Ya S'pose We Can Hire These Guys?

From Prensa Latina:

Maya Priests “Cleanse” Cancun of Bush Evils

Cancun, Mexico, Mar 31 (Prensa Latina) "People in Cancun, where tight security has been in force for the last two days, are breathing a clearer air Friday, after five Maya priests cleansed the city of “evils in US President George W Bush.”

"Members of the Ceremonial Center of Nuevo Valladolid made the “cleansing” at Las Palapas Park, where they erected an altar, burnt incense and drank a beer called the balche, which is used to purify the spirit.

“We are getting rid of Bush evils,” said Priest Romualdo May.

"The ritual is among actions held in Cancun and across Mexico to condemn the presence of Bush, who is attending the Mexico-US-Canada meeting opened today.

"Talks between Vicente Fox, Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and their delegations are focusing on border security, regional competition and cooperation to fight diseases such as bird flu."

best game yet

No explanation needed, really. If he gets stuck, grab his sorry ass with the mouse and give it a good shove.

What a Great Idea

I hear the Army has lowered enlistment standards, so he should fit right in.

Hat tip to Kat, from whose blog I swiped this picture.

And you thought propaganda was only the tool of the commies

Well I was raised to believe that. When I grew up, I realized that the only difference between the US and the USSR was that the soviets knew they were being fed propaganda. Daddy, part of me wishes you were alive today to witness this.

The US has quite a propaganda machine as evidenced by our mass media. But there's even more: An article: The US Propaganda Machine: Oh, What a Lovely War over at Commondreams.org, describes the pentagon's propaganda in Iraq... and it's a whopper.

They [newspaper reports for Iraqi's] were prepared by specially trained American "psy-ops" troops who paid thousands of dollars to Iraqi newspaper editors to run these unattributed reports in their publications. In order to hide its involvement, the Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group to act as a liaison between troops and journalists. The Lincoln Group was at the centre of controversy last year when it was revealed the company was being paid more than $100m (£58m) for various contracts, including the planting of such stories.

The Pentagon - which recently announced that an internal investigation had cleared the Lincoln Group of breaching military rules by planting these stories - has claimed these new reports did not constitute propaganda because they were factually correct. But a military specialist has questioned some of the information contained within their reports while describing their rhetorical style as "comical". Furthermore, it has been alleged that quotations contained within these reports and others - attributed to anonymous Iraqi officials or citizens - were routinely made up by US troops who never went beyond the perimeter of the Green Zone.

You should read this after you've had your coffee.

Body Armor Debacle Continues

For god's sake, I can't believe we are going over this again.

The Marines reported that Interceptor OTV Body Armor cost lives back in January. There was a whole big hoo ha over the private purchase of body armor by soldiers. I just posted again on Sunday the story of the body armor debacle. The batmitzvahpalooza daddy, David Brooks, is the defense contractor responsible for making the Interceptor OTV Body Armor, which costs lives according to the USMC, and is being sued over numerous securities violations, but most of all, knowingly selling thousands and thousands of Interceptor OTV Body Armor defective vests!!!!

Remember, the US rushed into war in Iraq without even having enough body armor to go around in the first place. Many troops and their families purchased their own body armor because our fabulous military was not prepared for a pre-emptive war for oil based on shoddy intelligence. The families probably did research and bought the best body armor, but naturally that wasn't the crappy body armor that the military bargained for.

So what's in the news again? Army Bans Use of Privately Bought Armor
They say that troops are wasting their money on substandard stuff. Excuse me? Doesn't the Army read the reports about the substandard crap that the US defense contractors are making?

Do the Army and the Marines even speak to each other? The Marines have not issued such a directive. Is the Army just trying to use up all the shitty body armor in stock? What are they smoking in the pentagon and should it be deemed illegal?

If you ask any war mongers about this debacle, they will tell you that the troops "volunteered".

But wait, there's more...
Blackwater USA is ready to become an Army for hire. Their employees make about $1000/day for combat duty. Wait wait wait. What kind of body armor will they be wearing? Why is the government willing to spend so much having a private army? Why not spend more money on the US Army? How is Blackwater affiliated with the Bush crime family? My head is spinning. Help.


Wait there's more...
Our returning soldiers regret what they had to do in Iraq. A chilling account at antiwar.com

"When I first got there, you could basically kill anybody you want. If you see anybody out here at night, shoot 'em. Just drop [plant] a shovel [i.e. evidence of an IED]."

Divine Strake

That's the name of the huge conventional bomb the pentagon plans to test in Nevada on June 2nd. Got a problem with that?

WAPO Such a bomb would be a conventional alternative to a nuclear weapon proposed by the Bush administration, which has run into opposition on Capitol Hill. The Pentagon for several years has sought funding for research into the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) -- also known as the "bunker buster" -- after the administration's 2001 Nuclear Posture Review stated that no weapon in the U.S. arsenal could threaten a growing number of buried targets. Congress, however, has repeatedly refused to grant funding for a study on a nuclear bunker buster, instead directing money toward conventional alternatives.

The June test will detonate 700 tons of heavy ammonium nitrate-fuel oil emulsion -- creating a blast equivalent to 593 tons of TNT -- in a 36-foot-deep hole near a tunnel in the center of the Nevada Test Site, according to official reports. It aims to allow scientists to model the type of ground shock that will be created, and to weigh the effectiveness of such a weapon against its collateral impact.

"To my knowledge, this will be the largest open-air chemical explosion that we've conducted," said Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the Energy Department's test site. Larger blasts have been carried out at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, including the nation's biggest open-air detonation, in 1985, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

I don't like the name.

The Republican Nemesis

Good Morning ALL - Happy Friday, Happy Day Light Savings, Happy Nice Day in the Northeast..... Oh and can't forget April Fools tomorrow!

I thought I would pass along some required reading (or re-reading) for the weekend. I am sure alot of you have read James Kroeger. Time for me to do a re-read. His website has now moved to http://nontrivialpursuits.org/
Time to forward this republican nemesis piece (again) to all the dems in public office that you know - not just to read, but to act upon.

The "Why are People So Mean" article is THE BEST explaination I have come across. It will provide you with many answers to this most common, ago old question.

Have a great weekend everyone.....

The Following is a Fake Headline (but not by much):

"America Bulldozes New Orleans Dwellings for Rich People"

The following is a fake paragraph (but not by much):
"This is not the first time the Neo-con regime has sacrificed a cultural treasure to the demands of modernity. The imposing city walls came tumbling down after the Neo-cons came to power in 2000, freeing up space for urban expansion and doing away with a symbol of the old society."

The REAL story: "Beijing Bulldozes Dwellings for Olympics"
(and)
"This is not the first time the Communist regime has sacrificed a cultural treasure to the demands of modernity. The imposing city walls came tumbling down after the Communists came to power in 1949, freeing up space for urban expansion and doing away with a symbol of the old society."

Somehow I just didn't see that much difference.
You can read the entire Beijing story in the (gag) Associated Press. Some of the neighborhoods and houses they're shitboxing date to the time of Kubla Khan and the Ming Dynasty. Ah, Progress!

Environmental Crisis

On Tuesday, March 28th,

In a keynote speech opening the fourth biennial State of the Planet conference at New York's Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project, said ignorance, misplaced priorities and indifference were keeping the world firmly on a path to disaster.
...

"Politics is central," he said, condemning what he called the "scientifically antagonistic" policies of the current US administration under President George W. Bush.

"We're fighting all the wrong wars in this country," Sachs said, adding that what the White House really needed was a subscription to Scientific American magazine.

"Our political leaders do not have the training to understand these issues," he said, citing the crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur which Sachs argued was primarily the result of water shortages that had prompted conflict.

"We view these crises first as political crises when we should view them as ecological crises," he said.

Yesterday at Freedom House, bush was asked about global warming. The oilman says that we "got to invest in hybrid batteries". Here is the transcript from the WH website.

Q From Australia. I've got a question about global warming -- in the Australian Parliament, Tony Blair called for greater action. And this seems to be something that the U.S. President could make a major difference on. There's a virtual consensus that the planet is warming. If you addressed issues like emissions, fuel efficiency, issues to do with alternative energy in your last few years as President, it could make a significant difference I think to the --

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate you bringing that up.

Q -- and I suppose I want to know, what is your plan?

THE PRESIDENT: Good. We -- first of all, there is -- the globe is warming. The fundamental debate: Is it manmade or natural. Put that aside. It is in our interests that we use technologies that will not only clean the air, but make us less dependent on oil. That's what I said in my State of the Union the other day. I said, look -- and I know it came as quite a shock to -- for people to hear a Texan stand up and say, we've got a national problem, we're addicted to oil. But I meant what I said. (Is this man a master of stating the obvious or what?

Being addicted to oil is a problem for our economy. In a global economy, when burgeoning economies like India and China use more fossil fuels, it affects the price of gasoline here in America. In a world in which sometimes people have got the oil we need, or don't like us -- it's kind of a undiplomatic way of putting it -- it means we've got a national security issue.

I have -- much of my position was defined early on in my presidency when I told the world I thought that Kyoto was a lousy deal for America. And I tell you why it was a lousy deal for America. It meant that we had to cut emissions below 1990 levels, which would have meant I would have presided over massive layoffs and economic destruction. I believe the best way to put technologies in place that will not only achieve national objectives like less addiction to oil, but also help clean the air, is to be wealthy enough to invest in technologies, and then to share those technologies with parts of the world that were excluded from the Kyoto Protocol.

And so I guess I should have started differently when I first became President, and said, we will invest in new technologies that will enable us to use fossil fuels in a much wiser way. And what does that mean? Well, it means that we've got to figure out how to use ethanol more in our cars. Ethanol is produced mainly by cane and corn. But we're near some breakthroughs that we can use sawgrass and biomass to be able to produce ethanol

That means we got to continue investing in hybrid batteries. Ours is a country where many people live in urban centers, like Washington, D.C., and it's possible to have a hybrid battery breakthrough which says that the first 40 miles of an automobile can be used by electricity alone. Right now the hybrid vehicles, as you know, switch between gasoline and electrical power. But that consumes gasoline, which means we're still reliant upon oil. The idea is to get off of oil.

On the electricity front, we need to be using nuclear power more in this country, in my judgment. It is a renewable source of energy that has zero gas emissions. We've got a great natural resource here in America called coal. We have 250-plus years of coal reserves. But we also recognize that by -- burning coal causes environmental problems, and so we're spending billions on research to come up with clean coal technologies. And we'd like to share those technologies with other nations of the world that are beginning to grow so that they are good stewards of the environment, as well.

And so I got a comprehensive plan that uses technologies to help this nation from a national and economic perspective, but also will help improve the global economy -- the environment from those new, burgeoning economies that are -- like China and India, to be exact.

No one asked any follow up questions to His Hubris. Where the heck was this man during the oil crisis of the 1970's? (Did anyone watch Southpark last night?)

Activism: Call for censure

EITHER SPEAK OUT FOR CENSURE NOW OR YOU ARE A BUSH SUPPORTER

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/censure.php

Why does George Bush feel he can just laugh off the laws passed by Congress and even the Constitution itself? He did it AGAIN by attaching a so-called signing statement to the renewal of the Patriot Act, reserving the right to DISREGARD even the minimal reporting requirements that Congress had the temerity to impose. Who is going to challenge him? He's not just laughing at the legislature. If you do not speak out now, he is laughing at YOU.

CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW TOLL-FREE: 888-355-3588 or 800-828-0498

Thanks for heads up to Auntie Roo

Cats or Dogs?

Since it is almost the weekend, I thought we might have some fun. This was inspired by a comment Liz posted in one of the threads below. So, how 'bout it, BlondeSensers, cats or dogs? And why?

Last "personal moment" of the week, I promise...

Calling Corporal Rainier...

Call either your dad or me, and SOON, bucky!

People on this side of the pond are worried about your ass.

Not kidding, Rene' --- clean out yer e-mail files and CALL PEOPLE.

One of the great things about America

A couple of profound quotes from dear leader in today's speech at Freedom House

"Free societies are peaceful societies. When governments are accountable to their own citizens, when people are free to speak and assemble, when minorities are protected, then justice prevails. And so does the cause of peace."

and

"The temptation in today's society is to say, it's not worth it. Or, certain people can't self-govern. It's really part of the debate in Iraq, isn't it, when you think about it -- is, can these people self-govern? And I can understand why some in America say they can't, because all they see is unbelievable violence. And we're a country of deep compassion. We care. One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry. We don't care what the child's religion may be, or where that child may live, we cry. It upsets us.The enemy knows that, and they're willing to -- they're willing to kill to shake our confidence. That's what they're trying to do."

Let Democracy Reign in Iraq

But only if we like who you stupid Iraqis chose as your leaders in those elections the current maladministration touts as proof that the war was a success. Otherwise, we'll just tell you you have to get rid of them.

Ah, democracy!

Gay Adoption Debate Continues

"Rep. Debra Maggart, R-Hendersonville, said she still believes homosexual couples should not be allowed to adopt children. In fact, in addition to e-mail correspondence with a master’s student at Vanderbilt publicized recently, in which she said as much, she has also said homosexual couples may molest the children they adopt.

"We also have seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and have, in some instances, adopted them in order to have unfretted access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse," she said.

“I have strong convictions. I just feel kids in our foster have been through enough. They need the optimum family unit, and that is a mother and a father," she said.

In the e-mail with the Vanderbilt student, Maggart said research shows most homosexual couples have numerous emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues that may not be healthy for children."

So a Vanderbilt student is the research? She indicates that foster children have been through enough? Where are all the heterosexual couples lining up to adopt foster children? Has she done any research on foster parents who foster many children for the money and the slave labor? Why don't they do extensive screening of any couples who want to adopt? Since when are some homosexual couples more dysfuntional than some heterosexual couples? I've seen some doozy stories about heterosexual parents abusing children. I want to see facts and figures.

hat tip to Think Progress

White Boys On A Rampage

Pinko Femnist Hellcat has the story about Duke Lacross Team who hired exotic dancers for their party on March 13th. The dancers turned out to be black women. The over-privileged boys proceeded to "bark" racial slurs and scare the women who stopped dancing and decided to get the hell out of there as they were scared. One of the boys raised a broomstick indicating that he planned to use it.

One of the women was stopped, dragged and brutally, raped, beaten, strangled and sodomized by 3 white boys. The entire Lacrosse team has kept silent and has refused to say who the pigs are. Fortunately the decent people of Duke and Chapel Hill have been protesting vigilantly. 46 of the team members have been DNA tested. The Lacrosse games have been cancelled. And how many weeks has it been before the school got on the stick? Viva community pressure.

Pinko has good commentary on the incident that I agree with. Watch the slut card get played. I'd use the rich, white, athlete card if I had anything to do with the prosecution to counter the slut attack.

This story reminded me of an incident here on Long Island in Merrick where HS football players raped and sodomized one of their own at training camp in Pennsylvania. A broomstick and pinecones were used as I recall. No one on the team came forward to do the right thing and identify the pigs. Interestingly 16 of the boys on the Duke Lacrosse team are from Long Island, quite a few from well to do neighborhoods. What is it with priveleged boys and broomsticks?

CNN is spending the morning talking about parents trying to get their kids into the best colleges. Oh those ivy league colleges. Land of opportunity- where they teach you to be a part of the exclusive and secretive, rich white boys club.

Calling all scientists...

I have this working thesis, and I want somebody to help me out with the research and/or acquiring of test subjects/human guinea pigs:

STRESS KILLS BRAIN CELLS.

The main support for this thesis is that, day by day, I can feel myself getting dumber and dumber and more and more stressed out because of that (and by the stresses that are making me dumber in the first place).

And I have another line of thought here, which is not exactly parallel, but might be more than coincidental, since I've been feeling the draining of my intellect most strongly since I've had to re-locate here to Hillfuck Hellhole (the exemplifcation of every single stereotype of redneck mouth-breathers and cousin-fucking bible-bangers, since the nouveau-riche white trash have run off all of the old hippies/musicians/original weirdos who used to make this place so cool):

STUPIDITY MAY BE CONTAGIOUS.

