Right about now I really appreciate getting news that the common Wisconsinite still has common sense.
Such came to me via the always pleasing blogger Tim Morrissey (Pleasing, I might add, even when he does not exactly see things my way. Could be it’s because this guy knows how to write.)
AM radio host Mitch was ranting against it in line with a certain right wing “CPA Caucus”.
The callers, however, did not fall in line.
“The next caller was a woman, who also said she thought it was prudent. Mitch said “well, you must not be the parent of a UW student, because the parents are the ones who are getting jabbed here”. The woman paused a beat, and then said “I put two kids through the UW. I had to take a second job to do it, but I did it. And I think they got a great education and I think the 648 million dollar reserve is prudent”. Wisely, Mitch moved on.”
Tim never heard a caller chime in with Mitch’s rant. Could it be … could it be that the public sees right through the inflated rhetoric of Robin Vos and his gang of right wing accountants?
“Placed just as casually as you please was the following post on the Racine Tea Party Facebook page by defeated Caledonia trustee candidate Ed Willing:”
I offer this with little personal comment except to say I’ve enjoyed the TYT show for years and I give Cenk a lot of credit for leaving MSNBC when they tried to censor him.
I thought “Move to Amend” activists [of which Wisconsin has quite a few] would want to see this fiery speech from Cenk Uygur of the online news show TYT. He recently spoke at the Conference to Restore the Republic held April 20th in San Francisco .
Ground he covers:
-the gun background check bill that was voted down
-Obama bargaining over social security [scathing rebuke]
-Max Baucus
-He says that Congress is never going to pass the “Disclose Act”
-He says everybody needs to unite around a constitutional amendment to eliminate corporate personhood. He says it’s possible to do this at the state level where legislators are not too corrupt yet [he hasn’t been to Wisconsin?] and he says all concerned are excited about the idea – Tea Party members, Libertarians, Dems, Republicans, etc.
Cenk: “None of your representatives represent you. They represent the people who pay them…. You’re waiting for a hero? We already had a hero who promised us overwhelming change and then gave us nothing.”
Description that came with the video:
The Young Turk’s Cenk Uygur recently appeared at the Conference to Restore the Republic at San Francisco State University. In his speech, he addressed many reasons why money needs to be taken out of politics, corporate personhood, and the current state of politics. Why do politicians ignore overwhelming polls of what voters want? It turns out, Democrats and Republicans agree on more than you might think; the power of money is astounding.
Is democracy lost at a national level? In short: yes. Cenk explains fully why this is, but the solution is to remove the corrupting power of money from politics so that our representatives will represent us again instead of corporate donor and lobbyist money.
Please read more and help fix our democracy. Visit Wolf-PAC to find out more, volunteer, and donate: http://www.wolf-pac.com/”
From WOLF-PAC
“Our Ultimate Goal:
To restore true democracy in the United States by pressuring our State Representatives to pass a much needed 28th Amendment to our Constitution which would end corporate personhood and publicly finance all elections in our country. There are only 2 ways to amend the Constitution. (1) Go through our federal government (2) Go through our State Legislators via an Article V. Convention.
Wolf PAC believes that we can no longer count on our federal government to do what is in the best interest of the American people due to the unfettered amount of money they receive from outside organizations to fund their campaigns. We point to the failure of the Disclose Act as rock solid evidence that this would be a total waste of our time, effort, and money. We also point to the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to not even hear a case filed by Montana claiming it did not have to abide by Citizens United, as proof that state legislation is not a suffient measure to solve this problem. We believe that we have no choice but to put an amendment in the hands of our State Legislators, who are not, at this moment in time, completely blinded by the influence of money and might actually do what 87% of the country wants…take away the massive influence that money has over our political process”
Did you catch that on Friday?
A member of the White House Press Corps. who I know only as “Zach” asked Carney why President Obama did not use the leverage he had with that FAA bill to advocate for the Head Start kids and the seniors.
Below are relevant portions of the press conference transcript.
“Q” is Zach.
“Mr. Carney” is Obama’s press secretary [sometimes referred to as simply “Jay”]
Q Jay, it’s true that many Americans are affected by the flight delays. It seems that people of means — businessmen, members of Congress — will be most affected, traveling all the time. So what I don’t understand is why the President didn’t say, okay, Republicans are agreeing to this, but you’re going to have to do something for the very poor being affected by the sequester. If you’re going to fix this for people who fly, we’re going to demand that something be done for Head Start, for seniors, for — something for the most vulnerable who are affected, too.
