~jeff
There was some filing to be done of an official nature, so I sallied forth towards my little hamlet, in search of a place to copy my precious document before forking it over at City Hall, for I have worked as a public servant, and thought it wise to have a copy to hang on to until it was all done being filed and I got my certified copy. I was somewhat pressed, as said document is due to said City Hall just ten short days after unsaid moment in time. Therefore I was dismayed to discover that the Town Copy Shop was abandoned and derelict.
Nonetheless I continued my ridiculous sallying (more of a shashay, frankly) and went over to the crenellated environs of our illustrious town government. I had an impression I had seen a xerox machine somewhere recently and I was elated to discover that this device was conveniently located in the very place I had set foot. Sadly it was code protected.
I headed in to the Records office to see if they knew of a place to get my precious document copied. Maybe they sold copies right there, I fantasized. Clearly my memories of my previous place of public employ have faded drastically over time. A fleeting thought to not hand over the document for them to ’see’ was my only residual wisdom, which I impulsively overrode.
There the lady informed me that she didn’t know of any copy shops (okay) and that it needed to be certified (okay, but I’d like to copy it first) and I would have to wait for them to send it to me and pay them ten dollars for a copy (which I was planning to do anyway) and most of all, that because since I had handed it to her, I couldn’t have it back to copy and file half an hour from now.
I found no way to politely explain that I did not trust them not to lose the document and that’s why I wanted to have a copy first. If you think about it, government is supposed to be the way that we do things collectively. But sometimes it’s more like the way we don’t do things, collectively.
I was going to comment on Jeff’s post below but I realized my comment was reaching an impolite length. The issue of economic injustice, which I watch getting worse and worse before my eyes and in my own pocket, is, well let’s just euphamistically call it a pet peeve.
The rich get richer and the middle and poor get poorer:
http://www.jobwatch.org/
(”For low- and middle-wage workers, as well as those with a high school degree, real wages fell last year by 1%-2%. Those at the top of the wage scale experienced marginal gains, and real wages were essentially unchanged for college graduates…nominal wage growth slowed over the past few years ..Inflation was also a factor last year, as energy costs drove prices higher (on average for the year, inflation was up 2.7% in 2004 and 3.4% in 2005). Thus, nominal wages needed to grow that much faster to beat price growth.”)
And as we get poorer, many of us can’t afford health care, and jobs that used to offer it have decided they’d rather keep the money as profit:
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ib218
(”…Corporate profits [are] unusually strong; compensation [is] unusually weak…While wages have stagnated or fallen behind inflation, corporate profits have remained strong…While compensation gains have slowed, profits have continued to grow strongly. In other words, the recent squeeze on wage growth appears to be coming much more from profits than from health care costs…Close to half of the workforce lack employer-provided health care, and those who have lost the most in real wages are the least likely to even have health coverage…strong productivity growth has done little to better the living standards of working families which has been a hallmark of the current economic expansion.”)
Meanwhile the President continues to tell us he is strengthening the economy and instead makes the tax cut policies to benefit the rich, and does nothing to help the rest of us:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/
(here’s an exerpt of that State of the Union address on January 31, 2006, 9:12 P.M. EST: “….Tonight I will set out a better path: an agenda for a nation that competes with confidence; an agenda that will raise standards of living and generate new jobs. Americans should not fear our economic future, because we intend to shape it.”)
And on housing, one final thought: The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 29 percent lower today than it was in 1979. Meanwhile, “…average U.S. home prices increased 12.50 percent from the first quarter of 2004 through the first quarter of 2005 …House prices rose 12.5 percent, while prices of other goods and services rose only 3.1 percent. …[This] represent[s] the largest four quarter increase since the third quarter of 2004, when appreciation surpassed any increase in over 25 years.”
…I didn’t even go into the skyrocketing costs of (even public) college education, the incredible ongoing, worsening economic apartheid here in America (yes, I mean race) wealth and survival in Developed vs. Developing countries, or one hundred other bajillion economic injustice things I try not to think about ALL THE TIME.
———–
*You have gotten me started. This is a giant rant.
EDIT: I tried to make this a shorter rant, with little success.
Sometimes, the Right forgets to be subtle. They forget that Hispanics are a growing part of their constituency (and speaking of which, what kind of self-hate is that?). When that happens, they find themselves saying things like this: Whites have to have more babies in order to keep the Hispanics from becoming a politically powerful group.
Now, I realize that calling someone a Nazi is an Internet cliché, but this is so incredibly in line with Nazi eugenics (particularly when coupled with the “Minutemen” — which, as a Massachussetan, it really bothers me that they used that name) that the similarity has to be pointed out.
Come on, America. How could you have not seen this coming? I say “you” because this is the kind of shit I’ve been talking about for almost a decade now. So let me say this straight:
If the Religious Right continues its rise to power, they will kill you. They are murderous, greedy, lying, stealing tyrants. If you voted for Bush, it’s your fault. If you voted for a Republican for the House or Senate, it’s your fault.
But you’re a grownup living in a democracy. You can change that. You can look around at your fellow Americans and decide to fire the guy who’s making this happen, who abused your trust by promising “compassion”.
The Republicans may have, at some point, had a valid political point: a balanced budget, for instance, is a good idea, keeping us out of debt to those who don’t have our country’s best interests at heart. Self-reliance, that’s a good thing, right? But this thing, this machine that it’s become? It speaks only lies: it indebts you and your children to the house of Saud and it removes your civil rights, the very things you need to make decisions of conscience as an individual.
They want nothing less than world-dominating power. And, for some reason, Americans have been voting to give it to them.
It’s weird, but the crackpots seem to fall more and more on the anti-war side.
The consistent misunderstanding of the very close relationship between cause and effect in our country’s government is staggering. Impeachable, you might say.
For instance, Sun Tzu figured out some 2700 years ago that it’s important to “carefully guard your line of supplies.” He knew that an army fights on his stomach. He knew that because he was a petty soldier who became the most respected general, strategist, and tactician in all of history. His experience showed him that, if you’re going to fight a war (he advises against it), make sure that you can get your troops the things they need to fight. Make sure they have food, medicine, and weapons (in that order).
Now, we all know that the Iraq war was “planned” well before any reason had been pitched to the US population. Administration members have said as much, hiding behind the argument that “it all came out pretty well, though, didn’t it? Support our troops!”
Well, let’s take stock, shall we?
Did it come out well? So far, no, it’s been a dysmal failure typical of our President’s (if that’s really what he is) executive leadership. He’s done exactly what the Left has feared and warned all along: he’s made a powerful enemy where before there was a stuffed shirt.
So let’s talk about that “support our troops” part. We know that the military there was already undersupplied in armor, both for themselves and their vehicles. That scandal’s already well-known. But now, it turns out the ill-plannedness has gone to a deeper level: they’ve broken Sun Tzu’s basic principles: they’re not feeding the troops properly. Now, this looks to me like Warwick, RI, of all places is stepping up to the plate where the fucking US won’t.
What will it take to impeach the agents of transnational corporations that have userped the power of the people of the United States?
(Thanks to Ben, L-Dopa’s own Uncle Elvis, for the Loyalty Day link.)
(Edit: it turns out this bill was passed in 2003.)
~jeff
~jeff
*About that last one:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
is available of the cops beating a confession out of the guy, but it’s hard to listen to, both literally and figuratively; you’d be better off reading the transcript.
~jeff
* Does USC’s student government have any meetings where somebody doesn’t take pictures?
Video (QuickTime).
~jeff
This is me doing the happy dance, tempered by the threat of him running for or being appointed to some other sneaky post.
David Icke has a son.
And David Icke’s son has a rock band.
~S