Any takers out there?

~~~~~~
P.S.: Last-ditch begging attempt, if it matters at all: I'm closing the "donor moment" this week for the Great Reconstruction Of Annti's Smile, so if anybody else out there wants to feel like a hero for a minute, here's the PayPal addy: joannaagain (at) hotmail.com

Many many thanks to Liz, Archie, RSB, Redcane, SBGypsy, Stinkeye and MoMule herself!

Weren't the fucktards making fun of the French a while back?

You know, "freedom fries" and all that bullshit? Well, the French people have a way of dealing with things that perhaps we could emulate when the bullshit level rises too high.

Here's the title of the article: Strike paralyses France.

Here's a quote: PARIS (Reuters) - "Hundreds of thousands of people marched in French cities and unions staged a one-day national strike on Tuesday, urging the government to scrap a youth jobs law in one of France's biggest protests in decades."

Here's another: "Villepin hopes the CPE will reduce youth unemployment from almost 23 percent, but union and student leaders say it will create a generation of "throwaway workers" because it makes it easier to dismiss employees under 26 in a trial two-year period."

Is It Difficult To Remove By Logic An Idea Not Placed There By Logic In The First Place.

In my experience, it has been a waste of a lot of time trying to convince people to relinguish behaviors that make no sense, that are maladaptive, that appear "illogical."

It has been my experience that confronting deeply held, habitual feelings and attitudes with logic seldom works. The things we do, the prejudices that we hold, and the repetitive conflicts that afflict our lives are seldom the products of rational thought. In fact, many appear to operate in the world mostly on autopilot, doing the same things today that didn't work yesterday. One would think that a process of learning or maturation would cause us to alter our behavior in response to unpleasant consequences. Anyone who has watched an average golfer play knows this is not true.

In fact, it sometimes seems that we are so trapped in ineffectual life patterns that we are playing out the old military adage: If it doesn't work, double it.
The motivations and habit patterns that underlie most of our behavior are seldom logical: we are much more often driven by impulses, preconceptions, and emotions of which we are only simply aware of. Even an average salesperson knows this.

When struggling to overcome maladaptive behaviors by the use of logic, one is often confronted witht he fact that some ignornace is invincible. People can become wedded to their particular view of how things should work that they ignore all evidence that suggests that change is necessary.

When I was getting sober I heard the old adage about "Keep doing what you're doing and you'll keep getting what you're getting." Such a simple concept. There was no criticism to that statement. It did not beget anger on my part. The ball was in my court and my task was to pick it up and take a try a different game plan.

Why is it do you suppose that we try to rationalize with the irrational?
Is it just me or is that not an act of futility?

The Bible As A Text Book. Capital Idea!

They're talking about adding the bible as a text book to the high school curriculum in Georgia. I think it's a great idea. The bible will be taught objectively without any emphasis on religious beliefs. There is so much wisdom in the bible. There's lots of good stuff for children's edification. I think the dirty parts ought to be censored though.

Kids need to know just how much God loves them and looks out for them. They need to know that if they follow the Lord, there is a good chance that God will not smite them, unless of course they live in tornado alley or the hurricane belt where God smites everyone for the sins of those heathens in blue states.

Being that I am qualified to teach scriptures in an historic and literary sense, I have a few suggestions as to what parts of the bible would be wonderful for kids to read. I should apply for the job.

If you're a kid who's drinking and acting all stubborn-like, you may be put to death. Painfully.

DT21:18-21 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

That's sounds about right... how about this oldie but goodie and often overlooked in church:

2Kings 6:26-29 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son tomorrow.
So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

Oh my god, that bitch tricked the poor woman into boiling her son for dinner. What a lesson. Make sure that you eat the other person's son first! And go home and thank your mom for not eating you.

Proverbs are just so full of wisdom. Children need to understand that their parents don't hate them when they beat them. They beat them because it is God's will. I beat you because I love you, sweetheart.

Proverbs 23:13-14 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Proverbs 30:17 The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

Ouch.

And if your dad is a piece of shit, it's you who will pay.

Isaiah 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

If your great great granddaddy was a sinner, you're not out of the woods! God is filled with mercy but he'll punish your ass for generations anyway.

Numbers 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

God'll abort your babies if you don't practice the correct religion.

Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

I really think that the next story ought to be in an illustrated children's book. How are little children going to learn to respect their elders and avoid name calling unless they are riddled with the fear of god's wrath? I mean, really.

2Kings 2:23-24 And he [Elisha] went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up that way, there came forth little children of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; Go up, thou bald head.
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood and tare forty and two children of them.

What a great lesson. Forty two children massacred for name calling. That should be taught in pre-school. Many tears are shed. Many feelings are hurt when kids taunt each other. Teachers can use this lesson as reminder of the consequences of name calling.

What are your favorite children's bible stories?

-------
Update: Idiot ass quote:

"Our faith has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world," DeLay said. "We are, after all, a society that provides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage, and all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition."

I am going to see to it that those parts of "Faith" which are second rate superstitions and do not follow Jesus commandment to "love one another as I have loved you" will be called second rate superstitions. Indeed.

Have I mentioned that Blogger hates me?

If y'all knew what it took to get these pictures up here... You'd probably wanna smack the shit out of Blogger, too.

Moussaoui Says He Was to Hijack 5th Plane

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House. Yahoo news

This article makes for a lot of questions.

Let's Put the Smackdown on Tom Tancredo

Someone mentioned in another thread that ginormous Piece of Shit Tom Tancredo. I believe Tancredo was mentioned in the context of being the Worst Person in the World, rather than that bloodsucker David Brooks, who Liz posted about below, the fucker who is provided our troops with defective armor so that he could give his little pookie the bat mitvah she wanted. But I digress. If you agree that Tancredo is a total piece of fecal matter (wink to Pissed off Patricia), here is your chance to do something about him.

A couple weeks ago, I signed up for email alerts from Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriot Fund. It is a fund Feingold started to provide money to a slate of progressive Democratic candidates running against incumbent Republicans. Email recipients were asked to vote on which candidate should get the money from the fund (not a huge amount, only $5,000). There were several interesting choices; I cast my vote for Tammy Duckworth, a war veteran who lost both her legs while piloting a helicopter in Iraq. She is running to fill the seat of Henry Hyde in Illinois. (How big would that be? Anyone out there my age or better will recall that it was Henry Hyde who first offered up an amendment to the budget prohibiting public funds from being used to provide abortion services.) Well, unfortunately, Tammy did not win the money. And while I am disappointed, I am pretty pleased at who was selected to receive the money. Here's the email I just got:

Dear Red,

I'm proud to congratulate Bill Winter as being the netroots' choice for our second Pick a Progressive Patriot event. Bill received thousands of votes from members of the Progressive Patriots Fund community, and we'll be sending him a contribution of $5,000 today to help his efforts.

Bill Winter, a Navy and Marine Corps veteran who views public service as a patriotic calling, is running against Tom Tancredo in the Colorado 6th District. To learn more about Bill, please visit his website and consider joining me in making a contribution to his campaign.

In addition to supporting Bill Winter, I'm happy to announce that the Progressive Patriots Fund will be sending smaller contributions to all of the other candidates who were featured in this latest event. All are worthy of our support, and I hope they will all join me in Congress in 2006.

The upcoming November elections are critical in our efforts to bring accountability to this President. I am determined to help elect more Democrats across the country and I want to thank all of you who have contributed to this effort and have taken the time to share with me your recommendations for which candidates are deserving of our collective support.

I look forward to our next "Pick a Progressive Patriot" event, to be held later this year. Please keep sending in those suggestions; everyone we've supported so far has been recommended through our candidate suggestion form, and this will continue to be the way the Progressive Patriots Fund chooses who to feature in our Pick a Progressive Patriot events.

Thank you for your support in the past weeks, and look forward to more events like "Pick a Progressive Patriot" in the future!

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

You can contribute to Mr. Winter's campaign here. I will be sending check out today. I urge others to do likewise if they are able.

I Can't take it anymore - for the moment anyway....

ANNTI - I'm stuck like you, -- But I can't seem to get the words out to post something - you can always find the words... Seems lately I can just pass along someone elses. This modern day cynic really feels like "going primitive" with all this nonsense that is going on around us.

Anyway, I'm going to pass along a few worthy reads by Mark Morford. They kinda put things in perspective -- for me, anyway. He's one of my favorites, and I gotta tell ya all -- alot of times your writing and comments are as good, if not better, than his.

For this one, I must include a disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage that may be inflicted upon your keyboards -- it's beyond hysterical


And for this one - a look at what journalists are supposedly up against if they were to write about highly sensative issues.

Well, I think I need a nap or something....
TTFN

God is rolling his eyes

Jesus wants you to have a cell phone with loads of entertainment features.
Allah wants your cell phone to remind you when it's time to pray.
Rabbi's claim they're not kosher. They want 'bare bones' phones.

After reading this story at WSJ.com, I can just see it now- the cell phone religious wars of 2006.

While orthodox rabbi's would like to see their flock using "kosher" (I'm not kidding) cell phones without oodles of features other than a ringer and the capability to call and receive calls, cell phone companies have also deemed that there is a niche market for all pious folks who need to let everyone else know just how holy they are with extra bells and whistles. My cell must be kosher.

T-Mobile and others for instance now offer christians, for only $5.99 extra/month, "a cellphone service that offers scriptures, Christian ring tones, and one-minute-long inspirational videos to subscribers who sign up on its Web site. The service's advertising slogan: "Have you talked to God today?""

Faith Mobile, originally called "godphone" will launch a service which will "provide subscribers sermons, news, movie reviews and other content."

There are all sorts of exciting ways for cellular phone companies to cash in on the faithful. They are creating a need for these services. We learned all about this in marketing. How about Christian Text Messaging where you can type in your special intentions and other subscribers can pray for you? Or text messaging 5 times a day to remind Muslims to pray? There are Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Hindu and Sikh ring tones available to download on the innernets.

"Choosing a religious phone is one way a person who gives high salience to his or her religious identity can assert that importance in a public way," says William Swatos, the executive director of the Religious Research Association in Galva, Ill.

Goodie.

I'll Give Those Christian Adoption Agencies Something To Mull Over

This story in this morning's Newsday broke my heart. A loving foster mother warned social services that a child in her charge might be in danger if she returned to her family. Her calls were ignored. The child was killed by her parents.

Pro-birth, pro-life, or whatever you want to call them and those who vehemently oppose gay adoption can kiss my ass. How many Lord, how many already born children are killed and/or abused by their parents? Let's face it, it's pretty darned easy to get pregnant and have a baby even if you are criminally insane.

Is that the sign of a god who is actively watching over his creation? Would a perfect god insist that children only be raised by the possible psychos that birthed them? Where is the proof that a gay couple would make worse parents than birth parents?

Is This It? Finally?

I'm with Annti, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the antics of this administration, the extremes of Mother Nature and man's inhumanity in general. But oddly enough I found a bit of hope in the stranges of places today. HuffPo's blog has some very interesting headlines today, check it out quickly before they change.

But the OVERWHELMING sense I am getting is that SHEEPLE ARE FINALLY WAKING UP. I find it interesting that it took a large, mobile and determined group of NON-Americans (the anti-immigration bill) to get the ball rolling. It also seems that a sizeable group of staunch conservatives have finally gotten fed up with the neo-con and theocrat who have infiltrated their party, as many articles and even a few books are proving.

The DoJ is in up to their heads, and people are taking notice. The Administration and its flunkies are still lying, and people are FINALLY taking notice. The globe is warming up, both temperature and politically and people are finally figuring this out. Even the founder of Delta Force has had it with the administration.

Maybe, just maybe, this house of cards and smoke is finally coming down. We may just get out of the mire they've dropped us into, but ONLY if our fellow citizens stay alert and stay informed. Yes, Yes, I know Faux has too many studios to gremlinize them all, but hey, I'm just happy that enough major new outlets have actually carried stories and photos of the demonstration.

So can I get a show of hands, who thinks we might actually win this battle?

Forgive me if I seem trite or shallow...

But I've been so emotionally fucked-up lately, I haven't written anything of substance in many a moon. But photography has been a semi-productive outlet for me (even as my cheap-ass Samsung camera is dying a slow and agonizing death), and I wanted to share something pretty. It's silly and juvenile, I'm sure, especially after the three kick-ass posts today, but since I have nothing to offer in way of literature, I thought that I'd show "spring" in the parts of Louisiana that didn't have to deal with Katrina (where all of the rich white people of the Northshore & outer Jefferson Parish fled to until they got their satellite TV back online). Since I never got to do any investigative journalism in NOLA, and I don't have the money to volunteer with Habitat, I hope that somebody enjoys this meager contribution. Not to "forget" about NOLA or Katrina, but just as a pleasant reprieve for a minute. The formatting ain't worth a shit, but it beats looking at my nasty-ass Deliverance-looking mouth again, right?

If I had any other tattoos that were half as gorgeous as the mermaid, I'd post 'em, but then I'd have to explain 'em, and that takes all damned day, anyway. Soon as the checks arrive and the PayPal all clears, I'll be posting pictures of my new face, as soon as I can remember how to smile like a not-short-bus person again... wish me luck on that one...

Worst Person

Remember the nice Long Island daddy who threw a $10million bat mitzfah-paloozah for his little girl in the Rainbow Room last November with more celebrities than a hurricane Katrina fundraiser? He was only described as a multimillionaire defense fund contractor at the time, which was enough said... or was it?

In my column "Shitty Body Armor" from January 17, 2006 I reported a report 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."

Then I reported from another report that "The only body armor allowed in the Army/USMC is the Interceptor OTV which apparently is not that good." That is the body armor made by James Brooks, the millionaire-mitzfah guy. Not only that, soldiers who wanted to buy or already bought their own good body armor made by a different company, were forbidden to wear it because the only approved body armor was the shitty stuff and most of the soldiers who were killed in the wars on terror were wearing the bad stuff. Then it turned out that generals and higher ups were wearing the other company's body armor as "a test". Yeah right. They were wearing it because it was safer and they wanted their asses protected as well as their upper bodies.

Today in local business news I read that good old Mr Brooks' company DHB, does not only manufacture crap (in my home town, I'm sorry to say) for our troops but he is also an allegedly shady business man. Oh no, daddy, not you!

The 19 lawsuits, now consolidated and under review by U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Thomas Boyle, contend that David Brooks "has a history of serious securities law violations" and that DHB has had four different accounting firms since 2002, which the combined suit says is "something hardly designed to boost investor confidence." By portraying DHB as a "tremendous success" with increased military sales, the lawsuit alleges, Brooks and other company officials gained "over $200 million in illegal insider trading proceeds."

The suit contends Brooks repeatedly painted a rosy picture for his company -- even as he was selling his own stock. "The future outlook for DHB appears outstanding given the continuing unstable geopolitical environment, the increased need for homeland security, and the continuing war on terror," Brooks said at about the same time as his large stock sale, according to court papers.

The suit contends that DHB executives knew then that "thousands and thousands of DHB Interceptor vests were defective," and it alleges that the investors lost millions because DHB didn't properly disclose problems with Zylon, a key substance used in some of the bullet-resistant vests that deteriorated over time.

This guy sounds like he must be friends with Ken Lay. I have been writing about the body armor debacle since I started the blog. It doesn't get juicier and juicier as much as it gets bloodier and bloodier. War profiteering is heinous and to flaunt it with all eyes on your 13 year old daughter while allowing patriotic boys and girls to suffer and/or die because of it, is reprehensible. Tom Brooks is the worst person in the world today.

Turning Back the Clocks

I got to thinking about Jaye's post below regarding Texas's attempt to limit abortion. Then I got to thinking about Liz's post from the other day about the textbooks the Heritage Foundation sent to Rhode Island with all their sexist stereotypes and abstinence only sex education. Then I got to thinking about the post the other day on the Mississippi law to ban the sale of sex toys. Then I got to thinking about the objections of the religious right to the availability of HPV vaccine to girls under sixteen on the grounds that it promotes promiscuity. Then I got to thinking about the various (brilliant) posters and commentators on BlondeSense who posit, rightly I think, that all these various efforts are NOT about a "culture of life" and "moral values"; rather, they are all about forcing women to conform to decades-old notions about a woman's place in life: a wife subservient to her lord and master husband, a baby making vessel, someone with no place outside the home, someone who is dependent upon having the basics of life provided for her. Then I got to thinking about my mother.

My mother was a teenager in Germany when World War II broke out. She never finished gymnasium, as they call school in Germany. Her mother and several siblings perished during bombings. She, her father and one sibling survived the war. With her fine facility for languages (she spoke, read and wrote five fluently), she was working as an interpreter when she met my father, who was serving in the Army with the occupational forces. She had already born (borne?) one child to an American soldier, and that child had been adopted by the soldier and his wife back in the US. She emigrated to the United States after her marriage and became a housewife and mother to two children. She miscarried three times. As an Army wife, she moved house 18 times in 11 years. She was 43 years old when her marriage failed and she "won" custody of my brother and me. (Truth be told, my father wouldn't have taken us.) In 1970, she re-entered the workforce with no education and marketable skills. I believe she made $3.15/hour. After working an full 8-hour day (on the clock) at a local orthopedist's office as a physical threapy assistant, she would work another 4 or 5 hour shift at a local nursing home for a similar wage.

My mother was 44 years old when my father stopped paying child support and disappeared from the state of Florida. In those days, before URESA (the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act) was enacted, she would have had to track him down and then sue him for the child support in what ever state he happened to be located in. If he moved again, she would have had to start all over again in another state. Obviously, she didn't have the money to do that, so we lived on the money she made, such as it was. Meanwhile, as the child support arrearages mounted into the thousands, my mother was holding on with both hands to the only thing that was ever truly hers, and that was the house we lived in at the time. Whatever we went without, she made that mortgage payment, month in, month out, without fail.

Then came that day: the property taxes were due and she didn't have the money to pay them. It was a tipping point in her life, I believe. She was working like a dog and still couldn't get her head above water. She could barely put food on the table. She had no creditworthiness to speak of. So she did what she probably believed was the only thing she could do to survive: she became a prostitute. Oh, I don't mean one of those standing-on-the-corner-in-fishnet-hose type of prostitutes. You have to understand, even in middle age, she was a fantastic beauty. No, no, my mom only serviced the "best men" in town. These guys considered her their special "friend". I'm sure she was very successful at what she did; our standard of living improved noticably, mostly in the amount of food we had in the house, and the occasional outfit she would buy me. She must have done it for 5 or 6 years, I'm not completely sure. Then, she went crazy. The mental illness was, I strongly suspect, the result of the cumulative effects of her life: war, bad marriage, economic insecurity. Ultimately, the mental illness robbed me of my mother. The lights are on but no one is home. I hope there is an afterlife, and I hope she enjoys a better one there, because her life on this earth has been a nightmare.

What's my point? While my mother's story may be uncommon, I do not believe that it is in any way unique. No, I'm pretty sure that many women have faced the same choices my mother faced. My point is that no woman should ever be in my mother's position, forced to choose between the necessities of life and her dignity. To all those out there who preach that we women should return to leading the life my mother lead, I say: Bite me.

We are not turning back the clocks. We won't get fooled again.

you don't have to go all the way to South Dakota

