Saturday, July 24, 2004

300 WORDS OR SO OF TRUTH

We the intelligent, observant people of America hold the following truths to be self-evident:

The Bush Administration is in all respects a tyranny of mediocrities, that values dollars and cents above common sense; that favors an exclusive ideology over an inclusive democracy; they are an unelected cadre of self-serving demagogues who will lie, cheat, steal and manuver by any means necessary to ensure that they retain power and that the special interest groups they cater to are served to the exclusion of everyone else.

Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton.  He had to leave this post to become vice president of the United States, but he's still got stock options and Halliburton's business is war.  What better place to ensure the long term health of the company than the Middle East, where if you start one war, on whatever pretenses, you're ensured a decade or more of turmoil bound to keep your business booming.  (Even better, go into Afghanistan and make goo goo eyes at Iran and you could be a billionaire soon).

George W. Bush was on vacation most of his first term.  Then 9/11 came along.  Now all of a sudden, he could look like a wartime president by always presiding over a wartime economy, the hell with the young, mostly poor men and women whose bones and blood, blood and bones paves the way for his new faux heroism.  Oh, and don't worry about not having ever actually served active duty in the armed forces.  All you have to do is talk tough, look "presidential" and know how to have your gaudy entrance on an aircraft carrier stage managed by your people and you too can be The Greatest American Hero.

As the Democratic Convention begins, remember that it's not so much about whether or not Kerry-Edwards are the best, most liberal, most progressive candidates we can support.  Just thing about the damage that could be done by four more years of Bush, four more years of assaults on the environment, civil liberties, abortion rights, the poor and the United Nations and then the election becomes not a choice but an imperative, not about partisan politics but about a fight for the future of our American values itself.

PS  One more thing...leave Kerry's wife alone.  We are not electing the spouse, we are electing the candidate, and all the criticism of Mrs. Kerry-Heinz for her "bluntness" and "kookiness" seems awfully hypocritical coming from a media that often complains about political personalities always delivering the same canned responses to questions.  You can't have it both ways.
  

Thursday, July 15, 2004

SUMMERTIME

Life...or Blog?
 
Well everyone this blog is to announce that I will be going into a summertime slowdown mode for at least the next two months.  It's been fun to blog, and you will occasionally continue to see weird little posts from me from time to time, but don't expect them everyday or even every week. 
 
The reasons for this are twofold:
 
1) I have more of a life than when I started doing this and it's just really, really hard to keep coming up with new and interesting opinions to share (backed up by fact) in my current schedule.
2) I have discontinued my personal high speed Internet because, being run by a cable monopoly that shall remain unnamed (rhymes with "bombast"), they have continually raised the rates beyond a level that I feel comfortable paying.  The reason for the two month moratorium is not arbitrary though...in September I can sign up again under the old rate as a "new customer." Thanks, however, to those of you who generously offered to contribute money.  Please be as generous when I embark on my next short film project!
 
I have too large an ego to deprive the websphere of my thoughts though, especially during this time of presidential campaigning, Congressional constitutional tomfoolery, war in Iraq and corruption at home.  But I heartily recommend you check out the following sites as an addendum/replacement to conventional news sources:
 
Mother Jones.com
truthout.org
The Guardian (UK)
Salon.com
villagevoice.com
Znet
 
It will be nice to spend some time on a sandy beach (even one coated with oil and refuse as a result of the lax environmental policies put in place by the Bush Administration); it will be good to spend quality time with a girlfriend (rare, in my life experience); I'm a sucker for summertime blockbuster movies like anyone else (here's a hot tip - the best movie this summer, other than Fahrenheit 9/11, will be The Door in the Floor.  You heard it here first).
 
Then, in the Fall, we can marshal our resources, our thoughts and our energy to make sure that John Kerry is elected as the 44th President of the United States.  I believe it can be done and that it must be done.  I promise to blog regularly then.
 
