MONKEYS!!!

I love monkeys!

Who doesn't love monkeys?

C'mon, you gotta love monkeys~!!

(warning, the link above contains "hot monkey love" pictures and may not be appropriate for younger audiences. Browser discretion is advised)

My favorites are Zen Monkey and Party Monkey.

HOO, HOO, HOO!!!!

The GOP Mantra for 2006

It boggles my mind what the GOP'rs and bush backers will say when you debate them on the Iraq issue.

Afghanistan - we have drawn down troops and continue to do so. We also have reduced funding tremendously. But this is not a "Cut and Run" according to almost every right wing Bush backer.


Iraq - Dems call for troop draw down over a 6 month period - GOPrs call the Democrats' plan a "Cut and Run".

You can not have it both ways! It is either a draw down, like U.S. Rep. John Murtha suggested in Iraq, or it is a "Cut and Run" which is what appears to be happening in Afghanistan..

I dont think either is a cut and run, But I DO think that we have short changed Afghanistan. There are still many, many problems there, the taliban is still there and growing, suicide bombers are becoming more frequent, opium poppy crops are at an all time high and things are getting worse there, not better. We are pulling out troops and pulling funding (40% reduction this year) even though they have a much worse off country that Iraq, little infrastructure, little national resource, etc.

I think we should have stayed the course in Afghanistan, and did what we said we were going to do there before we went on to some other fight. Saddam was contained with the UN Inspectors and sanctions. We could have waited 12 months, built a real coalition and then invaded, if needed, with better intelligence, resources and preparedness. Did we learn nothing from our actions in Afghanistan in the 80's? When we propped up Usama bin Laden against the Soviets and then abandoned the country the day after the Soviets left, causing wide-scale breakdowns in law across the country and tremendous animosity toward the United States.

What gets me is that the righties can't even admit that there is hyprocrisy in this situation, they just stick by their party no matter what, refusing to consider that there may have been lies, that there may have been an unneccessary rush to war in Iraq, there may have been poor war planning and there may have been too much reluctance and political pride to even consider shifting our plans on the ground Iraq.

So, here is the new Republican Party Slogan for 2006!!!

"We are Pathetically partisan, consistantly putting party before country... and proud of it!!"

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Its cold in Russia.. In more ways than just Celsius. Its also cold in the former soviet states of Georgia and Armenia. and what is colder is the gamesmenship that is being played between mother Russia and the soviet step children (See recent events with the Ukraine) that have begun to grow their own relations with the West.

If you have not been watching, you may want to pay attention to the current energy crisis that is brewing in eastern Europe. Record cold has pushed southward past Moscow and into areas that normally see much more moderate winter temperatures. Highs in the negative teens to low -20's have caused significant termoil (including death) in the area. To make matters MUCH worse, it seems that there have been a few questionable "terrorist" acts that have "blown up" a few of the main oil and gas lines leading from Russia to newly independent states, Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine. It is quite obvious that Russia is not pleased with these former soviets states decisions to cozy up to the West, and one has to wonder if Russia has started to use their rather wide abundance of national resources as a political weapon. Russia, being the major supplier of gas, oil and energy to the entire region, has the ability to kill more people with the twist of a valve, than any dirty bomber or suicide terrorist could even dream of killing. Could this be a preview of things (wars) to come?

I have direct reports from St. Petersburg (considered to be Russia's artistic Gem and cultural capital) that many parts of the city have been without electricity for 3 days. They do have heat but for some unexplained reason, electricity has been a bit scarce. I am not really sure how this all adds up but it does start to be come unsettling when you think about the brown outs and black outs that we have seen here in the US in the last three years or so (California black outs and the east coast to mid west black out in 2004). While in St. Petersburg, black outs are much more of a common occurance, here in the US, we are just learning what wide scale power outages can mean to our economy, our sense of security and our way of life.

I certainly hope that these are not previews of our collective futures. The thought that the cold war could go from the threat of nuclear anihilation to energy hoarding that has the potential to literally freeze thousands and push fragile economies into chaos, is truley and frightening apocalyptic vision.

I have been puzzled as to the "friendship" that has sprung up between President Bush and Vladimir Putin. At first glance, it makes no sense that America should tolerate Putin's power grabing, totalitarian tactics and the traditional Soviet geopolitical manuvering. But, at these times of war, allies can make for strange bedfellows. In thinking about this subject, I would like to ask Mr. Bush if he could please take another look into Mr. Putin's eyes and to check to see if it is Putin's soul, or perhaps is it a mirror like image that he has seen? This is not to throw disrespect on Mr. Bush but is a reminder that there are two ways of looking at almost every issue. The two men seem to have drawn up an unlikely relationship that makes one wonder if it is a relationship of like minds or rather a relationship of current convenience.

Homeless... in America. Are you okay with that?

Is it just me or do most people agree that it is more than a touch shameful that we have a very significant homeless problem in America? With the highest GDP in the world, one would think that America could do better in this area. Don't get me wrong, there have been people and efforts that have done good work in this area, but overall, I think we are losing this fight.

Why? Well, I would point to two main reasons -

First, the over-simplifcation of our mental health programs and policies. It seems to me that for decades we took a much too guarded and strict approach to this issue, institutionalizing far too many people and treating these people as complete outcasts from society. In an effort to cut costs, many states, like here in Michgan, closed almost all of the state mental health hospitals and put many people in precarious positions. The liberals may have looked at this as redemption for all of the seemingly bad deeds of the past (lobotomies, electric shock treatments, outcasting of the mentally ill, etc.) and thus may have allowed these type of cost cutting efforts to be taken too far. For now we can see that many of these people that were in these state facilities that needed continuing assistance with their mental issues have become approximately 50% of the homeless problem in America.