MR. CARNEY: The President does insist that Congress take action to eliminate the harm by the sequester. And the harm — so you’re suggesting we should hold hostage American travelers to Congress’s refusal to act?
Q Well, I want to know why you’re not using that leverage.
Then Carney answers with a rambling avoidance of Zach’s question that boils down to “well Congress needs to take care of this and we know that what we passed is a band-aid solution”.
Then Zach pushes again: Q Why not wait a week or two more and see — and say to Congress, we’re not going to sign this bill unless you do something that really protects the most vulnerable ones in society and then we can deal with people who are —
MR. CARNEY: We’re calling on Congress to do that. We’re not going to — I think you’re imagining leverage here, Zach, that is about political gamesmanship. We’re about trying to get stuff — getting things done here on behalf of the American people.
Really Carney?
Political gamesmanship is THE game practiced in DC.
Why the incredulity?
Moral of this story: When it’s Congressmen’s planes that need to get somewhere, Congress will work really fast to help itself. And Obama? Not gonna obstruct that.
When it’s the poor and the regular Joes that are clamoring because their kids are kicked out of Head Start or their unemployment checks are shrinking or their housing help is shutting down, Congress will say “Don’t call us. We’ll call you.” (Probably closer to election time.) And Obama? Not gonna obstruct that either.
I know this really is different day same shit news I’m pronouncing, BUT it’s not every day somebody forces Carney’s dog ‘n’ pony show to spell it out plain (Thanks Zach).
– CSMonitor
Moving Right Along….
And then all the political junkie attention went straight to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner cuzzzz they (we) are a moth to the flames of celebs and “Nerd Prom”. I’m not immune. We all can sneer at it, but franky you know that’s the place where you’re going to see some live Obama stand-up comedy – and who knows what that’s going to entail. (Not to mention Conan was there).
Obama opened up with the rap song “All I do is win” by DJ Khaled and said this: Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you, everybody. (Laughter.)
How do you like my new entrance music? (Applause.)
Rush Limbaugh warned you about this — second term, baby. (Laughter and applause.)
We’re changing things around here a little bit. (Laughter.)
It’s a good joke and it’s a sad joke. I mean, some of us held out a glimmer of hope he WOULD shake things up in that 2nd term.
Assuming we were listening to Rush Limbaugh to get our 2012 election coverage [insert laughter] we would be learning that Obama might sweep away all debt in the 2nd term!:
There are some people speculating that in a second term, Obama would simply cancel all American debt. Just cancel it! And in the process, totally destroy the value of the US dollar. Just cancel it. You’re asking, “How does he do that?” Well, you work with the Federal Reserve and you just cancel the debt. – Oct 22, 2012
And if we were paying attention, we would have heard a Rush Limbaugh lighter on the race-baiting this round. It was in 2008 that he said Obama was “not black. … He’s Arab. You know, he’s from Africa, he’s from Arab parts of Africa.” – 9/22/08
In 2012 Rush got smarter and used coded language like “welfare”:
Which reminds me of something else Obama said at the dinner: These days, I look in the mirror and I have to admit, I’m not the strapping young Muslim socialist that I used to be. (Laughter.) Time passes. You get a little gray. (Laughter.)
Another fantastic sad joke.
If he IS a socialist, he is the shittiest socialist this world has ever seen.
Obama And That Rap
At first I thought Obama played a little of “My President (Is Black)” at the correspondents dinner.
The lyrics of this song ain’t all clean, folks and they aren’t all clever or meaningful. But the occasion the song marked was very much so.
Some of the lyrics are worth repeating here – and yes, this too is sad. But not funny.
My President – excerpt from the NAS lyrics
“When thousands of peoples is riled up to see you
That can arouse ya ego, we got mouths to feed so
Gotta stay true to who you are and where you came from
Cause at the top will be the same place you hang from
No matter how big you can ever be
For whatever fee or publicity, never lose your integrity”
And Jay-Z remixed that.
Some of this lyrics:
“Rosa Parks sat
So Martin Luther could walk
Martin Luther walked
So Barack Obama could run
Barack Obama ran
So all the children could fly”
UPDATE:
Hearing that Conan will likely speak at 9:15PM Central / 10:15PM Eastern
Come on, man!
Nobody told me Conan O’Brien will be serving up the humor at tonight’s WHCA dinner!
“Conan O’Brien, the Emmy award-winning comedian and late night talk show host, will headline the annual White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner on April 27, 2013, it was revealed Wednesday by association president Ed Henry.”
