the united american party

The Decay of An Educated Electorate

Contributed by Jersey McJones;

Let's take a look at what's wrong with America and how that precludes the developement of an educated electorate...

It is the gradual social and infrastructural decay brought on by the sleazy corporate media entertainment sector, the dumbing down of the American body politic by that same sleazy corporate media thanks to Reagan's evil destruction of the Fairness Doctrine on the PUBLIC AIRWAVES that have amounted to 24 hour free advertising for the GOP for a generation, the stagnant wages spanning an entire generation brought about by Reagan and Greenspan and their "inflation control", the reactionary Young Turk movement of the Religious Right (historically a sure sign of the demise of empire), the ever growing disparity of wealth as exemplified perfectly by the walled cities of the

West Coast and maintained by the cap on the payroll tax which also is destroying SSI, a "progressive" tax system so laden with loop holes and layers the top income earners only pay 27% in total taxes while the bottom 60% pay 40%, a healthcare system that even Cuba's is superior to that is the joke of the developed world and kills our competitiveness with ridiculous overhead because the filthy rich are heavily vested in the insurance industry (re: Investment Brokerages) and pharmacuetical industries (re: Advertisers for drugs invented at the US taxpayor's and tuition payor's expense in our universities), the sick devotion to the individual self above all other things leading to a generation of children with "ADD" (re: MTV) broken homes and mass depression, the flawed head-count based Electoral College (re: the census) that put's dingbats from states like Wyoming in the halls of power, 2 year terms for representatives that essentially require endless democracy-pandering campaigning over careful law-making, the looting of Social Security beginning under Carter and played out by every "president" since, draconian drug laws designed to eradicate entire social classes for the sake of racism resulting in a virtual police state that does everything but protect the public from anything that could actually harm them (good job on DUI prevention, though), local school systems that are all exactly alike and all suck instead of regional systems with a variety of school types, a university system that is so expensive people can not be educated in anything but law and medicine if they ever hope to be able to pay back the ludicrous loans, the destruction of the labor sector (see above: stagnant wages) both directly and because of overhead (see Insurance) and "free trade" that is only free to everyone else, the Young Earth Creationist movement and it's ties to Home-Schooling which will undoubtedly lead to a country filled to the brim with poor and uneducated Branch Davidian-types, trade policy akin to running America like a bordello that rapes the poorest and most vulnerable nations through agro commodity dumping, the death of the Line Item Veto, Clarence Thomas (enough said there alone!), the raping of the people's national forests for lumber (under the guise of "fire control") and mining and oil interests, regulatory infrastructure that puts Martha Stewart in prison but can't do a damned thing about Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay, the abandonment of the Antitrust laws by the FCC and other regulatory bodies leading to the monopolization of cable television and radio and television and music production and computers and a cadre of other sectors leading to a artistic culture akin to Nero's Rome, a military industrial complex that sucks off 20% of our GDP and forces us to ill-thought-out wars just for the sake of it...

Oosh... I'm out of breath... Anybody?

Whats Been Goin' On?

Contributed by Jersey McJones

Well...  hmmm...  let's see... There was the latest poll of greatest Presidents, as usual American education was put on display as the lousiest in the Free World.  Reagan?  I mean, REAGAN???  Ahead of WASHINGTON???  TR????  FDR??? ANDREW JACKSON EVEN???  Hell, Taft was a better laizze faire puppet than Reagan was!   The polls proved one thing, though, "Do you remember the bills you have to pay, or even yesterday?" was Bowie's greatest contribution to American critique.

Eminent domain has been back on the block in CT, Hawaii, NY, and a couple other places.  The CT case in front of the SCOTUS today.  I have an idea about that - instead of fair market value, they should have to give homeowners a cut in future developement profits.  How's that for an "Ownership Society"?  The ACLU, the NAACP, and even a couple of conservative groups have stepped in on the side of the homeowners in this fight.  It should get interesting.

Malcolm X was remembered this weekend.  It's been 40 years since he died.  Time flys, huh?  His life points up the change from militant nationalism to culturally referenced self-determination in the Civil Rights movement.  It's arguable what all this added up to in the end.  His famous quote, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!" seems more timely and broadly applicable today more than in quite a long time in American history.

