Night of the Wailin’ Wind

Night of the Wailin’ Wind
Words and music by Jack Dingler

It was bright, summer night that was the last time, you shone so bright
You used to laugh, you used to smile, you used to joke, I could get you so riled
You were my brother, you were my friend and if I could, I’d have it all again
I’d take back, that wicked night. That knock on the door and the night of the wailin’ wind

It didn’t seem right on such a starry night that you’d be taken, taken from our lives
I remember, opening the door and finding two policemen, with faces so low
It must be the worst, duty a man can have, to tell a mother that her son has passed
And I still remember, those surreal scenes, the screaming an wailing, the broken dreams

And it was just a little, piece of lead, that left you lyin, cold and close to death.
It was a hard night with choices made, it was cold night, with calls to make
It was a hard dawn, it was a hard day, it was a hard way, with nothing but heartbreaks
And we laid you down, we prayed for peace. We prayed for you. We prayed for release

It was bright, summer night that was the last time, you shone so bright
You used to laugh, you used to smile, you used to joke, I could get you so riled
You were my brother, you were my friend and if I could, I’d have it all again
I’d take back, that wicked night. That knock on the door and the night of the wailin’ wind

I’d take back, that little piece of lead, that left you lyin, cold and close to death.
I’d take back that lonesome night, when the stars were shining bright, and you left our lives
There’d be no hard dawn, there’d be no hard day, there’d be no hard way, and not a single heartbreak
And you’d come on home, and we’d laugh a while, we’d fight a while, and we’d say good night…

And I think of you, on bright summer nights. When the stars are shining bright and everything’s all right.
And I remember, how you used to laugh, how you used to smile how I got you so riled
You’re still my brother, you’re still my friend and when the time comes, I’ll see you again.
We’ll forget, that wicked night, that knock on the door and the night of the wailin’ wind

You’re still my brother, you’re still my friend and when the time comes, I’ll see you again.
We’ll forget, that wicked night, that knock on the door and the night of the wailin’ wind

That night of the wailin’ wind.

Worst Blog Ever

I’ve been accused of having the Worst Site ever. By someone that gives out that award frequently. Too bad he or she probably didn’t mean it. And BTW, I know who you are, and thank you for stopping by.

But there’s a worse site than mine. It’s blog site designed to be commercial, and by the tone of the writing, to give high school students a chance to get published, by writing about assigned topics. Or at least it reads that way.

One of the things I really like about blogging, is that more often than not, blogs are diaries. They aren’t intended to be mainstream reporting. The stories we read in blogs are often as much about the blogger themselves, as the topic they are writing about.

But at Pajamas Media, they’ve found a way to turn blogging into reporting. And quite often, pretty boring reporting at that.

But not always boring. Check this one out by John Rosenthal. He becomes absolutely gleeful that a kidnap victim in Iraq is going to be executed. He argues that she got herself kidnapped on purpose, to further the Baathist cause. And what is her crime that makes John gleeful of her impending death? Well, she was arranging aid shipments into Iraq. Evidently, providing aid to the people of Iraq is a bad thing.

And this really shows what the Far Right want to go in Iraq. The whole democracy and peace bit is just a public relations front. The Far Right not surprisingly sees all of the Iraqi people as the enemy. They aren’t viewing this war in the way the media depicts it and never will. They want Iraq completely crushed. Forcing democracy and freedom on a people at the point of a gun never worked, and never will. The Far Right knows this. And that’s never been the plan. They love war. They love death. War is nothing but sport to these people. It's a game that they send others off to play, so they can prime and primp. Manliness is sending boys off to die for your ego.

Combining corporate management, with pretend news reporting, in the service of warmongering has been done to death. So what if it’s on a pretend blog? We still know what it is. Worst Blog Ever.

The 4th Amendment Of The US Constitution

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Chicken Blogging

I've promised to do some home and garden type stuff and still haven't done it.

Here's a cheat. This is 'Chipotle'. He's the boss of the chickenyard.

Behind him you can see 'Dottie'. That sweetie is his mom.

A Man's A Man For A' That

A Man's A Man For A' That
Robert Burns

Is there for honest Poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that;
The coward slave-we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that.
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The Man's the gowd for a' that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an' a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man's a Man for a' that:
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, an' a' that;
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that:
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.

