Ok. So Maybe The Media Buys The Government Sometimes

You've got to read this long article at GQ: Not Necessarily the News. How Sinclair Broadcast Group bent the rules, bought politicians, and faked the news to become one of the largest independent owners of television stations in America. (And yes, we use the word “news” very, very loosely) By Wil S. Hyton about the Sinclair Broadcasting Company and how they control a lot more than you thought. Here's the last paragraph:

Whether minor or major, political or personal, the litany of deceptions at Sinclair do serve a common purpose. They may be designed to cut costs (like the weather forecasts), or to protect Republican allies by attacking Democratic rivals, or to promote a war and reap the profits, but what binds Sinclair’s business strategy together is the company’s commitment to the bottom line. Just as the company was willing to violate FCC regulations to exercise illegal control of TV stations, and just as the Smith brothers were willing to spend illegal amounts of money on their political patrons in exchange for political favors, they have also been willing to cast aside their own convictions in the interest of profit, championing moral values from the back rooms of topless bars and railing against political corruption while setting new standards for it—giving more than 95 percent of their political donations to the Republican Party, then basking in the rewards of loose oversight and unfettered access to elected officials. As a result, the story of Sinclair is not merely about the rise of bias in the news, because bias is a product of idealism. The story of Sinclair is also about the limits of that idealism, about what happens when bias succumbs to business interests and greed masquerades as principle.

Hat tip to Okieblonde for pointing out this story to us.
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Timeout

Tomorrow is the first of December and today is the last day of hurricane season. Friday night will be the day of our local Christmas parade. Three reasons to smile.

Our local Christmas parade is not your father’s Macy’s parade. It’s a small town and a small town parade. Probably as many of the locals are in the parade as are standing on the sidewalk watching it go by. There are dozens of kids in dozens of groups all decked out in their holiday finery and they are not marching in rhythm. They are skipping or walking along down the middle of the four lane “big” street. The high school bands are there too. Hopefully they’ll stop and play right in front of you. Sometimes they do. The Jeep club will drive by and all the Jeeps will be decorated with lights of all sorts. There are homemade floats and homemade costumes too.

Sounds hokey doesn’t it? It is, and it’s a must-see for Mr. Pop and me. It’s a part of the season, the kickoff of Christmas. It’s one of those times when you can easily be a kid again. You can yell to the “teacher of the year” as he or she rides by sitting on the back of a convertible. And you know what else? When the final float floats by you can wave at Santa Claus just like you did as a child, because for that few seconds, you are a child again.

I’m supposed to be writing about voter fraud today, but I’m not. I’m writing about wanting to be selfish, wanting to lay politics aside for a little while, letting it go. Because I hung my Christmas curtains in my kitchen this morning, and yes I did sew them myself, I want to let the holiday spirit swoop down and wrap all around me. I want to let go and decorate my kitchen and the rest of my house with things that make me smile. I want to fetch my grandmother’s doll from her storage place and sit her in a place of honor along with my Tony doll and second edition Barbie. This is the time of year when I remember the excitement I felt the first time I saw each of them.

This is the time of year when dropping money in the red kettle is the absolutely right thing to do. This is when you buy extra food and leave it in the donation box at the front of the local market. This is the time of year when memories come and go so fast that you sometimes laugh and cry at the same time.

All year long we make donations to different organizations but during the Christmas holidays it’s even better to share. We will be buying toys to donate to needy children. That is such fun because I can purchase the things that I always wanted from Santa when I was a kid. Oh, those dolls that come with different outfits and accessories. I remember staring at those and thinking they were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. They were too.

So please forgive me if for the next month I lapse into the Christmas spirit. Sometimes you just have to let go and sail away with the beauty, the love, the fun, and all things that make this the sweetest season of all.

Not everyone agrees with my attitude about this holiday season and I sure do understand and respect all opposing feelings and reasons and emotions. But you see, this is the season when I can be a kid just one more time, and I just can’t let that opportunity slip by. It’s too much fun to miss.

Bush: Same Old Tired Story

Bush gave another speech this morning to a typically happy audience of hawks. We won't cut and run.. blah blah blah. No politician is suggesting that Bush cut and run. Bush created a strawman:

MSNBC “Some are calling for a deadline for withdrawal. The many advocating an artificial timetable for withdrawing are sincere. But I believe they’re sincerely wrong. Pulling our troops out before they achieve their purpose is not a plan for victory...."

"To all who wear the uniform, I make you this pledge, America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander in chief,” Bush declared.

Mahablog gives the John Kerry response. Check it out.

Bush: Who Is Leaking On Me?

I'll bet many people would like to take a leak on bush cause he's been taking a leak on us for 5 years...

From Hardball via Huffington Post:

DEFRANK: It`s hard to know who, if anybody, at the moment, Chris. One of the things in the story in the "Daily News" that you`re talking about here is that he`s begun calling the paper -- reports that he`s been calling outside friends and advisers saying...

MATTHEWS: Who to trust?

DEFRANK: ... who`s leaking on me? Who, in your opinion, should I trust on my staff? Who, in your opinion, should I not trust on my staff? That is never a good sign.

MATTHEWS: Does he consider Karl Rove to be dispensable at this point because he may face an indictment?

DEFRANK: I think so. I`m told that. But, again, the president is an extremely loyal guy.

H.R. 550 - Your chance to demand verified voting

Sign the Petition Now

Ten Common Electronic Election Problems
1) Electronic Voting Machines Lose Ballots
2) Electronic Election Equipment Inexplicably Adds Ballots
3) Tabulation Software Reaches 32,767 Votes and Counts Backwards
4) Votes Jump to the Opponent on the Screen
5) DREs Provide Incorrect Ballots
6) Election-Specific Programming Miscounts Votes
7) DREs Break Down During the Election
8) Electronic Voting Machines Fail to Start Up
9) Registration Data Transmission Fails
10) Memory Cards and Smart Card Encoders Fail

Other Electronic-Election Phenomena
1) Election Officials Provide a Default Presidential Candidate
2) Totals Dip into the Negative Numbers
3) Voters Cast Non-Existent Ballots
4) DREs Require Voters To Scroll Through The Ballot Backwards
5) Report Shows 300 Registered Voters For Every Precinct in One County

More shocking electronic voting information: read at Rep Rush Holt's website.


And why did Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, Blackwell, co-chair for the Bush/Cheney campaign, refuse to allow non-partisan observers access to monitor the Ohio vote?

Not only that, Blackwell rolled out the Diebold voting machines that were decertified in California's Secretary of State because they failed in the largest test ever.

How could the exit polls, which were previously so right on, be so off in Ohio?

Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes: "It's election night, and early returns suggest trouble for the incumbent. Then, mysteriously, the vote count stops and observers from the challenger's campaign see employees of a voting-machine company, one wearing a badge that identifies him as a county official, typing instructions at computers with access to the vote-tabulating software.

The 2005 election in Ohio once again was full of corruption and deceit despite the outcry of Ohio citizens. What gives? And why do voting machines that leave no paper trail allowed anywhere in this country, a supposed democracy. Read Has American Democracy Died An Electronic Death In Ohio 2005's Referenda Defeats?''


On February 3, 2005, Rep. Rush Holt reintroduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550), a bill designed to restore confidence in the outcomes of elections and in our electoral process generally.

Paper Trail: The measure would require all voting machines to produce an actual paper record that voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Experts often refer to this paper record as a “voter-verified paper trail.”

Sign the Petition Now.

If you have a web log, please put this important information on your blog and keep it there. Tell your friends and neighbors. It doesn't matter what political party. This is democracy.

Thanks to the blogger formerly known as GD Frogsdong for instigating this blogswarm.

How Long Does Love Last?

According to Dr John Marsden of the UK's National Addiction Center, "Attraction and lust really is like a drug. It leaves you wanting more." Love gives you the buzz of taking drugs and there is withdrawal too. He also suggests that our animal instincts, our biology search for someone to mate with and there is a built in sex trap, a booby-trap if you will, because the more you have sex with a particular person, the more likely you are to fall in love with that person whether you want to or not.

Perhaps, I think, a regular sex buddy on the side may ruin a long term relation and you may inadvertantly fall in love with someone that really isn't good for you unless you want to have children. Ah... it's so complicated. Dr Marsden thinks that love lasts from 3-7 years. That's not good news if you've already had some children with your beloved.

There is more to this romantic love thing. Now the University of Pavla has also done love research and they maintain that romantic love only lasts one year. They have discovered a brain chemical responsible for the 'first flush of love'. They discovered that it's raised levels of a protein which are linked to "feelings of euphoria and dependence experienced at the start of a relationship." Ah remember the days when you were stupid in love and married that person anyway? In the long run those levels go back to normal and the love actually becomes more stable if it lasts. The love turns deeper and more companionate after the thrill is gone. Now that comes in handy if you have kids because you can pay attention to them so they don't grow up ignored and end up on the Springer Show.

But even if the thrill of new love is gone and you are still in a close personal relationship with someone that you don't want to break up with or think you should break up with because you think that new love is better, even though new love won't push your wheelchair some day, there is something that may be on your shelves by 2007 if you can last that long. A sex spray? Indeed. A nasal inhaler may light up your dead errogenous zones by acting on your brain chemicals. And isn't that really where love and sex reside? This spray can help to make you horny again. It's more than a viagra type drug which only works on the vascular system. While testing a sunless tanning agent, Melanotan II, PT-141 was discovered. The columnist, Susan Cheever in Newsday, has a lot to say about the ups and downs of this discovery.

Speaking about viagra type drugs, Mick Jagger's ex-wife, Jerry Hall is now the spokesmodel for erectile dysfunction in Great Britain. She believes a healthy love and sex life shouldn't be just for the young. She doesn't say in the article whether or not she believes that a healthy love life depends soley on the man's boner but all this attention to erectile dysfunction seems to indicate that.

There's a lot to be said about giving and taking in a relationship. When one party is not into doing anything to maintain a happy, healthy relationship except maybe popping a viagra once a month, I'd say that the relationship has pretty much run its course. It's a good thing for couples to find mutual interests and hobbies they can share in the long run. That's the key to healthy love life. Companionship and trust are most important in older ages. Then comes the viagra.

But what the hell do I know?

So what WAS he doing?

“WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff says President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of post-war planning, allowing underlings to exploit Bush's detachment and make bad decisions.”

The rest is here at Yahoo News.

Too aloof? Too distant from the details? The president of the US wasn't involved in taking the country to war? Could this be considered dereliction of duty? Why was he too distant from the details of post-war planning? What the hell was so important to him that he didn’t involve himself with the planning of a war that would result in thousands of deaths?

As he likes to remind us quite often, he is the Commander in Chief of the military. That makes him the big cheese of all of our soldiers and he was, “too aloof”, to be bothered with what he was about to send our soldiers to do? Who kept him distant from the details? Did he keep himself out of the mix, and if so, why?

In my opinion we are left to draw one of two conclusions. Either he is a stooge being used by the neocons, or he is a gutless, heartless, goon. Either way, just because he didn’t feel it necessary to do his job or was incapable of doing it, he cannot be excused from his responsibility for all that has resulted and is still resulting from this war.

Incompetence or dereliction of duty seem to me to be enough to draw serious attention to and questions about his ability to continue to serve as the leader of this country. Questions must be asked of a president of the US who will send our soldiers to die in a war when he is negligent and uninformed about the facts and the details. This is a serious breach of trust between the office and the people of the United States. Those who have lost family members in this war should raise a hue and cry because the person they trusted with that family member’s life was “too aloof, too distant from the details” but declared a war anyway.

America, America, The government shed disgrace on thee..

No Secret Prisons Allowed: If any European country is operating some of the US's secret prison and torture camps, the EU may revoke their voting rights because clandestine prisons are not in keeping with the EU's principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. Hey our country stands for those things too, but that hasn't stopped anyone.

Randy Duke Cunningham resigned today from congress after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for help in securing Defense Department contracts. Bad congressman, bad, bad.

Today a chunk of the facade of the Supreme Court building in DC fell and shattered into pieces because the US still allows safe and legal abortions. Only if Alito is confirmed will the building cease to crumble into ruins.

Prosecutors in the department's public integrity and fraud divisions -- separate units that report to the assistant attorney general for the criminal division -- are looking into Mr. Abramoff's interactions with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Bob Ney (R., Ohio), Rep. John Doolittle (R., Calif.) and Sen. Conrad Burns (R., Mont.), according to several people close to the investigation. heh.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today filed an Internal Revenue Services (IRS) complaint against James Dobson's Focus on the Family. The complaint asks for the IRS to investigate activities by the group which may violate IRS regulations and require a revocation of its tax-exempt status. Dobson has endorsed candidates for political office.

Who Served and Who Sends Others: Missouri Mule would like you to check out who in both parties served in the military. Verrrry Interesting indeed.

American Hiroshima – the next 9/11?

From Al-Jazeera (no wonder boygeorge wanted to blow the place up):

"David Dionisi, a former US army intelligence officer, is convinced that plans for a nuclear attack are under way.

(...)

"In his new book, American Hiroshima, Dionisi argues decades of unjust US foreign policies will be largely to blame...

(...)

(Dionisi quotes):
"The major media outlets are owned by a handful of corporations interested in promoting advertising and pro-government messages. Anything that challenges the existing power structure very often fails to receive airtime. I highlight Fox as an extreme example of the Republican propaganda machine.

"In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff presented a plan called Operation Northwood, which is now declassified. It proposed conducting mass casualty attacks on American targets and blaming it on Cuba to rally public support forwar against Fidel Castro. President Kennedy rejected the plan. So we shouldn't just assume any future attack on our soil is the work of al-Qaida." (Emphasis edit.)

Read the entire article at Al-Jazeera.net.

Jesus and the Theater of the Absurd

Just flipped the channel on the TV and caught Falwell on Fox talking about his make believe war on Christmas. Seems according to the totally wigged out minister (?) Jesus has hired himself a lawyer. Falwell said they are ready to defend anyone who feels intimidated because they have used words like “Christmas”.

Bush, Cheney, et al, say they didn’t lie about the reasons for war. Well, yes they did. If nothing else they lied by omission. They omitted telling us they were lying from the get go. It doesn’t matter what the meaning of “lie” is, when you don’t tell the whole truth and it causes thousands of deaths, well, that is a lie and it’s a sin.

Bush’s new focus is on border security. No, not the border of Iraq - the border of the US. Does anyone with a functioning brain believe he gives a damn about border security here in the US? They are programming him to talk about this subject in hopes that it will drain American brains of any notice of the war in Iraq. Too late for that magical act, because the show is over. We are staying focused on the blood dripping out of Iraq.

So we are bringing democracy to the Iraqis. We are bringing hopes for a better future. Okay, by the time this disaster is over there won’t be nearly as many democratic Iraqis due to a three year spate of bombs and chemicals and other democracy delivering tools.

In some strange way all of these aforementioned events seem so absurd: Jesus and his lawyer, bush administration and their lies, bush giving a tinker’s damn about border security, and the Iraqis being murdered in the name of democracy American style. It’s all like something out of a frightening novel. The one thing all these things have in common is the bullshit factor. There is no war on Christmas or Christ. The bush administration did lie. The war is a disgrace.

The other thing these events have in common is that they are frightening as hell. The reason they are frightening is because someone somewhere believes they are true. There are a group of Americans who believe that we should actually give a damn about keeping Christ in Christmas no matter what. They are actually willing to fight for this when there’s a real war going on in Iraq, a war based on transgressions. Are they nuts? They seem to be clueless. When we bring all our real soldiers out of the real war, the real sin, then we’ll have the luxury of playing around with this other insanity.

I’m just guessing here, but maybe a real Christ wouldn’t want his name associated with anything our country is up to these days. Maybe he wouldn’t want to have any part in the Theater of the Absurd, because as I understood his story he’s not crazy about lies and murders. I don’t think he would give a damn about where his name was used but I do think he would care about what has been done in his name.

Seymour Hersh Gives Us More Info

"After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that “God put me here” to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that “he’s the man,” the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reëlection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.”

And

"The President is more determined than ever to stay the course," the former defense official said. “He doesn’t feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage ‘People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.’” He said that the President had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. “They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway,” the former defense official said.”

And

"Many of the military’s most senior generals are deeply frustrated, but they say nothing in public, because they don’t want to jeopardize their careers. The Administration has “so terrified the generals that they know they won’t go public,” a former defense official said.”

The New Yorker

This is a must read article. Hersh tells you the possible plans after a troop withdrawal. He also confirms what we’ve all been thinking. The President of the United States is freakin’ scary and possibly dangerous due to his inability to accept reality.

Maybe Someone Was Sending Him 'Smoke Signals'

"Plane Carrying Card Makes Emergency Stop"
(CNN/AP Link)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - "A small, twin-engine plane carrying White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card made an emergency landing in Nashville Saturday after smoke began pouring into the cockpit, officials said.

"Card and 12 others on board were not injured when the Gulfstream 4 plane bound for Washington landed at the Nashville International Airport around 4 p.m., said Lynne Lowrance, an airport spokeswoman."

Good thing the plane didn't crash, 'cause then the conspiracy theorists would have had a field day.

HUH?

Yeah; since Andrew Card is suspected of possibly being the new "Deep Throat" in the Plame/Rove/Libby investigation being conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, if the plane had crashed then the cloak and dagger crowd would have surely started sniffing the wind. Not that plane crashes ever take the lives of prominent people and those doing investigative work...except for JFK jr., Paul Wellstone, Gary Caradori,...
UPDATE: (from Hannah in the "discussion thread") ...Ron Brown... Gov. Carnahan of MO...

"I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I have my plastic Jesus. . ."

Alabama is considering putting "God Bless America" on their license plates. Whataburger, a Texas tradition and possibly the best chain restaurant hamburger, has "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible" on their windows.

If we keep evoking God on car tags and hamburgers, what is going to satisfy the hyper-religious when these prayers for blessings don't keep tornadoes from tipping their trailer houses?

Have you seen Alabama? "The State that God Forgot" should be on the plates.

If God is blessing America, why do our godly leaders keep lying to us and the world about the Iraqi war? Why do our godly leaders kill more Americans and Iraqis weekly than your average serial killer, but they are godly and serial killers make creepy boogie man stories and television series?

If God is blessing America, why does a 13 year old die when a neighbor was simply unloading his gun and the gun fired sending a bullet through the walls of their apartments? I mean, if this is blessing us, please, keep it to yourself, alright, All Mighty?

We have given Bush two terms, whether you voted for him or not, and given a Republican Congress free reign to cover up his ugly deeds, whether you voted for him or not, because we have done nothing to support real reportage, real criminal investigations of his ugly deeds. Nor have we simply walked off our jobs--ever one of us in a national moratorium--to protest Bush. We have enabled him. So we have given the country to the Religious Right. Since we "pour God over everything like ketchup", why aren't we blessed? You mean somehow things could be worse, like God could turn his back on us?

Can we take control over our own lives and stop evoking the sky-God whenever we refuse to understand or act for ourselves? Can I buy a hamburger without evoking God and Country?

While driving across the great state of Texas and God Bless her, we noted yet another unnecessary and irritating thing: The green reflective sign that says Welcome to Texas at the state line now says, Proud Home of President George W. Bush. I shit you not. I know it never said Proud Home of Lyndon B. Johnson. WTF? I am going to write the Texas Department of Highways and Transportation over that error. I mean if we are going to put famous Texans on road signs, why not have it say, Home of Charles Whitman?*

I am so tired of this type of God as ketchup thing I wrote Mr. Whataburger the following:

My husband and I love Whataburger. But we do not like the new window stickers evoking "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible" on your windows.


Using God to sell hamburgers, while not particularly un-American, is cheap. Using the Pledge of Allegiance to sell hamburgers is a whole different class of cheap. If we are supposed to start every school day and every sporting event with it, which certainly doesn't do anything but get everyone to stand up, some people consider it rather politically important.


The pledge debate has gotten way outta hand. Kids get expelled for not saying it and now you are using it to sell hamburgers.


Why not just say you are a communist if you don't love our hamburgers? Why not just say God will smite you if you don't get fries with it?


I don't care if you put a Texas or American flag there because ever lying car salesman in the country does it but let's leave questions of sovereignty, religion, and federalism out of my hamburger.

I think that I am going to start a new business writing smart-assed letters to corporations when needed. Have an issue with a corporation? Let me send them a well crafted letter to get your message across when you are simply angry beyond words.

