"Activist Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Capitol"

"Activist Cindy Sheehan, who was invited to President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech, has been arrested, according to CNN.

"Sheehan, who was invited to attend the address by California's Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey, was reportedly already seated in the House chamber when she was detained, CNN said.

"A Capitol police official reportedly said Sheehan had unfurled a banner, which is a violation of House rules."

Read the rest in the LA Times.

and thanks to ShakespearesSister.
============

UPDATE 2/1: Read what really happened last night by Cindy Sheehan herself at Buzzflash.

SOTU Address

This is the open thread to discuss Smirky McFlightsuit's speech this evening. For meaningful pre-speech commentary see Missouri Mule's story about 6 posts below this one.



Me, I'm so disgusted that I won't be able to watch it and will have to rely on reading a transcript so I don't have to look at him. I understand that most cable stations will not have much in the way of liberals on the post-speach panels that are aimed at explaining to the American people what they just heard. sheesh.

This just in. 10PM
Full text of the speech.

"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world."

....and that is why we are going to blow up all them countries.

My Grandmother along with many others lost her lifesavings when the banks closed following the stock market crash of 1929. She never really trusted anybody with her money after that and always believed that she would end up by the side of the road without even a glass of water. She told me that the wealthy bank patrons were able to get their money out and didn't suffer like rest of them.

I stumbled across this article the other day and thought of her warnings to me. In case of a National Security Event only Homeland Security can allow you access to your safety deposit box and they will not release to you weapons, cash or precious metals. Being a member of the working class I do not have a safety deposit box full of cash and jewels and weapons but for all of you out there suckling at the Halliburton tit it may be time to ask a few questions at the bank. You may want to move your assets to a safer location. My Grandmother would recommend a coffee can buried in the backyard.

Thanks Blondesense Liz and all the blondes for inviting me to post and I want to encourage readers out there to not be afraid to post a comment.

Health Savings Accounts

Fascism:

From Think Progress:
President Bush will use tomorrow’s State of the Union address to promote “health savings accounts” as a solution to America’s health care crisis. Multiple studies have shown that HSAs are likely to increase the number of uninsured and increase health care costs, all while costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. In other words, President Bush is proposing to do for health care what he’s already tried with Social Security — placing more of the cost burden on individuals, while making the system more attractive to the wealthy but less effective for ordinary Americans who need health coverage most.

a must read

More Reasons that the Dems are in on the fascist takeover

The Democrats seem to be deliberately making every issue too complex for the average American to understand. I don't think it's an accident. It happens all the time. Time for a NEW PARTY.


From Newsweek's Jonathan Alter:

For four and a half years, Bush has politicized 9/11. His political motto has been "The only thing we have to use is fear itself." He was at it again last week, claiming with zero evidence that congressional scrutiny of the illegal NSA wiretapping would "give the enemy a heads-up on what we're doing." The media and the Democrats have both been intimidated by this devastatingly effective political strategy. It won the 2002 and 2004 elections for the Republicans and will continue to be their game plan for this November.

At first glance, making the Democrats seem soft on "terrorist surveillance" looks like another winner for the GOP. For Democrats to explain that they don't oppose all eavesdropping but object to the way it was done is a two-step answer that's too complicated to fly. A better approach would be to argue that Bush's NSA program has been a failure because it has threatened civil liberties and violated the law without doing anything to catch Osama bin Laden. The NSA obviously hasn't been eavesdropping on the right suspects.

ROLL CALL

The Associated Press tallied the 72-25 vote:

On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to end the debate and a "no" vote was a vote to filibuster the nomination.

Voting "yes" were 19 Democrats and 53 Republicans.
Voting "no" were 24 Democrats and one independent.

Democrats Yes Akaka, Hawaii; Baucus, Mont.; Bingaman, N.M.; Byrd, W.Va.; Cantwell, Wash.; Carper, Del.; Conrad, N.D.; Dorgan, N.D.; Inouye, Hawaii; Johnson, S.D.; Kohl, Wis.; Landrieu, La.; Lieberman, Conn.; Lincoln, Ark.; Nelson, Fla.; Nelson, Neb.; Pryor, Ark.; Rockefeller, W.Va.; Salazar, Colo.

Democrats No Bayh, Ind.; Biden, Del.; Boxer, Calif.; Clinton, N.Y.; Dayton, Minn.; Dodd, Conn.; Durbin, Ill.; Feingold, Wis.; Feinstein, Calif.; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Leahy, Vt.; Levin, Mich.; Menendez, N.J.; Mikulski, Md.; Murray, Wash.; Obama, Ill.; Reed, R.I.; Reid, Nev.; Sarbanes, Md.; Schumer, N.Y.; Stabenow, Mich.; Wyden, Ore.

Democrats Not Voting Harkin, Iowa.

Republicans Yes Alexander, Tenn.; Allard, Colo.; Allen, Va.; Bennett, Utah; Bond, Mo.; Brownback, Kan.; Bunning, Ky.; Burns, Mont.; Burr, N.C.; Chafee, R.I.; Chambliss, Ga.; Coburn, Okla.; Cochran, Miss.; Coleman, Minn.; Collins, Maine; Cornyn, Texas; Craig, Idaho; Crapo, Idaho; DeMint, S.C.; DeWine, Ohio; Dole, N.C.; Domenici, N.M.; Enzi, Wyo.; Frist, Tenn.; Graham, S.C.; Grassley, Iowa; Gregg, N.H.; Hatch, Utah; Hutchison, Texas; Inhofe, Okla.; Isakson, Ga.; Kyl, Ariz.; Lott, Miss.; Lugar, Ind.; Martinez, Fla.; McCain, Ariz.; McConnell, Ky.; Murkowski, Alaska; Roberts, Kan.; Santorum, Pa.; Sessions, Ala.; Shelby, Ala.; Smith, Ore.; Snowe, Maine; Specter, Pa.; Stevens, Alaska; Sununu, N.H.; Talent, Mo.; Thomas, Wyo.; Thune, S.D.; Vitter, La.; Voinovich, Ohio; Warner, Va.

Republicans No None.
Republicans Not Voting Ensign, Nev.; Hagel, Neb.
Others No Jeffords, Vt.


Also read Thom Hartmann, It's the Constitution That's At Stake

In the novel "1984" by George Orwell, the way a seemingly democratic president kept his nation in a continual state of repression was by having a continuous war.

Cynics suggest the lesson wasn't lost on Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon, who both, they say, extended the Vietnam war so it coincidentally ran over election cycles, knowing that a wartime President's party is more likely to be reelected and has more power than a President in peacetime.

And, as George W. Bush told his biographer in 1999:

"One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as commander in chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."

Similarly, Adolf Hitler used the 1933 burning of the Reichstag (Parliament) building by a deranged Dutchman to declare a "war on terrorism," establish his legitimacy as a leader (even though he hadn't won a majority in the previous election).

Alito in, women's rights out

(CBS) CHICAGO President Bush had a message for abortion opponents Monday, marking the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

He told them: "We shall prevail."

snip

By phone, President Bush told a group of abortion opponents, "we're working to persuade more of our fellow Americans of the rightness of our cause."

"And history tells us that with such a cause, we will prevail," he added.

Well, that's it. The triumph of religion over science, of faith over reason is near. Bush got his two terms, got his two Supreme Court justices, and the Far Right, a political and social minority, will prevail over women's rights and the majority of the country.

Tomorrow it becomes a done deal. All we need to do now is bet which case will give the Supreme Court the opportunity Bush has sought. We don't have to wait until next year. It could come at the end of this session of the Court.

By June, women may very well be forced to carry a pregnancy to term. They may be forced to give birth whether their health or life is endangered.

And if you aren't scared enough, birth control pills are next. And if you think that is wrong and that is crazy, click here to realize that you haven't been paying attention. How much do you have to lose before you believe that women really will lose? If you don't realize it you may well be caught up in such denial that you don't realize that the clock is ticking on birth control pills and other forms of contraception. Because the fetus and unwanted pregnancies are much more important much more desirable than the rights of women.

As this website puts it:

As mentioned before, only a few methods of birth control called contraception are truly contraceptives. These are the condom, the diaphragm, the cervical cap, and the anti-sperm agents. While these methods do not cause abortions, a Christian couple should still weigh the facts carefully and consider Scripture before deciding to use one of them.

Although abortifacients and contraceptives are not the same thing, it is a mistake to assume that they are not related. Both have so much to do with how we view Christian marriage and children. Society views children as a burden; the Bible views them as blessings and gifts (Psalm 127:3-5).

Before you decide that contraception is what you really want, ask yourself, "In light of Scripture, why do we want to deny ourselves blessings and gifts from God?" Ask yourself, "Can we plan our family better than God can?"

We invite you to join us in the conviction that children are among the most wonderful blessings and gifts in the world. We believe that God can plan our families infinitely better than we ever could!

State Of The Union

Soon our fearless leader, Chimp Boy, will appear in all his Glory to speak of the condition of Amerka. He'll stand there smirking and carefully read the well-rehearsed words on the teleprompter.

He will wave the flag of 9/11 to defend his criminal spying on the American citizens and ask them to "trust me." "I'm keeping you safe, children", and then he'll spread fear of another attack on the homeland. Of course he won't mention New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast where the destruction was even greater than 9/11 in loss of life and property. Where the rubble of the WT Center was cleared away, shipped overseas in record time and with little concern for the health of the workers or the residents, the rubble of New Orleans still lies rotting in the street, along with innumerable dead bodies. This does not appear to concern the president. The war is going well and the economy is just fab. Amerkans are wealthy, healthy, and wise.

We will hear calls for "bipartisan support" which translated, means that all the Democrats must submit themselves to his royal judgement (as far too many of them already do) and join the Republicans in rubber stamping his every proposal. He will denigrate those of us who fear the terrorists less than we fear the destruction of our nation from the inside out by the greedy power mongers in search of slave labor and subservient underlings.

We will not hear paeans of praise for our civil rights or for our precious Constitution since the former have been trumped by the Patriot Act and the NSA wire-tapping while the latter has been dissmissed by our leader as "a goddamned piece of paper."

Actually, there is very little point in being concerned about what he will say. In actuality it will be nothing more than an edited re-run. Oh yeah, they'll cut out the part about the "mushroom cloud" and the one about WMDs. They won't, however be able to re-use the clip of "we couldn't have known," because its been established that they could have and should have known. Or why he read 'My Pet Goat' while the whole thing went down.


The only thing left is that 9/11 happened, it was awful, it was scary and, five years later we should still be hiding under our beds while the valiant King George stands bravely in the door fighting off the rest of the world and peeping through our keyholes to be sure we're safe... On second thought, let's all just watch a good movie. I heard the 40-Year-Old Virgin is funny. It will be no more fictional than the speech and much more entertaining. In the words of my 76-year-old mother, "It don't matter what the bastard says. He's layin' anyway!"

I'm So Confused!!!

Al Qaida are the bad guys. OBL is the reason for the world's ills. Then why oh why oh why was this man released from US custody?

Tabarak said he had no warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but helped protect bin Laden after U.S. forces went to war in Afghanistan the following month. He said he spent 20 days hiding with bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders in Tora Bora, in rugged mountainous terrain near the Pakistani border, as U.S. forces and their Afghan militia proxies closed in.

... Tabarak sacrificed himself so the others could escape. He took bin Laden's satellite phone, which the al Qaeda leader apparently assumed was being tracked by U.S. spy technology, and walked toward the Pakistani border as the al Qaeda leadership fled in the opposite direction. The ruse worked, although Tabarak and others were captured.

...

...his behavior at Guantanamo is further confirmation of his importance. There, they say, he developed a reputation as a tough-minded leader among the detainees. Moroccan officials have described him as an "emir" of the camp who resisted his American interrogators and catalyzed hunger strikes among prisoners.

...

Defense Department memos obtained by The Washington Post in 2004 show that Guantanamo officials repeatedly prevented inspectors from the International Committee of the Red Cross from seeing Tabarak.

Although the Red Cross was supposed to have access to all persons in military custody, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller told Red Cross inspectors on Oct. 9, 2003, that they could not visit Tabarak or three other detainees "because of military necessity," according to the memos. On a follow-up visit Feb. 2, 2004, Miller informed Red Cross officials that they could see anyone at the base, except Tabarak. Miller once again cited "military necessity." A Defense Department spokesman declined to comment on the memos.

And now he is free.

Today, the al Qaeda loyalist known locally as the "emir" of Guantanamo walks the streets of his old neighborhood near Casablanca, more or less a free man. In a decision that neither the Pentagon nor Moroccan officials will explain publicly, Tabarak was transferred to Morocco in August 2004 and released from police custody four months later.

This makes absolutely no sense. Why does our government support al Qaida while claiming to be against them? I'm blonde. Help.

Evangelical's Debating Skills Are The Best

Now this is some frightening news from Newsweek.

The debate team from Liberty University, Jerry Falwell's fundamentalist Baptist college is ranked number 1 among college debating tournaments.

Falwell and the religious right figure that if they can raise a generation that knows how to argue, they can stem the tide of sin in the country. Seventy-five percent of Liberty's debaters go on to be lawyers with an eye toward transforming society. "I think I can make an impact in the field of law on abortion and gay rights, to get back to Americans' godly heritage," says freshman debater Cole Bender.

...

Falwell's school, in Lynchburg, Va., pours a half million dollars into the debate program every year, with the goal of eventually flooding the system with "thousands" of conservative Christian lawyers. "We are training debaters who can perform assault ministry, meaning becoming the conscience of the culture," says Falwell, who is also hoping the team will elevate the humble academic reputation of Liberty itself. "So while we have the preaching of the Gospel on the one side—certainly a priority—we have the confronting of the culture on moral default on the other side."

...

Karl Rove was impressed enough by the squad that he tapped Liberty coach Brett O'Donnell to prep George W. Bush for all three presidential debates in 2004. O'Donnell briefed the president on his nonverbal tics. "They didn't listen to me until after the debacle," says O'Donnell, of Bush's awkward first debate performance.

Heh. That last part is funny.

Your Tax Money Is Going To Religious Groups

One quarter of the $15 billion alloted to AIDS went to religious organizations who tout abstinence rather than condoms in Africa. Many of these religious organizations have no experience in AIDS education.

AP-
Conservative Christian allies of the president are pressing the U.S. foreign aid agency to give fewer dollars to groups that distribute condoms or work with prostitutes. The Bush administration provided more than 560 million condoms abroad last year, compared with some 350 million in 2001.

Secular organizations in Africa are raising concerns that new money to groups without AIDS experience may dilute the impact of Bush's historic three-year-old program.
...

Condom promotion to anyone must include abstinence and fidelity messages, U.S. guidelines say, but those preaching abstinence do not have to provide condom education.

The abstinence emphasis, say some longtime AIDS volunteers, has led to a confusing message and added to the stigma of condom use in parts of Africa. Village volunteers in Swaziland maintain a supply of free condoms but say they have few takers.

Did you get the part about conservative christians not wanting money to go to AIDS groups that work with prostitutes or give out condoms. Does this mean that they want those people to die? Out of all the AIDS patients in the world, 60% of them are in Africa. Those missionaries are sure doing a bang up job.

Furthermore, in another article: Botswana Adopts Radical Approach to HIV

GABORONE, Botswana - When Botswana first offered free AIDS treatment, health authorities in one of the world's most infected countries braced for a rush of patients. It did not happen.

It turned out that most people were so afraid of the deadly disease, and the frequent social ostracism, that they did not want to know if they were infected.

....

Doctors here believe pulling patients aside for special counseling is intimidating and helps fuel the stigma that keeps patients from seeking help.

"In fact, we found that people who had not made their minds up quite often were definitely against it once the pretest counseling was done," said Dr. Howard Moffat, medical superintendent at Princess Marina Hospital in the capital, Gaborone.

Africans think because AIDS was initially a gay disease in the US, it carries a terrible stigma. Most AIDS patients in Africa are heterosexual. Botswana gives out free medicine to patients, but there weren't many takers because less than 10% of those with HIV even know that they have it until it's too late. Now HIV testing may become mandatory when someone visits a doctor. More women are takers than men. Early testing is important because HIV can be treated in many cases. The article didn't mention whether or not they had sex education or christian missionaries in Botswana.

Frist on Cheat the Press

This morning Frist declared that Americans don't want the government to interfere with "End-of-Life" cases while looking back at the Terri Schiavo debacle where bush rushed from his vacation to the WH to pretend to give a shit about life.

The government is responsible for enough deaths as it is. How could anyone in their right mind believe that the government cares about life issues, especially bush or anyone who supports the war on Iraq, outrageous defense spending, etc. It's in the government's best interest to see to it that more earthlings die so that there is more for them.

AP- Looking back, Frist said, "When you're taking innocent life, with parents who want that life preserved, you've got to make sure, and therefore stepping in to say, let's take one more review, that's what we did."

He added: "I accept the outcome. I don't agree with the moral sense of it."

A senator with moral sense? feh. Innocent life. feh. He deems who is innocent or not? Ha. He ought to go and spend a week in Iraq.

The article ends with him thinking about running for preznit. Fat chance. Why hasn't he been indicted?

Is it just me?

Or is the tide beginning to turn, if in miniscule pop-culture ways?

I know that I'm probably the only person around here who reads the Parade Magazine that comes in the Sunday paper, but it's a handy little quickie gauge of the Wonder-Bread-eating populace.

Now, I don't wanna be premature, I'm not the Chicken Little of schaedenfreude, but --- the Personality Parade, where they regularly felate pompous & overaged Hollywood types and berate/nag/belittle the few remaining "liberals" in L.A., they actually mocked Paris Hilton and Brangelina, but discussed unions (LABOR unions, not shotgun weddings) in a less-than-snide way. Trivial? Sure. A harbinger of fickle Murkins finally emerging from their five-year snooze? Mebbe.

There's a cover story about how Sarah Jessica Parker "deserves" her fame because she's from a working-class family of 8 kids and divorced parents, with a step-father who drove a truck (cliche' as fuck, I know, and she still irks the living shit out of me, but it mentions the working class as being THREE-DIMENSIONAL HUMANS, instead of mere cannon fodder).

The "Intelligence Report" is all about "Iraq: Who Wrote The Plan?" Pretty wide-eyed attempt at journalism for a "paper" that routinely nuzzles up to Karl Rove's scrotum with all earnest enthusiasm. They have a yearly feature, "Who's The World's Worst Dictator?" and have they ever included BushCheneyCo. in the poll? Pfft.

Every week, it's flag-waving, chest-thumping, rah-rah, breed-breed-breed, ain't Murka cute and cuddly, go Aggies, sports is IMPORTANT, status-quo reinforcement to the 9th power. Don't forget the weekly damned-near free advertising for the military recruiters.

And this week, James Brady's celebrity profile name-checks Al Gore (it's about Tommy Lee Jones) with a straight face and nary a flinch! I damned near fainted.

Yeah, I know, PARADE is within spitting distance of the National Enquirer. No shit. But I've been reading the paper since I was 6 or 7 years old, and the Sunday paper is still a treat for me. And, as I've said, it's an interesting glance into the world of pro-breeding, flag-waving, patriotism-poisoned Murkins. (Without being tainted by the disease itself, of course.)