Texas is on the frontlines of the abortion culture wars. But we not only make it difficult for women to obtain abortion services, we go out of our way to deny women gynecological and birth control services.

Texas ranks 45th in family planning. Texas also ranks 1st in pregnancies in young women under the age of 13. Department of State Health Services says:

1 of every 11 eighteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 16 seventeen-year-olds gets pregnant.
1 of every 27 sixteen-year-olds gets pregnant.
1 of every 58 fifteen-year-olds gets pregnant.
1 of every 967 thirteen-year-olds gets pregnant.
1 of every 5,280 twelve-year olds or younger gets pregnant.

There are literally millions of women in Texas who do not have access to abortion, family planning or gynecological health care because their counties do not have family planning or abortion clinics. These women do not have health insurance and if they did there is no guarantee that they can obtain an abortion if the hospitals in their area do not perform abortions.

So we have further reduced Texas women's access to family planning centers. According to a story in the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Legislature has funded so called crisis pregnancy centers while cutting funding to clinics that perform abortions and provide gynecological services.

Mind you, we don't do anything to increase spending for feeding, clothing, educating, and raising children. Not only do we want women to have more children, we don't want them to have access to medical care. OB/GYNs do not deliver babies anymore because they cannot afford to do so. Remember "tort reform?" We cut malpractice awards to plaintiffs so that doctor's insurance rates would go down. Did they go down? No.

This isn't about babies. Because if it were, women would have paid leave, insurance, pre-natal care, and every child would have insurance until they or their employers could pay for it themselves. It is about men controlling women. It is about wealthy people making damn sure that they can have sex and birth control and abortions because they can afford to and the poor can have children, drop out of school, have fewer educational opportunities because someone has got to cut madame's lawn and clean madame's toilet.

I blame men, but I also blame women. Republican women. Republican women who went to Planned Parenthood because they didn't want mommy and daddy to know about how they terminated their pregnancy. And they vote Republican because President Clinton got a blow job.

Oral sex is going to mean safer sex to American women because birth control pills and abortion is soon out of the question. The question is will it matter to women?

The Washington Post Sux

A couple of days ago, I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post. I am completely disgusted with the editors' efforts to turn a respected newspaper into Faux News Lite. For example, this past week, they hired some young kid to be a "conservative blogger" to balance out the supposedly overly liberal voices at the paper. Mayhem ensued among the liberal blogosphere, and the kid has now resigned after several instances of earlier plagarism were uncovered. Duncan over at Eschaton has been all over the story; you can read more about it here. (The Post can't get anything right, by the way, since I continue to receive the paper daily even though I have cancelled. I'm not paying if they send me a bill.)

So anyway, what caught my eye this morning was a story about Iraq. Did you have any idea that 50 people died yesterday in Iraq? Including two more American soldiers? I wouldn't have either if I hadn't perused the paper very, very carefully. I found it in a little small box titled "World News in Brief". It carried an AP byline.

This is what we have come to: a prominent national newspaper cannot even be bothered to write its own story when FIFTY people are killed in a single day. The Post cannot be bothered to put a story about FIFTY people dying on its front page, even below the fold. The Post apparently believes that the death of FIFTY people merits a story of maybe a hundred words.

What the hell is the Washington Post thinking?

The Sins of the Immigration Bill

More proof that a theocracy would never work in this country-- no one would ever be able to decide on which understanding of the scriptures is the correct understanding.

The other day, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) remarked that the immigration bill "is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scripture because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself," she said. "We need to sound the alarm about what is being done in the Congress." NY Times

Catholic Bishops also spoke out this week for the same reasons more or less. The Bishops called on the flock across America to oppose the bill.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford, NY) came out swinging, calling the bill "God's work" and renounced the Catholic bishops saying that they should concentrate on pedophilia.

He said Catholic leaders opposed to the bill are politically correct liberals who "should spend more time protecting little boys from pedophile priests."

Thomas Wenski, the Catholic bishop of Orlando, Fla., was outraged by King's Wednesday comments. Wenski said he recognizes that comprehensive immigration reform is needed but maintains that the bill senselessly criminalizes millions of undocumented people by making it a felony for immigrants to overstay their visa.

King's days are numbered.

Ethically speaking, making it a crime to aid illegal immigrants in any humanitarian way, is opposed to the American tradition of offering comfort to those huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, metaphorically washing up on our shores. Criminalizing those profiteers who smuggle aliens into this country without documentation should be a priority of the government in this post 9/11 world.

How many of us know how to check green cards and visas? Am I supposed to now check my landscaper's worker's visas (after I figure out what to look for) to make sure that they haven't expired, then put my rat fink hat on and report anything suspicious? Dare I eat in a restaurant without going into the kitchen to check the visas of the workers? Should I check visas at church on Sunday? Am I now an employee of the state? Why aren't I being paid? And then am I supposed to call Peter King to report people if their visa has expired, subjecting these people, many of whom have families to feed, to goddess only knows what... jail and extradiction? And just how much will that cost the taxpayers? Should we Americans just ask everyone with a foreign accent to show us their papers? In the name of God?

It's cruel and inhuman to criminalize those people who do charitable work in their community for giving a bag of groceries to possibly undocumented human beings. I worked in parish outreach for a while. I can't imagine doing charity work AND acting as a spy for the US government simultaneously. No, you can't have this box of pampers and bag of groceries that were kindly donated by parishioners unless I check your papers because I may go to jail if you're not legal enough.

In a secular country, our legislators have no business using the scriptures, which are highly debatable even in a religious context, to debate a bill before the house or senate. That is the biggest sin being committed. Even in the parish setting where we helped the local poor, we didn't ask anyone to produce their baptisimal certificates to assure that we were only feeding Catholics.

Off the record, Hillary was theologically correct and Peter King was wrong. This bill would criminalize "Good Samaritans" and stands in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. This argument however has no bearing on the morality on the immigration bill.

Friday Freak Night

I think we all would agree, more or less, that Tom has some rather absurd beliefs.

So I was thinking, since Tom believes himself to be the font of all things, why don't our absurd beliefs garner such attention. Ya know?

So here's my proposal. Let's all come up with our most absurd, oddest or most contrarian claims or views that we believe. Something others would be shocked to know you think. It can be about anything. It's Friday Freak Night. So get your Freak on!.
Here's a example of some of mine to get you started.. Have fun, let it rip, let it roll.


1) Telling children they can be whatever they want to be is bad advice.

2) I no longer believe most people mean well.

3) The hot guy at the feed store has a "thing" for me. (okay, maybe that falls under wild fantasies)

4) I know longer believe that hard work pays off.

5) There has to be life on other planets.

6) Psychatry is in no way a valid science and has done more harm than good over the history of the human race.

7)Fuck Capitalism
Fuck Socialism
There has to be a better way.

8) It's just a matter of time before we will began to colonizing the moon or some other planet.

9) A new Bible will be printed making it a sin to be poor, widowed, uneducated or ill.

10) All politicians should be paid the minimum wage to show their solidarity with the poor.

11) No desire, no matter what the subject, can manifest into your experience as long as there is a vibrational difference between the desire and your practiced vibration. You have to practice yourself into into vibrational alignment with our desires before they will be realized in your experience.

17 Years Later, It's Time to Pay

Can you believe it's been 17 years and Exxon Mobil still hasn't paid the money it owes to the Alaskan communities devastated by Exxon Valdez oil spill?

Today, March 24th, please join us in commemorating the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill by calling Exxon Mobil to demand payment.

It will only take two minutes to call. Just dial---1-972-444-1000

Jokes on them - more doomsday news

Looks like Chimpy and his administration have cleared out NOLA for no reason, a mere 3ft increase in sea level (likely within the next 50 years) will completely wipe NOLA off the map. (look at the graphics along the right hand side of the article)

By the end of THIS century, if the current trends continue, we can expect to see HUGE changes along the Southern and Eastern coasts of this country. I won't even go into the loss of islands and increased storms, etc.

Oh and it seems that Miami may take the plunge sometime during the 22 century as well. Now is the time to get that inland, soon to have a view, property while its cheap.

Bird Flu Q & A

A simple, lovely site that gives basic low-tech answers to many questions regarding the bird flu. It seems the death rate has dropped from 80% down to 50% just by having basic healthcare available to those infected.

Includes info on pet cats, dogs and birds becoming infected, what to do if you come across a dead bird in your yard, etc.

Remember, knowledge is power; You need to know what is going on so they can't pull the wool over your eyes.

What century is this again?

Rhode Island abandoned its abstinence only sex education program.

Lawyers at the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union first complained last year that a now-abandoned textbook used by Heritage of Rhode Island taught students that girls should wear clothing that doesn't invite "lustful thoughts" from boys. The book described men as "strong" and "courageous" while women were called "caring."

Oh yeah, blaming the girls, as usual, for something that has been around since the dawn of time: Lustful thoughts. In the days not even that long ago when dressing like a prostitute was not the fashion, boys and girls were thinking lustful thoughts. I don't think a minute went by that I wasn't thinking about boys when I was in high school and vice versa. We wore ugly unsexy uniforms to school, like that stopped anyone from thinking about ripping the uniform off the girl or boy of your desire.

Oh yeah, and all men are strong and courageous. Sure.
And women are all caring. Sure.

Why aren't these maroons who come up with this stuff exiled somewhere?

Joe Quinn Wants To Know:

"When will it stop?

Of all the questions I would like answered, this one is the most pressing. How much longer are we meant to endure the incessant lies from government and media about the nature of what is happening in our world? How much more unbelievable do these lies have to become before that '100th monkey' syndrome kicks in and all 6 billion of us spontaneously 'get it' and fall down on the floor laughing at just how ridiculous the official story is?"

Check out Joe's essay at Armageddon Anyone? The Truth Behind The War On Terror.

I Was Lucky

Well it's about time that someone came out of the closet and spoke out about what is right. Adoption Institute Supports Gay Parents so fuck Catholic Charities in Boston for getting out of the adoption business because it's 'immoral' to allow children to be adopted by gay people. You'd think the Catholic Church's Boys Club Hierarchy would be more tolerant.

Eventually with all this nonsense in legislation against abortions, birth control, day care, dildos, etc... there are going to be even more than the already half a million children shuffled through the horrific foster family program in the United States. It's enough to make Baby Jesus cry. Me too. Where are the pro-life people when it comes to foster care?

How wonderful it would be for these children to have the opportunity to be adopted by people or a person who wanted them, and who will love them and take care of them in a safe environment?

That is really all we adopted kids needed to know- that someone really wanted us- that we weren't just a backseat mistake on prom night.

All children want to be loved and to feel wanted, no matter what. It makes them better adults and possible future parents.

How many children grow up in their birth families and live with parents who tell them that they were a mistake? I knew quite a few in my life. Maybe it was a joke for the parents to tell the children that they were an "accident" or a "happy accident", but it has deep emotional ramifications for the children who grow up into unhappy adults.

How about finding out that your miserable unhappy parents "Had to" get married?

How many gay teens tell their parents about their sexual orientation and are then shunned by their so called loving birth families? You can bet your ass that one of the parents is gay and living a lie.

How many children grow up abused sexually or otherwise in their so called loving birth families? You can bet your ass that their parents were abused too. It takes one to know one.

The "What's Immoral" police can kiss my ass. These people hate the human condition and want you to hate it too.

I was lucky. I was a white female given up by my very Irish Catholic (but obviously horny, god bless her) 16 year old birth mom on the day I was born in 1955, so I was taken out of foster care at 7 months and given to a nice couple who really wanted children and couldn't have any of their own. My brother was lucky too and left a horrible foster family at 6 months old to join our family. We kids knew how much we were wanted from the get go. We knew we were adopted when we were toddlers but it didn't matter to us... well maybe a little bit when we were rebellious teenagers (and my parents blamed it on our birth parents), but it didn't come as shock, thank goddess.

I wanted to adopt children too but the legal fees were so exorbitant that we couldn't afford it. How many 20 or 30 somethings have an extra $25,000 kicking around after they have purchased their first house (if they were even lucky to buy a house)? Now I can afford to adopt children, but I'm too old. Perhaps that is another reason that there are still so many children in the foster care system.

So called "pro-life" people can go to hell.
/rant

Chilling

Who Is Killing New Orleans?

With each passing week of neglect--what Representative Barney Frank has labeled "a policy of ethnic cleansing by inaction"--the likelihood increases that most black Orleanians will never be able to return.

We figured out what was happening in NOLA as it was happening. Now read the details, the dirty details at the Nation. It's mind blowing. Bush's method of dealing with the poverty that he announced he'd take care of has been to get the po' folks out of there. I've seen that before.

Behind the scenes, there is most certainly a concerted effort to 'Eff NOLA in the ass without any lube'. Makes you realize that these neocons are shrewder than you thought. They hide behind the guise of incompetency, but they know what they are doing.

Hat tip to oddjob

IRS and Mass Marketing, working together against YOU

Betcha you didn't hear about THIS little change to the tax code:

The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers.The change is raising alarm among consumer and privacy-rights advocates. It was included in a set of proposed rules that the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."

IRS officials portray the changes as housecleaning to update outmoded regulations adopted before it began accepting returns electronically. The proposed rules, which would become effective 30 days after a final version is published, would require a tax preparer to obtain written consent before selling tax information.Critics call the changes a dangerous breach in personal and financial privacy. They say the requirement for signed consent would prove meaningless for many taxpayers, especially those hurriedly reviewing stacks of documents before a filing deadline.

"The normal interaction is that the taxpayer just signs what the tax preparer puts in front of them," said Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America, one of several groups fighting the changes. "They think, 'This person is a tax professional, and I'm going to rely on them.' "Criticism also came from U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.). In a letter last Tuesday to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, Obama warned that once in the hands of third parties, tax information could be resold and handled under even looser rules than the IRS sets, increasing consumers' vulnerability to identity theft and other risks.

"There is no more sensitive information than a taxpayer's return, and the IRS's proposal to allow these returns to be sold to third-party marketers and database brokers is deeply troubling," Obama wrote.

Soooooo anyone want to bet where this is leading? And I just love how the administration and every other idiot loves to blame 'electronic' (ie, internet) for all these changes. MOST of us can easily set up an httpS site with just a bit of coding, but for some reason that seems to be too much trouble for the IRS. And trusting H&R Blok or god knows who to NOT sell my information to a third party? Yeh, sure, these asses would sell out their grandma's for a nickle.

Well, Blondie promised y'all nudie shots...

And as a thank-you card to my Sugar Mamas & Daddies who are helping me get my front toofus, here's the first volley in the Nudie Pix... Enjoy!

(And you can betcherass that those are "airbrushing" marks on the sides, to blank-out any incriminating evidence! I may not be able to photoshop for shit, but I can damned well hide some of the many flaws!)

(Anybody asking for specifics about the location of this tattoo will be summarily ignored. The artist, however, I am proud to reveal: Judy Parker of Pacific Tattoo is one of the most talented artists that I've ever known, and I am damned proud of this beautiful artwork!)

Support Charlie Sheen

Did anyone hear the interview on Showbiz Tonight? Glad to see some prominent people are opening their mouths. I understand CNN showed a clip of it also. Ever since I saw the collapse of the towers on that horrific day, I've felt that something wasn't quite right about the whole thing; and as time went on I became more and more suspicious of our government. Once in a while I would say to someone that I thought our own government had something to do with 911. Most people would react the same way -- how could you say such a thing - or - don't even say that - or -how could you think that? So, I shut-up. I can't keep quiet anymore.

I know you all have probably debated this to death over the past few years, and have subjected yourselves to much frustration in doing so. Two of my favorite sites to visit www.reopen911.org and www.stopthelie.com have only reinforced my suspicions. If you haven't checked these sites out yet, take a look. The mainstream media should be questioning this also - but as you know that hasn't happened yet. However, I have a feeling that pretty soon we will be seeing more of the Charlie Sheen's out there speaking up.

I've decided to take my little post-it pad with these two websites written on them and slap them up where ever they will stick. Maybe if we get enough people to question what really happened, we might get some answers - or - disappear in the middle of the night.

Liz, If you don't hear from me again please contact my family.

Blonde Tool Set

Good God, I Hope Buzzy Holds Up

If you needed any more evidence that the American Taliban is now fully in charge here in Amurka, here you are. Last week, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit asserting Mississippi's "sex toys" law is unconsitutional. The federal court refused to hear the case because two employees of a store selling the toys were arrested and charged under the Mississippi law, which was enacted in 2003, and the criminal case has to run its course. So, apparently, these guys (or gals) have to run the gauntlet of the criminal justice system before a freaking federal court will rule whether the statute passes muster under the US Consitution. You know, the Supreme Law of the Land.

Here's the relevant text of the statute:

"A person commits the offense of distributing unlawful sexual devices when he knowingly sells, advertises, publishes or exhibits to any person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs or offers to do so or possesses such devices with the intent to do so.”

Mississippi Code, Title 97, Chapter 29, Section 97-239-105

The statute was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court two years ago. I'm not sure whether it is now making its way to the US Supreme Court, but let's take a wager on how Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts will vote.

What's the deal? We can't have sex when we're married if we're not doing it to make babies. We can't have sex outside marriage because that makes us sluts and hos. Now, we can't have sex with ourselves because . . . I don't know, someone help me out here. I guess that means we're never, supposed to have an orgasm again. Never. Ever.

Say it with me, ladies: "They can have my vibrator when they pry it from my cold, dead hands."

dunces

Fly Into a Building? Who Could Imagine?
by Maureen Dowd
The New York Times
March 22, 2006

Three little words:

Still employed there.

Of all the through-the-looking-glass moments in the last few days, the strangest is this: The F.B.I officer who arrested and questioned Zacarias Moussaoui told a jury that he had alerted his superiors about 70 times that Mr. Moussaoui was a radical Islamic fundamentalist who hated America and might be plotting to hijack an airplane.

Seventy? That makes one time for every virgin waiting for Mr. Moussaoui in heaven. Judging by how disastrously the prosecution is doing, the virgins will have to wait.

We could have cracked the 9/11 plot if the F.B.I. wasn't run by dunces....

Read on
What does it take to get someone fired around here?

Afghanistan: This doesn't sound like a democracy to me

UPDate: Judd at Think Progress has the latest BS from Scottie Mac at the WH this afternoon regarding the story below. What a load of hypocrisy.

----------

Our young men and women who enlisted after 9/11 in order to get bin Laden and free Afghanistan from tyrants didn't risk their lives and die for persecution of Christians.

Courts in control of convert's fate
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 22 (UPI) -- The government of Afghanistan says the courts will decide the fate of a man whose conversion to Christianity could result in his execution, a report said.

Abdul Rahman, 41, could be put to death under Sharia law for rejecting Islam and converting to Christianity 16 years ago, charges brought by his estranged family in a custody dispute over his two children.

While prosecutors, like the judge hearing the case, questioned Rahman's mental fitness to stand trial, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the courts are an "independent system."

"This is a case that the family of the person brought against him. We are watching it closely and Afghanistan also respects human rights," a spokesman for Karzai told the BBC.

Officials from Canada, Germany, Italy and the United States expressed concern about Rahman's case.

The United States asked that Rahman be allowed to practice his faith but also said it did not want to interfere, the BBC reported.

Um, excuse me, but we don't want to interfere? What about the blue fingers?
Interfering is our middle name.
United Interfering States of America.

Jesus wouldn't condone bill criminalizing illegal immigrants

So says Hillary Clinton.

