First they came for the Muslims
and I didn�t speak up
because I wasn�t a Muslim.
Then they came for the Mexicans
and I didn�t speak up
because I wasn�t a Mexican.
Then they came for the Blacks
and I didn�t speak up
because I wasn�t a Black.
Then they came for the Women
and I didn�t speak up
because I wasn�t a Woman.
Then they came for the Queers
and I didn�t speak up
because I wasn�t a Queer.
Then they came for Dissenters
and I didn�t speak up
because I wasn�t a Dissenter.
Then they came for me
and I told them I couldn�t go right then
because the NASCAR race wasn�t over yet
so they shot me.

I get pissed, I quit posting to this as well as other sites because I just get tired of the same rhetoric over and over. You know; the Bush administration is doing, has done_____________________(fill in the ubiquitous blank). Then follows the plethora of outraged comments from readers expressing their dismay and exhorting their fellow posters to stay the course; elections are coming, �we�ll make change.�

I got news for you delusional folks, Bush just declared this country a totalitarian state, right under your latte sipping noses. I don�t know if this means anything to you folks out there in la-la-land, but right now, under Bush�s new legislation, anyone can be labeled an �enemy combatant.�

The bill also expands the definition of an unlawful enemy combatant to cover anyone who "has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." One person has already been charged with aiding terrorists because he sold a satellite TV package that includes the Hezbollah network. And by the way, the definition on just who �has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States,� is left up to the interpretation of Bush, Cheney and Company.

Folks� tell me I�m angry, you can bet you sweet bippy I�m angry. Folks� tell me I �gotta work within the �system.�� What frigging system? Bush just eliminated Habeas Corpus, folks, is the electoral process far behind? How do you want to work this next �peaceful demonstration� out? Shall we have the Gestapo place the �protest area pens� next to the nearest Starbucks?

I had a poster reply to a comment I made on the AlterNet board, told me I had some serious �anger issues.� Your damn right I have some serious anger issues, anyone in Bush�s Amerika right now who doesn�t have serious �anger issues� is either lobotomized, or part of the deluded 37 percent who love Bush. I suppose if one wants to see real anger, just look what happens when the networks interrupt a football game, now that�s anger.

Then comes the next comment, �Well, just what do you intend to do?� Okay, for starters there are (according to the polls) about 60 percent of folks in this dictatorship who disagree with Bush�s version of WW III. Is it too much a stretch of the imagination to organize these millions of people into a cohesive, take it to the streets phalanx of humanity? Is it beyond comprehension that these millions could shut this frigging dictatorship down?

I mean, come on people, this is a country with a long history of taking it to the streets. I know, also a long history of people being jailed and killed, but freedom isn�t free, it has to be snatched back from the jaws of the fascists in Washington. Freedom isn�t free and if we could ask the following folks, they�d concur: August Spies, Bill Haywood, Emma Goldman, Mary Harris, Eugene Debs, Lucy Parsons, Albert Parsons, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, George Engel, Adolf Fischer and many, many more.

There is, without a doubt, something seriously wrong with the collective Amerikan psyche. The Bush cabal no longer hides sh**, they are right up in our faces with it because they know ain�t nobody gonna do a frigging thing. They got us, boys and girls, and they are laughing all the way to the bank.

Thanks for allowing me to rant, Ill wait for the emails picking me apart, asking, �Well what are you doing, besides ranting?� And I�ll answer, "I also get in the street, have the cops stop me because I: (a) 'look suspicious,' (b) 'we heard that. . . . .' or (c) 'a car matching this description . . . '" It always cracks me up, I am after all soon to be 69 years of age; my hair is still halfway down my back and I have a full beard. I suppose that�s the surface (suspicious) look.

But in addition, I have two knee replacements, crushed nerves in the back, COPD, walk around with an Implantable defibrillator in my chest (and man, if a cop ever tasers me, I hope my wife owns them), wear a hearing aid and walk with a cane. I guess I�m a real terrorist threat. Although I must say, right here in Philadelphia a few years back (right after 9/11), I had a truck rental agent threaten to call the cops on me for making �terroristic threats.� I was a bit peeved because he kept me waiting four hours to pick up a rental and when I asked about it, he told me he was going to the bank and I just �had to wait some more.� So, I threatened to dislocate his jaw. Anger issues again, I know.

I suppose I could collect my things and go offshore. I�ve threatened it on occasion, but damn it, this is my country. This is where my kids grew up, this is where my grandkids are growing up. If I don�t stay and fight for them, who will? Perhaps, if I find a willing brain surgeon (ala Dr. Mengele), I could get a lobotomy done; probably easier to do it voluntarily than wait for the Bush forces.

Oh well, gotta go, time for the next installment of Desperate Housewives, as soon as the NASCAR race ends.