Tortured Truths

   It seriously sucks being right about things like the illegal invasion of Iraq, illegal torture, the collapsing of the economy and other examples of Social Suicide. Saying "I told you so" brings a bit of comfort but just lets the idiots who ignored you last time justify not paying any attention to you this time. For this reason I avoid it if I can but I do try to get them to notice that their previous misapprehension had proven to be mistaken and to begin to question the faulty premise that led them astray before. Of course some folks have their thinking so set in an alternate reality you just cannot penetrate it. I'm starting to understand why people become hermits. It seems like there are getting to be so many of those people around the edges of my own reality are becoming vaporous. Take torture:  I have had the pleasure of having three Mexican prison guards beat me in the abdomen repeatedly with phone books wrapped in a towel for hours, bending my joints in directions they were never intended to move, beating the bottom of my feet and my ankles with a leather sack with a 1/2 pound of lead shot in it,  and having two of them sitting on me holding me down with the towel wrapped around my head and half-drowning me first with a water-hose and then pissing in my face before they dumped me back in my cell. They didn't really want to know anything, they just hated Americans.  All of this was repeated on a twice daily basis for about three hours at a time for, damn, I think 7 or 8 days.  They finally just got bored I guess, or moved on to another prisoner. They wore these black ski masks but he fat fu*k in charge forgot to take his badge off, even if the fact that he outweighed the other guards by 100 pounds didn't give his identity away. So you can probably understand why I think torture should be illegal and even barring that it should be so morally reprehensible that we would never engage in it. But here's where my reality starts to fray-there are two people in the world I would just dearly love to be alone in a room with for three hours so I could torture them to death, give them CPR and kill them again. That little fat POS scum, and draft-dodging-selling-missiles-to-terrorists-war-profiteering Dick Cheney. Problem is he's already a Damned soulless zombie so that might take some of the fun out of it.
   The other thing is the bloody Piss Onya Republican economic agenda that screws the hell out of the very same voters who keep voting for them and blaming everybody but themselves when they screw things all up. The whole Tea Party movement got off the ground when the TARP Bailouts happened and yet now their newly-elected leaders have just passed a Bailout Bonus Protection Act that absolutely will create another bubble fueled by derivatives on  car loans and student debt followed by another crash and another round of bailouts whereby they steal every last scrap of wealth that remained in the lowest 98% of American households. This time when you get foreclosed on you aren't even going to be able to sleep in your car. The stock market is going to collapse the few remaining pension programs and seniors are going to see their checks reduced or eliminated entirely. Even the wealthiest of us will be affected, I was going to say hurt but that word really is kind of meaningless in this context. If you're like me if a soda machine or a pay-phone steals a quarter from me, I am annoyed but I don't lose any sleep over it. When I see a penny I'm just as likely to let it lay as I am to pick it up. But I've watched a millionaire not only chase a penny he dropped but move the coke machine it rolled under to get it back. When he found two quarters, crusted with evaporated scuzz and lint, he was ecstatic! He cleaned them up with his hanky and no-shit, bragged about finding them to his kid when he showed up. This is our problem, some members of our Society have developed a Hoarding Syndrome regarding money. They never have enough and it does actually hurt them to be forced to part with any of it. They pile it up in boxes where it serves no more good than an elderly recluse's boxes of old newspapers and paper bags. That same greed and hoarding behavior is going to lead us to financial disaster and that brings us to the last thing I will discuss here-our failed Justice system.

I just watched the first night of Dem Convention and found it a real upbeat evening with some incredible speakers. The  diversity on stage as well as in the crowd was remarkable and it was nice to hear some ideas to match the ideals instead of a lot of platitudes and talking points. It was a tossup for second place but the First Lady owned the evening. "success is not judged by how much you made but what difference you made" and "after opportunity has opened a door for you it's not right to slam it shut behind you" are two gems I will teach my grandchildren when I tell them about President Obama, our first multi-racial President and the best Moderate republican President since Ike! The canard "are you better off?" was laid to rest with Bin Laden and the Operation Iraqui Liberation. uh, Iraqui Freedom they decided, OIL just looked bad. Yes, there is room for improvement, but Romney will only negate what hard fought Progress we have made. In a second term the obstructionist Congress will have no choice but to put America's interest first if they want to be re-elected. Infrastructure has never been a political football, a bridge is not Republican or Democrat, it's just a bridge, open to all who wish to cross. (well, there is that "bridge to nowhere") Highways aren't  for conservatives or liberals, they're for travelers and trucks and tourists. Whether you buy into Global Warming or not clean air and safe water are for all of us-there is no sense in leaving our kids a balanced checkbook if they have to read it in a canoe wearing a gas mask! Our addiction to fossil fuel is our number one National Security threat. First of all we must maintain expensive military presence around the world to protect "our" resources, creating unrest and terrorism. Secondly, our supply is subject to sudden restriction and fluctuations in price that can have catastrophic effects on our economy. Third, and this is from a Pentagon White Paper, Global Climate Change caused by our fossil fuel use was the greatest long term threat we faced and presents the possibility of an extinction level event as a distinct threat. Democrats seem to be the only ones who actually do "listen to our Generals". (also displayed by the retirement of DODT) Last but not least is healthcare, women's and men's but especially matters of choice-Mitt and company want to return to the screwed up rip-off Insurance Corporation ruled mess we had before Obamacare. Really? Lifetime limits, being a woman is a pre-existing condition, CEO billionaire bonuses and Rates that seem to go up weekly. No Thank You.  Yeah, this is the Democratic Party we need in charge.

