Two More Douchebags Of The Week

1. George W Bush.
Yesterday when speaking to college students in support of California gubernatorial candidate, Phil Angelides, Sen John Kerry cracked a joke. He told them to do well in school or they might get stuck in Iraq. He was referring to George W Bush, the loser in chief who if he had paid attention in school wouldn't have gotten our country into this quagmire and stuck in Iraq.

Tony Snowjob accused Kerry of dissing the troops, "Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who've given their lives in this. This is an absolute insult." Today Dumya, quoted Kerry on some campaign stops but neglected to mention that Kerry was referring to Bush. Bush told the crowd that Kerry was referring to the troops as if they were dumb. John McCain jumped on the bandwagon and called for Kerry's apology.

John Kerry grew some balls since the last time we heard from him.

Kerry said the Bush administration owes U.S. troops an apology because it "misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it.

"This is the classic GOP playbook," Kerry said in a harshly worded statement. "I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did. I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium."

1. Sen. George Felix Macacawitz
was at a campaign stop in Charlottesville, Va. this morning. A law student stopped the senator on his way to ask him whether or not he spit on his first wife. The senator refused to answer. A Macacawitz staffer put the student in a headlock and threw him to the ground. He was then removed from the building. You can watch the video of the thugs at ThinkProgress.org. HFS
Reader Dogmom sent me this story about when he spit on a reporter. ick

Assaults With Unwanted Bodily Fluids

JC wanted me to take a stab at a story she read in her paper today. I did some research and found a similar story from earlier in the month. I'm in shock so I'll try to just explain it with little or no personal spin (yeah right):

Last of 3 UConn students gets 75 days in sex incident "Affidavits supporting their arrests say the three men took turns masturbating on the sleeping female student inside the dorm room shared by Skvirsky and Brohinsky in Watson Hall at the UConn Storrs campus."

Good heavens. These boys were charged with reckless endangerment. I would have kicked their asses.

It appears however that Connecticut legislators were fed up with the loophole that men who ejaculated on women against their will even if they didn't touch the women, were only being charged with reckless endangerment and not sexual assault. Indeed. Previously, you had to make contact with a person in order to be charged with sexual assault.

A new Connecticut law took effect on October 1, 2006 that expanded the definition of illegal sexual contact to include assaulting another person with unwanted bodily fluids originating from the genital area. This is now classified as fourth degree sexual assault. Put a sock on it. Since the 3 men ejaculated on the young women in September, they can't be charged with sexual assault. Alrighty then.

Jersey Cynic sent me this story. Student Faces Rape Charge:
UConn Senior Also Charged Under New State Statute On Unwanted Bodily Fluids

"VERNON -- A UConn senior was charged Monday with raping a woman, then ejaculating onto her face and hair - becoming the first person in the Tolland Judicial District, and possibly the state, to be charged under a new sexual assault statute that went into effect Oct. 1."

Double whammy. Oh wait, there's more. He's up the creek: "Daniel Ballerini, 21, a finance major with aspirations for law school, was charged Monday with first-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault (the unwanted bodily fluid statute), first-degree unlawful restraint, possession of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia and tampering with a witness." The victim first said that she didn't want to tell the whole story because it would ruin the boys life. It turned out though that the boy 'urged' her not to talk. So we'll just have to see about that.

The female prosecutor wanted the boy to be prevented from returning to UConn but the female judge agreed with the male defense counsel that it wouldn't be fair to prevent the boy from finishing his senior year but he had to stay away from the victim. The school did not say how they would handle this situation.

Jersey Cynic, dear, I have to let this sink in a bit more. I'll mop the kitchen floor now. I'd like for the blondesense lawyers to chime in- Red State Blues and Texas Jaye.

Boo!

Happy Halloween.

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The War On Transfats

This is a war I can get into (and the one against pork spending by our legislators).

I've often wondered when I would pass by schools why the kids are so chubby these days. When I was in school, there were maybe one or two fat kids in the whole school. Now the fat kids reign. It saddens me to see youngsters weighed down with blubber. It's hard to run around when your own thighs get in the way.

You want to blame the parents, but I know so many parents of normal weight who have chubby kids and they are beside themselves because their kids have all sorts of afflictions that usually don't happen to a person until they are adults. I thought maybe it was the switch to high fructose corn syrup that made people fatter because we ate an awful lot of candy when we were kids but candy had real sugar in it back in the day. It appears that it's transfats to blame.

It's really hard to figure out from the food labels what's in the food we eat. My son only eats prepared foods, but he educated himself on how to read the labels and shops at stores which carry foods that use real sugar and canola oil rather than the bad stuff. He's kind of a pain to shop with, but I appreciate his concern. It's much better to stick to non-processed foods, but if you eat out a lot or do take out a lot, you don't know what the hell you're getting.

NYC is contemplating a ban on transfats in all restaurants. It's a bit severe and big brotherish, but you know what? Everyone eats out in NY City. I don't know what the cholesterol numbers are, but I know mine. oy. On the other hand, you rarely see a fat NYer in Manhattan (everyone walks a lot). Here on Long Island where you need to drive to get somewhere, we are chubbier. KFC is phasing out transfats. All the fast food joints ought to do the same- that's where the kids go after school.

Let's also figure out why the bushistas are buying up mega acres of land over the aquifiers in Paraguay and if we should put our investments in Euros.

How Do You Spell The Pentagon Will Correct "Inaccurate" News?

P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A

BBC NEWS: The US defence department has set up a new unit to better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet.
The truth is getting out and it must be stopped.

The unit would reportedly monitor media such as weblogs and would also employ "surrogates", or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.
Put on your tin foil hats

Mr Russ said the move to set up the unit had not been prompted either by the eroding public support in the US for the Iraq war or the US mid-term elections next week.
Which means that the eroding public support has caused the Pentagon to come up with this strategy.

Mr Rumsfeld said earlier this year that he was concerned by the success of US enemies in "manipulating the media". "That's the thing that keeps me up at night," Mr Rumsfeld said.
Can you say strawmen?

On Monday, US Vice President Dick Cheney also made reference to the use of media, suggesting insurgents had increased their attacks and were checking the internet to keep track of American public opinion.
When they are not killing our troops, the insurgents are hanging out at Internet Cafe's reading blogs.

"It's my belief that they're very sensitive of the fact that we've got an election scheduled and they can get on the websites like anybody else," Mr Cheney told Fox News.
When they are not killing our troops, the insurgents are hanging out at Internet Cafe's reading blogs.

"There isn't anything that's on the internet that's not accessible to them. They're on it all the time. They're very sophisticated users of it."
When they are not killing our troops, the insurgents are hanging out at Internet Cafe's reading blogs.

Mr Cheney's comments came as American forces suffered one of the highest death tolls in October - more than 100 troops killed - since the war began in 2003.
Quick come up with a scapegoat.

President Bush has said recently that terror groups were trying to influence public opinion in the US, describing their efforts as the "war of ideas".
Democrats?

HURRY HURRY THE ENEMY IS STILL PUTTING FAKE STORIES ON THE INTERWEBS
AP Iraq leader defies US, lifts military checkpoints
Reuters Death Toll for US Troops is 102
Telegraph UK British to evacuate consulate in Basra after mortar attacks
AFP Violence, corruption slow Iraqi reconstruction
AP Dems counter Bush attack with Iraq ads
WAP Soldiers estimate "it would take 30 to 40 years before the Iraqi police could function properly."

May I present.....LORD & LADY DOUCHEBAG of the week!

Vice President of the United States, Mr. BIG DICK Cheney

....and his devoted wife, Lynne Cheney

Read all about the BIGGEST DICK on earth right here!

and.....

Check out the woman who married THE BIGGEST DICK on the face of the earth!

(thanks for the story reader delmar -- it certainly helped them to earn this honor - it was a tough decision this week!)

Geezer News:

"Curry spice 'help for arthritis'"

"Extract of a spice used in curry could help prevent rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, US research suggests.

"Turmeric has been used for centuries in Asian medicine to treat inflammatory disorders and its extract can be found in western dietary supplements."

More at BBC NEWS

Monday Sex Post, For a Change

Amidst all the madness of war, King George, the elections and such, perhaps we should have our own "festival of drunkenness". The ancient Egyptians had one, and it "celebrated nothing less than the salvation of humanity." We could use a little humanity right now. Fer sher.

In any event, the festival was, more or less, the earliest version of "sex, drugs and rock-n-roll". During the excavation of the Temple of Mut, archaeologists found numerous inscriptions referencing the festival. "We are talking about a festival in which people come together in a community to get drunk," [Johns Hopkins researcher Betsy Bryan] said. "Not high, not socially fun, but drunk — knee-walking, absolutely passed-out drunk." The Egyptians even had the ancient equivalent of designated drivers. Moreover, some of the inscriptions uncovered at the temple link the drunkenness festival with "traveling the marshes" , which is a polite way in ancient Egyptian of saying "doing the nasty". "The sexual connection is reinforced by graffiti depicting men and women in positions that might draw some tut-tutting today."

What the hell? It's almost Halloween, we can all dress up like Egyptians. Who's up for a par-tay?

Dems to the Right, Repubs to the Left

I saw Harold Ford Jr on Bill Maher's Real Time (watch episode here) the other night. He seemed like kind of a stiff and not all that liberal. I was just reading in today's NY Times that the Dems in some key races are rather socially conservative or "centrist". Some of these Democrats are pro-NRA, "pro-life" and even conservative "christian" and it's speculated that these new Democrats "could influence negotiations with Republicans on a variety of issues, including Social Security and stem cell research."

On the other hand, the NY Times ran an article called Liberal Republican Suburb Turns Furious With G.O.P. It's about Bellevue Washington home to many profession people, but it could be about where I live on Long Island we are socially very liberal compared to the rest of the country. The Republicans here aren't voting that way (I recently converted to Democrat even though they are a bunch of wussies). Like Bellevue denizens, Republicans here embrace diversity, support stem cell research, are concerned about the national debt, believe scientists over politicians, are anti-abortion but want to keep the right to choose, want equal rights for gay people and want the government out of our bedrooms and off our phone lines. We'll be seeing more centrist people voting for Democrats and it probably will impact the party. Then again, the party never could define itself anyway.

I'd like to see politicians learn a little bit more about the bill of rights, civil rights, how government works, the role of government in a pluralistic society and some basic economics rather than opening their mouths on subjects they know nothing about, particularly science, medicine, religion, etc.

What do you think? Can we stand centrists- it's better than neocons, right?

Take A Good Look, Mr. Bush

This is what you and your cronies have done.

Can you feel the grief coming from the depths of her soul? Do you even have the ability to feel? Do you think a flag is a substitute for a father's love and guidance? What possible words could you say to her to make her feel better? How will she get over the pain of losing her father at such a tender age? How will you ever make it right for this little girl? How could you have taken her father away?

You unspeakable bastard.

the infection is oozing

One of the reasons I started blondesense was to document my descent into hell, that is my awakening to the fact that I had been deceived for almost 50 years by my religion and my government. Furthermore, my very parents, the two people I trusted most in the whole world, were also hoodwinked by it all. I don't blame them though. I don't blame most Americans who hadn't seen this coming. It's scary shit. But people really gotta wake up now because the bad guys are religious and have nukes.

Growing up Catholic in the 50's and 60's was very sacred. Priests and nuns were considered above reproach. If you got smacked at school for nothing, it didn't matter because your parents always believed that the clergy could do no wrong. It's no wonder that children rarely spoke out against the abuse that took place- no one would believe you anyway. Catholic guilt taught us that if something bad happened to us, God was punishing us for something that we had done to hurt him (apparently God took everything very personally and prozak hadn't been invented yet). Gospel truth a la 1963: John F. Kennedy was a saint, priests were Jesus' representatives on earth and nuns were married to Jesus. The policemen are always the good guys, respect authority, join the military and kill for your country because America was always right. Don't ask questions. End of story.

So here I am again reading yet another story A Pedophile Priest Speaks Out about the Catholic Church literally fucking the flock. It's a story of yet another priest who fucked little girls and babies, mind you, who just got moved from parish to parish for 20 years until the shit hit the fan and he was jailed for a time then sent to live in Ireland as a free person. His story is made into a new movie: "Deliver Us From Evil,'' the story of Oliver O'Grady. It is also an indictment of Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who was bishop of the Stockton Diocese from 1980-85 and knew of O'Grady's perversion all along.

In interviews with O'Grady, he said "I should've been removed and attended to. And he (the cardinal) should have then attended to the people I'd harmed. I wish he'd done that.'' How do you like that? The criminal was placing the blame on his boss for allowing him to perpetrate his crimes against humanity. Yes, there is a special place in hell for the Cardinal and the clincher is that the pervert priest who allegedly even had sex with a 9 month old baby is also free to walk the earth. He is supposedly in hiding now that the movie is being released.

Since Constantine had his vision and faith/spirituality became religion which then merged with politics and war, nothing has changed. It appears to have been one huge ongoing cabal that's now coming to a head like an enormous festering pimple on the ass of humanity.

doesn't it seem like we are living in a dystopian novel?

UPDATE: I found this story concerning school safety in a "post-columbine" world. (here's a link to the Grand Rapids Press contact page)

School Safety Drill Upsets Some Parents
Oct 28, 3:20 PM (ET)

WYOMING, Mich. (AP) - A school safety drill that included police officers in riot gear with weapons has caused concern among some parents who say it was too realistic and frightened some students.

Police in the western Michigan community of Wyoming entered two classrooms at Lee Middle and High School on Thursday and announced there was a threat to the school, The Grand Rapids Press reported.

Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said.

"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."

Officers wore protective gear, including vests and helmets, and carried rifles that were unloaded and marked with colored tape to indicate they were not live weapons, the newspaper said.

Diana Silva, a parent of an eighth-grade student, said the drill went too far.

"My child was with his face to the wall in the hallway of the high school," Silva said. "I certainly don't want anything like this happening to my child."

Principal David Britten said students weren't told ahead of time to make the drill as realistic as possible. Teachers were informed moments before it took place, he said.

"I think this is the best way to do it," Britten said. "We're not looking to scare anyone, but we want a sense of urgency."

But Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody said his officers were not aware students and parents were not told. He said his department will mandate that parents be notified ahead of time in the future.

"The purpose was to show how we will evacuate the classroom, not to assault the classroom," Carmody said.

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


See also
Spoiled milk sparks school evacuation
'Star Wars' becomes reality as US unveils laser-equipped 747
Storms cancel terror drill in Norwalk Connecticut
Anchorage Alaska holds biological terror drill

Global Warming Will Make You Poorer and Colder

UPDATE: It appears that Peter's post this morning evaporated. It was on this website but not listed in blogger. He wanted you to read this story: No climate action may spark economic crisis: report He went on to list some survival techniques for the upcoming economic crisis. The comments from that post are still online right here.
-----------------------
Here are some more interesting stories about global warming:

The Boston Herald editorial staff suggests that deliberate pollution of the atmosphere can cool the earth. What we need is a good volcanic eruption every two years according to them. Say what?

John F. Wasik suggests that global warming will hit your wallet. Urban sprawl may become economically unsustainable. Learn to reduce your carbon footprint (especially if we don't get enough volcano eruptions.)

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt has charged that your president censored global warming research. This news does not surprise me. After 9/11 the bushistas warned agencies to stop releasing "sensitive" information. Leahy is working to try to strengthen the country's Freedom of Information act, but faces resistance from the GOP. What the fuck is their problem? Definitely read this.

Iowa farmers are gravely concerned about the effects of global warming. Our current farming system contributes to global warming. They say that the government should not subsidize farmers who grow corn and soybeans in a way "robs the soil of nutrients and requires lots of energy." Enviromentally conscious "Farmers also are planting crops that require less fertilizer and herbicides; using alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel; capturing methane gas from livestock for energy production; and harnessing wind power."

Yesterday, only sailor's foul weather gear and hip boots with lead weights in them would have kept you dry. Today you need a winter coat and a concrete wind block, tomorrow you won't be needing a jacket as autumn makes a return. Something is definitely happening with the climate.

Bush moves towards martial law, by Frank Morales

Signs of the Times for Fri, 27 Oct 2006

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

Does anyone know if this will affect the peaceful protest -- especially the ones that call to impeach bush, or those conspiracy theorists who question 9/11?

Harris aims to solidify evangelicals' support for her Senate bid

via whatreallyhappened

"Nothing that we believe in the world would exist without you," she says to Jewish leaders in the crowd. "We're all sort of Jewish wannabes."

Here, Harris doesn't talk about the Iraq war, oil drilling off Florida's coast or whether Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, her opponent, is too liberal.

Instead, she focuses on her love of God and gets her message out to hundreds of people without ever mentioning one line from her campaign speech.

Jews "are the chosen people," she tells the crowd, to uproarious applause and whistles. "You are the apple of God's eye."

The crowd of more than 1,000 people is part of a movement that believes Jews play a key role in the fate of Christians.

For them, the Rapture -- a miraculous event where Jesus Christ resurrects the dead and sweeps his loyal followers from the Earth -- depends on a complete restoration of the nation of Israel, including the rebuilding of the Temple on the Mount and the reclaiming of all the holy lands.

Some believe the Rapture is coming any day now.