Applying For Warrants Is Hard Work

Bush is having a great time on his speaking tour.

I'll sum up his message, "We need Bush and his friends to illegally spy on Americans because there are bad people in the world that want to hurt us."

The White House has made it clear that they are only spying on people with a history of blowing commuter trains, weddings and churches." We know that more than 18,000 Americans at least have been spied on today. So already in the war on terror, 18,000 American Terrorists, that all have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches have been identified and are being spied upon.

Bush has also made it clear the spying program must be expanded. I think it must be clear then that even more Americans with a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches have been identified.

So if you're an American, you're probably a mass murderer and terrorist and you've been blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches. Because of this, the government needs to spy on you illegally. After all, warrants to spy on mass murderers and terrorists are hard to get in America. To apply for warrants to spy on suspected criminals, our Federal Judges require that an agent submit paperwork, written in English. Who in the White House is qualified to do such a thing? Who could do this? That's hard work. real hard. It's hard. It's hard work.

Congress Believes Americans = Suspected Foriegn Terrorists

Texas Senator John Cornyn continues to make his anti-American views known. At least he’s honest. Recently he argued that the United States ahs never ever fought for civil liberties that it has always fought for the very survival of the people. As Civil Liberties is simply latin for freedom of the citizens, it’s clear he or we are completely uninformed as to the history of our great nation. The War of Independence, The American Civil War and World War II were all wars in which Americans fought for their freedoms against tyranny.

John Cornyn makes a mockery of the sacrifices of the men who died in those wars, when he proclaims that they did not die for freedom.

Now in letter to one of my friends, he makes the following statement, “In fact, both the Constitution and the Authorization for the Use of Military Force which was overwhelmingly passed by Congress on September 18, 2001 grant the President broad authorities to protect and defend the nation. Based on our current knowledge of the NSA program, the President was acting within his legal authorities and obligations as Commander-in-Chief.”

He should read the US Constitution. Heck he should also take a frigging history class. But back to the constitution. Here’s an amendment he’s unaware of (Heck it’s number 4!), “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/

And this is why domestic spying on Americans is illegal, even for the President.

But the argument given by many television scholars is that the Constitution of the United States of America doesn’t apply to the President, when the President says it doesn’t apply.”

If the US Constitution has no power over the President, then Article II does not apply, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.”

Congress doesn’t have the authority to give the President the Authority to ignore the US Constitution. Congress doesn’t even have the authority to ignore the US Constitution themselves.

People who want to see an Emperor ruling the United States are attempting to change the topic in the public media as to whether spying on terrorists is right or wrong. They are simply stupid and or criminal in this misdirection. The issue here is the fact that George Bush is committing High Crimes and Misdemeanors in spying on Americans without warrants. And the reason given is that this requires someone to fill out paperwork! Big frigging deal! Fill out the damn paperwork!

Another reason given is that Federal Judges won’t give out warrants, if there’s probable cause that someone has links to terrorists. I suppose what this arguments is saying is that all of our Federal Judges are working with the terrorists. But if the administration, Rush Limbaugh and otrhers have evidence that our Federal Judges are all working with terrorists to destroy America, why aren't they being arrested?

Likewise, the White House made it clear that that 18,000 or so American citizens being spied upon, "have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches." If they have evidence that 18,00 Americans are mass murderers, why do they stop at survellience? Why not arrest these thousands of mass murderers?

But then, maybe the administration has exagerated? Is it possible that if over the last few years there have been thousands of trains, weddings and churches going kaboom, anywhere in the world, the media woul ignore it? I doubt it. We'd have special programming twenty four hours a day dedicated to these daily terrorist acts and the massive loss of life. The White House is clearly full of shit on this one.

And in a letter, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter argues, "President Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both authorized similar searches and surveillance without court orders. President Clinton successfully argued in the Aldrich Ames espionage case the President has the inherent authority to order searches for foreign intelligence purposes without a warrant or permission from an outside body. President Carter, in Executive Order 12139, stated "The Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order."

So what he's arguing is that since it is legal to spy on suspected terrorists in foriegn countries without a court order, it is therefore legal for Bush to spy on Americans as he pleases, without a ever seeking a court order or warrant, just like Nixon did.

