Democratic National Convention speeches

You have to hand it to Apple. You can get some of the speeches from the DNC at Apple iTunes Music Store for free. My Apple stock investment paid for my recent house renovation. Go iPod! Go iTunes!
and yes I am also a Mac geek

Capitol Hill Blue: Is This Website For Real?

Is the news at Capital Hill Blue for real? They have such good news there like the President losing his mind and now Nancy Reagan's telling the Rethugs to stick it. There is just too much justice in this latest article "Nancy Reagan to Bush: 'We Don't Support Your Re-Election'" for me to possibly believe it, but I'll try. Here are some snips:

“Mrs. Reagan does not support President Bush’s re-election and neither to most members of the President’s family,” says a spokesman for the former First Lady.

snip

Nancy Reagan has told close followers she believes Bush and the current Republican leadership have divided America with their extreme views. She has told Republican leaders she wants nothing to do with the party or Bush.

snip

During the week of Reagan’s funeral, the former First Lady “went ballistic” when she learned the Bush campaign was test marketing new ads that used Reagan’s photos and speeches in an effort to show he supported Bush and his re-election. She personally called Republican Party Chief Ed Gillespie to demand the ads be destroyed.

Too funny

A message from the White House West. Will Ferrel does a great George Bush impression and a funny Bush commercial with out takes.... oh and it's for a good cause.
(hat tip to Amanda at Mouse Words. Amanda's blog is extremely well written and full of interesting news too. You should be reading it.)

That cinched it for me

John Kerry - Speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention: "I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side. And whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all: The measure of our character is our willingness to give of ourselves for others and for our country.

"These aren't Democratic values. These aren't Republican values. They're American values. We believe in them. They're who we are. And if we honor them, if we believe in ourselves, we can build an America that's stronger at home and respected in the world."

Miss Georgia Sex Offenders 2004 Pageant

weird.
(Hat tip to Horkulated)

Possible Terror Threat?

Thanks to information from Pete at Dark Window, who is currently in an underground bunker in an undisclosed location, we are alerted by the FBI to another possible terror threat in New Mexico and California.

What is most frightening about this possible terror threat that made the AP wire is that it is "unsubstantiated, uncorroborated and the official who reported it spoke only on condition of anonymity."

What's more, there are no specific dates, times, locations. No one knows why this information was issued and no one was put on heightened alert. Tom Ridge has no specific information either.

You can't make this stuff up.

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

 
Who's Your Daddy?  Who's da man?  Yeah baby!  We got your candidate!
 
I'm writing this bleary eyed and sleepy.  Yeah, but I'm smiling, because Senator, and soon to be president, Kerry had me last night.  He had me with his daughters and his band of brothers.  He did it.  He told me what I needed to hear and he did it well.  He can be president and he will be.
 
Senator Kerry convinced me, and hopefully all Americans watching last night, that he can be the man to take our country to the high side of admiration in the world.  That's something that no one can say about the present administration.
 
When Sen. Kerry's daughters spoke about their dad, I cried.  What a dad he has been. I wanted to have had a dad like that.  When Max Cleland spoke, I envied his friendship with Senator Kerry.  Damn, who wouldn't?
 
Senator Kerry knows that war is more than watching an Army vs. Navy football game and eating pretzels.  When it comes to defending our country, Senator Kerry won't choke. 
 
Last night was bliss for Democrats and America.  If you're a Democrat, be proud today because you are well represented in this 2004 presidential race.  The world will most likely agree. 
 
Sure we'll hear the downside of all this in the days to come, but for now, lets smile and enjoy the after glow of a great night of love.  This wasn't a one night stand.  It was the beginning of a long and happy  relationship. 

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

When I'm really, really mad about something, the last thing in the world I want is for someone to pat me on my head and say, there, there, everything is going to be all right, just calm down.  I would much rather hear the simple phrase, I understand.

That's the way I feel about this Democratic convention with their scrubbed and sanitized speeches.  I feel like they’re saying, don't show your anger and frustration, just calm down.  Well, I won't calm down.  There are soldiers being murdered every single damned day in Iraq.  That makes me angry.  There are jobs going across the ocean with a one-way ticket.  That makes me angry.  The educational system in America is crumbling.  That makes me angry.  American's elderly citizens are going hungry in order to afford their medicine so that they may stay alive.  That makes me angry.  Our water and air is being legally poisoned.  That makes me angry.  Under the leadership of george bush, our country has become the enemy to much of the world.  Damn straight I'm mad, and I'm pretty damned sure that I'm not alone.

About half of America is mad as hell.  Tonight I sure would like to hear Senator Kerry at least say, I understand.  Sure, I'm going to vote for him.  No one could stop me.  But, I wish he would acknowledge that he understands why I can't just calm down.   I wish he would let me know that he realizes that there's a freight train of disaster heading our way and now is not the time for Democrats to calm down.  I want him to get energized and tell us how he plans to stop that train that bush is blindly driving to hell.  Show us the emotion.  Show us the understanding.  And for god's sake, acknowledge that we have a reason to be mad as hell even if we aren't supposed to show it.

Here's Our Church Membership Listing, Mr Bush

To: Bush/Cheney Re-election Campaign Headquarters
From: "Rev." David Batstone
Re: Our Service to the King

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Kingdom:

I can't tell you how inspired I am by your detailed plan of action leading up to the November election. Being an evangelical pastor, I wasn't sure how I was going to mobilize my congregation to make a faithful commitment in the realm of politics. But rest assured, we are following diligently the 22 duties you so generously offered, so that God's will may be made manifest in the re-election of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for four more years.

As per your request, I sent yesterday a directory of our church membership to your campaign headquarters here in California. All addresses and telephone numbers are up-to-date, which I trust will be quite useful for your field team as they seek to make personal connections with our flock.

Our pastoral staff even put stars next to the names of those members who have given more than $1,000 to our church during the past year. We do not have an especially wealthy congregation, but as I reminded them last week in my sermon, if a poor widow can give a mite, so might we open our hearts and checkbooks to the burning Bush of Texas, whom God has led to Washington for our sakes.

I do not suffer fools lightly, and for the sake of the gospel will continue to preach boldly words of political action. From now until October, at the close of each service we will have a call forward for those wayward individuals who have not yet registered to vote. My elders stand waiting, registration form in hand, for the Spirit to move those hardened by other political leanings, or perhaps lukewarm in their service to the King.

No, brothers and sisters, we will not hide our light under a bushel. We have restructured our Sunday School programs for the fall to reinforce the importance of Christian citizens taking on the mantle of conservative causes. Your Voter Guides will be distributed to each member of the church - the young marrieds as well as the seniors - and will become the focus of our Bible studies during the Sunday School hour.

You will be pleased to hear that our planting of seeds already is yielding fruit. By its own inspiration, the Visitation Committee announced its plans to suspend visits to the sick and elderly for the months of October and November (except in those cases of impending death). Instead, these faithful souls will use their hours of ministry going door to door in the neighborbood surrounding the church, handing out your Voter Guides and, if God opens hearts, asking for our neighbors to volunteer for Bush/Cheney '04.

I cannot recall a time when our flock was so focused on a single mission. In no small part we have you to thank. The campaign potlucks you demanded did not even seem like a duty; after the meal, we sang songs of praise for the divine blessing given our nation under Republican leadership. Thanks be to God, I now know how the people of Judea must have felt when He bestowed on King David His eternal wisdom to guide His people in a "united states" of Israel.

Do not fear, my brothers and sisters. On that day of judgment in November, when that great roll is unscrolled, rest assured that you will find each of our names recorded in the Republican column.

David Batstone writes for Sojourners, sojo.net, a magazine and ezine about spirituality, politics and culture. If you are like me and feel that the Republicans act as if they own God and Christianity, then this is a great website for you to check out and subscribe to their weekly mailing. Even if you don't practice your religion anymore, most likely you suspect that something is very wrong with the "God" whom the Republicans have hijacked. Sojourners has marvelous writers who can put into words those feelings you have about these times.

UPDATE: The above piece is a satire. Seems real doesn't it?

The President's Erratic Behavior Revisited

Capitol Hill Blue is claiming that the preznit is looney tunes again and was prescribed "powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia" which can "impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis."

Apparently his aids were concerned when Bush stormed out of a press conference recently when asked about his relationship to Ken Lay and then flipped out backstage. I remember that story. Bush manages to get away with avoiding answering questions all the time. He's the teflon president isn't he?

I wonder what drugs they are giving him that could impair his mental faculties any further than they already were? My friend's friend who was having religious delusions was given lithium. That's a powerful drug. Seriously, I'm surprised that Bush wasn't locked up in a padded cell when he first said that God wanted him to be President. Or how about when he said that God told him to strike Iraq? Most recently, he told the Amish that God speaks through him. Is this normal behavior? Did Bush say this before or after he was on them powerful drugs? Hmm.

Iraqi Reality TV

We've read the stories about residential neighborhoods in Iraq being damaged or destroyed by the liberation process of the coalition of the willing. We've seen the pictures of parents holding their dismembered children in their arms and looking up to heaven asking god "why?" For many of us around the world with hearts and souls, we too asked "why?"

The evilness of Saddam Hussein was supposed to make what we did in Iraq ok according to the corporate owned journalists who sold their hearts and souls for a job in front of a camera. But those of us who read know that the liberation of Iraq cost a lot more than billions of US taxpayer dollars, the death and mutilation of thousands of people including our troops and America's good reputation in the rest of the world. The latter is one good reason that it's time for a regime change in our country.

I can hardly imagine living in war torn Baghdad. I can hardly imagine how I'd feel if a liberating force came into my town and country and ripped it to shreds killing family members and destroying our homes in order to free us from George Bush and Republican neocons. When I flip through the channels on my TV and see all the crap the media is feeding the American people, I can't believe it sometimes. We have the stupidest reality shows that only prove just how vapid our society has become.

Our vapid television ideas made their way to Iraq but with a twist. A good one. Reality TV has come to Baghdad. A new TV show called "Labor and Materials" shows houses blasted by bombs and local battles come back to life with new windows, walls, furniture and appliances in a surprising way because the show's host appears at the door of unsuspecting war victims and then they proceed to put the house back together. The goods are donated by Iraqi viewers at this time, not advertisers (although they are considering advertisers because of the enormity and expense of the make overs. But how's that for human spirit?

"The main point isn't to rebuild the house, but to show the change in the psychology of the family during the rebuilding," says Ali Hanoon, the show's director. "The rebuilding has a psychological effect on the families - their memories, their lives, are in these walls."

Unfortunately, according to the article in the Christian Science Monitor the bombings aren't over, the suffering isn't over and this makes "Labor and Materials" truly a reality TV show.

Freedom of Oppression

Watch Ed Helms from COMEDY CENTRAL take advantage of the Free Speech Zone in Boston. It's hilarious as he tests it out before a Boston cop: "Labia, urethra, vagina, penis, penis, penis!" Ya gotta love this guy.

Political Humor

Found this on a yahoo group. Author unknown but quite funny.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CONVENTION SCHEDULE New York, NY

06:00 PM Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Jerry Falwell
06:30 PM Pledge of Allegiance
06:35 PM Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd amendment)
06:45 PM Salute to the Coalition of the Willing
06:46 PM Seminar #1 "Getting your kid a military deferment"
07:30 PM First Presidential Beer Bash for Bush
07:35 PM Serve Freedom Fries
07:40 PM EPA Address #1: Mercury, it's what's for dinner.
08:00 PM Vote on which country to invade next
08:10 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh
08:15 PM John Ashcroft Lecture: The Homos are after your children
08:30 PM Round table discussion on reproductive rights (MEN only)
08:50 PM Seminar #2 Corporations: The government of the future
09:00 PM Condi Rice sings "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"
09:05 PM Second Presidential Beer Bash for Bush
09:10 PM EPA Address #2 Trees: The real cause of forest fires
09:30 PM Break for secret meetings
10:00 PM Second prayer led by Pat Robertson
10:15 PM Lecture by Carl Rove: Doublespeak made easy
10:30 PM Rumsfeld demonstration of how to squint and talk macho
10:35 PM Bush demonstration of trademark "deer in headlights" stare.
10:40 PM John Ashcroft demonstrates new mandatory kevlar chastity belt
10:45 PM Clarence Thomas reads list of black republicans
10:46 PM Third Presidential Beer Bash for Bush
10:50 PM Seminar #3 Education: a drain on our nation's economy.
11:10 PM Hilary Clinton Pinata
11:20 PM Second Lecture by John Ashcroft: "Evolutionists--The dangerous new cult"
11:30 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh again.
11:35 PM Blame Clinton
11:40 PM Laura serves milk and cookies
11:50 PM Closing Prayer led by Jesus Himself
12:00 PM Nomination of George W. Bush as Holy Supreme Planetary Leader

Terrorist Websites

Al Qaeda's Home Page

From csmonitor.com:
"Terrorists spread their messages online
A growing number of Al Qaeda websites offer instructions for kidnapping and killing victims.

By Faye Bowers
WASHINGTON One Al Qaeda website offers chilling details on how to conduct private and public kidnappings. It points out the number of cells essential to target and and hide victims. It details how to handle hostages - force them to taste the food first, for instance. It gives advice on negotiating tactics (gradually kill the hostages if 'the enemy' stalls) and on releasing captives (be alert to tracking devices planted in the ransom money).

The Al Qaeda site, called Al Battar, which means The Sword, is posted on the Internet twice a month. It's one of several websites that the terrorist group and its supporters built after the US successfully routed them from Afghanistan in late 2001.

And it is one of some 4,000 websites that, experts say, now exist to carry on a 'virtual' terror war - and plan actual attacks."

Hey! I thought we were safer and that we broke up the terrorist cells. Damn liberal media is trying to scare me.

Campaign Finance Laws: Schmampaign Finance Laws

washingtonpost.com:
For Lobbyists, Big Spending Means Big Presence

"Thanks to a loophole in campaign finance laws, a presidential convention is the one place where corporations and labor unions can still spend with abandon to influence holders of high office. Lobbyist-paid festivities are nothing new during presidential conventions, of course. But this year they are more numerous and lavish than ever.
...
The possibility that Democrats might take back the White House or regain power in Congress has fueled all the lobbyists' partygoing. 'They're covering their bets,' says Larry Noble, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. 'Corporations are very pragmatic; they are always counting on the possibility of change.'

What's more, the lobbying community has not held back when Democrats have asked for funds. Fifteen corporations, unions and foundations have each given at least $1 million to the Boston host committee, including Bank of America Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Gillette Co., Verizon Communications Inc. and the Service Employees International Union. Another 15 have given from $500,000 to $1 million. In 1992, the Democrats did not accept more than $100,000 from any single donor.

Even ardent proponents of tough regulation of campaign contributions tend to jettison their qualms when they get to conventions.

On Monday, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) emerged from a $19,000 Union Oyster House luncheon given in his honor by the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to say accepting the gift was "totally consistent" with his stand on campaign finance. "

I've never attended a $19,000 luncheon given in my honor. Actually I've never had a luncheon given in my honor. I'm in the wrong profession.

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

The Lighter Side of Political Conventions.

Yesterday I wrote about what I believed to be a serious topic.  But today is a new day and I can't be an adult every single day.  Here's why.

As a little girl I remember watching the conventions on TV.  That was back in the days when all the TV stations covered all the elections, gavel to gavel.  That was back when the media executives and Americans felt that the election of an American president was a pretty damned important matter and they felt all Americans should be given the opportunity to have as much info as possible before they cast their vote.  Today it's different.  During this campaign period we are in the middle of a war, a war in which Americans are being killed every day.  This war is unlike any other, because the US invaded and occupied a "threatening" country that wasn't threatening anyone.  With the choice of the future leadership of American so critically important today, unless you have cable, you'll only see an abbreviated glimpse of the conventions.  The major TV executives have determined that they will decide how much you'll see of the conventions and when you'll see it.  Today the demands of viewers for a rerun of a situation comedy takes priority over a first hand look at democracy.  Things have changed.

