Archive for May, 2008

Like any blogger, I occasionally have to indulge my ego and look at the statistics to see who is reading this blog.  Obviously, I don’t get names and addresses; I get locations and sometimes the search term that brought them here.

It is those search terms that sometimes grab my heart  like an Aztec priest…and wring it as dry as my washer spins the towels.  Often it is the search by name—names of the dead that bring them here.  And that makes me regret that I didn’t start my moon-quarterly lists of the released names until this spring.

Sometimes, it is terms like “rape of service women” or “accidental deaths in Iraq” typed in the google search that landed them on my net address.

I feel inadequate  and terribly humbled when reading some of those heart breaking search terms.  I know a lot of them are looking for some help determining how their loved ones really died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  So finally, here is something that may aid them.  On the blog-roll is a new address: “This Is the Home of the Brave”  (http://non-combat-death.org/) This is a site dedicated to helping families of those killed in what is deemed a “non-combat incident” to find some answers.

I get the DOD press releases with the names of the dead almost daily.  I see a lot of these non-combat incident labels.  And many of them say “the incident is being investigated” but one has to wonder if that is true.  After all, some have been investigated for years now, with no answer.

No answer to how a young woman, bruised and battered, with a gunshot wound deemed suicide was also set on fire after death.  How exactly do you beat yourself up, shoot yourself in the wrong side of the head for your dominant hand AND burn your own body?  No good answer to why a young Special Forces soldier had to die painfully by electrocution in his KBR provided shower stall, either?  As the site above says, supporting the troops does not mean turning a blind eye to murder.

My sincerest wishes for answers and justice and peace to the families of men and women lost in these highly suspicious circumstances.

So, what does a former press secretary do to pay the bills after he leaves the White House? Apparently he writes a tell all book and pisses off folks on both sides!

But just because Scott McClellan’s book might be self-serving, does that mean everything in the book is untrue? I doubt it. Should we believe he really felt all bad about standing in front of cameras and lying to the American people on a routine basis? Probably not, but possibly he did start itching. I recall him looking less than comfortable on a number of occasions.

He has bad disparaging words to say about Bush and his (mis)Administration. These sorts of things make my little dripping fang liberal heart SING. If I have to watch Clinton savaging Obama in her quest to regain the White House, I should at least have the pleasure of watching drowning rats standing on each others’ shoulders as they try to save themselves from history’s bitter footnotes!

Some especially yummy bits from this buffet:

“Said former top aide Karl Rove, in an interview with Fox News Channel, “If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them. And frankly I don’t remember him speaking up about these things. I don’t remember a single word.”

Wow! Really, Karl? ‘Cause we know everyone would have gave a shit what the press secretary thought, right? We know anyone not aspiring to winning the Gold Medal in Ass-Kissing Yes-man-itis might as well pack and leave the Bush White House. So lets borrow a word from Frank Townsend, who called McClellan “disingenuous” and just say that is the nicest thing I can call your above statement!

And the Blondness doing the job now? She had this to say:

“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” she said. ………. It is sad – this is not the Scott we knew.”

It is sad, isn’t it, Blondie? I mean, obviously just working in the emanations of the Rovian-Cheneyesque miasma obviously induces mental changes and break downs. What do you think you will turn into when YOU need another job? After all, you are still in the fog of….of, well, what can you call that foulness, anyhow?

Here is my none-too-educated, but gut-felt guess on this one. I think Scott DID feel moral qualms. But of course he knew such things would be as well received as a turd in the Presidential punch bowl, so he held his tongue and hoped things would improve. Things not only did not improve, they got worse. So away he went. Personally, I think the job is such a mind/body/soul fuck that is why Press SecretaryTony Snow relapsed into cancer. Toxic environments will do that to a person.

And the further Scott was from the White House, the more he looked around the REAL world, the more he realized how badly hoodwinked he had been. Of course the neo-con cabal doesn’t want to hear this stuff. It would be like unpacking Cheney’s lunch of grilled kittens in front of the Washington Press Corps. But I think we could McClellan the benefit of the doubt and read his book as at least partially true.

