Chris Matthews -- "You Are Frickin' Nuts"

Chris Matthew just stated Hillary Clinton was chewing gum during the SOTU speech. He opines, "What was she thinking?"

and I respond: "Are u nuts?"

Free Speech and Police States

I still can't get over this. I wear a tee-shirt everywhere with Bush and Cheney pics that says,
"Girlie Men Draft Dodgers Shouldn't Start Wars"

This is really scary:

2,245 Dead — How Many More??

That's what Cindy Sheehan's T-shirt said. The picture above shows the response in the Capitol tonight. To very loosely paraphrase Norma Desmond, the shirt is clean, it's the government that's obscene.

Did you know that in 1971, the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to arrest a man who wore a "F--- the Draft" T-shirt into the courthouse? (Cohen v. California, you can look it up.) So now Alito's on the court for 45 minutes and your civil liberties are already going down the toilet. You were warned.

Somebody at Daily Kos suggested that every American who's appalled by what happened tonight should -- on the same day -- wear a T-shirt that reads "2,245 Dead -- How Many More?? to work, school, church, court (by day's end, perhaps) or wherever we need to be. It's our right, after all.

We're in. Maybe someone can use the T-shirt proceeds to buy some body armor for the troops.

Police State II -- Be Careful what your tee-shirt says!!!

Actually I had been writing an open letter to Cindy Sheehan to just go away. I felt that she was doing the anti-war effort no good by going to South America and cavorting with leaders like Hugo Chavez. But tonight, it was a shock to find out that an American can be arrested for wearing a tee-shirt that said:

2,245 Dead — How Many More??


This is just too scary. Will we all get arrested for blogging against King George?

Police State

If this is really true we should all be very afraid:

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush's State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan, who had been invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. Sheehan was taken in handcuffs to police headquarters a few blocks away and her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

Activist Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Capitol

Blonde Bitch -- "Kill Justice Stevens"

She should make Olbermann's List again

From CNN:

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Poison Justice Stevens, Coulter jokes

Bush Missouri Ratings

Hopeful sign for McCaskill over Talent:

A Million Little Who Cares!!!

My Rant for today: Who cares

I can't believe there was no news on last night. Every channel carried the Oprah and Frey book, I lied, I cried, I apoligized. Ok nuff said let's get on with it.

With a preznut that is illegally spying on us, lying, carovting with criminals.

an economy in the crapper for middle America. An endless war. Neocons who bring democracy to the middle east so that they can elect terrorists.

I would think there is a whole lot more to talk about that some stupid book. And if you all have to get your advice from Oprah on what book to read or what gift to buy, that's pretty sad.

The end.

Overturning Roe -- The Confirmation of Samuel Alito

I saw this comment on another blog and thought it pretty well sums up what overturning Roe will do:

"The rich have always had, and will always have, access to abortion.

The middle and lower classes in the blue states will have access to abortion.

The middle class in the red states will be able to travel to blue states for abortion.

It is only the poor in the red states who will be denied legal abortions. So, they will go to illegal back-alley butchers."

Or they will have babies they can't afford and then all those people so bent on getting rid of Roe and are the same people who want to get rid of any kind of entitlement programs, will be be crying their eyes out about all the welfare mothers and babies.

WholesomeWear -- Latest Fundamentalism Swimwear

Newest thing in modest swimwear for American Christians:

Wholesome Wear

Wholesomewear is a modest line of clothing for wherever. Our waterwear is the first to be introduced because the need for modesty in swimwear in almost non-existant.






Latest thing for Australian Muslims:

Modest-fit design - Knee-length connected to a comfortably fitted hood & boot leg pants with elastic waist.

Loosely fitted top in Royal Blue with "Hibiscus" design, includes Navy Blue pants.

Aussie Swimwear

Cough Syrup

For Dad
(I told you so):

Doctors say cough syrup not worth cash

Over-the-counter cough syrup, a staple of American medicine cabinets, doesn't work very well and isn't worth the money when fighting the common cold, a national doctors group says.

Bush at K-State

I was wondering yesterday if the Bush trip to Manhatten, Kansas would be protested by anyone. I did a google news search and found one article from the day before the visit that a liberal group had planned protests outside the event but there was no news about it the next day.


