In 1937, the U.S. was making progress in its recovery from the Great Depression. F.D.R. had just been re-elected and it looked as though things would be getting much better in the future, both short- and long-term. Roosevelt then made what many saw as the biggest mistake of his Presidency, a mistake that almost became fatal to the recovery -- he began to listen to advisers who urged him that appeasing his Republican opponents by balancing the budget was now necessary since the economy was making strides in recovery. Roosevelt and the Democrats proceeded to cut spending while ignoring the revenue side of the equation, just as is being insisted upon by the Republicans today. What happened? The economy didn't just stumble -- the recovery stopped dead in its tracks, did an about-face and began to decline again. Keynesian economists blamed the recession on the decline in government spending while Republicans and big business claimed the recession was the result of union power and attacks on big business. Sound familiar?

Forward 74 years. The U.S. economy is beginning a slow recovery from the worst recession seen since the beginning of the Great Depression. Unemployment is seeing no improvement, although profits are at record-setting levels for business. Income inequality and the gap between rich and poor is the greatest since the Depression. So what is being proposed as the solution to our nation's economic woes? You're right -- cut spending without looking at the revenue side. If you have listened to President Obama's speeches over the last week or so, you would think he had brought Eric Cantor's economic adviser (that may be an oxymoron) onto his team.

Paul Krugman explains all of the better than I possibly can in yesterday's New York Times. I urge you all to read this, think about it, and post your thoughts.

American 235 years later

I've been thinking a lot the last few days about what America really is -- is this the nation where all men are created equal and every person can achieve his or her dreams if they really try, or is this a nation that the founders not only couldn't have envisioned, but in fact would be repulsed if they saw it now? I do know that we are not one America, but rather two or more -- divided by race, class, economics, etc. So I've decided to post a few videos that I feel have a great deal of relevance today. Some are several years old, some are more recent, but they all speak to me now about the state of this once-great nation -- which I fear is heading down the road towards an oligarchy at best and fascism at worst. So I leave you with these songs and I sincerely hope that any of you that read my meager inadequate words from time to time will please comment with your thoughts. Maybe someone out there can help pull me out of this slough of despond...

Wishful Thinking

The next time President Obama addresses the nation, I hope it goes something like this:

Good evening. Put down the remote control--I'm on all of the channels. I come before you tonight to announce a new policy. I call it "No More Mr. Nice Guy." For the past 2 plus years I've tried to deal with the Republicans in Congress. It is my nature to be conciliatory and to seek compromise. And for the past 2 plus years my efforts have been met with indifference at best and with outright lies and obstruction at worst.

My policies have been distorted into "death panels for Granny" and "Kenyan anti-colonial Socialism." My patriotism and even my right to hold office have been questioned ad nauseum. None of this foolishness has done the country any good. I now realize that the Republican's only goal is to destroy me at any cost. And if that means ruining our nation in the process, so be it.

My fellow Americans I am not going to let that happen.

From now until the 2012 election, and hopefully beyond, I will do everything in my power as your President to restore America's manufacturing base, expand our healthcare system so it truly covers all Americans while controlling costs, limit the rapacious nature of Wall Street while finally punishing those responsible for the 2008 meltdown, return to the tax rates of the Clinton years, reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, expand our renewable energy programs, cut the defense budget by at least 25%, and continue our withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan while increasing our pursuit and destruction of al-Qaeda cells wherever they may be. These goals are all within our reach if we remain determined to achieve them.

If the leaders of the Republican Party care to debate these issues honestly, I welcome it. But there is no time for the childish nonsense they've engaged in since I was elected. The American people deserve an opposition party that has new ideas-- not slanderous accusations.

Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

The Classics

More than 400 years ago Shakespeare summed up the current Republican Party in just a few lines from Richard III:

"I do the wrong, and first begin the brawl.
The secret mischief that I set abroach
I lay unto the grievous charge of others....

But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil;
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ,
And seem a saint when most I play the devil."

Cat Shit Fever

NEWSFLASH!!!

Ted Nugent has offered Michele Bachmann 2 songs for her Presidential campaign. Nugent, who never had any relevance as a creative artist, was briefly popular in the late 1970's, just like the Pet Rock, with which he shares some DNA. He is best known these days as a loud mouthed, gun waving idiot. This should appeal to Bachmann's base, which is comprised completely of idiots, some armed, some not.

The songs in question are the Nugent "classics" "I'm a gun luvin' jerk--how 'bout you?" and "Why don't we get drunk and shoot each other?"