"It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," Clinton said, "because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."

And let us not forget that Lady Liberty would cry too.

The New Colossus
Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame..."

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

An easy way to vote for the Koufax Awards

Don't have time to sit there waiting for the servers at Wampum to take you vote? Me neither and I want to vote in every category .

Send them an email (they do check IP addresses) wampum@nic-naa.net. (subject: Koufax)

Here's a list of categories to cut and paste:

Best Blog (non-pro):
Best Blog Community:
Best Blog (pro/sponsor):
Best Group Blog: BLONDESENSE
Best Post:
Best Series:
Best Writing:
Best Expert Blog:
Best Single Issue:
Most Humorous Blog:
Most Humorous Post:
Best state and local Blog:
More Deserving of Wider Recognition:
Best New Blog:
Best Commenter:

The blogs that are in the running for each category are listed here starting about a quarter way down the page.

Thank you.

Remember if we win, we will post nudie pictures.

The Inheritance

A friend sent me this:

"When John found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a woman to enjoy it with.So one evening he went to a singles bar where he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. 'I may look like just an ordinary man,' he said as he walked up to her, 'but in just a week or two, my father will die, and I'll inherit 20 million dollars.' Impressed, the woman went home with him that evening and, three days later, she became his stepmother.

Women are so much smarter than men... "

Discuss:

1. Whether the final sentence is true;
2. Whether I should be ashamed of my blatant sexism; and
3. Whether the beautiful woman in the joke is the idealogical twin of "Concerned" in the post below.

Voodoo Magic Stumped by Bird Flu

O.K. Folks -- I'm really trying to wrap my head around this one. I don't mean to "poke" fun at a person's way of life; after all this has been around for centuries. I'm thinking it might be fun for us to produce a few "voodoo dolls" ourselves. What do you think? Maybe some of you already have a voodoo doll of your own --- anyone? anyone? Here's the story


UPDATE: Here is Liz's Favorite Voodoo Doll

MoMule made me do it!

If anybody has actually seen my toofless post, MoMule hollered and said that we oughta put the PayPal info up here on the blog, so here it is:

joannaagain @ hotmail.com"

That's the account ID.

Now that I've done my useless-scumbag, pan-handling-lowlife bit for the day, feel free to go back to the actual news.

Dear Psycho Bitch, Boo Effin' Hoo

This is not something I usually would post, but man oh man, this caught my eye in the morning paper. This woman is a piece of work

ASK AMY
True love covers sickness and health
Mar 22, 2006

DEAR AMY: Two years ago, I started an affair with a married man in my office. I never thought of doing such a thing. Everyone in our office thought the world of him and his wife, and thought what a wonderful husband and father he was. I flirted with him, and occasionally we would go out in a group. One evening he had a bit to drink and the next thing I knew he was confessing to boredom and dissatisfaction with his wife and his life. Well, I didn't think twice and we were involved in a full-fledged affair. He decided to leave his wife. She was devastated and fought to keep him, but we were so in love that she didn't stand a chance. She finally gave up. His three children barely speak to him. We are engaged and everything has been great, in spite of his estrangement from his children and the fact that his wife made out quite well in the divorce. Unfortunately, now he is sick and has been diagnosed with lung cancer. I have had to take care of him and it's exhausting. No one in his family is willing to step up to help me. His children refuse to talk to me. I still love him and all that, but honestly, I don't want to nurse him and watch him die. I want to break it off, but I hate leaving him with no one. What should I do?

Concerned


You can read what Amy has to say. You can probably guess what I have to say and I'll probably say so in the comments after I see what you would say.

Once Again, the Low Hanging Fruit Gets Eaten

Another conviction in the Abu Ghraib debacle. Another conviction of an enlisted man.

Army Dog Handler Is Convicted in Detainee Abuse at Abu Ghraib

WASHINGTON, March 21 — An Army dog handler was found guilty Tuesday of tormenting detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraqwith his snarling Belgian shepherd for his own amusement.

snip

A jury of four officers and three enlisted soldiers rejected Sergeant Smith's defense that he was simply following orders and using a barking dog to keep prisoners in line. The prosecution asserted that Sergeant Smith treated inmates at Abu Ghraib inhumanely in late 2003 and early 2004, a period during which photographs depicted prisoners naked and stacked in human pyramids, or leashed and crawling like dogs, with soldiers posing alongside them. One of the most notorious images was of Sergeant Smith holding his growling dog straining on its leash just inches from the face of a cowering orange-clad prisoner.

Rest of the story here.

Same shit, different day. We're never going to see a single officer be held responsible.

Still Seeking The Truth

This is part of what I saw at Ground Zero on November 11th, 2001. I had to hold my camera up high to take the picture without capturing all the tourists and Asian vendors selling American flags and WTC postcards with American eagles on them. Free enterprise you know. NYPD lined all the police barricades on every street surrounding the site.

Move along. Move along. There's nothing to see here.

Wuddayoo kidding me? Wuddaya call that? I came here to pray, you Nazi!

Good article at New York Mag this month The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll Long, but worth reading.

I tried to make some sense of the pictures a friend of mine, Todd, took days after 9/11.

The War on Birth Control

Pretty soon they'll be pushing for a ban on menstruation and masturbation.

Salon has got an article worth reading (and doing the free day pass thing) concerning the war on birth control. Yes, there is a war on it. We've covered it here before. The war on abortion is making great strides and the next part naturally is to eliminate birth control because apparently not allowing an egg to fertilize or attach itself to the uterus is in effect, abortion, say the hyperactive anti-sex zealots. And they are doing something about it.

Many of the National Right to Life Committee state affiliates have opposed legislation that would provide insurance coverage for contraception. Iowa Right to Life even lists a host of birth control methods -- including the pill, the IUD, Norplant and Depo-Provera -- as abortifacients.

Since birth control pills are now likened to having an abortion, it's no wonder that uninformed pharmacists and even doctors, god help us, have opposed Plan B emergency contraception (a large dose birth control pill). The anti-sex people believe that the very instance that a sperm meets an egg, a human life has begun. But when does it become a human being?

How do they address condoms, which prevent a sperm from reaching an egg? Why you attack condoms and say that they don't prevent STDs... you take it further and claim that it helps cause the spread of STDs!

You think it's laughable that all this 'abstinence only' stuff is being passed off as sex education? These guys are serious about making sure that people are not only abstinent, but will be punished with having to bring up a child they don't want because they won't be able to get birth control should they suddenly decide to not be abstinent, even in marriage.

During the 2005 legislative session, more that 80 bills in 36 states were introduced that would restrict minors' access to birth control. On the federal level, the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, currently being considered in Congress, would allow insurers to ignore state laws mandating contraceptive coverage. And then there is the matter of pharmacists and "conscience clause" laws. South Dakota, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi already allow pharmacists to refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions. And at least 15 states have legislation pending that would allow not just pharmacists to refuse to dispense prescriptions, but would also protect cashiers who refused to ring them up.

Overzealous anti-abortionists are really not all that anti-abortion as much as they are steadfastedly against women doing anything but breeding and staying home. There are some factions of the anti-choice movement who oppose child care too.

The good thing about all this? The crackpottery of the "have babies whether you like it or not movement or just don't have sex even if you're married, you slut" makes it easier for pro-choicers to make a good stand for protecting women's rights overall. When you add anti-birthcontrol activism (even if you're married) and anti-daycare into the so called "pro-life" argument, you'll see former anti-choice women starting to wake up and smell the coffee. It will become pretty obvious once and for all why pro-choicers have been claiming that the anti-abortion movement is a slippery slope.

Sites to visit

The First and most important is ITMFA brought to you by Savage Love, the coiner of Santorum, Pegging and other interesting sexual terms


The second is pure fluff from Australia, but its nice to take a break once in a while. This may take a while to load, but if you have sound it is SO worth it. Carlton Draught

Scottish Instincts with Sharon Stone I wish I could find the rest of the Lawson's Scotch ads, the Haka one is just too effing funny!

4th Under Attack

Hat tip to Shalome of Suicide Girls, see, the younger generation IS paying attention

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (Like the college student's computer, citizen's cameras, items from luggage as we ATTEMPT to move freely about our country - shall I continue?)

The DoJ has decided to throw that right out the window. In a little-publicized paper submitted to Congress defending warrantless spying on United States citizens, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has made the claim that the President can break the 4th Amendment at will by ordering secret warrantless physical searches.

In order to fulfill his duties as commander in chief, the 42-page white paper says, "a consistent understanding has developed that the president has inherent constitutional authority to conduct warrantless searches and surveillance within the United States for foreign intelligence purposes." The memo cites congressional testimony of Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, in 1994 stating that the Justice Department "believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes." John Martin, a former Justice Department attorney who prosecuted the two most important cases involving warrantless searches and surveillance, says the department is sending an unambiguous message to Congress. "They couldn't make it clearer," says Martin, "that they are also making the case for inherent presidential power to conduct warrantless physical searches." (Read, expanded, uncontrolled, unmonitored executive powers, aka Kingship)

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation quite rightly strongly opposes using his agents for secret warrantless "black bag jobs." (And may I add that the 4th duty of the FBI is to investigate our own Government aka = Combat public corruption at all levels, one has to wonder why they are distancing themselves from this. Are THEY also being spied upon?)

FBI Director Robert Mueller was alarmed by the proposal, the two officials said, and pushed back hard against it. "Mueller was personally very concerned," one official says, "not only because of the blowback issue but also because of the legal and constitutional questions raised by warrantless physical searches."

If evidence gathered during a warrantless physical search of a location was entered into a court case against a suspect, the entire case could be thrown out. But hey, that's why we have those secret military tribunals now, right? And if that fails there is always Gitmo.

NOW FOR THE REST OF OUR HISTORY LESSON: Nixon and the FBI/CIA so badly abused the executive powers that the FISA was created that limited only wiretapping and not physical searches. Fast forward to 1994, the congressional testimony of Jamie Gorelick caused the Republican congress to throw a fit because the Clinton administration had done physical searches without contacting the FISA court. Clinton worked with the congress and urged them to update the FISA to include physical searches. The law was signed by Clinton without protest of any kind. Despite what they say, it is now expressly illegal to wiretap or physically search without getting FISA court approval.

Would you buy a used car from this woman?

This is my Katrina story, as shallow, narcissistic, petty, selfish, trivial and pissy as it is.
In September, 2004, my front tooth, long-ago root-canalled and spackled, shattered whilst I was eating bacon that my dad, The Dick, had overcooked (while I was homeless/jobless/hopeless and living with him & The Beastmaster in the lower sigmoid colon of hell). I then went to the Oral Surgery Clinic at Earl K. Long (state) Hospital in Baton Rouge. They yanked out the root, and then referred me (and my TMJ/crooked-joint jaw) to the Oral Surgery Clinic at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Well, after another YEAR of fucking-around, including the jaw surgery that shaved-off the crooked part of my jaw joint and I volunteered to be a guinea pig for an Oral Surgery resident who wanted to learn Plastic Surgery (I was his first face lift, and boy-howdy, wasn't it a success!) --- I volunteered because they told me that it would get me the TOOTH IMPLANT that they'd been yanking me around about for a year --- still no front tooth.

Finally, because of my repeated appearances & lovely demeanor whilst being jerked-around for a YEAR about this shit, as well as a THOROUGHLY NIGHTMARISH stay at Charity for three fun-filled days when the Plastic Surgery Wannabe Boy LIED TO MY FACE that they had "accidentally autoclaved" the promised tooth implant which never really existed --- after another six months of circle-jerking, I finally got kicked to the Dentistry Clinic, where this very lovely young resident from Brazil finally started on my implant (after the Oral Surgery jokers had pounded the first of three parts of hardware into my skull with a steel hammer and no anaesthesia).

So --- on August 29, 2005, I had an appointment at Charity to finally get my new tooth installed. Unfortunately for a whole helluva lot of people, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans at around 6:30A, and pretty much destroyed Orleans Parish and Charity Hospital.

New Orleans will be rebuilt. Unfortunately, thus far, the major contracts have gone to Boh Bros., The Shaw Group, and HALLIBURTON, so the New Orleans that we knew & loved will never exist again. Instead, much of the soul of that city is being replaced by yuppie condos and "gentrification."

Unfortunately for me, (and about 800,000 other people) Charity Hospital will never exist again. I've called the newly-relocated LSU School Of Dentistry, as they're trying to help most former Charity Oral Surgery/Dentistry patients, but they haven't returned my calls yet. The old Dentistry School in New Orleans DID take my call and wrote down my name, BUT they only have ONE full-time resident working there, and NO MONEY. Oh, and even if I could afford a dentist on my own, like a grown person with a life, EVERY SINGLE PAPER/X-RAY FILE OF CHARITY PATIENTS WAS DESTROYED IN THE FLOODING OF THE CHARITY HOSPITAL BASEMENT AND FIRST FLOOR.

So I don't even know what part to order, if I could go to a private dentist to order the other parts.

Why am I sharing all of this shit now, when Katrina evacuees can't vote properly in many instances, when the GOP is holding special "rallies" (picture as many burning crosses in the background as you'd like) to REMIND the remaining caucasians (and the newbies coming into the city from the suburbs, now that the city isn't "as dark" as it used to be) that NOW IS "THEIR" TIME TO TAKE ORLEANS OVER?

People are dying and starving in the world and New Orleans is still at only about 12% occupancy, and most of the POOR neighborhoods are still without water or electricity, and I'm on BlondeSense, ranting and raving and bitching and whining because I don't have a TOOTH?!?!?

Like I said, it ain't right, it ain't positive, and it sure as hell ain't productive or good for vote-gathering --- but it's my story.

As most of y'all know, Jake and I busted our asses for five weeks after Katrina (and five days before the fucking RED CROSS would stop jerking each other off long enough to do SHIT!!!), dispersing all of the food & supplies & first aid stuff that Y'ALL bought for us to help the evacuees who were, for the first 2 weeks after the storm, being royally fucked-over and discriminated against by their FELLOW LOUISIANIANS, not to mention the Republicunt FIEFDOM in D.C.

But I haven't been able to SMILE in over 18 months, and I'm fed the fuck up and tired of it. I know that I look "better" when I'm pissed-off as in the above photo after Fantastic White-Trash Crack-Whore Sam's fucked me out of my hair donation to Locks Of Love, but just once, I'd like to be in a picture with my nieces & nephews without looking like a smirking fat moron.

Suggestions?

Should I just suck it up and grin like the proverbial "Deliverance" hillbilly, and just get used to it, or should I go mug some rich republicunt pencil-pushing Department of Health & Hospitals lackey who's keeping New Orleans from ever having a public hospital again?

Speaking of Important Votes...

As a-twitter as I am about the Koufax voting, this is something that I figured might be a little more important on the larger scale, so I'm reposting Annti's last post.

For ANY & ALL Displaced Louisianians due to Katrina!

If y'all know of ANY ANY ANY displaced Louisianians who've relocated to your area because of Katrina, PLEASEPLEASEPLEEEEEEASE forward this letter & these links from Common Cause to them, IMMEDIATELY!

(We have enough problems with people fucking around with voting in this country and especially in this state, and after they effectively destroyed the generations-long solid-Democratic voting bloc in New Orleans by dispersing the locals to hither and yon, WE NEED YOUR HELP!)

Displaced Louisiana voters need your help.

"If you are a registered voter of Louisiana who has been displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina or Rita, you are eligible to vote in your home parish if you have not registered to vote in another parish or state." - Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater

Help us get this message to displaced Louisianans in your city or state. Thousands of evacuees have moved several times since disaster struck their homes. Your local knowledge may be the only way for us to reach them.

Louisiana's primary election is scheduled to take place on April 22, 2006, and general election on May 20, 2006. There are also other local elections taking place this spring. Many changes have been made to Louisiana voting laws, dates, and polling places as a result of the hurricanes.

Time is very short. We need you to reach displaced voters with the information they need as soon as possible.
For information on how you can help, including handouts you can download and photocopy, visit our website at http://www.commoncause.org/Louisiana.

For additional information, visit the Louisiana Elections Displaced Voters webpage at http://www.sec.state.la.us/elections/elect-before.htm, email at: elections@sos.louisiana.gov, or call 1-800-833-2805.

Thank you,
Dot Wirth
Common Cause Louisiana

Speaking of Optimism

Thank you all who voted for us in the Koufax Awards. We are so flattered and humbled by your love and the time you took to vote for us in the first round. We are up for Best Group Blog in the final round of voting. I am optimistic that you will be sure that we win, because we are currently being creamed in the voting as of now. (I'm taking the bush approach.)

Please click here to vote for us. Right this very minute for I will simply lose my will to go on if you don't. It takes a long time unfortunately to submit a vote because the servers are slow, but I know that you're all anxious to see our nudie pics, so it will be worth it.

Now, may I be a blog whore for a moment and say that while there are other excellent group blogs running against us, you must consider that by far this is the most interesting, amusing, intellectually entertaining and sexy blog in the running (ok, so maybe we're not that humble today). Why is it so good? Because of you, the readers, the emailers and the commenters. It is because of you that we go on here. We don't ask for tips, nor do we clog up the pages with ads... we come to you out of love and compassion for the social injustices in the world. All we ask is that we become famous. We will never ask for your money.

I'd also like to thank my co-bloggers who also research, investigate, write and entertain the visitors. Many thanks to Jaye, Vicki, Joanna, Marilyn, Flame, Cathy, Barb, Petey and Billy for your outstanding participation. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Pissed Off Patricia, Blondesense blogger legend for her long time dedication and her impeccable talent for opining on the state of current affairs.

You're all so great, I'm just going to break down and cry now. Who knew? Who knew? You like us. You really like us.

Love
Liz

How Optimistic Are You?

While sitting in the doctor's waiting room this morning, we were treated to a bush press conference on CNN. Most of my fellow patients were just tsk-ing and rolling their eyes- a good sign that bush's low poll numbers are pretty accurate. I really, sincerely wish that I could view the world with the optimism of bush but then again, I have to worry about old age, health care costs, taxes, medicare, social security, my kid's future and all that mundane stuff. I have no ranch to retire to or a well equipped bunker. Living in reality makes it hard to view world affairs from a sunny perspective.

Sure some folks in Iraq are doing alright since the US bombed the shit out of their country in order to take out the dictator. But most Iraqi's are not so optimistic. In fact their only wish is not to die:

Laith Muhammad, 32, a student in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, listed the risks Iraqis face these days. "We either die by the Americans, the insurgents in the name of jihad, the security companies, which kill you and leave you laying in the street, the Iraqi police or . . . the death squads," he said. Such squads are widely believed to be operating from within the country's Interior Ministry. Muhammad cited private militias as yet another threat.

"Three years after the American invasion of Iraq, I have only one wish," he said. "I do not want democracy, food, electricity and water. I just do not want to die." (WAPO)

I suppose you can look optimistically at the new businesses flourishing in Iraq. How about terrorism insurance?

Mr. Said, a slim, baby-faced 23-year-old, did what a small but growing number of Iraqis are doing: He walked into the offices of the Iraq Insurance Company and bought a terrorism insurance policy. It looked like an ordinary life insurance policy, but with a one-page rider adding coverage for "the following dangers: 1) explosions caused by weapons of war and car bombs; 2) assassinations; 3) terrorist attacks."

"Am I worth only five million dinars ($3500US)?" Mr. Said asked wearily, after signing his policy. "It is not a solution. But Iraqis can be attacked by anyone, just walking on the street: Americans, insurgents, the Iraqi Army." The payout is not a lot of money, even by Iraqi standards. But in a country where terrorism kills hundreds of people a month and no one can rely on the government or employers to provide for their relatives afterward, it seems to be an idea with a future. (NYTIMES)

The neocons have redefined every word in the dictionary. I am not sure what their definition is but if a bunch of people in the same country are killing each other, that is not a civil war anymore. It's a strategy towards success, or something like that.

Wholesale Prices Down???

Has anyone out there seen any drop in prices? What am I missing. Am I shopping at all the wrong places? Oh wait.... are the wholesalers the big guys (corporations) and the retailers the little guys (us)? I don't think they've passed the savings onto us yet -- o.k., I didn't do too well in economics, so someone, PLEASE explain this to me. Maybe I'll keep an eye on the stock market today to get some perspective on this. Daily News

A Face Only A Mother Could Love

Just look at that face. Sheesh. It's a good thing he only appears in person to hand picked audiences. Can you imagine what sort of sneers he'd display if his audiences were your average Americans? Apparently he wasn't happy with the sort of questions and the number of questions his Ohio audience had for him yesterday.


