no comment

Why I don't need a publicly-displayed 2 1/2 Ton granite monument to remind me of what's right and what's wrong.

This is my simple religion.
There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
-- The XIV Dalai Lama

If you don't think too good, don't think too often.
-- Ted Williams

US Republican Party outsources fund raising to India

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY is using call centers in Gurgaon and Noida in India to raise funds for itself and for its chieftain, George W. Bush.

Young people at the call centers are helping robots to phone American citizens to enlist their support and money for the political party, with plans to extend the scheme if they whip up enough donations.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/08/270875.shtml


Since the Coalition of the Rich and Powerful seized power, over 2 1/2 million jobs have disapeared from the US.

• Plan A to fix the economy was to cut taxes for the wealthy. After three such cuts, unemployment continues to escalate. No matter how the Bushies try to massage the numbers, one fact is clear: every week there are more unemployed ex-workers.


• Plan B is to obfuscate. Example: while stumping for the Prez on Labor Day, Secretary of anti-Labor Elaine Chao was asked about the administration's plans to improve the jobless situation. Her response (repeatedly) was that such questions were politicizing the situation. She also pointed out that there are 3 million unfilled jobs in this country. She didn't say how many of them were for wages higher than the minimum wage, or how many of them provided any kind of health care benefits


• Plan C is to be united on one point: all of the country's economic woes are due to 9/11. Hmmmm: in an informal, non-scientific poll, I asked business owners at random whether or not the events of 9/11/2001 were keeping them from expanding there businesses, buying new equipment, and hiring more employees. Everyone of them said that 9/11 is no longer affecting their businesses. I must be asking the wrong ones.


• Plan D is to change the Fair Labor Standards Act so that employers can, at will, eliminate the requirement to pay overtime pay to employees who work, um, overtime. The proper spin for this is to claim that it will actually help low-paid workers; the actual goal is to pay everyone less, and to pit middle-income workers against low-income workers


• Plan E is to lead by example - outsource jobs to foreigners - as in the news item that provoked this rant.

Now isn't that an interesting irony?

Robots and Indian youth will be calling unemployed and under-employed Americans asking them to donate to the Party and Prez who perpetuate the recession, thus helping to keep those Americans out of work/underpaid even longer.

Where is the outrage?

I was going to express an opinion, but the following pretty much says it
all.

"God bless the little children while they're still too young to hate."
-- Tom T. Hall

"But I say to you that listen,
Love your enemies,
Do good to those who hate you,
Bless those who curse you,
Pray for those who abuse you."
-- Luke 6: 27-28

"History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that
pursued this self-defeating path of hate."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Loathe (v): To dislike greatly; to abhor; to hate."
-- Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996

"I loathe Kim Jong Il"
-- George W. Bush

"...that weekend my faith took on a new meaning. It was the beginning of a
new walk where I would commit my heart to Jesus Christ."
-- George W. Bush in his book "A Charge to Keep"

"All we are saying, is give peace a chance"
-- J. Lennon