I then found an article that stated that Richard Nixon had come to K State at the height of the college protests in the 1970's. He was welcomed there with no huge protests like those going on around the country and those who did protest were shouted down by the ones who gave him a warm welcome --Is K-State audience an 'amen. :

A reluctant Richard M. Nixon spoke at Kansas State University more than 35 years ago at the height of national agony over the Vietnam war. Anti-war protests were tearing apart campuses across the country, and four students had been killed at Kent State University three months earlier.

The president agreed to speak at the then relatively unknown Landon Lecture series only after guarantees from the state's freshman senator, Republican Bob Dole, that he would receive a warm reception.

Dole nailed it. Students wildly cheered Nixon and shouted down anti-war protesters.

I guess he knows where to go for these type of events. I bet if he had went to KU at Lawrence there would have been huge protests there as that is about the only liberal area that Kansas has.

(I just googled it again and found an article that says there were 200 protesters to greet Bush --Protesters greet Bush at K-State)

Bad Attitudes

The significant other told me something the other day that made me stop and think. He had noticed a decline in people's happiness. There had been anger at his work, he saw it in stores and everywhere he went, it seemed people are not happy anymore.

I don't get out that much but the one thing that has struck me about this bad atitude thing is that my feedback on ebay and amazon has been the the worst I have ever gotten. In the 9 years I have been selling on ebay I have gotten 16 negatives out of almost 5800 feedback. Before 2005 I had 10. In twelve months of 2005 I recieved 6, almost the amount I had recieved in the other 8 years of selling. It is the same on Amazon. It seems that no matter what I do, I cannot please some of these customers. A package gets lost so I refund -- that gets me a negative. I make a mistake and correct it -- negative.

So I really didn't get it until SO tells me about his observances and it made me think it's all about the mess we are in right now. Our young men and women dying in war. An economy being touted as wonderful that offers nothing for the average joe. Their big 4.9 unemployment rate is such a big joke. RIGHT -- lose a job that pays 20.00 an hour and what choice do you have -- work at Walmart for 7.00 bucks an hour. High gas and heating bills (this month our electric bill was 200.00 and gas was 300.00), increased costs of everything that we all have to have like groceries. What a mess, no wonder no one is happy.

I WANT TO GET OUR HAPPINESS BACK!

What a BALL HOG

Kobe Bryant achieves the second-highest point total in NBA history in Laker win, trailing only Chamberlain's 100.

81 for the Books

To BLEEP or Not to BLEEP

From The New York Post:

Howard Stern may be coming down with a Sirius case of the bleeps.

High-level executives of the satellite broadcaster are developing an internal standards-and-practices document that will set boundaries for Stern and other shock jocks, The Post has learned.

CURSES FOILED AGAIN FOR STERN

Impeachment

I can't believe this is really true, the Republican Congress would never consider doing this:

Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst

The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said.

Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Google Earth Discovers Flying Car

Google nabs flying car

Two weeks ago the world was shocked by the discovery of a WW II fighter plane flying over England.

Now comes word of an even more fantastic discovery by Google Maps: a flying car racing across Australia.

A careful analysis of the photo has determined that this machine has a cruising altitude of about 10 to 12 feet and is humming along at over 90 MPH.

Rock Bottom -- Bush Approval Ratings

From American Research:

Bush Job Approval Ratings
1/22/06	Approve	Disapprove	Undecided
Overall	36%	58%	6%
Economy	34%	60%	6%

George Orwell -- prognosticator

While Orwell is rolling fitfully in his grave

our liberties melt in the vast heat of fear

And democracy slips slowly away.

Is the power too great? It will be some say

It has got to be stopped right here, right today

Tomorrow's too late and so is tonight.

Wake up my fine friends, we must all join the fight.

As Orwell rolls in his grave!

Orwell is rolling fitfully in his grave

Words are twisted, spun by government power

We are given sound bites while the real truth is hidden

War is peace, war is good, war is strength, war is power

War is love, war is solace, war must be fought hour by hour,

War makes us great, war lessens our strife,

War is the orgasm giving meaning to life.

As Orwell rolls in his grave!

Orwell is rolling fitfully in his grave

Too many are blind because of their fear

Too many holding the sound from their ears, too many silencing their tongues

Safety is power and power is shelter, so worship the power without and within

The power becomes family, lover and friend
All hail the power and fall to your knee

Bow down to the power for it keeps you free.

As Orwell rolls in his grave!

Orwell is rolling fitfully in his grave

His science fiction Hell was really a prediction

He knew the truth and we didn’t listen.

Guns are good, hate is love, more is less and less more,

Helping the rich will help out the poor,

Four legs is good and two Legs are bad,

Greed is quite Healthy and charity sad.