"We have to stand with Israel," she said. "Our futures are linked."

She also condemned the United Nations for its failure to take stronger action when the terrorist organization Hezbollah attacked Israel this year.

"The United Nations should be held to account for its anti-Semitism," she said.


IS THIS WOMAN FOR REAL???

well, her spokeswoman says: "the campaign simply has a policy to keep some events private, especially because Harris feels she has been treated unfairly by the media in the past.

"It's kind of silly to criticize her for talking to those groups," Marks said.

"There's just an effort to get out the base."


I am speechless......

NASA Discusses Hubble Servicing Mission

Some good news for science geeks who have been distressed that the Hubble would not be there for our grandchildren:
NASA Discusses Hubble Servicing Mission
More on Hubble here. Enjoy the wonder of it all.

Uh, We Actually Do Give More of a Shit About the Troops Than the Wingers

Breaking News: Top U.S. Military Officer Recommends ‘We Remove All Troops From Baghdad’ Read about it. It appears that the US troops being in Baghdad is making things worse. duh.

My friend has just been transfered to Baghdad from Ramadi and we've just been sick about it. He's never seen his baby.
-----------

Original post:


This is a very good website: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA.org)
Despite trolls telling us here that we are with the terrorists, we all know that we are actually the ones who give a shit about the troops, so I urge you to read a lot of the stories at the IAVA.

A very interesting segment of the website IAVAaction.org is the section where the IAVA rates the congress in their support of troops and veterans. While studying who voted how in NY State, I discovered that our Democrats got high marks while our Republicans got low marks. My congresswoman, Carolyn McCarthy got an A. Pete King, in the next district over, the big mouth for the Bush administration only got a C+ as far as the veterans are concerned.

Here is the full ratings list.
Here's the link to the maps where you click on your state and get detailed information about the party and the voting record of particular critters.
After you get there, you can click on your district. If you live in a huge state with dozens of congress critters, you may want to click on the link for the full delegation in the box next to your state map, then you can click on each individual member and see how your state fares with regard to political parties.
This is what the ratings mean.
Now if your critter got a bad rating or a good rating or you want to tsk tsk another critter who blasts democrats for not supporting the troops, here is where you can easily take action and write letters; Legislative Action Center.

Meanwhile Senator McCain thinks we ought to escalate and send 20,000 more troops to Iraq. From where, I don't know. I guess he just wants the US to send back the guys who just came home. He gets his balls from thinking he is going to run for president in '08. He may not be aware that the majority of Americans have had enough of the war and want out of there.

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

If you haven't been keeping up with your hypocritical gay scandals in the news, and I know it's hard to do that with the country going down the tubes, here is a google video from CW (I don't have that channel) that actually does a pretty good job of explaining the Charlie Crist is gay and running for Florida governor story (now you don't have to spend a lot of time reading all the articles). None of it is confirmed, but the rumors are flying.

Expert texpert, choking smoker

Don't you see the joker laughs at you?
ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho

From Raw Story:

A memory expert testifying on behalf of a former aide to Vice President Cheney who is accused of lying to prosecutors in the CIA leak case forgot that she had met the special prosecutor before and was reduced to "stuttering" and "backpedaling" on the stand, according to the Washington Post.

Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos

Oh no. I don't ever want to see these pictures (because I already hate the war), but read the story. Excerpt follows.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."

~snip~

What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added.

A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of "rape and murder." Rumsfeld then commented, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."

If they are "blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane" it would make matters worse (if they can get any worse). What say you?

hat tip to reader, Patriot

For goddess' sake, tell the guys at Diebold, Votronic, ESS, etc. to get their programmers/hackers to start working overtime.

From the Hindustan Times:
"Democrats increase lead over Republicans"
Liz Sidoti (AP) Washington, October 27, 2006
"A massive apparent move by the middle class away from the Republicans has 56 per cent of likely voters saying they plan to vote to send a Democrat to the House in the upcoming congressional elections compared with 37 per cent who said they would vote for President George W Bush's Republicans, the latest Associated Press-AOL News poll shows."

Like I said in the headline, something's gotta be done with the voting machines to make sure the votes are counted the way we want them to be.

Uuhhh, this is a right-wing neocon blogsite, isn't it?

It boils down to this: They hate women and the middle class.

And so it went, back and forth, back and forth... a discussion on US politics between me and my in-laws on the day after my mother-in-law's funeral. I didn't want to go there, but the discussion in the living room was all about Hillary- the dreaded threat to the American way of life.

After my debunking claim after claim, then asking why Hillary's position is any different or worse than any GOP position and then my insisting that my father-in-law tell me exactly why he hates her with such passion, it all came out: They hate her because she had people killed. I thought that all that hoohah about the Clinton's killing people had been debunked. The debunking email didn't get to the Hillary haters (or maybe they just deleted it).

In all honesty, Republicans (including jealous Republican housewives) don't like women who assert themselves outside of the home. "Assertive women must be murderers too," they think. That's just projection. It also makes me wonder what kind of mothers these dipshits had.

Now the focus is on Nancy Pelosi, a 19 year congresswoman from San Francisco who could be Speaker of the House if the Democrats gain congress. San Francisco has gay implications if you didn't already know. The fear mongering is in full swing. She has been vilified and portrayed as evil incarnate, the woman who would drag the country to the radical left when in fact, she's moderate and reasonable. Her positions might even lessen the amount of poor people in the country thus reducing crime and ignorance. (oh wait, the stupid white men in power want a certain segment of the population to wither away in jail, dead end jobs or the military.)

I can see why rich, white, conservative men might fear her, but her plans wouldn't hurt anyone else. Rich, white men make up a tiny percentage of the population, yet their hateful opinions of women, homosexuals and now people afflicted with dreaded diseases always make the headlines. The speak double talk and ignorant Americans eat it up.

If I were Pelosi, the first thing I'd do if I were House Majority Leader would be to regulate the media. This minority opinion of the wealthy gets waaaay too much air time. A free press is tantamount to a Democracy. She hasn't proposed that as far as I know, but here's Pelosi's plan to "Drain the Swamp" if she becomes House Majority Leader:

Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."
That's only scary to congressmen and corporations. It should be good news to your average citizens whose interests have been relegated to the trash can in favor of cash and prizes to legislators from special interest groups whose only goal is to enrich themselves.

Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Frightening. Not. You would think that among all the fear mongering administered by the right, they might bother to actually do something to make us safer. Securing the country is not liberal at all. It's downright patriotic.

After the first two "radical" reforms she also suggests:
Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step.
Again, that would hurt (the profits of) a tiny segment of the population and they're already rich. Interestingly, most of the red state evangelicals would benefit by such a reform.

Cut the interest rate on student loans in half.
Oh my god, how not radical is that? (Unless you count on a bunch of terminal Walmart employees to vote for you.)

Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
Isn't that like what they are supposed to do in DC? Represent OUR interests.

Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds.
How much do we spend manufacturing WMD's? It would be nice to spend money on something that saves lives.

"Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.
A responsible economy? Perish the thought.
She suggests that tax rollbacks to the Clinton era would be in order for those who make over $250,000 or $300,00/year. Somebody has to pay for Bush's folly. Let it be those who supported it in the first place and those who can afford to pay. I didn't vote for the war. Why should I pay for it?

"We must share the benefits of our wealth" beyond the privileged few.
Oh there you go. She's a socialist just like that radical, Jesus Christ. The rich white men are thinking: "If we look out for each other, then we won't be as rich and powerful." That only proves that they aren't "christian" and their jig would be up. Too bad.

America's Kingdom of Heaven

On Oct. 18, President George W. Bush signed an executive order creating a new national policy which loudly proclaims that the U.S. will brook no restraint of any kind on its "rights, capabilities, and freedom of action" in space, and that it has the right to deny space "access" to any power deemed hostile to U.S. "national interests."

The report did not elaborate on how the U.S would restrict this access, but Air Force officers have written position papers calling for an "active military posture" in space that may include "deception, disruption, denial, degradation, and destruction" by "hunter-killer microsatellites" and "spaced-based weapons platform[s]." Essentially, Bush has declared outer space an American colony with the stroke of a pen

There are so many articles out on this subject, I could be searching and reading all day.

SPACE WARS from Tompaine is also very good:

The Bush administration throws in some phrases in to its new policy to appeal to Star Trek fans and internationalists and to pacify those alarmed when an early draft of the report leaked to The New York Times last year sounded stridently bellicose. The United States “will seek to cooperate with other nations in the peaceful use of outer space” and “is committed to the exploration and use of outer space by all nations for peaceful purposes, and for the benefit of all humanity.” But these Kirk- and Picard-worthy sentiments are immediately contradicted when “peaceful purposes” is clarified to include “U.S. defense and intelligence related activities in pursuit of national interests.” Five of the seven United States policy goals mention “national security” and/or “defending our interests.” Three of the eight areas of space policy are related military uses of space—the national security space guidelines, space nuclear power and space-related security classification. However the guidelines for those three take up as much room as the five areas of civilian and commercial use of space resources.

And here is an article from usinfo.state.gov explaining this new space policy, and it should put to rest any reservations you may have:

U.S. Opposes Restrictions on Use of Space
Policy acknowledges new technology, importance of space to international commerce



“With the amount of time that has passed,” a senior administration official told the Washington File October 20, “there have been changes in challenges, threats and opportunities, and there’s a need to reflect new government organizations, like the Department of Homeland Security.”

At the UNGA First Committee meeting, Luaces also said the United States opposes proposed negotiations on the prevention of an arms race in space.

According to the U.S. space policy, “The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space. Proposed arms control agreements or restrictions must not impair the rights of the United States to conduct research, development, testing and operations or other activities in space for U.S. national interests.”

“The danger against which we all must be vigilant,” Luaces said, “is not some theoretical arms race in space, but threats that would deny peaceful access to and use of space -- especially ground-based space denial capabilities intended to impede the free access to and use of space systems and services.”

The new policy makes clear, a senior administration official said, that the United States remains “completely committed” to the peaceful use of outer space, and that such use includes defense-related activities. Huh?

"After Pat's Birthday"

Posted on Oct 19, 2006
By Kevin Tillman

"It is Pat's birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

"Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

"Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

"Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military.

"Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

"Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

"Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

"Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

"Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

"Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

"Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

"Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

"Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

"Somehow torture is tolerated.

"Somehow lying is tolerated.

"Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

"Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

"Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

"Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

"Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

"Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

"Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

"Somehow this is tolerated.

"Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

"In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don't be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that "somehow" was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

"Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat's birthday."


Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman

Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan.
www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

They Want Us TO STFU. Well I never.

Ronald Dumsfeld told war critics to "back off" today. He claimed that it was "complicated stuff." He also said, "No one can predict the future with absolute certainty." He is absolutely wrong. I predicted this clusterfuck of his in 2003, thank you very much.

According to Think Progress: In an interview with North Dakota radio host Scott Hennen, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said that “it would be logical” that terrorist groups are ramping up violence in Iraq and elsewhere to give liberals a boost in November’s election.

Meanwhile Senator "Man On Dog", "Sanctity of Marriage is the most important issue facing Americans today" is on "the Gathering Storm" tour across PA warning voters that Casey cannot fight against the Islamic fascists and of course, the Venezuelan's who are supposedly gearing up to fight us.... then he went on about the need for a free Iran, which I think means we have to bomb the shit out of them. I dunno. You read the speech.

Proving Once Again That Timing Is Everything

Well, I'm a bit discouraged today.

It immediately hit me once I heard about the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling yesterday on the gay marriage issue. Obviously, I think the court is correct that we as a society cannot continue to treat gays and lesbians as second class citizens in respect of the way that a government, whether it be local, state or federal, parcels out benefits. When Blonde Liz was down visiting me last weekend, we had a good discussion about the "marriage vs. civil union" debate. From my perspective, the debate is one of semantics: the government does not "sanctify" marriage, as the KKKristian talking points would have the public believe. Rather, the government endorses a civil "contract" between the participants, pursuant to which the participants take on certain responsibilities in exchange for the government granting certain state-sponsored benefits. Churches are the venue in which a union (i.e., marriage) is "sanctified", and nothing would change in that regard if a government chooses to grant same-sex couples their "civil" rights. That is to say, thanks to the First Amendment, the government could not "require" any church to "marry" a gay or lesbian couple. Conversely, those religious institutes that find gay relationships acceptable would be free to "sanctify" such relationships if their own catechisms permit. But I digress.

The reason I am so discouraged today is purely political. I believe the decision will make Felix Macacawitz's re-election to the US Senate a virtual certainty. The Old Dominion has one of those hateful gay bashing amendments to the state Constitution on the ballot next month. And this is not one of your simple garden variety "a marriage is between a man and a woman" amendments. This is one of those gratuitously hateful "not only can you queers not marry but you also can't contract for things like inheriting property and making medical decisions for your loved one" amendments.

Predictably, Felix has already issued a statement railing against the "activist judges" (uh oh, there's that phrase making a comeback) in New Jersey and pointing to the decision as a reason why the Hate Amendment is necessary. Oh, and Jim Webb, his Dem challenger, has publicly stated he opposes the amendment, so here's a great "he would coddle the queeers and life as we know it on Earth would end" argument that Felix can use against Webb in the final days of the campaign. This is, of course, red meat for the Republican base in Virginia as elsewhere. I don't doubt that the good fundies of the state will consider it their godly duty to get out and vote, if for no other reason than to thwart the gay agenda to take over the world. And as long as those people are at the polls, those votes go to Allen.

Jim Webb has fought the good fight. Although I had some doubts about him, I'm really starting to like the guy. He's a terrible "politician", he's not good at sound bites, and he's remarkably candid and blunt in his rhetoric. He has managed to excite a lot of Dems in this red-but-turning-purple state. But my sense, with the timing being what it is with the New Jersey ruling, is that Mr. Macaca-mouth wins. He may win ugly, but he wins.

Like I say, I'm a bit discouraged today.

Rove Says He's Entitled to "The" Math For The Elections

Yes that's right. Karl Rove is looking at "the" math for the upcoming elections... not the numbers that you and I are reading. He is very optimistic about the upcoming elections. He said so on NPR's "Radio Day" with Robert Siegal. (transcript here. scroll down)

MR. SIEGEL: I'm looking at all the same polls that you're looking at every day.

MR. ROVE: No you're not. No you're not!

MR. SIEGEL: No, I'm not --

MR. ROVE: I'm looking at 68 polls a week. You may be looking at four or five public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally, but that do not impact the outcome --

~snip~

MR. ROVE: Yeah. Look, I'm looking at all these Robert and adding them up. And I add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House. You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math. I'm entitled to "the" math.

MR. SIEGEL: I don't know if you're entitled to a different math, but you're certainly entitled to --

MR. ROVE: I said you were entitled to yours.

It's a no brainer

Dead Eye Dick with Scott Hennen of WDAY radio:

"Q Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President 'for torture.' We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in. We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that."

WaPo

US naval war games off the Iranian coastline

Did we discuss this already? I have been 'sleepwalking' for a few weeks now, so I just want to make sure I'm not bringing up old news. I remember we were discussing naval ships being deployed to the gulf a while back.

According to this article, there are a few other countries 'deploying' their ships. Seems like it's just a practice 'get together' though, and they are just playing a few war games. Let's just hope there are no INCIDENTS.

"An incident" in the Persian Gulf could be used by the US as a pretext for war against Iran.

A war pretext incident, similar to "the Gulf of Tonkin Incident", which triggered the Vietnam war, could be used by US forces, with a view to justifying retaliatory military action against Iran.

In August 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Tonkin incident, which had been manipulated, contributed to unleashing a full-fledged war against Vietnam:

"A phantom attack on two U.S. destroyers cruising the Gulf of Tonkin was staged by the Pentagon and the C.I.A. The bogus attack occurred early in August, 1964. That evening President Lyndon Johnson went on television giving the grim details of the non-attack. Later, however, it was revealed that navy..........

He's Not Gay!

Charlie Crist, the frontrunner in the Florida governor's race has repeatedly denied that he is gay (despite rumors to the contrary).

I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay.
I sleep all night. I work all day.
He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees. I eat my lunch. I go to the lavat'ry.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin' And have buttered scones for tea.
He cuts down trees. He eats his lunch. He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping. And has buttered scones for tea.

Listen

Omaha, Nebraska, Town Ordinance

Omaha, Nebraska has issued a Town Ordinance banning smoking in all public places. That includes streets, parks, all public places where you actually exercise your rights as a citizen. I don't understand, if the substance is not prohibited, under what law or Constitutional guidance, you prohibit the use of it!?

To make it criminal, the Town encourages it's citizens to turn in the violators on their streets, by calling 911 if they see a smoker. This Hysteric Country has lost it's mind. Besides all the problems, should we now swamp the 911 operators with 25 000 calls and pre-empt the calls that come in for real crime?

Just as a footnote. Smoking does not cause cancer. Cancer is inherited genetically; smoking may help develop cancer in those that have the Virus in them. Likely, 50% of the population doesn't have the virus and they can smoke 'till the cows come home, and won't get cancer.

On the brighter side, smoking reduces the chances of Alzheimer, as does pot too, help people lose weight, and spark brain cells for better analysis....

Tell us what you think!

Vote Out the Piss and Spend, Lie and Die, Republicans

So that we send a clear message to the terrorists that they have won. Not.

