Pass the Bottle!

Wow, is this still America - what in hell happened to the dream? Merle Haggard may have sung aloud “the bottle let me down”, but who the hell let Merle down? I was driving along the Merle Haggard Highway, down by Route 66, in pursuit Willie & Family's bus. Just follow the weed smoke, but with all the other aggravating smoke from wildfires sea to shinning sea, it is hard to decipher the good over the bad. OK, so I went to listen to a legend still pimping those steel strings, at age 79. But what a hassle I had getting there. No I don't need a wheel chair, stupid agent at the ticket counter! And when I arrived at the hotel next to the amphitheater, guess what, they gave me the “Handicapped” room, right by the damn elevator. Just because I was excited and told some that I was going to a “Old Willie” concert. The aging population is getting harassed for things we once did by second nature and still do well today. Wow, look at the line at the latrine! No wonder Willie smokes weed on the road, these highways are so disgusting, one needs a lift. Wow, Willie at 79! OK, when the “Red Headed Stranger” came center stage, it was a little out of tune. Not Nelson, that “old guitar”, as Neal once sang about, “It's been up and down the country roads. It's brought a tear and a smile. It's seen its share of dreams and hopes. And never went out of style. The more I play it, the better it sounds. It cries when I leave it alone.” But back to Merle, the damn highways across America are an atrosious mess. Instead of those bright orange road work signs indicating “Road Construction Next 12-Miles”, the signs of today now show like this, “Road Construction Next 12-Hours”! That is of course true only if a state was lucky enough to have used some of ObamaCares' bucks – from the almost dead American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – to fix the roads and bridges, instead of wasting taxpayers' loot on more education. Look, just look at Alaska to see how education bucks have failed. Alaska received over $140-Million from Barack, for what? I guess to pay for a golden parachute retirement package for union buster Carol Comatose. Maybe if teachers received a decent pay, then the “No Child to Turn Out Like George Bush” would not be on the fast-track towards failure. Will it ever work, if we continue to invest education bucks in the infrastructure instead of those dedicated to teaching? When we have a society that relies on the teaching staff to feed, clothe and bath our children, it is just like the present conditions of the highways – total dereliction. Talk about dead-beat parents, how about a dead-beat DOT? Books are outdated, with the Internet. If the school administration catered to the students over the publishing lobby, the savings in wasted book binding and paper alone could pay for a 20% reduction in class size, across the board. Or maybe to hire “Nannies”, to feed and clothe the kids. But, it is like anything else these days, lobby is a hobby to crookedness. And yes, education has failed miserably in Alaska, as when a poll was conducted asking 5^th grade students in the Anchorage School District to identify the “Bush Rat”, 99% thought it was a rodent that hung out at the Best Buy. The “recovery” is a an especially scary word this ObamaCares act, akin to the repo-man! I guess the roads could be repossessed, but who in hell's gate would want such dilapidated crap? And now one comes across these signs, like “Destructive Road Ahead”, like maybe an IED has been tested. The roads in Afghanistan and Iraq are receiving more American bucks and attention these days than is our very own critical infrastructure. Besides being littered with litter, and every bridge acting as shelter for the homeless with kids, the blown-out tire shrapnel appears as a gross reminder of just how bad the economy has tanked since George Bush caved into a tax bonus for his wealthy friends. Anyway, a toast or hit to Willie, still a “Highway Man”. To bad the 112^th Congress wasn't as energetic as Willie, then maybe we would have a land to be proud of, an inheritance we could pass along without a debt grip. Imagine, kids still unborn this soil owe money to the rich class, those that continue to use our highways and byways yet stand their ground that they owe no “back” taxes! Someone has too pay up. Talk about slavery and slave labor in modern times, our “Homeland” is under siege by the mighty rich wanting the proletariats to perform for pennies. Remember, nothing ain't worth nothing if its free in tax heaven! Anyway, there exists still a whole lot more “Old Rockers” then “Old Fockers”! And for the rich, pay up or get out, pack your bags and follow your loot and enjoy the company, of more of the same crooks!