Too Furious to Be Furious....

Maybe it's a sign of the times, or maybe it's just that I'm too sick of the crap going on to write on it today.

I am linking to an article about how Katrina survivors continue to battle storms, bureaucratically, to rebuild their communities. I can only shake my head today in sadness.

IMHO, this is a tragedy of poverty. Poverty makes people feel worthless, and doing everything for them, including rebuilding, only magnifies this worthless feeling. That is why hand-out welfare systems fail to help those in poverty. That is why new reports on poverty are linking violence with poverty. Why be violent? Because they aren't worth anything, anyway, so nothing else in their lives are worth anything either. They aren't worth enough to give them skills and training to do the work, to be employed (and if they are employed the government made sure that they won't receive fair market wages) to rebuild their communities, and in the end have enough money to provide for their families and have accomplished and be proud of a job well done and a community that was rebuilt by the hands, sweat and hard work of their own citizens. You see the downward spiral here?

Haliburton and the rest of the Bush & Co's business interests are bathing in the loot from hurricane and Iraq War disaster relief, while people in both regions continue to suffer. Where's the humanity?

Other big issues include what I've already written about previously, so go ahead and click on my archives.

Like the whole Plame game. It is getting really stale, but should be over by the end of the month. Bush and Co. will likely escape without too much skin off their backs, and the only thing that will be punished is justice.

The War on Terror is only creating more terror and more terrorists, and as the fear mongering of the subway threats in New York City indicate, we produce as much terror internally as we do externally. Speaking of producing terror, it is amazing how anyone but the US and our allies in the war on terror are anything but terrorists, but WE are the ones producing the most terror in the world right now. Fear factor is not just a TV show produced in the US, it is our political and international code of conduct. The more fear, the more the US, and especially Bush and Co can yield force on others.

Farmers should be really checking out the whole deal with World Trade Organization brewing. There's a possibility that this will push the US to eliminate farm subsidies to comply with foreign policies that will be made in the near future. And, although 80% of farm subsidies go to four large corporations (Cargill, General Mills are among them), more likely than not, it will be the small rural family farmers that will be most hurt by future farm subsidy cuts. Sorry, Uncle Phil.

Amazingly enough, some oil companies, like Shell, are saying that they don't want to use the recent government energy enticements to build more refineries in the US. Unlike the apparent irrational thinking in the White House and Republican congress, many businesses plan with basic economic forecasting in mind. As the price of gas continues to go up and stay high, the demand for gas goes down. (Is this ringing a bell with anything you remember from college Econ 101 class, or were you too inebriated then?) As more and more people are demanding more fuel efficient, and hybrid style vehicles, the less they will use gas. Thus, oil companies are not going to build more refineries with demand falling and the rise of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles to compensate the economic scales for ordinary folks who don't want to pay an arm and a leg to get to work.

Personally, I am glad that gas prices are high. It is becoming an eye-opener for many Americans that we cannot continue to ride blissfully on the wave of oil companies without any ramifications. It has pushed many to look for and to demand car companies produce more fuel efficient vehicles, preferrably those that will not cramp our SUV lifestyles, please. I think it is possible to create a safe, luxurious, full-sized SUV that gets 65 mpg. You just have to demand it, the car engineers can figure it out.

The Germans have a female chancellor. Congratulations! Is the US next?

The whole bird flu deal. So, what? Under Bush's plan, we will all die miserable deaths in a military state. Bush and Co. will be successfully vaccinated against it, while the poor and middle class will likely receive substandard vaccines with mercury laced in them, so over half of those vaccinated will receive the virus and die from the vaccine, 25% of those vaccinated will not have sufficient vaccine and will also contract the virus and 10% of those will die from the flu. Those who die from the vaccine will beg to be euthanized, but those who do the mercy killing will be penalized by uncontested, instant death penalty under a new law that gives no benefit of trial for abortionists and euthanizers, under the military state. 50% of those not vaccinated and living in obscure locations will not even get any flu. 25% will get the flu, but nothing deadly. and 25% will get the avian flu bug and 20% of those will successfully get over the flu without permanent illness.

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you with such a nightmare.

Bush and Cheney are doing such a great job leading our country. The US is better with the Republicans in charge. We need a Republican SCOTUS, so everything will be fine. We need a Constitutional amendment so that only Republicans can be elected to serve the top three government bodies (Congress, Presidency, Supreme Court). Oh, heck, we just need a new Constitution that favors our wonderful Republican party. This one just doesn't cut it.