Windbag Rush Limbaugh likes to denigrate "environmental wackos" and claim that global climate change is just a fabrication of we hug the whales crowd. A story today linked at buzzflash.com called "Meltdown" talks about the drastic changes that are occurring in Alaska.

Winters in Alaska have gotten noticeably warmer. Ducks that used to already be gone, migrated south, were still swimming on water that should have been frozen. Houses and other buildings constructed on the permafrost are now sagging sideways because the permafrost is melting. Alaska is like the canary in the coal mine. If the canary dies, you know you're in trouble.

The Congressional Budget Office is projecting a deficit of $2.7 trillion dollars over the next decade with the Bush budgets and tax cuts in place. We are headed for train wrecks on so many fronts thanks to this administration: the global climate, our relations with our countries, the resentment of people in the Third World, our Mad Cow economy, and even our food supply (remember Mad Cow disease).

If we needed any evidence that "compassionate conservatism" is an oxymoron, we got it in the news that unemployment benefits are being denied to 760,000 people who have exhausted their benefits. But things are great for billionaires, so I guess we should all stand and say hip-hip-hooray for King George IV.

I wonder if Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is familiar with the concept of conflict of interest, of if he just doesn't care. Justice Scalia, instrumental in the decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000, recently went on a hunting trip with Vice President Cheney. One problem with that is that Justice Scalia was going to be hearing a case involving Cheney. Theoretically, you might be able to be objective, but it seems highly unlikely.

Today there is a story that Justice Scalia has accepted perks from lawyers who might be appearing before the Court. If we had an ethical Congress truly devoted to the Constitution, Justice Scalia would be facing impeachment.

In other outrages, we know that the Ashcroft Justice Department has subpoenaed records of women who had late term abortions performed. There is no end of abuses by this Justice Department in trampling the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.

The news also had a story that the economy grew 4.1% in the last quarter. The right-wingers will hail this as proof the Bush tax cuts are working. But we shouldn't forget that unemployment is still around 5.6%, that this administration has a net job loss in the millions, and things aren't looking much better on the job front. Our economy is a ticking debt bomb. Americans are maxed out on credit cards, borrowing against their homes, working two or more jobs, and falling further behind. Just as in the Reagan years, trickle down got stuck at the top.

See how they spin. In today's Fresno Bee we have another rendition of "others said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction too." The Bush apologist quoted Senators John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and noted that the Regime Change Act was passed during the Clinton administration. He also repeated the mantra about the number of U.N. resolutions violated by Saddam Hussein.

I would point out that Senators Clinton and Kerry were basing their assessments on the WMD's on the intelligence provided them by the Bush administration. If they had seen all the evidence, they might not have made such strong claims about the WMD's in Iraq. President Clinton never launched an unnecessary war against Iraq, despite the Regime Change Act.

In the news today David Kay, the man Bush sent to Iraq as the chief weapons inspector, said the administration was "selective" in the intelligence it used to justify the war. We know from the Paul O'Neill memoir that Bush and company were planning a war against Iraq within days of assuming office in 2001. We know the administration wanted to find a terrorism link to Iraq immediately after the terrorist attacks on September 11. We know that Bush signed an order that, in effect, authorized war against Iraq a full year before the first attack took place in 2003.

Another interesting item today is that the vile right-wing website newsmax.com ran a story claiming that the Bush administration has added jobs. This flies in the face of statistics provided by the government. It would be interesting to see where the newsmax statistics originated. In Fresno the unemployment is high even in good economic times. I've heard the statistic of 14% unemployment during the Bush depression. I know I've been trying to find a better job for three years without any success so far.

I don't listen to Howard Stern. I don't like flatulence and peekaboo humor, but it's disturbing that Stern is being censored by the Clear Channel stations that broadcast his show. Free speech is far more important than "protecting" us from things we might not like to hear. A dial is on the radio for the express purpose of changing the station or turning off the radio.

So much outrage and so little time. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow defended the "outsourcing" of American jobs because, after all, American corporations have to remain "competitive." They owe it to their shareholders and (to their employees?). Never mind that this trend is rapidly destroying the American middle class. Historically, countries don't survive very well or very long without a strong middle class. I don't know about you, but those good old days of serfs and lords don't appeal much to me.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that he recommends cutting Social Security benefits to future retirees to reduce the gargantuan Bush deficits, rather than raising taxes. Never mind that the Bush tax cuts are the primary reason for the deficits. We saw tax cuts for the rich during the Reagan years and we got massie deficits. President Clinton raised taxes on the most affluent and we actually had budget surpluses. Then along comes Bush and the new generation of Robber Barons and more tax cuts for the rich and more massive deficits.

