Putting Youngstown on the Map

With all due respect to Joe "Put y'all in Chains" Biden and Paul "Rage Against the Machine" Ryan, Melanie Payne should be on somebody's national ticket. Now.

From the way it's not getting mentioned, you could be forgiven for thinking Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name of the military action in Afghanistan, were already over and you'd missed the parade through the Canyon of Heroes and what did they do with all those tons of ticker tape anyway?

From back to front, they don't use it anymore because Wall Street is one of the most heavily computerized places on earth-Mammon and Mac both begin with "M" don't they?-the parade never was and never will be and the way  things are going, Operation Constant Heartbreak may never end.

But Melanie Payne is 1000% on the money (and therein in the dirty secret so follow the money). We, spellbound by the warrior child and his crony cabinet, rushed into this one when patriotism overwhelmed logic and they used it as the pretext to wage war on our American dreams. And guess what? They're winning.

The only thing happening faster than our children being shipped off, and often not for a first tour, to fight half way around the world for reasons not even the cut throat bastards who created the scenario can successfully explain (and some of these kids have adult children of their own) but too many are coming home in body bags.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 13,275.20 points yesterday; I have absolutely no idea what that means when more Americans than at any time since the Great Depression don't have jobs and have no hope of ever finding one. I cannot place the closing bell figures in a meaningful context when home foreclosures are still climbing months after we were told the worst is behind us.

But the scariest part of all is how only Melanie Payne can see a relationship and causality between men and women of duty, honor, and courage being betrayed on the battlefield and the home front by greedheads with Golden Parachutes who would cash out their own mothers except they already have. And none of those who would presume to lead us can have the decency to even mention those same sacrificial lambs or help bind their wounds. And it's barely half past August! Imagine how caked in crap and how deep in it all we'll be by Election Day. Who will pray for us as we pray for mothers like Melanie, and why should they?  
-bill kenny