One more for the night

Second Harvester Food Banks: 1-800-344-8070

Baton Rouge Red Cross: 225-291-4533

American Red Cross: 1-800-HELP-NOW or 1-866-HELP-NOW

www.feedthechildren.org/

http://www.feedthechildren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=usw_hurricane_katrina

FEED THE CHILDREN: 1-800-525-7575

(Thus far, people have had better luck getting in on the 800#s, since the websites are SLAMMED --- ALWAYS A GOOD THING!!! --- but if you're in Louisiana or Mississippi and want to help, well, keep trying the websites, because Bellsouth & Eatel are chock-full o'jammed phone lines. STILL can't get through to Baton Rouge or New Orleans from here.)

1-866-HELP-NOW

CORRECTION!

Just heard the phone number on the radio again, and it's not "Get Help," like I thought --- it's 1-866-HELP NOW.

Also:

If anybody in the NOLA/Slidell/Pearl River areas knows where these people are, please get them to holler at me and let me know that they're still alive. I was telling the truth when I said that nobody in New Orleans misses MY ass, but I would still like to know if these people are still breathing, and if they need help.

ANDREA GARLAND

PAUL HECKLER

DORSE' BOUDREAUX

NICK E. BUSCH

JON POWELL

KERRY & ANTHONY KOLESA, AND ANTHONY'S ENTIRE HUGE FAMILY

PATTY "PAGAN"

HARRY LENZ

REVEREND GOAT

EDDIE "I'M NOT AN INDIAN"

ALL THE GIRLS FROM THE DRAGON'S DEN

ANYBODY WHO'S EVER WORKED AT THE DUNGEON(well, ALMOST anybody)

ANWER & JENNY BASHI

DAVE WHITE

and the list goes on...

Anybody who knows how to find these folks (Bellsouth is NOT being very helpful in finding anybody on the phone, I can't dial out of this PARISH, to Baton Rouge, New Orleans, or anywhere else, and most of Slidell is GONE), please tell them to holler at me. joannaagain@hotmail.com

I've been e-mailing everybody that I can think of, but if they're still in Orleans or Slidell, it's likely that there ARE no phone lines, or cell phone towers operating (or operating at double capacity, and hard as hell to get through). So if anybody out there in the ether can locate these folks, it would be a huge favor to me if you could get them to holler at me.

Thanks!

another half-assed blog post from the comments

I'm not worth much these days, too much shit going on and too little that I can actually DO.

All I can say is to keep trying those Red Cross numbers/sites. My plan of action is going to be this: When my check comes on the 3rd, I'm going to find SOME help agency, whether state, municipal, federal or private, to get my ass INTO Orleans Parish (with ye olde trusty GMC & the now-no-longer-ex-boyfriend).

I can't just sit here. It's fucking killing me. The neighborhood where my house was, is COMPLETELY UNDER WATER. I was always so proud, to have found the one house in my area of Broadmoor that never took water in the bad-assed flood of '98. I seriously doubt that much of my former home is still there now.

They've got inmates from Orleans Parish Prison, camped out behind hastily-strung razor wire, RIGHT ON THE BROAD STREET OVERPASS OF THE INTERSTATE. I am not kidding.

People still stranded on roofs, bodies starting to surface all over town --- it's really a fucking vivisection for a four-parish area, not just my mouthy self.

Thanks, Duhnonymous. I really appreciate your donation and anyone else's. I'll let y'all know when I can get down there to help. This is a little different from going to Crawford --- there is no other option.

And that hairsprayed bitch Rick Perry is on TV every fucking breath, offering the damned-near-collapsing-from-old-age Astrodome as an alternate shelter from the SuperDome (they'll go to the CajunDome in Lafayette first, I'd wager), and saying how much Texas is going to help. Yeah, I wanna see fucking BANDAR BUSH chipping to in to help, gawddamnit! Those Texas billionaire motherfuckers love to come party in New Orleans --- LET 'EM HELP REBUILD IT, instead of just offering platitudes or smarmy bullshit on TV.

I highly recommend Feed The Children to donate food/money, the Red Cross, and there are a few dozen other sites/organizations that are pitching in. I think that the # they told on the radio a minute ago was 1-866-GET-HELP. I can't promise that that's the right one, but it's worth a shot.

Also: Habitat For Humanity!!! I haven't heard anything official from them yet, but I'd wager both tits that they'll be among the first to chip in to help rebuild as soon as the water recedes.

All Baton Rouge shelters are full, as they're saying on the radio right now, and the nearest place open for shelter is indeed the CajunDome in Lafayette.

And another thing --- LOOTERS!!!!!! Those greedy motherfucking scumbag looters in Orleans Parish --- they've already got giant floating balls of fire ants, wandering around in the flood water --- all they need is a target, and we could easily provide that with some duct tape and rope to hold 'em down! A little honey at the water line, and they would never steal from LOCAL BUSINESSES AND FAMILY STORES AGAIN. They're not breaking into WALLY WORLD. They're breaking into SMALL, FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESSES. INDEPENDENTS WHO DIDN'T FUCKING *GOUGE*!!!!!! Small wonder that people respect New Orleanians so little... Show a moment of weakness, and they're on you like fucking VULTURES. First time that I've ever empathized with N.O.P.D. --- they're wading through crotch-deep, probably encephalitic flood water & raw sewerage & oil/gas spills, with shotguns, trying to fight-off the looters.

And no, the cops aren't just "protecting the money people" like they usually do --- they're actually trying to protect EVERYBODY. Yes, you could say that I'm shocked. And amazed.

So, soon as I can get past the martial law in Jefferson Parish to get down there, I'm going. I am NOT seeking donations for myself, AT ALL. I'll let y'all know when & if & where I'm headed, but send your money to the Red Cross (and keep an eye on those weasels, too) and Feed The Children and Second Harvester Food Banks and Habitat For Humanity. SERIOUSLY.

They're saying on the news (amongst all of the hype & endless loop-tapes of the same aerial footage from yesterday) that this could be the worst natural disaster in American history. And yes, a lot of this damage & death could have been prevented. Go fucking figure. And for once, it's not all New Orleans' fault.

If THIS clusterfuck doesn't wake the ignorant-ass Bush bitches up to the REALITY of the cold-hearted, soulless EVIL that is the Bush Regime, nothing will. I wish that the fucking rapture would come NOW, so that we could take their shit and bring it to New Orleans, for people who actually NEED IT.

Levee Breaks, Bush Evil

Good article from Infoshop News:

....When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain...

Read the article for the whole story. Let us remind ourselves that bush gave tax cuts to the wealthy and all our money to his folly in Iraq at the expense of the safety of American citizens. And people say liberals are anti-American? What could be more anti-American than cutting funds for disaster management?

According to news I heard on the radio, in 2001 FEMA conducted a study to determine worst case scenarios that could happen. One was the levees breaking in LA, one was a terror attack in NY and the other was an earthquake in San Francisco. Bush cut funding for the FEMA research as well. Why do they even bother to have FEMA when our leader is more interested in his oil cronie's concerns?

vivisection by television

I just wrote this in one of the comments threads below, and thought maybe that it would encapsulate what it's like, to sit here, two hours away from my home, (even though I moved out at Xmas 2002), and not be able to do a fucking thing about it.

"But to see that great city (for all of its backwardness, inbred behavior and corruption) fall into absolute chaos... I can't look. I'm not watching any more of it on the news. It hurts too much.

I know, I'm a fucking wuss, I should be in such hell myself --- but I don't have any money to send (any money, period, at the moment), and they won't let anybody go down there to help.It's so fucking frustrating... it's like watching people starve, and all you need is to get across the water to feed them.

Maybe after this shit, "Survivor" will finally die out, when people realize that this shit still HAPPENS to REAL PEOPLE, and it's NOT fucking ENTERTAINING!!!"

Want to protect your child from the military?

Go here Leave My Child Alone and find out how.

Oil will be loaned to refiner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will loan oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to at least one U.S. refiner suffering shortages from Hurricane Katrina, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

It's crude oil. It needs to be refined. Problems are looming as some refineries are under water. The shit is hitting the fan for bush.

Before the boy king decided to cut his pro-war PR tour short to pretend to give a shit about those ravaged by Katrina, he gave an address at the naval base in San Diego.

Boston Globe: CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

Oh goodie, we needed another reason for his folly. NOT.

The president, standing against a backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them, and finance attacks.

Um, er, excuse me, but wasn't their goal to get all the terrorists to flock to Iraq so we could fight them there instead of here?

''We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. ''We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."

Hey bushie, there is a crisis in the south and they need the money you're pissing away on a hopeless war and they need the National Guard. Oh Lord, please don't let my brains explode.

Earth to bush. Are you there?

From bush’s speech yesterday:

"If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. "They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."

Yahoo news (LINK)

Seems to me we have heard someone in the ranks say the first part of this already occurred. Didn’t someone say that we had created a training field in Iraq for future terrorist? Egad, the man some call president has completely lost connections to planet earth. Now he’s just freewheeling in space.

Keeping that in mind, how do you feel about this?:

"The president, upon his return to Washington, planned to chair a meeting of a White House task force set up to coordinate the federal efforts to assist hurricane victims across more than a dozen agencies".

This situation on the Gulf Coast is critical. Shouldn’t we be looking for someone more in touch with reality to coordinate the plans? When was the last time this president made a good decision?

The crisis grows

I watched CNN last night and they were showing footage of looters in a Walmart. Ya know what? Big deal. I would imagine that most looters are looking for survival supplies like food, drink, clothes, radios, camping equipment... then of course you have your criminal types who are looking for big ticket items, but I doubt that the majority of looters are criminals. They are hungry and thirsty and wet. The overtaxed police and rescuers should be concentrating on rescuing those still on rooftops and forget about empty shelves in local stores.

Here in the northeast, when we get notice of an impending nor'easter, people are falling all over each other in the markets, convenience stores and gas stations stocking up on supplies. Once rational people will wrestle you for a gallon of milk or the last pack of batteries when a storm is brewing. Imagine the situation in the Katrina ravaged areas- heat index is over 100º, there's no communication so they can't call for help, no running water, no food, no shelter- people are bartering hundreds of dollars of their possessions just to get liquids. A health crisis is brewing big time.

The CNN bimbo was trying to get Sen. Mary Landrieu's reaction to the looters and she pretty much said the same thing that I was thinking- Concentrate on rescuing people and figure out what to do with the tens of thousands who need to be relocated as it's hot as hell and water is in short supply. All hell is going to break loose among the survivors if they don't get adequate food and shelter -looting stores will be the least of their problems.

Hell from above and Hell from below

The situation grows more dire on the Gulf Coast with every tick of the clock. First the winds blew in from above and now the water is rising like a monster from below. The reality of the situation is beyond comprehension. It’s something that none of us can understand. I certainly can’t.

The question I keep hearing on TV this morning is how long will it take to rebuild. I look at those aerial shots and ask how long will it be before they can even think about rebuilding. First you have to evaluate the problem before you can even begin correcting it.

Almost one year ago to the day, our own house was hit headon by hurricane Frances. We lost our roof protection and as a result our house leaked like a sieve as inches and inches of rain poured down. Our power wasn’t out for a long period of time but our gas connection to the house broke so we had turn off our gas outside resulting in no hot water or cooking ability. There were trees down everywhere but fortunately none on our house. When we were able to get out in our car all traffic lights were down and nothing was open. Cell phone systems were overwhelmed and useless. Most land lines were out. It was desolate. It was an unfamiliar world.

We covered what parts of our roof that we could with those awful but wonderful blue tarps. In about a week (guessing here because everything was so disastrous my mind refused to record it in days and weeks, it was just one big blur.) Ivan circled back around and was beginning to form again. As it passed over us it sat and rained inches and inches and inches. As I recall we got 12 to 14 inches of rain in a day or so. More leaks occurred. I went into the utility room one morning and stepped into two or three inches of water. The vent for the hot water heater had come loose and water was flowing down. I rigged up a deal with towels and plastic storage containers so that the towels caught the water at the ceiling where it was leaking and the towels dripped down into the plastic containers. About every half hour I would slip out one container and insert the other one, then empty the water from the first one. We were afraid to flush our toilets because we didn’t want to overload our septic system. I won’t go into details on that.

Within three weeks of Frances’ visit, I awoke one morning to discover that, like Frances, hurricane Jeanne would make a direct hit here. We put everything that we could in big black plastic trash bags and sealed them up. All our linens, shoes, clothes that weren’t on hangers, just everything that would fit in a bag. We put all out hanging clothes on our bed and covered them with another big blue tarp. Our minivan was in the garage so we put things like the computer and antiques that would fit, in the van. Our house looked like a giant group of black plastic bag monsters had invaded. Then we packed up some clothes, our pets and our insurance records etc. and we headed out for a family member's home in Tampa. Our house was just too dangerous to stay in during another hurricane.

When we came home everything that had been wet during the first storm was wet again. Most of the blue tarps on the roof were gone. But we were really in no worse shape than we had been after Frances, just as bad again.

Now, almost one year later we aren’t yet where we were before the hurricanes, but we will be very soon. Because of the overwhelming demand for roof replacement in this area and all kinds of other repairs, we all were placed on waiting lists and all we could do was wait our turn for everything. As of this morning the flooring company will begin replacing what remained of our carpeting. (After the hurricanes we had to cut out big chunks of wet carpet and toss it before it began to mildew, so we have parts of our floor that are bare concrete. We have covered much of it with plastic runners for all this time.) This morning at 10:00am we will finally begin the end.

One year of living differently is finally coming to an end. Tonight when I go to bed, I won’t be stepping on concrete and plastic. Tonight I’ll be stepping on beautiful, plush, new, wonderful carpeting. This was supposed to be a big day of celebration for Mr. Pop and me. After a year of all the repairs, replacements, painting, fixing, this was to be our big day. The day that marked the end of a year of frustration and difficulties and yeah, a lot of crying and cursing. But, we just don’t feel it would be right to celebrate today, we can’t, it wouldn’t be right. Not now when so terribly many people aren’t even to the point of thinking about rebuilding, they are still trying to survive. Last night Mr. Pop and I donated to the Red Cross. We are finally to a point now where we can use what we have to help people who need it so much. Maybe it’s okay to celebrate that.

Bush Cancels Vacation to Focus on Relief

That's what this news report says. Well he sat in the proverbial classroom long enough. 'S'bout time he got to work.

I saw on CNN that the rest of the Louisiana National Guard will return from Iraq in eight days. According to this news report, Gulf state National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq are devastated by the news of Katrina, however this is disturbing and the man who said it must have had a gun to his head as we all know that you don't sign up for the National Guard if you want to fight wars overseas:

Asked how his troops felt being in Iraq while their state was in such difficulty, Jones replied: "Well, we all know our primary mission is the federal one."

"The secondary mission is to serve at the pleasure of the governor in disaster-relief and other missions," said Jones, 44, who works for a company managing the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

More on Guard Units at the NY Times.

I read that US Agencies are slow to respond to major US health threats such as botulism, anthrax, smallpox and bubonic plague. This is bad news as the areas ravaged by Katrina, particularly New Orleans will soon be a petri dish of disease as bodies from cemeteries may emerge, the sewage system has overflowed, there are chemical spills and I see kids swimming in the flood waters. Oh baby, we're talking about cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, West Nile virus, and dengue fever. US agencies had better get their acts together. This is a tremendous catastrophe.

If you'd like to help agencies who work in the field of emergency response to this disaster, check out networkforgood.org.
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U.S.: Cuban Militant Shouldn't Be Deported

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; 5:48 AMELPASO, Texas -- "A Cuban militant and accused terrorist is not eligible for asylum in the United States but shouldn't be sent back to Cuba, a lawyer for the government told a judge in the opening day of the man's deportation hearing. Luis Posada Carriles requested asylum after being arrested in May on charges that he sneaked into the country illegally through Mexico. He was arrested in Miami.

"Lead government attorney Gina Garrett-Jackson told the judge Monday that federal officials hadn't yet decided if they would oppose Posada's deportation to Venezuela, where he has been accused of orchestrating the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuba jetliner.
She cited concerns about torture in opposing his potential deportation to Cuba".

(Emph. PoLT) Considering this government's track record on torture, my question is, "Are we afraid they will torture him? Or are we afraid they won't?"

Read the entire article at The Washington Post.

US to Uganda: If You Have Sexual Relations, You Deserve to Get AIDS

The Ugandan government had made great strides in reducing the AIDS epidemic with their condom program but the US has attached "moral" strings to funding the program. (oh yes, the US, that bastion of morality in the world)

Sure, condoms won't completely stop the spread of AIDS, nor will condoms eliminate unwanted pregancies, but proper use reduces the numbers of the suffering: AIDS infected human beings and those born who are unwanted and destined to live a life in poverty. Sex education would ideally explain to those who use condoms that they are not fool proof, yet their chances of contracting AIDS or conceiving a child, or both are greatly reduced. They could add abstinence education as part of the program and explain that abstinence is the only fool proof way to avoid these consequences. In the meantime distribution of condoms to those who insist on participating in that dreaded activity- sexual relations, should be encouraged.

I mean, how cruel is it when an innocent person, perhaps a faithful wife contracts AIDS or a sexually transmitted disease because her mate didn't have a condom in his pocket or information about sexually transmitted diseases when he was thinking with his dick rather than his brain and fucks some other woman who is infected? What does the government think- that punishing innocent people will make sex stop? How stupid.

The secret agenda of Big Brother US government is to insist that people not engage in a practice that goes back to the beginning of time or be punished with an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease. This disgusts me:

The Guardian Reports: "There is no doubt in my mind that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven by [US policies]," Mr Lewis said yesterday. "To impose a dogma-driven policy that is fundamentally flawed is doing damage to Africa."

The condom shortage has developed because both the Ugandan government and the US, which is the main donor for HIV/Aids prevention, have allowed supplies to dwindle, according to an American pressure group, the Centre for Health and Gender Equity (Change).

In 2003, President Bush declared he would spend $15bn on his emergency plan for Aids relief, but receiving aid under the programme has moral strings attached.

Recipient countries have to emphasise abstinence over condoms, and - under a congressional amendment - they must condemn prostitution.

Oh come on. The US is punishing innocent people by imposing restrictions on foreign governments. That's not fair. That's terrorism- Do it our way or die.

To be fair and share the blame with our government, the first lady of Uganda, Janet Museveni, also promotes abstinence only education. She is also being criticized because it doesn't work.

When I was raised a Catholic, abstinence education was the sole part of sex education. Sure, we tried to remain abstinent and we were abstinent until that moment that it went out the window. And that is the moment that people should be prepared for. Your first time probably wasn't planned. It's kind of ironic that at one time Catholics were having the most abortions. We had to try to figure out what was the worse sin- having sex or using birth control! Since those who make the Catholic rules are mainly homosexual and taken care of financially by the tithes of the faithful, they don't have to worry about birth control and the economic burden of an unwanted pregnancy. But they don't mind telling the faithful that they are going to hell if they disobey. Funny that the clergy aren't afraid of hell- maybe they know something we don't know? Hmmm.

Swaziland the country with the world's highest AIDS epidemic, tried a ban on teenage sex thinking it would slow the spread of AIDS. It didn't work and it placed the burden on girls. What else is new? "Swaziland has one of the highest rates of Aids in the world. In a population of 1.1 million people, nearly one in three girls aged 15-19 are HIV positive and many became pregnant despite wearing the tassels." Girls wore tassels to signify their virginity. Men would lose a cow if they violated the tassel. That practice has been stopped. no way! By the way, 66% of the population live on less than $1/day. See article

Swaziland's king, a polygamist, enjoys a ritual of bare breasted young virgins who dance erotically for him- then he picks another wife from the girls. Oy vay, does this country need some help or what? What really galls me is that women are stuck paying the price for all the horny men in the world. We should pass out dildos to young women of the world so they can just say no to men who don't believe in birth control.

There is a Hell and they need to go there

Already there are reports of looters in the area where Katrina had her way with the Gulf Coast. Stealing food from a torn up market is one thing, if those doing the stealing are hungry. I guess I can sort of understand that, although it still isn’t right, but stealing guns from a pawn shop is so freakin’ wrong and even more freakin’ dangerous in an already dangerous situation.

One man and his family came home to their, ripped to shit, house today only to find his son’s computer and the family television had been taken by looters. Some bottom feeders had seen the house with the tree laying on top of it and in their cave dwelling wisdom decided what little the family had left would now be their own. Humans continually prove themselves to be the best and worst of any animals on earth.

What kind of person takes advantage of another person’s loss? What kind of mind, in the middle of a tragic disaster says, "What can I get out of this"? Is it the same kind of mind that jacks up the price of gasoline, ice and water after a disaster like this? I’d say yes. Anyone who sees this awful destruction and their first thought is, "What’s in it for me"? or, "How can I use this loss for my own gain"?, should be handcuffed and mainlined straight to hell! Oh, you say, there isn’t a hell? Well, yes there is and it’s called Iraq. Catch these disgraceful human beings (?) and send them straight over to the war in Iraq. Last I heard we were a bit short of soldiers to fight in this war, and since these scum suckers have already shown how brave they are by stealing helpless people’s property, I’m sure they would be just as brave on the blood soaked sands of Iraq. Don’t bother sending them to jail; just slap their asses on the next military plane that’s headed for hell.

Dr. Frankenstein and a Laboratory Called Iraq

A crazed scientist, known as Dr. Frankenstein, entered into the laboratory known as Iraq. Dr. Frankenstein wanted to try to create a certain life form using the body parts of both Americans and Iraqis. The doctor proclaimed that his life form would be the salvation of all in the laboratory. During his experiments he used many different body parts of many different dead bodies. He flailed around with his experiment for years but to no avail. Finally in his frustration to create his own form of life he settled for his most recent, however flawed, product and he flipped the switch. The form on the table twitched as the current of life entered its body. The form came to life and arose from the table, but it wasn’t what the people had been led to expect. This was a life form that had taken on the characteristics of all that had been previously feared. This was no salvation. This was a monster!

Dr. Frankenstein, rather than admit he had created a monster, praised his creation with great glee. The monster moved about the laboratory and seemed determined to ignore any of Dr. Frankenstein’s weak commands or demands. It proceeded to move unhampered about the laboratory and its evil was apparent to most. Many, in this laboratory known as Iraq, feared the monster and demanded that Dr. Frankenstein stop the monster before it began its destruction. Dr. Frankenstein ignored their pleas. He countered their pleas by saying that no matter what kind of life form he had created, he had succeeded in creating something. Dr. Frankenstein refused to see his creation for what it was, a dreaded monster. He refused to see that his creation was dangerous to all in its path. Dr. Frankenstein refused to admit he had wasted precious treasure on his experimental folly. So, as the monster began its life and traveled about the laboratory on its evil mission, Dr. Frankenstein walked away from the laboratory completely blind and deaf to the devastation his creation was about to inflict.

What was Dr. Frankenstein’s intention when he began his experiment? Was he like a child dabbling in the unknown? Why hadn’t he learned from others who had tried to create life forms in that same laboratory? Why did he think he could conduct the same experiments that had been tried so many times before and get a different result? Did Dr. Frankenstein truly believe in his ability to do what had not been done? Why would he allow the resulting monster its freedom?

