Rant
This election is giving me an ulcer. Seriously. I think I'm having physical symptoms. I'm having politics induced hypochondria-- and I need to know where to send my medical bills.
At the rate things are going now, I'm not even sure if I'll have medical coverage next year. I'm certainly not alone in this. Budget cuts in numerous government programs are making millions of people sweat. From the sunken faces of the unemployment lines; the sick and weary old men waiting for hours at the VA clinic to see a doctor; the hundreds of thousands of college students graduating to find that they must compete for jobs at Burger King ; the single mothers and fathers who no longer qualify for WIC and Medicaid; the poorly trained National Guard and reserve unit soldiers sent to the front lines with no armor except for a few sandbags and a plank of plywood, America is adding up the failures. America is beginning to notice.
America is noticing, but there is evidence of fear and exhaustion. We are terrified that we are going to let this vacuous buffoon drive our country over the cliffs of comfort into the rocky gorge of economic crisis and daily terrorist attacks.
We see the road ending. We feel our rights and comforts slipping away, but we are too tired and too lazy to care. As long as we can have our NFL Sunday Tickets, our Kentucky Fried Chicken and our luxury SUVs, we aren’t in any danger. Sure, we all plan on voting. Some of us even plan on voting for the vacuous buffoon. Some of us are afraid to vote for the underdog, regardless of whether he’s the lesser of… well, you know.
Some of us actually buy into the ridiculous spin of the Bushies. Some of us have mature 401Ks, investments in big business, million dollar homes and are more concerned with the fate of our bottom line than with the fate of the bottom of the American barrel— the people who need help, and need it desperately.
Did you know that the fed is going to cut Section 8? Do you know what Section 8 is? If you’ve ever had to apply for food stamps or other types of aid you do. Section 8 is the voucher program that keeps poor people in housing. The fed wants to average the cost of living in urban areas with the cost of living in rural areas and issue vouchers accordingly.
What does this mean? This means that if you are living in New York City, in a 600 square foot studio with your three children, the $1,200 per month the government is giving you for housing (based on the standard cost of living in NYC) is going to drop to the average of the cost of living in NYC and the cost of living in, say, Ontario County (a very rural area). So let’s say the average studio in NYC is $1,400 per month, and the average one bedroom in Ontario County is $400 per month. The feds want to take that sum, ($1,800) divide it by two ($900), and call that the average cost of living for the state of New York. This means that in order for you to make your $1,400 a month rent, you have to come up with $500 per month instead of $200 per month.
This might really suck if you have two jobs, three kids and no spouse. This is not important to the Bushies. They have bigger fish to fry like John Kerry. They have to make a big enough stink about Kerry’s “indecisiveness” and “fake war medals” to cover up the fact that BUSH DESERTED HIS DUTY WITH THE NATIONAL GUARD!
Do you know what they do to the average Joe Blow deserter? They lock his ass away at Leavenworth! The UCMJ is pretty clear about that. Oh, and they aren’t shy about handing out a sentence with hard labor either. But hell, that’s not what’s important.
What’s important is the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed by our troops and “precision guided” weapons. What’s important is the thousand soldiers who have been killed for no good reason.
So we have our oil now. We also have a huge fucking quagmire that involves our friendly little Nations of the Order of the Axis of Evil (yes, I made that up) processing plutonium and sharing it like crayons in kindergarten.
Let’s do some more math. Math is fun. North Korea has fairly advanced ballistics technology. Iran and Syria can make war heads. North Korea, Iran and Syria are best friends… oh, and they hate the USA. It’s pretty obvious that the US military is stretched pretty thin right about now. (I wonder how hard it would be to land a nuke in Orange County?) Anyway, North Korea + Syria + Iran + weapons grade plutonium + ballistics technology = ? Cheaper gas for your SUV? Maybe. Or maybe a hole in southern California the size of Uzbekistan. But what the hell do I know? I’m just a dumb kid.
