I-Ronnie of I-Ronnies

"Where collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost."

-Ronald Reagan

I'm almost at a loss for words. Who knows whether or not Reagan actually meant what he was saying when he made the statement. My guess is that he didn't. That was during the campaign of 1980. Candidates say a lot of things they don't really mean. Less than a year later when as president he fired the air traffic controllers, he pretty much hammered yet another nail into the coffin of collective bargaining in this country. Still, it tells us a lot that thirty-two years ago a Republican candidate could say such a thing and not lose support of "the base". It perfectly illustrates the devolution of "the party of Abraham Lincoln" as well.

Thirty-one years ago this coming Friday, the American people sent to the White House a corrupt, feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor. Do you wanna hear the punchline? The Republican party has sunk so deep into the ideological cesspool since January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan is starting to look like Theodore Roosevelt! As Jack Parr was fond of saying in his day, "I kid you not."

Isn't life strange?

During Ronald Reagan's reign of error I was living in New York City. I was really into writing song parodies then. I would occasionally perform them on guitar at a place I loved which was right around the corner from where I lived - Ye Olde Tripple Inn on West 54th Street - directly across from the fabled Studio 54, a place I never frequented. One of the songs I lampooned was called "And Nixon, I Miss You". It was sung to the tune of Bobby Goldboro's 1968 hit, the delightfully maudlin "Honey"

One time I thought that Richard Nixon's Presidency
Was the worst thing possible
But that was many years ago
And nowadays that sentiment seems laughable
In nineteen-eighty somehow
The electorate coughed up a brain-dead movie star
I never had faith in the voters
But I never realized how dumb they are

And Nixon I miss you
And I'm feeling blue
I've lost all of my senses
I'm nostalgic for you

That was then. This is now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way reformulating my opinion of Reagan or his presidency. As I've said too many times to count, the damage that the hideous old freak did to this once great nation is so immense it will never be accurately assessed. It is incalculable. After all, it was the insane policies of deregulation championed by Ronald Wilson Reagan that set us upon the road toward the economic mess we find ourselves in today. He told us he could increase spending, cut taxes and balance the budget - and that he would do it by 1982! anyone with a remedial grasp of arithmetic knew what utter bullshit that was. The reason his successor George H.W. Bush was defeated in his reelection bid by an unknown named Bill Clinton is because he was forced to raise taxes ("revenue enhancers" he called them) in an attempt to clean up the mess he inherited from Reagan.

And I'm also not implying that I "miss" Ronald Reagan anymore than I was missing Richard Nixon when I wrote that parody in 1988. It's just that (Jeez Louise) the two of them are starting to look pretty good - at least when placed in comparison to the insanity junkies who now populate that disgusting party. Imagine that you're a kid who's just arrived home from kindergarten. You switch on the TV to find that Bozo the Clown has been replaced by John Wayne Gacy. It's kinda the same thing.

And see the debt how big it's grown
But friends it hasn't been to long it wasn't big
In early nineteen-eighty one
The debt that's now a redwood tree was just a twig

What a difference three decades makes.

This is sheer speculation on my part but I imagine that even a dirty old dingbat like Ronnie would be horrified to see where the so-called "Reagan Revolution" has taken us. Then again maybe not. It was always hard to figure out where der Gipper was coming from. His own children could never figure the old bugger out. He was always an aloof and distant figure to them, even when he was present. I just learned something this morning that floored me. On the day his half-witted kid Michael was married, his dad and Nancy opted out of the festivities and went instead to Tricia Nixon's wedding at the White House! It makes one seriously wonder about the man's inner character.

When even some "liberals" are expressing a sense of teary-eyed nostalgia for the likes of Ronald Reagan, that's all the proof you need to understand that the political wheels have come of the planet. And the fact that a Casper Milquetoast moderate like Barack Obama is viewed by many as a left wing radical is further proof that the American people have lost their bearings - to put it as mildly as possible.

The fact of the matter is that the dead conservatives of another era - Barry Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan - could not get nominated to run as sewer inspectors in the current environment of the grand old party. At the end of his life Goldwater had turned his back on the right wing movement - a movement he helped bring into being when he was nominated by the Republicans at the convention of 1964. And remember this was a man who in his day was known as "Mr. Conservative"! That speaks volumes, doesn't it?

Unless they succeed in stealing a whole lot of elections this November (Don't put it past them) 2012 is not going to be a particularly good year for the Republican party. It's a fairly safe bet that the Democrats will be able to take back the House in spite of themselves. Not that I'm jumping with joy over that little prediction. The best that can be said of these present-day Dems is that they're not quite as incompetent as the GOP. Certainly they're not one/tenth as corrupt as them. We can only hope that the new batch of freshmen won't be in the pockets of corporate America. We can also pray they remember that they are in fact the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yeah, right.

Did you ever think you'd live to see the day when this once-great nation would be reduced to such a sorry and pathetic state? Hold onto y0ur hats, kiddies! The worst is yet to come! Somewhere, Ronald Reagan must be laughing.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

This is a paragraph I wrote on this site about three years ago:

"What must be remembered is that Ronald Reagan was essentially a mask, with a twinkle in it's eye and a fine, Irish smile. Remove that mask and what is revealed is the twisted, hideous smirk of George W. Bush. That's the real face of the 'Reagan Revolution'".

For more of my thoughts on Ronald Reagan, here is a link to a little ditty I wrote almost a year ago on the occasion of the centennial of his birth:

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com/2011/02/ronnie-at-one-hundred.html

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

"Peace on Earth"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8stkqssLYc

In 1939, a group of writers and animators at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came together to produce this little gem. How it got past the eye of uber right winger Louis B. Mayer (head of the studio) is anybody's guess.

Pray for peace.

The 2012 Shoo-in - Maybe

Well over a year ago I predicted on this site that the religious bigots and crazy people who long ago hijacked the "the party of Abraham Lincoln" would never nominate Mormon Mitt Romney. "David Duke will be named head of the NAACP before that ever happens" I speculated at the time. It appears that I might be forced to eat a healthy dish of crow on the occasion of Mitt's victory in the New Hampshire Primary last night. This is not to imply that the half-witted "base" of that party are happy about what happened last evening. Anything but. Let me put it to you this way: The Republicans just got the news that they're pregnant and they're trying to fall in love as rapidly as possible.

