Required Discussion Topics

These are the topics that must be discussed here. If anyone can think of others, leave a comment and I'll add them.

* Education and the scourge of charter schools. - DONE
Energy and the death of capitalism.
Environment and the end of humanity.
Enmity and the real reason behind the Iraq massacre
Economy and the corporate junta that has hijacked our country.
Eminent Domain - you thought it was yours. 9/10ths belongs to the people now. This theory sounds familiar.
Evolution and other facts that we should all know.
Ebortion - You mean I can get one online now?
Emergency response: a glimpse inside a septic administration.
Emigration (not from here, and not to anywhere else - you know, Immigration: the latest paper tiger)
Execution: Until we can get rid of that Hannity, we shouldn't be allowed to kill anyone.
Espionage and the core of the Patriot Act.
Excruciation - but if the death penalty is ok, why not torture? Which is more humane?

Health Care and Unions!

Arrrrgh! Isn't it obvious that corporations need to get out of the health care business and concentrate on whatever product or service they are building. The reason that businesses offer health care is because it attracts employees since good health care is expensive. If the government offered good health care, or if the same health care cost the same for everyone, then there would be no need for businesses to offer these services. Pretty soon, the cost is going to be prohibitive and they will all stop offering health services anyway. The problem will fix itself. How? All sick people will die and then there won't be any need for doctors.

So American auto builders that have been cutting corners to create crappy cars for the past 30 years are now going to layoff 30,000 workers to start. Hopefully McDonald's will offer as good a health care package when they all start working there. I recently checked on the price of COBRA for my company if I have to leave for some unexpected reason and it's $978 a month. I still have a $35 copay when I go to the doctor (because I usually can't get the $10 appointment with my primary care physician), so if my family goes to the doctor 10 times a year, we're looking at about $13,000 a year not including prescriptions. If I get a job making $10 an hour, then this is 62.5% of my income assuming that I don't have to pay any income tax. Why is this example not enough to convince the unions, the government and the people of this country that we have to fix this?

Everyone believes that if we offer real insurance to the people who don't have it, our insurance premiums will go up because they are probably sicker, or more likely to abuse this service. Someone needs to explain the concept of insurance. The more people that subscribe and pay, the less each person pays (in a non-corrupt system). Also, if there are more people who make claims, there are more people to bear the burden of extra costs. Additionally, most people who are really sick will still get treatment anyway, but they will either borrow and default causing you to pay more in other areas including the cost of services, or they will burden friends and family with those costs which is still unfair (especially if that's you!).

There are lots of worldwide examples of success in national health care systems and we are the only industrialized country in the world that ties health care to the corporate interests. If you think that is a good business model that will get you the cheapest, efficient and effective health care services, then you are even more naive than I thought.

Why Don't We Get to Rewrite History Too?

Revisional Historians? Here's an example of rewriting history:

When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support. - President Guess Who

Congress approved the option to use force as a last resort to allow you to go back to the UN and put pressure on them to do more or to create stricter resolutions. To rewrite history and say they all approved of the invasion is a blatant lie.

How about another example in the same speech:

Foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

If anyone was convinced, it was because you convinced them. How did you convince them? By telling everyone that you could say without a doubt that it was true. Even with this testimonial, there weren't very many members of congress with a D in front of their names that were convinced, and unless Republicans are all a bunch of sheep or are just complete idiots, my guess is that not many of them were convinced either. But look at all the profits we've made from the war. It's really boosted our economy back up and so the thousands of people dead and tens of thousands of people maimed were probably worth it. At least our gasoline prices are a lot lower now. Maybe we should invade Saudi Arabia next.

Didn't Another Great President Go to China?

Plagued with scandal? Go to China! The last president with a 34% approval rating didn't last long, but unfortunately this time they've packed the Senate, House and Supreme Court with puppets that won't investigate, much less impeach or convict any wrong-doers with a big "R" in front of their names. How will leaving the country help? Out of sight, out of mind? Bringing that old time religion to the communists? Strengthening trade with our most important trade partner in the world? Or is he reporting back to the head of Specter about all the failed initiatives. Maybe Mr. Bush will have a mysterious accident on his return from Asia. Hmmm.

Of course, they've run out of hype news to act as a buffer for all the bad stuff and now the rats are starting to leave (or leak), so what will it take to get congressional Republicans to disavow this president? They obviously don't care about fiscal responsibility looking at our budget deficit, trade deficit, national debt or all the corporation mergers monopolizing energy, defense and the health industry. Corporate responsibility has never been in the GOP vocabulary. Markets will self-moderate. So when Wal-Mart kills all the competition and raises the prices (because they're not making a profit), we can all go on hunger strikes and that will show them.

