The Dyslexicon

Dyslexia is a serious issue. It's hard to recognize at first, and makes for lots of frustration and family tensions, keeps some kids at the margins, and it's very hard to help. It happens to different degrees, and unfortunately looks just like simple indiscipline. If you have it, it makes everything look like a word scramble and you can't turn it into information.

That's what the present administration is trying to do to us. Many of our federal agencies are still there, but they aren't producing their work the way we would expect. Check out the Non-Informist Lexicon of 'information' produced by our 'President' and his 'administration':
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004766.php

I call it the Dyslexicon.

Let them beat each other up

The most worn page of the Party Playbook is the one with instructions on handling opposition jockeying: Let them kill each other. They're self-destructing. Watch:

So now, the Senators vying for the Democratic nomination are feeding the opposition. Clinton and Obama both belong in the Senate, but their prominence within the activist communities made their banks fat and they've been elevated to Personalities. I like their political ambition, but I think the government is a train wreck and we won't know just how bad for years. These liberals are the wrong kind: Optimistic.

Job 1 for the next President is going to be cleaning the mold out of the basement, trimming the fat, tightening the belt. Only by doing that can our government be used to effect deliberate changes society can tolerate.

Inquirer Letters Section

The letters section of the Philadelphia Inquirer are usually good substrates for discussion. Usually, they include one Republican hack, a self-defense note, something blue and national, and something relevant to Philadelphia-area readers.

This week, we start with a discussion of the Turnpike Privatization Scam. These are our roads. We paid for them already, and continue to pay as we use them. That's perfect, right? Bonds, real estate favors, tax money went to putting them there. It's not complicated, it's a flattened section of earth between two points, sometimes through mountains and over rivers. There are cash registers every so often to collect tolls, but mostly it's the flattened earth doing the work. So we need cashiers in the booths, and we need road crews. The PA Department of Transportation has those. And they know how to hire surveyers to check how flat the earth is, and they can commission work to go make it flatter as needed. Leasing it to a private company and then taxing the toll revenue will almost eliminate either toll revenue or flatness. Eliminate appointees, and as Barrish suggests we'll see a different budget environment over there.

Amtrak came up again. So many of us drive along railroad tracks an hour to work, and so few wish to travel with others that we are guaranteeing the retardation of public transportation. I favor not using gasoline whenever possible. Feet were made for walking. It's impossible to replicate the rail system of Europe or Japan here, we simply weren't intended to be a fiefdom, where the patron could wave his wand and squeeze juice from the serfs and make it happen. I favor a strong network of rails to ensure the safe and subsidized traffic in goods. And it seems obvious to me that if 20 people are going to Pittsburgh, they should split the gas and tolls by riding in a train. I'm a rugged individual, but like universal health coverage, transpo is something we all need, all benefit from.

This week's Republican sniper complains about socialism as the Senate runs a skeleton crew to prevent Bush's despotic recess appointments.