If Pennsylvanians don't vote for Santorum, there's a "good chance" terrorists will start taking over countries and posing a Nazi-like risk to the world. Har har. I love the smell of desperate fascism in the morning. If they do vote for him, then the US will take over the world instead.

Fox's John Gibson warns brain dead audience that if Democrats win, then the insurgents win. Har har.

Just in time for the elections, a terrorist who was killed back in April makes the news.

Two retired senior Army generals, who served in Iraq and previously voted Republican, are now openly endorsing a Democratic takeover of Congress. "Democratic control of Congress could be the best way to wrest control from the Bush administration and steer the United States away from a gravely flawed strategy in Iraq." Who are you gonna trust? I go with the generals. They know war.

"New York state is in a death spiral," state legislature candidate Tim Julian, a Republican, said at a recent political forum in Rome, N.Y. Looks like NY will deliver more blue congresscritters to DC (like we're supposed to do anyway).

Dick Cheney warns Fox viewers that Hillary could take the WH.

Fat F*ck Doesn't Deserve TV Time

UPDATES BELOW

While watching Scarboro last night (and cringing), it was bad enough that he argued with Bill Maher about Nancy Pelosi being a radical liberal and asking where all the moderates have gone. If she's a liberal, then I must be a commie. But Scarboro was dutifully repeating the Rovian talking points that he is paid to deliver. So screw him.

The worst part of the evening was the discussion about Michael J. Fox's ad for Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, running against Fascist Sen. James M. Talent and other candidates who support stem cell research. Why oh why, did MSNBC have to play Lush Bimbo's accusation that MJF's writhing during the ad was exaggerated? How the hell does he know? Sure, Bimbo's claims were outrageous and rude, but he doesn't deserve any more publicity than what he gets from his hateful radio show.

After a big hoo hah, Rush apologized according to the article for alleging that he knows anything about Parkinson's Disease (oh wait, no he didn't. he says he won't apologize) ... and then he changed his tune to this:

"Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democratic politician."

So the fuck what? Lush Bimbo shills for the Republicans. When it appeared that the Republicans were in trouble this election, Lush Bimbo, Sean Insanity and Dr Laura Ingrate all met with Rove in the WH for their talking points and strategy. They were all exploited for their insanity to shill for the bad guys.

UPDATES WED NIGHT:
The Fox And Fiends characters agreed with Limbo. May they all come down with Parkinsons some time before the end of the year.
Michael J Fox responds to Limbo, the viagra chewing sex slave customer.
The Parkinsons Disease Foundation debunks the fat fuck.
This morning, Imus chimed in: "Rush Limbaugh, a fat, draft-dodging, drug addict -- jacking his maid up, having her buy dope for him -- That fat son of bitch, I mean, enough bad stuff can't happen to him."

Jesus christ, there is just no reason for this story to be in the news. But then again, it's a good way to check the character of media imbeciles.

Open Thread: We Will Stay The Course

WAPO: "President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as "stay the course." A complete distortion, they say. "That is not a stay-the-course policy," White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday."

YOUTUBE proof we've always been stay the course.

UPDATE Wednesday: Wha? Rumsfeld Agrees Bush Is ‘Not Backing Away From Staying The Course’

From WAPO: They're Spinning the Course

I was not aware that Rupert was "drifting left".....

'Simpsons' Halloween 'Horror' Could Hit GOP

IF YOU DO NOT WANT A PREVIEW, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER -- (Since I don't follow the Simpson's regularly, I sure hope this episode will be funnier to watch than to read about.)

The segment, titled "The Day the Earth Was Stupid," is a takeoff on Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio broadcast, "The War of The Worlds."

In the Simpson's version, the confusion the radio broadcast created sets the stage for an invasion by Kang and Kodos, the lime-green aliens who have appeared in every Halloween, sorry — "Treehouse Horror" special. The parallels to the U.S. occupation of Iraq are not subtle.

"Well, the Earthlings continue to resent our presence," Kang says. "You said we'd be greeted as liberators!"

"Don't worry," says Kodos. "We still have the people's hearts and minds." In the show's characteristic over-the-top sarcasm, Kodos then holds up a brain and heart.

"I don't know," says Kang. "I'm starting to think 'Operation Enduring Occupation' was a bad idea."

Kodos disagrees. "We had to invade. They were working on weapons of mass disintegration."

As the two survey the smoking ruins of their town, Kang deadpans the last line of the segment. "This sure is a lot like Iraq will be."

The show's executive producer, Al Jean, has said he's not sure whether that last line will be broadcast. Some of the writers apparently want it cut.

If cell phones can do this to men.....what are they doing to women?

Men beware! Heavy mobile use may decrease sperm count

What about all those young girls who are on their cells constantly? I don't know how they do it. I can't stay on mine for more than a minute -- I HATE THE THING -- and love it at the same time....

PLEASE -- We don't have to give them up, just take the necessary precautions.

This article has some good suggestions

"If I know anything, I know scary. And giving this president and this out-of-control Congress two more years to screw up our future is downright terrifying. Thankfully, this national nightmare is one we can end with—literally—a wake up call. -Stephen King, Author

Elsewhere in Sudan

Oil and real estate investment drive the economy in urban areas. An ice cream stand tweaks the outdoor air conditioning. NY Times

"1st and Ten -- not THEM again"

Wish I could think of a joke about the difference between a political debate and a football game. Quite a few parallels whilst clicking between Giants/Cowboys and Lamont/Leiberman last night. With so much rah rah going on between the two stations, and the fighting over the remote, all I wanted to do was to bury my head in my pillow. I actually started drooling at the thought, and almost put my thumb in my mouth on the climb upstairs. I was asleep in 30 seconds. BOY! I missed all the excitement. Thank goodness!

FDL has complete coverage if anyone is interested.

Evidently after the debate Lieberman walked up to Ned and said "You goddamn sonovabitch," and something to the effect of "how dare you run those direct mail pieces accusing me of voting for the energy bill in 2005 because of campaign contributions from the oil companies." Joe's losing it.

Joe Lieberman said in 2005 that “The health of the Long Island Sound is crucial to our region’s economy, quality of life and heritage.” Yet just a few months after saying that, he was the only Democrat in the New England to vote for President Bush’s Energy Bill – a bill that strips Connecticut’s right to prevent Long Island Sound from being the site of potentially hazardous liquid natural gas terminals

I designed a few
special license plates here


and here

And The Beat Goes On . . .

Further to my "fox guarding the chickencoop" post of a couple of weeks ago about the chemical company executive being appointed regional administrator for the EPA, now comes this: unable to get this guy approved by the Senate, King George gave a recess appointment to Richard Stickler to be the new head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Now why couldn't he secure the Senate's consent? Because Mr. Stickler is a coal company executive.

This shit would be hilarious if it weren't so freaking tragic. I guess after murdering almost 3,000 Americans in Iraq, the deaths of a few dozen miners would seem like a morning lark to His Heinie.

Updates on the hot topics

• Border Security
Mexican drug lords can easily bribe US officials at the border from a DMV clerk all the way up to a high level FBI supervisor. Two hundred public employees have been charged with moving narcotics or illegal immigrants over the border since 2004 and thousands more are currently under investigation. Some say that with more border security there will be more corruption. Eye opening article in the LA Times: RISE IN BRIBERY TESTS INTEGRITY OF U.S. BORDER

• Torture
Why are some people enthusiastically pro-torture? Some factors may be: an intense fear of terrorism, a general disregard for human rights especially if you are pro-death penalty, ignorance matters if you don't understand what security experts know- that torture is many times counterproductive. People who believe torture is useful will not be swayed by moral or legal arguments according to this article in the Economist: Saying no to torture Why some are willing to see it used

• The War on Iraq
If you thought that Iraqi's were preparing to take over their country, think again. George Bush ought to see that his optimistic plan isn't exactly working. Watch this short film about the tensions between the US Army and their Iraqi counterparts by Sean Smith, the Guardian's photographer who was embedded with the 101st Division of the US Army in Iraq. Remember that the Iraqi's are supposed to stand up so we can stand down. Not so fast. Things are so bad, that some insurgents are officers and soldiers in the Iraqi army. See also a photographic essay on the war by Sean Smith from 2003 to the present. If you can't view the movie, there's a review in Editor and Publisher. The husband has been IMing with his friend who is on his second tour of duty in Iraq. According to him, they see action each and every day. It's not getting any better and the Iraqi army isn't exactly doing anything.

• Fixed Elections
Sure, the American people are fed up with this useless congress, but don't count your chickens before Diebold does and don't pop the corks just yet. Take a look at Bradblog.com today and you'll get a pretty grim picture of just how desperate the fascists are to keep control. It starts with something awful: Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections from ABC news.

I never thought I'd live to see a such a direct threat to our democracy by our very own government. (I was born immediately after the McCarthy hearings.) If we do take the neocons out of congress, I'll be very surprised but also extremely elated. Are you getting your hopes up? I'm not.

How Many Years Has It Been

Still MORE remains have been found in and around the pit that once was the WTC. Didn't we just recognize the FIFTH anniversary of the attacks? Did no one think to check underground? Did no one think to check on roof tops? And we are not talking shards of a finger, in some cases we are talking entire limbs. Many relatives of victims are justifiably upset that officials are going on and on about construction and rebuilding while many obvious places where remains may have settled have not been examined.

Of course its been five years and all we have to show for a memorial is a pit as deep and as black as the hearts of the men who caused this tragedy. So I don't suppose the fact that no one has been dilgent or competent in carrying out their duties to recover the dead, notify families or make sure any and all biological contaminants have been cleared and accounted for is much of a surprise. And ghee, it really gives you a lot of hope for all the missing in NOLA too. I'm betting that we'll be finding remains there for the next 10+ years, wonder how many of them will be found in manholes, roof tops, and ditches.

Fantasy Football?

Feh, Try this little gem instead.

That's right, Fantasy Congress. Pick your team, score points for introducing bills and negotiating policies.

"HELL-o" !

You have GOT to be kidding me!

Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections

Computer experts and government officials have voiced serious concerns that if these machines malfunction, no paper record will exist for a recount. Even worse is the fear that an election could be hacked.

WHO can put a stop to this?

WHAT day is it today...?

WHERE's my mommy?

WHEN THE HELL are people going to wake up?


WHY??? --ISN'T EVERY DEMOCRAT INSISTING ON PUTTING AN END TO ELECTRONIC VOTING????

and if they can't then --

HOW hard could it be to produce a few paper receipts?

Obama Says He May Run in '08

He just told Russert.

More Lies, More Denial

How many times have you heard the man say we're staying the course? No matter what news was coming from Iraq, no matter what the generals were saying, no matter what the American people were saying, it was always, "We will stay the course" and/or "The Democrats want to cut and run." Jon Stewart had a segment to this effect.

Today, the man told George Stephanopolis, ‘We’ve never been about stay the course, George!’

Bush is wrong:

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]

BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]

BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]

BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]

So once again, fellow travelers, the man gets away with saying something completely opposite of what he's said in the past, and the supposed "journalist" does not call him on it. But boy do the supposed "journalists" know every detail about Clinton's BJ and never let anyone forget it.

Just more hypocrisy and lies from our friends in the WH.

----------

BTW: I'm reporting from right across the river from the belly of the beast this morning in beautiful Alexandria, Va, in the very gracious home of Blondesense co-blogger, Red State Blues. Billydoom is here too. We met the exquisite Chicago Dyke for lunch yesterday.

The weather is here, wish you were beautiful!

Troups in debt can't go overseas.....

I think I'll get my 17 year old son a FEW charge cards for his birthday, and then give him a list of things I need and want. EXCELLENT!! -- Kill two birds....
I have been getting more and more nervous by the day as he approaches his 18th birthday.
Problem solved......
CHARGE!


Here is the article
Thousands of U.S. troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt they are considered security risks. "We are seeing an alarming trend in degrading financial health." The Pentagon contends financial problems can distract personnel from their duties or make them vulnerable to bribery and treason. As a result, those who fall heavily into debt can be stripped of the security clearances they need to go overseas.
While the number of revoked clearances has surged since the beginning of the Iraq war, military officials say there is no evidence that service members are deliberately running up debts to stay out of harm's way.

Can't the government, the powers that be or whomEVER, put a stop to ANYTHING, at any time, particularly out of control spending AND LENDING? ! What's going on?

What goes around, comes around maybe?

I have been doing a lot of reading lately regarding the Federal Reserve, the Federal Income Tax, and I have also been watching Aaron Russo's film Freedom to Fascism

In my opinion, the Federal Reserve is responsible for all that is "evil" on this earth today.

Here are two very informative reads:

All about bankers

John F Kennedy Vs. the Federal Reserve

What sad irony this is.......

tilling in the fields with the godbags where the grape of wrath are withering

Thou shall not overwork the metaphors and cliches." Jesus, The Elements of Religious Writing and Style.

Much in the media about a Houston, Texas' "Garden Guy," who reserved the right to refuse service to a gay couple offering their good, hard earned legal tender in exchange for the Garden Guy's expert Texas A&M horticultural services.

I, for one, support the Garden Guy's constitutionally protected right to deny interstate commerce to gay men with disposable income who only want to make their neighborhood and yard more beautiful and marketable. The Garden Guy has a First Amendment right to be a bigot and a Christian and exercise his free speech rights to the point he aggrivates the Hell out of me.

In 1964, Congress, in a fit of reasonableness and under the commanding thumb of congressional expert and magnificent bastard Lyndon Baines Johnson, passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act designed to get "Bubba" to stop denying service in public restaurants and hotels and gas stations to black folks who needed a place to eat, pee, get gasoline and get the Hell out of the South.

Well, gay folks were not on the political landscape at the time we got all guily about John Kennedy's death and passed that piece of fine legislation, unless of course you want to count Johnson Administration member Walter Jenkins who was busted for having sex in a YMCA (the shock!) mere blocks from the White House where other fine Americans were not busted for engaging in adult consensual sexual relations with whomever they wished to so engage. Gay people did not enjoy the fruits of our labor and generousity when we told people that by God or by law if they couldn't love each other they could at least let black folks use the bathroom at the Esso.

I for one am glad to know who the bigots are. I might have accidentally given my money to these "Christians," there by leading these idiots to conclude that I support their bigotry. Whew, I am so glad I didn't do that.

If you think these garden variety godbags are somehow righteously using Jesus Christ's words to hate the sin and hate the sinner, you would of course be wrong. But remember the Old Testament or as one of my Jewish friends says, "We prefer to call it the Holy Torah, please," which of course supported owning slaves, unless, of course, they were Jewish slaves owned by Pharaoh and daughters getting their daddy's drunk and having sex with them in order to propagate the already dwindling Jewish population. Somehow, I got the radical message from the uber-Jewish Jesus--lived with mother, until he could support himself as a rabbi, had a fall back job as a carpenter, worrying the hell out his parents, pushed into the family business, etc.--that we were supposed to love each other and that we were all equal in the eyes of the Lord. See, Romans were not closer to their little sky gods than Jews were to their mono-Yahweh.

Love and equality are still pretty radical notions, even to Christians. But if they want to turn away pieces of silver and damn people to economic segregation and ugly yards, fine with me. Until of course those activist judges, like the ones that supported Brown v. Board of Education and challenges to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, slap these silly bitches with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which says thou shall not discriminate unless of course you want to deny yourselves all that disposable "gay" income. Go right ahead and hang on to your Church of Exclusion while other folks go right ahead a spend that godless money.

Satan--not that I believe that there is a goat-man, smelling of eau de sulfur--tempted the Jewish Jesus in a garden. Did the Garden Guy get that contract to landscape that scene of doubt and pain? But Jesus took the hard way out of the garden, sort of like Adam and Eve who would rather know that they were naked and human than live in blissful ignorance in a garden paradise. An apple a day....

Perhaps we should just go on ahead and wear our religious affiliations, by law, on our sleeves, with our better business/chamber of commerce conformity. If you won't tell me about your religion, I won't tell you about my secret garden. (see Nancy Friday for those of who don't read anything but your Bible.)

Religion has a role in public life. I don't make fun of the Garden Guy's sincerely held religious beliefs any more than I would argue the flaws in the National Socialists' logic regarding the New Testament's urging that Jews killed Jesus. (But didn't Jesus have to die to help the believers find forgiveness for their sins of hating each other and judging each other and defying God's commandment to love your silly-assed neighbors as you love your miserably perfect selves?) I don't fight with the mentally ill, the drunk, and the literalists. It makes loving them so much more difficult as my God commands me to do.

My "W*T*F!?!" awards of the week.....

"Tyra Banks if out of her mind" -- from thesuperficial

Is this for real? I think it is -- it looks like her....W*T*F?


AND...

Rumsfeld 'is inspired by God'


wait -- it REALLY should read the other way around

Donald Rumsfeld is out of his mind,

and Tyra Banks is inspired by God

No First Amendment Rights in America's Classrooms: Teacher loses job for saying peace

Here is some background on this from a RawStory last year.

Here is the headline story from GlobalResearch written by Deb Mayer, the teacher.

Maybe I better back off on questioning some of my kids teachers as to why they don't discuss these very same issues in their classrooms.

Teachers must be so frustrated today.....