Maybe Dr. Frankenstein had a different reason for his experiment. Maybe Dr. Frankenstein didn’t care what he created. Maybe he just wanted to enjoy the experimenting, regardless of the outcome. Or, perhaps that was his plan from the beginning. Maybe that’s why he took such pride in what he had done. Maybe the creation of a monster was his goal from the start. Perhaps he thought that he could create a monster that he could control like some evil robot.

Now the monster is there in the laboratory and the doctor is far away. What are the people in the laboratory supposed to do? Must they become the servants of the monster? How long will they be able to control their anger toward the doctor who created their hell? Why must these people become the victims of this monster and the creature he has created?

Da bitch done been and gone!

Okay, my last official statement, reiterated from the comments here & at Jesus' General (haven't made it to World O'Crap yet, I'm way behind over there anyway), about this gawddamned hurricane.

Y'all sound like a bunch of old yentas, talking about me like I'm stranded on a desert island... heh heh heh... much as I love y'all for it, I told y'all not to worry, and I was right.

New Orleans, on the other hand, is pretty much fucked.

Been seeing the aerial footage of New Orleans at the Beastmaster's (she's got satellite, I can't even pick up a signal from a B.R. station)... So many great old houses (from the 1920s on)in my old neighborhoods, completely submerged. So much destroyed.

I'd been going by the online & radio estimates of HUMAN DAMAGE, I had no idea how bad the MATERIAL DAMAGE would be... and yes, they're just "things" but they're things and places with so much history for so many people...

The BM said that I should feel guilty, because the 12 years I lived in New Orleans, no major hurricane damage, even from Andrew or Hugo.

Soon as I leave, WHAMMO!

Yeah, I needed THAT shit.

So, folks are still stranded on roofs in certain (poor) neighborhoods in Orleans & St. Bernard parishes. Most of the neighborhoods down by U.N.O. and the lake, the middle-to-lower-middle-class working-class neighborhoods built from the 1920s to WWII, are completely submerged, and nobody knows how many of the old people & young families who live there actually made it out.

The Irish Channel, my favorite neighborhood, is probably largely under water, but since it's so close to the river, the water will soon recede, those 1800s houses will survive (except for the ones owned by slumlords who don't do maintenance), and the alligators will cross Magazine street again, to get back to the river. Entire facades of French Quarter buildings (the buildings date back to the 1600s in some cases, the facades usually date to the early 20th) have dropped into the street, atop cars & one stray Lucky Dog cart.

Bodies have been seen floating along the old (retired) Desire streetcar line, near the Intracoastal Canal. The question is, since these bodies are popping-up in the 9th Ward, and they're not dressed in funereal finery (yes, even the above-ground graves can get airborne in the right flood) --- were they in the IC already, or were they on their way to anonymous, watery graves when Katrina hit? You'd play hell finding a 9th Ward native who couldn't wade through flood water without drowning. They might not all SWIM, but they sure as hell can TREAD WATER.

Far as I've seen, most old people/cripples/seriously ill folks have been successfully evacuated to higher ground, and no reports of lost children yet. Mississippi has death tolls in the double-digits (60 to 70 thus far). True death tolls won't be in for a couple of days, after everybody's had a chance to find all of their people or not.

But, as always, Louisiana (and yes, even po' ol' Mississippi) will survive. Not like we have a choice. And don't hold your breath for Dumbya to come visiting and offering condolences, either. And sure as HELL don't hold your breath for FEMA or any other federal agency to pay what it will actually COST to rebuild New Orleans. They never have before. And with Dumbya's cuts, they sure as hell won't now. But maybe some of the yuppie-scum republicunts in Orleans Parish will finally realize that the clusterfuck of republicuntism is helping to destroy that city damned nearly as bad as Reconstruction & carpetbaggers. As far as St. Bernard Parish goes, they never learn SHIT. Same for the North Shore. These are, after all, the people who almost got David Duke elected governor.

And hell yes, I'm homesick as hell.

Here's some blogwhoring to settle y'all's nerves:

http://www.blondesense.net/2005/08/little-soft-feet-big-wondering-eyes.html

http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/ (Jesus' General)

http://rogueplanet.blogspot.com/

http://www.allspinzone.com/blog/

http://blogs.salon.com/0002874/ (World O'Crap)

http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/
(A New Orleans blog that probably has some great shit about Katrina up by now, if they can.)

http://mortaljive.blogspot.com/

http://notcivil.blogspot.com/

Enjoy.

Why isn’t Bush on the border?

"Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment, charging Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against "invasion".

"It may be the only way left to get his attention, before the border vanishes and our beloved country dissolves into MexAmerica, what T.R. called a “polyglot boarding house for the world".

Who would utter such horrendous words--that Bush should be impeached? I'll give you a hint: he was a nominee himself for president not too long ago. Click on Tracy Press for the suprising answer.

Time Out For a Little Musical Fun

Go here: Musicoutfitters.com

See on the left where it says “search” ? Okay type in the year you graduated from high school and hit “go”

A new page will come up with three choices. Click on the first one, the one that says, Top 100 songs…(of whatever year you typed)

Then you’ll see a list of the top one hundred songs of that year.


A Sweet Southern Curtsy to Rox Populi at Roxanne.typepad.com.

Democracy in Iraq

From the Rude Pundit's Democracy in Iraq :

Article 17, Part 1 reads: "Each person has the right to personal privacy as long as it does not violate the rights of others or general morality." Article 36 says that freedoms of "expressing opinion by all means," "of press, publishing, media, and distribution," and "assembly and peaceful protest" are guaranteed "as long as it does not violate public order and morality." And in that one word, "morality," the hopes of a free and open and democratic Iraq are as dead as the soldiers falling there as this is written.

Let's re-state this: If you engage in personal, private activity that violates "general morality," you do not have the right to engage in it. Sweet Foucaultian nightmare scenarios. Homosexuality, judicious use of pleasure devices, adultery, pre-marital sex, even sexual positions in a married relationship can be banned because it violates what might be considered "general morality." And, since the Constitution says that Islam rules, forget about anal sex, with oral sex and masturbation up for debate. So if you like your husband to fuck you in the ass and you happen to mention it to some of the women at the market and they tell the local authorities, you can pretty much expect a home visit from club-wielding governmental holy thugs.

You can bet that wrong wing christians in murka would love to enact this sort of thang. oy.

If it keeps on raining Levee's gonna break.
If it keeps on raining, Levee's going to break.
When the levee breaks I'll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan.
Its got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home.
Oh well, oh well, oh well,

Don't it make you feel bad when you're trying to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go.
If your going down South, they got no work to do
If you don't know about Chicago.

Crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good.
Crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good.
When the levee breaks, mama you got to move.
All last night, sat on the levee and moaned.
Thinking about my baby and my happy home.
Oh well, oh well, oh well... (Led Zeppelin)

"We have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years

Last week bush embarrassed himself by asserting the following regarding women's rights in Iraq. It left me dumbfounded as I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. Apparently he didn't know either because he wasn't exactly sure what Condi told him, so the boy king of malapropisms said this:

THE PRESIDENT: I talked to Condi, and there is not -- as I understand it, the way the constitution is written is that women have got rights, inherent rights recognized in the constitution, and that the constitution talks about not "the religion," but "a religion." Twenty-five percent of the assembly is going to be women, which is a -- is embedded in the constitution.

The Independent reports that the famed woman, Safia Taleb al-Souhail, with the blue finger, in Iraq during the elections has recanted her view on bush. Remember, she was the one who sat next to Laura Bush at bush's SOTU address. Oh how the evil ones love to jump on the propaganda wagon when they find some uninformed person to use as a pawn in their game.

Having seen the negotiations for the country's constitution fall into disarray and the prospect of a secular constitution severely undermined, she [Safia Taleb al-Souhail] expressed her concerns last week.

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened: we have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years. It's a big disappointment. Human rights should not be linked to Islamic sharia law at all. They should be listed separately in the constitution."

I'm sorry, Safia Taleb al-Souhail. You have my deepest sympathy. If it's any consolation, the bushistas are desperately trying to do the same to women in our country. They have redefined "democracy" here. I salute you for your bravery in coming out against the evil bushista regime. Too bad that the British news picked it up first. I'll do my best to pass along the information to my fellow Americans of good character. - Liz Smith
.

"Venezuela seeks action in US row"

"Venezuela's president says his government will take legal action against a US TV evangelist who called for US agents to kill him. Hugo Chavez said Venezuela might even seek to extradite Pat Robertson. He also warned he would complain to the UN if the US failed to take action".

Read the rest at BBC News.

Far as I know, Mr. Chavez' offer to help poor communities in the U.S. with free heating oil this winter is still good (see below). Whattaguy!

On the importance of dissent

Got the following email from reader, Jake, and I agree that this is a topic which needs discussing:

I just spent a day in Crawford. Certainly the Bush Crowd was there in strength, shouting slogans and waving nationalist paraphernalia.

The interesting part was on the Cindy side of the street, specifically at Camp Casey 1, the less than elite crowd was told to behave or protest somewhere else.

In other words, protest our way or leave.

The rhetoric on BOTH sides of the debate is all about silencing dissent from within. Bushco wants to silence dissent from within America, and the Cindy's immediate supporters want to silence dissent from within the supporters at large. Each believes it has a vision that overrides the NEED for dissent.

Yet dissent is the true strength of a free community - civil (non-violent) protest is a requirement, not a luxury. How else to stop the "crowd" from becoming the controlling voice? If not for 9/11, Iraq would never have happened. It was the silencing of informed dissent by the Bush apparatus that brought us the Iraq war, and will bring Bush's presidency to an ignominious end.

Dissent is not to be just tolerated, it must be encouraged.

The Republican War On Science

http://www.allspinzone.com/blog/index.php?itemid=1230

Nice how people are noticing NOW that the biggest chunk of The Strategic Oil Reserve is located in empty salt mine domes in S.E. Louisiana... Too bad nobody thunk of using that oil by now, before it gets swept out to Jamaica...

And yes, I'm still here, and no, no tornadoes have dropped houses onto me.

Don't believe the hype.

Y'all hear me?

I Don't Think She's Planning On Visiting There Any Time Soon

Caught this bit over at the Huffington Post:

"Ann Coulter: New Yorkers "Would Immediately Surrender" If Attacked..."

"From "Hannity and Colmes," August 25, 2005:

COLMES:...And I want to ask you about something, Ann, that you wrote in your most recent column. You had a very funny line, actually, that it is hard to find a parking spot in New York City. There's no question about it. You've had a pretty good day if you can do that.
But then you said, "It's far preferable to fight them on the streets of Baghdad than in the streets of New York, where the residents would immediately surrender." Now, some New Yorkers...

HENICAN: Ooh...

COLMES: ... felt that you were calling them cowards by making that statement.

COULTER: No, I think I was calling them supporters of Cindy Sheehan.

COLMES: Is that what that is? You certainly don't feel that New Yorkers are cowards?

COULTER: I think they would immediately surrender.

COLMES: So you do?

COULTER: I don't -- I don't think -- I think I'd rather have them trying to invade Mississippi or Georgia, Alabama, you know, the states where I want Cindy Sheehan's bus tour to go."

I agree with one thing she said: "I don't think".

Hurricane Katrina

There’s a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. 100,000 people cannot escape now from New Orleans. Let’s talk about that. Check out Daily Kos, they are asking people to volunteer their homes to those who are evacuating the NO area. Best thing the internet has ever been used for. God, let’s hope it helps!

Let’s also hope that in the future our government tries to fix situations like this before fixing other countries.

Also, you might want to check out the conversations at CrawfordsList.

There are two conversations going on there right now. The top post is about whether global warming is causing these awful hurricanes and the second is just about the hurricane.

Christian Man of God Pat Robertson says U.S. Should Assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

HOW DOES CHAVEZ RESPOND?:

"VENEZUELA OFFERS HEATING OIL TO U.S. POOR AS WINTER APPROACHES"

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered heating oil to poor communities in the U.S. to bypass the middlemen he claims inflate prices.
Chavez, 51, made the offer during his weekly television broadcast, "Alo Presidente.'' Chavez said 140 communities or groups have requested energy aid from the South American country since Chavez said earlier this week that Venezuela could help poor families in the U.S."

The rest of the article is at Bloomberg.com.

Proof That Our Schools Failed Miserably

I'm watching The McLaughlin Group. He says that 64% of Americans reject the theory that humans evolved from earlier primates and 54% believe that a god created us as full blown human beings. I've met many people who say, "We aren't monkeys!" Obviously these people had terrible teachers. The panel that is arguing on TMG are very ill informed. All in all, no one knows what they are talking about. Sad.

I went to Catholic schools and I have no problem with evolution. I enjoy following the latest theories and breakthroughs concerning the dawn of man and especially cosmology. Even when I used to be a believer, I had no problem with evolution. We went on school trips to the Museum of Natural History all the time. The nuns didn't tell us that it was all lies. Not at all. In the seminary, we weren't taught to reject science. Our theology professors were also experts in middle eastern history, science, Judaism and archeology and were able to explain why the bible had some very unscientific claims and back it up well. If you understand what things were like in those days, it's fairly easy to understand some strange biblical references. Tar pits exploding near Sodom and Gommorha make more sense to us than thinking god himself pointed a finger down from heaven above and smote the people. The tidal situation at the Red Sea explains how Moses, if he even existed, got to the other side.

When a group of people has no other explanation for natural phenomena, they blame everything on the gods.

warning: traveling back in time can cause motion sickness

"Doctors who perform illegal abortions in Texas could be prosecuted for capital murder and face a death sentence under recent changes in Texas law that have resulted in apparent unintended consequences.

While officials familiar with the new legislation say such prosecutions are unlikely, the possibility of a doctor on death row, whether intentional or not, puts a sharp focus on the importance of analyzing legislative activity every two years, officials say.

That's what Lindsey Roberts, director of training for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, was doing last week when he gave a legislative update to local prosecutors and defense attorneys at Baylor University.

Roberts spoke about a bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry in June at a Fort Worth church school that requires parental consent before minors can have abortions and places additional restrictions on late-term abortions.

In relation to those changes, Roberts noted that the Legislature two years ago altered the definition of an individual in homicide statutes from 'a human being who has been born and is alive' to 'a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation, from fertilization until birth.'

There was debate when the definition of individual was changed about whether the effect would make abortion the equivalent of murder. So lawmakers took particular care to write into the homicide statute that a lawful medical procedure performed with consent by a physician or other licensed health-care provider, if the death of the unborn child was the intended result, is an abortion. That provided a lawful defense or exception to homicide laws.

Continuing to connect the statutory dots, however, Roberts told local prosecutors that there is no such defense provided for a doctor who performs an unlawful medical procedure, such as an abortion on a minor without parental consent."

This is where we are going. Currently, a minor pregnant woman cannot get an abortion without parental notification. She can go to a judge and get what is called a "judicial bypass" where the judge does not have to inform her parents if their may be violence as a result of parental notification. She has to prove to the judge she is making an informed, mature decision.

If a woman goes to a judge, seems to me, she knows the score.

One can readily see where this is going. Next year, Roe v. Wade will be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court and that probably means that states can determine their own abortion laws. Unless the Court says that abortion is unconstitutional, period. While technically a state can recognize more rights than the U.S. Constitution protects, I seriously doubt that Texas will take that bold step and recognize that women in Texas have the right to control their own bodies.

So this means that doctors who perform abortions on minors and later on emancipated women--those not living with their fathers, who are 18, can vote, hold a job, decide if they are going to have chocolate or vanilla--can be prosecuted for capital murder. Because that unborn fetus under the age of six years is more important than a woman. Never mind that she may have no health insurance, or has been raped, or is mentally unstable or retarded. She will carry that fetus to term. Never mind that we have very few orphanages in Texas, or that we don't allow gay couples to foster or adopt children. Never mind that she does not get alimony in Texas and child support enforcement is extremely difficult.

Do you feel trapped yet? Good. Because to be a woman in the state without U.S. Constitutional protection is to be trapped. If a woman cannot control her own body, she is dumped to second class citizen status because the government does not require men to father children, but will require women to bear them.

Don't forget, birth control pills are on their way out. Abortion and birth control came from privacy rights found in the 4th and 9th Amendments by a Supreme Court in a good mood with a strong sense of justice. The new Court majority will not see that. If there are no privacy rights, there are no birth control rights. No constitutional right to birth control because that right originates in privacy, not the marketplace where pharmaceutical companies simply make the birth control pills and therefore have a right to sell them. No one will have a right to buy them if the Court says there is no privacy right to control reproduction.

news and screws

LA U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon plans gasoline (price) investigation:

http://2theadvocate.com/stories/082005/sub_gas001.shtml

(Same guy who's one of the few on Capitol Hill still pushing for a hemorrhoidectomy to remove Tom Delay from our collective asshole. I'm not crazy about Charlie, but at least he does something besides push for the cane sugar lobby, not that there's anything wrong with that...)

Cloned cats procreate, help species:

http://www.local6.com/news/4891123/detail.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cloned+cats

While I'm right proud that the Audubon Zoo is helping to keep endangered species viable (African wildcat in this case), I'm pretty disgusted by the idiots who want to clone their PETS. Yeah, 'cause we don't have ENOUGH domestic animals in this country who've been abandoned, abused, overbred, inbred, and generally left in the wind. Go to the fucking ANIMAL SHELTER, you narcissistic twits!!!

(Another reason why humans shouldn't be cloned --- what??? We don't have enough assholes on this planet already?!?!)

Electronic instrument innovator dies at 71

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/08/22/moog.obit.ap/

http://www.moogmusic.com/

http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/moog/

Love him or hate him for his contributions to music, sound, and engineering; blame him for Eurotrash trance music and Yanni; wonder where music would've gone without the synthesizer... But know that this guy had a huge influence, either way.

Okay, that's it. Unpack your lunch boxes and discuss amongst yourselves.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Picked this up over at Americablog:
When Maher asked (Cindy Sheehan) jokingly that if she didn't get satisfaction from George Bush, would she go over his head to Cheney or Rumsfeld, she replied:



"You know what Bill, I have gone over his head, I've gone to the American people.
And we employ him, he's our employee."



.

Francis Newton is just another dead person walking

Jake wants to know about the upcoming execution of a woman on Texas' Death Row. WaPo has a piece about her today and the Chronicle had one yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082500012.html
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3324251

A little legal knowledge first: In Texas, a claim of innocence itself is not the basis for an appeal. There has to be an error in the procedural way the trial was conducted. All death row cases are automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals which is the highest court in Texas for criminal matters. Texas, and Oklahoma, have what are called bifurcated courts of appeal. Civil matters and juvenile matters are appealed to the Texas Supreme Court while criminal appeals go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Her appeal was denied at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Francis Newton evidently had poorly equipped counsel at her trial. Harris County--capital of capital punishment, sending more people to death row than any other state alone, does not have a public defender's office for state offenders. The Southern District of Texas, in which Harris County is located, does have a public defender's office for federal matters, but the State of Texas does not provide funding for such an equivalent on the state level.

There is a real possibility that a capital defendant like Ms. Newton may not be assigned an experienced defense attorney.It is up to the judge to assign the indigent defendant an attorney to represent them, from a list of available attorneys who may or may not have contributed to their campaign, as all judges including appellate judges, are elected in Texas. These defense attorneys don't have the money or resources to represent the client on the same level that the state has to prosecute the client. That attorney usually makes their living representing indigent clients and is paid a flat fee for each case by the court. Their job is to move people and paper through the system and not make waves so they can get another appointment.

I have no personal knowledge of Ms. Newton's counsel. So I can't really shed any light on that aspect of her appeal, other than to say it would not be surprising if her case was any different than what I have described above.

Secondly, the Harris County Crime lab is a nightmare. Evidence is lost in a huge warehouse, forensic evidence is subjected to mismanagement. It ain't CSI. I will put it to you this way, the budget for that CBS hit series is higher than the budget for reality in Harris County. But the stakes are higher in Harris County. Our "guests" get to die on death row and don't show up in future episodes. But this is America and entertainment is far more important than reality. There is no William Peterson-like character at the Harris County Crime Lab. And remember, even on CSI, they work for the state, not the defense. The defense usually does not have the resources to fight the crime labs' findings in any state.

Her appellate attorneys--a different class of attorney than regular defense attorneys--have plead that evidence was mishandled. There may have been two guns in the state's evidence warehouse in this matter, but her defense attorneys only knew of one. If the state didn't give exculpatory evidence to the defense, which they are required to do, it may be what is known as revers able error and she should get a new trial--if the appellate courts want to hear it. They don't have to if they don't want to. Her appellate attorneys are going to take this case federal now because they have gotten no where with the state appellate court. The basis of her federal appeal will come from the Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection clauses. She may have been denied due process and equal protection of the system if she didn't get effective counsel or was entitled to evidence which may have been withheld by the state.

Her story is unremarkable. This time the defendant is a woman. Next time it will be a man, the time before it was a man. I am not so troubled by the state executing a woman. Equal rights. She has every right to be screwed by the system as the next man. The death penalty is wrong because we are human, it is a human system, and it is flawed. So many people believe that if the government says someone is guilty and the defense bar isn't independent and financed to fight that system--they are a problem in that system--then justice is often the product of human error. Even if she is guilty, what is the point of executing her? The appellate process is more expensive than a simple life sentence without parole.

DNA wouldn't have made any difference in this matter. Ballistics and procedure would have. Did the state hide evidence from her defense team? Did they have the guts to ask? In Texas, as opposed to television law, defendants don't even have a right to the state's witness list and a copy of the indictment. District Attoneys who prosecute crime in Texas are supposed to do justice, not convictions. But justice doesn't get you re-elected in a state where executions are a kind of blood sport. It is like the state's hunting dogs chasing the fox. It has a long history. Jesus didn't have a defense attorney and if he had, with what would the poor son of God had paid his attorney that could compete with 30 pieces of silver the state paid to their snitch, Judas. The advantages belong to the state and they don't go to the death chamber when they lose. When they win, they get re-elected on their conviction record.

Radioactive Wounds of War

The following quotes and links only begin to describe what is to me the most horrifying result of the Iraq War as well as Gulf War I.

"Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of depleted uranium use in Iraq"

"Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate, Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had tested positive. Matthew, 31, decided that since he’d spent much of his time in Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he’d better get tested too. It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all. Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits".

The rest of the article can be read at In These Times.com.

In a related article:
"A Scots ex-soldier has become the first veteran to win a pension appeal after being diagnosed with depleted uranium (DU) poisoning during the 1991 Gulf war. A Pension Appeal Tribunal Service hearing in Edinburgh accepted medical evidence provided by Kenny Duncan, of Clackmannan, previously dismissed by the MoD, which revealed he had become ill after service in the Middle East.
"Mr Duncan, 35, a driver with 7 Tank Transporter Regiment, helped move tanks destroyed by shells containing the poisonous dust".

The rest of this article can be read at Dennis Kyne.com.