So, bit by bit I make progress. If only there weren't so many distractions calling my name! Bob! Oh Bob! Ride me! Ride me!

Presidential Budget address

The President has spoken Truth to Power, Finally!!! He laid out the difference between the two Parties in a way that has been lacking for a long time. It was kind of the hunky mr. Ryan to admit that he was not presenting a budget so much as a "cause": a blueprint for the robbery of the last few remaining bits of wealth left in the hands of the elderly and the working class and for the elimination of the Poverty/the poor i.e. like GW took care of the cost of War-ignore it! The "Death Panels" we were warned about are coming under their plan-administered by for-profit insurance corporations, 85 year-old  Granny, no cash, out you go, should have worked harder when you were 70!! Well, as Obama said, not in the America I believe in, not now, not ever. We CAN afford to invest in our children NOW and worry about their kids deficit LATER. We are not poor, we are the wealthiest Nation in the World by far! Following the incredibly greedy, Billionaire centered plan presented by the Republican'Ts is a recipe for disaster. The initial Tea Party Movement was inspired by a good, valid purpose but it has been hi-jacked by two disparate groups of ideology driven fanatics who are both promoting Anti-American ideals. One of them is trying to install their own form of Sharia Law and the other has nothing less than the destruction of the current form of Government as their admitted goal. I can hear the Right already screaming about Soaking the Rich and Hurting the Job Creators, well, Show Me the Jobs! The right is determined to distract the public again but this time it is not going to work: we can all look around and see for ourselves, A Republicon President has NEVER balanced a budget, Clinton DID. Bush gave away our "surplus" to the wealthy, threw another $4 Trillion into Defense Contractor/Cronies, bailed out the Banksters at tax-payer expense and then handed Obama a Nation needing immediate and expensive intervention, took a deep breath and then started preaching about "Tax and Spend Democrats". This has been a remarkably effective strategy for the Republicons for many years but it's end has finally come. Even Saint Reagan's Budget Director says VooDoo Economics has run it's course and is in it's death throes. Continuing down this rosy path is madness, it is time to go back to the kind of sound investment and budget management that gave us such growth in the 90's. If we had followed Carter's blueprint for breaking our fossil fuel addiction WE would be leading the world in production of clean running Flex-Fuel Vehicles instead of a Third World country. We would be paying less for power and probably NOT spending more than ONE TRILLION $$$ a year on two wars in the Middle-East. We would probably have the best educated students in the world because we built more schools instead of more Drones, We would be #1 in infant mortality and not #33. We would have a provably better Nation and isn't that the best goal of ANY organization, to always do better? America is the greatest Country in the World BECAUSE We care for our seniors, our children and our Poor. We realize that by giving a poor man a little hand up, in America he has a chance of doing anything he sets his mind to-even become President. We are one of the few countries where the path to the top is NOT created with a gun, rather with a book. By investing now in our highways, bridges, schools, museums, galleries, hospitals, clinics and the students and working families who fill them we are investing in our future and experience has shown us this kind of investment works ten times better than slash and burn spending and tax cuts. I hope the young people will stay inspired as they were in 2008 and not take their eye off congress before 2014, if we can keep the pressure on we can stop the fundamental transformation the Illiteratti are trying to foist on us. There is a document on the internet, the 14 signs of a Fascist Government that is a great help in understanding where the Paul Ryans of the world are trying to lead us-They are not Bad people, just misguided... They truly believe if we just shut down government completely and let Corporations run things life would be better for us all. I just don't agree and neither did our founding fathers. What confuses me is that back in the 60's I went to a number of John Birch meetings, read the books etc. and back then they were screaming that the Insurance Industry was sneaking up on us and taking over the Banks and if we did not watch out the "communists" were going to take over our country from the inside and this secret group, the Illuminati, were scheming to use this threat to ACTUALLY take over the World and subvert our Government and the Bilderbergers meet in Switzerland and Hillary and Lady Di are both members....blah blah blah Now, "conservatives" are teaming up with all these same conspirators and helping them build up their fortunes and guard them from taxation. They stand there ON TAPE and scream about Old Glory and how much they hate her and how much they hate the Guvmint of the United States of America and want to DESTROY it. Speaking this sentiment is just exercising First Amendment Rights but ACTING on it is TREASON. The actions of many Republicans to obstruct job creation and these threats to shut down our Government and using the American People's financial future as a hostage in order to pass favorite fundamentalist religious legislation is reprehensible and dangerous bit of TREASON.  Pay close attention kids, those people want you to go away. They were really concerned about your birth, didn't care what happened before or after that moment- they don't think YOU deserve the same shot at an education that THEY had. They think you should work for minimum wage, 80 hours a week, 50.5 weeks a year until you are 80, then make damn sure all those years of hard work didn't cause more than $1,200/month worth of medical problems and they will be SO SORRY you lost your Retirement Investment in that crash last year, but you made other arrangements didn't you? I mean can't YOUR KIDS pay for you? If they have any money left after paying off the Koch Klan's Tax Breaks borrowed in their name in 2010. Yup, the difference between the two Parties vision for America have never been clearer, I'll take the option where Denny gets to try out unemployment for a change.

