happy holidays

Hello all! I have just replaced my broken monitor, which led to a week+ of no content on this page, with a new widescreen Dell. I will be as prolific as ever in the new year. I wish everyone the best, especially President Bush. He is having a really bad year. The way I see it, he should abdicate as he has so soundly bought into his own faulty logic that he is proceeding into battle with a shining sword that is bright with the strength of his own conviction and covered with the blood of everyone he has sent into Iraq. May the new year bring us new direction and the semblance of leadership.

happy holidays

Hello all! I have just replaced my broken monitor, which led to a week+ of no content on this page, with a new widescreen Dell. I will be as prolific as ever in the new year. I wish everyone the best, especially President Bush. He is having a really bad year. The way I see it, he should abdicate as he has so soundly bought into his own faulty logic that he is proceeding into battle with a shining sword that is bright with the strength of his own conviction and covered with the blood of everyone he has sent into Iraq. May the new year bring us new direction and the semblance of leadership.

who loves kids, certainly not you.

I've been busy at work, so I apologize for feeding you commentary on a subject that is yesterday's news. I still think it is pretty amusing though.

Democratic Congressman, Steny Hoyer (D-MD), announced that when the House reconvenes next year, he will be try to push for a five day work week. That's right, Monday through Friday. Just like the rest of us. A bold move for Congressman Hoyer, considering the House will have met... let say around 71 days during 2006. Not very impressive. A whole ~60 days less than the average for congress during the 80s and 90s. And you wonder why people are complaining about lack of government oversight. It's a Republican's dream, small government! What government? What oversight?! All that really existed was the Executive Branch... and he wasn't really there all the time either.

Republican Jack Kingston wasn't too happy at the news.

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

Considering the rest of us work about 260 days (ok, with vacation let's go for 240 to be fair) a year and most of us also don't make $160k a year... do I need to continue? Sure, I understand that congressmen and women need to be in their home states with their constituents, but this is also the job they signed up for. So if Democrats don't care about families because they want congressmen to work more and be away from their families... big corporations, government organizations, and small business want us to work five days a week too, that would mean... I see where this is going? Uh oh.

The Myth of the American Free Market

An excellent article by David Sirota on the myth of the American free market. People should know by now that we have never been "free market capitalists". We are and have always been "what's best for the American economy and will put up whatever protectionist barriers and tariffs we want to" capitalists. We only push for free markets and rapid market liberalization in developing countries and those in debt before we go in and squash them even further into debt. But that's just the cynical extremist inside me talking, Sirota actually has a very detailed and thorough discussion on the subject. It is worth your time to read.

Flattening the Great Education Myth & the Free Market Fundamentalists
David Sirota

Partisan War Syndrome rages across the progressive blogosphere. Wall Street Democrats hide their corporate fealty by declaring a new era of "The Common Good," claiming as their own a term their arch enemy, Noam Chomsky, coined years ago. Democratic lawmakers cheer about bringing a "change" to Washington, talk up important efforts to better-fund education, then quietly begin reassuring K Street that all will be the same when it comes to structural economic issues.
And lost in the din is the most important question: will free market fundamentalism finally be openly challenged?

That is the question I pose in today's San Francisco Chronicle in an op-ed entitled "Flattening the Great Education Myth." The piece describes a recent community meeting here in Helena, Montana and how local officials, hamstrung by a national trade policy that undermines their communities, are forced to focus exclusively on education as the way to build the economy. But, as the hard data shows, we cannot simply educate our way out of the problems associated with a globalization policy whereby our economy is regulated exclusively to enhance multinational corporate profits - and not to enhance ordinary people's lives.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/flattening-the-great-educ_b_35511.html

Fear Has Gotten the Best of Us

Yet another disgusting example of how the War on Terror has really crippled America as a nation founded on principle, morality, and combating injustice. Radio host Jerry Klein, in a bit of a social experiment, suggested that Muslims in the United States be marked with some sort of identification, be it a arm band or a crescent moon tattoo. Instantly the phone lines lit up, some expressing how sick the suggestion was, and the majority applauding such a suggestion.

"'The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans." "'
"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland

"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.

"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."

Has our nation been profoundly changed for the worse by the War on Terror? Sadly, I would have to say yes.

Quotations from: Read Reuters article

Dennis Prager makes himself look like an idiot

Keith Ellison will be sworn in as the first Muslim in the House of Representatives when the 110th Congress opens up for business next year. Dennis Prager, a conservative columnists saw this as an opportunity to claim that Ellison would be sworn in and take the oath of office on the Koran, and subsequently went on a tirade about how such an act would be ridiculous.

What's more ridiculous, the notion of Ellison taking his oath on a Koran or Ellison's lack of understanding about the House of Representatives and the US Constitution (and disguised racism)?

“If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book [the Bible], don’t serve in Congress... Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the Nazis' bible, for his oath? "

These sorts of comments are written to incite a sort of xenophobia not seen in America for decades. It takes advantage of the current War on Terror and events of 9/11 to in effect, limit the rights of Muslims living as American citizens. What Prager repeats over and over again is that American tradition is being trod upon and that it threatens our very way of life. What nonsense. Keith Ellison is an elected official is deserves the respect of everyone, not for his religion, but for his character. Prager is trying to turn him into some anti-American monster before the man has even taken office.

The facts are this. The House of Representatives does not have people sworn in on any book, be it the Bible, Torah, or the Koran. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi will have the Congressmen and women raise their hands and take the oath on the floor of the House together, in the absence of any holy book.

It is ridiculous to think that one should even be required to take an oath on the Bible. The oath exists as a show of allegiance to the nation that as a public servant, the US Constitution will be upheld. Any ritual requiring those taking the oath to use a book, are impressed to do so as a show that they are willing to swear before that which they hold most holy. It would seem obvious that if you are pledging an oath, you would do so in the presence of your God(s), your holy book (if you are of the religious persuasion at least), so that your oath is meaningful to you. For Jews or Muslims to swear on the Christian Bible would be like asking someone to swear on some random person's first born child.

Also making the comment that 'those unwilling to swear upon the Bible should not run for office' is far more anti-American than any pledging upon the Koran.

Article XI of the US CONSTITUION.
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."


I can't tell if Dennis Prager is actually interested in American tradition or if he's trying to stoke the fire of American aversion towards Muslims. His words are not dissimilar to those of Joseph McCarthy during the second Red Scare.