Readers interested in researching "depleted uranium poisoning" (19,900 hits): http://tinyurl.com/8d6cj

Readers interested in researching "depleted uranium" (712,000 hits): http://tinyurl.com/cuo4k

All the body armor in the world won't protect you from radiation poisoning.

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life.

It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your Honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse. - Mark Twain

Want to do something kinda naughty but not illegal?

Sure, you know you do.

Click on Ministry of Reshelving.

Here’s something we all can do and it might be a bit-o-fun.

Bullshit Protector

Gawd I have to wear these when Bush is on the news. The photo at the link is priceless... and the caption. Oh lordy, lordy.

Hat tip to Auntie Roo, astute reader.

Sexy News

Seems men are getting into the "too much information" fashion trend following what I had deemed the "pussy cleavage" craze in women's fashion. While I felt that young men who wore too baggy jeans, too low, revealing their drawers labels was decidedly unsexy for future potbellied couch potatoes who ought to flaunt it while they got it, Dolce & Gabbana have come out with a line of "pubic pants" for men: very low rise. Back in the day when our rockstars such as Roger Daltry and Robert Plant wore similar jeans, we didn't have to look at their male bush. Don't we have enough male bush to contend with already? The WND crowd is shocked... so that's enough to make me support the trend anyway.


-------
So how noisy are you in bed? What does it mean? Fuck, if I know. Read this.

And then read this encounter of a Victorian man (My Secret Life) with an Irish woman who sounds like pirate in bed. Excerpt: "Taken off your clothes and come on to the bed and lie down wid me, and we'll fuck agin ye spalpeen in foive minutes — we will, be Jasus. Look at me chunt — look at your spunk — it's wet — it is — ain't your spunk thick,"...
-------

Yeah, but he rode his bike with Lance

Presidential gas bill gets steeper
"The White House declines to discuss travel costs related to the presidential entourage, and did not respond to a request for the overall effect of higher fuel prices on its budget."
and
"But Bush is one of the nation's most-traveled presidents. He has visited 46 countries, some of them several times, during his presidency. He has been to all states except Vermont and Rhode Island. So far this year, he has made 73 domestic and foreign trips, including crisscrossing the country on a 60-day, 60-city tour to promote his Social Security plan. He was on the road Wednesday, speaking to a military audience in Idaho, before returning to his Texas ranch to resume his summer vacation."

There’s a whole lot more at CNN.com.

Bimbos

Latin American hip hop star, Bimbo staged a protest in Manhattan yesterday because the price of gasoline is $3.10

The Bimbo in Chief takes his "I told you the war was going to be long and hard after 9/11" show to a Naval Base in San Diego next week. He is not capable of preaching to anyone but the choir. Big fucking deal.

Bimbo mom who was on the cover of Newsday yesterday pisses me off. I wonder, just wonder... if she would be singing the same pro-war tune if one of her 4 sons or husband happened to be killed in Iraq?

Bimbo in chief praises this woman, ""Tammy [Pruett] says this - and I want you to hear this - `I know if something happens to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country,'" Bush said. "`And I guess you couldn't ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in.' America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts.""

Oh. My. Gawd.
Oh. My. Gawd.

Someone spray-painted "Terrist" on their house

Is it irony when Faux News spews a picture of a terrorist's home in California on television, even though the terrorist moved out of the house 3 years ago and the innocent family who lives there now is being derided by the community, not to mention that an idiot who spells the way our leader speaks vandalized terrorized the family by spray painting their house, or what?

Quick, Choose Now!

I was reading an article over at Daily Kos by General Wesley Clark. General Clark gives his opinion of the bloody hell in Iraq, compliments of the bush administration. Also I read the comments left by the Kos readers. Being female and all, it got me to thinking. If we could replace bush and cheney today, who would we choose? I would like to see, in either order, Feingold and Clark. We would have a Democrat who voted not to light the match that started the bloody hell that is now Iraq (so he’s no fool) and a Democratic General who knows more about war than just playing it in the sand with plastic soldiers on a pretend ranch in Texas.


I know you’re probably not going to agree with me, and that’s not fine. No, no, I’m just teasing you.

So if you could replace the president and vice president today, right this minute, who would you choose?

Feingold: Cheerleading Is No Substitute for Leadership

Ladies, Here’s an Anniversary to Celebrate!

On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

on the road

Minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

What happens when gasoline, which is in Houston now $2.59 to $3.00, hits the same price as the minimum wage? Some people drive 20 to 40 miles round trip to work an eight hour day. If they burn 2 gallons--which in Houston traffic is rather easy to do--then they have lost at least $10.00 to get to work an home from a job were they earn $40.00 before taxes a day.

There are reports suggesting that we will hit $5.00 a gallon next year. Once Big Oil can get that price will they back down? Are the prices at the pump going to justify continuing American administration of the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular? And drilling in the Arctic?

Starting September 1st, anyone in Texas may carry a gun in their car. Most people have understood this to mean, in the past, that if a person was traveling across county lines alone they could carry a gun for protection in their cars. Well there was some confusion about what this means.

Texas lawmakers cleared up the confusion in their last session by defining "traveling" as "driving a private motor vehicle." That is going to be so helpful.

Since 1871, carrying a handgun has been illegal in Texas unless the owner had a permit or could prove they were traveling across county lines. Remember that Harris County is bigger than the entire state of Vermont. We have an airport--DFW--that is bigger than the island of Manhattan.

This means starting September 1, anyone can drive around with a handgun in their car without a permit. That is as long as they are at least 21 and meet other criteria like not being a gang member. What the hell does that mean? Like if they are affiliated with a gang that engages in criminal activities? Isn't that guilt by association? What if a gang member doesn't have a criminal record? If a gun goes off in a gang member's hand at a four way stop sign and the victim is dead, did anyone really hear it? The gun must also be out of sight. No you may not wave it in your rear view if the jackass behinds you honks because the light changed. But that means that if the cops stop you and ask you if you have a weapon and you don't say yes, they are going to be really mad when they find it. And if you say yes, they are going to draw their weapons.

"Some law enforcement officials say they fear the law may lead to more gun violence." Really? I can't imagine why? Could it mean that cops will assume that everyone has a gun at a stop? Now if you have a permit, it comes up on the cop's computer that you have a license to carry. It would be foolish and deadly for police to think now that you are not armed. Will he or she approach cars with their weapons drawn. I will cry and vomit from fear if that is the case.

Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides

By DOUG THOMPSON

"While President George W. Bush travels around the country in a last-ditch effort to sell his Iraq war, White House aides scramble frantically behind the scenes to hide the dark mood of an increasingly angry leader who unleashes obscenity-filled outbursts at anyone who dares disagree with him. "I’m not meeting again with that goddamned bitch," Bush screamed at aides who suggested he meet again with Cindy Sheehan, the war-protesting mother whose son died in Iraq. "She can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!"

"Bush, administration aides confide, frequently explodes into tirades over those who protest the war, calling them "motherfucking traitors." He reportedly was so upset over Veterans of Foreign Wars members who wore "bullshit protectors" over their ears during his speech to their annual convention that he told aides to "tell those VFW assholes that I’ll never speak to them again is they can’t keep their members under control."

"Who gives a flying fuck what the polls say," he screamed at a recent strategy meeting. "I’m the President and I’ll do whatever I goddamned please. They don’t know shit."

There's more at Capitol Hill Blue.

And for those who might be interested, "Bush Insane" at GoogleSearch http://tinyurl.com/dbm4o has 5,000 hits.

Pissed Off Patricia: Will you mend your ways so you can live here?

"Mr. Monaghan builds his dream town"

"If it's left up to Tom Monaghan, the co-founder of Dominos Pizza, only orthodox Catholics will take up residency in Ave Maria, a new Florida town that will be free of condoms, porn and televised smut.

"They may not become as ubiquitous as the Domino's Pizza outlets that dot the US landscape, but Tom Monaghan, the man behind that pizza empire, is hoping that the town he is building for orthodox Catholics in Florida will some day replicate itself across the country.

(...)

"'We've already had about 3500 people inquire on our Web site about buying a home there -- you know, they're all Catholic,' Monaghan says excitedly. 'We're going to control all the commercial real estate, so there's not going to be any pornography sold in this town. We're controlling the cable system. The pharmacies are not going to be able to sell condoms or dispense contraceptives.' A private chapel will be located within walking distance of each home. At the stunning church in the center of town, Mass will be said hourly, seven days a week, from 6 a.m. on. 'So,' Monaghan concludes, with just a hint of understatement, 'it'll be a unique town.'"

The rest of the article is at WorkingforChange.com.

Thanks to SB_Gypsy over at the Dark Wraith Discussion Forums.

From the conservative Capitol Hill Blue

The following was sent to me by Carolyn Kay at MakeThemAccountable.com.

"Vets and the Coward"
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 24, 2005, 02:10

"The man who dishonored American veterans by hiding out from the Vietnam War in the Texas Air National Guard added insult to injury this week by shamelessly invoking memories of those who died in war as a pathetic excuse to continue his illegal and failed war in Iraq.

"Bush’s lame attempt so disgusted veterans attending the VFW annual convention in Salt Lake City that many of them wore “B.S. Protector” ear muffs during his speech to the group on Monday…

"Truth is, veterans, especially those who served in Vietnam, have long distrusted Dubya. They know he hid out from war, using his daddy’s connections to get bumped to the head of the line to get in the Texas Air National Guard to avoid serving in Southeast Asia. They’ve seen the enlistment documents where he opted out of overseas service, an extra step to make sure he stayed stateside during the war.

"Real veterans can smell a coward and Bush stinks like a dead, rotting carcass – yellow through-and-through, a cardboard cowboy who can sign an executive order sending American men and women to their deaths in Iraq but one who didn’t have the courage to stand up and fight for his country when he had a chance…

"[M]ore and more vets see Bush for what he is – a lying, sniveling coward who does not deserve to be called Commander in Chief. They see a man who sent Americans to die in a war based on false pretenses and now has the gall to try and invoke the memories of real heroes to try and rationalize his illegality, immorality and cowardice.

"They don’t buy it. Why should they? They served their country in war. He didn’t. He hid out like a spoiled little rich kid, afraid to stand up and face the enemy…

"Veterans who served their country have no use for someone who did not.

"They have no use for George W. Bush".

Team Cindy vs. Team Not Cindy

I’m afraid that, due to the minimal involvement in this war by most Americans, many see it as more of the “big game” rather than a god-awful deadly war. The US vs. Iraq was the first game, and it looks like we aren’t scoring so well there so the American flags have been taken down because no one wants to be associated with a “loser”. Now the public needs a new team, a new game and some new team jerseys and logos. The fans are idle and waiting. Meanwhile, Cindy Sheehan goes to Texas to make a statement about how she feels regarding her son’s death. Others join her for support. Ah, the idle fans see a challenge. Quickly they form team “You Don’t Speak for Me, Cindy” Now the team is on a road trip to Texas for some sort of showdown or game to see who can out shout, out protest or out whatever. To these folks it’s not about the war, it’s not about Cindy’s feelings, it’s all about the game and it’s all about winning something at any cost. If your first team seems to be losing, hell, just pick another team. This is the difference between being dedicated to a cause and being just damned determined to be associated with a “winner”.

Where you have two teams, I guess you have a game. The sad thing is that what began as one mother’s desperate attempt to get true answers from the president of the United States about why there was a war, why her son was sent to fight in that war, and what the plans are for the future, has now been turned into a circus/big game/cheap looking/frivolous disaster. Only in America could sadness and mourning turn into verbal conflict.

Now we have to interview protesters on both sides to keep it “fair and balanced”. Why? Bush is shouting his side of the story almost daily, which is the same story of those who oppose what Cindy is doing and saying. Why can’t the “new team” just listen to their coach and allow Cindy to ask him to speak to her? She wants to be heard by the man who sent her son to war. She has heard that the reasons he gave for invading Iraq have now been proven to be untrue. She wants answers.

Yes, her son volunteered to go into the military but at the time she, and I’m guessing her son, hoped that the president wouldn’t outright lie to them. Now she feels that he did, and she wants to ask him if he did. She isn’t asking for a political game and a political football. She’s just asking for the truth. Bush, on the other hand, seems eager to catapult his parroted propaganda to his supporters but is deaf to someone begging for the truth.

It looks like the beginning of the big game of protesting in Crawford. Sadly, there is no way anyone can win because we’ve all lost too much. This isn’t a game. This is deadly and sadly serious war. Too bad many Americans don’t understand that war is not just a game you see and play on television. Cindy Sheehan and many of us think that perhaps that message should be made clear not only to bush’s supporters but also to bush himself.

Blips on My Radar Today

This morning the LA Times has a time line for the Plame Leak that might be worth reading if there are parts of this that you’ve missed or don’t understand. You might want to do what I intend to do, you might want to print it out and keep it for the day when we find out just what the hell happened. I’ll warn you it’s nine pages but once you start reading you’re hooked.

Okay, now I’m holding my nose with one hand and typing with the other because this all stinks, but I have to say it. Pat Robertson finally succeeded in apologizing for what he said about the assassination. You have to give him credit for his apology even if he did it a little late. There are some in the white house who have done a lot worse things than exhibit free speech and we haven’t heard doodly squat out of them. Don’t hold your breath until we do. And yes, I realize that Robertson may be insane or at least a total nut case.

I’m sitting here in cloudy breezy south Florida this morning. Tropical storm Katrina is knocking on several of our area’s doors. Seems at the moment she will knock hardest on the door of the Ft. Lauderdale area. Where I am is supposed to get tropical force winds of around forty mph or thereabouts. After cringing through two hurricanes last year, this one gives everyone anxiety attacks. Hopefully it will just quickly pass through the state and leave us all in no worse shape than when it arrived. The rain is supposed to be bad and flooding is a distinct possibility. I’m not in a flood prone area so I’m not stressing about that. I’m not all upset over this storm, really, I’m not. I will admit that being curled in a fetal position is uncomfortable though.

I’m watching these, singing to the choir, speeches that bush is making just about every other day and to me he appears to become more and more desperate as he flails away at the harsh reality that he and his war are going south at warp speed. He’s sounding more like a hellfire and brimstone southern preacher as he gets louder and more emphatic with his many times sung hymn. The words are just about the same each time but his delivery is different. There is blind determination in his voice and he seems frustrated that all of us don’t see things his way. You know what they say about blindly determined, frustrated, hardheaded people? I know what I say about people like that, I say that they could be real dangerous to those who disagree with them. I’m wondering how long it will be before someone finds him around midnight, talking to the portraits of the presidents that hang in the white house.

Iraq: The Unseen War:

The grim reality of Iraq rarely appears in the American press.

WARNING

The following photo gallery contains graphic and shocking images of death and devastation in Iraq.

From Salon.com


Thanks to Tom Feeley at International Clearing House.

A Jewel of a Comment

I found this magical piece in the comments section of AfterDowningStreet.org:

"100 cheap and easy ways to get out of Eye-Rack"
Submitted by james k. sayre (not verified) on Wed, 2005-08-24 15:02.

"The USA and the UK need to get out of Iraq now. Bush and Company seem to be snagged on just how to turn power over to the Iraqis. Here are some suggestions: 100 cheap and easy ways out of Iraq: Just do or say:

"Abandon ship, About-face, retreat, Aloha, Apologize for overstaying one's welcome, and just leave, Auf weiderzahn, Au voir, Back out, Bail out, Beg off, Be Gone with the Wind, Blow it off, Blow the scene, Bow out, Break it off, Bring the troops home, Bug out, Butt out, Call a halt, Call it quits, Cancel plans, Cave in, Chalk it up to experience, Change the course, Chao, baby, Check out, Chicken out, Choke up, Clear out, Close up shop, Cop out, Creep away, Cut and run, Declare victory and come home, Depart, Desert the desert, Disentangle, Draw back, Drop out, Eat crow, Eat humble pie, Eat one's words, End this fool's errand, End this tomfoolery, Evacuate, Exit, stage right, Fail, Fall back, Flake out, Flee, Fly away, Fly the coop, Forsake, Get back, Get cold feet, Get out by sundown, Give up, Go away, Go fly a kite, Go jump in the lake, Good widdance to bad wubbish - (Elmer Fudd cartoon), Got to get away, Hasta la vista, baby, Head for the hills, Hit the road, Homeward bound, Hurry home, It's all over but the shouting, It's all over now, baby blue, Just say no, Just walk away,

"Leave, Let's call the whole thing off, Pack it in, Pick up your marbles and go home, Quit, Rehire Saddam, Relinquish control, Renounce imperialism, Retreat, Return home, Reverse the course, Sail away, Say good bye, Shut it down, So long, its been fun, Split, Stop, Stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: abandon ship!, Surrender, Take a powder, Terminate the visit, Throw in the towel, Turn tail, Turn the lights out, Wilt under pressure, Wimp out, Wind down, Withdraw with honor, Yankee, come home".

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

another rant

(C)2000
2/10/2000
12:45A

Raised Like A Veal

So sorry if the topic of my life bores one, but one can always take a piss break or order another beer. My mother, The Beastmaster, says that I'm, and I quote, "The coldest bitch on earth"… and I don't even flinch. I smile and nod. Small fucking wonder.

She marvels at the speed and thoroughness with which I cut people out of my life—how easily I can pretend they're not even in the room. Simple mathematics: You attack me, you're out. You use me, sayonara. You hurt me, don't let the screen door hit ya where the good lawd split ya. You raise your motherfucking hand to me, you ain't even vapor trails. What's so hard to understand? My mom keeps people around to use them, to guilt-trip their brains out, to save them for future possibilities — but they don't keep her around. She just thinks she has access. Not to me, she don't.

What's so hard to understand? I was raised like a fucking veal—kept locked-up in a two-point-two-acre box, never exposed to the outside world, never allowed to be my own person, never allowed to experience life — for seventeen fucking years — and then we divorced, my "parents" and I. And I had to start all the fuck over. Just like I did when I was thirteen-and-a-half, when I found out from Ann Landers that "good" brothers didn't "teach" their little sisters those things… so sorry, again, if I grow repetitive, but since it's a mitigating factor to this storyline, suck it the fuck up. I had to find the "outside world" for myself—from ground zero. Oh, yeah, she'd "protected" me from everything the world had to offer — but she couldn't protect me from twelve years of public-school torture — the word "Slut!" still rings in the hallways of my mind — and she sure as hell didn't lift a medicated finger to protect me from the dangers within.

So, yes, I've fucked-up — a lot. Entire museums could be filled with the casualties of my life—faith, hope, trust, love… anything to do with believing in human beings. Because I did it all from scratch. I nursed on an RCA cathode-ray tube instead of a breast. I learned everything I knew about human nature from those 22-minutes-between-commercials known as SITCOMS. I learned how to play the dozens from Florence on "The Jeffersons". Go fucking figure that I'm a smart-assed bitch today.

It never fails to draw the sweetest smirk on this mouth when darling little ones — whether jailbait pretty-boys or groupies with all the proper superlatives — gaze deeply into these big blue eyes and sagely intone, "But you're so defensive…why are you so dee-fenn-sivvve???"

(Dramatic pause here, looking to the audience to get the joke, sarcastic twist to the mouth, wait a beat--)

-- ALL TOGTHER NOW — NO SHIT, SHERLOCK. THANK YOU FOR THAT NEWSFLASH, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS. Look at my life — hell, I've played it all out for your voyeuristic amusement right here on stage — and say, all together again — BIG, FAT, HAIRY DUH.

In the inevitable, inimitable words of Miss Etta James, "Always keep one bullet – in the chamber." You can love, you can laugh — but drop your guard, and you're a post-script on a Dick Clark infomercial, "She met a tragic end…" If I didn't still have thighs like Herschel Walker, I might not be here to bitch today — kicked the motherfucker off — po' Etta, she hadda get stitches. But like all good bitches, women who use their power for good — she's still kickin' and still scattin' and still standing strong.

I really did grow up, fantasizing that I could have a family like "Eight Is Enough" or "Happy Days"—instead of "DELIVERANCE". Television was my whole world — it's how I learned to read before I was two, it's what gave me my first career goal — to be in advertising like Darren Stevens, because Samantha was too fucking subjugated and subservient — dumb blonde bitch gave up magic for a jug-eared gay boy like HIM?!?!?! Oh, wait — that sounds awfully familiar… (wait for it…) okay, yes, he did have those ears — if a good stiff — wind — had come up behind him, he could've taken flight and been fucking Ricky Martin in Puerto Rico — but, honestly, I had not a clue about the other — ironic, ain't it? You'd think—if he'd have come home with dick on his breath, I'd have noticed! YOU'D THINK. I don't know whether to blame the prednisone or the Vicodin, but I can't be THAT naïve, can I??? I thought I ougtgrew naïveté when I leaned that life's problems don't get solved before the last commercial break, when I got out of that brick ranch-style prison and learned that the rest of the world is as, or more, fucked-up than I am, and that, no, being "different" is not as adorable as they play it on After-School Specials.

I guess that's why I have to bite down on the inside of my cheek so hard — to keep from letting loose one of my typical witch-cackles — when wide-eyed innocents, aspiring to bitchdom — try to tear me down or bring me up short… "Why are you always so negative??? Why can't you say anything nice???" Because I'm not BI - LINGUAL ? ? ? -- Hell, I'm already bisexual and bipolar, I can't do anymore splits! Henry Miller(and several others) said, "Write what you know," — what, I'm gonna fake it so you can feel all warm and fuzzly? At moments like that, I am struck by dual ironies — again, with the bi-thing — on the one hand, there's the Sun Tzu strategist, saying, "Never give them an 'in'—don't reveal a weakness!", and on the other, there's the exhibitionist in me, always going for the laughs, because I'll never have the body to strip.

Drunk boys in bars love to gaze into my eyes and tell me how "vulnerable" I look to them—and I tell them they're drunk. What vulnerability there may be lies very, very deep, and, no, Junior, you cute little jailbait you, you don't have the right — and rarely have the tools — to dig that deep. If you think this "bitch" thing is just an act, just a cover, and that if you twist me just the right way, all sweet honey will come pouring out — hang around for longer than it takes to get your orgasm — and you'll see that under this "rough exterior" — is concrete and steel. I will never have "Buns Of Steel"—but I'd lay the toughness of my heart & soul against that Tae-Bo dude's abs any day. So, no, you don't have the right to cop an attitude when you wake up in my bed and expect me to kiss your ass and make you breakfast — I ain't got the time, nor the wont — to do either. I'm the same bitch I was last night, only my makeup's on the pillow case and your crotch now.

But I guess it all comes down to a moral thing, really… I was raised in a world where I was never allowed that most precious word—"NO". You don't say no to Mama, you don't say no to Daddy (when he's not passed-out in the recliner), you don't lock that bedroom door, don't do anything you can't hide in the split second between when you hear the knob turning and they pounce in on you because they know you must be doing something wrong in there. If you want PRIVACY, it must be to do something you shouldn't. It's what they MISSED that kills me — everything they THOUGHT I was doing, I wasn't — and everything I WAS doing (or was having done to me) — THEY NEVER HAD A FUCKING CLUE. That's "parenting" in my family—total control, mind, body, and spirit. You weren't born, you were owned. And not, as you all know, just by them. But then, I could never say, NO. And yet they still, in all their control-freak ignorance, missed it all. And now, perhaps too much, but I do so enjoy it—say it with me—NO!

