WTF!

I really shouldn't read (or listen) to anything news related in the morning. It just tends to ruin my day. Here, let me share the joy...

KPFA was running a documentary clip (they are fundraising now) about how the US is continuing to increase its military presence in various areas of the world and in space. This is courtesy of my tax dollars, which I would much rather see spent on social programs such as education, jobs, housing, healthcare...you know, those things that are becoming increasingly scarce for those in the lower and middle tiers of our country.

Then I read Mark Morford's column at www.sfgate.com about the recently passed Real ID legisaltion. The legislation itself is frustrating, but even more so is the way it got passed. For those of you new to American democracy, you should know that when a bill goes to Congress titled Save the Environment Act, or some such, said bill can have clauses included which have nothing whatsoever with saving the environment. It happens frequently enough that good legislation gets killed because of some of these additions and bad legislation gets enacted because no one wants to slog through a 1000 page draft of a bill (which I imagine written in superfine print).

Then I finished my news morning, by reading that a man is being charged with beating a cat to death on his front lawn for the crime of, horrors!, trespassing on his property. A woman driving by, stopped and tried to intervene, but the man threatened her as well. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

O, and my allergies are kicking my ass and it's cloudy again. I'm just destined to have a cranky day.