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What They've Thought
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What They Thought May 15, 2005 R.A.
Hawkins Click here for columnist bios |
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R.A.
Hawkins Harry Reid is rapidly replacing my favorite whack job in politics, Zhirinovsky. Fortunately Zhirinovsky is Russia’s problem. We are stuck with Reid for a few more years. He is even starting to make Daschle look like a rational human being. He has definitely decided to take the politics of personal destruction to new lows. He has even decided to be fair handed by taking part in the Dean of Dims rites of passage by entering the modern Democrat phase of personally self-destructing. He even joined hands with fellow democrat and former clansman Byrd-brain, or at least I guess that was what he was doing when he said this about Clarence Thomas; “I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court.” Harry should know a lot about embarrassment, but he is apparently completely oblivious to it. He appears to be like many of the Democrats. I mean the noisy and thoughtless ones, not the ones with a lot of brains like Ted Kennedy, McCain and Dean. (Interesting. My wife just walked by and said that McCain is a Republican.) I wonder if he is aware of that. Anyway, back to that whacky poster child for Tourettes Syndrome Reid. He recently decided to try to smear Bush by calling him a loser. I was appalled that he would do such a thing. Why the next thing you know we will have Dean giving a victory roar after he gets completely stomped on the campaign trail. We might have Teddy Kennedy insulting people after they recognize him and give him the floor of the Senate. We could easily end up with Senator Byrd talking about taking the country back and doing something that looks like the funky chicken. Oh, wait. All of those things have already happened. As if Harry Reid hasn’t made himself look stupid enough, he decided to mention an FBI file. Now he knows that not everybody is going to go and read that file. It really doesn’t matter what is in those files either. He knows it and that’s the point. Leaking contents of those files usually brings serious consequences, but since he’s a Democrat nobody expected any better. He didn’t technically leak the contents of those files however. He merely alluded to something stinky in there. He should be censored but that won’t happen. I’ve noticed that only seems to happen to Republicans. When I see somebody that is this far out of control I tend to see it as the tip of the iceberg. If we looked into his history would we see things like WV Congressman Moran’s brawls? I seriously doubt that because Reid has a staffer named Manley who appears to talk for him when he is suffering from cranial rectal inversion. Reid is beginning to remind me of a few movies I have seen over the years, but they usually involve schizophrenic women. (Bette Davis to be particular) Could it be that he, like the rest of the Democratic Party, is suffering from PMS (Primal Mood Swings) or is it simply Tourettes Syndrome, which was discovered in France. It is interesting to note that men are three or four times more likely to suffer from it then women are. I guess this may be one of their ways of trying to appear manly. They may also be trying to be more French for that matter. Who cares? Keep it up. Harry Reid should not have had access to the file in the first place. There is a letter of understanding that only committee members and the Senators from the nominee’s home state can see the files. Mr. Manley, possibly Harry Reid’s alter ego, said that the committee reviewed Judge Saad’s FBI file behind closed doors and accidentally left the microphone on, allowing the secret hearings to be broadcast onto the Internet. Mr. Manley is the only one to have claimed the leak occurred so far. Trent Lott said he is starting to miss Daschle because of Harry Reid. I wonder what Reid’s file looks like? I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it is festooned with rainbows, lambdas and colorfully, yet tastefully, balanced with a red hammer and sickle. What he has done here is one of the most despicable and pathetic things I have seen out of the rabid left lately. They have started to sink to new lows that I never would have imagined they would sink to. I fantasized about this happening but I never actually imagined it. There isn’t much left for me to do except cheer. Maybe I could throw in a nice little Chairman Mao quote for the left to describe what they have been doing for the last few election cycles. “Lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own feet’ is a Chinese folk saying to describe the behavior of certain fools. The reactionaries in all countries are fools of this kind. In the final analysis, their persecution of the revolutionary people only serves to accelerate the people's revolutions on a broader and more intense scale.” Keep it up there Scary Reid. You’re doing a bang up job on your party. You’re also a lot more fun to watch than the Politburo. R.A. Hawkins Web Site Contact Back to Top |