So, yes, I do look at my freedom to speak and act as I believe to be right as a MORAL issue — freedom itself is something I've hungered for, lo these many years. And if I can ever pay my own way again, I just may get it. Oh, not freedom from fat, middle-aged, short-dick assholes — the law won't let me erase that blight — nor from the ignorance that reigns supreme, not only here in Catholic Central, but in my own family—"IT'S DIFFERENT, SO IT'S BAD—IT'S DIFFERENT—KILL IT!!!" (visions of the villagers in "Frankenstein", pitchforks, torches, you get the idea) — hell, my own sister calls me The ANTICHRIST — because she doesn't understand the concept that people who BELIEVE DIFFERENTLY FROM HER are not only allowed to exist in this country, but that WE'RE NOT EVIL. Okay, I may be about 11% evil, but that's the fun parts. But it's a scary thing to realize, when you're surrounded by knuckle-walking redneck throw-backs — that not only are they your blood kin — there's another version of them waiting for you back in the city. No matter where you go in Louisiana, there's a segregationist of one flavor or another just waiting for you around that next corner.

But again, I digress… I know so many of you think you've got me figured-out from my revealing rants, here on stage — but baby, you ain't even seen the half of it. I've only got a few minutes every week — and there's VOLUMES of shit I ain't touched-on yet… I kinda view {this poetry reading} as a weekly column, where I address the issues of the day, the issues of my life, as they happen. Stuff that would NEVER get printed, especially in this town. But you think you can capture my philosophy in a teaspoon, just wrap it all up by, "I bitch, therefore I am." That's not even the fucking point.

I bitch because I have to, I praise whenever I can — but y'all don't remember that, only the ball-busting. But one thing I learned from my life in Redneck Hell — if you don't bitch, if you just let shit slide until it's too late to fix, if you never lift a voice or a finger to change things, then you're just as responsible as the motherfuckers you would have bitched about. It's not a perfect world — (my "home town") and New Orleans both show that… and they are also perfect examples of what becomes of apathy and fear — nothing. Nothing gets better, nothing gets done. If it were not for those who were brave enough to bitch, slavery would still be fashionable. If it were not for those who were not afraid of being called bitches, women would still be possessions. If it were not for me raising this big ol' voice and getting off my big ol' ass, where would I be? Kissing ass down at the Pik'N Pak? Still being Mama's little buddy, since the bitch can't make friends of her own? Would I still be "not quite good enough", but nonetheless "accepted" by my family? Fuck that shit. I'd rather stay home with my cats any day than be a liar. If you know the truth and do not speak it, do not effect change, do not even TRY to make it better by sharing your experience, you are just as lazy, just as selfish, just as liable as "The Bad Guys".

So, hell yeah, I'm a "bitch" — I was raised to be a "housepet", the belonging of others, so that they could take credit for what few things I might do right, without ever accepting responsibility for what they'd done wrong — but no longer. If my "anger" makes you squirm in your seats, if my voice is too harsh, my humor too coarse, if my righteous rage pisses you off 'cause it's not "positive" enough, or "sweet" or "ladylike" — TOUGH FUCKING SHIT.

This is how I change the world, this is how I make a difference. And I'd wager my bitching and my fighting, my "inability" to conform against your soft-spoken subservience any day. You don't have to like my style, you don't even have to "get" what I'm trying to accomplish — most don't — but don't you once think that this milk-fed veal is gonna stay in her box in the dark ever again. It's not, I bitch, therefore I am—I bitch to make a change. And if your little "manners" can't hang with that, well, baby, suck it up and go find a tea party, 'cause the real world has no room for pussies.

Cindy's Returning To Crawford

Huffington Post:

"The presidency is not bigger than the people's will.

And when the people speak out, it's the president's reponsibility to listen. He is there to serve us, not the other way around."

Go Cindy!

A War or A Sacrifice to the Gods of the Dead?

We hear that comments from Cindy Sheehan will cause the mystery people who are blowing up our soldiers to blow up more of them. We hear from one of the scary looking members of the bush administration, of which there are many but in this case I’m talking about Cheney, that the mystery people who are blowing up our soldiers are in their last throes. We hear that if we set a time to leave Iraq the mystery people who are blowing up our soldiers will sit back and wait till we’re gone and then they will pretty much blow up Iraq. We hear from Fox News that because Sen. Hagel said that this bloodbath is looking a lot like Viet Nam, the mystery people who are blowing up our soldiers will blow up more of them. Yesterday we heard from bush himself that "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for." I take that to mean since some soldiers have been killed in this war, more will be killed until the war is finished. Justify the past murder of soldiers with the murder of more soldiers? If no soldiers had been killed so far could they all come home now? What if we run out of soldiers before we get to the "finished" line? What we would like to hear is what the "finished" line looks like exactly, and where might it be.

How will we know when it’s "finished"? What’s the code word for it? First it seemed to be handing over sovereignty to the Iraqi people, then it seemed to be Iraqi elections and for a bit we thought it might be an Iraqi constitution, but I guess that was all just a tease. So really, how will we know when the war is over and how the hell can it end if every time a soldier is killed we have to honor his or her death by sending another soldier to be killed? Is this a war or a sacrifice to the gods of the dead? I think the gods of the dead have had more than enough sacrifices, how about we honor the dead soldiers by protecting the surviving ones and bringing them home? I doubt there has been one single soldier killed in this war who would feel good about another soldier having to die in order to honor him or her.

If you go running blindly down the street and have no idea where you’re going there has to eventually come a time when you come to your senses, stop and question where the hell you’re going and why, otherwise you’ll keep running until you drop dead. Americas have arrived at that point where they are slowly coming to their senses, they are stopping and questioning where the hell they are going and why. They are finally looking behind them and they don’t like what they see. They don’t like the looks of 1800 dead soldiers. They don’t like the looks of thousands of dead, innocent Iraqis. They don’t like the looks of all that bloody American money they see fluttering all over the road, and they particularly don’t like to hear that because those soldiers died to get us to wherever we are, more soldiers must die to get us wherever we’re going. They don’t want to go forward only to look back again and see more and more dead soldiers. We want to stop right here and find out where the hell we are going. If no one knows then lets stay stopped. Let’s consider turning around and going home and let’s bring some living soldiers with us.

Life is too precious and too short to sacrifice anymore of our soldiers to the gods of the dead. The gods of the dead should be more than satisfied right now. It’s time to close the gates to hell and it’s time to admit that those who call for the sacrifice have an easier task if they themselves feel no pain.

I read the news today oh boy...

What a fucking coward. Bush goes to Idaho to give a terrorism address. Sheesh. Well thank you Idaho for looking out for terrorists that may infiltrate our country. Well his numbers are fairly good in Idaho, and like when he was touting his social security rapefest, he only speaks to those who are already in his sinking canoe. When he spoke to the senile bush supporters* who served in WWII in Salt Lake City on Monday, at least he was met with protesters in that very red state. So there is hope. Whew.

In other fascist news, Lockheed Martin (surprise surprise) was awarded a three-year, $212 million contract by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in NY. Why it's 1984 in NY again. We are getting 1,000 video cameras and 3,000 motion sensors in subway stations. You know, just in case any terrorists think about taking a ride underground.

Speaking of fascists, the Pentagon is smearing war slogans on the gravestones of the fallen troops. "Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the operation names, such as 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' and 'Operation Enduring Freedom', which the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts." Fuck you!

And speaking of grave markers, particularly crosses, there are some families who are angered by the use of crosses at anti-war demonstrations. Well because Jesus shouldn't be politicized. Tell that to the bushistas too.

Speaking of theocracies, just to reiterate what I posted yesterday, about bush's inane comments about women's rights in Iraq: He kinda sorta said something like "Condi said it's ok, so it's ok even though I have no fucking clue what she was talking about, but she said it's ok, so it's ok." But really, how can you have a democracy and women's rights when the official religion of Iraq is Islam and the main source for legislation? Women had more rights under Saddam. Bush lied. Iraq isn't even going to be a democracy which was reason number 6 million for why he invaded Iraq. Good one. Here is a part of the text of the constitution:

"The republic of Iraq is an independent sovereign state with a system of government that is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal."

"Islam is the official religion of the state, and it is a main source for legislation. No law can be passed that contradicts the fixed principles of Islam's rulings. No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy. No law can be passed that contradicts basic rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution."

"This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people, as well as complete religious rights for all individuals to freedom of beliefs and religious practice."

Oh yeah? This should be interesting.
Have a nice day folks.


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* "If they needed us, as old as we are, I'd go again in a heartbeat," said John T. Edward, a Vietnam veteran from Reno, Nev. Mr. Edward said that he sympathized with Ms. Sheehan, but that he did not think the president should meet with her as she has demanded, and that it was important to fight terrorists in Iraq.

"When do you stop?" Mr. Edward said. "I understand how bitter she is, but we need to keep our country safe." (NY TImes)

Supporting the Troops

Of course pro-peace/anti-war people support the troops. Duh. We care so much about them that we want this nonsense bush started to be over with as soon as possible so the troops can come home to their families. And to those who say that the anti-war movement is making the US look bad, I say that the war is making us look like monsters. The fact that there is an anti-war movement at all, makes me feel proud to be a citizen and tells the rest of the world that we are not all a bunch of raving war mongers.

Sometimes I wonder why the young people aren't protesting as much as the older people. Since there is no draft and the war is hardly in the news, it really doesn't matter to college students now as much as the Vietnam war mean to students then. I was midway through college when the Vietnam war ended, the disco scene emerged and poof! students were typical apathetic, selfish kids again. It's probably normal though. I remember the change in attitude clearly. It kind of bugged me too- not to mention just how awful the music got. Vietnam vets broke my heart and they still do. No, not that they were bad, but that they had their young lives interrupted. Those of us who remember growing up during the Vietnam years and saying goodbye forever to our classmates, relatives and friends are moved once again. The fight in us hasn't died. Not a bit... well except that I don't think I can do a demonstration like I used to. But you never know.

It's no surprise to me that mom's around America are the ones who are breaking the silence and bringing to light the lies that led up to America's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. We middle aged mom's have kids in Iraq or kids that age who could very well be there if there was a draft. We dread the thought of our babies dying for bush's folly. War mom's kids are my kids. These are the kids in the pictures I took on my son's first day of kindergarten, or kids I minded after school, kids in my CCD class, the kids at the playground in the next swing from my son. We didn't give birth to these children to have them die for bush. From a mother's eye view, many of the troops in Iraq are still babies. Argue with me all you want, but if you're a mom, you know what I mean. Sure I want my almost 20 year old son to grow up and be a man among men. I have no intention of stopping him or getting in his way but if there is a war to be fought, it's going to have to be the one that will take place in this country on our soil when the people (including me) rise up against the cruel corporate government, the faux christians and the (anything but liberal) media. Bush and his ilk will have hell to pay if another "terrorist attack" happens here and if it happens in New York again, no one but no one is going to believe that it was Islamic terrorists.

-Militant Blonde Mommy

Would somebody edumacate me?

This is from the transcript of the president in Idaho today:

Q ... I'll ask you about the Iraqi constitution. You said you're confident that it will honor the rights of women.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q If it's rooted in Islam, as it seems it will be, is that still -- is there still the possibility of honoring the rights of women?

THE PRESIDENT: I talked to Condi, and there is not -- as I understand it, the way the constitution is written is that women have got rights, inherent rights recognized in the constitution, and that the constitution talks about not "the religion," but "a religion." Twenty-five percent of the assembly is going to be women, which is a -- is embedded in the constitution.

What the hell did he just say above? He never completed a real sentence. Is he inferring that somehow women will have rights? How can women have rights if... oh I don't get it.

-------

Bob Geiger edumacated me regarding bush's unpopularity and tells why Hardball's beautiful substitute for Chris Matthews is rather uniformed... ok, very uniformed. And yes, anti-war people or pro-peace people should not be viewed as extremists. It seems that the majority of Americans are not happy with bush's war. I would say that war mongers should be classified as extremists. Killing people should be viewed as an extreme measure to make a point. Those who orchestrated 9/11 were extremists, whoever they may be.

Assholes

The gospels tell us to love our least bretheren- -Jesus said the best of us were the ones who took care of them. The so called christian nation we live in now tells us to beware of those on the fringes of society. Idiots.

WASHINGTON (where else?)- Asking for increased vigilance in the wake of the London bombings, the government is warning that terrorists may pose as vagrants to conduct surveillance of buildings and mass transit stations to plot future attacks.

(I propose that the terrorists are posing as religious leaders and the US Government)

...

The warning is similar to one issued by the FBI before July 4, 2004 that said terrorists may attempt surveillance disguised as homeless people, shoe shiners, street vendors or street sweepers.

The e-mail stresses that there is no threat of an attack and that it is intended to be "informative, not alarming."

Homeless people easily blend into urban landscapes, the message said.

Ok. There is no threat of attack. Just put it into your heads that the homeless or those who have shitty jobs might be terrorists. Nice.

Blonde Design

Here's the way I look at life philosophically- in a nutshell.

• The universe happened. The big bang theory has a lot of flaws. Big deal. So does the bible.
• Life evolved in some parts of the universe where the right conditions were met.
• Complex organisms don't have to be human or conscious. So what if we evolved from the same primates as monkeys? What is the problem?
  
• We created demanding, yet loving, but mean, gods with our collective consciousness because the harshness of the earth life was too devastating to fathom. Before scientists figured out natural phenomena, people were scared of thunderstorms, eclipses, plagues and things we now take for granted as part of life. In the olden days, people used god to explain this phenomena. That's ok. They weren't evolved enough to figure EVERYTHING out. That doesn't mean that god doesn't exist. Oh we created him alright.
• Science evolved from philosophy because religion didn't (and still doesn't) jive with human reason.
• Religion is not the same as spirituality.
  
• Necessity is the mother of invention. Hence western civilization.
• Being human doesn't mean that you have to be industrialized.
• Industrialization killed our spirituality and kinship to nature.
• Humans are social beings and inately determined to help each other out but industrialization created a false competition* among them. Fear evolved.
  
• Humans need to feel useful regardless of where they exist on the planet.
• If a group of humans evolved in a lovely, fruitful climate, why bother with a wardrobe, forts, extreme buildings, machines, air conditioning and guns? It doesn't make them less human.
• If a group of humans evolved in a less sympathetic climate, with extreme temperature changes, they were forced to figure out a way to survive or die from the elements.
• The holy bible was written by people who didn't understand science at all, but the points made were good. Most humans miss the point.

I probably left a bunch of things out. Oh yes...

• Americans collective consciously created George Bush and his ilk. It's our fault and we had better correct it. Perhaps humans collectively have just had enough with trying to survive and dealing with a free will which is a big burden. Sometimes it is just easier to sit back and let "god" take over.
• The bible does NOT say, "God helps those who help themselves." That is a lie and not in keeping with the teachings of Jesus who was a fabulous philosopher for his time and also deeply spiritual. We are required to help each other by our very nature.
  
• People use the bible as an enabling device to justify their darkest desires and fears.
• Mostly all politicians, national leaders and religious leaders, regardless of party are in it for the power and the greed. I don't trust any of them.

Feel free to debate this. It doesn't matter to me. Just don't tell me that god gave Israel to the Jews or North America to Europeans at the expense of the indigenous people. I don't believe that any god is into real estate. feh.

Feeling pissy today.

* Note I said, "false competion". Not the competition in natural selection. Thanks to an astute reader for pointing out that I didn't make that clear.

PART OF THE REASON THE WHOLE WORLD HATES AMERICA:

"Robertson Called for the Assassination of Venezuela's President"

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with".

Gee, Pat, have you really investigated this? Maybe oil shipments would stop or at least slow down. And then what? We would have murdered a democratically elected head of state and only hurt ourselves in the process.
The entire article is at MediaMatters.org. It's got a picture of the son of a bitch. DON'T click on the article if you're either about to eat or you've just finished. You'll either lose your appetite or projectile vomit.

Think You Know So Much?

Thanks to Bulletproof Bra (LINK)

Here’s a place to test that elitist Democratic education of yours

On your mark. Get set. GO! SheppardSoftware.comLINK

One of My Favorite Journalists

"ARMSTRONG BIKES WITH PRESIDENT OVER SHEEHAN GRAVE"
By Greg Palast

Crawford, Texas - "Celebrity bike champ Lance Armstrong joined President George W. Bush this weekend at the Crawford Ranch to celebrate the thirtieth day of the President's vigil against Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in action in Iraq.

"Armstrong, fresh from his victory in the Tour De France, (was) seen here with Mr. Bush riding across the symbolic gravesite of Casey Sheehan, deceased Army specialist, son of the bereaved Mrs. Sheehan.

"We must stay the course," said a resolute Mr. Bush who vowed to "extend my vacation as long as necessary to accomplish this mission" and force Sheehan to give up her siege of the Western White House.

"Armstrong set an upbeat tone when he said, "You know, I overcame cancer to become a hot-shot biker. It takes hard work and a belief in yourself that says, "Never give up, never say 'die.'"

"A Presidential spokesman said that given the Commander-in-Chief's limited work schedule and attention span, he would not have time to see Mrs. Sheehan. However, a place in the schedule had to be made for Mr. Armstrong because the celebrity peddler, like the President, has several major corporate sponsors with urgent needs.

"Armstrong said he thought it inappropriate to politicize the office of the president, noting that his own appearance at the ranch was arranged by the Discovery Channel, "for craven commercial purposes only."

"Mr. Bush, backing over the symbolic gravestone, said he understood the difficulty of military families with kin in Iraq. During the war in Vietnam, the President was a combat pilot assigned to protect Houston from Viet Cong attack".

Herding Rats

On George Stephanopoulos’ program yesterday, George Allan was asked about whether or not bush should have met with Sheehan. The transcripts aren’t up yet, but Allan said something to the effect that he had said that bush should have met with Sheehan but he said he made that statement about three weeks ago. He seemed to try to blow off the whole thing and make it seem as though that was old news and irrelevant today. To my recollection he repeated this time reference again during the interview. Seems to me it was only last week when he was on Imus’ show that he stated the bush should have met with Sheehan and proceeded to say that if he had met with her it would have prevented Camp Casey and all that has entailed. While on with Imus he also said if he were the president he would have met with her. I guess someone didn’t like what he said on Imus and that’s why he emphasized yesterday that he made his statement three weeks ago.

Also yesterday Trent Lott was on Sunday TV and he was asked about his new book, “Herding Cats”. According to reports, in the book Lott doesn’t have many nice things to say about Frist, but yesterday he played pretty nice when he spoke of Frist.

"Asked Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether Frist, who challenged and succeeded Lott as Senate majority leader in 2002, has the character to be president, Lott paused before answering. "I think I'd have to think about that," said Lott, R-Miss."

Lott said "a lot of good people out there" are thinking about whether to run and that "I probably would lean toward some of the others, let me just put it that way."

Apparently someone didn’t like what they read in Lott’s book and toned him down a tad before putting him in front of the camera.

I guess someone had to rein in these two rats, Allen and Lott, and tone them down. Seems to me it’s just as difficult to herd rats as it is to herd cats.

MSNBC.com Link

Bush to use the Victims of 9-11, AGAIN

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- "President Bush will launch a new round of speeches to rally support for the war in Iraq, advisers said Sunday, as protesters camped outside Bush's Texas home and polls showed weaker support for the two-year conflict.

"Senior aides say Bush will attempt to portray the Iraq conflict in the context of long wars like World War II, which U.S. forces fought from 1941 to 1945.

"They said the president also will invoke the September 11, 2001, attacks, arguing once again that the insurgents battling American troops in Iraq share the same ideology as the al Qaeda operatives who crashed hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field".

Bush is pushing the same old envelope again, but this time most see that the envelope is empty. He can push it forever but it’s not going anywhere. Many fence sitters have hopped off the fence and those who still support him aren’t as proud to brag about him as they once were.

Someone should tell him that each and every time he mentions 9-11 in the same sentence with the war in Iraq, the public sees that he is using the deaths of all those who died on that horrific morning for his own political reasons. The grieving families of the 9-11 victims should give him hell for using their dead loved ones to justify a war where many more grieving families have been, and are still being, created. They should demand that he respect their dead, not use them to justify his lies. Could he and his administration be any more irreverent? Every person in the US should be incensed by what this heartless man is doing and he’s doing it in our name. I can see only one reason that he would continue to try to connect 9-11 and the war in Iraq, he must be insane. And, to compare this war to World War II simply goes on to confirm my opinion. Either the man is completely insane or he’s one of the world’s most desperate people. Neither is comforting, is it?

CNN Link

Hell Exists, Here’s Confirmation

"Medics lose Mateo's pulse twice and scream, "Sergeant, Sergeant, hang on." Wounded in the shoulder, side and leg, he blinks and reaches down, feels his uniform wet, drenched in blood . . .

"No, it is just sweat. He is covered in sweat. It is two years and seven weeks since the ambush in Ramadi, Iraq. But tonight, as on so many nights, his mind is not in his parents' comfortable Port St. Lucie home. Again tonight, Sgt. 1st Class Jose Mateo remains on active duty in his nightmare of Iraq.

"The clinical name for what he feels is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which hardly captures the vivid and relentless reliving of the ambush in Ramadi on July 5, 2003, that took his gunner's leg and blew the fingers off another soldier's hand.

"The battalion photographer, Spec. Edouard H. R. Gluck, said, "If hell physically exists, if there is in fact a hell . . . it is Ramadi."

"Mateo does not disagree. "It was really ugly, hot and filthy. It smelled bad, sewage running in the streets, but that was not the worst of it. It was not knowing when we would be hit, who was hiding in the shadows, where the bombs were planted, whether the concrete barricades were rigged to explode when we drove past on patrol," he said quietly, averting his eyes, as he often does when talking about Iraq."

Please, please, read the rest in The Palm Beach Post.

You Have to Break Some Female Eggs to Make a Constitutional Omelet

Yesterday on Meet the Press we heard that if the new Iraqi constitution did not include women’s rights, hey who cares?

Reuel Gerecht basically said that in 1900 women in the US didn’t have the right to vote and if Iraq cobbled together a constitution that didn’t give women their rights that would be swell. He said that women’s rights were not necessary for a democracy.

Who is this guy? Here’s about all you need to know: Irc-online.org Link

So let me get this straight. Even though women in Iraq had comparable rights to the women of the west under Saddam’s rule, with our help to “free” them we will be okay with some of those rights being taken away. Are women’s rights in Iraq some of the eggs we have to break to make the constitutional omelet?

This Gerecht said that women’s rights were basically not all that fucking important to a democracy. (No, I can’t find the transcripts yet but if you do, let me know.) I wonder if Mr. Gerecht thought about his statement in advance or if it was so sincere he didn’t even think about how it would sound. Does he feel that way about our American democracy? Do all the neocons feel that way? You know what? I bet they do.