notes from the edge

When I was a kid I wanted to be a detective. I even took some criminology classes to go along with my political science and journalism major when I went to U of M. As it turns out those classes come in real handy when trying to figure out what is really going on with our national economy. It's all those page A8 and B17 stories that are where the facts are, the first 5 pages are campaigning politicians, car wrecks and plane crashes. One of those stories this last week was about the activities of the Federal Reserve Bank during the recent economic collapse. The only reason we know any of this is thanks to America's two most valuable Senators, Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, a most unlikely pair, but I think exemplary of the kind of bi-partisan cooperation we badly need right now. They put a lot of pressure on fellow lawmakers, finally managed to get a look at the books over at the Fed, though only a few years worth. As it turns out, while politicians of both parties debate how much we need to cut from food stamps and unemployment (and not whether this is a wise course or not) The Fed has given the very same Banksters who created all this mess over 3 Trillion dollars at interest rates ranging from ZERO to one fourth of one percent ; which trillions said Banksters then used to buy Treasury Notes paying 4 or 5 per cent, thus pocketing hundreds of billions of dollars of free tax payer money behind the curtain while being bailed out shortly before paying out huge bonuses. With more Tax Payer Money. Your Money. But we are so broke your kids are going to have to do without college, millions of poor children will go to bed hungry and cold and grandma better start looking for a box after that fifteen thousand runs out and the nursing home boots her out. Right. The stock market is doing great though. Another one of those stories was one from the OECD that tells us we are #34 out of 34 developed countries when it comes to social spending. We are #1 though in the number of prisoners, number 1 in the number of CHILDREN in Prison. Number One in the number of children living in poverty. We are #1 in drug and alcohol abuse, #1 in the number of addicts, #1 in divorce...I could go on all day about our poor ranking in education, quality of life, life expectancy, teenage pregnancy etc. but we all know this bad news. We cannot afford to be penny-wise and pound-foolish at a time like this. Our S&P rating is being adjusted because they are worrying about us paying our debt. I would submit that this worry is not because they doubt our having assets to cover our debt but rather that the Republican'T Party with it's obstructionist policies and toying with the debt ceiling has created a good possibility of another major CRASH. If this takes place it will indeed be 30 or 40 years before we even come close to retiring our debt, especially should we be foolish enough to keep cutting taxes for the Wealthy and Corporations and destroy what little is left of our social safety nets. On the other hand, if we were to simply let ALL of the Bush Tax Cuts expire, including the ones on the middle class, we would be balancing our budget again within 10 years without making anybody actually miss any meals or freeze to death. If we raised the earnings cap on payroll tax to say 10 million, we could lower the retirement age to 50 and double the benefit amount, creating millions of jobs and giving the economy a huge shot in the arm as retirees would spend the additional cash right away. As long as we have these bought and paid for politicians refusing to raise taxes  we will continue to fail and I would give the Empire no more than 20 years before it totally crumbles. We can debate how much and on who but taxes must go up on some and others need to start paying the rate they should, not whatever their tax-weasels can't hide offshore.

    Whether you believe in global warming or not the coming climate change is going to be devastating to economies around the world and we are already seeing signs of it now with the recent tornado clusters. We are facing unprecedented flooding over much of America now, late spring rains and a few good heat waves and we could have some really nasty surprises this year to rival events in Japan. I wonder if a nuke plant would survive a tornado? Our grid, like most of our infrastructure, is crumbling. We could easily see huge areas of our country without power for extended periods. Not a good time to be laying off first responders. We need to be investing in improving this situation, not cutting budgets. We all agree it is vital to our National Security that we stop importing foreign oil. We should right now be converting every car in America to run on LPG and we could complete 75% of them within 5 years. We should be insulating, installing solar, wind, tidal, geo-thermal and hydro-power, not cutting back on home heating assistance. I'm not saying we don't need to cut ANY spending: the defense budget went up 80% from 2001-2009, NOT COUNTING THE COST OF THE TWO WARS. We can certainly cut hundreds of billions from our military budget without hurting our safety a bit. Heck, if there isn't at least a trillion dollars of theft and profiteering we could recover I'll eat my hat. so-to-speak. Do these things and our economy would boom like never before and we would soon come to resemble the "Shining City" Ronnie said we could be.If we continue this policy of willy-nilly cutting everything in sight, taxes and spending, sooner or later we will slip and cut our own throat. We need to elect some honest lawmakers and open ALL of the Fed's books, and make sure they cannot continue using our faith and credit solely to enrich the 2% who own America. If we don't make some serious changes soon it will be too late, we have got to find a way to reach the Illiterati and overcome the propaganda, we have too much on the line to let our ideological differences stop all progress. After all, the Rapture may NOT happen, we might as well keep the air and water clean anyway, just in case....

