A Dark, Dark Day

Today was of deep historical signifigance, our nation is the closest it has ever been to truly falling into the depths of fascism. I keep trying to escape with banal, mindless braincandy but it keeps coming back, as do the tears.

We are one step closer to forgoing our constitution and descending into totalitarianism. The highest court in our land has tipped. Not to the right, not to the republicans but to something entirely different - irrelevance. The same place our congress and senate seem to want to go. We are set back by a generation at least - we may never recover.

I hear talk of this culmimnation of a thirty year agenda. This is more like a 230+ year agenda of men who wanted our country to be founded differently than it was. These men want a government that believes the corporate is the absolute, they believe the president is the representative of the corporate, they believe that everything and everyone else is beholden to that. People are meaningless - money and power carry the only relevence.
J. Edgar Hoover and Joe Macarthy couldn't even dream of this day. The darkest day in our nations short history. I weep for what we have lost.

I hate it when this happens.

I just finished a very long post about my take on the war on terror and our national security. I went to post it and it turns out blogger was down. I lost the second half of it as it hadn't been saved in a while. I will take a little tiem to re-write the whole thing but I will post the first part of it. Also spell check is not working right now, sorry.

All right let's talk terror. . .P. 1

I can not and will not speak for the democratic party and their plans. I will say catagoricly that the republicans have not, just to be clear, not made us safer. They are not protecting us any better than they were before we were attacked by terrorists from the middle east. Nor do most Americans believe that they are. I can not honestly say that the democrats have a plan that will make us safer but it seems to me that it is far more likely they will do a better job than the current regime. They could do the country a great service by reforming campaign financing by pushing for publicly funded campaigns thus leveling the playing field so we can get real people who actualy care about America and Americans to represent us.

We need a change now more than ever. The current regime is so corrupt that they have weakened our military, refused to outfit our soldiers on the ground, give our boys sewer water for bathing and coffee and now want to invade Iran. Our military is broken and continues to be broken by mismanagement and privatization yet we even think about stretching it even thinner? Give our boys the supplies and armour that they need to stay alive and they might actualy meet recruitment goals.

And bush himself has talked about his feelings on the infamous Osama bin Laden; "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02
"I am truly not that concerned about him."- G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts, 3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02) This is not the attitude of people who really care about the safety of Americans from terrorists. Or we can look at his view of the constitution; “I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”
“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!” (Capital Hill Blue December 11, 2005) This is not the attitude of someone who has America's best interest and safety in mind.

Now I could go on and on about how the republican'ts are not keeping us safe but that would not aproach the issue of how we can make America safer. I will leave the disclaimer that I do not speak for any democrats that I know of - they just seem to me to be a more likely group to implement the policies necessary to make us safer.

The disconnect of the democratic party

I was listening to Randy Rhodes yesterday when she talked to Howard Dean. It was frightening to me that she ended up educating the chairman of the democratic national committee. It was quite obvious that he could care less about issues that not only concern the base of the democratic party and independent lefties like myself but issues that concern both traditional conservatives and centrist conservatives. Issues that out-weigh other issues that would generally cause them to vote republican.

The democrats seem to be stuck on republican light and it is going to be the death of the democratic party if they don't wake up and realize that the majority of Americans are ready to talk about taboo issues like some form of nationalized health care, clean air and water, meaningful social reform and, the biggest, campaign finance reform.

I think that one of the fears many democrats have is that real campaign finance reform would lead to the death or at least a decrease in the relevance of the democratic party. While this is true they need to realize that there is a large place for individuals in both republicratic parties of integrity to help lead a fresh system that more accurately represents the will of the people of this great nation. I fear that greed and corruption are so rampant in the halls of capital hill that both parties would rather drive this country into the ground than abdicate this destructive system to one that could lead America back to the forefront of the global community, stepping forward to lead the world into the twenty-first century and beyond. Instead it seems that no one will heed the call of millions of Americans crying out for someone to lead us from the absolute depths this country has sunk to.

About getting a little emotional sometimes

I have been criticized by friends and others for getting emotional in debates. I would like to explain why that's not only ok but important. Too often these debates are way too abstract and end up shying away from the reality that we are talking about real people with powerful interest in what is being discussed.

Take health care, something I still owe a post about. This is one that effects me directly as I am one of the more than thirty million Americans without real access to health care. As a result of the bill pushed through congress at the end of last year it is likely that my son will get cut off Medicaid. Now I will find a way to keep him covered but it will be hard. I eat once a day as it is so that I can provide my son with good, healthy food to eat. If he does get cut off I will either have to eat less than that or I will have to feed him lower quality food. On top of this if he gets cut off it will probably mean his mom and he will also lose food stamp benefits as well, which may mean that I will have to find a way to work more hours which means I will spend less time with him.