But back to the olden days of totally televised convention coverage.  As I used to watch all the crazy activity on TV and see all the outrageous outfits the delegates would wear, it all reminded this little girl of a grand and glorious party.  All the delegates were laughing and smiling.  During those years, there wasn't a whole lot of laughing and smiling at my house.  But, in an imaginary way I was able to join all those happy people on television and we could all be part of some fantastic fantasy party.  Then to top it all off there were the balloons.  Oh, those colorful, wonderful balloons!  They tumbled from the ceiling in great numbers.  It was a gentle storm of beauty to me.  There were so many balloons, people could pop some of them on purpose.  They had so many that they wouldn't even miss the ones they popped.   I could never imagine having that many balloons to play with.  A poor kid like me was lucky to get one balloon at a time.  Thousands falling upon you must be magical.  I just wanted to run into that room and swim in all those balloons.  I would have entered a contest if the prize had been to play in all those balloons.  That was my version of heaven long ago and in another part of my life.  Some things have changed.

Today, the delegates still wear some pretty "out there" outfits, and I have yet to understand exactly why.  The people still appear to be having a lot of fun and you know what?  I have a feeling that on Thursday night when Senator Kerry accepts the nomination and they release all those balloons that are being held captive in the ceiling of the hall, I’ll continue to believe that those balloons are some of the prettiest things I've ever seen.  I'll see them as a happy and comfortable adult but my childish appreciation for their beauty and my desire to swim in a sea of balloons will be very close by.  I hope that never changes. 

This is the stuff of memories, and everyone can afford memories because they are free for the taking. These are some of the memories that I want to keep with me always.  I want to remember the feeling of being amazed that someone could have so many balloons that they could pop some on purpose.  I no longer need the fantasy friends and parties on TV to make me smile, but they still do.  I no longer need it, but I sure do love it.  I love the magical feeling I get, even to this day, when I see a united party and a sea of beautiful balloons.  I love the lighter side of the conventions. 

Guess Who Is a Hottie?

Atrios is. His name is Duncan. You can see a picture of him here (Atrios second from left, then President Carter and then Dan Perkins on right (Tom Tomorrow) and here.

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

Did we have fun last night or what?  Even with the speeches scrubbed of too much vitriol, the message was there.  We Americans who have been watching have not liked what we've seen over the last four years.  President Carter doesn't like what he's seen happen to the country he led.  President Clinton so eloquently described in detail how and where the wheels came off the country he led.  They didn't fuss and fume. They told us what went wrong, how and why.  They made the points that we wanted them to make, and it was done professionally with educated and managed language.

Al Gore used humor and experience to let us know that he remembers what happened in 2000.  He hasn't forgotten, you haven't forgotten and why should we forget?  If we don't remember and learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it.  That's sage wisdom that endures.  Only a lazy fool says let's forget about our errors.  That's not what American's have done in the past.  We bank our mistakes and learn from the interest. 

It must be so difficult for the speakers this week to leave their anger behind the curtain.  Anger is the result of hurt, and we're all hurting.  We become frustrated when we hear someone boast that bush makes a decision and sticks by it.   The insanity of that remark is so obvious.  Anyone who does not reevaluate his or her decisions from time to time allows no possibility for improvement.  Anyone who does not accept the possibility that his or her plans may have to be changed as situations change doesn't show determination. They show stubbornness.  Stubbornness is not an altogether admirable trait.  It's one thing to be strong in times of adversity but it's quiet another to be stubborn to the detriment of the cause.  A strong leader is not afraid to change courses.  As regular Americans, we often change courses as our lives progress.  Events require readjustment and change.  A wise man will recognize his mistakes and adjust accordingly.  Only a fool will continue down a path toward destruction to avoid the perception of weakness, when it is so obvious that a change of direction is needed. 

There's a general belief that you don't change presidents during a time of war.  Another way of stating it is that don't change horses mid stream.  I would argue that if the horse you are riding cannot swim but refuses to return to shore while the other horse recognizes the depth of the stream and begins looking for an alternate crossing, the second horse would be the horse of choice for most intelligent riders.  Sure, during the change you may become drenched, but at least you won't drown.  You realized the situation changed and you've made an unscheduled change of plans in order to survive.  If you had stubbornly stayed on the first horse, you might only be remembered as determined by the inscription on your headstone.

While we enjoyed the speeches last night, I think each of us hoped with all our hearts that other Americans would hear the messages, feel the hope, and realize that changing horses mid stream is not a foolish notion. It's a requirement for the rebirth of peace and the future of American democracy.

Free silence zone

From Seattle Pi: "At the Democratic National Convention in Boston, a razor-wired concentration camp -- OK, the designated demonstration area -- is supposed to be a safe harbor for protest. Nonsense. The cage is instead an affront to the First Amendment and to the very essence of the American character."

Well yeah. It's a good thing that the demonstrators at this convention are receiving the same treatment that the demonstrators have been receiving at every protest since Bush took office. It's sucks doesn't it? It finally made the news too. It only took 3 years. Better late than never though.

Good morning America. Nice to see you are waking up.

Shove It Shove It Shove It Shove It Shove It

Wow the Cable TV pundits are apoplectic over Teresa Heinz Kerry's use of the phrase "shove it" towards a reporter. Oh those angry liberals. They must learn to control themselves. BFD. The hypocrisy is just overwhelming these days. A Democrat can't move without being disassembled by the media pundits. These are men going nuts over her comment though.

Women don't mind assertive women in the White House at all. Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush (Queen Bitch) and Hillary Clinton were ballsy women. Oh I think Teresa Heinz Kerry is going to bring women to the polls on November 2nd. Women aren't going to come out for wimpy Laura (stand up straight and keep your hair out of your eyes, girls) Bush. Women got Bill Clinton elected twice. Women are going to get John Kerry elected. You'll see.

Transvestite Bitch on Wheels

Ann Coulter thinks it's pretty and allies itself with pretty "girls".
USA Today couldn't use Coulter's story because it was full of inaccuracies and dumb opinions, especially the fact that Coulter was trying to pass for a female, a pretty one at that.

"My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie-chick pie wagons they call 'women' at the Democratic National Convention."

I wouldn't call what she wrote "reporting". It was more of a nasty bitter jealous rage brought on by an overdose of too many female hormone supplements in a male body. You can read what USA today wouldn't print, and rightly so here.

Convention Demonstration Zone is a Dark, Shadowy Place

From Commondreams.org: DNC Protesters get to demonstrate at this lovely fenced in razor wired pen in Boston. It looks like a concentration camp. I hope NYC will afford protesters a nicer place than Boston. The good side of this story is that for once, the right wingers can have a taste of their own medicine.

Meet the Bloggers

Wonder who is blogging at the DNC? Meet the Bloggers is in the WSJ of all places! You can see how cute they are!

Heterosexualism Causes Homosexuals to be Born and Used Book Sales Now a Threat

It never ceases to amaze me why on earth there is such a rash of non-news being reported and why our elected officials are wasting time on issues that don't affect the vast majority of the country.

The obvious non issue of late was the threat of homosexuals getting married thus causing homophobes in politics to worry about box turtle marriage as the tragic result of not doing something about denying gay folks their civil rights. It was also noted by Senator Santorum that nothing is more important than banning gays from marrying in the world today. The logic escaped me, but you must remember that I'm blonde. Would the Defending Marriage Amendment have prevented homosexuals from giving birth to more homosexuals? The last time I checked, you need stuff from both sexes to reproduce, but maybe I missed some new breakthrough in science.

Heterosexuals are really to blame for the gay 'problem', the way I look at it. Perhaps the government should be finding out who these deviant parents are who give birth to homosexuals and stop them at once. Oops, that would point right at our veep and his wife.

Today while perusing the The New York Times , that bastion of liberalism, I read that used books are deemed a threat to book publishers by one writer, yet none of the book publishers can pinpoint what the problem is or if it has an adverse effect on book sales. WTF?

The article starts off like this: "Is Amazon.com becoming the Napster of the book business?"
Here is the 'terrible' problem: "But the Web, particularly sites like Amazon and eBay , have given millions of consumers an easy way to find cheap books - often for under $1 - without paying royalty fees to publishers or authors."

Oh my gawd. How shocking. What about libraries, garage sales, used book stores, giving books to your neighbors/friends? Why throw a perfectly good book in the garbage when you're done with it? If a good book is out of publication, we should just chuck it?

The author goes on a fact finding mission:
"Mass-market publishers are not certain the used-book phenomenon is a problem worth addressing, but others in the industry have already made up their minds."

"We think it's not good for the industry and it has an effect, but we can't measure it," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild

"And Kathryn Blough, the vice president for the Association of American Publishers, said that she "wouldn't jump to the conclusion that used books are eating away at the new-book market." "

"We've not been able to pinpoint a definite effect, but my gut is that absolutely there's an effect," said Dominique Raccah, chief executive of Sourcebooks Inc. "

"We see this as a virtuous cycle. The lower prices of used books allow people to experiment with authors and genres in ways they might not have otherwise. ...We definitely see people who buy at a lower price point come back and buy new books in that same genre," Mr. Greeley from Amazon.com added. "

This is my favorite part:
Ms. Shanley, whose company reported on used books this month in its newsletter, Publishing Trends, said that publishers were beginning to see the effects. "We've asked publishers how much of an issue it is, and the responses are either 'I have so many other problems to deal with,' or 'Yes, it's an issue, but as there are no easy fixes, I can't really focus on it,' '' she said.

Where exactly is the problem? Who is worried about it besides the author? Why is this article in the NY Times wasting space? Why am I writing about it? What about gay used book dealers? Where will this end?

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

Have you heard?  Boston is locked down and tied up with security.  We have jets above and bomb sniffing dogs below.  The doors are locked and the windows are barred.  This place is tight as a drum.  It's costing all of us some big bucks.  You knew all this, right?  Okay just imagine how much more security we would have needed if Saddam wasn't in jail.  Exactly!  Remember, bush told us that nabbing Saddam made America safer.  Safer than what? 

We are told to feel safer because "We got him."  Well, I'm thinking that if we had left him the hell alone a bit longer and put all our efforts into being able to say "We got him" in Afghanistan, perhaps, just perhaps, the jets could have stayed in the hangers and the dogs could be snoozing on the front porch.  Sure we would need security at both conventions, but maybe not to the extent we see today.

Bush declared, let there be fear, and fear has rained down upon the country for four years.  He told us to love our neighbor, as we would like to be loved ourselves.  He also told us to keep an eye on our neighbor just in case we thought we saw any funny business going on.  You know, watch for any terrorist hanky panky and such.  So, while you're loving your neighbor, check him out for WMD.  Snuggle up close and frisk that rascal.  Yeah okay, it's gonna be tough to get this chore done, but it's in the name of safety and fear and "terra".  Oh, you know the drill.  Always be alert for reasons to be fearful.  Even when loving thy neighbor, don't forget to be afraid.  Since 9-11, Americans have been forced to wear fear the way Hester Prynne was forced to wear her scarlet "A".

Fear is a funny thing, once you’ve felt it, it's difficult to shake.  It's like an anxiety attack. You know it's an unfounded emotion but just because it's unfounded doesn't mean you can brush it off.  The bush administration has inflicted a case of anxiety on the whole country.  The attacks of 9-11 scared the beejezus out of everyone, and that's a fear that was well founded. But, the reminders by way of alerts, color codes etc. have served as a constant cue for anxiety.  They give us a subtle message telling us that it not only happened, it’s very likely to happen again.  It's almost as if they're saying daily, don't forget to be afraid today.  That sort of national anxiety is not healthy, and apparently it hasn't been very productive either, because Boston is locked down and tied up with security today, just like old Saddam.  Thank goodness the terrorists of 9-11 didn't succeed in taking away our freedom, huh?

Let's Bring Back the Duel

When I first read about the restaffing of the Draft Boards across the country, I was seriously thinking of signing up to work on the board so that I could make sure that those who support this president and his lies war would be sure to fight for it as well. Did I mention that I was a registered Republican only so I could infiltrate the local party to see what they were up to? It was rather corrupt in my county for years and years and years. We have Dems running the show now (the sheeple woke up), so I guess it's safe to change to Independent or Democrat now.

I remember my very wise daddy telling me that there would probably never be any more traditional wars after the Vietnam debacle and nuclear arms proliferation. He also felt that if world leaders would physically participate in war battles as they did in the olden times, we'd probably not be involved in any more wars in this country. He also thought it would be a good idea if our leaders learned boxing, wrestling or karate and would just fight it out with other leaders when they couldn't solve problems diplomatically. I'll buy that.

Or how about a duel? Let them fight to the death amongst themselves... that ought to make those chickenhawks come to peaceful solutions in a snap.

The Nation has a funny (I wish it were true) story called 'Neocon Riots Rock DC' that describes the riots that would ensue, with a twist of course, if a bill passed that would require people who have never been in combat to serve in wars that they start.

The Bush people opposed said bill on "the grounds that it would leave most of the Administration's upper-level positions vacant, including the presidency and vice-presidency, but it was left unattended on President Bush's desk and he inadvertently signed it after deciding it looked too long and too hard to read first."

heh.

It's really not a bad idea to force those who start a war to serve in it. It's only fair.

What Time Is It?

Blatantly stolen from Doomocracy:

What Time Is It?

It's time to take my liberty back, just like it says in the Pledge of Allegiance. The liberty that my Forefathers fought for, and proudly laid its foundation to give freedom and justice to all and give an example for the World to follow in its footsteps.

It's time to take my free speech back as our Constitution states. The right to show my true patriotism to my country and not to the masters of its government without the fear of persecution from the false patriots. Time to make this whole land a "free speech zone" as it says in the First Amendment.

It's time to take back my language, free of distortions, twists and ambiguous misinterpretations. The language in which truth means truth, fair means fair, and lie is not a malfunction.

It's time to take back my free elections, where one vote means one vote and all citizens in good faith can vote without intimidation or disenfranchisement.

It's time to take my values back, the values taught by my ancestors, based on real human virtues like courage, fairness, faith and most of all honesty.

It's time to take my morality back, based on love, social fairness and true faith. Morality dictated by true human virtues and inclusion of all of our human brothers and sisters.

It's time to take my faith back, where the names of God and Jesus will not be used to achieve personal advancement or enrichment. To celebrate their names and follow their teachings without bragging about it.

It's time to take my Government back to its purpose as servant to the people rather than master of the universe.

It's time to reclaim capitalism with its values and free opportunites for all in their quest to work and their pursuit of happiness in a playing-field regulated by free market laws.

It's time to reclaim my Constitution to the full extent of its meaning, and those upholding its interpretation not be given the right to select leaders.

And most of all, it's time to reclaim my Country, that shining house on the hill, respected and revered around the world. The Country that invented and revolutionized democracy and taught the world individual freedom and dignity to live by.

Clinton Did Not Wag The Dog

According to the AP: "The Sept. 11 commission's final report says there's
no evidence suggesting President Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes on Osama bin Laden targets to distract attention from his affair with Monica Lewinsky."

The commission says strikes may have been too aggressive in Sudan and Afghanistan.

"The report said everyone involved in the decision to strike were aware of Clinton's problems.

"He [Clinton] told them to ignore them," the report said. Berger recalled the president saying to him "that they were going to get crap either way, so they should do the right thing."

