A Question

Repubs are trying to "save face" by offering to fund the federal government piece by piece - which I think is another lie being peddled to us by the Press Poodles because the Repubs have mostly won already. The Dems are in practical agreement on budget numbers that are very near to Paul Ryan's wet dream of a government funded at Wal-Mart Wage levels.  But that's another rant.

Here's my question: Which part of Da Gubmint do you think this guy was fighting for?



Or do you think that maybe he just kinda understood that it makes no sense fighting to  improve something if you don't fight to keep it alive?

Fitch The Homeless

"Where is - like - the Douchebag Section?"

Sweet Justice

It won't work because mocking the law (even when the law is down on its fucking knees begging to be mocked) can be really dangerous.  That said - go get 'em, tiger.

Addicting Info:

The designated carpool lane on Highway 101 near Frieman’s northern California home is specified to be for “two people or more” during rush hour. The police say Frieman was driving alone, but rather than pay the $478 fine, he plans to head to court on Monday to challenge the ticket. His reasoning? He had his papers of incorporation with him and since the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people, there were two people in the car.

We Are Maybe No So Fucked - Yet

Privatizing certain things is not in itself a bad idea.  If we wanna build a new highway, we contract it out to private firms - that way, we don't have the on-going expense of keeping that capability in-house (and often idle between projects).  We also prevent some of the use-it-or-lose-it rationalization that goes on.

But there's a huge difference between privatizing the building of the road, and transferring ownership of the road from Public to Private.

Here's Maude Barlow talking about water (originally aired 2002).  Interesting by itself, but what really struck me was the bit starting at about 8:00.  Big Water (soon to rival, and then possibly dwarf Big Oil) is making significant progress in privatizing public water in places where there are some pretty bad governments.  This looks like a good thing is happening, but if Bad Government is the justification for privatizing, then it simply will become imperative for Big Water to support corrupt regimes in order to maintain the potential for expanding their market.



SInce Barlow's talk, people have won some of the battles against Big Water, but commerce never sleeps - the efforts continue.  Now we're seeing a change in tactics (I think).  The push now is towards consolidation of water districts.  If a local entity transfers control of its water services to a larger regional authority (eg: what's being discussed in Asheville NC), it gets a little easier for the water company to work their magic on the coin-operated politicians they've helped put in office at the state and national levels.

Don't bet against human nature.  Greed is a powerful motivator, but a figurative thirst for money and power is nothing compared with the real deal.