I don't piss and moan about my own problems, they are my fault. I am a high school drop-out who could do literally anything I chose with an education - I am that smart. I am fighting to change my situation and it may work out but that is besides the point. Nothing I have done is my son's fault. He didn't ask to be brought into the world with parents who cannot provide for him the way he deserves to be. So this health care "debate" gets me very emotional and makes me very angry. It is absolutely sick that in this country we have so many without health care - including millions of children - it is sick that this country is so far behind so many other nations in this regard.

Then we get to gay "rights." I am not in favor of any special rights for homosexuals but I am adamant that they have equal rights to the rest of us. I get a little emotional when I think about the ten million kids being raised by same sex parents. I get a little emotional when I realize that many of those kids assume that, other than the fact that their parents are the same sex, don't realize that their parents aren't the same as other parents, i.e. they aren't married, at least until the mainstream media shoves this "debate" into their faces. I get a little emotional when I think about the idea that their are people out there who think that these families should be illegal. We are taking so many giant steps backward in this country today that many same sex families in this country are at risk - today.

I get a little emotional when people like Rush Limbaugh accuse me of having a fascination with death. They seem to think that we should just look the other way while the regime in charge of this country causes the deaths thousands of people a year. I get a little emotional when a woman who is awake and aware is cut off her ventilator in Plano Texas because her family doesn't have the money to keep her alive. I get a little emotional trying to imagine the hell she went through in those last moments, betrayed and suffocated by her own body without even the comfort of her mother at her side because she couldn't be brought over here in the time Texas law allotted her. Because I get angry about this - I somehow have a fascination with death - no, I just abhor the bush regime's "culture of death."

And finally, I get a little emotional when the president of this country say that my constitution, the constitution that hundreds of thousands gave their lives that we might have, is just a "damned piece of paper." I get a little emotional when a cabal takes my government and perverts my country into some fascist police state. When the senate, the house, the courts even the media are bent and twisted by the hands of one man I get a little emotional, angry even. This is not some abstract debate, this is our nation being destroyed. And that makes me a little emotional.

ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

If I was a democrat - I wold never vote democrat again. These pansies seem to be afraid to spend the political capitol the Repubs gave them by default. They should be hammering Alito into a corner like you wouldn't believe and they aren't even trying to get him to talk. I'm sorry but if the man can't recall that many important aspects of his personal life then they should be asking him if his lack of memory may just be a problem to kep him from performing as a justice on the supreme court.

He can't remember what he put on his job application to the Reagan administration? Or is it that he was either lying then or now? He is inconsistent, he believes in quietly chipping away at our personal freedoms, he believes in expansive executive powers. He does not believe in the America that I grew up learning about in school, he believes in fascism, he believes in a federal imperial state.

This man is insidious in his demolition of the American way of life. He tells people what he thinks they want to hear so he can get a job. Where Roberts became expert at evading questions in hearing, Alito has perfected it. And the idiot democrats allow it. They should make ot clear to him that if he wants a chance to be confirmed he will bring clarity to these proceedings. They have the ability to stop him, some repubs would probably support them - but only if they demand he give them a reason. He is a liar or he is incompetent for the post.

The American people are looking for guidance out of the nightmarish hell this country is in. The democrats repeatedly refuse to provide it. Enough is enough - it is time to end this fiasco we try to call democracy in this country if we still can - it may well be too late. It is time to remove the corruption and those (both dems and repubs) who slowly chip away at our national heritage of freedom and bravery.

Thank God for Oscillococcinum and Emergen-C

I got the nastiest little bug and it has ben miserable. It is nice to discover that by taking Oscillococcinum and a lot of Emergen-C I have reduced the time it has been horrid from the week or more most people I know have had it to getting over it on day 3. I still feel achey and a little stuffy but I expect to be back to work tomorrow. Oscillo is an extract of either lamb or goose kidney so if your a hardcore vegan you might not want to take it but if not it is just the thing to nip things in the bud. The sooner after the onset of symptoms you take it the faster and more effective it is. I took it more than 24 hours after the onset - the effect was that I woke up this morning feeling worse than ever but by this evening I am feeling about 80% better. I also have been dosing up on Emergen-C which I figure has been a help. I highly reccomend that you take Emergen-C regularly and keep Oscillo on hand during flu season. I wish that I had kept it on hand but even so it has done me great.