While the commission said it found no reason to doubt the motivation of Clinton and his advisers, their report stated: "The failure of the strikes, the 'wag the dog' slur, the intense partisanship of the period and the nature of the al Shifa evidence likely had a cumulative effect on future decisions about the use of force against bin Laden. Berger told us that he did not feel any sense of constraint.""

Ain't That A Kick in the Head?

"Ukraine's pre-election environment has already proven problematic in such key areas as control and manipulation of the media; attempts by national authorities to limit access to international broadcasting, including Radio Liberty; obstacles to free assembly and a free and fair political campaign."


It seems that the US Senate is deeply concerned about Ukraine elections scheduled for October 31st. So concerned that they passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 late Thursday night. The bipartisan resolution urges the Government of Ukraine to ensure a democratic, transparent, and fair election process for the presidential election.

"The October elections will be vital in determining Ukraine's course for years to come. This resolution is a concrete expression of the commitment of the U.S. Senate to the Ukrainian people," said Co-Chairman, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.). "Ukraine's elections should be a watershed for the future direction of that country of great potential. Ukrainian authorities need to radically improve the election environment if there is to be hope for these elections to meet OSCE standards. By doing so, they will go a long way in restoring the trust of the citizens of Ukraine and strengthening Ukraine's independence and democracy."

UPDATE: Alert Reader, Richard Cranium, rewrites this article in the comments section. Great job!

We need more heterosexual translators

The 9/11 COMMISSION Report says we need a single director of national intelligence. Now Tom Ridge says we don't need more agencies, we need more arab translators: "We don't need more bureaucracy. We need more analysts, we need more Arabic-speaking analysts, and we need a lot more human intelligence,"

B-b-but 9 US Army linguists, including 6 trained to speak Arabic, were fired in 2002 for being Gay at a time when the military was facing a shortage of translators!

Why do we allow homophobes to be in positions of authority?

Who are they more afraid of? Terrorists or homosexuals?

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

On the day the 9-11 Commission showed us their findings, on the day we were told we better get shaking if we are to have a chance in hell of preventing another attack, on the day the world saw that we have to shape up our intelligence community - on this very day, the House of Representatives decided the most important and urgent thing they should do is vote to try to bar same sex marriages.  I guess they felt that denying homosexual marriages is our first line of defense in the war on "terra".  Whew, good thing someone thought of that, huh?  The 9-11 Commission forgot all about the role gay marriages would play in putting our country in harm's way.  Imagine if all gay couples had the right and freedom to wed.  Talk about letting our guard down just as Ridge is shouting about something that's about to happen somewhere at sometime.  When things get rough, grab you bible and say, Amen!  Ah, what would Jesus do?  What do you think Jesus would say is our numero uno problem du jour?  Would it be the safety of our country or would it be the dreaded possibility of adult gay Americans committing to love each other and share all of life's lovely gifts?  Those who chat with him often should ask about this.

It took us a long time to make those recognitions and inclusions, but thank goodness we finally did.  Isn't it time we grew a little more and a little faster?  Isn't it time to stop wasting time trying to ban rights?  Isn't it time to once again declare to the world that in America, all Americans are equal and deserve equal rights as well as equal recognition in everything they do?  Owning a bible is fine, but using it to block the way to the full acceptance, acknowledgement, and equal rights of any American is not so fine.   Yes, gay marriages are going to usher in a change in our society, but that's what is so wonderful about America, we change and we grow.  At least we used to.

*******

Ready to have a little fun and perhaps win a prize? 
Go to this site   http://www.danahork.com/ and take "The 2004 Official Political Junkie's Democratic Convention Predictions Quiz".  This will be more fun than bitch slapping the Pretzelnit with a rotten mackerel.  Okay, I agree, nothing would be more fun than that but this is pretty damned close.  You can enter until Thursday, July 29th at 3pm.  So go now.  Life's short, have fun now! 

Media Conglomerates Suck

Turner on media conglomerates: Bust 'em up
AJC.com
07/22/04

"Ted Turner argues that big media companies must be busted up — like the railroad trusts were in the early 20th century and Ma Bell was more recently — in an article he penned for Washington Monthly magazine.

Turner, the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting, is still a major shareholder in parent company, Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world.

Turner says in the piece that he would never have been able to start his companies in today's climate. Lax regulation has made it impossible for entrepreneurs to succeed, he says.

"This is a fight about freedom—the freedom of independent entrepreneurs to start and run a media business, and the freedom of citizens to get news, information, and entertainment from a wide variety of sources, at least some of which are truly independent and not run by people facing the pressure of quarterly earnings reports," he writes in the article.

Turner winds up the article with a comparison to professional wrestling: "Today the government has cast down its duty, and media competition is less like boxing and more like professional wrestling: The wrestler and the referee are both kicking the guy on the canvas." "

Well I totally agree with Ted but what's he gonna do about it? Can he make the government regulate the media and perhaps think about reviving those pesky anti-trust laws so that regular people have a chance in hell of survival?

The 9/11 Report

I am reading it now. Get it here.

It's not all that shocking. Intelligence failures, foreign policy failures, kill the Americans, etc.

There is nothing about the evil doers "hating our freedoms" so much here in this country as much as them hating our government's 'freedom' to place troops in middle eastern countries like Saudi Arabia.

I'm not up to the part about why Bush sat in the classroom reading a book while all this was happening.

"Although Bin Ladin was determined to strike in the United States, as President Clinton had been told and President Bush was reminded in a Presidential Daily Brief article briefed to him in August 2001, the specific threat information pointed overseas. Numerous precautions were taken overseas.

Domestic agencies were not effectively mobilized. The threat did not receive
national media attention comparable to the millennium alert."

Discuss....

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

The 9-11 Commission will reveal its report this morning.  The Pretzelnit has stated that he will look at it and consider the recommendations.  Well, duh! I sure as hell hope he'll not only look at it but actually read it as well.  This report deserves his deepest attention.  He should be waiting with an eager and open mind for the contents of this report.  He should be, but is he?

My gut feeling is that the entire investigation and report are a major pain in his ass.  I think he sees the 9-11 attacks as nothing more than a means to an end.  Thanks to those attacks he hit the jackpot as far as giving his neo buds a means for the war they had always dreamed about.  The fear factor flag was handed to them on that awful September day and they flew it all the way to Iraq.  Many Americans went along for the ride.  Bush's words blurred their vision, and they lost their ability to distinguish the flag of fear from Old Glory.  Both flags looked the same to them.  Many Americans would blindly follow bush straight to hell, and they did. 

The Easter Bunny has nothing on bush when it comes to hiding things.  I'm convinced he would have liked nothing better than to have kept everything regarding pre 9-11 security hidden from public view.  Thank goodness the 9-11 Families screamed their demands for this investigation until someone finally heard them.  Without their voices we wouldn't be hearing what we'll hear today.  Once we gave them our sympathy, and now we should give them our gratitude. 

I'll have the salad please...

FDA Report- BSE Interim Final Rule and Proposed Rule:
"FDA'S New Interim Final Rule Prohibiting Use of Certain Cattle Materials that May Carry the Risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (Also Known as 'Mad Cow Disease') in Human Foods and Cosmetics

"Specified risk materials from cattle over 30 months are:
brain
skull
eyes
trigeminal ganglia
spinal cord
vertebral column (excluding the vertebrae of the tail, the transverse processes of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, and the wings of the sacrum)
dorsal root ganglia.

"Specified risk materials from cattle of any age are the
tonsils and distal ileum of the small intestine.

"What products are covered by the interim final rule?
All FDA-regulated human food and cosmetics, including:
Dietary supplements and dietary ingredients
Infant formula
Canned and frozen foods
Bakery goods, snack food, and candy (including chewing gum)
Food ingredients, including GRAS substances
Food additives, including food-contact substances
Cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients."

Ewww. Consumers run a slight risk in acquiring the human version of mad cow disease if they apply cosmetics tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to open cuts.
 
The FDA notes that the primary path of human exposure to BSE is through ingesting beef, and other food, from cattle, but points out that small doses of the infectious prions that cause mad cow disease can be found in cosmetics. Well those prions are in a whole lot of places including dental instruments and I'm not sure they know how many prions you need to actually get the human form of Mad Cow Disease or CJD. People are dying from it in this country though. 28 states don't report it. You need an autopsy to prove that you had it. Who knows what's really going on. At least the FDA is sort of getting on the stick.

More news concerning Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD), Alzheimers, Prions and Mad Cow at Mad Cow - CJD.

More news at MeatAMI.com, the online resource for the meat and poultry community.

Still Not Enough Armor for Troops

You've gotta read this: Another Failure to Keep Faith With America's Military: Why Won't Jeb Bush Pressure the President to Deliver Bulletproof Vests to Soldiers in Iraq? "More than 1,300 bulletproof vests collected by the Marion County Sheriff's Office for shipment to the Ocala-based 351st Military Police Company remain stored in the unit's Ocala headquarters -10 days after they were delivered for shipment to Iraq. How long the body armor continues to sit there remains to be seen."

I don't know shit about war, but if I were the preznit and I decided to invade a country I would sure as hell make sure that I had enough troops and enough body armor BEFORE we went in. People are chipping in and donating vests still! What happened to the money alloted for this? How long are people going to let this administration slide?

If You Live Here, You Won't Be a Bit Surprised

From the Brennan Center for Justice:
NEW REPORT: NEW YORK’S LEGISLATIVE PROCESS MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL IN NATION

"Gerald Benjamin, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at SUNY New Paltz, said: "This is an extraordinary report for four reasons.
First, more than any study of the New York legislature I have ever seen, it systematically documents the non-democratic nature of the legislative process in New York.
Second, it demonstrates through rigorous comparison with other states that New York's failures are sometimes unique and always atypical.
Third, it makes concrete proposals that, if adopted, will truly achieve fundamental improvement of our state's legislative process.
Finally, its proposals are relatively easily achievable: they may be made through rules changes – changes that a majority in each house may adopt without coming into agreement with a majority in the other, and without gubernatorial action.""

Typical New York, always atypical.

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."
-G.W. Bush on Meet the Press, Sunday, February 8, 2004

"Nobody wants to be the 'war president. I want to be the 'peace president."
-G.W. Bush at Cedar Rapida, Iowa Tuesday, July 20, 2004

So the disrupters weren't ejected from the Ronstadt concert? Linda Was.

If you are an entertainer or even a regular citizen for that matter, and you are pro-Bush then you are allowed to express your political views in public. You are lauded for it by the media and Americans. You are a true patriot. You can put Bush/Cheney bumper stickers on your car and not have to worry that your car will get keyed or that the tires will be slashed as would happen to you if you had Kerry/Edwards on your car. How many of my oh so gentle readers have keyed cars with Bush stickers on them? Of course not. We are not animals. We respect others property.

If you are against the war, you can't even put a billboard in Times Square, NYC which is owned by Clear Channel because they are Bushites and yet they claim that picture of a bomb will upset the populace. A cartoon image of a bomb is disturbing to New Yorkers? I thought we were attacked by planes? Show me an enlarged picture of a plane coming at me on a billboard and I might be disturbed, thank you.

Every time I turn on the TV, I am bombarded with pro-war, pro-Bush sentiment. I've been to events where everyone was rah rah, Go America, Go Bush, Hate Michael Moore, etc. Dissenters didn't tear up the event though. If my favorite singer in the world dedicated a song to Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh, I'd probably decide there and then that this person was no longer my favorite singer and I would exit the premises. Would I go bonkers over a singer who expressed a political view that was different from mine? No. I was raised by staunch Republicans and yet I wasn't raised to destroy other peoples property or act violently unless my life was in danger (as long as I was wearing a slip).

Speaking as a performer, I'd be pissed off if I was told I had to just sing and keep my mouth shut between songs. If no one liked it, then tough and I wouldn't play there. Period. Since when are artists expected to conform to governmental standards? When did we become the Soviet Union?

Don't give me any lip, you. Unless we are performing in a scripted event such as a play or movie, then we are free to do our art... at least we were under Clinton.

So there were 4500 people at the Aladdin show where Linda Ronstadt performed in Las Vegas. It seems Linda is getting a bit feisty now (her concerts were generally rather boring in the past) and she sang a song dedicated to Michael Moore: Desperado, which happens to be one of my all time favorite songs on earth. About 100 people out of the 4500 were so incensed by her pro-Moore stance that they threw their drinks, tore down posters and asked for their money back. You would think she was dedicating the song to Hitler! They caused such a scene and were so disruptive that the owner of the Aladdin stopped the show and took her off stage and escorted her out of the casino according to some reports.

Why weren't the nasty, disruptive people removed so that the rest of the audience would be able to enjoy my favorite song? If I was there I would be so pissed that my favorite song was interrupted that I would demand my money back and stick my tongue out at the owner of the place (although mom would surely roll in her grave.)

So what's my point? Pro-Bush people are getting meaner and uglier by the day. They are enraged, angry and volatile. Just a few of them can ruin a party, a blog or a yahoo group. They cannot explain why they are angry, they just know they are because they are programmed to be mad as hell by the media pundits.

I am mad as hell too. I am going to attend every peaceful protest I can find. I will continue to write letters to express my dissent to the media everyday who continue to hide important stories with smokescreens. I will continue to make phone calls to TV stations when I see pundits lie in their teeth. I will continue to annoy those who are in the mainstream and spew lies. I won't keep my mouth shut... especially not between songs in my set.

Anyone?

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

The War That Bush Might Win is The One He Shouldn't

In every poll I've seen, only one percent of Americans are concerned about the environment.  I find that strange since the environmental problems in this country effect one hundred percent of Americans.

I know the economy and healthcare concerns are terribly important now, but if we don't have clean air and clean water we'll need even more healthcare, and that will affect the economy.  Without a healthy environment we cannot have healthy Americans, and that would be costly.

Concern about our environment is not a luxury.  It isn't as though we can just push environmental problems aside until we have nothing better to do but deal with them.  To say that we'll deal with the environment later is not a plan, it's an excuse for not multi-tasking American problems.  As the bush administration has been hell bent on deforestation, releasing the government's grip on industrial polluters and working feverishly to dismantle the Endangered Species List, apparently only one percent of Americans have cared.  That's not enough to make a difference. 

To anyone who has wondered how much worse four more years of the bush administration might be, please remember that bush has been at war with Mother Nature for four long years and with only one percent of Americans fighting on Her side, I'm not sure She can hold on for four more years.  If Mother Nature is forced to defend herself for four more years against the bush administration, there's a horrible possibility that bush may have found a war he can actually win.  That would be a victory that one hundred percent of Americans can ill afford.

Now I'm Bitchin'

by BlondeSense/Liz

How many of you have wondered what happened to your friends and relatives (whom you thought were pretty sane at one time) once they became rabid Bush supporters? Did they turn nuts and irrational? Do they just make blanket statements with nothing to back it up and get angry at you or anyone who asks "why" or "how did you reach that conclusion"? Do they threaten violence or warn you that you had better apologize to them or soldiers or any 3rd person? Do they resort to name calling or accuse you of insulting them when you did nothing of the sort?

Does it occur to anyone that the reason a whole lot of people are dissenting (and not just lefties) is perhaps that maybe things are not so good?

I made a list of all the people I know who are supportive of the present regime. I separated them into groups by their philosophy:

1. "I hated Clinton so now I like Bush",
These are the lifelong Republicans I know who don't follow the news all that much. They are not mean or anything. They hated Clinton because he lied and because he was a "Democrat" even though he acted like a Republican but they don't get it.

2. "Bush is great and he knows what he is doing",
Again, people who don't follow the news too much except for catching a headline here or there. They just don't want to hear about Kerry because he is so "liberal". They don't know what a liberal is except that it has something to do with baby killing and communism.