*Whitman, a former Eagle Scout and Marine, shot his fellow classmates to death from the University of Texas Tower in 1966. To date no one has suggested having his infamous name meeting and greeting you at the state line or naming a elementary school for him, yet their are plans for George Bush - named schools everywhere. When we passed Arcadia, La. there was a sign for Bonnie and Clyde museum. A Texas Legislator, Tom Moore, D-Waco, did get his fellow legislators to honor Tony De Salvo for his efforts to control population growth. De Salvo, while not a Texan, was credited as being the Boston Strangler and Moore was making a point that legislators have no idea what they vote for or against at any given moment.

This Week in God

Mother Jones magazine has devoted its whole issue to God and Country. It's been more than 200 years since the founding fathers established separation of church and state. Many seek to do away with that separation and will even try to establish God's kingdom right here in America.

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In Alabama there is a bill proposed that would put "God Bless America" on most every license plate across the great state. If you don't want that, then you would order specialty plates. Alabama is a "Bible" state, you know.

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In the UK, there is a film to be sent to 26,000 UK primary schools which teaches them the Christmas story including a lesson that "Jesus" is not a swear word. Not enough British children are attending church on Sunday.

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The Blessed Virgin is crying blood at a church outside Sacramento, California. Red stains appeared, were wiped away and then they reappeared a week later.

When I was a child, the large icon of Mary periodically wept at the beautiful Greek Orthodox church near my house. We kids would line up to get a glimpse of it and wonder if someone had attached a garden hose to the back of the icon.
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Today the Pope ushered in the Christmas season on this first day of Advent. He said, “We could say that Advent is the time when Christians should awaken in their hearts the hope that they can change the world, with the help of God.” Indeed.

~+~

Speaking of Christmas, upside down Christmas trees are all the rage and flying off the shelves. I considered getting one, but I opted for a green metallic Dr Suessian tree I found on eBay.

~+~

I just realized that I used the word Christmas a few times here. I am supposed to use the word "Holiday" instead so that I don't offend anyone. feh. It's typically ironic that in the effort to not offend anyone, so many people are offended. Those fringe liberals really piss me off. There are so many injustices in the world yet the debate about what to call a decorated tree should be the least of our problems. Take a prozak and call me in the morning, for gawd's sake. Christmas trees should be called just that.
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"Coat giveaway makes its own fashion statement"

(Thanks to Morgen D'Arc of the Green Party of Maine for the following article.)

From the Providence Journal (register to read):

"Buy Nothing Day, held on one of the busiest holiday shopping days, puts the spotlight on area's needy."
November 26, 2005
BY BRANDIE JEFFERSON


"There were plenty of coats on sale at the Providence Place mall yesterday for 10 percent 25 percent, even 50 percent off. But across the street, on the State House lawn, hundreds of people were getting coats, sweaters, hats and books for an unbeatable price: Free.

"Yesterday was the ninth annual Buy Nothing Day in Rhode Island. People donated more than three thousand coats which were offered, for free, to whomever wanted them. Buy Nothing Day is about the nature of "stuff" in America, according to Greg Gerritt, the main organizer of the event.

"Lots of people have too much stuff. Lots of people don't have enough stuff," he said. Yesterday, the relationship between those two groups of people was highlighted on a day typically known for consumerism and excess--one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

"Buy Nothing Day is recognized by community and activist groups around the world. The Rhode Island Green Party, of which Gerritt is a member, sponsored the first observance in the state. Since then, more than 50 community groups have pitched in, donating supplies and clothes, and spreading the word.

"The word is getting around. This year's event was twice as large as last year's, Gerritt said, and it keeps growing. Organizers said about 3,000 coats were donated this year, and there were also similar events in Pawtucket and Newport.

"This was the first winter that Richard Hart heard about the free coats. He walked down Francis Street, across from a new luxury condominium construction site, carrying two winter coats and two fleece sweaters for himself and a friend.

"Hart, who is in his 50s, is just starting to gray around his beard. Trained as a prep chef, he has been out of work and homeless for the past two years. He heard about the free coats at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day.

"I basically froze last winter," he said, but because of Buy Nothing Day, "I'm going to be pretty warm this winter."

"This was the second year Joseph Alan Hamrick visited Buy Nothing Day. Hamrick, 54, walked with an animated spring in his step. He wore a Crossroads ID tag around his neck and carried just one coat for himself.

"This is God's work," he said, "I don't get greedy."

"Along with clothes, there were free children's books from Books Are Wings, a statewide organization founded by Rep. Elizabeth Dennigan, D-East Providence, and her daughters.

"Parents and their children always appreciate books", Dennigan said, "even though warmth is uppermost in their minds."

"Two hours into the day, Dennigan, who was surrounded by volunteers, said they had given away more than 400 books. And they have 15 more giveaway events scheduled before Christmas. By noon, nearly 200 people were gathered on the State House lawn, mingling, looking through clothes and talking about the weather.

"If you look," Gerritt asked, "can you tell who's working? Who's donating? Who's getting coats?

"Usually the volunteers are over here" he said, motioning to his left, "and everyone else is over there" he said, spreading his arms to the right.

"And never the twain shall meet," he said, quoting Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Ballad of East and West." But many of the volunteers at Buy Nothing Day were people who came for coats and stayed to help.

"The need is great," he said, adding, as he surveyed the scene, "the generosity is great."

U.S. INVADES SYRIA

DEBKAfile Exclusive:

"US Marines battled Syrian troops Thursday night after crossing the border from Iraq into Syria at a point west of al Qaim.
November 25, 2005, 5:14 PM (GMT+02:00)
Both sides suffered casualties. US soldiers crossed over after Damascus was given an ultimatum Thursday, Nov. 24, to hand over a group of senior commanders belonging to Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda force. According to US intelligence, the group had fled to Syria to escape an American attack in Mosul. Syrian border guards opened fire on the American force."

UPDATE:
"DEBKAfile Exclusive: Syria claims US forces suffered 11 casualties in a Syrian-US clash Thursday night, Nov.24 – without clarifying whether they meant dead or wounded
November 25, 2005, 5:14 PM (GMT+02:00)
Internal Syrian communications channels report Syrian “Desert Guards” border units fought US Marines who crossed into Syria at a point west of alQaim. They also claimed 30 Syrian casualties.

"DEBKAfile’s military sources report the battle took place at the Syrian-Iraqi border town of Abu Kemal. US forces were in hot pursuit of a group of al-Qaeda operatives who fled across to Syria in escape an American attack pinning them down in Mosul. The US military delivered Syria an ultimatum to hand the terrorists over. The American pursuit continued Friday when Syria failed to respond."

UPDATE (2)

I recommend readers check out The Dark Wraith's expansion on this situation in the "discussion thread" below.

Okay, It didn’t really happen but if it did...

"Schmidt calls Bush Coward after President Pardons Turkey"

11/22/2005

EWM- (November 22, 2005) "Freshman Representative “Mean” Jean Schmidt (R-OH) stood on the floor of the House of Representatives today and called President Bush a coward for pardoning the White House Thanksgiving turkey.

"A real man would choke that bird with his bare hands. Cowards pardon and run, real men never do," said Schmidt. Last week the Ohio Republican drew boos and hisses by calling decorated war veteran Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) a “coward” after he recommended withdrawing from Iraq.

"This time Schmidt’s words prompted a melee that resulted in several minor injuries. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was treated for bite wounds after he was pushed into the Republican Cloakroom by four deputy whips and assaulted. He will undergo rabies shots as a precaution.

"Once order was restored, Schmidt began rambling about eating raw giblets and refused to relinquish the floor."

Read the rest at Eyewitness musings.

Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake

"In October 2002, (Rep. Norm) Dicks voted loudly and proudly to back President Bush in a future deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq — one of two Washington state Democratic House members to do so. Adam Smith, whose district includes Fort Lewis, was the other.

"Dicks now says it was all a mistake — his vote, the invasion, and the way the United States is waging the war."

Read the rest in the Seattle Times.

Thanks to "oddjob" over at the Dark Wraith Discussion Forums.

"Bush aides 'double-crossed' Blair"

Is Joe Wilson willing to cut Tailgunner Tony some slack?

"The ex-US diplomat at the heart of the political crisis in the White House says Tony Blair was "double-crossed" on the reasons for going to war with Iraq. Joseph Wilson said he believed the Mr. Blair had thought he was getting involved with a "disarmament campaign".

"But "he was double crossed by the regime change crowd in Washington" and ultimately had "no choice" but to go along with a regime change war. Mr Wilson told BBC Radio 4 the White House had "hyped the nuclear case".

Read the entire article at THE BBC.

REAL SIMPLE MAGAZINE: MEET MANWICH

Have you seen Real Simple magazine yet? It looks a lot like Martha Stewart Living with page after luscious page of lovely foods and happy, real simple people wearing expensive clothes and smiling at how simple their lives are.

"Tra-la-la," they seem to be saying as they clink simple, elegant glasses together while wearing simple, elegant monochromatic clothing.

The only problem is you can tell just by looking at them that life is Real Simple only because there's a Rosita somewhere taking care of the kids while they enjoy "soul-nurturing ritual times."

Whatever the hell that means.

Real Simple is supposed to be a classy antidote to magazines like Martha's that encourage us to spend our spare three and a half minutes a day sponge-painting terra-cotta pots with yogurt in order to cultivate a "distressed" look. (Look closer, toots. That's me, not the pot looking destressed.)

Words like actionable leave me feeling unsimple and even anxiously complicated. Much the same way I felt while reading the : "Pantry Dinners" section of the magazine and discovered that their idea of a simple recipe for Vegetable Chili with Polenta contained thirteen ingredients, not a danged one of them in my pantry.

What? You people never heard of Manwich?

Another issue printed a recipe for a tuna casserole that didn't even include cream of mushroom soup, proving that they've got a lot to learn about the simple life.

Real Simple is shameless in its quest to simplify everything. There's even a section called "Soul--In a Nutshell," apparently for people who are overcome by the rigorous demands of developing a soul via Oprah's three minute "Remembering Your Spirit" segments. Shouldn't some things take a little time?

Real Simple seeks to remind the frazzled working woman and mom that "It's about quality, not quantity." Less is more, they say.

No, it's not...More is more. Their idea of a lovely table is one white candle plunded down in the middle? I'm glad these freaks didn't plan my wedding reception, where every table had enough flowers for a casket spray.

It's quite trendy now to take decorating advice from "minimalists." Take idebana, for instance. This is a type of flower arranging where you essentially take a big stick from your yard, wire a single flower to it, and charge fifty bucks. I don't get it.

With this simplicity movement comes the new national obession: "nesting" at home. Whatever happened to going out on the town, spending too much money and staying out too late?

I'm sick of all those magazine articles about the importance of pot-roast-and-mashed-potato family dinners. I can't honestly believe that macaroni and cheese is the best way to soothe our national psyche. Nope I want to go out Friday night and have somebody serve me something sumptuous that isn't topped with Tater Tots. This is what it means to be an American, not sitting around weaving and discussing everybody's damn day. Don't we do that enough the rest of the week?

The whole return to the nest has led to a new design trend: the "hearth room." This is what we used to call the living room, that oversized, underfurnished, and always-cold-in-the-winter room where nobody ever went to unless it was Christmas or piano-lession time.

Later the living room morphed into the "family room"and finally, the "great room." We have a small one so I just call it the "okay room."

The new "hearth room" is a kitchen/great room combo that actually includes a firplace where you can tend those stewpots on Friday night instead of going out and getting sloppy on licorice margaritas like you used to do until "They" decided we should spend Fridays mixing cookie dough with the kids.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love cookie dough, but adults deserve some downtime, away from all the hearth and kith and kin. Or you can kith your sanity good-bye.

The hearth room is supposed to call to mind the home spun life so revered in shows like The Waltons. One big room with Grandma rolling out lard biscuits while John Boy scribbled obsessively on the settee.

Designers should remember that there was a reason everybody hung out in the hearth room back then. It was the Depression, the dark time in our nation's history when nobody ever had a date. Better to remember that those who don't learn from history are doomed to spend Friday nights at home. Or something like that.
.

:::groan:::

Annnnnnnnnnnnd, on that lovely note, me & my fat ass are going to bed.

Hope that all of y'all had a peaceful, stress-free day, and that the only major sins were overindulgence... Unless y'all managed to get video for me, of course... heh heh heh...

Turkeys got some weird ideas 'bout foreplay, huh...

I've seen worse.

Thanksgiving Wishes

Wishing you all a happy thanksgiving. I'm very thankful to be a part of this forum of good people from all over the earth. Awesome!

A sucker for punishment, I'll be heading to Maine in the morning, as if it's not cold enough already here on the lovely Isle of Long (29º) and we expect to travel through a snow storm. Oh goodie. How quaint and New England-ish. I don't care about the turkey and the food so much as it will be good to be with family that I hardly ever see.

Over the rivers and through the woods as they say...

Love to you all and especially you, my man in the moon
Liz

IT'S WORSE, BUT IT GOES BY A MORE ACCEPTABLE NAME

Remember THIS? (Scroll about halfway.)

I recently wrote to billydoom who has a background in metallury:
You're probably as aware as I am of the reports of the U.S. using "white phosphorus" here and there in Iraq.

My question is: Is this the same stuff as "napalm"? I'm trying to determine if the use of the term "white phosphorus" is another disinfo attempt by the media and the military--sorta like calling "hired killers" by the cleaned up name of "mercenaries" by the further cleaned up name of "civilian contractors".

I don't know if you've ever seen the photograph that splashed across the world's newspapers way back when, but when you see the word "napalm", a lot of people, like me, conjure up that image of the naked Vietnamese girl running down a road after having the clothes burnt off her body.

Here's the reply I received:

Honestly, is the SAME thing. In 1975, Napalm was banned internationally as a weapon.
White phosphorus is a slightly different formula ( napalm was phosphorus mixed with gasoline, White Pete is phosphorus mixed with jet fuel ). Under the new name, it can be used in battle mostly to illuminate the battlefield and against enemy combatants. Strictly prohibited against civilians. White Pete is deadlier than napalm. Jet fuel burns slower than gasoline, that's why it burns to the bone. It is a nasty weapon if used against troops. Napalm was deadly, but burned fast, unlike White Pete.

In principle, napalm and white pete are deadly because added phosphorus or magnesium will raise the temperature to about 3000 degrees F. You know gasoline and jet fuel burn at about 1500 degrees F ( that's why it could not melt steel in WTC fiasco, supposedly). White Pete is sprayed into the air like a brightly burning cloud; you cannot run away from it; it will stick to your skin and burn out together with your flesh. You die baby, you die!

My conclusion is: You can call it what you want, but if you're hit with it, chances are you will die a hideous, grotesque, and perhaps lingering death.

He's come a long way since he was a kid blowing up frogs with M-80s.

Thanksgiving Eve

It’s a crisp morning here in sunny Florida. It’s almost eleven in the morning and it’s only sixty degrees outside. We couldn’t have ordered more beautiful weather for tomorrow’s holiday. We will actually be able to open the windows in the kitchen and let the cool breeze mingle with the scent of the roasting turkey. There have been many Thanksgivings when we have had the air conditioning on to cool the kitchen while we cook in shorts and a tee shirt.

Like many of you, my life activities are about to go from zero to sixty in less than twenty four hours. Lots of things to do. So before they drop the green flag on this year’s Thanksgiving race to the table, I want to wish all the Little Turkeys who visit us here at Blondesense a very Happy Thanksgiving. A day filled with love and happiness and an opportunity to take some time out and remember how important the people we love are to our daily lives. Hug someone special for me and I’ll do the same for you.

Be safe and be sweet

Happy Thanksgiving

From Mr. Pop and me

Today's News

On The Battle Of Fallujah:

Before attacking the city, the marines stopped men "of fighting age" from leaving. Many women and children stayed: the Guardian's correspondent estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 civilians were left. The marines treated Falluja as if its only inhabitants were fighters. They levelled thousands of buildings, illegally denied access to the Iraqi Red Crescent and, according to the UN's special rapporteur, used "hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population".

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Another soldier's story: Aunti Roo sent this along

My 23 Days in Iraq tells how 'Retreat From Hell', a blogger at Kos, was injured in Iraq in 2004. He was paralyzed. Then read his other diary, 'When It Rains, It Pours' about how fucked up his life is now.

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From Bloomberg, some juicy news:

Scanlon, 35, a former aide to Representative Tom DeLay, told a federal judge yesterday that he conspired to commit fraud against four Indian tribe clients and corrupt public officials. He agreed to pay back $19.7 million in profits from the tribal clients, his share of the $39.4 million he had split with Abramoff, 46.

Raw Story Also Reports: Ohio congressman Ney, others in Congress in bribery probe
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Mean Jean Schmidt was lampooned on Saturday Night Live by Rachel Dresch. Wish I had seen it.

Regarding what she said about Murtha: "There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward," Bubp said. "My message to the folks in Washington, D.C., and to all the Congress people up there, is to stay the course. We cannot leave Iraq or cut and run - any terminology that you want to use."

Meanwhile Limbaugh and Carlson falsely claim that Bubp is serving in Iraq. The morons.
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Congress Didn't Get The Same Intelligence

The following is a short version of this fabulous article in the National Journal Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel. This has some good stuff that will arm you with information in case there are any Faux Spews watchers at your Thanksgiving festivities:

Bush said that congress had the same intelligence before the war that he had and then he failed to disclose that he had more evidence to the contrary. Alas comes yet another PDB from Sept 21, 2001 that explained to an eager bush who so desperately wanted Hussein and al Qaida to be linked so that we could go to war with Iraq, that Hussein only wanted to monitor the terrorist group because they were a threat to his secular regime. uh oh.

The Senate Intelligence committee wants to see all the PDB's because they may prove that the war for Iraq based on misrepresented intelligence. That means that perhaps the bushistas lied their way into a war. The Bushistas refuse to turn over those documents because they will be found out.

"What the President was told on September 21," said one former high-level official, "was consistent with everything he has been told since-that the evidence was just not there."

The article then says that the 9/11 Commission determined that

"... the CIA and other agencies did indeed provide policy makers with accurate information regarding the lack of evidence of ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq."

But days before asking congress for authorization to go to war, Rumsfeld et al made up a story and professed"

"...to have been given information from U.S. intelligence assessments showing evidence of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link."

Then Bush and Rummy lied to theAmerican people some more:

"You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," President Bush said on September 25, 2002.

The next day, Rumsfeld said, "We have what we consider to be credible evidence that Al Qaeda leaders have sought contacts with Iraq who could help them acquire … weapons-of-mass-destruction capabilities."

Cheny went around spouting that Mohammed Atta went to the Czech Republic before 9/11 to meet with an Iraqi intelligence official. The story was not true but Cheney kept repeating it despite the CIA telling him it wasn't true. In fact Atta was in Virginia Beach at the time he was purported to be in the Czech Republic. The 9/11 Commission also said that the meeting didn't happen. Cheney continued to lie even when the Czechs disavowed the story.

There was a super secret little part of the Pentagon that met in the "cone of silence" which the Senate Intelligence Committee is looking into. Douglas Feith set up that intelligence group which contradicted the CIA intelligence which was given to congress. Maloof and Wurmser were the guys there who had their own intelligence in the super secret room in the Pentagon but these clowns had no experience in intelligence analysis. That is where Bush, Cheney, et al got their erroneous public statements! Rummy liked their intelligence better since it could be used to go to war. Cheney liked it because it would back up his case for war.

Wolfowitz was so happy with the super secret Pentagon group that he wanted them to prepare an erroneous and super secret 'Iraqi Intelligence Briefing' in order to show the difference between them and the bad, bad CIA. Not only that, they wanted more evidencee on the story about Atta meeting the Iraqi official in Prague despite CIA and FBI claims to the contrary!

The article goes on to explain that the bushistas didn't really hate Wilson or Plame after Wilson's trip to Niger. The administration merely hates the CIA and believed that Wilson's message was set up by the CIA. Cheney loved the intelligence that was manufactured by the super secret Pentagon group so much that he lauded them and said it wasn't like "the crap we are all so used to getting out of the CIA."

So there you go. They are a bunch of liars.
But we already knew that..

