Merry Christmas America! You've got what you paid for: the Republicans have not only managed to grant the super rich, who bought your election, huge tax breaks, but you've also managed to give them a further advantage by allowing them to substantially decrease the amount of assistance they are willing to give you and your children in one of the only methods you have for moving your children out of poverty and the lower echelons of the working class. In order to save money (sic) the congress and administration have decided to cut Pell Grants to 1.3 million Americans.

So the rich get richer through their tax breaks, and the rich banks get richer by supplying more loans to needy students and their families. Next comes Social Security and the enrichment of Wall Street through the dumping of billions of dollars of working Americans' retirement funds into the hands of a few rich speculators. If you think the Fanny Mae scandel and the Savings and Loans scandels of the 1980s were bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. We're all headed for Enron territory.

Blowing in the wind: Today's New York Times comments on Michael Powell's shifting political attitudes with regards to what's decent and what ain't. Some four years ago, Powell won a Freedom of Speech Award for arguing that broadcasters shouldn't have to compete with the cable industry and the Net while having their tongues tied by antiquated decency restrictions. Since that time, Powell has led the fight to make America's air waves safe for the Religious Right. The Times reports that in 2000 fines levied by the FCC totaled less than fifty thousand dollars while, so far, this year they have almost reache the eight million dollar mark. Maybe it's Powell's way of trying to help the budget short fall that his party has created?

Have you noticed that the flack over last year's Super Bowl incident has consistantly been reffered to as "The Janet Jackson Incident"? Hey, it was the white dude who ripped her clothes off! Most of us can't even remember his name.

Let's see, what was Nixon's "southern strategy?" Oh, yes, remind the white southerners that as of the mid 1960s black Americans finally had gained the right to vote and that they were registering as Democrats. Hmmmm! Time to switch parties?

Thank goodness we've finally ended racism in this country (trans. "we'll call it by a different name").