Duct Tape Blues

Good news we are now on Yellow Alert.

"Thursday, February 27, 2003 Posted: 12:52 PM EST (1752 GMT)"
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States on Thursday lowered the terror threat level from high to elevated -- orange to yellow -- citing the end of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage as a key factor."

So as I see it, we are going to an orange alert every time there is a Muslim hajj pilgrimage. Knowing this, someone could buy up duct tape gas masks, and plastic sheeting, before the actual pilgramage takes place and corner the market, now that we know the standard.
Here is another cute news item, Bush is blaming The Republican Congess because there was not enough money in the submitted budget for the money needed for equipment that the local Fire departments and Police departments had been told to get!

By PHILIP SHENON New York Times Feb 27, 2003
"In a speech here to the National Governors Association, where governors expressed deep concern about their ability to pay for the equipment and training needed to prepare for a terrorist attack, Mr. Bush said he was "disappointed" with the Republican-authored spending package because it had failed to provide adequate money for local counterterrorism programs. And he said that Congress was to blame."
"We have a lot of police agencies in the state that were assured by the administration, repeatedly, that this money was on the way," said Gov. Gary Locke of Washington, a Democrat."
"He said that many police and fire departments had bought hazardous-materials protective suits and other counterterrorism equipment in the expectation that they would be reimbursed by the federal government."
"And now," Governor Locke said, "they're going to have to scramble to terminate other programs in order to cover those costs."
"A Republican Congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Republicans were angry over the efforts of the White House to distance itself from the domestic-security provisions of the spending bill. "

After all, Bush couldn't cut out badly needed money in the budget for other critical projects like the money being given to the National Cowgirl Museum in Texas. Maybe one of the reasons for this unlikely recipent of these funds may be because of one recent 2002 HONOREES at the museum was Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connorfrom Arizona. "Born in El Paso, Texas, Justice O'Connor grew up on her family's isolated Arizona and New Mexico cattle ranch, learning to shoot and ride before she was eight. She attended Stanford Law School, and subsequently served as Arizona assistant attorney general. She was later appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate, elected Superior Court judge, and appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. In 1981, President Reagan nominated her as the 102nd justice and the first female member of the U.S. Supreme Court." (see http://www.cowgirl.net/) Gee what a coincidence, a conservative judge gets an award and the the Bush Governments gives the museum lots of money! Hey we don't need money for Homeland security we have Duct Tape!

I feel Orange today no, I think I feel Yellow today, No Orange, no Yellow, Ok Orange. The city should have a billboard with the day's color on it. A friend of the family just got his orders to report for military duty. I hope he stays safe. I know of other people in the reserves as well. I feel bad. I know they signed up knowing the risks, but it still doesen't change the fact that I will worry for their safety. I worry for everyone involved in the actual fighting of this upcoming war. Did anyone go to school. and meet a guy who didn't want to be in school, but he did it because daddy paid for it and because he was just trying to get out of working for a living? This guy was the boy who partied all night, didn't worry about grades and did alcohol and drugs whenever and wherever he could? Well that's our President. It bothers me that a C student from Yale is making the decision to send our kids to war. It bothers me that this C student a male cheerleader that only went into college to get out of Vietnam service with his family connections. This C student was a failed businessman in the oil business.This C student was a major coke head before he became a christian all of a sudden. He is the kind of guy who comes to your door and tries to save you from the devil. Bush believes he is leading a holy crusade to convert the godless hordes to christianity. So instead of knocking on a lot of doors to save us all from the devil, he is going to fight all the devils of the world in our name. Not in my Name buddy. There are evil people out there, but there are better ways to deal with them, without exposing our kids to potential Biological and Chemical attacks. In the meantime my friends are going there and may do the bleeding and the dying for Bush's holy cause. What a waste. What a criminal waste.
Just to add insult to injury here is a new story which just came out
"The administration is proposing to cut $100 million in fiscal year 2004 in education spending that goes to schools with heavy concentrations of military kids. The cut represents a 10 percent reduction in the program's $1 billion budget.