Bush promised that he wouldn't touch Social Security except in an emergency. He's been raiding the Social Security trust fund like a midnight burglar. Social Security taxes are paid primarily by us, the working class, and our standard of living and our retirement are being threatened now so that the already obscenely wealthy can get wealthier.

I think the new Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ" deserves a mention. From the reviews I've read, the movie is a two hours of sadism. Critic Roger Ebert, who has seen all kinds of violent movies, describes this as the most violent movie he's ever seen. Just minutes into the movie Jesus is being dragged by chains, punched, and humiliated, and it only gets worse. People who call themselves Christian claim to love Christ. How many of us would want to see a blow-by-blow account of someone we loved being beaten, spit on, flogged so that skin came off in chunks, and finally brutally nailed to a cross?

Interesting piece in The Washington Post today about how the Bush administration distorts the definition of "small businesses." Bush and his cronies are arguing that raising taxes hurts small businesses. Small businesses apparently include rich people like Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. A small business, in the Bush definition, could be a billionaire renting out his ski chalet in Aspen. Technically, to qualify as a small business the income must be less than $200,000 a year.

Republicans, for all their rhetoric, aren't friends of small business at all. I'm reminded of the movie about Tucker, a man who was years ahead of his time in inventing a safe and technologically advanced automobile. Tucker was effectively driven out of business by the big auto makers. Republican policies are tilted to big multinational corporations, not to your mom and pop grocery on the corner.

Another interesting story today is how human rights groups are being restricted from attending trials of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon is restricting access. I would think we would want extensive coverage of these trials to assure the world that the prisoners are being treated humanely and are receiving their full rights. Secret military trials have all the chilling characteristics you associate with dictatorships.

Mr. Bush is supporting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. His arguments are facile at best. He talks about marriage being the oldest human institution, yada, yada. First, I don't see how gay couples being allowed to marry threatens traditional marriage. I would also say that many traditional institutions weren't necessarily good. Slavery was an institution that existed for millennia. It was a good thing that slavery was threatened and finally mostly disappeared from the earth. Human sacrifice was a long-standing practice. It's a good thing that human sacrifice is gone. I'm not suggesting that traditional marriage should go the way of slavery and human sacrifice. But the argument that something has existed for a long time is not a convincing argument.

Secretary of Education Rod Paige reportedly called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization." How asinine can the Bush administration get? I don't know of any members of the NEA who have attacked the World Trade Center or the Pentagon or abortion clinics for that matter. It wasn't a member of the NEA who bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The Bush administration should cool its rhetoric. They like to tar people the way Senator Joseph McCarthy liked to tar any opponent as a Communist.

So Ralph Nader is running again. Ralph doesn't want to accept any responsibility for Bush being in the White House. To be fair, there are any number of arguments you can make for why Bush was able to steal the presidency, the most obvious one being a partisan and unethical Supreme Court. But I can't help thinking that if it weren't for Nader's candidacy, the Supreme Court might never have been a factor. How much different would our country and the world be if Al Gore had assumed office in 2001? The terrorist attack on 9-11 might have been prevented, countless people in Afghanistan and Iraq might still be alive, hundreds of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen would still be living, our economy would be on a sounder footing, and planet-threatening crises such as global climate change would be getting serious attention. If we survive as a country and as a species, I don't think Ralph Nader will get favorable attention from future historians.

My previous post should have said commondreams.org. I'm still a technical novice, so inserting hyperlinks is still new.

There's a well know book called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day business of getting on with your life and not see the big issues barreling toward you like a hurricane. One such issue is global climate change. A story at is enough to make your hair stand on end. The Pentagon has compiled a report outlining horrific scenarios of global climate change over the next twenty years, including an explosion in nuclear proliferation. Desperate people displaced by global climate change will be attempting to "invade" other countries and those countries will seek to protect their dwindling resources by any means necessary, including nuclear weapons. This an issue we can't continue to ignore, even if some want to believe the Pentagon report is a worst case scenario.