Look, Wall Street is NOT going to allow the Republicons to mess around with the debt ceiling raise-they would be the #1 casualty. DO NOT GIVE THE FARM AWAY!!  end the Bush Tax gift, END the Inheritance tax exemptions, Raise the earnings cap to 5 million and top marginal rate to 50%!!! If Obama can act like a Democrat at least back him up! You guys are letting 15% of our population make all the rules. We need to worry about the kids we have now and forget that imaginary future child's taxes. We have plenty of time to worry about the deficit after recovery strengthens. Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" is a path to prosperity for the wealthy and penury for the people. Seriously, to balance the budget you start by adding another trillion dollars a year in Tax Breaks for the wealthy? No wonder it doesn't reach even for 75 years-no matter how much you raise the tax on the poor they still don't have any money. More efforts to balance the budget on the backs of the seniors and the  poor. So far none of their proposals actually reduce debt.  We need some truth in advertising; this is no plan, it is just more Republicon Wealthfare. They are not going to be happy until they manage to get their hands on that 4+ Trillion$$$ Social Security Surplus and that is the real objective of their "plan" As Senator Pence said on Fox News, 'They (Republican'Ts) are just doing what is best for the republican part, er, I mean republican people, er um ahh I mean we are trying our best to do the American People, not for the republican party'    I just love when they get comfy on Fox and tell the truth.
I am ever entertained by the proclamations about the bold, refreshing, brave plan put forward by Paul Ryan, i.e. slash taxes on the wealthy and privatize medicare. Sure, seniors out shopping for private insurance with their $300/month vouchers, that will work. I'll tell you what, I have a bold, brave new idea: Liver flavored ice cream!  Which is more likely, the ice cream is the latest new fad and makes millions or Ryan's plan balances the budget? I'm betting on the ice cream. It was nice of him at least to come clean and admit it was not intended as a serious document for the budget but rather as a blueprint for a Cause-said cause being the enslavement of the middle class.
  I've got a great idea for bringing jobs back to America-we figure out which CEOs were best at exporting jobs(can you say Fiorina?) and we pack them up and ship them off to India and China. Once they get there they can do what they do best and export those jobs back home! Or maybe a "Proximity" Bill" If you believe in Nuclear power, build the Nuke Plant and storage with close proximity to where the power will be used. And Corporate Overlords should be required to live within 100 miles of their largest facility. Want to build all those iPads in China? Go live there. Moving all of your operations to Bangalore? Hope you enjoy your new townhouse in Calcutta.

hello Dali ?

 just want to document this; I just had this really, really vivid, involved dream. The mideast-southeast are going to be devastated by tornados and floods this spring. The flood is going to be described as a once in a lifetime event, the greatest ever recorded. It's going to create some sort of civil unrest-national guard squads in riot gear were on the TV. Probably just another symptom of my craziness but I felt compelled to write this down. This was like one of my problem-solving dreams, I seemed to have some control over what I was doing-changing channels and Googling something, I was preparing for my trip in my newly completed boat... oh well, thanx for being patient with me.

you're not the boss of me.....

While attending the Senate hearing on repeal of the medical marijuana law I had a sudden epiphany. I now realize where a whole lot of the tension and misunderstanding comes from now. Some of the people we elect to represent our interest in Government seem to think they are elected as Rulers and not as servants of the People that are indeed the rulers in this equation. Even the Governor is elected to be Leader and leaders by definition must have the assent of his followers-if they lose faith they cease to follow. At several points in our Constitution we spell out the concept that the citizen is Supreme, the State's interest ends where the boundary of my body begins-hence our right to privacy. The State has no compelling interest in how I treat my body. If I choose to drink caustic soda I have a perfect right to do so, and  many people do every year. Regardless of the deaths and injuries lye continues to be sold. I have a perfect right to eat 300 sleeping pills and many people do, year after year, causing many deaths and injuries, and yet, they continue to be sold. Why it is that this simple plant stirs up such commotion is very simple and was on display at the hearings. If I didn't know any better I would think a bunch of people were reading off of some kind of talking points list: Proponents of Repeal kept referring to the Red, White and Blue Medical Marijuana Registration Card as the "Green Card" thereby blowing a Dog Whistle for the Tea-bagger Racist elements that passed marijuana prohibition in the first place. I am not an immigrant and have never held a "green card", indeed MY family has lived here for around 28,000 years and was using this and other psychoactive substances long before European man had quit soiling  himself and put on clothes. My people had an advanced culture that lived in Peace and Prosperity for well over a thousand years while your's turned on itself at every opportunity. My God is a Woman who gives, loves and nurtures us, while yours is a Man, mean and vindictive, who kills and destroys, who rules through Fear and Hate. It is no wonder our societies are so different.
    I guess if any one good thing has come from these probably failed attempts, it will be that the young people in Montana will realize how important it is to show up at the Voting Booth even when there is no issue or candidate to excite you. It is the people who lie, cheat and steal to get elected so that they can Rule that we really need to worry about and they always come with mouths full of honey, dressed in the garb of a saint. Power corrupts, and judging from attitudes on display in Helena, this is one old homily that will never be proven false, even a little power seems to corrupt a little. In 2012 young folks will have their chance to get out and elect representatives who do understand, as one young lady told them, You're Not the Boss of Me!

