My Proletarian Summer

If you noticed that the frequency of my posts are down, let me explain dear reader.

I'm heading off to grad school at St. Andrew's in Scotland come September, and I need to make as much money as possible. But as many of you probably know, no one really wants to hire someone for a little over three months and another unpaid internship was just out of the question.

So I'm roofing during the day and writing free-lance for my local daily, The Bucks County Courier Times , at night when I have the chance.

Let me let you in on something, roofing is the hardest day of labor I've ever experienced. So if you know any roofers, or see them toiling on those hot suburban or city roofs, be kind and respectful. Last week and this week have just been brutal since the Philly area has been going through one hell of an early heat wave.

And you may have heard some sterotypes about roofers -- basically drinking and drugging -- but the two guys I work with are the salt of the earth. To be honest, my boss may be the most devoted father I've ever witnessed. Working with these guys simply brings back what politics should be all about: the possibility of making things easier and better for those who work their asses off for a living. Today, the political arena is devoted to doing the worst to the working and middle-class, while the wealthiest among us and their political sidekicks in the GOP scratch away, bit by bit, at our progressive tax system.

So I guess it will come as no surprise that I think Howard Dean was on to something when he said that the Republican leadership and pols don't work for "an honest living." My only problem is he didn't include those on his own side of the same thing. The corruption goes both ways, but that being said, the Bush Administration has taken it to the heights of heaven.