It will be interesting to see what happens this week. This Sunday has been a day completely away from the MSM drivel. Temps in the mid 80's with no humidity. Sunny skies. A beautifully perfect summer day. I barely read the Sunday papers and couldn't bring my self to really watch the day's talking heads on TV.
The next week could be exciting, but I fear it will be another week of consolidation in the Congress and another week of stonewalling from the administration. Unfortunately, it will also be a week of 100+ temps in Iraq and another week of dead and injured service people. It continues to amaze me that the American public lets this go week by week by week.
One of these weeks maybe the people will finally decide that this is the week it has to stop.

The Flyover legislature is fighting over the budget. The Dems and the Repugs are light years apart and we may not see a budget for a while. One of the things on the table is an expansion of health care into the middle class. Guess who's for it and who's agin' it.

My greatest hope is that the business community begins to realize that universal health care is in the long run, a boon for business. The US is behind most other industrialized countries right off the bat because the cost of manufactured goods in the US is instantly higher because the manufacturer has to factor in the cost of health care into the price of their product. In other countries this is spread over the entire country and costs substantially less. This alone should have major companies clamoring for a change. Secondly while health care is good for the upper portion of the public, it is exceedingly expensive in the US. We pay way to much for the care we get compared to other countries, and yet almost all of them show better health statistics.
Thirdly preventive medicine, especially prenatal and early cancer detection save millions over trying cure the problems after they develop. The last factor is that we already have universal health care for the poor: it's called the emergency room. Can you even begin to imagine a less efficient, more expensive way to deliver health care?

Oh, and by the way just to keep up my bleeding-heart-liberal creds: IT"S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!

I had a short online exchange with a social studies teacher today. We both agreed that today's students receive an abysmal education in History. I also opined that they receive almost no education in the traditional social studies. He brought up the fact that there is almost no civics education today. This country is unique in the world in that we spend almost no time in educating our youngest citizens into the concept of being a citizen. When I talk with my younger employees, I find almost 100 per cent of them do not have the slightest idea of how our political system works. Not nationally, not statewide or even on the most basic of local levels. They have no idea of who any of their representatives are, or what the do. Unfortunately, most parents are only interested in their children's grade point and give no thought as to whether their their little darlings will ever become educated as citizens. This may be the most dangerous trend in America today. I implore any parent to make sure that their children learn that being a good citizen more than paying taxes and not avoiding jury duty.

SPECIAL REPORT

Doctors today report that after the special rectal brain scan of the President today that they found no evidence of grey matter in the President's colon. Doctors were surprised as the President has had his head up his ass for over twenty years. Subsequent review of previous colo-rectal examinations revealed that the tiny amount of Presidential Grey Matter that had been there was removed eight years ago mistakenly believed to be polyps. Luckily the President has been able to live semi-normally as Karl Rove has essentially served as Bush's brain for years. Doctors believe that the President will be able to continue his normal duties as they really consist of nodding to vicePresident Cheney.

The Flyover Times has shocked me! The day after I complained about their inability to write the F-word (filibuster) they used it in an op-ed! Twice! I'd love to think it was me but that would truly be delusional. They also ran a piece on the importance of net-neutrality.

Net-neutrality is a subject that either gets you a "wha?" look or a yawn. Unless you are part of the net-roots. Then it's a question of life or death, at least for bloggers. The concept of equal access to the net is the life blood of the diversity of the Internet. This may on first blush look like a matter that is important only to the few that blog or read blogs, but I contend that it goes much deeper.

It the 1770's political fever was stirred up by a dedicated group of citizens who wrote tracts and had them printed up at small print shops by like minded printers. Not that many years before this would have been unthinkable because printing was too expensive and the presses were tightly controlled in other countries. These tracts would be passed out on village greens and taverns (think Drinking Liberally). They would work their way to small villages by travellers. Often one writer's pamphlet would draw a response from another. These transfer of thoughts were instrumental in fomenting the revolution. The British authorities did little to stop this because they believed there was no way this was a danger to their rule.

Jump forward to the 21st Century and we find that the press is almost entirely in the hands of Big Money and there is no real access there. Certainly I or anyone else could go to the print shop and run up a thousand broadsheets and hand them out, but where is the Village Green that allows you to contact thousands? That Village Green is now the Internet. For the price of a cheap computer and an Internet connection or even access to a Public Library, today's Broadsheet writer can reach millions. This brings us back to net-neutrality. If the money interests have their way, the cheap printing presses will be taken away from the masses. Now I don't suggest that the net-roots should be fomenting revolution, but certainly this is a valid route to change the way that large groups of people think about things. Not through propaganda but through discourse (even with the Trolls about). It is critical that as a group we talk to the "Wha?ers and the yawners to let them know that is about their world too.

It appears as if the MSM has abandoned the F-Word. It was well used several years ago but it seems as if has become the word-that-can't-be-uttered. Luckily there are euphemisms to replace it that won't offend the reader/viewer. You know like time wasting, grandstanding, and the popular Democrat stunt. God knows that the Repugs would never do anything to stop an up or down vote! Oh wait the Repugs staged a fili***ter. Don't they want an up or down vote?
Even the newly redesigned Flyover Times, that heralded progressive newspaper couldn't bring it's self to use the dreaded word. Of course their progressive credentials are based on the fact that they supported The Original Progressive 100 years ago. That and that over 50 years ago they pulled a stunt where local flyover citizens were asked to sign a statement comprised of parts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Of course the McCarthy fearing crowd wisely refused to have anything to do with something that smelled of politics. Since then their progesiveness has consisted of endorsing Democrats at election time and weeky (weakly?) listing the number of deaths in Iraq. The civilian figure is the one given out by the government and right now is around 35000. You wouldn't want to use the leftist British Lancet figures of more than 600,000. So goes the vaunted left wing media.

Harry Reid goes for the filibuster, Harriet Meier refuses to appear before Congress, what-will-happen reports are all over about Iraq, it's hard to tell if we are getting ahead or spining our wheels. I'd love to think that we are seeing the beginning of the end of this merry band of fools. The filibuster hopefully will start to show the people that the congressional gridlock is the fault of the Rethuglicans and the recent after action report suggests that a three state Iraq is possible after a withdrawal of American troops. What I really hope for is a legal confrontation with the Bush junta. The Meier situation may well be the turning point. It's one thing to go before Congress and refuse to testify, but to refuse to show up is unheard of. It will have to be seen if John Conyers and other D leaders have the goods and the balls to take this thing where it can go. The scary thing is these fights can end up in the Supreme Court. As we have seen the odds are stacked badly in that arena.