American Citizens = Foriegn Terrorists. This is the message we're being sent by our representatives. the White House, US Congress, the Senate and Justice Department are sending a clear message that they have identified the enemy, and it is the American People.

This Just In, 'Osama Bin Laden Is Still Dead'

The controversy over the new Osama Bin Laden audio is getting a lot of attention.

You can find the full text of it here.

The only thing I have to add is that in my little corner of the universe, I don’t know anyone, in either party that believes the tape is real. My friends that are Republicans, Democrats, Independents and folks I’m only acquainted with all seem to agree that OBL has been dead for some time.

And most agree that George Bush has known for certain that he is dead. And that he’s known all along.

Osama Bin Laden has a long history of making video taped messages for his followers. And suddenly, for no apparent reason, he no longer does this. Well there’s one good reason, he’s dead.

Now all Osama Bin Laden needs to do to disprove me, is make a video. I don’t think that’ll ever happen.

So Booga! Booga! Boo! Right back at you George Bush! Did I scare you?

What Do The American Indian's Have to Say?

Take a stroll over to Wampum.

Correction

Two Hundred And Eighty Three Tales Of Corruption.

Records from the Federal Elections Commission and the Center for Public Integrity show that Abramoff’s Indian clients contributed between 1999 and 2004 to 195 Republicans and 88 Democrats. The Post has copies of lists sent to tribes by Abramoff with specific directions on what members of Congress were to receive specific amounts.

Pete Sessions Cracks A Joke

From http://sessions.house.gov/
While Congress is in a District Work Period this month, I continue to focus on effective ways to improve our nation’s homeland security and economic security. As you may know, Congress has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) take action to secure our borders and implement interior enforcement of immigration law. As a result, I am pleased to report that the Administration has already made significant progress in improving border security.

I wonder how he defines ‘significant’. Will the next Texas summer have no tales of the discovery of tractor trailers full of illegal immigrants? Will spanish no longer be the native language of maids and landscapers in the Dallas area?

I doubt it. By significant, he probably means that he helped pour billions of dollars down drain to make security look better and prettier. In the mean time, millions of undocumented illegal workers stream back and forth across the border, by walking around these border enhancements. Pete and friends know that if they actually do anything of significance, they’ll increase costs to their campaign contributors. So he just wastes money for bragging rights.

And where do the billions come from, to pay billions for this fabled border security? Why he takes it from domestic programs that provide useful services.

Washington, Nov 3, 2005 - U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Dallas) today announced that he introduced the Reforming Amtrak’s Inefficient Lines Act (the RAIL Act, H.R. 4214), a bill designed to cut Amtrak’s operating costs by eliminating money-losing routes and services.

Of course Amtrak has some money losing services and lines. All businesses do.

Marketing for instance is a part of a business that does nothing but lose money. Businesses spend money on marketing so that they can increase sales. In aggregate, it’s worth having a marketing department and budget for this reason.

The US Government builds roads that will never return an economic profit, because in aggregate, road building is worthwhile. The US Post Office delivers mail to locations that can’t possibly pay their way, because it’s worth it overall, to deliver mail everywhere in the US.

2006 may well be the year after peak oil. We may well be sliding into a new world where saving money on energy, and increasing energy efficiencies will become our most important priority. This isn’t the time to waste money on pretend security measures while slashing programs that are going to come into increasing use, for decades to come.

Spending money to defend against the very people we buy our oil from, just seems like such a waste. Especially when so much this waste is spent in the service of bedwetting hysteria. Just because Bush is so frightened of the boogey man that's he's closed streets and installed concrete barriers all around the capital, doesn't mean we all need to go insane and start wetting ourselves. I live in a community full of undocumented workers that get in and out of the US just fine, even with many billions spent, to prevent them from coming. Pete Sessions likely has undocumented workers coming to clean his house and water his lawn, twice a week. Such hypocrisy does not become us.

Or maybe Pete is just being consistent. Maybe next he’ll next cut into roadway maintenance, and discontinue thousands of postal routes in order to free up money for boogey man protection plans? But I doubt it. I believe he'll continue to waste money repainting the facade while letting the house rot from within.