Governor Arnold the Groper says he's not thinking about running for president, but he thinks immigrants who have been in the country for at least twenty years (such as he has been) should be allowed to run. Arnold has tasted power and apparently likes the taste. He has come out against gay marriage, of course, and suggests that San Francisco allowing gay unions is, in effect, anarchy. He compares it to communities defying the law in allowing drugs or assault weapons to be sold. It's a pretty poor comparison. And I'm not aware of the "equal protection" clause of the state constitution applying to the sale of drugs or assault weapons.

Gay marriage is the hot topic these days. San Francisco has taken the gigantic step of allowing gay couples to get marriage licenses and legally married. And now the fur is flying. A scribbler to The Fresno Bee referred to gay marriages as "radical." What is so radical about two people who love each other wanting to make a commitment and to have that commitment legally recognized?

Arnold the Groper has directed the state Attorney General to step in and stop San Francisco from allowing gay marriages to continue. Arnold is such an exemplar of morality after all. I'm a straight male, so I have no way of understanding what it really means to be gay. I can't see how the gay baiting, gay bashing, and hate rhetoric from the right-wingers is in any way justified. If anything is "radical," it's the Bush administration and the Christian Right trying to ram their policies down our throats. There has been more misery, more torture, more persecution, and more death due to fundamentalist religious belief--whether it's Christian, Jewish, or Muslim--than any other belief system propagated by the human race.

It just gets more surreal with the Bush administration. The administration wants to classify burger flipping jobs as manufacturing jobs. I worked for McDonald's many years ago making French fries and never in my wildest dreams did I think I was in a manufacturing position. This reminds you of the brilliant decision by the Reagan administration to call ketchup a vegetable.

This is the same administration that recently warned police departments to be on the lookout for people with almanacs because they could be potential terrorists. Heaven forbid that you are caught carrying an espionage thriller or something. You must be up to something if you read spy fiction.

Here in Freeper country you can expect to see American flags. It's not that Freepers are really more patriotic than the rest of us, but they want to demonstrate their version of patriotism with an in-your-face demonstration of red, white, and blue symbolism. On the afternoon walk I took at my dreadfully boring job I saw a big white gas-guzzling pickup sidled up next to the curb. To emphasize his patriotism, this jackass had TWO flags. On the back windshield there was a sticker saying to vote "no" on Proposition 56. These super-patriots love to wave the flag, but hate to pay taxes for anything that might benefit someone else. I was thiinking if this guy were really a patriot he might drive a fuel efficient vehicle so we don't shed blood in places like Iraq to get access to the oil. Heck, he might even enlist. What a concept.

A lot of these right-wingers have all the cognitive abilities of house plants anyway. Can you imagine really trying to debate most right-wingers? Expect monosyllabic conversations such as "Taxes bad." Or perhaps an expletive-laced tirade against gays, liberals, women, free thinkers of any sort, socialists, or the poor. It's ironic that there is such an anti-intellectual streak in the American psyche when you consider that almost all of the Founding Fathers would be considered intellectuals. Certainly, you could describe James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin as intellectuals. Right-wingers today would describe those gentlemen as "pointy-headed elitists."

As the saying goes, denial isn't just a river in Egypt. In today's Fresno Bee we have another twist in trying to defend the Bush attack on Iraq. Our letter writer claimed that both France and the United Nations believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But no one was seriously calling for disbanding the United Nations or impeaching France.

Excuse me. France and the United Nations both opposed the attack on Iraq. The position of the United Nations was that the U.N. weapons inspectors, already in Iraq, should be allowed to complete their work. That was also the position of France and Germany. In this country the right wing freaks were calling the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys" and advocating a boycott of everything French. Some of these bright lights even poured expensive French wines (already paid for) down the drain.

There is just a massive amount of evidence that the Bush administration wanted a war against Iraq, maybe because they knew Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction. It would be a quick and easy war, they thought, and the U.S. would install a pliable puppet regime and control the second largest source of oil in the world. It hasn't quite worked out the way they planned. For some reason, many Iraqis don't much care for foreign occupation of their country.

In the headlines today is the fact that the U.S. has the largest debt on record, a staggering $7 trillion. We went from being the world's largest creditor nation during the Reagan years to the largest debtor nation. We are experiencing record trade deficits. The dollar is tumbling in value to the Euro. And the administration had to back off its rosy jobs forecast.

We now have the Mad Cow Economy. Everywhere you look the disease is eating holes into our financial solvency. I believe this economic dark cloud is a national security issue on a par with anything facing us militarily. If foreign investors pull the plug, quit buying U.S. bonds, quit investing in this country, we could be facing financial catastrophe.