But, outsourcing is the answer. If we can just pay people in other countries to do all our service work, then it will be cheap enough that we can prevent inflation. What jobs will be left here? I guess the rich people will have to have someone clean their house, mow their lawns, protect them from the mobs that live outside their walls, brave the road warrior anarchy to get their food... or will their food be the mobs that live outside their walls? Mmmmm. Soylent green is poor people.

Are We Living in Brazil?

An enemy that doesn't really exist, or maybe we created him; Suicide bombers threatening us but with no real purpose (they hate our freedoms); Fifty foot Samurai kidnapped your dream girlfriend and cut off your wings with a Wushu sword... ok, maybe not yet, but close.

President Bush must be a big Terry Gilliam fan, right? Inept and corrupt ministry of information. Surrounding himself by midgets for comic relief. Spending his whole life mistaking himself for the messiah. What's next? Releasing a government created virus that kills 99% of human life so we have to place all our future hopes on Bruce Willis?

We can't bring those troops home yet. We're still attracting the crazed kill-hungry teenagers and the poor minorities with no other "purpose" in society. As soon as we weed out the people in the military and the people that want (or have) to be in the military, we will save a whole lot of defense money (their 15K to 20K a year salaries). We can give that money to the defense contractors to build robots. We need more deaths to make the military unattractive except to those guys that like to torture/bomb brown people.

Secret prisons? Cruel and fairly usual punishment? Creating false intelligence to kill between 100,000 and 200,000 Islamo-fascists. Lying about it and committing treason in a petty act of revenge against a whistle-blower. Don't worry Scooter! You just have to time your conviction for the controversial end of term pardons. If they can choreograph the Tom DeLay and Bill Frist convictions to coincide, it could be a hat trick. Since the cronies are installed in the Supreme Court, just appeal until the bribe sticks, but they have to keep abortion legal or there's no crusade to attract the crazy fundamentalists to this wicked cause.

We're rotting from the inside.

10 Reasons Gay Marriage is Wrong

Concord Monitor
November 11, 2005
Letters To The Editor

Ten reasons gay marriage is wrong:

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans reject unnatural things, like eyeglasses, yoga and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, just as hanging around with tall people makes you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to crazy behaviors. People may wish to marry their pets or listen to Celine Dion.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all. Women are still property, blacks can't marry whites and divorce is illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage is allowed. The sanctity of Britney Spears's 55-hour marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriage is valid because it produces children. Gay couples, infertile couples and old people should not marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents raise only straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and female role model at home. That's why our society forbids single parents to raise children.

10. We could never adapt to new social norms. Just as we haven't adapted to cars, fast food restaurants or the internet.

GARY BULLOCK
CANTERBURY

Let's talk politics

President Bush:
Model Republican - Greed, Fear and Hypocrisy

W = War Criminal, War Profiteer, War Mongerer and War Deserter

Any of these would be treason (maybe not mongerer) and therefore we have to execute our commander-in-chief under our law (after he is convicted), but I'm against the death penalty even in this egregious case, so maybe we can use this trial to pressure him to call in a favor with his activist Supreme Court cronies (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Scalito) to rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

Letter to Senator McCain

Dear Senator McCain,

I would like to make a deal with you. All that's required on your part is for you to respond directly to this email giving me some acknowledgement that you've read it, and in return, I'll promise to vote for you in the next election. I haven't voted for a Republican since Reagan and I always vote a party line and I always vote, so by taking 5 minutes of your time, you can swing my vote. Granted, that doesn't mean much in Arizona, but it's all I have to bargain with.

My original message was going to be about your endorsement of the honorable Samuel Alito nomination to the Supreme Court. I know your statement just says that we should give him a fair hearing, but my concern is not about his position on gay marriage, or abortion rights, or even gun laws. I worry about him being a card-carrying member of the corporatocracy. In truth, I cannot tell whether you belong to this group either, but you are most definitely an enabler through your support of a party that has been hijacked by such a tiny group with only the interests of their cronies at heart.

With the Democratic party beaten up over the past five years, it would be very easy for you to enlist help from across the aisle to fight a corrupt administration filled with arrogant elitist mobsters by advocating transparency and real conservative values. It appears that no one will break the party line and confront your inept leader or his sycophants no matter how obvious his incompetence becomes. Your ticket to becoming the next President of the United States is standing up to the evils perpetrated by this war criminal cabinet of automatons. How can you let this administration condone torture after what you've been through? How can you honestly say that 2000 American deaths and probably 200,000 Iraqi deaths were worth the sacrifice to bring this facade of a government to Iraq? How can you support the fleecing of our country's wealth and prosperity by the energy, health, pharmaceutical and defense corporations that now run the country through lobbyists and congressional pawns?

It makes me sad that there are so few Americans left willing to fight for real causes in our government. We are rotting from the inside.