Business As Usual

y'all might want to call your senators and tell them to stop the immigration bill that just passed the house of representatives. not only can it make every illegal alien a felon, but it can make you one as well if you help one of them out with a bite to eat or a coat or a dollar or two or work at a charity that serves them. even if you do none of these and couldn't give a ratshit about the plight of the illegals, consider this: the only reason we can afford to eat our own produce is because we have illegals willing to work for less than minimum wage. that sounds callous, but think of where they come from. $5 an hour to most of them is like $20 an hour to any of us legals. and do you want to spend massive backbreaking (not brokeback, mustang) hours in the summer sun picking fruit and vegetables? i thought not. but if we had no illegals willing to do it then we'd have to pay serious wages to get lazy legals to do it and our supermarket trips would be a new form of financial hell.
and the groundswell of public opposition to this election year bill is impressive. the catholic and pentacostal churches are involved as well as every latino ever born. cesar chavez has got to be beaming over this. and tossing down a few more coals j edgar hoover's way.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 28 — Senior Shiite politicians said today that the American ambassador has told Shiite officials to inform the Iraqi prime minister that President Bush does not want him to remain the country's leader in the next government.
okay, so the shiites are being extremely shiity to the sunnis for decades of murder, torture, executions, gassing and whatnot. i don't condone killing squads, that's for sure. otherwise i'd be advertising in soldier of fortune for a group of snipers and renting hotel rooms close to the white house. but this is the same government that bush lauded not too long ago as he tried to shore up his sagging ratings. remember the purple fingers and announcements from our government that iraq now had a legally elected government? remember how bush claimed it was only with our intervention that this had come to pass and that now he was going to let them rule themselves? he was so proud of his accomplishment. couldn't stop smiling. but when things don't go your way domestically or foreignly, i guess the answer is to keep remolding in a democratic manner until the final outcome is what you need. and, yes, many many eggs may need to be broken until the fallen souffle turns to pancakes. so long as it looks edible and the ignorant masses believe that's what you meant to make in the first place. mmmm, pancakes...

frank harris III gives his opinion in the hartford courant and it is indeed an opinion. but a concise and direct one. and one i happen to echo. bush needs to clean house from the top down. and when i say top down, i mean top down. he's got to go. and take cheney and rumsfeld and rice and alberto with him. it is disgusting to know that many many americans let bush go on his recent proclamation that the troops in iraq will be another president's problem. just like that he let all of us know that public opinion is of no matter to him. the fact that the majority of us think invading iraq was a big mistake doesn't even faze him. what, me worry? bush is the alfred e neuman of politics.

y'all remember Abu Musab Zarqawi? claims to be bin laden's number two guy and all that jazz? keeps killing lots and lots of soldiers and innocents in iraq and elsewhere? well, NBC has a little article that reveals how we had three clear, can't-miss shots at him in the run-up to our invasion and all three were nixed by the administration. this administration is the same group that demonized clinton for two failed attempts on bin laden. and they call bullshit on blowing this bad guy to high heaven along with his chemical plants. very nice. at the very least, each time zarqawi's name is connected to a mass killing or roadside bomb or suicide attacker we know who to thank for his continued presence.

on the personal war front, i have to say that moving up here was the best form of spring cleaning. i whittled down my accroutements to something resembling sensible. now, it goes even further. i am becoming the lean, clean moving machine i always wanted to be, but never could, because i kept attaching too much sentimental value to material commodities. other than the cat, what really matters? okay...music, movies and groovy tee shirts. not much else, though. oh, and my bedding. and mom's rugs. and the couch.
maybe i should just name the cat 'shithead'.
grandma continues to show her beautiful stubborn streak. while not resigned to losing her house, she is aware and asking about church happenings and how her cat is doing.
so, while my tears were needed for me, perhaps they weren't so much for her.