The number of Saudis taking aim at us in Iraq is reported to be 2,500.
It seems as if the realities of life are getting in the way of our politics. The stated list of enemies is swiss cheese, similar to baseball’s steroid policy prior to the feds kicking doors down, a view of the world enslaved by a series of payoffs. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia bring about none of the rhetoric, and the midget from North Korea brags about nukes to a stone wall.
Our foreign policy is the equivalent of a craps game. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen at 2:59 AM MST
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I just heard a 78 year old WW2 veteran on Limbaugh’s program who said that his prescription cost through the VA during the 90s was $32 dollars a month. Under Bush it has gone up to over $90, and the new budget calls for this man to pay even more. Cuts to VA benefits are described in just about every article that’s been written on the President’s budget for next year. My question is, when is the press going to point this out and start asking how such a thing could ever be justified?
I’m so sick and tired of blatant hypocrisy going unchecked in this country. The other night before the super bowl we cheered veterans from past wars, and earlier in the season we celebrated the memory and sacrifice of Pat Tillman. There isn’t a single opportunity to shower our troops with praise that goes unused when it comes to our elected leaders and talking heads. They eat it up. The chance for a public figure to gush over what the troops have sacrificed for this country is a giant hot fudge sundae that none of them can resist, yet the lack of outrage over raising health care costs on these beloved political mealtickets tells me that it’s all a load of opportunistic crap and has been for decades in this country.
Any public official or talking head who’s leveraged a ’support our troops’ spiel to promote themselves and hasn’t come out against VA budget cuts is a traitor to this country and everything it stands for. In the business world little people bear the burden when things don’t go right, but that’s life. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Military at 2:34 PM MST
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In the American political process these two words are mostly irrelevant in terms of what’s passed into law. Republicans are anything but conservative in any sort of a fiscal sense, and Democrats are not universally liberals. With this said, the labels are damning to our survival in the long run as they’re used like all labels are - to divide people who are more alike than they are different.
Admittedly I’d only listened to Rush Limbaugh on a handful of occasions before tuning in after being laid off. His time slot isn’t friendly to the workers of America…perhaps that’s the best thing about his contribution to the EIB network (’excellence in babbling’ as a blogger so aptly named it) is that it captures the attention of those who don’t have anywhere to be on a weekday afternoon.
His diatribes are lengthly, and at every turn he categorizes all who oppose a Republican’s idea as a ‘liberal’. Count the times he utters the word ‘liberal’ in a given broadcast and you can understand the genius behind what he does. The word ‘liberal’ can mean just about anything, but most often he uses it to describe opinions in opposition of the GOP. His success lies in the fact that the trick worked. Countless numbers of ‘conservative’ radio people have popped up in recent years, mimicking his format and drawing an arbitrary line in the sand with conservative equaling Republican and liberal equaling Democrat. I’ve got a number of friends who couldn’t name a single bill passed in Congress over the past twenty years, but know full well that they don’t want to be considered a ‘liberal’. A liberal eats fetus sandwiches, engages in gay orgies and believes in money for nothing while a conservative believes in God and hard work. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Words at 2:00 AM MST
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In a newsgroup recently I was confronted with the typical right-wing opinion that Gingrich had to chastise the Democrats for the pork they allowed into their bills, and the person writing it hadn’t a clue as to the fact that in the past four years nothing has changed. The outcome of this history here, with Republicans proving themselves to be just as guilty, is that pork is the vice of politicians in general and not one side or the other. The pundits would, could and most likely will bore us to tears over semantics concerning this truth, but it’s a sign of our political process and the flaws that lie within. Our elected officials cannot resist providng the ‘hook-up’.
From local politics on up it’s the same as it ever was, with patronage determining who had to work for theirs and who got to coast. The design of our nation in the Constitution and Bill of Rights has taken us this far, but over time we’re begining to reap the whirlwind as it becomes more and more apparant that our politicians are advocates for who lines their pockets moreso than they are advocates for who lines their vote totals.
This is the flaw in our democracy, that the stock prices not only have access to the people with power to enact change, but that their courting of these elected officials is an industry worthy of a name…K Street. World History tells us that human nature makes us incapable of anything else. Power, greed and vanity rule in Washington DC.
Our democracy fails us in this regard. The evidence is all around us. Keneth Lay was on Cheney’s energy panel while his subordinates were orchestrating bogus blackouts in order to gouge Californians with their prices. You can’t get more cozy than that. So let’s get past the idea of a CEO equalling a living person in society and call them what they really are…walking stock prices. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 1:07 AM MST
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My cat is looking at me. She’s snuggled in beside me here on the couch in between me and the keyboard like she does. A not so subtle gesture letting me know that she is concerned by the lack of attention. I attempt to accomodate her concerns while not giving in to the point where I just decide to pack it in and focus 100% on making her purr…once they know it works, you’ll never get to type in peace again.
She’s a lap cat in the most literal sence. She’s also the odds on favorite to be the most spoiled cat this side of the Mississippi River. As I write that last sentence she gets up and runs away.
This is the thing about cats I never got over until I owned my first…they can read minds. This was apparant to me all througout life till now. I’m as allergic to cats as someone could be, and upon entering a house with one or more the sensation would hit me all at once, a feeling of sickness, like being in a gas chamber. The cat walks up and recognizes this, they smell the fear somehow, and from that point on I’m not longer a guest in their house, but a toy. One cat that belonged to a friend named Crooker knew I was petrified of it, so if I crashed on the couch it would be parked next to my face when I woke up wheezing. A couple Allegra’s beforehand would counteract this, but the fear still existed, so the cat would entertian itself at my expense.
They can read emotions of all kinds, they know when you’re talking about them. Lately I’ve considered the posibility that cats are merely the host bodies for all the dead mothers out there who in their past life provoked feelings of guilt to the point were God had to give them this as a next life. Cleo got up and ran away as I wrote that she was spoiled, knowing I’d feel bad.
She’s a sphinx, which is a hairless breed. My girl wanted a cat and I surprised her on a birthday a few years back with Cleo. As long as I don’t pet her then rub my eyes, I’m allergy free. The plan works to
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Words at 12:30 AM MST
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The site has so far been used to collect the finished articles, the polished pieces. Unfortunately the reality of this business…the article business, is that there are only so many dollar bills to go around.
It’s something I can do, but for some reason it’s not what this space is for…that’s my feeling at this point. The impromptu collection of words I’ll spew on a newsgroup…that’s where my passion lies.
I’ve been unemployed since being laid off along with 499 others a few months back and figured there’d be a mountain worth of stuff posted here in no time. Obviously that didn’t happen. So I’m hoping to switch gears here.
As I write this, the thought comes to mind that to the two people who happen to actually read this…
See, there I was about to go into an explaination about how this wouldn’t turn into a log of what pair of underwear I decided to put on this past Tuesday or what I ate for breakfast, but what the hell does that even mean? Like I want to let you all know that I’m not an asshole like the bloggers who have been pointed out in the media or by comedians in the past few months. Sure, I’m not stupid enough to think that people want to hear about what I see when I gaze into a mirror. No ‘dear diary’.
I just want to say that it’s a belief of mine that there is a lot left unsaid in the world today, and every once in a while there’ll be ideas that come to me. If I decide to articulate them using a keyboard, it makes sence and actually flows. So for what it’s worth, I’m going to be posting this here from now on and to hell with whether it’s a product or not in the end.
Unless I’m going to be out for a long time I don’t even bother to tie my shoes…that’s life. Why should my webpage be any different?
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 12:16 AM MST
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