That said, I will borrow this book from the library as I don’t know as I think he deserves to make any of MY pinched pennies off of his years of depravity at the Bush White House. He shouldn’t have life too easy, should he? I personally think anyone working for Bush should have a big red letter “A” for Asshat tattoo’ d upon their foreheads; but I recognize that is my dripping fangness taking over. So, I won’t PAY to read his book: I need to pinch my pennies to pay for gasoline for the man to get to work, and to try having enough left over for Fisher House!

(An easy write up at: http://tinyurl.com/4nzx83 )

I am an amateur history buff, and an amateur philosopher. I am really not in a class with so many of my favorite bloggers, but I am bitchy and big-mouthed and will harangue away with the best of my betters, all the same. Right now, from my lower middle class, no retirement savings, no liquid assets, gonna-be-screwed-if-the-economy-really-tanks vantage point I look at the coming election and my beloved country and it seems like a coin toss devised in a bad B-movie. You know the type, where the hero is in a rigged game, but he is the sort who will always try to get between the rock and the hard place un-smashed?

America isn’t really looking much like James T. Kirk or even Indy Jones, though. I worry about the “tails” in that toss…that side of the coin seems terribly weighted to me:

~ The Democrats are tearing themselves to bits. And that is bad enough of itself, but the WAY they do it bothers me even more. Clinton’s past, we are told by her supporters, is just that—in the past. So, her work for Walmart and the union busting law firm don’t mean she doesn’t love the common working stiffs of America. But Obama’s past, well, now here is some good smearing, not only is he panned for being black and accused of being a secret Muslim (wtf is this, the American freaking Inquisition??), but he is called an elite sort who doesn’t care about the common man? Wow, how does anyone DO that, hit both sides of it?  This is what kills me, you are sexist if you bring up Clinton’s past; but you are not racist if you bring up a largely fabricated past and glue it to Obama?  This is a big weight heading for tails, folks. If you can build in a nice secretive, never shows its face racism, accuse the guy of lack of experience; and likewise claim a woman who worked against the interests of the very voters she wants most never did so and not get called on bullshit….well, hey, war is peace, dudes.

~Another tails weight I see is that it HAS come down to whether it is about racism or sexism. Wouldn’t it be nice if all candidates were unmarked boxes on the political shelf, with their IMPORTANT “ingredients” truthfully listed—stuff like voting records, job resume, maybe a polygraph on where they stand on this, that, and the other? Of course, all that “stuff” is available if one looks deeper than media sound-bites. Americans seem sadly unready for the rigors of researching out the truth—even in the age of the internet when it is so much easier to do.

~Another tail thing is Americans make lousy existentialists. What do I mean by that? We like to jolly ourselves along in completely unrealistic ways; the GOP talks about trickle down economics and a lot of very poor folks believe it. Come on, everyone, ANYbody knows that the only thing that reliably rolls downhill is more shit, different day. The GOP sells the “American Dream” but they don’t mention that only about 5% of the population can afford the price. WAKE UP, stop believing the folks that tell you it will all work out. Nothing works out without blood, sweat, and tears. Stop protecting yourselves from the real horrors facing America with statements like “Well, whoever wins in November won’t get much done, so it doesn’t matter who it is; the candidate in 2012 is the one to watch!” How long do you really think economic disaster can be deferred? Get real!

~We like fish too well. This is logic 101, folks. An awful lot of Americans, when faced with a problem will accept anything as the cause of the problem. So when the economy is doing lousy because corporations have shipped jobs overseas, and the government is pumping every tax dime into a war that really only benefits big companies and undertakers, there are lots of asshats out there saying that isn’t really the problem. No, it is those pesky immigrants…legal and un! THEY are taking your jobs, by gawd. Really? You worked in a restaurant kitchen for minimum wage or below and now you are out of work? This is a red herring dragged across the trail of American rhetoric, and because it stinks and is ripe with hidden racism, too many folks follow this trail instead of watching where the money goes.

