I am listening to Air America, it has become an addiction for me, I must confess, and the show is Unfiltered with Chuck D. (who doesn't talk as much as I would like him to) and two other ladies. They brought up a good point about W. and all of the vacation days he has taken since being in office. First they show how Roosevelt had polio and was receiving treatments and being sickly and in 12 years he was absent about 150 days. W. has been out 150 and his 4 year term is not even up. They also said that we pay his salary, so imagine you owned a business and hired an employee and they were absent forty percent of the year. That is insane! This truly is bizarro world. Our tax dollars don't wield the power that they should. In this country you can be a gay or lesbian person and pay your taxes like a good little citizen and your government can decide on your dime that you will be discriminated against and they are even going to go one step farther and write it into the constitution, a document that states "all men are created equal." In my mind I imagine W. sneaking up to the constitution, removing the glass that protects it, and writing "except for fags and dykes" in red crayon. Then giggling wildly as he speeds off in his fully customized golf cart, with a rifle over one shoulder and Laura smiling adoringly at her man.

I saw a really great documentary this weekend called "An Injury to One" on the Sundance Channel, for those of you with cable, and it was so very much worth the 45 minutes I took to watch it. Here's a link to a description of the movie, An Injury to One. The film shows how large companies like the Anaconda Mining Company in the WWI-era were horribly repressive to their workers, engaged in war profiteering, and called for the lynching of Frank Little, a unionizer. What really grabbed me was the fact that this company owned the police, owned the newspapers so, as the film stated, the only news we have available is company news, and they were able to change the laws in Montana, and then THE NATION, that if you strike during a time of war, you can be charged with espionage and deported or put in jail for lengthy sentences. The film also traces how this event gave roots to the McCarthy era.

I have stated before, I am young, possibly naive to an extent, and I believed whole heartedly in all of the flag waving, America the Beautiful stuff that they teach in school. So when I learn about our countries sordid history of violence and disgraceful acts against humanity, its like finding out there is no Santa Clause and Tooth Fairy all over again. If this country has a history of giving in to large corporations and stepping on the little guy, is it really so hard to see the Tyco trials and Enron crap displayed on television? Are we really that surprised to see all of the pollution in this world caused by corporate pollution? Not really.

Oh yeah, the Easter Bunny is dead too.

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