As Orwell rolls in his grave!

Orwell is rolling fitfully in his grave

His silent screams fall on deaf ears, he reminds us:

“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.”

As Orwell rolls in his grave!

I Tot I Taw a Tewwowist

eFrom Internetweekly.org

The Revenge of Michael Moore

From MichaelMoore.com

After planning terrorist actions all day, Matthews and Osama enjoy a cold one.

Documentary: Orwell Rolls in His Grave

I had been wanting to buy this documentary and just happened to find it free to watch online. IT IS A GOOD WATCH, but be prepared to get a little sick to your stomach. The prognostication of George Orwell is looming closer than you think. Here is a link if you would like to watch it:

Free Speech Network

Orwell Rolls in His Grave provides a vital forum for ideas that will never be heard in mainstream media. New York University media professor Mark Crispin Miller says, "These commercial entities now vie with the government for control over our lives. They are not a healthy counterweight to government.

Chris Matthews -- bin Laden Like Michael Moore

I heard this on Hardball tonight and thought it was the most outrageous statement I had ever heard by a pundit. Chris Matthews comparing bin Laden to Michael Moore. from Crooks and Liars:

On Hardball today, Chris Matthews compared Michael Moore to Osama Bin Laden while discussing the newly released tape with Joe Biden.

view video at Crooks and liars

Those Mean Democrats that Made Mrs. Alito Cry

I was visiting NRO's The Corner and noticed this big flashing ad about how mean the democrats were to Judge Alito and his wife. HMMM -- Did you know:

That Senator John McCain once joked

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."
A joke too bad to print?

Or that Rush Limbaugh said this:

In 1993, when Chelsea Clinton was still in braces, Rush Limbaugh said this: "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat," said Limbaugh. "Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?" He then pointed to a video monitor, which switched to a picture of Chelsea Clinton
Rush Limbaugh Wikipedia

Let's Just All Pee our Pants -- Osam Bin Forgotten Speaks

I bet King George is just lovin' this. With Americans cowed he can just take all our liberties and no one will care. GO AHEAD, FLUSH THE CONSTITUTION DOWN THE TOLIET, as long as we don't die, we don't care!

Earth to Stepford Wife -- "SHUT UP"

On HRC's Plantation comment: Stepford wife, "Ridiculous."

I bet Hillary Clinton has more brains in her little finger than Stepford Wife has in her whole body. (It's Liberia not Libarria)

Who cares what you think?

Collateral Damage -- Pakistan

So you are one of those people who think taking out one Al Queda terriorist is worth the cost of 5 Pakistani women and 5 Pakistani children to do it. I guess I don't get it or I'm just too naive or dumb. But what if this scenario happened:

Luis Posada Carriles ( an anti-Castro Cuban émigré who is alleged to have been involved in numerous violent terrorist plots, including hotel bombings and the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Flight 455 in which seventy-three people were killed. He has also been involved in Operation Condor, namely in Orlando Letelier's murder in Washington, D.C., a few weeks before Cubana de Aviación's explosion.) who is currently given asylum in the United States were to be targeted by either Cuba or Venezuela, 5 American children and 5 American women are killed by a targeted bomb to take him out. Would that be OK?

I bet Americans would be outraged. So why does the killing of one Al Queda member in Pakistan make it ok to murder innocent women and children?

Why do Americans think they have this right?

New NASA Space Vehicle

Here is what my Son no. 1 has been working on, NASA Has just released this on their website:


Crew Exploration Vehicle

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot.

Sign Give 'Em Hell Harry's Petition

From Senator Harry Reid:



Honest Leadership Petition

Time Waster

I don't know why but this is fun:

FALLING SAND

War is Great Unless You Have to Fight in it!

In the last couple of weeks to several months, our local newspaper has been printing letters to the editor from students in my son's senior class that are in a very republican teacher's current events class. All are supportive of Bush and his war, here is a letter to the editor he wrote:

It has been great reading all the well written letters to the editor from my peers, the Benton High School Seniors. Their support for the Bush policy and the War in Iraq is quite heartening.

With all that enthusiasm for this administration and its war, it appears that the military recruiters here in Anyplac will have a virtual treasure trove of signers in the spring. There should be no shortage of young men and women signing up to fight for their president and his war that they support so wholeheartedly. I personally believe when a person who is of military age defends a war, they should be willing to join the fight, as I know I would.