I think that this is a flare. I think that they're finally realizing that they should be more than a little terrified by this monster that their selfishness & narcissism hath wrought. Dawn is finally breaking through a crack in the armor. There might be hope for this country yet.

But don't quote me on it.

'Cause hope is something that I haven't seen a helluva lot of since Clinton's re-election commercials, and y'all KNOW that I mean the town.

It's so warm that...

I've been living across the street from a golf course for 25 years. This is the first time I have ever seen the greens open in the winter and today I noticed that the golfers were using golf carts (I have never seen a golf cart before spring.)

Scientists are declaring that the earth is warming up faster than they had predicted and are making the assertion that the acceleration is caused by human activity. Check out Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change

"While scientists remain uncertain when such a point might occur, many say it is urgent that policymakers cut global carbon dioxide emissions in half over the next 50 years or risk the triggering of changes that would be irreversible."

People and animals emit a whole lot of carbon dioxide too. Perhaps we are a bit too overpopulated... I read an article about vegetarianism cutting global warming in my New Scientist Magazine. The article isn't on their website, so I shall transcribe some of it.

From "Green Your Diet Before Your Car"(New Scientist, Dec 17-23, 2005): (A study from the U of Chicago) says "you can do more for the planet by going vegan."

They compared the amount of fossil fuel needed to cultivate and process various foods, including running agricultural machinery, providing food for livestock and irrigating crops. They also factored in emissions of methane and nitrous oxide produced by cows, sheep and manure treatment.

The typical US diet, about 28% comes from animal sources, generates the equivalent of 1.5 tons more carbon dioxide per person than a vegan diet with the same number of calories, say researchers...

By comparison, the difference in annual emissions between driving a typical car and a hybrid car is just over 1 ton.

So if you really must drive an SUV, then you can do your part by giving up meat. Who knew?

Uh oh, New Scientist also has an article about vegetation. not vegetarianism. Plants and vegetation don't only give off methane gas when they rot, as was commonly believed, they gives off methane gas in general. It accounts for 10-30% of all the methane pumped into the atmosphere!

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

Update: Clinton: Climate Change World's Biggest Concern
Someone should tell him how unAmerican he is.

We Have The Very Telling Pictures

that the White House doesn't want you to see.

just a suggestion

Ann Coulter suggested at one of her performances in Little Rock that, "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."

I have a suggestion, too. Since it is a violation of federal law to threaten the life of a judge, people who share my concern that Coulter is unfit to be an attorney should contact the New York State Bar Association and inquire if Ms. Coulter should be sanctioned or reprimanded for her "joke."

Update:
The smart souls at FireDogLake have the necessary information.
as of 01/27/2006


Registration Number: 2283133

ANN HART COULTER

PO BOX 1241

NEW YORK NY 10028


(646) 327-3338

Year Admitted in NY: 1989
Appellate Division
Department of Admission:
3
Law School: U OF MICHIGAN
Registration Status: Currently registered
Next Registration: Dec 2007

Since she's in the Third Department complaints must be filed here:

3rd Department Committee on Professional Standards
Committee on Professional Standards
40 Steuben Street
Albany, NY 12207
(518) 474-8816

Activism: Get on the Senator's Cases

It's too cold for the beach so....
Get busy telling senators that NOT doing what is right will cost them the next election.
Tell everyone you know to step on it.

It seems that the main switchboards are overloaded.
Get instant local district phone numbers for your senators here.
You can also send an email form at the website. It also goes to your local newspapers. I did that and my letter was published in Newsday.

NoCrony.com's message for senators is this:

Your vote to support a filibuster will NOT cost you an election. Any other vote absolutely will. Respect the will of the people and you will have the most mobilized and committed activists in the country to contribute and work tirelessly for your behalf. Oppose the will of the people and we will raise challengers to you in your own primaries and contribute every dime we have to them to defeat you, and failing that we will look to find ANY other candidate in the general election to support. Listen to the people or your political career will be the REAL done deal. EMPHASIZE that you are a constituent (IF you are) and provide contact information to prove it.

Nocrony.com also advises that:

If you have Republican senators, it is just as important to contact them with the additional message of how outraged you will be if they try to pull some nuclear option stunt.

You should concentrate on the local office closest to you, and if you are doing faxing, you should also definitely hit the Washington number as well, on the chance that there is a piece of fax paper left there. If you are looking to do even MORE, here is the master list of ALL phone and fax numbers for ALL senators, with annotations about which are the most critical swing votes.

If you are are calling senators in other states, be candid that you are not a direct constituent. But the message is the same, if you stand with the party on this one we will go out of our way to help you. Otherwise we will flood your state with money and labor to support ANY candidate who runs against you until the end of time.

Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the first Democratic senator to betray the cause, is monitoring his phone messages this weekend, as are Robert Byrd (WV) and Tim Johnson (SD).

Gang of 14:
Pryor (AR) 202-224-2353
Salazar (CO) 202-224-5852
Lieberman (CT) 202-224-4041
Inouye (HI) 202-224-3934
Landrieu (LA) 202-224-5824
Nelson (NE) 202-224-6551
Byrd (WV) 202-224-3954
Other Swing Democrats:
Lincoln (AR) 202-224-4843
Dodd (CT) 202-224-2823
Carper (DE) 202-224-2441
Nelson (FL) 202-224-5274
Levin (MI) 202-224-6221
Baucus (MT) 202-224-2651
Dorgan (ND) 202-224-2551
Conrad (ND) 202-224-2043
Bingaman (NM) 202-224-5521
Wyden (OR) 202-224-5244
Johnson (SD) 202-224-5842
Murray (WA) 202-224-5274
Feingold (WI) 202-224-5323
Kohl (WI) 202-224-5653
Rockefeller (WV) 202-224-6472

Republican Moderates:
McCain (AZ) 202-224-2235
Murkowski (AK) 202-224-6665
Collins (ME) 202-224-2523
Snowe (ME) 202-224-5344
DeWine (OH) 202-224-2315
Voinovich (OH) 202-224-3353
Smith (OR) 202-224-3753
Specter (PA) 202-224-4254
Chafee (RI) 202-224-2921
Warner (VA) 202-224-2023

Don't forget:
Sign John Kerry's petition to all senators.

Obama says there aren't enough votes to filibuster.
Get to work!

The Week in Review

Trying to connect the dots is hard work. Bear with me.

Pentagon says Army is stretched too thin... Rummy says no, blames Clinton... Defense spending in the news is hard to follow but it's wasteful as hell at the very least... Bin Laden may strike again so we better continue to eavesdrop... Israel threatens Iran... Iran vows to retaliate... US and UK gear up... Palestine elects Hamas...War, war and more war on horizon... Bush suggests cutting the reserves and national guard anyway. WHAT?

Earlier this week a Pentagon study (written by former Army officer Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr. and funded by the Department of Defense, mind you) revealed that the Army was stretched to the breaking point. Rumsfeld argued that it was not true and that all the experience of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan has made the Army stronger, not weaker. It exhausts me just to read about all the troops going in and out of war, but that's just me.

Meanwhile, government media shill, Bob Schieffer reported on January 25th: "Defense Secretary Rumsfeld took strong issue today with former Clinton administration officials who say the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the U.S. military to the near breaking point...." But it was the other report, the one funded by the DoD, which made the news first. What do in a pinch? Blame the Clinton administration. It's not my fault, waaaaaa

This week, the president warned us that bin Laden may strike. We ought to take him seriously, he said. We will fight bin Laden by secret wiretapping programs (and I suppose it's also a good thing that our Army is stronger not weaker). The U.S. military plans to add nearly 8,000 troops to its elite Special Operations Forces(Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and the top-secret Delta Force) next year to bolster America's ability to fight terrorists and insurgents worldwide. WaPo reported that billions of dollars would be added to the Special Operations budget over the next five years, (if Congress approves the plan). That's good, I think. I still maintain that Special Forces should have taken care of bin Laden and Saddam rather than bombing the shit out of the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, but that would have been logical and not good for defense industry shareholders.)

Does anyone understand what is going on with the defense spending? I don't. Seriously. The US lost track of $9 billion in Iraq in 2004. Auditors were unable to verify that money given to Iraqi ministries was spent for its intended purposes. The money is still out there in limbo and no one seems to care. Paul Bremer disagreed with that audit at the time saying that it was hard work to have a transparent budget in a time of war.... so Bush slapped a medal of freedom on him anyway. Hard work is hard work.

The Defense Department is overpaying for appliances such as $20 for an ice cube tray that would sell at the dollar store for a buck. Why? Because they use a middle man who sets the prices rather than going to the manufacturer. It's a multibillion-dollar Pentagon purchasing system called the prime vendor program. The pentagon has dismissed claims from whistleblowers who call on the whistleblower hotline that there has been misspending. Maybe the hotline number is left over from the Clinton years. Critics charge that this program pissed away about $200 million. Not surprising. Why not hire a government employee to do the research and buy from individual manufacturers to save money? I could do it. Oh wait, that would mean that we weren't leaning towards a fascist dictatorship. Nevermind.

We also read that war with Iran may be looming. Israel threatened to attack Iran. If the US doesn't tell Israel to cool it, wouldn't the US be viewed as an accomplice by the Arab world? And that is really going to piss off the Iraqi's. Forget about ever having a stable government in Iraq. Iran has said it will strike back if attacked with "very effective missile defense." Uh oh. Thank god they don't have nukes.

Everything bush is saying about Iran, he said about Iraq. If I read between the lines here, he's saying that we invaded the wrong country. Since no one knows exactly where all of Iran's secret nuclear labs are. Is Israel going to have to bomb the whole country out of existence? Does anyone really think that Iran is just going to cower after being attacked? It just may take a bit longer for them to make nukes, if anything. But that is good news for war profiteers.

But wait, what middle eastern country is going to allow Israel to fly over its airspace to attack Iran? Flying over Saudi Arabia or Jordan would probably be viewed as an act of war. Perhaps Turkey? The whole thing sounds like a bunch of bullying. Maybe the US ground forces will just go into Iran and jail the wives of Iranian leaders to make them surrender. And we wonder why troops come home nuts from Iraq.

Bush is going to propose a trimming of the Army Reserves and the National Guard. Yes, that's right. Stop blinking your eyes. It's in today's news. But it's really just on paper. No one is really being laid off.

What the Army wants to do in the name of "achieving a new balance of troop strength" is lower the current alloted slots of of Reservists from 205,000 to 188,000 (the actual number of reservists). Likewise with the National Guard: cut the force from the alloted slots of 35,000 soldiers to 333,000 (the actual number of guardsmen). It sounds like they are just trying to futz around with the numbers so that when they make their reports, they won't have to admit that not enough people are signing up.

The article goes on to warn stockholders about changes in defense spending: GE and Rolls Royce which make the engines for the Joint Strike Fighter the military's next-generation combat plane may be dumped as suppliers. Tony Blair sent bush a handwritten note about this travesty. This will cut jobs here and abroad. If bush ignores Blair's note, what will Blair do to retaliate? Where does that leave stockholders? Buy Pratt & Whitney stock which provides back up in the alternate engine program?

See also
Lockheed Martin's bright future
Boeing is going to streamline its defense operations
4th-quarter spending dips

I really couldn't connect the dots effetively because everything seems contradictory on the surface. Y'all can feel free to help me out here. It does all seem to lie with money and oil if I read between the lines. In a nutshell, the biggest threat to the American people appears to be its government.

UPDATE SUNDAY AM: You can't make this up.
US Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called "stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.

Hot damn and crack the plum wine!

Happy Chinese New Year!

As of January 28th/29th, it will officially be, once again, The Year Of The Dog.

(Okay, so I don't generally put a lot of stock in hocus-pocus/zodiacs/cults/voodoo/etc. But the last time that I had a really good year was 1994, and I am A Dog {1970}, so what the hell --- cross yer fingers and drink some plum wine!)

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!

I Love A Good Argument:

From The Written Peace: Open Forum of January 23, 2006:

"Spine transplants for Democratic politicians are not yet possible, and testicle transplants are at best pretty iffy; for the time being..." -- The Dark Wraith

To which 'My Pet Goat' responded: "I would argue that both are possible, and that even spontaneous regeneration can actually happen in some instances. Most of the time though, the remnant DNA from the DINO causes organ rejection. This leaves us with invertebrate eunuchs with good intentions for surviving the next election without conflict."

And the most important trait in a mate is...

It depends who you ask

The New Fascism

It's Fascist Friday again here at Blondesense because no, we will not refrain from calling it what it is.

Today's reading:

The New Fascism
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective


Excerpt: Say "fascism" to anyone you meet, and you will be greeted with the boilerplate response of the blithely overconfident: such a thing cannot happen here. This is the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave. Ours is a nation of laws, of checks and balances, of righteousness and decency. Our laws and traditions stand as a bulwark against the rise of totalitarian madness. It cannot happen here. Thus we are indoctrinated into the school of our own assumed greatness.
Read on...

Easy Filibuster Alito Petition

Go to SavetheCourt.org
scroll down to the petition. It's quite simple to fill out. We've got to give Kerry, Kennedy, et al the support that they so desperately need by contacting those other senators who need a spinal adjustment. Please pass this link on.

Also read:
Top Democrats move to block Bush high court nominee
Leading Democrat Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy said they would try to block Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito by preventing a vote on him with a filibuster.

Senate GOP Seeks to Force Vote on Alito
Die-hard Democratic critics of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito threatened on Thursday to block a vote on his confirmation, and Republicans countered with a move designed to force his approval by early next week.

Trend or omen?

Another woman has killed her (ex-) husband. I'm kinda surprised that it isn't the slavering-rabid-rottweiler Crusade Du Jour at FAUX News... "Psycho Post-Fertile Females Go On Murderous Rampages Across The Heartland!!!"

'Cause y'all know damned well that if they weren't so busy propping up Alito's hollow paper ass, they'd be allllllllllllll over this shit. It's even better than the "Your Weekly Missing White Woman Panic!!!" that's been so successful for them. AND it has the added appeal of having white male VICTIMS.

Sorry, guys, no offense, but your fellow Y-chromosomers are really pissing me off these days, and I'm pretty fucking sick and tired of the back-handed sexism that has taken over what Murkins call a "culture." Teenaged to twenty-something women who actually believe that their ability to "snare" a MAN is more important than an EDUCATION or a CAREER or any kind of PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT aside from spreading their legs and pumping out a few plump little mewling units. And even for the more "ambitious" ones for whom it's just "youthful exhuberance"... They still hold their hot little appearances as their supposed "trump card" against any feminist argument. ("You're just jealous 'cause you're not this young and HOT!") And I know, I can't "blame" men for women being that fucking self-destructive and shallow and greedy. But I can damned sure blame them for perpetuating this shit in the mass media ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Getting a MANNNNNNNN is the whole fucking point behind HOW MANY fucking "game shows" and "reality shows"???

Linking a MANNNNNNN with MONEY and SUCCESS is the whole fucking joke of a "plot" for HOW MANY prime-time "fictional" and "reality" shows?

Women have to compete. Duh. When they're competing based on SKILL, TALENT, INTELLECT, ABILITY, fuck --- even PURE BRASS OVARIES --- that, I can deal with and maybe even appreciate.

But when the whole fucking POINT of entire NETWORKS are to make couch-potato guys feel more "virile" by showing hour after hour of "JUGGIES" and bimbos in high heels twisting their ankles in the woods while being chased by a fucking SERIAL KILLER, and when I haven't seen a rap song besides "Jesus Walked" (don't get me started) that doesn't refer to women as PIECES OF MEAT and GOLD-DIGGERS in what? --- TEN YEARS --- it's not a conspiracy theory.

It's our "culture." Or should I say, "CULT-ure."

I've watched it happen twice thus far in my lifespan, and I'm pretty fucking sick of it. And hell yes, I'm pissed as hell at young women who take what us older broads went through FOR GRANTED. Or as IRRELEVANT to their hot, sexy, sugar-daddy-gettin' lives.

It's not a coincidence, either. Porn culture on the rise is not a shocking development, is it? Who developed the internet? Geeks who couldn't get laid who now own entire ISLANDS. Men who equate "power" with arm-candy and material possessions. Who is drawn to this kind of environment and to watching their "fellow" geeks "overcome"? Other guys who feel powerless and resentful of women who don't give a shit about them. And what does this encourage?

Do I really have to draw y'all a picture?

I'm not anti-porn, as nobody can be exploited if they're an adult who knows how to turn a door knob and walk the fuck away. If you're messing with kids & critters, well, you shouldn't be on my planet in the first fucking place. And if a woman is in porn to support a drug habit and THAT is her "exploitation" by men (and women!) who know how to use that against her, well, then PORN is not her primary problem.

The problem here is with males (I hesitate to label them "men," because I have quite a few friends who are men, and I would not want to insult them by association) who are too immature and too shallow and too selfish to separate FICTION from REALITY. The problem here is with entire INDUSTRIES, populated by men AND women, that make their coin off of the nekkid backs of girls who think that their body is all that they have to offer.

This is not "revenge of the nerds." I am a nerd, I've been surrounded by nerds all of my life and they're generally pretty damned good people. This is revenge of the lazy-assed little brats who feel like women OWE THEM SOMETHING. Like life has taken something away from them, whether through bad parenting or hard luck or flat-out cruelty, and that their "just desserts" are to make WOMEN PAY FOR THAT.

And this is not just little nouveau-riche-suburban-white-trash partaking of this orgy of deprication. It spans every gawddamned color line on the planet.

And I'll tell you another "coincidence" --- the harder the cults ("religions") push to keep dominance over their sheeple, the more that this shit proliferates. And when do the bible-banging mouth-breathers (and every other fucking fanatic on the planet) feel like they OWN US?

(wait for it...)

WHEN FASCISTS ARE IN POWER.

Sex IS politics, kids. Keeping one group of people down, "in their place," earning less, meaning less, "worth" less --- THAT IS THE POINT BEHIND ALL MASS MIND CONTROL, from politics to "patriotism" to cults to television & film. Keep YOUR ass down so that I get to keep all of the money and all of the power.

And most women DON'T EVEN SEE IT. That's what pisses me off the most. They've sold their souls and their potential and their dreams for what fucking lowlife MARKETERS have told them to want. And they THINK that they're "trading UP."

And yeah, I know the first words out of the trolls' mouths here will be, "But you're just an unemployed disability loser washout, nursing at the 'public teat'! You can't bitch about the REAL WORLD!"

To which I reply, as ever, THE FUCK I CAN'T.

I didn't just drop out of the sky onto the Social Security rolls. I've struggled uphill my entire life against the Good Old Boy Network, the inherent sexist bullshit of Southern radio, the everyday mundane sexism and bullshit and politics of every menial job on the fucking planet. And I have had to fight for it, every fucking time. Any woman who is naive enough to think that sexism and a 1950s mentality isn't alive and kicking in America either is one damned lucky prodigy or has some reallllllly good connections.

