Bush lowers minimum contract wage for Hurricane reconstruction

Maybe some politicians should don toxic waste suits and brush Bush's precious crude oil from the 3 million gallons of spilled crude in N.O. area (1/3 of Exxon Valdez's amount, fyi) off riverfowl and he might get a notion of just how messed up his ideas about economics, labor, and environment are.

No thank you!

-Ghoti

All I can hope for at this point is that enough Americans will wake up and ask themselves why the hell Bush hasn't had impeachment proceding started against even now. (He's given ample offenses worth of impeachment for years now.)

Why was it so easy to start impeachment procedings against Clinton for a stupid blow-job, yet this administration has gotten away with soooooooo many egregious offenses against human rights, sovereign nations, and its own populace?

Is it just too late for Americans to relearn the lessons of history?

Meanwhile, me and mine continue to research other countries that might offer a better environment in which to live. Things will get uglier before they get better, if ever.

For the same reason violence on TV is acceptable and encouraged (I saw real dead bodies on Oprah the other day), but sex is taboo.

I imagine there are political reasons as well- the power structures were beginning to shift more Right and the up-and-comers were grasping at any straw to expedite the process, we were bored and didn't have a scandal, we didn't have any wars to distract us from our domestic problems (already pointed out by Hermann Goering). I'm sure there are all kinds of reason, but I'm going to settle on blaming Protestantism because it's easy and I live on the coast.

I think to rebuild what Katrina destroyed, all they would have to do is open the gates from mexico and it'll be built VERY cheap in about 6 weeks!

Write your Congressional representatives.

Sad to say it seems so...



Let me know where you decide to go (that W. can't invade or slap around).



Writing to a con rep is like transplanting a healthy organ into a diseased body; what's the point if the whole system is infected?

All the soccer moms and NASCAR dads are hiding with their guns and their sights on anything brown that moves. This country is trashed, the two party system is a joke, the same corporations donate to both parties. No matter what Halliburton wins.

It is a shame for all of us with ancestors that fought for the freedom (and died for it) that we are gladly handing over because all the rich fat cat white far right Christians ARE SCARED SHITLESS.

The same big bad brave gun totin' patriots are so scared they would rather trade everything this country supposedly stands for to be protected.

Or could it be us fat, lazy, unproductive, debt ridden under achievers in the US would trade the reality of tyranny for the illusion of our stuff? Max my credit cards, offshore my job, feed me my McFood, cart my bloated ass around in the biggest truck I can find, turn on the tube and let me proclaim "I AM MY KHAKIS!!!!!

Given the choice between true freedom or an SUV or the latest reality show, which do you think would win?

OMG – I thought that my beliefs along this line were because I was old and jaded, to see someone else actually write similar thoughts down makes me afraid that it's possible that there are more truths in them than picturesque exaggerations.

You know the problem with Germany in 1933 - is that every one who thought they were a "Good German". BELIEVED THAT WAS A GOOD THING TO BE.

First, critical thinking becomes "unpatriotic", then it becomes "immoral", then it becomes "expensive" and last but not least my friends, it will become criminal.

If you don't think we are there yet, test it.

Express a something critical of main stream thought in a public way and watch what happens. Does it get you thrown off a plane, out of a mall or out of a public park? It has others. Does it get you sued? Does the FBI or Secret Service show up at your front door?

I can post countless links showing where that has happened to others who have expressed critical thought.

After seeing the terrible fiasco in New Orleans and hearing the recent threat of our federal government to overturn Posse Comitatus for the Avian Bird Flu, I can't help but feel a little suspicious of the guys we elected to Washington.

Maybe we should stop being such "Good Americans".

Rose,
I am soooo sad to say you are 100% correct. I have had my own brush with the feds over use of "protected speech". Be afraid. I am sad.

God bless us all. The last 2 days of subway threats, Rolling Stones bombs, and coke cans should illustrate how to keep people afraid. Keep your duct tape and plastic handy. Dick (head) Cheney warned this will be a multi generation war. The news marks this all down very carefully for their 30 second blurb between breaking Danny Bonanduche and the Apprentice. So people hoist their asses up, look out their windows and report their neighbors for imagined offences against the country.

Orwell meant to write a warning, instead he has written a blueprint =(

If you have an hour to spare, I suggest you watch Part 3 of this BBC documentary done last year called The Power of Nightmares: The Shadows In The Cave



Former Vice President Al Gore gave a Speech this week illustrating some problems with the current media.





If it seems familiar, it is because you HAVE heard this tune played before...

In the case of the H5N1 virus (should/when it acquires easy human to human transmissability), the armed forces are the only organization large enough to enforce quarantines in cities as large as New York or Los Angeles (and quarantine should be something to seriously consider if the virus retains its current mortality rate). It is very unfortunate and ironic that such force will be necessary considering the deeply divided and mutually suspicious political climate in the U.S. If it was a different era and half the country didn't think that the government was being run by opportunists, then this potential use of force wouldn't be as big a deal. But in the current climate, I can only imagine that if the government does have to quarantine cities by force, then the half of the country that is already deeply suspicious of our government will think that the opportunists are making another power play using a national crisis for their own agenda. ...And then very bad things could happen. ...And the irony will be that the violation of our rights will be completely warranted in order to minimize infection rates (as opposed to other uses of power by this administration that are dubious at best).

The grim upside to the virus acquiring human-human transmissability will be that property prices and rent will drop as demand for housing declines. :\

In the case of the dreaded flu pandemic we are being threatened with, I would just like to point on the last week or so in the news as some kinda perspective, in order of thier appearence.

this story is older than a week, but i think it is VERY important to the narrative of the "big picture"
President Bush's Summer Reading List: "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" by John M. Barry

Bush wants right to use military if bird flu hits


Killer flu of 1918 caused by bird virus

Security fears as flu virus that killed 50 million is recreated

Plane Carrying Viruses Crashes in Canada

Quarantine call after Romania detects first bird flu cases


Remember that old game connect the dots?

Does anyone remember that old classic song, "Good Old Shoe"?

Maybe we can "find" an old tune called "Good Old Flu"

Man, "Wag the Dog" was an amazing movie, I am truly amazed it was not censored...

btw Chance, your analysis was very good on the quandry our political climate has left us in, however, this presupposes Bush is not up to no good and acting in the best intrest of the many, the latter he has yet to prove after 5 years on the job

*spews cookies*