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

GOP Alleged Sex Scandals just from this week.

Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM) is alleged to have buried her husband's file concerning his inappropriate conduct with a 16 year old boy 10 years ago. She was Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department at the time. She also worked with Mark Foley until recently on the page board as well as for missing and exploited children.

Drunken and married Nevada GOP candidate for Governor, Rep Jim Gibbons, 61, was accused by Chrissy Mazzeo, 32, of grabbing her and perhaps thinking of raping her in a parking garage, when she broke away and ran to call 911 recently. Gibbons denies it.

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, married with 2 children, who votes against gay rights, has allegedly had sex with men in the Union Station bathrooms.

Rep. Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania had the full support of the pretzeldent who traveled to PA to raise money for his campaign. The pretzeldent was very moved by his Mrs. Sherwood's support of her husband despite his trying to choke his mistress.

I'm sure there's more I've missed but I really don't hunt for these. They are just right there in the news.

KABOBfest

another wonderful site.

KABOBfest is an unedited forum for Arab-Americans and friends to complain about politics and other serious topics in intelligent and funny ways.

Here is the site


Please read this post:
EVERY DATE COUNTS IN SAWARDA


simply beautiful....


life IS good



(I found it over at
Pierre Tristam's blog.)

Open Thread (featuring Ugly Food in Advertising)

from the blondesense "Ewwwww!" files

To hell with the fear mongers.

I read that the GOP is going to air more ads warning us that the terrorists are going to attack us again if we vote for Democrats. I suppose the ads aren't meant for those who can think critically because it makes no sense whatsoever to vote for those who have made terrorism more of a danger to the citizens of the world than it was 5 years ago. How can Americans trust the party that is supposedly best able to fight terrorism while at the same time, they threaten us with more? If the New Yorkers aren't buying it, why praytell is anyone else buying it?

And are the ports secure yet? Have you ever met a TSA employee in an east or west coast airport that could speak or understand English, let alone give a shit about anything other than making you late for your flight? Oh yes, you can fly with your pocket knife on your keychain out of JFK and LAX, just make sure that you leave your handcream home and take your shoes off as you go through security.

As a New Yorker and someone whose community was hit rather hard by the 9/11 attacks, I'd rather live freely and without fear while I am alive and take my chances regarding another attack. Those scaredy cats who live in rural America gladly giving up their liberty for freedom (as if the terrorists even know they exist), can kiss my ass. I live in more fear of the fascist takeover than I do of a terror attack. I don't believe that an electrified fence at the Mexican border will keep me safe either.

Soledad -- Thank you!

I am now REMOVING the TeeVee from the house. You've inspired me this morning! There is absolutely no use for it. There really isn't. Just a dust collector.

After my nice 6-7 hours of sleep last night (finally getting back on track), I was in the mood to 'watch' some morning news. I usually opt for you (even though your a brunette), and CNN. Here's what I heard as the picture appeared:

"WELL, here's one you can file under DUH!"

"Over 50% of women/mothers (not sure what she said) don't get enough sleep.....you DON'T have to tell ME that... last night I got 3 hours of sleep.....blah, blah, blah,"

I really wish I had it on tape to share with you guys. I have not had a 'news' channel on in weeks. I just happened to be upstairs this morning setting up the iron so hubby could press his shirt, and turned on the box.

I couldn't believe her! Quite the snarky little brunette that one!
If she only got 3 hours of sleep last night, then she must have just spent 2 hours in the make-up chair before going on the air. She really looks great!

Here's a helpful hint Soledad: Tell the CNN suits to cut the crap, give you the female anchor chair, give us a nice "Mary Richards" style NEWSCAST for a few hours, and call it a day.

THEN

Go home to your family, like a regular person, and start a BLOG (no make-up necessary)

God Is NOT An Asshole

WHAT AN AWESOME SITE!!!

Enjoy

It's called Karma, baby.

The priest who may have had sex with Mark Foley when he was in a drug induced stupor, but definitely remembers fondling him when he was an altar boy, wonders why Foley is bringing it up now, 40 years later, and ruining his life in old age. Because uh, this stuff doesn't go away? And let this be a lesson to all people who think that bad stuff they have done won't come back to haunt them.

How Bad Was It? Enough to make you vomit.

Have you read Rolling Stone's The Worst Congress Ever?
This isn't politics as usual. This is unconstitutional. This is a travesty. In a nutshell:
Step One- Rule by cabal. Remember when Sensenbrenner just shut off the power and walked out when the Democrats wanted to hold a hearing on the PATRIOT Act?
Step Two- Work as little as possible and screw up what little you do.Congress worked a record breaking low: 92 days in the second session and they sucked at it.
Step Three- Let the president do whatever he wants. No oversight. When there is a Democratic president, no issue is to small to investigate. When there is a Republican president. Nothing is debated.
Step Four- Spend, spend, spend. Since there is no oversight happening, what else is there to do? Spend money.
Step Five- Line your own pockets. And feel no remorse for it when you get caught. Blame those who busted you for ruining your life.

While you're at Rolling Stone, don't miss the feature: The 10 Worst Congressmen

Oh my god. These elections are important.

hat tip to Auntie Roo

...and everyone will rush to the polls in November to vote for Republicans

Bogus Election Surprises

If the bad guys blow up a football stadium, I'm voting Republican
Wolf could hardly contain himself yesterday when the news of a possible attack on one of America's football stadiums was released. The Ministry of Security Propaganda says that the threat was not credible, but thanks for making it a headline story anyway.

If Saddam gets the death sentence on November 5th, I'm voting Republican
An Iraqi court trying Saddam Hussein for the killing of Shi'ite villagers in the 1980s could deliver a verdict on November 5, officials said, a ruling which could send the ousted leader to the gallows.

If Democrats take over the majority, John McCain will commit suicide, so I'm voting Republican.
What a tool!

and so, ALL the world's a stage...

I can ALWAYS count on Pierre Tristam for a great read! Thank goodness, because today was looking pretty grim. I still have not read any of the stories below.

I just read this one though, from Mr. Tristam:

Flags of Our Liars From Iwo Jima to Baghdad

Clint Eastwood is featured in today’s editions of Le Monde... previewing “Flags of Our fathers,” which premiered in Beverly Hills on October 9 (it opens in the rest of the solar system on Friday).

The article tells the story of the famously iconic flag-raising at Iwo Jima, as rendered by Joe Rosenthal’s photograph, and Eastwood’s retelling of the story’s variously cynical, variously faked angle. But it also quotes Eastwood, who first saw the flag-raising picture in newspapers, when he was 15 in 1945, saying this: “Anyway, there remains this photograph by Joe Rosenthal. It’s unbelievable. An involuntary work of art. Never could a photographer have managed such a cliché intentionally. Rosenthal was the first to recognize it. The wind was blowing just right, light was optimal, the six soldiers’ position, the light at that point in the day. A miracle.” Well, no: a staged miracle, which was just what the Marines, who’ve never been above a good shot of PR, wanted.

(I don't remember if I knew this about "THE PICTURE" or not? Isn't that awful....about my memory, I mean)

ah yes...ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

He also has a wonderful success story for us 'advocates for music in education'

Take Five What We Live For

Morning Headlines

Bush: U.S. Will Stop N. Korea Nuke Moves

Rice Says U.S. Ready to Defend Japan

Bush Accepts Iraq-Vietnam Comparison
Troops to Face Courts-Martial on Charges


FDA Is Set To Approve Milk, Meat From Clones


I don't even WANT to open the links this morning. I usually can't wait for the coffee to finish and the heating pad to warm up, so I can sit quietly by myself and catch up. I don't want to do ANYTHING this morning.

One thing I REALLY want:

I want a new drug
One that does what it should
One that wont make me feel too bad
One that wont make me feel too good


UPDATE 5:10 a.m. U.S. Says 'Keep Out of My Space'

nice....

Democracy Vs Despotism

My new favorite google video is Despotism - An Erpi Classroom Film by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Inc. MCMXLV (It's only about 10 minutes.)


The bushistas must have used this as a training film. You wonder what was on the mind of the creators back in 1955. Maybe they could see the future.

If you can't watch video, here's a summary:

How near is a community is to despotism?
Signs of despotism in a community:
Respect scale. Equal opportunity to develop useful skills and that the people can put them to use is a sign of respect. Most citizens get an even break. If people are disrespected because of political views, race, religion, lack of wealth and respect is limited to fewer people, then the community is moving close to despotism.

Power scale. Citizens should share in making decisions for theircommunities. If only a few hands share in decision making, then the community is moving towards despotism. If a government disregards the will of the people, opposition is considered dangerous and the legalities of elections are in question and legislatures have no control over real lawmaking.

How will Despotism gain a foothold?
What Are the Conditions/variables

Economic distribution. If economic distribution is slanted and the middle class grows small, then despotism can gain a foothold. Land ownership in the hands of a small number of people will give despotism a chance to take hold. Communities that depend on a particular industry, have a challenging problem. If the control of jobs and opportunities remain in the hands of a few, then despotism can become a reality. In areas of national revenue, sales taxes hit the small income much harder.

Information- Press, radio and media controlled by only a few interests where citizens are expected to believe what they are told is a community on the brink of despotism. Teachers may inhibit critical thought. Questions are not encouraged. People are taught to believe everything they read. Beware of censorship.

Rate your community on the respect and power scales.
Regarding economic distribution and information- the lower you rate, the lower it will rate on respect and power- and you approach despotism.

In a single community where despotism is taking foothold, is not just a local problem, because as communities go, so goes the nation.

Doom and gloom.

When Politics Seduces Faith, by Melissa Rogers

Looks like a good read --


Some Christians are pretty ticked off at former White House official David Kuo right now for what he has written in his new book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction

In his book, Kuo documents the three years he worked for President George W. Bush (2001-2003) in the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

One of the book’s themes is that the White House repeatedly and quite intentionally manipulated faith for partisan political gain.

As Kuo points out, that agenda sometimes appears to be shaped more by ideology or partisanship than Christian principles. For example, the issue of poverty often has been missing from this agenda even though it is unquestionably at the core of Christian concern. Of course, Christians may differ over how to tackle poverty, but it’s legitimate to question a Christian’s silence on issues Jesus addressed again and again.

Corn Hole of the Week

George Carlin is right, "we just don't use the word CORN HOLE enough"! So, in honor of Carlin, I wish to forget about our 'douchebag of the week', (for this week anyway), and give out the 'Corn Hole of the Week' award to MARK FOLEY.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Mark Foley plans to reveal the name of a clergyman he says abused him as a teenager, a move his attorney said would deflate claims the former congressman fabricated the allegations as an excuse for sending sexually explicit e-mails to teenage pages.

Gerald Richman, Foley's civil attorney, said Tuesday that Foley has been "keeping this deep dark secret inside of him for many years."


If there is one person who should know the importance of dealing with what 'happened' to them and the harm that could be done to others by keeping 'quiet'-- it would be Mark Foley. He knows all about how this works. That was one of his jobs.

He knew EXACTLY what he was doing. And he certainly appeared to be having a good time from what I have read and heard.

What a Corn Hole.....



Here's the story.

BlondeSense Meet Up

Blonde Liz is heading to the nation's capitol for a brief meet up this weekend with Red State Blues. If there are any BlondeSensers in the area who are interested in a meet and greet with our fearless leader, say on Saturday evening, send her an email (blondesense(at)optonline.net) to let her know you're interested. If anyone from outside the area is interested in coming, I still have one bedroom available. Liz can handle the reservations.

say WHAT?... (did somebody say Ken Lay?)

Judge Vacates Conviction of Ken Lay

say WHAT?:

Enron founder Kenneth Lay's criminal record is now clean.

WHAT?

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Lay's death this summer vacated his conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the downfall of the once mighty energy giant.

wasn't he the guy, who, ummm....

Lay was convicted of 10 counts of fraud, conspiracy and lying to banks in two separate cases on May 25. He died of heart disease July 5 while vacationing with his wife, Linda, in Aspen, Colo.

Enron's collapse in 2001 wiped out thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in market value and more than $2 billion in pension plans.


that's right!! he died....

must of had some good attorneys...?


Lay's attorneys argued that legal precedent called for his convictions to be erased and his indictment dismissed.



They cited a 2004 ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found that a defendant's death pending appeal extinguished his entire case because he hadn't had a full opportunity to challenge the conviction and the government shouldn't be able to punish a dead defendant or his estate.

well, at least the family can have some closure now. they are probably penniless after paying all of those attorney fees.....

"On behalf of his estate, I'm really quite pleased with the ruling and glad this brings to a close the criminal proceeding against Mr. Lay," said Samuel Buffone, the attorney for Lay's estate.

what about the OTHER SIDE?

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake agreed with them, saying prosecutors had not "raised any legal basis for denying the rule's application in this case … ."

and who picks and pays the prosecutors to challenge Lay's estate?

anyone....anyone....?


Maybe the article here from JURIST may explain some things

This Week Is a Biggie

According to Bob Geiger, "we're smack-dab in the middle of what Bush has officially proclaimed National Character Counts Week. It runs October 15 through October 21 and is intended, according to Bush, to "renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character."

Like Bob, our family uses the president to illustrate a person with bad character, no honesty and a total lack of personal integrity to our son.

Unconstitutional: Federal Income Tax

Could it be that paying federal income tax on wages and labor is illegal and unconstitutional?

Looks like it. Jersey Cynic posted something about this flick produced by Aaron Russo a few months ago. You can now watch "Freedom to Fascism" on Google Video and when you are finished you'll be shaking when you find out that we've all been had.

Watch the flick and see how the American people have been fucked ever since 1913, when the 16th Amendment was NOT changed to include taxation of individuals. The Supreme Court said so and never overturned it.

America:Freedom to Fascism: The Website - The Video

Spread this around

I reported yesterday that the GOP is recruiting armies of sheeple to oversee elections around the country and that Rove and Bush are upbeat about the elections. This spells trouble.

This is especially important for those who live in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and California.

There's a great suggestion over at DU for Democrats and that means you guys whether or not you're a Democrat- bring your video phones to document GOP election fraud at the polls. If you don't have one, see if you can borrow one or ask a friend who has one to do it.

Here is the link to the post with more information and I think it's very important that this news gets spread around.

hat tip to tali

Also check out VideoTheVote.org
and Velvet Revolution's Election Protection

300 Million and counting.... America reaches a milestone

Here's MSNBC's Story

It’s not easy estimating the exact number of people in a country the size of the United States. It gets even more complicated when you take into account illegal immigration, another reason for the federal government to let the milestone pass quietly.

This year, there’s a good chance the 300 millionth American has already walked across the border from Mexico.

Here's NPR's Story, I mean stats.

And the 200 millionth American is glad to let spotlight move on.


Here is what he has to say:

Growing up, he didn't understand the special distinction until his parents told him it was because he represented "the average American."

While the Atlanta attorney, born of a Chinese immigrant, considers it an honor, he now laughs at the whole concept of average for this diverse nation.

"There's no typical American," he said Tuesday, with a view of his native city sprawling behind the tall windows of his 36th-floor law office. "You've got to see us for all our diversity."



Do you think we can continue expanding (at 1 born every 11 seconds) into a multicultural country/society? Can it work? Maher raised this question last night. I'm waiting for the transcript to pop up (I fell asleep right when Dobbs was going to answer).

What are your thoughts?

Welcom to the NEW witch hunts

"The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero

Signed into law this morning, along with the president praising Rumsfeld for his handling of the whole clusterfuck.

Bush needed the legislation because the Supreme Court in June said the administration's plan for trying detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.

So if they make it legal now, MAYBE they can evade the world court....but I assume Pol Pot and Hitler thought their actions legal as well.

The bill also eliminates some rights common in military and civilian courts. For example, the commission would be allowed to consider hearsay evidence so long as a judge determined it was reliable. Hearsay is barred from civilian courts.

Like I said, witch trials, nothing more than witch trials.

Good Morning Open Thread

What's on your mind today?


image from the blondesense ugly food files

What do you call.......

...the flap of skin that hangs under your elbow when you hold your arm out straight?

I'll give you a hint --

IT BEGINS WITH THE LETTER

w

Vomit Forecast

This is disturbing. Newsmax, the GOP PR machine, is reporting that despite all the doom and gloom forecasts for election day, Bush and Rove are 'Upbeat'

While Republicans are predicting losses of 25 seats, Rove says that maybe 8-10 seats will be lost at most and it's inconceivable that the Democrats would take the majority. As you may have read recently, the bushistas proudly boast that they have NO plan for a Democratic win.

Even more disturbing is that the"Republican National Committee is deploying an army of volunteers to key locations to help the grass-roots effort and monitor the elections. The RNC is offering to fly in volunteers and cover their expenses."

Oh goodie. The elections are still rigged. It's still being reported that Rove has also ordered an October surprise. Isn't that special?

The WSJ today reported that the reason so few people vote is because the system is deliberately set up to disenfranchise voters. But we knew that.

I hear they are sending troops from the AF and the Navy over to the quagmire. Good. When the revolution happens, there won't be anyone here to defend them.