Nominate Cindy Sheehan for Time Magazine Person of the Year

"There is no one in this country more emblematic of the change in Americans' attitudes toward the Iraq War than Cindy Sheehan. Let's make sure that Time Magazine at least considers her for 2005 Person of the Year."

Pass it on! CLICK HERE to vote.

Thanks to Mike Hersh and Carolyn Kay for the idea and the link.
Lots more really good stuff at makethemacountable.com

Thankfulness...

THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR ON YET ANOTHER FAKE AMERICAN HOLIDAY:

1. You're not an American NDN, and you don't live on The Rez, and you don't stare off into a yawning chasm of hopelessness where your country used to be.

2. You're not one of those bodies in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans that still haven't been "discovered" or "recovered."

3. You're not someone fleeing Katrina and/or Rita, being turned-away from shelter by racists and paranoiacs and crackers toting guns.

4. You're not a former public-housing resident of Orleans or St. Bernard or Jefferson Parish, left hanging in a trailer city without any future or promise for even returning to your previous low "standard of living."

5. You (ostensibly) have a home and a job and a future. For those who don't, holidays don't mean a fucking thing.

6. You don't live here, at Fucktard Acres, surrounded by lowlifes, convicted child-molesters & other felons (who, supposedly, aren't allowed into subsidized housing), fucktards, morons, loud-mouthed freaks, ignorant assholes who think that they have the RIGHT to shove THEIR cult participation down your fucking throat every day of the fucking WEEK, psychotics who play their TV and stereo at top volume, EVERY FUCKING NIGHT, as soon as you go to bed, and general creepy bastards who lurk around here like the short-bus angels of death.

And no, don't tell me to "reach out" to these freaks --- tried that. Not worth it. All I want is one fucking night of peace & quiet, and nobody can give me that.

What am I "thankful" for? For Fitzmas (if it ever really comes), for my remaining nieces & nephews, for cornbread dressing, for my boyfriend, and for great people online who keep me semi-sane on a regular basis. It just irks the shit out of me that there's still so much wrong with the world and that I haven't fixed it yet.

Enjoy your food orgies, my friends. But never forget those who won't get them.

Pre-Turkey Day Thoughts

It just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without ______________

Insane Parts of Cheney’s Speech

When Cheney spoke yesterday he said, "What is not legitimate--and I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible--is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence."

No, it’s not. What is reprehensible is that neither he nor bush can deny they purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence. Prove you were right; don’t just spit on anyone who says you are wrong. Show us where you messed up. Show us everything you did. Stop slapping us and come clean with us. We are fairly intelligent people, in spite of the sad fact that over half of us voted last year to keep george bush in the oval office. Explain it to us, maybe we’ll understand.

Why shouldn’t anyone question what the hell went wrong? Bottom line is what they told us was flat out wrong and they knew it when they said it. Now they have all this new bullshit they are saying and frankly, it doesn’t even make sense. For example, yesterday Cheney also stated, "Those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions," Cheney said, such as whether the United States would be "better off or worse off" with terror leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri in control of Iraq."

What? Was Saddam the kind of fellow to allow this to happen? I think not. He sounds to me like a guy who would have mowed this stuff down in a heart beat.

So rather than tell us the truth, Cheney makes up this scary picture to plant into the empty heads that believe everything they hear coming from this contemptible administration.

Also yesterday Cheney said it was Saddam’s responsibility to prove he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Say what? So how do you go about proving a negative?

This past Sunday Rumsfeld was a guest on Chris Wallace’s program. Here’s a snippet from their conversation:

FOXNews.com:

WALLACE: Well, so it's not just Washington. But let me ask you one last thing. And I have to say, a lot of people wanted me to ask you about this. Able Danger, an intelligence unit in the Pentagon — did they or did they not identify Mohammed Atta and some of the other 9/11 hijackers in the year 2000?

RUMSFELD: There are people that said they did. The year 2000 or earlier? I don't remember when it was.

WALLACE: No, the year 2000.

RUMSFELD: Was it? I wasn't in government at the time, obviously.

WALLACE: Right.

RUMSFELD: But there are some people who say that that's the case. There are other people involved who say it isn't. And the people in the Pentagon, I'm told, have spent just enormous numbers of hours digging into everything they can find and giving it to the appropriate committees of the Congress, and they have not been able to validate it.

WALLACE: I don't understand why it's so complicated. I mean, people are — I mean, it's a fact. Why wouldn't you, as the secretary of defense, your people underneath you, be able to find out?

RUMSFELD: They've looked and they — you can't prove a negative. They've looked and looked and looked and looked and found everything they could find. Cannot find validation of that, which doesn't mean it didn't happen.


See? Even Mr. Rumsfeld knows you can’t prove a negative, maybe he should share his knowledge with Mr. Cheney.

And the Iraqi's Want US Troops Out of There Too

ABC News:

Reaching out to the Sunni Arab community, Iraqi leaders called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and said Iraq's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.

The communique finalized by Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders Monday condemned terrorism but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.

The leaders agreed on "calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces … control the borders and the security situation" and end terror attacks. (more here)

Well that's a fine thank you. The Iraqi leaders don't consider those who target out troops, terrorists as do the bushistas. What do you think is going to happen next?
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Katrina Victims Still Missing: Congress Still Missing

A reservist I know was recently deployed to New Orleans. He called one day, the week before last, to tell us that he was going into houses that were never even looked at by rescue workers. In one day, they recovered 76 bodies. I think we'll call him this week to find out more.

Today I read in the USA Today that 6,664 are still missing. The number may be inflated because of government record keeping problems. There are 1,300 unaccounted for people however in areas that were heavily damaged. They are still trying to find out what happened to 1,000 of the unaccounted for children. It is feared that some will be listed as dead.

Meanwhile in the NYTimes today, it's being reported that relief efforts seem to be fading in Louisiana. What really frosts me is this passage:

"Congressional leaders have been scrambling to rein in spending, and many in Washington have grumbled that Louisiana's leaders have asked for too much, while failing to guarantee that the money will be spent efficiently and honestly."

And this too:

"Few people in Congress are openly threatening to block money for reconstruction. More typical are sotto voce mumblings about whether federal money will be squandered through incompetence or graft by Louisiana officials. And some lawmakers have openly wondered whether each neighborhood in New Orleans needs to be rebuilt and protected with expensive floodwalls."

Puhlease. I think we have heard quite enough bullshit from "congressional leaders". Why aren't they finding out what happened to the 9billion missing in Iraq if they are so concerned about money. They are more interested in politics and their jobs in the 2006 elections. I think it's time for another protest in DC and this time against congress.

And this from that asshole in Alaska that I can't stand:

"Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, raised concerns about Congressional commitment to New Orleans when he said during a tour of the city that Alaskan towns damaged by storms were often relocated. Mr. Stevens also warned that the spate of recent natural disasters meant that Louisiana might not receive money as swiftly as it would like."

Comparing New Orleans to an Alaskan town? Good one.

Now I Know Why The American Main Stream Media Has Been Gobbling The Neo-Conservative Gutwrench

Maybe the MSM figures they'll get their asses blasted if they don't toe the line.

How does the saying go?: "You're either with us, or we'll reduce you to rubble..." something like that anyway.

"Blair Talked Bush Out Of Bombing Al-Jazeera"

LONDON (AFP) - "US President George W. Bush planned to bomb pan-Arab television broadcaster al-Jazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror said, citing a Downing Street memo marked "Top Secret".

"The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the daily which is against the war in Iraq.

"The transcript of the pair's talks during Blair's April 16, 2004 visit to Washington allegedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters.

"Blair allegedly feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Persian Gulf, would spark revenge attacks."

Read the entire article at Yahoo.com.

Who Says The Government Isn't Here To Help People? Thanks, Geor...Er, Uh, Hugo.

Thousands in Mass. to get cheaper oil

A subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to local charities and 45,000 low-income families in Massachusetts next month under a deal arranged by US Representative William D. Delahunt, a local nonprofit energy corporation, and Venezuela's president, White House critic Hugo Chávez.

The approximately $9 million deal will bring nine million gallons of oil to families and three million gallons to institutions that serve the poor, such as homeless shelters, said officials from Citizens Energy Corp., which is signing the contract. Families would pay about $276 for a 200-gallon shipment, a savings of about $184 and enough to last about three weeks.

Read it all at Boston.com

Who is Colonel Danny Bubp?

Remember when the wicked woman, Jean Schmidt, stood on the House floor and said she had received a phone call from Colonel Danny Bubp? Then she proceeded to repeat Col. Bubp’s words and that caused all hell to break loose. So who is the man who called her and why did he make the call? Max Blumenthal found out.

"A quick glance at Bubp's background reveals him to be a low-level right-wing operative who has spent more time in the past ten years engaged in symbolic Christian right crusades than he has battling terrorist evil-doers. And throughout his career, Bubp's destiny has been inextricably linked with Schmidt's. Bubp may be a Marine, but his view of Murtha as a "coward" is colored by naked political ambition. He is nothing more than cheap camouflage cover for the GOP's latest Swift-Boat campaign."

There’s lots more here at The Huffington Post.

Staying Sane? How?

Flame, a regular commenter here at Blondesense, asked a very good question today. It’s so good that I want to post it so each of you may respond.

Here’s the question: "What does everyone else do when they need a break? How do you keep your sanity?"

This question was asked in regard to my post “Losing it”. These days it seems a lot of us feel we’re on the brink, if not in the drink, when it comes to our sanity. The lies and the war and all things evil this administration is responsible for tend to make us want to tear out our hair in anger and frustration. When you feel you’re losing it, losing your grip, what do you do to keep your sanity?

Cheney Speaks and Says Nothing

Cheney spoke this morning, but if you didn’t hear him, don’t worry, you’ve already heard everything he said. He just recapped the reasons that they used to justify what they did. Old stuff, reheated and served as fresh and tasty. No one swallowed it except those who have already acquired a taste for it.

I can’t find transcripts yet but I think I understood him to say that before we invaded Iraq, the terrorists wanted to invade Iraq and make it their new headquarters. I don’t recall hearing that one before. And again, maybe I misunderstood what he said.

He did say we now allow debate in our country and there was no mention of torture. So that’s good. He said debate was good but he didn’t say it would stand a snowball’s chance in hell of having any effect on the way they would conduct their war.

Bottom line there will be no changes made and they will keep repeating the same old shit over and over again.

What they don’t realize is that we do not allow anyone to wash our brains. This repetition crap won’t work no matter how many times they try to flood our heads with lies.

Pissing on Firecrackers

Imagine if you will (said with my best Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, voice) a very long string of connected firecrackers. On either side of these firecrackers is a line of people composed of diehard Republicans for bush. There is Scooter and Karl and Cheney and all the gang of outlaws. Someone sneaked in and lit the first firecracker and now as the little explosions continue down the line, each person standing by tries to piss on them to try to stop the advancing explosions. Why are they trying to stop the advance? They know that someone has his wrists tied to the final firecracker and they know that person is george bush.

Mary Matalin was on Imus’ show this morning and she said that Scooter didn’t lie, he just “disremembered.” Maybe I’m just in the holiday spirit (no, not the adult beverage spirit), but I thought that was funny as hell. To hear Mary talk about Scooter you would think he was being considered for sainthood rather than being indicted for a felony. Mary threw her little cup of urine on the firecrackers.

Yesterday, Rumsfeld was all over the TV. His silly face kept popping up on every channel. I don’t know if he made it to QVC or not. He too was armed with a cup of urine and just like Mary, he missed his target and the fireworks continued to pop.

By the way, who was it that ignited the first firecracker? Was it Fitzgerald? Was it Rep Murtha? Maybe it was the American people. All we know for sure is something started the fire and it continues to burn and pop.

If this were a movie it might be great to watch and highly entertaining. You see in movies no one really dies. In our reality of this novel time, so so many people have died. What we are watching is the comedy of a tragedy.

While it is fun to watch the gang try to stop the fireworks, it’s so sad that no one is mentioning the deaths. They are so busy trying to convince us that they have done nothing wrong. I guess they think we “disremember” what they told us before they declared we must go to war. We don’t.

The only result we see of the urine tossing is that they are stinking up the place and it’s too late to stop the firecrackers. They are so busy pissing on the firecrackers and trying to cover their own asses because they know that no one can untie that final firecracker.

Losing It

After reading that piece about Rendon, (linked below in Liz’s post, War News) I feel like someone just slapped me in the face. Damn, what next? How dirty is this going to get and who the hell is going to be able to clean it up. We are going to clean it up, right? Where would one start?

Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind and that all this shit could not possibly be true. Am I the only one who has these feelings and thoughts? I’m telling you sincerely, sometimes I think I might be nuts because it just couldn’t be as bad as it looks. I try to back up, clear my head and then look at everything from a new objective point of view, but it still looks the same. I guess it’s possible that I’m losing it. I hope that’s the case, because that would mean things aren’t as bad as they seem.

The Ghastly Part: The Media Is Treating This Like "NEW" News:

"US army accidentally killed civilians"

"U.S. troops opened fire on a crowded minivan north of Baghdad on Monday, fearing a car bomb attack, and killed at least three members of the same family, including a child, the U.S. military and survivors said."

Read the article at Reuters.

War News

Leaving Iraq too soon would allow Iraq to be turned into a haven for terrorists, Rumsfeld said.

Rep. John Murtha, the Democrat whose call for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq set off a furor last week, on Sunday predicted U.S. forces would leave Iraq before next year's U.S. congressional elections.

Two months before al-Haideri took the lie-detector test, the Pentagon had secretly awarded him a $16 million contract to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. One of the most powerful people in Washington, Rendon is a leader in the strategic field known as "perception management," manipulating information -- and, by extension, the news media -- to achieve the desired result.

Colin Powell's former Aid said that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.

Didn't Murtha say that the US Military are the targets now? If you were a constant target, you'd be on the defensive and might accidentally kill the wrong people too.

No Escape, Indeed!

"President Bush tugged at both handles on the double doors before admitting: "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work."

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet --
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

Read the rest of "The Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson at
http://tinyurl.com/8ljsp

Bush Changed His Tune

BEIJING- "People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq," Bush said, three days after agreeing with Vice President Dick Cheney that the critics were "reprehensible."

The president also praised Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., as "a fine man" and a strong supporter of the military despite the congressman's call for troop withdrawal as soon as possible.

Bush went on to say:

"I heard somebody say, `Well, maybe so-and-so is not patriotic because they disagree with my position.' I totally reject that thought," Bush said.

"This is not an issue of who's patriotic and who's not patriotic," he said. "It's an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq."

Hmmm. Even a blonde could figure out that the hawk's argument against the Democrats "You screwed up because you trusted us" was rather lame.

The article also said he was suffering from jetlag.

UPDATE: Speaking of jetlag, Missouri Mule sent me this link and there is a video of the Chimperor trying to escape from reporters. oh god.

Excerpt: President George W Bush tried to make a quick exit from a news conference in Beijing on Sunday - only to find himself thwarted by locked doors. The president strode away from reporters looking annoyed after one said he appeared "off his game". President Bush tugged at both handles on the double doors before admitting: "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work."

This Week In God

Jesus and Mary didn't appear on any nachos or stains this week.

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Uh oh, the Christian Right Wrong has been attacked by the Jews. Well it's about time and I was wondering when it would happen as the Wrong Wing Christians have completely bastardized the Old Testament. Bravo Rabbi Eric Yoffie!

HOUSTON - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.

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Michael Newdow, the famed atheist who gives a bad name to atheists, made the WW Christians so defensive in the first place by trying to ban the pledge of allegiance in schools, thus making everyone on the left be labeled as horrible people, now seeks to remove "In God, We Trust" from US money. It would be more worthwhile to try to get tax exemption status removed from outspoken so called "Christians" and "Churches" who shill for conservative politicians. That would make more of an impact. This other stuff just pisses everyone off. Including me.

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This week a Vatican astronomer, yes they have them now after the Copernicus debacle, joined the evolution debate to remind Catholics that they don't believe Genesis is a scientific account of the creation of the world. (AP- link to story) Learned biblical scholars do not take Genesis literally... probably because most scholars went to school and took science classes. When I studied theology and the bible in graduate school, the point of learning Old Testament was to learn what the author was trying to tell us and how. We ask, what is the point of a passage? No one is expected to take it literally.

There's a good op-ed by a professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University in the Baltimore Sun today explaining it better than I can. By the way, a new poll reveals that most Americans want evolution taught in schools. And the ones who don't are probably very left behind.

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This week bush embarrassed me again. No way. Yes way. He was in China, went to a Chinese Christian Church and said 'May God bless the Christians of China'. Oy vay. And what was that supposed to mean to the rest of the Chinese people? Fuck you? Bush said. "My hope is that the government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly. A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths." There are so many things wrong with that statement that I just had to pick my brains up off the floor as they exploded.

"Viagra May Face Serious Challenge" From Where Else But...DONGA!

"Is the market for prescription erectile dysfunction drugs up for a major change?"

"The question is frequently asked nowadays ahead of the launch of a Korean drug, possibly early next month, in a market completely dominated by multinationals.

"According to industry sources, Donga Pharmaceutical, is planning to begin marketing Zydena, a drug it developed for erectile dysfunction, beginning next month.

"A Donga official declined to confirm the launch date.

"However, the industry sources said that as its marketing strategy, Donga will heavily accentuate the fact that Zydena has been developed with Koreans in mind in contrast with three other foreign drugs that dominate the Korean market."

Read the entire article at The Korea Times.
And BTW, The Dark Wraith, exercising once again his marvelous prescient ability, predicted correctly that I would post this item "within minutes" of reading about it on the news trailer at his Discussion Forum Site.
Once again, I bow in homage to The Wraith's precognitive abilities.

Never piss off your pro-war congress person

Makin' groceries...

Prices that you can expect to rise exponentially, post-Katrina:

Sugar (3-4X), seed & feed corn, pecans, natural gas, coffee (Port of New Orleans is where 90% of this country's coffee passes in), soybeans & soy products, seafood, Cajun specialties (andouille, tasso, boudin, etc.), paper products (Georgia Pacific has more mills here than any state BUT Georgia), and anything that comes out of Exxon (Plastics, Chemical or Refineries) or Dow Chemical.

And by January, expect another ass-raping jump in gasoline prices, but, of course, there will be an excuse.

The sugar price hikes won't go into effect until the spring, probably, since they're still selling off this past year's harvest, but by Easter, WHAMMO!

Don't say that you weren't warned. Hoarding is impolite, but storing is a good idea.

Our Leader's Trip To Asia

Our leader plays dressup.
First pretending he is a military man, and then I don't know what.
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Then he poses with that stupid face of his that was made famous during the debates with John Kerry. What is Putin telling him?
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A Korean woman greets Bush with signs of warm affection. Another woman reads Korean children her husband's favorite bedtime story. Wow! What hard words in the book.


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Condi No!

I know. I know. There are so many things wrong with this picture, but what is most striking is the neck area on Condi.

But what was she thinking when she bought that shirt?

It appears that her wrinkly neck goes on ad infinitum. Condi must give that shirt to the Salvation Army and get the negatives back from the AP.

Republican Representatives, Not Housebroken

If you were watching C-span last night you witnessed the Republican House of Representatives taking a collective dump right in the middle of the Floor. They first played a few children’s games and then all gathered and cheered their own fecal matter production. Rep. Jean Schmidt of Ohio, was so gleeful that she followed the stinking stunt by running as fast as she could and then jumping headfirst into the middle of the pile of fetid matter. She smeared the stuff all over herself. Ohio voters who voted for her must be proud.

It was enough to make any American gag. Sadly it may be the first of many such ordeals, while American soldiers are dying.

How will the public react to what they saw last night? They should stick all the Republican Representatives’ noses in what they did and the next chance they get, they should take them out of the House.

WATCH THIS!!!

Now running on Showtime: The Comedians Of Comedy Tour

Who knew that Patton Oswalt was a fucking genius???

"Those of you who support Bush... who AREN'T billionaires... You're like the dumb girl at the county fair, giving away blowjobs (to mediocre soap-opera "singers" like Michael Damien) for nothing."


Pretty much.

