Check out this week's podcast at the bottom of the page.  Look for the image of the yellow and green Buddha.

Taboo Plaza

Take a look at how your government works.  I guess I've got to ask you to look at it from an American perspective though.  I don't know any other perspective and clearly that's my own bias.

We moved away from monarchy as a people, but what does that mean?  On the ground, in daily life, monarchy can be a free for all, until you get the final word.  The one final word and whatever that word is, is law.  One aspect of the American government we can never give up on is rule of law.  That is why Guantanamo Bay, and the people kept there, is such a big deal.

How do you say you're a nation of laws when a piece of land claimed by you does not observe your laws?  My statement is not partisan.  Whether people kept in Guantanamo should be categorized as something other than human, like "enemy combatant," is a partisan statement.  Rule of law is not partisan though.  It is a bedrock of the American system of government that you must believe in if you participate in American politics.  Either you have unalienable rules that can never be suspended, or you live in a sort of oppression.

The Constitution is clear on this matter.

We've also got somewhere near the bedrock of American government, a concept shared among the citizens that we value democracy.

I harp on it all the time, but America is not a democracy.  Somehow the notion of democracy has been allowed to survive- and to be exploited- in America for political gain.  It is difficult for the American elite to tell the public that "we" don't trust "you."  The "we" and "you" in that statement are Americans divided only by those with power and those being oppressed. 

We spread democracy while we haven't even actualized it ourselves.  'Spreading democracy' is catchier than 'spreading indirect representation' though.  I'm sure any ad agency worth their weight in salt will tell you the same.  We need to end the words in this country that don't mean anything anymore.  We need politicians to speak candidly and openly about what is going on in America.

The parties in America are killing the system, but then the parties in America have killed the system from the very beginning.  George Washington warned the Nation against political parties when he was leaving office.  Apparently, no one really listened to him, but we had a national holiday for him once.  That is until being the first president of the United States of America didn't measure up to the profits that could be garnered by opening the doors of our 80% service-sector economy to the masses on February 22nd every year.



Whether it's 2/22 or the third Monday in February, unlock those service-sector doors bitches and let the masses treat you anyway they'd like.  If their upset, they complain about customer service.  If their satisfied, they throw money at you and walk out.  Where does that leave the honor and pride we pretend to have when we speak the name of George Washington?  Or wear a flag pin in our lapel?  Where does that leave honor and pride in this country, period?

It's too bad American Presidents don't talk to the American public this way when they are in office.  That's when they have the greatest opportunity to garner their largest audience.  I'm not naive though.  I don't think George Washington would be so candid if he were president today.  Then again neither was Bill Clinton.

7 Deadly Sins

Pride.

CNN recently released results from a poll they conducted.

"How would the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin feel about the way the United States has turned out 232 years after declaring its independence?"  With a margin of error plus or minus 4.5%, 69% of the respondents thought the founding fathers would be disappointed with America today.

In the same poll, Americans were asked how proud they were to be an American.  61% said they were extremely proud.  28% said they were very proud.  7% were moderately proud while 2% felt only a little proud and 1% said not at all.

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins.  Read into it what you will, I'm just saying.




Current Affairs

The President of the United States of America will be voted into office in a few short months.  (To some, those months may not seem short.)  George W. Bush will leave office the forty-third person to have served as president of the United States of America.  In anticipation people criticize the candidates running for president on details such as national security, immigration reform or their expected behavior toward Mexicans.

It seems that the question must eventually come back to: what does the President of the United States of America really do?  We can't determine what qualities best suit a president until we've determined what the job entails.  The president is not, and never was, intended to be a king- much less a god.

The president is a bureaucrat.  He is in charge of a huge bureaucracy.  Like the CEO of a major corporation, the president pushes papers.  'I'm in favor of this.  I don't like that.' 

How hard is that really? 

We may not really need to set the intellectual bar too high.

What we want in a president must begin with what we expect of a president.  Our past systemic results suggest putting someone into office to do whatever the hell they want.  First Bush, "No more taxes."  Clinton apparently bedding down nearly every woman he could.  Then you've got W. who recently received from Congress another billion sixty-two to continue the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Seymour Hersh reports Bush obtained $400 million to mess around covertly in Iran trying to start a war or topple their government.

