the bastards' last stand

Although I have been following politics almost religiously, i have been too preoccupied to write much. From here, especially with the recent The President Can Throw Anyone in Jail as an Enemy Combatatant Act--I can't remember what it's called-- I hardly recognize my country. People have't taken to the streets? I just thought this Tom Toles cartoon said it all for me.

I promised to write about my travels in Seattle and Spain and have decided that in order to do that I should start a new blog. I am realizing that I still want a place to write about politics and call bush an idiot if I felt the need. I don't know that I will, but still... If you are interested in reading about my travels you can find that at http://oldworldnew.blogspot.com/ .

So I'm sitting in Barcelona, without my luggage, which sucks, but i am in Barcelona, which does not. I have long ago decided that I'm tired of talking about American politics. It's just stupid, but I can't ignore it. I want to and I can't, completely. I'd rather write about the wonderful people with whom I spent time in Seattle and the activities but I was reminded, again, that we are approaching the anniversary of the Katrina disaster, the event which for many Americans crystalized their understanding of who this administration is as well as being the event that made me start blogging. To some degree they have gotten away with it, but not completely. So for now I would like to turn your attention towards my posts from last year and the timeline of what happened and what has happened since from Think Progress .

I believe this to be the first time in modern American history that a president's religion, in this case his Christian fundamentalism, has become a decisive factor in his foreign and domestic policies. It’s a factor that has been under-reported, to say the least, and that begs for press attention. Saul Friedman Prior to the last election I asked several friends who were voting for Bush to explain why; to give one reason that would justify re-electing the man. For the one friend who answered it boiled down to his faith. I pointed out how un-Christ-like his policies were, from rewarding the rich to the unnecessary deaths in Iraq. I think that may have been the end of the discussion. I essentially felt that my friend and millions of Americans had been duped. I thought Bush was pretending to be a Christian for the sake of votes. I was wrong. Bush is a simple man. I forgot that my own seperation from the church was prompted by the inconsistencies between the teachings of Chri...

...unless they're sitting where we'd like to drop our bombs. I admit that I only watch actual mainstream news in small easily-digested bites. I have a number of reasons, but mostly I think the corporate news programs refuse to be relevant. I could be wrong, but I don't remember anyone else outside of the blogs calling the presidents cynical "culture of life" bullshit veto for what it is--a cynical, um, well, bullshit veto. When Tony Snow said to the press gaggle, "What the President has said is that he doesn't want human life destroyed. Now, you may consider that insignificant." No one bothered to ask how that applies to the mostly civilian casualties of the Israeli bombing campaign and the US attempts to oppose the UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire; or the 50-100,000 dead Iraqis (or even the oldie-but-goodie, his fast food approach to the death penalty-- more people served faster). It makes my head hurt that the president is more concerned ...

I'll Never Be Ashamed To Be an American, But Sometimes It Does Make My head Hurt I imagine that when I get to Spain more time than I would like will be spent trying to explain the decisions of my president and why he is the president. But how can you explain this guy? If anyone has a nice simple answer I can give I would appreciate it. I have mostly avoided his press conferences and pr speeches throughout his presidency and before. I can barely take him in print but seeing and hearing him causes me to hemorrhage internally. Sadly everytime I see him he's actually worse than I could have thought possible. As the situation in the middle east continues to deteriorate, could it be anymore obvious that we have the worst possible president for such a volatile time? The region is on the verge of exploding and this modern day Nero can't wait to roast pork over the flames. At least Nero could fiddle, this idiot can't even hold a guitar correctly.

Minimum Wage Is there anyone who can say honestly and with a straight face that our representatives are not promoting class warfare? After pushing deficit-building, budget-busting (wartime)tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the rich and giving themselves another raise, how do the senators voting against raising the minimum wage justify their votes?