Checks and Balances...

i've said it before, and i'll keep saying it again.

with a republican congress (even a moderate-republican senate), BushCo can push through almost any agenda they want.

If you're worried about Kerry doing something stupid, keep in mind that the Repubs are hardly likely to lose the Senate. The point of the system is checks and balances, that no one side gets too powerful to run the nation without restraint.

So Kerry is hardly going to get anything of his agenda pushed through without serious debate, discussion, and compromise, AS IT SHOULD BE. Especially his health-care plan (ill-conceived, based too strongly on the canadian plan that we already know doesn't work too well).

Don't vote for Kerry because of what he may or might not do specifically, vote to restore checks and balances and restraints of power...

And ALWAYS consider that the next three supreme court appointees (and there could be that many or more by the time the next term ends) WILL set the tone of the nation for the *next 25 years*. Remember that all of Reagan's appointees ARE STILL IN THERE.

Do you want a supreme court that doesn't give a rats ass about individual rights? the supreme court is our last stand for our rights and the constitution that asserts them and the means by which they are protected.

It is my fervent belief that having Kerry-appointed moderates (over Bush-appointed conservatives with the same attitudes as his own cabinet) is FAR more important to the future of this country than anything else, be it health-care, tax cuts, how to handle iraq.   Those are all short-term things and yes they're important, but they'll be forgotten in 5 years.  But the impact of a supreme court nominee will be felt for generations.

That court is our lifeline to our children's future, the last check on the mob-rule that has been taking away power of the individual and giving it to the corporations of the world.

ok, now THIS is a joke...

How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

None. There’s nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn’t work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.

found at the upcoming John Cleese website, though I'm not sure if Cleese himself wrote it (he probably didn't).

rediscovering my lost childhood...

far back in the midsts of ancient times, namely the mid to late 1970s, my dad was in the practice of taking great stuff and making 8-track tape mixes of his favorite stuff on vinyl, in order to take with him in the car (and more importantly, on ship when serving on the uss constellation cv-64 in 1979-1981).

One particular tape had tons of great stuff, few of them major hits, but stuff that has stuck with me in my head whilst having no clue at all who actually did any of it.  Some I rediscovered over the years (Yvonne Elliman's Everything's Alright from the MCA Cast recording of JCS, and The Raven from Alan Parsons Project), others were moderate hit bands that kept some popularity into the classic-rock era (Telephone Line and Living Thing from ELO, Strange Way and You Are The Woman by Firefall, a few Seals and Croft things my mom liked and as such could remember them by name) but several others completely eluded any chance to figure out what they are...

and i didn't know them (or so i thought) strongly enough to be able to sing them to dad so he could recognize it and pull out the vinyl...

well, one of them i heard on a jukebox @ the wharf rat this past saturday, and a lyrical look-up ("So Into You" ) found it to be The Atlantic Rhythm Section (anybody here remember them?)  Another track of theirs on the same album Iimaginary Lover) was also on that mix.

Well, the last remaining song in my head I finally had enough of a lyric stick out that i could actually google it, and found out it was Donovan's "Wear Your Love Like Heaven".

I feel much better now.

You know, i might go about buying all the "greatest hits" cds of those groups (that i don't already have) and re-make the mix on cdrom for my dad.

update: i did exactly that!