Category: Politics

So the Seattle Supersonics are off to Oklahoma – what a deal. As far as I’m concerned, it’s for the best.

Maybe we can get them to take the Mariners and the Seahawks off our hands as well.

Pro sports teams are just not a big turn on for me. The way I see it, they’re a bunch of whiny millionaires feeding at the public trough.

In the case of the Sonics, we went through all the whining and the threats of leaving only a little over ten years ago. It went on incessantly for months. All the, Nobody loves us! Refurbish our home or we’re taking our team and leaving! Wah! Nobody loves us!

The whining paid off. At that time, Key Arena was fully renovated at a cost to the public of over $74 million. The NBA execs hailed Key Area as one of the great basketball venues in the country.

Now 10 years later, it’s all of a sudden too old, too small and just plain unfit for an NBA franchise. Yeah, right.

Well fuck them. Let them go – they can become the Oklahoma Okies or whatever. Bunch of losers, anyway.

The way it stands right now, Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen have their budgets stretched to the max. Every month, they wonder if they’re going to be able to make that new, higher mortgage payment. They can just barely afford gas for their cars and to put food on their table, much less buy expensive tickets to a pro basketball game.

Continue reading “Bye Bye Sonics – Good Riddance!” →

We’ve all heard the excuses on TV. Oil company executives sitting in front of congress, answering questions about why gas prices are so high, and explaining away their record profits.

“Well we’re really only making pennies on the dollar. The profits aren’t really that high.”  “We don’t have any control over gasoline prices. The prices are all set by market forces”
“We need more refining capacity and we need to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

I find it totally amazing that anyone at all would believe the current gasoline prices are not 100% wholly contrived by the oil companies.
The facts are that 2006 and 2007 were the very best years ever for Exxon Mobile: in 2007, Exxon surpassed the 2006 windfall of $39.5 Billion with a record smashing profit of $40.6 Billion.
The number two US oil company, Chevron’s 2007 earnings were up 9% over 2006, with record profits of $18.7 Billion. Put that in with similar profits from Shell and ConocoPhillips, and you have over $100 Billion in profits from the oil industry in the United States in just one year. Click here for the news story from US News and World Reports.
Of course, that $100 Billion in profits really isn’t such a big deal – pennies on the dollar.
What a load of tripe! These guys must use the same accountants as the movie studios – like where you can have a blockbuster movie that does $100 million in the first weekend, but by creative bookkeeping, it doesn’t show a profit. Complete and utter bullshit.
Nope. What we really have here is a Texas oilman for president, and he’s simply paying his buddies back.
The oil companies are jacking up the prices, deliberately, simply because they can – and no one can do a god damned thing about it. They’ve got protection.

Continue reading “Bend Over America…” →

A Puppet Government In Iraq Equals Disaster for the US

“The will of the people… is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.” —Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waring, 1801. ME 10:23

After five years of trying to impose an artificial democracy onto the people of Iraq, it’s clear the experiment is failing.

Bush’s surge is winding down, and without the American “cops” on every corner, violence is again returning to the streets in Iraq.

Why? Because Nouri al-Maliki’s government is not popularly supported by the Iraqi people. It’s a puppet government set up and maintained by the United States. And puppet governments just don’t work. They didn’t work, for example, in Vietnam, and they won’t work in Iraq.

Why not? Let’s look at some facts:

In Iraq, Shi’a Muslims comprise over 65% of the population; Sunni Muslims about 37%. Christians constitute a much smaller minority.
Through the Ba’ath Party, Sunni Muslims have ruthlessly controlled Iraq, subjugating the Shi’a as well as all the other religious minorities since 1963. Much of that time, the Ba’ath Party worked hand in hand with the CIA, including during most of Saddam’s reign – Saddam really didn’t fall from grace with the CIA or the US generally, until after he invaded Kuwait in 1990. That, of course, precipitated the First Gulf War. Continue reading “The War In Iraq Must End Now” →

Hillary vs. Barack
The past few weeks, it’s really been getting to me how much the different candidates – from the same party – beat each other up.
I have to admit that when the republicans do it, I tend to think it’s cute. Gee, let’s watch the stupid conservatives self-destruct… It’s a great spectator sport. I think any democrat (like me) feels that way.

But by the same token, when your own (democratic) candidates are doing it, it takes on a slightly different light.

My point is that the past few weeks, the fights between Clinton and Obama have been getting kinda out of control and you have to wonder if they’re going to quit before one does irreparable damage to the other.

I really want to see the demos win this coming election. But my nightmare scenario: Clinton and Obama both sling so much mud at each other in their desperate bids to become the president that they are both successfully excluded from the race.

Talk about big burning bummers.

Continue reading “Sunday Musings” →

Statewide Prop One – Roads and Transit – Vote Yes
Prop One is one of the most important ballot measures we’ve seen in recent years. In addition to funding the expansion of mass transit, it provides funds for key infrastructure improvements.
After the disappointing and untimely demise of the Seattle Monorail, the region is getting a second chance at mass transit with light rail.
If the Seattle metropolitan area is to succeed in becoming a world-class city, we have to start building mass-transit systems.
Our current freeway system is maxed out. It can’t handle the traffic that currently exists, much less handle the anticipated growth we’re likely to experience in the coming years.
Mass transit is one of the answers.
I was in San Francisco while they were building BART in the early 70’s. The disruptions were terrible. Market Street, downtown was torn up for several years. It was a real mess. And the expense to taxpayers? Horrible. People bitched and moaned for years. It really was terrible.
But now 30 years later, on an average weekday BART has over 340,000 riders. That’s 340,00 people who did not have to take the freeway.
The Seattle area needs something like that – soon. If the Monorail wasn’t the answer, then apparently light rail is.
Mass transit is a must for this area.

Continue reading “November Election Endorsements” →

Well I for one was completely surprised when George Bush came out publically in support of General Petraeus’s plan for Iraq.
Yeah, right.
Petraeus’s plan is nothing more than Bush administration propaganda designed to justify prolonging the war in Iraq. And Petraeus himself is nothing more than a figurehead, a puppet doing Bush’s bidding.
The 30,000 troop “drawdown” Petraeus proposes is a meaningless gesture designed to appease critics of the war. It’s not in any way a genuine move to end American involvement in Iraq.
The only words you will consistently hear from Bush and his cronies are, “more time.” The idea is that if the US has more time in Iraq to stabilize the situation, then everything will be roses. They’ll embrace the democratic form of government, and we’ll have a new stable ally in the mid-east.
This is a futile dream. It’s no more achievable than the goals we had in Viet Nam,
The French colonized Viet Nam in the late 1800’s. They were there 67 years, only giving it up as a lost cause finally in 1954. The US became involved at that time, and spent another 21 years and over 58,000 American lives in pursuit of the hopeless dream of turning South Viet Nam into a democratic nation.

Continue reading “Petraeus Plan is Good Fiction” →

Al Qaeda are coming!!!
I was watching Meet The Press this morning – Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was on, pushing the company line for the Bush administration. What a shit-for-brains idiot!

It’s all, al Qaeda, al Qaeda, al Qaeda! The surge is working! We must stand firm! Our national security is at stake. If we leave, al Qaeda will win. Blah, blah, blah. al Qaeda. He must have said “al Qaeda” 10 times in maybe a minute.

It’s like Bush and his cronies figure that if they say the magic words – “al Qaeda” – then everyone will stand at attention and go along with anything they say.

And then if Bush and his buddies really want to get our attention, they’ll invoke the ghosts of “9/11.”

Continue reading “Sunday Morning Musings…” →