How dare you question your president in a time of war!
What kind of message are you sending to the troops and the enemy?

After a similar display of 'teenaged boy in the principal's office' body language during the first debate with John Kerry, the leader of the free world's superpower was given instruction on how to handle himself during questioning. It seems he has laid the proper decorum to rest.


Think Progress has the stories and bigger pictures if you can stand it. (I really like that blog for political news, BTW)

First, the president, in the obviously uncomfortable position of having to answer a lot of questions asks the audience, “Anybody work here in this town?”. His ignorance is astounding as Think Progress points out that in fact, unemployment is up in Cleveland since he took office and is up in the whole state of Ohio for that matter.

Then he claimed once again that he never linked Iraq and 9/11. Puhlease. Even republicans who read the news aren't that stupid. Where on earth did all the Americans get the idea that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11 (Pew Research). As a matter of fact, I believe Cheney is still telling everyone that Iraq and 9/11 are linked. Bush and Dick obviously have some sort of evil scheme to tell different stories to the American people simultaneously, and then they have the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to deny they are doing so and act all pissy about it when they are questioned to boot. Those questioners were part of his base yesterday. Don't look at me.

Deep in the Heart Of Texas

Now that the Koufax Awards are over for me, I am not a finalist, the pressure is off to produce "THE GREAT AMERICAN POST" and I can return to the daily zen of just writing and being read.

It was indeed an honor to be recognized as a good writer and I can't think of an honor more satisfying. Now, I can devote all my ju-ju and mojo to BlondeSense winning Best Group Blog.

My husband and I were taking a break this evening and watched Someone to Watch Over Me. I had not seen it in awhile. My husband turned to me and said, "The moral of this movie is that life is difficult for everyone."

At the risk of indulging my tendency to feel sorry for myself, things are rough in River City now. Our electric bill has doubled since the hurricane. Not just ours, but everyone in this area has an electric bill twice the already inflated charge it was this summer. Electric utility deregulation has brought higher prices to Texas consumers and of course it is all due to the hurricane and not deregulation.

Gasoline prices are up again, too. Twenty more cents a gallon. Houston has no mass transit system to actually get people to work so prices really affect people.

We haven't received a cost of living wage at work in years. Actually we took a pay cut when you consider the price of co-pays and medication increased while we actually pay a more significant amount of the cost of procedures. I had to pay $700 to have emergency gall bladder surgery. Like I have that laying around the house. And analysis isn't covered by insurance but it certainly should be since my overall health has improved.

Life in Houston is ridiculous. It isn't a real city, you can't walk anywhere, there is no mass transit, the big cultural fest is the livestock and rodeo and national touring companies of musicals you didn't want to see in New York anyway, museums that run The Passion of the Christ as if it were anything other than a pornographic snuff film and thereby give it a fig leaf of legitimacy. Houston is the worst of the South. It is unsophisticated, adolescent, and angry. Home of the Bushes and bush league.

Houston will be in the spotlight this summer with the delayed Andrea Yates retrial. She is the poster child for post partum depression. In a fit of paranoid schizophrenia with suicidal ideation, she drowned her five children in a bathtub in their Clear Lake, Texas home. Her husband, the recently remarried Mr. Yates, works at NASA.

He knew that she was seriously ill. She had stopped taking her medication and her mother and mother-in-law had come in shifts to help her with her children. Her father had recently died, her husband had allegedly bragged to others that he had never changed a diaper. She was homeschooling the kids and at one time lived in a bus with them and her husband without electricity or running water. He was at work at NASA when she called police and said, "I killed my children."

Mr. Yates wasn't charged with anything. He knew his wife was suicidal. He knew that she had developed schizophrenia. Most schizophrenics are not violent. He didn't know that she would drown their children because she believed that God told her to do it. She believed she was a bad mother. She had been pregnant five times in the last eight years before she killed her children one by one. There wasn't anything with which he could be charged under Texas law. Believe me, there were women and men pouring over the Texas Criminal Code searching for something.

The State of Texas has a hard-on for Andrea. They aren't seeking the death penalty against her this time like they did in her first trial, but they definitely want her to spend the rest of her life in prison. Mr. Yates divorced Andrea after her conviction and sentence to 40 years in the Texas prison system. If a person isn't crazy when they go in the Texas prison system, they will be after a few years there.

She is being retried because of seriously flawed prosecution testimony. She is indeed fortunate that she did win her appeal to the Texas Court of Appeals because members of that court had said in to their clerks that they should not bring them appeal petitions that sought reversible error against the State of Texas. When that little aside hit the press, the Court certainly had to do something about its credibility problem.

So life in Houston is difficult. More difficult for a woman with no real money to mount a defense against the state which has unlimited resources to use to secure a conviction in the case of a middle class woman with serious mental illness, suburban isolation, no help from her church, who had been a nurse and valedictorian of her high school class, who was raising her children in a loving, godly family.

The moral of her story is she has been indicted by a grand jury for murder and indicted by the people of Houston for her failure as a stay at home mother with mental illness. Her trial is as much about the hideous insanity defense in Texas as it is about life in Texas. Putting her in prison is about her inability to cope with the demands of child rearing alone. Not everyone who brings up their children in a marriage defined by a fundamentalist religion in a city whose culture wants to deny that there is mental illness and that suburban life is often horribly difficult murders their children. Some women leave their husbands, put their kids in day care and public schools and get jobs to support themselves when the bubble bursts and they don't live happily ever after. But Andrea Yates was probably terribly confused as to why if she was doing all she could to follow God's plan she was so depressed and sad and why the voices told her to kill her children.

The State of Texas believes that she should have known that God would never tell her to drown her children therefore she knew what she did was wrong.

For ANY & ALL Displaced Louisianians due to Katrina!

If y'all know of ANY ANY ANY displaced Louisianians who've relocated to your area because of Katrina, PLEASEPLEASEPLEEEEEEASE forward this letter & these links from Common Cause to them, IMMEDIATELY!

(We have enough problems with people fucking around with voting in this country and especially in this state, and after they effectively destroyed the generations-long solid-Democratic voting bloc in New Orleans by dispersing the locals to hither and yon, WE NEED YOUR HELP!)

Displaced Louisiana voters need your help.

"If you are a registered voter of Louisiana who has been displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina or Rita, you are eligible to vote in your home parish if you have not registered to vote in another parish or state."- Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater

Help us get this message to displaced Louisianans in your city or state. Thousands of evacuees have moved several times since disaster struck their homes. Your local knowledge may be the only way for us to reach them.
Louisiana's primary election is scheduled to take place on April 22, 2006, and general election on May 20, 2006. There are also other local elections taking place this spring. Many changes have been made to Louisiana voting laws, dates, and polling places as a result of the hurricanes.
Time is very short. We need you to reach displaced voters with the information they need as soon as possible.
For information on how you can help, including handouts you can download and photocopy, visit our website at http://www.commoncause.org/Louisiana.

For additional information, visit the Louisiana Elections Displaced Voters webpage at http://www.sec.state.la.us/elections/elect-before.htm, email at: elections@sos.louisiana.gov, or call 1-800-833-2805.

Thank you,
Dot Wirth
Common Cause Louisiana

(Tip of the old voting booth to MoMule for the heads-up!)

Your Favorite Topic: S-E-X

From THE ELEPHANT IN THE BEDROOM
Ten (and a half) reasons why Republicans—yes, Republicans—are the best party in bed

1. NO CONSCIENCE!
A Republican man will never whine in the middle of the night—let alone in the middle of screwing you—about the girlfriend/wife/whatever he is “devastating” by sleeping with you. He just does it. It’s all about him—he needs to be the best you ever had, and that can be a good thing if your getting off is contingent on his. He doesn’t even stay for breakfast. (Though if you do make him breakfast, he is eternally grateful and will go down on you for another several hours.) One word: pancakes!

2. NO TEARS!
A Republican man will never, ever cry. Not on election night (no matter what happens). Not when you’re breaking up with him (what, you think he cared?). Not even when he’s having “a problem I’ve never had before, really, I’m not kidding, I swear.”

3. A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
I’ve dated Democrats whose nights have been ruined (forever!) due to some stupid-ass comment by Bill Frist on Hardball. I’ve watched them go all mopey, argue with the TV…and then their little weenies disappear. Not so with GOPers. Republicans, particularly when naked, do not want to sit around and talk about Social Security privatization. Or Iraq, for chrissake. Or why (oh, boo hoo, get over it!) Kerry lost. They don’t even want to sit around naked and talk about George W. Bush. They just want you to sit on them.


Read on this is entertaining as hell. Is this true?

Is Hell exothermic or endothermic?

Just had to dig this one out of the files. It went around the internet awhile back and kinda fits in with the comments of late on the recent posts------

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more that one of these religions and since people do not believe in more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you, and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct….leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A”

Here's What's in Store For November

What with the war going so badly, the budget and trade deficits running at all time highs, our vaunted new airport security failing miserably, the debacle that was and is Katrina, the polar ice caps melting, and the healthcare system in shambles, you might think that the November elections will be about substantive issues, issues that really matter to people, issues that really affect people's lives.

Of course, you'd be wrong. Next weekend, in Washington, DC, we'll get down to issues that really count, courtesy of Vision America:

Panels Include:
The Gay Agenda: America Won’t Be Happy
The ACLU And Radical Secularism: Driving God From The Public Square
Hollywood: Christians Through A Distorted Lens
Jews Confront The War On Christians
The Judiciary: Overruling God
The Media: Megaphone For Anti-Faith Values
Taking Our Faith To The Ballot Box

The usual suspects wil all be there: Senator Sam Brownback, Senator John Cornyn, Congressman Tom DeLay, Congressman Todd Akin, Congressman Louis Gohmert, Rick Scarborough, Phyllis Schlafly, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, Janet Parshall

Get your tickets now, folks, I'm sure they're going fast.

Hat tip to edna at Matilda's Advice and Rants.

Are You Ready For the Bird Flu?

What should we tell the children?
Are the bird flu experts right that there is a 50-50 chance of an epidemic?
If the bird flu mutates and half the population is wiped out, are you prepared?
Is your will up to date? Are you stocking up on food in case of quarantine? Are you washing your hands frequently especially if you spend time in public places? Do you still eat chicken? Can you find your duct tape and plastic sheeting in an emergency?
Just wondering.

Crackpot Alert:

Katherine Harris, who told a national television audience Wednesday that she would be spending $10 million to win Florida's U.S. Senate race, said she never would have entered politics if she did not believe that God wanted her to make public service part of her life.

Will The Blind One Day See?

From this morning's NY Times:

On Anniversary, Bush and Cheney See Iraq Success

WASHINGTON, March 20 — On the third anniversary of a war that they once expected to be over by now, President Bush and senior officials argued Sunday that their strategy was working despite escalating violence in Iraq, even as a former Iraqi prime minister once favored by the White House declared that a civil war had already started.

Can someone please get Shrubby and "Dead Eye" Dick a couple pairs of Mr. Magoo thickness glasses? Because even a blind man could see that we are nowhere near "success" in this ridiculous, immoral, illegal war.

Meanwhile, another 50 Iraqis died in the "last throes" of the war over the past two days.

Rest of the article here.

Flashback

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Question: Mr. Secretary. Hundreds of people have been awakened with dreams of a war with Iraq quickly escalating into World War III. What can effectively be done to limit the conflict, and what is your opinion about the possibility of a wider war breaking out?

Rumsfeld: In the event that force has to be used with Iraq, there will be no World War III. The Gulf War in the 1990s lasted five days on the ground. I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that. And, it won't be a World War III. And if I were to characterize the difference between 1990 and today, the United States military is vastly more powerful. And the Iraqi Army and military capability has declined substantially. The difference is, the reason for needing to disarm Iraq, and that is chemical and biological weapons today, and a very robust effort to develop nuclear weapons tomorrow. And, that is the difference between today and then.

I don't feel like linking to the DOD for the whole transcript. If you need to know, email me.


The Administration
STILL OPTIMISTIC- 3 Years Later

The president spoke yesterday about the war on Iraq without uttering the word "war". Now it's a "strategy". "We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq."

The president of vice said he had no regrets predicting that the US would be greeted as liberators days before the attack on Iraq. Cheney also denied that Iraq was in the throes of a civil war. "What we've seen is a serious effort by them to foment a civil war," Cheney said. "But I don't think they've been successful."

Happy 3rd

The third anniversary of the U.S.-led war in Iraq drew tens of thousands of protesters in at least two dozen cities around the globe with many chanting "Stop the War" and calling for the withdrawal of troops.

* luckily most of them were NOT arrested this time, strength in numbers and all.

But it leads me to ask, with only an approval rating in the low 30's, a failed take over of a third world country, disgraced internationally and the outlook getting worse by the day (see article below) WTF is this idiot (and his handlers) really up to?

Peter sent out a link regarding the end of the world and how it may come about, its scary but when I see things like this I have to wonder how far off the mark the tinfoil hat club really is? Global warming is going to take out a lot of people with loss of land, agriculture and extremes in weather. Politics and war will take out even more and everyday citizens are either helpless or apathetic towards this. WHY?

Again I am asking you WHY? What has changed over the past 10 or so years to make us behave like this?

Intellectual Poverty

This article is important enough that I am re-posting the entire thing here: (emphasis mine)

If Bush Ruled the World -

PARIS Intellectual poverty is the most striking quality of the Bush administration's new National Security Strategy statement, issued on Thursday. Its overall incoherence, its clichés and stereotyped phraseology give the impression that Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, and his fellow authors assembled it from the boilerplate of bureaucratic discourse with contempt for the Congress to whom it is primarily addressed.

It reveals the administration's foreign policy as a lumpy stew of discredited neoconservative ideas with some neo- Kissingerian geopolitics now mixed in.

The statement's only visible purpose is to address a further threat to Iran, as its predecessor, in 2002, threatened Iraq. The only actual "strategy" that can be deduced from it is that the Bush administration wishes to rule the world. The document is nonsensical in content, insulting to other nations and unachievable in declared intention.

If people read it to find a statement of American foreign policy's objective, they will learn that the United States has "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Good luck.
The document's foreign readers will have two reactions. The first will be that it can't be serious. The second will be that it has to be taken seriously since these people have spent three ruinous years in a futile effort to control Iraq; they must be assumed capable of doing the same thing again to Iran.

An annual national security statement was demanded by Congress in 1986 legislation. The present document is the first since 2003, when an American policy of military pre-emption was proclaimed - subsequently implemented in Iraq. This document reiterates the pre-emption policy, warning that "we are in the early years of a long struggle" like the Cold War.
One asks if its authors foresee a 50- year struggle against Iran? Or with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Iraqi desert and Osama bin Laden in his cave in Waziristan? Or against febrile and fanaticized young Muslim men in European ghettos, already repudiated by the immigrant populations from which they come? Surely the great American nation will have better things to do during the next 50 years.

While Stephen Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's former deputy, was preparing the strategy statement (or signing off on it), Rice was in Indonesia to "expand a strategic partnership" with Jakarta, a visit described by officials accompanying her as a signal of American "interest in building up [Indonesia] as a major commercial and military power ... to help counter the growing influence of China."

A few days earlier, Rice and President George W. Bush were in India on the same mission, making a "historic" gesture that conferred on India a nuclear partnership with America and authorized it to keep its nuclear weapons. This was also as meant to check China.
Speaking to the International Institute for Strategic Studies just three years ago, Rice condemned "balance of power" politics as outmoded and dangerous. She said: "We tried this before; it led to the Great War."

In a few weeks, President Hu Jintao of China will be at the White House for a long-delayed meeting. Possibly he in turn will be offered a strategic partnership, provided that Beijing obeys the new U.S. National Security Strategy, which tells China to "give up old ways of thinking and acting ... and [make] the right strategic choices for its people." Until China takes this advice, the strategy statement menacingly adds, the United States will "hedge against other possibilities."

The president and the secretary of state have been trying to manipulate the Asian power balance against China. At home, Stephen Hadley and colleagues have told us that the effort in Iraq has been worth it because now "tyrants know that they pursue weapons of mass destruction at their own peril." (One has also learned that those who pursue nonexistent weapons of mass destruction also do so at their peril.)

In addition, we are told that the United States today "may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," and that it reserves the right to take "anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack." Whose attack? Iran's? Under what conceivable circumstances would Iran attack the United States, even if it possessed nuclear weapons?

Finally there is North Korea, which the national strategy document seems to assume already has nuclear weapons. Pyongyang is simply enjoined to "afford freedom to its people," and the North Koreans are warned that the United States will protect itself "against adverse effects of their bad conduct." The Iranian government in Tehran will surely note that pre-emption is not mentioned in connection with North Korea.


So, gentle readers, what is YOUR take on this? Do you think W will manufactur another lie that leads to a pre-emptive strike against Iran? Or do you think Iran will decide to hit first? OR maybe a third player will get involved to try and head off W's New World Order before it moves along any further?

Doubtful

I dunno. I highly doubt that John Lennon is going to appear in the televised seance planned for pay-per-view on April 24th.

Another MySpace Post

Peter of LoneTree sent me this story (thank you) about a North Carolina college student that had his computer confiscated because he changed the lyrics of a song that he put on his MySpace site so it would be about Bush instead of Kennedy. Alex Jones believes that MySpace is a Trojan Horse that will be used to seize control of the internet. Be sure to check out Alex Jones MySpace site. It's got a lot of great posts from his friends and I love the theme song.

Favorite News From Last Week

Pew Research:

The Birth of a Blondesense Mascot?

Another Mark Morford Must Read. This one REALLY touches the soul. WOW

If I may make an addition to the "Winning Hearts & Minds" post...

I figured that, considering the GIANT WHOPPING FUCKING HUGE PILES of cognitive dissonance in Dumbya's quote in Liz's article 2 posts below, that THIS would be an appropriate addition to the theme. Big thanks to Archie sending me the graphic.

There May Be Hope

Just sat down with my 14 -year- old to have her open up some of her friend's myspace homepages to "share" with her nosy mother. Here I am, of course expecting the worse, you know....all that bad bad you keep hearing about myspace. Well, anyway the first one she brings up has the following posted:

Rock Against Bush


The President, First Lady and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy."Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy."Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy."Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. Hell, I could throw all of them out of the window and make 56 million people very happy.


I just looked at my smart, beautiful, "little" woman and said - "you go girl - so far I like your first friend!!". I'll let you know if I stumble on anything else of interest.

America: Winning Hearts And Minds Everywhere

More pics at BBC


VOA NEWS With falling public support for the war, President Bush says he understands that Americans are skeptical about how things are going there, amid what he calls horrific images of reprisal killings, car bombings and kidnapping.

"Amid continued reports about the tense situation in parts of that country, it may seem difficult at times to understand how we can say that progress is being made," said Mr. Bush. "But, the reaction to the recent violence by Iraq's leaders is a clear sign of Iraq's commitment to democracy."


Wait until Americans wake up and give a clear sign of their committment to democracy.

Marijuana Candy Factory

How about splitting a"Pot Tart" for breakfast anyone?

This is too funny

Demon Of The Derby

One of the original badassed broads died on Tuesday. Ann Cavello, if you're not old enough to remember rollerderby (or missed the weekend reruns in the '70s) on TV, was not called the "Meanest Mama On Skates" and, of course, the "Roller Derby Queen" for nothin'. She busted heads, she won by the skin of her teeth, and she didn't apologize for SHIT, let alone for being herself.

Wheel screech to my long-lost twin, Stinkeye, she of the melodious pew-thrashing, for the tip.

