mesquite, salt lake, luger
the show in mesquite helped remind me of why i do this: incredible crowd and got standing ovation at end of show. while big name "stars" get standing o's everytime it is unusual for an unknown to do so and when you do you know that it was for the performance and not for the name.
i have a big fan in salt lake city and she has arranged for me to come up there in september and play 4 days at some bars that cater to the liberal side of that town. (hell, there must be at least 5,000 liberals there out of the two million...lol) she allots that we are going to rock and roll. doug stanhope played up there and rocked so i am really looking forward to it. fyi if any of you are close to either a. vegas or b. somewhere i am performing and would like to do a similar thing let me know and we will see if something can be worked out. i have done this in towns big and small over the years and am always willing to listen to ideas. if it is close to somewhere where i am already booked, we must have enough time to arrange travel and i book airlines pretty far in advance so keep that in mind.
i see where more and more republican senators are starting to see the light about iraq and are now willing to buck the white house on it's insane course. GOOD FOR THEM! regardless of my rants, i have no problems with what used to be the republican ideals of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, non meddling in foriegn affairs, keeping government out of our personal lives, etc. the problem is, of course, that the bushies have increased the size of government, ran up the largest debt in our nation's history, are spying on american citizens without court orders, have got us involved in two foriegn wars that we cannot possibly win, destroyed our international reputation (remember that right after 9-11 almost the entire world, including the arab world, was on our side), now we are almost universally hated and feared) and have constantly lied to the american people and then called anyone who disagreed with them all kinds of names; unpatriotic, supporters of terrorism, defeatists, cut and runners and a host of other school yard names. so it was a real relief to me to see senator luger get up on the floor and denounce this admisistration. better late than never and i know it is extremely hard to admit that one has made a terrible mistake. GOOD FOR HIM!
let me clarify on the "republican ideals." i respect those positions that i outlined above, i do not necessarily agree with them and am, in fact, in favor of more government in many places; national health care for one. i believe that the government "owes" something to the people as the people "owe" something to the government because the two should not be seperate. we, the people, are the government. (at least in theory) countries, nations, civilizations, empires will not be judged only on their military might but on well their people lived. the united states is at or near the bottom for all industrialized nations in health care, infant mortality, life expectancy, education, crime, poverty rate and other indicators of civilization (for lack of better word). all of these reflect government policies. and it is a disgrace that we, the richest country in the history of the world, do not take better care of our citizens. we spend almost as much on military as the rest of the world combined! and we can't have a national health care system? where are our priorities?
so those are my thoughts on a monday morning here in las vegas where it is forecast to be 110 degrees today. time for the pool.
i have a big fan in salt lake city and she has arranged for me to come up there in september and play 4 days at some bars that cater to the liberal side of that town. (hell, there must be at least 5,000 liberals there out of the two million...lol) she allots that we are going to rock and roll. doug stanhope played up there and rocked so i am really looking forward to it. fyi if any of you are close to either a. vegas or b. somewhere i am performing and would like to do a similar thing let me know and we will see if something can be worked out. i have done this in towns big and small over the years and am always willing to listen to ideas. if it is close to somewhere where i am already booked, we must have enough time to arrange travel and i book airlines pretty far in advance so keep that in mind.
i see where more and more republican senators are starting to see the light about iraq and are now willing to buck the white house on it's insane course. GOOD FOR THEM! regardless of my rants, i have no problems with what used to be the republican ideals of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, non meddling in foriegn affairs, keeping government out of our personal lives, etc. the problem is, of course, that the bushies have increased the size of government, ran up the largest debt in our nation's history, are spying on american citizens without court orders, have got us involved in two foriegn wars that we cannot possibly win, destroyed our international reputation (remember that right after 9-11 almost the entire world, including the arab world, was on our side), now we are almost universally hated and feared) and have constantly lied to the american people and then called anyone who disagreed with them all kinds of names; unpatriotic, supporters of terrorism, defeatists, cut and runners and a host of other school yard names. so it was a real relief to me to see senator luger get up on the floor and denounce this admisistration. better late than never and i know it is extremely hard to admit that one has made a terrible mistake. GOOD FOR HIM!