~ We progressive/liberal sorts are too good hearted. Yes, this is a tails leaning factor right now. In fear that the Democrats are eating their own, we fear McCain will win. So, some of us tell ourselves he will be “reasonable.” You know, even I, back in 2000 said of George Bush, “Well, maybe he will rise to the task at hand—I mean, my Gods, they can’t let him fail, can they?” Boy oh boyoboy—what that a statement of pure shit. And yes, it rapidly rolled down hill!  Stop giving the fuckers the benefit of the doubt!!

I could go on all day. But can’t bore everyone to death; so are there any signs the beautiful American coin might come up heads? Some. And let me say, even if it does, it doesn’t mean things are rosy, ok? It just means we get another chance to pull our spoiled heads out of our own asses!

+ People are sick of the war. A very paltry number still think our “freedom” is what it is about. So the GOP has its own little splitsville brewing as some of their tried and true members look to Libertarian candidates.

+ Even though a lot of our Congress critters vote in ways generally guaranteed to fill their financial portfolios, some are waking up to realize that money might not be enough if the house of cards falls down. And a few of them might be afraid to live abroad after the crash—after all, we aren’t real popular overseas just now. So, this would be a good time to tell them exactly how you feel, and to my mind, with as many expletives UNdeleted as possible. (Example: Senator Venal-ass? Yes, I just am calling to remind you that you are supposed to be working for ME, you fucktard, NOT for Exxon-Mobil. So goddamn you, find out why even Mexico has cheaper gasoline, and BEFORE the cost of heating this dump I live in puts me on the street!)

+McCain keeps talking how good a veteran he is, what a brave POW he was. But he votes nastily for other vets, and some of them are catching on and being quite noisy about it. The Webb GI Bill PASSED (break out the GOOD beer!), and now Bush and McCain are all on about how the volunteers shouldn’t get it because they haven’t been …what…..drafted? Like WWII troops often were? Because they haven’t stayed military serfs in substandard quarters for enough years?  The GOP is not really the party of that supports the military, they just play that party on television. And badly. They are the party of the contractors, undertakers, and oilmen. And there are more and more veterans catching on to this fact.
+I see some signs that ordinary day to day Americans might be getting the clue that the Religious Right is not necessarily right about many things—they may have screwed the pooch and shown their nasty controlling, lets show those Spanish Papist bastards how to do a REAL Inquisition hand a bit too plainly. This is the only place where Americans being spoiled into thinking they CAN TOO always have their way might prove beneficial—cause the Religious Right absolutely wants it done THEIR way or not at all. Them losing some political power can only be a good thing.

+Nobody likes being scared all the time. The constant fear-mongering is losing its grip. It is like the health alerts we get, where after a while EVERYdamnedTHING you put in your mouth causes cancer (grapefruit, for Gods’sake??!): you finally decide to say “Fuck it” and eat like a normal person instead of obsessing. So, finally, Americans are getting sick of looking over their shoulders for “terr’ists” all the time, and they will be tired soon of the restrictions on their civil rights. (I am a bit afraid this heads-weight might be counter balanced by the government having gotten so accustomed to having their way that it could take a while to roll back the power to squash. But I am supposed to be positive here, right?)

+ And last, but I hope not least, Americans really CAN be tough and reasonable at the same time. If this war really WAS like WWII, as Bush keeps falsely telling us, we could cut a lot of shit out of our lives to focus on what really counts. We could stop living like spoiled brats and focus on security of home and job harder. And when things get bad enough, as I fear they will, then we will have to do this. We won a Revolution, against all odds. We need a new internal revolution in thinking now, and I am sure we are capable of it, although we are less well educated (over all) than our Founding Fathers and a bit too certain of our country’s place on the world stage. This IS the existential crisis of America at the end of her period of hegemony. We WILL find a new place of balance and survival in the world because we must. But it won’t be comfortable and we may not like much of it.