Vatican Official Refutes Intelligent Design

Most Catholics know that the RCC doesn't take the creation story literally but this needed to be said officially:

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science." (more)

Your Government at Work

Champions of the Rich, Enemies of the Poor and Middle Class

In this week's episode of fuck the poor, the mostly Republican House salvaged the $50 billion spending cut by a vote of 217 to 215 by not drastically cutting the programs for the poor, college students and farmers as much as they wanted to a week earlier. The Senate was a bit kinder to the poor avoiding direct cuts to the beneficiaries of antipoverty programs but allowing arctic drilling which the congress cut from it's spending cut bill. (WaPo)

In the meantime, big oil will continue to reap tremendous profits.

Democratic Senators which proposed a bill to make oil price gouging a federal crime and outlawing market manipulation by major oil companies was defeated by 3 votes. (link)

Earlier yesterday, the Senate rejected, 64-35, a proposal by Democratic Senators Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd to impose a 50 percent excise tax on oil companies' profits when oil exceeds $40 a barrel, unless profit is reinvested in exploration activities or developing new refineries. An amendment by California Democrat Diane Feinstein and New Hampshire Republican John Sununu to eliminate some tax breaks for large energy companies also was defeated, 51-48. (Bloomberg)

The Senate this week also voted against a way to fix Bush's Folly in Iraq. How dare senators require a timely end to the war. (USA Today)

Today the Senate will debate privacy protections regarding the Patriot Act. Yes, your privacy is still being debated you scaredy cats who willingly gave up your rights after 9/11. (link)

In an effort to keep the rich as wealthy as possible, a Democratic amendment which sought to pay for $60 billion in tax cuts by closing tax loopholes failed in the Senate on Thursday.

The U.S. Senate approved a $60 billion tax-cut measure that spares about 14 million [wealthy] Americans from paying higher rates under the alternative minimum tax. (link) Lawmakers defied a demand by the White House to delete a $4.3 billion tax increase on oil companies in the measure, which passed on a vote of 64-33 shortly after midnight last night. (link)

The tax-cut package would more than wipe out the $35 million in spending cuts the Senate approved earlier this month.

Today's Newsday editorial: "Even for a body composed of professional politicians, the Senate has had quite a week. First it offhandedly punched a hole in the Constitution, and then it sought public accolades for patching up part of the damage it had just caused." Indeed. (read the rest)

Commenter At Americablog Rivals The Dark Wraith In Eloquence

I believe the following qualifies for "Quote of the Week" honors:

"It's absurd that in the 21st Century there are still people that when they don't understand things they assign a supernatural meaning to it and call it quits.

"I don't know the mechanics of farting, but that doesn't mean I have a stink demon up my ass." -- John Nation

Seeing Red

Today is "Red Friday", a fabulous title with an ironic double meaning.

An email is going around encourging us red blooded 'Murkans who support the troops, the war, the country at war, their kids going off to war for the god of war, to wear red on Friday's. This will make the pussies who hate their country literally see red in a sea of red.

One email says, "Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops...Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red. "

Groovy meme. Red symbolizes all the blood being shed overseas so it's a good reminder to wear red to symbolize the blood, the gore, the loss of life, in the name of god only knows what but I don't care, because a good American loves a good old fashioned war.

The email ends with, "The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can we do to make things better for you?" is..."We need your support and your prayers." Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear some thing red every Friday."

Indeed. My brothers and sisters, lets be 'dignified' and wear the color of blood every Friday starting today. We wouldn't want our troops to think that we don't support them.

I say we encourage Congress to send more bullets, more body armor and armored vehicles to show our support of the troops.

I say we encourage Congress to demand that the war generals come up with a war strategy too. I think the troops overseas would really dig that. Better late than never.

I say that we encourage Congress and the Executive branch to show their support for the troops by sending at least one family member to the front. I'd like to see the corporate CEO's, the stockholders, the "journalists" who shill for the government, and the war planners in the pentagon either enlist, re-enlist or send a family member to the front.

I want to see my president, the commander in chief, stand in a battle field (he can wear body armor and carry a gun, of course) and lead our troops to victory! By God, the real patriotic Americans did it in WWII and they should do it now.

Please join me in song...

God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above...

-Tip of the helmet to Lalock.

From The Dark Wraith Forums:

Special Blog Post: An Open Letter to Bill O'Reilly

Dear Mr. O'Reilly:

You have received a small share of wrath from bloggers who are appalled and revulsed by your invitation to al-Qa'ida to bomb San Francisco without fear of retribution. That you deserve every angry word that has been published about you is not in dispute: you have earned that animus in its full measure, and you should receive more. Much more. Your right to speak your mind does not include the privilege of a wide audience; you should be fired that you may learn the right of speech carries the accountability for its consequences.

Far more diversity than you imagine may be found in the voices arrayed against you. I am hopeful that you will publish my Website in the list of your enemies: those who might have found some reason to continue their support for you need to see that your simplification of the world is not merely dangerous, but wrong, too.

I was born into a Republican family. I grew up during the Cold War.

Contrary to the facile way that era is now treated by many, the times were complicated and perilous, both at home and abroad; great men confronted the issues of those times. I learned to be what is now sometimes derisively called a "Rockefeller Republican." One of my uncles was a member of the Sierra Club; another was gay. My parents left a church, never to return, the Sunday the preacher thundered against John F. Kennedy. Eisenhower was a great man, but his vice president was something of a toad; and Barry Goldwater was just a little bit "out there" somewhere, more of a mild embarrassment than a contribution. Both of those men, though, regardless of how history and the institutional Left might treat their legacies, came to contribute something to the society. Despite their great flaws, I hold no grudge against either. They were Americans, and so am I.

The enemy back then was Communism, and its armies were to be vigilantly kept in check on a global chessboard, where most of the moves–actually, all of the good moves–were incremental. Nameless Air Force pilots patrolled the cold, night skies to keep us safe; young grunts tried to keep their eyes open through the miserable nights at Checkpoint Charlie; gunners stood watch ready, but never really believing, that those hills way out there on the plains of Europe could one day be a sea of Russian tanks to target in furious hails of artillery bombardment.

Men of long experience and extraordinary wisdom met with others of the same kind in places all over the world to maintain, and once in a great while expand, our sphere of influence. Occasionally, we made deals with the Devil, but we usually told ourselves that one day we'd get rid of him once and for all. That was the incremental vision of a world that we should hand off, generation after generation, a little better than we received it.

At home, we did our best to allow the tide of a liberal society to flow forward through the second half of the 20th Century, while trying to keep that inevitable process slow and introspective. That part was harder than keeping the Communists at bay: the American society was just bursting at the seams with new ideas, and everyone wanted everything to happen right then and there. Unrepentant kids wanted to tear it all down, and blustering ignoramuses wanted to hang them all in the streets.

Those who managed our world and our government were educated in the best traditions of Western Civilization. They had learned the lessons of history, philosophy, and science; and they were able to infuse into their policies and decisions a secular, rational mindset. They saw themselves as the caretakers of the Age of Reason, without any doubt at all that this was the age for all future ages.

All of that is gone, now. Men and women of your kind now stand prominent and proud in bitter anger at a world that is not exactly as you want it. An influential religious leader like the Reverend Pat Robertson warns that natural disasters will befall those whose beliefs and practices differ from his; an influential former political man like William Bennet says that crime rates would be lower if only we would remove people of color from our society; and you, sir, literally call down the most violent and destructive of our enemies—enemies who hate our nation, our beliefs, and even our very ways—upon those with whom you disagree on politics and social policies.

My God, Mr. O'Reilly, can you not see—can you not grasp—the utter shamefulness of what you said? What tribal, primitive god, or more precisely, what demon in the mask of a god, brought you to what you are?

Were you my boy, I would take a belt to you; and I would do so every time you opened your mouth to spew such filth. You see, Mr. O'Reilly, I'm Old School; and even though I abide to the extent I can the wise words of men like the rabbi from Nazareth, I haven't an eternity to wait for the world to come to my way of seeing things.

Make no mistake, though, sir: were you to be in the way of harm from our common enemies, I would defend you. That is the call of duty. More importantly, however, I would choose to defend you. That is the call of honor.

But should men, women, and children suffer and die because you have delivered them to the murderous hands of those enemies, I would take action. Were the civil society unable, infected as it is by men of minds like yours, to decline the obligation to exact retribution upon you, then I would have no qualm in exacting vengeance upon you.

Should you exhort your followers to seek pro-active harm to me, ensure first that they do not read this open letter. You might find that, when they have seen what I have to say, they will find that I am not as you have characterized all who disagree with you; you might find, instead, that they would affirm that you do, indeed, need that belt taken to you. You might find that they, too, are Old School.

And you might find that, unlike you, sir, most Americans are people of honor.



The Dark Wraith has spoken to you, Mr. O'Reilly.




(The Dark Wraith Forums can be accessed at http://dark-wraith.com/ -- ed.)
UPDATE: Anyone interested in advising Foxnews and Mr. O'Reilly of this letter can do so at politics@foxnews.com and comments@foxnews.com

Plame's husband wants Post to probe Woodward

"It certainly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. He was taking an advocacy position when he was a party to it," Wilson said."

The rest at Yahoo News.

Someone Stepped Up, and in Great Big Shoes

If you haven’t seen the speech by Rep. Murtha today, hop over to Crooks and Liars and watch it.

Rep Murtha says our military has done all they can in Iraq and it’s time to bring them home. I saw this same speech on C-span a bit ago and it’s pretty damned amazing to see someone step up the way he has, knowing the whole damned bush administration will be gunning for him now.

The Cosmic Plight of The Bag Lady

Our Mother, the Bag Lady

The wrinked hose,
The run-down shoes,
the rose upon her hat....
There she was, I watched her,
As on the beach she sat.

Her world she carried in her bags
That she'd placed by her side......

Mountains high and valleys low
And seas with scudding tide.

I swear I heard the sea's roar
And smelled the forests green.
I felt the wind's chill;
I saw the snow;
Then knew that I'd been seen.
She looked at me with dark, mad eyes;
I knew not what to say
To displaced,
Dishonered Gaia.
She got up and moved away.

The social problem of the bag lady will not improve if it is ignored This is true on both the inner and outer levels. Whether we admit it or not, the fear of being abandoned and homeless--becoming the bag lady on the streets----lurks as an unconscious fear in most of us. Although few will admit it. Unless we face this fear, we will be unable to transform it either in our individual lives or in society. We have to learn to care for her in all her feminine forms, whether she is the isolated bag lady on the streets, the neglected Bag Lady in ourselves, or the very abused Mother Earth on which we live. Sistahs, can I get an Amen?

How the hell did it come to this?

Damn, we’ve been in a war for two and a half years, and now we’re discussing why? Cheney, bush, et al, are saying that any Senator who questions the honesty of bush’s information before the war began is being dishonest. This is so incredibly bizarre that it sounds like sick fiction. We have lost over 2000 members of our military and now we’re talking about why? Damn, if we could only have a do-over. But we can’t. This is real and it’s been deadly.

Did the president lie to us before the war began? Seems he sure did, he and all his minions. They said stuff they knew wasn’t true and that’s how I define a lie. Even after they were told what they were saying wasn’t true, they just kept on saying it. Yep, that’s lying.

We’ve seen the heads of the big oil companies sitting before Congress and lying as though lying is acceptable behavior. Is it? Is that where we are? Is it okay now to just lie about anything? A few years ago lying would get a president impeached. Now suggesting that a president has lied will result in the vice president calling you dishonest. Huh?

It’s all so convoluted. Who told who what and when? There is a giant web over our country right now and it’s knitted together with lies. That’s all that’s holding it together. The web has been spun over the past five years and it has changed everything about us and our country. How the hell did it happen? More importantly how the hell do we dismantle it? We are being smothered in lies and deceit.

Sure we have had times in our history when our country has done some foolish and dastardly things, and yes, somehow we always recover. Maybe we can recover from this too, but before we can begin, we have to ask ourselves, how the hell did it come to this?

Three Questions:

If we “win” the war in Iraq, does that mean that the War Against Terror is over? If it doesn’t, when will it be over? What’s the goal and when will we know we’re there?

Iraqi Minister Sounds Like bush

"I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," Jabr said. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed."


I wonder if he is going to have those who perform torture beheaded?

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite interior minister accused critics Thursday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lockup seized by U.S. troops last weekend, saying inmates included both Shiites and Sunnis and only a handful showed signs of abuse.

Interior Minister Bayn Jabr suggested some making the torture allegations were supporting the insurgency or had a personal score to settle and were using the U.S. Embassy to exert pressure on him. He also said the Interior Ministry facility in the capital's Jadriyah district had held "dangerous terrorists," including one man accused of building six car bombs, he said.

Congressional Pigs At The Trough

Lawmakers Acted on Heels of Abramoff Gifts
They are all soooooo fired. This is disgraceful.

"Nearly three dozen members of Congress, including leaders from both parties, pressed the government to block a Louisiana Indian tribe from opening a casino while the lawmakers collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist, Jack Abramoff."

what's their excuse?

"Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff, and the timing of donations was a coincidence. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gaming — even though they continued to accept donations from casino-operating tribes.

"Many lived far from Louisiana and had no constituent interest in the casino dispute."

Puhlease.

Get this: At least 33 lawmakers wrote letters to [Interior Secretary Gale] Norton and got more than $830,000 in Abramoff-related donations as the lobbying unfolded between 2001 and 2004. These lawmakers included Harry Reid and Dennis Hastert.

Excuse me while I vomit.
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So Much For Woodward's Integrity and WaPo as the New Paper of Record

So who is Woodward working for anyway?

Yesterday I posted a link to the shocking WaPo story titled: Woodward Was Told of Plame More Than Two Years Ago. Woodward was the first to be told of Plame's identity and finally revealed it to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald only because he received a subpoena. Not only did Woodward admit to knowing this information before any other reporters, he said it was done so very casually as if it were no big deal. But he never opened his mouth about it during the 2 years of Fitzgerald's investigation.

Yet isn't it interesting that he was on the news circuit saying such things as: the story started as "gossip, as chatter", Fitzgerald is a "a junkyard-dog prosecutor", the result of the Plame's outing was "quite minimal" and the consequences will be "laughable"

He certainly had a lot to say about the case since he knew that he was the first one to hear the leak but he didn't let on that he had a secret. He sounded like Judy Miller protecting the administration.

But why did he protected something that he felt was mere gossip?

Yesterday he apologized to his Post editor for keeping the secret. He also admitted that he was busy writing another book about the bush administration at the time and didn't want to get involved in subpoenas.

So is he a journalist? Who does he work for? Where do his allegiances lie?

John at Americablog asks

"So why was Woodward afraid to come clean to his editor between June 2003 and December 2003, when PlameGate was already a massive scandal, yet before there was any talk at all of anyone being subpoenaed? Woodward's fear-of-subpoena excuse just doesn't hold water."

and John recounts Woodward's excuse of being afraid to go to jail. Then he asks

"So if Woodward was over his fear of facing jail-time by mid-2005, over it enough that he was willing to offer to go to jail in Judith Miller's stead, then why didn't Woodward come clean with his editor at that time? In fact, Woodward didn't come clean with his editor until just last month, October 2005, three months AFTER he offered to go to jail for Judy. So now we know that the fear-of-jail excuse doesn't hold water either."

This story gets curiouser and curiouser. Perhaps it was only Carl Bernstein who was the intrepid reporter with true journalistic values regarding Watergate and Woodward was more interested in writing a book. What do you think of Woodward's integrity now?
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You Tell Me

I haven’t done much of anything today on the internet. The reason is that I followed this link (A Liberal Dose) that I found over at Crooks and Liars. The poster has titled the post, "Some really good shit…."

If you haven’t read it yet, please do. If his info is correct this is GIANT. What I have been pondering is, could it possibly be?

I mean it sure does make sense and it sure does tie up some loose ends. Worst of all, it makes sense in a dark kind of way.

Let’s talk about it. What do you think?

Faith Based Cure for Orange Blight?

Florida tested ‘Celestial Drops’ to see if they warded off citrus canker

Does anyone know how much of Florida federal funds were spent by Katherine Harris when she was secretary of state to research how and if "holy water" would have an effect on a blight to the citrus industry? Story at MSNBC

Bill Clinton Speaks Out

Bill Clinton told students in Dubai Wednesday that the war in Iraq was a big mistake and that the government made several errors. The biggest error being that the US dismantled the Iraqi military and police rather than keeping it in tact... oh and that the borders weren't sealed to keep terrorists out.

You know, what frosted me about the war after the fact that they even decided to have one, was that they knew there was no imminent threat yet they rushed into this thing. They rushed the UN weapons inspectors out and sent troops there which to this day do not have adequate body armor, vehicle armor and even ammo. Pathetic. Maybe as they say Saddam "needed" to be taken out, but blowing an entire country to smithereens seemed like a messy way of doing it, to say the least.

Well it's no big deal to me that Clinton has spoken out against the war. He is being blamed for it again by the neocons. He has spoken waaaaaay too late. Someone ought to get Hillary on the anti-war bandwagon though... especially if she thinks she is going to run for re-election in NY. I will not vote for her at this point.

Some days, it just falls into your lap... so to speak.

http://tinyurl.com/7k5uq

Two words: Viagra & blindness.

Make whatever links you may to old fairytales about masturbation & ocular health, karmic retribution, NASCAR drivers, NASCAR fans, and the preponderance of filthy-rich old republicunts who snort that shit like they once snorted cocaine off of the breasts of 17-year-old wannabe models...

I await your punchlines.

Now, granted, people have actually been blinded, so before I am accused of mocking the vision-impaired, keep in mind that I'm speaking of punchlines in the METAPHORICAL SENSE. As in, we're not laughing at these specific people's pain. We're laughing at the demographic.

Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Fallujah

First the Pentagon denied it, now they admit to it.

But they only used it on enemy combatants so it doesn't count. What's the difference between a civilian and an enemy combatant? How can one tell?

Congress Hates NY and I Hate Them

They broke their promise. Typical. Well fine. They can take back their $125 million in aid, but goddam them to hell if they use 9/11 as a platform for political purposes.

"The tug-of-war over the $125 million began earlier this year when the White House proposed taking the money back because the state had not yet spent it."

NY was going to use it to compensate sick rescue workers who have come down with illnesses, thanks to the White House telling the EPA to NOT inform NY that the air was full of asbestos right after 9/11, thank you very much.

Ya hear me, shitheads in congress? You're fired! I am not going to forget this. I know people who worked down there, damn you bastards. Sorry I had to get that off my chest. Gawd, I hate our government. They are evil. Can we secede?
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Never Underestimate The Power Of Makeup

Short Essay of the Day:

In Case You Missed It:

From the Dark Wraith Discussion Forums:


"Mr. Bush is creating for himself a legacy of seething hatred that will live long past his time and in a way that even Reagan and Nixon couldn't generate. He may very well be a stupid man led by evil men, but that defiant stare at the camera was the mark of something frightening: he will not be stopped. Neither will the horde he leads. Popularity is irrelevant to them. All the polls, all the television pundits, all the newspaper editorialists on Earth could damn them to Hell, and it would not matter. This is the mark of despots.

Until they are brought down, until they are not only driven from office, but also imprisoned, they will march on; and we as a nation will continue to spiral into a darkening century that will be remembered as not just the beginning of the end of the American experiment in open liberal societies across the globe: between the hegemons of Islam and the hegemons of American Christianity, the world will be crushed; and all we can do is fight with everything we have to preserve an ever-diminishing treasure of civil rights and liberties evaporating like the gold we would hold in a dream from which we are awakening empty-handed, still longing for the wealth we could not bring with us into the conscious morning.

And all because a plurality of Americans somehow thought it would be cute to have that little tyrant be our President for eight years.

Beyond the evil of Mr. Bush is the evil of his kind; but beyond the evil of his kind is an American Electorate that has, in the end, no one to blame but itself for the Hell that it has gifted to the world to come.

The Dark Wraith hopes those who voted for Mr. Bush are proud of themselves.

Who Will Step Up?

Where is that shining Democrat? Who will be the person to step up to the top step and tell it all? There’s a moment here, a moment for someone to fill the void. While bush is off on his escapade to tell the world all the things they are doing wrong, where is that special person who will tell our country what we are doing wrong.

Time and history are waiting for someone to change both and neither may be patient. Who can do it? Who will take the first step to save our country from going even farther into the darkness. We need a voice of truth at this critical moment. Please speak up, the time is right now!

It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. That American person will take verbal assaults and arrows of disagreement, but they will survive and so will we.

