Politics
« Previous Entries Next Entries »$500 Million For You to Get Your Way
Monday, August 11th, 2008You may not have known this, but the federal government really is concerned about you, your feelings, and wants you to know that you have a say in how things are done around here– and to prove it, they are going to continue to spend $500 Million dollars of taxpayers money each and every year to print $1.00 bills.
That’s right– because you, the American public would be outraged–nay, scandalized, if you woke up tomorrow to find out that the dollar bill was being phased out, our treasury will continue the wasteful practice of printing crisp new dollar bills every 16 months (the average life expectancy of that portrait of George) instead of doing what nearly every other industrialized nation in the world has done and switching to a dollar coin.
The important thing is that you feel like you’re making a difference. Here we have democracy in action. Smell the freedom? I mean, if this were some big billion dollar corporate conglomerate, you’d never have this kind of control. Do you think General Electric or Nestle Foods would hesitate to save themselves $500 million a year simply because their employees might whine about having to change their behavior? Hell no!
Now, keep in mind, this is the same government that recently passed legislation making it legal to seize any electronic device you may be carrying with you over an international border– your cell phone, your iPod, your laptop computer– and keep it for as long as they damn well like, without reason, warrant, or explanation. Sorry. Hope you deleted those pictures, the ones you took on that “special weekend”. Of course, the government didn’t ask for your feelings about this. They simply did it, allegedly, in your best interest, and in the interest of “security”.
Wegmans, A large grocery chain here in Buffalo, traditionally put out bins for customers to shuck corn in the summer time. I loved it– why get all that corn silk all over your kitchen or front porch? Let me just shuck it here in the store, into this nice big trash can. If I get some on the floor, who cares? Right? This summer, no bins– just a sign saying they would no longer be available. Why? Because having a bunch of idiots standing in the middle of the produce aisle shucking corn all day jams up the flow of a busy grocery store. Mega Marts like Wegmans are designed to move people through in an organized and logical fashion– ever forget something and have to turn around and go against traffic in a grocery store? Ever notice the dirty looks you get? You’re breaking the flow.
Wegmans didn’t ask for anyone’s opinion, they just made a decision in the best interest of their business. Businesses do this all the time. And the corn does taste better if you wait to shuck it anyway.
So why does our government continue the wasteful practice of printing the dollar bill? Why don’t they just pull the trigger on the old boy and tell people to suck it up? It can’t simply be because people would be upset. Thomas M. Davis, a republican congressman from Virginia, supported the “Save the Greenback” Act, hoping to make it illegal to ever stop printing the dollar bill. Why? His main argument was that people’s pockets would be weighed down by all those dollar coins (of course, someone along the way must have pointed out that by carrying one dollar, you don’t have to carry four quarters or ten dimes. But I digress). Trent Lott and Ted Kennedy also took turns supporting the perpetuity of the dollar bill, but they were in the back pockets of the cotton and paper industries, who would stand to lose some profits if we switched to coins. But even that doesn’t explain it. Why does the federal government continue a practice that even the most incompetent CEO would cut in hearbeat?
Could it be just as simple as wanting people to feel like they have a voice, in a country where day by day their voice matters less and less? Is that it? I can’t think of any other reason. This government, especially this administration, makes decisions that affect your life and take away more of your freedoms every day–but they won’t save taxpayers $500 million a year simply because people “don’t like” the idea of a dollar coin?
People didn’t like taking their shoes off at airports, but they got used to it, didn’t they?
Bush Vs. Children
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008On Monday Congress decided to ban phthalates from children’s toys and other products. Why? Well, phthalates have been linked to health issues including asthma, allergies, reduced sperm count and genital abnormalities in boys. This legislation would remove three types of phthalates from consumer products permanently and another three types pending further study. On top of that this legislation would ban lead from children’s toys and open up a consumer database of complaints or accident reports for goods.
Toys R Us/Babies R Us and Walmart have stated that they would stop selling toys containing phthalates starting January 2009. I want you to ask yourself something: How bad does a chemical have to be for Walmart to voluntarily ban them? This is Walmart for fucks sake.
As you may have guessed by the title of the post the Bush administration, voiced by spokesman Tony Fratto, responded by saying Bush opposes the ban.
Nice.
Exxon Mobil, who manufactures a large chuck of this shit, responded by claiming that this legislation would put children at even greater risk because manufacturers would have to replace the phthalates with something that could be worse.
Read that last bit again. That right there explains exactly what it wrong with our system. We don’t require chemical additives to be fully tested to see if there are any health concerns before releasing them into the wild. In Europe the safety of a chemical must be proven before it is allowed on the market, here it must be proven unsafe before it is removed.
