Abandon all hope, Ye who live here

It has been obvious for quite some time now (certainly since 9/11) that the inmates are in charge of the asylum. How else can you explain the hopeless mess Bush/Cheney have gotten us into? There is no point in reviewing all this: the lies that led us into an unnecessary "war," the completely mindless tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy, the attacks on the environment, the denial of global warming, the scandals upon scandals upon scandals, treason, war crimes, lies upon lies upon lies, endless unjustified claims of secrecy, warrantless spying on U.S. citizens, and on and on. Even though all this is perfectly obvious by now to anyone with even a partial brain nothing happens to curb it or even to seriously investigate it. It has become so bad I think we may, indeed, have to abandon all hope.

Consider what is going on at the moment. Forget Iraq. Forget Afghanistan. Forget North Korea, Iran, whatever. The problem is immigration (no one seemed to worry much about this until a couple of weeks ago even though it has been a problem for years and years). Suddenly it has become urgent. The response (thoughtless and basically useless) is to build a billion plus dollar fence for three or four hundred miles (this will leave an even longer fence to built eventually). Why do they want to build this useless, stupid, provocative three tiered fence? Why, because they don't want to just enforce the laws that already exist about hiring illegals (a much more sensible and far cheaper solution). Why don't they want to enforce the laws? Because the corporations and agribusinesses that thrive on this primitive system of near slavery might have to pay a little more for their help). Why will the fence help (if, indeed, it even will help), because we will also instigate a "guest worker" program, an idea even more stupid than the fence and one that has proven in Europe to be an abject failure. Happily, it appears there cannot possibly be an immigration bill this year.

Now, if this immigration farce isn't enough to distract you from Iraq and Afghanistan (where things are much worse now than they were a year ago), involve yourself in the attempt (again) to make marriage strictly a business between one man and one woman (a constitutional amendment). This is, of course, a complete waste of time as it is already known that it can never pass in the Senate. But it does keep one focused on utter nonsense instead of anything meaningful, like "war," starvation, war crimes, the national debt, illegal wiretapping, the best Senators and Representatives money can buy, the obscene and out of control national debt, treasonous "outings," intelligence failures, and scandals as far as the eye can see. (and even farther).

There is no knight in shining armor mounted on a great white stallion waiting in the wings to rescue us. Hillary Clinton has reduced herself to a hopeless buffoon, McCain is even worse. Frist, Santorum, Biden, Lieberman, Kerry, Edwards, and others collectively don't seem to have the wherewithal to get elected god gave a horse's ass. The Republican party is in big trouble but the Democrats don't seem to care much. They are even going out of their way to prove just how toothless and cowardly they really are.

Of course from the Bush/Cheney point of view the useless fence isn't useless at all. Who is this one billion plus dollar fiasco going to benefit? Why, those very same defense and other contractors who ripped off billions in Iraq and New Orleans,who else? And just think, this will be a never-ending source of taxpayer dollars because there will still be hundreds of miles of fence remaining to be built along the Mexican border (miles to go while you still reap) and then (mana from heaven) even more miles to be built to keep out those dangerous Canadians with their high-powered marijuana. When we are finished building the fences we can consider thoroughly mining both coasts. Then finally, in one unprecedented technological American innovation, we can build a dome over the entire U.S. (that certainly ought to keep us safe from those terrorists with their shoe bombs and box cutters). The future looks secure if you are a greedy, unprincipled, warmongering, Republican corporate whore, with no more regard for your fellow citizens than for cannon fodder.

I am still waiting for Rove to actually be indicted. I will only believe it when I see it on national tv or in a major newspaper (not that they could be trusted to get it right, or even report it at all). Man, these are happy times.