Shared Sacrifice???

I swear if I hear one more Politician or Media Mouthpiece talk about "shared sacrifice" I'm going to puke. The only sharing going on here is the spoils of war between the Banksters and Wall Street while the Media, bought and paid for by the schemers splitting the loot shares the blame between brown people and union thug second grade teachers and old people demanding their checks. You know there is nothing wrong with Social Security:the $2.6 Trillion dollar surplus now will grow to a $4.7 Trillion dollar surplus before the last Baby Boomer retires, They always talk about how many of us will be retiring soon but fail to mention the fact that most of us have been paying in for a long time(I brought home my first paycheck when I was 14-Boner, don't tell me about sweeping your daddy's floors, I was herding and weathering sheep!) and many, many of us will not live long enough to collect many benefits-near 30% of my close friends are deceased already and I'm only 60.The Union Pension were paid for long ago in deferred wages and a 5 minute drive through the staff parking lot at your nearest school will tell you volumes about the posh lifestyle of our teachers. Now the Republican party seems to share a couple million pink slips with the middle class thinking they will be so sad being unemployed they will blame Obama for forcing them to make all these draconian cuts, after all he started this depression we are in!

Belly full of Fire!

Well, we see finally, around the world, masses of young people coming out with bellies full of fire, ready at last to give the boot to the gangs of  Fat ass old rich white men who think they own the World. I was one of the fools who went to the streets and got my head busted fighting for the right to vote for the leaders who were sending me and my friends around the world to die in some mis-begotten Police Action and have asked myself many times since then why I bothered. Today I know why I bothered. If 20% of voters between 18 and 21 just come out and VOTE we can throw these old fat bastards out on their ear! Take away voter approved Medical Marijuana and piss us off so bad that when we put another initiative on the ballot we will just go ahead and Legalize It! In Total! So, all you kids out there WAKE UP!! and take your future in hand before you find yourself doomed to a life of working 80 hour weeks for $2/hour till you are 80 because that's what the fat bastards have in mind for you, make no mistake about it!

Constitutional Rites

   I find it astounding, though not surprising, that the same voices raised over and over decrying the destruction of our constitution are now the loudest in the choir calling for it's utter dissolution. First Amendment: that means If I say something you disagree with and you decide to change the station you are denying my First Amendment Rights. On the other hand if you decide to build a church somewhere I don't like I should be able to stop you from building it because the First Amendment only applies to religions we approve of. There were Catholic priests butt****ing  little boys all over America but I never heard any suggestions that we tear down all Catholic Churches near schools! And speaking of First Amendment, how about that WikiLeaks guy? Off With His Head!!!! His leaks may, I repeat MAY, have endangered some poor Iraqui or Afghanan informer. Now the fact that George and Dick and their cronies started an illegal war that resulted directly in the deaths of 4,500 American Troops and well over half a million innocent civilians, that is not open for discussion. Some poor sap lies to Congress about using steroids and it's off to prison with him..  Meanwhile, in Iraq, Billions of our dollars and hundreds of our lives continue to be lost and nobody is held accountable. The War is over? There are more American troops and civilian mercenaries in Iraq now than there were in 2005! I'm so tired and disgusted I won't go into the 14th, 4th, 5th and 9th Amendments that the Republican Party is also ready to flush down the crapper, Republican members of the current Congress have submitted 42 Amendments to the Constitution they profess to love so much. FORTY-TWO proposed Amendments in EIGHTEEN MONTHS. They love the Constitution so much they want to write a new one every week I guess.  I just want to know what happened to my Grampa's Republican Party? I think the problem is the Tea Party: add "T" to  Republican and you get a Republican't, all full of things we CAN'T do. We CAN'T reform healthcare, we CAN'T regulate Wall Street and the Banksters, we CAN'T do comprehensive Immigration Reform, we CAN'T regulate offshore drilling, we CAN'T  control global warming, we CAN'T tax the Rich: Well, I believe what has made us a great Nation is our CAN Do attitude. We CAN display tolerance in all aspects of life, religious, sexual and political, we CAN break Big Oil's stranglehold on our future, we CAN regulate our financial markets so ALL AMERICANS benefit, we CAN be once again the "Shining City on the Hill", the finest example of Freedom and Liberty and Justice for All in the World. We CAN DO all these things but will we? All I can say is what I said in 2000-If we really want Justice and Liberty it is within our grasp, we can grab it or we can flush it. I've got mine, I'm old and ready to die, you really cannot harm me so to some extent I just don't care. Come November 2nd you have important choices to make, you can choose among candidates and vote  or you can choose not to vote, either way we will get just what we deserve.

