235 YEAR OLD EXPIRES...LOOKS LIKE WE DID IT

The body of a 235 year old, affectionately known as Uncle Sam, was found on Capitol Hill in Washington DC today. Crime Scene Investigators placed police tape around the body believing foul play was involved.

Given his age, Uncle Sam showed signs of extreme elder abuse. Most of his assets had been siphoned off to engorge the money belts of the very rich, and fund criminal wars that have killed hundreds of thousands and sent millions more fleeing the carnage his minions unleashed against them. His eyes had been taped shut to prevent him from seeing the damage being done and his ears were plugged to ward off cries of the unemployed and the untreated sick and the poor. His jaw was wired shut to prevent his screams for help. His arteries - the highways and bridges that carried the commerce so vital to his economic well being - were clogged and crumbling, not from old age but from senseless neglect. His cholesterol level had topped 14 trillion. The paid public servants responsible for his well being were seen imbibing a strange brew of tea and sophistry that drove them into a frenzy of unprecedented meanness towards their benevolent Uncle. As they danced around the corpse they were heard chanting: "Government is not the solution: government is the problem".

Police broke up the mob but made no arrests.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn News, August 3, 2011
and the Daily Herald, August 10, 2011

SHINING CITY...OR GARBAGE DUMP

Having followed politics and current events for 60 years now, it is with great distress and it takes great effort to follow the sham public debate occurring on Capitol Hill over the debt crisis.

Any discussion of reducing the public debt by tossing thousands of hard working folks securing the social safety net off the payrolls is a sham.

Any discussion of reducing the public debt without ending our trillion dollar criminal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia is a sham.

Any discussion of reducing the public debt without reducing the bloated national security extravagance which accounts to over 50% of discretionary spending is a sham.

Any discussion of reducing the public debt without reducing the swollen non-war military budget which has increased 70% in the last ten years is a sham.

Any discussion of reducing the public debt without having the greedy rich pay their fair share of taxation is a sham.

Any discussion of reducing the pubic debt based on even further cuts to rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure is a sham.

Any discussion of reducing the public debt based on reductions in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is a sham.

The aforementioned 60 years of study can be neatly divided into two 30 year periods. The first 30 years was one of seemingly endless progress creating the greatest middle class in history, building the unsurpassed national highway system, erasing the sorrowful stain of racial discrimination against our black brothers and sisters, addressing the urgent need to protect our environment, and on and on. Entrepreneurs paid up to 90% of their earnings in taxes and still created tens of millions of jobs. That is what entrepreneurs do. The greedy rich simply brag about the size of their stash.

Sadly, the last 30 years brought a new political philosophy to the fore. Government was the new evil so it had to be destroyed to allow the greedy rich and the war lovers to wreck their havoc on the less fortunate and the social fabric. A fading movie star rode onto Capital Hill slashing taxes, dismantling sensible regulation, gutting the Sherman Anti Trust laws, dismissing use of government to solve real social problems. His mantra: "government is not the solution; government is the problem" represent the nine most infamous words in American history; yet they are the mantra of the upper 1% which now has most of our wealth and most of our power.

And that Shining City on the Hill that the fading movie star waxed so eloquently about? It's actually turning into a garbage dump.

IS GOD A REPUBLICAN?

We don't normally think of God as a political Supreme Being, but maybe we need to.

Starting with George W. Bush in 2000, quite a few presidential hopefuls have invoked God to justify throwing their hat into the ring. Just this year alone Michelle Bachman, Herman Cain and now Rick Perry have alluded to God's Calling as the basis of their active or contemplated run. And potential Presidential powerhouse Mike Huckabee dropped out...yep, on advise of the Big Guy.

Hey, all these folks are Republicans. Maybe that explains the difficulties we Democrats are having trying to right the Ship of State that has been floundering since the God inspired Presidency of the aforementioned Bush. We simply don't have God on our side.