Nepotism in the land of plenty Man, it's amazing how our political system functions and by that I mean it's amazing that it functions at all, given that appointments to high political office are doled out based on family names and blatant cronyism(sp?).

Just look at the Bush cabinet. We have the Bush dynasty intrinsically linked to the Cheney family, the Powells, the Fords and the Rehnquists. Appointments to political office equal power and the power in this land is held by a select group of people with a long line of successors going back to the Industrial Revolution at least.

But if one checks out the cabinet and the White House's various appointed offices (Dept. of Agriculture; Dept. of Justice, etc.) one easily can trace the linkages between the traditional power base in America and American politics and the corporate leaders who dwell in glass towers on Wall Street. The hide-in-plain-sight theory is played out everyday in our nation but we ignore the seats of power, the people who decide who lives and who dies, which wars we fight and which wars we avoid. Truly, American politics is like a bad soap opera written by ill-mannered brats, and we the people go about our daily lives, blithely, no, carelessly self-absorbed.

Granted, most of us have plenty on our plates just trying to pay bills, raise children and keep our lives in some semblance of order. But our lack of concern about the greater issues related to national interests and geopolitical interactions furthers the abilities of the chosen few to rule.

But that's another story, right?

I'm sitting here in a steamy room with a really bad Canadian movie unreeling on the TV behind me and this computer screen absorbing my attention, feeling like, 'Hey, I've got it pretty good. I've got a computer, I've got a roof over my head and a car to get me to and from work (what vacations?) and I've got health insurance. So to hell with the rest of THEM. My fellow Americans, as every president since Roosevelt (Teddy) said, are on the same sinking ship I'm on and if I have access to a lifeboat, so much the better for me – too bad for THEM.

We the people have to reunite and begin to take back the government from these rich, infamous families who, yes, in some cases do have the best interest of the greater good in mind when they foist their desires upon the electorate.

If people, particularly young, eligible voters, would just get together in their hometowns and build unions, not of capitalists but of theologists and ideologists and thinkers and artists and wives and husbands and carpenters and plumbers and rig workers and reporters, ad infinitum, then we could reclaim the true power of the America envisioned by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and dozens of our forefathers who had the cojones to defy English law and break away from the 'motherland.'

Pipe dream? No! Absolutely not. The revolution that college students and so-called hippies were marching for in the '60s was miscalculated and misdirected, but the roots of the 'movement' were born of healthy determinism. And that's what I feel we must aim to achieve. A government of the people, for the people, not a government of the elite and for the elite. When Bush '43 can send U.S. troops to destroy Iraq because, as I believe, he had a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein because of Saddam's attempted assassination of Bush '41, then something has gone terribly wrong!

Call me crazy but I believe that it would scare the hell out of the established power brokers if a majority of the electorate actually paid attention to political platforms; actually studied a candidate's history and tried to determine how that candidate views the world – morally, ethically and politically – rather than taking our lead from mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.

We have become a nation of sheep instead of a nation of leaders; every man and woman a king and queen in their own homes.

So get out and vote, dammit! Pay attention! Check out important appointments awarded by the president and Congress and communicate your views clearly and honestly, whatever those may be.

After all, aren't your views just as valid as mine, hers, his and theirs?

Jeez, this flick really sucks (literally, it's a vampire flick starring Adrian Paul, you know, the guy who played the lead in the TV version of Highlander).

So it's time for me to hit the road.

Mike T. If you happen to read this, I hope all is well with the little one. Shoot me a line and let me know if the birth occurred yet, K? And best wishes one and all.