3. "Bush is only human and doing the best he can"
Pussies who are top of the headlines mostly but don't really delve much further than that or connect dots. They are mostly exasperating, illogical and extremely naive.

4. "You liberal idiots who don't support Bush don't know what you're talking about because people are dying for YOUR liberty and freedom right now in Iraq and Michael Moore is a traitor and his movie is a lie, the Iraqis deserve what they get and you are supposed to support your president, you pinko commie pieces of slime."
The majority of folks I know who are into attacking me or so called "liberals" without any factual evidence are generally ex-substance abusers, abusees, victims of religion related injuries and former juvenile delinquents. Some of the ones I know are heavy drinkers and should become ex-drinkers. The angrier they are, the more psychological issues they have and childhood traumas they have been through. I normally used to get along with them ok until I mentioned that I thought Bush was stupid and then changed it to evil. They need to be charged up, high on adrenaline, angry at something and have an enormous need to be righteous to make up for whatever shortcomings they have had in the past. If the media identifies an enemy, they are all over it like flies on shit. One more thing, very few of the rabid people in this category I know have education beyond high school and have not learned critical thinking. The ones who did get some college were high the whole time. Some served in the military.

That's just an informal analysis of my personal experiences lately. Many, if not most of my Republican friends are against this administration, so I wasn't making a blanket statement against Republicans (before anyone flames me). I also have plenty of friends and acquaintances who did serve in the military and are quite progressive. I am avoiding contact with #4's and don't bother too much with #3's for mental health reasons.

The avid Bush supporters hate the media and call it liberal biased media. And if so, where are they getting their "groupthink" opinions from anyway? If they have all just about the same opinion and the same non-arguments, then they must be getting it from somewhere. Maybe they are getting their news from those opinion guys on TV and radio? Why am I getting yelled at for Jon Stewart, Michael Moore and Air America when the right wingers have the TV news, TV news pundits and most talk radio supporting their cause? Even most local newspapers are very selective about what news they print. If anyone should be really really pissed off, it should be me.

If they are saying the media is liberal and we are saying it's corporate and both of us don't trust it then why are we at odds with each other? Why do they get all upset when we dissect news stories as bogus or smokescreens and then they dismiss our insight? Why do they defend the very news that they say is "liberal"?

I didn't agree with everything in F911. I don't agree with every progressive or liberal view. Liberals and progressives don't all have the same opinion. That's probably what pisses off the angry ones: people who think and dare to be wrong or even change their opinion if new information comes to light. Staying the steady course really isn't all that smart is it?

You don't have to agree with me. I just felt like writing this all down for future reference.

Which political Warrior are you?

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

 
UNCLE SAM OFFERS PERKS TO MAKE YOUR PERKS PERKIER!
 
According to Karen Schaler of the New Yorker magazine, you can join the Army and you and your family can receive a surgical  makeover for free.  Of course that might not be a bad idea after your ass has been shot off in this insane war but a war injury is not a requirement for a makeover.  Think about it folks, your tax dollars are not only going to build buildings in Iraq, they are also going toward building boobies in the USA.  Don't believe me?  Read it for yourself.  Seems we have a new recruiting tool and it will nip and tuck you if you'll just sign your name on the dotted war-line in the sand.  I wonder if the guys can have a new tool too?

Great title she gave her story.  It's titled, "Chest Out, Stomach In--All That You Can Be"
Here's a paragraph that might get you interested:  "A Defense Department spokeswoman confirmed the existence of the plastic-surgery benefit. According to the Army, between 2000 and 2003 its doctors performed four hundred and ninety-six breast enlargements and a thousand three hundred and sixty-one liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents. In the first three months of 2004, it performed sixty breast enhancements and two hundred and thirty-one liposuctions."
-The New Yorker

From the Eeeeeewwwwwwww Factor

Is Sean Hannity a Sex Symbol?

From Steve Young via Atrios: "Faced with stiff competition from the likes of Matt Lauer, Brian Williams, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather (among others), Sean Hannity was selected by Playgirl magazine readers as TV's Sexiest Newscaster.

...But one must be curious about what the devout, aww-shucks-modest Hannity thinks about the possibility of being the naked centerfold that arouses Playgirl's female readers. More importantly, how does Sean feel about the large percentage of Playgirl fans who are gay men who make the magazine their go-to-sleep-sufficiently-gratified night table reader? Not that there's anything wrong with that -- after all, Log Cabin Republican have their needs too."

Rather than comment on this story, I felt compelled to illustrate it via photoshop. Pictures say so much more than words.

Orwell Rolls in his Grave

From Democrats.com:
"Robert Kane Pappas' 'Orwell Rolls In His Grave' is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn't talk about: itself. Meticulously tracing the process by which media has distorted and often dismissed actual news events, Pappas presents a riveting and eloquent mix of media professionals and leading intellectual voices on the media." Opening Friday 7/23 in NYC (Angelika) and 7/30 in D.C. and L.A. Go on opening night to make sure it reaches more theaters! http://orwellrollsinhisgrave.com"

This looks like an important movie since the media is what covered up the big lies all along.

Liberal?

I don't post all that much about Kerry and Edwards. I'm not excited about this election. I just want Bush out because of the Iraq debacle, the stolen election of 2000 and he failed us miserably on 9/11 (before and after). I don't think Kerry/Edwards are all that liberal. I am a staunch moderate and Kerry/Edwards are to the right of me. I don't agree with their war or Israel politics. That doesn't make me a bonafide leftie for God's sake.

Why are the Republicans going nuts over these guys when they are hardly liberal? If they are described as leftists by the media, what does that make me? I am hardly a commie. I do believe in socialized health care and good education for everyone because of my Christian upbringing. Big deal. That makes me an evil commie? C'mon.

So what are Kerry/Edwards going to change that is freaking out the Republicans if Bush loses?

And in local news....

Island Life

Alfonse D'Amato, 66, who started out politics here on LI, then became US Senator for NY but lost out when he spent too much time investigating Clinton in his last bid for re-election to Chuck Schumer and now looks somewhat like a corpse in most pictures who recently built a house by the ocean just south of me that is so tall that neighbors complained his house was blocking their view and he had to take a couple of feet off the top of it, just married a 38 year old attorney, Katuria Elizabeth Smith (no relation to moi) here on Long Island over the weekend. There was an all star guest list with "-R's" next to their names. "It's clear that they are madly in love with each other," Gov. George Pataki said.

Yes, I am sure it's very clear. Well actually I am being sarcastic. D'Amato always looks like he's in shock when he's with his new lady.

Protest the Protest

Dudes, check this out. These guys are going to protest the protesters at the RNC. Read their mission below. It's ass backwards because they think everyone who opposed the war and Bush is a leftist. Oh boy. They think that the media is liberal too! Where do they get this stuff? What about the rest of us stuck in the middle who just want our country back from the neocons?

ProtestWarrior.com - mission: "

War IS an ugly thing, but as long as nations and leaders exist that detest freedom, sometimes it is the only way to secure a lasting peace. Most leftist anti-war protesters and pundits don't understand this. They state that this use of force is always unnecessary -- that war, ANY war, is never good. Some of them, born into the luxury of American freedom, believe that liberty can exist passively, that somehow the world's natural state will always settle into utopian harmony. Others, in an attempt to absolve themselves from the unearned guilt they harbor living in a nation of prosperity and wealth, try to buy morality on the cheap by pronouncing themselves for the 'good'. To them, the derivation of the 'good' is based on a simple, yet peculiar standard: the powerful and competent are wicked, while the feeble and impotent are innocent - regardless of the context. That is why they defend Iraq instead of America, and the Palestinian 'resistance' instead of Israel.

These leftists usually carry the loudest megaphones. And left unchallenged, their voices are heard disproportionately, demoralizing our troops, and emboldening dictators around the world - dictators who dream of the day the 'Great Satan' disappears from the face of the earth.

However, their self-righteous messages go silent quickly when the truth of history and reality is thrown back in their face. It's time to turn up the juice on OUR megaphones, as we will never keep our supreme values of liberty and justice without the will to fight for them."

Fear of Flying

We've all heard stories about little old ladies with walkers being taken aside at airports and screened. We've heard of kids having to take their shoes off at check points in the airports. We've heard of Arab men strolling right through the screening areas of airports. We don't want to insult Arabs by checking them all out, especially if a whole bunch of them board a flight with one way tickets or anything. The U.S. is very politically correct isn't it? On the other hand, we know that John AshKKKroft has been pursuing our most private details ad nauseum and the screeners will take a blonde haired blue eyed family and delay them for hours going through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and other baggage won't even be looked at. The system stinks. There are abuses in the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System too.

When asked Wednesday whether the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System II (CAPPS II) was dead, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge jokingly pretended to put a stake in its heart and said, "Yes". Six of the 10 largest airlines are known to have given data to the government secretly. The TSA or its contractors may have violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits the government from compiling secret databases on Americans. Officials could face civil and criminal penalties. USA Today is happy about less-intrusive flier screening. "The government finally acknowledged this week what many travelers, airlines, lawmakers and privacy advocates had been telling it for more than a year. A plan to snoop into the lives of all airline passengers to determine whether they pose a terrorism risk is too intrusive to fly."

The Twin Cities then set up a plan for frequent fliers where they can set up in advance a background check with a fingerprint or iris scan so that they can speedily get through security screening. In other words, they can give up their privacy in order to board faster.

But it seems that on top of all of this that the screeners aren't even doing their jobs anyway. Mother Jones reports that 2 men who work for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lost their jobs as security trainers after complaining that screeners weren't inspecting luggage properly, there aren't enough screeners and on busy days, bags are barely screened at all. "They have filed for federal whistleblower protection status, making them 2 of 45 former TSA employees who have claimed wrongful termination to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Both say they want to honor the oath they took when starting at TSA—that safety would be their top priority."

Meanwhile the president keeps telling us we are so safe since we bombed the sh-t out of Baghdad yet we should be prepared for al Qaida to attack us. Osama "he's not my concern" bin Laden is up to no good again and doesn't want Bush to win the election.

This story Terror in the Skies, Again? is told by a woman who flew from Detroit to LA on June 29 with 14 middle eastern men who spent most of the flight in the lavatories with their bags, returning to their seats without their bags, getting up, going back to the lavatories, meeting in the back of the plane all while nothing was done by anyone on the plane. She recounts her terror on the flight. Yes the flight was met in LA by FBI agents and there were Federal Air Marshalls on the flight she later found out. The US Marshalls told the woman afterwards that they could not intervene during the flight unless something happened. you mean unless a bomb exploded? She later found this article in the Observer: "Terrorist bid to build bombs in mid-flight: Intelligence reveals dry runs of new threat to blow up airliners"

It turns out due to rules against discrimination, they can't screen more than 2 Arab males. So these Arab "musicians" who boarded the plane didn't have their instrument bags looked at. Nice. Two days after the harrowing flight however, a new directive was issued: "The U.S. Transportation and Security Administration has issued a new directive which demands pilots make a pre-flight announcement banning passengers from congregating in aisles and outside the plane's toilets. The directive also orders flight attendants to check the toilets every two hours for suspicious packages."

Supposedly nothing was found to be fishy on that flight. Well that is what they told the woman.

To be continued....

Bush Has Private Meeting With Amish

"President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November. The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him. Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied. He said the president needs their prayers.

..."When the Amish were “found not to be a serious threat to national security,’’ they were allowed inside the office area of Lapp Electric and waited about 30 minutes for the president to appear.

..."Bush said he had never met any Amish before and was curious about why the men were wearing straw hats rather than black wool hats. The Amish explained that they wear cooler straw in summer. Bush tried on a hat.

"...“One of the young girls wanted to give Bush a whoopie pie cookie,’’ Stoltzfus says. “Bush declined it. The Secret Service man took it, as presidents aren’t supposed to eat untested food.’’

..."At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.’’ "
By Jack Brubaker
Lancaster New Era

Conspiracy Du Jour

Here's that story again:

Terrorism and the Election
No, do not expect an election cancellation but be prepared for a terrorist "event" during the election. That is what the Bush White House and their media prostitutes are spinning.

Here’s the scenario we must be all be prepared for:

If the pre-election internal tracking polls and public opinion polls show the Kerry-Edwards ticket leading in key battleground states, the Bush team will begin to implement their plan to announce an imminent terrorist alert for the West Coast for November 2 sometime during the mid afternoon Pacific Standard Time. At 2:00 PST, the polls in Kentucky and Indiana will be one hour from closing (5:00 PM EST – the polls close in Indiana and Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST). Exit polls in both states will be known to the Bush people by that time and if Kentucky (not likely Indiana) looks too close to call or leaning to Kerry-Edwards, the California plan will be implemented. A Bush problem in Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST would mean that problems could be expected in neighboring states and that plans to declare a state of emergency in California would begin in earnest at 3:00 PM PST.

...Without a doubt, many Democratic voters might simply opt to pick their kids up from day care centers or relatives and then go home without voting. These would tend to be the lower and middle income Californians and the Democratic base. The affluent voters in California who vote Republicans and can easily vote early (and be late for work) or have the option of leaving work at any time during the day to vote will have likely already cast their ballots. Therefore, the recipe of a White House-induced California terrorist alert and a low Democratic turnout could toss 54 electoral votes into Bush’s lap, especially if the scare tactics affect the turnout in such urban and typically pro-Democratic vote-rich areas as Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento.

oy vay.

CIA convinced terrorists planning 'something big'.

From ABC News Online:

"CIA acting director John McLaughlin says warnings that terrorists are plotting "something big" against the United States are based on "very, very solid" information.

...Asked whether Americans should cancel vacation plans or stay away from Boston and New York during the conventions, Mr McLaughlin said people should go about their business."

I'm having deja vu all over again. Something big is going to happen but I should go shopping anyway. Most New Yorkers will be out of town for the convention simply because of the congestion and all those dang tourists who look up rather than straight ahead when they are walking on the streets. They haven't figured out where to allow the protesters to go either. Hopefully a safe location... just in case.

Martha, My Dear

Martha was on with Bawbwa last night. Why does Barbara Walters insist on making her interviewees cry? That is soooooooo 1970's. I watched some of it. Barbara really went too far. I don't want to talk about it. Martha was so framed. I'm sorry. I used to be a trader on Wall St. This was nothing to go to jail about. What are we gonna throw people in jail for lying? I'd rather see Ken Lay in jail, thank you.

Barbara asked Martha about her pocketbook that supposedly cost $6000. Then I started crying. Oy vay. Why are we talking about the shite that Faux News brings up? Well anyway, it turns out that Martha bought the bag several years ago after her company started to make it big. She said she didn't pay anywhere near $6000 for the bag and she said it's her only bag. I believe her. You should too.

You can have a good bag forever if you take good care of it. Martha's bag was so practical too. It goes with everything except maybe formal wear. Would the media give me a f-cking break already? If Martha wants 6 $50,000 bags, so the hell what? She's worth millions. $50,000 is a drop in the bucket. It's all relative.

Martha taught women to re-use and recycle on her TV show. That is NOT a bad thing at all. As a matter of fact many families across America are struggling. Many of the projects on her show actually taught women to rise up, even in their low income status and make their environment a little bit nicer, something that they could be proud of and how to make do with what you have and re-use things, make vinegar out of wine, etc etc. She taught simple gardening skills. She taught people who don't have the money to go to gardening centers for more plants how to divide the roots of existing plants or start a new plant from a cutting. I like to do that stuff even if I can afford to buy new plants. She taught regular people how to prune the garden. She taught you how to make a wreath for your door out of dried up plants, weeds and berries harvested in late fall. She taught people how to appreciate simple things whether or not they had money. She taught women how to stencil a pretty design on their front entrance if they only had plain wood or cement floors. She has awesome cookie recipes. Of course I am not going to gild my cookies with edible gold leaf. I don't have the time and I'm too hungry. But Martha has to appeal to some uppity babes too.