The Blames they are a Changin’

Bush seems to have found someone new to blame for all this mess. Yesterday he spoke in Alaska and said the following:

"The truth is that investigations of the intelligence on Iraq have concluded that only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world and that person was Saddam Hussein", Bush charged."

ABC News Link

I would like to give bush a little blonde advise and here it is. When you are told that only about 36% of the people in the United States think you are worth a damn, it might be a good time to stop verbally attacking everyone. Maybe it’s time to change your stinking attitude. Might be time to stop braying like a total jackass. Rather than trying to lay the blame on everyone from President Clinton, to Saddam, to Elmer the talking elf, why not look into how you got it so deadly wrong. Did you lie? Were YOU misled? It’s time to speak up and lay out the facts.

Mr. Bush, you can’t blame anyone but the person who said:

"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign."

And this:

"Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly -- yet, our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."

George Bush (White House website link)
March 19, 2003

Poll: Bush approval at an all time low

Read the CNN poll released last night.

About 50 percent of people polled said they disliked Bush, with 6 percent claiming to hate the president. It's a little too late for the American people to finally realize that they were led to slaughter by this anything but compassionate and anything but conservative excuse for a president. If they had figured this out before the '04 election we wouldn't be in this mess. We may fire the Fourth Reich next year... assuming the electronic voting debacle is fixed according to the polls lately. It appears, according to this poll, that most Americans will not elect a politician supported by bush.

The WH in all its hubris doesn't care about polls. The senate and congress ought to care.

"We have a proud record of accomplishment and a positive agenda for the future," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Wednesday.

"We look forward to continuing to talk about it. I mean, you can get caught up in polls; we don't. Polls are snapshots in time."

Politics vs Science

As per usual, the government, the FDA this time, in its effort to keep women barefoot and pregnant, didn't go through the normal procedures before they poo-pooed the Plan B, morning after pill for release without a prescription. It was an unusual decision.

In December 2003, FDA’s scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for all ages, citing assessments that easier access could halve the nation’s 3 million annual unintended pregnancies. But the following May, FDA leaders rejected that recommendation, citing concern about young teens’ use of the pills without a doctor’s guidance. (MSNBC)

It's my opinion that even if they weren't sure whether or not to release the pill to young teens, the drug should be available without a prescription to everyone else while the details are hashed out. Plan B is NOT an abortion pill. It can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after sexual contact. Use of this pill can lower the abortion rate! What the hell is the problem? We still have ignorami, even pharmacists, who just don't get it.

Did that Target pharmacist who wouldn't dispense a prescription for plan B to a women believe that the woman should be punished and have a baby? Is that how some seek to change societal values? By making a baby a punishment? Are they sick? (rhetorical question. I know they are.)

When reader, Red State Blues wrote to Target to protest their employee's disregard for his job, Target responded defensively (See also Target's response) and today a similar response was received by someone at Americablog. It's too bad that Target's employees are so misinformed and pharmacists don't understand how certain medications work. It's not a moral issue unless you are into immorality- forced pregnancy is immoral.

It's too bad that Target defended their employee. I used to like that store as it was the lesser of 2 evils. Now I am not so sure.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

UPDATE: This blog entry at Mother Jones says that the FDA declares that condoms prevent pregnancy. Now I wonder if the wingnuts will try to stop the sale of them without parental notification or a doctor's prescription. Oh wait, no. It's ok for males to be promiscuous. Senator Coburn of where else, Oklahoma, who is also a physician, warns the report is "misleading," and that condom labels provide "dangerous reassurance."

The article also talks about the vaccine against human papilloma virus, the lea

ding cause of cervical cancer. Wingers don't want their teenage girls to be vaccinated (that's when it's most effective) because they are afraid that girls will be more promiscuous... give me a break. Since when did anyone ever worry about cervical cancer in the back seat of a Chevy?

"Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, for example, has stated that "giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.""

I don't think so Brid. Perhaps a prescription for birth control pills for the teen might be presumed as licence in some cases, but having your daughter vaccinated against cervical cancer seems like a humane thing to do. What, do these parents want to say, "I told you so" some day when their daughter gets cancer? This stuff gets weirder and weirder. I liked the world much better when the total wackos on the religious right were silent and tucked away deep in rural areas.

My head is spinning. Wingers want women to be punished for having sex. That is simply not fair. They better come up with a punishment for the men. heh.
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Seeing Right Through the Plastic War

Okay, everyone agrees, Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction. The administration says they got bad info. The other side says the administration cherry picked the intelligence they needed to sell the war to the American people. Somebody is right and somebody is wrong. Bottom line is that the result was a war and people died.

This looks like a plastic war. From the “rescue” of Jessica Lynch from a hospital, to the Mission Accomplished banner and flight suit fictional production, to the plastic Thanksgiving turkey, it was all lathered up to make it bigger than big. They found the leader of the country we invaded in a hole in the ground. They killed his sons and mutilated them so badly that they had to rebuild their faces with wax. They cut into one of the dead man’s legs to show he had the insert there that had been medically implanted sometime earlier before his death. They did all this to show that they were real and they were dead.

There were so many incidents staged and exaggerated. Why did they go to the trouble to do all these things? Why wasn’t reality enough? If your mission is sound and true, why go through so many gyrations to try to be convincing? Why was so much attention given to deception? Why tell lies and create false sensations when you have nothing to hide?

If this war was initiated on the real belief that it was justified due to the possible threat of Saddam causing harm to our country, why would they try so hard and go to such extremes to produce these events? Could it have been because they knew they were working under a veil of lies? Did they feel so shaky about their cause that they felt they needed these creations to hide the truth?

Now as we look back, there was more fiction than fact. Seems the only thing real about this war is that it has resulted in thousands of deaths. Seems any administration that went to war due to what they believed to be good intelligence would be outraged to find they were mistaken. Where is the outrage? Where is the remorse? Where is the strength to admit the errors?

The only reaction we see from the administration is a change of reasons for the war and a determination not to do anything different than what they have been doing. We only see anger at those who dare to question them. Some Democrats who voted to give the president the power to go to war are angry, as well they should be. It’s only natural to be angry when you find you were misled. If the intelligence agencies gave the president bad information, why isn’t he angry? Is he ashamed? Is he remorseful? Does he really care?

So it looks as though we’ll continue to plow along into the future. More caskets will arrive under the cover of American flags. More homes in Iraq will be bombed and more innocent Iraqis will bleed and die. More bombs will explode by the roadside and more bombs will fall from the sky. More people will be imprisoned and likely more people will be tortured. More American kids will be baited into this war with the lure of money and promises that were never intended to be kept. More Americans will go through their lives with artificial limbs and the physical and mental scars of war. The money will continue to freefall from our pocketbooks into the bottomless pit of war. Nothing seems to change.

The saddest fact of all is that the administration, even hiding behind the claim of bad intelligence collected by our intelligence agencies, shows no remorse for what they have caused. If indeed they did rely on information that has now turned out to be false, we have a difficult time believing them, because they have given us so many reasons not to believe them in the past. We have seen so many of their productions that we have no faith in what they say or do. Their excuses without remorse lead us to believe this is just one more of their plastic productions and we see right through it.

Depleted Uranium --A Scientific Perspective

An Interview With
LEUREN MORET, Geoscientist

ICONOCLAST: Is there a danger of depleted uranium, being used in weaponry over there (the Middle East), spreading by air over here?

MORET: The atmosphere globally is contaminated with it. It’s completely mixed in one year.

ICONOCLAST: What can soldiers expect when they come home?

MORET: If they were in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they’re coming home with rectal cancer from sitting on ammunition boxes. The young women are reporting terrible problems with endometriosis. That’s the lining of the uterus malfunctioning, and they just bleed and bleed and bleed. Some of them have uterine cancer — 18 and 19 and 20 year olds...

...It damages their mood-control mechanism in the brain. Four soldiers at Fort Bragg came back from Afghanistan, and within two months, those four had murdered their wives...

...It’s going to kill off the world’s population. It already is, and it doesn’t just effect people. It effects all living systems. The plants, the animals, the bacteria. It effects everything...

Read the entire interview at LoneStarIcon.com.

What’s wrong with this picture?

President george bush is traveling to Asia. Among other things he is going to preach to them about human rights.

Vice President dick cheney is lobbying Republican Senators to endorse torture at secret prisons...

Sweet Jesus, I hate this guy

Bill O'Reilly continues to spread falsehoods about the war on Iraq and 9/11. Like it wasn't bad enough that he insinuated that San Francisco ought to be cut off from federal funding and should be ignored if al-Qaida strikes them,

."..And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead." (link)

he had more to say on a San Francisco radio program recently. (via ThinkProgress) He doesn't even know what 'fascist' means.

First of all he said on the radio, "We’re in World War III and San Francisco votes against military recruiting in schools," as if the US invading and occupying a sovereign nation is WWIII. Perhaps our actions will ignite WWIII, but I don't know what the rush is.

Then he went on to leave out the fact that Long Islanders who joined the military after 9/11 wanted to kill the bad guys in Afghanistan. Not Iraq. "And you know, I’m from New York. There are dozens of people from my neighborhood on Long Island are now dead because of 9/11, and you people are telling me you’re not going to allow recruiting out there?" Well if he had his facts straight, he would know that the war in Iraq has to do with corporate profits, not 9/11.

O'Reilly goes on to using projection, a common tool used by the wingnuts, and says, "You know, this is the hallmark of the left: Cheap shot everybody. Come out with the most insane things you can. Convince your Kool-Aid drinking crowd to follow you."

This next quote exemplifies O'Reilly's talking out of his asshole."I’m sitting here and I’m looking at a city that has absolutely no clue of what the world is. None. You know, if you had been hit on 9/11 instead of New York, believe me, you would not have voted against military recruting. Yet the left-wing, selfish, Land of Oz philosophy that the media and the city politicians have embraced out there is an absolute intellectual disgrace."

It's interesting that NY was hit on 9/11. NY isn't bush's base. SF isn't bush's base. Why do the terrorists want to hit cities who don't support this administration? It simply doesn't make sense. Makes you wonder who the real terrorists are, doesn't it? BTW, 14 LI soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq so far.

The idiot thinks that banning military recruitment in schools is fascist. It means that parents don't want their kids to die for a cause that our leaders wouldn't send their own kids to die for, let alone themselves. Perhaps he ought to consult a history book or a dictionary and look up fascism, "I don’t think these people like the country. They feel that we’re the problem, we’re the evildoers, that al Qaeda is created because of us. That’s the hallmark of the radical left. It’s always America’s fault. We’re the bad country, and the enlightened citizens of San Francisco, we’re not going to be a part of it. We’re gonna separate out. We’re gonna ban military recruiting. Number one, that’s a fascist act. I mean, you’re making a decision that your citizens can’t hear of an opportunity they may want to hear about."

How ludicrous is that statement? We hate him and his stupidity. We hate that our country treats those who sacrifice for our country like shit. And what opportunity? An opportunity to be blown up by a roadside bomb right out of high school?

You know, if this is such a great war, why aren't the statesmen enlisting? Why aren't their children enlisting? Back in the day, the leaders and statesmen joined the military and went off to war. There would be more support of the war if our leaders would put their money where their mouths are.


There is an action up at Daily Kos for you all to take a look at.
We must work together to get that ranting liar off the radio at once.

I gleaned some emails of the sponsors of O'Reilly's radio program from the comments there. You must, if you value democracy, write letters telling the advertisers that you will not use their products since they sponsor a radio program that supports terrorism against one of the US' greatest cities.

O'Reilly's Sponsors:
tom.bryant@tempurpedic.com,
bob@insure.com,
kellyd@emigrant.com,
david.rubinger@equifax.com,
brian@lifequotes.com,
bthoms@insure.com,
emigrantdirect@emigrant.com,
marketing@tempurpedic.com

Westwood One syndicates O'Reilly's radio program. Do write to them.
Shane Coppola, President: shane_coppola@westwoodone.com
Paul Gregrey, Advertising Director: paul_gregrey@westwoodone.com
David Hillman, General Counsel: david_hillman@westwoodone.com

Links:

- -"[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. ... You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead"

- - San Franciscans hate O'Reilly more than most people.

- - Keith Olbermann finds that O'Reilly's statement against SF was wiped off his show's transcripts.

- - O'Reilly repeats his claim that what he said wasn't controversial on SF radio show. He also says that we are in WWIII and insinuates that we should send our boys and girls to deal with it.

- - Take action against this crazed lunatic via Daily Kos blog

Google Bomb: Bill O'Reilly loves terrorists.

UPDATE: Mother Jones has a take on this story, plus adds that now O'Reilly calls non-Judeo-Christians "crazy" for seeking recognition of their religious holidays

"And to have these radical changes because somebody walks in and says, 'Look, I want a holiday because I'm a Buddhist, or I practice Shintoism. ... [W]hat are you, crazy?' "

11/12/05 Tater

This is my nephew. He was supposed to be 18 today, but he was murdered on May 6th of this year. The blurry photo on the far left is the last picture ever taken of him (camera phone) on the day he died. He's wearing my Ramones t-shirt.

Liz is probably going to kill me for this shitty layout, but c'est la vie.
My nephew's murderer still walks the streets of Lousiana, because his grandmother has the right amount of money and connections. This is the same woman who has been physically assaulted by her demon-seed grandson, nearly bludgeoned to death by him, and she also allowed him to throw drug & alcohol parties (where all attending were under 18 years of age) on her property and in her house. Normally, I'd feel sorry for the old woman, but since a corrupt "sheriff" (if he's a lawman, I'm an anorexic supermodel) does exactly what he is told to do in this bass-ackwards, hick-ass parish, the fix was in before Tater's body ever hit the ground. No one will ever be punished for robbing this boy of his life, even though the blame goes far and wide.

To his so-called "parents," for abandoning that child from day one; an alcoholic cokehead "father" who was NEVER there, a skanky whore of a "mother" who had sex on the floor, right next to her toddler children, and who allowed FIVE subsequent step"fathers" to physically ASSAULT Tater, because having a dick with a paycheck was far more important than mere OFFSPRING. To my so-called "parents," who had legal custody of Tater for the past ten years of his life, since the idiots who spawned him couldn't be bothered --- when they hit retirement age, they decided that a teenaged grandson was far too inconvenient to their plans to buy a huge RV and hit the road, so they left him to the wind. To the mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging illiterate who called himself a junior-high principal, who harrassed this boy, a STRAIGHT-A STUDENT, every fucking day for THREE YEARS, instead of ENCOURAGING HIS POTENTIAL --- to the point that a talented writer and excellent mind grew so disgusted with the very concept of school that he dropped out. To the corrupt, alcoholic, borderline-psychotic "sheriff" who is still more worried about his tax base and his income and his EGO than the lives of the people he is sworn to protect. To every piece-of-shit amateur "cop" in this hillbilly parish who ever harrassed, abused, and otherwise persecuted my nephew, for no reason other than his SHITTY TASTE IN "FRIENDS."

And to me. For being so wrapped-up in my own psychoses and failures and inadequacies and loneliness and loss that I missed damned near every opportunity that I had to help Tater. To help his sisters, as well as his cousins. I fucked up. I gave them presents, but I could have given him a home. I couldn't gotten that boy out of the street, but no. I had to follow my own jokes of "dreams" and fuck it all up even worse. It's a complicated story, all the bullshit that stood between me & those three kids, because of their supposed "father." Another time, perhaps.

But aside from all of the excuses, aside from all of the shit, stands the fact. He's gone. The biggest heart, the funniest warped sense of humor, the sharpest mind, the most gentle and giving personality that I have ever known, the one boy who gave me hope for the future of men, period. Gone. Stolen.

By a maggot who posed as his "friend."

And the fake-ass cops fixed it all before the crime-scene people from the State Police ever showed up, and half of the evidence from that scene was "lost in transit."

Yes, as the cold-hearted murder of New Orleans has shown us, this shit still happens. I'm sure that it's not JUST in Louisiana, but it's so in-your-face BOLD here, so flamingly obvious and so blatantly ignored --- it blows every half-sane mind who has to see it.

I wish that y'all had known Tater. Nobody who did will ever forget him. The last conversation that I had with him, the night before he died, he & I argued about music ("The Game" & "Fifty Cent," in particular), like we always did. He was the one kid out of 7 (nieces & nephews) who cared about music as much or more than I did. He bullshitted me, and kept me going, believing that he'd gone to Biloxi to see the Motley Crue reunion tour --- for twenty minutes. I was in shock, naturally --- I mean, it IS Motley fucking CRUE here --- but then he laughed, like he always did, and his voice got silly & squeaky (teenaged boys and their mercurial voices) and he said, "Awww, man, I didn't go to no damn Motley Crue concert --- I can't believe you believed that!"

Little pisser.

And the last words that I heard him say, as we were getting off of the phone, was "I love you."

It's just not fucking fair.

That kid could've been anything... he already was so much.

I went to his grave today, with the Beastmaster & her Dick (my alleged "parents"). And of course, none of it was about Tater. Or even about spending a minute with Dicksie & Rachel, the sisters he left behind. It was all about THEM, and their egos. I never even got to see Rachel, because her every waking moment doesn't revolve around paying homage to THEM. She was coming over there to see her Bubbie, but not fast enough to suit THEM.

And as much as it kills me, to leave him over there, two hours on the other side of the river, I know that he's not there. He wanted to be cremated, anyway. But then, nothing about his life, or his death, was ever about what he wanted, either.

Tater was the one who started my rubber-duckie collection, one Xmas. It was a $1 baby toy from the Dollar General Store, but it gave me such joy... And then I discovered Devil Duckies, and it was all collectioneering from there on. I ordered 2 Devil Duckies for his grave, but of course, since we have the world's most retarded post office, I won't be able to get them until Monday. But as soon as I can buy the gas to get over there, I am SO taking a bottle of Gorilla Glue and permanently-attaching them to his crypt.

(He's buried in West Bumfuck, LA, behind a HICK-ASS WHITE TRASH PENTECOSTAL CHURCH--- that Tater LOATHED for the preacher's hypocrisy--- so I know that somebody will try to "exorcise" the ducks with horns from his grave. Good luck, fuckers. I'll post pictures when the mission's accomplished.)

Thank y'all for letting me bitch & whine. Who else would listen to this shit?

Compassionate Conservatism. Isn't.

Deepak Chopra asks why conservatives are so mean. I've been wondering why too. They have EVERYTHING and they are still mad. What gives? Are they just those type of people that aren't happy unless they are miserable? Chopra thinks it just fuels their policies (of meanness).

A Veteran Speaks

Bob Geiger (Yellow Dog Blog) writes a heartfelt letter to bush on Veteran's Day regarding his patriotism and "committment" to the troops. It's very worth reading.

Religion and Politics Don't Mix

From Fox New's story: Methodist Bishops Repent Iraq War 'Complicity'

"WASHINGTON — Ninety-five bishops from President Bush's church said Thursday they repent their "complicity" in the "unjust and immoral" invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"In the face of the United States administration's rush toward military action based on misleading information, too many of us were silent," said a statement of conscience signed by more than half of the 164 retired and active United Methodist bishops worldwide."

our first picture of the moon!

Blonded By Science


As many of you know, we are but a spec in the universe. That's why I bought the Meade LX90, 8", F/10, Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope over the summer. It was billed as a scope you just plug in, hit a button and it will go where ever you want it to go. It's computerized. I am fairly computer literate- so how hard could it be? Well it didn't have a blonde warning. Needless to say, it took about 3 months for us to figure it out. It was worth it as I almost passed out when I first saw the Great Orion Nebula.

My dream was to learn astro-photography. The internet is a huge resource for tips on getting started with astro-photography. The learning curve is steep despite what some say. My goal for the past month was to start by getting a half way decent photo of the moon. That's where amateurs are supposed to start. Who am I to argue? I missed the awesome crescent moon last week because I had learning curve disability with a new SLR digital camera. Then the weather went bad. So we have the waxing gibbous moon instead.

Last night, I had the Eureka! moment when I realized that the telescope was an F/10 lens and I had to set the Nikon SLR to manual mode (M). After futzing with the speeds for an hour, images of the moon started to appear on the camera display! It was cold. It was windy. My cat couldn't decide if he wanted to be out or in.

Billydoom and I were elated. We jumped for joy. We admitted that it was rather arousing. Our largest eyepiece only got a small part of the moon, so we had to take multiple shots and piece them together in photoshop. The photo, while nowhere near what an experienced astro-photographer would consider a good image, was a darn good start for us. Let us rejoice!