In the meantime, I apologize for not being as eloquent as I should, but I will be blogging with you soon.  Perhaps my "unindicted co-conspirators" who are also a part of dissent channel can pick up some of my slack?  :-)  Otherwise, have a nice summer and I'll write to you...when I write to you.  Thanks for the support! 
 
"Life without intelligence/Is death in disguise."  --the rap group Black Star, c. Rawkus Records, 1998.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

BLOG 50*

Finally, John Edwards, Kerry's Clinton Substitute

After an appropriate amount of time wasted on the dog and pony show called "VP interviews", with Lilliputians like Bill Richardson, Evan Bayh and Bob Graham being paraded in front of the cameras, John Kerry earlier this week finally settled on the man we knew he'd pick to be his running mate all along, John Edwards, the "New Clinton", the cutest little moderate Southern Democrat this side of Bubba--all without the runaway penis and that intimidating Oxford education!

Seriously, Edwards can't help but energize Kerry's listing campaign. No one seems to like President Dubya all that much except die-hard right wingers and yet every poll shows the race to be a virtual dead heat. Why? Even during times of unjust war, Americans are notoriously reluctant to change leaders and frankly, since Kerry wrapped up the nomination in early April his campaign has bored a lot of people to tears.

Edwards and his people (wouldn't you like to have people too?) crafted a brilliant "Two Americas" message that resonated with middle-class voters and Kerry can use this, along with Edwards generally warmer persona, to distinguish his vision from that of the Bush Administration's. The indictment of Bush Buddy Kenneth Lay couldn't have come at a better time too, because if anyone represents that "other America" that thrives while the ordinary American suffers, it's Kenny Boy Lay.

I'm rambling here, but I'm saying, "Good job Kerry!" and now let's pick up the fight. Nothing makes my bowels more irritable than the prospect of four more years of the Fahrenheit 9/11 cabal.

(*This blog was composed during a yellow terrorist alert--as was each of the previous 49 blogs, demonstrating nothing except that perhaps the official colors of the U.S. flag should be changed to red, white, blue and yellow. Or perhaps it would simply be nice to have some specific information for once on all these alleged terrorist threats.)

Kobe Bryant, Evil Genius?

It was suggested by a fellow blogger in ESPN.com (forgive me, I have forgotten his name) that Kobe Bryant's recent flirtation with the Denver Nuggets might be nothing more than an attempt to cloud the minds of the Colorado jury pool, who would be less reluctant to convict the hero of the local NBA team than they would some out-of-town, spoiled sports celebrity. While the sports fan in me would like to discount this theory out of hand, I have to admit this guy makes a heck of a point. It's probably not Kobe's idea, but his lawyer's and if so it could be the masterstroke move that puts the nail in the coffin of this highly publicized case.

Unfortunately for the alleged victim, the Bryant case was never going to be about whether he was guilty or innocent. There's plenty of reasonable doubt (much more than in say, the O.J. trial) and it's possible Kobe "merely" cheated on his wife with a young, emotionally unstable local girl. A tainted jury pool, or at least one more predisposed to like Kobe than they already do, probably puts this case to rest with no one ever knowing the truth.

Guilty or not though, ask yourself this question and then think about the role pro athletes have in our society today: could you imagine going to an out-of-town city, getting your knee scoped, checking into a hotel and then one hour later having sex with a woman you've never seen before in your life? If the answer is yes, then you must be a professional athlete. If the answer is no, then you have to wonder just what went on back in Eagle County, Colorado.

It says here that Kobe Bryant will be playing for the Los Angeles Lakers next year (or maybe the Clippers) and he won't be needing a fitting for an orange jumpsuit.


Also check out "The R Spot" at http://rdonkey04.blogspot.com!


Thursday, July 01, 2004

DO YOU FEEL A DRAFT?

Also check out "The R Spot" at http://rdonkey04.blogspot.com

Iraq News of the Day

I mean, really, who is fooled by the "Iraqi handover"? Not the Iraqis. On July 1, just days after "independence", insurgent groups began yet another round of attacks throughout Iraq. Not the American Public, which in the latest round of polling feels more strongly than ever that the U.S. will be quagmired in Iraq for years to come even if we're "not running the country." I'm sure the U.N. doesn't buy it either, which is why it continues to be reluctant to send peacekeeping troops into a mess that we've made.