Brace yourselves, that coin is spinning. It is up to all of us to see which side gets the most weight.

The  dead service members whose names were released between full moon and the 27th of May:

Cpl. William J. L. Cooper, 22, of Eupora, Miss., -Marine -Afghanistan- combat ops
Lt. Col. Joseph A. Moore, 54, of Columbus, Miss. of the Air Force died of natural causes in Djibouti  while supporting the war in Afghanistan

Master Sgt. Davy N. Weaver, 39, of Barnesville, Ga – Army – Afghanistan – IED

Pvt. Branden P. Haunert, 21, of Cincinnati, Ohio,- Army -Iraq – IED

Lt. Jeffrey A. Ammon, 37, of Orem, Utah, – Navy – Afghanistan -IED

1st Lt. Jeffrey F. Deprimo, 35, of Pittston, Pa. – Army – Afghanistan – IED

Pfc. Howard A. Jones, Jr., 35, of Chicago, Ill. , and Army man serving in Iraq, died while home on leave after being hit by a hit and run driver

Spc. David L. Leimbach, 38, of Taylors, S.C – Army -Afghanistan – RPG, small arms fire

Sgt. Blake W. Evans, 24, of Rockford, Ill. – Army – Iraq -IED

Sgt. Frank J. Gasper, 25, of Merced, Calif. – Army – Iraq – IED

Pfc. Kyle P. Norris, 22, of Zanesville, Ohio, – Army – Iraq – IED

May they rest in peace, and their families find comfort.

Because if America could really look at how she got to where she is; she might be able to slow the burials of American soldiers to be memorialized in their turn!

At a terrific blog (http://stationcharon.blogspot.com/ ) another writer is being highlighted today. The essay by Dmitri Orlov is so thought provoking, and so well written that it should be gift wrapped and stuffed in mailboxes around the nation. Especially the 535 mail boxes of the House and Senate. Even if I am not in total agreement with all of his analysis, I think large portions of what he says really speaks to where we are going; I have said the same myself with less to work on. Note the blogroll and get a cup of coffee and go read: Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century

A Tiny Teaser: “But these are all details; the point I really want to make is that proposing resource wars, even as a worst-case scenario, is still a form of denial. The implicit assumption is this: if all else fails, we will go to war; we will win; the oil will flow again, and we will be back to business as usual in no time. Again, I would suggest against waiting around for the success of a global police action to redirect the lion’s share of the dwindling world oil supplies toward the United States.”

My last post started some good conversations elsewhere, and gave my brain more grist for its constantly moving millstones.

The idea behind flying or training, of course, is the carpool idea—lots of people on one vehicle.  And yes, this IS a good idea.  For long journeys in speed, or commuting to work.  It is not necessarily a good idea for a holiday weekend’s trip.  And there are “outside” reasons and “inside” reasons.

I already discussed the obvious outside reasons, but here are a few more:

(1) Who wants to spend two to four hours of the weekend in air terminal lines?  That time equates to anything from 200 to 300 miles down the road!

(2) Trains and planes don’t even GO the places I tend to go (if I am going anyplace) on holiday weekends.  There is no train or plane to Kalaloch or Ruby Beach.  There is no train or plane to Multnoma Falls in Oregon; I could fly to Portland and then, VOILA—need to rent a CAR.  Stupid waste of time and money.

(3) Most of the airlines that go places I go (again, when and if I go) are small jets like the MD-80.  They don’t seat huge numbers of folks.  The do use a lot of fuel.  I really wonder, if you divided up the gallons per mile per passenger; is it REALLY better than what I get in my Corolla, or on the motorcycle?  I don’t know, but I bet a case could be made!

(4) I won’t fly because I don’t like TSA–but one reason is the lack of my own choice of food and beverages.  One used to be able to pack a lunch and take beverages and now cannot do so.  Not only do I object to inferior quality and high priced airport/airplane food that is acceptable to the TSA, but an awful lot of it is a medical risk to me because of allergies.  And no, I do not consider it an option to need to get a doctor’s note to travel with my own provisions, dammit.