Here’s what Conan did back in 1995 (it’s set up to start when he begins – the 20 minute 38 second mark):
blue cheddar bonuses:
Other things to keep you entertained while you wait for Conan:
The scathing roast of George W. Bush in 2006 by Stephen Colbert: TRANSCRIPT
Video:
——————-
Don Imus delivered a scorcher in 1996 – and not just to the Clintons.
This was at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner – not the WHCA. “Mr. Imus made fun of President Clinton’s supposed extramarital affairs and Hillary Clinton’s legal problems — with both the President and the First Lady sitting on the dais as he spoke.
The remarks were deemed so insulting that the association sent a letter of apology to the Clintons yesterday, and Michael D. McCurry, the President’s press secretary, asked C-Span, the cable network that routinely rebroadcasts Washington events, to refrain from retransmitting this one.
At C-Span, the vice president for programming, Terry Murphy, said the dinner speech would be rebroadcast, tonight at 8, as scheduled. Then, Mr. Murphy — who is also the chairman of the correspondents association — signed the letter apologizing to the Clintons.” – from NYObserver Direct link to CSPAN in case embed code flops.
——————————
1997 – Darrell Hammond roasted Bill Clinton.
——————————
I think this Franken roast of Clinton is dated 1996 but I’m not sure.
——————————
Seth Meyers, 2011
“Trump said he’s running as a Republican. Which is surprising: I just assumed he was running as a joke … Trump owns the Miss USA Pageant, which is great for Republicans because it will streamline the search for a vice president … [Trump has] said he’s got a great relationship with ‘the blacks.’ Unless the Blacks are a family of white people, I bet he’s mistaken.”
More gems from the 2011 dinner to be found at NY Magazine
We can ask him very nicely why he voted against gun background checks, right? See Root River Siren’s hilarious post for inspiration in this department.
“Just to let all of you know. We will have U.S. Senator Ron Johnson coming to speak at campus next week. Information to the event is as follows:
When: Wednesday, May 1 9:00 A.M.
Where: St. Norbert College-Ft. Howard Theater- F.K. Bemis Center
What: Senator Johnson’s presentation will focus on the state of our national economy and related issues including Social Security, the national debt and health care. He will speak for 30 minutes, and then accept questions from the audience.
The event is free and open to the general public. Hope to see you all there.”
“Timothy D. Russell is scheduled for a restitution hearing Friday afternoon. The 49-year-old pleaded guilty in November to felony theft and was sentenced in January to two years in prison.” – WMTV
A former top aide of Scott Walker will go to prison for two years.
The locus of their conniving – the Milwaukee County Executive’s Office – will be handed a heaping plate of additional power AFTER the TeaPublcan Wisconsin legislature passes a bill. It’s another one of those tough choices that shaves off democratic representation and it’s, as always, imposed from above.
Footnote:
For the benefit of the generations to come, I’ve captured a bit of the WMTV web site which shows Governor Boy Wonder gazing out over the sand-mined landscape [well, in my imagination that’s what he sees] right next to news of buddy Tim Russell’s restitution hearing.
This is one of the finest of her performances I’ve ever located: Ella singing “You turned the tables on me” with Joe Pass accompanying.
You can start it at the very beginning and you’ll find about 20 minutes of the amazing Joe Pass playing six songs alone.
Video playlist:
00:50 Laura
04:25 Wave (Vou te contar)
09:50 My Funny Valentine
14:05 You Stepped Out Of A Dream
18:57 You Turned The Tables On Me
23:33 Darn That Dream
27:19 Ella and Joe
27:33 You Turned The Tables On Me
31:50 Cry Me A River
37:34 Nature Boy
39:48 Nature Boy (2nd)
41:32 You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
47:40 Avalon
51:53 Stormy Weather
57:09 One Note Samba
01:03:20 The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)
01:07:20 How High The Moon
I approve of something the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board wrote.
It’s their response to the scolding Robin Vos and assorted conservatives delivered to UW System President Kevin Reilly for about 2 hours for having a surplus of about $1 billion for the entire UW System. [Well, not REALLY $1 billion. See info at the end for clarification.]
Incidentally, the surplus was discovered by what conservatives are nicknaming “The CPA Caucus” and the brow beating was delivered at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Employment Relations.
The Editorial:
“The University of Wisconsin System has made this state proud a lot more than it has embarrassed.
And we can’t say the same thing for the state Legislature.
So Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and his legislative colleagues should stop the pot shots at UW System over its high reserves and figure out what’s a reasonable level.
