Snowfall

It looks like Tony Snow isn't doing too well. A growth near his abdominal area has been determined as cancerous, and has spread to his liver. Too bad, huh? What? Do I sound cruel? Insensitive? Yeah, I know I do; but I can't help it. No, I'm not proud of it, but I can't summon much sympathy for Mr. Snow. Bad as it is for Tony Snow right now, he still has it better than most of us. He's wealthy (which we're not), so he can afford to take the time off from his job as long as he needs to (which we can't), and get the best doctors and medical treatment available (and there's a big difference between what he gets and what the rest of us get). Being Bush's hand puppet is a well-paying gig, and Tony is great at it. Cancer doesn't discriminate, but you don't want to be in the ER with a tin cup either. Maybe to his rich white Republican friends sending him "Get Well" cards Tony Snow is a good guy, but he hates the rest of America, and he lets us know it. As a newspaper columnist, a talking head on Fox, or press secretary for the President, Snow has been nothing if not consistent: a smug, narrow-minded bigot. But because Tony Snow is articulate, and handsome and has a nice smile, he gets a pass. Hey, if you're not parading a Confederate flag or wearing a swastika, you can't be racist, right? Just ask Ann, or Rush, or Sean. He didn't build the GOP's Pretty Hate Machine, but he certainly helps keep it running and well-oiled. And Tony Snow never met a queer, tofu-eating, dope-smoking, Bible-burning, terrorist sand nigger he couldn't beat up on. And he liked it. I'm not enough of a bastard to wish him dead, but only because of his wife and children. Nobody deserves to be a widow. Nobody deserves to be a orphan But say a prayer for him? Sorry, but I don't have the time. I'm busy. I'm saying prayers for the soldiers fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Walter Reed. I'm saying prayers for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis trying not to get raped, tortured, shot or blown up. I'm saying prayers for the people of New Orleans who helplessly watched their friends, family, jobs, homes, neighborhoods, culture, and future drown. I'm saying prayers for all the besieged working-class heroes of America who are one paycheck away from bankruptcy, unemployment, poverty and homelessness. So, you want me to waste a prayer on Tony Snow, one of the grinning cheerleaders whose relentless parroting of the party propaganda propelled us into Dubya's incompetent, blood-soaked obscenity of an administration in the first place? God forgive me, I can't. I can't.

Cancer is purple.

click to enlarge This past week has been heavy on cancer news. It has been like the long sequence of Presidential candidacy announcements, but is sadly not. Cancer is not something you elect to get. First there was the Couric spasm insinuating some dark political motive for John Edwards staying in the race when Elizabeth just got diagnosed with a reoccurrence of cancer. Then BAM, Tony Snow announces the return of his cancer just a short time later. Then yesterday, this diary titled, I Don't Care About Tony Snow appeared on the big orange machine known as Daily Kos and along with over 1500 comments yelling about it. Folks, here in America, we have politicized damn near everything under the sun. Stem cells, equal rights, hell, food is now a partisan issue! Does cancer have to be one also? Is it so bad for all of us to recognize cancer as being horrible and we should fight so no one ever has it? Even those who disagree with us politically? As global warming is really a moral issue, cancer is a health issue and it effects us all equally. Well, if you smoke, you are less equal than others. But that is a partisan issue.