I think our 2 Party System in this country is our BIGGEST THREAT

I really think WE are going to do each other in!
IT'S SHAMEFUL
Here is a fine example. Democrats, Republicans Blame Each Other For `Failed Policies' On North Korea


Of course, we all know what the 'other' side says OVER and OVER and OVER -- ready...all together...."It's Clinton's fault"

and we tend to listen to the experts, or at least explore for ourselves:

"Experts continue to debate the value of the Clinton and Bush policies toward North Korea. In October 1994, Clinton's envoys won assurances from North Korea that it would freeze its nuclear program while the U.S. and its allies helped that nation boost its energy supplies.

Shortly before the 2000 election, Albright visited Pyongyang, and the Clinton administration believed it had laid the groundwork for Bush to make more progress.

The 2001 terrorist attacks hurt that effort, and a few months later Bush labeled North Korea part of the world's "axis of evil" and suggested that the U.S. would take military action against any nation that posed a nuclear threat."

Here is an interesting video from youtube on the subject
"Much ado about nothing"

And an article from Watching America:
'Don't Blame the Americans'



Who do you blame?

I suppose that IS an easier question than:

What are we going to do about it?

Now Here's A Sex Scandal

This one highlights the blatant hypocrisy which is the Bush Administration and GOP in general- The Grand Old Perverts. It should be on the front page of every newspaper as we speak. It's a doozy that is finally coming to light. Americablog.com has the story.

Kind of reminds me how Lush Bimbo was caught coming back to the US after a vacation in the Dominican Republic with a bottle of viagra in his pocket. The D.R. is a haven for sex tourists.

Monday Morning Blonde Jokes

Read 'em and weep (with laughter):

Tech support: What kind of computer do you have?
Blonde: A white one...

Tech support: Click on the 'my computer' icon on to the left of the screen.
Blonde: Your left or my left?

Tech support: Good day. How may I help you?
Blonde: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can't print. Every time I try, it says 'Can't find printer'. I've even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he can't find it..

Blonde: I have problems printing in red...
Tech support: Do you have a color printer?
Blonde: Aaaah....................thank you.

Tech support: What's on your monitor now, ma'am?
Blonde: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11.

Tech support: How may I help you?
Blonde: I'm writing my first e-mail.
Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?
Blonde: Well, I have the letter 'a' in the address, but how do I get the circle around it?

Tech support: Your password is the small letter "a" as in apple, a capital letter V as n Victor, the number 7.
Blonde: Is that 7 in capital letters?

Ba-dum-bum.

Oh goodie! ANOTHER sex scandle to talk about...

Police accuse Israeli president of rape (Reuters)

"An indictment would be unlikely to have any significant political repercussions."

Israeli President Faces Rape Charges (ABC News)

"The president, whose post is largely ceremonial, traditionally...."

So, what's the big deal then?

Maybe this one will just go away by the end of the day?

Monday Morning Comedy Hour

Dane Cook (He's growing on me -- the kids love him!)

Dane Cook- The Catholic Religion



George Carlin - Owners of This Country
(hard to keep a sense of humor lately?)

A message from Chad and Steve

The YouTube founders talk about the Google acquisition

It really IS them!!

and they're gonna do ALL kinds of good stuff now -

for the community --

Yeah right!!


"Eat My Dust" --we'll be seeing you out in the community for sure!!

16% Of Americans Think Bush Is Telling The Truth About 9/11 Intelligence

The New York Times / CBS News Poll

Q: When it comes to what they knew prior to September 11th, 2001, about possible terrorist attacks against the United States, do you think members of the Bush Administration are telling the truth, are mostly telling the truth but hiding something, or are they mostly lying?

-----------------------Oct. 2006----May 2002
Telling the truth-------16%---------21%
Hiding something------53%--------65%
Mostly lying------------28%---------8%
Not sure------------------3%---------6%

If you have a fast connection, you can watch 9/11 Mysteries and Loose Change Version 2
and then do some research.
You can bring 9/11:Press For Truth to your neighborhood for a screening.

What Do You Think?

Kerry says he deserves 2nd chance in '08

I would like to send him a letter quoting the immortal words of our dear leader:
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

Confessions of a 'Defeatocrat'

By John P. Murtha

WAPO Sunday, October 15, 2006; Page B01

Excerpt: It's all baseless name-calling, and it's all wrong. Unless, of course, being a Defeatocrat means taking a good hard look at the administration's Iraq policy and determining that it's a failure.

In that case, count me in. Because Democrats recognize that we're headed for a far greater disaster in Iraq if we don't change course -- and soon. This is not defeatism. This is realism.

The Sanctity of Marriage

Married couples outnumbered for first time

The American Community Survey, released this month by the Census Bureau, found that 49.7 percent, or 55.2 million, of the nation's 111.1 million households in 2005 were made up of married couples — with and without children — just shy of a majority and down from more than 52 percent five years earlier.

Former Rep. Gerry Studds, 69, dies

I don't remember the man but his name has been brought up lately to justify the Foley hoo hah by the Republicans. Studds was noted for his outstanding work on behalf of the fishing industry and environmental causes, (not for his work protecting young people from internet predators). "In 1996, Congress named the 842-square-mile Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary after him in recognition of his work protecting the marine environment."

Studds was first elected in 1972 and represented Cape Cod and the Islands, New Bedford, and the South Shore for 12 Congressional terms. He retired from Congress in 1997.

In his early career, Studds was known for opposing the Vietnam War and military intervention in Central America. Studds later became an advocate for a stronger federal response to the AIDS crisis and was among the first members of Congress to endorse lifting the ban on gays serving in the military.

In 1983, Studds acknowledged his homosexuality after a 27-year-old man disclosed that he and Studds had had a sexual relationship a decade earlier when the man was a teenage congressional page.

The House of Representatives censured Studds, who then went home to face his constituents in a series of public meetings.

At the time, Studds called the relationship with the teenage page, which included a trip to Europe, "a very serious error in judgment." But he did not apologize and defended the relationship as a consensual relationship with a young adult. The former page later appeared publicly with Studds in support of him.

Bush keeps revising war justification

Well yeah, we know that. The shocking this is that the above is a headline from the AP.

"We can't tolerate a new terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, with large oil reserves that could be used to fund its radical ambitions, or used to inflict economic damage on the West," Bush said in a news conference last week in the Rose Garden.

When no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, Bush shifted his war justification to one of liberating Iraqis from a brutal ruler.

After Saddam's capture in December 2003, the rationale became helping to spread democracy through the Middle East. Then it was confronting terrorists in Iraq "so we do not have to face them here at home," and "making America safer," themes Bush pounds today.

"We're in the ideological struggle of the 21st century," he told a California audience this month. "It's a struggle between good and evil."

Vice President Dick Cheney takes it even further: "The hopes of the civilized world ride with us," Cheney tells audiences.

Except for the weapons of mass destruction argument, there is some validity in each of Bush's shifting rationales, said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution who initially supported the war effort.

"And I don't have any big problems with any of them, analytically. The problem is they can't change the realities on the ground in Iraq, which is that we're in the process of beginning to lose," O'Hanlon said. "It is taking us a long time to realize that, but the war is not headed the way it should be."

Who Would You Buy This Shirt For?

I wonder if I could get on a plane wearing this? More delightful shirts here.
I have the "Happy Fucking Whatever" wrapping paper. heh.

Did Bush Know?

See Update below post

Turns out that Foley was snubbed by the president in 2004.

Foley wrote to Gov. Bush on Sept. 29, 2004: "Have I done something to offend the White House ... I am always getting the shaft ... they came to ft pierce a few weeks ago and said I was not allowed to attend ... yet joe negron is there ...

and

"Tomorrow Potus is in Martin County and I am told I am not allowed to be there either. I can't quite figure what I have done but this is a continuing pattern of slights ... I have constantly put the President in the best possible light on everything from haiti to hurricanes ... sorry to trouble you ... and I wouldn't if this wasn't so frequent ..."

from the palm beach post (the link works now) and read the comments too.

UPDATE Oct 15th: What made White House shun Foley?
Help solve the mystery

5 Years later: NOW they care about port security

It's just amazing to me that it's been 5 years since 9/11 and politics got in the way of port security for all this time. And the Republicans just lied and lied about how THEY were the party who was concerned with national security. Enough to really make you puke, isn't it?

Back on March 16th, the evil right wing blocked funding for a $1.25 billion port security bill saying enough was already being spent. Yeah right. It was most obvious to people who pay attention that the bushistas either knew that there won't ever be a terrorist attack again because they are the terrorists OR because they simply don't give a shit if there's another terrorist attack because it could lead to war and war is good for the economy OR they simply voted it down because the bill was sponsored by a democrat, Rep. Martin Sabo (D-MN).

Yesterday the House passed a $7.4 billion Port Security bill overwhelmingly by a vote of 421-2. Dennis Hastert pretended that this was a Republican thing (the 2 nay votes were Republican, mind you).

"House Republicans will continue to do what is right to protect American families and prevent a tragedy like September 11th from occurring ever again," said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "We understand that we must secure our ports in order to protect our citizens."

The pretzeldent signed the legislation yesterday saying, "We're going to protect our ports. We're going to defend this homeland, and we're going to win this war on terror." He's so fucking lucky that nothing happened in the past 5 years. Or maybe it wasn't luck. (I am really beginning to doubt the whole damn terror thing.)

The Democrats are still pushing for legislation that would require that each and every container headed for the US be screened. Supposedly a feasibility study was done and it would be too expensive. It appears to me that with $7.4 billion in the budget, they could afford to screen the cargo because someone is making way too much money on this deal and that's probably why the less expensive bill was defeated in March.

A ban on banks and credit card companies from depositing money to internet gambling sites was tucked into the above bill too. It's called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which "prohibits online gamblers from using credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers to place and settle bets. The law puts enforcement on the shoulders of banks and other U.S. financial institutions, some of which fought the legislation."

Turns out that 23 million Americans enjoy playing poker online and this is a huge industry. Sounds like prohibition to me and we know where that got us.

Is Fighting Back a Good Idea

Please read THIS article on CNN, ragarding students being taught to fight back and dis-arm school invaders.

Part of me feels that it is a better option than leaving them there to get shot, part of me is terrified it will cause more death and mayhem.

If perps know that the kids and teachers are trained to fight back will it be a deterant or will they simply bring more fire power?


Please read and discuss in the comment section below.

Nobel prize links poverty reduction to peace

Attack the causes of poverty and you remove the roots of conflict -- that is the message the Nobel Committee wanted to send out by awarding its Peace Prize to the creator of a micro-credit scheme which benefits millions, analysts said on Friday.


As the head of the Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, said: "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty."

Please....tell me the world is not just figuring this out. Shouldn't the IMF and World Bank have helped with this awhile back? No wait, they just give out money for countries to rebuild after wars.

A glance at recent Peace Prize winners reveals a shift in emphasis in the thinking of the secretive five-member committee away from the classic role of peacemaker, as it has honoured people working in the fields of human rights and the environment.

Asle Sveen, a Norwegian historian who closely follows the Nobel Prize, told AFP: "It is the first time that the fight against poverty has been rewarded in itself.

"There were enough good nominations in the area of conflict resolution in the strictest sense but the Nobel Committee is increasingly taking the fight to the fundamental reasons for which war is waged.

"It is not enough to make peace, this peace must be a just peace and the causes of war, such as hunger and poverty, must be treated at their roots."


THANK YOU MR. YUNUS.

Women in saris grabbed at the handsome man with thick gray hair, flirting and addressing him with ease. I was surprised, given we were in a conservative Muslim country where rural women typically take a backseat to men.

But this man, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, had taught them to stand up to their husbands by giving them small loans that now put them in the driver's seat.

"The first hostile person to our program is the husband. We are challenging his authority," Yunus said as we walked around Kashipur, where water buffalo lumbered down dirt paths alongside women barking Bengali into the cell phones they had bought with small loans from his bank.


and.....thank YOU Nobel Committee -- Somebody's finally catching on!!

Smart choice!!

Real Christians

Fundies say that we libruls hate Christians. That's not true. I admire these people very much.

How Amish Will Use Donations.

Is It Something In The Water?

What's the deal? All of a sudden there are nothing but sex scandals involving Republicans exploding around us like veritable waterspouts. Yeah, yeah, we've always known that these sanctimonious, holier-than-thou asshats are basically charlatans who use the faith of their followers callously and cynically (see, e.g., Kuo, David). But this past couple of weeks has just been too much. First there's the whole Foley (R-FL) thing, then the Don Sherwood (R-PA) ad campaign ("Sure, I cheated on my wife, but I didn't beat my mistress'), and now . . .

Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) is under investigation for that little camping trip he took with Congressional pages.

Country music singer Sara Evans has filed for divorce from her husband because he cheated on her, was verbally abusive, drank excessively and watched porn. Apparently, he had a lot of pictures of his little soldier as well. Did I mention he was a Republican candidate for Congress in 2002?

GOP=Grand Old Perverts. Fer sher.

What could explain this? Is it comething in the water?

Are Gay Republicans really Undercover Liberals?

I don't think so, but the Republicans are blaming the liberals. As usual.

Max Blumenthal: The Coming Gay Republican Purge. The Religious Right is furious. yay

Looks like Dems are starting to learn the election game.
Dems are capitalizing on Foley scandal and looking at their rivals' personal lives

quote of the day

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain

what's yours?

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

Man needed surgery after sex with hedgehog

A Serbian man needed emergency surgery after he had sex with a hedgehog on a witchdoctor's advice. Zoran Nikolovic, 35, from Belgrade, says the witchdoctor told him it would cure his premature ejaculation. But he ended up in an operating theatre after the hedgehog's needles left his penis severely lacerated.

A hospital spokesman said: "The animal was apparently unhurt and the patient came off much worse from the encounter. We have managed to repair the damage to his penis."

Dad of 37 fights for the snip

An Argentine man who is the father of 37 children is taking legal action for the right to a vasectomy. Cleto Ruiz Diaz, 44, from Corrientes has gone to court because vasectomies are illegal in his state. Mr Diaz, a painter, told Terra Noticias Populares that he started his sex life at the age of nine and has had seven fiancees and three wives.He now lives with Isabel who is the mother of eight of his sons.

"I have enough children, it is hard to feed them all and give them clothes, and the government doesn't help," he said. "I need the operation because when I fall in love I can't control myself!"

Why bother having sex? It's scientific, babay:

Sex helps boost the immune system. (twice a week)
Sex helps boost longevity.
Sex helps ward off cancer. (more sex, less prostate cancer)
Sex results in a more youthful appearance (four times a week)
Sex helps reduce stress.
Sex helps fight depression.
Sex helps coping with middle age.
Sex is good exercise and helps release endorphins.
Sex helps in losing weight.

Digital rectal massage cures hiccups
Man Invents Musical Condoms

Opposition to Iraq War Growing in the U.S. South

The Progressive South

The Institute for Southern Studies reports – "Despite strong early support for the Iraq war in the South, the region’s opposition to the war now matches national levels –- and by some measures frustration is higher in the South than elsewhere in the country.... The survey reveals that Southerners, after showing disproportionate support for the war early on, now doubt U.S. policy in Iraq just as strongly as people in other regions of the country, and in some cases more so."

Some examples from the study:
The U.S. "should have stayed out of Iraq: 57% Southerners; 58% nationally
“Very sad” about the course of the war: 62% Southerners; 56% nationally
U.S. should "withdraw completely" from Iraq: 30% Southerners; 26% nationally
Support a decrease or withdrawal of U.S. troops: 56% Southerners; 59% nationally
Said zero is "an acceptable number of U.S. military deaths" in Iraq: 63% Southerners; 68% nationally
Said no additional dollars should be spent: 50% Southerners; 47% nationally
(highlights from the poll comparing southern states, non-southern states and national here in PDF)

Here's a state by state listing of casualties in Iraq.

The Internet May Save Us All

Both through its Humor and its ability to INSTANTLY upload stories and visual proof from citizen journalists across the globe. You Tube is one way that multiple people can use their cam corders, cell phones and digicams to preserve, prove and convince others that what they have seen, what they are telling us is the truth.

Because of the internet many of us can educate ourselves, share our opinions and some have even taken it upon themselves to gather this information and share it with the rest of the world. We have the abilty to share our thoughts, feelings, rantings and loves with billions of people from nearly every corner of the world.

It is no longer within the grasp of political hacks to keep information from the people. I know how easy it is to fraud an ISP address and access sites that are closed to everyone but residents of 'that' country. Anyone with a computer, a little skill and a good connection is able to literally travel the world in the span of a few minutes. Anyone with a website and some bandwidth can host a video feed or pages of documentation.

This is one of the many little things that America's current administration underestimated. While certain fractions of the country may be willing to turn a blind eye to the truth, there are many, many others who are actively out there in cyberspace LOOKING for the truth. We can't be lied to anymore, the truth cannot be censored; we cannot be told that the death toll is 'only' 300k when we can go online and see every major news outlet abroad is reporting 655k.

We cannot be told that we are fighting for democracy abroad when our own democratic rights are being stolen away on our own soil. We cannot be convince that America is right no matter what when with one or two clicks we can read newspapers from all over the world that are decrying America's human rights violations. We read of Haliburton construction projects that are designed to hold Bush's political prisoners; we read of men so filled with hate that they break into schools and kill little girls; we read of politicians targeting children and other politicians turning a blind eye to these same actions.