If there's a point here, it's that I'm sick and fucking tired of my country being stolen by immature peckerheads who have the emotional depth of dog spit and the cultural intelligence of a used condom. I'm sick and fucking tired of watching brilliant young women ALLOW men to treat them like shit because they (the men, of course) make good money and drive the right car, like that's how it's SUPPOSED TO BE. I'm sick and fucking tired of women seeing only THE BOTTOM LINE to every part of their lives, and never once stopping to think that they are WORTH MORE than the useless baubles that some guy may throw at them. And I'm REALLY sick and fucking tired of the FLAMING ASSHOLES getting all of the "upscale" girls, because the DECENT GUYS aren't going to try to BUY THEIR AFFECTIONS. Granted, the chicks who go for the flaming assholes are probably also assholes all on their own, but it pisses me off that they think that THOSE ARE THEIR ONLY OPTIONS.

And if I ever found myself in an elevator with that little kumquat troll that created "Girls Gone Wild"... Well, let's just say that it won't be pleasant. I know, I know, the girls get drunk/stoned/what-the-fuck-ever and ALLOW themselves to be ripped-off (after all, the only "profits" that THEY ever make are CHEAP-ASS SWEATSHOP-MADE T-SHIRTS) by this douchebag --- but y'know, I just think that if the situation ever arose, he just really oughta "take one for the team."

Gore

Vidal.


President Jonah A fabulous piece on the state of America with the usual biting wit.

Excerpt: "We are assured daily by advertisers and/or politicians that we are the richest, most envied people on Earth and, apparently, that is why so many awful, ill-groomed people want to blow us up. We live in an impermeable bubble without the sort of information that people living in real countries have access to when it comes to their own reality. But we are not actually people in the eyes of the national ownership: we are simply unreliable consumers comprising an overworked, underpaid labor force not in the best of health: The World Health Organization rates our healthcare system (sic—or sick?) as 37th-best in the world, far behind even Saudi Arabia, role model for the Texans. Our infant mortality rate is satisfyingly high, precluding a First World educational system. Also, it has not gone unremarked even in our usually information-free media that despite the boost to the profits of such companies as Halliburton, Bush’s wars of aggression against small countries of no danger to us have left us well and truly broke. Our annual trade deficit is a half-trillion dollars, which means that we don’t produce much of anything the world wants except those wan reports on how popular our Entertainment is overseas. Unfortunately the foreign gross of “King Kong,” the Edsel of that assembly line, is not yet known. It is rumored that Bollywood—the Indian film business—may soon surpass us! Berman writes, “We have lost our edge in science to Europe...The US economy is being kept afloat by huge foreign loans ($4 billion a day during 2003). What do you think will happen when America’s creditors decide to pull the plug, or when OPEC members begin selling oil in euros instead of dollars?...An International Monetary Fund report of 2004 concluded that the United States was ‘careening toward insolvency.’ ” Meanwhile, China, our favorite big-time future enemy, is the number one for worldwide foreign investments, with France, the bete noire of our apish neocons, in second place."

"Well, we still have Kraft cheese and, of course, the death penalty."

kinky lost me last night

Kinky Friedman lost any hope of getting my support last night.

Friedman, former front man for The Jewboys, is running for governor. If elected he would be the first Jewish governor of Texas. He might want to discuss the separation of church and state with a rabbi. The entertaining writer and country singer, who penned my favorite country and western song, I'm Proud to be an Asshole from El Paso, is a supporter of school prayer. He revealed this on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night. He supports prayer in the public schools, he says, because the kids ought to believe in something!

I guess he also believes that governments should impose those values on children.

No, I believe in the separation of church and state and school districts are governments and if they mandate moments of silence and such they are advocating that children should pray or adopt a religion. I thought that was the responsibility of parents, not governments. I thought that government was neither a supporter or inhibitor of religion. Religion is such a private matter that I don't want people who have no training in religion advocating religion to school children. That is the role of religious leaders, not teachers, principals, and school boards.

Sorry Kinky. Your position on school prayer, if implemented, would bring prejudice to classrooms. Do you think that Hindu kids, or Muslim kids, or Jewish kids can stand the taunts and jeers of their Christian classmates? And what of the atheist and agnostic children? You would use government to impose "values", your values, on them?

Kinky, there isn't a dime's worth of difference between you and a professional politician, pandering rather than thinking. Governor Rick Perry, a school prayer supporter and an arrogant Christian, wants to impose his values on science in the classroom. He likes school prayer, too.

Your campaign slogans are "Why the Hell Not?" and "How Hard Can it Be?" It must be very difficult to think about the American tradition of separation of church and state. Jimmy Carter remembers the lesson well and retells it in his new book, Our Endangered Values. Leadership is not about pandering and being popular, it is about keeping people focused on the Founder's vision of America. Leadership takes people higher, not to lowest common denominator.

But what should we expect from someone running for governor of Texas? We should expect better.

Spineless Jelly Fish

Could just one Democratic Senator grow a spine and take the initiative to start a fill=ibuster on Sammy boy Alito? Or have the fumes from the manure spreader overcome me? Can it really be that difficult to expose the twisted priorites of this man?



UPDATE: There's a rumor that Kerry made lead the filibuster. There are also 8 senators who don't support a filibuster. Those are the ones we have to call. All the information is here.
Even if the Kerry story doesn't pan out, still make those phone calls. (info at above link)

You Can't Make This Shit Up

T. Bubba Bechtol, part time City Councilman from Midland TX, was asked on a local live radio talk show the other day just what he thought of the allegations of torture of Iraqi prisoners. His reply prompted his ejection from the studio----but to a thunderous applause from the audience.

"If hooking up an Iraqi prisoner's scrotum to a car's battery cables will save one Americans GI's life, then I just have two things to say." "Red is positive. Black is negative."

WTF!


Arthur Schopenhauser: "Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."

Panda Porn

Bush Admin: HUGE flipflop

From AmericaBlog:

In 2002, the Bush Administration OPPOSED legislation that would have given them the legal power to spy without a warrant. They said, now get this, "that the proposed legislation was likely unconstitutional". (They had a different attorney general at the time.) They also felt that it was unconstitutional to spy on foreigners only.

Now, the administration says that the 2002 legislation wouldn't have gone far enough. huh?

News You Can't Use But What The Hell

Florida: State restricts gynecologist's license after a patient alleged misconduct. Physician told not to treat women.

South Dakota: Intoxicated South Dakotans should be able to ride horses or bikes home from bars without fear of being arrested for drunken driving, legislators decided Wednesday.

Chicago: Hospitals should intensify efforts to highlight medications on medical charts to avoid drug errors.

Germany: Frustrated wife takes job in brothel. "It's not something I do full time, and I only have sex with the men I like. In a job like this, you have to keep a certain standard," she said.

Bahrain: Michael Jackson was spotted wearing female Arabic gear. "The veil, abaya and gloves were of a style typically worn by conservative Bahraini women." His kids also wore veils. It was also rumored that he applied makeup in a ladies room.

UK: New scientific study- Get laid before a speaking engagement to reduce stress. "But make sure it's penetrative sex - the magic vanishes if you pursue other forms of sexual gratification."

"Century after century, while the flame of primitive Christianity burned low, esoteric work has remained vigilant. The esoteric meaning of the work was a preparatory effort: its objective was to accumulate the necessary energies on the astral plane, and so make it easier for humanity to pass through the great turnings of History...

"These changes in direction, and the coming of the new era they imply, have been constantly notable for the varied active and eminent roles played by women....

"The principle of Woman's intervention is found in ALL crucial periods of history.

"Periods where the ennobling role of the woman in the life of human society has faded are marked by a triviality of morals and manners, expressed in particular by a taste for realism carried to its utmost limits.

"Today, human relations suffer from a real distortion in the innate role that woman is destined to play at the side of man: instead of being the active force in these relations, the inspiring and fruitful complement to the man, the woman tends to follow a parallel path, which no longer permits her to exercise her own creative vocation...." -- Boris Mouravieff

as quoted by Laura Knight-Jadczyk in her essay "Boris Mouravieff: Polar Opposites, or the Fifth Way of Love"
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/mouravieff.htm

Mutants

New scientific study shows that people who never smoked or have quit smoking successfully have an ineffective CYP2A6 gene. So there.

Nevermind. Don't Enlist

Go Army!
WASHINGTON - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday disputed reports suggesting that the U.S. military is stretched thin and close to a snapping point from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, asserting "the force is not broken."

Bush: Bin Laden Should Be Taken Seriously

How do you like that? A Threat Operations Center. Who knew?

"I'll continue to reauthorize this program for so long as our country faces a continuing threat from al-Qaida and related groups," Bush said." Here's the whole story.

If you don't feel like reading the story...
Shorter Bush: Bin Laden means what he says. If he says he is going to attack America, then he will. That's why it's important for bush to move forward with the war against privacy in america.

Dear Senator Santorum,

With all due respect for your selfless service and devotion to the country in the senate, are you insane? Do you really think that a citizen who puts your bumper sticker on their car is akin to putting on a uniform and serving in the military to fight a war that you voted for and support while our troops are being stretched too thin? Well of course you do, but I don't. Even if you asked people to put a "Support Our Troops" ribbon on their car rather than put on a uniform, I'd still think you were crazy (with all due respect, of course). You can never have enough troops in a country like ours. How can we possibly have more wars without troops? Does anyone even think of that while war planning is going on?

The only way to get rid of terrorists as the vice president has recently mentioned is to destroy them. I hardly believe that donning a Santorum sticker on one's car has anything to do with supporting the war effort.

At this point, all senators should be urging their constituents to risk dying for their country in the middle east, as that is the noblest profession other than CEO or lobbyist, even though our troops are not getting the proper equipment, to fight our enemies abroad. Why even Prince Harry may fight in Iraq! Who wouldn't want to fight along his side?

We should declare war on countries that we can pillage for resources to pay off the national debt before we invade another sovereign nation. Before the corporate war profiteers get their share, our government ought to take a big chunk to pay off debt otherwise people may start to think we live in a fascist dictatorship and we wouldn't want that to happen.

Have you figured out another way to finance the wars? I suppose our children and grandchildren could pay for them if they don't move away to avoid paying high taxes. Or maybe they will have to move to China to pay off the national debt working in sweat shops. I believe you ought to address these issues. The rich folks still need their flunkies. You can't be driving them away, now can you?

Furthermore, why not funnel some of your campaign contributions towards those troops from Pennsylvania who enlisted to ensure that they get plenty of armor, lots of bullets and clean water so that they can come home safely, perhaps in one piece and keep voting for you?

Love
Liz

Sweet Sweet Story

There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about aging, the top one being "It won't happen to me." Ha! Hide and watch, buckwheat. It'll happen, all right, and much sooner than you can possibly imagine.

Another wrongheaded notion is thinking that, just because the outside of us changes, we also change on the inside. Wrong. People don't change---they get more and more the same. Once I saw in the paper that an eighty-three-year-old woman got her old self thrown in the slammer for stabbing her husband to death. He was ninety-five!

A psychiatrist quoted in the article expressed the professional opinion that aging doesn't necessarily make someone a better person. Apparently not---that guy'd had ninety-five years to get better, and he did not use his time wisely. (Bless her heart, she just could not wait another minute for him to die.)

The old woman was placed among the general female population at the jail and was evidently quite the favorite among the inmates. The jailer reported that the other women were all helping her out any way they could. That is the sweetest story. Don't we all hope that if we find ourselves newly incarcerated when we're nearly a hundred, the other girls will be nice to us?

Bikini

If more people were aware of what happened there, they'd think of another name for the bathing suit.

Imagine your legs swelling so much from radioactive fallout that they burst open? That's part of the story told in the documentary Radio Bikini that I watched Sunday afternoon on IFC. The most terrifying part of the story is told by the film clips of the sailors completely unaware of what was happening to them as they observed atomic bomb testing near Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The testing in 1946 was to determine the effect of the atom bomb on US warships. Most of the sailors were just kids and didn't know what radioactivity was. Nor were they told. When it was way too late, they understood just what serving their country in the military really meant.

There's also the heartbreaking story of the Bikini residents who were told they would return to their island after the testing and then finding out that they wouldn't return for 40 years. The Bikini's were sent off to a practically uninhabitable island where they suffered greatly. They moved several times after that. Furthermore, the US government knew that when they tested the atomic bomb that the winds were favorable to blow radioactive fallout to other Marshall islands.

Frightening are the clips that were long hidden from the world of what really happened there, the blatant disregard for life in the name of supremacy. By bringing the sailors to ground zero and filming them casually going about their day and laughingly putting their hands near the Geiger counters in order to show that people would be able to coexist with the earth after having been nuked makes you want to scream and run away. But to where? Everything the American people and the sailors heard about the tests was simply propaganda. This was the beginning of an age, a deadly age... a point of no return. Interestingly at the end of the flick, the generals were shown denouncing the atomic bomb and saying that it should never be used.

I believe the movie will be aired again on Tuesday, Jan 31 2006 12:30 PM on IFC.

There's a meme going around where people are thinking of the top 10 movies to describe America. I'd like to nominate Radio Bikini as one of the 10 films that describes the American propaganda machine, the blantant disregard for human life and the naivete of the citizens. Try to see it.

Santorum is such a tool

From Santorum Exposed Blog

Santorum: "And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what's at stake. They're willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. What I'm asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country?"

He isn't talking about a "Support Your Troops" magnet but a Santorum bumpersticker.

Tool.

The Weather

(or as we say in New York, the wehthuh)

Last Year Was Warmest on Record
By MALCOLM RITTER, AP
NEW YORK (Jan. 25) - Last year was the warmest in a century, nosing out 1998, a federal analysis concludes. Read the rest.

How's by you?

Here on the Isle of Long, it was pretty balmy all year. This winter has been unusually warm which I am not complaining about because I've worn a rather light jacket so far... but the stars are hard to find at night. The clouds and haze invariably roll in at dusk which pisses me off to no end. My telescope would be able to see through the haze but I can't find the alignment stars most of the time.
.

a day without bush news is like a day without a migraine

Everyday, I open the paper and I think, "There is no way George W. could possibly be worse today than he was yesterday." And everyday, I am horrified to find that he actually is more embarrassing than he was the day before. He somehow pulls it off. Day before yesterday, he embarrassed the nation with the "terrorists surveillance program" and yesterday it was the news that the Bush administration knew the levees in New Orleans would probably break, today we learn that the Bush administration won't release documents surrounding Katrina communications between officials.

I shudder to think what tomorrow might bring.

So, in the interest of keeping my sanity, tenuous as it is, I am going to avoid all Bush, all the time. I am going to disengage myself from the day to day grind of the smirkmaster in chief.

Now, gentle readers, give me something else to ponder. I would like something pleasant to think about as I try to go to sleep each night. What do you think about when you are tossing and turning?

Mitochondrial Eve

by Lalock

The idea of a black ancestor from Africa—a woman—millions of years ago, is enough to cause a lily-white neocon with roots that go back to the Mayflower to stick his head in a gas oven. There are probably a number of reasons for wanting to teach science fiction (intelligent design, creationism) as scientific fact. Not only is it another feeble, thinly-veiled attempt to shove the Bible into the public classrooms across America (and down the student’s throats), but it’s roots may be in a theory called “Mitochondrial Eve”—the fact that we indeed have that common black ancestor, is enough to take the starch out of any Klansman’s hood.

What is mitochondrial DNA, and hence mitochondrial Eve. When in doubt, look to the BBC. The best, most succinct explanation I’ve found is this:

Well, put it this way. You are a genetic mix of your parents, each of which contributed half of your genetic material. They, of course, have gone through the same process and share an equal split of their parent's DNA. This means if you stop this back-tracking process with your grandparents, you are already a genetic mix of six distinct individuals who may have come from different regions of the planet.

But one factor remains constant – the mitochondrial DNA hasn't altered at all – it remains intact through the female line. Male sperm contains only enough mitochondria to power the sperm to the surface of the egg – it does not enter the egg. The egg, however, contains mitochondria that have been passed from mother to daughter for countless generations. The only way for mitochondrial DNA to alter is by natural mutations, which occur very slowly when compared with the almost frantic gene mixing we and our parents take part in.

Personally, I love the idea that we all share a common ancestor. It will ultimately force us to redefine the term “race,” and look at it in a way that there really only is one “race”—the human race—and the differences (skin color, hair, culture, etc.) are simply all minutiae. The simplicity of it, the “village” concept, is beautiful.

So is the fact that it takes idiocy like “intelligent design” and makes a piñata out of it. The thought that every “stars and bars” flag-waving, NASCAR-lovin’, Bush-votin’, patriotic ‘Murican has the DNA of a black female running through their cells gives me no end to pleasure. Imagine the chest clutching that goes on when neocon hypocrites who would normally just want to bed their black servants rather than treat them as an equal now find out they have something in common—a great, great, great, great, great, great grand-mammy. To learn more about this concept, start here.

Thanks and a big "You Betcha" to BlondeSense fan and reader, Lalock of Minnesota, for this post. I kind of made him write it.

Army Stretched to Breaking Point

Oh good heavens, according to a Pentagon study the Army has "become a "thin green line" that could snap unless relief comes soon."

I had a feeling this was going to happen. I sincerely think it's time for young Republicans to sign up and help the commander in chief with the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. We're inching towards war with Iran so it's just silly that more young people who love and support our country and hate terrorism don't put themselves out there on the line and fight for my safety and freedom. One chapter in the report said:

"... the Army is "in a race against time" to adjust to the demands of war "or risk `breaking' the force in the form of a catastrophic decline" in recruitment and re-enlistment."

Oh my lord, if there is a catastrophic decline, how are we going to stay safe under our leader's wing? If they decided to have the draft again, the young'ns would simply shit and the country's sentiment would shift waaaay against dear leader. I suppose we could withdraw troops from one of the wars... What say you?

"Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst"

(And the people prepare for the best)

John at Americablog tipped me to this. Insight is the magazine from the Washington Times--yeah, Moon's outfit, but ya gotta remember, Moon has HIS OWN agenda and if that includes advocating the impeachment of Bush, well....

"The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said.

"Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

Check it all out at Insightmag.com.

Popemobile Preview

In keeping with the humility of Jesus Christ, a new papal electric car has been revealed. It's been dubbed the Holy Roller by WaPo. It sort of looks like a golf cart, but don't be fooled because this designer clad pope's arse will sit on "luxurious Natuzzi Italian white leather." The papal seal is on the front and the back just in case no one recognizes who is in the car. There appears to be an opening in the roof for his hat's protuberance.

The vehicle is meant for short hops around the Vatican. Perhaps there is concern that Joey Ratz' red designer loafers may get scuffed if he walks. We wouldn't want to have that, now would we? This story begs the question, how did the other pope's get around in the Vatican?

I Guess Americans Want a Dictatorship

Alito heads into committee vote with first victory assured
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 24, 2006, 10:25 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court hopeful Samuel Alito headed toward a Senate committee endorsement Tuesday as majority Republicans called him "one of the most qualified" nominees ever and Democrats warned that he could swing the court to the right.

You didn't call the Senators did you? Now get on it. Call for a fillibuster.

