UncommonSense

7/3/2002 - Holiday Shortened

This is the last update for this week, as I am taking the rest of the week off for the holiday. See you again on Monday.

I've hated George Michael since time immemorial. But I have a new respect for him now that I've seen his new music video, Shoot the Dog. To see it yourself, click here, scroll down and choose your format (this is an Italian site, but the links are obvious). Isn't it a shame that it takes a George Michael to be the first one to criticize Bush openly? This morning on the Today show, Matt played the shameless whore by asking if this wasn't a blatant publicity gimmick meant to revive a sagging career. Funny, I didn't hear him say the same thing about Rosie O'Donnalduck. Oh, yeah, that's right, she criticized Clinton, who had a bj and lied about it. Bush gets a pass because all he has done is lead us into war, recession and the destruction of civil liberties. Anybody who would criticize Bush must be desperate for attention.

In Texas, it's all just bidness, even if it involves selling pieces of cadavers. Oh yes.

You mean this wasn't already illegal?

DubyaSpeak quote of the day:

It's important for our country to understand this new war of the 21st century is really not like any other war we've fought. You see, we fight people who, on the one hand, send youngsters to their death and they, themselves, try to hide in a cave.

Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, June 24, 2002

Not that Dubya isn't sending youngsters to their deaths while Dick Cheney hides in a cave. After all, this is a different kind of war, different from the ones where Roosevelt was the first guy on the beach in Normandy and Truman held off the Red Chinese horde. Or that other war where Nixon was wading through rice paddies in his burmuda shorts and dark socks. Or when Unka Ron stormed the walls of Grenada, or Poppy marched across the Iraqi desert and planted his boot squarely in Saddam Hussein's backside. Yeah, we all remember those old style wars, nothing at all like the new style war of the 21st century, where they fly planes into buildings and we bomb weddings.

By the way, here's hoping this patriotic weekend signals the beginning of the end of the Bush administration. Yesterday, there was Paul Krugman's piece about Bush's insider trading during his tenure at Harken Oil. This news is two years overdue, having first been reported by the Center for Public Integrity, oh, during the election! No wonder the Governor got a little snippy when asked about it, once again answering a question that wasn't asked while not addressing the question that was asked. Maureen Dowd picks up the story and mentions it today, as does Gene Lyons (sorry, no link). I've seen it in several other places. And now, Talking Points Memo mentions it and says that future revelations are on the horizon. Yeehaw!

Have a peaceful weekend.

7/2/2002

I just discovered through HotJobs.com and Salary.com that I am making about $17,000 a year less than what I should be making, based on a regional average for my job title and experience. The fact that it is based on a regional average is important because the last time I talked about this with my employer (after receiving a $.02 an hour raise), I was told that my salary is based on a 5-state regional average for my job title. What they failed to tell me is that it is based on the low end of the average for the job category of the same name but one level below mine. If you're curious to know if you are making what you should be making, go here and see for yourself. Be sure to print out the report so you can show it to your boss just before he decides to downsize you.

I remember when we didn't have casinos in Tunica. I remember how every few years, there was a referendum on the ballot to legalize some form of gambling - a lottery, horse racing, whatever. And I remember how the opposition always said that legalized gambling would bring the mob to our doorsteps. Yet today, after hearing story after story of the mafia-like accounting strategies of the top corporations, I can't help but think I'd rather have the real mob in town than a bunch of Wall Street goons. They say that it is possible, in many of these cases, that nothing blatantly illegal was done, and therefore these CEOs might never serve time. A few decades ago, we had the same problem with mob bosses. That's why they invented the RICO statutes. If we can't nail them on anything else, why not nail them using RICO? Don't tell me these guys didn't conspire.

By the way, several years ago, we finally legalized gambling in Tennessee through a referendum, but we still don't have gambling. The God crowd still trembles at the thought of all those people with names ending in vowels coming in and bringing enough money to pay for education in this lovely but bankrupt state. It's not the gambling they oppose so much as the side industries, like prostitution and rackets and (gasp! God Forbid!) unions. Tunica is in Mississippi, and was formerly known as the poorest county in the entire United States. Not anymore.

Another reason not to shop at WalMart. How many reasons do you need?

I am developing a new business model for an independent book and music store. Published authors and musicians with CDs who are interested in hearing about my idea, contact me.

7/1/2002

Tennessee has the dubious honor of being the first state in the Bush Junior Administration to go bankrupt. Because lawmakers were unable to come up with a tax system that the Neaderthal Party wouldn't oppose with riots, stone throwing and loud grunting noises at the statehouse, the state of Tennessee has begun a partial shutdown of government this week. Only essential services will remain. Non-essential services like road repair, colleges and universities, and some children's services, have been ended.

Democrats met in a midnight session last night before rejecting a plan passed by the state Senate. "House Democrats met in caucus for almost 90 minutes trying to decide what to do with Fowler's plan - one they regarded as a fast-track toward a near 10-cent sales tax and a huge political boost for Republicans in the fall elections."

Read that again - a huge political boost for Republicans. As zero hour approaches and the state of Tennessee spends it last few dollars, the Republicans floated a bill whose sole purpose was to make them look good in November. Never mind the hard choices that must be made, never mind the state employees who are now on furlough (read: laid off), they were worried about looking good in front of the talk radio and Sunday morning christian sect.

Tennessee has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country, the one favored by most Gingrich-Republicans because everybody pays the same sales tax rate and nobody pays an income tax. Bill Gates pays the same tax on a hamburger as the woman working three jobs so her children can have a decent place to live. Republicans love this system.

Curious that this system is the first in the country to go bankrupt.

"State historians said the situation was unprecedented since the suspension of civil government when Tennessee fell to Union forces in the Civil War." source

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. This state has not seen an emergency of this magnitude since the last time it was subjugated during a civil war! Thank you, Republican Party. Only the Republicans can make things as bad as war without actually having a war. Thank you right wing radio personalities in Nashville. Yours is truly the party of responsibility. Tennessee will hold you responsible for this. All of it.

Sunday, Bartcop responded to my response to his 'under God' argument. Thanks, BC. See, intelligent people (even those with a 64 I.Q.) can disagree without it descending into a shit throwing contest.

Update on the Dreams and Dreaming page. Sunday night seems to be my dream night.