Earlier I briefly saw a headline that consumer confidence had just hit a record low. I can't imagine why with this robust economy and sound leadership we're getting from the Bush administration. I mean, just because the poverty level has increased and the median wage decreased and the promises of all those jobs because of Bush's tax cuts didn't materialize, why should Americans show such a lack of confidence? And just because it's apparent Bush lied and lied and lied about the necessity of attacking Iraq and just because it's becoming quicksand for our foreign policy? And Bush prancing around on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln and his National Guard record being seriously questioned now. Why should we lack confidence in such an honest and resolute leader?

The Fresno Bee was relatively troll free today. One letter defended Proposition 13, which is one of the reasons California is facing a monstrous budget deficit now. Prop 13 also has many absurd effects such as taxing two identical pieces of property at vastly different rates. It depends on the purchase date, don't you know. The anti-tax crowd apparently thinks things like clean air, good roads, good schools, clean water, fire and police protection, etc. just materialize out of thin air.

In today's Fresno Bee the Brother Hate and Traveling Hate Show conservatives pretty much took a break. There was one letter calling members of the Fresno Police Department "heroes." I'm not so sure. Almost every encounter i've had with the Fresno P.D. has been unpleasant. I'm about as much a straight arrow as you can get. Most of my encounters have been with police officers who are swaggering, macho, authoritarian jerks. The recent spate of deadly shootings by the Fresno P.D. doesn't do much to inspire my confidence either.

Ann Coulter, a real life version of the Wicked Witch of the West, wrote a piece attacking former Senator Max Cleland. Senator Cleland lost three limbs while serving in Vietnam and Ms. Coulter in her uniquely venomous style suggested Cleland was getting ready to drink beer wtih his buddies and picked up a grenade in a non-combat situation. So no big deal, according to Coulter. And yet she can be ga-ga at the "bravery" and "fortitude" of one G. W. Bush, who found ways to skip Vietnam while cheerleading the war.

A well-circulated picture on the Internet shows a scruffy-looking Bush supporter holding up a hand-lettered sign denigrating Bush opponents as "morons." Unfortunately, our commentator misspelled "moron" as "moran." That reminds me of a letter in today Fresno Bee in which the writer rants about "whiny" liberals and our supposed tendency to spend and raise taxes instead of cutting state spending. Our policy expert didn't provide any specifics as to what programs he would cut or the effects program cuts would create, of course. It's easy to go on a simplistic, slobbering, ditto head rant.

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times columnist, frequently seems schizophrenic to me. But in today's column she draws an interesting connection between convicted Iraqi embezzler Ahmad Chalabi and Dick Cheney. Chalabi appears to have been a major source of information about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and Dick Cheney was a very willing recipient of that information.

During George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard that didn't apparently involve much service he took a trip to Alabama to work on a political campaign. Word is that Mr. Bush would show up about noon, prop up his cowboy boots on the desk, and regale his listeners with tales of his exploits of the night before. Some people weren't overly impressed. They gave him the nickname "The Texas Souffle" because of all the hot air.

I'm a big fan of Mike Malloy on the ieamerica radio network. Mike made a guest appearance on one of the Fox chat fests hosted by a right-winger named John Kasich. Apparently, in the typical balanced style of Fox News (shout down anyone who doesn't agree with you) they wouldn't let Mike present his case. So Mike walked off. I can't afford cable TV, so this comes from posts at democraticunderground.com.

There's a well-circulated picture on the Internet of a scruffy-looking Bush supporter holding up a sign denigrating Bush opponents as "morons." Except that our Bush supporter misspelled "moron" as "moran." That is what a letter in today's Fresno Bee reminded me of. The rant was about "whiny liberals" who want to raise taxes in California instead of cutting spending. Our policy expert didn't have any specifics, of course, as to what programs or spending he would cut, or any analysis of what effects the cuts would create. In other words, a typical slobbering Rush ditto head.

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times columnist, who frequently seems schizophrenic, had an interesting column about the connection between Iraqi embezzler Ahmad Chalabi and Dick Cheney. Ms. Dowd postulates that Chalabi was the major source of "intelligence" to the Bush administration about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Dick Cheney was the major conduit of that flawed information.