And unlike Vegas, what happens on the internet goes everywhere. There is always a copy of everything on the internet, much like the vaunted Rule 34 (if you don't know it, just ask), if it exists, someone, somewhere now has a copy of it. Is it on a server, on the hard drive, on hundred of cookies scattered across personal computers, do YOU know what is in your history file? Even if you put a page up for only 60 seconds, that page is now archived and with enough searching it can and will be found.

This has become a horrible sticking point for many of our politicians. No longer can 'I was misquoted' or 'I do not recall' be used as excuses. Today nearly everyone has a camera cell phone, many can even take video feeds and those can be immediately sent to the internet. There is no time for film to be confiscated, to remove and insert a blank memory card takes seconds, data that can bring down the corrupt can now be stored on an electronic board the size of a thumbnail.

So remember, as much as 'Big Brother' is watching us, American is now watching Big Brother. In the end it will all come down to who flinches first.

Do Pussies Count Towards the Friday Sex Post?

You have got to see this, and PLEASE pay attention to the subtitles at the end. Granted its nothing but fluffing for treats, but after the week we've had a little light-heartedness is a much needed break.

A time comes when silence is betrayal. -MLK

You must also read

Breaking the Silence of the Night
By Ron Kovic (You remember him, "Born on the 4th of July.")
Posted on Oct 10, 2006

It all begins somewhere, the questioning, the doubting, the feeling that something’s not right; like that day the captain set fire to the Vietnamese woman’s hooch, or the night we shot those women and children by mistake. It’s all got to start somewhere. For them it might have been the innocent civilians killed that day at the checkpoint just north of Baghdad or the dead children lying in the road in Kirkuk, or that night in Nasiriyah when they kicked in the front door of that house, screaming and cursing at the children as they threw their father to the floor, tying his hands behind his back and putting a hood over his head, but you remain silent, you say nothing. You’ve been taught to follow orders, to obey and not question, to go along with the program and do exactly what you’re told. You learned that in boot camp...
Read on.

I'll say something in the comments later on. It was such a moving essay, I need to absorb it.

Hat tip to Patriot for suggesting this

Get On Over

To All Spin Zone for a very special guest editorial by Michael Schiavo.

F O A D

I had never heard that one before! WHERE have I been?

Gabrielsen said he received a letter Friday from Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services notifying him that he must change the plates on his 1991 Mazda Miata.


"The plates read: FOAD1. Among some members of the military and computer users, FOAD stands for "(expletive deleted) off and die."

I hope it's not too late to get MY request in! I've been wanting plates that read: "STFU" -- It's still my favorite! Do you think I still have time before they will reject that one too?

And The Beat Goes On . . .

Put this in the "fox guarding the chickencoop" category:

The new nominee to head EPA Region 10 is a former executive of Dow Chemical with longstanding ties to the pesticide lobby. The nominee, Elin Miller, "worked as an executive at Dow Chemical from 1996 to 2004, overseeing public affairs and the global pest-management and Asia Pacific operations, according to an EPA news release. Miller most recently served as president of the North American arm of Arysta LifeScience, a Tokyo-based pesticide maker."

The mouthpiece for EPA sez this is okay because she doesn't make policy. Um, no, she doesn't. But she does decide whether and how to enforce policy in her region.

I guess should not be a surprise, coming as it does from a (mal)administration that allows oil companies to write energy policy, credit card companies to write bankruptcy bills, and pharmaceutical companies to write drug benefit plans.

I'm so sick of these fucking people I could scream.

Hat tip to reader Don Viti, from his blog, De la Where.

Just In Time for The Elections- The WH hates the fundies.

Last evening, MSNBC's Countdown host Keith Olbermann had part I of a series dissecting a new book, "Tempting Faith" by David Kuo, the former number-two man in Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. And oh baby, this will rattle the base, if any of them watch the news or read. Could it be that the neocons hate the fundies more than they hate the liberals? Anyway, last night's show was very eye opening.

From the Countdown transcript:

Kuo's bottom line: the Bush White House is playing millions of American Christians for suckers.

According to Kuo, Karl Rove's office referred to evangelical leaders as 'the nuts.'

Kuo says, 'National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy.'

So how does the Bush White House keep 'the nuts' turning out at the polls?

One way, regular conference calls with groups led by Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Ted Haggard, and radio hosts like Michael Reagan.

Kuo says, "Participants were asked to talk to their people about whatever issue was pending. Advice was solicited [but] that advice rarely went much further than the conference call. [T]he true purpose of these calls was to keep prominent social conservatives and their groups or audiences happy."

They do get some things from the Bush White House, like the National Day of Prayer, “another one of the eye-rolling Christian events,” Kuo says.

And “passes to be in the crowd greeting the president when he arrived on Air Force One or tickets for a speech he was giving in their hometown. Little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper were passed out like business cards. Christian leaders could give them to their congregations or donors or friends to show just how influential they were. Making politically active Christians personally happy meant having to worry far less about the Christian political agenda.”

When cufflinks weren't enough, the White House played the Jesus card, reminding Christian leaders that, quote, “they knew the president's faith” and begging for patience.

And the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives?

According to Kuo, “White House staff didn't want to have anything to do with the Faith-Based Initiative because they didn't understand it any more than did congressional Republicans . They didn't lie awake at night trying to kill it. They simply didn 't care."

Read the whole thing and find out more about the conspiracy to cover up what was a purely political operation. Crooks and Liars also has the video, with the pictures. There will be more on Olbermann this evening. Stay tuned.

My question is this. What motivates the media to constantly have these whacko fundie leaders on television night after night discussing the issues? Are they in cahoots with the neocons on this ploy to get votes? Just how large is this conspiracy anyway?

Miscellania

Create your own ambient music
Create your own avatar
Customize a tarot card.
Receive a tarot reading from The Housewives Tarot. Great site.
Learn to make soft electronics (assuming you can sew and solder).
Make roses from maple leaves

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes -- TURN AND FACE THE STRAIN!!

Oh Yeah Baby! CHANGES -- They're a commin'!! I can feel it -- can't you?

Now all we have to do is make sure those voting machines agree with the desire for change that I am feeling in the air.......


Good luck trying to get this tune out of your head today!!!
Here's DB LIVE -- performing Changes.

Or, if you prefer.....
THE one AND only
ZIGGY STARDUST performing Changes

Changes
David Bowie

I still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't tell t hem to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Where's your shame
You've left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can't trace time

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace I'm going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time

A Plane Crashed Into A 50 Story Building in Manhattan

UPDATE: A small plane carrying New York Yankee Cory Lidle slammed into a 40-story apartment building Wednesday, killing the pitcher and a second person in a crash that rained flaming debris onto the sidewalks and briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack.

...

Lidle's passport was found on the street, according to a federal official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

God forgive us 655,000 Iraqi's Are Dead

UPDATE: George Bush denies the validity of the scientific study that determined that more than 655,000 innocent Iraqi's have died in violence. He is absolutely lying. LYING.

BUSH: No, I don't consider it a credible report. Neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials. I do -- I do know that a lot of innocent people have died, and that troubles me. And it grieves me. And I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence.
I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to -- you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate.
And it's now time for the Iraqi government to work hard to bring security in neighborhoods so people can feel -- can feel, you know, at peace.
No question it's violent. But this report is one -- they put it out before. It was pretty well -- the methodology is pretty well discredited.

From Johns Hopkins

As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. The deaths from all causes—violent and non-violent—are over and above the estimated 143,000 deaths per year that occurred from all causes prior to the March 2003 invasion.

Cluster sampling is scientific and has been used to measure casualties in areas like Sudan, Kosovo, Congo and after the tsunami.

Meanwhile 1 in 4 US troops file for disability when they return from Iraq. That is about 63,000 Americans.

Over one million Iraqi's have been displaced since bush declared war on Iran without congressional approval.

So my question is this: Were those Iraqi's going to invade the US? Is that why we are fighting them there?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Posted Earlier today:

From NY Times — "A team of American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here."

From Washington Post — "A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred."

From Wall St Journal—"A new study asserts that roughly 600,000 Iraqis have died from violence since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, a figure many times higher than any previous estimate.
...
"Human Rights Watch has estimated Saddam Hussein's regime killed 250,000 to 290,000 people over 20 years."

In energy news...

I reported on this last week. Here's the story again in today's news.

Greedy OPEC Bastards agree to cut oil production to raise prices
OPEC has agreed to trim global oil production by 1 million barrels a day to boost prices, and its members were discussing how to share the cut, the cartel's president said Wednesday. "The cut itself is agreed," said Nigerian oil minister and OPEC president Edmund Daukoru.

I would not say that the "cut itself is agreed" because it's "a greed", thank you very much. I guess we don't have to help out Nigerians transfer their money anymore.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, and I love this story,

U.S. will accept Venezuelan oil charity
U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman on Tuesday said he would not turn down charitable donations of cheap heating fuels this winter, even if it comes from a Venezuelan leader who called President Bush "the devil."

"I can't find my way clear to object to Venezuela being charitable," Bodman told Reuters in an interview after touring a renewable energy lab at the University of Cincinnati. "I view it as a charitable contribution and I wish more companies did it," Bodman said...

The folks in Britain get it:

Embracing green power
About 80,000 homes in Britain are producing electricity with small renewable power generation units such as turbines. Now turbines have been embraced by mainstream retailers like B&Q, a chain of hardware stores run by Kingfisher Plc, which sells them for 1,500 pounds ($2,800).

"(They) can be easily attached to your home and can save around a third of your electricity bill. And with energy high on the government's agenda, grants are available to cover up to 30 percent of the installed cost," the store gushed in a statement launching turbines last month.

What A Concept

From Truthout.org

Colombian Gangsters Face Sex Ban
BBC News
Wednesday 13 September 2006

Wives and girlfriends of gang members in one of Colombia's most violent cities have called a sex ban in a bid to get their men to give up the gun. Dozens of women are said to be taking part in what is being called the "strike of crossed legs", a move backed by the mayor of Pereira.

The city in Colombia's coffee-growing region reported 480 killings last year. A city official said the idea came from a meeting of wives and girlfriends over the progress of a disarmament scheme.

Rap Song

"We met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members and they were worried some were not handing over their guns and that is where they came up with the idea of a vigil or a sex strike," the mayor's spokesman told Reuters news agency. "The message they are giving them is disarm," he added.

Studies found that local gang members were drawn to criminality by the desire for status, power, and sexual attractiveness, not economic necessity, Colombian radio reported. One of the girlfriends, Jennifer Bayer, told Britain's Guardian newspaper: "We want them to know that violence is not sexy."

Ms. Bayer said the women had come up with a strike anthem rap song that included the lyrics: "As women we are worth a lot. We don't want to fall for violent men because with them we lose too much."

---------------
Brilliant. Discuss.

Hat tip to Gaia Sighs who also recommends Truthout.org/women.shtml

Come Out, Come Out Where ever you are

In honor of National Coming Out Day — Wednesday, Oct. 11 — the Human Rights Campaign (HRC.org) is releasing a first-of-its-kind Straight Guide to GLBT Americans which is written for straight people. You can download it. (Yes, I will be studying it.) The guide walks people through the emotional spectrum that people typically feel after someone comes out to them, outlines myths and facts about GLBT people, and gives easy ways for straight people to learn more and demonstrate their support for GLBT Americans.


WASHINGTON – Two studies are being released this Wednesday, October 11, as Americans nationwide commemorate National Coming Out Day. The two new studies show that more Americans are becoming personally acquainted with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community, and thereby, are also increasingly becoming more supportive of equality. These two new studies quantify the GLBT march for equality moving in a direction of increased support for equal rights under the law as more GLBT Americans live their lives more openly. More at HRC.org


Let's send this message to every Republican and Conservative Christian we know. If they could feel free to come out of the closet, then maybe they wouldn't be so mean.

Oh MY GAWD!!!!!

They CANNOT be serious!

U.S. Says Blacks in Mississippi Suppress White Vote

This is such a crock of macaca, I can't even speak right now. Maybe I can update later when I've had a chance to calm down and I can respond rationally. But right now, this is just too freaking much for me. They're saying blacks discriminate against whites in elections! In Mississippi, for fuck's sake!

This is your fucking federal government at work these days, folks. This is the kind of thing that your fucking Justice Department chooses to pursue. Thousands of votes of people of color get suppressed in Ohio and Florida (that we know of) and nary a peep from Washington. Oh, but if a few fucking white people are involved? Let's bring out the federal indictments!

I'm too disgusted to say anything further. Sorry for all the cussing.

Christopher Columbus -- Bastard!

We now all know there is a lot more to the 'Columbus discovered America' story we learned as a kid in school. Again this morning, I forgot to ask my kids what they are taught about CC in history class these days. I just did a quick search to see what I could find. Here's one from Mrs. Sirois' Country Kindergarten

"A few years ago,after reading my history a little more carefully,I decided not to give Christopher Columbus the spotlight he had once enjoyed in my class. He now really only earns part of a day with little more than a few songs and a big book discussion..."

Seems like they are back to the same poem we learned in school:

IN 1492

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.

Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.

October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!

"Indians! Indians!" Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.

But "India" the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.

The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.

Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he'd been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.

The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.

____________________________________


I bring this up today because Liz just sent me a reply e-mail to the one I sent to her the other day -- sarcastically wishing her a happy columbus day. I was just pissed off that the kids had the day off and were monopolizing the computer all day! Besides, I had always heard that CC was a bastard and why do we honor him at all any more? Later in the day, one of the kids asked for a ride to the mall; now I remember why!

Back to the classroom. Can you imagine, for one minute, if we were told the REAL DEAL way back when?

Here is the e-mail link Liz sent me

Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress
excerpted from a
People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:
"They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
These Arawaks of the Bahama Islands were much like Indians on the mainland, who were remarkable (European observers were to say again and again) for their hospitality, their belief in sharing. These traits did not stand out in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus.
Columbus wrote:
"As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts."
The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold?
****
The Indians, Columbus reported, "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone...."

Mammograms

This is for you BlondeSense wimmun of a certain age. A friend sent me this great advice earlier today

Many women are afraid of their first mammogram, but there is no need to worry. By taking a few minutes each day for a week preceding the exam and doing the following exercises, you will be totally prepared for the test and best of all, you can do these simple exercises right in and around your own home.

EXERCISE ONE:

Open your refrigerator door and insert one breast in the door. Shut the door as hard as possible and lean on the door for good measure. Hold that position for five seconds. Repeat again in case the first time wasn't effective enough.

EXERCISE TWO:

Visit your garage at 3 AM when the temperature of the cement floor is just perfect. Take off all your clothes and lie comfortably on the floor with one breast wedged under the rear tire of the car. Ask a friend to slowly back the car up until your breast is sufficiently flattened and
chilled. Turn over and repeat with the other breast.

EXERCISE THREE:

Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist and invite a stranger into the room. Press the bookends against one of your breasts. Smash the bookends together as hard as you can. Set up an appointment with the stranger to meet next year and do it again.

There you go, you are totally prepared!

question

Does anyone live near the Canadian border in western Vermont (rt 89) or near Niagra Falls, NY and have experience going to a pharmacy in Canada? Contact blondesense @optonline.net

Beginning to Wonder

Last Wednesday, I posted pass the xanax and man the torpedos where I linked to 20,000 Sailors Go To War - Massive US and Allied Naval Deployment It could just be a conspiracy theory but what would be the reason to attack Iran? But then again, the US doesn't need a reason to be the bully on the planet.

I saw a buzzflash editorial yesterday titled "Iran Attack Looks More Likely as Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater" What was interesting was that commenters suggested that the aircraft carrier Eisenhower would be sunk, blamed on Iran and voila, cause for war. Then again, N.Korea's nuke test could also be used as an excuse to invade Iran. creepy

Staying the Course

“I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.” George Bush on Staying the Course, from "State Of Denial" by Bob Woodward.

Read The Insanity of 'Staying the Course' in Iraq

hat tip to commenter overland for finding the great illustration

Lowered Expectations

Lower standards help Army recruit more

Did you hear the one about a 7th grader who shot an AK47 in his school?

A 13 year old boy somehow got his hands on a freaking QK47 and brought it to school in Joplin Missouri. He shot the ceiling. No one was injured. God help us.

Oh and don't eat Foxy Lettuce. E. coli concerns.

Robin Williams

One of my favorites! He sure has been popping up in the news lately. I can't wait to see his new film. He plays a comedian talk-show host who is elected president of the United States because he tells the truth.

A few weeks ago, this went around everyone's e-mail -- you may have seen it. 'Robin Williams Plan'

***UPDATE*** I removed 'The Plan'

In the comment thread, poopyman pointed out that it was not Robin Williams' Plan after all. Check out the Snopes info on this.
(Robin Williams, wearing a shirt that says "I love New York " in Arabic.

Only the last line (#11) was his quote. It must have made it around the net, and eventually was assumed the whole list was written by him.

"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses." She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'you want a piece of me?' " --Robin Williams Today I read this story about his interview with Diane Sawyer: Williams was asked about today's crop of potential presidential candidates, particularly Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "If you do a double bill, Hillary and Oprah [Winfrey]," Williams said. "Ebony and ivory, go together in perfect. ...

He sure has some interesting thoughts, doesn't he!