Ladies and gentlemen, is it all a joke? Are women’s rights a joke in Iraq because they are soon to be a joke here in America? Did we go through all this war insanity to leave the women of Iraq worse off than they were before? Is that what Cindy Sheehan’s son died for? Is that what female members of our military died for? Is that it? Is that the kind of “democracy” that people died for? Who the hell changed the definition? If it was good enough for the US in 1900, it’s good enough for Iraq today? No it isn’t!

Via Wolcott JamesWocott.com Link: “Reuel Marc Gerecht, discussing the forthcoming Iraqi constitution on Meet the Press, August 21: "Women's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy. We hope they're there, I think they will be there, but I think we need to keep this perspective."

Yes indeed, let’s do keep this in perspective. Let’s keep in perspective that by doing what we have done women in Iraq may well be shoved back to America, circa 1900. I hardly call that progress. You’ve come a long way baby and now get the hell back where you belong. Is that a regional message or a message to all women? I sure as hell heard it.

Here's reason number 6,784 to hate this man

Yesterday's Tour De Farce "Tour de Crawford"

The Chimp Emperor took time from his busy schedule of avoiding Cindy Sheehan to go bike riding with Lance Armstrong.

"Recognizing what the world has known for years, the president said, 'He's a good rider,'" (White House spokesman Trent) Duffy said. That's all the president had to say about Lance Armstrong. Yeah, he's a good rider. The president also has said that bike riding helps him to think better. Oh yes, he is really showing the benefits: "He's a good rider."

Lance was given instructions before the ride with the boy dictator:
Do not pass the president.
Do not force the president.
Be kind.
No talking to the president.

Heil Hitler.

Chimpy invited everyone to go swimming and stay for lunch after the ride. Who told him to do that? That was almost a gracious thing to do.
.

A reason to watch CNN tonight

" 'Dead Wrong' -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown" airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET on CNN.

(CNN) -- A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.

So What Was it REALLY Like In Iraq?

This is an excerpt from Stories In America Blog:

Tell me about your experience in Iraq.

We had 40 days with no shower, five severe sand storms and a month without ammunition. Everybody else had tents. We didn't. Everybody else had air conditioners. We didn't. The only thing I had to eat for three days was crackers. We ran out of water for a full day. We went through a lot.

A month without ammunition?

Thirty-eight guys and the only thing we had was 210 rounds. And 210 rounds is supposed to be for one person.

I've been interviewing vets on this trip and often hear about the lack of armor and the lack of overall preparation.

The major thing with the military is, when you go through basics, the first thing you learn is how to become a soldier and how to shoot. The second thing you do is to learn your job. A lot of people over there are thinking more about their job and not what they were trained to do. To shoot. To become a soldier. That's what happened with Jessica Lynch. They were trying to do their job instead of being a soldier and shoot first. That's something that Bush needs to get through everybody's head.

A little over 1800 people have died. That's $250,000 per person that we have given out. In October, that's going up to $400,000 in life insurance. I lost a friend in Colorado. He was over there one week shy of a year. He had an affair with a colonel. He brought it home with him. The day before he was supposed to be court martialed, he went down to the local park and blew his brains out. $250,000 life insurance was supposed to go to his family. His family only gets 25 percent since it was a self-inflicted wound.

How has all of this affected you?

I have war syndromes just like everybody else. I have nightmares every single day. An eight-year-old girl holding a four-month-old baby came to my position begging for food and water. The little baby was so hungry, she was trying to nurse off of the girl. What really happened is she pulled a gun on me and I had to shoot her and the little child. When I saw my nephew for the first time, he was sleeping and my sister said, 'Hold him, I need to go to the restroom.' With him just laying there motionless, I started crying and gave him to my aunt. She said, 'What's wrong?' And I said, 'I can't do this.' I walked outside. I didn't hold my nephew for another two hours. It took so many people to try to calm me down. I thought I killed him. That's what happens in my nightmares.

Hat tip to Al Hill
.

"America is sick and tired of liars and hypocrites"

Cindy writes yesterday:

This is what the Camp Casey miracle is all about. American citizens who oppose the war but never had a conduit for their disgust and dismay are dropping everything and traveling to Crawford to stand in solidarity with us who have made a commitment to sit outside of George's ranch for the duration of the miserable Texan August. If they can't come to Texas, they are attending vigils, writing letters to their elected officials and to their local newspapers; they are setting up Camp Casey branches in their hometowns; they are sending flowers, cards, letters, gifts, and donations here to us at Camp Casey. We are so grateful for all of the support, but I think pro-peace Americans are grateful for something to do, finally.

One thing I haven't noticed or become aware of though is an increased number of pro-war, pro-Bush people on the other side of the fence enlisting to go and fight George Bush's war for imperialism and insatiable greed. The pro-peace side has gotten off their apathetic butts to be warriors for peace and justice. Where are the pro-war people? Everyday at Camp Casey we have a couple of anti-peace people on the other side of the road holding up signs that remind me that "Freedom isn't Free," but I don't see them putting their money where their mouths are. I don't think they are willing to pay even a small down payment for freedom by sacrificing their own blood or the flesh of their children. I still challenge them to go to Iraq and let another soldier come home. Perhaps a soldier that is on his/her third tour of duty, or one that has been stop-lossed after serving his/her country nobly and selflessly, only to be held hostage in Iraq by power mad hypocrites who have a long history of avoiding putting their own skin in the game.

The whole thing is worth reading at Buzzflash
.

Broke-Ass Brunette's DIRECT ORDERS --- PAY ATTENTION!

Okay, so I'm the Broke-Ass Brunette of BlondeSense, in case y'all hadn't guessed. And, even though I'm probably the last person on the planet to see this movie, I'm making it MANDITORY for the three or four people who (possibly) haven't seen it yet. As soon as I can hog-tie and blackmail the nieces into one room, I'm going to make all of them watch it.

WHALE RIDER

http://www.waterloorecords.com/

http://www.buymusichere.net/rel/v2_viewupc.php?storenr=13&upc=04339602272&pt=3

Since Waterloo Records is one of my favorite record stores on the planet, I've linked to their website(s) if anybody wants to buy this DVD. If you want VHS, they have that, too. If you want to rent it, you know where to go already.

WATCH THIS MOVIE.

NOW.

DAMMIT.

First movie that's touched my heart in a long fucking time. But, of course, it's not American, so that probably says something.

And the little teeny-tiny girl that is the heroine of this movie is SO fucking BAD-ASS, she deserves to run her own country or planet or something. It makes me feel a little better about the future of this planet, if we can round-up a few more girls like this and put them where they can do the most good. Keisha Castle-Hughes. Remember that name, I feel sure that you'll be hearing from her again.

And yeah, yeah, it's based on a great book by a great writer and the screenplay is mind-boggling and all of that rot, but the movie --- the movie will transport you.

What the fuck are you waiting for??? GO WATCH IT!!!

Schaudenfraude

Ohio GOP Reeling With Governor Conviction

GROVE CITY, Ohio - In November, Ohio was at the center of the national political stage, delivering the White House to President Bush.

Eight months later, the state's Republican Party is reeling: its leader convicted of ethics violations; a narrow win in a gimmie congressional district; an investment scandal that won't go away.

The troubles play out as the casualty rate climbs from the war in Iraq and the state economy remains stuck in a slump. The war could hurt Bush's standing in Ohio, mirroring a decline in his popularity nationally. His overall job approval was at 42 percent in a recent poll, with just 38 percent approving of his handling of Iraq.

Diane McCune, who lives in this solidly GOP Columbus suburb, bucked her Democratic roots twice and voted for President Bush, but now she's having second thoughts.

"I'm not feeling so good," McCune said. "I think we maybe made a mistake putting him in there."

As for Ohio's Gov. Bob Taft, convicted Thursday for not reporting that he was treated to dozens of golf outings, the 50-year-old teacher's aide shook her head. "Taft, I feel, has kind of made a joke out of all of us."

Republicans have had a firm grip on Ohio for a decade, controlling the Legislature, all statewide offices and a majority of congressional seats. Not long ago the talk was which of the three GOP candidates would win the primary for governor next year and presumably the job itself.

That talk has changed. (read the rest)

US Occupation/Liberation Is Worse Than Saddam

Robert Fisk writes:

We are not supposed to know that the Iraqi capital’s death toll last month was only 700 short of the total American fatalities in Iraq since April of 2003. Of the dead, 963 were men – many with their hands bound, their eyes taped and bullets in their heads – and 137 women. The statistics are as shameful as they are horrifying. For these are the men and women we supposedly came to “liberate” – and about whose fate we do not care.

The figures for this month cannot, of course, yet be calculated. But last Sunday, the mortuary received the bodies of 36 men and women, all killed by violence. By 8am on Monday, nine more human remains had been received. By midday, the figure had reached 25.

“I consider this a quiet day,” one of the mortuary officials said to me as we stood close to the dead. So in just 36 hours – from dawn on Sunday to midday on Monday, 62 Baghdad civilians had been killed. No Western official, no Iraqi government minister, no civil servant, no press release from the authorities, no newspaper, mentioned this terrible statistic. The dead of Iraq – as they have from the beginning of our illegal invasion – were simply written out of the script. Officially they do not exist.

Thus there has been no disclosure of the fact that in July 2003 – three months after the invasion – 700 corpses were brought to the mortuary in Baghdad. In July of 2004, this rose to around 800. The mortuary records the violent death toll for June of this year as 879 – 764 of them male, 115 female. Of the men, 480 had been killed by firearms, along with 25 of the women. By comparison, equivalent figures for July 1997, 1998 and 1999 were all below 200.
Between 10 and 20 per cent of all bodies are never identified – the medical authorities have had to bury 500 of them since January of this year, unidentified and unclaimed. In many cases, the remains have been shattered by explosions – possibly by suicide bombers – or by deliberate disfigurement by their killers.

Mortuary officials have been appalled at the sadism visited on the victims. “We have many who have obviously been tortured – mostly men,” one said. “They have terrible burn marks on hands and feet and other parts of their bodies. Many have their hands fastened behind their backs with handcuffs and their eyes have been bound with Sellotape. Then they have been shot in the head – in the back of the head, the face, the eyes. These are executions.”

I remember some piece of shit politician on television saying that he has a picture of the mass graves of Saddam to remind him of why we are "liberating" the Iraqi's. Um. The mainstream media and the powers that be insist that we are winning. If we cause the violent deaths of more Iraqi's than Saddam did, do we win?

Whoa Dude, Have You Checked Your Credit Report Today?

Back in 2000 someone took out a credit card in YOUR name and man, do you have a problem. Here’s part of what you owe and why.

"The cost goes well beyond the more than $250 billion already spent on military operations and reconstruction. Basic running costs of the current conflicts are $6 billion a month - a figure that reflects the Pentagon's unprecedented reliance on expensive private contractors. Other factors keeping costs high include inducements for recruits and for military personnel serving second and third deployments, extra pay for reservists and members of the National Guard, as well as more than $2 billion a year in additional foreign aid to Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey and others to reward their cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill for repairing and replacing military hardware is $20 billion a year, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office".

by Linda Bilmes

"Linda Bilmes, an assistant secretary at the Department of Commerce from 1999 to 2001, teaches budgeting and public finance at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard".

Ms Bilmes tells you more about the financial mess you’re in. Check it out here in the New York Times.

Somebody Better Tell boygeorge

Families of Dead Troops Hope to See Blair in Court

"Tony Blair could be forced to give evidence under oath after families of 17 soldiers killed in Iraq began a legal bid yesterday to secure an independent inquiry into the lawfulness of the 2003 conflict. A lawyer representing the families lodged papers at the high court in London, seeking a judicial review of the government's decision this May not to order an investigation into the legality of the war in Iraq.

"They hope the inquiry will be held within six months.

"The first three defendants named on the papers are the prime minister, the defence secretary at the time, Geoff Hoon, and the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.

"The families have demanded that judges investigate to see whether the government misled the public about the war".

There's more in this Guardian Article via Tom Feeley at ICH. -- Thanks, Tom.

Oh, and let Patrick Fitzgerald know also.

U.S. Held Meetings With Taliban in 2000

The Guardian
Friday August 19, 2005 7:31 AM
By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States was ``not out to destroy the Taliban,'' a U.S. diplomat told the regime just a year before a U.S.-led invasion toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government that had harbored al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan William B. Milam held a secret meeting with an unidentified senior Taliban official in September 2000 and assured him that international sanctions on the Taliban would end if bin Laden were expelled from Afghanistan, newly declassified documents show.

``The ambassador added that the U.S. was not against the Taliban, per se,'' and ``was not out to destroy the Taliban,'' Milam wrote in a secret cable to Washington, recounting his meeting.

A declassified version of the cable was released Thursday, obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act.

Milam told the Taliban official - whose name is excised from the declassified document - that bin Laden was the main impediment to better relations between the Taliban and the United States.

``If the U.S. and the Taliban could get past bin Laden, we would have a different kind of relationship,'' Milam said he told the official.

At the time, a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington had no formal diplomatic relations with Afghanistan because of human rights and other abuses by the militant Islamic Taliban regime.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Bush administration had no comment on the meeting, which occurred before President Bush took office.

In his 2000 diplomatic cable, Milam told his bosses the Taliban official had adopted a ``far less obstreperous'' tone than usually heard from the Taliban, and suggested the United States do some small favor for Afghanistan to show good will.

The meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, produced no promise from the Taliban to turn over bin Laden, and it is not clear from the material released Thursday what the Clinton administration did next.

By June 2001 under the Bush administration, Milam was warning Afghanistan that the Taliban leadership would bear responsibility for any attack on American targets by bin Laden, the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan reported at the time.

Milam's cable was among Afghanistan-related documents acquired by the National Security Archive, which posted them on its Web site.

Other documents released Thursday chart several years of unsuccessful U.S. attempts to drive bin Laden out of Afghanistan.

At the time of Milam's cable, the United States knew bin Laden was living under Taliban protection along the Afghan-Pakistani border and running his al-Qaida terror network from Afghanistan. U.S. diplomats had periodic contact with the Taliban to urge his ouster.

The United States had accused bin Laden of orchestrating two 1998 U.S. embassy bombings that killed Americans in East Africa, but neither he nor his terror network were the household names they became after the jetliner attacks on New York City and Washington in September 2001.

Shortly after the attacks, U.S. forces helped the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance overthrow the Taliban government and hunt down its leaders. The Bush administration's goal was twofold: rout bin Laden's protectors and capture bin Laden himself.

Nearly four years after the invasion, a 21,000-member U.S.-led coalition force remains to fight Taliban remnants and keep order despite the emergence of a new U.S.-allied government. Neither bin Laden nor Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar have been captured.

A reinvigorated insurgency killed two U.S. soldiers Thursday when a roadside bomb hit a military convoy protecting road workers, and the new American ambassador warned that violence by Afghan rebels would not end soon.

A surge of violence since winter has killed about 1,000 people - including 59 American soldiers. Militants have stepped up assaults in the south and east trying to sabotage the country's U.S.-backed recovery.

Clit-Power Mercenaries, Pt. 2

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/tampa14mug1.html

The above link is to one of the most depressing police line-ups that you will ever see. Women aged 38-18, busted at Tampa, FL titty bars for "exposure of genitals" and "prostitution," which the police photographers couldn't even SPELL half of the time.

As one of the few remaining OUT feminists on this planet (thankfully, I am now surrounded by a few of my stellar sisters and Cabana Boy here), I will fight to the death to defend any woman's right to slap her labia around a stripper pole. But let's face it, even though there's a strong contingent of sexually-abused/pedophilia victims in the ENTIRE adult trade (porn/live entertainment/B&D/S&M/etc.), most women don't go into this line of work for KICKS. Or even for some twisted excuse for "validation" that they didn't get at home. Most of the female strippers that I've known were either junkies before they started or became junkies at the clubs, or they have a shit-hole for a boyfriend, who needs "support." Being a stripper IS hard work. They bust their sad little asses up there every night, and most times, see little to none of the actual proceeds, either due to shitty management or parasitic boyfriends (and girlfriends).

But the next time that one of my nieces jokes about hating her job and becoming a stripper to increase her profits, I'm going to forgo the usual "cooties/pushers/junkies/assault" rap and just show them the pictures of these girls who have aged so quickly. If nothing else, it will appeal to their personal vanity, seeing as how they are all still young enough to think themselves impervious to physical danger.

I've said it before, but here goes one more shot: American Christians are the BIGGEST FUCKING HYPOCRITES ON THE PLANET. Period. When the bible-banging, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, cousin-fucking, hand-waving, speaking-in-tongues, child-abusing, tax-evading, greedy little psycho MONSTERS of the Extreme Right elected Dumbya, they pretty much made their lifetime statement about how they feel about women and equality. Every time there's a self-professed "christian" in the White House, (Jimmy Carter aside) porn goes through the roof. Porn, sex shops, sex toys, titty bars, call girls, hookers, hand jobs in the bus station --- all of the ways in which women can be bought & sold become EVEN BIGGER THAN BEFORE. Gee, I wonder how that happens, seeing as how all "christians" are so fucking INNOCENT AND VIRGINAL. They're so PIOUS, always condemning EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE of natural, mature, REAL human sensuality, and freaking the fuck OUT over Janet Jackson's TIT --- They really like to get off by telling women what they can do with their own uteruses. They probably bang their whangs on the toilet seat every night over the concept of government-mandated chastity belts, or, rather, government-controlled FORCED CONCEPTION.

But when it comes to women being treated as HUMAN BEINGS, forget that shit. We're right back to fucking CHATTEL. And these dittohead O'Liely republicunt motherfuckers have made "feminist" into a DIRTY FUCKING WORD. Like a woman should be ASHAMED for wanting HER OWN FUCKING LIFE. Like a woman is somehow LESS if she is not driven by the blind obedience to the BREEDING COMPULSION. Like women are only here for ONE PURPOSE, and it sure as hell isn't trying to FIX UP ALL OF THE TRILLIONS OF MISTAKES THAT MEN HAVE COMMITTED.

We're nothing but cunts with legs to a whole, big, fat, honkin segment of this country, ladies. And what really breaks my heart is not that the GOOD GUYS never get any attention nowadays (y'know, the probable MAJORITY of men, the ones who LOVE and RESPECT women) --- though that does kill me on so many levels --- what really breaks my fucking heart is that most women under the age of 30 in this country don't have a fucking clue what feminism IS.

They think that the FOX and MSNBC definitions (hairy-legged eco-loving lesbians in work boots with 18 cats) are the only ones that have ever existed. Like there's something WRONG with being a hairy-legged, cat-loving environmentalist who also loves women. Yet "lesbian" (and yes, that's a BIG pseudonym!) porn is the biggest seller out there, even moreso than bondage porn.

Young women (including one of my own nieces, I am sad and ashamed to say) nowadays think that being "liberated" means avoiding STDs while you're fucking the entire fraternity, so long as you finally land the RIGHT rich boy who can provide you with the lifestyle to which you'd like to become accustomed. Sure, there are some seriously barraccuda-style career women out there, and there are even still some career women with conscience, like the 31-year-old owner of Rock The Vote. But here, in Redneck Hell, it's right back to June Cleaver On Rufies. Rich girls can have careers, poor girls get jobs. And the middle-class wannabes marry up. And not a one of them (with certain notable exceptions) gives a flying rat's ass about any OTHER women, even when they happen to be the not-quite-cold body over which they must climb in pursuit of money or a man.

Is this all that is left to us now? Sit down, shut up, swallow believably, and hang onto that meal ticket? Or, ya know, St. Ann of the Codpiece, who obviously hates feminists because they possess the things that she never will... like a UTERUS and OVARIES... Hey, even Swedish surgeons can only accomplish so much.

I'm so glad to have found Blondesense. At least here, I feel like there is a POINT in continuing the fight that the rest of our country pretends is over. "Hey, we get paid more when we bare a tit in movies, isn't that the point?" "War Of The Sexes? Is that, like, PORN???" "Who gives a shit about 'women's lib'? I've got a 5.4 carat diamond and an Excursion, bitch!" "Feminism is for the ugly bitches who can't get laid." And so on and so on, ad nauseum.

Not that it matters, but I, for one, have NEVER had a problem with "getting laid." But then again, I don't wear it as a badge of honor, either. Even in this fucked-up country where male whores are still "studs" (unless you count JimmyJeff GuckertGannon) and female sluts are "whores." And yes, there is a difference between a slut and a whore: Whores are in it for the MONEY.

So while I have no idea whether the Tampa 14 above were actually engaged in any illegal behavior or not when they were arrested (sorry, but I never take the cop's word first), it still makes me sad to see their faces. Because but for the whims of fate and geneology, there go we. They are us. We are them. We probably didn't make the same choices in life that got us to whatever particular point, but we might as well have made their mistakes. To the madonna/whore cunt-obsessed theocrats in this country, we are all, still, MERELY women.

And until we can find a way to bring our systems and our economy around to where women like these have CHOICES with their lives, until we can create a country where NO woman has to sell her ass to feed herself or her children, until we can finally FIX that fucked-up joke of the "war on drugs" --- we will always be such.

I'm lucky, I guess. I've had my fuck-ups and my adventures, I've lived stories that would shock Larry Flynt. I've sold plasma and tourist photos and drinks and sex toys but never my ass. I've been subjected to more horseshit than Churchill Downs. But I can at least be grateful that I've never had to resort to walking Airline Highway to scrounge the cash for a meal.

And yeah, I do have a pretty cool boyfriend. Not bad to look at, either. But if y'all could see the neanderthals that I've auditioned to get to this point, you'd understand why I am so grateful. By the time that I met the boyfriend, I was to the point of never wanting to even SPEAK to another man or woman (yeah, I said it!) again, let alone let 'em see me NEKKID. But even when I was planning on becoming a complete hermit, the fickle fates intervened. And sometimes those bitches aren't half bad.

But we can never forget the women who aren't so lucky, who haven't had the opportunities or the safeguards that we have had. Women in Africa and the Middle East who are still ritually mutilated so that the men there will feel "manly." Women in this country who are starving, abused, exploited, yes, even today. Women around the world who never got a fair shot at anything. Because they are us, and we are them. And we have to keep reaching out.

Television Goddess or Guide-ess?

Hello, my name is patricia and I will be your television goddess or guide-ess for the weekend.

These are programs you might enjoy and perhaps they will be educational as well.

Let’s begin tonight. Two of our favorite pieces of wasted human flesh will go up against one another and not in a sexual way (banish the thought). Tonight Bill O’ReallyLie and Miss Ann, guess my sex, Colder than a witch’s mammary, will duke and puke it out on The No Spin Zone. I couldn’t find a link for this but just sniff around, the stench of the bullshit should lead you right to it.

Sunday at 8 pm, CNN will present “Dead Wrong”. I believe this may be a rerun because I see that in April of this year CNN talked about this program as you can see here (LINK).

And finally, National Geographic, on Aug 21 and 22, will show a program titled “Inside 9-11”.

You can learn more about this program here (LINK).

So there you go. I would make one suggestion about this viewing. I strongly believe that previous to watching Bill and Ann tonight you should either smoke or drink something to get you to your happy place. If you can get to your really happy place before the show begins, you just might laugh your ass off as you watch the catapulting of the righteous bullshit.

