Revolting. The mood of the American public "has turned decidedly grim, and downrite angry on some subjects", intoned Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News tonite. Added Tim Russert, "This is bleak. People think Washington is broken."
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Now, why would we think that? Maybe because the people elected the Democrats to end the war in Iraq but they voted to continue funding it? Maybe because the people are drowning in debt, usury, and foreclosure, but Congress sees no problem with our banking industry? Maybe because gas prices rise because oil companies willfully shut down refineries for the express purpose of raising prices at the pump, and Congress does nothing? Maybe because the people are outraged over illegal immigration but neither the Congress nor the President wants to deport the 12 million aliens who invaded our territory and now demand the 'right' to stay here? Maybe because everywhere we look we are assailed by thieves and con artists, in email scams and penis-enlargement scams advertised on television in full view of the FCC and FTC but nobody in government does anything to protect us? Maybe because Congress and the President do NOTHING we want them to do? And maybe because elections now mean nothing, because neither party will do the people's bidding? The major parties have us by the throat, and they will do whatever they want to do — which is usually what rich campaign contributors want them to do — and we have no choice but to choose Tweedledum or Tweedledee, both of whom are on the payroll of the rich.
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Alas, it's not just Washington that is broken. A disgraceful incident reported today occurred in an L.A. emergency room. A woman was dying on the floor of a wretchedly incompetent and badly administered hospital. No one was treating her. Her relatives called 911 to have her removed to a hospital that cared, but two 911 operators refused to do a thing, not even call the police to have a police officer order the staff at that hospital to act. The woman died. Both 911 operators need to be removed from their crucial job and sent to prison for a very long time as accessories before the fact, and the hospital staffers guilty of refusing to do anything for her, who just watched as she DIED, should be KILLED, beheaded, their bodies chopped up for decent people. There might even be people in that very hospital who need organ transplants from donors who match those staffers' tissue types. This incident goes far beyond the bounds of negligence or incompetence. It goes very deep into the territory of criminal behavior, properly punishable by death.
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Eskimo Savages. Why are Eskimos allowed to hunt whales? Ned Potter of ABC News — who reported that a bowhead whale recently killed by Eskimos had lodged under its skin a harpoon tip of a type not used for 100 years — neglected to mention why we are allowing Eskimos to kill whales. Are white Alaskans allowed to kill whales? If not, Eskimos should not be, either. Eskimos are not special. They are not better than white people, blacks, or Orientals, all of whom are forbidden to kill whales. Eskimos do not have rights other Americans do not have. If killing bowhead whales is illegal for non-Eskimos, it must be illegal for Eskimos. The Constitution mandates equal treatment under law. If society outlaws whaling, that law must apply to everyone equally. Arrest the Eskimo whalers and send them to prison. They killed a magnificent animal that apparently had lived over 100 years, but had to die for a bunch of savages? I don't think so. The Eskimos didn't produce that whale. They didn't breed it, feed it, protect it, or take care of it in any way. They had no right to kill it. There is no place on this planet for savages outside the law.
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Immigration Madness. In an editorial today, the New York Post says of an illegal Malian immigrant whose wife and four children perished in a Bronx fire:

Washington looked the other way at Soumare's status as an illegal alien — and even granted him special permission to bury his family in Mali and then return to America.

What?? He's an illegal alien who was allowed to LEAVE the country and then RETURN, even tho he had no right to be here in the first place? And Dumbya wonders why people are furious with him over immigration.
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No, Mr. Bush, if someone is not supposed to be here in the first place and goes back to his country of origin, he should NOT be allowed to come back into the U.S. as tho he had the right to be here before the trip. What, exactly, does that guy have to connect him with the Bronx, now that his family is dead and in Mali? Oh, that's right: a lawsuit! He wants to sue various entities, including governmental entities in New York City, for $100 million! So not only is he here illegally, but he wants to use the LEGAL system to extort $100 million from the taxpayers of a country that took mercy on him? Deport the bastard! And fire whoever granted him "special permission" to return to the United States after he went back to Mali.
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I find it interestingly odd that the Post did not call for that scumbag's deportation. Of what conceivable use are Radical Rightwingers if they are soft on illegal aliens?
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Speaking of odd behavior by the New York Post, another editorial today says that in not insisting on renominating antihomosexual bigot Peter Pace as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Bush is encouraging terrorism!

Democrats ... enjoyed the administration's stand-down on Pace. They understand all too well that the president has demonstrated weakness before the world.

And don't think for a moment that al Qaeda, and the mad mullahs of Tehran, didn't notice.

The security implications of abandoning Pace should be obvious: It's just another sign that while America can talk the talk on terror, it's somewhat less willing to walk the walk.

Oh? So the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs will not fite the 'war on terror'? You'd think he would, no matter who he might be. Rightwingers is crazy
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The Post editorial is, aptly, called "The Pace Disgrace". Unfortunately, the disgrace is not that Pace was effectively dismissed but that he got off litely. The Post says:

Pace deserved better.

He deserved better, alrite. He deserved a beating by a mob of angry gay men.
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The Post was in rare form today. Yet another opinion piece ("Help All Students") infuriated me, so I sent the following brief emailed letter to the editor:

The heading of that poisonous piece should have been "Help the Rich Destroy the Public Schools". People who send their children to private schools, be they religiously affiliated or not, make a conscious choice to remove their children from the democratizing institution that more than any other has made this one country out of many groups. They pay a price for that, in tuition, uniforms, etc. That is their choice. They also drain the public schools of hard-working students who might influence their peers, and as well drain away attention to public-education issues from middle- and upper-class families who need not care what happens to kids in public schools as long as their own kids can escape. I would much rather we abolish all private schools than that we subsidize the subversion of public education by encouraging parents to remove their children from public schools, and cheat ourselves of their taxes, so the poor and middle-class who do not subvert public education have to pay higher taxes to make up the shortfall! Close all Catholic schools, prep schools, yeshivas, and other institutions that remove children from the public schools. The 'overburdened' parents now 'forced' to shoulder the costs of private and religiously affiliated schools would then be freed from their 'burden'! And that's the only way they are entitled to be freed from that burden.

Compulsory Government Fees Aren't Taxes? The Post speaks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to taxation. It bitches and moans endlessly about the tax burden in New York State and especially New York City, but smiles upon a proposed congestion 'fee' to be charged on vehicles brought into Manhattan's Central Business District. That is a tax by any other name, a tax that specially targets the poor. But the Post is all for it, because it would benefit the rich. I have a better idea: let's charge the rich a fee for the air they breathe and thus 'contaminate' with carbon-dioxide thru exhalation. They can afford it. And if they don't pay that fee, let us end that contamination. Beheading and subsequent organ harvesting would be nice.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 3,513 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:22 PM