Yes, with the honorable exception of Jon Huntsman, the most impressive GOP candidate to come along since Teddy Roosevelt a century ago, the contenders for the nomination were just too bat-shit crazy for even the right wing to stomach. That takes some doing.

Although the polls show Romney with a healthy edge in the South Carolina primary on January 21, it is by no means a done deal. Anything can happen in that state and usually does. John McCain learned that lesson the hard way in 2000. At this moment, the Gingrich campaign is bombarding the palmetto state with an anti-Romney propaganda blitzkrieg so fierce it's liable to take a heavy toll. Whether or not it will prove fatal is open for speculation.

Which brings me to the nasty subject of Newt Gingrich. He will probably save the Obama campaign a million or more in advertising this year by making the case for them why Mitt Romney should never be sent to the White House. The Republican "cause" - such as it is - means not a damned thing to him. He can't be so delusional that he honestly believes that he'll ever be president. His is a scorched earth, take-no-prisoners policy. The only thing that matters to Newt is Newt. If he has to bring the Republican party down in flames with him, so be it. GO FOR IT, NEWT!

"I love firing people"

-Mitt Romney
New Hampshire primary, 9 January 2012

That little Freudian slip didn't do him much good. As someone pointed out recently, Mitt Romney doesn't "create" jobs. He cremates them. The jolly good work he did for Bain Capital all those years ago by buying up companies and liquidating them - throwing thousands of people out of work in the process - will surely come back to haunt him when he faces President Obama in the general election. It was a very telling - albeit unfortunate - choice of words. It is what defines Mitt and his party. It's all about making the largest amount of profit for the smallest number of people. Who gives a shit if their policies wreck havoc over the social landscape of the nation? Money is everything. Chris Matthews has compared him to the Gordon Gekko character played by Michael Douglas in the film "Wall Street". It's an apt comparison to be sure. Greed is very good indeed to these clowns.

Assuming he will be the 2012 nominee, Romney has a few hurdles to overcome. Let's face some uncomfortable facts here, campers; even his own people can't stand him. He doesn't come off as the most sincere guy - and that's being generous. In fact he's the most superficial candidate who ever sought the office. He reminds a few people of the host of some lame, 1970's game show. He's not likely to inspire "the base" to show up at the polls en masse. Not only is his religion a hindrance, but there's also the fact that this former governor of "Taxachusetts" is seen by these knuckleheads as the worst kind of bleeding heart liberal. Isn't that a hoot? And you wonder why I get such a kick out of politics.

But it's not as if Barack Obama himself doesn't have an uphill fight to deal with. His position at the moment is envious despite the economic mess - which he inherited. His problem is that the Governors and legislators of Republican-controlled states all over the country have been passing unconstitutional laws that will make it nearly impossible for the people who tend to vote Democratic to pass their ballots in November. Their reason is the non-existent plague of voter fraud. Although I'm placing my money on Obama, I'm certainly not going to bet the farm on him.

The president also has the problem of the Democratic base to deal with. He's been a huge disappointment in too many areas to count. I can understand the frustration people are feeling. I would only hope that traditional Democratic voters will remember that the alternatives to Obama are just too depressing to even think about. Maybe in a second term he'll start behaving like a real progressive. Maybe.

This much is certain: 2012 will be the most interesting political year of our lifetimes. To paraphrase Pete Townsend:

"Gotta feeling 2012 is gonna be a weird year."

Indeed it will be. Fasten your seat belts.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED VIEWING

Paris at Midnight
a Film by Woody Allen

If you love Woody Allen you'll love his new film, just out on DVD. If you don't, you won't. That's the curious thing about Woody. There seems to be no middle ground.

And the winner is - Santoromney?

Look! Up in the sky! It's Mitt! It's Rick! NO! IT'S SANTOROMNEY!!!

So Mitt Romney is pleased as punch after beating Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucuses by a mere eight votes, huh? Mitt's jubilation needs to be placed in check. To end up in a virtual tie with a basket case like poor old Rick is an ominous portent of things to come I'm afraid. With the South Carolina primaries just around the corner, Willard Mitt should be getting fat with worry. And who would blame him? The jackasses in that state who identify themselves as "Republicans" are so out-of-touch with fundamental reality, they perceive a conservative hack like Mitt as a radical left-winger. And you wonder why I get such a kick out of politics? Life is beautiful.

FLASH! THE MIDWEST IS THE NEW DEEP SOUTH!

Another example of the spreading intellectual rot of the United States of America; a country which at one time (Hold onto your hats, generation Xers!) was the best place in the world in which to live. It's not anymore. It ain't even close. Still, we do have the best reality shows on the planet. Stand proud, America!

It boggles the senses that so many voters in the Hawkeye State would have bothered to venture out in the freezing weather to vote for any of these clowns. Their sense of civic responsibility truly astounds. If I had my way, the first caucus would be held in Wisconsin. Those folks have awakened to what is being done to the working people of this country. Iowans obviously haven't a clue.

I fail to understand the importance that is being given to the Iowa caucuses. Does anyone seriously believe that a relatively isolated state near the center of the country is a microcosm of American ideals and political opinion? Or that the people who live there - a lot of whom are just-a-tad reactionary, uninformed and out of touch - are an indication of who the nominee will be? With regard to the Republican caucus, Iowa has a fairly reliable history of getting it wrong. I strongly suspect that the "momentum" that Mitt 'n' Rick will be receiving out of their "victories" won't amount to a hill of garbanzo beans in the long run.

"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

Rick Santorum
Sioux City, Iowa
January 1, 2012

Ohhh, Lawdy! Lawdy! Thank you, massah!

Ah, Rick! What an asshole. That a halfwit like Rick Santorum can go as far as he's gone proves only that this really is a white man's world. It also shows a Herculean act of desperation on his part to play the race card in Iowa of all places - a state with fewer African Americans than any other in the union - about two percent. Take that moronically insensitive comment as a sneak preview of what's in store for us as the Hilarious Campaign of 2012 gets underway. No doubt about it, kids, this is gonna get ugly. You don't want a front row seat for this fight; it's liable to get a bit messy. The mezzanine is your best bet.