Although it seems the new neo-con mantra of “war is good unless I have to fight it”, in the genre of Dick Cheney, has become the mainstream. This new pro-war group, who stick yellow ribbons on their cars and then they go on with their lives while our military heroes return to Iraq for three and four tours of duty, is quite amazing. I don’t support this war because I believe it was not only unnecessary it was illegal, but if we ever have a real war in which we are attacked, I will be the first to sign up to fight for my country. This new breed of Chicken-hawk who is all talk and no action is pretty sad.

Gingersnapp's no. 3
anyplace.
anytown, MO. 00000
816-555-1212

This is Good News

6-3 The Supreme court upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law.

Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law

The Supreme Court upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said that federal authority to regulate doctors does not override the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people. New Chief Justice John Roberts backed the Bush administration, dissenting for the first time.

After seeing this decision it makes me think that even with Alito, the court might still be more slanted to the privacy side of people's rights.

Worse President in History

I'm usually no big Hillary Fan but if she keeps this up, I may change my mind:

"We have a culture of corruption, we have cronyism, we have incompetence," she said. "I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country."

Clinton Slams Bush, White House in Harlem

More Stepford Wife Rant

In Africa Today Wife speaks:

"I'm always a little bit irritated when I hear the criticism of abstinence, because abstinence is absolutely 100 percent effective in eradicating a sexually transmitted disease," Mrs. Bush said, before tying her answer in with one of the major themes of her trip, women's rights in Africa.

"In a country or a part of the world where one in three people have a sexually transmitted deadly disease, you have to talk about abstinence, you really have to," she said. "In many countries where girls feel obligated to comply with the wishes of men, girls need to know that abstinence is a choice."

Abstinence is fine Mrs Wife, but in the real world people have sex and need to be taught about birth control. Let's teach both why don't we.

Stepford Wife Says Spying OK

from All Hat and no CAttle

Chinese May Have Discovered the "New World"

China beat Columbus to it, perhaps

An ancient map that strongly suggests Chinese seamen were first round the world

It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called “The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft”.

Next week, in Beijing and London, fresh and dramatic evidence is to be revealed to bolster Zheng He's case. It is a copy, made in 1763, of a map, dated 1418, which contains notes that substantially match the descriptions in the book. “It will revolutionise our thinking about 15th-century world history,” says Gunnar Thompson, a student of ancient maps and early explorers.

Bush's Ratings

Going back

D
O
W
N

39% -- ACCORDING TO:

Zogby

Oh That Awful Awful Socialistic Venezuela

Last October, Reed wrote a letter to the CEOs of the nine largest oil companies, asking them to donate a portion of their record-high profits to help low-income families, disabled citizens and the elderly pay their heating bills.

CITGO was the only company that responded, Reed said.

.....CITGO, which is owned by Petroleos de Venezuela, the state oil company of Venezuela. The oil is to be distributed to low-income families, homeless shelters and community clinics to help defray the unusually high cost of home heating fuel this winter......

full story:
From Venezuela to Warwick: low-cost oil comes to R.I.

Still on the Bottle?

I've been thinking this for quite awhile now but over at BottleofBlog a good case that Bush is still drinking. I know I watched a speech one day that he sounded really weird and slurred:

Out With The Old Drunk, In With The New

......And this is a guy who calls himself a "War President". This is a guy who thinks God is talking to him. This is a guy who thinks he decides what the law is. This is a guy who thinks he has a mandate to fundamentally and unilaterally change our government, our society, and the world.
And he's such a yutz, putz and lousy, out of control boozer that he can't even take a long weekend without hurting himself......

Stickzilla

Clinton Did Not have Warrentless Wiretaps

Former President Clinton said Thursday that he never ordered wiretaps of American citizens without obtaining a court order, as President Bush has acknowledged he has done. Clinton, in an interview broadcast Thursday on the ABC News program ''Nightline,'' said his administration either received court approval before authorizing a wiretap or went to court within three days after to get permission, as required by law.

Clinton says he didn't use warrantless wiretaps
Bloomberg News

Dumsfeld?

From The First Post:

Tax Cuts for the Rich overshawdow Cuts in Medicare, NASA, Farming

Bush Seeking to Limit Spending Growth in '07 Budget :


President George W. Bush is preparing a budget request for next year that officials say would carve savings from programs such as Medicare, NASA and agriculture, testing lawmakers' pledges to hold down spending in an election year.