Now, the deeper levels of reasons:

(1) The trains DO stink.  They’re also dangerous : derailments are more and more common on our aging railroad infrastructure.  But in case anyone is going to call me an elitist because I don’t want to ride trains that largely smell like latrines, let me get right to it.  Yes, I AM an elitist if that is the qualifier.  This is where the INNER reasons come in; the hypocritical ones the American environmentalists and others do not want to talk about.

(2)You see, public transport in America is seen as something to make money upon, and not just a living for everyone involved, no, someone needs to get rich.  Stockholders have more sway over airlines than the paying passengers.  So, corners are cut on trains and planes to keep the profit margin within the range desired by people who are not spending much time riding.

(3)In Europe, conversely, public transport is a means to get people efficiently and comfortably from place to place; it is to SERVE the populace and make a living for the workers—not to enrich stockholders.  I think airlines and trainlines should all be nationalized and funded by taxpayers FOR taxpayers.  If you want to “green” America’s travel habits, holiday weekend or not, you need to make it safe, affordable and not stigmatized by FILTH.  The dirtiest subway train I ever saw in Germany, and the filthiest bus in France were still FAR cleaner than the cleanest train I have been on in America.

(4) Why are the trains and buses here dirty?  And even the planes are getting very shabby and dingy looking, I must say.   Because they don’t spend money on poor people, thats why.  And yes, the perception in America is that poor people ride the buses cause they can’t afford cars; and poor people go by train cause they can’t afford to fly.  Not that trains are terribly cheaper–the price is as high in most of the train trips I considered within the last two years.  And the accommodations are worse, although you might have better access to food and water at stations.

So there it is, I can’t get “there” from “here” on my choice of destinations, the prices stink, the trains stink, the food and beverages are inferior and expensive.  TSA acts like goons, and the perception is “You are our cattle, shut up and sit down.”  Gee, yeah, Kermit said “It’s not easy being green” but he had no idea it meant martyring yourself for a bunch of rich guys who fly charter and never look at a train or bus!

So, when those perceptions change, and those priorities, yeah, I will train.  For now, if I can’t drive, I actually take the bus.  I like the buses, though for the record, Mexican owned buses are cleaner than Greyhound.  The drivers take more pride, it seems.  People on the bus talk more, it is a better trip even with back-wrenching seats and stops and starts that keep one from sleeping.

So, I will be climbing onto the motorcycle an hour hence for a ride to the Post Office, and then out in the temporary sunshine for a few hours before beginning a weekend’s yard work.  America DOES need to be green;  but green in a way that does not aid the serfification efforts of corporate American!  There should not be a class of financially broken, demoralized, but environmentally conscious workers at the bottom of the American pyramid, and a REAL elite class that could give less than a hoot about the environment because wealth insulates them from the dangers of the degraded environment.

Go green, but insist on the real deal.  The environment doesn’t need martyrs, it is not a religion.  It needs the ordinary masses active, insistent and making conscious choices and holding ALL classes accountable.  And maybe, just maybe, with enough of that class action—we won’t need more wars for oil!

Ok, sometimes I don’t get past the headline, everyone who knows me is accustomed to me storming away from the computer screen, ranting; or throwing down a paper, ranting. Usually, however, it is only news that does this to me. But, the stupid, it burns…even in “environmental tip” articles now, apparently.  And yes, there is the chance the article got better after #1; but you know, it IS Friday and there is the chance it didn’t get smarter—I am pegging the “fed up with dumbshits” meter already!

The headline was “Ten Ways to Green Your Road trip” and I only got as far as number one. Number one was that because gas is hitting over $4 a gallon, you should plan to make your “road trip” by train or plane instead of in the car on this holiday weekend.

Dipshits.

(1) Trains and planes still use fuel. Lots of it, and some of it dirtier than gas.

(2) Did you ever try to get reservations on EITHER a train or plane on this short notice, much less on a busy holiday weekend?

