Disintegration

The infrastructure is crumbling.

We can't provide health care to over 15% of our country, and even trying to cover children is met with stiff opposition from the Republican-led Business Politicians.

The country has gone massively, irrevocably, in debt, mostly due to the incessant tax cuts aimed at corporations and wealthy, combined with the 16 billion a month being flushed down the toilets in Iraq, when it's not being just....lost.

Mine safety is so abysmal that a mine collapses a SECOND time while rescuers are still working to recover the victims of the FIRST collapse.

We can't protect our people from inferior and dangerous imported products.

Hell, we can't protect our PETS from them.

The mortgage industry is a shambles, primarily due to the de-regulation of the industry and the allowance of predatory lending practices that would shame a loan shark.

The banking industry is rapidly following, dragging down the investments market.

China holds most of our debt, and they're getting nervous about this state of affairs.



Last Days of Rome, friends. The only consolation is that if you look at Rome now, it's a beautiful city in a beautiful country. It's no longer the world leader though.

I won't miss it when we're no longer the Pretend World Leader anymore. Realistically, America hasn't been a leader in the world since we invaded Iraq on trumped up ever shifting rationales; like a common playground bully, we can beat the hell out of anybody we wish, but nobody thinks of them as a Leader. And eventually, the other kids will band together to knock the bully back down, making them all a bit safer.

But really, look at the above. Looks like we are doing a swell job of knocking ourselves down.


Look at what Al-Quaeda has accomplished: they bluffed a blowhard idiot into adopting a ludicrously belligerent foreign policy, and egged on by the nuts in the neocon world, he invaded a mideastern country for no reason, providing a generations worth of recruitment propoganda as well as a fertile training ground where would-be terrorists can learn to hate and kill Americans on sight.

He also inspired the Idiot in chief to pursue a costly, interminable and unwinnable military strategy, putting the country on a bankruptcy footing and distracting from other, more pressing internal needs.

No other terrorist attack has achieved so much. Bombings in other cities internationally are cleaned up, the prepetrators are jailed, and life goes on. No ongoing press, no glory for the attackers, just ignominy and prison.

Of course, it really doesn't take a friggin genius to beat Bush and his gang of pompous asses in strategery. They're used to using Karl Rove to game the system BEFORE going into battle. No such luck here.


The only thing Our Republicans are good at is death. It seems to me that they are responsible for much more of it than Al-Qaeda- so who's the emissary of Evil here again?

Although, it appears Jenna Bush is knocked up. wonkette has a revealing (so to speak) photo analysis, and one of Rove's staffers has been tapped to prevent the familial embarrassment.




So, tonight I'm catching Crowded House at the Pabst, and tomorrow night local ska kids Something To Do are having a record release show at the Miramar, so it should be a pretty raucous weekend. Music is life-affirming, and in these deathful times, anything helps. Maybe I will get my new mandolin strings today, and be able to do a little practicing later.

So here's a batch of random songs, in opposition to death:

1. Gloria from the album "Just Say Noël" by Elastica
2. When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up from the album "When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up" by Snow Patrol Boy, Is THAT ever true. When Bush is gone, it'll be like cleaning up after Animal House.
3. Waiting for My Real Life to Begin (Radio Edit) from the album "Going Somewhere (Extended Version)" by Colin Hay
4. They're Coming To Take Me Away by Snopek & UXB I betcha Sigmund doesn't remember doing this one.
5. My Pet Robot from the album "Pulsars" by Pulsars
6. d.p. miller from the album "Devil's Rats & Piggies" by Mekons One of the early ones.
7. Great Battle from the album "The Great Battle" by Jon Dee Graham One of the obscure greats, cut his teeth in The Skunks and The True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo.
8. Rudolph The Manic Reindeer from the album "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Xmas" by Los Lobos
9. I Fought The Law from the album "Wacos at the Abbey" by Waco Brothers Cash meets Clash, indeed.
10. You Make Me Crazy from the album "Adventures In Utopia" by Utopia

bonus 11: See no evil from the album "Marquee Moon" by Television Classic.
12. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds from the album "Spaced Out" by William Shatner Damn. I picked the wrong Friday to stop dropping acid at lunch.
13. "I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW"Track 07 from the album "O brother where art thou?" by Various Artists
14. Building from the album "Volo Volo" by Poi Dog Pondering
15. Are You A Good Witch Or A Bad Witch? from the album "What is Truth?" by J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers A rare one from Mekons-fan and Sadly, No commenter J Neo. Search out his albums, they are gems.


Fifteen songs cuz I love you guys so much!!

And just a final thought on the power of strong aphorisms. All it took was one wolf to look at a human and think "YOU GONNA FINISH THAT??" to create and domesticate dogs.

Oh, and witness a Master level takedown of wingnut Rich Lowry over at Sadly, No. HTML Mencken eviscerates another preening scold with brutality and elegance, using Lowry's own words to reveal a weak, hypocritical thinker.

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