Lawmakers also should remember they failed to build up the state’s own reserves before the recession. The state’s rainy day fund sat empty for decades.
Having too much money to fall back on during tough times is better than consistently having none.
Vos opened a hearing Tuesday on the System’s $648 million in reserves by insulting top university officials seated before him.
“Continually, time after time after time, you have embarrassed the state of Wisconsin,” Vos said.
We won’t list all of the ways state lawmakers have embarrassed Wisconsin, from their secret meetings, nasty campaigns, personal scandals and criminal convictions. But surely that list is many times longer than UW’s foibles….”
$1 billion — That’s the amount of “program revenue appropriations” the UW System had on hand. Let’s call it the total surplus.
It’s 25 percent higher than it was a year earlier.
The largest portion of the $1 billion — $414 million, or nearly 40 percent of the total surplus — came from tuition. Federal aid and gifts were among the other sources of cash.
$648 million — That’s the amount left if you subtract from the $1 billion money that came with strings attached — gifts, grants, federal aid and other funds. Call it the unrestricted surplus.
The fiscal bureau said it’s reasonable to make those subtractions because the UW System must spend federal aid based on federal rules. Similarly, gifts and grants – like a donation to fund a particular researcher — are typically provided for specific purposes.
$207 million — That’s what’s left if you subtract $441 million from the $648 million unrestricted surplus. The UW System says $441 million is being held in reserve for specific activities in the future. One proposal is for up to $30 million in additional student financial aid during 2013-2015.
The fiscal bureau’s report doesn’t list the future activities; and it notes that the UW System did not identify the timing for those future expenditures.
But it means only $207 million isn’t designated for some purpose. We’ll call it the leftover surplus.
CPA Posse Has Problems
Lastly, below are the self-appointed CPA detectives who are not mentioning
(they don’t care? they don’t know?)
that some of that $1 billion surplus has strings attached – like federal dollars being tied to specific research projects – quite a common scenario for a premier research facility.
At least two times in the video mention is made that complaints about cuts to the UW system back in 2011 ring hollow now that a surplus is discovered. Hmm. And what are we to think of their Spanish inquisition when it’s revealed that their discovered $1 billion surplus isn’t really a $1 billion surplus?
Now THEY look the fool.
Featured in video: Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield), Rep. John Klenke (R-Green Bay), Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), Rep. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green)
For an incomplete (yet harrowing) list of what’s wrong with Scott “Wunderkind” Walker’s public-private jobs agency WEDC, try the October 2012 blue cheddar post Walker’s corporate welfare sh*t finally hitting fan.
If you’d like to give Paul Ryan a piece of your mind, you’ll have your chance shortly. He’s promised to give you his attention at eight listening sessions scheduled April 29 through May 2nd in Dousman, Janesville, Burlington, Elkhorn, Oak Creek, Racine, Kenosha, and Bristol. [details are below].
If you would prefer to spend your precious time with his challenger in the last election – and the man who might be his challenger in the next one – try a Rob Zerban listening session on April 29th at 7PM in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.
ROB ZERBAN LISTENING SESSION –
MONDAY, APRIL 29 AT 7 PM
COMMUNITY ROOM,
MATHESON MEMORIAL LIBRARY,
101 NO. WISCONSIN ST.,
ELKHORN Map to the site
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
“Ryan Announces Series of Listening Sessions in Southern Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan has announced the schedule for listening sessions that he will be holding throughout Southern Wisconsin next week. Ryan will be visiting eight communities from Monday, April 29th to Thursday, May 2nd to speak with area residents about the need for solutions to our fiscal and economic challenges.
In advance of the upcoming listening sessions, Ryan offered the following statement:
“These listening sessions provide a great opportunity for me to answer questions, discuss the major legislative proposals before Congress, and address the concerns of First District residents. I am looking forward to talking with those I serve about the common-sense solutions needed to get our country and our economy back on track.”
