How Lil' Kim Gave Me My Groove Back

You probably wouldn't think that North Korea's megalomaniac  despot Lil' Kim would have much to do with my ongoing search for love, and 99.99% of the time that would be a good thing, because the less that Lil' Kim has to do with your love-life, the better.

To paraphrase Tom Robbins: "The song Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing  was not composed in North Korea."

But not long ago I started a correspondence with a young local woman who told me that  her dream vacation was to visit North Korea. In my book, expressing a desire to visit one of the most brutally oppressive nations on the planet is a really good conversational gambit, so I followed up on that.

She told me that N. Korea has been granting more Western tourist access lately, that of course it was all State-Propaganda-Doctrine-Dinners and visits to faked-up 'worker's paradises', but it is apparently dirt cheap and the food (taken from the mouths of starving children, no doubt) is supposed to be top-notch.

Plus, it will be on the last chance we will have to see a corrupt, crumbling ninth-world communist hell-hole up-close and personal while it is in mid-decline, as most of those opportunities vanished with the demise of the Cold War and  subsequent dismantlement of the Eastern Bloc.

Clearly, this was my kinda girl.

But before we could make our travel plans,  I met another young woman on line.  Of the countless hundreds of local women on-line, she was the only one who appeared when I  refined my search by adding 'atheist' as a descriptor.

The only one. One. One is the perfect number for me.

So we chatted on-line until dawn  and the next night we went out...we met the corner bar, where she had a beer and I had tea...it really doesn't bother me to be in bars (unless smoking is allowed), especially if I'm in rapt conversation with a lovely and utterly, unbelievably, engaging woman. Then we went to see our local minor-league baseball team play- which was her idea!- and had a great time sitting in the nosebleeds, watching people more than the actual game.  It turns out we are both NFL fans and are both just biding time until something happens on that particular miserable front...but a football fan! How cool is that?

We talked about our mutual 'dating' adventures and I told her that so far the second-most alluring dating offer I'd gotten was to tour North Korea, which I was actually sorta into.

My new friend then informed me that she'd been stationed in Korea while in the Army and that in her opinion there might be better vacation spots than North Korea...she might have included Turkish prisons or the interior of a live volcano on that list.

Clearly this was also my kind of girl.

After the game, we had more beer and tea and after the bar closed, we sat together on what passes for my front porch and shared our first kiss.

Neither one of us was in a particular hurry to say good-bye this morning, but we did. We sent each other simultaneous thank you notes and wound up chatting for hours, despite having just parted.

Life is getting better, it really is.

And I had a really awesome radio show too:

PODCAST HERE

THE NEW BREAKFAST SNOB, JUNE 4, 2011

The Kinks- Scum Of The Earth

BeBop Deluxe- Piece of Mine

Generic Tribe- Seven Pounds

Geraldine Fibbers- A Song About Walls

Stackridge- Spin Round The Room

Randy Newman- Back On My Feet Again


Captain Beefheart- Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man

Happy Birthday- Birthday Party

Excesses- Klark Kent

Astronauts of Antiquity- Strangest Places

Green Man- She Moved Through The Fair

Melomane- Even Though You're Born Toulose

Cat Nights Begin-Funkadelicatessan

Frames- Live Forever

Concrete Blonde- Tomorrow, Wendy

Stefanie Seskin- I Just Keep On


Damien Dempsey- Patience


Claanad- The Other Side

Joan As Policewoman- Holiday

Monday Machines- Ruined Morning

Dropkick Murphys- Shipping Off To Boston

Eman and Friends- Come To Poland

Jefferson Airplane- 3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds

Loreena McKinnett- Mummer's Dance

Manda Mosher- Lay Me Down

Jen Foster- Broken

Scream Daisy- Bees


Leo Kottke- Nothin' Works

 .
Who knows what the future holds?

Bobbing

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell made national headlines recently when he declared April to be Confederate History Month while  omitting the subject of slavery from the aforementioned history. McDonnell said he  wanted to "acknowledge the sacrifices" of the soldiers who fought against the United States during the Civil War, which is pretty crazy if you think about it. I mean, the Confederacy seceded from the United States and went to war against them. We need an entire month to honor that?

More recently, McDonnell has appointed former Nixon and Bush I operative Fred Malek to head his new Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring. Fred Malek is a major GOP donor and has worked for both John McCain and Sarah Palin. One of the first tasks the new commission is scheduled to undertake is selling off and privatizing the state-run liquor stores.