Canoe Kit?

well, here's the start from Missoula!

They Got Wood Big Enough for a 50' Dugout Canoe, I'm just sayin'

OK, So here are pics!

I Got Wood ! !

Well, just got back from Superior Hardwoods of Missoula with my Beautiful sticks of OLD REDWOOD. WOW, what great sticks they are at 27 feet, with only a few checks. I should have plenty of clean full length strips with shorter strips left over for a small canoe/kayak or I'm thinking a SurfYak! So, we are off to kalispell after dark, we have 35-45MPH winds today so I'll wait. Here's first pics anyway!

Intelligence Culture Growth?

Yes it's an oxymoron when applied to the new branch of Government. The Bush administration created the largest growth in government  both in size and in self delegated power that has taken place since the nation was created. And now, Republicants want us to believe if we elect them they will give us "smaller government". Didn't Bush Sr. say the same thing? and Reagan? I won't even defend Clinton, but at least he says he's a big spending Democrat. They say they will grow the economy but the only thing they always increase is the Debt.These latest reports on the new Intelligence Industrial Complex are further confirmation of this. Wake up sheople.

Next week’s news: Sarah Palin edition | Need to Know | PBS

Next week’s news: Sarah Palin edition | Need to Know | PBS This is freakin highlarryous!!! this guy is worth a regular read.

Bye Bye, Charlie...

It looks like the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna will soon be extinct. Drill, Baby, Drill.

come on Max!

Could this be true? I hear Max that you think Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Paine are all idiots and we need a new American Monarchy. All of these founding fathers thought there should be a 100% inheritance tax for good reason-to avoid the amassing of intergenerational wealth that would threaten our Democracy. They were great Prophets weren't they. We need the Bush tax cuts eliminated and the estate tax restored. You and I know this will affect maybe 1 or 2 people in Montana and none of them can be called "family" farms or business. The wealthy have plenty of time to give their wealth to their children. My wife's father is in a rest home w/ alzhiemers, he is a 95 year old WWll veteran. Medicare took 50% of the $60,000 proceeds from the sale of the farm and all the rest of his liquid assets. That means that this "family farmer" pays a greater inheritance tax than this Fortune 500 guy who just died with an estate valued at $9Billion. Now, tell me this is the Great American Dream. Max, either you need to figure out who it is you as a Democrat are supposed to support and if you insist on representing the Corporations and the wealthy then join the Republicant party and give us Democrats a chance to elect a populist, progressive candidate.

This will be a journal of sorts of my own Voyage of Discovery as I venture down the Rivers that were the greyhound bus ticket home for a tired and disheveled group of surveyors that was the Lewis and Clark Expedition. A more accurate description would probably be an Inventory of treasures and resources the Great White Father intended conning the current owner/occupier out of. History has shown the effects were pretty much what L&C predicted though the scale I believe would have disgusted even them. By the time they were on the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers heading home most of the East had given them up for dead. They were indeed a hungry, bedraggled lot who, reading between the lines, only survived and made it home by stealing dogs, horses and boats,  and begging food and succor from nearly every native they met. Were it not for the compassion of the Nez Perce’ Indians they all surely would have died. They cobbled together an amazing collection of craft on their return journey but I’m not quite that adventurous. I’ll be building a modified Adirondack Guide Boat using recycled wood for my journey starting from plans I purchased from Sandy Point Boat Works.  I should qualify that, there is a Russian Maple in my Ex’s back yard that suffered some ice storm damage last year and has a number of dead branches that are naturally crooked and large enough to carve the stem pieces out of, so there will be just a tiny bit of new wood. I want to incorporate a vertical axis wind turbine and solar panel into the boat to power computer gear and cameras and will install an electric trolling motor just cuz after all, Times Have Changed! Part of my purpose is to show how small your carbon footprint can be and still enjoy a full life. Oh well, photos to follow----http://sandypointboatworks.com/

Ready! Fire! Aim!

I cannot believe americuns believed the Republicans were so much better on Defense. First of all they are for the most part a bunch of draft dodging cowardly chicken hawks whose main weapons are fear and ignorance, and in the second place they keep shooting their own damn foot to smithereens week after week! First ReRun tells the wall street/bankster meeting he's speaking to that the whole thing is "us V them" them being us poor working saps. Now he turns around following Old man Burns' lead and sues the fire department because those lazy ner do well volunteer firefighters didn't work hard enough to save his trees and shrubs in his new Development. I guess he was really counting on them to hide behind. 63 million ain't enough for this jerk, all you sheople need to kick in so's denny doesn't lose any money. this is typical of Republicant approach all over. get out and vote folks!! twice if you can, and give $ to PROGRESSIVE POPULIST candidates.