Back in his halcyon days of National Guard service that didn't involve much service George W. Bush took a trip to Alabama to work on a political campaign. Bush was as arrogant and detestable back then as he is now. Word is he liked to show up around noon, put his cowboy boots up on the desk, and regale his listeners with tales of his exploits from the night before. He acquired the nickname of the "Texas souffle" because he was so full of hot air.

She's baaaaaaaaaaaaak! Ms. Chamber of Commerce makes another appearance in today's Fresno Bee. Sound the fanfare and fire off the rockets and drop the confetti. On second thought, don't. It's too loud and too messy.

Ms. C of C is aggrieved about California's Proposition 56, which would make passing a state budget easier. It would lower the requirement from 2/3's of the legislature to 55%. We've had a history in recent years of the budget being deadlocked, mostly by Republicans, who oppose anything that doesn't benefit big business. Ms. C of C is worried that the minority party (Republicans) will lose power to control the budget process if this proposition passes. Let's hope so. Since when should the minority be able to blackmail the majority time after time after time? The argument is that we "tax and spend" liberals will just sock it to those poor unfortunate businessmen to pay for social programs. I would suggest there wouldn't be such a crying need for social programs if not for the greed and callousness of those same businessmen. JFK once noted that his father told him all businessmen were s.o.b.'s but he hadn't believed it until then. (after the steel industry doublecrossed him and raised prices)

I peruse the L.A. Times letters pages because, in general, the letters are much higher quality than what appears in The Fresno Bee. But it was interesting to pick up on a new right wing talking point about Vietnam. Now Senator Kerry and Democrats are being accused of "hypocrisy" in criticizing Bush's hide and go seek approach to Vietnam. Kerry became a Vietnam war protester when he returned to "the world." I think you can respect Vietnam vets while not supporting the war. You especially have that right if you've been in the war. But it's pretty galling to be gung ho for war, like Mr. Bush, and manage not to put your own tail on the line. In Iraq it's again the sons and daughters of working class people who are doing the killing and dying. The privileged reap the profits from the war, suck up the power, but don't have any personal risk. As Bob Herbert, The New York Times columnist, has said, it would be different if the children of the privileged were in Iraq.

There's nothing like having your case presented for you. Today's Fresno Bee featured a letter with the long list of cases we on the left have made against the Bush administration. Then the guy makes a snotty little comment about how he thinks this could solve our immigration problem. People will hear all that's wrong with the country under Bush and turn back at the border. I keep thinking of the plaque on the Statue of Liberty: "Send me your poor, your huddled masses," and so on. My reaction, if we continue with the Bush administration, is that the poor and huddled masses are already here.

Something that should become a really BIG issue now is Bush advocating the outsourcing of American jobs. He (or his handlers) claim this will ultimately be good for our economy. That's a little hard to imagine when you are the person who is out of a job. We were told that NAFTA and GATT would do wonderful things for us and other signatories to the treaties. So far it hasn't worked out that way. Poor Mexican farmers, for instance, are getting clobbered by the imports of American corn. A way of life, going back generations, is being destroyed so big companies like Archer, Daniels, Midland can increase their bottom lines.

I've been shopping at Albertson's for several years. Last week I was stunned to see "self-help" checkout stands being put in place. That means the loss of jobs for people at Albertson's and it means decreasing service for customers. This can't have any connection to the strikes against Albertson's, Von's, and Safeway, could it? Corporations don't conduct reprisals against their employees, do they?

Matt Drudge manages to crawl out from under his rock any time Republicans need a good slime job. Now the attempt is to smear Senator John Kerry with a sexual infidelity allegation. Anything to distract attention from a tanking economy, the disaster in Iraq, and Bush's suspicious military record. Someone made the good point that if Bush cashed the checks he got from the Air Guard while not actually doing his duty that's illegal.

The dumb letter of the day in The Fresno Bee was the periodic bow and scrape to the corporate masters. We need to appreciate our corporate masters because they give us the jobs! And so on. It seems there's a quid quo pro at work, but tilted heavily in favor in corporations. Corporations are like vampires. You offer up your neck and your blood. They suck all the blood and then leave you in the dust while they move on to the next victim.

I was mulling over ethics. Is it right for us to sink to the same level as the far right, doing anything it takes to beat them? I don't think so. I think we can use any legitimate weapons, but not resort to outright lies, bigotry, and hatred.

Another thing I was contemplating was that we should start a list of companies that pay poverty wages or near poverty wages. It's time we expose these people to the sunlight and see if they, like vampires, disintegrate into dust. Jesus said the truth will set you free, so it's time for truth about the vampires in the business world.

