First an attempt at a perspective on the state of our nation. A few weeks back I read an article which opined that 1/3 of the American electorate would vote for bush and cheney no matter what they did. Geo bush could be on tv sodomizing children on the white house steps and 1/3 of Americans would still vote for him, because, well just because. It seems that with few exceptions, mainstream media is part of that 1/3 silent idiocy. Scandal after scandal after scandal. Revelation after revelation. Todays scandals: 8 out of 9 reconstruction projects in iraq never happened. Billions upon billions into corporate executive pockets and nothing for Iraqis but death, squalor and destruction. Then we have ex cia director geo tenent publishing a book in which he calls his superiors complete liars. According to him, he warned them several times about a major terrorist event months before 9-11. alberto Gonzales continues to make a complete mockery of his office. Testifying before congress he sounds more and more like a sleezy used car salesman. It goes on and on and on and what happens? A few words in the press for a few days, then nothing. The arrogance of the bush crowd is only matched by the apathy of congress. There are a handful of courageous democratic senators and congresspersons, but the leadership of the democratic party are poseurs, seemingly only intent on winning the presidency in 08 by the policy of doing as little as possible while pretending to do something. Lets glance at their record. The dems have been in power for some months now. They refuse to impeach the worst 2 scoundrels in recent American history, there is absolutely no attempt to repeal such onerous laws as the usa unpatriot act, the military commissions act or any of the many other affronts to the constitution, not even any attempts to repeal torture as us policy. We supposedly voted for a change of govt. so what changed? Just a lot of hot air and grandstanding. And their front running choice for candidates? Hillery and obama. Tweedle dum and tweedle dee. Now we got a black guy and a woman as the anointed candidates. Swell. Beneath the color of skin and genitals, they are indistinguishable from any other party hacks. And this is supposed to represent progress in american politics. a few minor or fringe candidates do present some interesting possibilities, if we had a system that allowed a fair chance for anyone not previously anointed as safe by the powers that run the system. Chris dodd came out with some interesting proposals. Dennis Kucinich has some terrific ideas and may even be uncorrupted. Mike gravel is even more interesting. Long time listeners might recall way back when I interviewed gravel after he gave up being senator for Alaska in disgust over the system and founded the Philadelphia 2 project which was an attempt to create a national referendum and initiative system. What’s that you ask? Well, look at recent calif history. the important legislation never comes from the elected legislators. Most legislators are bankrolled by corporate interests to maintain the status quo. Most really important changes in calif came from the people bypassing the legislators and passing ballot initiatives. And if we ever manage to change that initiative procedure such that the big contributors to any initiative must be identified on the ballot, the initiative process would suddenly blossom into the logical way to enact change in our system. Elected officials would either serve the people or wither by the wayside. We the people would be able to pass laws benefiting we the people. What a radical concept. Mike gravel while senator realized that the national congress and senate are also too beholden to their big money contributors to ever really do anything for the people, so he created an organization dedicated to creating an initiative and referendum process on the national level. I don’t think he has forgotten that idea. He is one interesting dude. Lets see if he, like Kucinich, gets any real press.

Next item; congradualtions to nev city and police chief lou trovato for hiring mike Hughes as one of their new community service officers. As a sherrifs deputy Mike was a terrific people person, and he is ideally suited for his new job. And to those mean spirited persons who wrote in negative comments to the union article I can only say that you need to know the guy before shooting off your glib opinions. If you knew mike Hughes personally, or professionally, you would be mortified by your comments. Its obvious that some folks use any opportunity to vent their opinions with absolutely no real insite into what they are commenting on.

Bad mouthing mike Hughes because of one past bad decision is the perfect example. You couldn’t create a better fit for nev city community service officer than mike Hughes.