What if...

What if you could only bring 1 CD and 1 book when you are carted off to a secret Pentagon concentration camp. What would those be?

GOP Might Get Even More Desperate For Votes

Everyone knows that the Republicans have pandered to christian fundamentalists in order to maintain their majority status because after all, the majority of Americans are not greedy corporate pigs and it's hard to get votes from the middle class when you represent CEO's and stockholders. The christian fundies aren't corporate pigs but their leaders are, so they are led by their intolerence turned hatred of homosexuals and those heterosexuals who have sex for pleasure.

Apparently the evangelical "leaders" are getting some flack from the flock because they are complaining to the GOP that they haven't done enough for the fundies also called "Core values voters". But what are core values and what do they have to do with Christianity? Not much. Nevertheless, the fundies may not turn out to vote if their demands aren't met. The GOP is worried.

Fundies believe that birth control and abortion cause promiscuity. Promiscuity is a threat to their marriages but birth control doesn't seem to do anything to stop it based on the number of teenage pregnancies throughout history. It's a threat to any relationship, gay or straight. Their religion isn't enough to make them behave themselves? They think a law will make people behave? Good luck. If hell fire doesn't scare people into submission... I don't know what will.

The leaders appear to be reflecting a growing sense of frustration among the Christian right, over what they see as a lack of legislative progress on issues such as banning same-sex marriages. -BBC News

They say that if gay people get married, it will threaten their marriages. Fundies are already insecure in their marriages or they wouldn't give a shit what anyone else was doing. Maybe a lot of them are gay but haven't acted on it and their ungay spouses are afraid that their partner will leave them for another person of the same sex if gay marriage is legalized. What other reason on earth can you think of that would make same sex marriages a threat to heterosexual marriages?

Why not ban divorce in their religion like the Catholics did? It's in the bible and it's very clear that Jesus did not approve of divorce. You don't even need to be a biblical exegete to figure that out. You don't see Catholics begging law makers to ban divorce. If you're a devout Catholic, then you endure your lousy spouse until death do you part and the sooner the better. Think "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf. Catholics voted for GOPsters based on the abortion issue regardless of the fact that the GOP also condones capital punishment and unjust wars. But Catholicism is a huge tax exempt enterprise so they make concessions and the flock obliges. If you're gay and devoutly Catholic, then you become a priest.

I've been unhappily married to a Catholic for 29 years and whether or not gay people get married has no bearing on my utter unhappiness and we vote Democrat all the time even though we're Republicans.

If fundy leaders banned divorce among their flock, then they wouldn't be able to deliver votes to their partners in the GOP. It's best to keep them afraid and full of hatred. I'm curious as to how this is going to play out. I suspect we'll see a big push against gay marriage again real soon. oy vay. What a smoke screen.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Shot an e-mail off to one of my favorite correspondents "Wolfwoman" this a.m. which included these headlines from Googlenews:

MINNESOTA: Bush proposes removing some wolf protections
Grand Forks Herald - 4 hours ago
By Lisa Gibson and John Myers. Farmers and ranchers in northwestern Minnesota would have broader leeway to shoot and trap nuisance wolves under a new proposal made Thursday by the Bush Administration. US Interior ...
Great Lakes gray wolves no longer endangered - US Reuters
Wolves to be delisted Minnesota Public Radio
Newsday - Xinhua - Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription) - Duluth News Tribune - all 116 related »

Her reply included this comment: "Yes, this is one of the items that Defenders of Wildlife has been focused on lately. I love how when something finally makes it off the endangered list, it ends up right at the top of the Republican party's kill list."

Check out Karen's website at Lair of the White Wolf.

Thank Goodness, I Can Sleep At Night Again

Several months ago, out of a kind of morbid curiousity, I joined the mailing list of Dr. Bill "Cat Killer" Frist's political action committee, VolPac. Periodically, I get an email letting me know about the things he's doing in Washington, presumably those of which he is most proud. Got one of those emails yesterday.

Thanks goodness, I can sleep at night again. Because never fear, The Cat Killer has introduced a new bill to "ensure the security of our nation's borders." And guess what, he's not just pretending, he really is a supporter of Israel. So much so, he wants to make sure that the good ole US of A has a great big wall, just like Israel, all along the border with Mexico. And, he's gonna let the military patrol it. Here are some of the good doctor's bright ideas:

"Over the next six years, my bill will add nearly 15,000 additional border protection agents to augment the 20,000 Customs and Border Protection agents already on the job (2,400 new agents annually)

Specifically authorizes 1,250 border agents and 1,250 port-of entry inspection agents

Requires Defense Department cooperation on the border, e.g. unmanned drones

Begins process of building a 1,951 mile virtual barrier across every inch of our border with Mexico that will combine walls and fences in high traffic areas and sensors to let our Customs and Border Patrol Agents see and hear those who try and cross through low traffic areas

Requires fingerprint database connectivity between FBI and Border Patrol"


No word on how we pay for these things, naturally. I guess we'll find that out in this week's episode of "Fuck the Poor".

Yes, I feel safer already.

Green Memories

We always had St Patrick's day off from high school. How could you concentrate on school when there was so much beer that needed to be consumed? We started drinking on the Long Island Railroad trains early in the morning. The trains were full of students from Saint this or Saint that school. Good Catholic students staggering off the trains at 9:30 in the morning. The drinking age was 18 and everyone had "proof".

My memories are pretty fuzzy now, but I remember the long walk along 5th Avenue going uptown looking for a good spot, preferably near a bathroom to view the parade. The parade was mostly catholic school bands which we would cheer or jeer and bagpipe playing firemen and policemen wearing kilts. Why were so many firefighters and cops Irish? We waited for the wind to blow. It isn't really a fabulous looking parade come to think of it. Who cared though? We were there to party. We peed in the bathrooms of some of the nation's finest department stores on 5th Avenue. That might have been the only time many of us would ever step foot into those stores.

I then went to Manhattan College in the Bronx for 2 years. It was a notorious Irish drinking and engineering school at the time. We took the subway down to the parade. Hundreds of us. Loaded to the gills. Some of the guys in the Gaelic society let a few of us girls march with them in the parade for the first time when I was there as the school was newly co-ed. Marching wasn't that fun though because you just walked and it was boring. We jumped off the parade into the crowd when we spotted our friends.

Years later when I was working at Citicorp on 53rd and Park, I strolled over to 5th on my lunch hour to watch the St Patrick's day parade for old time's sake. I actually ran into some old college friends of mine standing on a corner wearing corporate attire and just doing what I was doing. Watching. Thinking. Wondering what the big deal was.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's St. Pat's day, it's lent, it's Friday --- damn, can't have that corned beef sandwich for lunch ! Oh, but wait - I heard the Pope said it was O.K. - some kind of special exception made for St. Patrick's Day. But I didn't catch if all meat was o.k. today or if it is JUST corned beef. Help...I don't want to screw things up - maybe I'll play it safe and just stick with the corned beef - you know, I wouldn't want to break any rules or anything.

Debt is Good Credit

In today's episode of Fuck The Poor, the Senate voted fuck everyone to raise the debt limit allowing the government borrow another $781 billion without raising taxes or cutting frivolous spending. This means that each and every American now owes $30,000.

Amazingly, "After the vote, Treasury Secretary John Snow applauded Congress for "protecting the full faith and credit of the United States," saying it ensures that the government "can deliver on promises already made, such as Social Security and Medicare payments and aid for the victims of the 2005 hurricanes.""

Another bright light Charles Grassley, R-Iowa said, "It is necessary to preserve the full faith and credit of the federal government."

So if you borrow outrageously, they just keep raising the debt limit just like if a Repuke breaks the law, the Repukes change the law or make a new one.

Just in

According to ThinkProgress,

The House defeated an amendment proposed by Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN) that would have provided $1.25 billion in desperately needed funding for port security and disaster preparedness. The Sabo amendment included:

– $300 million to enable U.S. customs agents to inspect high-risk containers at all 140 overseas ports that ship directly to the United States. Current funding only allows U.S. customs agents to operate at 43 of these ports.

– $400 million to place radiation monitors at all U.S. ports of entry. Currently, less than half of U.S. ports have radiation monitors.

– $300 million to provide backup emergency communications equipment for the Gulf Coast.

Are you getting the feeling, like I am, that these bastards don't want secure ports? Or maybe they know that the only threat to America is our own government.

Life In A Small (Redneck) Town

When I go back home and bump into old friends and family, the conversation almost always starts with a recitation of the near or recently dead and disintegrates into sputtering frustration when it's obvious I have no idea who they're talking about. I know people who can spend a solid forty-five minutes eulogizing a fifth cousin twice removed (don't ask me removed from what) without coming up for air.

It's a small town thing, perhaps, but when you reach your fifties, you no longer greet one another at the Piggly Wiggly with "How are you?" Nope. They always start with a hushed and ominous, "Well, I guess you heard about Joyleen?"

The news that follows generally falls into two categories. Either Joyleen has abandoned her husband and children and run off with the repo man at the Rent-a-Center or she's gone to that great double-wide in the sky, where the streets are paved with asphalt and all the men pay their child support on time and you don't even have to "garish" their wages, as my friend Maudie-Lou calls it.
Maudie Lou swears she let the good one get away.
"Sure, all he done all day was smoke pot and watch Gunsmoke," she said wistfully, "but I think it's just 'cuz he loved Festus."

Sometimes, the trip back home is to "funeralize," something rednecks love to do because funeral food is so good. I've always thought that people who died in July are the most thoughtful because you just know there will be fresh butterbeans and tomatoes still warm from the garden when you pay your respects.

Ghoulish, you say? Not at all. That's how Bobby Rae would've wanted it. I least I think it is.

If we're not going home to funeralize, we're probably visiting a nursing home.
The last time I visited Long Suffering's aunt at the Golden Garden of Despair, I was a little late getting to her room because there was a sweet ol' thing pushing a walker standing at the entrance and screaming to anybody who came inside: "Can't anybody in this place tell me how I can get saved?"

My aunt-in-law's roommate was a pistol. Auntie shooed her away as she came over and foraged for one of the Payday bars she knew Auntie stashed in her bedside table. "I can't keep a decent candy bar in this place," she hissed. I was a little embarrassed by Auntie's outspokenness but I didn't need to be.
"She's deaf as a post," said Auntie. "Can't hear a thing." But it didn't stop her from trying.

While I told Auntie about my grandson's first trip to the bowling alley , the roommate perked up. "Is that Clyde's Blowing, the one who used to run the wash-a-teria?" Roomie smiled widely.

"Yes, he was an alley cat, that Clyde. I think he was from up North, that's some kind of I-talian name. He may have been from Iowa." Auntie looked like she wanted to scream but simply reached into her nightstand drawer, extracted a Payday and started chewing, her dentures snapping like castanets. Roomie decided this was a good time to hold court on all things Yankee.

"They tip for everthing," she said. "You probably know that since you know Clyde so well." Auntie rolled her eyes and made elaborate circles in the air beside her temple. I had to agree with some of what Roomie was saying. Like every former waitress, I tell Roomie, I am a generous tipper, but the proliferation of tip jars is starting to piss me off.

Frankly, after I've paid over three bucks for a small coffee, I'm thinking the tip is probably included. It's not like counter boy is Juan Valdez out there tying up the donkey and hauling the beans in from the back room. And, if I do tip the jar, I consider it kind of a waste if no one sees me do it. It's the age-old question: "If a tip falls in a jar and nobody saw it, did it really happen?"

The copy shop now has a tip jar on the counter to reward employees who do what they were hired to do. You know. Make copies.

Although I could tell Auntie just wished I'd stop encouraging her, I told Roomie that I'd seen a jar recently that contained a long-winded plea that ended with "the rent is due and things are pretty tight." "I love Fair night, too," Roomie said. Right. Fair night.

"You know what the best part is?" Roomie asked. "The sidshows! I once got to see the World's Tiniest Man and it was the truth. He was so little he could fit inside a teacup and his legs even dangle off the sides!"

Auntie perked up a bit at the discussion of sideshows. "Biggest ripoff I ever saw," she said, ripping into another Payday. "I paid extra to see the girl who was born with two bladders. She just sood there grinning at us. I mean, when you think about it, it's not like you can really tell."

We agreed that, next time the fair was in town, we'd visit, the three of us. I knew Auntie would eat too many deep-friend Snickers and Roomie would never be able to hear those Air Supply tunes they blast all over the fair grounds, but it would be fun if they had the diving mules again.

"You're right!" screeched Roomie. "Those Yankees are driving fools! Make it dangerous for all of us, you know."
'Deed I do.

Now I'm really getting pissy

Ok ladies, time to start manufacuturing our own chastity belts and making sure that anything that comes near our sensitive nether regions is either shooting blanks or is battery operated.

Missouri has banned funding for birth control, big shock I know. Apparently they feel allowing clinics to dispense or prescribe birth control will lead to orgies in the street. Of course we all know what this is really about, control and cannon fodder, nothing more nothing less.

One badly needing to be bitch slapped member stated that "Taxpayers should not be forced to fund programs they find morally disturbing"... well fine. Give me my tax money back, ALL of it. I find the war, profiteering, bribery, lying and soooooo many other things this adminstration does morally disturbing I can barely function anymore. And I am so sick and tired of religion being substituted for logic and good sense I'm ready to find a liberal militia group (wonder if such a beast exists) and start marching, or at the very least patrolling. I want these backassward mouth breathers to stay away from my state, my womb and my daughter.

Operation Swarmer

Liz - Thank you for the opportunity to post at blondesense. As I sat down to begin my first post, I turned on the tv (background noise) to faux (yes, I do force myself to listen to other people's interpretation of our world)

I had something entirely different in mind to post, but now, I look in awe at what is playing out in front of me and I can't focus. I feel like I'm in the middle of a promotional video that is selling the latest, coolest, 3D war video game to ever hit the shelves!! OH wait, game over; now Scottie boy is on with the "cheat cheat notes"

My thoughts immediately turn to O'Brien's words to Winston (I'm not an Orwellian nut or anything like that). Just finished "1984" for a sociology course I recently took. O'Brien is torturing Winston. He is explaining what power means, going on and on that it is all about loyalty to the party. He then says "Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face.....forever. link


My dear goddess above... is he right?

Misty water colored memories of the way we were

It was the Sunday before bush invaded Iraq- a sunny cool day on Long Island. I was meeting a local musician at a cemetery for a photo shoot (his idea and remind me to tell you about the time I was shooting a band at a haunted insane asylum). We didn't talk about politics as I was concentrating on the lighting that day. After a great shoot, he suggested that we head over to the train station down the block to get some moody, "You don't love me, I'm going away" shots. Capital idea, I thought.

The train station was near a lot of cemeteries rather than a residential area. It was deserted and provided a great backdrop for the lonesome musician with his guitar on his back. A few Long Island Railroad trains blasted through there without stopping. There was plenty of time for him to get off the tracks as the trains here like to blow their whistles excessively miles in advance of a road crossing. We took some shots on the lonely platform and the lonely waiting room as the sun streamed low in the west highlighting my subject's lonely long blonde hair.

We were wrapping it up, smoking cigarettes and talking before we departed in our respective all American automobiles, when several policecars and transit authority cops pulled into the parking area surrounding us. They had reports of terrorist activity. We reported that we had been there for about an hour and hadn't seen anything suspicious nor were there any middle easterners there doing anything suspicious. The cops informed us that he and I fit the description of the possible terrorists. Huh? I still had PTSD from 9/11. We were in our 40's, we both had blonde hair and he had blue eyes, me, green eyes. We were about as boy and girl next door looking Americans as you can get... except that we were middle aged.

We were informed that since 9/11, it was deemed illegal to take photographs at train stations. I noted that there were no signs to that effect and we most certainly had no intentions of breaking any laws or blowing anything up as we were lifetime residents of the island and we kind of liked it. We were also at one of the boringest lines of the LIRR and it was a Sunday when ridership was almost zero. I can't imagine why terrorists would target a place like that- the train station at the cemetery?

We had to show our ID, have the cops call in to check us for priors, let them check the pictures on my camera and search our cars and we were let off with a warning and next time, we'd be arrested for tresspassing at a railroad station. It was almost Alice's Restaurant-like.

Three years later, I still recall my heart racing at that train station at dusk. I was hoping against hope that we wouldn't invade Iraq until UN report on WMD's was analyzed. I didn't believe anything the government said after 9/11. Now I read about pacifist groups being targeted by the FBI as a threat to national security. I read about little old ladies being searched at airports, American citizens being wiretapped and being told that it's ok for Dubai Ports to oversee what is shipped into this country. I am now convinced more than ever that our government perceives the American people as the greatest threat to the military takeover of the world.
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PS: The photograph accompanying this article is from the time I got a flat tire under the FDR drive in Harlem. I was taking pictures of the pot hole (in the summer, mind you) that attacked my car and noticed the sign warning that it was a crime to take pictures. So I took some. Many policecars drove by while we were there taking pictures of holes and each other. They simply waved to us. Good luck whitey. Earlier that day, my car was searched as we attempted to park behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Let us sing: God bless America, land that I love!

Gay Marriage

No, I have not yet seen the result of the Pennsylvania 'marriage protection' brujah but I am hoping that the Eastern End of the state will counteract the Mid-State narrow minded asshats.

But as I was scanning the web to see what, if any news there was, I came across this, and I think it bears repeating, often and loudly, to MANY of our elected officials who seek to make THEIR vision of Christianity the law of OUR land.

On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"

Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

The room erupted into applause.


Hurray and amen!! We need to commit that turn of phrase to memory and make it part of everyday language, much like the 'where's the beef', 'got milk' and other such memorable commercial catch phrases. WWJD? How about WWBFD (Ben Franklin) or Washington, or Jefferson, or Einstein, or Sagan, the list goes on and on.

Hoping you survied the Ides of March and that open-minded, intellectual liberals can save what is left of this country, starting with EQUAL, CIVIL rights for ALL citizens of the USA, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.

Dumbya & the lie-detector

(Al Hill just sent me this, and I had to post it!)

George W Bush said he was sick of people accusing him of lying us into war.

Today he met with a gentleman from the CIA to administer a lie detector test to settle the matter once and for all.

The agent explained the test to Bush.
He told him that he would ask a series of questions.
He told Bush that when he told the truth the light would turn green, and if he told a lie, then the light would turn red.
After explaining that to him, the agent asked Bush if he understood, and Bush said, "Yes."

The light turned red.

Bush Approval 33%

Not low enough. But we're getting there.

Check out the summary of findings from Pew Research. interesting.

The DemocraticNational Committee Wants to Know What's on My Mind

I got a letter in the mail yesterday, a "Special Notice for Red State Blues". It's from the Democratic National Committee and they want to know what's on my mind. Well, I've got a piece of my mind I'd like to give them alright. Mostly about how they need to get up off the floor and get their asses back in the game. Unfortunately, it's just a check-the-box survey, with no place for me to give them comments. Otherwise, they'd get an earfull, fer shur.

Still, one question caught my eye and really made me think. It asked me to rank the most important issues to me, from 1 to 10. So I thought I'd put it to the BlondeSense readership. How would you rank the following in importance to you:

Improving public education
Protecting the environment
National security/foreign policy
Economic/tax policy
Reproductive freedom
Social security reform
Civil rights and liberties
Health care affordability
National energy policy

It's tough!

Thanks much to Liz for inviting me to participate in the blog. This redhead is pleased as punch to be an honorary blonde.

Invertebrate Zoology

That's what you need to study in order to understand the Democratic Party-- a specialization in jellyfish would be optimum as they kind of just drift along following the currents because they possess no backbone, no muscle and are not grounded in any way. The come in blue or red and sometimes clear so that you can barely notice them.

Elephants are always at war, so a little old jellyfish sting is viewed as a temporary annoyance and a tiny price to pay in the grand cost of war. Plus jellyfish don't stick around to see what happens after they sting.

Elephants dismiss any discomfort caused by the jellyfish as political. Elephants after all have no politics. In fact the jellyfish are the ones with no politics because if one stings an elephant, the rest of the jellyfish manage to catch the next current out of there because they don't like to be stomped on. It makes such a gooey mess.

DBK, the blogger formerly known as Frogsdong, addresses the invertebrate issue in If I am not for me, who will be?