Twelve Dollars For A Loaf Of Bread?

A gold standard works pretty well, because gold is a physical element, for which supply tends to be tightly constrained.

It can't be inflated at will. It can't be conjured out of nothing, at will.

But even in societies with a gold standard, the value of gold wavered in respect to the value of goods and services. This is because goods and services are made available through the consumption of available energy.

Nobel Prize winning chemist Frederick Soddy, proposed a monetary system based on available energy. One in which the money supply would be governed by the supply of energy.

I don't know that humans could adhere to such a system, but in theory, it would likely work well. The money supply would be a reflection of the quantity of actual goods and services available. Energy efficiency would directly correlate with monetary efficiency.

We don't have such a system and probably never will. But our money supply, though unhinged from the physical world in the minds of economists, must function against real world values.

Its value is ultimately determined by the trade of goods and services that it represents. Those goods and services are constrained by the quantity of available energy. Thus the value of money, is ultimately tied to the availability of usable energy.

We can express this as V = E / M.

Where V = Value of Money, E = Quantity of Available Energy and M = Quantity of Money.

You can factor in various energy efficiencies or alternatives, but at any point in time, this relationship is essentially true.

Until late 2000, the US saw an almost unbroken rise in energy availability. Inflation of the monetary supply was offset partly by rising energy availability.

In the late 80s (1987-1998?) and the period of 2001-2002 this situation was reversed. The quantity of dollars continued to inflate while available energy took a downturn and stagnated. The energy downturn in 2000, actually preceded the official business recession by more than a full business quarter. It took time for the downturn in energy to smack around the bottom line for corporations, and drive many into bankruptcy.

The Fed responded by lowering rates to increase the money supply. This diluted the value of money in circulation and tilted profitability toward businesses that worked in the ethereal realms of finance. Those industries that survive on debt reallocation get the benefit of using dollars with relatively undiluted value to maintain their business, while diluting the value of money to those businesses that rely on physical trade.

As a result, the effective wealth concentration moved from physical real world entities to ethereal financial entities.

The result is that money accumulates at the top of ephemeral financial centers as it's drained from physical industries. Reinvestment in real world enterprises becomes a guaranteed money loser. So financial centers invent new imaginary instruments to repackage debt and resell it among themselves. An entire economy based on repackaging an imaginary construct, develops, grows and builds. This ephemeral construct then takes on a life of its own and becomes a powerful force, feeding on the US economy at large. It demands to be fed by inflationary dollars and drains the life force from the physical economy.

This virtual economy is now worth 6.7 times more than the physical economy. To pay it off, the physical economy must consume 6.7 times the energy it does now, to produce the goods and services needed to deflate the virtual economy.

Yet the virtual economy grows. It sucks the life out of the physical economy at ever greater rates. As a result the physical economy gasps and struggles, as more of it's life's blood is drained away.

As we ride out the peak oil plateau, the Fed is sure to continue to inflate the money supply, to counter the very problems that are caused by inflating the money supply. I believe it’s too much too hope for that the Fed will discover the physical universe and adjust the imaginary money based universe to compensate. The course we’re on, increases the numbers of dollars, and concentrates those numbers into the hands of the few. But while it does so, it reduces the actual value of those dollars in relation to the physical world. The rich are making themselves effectively poorer, but at a slower rate than they are impoverishing the rest of us. In relative terms, they are racing to the bottom slower than anyone else. But because they are focused on the quantity of dollars they aggregate, rather than the relative value of these dollars, they are completely blind to their self impoverishment.

Once we go over the peak, this policy will completely destroy the physical economy of the US. The dollars will accumulate in the hands of the wealthy at incredible rates, but they will not buy much of value. The physical economy will be dead and the vampiric Fed policies will no longer be able to feed upon it. The Fed’s financial policies at that time will be found to be baseless. As baseless as the US dollar will become.

And when folks talk about intervention, to stop other countries from denominating oil in Euros, they are arguing for a stop loss action to forestall an accelerated erosion of the value of the US dollar. It’s a misnomer to think that the dollar’s value is based on trust, or a belief in its value. Its value is ultimately based on the relationship between dollars in circulation, and available energy. This value is propped up, because the dollar is backed by the world supply of oil. This gives it a competitive advantage against other currencies. As oil becomes increasingly traded in euros, the dollar will lose competitive value. For the wealthy, this is worth sacrificing the lives of the lower classes in foreign wars to forestall.