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How much longer will our land stomach our incompetent judicial system? How many more innocents must die before the people scream in unison, enough folly from the black robes of death given? How much blood of the innocent will our earth soak up? As our children’s eyes fill, once again with red tears we have once again failed our young. With an out of control judicial system, and adults who lack in the understanding of needing to prosecute to the fullest extent criminals, our judicial systems gavel continues it is unraveling. Our system of criminal justice is anything but just. It is disgusting, repulsive and beyond anything that should be tolerated in a society that calls itself a culture of freedom. As well, we as adult citizens are not taking care of our innocent children and their future. Laura and Krystal, two little girls, riding their bikes… brutally murdered by Laura’s dad, Jerry Hobs. All because Mr. Hobs felt Laura should be grounded for supposed money she’d stolen from her mother. Most parents would ground their child over stolen money, maybe even swat the backside of their buttocks a couple of times, but beating and stabbing them repeatedly? This is a sick monster that has been allowed to exist on this planet, and it's time for our judicial system to administer quick and just sentencing upon the parents and adults who show a history of maliciousness, uncontrolled anger, sexual deviances, and such like. How is it, with Mr. Hobs' long record of run-ins with the police authorities and brutal actions, did he walk out of the cell he should have been locked up in permanently and had the key thrown away years ago? Mr. Hobs' record includes arrests for assaults and resisting arrests, and they all run from 1990 to the present. His last arrest was due to his outburst of stupidity against a neighbor, whom he chased with a chainsaw. He has had over fourteen years of chances to reform, and now he in a moment of uncontrolled rage stole the life force from two little girls. Where, oh, judicial system, tell us where are the chances for life for Laura and Krystal? Why won’t you protect what you’ve sworn to uphold? How many more Lauras? How many more Krystals do there have to be? How many more our innocents have to cry from the grave before we turn the tide to defend the defenseless? Can our consciousness swallow much more of the innocents' murdered souls' blood? We are living in a nation that has a judicial system filled with broken shards of what were once our nation’s laws, supposedly written to protect and to administer justice. Now many disgraceful judges call down sentences that protect the criminal and not the victims. We have known for far too long. Adults have not listened to the pleas of the youngsters over incidents within the Catholic Church over sexual abuse. Why aren’t we listening, why aren’t we outraged? Laura and Krystal’s murders, though, are neither the first, nor the last as we look at numerous cases where our judicial system and sound reasoning by adult jurors hasn’t worked. Recently the murder of Samantha Runnion finally came to a close. Alejandro Avila was found guilty of kidnapping, murder and two counts of sexual assault for the murder of five-year-old Samantha Runnion.The same jury will later decide if the 30-year-old factory worker will receive the death penalty. Avila had been acquitted of molesting two girls in 2001 in Riverside County when the jury decided to believe his story over the two little girls. Authorities said they believe he killed Samantha to avoid leaving a witness. Yes, this time possibly a murder named Alvia will be locked up permanently or be given the death sentence, but why did a child have to die in order for the adults of the jury, the court system, and the media to believe the evidences given? Have we gone mad, completely mad? As we study each case that has come down from each level of our court system across the United States in the last twenty years what trend are we witnessing? Do we feel safer in our homes, in our schools, at our work places? Do we lay our heads down at night and experience the comfort in knowing that a convicted child molester is locked away from our little darlings? Certainly, we know we cannot wring our hands and worry constantly about our children’s safety from the likes of people like a Mr. Hobs or Mr. Alvia, but if we are honest with ourselves, is it not time we stopped ignoring it? We must listen to the words of our children and get involved in changing a judicial system that no longer protects the innocent. The media rants and raves over police brutality and supposed abuse by the cops… but where is the media outrage over the lack of judicial accountability? There are sick individuals committing heinous acts against humanity and they are being given more rights than