The 911 Board's Weaselly Maneuver

This week's letter comes from Mr. A. Plum who wonders why the media is having such a hard time applying the label of “terrorist” to the man who intentionally flew his plane into the Austin IRS building last week. Thanks for the letter, Mr. P, we couldn't have said it any better. You can pick up your winnings, a bag of Strictly Organic coffee, at our office, 704 NW Georgia.

If someone flew an airplane into a building full of people to protest the Afghan war, it would be called an act of terrorism. However, when Mr. Joe Stack flew his plane into an IRS building and killed people, the news media calls it, “the accident” and “the incident.” The local Texas prosecutor declared that Mr. Stack was not a terrorist. But what should you call it when a man pens a manifesto proclaiming, “violence is the only answer,” then kills people because they work for the government? Mr. Stack's wife apologized on the news to “everyone affected by the incident,” but was careful not to use the term “victim” when referring to the people her husband murdered.

Our glorious brave Teapotty Patriots need not worry about our Great White Nation. Our obscenely rich ruling class and their obedient wealth worshippers will stop at nothing to protect and extend their enormous power, wealth and God-given free-market program, from which all poverty and misery flows to the rest of us! Their blessed tax-gobbling, multi-trillion dollar war machine, and its 800-plus publicly funded military bases around the world will bravely continue its perpetual wars, invasions, bombings, droning, slaughters and tortures for all who dare to resist the largest war machine ever seen on this small vulnerable planet.

It is very evident that the Republican Party in Washington is playing the game of saying “no” particularly when it comes to any medical care bill that is presented by the Obama administration. The same attitude seems to apply to many other areas of what Obama is trying to do to get us out of the financial mess that we are presently in. My question is: Is it more than differences in political philosophy and partisan politics?

The irony is not lost on me that a Trivia Bee benefiting the education of our district's students (Tower Theatre, February 20, 2010) should be rife with errors of all kinds: procedural, factual and typographical. Here are some suggestions for next year's Trivia Bee organizers to ponder.
* Ask fewer multiple-choice questions and more free-form answer questions. This will reduce the opportunity to misspell answers such as “Vic Atiyeh” and “Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.” It will also eliminate some of the “gimme” questions. (Is that a picture of Wolverine, Superman, or Spiderman? Is that Gary Larson's signature in the corner of the Far Side cartoon?)

Folks, elections do indeed have consequences, as we have seen in the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on “Citizens United… ” affirming corporate “personhood.” Each of the majority justices was appointed under a Republican administration.
It is obvious from Republican congressional “stonewalling” of President Obama's agenda that this party is aligned lock-step with mega-corporate interests – the Democratic Party being similarly-aligned only to a lesser extent.
Since “money” is now “free speech” mega-corporations, with their unfettered and unlimited financial resources, can hold both the president and Congress hostage to their collective agenda – much as a terrorist might – thus rendering the entire democratic process of little consequence.

In response to Mick McMenamenuto's (hey, it's a fake name anyway) claim that Tea Partiers have no answers but just want to complain, you are wrong.
The answer to the gigantic government deficit is to stop wasteful spending in Congress, in state government, and on the city commission. Stop pork barrel projects. (Yes, that includes federal funding for building frog tunnels in Sunriver, too.) Cut Congressional pay and reduce the size of our oversized, bloated, wasteful government. Open up our natural resources to the vast resources of oil, coal and natural gas right here in our country so we can stop depending on the Middle East for our energy.