Next target: Mars
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Bush will speak today at noon

What the hell can he say? Will he mention the word “killers” and the phrase “our freedoms”? He has to. That’s the jive that he has used since Sept. 11, 2001. It’s all he has in his verbal bag-o-crap. He’s nothing but a hollow man now and his words are a perfect match. We’re told he is going to say basically that some Democrats were as stupid as he was before the war. I can’t argue with that to any real degree, but just because they were stupid doesn’t make him un-stupid.

I’m kind of hoping that during his speech when he gets to the place where he blanks out, and as usual gets his tongue wrapped around his uvula, he just sort of implodes mentally. I’m hoping he goes off script and just starts ranting like a screwin’ mynah bird on coke. He might start spouting the truth about how he feels about his low poll numbers and who did what before the war. You know, as they used to say, let it all hang out. Maybe we might get real lucky and he would get so wired he would drop the F-bomb. It would be classic TV, wouldn’t it? Just george bush and that camera in his face as he loses it great big time. The internet would light up like the national Christmas tree. Would that make for a fun Friday afternoon or what?

Quote of the day:

"Only among Men is Nature's law of 'survival of the fittest' thwarted and indeed, reversed; for in almost every generation the fittest are sent forth to be slaughtered by orders of the stunted, the twisted, and the senile". -- Sidney J. Harris

This Veterans Day, it’s a Crying Shame.

If you see today, Veterans Day, as a day to honor fallen soldiers then you have over 2500 more soldiers to honor than you did last Veterans Day.

This so called War on Terror has taken a lot of our Americans down and it is indeed a crying shame. What did they die for? It wasn’t for our freedom, that’s just a flat out lie. Iraq and Afghanistan were never threatening the freedom of the United States. Both are countries where some bad people lived but our freedom was never their aim.

So if these soldiers didn’t die for our freedom, what did they die for? They died because they thought when they volunteered to serve their country that they could trust the president of their country to value their lives enough to only put them in harm’s way when it was necessary to protect their country from harm. That wasn’t the way it worked. Sadly they were soldiers during a time when the United States went insane and they paid the ultimate price for that insanity. Did they die in vain? No, they died because someone lied to them. The one person who could have saved their lives lied to them. Their lives were taken from them because of someone’s desire, not someone’s best judgment.

It’s also sad that man has not discovered some way to settle international disputes without killing people.

My wish would be that we have no additional fallen soldiers to honor on future Veterans Days. My hope is that we will have future leaders of this country who, if they say that war is the last resort, honestly mean it with all sincerity and that pledge comes from the bottom of their heart. My fear is that there will be at least one more dead soldier to honor before this day is done.

The Wingers Have Outwung Themselves

And acting like BIG WHINEY CRY BABIES since Tuesday's election.

Bradblog has some lovely quotes from O'Lielly warning San Franciscans that al-Qaeda can blow them up for all he cares and that they shouldn't get one more dime of federal money since they banned recruiters in the schools. I would bet that SF gives more than it takes... or close.

And from the man of gawd himself- Pat Robertson warns the people of Dover, PA who banned unintelligent design from science class, that God will smite them and that they had better not ask the almighty for help.

How's that for fine values? This is all from Faux News, that bastion of Hate TV. If you don't vote the way the wingers want, then either the Lord or al-Qaida's gonna git you. Fear based society indeed.

Frist is not concerned if we torture innocent people

He is more concerned about the leak.

Get this:

"Frist was asked if that meant he was not concerned about investigating what goes on in detention centers.

""I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that," Frist replied.

He added that as Senate majority leader he is privy to classified information and discussions about prison activity. "I'm going to make sure that everything that's done is consistent with the Constitution ... and the laws of the United States of America," he said."

What do you make of that last sentence? Nothing about Geneva Conventions. hmmm. We just make our own laws and tough shit on everyone else? Is that what he is saying or am I paranoid?

135-million-year-old crocodile found in Argentina

I presume the Flying Spaghetti Monster came along about 6,000 years ago and created this croc to just LOOK like it was 135 million years old. Or, does that sound like a "crock"?

"A bizarre marine crocodile that lived 135 million years ago in what is now Argentina had the head of a dinosaur and the tail of a fish, paleontologists said on Thursday."

Entire story is at Reuters.

MIT: Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Aluminum Foil Helmets

Uh oh:

"Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We theorize that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason."

Dear Judy Miller,

Ms. Miller, I don’t know you personally but I do know what you have done. You carried the water for a group of people who wanted to go to war. This group sent you and your bucket to Chalabi and he filled that bucket with dirty water. You gleefully carried the bucket of dirty water to the New York Times and poured it on the people who read your writing. That dirty water flooded American minds with lies, and as a result the sands of Iraq were flooded with blood.

You kept smiling as you walked into jail and stood up for your rights as a journalist. I support your right to protect the names of your sources, but that’s not what you did. You tried to be a hero and Ms. Miller you are not. You were the conduit for lies, and the resulting war is to some degree related to what you did. Wars make heroes. Heroes don’t make wars.

Ms. Miller, thousands of people have been killed. They shouldn’t have been. More die every day as a direct result of our invasion of Iraq. Your primary source is still protected. Mr. Chalabi is freely touring the US even as he remains under investigation by the FBI. He gets to do what the majority of Americans never could. He gets to have private meetings with Rice, Cheney and Rumsfeld. I would suspect he will secretly meet or talk with the president too. I found it interesting that the president was handing out Medals of Honor on the very day Mr. Chalabi arrived. What an amazing coincidence. I would like to check Mr. Chalabi’s suitcase before he leaves the country and see if he might have something new in there. Something hanging on a ribbon.

So today you may do as you like, Ms Miller. You’ll probably begin plans for writing your book. Don’t print one for me. Why should I believe a single word you might write? In my opinion, Ms. Miller, you should forever suffer nightmares. You should never be able to forget what you have contributed to and where your help has taken our nation. Each time we hear of another death in any way connected to this horrid war, we will remember you and your bucket of dirty water.

Good luck, Ms Miller. Good luck forgetting about the war and the deaths. And, be careful Ms. Miller, as your guilt and your deception consume what I believe will be your miserable life. You didn’t get to keep the bucket but the dirty water stains will be with us and with you forever.

Chilling Words

"The story of the rescue of the Israeli tourists suggests one of the repercussions here. If the Iraq guerrilla war does spill over into Jordan, it won't stop there. Bush, Cheney and the Neocons have managed to endanger Israeli security by destabilizing the Middle East, just as they have endangered us all."

Much more at JuanCole.com.

Who are these grinches that are trying to take Xmas away from the American people?

Who objects to the holiday season (other than it starts too early and ends abruptly on 12/26)? We get paid days off from work, kids get a week off from school, people are sometimes nicer and more generous to the poor, most retailers wouldn't be able to survive if it were not for Christmas, the music is pretty, you can get presents if you're nice, you can give presents if you're nicer, the lights are so pretty and should be hung on the homes of everyone despite their religious persuasion and the parties, oh the parties: in schools, at offices, in the village green at your local watering hole.

Christmas is the Christian version of the winter solstice observances. It was invented by the pagans to get people through the darkest days of the year and Constantine adopted it to coincide with the pagan celebrations at that time of year.

Just who are these joyless people who hate holidays and who are the equally joyless who are trying to get people worked up into a frenzy about Christmas going away? If in fact, this country is 95% Christian, I don't think there is a problem. Then again, it's the Christians who allowed their special day to turn into a spending frenzy and secular holiday, rather than a holy time.

This whole hooha about the Tension Over Christmas makes me think that perhaps the grinches are both those who have a bug up their asses about other people enjoying the winter solstice celebrations and those who are ultra sensitive and guilty about their fairy tale beliefs (ie:pagan virgin birth story). Both sides should shut the hell up. Even those who defend Christmas vehemently are making people worried sick. It's not that bad. Or perhaps some are just pretending that it's bad so they can sell books to paranoid conspiracy theorists.

Christmas is not going away. Read the end of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" for proof. Perhaps it's just a symptom of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) that spurrs these radicals to make such a big deal about Christmas celebrations one way or the other.

Now someone help me untangle these string lights

Jewels Among Rhinestones

We all romp around the net and we are reading more stuff than we have ever read before. We read the posts and often we read the comments. Sometimes the comments on a post outweigh the value of the post itself. Here’s a little jewel that I found from a commenter named “Nash”. This is a tribute to good old Judy Miller and her exit (at last) yesterday from the New York Times.


“Proud Judi”
(Sung to the tune of “Proud Mary”)

Left a good job at Gray Lady,
Pimping for the “War” every night and day,
And I never lost one minute of sleeping,
Worrying ‘bout the troops who got blown away.

(Chorus)
Chalabi keep on grinning.
Proud Judi keep on spinning.
Lying, lying, lying, to the readers.

Wrote a lot of crap in D.C.
Sucked up to a lot of the Dems and Reeps.
But I never had a story on the front page,
Until I hitched a ride with the NeoCon creeps.
(Chorus)

If you go down to the court house,
Bet you gonna find Scooter, Karl, and Dick.
I can write my book now, and I’ll make big money.
Fitzie and the jury are sure to convict.
(Chorus)

Good Website

Gold Star Families for Peace

If you watched the documentary it sure looks bad for our side...

I posted a link the other day to the Italian documentary Iraq, La Strage Nacosta which you can watch in English. It claims that the US used White Phosphorus (WP) as a chemical weapon. Normally WP is used to illuminate a battle field but melted bodies found in Fallujah indicate that it was used as a weapon. But the US says that it's wrong to use chemical weapons and that they don't.

The Chemical Weapons Convention:
Article I
General Obligations:
1. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never under any circumstances:
(a) To develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone;
(b) To use chemical weapons;
(c) To engage in any military preparations to use chemical weapons;
(d) To assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

Article 2:
Definitions and Criteria
For the purposes of this Convention:
1. "Chemical Weapons" means the following, together or separately:
(a) Toxic chemicals and their precursors, except where intended for purposes not prohibited under this Convention, as long as the types and quantities are consistent with such purposes;
(b) Munitions and devices, specifically designed to cause death or other harm through the toxic properties of those toxic chemicals specified in subparagraph (a), which would be released as a result of the employment of such munitions and devices;
(c) Any equipment specifically designed for use directly in connection with the employment of munitions and devices specified in subparagraph (b).

2. "Toxic Chemical" means:

Any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals. This includes all such chemicals, regardless of their origin or of their method of production, and regardless of whether they are produced in facilities, in munitions or elsewhere.

You see, WP is not supposed to be used for anything other than battle field illumination so it isn't considered a chemical weapon. But the Army admits to using WP as a weapon. Here's an excerpt from The Fight For Fallujah from Fort Sill, Oklahoma (PDF. bottom of p 26):

b. White Phosphorous. WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired “shake and bake” missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out.

The military continually denies using chemical weapons in Fallujah. (boston globe)" The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned by the Geneva Convention since 1980. The United States did not sign the relevant protocol to the convention, a UN official in New York said."

Here's the protocol that the US did NOT sign:

PROTOCOL ON PROHIBITIONS OR RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF INCENDIARY WEAPONS (PROTOCOL III)

Article 1
Definitions For the purpose of this Protocol: 1. “Incendiary weapon” means any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or a combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target. (a) Incendiary weapons can take the form of, for example, flame throwers, fougasses, shells, rockets, grenades, mines, bombs and other containers of incendiary substances. (b) Incendiary weapons do not include: (i) Munitions which may have incidental incendiary effects, such as illuminants, tracers, smoke or signalling systems; (ii) Munitions designed to combine penetration, blast or fragmentation effects with an additional incendiary effect, such as armour-piercing projectiles, fragmentation shells, explosive bombs and similar combined-effects munitions in which the incendiary effect is not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons, but to be used against military objectives, such as armoured vehicles, aircraft and installations or facilities. 2. “Concentration of civilians” means any concentration of civilians, be it permanent or temporary, such as in inhabited parts of cities, or inhabited towns or villages, or as in camps or columns of refugees or evacuees, or groups of nomads. 3. “Military objective” means, so far as objects are concerned, any object which by its nature, location, purpose or use makes an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage. 4. “Civilian objects” are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 3. 5. “Feasible precautions” are those precautions which are practicable or practically possible taking into account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations.

Article 2 Protection of civilians and civilian objects 1.It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons. 2 It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons. 3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incen- diary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentra- tion of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. 4. It is prohibited to make forests or other kinds of plant cover the object of attack by incen- diary weapons except when such natural elements are used to cover, conceal or camouflage combatants or other military objectives, or are themselves military objectives. Entry into Force: 2 December 1983

Bunch of typical double talk, wouldn't you say?

The Biggest Piece of Fecal Matter?

Okay, everyone is fired up today due to the outcome of the elections last night. We feel a change coming down the road and it’s long overdue. So here’s the question. Who has done the most to screw our country into this bottomless hole we find ourselves in these days? Really, who is the biggest piece of fecal matter in our country? If you feel it’s a tie between several, list them all.

I Hear The Peoria Journal-Star Is Looking For a Copygirl

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "New York Times reporter Judith Miller, a journalist (?) at the center of the CIA leak controversy that led to the indictment of a White House aide, will leave the paper, the New York Times said on Wednesday.

"Miller's lawyers and the paper negotiated a severance package, the terms of which were not disclosed. As part of the agreement, the paper will publish a letter from Miller explaining her position, The Times said on its Web site.

"Miller, who worked at the New York Times for 28 years, went to jail for 85 days this summer rather than name her source in the CIA leak case".

Interesting and Scary

Washington, D.C. - "President George W. Bush and the current Administration have now borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 U.S. presidents combined.

"Throughout the first 224 years (1776-2000) of our nation's history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions according to the U.S. Treasury Department. In the past four years alone (2001-2005), the Bush Administration has borrowed a staggering $1.05 trillion".... Read it all at The Stakeholder.

Linked at Bush Watch.

And a flip of the flaxen wig curls to Marilyn.

Scooter Discovers High Priced Lawyers Aren’t Cheap

"I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, is establishing a fund to help pay for his legal defense in the C.I.A. leak case, and associates of Mr. Libby have begun soliciting money from his friends and Republican donors, lawyers and people who have been contacted about the fund said on Tuesday."

(And)

"Mr. Libby has put together a high-priced legal team to defend himself against five felony counts of lying to investigators and misleading a grand jury, and lawyers unconnected with the matter have estimated that the bill could run well into the millions of dollars if he goes to trial.

"William J. Jeffress Jr., a prominent Washington lawyer added to the defense team last week, confirmed that fund-raising had begun.

"We're certainly establishing a legal defense fund," Mr. Jeffress said, "and we'll do everything we can to make it successful, because he's not a wealthy man."

"But in establishing the fund, Mr. Libby is opening himself to questions. Legal and campaign finance specialists said he could face scrutiny about whether any financial assistance he might receive from allies of President Bush and Mr. Cheney was going to finance a defense strategy intended in part to minimize harm to the administration.

More at the New York Times.

Things as pissed off snark sees them

While the world awaits the return of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at the time of the Ravioli and all the naked parmesans begin floating up to heaven, other things are happening.

If bush were a skunk, let’s just say he has been randomly spraying his party. Funny thing about skunk odor, once you have that stuff on you it doesn’t matter how far you run away from the skunk, you still stink. A lot of Republicans are running as far away as they can get from bush, but they still stink. Hint to the Republican Party: Buy tomato juice and buy gallons of it, because you’re going to need it. Bathe in that red juicy stuff and it’ll remove most of the smell. Next hint: Don’t go back near the skunk again because he’s still got lots of spray left.

Trent Lott threw a match into his own splintered, dried out party pyre and started a shitstorm of a fire last night. You’re doing a heck of a job, Trent. Fighting fire with fire often works, but all you end up with is a pile of ashes. To paraphrase a song title from the movie “Chicago”: They had it coming.

Arnold got his ass handed to him last night in Cally-forneeeeya. Word is it was carried to him by a nurse and a teacher.

Speaking of skunk stink, guess some of it was left behind in Virginia the other night when the flying skunk flew too close.

Word is that the vice skunk is off to his annual avian demolition derby. Not being content to just torture detainees in secret prisons around the world, he also has a need to blow a bunch of defenseless birds all to hell. Nothing like the smell of warm bird blood in the morning, huh dick? There’s that reward you get when you take up a big manly bazillion caliber gun and blow a small bird’s life right the hell out of him. You da man, dick.

Intelligent design, the new and improved fairy tale of Creation. It’s been updated and flavored to make it easier to swallow. Ha Ha, but it’s still nothing but a screen used to avoid reality. We have Fred and Wilma hanging out with Adam and Eve. We have the Garden of Eden adjacent to the Garden of Cave Men. The whole idea of a new and improved theory in itself proves how desperate the religious right is to try to appear unintelligent by design. See, we’re stupid but that’s okay because our invisible friend designed us that way. What a crock--a crock-o-crap.

One more day on earth. Several more reasons to hold out hope that our country can be saved. The sun came up this morning and so did our spirits. We got a little more reason to hope. Lets just hang on to that as long as we can.

NY Times Editorial slams bush's pathetic show in Argentina

excerpt from President Bush's Walkabout:

In Argentina, Mr. Bush, who prides himself on his ability to relate to world leaders face to face, could barely summon the energy to chat with the 33 other leaders there, almost all of whom would be considered friendly to the United States under normal circumstances. He and his delegation failed to get even a minimally face-saving outcome at the collapsed trade talks and allowed a loudmouthed opportunist like the president of Venezuela to steal the show.

It's amazing to remember that when Mr. Bush first ran for president, he bragged about his understanding of Latin America, his ability to speak Spanish and his friendship with Mexico. But he also made fun of Al Gore for believing that nation-building was a job for the United States military.

The White House is in an uproar over the future of Karl Rove, the president's political adviser, and spinning off rumors that some top cabinet members may be asked to walk the plank. Mr. Bush could certainly afford to replace some of his top advisers. But the central problem is not Karl Rove or Treasury Secretary John Snow or even Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary. It is President Bush himself.

Keep Writing Those Letters Of Outrage

Red State Blues, blondesense reader, is angry at the NY Times for this story in the NY Times.
Here is the letter she wrote this morning. When you read the story, you will understand the outrage.

Dear NY Times,

Was your reporter James Dao watching the same gubenatorial race that I was? (Democrat Wins Race for Governor in Virginia, November 8, 2005). Kaine "narrowly won" the race? I suppose so, if you consider a 5 point victory as "narrow". I seem to recall that George W. Bush claimed a mandate witha 2 point victory in 2004. With turnout at just 45% of registered voters, Kaine took the race with a margin of more than 100,000 votes, out of a total of slightly less than 2 million cast.

Your reporter also noted the following:

"With clear skies and unusually warm weather, both camps reported good turnout in areas they needed to win: for Mr. Kaine, Norfolk, Richmond and the inner suburbs of Washington; for Mr. Kilgore, the northern exurbs, Richmond's suburbs, the rural southwest and the Virginia Beach area, with its concentration of military families."

In fact, your reporter had it almost exactly wrong: Kaine needed (and got) high margins of victory in the northern exurbs (Loudon and Prince William County). As expected, Kaine took the inner suburbs of Washington and the City of Richmond by very large margins. However, Kaine also handily won (by 7%) the Richmond suburb of Henrico County. And Kaine won the City of Virginia Beach, the City of Williamsburg, the City of Charlottesville, and the City of Norfolk.

Perhaps when your paper deigns to report on political races in places other than in New York you should send a reporter who actually knows what he is talking about.

Red State Blues

WH Double Speak To the Max

I watched the video of yesterday's press briefing by Scottie Mac at the White House on Olbermann last night on MSNBC. In case you missed it the transcript is here in all its glory. The press corps, particularly Helen Thomas did a spectacular job of torturing Scottie on the torture issue however Scottie accused those reporters, who pressed for an explanation of why Bush says we don't torture and why Cheney asking for an exemption, of being unamerican. This was completely unacceptable. Scottie wouldn't answer their questions in a straightforward way and referrred them to the VP's office as if that was a separate government. It looks long but it's a telling excerpt of the way the WH spins reality.

Q I'd like you to clear up, once and for all, the ambiguity about torture. Can we get a straight answer? The President says we don't do torture, but Cheney --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's about as straight as it can be.

