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Firefox is the open source wet dream. It hasn't slain the Goliath that is IE but it has made a huge splash in terms of user adoptions, and within a few minutes you can find hundreds of extensions that allow you to have a browser that you want. That being said most people that use it are probably looking at the default interface, and in comes enhanced packages based around Firefox's base code. The most well known of these currently in use is the Google browser Chrome. While Chrome isn't exactly a huge deal yet, it is Google, and soon enough it will find its way on to a good chunk of the computers in the world. Whether or not it will be used is another story. Apple's Safari browser is on almost every PC that installed I Tunes, in addition to Apple's own hardware, and it hasn't manage to get any traction. 

The Democratic race has been hyped to the point that we're sure that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are competing to be the second coming of Christ. It doesn't really matter anymore that these are both DNC-bred clones of the same failed policy that has left most progressive voter at home for Election Day. Needless to say Nader makes another go at it, making sure that he lets everyone know that he wants to push the democrats to the left.

Poor Ralph.

Ralph Nader doesn't understand what happened to the Democratic Party, but hell few Democrats even know what happened to their party. American Multinationals have done their best to use both sides of the aisle to advance trade policies that have destroyed the US manufacturing base, and supported China's repressive regime. Giving them the wealth to continue their Stalinist rule for much longer than their natural economy would allow.

Which brings us to NAFTA, and GATT. Clinton and Obama are in a tiff about NAFTA. Must be all those Union votes that almost went to Nader in 2000 flashing before thier eyes. Specifically, they both claim to want to renegotiate the treaty, but beyond that, neither candidate is doing anyting to telegraph their real position.

Clinton used to think the nomination was hers to lose. Her husband's political machine has set the tone for the DNC for almost two decades now, and free trade was central to that reinvention. This ensured that Democrats could garner as much support from big business as any Republican could. Obama isn't much different. These two claim for now that they are behind the workers. That rhetoric will stop somehwere around the convention.

To be honest, no one has a plan to fix America. Both parties deal rhetoric, and spend the treasury dry. Americans hold the responsability. We voted in bush because he promised a check in every mailbox. We'll vote in Barack or Hillary for insurance for every home. However as the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, we are in worse shape than we even know. There are looming problems that every candidate is refusing to address.

God that was a long break. Well I know that I haven't been very religious with my posting as of late. I have gotten a new job, and it demands quite a bit more time. I will return soon with a long winded diatribe about the current debacle of an elections. I'm still pissed, and I have quite a few things to get off my chest.

Yeah I bet he slept well
with loud boastful snores
that scared the children in the apartments below.

In the alley
between common sense and idealism
is the foyer of stalemate.

A brinkmanship of ideals
all or nothing
and fuck all the rest.

And we call it
principled.
Such Bullshit

Such contrite
simplification
betrays ignorance.

When will you
learn that it's
better off.

A compromise,
of realists
is ideal,

A conflict
of ideals
is useless.

Yeah so this is an America focused post, but trust me Ed, there will be some relavance later. What's funny about Thanksgiving is that it punctuates the build-up to America's rampant shoping spree known as Chirstmas. What's more ironic is that our country has exported the shopping obsession all over the world, but has not exported the idea of pausing to genufelct over the fortunate life that we lead. That may be lost to many modern Americans. These are the poeple who feel that poverty is some sort of abberation of character, and not a circumstance beyond your control. Get a fuggin' job, has become the national motto. So for those of you who wonder how things are so messed up in the richest country in the world, look no further.

Thanksgiving was a celebration of charity and goodwill. Goodwill that may have been erased by years of aggression and genocide, but nonetheless that is still the spirit of the holiday. Instead of celebration, Thanksgiving is the dress rehearsal for the Holidays, and the begining of the huge spending season. We abhor any mention of the treatment of the Indians, we pay lipservice to thanks for all we have, but who do we thank? We thank the invisible sky bully, apologies to Joss Weadon, and ask him to help the less fortunate. Fuck that. You lazy motherfuckers have nothing better to do than hope it will get better.

Inaction is the fruit of religous faith.

How very unchristian.

Anyway, I'm done bitching. Hoping for Americans to gain a genuine side, when they swim in a sea of plastic is foolish. I include myself in this criticism. If there was something to focus a national will on, elimating poverty could be it. This same national will rose up to create a global empire, and then rested on its laurels of spoiled industrial growth. The robber barons in the boardroom have already won us into accepting a paradox of poverty in the shadow of wealth. If we continue to ignore that looming shadow, there may not be much to be thankful for in 25 years.

The wind carries leaves on wavy gusts that twirl

like miniature tornadoes

and concrete can't hold up all the edifices

that make up the everyday

spurned autumn

lashes out at lovers of Indian summer

the weather report can be so torrid.

So yeah, I haven't had much time to accomplish much even post links to what's going on over at Dignews. You intrepid critic at large got a new job and a pile of DVD's to review so it'll be awhile before anything of substance makes it here. Sorry.

While the fires in Southern California can be considered a tragedy, it has a lot to do with the constant urban sprawl that pervades the area, meaning two set of influences converge for fire risk. The first is that there is more densely populated areas where there used to be just forest, and houses sit amongst areas that are at high fire risks in normal years. The second is that southern california is a dry area, and water shortages are becoming a common problem, this leads to the kind of droughts that have been affecting the area for a few decades now.

Michael Chertoff need to shut the fuck up about Katrina. "We are applying the lessons" yeah now that it's white people with expensive homes, FEMA works like a charm. You racist prick, we already know that you save rich people just fine. If this fire were to take place in downtown Los Angeles FEMA would absent like an intern with a hangover.

In the dream
there is a form realized
that is only hazy in realty
don't be fooled by your own brain
playing tricks of light and sound deceiving
your mind to readjust expectations of grandeur
there is no love story like the one you read about
just more of the everyday kind of love stories where
thing aren't neat and tidy in the sense of sunsets and credits rolling
this is real life and the messes that you came with
are your messes in your love stories these cannot
be ignored to let it all go on like normal life
because it will all catch up to you one day
and the price will be paid for the
way you tired to outsmart
your own issues and mind
in a dream