their victims. How did the United States become so bassackwards in protecting its citizens? Is it possible through our own apathy that we have created a lack of accountability? We need to ask ourselves: What are we going to do about this? Will we continue to let innocent blood be taken? Will we become involved in our government and call down the judges who don’t uphold the law? Will we seriously give an ear to the cries of our children and not dismiss them? What will we do for the Lauras, the Krystals and the Samanthas of our world before the next child becomes a victim of a ruthless monster? It is now too late for the many victims that now lie in the grave. Nevertheless, we need to take action to stop the ineptness, the inability, and the miniscule concern that we have been demonstrating by our lack of action. Our children need us as adults to protect them, they are counting on us to utilize the laws written and to make their world a haven of peace, comfort, and safety. A large part of our judicial system is in need of an overhaul. Now what will we do to fix the broken system that no longer defends the innocent? |
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In 2001, a few weeks after 9/11, the New York Yankees lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in one of the most exciting World Series in years. A lot of people rooted for the Yankees that year—a sentimental favorite. But, my, how times have changed. Last week, the Yanks stumbled into last place by losing a set to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays—just the latest in what’s quickly becoming a season of Yankee lows. All around the country, baseball fans are salivating. Dan Shanoff of Page 2 calls it “nationwide schadenfreud.” The Yanks have won four championships in the last ten years. And they have used their deep pockets to monopolize the free agent market in the last five. But here they are, your 2005 Yankees—with a 14-19 record as of this writing. People aren’t just happy the team is losing. They’re giddy over the chance to finally stick it to Yankee fans. As a Yankee fan, I say good. I bring up the 2001 Series for two reasons. One, because that was the last time I felt a true connection with the Yankees. (They’re still my team, but I’m as turned off by their spending habits as I’d imagine Royals and Pirates fans are.) And two, because I can’t help but notice the parallels between the Yankee schadenfreud and the rise in global anti-Americanism. I don’t want to ruin a perfectly good baseball discussion by talking about politics here, but when you stop and think about it, New York’s epic collapse in the playoffs last year was basically the Yankee September 11th. And their acquisition of Randy Johnson over the winter was, for all intents and purposes, the Yankee Iraq war. To understand what I’m saying, you have to understand how poorly Yankee fans get along with every other species in the universe. Yankee fans are the rude American tourists who can’t understand why anyone would speak another language or root for a team that hasn’t won 26 World Series. Not all Yankee fans are like this, of course. But the ones you’re likely to meet are. That’s because they can’t stop talking—screaming, really—about the fact that they root for the winningest team in North American sports history. Where I come from, we don’t call these people Yankee fans, though. We call them Ranger fans. And they’re an embarrassment to everything the New York Yankees stand for. When I was in high school in 1994, the New York Rangers played the New Jersey Devils in the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals. It was one of the best playoff series of any sport that any of us had ever seen. But it got to a point where it was almost impossible to enjoy it anymore. Once it became clear that the Rangers were a so-called “team of destiny”—that they were on their way to their first Stanley Cup in 54 years—all the loudmouthed part-time Ranger fans crawled out of the woodwork and got in your face about how good “their” team was (when, meanwhile, they couldn’t name one guy on “their” team other than Mark Messier). Before long, the woodwork fans became so overbearing that genuine hockey fans couldn’t get a word in edgewise, no matter which team they rooted for—the Devils, the Rangers, or even the Islanders (who were minding their own business, having been ousted early in the playoffs that year). Non-New Yorkers haven’t had many opportunities to see woodwork Ranger fans in action. For one thing, the Rangers rarely win. For another, nobody cares about hockey. But woodwork Ranger fans also form a key constituency of the Yankee fan base. And since the Yankees win a lot more often than the Rangers, the rest of the country simply assumes woodwork Ranger fans are Yankee fans first and foremost. Either way, I’m not going to apologize for these people. I’m a Yankee fan, but I don’t like them any more than you do. In fact, I think they’re a big reason why the Yankees stink