DEBT BUBBLE IS READY TO BURST

In case you haven't noticed, one of the things the Bush administration does is lie a lot. We all know by now that Iraq was and is a lie. And good people die not in service to their country, but in service to that lie. But what most Americans don't understand is that the lies told about our economy may ultimately be even more painful.

Anyone with a pulse and a hint of respiration knows that the government's Consumer Price Index is a monthly lie. If you're one of those kinds of people who have to engage in such frivilous endeavors as eating, driving, heating your home, educating your children or seeking out healthcare --- in other words, anything you really need in this world --- then you know such neccessities have been going through the roof.. And yet miraculously the CPI indicates that inflation is very much under control.

Why do they lie about the CPI? Because to tell the truth about inflation would cause a catastrophic chain of events that would start off by spooking the bond market which in turn would crash the housing market which in turn would tank the stock market and the U.S. dollar which in turn would crush the economy. But far more sinister is the fact that the government has to pay a cost of living increase each year to anyone receiving Social Security. That increase is tied directly to the year-over-year CPI. Enough said about that. It's a plain old fashioned disgrace.

So how do they get away with it? Because politicians and journalists are, for the most part, deaf, dumb and blind about economics. And since journalists have become the public relations arm of the Federal Government, all the Bushies have to do is feed them the seed in the form of monthly reports on the economy,
and these investigative detective writers obediently regurgitate them on to the written page without ever questioning their veracity.

And so Americans are told that we are living through a "Goldilocks economy" when in truth we are on the precipice of an unprecedented debt bubble that will burst at any time.

08/19/2005

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM?

Wait a minute! Someone high up in the Bush administration commits a felony (in the name of revenge) by using the press as a public relations arm of the Executive branch of government, and we're only concerned about journalists being able to protect their sources?

The lives of Valerie Plame and her associate undercover agents were placed in great danger. Why hasn't the press gone after the story in the Woodward and Bernstein tradition instead of whining about their rights of protection.

Talk about a conflict of interest. The law is clear on this issue: the journalists cannot protect their sources when those sources are committing a felony which goes by the name of "treason." It makes them assessories to the crime. And as for Novak, he belongs in one of those stylish orange suits.

Come on, you guys, stop being used by the Bushies, and start doing some good old fashioned investigative journalism.

07/07/2005

ONE GROUP IS SHOPPING WHILE THE OTHER IS DROPPING

Acting in total secrecy the Bush administration tells the press what it wants to print and keeps the rest to itself on the familiar grounds of "national security." The mainstream press, now mostly owned by Corporate America, has become nothing more than the public relations arm of the Executive branch of government.

The American people are not even in the game. The "haves" are too busy satisfying their material lust to even notice that the Country has slipped into a savage political and economic bear market. The "have nots" are too exhasted from working two or three jobs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. And the gap between the two ever widens.

So if you're wondering why no one is out on the streets demonstrating as our country loses its good jobs and goes ever deeper into debt, you need only understand that one group is shopping while the other is "dropping."

06/21/2005

THE BUSH MAN HAS SOLD US DOWN THE RIVER

Has the Bush administration got you properly worried about terrorism? Well, if you really want something to worry about when it comes to terrorism, look no further than to Nature. Possibly coming at us is an avian flu pandemic potentially capable of killing tens or even hundreds of millions of people on the planet including, for example, you and me. So far this disease has been 50-70% fatal to those who have contracted it.

Certainly, you say, the drug companies are competing with each other to come up with a vaccine to protect us against such a formidable calamity. But you would be wrong. Apparently, there is not sufficient profit in producing flu vaccines. They're just not particularly interested.

Well, then, the Federal Government, whose only reason for existence is to protect the citizenry, will come to our defense. Wrong again. Read this Executive Order signed by our compassionate Conservative president:

Executive Order: Amendment to E.O. 13295 Relating to Certain Influenza Viruses and Quarantinable Communicable Diseases

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 361 (b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264 (b), it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Based upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Surgeon General, and for the purpose set forth in section 1of Executive Order
13295 of April 4, 2003, section 1 of such order is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "(c) Influenza caused by novel or reemergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic."