(3) Let me say this slowly…roooad trrrrip. ROAD. There is a humongous difference—my son and I DROVE on ROADS to Mexico last December. We stopped in a collection of wonderful places that neither trains nor planes would have allowed. We could eat when hungry and not over-priced, stale CRAP, either. Part of the point of a road trip is the ROAD and all along the way.

(4)Our highest gas price then was $4.50 a gallon, our lowest was $2.88. Gas for the trip to the very border of Mexico south of Yuma cost about $400 round trip—you could not get ONE train or plane ticket for the same distance for that price, much less two. Even with gas higher, flying or training will be unlikely to save you money. Gas use does not go up too much whether there is one person in the car or five—-not true for ticket prices on trains and planes.

(5) Airlines now charge for baggage, American began this with a fee of $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second. So add that pile of stuff in the trunk up in those terms. The “green” being touted in the article MUST be talking about money!

Why do so many environmentalists assume it is something better when you don’t burn the fossil fuel yourself? It is better to say “Oh, look the plane is fueling up.”…really? This is like touting Japan’s wonderful reforestation projects, began back in the 1600s—-without noticing that their forests are beautifully untouched because they are STRIPPING Australia and parts of Canada and the United States of every stick of old growth they can purchase.

There is only ONE back yard, you dimwitted environmental article writers….its name is EARTH.  Deferring a family’s use of fuel to the airlines is not greener and costs four, five, six times as much.  If you want to be green this holiday weekend….STAY HOME. Plant a garden. Get rid of the grass. Build a swing set for the kids and throw out the video games.  Stop buying water in plastic freaking bottles.  Consider eating less meat from feedlots.  Get real.  Oh, and here is a thought….MEMORIALIZE  someone, visit a local grave yard, plant flowers there, give a damn.

I am firmly telling myself the election in November must not be as tainted by screwy machines or hanging chads as the last two Presidential runs. I am firmly telling myself things must change for the better, because to do otherwise is to invite the Sweeney Todd wannabe in my head to start stropping the razor.

So, whilst dreaming optimistic “We can TOO have more than a paper democracy.” daydreams, and thus considering the things that have changed in the last eight years, I realized it feels a bit like going over to a departing neighbor’s garage before the moving truck arrives. You know, to get back the borrowed garden tools, the half bag of charcoal and the like?

So, yes, there are a few things I will be needing back when my country attempts to quit having “technical difficulties” with its democratic process and ideals. And shortly thereafter, I hope it will recall quaint customs like separation of Church and State and the Geneva Conventions!

First off, I would like to reclaim the word “PATRIOT” from the likes of Ann Coulter. Sorry, Ann, you don’t get to keep it to apply to red, white and blue sheep who don’t care if the country is marching off a cliff, so long as they sing “Onward, Christian Soldiers” while doing so. A patriot is capable of recognizing when the beloved country is loosing its moral imperative and falling for rank imperialism. No, the basic root of the word being the same does not make them the same things.

And while I am at it, Ann ? I’d like you to turn over the word “TRAITOR” as well, because you rankly used it like an assault weapon on anyone who had the (well, yes!) patriotism to disagree with you. So, since my Oxford does not have that down as a valid usage, yeah….I will be needing that one back, too. I’m sure if I had ever succeeded in reading any of your books cover to cover, I’d have a LOT more I’d like back from you, Ann. But, alas, I never got much past the cover without looking like I might need an anti-seizure medication administered.

And you telephone people? I will be needing my reasonable expectation of PRIVACY fulfilled again, thank you. No, you may not consider me a satisfied customer if you roll over like well-trained dogs and turn over my conversations, emails and the like without so much as a by-your-leave WARRANT signed by a judge, damn it. Actually, while I am at it, I’d like ALL my CIVIL RIGHTS back.
You Homeland Security sorts? Well, I’d like your JOBS back, please. I don’t want my tax dollars paying you to screw up things like FEMA creating debacles like post-Katrina New Orleans to haunt our future as well as our past. I don’t think you make us more secure at all; I think you cost a lot of money and like a really bad whore, you don’t deliver as promised and then take the money and run. Oh, and your buddies at Blackwater and KBR? I’d like them to be fired, too. If they want to be mercenaries, let them join the Swiss Guard, get fitted for those pretty little white pleated skirty outfits and stand outside the Vatican, ok?

