Just a thought...

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others." - Edward Abbey

Fuck It! Skip the Bird...Drink Brawndo!!!!!!111

A Thanksgiving Prayer - William S. Burroughs

To John Dillinger and hope he is still alive...

Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving the carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream, to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killin' lawmen, feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women, with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind his own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the memories - all right let's see your arms!

You always were a headache and you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

Be Thankful for the Genital Torture of Gitmo Detainees!

http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/story/index.html?story=/comics/tomo/2009/11/23/tomo

And I did Google it, see:

"Gitmo Detainee's 'Genitals Were Sliced With A Scalpel,' Waterboarding 'Far Down The List Of Things They Did'"
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/09/mohamed-torture-uk-us/

Beyond All Belief: Corps Want Slavery

I've known about this issue for a really long time, but here is some recent coverage of it by David Sirota, Maddow and Colbert:

From the I Shit You Not File: Business Aims to Relax Bans on Products Made with Child & Slave Labor
http://www.openleft.com/diary/15912/business-aims-to-relax-bans-on-products-made-with-child-and-slave-labor

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Colbert's Segment:
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=256183

David Sirota on PBS Now

Sirota remains focused on the bottom line. In short, Dems better achieve some real progressive change or face voter wrath in 2010 and beyond.

Health Care Reform H.R. 3962: Just Say No!

Kucinich voted no and here's why:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/08-0

John Geyman M.D.'s informed opinion of the bill last Thursday:
http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/11/05/health-care-reform-2009-no-bill-is-better-than-a-bad-bill/

Yeah, there are some useful tweaks to existing health care insurance here that should pass into law and I'm not opposed to every word of this bill or anything like that. But I am opposed to the mandate that exists to buy insurance from the private health insurers and I equally resent the fact that a fantastically robust Medicare for all style provision is entirely lacking in the bill. I am also pro-choice, so no joy there either.

I could give a fuck if this bill passes or not. I rather hope it does not. I'd frankly rather that the health care crisis get worse rather than to approve a measure so insubstantial that it is little more than a thinly disguised handout to the private health insurance industry by way of a mandate to buy health insurance. The working poor will not be able to spend 18-20% of their income on private health insurance in this way and I very much doubt that any subsidies will alleviate that crushing burden.

The mandate to buy insurance will not likely prove to be constitutional, in my opinion. It's one thing to tax an individual and then to provide public services in return; and it's quite another thing altogether to force anyone to contract with other private entities just because the federal legislature seems to think you should.

So, if this passes we're headed for a showdown on the issue of "freedom of contract" - because contained within the idea of the freedom of contract is the freedom to not contract at all.

Maine: No to Gay Marriage

What's upsetting about all of this is how minority rights are being put to a vote. It's a complete breakdown of one of the fundamental purposes of government: to protect minority rights against majority rule. The government needs to step in and clarify EVERYONE'S rights as per civil union/marriage.

RuinedSaint on HuffPo commented: "It's akin to 2 wolves and a rabbit voting on what to have for dinner."

Or as Pastor Martin Niemöller in the era of German Nazism put it:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

These are crazy times. Goodbye U.S.A....

A Worthy Speech

In our day certain economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. A second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, or race, or creed. Among these are:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines throughout the nation.


• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.


• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.


• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom, freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.


• The right of every family to a decent home.


• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.


• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.


• The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security...we must be prepared to move forward in the implementation of these rights to new goals of human happiness and well-being. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States from a speech made in 1944.