The right wing wants to take back 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue so badly, nothing's going to stand in their way, not even common decency. They can't win on the basis of their ideas because those ideas are beyond reprehensible. The only chance they have is by appealing to the darkest dysfunction in white America's tormented soul: its irrational fear of the dreaded KNEE-GROW. The Republican governors of thirty-four states are now in the process of "legally" denying them the vote by mandating that they purchase voter ID's. This is what is known as a "poll tax" - and it was ruled unconstitutional almost a half-century ago. Oh, yeah, this is gonna get very ugly indeed.

PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE:

No race of people in the history of this country have suffered more - and with less good reason - than have our fellow citizens of African heritage. I would imagine that there is a special place in hell for any politician who would exploit white America's paranoia simply for political gain.

NOTE TO THE GOP: Knock it off.

If you had any doubt that the Roberts Court's obscene Citizens United ruling of two years ago might seriously harm our republic, those doubts should have been dispelled in Iowa. I never thought I would live to see the day when I would feel a tinge of sympathy for the likes of Newt Gingrich but - so help me Mitch Miller - that day has come. For the past week Romney's super-secret, political action committee has bombarded the Iowan airwaves with anti-Newt propaganda. Gingrich's popularity, which had been rising in recent weeks, crumbled amid the onslaught. We don't know who paid for those ads. We may never know. The court of John Roberts has seen to that.

So it's off to New Hampshire and South Carolina. I must admit to you that I'm feelin' just a little blue at the moment. None of the candidates I was praying for (the bat-shit crazy ones) will be getting the nomination. Herman Cain is gone and forgotten. Rick Perry has headed home to Texas to "think things over". Maybe he'll be back. Maybe not.

Ron Paul's campaign is still in full-tilt-boogie mode. It has recently been revealed that in the eighties, the congressman was responsible for some perfectly hideous, racist newsletters. I find it quite interesting that his opponents for the GOP nod are using every issue they can think of to bring him down a notch or two - every issue but that one. It's not too difficult to figure out the reason for this. Ron Paul is a reactionary racist? That would make him VERY appealing to the knuckleheads who constitute the "base" of that disgusting party. Can't have that, can we.

Just an hour ago as of this writing Michele Bachmann announced that she will be "suspending" her campaign. She has seen the writing on the wall I suppose. At some of her appearances over the weekend, the crowd numbers were in the single digits. And she was born in Iowa! This is a real let-down. I was pinning my hopes on her candidacy more than anyone's. Can you imagine what a scream her campaign might have been? Alas, it was never meant to be. I'm gonna miss Michele like nobody's business. All of that sweet, accidental humor is now ashes to the wind. I wonder what the future holds in store for her. FOX Noise? Dancing with the Stars? Reality TV? I can see her hosting a game show: The Price is Reich.

It's time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up, the piper must be paid
The party's over; it's all over, my friend....

My male friends have always been puzzled by my indifference to sports. This is true. I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of articles in the sports pages that I have read in my life. It is also a sad indicator that, as a political writer, I'll never be considered Hall of Fame material. The great ones - every single one of them - were all stone-cold sports fans. But what good is sports when compared to the incredible spectacle that comes only once every four years - the race to the White House??? No contest comes close to it in terms of a pure adrenaline rush. None.

So let the 2012 Republican Clown Car Race-to-the-Bottom begin. Gentlemen, start your rhetoric.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
by Hunter Thompson

The Boys on the Bus
by Timothy Crouse

Thompson and Crouse were both correspondents for Rolling Stone Magazine during the McGovern/Nixon race of 1972. Their respective memoirs of that campaign are essential reading for any self-respecting political junkie. I'm happy to say that both books are still in print.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Rick Perry has just announced that he will be entering the South Carolina primary. YES!!!

2011: The Worst of The Rant

Ring out the false; ring in the true
Ring out the old; ring in the new

-George Harrison

Heavens to Betsy! Can it possibly be? Another year come and gone??? Well, goodness gracious me! Time certainly flies when you're trying to save the world, ya know? And speaking of time; it's time once again for another annual recap of the Worst of The Rant. Happy reading, campers!

January 4:
Tomorrow marks the start of the One-hundred and Twelfth Congress. For a person who makes his or her name and livelihood by commenting on the ineptitude and corruption of American politicians, this is indeed wonderful news. We are beside ourselves with giddy anticipation. For regular working people, however - particularly those hardest hit by the economic catastrophe we currently find ourselves in - this bit of news is as nasty as can be. PREDICTION: You thought the One-hundred and Eleventh Congress was beyond awful? OH, BROTHER! This one will be remembered as the worst in history. Anyone care to make a little wager on this point? I'm taking on all comers.

[12/30/11: My goodness! I nailed that one, did I not?]

January 10:
The extremism of [November 22] 1963 was pretty much isolated to a few southern cities. Forty-eight years later it's gone national. What happened in Arizona over the weekend [the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords] is only the beginning. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but America's political discourse has been hijacked by half-wits and crazy people. Their spokespersons make their names by inflaming their clueless masses with the language of hate. That's their job. Then again, I'm not giving away any state secrets here, am I?

January 20:
I can still remember what my father was wearing when he told me, "The president's been shot." He had just pulled in the driveway and had the car radio on. I was arriving home from Mrs. Peevey's kindergarten class. I distinctly recall that, despite it being late into the autumn, it was an unseasonably warm day. Something wonderful ended on November 22, 1963 - not just John F. Kennedy's life - but America's youthful optimism as well. I don't believe this country ever got over the assassination of President Kennedy. Maybe it will one day. Maybe not.

January 25:
Since the demolition of the Fairness Doctrine thirty years ago, the progressive point-of-view on America's airwaves has diminished to the point that it's now almost non-existent. For every Thom Hartmann you have at least twenty Rush Limbaughs. It's a dire situation that is getting worse with each passing year. And it wasn't exactly a spirit-lifter when Air America failed a couple of years ago. The people's airwaves have been stolen by the plutocracy, and they don't plan on giving it back. Take it back.