Sec. 2. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

April 1, 2005

So you see, when it comes to the mother of all terrorism, Mother Nature, the Bush man has sold us all down the river.

11/05/2005

YOU CANNOT UNDERESTIMATE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

The re-election of "W" proves beyond doubt that you cannot underestimate the American people. You can try, but they'll always come in under estimate. No matter how vivid your imagination or how pervasive your pessimism, they still manage to do you one worse. But this time don't blame Bush; point your finger directly at the American electorate. They're not exactly getting blindsided, you know. Instead, they're going to get precisely what they deserve.

And so the long American nightmare continues, indeed intensifies. I would imagine that our border with Canada will be a lot busier with Americans seeking political asylum than it will be with terrorists coming South. As the memorable sign said along the parade route of the first Bush inaugeration: "GOD HELP US."

11/03/04

THE CONSERVATIVE LINE-UP

Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the

starting line-ups for today's game.

For the Conservatives:

Leading off and playing 2nd base,

No. 33, RACIST BIGOT

Batting 2nd and playing short stop,

No. 24, RELIGIOUS BIGOT

Batting 3rd and playing right field,

No. 7, NEO NAZI

Hitting in the "clean up" spot and (reluctantly)

playing left field, No. 19, BOOK BURNER

Batting 5th and playing first base,

No. 3, MILITARY HAWK

Batting 6th and playing right center field,

No. 32, MISGUIDED PATRIOT

Batting 7th and catching, No. 12,

CORPORATE CRIMMINAL

Batting 8th and playing short stop,

No. 2, INDUSTRY REGULATOR

And pitching today's game for the Conservatives,

No. 29, STATUS QUO

The Conservative line-up is, of course, a reflection of the establishment itself. Wherever money, power, or status is to be protected, there is an individual, organization, or institution on hand to see that it is. So pervasive are these guarantors of the status quo that they form a network across all of American society that defends the "haves" from the "have nots." This Conservative infrastructure reads like a "who's who" of the power elite. While the list that follows is incomplete, it serves to illustrate the scope and magnitude of the Conservative juggernaut on American life that is rigidly in place to safeguard the system from change.

Calvin Cooledge got it right when he said: "The business of America is business." It is that simple. Big Business dictates the domestic and foreign policy of this nation---with a little help from its friends in the Federal Government. The corporate agenda is America's agenda.

Congress is the great enabler. On the take at all times, Congress is bought and paid for by Corporate America. Instead of representing the American People who elected it to do the People’s business, instead Congress is in the hip pockets of the special interests who bribe them to do their business.

The Executive branch of government, whether its leader, the president, is Republican or Democrat, also leans far to the Right. The Department of Justice, including the FBI, is far more interested in prosecuting pot-smoking teen agers than going after corporate crime. The CIA will take part in all sorts of assassination plots against Left-Wing dictators while giving Right-Wing despots a free pass.

The so-called “regulators” i.e. the Security & Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Drug Administration, The Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission etc. were created to regulate their respective industries in order to protect the American people. Instead, they do the exact opposite: protecting the industries they’re supposed to be regulating at the expense of the citizenry.

The IRS and its absurdly complex Code is filled with hundreds of pages of loopholes for corporations and rich individuals.

Even the Judiciary branch of government, the Supreme Court, which for most of American history, was guided in its rulings by the Constitution, now decides cases based on each judge’s political leanings. Here again, the Conservative judges currently have the edge and seem to be running the show.

I could go on, but you get the point. We live in a Conservative country, and the private and public authoritarians aim to keep it that way.

08/28/1986

THE CONSERVATIVE MENTALITY


What goes wrong in the human species
to produce such a disappointing finished
product? Is it a virus? A mutation? A
learning disability? Or is there an actual
"Conservative gene" that is passed on to
the unsuspecting baby?