In fact, while on the subject of civilian contractors taking care of things governmental or military? I’d like the military to take back CARING FOR THEIR OWN NEEDS.  I’d like you profiteering slum-lord sons of bitches who are in charge of the quarters and barracks on posts and bases round the country to fall off my personal reality map, ok? I have SEEN the job you “do” for the entire dollar amount of the BAQ payments that you scarf into your bloated bank accounts. In buildings that would be condemned by any city code in the country, you take anything from tiny BAQ for a PFC all the way to what a Master Sergeant makes as your “take” for maintenance. There is no appeal for those begging you to make the fan work, the toilet stop leaking, the heater heat, or get the mold out of the walls in the baby’s room……you are answerable to none and you keep all the money. You don’t deserve the trust granted you by a thoughtless government and helpless people. What I want more than need back from you is a pile of your heads such as Genghis Khan might have had as tribute, and don’t splash blood on my carpet, either! Slum lords by any other name deserve to be fed to the rats!

I’d also like back SUPPORT FOR THE TROOPS. I’d love all those yellow magnets to be shoved up Dick Cheney’s ass. I’d like real support—caring what hellhole we send them to, for instance. Caring WHY and if it is really necessary, for instance. I’d like the VA better funded, I’d like educational benefits that enables vets to compete successfully in the civilian world. I’d like it to stop being lip service only. And yes, this didn’t happen only in the last eight years, but it happened to a degree that seriously makes my mind rock, and while lies of the most blatant sorts are told to the contrary.  I’d like our NEXT President to not whine about wanting to veto things like Senator Webb’s idea for a new GI Bill “cause it costs too much”.  If you can’t afford to educate your veterans, you can’t afford the war, ok?   I’d like health care that cares about their minds AND bodies; I’d like their families really supported while they are gone at war instead of them being given stupid little pep talks. I’d like the backdoor draft that is the “stop loss” program to die a painful and unnatural a death as possible for a ‘policy’ to die.

I’d like the media…print, radio, and television, not to all be owned by just a few old rich right wing guys. I’d like REAL investigative reporting back. I need Dan Rather back, thank you very much! I need REAL NEWS, not what some tween rock star did in the stupidism of the day contest, thank you. I need news, not a contest in ball-busting idiocy from “pundits”, thank you.

Oh, and I’d like my ECONOMY  back to looking more like it did when Clinton was President….can I have THAT back, and money in the government bank account? I’m seriously needing somebody to slap the shit out of bankers contributing to the housing mess with tricky loans that make me wonder if they thought it through. I mean, did they WANT to repossess one out of every ten homes? Or did they think that anyone of those poor fools who bought the sales-talk really could suddenly come up with house payments that increased by 50% in some cases? Gee, and here I thought that “magical thinking” was a stage for four year olds, not for adults. Wow. And I need whoever said it was ok to make “interest only” loans (where the premium is never paid and the home owner struggles to maintain what a renter would have a landlord to manage because this is as close as they can get to the “American dream”) to be given to me as a sex-slave. Wait, no sex will be involved, unless THEY get off on being severely beaten about the head and shoulders while being verbally abused as well. So, does that make them just an ordinary slave? Or does it make me a dominatrix? (Can I get leather with that?) Either way, I need some SANITY IN LENDING back so the whole damned world doesn’t need to tremble when the house of cards falls down.