Her products at KMart are superior. They are affordable and very attractive. I checked them out and was very impressed with the quality and design. Martha Stewart appealed to women across the board. Those who hated her were just jealous or hung up or something. I wasn't threatened by Martha. I was kind of like her before I ever heard of her anyway. (Something I designed was in Better Homes and Gardens.) She broke down barriers. She made people care about making their homes, their neighborhoods, a nicer place to live in. Her show wasn't on cable. It was accessible to anyone with a television. She made people feel good about themselves. Maybe after watching a segment on her show some person got up and put some flowers in a vase or tried a new recipe and then was complimented for their effort. Stuff like that makes people feel good. If some women got obsessed with Martha, that is their own obsessive compulsive problem, not Martha's.

With all the poverty, debt, misery and joblessness in this country... it's good to have some recycling skills and to keep ones dignity in the face of adversity. Put a couple of roadside flowers in a jar on the window. It's a good thing.

The REAL Assault on American Marriage

From Democrats.com: 10 Top Ways Bush & the NeoCons have Undermined Marriage

(this is a good article. I shortened it for this blog)

"Here 10 top ways Bush & Co. have assaulted "a union between a man and woman. By Cheryl Seal
1. Failure to create jobs
2. Consistently opposing legislation that would make healthcare affordable and guaranteed to families, regardless of finances
3. Consistently opposing efforts to raise the minimum wage and insure adequate worker benefits.
4. Consistently opposing efforts to insure affordable housing
5. Reviving the "might is right" macho model and patriarchal ideas, along with the promotion of a divisive social environment where differences and dissent are not tolerated
6. Systematic undermining of minorities, especially African Americans.
7. Unfair and unpredictable extension of soldier tours.
8. Grievous injuries and PTSD
9. Trying to overturn a women's right to choose
10. Abstinence only sex education"

The details are in the complete article. I wrote to the White House asking Mr Bush exactly HOW gay marriage will undermine families. They keep saying it will but I fail to see the logic. Something about box turtles, polygamy... WTF? I suppose allowing beastiality with box turtles is something that shouldn't be allowed.. but a constitutional amendment? Polygamy? Only if I can have a stud farm.

As I understand the government, I believe that States have rights and are supposed to handle local stuff. Bush has enough crap on his hands with international affairs. He ought to stick to that and leave the States to their own local issues.

International Media Bias Meetup Day

International Media Bias Meetup Day -- Join other Media Bias Debaters: "Meetup with other local people who are interested in a discussion about the atest media bias"

This looks interesting. 4 People signed up near me. Maybe we can make this happen across the country. Check it out

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

Knowledge is Expensive and the Lack of it is Costly

In order to stay well informed in today's world you need four things.  You need a computer, time, money and ability. You need the complete package.  But for many Americans information and truth have become luxuries that they can't afford.  Even time has become a luxury for many.  Perhaps that's why they refer to the informed as "elitist".  Elite refers to the financial status of the informed, because being informed today requires so much time and costs so much.  Knowledge is in many ways a luxury.  Those unable to afford the time and money to search for knowledge may well resent those who can.  Rather than be embarrassed by their lack of information as a result of their financial status, they defensively argue using their religion as the last word in everything.  They may not be able to afford a family computer but they have a family bible. 

Please think for just a second about how little you would know about what is actually going on in our country if you didn't have the luxury of owning your computer and the luxury of being financially able to purchase books.  Without these two factors you would have to rely solely on TV news and newspapers.  Think about how long it has taken news you found on the internet to finally make it to the public media.  Some stories never seem to make it at all.  And, many that do are labeled and dismissed as "liberal media" stories.

Most of us have read the flood of books that have been published this year (e.g., John Dean's, Paul O'Neill's etc.).  Also, most of us keep up on current events by checking out our favorite news clues sites on the internet.  But think about the financially strapped families who are trying to raise a couple of kids.  Many of these folks can't afford to plop down twenty-five to thirty-five dollars a week to read the most current books.  They may not even be able to afford the time to read books or browse the web searching out news.  In today's economy with so many Americans out of work they may not even be able to afford a computer or internet access. 

Sure, anyone can apply for a library card and check out these books, but how many copies of John Dean's book do you think you might find in the libraries of small rural towns?  Some of the best books that you and I have read, we first discovered on the internet. 

There's one more group of Americans we must consider who are unable to acquire the truth.  According to some reports, over twenty-five million Americans are functionally illiterate.  That's a lot of people. 

If you add that number to the number of Americans who cannot afford the aforementioned educational luxuries, which many of us take for granted, you realize why so many believe what they are told and not what they discover for themselves.   Some of these categories will overlap but some will not.  For example, some families may be able to afford books, but not a computer.  But remember, to be informed you need the entire package of computer, time, money and ability.  Perhaps, if we could calculate the number of Americans who can't afford to buy books almost weekly, the number of Americans who cannot afford internet access, plus those who cannot afford to spend time browsing the net, and the over twenty-five million who cannot read, we might be able to understand why about half the country continues to support bush.  They simply can't afford or are not able to access the truth.  Come November, that could be very costly for our country.

Young Nudists Summer Plans Stripped

Parents Must Be Present at Nudist Camp for Youths: "Judge Williams upheld a new Virginia law requiring that campers be accompanied by a parent or grandparent. An eyeful of naked Mom or Dad, he suggested, is a fair price for admission to nudist camp.

'The presence of a family member would in no way interfere with the child's participation in events,' he said, ruling from the bench."

The ACLU is getting in on the action because 24 broken hearted kids are not able to attend summer camp because their parents simply cannot attend camp with their children due to other commitments.

Generally you send your kids to camp so that you can do other stuff so I can sort of see where this is a problem.

I'm laughing inside thinking of my son going to a nudist camp. He'd be horrified. He only agreed to go to vacation Bible Camp at a local church for 1 week a summer for 4 hours a day with the neighborhood kids. That's all the break I ever got. sigh. ( I used to call it "The Church of I'm Saved and You're Not" or "Bible Gun Camp". He liked it though. He grew up normal.

Things The Preznit Is Not

Assertations made by the President since 1997 from Harpers:

I’m not a statistician.

I’m not a numbers-cruncher.

I’m not very analytical.

I’m not a lawyer.

I’m not a doctor.

I’m not a poet.

I’m not a textbook player.

I’m not an emailer.

I’m not an Iraqi citizen.

I’m not a tree, I’m a Bush.

read the rest

Florida Woman Has Balls

(in addition to Pissed Off Patricia)

U.S. Congresswoman Corrine Brown who represents Central Florida wanted the UN to monitor the 2004 election. The UN turned her down but 55 European countries offered to help. She spoke to local news,WFTV.com: "Let me tell you something. The country looks weak. We don't have credibility around the world. We're talking about going to Iraq and other places to make sure they got democracy, and the world questions our democracy....Do you know what the rest of the world thinks of us? Who are we to go around and tell other people this is how you should run your election when you can't get it right here?"

My, she is spunky. I like her. Smart too. Critical thinker.

She had a >nice battle in the House too after Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind requested that the UN stay out of the US elections.

Congresswoman Brown retorted, "I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure it doesn't happen again," Brown said. "Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said, 'Get over it.' No, we're not going to get over it. And we want verification from the world."

Do you not love her?

Then the House got mad at her and said it was against the rules to use the word "Stole" when it comes to an election. So they voted to strike that from the record. The Republican-run House voted 219-187 along party lines to strike her words.

Well it made the news in a lot of places anyway. Not bad!

PS. Found this too. Congressman Kendrick Meek Compares Gov. Bush's Role In 2000 Recount To bin Laden's Hiding: "'The governor [Jeb Bush] was like bin Laden after the 2000 election. No one could find him when they had issues as it relates to so many African-American votes that were left on the floor in many supervisor of elections offices throughout the state."

Does Bush Still LIke Ozzy? I Wonder.

Local musicians were just telling me that last night Ozzy Osbourne played at Jones Beach right here on Long Island. He played "war pigs" and showed a video comparing Bush to Hitler. It said, "Same shit, different asshole". There were some pro-war bands there too for the neo-nazis. A wonderful time was had by all.

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

Cheney's Disclosed Insecure Location?

Rumor has it that Cheney's new doc will exclaim that Cheney's heart could go up in forty-five minutes like a mushroom cloud.   So he'd better not renew any magazine subscriptions to his Washington home address.  If this should happen, bush will feign concern and surprise with that old, all to familiar, deer in the headlights expression.  Bush will lament about what a top notch, freedom loving, with us - not with the terrorists, standup guy, old Dick has been.  Then he'll produce his new and improved vice presidential running mate.  Who might the mystery person be?

Some speculate it might be McCain.  He has already endured being a prisoner of war in Nam so he has proven he can endure torture, and I'm pretty sure it would be torturous for John to have to take orders from bush.  So he might be the new number two.

Some speculate it might be Powell.  If I recall correctly Colin, when presented with all the intel they wanted him to share with the UN, described some of the material as "shit".  So Colin has proven he knows shit when he sees it.  That talent could come in handy when working with bush.

Another name floated is Condi Rice.  Someone who is good at sucking up and bs-ing is a great advantage for bush and his coalition of the lying.  Condi has already proven she can lie with the best of them.

Finally, Giuliani's name has also been placed on the possibility list.  I'm not sure what he would have to offer except that every time his name is mentioned it reminds everyone of 9-11.  Hey, maybe that's the key, as it sure would keep continuous fuel on the fear fire.  And, perhaps it would snuff out this ridiculous theory that we aren't safer.   Each mention of Giuliani's name would cue Bush to  brag about the fact that another attack has not occurred on American soil since 9-11.... okay, at least not by terrorists anyway.  We did have a major attack on jobs, education, our economy, our environment, and god knows the list goes on and on.  Bush says the terrorists attacked us because they hate our freedom, but he hasn't told us why he attacked us. 

Personally, I doubt Cheney will leave the ticket blaming it on his ticker.  If he did, his party would look even more desperate than they did when they raised the gay marriage flag up the political flagpole.  They experienced a salute malfunction.  This rumor about dumping Cheney could be another one of their flags, raised to see how many salutes they might expect. A little test to see what reaction their party might have to the possibility.  When you dump half your ticket, you're about at the bottom of the desperation barrel.  I can't imagine the Republicans taking the chance on anyone but Cheney being able to control bush.  Though bush might be not quite so nuts with another veep, he would still be just as stupid.  That's what the Republicans don't understand.  It's the stupid factor, stupid! 

"No Intelligence Here" Says Ridge

It's gonna rain for the 4th day straight on Long Island. I'm bored. Here's the news.

There will Unprecedented Security for Democratic Convention in Boston.
Tom Ridge said the government feared that al Qaeda (al BushCo) might try to stage a "large scale attack" in the United States aimed at disrupting the electoral process.
Ridge then repeated the warning that "Al Qaeda is moving forward with plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States aimed to disrupt our democratic process."

Ridge also said to a confused crowd that there was "no specific intelligence that the convention was a target" but then he was overhead saying when he thought the microphone was turned off, "I can dream, can't I?"

Ridge was then accused of playing politics by giving warnings about a terror attack before or during the elections but insisted that despite the obvious connection between a terror attack and postponing the election of his incumbent boss, that this has "nothing to do with politics", speaking to newborn babies in a maternity ward in NY Hospital.

I read something interesting today at one of those conspiracy sites where some of the stuff actually turns out to be true. It said if Kerry is leading in battleground states that a terror alert will be issued in California around mid afternoon pacific time on election day. Polls won't be closed but an early rush hour will clog highways and people will most likely not vote after work. I wouldn't put it past these guys... but they are so desperate what wouldn't they do to keep the dictator in power?

Boot Ashcroft

A Declaration Calling for the Resignation or Removal of John Ashcroft - Sign the Petition:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for the people to call to account and seek the removal of those who govern them, a decent respect to the opinions of humanity requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to such action.

The history of law enforcement by the present Attorney General is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States, to the detriment of both our liberty and our security.He has forfeited, through his disdain for the Constitution and the Rule of Law which he has sworn to uphold, any legitimate claim to exercise power over his fellow citizens.To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

Flash: bushSpeech

bushSpeech is a fun site to play at. You get a bunch of sound bites from our leader and you can put them all together and make George say whatever you want him to say.

Now go play.

Dead white men's clothing are de rigueur in Africa

For sale-cheap: "A young man in the Congolese jungle wears a T-shirt that pleads: "Beam me up, Scotty."

If you live on a $1 a day, you have no other choice than to buy used clothes. Turns out the Africans are digging western wear.

Threatening To 'Out' Each Other on the Hill... hmmm

Capitol Hill Insiders Irked By Campaign To 'Out' Them (washingtonpost.com): "Rogers, a 40-year-old Washington fundraising consultant, has waged a controversial "outing" campaign in the month leading up to yesterday's vote. He sent out more 10,000 e-mails encouraging and perpetrating outings. He handed out fliers at the gay pride parade in June, asking people to send in names of gay Hill staffers working for senators and representatives who supported the Federal Marriage Amendment. He created a Web log last week listing some of those names.

He made phone calls, day and night, to the offices and homes of these staffers. His message: How dare you?
...

It's amazing to me that people don't get that! So what are we going to do? Protect these gay staffers who have influence on policy matters while their bosses spew hate and bigotry?' "

I knew this amendment would bring out all sorts of dirt. Whenever politicians and people in power get all high and mighty about 'morality', someone surely blows the whistle. It's human nature, isn't it?

Blog Survey

From Feministe. Take a Blog Survey by University of California, Irvine students if you are a blogger.

You know you want to tell the world why you are a blogger. Yes you do. You know you do!

FMA News Conference

From Wonkette: " Yes, if I was going to have a press conference celebrating the joys of heterosexuality, this is exactly what I'd wear: Pat Boone (the best celebrity they could come up with to promote the Federal Marriage Amendment) wearing a jacket that is gayest shade of orange known to man to a Federal Marriage Amendment press conference is like walking down 17th St. wearing nothing but leather chaps."

The event sent mixed messages for sure. It was a very gay press conference.

Blonde Faith

I'm not a Biblical Scholar obviously but I received my graduate degree in theology at a Catholic seminary where I became a major league religious skeptic and remain so to this day. I enjoyed studying Judaism at the seminary and found the religion to be very rich and comforting... at one time I even thought that it would have been a good idea if all Christians learned Judaism first. Maybe it would be a good idea after all in light of all this Christian Zionism going on. It would probably be a good idea if more Jews learned a great deal more about their religion as well so more of them could put Christian Zionists in their places.

The ignorance of Christian and Jewish Zionists is just overwhelming, their disregard for the Palestinians, the fact that world peace rests on the Israel situation and the hubris of Zionists to think that they have to power to bring on the end times before "G-d is ready" pisses me off big time. I am particularly perturbed by Christian Zionists because of their anti-Christian sentiments towards those who may not be "saved".

This time Catholics have jumped in on the issue by declaring via Haaretz : "The Catholic Church condemned anti-Zionism as a cover for anti-Semitism by means of a joint statement issued by a forum of Catholic-Jewish intellectuals this week. "
I completely disagree with this as I don't consider myself to be anti-semitic just because I am anti-Zionist. I wish for peace in that region, a compromise and a Palestinian state. Many many Israelis feel as I do. (hat tip to: Michael at Public Domain Progress)

I am deeply concerned about Christian Zionist movement in the United States. They have very little biblical scholarship and have great influence in the US Administration. They believe that Israel must be restored in order for Jesus to come back. This involves getting the Moslems off the mountain and rebuilding the Temple that was destroyed in 70 AD. They have little regard for world peace, for the Jews in general or anyone else for that matter... they simply want armageddon so that they can be raptured. They no longer have regard for basic Christian tenets such as social justice and economic justice (in case you didn't notice). They have bastardized Christianity based on their own slip shod interpretation of the Old Testament and apocalyptic writings in the New Testament. We have too many elected officials who believe in this. This is alarming.