Ron Paul: A Retrospective.
Thursday, June 19th, 2008A few days ago Ron Paul finally dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination. All the hippies and wackjobs that loved this man more then their own sanity are in a state of mourning. This is also a huge loss for me because, like Mike Gravel and Rudy “Noun, Verb, 9/11″ Giuliani, he was a constant source of easy comedy. Now I’ll actually have to focus my attacks on Old man McCain.
So here is to all the hippies who blindly supported him because he is pro-hemp and anti-war without a glance at the rest of his record.
And here is to you Ron Paul. Here is to the man that:
Who would have guessed that stoned college kids could be so easily misled?
Now that he is gone he leaves behind a nothing but cardboard signs and bumper stickers slapped up on telephone poles and mailboxes around my city. That is his legacy. Soggy, limp, useless hunks of cardboard flapping about aimlessly in the wind and old fading stickers barely clinging to rusty lamp posts. Fitting. Now who the fuck is going to clean up this mess now that his idiot fans have receded back to the paranoia of their 9/11 conspiracy forums?
It Ends Tonight
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008Or at least it should but who knows if Clinton is even properly attached to reality anymore. She has been living the last few months in a land of unicorns and rainbows. Funnily enough that land of make believe is right next door to the “permanent war is good” land of make believe that McBush is living in.
This just in: Clinton to ride a candy coated unicorn to deliver a speech tonight where, according to her campaign, she will not concede but she will acknowledge that Obama has enough delegates to win the nomination. I am actually getting quite sick of Clinton moving the goalposts.
I don’t know how Clinton and her rabid supporters can overlook what has been obvious to the rest of the planet: It is over. It has been over for a long time now. Pack up, go home, the game is over.
One thing that you probably won’t hear all that much tonight is that there is a Republican primary in New Mexico too. Pay attention to that one and see what percentage of the vote John W. McBush actually gets. The Republican party is hardly unified behind him. Hell, even just today Cheney was criticizing McBush and his plan to cut the gas tax for the summer.
Obama has been playing this one well. While Clinton still takes shots at him while trying to stay relevant he has started acting like the Democratic nominee. He has been ignoring her and focusing his attacks directly at Old Man Warmonger.
A question I have to any McCain supporters that read this:
Why didn’t McCain support the new G.I. bill? Why didn’t he even bother to show up to vote on it?
As a veteran he should be appalled by the way this administration has treated the troops. Inadequate supplies of body armor, inadequate care when they come home. And that is just the tip of this bloody iceberg. How can you, John McCain, in good conscience say you support our troops when you are not willing to even give them better college benefits when they come home. If they come home.
Our soldiers fight and die every day, every minute of every god damned day for this bullshit war that you want so badly to inherit and you aren’t willing to even help them better their lives when they come home.
The act is, you don’t support our troops. The fact is, you are just using them for your own political gain.
I have two more words for you McCain:
Fuck You.
Pennsylvania’s Other Primary
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Widely ignored was the fact that Pennsylvania has two primaries. The Democratic one that everyone paid attention to and the fully ignored Republican one. Honestly the Republican primary shouldn’t even be news worthy because they have their nominee in John McCain but something strange is happening here.
Out of 791,205 Republican votes McCain only picked up 72.7%. Crazy assed Ron Paul picked up 15.9 and Mike “Change The Constitution for Jesus” Huckabee got 11.4. Huckabee dropped out a while ago and he still got double digits. I guess when your main selling point is being a term extension for the extraordinarily shitty Bush policies not everyone can get behind you. Not even your own party. Losing over a quarter of your vote when you are the nominee has to be embarrassing.
Even before McCain was the nominee voter turnout for the Republican primaries has been startlingly low while the Democratic side has been pulling in record numbers. A very bad sign for anyone with a hope for McCain.
Keep on yelling you old coot, nobody is really listening to you anymore. After the shit this country was put through by Bush we can not afford to have you at our helm.
It is really no secret that I support one Democrat over the other but if my pick doesn’t make it through to the general election you better damn well believe I will still step into that voting booth and pull the lever for Democrat. I know most of the Democratic supporters will do the same thing. Can you say the same for your team? Not currently.
The only tool he has that can pull his party together is the same tool Bush has been using to abuse his power. Fear. Lucky for America it seems that we have stopped falling for that bogyman. Don’t believe me? Check his ratings. 69% disapproval as of this month. That is lower then his father. Lower then Nixon. It is officially the lowest approval rating in recorded history beating out Truman’s 67% disapproval in January 1952.
Congratulations on that shit-stained landmark Mr. Bush! Now hurry the fuck off the stage, the grownups need to run the county now.
« Previous Entries Next Entries »