Protests can be heard from Virginia Beach, Va., to San Diego — two cities with a large military presence. Parents and administrators are furious with the president.
Feb. 24 — As the Bush administration is sending thousands of men and women overseas to prepare for a possible war with Iraq, President Bush wants to cut funding for the schools that many of their children attend."

What else can we expect, sadly, nothing surprises me anymore.

I had to go to the hardware store today and I had to get duct tape. I was so embarrassed I actually put some paint supplies in the cart as well, even though I didn't need them. I didn't want to seem like I had put off creating a safe room in my house for the upcoming nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. I avoided the cashier's eyes as I checked out. So now I can hold up my duct tape (made in china), and cheer with my fellow americans and shout "I have protection". I did this in the mall and several woman gave me the eye. Did you know that the military has a 3 letter acronym for Nuclear Biological Chemical warfare? It is NBC. They also have another TLA (Three Letter Acronym) called KFC. It stands for Kuwait Field Chicken. The soldiers put chickens in small cages and put them on the hoods of their vehicles. If the chicken dies, you will crap in your pants before you get your chem suit on. Miners used canaries in mines to see if there was any poison gas in the mines. Our soldiers are using chickens. It is not a bad idea. I wonder what the local city ordinance is on having live poultry on the premises? I bet I could sell a ton of them. If we sold millions of rolls of tape with an orange alert. I could retire if I got in early and cornered the chicken market in my home town. If I miss out, I could go to plan B. I could sell them little cages which they could attach to their BMW's and mini-vans hoods. Maybe I could even sell them some industrial washer fluid to clean the chicken crap off their windshields as well.

Does anyone what color day it is today? Is it still orange? I haven't been to the Home Depot lately to check on the duct tape situation. I bet if you inventory the amount of duct tape available, you can gauge whether to buy stock equities or gold futures. I kind of feel unamerican because I can't stand up and show my tape roll to the world. "Here America, is my roll of duct tape." " Duct tape for freedom!" The funny part is that I actually need some duct tape. I need to tape up a basement vent, so more heat would get upstairs to the bedrooms at night. Speaking about cold weather, It is snowing. lightly outside. It looks like small white feathers floating to the ground. They seem to nestle themselves on the ground, to become a serene and beautiful scene. The snow even makes garbage dumps more interesting. It saddens me to know that the earth and the sun seem to conspire against this beauty, with patches of ugly dark brown earth erupting throughout the white blanket. Speaking about blankets, Saddam Hussein is toast. Bush is going in there with the express purpose of killing him. How christian of him. Where in the bible does it say it is OK to murder someone. I guess the loophole is that if you start a war with their country, you can just call him an enemy combatant, then shoot him in cold blood. That way it is not murder, he is just a casualty of war. I know that Bush is right, after all God told him to, that makes it all right.

Did you ever hear or say a word or a phrase over and over and over so that it looses all meaning. Take the word "terrorist". To me it now sounds like a bunch of disconnected sounds that is has lost meaning, and it sounds like "trayer est" ; a non-word. My brain is starting to loose several words by all of the repetion.I would like to blame personal history for some of this, like having tee many martoonies in college or maybe blame that flat spot on my head, where my brother dropped me as a child. Although both of the above mentioned incidents may be partially responsible. I really blame our nations media. Usually there are spot events like the OJ Simpson and such and they are on the airwaves for a while sometimes, but they eventually go away, and later on, they regain some semblance of meaning. This does not seem to be the case with the sets of words we are presently being hit with over and over again. I am afraid they will be with us for a long long time. Now here is a conundrum. How can words which are becoming meaningless to some, still strike panic in so many others. When any tragedy occurs some people immediately think about it being a terrorist action?" It kind of reminds me of the stories, where back in the 50's, during the 'Cold War" anyone who spoke against the government was a communist. And these so called communists struck fear into many people. One reason people feared communists was because they were told by our government, that they were godless and they had atomic bombs (Weapons of Mass Destruction). It gave J Edgar Hoover a lot of room to investigate anyone he wanted to. Many people were brought to trial and were ordered to turn other people in. It ruined many lives Sound like Deja vue doesen't it. By the way, no such communists were found guilty of anything, except of expressing non-government aproved thoughts and ideas.

