User's Blog

You're making the same mistake I made, for a while. I learned to type "Bush and the GOP congress" instead of just "Bush".

Because of nitpicking like this:

The Senate granted one of Senator Edward M. Kennedy's long-held legislative wishes...

Having said that, I'm getting pretty fucking tired of this congress.

As long as the GOP is run by the christian right I can't conceivably vote for them.

So I vote Democratic and get people who never met a vice (or benefit) they wouldn't tax, grant the police unlimited authority, and (in their own way) dismantle the constitution.

A two-party system where money buys government is an absolutely unwinnable set of rules, for me.

BTW, have you seen this? It's a follow up to your post about tasers the other day. We are, without question, living in a police state.

The link should open up a window to a video titled "Great-grandmother tasered. Excessive?"

Toward the end, a piece of cheleef chief of police says "You don't argue with the police. You just don't."

We need to disarm the police.

CHICAGO (AP) -- (In a rare case of justice in America...) A police officer caught on video beating a stabbing victim who was handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison.

Video at the link.

It's half time, so I thought I'd comment a bit more on the "government control over the production and marketing of tobacco products".

Read this from the link:

"A new office would be set up in the FDA, with administrative costs paid by a fee on tobacco companies..."

So, this is a chicken shit way to once again raise the price of cigarettes. "The Industry" isn't going to pay those costs. SMOKERS are. Then, when they all quit, who the fuck are you going to get to pay for SCHIP (since you're too goddamned cheap to pay for it yourselves?)

Don't even get me started on how long the FDA can delay new products.

If you want to use the government to control people's behavior (e.g. make them stop smoking), don't be such a chicken shit about it, and don't pretend to be a "liberal". Liberals aren't for government control of individual behavior. (Well, either that, or I'm definitely not a "liberal".)

This is also from the link:

"Americans pay nearly $100 billion in added health care costs due to smoking."

Unabridged bull shit. Is it true that "smoking kills", or is it true that smokers are hanging on well into their 90s and 100s, thus running up the national cost of health care? You can't have it both ways.

Do you want to "save" social security and medicare? Make smoking fucking MANDATORY. Oh, and throw in "everyone over the age of 60 has to drink at least a fifth of whiskey a day", and give them their own "race course" to drive on.

Honestly, sometimes what passes for "rational thought" in this country just freakin' amazes me.

Having said all that, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being "we're a nation that let our Vice President order torture and he's not in jail, now", and 1 being "two politicians disagree about something", this one is about a "two".

It just shows how corrupt and ineffective our politicians really are.