The current state monopoly on liquor stores makes it a pain to get booze, especially if you are already drunk or if it is Sunday. The state liquor stores are scattered rather thinly, making a drive necessary but problematic for many alcoholics. With privatization,  liquor merchants can bring their wares into the neighborhoods that need them most- the crumbling, impoverished inner city, for example. After all, nothing says "urban renewal" like a liquor store on every corner. I mean, just think of all the winning lottery tickets that will come from behind the plexiglass-encased counters of the new  booze shops.

And there will be a lot of jobs created. All those liquor stores will need cashiers and security guards and somebody will have to drive the  liquor distribution trucks over the state's rapidly disintegrating roads. Sadly many inner-city kids don't have many options in life other than choosing between dealing drugs and getting shot or joining the military and getting shot. A job as a liquor store clerk allows them to experience a little bit of both worlds, getting fired upon while dispensing intoxicants and learning vital job-related discipline at the same time.  A decent education would probably be better than training as a combat cashier, but public schools are likely to have their budgets slashed by McDonnell's "reforms". After all, money spent on helping kids learn and develop is money wasted, right? Wouldn't it be better to close the schools and use the empty buildings as liquor warehouses? All we need is a  couple minor adjustments to those pesky labor laws and poor kids can start jump-starting their careers as lift-drivers and box-handlers. Do we really need a Big Brother Government that tells us who we can and can't hire? How is industry supposed to create jobs if they can't hire Mexicans and children?

The state will also save money by cutting jobs when they close their stores. It was one of the better retail jobs available, with benefits and pensions for full-timers. I doubt if the new, privately-owned stores will offer benefits.

A woman at work told me that the proposal will save people a lot of money, especially if they routinely buy thousands of dollars of liquor. Bars will become more profitable, which will create jobs. In bars.

It is now legal for Virginia citizens to carry handguns into bars and it is easier than ever to buy a handgun in Virginia. Soon it will be easier to get liquor as well. What could go wrong?

In An Eggshell

So, like, hooray and stuff. The Democrats finally managed to pass a 'Health Care Reform' bill. It contains some necessary consumer protections, but in the end it is a giant boondoggle for the insurance companies...the last year has seen an incredible rise in the price of  healthcare stocks,  and that rise didn't stop because of the  'reform' bill. For much of last year, the passage of the bill was considered inevitable, yet the healthcare stocks kept surging- if the healthcare industry t feels threatened by this new system of conscription medicine they sure have a strange way of showing it.

I'm very disappointed (but not at all surprised) that  the 'public option' was eliminated altogether, but what can you expect when our 'fearless' leaders are cowed by the screaming of a small but very loud minority that hates 'socialism' despite having absolutely no fucking idea what it is that they hate.

I talked to a young woman today who divided her breath between two wildly dissonant ideas:

1) When a picture of the President appeared on TV, she expressed horror and dismay over "that man" and his health care reform plan. "We will all be eating dog food by 2012", she lamented, " socialism is eating this nation from the inside."
(Note: Normally,  people do not say things like "socialism is eating this nation from the inside" in the course of routine conversation. I strongly suspect that this is a "talking point" being distributed by rightist pundits; one meant to be  regurgitated by automated human recorders)

2) Threw a hissy-fit because the public school that her children attend is raising the amount of money that they charge for the kids laptops. She whined about how the schools seem to charge fees for everything now.

I was at work so I bit my tongue until I tasted blood. I really wanted to tell her that our public schools are 'socialism' and if she really cared about the quality of education, she wouldn't bitch about paying fees...it was a tiny sum compared to the cost of buying a computer, after all. I wanted to add that I found it ironic that she expected The Government to buy computers for her children but she recoiled in horror at the idea of the same government buying healthcare for someone else's children.

Furthermore, if we were truly a Christian Nation, we would already have public healthcare for all of our citizens.  It seems pretty obvious that Jesus would support the 'public option, He was into that liberal 'heal the sick' stuff, ya know?...I'm not sure how he'd feel about the bank bail-out (I must have missed the chapter where He washed the moneylender's feet)  and I'm pretty sure He would oppose our current wars- unless there is a missing Bible chapter where Jesus launches a pre-emptive strike so He doesn't have to turn His cheek.

What proverb says that "collateral damage" is acceptable?

It seems as if  today's aggressive American Christians support war, support giving money to the wealthy and are against giving aid to the needy. Are we living in a Bizarro Testament? I mean, if these so-called Christians had opposed the Iraq fiasco with the vehemence that they oppose healthcare reform, we'd be at peace now and we wouldn't be broke.