Next item: well now hugo chavez has done it. Up till now he has been pissing off the high poobahs who run the us mainly with speeches and alliances with other latin American nations, but now he is messing with the really big boys. He is now nationalizing venezuela’s oil. the very idea that a nation is entitled to develop and profit from its own national resources is anathema to international corporations and especially to the oil conglomerates. Its one thing to talk revolution. Its another thing entirely to practice it. the only question now is when and how the cia, which is in reality the enforcement arm of the bankers and oil men, will move on hugo chavez and Venezuela. How they will do it is a rather large problem. They’ve tried to oust him by funding his opponents in elections. That failed. Then they tried instigating and funding a military coup. That didn’t work either. The bastard is just too popular with his own people. I know that’s hard for Americans to understand, but it does happen. Some of the worlds political leaders are actually popular with their own people. The cia’s old fallback solutions are a bit impractical just now, what with the marines and air force being tied up in bushes follies in the mid east. Oh for the good ole days, when we would simply invade, conquer, kill off whomever in their govt opposed our business interests, install a puppet govt who would do our bidding, and then claim it was all in the interests of democracy. We’ve successfully done it for decades. But it’s a new world now, as the neo cons are doing pretty much what their predecessor adolf Hitler and the Nazis did, over extending their military forces, fighting on too many fronts to keep their empire intact. So as the new Nazis are engaged in fighting to control the oil of the middle east, in the process they are losing latin America. Napoleans downfall was invading Russia. Hitlers downfall was invading Russia. The present imperialists downfall seems to be invading the middle east. Axiom: no imperial power can win a guerilla war. The lesson the imperialists never seem to learn is that the pesky locals just don’t appreciate their natural resources being stolen, while their culture is trashed and their nation destroyed.. but the american imperialists seem too arrogant to learn from history, so they are busily repeating it. If it wernt for all the innocents suffering and dying, it would be jolly good theater. And just to bring this back to the local level, the nev co board of sups just voted some sort of symbolic gesture towards the troops in iraq. Notice that while some local govt bodies refuse to take even a symbolic stand on our folly in iraq, insisting that they were elected only to involve themselves in local issues, the nev co board of sups continually votes to honor the troups while refusing to honor their constituents who want to honor the troups by ending the war and bringing them safely home. My heart goes out to anyone and everyone with family members serving in iraq or Afghanistan, but I cant help but believe they are in massive denial when they continue to support their loved ones fighting in this foolish war. Stop waving your pathetic flags. I don’t care if all your relatives fought in just wars. This one is not a just war. Massive profits for the oil companies is not worth dying for. Have the cajones to admit the neocons who run our govt made a massive mistake, Bring the troops home, now.

Next item: kvmr often features commentaries by robt abele called spotlite on freedom. I found todays commentary worth repeating. He points out that if the media and the public that follows them are so excited by don imus insensitive and offensive comments re black women, that we have him fired, why do we allow equally offensive people like rush Limbaugh, ann coulter, and the other right wing media wackos to keep their jobs while making even more slanderous and demeaning comments? The answer of course is that hate speech couched as political commentary is acceptable, even encouraged, as long as the commentary is in line with the philosophy of the corporate big wigs who pay the bills and control the content. And then we have the opportunists on the other flank such as the occasionally righteous rev al sharpton. Hate speech from him is also tolerated because well, he says what some of us want him to say. How does this differ from rush, Michael savage, bill o reilly, or even don imus? We seem rather selective in who we vilify. Next item: Since so many are frightened and outraged by the ease with which an obviously deranged va tech student obtained the guns he used to murder his fellow students, the cries for gun control are growing louder. While I fully agree that some control must be asserted over obviously deranged and dangerous persons ability to obtain firearms, I caution that this is a very slippery slope and we must remember why the founders of our nation included the 2^nd amendment. A listener sent in these pithy comments. FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE   The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.   When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.   If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson. "Free" men do not ask permission to bear arms Those who trade liberty for security have neither. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?. 65 million American firearms owners killed no one yesterday . Criminals love gun control -- it makes their jobs safer. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control their guns. Malpracticing doctors kill more people than legitimate gun owners kill. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone. and finally, 911 is government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer. My comment: It is vitally important to understand that courts have repeatedly held that law enforcement is under no legal obligation to protect you. You cannot sue your police dept nor any peace officer for failure to protect you. Legally they can enjoy coffee and doughnuts instead of responding to your 911 call and you have no legal recourse. And if you get a court restraining order against someone you fear, you have a piece of paper, nothing more. Many people are starting to realize that owning a gun and knowing how to use it might be the only sane defense against a crazed ex mate. Restraining orders work against reasonable people. They do nothing against unreasonable people.