But in the end, it’s a losing game. The Fed is acting as a destructive force, and some notable economists are calling for the Fed to fail faster. Other economic analysis back up arguments for higher interest rates using other arguments, but they all tend to agree that the current debt based Ponzi scheme the Fed has constructed, will fail if these are implemented. If rates rise, then those financial institutions who’s value rest entirely on increasing rates of debt accumulation, will fail. That’s most of them now, as debt accumulation has been the new basis for 85% of the US economy for years now.

The Fed has set us all up to fail. At this point, there’s no way out except down. Because once rates rise, 85% of the dollars will have nothing left to be leveraged against. They’ll dilute the value of dollars in circulation and show us the real meaning of inflation. At that point, a twelve dollar loaf of bread would become commonplace, while wages will remain stagnant.

Two Hundred And Ten Tales Of Corruption

There are two hundred and ten Congressmen and two hundred and ten tales of corruption in the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal.

Republicans are arguing over who will be the new House Majority Leader. Sadly, they admit that anyone that they’d like to see in this post, is a un-convicted criminal in the scandal. So they argue that the most qualified criminal should lead them.

This is a tough call to make. Anyone they propose, is going to discussed, argued over, dissected and be exposed to a better public viewing of this scandal.

Which un-convicted criminal wants to be thrust into the spotlight? Which one wants to have all of their crimes satirized on the Daily Show? Which one wants to be portrayed in a gambling and bribery skit on Saturday Night Live? Which one wants to be bumped to the front of the queue in the criminal investigation?

It’s time for the Republicans to throw someone to the wolves. It’s time for them to decide whom they want to ruin politically. It’s time for them to turn upon themselves.

Who’s stupid enough to volunteer? Any guesses as to who this dumb schmuck will be?

Games Politicians Play

Atrios seems to have come the same conclusion I’ve come to. He writes, “Watching the bobblehead coverage of the Alito hearings - and, frankly, just about everything else they cover - one comes away think that to them it just doesn't really matter. Court decisions don't matter. Policy doesn't matter. None of this stuff matters. It's just a game played between rival high school football teams and they're just happy to go to the homecoming dance.”

And I agree, for the most part. But further, they also want to take home wheelbarrows full of cash. And they’ll break any law, commit any crime necessary to get that cash. It doesn’t appear that they care that they are committing felonies by taking bribes or whether they’ll get caught. And maybe it’s just a big joke on the American people anyway. After all, President Bush can give them all pardons anyway.

In his continued support for the Patriot Act, Pete Sessions continues to trash the US Constitution. He argues that no one has no one has complained to Feingold about their rights being violated by this law. Which is a non-answer, to a non-question. The Patriot Act allows secret spying and secret detentions of Americans without allowing them Constitutional protections. How is someone that isn’t allowed to speak to an attorney, their family or anyone except prison guards in a secret prison, going to complain? Does Feingold visit torture facilities to solicit complaints? I doubt it. And if the spying is secret, how do we know to complain?

Then he goes on to brag about BS legislation to make it illegal to try to bring down an aircraft. That’s all these guys seem to be good for is to write laws to make it illegal to break laws, crap on the US Constitution and take bribes.

At least we know Pete Sessions commits crimes by taking bribes and that he is an enemy of the US Constitution. But I doubt the other criminals in public office will call him on this.

Trolling on the Internet is now a Federal Crime

According to News.Com it is now a Federal Crime to write something on the internet that is intended to annoy someone, without disclosing your true identity.

The text of that bill is, “Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

This is where you can find more information about the bill.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.03402:

This mean that anyone that engages in trolling or posts opinions that might annoy someone must also identify themselves, or face a sentence of up to two years in Federal Prison.

President George Bush believes this a law worth signing. I think perhaps he’s expanding his definition of Terrorism.

So to comply with the law, I am identifying myself as Jack Dean Dingler, jr. Unlike George Bush II, I do not intend to be a criminal.