And using abortion as a reason to not give living children medical care? You would let living children die in order to protect zygotes and embryos? That's sick.

I am not a Christian but I hate war and don't mind if my taxes get used to feed kids or treat the sick. In fact, I want my taxes to feed kids and heal the sick. Some schools would be nice, some libraries, too. And there's always work to be done on our socialized Interstate Highways and infrastructure...hmmm, the highway system is so subversive that it is named after our first Socialist President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Perhaps we should re-name it The Ronald Reagan Roadway and license it out to Exxon, who could charge drivers by the mile to travel their roads, as well as monopolizing the petrol trade theron ..it would cost the individual driver a huge sum of money to drive on the highway, but at least the Government could cut taxes.

That goes double for you, Grandma!

Already In The Books

My history of poverty is well-documented by the Social Security Administration. Each year they send out a statement  containing my 'Earnings Record', starting in 1983 with my first summer job as a dishwasher and continuing all the way to 2008, a year of typically sporadic income which found me well under the official poverty standard- I even got a tax credit that year, despite claiming no dependents. According to my  SSA statement, my annual income didn't exceed the poverty level until 1999. I was 33 years old in 1999. I understand poor.

I have only exceeded the poverty threshold seven times in my twenty-six years in the labor force. There is a string of zeroes from 1991-1995...zero income? Was I in prison? That decade is hazy.

I realize that many people consider it 'bad form' to openly discuss financial matters, but if you aren't poor now, you probably will be soon, so you might as well get  used to talking about it openly. In fact, open communication may prove crucial to your very survival, because when you get down to it, the only folks who truly look out for the best interests of poor people are other poor people. They need each other.  Poor people tend to develop loose, symbiotic bartering networks; goods and services are exchanged in lieu of cash, neither party having access to the money needed to procure said goods and services from commercial sources.

Anyway, I used to be a bit reticent about my low standard of living, but with poverty on the rise and the Boomer middle-class approaching doddering homelessness, I feel the time is right  to stop considering my financial history as a source of personal shame and start referring to it as my "curricula vitae" and "professional credentials".

I'm a bona-fide expert on being poor without living poorly and I have documentation that backs it up, so it only makes sense that I should become a private consultant, teaching formerly well-to-do ex-professionals how to do simple things like cooking inexpensive, healthy meals and learning how to shop  without buying completely stupid, over-priced shit...one example would an item that caught my eye at market: a pre-packaged hot dog, already tucked inside a bleached, starchy roll and ready to be microwaved. That single-serving monstrosity cost more than an entire package of hot dog buns and almost as much as an entire pound of 'decent' franks.  
(Note:I would never recommend buying hot dogs to anyone. I'll explain why soon)

 Lesson Three in my new course will be how to shop for groceries by doing weight/cost analysis. One example I will use will be cheap hot dogs vs. 'premium' cat food. In most cases, you will find that the cat food is significantly higher in price than those bright pink frankfurters in your basket...and if your life is so harried that you can't stop to eat a better meal than a microwaved hot dog, you aren't doing your already over-stressed heart any favors by feeding it slurried pork snouts.
Consider that advice a freebie- I don't want my potential clients dying prematurely.
(That part comes during the lawsuits)


And, to be honest, I love poor folks. They are my kinda people. They understand  the utilitarian appeal of duct tape and don't mock me for wearing old shoes.

I have also noticed (and this is generalized) that less-affluent friends seem more willing to share physical items of sentimental value with me than their wealthier counterparts;  perhaps  a chronically wealthy person might perceive  a used book- one that was obviously  read many times by the previous owner- as some sort of slight or breach of decorum; but any competent poor person will recognize that they have received something that means something to the giver, and by doing so, their own value as a human being has been affirmed.
On the other hand, a wealthier person might tell you about the same book, but not give it to you- they just assume that you'll be able to drop $20 at the bookshop. I mean, it's only $20, right?

A gift means a lot when it comes from a poor person. It is likely that they had to sacrifice some small but meaningful part of their budget in order to give that gift to you. Perhaps they gave you one of their prized possessions because they knew it would thrill you and  would make you happy.  There is a certain purity in such a gift that can't be purchased, it has to an innate part of the object and has little to do with monetary price. Masters of poverty understand this.

Rich people, on  the other hand, just don't get  it. I am sure that the vast majority of  'socially-aware' charitable persons have only the best of intentions, but they haven't got a clue about what it really means to have a $25 weekly food budget.