April/May 2013 Listening Sessions with Congressman Paul Ryan
Monday, April 29
DOUSMAN: 11:45–1:15pm, Dousman-Ottawa Lion’s Club, 235 North Main Street
JANESVILLE: 3:00–4:30pm, Holiday Inn Express, 3100 Wellington Place
Tuesday, April 30
ELKHORN: 10:15–11:30am, Monte Carlo Room, 720 North Wisconsin Street
BURLINGTON: 12:30–1:45pm, Veterans Terrace, 589 Milwaukee Avenue
OAK CREEK: 2:30–4:00pm, Oak Creek Community Center, 8580 South Howell Avenue
Wednesday, May 1
RACINE: 11:15–12:45pm, Cesar Chavez Community Center, 2221 Douglas Avenue
KENOSHA: 2:00–3:30pm, Boys and Girls Club of Kenosha, 1330 52nd Street
Thursday, May 2
BRISTOL: 2:00–3:30pm, Kenosha County Center, 19600 75th Street
Thanks go to Cognitive Dissidence for pointing out a who’s who of Milwaukee-area heavies that want to run the joint – a “list of people that spoke or registered for the Plutocracy Bill at the Assembly’s public hearing (held in Madison but not in Milwaukee). “*
Shall we see if the same people come out today to testify for companion bill SB95? Play along at home!
I’m not in the habit of using the word “plutocrat” or “plutocracy”. It’s not that I don’t like these words. It’s just that they lack the sting I’m looking for when I’m getting down to name-calling.
The first definition of plutocracy per Merriam Webster is simply “government by the wealthy”. The 2nd is “a controlling class of the wealthy”. For some reason I’d come to think of blatant plutocracies to be a thing of ancient times. But there are modern bonafide no-doubt-about-it plutocracies:
From the wikipedia entry on plutocracy: “Another contemporary example involves the municipalities of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, Florida. Both are owned and governed by The Walt Disney Company as per state statutes. The only landowners are fully owned subsidiaries of Disney, and right-of-way for state and county roads, and the only residents are Disney employees”
Disney. A nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.
The ancient area of London is another modern plutocracy: “More than two-thirds of its voters are not residents, but rather representatives of businesses and other bodies that occupy premises in the City, with votes distributed according to their number of employees.”
That same wiki. entry says the plutocratic part of London is mostly the financial district. How telling. That’s also the locus for the international LIBOR scandal.
It so gosh-that’s-interesting from a distance. Now this political extreme is close to home, hitting our state’s most populous city tucked in our most populous county which happens to be the entire country’s most racially segregated region containing the nation’s 4th poorest city inside a ring of very wealthy and very white suburbs.
I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried. It’s the wealthy that can.
Even with the weak amendments proposed for AB85 and SB95 I expect Milwaukee County will be dragged close to true plutocracy. Hell, our dear state of Wisconsin and our country are sliding every day closer into the abyss of “government by the wealthy” and in broad daylight.
We all need to keep magnifying the daylight until it becomes a spotlight on this.
I don’t want to switch to the term “feudal”.
*If there’s any confusion, the “Plutocracy Bill” is Assembly Bill 85 – the bill that shifts power from Milwaukee County supervisors to Milwaukee County’s executive.
A user called “afoltz” was logged into “one of the state’s three redistricting computers” on January 6, 2012.
Hmmm. That would have been right after a court ordered that the Wisconsin GOP turn over documents.
Another user with the handle “tottman” deleted 100’s of thousands of files on July 25, 2012 according to the same court document.
My goodness — just after the state senate shifted to Democratic control and Senator Mark Miller demanded to see Michael Best and Friedrich’s redistricting file.
“afoltz” and “tottman”?
Adam Foltz and Tad Ottman worked on redistricting for the Wisconsin Republicans of our state legislature.
“For the record, taxpayers are paying Adam Foltz $50,000 a year to work out of the law offices of Michael Best & Friedrich “most of the time,” while Tad Ottman is making a hefty $79,236 for an unspecified amount of work in the offices of Michael Best & Friedrich.”
They may get nailed for being lackeys deleting things in the dark recesses of M.B. and Friedrich, but let’s be fair – they aren’t working alone. They surely have worked under the advisement of Joseph W. Handrick. He is the “Government Relations Specialist with Reinhart’s Government Relations Team” – the guy who the GOP was claiming had attorney client privilege but who was called a “lobbyist hired by the Legislature to assist in preparing the redistricting plan” by a 3 judge panel.
Certainly he wouldn’t have told these aides to do anything illegal(?). According to reinhartlaw.com
“…Joe’s services typically involve developing a comprehensive strategy for achieving the desired goal using the best and most ethical practices.”
Could the denizens of Michael Best and Frightening have had a hand in keeping We The People in the dark on redistricting? Eric M. McLeod, Joseph L. Olson, and Aaron H. Kastens? They certainly know how to do deliberate “disinformation, foot-dragging, and obfuscation”.
The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee will meet on Thursday in Madison. They will hear responses on Walker’s budget from agency heads [as listed below].