January 31
Much of the blame for the "scourge" of Michele Bachmann must be laid at the door of Chris Matthews. I love the man. He is just about the smartest son-of-a-bitch commenting on politics today. But I really have to chide him for "discovering" her. Ms. Bachmann was a deservedly unknown congresswoman in October 2009 when he invited her on his program "Hardball" for an interview. It was there that she called for an investigation of all the Democrats in congress for their "un-Americanism". Under normal circumstances such an idiotic statement would have hurled her right back into obscurity. Instead, the GOP made her a star. Life is funny that way, you know?

February 6:
On February 6, 1911, one-hundred years ago today, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. Unlike most of the country however, I won't be spending this day looking back on his presidency with any degree of nostalgia - trust me. I'm not celebrating the life of Ronald Reagan. I hold the hideous old bastard in complete and utter contempt.

February 17:
Could this be the beginning of a revolution that might spread nationwide? I'm hopeful. Unlike the clueless tea party types, the good people of the state of Wisconsin realize that the blame for the problem lies not with those naughty, bleeding heart Liberals, but with the plutocrats and greed heads who long ago hijacked not only our government, but both political parties - including the one that Lincoln helped found in 1856. Bob Dylan once said, "A hard rain's gonna fall." Indeed. I hope you have an umbrella at the ready. The shit storm has arrived.

February 28:
There is a certain kind of schadenfreude that comes with seeing a people getting exactly what they deserve, and I imagine that I'm going to love every minute of it. It's also a much better thing to come to terms with the shit storm that is just around the corner than to delude oneself into believing that some nameless secular messiah is going to lead us all to the beloved Candy Land of our fantasies. A lot of us (myself included) made that mistake with Barack Obama and our hopes exploded right in our faces. It's almost like anticipating that knock-knock-knocking sound to be Winston Churchill - only to open the door to find Neville Chamberlain standing there - utterly clueless and befuddled. And unless Obama is challenged in the primaries by the ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt, I'm afraid we're stuck with him.

March 11:
It will be recorded [of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker] that no other single human being was more responsible than he for inspiring the people to finally rise up and revolt against the economic injustices they had been suffering under for over three decades. When Walker and the GOP legislators in the Wisconsin State House illegally signed away the collective bargaining rights of union workers, did they really believe that that would be the end of it?

Like it or not, the Madison Revolution is here. Get the fuck out of the way.

March 16:
Newt Gingrich is one of those "lowest common denominator" politician­s that litter the pages of American history. Like old Joe McCarthy, he is unable to appeal to the best in his fellow Americans because there is not a heck of a lot of substance there. But all that aside, Newt wants to be the next president of the United States so badly he can hardly contain himself. He's hell-bent on seizing the nomination at the GOP convention in 2012 - and nothing and NOBODY is going to get in his way. This is gonna be good!

April 5:
I hate to be seen as a cheerleader for the Democrats, I really do. I often feel like I'm in a restaurant and the waiter is asking me, "Would you like a nice cool glass of donkey piss to wash down that juicy plate of elephant shit you've ordered, sir?" Our choices these days are sparse - no question about it. But when everything has been sliced and diced, I feel that am left with no choice but to side with the Dems. The alternatives are too depressing too even think about. "Stick with Tweedle-dee", I tell myself, "Tweedle-dum is brain-damaged." He's also a bit of a pervert.

May 19:
I'm going to do something I've never done before (and will never do again - I promise!) I'm going to say something in favor of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis: When they took power in March of 1933, they at least didn't fuck with the electoral process. Hitler's ascendance to power was achieved legally and in conformity to the German constitution as it stood at the time. That's right; I'm comparing the Nazis favorably to the Republican party. Things have gotten that weird.

May 24:
I've been thinking a lot about Ronald Reagan lately. Less than two weeks from now will mark the sixth anniversary of his passing. Six years! Can it possibly be? I'm sorry he's no longer here. I wish he could have lived to see the presidency of Barack Obama. I really do. The sight of a black man in the Oval Office would have given the old bugger a severe case of spastic apoplexy or maybe worse. That would have been so much fun to watch.

May 31:
Let us face some serious and undeniable facts here. A politician as deliciously sleazy as the Newtster should be cherished - if only for the scads of unintentional comedy his very presence in the national limelight inspires. As you might imagine, I have been following Newt's presidential campaign - or what's left of it - with a longing I'm hard-pressed to describe. I soooo wanted him to get the GOP nomination in 2012 I could almost taste it. I was even contemplating sending the hideous old freak a check. I might as well not waste my money. It's very clear to everyone (except Gingrich of course) that he's not going to get his party's nod next year - or any year for that matter.

June 20
By privatizing the American prison system these assholes have created a brand-spanking-new corporate class whose very existence will depend upon those prisons being filled to the rafters with human beings - FOREVER! As a result the owners will send lobbyists to Washington, who will then bribe our representatives into passing more-and-more punitive laws that will ensure that those prisons are booked to capacity. How will they make a profit? Forced industrial labor - which will be just another drain on American jobs. Think about that: Forced labor. It's something that was officially terminated in this nation one-hundred and forty-six years ago. It was called "slavery". Remember that "peculiar institution"?

Mah! Mah! The ol' plantation sho has changed!

June 28:
In the meantime the Republicans in Congress are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that the economy crashes. That is the reason - and the only reason - they are trying to prevent the raising of the debt ceiling in August. If America goes into default the proverbial shit will hit the economic fan. When that happens, all bets are off for the president. Their goal is to bring on an economic catastrophe in order to take back the executive and legislative branches of your government on January 20, 2013. That is what human slime like Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are banking on. Our livelihood and well being doesn't matter in the least to these bastards. Wake up.

July 7:
The right wing has been in serious denial throughout its long and weird history (You may recall the "peculiar institution" of slavery). Modern times are no different for these freaks. Here's what they need to (but won't) understand: America's financial affairs are in shambles. There is only one way out of the hole we have dug for ourselves - and it's going to involve taxes: Decades of SERIOUS taxation. The people who benefited the most from the thirty-year financial drunk - the Plutocracy - will be the ones who will have to bear the burden of the shovel. And that will mean bringing the tax rates for the richest two-percent back to where they during the Eisenhower era when many of them were in a ninety percent bracket. That is the only way out. Deal with it.