Today's alert
Tomorrow's doom
Duct tape and plastic
The Tom Ridge answer to American arrogance
Cancelled school trips and lost innocence
Fear beyond the math exists
Knee jerks and real jerks coincide
To which CNN and FOX and right wings abide

Went to Indiana today. As we drove around I remembered many of the places of my mis-spent youth. Mis-spent youth? Why do people say that? I loved almost every day of my youth. I didn't give a damn about much of anything and I thought I would live forever. I measured 5'8" but I walked around like I was 6' tall. I drank with some hard people, protested injustices, swore with gandy dancers, pissed on the Hancock building and played steel worker games. I would best describe that time period as senseless, studious,violent at times, confused, hard working, funny, tipsy, angry, mad, competitive, drunk, and anxious. It makes my head spin thinking about it. When I am in certain areas of Indiana I often have these varous feelings overcome me, It feels like someone dropped a blanket on me and these old feelings smother out all other emotions. The feelings are familiar and comfortable, like a pair of well worn sweater. Is it melancholy? Who knows, but it is just a part of who I was and who I am today.

I don't know how many days I have been living with this Orange cloud over my head. I don't want to see or hear the news anymore. I think I'll just stick my head in the ground, paint a big target on my butt, and wait for whatever to happen. Will I become dust particles after an atomic blast, or maybe become a spasmodic body full of boils and bleeding sores. Such a deal. Today was a sunny day, I put off digging a hole in the ground for that target-on-my-butt thing I just mentoned. It amazes me how a little light can alter my mood like that. I hate to think what I would be like if I lived in England. I need something uplifting in my life, and I am not going to find it on CNN. Maybe I'll erase all the news venues and just leave the cooking channel.

I made it one more day without being a victim of Iraq's WMD. Today is another Orange Day and I am reminded about the good ole "Duck and Cover" days when I was in grade school. The nuns would have us drill on how to crawl under our wooden desks in case the russians dropped an atomic bomb in the vicinity. They told us that if we were in the playground when an atomic bomb was dropped to grab loose newspapers and to wrap ourselves in them and lay down flat on the ground. I think the same guy is still around. This time he has some company and they are telling us that we need complete disaster kits. We need to watch out for dead birds. I think the next thing they will advise us is to make sure we have our wills and testaments in order. I watch birds, I see them soar, sing, fly, feed, gather twigs to make their nests. Somehow I prefer to watching them like I am used to and not stare at them waiting for them to drop because my government says they might. Why does my government want me to be as afraid as Bin Laden wants me to be?

I often wondered what someone should eat during an "Orange Terrorist Alert". Today I had the opportunity to explore that issue at length. I woke up to a rumbling stomach. I shit, shaved and showered. I got in my car with no specific direction in mind, I thought of german red cabbage, greek feta cheese mexican burritos, until I finally hit on the perfect food, Italian! How better to deal with evil than with Garlic! I went to my local Italian grocery store and stocked up on sausage, parmesan, garlic and roma tomatoes. I made it home before my immune system was low enough for Iraqui biological weapons of mass destruction could affect my biologicals or my balls. I carefully prepared my meal according to my "Foodstuffs for War" manual. I can only plan to live one day at a time with this "Orange alert" over my head. Tomorrow is another day....come on Yellow!

I don't know why I get so upset when I hear about all the dumb stuff I hear our government tells us to do. Use Duct tape to protect ourselves from Bilogical Warefare? How stupid is that! The problem is that there are a lot of people believe that stuff. How sad is that. I am a cynic to begin with, but Bush is making it so easy for a lot of people to start asking if he is actually doing the right things? We have fewer freedoms, our economy is the pits, there is record unemployment, and most of the world hates us. Is there anything more he can do to make us a bigger target for terrorists? I am rambling. I don't know why I let myself get upset. There is little that I can do except not vote for the idiot and the congressmen that support him. I am not sure the Democrats are any better or smarter. They certainly appear timid. I can protest with others on the street and that is doable. Maybe that is a start.