Bush is either really good or he's just a puppet, because he just doesn't seem sharp enough to have pulled off two invasions and potentially another war by himself.  There is a lot of bureaucratic safeguards you have to manuever in order to initiate such a cluster fuck.  If you think about a bureaucracy, it's never really one person making it happen.  That's why conspiracy theories are usually so laughable.  Bureaucracy is unwieldy and poorly-suited for keeping secrets unless you actively take part in subverting the system.

The Bush Administration recently was credited with hiring primarily conservative people into jobs within the Department of Justice.  Where our laws are enforced and the citizens to be locked up receive their sentences, Bush allowed a take over of free thought.  Ideally when electing a President of the United States of America, we should probably look for a candidate with scruples and the common sense of conscience to not illegally program the bureaucracy with only like-minded individuals.  No one man- or even a group of men and women- have the answer.  None of us have the answer.

Hitler teaches us that point if nothing else.

President W. has insinuated that talking with enemies is a ludicrous idea.  He would apparently prefer to mettle in the internal affairs of a foreign country rather than speaking openly with another representative of state.  Iran is a problem for the U.S.; however, how can any rational individual escalate to violence before first attempting to speak rationally with another willing individual.  Say what you will, but Ahmadinejad did travel to the United States of America for a speaking engagement.  It was a peaceful speaking engagement at that.  We must at the very least demand a President of the United States of America has the commonsense to know that words precede violence. 

Where's my worshippers of Christ on this one?

As for the candidates before us, I will be like major media outlets and ignore anyone other than Obama and McCain.  I'm doing so primarily because I'm lazy.  I don't want to have to type or talk too much.  Plus you probably don't want to listen to me for that long anyway. 

So about Obama versus McCain.

More than likely, McCain inherits a Congress working to constrain him if he wins.  It seems highly unlikely that McCain would also be welcomed into American Presidency with a majority of Republicans in Congress.  That's good, I guess, if McCain does manage to win.  He has been quoted as proposing another 100 years in Iraq.  How would that play out with the Congress?  They haven't done much to Bush other than give him what he's asked. 

Would that continue with McCain?  We need an active Congress.  It is only one of two things standing between a president and a king.

Obama has talked about getting out of Iraq.  Granted, he's waffling on the issue, but what would you do?  Is it really an either or question?  You pull out of Iraq entirely and quickly, then you're the guy that pulled the U.S. troops out of Iraq quickly and left a chaotic mess of death and disgust. 

Have fun with that.

Obama has also talked about funding alternative energy projects.  That sounds like a pretty good idea right now.  We've got predictions of $7.00 a gallon gasoline on the horizon.  It's probably time to act now before we're all destitute.  And still nobody seems to know where the money is going.  The President isn't going to do anything about that.  Only dictators can make the price of gasoline go down.  A president can only spend money, not create it. 

It kind of goes back to being a paper pusher.  McCain has proposed a substantial prize for a new car battery.  McCain has to repudiate people in his campaign saying a terrorist attack in America would be good for his campaign, while Obama still has to deny that he is a Muslim.  McCain has supported the War on Terror, while Obama appears likely to deal with terrorists in the U.S. legal system.

Ultimately, each man, if elected President of the United States of America, will push paper.  The papers that person pushes will certainly determine what policy America gets to see and what policy never sees the light of day in America; however, that person will not be the only cog in the bureaucracy. 

The president can- and should- only do so much.  Character is what is needed for the position.  Not experience.  What kind of experience can prepare you to be the President of the United States of America?  Many people are capable of filling the position.  It seems at time that the primary rule is simply- don't be a dick. 

George W. Bush has done the job for the last eight years.  He has never really seemed to be in control.  At times, Cheney seemed to be running the show.  There were other times when Rumsfeld seemed to have the reigns.  It's never really seemed like Bush had it together enough to have a plan to execute.  He just seemed like he was learning as he was going along.  He's still doesn't seem all that good at the job really.

So from now on, when you hear someone talk about the qualifications necessary to be the President of the United States of America, just think about this clip from the Daily Show.

My Butthole Bleeds for You…Really….It Does

According to sources, research by the Adult Internet Market Research Company indicate stimulus checks received by Americans in May helped the online porn industry generate 20% to 30% more growth.  Way to go W.  You should be happy to know that I'm stimulating myself right now.

"I’ve got one hand my mouse and the other’s improving America’s economy."



A Memorial to George Carlin.

A twenty-one gun salute to the outspoken genuis that was George Carlin.

May his memory live on forever untarnished.



Check out this week's podcast (below.)

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