JUST CALL ME SCHLEPROCK

Or whatever the name of that Flintstones character was who had a literal cloud following him around, usually raining, occasionally making with the odd gigavolt lightning strike--

Okay, I'm just moaning because I happen to live in a particular part of the Northwest where we suffer from "air stagnation alerts"--which means the fog rolls in, thick and fluffy, and those of us (and call us Legion, for we are many, as a demonically possessed man identified himself to Jesus one fine Biblical day) who burn wood for heat add to the problem by pumping smoke into the mix. The net effect is a sort of prehistoric smog, pinned to the valley by a temperature inversion. It's like being inside a box of smoldering cotton...hell, even the tops of the trees (and the trees are Ent fucking humungous here) are obscured.

The psychological effect of this particular brand of gloom cannot be understated. It simply fucks your head, first by vigorously pumping out all optimism and mirth, then slowly replacing it, like a Thermarest inflating at 12,000 feet, with woe, grief and despair--

So fuck. What can I say? I'm just copping to the filter that I'm working through now--to give you the state of mind I've been in to reflect upon the recent events in Washington. I cop to it because I sense the populace believes the "tide is turning" against the neocons (sic--they are neo-fascists) because the mainstream media is reporting a bit (and I emphasize bit, as in tiny, miniscule, itty, bitty iota of a scintilla) of reality, and because a handful of democrat governors were elected, and because Schwarzenegger lost all four (gasp, choke) of his nefarious ballot initiatives.

It's hard to attain a phrase profane enough to capture my true feelings here, but let me try this one, fraught with incest, blasphemy, and no small measure of political incorrectness:

Sweet Jesus Motherfuck, what are we wetting our collective panties about, hmmm? A couple of governorships for the dems, and Ahnuld dealt a minor setback, and some think this indicates the tide is turning?

Mark my words: you heard it here first. The neo-fascists who currently run this country (and that is the Bush folks, and the military/pharmaceutical/oil/banking people they have promoted and coddled above all else, including our Constitution, our soldiers, and our freaking children) will never lose another election that matters. While it is "good", in the absolute sense, to have those governorships, defeated der Gropenfuhrer's anti-working class ballot initiatives, and, as the cherry on top, tossed the inbred microcephelatic "intelli-design" fundies off a school board in Pennsylvania--these are tiny little battles the opposition is only too happy to concede.

Why do I say that?

Because California and other states continue to work furiously to certify the demonstrably untraceable and easily altered voting machines--which will be used in the next elections, the midterm elections, the one where Congress could change hands and expose Bush et al to impeachment and prosecution for war crimes (torture is a war crime, eh?)...which carries the Death Penalty.

I say it because this month in Ohio (where Kenneth Blackwell, who was somehow permitted to serve as both Secretary of State and W's campaign manager, presided over an election where exit polls showed Kerry winning handily, the suddenly Kerry lost...in a near syndicated repeat of Katherine Harris' role in 2000), polls showed a voting reform measure stripping the Secretary of State of that power winning by at least 60/40--

But when the ballots were "counted" by that same Kenneth Blackwell, strangely, the measure was defeated by that same ratio.

This is the second time (or third, if you count the '02 Georgia and Nebraska U.S. Senate elections) results defied the polls in a statistical anomally at least as rare as hitting the Powerball twice...on consecutive weeks. In other words, even in 2005, a piddly "off-year" election--the lowest tier, below even midterm elections--the real battles were lost. Untraceable electronic voting is alive and well, shepherded to this point by key corrupt officials like Blackwell, Harris, the Governator-- all of it still owned by private corporations dedicated to this administration.

Understand this clearly, in case I somehow didn't punch through: THE VOTE IS STILL RIGGED.

The stakes in '06 are huge. Because Bush et al have authorized torture, have used chemical weapons on civilians, have jeapordized U.S. security by outing a CIA operative specializing in counter-terrorism and weapons of mass destruction--our own federal laws (follow the link above) provide they should be executed. They can't take that risk. They won't take that risk. They will rig the vote to ensure a Congress that will not impeach. They will install a Supreme Court Justice who has guaranteed Cheney/Bush in private that everyone can be pardoned, even the President himself, even for treason. If any significant resistance threatens, the avian flu, a "terrorist" attack, or some convenient natural disaster will be used as an excuse to impose martial law, perhaps suspending elections altogether.

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Recall at the outset I warned I've been wallowing for several days in a smoky, foggy valley, without even the frigid rain to wash the air clean. So I suppose I could fairly be accused of being jaded, unreasonably reluctant to claim momentum for "our side"--because there are indeed other signs of life in the gangrenous, syphilitic corpse that was U.S. democracy:

Patrick Fitzgerald has reignited (reinstated seems a bit mild, eh?) the grand jury to probe the treason committed by the White House; Rep. Murtha from Ohio threw down the gauntlet and demanded, as a decorated, seasoned war veteran, that U.S. troops be returned home--immediately and wholly, from their utterly failed and now impossible mission in Iraq; Randy Cunningham plead guilty to bribery and resigned from the house; Bush fled to the only country that likes him--Mongolia--after Central and South America essentially rolled CAFTA up into a fat papyrus cylinder and told W to go fuck himself--preferably sheathing it first in a wire-bristle punishment condom--

Sure. that's all great, lovely stuff. And I mean that from the bottom of my prematurely curmudgeonly heart.

But let's see the troops home, let's see medical and psychological care for them and all Americans, let's see affordable housing and healthy food for everyone; let's see schools that do not indoctrinate the young for a life of wage-slavery and obeidience, let's close the torture gulags, then let's see Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Libby, etc., and their corporate cronies at Enron, Halliburton, Kellog, Brown and Root, Baker & McKenzie, Conoco, Exxon, Eli Lilly--ALL of them, just let me indulge in a bit of just-desserts fantasy here--tossed into Gitmo with stoned serial sodomist cannibals that have the munchies--and no food, no lube-- and definitely no utensils.

When all of that happens (except maybe the sodomy, but only for Karl Rove, because I think he would enjoy it) then you can squawk at me about turning tides, because right now, right the fuck now, as I type and as you read, PEOPLE ARE BEING IMPRISONED, RAPED , TORTURED AND KILLED IN OUR NAMES.

From here, deep within the fog and smoke (and let's face it, steeped in the harsh green liquor of my own bile) I predict that in '06 we will still be at war in Iraq--and Iran and Syria. We will have a fascist Supreme Court, Congress will be unchanged, Libby will remain untried, Bush will not be impeached, Schwarzenegger will be re-elected--

And the torture gulags will remain in operation, funded by our tax dollars.

It will take buckets of blood, metaphorically, for certain--and most likely, literally--to make it right again.

So don't go to sleep, goddamnit. Pay attention. We are in more danger than ever, now that we have flashed a feeble light on the Beast. When the flu strikes, or a "terrorist attack" or some other crisis occurs at a convenient moment to distract us and/or promote the granting of ever-more executive power, you have to sit down and ask yourself:

Why is this happening?

More importantly, Why in Sweet Jesus Motherfuck does it keep happening?

Peace out,

GB

Feel free to comment, or if you want more private correspondence: blanstonshrieks@yahoo.com