We’re Really Screwed…

It’s reputed that Jack Bribed up to 210 congressmen, including my representative, Pete Sessions. If these 210 congressmen really did commit these crimes, then surely they took bribes from other people. And since they commit felonies for cash, it’s an open question as to what other felonies they’ve committed.

This leads to the stories about the Bush Cabal Blackmailing our Legislators with information garnered by illegally spying on them. As the criminal elements have taken hold of our government so completely, it would seem trivial for the White House Staffers to acquire means and opportunity. I can’t think of a single bit of evidence against the notion that motive exists.

The tool in the picture above is called a Burdizzo.

Hello Pete Sessions! Are You Stupid?

I’ve been reading a bit about how Jack Abramoff, who has plead guilty to felony bribery charges, had a history of paying you off the day after you signed legislations that he asked for. A number of sources put the total amount of money you accepted from this confessed bribery criminal at about $20,500.

This guy was giving away millions of dollars and you risked prison for a paltry $20,500? Dude! You sell your soul cheap! This has the potential of landing you in prison for years and that amount of money probably won’t support your lifestyle for a month!

First off, I don’t advocate becoming a criminal. But it looks like you decided to become one. But if you’re going commit crimes for hire, do the math first! You should calculate how many years in prison you’re likely to get for committing the offence and then ask for some reasonable percentage of that. For instance, if you were to get 10 years of prison time for accepting $20,500 in bribery payments, you’ll be earning $2,050 / year. That’s not much money.

But the main stream press as far as I can tell, only reported that you may have accepted $5,500 in bribes. That comes out to be $550 / year for a ten year prison sentence. That’s really, really stupid. Not just stupid, really, really stupid. That’s stupid on the order of a guy that holds up a grocery store and spends ten years in prison stupid.

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, received four donations totaling $5,500 from casino-operating tribes represented by Abramoff a month and a day after he signed the Feb. 27, 2002, group letter.

As always, this is an open letter. Your comments are very welcome and I will be happy to post them, unedited on my blog.

An Orgasboard of Criminals

Jack Abramoff's confessed crimes have certainly given us a window into the number of criminal politicians there are in congress, and a glimpse of the just how many crimes they commit.

Word is that he bribed over 200 hundred Congressmen. And over two hundred Congressmen committed crimes by accepting the bribes.

And the best defense these crooks can come up with is, to exclaim, “But Mom, all the other kids were committing crimes and taking bribes too!”

Now that it’s clear that most of Congress is composed of criminals that are known for taking bribes, it’s no wonder that they approve of keeping a President that craps on the US Constitution and calls it a, “Goddamn piece of paper!”, then announces that not only is he committing felonies, but tells all the world he intends to keep on committing felonies.

And what I find really amazing is, that much of this came out because Congressmen were accepting bribes to screw the mafia out of millions of dollars. As a result, two men were executed. How safe do these Congressmen feel after fucking over the mafia? Maybe that’s part of the reason so many are rolling over. They finally got their IQs raised up to 85 and decided they didn’t want a bullet in their own heads? I bet that was certainly a part of Abramoff’s thinking when he decided to turn sipper glass.

When I was growing up, there was a saying I heard all the time, “If you see one snake, then there’s at least two you don’t see.” And they were right when it comes to some pretty nasty snakes. Cottonmouths often nest together. If you spot one, you’ll like find dozens or hundreds more all around. They hide from view, blending into the grass or mud.

So now that these criminals have been caught committing a series of crimes with one man, then we can be sure that they’ve been committing other crimes with other people.

And as the Republicans own the House, the Senate and the White House, they set the standards for everyone. And as many of them are pro-gambling, bribe taking criminals, their behavior defines the Republican Party. It doesn’t matter that Democrats did that too. Republicans have bragged for years about having the upper hand in issues of morality and religion. And they are now demonstrating those standards for all of us to see.

The Republican Crime Party is clearly a pro-crime, pro-gambling, pro-bribe taking Christian Party.

Call for Comments

I’m looking at this AdSense option for my blog. It is tempting to add it in and perhaps earn a few bucks to keep my chickens fed.

I visit a variety of blogs, and the ads don’t deter me from reading them. But I’d like to hear opinions from my readers on taking this step.