At the rate things are going now, I'm not even sure if I'll have medical coverage next year. I'm certainly not alone in this. Budget cuts in numerous government programs are making millions of people sweat. From the sunken faces of the unemployment lines; the sick and weary old men waiting for hours at the VA clinic to see a doctor; the hundreds of thousands of college students graduating to find that they must compete for jobs at Burger King ; the single mothers and fathers who no longer qualify for WIC and Medicaid; the poorly trained National Guard and reserve unit soldiers sent to the front lines with no armor except for a few sandbags and a plank of plywood, America is adding up the failures. America is beginning to notice.
America is noticing, but there is evidence of fear and exhaustion. We are terrified that we are going to let this vacuous buffoon drive our country over the cliffs of comfort into the rocky gorge of economic crisis and daily terrorist attacks.
We see the road ending. We feel our rights and comforts slipping away, but we are too tired and too lazy to care. As long as we can have our NFL Sunday Tickets, our Kentucky Fried Chicken and our luxury SUVs, we aren’t in any danger. Sure, we all plan on voting. Some of us even plan on voting for the vacuous buffoon. Some of us are afraid to vote for the underdog, regardless of whether he’s the lesser of… well, you know.
Some of us actually buy into the ridiculous spin of the Bushies. Some of us have mature 401Ks, investments in big business, million dollar homes and are more concerned with the fate of our bottom line than with the fate of the bottom of the American barrel— the people who need help, and need it desperately.
Did you know that the fed is going to cut Section 8? Do you know what Section 8 is? If you’ve ever had to apply for food stamps or other types of aid you do. Section 8 is the voucher program that keeps poor people in housing. The fed wants to average the cost of living in urban areas with the cost of living in rural areas and issue vouchers accordingly.
What does this mean? This means that if you are living in New York City, in a 600 square foot studio with your three children, the $1,200 per month the government is giving you for housing (based on the standard cost of living in NYC) is going to drop to the average of the cost of living in NYC and the cost of living in, say, Ontario County (a very rural area). So let’s say the average studio in NYC is $1,400 per month, and the average one bedroom in Ontario County is $400 per month. The feds want to take that sum, ($1,800) divide it by two ($900), and call that the average cost of living for the state of New York. This means that in order for you to make your $1,400 a month rent, you have to come up with $500 per month instead of $200 per month.
This might really suck if you have two jobs, three kids and no spouse. This is not important to the Bushies. They have bigger fish to fry like John Kerry. They have to make a big enough stink about Kerry’s “indecisiveness” and “fake war medals” to cover up the fact that BUSH DESERTED HIS DUTY WITH THE NATIONAL GUARD!
Do you know what they do to the average Joe Blow deserter? They lock his ass away at Leavenworth! The UCMJ is pretty clear about that. Oh, and they aren’t shy about handing out a sentence with hard labor either. But hell, that’s not what’s important.
What’s important is the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed by our troops and “precision guided” weapons. What’s important is the thousand soldiers who have been killed for no good reason.
So we have our oil now. We also have a huge fucking quagmire that involves our friendly little Nations of the Order of the Axis of Evil (yes, I made that up) processing plutonium and sharing it like crayons in kindergarten.
Let’s do some more math. Math is fun. North Korea has fairly advanced ballistics technology. Iran and Syria can make war heads. North Korea, Iran and Syria are best friends… oh, and they hate the USA. It’s pretty obvious that the US military is stretched pretty thin right about now. (I wonder how hard it would be to land a nuke in Orange County?) Anyway, North Korea + Syria + Iran + weapons grade plutonium + ballistics technology = ? Cheaper gas for your SUV? Maybe. Or maybe a hole in southern California the size of Uzbekistan. But what the hell do I know? I’m just a dumb kid.
posted by abbiapple at 4:17 PM
2 Comments:
quite honestly, i think that everyone, particullary those between the ages of 21 and 30, are expierencing the greatest anxiety of their life. the symptoms you explained are something i hear about frequently as my friends and i discuss the future. it is a "oh my god lets 'move to canada and die there of old age'" situation. it is tough not to feel like "dumb kids" but it is us kids that are going to rock this election, hopefully, and make the difference.
why'd you have to pick orange county? someone near there you'd like nuked??
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