July 14:
I have been desperately trying to write a poem about the train wreck that Rupert Murdoch's life has become but I've run into a bit of a brick wall. Please, could somebody give me a word that rhymes with schadenfreude?

July 21:
The Republican party is at this very moment mounting a campaign that, if successful, will disenfranchise the the voting rights of African Americans - and everyone else who tends to vote left-of-center - all across America. Isn't that sweet? They understand all-too-well that the mysterious and unknowable segment of the population that the sociologists describe as "moderate" or "swing voters" (I call them "purple agitators" myself) are starting to become disgusted by the extremists who hijacked the Grand Old Party decades ago. What to do? Not to worry! Just bypass that nasty ol' Voting Rights Act of 1965. That'll learn 'em!

July 28:
The problem with the Republicans is that they have forgotten that they are the party of Roosevelt - Theodore.

The problem with the Democrats is that they have forgotten that they are the party of Roosevelt - Franklin D.

August 2:
The Tea party owns Washington DC. This radical, right-wing fringe group now sets the agenda for this country, isn't that a scream? Mike Lupica put it well in yesterday's New York Daily News: "These are the crackpots who have designated themselves to speak for Conservative America. Only they don't act like conservatives. They act like anarchists." I can relate. I never dreamed I would live to see the day when I would feel a sense of tender nostalgia for Alan Simpson. These surely are interesting times to live in.

August 10:
In the meantime our downward spiral will only continue. This is as it should be. A people moronic enough to squander the treasure of their once-great nation as they have been doing for the past thirty-one years deserves everything that happens to them. There is an indescribable joy - call it "schadenfreude" if you must - in watching people who are losing their homes and pensions while simultaneously complaining about "those goddamned liberals". It's quite a funny thing to witness. As America continues to slide into the depths of destruction and despair, I can console myself with the knowledge that there will be no shortage of entertainment value in its decline - for me at least. Life will still be beautiful, thank you very much.

August 22:
According to these plutocratic handmaidens, the tax code simply isn't fair. People who live at or below the poverty level have to start chipping in! A family of four making $22,000 a year (or less) will have to shell out to the feds. Can you believe that? Think about it: That single mother who barely scratches out a living assembling Big Macs at the McDonald's down the street? If these hideous bastards and bitches have their way, she will now have to send a check (assuming she has a checking account) to the IRS every April 15. Of course that will mean she and others in her income bracket will have a lot less money to pump back into this already-feeble economy - a fact that apparently has not been taken into consideration by the knuckleheads who govern us.

And they call us "elitists"!

August 31:
Dick Cheney is back with his "long awaited memoirs". Awaited by whom they won't say. I won't be reading it. I've read enough about it and heard enough about it (primarily from the Dickster's own mouth) to form my own assessment of the drivel spread generously within. In fact I won't be reading any of the flood of books that have been written, are being written, and will be written by the Bush Mob. It's always an amusing thing to watch these bitter, dirty old men attempt to cleanup their putrid little corners in the Hall of Infamy. Robert McNamara tried it fourteen years ago and it didn't work out too well for him. Cheney will fare no better I suspect. What he is attempting here is the equivalent of putting a smiley face on a decomposing pig:

"Well lookie thar, Martha! Ain't that purdy?"

September 15:
Two debates in the space of five days? Somebody up there must like me. In the midst of the first one I asked myself out loud, "Am I hallucinating this?" I wasn't. This was very real indeed. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology I was able to record both spectacles onto DVD for posterity. Looking at them again last evening was not the ordeal you might imagine. To the contrary it was loads of fun to watch! Unintentional comedy always is - and these twits are the Marx Brothers of unintentional comedy.

September 21:
Here's a little something you can bet the farm on. The next thirteen months will see the right wing beside themselves as they scramble - like sadistic little mice - to change the topic of discussion from that of economic fairness, to the subject of that BIG, BLACK, BOLSHEVIK BOOGIEMAN in the Oval Office. They won't be able to take back the senate and the White House - nor will they be able to retain control of the House of Reprehensibles - without exploiting the worst racist tendencies deep within America's tormented soul. That is their biggest hope. That is their only hope. 2012 might very well turn out to be a most interesting political year. Talk about understatement!

In addition to playing the race card, it's a fairly easy guess that they'll drag out their moth-eaten bag of "family values" for good measure, as hard as that argument is for many of us to swallow these days. The Republicans don't give a shit about American families - or the families who gross somewhere under a million per. This is a party that cares about one thing only - that the obscenely rich get obscenely richer. To hell with the rest of you.

October 1:
Since the voters of this country foolishly handed over the reins of executive power to a feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor a generation ago, the rape and plunder of America's financial infrastructure has been going on at full speed. Politicians of both parties rigged the laws in order to make the theft perfectly legal. That mournful chiming that is now emanating from deep within Wall Street is the death knell of the orgy that the plutocrats thought would never end. Americans are taking their country and their economy back.

October 12:
Here is a question that I am hard-pressed to avoid: Is there a bigger asshole slithering though the halls of congress than Eric Cantor? If there is I'd sure-as-hell would like to know about it. It has always amused me to watch him on the tube trying to defend the morally indefensible. He always has this weird look of cherubic contentment on his clueless face. It really is something to behold. To the credit of Mitch "The Plutocracy's Bitch" McConnell, he at least has the decency to look somewhat ill-at-ease when having to vomit forth their nonsensical talking points . Cantor, on the other hand, is right at home with their delightfully twisted agenda. Too weird!

October 15:
If the next president is a Republican and is able to make one or (God forbid) more appointments to [the Supreme] court, it will ultimately lead to the end of democracy in America. Does that sound a tad paranoid on my part? Maybe it is. Let's all vote Republican next year and see what happens.

October 21:

Folks, that is not a political party. That's an organized criminal enterprise. Those aren't statesmen. Those are the plutocracy's hired goons. This isn't America any longer. This is something else entirely; something dark and ominous. That's why what is happening down on Wall Street - indeed all across the land - is so important. We are now into the second month of the occupation. It won't be going away any time soon. This is only the beginning of something really, really big, baby! A hard rain's a'gonna fall. Forgive me if I seem giddy.

