When a deal is too good to be true....it most certainly is!

The last time Bush "cut taxes" I was pulling down a 6 figure compensation package and my "share" of the "tax cut" was about $350. I can't remember what I bought with my "windfall", but I'm sure it wasn't much. People in higher income brackets got as much as 100 times that amount or $35,000 (I know, I did the math at the time). If I had received $35,000, I would know what I did with that kind of money...probably invested in my family's future, bought a new car, put a down payment on a new house...you know, the stuff you remember. I bet you would have too. This latest round of "tax cuts" is structured in similar fashion, you get a little, Paris Hilton gets a lot. Here's the question for you and for everyone you know that thinks the current administration and the republican party is taking care of the poor and middle class. Why do you keep allowing Paris Hilton, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Jenna Bush, Barbara Bush, Dick Cheney, etc. to ride on your dime??? Do you really like these people so much that it's OK with you that they get richer while you just tool along? Most of my friends and I'll bet most of yours don't need food stamps. Is it OK with you that Paris Hilton gets a big break while people who clean toilets at $5.15 an hour lose a benefit that helps them feed their children? Are you that angry at the poor that you cheer the loss of food to children? Big Oil made record profits in Q3 of this year, but poor kids have to go to school hungry? The aftermath of Katrina isn't about black or white, it's about what happens to the poor and middle class when the shit hits the fan. OK, so you can rationalize all of this, you want your $350 bucks. Would you invest that $350 bucks in a company that is up to its ass in red ink run by a chairman who doesn't listen to the stockholders while the chairman is calling for a redistribution of the value of the company from the stockholders to the board of directors? Would you invest in a company where the chairman announces that even though the company is doing poorly, he wants to cut revenues? Even the most brilliant business minds would think that was a pretty crazy thing to do. So why is it OK for your government to follow a leader that does this shit? If you voted for George Bush in 2000 or 2004, ask yourself if you are still happy with your choice...and if you are, why, just a year after the "election" are 6 out of 10 people not happy with him or his cronies? What do you and your other 3 buddies see that the majority of americans don't see?? Are you really better off now than you were 4 years ago? If so, how?

Your Government at Work

Champions of the Rich, Enemies of the Poor and Middle Class

In this week's episode of fuck the poor, the mostly Republican House salvaged the $50 billion spending cut by a vote of 217 to 215 by not drastically cutting the programs for the poor, college students and farmers as much as they wanted to a week earlier. The Senate was a bit kinder to the poor avoiding direct cuts to the beneficiaries of antipoverty programs but allowing arctic drilling which the congress cut from it's spending cut bill. (WaPo)

In the meantime, big oil will continue to reap tremendous profits.

Democratic Senators which proposed a bill to make oil price gouging a federal crime and outlawing market manipulation by major oil companies was defeated by 3 votes. (link)

Earlier yesterday, the Senate rejected, 64-35, a proposal by Democratic Senators Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd to impose a 50 percent excise tax on oil companies' profits when oil exceeds $40 a barrel, unless profit is reinvested in exploration activities or developing new refineries. An amendment by California Democrat Diane Feinstein and New Hampshire Republican John Sununu to eliminate some tax breaks for large energy companies also was defeated, 51-48. (Bloomberg)

The Senate this week also voted against a way to fix Bush's Folly in Iraq. How dare senators require a timely end to the war. (USA Today)

Today the Senate will debate privacy protections regarding the Patriot Act. Yes, your privacy is still being debated you scaredy cats who willingly gave up your rights after 9/11. (link)

In an effort to keep the rich as wealthy as possible, a Democratic amendment which sought to pay for $60 billion in tax cuts by closing tax loopholes failed in the Senate on Thursday.

The U.S. Senate approved a $60 billion tax-cut measure that spares about 14 million [wealthy] Americans from paying higher rates under the alternative minimum tax. (link) Lawmakers defied a demand by the White House to delete a $4.3 billion tax increase on oil companies in the measure, which passed on a vote of 64-33 shortly after midnight last night. (link)

The tax-cut package would more than wipe out the $35 million in spending cuts the Senate approved earlier this month.

Today's Newsday editorial: "Even for a body composed of professional politicians, the Senate has had quite a week. First it offhandedly punched a hole in the Constitution, and then it sought public accolades for patching up part of the damage it had just caused." Indeed. (read the rest)

OK, so there I've said it and I'm not sorry for saying it!

Ya know the sad thing is that it's not the young who forgot how Goebbels and the boys took control, it's the people who fought them tooth and nail and died fighting them that for the most part voted for the bushistas. It's the greatest generation and the children of the greatest generation that "elected" and "re-elected" these maniacs. It's the people who quietly marched off to war in Vietnam because it was "the right thing to do", and are now sending their kids to do the same in Iraq. We've gotten here because of the "good intentions" of good god fearing, queer hating, racist, but oh so patriotic flag waving, yellow ribbon wearing americans, who listen to Rush Limbaugh's every word and watch Bill O'Reilly spew his venom for big paychecks and whose politics are shaped by CNN and FOX as they sit in their comfy livingrooms drinking their cheap ass beer and watching NASCAR, NFL, and NBA megamillionaires entertain the masses, but won't take a stand like say Muhammad Ali did and say enough! It's the middle class investors who when big oil lies to congress can't get too excited because their portfolios have grown fat from the dividends of their investments in big oil and in the weapons to kill people industry. Wake up america, until we stop sending these pricks to congress and the senate, until we stop buying products who use people like Paul Harvey as a mouthpiece, until we stop driving 20-30 miles a day to and from work alone in a gas guzzler, until we just stop all the crap we've been doing and thinking "Oh, it's OK, I mean how can I make a difference, just me riding the bus won't make a difference, just me investing in socially conscious companies won't make a difference, just me not buying a posture pedic sleep system with my own computerized sleep number, just me, just me, just me!!!!!!!!!! Well, folks, unless you're writing politicians, newsmakers, media princesses and princes, businessmen and women everyday and making them very nervous about being the next bastard hauled before a grand jury, in addition to living a life consistent with your politics, even you (we) are not doing enough...and that's why we're in the mess we find ourselves in today, discussing what we should have been screaming at the tops of our collective lungs during the 2000 election, and from now until the next "election"..if free elections are even possible anymore. Our job is not to convince ourselves, it is to convince the 4 out of 10 poor bastards who still believe the crap that's coming from the pols. And in the end, and hopefully, this manical clown circus is coming to an end, when these thugs are out of office and in exile, we can all start by putting things back together. Maybe...hopefully...and the way we should have been doing it all along. Soap box safely stowed for landing...