The American Renaissance

Baja Canada del Sur: Comedy and Comment in the Age of Occupation

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Location: Little Rock, Arkansas

found done in needlepoint on Mel's Front Porch: I Pledge Alligence to the Constitution of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it guarantees, One Nation, Undeniable, with Liberty, Truth, and Justice for All.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

the death of the internet

I pay MSN primo price for my Hotmail, my online access, my Messenger...

Have you noticed here lately all you photos your see online are washed out? Those fudgy lines? Even Google looks funny.

The Chicken Little Flu ain't here yet, but the first waves of killing the bloggers is alive and well.

Mark my fucking words.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Confirmation Process? Is there one?

Is it just me? The 'shake-up' at the White House continues; but no sooner than Monkey Boy shows up in the Rose Garden to tout yet another appointtee from the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and/or Poppy Administrations, there go Senate Democrats praising the choice and streamlining the process. Then again, when is the last time anybody on Bush's cabinet actually did anything without the Rove okay? If the already-all-but-confirmed Wall Street insider Paulson is as effective as his two predecessors, I suppose we have little to worry about in this particular cosmetic change.

I know it's a stretch for me to expect anything other than another round of meaningless confirmation hearings, when we've already seen what happened with the Supreme Court nominees (other than that cypher Harriet Miers -- and it took a Republican rebellion to stop that noise). It would be nice if Senate Democrats would grow a set.

Man, November can't come quick enough.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Alert: We Don't Pay Taxes, says Speaker of the House

If this doesn't make your blood boil:

Dennis Hastert does not think that working families pay taxes.

The speaker explained on the House floor that "well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut. Now, if you earn $1 million a year, you are going to pay about $400,000 of taxes. Maybe you'll get a $40,000 tax cut ..."


Just to clarify, working families pay federal income taxes, state and local income taxes, Social Security taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, gasoline taxes and most of the other taxes that rich people pay. While some very poor families got a bit of tax relief during the Clinton years, working families of the sort Hastert was talking about still pay more than their fair share.

Pardon me if I assume when you read my blog that you are 1.) living in and of fairly modest means, or 2.) more well-heeled but of the Warren Buffet model of wealth. Either way, you are probably not a pretentious person.

That said, I don't know about you, but I'm having a hard time of thinking of ANYTHING in my life I don't have to pay taxes or user fee on; even my rent increases are justified by increasing property taxes. Now I have to pay someone else's taxes.

There's the truism of "trickle down economics".

No wonder they want to distract us with the Chicken Little Flu.

But the quote also came from Dennis Hastert, who has openly advocated bulldozing New Orleans, before the thousands of missing have even now to be accounted for. Sure wouldn't want somebody's grandmother's remains to stand in the way of the no-bid buddies, right, Dennis?

I'm getting tired of paying taxes into the United States of Halliburton.

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=84525&ntpid=0

Saturday, May 20, 2006

the constant immigrant

In my own life, I seem to be on a constant trek West. Finding myself now in Seattle (after being born in Maryland, raised in Arkansas, and living in Texas for many years), there's been challenges. I've never moved anywhere I had a job waiting for me. Like any Pioneer, I've always had to just go there and start hunting before I bagged something. Good thing I've always know that a little dirt never hurt a Pioneer; sometimes I've had to start small. But there's nothing wrong with that.

Living in Texas for fifteen years, I came to realize something...just by virtue of being born in the United States, I am so incredibly blessed. You see, that was where I first became aware of the plight of immigrants from outside this country. Long gone is the days of honoring Lady Liberty's welcome of 'send us your tired and downtrodden.' What has replaced it is an attitude of disdain at the unwashed hordes. And the attitude of the business community, which has long prospered on the work of such peoples. In the eighties in Texas, the dicotomy was amazing. Many said in public "you are not welcome" while in private would invite the same into their yard to mow and rake, or into the kitchen to cook and clean. As Arte Johnson used to say, "Very interesting."

I'm here to say something plainly. Anybody in or comes to America who wants to work, who wants to live and raise a family, who contributes so much to this country, should never be called "illegal." The wags complain about the immigrants costing taxpayers such and such amout of money, and the practical truth is they cost us nada. For all that immigrants from Central and South America bring to our country in their work ethic and willingness to contribute to society as a whole, we should only be ashamed to call them outlaws and aliens. If you recall, most of the little brown folks we turn a blind eye to when we take advantage of them with our lucrative trade policies in their home countries are in fact quite closely kin to the same brown folks who populated the United States for centuries before being overrun by European immigrants.

Now you tell me. Before both houses make English the 'official' language of the land, could we white folk just realize the native language of America is sign language. That's right. American Sign Language is directly taken from the Native American sign language, a form of communication that supported a trade network so efficient that wampum from New England was fairly common in Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City).

If you want to start splitting hairs about who was here first.

¡Dios bendiga a América!