Like it or not religion is what is causing a lot of the conflict in the world today and always has been causing the conflict. We are led by the media to believe that it's all the Muslim's fault. I don't know a hell of a lot about Muslims but I do know a lot about Christianity and Christians are not behaving. If Jesus does come back soon, he is going to be pissed. Christian Zionists ought to be careful of what they pray for. Here are some items worth reading even if you don't care about religion. It does affect all of us (gay marriage being the least of our problems):

Archbishops rebuke Blair over Iraq and warn of Christian Zionism
Haaretz - Israel News - The cruel face of Zionism
Zionists do not represent Jews
Christian Zionism and its impact on justice
Christian Zionism: Christian support for the State of Israel
Christian Zionism- many articles
Bush, Blair, Zionism, Armageddon and the corruption of Christianity

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

 
I'm about to make a statement that I never thought I would write.  I admire one thing about Lynn Cheney.  I sure do!  She has stuck by her daughter and everyone in the gay community.  Unlike her eerie husband who was willing to turn against the gay community as he changed his mind and decided he was now, for political reasons, against gay marriage.  I guess dour and creepy old dick feels bush's re-election is more dear to him than his daughter's happiness and the happiness of all present and future members of the gay community.  How's that for your family values?

Senator Boxer made a great speech on the floor yesterday as she outlined all our needs and contrasted that to the insanity of pushing along this ridiculous Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.  Another good woman speaks up and does it well.

I mean, come on.  We're going to protect families from married gay neighbors, before we protect them from terrorism?  According to Ridge, the terrorists are on the cusp of an attack but apparently we are safe enough that we can put funding for homeland security on the back burner while we ramp up the effort to prevent gays from getting married.  This administration knows this is insane because: a) it hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of passing, and b) It's so hopelessly political that it smells to high heaven.

So why are they doing it?  For the same damned reason that President Clinton gave when he was asked why he did the deed with Monica.  Clinton said, "Because I could."  Everyone went bananas when President Clinton did what he did.   This administration is playing this gay marriage amendment charade, because it can.  Why isn't the public going bananas now?  The public is mute when something as serious as our national safety is put on hold so that the bush administration can wake up their base with an idiotic fantasy Constitutional amendment.  The mantra is that they are protecting the institution of marriage.  What the hell difference will it make who is married to whom if we sit on our hands and allow another major terrorist attack because of our inability to do what needs to be done to protect the nation?  They don't care doodly squat about who marries whom.  They aren't worried about protecting marriage.  What they are concerned about is that bush's poll numbers are dropping and that spells trouble for them.  Family values?  No.  Protecting marriage?  No.  Turning against the happiness of one's family member for political reasons?  Sure nuff.  It's not about anything familial, it's all about everything political.

White House Nominee to Head the CIA

Question of The Day: What were Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham and other members of the Senate and House intelligence committees doing together with the alleged 9/11 'money-man' at breakfast on the morning of 9/11?

Read the whole thing.

This stuff gets curiouser and curiouser

Church probes `perverse' pictures

From the Toronto Star:

This time it's in Austria. A whole bunch of child porn was found on computers in a seminary and a whole bunch of seminarians with the teaching priests were also found. Uh oh. Supposedly they were having orgies together. The very conservative bishop who has ties to Pope John Paul says it was nothing.. just childish pranks!

Isn't it interesting how when conservatives are caught in the middle of a scandal it's nothing but if anyone else is caught then it's a huge disgusting repulsive nauseating unforgiving mess that can never be rectified?

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

The Republicans have pretty much decided that everything that has ever tragically occurred in the world can be traced forward or backward to the vile Clinton administration.  I'm waiting to see how they connect President Clinton to the extinction of the dinosaurs.  Jeez Louise, they are trying to connect the dots in the most magical of ways.  They continue to repeat their mantra about President Clinton and just about everyone else in the world believing that Iraq was bulging at the seams with weapons that could destroy the earth.  What they fail to mention is that no one else on earth opted to invade Iraq and do a little crafty nation building.  And surely, we should have kept our noses out of Iraq until we had completed our first chore, which was of course to seek revenge on those who planned and executed the attacks of 9-11.  The US tried a bit of multi-tasking in the form of multi-warring, and folks, it didn't work.  We weren't cross-trained enough before we entered the game.  We were killers at killing but somewhat lacking in a plan for laying flowers on the graves.  President Clinton may have thought Iraq had wmd, but he doesn't have over 800 military deaths associated with his place in history.

 

Okay, putting national security aside for now (and we can do that anytime it's beneficial to bush and the boys), we have announced to the entire world that our CIA is deemed to be a colossal failure.   We can't be told about all the details pre and post 9-11, because that would surely give away our big secrets to the world.  But if it protects bush's butt, hey, what the hell?  Instead of saying our president spoofed just about every American into thinking we had to attack Iraq, let's lay the blame at the door of George Tenet and the CIA.  Tenet has already left the building, so what the heck. He won't be opening his door anymore anyway.  We couldn't lay the blame at bush's door because he's the guy who said that God told him to execute this war.  And what would the good god think of someone who would use his name in a lie that resulted in thousands of deaths?  I doubt any god would appreciate being used like that.  If there is a heavenly reckoning day, I sure would like to hear bush explain this one to the big guy.

***

If we really were poisoned at the well, why the hell do we keep drinking the same water?  Everyone is all a tizzy as they blame the CIA for bad intelligence regarding the reasons for war.   Then in the next breath they are telling us that the very same CIA is credible now when they tell us that we should expect a terrorist attack before the end of the year.  Think about it.  The CIA's intelligence was so flawed, yet they presented it so well that the administration relied on it as a reason to invade a non-threatening country.   Why should we think their intelligence about future attacks is credible?  Can ya have it both ways?  According to the news, the CIA missed the boat on intel before 9-11, and they missed the boat  on intel before the Iraq invasion.  They've missed a couple of real important boats, huh?  So why is the, Attack before Elections, boat any different?  You can't say they are always wrong except when you want them to be right.  Oh wait, I forgot!  In bush world all things are possible whether they're real or not.

Excuse Me While I Throw Up

If Democrats get a hold of the house and/or senate in the fall, I am leading a huge campaign to regulate the media again. Clear Channel is evil and must go. It always pisses me off that people blame the crappy music on liberals and Britney's indecency on liberals and all indecency on liberals. That is simply not true. Liberals are not pigs anymore than those crypto fascist radical corporate right wingers and probably don't even come close.

If you've ever been to Times Sqare in New York City, your senses are bombarded with giant billboards of scantily clad, seductive, lingerie wearing women or form fitting boxer wearing androgenous young men... big bottles of booze, capitalism at its finest hour... and Times Square is supposedly all cleaned up and owned by Disney and a "family values" place. hogwash. It's a place to make you feel bad about yourself and a place to separate you from your hard earned money in shame. Seriously.

Turns out Clear Channel owns 50% of the billboards there too. Media de-regulation was the worst thing to ever happen to us. Clear Channel supports Bush yet Clear Channel is the most hypocritical piece of shit corporate anti-family value organization on earth. Here's part of the story:

...In a lawsuit filed in federal court here, the Berkeley-based Project Billboard said Clear Channel, a company whose leaders have been strong supporters of the Bush administration, had breached a contract to put up the highly visible billboard that depicted a bomb with the words "Democracy Is Best Taught by Example, Not by War."

Clear Channel Outdoor, the division that controls the company's billboard leasing, rejected the ad, calling it "distasteful" and "politically charged," according to an e-mail the company sent to Project Billboard. After negotiations over the imagery, Project Billboard offered to replace the bomb with a dove but still failed to win approval.

"The billboard was meant to be provocative," said Deborah Rappaport, director of Project Billboard. "Our intent is to increase the amount and level of discourse on one of the most important issues facing the nation."

The group paid Clear Channel $368,000 to lease the billboard space mounted on the facade of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, which has the potential of reaching millions of people.

Clear Channel controls about one-half of the billboards in Times Square, where about 50 "supersigns" flash, scroll and blink in a dizzying display of fashion, flesh and liquor. According to the contract, Clear Channel can reject ad copy that is deemed "obscene" or "false" or that "violates laws" or is "offensive to the moral standards of the community."

The company rejected the ad, said Paul Meyer, president and chief executive of Clear Channel Outdoor, after concluding issues of terrorism and war were too sensitive for New Yorkers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It's not the message; it was the imagery," Meyer said. "In the city of New York, at the current time, bomb imagery is inappropriate." read the rest

Oh give me a break. What a bunch of nonsense. You know what is too sensitive for New Yorkers? The Fucking RNC coming to NY in August. Those bastards have no right to exploit NY. Bush Hates NY.

Update: Here's a picture of the billboard they wanted to put in Time's Square. I'm sorry but this does not look threatening.

Postponing Elections

or
A Candidate Better Be Nuked if The Election is Going to Be Postponed
By Liz/Blondesense

This nonsense about postponing the elections because of a terrorist attack has to be the biggest bunch of crap I have heard in a long time. They don't have any concrete evidence as to the when, where and how, but they think that al Qaida is going to strike. Well we've heard that about a half dozen times in the past 3 years and we've also heard from Mr. Bush that Osama and al Qaida are not a concern of his anymore. So what's the story? Really?

I think Tom Ridge must think that the whole country is full of southern right wing Christian Bible thumpers who love prophesies of doom. Well wrong-o! There are over 200 million Americans who can smell a huge pile of stinking shit if ever there was one. If there is a threat, then prove it this time Tommy boy. Why don't they ask Sibel Edmonds to translate something before the attack this time?

On the day of September 11, 2001, NYC was to hold their primary elections for mayor. The city was rather busy that day and upset under the circumstances so they finished the primary elections another day. They needed all the votes they could get for a mayoral primary. (Rudy Guilliani was not up for re-election and it was a good thing because he was not all that popular in NY up until 9/11) It's not like zillions of NYers go out for those types of elections in the first place. A little thing like the WTC attack might change peoples minds. Would that have affected an election if it had happened on a presidential election day? Perhaps those who live and work in downtown Manhattan would not have made it to the polls that day. The state is still a blue state.

And if a terror attack hits a convention this summer, unless the candidate is killed, why should the election be canceled or postponed? And even if the candidate, god forbid is killed, there's enough time to pick up another candidate, and perhaps a better one!

These "powers that be" ought to be checking to see what is going on and put the CIA and FBI back to work on finding out who is going to attack us and where. If anything happens, Bush's ass is on the line for sure for being a major putz.

House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said, "'The Department of Homeland Security should not instill fear or inject uncertainty into the election... If Bush administration officials have any evidence that would warrant considering postponing the election, they should immediately share it with the Congress. Otherwise, they should disavow this fear-mongering.
...Instead of focusing on changing the date of the election, the Department of Homeland Security should focus on reducing the risk of an attack."

So how do you like that? They aren't even sharing this information with the congress. This is what I hate about this administration... all this secretiveness. If they can't tell congress, then it's all suspect. The administration is in contempt of the American people. period.

From the same article: "A spokesman for Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security, yesterday said a decision to delay the Nov. 2 election could not be made now "without knowing the nature and scope of any suspected attack." The spokesman said any ruling would have to be based "proportionally" on events at the time.
    "If Washington, D.C., is going up in flames that day, we might have to delay the election, but if the attack is aimed at Mount Rushmore, maybe not," the spokesman said."

Sibel? Sibel? Where is Sibel?

Update fromNewsday.com: "'I think we shouldn't cave into terrorists. We're going to prevent terrorism,' Bloomberg said. 'If, God forbid, something should happen, then Congress would have to look at at it that time.'"

Doomocracy: Slam-Dunk

Billydoom over at Doomocracy has some interesting commentary on irony between the Senate report about the CIA failure and the new terror threat. Mr Doom thinks that Tenet was perhaps persuaded by Bush to concentrate on Iraq from the get-go and that is why we were surprised by al Qaida on 9/11 and probably why we are still being threatened? Or maybe not. Here is some of his post:

"If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, as soon as Bush came to the presidency, there were Republican vociferations about whether he should keep Tenet (appointed by Clinton) as DCI. Bush went to visit Tenet at the CIA headquarters. His visit was short and immediately afterward in the lobby of the Agency, Bush declared, in a photo-op, that he had complete trust and confidence in George Tenet as DCI. I wonder what they talked about behind closed doors.

Perhaps Bush told him his intention to invade Iraq and asked Tenet if he would support his president and gather intelligence support for the war.

I tend to believe that Tenet had agreed to do just that..."

Read the whole thing...

Commentary by Pissed Off Patricia

I'm a news junky, I admit it.  I am glued to the TV each Sunday morning as I get my weekend fix.  A strange thing happened yesterday morning.  Before Chris Matthews’ show came on, the viewing audience was teased with snippets about what to expect on his show.  There was something about the CIA spies who couldn't see straight, so it was apparent the show would deal with last week’s report about the so-called failures of the pre-war CIA intelligence.  Here's the weird part.  When the show began, it was a rerun of one of his shows filmed before the war.  There was no explanation why and no crawl at the bottom of the screen explaining that this was a re-run.  Here's where it gets weirder.   Last night on MSNBC, when they usually show a rerun of Chris's Sunday morning show, they showed the current show that should have been aired yesterday morning.  Did this only happen in my area or was it the same where you live?

One amazing thing that came from Chris' current program last night, was a prediction that Ron Reagan Jr. will speak at the Democratic Convention.  How cool would that be?  That tidbit of information should give the Republicans stomach cramps at the very least.  Imagine, Ron Reagan who is a superb speaker, standing at the dais and speaking to the world about his differences with the current administration.  Verbal nectar for the gods! That's what it would be for us.  Verbal Ipecac syrup is what it would be for the Republican Party.  A dose of this kind of medicine might be good for the Republican folks even if it is hard for them to swallow.  Maybe it'll clean them out and open up their minds.  Republicans did not invent the closed mind but some of the extreme Republicans seem to try their damnedest to act like they did. 

 

There are extremist on all sides.  In my opinion, the extreme Democrats want all peace all the time and the extreme Republicans appear to want all war all the time.  Peace means we don't kill one another and war means that we do.  So what does that say about the two parties?   If the extreme Democrats could try to accept that sometimes war is necessary and if the extreme Republicans could try to accept that war should only be used as a last resort, then maybe we might make some progress toward a more peaceful world – a world where war is something we try to avoid rather than something we wage boastfully.  Perhaps the declaration of war would be realized for what it truly is, the use of our most precious commodity.  Maybe we would see war not as something we use freely but something that must be used sparingly, because what we lose in war, we can never get back. 

In my personal opinion, war is the most primitive way to settle a dispute.  I wish mankind would invent a better way.  We've had ample time to work on that, and all we've managed to do is make the outcome of our disputes deadlier not saner.  I bet if we spent as much effort, money and time trying to figure out how to avoid war as we do trying to figure out how to make it deadlier, we might come up with something that would make us actually safer.  We also might even be universally admired instead of universally hated.  Just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean it can't be.  I think the problem is that we accept war as a naturally occurring event rather than admitting that it's a powerful and deadly event and man’s worst invention. 

Bible With Dubya

I was looking around on the AOL message boards in the Top News section because my blood wasn't boiling enough today for some reason. Someone posted something with their tongue planted firmly in their cheek about how we should all listen to Dubya because he is so close to Jesus. Amazingly 53 respondents believed the poster was serious. hoo boy. Why don't Republicans have a sense of humor? I laugh at Kerry jokes.

