"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