"The Democrats aren't there, not as a body, united and working together for the good of the people. They have allowed this president to commit crimes against the Constitution and against Americans and the Democrats have barely uttered a peep. When someone like Senator Feingold stands up and takes the fight to the Republicans, seeking to restore some sense of law in our government, the Democrats stick their heads under a blanket until the mean man goes away, or worse, renounce him."

Senator Feingold's number: (202) 224-5323

US To Keep Bases In Iraq

Even when the bushistas claimed that they weren't going to do that, no one believed them. Now Abizaid says that long term military presence "to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect the flow of oil." Long term military presence in Iraq will also bolster terrorists. Reuters

I have this

Sleep-related eating disorder. But I don't take Ambien. I eat perfectly healthy meals during the day, but something happens at night. I wake up with mysterious ice cream stains on my nightgown or have crumbs on my face and cookies stuck in my teeth. I had to tell my family that no matter how much I beg, to not bring anything sweet or ultra fattening into the house unless they plan to eat it immediately or hide it well. I have claimed that ice cream calls me in my dreams. Even flavors that I don't like during the daytime. I wake up with a sugar hangover. Why can't fruits and vegetables call me in my sleep? Why can't I just sleep in peace? I should be handcuffed to the bed.

This article about Ambien and midnight forays into the refrigerator is being printed out and brought to my doctor next time. Perhaps one of the meds I take is causing this. Anyway, if you're taking Ambien and are gaining weight mysteriously...

Google search

My gentle readers have nothing to worry about. So what if Google turns over search terms to the government? Big deal. Like I'm the only person who ever searched for 'pedophile ring + white house' or 'nazi + neocon' or 'sodomy + congress'. Ok maybe I use the search term 'fascist' too much. But hey it's a free country.

Supposedly the bushistas want to know who is looking at child pornography. Why don't they just look in the mirror? Wouldn't it just be easier to find those who are hosting kiddie porn websites and deal with them to find out where it's originating? Oh wait, they probably already know where it's coming from, if you get my drift. But if they want to know who's looking at it, they ought to confiscate all the computers in congressmen's offices and churches.

This just in...

Pat Robertson is Projecting Again

Winning Hearts and Minds

Television evangelist Pat Robertson said Monday on his live news-and-talk program "The 700 Club" that Islam is not a religion of peace, and that radical Muslims are "satanic."

Robertson's comments came after he watched a news story on his Christian Broadcasting Network about Muslim protests in Europe over the cartoon drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

He remarked that the outpouring of rage elicited by cartoons "just shows the kind of people we're dealing with. These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it's motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with."

Robertson also said that "the goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination."

Meanwhile that other outspoken embodiment of Christ on earth, Jerry Falwell, wants you to know that Jews are going to hell.

Jimmy Olsen was Lutheran

While perusing the website, Adherents.com to check out the world religion statistics, I came across this page: The Religion of Comic Book Characters
For instance, Superman was Methodist. Jimmy Olsen was Lutheran.
And even more exciting was the illustrated page of Religious Super Teams
DC Comics Superheros were mostly all Episcopalian. Who knew?

And while you're out perusing interesting websites

Flame turned me on to The Museum Of Bad Album Covers
Now that was hilarious, especially the religious ones. The McKeithens? Say that out loud.

Peter is interested in what happened to the real Paul McCartney

Barb notifies us that Bird Flu is Coming To America
They suggest you stock up on tuna. Doesn't that cause mercury poisoning?
I suggest that Cheney shoot the birds as they fly in.

Vicki's got an article about Catholics and Gay Discrimination. It's funny that most of the Catholic hierarchy is um.... gay.
I was just thinking of a party I went to at my cousin's house on Fire Island a couple of summers ago. The majority of attendees were gay priests- Catholic and Episcopal. Very cute guys.

Vicki wants you to see the Folk Songs of the Right Wing. They have folk songs?

Lalock says that Bartcop has a list of presidential IQ's. Yes, the bush's have the lowest IQ's.

Want to read something scary? ROF sent me a link to this article: God's Senator
Kansas Senator Brownback has been annointed as the Christian Right's next candidate for president. Can you spell theocracy?

who's afraid of George Clooney?

George Clooney has really upset the conservatives. Jonah Goldberg lashed out at him in National Review in an embarrassing string of lamely linked non sequiturs. Mr. Goldberg wants to give Mr. Clooney a history lesson but first attempts to link Mr. Clooney with some of the reportedly odd things that Hollywood people contract with their hired help to do. He says that Sean Penn requires his staff to swim for his cigarettes and Barbra Streisand requires her staff not to make eye contact with her. Goldberg offers no authentication of these contractual agreements, so who knows what Mr. Goldberg has in his employment contract or requires of his hired help, but that isn't the point. Mr. Goldberg is in need of a history lesson himself. Perhaps, he does remember that Sean Penn's father was blacklisted and Barbra Streisand was on Nixon's Enemies' List.

Clooney, in his acceptance speech for best supporting actor in Syriana, noted that he is proud to be associated with liberalism and with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because it promotes liberal ideas like integration and equality. He cited Hattie McDaniel's "Oscar" award for Gone With the Wind. Ms. McDaniel was not allowed to attend the premier of the film in Atlanta, Georgia because that was, of course, a segregated city. Blacks and whites could not sit together in movie theaters. Goldberg snickered that in Ms. McDaniel's acceptance speech she said she hoped that she would always be a "credit to her race." That expression, in the parlance of the times was a way that many whites backhandedly complimented blacks. But don't you think, Mr. Goldberg, that Ms. McDaniel, in her moment, might be allowed to speak to the world in a manner that they understood? Perhaps she was slyly sarcastic? Perhaps she was turning the insult on them. Sure the movie was simplistic and depended on racial stereotypes, but it also captivated audiences with a brilliant, strong, driven woman who Ms. McDaniel's character spoke to woman to woman about her own conduct. And what would Mammie do, Mr. Goldberg, go into the open arms of that bastion of equality, the North? Should she have simply gone to work as a domestic in say Washington, D.C. ? Would it be possible that people could treat each other as people against the backdrop of inequality?

The only thing uncomplicated about race is the fact that it is very, very complicated. But Mr. Clooney's mention of Ms. McDaniel isn't really the point, is it? Attempting to discredit him by reminding everyone of how racist things were in 1939 doesn't really give Republicans a pass on racism today, does it? I suppose you are surprised as George W. Bush that people reacted with "one Arab is like another Arab" over the Dubai controversy. Never mind that Republicans play the race card even when that card isn't on the table or dealt but rather just up their sleve.

Have Republicans forgotten they were the party of that radical liberal Abraham Lincoln? If the Southern treatment of blacks so offended Republicans, why the hell didn't you progressive bastards do something about it? No, it was Democrats John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson not Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower or Joseph McCarthy working for equality, was it?

Why are you so afraid of Mr. Clooney? Is it because he has called conservatives on their support of Joseph McCarthy and the same red-baiting that conservatives do today when they hurl "liberal" at anyone who doesn't march, er, goose-step with them? Do you really think that George Clooney is a threat to the strangle hold conservative have on the body politic in America? Might he demystify conservatism's propaganda?

But thank you Mr. Goldberg for taking Mr. Clooney seriously. If he is one of the Hollywood elite that so disturbs your NASCAR watching rednecks--you know--the ones that hate blacks and will not vote for Condi Rice for president, then why give him public space and make him a threat? Did you learn your lesson from McCarthy that the worst thing someone can do to their threat is pay attention to them? Had the media not paid attention to McCarthy's lies in the first place, they wouldn't have had to correct their mistake.

The Hollywood Blacklist contained mostly Jewish writers, actors, directors, and oh yes, some blacks, too. I guess that Mr. Goldberg is proud to be associated with McCarthyism and the Republican Party. He doesn't say that he is a Margaret Chase Smith Republican, either.

Now you are going to have to deal with Clooney because you have made Hollywood Liberalism more important than it was. Clooney can take his well deserved place among Hollywoord Liberals like members of the Lauren Becall and Gene Kelly and Danny Kaye and Marilyn Monroe-- people who spoke out against McCarthyism-- or were they all communists, too? Now who is sounding like McCarthy?

Censured

Oh I just loooove a Democrat with balls. Sen Feingold D-Wisconsin is on CSPAN2 now introducing his censure resolution. (frist had a little hissy fit at first) He claims that the president went out of his way to tell Americans in his speeches that they were only wiretapping the legal way through FISA. Bush insisted many times that he was following the letter of the law in regard to domestic eaves dropping, as Sen Feingold is pointing out, even though he knew he wasn't telling the truth.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE
Sen Specter of Pa, is now arguing that the president may have inherent authority under article 2 of the constitution. He wants to ask Sen Feingold, who left the building, if a statute (FISA) trumps the constitution. I say that this question still doesn't diminish the fact that the POTUS constistently lied about domestic spying. If a president can get impeached for lying about a blowjob, this is a much more serious charge and should be pursued.

Specter doesn't disagree with the whole resolution however.

Specter calls Frist one of the gang of 8 who was briefed on the president's wire tapping activity and Specter agrees with Feingold that the whole congress should have been briefed. Frist insisted that spying on American citizens is a lawful program but Specter says that since no one knows what bush told the gang of 8, and since Frist has no judicial expertise, the charges bear investigating.

Stay tuned.

Specter is saying that the President didn't act in bad faith. I tend to disagree with Specter in that if you have to lie about what you are doing, then you are acting in bad faith.

Dick Durbin D-Ill and Specter are debating now.

Stay tuned.

Sen Jeff Sessions is on now saying how the senate did in fact vote to send our soldiers overseas to kill the enemy and this is a time of war so the government has the right to monitor conversations. He says it's wrong to undermine the president during the time of war.

What some of these Senators are forgetting is that they work for us, the people of the United States, not the President. If the president is suspected of wrong doing, then he should be investigated whether we are at war or not. A war is a fine time for an administration to take advantage of the American people. I am surprised that in order to run for office, it is not necessary for the candidates to fully understand what the branches of government are, what they do and have an understanding of the history of the government.

In cases of rape or incest...

We keep hearing about the abortion issue again and new legislation popping up around the country seeking to put an end to abortion. Last week we discussed the ludicrous comments by Sen Napoli of SD who essentially said that if a girl who is a devout christian and virgin and intended to stay a virgin until marriage was brutally raped AND sodomized that she would qualify for an abortion. I have news for him. Someone that saintly probably wouldn't want to have an abortion. But that's not the point. Either you ban abortions straight across the board because you believe that it is murder (with the exception to save the mother) or you shut the hell up and work to make abortions a rare occurence. Birth control comes to mind.

If someone truly believes that abortion is the murder of a person, then there should be no rape or incest exceptions. Not even for the most saintly girl in the neighborhood. You can't murder someone just because you don't like their father.

If the federal government deems that abortion is indeed murder, then it should be an outright crime like any other murder, in every state. Why ask the states to take on the responsibility to decide? Murder is murder. How can abortion be murder in one state and not another? It seems to me that the general uneducated, un-thought-out opinion is more like, "Abortion is murder, but...." Sounds like more of a moral issue than a legal issue and in that case moral issues are relative.

Politicians who jump on the "pro-life" bandwagon ought to stop and think before they open their mouths, if it's at all possible.

Newsweek reports:

Asked whether he supported the South Dakota law, Sen. John McCain riffled through his mental notecards and said he didn't know the "technical" details of the law. But he said he would support the measure if it were consistent with his long-held view that abortion should be banned except in cases of rape or incest—or to protect, as he put it, the "health" of the mother.

McCain is wishy washy. Either you view abortion as murder or you don't. Make up your mind. What details do you need to know? Are you a moral theologian or a legislator? If you were a moral theologian, you wouldn't have voted for bush to invade and bomb the shit out of Iraq.

Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who is vying for the evangelical vote, strongly backed the South Dakota law. "I'd have signed it," he told NEWSWEEK. "Rape and incest are horrible crimes, but why punish the innocent child?"

Well at least Brownback is consistent. Nothing is written about who Sen Brownback thinks should be charged with causing this murder. The rapist? The girl's incestuous father? The girl for arousing the man? A murder has still occurred, hasn't it? Or is this like Florida where you can shoot someone because you think that the other person was going to shoot you first, hence murder is sometimes justified? But in the Florida law, the person who gets killed under the shoot first, ask questions later law, at least gave some indication that he or she was up to no good. An embryo or a fetus doesn't even get that chance.

Or maybe, just maybe, they really don't believe that abortion is murder in the same way as the murder of an already born person and it's just a control issue. It's almost as if allowing abortions in the cases of incest or rape is protecting the father. Think about it.

The above is written in devil's advocate mode. sort of.

Porn Star Takes On DC

I needed a good laugh. I am just going to post the whole press release because it doesn't need my commentary. Miss Carey is delightfully hilarious:

Chatsworth, CA (PRWEB) March 10, 2006 -- Adult film starlet and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey is scheduled to attend the prestigious United to Victory dinner with President George W. Bush in Washington D.C on March 15th - 16th.

In addition, due to Carey's efforts in starting Mary Carey Productions, Inc. in 2005, Carey will receive the 2005 California Businesswoman of the Year award.

"I'm always excited to learn more about what's going on in our nation's capital, since most people in the porn industry think an Iraqi pullout is a form of safe sex," quipped Carey. "Since I'm seriously considering running for governor of California again, I'm going to need a lot of support from Republican lawmakers nationwide - however I can get it."

At the invitation of the Nation Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Mary Carey will meet and interact with key Congressional leaders and Administration officials to discuss advancing powerful pro-business, pro-family agendas and meeting positive legislative goals. She will join Karl Rove, senior advisor to the President, for lunch on Wednesday the 15th, and President Bush for dinner on Thursday the 16th.

"I'm really excited to be going back to Washington D.C. to see the president again," said Carey. "Everyone thinks that politicians are stuffy, but we all had a great time last year, and I had fun signing a lot of autographs. Wait till they see that I have lost 20 pounds since the last time they saw me. Watch out Mr. President!"

Carey made national headlines in June of 2005, when she attended a similar dinner with President George W. Bush, also at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

Big Love

"It's hard enough to put up with one woman's crying, vomiting, and cutting remarks about the size and virility of our little soldiers. I can't imagine doubling or tripling it would make it any better." - Jesus' General

Did anyone catch the premiere of HBO's Big Love last evening? It's about a polygamist and his wives living in Utah. I thought I'd learn something from the show about this lifestyle, but it appeared to have been written without much inside information. The scenario is something anyone could have figured out while contemplating a family with 3 wives- jealousy, rivalry, insecurity, financial strains, too many children to keep track of and of course, erectile dysfunction. It is HBO afterall, so the sex plays a big part just like in real life. Not. The acting was good though and it's just a show, like the Sopranos and Six Feet Under-- quirky and psychological.

Newsweek has a story Polygamists, Unite! about activists who are jumping on the gay marriage bandwagon calling polygamy a civil rights issue. I don't think it's going to be a big movement. But who knows.

The sun is going to go away for a little while, but don't worry, it will come back.

Please don't have riots.
The Nigerian government is warning residents not to freak out when the solar eclipse occurs on March 29th. They envisage that people may only feel some social and psychological discomforts.

About 5 years ago during another solar eclipse, all hell broke loose in a northern Borno state and caused riots.

Rummy Cashes In on Bird Flu

What's with this administration and birds and making a killing?

It sure paid off for Rummy to hang on to the Tamiflu stock and recuse himself from bird flu matters because he owns a load of it. He made $5 million selling some shares in 2004. Can't wait to see how much he made in 2005. He still owns about $96 million in shares.


Meanwhile ABC News explains how bird flu can change your life.

Memphis Survives But She'll Never Be The Same

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference ended today and lord knows what kind of schemes they spent the weekend dreaming up for this poor country. Here's the agenda. Looks like you could either attend the RNC 72-hour training session,an hour and a half of learning to speak in talking points, or the RNC voter vault training session, where you could learn the finer points of disenfranchisement and Rovian cold-calling. Glad to see they took time out from their evil-doing to watch the march of the Peabody ducks.

If you really need to laugh then please read Ken Mehlman's remarks to the conference. He says, "Usually we're not telling the truth." The rest of his speech confirms that remark.

Oh, and the winner of the straw poll...Bill Frist. Look out 2008.

New Bill Makes Telling American People That Bush is Breaking the Law A Crime

Orwell rolls over in his grave

Frist: I hope the Iraqi's aren't listening

Sen Feingold was talking to George Stephenopoulis on "This Week" calling on the Senate to publicly admonish President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without first seeking a legally required court order. Seems fair to me.

Even if wiretapping is supposedly an essential tool in the war against terror as bush asserts, the other tools must be worse. I don't feel any safer.

Frist was on the show next and was just 'shocked' and 'awed' at Feingold's assertions. He offered no reason to back up his dismay, "Russ is just wrong, he is flat wrong, he is dead wrong." That's always a good Republican response.

Frist called the censure attempt "political" and a "terrible, terrible signal" to enemies of the U.S. abroad. He assured Stephanopoulos that the resolution would never gain traction in the Republican-controlled Senate.

What signal? That the war in Iraq is going to escalate?

Frist said he was “hoping deep inside that the leadership in Iran…[was] not listening.”

Probably not. They are too busy being blown up.

You know sometimes, I would love to have the opportunity to throw up on a man like Frist. How many times have we been hearing the word, "Political" or "Politicized" used in the way that "liberal" had been tossed around? Now if the GOP gets caught with their pants down, which is almost every day, they label it "Political attack". Oh that's a political attack when you question our ethics. Perhaps it is a political attack and rightfully so because the GOP votes the party line regardless of their constituents. That's pretty darn political if you ask me.

The other thing that made me want to vomit on Frist was the tired old line that criticizing the administration gives comfort to our enemies. Puhleeeeeze. The GOP started the ball rolling when they spent more time in congress investigating a blow job and what Clinton did before he became president, than the world issues at hand. Talk about giving our enemies comfort amusement. Hey, let's attack America, they are jerking off in congress!

Is this a feminist joke?

Raffles just sent me this, and I figured that the blondes might like it... (I might be blondeISH again someday, the way that the white hairs are replacing the brown)

Two bored casino dealers are waiting at the craps table.
A very attractive blonde woman arrived and bet $20,000 on a single roll of the dice.
She said, "I hope you don't mind, but I feel much luckier when I'm completely nude."
With that, she stripped from the neck down, rolled the dice and yelled, "Come on, baby, Mama needs new clothes!"
As the dice came to a stop she jumped up and down and squealed.. "YES! YES! I WON, I WON!"
She hugged each of the dealers and then picked up her winnings and her clothes and quickly departed.
The dealers stared at each other dumfounded.
Finally, one of them asked, "What did she roll?"
The other answered, "I don't know - I thought you were watching."

MORAL: Not all blondes are dumb, but all men are men.

I'm going to Hell for this:

Yes I know this is up early, but I intend to sleep in tomorrow.

Now, just in time for Lent, are some stories, videos and other trivialities meant to piss off the religious right, and don’t bother posting any nasty comments, according to most Christians I have been doomed to Hell due to the circumstances surrounding my conception, so I have nothing to lose, do I? And even so, I don’t pay much mind to anyone who says such things, I mean look around you…. If there is a divine creator they were either drunk off their ass or had one hella sense of humour, dontcha think?

The passion of Benny Hill - takes a bit to load, be warned.

Gay Cowboys won’t kill us and neither will these three

Peter Griffin of Family Guy takes on Xmas

Dress up Jesus on the cross

One of my heroes, his new book is titled “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops”

This site and of course the infamous Darwin Awards are always good for a pick me up. See, there are indeed more idiots than you can shake a stick at, just like Nana said.

The sure to have Satan roasting marshmallows on your ass religious jokes

For a funny and sarcastic read, try this site and join the infidels.

Put the Fun back in Fundamental

Or tired of the Main Stream Religions? Build your own

And last, but certainly not least, the Lego bible

Yes, I know all of them are based around Christianity, but ya know, for some odd reason there really aren’t a whole lot of Islam parody sites and the few Jewish ones I came across, well this article might explain it it appears that most Jewish sects feel that religion and humour are both to be embraced, and if you can’t laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?