Q Yes, but Cheney has gone to the Senate and asked for an exemption on --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, he has not. Are you claiming he's asked for an exemption on torture? No, that's --

Q He did not ask for that?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- that is inaccurate.

Q Are you denying everything that came from the Hill, in terms of torture?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, you're mischaracterizing things. And I'm not going to get into discussions we have --

Q Can you give me a straight answer for once?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me give it to you, just like the President has. We do not torture. He does not condone torture and he would never --

Q I'm asking about exemptions.

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me respond. And he would never authorize the use of torture. We have an obligation to do all that we can to protect the American people. We are engaged --

Q That's not the answer I'm asking for --

MR. McCLELLAN: It is an answer -- because the American people want to know that we are doing all within our power to prevent terrorist attacks from happening. There are people in this world who want to spread a hateful ideology that is based on killing innocent men, women and children. We saw what they can do on September 11th --

Q He didn't ask for an exemption --

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and we are going to --

Q -- answer that one question. I'm asking, is the administration asking for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: I am answering your question. The President has made it very clear that we are going to do --

Q You're not answering -- yes or no?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, you don't want the American people to hear what the facts are, Helen, and I'm going to tell them the facts.

Q -- the American people every day. I'm asking you, yes or no, did we ask for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: And let me respond. You've had your opportunity to ask the question. Now I'm going to respond to it.

Q If you could answer in a straight way.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I'm going to answer it, just like the President -- I just did, and the President has answered it numerous times.

Q -- yes or no --

MR. McCLELLAN: Our most important responsibility is to protect the American people. We are engaged in a global war against Islamic radicals who are intent on spreading a hateful ideology, and intent on killing innocent men, women and children.

Q Did we ask for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are going to do what is necessary to protect the American people.

Q Is that the answer?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are also going to do so in a way that adheres to our laws and to our values. We have made that very clear. The President directed everybody within this government that we do not engage in torture. We will not torture. He made that very clear.

Q Are you denying we asked for an exemption?

MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, we will continue to work with the Congress on the issue that you brought up. The way you characterize it, that we're asking for exemption from torture, is just flat-out false, because there are laws that are on the books that prohibit the use of torture. And we adhere to those laws.

Q We did ask for an exemption; is that right? I mean, be simple -- this is a very simple question.

MR. McCLELLAN: I just answered your question. The President answered it last week.

Q What are we asking for?

Q Would you characterize what we're asking for?

MR. McCLELLAN: We're asking to do what is necessary to protect the American people in a way that is consistent with our laws and our treaty obligations. And that's what we --

Q Why does the CIA need an exemption from the military?

MR. McCLELLAN: David, let's talk about people that you're talking about who have been brought to justice and captured. You're talking about people like Khalid Shaykh Muhammad; people like Abu Zubaydah.

Q I'm asking you --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, this is facts about what you're talking about.

Q Why does the CIA need an exemption from rules that would govern the conduct of our military in interrogation practices?

MR. McCLELLAN: There are already laws and rules that are on the books, and we follow those laws and rules. What we need to make sure is that we are able to carry out the war on terrorism as effectively as possible, not only --

Q What does that mean --

MR. McCLELLAN: What I'm telling you right now -- not only to protect Americans from an attack, but to prevent an attack from happening in the first place. And, you bet, when we capture terrorist leaders, we are going to seek to find out information that will protect -- that prevent attacks from happening in the first place. But we have an obligation to do so. Our military knows this; all people within the United States government know this. We have an obligation to do so in a way that is consistent with our laws and values.

Now, the people that you are bringing up -- you're talking about in the context, and I think it's important for the American people to know, are people like Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh -- these are -- these are dangerous killers.

Q So they're all killers --

Q Did you ask for an exemption on torture? That's a simple question, yes or no.

MR. McCLELLAN: No. And we have not. That's what I told you at the beginning.

Q You want to reserve the ability to use tougher tactics with those individuals who you mentioned.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, obviously, you have a different view from the American people. I think the American people understand the importance of doing everything within our power and within our laws to protect the American people.

Q Scott, are you saying that Cheney did not ask --

Q What is it that you want the -- what is it that you want the CIA to be able to do that the U.S. Armed Forces are not allowed to do?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not going to get into talking about national security matters, Bill. I don't do that, because this involves --

Q This would be the exemption, in other words.

MR. McCLELLAN: This involves information that relates to doing all we can to protect the American people. And if you have a different view -- obviously, some of you on this room -- in this room have a different view, some of you on the front row have a different view.

Q We simply are asking a question.

Q What is the Vice President -- what is the Vice President asking for?

MR. McCLELLAN: It's spelled out in our statement of administration policy in terms of what our views are. That's very public information. In terms of our discussions with members of Congress --

Q -- no, it's not --

MR. McCLELLAN: In terms of our members -- like I said, there are already laws on the books that we have to adhere to and abide by, and we do. And we believe that those laws and those obligations address these issues.

Q So then why is the Vice President continuing to lobby on this issue? If you're very happy with the laws on the books, what needs change?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, you asked me -- you want to ask questions of the Vice President's office, feel free to do that. We've made our position very clear, and it's spelled out on our website for everybody to see.

Q We don't need a website, we need you from the podium.

MR. McCLELLAN: And what I just told you is what our view is.

we have met Bush and Bush is us

The Rude Pundit is brilliant and I respect his quick wit. I usually agree with him. I do agree with him today, however, I want to take issue with one aspect of his otherwise keen observation: Bush is indeed the asshole that his Rudeness says he is.

But is it so wrong that Bush keep to a schedule that keeps him from drinking? I know the bastard is a dry drunk. I know he has "issues" he hasn't dealt with and in that fine American tradition he will never resolve or get anywhere near resolving. But I think the rigid schedule isn't a bad thing. Whatever keeps his demons in the closet is fine with me. So he goes to bed early. That is certainly better than Nixon wondering the halls talking to dead presidents' portraits while knocking back considerable amounts of alcohol. Of course even Nixon drunk is better than what we have now.

Lyndon Johnson could drink two fifths of Cutty Sark a night and run the Senate and later the White House. LBJ drunk is better than what we have now.

JFK was no stranger to drugs. JFK smoking dope with someone else's wife was better than what we have now.

FDR and Churchill drank everyone in the White House under the table by dinner. Of course them drunk is better than what we have now.

But there is something admirable about staying sober. If Bush were a Democrat, I know how absurd that sounds, we would be pleased with his triumph over addiction. The Rude Pundit would counter that is the point, he hasn't triumphed over his addiction. He has merely replaced it with other interests which are just other concentric circles of the same hell. They all wind back up at Bush.

Face it. Drunk or sober, Bush is in over his head. He realizes that Cheney fucked him. I don't doubt we saw the first of that slow coming recognition on Sept. 11, 2001 in front of a room full of school children. Cheney was controlling some military practice drills that day, right? Why? I thought Vice-Presidents were supposed to play golf and go to funerals. But from Day One when Cheney said, "Why not me as Vice President?" Cheney knew he could control this drunk clown and Bush is just now realizing how much he has been played. He didn't know what to do that day and he doesn't know what to do if it isn't on the schedule.

So he didn't want to talk to South Americans. Guess what, most Americans don't even know where that is. They don't care. The only people who do care are those of us who didn't vote for the man and also didn't howl when it was obvious the election was stolen. We just went to work that day like any other day. Did we flood our Congress members' offices with telegrams? Have any of us really looked for a way to impeach him? Harry Reid did a big brave step by shutting the Senate down for a few hours, but what did he do that was so bold, so brave?

Here in Texas, which is essentially dry drunk heaven, tonight we banned gay marriage like it was completely destroying our society. Like there is a giant epidemic of gay marriages breaking out everywhere. It is already illegal to issue a marriage license to same sex couples. This was sort of the sour, mean icing on the burnt cake stuck to the cheap dime store tin pan. In the process, through the wording of the Texas Constitutional Amendment, we probably undermined common law marriages which were perfectly legal in Texas. We allow first cousins to marry in Texas. Which probably explains alot.

We outlawed something already illegal because we are mean spirited bastards who go to church sometimes twice a week to keep our sins and our minds tied down so we aren't tempted into any confusing thoughts that might get us off our schedules.

My point is, and I do have one, is Bush is us. As Gore Vidal said that Nixon was us, Bush is us. It isn't that we have dealt with our demons and we don't drink everyday. We want to Hollywood ending where the student suddenly becomes smart, the drunk sees the error of his ways, the boy grows up not just to be a decent sort of man, but president.

Forces of Evil are Slowed a Little in Headlong Dash to Plunder the Planet

Okay, I admit, the headline is a little dramatic but check out what Reuters has to say.

Who Leaked to the Press about the Secret Prisons?

Today Frist and Hastert called for an investigation into who leaked the info to the press about the secret prisons.

According to Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Situation Room, Sen. Trent Lott has said that the leaker regarding the secret prisons may be a Republican.

If that should be true, who could it have been and why?

E-Mail From Jo Wilding (WildfireJo):

I'm forwarding a message, below, from Doctors for Iraq, a group which I trust - this is the same kind of attack as that on Falluja and it's desperately important that people take some kind of action, whatever you can, be it contacting UK and US politicians and demanding a stop to it or getting out on the streets annd letting people know it's happening and demonstrating against it or getting stuff into the media, because so far this isn't even news.

Jo


07.11.2005

US/ IRAQI MILITARY LAUNCH NEW ATTACK ON Al-QAIM CITY


US/ IRAQI forces have launched a new military operation in Al Qaim city, near the border of Iraq and Syria.People inside the city have been put under military curfew. The Army has warned civilians against leaving their homes and have announced that they will enter and search houses.

The army has announced that all shops must remain closed and no ambulances are allowed inside the city. Check points have been established inside and outside the city.

US military aircraft are reported to be firing missiles in Al Qaim. Many explosions have been heard in different districts of the city.

There are reports of civilians being killed and many others wounded but at this stage numbers of fatalities and casualties are unknown. Doctors For Iraq is concerned about the detention of unspecified civilians by US/Iraqi forces during this military operation. Similar detentions have been reported in previous military attacks in the city and surrounding areas.

The only hospital in the city is desperately lacking medicines and has requested for basic medicines and surgical equipment to be delivered to the hospital immediately so that doctors can treat the injured and sick.

Doctors for Iraq is calling for all parties to conflict to respect the Geneva Convention and ensure that civilians have a safe passage to areas outside of the conflict zone and civilians are provided with shelter, medicine and food.

Doctors for Iraq is calling for humanitarian workers and ambulances to be given free access to the areas under attack. Doctors for Iraq is calling on humanitarian organisations to provide basic medicines and surgical kits for the hospital that is urgently in need of medical supplies.


Ends

Four Boobs Protest (Sex Offenders?)

"The Breasts Not Bombs members had been warned to keep their shirts on at the Capitol demonstration against governor's initiatives".

By Evan Halper, Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO — "Police arrested two members of an organization called Breasts Not Bombs after they removed their tops during a protest on the steps of the state Capitol on Monday afternoon.

"The women, who were protesting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot measures for today's special election, took off their shirts despite warnings from the California Highway Patrol last week that doing so would lead to their arrests — and possibly their inclusion on the state's list of sex offenders. A federal judge Friday refused to grant a request from Breasts Not Bombs to block the police from arresting topless protesters".

More here: LA Times.

"Another Saddam Co-Defendant's Lawyer Slain"

BAGHDAD, Iraq - "Three gunmen in a speeding car killed a lawyer for a co-defendant in Saddam Hussein's trial and wounded another Tuesday in Baghdad, a member of the defense team and police said. It was the second assassination of a Saddam defense team lawyer in less than a month."

Get the rest at Yahoo News.

Deep Pocket of Inhumanity

If you work for a large company and while at work you do something to harm a citizen, most likely you will be sued. And, if the lawyer for the harmed citizen chooses to do so, he or she may sue the company that you work for, because the company has the deep pockets. The deep pocket meaning they have more money to sue for than you do. This is based on the theory that since you were an agent of the company at the time you harmed the citizen the ultimate responsibility for the harm goes to the company.

Ladies and gentlemen we are ultimately responsible for the harm that has been done to this country. Just like the large company, we didn’t actually take part in the harm, but we have the most to lose and the ultimate responsibility for the damages. We have the deep pockets and we will suffer when the verdict comes back on whether the US has tortured other human beings. From all the evidence we have seen so far, it doesn’t look good for us.

When we travel to foreign countries the citizens of those countries aren’t going to look at us and remember that Lynndie England dragged a detainee around with a dog leash. They’re going to remember that an American committed that obscene act. That’s our future.

Even the idea of connecting the word “torture” with our country is a repulsive thought. It shakes the senses and turns the stomach. Could there be a more horrid crime than treating human beings inhumanely and even causing death. It’s being done in our name.

As you read that there is a rift between bush and cheney please keep in mind that cheney has already made his stand in favor of torture and perhaps bush is trying to convince us that cheney was the lone ranger in that quest. Although I doubt that very much after the way bush couched his words yesterday. No, I’m not convinced that anyone with any stance in this administration is innocent. But while I do believe they are guilty, I see us as the ones who will ultimately be found guilty of our country’s deep pocket of inhumanity.

We must state our objection. We must tell the world that we Americans are not tolerant of torture and cruelty. We need to have those words on every website in the blogosphere. How will they know if we don’t tell them? If we don’t state our case, who will? The idea of torturing human beings is not ours and we abhor such actions. We better speak up now and we must be loud. Otherwise be prepared to pay for the damages for the rest of your life.

Torturing Details from The New Yorker

"The house belongs to Mark Swanner, a forty-six-year-old C.I.A. officer who has performed interrogations and polygraph tests for the agency, which has employed him at least since the nineteen-nineties. (He is not a covert operative.) Two years ago, at Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, an Iraqi prisoner in Swanner’s custody, Manadel al-Jamadi, died during an interrogation. His head had been covered with a plastic bag, and he was shackled in a crucifixion-like pose that inhibited his ability to breathe; according to forensic pathologists who have examined the case, he asphyxiated. In a subsequent internal investigation, United States government authorities classified Jamadi’s death as a “homicide,” meaning that it resulted from unnatural causes. Swanner has not been charged with a crime and continues to work for the agency".

(And)

"The outcome of this wider political debate may play a role in determining the fate of Swanner, whose name has not been publicly disclosed before, and who declined several requests to be interviewed. Passage of the McCain legislation by both Houses of Congress would mean that there is strong political opposition to the abusive treatment of prisoners, and would put increased pressure on the Justice Department to prosecute interrogators like Swanner—who could conceivably be charged with assault, negligent manslaughter, or torture. Swanner’s lawyer, Nina Ginsberg, declined to discuss his case on the record. But he has been under investigation by the Justice Department for more than a year".

(And)

"Around this time, John Helgerson, the C.I.A.’s inspector general, sent investigators to Iraq and San Diego to interview witnesses about the agency’s role in Jamadi’s death. These investigators determined that there was the possibility of criminality—the threshold level required by the intelligence agency in order for the case to be referred to the Justice Department. The agency did so, and officials in the Justice Department then forwarded the case to the office of Paul McNulty, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which has jurisdiction over C.I.A. headquarters. The dossier has been there for more than a year. A lawyer familiar with the case, who asked not to be named, said that the Swanner file seemed to be “lying kind of fallow.”

"A spokeswoman for McNulty said that he would have no comment on the case, because it was still under investigation. (Last month, President Bush nominated McNulty to the position of Deputy Attorney General, the second most powerful job in the Justice Department.)"

Please read the entire article here at The New Yorker.

Italian TV Alleges US Used Chemical Weapons in Fallujah

We had heard the rumor and then we didn't. Italian TV says it's true.

Rome, 7 Nov. (AKI) - A documentary to be aired on Tuesday by Italian state satellite TV channel RAI News 24 alleges that US troops used chemical weapons during their assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in November last year. The documentary - 'Fallujah - the hidden massacre' - uses witness accounts from former US soldiers, Fallujah residents, video footage and photographs, to support its claim that contrary to US State Department denials, white phosphorous was used indiscriminately on the city, causing terrible injuries to civilians, including women and children. (story continues at above link)

After you read the article, if you want, you can watch the documentary on Windows Media Player here. It's very graphic and very unlike something we'd see here in the states. It features melted bodies. Click for Iraq, La Strage Nacosta
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Regarding Torture

This is a must read by Ray McGovern: Torture in Our Name (Link)

Here’s something from his piece that is interesting:

"President Bush and Vice President Cheney set the tone. According to counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, it began on the evening of 9/11. Immediately after the president's 8:30 p.m. TV address to the nation, he met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Clarke in a bunker under the East Wing of the White House. In his book, Against All Enemies, Clarke describes the president as "confident, determined, and forceful":

"I want you all to understand that we are at war ... any barriers in your way, they're gone. Any money you need, you have it ... I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass.

"The vice president tipped his hand to Tim Russert during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on September 16, 2001. The conversation centered on the US response to 9/11. After discussing military capabilities, Cheney shifted focus:

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side ... A lot of what needs to be done will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies ... it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal ..."


Can we live through three more years of this sort of action in our country? Evil lives here now. Is there a chill running up your spine as you realize it’s worse than you thought?

Bush This Morning: "We Do Not Torture"

So there is no need for congress to continue the drive to outlaw torture. Because we aren't doing it (except for maybe the CIA who should be exempt). Yahoo News

Please, We Don’t Need This

If you thought that bush’s idea for Harriet to teach a class on barn door closing was a bit ill-timed, you’re gonna love the fact that in the middle of all the turmoil in DC, we’re bringing Chalabi to the US. This guy who dragged us into a war with a dog leash is going to come here and give a few little lectures. Nothing could be a better reminder of how this whole war thing got cooked up than by bringing in the chief chef.

From Chalabi’s mouth:

"I feel very good. I'm energized," he said. "Historically I had three targets. First, overthrow the dictatorship. Second, establish a constitutional, parliamentary, federal government. Third, put Saddam on trial. All these have been achieved."

(Quote Washington Post)

Did he plan on over 2000 American soldiers dying? Did he plan on thousands of innocent Iraqis dying? Did he plan on draining our country’s financial resources? And why the hell didn’t our government tell us two and a half years ago that our mission in Iraq was designed around a crook’s "three targets"?

When he gets here can we arrest him on charges of fraud and murder and embezzlement? I don’t want him to feel "energized". I want him to feel incarcerated. He is just one more criminal involved in this illegal war. We’ll build more prisons if need be.

Target Pharmacy Didn't Give A Straight Answer

Red State Blues, a blondesense reader and friend, sent a letter on October 22nd, to Target regarding their employee who refused to fill an Emergency Contraceptive prescription on religious grounds. (see original post)

Most readers agreed that you shouldn't take a job or follow a career path, if you have religious issues that would forbid you from performing your job to the fullest extent. The way I see it, a company that operates a pharmacy with potential religious nuts as employees, ought to be forced to market that business as one where the employees may make a moral judgement as to whether or not your prescription will be filled. I say, be straight with the customers so that they don't rush over there for an "emergency" prescription in the first place.

From the response that Red State Blues received below, it appears that Target is talking out of both sides of its mouth.

Dear Target Guest,

Target is extremely disappointed that Planned Parenthood is spreading misleading information about an alleged incident at a Target pharmacy in Missouri and our policies on emergency contraception. The accounts being reported are inaccurate and exaggerated. Our policy is comparable to that of many other national retailers and the recommendations of the American Pharmacists Association.

Target consistently ensures that prescriptions for emergency contraception are filled. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we also are legally required to accommodate our team members’ sincerely held religious beliefs as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the unusual event that a Target pharmacist’s sincerely held religious beliefs conflict with filling a guest’s prescription for emergency contraception, Target policy requires our pharmacists to take responsibility for ensuring that the guest’s prescription is filled in a timely and respectful manner. If it is not done in this manner, disciplinary action will be taken.

Target abides by all state and local laws and, in the event that other laws conflict with our policy, we will follow the law.

We appreciate the opportunity to clarify our position and correct misinformation.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Hanson
Target Executive Offices

Heaven

Einstein dies and goes to heaven. At the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter tells him, "You look like Einstein, but you have NO idea what some people will do to sneak into Heaven. Can you prove who you really are?"

Einstein ponders for a few seconds and asks, "Could I have a blackboard and some chalk?"