Real Life Fatal Attraction Redux

Oy vay. The Long Island Lolita has agreed to meet the Buttafuoco's on national television. Didn't they have like three network movies made of their lives? Newsday doesn't mention that Amy Fisher has undergone surgery to make her look different so she wouldn't have to deal with gawkers and would be able to get on with her life. She was also a popular columnist at the Long Island Press up until recently. I can't understand why she'd want to reveal her new look.

Joey, whom Long Islanders were happy to see move to California, intends to ask Amy why she shot his wife, Mary Jo. He says he never found out why. He didn't watch the movies made about it? I didn't watch them, but I assumed why she did it considering it was in the news every freaking minute around here. You fuck a 16 year old and you pay the price, asshole. He's apparently turned to a life of crime since the ordeal.

Amy just wants the world to see how she has moved on and healed. How nice. Mary Jo, now engaged, must need the money. I can't imagine that she is all that healed considering she is still partially paralyzed. The television industry must need, as my co-blogger Anntichrist S. Coulter would say, more mouth breathing viewers.

Joey Buttafuoco, who has remarried, was sentenced in March 2004 to a year in jail and five years probation after pleading guilty to felony insurance fraud. In August, he pleaded not guilty to charges that he violated probation by possessing ammunition.

The Terrorist Surveillance Program

Just how long does he think we've been in this country?

smirking

In the time that Bush has gone from bumbling, minor president to spying on Americans, we had fought and won World War II. We beat Germany and Japan and Bush can't find bin Laden. He is monitoring Americans' phone conversations to find bin Laden?

Bush, doing what Orwellian puppet master Karl Rove tells him to do, is calling his warrantless domestic spy program a "terrorists surveillance program." He lies with the sort of smirk on his face that Richard Nixon wouldn't dare attempt. Bush is daring us to call his hand.

He smirked at America from Kansas State University today, like a frat boy addressing the interfraternity counsel or its moral equivalent, the City Chapter of the Chamber of Commerce, when he said, "if I wanted to break the law why would I have informed Congress?" Well, given that Congress is full of Republicans trying to cover your ass, Mr. Bush, I suppose it doesn't matter that you only told a few members of Congress and then you lied to them and didn't tell all.

Bush reminds me of a college sophomore home for the summer snapping his wet towel at younger kids at the country club pool.


General Michael Hayden, who was with the National Security Agency, and who is now deputy director of the new national intelligence agency, "appeared exasperated by criticism that he said was based largely on misinformation or misunderstandings of the program." Speaking at the National Press Club, General Hayden, a military man overseeing a domestic spy program, said, and no doubt the press believed him, "It is not a driftnet over Dearborn or Lackawanna" or other areas with many Arab-American residents, he said. "This is hot pursuit of communications entering or leaving America involving someone we believe is associated with Al Qaeda." By using the phrase "hot pursuit" he is attempting to imply that they don't need no stinking warrants if they are in "hot pursuit" much like the police don't need a warrant to enter a private home when the suspect is fleeing police. Emergency or exigent circumstances.

Bush didn't go to the FISA court because he didn't have probable cause to get a warrant. He isn't just looking for terrorists. We are going to learn that they are on a fishing expedition.

Democrats have been handed a gift. The Republicans have overreached and the Democrats can beat them in this year's elections. But they are running as Republicans. Hillary is backing laws she knows are unconstitutional, like anti-flag burning federal laws, to court "Bubba" in Birmingham. Bubba ain't ever going to vote for Hillary, or Condi, either. It is a NASCAR nation.

But when the average American male and sadly the average American female go into the voting booth, they will vote in a visceral and traditional way. Hillary frightens men and women because she forces them to confront their own basic fears about themselves. So when Molly Ivins wants Democrats to lead voters where they say they want to go on the war, the environment, and other issues confronting us, I agree. But what Hillary and other Democrats know is that John and Jane Q. Public will not vote logically. They vote from fear and a desire for safety. Hillary fears the "radical" label. And with good cause. While radicals have often been right in American politics, they are never elected.

"International terrorism does not exist"

That's the title. The author is General Leonid Ivashov. Who's he?

From the article:
"General Leonid Ivashov is the vice-president of the Academy on geopolitical affairs. He was the chief of the department for General affairs in the Soviet Union’s ministry of Defense, secretary of the Council of defense ministers of the Community of independant states (CIS), chief of the Military cooperation department at the Russian federation’s Ministry of defense and Joint chief of staff of the Russian armies."

Okay. Based on his credentials it sounds like he might know what he's talking about. Here's some of what he has to say:

"In this context, if we analyze what happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States, we can arrive at the following conclusions:
1. The organizers of those attacks were the political and business circles interested in destabilizing the world order and who had the means necessary to finance the operation.

2. Only secret services and their current chiefs – or those retired but still having influence inside the state organizations – have the ability to plan, organize and conduct an operation of such magnitude.

3. Osama bin Laden and “Al Qaeda” cannot be the organizers nor the performers of the September 11 attacks. They do not have the necessary organization, resources or leaders. Thus, a team of professionals had to be created and the Arab kamikazes are just extras to mask the operation."

That last statement reminds me of the kind of comment I've run into a dozen times or so since 9/11: "19 guys who barely knew how to fly and armed with pocket knives and box-cutters pulled off 9/11? Who are you tryin' to bullshit? Gimme a fuckin' break"!
Read it all at Voltairenet.org

No Wonder The White House Is Trying To Round Up Photos Of Bush And Abramoff

First there's this from John at Americablog:
"Chris Matthews likes to tie Democrats to Osama? Maybe he should talk to his buddy Jack Abramoff about Osama"
by John in DC - 1/23/2006 10:39:00 AM

"Just a coincidence? You decide.

"Washington Post, 9/27/01:
SunCruz Casinos LLChas turned over to the FBI surveillance pictures and other records from two Florida gambling cruises on Sept. 5. In both cases, a company official said, there was a passenger who looked similar to one of the[9/11] hijackers, and the name given by the passenger was either the same or similar to the hijacker's name.

"Associated Press, 9/27/05
Police would not comment on whether they got any big breaks from Abramoff or his former partner, Adam Kidan, both of whom were indicted Aug. 11 on federal fraud charges in connection with their September 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos for $145.7 million from Boulis."

Then, there's an interesting item from back on Saturday, August 13, 2005, when Joe Cannon at Cannonfire had this article: "Was Abramoff linked to terrorists?"

Shocking Breaking News From the WH

also see updates below...

The president will be taking unscripted audience questions in his latest series of visits to Americans on his campaign to convince them that domestic spying is a good thing.

AP Bush has been taking questions from audience members in recent speeches, and the White House says none has been prescreened. The sessions are not open to the public, but instead limited to invited groups.

Oh that makes it sooo authentic.

It's a throwback to the folksy style on the campaign trail that helped him win re-election and a departure from the heavily scripted speeches that were the norm last year.

He pulled that shit on Long Island and Newsday was all over it pointing out how fake the whole deal was.

...The White House has grown so comfortable with the format that most of his appearance Monday at Kansas State University scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET was reserved for Q-and-A with the audience.

I imagine his audience are the Students for America, Right or Wrong.

...Bush has taken a wide variety of questions in three appearances during the last six weeks. Many of the people he has called on have fawned over him, thanking him for his wartime leadership, saying they pray for him and bringing best wishes from other fans in their family who couldn't be there.

Obviously the audience was pre-screened.
1. They are as stupid as he is... and like it that way
2. They don't read the newspaper

"It's always good to have a plant in every audience," Bush joked last week in Sterling, Va., after a woman rose and said she was proud of him.

Bush wasn't joking and that woman who was proud of him was simply surprised that he was able to go this far without being impeached. See the 14 Rules of Fascism


UPDATE: Bush says that since congress didn't tell him not to spy domestically then he has the authority to do what he has to do to keep us safe.

"It's what I would call a terrorist surveillance program," Bush said at Kansas State. "If they're making a phone call in the United States, it seems like to me we want to know why."

He said he "had all kinds of lawyers review the process" to ensure it didn't violate civil liberties or the law.

"I'm not a lawyer, but I can tell you what it means: It means Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn't prescribe the tactics," Bush said.

UPDATE: A sophomore at Kansas State stumped Bush according to Think Progress

Q: My name is Tiffany Cooper. I’m a sophomore here at Kansas State and I was just wanting to get your comments about education. Recently 12.7 billion dollars was cut from education. I was just wondering how is that supposed to help our futures?

[snip]

Bush: Actually, I think what we did was reform the student loan program. We are not cutting money out of it.

You can read the whole transcript, read about how the government with Cheney's deciding vote cut $12.7 billion to education programs.

Waddaya think? Perhaps the questions will get screened afterall?

A Controlled Mass Media

Chris Matthews compared Michael Moore to Osama.
Bob Schieffer said Osama bin Laden may have borrowed some of Sen. John Kerry's talking points.
Pat Buchanan compares Osama to Bill Clinton on the McLaughlin Group yesterday.

How much do these pundits get paid by the GOP to come up with this stuff? True newsmen would know that they were spewing propaganda and lies.

From the 14 Signs of Fascism:
6. A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame forfailures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective.

Pro-Domestic Spying Campaign Underway This Week

The president is going around the country edumacating citizens about warrantless wire tapping and national security. He's got until Feb 6 when the senate hearings begin to change public opinion. Usually the president doesn't care about public opinion. He must be worried.

"We are stepping up our efforts to educate the American people about this vital tool in the war on terrorism," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. USA Today

He will be at Kansas State University today explaining to students why he needs to know who al Qaida is speaking to in America.

Rule of Fascism #7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous.

another old rant

(I've got plenty brewing in the ol' crock pot, but in the meantime, to amuse/frighten/fascinate, I offer this old rant from 1997, "The Beast." If I'm committing a horrid blog faux pas and repeating myself, I beg a thousand pardons, but hey, life sucks, wear a helmet.)

THE BEAST
8/24/97--10:49P

I was going to read a piece I'd written titled, "Kiss My Wide, White, Gelatinous Fanny!", but I decided it sounded a little too defensive, so here is this. "The Beast." The Beast that lives inside me, that undependable psycho-cunt that will reach up your asshole and rip out your heart at the slightest provocation, that undeniable rage that frightens the weak and arouses the sick, that fickle bitch that deserts me every time I get a speeding ticket and leaves me weepy and begging for mercy from some crewcut hard-on with a double-digit I.Q. and a quota to meet.

The Beast likes Jack Daniel's and young, perky-butt boys that the rest of me knows will only break my heart into a million pieces and then tap-dance on the rubble. The Beast accosts assholes in traffic, sends the Mormons to the ex's house, and rips the faces off polite little telemarketers who wake me before noon.

But she, it, he, they-- whatever the fuck this manic/depressive demon is-- deserts me in my hour of need, every fucking time. Oh, she'll back my dad across a room, finger in his face, when this is a man who could snap me in two with his hard, scarred, manual-labor hands, but where was The Beast every time a certain young man shit on my ego and shattered my soul? Where was she when I picked up my last check from my last job, and could have impaled that little bald-headed, no-neck, bug-eyed, knuckle-dragging, inbred baby-eating troll motherfucker on a CD rack, and didn't take the chance? I saw the fear in his googly eyes-- I could have, I should have rammed that cheap-ass demo-model S.A.W. 4-track right square up his ass! But she deserted me, and I walked out of there with "dignity". Shit.

What the fuck is "dignity" worth after a year-and-a-half of degradation and humiliation, a year-and-a-half of eating shit with NO prize at the bottom of the box, a year-and-a-half of swallowing the rage and doing the job and NOT buying that high-powered rifle?

I know. I sound bitter. But I'm over that now. Really. I'm fine. Really.

Actually, I find it rather humorously ironic that a total stranger calls me "bitter" the same week as both of my best friends. And they live thousands of miles away, safely on the other end of the long-distance lines. They say that I'm eating myself up inside, they say I should "mellow out." Ironic, considering they both, each, have some big, bitchy housepets of their own. I suppose I could SEDATE myself like Big Chief Dark Cloud did, and become a socially-acceptable PRICK, too, but-- well, what in the hell would I write about?

So, I snap a few emotional necks with my rants-- so what? I'm the only one who knows who the assholes are, since the names have been deleted to protect the guilty.

I'm just waiting for the day when The Beast either takes over or retires. If she takes over, I'm sure you'll hear about us on the evening news-- "Unemployed disc jockey goes postal in Jackson Square, wounding thirty-seven tourists and killing fifty-four." I am a good shot, you know.

And for those sweetly-condescending old men from last week's balcony-- the ones who told me not to be "so pissed-off", well-- to quote Joan Crawford, "Don't fuck with me, boys-- this ain't my first time at the rodeo."

Beware wide-hipped, curly-haired, bourbon-drinking women--we aim low and shoot straight. I know you'd like the primal security of thinking The Beast only swings around every twenty-eight days, but it just ain't that easy.

The Beast can strike anywhere, anytime, and pities not the weak nor the old. The Beast eats morons for breakfast, sexists for lunch, and rotisserie-roasts the exes for an all-out banquet every night. She hungers for bloodshed, and thrives on fresh meat.

And The Beast can turn a perfectly respectable, college-educated, peace-loving woman into the cunt of your nightmares, gnawing on your jugular faster than you can drool out, "Hey, baby, what's your sign?" It's not that we don't want to be sweet, loving, spiritual, beautiful human beings-- but you just keep PISSING US OFF!

Pentagon: Peaceniks Deemed a Threat To National Security

Check out this story: The Other Big Brother
The Pentagon has its own domestic spying program. Even its leaders say the outfit may have gone too far.
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

Happy National Sanctity of Human Life Day

Bob Geiger has a good one

No Joke: Bush Proclaims Today "National Sanctity of Human Life Day"
In a formal White House proclamation issued Friday, George W. Bush declared January 22 National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2006.

"Our Nation was founded on the belief that every human being has rights, dignity, and value. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we underscore our commitment to building a culture of life where all individuals are welcomed in life and protected in law," said the proclamation.

read on

He believes in God, but not religion...

Since it's Sunday and we are all relaxing after we get home from church, I thought I'd swipe a fabulous post by BS reader and blogger, Actor 212 from Simply Left Behind another New York heathen. Actually I posted it over at Was Blind But Now I See. It's called, "God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Us?" A good question.

It's a fine day to question just why the heck we allow this illogical definition of god to rule our lives... well some of us.

Israel Planning to Fulfill Biblical Prophecy

Israel says that if Iran doesn't stop making nukes, it will nuke them. France says it would use nukes. It's interesting how the world leaders get to decide all this stuff for the rest of us earthlings who are minding our business and trying to survive. It's so evident lately, especially among the blood thirtiest of the 3 major religions, how difficult it is for them to deal with life on earth. We must have the most existential angst out of all the planets in the galaxy... or maybe not.

One of the questions that the late Carl Sagan had for aliens should we ever make contact was how did they achieve so much technology without destroying themselves. They'd probably say that they had no organized religion. What reasons could advanced planets have for not destroying themselves?

-------
PS Speaking of nukes, Miss Nevada's mom has her panties in a knot because the Miss America judges asked her daughter questions that were too hard.

In Thursday's interview, Miss Las Vegas Crystal Wosik, who won the Miss Nevada title, was asked by one of the preliminary judges about the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Wosik replied, "It has to go someplace, and that was the best-built facility in the country," Nevada's state pageant director, Nancy Ames, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

And if people die?

"We just have to take one for the team," said contestant Wosik, according to Ames.

oy vay.

Michael Moore Plays JihadBall!

Take THAT Chris Matthews!

MichaelMoore.com

Why Is Tradition Supreme?

Sometimes I can't stop myself. My need to speak of horses will break over me like a wave with such force that I can't stand it. So to all offended, please forgive me.


No activity pursued on horseback is more codified, stratified, and freighted with incendiary issues than foxhunting. It's rules on dress and behavior, from the ritual of the stirrup cup to jacket color to who may precede whom, make cutting off the crusts of a sam-ich look like something every peasant does as a matter of course.


In America it is yet another British import, like the Land Rover, that is employed as a semaphore for social (which in this country acturally means financial) standing. Not to mention the fact that it is deliriously fun to ride a fine horse at a good clip over fences in the open countryside. The prime danger the sport is faced with on this side of the pond is the tendency of ignorant and nervous pop stars to buy estates in traditional hunt country and then close off the land to riders. That and the unimportant possibility that a few all-but-voiceless kooks will decry such a display of arrogant elitism as an affront to today's society that rivals staging a minstrel show or making one's house-cleaner curtsy and back out of the room.

In Britain it is a different story, but a bit of the same. Only there is it conceivable that a bill to ban the hunting of mammals using dogs would be brought before Parliament (here the notion of cruelty to animals stands as much chance of being debated in Congress as whether to observe Lenin's birthday) and only there is it conceivable that such an act would bring one hundred thousand people to rally against the bill. That is because a threat to foxhunting is seen as a threat to "a way of life." This might be translated as "the privileges of class," so long as you don't forget to factor in the sizable economy that grows up around any such activity. And also don't forget the fact that rituals comfort us as tight bunting comforts the newborn. We are perhaps conditioned from the birth to crave the small walls that tell us exactly where we are. Besides, no one likes to tear down historical buildings, even if they are beyond repair.

Tradition is supremely important to human culture, and it reacts as a serpent when threatened. It cannot be called wrong if it is what has been done for a long, long time. So the foxhunters everywhere are hanging on tight, as would anyone who has what they have. It is no surprise that they can field arguments to buttress every aspect of their right to continue doing what they have long done, and that these arguments wear the particularly steely armor that is standard issue to the legions of the status quo.

I was invited once to participate in a hunt, and was therefore sent all the requisite information about the illustrious history of the hunt (even one that has existed for only a few years will have ammassed an illustrious history), the Who's Who of the organization and their illustrious qualifications, the rules (the rules must be followed!), and the options for participating as an outsider. One month later I recieved a sternly worded disinvitation from my would-be-host. He had read something I had written about the sad life of the urban carriage horse, and had thereby discovered that my heart was not in the right place. I was a bad and dangerous sort of person, and moreover did not understand some very fundamental things about nature, which he sought to educate me about. I had called myself a lover of horses, and so did he. Only one of us was an impostor.

Call Those Wussies on the Phone This Weekend

Unless you want to live in a dictatorship, don't say anything to the wimpy Dems who won't fillibuster Alito's nomination. If you don't believe in our forefathers dream of checks and balances, then don't bother doing anything. Just sit there and don't come crying to me when you wake up and realize that the GOP hates you even more than you thought.

BUT perhaps if they heard from the thousands of you who read this blog, and are opposed to a fascist dictactorship, they might grow some balls. They need to be reminded that they should represent the people. Don't forget Biden and Feinstein. Here is the list of US Senators and their contact info. C'mon it will take a few minutes. I'm doing it right now.