A reminder: there are still budget sessions you might be able to attend in your area. These are not official public hearings but they are instead listening sessions with Democratic party legislators who want to lend an ear to Wisconsin constituents – since the formal JFC budget hearings were limited to only a few locations.
Here are Wisconsin budget write-ups for you to possibly refer to as you approach your legislators:
Listening session schedule
[info came from HERE]
April 22 in Wausau — University of Wisconsin Marathon Campus, 518 South Avenue, 4 to 7 p.m.
April 23 in Madison — Black Hawk Middle School, 1402 Wyoming Way, 4 to 7 p.m.
April 24 in Wisconsin Rapids — Wisconsin Rapids City Council Chambers, 444 West Grand Avenue, 5 to 7 p.m.
April 25 in Appleton — Fox Valley Technical College, D.J. Bordini Business and Industry Center, Room 103, 5 Systems Drive, 4 to 7 p.m.
April 27 in Rice Lake — Barron County Courthouse, 1420 Wisconsin
April 29 in Eau Claire — Chippewa Valley Technical College, 620 West Clairemont Avenue, 4 to 7 p.m.
JFC EXECUTIVE SESSION
You should be able to watch the JFC meeting on Wisconsin Eye
Thursday, April 25, 2013 (10:00 a.m.)
The Joint Committee on Finance will meet in Executive Session on the 2013-15 biennial budget on Thursday, April 25, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. The meeting will be held in Room 412 East, State Capitol. The Executive Session will be held on the budgets of the following agencies:
Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board
Military Affairs
Environmental Improvement Fund
Natural Resources — Departmentwide
Board of Commissioners of Public Lands
Fox River Navigational System Authority
Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board
Tourism
Not long after Madison’s legendary spring bacchanal known as “Mifflin Street Block Party” was canceled [or was it?] the following commentary emerged on Dan Goldstein’s facebook wall. He gave me permission to reprint it after checking for spelling errors. Which I did. But I’m not touching anything else.
April 18
I’m on a roll tonight, had multiple cups of caffeinated bliss earlier.
So here’s an extension of an earlier theme: “Downtown Madison, and its Bright White Exurbs too:”
A free-speech violating “anti-panhandling ordinance” in effect that covers all of State Street and the Capitol Square. A formerly liberal mayor who proposes buying Madtown’s homeless a bunch of one-way bus tickets to anywhere else. A popular frat-boy pastime: kicking and yelling at people sleeping on cardboard boxes just after bar-time. And thousands of understandably insecure college students, mostly looking over their shoulders with a worried expression, lest they should commit the slightest transgression against the new National Security Paradise we all inhabit. Or, to end up right where we started from, anticipating someone may be lurking in an alley or bus shelter, with sinister thoughts of stealing your I-Phone. Other than that, a pretty civil place. And of course, the homeless aren’t even left in peace when they occupy our frozen tundra county parks, miles from the nearest bus stop, or the privately-owned cornfield of a good man, threatened with $17,000 in fines merely for trying to help out people in need.
Then there are those upstanding, respectable multitudes of well-scrubbed, law-abiding, “grown-up” working stiffs, who know better than before that if you “work hard and play by the rules,” all will be well. That’s what Bill Clinton told us. But keep in mind: All the Rules. All the Time. Never stretch the slightest little regulation, and if so, be prepared to suffer the gravest consequences. In your scared little mind, at least. After all, if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Not even The PATRIOT Act. You, unlike the Congress who passed it, actually read it; you bend over backwards daily to abide by its terms. When you get out there in the Upscale World, make damn certain you limit your social-political agitation to that which receives total judicial approval, and will, as far as can be presently envisaged, never be legally proscribed. Portray yourself as the Great Humanitarian during your Sunday prayers or nightly Yoga session. They don’t break down your door in the middle of the night for THAT kind of escapist engagement. Hesitate not to call the Police at the slightest hint economic discord may be breaking bottles in a street near you, Oh Ye of the formerly anti-authoritarian persuasion. Ms. Officer Friendly is now YOUR friend, since you’ve come to comprehend that your own personal safety is the ultimate measure of what creates a livable, breathable Culture World. Snug as a bug in a gated community’s Rug, you feel ecstatic, euphoric. Mr. Assistant District Attorney is no longer “The Enemy,” but rather, “On The Other Side.” That is, if truth be told, YOUR side. And what could be more natural, now that you’ve used his High Office as a political weapon against those of just a tad lower Monetary or Academic Class than you conveniently find yourself these days.
This is directed at Everyone in particular and No one in General.
blue cheddar 