Saint Peter snaps his fingers and a blackboard and chalk instantly appear. Einstein proceeds to describe with arcane mathematics and symbols his theory of relativity.

Saint Peter is suitably impressed. "You really ARE Einstein!", he says. "Welcome to heaven!"

The next to arrive is Picasso. Once again, Saint Peter asks for credentials.

Picasso asks, "Mind if I use that blackboard and chalk?"

Saint Peter says, "Go ahead."

Picasso erases Einstein's equations and sketches a truly stunning mural with just a few strokes of chalk.

Saint Peter claps. "Surely you are the great artist you claim to be!" he says. "Come on in!"

Then Saint Peter looks up and sees George W. Bush. Saint Peter scratches his head and says, "Einstein and Picasso both managed to prove their identity. How can you prove yours?"

George W. looks bewildered and says, "Who are Einstein and Picasso?"

Saint Peter sighs and says, "Come on in, George."

And a flip of the Blondesense wig curls to Marilyn.
.

Outrage over the lack of Outrage.

The republicans are livid about the political "hardballing" of the democrats. First, there was the childish tantrum displayed by Senator B. Frist, using Sen. Santorum as decor. They relentlessly paraded all the MSM political shows, accusing the democrats for not being "gentlemanly".

What's obvious, is the surprise that they were taken by, disabling them from blocking the democrats and obstructing every initiative, as they have done it so many times before. It's like a high school bully being confronted by his fellow student.

These are the same politicians who used political "hardballing" way into criminal behavior, and the way they used it had nothing "gentlemanly" about it. (i.e. dissing democrats at every initiative requesting oversight of the Executive Office, which is the job of the Legislative Branch of the Government; not allowing any hearing on political "hot potato" issues; turning off microphones of the opposition party in debates; blatantly declaring the minority a winner on voice votes, etc)

The public did not buy their whining and the ethical cloud over their heads, does not make them any more credible than the Bush Administration.

On Sunday political shows, it was painful watching all the republican senators trying to distort reality to a point where is embarrassing to claim that the sky is not blue. It may very well be red for them, for the political storms lurking on the horizon for next year dreadful election.

Dick In The White House

Ah, the stench of Cheney fills the air. The pieces of the puzzle still keep coming together says Bush Beat. Halliburton profits are up. Deaths are up and Dick's stocks are up. Read how Halliburton and the pentagon put up roadblocks to stall the Iraq-funds auditors. The story is not over, but it's good to see the pieces come together.


You mean that the US tortures prisoners to get them to say what we want them to say? Take a look at Kevin Drum's: Torture and the Vice President
Yesterday the Times had a story about al-Libi (isn't his name ironic?) the al Qaida prisoner captured after 9/11. Drum writes: According to a newly declassified memo, not only did al-Libi provide us with false information suggesting that Iraq had trained al-Qaeda to use WMD, but U.S. intelligence had a pretty good idea the information was false as early as 2002. The comments after the article are worth a read too. Also see today's NYTimes: Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions
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Bush Feels White House Needs Class in Ethics (he might be a tad late)

You know that little problem with classified information being fondled at the White House? Like everybody touching papers they shouldn’t be touching and sharing stuff that’s marked freakin’ “CLASSIFIED”. Well sweet darlin’, those days are coming to an end. Ms Harriet (can you dig Marks A Lot eye liner) Miers, will be teaching an ethics class and attendance is mandatory. Don’t you LOL at me, I’m being serious here.

"Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings"

"President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

"According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the "spirit as well as the letter" of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, "the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules governing the protection of classified information," according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide."

Read more at The Washington Post.

Faith Based Felony

Pastor Just Freakin’ Sells Church, and Pockets the Money

“Church members didn't have a clue that their church, which has stood on the corner of Main and Acacia streets in Ripon for over 50 years had been sold. Police say the church pastor sold the church and a small cottage next to it for $525,000 dollars and pocketed the money. Church Council president David Prater said the news left them stunned.”

(And)

“$102,000 dollars went for a 2006 BMW, which police have seized, along with about $350,000 in cash. Ormonde says the bank account and transactions made bankers suspicious and they contacted church leaders. The 52-year-old Radic faces felony counts of embezzlement and forgery. And the church's small congregation still can't believe it.”

The entire story here (CBS 13.com link).

You can’t make up this shit!

Zogby poll: Majority of likely voters support considering impeachment if Bush lied on Iraq, 51-45 percent

More here at The Raw Story.

a moment of comic relief

(Granted, you have to have a deist/afterlife belief system to really get into this joke, but I figure that the meme is, if not universal, at least understandable.)

An old lady dies and goes to heaven.

She's chatting it up with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates when all of a sudden she hears the most awful bloodcurdling screams.

"Don't worry about that," says St. Peter, "it's only someone having the holes put into her shoulder blades for wings."

The old lady looks a little uncomfortable but carries on with the conversation.

Ten minutes later, there are more blood curdling screams.

"Oh my God," says the old lady, "now what is happening ?"

"Not to worry," says St. Peter, "She's just having her head drilled to fit the halo."

"I can't do this," says the old lady, "I'm going to hell."

"You can't go there," says St. Peter. "You'll be raped and sodomized."

"Maybe so," says the old lady, "but I've got the holes for that !"




(Remind anyone else of American citizenship at the moment?)

I'm Not Laughing, I Swear

From Gun Guys:

Man Drops Gun, It Shoots Him in the Head

Yes, it’s the second time in two days, but as we said yesterday, we can’t pass up a good “man shoots self” story.

HOUSTON - A man died Wednesday morning after he accidentally shot himself at a motel in southwest Houston. Homicide detectives with the Houston Police Department said the man was carrying some packages and a gun outside the Red Carpet Inn on Hornwood Drive near the Southwest Freeway at about 5 a.m. when he accidentally dropped the gun, causing it to fire.

The bullet struck him in the head.

Emergency workers said the man died after he arrived at the hotel’s office to call for help.

Guns are safe? Guns are “just tools,” designed to perform certain tasks? Tell that to this poor guy. Guns kill, no matter where they are or who owns them. Did he exercise poor judgement? Of course, but the truth is that no matter how careful you are with any gun, trouble is just around the corner.

There are more stories about such unfortunate accidents and guns in the news at and GunGuys.com.
.

This Week's Episode of Fuck The Poor

The senate in a partisan vote approved billions in spending cuts says Reuters. "The estimated $36 billion in savings would be dwarfed by the $13.8 trillion the government is expected to spend over the next five years under a Republican budget plan approved in April."

"Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, [said the bill would] be more aptly called the "Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act."

"Democrats say the bill would actually achieve no deficit-reduction if Republicans also succeed with plans to pass additional tax cuts for the wealthy and others.

With a $70 billion price tag, the tax bill would add $34 billion to U.S. deficits after counting the spending cuts."

They are cutting food stamps spending but "big oil won a victory with narrow approval of a controversial plan to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)."
.

WHY WE ARE SLIDING INEXORABLY INTO THE ABYSS, Part #.....ah, hell! I've lost count.

In the first place, Dillard's has NEVER advertised with flyers in the local newspapers before, which tells me that the medium- to up-scale retail joints are maaybeee starting to feel a pinch somewhat. This information comes from Patricia of Lone Tree who, while not a paragon of purchasing power, has a pretty good understanding of matters economic: I might refer to someone as "fiscally conservative" while she merely describes them as "tighter'n bark on a tree".

Secondly, some of the items offered for sale are....tellyawhat, here's the descriptions straight out of the flyer, draw your own conclusions:

"$30 Cinderella by Villaware wafflemaker ; Makes a 6-3/4" waffle embossed with Cinderella and Prince Charming"

"$40 Cinderella by Villaware toaster; Imprints Cinderella's glass slipper on toast; Plays a waltz when toast is done"

"$70 Villaware Mickey Mouse Then & Now nonstick wafflemaker; embossed with 4 famous poses"

There's more at http://www.dillards.com/ but you get the idea.

And speaking of Mickey Mouse, didja all hear that Mickey and Minnie are getting a divorce? Yup. Mickey went to see his lawyer about the deal, whereupon his lawyer asked him, "What grounds do you have"? Mickey handed him a piece of paper to read, which the lawyer looked at and then asked, "Oh, you think she's crazy"?

"I didn't say that", Mickey replied, "I said she's fuckin' Goofy".

I couldn't resist...

DemoCommie & Rev. Dave have been sending me some great shit lately, and while I've been fwding my brains out, it just wasn't enough. I just had to share with Y'ALL!!!

DemoCommie is KILLIN' ME HERE!!!

Sleepless George:

One night, George W. Bush is tossing restlessly in his White House bed.
He awakens to see George Washington standing by him.
Bush asks him,"George, what is the best thing I can do to help the country?"

"Set an honest and honorable example, just as I did," Washington advises and then fades away.

The next night, Bush is astir again, and sees the ghost of Thomas Jefferson moving through the darkened bedroom.
Bush calls out,"Tom, please! What is the best thing I can do to help the country?"

"Respect the Constitution, as I did," Jefferson advises and dims from sight.

The third night sleep is still not in the cards for Bush. He awakens to see the ghost of FDR hovering over his bed.
Bush whispers, "Franklin, what is the best thing I can do for the country?"

"Help the less fortunate, just as I did," FDR replies and fades into the mist.

Bush isn't sleeping at all the fourth night, when he sees another figure moving in the shadows. It is the ghost of Abraham Lincoln.
Bush pleads, "Abe, what is the best thing I can do right now to help the country?"

Lincoln replies "Go see a play."

~~~~~~~~~~

Annnnd, as DemoCommie and Rev. Dave have BOTH sent me this morning, the best sign seen at the D.C. protests:

"WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE HIM A BLOW JOB SO WE CAN HAVE HIM IMPEACHED?!!"

And hell, no, *I* ain't volunteering to take THAT one for the team!!!

My personal favorite sign from the D.C. protests, btw:

"REAL MEN KNOW WHEN TO PULL OUT."

Listen for Yourself, Hear the Truth

Mr. Pop led me to this interview he listened to yesterday on NPR. The interview is with Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell. This man is believable and you may have read an interview with him. Listen to this interview and listen to his voice. This man is telling us just about all we need to know.

Listen at NPR.

THE REAL REASON THE VOTE PASSED? THERE'S AN ELECTION COMING UP IN ABOUT A YEAR AND THE SUNZABITCHES ARE SCARED ABOUT GETTING REELECTED.

"House Vote Counters Eminent Domain Measure"

"Conservative defenders of private property and liberal protectors of the poor (That's a real weeper of a bullshit description) joined in an overwhelming House vote to prevent local and state governments from seizing homes and businesses for use in economic development projects.
"The House legislation, passed 376-38, was in response to a widely criticized 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court last June that allowed eminent domain authority to be used to obtain land for tax revenue-generating commercial purposes".

If anybody out there can find out who the "38" are, give us a bang on the Blondesense pipes.

Rest of the article is in the Washington Post.


UPDATE FROM WORMWOOD:

Here they are:

Ackerman
Blumenauer
Boehlert
Brady (PA)
Capuano
Case
Cleaver
DeGette
Dingell
Emanuel
Fattah
Hinchey
Jackson (IL)
Larson (CT)
Levin
Lowey
McDermott
Meeks (NY)
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moran (VA)
Nadler
Neal (MA)
Olver
Pastor
Pelosi
Rothman
Sabo
Schakowsky
Schwartz (PA)
Scott (VA)
Stark
Turner
Visclosky
Watt
Waxman
Woolsey
Wynn

wormwood
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll568.xml

WELL, DUUHH!

"Bush's Ratings Still Sink Over War, Court"
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- "President Bush's job approval has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency amid worries over the Iraq war, a fumbled Supreme Court nomination, the indictment of one White House aide and uncertainty about another.
Concerned that the president has lost his footing, some influential Republicans are urging Bush to shake up his staff and bring in new blood.
A new AP-Ipsos poll found Bush's approval rating was at 37 percent, compared with 39 percent a month ago. About 59 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved".

Entire article HERE.

Where do Wackos get their Info?

From Salon via Crooks and Liars:

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it."

From an email written by an aid to Tom DeLay.

Talk about Lasting Sex

"This was no one-night stand. Scientists in India say they have discovered two fossils fused together in sexual union for 65 million years".

There’s more here: (Yahoo News link).

(Thank you, oddjob, for this nifty link.)

To Know Us is to Loathe Us

So we’re holding people in secret prisons around the world in the name of defending OUR freedom. Well, ain’t we something! Our freedoms are more important than those of anyone else in the whole world. How the hell did we get so important?

We can invade non-threatening countries just cause we want to. We can make up stuff, stuff that phony-baloney stuff down the throats of gullible Americans and then just blow the living (no pun intended, it’s just there) hell out of people who haven’t done a damned thing to us. Okay, so a few Iraqis died. It’s not like they were people just like us. They were "collateral damage". Takes the sting out by calling them that after we blew them all to pieces. They weren’t innocent men, women and little children. They were part of the "regrettable" hazards of war. Don’t forget our freedom is more important than theirs.

We have been the damned killing machine, and man are we good at it. We’re better at it than the 9-11 attackers. We can kill like crazy. We know this is what we’re supposed to do because the God who gets credit for everything wonderful on this earth told a few people in America that we are the most special of his creations. According to George Bush, and he repeats it at every opportunity he gets, freedom is the creator’s gift to man. So like a good Christian soldier, bush leads us into war and, we come bringing gifts of freedom to anyone who lives to see it. You know the old saying, you gotta break some eggs...

So we marched, flew, bombed, and killed our way into Iraq, and man we were loaded with freedom. We leveled and aimed and fired freedom everywhere there was movement. We are still delivering big old piles of freedom to this day. Our troops are getting killed every day but the freedom deliveries must continue.

Well, you know what? We have delivered so much freedom, though different and of lesser importance than our own, that we are all delivered out. It ain’t, as they say, working out so well. Bush is finally being seen for what he really is and the rest of his boys aren’t faring so well either. Only about 35% of Americans are bush’s friends. He’s sort of bummy these days, so he decided to fly down to South America and tell them what they are doing wrong. That’s pretty funny cause he’ll be met with a gang of protestors who aren’t required to kiss his butt. The guy just can’t find a happy place no matter where he goes. He’s like that garbage scow that couldn’t find a place to dump its garbage. Nobody wants to be stuck with something that stinks and smells worse everyday.

Wonder why no one likes him and probably America in general? Don’t they know that we are the chosen ones with the chosen freedoms given to us by the chosen Creator? Gosh, all we want to do is spread freedom around the globe via bombs and bullets. What is the rest of the world afraid of? Do they think that a country that invades a non-threatening country based on bullshit and leaves thousands of collateral damages behind, along with imprisoning people in secret prisons, is insane or demented? Maybe they think that a country who abides a leader who says that God told him to go to war, and says it while keeping a straight face, just might not be on the right track.

I guess they just don’t understand who we are. Or, maybe they do.

Girls Will Be Girls?

Newsday reports this morning that young women have organized a "girlcott" of Abercrombie and Fitch because of their line of "attitude" tees display such bitchy lines as: 'Blondes are adored, brunettes are ignored' 'Do I make you look fat?' 'When the going gets tough, the tough go blonde', 'Give me something to scream about', 'I had a nightmare I was a brunette', 'I'd look great on you', 'Available for parties' and my favorite
'Who Needs A Brain When You Have These?'

Indeed. Especially when your motive is to attract neanderthals who missed the evolution revolution. Why doesn't Abercrombie and Fitch go for a really skanky reality line of shirts? Something like, "I just want to fuck you so I can add you to my list of fucks" or "I have fake boobs and fake hair. Wanna fuck?"

The A&F shirts are disrespectful. Offensive? I don't know. Stupid? Yes. State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger of Illinois said he plans to introduce a resolution in the state Senate this week calling Abercrombie & Fitch to stop selling the tees.

How about we try to figure out why it is that women think so little of their brains that they would wear these shirts which clearly make them look like serious bimbos and also insult women who happen to be smart, have good personalities or less well endowed and of a darker complexion. But then again, I imagine that some women think it's a goof. If it's a goof. Fine. But I don't think that's always the case. It's interesting to note also, that Abercrombie & Fitch Reports October Sales Increase Of 41%

I used to come home late from my gigs and watch tv as I unwound. I watched some dating show on CBS a few times where the boy would meet with several girls and go on a group date, then he would pick the whore young lady he liked the best to be his girlfriend for one night. The nice young ladies were ousted off the bat and the rudest girl won the cave man.

Are men that scarce? And what kind of role models were the moms of these men... and women for that matter? Shortly before Janet Jackson exposed her boob to a shocked America at the superbowl half time, I noticed that she was dressed up as sexily as can be in her S&M garb, rubbing up against what's his name, Timberlake, who exuded exactly zero sex appeal yet acted like he was god's gift while Jackson was the whore whose job it was to lure him into paying her for a bj. His head was shaved, he wore baggy clothes and reminded me of a slummy white supremacist. Bad boys are supposed to be sexy. duh.

In my research on this phenomenon, I came across this article from Australia (so this is not just an American thing) called Raunch is sexy but not sexual. It's a review of Ariel Levy's book, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture. Levy is not shocked by the trend as much as the way as which it's seen and how women allow themselves to be objectified. I thought we were over that? Well, not so.

What was once thought as one representation of sexuality, says the article, is now thought of as sexuality. Get it? So looking like you are sexy is all you need to prove that you are sexy (but not sexual) and it often doesn't go beyond that. I would concur because sometimes you see girls so young, who probably haven't even experienced sexual desires yet, looking and acting as if they are out on the mall in conquering mode.

Something that struck me in the article was this part: "A teenager in California told her [Levy] that the competition among the girls was to be the 'skankiest'. She was surprised to hear that, generations before, young women had vied to be the prettiest. 'How do you get the boys?' was her response."

Obviously this teen doesn't speak for all young people, but it sort of explains what is going on in some skanky little heads. They want to get boys. Hell, that's all I wanted to do when I was a teen. So it appears that 'skank' is the new 'pretty'. That explains it for me. In my hippy days, pretty was sort of a detriment too. I still think it's a dangerous precedent.

Personally, I think men need to be put in their place. I think that they should be vying for us. Not vice versa.

The article ends with the important revelation: women who are imitating porn stars or strippers are imitating an imitation of lust and sexual pleasure. And that is not sexually liberated. That's backwards. We're supposed to enjoy sex and enjoy our sexual feelings. Sex is 99.9% in the brain. Who says one has to be perfectly gorgeous or half naked to be attractive or to feel good about yourself? That is a repellent to anyone except johns.

In reality, men want a woman who can cook. And talk. I really hate it when women tell me that they can't meet a nice guy when they go out and yet they look like they spent 8 hours getting ready. high maintenance Don't come crying to me in 10 years when you are desperately alone and all the bad boys married brunettes or blondes or redheads who wear sensible jeans. And another thing, who says you need a man to be happy?

The CON Job

Much of our nation was CONvinced that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction by a faction or the government known as neoCONs. CONtrary to the information coming from the CIA, the administration cherry picked just enough of the data to present a false reason to invade and CONquer Iraq.

The war rages on under the guise of training Iraqis to CONtrol the insurgency. No one mentions that the strongest army in the world can’t CONquer the insurgency so how in the hell could the Iraqis, even with a full-out army, do anymore than the US army can do.

Now with Scooter under indictment, Delay under indictment, and Frist under serious investigation, there is a rumble that Rove should step down. Cheney’s approval ratings have tanked. All of their actions CONnote deception if not outright lying. It is quiet likely that some of the aforementioned could soon become CONvicts.

Why don’t they all CONfess their sins and stop the CONtinuation of the CONfrontations. Our country is in a state of CONstant turmoil due to the CONtinual influence of a group of neoCONs and the influence of Republican leadership in CONgress. From day one this has been one large CON job.

I suggest we CONfront and CONvict and CONfine these crooks for a CONfounded long time. We need to show the world that we don’t CONdone CONs. It’s CONtrary to everything we stand for.

shorter David Brooks

According to our Mr. Brooks, a.k.a. in our house as that smug little bastard, anyone who says that intelligence to encourage the U.S. invasion of Iraq is crazy, lonely, old, cannot be trusted with objects sharper than crayons, believes in conspiracies regarding our precious bodily fluids, exhibits signs of paranoid schizophrenia and insomnia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and