"Your enemy is not surrounding your country. Your enemy is ruling your
country." -- George W. Bush, Jan. 28, 2003

"I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree
with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck
of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."-- George W. Bush 12/18/2000

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier." --George W. Bush (Governing Magazine 7/98)

"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law." --George W. Bush, 11/2000

"Polls? You know, if a President tries to govern based upon polls, you're kind of like a dog chasing your tail. I don't think you can make good, sound decisions based upon polls. And I don't think the American people want a President who relies upon polls and focus groups to make decisions for the American people." --George W. Bush, 4/28/2005

It's not a dictatorship in Washington, but I tried to make it one in that instance.
-- George W. Bush, 1/15/2004 (faith based initiatives)

I was disappointed that the Congress did not respond to the $3.5 billion we asked for. They not only reduced the budget that we asked for, they earmarked a lot of the money. That's a disappointment, a disappointment when the executive branch gets micromanaged by the legislative branch.--George W. Bush, 2/24/2003

You said we're headed to war in Iraq -- I don't know why you say that. I hope we're not headed to war in Iraq. I'm the person who gets to decide, not you.--George W. Bush, 12/31/2002

I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.--George W. Bush, 11/19/2002 ("Bush at War" by Bob Woodward)

Week In Review

Not a comprehensive list- just some interesting stuff.

Fear Mongering on the Rise- Osama threatened the US again. It seems we weren't scared enough to not pay attention to the GOP scandals. The bird flu hasn't pandemic-ized. Yet. We haven't been anthraxed. Yet. Our subways weren't bombed. Yet. It's going to take Iran 5 years to make a WMD. Whew. Our children, which parents are afraid to say "no" to, may look at porn because Google won't comply with the Justice Department. Yet. Anti-war sentiment is making the terrorists bolder. Hey Osama, Could you release another threatening tape, Love George and Dick. Bill Frist, in a purely political effort to hurt Democratic politicians is fucking up the country. He doesn't care about people and it's out in the open.

Osama's Book Club- The book that bin Laden mentioned in his tape, "Rogue State", went from 205,763 to 26 on Amazon.com's index of the most-ordered books. Author William Blum was on Olbermann last night and stated that he was not repulsed by Osama's recommendation because terrorism is caused by US foreign policy. He doesn't expect to become wealthy from book sales as only 2,000 were printed, he mentioned last night. WaPo has more. Furthermore, the US isn't raising security levels after the tape was broadcast.

----------------

That nasty nasty Bill Frist was in the news this week being a big fat defensive bully out to screw the dems, not to mention his very own country. He is truly a menace to society.

From HuffPo: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) tried to secure time this week to speak on the Senate floor about Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would not allow any time for speeches until January 25, a day after the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on Alito's nomination.

Frist went on to piss me off even more with his attempts destroy the fabric of democracy:

Reuters: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told Republican Party activists on Friday night that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito was the "worst nightmare of liberal Democrats."

Furthermore, Frist and Delay's office were accused by Rep Louise Slaughter on Air America's "The Majority Report", of day trading out of their offices based on bills they knew were going to be passed which would affect commodities prices. Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading.

From Kos: "I'm going to track this down, I know it's true," Slaughter told us,"that Frist, DeLay and probably others had some day traders working out of their offices." Those working out of the Congressional offices "would find out there's a bill being written by lobbyists, that there would be no asbestos bill ... and when the market opened the next day, the cost of asbestos stock had doubled."

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Flack over Flak After all the flack the pentagon took for providing inferior body armor to our troops, the US Army awared a 70 million dollar contract to California-based Ceradyne Inc. to produce side inserts for body armor. Does anyone know what ties this company has to the GOP?

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Google Oogle- This week Google's stock plummeted after word got out that it refused to comply with the Justice Department and reveal it's records on millions of users. It turns out that Google really doesn't give a shit about your privacy, they just don't want their corporate secrets revealed. Stock holders probably were grossed out at the thought of another big circle jerk in the GOP over their internet searches. I made a point of searching for "Fascism" on the search engines this week.

The Justice Department insisted that they weren't looking to target individuals. Yeah right. "It says it is trying to establish a profile of Internet use that will help it defend the Child Online Protection Act, a 1998 law that would impose tough criminal penalties on individuals whose Web sites carried material deemed harmful to minors." -NY Times

I imagine that the congress has it's own link to pedophilia without using search engines because they didn't seem to be alarmed.

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And This Is What Our Children and Grandchildren Are Supposed To Count On For Their Retirements?!

"Analysis:
Index Portfolio Performance for the First Five Years of the Bush Administration"

That's the title. Here's a quote:

"January 22, 2001 was the first day of trading after Mr. Bush became President. Three major indices stood at the following levels at the close of trading on that day:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 10,578.24
Standard & Poor's 500: 1342.9
NASDAQ Composite: 2757.91

At the close of trading today, January 20, 2006, these same three averages stood at the following levels:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 10,667.39
Standard & Poor's 500: 1,261.49
NASDAQ Composite: 2,247.70"

What could be worse? If you figure in inflation.
You should check it all out at The Dark Wraith Forums. Neat charts and graphs too.

Turn In a Liberal, Get Paid

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A conservative alumni group dedicated to "exposing the most radical professors" at the University of California at Los Angeles is offering to pay students $100 to record classroom lectures of suspect faculty.


From Fascism Anyone

Sign #11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and academic freedom were considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal. Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliable faculty harassed or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or expressions of dissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed. To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national interest or they had no right to exist.

Hollywood: Shoot the Pope, Get a Movie Deal

Pope's failed assassin to star in film of attack

So Now Kerry Grows Some....

I swiped this from Crooks and Liars:

Kerry On Hardball:

"You'd think the only focus tonight would be on destroying Osama Bin Laden, not comparing him to an American who opposes the war whether you like him or not. You want a real debate that America needs? Here goes: If the administration had done the job right in Tora Bora we might not be having discussions on Hardball about a new Bin Laden tape. How dare Scott McClellan tell America that this Administration puts terrorists out of business when had they put Osama Bin Laden out of business in Afghanistan when our troops wanted to, we wouldn't have to hear this barbarian's voice on tape. That's what we should be talking about in America." -- John Kerry


Yesterday, Matthews compared Osama Bin Laden to Michael Moore. Sheesh.
Write to Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com Write to MSNBC: viewerservices@msnbc.com

From Fascism Anyone. Signs of Fascim
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame forfailures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and“terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.

Google Resists U.S. Subpoena of Search Data

NY TIMES SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19 - The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries as part of the government's effort to uphold an online pornography law.

...America Online, Yahoo and MSN, Microsoft's online service - had complied with subpoenas in the case.

Yeah right... they need the internet records of American citizens to help squash child pornographers. Sure. Why can't the gubmint do their own search and find the offending websites? duh. Let me just do a search on fascism right now...

A couple of signs of fascism:

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation. check

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame forfailures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and“terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly. check

6. A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses. check

Sign of Fascim Number 14

From Fascism Anyone:
14. Fraudulent elections. Elections in the form of plebiscites or public opinion polls were usually bogus. When actual elections with candidates were held, they would usually be perverted by the power elite to get the desired result. Common methods included maintaining control of the election machinery, intimidating an disenfranchising opposition voters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and, as a last resort, turning to a judiciary beholden to the power elite.


Twenty Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA
Originally published at nightweed.com

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. (link) (link)

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry. (link) (link)

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers. (link) (link)

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." (link) (link)

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines. (link) (link)

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee. (link) (link) (link)

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates. (link) (link)

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes. (link) (link)

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. (link) (link)

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail. (link) (link)

11. Diebold is based in Ohio. (link)

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states. (link) (link)

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming theoptical scanning software now used in most of the United States. (link) (link) (link)

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years. (link)

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio. (link) (link)

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (link) (link)

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail. (link)

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates. (link) (link) (link)

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother. (link)

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush--have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation. (link) (link) (link) (link) (link)

Powerful Government Accountability Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings at FreePress.Org

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Matthews' Watch

corporate media gone wild.

Crooks and Liars has the video of Chris Matthews on SoftBall comparing Osama to Michael Moore. Jebus, how to these morons stay on the air? Michael Moore is anti-war and he is no terrorist. Anti-war people are generally interested in blowing people up. Ann Coulter would like to see people blown up. Now she could be compared to a terrorist, but not MM. How dare Matthews, how dare he even insinuate that anyone other than members of the bush administration sound like Osama? C'mon really.


Matthews on Imus this morning:

MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who's on [WTNT AM] 570 in D.C., who shares a station with you at least, he said -- he calls it -- what's he call it? "Bareback Mounting." That's his name for the movie.

IMUS: Right. Of course, Bernard calls it "Fudgepack Mountain," but that's probably --

Nice.

But I'm Not Cheating!

Does your significant other accuse you of cheating and it's just simply not true but he or she doesn't believe it?

Tell your SI to play CSI and test your undies to prove it. "Go ahead baby and check my undies for random bodily fluids." The Home Evidence Kit seen on the lower left is only $79 and a lot cheaper than a PI. Let your SI check your undies. Who cares? Prove you are a saint.

Sprinkle some holy water on your clothes while you're at it.


The Home Evidence Kit: "Used by police and government agencies throughout the United States, this home kit version lets you discretely take a sample of any questionable type of stain and accurately identify it. Our protein and enzyme formulas, paired with simple step-by-step instructions will tell you immediately what the evidence is, or is not with complete certainty."



WOW~ On the other hand, if you suspect your partner is cheating and you want proof so you can kick his or her ass out of the door, you can test his or her undies if you don't think you are going to throw up. It works on both men and women's bodily fluids. Mmmm Mmmm

Most College Students Lack Skills

AP 1/9/06 More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.

That means they could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips.

Well in all honesty, they don't teach that stuff in college. Furthermore, they teach theory in a lot of subjects and not real world applications which would be a very good thing to teach high school kids. Truly I was amazed in college in the 70's at how many students were incapable of reading aloud.

Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation.

HFS: Bin Laden Says New US Attacks Prepared

March, 2002. Press Conference at the White House

Q But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

B-b-but I thought he was responsible for 9/11. He wasn't?

Reuters, 3 minutes ago: Bin Laden says new US attacks prepared

Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape attributed to him on Thursday.

"The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing," said the speaker on the audio tape, who sounded like bin Laden.

In the tape, broadcast by al Jazeera television, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to respond to public U.S. opinion in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"We have no objection to responding to this with a long term truce based on fair conditions."

So waddaya think? Bin Laden or Bush? An excuse to gets the troops out of Iraq? An excuse to escalate the war? A way to boost the president's ratings by instilling fear in the US?

UPDATE: Worldwide Blondesense: I was contacted by the BBC to voice my questions about this news on "World Have Your Say" at about 1PM NY Time. I'll let you know when it is available for streaming or if I can find the stream online. It was supposed to be there, but it's not. Apparently the experts believe it's really OBL despite the excellent timing of his latest threat.

Quote Of The Day:

"What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity. What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions." -- Martha Stout, Ph.D.

(As quoted by Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Ph.D. in his essay
Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes)

Get Ready For the God Wars

The Catholic Church, one of the oldests bastions of Christianity is at great odds with many American evangelists. It's no wonder that Catholics have been treated with disdain by the evangelicals over the years. The Catholic Church picks Darwin over Genesis.

NY Times, Jan 19
ROME, Jan. 18 - The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution.

"If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one should search for another," Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, wrote in the Jan. 16-17 edition of the paper, L'Osservatore Romano.

This isn't the official Catholic teaching (it's close), but a new paper that reflects the opinions of many scholars. As someone who attended Catholic Schools from K to college and then on to the seminary for an MDiv in theology, I have NEVER come across Genesis vs Science. In religion class, were taught that God created the world but not how. We were taught to see the point in a particular bible story, not take it literally because it wouldn't make sense otherwise. True. In science class we learned Darwin. There are new evolutionary discoveries made all the time and that doesn't discount science at all. Well it shouldn't.

The Vatican has too many astronomers and scientists to try to push the "god created the world in 7 days" story with a straight face. There are too many educated people in that religion to buy the fairy tales. Well hopefully. Perhaps my parent's generation are rather old school, but the baby boomer generation wasn't quite as gullible.

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Another interesting tidbit in Vatican news was the Extreme Makeover of Judas. Perhaps he was really misunderstood and we should look upon him more kindly, it is being said. After all, if he didn't turn Jesus in, he wouldn't have died on the cross for the sins of the world. Perhaps Judas was fulfilling a divine mission, some say. (That opens up a can of worms.) And didn't Jesus die on the cross for all man's salvation? Wouldn't Judas have been included? Well some Vatican scholars feel that this is all too confusing for the flock to consider and we should drop the discussion. This is typical. But many scholars are beginning to come clean about the myths we were brought up on. Kudos to them. We can take it.

If you ask me, the flock is already confused especially if they have read all the biblical accounts of Jesus' death. At the last supper, Jesus says woe to the man who betrays the son of man. Yet in Matthew's gospel, Jesus tells Judas to do what he has to do. The 4 official gospels of the bible portray Judas differently depending on the motive of the particular gospel. Oh yes, each gospel has its own agenda. There are even more gospels that were tossed aside by the early church fathers who put the New Testament together... probably for very political reasons.

Free will aside, Judas fulfilled a prophecy. Whether or not he was added in the gospels to make a point may never be determined for sure by Catholic scholars. It is worth considering that Judas was a myth. A terrible myth that spurred on anti-semitism through out the ages. His name became synonymous with the Jewish people. I'd more likely consider that Judas was a myth rather than go with the "let's give Judas a break" theory.

The early church fathers did a number on many characters including Mary Magdalen who was actually Jesus' favorite disciple. It was so unpatriarchal to suggest that she was his closest companion that she was portrayed until recently as a prostitute. If you read the gospels carefully, it is quite evident that she was the least fearful personality among the disciples and most concerned about Jesus. Peter and his companions were quite cowardly- downright scaredy cats. The church fathers played that down, hoping the flock wouldn't notice it in the gospels.

The patriarchs felt so icky when thinking about women that they had to make Jesus' mother a virgin even though she had other children. The christmas story in the gospels was stolen from pagans. I could go on and on but space forbids it. I'd like to see the true story of Lot and the fairy tale of Soddom and Gomorrah straightened out too. In a nutshell, the sin of Soddom and Gomorrah was inhospitality and those were tar pits that blew up not fire and brimstone from the mean guy in the sky. Lot was a shithead to boot. That's another post.

Women Are Less Free

Well, women are less free today than they were yesterday. It happens slowly, not quickly like the executioner's ax, but more like the magician's saw cutting a woman in half. Reality isn't always what it appears to be. Watching Roe v. Wade go down the drain is like yelling at Janet Leigh in Psycho not to stop at Bates' Motel. You know how it ends but you can't get her attention. She checks in that spooky looking place anyway. Don't say we didn't try to warn you.



Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed us an opinion that did something while appearing to do nothing. The press said the Court ducked making a decision on abortion. Not true.

The Court knows that abortion rights days are numbered. Like any other bureaucracy, always mindful of the appearance of functionality and consistency, the Court is concerned with appearances. Why appear to make a decision that will simply be reversed next year? If the Court appears to side step the issue, they can make the calculated effort to overturn Roe v. Wade less obvious, less disturbing. Overturning Roe v. Wade can appear to be nuanced, reasoned jurisprudence rather than the political upheaval and war on civil rights it really is.

Martin Garbus, writing in The Huffington Post, explains it so that it is painfully honest. He is the only commentator that got it right.

The Supreme Court, in its 9-0 opinion, stated that the circuit court's decision, while wrong, was understandable because it was based on a previous Supreme Court case, Sternberg v. Cathart. That case held Nebraska's Partial Birth Abortion Act unconstitutional because it did not say that if the woman's health required it then the partial birth abortion would be appropriate.

Why then, did the Supreme Court not affirm on the basis of the Sternberg decision?

Because the Supreme Court knows that the Sternberg decision is soon to be reversed. Sternberg was a 5-4 decision. Alito replaces O'Connor. Justice Kennedy, who was in the minority in Sternberg, will be in the majority, and partial birth abortions will then be prohibited.

Today, the Supreme Court, in conference, will decide whether or not to take the case that will immediately reverse Sternberg.

And then, when the Parental Notification Act comes up to the Supreme Court, the Court will accept the placing of such obstacles to the teenager's attempt to get an abortion that her right to do so will be strangled.

Women are like the unsuspecting Janet Leigh in Psycho. Women think they are free to drive their own car, plan their own route, but they never anticipate that Norman Bates, armed with his butcher's knife, will work out his issues with women and their bodies on them. The ironic thing is women trusted that they had won the battle, secured their reproductive freedom and they could rest easy, sleep tight, that their rights, once gained, will remain. A happy ending with equality. They are surprised to learn that other plans had been made.

By Jaye Ramsey Sutter

Evidence That a Frozen Fish Didn't Impact the Pentagon on 9/11

and Neither Did a Boeing 757

It's in a Signs of the Times article by Joe Quinn.

Update: Try this link

Smoking Gun: Evidence of Vote Miscount in Ohio

Excerpt from PRweb:

Exit Polls were conducted in 49 of Ohio’s 11,360 precincts. At least 40% of Ohio's polled precincts show statistically significant differences between Kerry’s exit poll percent and official vote count percent. 35% of these exit polls overestimated the Kerry official vote share. This is five times the number expected. Three of the most glaring examples are:

1. In E/M precinct 27, with an estimated 100 respondents, Kerry’s official vote count was 29% less than his exit poll share, creating a 58% difference between Kerry and Bush exit poll and official vote margins. There is less than a one in 867,205,500 chance of this occurring due to chance.

2. In E/M precinct 25, with an estimated 62 respondents, Kerry’s official vote count was 28% less than his exit poll share, creating a 56% difference between Kerry and Bush exit poll and official vote margins. There is less than a one in 234,800 chance of this occurring due to chance.

3. In E/M precinct 48, with an estimated 100 respondents, Kerry's official vote was 16% less than his exit poll share, creating a 32% difference between Kerry and Bush exit poll and official vote margins. There is less than a one in 17,800 chance of this occurring due to chance.

There are also two precincts where the Bush official vote count is significantly less than the Bush exit poll share. The number of significant discrepancies and the pattern of Ohio's discrepancy shown in the NEDA report provide strong support for the conclusion that vote count errors converted a Kerry win to a Bush win.

Tip of the blonde wig to reader, Johnny

How disgusting

This is a top story today: A naked woman posed on a Dodge Challenger at the North American International Auto Show at 2:30am.

"We heard they were all over the Challenger," said Jason Vines, a spokesman for the Chrysler Group, which earlier had tried to give its cars more sex appeal by bringing in fully clothed "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria to pose at its exhibit.

D'joo ever go to a car show? They reek of sex. I guess the guys like that when they are shopping for penile extensions ground transportation. The husband used to collect penile extensions Mopar Muscle cars. So many of them (and most didn't even run) that we had to park our door slammers in the street. The shining star of the collection was the 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible (with the scoop you could hardly see over), the last holdout.. the one we sold in '96 because someone offered him $30,000 and we were broke. Now he's got his eye on the new Challenger. 57 year old boys still playing with toys.

Oh those silly dems

When the Dems don't get their shit together the wingers have a field day...