Anyway... I found this on a post at AOL. It is based on an older thing I've seen kicking around the Internet before:

Dear President Bush,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors.  They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath.Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town
together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan,

Gardening

It's a great weekend on Long Island. It's beach weather but I have some gardening to tend to. David Neiwert over at Orcinus has some fine articles on his blog for you to check out. He's a professional writer and explains a lot of things I usually write about but in a clear concise way. heh. He has wonderful resources to back up his claims and further reading on many topics.

Billydoom at Doomocracy has good commentary on the current state of affairs. I didn't know he could write so well about politics. He never ceases to amaze me.

I'll be back when there is a break in the gardening action. How do y'all feel about red bark garden mulch? I think it looks good. I'm obsessed with it and can't stop driving back and forth to the store to get 5 more bags. It adds a lovely contrast to the lawn and looks better than dirt in bare spots in the beds.

Love
Martha Stewart

How Afraid Should I Be?

The Rude Pundit is so philosophical today as he ponders the crappola dished out by Ridge and his Dept of Homeland Insecurity:
"Fear is a narcotic, man. It makes us wanna curl up in the laps of the ones who would comfort us and make all the monsters go away. But, as children from time immemorial would tell you, sometimes the monsters are the ones with the open arms."

oh yeah baby, tell mamma again.

"...sometimes the monsters are the ones with the open arms."

oh yeah

3 Little Questions

Three little questions that raced through my head today.
by Pissed Off Patricia

Why, during the time we were lobbing bombs on Iraq, did we not hear how many innocents we killed, but now, when someone else is doing the killing, we are told exactly how many Iraqis are killed in each attack?

Did bush have to boost Jenna's allowance to get her to ride along with him today on his trip to Pennsylvania (I'm sure it was presidential business)?  I guess he saw Senator Kerry's and Senator Edward's sweet families flanking them the other day and decided he would drag his daughter, who probably kicked and screamed the whole way, around with or behind him.  She didn't really appear to enjoy walking around with her old dad.  Her little outfit looked a bit casual for campaigning for dad's presidential re-election, but what the hell, she probably feels it's a waste of time too.

If the CIA got it all wrong, was that part of the "slam-dunk" process that Tenet referred to, as quoted in Woodward's book?  Did Tenet mean that he would slam and dunk the truth in order to serve up the kind of info that the administration wanted to hear to justify their invasion of Iraq?  I think we were the ones who were slammed and dunked.  Am I insane for feeling sorry for the people who worked under Tenet?  Wonder if any of them will ever tell all of us what really happened?

These aren't even a fraction of all my questions, just the ones that popped up today.

Protect Marriage Sunday Only 2 Days Away

Christians are preparing to mobilize for PROTECT MARRIAGE SUNDAY!

"A number of prominent religious leaders –have designated this coming Sunday, July 11, PROTECT MARRIAGE SUNDAY. They are urging pastors to devote at least part of their sermon to marriage as a divinely ordained institution and the need to protect marriage by amending the Constitution to limit that honorable estate to a man and a woman."

I find it interesting, being a longtime student of the Bible, that there is a lot more to the institution of "marriage" in the Bible than it simply being a union of a man and a woman. Boy oh boy are they leaving a lot of stuff out.

"Clergy are also encouraged to distribute contact information on their state’s United States Senators, to make their voices heard. The following day, Monday, July 12 has been targeted for a massive lobbying effort. The amendment has been scheduled for a vote in the Senate latter this month."

So do me a favor and call your Senators and let them know that this Amendment to the constitution is ridiculous.

“In the American Revolution, ministers gave moral support to the patriot cause. The abolitionist movement was largely church-led. The civil rights movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s originated in black churches..."

Now that is totally ironic too.


“Carlson added: “Given the centrality of marriage to society’s well-being, Christians must join the battle to preserve traditional marriage.” “

Christians ought to work on picking the right person for the right reasons to get married to in the first place before they go around spouting how divinely ordained by God their union is. Ministers ought to minister to couples who want to be married and make sure that they understand what they're getting into.

Atheists have the lowest divorce rates in the country strangely enough. Not to mention it's against Christianity to get a divorce and even more against Christianity to remarry or have a relationship with another person unless your previous spouse is dead.

Why do you think Catholics came up with annulments? Among Christians, Catholics have the lowest divorce rates while evangelical Christians in the south and midwest have the highest divorce and remarriage rates.

Homosexuals merely want in on what marriage has become in this country. If they had gotten gay rights in the first place, perhaps they wouldn't even try to infringe on marriage. Marriage isn't what it used to be anyway. So what's the big deal? They want to be able to inherit each others possessions, get on the other one's health care benefits and have equal economic benefits of married couples.

Once upon a time passionate love was not the main focus of the union. Usually the couple would grow in love over the years. It was an economic union, a religious union and a vow to repopulate the earth. Women didn't work outside of the home. Children generally worked in the family business or on the farm. There was a lot of sacrifice and dedication to the marriage and the family. Now we have a society where people's emotional and financial needs and self satisfaction give way to the needs of their children or their adherence to the tenets of their faith unless it happens to serve their interests. If we find that we are no longer madly in love with our partner, we look for another one. With no fault divorces, getting rid of your spouse is a piece of cake. Divorce is now a tremendous threat to the family unit way more than homosexuals getting married.

The hypocrisy of divorced Christians who thump their Bibles claiming that homosexuals are sinful are just being "Cafeteria Christians." They just pick what they like and ignore the rest.

Yeah, marriage is in deep shit in this country. Amending the constitution to prevent gay people from getting married is not going to fix it.

Friday: Kitty Porn

This is "The Cat Formerly Known as Prince"



Every summer, Prince gets a shave so he'll look better in his Euro-cut swimwear. He likes us to just trim his tail and beard without shaving it off completely as it demasculates him when his tail looks scrawny.

Without further ado, I present the Shaved Pussy:



This is Tiger. She is a nasty little thing.

bin Laden, where are you?

Bin Laden Is Said to Be Organizing for a U.S. Attack
From The New York Times : "Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenants, operating from hideouts suspected to be along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, are directing a Qaeda effort to launch an attack in the United States sometime this year, senior Bush administration officials said on Thursday."

uh oh. I thought we didn't care about these guys anymore because Iraq was a bigger threat.

On NBC's 'Today' show Ridge said al-Qaida wants "to do something during this time period of the elections. You add all those things together, it does suggest there is some direct link to al-Qaida leadership. How high up it goes remains to be seen."

B-b-b-b-but the NY times said that bin Laden is planning the thing and Tom Ridge says he isn't sure how high up in al-Qaida the threat goes. Is OBL not the top guy anymore? hmmmm.

Sibel Edmonds would be the one who could decode the chatter but she has been silenced by the government. She is the one who knows for a fact that the US had intelligence and information about the terror attack on 9/11.

So just to be on the safe side.....

We should get ready for a July Surprise?: "...the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan....
This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. The Bush administration denies it has geared the war on terrorism to the electoral calendar."

And we believe them. We're ready in NY for an August invasion.

Please also note that the color coded terror alert has not been raised to orange this time. It turns out that it costs too much for the government to change the alert status color when they are just making bogus claims to take the focus away from other news.

Let's not forget the immortal words of our leader:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him."
- G.W. Bush, when asked about bin Laden's whereabouts, 3/13/02

Democrats, Republicans and Old Ralph by Pissed Off Patricia

BlondeSense welcomes a guest viewpoint to this blog. Pissed Off Patricia is a blonde from the south. How good is that? Blonde news and commentary from the north and south all in one blog!

 
Doncha just love it?

 Democrats have a ticket that includes intelligent American professionals, positive words, positive plans for our country, smiles, and for added appeal, it looks good.

The Republicans have people who used intelligence badly, oil execs with dour words.  Their idea of a plan is to keep Americans on a dog leash of fear forever.  They smirk, they scowl, and for an added unappealing factor, they get off on wars.

Then there's Nader.  If you think Nader is all about America, check out the Greens for Kerry website.  There's an article there titled, "Ralph Nader, Suicide Bomber"by Harry G. Levine, Village Voice, May 3rd, 2004.   Seems old Ralph was pissed in 2000 because Washington just wasn't kissing his ass as often as Ralph would have liked so he wanted to "punish the Democrats".  In other words no one wore a blue dress for Ralph.  Tsk tsk Ralph.  Not only is it not all about you Ralph, it's not your god given responsibility to punish anyone. 

 If Ralph is still into prescribing punishment and bondage for America, I think Bush and his gang have accomplished that for him.  This sorry group has us involved in two wars, our country is divided, our military is broken, our pocketbooks are empty and pretty much every country hates our guts.  Jeez, what more could Ralph want?  Does he want to spank us too?  How much American blood must be shed before Ralph will get all happy and smiley with his revenge?  Ralph can erect his case but we're still not swallowing it. 

 So there are the choices for America in November - Positive Democrats, boorish, war mongering Republicans, or a pissed off old guy with nothing to offer but a grudge almost as large as his ego.  You decide. 

Bush Sat in the Classroom on 9/11

I have been harping on this for almost 3 years. Michael Moore showed the footage which a lot of us have already seen on the Internet. None of the reviewers or papers or pundits have brought up the fact that the secret service didn't rush Bush to safety. They let him sit there after Card delivered the report on the attack on America.

The official response is that Bush didn't want to alarm the children. Bullshit. What if there was a plane heading for that school? Those kids would have had to be evacuated. No? This smells very fishy.

They let Bush change his outfit for his photo op after the book reading. They meandered to the airport for Airforce One to take off to nowhere. They even missed a turn on the way to the airport. Is this how a presidential entourage acts during an attack on the country?

So how did the Secret Service know for a fact that there were no planes headed for Bush in Florida? Perhaps they knew because they knew exactly what was going to happen. Why else would Bush just sit there?

Why didn't Michael Moore address this?

Couple Had Sex on Stage During Concert

Nettavisen:Norway: "As Kristopher Schau and his band Cumshots were in the middle of their concert; a young couple entered the stage, stripped and had sex. See explicit photos and video."

They were having public sex to save the rainforests. I kid you not.

Plane Nearly Shot Down

Plane That Caused Capitol Evacuation Nearly Shot Down (washingtonpost.com): "The top general at the North American Aerospace Defense Command was on the telephone and prepared to order an F-16 fighter to shoot down an unidentified plane that turned out to be carrying the governor of Kentucky to former president Ronald Reagan's funeral last month, according to two federal security officials briefed separately about the incident."

Where were these guys on 9/11?

Jesus' General Supports Defend Marriage Amendment

Jesus' General writes to Senator Frist: "I'm one hundred percent with you in this effort to deny homosexuals the right to marry those they love. The very thought of two men or two women entering into a covenant to love, honor, and cherish each other until the day they die just sickens me.

It's good for a society to reserve the granting of basic human rights to selected groups..."

"The General urges all his readers to follow his lead and contact their Senators. This is important. We need to soundly defeat the opposition on this. Our nation's soul is at stake. Write your Senators by clicking here. After you've sent a note, give them a call. Here's a list of phone numbers for their DC and state and state offices.

Check the list to see where your senators stand and make a phone call today. This is important. We must stop the Defend Marriage Amendment.

See also: Defending What? by moi.

D'Amato Suggests Bush Dump Cheney

Ex-GOP Senator Suggests Bush Dump Cheney: "President Bush should consider dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from the Republican ticket this year, an influential former GOP senator said Wednesday.

Alfonse D'Amato said Bush should consider putting Secretary of State Colin Powell or Sen. John McCain of Arizona on the GOP ticket."

We don't want Bush to replace Cheney. We want Bush out. I have written to McCain and told him that he would be selling his soul to the devil if he allied with Bush. Others should follow suit. Colin Powell already lost respect because he sold his soul to the devil when he lied to the UN. But we want Cheney there so he can bring Bush down.

"The D'Amato advice came one day after Bush's Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, announced he had selected Sen. John Edwards to be his running mate."

Guess they are nervous? Good.

Attack Slogans Most Fun Says WaPo

The Washington Post had a contest for slogans for the Bush and Kerry Campaigns.

"Bring back complete sentences"
"Let's make ketchup a vegetable again"
"GWB is the WMD"
were a couple of winners for Kerry.

Here are some Bush slogans sent in:
"50 million Frenchmen can be wrong"
"Standing behind a Bush -- Not using the John"
"Blue Blood Background; Redneck Values"

The Bush slogans seem like backhanded compliments don't they?

Waddaya Make of This?

Coney Island: Brooklyn, NY

Yesterday I went to Coney Island.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of this man. He looked like santa from the front.
Look at his cute hairy shoulders! I liked his shirt too.


More pics at Blondesense Annex

Bush: Bad Science

The Bush Administration has little or no regard for science. Endangered Species Act's Protections Are Trimmed: "The Bush administration has succeeded in reshaping the Endangered Species Act in ways that have sharply limited the impact of the 30-year-old law aimed at protecting the nation's most vulnerable plants and animals, according to environmentalists and some independent analysts...."This administration has set new records in terms of the perversion and distortion of science," said John Kostyack, the federation's senior counsel. " -WaPo, 7/4/04

From Monkeywire.org: "Bush has proposed changing the Endangered Species Act to allow imports of endangered species and body parts," says McLaren. "A chimp would never do that."

Leaders of a Brooklyn-based primate news service [monkeywire.org] have called on political activists and news media to cease from referring to U.S. President George W. Bush as a chimp or monkey. The heads of Monkeywire, which bills itself as the 'number one source for news about monkeys and apes,' have called the Bush primate references 'misguided and demeaning.'...The Monkeywire heads say the most marked distinctions between Bush and chimpanzees are not physical characteristics, however, but behavioral ones." heh.

Our government is more interested in money than science. It's more interested in votes from the religious right than science or the future of the human species. It's interested in the financial needs of the here and now. Bush told Bob Woodward when asked about what history would say about him, that he didn't care because he would be dead. I'm surprised the Bible people didn't pick up on this grave contradiction to sound biblical teaching.

Yesterday I didn't blog because I spent the day in Brooklyn's famed Coney Island, home to the New York Aquarium.
One of the most interesting things about the NY Aquarium exhibits aside from the fact that it's a world class aquarium that goes to great pains to show marine life in a beautiful and natural habitat is that it informs us about the delicate ecosystem of the world's coastlines, the effects of deforestation and overfishing and ultimately how mismanagement can starve a human population out of existence. If we are not stewards of the earth, we can literally starve ourselves to death as the seas do not have unlimited bounty if we disturb the balance. You can read more about the Wildlife Conservation Society at Saving Wildlife Home which is a sponsor of the NY Aquarium. It was an eye opening experience. Consuming Chilean Sea Bass and Shrimp at the moment is having an adverse affect on the ecosystem. I also learned that deforestation actually kills coral reefs. And did you know that Amazonia, that's the Amazon River and its tributaries, is larger than the United States?

It's important to understand that overpopulation of the planet has a lot to do with undermining the ecology of the planet. While some do not think this is important because they place little or no regard to science because they think the Bible has all the science they need, they are very wrong because it has everything to do with the survival of the human species. Certain species of animals, fauna and fish are essential to the ecosystem and food chain. If no one pays attention to these matters, we could suffocate seas and oceans, defoliate jungles and forests and disrupt the food chain altogether. Our planet is over populated. People are overfishing, chopping down forests to raise livestock and over-fertilizing to name a few things to feed itself yet it affects on the ecology in an adverse way which will end up starving us in the end!