this year—as well as why everyone else is so happy about it. You see, these fans are only interested in their team when it’s winning, and for that reason the Yankees organization has put a premium on winning at all costs. Now, obviously, there’s nothing wrong with George Steinbrenner going out and buying every major free agent on the market. The team can afford it. And as long as there’s no salary cap, it’s certainly not against the rules. But all the same, it takes the fun out of following baseball for fans of teams that can’t afford $200 million payrolls. These teams spend the off-season thinking up ways to get more out of their existing rosters; the Yankees spend the off-season figuring out who they can give the most money to. This strategy keeps the team in contention, but it’s shallow, boring, and frequently devious. And the Yankee fans who would respond to this by saying, “Well, that’s what you get for not rooting for the Yankees,” are precisely the problem. If everyone rooted for the same team, then why have other teams at all? Just so the Yankees have someone to play with? This is why I compare the Yankee schadenfreud to the current strain of global anti-Americanism. Think about it. Why do people hate the Yankees? Why do a growing number of foreigners hate America? It’s not because the Yankees and America are dominant powers (though they are). It’s because the rest of the world feels like the Washington Generals to their Harlem Globetrotters. Americans were right to say, as they did before the Iraq war, that foreigners shouldn’t “have a veto” over American policies. Similarly, Yankee fans are right to criticize fans of other teams who say they can’t compete without a salary cap. Those fans should study the ineptitudes in their own front offices before punishing the Yankees for years of success. But at the same time, the Yanks have abused their market position—making big name trades and free agent signings almost as if out of spite. And much the same, while the whole world mourned September 11th, the build-up to the Iraq war was like one big “Well, that’s what you get for not coming from America.” Remember Old Europe? Freedom Fries? CD demolitions? You weren’t just with us or against us back then. You were with us or we would destroy you. I know; back then, I felt that way. The Yankees that went up 3-0 only to lose 3-4 to Boston last year were not the same Yankees who won four World Series between 1996 and 2000. Those teams had solid farm systems, which were plundered to acquire many of the marquee players who’ve come and gone like so many hookers since 2001. The Yanks have established a giant financial chasm between themselves and the rest of the league the last few years. The final straw came in 2004, when they swooped in at the last second and signed Alex Rodriguez away from a deal with the Red Sox. This proved, once and for all, that the Yanks would never allow other teams to acquire weapons of mass destruction—which is fine if you’re a Yankee fan, but crappy if you root for the Royals or Pirates. The Red Sox—who, in fairness, have baseball’s second biggest payroll—responded by building a team specifically tailored to Yankee weaknesses (even growing their hair and beards like genuine anti-Yankees). So when push came to shove in the 2004 playoffs, the Yanks didn’t have a leg to stand on. They faltered, as big, clumsy bureaucracies inevitably do. Baseball fans cheered for the same reason people all over the world have come to view 9/11 as America’s comeuppance. Obviously, it’s sad that the death of 3,000 Americans could be seen in such a light. It tugs at my heart to think of it that way. But just as the Yanks responded to last year’s loss by acquiring yet another big name, high-cost player (Randy Johnson), America responded to 9/11 by invading Iraq. These weren’t solutions to problems; they were more of the same things that caused them. The parallels are increasingly clear. If the first month of baseball is any indication, 2005 won’t be a good year for Yankee fans. Personally, I’m rooting for a fresh start at this point. Things could improve, but with this listless band of overpaid all-stars, it’s only a matter of time before they bottom out. That’s when the woodwork fans will disappear. And that’s when the rest of us will get to deal with the people they’ve pissed off. That’s what I get for being a Yankee fan. Well, that, and 26 World Series. Jonathan David Morris Web Site Contact Back to Top |
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No column this week. Nancy Salvato Web Site Contact Back to Top |
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Are you ready for the next trade agreement? Before denouncing all those anarchists for disrupting the peaceful tranquillity of a Miami afternoon, think about all those additional benefits from an entire Western Hemisphere expansion of NAFTA. Go directly to the latest November 21, 2003, third draft of FTAA agreement for proof that America will be restricted from enacting protective measures to stem the hemorrhage of the trade deficit. Article 5. Tariff Elimination Program