In the world of international diplomacy there is probably a role for the spy. Collecting information about possible security threats makes a certain amount of sense. However, there is something truly revolting about spies in the workplace. I have a genuine contempt for people who want to ingratiate themselves with management by reporting private conversations that are none of their business. It's particularly disgusting when management may conduct reprisals against employees who don't like management. It would be one thing if employees were planning sabotage or some other harmful action, but looking for another job doesn't constitute sabotage.

In today's Fresno Bee there was a letter recycling the old Bush administration defense of the war in Iraq that we were enforcing U.N. resolutions. This comes after the U.N. decided not to support the unilateral war against Iraq. It also comes after the Bush administration and its minions called the U.N. "irrelevant." Denizens of the far right have long called for the U.S. to leave the United Nations. Now, though, we were supporting U.N. resolutions! Right.

It's good to see the Washington press corps finally developing some journalistic responsibility. They were asking Bush spokesman Scott McClellan some tough questions and in his usual evasive way Mr. McClellan kept refusing to answer the questions. I hope Mr. Bush's suspect military record continues to be a major issue. When you consider how Republicans have consistently slimed Democrats such as Bill Clinton and even Senator Max Cleland, a man who lost three limbs in Vietnam, it is only just that the chickenhawks get the full glare of publicity.

There is a dust-up now about Bush's military "service" in the Air National Guard. For many of us, this has been an issue for some time, and I'm glad some of the Democratic presidential candidates are making it an issue. Mr. Bush has never satisfactorily explained the gaps in his service record and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, kept bobbing and weaving and failing to answer questions from the White House press corps. There are strong indications that Mr. Bush was using illegal substances and didn't want to take a drug test. The man is a Grade A hypocrite. As Governor of Texas, he had no problem with sending people with similar drug records (or less) to prison. And chickenhawks like Mr. Bush love to beat their chests and talk about love of country, but they conveniently avoided combat themselves.

In The Fresno Bee there has been some controversy because a letter writer essentially accused members of the National Guard of just wanting to collect an extra paycheck. He didn't express any sympathy for the Guardsmen or their families for the financial hit they're taking because of extended service in theaters like Iraq. I think he's dead wrong. It's a disgrace, in fact, that anyone serving in the military earns poverty level wages. When you consider that the whole war in Iraq appears to have been unnecessary, it becomes even more of an outrage.

In the continuing outrage department Mr. Bush was quoted as supporting the idea of "outsourcing" jobs overseas. This comes at a time when his administration has lost over two million jobs. In his interview with Tim Russert Mr. Bush also made the outrageous claim that job growth will be in the high tech sector. In fact, according to a commentary by Jim Hightower, job growth will be in areas such as fast food and janitorial. You can really build a middle class life doing those jobs!

I was thinking about the issue of equality. In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson wrote that "all men are created equal." That idea horrifies conservatives. Your typical conservative really believes in social Darwinsim. Ironically, or not, conservatives do believe in equality when it comes to taxes. They would love a flat tax where rich and poor alike pay the same rate. When it comes to other issues, such as affirmative action, gender equality, etc. conservatives are aghast at the very idea of equality. They spout off about nonsense such as "natural law."

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think I hear the sound of the trumpet and the Bush cabal is crumbling like the walls of Jericho. Mr. Bush didn't receive good reviews for his appearance with Tim Russert yesterday. Even normally adoring right wing pundits are showing considerable apprehension at Mr. Bush's lack of credibility and touch with reality.

We've gone from a specific laundry list of the casus belli against Iraq, things like sarin gas, warheads, biological weapons, and the like, to the claim that Saddam Hussein wanted to make weapons of mass destruction. We know that Mr. Bush has claimed personal communication with God, but I didn't know he could now read minds.

One letter in The Fresno Bee today made the point that Jesus Christ advocated for the poor. One of my favorite books is "The Rich and the Super-Rich" by Ferdinand Lundberg and in one chapter called "The Great Tax Swindle" Lundberg makes a point of quoting some of the great thinkers in human history. Almost every one of them condemned the acquisition of wealth at the expense of the poor.

One of the movies that gets shown every Christmas season is the Frank Capra classic "It's A Wonderful Life." Good, decent George Bailey is contemplating suicide after getting sucked into a scandal created by his greedy nemesis Mr. Potter. Potter has lifted some of the money from Bailey's building and loan that was carelessly guarded by a friend of Bailey's. Now the threat of embezzlement, scandal, and prison are staring George Bailey in the face.