And to be honest, it’s the Christian Right that is pissing so many people off, now don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with people of faith, its these religious nuts that think THEIR god should be the one running the country that I take offence to. Personally if I come across anyone who thinks that they can speak for God or know God’s mind, I hand them the number of the Psych ward of the hospital.

So, have you been struck by God’s wrath or at least a bolt of lightening yet? No? Maybe the vengeful, hate-filled God of the Uber Right is taking Sunday off, more than likely to watch NASCAR or go hunting or something.

heheheheh

There must be something hilarious in the PATRIOT Act that I missed.

A movie for our times...

(I'm trying not to be a hypochondriac, but I've had this sore throat for days, and Jake's sister is recovering from strep, and I can't find any other explanations yet. And no, you perverts, I didn't get a sore throat like THAT, thank you very much. THAT has never been a problem. Anyway, I'm slacking on my posting lately {like that's new}, so here's something.)

It's ten years old, and Courtney Love is a little hard to ignore (and believe me, you WANT to ignore her), but this is still one of the all-time classics for me.

Larry Flynt, for all of his many faults, frailties and grossness, is still one of my heroes.

And yes, as one of the last surviving feminists, I can say that with a totally straight face, so there.

(What sucks is that IMDb is using the "censored" movie poster in the listing, which covers up the pubes peeking over the American-flag bikini that actually ran on the Hustler cover and was later ripped-off by some rapper...)

OH! I ALMOST FORGOT THIS!

And Google is still three years behind the times, the MTV site isn't functioning worth a FUCK for those of us still on prehistoric dial-up, so I can't even get a link.

BUT: I caught Pink's new video "Stupid Girls" (I Don't Wanna Be A) --- and while I would dearly LOVE to provide y'all with the link to watch it yourselves, it ain't happenin' tonight. What, pray tell, does this mean to y'all, you may ask? Because as I have foretold the swaying of republicunts to reality, so too did my whining & bitching vaguely predict this:

FEMINISM LIVES.

Now one of you web-savvy little search monkeys go find it for me, because I fucking LOVE this girl.

(And when you think about it, and I just did... Kind of a sick segueway from Larry Flynt to Pink... And you'll only get that joke if you've ever read a Hustler.)

Interior Secretary Resigns

Here is the story on msn.
Gale plans to move out west, relax for a year and then make her billions working for the logging and mining interests she has served so well for the past five years.

Catholic Uncharities

Don't kill your unwanted embryo's.
We'll help you put them up for adoption when they are born, so that they can live in a happy family just like all the other children who live with their natural parents.
Boston Catholic Charities halt adoptions
Oh wait, we don't want your unaborted children to be adopted by gay people.
We are getting out of the adoption business.
Fend for yourselves.
So there.

If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate.

Check out Mikhaela.net's new cartoon. Viva the Sex Cell Rights Movement!

This whole issue gives me pause. In the olden, olden days people believed that the whole human being was contained in a sperm. That was before science. It's kind of funny (not ha ha funny) that this sort of primitive thinking is with us again- in America of all places. Actually it's quite frightening. We are backpedaling as fast as we can. I know why though. People are scared shitless.

Got Food?

"Our Food is Dying"
"Infectious agents are threatening the world's crops"

Those are the headlines. Here are some quotes:

"Citrus: Due to a bacterial disease called citrus canker, production will cease in the Emerald area of Queensland..."

"Wheat: Leaf rust, also known as brown rust, is a fungal disease and one of the most important wheat destroyers worldwide; yield losses may reach 40%."

"Rice: Bacterial leaf blight and the kernel smut fungus have reduced Asia's annual rice production by as much as 60%."

"Bananas: Their most important plague is known as Panama disease, or Fusarium wilt, which is caused by a fungus. A new variant of the fungus has been responsible for outbreaks and is spreading in Southeast Asia."

"Soybeans: Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) caused significant crop losses in 2005. Yields from infected plants were lowered by 10%-40%..."

"Tomatoes: Begomoviruses are inflicting heavy damage on tomato crops in Asia."

"Potato and onion threats were also reported in the second half of 2005."

"Jack Woodall is director of the Nucleus for the Investigation of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Institute of Medical Biochemistry at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil."

His complete article is in The Scientist.

Somebody send a message to Bush and the neocons that their plan to depopulate the earth is working.

From the "We are So Fucked" Files

The pentagon says it's removing the names of peaceful demonstrators from its terrorist database. They admit it was a mistake.

Sure it was.

Surprise Surprise

Dubai Firm to Give Up Stake in U.S. Ports
"DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity," the firm's top executive, H. Edward Bilkey, said in an announcement that capped weeks of controversy.

Relieved Republicans in Congress said the firm had pledged full divestiture, a decision that one senator said had been approved personally by the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

And uh, would that US entitity start with Halli-? Almost makes you think that it was part of the plan from the get go, doesn't it? Not that I am a conspiracy theorist or anything.

WE NEED TO CALL IT LIKE IT IS

Oddly enough, this particular idea hit home when I was watching Wind Tunnel with hubby after the Daytona 500. The host, Dave Despain made a very insightful statement about the role the media plays in the public’s perception of events. One of the crew chiefs got caught cheating and was ejected from the race, HOWEVER many of the papers referred to it as ‘creative engineering’ and ‘pushing the envelope’ not cheating. His supposition was, “I wonder how many fans would be approving and winking at Chad Knaus if the paper called it what it was, cheating plain and simple.”

I often wonder the same thing regarding MSM and the current administration. President Misled Congress, Cherry-Picked Intelligence, Outing of Valerie Plame…. What if these headlines were put into REAL, EVERYDAY WORDS

President Misled Congress = President LIED
Cherry-Picked Intelligence = Ignoring Facts, Causing Deaths
Outing of Valerie Plame = Treason and Betrayal Jeopardizes USA

I know I am preaching to the choir, but after the lack of response to hurricane Katrina, wiretapping private citizens and the Cheney fiasco, I honestly feel more people are willing to listen to us. Some citizens are FINALLY starting to rise from the stupor they’ve apparently been trapped in for the last few years, more than likely brought to their senses by an on-going war, rise in petrol costs, lack of economic recovery, et al.

We need to spread the word far and wide, but more than that we need to provide solutions, or at the very least, options. Democratic leadership is MIA, which means those of us at the grassroot and netroot levels need to step up and put our money where our collective mouths are. If you can’t run for office, find someone who can and who you can believe in, get out there and do your level best to make a difference in the world. After all, anything is better than grabbing your ankles and waiting for the pain to start.

I would LOVE to see some everyday solutions and suggestions that would help us get the word out and hopefully prevent another four years of hell on earth. How can we open peoples eyes? How can we educate them? How can we hide the bodies of those who seek to destroy America? (waves to the NSA)

You Can't Make This Up!

YESTERDAY
WAPO-Wednesday, March 8, 2006

"President Bush celebrated Women's History Month and International Women's Day, saying that "America will help women stand up for their freedom, no matter where they live."

"Joined at the White House event by female leaders from Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush said democracies reach their potential only when women are allowed to fully participate in society.
...

"He singled out Iran, North Korea and Burma as nations that are suppressing women's rights.

"As women become a part of the democratic process, they help spread freedom and justice and, most importantly of all, hope for a future," Bush said. "-- Associated Press



Hat tip to badgerpup

What kind of rape would justify an abortion in SD?

UPDATE: Google Bomb Bill Napoli
Via Smart Bitches, via MzNicky


I just took notice again of the Jim Leher transcript Jaye linked to below.


Sen. Bill Napoli (R-Rapid City): "A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

Oh the Catholic Church used to canonize these women. And I guess it's safe to assume that if you are not terribly religious or married or didn't get sodomized then it's not really rape, eh? Fucking sick fuck.

And furthermore, if these people so believe that life begins at conception, are they then saying that in this very particular case of brutal rape, then it's ok to murder the "baby"? Jeez, if you really believe that abortion is murder even when we are really talking about a clump of cells, then you shouldn't make any exceptions should you? And who is this senator to determine what constitutes rape? Fucking sick fuckhead. I'm sorry, but the whole thing reeks.

A Veteran’s Letter to the President

“I Return Enclosed the Symbols of My Years of Service”

Dear Mr. President:
As a young man I was honored to serve our nation as a commissioned officer and helicopter pilot in the U. S. Navy. Before me in WWII, my father defended the country spending two years in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-14). We were patriots sworn “to protect and defend”. Today I conclude that you have dishonored our service and the Constitution and principles of our oath. My dad was buried with full military honors so I cannot act for him. But for myself, I return enclosed the symbols of my years of service: the shoulder boards of my rank and my Naval Aviator’s wings.

Until your administration, I believed it was inconceivable that the United States would ever initiate an aggressive and preemptive war against a country that posed no threat to us. Until your administration, I thought it was impossible for our nation to take hundreds of persons into custody without provable charges of any kind, and to “disappear” them into holes like Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. Until your administration, in my wildest legal fantasy I could not imagine a U.S. Attorney General seeking to justify torture or a President first stating his intent to veto an anti-torture law, and then adding a “signing statement” that he intends to ignore such law as he sees fit. I do not want these things done in my name.

As a citizen, a patriot, a parent and grandparent, a lawyer and law teacher I am left with such a feeling of loss and helplessness. I think of myself as a good American and I ask myself what can I do when I see the face of evil? Illegal and immoral war, torture and confinement for life without trial have never been part of our Constitutional tradition. But my vote has become meaningless because I live in a safe district drawn by your political party. My congressman is unresponsive to my concerns because his time is filled with lobbyists’ largess. Protests are limited to your “free speech zones”, out of sight of the parade. Even speaking openly is to risk being labeled un-American, pro-terrorist or anti-troops. And I am a disciplined pacifist, so any violent act is out of the question.

Nevertheless, to remain silent is to let you think I approve or support your actions. I do not. So, I am saddened to give up my wings and bars. They were hard won and my parents and wife were as proud as I was when I earned them over forty years ago. But I hate the torture and death you have caused more than I value their symbolism. Giving them up makes me cry for my beloved country.

Joseph W. DuRocher

A short bio of Mr. DuRocher can be found at Candide's Notebooks.

For Those Of You Who Haven't Read It...

And for those who want to re-read it, the text of George Orwell's "1984" is here.

Lots of other good stuff too. Check it out.

He's such a liar

but yesterday Chris Matthews said:

"Let me not let one guy off the hook here, that’s Cheney, Bob. I talked to someone last night who knows better about this than anybody — off the record — who told me the first thing Cheney wanted when he got the vice presidency, during the transition of 2000, what he wanted was not a briefing on the world, all he wanted to know about, where do we stand in Iraq? He was keyed on that decision from day one, long before 9-11, and it certainly looks like these guys weren’t surprised by the decision to go to Iraq. They had it in their mind ahead of time."

We already knew this from many other reports but it was still pretty interesting to hear bush's butt and boot licker admit this.

Screaming for a caption?

Thanks to readers who brought this to my attention. Can't believe I missed it.

Harm and Pain

Today's theme is harm and pain. Why not? Perhaps many or most of us are thankfully not experiencing great harm and pain at the moment, but we are acutely aware of how US policies cause so many people around the world harm and pain, not to mention our own country people. It's a painful thing to watch for me. Sometimes I think it's a burden to have been born with an eye for social injustice and a big mouth.

No doubt you've been reading about how SD had no qualms about inflicting harm and pain on their woman leaving them no choice about their bodies. In the post directly below this one, Jaye points out just how oblivious many people are to the harm caused to tax paying citizens by a government that consists of greedy pigs and misogynazis.

Today's interesting headline is Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain'
I'm not an Iran sympathizer but they made a good point.

VIENNA, Austria - Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its disputed nuclear program.

"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," Iran said a statement meant for delivery at the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board meeting in Vienna on Iran's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.

"But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."

Yeah well what else is new? The US deemed itself in charge of all the nukes in the world. Considering we're implanted between 2 oceans and armed to the teeth, I suppose it's easy to be the world's watchdog.

More pain inflicted by those in power: The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin said Wednesday that 102 of its priests are suspected of sexually or physically abusing at least 350 children since 1940 — the biggest such admission to date in Ireland.

Speaking of child abuse, and I don't know how accurate this is, here's a list of Republican child molestors. In the interest of fairness, I suppose that there are Democratic child abusers too. With power comes abuse of the most vulnerable. I think what is the most painful is that these people were elected.

The invasion of Iraq has been such a source of pain for so many innocent people inciting the crazies within the country to join in the party. Eighteen bodies found in Baghdad bus Bodies found garroted in Iraq; 50 held hostage

Something very painful is that Tom Delay won the primary. It's too bad that more citizens in his district didn't take Jaye's government course.

How much pain and suffering has to be inflicted on people before they wake up and rise up against their government and their religious institutions?

controlling: from what we breath to whether we reproduce

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june06/abortion_3-03.html

Please watch this video. My students' attitude toward politics is exactly why this happened in South Dakota and it is going to happen at the Supreme Court.

Today my students were annoyed with me because I told them that the air that they breath was filthy. I told them that corporations in Houston, Texas had given so much money to the Republican Party that the bought and paid for elected Republican office holders didn't enforce environmental laws nor did we financially support the enforcement of environmental laws.

A young man stopped me and said, "I don't understand what you mean. Why would people do something that is so harmful to others? I mean, aren't they just going to destroy everything?"

"Yeah," said a particularly angry woman in the back said, "Why doesn't someone do something about this?"

I replied, "Why don't you vote?"

They were stunned. Until that moment, it never occurred to them that there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats. They did not understand that politicians do not have people with lungs interests at the center of their agenda. They did not know that corporations single purpose is to make stockholders rich, not keep the air clean for us.

This is why South Dakota happened. This is why there is going to be no abortion rights. These students are the future and they do not understand that you get what you vote for or don't vote for in America. They do not believe me that "good" is not universal. They do not believe that people will pollute the air because it is cheaper than keeping it clean.

This is why much of teaching college should not really be about reading great feminist literature or Chicano politics in the southwest. That is for graduate school.

College should be about explaining man's inhumanity to man. It should be about sensitizing students to the fact that "good" does not happen often and that "bad" is usually the standard by which the world operates. They don't follow current events. They do not like information. It should be about how people stood by and allowed Germany to exterminate the Jews and how Americans exterminated the Native Indians.

College should be about how we tell our children lies and how we are amazed when they don't recognize truth.

Cutting Unnecessary Spending

In this weeks episode of fuck the poor, the administration targets disabled children.

"...all children with disabilities are entitled to a “free appropriate public education” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which now serves 7 million schoolchildren nationwide. Since 1988, Medicaid – which provides health coverage to low-income Americans – has covered the cost of medical and health-related services that many schoolchildren with disabilities require.

The Bush budget for 2007 appears to eliminate some of that key Medicaid funding. The Administration estimates that this change will generate $3.6 billion in savings over the next five years.

Representatives Miller and Woolsey noted today that these savings come at the expense of children and schools. The funding serves a variety of purposes, like providing medical equipment for buses for specific children’s needs, providing transportation for children to their medical appointments, and covering the administrative costs of identifying children who need special medical and learning services. The Administration’s proposal closely follows last year’s budget package, which included other changes to the program that also limited the services for students with disabilities that can be reimbursed by Medicaid."

Big Brother is Watching

In this week's episode of Big Brother:

They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.

And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.

And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs.

They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.

After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.

"When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said.

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Yes, paying off your credit cards is considered a threat. A threat to national security.

Bikers drown out funeral protesters

And this is how 'they' support 'our' troops. I hope those Centcom guys are paying attention. Although I am relieved to hear that a new group has sprouted up to protect the families of the fallen during the funeral where so many mourning families are being taken by surprise by Asshole Phelps and his inbred, knuckle dragging, mouth breathing family/congregation. This group "Patriot Guard Riders" is an all volunteer organization who literally form a protective barrier around the funeral to protect the mourners from Phelps.


Fred Phelps. The pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. The congregation is made up mostly of his family. Phelps has 13 children, 54 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
He describes himself as an "old-time" gospel preacher who says, "You can't preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God."

Well, I'll give the asshole credit for being honest about the current version of christianity, it IS all about hate and control.

Now, mind you, the neo-cons had a head fit when Coretta Scott King's funeral was used for ANY sort of politics, but I don't hear them creating quite a fuss over this - holding the dead and fallen responsible for the supposed 'sins' of others.

"My letter from a D.C. jail" by David Goodner

Back on March 1, Liz posted this item about 7 folks who were arrested for protesting in front of the White House. Today, the Iowa City Press-Citizen published the following letter from one of those people arrested:

(Link)

"Last week I was detained for protesting inside of the "No Free Speech Zone" directly in front of the White House.

I was demonstrating alongside members of the Des Moines Catholic Worker. Our balanced antiwar protest also included a silent vigil in front of the Pentagon (a vigil that saw the Pentagon police coming out to guard us with automatic weapons) and the lobbying of Sens. Harkin and Grassley.

I want to explain to you, my hometown brothers and sisters, my motivations for risking arrest. I start from the supposition that we live in an upside-down kingdom and that the neoliberal capitalist model of globalization is unsustainable and cruel. It wasn't just the secret detentions, the domestic spying, the torture and the immoral military occupations that brought me down to Pennsylvania Avenue, but it was a deeply-held belief that there is a fundamental flaw in the way wealth is distributed in this country and in the world.

We live in a world in which the means of production are available to provide for everyone. Yet basic human rights like access to health care, food and education are denied to too many. I don't understand how we can hoard food inside of McDonalds and Super Wal-Marts when millions around the world are starving. I don't understand how we can have so-called medical doctors performing liposuctions and plastic surgeries when millions worldwide are dying from preventable diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS. I don't understand why our elected officials will fund nuclear weapons research but not urban school districts. I don't understand how we can have million-dollar mansions next door to neighborhoods where many are underemployed and homeless.

In fact, the other Catholic Workers and I saw firsthand this contradiction between wealth and poverty when we slept on the floor of a church located in a red-light district of one of the poorest neighborhoods in D.C. It was an eye-opening experience. We saw how social systems that deprive people of their bread and freedom also deprive them of their God-given dignity.
Whether Muslim, Jewish, Christian or Buddhist, we as individuals are part of a larger communal body (climate change, for example, threatens all of us equally). In this regard, my personal spirituality closely follows the ideals of Catholic social justice. Conviction of belief and trust in God alone are not enough to have faith. We must also have commitment.

For two hundred years, the political and corporate elite of America have waged war on the world's poor. While middle-class America sits in uneasy and anxious comfort, the rest of the world is in turmoil. It is this historical record that has caused me to question the efficacy of electoral politics. The "structural violence" caused by the dominant socio-economic and political institutions shames and sickens me, and I traveled to D.C. to take a symbolic stand against such injustices.

The way I look at it, American soldiers and their families are making sacrifices because of this war. Innocent Iraqi civilians are likewise being sacrificed because of it. If my arrest helped change one person's heart and mind, if it encouraged one person to stand up and make her voice heard, then the federal misdemeanor charge now on my record will be worth it."

"David Goodner is a UI student and a member ofthe Writers' Group, a corps of local residents who write regular guest opinions for the Press-Citizen."