From Reuters: Senate Democrat backs Alito for US Supreme Court

Democratic senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska appeared on Faux Spews and demonstrated that he bought the GOP Alito propaganda:

"I have to take him at his word at the moment," Nelson said. "But I think that he will take to the bench his decision-making based on facts and based on cases."

The same article goes on to discuss Ted Kennedy's association with the Owl Club in Harvard, an all male social club which was started before women were accepted to Harvard. Kennedy just withdrew his membership. On the other hand, Alito belonged to the CAP club, a Princeton University alumni group that opposed efforts to enroll more women and minorities. He doesn't remember being a member. Part of me believes it because I can't remember what stuff I used to belong to either. I joined things that made sense at the time but that doesn't mean I would join it today. There is a difference however in belonging to an all guys social club and a political activist group that renounces females.

My dad belonged to an all male golf club. I used to question him about it. He said it was cheaper (although it was exclusive). He also said it was rather bare bones inside. No one else in the family played golf. He belonged to that club until he died. I really never thought anything of it. It was mostly married men who just wanted to play golf.

More MLK Day Backlash

On Monday, Mayor Nagin of New Orleans gave a speech where he insisted that the hurricanes were a sign that "God is mad at America." He went on to say, "Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves." He then went on to say that New Orleans will be a "Chocolate City", a predominantly African-American city. "Why is black-on-black crime such an issue? Why do our young men hate each other so much that they look their brother in the face and they will take a gun and kill him in cold blood?"

Nagin's controversial remarks didn't go unnoticed. After an uproar, Nagin declared that his comments were totally inappropriate. Some say that his comments were politically motivated as he was trying to shore up black votes which he didn't get in the election while he got 90% of the white vote.

I for one, am getting sick and tired of people blaming everything bad that happens on god. Well they blame everything good on god too. I feel like I am back in first grade with that mean nun who scowled all the time and had the power to hit us.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, it seems that Hillary's reference to the House being run like a plantation wasn't the first time the term "plantation" was used. In fact the term has been used by wingers about Democrats time and time again. (Americablog has some examples)

The White House was just outraged at Hillary's comments. Mr. McClellan said "I think they were way out of line."

Mrs. Clinton's advisers fired back at the White House. "What's out of line is a White House that defends Tom DeLay's innocence and the corruption in the Republican House of Representatives," said Howard Wolfson, a Clinton spokesman.

The all white Republican senate and congress was disturbed as well. There are no reports at this time that prominent black leaders felt that Hillary's comments were inappropriate.

"Within 7 Months, 3 Sept. 11 Workers Die"

From the Associated Press:

By AMY WESTFELDT
"James Zadroga spent 16 hours a day toiling in the World Trade Center ruins for a month, breathing in debris-choked air. Timothy Keller said he coughed up bits of gravel from his lungs after the towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. Felix Hernandez spent days at the site helping to search for victims. All three men died in the past seven months of what their families and colleagues say were persistent respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at ground zero."

(Rest of article at link)


Then there's this from Common Dreams:

"A week after the attack, the EPA announced that the air near ground zero was safe to breathe, but the agency did not have enough information to make such a guarantee, the inspector general's report said.
"Christie Whitman was too premature to say it was safe," Cahill said Tuesday. "I think the EPA should have known. The EPA had its own reports saying it could be dangerous. Why didn't the EPA bring in their own people from all over the country? They could have. Never thought of it. They did later. But not in the time that mattered."
WHITE HOUSE PRESSURE
The White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having the National Security Council control EPA communications, the inspector general's report found."

Rest of that article at CommonDreams.org.

Shitty Body Armor

Why just the other day, the NY Times reported that a Pentagon study found that as many of 80% of marines killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor.

Today I read at Soldiers For Truth, the US Army/USMC won't let soldiers deploy if they have purchased Pinnacle's Dragon Skin Body Armor and furthermore, if they were killed in action wearing it, their loved ones wouldn't collect from the $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The story reports that ALL commercially manufactured body armor is forbidden... however the story also reports that there are 9 generals in Afghanistan supposedly 'evaluating' the armor. hmm. Do generals actually see any combat?

The only body armor allowed in the Army/USMC is the Interceptor OTV which apparently is not that good. But guess who makes it? The dad who spent $10 million on his daughter's bas mitzvah! Ah what a fabulous government contract.

While I was over at Soldiers For Truth, I found this article: Interceptor OTV Body Armor Cost Lives, An Internal USMC Reports Shows

A recent United States Marine Corps forensic study obtained by DefenseWatch slams the Interceptor OTV body armor system, claiming "as many as 42% of the Marine casualties who died from isolated torso injuries could have been prevented with improved protection in the areas surrounding the plated areas of the vest. Nearly 23% might have benefited from protection along the mid-axillary line of the lateral chest. Another 15% died from impacts through the unprotected shoulder and upper arm," the report says.

...

Almost 2,200 American service members have died in combat since the war began and almost all of them were killed while wearing Interceptor body armor.

...

The "Marine Lethal Torso Injuries: Preliminary Findings 8/29/2005" was reportedly made to identify current weaknesses in the product, which was designed and fielded in the nearly billion-dollar joint US Army-USMC Interceptor program that created the controversial body armor. Critics of the Interceptor body armor system complain it is bulky, poorly made, limits mobility, and incorporates a design that leaves the wearer vulnerable to gunshot and shrapnel wounds over large areas of the upper torso to limit production costs.

I'm sure there is a lot more to this story.

Funny Video Of The Day

You've heard of OnStar? How about BlondeStar?

O'Lielly Contest at Fox

Here's your chance to debate the buffoon on the air.

Would you like to sit on the set of "The Factor" and let Bill O'Reilly have it?! The Great "Factor" Debate contest is underway and here's the deal:

During the month of February six lucky "Factor" viewers will be flown to New York City or Los Angeles (depending on which city we're broadcasting from) with hotel and meals paid for by us.

All you have to do is convince us by e-mail (and later by telephone) that you are a good debater and that you can hold your own with O'Reilly on a topic of your choosing.

Good luck!

Like A Plantation

Hillary was on the cover of Newsday this morning. I have been less than enamored with Hills lately but she gave a pretty good speech yesterday in a NY Baptist church.

"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about. It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."

Newsday reported: Clinton's comparison - likening Republicans to slaveholders - prompted a furious reaction from the congressional GOP, which has been beset by lobbying scandals recently and the indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) last year.

Yes but her comments were met by thunderous applause at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ during an event sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network which I imagine had a large audience of African Americans. The GOP seems to be whining a lot more than the Democrats. It totally freaks them out if someone suggests what is true.

"It's always wrong to play the race card for political gain by using a loaded word like plantation," said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who has enjoyed a cordial relationship with the Clintons. "It is particularly wrong to do so on Martin Luther King Day."

King is the only Republican Congressman on Long Island and is a controversial figure. The only good thing anyone can remember him for is that he voted against impeaching Bill Clinton. Other than that, he's a sorry mouthpiece for the GOP with nary an opinion of his own. Newsday, probably in an effort not to get hate mail from the island's wingers, goes on to show how Hillary has been controversial in the past but not for the reasons that Democrats that are uneasy with her here in NY.

I don't think this is funny at all

There is a bush quote calendar out there being marketed that has a bush mangling English quote of the day. Why on earth would I want to be reminded each and every day that there is an idiot in the WH? An idiot who proves that even the top institutions of learning in our country have failed. Sheesh. I only read bush quotes when I need to and it gives me the chills. I think the concept is amusing but it's far too frightening.

Surprise surprise.

President Gore's speech yesterday was not covered by the corporate media.



Peter Daou writes: A former Vice-President of the United States delivers a major speech accusing George W. Bush of breaking the law. What do all three cable news nets cover under the "Breaking News" banner? An overturned tanker truck on a New York highway. THIS is the problem for the left. And as I've said a hundred times: if the Dem establishment doesn't go after the media institutionally, things simply will not change. It's astonishing to me that they haven't gotten it yet. The only other option is for the progressive netroots to organize and fight the media on its own, an uphill struggle, to say the least...

I write: As long as corporations own the media, their allegiances will be to corporate sponsors before the actual dissemination of the truth. One way to get the truth out there, and I am sure there are thousands of reporters and journalists out there who would love to get a job in a real media establishment, is to regulate the media once again and for private citizens to own media outlets. The media is the watchdog of democracy... well it was supposed to be. What we have is a fascist dictatorship in the making. I'm surprised that the older people who fought against fascism in WWII aren't picking up on this.


Here' the transcript in case you missed it.

Think Progress has this post:

Here’s Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the Larry King Live show last night:

I would say that with respect to comments by the former vice president it’s my understanding that during the Clinton administration there was activity regarding the physical searches without warrants, Aldrich Ames as an example.

I can also say that it’s my understanding that the deputy attorney general testified before Congress that the president does have the inherent authority under the Constitution to engage in physical searches without a warrant and so those would certainly seem to be inconsistent with what the former vice president was saying today.

Read the whole thing at Think Progress here.

Signs of the Economic Apocalypse

From the website Signs of the Economic Apocalypse:

Gold continued its rise, closing at 556.90 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 2.7% from $542.20 the Friday before....Besides gold, everything in the numbers looks pretty normal. Gold, however, has risen 10% since Christmas.
As most of you are aware, there are a number of bearish omens hanging over US economy and stock market for 2006. Here is the list,off the top of my head:

1. Rising short term interest rates
2. Inverted yield curve
3. Housing bubble slowdown/pop in the works (...)
4. Massive slowdown and/or bankruptcy at GM and/or Ford on the horizon
5. Rising unemployment in home building, financial services, and manufacturing due to 3 & 4
6. Rising energy costs
7. Corresponding slowdown in consumerism due to 5 and 6
8. Stock market's four year / presidential cycle pointing down
9. Rising trade deficit
10. Rising budget deficit
11. Rising national debt
12. New Iranian oil bourse in the works to price oil in euros this spring
13. Falling dollar as a result of most of the above, but especially #12
14. New guy on the job at the Fed to deal with all of the above.

I e-mailed quotes and links to the above article to an econ buddy of mine and here's a partially edited response I received:

The thing of it is: a massive re-alignment of economies is going on, and these figures he's citing (like the blast-off of M3) are just exterior and vague signs of profound processes underneath the surface.

This isn't conspiracy theory, although to an untrained reader it would surely look that way. The world is changing, and it's not to the good of the United States or its citizens, who are in for quite a taste of Hell as that roller coaster takes a couple of little dips in the frying pan over the coming few years.

The only good news is that Americans have become so desensitized, intellectually incurious, and pointedly stupid that they won't notice a whole lot. They'll be able to digest a semi-mythical, simplistic story the news media will feed them, and that's okay, since the alternative would be to get them to understand things way beyond their latest fix of TV, sports, radio, and imaginary sexual fulfillment.

For a quick daily check of silver, gold, and platinum, click on Bert Blumert's Gold Page.

Isn't She Lovely?

No, not Laura Bush.

I mean the beautiful Cartwheel galaxy.
A cosmic jelly fish

on the incessant need to get a warrant

To: National Desk

Contact: Republican National Committee Press Office, 202-863-8614

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is the RNC response to today's speech by Al Gore:

"Al Gore's incessant need to insert himself in the headline of the day is almost as glaring as his lack of understanding of the threats facing America. While the President works to protect Americans from terrorists, Democrats deliver no solutions of their own, only diatribes laden with inaccuracies and anger." --Tracey Schmitt, RNC Press Secretary

Tracey. I have got an incessant need to insert myself in your day.

When you Google your own name tonight, and we know you do, I hope this finds you red-faced and ashamed of your job as spokesperson for the worst of your party since it was headed by Richard Nixon.

If your president cannot do his "hard" job without breaking the law and violating the United States Constitution then he should either resign or we will impeach him. No where in his job description or in Congress' resolution to support the use of force in Iraq did we give him the power to protect us at the expense of our liberty. Get a warrant, fascist pig. His job description clearly says that he will "serve, protect, and defend the Constitution."

How do you like this angry diatribe?

A Burqa Ban In The Netherlands?

Yeah, the burqa's are kind of creepy to a westerner. If I saw someone coming down the street wearing one of those on a dark night, I'm not sure I wouldn't hesitate to cross the street. How do I know that's a religious woman under there? It could be someone pretending to be a woman who wants to mug me. I haven't heard of that happening but it's entirely possible. I used to wonder that if in Afghanistan that burqas were a great disguise for terrorists. Nevertheless in the interest of religious freedom in a western country, I wouldn't necessarily condone a ban on burqa's unless there was a rash of impostors running rampant in a community.

The Dutch government is considering a ban on burqas. Only about 50 women in the country wear them regularly, yet it would become illegal if the ban goes through.

There are a lot of opinions on the burqa and the niqab (they veil the face totally). Many see it as a symbol of oppression. (I do.)

Others say that you can't integrate into society when you are covered from head to toe. There is also the concern that in this age of terrorism, everyone should be identifiable. On the other hand in the name of religious freedom, many believe that governments should stay the hell out of a person's religious practice. Some people I've met think that Muslims should stay out of western countries if they choose to live in the middle ages. The Dutch are seriously considering banning burqas in "public places like stations, airports and cinemas - something many Muslims will regard as provocation in a Europe increasingly uncertain of its own identity." hmmmm.

My darn opinion:

As a New Yorker, I am used to seeing people wearing religious garb. Personally, I think nothing of it however I have not seen people wearing burqa's. I imagine that they would be seen as highly suspicious in a NY airport. Sure it would cross my mind that I wouldn't want to fly with a totally concealed person.

I am more afraid of a scared American citizen carrying a gun. Why is it so patriotic to want to carry a side arm? When I was out west last year, I met people who said it was great to get away from New York into the real America where they could carry guns. Jeez, New York City subways are scarier than anything in Arizona... well except for the knowledge that people are running around with concealed weapons. I saw some signs on bars and restaurants asking that you check your side arms at the door. I thought it was some sort of Old West tourist thing, but no, it was for real. Well at least I knew I could eat lunch without fear of being shot.

Check this out. A Homeland Protection System you can buy.

The Old Strawmen Again- Homosexuals

heh. James Dobson is claiming that the Republicans have done nothing about family values, abortion and all that good stuff that America is made of.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, wingers but the Republicans don't give a shit about family values. It's all a ruse to get you to vote for their fascist values. Wake the hell up.

Rick Santorum replied to the charges by saying that he will push the most important piece of legislation in 2006, the marriage amendment. yawn. Santorum says, "We need to have a good debate -- as is going on across the country right now -- the issue of protecting marriage being between one man and one woman."

Oh yeah. That protects marriage-banning gays from marrying. My marriage was so in danger because a gay couple might marry. Not. I am so concerned that allowing gay people to marry will the throw the very fabric of American society into turmoil. Not. Sounds like something Hitler would have said about the Jews.

Doing something about the rise in poverty, education, health benefits, flat or reduced wages in the work force has nothing to do with family values at all- it's those darned homosexuals.

Let's Get Howell

Post ombudsman Howell twice falsely claimed Democrats received contributions from Abramoff. Everyone in blogland is talking about it. You can go over to wapo blog, check out the comments and join in the flaming.

Chicken Little

We all knew this was going to happen:
If a real threat should come our way, no one is going to believe it.

Even if Iran is truly a grave threat to our security and the security of the world, does any one want george bush to be involved in the situation? Of course not. Could you trust that this pistol happy cowboy would handle things diplomatically? Never.

On one hand, he praises the military but if anyone speaks out against him, their military service is slimed and ridiculed by the administration's secret smear machine. He swore up and down that Iraq was a threat and home to al qaida. He swore we'd bring democracy to Iraq. He only brought a civil war and higher oil prices... not to mention a less secular government.

Congressman John Murtha told CBS

"He’s trying to fight this war with rhetoric. Iraq is not where the center of terrorism is. So when he says we’re fighting terrorism over there, we’re inciting terrorism over there. We’re encouraging terror. We’re destabilizing the area by being over there ‘cause we’re the targets. He said before there’s weapons of mass destruction. He said there’s an al Qaeda connection. There’s many things he said turned out not to be true. So why would I believe him when he says the things he just – made that statement."

Speaking of CBS News, Walter Cronkite, the once most trusted man in news believes the troops ought to come home now.

"We had an opportunity to say to the world and Iraqis after the hurricane disaster that Mother Nature has not treated us well and we find ourselves missing the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation and rebuild some of our most important cities in the United States," he said. "Therefore, we are going to have to bring our troops home."

The impeachment word is in the air. Even among Republicans. The Bush administration is not above the law or the constitution. The world is not happy with the United States and neither is the United States.

Laura Feeds Propaganda to Africans

Laura Stepford-Bush stopped in Ghana on her way to the inauguration of the first female president elected in an African country. Yes Africa has us beat. Liberia elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. We have a first lady who says dumb things.

She was interviewed by the AP in Ghana and had some surprising revelations for the people of Africa. They learned that the America people enjoy being spied on because it makes them feel safe.

"I think the American people expect the United States government and the president to do what they can to make sure there's not an attack by foreign terrorists," Mrs. Bush said just before landing here to begin a four-day stay in West Africa.

"I think he was worried that it would undermine our efforts by alerting terrorists to what our efforts are," she said.

Now that is news to me and most Americans I know except the few who don't care because they are riddled with fear of being attacked by terrorists even though there is a much higher risk that they will die from something else- like tripping over their own shadow when they are trying to hide and hitting their heads on a sharp corner then bleeding to death.

Laura will also visit Nigeria and Ghana where one in three people have AIDS to speak about abstinence.

Pardon Me If I Weep For Everyone

"Iran Announces Conference on Holocaust"
"Iran, whose president has denied the Holocaust, said Sunday it would hold a conference to examine the scientific evidence concerning Nazi Germany's extermination of 6 million Jews."

That's the headline and lead sentence of this article by the Associated Press this morning.

Since the Associated Press hardly ever reports ALL the news that I believe is pertinent to a story, I have included here the complete death casualty figures for World War II.

Military Civilian Total

AXIS TOTAL 6,582,000 1,686,000 8,268,000

ALLIED TOTAL 14,276,800 25,686,900 39,963,700

EST. TOTAL 20,858,800 27,372,900 48,231,700

A breakdown of death casualties by country is available at Warchronicle.com, and, for what it's worth, some researchers consider the 48,231,700 death total to be somewhat conservative, with estimates sometimes reaching as high as sixty million. 'Course, what's another ten or twelve million dead, unless of course, they were Jews?

The Swift Boating of Vietnam Vets

As someone who has no idea what it's like to serve my country in the military because I was in college during the Vietnam war and they weren't drafting babes (just my boyfriends), I still have an opinion about it in light of all the news I've been reading lately.

On one hand, you have the administration warning Americans that speaking out against bush's fascist war policies gives comfort to our enemies and ruins the morale of the troops fighting for our freedom in Iraq while on the other hand Vietnam war heros such as John Kerry and Jack Murtha get swift boated for their service because they dare speak their minds years after they performed their service militarily and continue to serve their country in government.