Administration and congressional officials say Bush will propose more cuts in so-called entitlement programs as well as discretionary spending in fiscal year 2007, which begins Oct. 1, to hold down budget growth as the deficit swells with the cost of hurricane relief, the war in Iraq and subsidizing prescription drugs for senior citizens.

(for Cooper)

NASA Supporters
The budget office also aims to reduce spending on the Space Shuttle program, slicing as much as $6 billion from the projected cost of almost $70 billion in the next four years.

Bologna Has a First Name it's G-E-O-G George

Picture of the Day -- Me and Myself

The Truth about Mrs. Alito's Tears

From Conservative Blogger John Cole:

This headline is pretty hacktacular even for Drudge:

The headline states:

“ALITO WIFE LEAVES HEARING IN TEARS AFTER DEM ATTACK” and links to this Drudge write-up:

I don’t like Kennedy. At all. I think Schumer is a grandstanding fool and a pompous ass. I think Patrick Leahy is as partisan as they get, and not to be trusted. But only the most patently dishonest person on the planet would claim that Mrs. Alito left after a Democratic attack. She left after REPUBLICAN Sen. Lindsey Graham was basically praising Alito, defending him and reciting some of the things that have been said about Alito.

But it was not a withering attack from Democrats which unsettled Mrs. Alito. Not at all.

I am so sick and tired of everyone just lying about every-damned-thing.

Thank you, I too am so sick of lying on both sides. Can't we all just disagree and still get along without the spin and the emails that tell lies on both sides that no one checks out and then become worldwide truths, and the lies from talk programs.

Mrs. Alito Cries

Mrs. Alito cries at her husband's hearings during praise by Lindsey Graham because of the criticism by the dems.

Ok, here's the deal, when people become society's stars, whether it is in the arts or politics they have to know that alot of people are going to find fault with sometime they do or say and they will be criticized for something.

Now I am a person that can't take lots of criticism but I never had any ambition to be a society elite. Mrs. Alito, you better get a spine. I can guarantee you that your husband's decisions will be critisized by at least 50 percent of the population here in America.

You better buck up now or have him pull out, 'cause it ain't gonna get any easier if he sits on the Supreme Court.

The Camaro is Back

GM flexes muscle with new Camaro concept

A Chevrolet Camaro for the 21st century rolled up "Main Street" at the General Motors Corp. display yesterday to cheers and roars

Abramoff = Republicans

I can't imagine reading anything over at Nation Review online and agreeing with it but this piece by Rich Lowry shows what an honest conservative needs to know about the Abramoff scandal (and why they should worry):

The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope that something resonates. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), took more than $60,000 from Abramoff clients! North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan used Abramoff's skybox! It is true that any Washington influence peddler is going to spread cash and favors as widely as possible, and 210 members of Congress have received Abramoff-connected dollars. But this is, in its essence, a Republican scandal, and any attempt to portray it otherwise is a misdirection

full piece:
The Abramoff Scandal

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" - Not Anymore

Great op-ed on the warrentless spying by Bush by Miami Herald's Leonard Pitts:

FEAR AND LOATHING OF FREEDOM IN THE WHITE HOUSE

....Franklin Roosevelt was right. Fear itself is still the first enemy. When people are scared, they don't think, they don't reason and they want nothing so desperately as to just stop being scared. So often, they'll go along with anything that holds out that promise. Even if it means allowing the rights our forebears won from Britain's King George III to be denuded by America's King George I.....

Preparation W

This is funny, from All Hat and No Cattle:

Op-Ed

Yay, one of my letters to the editor was printed as an OP-ED piece:

Joplin Independent -- Average guy's empty pockets

Hitchens on The Bush Bombing of Al Jazeera

Did it really happen? From an op-ed by Christopher Hitchens:

The Bush Bombshell
Did the president propose to take out Al Jazeera?

.....The memorandum is actually a five-page transcript stamped "Top Secret." It describes a meeting at the White House on April 16, 2004, between President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. At that meeting, which took place while desperately hard fighting was in progress in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, Bush mooted the idea of taking out the headquarters of Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. The network's correspondents inside the city had been transmitting lurid footage of extreme violence. The exchange apparently puts Blair in a good light, in that he dissuaded the president from any such course of action and was assisted in this by Colin Powell, who was then secretary of state.....

Satellite Radio the Best 14.00 Money can Buy

I received a Satellite Radio from one of my sons for Christmas. It is great! I have heard and read things about how no one will pay for something they can get for free. The monthly fee is well worth the cost. Especially if you live in an area like I do where all you can get in talk radio is Russ Limbaugh, religious programming and farm reports.