At some point, those good intentions took a one-way train to Tartarus, and 'Poverty' is now a trendy fashion statement. Take the example above. Is this the best way to fight poverty?

What I see here is an excuse to ogle a woman's hips that is lamely disguised as enlightened socio-economic commentary. Seriously, I suddenly don't give two moldy figs about the starving kids in North Korafricastan, and am more interested in testing the elasticity of that belt than I am in fighting for the food rights of fifth-world peasants.

I'd have to add  add that despite my low income, I have never been truly homeless, have usually had some sort of 'job', and have never been in danger of starving. I usually have a car, I always have a guitar and I have a PC with amazingly fast Internet...I'm not starving by any means, and probably never will be. America is good that way. For me, anyway.

People with kids, on the other hand...

Number One

My Proudest Moment

Q:What is the most fucked up thing on the web?

A: This blog!

At 1:41 PM today, an Internet user in Lincoln, Nebraska typed the phrase " the most fucked up thing on the web" into Google's search engine, which produced over 19 million hits. My blog was number ONE of "about 19,200,000"!

The really swell thing about it is that I didn't even try to be the most fucked up thing on the web, it just came naturally to me. Seriously, though- have you ever seen the Internet? It's full of FU'd things! I must be well and truly fucked-up to be number one. In fact, I must be so FU'd that I am no longer responsible for my actions.

Life just got a lot simpler.


CLEAN FOR NINE DAYS

I have done without Cable TV for nine days. I had planned on switching to Direct TV but they double-billed me for a huge security deposit so I cancelled the installation and got a refund. My erratic digital signal was cut off on 1 April. I could afford cable, but it's just not worth it at the moment. I have a feeling that I might be better off without TV.

I live near a CBS broadcast tower that blots out all other stations, so I pretty much have one channel to choose from...but I really don't miss TV. I'll need something before football season, but for now, Ill just save my schekels for a new PC that can stream Hulu for ten minutes without crashing.

Then I'm gonna finish watching Fringe.

You Did What?

The Virginia General Assembly voted yesterday to reject $125 million in Federal aid intended to expand unemployment benefits. The vote was nearly split along party lines, with the Republicans largely voting against accepting the money. It seems like political suicide to me- our unemployment rate has been projected to reach 10% or higher by 2010 - can the GOP really afford to alienate another 10% of the public?

The Republicans also passed a law that allows holders of concealed weapons permits to carry handguns into bars and restaurants - with the stipulation that they not drink. Riiiight.
It's my suspicion that a great number of people might bend that rule a bit- but what could possibly go wrong in a roomful of armed drunks? They will behave themselves just fine, I am sure.

Until the angry desperation of long-term unemployment kicks in.

So

Is the economic recession linked to the current spate of mass homicides in America?
Come on down to your local bar and find out.

Poverty: Now Playing at a Theatre of War Near You

I tried to watch the Vice-Presidential debate last night but I quickly lost interest and soon found myself on my hands and knees, spinning coins on the floor for my cat’s amusement. I read the transcript today and I don't feel like I missed anything that could have changed my mind regarding the election.

I did see bits of it. It struck me that moderator Gwen Ifill was doing a surprisingly lackluster job of making the candidates answer the actual questions. I think the following string of words from Sarah Palin was what triggered my apathy attack- Ifill had just asked Palin if she would like to comment on Biden’s remarks about McCain’s healthcare plan, and this was Palin’s response:

Palin: I'm still on the tax thing because I want to correct you on that again. And I want to let you know what I did as a mayor and as a governor. And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.

Not to be overly picky, but how can we expect “straight talk” from a person who refuses to answer the questions that we want to [ask] and who seems incapable of constructing a complete English sentence?

And also you betcha, dontcha know? Darn right! *wink*

Holy fuck. I actually saw a candidate for the second-highest office in the land *wink* during a debate. So proud, I am.

I expected Gwen Ifill to interject, saying something along the lines of: “Governor , this is a formal, structured debate and, as the moderator, I am compelled to inform you that you and your opponent are both expected to respect the rules and format as previously agreed.”

But she didn’t.
A few minutes after Palin’s defiant non-answer, I was dipping into the catnip.

***************************************
OTHER NEWS OF NO APPARENT INTEREST

-Does anyone in the current Congress have even a cursory knowledge of American History? It's not exactly classified info- it's actually on the Internet and in books and stuff. Does anyone see a parallel between current events and this description of the economic precursors to the Great Depression?

