February 13, 2009 archive

“I never did hear the words Native Americans, American Indians, or First Nations in school. I was taught about the Civil War and Slavery, but never did the word Native American come out of my junior high school history teacher’s mouth. He was the football coach of our team, the “Red Skins.”

I began college right after my high school graduation and took the course, American History to 1877. The Department Chairman taught that course. Consequently, I became so upset at being made to read “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown in that class, that I could not sleep for two nights.

Blogging is conducted through cyberspace here in the 21st Century, we type on keyboards, we read each other’s words on computer screens.  The technology enabling us to engage in this form of communication is new, but what we’re doing when we blog isn’t new, it’s as old as civilization–we’re talking to one another just as people did thousands of years ago, we’re sharing our thoughts, communicating about what matters, reaching for the kind of future we hope to see.  We don’t want history to keep repeating itself, there’s been too much war, too much killing, too much misery.  

As global war and genocide took the lives of 50 million people only three generations ago, a young girl expressed her hopes for the future in a diary.  Anne Frank didn’t know her words would be ultimately be read by millions of people, but they have been and will be for as long as human civilization exists.  The most brutal and inhuman regime ever to darken the pages of history killed her in Bergen-Belsen, but it could not silence her.  

What was Anne Frank doing?

She was blogging the future.

Happy Friday and welcome to the 15th installment (does this feel like a 30 year mortgage to anyone else?) in the Dog’s series on the United States Constitution. This series is taking a layman’s look at the Constitution and talking about what each part means. If you have never read the whole thing before, the Dog recommends that you do. After all it is the foundational document of our entire system of law, so it is worth knowing. If you have not been following this series you can find the previous installments at the following links;

Um, The Dog is having some technical difficulties this week, so there will not be any links, hopefully by next Friday we can get this resolved.  

The above subject title is the forth addition in a week long series at Salon.com by Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna on the returned Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan called “Coming Home”. It’s the open window into what happens to some after serving in man’s hell on earth, Wars and Occupations of Choice!

I have but one question for the Obama loyalists.  Do you guys ever get tired of saluting the flag?   Just because we support Obama and all agree he was 1,000 10 times better than anyone else running doesn’t mean we have to put our brains on a shelf.  

Why did he lie to us, and why aren’t the Democrats holding him accountable?  We are not stupid.  We can see what is going on.   All this distraction about bi-partisanship as if millions of unemployed, broke, and homeless middle class Americans care.

No salary caps for CEOs.  No torturers, war profiteers, or WS crooks going to jail.   Just lots of hot air surrounded by smoke and mirrors.

How about a truth commission on the bailout?

I shouldn’t be surprised by now. But I still was when I read the article this morning in the Washington Post explaining that the cap on executive pay has been removed from the stimulus bill. I knew what Congress was doing yesterday by bringing the Wall Street executives in and scolding them in public was a dog and pony show. But I had not realized how profoundly full of shit these politicians are.

Nationalize the damned banks already.  They’re stealing us blind.  Geithner is a WS insider, and the wrong man for this job. If we aren’t getting tax dodger and Republican appointments, we are getting the cat assigned to guard the canary.  If I have to bailout their sorry asses, I want to own them.  

While we are at it, who did us this favor?

A Sanders-Grassley amendment to demand TARP recipient banks stop firing U.S. workers and replacing them with foreign guest workers was ripped out of the bill.

Last but not least, what’s all this noise about Obama and Social Security?  We can pay for  the Bush war profiteers and the ongoing WS bailout of Washington’s financiers and cronies, but they, by god, are going to save us from the burden of  social security.

You have no idea how bad Democrats are starting to look on the heels of all that campaign rhetoric.  Change  my ass! I am getting sick and tired of all of them and the horses they rode in on.