I need the 9-11 birthed FEARS STUFFED back into their anxiety closet. I need immigration cops to stop acting all Gestapo in my country so the Statue of Liberty can stop weeping and wishing she could slash her wrists. I need legal aliens to stop being jailed and deported for silly assed minor reasons (sometimes discovered when they apply for citizenship) because everyone is acting a bit xenophobic about foreigners. I need to NEVER have to see an immigration cop ride a bike up onto a lawn, where he lets himself into a fenced yard as if it was his personal property, because by gawds, those ‘wetbacks’ might be terrorists, too, so we get to act all kinds of intolerably asinine.

I need the police departments of the country to BE POLICEMEN, NOT PARAMILITARY goons. I need back cops in a blue suits who might get a free donut, but would NEVER taser a woman for asking him why he was using a baton on a man already down flat on the street or dump a man in a wheelchair out onto the sidewalk to “search” him. So, yes, I really, really need those back, or I will never enter a major urban center in America again.

I need back the doctors who WORK FOR PATIENTS, not for insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies. I need them to care if their treatment works for me; I need it to be affordable. I need to not be trying to advise friends on herbal remedies for their sick kids because they have no insurance and can’t afford medical care. Somebody must give back to me the assurance that medical care is a right, not a privilege!

I need the EPA to be run by science-minded folks who give a damn about the state of the environment, both in America and in the world.  I need BACK some protection for the environment, not for rich corporations.  I need someone in charge who understands that starting things the “green” way actually makes MORE sense and more CENTS in the long run—-doing things the stupid un-environmentally correct way is a short run loot-the-environment method that is just 21st century robber baron behavior.  I need the EPA to be given its teeth back, what few it had, because it can’t gum those bastards into submission!

But the biggest item on the list? I need PEACE. I need real diplomacy instead of military adventuring. I need the war over and the men and women of the military that I adore back home with their families. I need to not be worrying about going to war with Iran. I need a government interested in forward looking energy policies that don’t kiss oil company or car factory ass, so we don’t need to be so damned dependent on oil as to have to start wars over it. I need to know that my great-grandchildren won’t still be trying to pay off the war that Geo. Bush started for entirely wrong reasons and with no good plan of how to win and end it all.  I need people who know talking is not weakness—it is the profoundest strength out there; only the weak and fearful really prefer the shoot first method.

Soon as everyone is ready to deliver, let me know, I will clear the way and send the shipping address for all of the above.

The list of those who died as a result of war in Iraq and Afghanistan since the First Quarter moon phase (the numbers in parens are simply the posts from the message boards where these are posted as I walk them in):

(1)  In Iraq, all Marines, killed while (as the Marines put it) “supporting combat ops”:

Lance Cpl. Casey L. Casanova, 22, of McComb, Miss.

Cpl. Miguel A. Guzman, 21, of Norwalk, Calif.

Lance Cpl. James F. Kimple, 21, of Carroll, Ohio

Sgt. Glen E. Martinez, 31, of Boulder, Colo.

(2) The 101st lost two men today in Afghanistan to IEDs

Spc. Jeremy R. Gullett, 22, of Greenup, Ky.

Staff Sgt. Kevin C. Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N. M.

(3) In Afghanistan:

Pfc. Ara T. Deysie, 18, of Parker, Ariz. – Army – RPG

Sgt. Isaac Palomarez, 26, of Loveland, Colo – Army -IED, small arms fire & RPG

In Iraq:

Spc. Mary J. Jaenichen, 20, of Temecula, Calif. – Army – non-combat cause (under investigation)

(4) Spc. Joseph A. Ford, 23, of Knox, Ind., Army – in Iraq – vehicular accident

Pvt. Matthew W. Brown, 20, of Zelienople, Pa. – in Afghanistan – Army – non-combat cause

(5) All Army members, killed in Iraq:

Cpl. Jessica A. Ellis, 24, of Bend, Ore. – Army – Iraq – IED

Sgt. Victor M. Cota, 33, of Tucson, Ariz.- Army- Iraq – IED

Sgt. John K. Daggett, 21, of Phoenix, Ariz. – Army – Iraq – RPG attack

So, fourteen Americans since the 11th of May.   May they rest in peace, may their loved ones find some comfort….some how.