I can now listen to Air America, MSNBC, CNN, Fox and much more. They have decades music stations starting with the 1940's going through the 90's and of course all the modern stuff.

If you are a person who spends alot of time in your car, this is the greatest thing since the internet.

Bush's Mess

BOSTON (Reuters) - The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included, a study said on Monday.

Full Story:
Cost of War could Top 2 Trillion Dollars

The Economy "Bust"

My newest letter to the editor:

Listening to the Bush - Cheney team the last couple of weeks, one would think that we are approaching an economic era that has dollar bills falling out of Average Guy’s pockets. Sugarplums and lollipops lay free for the taking along the highways and fairies stand on street corners handing out hundred dollar bills.

This would almost be laughable if it weren’t so sad. While company’s make billion dollar profits off the back of Mr. Guy and others by outsourcing his job overseas, Average’s job choices usually leave him with less pay and benefits. Other companies with healthy profits like IBM are freezing pension plans while some are handing them over to the government with huge decreases in what had once been promised. Millions of Americans saw their overtime pay taken away by Congress last year and the bankruptcy rule changes for Mr. Guy; will pull thousands into the poverty ranks when catastrophic medical bills or other life changing events occur.

An economic report in November showed that worker wages were down, with unit labor costs dropping by an annual rate of a half percent. Add to that the increase in gas and heating costs and the food chain effect will increase prices for goods and supplies we all need. Sure doesn’t look to me like Average Guy’s life is getting any better.

Right now there is a budget package before Congress that cuts billions of dollars from things like medicaide, food stamps, college loans and the school lunch program, while the Bush bunch is out touting permanent tax cuts that go mainly to the upper two percent of our society. None of that helps out Mr. Guy or makes his economic life any easier and the hurt it will cause in the lower income community will be substantial.

While the poverty rate has risen each year for the last five years and the gap between wealth and everyone else widens, Dear Leader must be preaching to the choir about his booming economy. It doesn’t boom in Middle Class America, actually no one here has even heard a small pop.

Gingersnapp

any street

any town. 009900

888-555-1212

P.S. After writing this last night, I noticed the stock market hit eleven thousand today. I was curious as to the effect it might have on Mr. Guy, so I asked him if that had changed his opinion on any of the things we had originally discussed yesterday. His reply: “With Christmas; braces for my kids’ teeth; paying the gas bill; buying clothes and shoes for kids who seem to outgrow them every two months or so; paying my college kids’ tuition; paying the outrageous car insurance for my teen drivers and with the pay cut I had to take last month to keep my company in the black I had two cents left over to do me another week until I was paid again. I checked and I couldn’t find any stocks I could buy for that, so does it affect me? NO, IT DOESN’T!”

KickBack Mountain

From American Idle:

An Equation For Our Times!

From This Modern World:

A Life, Wasted -- A DAD'S STORY

Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there. At 10:45 a.m. two Marines showed up at our door. After collecting himself for what was clearly painful duty, the lieutenant colonel said, "Your son is a true American hero."

At times like this, people say, "He died a hero." I know this is meant with great sincerity. We appreciate the many condolences we have received and how helpful they have been. But when heard repeatedly, the phrases "he died a hero" or "he died a patriot" or "he died for his country" rub raw.

Since then, two reactions to Augie's death have compounded the sadness.
full story:
Washington Post

The End of The World --- "Is Barbie Gay?"

Concerned Women for America:

Barbie’s Web Site Promotes Gender Confusion 12/30/2005

Click here to enlarge.
The iconic Barbie Doll has become another tool for promoting gender confusion among children. On the Barbie Web site, www.Barbie.com, there is a poll that asks children their age and sex. The age choices are 4-8, but as Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, notes children are given three options for their choice of gender. Click here to listen.


More multimedia content.

Maybe Michael Moore Was Right -- "Will They Ever Trust Us Again?"

Military Times' Poll Finds Fading Support for President, War

While President Bush remains more popular within the military than outside it, support for him, and for the war in Iraq, "has slipped significantly in the last year among members of the military's professional core," according to the Military Times, analyzing its annual year-end poll.

The Military Times Media Group is made up of the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Times.

Approval of the president's Iraq policy fell 9% from 2004; a bare majority, 54%, now says they view his performance on Iraq favorably. Support for his overall performance fell 11 points, to 60%, among readers of the Military Times newspapers (85% of those polled are on active duty).