Our country is obsessed with the rights of the unborn... it doesn't matter to them if the unborn will starve to death once they are born. This is a religious and not a scientific belief. Now they want to ban birth control, abortion, reproductive rights and I suppose if you do give birth and are poor, they just want to say, "We told you not to have sex unless you are capable of taking care of a baby." It's all very cruel and it's bad religion if you ask me. It goes against human instinct. This upcoming election is about government forcing women to conceive explains Jaye at Winding Road. Well if our government is hell bent on further overpopulating the planet, it ought to take more responsibility for the planet and its ecosystem. It's all very ironic. It all ties together. They ought to start connecting the dots and realize that we must all be stewards of the planet. The filthy rich ought to think about sharing with the poor and contribute to the technology and education of feeding the planet rather than funding themselves... or maybe that's how they really want it... and if that is so... then we should be telling those who keep voting for these knuckleheads to stop it.

Why Do Neocons Hate Brains?

From the intellectual elitist, Mouse Words: " The Shrub and Kerry are both Yale-educated rich boys. But one of them treated his education like it was a drag and the other took it seriously. So the Shrub gets to run around claiming he's one of us and Kerry's not because, apparently, the Shrub is a two-bit moron and Kerry can speak French. What amazes me is that the whole 'I'm a two-bit moron just like y'all' thing actually works. Aren't people insulted? I guess the word 'elite' really does trip people up."

It sure does. Newspeak of the right wing employ different words to describe what is elite.. I think Bush called his followers, "the haves and the have mores"... you know like having daddy's judges and your brother, a governor assure your being "elected" to preznit, It has nothing to do with honor, integrity, morals or values. It has to do with money and power. Greed and intellectualism are foes.

You can be rich and be an intellectual though. But if you are obsessed with "having more", don't tell me you give a shit about anyone else on the planet besides yourself. People who aren't insulted by Bush's mentality and are not wealthy, are just plain dumb. There really is no other way to put it.

World O'Crap points out from an excellent article by Amber Pawlik, an avid anti-intellectual right winger who comments on SAT changes that ask students to write a persuasive opinion piece on the test: "Now, with this new change, not only are they going to find students who are likely to become political activists and make political careers, but the guess-work is done for them: they can pick students without morals and values of their own..."

huh? The evil college boards are seeking people with no morals on purpose? Amber goes on...

"A college entrance exam should be based on those objective things that indicate how well a student will do in college and in life. A young student aspiring to be a doctor has little to no need to be able to “take a stand on an issue.” They need to demonstrate intelligence, a willingness to be responsible for information (get tested on it), and an ability to develop a wealth of knowledge in their field."

WTF! Is she claiming that only those who agree with the one party robot system of the neocons should be the only ones who should be allowed to take a stand on an issue? I think so. Amber is a fascist!

"This should raise a red flag for any rational person. Why would a college admissions test encourage a high school student to state their viewpoint?"

Ummmmm because they are testing the student to see how their writing skills are and it is less stressful to ask HS students to write about their opinion on such a long and grueling exam or maybe so that the test graders don't have to spend time researching facts and figures when marking the tests?

"College officials should seek the best and brightest in high school applicants... Instead, college admissions today look for bogus things, such as students who are, “well-rounded."

It's so bogus to be well rounded. You cannot be a drone in Bushworld if you are a thinking person, you silly gooses!

"The new SATs are designed for one purpose: to pinpoint and accept students that most fit the university's political and ideological agenda. "

Oh she has paranoid delusions! College officials don't read the essays on the SAT's. College officials read the essays that applicants write on the official college application and then select subversive students. duh.

Amber does sum up for me why the right wing is so afraid of intellectuals: Because neocons are not smart people, they are afraid of people who are smart will figure them out and make them feel dumb and most of all...

Read and weep:
"The university has long been in the business not of training rational,productive minds but of indoctrinating their viewpoint. Their thuggish tactics to silence conservatives and all other dissenting viewpoints are well known and well documented."

No way! Since when are conservatives silenced? What country is she living in anyway? These neocons are simply afraid of being silenced. So why don't they behave and stop spewing nonsense?

Independence Day

Democracy Now!: Embedded Filmmaker Who Shot "Fahrenheit 9/11" Iraq Footage Describes Humiliation and Sexual Abuse of Iraqi Families in U.S. Raids

"Swedish-Iraqi filmmaker Urban Hamid, who was embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq for two and a half months, describes Iraqis being bound, hooded, humiliated and sexually abused by U.S. troops in neighborhood raids."

I watched Amy Goodman with Urban Hamid on Democracy Now! (they now stream the show or you can read transcripts) You get to see video, by this independent film maker who was shooting for Fahrenheit 911, of our very young soldiers going to an Iraqi household and completely disregarding their dignity. There is also a large unedited file of footage to watch of a house raid in a residential neighborhood in Iraq. You get to be sick to your stomach. True free speech is relegated to Internet broadcasts. How strange.

I was wondering how many of those young GIs joined the service for a college grant and ended up in Iraq. I wondered how many of them were not quite academic enough for college and joined the service to learn a skill. I wondered how many of them were sold a fake bill of goods from those snazzy military recruiters who stalk our high schools looking for losers or kids who don't really know what they want to do. I wondered how many of them really joined so that they would get to torture, humiliate and kill people. Maybe some joined cause they like guns or like wearing a sharp uniform. There are some who believe that they are called to defend our country and are willing to sacrifice their lives for our freedom and safety.

Our administration has little or no regard for these young men and women. They put them in harms way for nothing once again. They were lied to and brainwashed. God help me, we citizens are paying for this.

I was thinking about all the people who have told me lately how I should appreciate all the soldiers who have fought and died for my First Amendment Rights. All of them? Is that what they were doing in all those wars? Honestly, I would rather shut up than have a bunch of these kids go and slaughter or be slaughtered in order for me to blow off some steam. But we all know that this is the biggest crock of BS. Those who are pro war seek to stifle dissenters in this land of first amendment rights. The flag wavers give birth to a cow if anyone dares to call foul when our government fucks up. The flag wavers went crazy when John Kerry used the F word. They said nothing when Cheney used it because after all he used it towards a man who was concerned about our rights and freedoms.

I do not understand how my first amendment rights are based on anything but the Revolutionary war, if that. If we lost the Revolutionary war then we'd probably be something like Australia, Canada or New Zealand I imagine. God forbid. The only thing I can think of that would have threatened my right to free speech would have been the threat of commies overtaking our country.

Whenever I comment about my unhappiness over the war in Iraq, I have to hear about our boys fighting and dying for my freedom from all sorts of indignant nasty people. I disagree. They are brainwashed. Watching the footage from our soldiers in Iraq does not lead me to think that this war was a good thing. They got Saddam, so what is the need for all these raids in residential neighborhoods? What's with the torture of Iraqi citizens who are innocent? Why did they take pictures of torture? Were the Phillippino's a hundred years ago a threat to my freedom?

Why are our boys slaughtering women and children in their homes? Is that what my tax dollars are paying for? What the hell is going on with all this rape? Why do our soldiers have to do that? US Soldiers were also noted for their raping rampages in WW2 and Vietnam. I don't care for rapists. Our country enlists them though. We don't want to enlist homosexuals though. They aren't rapists however.

Many of those soldiers are young men like my son. I never raised him to even think about doing something like what those boys are doing in the video. I can't imagine that other parents teach their kids to completely disregard other people's right to life. There must be some sort of military brainwashing going on in bootcamp or something. They must teach our boys to become selfish killing machines.. or something like that. They come home to America and have trouble readjusting to their families and communities. How could they not? They were taught and trained to kill, humiliate and torture other human beings. If my son were ever drafted, I'd get him out of the country ASAP and begin to sue the US Gov. for seeking to pervert my son.

I am trying to think about why some people end up being in the military on purpose and how they feel when they come back to reality when they aren't allowed to kill people anymore. It must be a major let down. Adrenaline withdrawal to the max. No wonder they look at those of us who are anti-war or those who support the war but don't sign up to fight in it with such disdain. I even look at young war supporters, who don't have the balls to enlist, with disdain.

If you support the war, then go fight in the damn thing for my supposed freedom and then you won't have to hear me bitching about it. How's that, smart asses? Or maybe my dissent might save your life? Maybe you should be thanking me?

Soldiers I've met believe they performed a tremendous sacrifice. And they most certainly undeniably did. And yes, if our country was invaded, I would be very happy that we had soldiers willing to die for our safety. Honestly I really do. Then this whole thought process of mine leads me back to 9/11. So what the hell was the Air Force doing on 9/11? Why did Bush sit in that classroom, she asks for the zillionth time in almost 3 years. Why isn't anyone bothering to find out who was behind 9/11? Why wasn't anyone fired? Why do they hate us? Where the hell is OBL? Why aren't our soldiers guarding our borders? Isn't that what we pay them for?

On this 4th of July as I sit here thinking about what it means to be independent, I think about how the colonists fought to be free from the British. Taxation without representation. But then again, what if the English didn't bring so many diseases with them to Jamestown in 1610 and the Indians were able to fight back? Maybe we wouldn't even be here. I think about our forefathers, rich and intelligent men who wanted to establish a republic free from monarchal rule and where all men are created equal. (except for black slaves and women) But they were no worse than St. Paul. And we've come a long way in some respects and haven't changed a bit in others.

I've decided to reclaim my flag. The tyrants don't deserve to fly it. I do. I am going to wave my wag, wrap myself up in it and smother myself in it. I am going to demand that we the people find out why our government made the world hate us so... what are they doing behind our backs... why were they allowed to deregulate the media and stifle first amendment rights. Join me, won't you. Let's take back the flag.

Blondsense

You heard it here first ...(or maybe someone else is saying it too because usually when an idea comes to someone it goes to lots of people in the universe as well because not all people act on their ideas so statistically a concept must be dispensed among many for collective consciousness to work. And now you know why my initials on this blog are BS)

I predict that mens fashion for next spring will feature a crisp white dress shirt sans tie topped off by a dark sports jacket and complemented by lighter slacks. Perhaps a stainless steel bracelet on the wrist will be a nice accessory.

have a happy independence day.

Slice of Life On Long Island

In case you've forgotten, from all my ramblings about life on this godforsaken island, Long Island's Population is well over 2 million and that isn't counting Queens and Brooklyn. The only way off this island is through congested bridges and tunnels via Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan Island. (there are a couple of ferries to Connecticut somewhere) Next to us is New York City. The only borough of New York City that is on the mainland is the Bronx which happens to be a peninsula so it's pretty watery there too. If we ever have one of those massive tidal waves, oh baby, we are goners. (yeah yeah, you'd like that)

The AAA Automobile club of NY has described our (Long Island) projected Fourth of July traffic jams thusly: "It's a nightmare. There are a finite number of crossings. There are no alternatives.. How do you avoid traffic? You don't".

There is not much freedom or independence for drivers who live in this overpopulated watery coastal area. I don't know how many people inhabit NYC. Probably a billion or so. Something like that. When the cheneying RNC comes to NY in August, the traffic will be another bushdamn mess with people trying to get the hell out of here. It's soooo impractical for NYC to host anything. When you are a series of islands and peninsulas, you really can't spread out or you will drown.

Where was I? Oh yes. Newsday says we are going to do this stuff on LI this weekend: Those who have boats will go boating. Sailors are mostly on the north shore because the south shore has sand bars. That's where the ocean is. People will head in droves to the beaches. We have lots of those. Hundreds of miles of beaches of all types. I'm an ocean person. The south shore has barrier islands so you have both bays and ocean on the south shore. It's sandy down there. The north shore is rocky and hilly. I sail on the north shore and swim in the ocean on the south shore. The water temps are 67-73º this early in the season depending on the body of water. One beach is closed because the piping plovers are nesting. Those are birds.

The super duper rich will head to the eastern forks of Long Island to the Hamptons on the south fork and wine country on the north fork. Others will leave the whole vicinity and go to the mainland and then up down and west from here.

My family used to own a house on the water in Southhampton in the 60's to mid 1970's. It was fun. It was cool to be rebel hippy back then, so I didn't partake in the snooty Hamptonian stuff. We were a bunch of rich kids hanging out at the public beaches with the cute guys on unemployment who came in from the city or wherever.. we didn't care.. peace and love baby. I should write about the lack of class distinction when I was growing up sometime. It was awesome.

But I digressed... The biggest fireworks shows are the Macy's East River Fireworks next to Manhattan on barges in the East River. I just love that display. Jones Beach oceanic fireworks are set off from barges too are an awesome sight from the beach. And there is going to be a big display in the park across the street from my house. All 3 are excellent fireworks shows and world class of course because this is, after all the bushdamn big apple and we do everything world class. heh. Take that, Texas!

The people who don't do water things will go to parks, have cookouts, play golf, baseball, whatever.

So I am going to sit on my lawn and watch the Fireworks with a cooler full of beer by my side and a butt in my mouth getting to know my neighbors and probably all the outsiders who will be looking for parking spaces on my street. My son will be at Jones Beach and the old man will be at the Macy's display. We are a very close family.

Happy Independence Day Long Weekend.
Let's Keep America Independent, Bushdammit

Saddam Fashion Report

Imagine my surprise to bring in the Newday (newsday.com) this morning and find the lead story titled: "A weapon of fashion destruction" describing Saddam's new look. I thought he looked pretty good for a guy who was in US custody for some time now. He doesn't look bad for his age either. I've seen men in their 40's look much worse. They mentioned his weight loss. I would like to know how a man who was on the run, for lo those many months actually gained weight in the first place? Isn't that strange?

Saddam's outfit was compared to Arnold Schwarzeneggers favorite style.. white dress shirt, no tie, smart dark sports jacket, oy.

I suppose the author was being a wise ass, by interviewing an "international" personal stylist about what else could be done to improve the former presidents appearance...botox on the deeply creased brow, a good shave, more slicked back hair, etc. Can you imagine? I guess they want Saddam to look his best to defend himself. Dictators are people too. whatever.

Read it all in Newsday
They also have a nice pictoral essay of the deposed leader.

UPDATE 7/2: Thanks to The Dark Window: Oxy Man! we learn that Rush Limbaugh is smoking something that is giving him fits of laughter and something else is giving him the sniffles. hmmm. Seriously, Rush cannot control himself on the air. He goes on a bender over the liberal media's coverage of Saddam's outfit in court. I am telling you, this obsession with fashion from the right and the left is making me wonder.. read Rush's transcript ... you gotta .... here.

Bush pushing for religious campaigning

You know what I would love? ...For the Bushites to cheney up so badly that the churches they get to campaign for them actually lose their tax exemption. Bushdammit, the Bushites sent an instruction sheet to it's 'religious' volunteers with 22 duties "to be performed by specific dates" according to the Houston Chronicle. The Bushites are so desperate that the duties include calling all pro-Bushites in their church to rally them together and have good old fashioned "pot luck" dinners with members of their church.

The IRS is on to these suckers and warning them that their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status is at risk.

The "IRS on June 10 sent a strongly worded letter to both the Republican and Democratic national committees, reminding them that tax-exempt charitable groups "are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office."

BlondeSense House Cleaning Day

No I am not cleaning it. Perish the thought. I hired one of those cleaning services that advertises itself in the Yellow Pages as capable of cleaning up after murder scenes. Seriously. With 2 cats, and 2 slobs (men) living here, it was time. They are sending a crew here to clean every room upstairs and downstairs top to bottom with heavy duty industrial equipment to remove every trace of dust, dander, cat fur, dirt, cat pee, etc.

Tonight the Persian cat sleeps on the back porch and Tomorrow he goes for his yearly shave while the rug and upholstery industrial (not kidding) shampooers come in for the kill.

Then the son's girlfriend flies in from Arizona to stay with us for a week tomorrow at 5PM at JFK. The humidity has arrived here in NY. Wonder how she will like it? heh.

I have gardening to do today. I'll blog on the laptop during breaks from the back patio.