I was thinking that conservatives would side with Mr. Potter. He wasn't really much of a caricature of many businessmen. Anything to make a profit, anything to destroy the competition, and most of all crush all those liberal do-gooders. Conservatives would probably echo Cain from the Bible when he told God, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Dismal Sunday evening because Monday is on it's way again. Mondays may not be bad if you have a job or career that fulfills you. But when you work at a tedious low-paying dead-end job all you really look forward to is the next weekend. And the truest irony is that you have to fight like crazy in this economy to hang on to that lousy dead-end job because trying to find something else is like panning for gold. For a lot of us at the bottom of the economic ladder it's a lot like indentured servitude.

Recently, a lady left the place where I toil and I said something about how difficult it is in our capitalist society to leave a job just because you want to. Some lady piped up that you "could always be a bum." That's really a great option, isn't it? You could live in a box on the street or work at a job you despise and really can't leave.

I was thinking earlier of the correlation between Republican administrations and lousy economies. Name one Republican administration in the 20th century (we know about the 21st century already) that didn't produce a lousy economy. Herbert Hoover is best known for the Great Depression. I guess Coolidge had a semi-decent economy, but it was built on a speculative bubble that burst and led to the Depression. Eisenhower wasn't totally awful, but Eisenhower wasn't a true blue Republican. Even in his years as president there were three recessions I believe. The next Republican, Richard Nixon, let the Vietnam War continue for four more years, overheated the economy, and that led to a situation called "stagflation," the worst combination of inflation and recession. Ford inherited that and didn't change anything. When Ronald Reagan took office we had the worst recession in the post World War II era. Reagan gets credited with a great economy by some, but job creation was actually better under President Carter. We know about the recession under Bush I and now this truly awful administration of George II.

When the same thing happens in administration after administration you have to conclude it isn't coincidence. It's a little like staying too long in the sun and getting sunburned. Eventually you have to conclude there's a relationship between sunlight and sunburn. But Republicans hold out those magic words "tax cuts" and people gobble up the rhetoric like kids eating candy. People should remember the advice they got as kids not to take candy from strangers.

G. W. Bush made his much-touted appearance with Tim Russert this morning, but I skipped the formalties. I have little respect for Russert because he has been a consistent shill for Bush and his cronies. Bush keeps trying to find a way to spin the war in Iraq as justified. There is an avalanche of evidence now that Bush and his administration consistently and systematically lied about this war. Saddam Hussein, as vile has he is, was not a threat to the U.S. or to countries neighboring Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis now lie dead or maimed, the country is in chaos, and hundreds of U.S. servicemen are dead. Bush has the audacity to say they didn't die in vain.

Letters to The Fresno Bee today were mildly interesting. I did like one letter that commented on the Janet Jackson incident at last week's Super Bowl. He talked about the NBC show Fear Factor that reaches for new lows every week. As talk radio host Jim Rome says, "I hate reality TV." This show may be the worst, but they're all pretty bad.

News is that Laurence Silberman, a truly vile member of the dark side, has been appointed to co-head the commission investigating the "flawed intelligence" that led to the war on Iraq. Silberman has been associated with covert activities, including the so-called "October surprise" that vaulted Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980. If we ever turn over the rock that is the Bush family's involvement with clandestine operations, I'm not sure the American people can handle it. There are undoubtedly all manner of things like murder, assassination, torture, and financial chicanery. Americans want to believe in our inherent goodness.

There's some speculation now that Senator John McCain might be Bush's vice presidential candidate. Dick Cheney, suffering from a tidal wave of scandals, might be dumped. If McCain were to join Bush, it would be a total abdication of any claims to integrity he might have had. And what makes it especially galling is that Bush ran a truly filthy campaign against McCain in the 2000 primaries. McCain would obviously lend some gravitas to Mr. Bush, a man who lacks gravitas even after three plus years in the White House. McCain would give Bush a military veteran to balance a possible military veteran on the Democratic side, whether it be Senator Kerry or General Wesley Clark. But if McCain is truly a patriot, he will reject any offers from the Bush camp. Country should take priority over party.