Now what kind of morale boost is that for our troops? Do you not think that some of them are wondering that perhaps some day they might continue to serve their country in public office, but perhaps their military service may be thrown back in their faces and discredited? If I were in the trenches now and was hearing that former soldier's ribbons and medals were under question 30 years later, it would really bum me out. It would be disheartening to know that my fellow Americans who are trying to get me out of that middle eastern sand trap were being silenced too. Maybe, just maybe I could think of something better to do than try to avoid being blown up because I was trained for combat and this is not combat.

Waddaya need your arms and legs blown off in order for anyone to respect you after a war? Wait. No. Max Cleland was swift boated and he is living proof that he risked his life for his country. Look what the fascists did to him! John McCain has been swift boated by his own party.

On one hand the fascists are all 'rah rah war' and on the other hand, they demonstrate time and time again that the troops are not human beings, but fighting machines and guinea pigs who are expendable.

Does swift boating not give comfort to our enemies? Oh you can bet your ass that it does. Put the shoe on the other foot. Say that Iraq really was an enemy and a threat to our country. It would give me comfort knowing that the enemy troop's morale was plummeting. Our troop's morale isn't being plummeted by those who are trying to get them out of there.

Our troop's morale will surely drop if they see Vietnam war vets being treated the way they are in our country. Why serve in the military if someday there's a chance you may be swift boated? Maybe they want their families and friends back home to try to get them the hell out of there. Remember, they are not allowed to say what they are really thinking when they are on active duty. Their lines are scripted when they speak to the president on camera. Maybe they would want their mom's to be like Cindy Sheehan were they to die. I suspect that they would.

Saddam was our enemy- not the citizens whom we are fighting now. If it gives the Iraqi's comfort to know that anti-war sentiment is growing in America, so the hell what. They aren't my enemy.

See also:
Murtha's War Hero Status Called Into Question
Bush Admin. Launched Secret Smear Campaign Against Murtha...
Murtha Details His Exit Strategy
The Pentagon on college anti-war groups:"A credible threat to national security"

Politics is a cut throat business

Remember when Jesse Ventura was governor of Minnesota and we all wondered what the hell was going on there? But then we took it back after Californians voted for Arnold....

Well this time, a vampire wants to run for governor of Minnesota. Yep, a vampire.

Quick. Call Buffy.

From Reuters: "Politics is a cut-throat business," said Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey who plans to be on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

har har har

"I'm a Satanist who doesn't hate Jesus," Sharkey told Reuters. "I just hate God the Father."

He doesn't like the God who smites bad guys?

However, he claims to respect all religions and if elected, will post "everything from the Ten Commandments to the Wicca Reed" in government buildings.

That's mighty open minded of him.

Sharkey also pledged to execute convicted murders and child molesters personally by impaling them on a wooden pole outside the state capitol.

Wow, maybe they could start making postcards again like they did during lynchings? Can you just picture the happy mobs who'd show up for public executions?

Ok, I don't mean to be so flippant. It's just, just, just... too funny. Not funny, ha ha. Just funny, weird.

Do check out his website: Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey

Real Life Terminator

Arnold got to deny clemency to yet another death row inmate. This is his third denial and isn't the cock supposed to crow now?

AP -Clarence Ray Allen is California's oldest death row inmate-75 years old. He's been on death row for 23 years and is legally blind and nearly deaf. He got the death penalty for ordering 3 slayings while he was imprisoned for another murder. Allen's attorneys say that his execution is cruel and unusual punishment because of his condition. That is supposedly not a reason to grant clemency.

But get this sentence in the article:

"He often uses a wheelchair and had to be resuscitated after suffering a heart attack last year at San Quentin Prison."

HE HAD TO BE RESUSCITATED?
Oh that's rich. They resuscitate people on death row if they should attempt to die a full year before the executioner is ready to do his job?

Unreal. It hurts my brain to think about this any more.

Favorite new euphemism:

Panty hamster.

are you ready to carry that fetus to term, lady?

If the by-God U.S. Senate can't figure this out, they can blame the women who haven't explained it to the U.S. Senate and women who can't understand it well enough to explain it to other women.

I am only going to do this one more time and then I am going to ask every woman I meet if she is happily accepting her role in society as defined by the Supreme Court and President Bush and the United States Congress because they do not consider women full citizens with the rights and privileges thereof.

The issue isn't abortion. The issue is whether the U.S. Government or the State of Texas or any of the forty-nine other states can demand that a woman carry a fetus to term. Can the government force pregnancy onto American women?

If the Senate can ask Sam Alito straight up if he is a bigot, then why can't they ask him straight up if he is a sexist? If he can find support for equal rights for black Americans, why can't he find equal rights for American women in the Constitution?

Why don't they just ask him if he is prepared to extend his opinion that the choice whether or not to be pregnant is not a woman's choice, but the government's choice or her male sex partner's choice? Is he ready to make that opinion the law of the land?

Even the Democrats in the Senate have accepted the parameters of the very limited question. They have accepted the assertion by the Far Right that the issue is abortion. No one supports abortion. The debate isn't even about abortion. It is about equality.

If men cannot be required to be fathers, then neither can women. If women must be pregnant then men must be required by law to make women pregnant and support these minors--women and children--because women cannot support themselves and be pregnant. Sure women can work while pregnant--if you believe that they won't get fired for being pregnant. But if women cannot make their own choices they should be treated as the second class citizen, as a person who has not reached majority. Men must impregnate women and make all decisions for women. If women cannot make their own choices they are not fully persons under the law. They must be looked after, not allowed to make work related decisions, or family decisions, or how to raise the children after they have been born.

Get the picture? Does this sound like Muslim countries where women do not have a voice and may be murdered if they exercise their rights, endowed not by men or governments but by their creator, to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness?

Is the noose tight enough yet? Are you safe enough yet?

Oh Supremest Court, please save us from our own minds and bodies that we can do your bidding. Keep us from the burden of being our own fully realized person? Make me safe from the wicked world and keep me home raising child after child after child. If we can't make that decision, we can't make other decisions. Please don't make me think about whether I have the constitutionally protected right to use birth control. Thank God that men and governments can make all our decisions for us. To work or not work, to procreate or not procreate, to ride at the front or the back of the bus.

This is a civil rights issue. Are American women the new American "nigger"? Master can tell her she must bear his children. Is that what you find in the Constitution, Judge Alito?

What is wrong with America?

Middle School Student Shot by SWAT Team

More on the bigot you love to hate

Pat Robertson apologized to the family of Ariel Sharon! He apologized for suggesting that God smote Sharon for "dividing God's land" but he just loves Israel so much that he was overcome...

"My zeal, my love of Israel and my concern for the future safety of your nation led me to make remarks which I can now view in retrospect as inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief experienced because of your father's illness,"

I wonder what changed his mind and why he apologized?

Could it have been because the $50 million dollar deal to build a theme park in Galilee was smote by the angry Israeli tourism ministry?

And the War On Iraq Continues in the News

Rep John Murtha has been speaking out a lot by declaring that the war on Iraq is not a global war on terror but a civil war.
Turns out that 93% of those fighting in Iraq are Iraqi's and not foreign terrorists.

AP- President Bush warned Democratic critics of his Iraq policy on Tuesday to watch what they say or risk giving "comfort to our adversaries" and suffering at the ballot box in November.

Huffington Post today reports that the bush administration launched a secret smear campaign againt John Murtha. Well of course they did. Murtha's comments are not in keeping with the motives of the adminstration. Fascists can't have bleeding heart liberal hawks going around dissing their war profiteering. sheesh.

Bishop Reveals He Was Abused by Priest

Wow

COLUMBUS, Ohio - "The first U.S. Catholic bishop to say that he was a victim of sexual abuse by clergy put his support behind legislation that would remove time limits that have prevented past victims from suing the church."

...

Gumbleton said he was a 15-year-old seminary student in Detroit when a priest took him and other boys to a cabin northeast of the city. Gumbleton said the priest started wrestling with him playfully, then put his hand down the back of Gumbleton's pants. He said he quickly removed himself from the situation; he did not elaborate.

Even 60 years later, Gumbleton said he's embarrassed talking about the incident, which he said explains why some victims never brought lawsuits within legal time limits, which in most states are two to five years.

"I understand why victims of sexual abuse need this new window of opportunity," he said. "For many of them, probably almost all of them, it would be very difficult to come forward and speak."

Breaking News: Bush Visits New Orleans

...and declared that New Orleans was "a heck of a place to bring your family" and that it had "some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun," reports the NY Times.

The Times also reports

Mr. Bush spent his brief visit in a meeting with political and business leaders on the edge of the Garden District, the grand neighborhood largely untouched by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, and saw little devastation.

Mr Bush also went on to say that "New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit." I guess he didn't see very much of New Orleans. He didn't say what the residents wanted to hear, "that he would commit the federal government to building the strongest possible levees, a Category 5 storm protection system." He only said they would build "stronger and better" levees. Engineers say that the levees he speaks about would withstand the winds of only a Category 2 hurricane.

Nevertheless, bush was ignorantly optimistic and ignored questions about the city's rebuilding plan which had been met by enormous community criticism. The bush administration also blamed its deficit on Hurricane Katrina and Scott McClennan also said that said that "the president had not deliberately timed his visit on a day when Ms. Blanco was not in town, and that the White House had reached out to her but she had a scheduling conflict."

I highly recommend that you pop over to the Rude Pundit today, scroll down a bit and see what he witnessed in New Orleans recently. This is what bush didn't see.


PS. Bush went on to attend a fundraiser at the Palm Beach home of Bush “Ranger” Dwight Schar, who raised more than $200,000 for the President during the 2004 election. after visiting New Orleans for the first time in three months.

If I Were God...

I have a post over at "Was Blind But Now I See"

If I were god...

... I'd smite a lot of the bastards who speak in my name. They make god out to be a mean, vindictive jealous, SOB who most thinking people wouldn't want to be stuck with in the afterlife... not to mention that the afterlife is one boring place. (the whole story)

Impeach

Former U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, a member of the judiciary committee that voted to impeach Nixon in 1974 is calling for impeachment proceedings against bush. An article will appear in the Nation that says:

"Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush’s breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions. I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of U.S. criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail. ... These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq. But it wasn’t until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country’s laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate." (Editor and Publisher)

Most of us who remember Watergate are quick to point out that what's going on in DC right now seems quite worse. Nixon didn't hold our country in contempt like bush, who is clearly a fascist, does.

Boo Hoo

Sammy Strip Search Alito's wife burst into tears yesterday, as you probably know, during the questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
"Are you really a closet bigot?"
SSS answered, "No."
Graham said, "No sir, you're not."

Then Sen Hatch suggested that the Democrats made her cry. All the Democrats were trying to do was find out how Alito views women's rights. I am glad that they pursued this line of questioning. Makes me wonder, however, if Mrs. Alito wasn't put up to this.

The AP reports today that Sen. Biden suggests that the hearings should be scrapped because

"Nominees now, Democrat and Republican nominees, come before the United States Congress and resolve not to let the people know what they think about the important issues," such as a president's authority to go to war, said Biden.

Biden told the Today Show that a better solution might be to skip hearings and send nominations straight to the Senate floor for a vote.

Israel Smites Robertson

Pat Robertson is persona non grata in Israel for suggesting that Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine justice for pulling out of the Gaza Strip.(CBS News 1/5/06) (BS 1/5/06). On 1/7 I reported that Israel was planning a christian theme park with none other than Pat Robertson at the helm.

Now says Israel to Robertson: Take your theme park and shove it.

MSNBC Reports: "We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don't back these comments," Hartuv said. "We will do business with other evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him."

A day after Sharon's stroke on Jan. 4, Robertson suggested the prime minister was being punished for "dividing God's land," a reference to the August pullout from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine."'

If you'd like, there's an interesting article in WaPo: Among Evangelicals, A Kinship With Jews
I find it sinister. This Baptist minister claims he's jealous of the Jews because they are the "chosen ones".

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs". -- Arundhati Roy

The complete text of Ms. Roy's speech can be found at "Tide? Or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire"

And thanks to Tom Feeley at Information Clearing House.

Republicans Whine About Democrat's Questions

AP "Your critics are grasping at any straw to tarnish your record," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

As if allowing a teenage girl to be strip searched means his record isn't already tarnished?

Vice President Dick Cheney accused liberal groups of trying to undermine the nomination but faltering.

"What I see happening now, unfortunately, is some of the groups on the other side trying hard to find some way to shoot him down. And so far I don't think they've been successful at doing that," Cheney said in an interview on the Tony Snow show on Fox News Radio.

Well there's a credible Radio show and a credible guest. Not.

Republicans complained that Democrats had already made up their minds about Alito.
"I do think that there are those who have already decided to vote against your nomination and are looking for some reason to do so," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "And I think one of the reasons that they may claim is that you've been nonresponsive."

And of course, the Republicans already made up their minds as well, but that doesn't count because they are from the mighty GOP and only think what they are told to think, unless one of them gets indicted and then they play dumb.

Senators Schumer and Durbin think up more hard questions for Alito because after all, it's their job to torture the Republicans merely for the sake of antagonizing them, but never vice versa. Never.

and in other news....

• NSA insider and whistleblower will tell congress all he knows about telephone tracking.

"He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used." (ABC News)

• Roy Blunt wants to take over DeLay's job. Here is the connection between those two...

• Raw Story: Amnesty Internation releases accounts of Gitmo torture abuse.

• Americablog: Bush declares that those who criticize his war policies are treasonous by "giving comfort to our adversaries". yawn

Quick editorial:
Missouri Mule asked me the other day about what it was like in NY after 9/11. I told her that the ashes and soot of the WTC permeated every orifice in my house and it was like a funeral when I cleaned it up. I told her that we were absolutely terrified. Funeral processions passed my house on the way to the cemetary for months and months (many firefighters live out here). There was a lot of stuff that wasn't on the national news so Americans had no idea how tough it was to venture out of our homes and attempt to go anywhere. The traffic was always stalled because of car searches and roadblocks. Everywhere. There were the sounds of sirens escorting "official" looking vehicles speeding by and shutting down highways. People were terrified to go to work in lower manhattan. It stunk. Then they decided to scare us and warn us that crop dusters would be stolen from farms and would be used to drop anthrax on us. Talk about PTSD. We had it baby. Big time. I wanted to move so badly but it was a nightmare to try to sell a house. I know, I was trying to sell my mom's house at the time. She had just died unexpectedly in her sleep. For a while, NYers were all united despite our political leanings. Once the wars started, things became more tense and people stopped talking to each other freely. You had to watch out for those who bought the official 9/11 story. They would get vile if you even innocently suggested that the story wasn't completely accurate.

HOWEVER, if you talk to NYers today, most would rather keep their civil rights and take their chances. I find it amusing that some folks out in rural America are terrified of another attack and will gladly give up their rights to be safe. Gimme a friggin' break.

But that's just my opinion and I could be wrong.

Law Suit Against Unintelligent Design

A school in Lebec, California is having the evolution/fairy tale debate at the moment. This time the school is offering a class on unintelligent design and the parents are suing. good.

An initial course description, which was distributed to students and their families last month, said "the class will take a close look at evolution as a theory and will discuss the scientific, biological and biblical aspects that suggest why Darwin's philosophy is not rock solid. The class will discuss intelligent design as an alternative response to evolution. Physical and chemical evidence will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old, not billions."

The course, which began Jan. 3 and is scheduled to run for one month, is being taught by Sharon Lemburg, a special education teacher with a bachelor of arts in physical education and social science, according to the lawsuit.

The suit adds that Lemburg "has no training or certification in the teaching of science, religion or philosophy," and is "the wife of the minister for the local Assembly of God Church, a Christian fundamentalist church, and a proponent of a creationist world view."

What year is this again? What country is this? Have we slipped into a parallel universe?

Ahhhhhhhh! nold

He hurt his wittle wip. What say you?

Supreme Court Hearings...

<< Samuel Alito prepares for Close Encounters with the Senate

AP "Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is carefully weaving his way through Senate confirmation hearings, saying enough to please his Republican backers while trying not to give Democratic critics any new material to use against his high court nomination."

And here's what 2 senators had to say:

"I certainly see nothing at this point that would cause me not to vote to confirm," said Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz.

"Americans have no better answers than they did at the outset of the hearings," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Alrighty then...


The Republicans whip out a copy of the 10 Commandments for reference.





The answer is: Big Ben, Joe Namath and a candidate's campaign promises.

And the question is: What is a clock, a jock and a crock.


The Dems have an adverse reaction to the annointed seats.

That Seven Things Thingy

The Dark Wraith will pay dearly for tagging me. Anyway....
Here's proof of what a shallow, empty headed bimbo I really am.

7 things to do before I die

• 1. Move off this god forsaken island where everyone talks like Fran Drescher, Tony Danza or Thurston Howell.
  
• 2. Visit Australia, Turkey, Greece and NZ.
• 3. Own a sailboat and use it often.
• 4. Finish reading all the books I've started
• 5. Open a store.
• 6. Learn how to be an astro-photographer, dammit.
• 7. Drive across the country in my convertible with a hunka hunka burnin' love by my side and my telescope in the trunk.

7 Things I Cannot Do

• 1. Stay off the computer for more than a day.
  
• 2. Get into rap music
• 3. Stick to one interest or profession.
• 4. Stay on a diet
  
• 5. Quit playing video games.
• 6. Electrical work.
• 7. Believe that anyone gives a shit what I write here.

7 Things that attract me to blogging

• 1. I'm beginning to finally begin to learn English grammar finally.
• 2. Raging against the machine.
• 3. Peter of Lone Tree
• 4. Meeting new people and killing them. (oh wait, that was an Army recruitment poster)
  
• 5. Making fun of the dip-shits in the administration.
• 6. It goes well with my pharmaceutical therapy.
• 7. Cyber Sex

7 Things I Say Most Often

• 1. Aye ya doon? (Hello, how are you this fine day?)
• 2. Wuddaya Crazy? (I'm not sure I agree with what you said.)
• 3. Wuhchoo bin smokin', eh? (Your actions are quite ludicrous.)
• 4. Why I outta give yous a good kick in da.... (Pardon me. I was in line first, madam.)
• 5. How longaya been in this country including today? (Excuse me, but do you realize what an ignoramus you are?)
• 6. Do I look fat? (Here's your chance to redeem yourself.)
• 7. Is it in yet? (I'm starving. Have you put dinner in the oven?)

7 books that I love
(gimme a break. I only look at the pictures.)

• 1. "How to" craft books- Lately books on automata.
• 2. Art books- Lately Klimpt
• 3. Music books- Lately Lounge Music and Rolling Stones
• 4. Astronomy books- Anything to help with my new hobby.
• 5. Metaphysics, quantum physics, theology
• 6. Religious and occult books- lost scriptures especially
• 7. Politics.

7 Movies I Watch Over and Over Again
(Oh I don't like to watch movies again and again (ADHD) but I tolerate 2 if they are on television)

1. Alien (and sequels)
2. Airplane (anything with Leslie Nielsen)


7 People I'd like to give this assignment to

• 1 Anntichrist S Coulter (can you imagine?)
  