[In]1929 the top 0.1 percent of American families had a total income equal to that of the bottom 42 percent. This meant that many people who were willing to listen to the advertisers and purchase new products did not have enough money to do so. To get around this difficulty, the 1920s produced another innovation— credit- an attractive name for consumer debt. People were allowed to “buy now, pay later.” But this only put off the day when consumers accumulated so much debt that they could not keep buying up all the products coming off assembly lines.



President Herbert Hoover was certain that the economy was fundamentally strong and that bailing out the banks and lenders would allow the markets to self-correct and solve this problem. He was wrong.

Of course, things are different now. There's nothing wrong with America that can't be solved by throwing money away. The more,the better.

I'm kidding. I am not an economist or an academic but I do like to read about history and I've read enough to notice that events tend to repeat themselves in slightly different but still recognizable ways. Eggheads and bookworms would refer to these repetitions as "patterns" and "cycles", but really, it's just the same-old-shit, over and over again.

Take Empires, for instance. Pick an Empire from history -any Empire- and you'll see the same cycle of influence and expansion, a peak and a plateau followed by decay, corruption, collapse, dissolution and defeat.

There is always war involved.

But that could never happen here. God loves us too much.

Plus, that bail-out bill that just passed is gonna restore prosperity any second now...now all we need is another Hawley-Smoot Act and we are good as gold, right as rain!

*******************************

I'd hardly call Pakistan an 'Empire', but they do have nuclear weapons and they do happen to be engaged in a full-scale Civil War with the Taliban inside their own country. Most Americans probably aren't even aware of this, secure as we are in our delusion that the Mission is Accomplished...I mean, didn't we beat the Taliban? Didn't we?

Not since Pakistan forged an alliance with the United States after 9/11 has the Pakistani Army fought its own people on such a scale and at such close quarters to a major city. After years of relative passivity, the army is now engaged in heavy fighting with the militants on at least three fronts.

The sudden engagement of the Pakistani Army comes after months in which the United States has heaped criticism, behind the scenes and in public, on Pakistan for not doing enough to take on the militants, and increasingly took action into its own hands with drone strikes and even a raid by Special Operations forces in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But the army campaign has also unfolded as the Taliban have encroached deeper into Pakistan proper and carried out far bolder terrorist attacks, like the Marriott Hotel bombing on Sept. 20, which have generated fears among the political, business and diplomatic elite that the country is teetering.

Personally, I'm a little alarmed at the idea of the Taliban picking a nuke out of the rubble of Pakistan's crumbled government. I know, as an American, I am supposed to have little or no concern for events in foreign countries, but I just can't help thinking that there is absolutely no context in which the phrase "Pakistani civil war" should carry less weight than the phrase "lipstick on a pig".

I seem to be at odds with the American media on this.

***************************

I'm glad I can cook and that I know how to make meals out of raw ingredients. When the next generation of soup kitchens open, I'll be the guy holding the ladle, muttering "this is better than no job" to himself.

See you in line. Not on-line. In line.

Same Old News

A couple of weeks ago the Pentagon announced that a disabled U.S. spy satellite would soon fall harmlessly to Earth. Today we are told that the satellite poses a potential hazard and the military plans on launching a missile attack on our own surveillance device.

President Bush ordered the action to prevent any possible contamination from that hazardous rocket fuel on board, and not out of any concern that parts of the spacecraft might survive and its secrets be revealed, officials said. The challenging mission to demolish it instead on the fringes of space will rely on an unforeseen use of ship-based weapons developed to defend against ballistic missile attacks. That makes it a real-world test both of the nation’s antiballistic missile systems and its antisatellite capabilities, even though the Pentagon said that they were not using the exercise to test their most exotic weapons or send a message to any adversaries.

Gosh. I thought it was just a cynical opportunistic ploy by BushCo and the Star Wars defense lobby to drum up support for the useless, lucrative contracts they've been seeking since the Reagan era, but it's really just for our own safety. The Pentagon is going to use missiles to save us from our own space trash, targeting the satellite as it hurtles out of orbit. To make us safe.

If we don't shoot down that spy junk, maybe it'll land on a FEMA trailer park and make the 'temporary' housing even more toxic and uninhabitable than it already is.

ATLANTA -- U.S. health officials are urging that Gulf Coast hurricane victims be moved out of their government-issued trailers as quickly as possible after tests found toxic levels of formaldehyde fumes.