More Rudeness has been added

The Rude Pundit asked me to let know that you have more chances to see him!

LIVE! NOT NUDE! Thank Gawd!

He writes: The New York International Fringe Festival has added a performance of The Rude Pundit in The Year of Living Rudely this Saturday, August 20, at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance by going to Ticketweb and typing in "Dixon Place" in the venue search. Or try clicking here.

You will have a blast. I kid you not.

Has Porn Gone Mainstream? Well even more mainstream?

Mark Morford is giddy:

Have you seen? Did you know? Let us look closer. Because it is not a small selection. This is no trifling thing. Amazon's sex-toy department, it is simply a huge portion of the site's Health and Personal Care area. The "Sex and Sensuality" section of the site contains a staggering 37,000 items with the Sexual Enhancers (that's the toys, baby) subsection alone offering up a whopping 4,863 items -- enough to satisfy an entire repressed evangelical congregation and terrify Alabama and make Lynne Cheney swoon and still have plenty left over for a long weekend with the entire cast of Hot Teen Slut Nurses IV.

...

Amazon has gone deep, penetrated the market fully, committed completely to the lubricious cause. Their store is all about high-end bondage gear and oral strap-ons and $150 sex swings and $300 leather harnesses. There is the Swell Guy Expanding Vibrating Butt Plug and Julie Ashton's Anal Beginner Kit and any number of massive flesh-like dildos the size and girth and detail of which would make your mother blush and your sister swoon and Rocco Siffredi proud.

Imagine the Gates Of Hell Prolong Penis Ring at your fingertips! Wow! Your sex toys purchases will come in Amazon.com boxes! You will look so smart! You don't have to be afraid anymore. You don't have to wear your raincoat to adult stores in July. heh. Like you ever did.

The pigs are squeeling louder

I won't link to the pukes who are gloating about Cindy mom's stroke. It's just too sick. (you can read about it at antiwar blog though) Exsqueeze me, but anti-war folks are not a fringe group. I am not from a fringe group. I'm not a pot smoking hippy. I don't belong to any groups other than the human race. I'm a woman, a mom, a nurturer and not a killer. Dammit. Furthermore, the fact that we went to war under false pretenses, is something that the war pukes refuse to hear. The boy king refuses to address the truth. Mrs. Sheehan is armed with the truth about the lies. The war mongering bush supporters refuse to hear it. They prefer to shoot the messenger than face reality. They prefer to pretend that we are in Iraq to liberate them. What a crock. We went there because they were supposedly ready to nuke us.

There were ties to the terrorists of 9/11 in Florida. Did anyone think for one second that Florida should be bombed? Of course not. There are innocent people there (except for Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush) and nothing could be gained from it.

War mongering fascist pigs make the loudest noise because they don't want the truth to be told. The pigs are organizing a counter march to Crawford. War pigs suggest that Cindy ran away because she is afraid of them. War pigs are pigs. If the counter protesters show up, do you think that bush will come back from his fishing trip? He left his vacation for Terry Schiavo. If he simply would have met with Cindy in the first place, it wouldn't have come to this. Maybe that's a good thing.

I’m Not Feeling the Love From Roberts

"In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist".

Read the rest in the Washington Post.

Bush Comes to Shove

Bush came to Iraq to shove freedom and democracy down the throat of the Iraqi people but they aren’t swallowing it as fast as he would like. Maybe it’s time to take a different tack with this war.

The bush administration, and bush in particular, says that if we set a date to leave Iraq all the insurgents will fade away and wait until we leave to rip the place to hell.

Okay, let’s presume that that’s true. Let’s say we will be totally out of Iraq one year from today. If, as the administration says, the insurgents fall back into the shadows to wait out the year, here’s what we could do. We could train up about a zillion Iraqis and train them up right to protect their country. We and the Iraqis could use the year’s time to repair the electric system, the water system and the sewer system. The oil field workers could repair and upgrade the pipe lines. All the while they would be unencumbered by insurgent attacks according to what the white house has predicted. There would be one year of peace while the country gets its act and government together. People would be safe to shop, go to school and get back to business. When the year expires and we get out of dodge, there would be enough Iraqi troops trained and ready to kick all insurgents butts.

How about we do this? If it works, and bush himself has pretty much said it will according to his own predictions, we can call it a victory. If it fails we will be no worse off than we are now.

Camp Casey Update

Cindy Sheehan is going back to LA with her sister to be with her mom who had a stroke. Our prayers are with her family.

"I'll be back as soon as possible if it's possible," she said. After hugging some of her supporters, Sheehan and her sister, Deedee Miller, got in a van and left for the Waco airport about 20 miles away.

Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey died in Iraq, said the makeshift campsite off the road leading to Bush's ranch would continue. The camp has grown to more than 100 people, including many relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Thanks Auntie Roo for the link.

----------

The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service: Albert Einstein

Goofy shit and good news

Anti-Clinton library group calling it quits

www.counterclintonlibrary.com/

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2002/counter.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1030762

(AP) LITTLE ROCK, Ark. --- A group that had hoped to build two museums to rebut the displays at the Clinton Presidential Library is folding.
"I'm giving up," said Houton businessman Richard Erickson, who established nonprofit CounterLibe Inc. last year to fund construction of a Counter Clinton Library in Little Rock and another one in Washington.
Erickson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he had been naive about fund-raising procedures. He said the project's Web site also would be shut down soon.
In a separate e-mail Wednesday, Erickson informed one of his key supporters, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr. R-GA, that he couldn't raise enough money to continue.
"Nearly every dime raised has gone to professional fund-raisers and lawyers," he said.
Erickson partnered with former U.S. Rep. John LeBoutillier of New York to start planning the response library idea three years ago.
Skip Rutherford, president of the foundation that built the $165 million presidential library in Little Roc, said he was "not surprised" by Erickson's announcement but declined to comment further.

(1. Who said that the AP doesn't have a sense of humor? 2. Show of hands, please --- anybody see a HUUUUUUUUGE tax write-off in the making?)

PETA campaign spurs racism charges

BY DIONNE WALKER (AP)
RICHMOND, VA. --- People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals is reconsidering a campaign linking images of animal abuse with those of slavery after complaints from civil rights groups and others.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050813/ap_on_re_us/peta_campaign

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1034920&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

The animal rights' group's "Animal Liberation" campaign included 12 panels juxtaposing pictures of black people in chains with shackled elephants and other provocative images...

(Y'all already know what I think of those useless-ass media whores at PETA... I'll listen to something that THEY have to say, as soon as I see one of them breaking a sweat at an animal shelter. Kinda ironic that they compare abused animals to ENSLAVED HUMANS, though... You'd think that even THESE bimbos would see the fucked-upedness of such a strategy...)

AND FROM THE HOME FRONT, SO TO SPEAK...

East Feliciana hires female heavy equipment operator

(Not a news flash anywhere but Louisiana...)

BY MARILYN GOFF
Special to The Advocate (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, not the magazine, obviously)

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/081705/sub_hires001.shtml

The East Feliciana Police Jury broke new ground Tuesday night by hiring a woman for the first time to operate heavy equipment on parish roads and bridges.
Juror Dwight Hill said Dorothy Dolores Johnson, 33, meets all the qualifications of the job and possesses a commercial drivers' license as well...
...According to Johnson's resume', she can operate a bulldozer, backhoe, bushwhacker, dump truck, bucket truck, spray rig, limb saw and steel and wheel roller. It says she is also a cutter, welder, and has farming experience.

(While it seems surreal that this is a NEWS ITEM, seeing as how it's a big FIRST and all... I just wanna give Dorothy a great big ATTAGIRL!!!)

Warning of a New Disease...

I am deeply indebted to the co-chair of the Iowa Green Party for forwarding this important message to me which I have seen fit to include in today's blog:

The Centers for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high-risk behavior. The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gon-na re-elect him"). Many victims have contracted it after having been screwed for the past four years, in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease.

Cognitive sequellae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to:
anti-social personality disorder traits;
delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor;
chronic mangling of the English language;
extreme cognitive dissonance;
inability to incorporate new information;
extremely intense xenophobia;
inability to accept responsibility for actions;
exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado;
uncontrolled facial smirking;
ignorance of geography and history;
delusions of empire building;
tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies;
and a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.

The disease is sweeping Washington, D.C. Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed and baffled that this malignant disease originated only a few years ago in a Texas Bush.

The Secretary of Health and Disease Prevention Washington, D.C.

Cindy’s Little Candles in Our Darkness

Last night, all around our country, and perhaps in other countries as well, the sky was a little brighter. Maybe, if there is a heaven, almost 1800 of our soldiers enjoyed the view. Little candles twinkled in the darkness like little spirits of those who suffered the most due to a war that was served up on a stack of lies. At some time last night those little candles were snuffed out much like the lives they represented. In Texas little white crosses, now repaired from their attack, stood silently in the darkness. Perhaps they received some illumination from the candles; I don’t know. Sometimes little candles can cast a lot of light, let’s hope that happened last night.

I wonder if the little candles’ glow spread to the home of the president? I hope so. I hope they were so bright that he could not sleep. I hope they were so close they singed his thoughts. But, I don’t think that happened. He has a habit of closing the curtains when something displeases him. That’s too bad. If he had looked at all the little candles glowing in the dark of night he would have been able to see that much of America has been illuminated by the match that Cindy struck in Texas. We could see it even if he couldn’t.

Cindy struck the match and lit the first candle. Now it’s up to us to continue the illumination until no one can sleep due to the glow. If there are enough of them, even little candles can light up an awful lot of darkness. Our country has lived in darkness for a long time. The glow of little candles can expose all the evil things that prefer to dwell in the dark.

The beautiful thing about candles is you only have to strike one match to light the first one and after that many many more may be lit from its flame. We owe Cindy a debt of gratitude for lighting that first candle and now we may light our own little candles from its flame. We’ve had our own candles for a long time, haven’t we? All we’ve been waiting for was someone to light the first one. That’s all we needed and now we have it. There’s no more excuse for allowing our country to live in the cold and dark, we now have fire and light. Today we have Cindy’s little flame and Cindy’s little candle to light our way forward.

Does Sir Ian Remind You of Anyone?

"'Close to genius' was how Sir Ian Blair described the performance of his force in the aftermath of the July terrorist attacks in London.

"And when one realises he delivered this self-regarding encomium after the killing of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes by Scotland Yard officers, his bombast takes the breath away.

"For the more that emerges about Mr de Menezes's death, the more lamentable the police performance appears - and the stronger the whiff of a cover-up (edit. emph).

"Yesterday we learned that Sir Ian did not want the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the killing.

"He says he did not want the anti-terrorist operation to be distracted by an IPPC investigation. Yet one suspects the real reason is that Sir Ian knew a catalogue of blunders by his force would be exposed - and he was in the very thick of it".


Read the rest at the London Daily Mail.

A Love Story With Shoes To Match

Man, oh man, I can't wait to get my feet into these beauties.

First I will have to shower, put on my makeup and make my hair all pretty and soft. Perhaps I will wear some lingerie. Maybe not. Then I will lie on the bed and don my new shoesie-woozies.

"Oh Pumpkin, Yoo hoo," I call out hoping that my precious one can hear me from the television room.

"I'm watching boxing, my angel. What do you want?"

"I want to show you my new shoesies!"

"Well come here and show me!"

"No. You have to come here," I say in my best baby voice.

"Why is that, my precious angel?"

"I cannot walk in them, my totem pole of love."

"Why did you buy them?" Do I sense irritation in his voice? No. Couldn't be.

"For you, my hunka hunka burnin' love." I'm practicing laying on my back with my feet in the air and figuring out how not to ass rape my lover with the heel during the heat of passion... or worse, puncture his kidney.

"Okay. After this round, I'll check out your new shoes."

Saddened, I decide to go to the kitchen in the meantime, then I twist my ankle, grab some snacks, limp back to the bedroom with one shoe hanging on to my ankle by a thread, finally rip them off and throw them across the room, tie my hair into a ponytail, put on my flannel nightie and munch on pretzels, coffee cake and diet pepsi with the remote firmly in my hand as I switch between gardening shows with my lower lip thrust outward.

Then my punky-poo comes to our love room after his show, ready for action, sees me in bed eating and pouting, trips over my new shoes, hits his head on the edge of the dresser which makes a protrusion on his brow larger than the bulge in his jeans and yet he still looks at me lovingly.

"Are these your new shoes?" He holds one of them up and accidentally stabs himself in the arm with the spiked heel.

"Yes, sweetness."

"I don't like the color." He licks the stab wound.

How long does it REALLY take to get something done?

I presume you're aware how movies have affected our thinking for the last 100 years--being "entertainment" supposedly. But, they've given all of us, Americans particularly, what I call the "two-hour mentality"--the idea that everything can be fixed in the twinkling of an eye, with the bad guys vanquished, the hero/heroine being "serviced" by a grateful public, and a bright new day dawning for the world, with our troops marching gloriously into the sunset.

With that in mind, there's an article at VHeadline.com entitled, "No surprise that Disney is used to claim that Venezuela is a dangerous place". Check it out.

WTF?

I wonder if they let Judy Miller read newspapers while she's in the slammer.

If so, I wonder if she's sees this item.

From Pioneer Press Online:

"A federal judge last week sentenced John Boyle, a Norwood Park (Illinois) resident, to seven years in prison for his role in the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.

"About Boyle's refusal to provide evidence on others, (Patrick) Fitzgerald said, "He is obviously proud that he is not cooperating and he can be proud in prison. That's what happens if you want to go to jail and do time and be proud about it, that's your business. But you are not going to get a discount."

power is perception

“Power is being the president.” Bush's response to a reporter's observation that reading polls is important because it tells a leader what people think about following. The reporter said, "Power is perception."

Several of my friends' children are graduating from high school this year and are going into the military. One childhood friend, a beautiful girl with some serious heath issues, who is unable to work told me that her hero was George W. Bush. I didn't raise the issue of her SSI disability check which is her life line to anything resembling a normal life which I don't believe that Bush wants the federal government to continue paying my friend. Her daughter, a smart, beautiful young woman, is going into the military. Her family is too poor to pay for college and they really don't own enough to mortgage to get student loans and her husband is so under employed.

But they love George Bush. I wonder if her church would help her if her SSI payments suddenly are cut. I wonder if her church would understand the nature of her illnesses. Can they since they don't believe that anything happens without God's will. Or that illness might be genetic. God just gives you want you can handle, right?

So this beautiful child is going off to fight while Barbara and Jenna go off to work until they find suitable husbands. Her mother worried about finding a prom dress for her daughter because money is so tight. Did that play in her decision to go into the military? Did the recruiters tell her they would pay for college, give her a laptop computer now, give her a signing bonus to help pay for her mother's medication. Will she need physical therapy if she loses a body part before she goes to college? If she comes home?

One friend's child is a young man, so talented, smart, attractive. He joined the National Guard because he was too young for regular military (!) and is in Iraq because he sees this as a struggle between God, Allah, Muslims and Jews and Christians. His father is well-educated, well-employed. This young man has the world on a string and elects to kill and very possibly be killed. His family is comfortable, he can easily afford college and is so well connected that jobs will be easily found for him. If he comes home.

Why do people so hurt by the Bush Administration love him so much? I see horrible little cars that look like they are held together with Bush/Cheney stickers. If they put that on their car, are they identifying with a team? A team that hates them but needs their children to die for oil. Do they get sprinkled or immersed every Sunday in the propaganda that Bush is God's plan to bring about Heaven? We are horrified that Islamic fascists are told if they kill for Allah they will go to Heaven. Why is that any different than hearing the Republicans say that God hates federal judges who disobey tradition in favor of small groups of homosexuals and women? How is any different than God wants George Bush to be president and that Bush is doing God's will? Is their perception their reality? Are we living with Bush's perception--his denial of reality?

Please tell me that pictures of Bush peddling will finally illustrate what he has been peddling?

Well, They Can't Get Americans To Serve

"Ecuador expressed uneasiness on Monday over the recruiting of mercenaries to serve in Iraq by a US firm operating from the coastal city of Manta".

It's from Prensa Latina, via Tom Feeley's ICH: InternationalClearingHouse.

Here’s Your Present for the Day via Crooks and Liars

Dash over to Crooks and Liars (http://www.crooksandliars.com/)

Read “Republicans react to Clinton over Kosovo”

It’s better than a cold cocktail on a hot summer afternoon. Okay, maybe not that good, but pretty damned good!

Bat-shit Crazy or Bat-shit Mean?

I have a theory on these “good Republican Christian” people. I think they are either crazy as hell or they are some of the meanest people around. Let’s say they are crazy, and there’s no proof that you can’t have a crazy Christian, then how the hell do we deal with them? Way more of them than we want to think about carry loaded guns. They are out there. Worse yet, they seem to think that carrying a bible around with them gives them a free pass to do pretty much whatever the hell they want. No one seems too concerned about this right now but like the deadly traffic corner, eventually there will be enough deaths that we’ll see the justification for installing a traffic light.

Okay, maybe they are just mean. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, let’s say some of them aren’t clinically crazy, they are just mean and ugly. They’re the ones who enjoy someone else’s misery. They’re like the little boy who used to hide by the side of the road until I rode my bike by and then he would run out and wrestle my bike from me. He would stand there holding the handlebars and laugh at me. He would smirk and say, "What are you gonna do about it"? He never stole my bike he just enjoyed aggravating me. Sometimes I would get so angry I would cry and he loved that. Eventually he would give me my bike back making some statement like, “It’s a crummy bike anyway”. I guess he felt such low self esteem that the only thing he could control was my emotions. By tormenting me he could feel he was able to accomplish something, if only to make a little six year old girl cry.

I see that man who ran over Cindy’s crosses as being just like that little bike-taking boy. The only thing he was capable of doing was making someone else hurt. Man that’s a shallow well of a life, isn’t it? It’s also a sign of desperation and frustration at one’s own lack of strength.

So like I said, they’re out there. Some of them are probably bat-shit nuts and others are just bat-shit mean. They better thank their god every single day that they live in America, because there are other countries that wouldn’t tolerate their shit, bible carrying or not.

Serious Question: What did they do to him when he was a child to make him that way?

"The intelligence in the service of primitive instincts that Bush's actions and words represent; the raw aggressive power, unmitigated by thought or higher feeling; and the surge of compensatory confidence it engenders, are what appeals to a great segment of this -- or any other -- society, especially to its powerless and emotionally underdeveloped members. They rally around their leader, seeing in him both a reflection of themselves and a promise of a "victory" that would release their fears and frustrations, and avenge their sorry, hopeless fate. Of course what they do not realize is that their leader couldn't care less about their fate. To him, his minions are an echo chamber for his words and cannon fodder for his missions".
– Elizabeth (no last name given), "Of Course He Is a Psychpath...", BuzzFlash.com, August 16, 2005

Cynical Comment of the Day: We elected somebody just as crazy as we are.
Thanks to Carolyn Kay at makethemaccountable.com/.

We Should Be So Much Better

No matter the politics, religion, history or attitude, it’s just so sad to watch people be yanked and dragged from their homes. Imagine the state adjacent to yours declares that you must leave your home or you will be forcefully taken away. I find it nightmare material to imagine such a thing. I also do not understand why we are being asked to give two and a half billion dollars to help cover expenses. We should not be involved in this.

So far today over forty people have been killed in Iraq and one American soldier.

The president of the United States is riding his bike very close to where an American mother mourns the death of her son killed in Iraq and the president won’t even talk to her. But, there is another resident of Texas who will run over little crosses erected to represent the Americans killed in Iraq. There’s another resident of Texas who will fire his shotgun into the air to frighten Americans who oppose the Iraqi war.

What happened to kindness? What happened to sanity? Whether it’s Gaza, Iraq, or the US, when did death, harm and tears become the symbol of today’s world? There’s an awful attitude in our world and it seems to become more wretched and more sad with every passing day. Somewhere along the way evil and cruelty replaced the human heart. We are human beings, we should be so much better than that.

A NY Times Review

For the Rude One. Way to go. (NY Times link)

Standing in Death Searching For Victory

Okay, look now!

Is it the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen? I think so. Look at all the dead bodies. Smell the stench? Just think about all the lives lost and for what? Children are crying in the hospitals and on the streets. Old people are lost and confused by what they have experienced, what they have felt and what they have seen. That pile of rubble was once a home, perhaps not like my home or yours but surely it was a home. No more peace in that home and no more life either.

Not just that town but so many others are now nothing more than a hell created in your name and mine. What? You say you never agreed to have your name attached to such an atrocity. It doesn’t matter what you agreed or disagreed to; it’s done. All those years you tried your best to leave the world a better place than you found it are all for naught now. You stand here in the midst of all this death and destruction now and I’m hoping you are mad as hell. Your identity has been stolen in the very worst of ways. Your name was taken and used to finance and carry out this death adventure. They forged your signature on the check that bought injury and death. God, how can you stand there and look at this without screaming? They did it, but you will for all your life bear the blame. Scream! Do it because you have to to keep your sanity. Demand answers and demand that someone own up to what has been done in your name. Don’t you deserve that much?

You know who did it. You know all the names. No one has to show them to you on an indictment. Hell, forget that. Start right now and let’s get some action here. Most Americans know the criminals involved in this crime. They also see the crime for what it is and they’re mad too. Some of them are embarrassed that they supported this deadly folly so they are hiding. They hide behind the flag but you can bet they still see the carnage. They may act mute but they are not blind. Maybe once you begin to scream and I begin to scream they will scream a little. After all, their name is on the bloody death warrant too.

There is no happily ever after here. There is no fairy godmother. There is no wish to come true. This is a reality that won’t go away with the waving of a magic wand. Death and destruction are a nuisance that way, they must be dealt with no matter how awful the dealing will be. But who’s to do this nightmare of a task? Who will step up and try and make it right? Who will bury the bodies and bless the souls? Will it be the identity thieves? Do the criminals ever clean up the crime scene and bury the victims?

So now you’ve seen the scene, you know the crime and you’ve smelled the stench. What will you do? Will you simply walk away and act as though nothing has happened? You can’t. The smell of death never goes away until the last of the rotting bodies has turned to dust. Sure, you can try to walk away, try to dismiss the stench and try to ignore the whole scene, but there’s one thing you can’t ignore. No matter what you do, you can’t remove your name from what you’ve seen. Your name is right there beside mine and both are written with a bloody pen. Blood stains are difficult if not impossible to remove, especially after the stain has dried in the blazing sun. Maybe we can’t remove our names and maybe we shouldn’t. Instead let’s preserve this and show it to the future. Let’s highlight this torturous mistake so that history will mark it boldly as one more insane time that America became its own worst enemy. One more time when in the name of righteousness, American proclaimed itself above reason and right, and one more time we stand in the middle of death searching for victory.

Urban Legends

Christopher Walken is NOT running for president.

The Starbucks email is making the rounds again. No, they didn't refuse to send coffee to the Marines because they do not support them. It's a hoax.

Freedom fighters: We hate your freedom and we'll do whatever we can to destroy it.