November 20:
When people have been subjected over long periods to injustice, it's only a matter of time before they revolt. Revolution is not something that can be swept away by think tanks or police riots. It's a bit more complicated than that. Revolution-in-reaction-to-human-cruelty is as natural as the sun rising in the eastern sky. All the king's pepper spray and all the king's soldiers can't stop a rising sun either. Try it sometime.

November 29:
Yeah, I'll fess up - I get awfully sentimental when it comes to the subject of the Beatles. On the night George died I remember pouring my heart out over the telephone to my friend Terri Sager. I admire her patience. She listened gently while I waxed inebriate on the news of his passing, and what a drag it was that two of the Beatles were now dead, and how this was possibly the end of the world, and blah blah blah....But it moves me to realize that today the two survivors are elderly men, and that eternity is now beckoning them. When I was a boy, John, Paul, George and Ringo were the undisputed princes of the planet earth. They seemed to be invincible. The passing of the decades reminds us that the Beatles were as frail in their mortality as any of us. They really were a bit like you and me.

December 15:
I am the person of the year. So are you.

You don't have to be down in Zuccotti Park. You don't have to be on the streets of Oakland, California or Madison, Wisconsin or Austin, Texas or South Bend, Indiana. You won't have to be out in Ulme Park in Poughkeepsie, NY this afternoon at 4 PM in order to be a part of this movement. That's why the worldwide Occupy movement is so frightening, not only to the corporate media, but to our "rulers" as well. Jello Biafra is the former lead singer of the legendary political punk band The Dead Kennedys. He is today a lecturer who has released a number of spoken-word CD's on his Alternative Tentacles record label . Ten years ago, in a statement that is truly sunning in hindsight, he advised us, "Don't criticize the media, become the media!" A decade ago his words left some of us scratching our clueless heads. Today we know what he was talking about. We are the media. The revolution is being televised!

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

December 21:
Was Iraq worse than Vietnam as some have implied? Certainly not in terms of lives lost, thank goodness. But in terms of the damage done to our economy and infrastructure, Iraq clearly wins out. Also we need to be reminded that Vietnam only gradually evolved into the quagmire it eventually became. In the case of Iraq America stupidly dove headfirst and smiling - eyes wide open - into the muck. For the first time in history, taxes on the rich were actually lowered during a time of war. Saddam Hussein was going to destroy us we were led to believe. It was a lie of course. We destroyed ourselves quite handily thank you very much. We didn't need Saddam Hussein.

December 25:
Keep your eyes wide-open for the miracles all around you. And remember the simple truth that there is more music to be found in the laughter of a single child than can be found in all of the symphonies ever composed by all of the composers who ever lived.

*******************

But now the days are short
We're in the winter of the years
And now I think of this place
As Wonder Bread turned green from mold
To rocks from gold
We were gripped by fear
It was a very weird year....

Whew! And what a year that was, huh? Do you think that the next year will not possibly get any weirder than the one which is now mercifully ending? I wouldn't take that bet for anything.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED VIEWING/LISTENING:

Ding Dong! Ding Dong!
by George Harrison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJR44H48POo

Like George says, "Ring out the old, ring in the new!"

And finally, here is a little seasonal treat for you, It's my all-time favorite Popeye cartoon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI0gH-W0dQw

Let's Celebrake!

The Obama Family's Commie Christmas

Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel's voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born

What a disgusting sight on oh-so-holy a night. The Photograph at the top of this piece is from the Obama family's Christmas card. Aren't you positively revolted by this sickening image of Bo the cowardly Kenyan/Communist Canine desecrating the floor of the house where the sainted Ronald Reagan once lived? You're not? That's okay, I didn't think you would be. I wasn't either. I was just pulling your leg!

Whatever your political persuasion, it would be kind of hard to find fault with the tranquil scene depicted above. And yet, predictably, the right wing scream machine went into full-tilt, freak out mode the moment they had their first look at it. Sarah Palin was just beside herself on FOX Noise. They all were! No mention of Jesus. No mention of Christmas. Just a picture of their mangy pooch snoozing away by the fireplace. Our gal Sarah called the photo "strange". It's Christmas day. I'll refrain from calling the woman an idiot. T'is the season, you know what I mean?

I don't get it. As much as I despised the administration of George W. Bush, it never even occurred to be to find a molecule of fault with any of the eight Christmas cards he sent to the American people during the eight Christmases he occupied the Executive Mansion. That would have been quite foolish - not to mention a tad petty on my part. One of the Bush family cards was a sketch of the White House that depicted a bunch of Scotch Terriers frolicking in the snow on the south lawn. There was no mention of Christ or Christmas in that card either. The right wingers didn't make a peep at the time. That was then. This is now.

Having gotten that little bit of stupidity off of my chest....

Let me savor this moment to wish all of you - left, right or center - a happy Christmas/Holiday season. Another year over and a new one's just begun. To tell you the truth, I just haven't the "Christmas spirit" this year. There are a number of reasons for this, the most obvious one being the deplorable state of the country I love more than any other on earth. Since I have nothing upbeat and optimistic to leave you with in 2011, I'll close with something I wrote four-years-ago on Christmas Day 2007:

Keep your eyes wide-open for the miracles all around you. And remember the simple truth that there is more music to be found in the laughter of a single child than can be found in all of the symphonies ever composed by all of the composers who ever lived.

Much better. I never wish anyone a "merry" Christmas. Drunks and drug addicts are often quite merry, but they're seldom - if ever - "happy". Happy Christmas, one and all!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

The Christmas Box
by Richard Paul Evans

SUGGESTED VIEWING/LISTENING:

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
by Bing Crosby and David Bowie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQwwCRiDZQ

This is Bing Crosby and David Bowie in a duet from Bing's 1977 Christmas show. We see Crosby at the very end. Less than two weeks after this segment was taped, he collapsed and died on a Madrid golf course of a massive heart attack. He was seventy-four. The program aired posthumously.

Out of Iraq

"The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

George W. Bush
State of the Union address
28 January 2003

My! My! What a difference sixteen little words makes!

"It was a stupid fucking war."

