Enough already

Enough with the damn Thanksgiving gratitude already. Enough of Black Friday and Black Monday and Red Credit Cards piled high with debt in eager anticipation of the Consumer, er, Christmas season. Enough of newspapers fat with ads and skinny with real newsworthy information. Really. Enough already. Let's get back to pretending I could make in difference in the world by broadcasting my opinion far and wide across the Internet in the blogosphere.

My Opinion: You aren't pissed off enough yet at the Bush Administration.

If you were pissed off enough, there'd be a massive effort to impeach him. So, clearly, you're not mad enough yet. I consider it my moral duty, job one for America, to ever so gently goad you toward pissedoffdom. Let's see. Today's serving will be the government's continuing attacks on your civil liberties. The Defense Department, like some creepy militaristic Lord Voldemortian snake, continues to slither its way into more and more power and knowledge. A new agency (Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA) is being pushed by the White House as an arm for investigation and information sharing. Meaning that the military would be allowed to investigate you.

"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. And Wyden has managed to put a kabosh on some of the powers the White House wants to give to the military. But the current proposal would apparently allow the military to create files similar to the FBI's files.

Doesn't float your boat? Make you see red? Push you toward pissedoffdom? How about the fact that once again the United Nations Climate Conference is occurring with the US dragging its heels in doing anything about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Dragging its heels is probably too optimistic a phrase. How about "can't be dragged kicking and screaming into significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions"?

Why is it that other industrialized nations, like England and Canada, can agree to Kyoto without ruining their entire economy, as the US so wantonly claims will occur if we agree to it? Of course, Canada's progress may soon come to a screaming halt with the Liberals downfall today. Yet Canada seems, Liberal or not, determined to move to greenness. Too bad we can't say the same thing about ourselves.

Had to stop writing in the midst of this to run children various and assorted places. Now, I find myself unable to work up a good persuasive crankiness, alas. So go read this article about the Bush administration's determined efforts to eradicate the free press. And that's not just my hyperbole. What else can you say about an administration that has systematically paid columnists to support administration efforts, trashed PBS' investigative programs, faked "news" segments, and started a war based on false information passed through the press?

Starting to see red again . . . .

Until tomorrow,
Liz