Given this administration's record on public safety, it's probably better if they stay the fuck out of gravity's way and just let the goddamn thing burn up in re-entry. I'm from the generation that survived Skylab; I'm not afraid of space junk. I am afraid of incompetent fuckwads with more bombs than sense though. They'll probably wind up blowing the moon out of orbit by mistake.

The government also feels that it cannot protect America unless it first protects AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants that are currently subject to dozens of multi-million dollar civil lawsuits for illegally spying on Americans. If we, the people, are allowed to sue Verizon, the Taliban wins and everyone dies.

Meanwhile, John McCain has changed his mind and decided that waterboarding isn't torture after all and has decided to support Bush's decision to veto any anti-torture legislature that might cross his desk.

In [a recent] BBC interview, Bush was asked whether, given waterboarding and other human rights abuses, he could claim the US still occupied the moral high ground.
Bush said: "Absolutely."

I'm not sure if he said that before these letters from Gitmo were released or after the House of Representatives ruled that his confidantes Harriet Miers and John Bolten are in contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to Congressional subpoenas during the investigation into politically motivated Justice Dept. firings.

I guess it really doesn't matter. No one who deserves punishment will get it. We the people will have our asses waterboarded by Verizon and the government will be there to make sure we stay gagged...on the positive side, it's pretty unlikely that we'll be crushed by a falling satellite.

War Money

What happened in 2003 that caused Exxon- Mobil's profits to double?

Was it Super Bowl XXXVII?
No.

Was it Great White?
No.

What else happened that year?

We invaded Iraq.

Exxon-Mobil has managed to quadruple it's profits in the five years that have passed since BushCo started the Iraq War. This trend shows no sign of change, in fact E-M just posted the highest-ever annual profit by an American company, beating the record that was set by themselves last year.

One would think that such an announcement would be celebrated, but Exxon is trying to down- play it; there are currently quite a few apologists trying to explain how this boom is actually very good for America. They point to the enormous taxes that Exxon pays on those profits ; on the surface this sounds almost reasonable:

"Millions of people benefit financially, as either individual shareholders, or through their pension, insurance and mutual funds that hold Exxon Mobil shares," [E-M public affairs VP] Mr. Cohen said. "We have over 2.5 million individual shareholders alone, and for every dollar we earn, we contribute US$2.50 in taxes the governments use to provide schools, roads, hospitals, and other essential services. In the U.S. alone, our total tax expenses over the past five years were about US$65-billion, exceeding our U.S. earnings during that period by more than US$18-billion."

The only problem with this is that it isn't exactly true. I mean, with all that moola rolling into "essential services", you'd think we'd be living in a Golden Age. Instead, the federal deficit is threatening to break BushCo's 2004 record of $413 billion dollars.
One year, Exxon breaks records, the very next year the federal deficit hits an all-time high. Interesting.
It happened in 2003-2004 and it's happening again right now.
Does this feel like a Golden Age?

The man that gave Exxon their 2003 cash cow is doing his best to make sure that as little money goes to social services and programs as possible. BushCo's recent budget proposal includes large increases for defense spending and drastic cuts in social programs:

The Pentagon would receive a $36 billion, 8 percent boost for the 2009 budget year beginning Oct. 1, even as programs aimed at the poor would be cut back or eliminated. Half of domestic Cabinet departments would see their budgets cut outright.

The tax dollars are funneled to the Pentagon, which awards contracts to corporations like Exxon, who return a portion as "taxes", which are given back to the companies in the form of more government contracts and so on, all at the expense of the average citizen. It's an amazingly efficient mechanism for the upward re-distribution of wealth but it requires an endless war in order to maintain itself.

That is why we invaded Iraq.

To BushCo, the Iraq War is not a failure, it's a huge success. That infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner was true- the Mission was to make money, which obviously has been done. Peace would break the money cycle, which is why the Bushies have been so hot to invade Iran as well...we'd be at war forever if they did. Profits would continue to rise and a new generation of impoverished, jobless Americans would make excellent fodder a volunteer army.

Desperate economic times at home would prevent the need to re-instate the military draft- if there are no jobs or opportunities, then the poor kids will have little choice but to enlist; a draft would be inevitable in prosperous times as few people would be willing to give up good jobs for a bad war, so it's unlikely that we'll see prosperity while the war profiteers are calling the shots in D.C.- BushCo knows the best way to avoid a draft is to limit the educational and career opportunities of America's youth, forcing enlistment up.

Actually, the best way too prevent a draft would be to not start wars in the first place but it's a little late for that now.