Bumper sticker of the week: If you must drive 65, please stay in the right lane.
Quote of the week (old Chinese story): An old man is too weak to work in the garden or help with household chores. He just sits on the porch, while his son tills the soil and pulls up weeds. One day, the son looks up at the old man and thinks, ''What good is he now that he's so old? All he does is eat up the food. I have a wife and kids to think about. It's time for him to be done with life!'' So he makes a large wooden box, places it in a wheelbarrow, rolls it up on the porch and says to the old man, ''Father, get in.'' The father lies down in the box and the son puts the cover on it, then wheels it toward the cliff. At the edge of the cliff, the son hears a knock from inside the box. ''Yes, father?'' the son asks. The father replies, ''Why don't you just throw me over the cliff and save the box? Your children will need it one day.''
Galesburg needs leadership with a vision of what Galesburg can become, not people wishing it could go back to what it once was.
Enron is going to create enormous problems for King Bush and his Washington entourage. Their hope is that the people of this country will continue to be preoccupied by our war on terrorism, so much so that maybe no one will notice how involved W. George, Dick Cheney, and numerous other administration members have been with Enron over the years. In fact, the Enron CEO, Ken Lay, is a close personal friend of W., a campaign contributor of note ($623,000), and was on the recent secret energy advisory panel chaired by Cheney. Another interesting connection, Phil Gramm's (senator from Texas) wife is on the Enron board of directors. She did also happen to cash in some of her stock just before the Enron collapse. She must really be smart. The whole calamity is going to be really fun to watch. We'll see if Katherine Harris and Jeb can fix this one, or if it will take daddy to step in. Actually, the Enron money runs so deep, it is possible no one in Washington will want to investigate it.
P.S. By the way, they destroyed most of the accounting records from Enron. Oops! Those dummy millionaires. But I can see how this can happen. Just the other day I accidentally burnt all my tax records for this year. I'm sure the IRS will take my word for it.
The first soldier was killed in the Afghan fiasco by enemy fire. Actually, they think it was a 10 year-old kid. Anyway, the news media goes nuts. Someone actually was killed in a war. How awful. All these corporate ninnybabies are just about useless anymore. The news media supports these slaughters as if they are noble battles, which of course, they are far from. Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the poorest and most exploited places on Earth, both basically defenseless, with mainly civilian casualties, and almost complete devastation of their infrastructures. While you feel bad what happened in New York, it is a pitiful legacy that we are leaving behind in their name. Both brought to you by the Bush family.
Illinois FIRST funds come to Galesburg. Knox College, a private, non-state-operated school, gets renovation money. The state can't pay their bills out at the Knox County Nursing Home, or manage to adequately fund numerous social service agencies, but somehow can give over a million bucks to Knox, traditionally known for its rich alumni. I don't get it? Well, I suppose I do get it, but I ain't voting for them anyway.
After the election fiasco of 2000, it was reported that upwards of one million votes are thrown out during every presidential election. Influences include inadequate machinery, inaccurate voter registration, inadequate voter education, badly designed ballots, ineffectual appeal procedures, partisan Supreme Court interference, Katherine Harris, and brother Jeb. Confidence in our election process has been overtly demonstrated, further increasing the already widespread cynicism of the public in our election process. I personally believe we have witnessed the stealing of an election by Bush-Cheney, America's Second Choice.
The new educational bill, complete with numerous right-wing agenda items, has been passed by Congress and signed by W. George. There are some good points, and the most damaging -- vouchers -- was removed from the bill at the insistence of Democrats in the Senate. Still, churches can provide tutoring and other after-school programs; schools can no longer disallow organizations that discriminate, i.e. the Boy Scouts, from meet in the building; and students are further tested into oblivion. The King gets in a little here, a little there, and pretty soon there will be a crowning.