This is really how the right feels about those who sacrificed for bush's war. War mongers are into it for the blood, the death, the guns, the sweet revenge, the power and the glory of war. Religion is just a ploy they use to make themselves feel righteous. They are neither religious, patriotic or right. This picture will always remind me of what our country has turned into. This is how Lush Bimbo feels about those who have sacrificed. If I am pissed off, angry, rude and growling at someone who supports this bloodshed for oil, and they don't like it, well they can kiss my ass, because I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.

I thought I lived in a democracy, not an imperialist nation. I have no use for war mongers. I have zero tolerance for those who recite bush-like talking points. They only prove that they are just as stupid as the (p)Resident himself. This is war. This is life and death. I will not tolerate those who tell me that they are just trying to get on with their lives and are not interested in politics. I will not tolerate those who try to convince that we are freeing the Iraqi's. We were led into the war for lies. Period. lalalala I can't hear you Who the hell said I have to be nice, or cordial? This is war, baby. And fuck you very much if you don't like my attitude. Assholes.

-NY Blonde
-----

PS: Just read this spin in Newsday:

One GOP strategist said that, given such views, the White House believed the attention around Sheehan was more likely to be an issue for Democrats than for the president.

"As time goes on, this becomes more and more a problem for Democrats because it gives visibility and salience and attention to the most extreme elements of the party," said the strategist, who asked for anonymity while discussing internal deliberations. "You may want [Sen. Joseph R.] Biden as your spokesman. You certainly don't want the radical left — and that's what they are getting."

What a crock. Since when is it "far left" to be anti-war? It's human to be anti-war. It's Jesus-like, for gawd's sake. It's not a side. Are these people kidding? Who says that anti-war people want Joe Biden as a spokesman? As much as I can't stand him, Pat Buchanan is a better anti-war mouthpiece. eewwww did I write that?

PSS: Last night I was reminiscing about the GOP during Clinton's military actions. Weren't they completely devastated when a soldier was killed or hurt? So they switch sides when it's their war? Feh. Pick a platform and stick to it. You don't have to be of a particular political persuasion to be anti-war. You are or you aren't. Period.

"AIPAC lobbyists, US analyst plead not guilty of disclosing classified data"

By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters

"A Pentagon analyst and two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense information.

"Steven Rosen, 63, the former foreign policy director for AIPAC, and AIPAC's former senior Middle East analyst, Keith Weissman, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to communicate national defense information provided by analyst Lawrence Franklin.

"Rosen also pleaded not guilty to helping Franklin, 58, pass on written classified information.

"The three will be tried together on Jan. 3, 2006.

"Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin DiGregory said the total information at issue in the case related to five documents. He did not give any further details.

"Rosen and Weissman, 53, are accused of disclosing the classified information to some members of the media, a senior fellow at a Washington think tank and at least three foreign government officials".

Read the rest at Haaretz-Israel News.


Then, there's this:

"There are now two big American investigations underway into two cases that have no apparent connection, but in the end they are one and the same (emph. PoLT). The first involves spying for Israel by Larry Franklin, the assistant to Douglas Feith at the Pentagon, and the second involves the leaking of Plame’s name via Karl Rove, George Bush’s senior adviser, or his ally Lewis Libby, the office director of Vice President Dick Cheney".

Here's the rest at Dar Al Hayat. (Material is slightly dated, since the indictments were just issued.)

UPDATE:
From the NYTimes:

"The three are not charged with espionage, but the case has the potential of becoming the most serious U.S.-Israeli intelligence confrontation since Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew, was caught spying for Israel in 1985. Pollard is serving a life prison sentence".

So it will be interesting to see, if they are found guilty, what their sentences will be. It will also be interesting to see if this story ever makes the MSM Headlines.

RETURN OF THE CLIT-POWER MERCENARIES!!!

(Aside to Liz: No links, so please don't edit this... Any "misspellings" are purely intentional... };-)~~~< )

Okay, so that's a little over-hyped. Actually, it refers to one of my rants from my "spoken-word" days in New Orleans. After this particular hissy fit, I'm providing that rant below.

TODAY, THOUGH.....

Going to break-in a new gynecologist. Not a fun prospect at ANY point. But because of my so-called "health plan," I have to go to the HOOD to get a gynecologist, because the hillbilly asshole that they assigned me for a "principal care provider" is an utter DOUCHEBAG, so I get his really nice nurse to refer me out for this kinda stuff.

So I find my way through the 'hood to the new doc's place, park the pickup, and before I can even grab my purse and get OUT --- GREAT!!! Fucking rosary-swinging, bible-banging BATSHIT-CRAZY MOTHERFUCKERS ARE ACCOSTING ME IN THE PARKING LOT!!!!!!

Life has gotten so fucked-up in this country, you can't even go in for a little UTERUS-SCRAPING (pap smear in order to get birth-control pills) without being HASSLED by some senile retiree white trash with WAY TOO MUCH FUCKING FREE TIME!!!

I shit y'all not. And yes, I asked my very liberal, very pro-choice gyno later, if these same illiterate statue-kissers hit the RICH and UPPER-MIDDLE-CLASS clinics in Baton Rouge... "Fuck NO. Why would they tell RICH WHITE WOMEN what to do?!??! When they can come down here to the 'hood and try and intimidate BROKE, WORKING-THREE-JOBS *BLACK WOMEN*?!?!?"

He, apparently, while tolerating these maggots for over eight years, shared my vehement loathing of their entire species of insectile idiocy. As long as they don't cross the property line, he can't call the cops on them. Been taking their shit for EIGHT YEARS.

And yes, when I got out of my truck, the head moron, the shrivelled pecker-packer, ran over to the side of the property line near where I parked, and started with the "Good morning, ma'am, did you know that they PERFORM ABORTIONS HERE?!??!" shit.

I wish that I'd been more eloquent, but people really shouldn't fuck with me first thing in the gawddamned morning, when I'm a night person by nature as it is. And going in for a cunt-scraping at 9A is NOT my idea of FUN in the first fucking place.

"They perform ABORTIONS here? HOT DAMN!! I MAY HAVE TO GET ME ONE-A' THEM!!"

"But ma'am, this really isn't funny..." (My middle finger immediately extends itself, at the end of one very tautly-raised arm) "Gaaawwwd bless you ma'am, but you're supporting people who KILL BABIES IN THERE!!!"

"FUCK YOU, YOU SHRIVELLED OLD DICK. THAT'S ALL THAT I HAVE TO SAY. But then, if somebody WOULD fuck you, you probably wouldn't be out here HARRASSING WOMEN ALL GAWDDAMNED MORNING, WOULD YOU, YOU VIAGRA POSTER-CHILD?!?!!!"
(Or something to that effect. Like I said, I was really pissed and only half awake.)

"But Jeeeeeezus loves you...."

"Really? I talked to Jeebus the other day, and he told me to tell you that you were a MISTAKE and that you really ought to REMEDY THAT SITUATION!"

And thusly I continued into the front door of the clinic, and upon entering, heard the ribald cackling of about a dozen women, black and white, 'cause apparently my voice... carries... (Yeah, imagine that).

And, since the clinic was so busy (one of the few gynos in Louisiana who'll still take Medicaid AND dispense BIRTH CONTROL), I hadda wait a couple of hours. The first two times that I went out for a smoke break, the old shrivel-dick was standing in the median, just staring at me... But I behaved myself. I really, really did. I promise.

But THEN, when I went back in, after smoke-break #3 or so, REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVED!!! Hell no, not for ME. For shrivel-dick. TWO old post-menopausal bats with FOLDING CHAIRS AND A BOOMBOX. And yes, rosaries.

Lucky for them, by the time I got done with my appointment (and some rather spirited republicunt-bashing with the very sympathetic staff), the old battleaxes were gone. A missed opportunity, as it were.

When I get the money, since I may never get to Crawford this year, I may get my OWN damned folding chair and go sit IN the parking lot with a few choice signs... I don't imagine that my new gyno will mind the language... And yes, there will probably be at least ONE sign with a picture of Bill Hicks squinting, with a cigarette clenched between his teeth, as he pantomimes scraping a uterus... I gotta have SOME fun, right?

(And yes, I thanked the new gyno profusely for STILL BEING THERE for the women of Baton Rouge, seeing as how so many OTHER clinics and gynos in Louisiana have been DRIVEN OUT OF BUSINESS BY THE BATSHIT BIBLE-BANGERS. He just chuckled and shrugged and said, "What the hell, I'm RETIRED --- these fucking morons CAN'T HURT ME!!!" Ya gotta love that attitude.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Keeping in mind that the following rant was written BEFORE our new state of Perpetual War, and that any epithets/perjoritives are meant in a time-specific fashion relating to actual individuals of that actual New Orleans scene, and are not meant as stereotypes or insults to any GROUP or even perceived gathering of people.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C)1998
5/17/98
1:08P

Clit-Power Mercenaries

Don't look at me to be your clit-power spokesmodel, because I'm just as fucked-up as you are. Don't nod your greying head at me and pat me on my greying head and think that I'm just some poor, fragile little goth princess that needs to be rescued from her own tragic misleadings. I dug all my own holes, even the ones that are filled with manure.

We like to play-up the angry victim schtick, don't we. We'll even fuck the ugly little Nazi-faggots, just so we can have an excuse to be touched by a human hand. Because we have to have an excuse, don't we? An escape-hatch scenario, to ask for affection. But when they get up and walk away, when they slither on down the road, exactly like we wanted them to, it gives us the chance to break our own hearts. It gives us the chance to play out the desertion melodrama we've already rehearsed in our own heads. It gives us the chance to miss them before they're gone.

Because it's so much easier that way. Unrequited "love" or lust, or whatever—gives you something to think about when you're stuck in traffic, or wandering through Wal-Mart, or masturbating. Fantasy fucks don’t have to be cleaned-up after. We are the mercenary bitches who will sit and compare our unrequited/asshole/being dumped/being-treated-like-an-orifice stories, like mangled war vets, giddy at the remembered taste of their—and our own—blood. And everybody's got a story. Everybody's suffered, everybody's carrying a big, fat grudge.

And how often do we listen to stories from our fellow wounded because we really care. And how often do we listen only as long as it takes us to flip through the mental Rolodex® and come up with a better story? And how many of us listen because we figure our empathy will get us laid?

I question everyone's motives, hypothetically, because I question my own. Yeah, it takes big, brass ovaries to get up here and bitch about the way other people treat me. But considering that my ovaries haven't exactly done anything in ten goddamned years, thanks to modern chemistry, anyway— all my threats and screams are just as empty as my uterus.

And I bitch and moan and complain about how I can't even support myself in this city, and I can give you the calibrated time-line of how my once-promising career was assassinated—even as I'm wondering if I love my grandmother because she's my friend and my Nannie, or if it's just because she's spent so much money on me. My sister could have had a house, but she won't. And what the fuck did I ever do to deserve anything? It's enough to make me miss those months I lived in a squat.

Summer Camp Of The Damned. But it was free. Fiscally and spiritually. And my neighbors then were ever so much more fun than the ones I have now… but then, you've seen the Xmas cards. Probably why I remember them so fondly.

I was asked, not so long ago, would I have fallen in love when I did, with whom I did, had he not been an incredible lay. And I really did have to stop and think about it. Granted, I have fallen in love with two guys that I never fucked, but that was, of course, all in my head, anyway. And then there was that girl.

But she just kinda laid there. I get so tired of doing all the work. 'Course, I don't think we've ever had an honest discussion, anyway.

And, of course, if you've been following along with your home-game handbooks, we've all figured out by now that the last one's not gonna go there again. But I can't help hearing that horny little voice in the back of my head, the one that remembers. And he can't help being just a little bit paranoid every time he's near me.

If only he'd left when he was supposed to. One or two hours, I'd have been happy. It was weak acid, I was in a cordial mood. But no, he hadda hang around after those first thirteen hours were scorched into the granite in my head like the Ten Commandments. And yes, I wound-up cooking for him.

It's that long-term exposure that fucks everything up. One-night stands, provided my jaw survives, are usually SO much easier. There's no "getting over" a one-night stand. They get their little rocks off, I get the physical contact I biochemically crave, transaction done, no need for discussion. It's the ones who hang around after you've fed them that start to look cute and adoptable, like stray cats. You just can't tell them to fuck-off-and-die. Well, you can, but it gets harder with time. Like, a year.

And if, like me, you're really sick, you start to need them, you start to depend on them, you even miss them when they're not there. Because they just won't disappear. They didn't leave on cue, and now you've got all this shit to deal with.

See? I can make ANYTHING somebody else's fault. Elementary, really—Militant Victimization 1001. A non-credit course, of course, but it'll really keep you busy. Shit loads of homework.
So, yeah, it takes big, fat, hypothetical cajones, and an enormous euphemistic cock to get up here and question everybody's motives. To dare you to answer honestly. Because I can't answer any of the questions, either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Ta-daaaah!)

Remember This?

WHAT WE KNEW:
WARNING GIVEN...STORY MISSED
How a Report on Terrorism Flew Under the Radar
BY Harold Evans

"We were warned. Some of the best minds in the United States attempted to alert the nation that, without a new emphasis on homeland security and attention to terrorism, 'Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers' as the result of terrorist attacks. The first warning came in September 1999, when former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, co-chairs, used those words in the first of three documents from an entity called the United States Commission on National Security, created during a rare moment of agreement between President Clinton and House speaker Newt Gingrich. Then, seven months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the commission re-emphasized its warning, this time with a detailed agenda for action to make America safer from terrorism. The report was scary but it was also constructive and authoritative. And it is fair to say that most Americans never heard of it until after the attacks."

This piece was written in 2002. The next section is titled, "What happened?"

You can read it all at PrisonPlanet.com

Duck, Dodge and Lie

"With the facts known publicly today regarding the Plame case, it is difficult to see how a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act could have occurred. For example, one of the requirements is that the federal government must be taking "affirmative measures" to conceal the agent's intelligence relationship with the United States. Yet we now know that Ms. Wilson held a desk job at C.I.A. headquarters and could be seen traveling to and from work". -- Sen. Robert Dole New York Times

I would submit that Bob Dole is mouthing what he has heard, not what he has learned. These are the same lame comments that we have heard from just about all the rest of the Republican mouthpieces. In fact these, in my opinion, are the lamest of them all. Does Mr. Dole believe that every CIA undercover agent lives in a secret location and only exits that location under the cover of darkness? Does Mr. Dole believe that every CIA undercover agent is not allowed to work sometimes at a desk?

If Valerie Plame/Wilson was not undercover why would the administration make a point of revealing her identity? Were they trying to discredit her husband’s findings in Niger as just a trumped up trip conceived by his wife in order to make the president’s statement in his SOTU address appear false? Probably. But, what they may have failed to do was to see exactly what her position in the CIA truly was at the time. What would be the point in outing an agent if you knew she wasn’t working undercover? I don’t really think that putting Ms. Plame out of work was their intention. Why do that? That’s not the way Rove handles things. His MO is to try to ruin someone’s reputation, not make them lose their job. I think that was his motive in this case--not to put Ms Plame out of work, but to ruin her husband’s reputation by making him look like his wife’s poodle, someone with some sort of alternative motive to discredit the president. Karl may have tripped over his own hanging noose on this one. He may have inadvertently drank his own poisoned cocktail, because in trying to cast aspersions on Joe Wilson by exposing his wife’s position at the CIA he may well have cast aspersions on his own character by outing an undercover agent. As he dug into his usual bag of dirty tricks in order to smear the messenger, he may have grabbed a real rattlesnake rather than his usual fake rubber snake.

If Karl or any of the others unintentionally outed an undercover agent as a result of trying to discredit Wilson, can anyone be prosecuted? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. But I’m betting that if there are any indictments or prosecutions it won’t be because they outed the agent, but because when they learned what they had done (i.e., that she was working under cover), they lied about how it happened and tried to cover it up.

Meanwhile Novak may be feeling the heat because he was used to get the word out that Plame worked at the CIA in order to discredit Wilson. But now he too realizes that he is in the middle of all this due to someone else’s failure to get all the facts about Plame’s position before talking to him.

Regardless of how this all comes out, we are still at war for reasons that have been proven to be untrue. The messenger brought a message of truth and the administration as usual took aim at the messenger. But, this time they missed the messenger and hit something that caused their bullet to ricochet right back at them. Now all they can do is duck, dodge and lie as they try to deny the bullet came from their gun.

All Spin: Cindy, My Hero

I don't know why Chris Matthews had to bring up Cindy Sheehan's in-law's letter to the media last evening when he interviewed her saying that they, unlike Cindy, support the president and the troops. It was such a slap in her face. She handled it so well. I am so impressed with her. At first the letter was only meant for conservative radio, so I was dismayed that it had to be read on the television. Chris also mentioned her divorce. She said that it was another casualty of the war and she wasn't going to talk about it. I get mad when the media tries to make this a partisan issue. It's not. She wasn't coached by Michael Moore. I'm not coached by Michael Moore and he and I share some of the same opinions. Perhaps the right wing are so used to having their opinions told to them that they assume that the anti-right do too. Not true. We are the people who think for ourselves.

I have to say that this woman is the most articulate and knowledgeable spokesperson for the anti-war movement. No matter how much the media poses hard questions to her, she has an answer, a good one, she knows her facts and she thwarts ad hominem attacks from the get-go. No wonder bush is afraid to meet her. He can barely compose a sentence. I hope that those who voted for him, because he is one of them, are happy that he is the laughing stock of the world for his mastery of portaying an idiot. One thing Matthews said that I loved was that he asked her if she was going to run for a congressional seat and she said no. He replied that she was more knowledgeable than most of the people in congress. That's for sure.

Sadly, a fucking asshole from hell driving a pickup truck rammed through the thousand crosses that lined the road near Camp Casey last night. I suppose that the idiot ass is a war supporter. Did you notice that the war supporters being interviewed seem to enjoy that our boys died for their sorry asses? I wondered when watching television coverage of the anti-Cindy protesters if they were handpicked to look stupid, but then I realized that that was the best that the media could find. Those who aren't in the oil business and support the war are really sad, sad people and prove just how much our education system in America has failed and just how much influence the government's ass licking media has on our least educated. If only all the American schools taught critical thinking skills, we wouldn't be in this mess.
.

Uh Why Are Our Reps So Quiet About Gasoline Gouging?

They love it in Texas... well that is the oil people in Texas. Read this story from the Houston Chronicle while I vomit.

101 Things Not To Say During Sex

Here are my favorites:

• 2. You woke me up for that?
• 13. Can you please pass me the remote control?
• 16. On second thought, let's turn off the lights.
• 26. But I just brushed my teeth...
• 33. Did you know the ceiling needs painting?
• 46. If you quit smoking you might have more endurance...
• 47. No, really... I do this part better myself!
• 60. What tampon?
• 62. And to think, I didn't even have to buy you dinner!
• 69. You'll stil vote for me, won't you?
• 94. My old girlfriend used to do it a LOT longer!
• 98. Long kisses clog my sinuses...
• 100. How long do you plan to be "almost there"?

Another Miracle!

I have been grilling tortillas for years hoping that the Virgin would appear on one because I'm all ready to auction it as Santa Maria De La Tortilla so I can become rich and blow this burg.

A very lucky and fortunate family who was sitting down for Easter dinner almost ate a pierogi with an image of the Lord, Jesus Christ on it. Whew, they didn't eat it and decided to auction it on eBay. Now I have to keep an eye on my pierogies. Many skeptics thought that it would never sell because they started the bidding at $500.00. (I am surprised it sold because it looks so bugus.) A copycat on Ebay is trying to sell a pierogi with the face of Frank Zappa on it. Now that's a miracle!

An Internet Casino bought the Jesus pierogi for $1,775. According to the Washington Post, "The casino has a collection of odd items, including a 10-year-old, partially eaten cheese sandwich thought to contain the image of the Virgin Mary; a pretzel shaped like the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus, and a pregnancy test that allegedly belonged to Britney Spears."

My son just burst in here with an English Muffin with a scary face on it. It did have a scary face, but it wasn't religious so I didn't scan it for your approval.

See also Blondesense archives for other miraculous food and oddities:

• Blessed Are The Grilled Cheese Makers
• New Meaning To Mary on the Half Shell
• The Pope Slept Here

Iraq Pipeline Watch

Here is an interesting site which lists all the "Attacks on Iraqi pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel" since June 12, 2003. I believe it serves to explain part of the reason for the increasing price of oil. Oil closed today at $66.27 a barrel on NYMEX.

Here below is a list of the attacks for July and the first part of August. When you visit the site, be sure to scroll to the bottom for a very definitive map of Iraq which shows boundaries, major roads, pipelines, governorates, and capitals.
The complete list is at Iraq Pipeline Watch.

Just for July and the first part of August:
247. July 3 - attack on a key feeder pipeline that leads to the Daura refinery.
248. July 8 - mortar attack on the Daura oil refinery hit a pipeline attached to one of the reservoirs.
249. July 20 - attack on an oil pipeline that connects Bayji and Baghdad.
250. July 20 - 6:00 a.m. a roadside bomb exploded under the pipeline that goes from Kirkuk to the Daura refinery.
251. July 20 - late night attack on oil pipeline between Mahmoudiyeh and Latifiyehin in southern Iraq.
252. July 21 - insurgents incinerated an oil pipeline west of Samarra.
253. July 26 - two Iraqi security personnel were killed and threewounded by mortar fire near Bayji while guarding an oil pipeline.
254. July 28 - a bomb hit an oil pipeline conecting Bayji and Kirkuk. Agas pipeline that supplies Bayji power station was also damaged duringthe attack.
255. July 28 - a bomb on a railway line hit a train carrying oil products near Baghdad, causing a huge fire.
256. August 3 - an explosion damaged a pipeline used for shipping fuel to a Baghdad power plant north of the capital.
257. August 4 - 5:00a.m. three explosions set ablaze a pipeline near Kirkuk.

Iraqis can’t get their constitutional shit together and ask for a 10-day extension

Sure hope they remember to say in their constitution that their people are guaranteed a right to privacy.

by all means, Mr. President, please get on with your life

"George Bush took a 2 hour bike ride on Saturday, and when he got back, he was asked how he could go for a two hour bike ride when he doesn't have time to meet with me, and he said: 'I have to go on with my life.'" Cindy Sheehan, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Yes, and I hope that we have lives to go on with after your out of office, Mr. President.

"'But whether it be here or in Washington or anywhere else, there's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job,' Bush said on the ranch. 'And I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But, I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life.'"

Spoken like a man in recovery who doesn't quite believe in recovery. It isn't about you. I know that that isn't easy for a man with an alcohol problem chased with meglomania, but you are not the nation and the nation isn't here to serve you. I thought that the Kennedy's, the Gore's, the Adams'and the Roosevelt's understood that. I have always thought the Bushes missed that day of public service school.

Mr. President, you are president 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You have the world's biggest megaphone and the world's most sensitive hearing. People really don't want you to fix their problems, they want you to listen to their problems and speak out on the unfairness of their lives, not how "hard" it is to be president.

"Hard" is losing your son for a lie. "Hard" is looking into the eyes your hungry child. "Hard" is being the victim of violence. Brain surgery is hard on the surgeon and the patient.