The following isn’t a plea for pity. Overall I’m pretty happy with my life. What I’m going through now, I consider training for the opening years of post-peak oil. My wife and I have used the last few years to better learn to live with less…

Since Bush took office, I’ve gone from being a very well paid software engineer to a well (often enough), a software engineer looking for work. I had a two year stretch where I worked intermittent short term contracts that added up to about nine months of work. During that period, I worked temp positions on a freight dock, hand loading tractor trailers as the token white guy. I learned enough Spanish during these jobs to discover the difference between Palettes and Palitas (sp?).

Times are better now, but tough. I bought a modest home in 1999 and got in pretty cheap. But still intermittent work makes for intermittent mortgage payments. Finance companies frown on this behavior. So now I’ve been in one of those wonderful government programs known as Chapter 13. It was the only way left for me to keep my house when my mortgage company out of the blue decided to drop our payment arrangement and foreclose. In two months I would’ve been caught up on my mortgage, but I think they saw an opportunity to cash out on a house that’s half paid for. I would’ve been better off probably, if I had refinanced and brought my debt load back up to full.

And maybe that wouln't have been enough to push us into bankruptcy on it's own. But after my wife's near death experience from heart failure and $50,000 hospital bill, our options had run out. It was a good try though. :)

The US bankruptcy system, even before the new law went into effect, really sucks. It’s not the freeloader system it’s purported to be. It’s tough to get any expenses past the trustees, and they want to lowball everything. For instance, I’m allowed $50/month to keep my house in repair. Right now, I have a dead garbage disposal and my garage door no longer functions. It needs new gears and springs. So it’s manually operated for the next 3 years. There are a lot of other minor little things asking to be repaired, but they’ll just have to wait.

My wife, who suffers from high blood pressure, recently had another bad tooth. There’s no room in the budget for extra medical expenses, so she suffered until it was time to pull it. A little Orajel, a strong cord and it was done. We’ve paid for her doctor visits by selling stuff at the pawn shop. We’re lucky to have stuff to sell. The amount of money we’re allowed to deduct for her medical expenses covers her medication, but the infrequent doctor visits aren’t accounted for.

We have 2.5 years left of this, and then we can concentrate on paying off the house. I have a great job now that pays pretty well. But for now I must be punished for the declining economy that Bush and Greenspan built.

I truly feel for those who are forced into the stricter bankruptcy system by Hurricane Katrina. I wish the best for them.

Abandoning the Sacrificial Maiden Policy

Just as Congress calls for an Victory Strategy, Bush decides it’s time to pull troops from Iraq. Is this progress? Rumsfield says so. Rice says we just don’t need that many boots on the ground in Iraq.

And they have a point. If we can fight a slow losing war with current troop numbers, we can still lose the war with fewer troops. Pulling troops won’t change the war or the chaos. We’ll still keep our permanent bases and Halliburton will keep getting paid to pump oil and keep all of the profits.

The current plan is to move on to the plan used in 1972. From here on out, we drop bombs on Iraqis to win hearts and minds. We’ll stop being a face on the street giving out candy to kids. We’ll become a terror from on high. When people whisper that the Americans are coming, it will mean that bombs will soon drop from the sky.

We didn’t have enough boots on the ground to maintain order, to help the Iraqis get a real democracy going. So from here on out, we’ll be bombing Iraqis into peace and democracy.

Now Iraqi politicians that are friendly to the US will paint targets for us, and we’ll bomb the targets. The trustworthy folks that tortured to death so many Iraqis in order to support state sponsored US terrorism will now be entrusted with deciding who gets hit with cluster bombs.

Now that the US has killed over a hundred thousand innocent Iraqis, to Saddam’s tens of thousands of Iraqis during his civil war, the new meme floating around is that Saddam actually killed millions of his own people. Now he’s been elevated to being a near equal to Hitler in the scope of his rumored evils. Such is the word on the street. These are the lies we need to tell ourselves to make us feel better about blindly lashing out in fear, at other innocents. Maybe next year we’ll start hearing the Saddam killed billions of his own people? After all, this war is going to last decades. Our collateral damage count by then will likely be in the millions by the time the oil runs out. And once we’ve killed millions of innocent Iraqis, what number will Saddam have had to have killed to stay ahead of us?