• 2 DBK formerly known as GD Frogsdong
• 3 Angry Old Broad
• 4 The Wanderer
• 5 The Newswriter
• 6 Culture Ghost
• 7 Aikane

Ok then, Dark Wraith. Are you happy? I'm a simpleton. It's out in the open now.

Just received the following in an e-mail from Greg Palast:

NO CHILD'S BEHIND LEFT: THE TEST
By Greg Palast

New York -- Today and tomorrow every 8-year-old in the state of New York will take a test. It's part of George Bush's No Child Left Behind program. The losers will be left behind to repeat the third grade.

Try it yourself. This is from the state's actual practice test. Ready, class?

"The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year."

And here's one of the four questions:

"The story says that in 1999, the sisters could not seem to lose at doubles tennis. This probably means when they played

"A two matches in one day
"B against each other
"C with two balls at once
"D as partners"

OK, class, do you know the answer? (By the way, I didn't cheat: there's nothing else about "doubles" in the text.)

My kids go to a New York City school in which more than half the students live below the poverty line. There is no tennis court.

There are no tennis courts in the elementary schools of Bed-Stuy or East Harlem. But out in the Hamptons, every school has a tennis court. In Forest Hills, Westchester and Long Island's North Shore, the schools have nearly as many tennis courts as the school kids have live-in maids.

Now, you tell me, class, which kids are best prepared to answer the question about "doubles tennis"? The 8-year-olds in Harlem who've never played a set of doubles or the kids whose mommies disappear for two hours every Wednesday with Enrique the tennis pro?

Is this test a measure of "reading comprehension" -- or a measure of wealth accumulation?

If you have any doubts about what the test is measuring, look at the next question, based on another part of the text, which reads (and I could not make this up):

"Most young tennis stars learn the game from coaches at private clubs. In this sentence, a club is probably a

"F baseball bat
"G tennis racquet
"H tennis court
"J country club"

Helpfully, for the kids in our 'hood, it explains that a "country club" is a, "place where people meet." Yes, but WHICH people?

President Bush told us, "By passing the No Child Left Behind Act, we are regularly testing every child and making sure they have better options when schools are not performing."

But there are no "better options." In the delicious double-speak of class war, when the tests have winnowed out the chaff and kids stamped 'failed', No Child Left results in that child being left behind in the same grade to repeat the failure another year.

I can't say that Mr. Bush doesn't offer better options to the kids stamped 'failed'. Under No Child Left, if enough kids flunk the tests, their school is marked a failure and its students win the right, under the law, to transfer to any successful school in their district. You can't provide more opportunity than that. But they don't provide it, the law promises it, without a single penny to make it happen. In New York in 2004, a third of a million students earned the right to transfer to better schools -- in which there were only 8,000 places open.

New York is typical. Nationwide, only one out of two-hundred students eligible to transfer manage to do it. Well, there's always the Army. (That 'option' did not go unnoticed: No Child has a special provision requiring schools to open their doors to military recruiters.)

Hint: When de-coding politicians' babble, to get to the real agenda, don't read their lips, read their budgets. And in his last budget, our President couldn't spare one thin dime for education, not ten cents. Mr. Big Spender provided for a derisory 8.4 cents on the dollar of the cost of primary and secondary schools. Congress appropriated a half penny of the nation's income -- just one-half of one-percent of America's twelve trillion dollar GDP -- for primary and secondary education.

President Bush actually requested less. While Congress succeeded in prying out an itty-bitty increase in voted funding, that doesn't mean the extra cash actually gets to the students. Fifteen states have sued the federal government on the grounds that the cost of new testing imposed on schools, $3.9 billion, eats up the entire new funding budgeted for No Child Left.

There are no "better options" for failing children, but there are better uses for them. The President ordered testing and more testing to hunt down, identify and target millions of children too expensive, too heavy a burden, to educate.

No Child Left offers no 'options' for those with the test-score mark of Cain -- no opportunities, no hope, no plan, no funding. Rather, it is the new social Darwinism, educational eugenics: identify the nation's loser-class early on. Trap them then train them cheap.

Someone has to care for the privileged. No society can have winners without lots and lots of losers. And so we have No Child Left Behind -- to produce the new worker drones that will clean the toilets at the Yale Alumni Club, punch the cash registers color-coded for illiterates, and pamper the winner-class on the higher floors of the new economic order.

Class war dismissed.


**********
See a clip of the actual practice test at http://www.gregpalast.com/
**********
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Read his investigative reports at www.GregPalast.com

class act

“Sam’s got the intellect necessary to bring a lot of class to that court.” George W. Bush on Sam Alito.

Where do I start

Why would anyone say such a thing?

I read the quote over on Twisty Faster's blog, "I blame the patriarchy," which is the sharpest bitching and of course truth telling to hit the Internets. She is amazing and eye opening and very likely a genius. She notes, in that wise and world weary way of hers that, "only louts and criminals use the word 'class' to mean 'style' or 'taste'?" The woman makes me want to be a better writer and a better woman.

Yeah, the Court is a "classy" institution. It is tradition bound and eccentric and I am in awe of it and then I consider recent members and I am not sure that "classy" isn't the appropriate word.

There is Justice Clarence "I did not sexually harass that woman, Anita Hill," Thomas. Thomas lied during his hearings. He said that he had never contemplated Roe v. Wade, not even as a law student, while he wrote at least four law review articles about Roe v. Wade, that somehow Senate Judiciary Committee staffers could not find on Lexis or Westlaw.

And his harassment of Anita Hill was not an isolated incident, as if he should get a pass on one victim. There were women waiting in the hallway to testify about their encounters with Thomas. Thomas' wife vetted resumes for the new Bush administration while the Court stopped the count in Florida in favor of Bush, who we now know, proof positive, lost in Florida.

Classy guy.

And then there is former Chief Justice William Rehnquist who chased black voters away from voting booths in Arizona.

Class act.

And Antonin Scalia who would not recuse himself during Bush v. Gore when he had a son working on the Bush legal team. Another son got a post at the Department of Labor after the case. Scalia also would not recuse himself when his friend and fellow duck hunter Dick Cheney had a case before the Court.

World class Justice.

Sandra Day "coin flip" O'Connor said that it was "terrible" that Gore appeared to be winning the 2000 presidential election. She wanted to retire, her husband explained to their election party guests, and couldn't if a Democrat would name her replacement.

Classy.

If you take Bush's statement at face value, is he saying that the Court, needs some classing up? So Scalia isn't a classy intellect? So the four justices who ruled against Bush in Bush v. Gore, Stevens, Souter, Bryer and Ginsberg, not classy intellectuals? Is Bush mad that O'Connor refused to give Bush a blank check to run the Constitution in the ground? Would she have more class or intellect if she said, "To Hell with the rights of the accused, that Bush knows more about law and the Constitution than all of us. Let him arrest and detain everyone!"

Gore Gets Down

Al Gore had Mos Def (a rapper but fabulous actor: Lakawanna Blues and Something the Lord Made) as an anchor for the launch of his new youth oriented cable channel.
So far the channel has been airing shorts from young documentarians and fledgling film makers. (I'm a fledgling filmaker but I am not young. sigh)

Now Al Gore is consulting with Sean Penn and Robert Redford to create a survival guide for the audience members who want to contribute. Pretty cool.

The channel doesn't air on my cable. Has anyone seen it?

North Star is Really A Triple Star

We tend to think of the North Star, Polaris, as a steady, solitary point of light that guided sailors in ages past. But there is more to the North Star than meets the eye. The North Star is actually a triple star system. And while one companion can be seen easily through small telescopes, the other hugs Polaris so tightly that it has never been seen – until now.

By stretching the capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to the limit, astronomers have photographed the close companion of Polaris for the first time. They presented their findings today in a press conference at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

Full story here and Pictures

So there ya go. Things aren't always what they seem.

GOP HOST BLOGGERS

Michell Malkin writes about her participation at a GOP Briefing for Bloggers:

"I'm in D.C. today for a "blogger forum" being held by the Republican National Committee. The morning session will feature RNC head Ken Mehlman, briefings from RNC senior staff on races, polling, and blogs, plus live-blogging of Judge Alito's opening statement. The afternoon session will be led by White House senior staff and will conclude with a Q&A hosted by Fred Barnes, who is coming out with a new book on President Bush. The RNC is providing bloggers with an Internet connection and brown bag lunch. Nothing more and nothing expected in return."

Bloggers in the house

Matt Margolis, Blogs for Bush
Mark Noonan, GOP Bloggers
Flip Pidot, Suitably Flip
Ian Schwartz, The Political Teen
Tim Chapman, Townhall.com
Mary Katherine Ham, HughHewitt.com
Ed Morrissey, Captain's Quarters
Bob Hahn, RedState
Pat Cleary, NAM
Right Side Redux
Kevin Aylward, Wizbang

Taiwan has produced three prototypes of cruise missiles

"Taiwan has produced three prototypes of a new cruise missile which could be used to strike the east coast of rival China, authoritative Jane’s Defence Weekly magazine said.

"The cruise missile, called Hsiung Feng 2E (Brave Wind), “will be deployed on mobile land-based platforms and initial plans are for the production of up to 50 missiles before 2010 and up to 500 missiles after 2010,” said in the magazine’s article to be published January 11."

Manila Times

Porn Oscars

A couple of years ago, I had instant access to one of the so called "porn" channels on cable. Most of it was rather boring so I really didn't watch it too often, but one of the most entertaining annual shows was for the Adult Video Oscars. I don't have that channel anymore, but I just read that it took place again. It doesn't matter who won. That's not the point of the show anyway.

What really struck my funny bone about the porn oscars were when they would read the candidates for the "acting" categories and then show a video clip to support the nomination. Each clip showed a different straw haired blonde with fake boobs bouncing up and down on some guy moaning, "oh. oh. oh. oh. oh." How the hell could they tell who is a better actress? By the quality of their moans? By the quality of their fake orgasms? By their plastic surgery? I still think Meg Ryan's fake orgasm takes the oscar... and ok, Shirley MacLaine's too.

Alito

Oh boy: Here's the democratic process at work

"I want you to know that I will strongly defend your refusal to answer any question that you believe to be improper," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)

Conservatives want Alito to "hold his tongue" on issues that may provoke a Democratic filibuster. Regular people want to know what he really thinks on key issues.


Also check out Top Alito myths and falsehoods at Media Matters

Abramoff-Bush

You've undoubtably read that Bush doesn't know Jack Abramoff...

Texas Observer: Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President.

He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. (see also Rolling Stone)

USA Today: In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.

Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children

By Philip Watts
01/08/06 "revcom.us"-- -- "John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody–including by crushing that child’s testicles.
"This came out in response to a question in a December 1st debate in Chicago with Notre Dame professor and international human rights scholar Doug Cassel. What is particularly chilling and revealing about this is that John Yoo was a key architect post-9/11 Bush Administration legal policy. As a deputy assistant to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, John Yoo authored a number of legal memos arguing for unlimited presidential powers to order torture of captive suspects, and to declare war anytime, any where, and on anyone the President deemed a threat."

The entire article is at the Information Clearing House.

Thanks to Spin Dentist at the AllSpinZone for the tip.

This is what the "liberation" of Iraq has accomplished.

Kurdistan: A Gangster State
Free Dr. Kamal Said Qadir!
by Justin Raimondo
"Dr. Kamal Said Qadir, also known as Kamal Berzenji, was kidnapped by the agents of the Kurdish Democratic Party's intelligence unit, Parastin, on Oct. 26, 2005, and jailed. His "crime": writing "insulting" articles about Kurdish Democratic Party high mucky-muck and Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani. In short, he committed lese-majeste, i.e., Qadir wounded the dignity of the king. After a "trial" that lasted one hour, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison."

Wonder if this is anything like "annoying e-mails" that Liz writes about below. Check out Justin's complete article at Antiwar.com.

E-nnoy someone online and go to jail

CNet:

A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

Read the whole thing

What a nation of wussies. Who is going to define "annoy"? In Florida you can shoot someone who may have the intention of annoying you. Now you can send an annoying person to jail if they flame you on the internets? I can see that threatening someone would be illegal, but annoyance? I would say that just about every website on the internet will annoy someone.

What say you?

Alito Hearings Lure Wackos

These Holy Rollers Are Scaring Me
And I want something done about this.

Suppose some of us don't want the Senate Judiciary Committee to be annointed, thank you very much? It's 2006 AD, not BC.

I am insulted that the 3 ministers who snuck into the hearing room (where Alito will be questioned) and annointed the seats with "holy" oil ought to be arrested for breaching security. Jeez, I can't do half the things I used to do without being electronically checked for bombs or having my car or purse searched, and here are 3 whacko reverends who claim to know what god is thinking and feel it is their right to lube the seats of the hearing room because "god needs to be involved in the hearings". Um err, doesn't an omnipotent god already know what's going on? He needs ass oiling first? Wow, what a metaphor for our times. No?

Cheney Briefly Hospitalized

Oh my gawd, the Veep was hospitalized over night for a foot ailment. Fortunately he is home again. Whew. Bush says he has no plans to replace Cheney cause he's doing a heckuva job.

Let us pray...

Model Housewife Turns Feminist

.... after her husband leaves her.

Well that's a wakeup call. It's your 40th wedding anniversary and you are congratulated with divorce papers because the husband found a younger model. What is a 67 year old woman to do? A woman who devoted her life to husband and family?

This is story of Terry Hekker who wrote a book in 1980 which made her famous. Ever Since Adam & Eve was a passionate defense of her decision to eschew a career and spend her life as a wife and a mother.

She ended up selling her engagement ring to pay for roof repairs and discovering she was eligible for food stamps. Her ex-husband, meanwhile, was holidaying with his new lover in Mexico. Hekker, once a role model for young homemakers, is now rapidly becoming an icon for so-called 'silver divorcees', older women who suddenly find themselves alone without skills and with a much reduced income.

It's not only divorce that can devastate an older woman who finds herself alone. Husbands die too. Job skills other than motherhood are needed in this world where people are living longer. When my dad died, my mom realized that she didn't even know how to do the checkbook or pay bills. Fortunately she was left with some money and she had me nearby to help her as she had a stroke about the time Dad died which left her legally blind.

But Hekker's story reflects something new for our times. The divorce rate for people in their in their late 50's has jumped from 4.8 per cent in 1970 to 18.7 per cent in 2002.

22 per cent of divorced women over 65 live in poverty, five times higher than the norm for married women. Experts expect the number of poor elderly divorced women to grow. Employers do not want to hire elderly people, and it is hard to start training for a job when you are almost at retirement age, or even above it.

Hekker's tune has changed a lot since she touted the importance of good housekeeping in the 80's. Women have to look out for themselves because there is always the chance of abandonment. Marriage doesn't last forever.

"Dad: NYPD abandoned son"

"As the father of a retired NYPD detective prepares to bury his son, he insisted yesterday that the former cop died because of his work at Ground Zero - and that he was abandoned by the Police Department he used to love. James Zadroga, 34, died Thursday of brain and respiratory ailments that his family and union believe were caused by his assignment at the World Trade Center cleanup.
His father, Joseph, a retired New Jersey police chief, says the NYPD turned its back on James, refusing to acknowledge the cause of death or pay his $50,000 medical bills."

Rest in The NY Daily News

Reminds me of the death toll from Gulf War I. Over 11,000 veterans of the First Gulf War are dead: Read about that boiling pot of pus at "Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed"

Rest in peace, Barry Cowsill.

They found his body near the Chartres Street Wharf (New Orleans) on December 28th, but only recently completed the positive identification. It just showed up in the Baton Rouge paper.

What a fucking waste.

I know that we say that about a lot of people dying too young, or dying tragically, or dying period. But this time it's very true.

Barry's about the only real "celebrity" that I've ever really known, and at one point in my life, about 10 years ago, he and his (now ex-)wife Debbie were a huge part of my life. Debbie & I worked together at my very first radio station, and they kinda adopted me into their little family, with their kids, Colin & Kiera, who I often babysat (yeah, I know, it sounds ludicrous, but they survived).

Barry had a lot of "issues," all of his life. None of his life was ever easy, and Debbie carried a helluva load when she was with him. Neither of them were perfect, but they tried. Barry was one of those people for whom the phrase, "artistic temperment" was sorely inadequate. He was one of the funniest human beings I've ever known, and he had a rock star's temper from hell.

The Cowsills were a phenomenon when I was a fetus, so when I met him, I had no idea of the context. I got to know Barry as a person first, a musician second, and a child star last. He was a remarkably talented artist, with an imagination that I coveted. He was also a flaming fucktard, when he wanted to be.

They lived down in the ass-end of the Faubourg Marigny, right on the borderline with the Ninth Ward, when I knew them. The last time I heard of them was 2002, when a bartender I knew was their current babysitter (and with a grandchild from Debbie's older daughter from a previous marriage). Now I sit her trying to eulogize this bizarre, gifted, tortured, twisted, hilarious, kind and mercurial man, and I regret that I ever lost touch with them. Isn't that always the way?

I did, at least, appreciate them when they were in my life. I never think of Barry as a "him," though, since I was friends with he & Debbie both from the beginning. I didn't even know that they had divorced until I looked his death up online.

You lose touch with people, it happens. Then they die and you know that it was not a painless, comforting death to alleviate pain, you know that it was hell, you know that while he might've courted death all of his life, he wasn't ready to go. You just know. Barry's been talked down off of the Mississippi River Bridge before. But this... This is too fucking weird, even for him.

I wish that I could tell y'all the story about Barry where he made me laugh so hard, so fast, that I really fell down, gasping for breath, but it truly is one of those "you had to be there" things, 'cause you had to KNOW Barry to understand why it was so funny. Besides, I don't think that his family, however estranged, would appreciate seeing it in print right now. (It's not smutty or lascivious, but it ain't fit for wakes.) But it is a memory that is permanently branded on my brain: the feelings, the rush of laughter, the visuals... What I wouldn't give to be able to explain it in a way that you could see it, to be able to transfer my brain cells to video...

All that I can really say is, Colin & Kiera, wherever you are, know that I'm thinking about y'all and that I've missed you both for a long, long time. And Debbie, honey, if you can ever find this, please holler at me. I am so sorry for your loss, because even with all the hell that y'all went through together, and all the joy, there will never be another Barry Cowsill. He broke that mold ALL to hell.

Well Said:

"...it looks like there is a concerted, determined effort by the PTB to rid themselves of the festering pustule that threatens to poison the whole lot."

Find out who "sukabi" is talking about at The AllSpinZone.

They would have clapped if they had arms.

No Quarter blog reports that the (p)resident spoke with amputees in Brooke Army Medical Center and reported the following to the troops:

" As you can possibly see, I have an injury myself -- not here at the hospital, but in combat with a Cedar. I eventually won. The Cedar gave me a little scratch. As a matter of fact, the Colonel asked if I needed first aid when she first saw me. I was able to avoid any major surgical operations here, but thanks for your compassion, Colonel. "

And they all laughed with glee. What a happy day in the hospital when the preznit comes a calling.

----------

Meanwhile the Department of Homeland Security may be reading your mail and they don't give a shit if you know it.