Second, the cuts in funding that deal directly with the problem at hand - HOME-LESSNESS! Yes, NOT having a home is the problem. THIS is the problem for the other 50% or so that are homeless. So one solution is to build more affordable housing. So, how should we do that?? Hmmmm,, well we have this federal group called the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Perhaps they could provide affordable housing and thus provide some serious relief to the issue of homelessness. Perhaps if we had leaders that had any faith in OUR Governments abilities to be effective, then this would be a viable answer. Our current version of Compasionate Conservatives believe that smaller government is the answer to all our prayers and in general, want to de-regulate and un-fund everything shy of the military. Since 2001, our federal government has shifted funding and outright cut funding to HUD. They have countered their critics by stating that they (HUD, fronted by Bush Crony Mel Martinez, who will do whatever Bush and his admin wants him to do) have provided additional funding to Homeless assistance. But this funding is targeted to homeless shelters and NOT to building affordable housing (which is what HUD is suppose to be doing). So, ask yourself this, would you prefer a new or a second homeless shelter in your city, or would you prefer two or three mixed income (including low and mid income, i.e. not poor only/"projects") family developments in your city?

To put this all into a different perpective , did you know the following??

- The Iraq war is costing the American taxpayer 1.6 billion dollars a week or 83.2 billion per year, however in contrast, the proposed HUD budget is 28.5 billion dollars.
- Despite America's superpower status economically and militarily, this country has the highest poverty rate and the lowest success rate in reducing poverty out of all industrialized nations.

Are you proud of these two facts above?? Should we go on and on, cutting taxes, cutting social services and reducing the size of government down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub (as some conservatives would like to do). Should we just let people suffer until the religious and charitable organizations come forth and "do what they are supposed to do" and help these people? Are we to forget these Americans and write them off as simply lazy, unproductive and useless?

Today is MLK day,, and in his spirit, I have a dream. A dream where all of america realizes and believes that many people in america need and deserve our help. And that we can ill afford NOT to provide that assistance to those that, for whatever reasons, have found themselves in lesser positions than the rest of us. That every american who wants a home can find a decent home and that America never again holds the top spot in the list of industrialized nations that have not, can not and will not provide enough to help its own citizenry.

Hero's

A short list of people that I dont know (or never knew) but still hold in high regard:

Lao Tzu
Benjamin Franklin
Paul Wellstone
Muhammad Ali
Ivan Lendl
Mahatma Ghandi
Teddy Roosevelt
Rosa Parks
Bono
Joe Henry
John Lennon
Bob Marley
Jesus Christ


Although I do not personally know these people, they have had some positive effect on my life and on the way that I look at the world.

2006 has begun...

and oh, what an interesting year it will be. It has started out fast and furious and I see no let up in the pace any time soon. Personally, I am looking forward to a fantastic 2006 with lots of new, fun and exciting opportunites. But then again, I am not a Republican...

Speaking of Republicans, I wonder how many of the "60 politicians" that Jack Abramoff says he can implicate, will indeed be Republicans. I find it interesting that the right wing pudits are coming out of the wood work to "alert" all of us about the many (a few) Democrats that have (may have) recieved money from Abramoff. I guess this WOULD be news seeing that Abramoff is considered to be a Republican Lobbyist.. But, to me, it looks more like another GOP deflection tactic.

Here is my stance on this whole thing. If ANY politician had dealings with Abramoff, or any other proven to be corrupt lobbyist AND we can prove that there was wrong doing, then lets indict that politician, try them in a court of law and convict them. And the sooner the better. Anything short of that and I really don't want to hear about it. And this is not partisan, as I really dont want to hear about Bill Frist's issues with the stock proceeds. If he is guilty, then lets let the courts decide. If Harry Reid DID do something illegal, then I am sure someone, somewhere can put together a case against him. Right now, it is all nothing but talk, which is what politicians do best.

My hope is that WE THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA will make a bold decision to, once and for all, clean up our Federal Government and rid our Congress and our Executive branch of the filth that we have allowed to breed there over the last few decades. You would have thought that the Nixon Era, the Democratic Era of corruption in congress (1982-1994), and the claims of the current GOP that they will hold the ethic standards high, would have been enough fuel for us to have actually made progress in cleaning house and ridding our Federal governement of con men, white collar criminals and compassionless fuckwads. Alas, it seems that we have made little to no progress in this area, at least not yet.

Even having said all of the above, I still remain positive for 2006 and beyond. Per the article referenced on Jack Abramoff, I have a new found respect for (make sure you are sitting down before you read on) Newt Gingrich. I respect the fact that Newt was the one that pushed for Republicans to take back congress on the ethics wave (back in the mid 90's), and that he is following through with his calls for Delay NOT to regain his seat as Speaker of the House. (But it IS hard not to continue to see Newt as a major hypocrite for his own unethical actions). For all that Mr. Gingrich has said and done in the past (the good, the bad AND the ugly) at least he is remaining consistant, and showing that he is not always partisan (at least not now) and showing that he MAY believe in the age old adage that "whats right is right". PLEASE don't get me wrong here. Newt is definitely a case of "the lesser of two evil's" (I hope that all of THIS about the Newtster is not true, but I am afraid that most of it IS roughly right). But we must crawl before we can walk and walk before we can run so if Newt can get us started, then we can shit-can his ass after the revolution has begun!!

I sense that this year will not be "A year of change" but "THE year of change". 2006 will be a year that will position us for radical change for the future (i.e. 2008 and beyond), a renewed focus on the domestic issues that have been long over looked and an increased understanding of how to get what we want to and need to accomplish internationally, WITHOUT pissing off every other country in the world.

"some people say that I am a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Some day I hope you will join us, and the world will live as one." John Lennon.