I wonder if "the people" will leave Jon Stewart alone? This Robin Williams movie will probably get a lot of people on the Stewart for President bandwagon! Or, it may just keep more voters (Repubs that is - hopefully) home on election day . I get the feeling that more and more folks have come to realize that the whole election process is a joke and that most politicians in this country couldn't last 2 minutes in the ring with Stewart or Colbert.

Remember Bullworth? Did you love that movie or what?

The Republicans are not keeping us or anyone safe

Somehow Foleygate as morphed into "What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it." Oh no, Republicans, this one is yours. Deal with it. The media looooves a good sex scandal. At least the Democrats didn't spend $43 million on a witch hunt. But then again, that would be better than the massive pissing away of money for the clusterfuck that is bush's folly in Iraq.

What's under the radar is that our troops are being wounded in record levels. Last month 776 troops were wounded in action.

Some experts believe the number of wounded provides a better insight to the nature of the conflict in Iraq than the figure of 2,700 killed because - in relation to previous wars - many more wounded troops survive.

The ratio of wounded to killed is 8 to 1, compared with 3 to 1 during the Vietnam War. The Independent

Now the forces are fighting the Sadr militia again in southern Iraq at Diwaniya. Um, these guys won't die and go away. Oh wait, another report says that they might not be the Mehdi Army. Meanwhile hundreds of Iraqi police got sick from food poisoning coincidentally in southern Iraq and are unable to assist troops. Keep your fingers crossed for our troops who are being put in harms way big time this coming week.

And the war that the US started but forgot about has backfired in Afghanistan. We're back to square one and it appears that the Taliban is coming back in favor with the Afghani's. Another bush fuck up. Well at least we made the world safe for heroin traffic again.

Meanwhile, foreign policy with N. Korea is a flop and the evil Kim Jong Il has sent a message to the world- "look America, we have nukes that go boom." That sick little man who's been waving his hands at the world for the past 6 years has caught everyones attention by setting off a nuclear test yesterday. The US says that the nuclear test if proven would be "provocative". No shit, Sherlock. Bushie doesn't want to talk directly to N. Korea (You've noticed that the bushistas only talk to their friends, haven't you?) and wants N. Korea to talk to the 6 party alliance. N. Korea wants to talk to the US and won't negotiate with the alliance. The US is sending John Bolton to talk with the UN Security Counsel instead. Great.

And the lying liars of the administration are going around the country stumping for their Republican cronies and trying to sell the message that Republicans are better at national security than the Democrats. If anyone is reading the newspapers in the country, it's plain to see that this administration is nothing but a diplomatic nightmare.

By the Waters of Babylon - by Stephen Vincent Benét (1937)

This is so cool! A student was surfing the net for some analysis of the short story By The Waters Of Babylon. They came upon the post I put up a few months ago about this story and sent me an e-mail! I don't know if you remember the post -- I had been over at FatLadySings and was answering her posted questions about books:

The first question was: (1) What is the one book that changed your life? I have always been able to answer that one right away. Ever since I read By The Waters of Babylon in high school English class, it's theme seems to have always stayed with me --
To much knowledge can destroy a civilization.

Here's the e-mail:

Hi....

This might seem completely random, but I'm doing a school project on By the Waters of Babylon. I saw your blog entry on the story, and that you were an active web contributor, so I am asking for a bit of help. I'm trying to identify the central theme(s) of the book, and saw your "too much knowledge..." theme. To me, the theme seems like "the fate of humankind is in the hands of humankind itself..." type of deal. I've done searches and can't find any good online resources dissecting the story. Maybe you can help?

Thanks.... R******


So, anyone else want to weigh in? It's a 5-10minute read if anyone hasn't read it yet

I like R's interpretation of the theme. Maybe my english teacher had it wrong? R's really works with mine though, in a way.... I've always said we plateaued as a civilization probably 40-50 years ago. The computer has probably been the only useful accomplishment since -- and of course (all?) medical advancements. Lets slow down now as a society, and spread this great knowledge and vast wealth we now have, with the rest of the world.

U.S. Rules Allow the Sale of Products Others Ban

When the Dems take over, we've gotta demand that industry is re-regulated and here is a good reason.

U.S. Rules Allow the Sale of Products Others Ban
Chemical-laden goods outlawed in Europe and Japan are permitted in the American market.
By Marla Cone, LA Times Staff Writer
October 8, 2006

OAKLAND — Destined for American kitchens, planks of birch and poplar plywood are stacked to the ceiling of a cavernous port warehouse. The wood, which arrived in California via a cargo ship, carries two labels: One proclaims "Made in China," while the other warns that it contains formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical.

Because formaldehyde wafts off the glues in this plywood, it is illegal to sell in many countries — even the one where it originated, China. But in the United States this wood is legal, and it is routinely crafted into cabinets and furniture.

As the European Union and other nations have tightened their environmental standards, mostly in the last two years, manufacturers — here and around the world — are selling goods to American consumers that fail to meet other nations' stringent laws for toxic chemicals.

Wood, toys, electronics, pesticides and cosmetics are among U.S. products that contain substances that are banned or restricted elsewhere, particularly in Europe and Japan, because they may raise the risk of cancer, alter hormones or cause reproductive or neurological damage.

Michael Wilson, a professor at UC Berkeley's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, said the United States is becoming a "dumping ground" for consumer goods that are unwanted and illegal in much of the world. Wilson warned earlier this year in a report commissioned by the California Legislature that "the United States has fallen behind globally in the move toward cleaner technologies."

The European Union, driven by consumers' concerns, has banned or heavily restricted hundreds of toxic substances in recent years, invoking its "precautionary principle," which is codified into law and prescribes that protective steps should be taken when there is scientific evidence of risks to public health or the environment.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies have relied on voluntary steps from industries rather than regulations, saying the threats posed by low levels of chemicals are too uncertain to eliminate products valuable to consumers or businesses.

In the absence of U.S. regulations, some international corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Mattel, Revlon and Orly International, have declared that all their products, no matter where they are made or sold, will comply with EU standards, the most stringent chemical laws in the world.

Read the rest while I vomit.

Good Morning Open Thread

I'm busy connecting dots about the complete utter disregard for American's safety in the summer of 2001 by this administration: looking up old news stories and transcripts in light of reading "State of Denial" and will post on it later.

In the meantime, have an open thread.

Did ya hear about Jeb Bush hiding in a closet in Pittsburgh?
Check out the headlines at HinesSight.com.

Scary Children in Advertising Part II

click for larger image if you dare

Oh Great-

FDA Announces New E. Coli Recall; 5,226 Pounds Of Ground Beef Across 7 States
October 6, 2006 8:57 p.m. EST
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and Jim's Market and Locker, Inc. a Harlan, Iowa, firm, are recalling an estimated 5,226 pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli.

Read the details

Man, they are really desperate

Another Florida congressman pissed off his constituents and maybe enough to lose the election. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Abramoff) from the 24th district sent out smear campaign literature depicting his challenger, Clint Curtis, as a candidate who is supported by Larry Flynt. There was a picture of Hustler Mag in the literature and they superimposed his Curtis' head on the body of Hugh Hefner. Sheesh, how lame. Floridians are outraged by the mailing, especially parents and one mother who spoke to WFTV.com news. Curtis says that he doesn't know Larry Flynt or anyone at Hustler Magazine. (Feeney probably does.)

We have to get congress to adhere to truth in advertising and enforce the hell out of it.

Limbo Remains In Limbo

“Being on tour is like being in limbo. It's like going from nowhere to nowhere.”
-Bob Dylan

Unless you're Catholic or into Dante's Divine Comedy, you may have no interest in the news about limbo from the Vatican. It's ok because the pope may abolish the concept that's been around since the 13th century. It was expected that he would do that yesterday, but it may be put off for another year because scholars have to come up with a really good explanation and maybe a substitute concept.

Limbo of the children has traditionally been that place between heaven and hell- not too hot, not too cold- no god, no devil- where babies go if they die without being baptized. The church position going back to Augustine, is that everyone is born with original sin, thanks to Adam and Eve and are automatically doomed to hell unless they are baptized. Catholics in the olden days didn't have enough pain when their babies died, they were also told that their baby went to hell.

Since babies have no sense of personal guilt, it seemed rather cruel to Catholic's that god would damn their babies to hell. Hence limbo was born, thanks to Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) who believed in a more merciful god. In 1905, Pope Pius X proclaimed "Children who die without baptism go into limbo, where they do not enjoy God, but they do not suffer either." In recent times, the fear of limbo is what drove Catholic parents to have their babies baptized shortly after they are born. But in the 1960's during the Second Vatican Council, it was suggested that everyone is eligible for salvation (a blissful afterlife with god in heaven) whether they are baptized christians or not. Pope John Paul II had limbo of the children removed from the catechism in the 1990's. It was never an official church doctrine anyway.

In continents that have high mortality rates and also where Catholicism is taking hold (Africa and Asia), this will be good news (and let's not forget that the US infant mortality rate is right up there with Malaysia.) It should also be noted that Muslims believe that infants who die go straight to heaven and the pope knows this. There is also a temporary "Limbo of the Fathers" and that is not being repealed. That's the limbo (Rock my soul, bosom of Abraham) where good people who died before the resurrection are suspended until Jesus opens the gates at an undisclosed time.

There are some theologians today who are upset by the Pope's decision to abolish the concept of limbo. Since limbo has been taught for hundreds of years, they feel that you can't mess with tradition and centuries of Catholic guilt. If the Pope can just decide to do away with this concept, what is to keep him from doing away with other concepts? Indeed. Do we have to schedule a baptism immediately after our children are born? And what about aborted babies? Does this mean that it's ok to believe that fetuses will go straight to heaven? Yes! In a 1995 encyclical, Pope John Paul II told women who had abortions and miscarriages that they could ask for forgiveness from their child who is living in the Lord. Catholicism is one of the only mainstream religions where praying for or to the dead is practiced.

Blondesense Liz, MDiv, is an amateur theologian.

Write Your Own Caption

The Friday Night News Dump

Everyone who knows how to play the political game in Wahington knows that the best time to release important but embarrassing stuff is late Friday afternoon/evening. This is the stuff that the politicos hope no one sees but that they need to get out for public consumption. People just pay less attention to the news on Friday evenings because they're at Happy Hour, traveling out of town, unwinding from work, etc. So it's incumbent upon us to pay attention to what the (Mal)Administration thinks stinks so much, they shove it out the door on Friday evening. Here's the smelly stuff from today that I've found:

A top aide to KKKarl Rove resigned because of her ties to the Abramoff scandal.

John Warner (R-Old Dominion), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee says that Iraq is a mess and ain't gonna get better anytime soon.

Iraqi policeman are being killed faster than they can be recruited, and some of those they are recruiting are terrorist infiltrators.

Job growth is way down, despite all the talk you hear from the Republicans about how great the US economy is.

These are a few of the things the Republicans didn't want the American people to know this week. Let me know if there's anything else particularly juicy that I missed.

Sheesh, I think I need a drink.

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little
Maf54: Cool.

Once again, a juicy sex scandal trumps the constitutional crisis that took place last Thursday. It trumps the news that 13 US Soldiers died in Iraq this week. It trumps Senators calling for a new plan in Iraq, calling for Rumsfeld's dismissal. It trumps the story that the UN is warning 90 countries and the US that they better be ready for more deaths from heroin overdoses thanks to the liberation of Afghanistan.

Can You Say Dictator?

Bush says he can edit security reports
WASHINGTON - President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department's reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.

In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints.

But Bush, in a signing statement attached to the agency's 2007 spending bill, said he will interpret that section "in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch."

I'd like to ask the resident Blondesense legal eagles, Red and Jaye, can I sue this bastard?

Jersey Cynic- Blondesense Hero of the Day

Yesterday, thousands of Americans protested George Bush. And rightfully so.

Our own Jersey Cynic (the blonde) was caught by reporters in Hartford yesterday AND she even plugged the old blog. What a gal!

"Jersey Cynic, who blogs at http://blondesense.blogspot.com , said she’s going to start at the local level by talking to her mayor and from there she’ll work her way up the political foodchain. Several of the protesters seemed interested in joining the Green Party’s protest of Monday’s gubernatorial debates in New London at the Garde Arts Center."

There Has GOT To Be A Better Way

The Strip Search Bill that passed the House on September 20, 2006 with barely a word in the news.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require any school receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--to adopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might have drugs could give officials the authority to search every student in the building.

... These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

It did not pass through the committee process, but went straight to the House floor. There, it was passed by a simple voice vote, so constituents cannot even find out how their Representative voted. The bill is not expected to pass in the Senate.

I immediately thought that X-Ray Vision glasses worn by school administrators would avoid a constitution conflict.

I did some Google research concerning the apparent safety (or not) of our children in schools and I was astounded. Children aren't even safe in an Amish school. There were 3 school shootings in one week. What goes on in other schools?

• Pennsylvania, October 5th, Nazareth school locked down; toy gun found
• Texas, October 5th, Plainview High School Put On Lock-Down-A student was detained and some students are calling for increased safety. The student in question did not have a weapon.
• South Carolina, October 5th, Girl, 13, caught with razor at Gilbert Middle School Female school officials searched the girl in the school offices and found the blade in her pocket,
• Nevada October 5th, Should Clark County Schools Have Metal Detectors in Schools?
• Arkansas, October 6, Bomb threat interrupts classes at Washington Elementary School A young adult male kept calling and asking to speak to the principal. When they told him she was busy, he became increasingly angry. That’s when the bomb threat was made.
• Albany, NY, October 3, Metal-detector offer lauded- Mayor Jerry Jennings' offer to provide three state-owned metal detectors to Albany High School -- where last month's stabbing was the latest episode in a streak of violence.
• Ohio,October 5th, Three teens accused of bomb threat at Little Hocking School
• Pennsylvania, October 5th, Report of guns at school investigated- Students saw guns in a staff member's vehicle at the Berks Career & Technology Center's East Campus.
• October 3, Michigan, Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham schools on partial lockdown Police are looking for an armed gunman who had a black cloth covering his face, when he approached someone at Lahser High School in Bloomfield Township at about 7:40 a.m. today, and demanded car keys.
• October 6th, Oregon, Eugene, Ore., edgy after two school-weapons incidents A 15-year-old boy was found with two loaded guns in a shed at Sheldon High School last week, and days earlier a 19-year-old was arrested a block from Willamette High School after threatening to bring a gun to campus and start shooting. He turned out to be armed with only a small folding knife.
• October 6th, Texas, Waco elementary school locked down after gunshots outside the school

The list goes on and on. And what the hell is going on in our schools? It is not even exam week as far as I know.

In my opinion, parents should be held responsible for their children's actions. I know, I know, it's not fair, but how the hell can school districts conduct business with all this stuff going on? If mommy and daddy could go to jail because junior brought a gun or a knife to school, if junior calls in a bomb scare, things might be a little different. It must be traumatizing for our nation's youth to have to deal with metal detectors, possible strip searches, etc for merely trying to go to school. The problem has to be dealt with. And how do we know that school administrators calling for a strip search, god forbid, don't belong to the Mark Foley school of child relations?

Teachers I know always tell me that they just can't get the attention of parents in their child's education. I always suggest that the kids who can't read or don't behave should be left back. That would wake up mom and dad.

PS: This is what goes on over the border:
Canada, October 4th -(Mississauga) - Girl, 10, attacked on way to school
Parents and elementary school students in Mississauga Valley were warned by police yesterday to be careful after a 10-year-old girl was attacked by a man as she walked to class in the morning. Police say the girl was kicked in the shins in what may have been an attempt to trip her. She didn't suffer any injuries, other than a sore leg, police said.

Meanwhile, More than 100 mayors agree to curb illegal guns

Rosie O'Donnell on the View kicks Elisabeth's ass regarding gun control.

patriarchy and soft core pornography

A young boy shot his father to death when the man came to pick up his sons for their scheduled visitation. The boy was 10 years old when he shot his father five times in the back with his mother's gun.

It was a messy divorce. In her petition, she alleged that the father was molesting one son. She complained bitterly to her sons about their father. The allegations of abuse were never proved.

This week a Houston jury sentenced the 12 year old juvenile offender to 10 years in state custody. He could be paroled in three years. He could go to an adult prison at 16.

A local radio "personality" said on his radio program that the boy should have received the maximum sentence, which the district attorney's office was seeking. Forty years.

Does this man not realize that this boy was 10 when he committed the crime, 12 when he was tried, and will be 22 when released from state custody? Does he think that at each of these stages that young boy is the same young man at the last phase that he was at the first? Does the "personality" not realize that there are and were mitigating circumstances -- the mother's statements to her children, the 10 year old's brain is not the same as the 12 year old's brain or even the 22 year old's brain? Does this "personality" not realize that if we sent this young pre-teen to adult prison that we are simply building a psychopath?

The larger issue is, this radio "personality" is lowering the level of public discourse, (sorry, Rude Pundit.) As if it can become any lower than the soft pornography that it has become. This "personality" who today stated that his pre-teen and teenage daughters had not yet had sexual intercourse and he assured us that we could take that statement to the bank, is broadcasting unchallenged, unfair, unbalanced. This is what passes for public affairs on commercial radio?