If the U.S. Army was secure that the handoff was going well and Iraq was well on it's way to nation building, then why the need to call up recently retired troops in what Sen. Joseph Biden (D - Del.) called a "backdoor draft"? (Always one with the colorful colloquialism, that Joe Biden.) Obviously, Iraq is going to keep us busy, as is Afghanistan, and soon maybe the Sudan, not to mention Iran and Syria. When does it end? I don't know too many 19-year olds (not males anyway ;-), but the young men and women I do know don't feel to happy about the prospect of a military draft, especially for a cause that no one seems too sure of in a faraway land where they are actively hostile to us and our intentions. Right now a draft is in the talking stages, but if people like Sen. Chuck Hagel (R - Neb.) feel comfortable floating the idea in public, then plans for an actual draft can't be too far behind. All the better to maintain a neverending state of war which will drain the welfare state dry and make all of our defense contractors and oil companies filthy rich. Stay tuned...

Kerry Runs Off the Latino Vote...Maybe

John Kerry pulled a Gray Davis earlier this week when he stunned a gathering of Latino leaders at the La Raza convention in Phoenix by coming out against letting illegal aliens have driver's licenses. President Bush, of course, has attempted to co-opt the Latino vote by coming out in support of this measure--which former California governor Gray Davis also belatedly supported during the recall election, a move which famously backfired on him in the notoriously immigrant-phobic state. (A state now run by an immigrant, but I digress.)

Now, I may risk sounding like a charter member of the John Birch society here, but I actually think that illegal aliens should NOT be allowed to have driver's licenses, at least not with the privileges that the licenses currently confer. I believe that a compromise position can be crafted which would move this country toward the adoption of a national ID. Only natural born citizens or naturalized immigrants could obtain this citizenship ID which would confer to it all the rights and privileges that this country affords--the right to vote, the right to have your tax dollars pay off big corporations, farmers and politician's hookers, the right to any socialized health care that we may have one day, etc. A driver's license should be just for the state its issued in and it should be just that--a license to operate a motor vehicle, nothing more, nothing less. Who made the driver's license the official legal document that helped determine everything from your right to drink to your ability to apply for a college loan? Republicans would scream about creating another layer of bureaucracy, but with the Department of Homeland Security, who is the greatest manufacturer of worthless government jobs ever? That's right, the GOP, so they can just shut the hell up.

Well, it will never happen anyway, but my point is that Kerry is not a "bad liberal" because he doesn't support this and not letting illegal aliens have driver's licenses shouldn't deny them the opportunity to come into this country and make money for themselves and their families back home, especially since we can't stop it from happening anyway and our economy (especially in California, Arizona and Texas) depends on it ways most people don't even think of. There should be a free and open debate on this topic soon, but the issue is so politicized by both sides, it will almost certainly never get the discussion it deserves.

Happy Birthday, U.S.A.

As this country officially turns 228 this coming weekend (just leaving young adulthood by the standards of the world's great countries, like sort of a modern nation-state Britney Spears), I think it's important to remember that a true patriot questions all the things that they think are done wrong in their country. True patriots don't blindly follow their leaders. A true patriot doesn't believe in just one kind of America or one kind of American. A true patriot wants their country to stand up for values that we share and can all be proud of.

A true patriot votes. A true patriot questions whether the PATRIOT Act is really all that patriotic. A true patriot doesn't let the meaning of the word "patriot" get co-opted by special interest groups, propagandists and the religious right. A true patriot may not think that everything the USA does is right or that this country is perfect, but they recognize the tremendous achievement that is our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution and they know that as imperfect as the USA is, it is probably the best republic that has come to pass so far on this little blue rock.

I'm a patriot...happy birthday America!

Quote of the Week

"The Republicans have a habit of having three bad years and one good one, and the good one always happens to be election year."
--Will Rogers