Conservatives share certain beliefs and attitudes that when taken together form a mindset or mentality that is both revealing and depressing. To begin with, Conservatives believe in the concept of self interest. Everyone should be allowed to follow his or her own selfish pursuits free from all interference and regulation. Those persons who disagree with this narrow, egotistical approach to life, who express a concern with those less fortunate than themselves, or place a value on the public interest or the common good are labeled as "do gooders" and dismissed as "bleeding hearts."

Conservatives are pragmatists. They do whatever is deemed necessary to achieve their self-serving goals. The end always justifies the means. After all, they reason, this is a survival-of-the-fittest world, and, although they don't believe in Darwin's Theory of Evolution, it sure comes in handy when they're out there screwing their neighbors to get ahead. Winning is what it's all about, and there's always church on Sunday to make everything all right.

Conservatives are "bottom-line" men (and women) who believe in profit as an inalienable right, and they pursue it with a vigorous buyer beware philosophy. They operate within a conveniently short time horizon. "Get what you can now," they proudly exclaim, "and let the children pay the taxes on our greed and clean up what's left of the earth."

Conservatives and their institutions are passionate on the subject of government intervention. They cry out for deregulation, indeed self regulation. "What we don't need," they declare, "is government on our backs".....................until they get into trouble at which time they plead for the government to bail them out. After all, Corporate Welfare is OK; just don't give any aid to people. In fact, place government squarely on the backs of human beings in the most personal and private areas of their lives.

Conservatives will always support right wing military dictatorships that suppress and murder their own citizens until the situation becomes overwhelmingly and unavoidably embarrassing. Even a "death squad" is preferable to social reform. After all, you can do business with a Nazi. But let that dictatorship be of Communist or Socialist origin, then, all of a sudden, the same tyranny represents the embodiment of evil in the world.

In the Conservative Hierarchy of Fear the Marxist doctrine of sharing the wealth has gone unchallenged as the threat most capable of capturing the Right Wing's imagination. Add to that the religious element---the godless, atheistic, heart-of-darkness, satanic "Evil Empire"---and you have the stuff of madness. This pathological obsession with Communism has extended through the most advanced stages of psychotic paranoia. In the Conservative Mind, set so rigid and stiff in its ideological cement, there is only one thing worse than a Communist---and that is an American Liberal.

Conservatives are big spenders---every bit as big as liberals---only they have different priorities. They prefer to disburse the taxpayers' money overseas where it does Americans no good. By steering clear of any discernable domestic policy, they can employ their doctrine of weapons over people while keeping the under dogs down at home.

Conservatives routinely cut nutritional programs for the poor while bailing out the banks and S&L's. They're big on Law and Order but soft on corporate crime. They prefer management over labor, legality and religion over morality. They are horrified by media sex but media violence is just fine. And alcohol and tobacco are perfectly OK ("buyer beware," after all), but let's prosecute the hell out of those degenerate "Pinkos" who smoke pot. (We've got the law on our side).

Conservatives rely on shallow, empty gestures and simplistic, spoon-fed cliches to solve the world's complex problems. They employ illusion, appearance, "blue smoke and mirrors," "spinsmanship," and a never-ending filibuster of polyanna dribble to deflect genuine public concerns. Everything is always "coming up roses"---and lollypops---and jelly beans---and balloons. Those citizens who demand more substance and content to political debate are called "negative thinkers" and "doom and gloomers."

Conservatives can look the camera right in the eye and lie---and later call it an "error in judgment." They are forever wrapping themselves in the American Flag and hiding behind "National Security." They believe in censorship. And they spend a lot of time....saluting.

Conservatives view with suspicion and hatred anyone who does not share their philosophy, and they malign those who threaten the status quo. One of their primary tactics is to utilize a "divide and conquer" campaign of fear and prejudice in order to polarize the American People.

This, then, is a peek at the Conservative Mentality, and, as you can see, it is not a pretty picture.

08/05/1986