A Quick Fix, Before You Go

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

“We have fixed what was not working, and we have listened to those who know best: our military commanders -- and the Iraqi people“.
George W. Bush, December 14th, 2005 (the day before the Iraqi elections).

Fixed it. All better now.

Bush supporters are so damn stupid! All I can figure is that none of them can read. The economy is tanking hard, the housing market has already collapsed, and for the want of common sense, the war in Iraq is lost. Still, Bush supporters remain adrift in denial. They would rather die painful, humiliating deaths than admit they were wrong. Ignorance is bliss!

So go ahead, hold the course, and take your mindless lemmings with you. You can run but you can’t hide. Oh, and by the way, you can send your own children off to die, because I would personally whup all of you before I would let my son run off to fight an unjust war. I pick my fights smartly.

Offended? I certainly hope so! It is my intention to shake the fruit from the branches, although I am well aware the grapes have rotted on the vine. You Bush supporters are beyond help. You're just pathetic.

Bush hate? Perhaps. The term is subjective by nature. Still, I don’t deny loving my family and country too much to stand around and do nothing while the Bush administration destroys our country. Bush should have been stopped long ago. He should never have been re-elected. Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!

Don’t tell me impeachment is not an option. Of course it is! Don’t tell me September 11th changed everything. Of course it didn’t! The bottom line has not changed. George W. Bush has participated in war crimes, crimes against humanity and war profiteering. Halliburton is profiting billions of dollars, while more and more lives are being lost. And what for? You tell me. Bush has changed his excuses so many times his word is worthless.

Yes, stupid is indeed, as stupid does. Just ask any marine. The Iraqi elections were a joke back in December of 2005, and they remain a joke today. A very, very sad joke.

Wake up, Bush supporters… the joke is on you!

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Karl Kalls it Kwitz

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

So Karl Rove has announced he is stepping aside, come September 1st. Gosh, Karl, so soon? I guess it’s reasonable to assume a lame duck and a beached “whale” have little chance of a future together. So be it, and good riddance. Rove has pottied in the pool too often already. It’s time for the little “turd blossom” to pack his bags and get out of Dodge.

Karl Rove has been called the most powerful presidential sidekick since Harry Truman dropped the bomb. He has also been referred as Bush’s brain, although that is hardly a compliment. Karl Rove played a major roll in disseminating the lies leading up to the invasion of Iraq. He is also believed by many to have been instrumental in the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. He will certainly not be missed by Americans with even the slightest ethical fabric.

I must admit, find his expiration date more than just a tad curious. How odd that Bush would insist those still with his administration on the first of September are somehow obligated to stick around the rest of his term. Unless of course, George Bush is expecting the entire busload of bozos to take a turn for the worse shortly thereafter. Understandably, I am becoming increasingly anxious about the up-coming Iraq progress report, and I suspect Bush and Rove are, as well.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports, "On Tuesday, several White House officials acknowledged with unusual candor that with just 17 months remaining in Mr. Bush's final term, there is little time for new ideas. Nor is there much time to realize the long list of unaccomplished presidential proposals."

Yes, Karl is kalling it Kwitz, and as the ‘Turd Blossom’ special waddles into the sunset, it’s hard to imagine a Bush White-House without him.
Lord knows, I’m trying.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

An Age of Steel and Steam

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Editors Note:
This article was originally prepared for Helium.com.
Enjoy.


It was an age of steel and steam. It was a time of great power and wealth. Soon the world would be forever changed by this new mechanical marvel, the steam locomotive, the driving force behind the industrial revolution.

For centuries, man had understood the potential of steam as an energy source, but it took until 1803 before Samuel Homfray was able to successfully harness that energy with his invention of the steam engine. The first successful railway followed soon after, when on March 25th, 1807, England began passenger service between Swansea and Mumbles.

Across the pond, America was developing it’s own railway, and by 1869, eighteen hundred miles of track connected Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California. The resulting improvement of trade routes was felt throughout the world. Within a decade, the industrial revolution was on a roll.



By 1893, the U.S. had completed five transcontinental trunk lines and no less than 260,000 miles of track. Monopolies flourished. A brilliant engineer named Theodore Judah successfully persuaded Washington to pony up ten to twenty square miles of land and at least $48,000 for every mile of track completed. The track was laid by armies of imported Chinese ’coolies’, laborers who toiled relentlessly while rail barons were popping champagne corks and charging glasses in celebration.

Enter, Andrew Carnegie, philosopher and opportunist, and in later years, philanthropist. At age 18, Carnegie caught the eye of Pennsylvania rail baron Tom Scott, becoming his personal secretary and telegraph operator. Carnegie however, had great plans for the future. The unbreakable grip of the iron industry was about to give way to steel.

By the turn of the century, William McKinley was president, and in 1903, New York State enacted legislation prohibiting the operation of steam locomotives south of the Harlem river, thus ushering in the era electrified tracks. The first use of internal combustion engines began in 1913, and was quickly superseded by the invention of the diesel locomotive, which proved more effective. The times, they were a changing.

During the great depression, the railroad became symbolic of the American struggle. Today we look back on these amazing machines as products of a bygone era. The mighty iron horse has been put to pasture. Or has it?

The steam engine may be a thing of the past, but today, light rail tracks and monorails are springing up in greater numbers. Perhaps these are not the romantic machines made famous by daring engineers like Casey Jones, but they provide safer, if not more efficient service. Meanwhile, thousands of miles of railway still grace the countryside, as modern locomotives pull seemingly endless processions of freight cars, hauling lumber, cattle, and virtually everything in between.

Away in the distance, a whistle blows. Tonight, perhaps further in the distance than in recent memory. The age of steel and steam has passed, but the dreams of those who dared make it happen, remain. An era, vanishes in a puff of smoke. A new era begins.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo