Breaking News

Western hairstyles have been banned in Iran. Men may NOT groom their eyebrows either. Or wear makeup. (CNN)

Corporate Donations Shift to Democrats

Oh goodie. Now the Democrats will bend over backwards to appease corporate giants.

Dirty little secrets? Oh my.

Randall L. Tobias resigned as deputy secretary of state Friday after confirming he was on the list of patrons of the Pamela Martin firm, an 'escort" service. He claimed that it was only for "massages." Of course it was. We always call 'escort services' for a 'massage' at $300/hr.

Interestingly Randall Tobias defended the official US policy, urged by the so called religious-right, that any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution “loyalty oath.” uh oh. And here's the clincher- Tobias said in an "Ask the Whitehouse" online chat in 2004 where he commented on the policy that he was overseeing several “highly successful” relationship programs “aimed at men and boys to help them develop healthy relationships with women.” I wonder what Mrs Tobias has to say about all this? If he was behaving himself, there would have been no reason for him to resign, now would there be?

Brian Ross of ABC News will go over some of the prominent men and women on the list on 20/20 this week. Ross said,

“There are thousands of names, tens of thousands of phone numbers. And there are people there at the Pentagon, lobbyists, others at the White House, prominent lawyers — a long, long list.” Ross added that the women who worked for the service, potentially as prostitutes, “include university professors, legal secretaries, scientists, military officers.”

I don't think that everyone on the list ought to be outed even if they are prominent. Why drag the women into it unless they promote 'abstinence only' legislation and faith based funding of AIDS groups. Same for the men. It's none of my business otherwise. My job is to out hypocrites.

CondoLIEzza

Dr Rice made the television rounds yesterday to counter George Tenet's book. (Not that anyone is taking every word in his book to be true.)

Yesterday on CNN's Late Edition, Dr Rice countered Tenet's claim that there was no serious debate before the US invaded and occupied Iraq by saying, “We all thought that the intelligence case was strong,” adding that even “the U.N weapons inspectors [thought] Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” She concluded, “So there’s no blame here of anyone.”

Even I remember the lead up to the war and that the UN weapons inspectors claimed that there were no WMD's in Iraq. I sort of remember the bushista's character assassinations of the inspectors as well. Think Progress was so kind to look up some of the news back then. (and don't forget that the wingers will call this "spin" because to them, the truth makes them feel bad.

[On March 7, 2003], the head of the IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei, reported that there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any nuclear weapons or was in the process of acquiring them. Mr Blix said: “By then, Mohamed ElBaradei revealed that Niger was not authentic.” British intelligence falsely claimed Iraq had been trying to acquire uranium from Niger. [4/28/05]

So frustrated have the inspectors become that one source has referred to the U.S. intelligence they’ve been getting as “garbage after garbage after garbage.” … The inspectors find themselves caught between the Iraqis, who are masters at the weapons-hiding shell game, and the United States, whose intelligence they’ve found to be circumstantial, outdated or just plain wrong. [2/20/03]

Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix told the U.N. Security Council that his inspection teams had not found any “smoking guns” after visiting some 125 Iraqi sites. [1/9/03]

I think a lot of us remember that. In fact I had a hard time trying to explain this to people in 2003 who I knew were in support of the invasion and occupation of Iraq as a pre-emptive strike (that being the reason for invasion du jour at the time.)

In an extreme example of irony, Dr Rice also went on Face the Nation yesterday to respond to Tenet's charge that no one in the administration took action in July of 2001 when the threat of a terrorist attack [9/11] had become evident. He wrote in the book about July 2001, "We need to consider immediate action inside Afghanistan now. We need to move to the offensive."
She commented, “I don’t know what we were supposed to preemptively strike in Afghanistan. Perhaps somebody can ask that.”

Um. How about going after Osama bin Laden?

Tenet's book also describes al Qaida's plan to assassinate Vice President Al Gore in Saudi Arabia and that U.S. intelligence agencies “established that Al Qaeda had clear intent to acquire chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons to cause mass casualties in the United States.” While the US was busy invading Iraq, "Saudi extremist elements were planning to conduct a cyanide gas attack on the New York subway system in fall 2003 using a homemade device.” Tenet's book also outlines al Qaida's efforts to actually acquire WMD's from scientists in Pakistan. Al Qaida's goal is to set off a nuclear device in a US city, preferably NY. But no, let's give lots of Homeland Security money to everywhere else but NY, why don't we. And Mr America's Mayor is so full of shit, I could scream.
Just read this thing


But getting back to the war on Iraq, Dr. Rice decided to explain what "imminent" means in bushista. On ABC's morning program "This Week" she explains it to George Stephanopoulos. [Raw story]

"I think that -- an imminent threat. Certainly Iraq posed a threat," Rice responds. "The question was, was it going to get worse over time or was it going to get better."

Rice goes on to say that the Bush administration assessment was that the threat from Iraq was "getting worse" and had to be dealt with.

"But [Iraq was] not an imminent threat," presses Stephanopoulous.

"George, the question of imminence isn't whether or not someone will strike tomorrow, it's whether you believe you're in a stronger position today to deal with the threat or whether you're going to be in a stronger position tomorrow," replies Rice. "It was the president's assessment that the situation in Iraq was getting worse from our point of view."

Rice's redefinition of the term "imminent threat," comes just over a month after former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton appeared on CNN claiming that the President never made the argument that Saddam Hussein posed an "imminent threat."

Silly me. mushroom cloud mushroom cloud mushroom cloud Of course I didn't understand what "imminent" meant before she explained it, or I wouldn't have been an anti-war, unpatriotic, pinko, commie, America-hater all this time.

Condoleeza Rice. You're our biggest lying sack of spew of the week.

"Durbin kept silent on prewar knowledge"

"The Senate's No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.
"The information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn't believe it," Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Wednesday when talking on the Senate floor about the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002.
"I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn't do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy. We can't walk outside the door and say the statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that is being given to this Congress."

Rest of article in The Washington Times.

Blast From the Past

Miss Atomic Bomb 1957


makes you think doesn't it?

"Women's Town" puts men in their place- in a commie country no less

This is happening in China.
Who would have guessed? It's kind of like Fantasy Island.

"The motto of the new town would be "women never make mistakes, and men can never refuse women's requests," Chinese media have reported.

When tour groups enter the town, female tourists would play the dominant role when shopping or choosing a place to stay, and a disobedient man would be punished by "kneeling on an uneven board" or washing dishes in restaurant, media reports said.

I would imagine that a real Chinese 'Fantasy Island' would put their government in its place. I can't see authoritarian (to put it a nice way) men wanting to vacation there with their wives. It almost sounds kinky, doesn't it?

It's really just a gimmick to make investors (probably men) rich.

Happy Springtime: Bush is over

Hat tip to Dirruk for this inspiring find

WTF!!

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - David Huckabee, a son of GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, was arrested at an Arkansas airport yesterday after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded Glock pistol in his carry-on luggage.

Huckabee, 26, later pleaded guilty in Little Rock District Court after being charged with a misdemeanor count of possessing a weapon in a prohibited place.

The dolt brought a loaded gun (a Glock is a gun, right?) through his carry on luggage and all he got was a misdemeanor charge? What about Guantanamo?

Jesus Christ, I'd throw the book at this guy if I were a prosecutor. He'd be on his way to Guantanamo. In every airport I've been at, including the dinky ones (which are usually the hardest to get through), it is more than evident what is allowed and isn't allowed in your carry on luggage. Perhaps, he didn't equate that having a loaded gun is as just as dangerous as a 4 oz. bottle of Lubriderm. If that is the case, then perhaps he ought to be committed to an adult home for the freaking stupid.

Speakin of airports (my favorite subject since 9/11): In NYC airports, you are greeted by National Guardsmen in camouflage wielding M16's at the gates (flirting with the TSA gals who seem annoyed that you dare to interrupt them) and god forbid you spend more than 30 seconds dropping off or picking up your loved ones- they've got the freaking bomb squad all over you and the TSA traffic guys who only know a few words of English crying, "Put your hands on the car! Don't move!" while a tow truck speeds in to haul your car away while you are begging for mercy. (I am not exaggerating)

The Department of Homeland Security rifled through my checked luggage on Monday at the Dallas/Ft Worth airport. When I opened my bags back in NY, the Department of Homeland Security had left their stickers on my hot sauce bottles purchased in Fort Worth. Imagine my surprise. (My surprise that my luggage was actually at the baggage pickup in NYC.) My things were all messed up in the luggage and containers I had carefully packed to avoid leakage, were spilled all over the inside of my bags. Perhaps some of the chemicals they let leak could have combined and made an explosive while it was on the plane, the idiot asses. I packed my stuff in clear plastic bags so that if it was searched it would be evident that I was a jeweler and like my food spicy, not a bomb maker. All liquid containers were clearly labeled and in their original packaging. Thanks for leaking them you idiots. In NY, they didn't give a shit what was in my checked bags, only the carry-on. Typical. All bark. No bite.

...and speaking of how absurd it all is,

Box of Condoms Leads to Evacuation
ANKENY, Iowa - Several classrooms at Des Moines Area Community College were evacuated after college officials became nervous about a suspicious package.

College officials called police and postal inspectors after the box was delivered Thursday. What they found inside wasn't a bomb _ it was a box containing 500 condoms.

The package was sent to a teacher of a human sexuality class, and was sent by a person who had been a previous speaker at the class, said Rob Denson, the college's president.

Bill Moyers and Jon Stewart -- THANK YOU! (there's a glimmer of hope in my world today)

The world sure works in mysterious ways. I thought I was in for the longest night of my life this past evening. The Jr. Prom was last night. I gave my precious baby boy the keys to my car, said be careful, and immediately entered into that dream like feeling --you know, the quiet panic that takes over your whole body. A defense like mechanism that turns on inside every mother during events like these. I was excited for him of course, but still had that picture of the mangled and charred cars that they put out in front of the high school during prom week. It's part of the DWI video program they show the kids the day before the prom. The "scared straight" type of film. It does have a profound effect on a lot of them. He said all the girls were balling during the video. I'm hopeful many boys got the message also.
I'm glad these kids are being made aware of this first hand, IN LIVING COLOR. I wish they showed these films when we were growing up.

Now.... what do I do for the rest of the evening? I gave him til 3am. How do I keep myself from losing my mind? Where's the remote? What stooopid nonsense is on the tube tonight?

OMG I forgot Jon Stewart was on Bill Moyers!! I tunned in half way through their conversation. I was at ease within seconds. I've never seen Jon Stewart outside of his show and stand up routine. It was amazing. I never thought it was possible to be in love with that man any more than I already am. He is absolutely, without a doubt, my ALL TIME HERO. Put him together with Bill Moyers and let me tell you folks -- I quickly moved out of that panic mode and into that feeling of hope. Just watching these two guys having a REAL conversation about REAL issues was a welcome change from our 24/7 non-stop talking heads. here's the link to the transcript of their conversation:

Here's where I started watching:

END CLIP: THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART: (This is the McCain interview on TDS)

BILL MOYERS: I saw McCain shrivel. I mean, he's been on your show...

JON STEWART: He didn't believe me. I think anybody who's been in a POW camp for five years can-- take eight minutes on THE DAILY SHOW.

BILL MOYERS: But something happened. You saw it happen to him. What you saw was evasive action. It wasn't shriveling, it was merely

BILL MOYERS: But he dropped his head, and you could you could

JON STEWART: Actually, he-- began to he stopped connecting and just looked at my chest and decided, "I'm just gonna continue to talk about honor and duty and the families should be proud," all the things that are cudgels emotionally to keep us from the conversation. But, things that weren't relevant to what we were talking about.

BILL MOYERS: So many people seem to want just what you did, somebody to cut through the talking points, and get our politicians to talk candidly and frankly. And I know you...

JON STEWART: Not that many people. You've seen our ratings. Some people want it. A couple of people download it from iTunes.

BILL MOYERS: But it was this time, this moment, this week that you decided that, what it

JON STEWART: That's right.

BILL MOYERS: Coming back to him.

JON STEWART: Well, it's also at the fore now, because the Senate and the House are working on timetables, which by the way, who knows if that's an issue, either. It's but it's again, the conversation that the Senate and the House are having with the President was very similar to the conversation that McCain and I were having, which was two people talking over each other and nobody really addressing the underlying issues of what kind of country do we want to be, moving forward in this? And it's not about being a pacifist or-- suggesting that you can never have a military solution to things. It's just that, it appears that this is not the smart way to fight this threat.

BILL MOYERS: Your persistence and his inability to answer without the talking points did get to the truth, that there's a contradiction to what's going on in Vietnam in there's a contradiction. Yeah, exactly, that there's a contradiction to what's going on in that war, that they can't talk about.

JON STEWART: That's right. There is a there is an enormous contradiction, and it is readily apparent, if you just walk through simple sort of logic, and simple rational points. But the thing that they don't realize is that everyone wants them to come from beyond that contradiction so that we can all fix it. Nobody is saying, "We don't have a problem." Nobody is saying that, "9/11 didn't happen." What they're saying is, "We're not a fragile country, trust us to have this conversation, so that we can do this in the right way, in a more effective way."

BILL MOYERS: Why aren't we having that conversation? Well, that's a very good point, Why is the country not having this conversation, the kind of conversation that requires the politicians who are responsible for the war to be specific to the concerns of the American people. I mean, they do come out and a kind of gauze goes up.

JON STEWART: Because I don't think politics is any longer about a conversation with the country. It's about figuring out how to get to do what you want. The best way to sell the product that you want to put out there, but not necessarily for the products on you know, it-- it's sort of like, when a dishwashing soap you know, they want to make a big splash, so they decide to have more lemon, as though people are gonna be like, "That has been the problem with my dishes! Not enough lemon scent!"

BILL MOYERS: Well, what is your thinking about why it is as-- the war enters its fifth year, and the President has announced - an extension of tours to 15 months, and they're going to call up the National Guard. And April was the bloodiest month so far since the war started, and there was one day in April that was the bloodiest day. That people have seen they have no way to get the guys in Washington, and Condoleezza Rice, to listen to them. That there seems a detachment emotionally, and politically in this country from what is happening.

JON STEWART: It's very hard to feel the difficulties that the military goes through. It's very hard to feel the difficulties of military families, unless you're in that environment. And sometimes you have to force yourself to try and put yourself in other people's sort of shoes and environment to get the sense of that.

JON STEWART: You know, one of the things that I do think government counts on is that people are busy. And it's very difficult to mobilize a busy and relatively affluent country, unless it's over really crucial-- you know, foundational issues. That come sort of sort of a tipping point.

BILL MOYERS: War? War?
JON STEWART: But war that hasn't affected us here, in the way that you would imagine a five-year war would affect a country. I think that's why they're so really — here's the disconnect. It's sort of this odd and I've always had this problem with the rationality of it. That the President says, "We are in the fight for a way of life. This is the greatest battle of our generation, and of the generations to come. "And, so what I'm going to do is you know, Iraq has to be won, or our way of life ends, and our children and our children's children all suffer. So, what I'm gonna do is send 10,000 more troops to Baghdad."

So, there's a disconnect there between — you're telling me this is fight of our generation, and you're going to increase troops by 10 percent. And that's gonna do it. I'm sure what he would like to do is send 400,000 more troops there, but he can't, because he doesn't have them. And the way to get that would be to institute a draft. And the minute you do that, suddenly the country's not so damn busy anymore. And then they really fight back, and then the whole thing falls apart. So, they have a really delicate balance to walk between keeping us relatively fearful, but not so fearful that we stop what we're doing and really examine how it is that they've been waging this.
Keep checking this link today for the actual video of Jon on PBS

Then....Then....THEN Bill Moyers had an interview with:JOSH MARSHALL -The blogger and publisher of talkingpointsmemo.com, gives his perspective on the role of politics in the recent firings of federal prosecutors

I fell asleep sometime during this conversation. WOW - Now I must read the entire transcript. Can't believe I fell asleep -- It was such a treat to be watching REAL journalists at work. I guess maybe I finally felt like "ok, I can rest easy now, we've got some REAL people, with no loyalties to anyone or any group, who are getting the REAL deal out to the people." Off I went into dreamland (slept a sound, much needed 6 hours straight) with visions of Jon Stewart doing a weekly show on PBS. That could happen ya know!! Wouldn't that just be the best!!!

Speaking of the draft.....

I shot up in bed and came out of my sound sleep at 3:15. Looked out the window and saw my car in the driveway, which meant my kid was back home safe and sound. Dad said he heard him come home around 2am (what a good boy - I wonder if he'll give us any of the details when he wakes up sometime around the crack of noon).

Since I don't go back to sleep very well, I get up so I don't start worrying about the next thing whilst lying in bed. I lived through him going off to the prom -- and he did too!

Now I can start worrying about the very real possibility of him going off to a war. Stewart is right. It's the only thing that will get this country's attention. I sure hope Jon Stewart and Bill Moyers find a way to get the people's attention before a draft becomes necessary.

I don't even want to think of the odds of him not coming home from that event. Maybe we should ask our high schools to start showing these kids some videos of what happens when you go off to war. Now THAT would get their attention. Imagine if our parents were shown the REAL deal instead of the "turtle" video Duck and Cover?.

Our kids today may not be stupid enough to fall for "duck and cover" anymore, but they are a complacent bunch that needs the biggest wake up call of their lives. Jon Stewart has a huge opportunity to wake them up here. I hope he, and others are given the chance.

Keep your fingers crossed -

Which One's Yours?

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average sets new records every day, economic growth slows to its lowest rate in years, the dollar drops against other currencies, and the housing market is in a serious slump. Seems a bit of a disconnect unless you see it as two different economies.

My sense is if you make a half a million a year or more, you're feeling pretty good about how things are going. You're benefitting from higher worker productivity and lower costs for the companies you hold stock in, and your portfolio's soaring. So you're able to shop at Neiman-Marcus and Tiffany's. We depend on you to keep those consumer spending numbers high. You haven't noticed that eggs are more precious than hens teeth, and that onions now top a dollar a pound. You don't lay awake at night wondering how you're going to afford to send your kids to college. Even if Junior is a delinquent and flunking out of his third private high school, you know you'll find a college somewhere that'll take him, because you can afford the full load of tuition and room and board.

On the other hand, the rest of you aren't so happy. You're the worker being squeezed to support that growth in corporate productivity, so you're being worked harder and longer for the same pay (if you're lucky). And, what with groceries and gas going through the roof, and the value of your house declining, you're probably losing ground in your long term financial planning. You've been priced out of the market of sending your kids to a private college unless you hand over the keys to your house and the account number of your 401(k). So you stay on top of your kids to make sure they can compete academically and get admitted to a good public university. You shop at Marshalls or TJ Maxx, and yes, those hackers have your credit card number. Let's not even talk about how much you're spending on health care. We used to call you middle class.

Which represents your economy and why?

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

Sex, Lies and White Supremacy

Tenet finally speaks

It would have been nice if he had opened his mouth before bush got "re-elected." He says that there was never a serious debate about whether Iraq posed a threat. You and I already figured that out.

How useless is the FDA anyway?

I don't want my food supply to have anything to do with China. It's not like they are good at manufacturing anything, let alone food. They've decided to cooperate with the US FDA after all. But seriously. It's not just pet food ingredients that are made in China. Why have an FDA if our country is outsourcing food ingredients? Don't we grow stuff here? Why have an FDA if they only act for political reasons- fascist political reasons? You cannot expect industries that exist for profit to regulate themselves. The tainted pet food got into hog feed and tainted pigs are on the market. This is a disgrace.

Riverbend Cuts and Runs

Richard Cranium of All Spin Zone reports that Riverbend, the Iraqi girl blogger is leaving her home.

In her last post, The Great Wall of Segregation, she writes of the wall around the Sunni's, "let no one say the Americans are not building anything." Indeed. She goes on to wonder if the Nazi concentration camps started this way, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here..." She criticizes the pundits for saying that the Sunnis and Shia were always in dispute because it isn't true. She writes, "I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward..." Now she has to make the decision of where to go and what to bring.

-------
I certainly wouldn't compare life in the USA to life in Baghdad, but think about this. Before the war in Iraq, people (at least in my neck of the woods) didn't care what ethnicity you were, what religion you were or what party you belonged to. I don't remember any north/south, red state/blue state nonsense being spewed. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but seriously the bushistas have wrought nothing but divisiveness since they illegally came to power in 2001. Perhaps we unconsciously harbored all these divisive feelings before the bushistas, but at least it was considered impolite to express them- and tolerance, at least pretending you were tolerant, was the only acceptable way to present yourself in the company of others. Now you sometimes feel like a freak for caring about those on the fringes of society and those caught in war. You find yourself almost hating those who support the bush regime. I'm so mad at myself for instantly resenting anyone who proudly claims to be a Republican or worse, a christian conservative. What happened to my tolerance? It hit the breaking point. Heckuva job, Bushie.

Sure as hell, it's global:

"Taiwan stung by millions of missing bees"

REUTERS:
"Taiwan's bee farmers are feeling the sting of lost business and possible crop danger after millions of the honey-making, plant-pollinating insects vanished during volatile weather, media and experts said on Thursday.
Over the past two months, farmers in three parts of Taiwan have reported most of their bees gone, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Taiwan's TVBS television station said about 10 million bees had vanished in Taiwan."

More at Honeybees are disappearing and Bees sense quantum fields, and that's why they are disappearing.

UPDATE: Destructive mite threatens Hawaii bees.

Moyers: Buying the War

Did you watch Bill Moyers' "Buying the War" last night? If you didn't, you can read about it at PBS.org.

Most interesting was that you could actually watch on television what has been discussed by thinking people over the years-- that the MEDIA FAILED US in the lead up to the war. But we already knew that. We already knew that journalism had taken a turn for the worst and that "reporters" were simply mouthpieces for the government. We already knew that pundits or "experts" had replaced real reporting. Does it make me feel better that I was right and everyone else was wrong? Not at all. It's rather depressing.

There are 2 intrepid reporters who worked for Knight Ridder, now McClatchy, who were on top of the story of the nonsensical excuses to go to war since the get go. They are Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel. Read more about them at the website. No one paid attention to them because they didn't write for papers in mainstream. They had reliable sources in DC though. You probably read some of their reporting on the internet or in your local paper. I remember following the UN weapons inspectors before the war and waiting for the mainstream media to report on their findings in order to prove that Colin Powell lied before the UN.

Dan Rather called television 'reporting' "journalism on the cheap." Rather than actually investigating a story, television news calls in "experts" to debate the stories, leaving no one with any actual facts. But we already knew that. Facts don't make for good television, do they?

Moyers discussed pundits like Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, Richard Pearle, Judith Miller, and Peter Beinhart who led the sheeple in the country to support the illegal war. It wasn't clear why these people were so adamant in their support for the invasion of Iraq. What was in it for them? And seriously, what kind of horrible people are these?

It still infuriates me, literally, when I meet people who take Fox News and reporters at other news organizations at face value. I don't know what could ever make up for the propaganda that tricked so many Americans into submission and my resentment for them... and my utter and total disdain for those in the media who failed us miserably. I feel like I just watched a documentary on the end of the USA as we knew it and there is nothing we can do about it.

Quote of the week

"No one suffers more than their president and I do" - Laura Bush on US troops being sent into harms way in Iraq.

-----------

Meanwhile the president is not listening to the American people. And neither is most of the Republican wing of congress. A close vote in the House, 218-208, on Wednesday passed a $124.2 billion supplemental spending bill that contains the troop withdrawal timetable according to the AP. It will likely be passed by the Senate. It's expected to be quickly vetoed by the president. The American people do not see a withdrawal as a surrender, contrary to what the pundits and political operatives declare. John McCain on The Daily Show 2 nights ago said that he speaks to US Troops in Iraq regularly and reports that they tell him that support what they are doing in Iraq, as if that is supposed to be a reason to stay in the war. The troops are following orders, not directing the war... and you wonder what type of duress they are under if and when any of them tell the Senator that they wish to stay and fight. feh

Did Anybody Say Treason?

Last week, at a press conference President Bush to prove that his surge is working, had a large display map of Baghdad and it's surroundings with the American Outposts marked on the map. How clever!

This week one of those outposts was attacked by insurgents. It was a double suicide attack; one car bomb penetrating the outer layers of the reinforced Outpost, the second a truck bomb exploding inside the outpost.

The result: nine US solders killed and twenty injured.
Did the Media miss connecting the dots, or perhaps is too harsh to report it?!

What's going on with Internet Radio?

While surfing the music blogs this morning, I came across this great song:

Posted by Mister Toaster at 7:35 PM

"A little Joni to welcome the spring, which is quickly turning into hot, muggy summer (thanks, Al Gore!). And, considering the looming end of Internet radio on May 15 when the new royalty rates kick in, I've chosen "You Turn Me On (I'm a Radio)" to commemorate the moment.

One of my all-time favorite songs, Joni sings sex as if it were a glorious road trip with the radio. Which it is. Obviously."

Have a listen here (song is at bottom of link)

Hey "Be Cool" all you Chili Palmer's battling this one out.
I had no idea this was going on.
Why are there ALWAYS so many hands out in the music industry?
Will the musicians EVER get all the money????

Here's an interview from popular Internet radio provider Pandora and one of the most vocal proponents for lower webcasting royalty rates.

Supporters of this decision argue that these new, higher royalty rates will ensure that musicians are paid fairly for their work as the music industry shifts its focus from traditional media to the Internet. Currently, record labels and recording artists don’t receive any royalties at all from terrestrial radio, which is required to pay only composers and publishers. However, detractors argue that the new rates are ruinously high and will lead to bankruptcy for the vast majority of webcasters, eliminating a resource that entertains more than 70 million Americans and financially supports tens of thousands of recording artists.

Here's NPR's story - New Royalty Rules May Reshape Internet Radio

Speaking of all this digital music; I'm still in awe of the whole itune world. Do you think itunes has helped musicians financially? I sure think it's the best deal in town. I love that I only have to spend a few dollars on 2-3 songs instead of buying the entire CD. (must not be a good deal for the musicians)

and now Amazon is supposed to be launching their new download store: Is Amazon's Music Strategy Stalled?

Music makes the world go round
or, is it
"MONEY makes the world go round"?

MUSIC makes the world go round ~ my world, anyway

Vote Democrat in 2008 and the Terrorists Will Kill YOU

****UPDATE Thursday, April 26th: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gave Rudy Giuliani a slapping last evening. See bottom of this post.


Rudy is warning you:

"Rudy Giuliani said if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped."

How can that be? How does he know?

“I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense,” Giuliani continued. “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”

He listens "a little" to Democrats? And which Democrats said that? He doesn't say. He appears to be speculating.

“This war ends when they stop coming here to kill us!” Giuliani said in his speech. “Never, ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for [terrorists] to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”

I thought that they would stop coming here to kill us when the US military pulled out of Saudi Arabia which we did. There must be a new "they." I don't want to put words in his mouth, but is he implying that if he is president that America will remain at war? Does he read the polls?

Giuliani said terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world.”

Where have we heard that before? And don't you just love how we "share our freedoms with the world?"

"Giuliani continued: “The freedoms we have are in conflict with the perverted, maniacal interpretation of their religion.” He said Americans would fight for “freedom for women, the freedom of elections, freedom of religion and the freedom of our economy.”

"Addressing the terrorists directly, Giuliani said: “We are not giving that up, and you are not going to take it from us!”

"The crowd thundered its approval."

Freedom of elections? Puhleease. Remember Florida? Ohio? Women's rights? hah.
The crowd must not have been paying close attention in Manchester, NH. I wonder how many were in that "crowd."

I think most Americans will take their chances on our being attacked again. It will be pretty funny when Rudy completely bombs in NY at primary time.

-----------

UPDATE
Excerpt from Keith Olbermann on Wed, April 25th Read the rest here.

"How dare you, sir?

"How many casualties will we have?" - this is the language of Bin Laden.

Yours, Mr. Giuliani, is the same chilling nonchalance of the madman, of the proselytizer who has moved even from some crude framework of politics and society, into a virtual Roman Colosseum of carnage, and a conceit over your own ability — and worthiness — to decide, who lives and who dies.

Rather than a reasoned discussion — rather than a political campaign advocating your own causes and extolling your own qualifications — you have bypassed all the intermediate steps, and moved directly to trying to terrorize the electorate into viewing a vote for a Democrat, not as a reasonable alternative and an inalienable right… but as an act of suicide.

This is not the mere politicizing of Iraq, nor the vague mumbled epithets about Democratic 'softness' from a delusional Vice President.

This is casualties on a partisan basis — of the naked assertion that Mr. Giuliani's party knows all and will save those who have voted for it — and to hell with everybody else.

And that he, with no foreign policy experience whatsoever, is somehow the Messiah-of-the-moment.

This Saturday: IMPEACH CHENEY

WWW.IMPEACH.ORG

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 A NATIONWIDE DAY OF PROTEST DEMANDING IMPEACHMENT AND LAUNCHING IMPEACHMENT SUMMER

Find an impeachment rally here! or here


We're expecting good weather in NY on Saturday. NYers will head to to fabulous Coney Island:

At New York’s Coney Island, one thousand people will form a giant human mural with their bodies on the beach. A plane towing a giant IMPEACH banner will circle the city and then fly over the beach to take aerial photos. Bring a beach towel or tarp to lie on, and dress warmly.

Dress like a mermaid or a merman.

Tonight 8 P.M. (CENTRAL Standard Time):

Bill Moyers' Journal PBS "Buying the War"

Herewith the description from the "Best Bets" section of my TV Listings:

"Don't mess with Bill! One of the most respected names in journalism returns to PBS with an excellent new series that asks the questions nobody else does. That's certainly true of the premiere episode, "Buying the War," in which Moyers investigates the mainstream media's failure to question the government's official line on the reasons for going to war with Iraq. Dan Rather, Tim Russert and Bob Simon ("60 Minutes") are interviewed."

Summayouse might wanna tape it.

Is this the beginning of the end for the "Teflon Don"?

No, I don't mean John Gotti. I mean Karl Rove. The reason I named him that, because he brought into the US Government the philosophy and Operating Procedure of the Mob. The more I watch the Soprano series, the more they remind me how Rove operates. Political loyalty is rewarded, disloyalty is punished, and the Boss (Karl Rove) of the Mob operates through proxies, like a good boss would, to avoid any back-track to his orders. Several laptops, blackberries to confuse the tracking and ultra-loyal liaisons (Monica Goodling) to carry out the orders about the mob hits.

L.A. Times and A. P. is reporting that the OSC ( Office of Special Counsel) is investigating Karl Rove for using Government Agencies for carrying out his political deeds (i.e. establishing a single party Republican majority government of the USA)

The OSC started it's investigation at the complaint of US Attorney fired David Iglesias.
Read more here!

GOP's Cyber Election Hit Squad Exposed

- by Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis, via TomPaine.commonsense

In Bushland, who exactly are the American people anyway?

From Sheryl Crow and Laurie David:

"...In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

...

Ultimately, we were left wondering what on Earth Mr. Rove was talking about when he said "the American people." If more than 60% of American voters, the Supreme Court, over 400 cities, the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous major US corporations, and others don't constitute the American people, then what does..."

------------
". . .government is instituted for the protection, safety, and happiness of the people, and not for profit, honour, or private interest of any man, family, or class of men. . .the origin of all power is in the people, and they have an incontestable right to check the creatures of their own creation, vested with certain powers to guard the life, liberty and property of the community. . ."
-Mercy Otis Warren 1728-1814, (poet, historian, patriot, and advocate of the Bill of Rights)

Forgotten Soldier

Don't watch this report, from Bob Woodruff, ABC News over at Think Progress about Army Sgt. James Coons, who was once a proud soldier who served in Iraq and ended up killing himself in that fateful "hotel" in Walter Reed, if you want to start the day off on an up beat. My heart goes out to his parents and his wife. Transcript here.

It's from Pravda so it has to be the truth. Doesn't it?

The real reason Don Imus got fired.

"American radio icon Don Imus disgraced, fired after threat to reveal 9/11 secrets"

"In a clear sign of its intent to reign in dissident American media personalities, and their growing influence in American culture, US War Leaders this past week launched an unprecedented attack upon one of their most politically 'connected', and legendary, radio hosts named Don Imus after his threats to release information relating to the September 11, 2001 attacks upon that country."

For none of the news that's unfit to print, check out the rest of the article at PRAVDA.

War News:

From the DEBKAfile:
"US military discloses 6 US soldiers killed in Iraq Saturday as new ambassador presses for Iraqi".

From the AP:
"Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 wounded Monday in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base northeast of the capital in Diyala province..."

I'm Baaaaack

Just got home from Texas. I actually had a great flight, thank you very much. The flight crew all understood English very well and I had 2 seats to myself. Did you know that they don't even give you peanuts anymore?

The folks working on the ground in both Dallas/Ft Worth and JFK in NY were unable to understand English, but they had their English answers memorized and picked from one of them when someone asked them a question. "Can I .....?" "Take off your shoes." "Where do I...?" "Take off your shoes."

Here's how it went in the airport shops: "Do you take debit cards?" "Credit card. Yes." "But do you take debit cards?" "Credit card. Yes." Do you take cash?" "Credit card. Yes." "How much is this?" "You want to buy?" "How much is it?" "Credit card. Yes."

I would have found it quite comical if the non english speaking man who brought me to the airport with my overstuffed bags full of heavy art supplies would have dropped me off within a half mile of a curbside check in or if one of the half dozen guys with official uniforms at JFK could have answered me when I asked what terminal we were in or which way to the baggage claim. Thank gawd I didn't have to take a cab home. Lord only knows where I'd end up. I happen to love foreigners. Very much. They are what made America great. It's just that I get irritated when someone doesn't understand English when we're dealing with time tables and transportation. Maybe I ought to start an English class for TSA workers. That's the ticket.

And tell me, what did I miss while I was gone?

On Mental Illness, Part Deux

Thanks to everyone for their kind and intelligent comments to Part Un below. I want to talk with you today about the intersection between mental health and American jurisprudence. It's not a pretty picture, and it raises some challenging questions. It is a complex, dense problem, and there are no easy answers.

As late as two generations ago, the mentally retarded and mentally ill populations were simply "put away"; the poor to state mental health institution (in Florida, the state mental hospital was called Chattahoochie; when we were teenagers, we always used "Chattahoochie" as slang to imply someone was just not right in the head), the rich to nicer, private "sanitariums". The family rarely discussed "Aunt Jill" and "Uncle Joe", and when the kids asked about them, they were hushed up. Mental illness was not discussed, not acknowledged unless absolutely necesssary. If a person "needed" to be institutionalized, the family went to the local judge, and they were granted commitment papers for the "care, maintenance and tratment" of the patient.

In the late 1960s, a lawsuit called O'Connor v. Donaldson was filed by the ACLU on behalf of a mental patient had been confined (coincidentally at Chattahoochie) because of some psychotic episodes. During his confinement, he regularly petitioned for his release, contending that the hospital was depriving him of his consitutional right to liberty. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court, and the Court's unanimous decision was very direct: a person who is mentally ill is a person nonetheless, and therefore is entitled to the same constitutional rights as any other person; and that under the 14th Amendment's guarantee of liberty, a mentally ill person may not be deprived by the state of his liberty, without due process of law. In this context, due process to the Court meant that, "[a] finding of 'mental illness' alone cannot justify a State's locking a person up against his will and keeping him indefinitely in simple custodial confinement. Assuming that that term can be given a reasonably precise content and that the 'mentally ill' can be identified with reasonable accuracy, there is still no constitutional basis for confining such persons involuntarily if they are dangerous to no one and can live safely in freedom."

The O'Connor decision worked a tremendous shift in legal landscape vis-a-vis mental health issues. As the decision ultimately was refined by lower court cases, we end up with the legal landscape we have today: A mentally ill person cannot be confined (deprived of his liberty) unless he is an imminent danger to himself or others. To justify depriving him of his liberty, the state must prove the danger by clear and convincing evidence (a lower burden of proof than reasonble doubt, but still a high standard of proof). Assuming an involuntary commitment, he may be institutionalized only so long as he remains a danger to himself or others, and even then, periodic court hearings must be held to determine whether the patient is a continued threat. Once determined not to be, he must be released unless he agrees to further treatment voluntarily. In exigent circumstances, a state may lock a patient up without a court hearing, but this "temporary hold" cannot exceed a designated period of time (which varies from state to state but usually is something like 72 hours) before a court hearing must be held. A mentally ill person may be not be forced to accept treatment (i.e., forceably medicated) against his will.

(I've been through this cycle a number of times with my mother. She would have a psychotic episode and get taken to the county mental health facility, she would be medicated and stabilized, occasionally she would commit herself voluntarily for an additional few days or a week, and then the facility would have to let her go. (The ultimate "catch and release", if you will.) She would be referred to the county mental health clinic for outpatient treatment, which she would promptly ignore. Her medication expended, she would go off it, hold it together for a period of time, but inevitably, there would be another psychotic outburst. My mother was lucky in one respect, and that is that she had a house to go back to and an income from social security and her children. Others are not so fortunate.)

This Supreme Court decision is, ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, how we ended up with several million mentally ill people living on the streets. Civil liberties cannot be constrained by practicalities such as what happens to the mentally ill when you say they cannot be confined against their wills if they are not a danger to themselves or others. If they are not committed to the state's care, if the state may not restrain them, then they must be left to their own devices. If you live in a city of any size, you see the mentally ill every day, walking the streets unkempt, muttering to themselves, pushing a grocery cart with all their posessions inside, living under bridges, queuing in the line at the soup kitchen. I bet if you're like me, you often avert your eyes because it's too painful to see that bag lady having a conversation with the air, or you move out of the way so that the crazy man screaming his greivances as he strides down the block won't focus on you. What would you have the state or city government do? Pick them up and take them where? Supposing the bag lady was taken to a local mental health clinic and she didn't want to stay, then what? In light of O'Connor, she can't be forced to stay and she can't be forced to take medication.

Did Ronald Reagan have his fair share in making a bad situation worse? He certainly did. Ronald Reagan never met a social welfare program that he didn't love to cut, and mental health services were certainly no exception. Were numerous state mental institutions closed? They certainly were, but given the legal standard for commitment enunciated by the Court in O'Connor and its progeny, this makes complete sense. There was no longer a need for mass institutions such as these because very few of their inmates ever were an imminent threat to themselves or others, they were simply being warehoused. Under the Court's decision in O'Connor, they had to be released regardless of whether there were adequate arrangements for their continued care. A sensible policy toward community based treatment, with adequate financial support, may or may not have ameliorated the sufferings of the numerous mentally ill people released, but we will never know. These programs were underfunded well before Reagan came to office because of the financial drain of the Viet Nam War and the stagflation of the late 1970s. It also does not change the fact that treatment cannot be forced against those unwilling to accept it. Even in the ideal situation of a supportive family with the monetary and psychological resources to deal with a mentally ill family member, there is no certainty that a patient will accept the need for treatment. I am the last person ever to defend anything that St. Ronnie did, but I cannot lay the full blame for the current state of mental health services at his doorstep. The blame, if we can call it blame, lays with the Bill of Rights. This is one of the costs of our liberty.

So, was the Supreme Court wrong in O'Connor? In the absence of imminent danger, should the state have more authority to involuntarily commit a person, or force a mentally ill person to accept treatment, "for his own good"? I hope you appreciate fully the civil liberties implications before you answer. Among the Justices on the Supreme Court that decided the O'Connor case were the liberal lions of the last century: William O. Douglas, William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall. These guys were absolutists on civil liberties issues. I am sure they understood some of the consequences that would flow from their decision. To them, the constitutional issue was more important.

We all would like to see the mentally ill receive treatment, even those, like my mother for many years, who cannot or do not recognize that they need treatment. We want to see these folks receive treatment from our impulse to help, from a place of compassion. As we struggle to understand what could have been done to help Cho before he went off like the bomb he was, remember why the Supreme Court says that we cannot willy nilly lock people up, that there must be some due process before even the mentally ill are deprived of their liberty. You and I might want to see these people committed for the right reasons, because we want them to be helped. But as a fundamental matter of our constitutional rights, it would be the wrong result.

Because we must recognize that when we grant the State the power to compel, to restrict and impinge upon one person's civil liberties, there is the possibility (indeed, with current regime, one might say probability) this power may be misused. As we struggle through the questions of why Cho wasn't locked up so he could not have committed this awful act, think of what the Supreme Court said in O'Connor and ask yourself whether you would want it to be easier for the current government to lock people up for being mentally ill? If you answer yes to that question, I'll leave you with this final thought. It was commonplace in the Soviet Union to institutionalize political dissidents for mental illness. After all, they must be crazy if they disagreed with the perfect political state.

[Sorry for the long post, but even this just scratches the surface. I could go on for days.]

News and Opinion from Israel

Hi gang! I've been in Israel for the past few days; in a virtual way that is. I'm sick of the talking heads here, the nonsense news and the upcoming gun debate here in the 'Land of the Free' and 'Home of the Brave' as we challenge the 2nd Ammendment -- state by state by state by state.... in the coming days.

I think it was these two articles that set me off:
Don't Let Go of Your Guns

The Democrats are Traitors Too


Somehow I ended up in "Israel" -- probably trying to get the Zionist movement straight in my head again after reading the two articles above.

The headlines in Israel parallel our headlines in so many ways. Here's a few I picked to share with our readers. Check out the site if you have time - (I need to take a few history classes before I go back to read more!)


Don't give 'em guns -Last thing Palestinian Authority needs at this time is more weapons

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wishes to boost Palestinian President Abbas. President George W. Bush also wishes to strengthen him.......


Bold move needed to halt weakning dollar -
Interest rates must be slashed in order to close gap between Israel, West

"The dollar exchange rate has dropped by almost 12 percent in the past year and by almost 20 percent since it hit a peak five years ago."

Well, I guess we don't have to worry about this "housing crisis" bringing down the economy here!! (I have a feeeeling that interest rates are going back down here in the US to "help the subprime market")

There is also similar bitching about the media:
British journalists' union boycott motion reflects deep animosity towards Israel

Marriages are in trouble:
Researchers discuss a growing phenomenon in recent years: More middle-aged couples getting divorced

He Said/She Said issues:
Women often find themselves in a difficult situation: Carried away by momentary passion, they regain their composure midway through the act. The Supreme Court has ruled that a woman has the right to say 'no more' at any stage. I believe the same should be true for men regarding the rights to their sperm


The Pope's been popping up in the news over there also (well, not the current one. Something about Pope Pius XII and his wartime conduct) First, the Vatican’s Ambassador said no to attending the holocaust remembrance event due to a caption at a museum describing The Pope's behavior during the war:

“Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the Pope did not protest," …and didn't write a thing. He did not intervene even when Jews from Rome were deported to Auschwitz.

"His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged churches throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react." The Pope's response as outlined above is also controversial according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The memo was indeed concealed. There is no evidence of public protest by the Pope against the Holocaust.

I think the Ambassador did attend.

School visits to Poland make teenagers better Jews and Israelis - Therefore, shaping Holocaust consciousness is critical in shaping the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.

(I need my chart now!!)

I was particularly interested in this headline while I was over there visiting:

Secrets of the Jewish mind - Can Jewish memorization techniques improve our maligned leadership? Interesting article about, well, I'm not quite sure. Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister is mentioned.

He was a man of prodigious energy - physical and intellectual. "He was a mercurial man," wrote Israeli author Amos Oz, "almost violently vivacious." --After the 1967 Middle East war, Ben Gurion argued against holding on to Arab territory beyond Jerusalem. The fright that Israel was given in the 1973 war when the Arabs enjoyed success revealed, in Ben Gurion's view, a dangerous sign of arrogance and complacency.

For more background on Ben Gurion, read here and here.

Sounds like he was a well liked? -- Not sure anymore.

Hey, ya gotta like a guy who stands on his head! Here he goes... steady, steady....NOT BAD!!

And people make fun of our Rosie -- I LOVE YOU ROSIE!!You know where it's at!
So, standing on your head is good exercise for your mind, and hanging upside down helps to battle depression. So much to learn!

And what's up with the benefits of "swaying" -- as in the swaying and chanting kind. I only know this kind of "Swaying" (guys, you'll probably enjoy this "sway" version better)

and lastly, what do you think of this headline:
We need to kill him --Israel should not shy away from threatening to kill Iran's Ahmadinejad
-- WOW -- to the point.

What would Ben Gurion think about that statement?

Was Ben Gurion a good man?

I never liked "Limbo" anyway

The Pope in a nutshell: The good news is that your babies won't be going to hell if they are unbaptized. The bad news is that YOU'LL probably still go to hell... unless of course you have declared that Jesus Christ is the only way to god and too bad if one lives in some remote area and practice a pagan religion.

It makes for good fear-based religous PR. There is religion and there is theology. Theology is a study of god, of existence, of a reason to exist. Religion should be an initiation into theology and deeper reflection, but often it's not. There are fundies who prefer to reflect on the creator's vengeance for those who don't share their beliefs exactly. Sometimes rabid atheists can be compared to fundies in their zeal. Some folks insist that they couldn't possibly behave properly on earth without religon. There are agnostics like me who conscientiously consider that anything is possible, who don't discount any reasonable explanation for our existence. There is a religion to suit just about everyone on earth.

Existential angst has been my muse since I became aware and it probably is true for many of you out there- at least at some point in your life. Limbo was never a Catholic doctrine and I never liked it anyway. I gave the nuns a hard time all the way in second grade when we were taught the concept. It didn't fit with my once religious view of Jesus as a loving and forgiving representative of God on earth. Faith is hope. That's the best that I can come up with. If people are hopeful, you would think that they would be kinder to one another, but that's not always the case. If there is indeed a heaven and a hell, I hope that heaven is where I will land after I die. I have a Jesus-based philosophy on how to live, but still, I can only hope that it's the right way to live. Jesus' philosophy makes sense to me- love one another, look out for each other, forgive each other. It certainly makes for a nicer world even if our existence turns out to be a huge cosmic accident. Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan sums it all up.

The Pope's renouncing of limbo, is at the very least, a step in the right direction for Catholics. It will hopefully open up people's minds for further reflection. It's proof that the many, many Catholic theologians who are this close to being brought up on heresy charges are making inroads. In Catholicism, you must understand that it takes decades or centuries to make inroads. You'd be surprised how many Catholic scholars and theologians make perfect sense. My favorite theologians assert that god lives inside us, not outside of us. It's just that you won't be hearing their views from the pulpit or the Vatican. Contributions would drop and one thing we all know about religion and politics is that money talks.

The above is my humble opinion and I could very well be wrong and that God really is a mean dude living in heaven and wants to punish the very creatures he made.

"All you need is love, love. Love is all you need."

Sunday's Song for Atheists -- "The Limbo Rock"

Let's sing along with that cartoon character Sebastian....

while we wait for dictionary.com to get orders from the pope to remove their contributions for the definition of "Limbo"

ROCK ON brothers and sisters!

Stolen from the Signs-of-the-Times:

Tired of the God bothering and fear mongers

Why is it that whenever a tragedy strikes too many arseholes of the religious and political persuations show up and try to use it as a way to prove 'God' is punishing unbelievers?

And yes, this week I am referring to the horrific events at Virginia Tech. One of the most in your face offenders is Dinesh D'Souza who uses the mass murders to take a knock at atheists, claiming that we are no where to be found, or that our response is 'get over it, the universe doesn't care', what a wanker. He goes as far as to make up (read fabricate, lie) about Dawkin's response and notes that Dawkins wasn't asked to speak at the memorial. Well neither were the Pope, Dali Lama, or Thetans, but he doesn't seem to comment on that.

Let me tell you this, I would take the comfort of one of the most fire-breathing, nails-across-the-blackboard, godless athiest I have ever read over the crocodile tears of D'Souza.

And shall we even bother with the "If everyone had a gun this wouldn't have happened" idiots?

And best of all... so good in fact that I'm going to include the meat of the story right here. Phelps the walking corpse and his family of Baptist zombies and their "God-filled" view and plans:


An anti-gay religious group known for protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq is planning on appearing at services for those killed on Monday as well.

The Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), which is not affiliated with any national Baptist organization, announced plans to protest at victims' funerals only hours after 32 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. They also may protest at other events on the Virginia Tech campus.

The organization, founded and led by Fred Phelps, believes the United States has condemned itself to destruction by accepting homosexuality and other "sins of the flesh." Phelps' daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the Virginia Tech teachers and students who died on Monday brought their fate upon themselves by not being true Christians.

"The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants," Phelps-Roper said. "You don't need to look any further for evidence those people are in hell."

Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech student responsible for the killings who took his own life after the shootings, was sent by God to punish those he killed, and America as a whole, for moral decline, said Phelps-Roper, while adding that she believes Cho is also in hell for violating God's commandment to not kill.

"He is in hell," Phelps-Roper said. "But he was also fulfilling the word of God."

Now besides the whole heartlessness factor, you have this woman (who claims to be xtian) stating that everyone killed was NOT xtian. This in a school in the South, in America....

I'm telling you, if these are the sort of people who are getting into heaven, I'll put up with the smell of sulphur just to stay away from them.

Whaddaya doin' next Wednesday?

"The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marks the return of "Bill Moyers Journal." E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the program this week.
"While much of the evidence of the media's role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility."

Rest of the article at Editor and Publisher.

The president speaks: "Death is terrible"

The president was on his terrorism tour yesterday in Ohio. After warning folks of how the terrorists want to kill them, he rambled on unscripted. Highlights:

_"Politics comes and goes, but your principles don't. And everybody wants
to be loved _ not everybody. ... You never heard anybody say, `I want to be
despised, I'm running for office.'"

_"The best thing about my family is my wife. She is a great first lady.
I know that sounds not very objective, but that's how I feel. And she's also
patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience."

_"There are jobs Americans aren't doing. ... If you've got a chicken
factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what
I'm talking about."

_"There are some similarities, of course" between Iraq and Vietnam.
"Death is terrible."

_"I've been in politics long enough to know that polls just go poof at
times."

As he has before, Bush told the story about how his first presidential
decision was to pick a rug for the Oval Office, a task he quickly cast to his
wife. He told her to make sure the rug reflected optimism "because you can't
make decisions unless you're optimistic that the decisions you make will lead to
a better tomorrow."

Later, when he talked about his hope for succeeding in Iraq, Bush said,
"Remember the rug?"

I have to add some of these to my list of "bushisms."

He ought to be Gonzo

Mr Gonzales who supposedly 'prepared' for his testimony before congress, seemed to have developed memory loss. Oh my. I haven't heard so many, "I don't recall's" since President Reagan. 71 times.

Here's how some of the Senators told Gonzo that he is a liar:

"Your characterization of your participation is significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts." Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)

"Since you apparently knew very little about the performance about the replaced United States attorneys, how can you testify that the judgment ought to stand?" Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)

“... you can’t have it both ways. If your chief of staff is implementing a major plan that contradicts what you just told the U.S. senator from that state, in my view, you shouldn’t be attorney general. And if, on the other hand, what you said to Senator Pryor contradicts the plan, you also shouldn’t be attorney general.” Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY)

"There are some very serious problems, Mr. Attorney General." Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

"It is generous to say the attorney general's communications about this matter have been inconsistent." Sen. Tom Coburn R-Okla.

President Bush was "Pleased" with his testimony. heh

On Mental Illness

I've blogged before about the fact that my mother has mental health issues. Actually, that's a bit of an understandment. The truth is that my mother is and has been for a long time profoundly mentally ill. Although she is now medicated, she spent years out of touch with Mother Earth. She actively hallucinated, she heard voices, she believed people were trying to control her by taking over her brain, she believed people meant her harm, she believed people were trying to kill her. She would become fixated on one person as the source of all evil in her life and would chant or pray or perform "witchcraft" to free herself from the perceived tyranny of this malicious individual. Eventually, she would move on to become fixated on another person and the cycle would begin again.

My mother was very clever at hiding the depths of her illness. On one level, she operated perfectly normally. She could get up every morning and prepare herself breakfast, take a shower, clothe herself, go to the grocery store, work in her yard, and so forth. She would confide some of the more bizarre ideations only in those whom she still trusted: myself, my brother, the occasional close friend. Sure, to the casual observer or friend, some of her behavior was "odd" but insignificant enough that it was passed off as eccentricity. As she would reveal some of these strange notions, though, one by one, her friends deserted her, until she was alone and isolated, and then the disease just overwhelmed her. Because she was almost 1,000 miles away from where I lived, I did not know until years later that her neighbors had restraining orders against her. Apparently, she would stand at the fenceline of her property and scream at them. Her grievance? She believed that I had born a child and her neighbors were holding me and her grandchild hostage in their basements. Never mind that I had just spoken to her by phone a day or two before and told her I was fine. Never mind that this was Florida, where no houses have basements because the water table is too high. Never mind that the neighbors were perfectly nice people who didn't even know her name or anything about her. In her mind, my captivity was a fact from which she could not be dissuaded. Thankfully, she apparently never thought of getting a gun, but had she done so, there is no doubt in my mind she would have used it to "protect" or "rescue" me and the phantom grandchild.

I think we are all trying desperately to understand how and why Cho could have done what he did. But in doing so, we are trying to impose reality-based thinking on something that was not based on our reality as rational human beings. Words fail me, but the closest I can come to expressing it is: in his mind, the grievances he expressed in his so-called manifesto were real. I have heard and read comments from people speculating that he may have been bullied and mocked by his classmates in high school, that he may have been abused by his parents, and that these experiences triggered his alientation, with the shooting as the result. I think this is indicative of how poorly mental illness is really understood in this country. It may be true, though I doubt it, that he was victimized to some extent by classmates, and maybe even his parents, but that did not "cause" his mental illness. The more logical explanation is that they shunned him because of his odd behavior, as my mother's friend shunned her because of her "oddities." It's more appropriate, in my view, to view their aversion to him as the "effect" of his burgeoning mental illness and not the cause of it. Mentally ill people are born, not made. Their experiences with others or with life events (in my mother's case, a World War) may exacerbate the underlying illness, but it does not create it or cause it in the first instance.

I spent years trying to impose upon my mother this same reality-based thinking. I would reason with her, provide her with proof positive that her ideations were incorrect in fact. I begged her to see a doctor, to get some kind of treatment, to persuade her that what was going on in her head was not real. To her it was real, and she could not and would not be persuaded otherwise. If we ever hear from Cho's parents, I think we will hear an equivalent story.

I know I am in a significant minority when I say that I feel a lot of compassion for Cho. The way his illness expressed itself is awful in the extreme, and my heart bleeds for the people who died. But my heart also bleeds for Cho. I can't help myself; I do indeed pity him.

In Memoriam -- To Life

Post title via BlueKat (our reader known as Demokat), from her blog Demokat

A song and video that brought me much needed tears of joy:

somewhere over the rainbow what a wonderfull world
sung by Israel (IZ) Kamakawiwo'ole. I have hummed this tune hundreds of times, never knowing it was the intro to his version of somewhere over the rainbow what a wonderful world. I think many of you will be suprised when you hear this hauntingly familiar melody. It has been in numerous television shows, movies, and commercials over the years.

Here's the longer version (with what a wonderful world included)


Iz died in 1997 at the age of 38, from complications due to his excessive weight. He was the most popular singer in Hawaii.



Perfect timing DemoKat -- just what the doctor ordered! Thank you.

Male Chauvinist Pigs

The Supreme Court.

Where do these "men" get off supposing that a late term abortion is merely a procedure of "convenience?" How dare they ignore physicians and highly trained doctors who have testified that a late term abortion is a procedure to save a woman's life in almost all cases, not something a woman would do on a whim. This is just plain hostility towards women. How the hell dare they interfere with a painful decision that is between and woman and her doctor? Now her doctor will be considered a criminal for saving her life. more

The "Death and Destruction" Tour

The president is taking the opportunity this week, in light of the tragedy at Virginia Tech to warn high school students to be terribly afraid... of the terrorists who want to kill them. more

"Ismail Ax"

Via Townhall.com:

By Jerry Bowyer: The Shooter Was Another 'Son of Sacrifice'

First it was Johnny Muhammad, now it was Cho Sueng Hui aka Ismail Ax. Precisely how many mass shooters have to turn out to have adopted Muslim names before we get it? Islam has become the tribe of choice of those who hate American society. I'm not talking about people who grew up as Muslims, confident and secure in their faith, good fathers, sons and neighbors. I'm talking about the angry, malignant, narcissist loners who want to reject their community utterly, to throw off their 'slave name' and represent the downtrodden of the earth by shooting their friends and neighbors.

This morning I read that the Virginia Tech shooter died with the name Ismail Ax written in red ink on his arm. The mainstream press doesn't seem to have a clue as to what this might mean. To quote Indiana Jones, "Didn't any of you guys go to Sunday School?"

The story starts with a man named Abraham. He is the father of the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians. He was born in Iraq, the son of a wealthy idol manufacturer. He came to believe that there was only one true God and, according to tradition, took up his ax and destroyed his father's idols.

Eventually he left Iraq and moved to what is now known as Israel. He had a son with his concubine whom she named Ishmael. The Muslim world prefers the Arabic spelling of the name: Ismail. Eventually Abraham had a son by his rightful wife and named the son Isaac. Ishmael and his mother were disinherited and sent out into what is now Saudi Arabia. Isaac became the heir.

Eventually, God decided to test Abraham by telling him to kill his son, Isaac. Abraham took up the knife, but God stopped him at the last moment. Isaac lived and eventually became a man of great wealth. Ishmael became a desert warrior chieftain.

The Jews are the descendants of Isaac, the Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael.

In the 7th Century, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, re-wrote the story, claiming that Ismail was the true faithful descendant of Abraham and that it was he, not Isaac, who God told Abraham to sacrifice. Ismail was the one saved. For Muslims, Ismail (not Isaac) was the true 'Son of Sacrifice.' In the original version of the story, Abraham used a knife, in some of the later Muslim versions, he used an Ax.

Flash forward 1,400 years: a sullen, angry young man who rages against rich people and apparently against Christians, writes a play in which a mother and son try to kill his step-father, but in the end the boy (age about 13, the age many think Ismail was when he was exiled) is murdered by the step-father with 'a deadly blow'. Father issues? Yeah, I think so.

Cho Sueng-hui cum Ismail Ax hated the American society to which he had been brought 15 years earlier. His play McBeef (a poor pun from an English Lit major on Macbeth) is one endless screed against the corruption of American culture. A cheesy re-telling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, it involves a young man abused by his step-father, a former NFL football player. The son, throws epithets at his father calling him a 'Catholic priest'. And makes derisive comments about McDonalds. It seems that none of the foundational structures of Western Civilization, Christianity, capitalism, family, are spared his rage. In other words, he really meant what he said in his last words: "you (that is us, America) made me do this."

This article originally appeared on TCS Daily

Here is an up to date account:

Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC headquarters in New York containing photos of him brandishing guns and video of him delivering an angry, profanity-laced tirade about rich kids and hedonism.

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone, in an excerpt shown on "NBC Nightly News." "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

He rails against Christianity and the rich.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," he says, apparently reading from a manifesto. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."



So, what can we expect next?

Will ANYONE (besides us) be discussing the nonsense surrounding the "religions" of our world?

Will ANYONE in a position of authority in our society say (or be allowed to say) ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Will ANYONE say "It's time to let the Sky Daddies go"?

Haven't enough people been killed in the name of "GOD"?????

Will we ever be able to let reason reign over religion???????

America suffers from an infectious disease.

America suffers from an infectious disease. And it calls on all it's experts, how to treat this disease. The ideas vary from expert to expert, from pundit to pundit, from politician to the common folk, reaching a kinda hysteria: "what are we going to do about?", "how are we going to save our children?", "what country are we going to invade, to cool our heads and get it out of our system?"

The ideas abound and we hear:
• "We should wear gas masks with anti-bacterial filtration system"
• "We should hermetically insulate our homes, with duct tapes around the windows, recirculate air through an anti-bacterial filtration system"
• "We should dispatch health care police to interview and identify the potential carriers of the disease"
• "We should apply strict personal hygiene, wear rubber gloves, and tape our cloths at wrists and ankles"
• "We should offer counseling to the already infected, insulate them from the public, with a complete background check of him/her and people that they came in contact with"
• "We should install airosol-spays throughout our living areas"
• "Disease free ID cards should be issued to healthy population, that can be presented before coming in contact with other individuals"
• "We should implement checklist with every individual to comply with our recommendations"

"We definitely should not have the audacity to use antibiotics! Antibiotics may infringe on the Constitutional rights of several species of bacteria, viruses or carriers of such!"

A Modern Fairy Tale

Once upon a time
In a land far away,
A beautiful, independent,
Self-assured princess
Happened upon a frog as she sat
Contemplating ecological issues
On the shores of an unpolluted pond
In a verdant meadow near her castle.

The frog hopped into the princess' lap
And said: "Elegant Lady,
I was once a handsome prince,
Until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.
One kiss from you, however,
And I will turn back
Into the dapper, young prince that I am
And then, my sweet, we can marry
And set up housekeeping in your castle
With my mother,
Where you can prepare my meals,
Clean my clothes, bear my children,
And forever feel
Grateful and happy doing so. "

That night,
As the princess dined sumptuously
On lightly sauteed frog legs
Seasoned in a white wine
And onion cream sauce,
She chuckled and thought to herself:

I don't fucking think so.

More Death

As we continue to dwell on Monday's awful events at Virginia Tech, let's not forget that there's a place where that kind of carnage happens on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis. Like today when 100+ Iraqis were killed by a suicide bomber.

Their lives were no less precious, their deaths no more comprehensible.

Quotes of the Day

The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service: Albert Einstein

I have seen men march to the wars, and then I have watched their homeward tread, And they brought back bodies of living men, But their eyes were cold and dead: Edmund Vance Cooke

When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart." : Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is an open thread...

Blogging From Texas II

Freaking me out.

I mentioned earlier that I'm at an artists' retreat. I certainly didn't expect to come across this from artsy fartsy people:
"If everyone carried guns, there wouldn't have been a massacre at Virginia Tech..."
and other lovely sentiments. Perhaps there wouldn't have been a massacre there but surely there would be other massacres and shootouts across the country. I'm just thinking about what fun it would be in a subway at rush hour in NY if everyone carried guns. God forbid. Huge metropolitan areas do not need legalized weapons. It would be a blood bath.

Last night I met up with a couple of grandmotherly women from Baton Rouge. They were fun, playful, humorous and quite talented. I did notice however that they were very afraid- they slept with the lights on and kept the tv on at all times in their room. I don't know how immigration came up, but it did, and somehow I was informed that all the evils in this country come directly from immigrants- legal, illegal, naturalized citizens, green card people. Naturally, I objected- politely- and I asked if there was a solution at this point. Why certainly- The US should just require that everyone who isn't born here must go home.
"Naturalized citizens?" I asked.
"Of course. You know that all the 9/11 hijackers were naturalized US citizens."
"Most of them were Saudi's."
"In Baton Rouge, we were told that they were naturalized citizens."
"That's incorrect information. Who told you that?"
"I don't know."
"Fox News?"
"I don't know."

Later on...
"What do you think about the war in Iraq?" I asked.
"I think it's a disaster," she said.

I was relieved.

She went on to clarify, "The problem with the US is that ground wars should never be fought. The only way to wage war is to annihilate... to just decimate the whole country."

I picked myself up off the floor, "But we were supposed to "liberate" the Iraqi's from the "evil" Saddam who had nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorists. If we nuked Iraq, we would have killed millions of innocent people."

"Honey, you ought to read the bible. God would want us to annihilate them."

"I have read the bible, but I am more of a Jesus person- help the poor, feed the hungry, heal the sick, blessed are the meek, etc."

"Well I am a christian pastor. So is my husband. And we take the bible very seriously"

Uh oh. Here we go, I thought. My first, in person, dialogue with one of those people I read so much about- the killer christianistas. I told myself to stop thinking that because I am just as prejudiced as they are.

"I have a masters degree in theology and it's not one of the tenets of christianity to annihilate people. Of course in the history of christianity, a whole lot of ground wars were fought. But annihilation? nah. Not nowadays.

"Oh yes it is. Jesus had a lot to say about that."

"Really? I must have forgotten that part. It's been a long time. Would you please show me that in the bible?"

Needless to say, she was flipping through the bible and did not come up with the parts where Jesus orders us to annihilate our enemies. She attempted to show me stuff from the historical parts of the Old Testament, but I declined to discuss that part because it is irrelevent to christianity.

I changed the subject after that because the ladies had wheels and I wanted to go to the mall. I was also rather flabbergasted at how such "sweet" ladies could harbor such intolerance and condone so much hatred in the world. I had to sleep on it.

At first, I was ready to write them off as a lost cause. I was upset because our federal lawmakers are influenced by these people and it impacts my life all the way up north. I don't appreciate that people of these beliefs can wage war in my name, thank you very much. But then it came to me while I was talking to Billydoom on the phone last night...

These folks need MORE immigrant infusion- sorry DAR- immigrants from all over the world and a lot more Jews and Muslims and Catholics and Episcopalians and Buddhists and Pagans. It would take a generation or so, but the only way to eradicate this fear and hatred for others is to live with them side by side. When people all start to intermarry, the separations become minute. I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who lives in an area where it seems sometimes that everyone is from somewhere else in the world. Sure we have bigots where I live, but their opinions are not welcome in the greater society.

You know how sometimes you don't like a painting or a whole groups of paintings by a particular artist or the art of a whole period in history? When you learn about the time and place and the philosophy of those who created the works, you can learn to appreciate them, even if you wouldn't want to hang the painting in your living room.

So I just think if enough folks from somewhere else lived in some parts of the south and interacted with the folks daily, there'd be a change in the weather. But that's just my opinion and I could be wrong.

Next time, I'll tell you about my interviews with folks from Colorado Springs.

I AM MAD AS HELL

This morning, as you probably all know, there was a shooting at Virginia Tech at A.J.Hall resulting in 2 people dead. The police were dispatched to investigate the shooting and interview witnesses, while a loose gunman was roaming around the Campus.

I am just paralyzed in my disbelief. No lock-down of campus, no police searching for the loose gunman.

The gunman turns up two hours later at Norris Hall, and while a student shoots a video pointing to the Norris Hall building, the police are standing around the building as 27 gunshot pops are sounded on the Camera-Phone video coming from inside of that building. This shooting resulted in 32 deaths and 29 injured.

I wonder if a failed stop of a motorist on the highway to the siren of a police patrol, how many APBs, car chases and road blocks would be dispatched to catch a traffic violator?!

Is this society broken down? No more heros? No policeman with balls to enter and stop a mad killer?

Instead there are a lot of pictures and amateur videos, showing the police pinning down innocent bystanders all over the campus. How brave!

I am disgusted. Incompetence all over. Let me know how you feel.
It is a terrible tragedy that could have been prevented!

Blogging From Texas

Hola! Buenos dias!

My blogging may be a bit light for the next week as I am in Texas for an artist's retreat. The weather people were correct when they predicted a hellish storm for the NYC area on Sunday and Monday. I got the hell out of town on Saturday instead of Sunday. As it turns out, I probably would have had to wait until Tues or Wed to get a flight out of Gomorrah for the Lone Star State. I am loving Texas so far. I got to spend a day roaming around yesterday, seeing the sights and talking to the friendliest people. I saw my first cattle drive! The people are wonderful, the roads are awesome and everything is sooooo spread out. The sky here is huge. You can see weather coming from a hundred miles away in any direction. Unfortunately, with all the driving you have to do to get somewhere, you use a lot of gasoline. Perhaps stagecoaches will come back in vogue? I can dig it.

Hasta luego, muchachos.

Climate Change Warning Again

It's kind of frightening that US generals are warning bush that his failure to get with the program on global warming, by cutting greenhouse emissions, the US could be brought into wars over water and other worldly conflicts. This could happen as early as the next 30 years. Is this the legacy we'll leave to our children?

No one has to try to convince a lot of people that the climate is changing rapidly. The east coast is under water and the west coast is dry as a bone. What happened to winter? What happened to spring? Are the seasons changing their tunes?

Music I Couldn't Live Without

You know the drill: You're stranded on a desert island and probably won't be rescued for twenty years. What ten albums (if I can use that quaint obsolete term) would you want with you?

Here are my choices, in no particular order. I can say that I love, love, love each and every song on these albums, and could listen to all of them time and again without getting bored or sick of them.

1. Janis Joplin -- Pearl

2. Derek and The Dominos -- Layla and Assorted Other Love Song

3. Pink Floyd -- Dark Side of the Moon

4. Allman Brothers -- Eat a Peach (with apologies to Live at the Fillmore East)

5. Rolling Stones -- Beggar's Banquet

6. Ricki Lee Jones -- The Pirate

7. The Roches -- Eponymous Debut Album

8. The Eagles -- Desperado

9. Beatles -- Rubber Soul

10. The Band -- The Last Waltz

As with all these lists, compromises have to be made, and one of my choices is a bit of a cheat (the last one because it contains numerous other artists besides The Band). But if I had to limit myself to these ten, I would be satisfied.

"Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?"

It's in the British Independent:
"Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees"

"...some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

"They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

"The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up."

Goodbye America, Hello Duckshit Alley

"Alert: FDA Attempting to Regulate Supplements, Herbs and Juices as "Drugs"

When it comes to health freedom, this is the FDA's end game. A new FDA "guidance" document, published on the FDA's website, reveals plans to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs. Massage oils and massage rocks will be classified as "medical devices" and require FDA approval. The document is called Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

Rest of article at OrganicConsumers.org. If the article makes you sick, don't take anything for it; it might not be approved. Just simply puke. Unless you need a permit to puke.

This post is NOT a recommendation to take a shit in a box and send it to the FDA with a note asking, "Hey, Fucked-up Dipshit Assholes, how healthy am I"?

This Is Security?

I'm still following Gonzogate pretty closely, and big kudos to Talking Points Memo and McClatchy News for their dogged coverage. There are a lot of dots being connected, and the resulting picture ain't pretty.

Anywho, one of the intriguing things about the parallel electronic universe employed by Karl Rove and others in the Maladminsitration to avoid using regular governmental email accounts is the security implications. We've already had acknowledgements that many of these guys and gals used the alternative email systems regularly to conduct government business. What do we know about the companies that host the RNC and GWB43.com domains, through which all these emails were being run? What do we know about the security of these communications? What types of government business were being conducted on these accounts? Could highly sensitive government information have been be placed at risk by this practice? Given the purported single-minded focus of this regime on the security of the American homeland, can we not assume that emails with implications for national security were sent over these alternative email systems? Shouldn't we be hearing from the companies managing these domains that we don't have anything to worry about on this front? Oh, and are you going to tell me that these companies didn't have disaster recovery systems in place? And that 5 million emails, in at least some of which highly sensitive business of the United States government presumably was carried on, can no longer be found?

Outrageous seems such a quaint understatement.

It seems to me that a Maladministration as purportedly obsessed with national security as this one, a Maladminsitration that just yesterday asked for more powers for spying operations on US soil has some 'splainin' to do on this front. If they really cared about security, they would have started in their own house.

American Girl' Fans Mob Cheney

I just love the stories that come in my email from ABC News. Get this one:

'American Girl' Fans Mob Cheney
Vice-President Dick Cheney was mobbed by little girls Friday when he made an unannounced stop at the American Girl doll store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

The little girls wanted to meet him and take pictures with him, according to media personnel traveling with Cheney.

The Vice-President, never the most warm and fuzzy man on the campaign trail, indulged his fans and posed for pictures while his daughter, Liz Cheney, a former State Department official, made a purchase, presumably for one of her three daughters. The Vice-President did not buy anything.

Cheney was in Chicago to give a speech at the Heritage Foundation's -- a conservative think-tank -- annual leadership conference.

On the way there, Air Force Two struck a bird as the plane neared O'Hare International Airport.

The aircraft landed safely. Mechanics checked the plane and the incident did not delay his departure from the airport to return to Washington.

Humble Pie

Of all the things I love to eat-----and Lord knows that's nearly bout' everything but anchovies-----my words would not rank in the top three. Don't you just hate it when you make some big pronouncement---or worse, a judgement about somebody else's behavior----and then,
bigger'n Dallas, the very next thing you know, there you are, doing the very same thing? And do not think for one minute that nobody will notice or remember your big mouth or talk. They notice and they are gleeful-----which is only right. I would do----and have done----the very same for them on many occasions after all.

So what I'm getting around to here is some words that I my ownself have been forced----albeit happily so----to devour.

Funny thing I've noticed as I've gotten older----which I do a little bit of every day without exception: Every single, solitary thing I have looked down my pug nose at or berated somebody else for doing or been shocked, appalled, and dismayed at the very thought of-----I have lived to do that very thing my very ownself. "Chagrin" seems apropos, and I am chargrined. It's the least I can do. Of late, whenever I catch myself saying, "I would never do" whatever, I gasp in horror and try to quickly take it back or change my words in a futile attempt to trick karma. But it never works. Once I have uttered the fatal "n" word, I am doomed to perform, in spades, the very thing I said "never" to. Sigh....

What do you think?

NY times reports that while campaigning in Alabama, Rudy Giuliani declined to comment on whether or not it was appropriate to fly the Confederate flag over a state building in the south, except to say that it was best left up to the state to decide.

Don't let the screen door hit you in the ass on your way out, Wolfie

The architect of the clusterfuck from hell in Iraq has been asked to step down by the World Bank over the pay scandal in which his "girlfriend" was paid nearly $200,000/year for goddesss only knows what. In addition, the World Bank staffers and the board objected to Paul Wolfowitz' management style as well as his appointment of other neocon Republicans to his inner circle.


More at ThinkProgress. "Don't hate me because I launched the Iraq war."

Hate is such a harsh word. We hate the war, not the comb licker who started it.

Friday's Sex Post from the grave: THE BIG SPACE FUCK - by Kurt Vonnegut

This is just too perfect and TOOOO TIMELY to pass up!

A short story about a rocket ship with eight-hundred pounds of freeze dried jizzum in its nose. Yes, that's right.........JIZZUM

(via Candide's Notebooks)


“What was the dirtiest story I ever wrote?” wrote Kurt Vonnegut in “Palm Sunday,” his 1981 “autobiographical collage.” “Surely ‘The Big Space Fuck,’ the first story of literature to have ‘fuck’ in its title. It was probably the last short story I will ever write. I did it for my friend Harlan Ellison, who printed it in his anthology ‘Again, Dangerous Visions.’” It’s a terrific, and terrifically relevant, story. I found only a fragment of it on the Web. Here’s the story in full as it appeared in “Palm Sunday,” courtesy of the Notebooks’ head clerk, O.C.R.

So here it goes.......

In 1987 it became possible in the United States of America for a young person to sue his parents for the way he had been raised. He could take them to court and make them pay money and even serve jail terms for serious mistakes they made when he was just a helpless little kid. This was not only an effort to achieve justice but to discourage reproduction, since there wasn’t anything much to eat any more. Abortions were free. In fact, any woman who volunteered for one got her choice of a bathroom scale or a table lamp.

In 1989, America staged the Big Space Fuck, which was a serious effort to make sure that human life would continue to exist somewhere in the Universe, since it certainly couldn’t continue much longer on Earth. Everything had turned to shit and beer cans and old automobiles and Clorox bottles. An interesting thing happened in the Hawaiian Islands, where they had been throwing trash down extinct volcanoes for years: a couple of the volcanoes all of a sudden spit it all back up. And so on.

This was a period of great permissiveness in matters of language, so even the President was saying shit and fuck and so on, without anybody’s feeling threatened or taking offense. It was perfectly OK. He called the Space Fuck a Space Fuck and so did everybody else. It was a rocket ship with eight-hundred pounds of freeze dried jizzum in its nose. It was going to fired at the Andromeda Galazy, two-million light years away. The ship was named the Arthur C. Clarke, in honor of a famous space pioneer.



Cum read the rest of the short story here....

Dare I bring this up?

Imus.
Of course he should have been let go by MSNBC. You know I could write 10 pages on it, but I won't.

What good thing I think came out of this whole Imus debacle is that for once, racism and misogyny are being addressed in the main stream media. I am hoping that this opens a huge can of worms.

NC Update

A lot has been happening in my little corner of the world. First of all, Camp Lejeune, the large marine corps base nearby, closed state road 172 to all but military traffic. This is a major commuter route between the beaches that was not even closed after September 11th, 2001. After five years they are now worried about security? It makes no sense. Commuters that now have an additional forty-five minutes added to their drive time, not to mention the cost, are protesting at the gates. There is also a stink attached to the fact that the taxpayers just paid to have a fancy new bridge replace the old drawbridge that crosses the river that links to the base side of State Road 172. The marines are also installing car disablers at all entrances.

Why now? There has never been even the hint of "terrorist" activity around here. Initially it raised questions in my mind as to what could be happening in April that made them feel that they needed more security. Are they going to stir the hornet's nest that is Iran? Or could it have something to do with the brand new, never before in history, Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC). You know these guys. They are the ones that on their very first mission ever responded to an IED in Afghanistan by shooting every thing on a six mile stretch of road and then took the film of a news photographer that happened to be there taking pictures. Because of this the whole unit was sent to Kuwait. Now I ask you, how bad do you have to be to get kicked out of the war?

Another big brou ha-ha concerns the proposed outlying landing field that the navy is proposing to build north of here. (Every branch of the military has a base within two hours of here including CIA airfields and private militias.) The navy has several options on where to place this training field but is determined to build it next to a major migratory bird sanctuary. It has people of all political persuasions uniting in opposition to the proposed placement. The democratic govenor has long supported the opponents. After a weekend on the coast, republican senator Richard Burr has finally come around to opposing it too. No word yet on Elizabeth Dole but I believe that her interests and the interests of the people of North Carolina have never intersected. According to the Navy's own research there is a severe chance of collision for half of the year. The fact that an isolated airstrip will be in close proximity to the iniquitious den of vipers that is Blackwater disturbs me but then I'm funny that way.

On a more personal note, the blood-sucking leeches that are my employer are boasting of doubling their profits while ungenerously granting one-percent raises. I may just have to become a union organizer.

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday....." So it goes"

"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

So many are my favorites.... a perceptive man indeed.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut. Your humanist ways and OH SO WISE words will always be remembered.


Here is the NYT's obit

and here is the WaPo write-up

They both forgot to mention one of his books -- "Hocus Pocus". I also forgot about that book until I read an article that Pierre (Candide's Notebooks) just put up:

Notes from My Bed of Gloom
Why the Joking Had to Stop
Kurt Vonnegut / New York Times, April 22, 1990

"My generalization is happily or unhappily confirmed by scholarship: in a book called ''Punchlines'' by William Keough. The subtitle is ''The Violence of American Humor.'.... Mr Keough persuades me that the most memorable jokes by Americans are responses to the economic and physical violence of this society. ''How often does it seem that the American humorist, having set out daringly and lightly as an amused observer of the American spectacle of violence and corruption, ends up mouthing sardonic fables in a bed of gloom,'' he writes.

So guess what: my next novel, ''Hocus Pocus,'' to be published next September, is a sardonic fable in a bed of gloom. Inevitable. ''Violence, the inspiration of much American humor, outlives it,'' says Mr. Keough. ''When the jokes grow cold, the guns - unfortunately -are still hot.''

(I-man, this sounds like a MUST READ for you)


Hmmm.....maybe some of our other fine MSM folk will mention "Hocus Pocus" over the next few days of mourning? I'll have to dig that one out. Hubby's got them all. I've never read it --

From the The New York Times Book Review Desk: "It's a retrospective first-person narrative told by one Eugene Debs Hartke and purportedly written in prison on scraps of paper, each scrap a thought, story or digression unto itself - a form ideally suited to Mr. Vonnegut's thumbnail essayistic bent and his high-speed forward- and reverse-narrative time travel."

"Hartke is a graduate of West Point and a veteran of the Vietnam War, a thoughtful but not tormented man who killed many human beings on the orders of his Government and dispensed many official lies as an information officer. After leaving Vietnam and the Army he becomes a teacher at Tarkington College in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, a gentle institution that specializes in nurturing the dyslexic and moronic sons and daughters of the ruling class."

"Like Eugene Debs Hartke, Mr. Vonnegut has always been a pessimist - ''a pillar of salt,'' as he describes himself in his novel ''Slaughterhouse-Five.'' Like Lot's wife, he looks back at the carnage. In this case, he also looks forward, somewhat in the manner of another biblical personage, Jeremiah."

"The bitter ironies in his books have always been tempered by a whimsical stoicism, despair averted by glimpses of individual compassion and the mild palliative of ''harmless untruths'' like the pleasantly ditsy religion of Bokononism in ''Cat's Cradle.''

He is a satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, a cynic who wants to believe."

Hmmmmm . . .

One of the interesting things about Gonzo-gate has been the revelation that LOTS of people in King George's Palace don't use their official who.gov email addresses all that frequently. And it's not, as they first led us to believe, because they're Luddites and this whole electronic mail thingy is beyond their capabilities. No, Prince KKKarl and some of the other Bush royalty use email through the Republican National Committee servers, or use their GWB43.com email addresses. It appears to be a fairly straightforward attempt to evade the requirements of the Presidential Records Act, yet another statute that was created post-Watergate to ensure we would never again have the type of criminal government we had under Nixon. (Oops, too late.)

To precisely no one's surprise, it now appears that thousands of those emails may be lost. Accidentally, of course. The Palace Guard already has admitted that many, many of these emails involved government business, not political business. (Of course, in this particular Monarch's reign, government business is political business, and vice versa.) Reps. Waxman and Conyers are not amused, as well they should not be.

These assholes are really amatuers if they believe that any of these communications are really gone for good. I'm no expert on the subject of computer forensics, but I know a little. To really, really wipe something out of a computer system, you have to try pretty danged hard, and you have to ensure that all traces of an email are wiped out in three different places: The sender's computer, the server relaying the email, and the recipient's computer. An "oopsie" usually can be undone; intentional deletion or overwriting invariably leave traces detectable to the forensic examiner.

So, if we find out there's nothing left to find, I guaratee you that means the emails were intentionally wiped. And then we are into spoliation of evidence, which may, under these circumstances, be a felony.

Lies, Damn Lies, and 'Last Throes':

"Bomber strikes at heart of Iraqi Parliament building"
"Violence reached the heart of the Iraqi Government today, when two MPs were killed and many others were hurt in an attack on the canteen of the parliament building in Baghdad.
"Iraqi officials and witnesses said that the explosion occurred on the first floor of Baghdad's convention centre, which houses the Iraqi parliament and sits inside the heavily protected Green Zone and is one of the most secure buildings in the city."
Times Online for the rest.

What's Up With Eggs?

For years, the price of a dozen grade A large eggs at the local Safeway in my corner of The Old Dominion has been $1.19-$1.39 for the past ten years. Now, all of a sudden, and I mean over the course of a couple of weeks, the "regular" price of the same dozen at the same Safeway is $3.09, and the "sale" price is $2.09.

WTF? Anyone have any idea why the price of eggs should go up so precipitously and so quickly? Has anyone else seen this in their own grocery stores? Any other grocery products going through the roof like this?

Inquiring minds want to know.

dropping out of college

CNN Reports: Maryland may drop out of the electoral college.

• Maryland may become the first state to drop out of the electoral college
• President Bush won electoral vote in 2000 even though Gore won popular vote
• Under new law voters give all their electoral votes to whoever wins popular vote
• Law activates only if enough states pass similar laws to total 270 electoral votes

News from the front

Bush is looking for a war czar to oversee both wars in the Middle East. So far 3 generals who were approached to consider the position have said no. WaPo

Think about that for a minute. Is bush not already the "war czar?" The 'commander in chief' IS the head of the whole shebang.

---------


The fiercest battle was fought since the surge in the Baghdad neighborhood of Fadhil with the Iraqi and US Army against Sunni militants and residents of the neighborhood. It started when the Iraqi Army invaded a mosque. NY times

The International Red Cross says that the situation for ordinary Iraqi's is getting worse. BBC

The Oxford Research group: The war in Iraq supports terrorism. Accuses Tony Blair. Independent

Blaming the Democrats

There was so much propaganda, it made my head spin. I'm surprised his nose didn't grow. But here are some excerpts from our leader's speech at the American Legion in Fairfax Virginia yesterday where he blames the Democrats for losing the war:

The United States Senate has come back from its spring recess today. The House will return next week. When it comes to funding our troops, we have no time to waste. It's time for them to get the job done. So I'm inviting congressional leaders from both parties -- both political parties -- to meet with me at the White House next week. At this meeting, the leaders in Congress can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk. We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill: a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal, and without handcuffing our generals on the ground.

I'm hopeful we'll see some results soon from the Congress. I know we have our differences over the best course in Iraq. These differences should not prevent us from getting our troops the funding they need without withdrawal and without giving our commanders flexibility.

The Democrat leaders in -- Democratic leaders in Congress are bent on using a bill that funds our troops to make a political statement about the war. They need to do it quickly and get it to my desk so I can veto it, and then Congress can get down to the business of funding our troops without strings and without further delay. (Applause.)

We are at war. It is irresponsible for the Democraticleadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds they need to succeed. As the national commander of the American Legion, Paul Morin, recently put it, "The men and women of the armed forces in the theater of operations are dependent on this funding to sustain and achieve their military missions. This funding is absolutely critical to their success and individual well being." I thank the commander and the American Legion for their strong support on this issue. You do not make a political statement; you're making a statement about what is necessary for our troops in the field, and I am grateful. (Applause.)

Feh. : Harry Reid responds

"The president is inviting us down to the White House with preconditions," Reid said. "Things are not OK in Iraq. As the Pope said on Easter Sunday, a slaughter is taking place in Iraq. The Pope further said nothing good is coming from Iraq. The president must realize that. He has to deal with Congress. We are an independent branch of this government, and by our Constitution we have equal say that he has. And he's got to listen to us. Because we are speaking for the American people; he isn't."

Reid pointed out that he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to the President on March 28 as the Senate was poised to pass its version of the supplemental asking for frank negotiation on the supplemental.

Back on March 28th, Reid said "Our phones are open, we look forward to working with him, day or night."

Today, Reid said: "He wants to go down there and say, 'I want a clean bill.' That's not negotiating. I mean, I am -- prided myself on being a pretty good lawyer, trial lawyer. I've settled lots and lots of cases. But you never settle a case going in saying, 'You can come and meet with me, but here's what the result's going to be before we meet.' That doesn't work. And the president has to realize it doesn't work in the practice of law, it doesn't work in the business world and it doesn't work in government."

Willy Mason

My new "artist of the week".

He's just too cute I can't stand it!!! I hope the kids listen to him -- and his lyrics. I would definitely turn him up if he came on the radio. He's doing pretty good over at itunes. I just got a couple of his songs. Usually I go for the all around LOUD-sound experience when I say "What a Song!!" Me like to hear and FEEL the bass. But something about this guy and the fact that it's just him and his acoustic guitar make it a "What a Song!!" experience. Oh NO - I'm getting old - kids probably won't like it! Check his cuteness out in this video singing Oxygen Great lyrics, beat, melody and style -- the whole package, IMHO (except for loudness)

If you like that one, you will surely LOVE this one: Save Myself

Break a leg Willy! I'll play you along the way....

Did You Know . . .

that Carl Sagan was a big ole pothead? So says a friend of his daughter:

Kirsten Dunst thinks America would be a better place if people would smoke a little more weed. “I drink moderately, I've tried drugs. I do like weed. I have a different outlook on marijuana than America does[.] My best friend Sasha's dad was Carl Sagan, the astronomer. He was the biggest pot-smoker in the world and he was a genius. I've never been a major smoker, but I think America’s view on weed is ridiculous. I mean — are you kidding me? If everyone smoked weed, the world would be a better place.”

No wonder he saw "billions and billions" of stars every night. I always figured Carl was a way cool guy.

NB: Yes, I was reading the celebrity gossip page at MSNBC. I am so ashamed. I will now go sit in the corner for the remainder of the day.

Calling for Manners in the Blog World?

Have you read about this in the NY Times? Codes of conduct?

"Chief among the recommendations is that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship.

A recent outbreak of antagonism among several prominent bloggers “gives us an opportunity to change the level of expectations that people have about what’s acceptable online,” said Mr. O’Reilly, who posted the preliminary recommendations last week on his company blog (radar.oreilly.com). Mr. Wales then put the proposed guidelines on his company’s site (blogging.wikia.com), and is now soliciting comments in the hope of creating consensus around what constitutes civil behavior online.

Mr. O’Reilly and Mr. Wales talk about creating several sets of guidelines for conduct and seals of approval represented by logos. For example, anonymous writing might be acceptable in one set; in another, it would be discouraged. Under a third set of guidelines, bloggers would pledge to get a second source for any gossip or breaking news they write about.

Bloggers could then pick a set of principles and post the corresponding badge on their page, to indicate to readers what kind of behavior and dialogue they will engage in and tolerate. The whole system would be voluntary, relying on the community to police itself."

I thought that the community does police itself already.

What "Justice" Department?

Talk about US Attorney's serving at the whim of the president. The bushistas have made a mockery of the justice department with Gonzo at the helm. unbelievable. From WaPo:

A half-dozen sitting U.S. attorneys also serve as aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales or are assigned other Washington postings, performing tasks that take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time, according to officials and department records.

Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, for example, has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years -- prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer's office "a mess."

Another U.S. attorney, Michael J. Sullivan of Boston, has been in Washington for the past six months as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

World Bank Love Story Debacle

Paul Wolfowitz' girlfriend, who works at the World Bank now makes close to $200,000/year. She makes more than Condi. He is under fire. And rightfully so. This is what he had to say:

"I have already indicated to the board my intention to cooperate fully in their review of the details of the case," stressed Wolfowitz, who separated from his wife in 2001.

"What remains of the utmost importance to me is the protection of the interests of this institution as a whole, and our need to remain focused on our agenda of helping the world's poor." - raw story

Yeah right. This guy, of all people on the earth, was chosen to clean up corruption in the World Bank's multibillion-dollar lending.

I can't believe that Wolfowitz has a girlfriend. Ewwwwww.

Student Loan Scam

Read at the LA Times what happens when student-loan lenders go unregulated, thanks to the bushistas and their loyalists in congress.

Good News?

Exclusive: Afghanistan's Karzai Says Taliban, Al Qaeda Have Been 'Defeated'

The headline at ABC news looks good... but it's not over yet.

April 9, 2007 — Amid reports that thousands of suicide bombers and insurgents were getting ready to strike in Afghanistan, ABC's Diane Sawyer traveled to the country to talk to its first elected president, Hamid Karzai.

The Taliban and al Qaeda have warned of a spring offensive to be carried out by 6,000 insurgents and 1,000 suicide bombers, saying they will turn Afghanistan into a graveyard.

Karzai, however, said though his country needed more help, the United States had not failed Afghanistan and the Taliban and al Qaeda had been beaten.

"Neither has the U.S. failed, nor the Taliban coming back," he said. "Al Qaeda is defeated."

Karzai called the reports of thousands of suicide bombers a "sign of desperation."

"You kill yourself if you're very disappointed. You have no hope of life," he said. "It's a disgrace. … The majority of them are drug addicts, desperately ill people and those who have no hope of life. Their families are paid some money and said this man is going to die anyway."
...

More Troops Needed
Military experts say that 30,000 American troops are not enough to ensure peace in Afghanistan and that the country needs about 80,000 more American and NATO soldiers. Karzai agreed that Afghanistan could benefit from more force.

"We don't have enough manpower or enough equipment, or air power to respond to certain situations, and I believe we should add that power to the fight in Afghanistan," he said. "That's a military matter that the Ministry of Defense, and somebody should say, 'What else do you need?' But the overall picture I can tell you is that we need more forces and more ability to project force."

It's nice to be a healthcare insurance executive

in a cruelly capitalistic country like the USA.
I have nothing against capitalism, but this is ridiculous.

What if you were under 65 and you got very ill and you had to stop working and you couldn't afford to keep up your COBRA payments on your health insurance? If you own a home, you could sell it and use that money to pay for medical costs and then when you run out of money, maybe you'd qualify for Medicaid. Maybe not.

At his last job, the husband had about $125/week taken out of his pay for medical insurance. It was pretty good coverage but many services were inconvenient which sucked when you were sick. There was a $50 co-pay for almost any drug per month- not so bad when some of your prescriptions would cost $600 out of pocket. The drug co-pays ran us about $300/month. In the new job, the salary deduction for medical insurance is much much lower because a union negotiated for it. The medical coverage is decent, but the pharmacy benefits stink. They only cover 20%. Have you priced drugs lately? Holy cow. Our monthly meds now cost about $800 out of pocket, and that is with one of the doctors giving us samples or the cost would be close to $2000/month. We're not rich. Medical costs are the biggest expenditure we have per month. Without jobs, we'd be up the creek without a paddle. Or dead. It would be nice to be cured and not have to take the drugs, but apparently there is too much money to be made and cures are not profitable.

Meanwhile, big pharm is reaping grotesquely extravagant profits and their CEO's retire with enough to medically insure a whole village. Supposedly our health care in the US is fabulous, but you have to be rich to afford it or have a great job in a great company. Not everyone can work in a great company. Our congress critters get free health care for life. No wonder they don't give a shit about the tax payers.

Missouri Mule pointed out to me something that Elizabeth Edwards forgot to address- how fortunate she is to have great health insurance and lots of money. It doesn't insure that she won't die from breast cancer, but there is a good chance that she will live longer and be there for her family longer. There are other women in America who are just as loved and needed, maybe even more, by their families and friends, but they don't have health insurance or have to quit their jobs and can't afford COBRA and FOOD in the same month. So what happens to them? The family mortgages the house, if they were lucky enough to have one and the matriarch dies anyway. Nice.

Just read this. Profits Soar, Along With U.S. Uninsured

Blogs Against Theocracy

The blogswarm against theocracy this weekend is not just for atheists. It's about sensible people of all faiths or no faith who understand just how thin the line is getting between separation of church and state in our republic. There is a strong danger of fascism rising when religion rears its ugly head in public discourse and influences public policy. One simply has to open a history book to see what could happen here.

Often it's the worst version of a religion that influences a country's public policy. In our country today, a bastardized version of Christianity that flies in the face of Jesus or the Gospels, has been making inroads in our government merely so they can get votes. This version of "christianity" has no compassion and has nothing to do with the Christ of the New Testament. It threatens our very democracy and all we hold dear. It would take away our freedom and turn us into a police state.

The separation of church and state is one of the most important aspects of what it is to be an American. I've never felt that our personal religious beliefs were threatened before in my lifetime, until now. The so-called "christians" that you see on television who've allied themselves with the fascist leaning neo-cons could spark religious wars in this country- and perhaps that is their agenda (the old "divide and conquer"). We must stay alert.

Find out more at First Freedom First. Click on 'Resources' for even more information.

Look what happened to my friend, Ben Heine -- UFB - Piss. Me. Off......

In The Artwork That Ate Israel Ben writes:

"I just want to let the visitors of my Blog know that there was a kind of mediatic storm related to the diary I posted on Daily Kos (*) yesterday.

The DK diary, titled “Zionism was and remains a racist ideology” proposed a brilliant article by Ahlam Akram (read the article below) with 2 of my cartoons (the 2 images exhibited at the top of this post). The diary had a very strong impact on the Daily Kos community and I got in a few hours hundreds of hateful comments by enraged Zionists."......................