the heat stupification of Amerika

Well folks, Maybe it's just the heat but there seems to be so many morons out there issuing cretinous, mephitic piles of illogic one hardly knows where to begin. I had the unfortunate experience of being stuck in a waiting room and forced to watch two episodes of the hit new game show "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" The show was interrupted by a commercial for our "New Air National Guard" in which a Blue clad soldier peers at a group of (probably) Apache or Comanchero Indians as the voiceover says "Defending Americans is nothing new" whereby the scene fades to a group of barefoot, robe wearing "terrorists" with black bags over their heads being guarded by a couple of M16 bearing camo-clad soldiers and narrator says "Just the way we do it... Join the NEW Air National Guard!" Now, mind you I can tell who the "Americans" are but who's the guy in Blue? I think it worth mentioning Faux News's Rick Brainfart's comment that " Most of these illegal workers aren't Mexicans anyway, they are JUST INDIANS"(emphasis mine) He has hit on something I have tried to point out, unsuccessfully, for years: Most of the migrant farm workers are indeed indians, many members of Indian Nations whose members have lived on both sides of our Johnny-Come-Lately border for at least the last 11.000 years. Like the chickenhawk's assumed Taliban strategy most of them are content simply waiting us out. They know full well that in spite of all the noise as the Republican't party makes there will soon be some sort of amnesty. The presence of these millions of workers helps hold down the cost of labor and are of great help destroying the Unions. Were anybody serious about stopping "illegal immigration" they would make hiring an undocumented worker an expensive, jail time mandatory offense and then enforce the law. Within one year illegal aliens would be as rare as a Republican't with a conscience. BUT I DIGRESS.....
As I was saying about being "smarter than a fifth grader"; It's obvious that most of us don't happen to be smarter, on the contrary, this program is the best illustration yet that, as P.T. Barnum said, "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people." It IS educational to see the difference in the way the Republican'ts react to this situation contrasted with the Democratic approach. For Democrats this is another example of why we need to increase the amount of education available to EVERYBODY by way of PELL grants, assistance to local schools, encouraging more people to become teachers, rewarding schools that do well and finding out what's gone wrong in schools that don't do well and spending whatever we need to correct these problems. The Republican't response-STUPIDIZE THE TEXTBOOKS .
That's right, if your kids are smarter than you, you should show them young whippersnappers whats what by destroying the educational system that made them that way, before your grandkids REALLY show you up. Well, my kid is smarter than I am and I think that is a GOOD thing. (education is hereditary...My daughter swears I get smarter every time she gives birth!) I think most Americans want their children's lives to be better than their's was.
Now, while we are on that issue: The Tea Party crowd, bless their confused lil' hearts, keep saying they want to take America back to better times and it's easy to understand why. I remember back in the 50s and 60s: Dad went off to work, Mom stayed home and "kept house", Junior was in Little League and Sis was on the Pep Squad and took 2nd in the Young Miss Optimist competition. Dad was a Teamster, he came home tired and dirty but 40 hours/week earned enough to pay the mortgage, water and power and property taxes(always too Gol Durned High!), phone bill and such sundries. Weekends the whole family went up to the vacation cabin at the Lake and did some waterskiing with Dad's new boat that he paid for by working overtime every chance he got last winter. Bought a NEW car every 2.7 years, gave the kids an allowance to supplement Junior's paper route and Sis's babysitting, Man I'm telling you life was good. Now, I won't get into Civil Rights or women's issues or environmental issues, we had some things to fix, but life was good. If only we had payed more attention to Ike's famous words of warning. His boogeyman was The Military Industrial Complex. And it has us by the throat.
Tea Party members are fond of calling for a "return" to constitutional government. Let me draw your attention to the first 15 words of that esteemed document-"We the People, in order to form a more perfect UNION". That's right folks, a UNION. That is what GOVERNMENT is; a union of people who band together to do what they are unable to do individually. The purpose of that UNION that we established was not to protect itself from itself, it was to protect US from the ARISTOCRATS and CORPORATIONS who would seek to take advantage of US. At that time the King was not a big problem to free citizens, had not been since the signing of The Magna Carta. The biggest threat to colonist's well being was The British East India Company and other powerful CORPORATE interests. Let's correct some "common wisdom" right from the git go; Washington, Adams, Franklin, Hancock, Jefferson, Paine, every one of these and many other of our Founding Fathers were wary of Aristocracy and Imperial rule and in their many communications and published works called for a 100% inheritance Tax. The amassing of wealth and power into the hands of the few would create a new tyranny that the Constitution was written to protect US from. True, the Constitution as written set rich white men as the dominant class, but they put the mechanisms in place for us, the poor, women, persons of color and social misfits of every stripe to modify that grand instrument so as to wrest our future from their control. Up until now the Constitution and the Courts have only been used to protect the rights of the people. The Republican't Court has decided BP is people too. Exxon/Mobile is his second cousin, I guess. If you really want to understand these issues Hartman's Screwed is a wonderfully informative explanation of our Founding Fathers' motivations and desires when founding our great Democratic Republic.