-Molly Ivins on the subject of Vietnam

There will be no Life magazine photo of a fired-up sailor embracing an unwitting passerby in a spontaneous, passionate kiss. There will be no jubilant celebration in Time Square or at the Hollywood Bowl or the Boston Commons - or anywhere else for that matter. There will be no ticker-tape parades. The brave men and women who were used as pawns by these dirty old men should be honored and respected, but there is no reason to feel good about any of this except for the fact that it's finished. This stupid fucking war - a war that should never have been fought - is over and done with.

There is a tiny stretch of real estate where I live in Goshen called "Triangle Park". It borders North Church Street and Delta Place. It is directly across the street from the childhood home of my old pal Kevin Swanwick. When I need to do some serious thinking about something or other, I'll go there in the late afternoon and early evening; I just park my van, sit in the dark and think. That's where you would have found me last night. How was I going to write about the stupidest military blunder in the history of this country? Where does one even find the words? Do the needed adjectives even exist? This was gonna be tricky.

"Bring 'em on."

The question is determined to rear its ugly head: Why the hell were we there to begin with? Oh, right. Saddam Hussein had a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction that he was about to unload on the helpless American people. The smoking gun would "come in the form of a mushroom cloud". Remember that line? Anyone with half-an-eye open at the time knew what a load of shit that claim was. Those of us who bother to pay attention to affairs of state knew damned well the reason George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were literally hellbent on going into that country: Iraq sits on an ocean of oil. Their scheme failed miserably. The American occupation of Iraq got horrifically out-of-control within three months of its start. By the summer of 2003, the mission became a pathetic attempt to save face. When the premise for invading was finally and irrevocably exposed as the lie it was, the mission became one of "nation building".

Nation building? Just take a good look at the "nation" these homicidal assholes have "built".

George W. Bush. It still infuriates me that this half-witted little bastard called the White House "home" for eight, long years - the same house that Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt once lived in. Here's a clip from the very first piece I ever posted on this site on June, 2, 2006:

"In November of 2000, when the voters of the United States of America foolishly sent this moron to the executive mansion, we effectively pointed the proverbial loaded pistol at our own collective head. Four years later, on Election Day 2004 - make no mistake about it- we pulled the trigger."

My opinion hasn't changed in five-and-a-half years.

Was Iraq worse than Vietnam as some have implied? Certainly not in terms of lives lost, thank goodness. But in terms of the damage done to our economy and infrastructure, Iraq clearly wins out. Also we need to be reminded that Vietnam only gradually evolved into the quagmire it eventually became. In the case of Iraq America stupidly dove headfirst and smiling - eyes wide open - into the muck. For the first time in history, taxes on the rich were actually lowered during a time of war. Saddam Hussein was going to destroy us we were led to believe. It was a lie of course. We destroyed ourselves quite handily thank you very much. We didn't need Saddam Hussein.

What is the final tally of American servicemen and women killed? Four-thousand? Five-thousand? I lost count a long time ago. The amusing thing is that they still tell us (with faces as straight as a two-by-four I swear) that these unfortunate victims "died to keep us free". Here's a fact that no one wants to acknowledge: They died in vain. Every single one of them. They only died to increase Halliburton's coffers. They only died so that Corporate America might score some megabucks on the killing fields of Baghdad. Operation Iraqi "Freedom" will be remembered as the world's first privatized war. They died to keep us free? Bullshit. I'm a lot less free than I was on the night of March 20, 2003 when the United States invaded the (like it or not) sovereign nation of Iraq. You're a lot less free, too. You don't believe me? Three words: "The Patriot Act". Need I elaborate?

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

-Benjamin Franklin

Hardly any of us knew anyone doing the actual fighting in this debacle. In almost a decade of war, I only knew one serviceman stationed in Iraq, and only casually at that; a guy named Irving Media. He was killed when the vehicle he was riding in hit an Improvised Explosive Device. His broken body lies about two miles from where I now sit, at the Orange County Veterans Cemetery which is located at the edge of the village of Goshen, New York. Irving Media died in vain.

What is the final tally of Iraqi men, women and little children killed in this atrocity? Here's the punchline: Nobody seems to know. Nobody bothered to keep an eye on the numbers. They can't even give us a rough estimate. Isn't that a scream? Some human rights organizations believe that the number is well-over a million souls lost to the Bush Mob's greed and stupidity. We'll never know how many innocents died in that stupid fucking war.

And finally, what is the final tally of men and women whose injuries on the battlefield were so severe they will be dependent upon assisted living for the rest of their lives? Somewhere around thirty-thousand or more. How many men and women have been so psychologically damaged by the trauma of Iraq that all they can look forward to are lives fraught with emotional dysfunction? No one has any idea. We'll be living with the sick legacy of the Iraq war for a long time into the future. Here is something you need to keep in mind: The last surviving American veteran of World War One ("The war to end all wars") passed away only a couple of months ago. A long time indeed

War is over
If you want it
War is over - NOW

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Given the fact that he was murdered during the Christmas season, this is the time of year when I feel John's absence from our lives the most. I often wonder what he would have had to say about all of this. No doubt he would have written a song or two about that stupid fucking war. We really could use him now. A tip of the hat to the jackass who decided that his life had to be terminated,

So let's try to be optimistic. "Always look on the bright side of life", as Monty Python instructed us. The war in Iraq - or American involvement in it anyway - is finally, mercifully over. Now we need to set ourselves to the task of putting our house back in order. How do we do that? It's Easy!

VOTE REPUBLICAN!

I'm sorry, I was only kidding

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING (or viewing)

"Fair Game"

Valerie Plame's excellent book recounted the persecution she and her husband Joe Wilson were subject to after he revealed to the world that the Bush Mob's justification for invading Iraq was a goddamned lie. It has been made into a movie which is out on DVD. Read it. Watch it.

And so, happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Vfp48laS8

Happy Christmas, folks!

For more recent postings on this disgusting commie blog, please go to the link below:

"The Rant" by Tom Degan

See you there!

