Just in time for the congressional holiday (would that we all got a paid month off in August), and just in time for these whores and shills to forsake their responsibilities as our federal representatives, comes this article. Nice timing. Now, someone needs to post online, in local newspapers, on local TV, on any media outlet available, the names of these 13 legislators, how much money they are receiving from insurance companies and big pharma. And this should all be run in their districts so their constituents know who bought their representatives and what their money is getting them. By the time congress reconvenes, over 100,000 more people will have lost their healthcare and thousands of small businesses will be forced to shut their doors because the rising cost of healthcare will run them out of business. But our DC class has no qualms about that. Just business as usual. What do they care? After all, they already have THEIR healthcare, and over a million bucks each to feather their re-election committee nests.

One of the terms that gets bandied about by the right, especially when discussing the MSM and the progressives is 'elitist.' 'They have elitist leanings and so, can't be trusted to be honest with the American people.' But isn't this a textbook definition of elitism: the idea that the hoy peloi is incapable of handling 'the truth' so must be lied to by a noble cabal of right thinkers who are far superior and moral than the rest of us? Who's the elitist?

And that IS the way it is.

My initial thought was 'you never hire a person named Higginbotham to any major bureaucratic post.' Then I remembered (perhaps faulty memory), but wasn't that the name of the CO in 'McCale's Navy'? What? Did he leave active service and got promoted to an admin job where his general incompetence was allowed to shine? Remind me again, who is and who is not 'supporting the troops'?

I'm sorry, but did I say I'm not as cynical as I was in '72? I meant 1968. Jeez, sometimes the years just flow together; must be especially hard for some of those 'crazed Vietnam vets.' You know, after they were portrayed in all those TV shows, and movies, and how Nixon liked to pretend like those vets didn't exist and worked to deny them the care they earned? Or those guys and gals who went to Iraq and never fully came 'bacq.'(I mean, bed sores and worse at Walter Reed?) But god forbid, a census would be a hindrance in our democracy! we wouldn't have to hear about these people if they're just INVISIBLE! Here's an idea, Mr. Black-n-White, go visit a VA facility and talk to some of the patients there. Ask them how they'd been counted by the previous admininistration. Ask them how they're treated by the administrations that took them to war. You forgot that stuff like that gets counted too, didn't you? You forgot that the census looks at our #s of homeless, you forgot that the census looks at how many single parents there are, you forgot that the census counts how many people are being deprived of rights they are owed as citizens. If you have no problem with your government tapping your phones, you emails, your twitters (cf the anti-terrorism act enacted by Bush) then you should have ABSOLUTELY no problem with a census, which has been in effect since 1790. You're pissed about a census? Really? To quote your beloved VP, Dick Cheney, 'Go fuck yourself!'

In case you were going that way, I'm not too crazy about that architectural design either. I mean, unless you want your house to look like a mortuary.

A) Don't need a dictionary. I already knew you thought too much of yourself. 'Chiarascuro?" What are you, an oxymoron, or just too deep for simpletons like me to understand? Light? Dark? Do you paint over your windows? What's your point? I fail to see a workable metaphor here. There's hardly anything subtle about your posts. Yeah, see, I took HS latin too.

B) Based on your post, I am older than you and have been through a lot of the living BS you are complaining about.

C) It hasn't made me any more cynical than I already was back in '72.

D) That said, I thank you. You have made me feel better about my situation. At least I'm not as bitter and uninformed as you. Yeah, I'm pissed about what happened to me, but I'm working on doing better. Got a business of my own now, which is struggling, but it's a work in progress. And I don't have to blame the Feds for my change of life. And the census is a good thing. Glad you remember your high school latin, I didn't know 'you kids' were still being taught it.