In the Houston area, a man, with no sense of irony, is seeking to ban Fahrenheit 451 from his daughter's school. He doesn't think that a book that contains "God damn" should be read.

It isn't enough that these men must control their daughters minds and bodies, but they decide the fate of total strangers' children, too.

While I am discussing two different men, I am discussing one culture. The culture of the patriarchal society, the one that owns children, punishes before knowing the facts, passes judgment as quickly as the bodily function of passing gas.

A woman in Georgia, no Texas cannot claim this person, wants the Harry Potter series banned from schools. Because she believes that the books promote the Wiccan religion. No offense Wiccans, but really, are we worried about the influence of witchcraft on our society in this the Third Millennium?

One of the fathers of a Columbine victim said this week that we can expect more school shootings because God isn't hearing the prayers of school chilren each morning and we are teaching subjects like evolution.

Did God hear their prayers before they were shot to death in their schools?

A teacher in the Dallas area, yes, this woman is ours, took her fifth grade class to an art museum. Surely the parents of these children were required to sign the parental waiver--we won't sue if said school district kills our child in some negligent fashion, etc.--The children were exposed (!) to the naked human form by observing an oil painted canvas. The horror, the horror. Imagine what the parents thought was actually hanging in the museum? She has taught school for 28 years and her contract will not be renewed. We want her kind away from our children in Texas.

While the nation burns in stupidity, our Congress is shredding the Constitution but the public is enthralled by the titillating news that a member of the patriarchal order is making sexual contact with young pages. The coverage has become soft core pornography. So the public gets it both ways so to speak: they can get tingly and self righteous at the same time. It is new, isn't it. The media has really worn out the white girl in trouble story--although there is always of course Lifetime Television for women--so young boys, mature enough, but young enough to talk to the dirty Congressman who is having cybersex while voting. What the hell is cybersex? Was he masturbating on the floor of Congress while that august body was voting to ban abortions or support the troops or torture people. Why would he need pages with the pornography that has become government?

Never mind that the age of consent in the ten mile square where the capitol of stupidity now resides is 16.

Thank God these 16 year old young men didn't shoot their abuser.

The real issue is the American public doesn't quite know who to blame--the victims of the patriarchy or the man who so obviously and overtly exercised his power over young minds and bodies. He quits but the names of these young men are wanted by the patriarchy's centurions--the media--and for what? So we can confront his accusers? Witch hunt says the Repatriarchy. He evidently never touched them and they talked dirty back to him so we get to debate along with the news anchor and the Speaker of the House whether there is a story here or not.

Thirteen troops died in Iraq this week. We aren't debating their abuse. We aren't debating their stories.

Dead men do not tell their stories to the patriarchy.

Another college student asked me today why did we bomb Hiroshima when we were covering the commander in chief's ability to use nuclear weapons unchecked by Congress. They don't know enough to debate. They don't have the facts. Students ask if material is going to be on the test, if not why bother them with it? We watched a DVD of The Day After, that old Reagan years television drama about what might happen if we had a nuclear war. Students asked if this motion picture depicted something that had actually happened. They wondered aloud if this was the story of our use of nuclear weapons in Japan. They asked why we would construct buildings and then test nuclear devises on them.

They don't know how their government works but they sure know that their government might want to see their naughty parts. But they don't understand that they may lose their rights to govern their own minds and bodies.

Without knowledge, these future store clerks and computer programmers, won't cause trouble, won't read books, and certainly will do their level best to remain as ignorant and malleable as the patriarchy wants them to be.

Olbermann's special commentary on Clinton vs Fox

To enforce the lies of the present it is necessary to erase the truth of the past.

This video pretty much says it all!

And yet another douchebag of the week

Dick Cheney

“I’m a huge Denny Hastert fan — I think he’s a great speaker,” Cheney said in his private cabin aboard Air Force Two. “And it makes no sense at all for him to think about stepping down.”

Cheney flatly rejected predictions by pundits that Democrats will take control of the House and Senate in November. “We will retain control of both houses,” he said.

I guess they have Diebold ready for the elections.

“I don’t think the majority of the American people want to withdraw from Iraq,” Cheney said. “I think they’d prefer we complete the mission given to us.

Think again, douchebag. There are lots more lies and propaganda at the article.

An internal GOP poll predicts that House Republican candidates will suffer massive losses if Hastert remains on as speaker. Therefore I urge every one of you to write to your Republican congress critters and insist that Hastert does not resign. (Pretend you're Republicans.)

UPDATE: More Douchebaggery

An obscure right-wing blogger, Wild Bill, has outed one of Mark Foley’s victims, a former Congressional page. It is a despicable act. Wild Bill however, gets almost no traffic, so the damage done to the victim’s life could have been minimal.

All that ended, however, when some of the most highly-trafficked right-wing bloggers decided to direct their readers to Wild Bill’s site. First, Roger L. Simon, co-founder and CEO of Pajamas Media — a portal and advertising broker for nearly every major right-wing blog — posted a link to Wild Bill on his personal site. (The Pajamas Media portal also linked to Wild Bill.) Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit — probably the most highly-trafficked right-wing blog — followed suit by linking to Simon’s post and the Pajamas Media post.

This is despicable. Disgraceful. Perverted. I'm speechless.

News From the Front

Twenty one Americans were killed in Iraq this month. What's today? The 5th? The military is stretched almost to the breaking point and our young people are in danger as their commander in chief is a mad man and he refuses to fire Rumsfeld for this clusterfuck. Oh man, I'm reading "State of Denial" and I feel like suing the bushistas for sending our young people in harms way for his folly. One reservist I know who is on his second round in Iraq, hasn't even met his baby girl and I fear for his life.

BBC: US armed forces have been conducting raids and arresting militia members over the past month, as part of a US-Iraqi sweep of Baghdad, which has seen the number of troops in the city double.

Commanders have suggested that this increased presence in the region could be a factor leading to the rise in attacks against soldiers.

Oh that's groovy. Congressman Hoekstra is still searching for proof that our young people didn't die in vain:

The Hunt For WMDs in Iraq Continues
Oct. 4, 2006 - House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra is still pressing U.S. intelligence agencies to look for possible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq-even though intelligence officials say further work is unlikely to reveal anything new about Saddam's WMD programs.
...
The search has not been entirely fruitless. The DIA has discovered another 300 old chemical shells lying around the war-torn country. That's in addition to the 500 sarin shells mentioned in a declassified Pentagon intelligence report revealed by Hoekstra and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum last June. But the recently found shells, like the previous ones, dated back to before the 1991 Persian Gulf War and were decayed and essentially useless.

Douchebag(s) of the week

Most of the GOP and their enablers qualify this time. Not only for covering up a pedophile in their ranks but for blaming the Democrats and anyone else that they could blame for it. The Democrats have been unusually silent in the media as they sit back and watch the Republicans eat their own. Furthermore, The Democrats don't represent the "values" voters because as everyone knows there is no party that can really claim to be moral. You don't become a politician if you're a honest upright citizen in the first place.

Mark Foley is obviously most deserving of Douchebag of the Week.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Democratic sex scandals have been far worse than the suggestive Internet messages sent to teenage congressional pages by former Rep. Mark Foley. Gingrich said Democrats have wanted to punish their offenders less than the GOP. Way to stick up for a pedophile, Newt.

Tom Reynolds: Novak writes, "A member of the House leadership told me that Foley, under continuous political pressure because of his sexual orientation, was considering not seeking a seventh term this year but that Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), talked him into running." Way to go, Tom. The party and the seats in the House are more important than Americans children.

Dennis Hastert: I have lost track of how many times Hastert has changed his tune in the past week. Resign already.

Rush Limbaugh: Glen Greenwald says it best in Mark Foley and the unmasked Republican Party
He describes how Hastert faced with enormous pressure sought first Rush Limbaugh:

If the term "moral degenerate" has any validity and can be fairly applied to anyone, there are few people who merit that term more than Rush Limbaugh. He is the living and breathing embodiment of moral degeneracy, with his countless overlapping sexual affairs, his series of shattered, dissolved marriages, his hedonistic and illegal drug abuse, his jaunts, with fistfulls of Viagra (but no wife), to an impoverished Latin American island renowned for its easy access to underage female prostitutes.

Yet that is who Hastert chose as the High Priest of the Values Voters to whom he made his pilgrimage and from whom he received his benediction. The difference between Rush Limbaugh and Mark Foley, to the extent there is one, is one of hedonistic tastes, not moral level. Rush Limbaugh isn't just tolerated within the party that stands for religious piety and moral strength. He is a leader of it, arguably the leader of its most righteous wing. Is it really all that surprising that a political movement that has chosen a moral degenerate like Rush Limbaugh as one of its most revered and morally respected leaders is not all that bothered by -- and therefore actively harbors -- the Mark Foleys of the world?

snip

Mark Foley isn't some isolated case of shocking hypocrisy. Quite the contrary. People who have a publicly and vocally expressed obsession with other people's moral behavior and who want to use the power of the Government to enforce that obsession -- the Rick Santorums and Rush Limbaughs and Newt Gingrichs and Jim Bakkers and Ralph Reeds and Mark Foleys of the world -- are almost always fighting their own demons, not anyone else's. It is so important for them to parade around as moral protectors and moral warriors precisely because they have no other way to cleanse themselves, despite being in desperate need of a cleansing...

The stories about Foley have been known since 1995 and nothing was done about it by the GOP congress because they were too busy demonizing Clinton for his affair with a 21 year old. Clinton should should have just admitted that he was doing Lewinsky, but the American people voted for him twice despite knowing about his infidelities with adult women. The big difference is that American people don't take kindly to congressman messing around with children whom they send to Washington confident that they will not be molested by pedophiles who are there to protect them.

So Many Douchebags, So Little Time

DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC will take one million barrels of oil a day off oversupplied world markets as soon as possible with its first output cut in more than two years, OPEC officials said on Thursday, sending oil prices $1.50 higher.

The world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia will shoulder most of the burden as OPEC moves to address a 25 percent drop in prices since mid-July and oil stocks that are running at a 7-year high in top consumer the United States.

You know, fellow travelers, that we can beat this. We don't get most of our oil from Saudi Arabia. Let's show them we don't need their oil. Drive or fly only when necessary, use mass transit, turn off lights and electric appliances when not in use, tell your municipality to turn off street lights, wear a sweater. We can save millions of barrels of oil a day if everyone works together. We don't have a Jimmy Carter to lead the way as we did back in the day, but many of us can remember what we did to conserve. Spread the word around. Write letters. Teach by example.

Good Evening - Open Thread

The GOP congresscritters are eating each other up as we speak. I'm a little verklempt at the moment so talk amongst yourselves. You pick the topic or use this one: The christian right is neither christian nor right.

Democrats renew efforts to block lawmakers’ pay raise

The Hill
Democrats are renewing their vow to impede the annual congressional pay raise until the minimum wage is increased, but their options for a successful block during the lame-duck session likely depend on the outcome of the Nov. 7 midterm election.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was the latest senior Democrat to reiterate his party’s intention to oppose the cost-of-living increase lawmakers have received automatically for more than a decade until the minimum wage is raised for the first time since 1997. Read on

They have to see how the elections go because Republicans are not into this at all. They don't want to piss off their corporate cronies.

Lincoln Weeps - by Bill Moyers

From TomPaine.com

Back in 1954, when I was a summer employee on Capitol Hill, I made my first visit to the Lincoln Memorial. I have returned many times since, most recently while I was in Washington filming for a documentary about how Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, among others, turned the conservative revolution into a racket—the biggest political scandal since Watergate.

If democracy can be said to have temples, the Lincoln Memorial is our most sacred. You stand there silently contemplating the words that gave voice to Lincoln's fierce determination to save the union—his resolve that "government of, by, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." On this latest visit, I was overcome by a sense of melancholy. Lincoln looks out now on a city where those words are daily mocked. This is no longer his city. And those people from all walks of life making their way up the steps to pay their respect to the martyred president—it's not their city, either. Or their government. This is an occupied city, a company town, and government is a subservient subsidiary of richly endowed patrons.

Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as "the people's house." No more. It belongs to K Street now. That's the address of the lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and seducing federal officials. Per month!

Of course they're just doing their job. It's impossible to commit bribery, legal or otherwise, unless someone's on the take, and with campaign costs soaring, our politicians always have their hands out. One representative confessed that members of Congress are the only people in the world expected to take large amounts of money from strangers and then act as if it has no effect on their behavior. This explains why Democrats are having a hard time exploiting the culture of corruption embodied in the scandalous behavior of DeLay and Abramoff. Democrats are themselves up to their necks in the sludge. Just the other day one of the most powerful Democrats in the House bragged to reporters about tapping "uncharted donor fields in the financial industry"—reminding them, not so subtlely, of the possibility that after November the majority leader just might be a Democrat.

When it comes to selling influence, both parties have defined deviancy up, and Tony Soprano himself couldn't get away with some of the things that pass for business as usual in Washington. We have now learned that Jack Abramoff had almost 500 contacts with the Bush White House over the three years before his fall, and that Karl Rove and other presidential staff were treated to his favors and often intervened on his behalf. So brazen a pirate would have been forced to walk the plank long ago if Washington had not thrown its moral compass overboard.

Alas, despite all these disclosures, nothing is happening to clean up the place. Just as the Republicans in charge of the House kept secret those dirty emails sent to young pages by Rep. Mark Foley—a cover-up aimed at getting them past the election and holding his seat for the party—they are now trying to sweep the DeLay-Abramoff-Reed-and-Norquist scandals under the rug until after Nov. 7, hoping the public at large doesn't notice that the House is being run by Tom DeLay's team, minus DeLay. All the talk about reform is placebo.

The only way to counter the power of organized money is with organized and outraged people. Believe me, what members of Congress fear most is a grassroots movement that demands clean elections and an end to the buying and selling of influence—or else! If we leave it to the powers that be to clean up the mess that greed and chicanery have given us, we will wake up one day with a real Frankenstein of a system—a monster worse than the one created by Abramoff, DeLay and their cronies. By then it will be too late to save Lincoln's hope for "government of, by, and for the people."

pass the xanax and man the torpedos

Earlier today, I referred to ABC News' claim that Republicans, not Democrats exposed the Foley story. Is it possible that the powers that be would eat their own in order to focus attention away from this? 20,000 Sailors Go To War - Massive US and Allied Naval Deployment

In my best NY whiney voice: "Noooooo. What kind of shoes should I wear when the shit hits the fan?"

Here's some real news that's been swept under the rug.

Arrest over Cheney barb triggers lawsuit

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
October 3, 2006

A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek this summer and criticized him for his policies concerning Iraq.
Attorney David Lane said that on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people.

According to the lawsuit filed at U.S. District Court in Denver, Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on.

Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail.

The lawsuit states that the Secret Service agent instructed that Howards should be issued a summons for harassment, but that on July 6 the Eagle County District Attorney's Office dismissed all charges against Howards.

The lawsuit filed today alleges that Howards was arrested in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment right of free speech, and that his arrest violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful seizure.

So now exercising your right to free speech is considered harassment if you don't tell Cheney something he wants to hear. What a big baby. Waaaa.

Let's play the blame game.

Looks like the famed "liberal agenda" is to blame for the ills in the world- Tolerance, diversity, evolution, abortion, politics, conspiracies.

On last night's CBS Evening News segment, "Free Speech" where the slot is usually given to conservatives, Brian Rohrbough, who lost his son during the Columbine massacre explained why there are school shootings: he blamed evolution and abortion.

Yesterday on CNN, Tony Perkins, President of the conservative Family Research Council, blamed the Foley scandal on America’s belief in “tolerance and diversity.” He also excused the House leadership’s neglect of the issue, saying they may have been “fearful of acting because they would be seen as homophobic or gay bashing.”

Sean Hannity devoted a large part of his show to the Foley scandal and he focused the discussion on the timing of the release of Foley's emails in order to impact the election. He blames a left wing conspiracy.

Interviewed by Rush Limbaugh yesterday, Hastert said Foley’s inappropriate behavior was “a political issue” and promised Rush that “we are going on offense.” Hastert sees a liberal conspiracy. Turns out that Bush supports Hastert. So that must mean that Hastert did something bad.

In WaPo, it says that this Foley stuff has been going on since 1995. How dare the vast liberal conspiracy time this outing of Foley's shenanigans right at an election!

And I would hardly consider ABC News part of a liberal conspiracy. Plus ABC claims that Republicans, not Democrats broke the story. ABC also uncovered proof that Foley attempted to rendezvous with boys under 18. And apparently on Fox New's No Spin Zone, Foley was listed as (D-Fla) heh.

First Foley blamed his alcoholism on his behavior, now his attorney says that Foley was sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was an adolescent. Foley's lawyer said that Foley was under the influence of alcohol during his IMs which raises the question, was he drunk when he was conducting an IM with a boy during a House vote one evening in 2003 on HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations.

Meanwhile, some media conservatives are obsessing over the sexuality of Foley. And others are eating their own.

It's still very interesting that the FBI has not seized Foley's computer.

PS. I am as sick of this story as the next person, but it serves to illustrate just how fucked up are the priorities of our legislators and the media. Last week we were in tears over the looming constitutional crisis, but a sex scandal always p