I remember growing up in Milwaukee in the ’50s and early ’60s. My family was poor but the city and county has a safety net back then. “Free” healthcare” at the county hospital, “free” dental and eyeglasses. And the city was dotted with parks, libraries, and swimming pools. In the summer, the schoolyards had organized activities, even chess! This was before food stamps, so my dad and I would take my coaster wagon to the welfare office a few miles away and stocked up on canned beef, rice, powdered milk and eggs and, of course, cheese.

I wonder what happened to caring for the community?

CH, except for the split infinitive,

to, albeit glumly, admit

I enjoyed your post.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, while intimidating low-level civil servants is just douche-baggery.

Face it, N. Korea is a country like no other. Their recent expsoe of Propaganda in the West is so insightful, that, except for the references to the Dear Leader (or whatever the potentate is called), it could have been put together by Noam Chomsky and the late Chalmers Johnston.

I think of them as “the Mouse that Roared”, the little country that declares war on the U.S. so that they can lose, get reparations, and fix the plumbing in the castle.

As with Iran, the U.S refuses to talk to any nation that doesn’t already submit to its wishes. How foolish! Talk is cheap and does not confer approval upon the policies of other nations. The U.S. should be talking to everyone, especially its own people.

I think both you and Kevin miss the point: the Founders meant for the government to have a right of privacy and for citizen’s lives to be transparent. Besides, what could go wrong?

Margaret, while rickd was a little OT, I can’t fault his view of O. He has no credibility left, whatever the topic. I don’t even listen to O anymore.

“Rule” books and “playbooks”, like those for Chutes and Ladders, set out the rules for ALL the players. What “rules” are our murdered victims to “play” by: Hide and Seek?

What really disgusts me is the use of the term “playbook”. What fucking game are we playing?

Another good reason to drag out my favorite gripe: charitable deductions. Do away with them! Tax subsidies for worthy causes are an inefficient way to improve society and are more often than not, wasteful or fraudulent. (Helping to pay Jerry Falwell Jr.’s salary? Sniper training for Israeli settlers? Come on!) Go through the Charity Navigator and check out the salaries paid to the executives of many charities. It’s easy to see that direct public spending would be better, since public employees don’t earn that much.

I’m in the medium income bracket and do donate a lot to charity, but cannot deduct it (no house!) Charity should come from empathy with those who have less or are treated more poorly than us.

I’d never heard of those heretics who suggest banking provides no value. I’ll bet they don’t own one. I nominate Matt Taibi for Mt. Rushmore for his emminently readable adnd grimly funny exlations of the Wall Street goings-on.

The reason Obama doesn’t want to answer to anyone is that the assasinations of Americans are already in full swing. Or, we’re all on the Tuesday with Death list already.

Ditto DW, well said. I would have used more expletives! And thanks Kevin for your great reporting. If the Oscar weren’t coming up, I would devote more time to these matters. (I’ve only seen Life of Pi, which I thought was beautiful.)

Seriously, as I’ve often said, we are Germany in the ’30s. Our options are running out, I’m afraid. Our loss of liberties (and perhaps our lives), our corrupt bankster-run government, vicious domestic militarism, and endless illegal wars have been greeted with a yawn from the docile, uneducated, propagandized, populace. I may even go buy a gun. With one bullet.

How ironic to end the post with John Kerry’s Senate testimony. I remember being stirred by it, even though he sounded like Thurston Howell III. But what a whore he turned out to be.

Was that Peter O’Toole to Omar Sharif?

Over a hundred years ago, people of all faiths and none traveled hundreds of mile to hear the Great Agnostic, Robert Ingersoll lecture. We are a very stupid people.

Our country is the laughing stock of the civilized world. God & guns!

Great minds think alike!