INFRASTRUCTURE GETS A 'D', RAPE-UBLICANS GET AN 'F-'

So the Republican Congress feels that the most important things to do right out of the gate are to let Wall Street hijack the Social Security system and to punish people for having medical/job-loss-related financial problems. All this while the country's infrastructure is going to shit.

Speaking of Social Security, always remember that "personal/private accounts"=Wall Street hijack. Also, even though it's sometimes excruciating to read, the Daily Howler covers and corrects the Social Security misinformation in a fashion and with a passion that is second to none. Oh, and the head of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has said today that Social Security "does not face an immediate crisis."

PREDICTIONS/OBSERVATIONS

Like the Iraq war and the Congressional election of 2002 before it, I predict that saber-rattling toward and/or actual invasion of Syria or Iran will be the Republican strategy of attempting to get a stranglehold on the Congress in the 2006 midterm elections. The strategy should be transparent: they use war to get in/stay in office and then set about making the country a hellhole for the less fortunate and making it a haven for the super-rich. It worked in 2002 and 2004 and you can bet your sweet ass they'll be trotting it out again in 2006 in one form or another.

Checked out the book "Secrecy & Privilege" by Robert Parry this week. It opens with an observation I never really thought about: when Clinton took office in '92, there were still several Reagan/Bush malfeasance investigations and hearings going on but Clinton let them die on the vine (things like Iran-Contra, Iraqgate, the 1980 October Surprise, and so forth--read an interview with Parry about these matters here if you scroll about 3/4 of the way down). Parry points out that if Clinton had pursued those investigations, chances are that by the present, people would have had a very different and much more negative perception of the Reagan/Bush years than they currently do. And that had that been the case, the Bush name might not have been so appealing to some in the 2000 election.

Haley Barbour Is A Fat Fuckhead of an Asshole

He won't raise taxes, not even on cigarettes. The Medicaid program in Mississippi only has enough money to operate through this Friday, March 11. Mississippi has always been among the poorest, if not the poorest states. Could that be why so many people in the state are dependent on Medicaid? And why it will be such a disaster if they don't come up with the money to fix the problem?

If Medicaid does go unfunded after Friday, Grover Norquist and Stephen Moore will rejoice. So will that fat, greedy, evil motherfucker Haley Barbour. This is what they want, to get back to a time when there was no Medicaid and the less fortunate had to be in constant debt to private individuals and companies. When Barbour says "I cannot think of any worse public policy or any bigger dereliction of duties by elected officials than to let this program shut down," he is doing what is known as bullshitting. He takes a high and mighty stance but yet won't actually do anything about it. GRRRRR...stay tuned...