(for you Republicant's-not too many big words!) What our Founding Fathers really worried about was the accumulation of vast inter-generational wealth that spawned a new crop of Aristocrats and Corporate Oligarchs. This is why for the first half of our country's history a Corporation could not outlive it's founder. You can give your children as much as you want while you are alive so it is only fair when you die the society that enabled you to build your own little empire should get it's tribute. By adopting this policy more money ends up being circulated rather than simply used to fatten a bank account. OK, now it's time to talk about taxes and debt and deficits. Remember those prosperous 50s and 60s when so many of our parents moved out of the depression and into a THRIVING middle class? The top income tax rate was 91%. Most working Dads bitched and moaned about how high taxes were but all things considered everybody thought things were pretty fair. There was a substantial estate tax and capital gains were taxed over 30%. In spite of or because of this horrible government robbery rich people re-invested their money in the business or established charitable foundations rather than give it to Uncle Sam.
Remember that "Union" part of that pre-amble to our Constitution? Well, part of belonging to a Union is paying dues. Dues are what enable a Union to do all the things it does to make the situations of working men and women better.Taxes are what enables Government to do all the things it does to make all our lives better. Provide for the general welfare of the Nation. And like dues, taxes are pro-rated according to how much you earn. The rich get and stay rich because of all the things we the people do AS A GOVERNMENT to establish and protect a fair marketplace. When we don't have enough tax revenue to cover our bills we sell Treasury Notes to International Bankers(I know, this is a really dumbed down version of how this works but I think we went into the reason above, didn't we?) These are just in essence IOUs and the TOTAL of all of them out there is our National Debt. The amount of our cost of government and interest on our Debt under Republicant rule is always more than our Revenue and the difference is called our Deficit. After Democrats run things more than 4 years the reverse becomes the norm, revenue exceeds the cost of government and interest on the Debt and the resulting Surplus is then used to retire our National Debt. We all know what happens when you pay off your credit card; they raise your limit, lower your interest and even give you a free trip to Disneyland to entice you to use it more. When we pay off our National Debt it attracts investment and development all over the globe and EVERYBODY does better... Republicants on the other hand want to exempt EVERYBODY from the "Death Tax" and make the Bush tax cuts permanent. So, say Bill Gates and George Soros and William Buffet die next month-they will not pay a dime, every penny goes to their already spoiled rotten heirs. And those tax cuts, the "Trickle Down" economics theory, well it's 5 years down the road and how many jobs did they create? You say we lost 8 million! What happened? As Thom Hartmen says, the only thing that you get from "Trickle Down" economics is a bunch of Peons!
I know a bunch of you are going to start going on about redistributing wealth so let's dispense with that. Yes I advocate redistribution from top to bottom but let's not fool ourselves, redistribution has BEEN taking place on a grand scale, from the middle to the top until there is NO middle left. 17 trillion dollars has moved from the little "Treasuries" that are your 401k's, Roth IRAs, home equity, hell, even your wage to the richest 5,000 people in America. Real wages have not gone up since Reagan was elected. We all work more hours for less money and if the Republicants have their way they will continue to rob the Social Security Trust Fund and make sure you keep it up till you are 75.
Even then they want to pay you less because they simply CAN"T afford to pay SS taxes on anything over a hundred thousand! I mean after all that .000005% of their net worth would just CRIPPLE their retirement plans.
Now, here we sit at a crossroads and I am so glad Republicant leaders have been so cooperative and exposed their loyalties and plans for the working class families in America. Denny said it clearly at a town hall just the other day:It's "Us" vs Them. He was speaking at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. One after another the Republicants have jumped to BP's defense. Poor BP. We sure don't want them to pay too much tax. Remember what I said earlier about paying close attention as things are poppin' all over and sometimes it's hard to put the parts together. Well, it's just coming out how BP arranged the release of the Libyan terrorist bomber who is still dying from cancer 18 months later at his seaside resort. Yeah, poor BP. See, if you make more than 1/2 million a year then by all means vote Republicant. But if you don't, and if you ever hope that your children might, then it is more important than at any time in the last 75 years that you not only vote for Democratic candidates but that, even if you have never given to a politician in your life, give what you can, $2, $5, $500, or even just some of your time. Talk to your neighbors and friends, take some classes, educate yourself and others, if we do not go that extra mile in this election it may be too late for our Democracy to survive. Through bait & switch tactics Republicants have handed control of our courts to activist judges who will have no qualms about having every aspect of the "Patriot Act" enforced in full and our great nation reverting to a Facist Oilagharchy where we are all minimum wage slaves living in fenced compounds and work camps. It was not Dems who enacted all this BS and MOST of them will never repeal it but if we don't start electing a new breed of leaders now it will only get worse. So remember: Vote Democratic, Vote Early and Vote Often, twice if you get a chance! When those corporate lackeys come asking you to give them a chance to screw us up and over, again, tell them "NO YOU CAN'T"

test to get address