Cop A Squat

Some good news out of California (if you were able to keep your computer's moniter above the rising water level):
"Los Angeles' policy of arresting homeless people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks as "an unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter" violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and punishment, a federal appeals court ruled today."
So, cop a squat for justice.

Ooh. More good news. Catherine Harris is getting her ass handed to her in the latest polls.
Y'all might remember that she was the one who stopped the 2000 Florida vote recount, which ultimately led to a Supreme Court (5-4) decision that Dumbya should be the one to have his finger on the red button. i guess Floridians aren't as crazy sometimes as they mostly portray themselves to be in the media on an almost daily basis. I'm sure they'll lose their senses in time to vote her in and return to their gun-toting, serial killing, building cities for God, Jeb backing, contructing houses on moving sandbars, wondering why hurricanes keep damaging their property ways. Still, it's nice to see one of the Bush's main backers get it in the arse while spending millions of her own dollars because the Rethuglican Party has disavowed her. Personally, I think the Democrapic Party should endorse her for no better reason than to piss off and confound their ilk across the senate aisle. Plus, she seems the type who would jump ship for the chance of power.

My buddy, the fun-loving Greg Palast, sends another missive describing why Donald the Duck Rumsfeld shouldn't resign. Gregorich makes a decent point. Except for the fact that I don't care if Rummie ain't the worst. He should be escorted out just like the rest of the top bananas. In Nuremburg, it didn't seem to matter if they were just following orders. Nor did it in the case of Dr. Mudd. Why should that change here? Complicity is complicity. No matter what war, what theater, what cause, what ends. Break the law, lie to the people, punish the innocent, shoot the whistleblowers, line your pockets at the expense of those less fortunate, go to jail or into exile.

Ooh. More good news. We and the UK staged mock war games wherein we invaded Iran in 2004. Why, you ask, do I consider this good news? Simple. I can't wait until gas is $5 a gallon here and going to the Big Lots store involves monthly budget planning. Think about it. A cross-town trip would become a community event as we call all of our friends to see if they need to shop somewhere specific. If they don't, then we can't. If they do, then we can. Maybe. Because with the rise of gas costs, so goes natural gas, heating oil and electricity comes an assumed fiscal austerity program, which has been touted by Bush all along as a way to contradict most everyone's views that the War On Terror is a drain on our way of life. And when it becomes a large burden just to pay off monthly bills (excluding rent, mortgages, credit cards, insurance, groceries, laundry, and the ever evolving less social outings), we will no longer be able to jump up off the couch and rush to Blockbuster for the latest installment of Scary Movie in order to take our minds off of the War On Terror. Will CNN become the most watched news "program" at that point? Will American Idol crush its opponents, because we are forced to stay at home and watch TV? Will people start reading books again (ha, that one's a laugher)? No. We will continue to drive and consume and bitch about how we got to this point. Then we will forget to vote. Again. And we won't write to our Congresspeople. And we won't attend City or County meetings in order to air our grievances. But we'll keep going to Big Lots, because it's a discount chain, in our SUVs and bitch about how we got to this point. All the while, Bush and his masters will be dreaming up new ways in which to distract us from the fact that they have ruined our economy, enriched their friends and sullied our reputation as an inclusive society across the globe. Good news, indeed.