Someone came by earlier offering a discount deal on a subscription to The Fresno Bee. I declined. I've taken advantage of discounts in the past, but in just a few months you get hit with the full subscription price, which is something like $12.00 or $13.00 a month now. I haven't done comparisons, but I think The Bee is as expensive as papers in big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco and, in my opinion, not of the same quality. I've also had problems with not getting the paper delivered.

One benefit today, though, was getting a free paper. There was a very good op-ed piece by a lady talking about the stereotypes people apply to other people who use food stamps. They get upset when food stamp users buy potato chips or candy bars or some other "nonessential" item. Then they race outside to see what kind of car the food stamp user is driving. If it's a newer car, or an expensive car, they immediately leap to the conclusion that the person on welfare has to be gaming the system. She pointed out quite rightly that appearances can be deceiving. You might be driving a BMW, for example, and it may be borrowed. And sometimes candy bars or potato chips are one of the few joys when you live a life of grinding poverty.

Another story was about a man who lives in a community called Calwa. He won the lottery and ends up with over $3 million after taxes. It was interesting to me that this guy works at Mission Foods and makes $9.05 an hour. I worked at Mission Foods for several years, starting at $7.50 an hour. I got up to over $11.00 an hour and got laid off during the George W. Bush recession. I wonder if this guy was doing what I used to do. He says he intends to keep working there and I have to wonder why. Maybe it won't seem so oppressive because he has options.

There's a story I want to check out about how payday loan people are exploiting people in the military. Our military personnel make poverty level wages and these payday loan companies are really vultures. They charge fees that amount to massive annual interest rates. There's really an entire poverty industry in the United States. Credit card companies are increasingly predatory in their dealings with low income people. They get you hooked on credit and before you know it you have a high balance and a high interest rate. Have a payment one day late and you get nailed for a $29.00 late charge. Accept one of their "insurance" plans that will make your minimum payment if you lose your job, etc., and it effectively tacks on three quarters of a point or more to your monthly interest rate. If you get a "teaser" rate that's fairly low, it usually jumps after a few months to an obscene level. And if the credit card company has the slightest excuse, they can increase your rate to predatory levels like 25% or more.

FEBRUARY 7, 2004

After debating a few days, I thought I'd take advantage to enter the world of blogging. I've frequently been frustrated at the lack of opportunity to express opinions contrary to the prevailing right wing bizarro theory of the universe that prevails in Fresno, California, and the Central Valley. We have one big newspaper, The Fresno Bee, that limits you to one letter to the editor a month (if that). Get a letter published and some right wing troll distorts what you said and you can't respond for at least a month. So this will be a way to vent my spleen without reliance upon the good graces of The Fresno Bee.

There is a basic cast of characters from the far right that appears frequently in The Fresno Bee. I will give them monikers rather than use real names. The first character is a guy I would call Mr. Statistic. Mr. Statistic loves to quote statistics showing how the very rich are very picked on by the tax code. Recently, Mr. Statistic quoted the IRS showing that the top 1% pay 34% (gasp!) of the federal income taxes. Mr. Statistic is very smug and condescending anytime you point out that the U.S. economic system is very tilted in favor of the very rich.

Our next character is Mr. Condescending. Mr. Condescending, a resident of Madera, California, is alternately condescending and sarcastic. He too loves to defend the very rich, but relies more on a strategy of bait and switch. In a recent commentary, Mr. C. made a big point of lecturing on the concept of federalism, although never actually using the term. He said that President Bush wasn't responsible for the regressive tax system that exists at the state and local level (which wasn't the main point of contention anyway).

Mr. Anti-Choice is a Catholic and writes frequently condemning abortion. I have nothing against Catholics. John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy are two of my heroes. Mr. Anti-Choice doesn't have a problem with death and destruction in Afghanistan and Iraq, however. Even though the leader of his church has condemned those wars, he supports the Bush administration policy. But he's totally on board with the church's anti-choice position.

Ms. Chamber of Commerce is from a reactionary town called Clovis. Ms. Chamber is also an anti-choice advocate. She is very pro business. Her big causes recently were the "car tax" increase under the Gray Davis administration and the cost of worker's compensation insurance. I don't know if she's delighted with the election of Arnold "The Groper" as governor or not. But one suspects that any advocate for big business would please her, even if he has some ethical problems.

Mr. Party Hack is a local Republian party functionary. He loves the spotlight, I suspect. He likes to throw out misleading propaganda such as calling the Social Security system a "Ponzi scheme."

There will undoubtedly be others to add to our cast of right wing zealots, but this is a start.