since i am both a star trek fan (and NOT embarrassed)

and a proponent of peace, i read this with glee!

Aboard the Imperial Star Ship Ameriprise

by William Astore and Tom Engelhardt

TomDispatch

Okay, the new Star Trek film – you know, the prequel with space sex – is premiering in Australia. Go figure. All I know is I'm not beaming there. On the other hand, I've already been in close communication with a Trekkie pal, and she and I have chosen our night here in New York. May 14th. See you then. (I'll be the one wearing the TomDispatch hat.)

In the meantime, retired Lieutenant Colonel William Astore, TomDispatch regular and another Trek fan – okay, it's not exactly War and Peace, but give us a break – was thinking recently about the strange history of Star Trek, the show that took John F. Kennedy's "new frontier" deep into TV space, even as Lyndon Johnson's U.S. was moving ever deeper into its disastrous war in Vietnam. Now here we are again, a new Star Trek forty-three years later, and this time, two "counterinsurgency" wars already growing desperately old, and one, in Afghanistan, heating up to a boil. If only we could stick to the movies. But since we can't, pop that bowl of popcorn, butter and salt it well, and let Astore take you through some wormhole into alternate American universes on that spaceship we're all riding, the USS Ameriprise. Tom

Aboard the Imperial Star Ship Ameriprise

Heading for the Final Frontier
By William Astore

I grew up in the 1970s on reruns of the original Star Trek with Captain James Tiberius Kirk at the helm, backed by that ever logical Vulcan, Mr. Spock, Dr. "Bones" McCoy, and the rest of the intrepid, space-faring crew of the USS Enterprise. During the tumultuous 1960s, that sci-fi series – before being canceled – had pointed to a more promising future in which humanity would be united. Star Trek, after all, offered a vision of a post-racial society in which blacks and Asian-Americans would serve alongside whites as equals, and a post-nationalistic society in which Russian-accented Ensign Chekov could loyally follow a WASPy captain from Iowa...................

just so you know

i work for a very large international company. we had layoffs announced the week before last. lots of them. under 100 in my particular location, still, that means just under 100 people i see nearly every day lost their jobs. (note: my company does have a fair severance package but that doesn't make it any easier). i didn't lose my job (THIS TIME) but what about NEXT time? but lots and lots of others lost their jobs in other locations.

and then this was in the papers yesterday. the corporations are shocking and the figures are staggering.

we really ARE on the edge here. i don't know if everyone realizes that. we're CLOSE. no work, no housing, no food.

Layoffs Cut Deeper Into Economy
As Recession Hits Most Industries, Corporate Giants Slash Jobs
By Annys Shin and Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writers
The nation's employers, including some of its largest and most sturdy, announced plans yesterday to slash more than 55,000 jobs, a staggering one-day toll that highlighted how quickly layoffs are accelerating and how widely misery is spreading throughout the labor market. The cuts extended to companies that were once considered bright spots in the U.S. economy. Construction equipment maker Caterpillar, whose business last year was bolstered by strong exports, said it would cut 20,000 jobs. Pfizer, one of the giants of a health-care sector that had until recently seemed immune from the downturn, said it would cut 8,000. ...........

oh come on now

his fuck-up-ed-ness goes WELL beyond the fiscal. it goes straight to the soul. he and his band of merry thugs have NO souls. not only did they sell (out) our country they tore up and spit on the constitution AND all it stood for. we have become the savages and torturers. anything goes. that is NOT what america should be. i hope and pray we can come back once again to what we used to be and CAN be

(oh and i think the following article IS TOO SOFT ON 'EM)

Economy Made Few Gains in Bush Years
Eight-Year Period Is Weakest in Decades
By Neil Irwin and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers

President Bush has presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades, according to an analysis of key data, and economists across the ideological spectrum increasingly view his two terms as a time of little progress on the nation's thorniest fiscal challenges.

The number of jobs in the nation increased by about 2 percent during Bush's tenure, the most tepid growth over any eight-year span since data collection began seven decades ago. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, grew at the slowest pace for a period of that length since the Truman administration. And Americans' incomes grew more slowly than in any presidency since the 1960s, other than that of Bush's father.

Bush and his aides are quick to point out that they oversaw 52 straight months of job growth in the middle of this decade, and that the economy expanded at a steady clip from 2003 to 2007. But economists, including some former advisers to Bush, say it increasingly looks as if the nation's economic expansion was driven to a large degree by the interrelated booms in the housing market, consumer spending and financial markets. Those booms, which the Bush administration encouraged with the idea of an "ownership society," have proved unsustainable...........