The wealthy, who owe so much more to the system which enabled the accumulation of that wealth, also have so many loopholes it's beyond belief. Anything which slips through, anything upon which they actually pay tax, is simply an oversight. Some accountant will be fired, some Congressman called on the carpet.

Enron - "Kenny-boy" - paid no taxes.

I heard tonight the government of the US "forgave" tobacco farmers $650 million in loans last year. Or, they'd have gone out of business. Mitch McConnell was unapologetic, saying the tobacco farmers would have suffered financially had they been required to repay the loans.

Y'see, you'd like to see more programs for space. So would I. And some tobacco farmer wants subsidies, and some Chicago politician wants food stamps for campaign workers, and a Missouri fellow wants a levee, and the Cuban-Cubans want Cuban sugar kept out, and by the time they're done, it's a mess.

The miracle isn't that whatever it costs, no matter, there's a place where I can call GWB the little monkey, and tell you I have no regard for anything about him except a certain admiration for his unflinching determination to further enrich the wealthy with money from the middle class.

You're right. It's inefficient, wasteful, and dumb. And, as the ad says, it's priceless. The miracle is that it works, so far, if Ashcroft isn't allowed his way for too long, if Scalia and Thomas don't get their way.

No matter what it costs, and it could be cheaper, it works. I don't know a person who can focus on what they don't have and be happy. I know many people who look at what they do have and are content.

So, it's inefficient. What would we pay for the freedom we do have if we didn't have it? Anything. As a matter of fact, if we didn't have what we do, they'd take a lot more of it and we'd wind up with nothing, anywhere.

Wherever we find ourselves we have to work within the system. That this one costs is irrelevant, it's a system within which one CAN work.

Arf