We are the People of the Year

When FOX Noise got the word, they predictably hit the rhetorical roof. How dare they compare those filthy hippies in Zuccotti Park to the good people of the Arab Spring who are fighting for the rights that have been denied to them for too long! Uber-dunce Brian Kilmeade, one of the hosts of FOX and Friends, giddily noted that Time Magazine had in the past awarded the "Man of the Year" title to the likes of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler. It went right over the head of this jackass that the title "person of the year" is not necessarily a judgement of someone's "niceness", but rather that person's capacity as a news-maker. That's why the Ayatolla Khomeini was named Time's 1979 Man of the Year - and not the cast of One Day at a Time. What an idiot.

I am the person of the year. So are you.

You don't have to be down in Zuccotti Park. You don't have to be on the streets of Oakland, California or Madison, Wisconsin or Austin, Texas or South Bend, Indiana. You won't have to be out in Ulme Park in Poughkeepsie, NY this afternoon at 4 PM in order to be a part of this movement. That's why the worldwide Occupy movement is so frightening, not only to the corporate media, but to our "rulers" as well. Jello Biafra (photo left) is the former lead singer of the legendary political punk band The Dead Kennedys. He is today a lecturer who has released a number of spoken-word CD's on his Alternative Tentacles record label . Ten years ago, in a statement that is truly sunning in hindsight, he advised us, "Don't criticize the media, become the media!" A decade ago his words left some of us scratching our clueless heads. Today we know what he was talking about. We are the media. The revolution is being televised!

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

The order is rapidly fading. We are no longer reliant on the three-network-monte game for our news and information. It's no longer just the cable news channels that corner the market of ideas. The old media is now almost irrelevant. You and I are now the nightly news. You and I are now Huntley and Brinkley. You and I are now the managing editors of this broadcast. ABC, NBC and CBS no longer hold all the cards. Although I do miss the Ed Sullivan Show - I gotta tell ya.

With our laptops and our iPhones we are grabbing this country by the lapels and shaking it back into consciousness. Fifty years ago all we had to rely on were a handful of antique mimeograph machines. This is something else entirely. This is an information revolution. Will the plutocracy try to shut us down? Maybe. They'll never know what hit them if they do though. Yesterday Mitch McConnell was threatening - once again - to shut the government down. That's nothing! We can shut this entire country down if we want to. I know we can do it, too. They may have the money; we've got the numbers. Power to the people, ya dig? This is for keeps, baby! We are the media. We are their worst nightmare come-to-life a thousandfold. We are tens-of-millions of Hunter Thompsons risen from the dead. Wow! Just picture that! That's what I call a Ralph Steadman sketch waiting to happen! Ralph???

I've had enough of reading things
By NEU-rotic, PSY-chotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is some truth!
Just gimme some truth!

-John Lennon

Get the message out. You don't need to be a rock star or a journalist or a reporter or a poet laureate. You don't need to be a bestselling author or a Nobel Prize-winning scientist or an Oscar-winning actor. You don't need to be Rachel Maddow, Michael Moore or Noam Chomskey or Keith Olbermann (although it helps). You don't need to own a computer. You don't even need access to one. Spread the message the old fashioned way: Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. I had one published just last week. And if all of the above fail, go to your nearest mountaintop and shout the truth from there!

"How long? NOT LONG!"

-Martin Luther King

These are the salad days of a movement that is going to turn America - and the planet earth - around. How long it will take is anybody's guess; but I cannot help but be inspired by the good Doctor King's words. I'm also reminded of Supreme Court Justice Lois Brandeis when he said that America will either have one of two things: extreme income inequality or democracy. It cannot - it will not - have both. Yeah. We're gonna have democracy alright. You can take that to the bank. On second thought, stuff it under the mattress. It's probably safer there.

You want all the proof you need that we are now living in a plutocratic dictatorship? Here it is:

Just suppose for a minute that I was the supervisor of a small village somewhere in upstate New York. I once ran for supervisor of Goshen so we'll make that our hypothetical location. Now imagine that at a Town Hall meeting one night, I cheerfully announced to the hardworking citizens of that lovely little burg that I had "misplaced" a hundred-thousand dollars in taxpayer money - their money. What do you think would happen to me? They would drag me out of the place in handcuffs. They would then hang me from the nearest tree. Come to think about it, that's probably what would have happened eventually. I'm awfully glad I lost that election. Honestly.

Now picture this if you will: Just a few days ago, former New Jersey Governor and billionaire John Corzine admitted to a panel of lawmakers that the investment firm that he was the head of "misplaced" over a billion dollars in investors' money. Now just what the hell do you think happened to him? He was allowed to walk out of the place, free as a freakin' bird. Does it puzzle you just a tad that no one from Goldman Sachs is not at this moment rotting in federal prison - or has even been brought up on charges??? We're living under a plutocratic dictatorship. Open your eyes. Take action NOW.

Wasn't deregulation a really neat idea? And they say they can't understand our rage? HELLO???

The Democrats in general - and President Obama in particular - would be foolish to try and capitalize on this rage. If they had bothered to remember a long time ago that they are (or were) the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and had had the guts to stand up to the right wing extremism of the last three decades, we probably wouldn't be brow-deep in the economic quagmire we find ourselves in today. That worthless party is within five years of finding themselves where the Republicans are at this moment; beyond redemption. If they know what's good for them they'll clean up their act - pretty damned quick. They have got to stop nominating these pathetic, right wing Blue Dogs. Otherwise, within the next five years a new party will emerge from the wreckage of their incompetence and indifference.

This week the spokespersons for the plutocracy have been predicting the end of the movement which is now engulfing the world. The joke's on them. I really hate to be quoting the Carpenters here but Frank Zappa doesn't have anything apropos for this particular moment: "We've only just begun".

Everybody sing!! "SHARING HORIZONS THAT ARE NEW TO US!!!" I'm sorry. I'll stop.

See you at the occupation, kiddies!

Tom Degan
Defeated 2000 Candidate for Supervisor of Goshen, New York
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

Lincoln at Gettysburg
by Gary Wills

"....and that government - of the people, by the people, for the people - shall not perish from the earth."

Imagine that.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

I'm not the only person ranting out there in cyberspace, folks. Here is a link to a new blog by a guy named Bryan Raines. It ain't too shabby:

Time to Rant

It's time for all of us to do some serious ranting. Seriously.

Please, join me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/tomdegan

Cheers!