And dubya Fiddled

Well, I updated my linked blogs. I wanted to keep the active to moderately active blogs I read, and who read mine in return in a distinct list, my personal community. I didn't want to want to nuke any links either, but there are several who don't post anymore and a few others I like to scan though they don't read here. Mostly for convenience, because I link to them from my page for my lunch time reading.

I did add one new link, one of my co-workers. We are both on the same liberal political dl (distribution list) at work. I don't post much there anymore, as it seems most of the group is pretty complacent - "liberals of convenience" rather than any real conviction. I feel out of place. I have no ideas of reconciliation regarding the unchanged republicans, and I'm even angrier with the democrats who seem more interested in maintaining the status quo, picking the corporate gravy train over anything which would make our government accountable to it's own laws or the population it serves in a substantial manner.

I've been building to a big political rant. I think I'll hold my breath a little longer for most of it. Lately I've been irritated more by what is not considered newsworthy. For example, take Tancredo calling the Katrina recovery effort a "gravy train" and making abandoning relief and rebuilding part of his presidential campaign platform. Where's the outrage? No one seems to give a rat's ass as long as tax payers save a few pennies to blow a WalMart.

The republicans screwed up every aspect of handling the disaster and the subsequent rebuilding efforts. So far the only 'gravy train' I've heard of was the republican gift of more no-bid contracts to the likes of Halliburton. Rather than make things right, in typical republican fashion they blame the victims of both the disaster and fraud at perpetrated by the republicans' corporate sponsors, and say "No more help for you." Tancredo is just a (probably unwitting) tool floating this idea for his masters. What help did the people who need it get? Not enough for bus fare I'd bet. How much compared to the fraudulent no-bid corporate welfare? Why the fuck can't the gop cut and run on their disaster which is hundreds times more egregious and expensive? They just can't get it right. "Get out of New Orleans, stay in Iraq." We're the victims of their greed driven hubris. Iraq, NOLA, and the rest of the USA, we're all victims of gop fears. Whether it is social conservatism (aka bigotry), fiscal conservatism (aka greed), or nation building (aka all of the above PLUS cowardice). That is the republican legacy. Will the democratic legacy smell any better?

Let's think about it. Will the democrats be much better? They are corporate owned, but not so flat out loyal to their sponsors. When they get a Katrina on their watch I think about all we can hope for is a sightly mitigated fuck up. There has been no attempt to rein in the depradations of the executive? Why? Only one viable answer I can think of. Not Pelosi's cowardly alibi about not being divisive. Rather their desire to weild the same absolute corruption, er, power?

Good thing I have a vacation coming up...