While the President touts what he calls an economic recovery, the numbers tell a different story. Millions of Americans are still without jobs, and their prospects are not good.
New York Times reporter Jayson Blair may have been taking his cue from his president -- both are representatives of a culture that values appearance over reality.
In addition to getting out in the streets this weekend, there are many other creative and practical things you can do to oppose the impending war on Iraq.
Despite what leading experts and renowned meatheads say, the government's assertion that irradiated food is safe for human consumption does not even pass the laugh test.
We need to inform Bush that our primary concern is not whether or not he gets the guy who "tried to kill" his dad. We are more interested in the fact that he is running our country into the ground.
Lucky for us, you can now secretly inform on your cable-stealing neighbors at cabletheft.com -- while the cable industry steals from consumers virtually unchecked.
Audit rates for the taxpayers with the lowest incomes have increased by a third since 1988, while falling 90% for the wealthiest Americans. Obviously, the more money you earn, the better equipped you are to deal with the IRS.
Mail scams pale beside the great pyramids. Not the ones in Egypt, but those constructed by the unwitting, the wishful thinkers, and the just plain greedy.
"The good times are rolling to a screeching halt. There is no surer indication that the four year internet bubble has burst than the precarious health of Amazon.com, and the recent disembowelling of Salon.com."
"Author of the new book Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain is the Brenedict Arnold of the restaurant world. Hidden beneath the sparkling white table linen of many an upscale dining establishment is a shocking amount of dirty laundry, and with considerable panache and an finely honed sense of the ridiculous, Chef Bourdain reveals it all."
Bob Dole may not have made it to the White House, but before he left Washington for the greener pastures of Comedy Central and Viagra endorsements, he set the stage for the current healthcare crisis.
"From May to September, the small screen is clogged with re-runs. Any original programming is based on the assumption that temperatures above 70 degrees cause the brain to melt and the IQ to dip into the single digits. Granted, the advent of warm weather brings out the child in all of us, but that hardly explains the pre-literate quality of summer entertainment."
"On an annual basis, more people die from medical mistakes than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. The majority of medical errors are not due to individual recklessness, but result from basic flaws in the way the health system is organized."
"When it comes to waffling, it seems George W. is not the only candidate who checks to see which way the wind is blowing before he takes a stand. Hillary has flopped and floundered like a fish out of water. Turns out kissing up is not as easy as it looks. "
"The war on drugs is about to heat up and, for a change, the Medellin cartel, the border patrol and the DEA are nowhere in sight. Not surprising when you consider that the villains are Fortune 500 corporations and the victims are cardiac patients, menopausal women, diabetics, allergy sufferers, and everyone else whose quality of life depends on receiving the proper medications."
"While we may no longer sacrifice fatted calves or virgins, we cannot seem to resist the tendency to run off at the mouth with ruminations on the recent past, predictions for the future, and lists without end, amen. I won't waste your time on those who've already had their day in print, but it couldn't hurt to reflect on some news that never made the front pages, a way of reminding ourselves what not to step in next year."
"The rigorous and demanding Christmas shopping marathon -- once a sport as mentally rigorous as chess, as teeth jarring as ice hockey, and as demanding of fortitude as the Iron Man Triathalon -- has been brought to its very knees by the dastardly dot coms."
"It's too bad that no one has come up with an SAT-type test for the Presidency of the United States. It would at least weed out the hopelessly dimwitted Legacy Candidates from the genuinely qualified."
Pokemon, for those who don't have kids under the age of 11, is a number-one-rated cartoon series, video game and trading card franchise that has become an addiction for scores of American kids. Fed up with the Pokemon dynasty, enraged parents are now striking back. Four mothers have filed a class action suit against the makers of Pokemon cards, claiming that they have created an "illegal gambling enterprise through their manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of Pokemon trading card packages."
"The only nostalgia I feel for the backwoods of rural New Hampshire is that I am missing out on the fervent camaraderie and full throttled debate that accompanies the hallowed quadrennial event, that sacred institution, the first-in-the-nation primary."
The recent hue and cry raised by the publication of "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan," arises from the coy admixture of truth and fiction utilized by author Edmund Morris to explicate the black hole that was our 40th President.
"While the rest of the planet is gearing up for the new millennium, I'm only just beginning to ease my way into this one. The wonders of the post-industrial age are an abiding mystery."
Historians tell us that the brainwashing of the American electorate was one of the many daring political innovations introduced by former Arkansan Bill Clinton. Instead of long years of conducting the people's business, interrupted by brief periods of political wheeling and dealing, Clinton introduced the neverending campaign.
"A landmark decision on gay marriage is expected imminently from the Vermont Superior Court. It may make Vermont the first state to recognize gay couples as legally married partners."
"Not so very long ago, little kids wanted to grow up to be the President of the United States. I can't remember anyone who wanted to become Chairman of the Fed. But, in point of fact, the Federal Reserve Board is now the major policy setting institution in the country, which makes Alan Greenspan, not Bill Clinton, the most powerful individual on the planet."
"Dimensions of new homes are on the rise, but statistics show that overall, square footages of living space are virtually stagnant over the past eight years. With the exception of the upper five percent of the economic pyramid, the rest of us are piling up like lemmings, running out of habitat."
"After a mere five years in a real paying job, George W. has announced that he is ready to take over the reins of the family business and move into the White House. It makes you wonder why Americans pay less attention to the qualifications of potential presidents than we do to selecting a plumber, an auto mechanic or an appliance repairman."
"In the aftermath of the tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, there has been a deluge of blame, focussing on the accessibility of guns, and the unrelenting violence in the media. Lost in all the finger pointing has been the root cause least reducible to sound bites and headlines, the pervasive sense of anomie that characterizes our lives at the turn of the century."
Hello folks. Your old friend Charlton Heston here... Not only are guns proven to enhance levels of circulating androgens, but membership in my club has the added advantage of making you a player on the national political scene. In 1994 alone, the year the Republicans regained control of the House and the Senate, our 3 million NRA members contributed to more than 10,000 state and national campaigns, with an 82 percent success rate.
"The Food and Drug Administration, responsible for safeguarding the nation's food and drug supply, has instead become hopelessly compromised. Under ferocious pressure from pharmaceutical manufacturers to expedite the drug approval process, the FDA is becoming more of a health hazard than the NRA and Big Tobacco put together."
"On March 14, the Los Angeles Times, published by the Otis and Chandler families for 119 years, was swallowed whole by the Chicago Tribune. On the following day, the Tribune trumpeted its entry into the Who Wants To Be King of the MultiMedia World sweepstakes, alongside such industry giants as AOLTimeWarner, DisneyABCTV, Yahoo!KMart, and Rupert Murdoch."
"When a bronze star for Howdy Doody was unveiled on the NBC-TV 'Walk of Fame,' the famed cowboy was nowhere to be seen. He was locked in a bank vault in New London, Connecticut. An ugly custody battle is forthcoming, and it will take a court order to set Howdy free. It looks like it's Howdy Greedy Time."