Government is simple. All it is how we treat people. That is all public policy, the ways and the means, and the means and the ends, is.

We don't expect you to stop being president while you talk to a grieving mother, who has become the symbol of every American, of everyone on this planet, who is asking you to stop lying about the reasons we went to war against Iraq. Your daddy and the Clinton Administration had ended any aggressive plans Iraq may have had before you ever took office.

You didn't have a plan for your administration. You even eschewed "nation building" in the presidential debates. And then you embarked on that very mission using our children, our future.

We want to know why. It wasn't for bin Laden, or 9/11, or terrorism. Answer the question. Answer Ms. Sheehan.

And please get on with your life on your own dime.

U.S. Marine opens fire outside Mass. nightclub

BOSTON (Reuters) - "A decorated U.S. Marine, who had been treated for post-war stress (ed. emph.) since serving in Iraq, opened fire outside a Massachusetts nightclub, wounding two people, Boston media reported on Monday".
The rest of the article is in Rueters.

(This edit is NOT an update but is intended as a companion piece; the two stories in a strange horrifying way belong together.)

Iraq Veteran Arrested in Killing

"When Matthew Sepi returned from Iraq a few months ago, he spoke to his family reluctantly of gunbattles and the "weird noises" children make when they die. He never told relatives whether he killed anyone during combat but said he recently had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had been placed on a waiting list for treatment.

"To help shield his psyche from images of bodies, family members said, the 20-year-old soldier had adopted a simple technique: Just don't think about it.

"But early Sunday morning, Army Spc. Sepi found himself thinking about killing in front of homicide detectives. They interrogated Sepi about a double shooting in a neighborhood near Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

"Based on Sepi's version of events, a 1 a.m. walk to a 7-Eleven proved nearly as dangerous as his tour of duty in Iraq".

Read the rest at ReviewJournal.com.


"I have seen men march to the wars, and then I have watched their homeward tread, And they brought back bodies of living men, But their eyes were cold and dead". -- Edmund Vance Cooke

So What’s Next?

Seems that unless someone does some magical twanging on the Iraqi constitution, the women of Iraq are going to come out of this hellacious war much worse off than they were under Saddam. How’s that for progress? I can’t remember which TV program it was, but there was a piece about a woman in Iraq who has put together a shelter for abused women. There has been an increase in abused women due to the ass backward situation over there. Now men are encouraged to keep their women “under control”. The program said that under Saddam’s rule women had many of the same rights as western women have. I remember a few months ago there was another spot on TV about a female veterinarian in Iraq and she told how her clinic had been bombed during the initial phase of the war. You have to wonder when the next generation of professional working women will be able to emerge in that country.

Perhaps someone should visit Saddam in his jail cell and ask him for the skinny on how he kept that country from being one big pile of hell. Apparently someone in this administration hasn’t figured that out yet because from all points of view, the walls on the volcano are caving in and the lava is flowing freely. Notice how often we hear the word, “mess”. I think that’s because that’s just exactly what it is, a mess. It sounds like everyone is shooting and bombing everyone else and no one has a clue how to make it stop.

I expect any day now we’ll be told there is no war in Iraq, that it was all staged in a hangar in Roswell New Mexico. That would sort of follow along with “mission accomplished”, the fake Thanksgiving turkey, and let us not forget, “we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction”. They’ve lied to us so much that now they sort of need one gigantic lie to try to cover all the other ones.

I wish we could twang our own special kind of magic. I wish we could cloister bush and all his neocon buds, call President Clinton and recruit him to take over right now, today! He could call Al Gore back to deal with our environmental problems. President Clinton could call every sane military man and get a consensus on just exactly what we need to do to get our soldiers out of Iraq ASAP. They say Democrats don’t have a plan. I’m a democrat and that sounds like a plan to me. Man, if that happened I would sleep so sound tonight.

Goodbye Vacation, Hello Reality

One beautiful week on the beach of the Gulf is now but a sweet memory. My hair got a little blonder and my body got a little tanner. Thank you, sunshine.

At the beach we found some special little shells and they’re in my kitchen now resting in a little glass container. I looked at them this morning and I just had to smile, the same smile I smiled when we found them. They really are pretty.

But, this is today. This is back to the “routine”. This is the real world again. This is the world where your biggest decision of the day is not which restaurant you will visit tonight. This is the world where a noon cocktail is not considered okay. This is the world where reality jumps right up and smacks you in the face. It was there all along but now it’s here.

More soldiers killed in Iraq and more idiotic words from the Supreme Court’s choice for president of the United States. Too bad over half the voters in the US didn’t keep their eye on the ball for the past four years, huh? They elected him to a second term and then they opened their eyes to see him without his sheep’s clothing. So while he clears brush in Texas and Cindy sweats by the side of the road, soldiers bleed to death in Iraq. While the folks of Iraq try to draw up a constitution the folks in the US try to destroy ours. I say let’s save everyone a lot of trouble and just send our Constitution to Iraq, if the far right get their way we won’t be using it any more.

I guess the good news is that TSA is considering allowing us to take ice picks and bows and arrows onboard airplanes. (again?)

Maybe I’m way out of the mainstream but I have never even owned an ice pick or a bow and arrow. Wait and see, as soon as someone high jacks an airplane using an ice pick they’ll decide to ban ice picks from airplanes. Jeezzz, you can’t make this stuff up. Don’t they kinda see how bumfucking stupid this whole thing is turning out to be?

Yep, the early morning trips down to the beach to stretch out on a lounge chair and do mindless reading are over for a while. The lunches of sinful food are over for a while. The long leisurely afternoon naps and hiding from the midday sun are over for a while. The dinners of even more sinful food are over for a while. The beautiful beach sunsets are over for a while. It’s back home, back to routine and back to some pretty ugly reality. But it’s not all bad, I’m in my favorite spot in all the world, I’m home.

The Day of Living Rudely: Rude Pundit Show

God damn it was hot as hell in New York on Sunday. Muggy too.

Just as I was ready to leave the house, I realized that my wallet was missing. After checking with the bank to see if my ATM card was ravaged, and it wasn't so I didn't cancel it, I called the supermarket I went to yesterday and luckily they had my wallet with all the money still in it. whew. The next problem to counter was that my tickets for the 'Year of Living Rudely' never arrived and the customer service department for ticketweb is closed on weekends. Fortunately I got in with my confirmation email.

I left the island a bit later than I wanted to but I had to find the wallet first. Luckily there was little traffic and I got to the Bowery in a half hour. Billydoom and I decided to park my car in a lot across the street. We then started walking up the 96º street looking for the "theater". A wind was blowing. The sky was dark. It was the restaurant supply district and every single place was closed. I have no idea what the signs on the stores said because they were all in Chinese. I was thirsty. No convenience stores were around. If you blinked, you missed the tiny sign that read, "Dixon Place". If there weren't people waiting outside, I surely would have missed it. We crossed the street and I saw the signs for the Fringe Festival. I asked a man if he was the Rude Pundit (He was the director) and he pointed to another man who was the Rude Pundit himself. We chatted and then he went inside to change into his jeans, shirt and socks for the performance. Why no shoes, Rude Pundit? The Rude One told me that the car with all his props was stolen. Bummer. I wanted to see the blow up dolls with the political asshole faces glued on. We waited outside until they let people in.

It began to thunder and lightning and then it rained cats and dogs. We moved under an awning with other people. The woman next to me was on the phone claiming that her car was just stolen in front of the theater. Hmmm. No wonder there were so many parking spaces on the street. I was just telling Billydoom that I should have parked on the street to save money. Suddenly I was glad I parked in the lot. My gawd, it became humid and steamy as we waited for the show.

Finally they let us in. The stairwell leading up to the "theater" was an inferno. But when we arrived upstairs it seemed nice and cool.... well for a few minutes until reality kicked in. It was hot as hell up there too. The Rude Pundit had the hostesses hand out fans, I mean programs that we used as fans. The theater was a little larger than my living room and the seats were various couches and odd chairs. We got a couch. Ah.

The show started with the song, "Proud to be an American". I knew this was going to be a doozie. The Rude Pundit spent the first act of the show explaining how Reagan fucked over our country in rude detail and how he was so excited when Reagan got shot and hoped he would die only to have to wait another 23 years for Reagan's demise (and the 8 days). The Rude One went on to the topic of the boy president, describing in detail how bushie must bang Laura who plays the part of Saddam when he ass rapes her. The Rude One also explained how the left must fight back- he wants us to rape all the Republicans. It's ok, you can use a strap on. We gotta stop being so nice, he said. The hilarity ensued when the Rude One attacked the most hateful group in America, the christian right and then acted out what John Kerry should have said at the debates and what John Edwards should have told Cheney to put up his ass.

Lee Pappa, a/k/a The Rude Pundit, who is also a BLONDE, is quite theatrical and dramatic -more than a standup comedian. His stage presence was evident of his theater and teaching background. I liked it. It was very much like the content of his blog posts. Anyone who reads the blog would not be disappointed and I imagine most of the audience were blog fans. The show was staged well- he moved around and kept our attention at all times. The acts were broken up with darkness and then another patriotic song played as the lights came back on and the Rude One went on to a different subject. Wonderful.

I was really glad I went to the show to spend time in the presence of one of the all time great bloggers and other like minded people- those of us who'd really like to see the neocons get it hard in the arse. God bless America. Wish you all could have been there.

When I arrived home, it seemed that the rain had missed my house once again. The dried up browness which was once my lawn looked pitiful. The highways were drenched though. As soon as I finished cooking on the grill, a very big storm arrived and we have been saturated with cool cool rain for the past several hours along nature's fireworks. Finally.

Billydoom, why don't you give your assessment of the show? You really liked it too.
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A Nation Rocked to Sleep

by Carly Sheehan
Sister of Casey KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City, Baghdad

Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done
They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
He must be brave because his boy died for another man's lies
The only grief he allows himself are long, deep sighs
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
They say that he died so that the flag will continue to wave
But I believe he died because they had oil to save
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?
The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep
But if we the people let them continue another mother will weep


by Carly Sheehan
Sister of Casey KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City, Baghdad

For The WTF File - Perfect Trifecta Of Inhumanity

Voices in the Wilderness issued the following statement:

“Today, the judiciary branch of the U.S. government completed a perfect trifecta of inhumanity in upholding a $20,000 fine against Voices in the Wilderness for bringing medicine to Iraqi citizens. Judge Bates agrees that it was lawful and proper for the U.S. government to deny needed drugs and medical supplies to Iraq’s most vulnerable citizens, despite the evidence that several hundred thousand innocent children were dying because of brutal economic sanctions. read the rest

So Many Things That Piss Me Off

So little time.

Boston Globe: Cheated Soldiers

SELF-EMPLOYED people in the National Guard or the military Reserves not only put their lives at risk when they're called up; they often jeopardize their businesses and future incomes. Although nobody can eliminate the dangers of war, some of the financial mine fields at home should be defused with help from the government these soldiers serve.

My next door neighbor. He was called up to serve in Gulf War I. He had his own printing business when he left. He had no business when he returned. To make matters worse, he returned with a strange illness- mind you he was in perfect health when he left the states to perform his patriotic duty. All these years later, it is miraculous that he is still alive and I do attribute it to prayer (collective consciousness, quantum physics, whatever) but he has had the most rare form of cancer and was on chemotherapy several times, his spinal chord collapsed and he's half the size he used to be and now he has to be on dialysis for the rest of his life as his kidneys collapsed. He gets his dialysis courtesy of the VA. He rents the upstairs of his house to pay the mortgage and his wife cleans houses. Ironically, he breeds doves in his yard. He is now able to get out there to water and feed them most days.

Our President Is Even More Heinous Than I Had Ever Imagined

He took a 2 hour bikeride, was asked why he hadn't taken the time to talk to Cindy Sheehan and he replied that he had to go on with his life. What life?

At first I thought perhaps he was just too goddamm stupid to interact with another human being because of his terrible upbringing and Oedipus complex... and I had thought that perhaps he should speak to a grief counselor or have one present when he spoke to Cindy, ya know, just to feign the semblance of a human being who gives a shit because he is the fucking president... after all, he puts on that fake compassion when he talks about stem cell research, which I am sure he doesn't know a thing about... because he really is incapable of putting 2 thoughts together- but now I know that he is the personification of what is evil in the world. Know something? He could use a blow job, the fucking asshole. (excuse my french)

But he has to get on with his life? The sham he calls the presidency?

Cindy reports that there were 7 counter protesters there yesterday. Idiots. Brainwashed idiots. Well folks, sit back and enjoy the show. It's the dismantling of one the most corrupt administrations ever. I am both pissed and overjoyed that his comeuppance has to hurt the families of those who sacrificed their children for this sham. You know what "staying the course" means? It means that you're too dimwitted to come up with a real excuse for why you're stubbornly refusing to face the truth... and it also means that you hate the American people.

PS: If I were a Texan, I'd be protesting the asshole who shot his gun in the air next to bush's ranch. He was pissed that the protesters were blocking roads. He should be pissed at bush, not the protesters. Then he said he was anticipating "dove hunting season". Wow, that is so painfully ironic. They shoot doves in Texas? Hmmm.

I Don't Know What It Is About Chris

Maybe it was when I saw him tap dance on Saturday Night Live, maybe it's his hair- how it defies gravity, perhaps it's his familiar local accent, his wry sense of humor, the more than interesting movie roles he's accepted which were really challenging or maybe it's just his whole celebrity persona... but I think he's hot. No, cool. No, hot. Cool. Hot. Cool. Hot. Smart.

They say Christopher Walken is running for president in 2008. There's a website. I don't know if it's real or a hoax. be real be real be real

LITTLE BY LITTLE, THEY'RE STARTING TO STAND UP TO boygeorge:

"A federal court has struck down personnel rules adopted by the Department of Homeland Security, saying they violate the rights and protections given to employees by Congress.

"In a ruling on Friday night, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of Federal District Court said the rules did not "ensure collective bargaining" as required by the law that created the department. The rules were to take effect on Monday".

Read it all at The New York Times.
And thanks to S_B Gypsy over at The Dark Wraith Discussion Forums.

CINDY SHEEHAN -- A WOMAN FOR OUR TIME; A WOMAN FOR ALL SEASONS

And a voice SHALL be heard, crying in the wilderness.

GoogleNews has these as well as at 1780 related stories:

"Mother's Protest Gains Momentum"
Inside Bay Area Daily Review


"Antiwar Sentiment Gets Champion"
Christian Science Monitor


"A Shot in the Arm for Protesters"
"Mother's Vigil Raises Hope That Anti-war Sentiment Will Fuel a National Momentum "
San Francisco Chronicle

The Ad Hominem Fallacy

Found this wonderful post at 3 Old Men:

"The Ad Hominem Argument [Latin, literally ‘argument to the man’] involves replying to an argument or assertion by addressing the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself." [from Wikipedia]

"The reason why an Ad Hominem is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made." [from The Nizkor Project]

"Merely insulting another person in the middle of otherwise rational discourse does not necessarily constitute an ad hominem fallacy. It must be clear that the purpose of the characterization is to discredit the person offering the argument, and, specifically, to invite others to discount his arguments." [from The Nizkor Project]

Normally in these here parts, we just say, "What an asshole" or "You're an asshole". I have to learn how to fight fallacy with facts. So does John Kerry and most of the Democrats, but sometimes dont you just think that they are in on it too? The right wing attack machine is good at discrediting those who report the truth. Do read the post at 3 Old Men and learn.

A Proposal

I propose that we seriously get on the stick and organize bake sales for armor across the country. Get woman's clubs and schools involved. Convince little old ladies to join the cause. The Pentagon simply can't do it.

It's simply a disgrace that our troops were not considered when this undeclared war began. There is proof that this war was rushed into and totally unnecessesary. The Army dares to increase its recruitment efforts while they can't even give their enlistees with proper body armor? The hubris of this administration and dumbsfeld simply astonishes me. We can do something about it. We can raise money and buy it for our troops.



"...For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents.

The ceramic plates in vests worn by most personnel cannot withstand certain munitions the insurgents use. But more than a year after military officials initiated an effort to replace the armor with thicker, more resistant plates, tens of thousands of soldiers are still without the stronger protection because of a string of delays in the Pentagon's procurement system. (NY Times)"

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Today's The Day

It's the day that I see "The Year of Living Rudely" by Mr Rude Pundit himself. He's blonde you know. He's got a doctorate too. See?

I think he has some nerve to have his show in the middle of a heat wave though. Maybe he wasn't expecting menopausal women (already hot babes) to come to the show.

At least today it's only going to be 89º with only 87% humidity. The air is so thick that you can see it. There isn't a lot of telescoping going on in my backyard observatory lately because I simply can't find the sky. Where is that Canadian air mass? Where are those widely scattered thunderstorms?

I read at Rude One's blog that there is no a/c in the theater. WTF? What century is this? The show is 60 minutes long so I will dehydrate for an hour and then quickly run saunter to my car, blast the a/c and get the hell out of the sweltering city despite all its coolness, gayness, tolerance, multiculturalism, pluralism, secularism and anti-americanism. But don't get me wrong, Big Brother is watching us too.

But I digress. I am looking forward to seeing the Rude One with his blow up dolls, sex toys and whatever other paraphernalia he chooses to demonstrate our collective ass fucking in America by the bushistas.

I shall report on the show later today or tomorrow depending on whether or not I go straight to the beach.

We Are Both The Occupiers and Occupees

Howard Zinn expresses what we're all thinking. An excerpt:

... I wake up in the morning, read the newspaper, and feel that we are an occupied country, that some alien group has taken over. I wake up thinking: the US is in the grip of a president surrounded by thugs in suits who care nothing about human life abroad or here, who care nothing about freedom abroad or here, who care nothing about what happens to the earth, the water or the air, or what kind of world will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.

More Americans are beginning to feel, like the soldiers in Iraq, that something is terribly wrong. More and more every day the lies are being exposed. And then there is the largest lie, that everything the US does is to be pardoned because we are engaged in a "war on terrorism", ignoring the fact that war is itself terrorism, that barging into homes and taking away people and subjecting them to torture is terrorism, that invading and bombing other countries does not give us more security but less.

NETWORK is real

Oh yeah, one more thing.
My darling husband-bear rented Network for us. Watch it. How the movie got made was people thought it was a black comedy in 1975 or so. Too outrageous. It must have been Roger Ailes plan for world domination. It is soooo real.

things that aren't connected but need to be said

There are a few disconnected things rolling around in my head so I will try to corral them and post clearly.

First: It has come to my attention that there was some early discussion about vaginas and plastic surgery. Evidently http://www.clitical.com/ will tell you all about it in words and yes pictures. As my friend and fellow Texan Joe Bob Briggs, drive in movie critic says, "Check it out." Remember my writing is of course strongly vaginal.

Second: I went to take my professional responsibility exam at the law school yesterday and there was some bureaucratic s.n.a.f.u. and I couldn't take my exam. To make a long story short, I cried and have written a letter to the proper authorities. I am better now. I feel better than James Brown to quote that fabulously sarcastic song by Was, Not Was.

Third: I am mad at Molly Ivins. Never met the woman, but in a recent column she decries the problem of DNA evidence and prosecutors sending innocent people to jail. Molly, that is how it works. Although D.A.s are supposed to, at least in the fictional world, be interested in justice and not convictions. Justice doesn't get you re-elected. The real problem isn't so much that D.A.s will do much to get a conviction, that is what we elect them to do. What is the big surprise? The problem is that defense lawyers do not have the same money to defend the accussed --unless they are rich defendants--that prosecutors have to prosecute.

But what really made me mad was Molly Ivins, normally a good journalist, has fallen for the line that Henry Lee Lucas was linked by DNA to two killings and that he was a serial liar to police. No, the problem is the Texas Rangers lied to the public that Lucas was a serial killer. There was no DNA to link him to any killings and the biggest reason why is DNA technology was not widely used in the early 1980s in criminal investigations. It didn't exist on the sophisticated level it does today.

Lucas is the one person Governor Bush did not execute because there wasn't any solid evidence that he did indeed commit the crime for which Texas wanted to execute him. The only reason Lucas was not executed is former Attorney General Jim Mattox went to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and told them the evidence against Lucas was dubious and it would all come back to bite Bush in his presidential aspiring ass. Lucas' sentence was commuted by Governor Bush on the recommendation of the Board which is a decision that Texas' governors cannot make without the Board's recommendation.

Molly doesn't much care for Jim Mattox so it doesn't surprise me she doesn't get the story right. Mattox was locked in a battle for the governorship against Ann Richards. Richards had won the primary against Mattox and former governor Mark White. There was even a Saturday Night Live parady of which candidate could execute more Texans. Richards never forgave Mattox for the rough campaign and didn't appoint him senator from Texas as punishment. It helped end the Democratic Party in Texas and gave you that fabulous consolation prize, John Cornyn. Richards was lucky she won. She ran against a guy Clayton Williams who made Yosemite Sam look reasonable. Richards then faced George W. Bush and 3% of Texans actually thought it was Daddy Bush running. Bush was a credible candidate against Richards who had smarted off about W.'s daddy. Grudge match.

Richards today? Tobacco lobbyist and not seen in Texas in years. Nor has she been seen much on women's issues. Those don't pay well.

The bottom line is once again authority this time in the form of the Texas Rangers didn't get investigated. Who is going to investigate the police? The police?

ATTA, ABRAMOFF, ETC.

Here's the beginning of an interesting essay by Joe Cannon at Cannonfire:

"A little bird has chirped in my ear, telling me to look closer at the possible connection between shady Republican money-man Jack Abramoff and the 9/11 terrorists. Uncharacteristically cryptic, the bird said no more.

"I knew about the Associated Press story (referenced in an earlier piece) which reported that Atta and company had hopped aboard a SunCruz casino ship on September 5, 2001. Abramoff owned SunCruz. He acquired the company under circumstances many consider strange -- so strange as to have resulted in his recent indictment. So strange as to involve the murder of the former owner, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.

"The feds had long suspected that SunCruz ships have been used for money laundering, and perhaps even drug importation. The ships are beyond all regulation -- nothing stops criminals for operating them.

"Al Qaida operatives have made many a strange visit to casinos -- visits that most investigators feel had more to do with criminal activity than with gambling.

"So what further information was the little bird referencing? I suspect the answer has much to do with courageous FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, who is legally restricted from revealing in public all that she found out during her stint as a translator".

Read the rest of Joe's post at Cannonfire.

Arianna Huffington: Cindy Sheehan Steps Into the Leadership Void

From Arianna Huffington via YahooNews:

"During my many years as a writer, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people. But talking with Cindy Sheehan this morning was unlike any conversation I’ve ever had. Even though we were talking via cell phone -- and had a crummy, staticky connection at that -- her authenticity and passion reached through the receiver and both touched my heart and punched me in the gut.

"She spoke with a combination of utter determination, unassailable integrity, fearlessness, and the peace of someone who knows that their cause is just. Her commitment was palpable -- and infectious. It reminded me an old quote about the great Greek orators: "When Pericles spoke, the people said, 'How well he speaks.' But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, 'Let us march!'"

"That’s the feeling I got from this former Catholic youth minister. S