Hockey's demise came as no surprise to most, but the real story there has been conspicuously missing from the scene:  a little socialism is not only not always a bad thing, and sometimes it is vital to a happy and healthy society.  Football, and to a lesser extent Basketball, are perfect examples of socialistically structure cultural institutions.  Like PBS.  Thanks to a fair balance of free agency, salary caps, and profit sharing, football is now more popular than ever.  And it's popular everywhere, not just in the few big cities so dominant in American life.  Yes, it can cost money (take Basketball this year - the big city teams are losing and so the whole league is losing some money - this year...), but in the end, like I've said for years, NOT EVERYTHING PROFITABLE HAS VALUE AND NOT EVERYTHING VALUABLE IS PROFITABLE.  Dummy overzealous capitalists miss that point.  That all said, I blame the players in the case of Hockey (I suspect the Russian mob has a hand in this desire of these erstwhile poor foreign nationals demanding these insane salaries).  So I'm fair.  ;)

Margeret Spellings, the creator of "No Child Left Behind" has stepped up as Education Secretary.  So we can certainly expect American education to continue to sink in the mud.  The real problem with education is that it is locally controlled and the parents are too involved.  GET THE FUCKIN PARENTS OUT OF THE SCHOOLS!  This stupid federal testing does nothing to improve education.  If anything, it threatens the lousy 6% of federal moneys the schools get now, mostly for lunch & breakfast programs and brick & mortar issues.  The federal government can only hurt with this and not help.  Pointless and stupid.  As for Spellings, a slob of the lowest order, she's been a Bush pilot fish for years.

Then there's the Syria/Lebanon thing.  This could get hot.  If the US gets involved, we could have yet another war.  One more war, and we're sunk.  One more war and gas prices will explode forever, and that's just for starters.  Our debt will explode too, and China and India, and the rest of the world may just start cutting their losses on the dollar, leading to a depression that makes the 1930's look like the 1950s.  The good news is - Syria looks like they'll do the right thing in the end here.  We shall see...

Chalabi backed off the Iraqi presidency.  That's good.  He's a slob if there ever was one.  Good news for the war.

That enough for ya'?

The Republican Dictionary

Contributed by Jersey McJones;

A Good Economy: Any economy over which a Republican government presides.

Activist Judge: Any judge who rules in a way Republicans don't like.

African American Role Model: All three black Republicans.

Christian: Born-Again Make-it-up-as-you-go-along pro-life-as-long-as-it's-in-the-womb right-wing-sycophant-of-the-wealthy-and-powerful money-idolizer.

Consistancy: Obstinance.

Elitist: Someone who can read beyond the fifth grade level.

Earnings: Interest on inherited investments, dividends.

Evil Dictator: Any dictator who doesn't do as he's told.

Feminazi: A tall slender woman with a nice haircut and a good job.

Home Schooling: The Bible.

Junk Science: Anything that is still in R & D.

Liberal Hate Speech: Whenever a liberal says something.

Moral Values: The exact opposite of everything Jesus ever said.

NAACP: KKK

Truth: Whatever stupid opinions are offered from Rush Limbaugh.

Treason: Exercising one's first amendment rights.

In all fairness, who's got the democrat dictionary?

The Iraqi Election Results Are In!

Well, the election is over and Iraqis turned out in record numbers as confirmed by Katherine Harris yesterday. The many parties vying for the 275 member assembly must now form coalitions and draft a new Constitution. If the new Iraqi Constitution is anything like the old one (Saddam's personal sexual memoirs), this should be interesting.

Anyway, the count is in and here's the breakdown:

Iraqi Election Results:

The Big Thick Bushy Manly Mustache Party - 35 seats

The Angry Vengeance of God on the Infidels Party* - 42 seats

The Radical Progressive Women in Pants Party - 1 seat

The Jihad on the Zionist Imperialist Global Domination Conspiracy Party - 36 seats

The Silly Party - 13 seats (with whoopee cushions)

The Very Silly Party - 11 seats (upside down)

Halliburton - 38 (at quadruple salary)

You Gotta Fight for your Right to Party - 8 seats

The Theocratic Shari'a Anti-Democratic-Political-Party Party - 28 seats

The Total Jihad on the Invading Crusaders Party - 18 seats

The Chic Sheik Party - 3 seats

The Iraqi Peoples Front - 5 seats (not The Peoples Front of Iraq!)

The Peoples Front of Iraq - 5 seats (not The Iraqi Peoples Front!)

Exxon - 4 seats

The Bull Moose Party - 4 seats

The Heroic Martyr Suicide Bomber Party - 16 seats (all elected posthumously)

The Batchelor Party - 5 seats (lap-dances included)

Kellog, Root and Brown - 3 seats

* that's a quote from an Iraqi!