Are you ready for a dramatic increase in outflow of wealth from the United States to the rest of the Americas? Yep, that’s what you get under the Free Trade deception. Remember all those promises that exports to Mexico would raise the standard of living on both sides of the borders? Well, you should already know this sad record. So why do we, the American public, need another sell out trade agreement? Obviously the masters of the supra global corporate/state want to increase their strangle hold on international commerce. Still have doubts, try this one on for size: Inter-governmental agreements
[Legal][designated]monopolies
State enterprises
So it’s OK to have, maintain or create a monopoly if it is approved and it is appropriate for governments to engage in state enterprises for profit. Sounds like the free aspect of trade has a privileged status and the economy for the public has a socialism that only profits the STATE. But don’t be too concerned about these conclusions. The prime objective is to maintain order and those demonstrators in Miami are out to disrupt the progress of a unified economy for the New World! So when “Eight legal observers sent to monitor Miami police during trade protests were arrested, and four were beaten by officers”, why should you care? Surely, you can’t have a Seattle rampage in every city that holds a trade meeting, so say the defenders of the corporate model that ensures the economic domination of government regulation. The silence from the mainstream press is always directed away from addressing what economic policies will benefit the average American taxpayer. The coverage is always directed at the agitators who are opposed to capitalism. And you can always count on the spin that sells the false notion that the version of business that directs the global economy is representative of free enterprise. Contrary to such bull . . . the distorted vestiges of capitalism have already been destroyed and substituted with a telluric economy of, for, and by the plutocracy. The alternative is certainly not a fanciful redistribution from the wealthy to the underprivileged. Only naive fools would place their faith in a government solution to create prosperity. Proponents of benevolence, expropriated from the productive are economic midgets. However, the masters of the universe that advance global regimentation, as the control of all the means of production is consolidated among their own kind; are antagonists of all mankind. Since the civil liberties of a free society are being sold at discount, don’t expect that there will be a holiday rush to stock up on tolerance. Both the affluence of Americans and the freedoms from government intervention will be diminished with an expansion of trade agreements that favor only elites. When the anti-globalists speak out they have their own agenda for gaining political influence. Yet, the substance in their argument often offers a compelling case. In the view of Mexican parliamentary Deputy Carlos Heredia Zubieta of the center-left opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution speaks to the NAFTA experience: “If you look at the macroeconomic figures, it's true: Inflation is under control, the deficit is manageable, there is fiscal and monetary discipline, and exports are growing," Heredia Zubieta said. "But the beneficiaries are only a small circle of corporations with ties to the international economy, to the detriment of the majority of small and medium-sized local companies and workers and citizens in general," he argued. Domestic firms have registered zero growth or worse, while only the export sector, represented by local subsidiaries of transnational corporations, has expanded. "The domestic market is not growing. On the contrary, the buying power of Mexicans has fallen steadily over the years.” Proponents of the Free Trade Area of the Americas are unable to substantiate that this new trade agreement would alter this pattern. Without a vigorous, open and public debate on all the issues related to international trade, the imbalances that are harming our own domestic economy will never be corrected. The press is beholden to the corporate/state consortium, they will not moderate such a discussion. The multinational cartels are driven to eliminate real competition. And most elected politicians are too fearful to buck a system that helped to create and continually protect. Miami will not be the last demonstration. The riot police will persist in applying their tactics. The IMF and World Bank will extend their micromanagement. And the rest of us will be forced to reduce our expectations for future economic independence. Not exactly the formula of abundance for a free people . . .
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©2004-2005 by their respective authors. Reprinted by permission. |
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