let me clarify on the "republican ideals." i respect those positions that i outlined above, i do not necessarily agree with them and am, in fact, in favor of more government in many places; national health care for one. i believe that the government "owes" something to the people as the people "owe" something to the government because the two should not be seperate. we, the people, are the government. (at least in theory) countries, nations, civilizations, empires will not be judged only on their military might but on well their people lived. the united states is at or near the bottom for all industrialized nations in health care, infant mortality, life expectancy, education, crime, poverty rate and other indicators of civilization (for lack of better word). all of these reflect government policies. and it is a disgrace that we, the richest country in the history of the world, do not take better care of our citizens. we spend almost as much on military as the rest of the world combined! and we can't have a national health care system? where are our priorities?
so those are my thoughts on a monday morning here in las vegas where it is forecast to be 110 degrees today. time for the pool.
posted by Ron Shock | 9:56 AM
7 Comments:
Bush just commuted Libby's sentence, about 30 minutes ago, FYI.
I've been transitioning from moderate Liberal to moderate Libertarian. Health care is probably my biggest political confusion--I'm afraid that the libertarians are right, if the government gets involved, they are going to fuck it up even worse than it is now, and use it to control us even more. I don't like the idea of people going without medical care, but I can't see a way of providing true universal coverage that won't wind up either unmanageably expensive, or with me personally paying more for worse care, managed by government bureaucrats. Any system will have to be rationed, and that will inevitably lead to corruption, where people will unfairly try to influence the bureaucrats who decide who or what gets treated.
i am going to address this in a later post. government can (and will) run an efficient and cost-contained nat'l health care system. the huge profits being made by the insurance, hmo's, and the medical supply companies are where all the money is going; not to the doctors, nurses or even the rank and file hospital administrators. eliminate them and the cost of health care is very low. (don't believe that right wing propaganda that government is incaple of doing anything right. check out our interstate highway system for an example, it is the envy of the world and government did every single inch of it.) remember WE are the government and WE can make it operate correctly.
more later. don't lose faith.
I wrote Lugar, one of my Senators
( not LugEr btw, that's a german pistol) a impassioned and reasonable letter during the ramp up to war in late 02 to ask him to reconsider his stance on supporting the invasion of Iraq and the obviously false pretenses for it.I mentioned that invading Iraq would lead to something much worse than Vietnam, ferment more radical Islamic fevor, make more terrosists AND endanger the practical needs of the oil supply by strengthening Iran and Al Queda.
I got a very polite, hand written reply basically telling me I was 100% wrong, and that he and the Bush administration knew what they were doing was not only correct but also just and in the best interest of the country AND the state of Indiana.
I appreciate that he has finally come around, but his realization is dripping in the blood of thousands of my countrymen and women and countless thousands of innocent Iraquis.
I'd like to see him resign.
I mean it.
If his conscience dictates he change his tune, then he should, in good conscience, repent for his horrible decisions and step down.
Since this isn't going to happen, I'd like to see my Senator actively seek for not only the war's end, but the prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for "misleading" Congress into this war.
All of those in both Houses of Congress who enabled this administration to carry out this war have the stain of innocent blood on their hands and no amount of washing is going clean them. ( ask Miss Macbeth ).
This why I'm actively working against Hillary Clinton as the Dem nominee.
No one who read the newspaper let alone classified brifings believed Saddam was a threat or that he had the capapbility to attack the US or even Israel.
So either she was such a coward that she voted for the war so she wouldn't be seen as soft when she ran in 08 OR she knew the war would fail and didn't protest so the Bushies would hang themselves politically and open the door for her.
Either scenario is morally repugnant and she needs to be judged by her actions.
You and I have to live with our decisions good and bad and so should she and the entire pre-04 congress who voted for the war.
Wow, uh, I seem to have gone off on a little rant here...
enjoy every sandwich,
Ah, the internet, where everyone thinks they're smart and witty...
I don't believe I claimed to be either smart nor witty
great post, brad. i agree with you wholeheartly on ms. clinton. every congress person who did not openly question the reasons for the war, who did not examine in the fullest detail possible all the briefing papers and who did not question (and accept only full answers) the president, the sec. of state, the sec. of defense, the head of the cia and all the other officials clamoring for war. is guilty of the same "crimes" as the bushies. under law that is considered to be an accomplice before the fact. and to carry out that train of thought, all those in the public who blindly believed the claims of the president and his gang and therefore endorsed and supported the war are as guilty.
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