Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows
Everybody knows the deal is rotten.
Everybody knows.
The deck is stacked, the fix is in, the rich get rich and the poor get screwed. Everybody knows.
Foreclosures are skyrocketing, unemployment is through the roof, the prisons are jammed, emergency rooms are seething with the uninsured and our streets are crawling with homeless souls.
The road is filled with homeless souls
Every woman, child and man
Who have no idea where they will go
But they'll help you if they can
Now everyone must have some thought
That's going to pull them through somehow
Well the fires are raging hotter and hotter
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now
Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow
Jackson Browne – Rock Me On The Water
Our schools don’t educate, they indoctrinate. The ‘news’ is crafted not to fill us in, but to shine us on. The cavalcade of lies is never-ending, and the liars are lionized as the truth is dragged away screaming. People beg for an end to the drug war only to see it escalated. People beg for peace only to see more war. People vote for change and get a big-assed bucket of more of the same.
Propaganda, all is phony.
Bob Dylan - It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
People vote for an end to war only to see it escalated. ‘Massive Cuts in Military Spending’ trumpet the national news as the already absurdly bloated military budget is actually increased.
The people voted to withdraw from Iraq in 2006...now we’re told maybe by the end of 2011...maybe (if we’re good boys and girls, presumably). In the mean time we’re doubling down in Afghanistan. The two-billion-dollar-a-month tab there will soon be four-billion-a-month or more as the whole thing spreads into Pakistan, the cost for which is unimaginable. Three trillion dollars is the cost of our folly in Iraq alone.
Trillions for unnecessary wars, trillions to bail out the Wall Street robber barons, diddly squat for you and me.
Hundreds of billions for a fraudulent, completely unnecessary and shamefully immoral war in Iraq? No problem. A few bucks for the arts, or to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, provide healthcare for all Americans or rescue people from being foreclosed upon? No fucking way.
How does anyone make it on $263 million a year?
You can’t turn around in this country without being robbed by some over-privileged well-connected fat cat who can do no wrong and will suffer no consequences. Unemployment, foreclosure, homelessness and medical disaster are the rewards for decent, law-abiding citizens.
The following are true tales of woe from members of our own Daily Kos community, most of them personal:
Cancer$: beginnings and endings
Massively Updated: Unemployment Rises 50% @ My House
It's My Turn: Another Jobless Kossack
My Jobless Story
Full Circle -- Homeless -- Executive -- Homeless
Homeless for a week and going: my personal insights
Homeless Vets. Don't You Dare Look Away.
Homeless in Austin, TX- An Insider's View
I spoke up because: My personal story of homelessness
55, Now Homeless, and Who Cares?
I Am Being Evicted - Very Soon I Will Be Homeless!
There are tons more of these. You can search for them yourselves. I warn you though – it’s heartbreaking. I had to quit listing them as it just got too depressing. Ordinary American citizens, including way too many of our fellow kossacks, are being ruthlessly fucked over every day by a society that apparently cares only about the ridiculously rich.
"Let them eat shit."
Barbara Bush (paraphrased)
The people screamed for impeachment and were told to fuck off. The people screamed for justice for torturers and war criminals and were told fat fucking chance.
We were told the world would end if we didn’t fork over a cool trillion stat - no questions asked. When we asked where the money went, we were told it was none of our damned business. When we cried that the foxes were guarding the henhouse, we were told no one knows chickens like foxes.
No one knows chickens like foxes.
The people, weary of war, cry out for peace and are laughed at and mocked. Blessed are the peacemakers? No. More like piss on the peacemakers.
The CIA announces that they will no longer run secret prisons or torture people. We can believe them, right?
Yeah right. Leopards are forever changing their spots.
We were promised transparency but got more secrecy instead.
At some point it seems prudent to ask, what are these bastards hiding?
John F. Kennedy On Secrecy
Of course we all know what happened to Kennedy.
As we say down South...Lord have mercy.
Storm the walls around this prison
Leave the inmates
Free the guards
Deal me up another future
From some brand new deck of cards
Take the chip off of my shoulder
Smooth out all the lines
Take me out among the rustling pines
Till it shines
Bob Seger - Till it shines
P.S. Regarding today's announced release of torture memos, I welcome all such good news but, just as with the CIA announcement that they are turning over a new leaf, I remain skeptical. Just my nature I guess. :-)