Ben just posted this today: No Freedom of Expression at Daily Kos

Daily KOS silences international activist Ben Heine for "antiSemitism"

"Amazing. Watch how it was done. Ben Heine, a respected political cartoonist and well-known international activist was invited to Daily Kos this week. He made two first posts lambasting Bush which were very well received with kudos, high fives and all that: Mom Would Have Spanked George W Bush\'s Butt & Bushisms

At his third post, the drama started........."


Sorry this happened to you Ben.

I never go over to Kos anymore anyway, so -- doesn't surprise me. PISSES me off, but doesn't surprise me.

Whispering Grass........don't tell the trees (Happy Easter ALL!!)

My youngest reminded before bed "Yeah!! the Easter Bunny is coming in the morning!!"

Since I "forgot" to buy those pain in the ass little plastic eggs that I stuff with candy every year and hide all over the house for the easter egg hunt in the morning (she's 13 and won't give up santa or the bunny) I was feeling guilty lying in bed and just got a great idea.

I'll go outside with little baggies of peeps, jelly beans, and chocolate bunnies and hide them in the grass outside. The grass got green overnight -- I CAN't BELIEVE IT!!! SPRING IS HERE!! (I forgot to buy that pain in the ass easter grass too)

I'll leave a note from the "bunny" on the computer screen to play this video I just found. SHE WILL CRACK UP!! It's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and I can tell she thinks the same cause she always plays it in the car on the way to school. We've been listening to this song Whispering Grass - non-stop for about a week now, ever since I found it over at Londonlee's (the best Mp3 blog in the WWW!) The Ink Spots originally did the song in 1940. I'm sure she'll never listen to it again in the same way. Watch the video - you'll see what I mean. It's sung by Windsor Davies (Sgt. Major Williams); and Don Estelle (Gunner 'Lofty' Sugden). They are part of a British comedy show, It Ain't Half Hot Mum from the '70's. "The humour centres on the exploits of a Royal Artillery concert party, and their hapless attempts to boost the morale of troops stationed in colonial India during the Second World War".

All right! Gotta go stuff those baggies and head outside. Where's a post-it....

NOTE: "watch video - go outside -- ask the trees....."

I'll do the Windsor Davies voice from the deck ("hot - hotter -- cold - warm" ) as she scavenges around the back yard looking for breakfast.

Happy Spring (that's our celebration today) to all, and enjoy the season to come... listen and watch in awe, as mother nature works her magic.

Easter Weekend

The pope has written his first book. I detect some irony here.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) ... In the 400-page book, called "Jesus of Nazareth," the Pope offers a modern application of Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan, who stopped to help a man who had been robbed by thieves when others, including a priest, had not.

"The current relevance of the parable is obvious," the Pope writes.

"If we apply it to the dimensions of globalised society today, we see how the populations of Africa have been plundered and sacked and this concerns us intimately," the Pope says in his book, which comes out on April 16, his 80th birthday.

He drew a link between the lifestyle of people in the developed world and the dire conditions of people in Africa.

"We see how our lifestyle, the history that involved us, has stripped them naked and continues to strip them naked," he writes.

The German Pope, who has condemned the effects of colonialism before, said rich countries had also hurt poor countries spiritually by belittling or trying to wipe out their own cultural and spiritual traditions.

"Instead of giving them God, the God close to us in Christ, and welcoming in their traditions all that is precious and great ... we have brought them the cynicism of a world without God, where only power and profit count...," he writes.

The Pope says his comments were valid for other regions apart from Africa."

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

Blonde Easter Weekend Editorial:

The parable of the Good Samaritan.
What it really meant then and what it means now.

Speaking of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, did you know that what made this parable so shocking in its time, was that Samaritans were reviled by the Jews at the time of Jesus. They were looked down upon and were considered "half-breeds" because of their mixed blood and also spiritual half-breeds because their bible only consisted of the Pentateuch. To Jews at that time, only full blooded Jews were considered worthy of being treated as "neighbors" that were worth loving as one's self. Jesus' point in the story is that everyone is to be treated as one's neighbor.

Today, people seem to have lost the point of the 'Good Samaritan' parable and just about anyone can be called a 'Good Samaritan' if they help someone else. That's really beside the point of the parable. If I help my next door neighbor in a crisis, I am not a 'Good Samaritan' unless I am a Hatfield and my neighbor is a McCoy. Being a 'Good Samaritan' means that you overlook your prejudices and biases and reach out to someone else even if that person is your enemy. A good example today would be a Palestinian man helping a wounded Israeli soldier lying by the side of the road or vice versa.

Since stories were passed down through oral tradition at the time of Jesus, often they were delivered in very stark contrast, in black and white terms, to make them memorable. You were not to take the words literally- you were just supposed to get the point. A "Good Samaritan" was an oxymoron and that was why it was remembered.

The lesson to be learned from the "Good Samaritan" is about having compassion- the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. If we are caught up in laws and rules and traditions, people often lose their compassion. Often priests would take biblical traditions literally (the tradition at that time being that your "neighbor" was only your fellow full blooded Jew) and they ended up being quite unkind, un-compassionate, and unforgiving to not only their own people, but especially to those of different cultures and beliefs (kind of like religious leaders today and throughout the history of religion).

Jesus railed against the religious hypocrites as seen in his exhortations against the Pharisees when he challenged them for sticking to tradition over having compassion (and even common sense in many instances). Some examples from the many many passsages relating to this topic:
Matthew 15:1-20
John 8:4-9
Matthew 12:1-14 (my favorite example)

You can understand why they didn't take to his teachings so well and plotted to kill Jesus. (Matthew 12:14)

Jimmy Carter forbidden

Jimmy Carter: “I have known President Bashar al-Assad since he was a college student, and I thought it might be helpful if I went and urged him to support the peace process in the Middle East. But for the only time in my life as a former president, I was ordered by the White House not to go.”

Read the story at Harpers

Nancy Pelosi is still being vilified by the press and the WH, yet nothing has been said about the Republican delegation that went to Syria.

They just seem so happy to be back in the UK

The British Marines and Sailors who returned to the UK from their harrowing ordeal as hostages in Iran were given statements to read to the press.

Here's a snippet of the full statement:

"On arrival at a small naval base, we were blindfolded, stripped of all our kit and led to a room where I declared myself as the officer in charge and was introduced to a local commander.

"Two hours later we were moved to a second location and throughout the night were subjected to random interrogations. The questions were aggressive and the handling rough, but it was no worse than that.

"The following morning we were flown to Tehran and transported to a prison where the atmosphere changed completely. We were blindfolded, our hands were bound and we were forced up against a wall. Throughout our ordeal we faced constant psychological pressure.

"Later we were stripped and then dressed in pyjamas. The next few nights were spent in stone cells, approximately 8ft by 6ft, sleeping on piles of blankets. All of us were kept in isolation.

"We were interrogated most nights, and presented with two options. If we admitted we had strayed, we would be on a plane back to the UK soon. If we didn't we faced up to seven years in prison. We all at one time or another made a conscious decision to make a controlled release of non-operational information.

"We were kept in isolation until the last few nights when we were allowed to gather for a few hours together, in the full glare of Iranian media."

Oh my look how tragically these kids were paraded before the media in Iran.

Here they are back home again. Relaxed and happy to be free again.

Stop this "Loose Cannon"!

Despite the findings of the 9/11 Commission, the Inspector General of DOD, CIA, and other Government Agencies, that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein/Iraq and Al-Qaida, Vice President Cheney, like a "loose cannon" is going around and restating his belief that Iraq had a lot to do with 9/11. President Bush has denied the existence of any such connection on several occasion. I wonder who the V.P. is working for?

I think, this is a most appropriate cause for the US Congress to Censor the Vice President. (talking about "shadow government")
If you agree please write to your Senator/Congressman/Congresswoman, demanding to start procedure to censor the V.P. for misleading the country and the world with untruths.

We've got to stop this loose cannon. He has no shame!

"Take out the Garbage Friday": Monica Goodling resigned from the DOJ effective tomorrow.
Is that the new Karl Rove move to stop her from testifying?
Pres. Bush affirmed earlier that all DOJ personnel will cooperate with the Congressional investigation.
If Monica is a private citizen, she can't be forced to testify against herself taking the fifth.

Somebody better tell the chief tub of guts that we're gonna need a new reason to subjugate the oil-producing countries.

"Solar power breakthrough at Massey"
"New solar cells developed by Massey University don't need direct sunlight to operate and use a patented range of dyes that can be impregnated in roofs, window glass and eventually even clothing to produce power."
(...)
"Researchers at the centre have developed a range of synthetic dyes from simple organic compounds closely related to those found in nature, where light-harvesting pigments are used by plants for photosynthesis."

Article is in the Manawatu Standard. First caught it over at Signs of the Times.

For those who might question my use of the term "chief tub of guts", it's because it's getting difficult to tell who's running the show these days. There's a Reuters article today entitled, "Bush fighting to stay relevant", and I see where Dead-eye Dick is back in the news running off at the mouth about...relativism? The Reuters article has given me an idea for an article the headline for which will be: "Was Bush EVER Relevant"? I would imagine if a reporter asked him if he was relevant, he would answer, "Why sure, that's the symbol of the Republican Party, and I bin a good Republican all my life". At this point, the conversation would deteriorate into confusion, with "good Republican" being such a gross contradiction in terms that a person with an otherwise healthy mind would be reduced to a gibbering idiot. NO! WAIT! The conversation might actually be able to be carried forward. Two gibbering idiots talking each to the other might make sense. At least to themselves.

Cheney Continues to Mislead This Country

Dick Cheney was on Lush Bimbo's show to explain to his misinformed listeners that House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) who refused to use the phrase “global war on terror” exhibited “flawed thinking” and was “dead wrong on this.”

If you scroll down this blog or click to read "We Can Stop Laughing Now", Rumsfeld, Bush and Former Armed Services Committee Chairman Richard Myers (a Republican) all felt that
War on Terror was not a good name for the war on Iraq. So in effect, Dickless was dissing Rummy, Bushie and Myers. Why does he insist that the war on Iraq should be called the GWOT? Read on...

LIAR: Dick also went on to connect the War On Iraq to 9/11:

“There’s no way you can segment out” the war against terror networks, Cheney said, because al Qaeda (through Zarqawi) was “operating in Iraq” before “we ever launched into Iraq.”

Not again. He completely disregards all the evidence, no matter how many times it is revealed. George Bush admitted that there was no connection. It's no wonder that you can't have an intelligent conversation with a so-called "informed" conservative in this country. When will they wake up and see what a load of crap they are fed? For instance, in today's WaPo, it is reported that there is even more proof that Hussein and al-Qaida were NOT connected before the US invasion and occupation of Iraq:

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.

Does the truth phase Cheney? nope.

Meanwhile, Dick and Lush Bimbo went on to call the Democrats who question the legality of the recess appointment of Republican fundraiser and Swiftboater, Sam Fox STALINIST. Two ill informed idiots comparing a democratic inquiry about government accountability, to Stalin. Sam Fox funded a slime attack against veterans, for god's sake. How unamerican can you get? He's a traitor just like Cheney.

Once again, you've got the neocons making up history as they go along. We are damn lucky that there is no one to compare to Stalin in this country at the moment unless you stretch it to consider that sending 12,000 guard troops to Iraq, involuntarily, in the beginning of 2008. Do they know something we don't know? That the surge plan is going to stink and more troops will be needed? Stalin sent millions to their deaths. We're not that bad.

I am so furious today. And I am supposed to spend the day in prayer and reflection and I just can't get past the evil being perpetrated in this country. Where is God? Would the faithful out there please tell me where God is?

Would someone please give Cheney a blowjob so we can impeach him?

UPDATE: I was delighted to see that Cheney's misinformed statements were discussed on the mass media Friday evening.

White Washing Global Warming By Governments

BRUSSELS, Belgium: The Earth faces increased hunger and water shortages in the poorest countries, massive floods and avalanches in Asia and species extinction unless nations adapt to climate change and halt its progress, according to a report approved Friday by an international conference on global warming.

Agreement came after an all-night session during which key sections were deleted from the draft and scientists angrily confronted government negotiators who they feared were watering down their findings.

...

The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised many of the objections to the phrasing, often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.

The final IPCC report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution.

"The poorest of the poor in the world — and this includes poor people in prosperous societies — are going to be the worst hit," said Pachauri. "People who are poor are least able to adapt to climate change."

The report said up to 30 percent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average in the 1980s and 1990s.

The story goes on to explain how the European Union is going to have to try to convince George Bush, at the G8 Summit in June, to join in international efforts to control emissions of fossil fuels.

Bushie's scientists probably told him that global warming will harm poor people the most. Nice 'christian' country he represents, eh?

-------

PROOF that the US is under seige from its very own government mouthpiece- Fox News
From Think Progress:

IS GORE MORE DANGEROUS THAN GLOBAL WARMING?
Today, Fox News’s Your World with Neil Cavuto did a segment devoted to making the case that “Albert Gore is a very dangerous man.” Energy CEO Bob Murray said, “Albert Gore is the shaman of global goofiness, and we’d better not be listening to him.” He added that the “science is [still] out” on global warming. Murray, a major GOP contributor, was one of the members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force.

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

Japanese officials accidentally leak confidential U.S. military documents
while trading porn at work.

TOKYO: Top-secret data on an advanced US military system was leaked because Japanese officers were swapping porn files at work, a newspaper said on Thursday.

Japan is questioning a naval officer on charges he obtained confidential data on the US-developed Aegis combat system, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

But the Yomiuri Shimbun said the data was leaked when the petty officer second class had copied pornographic images, accompanied by the sensitive files, from a colleague's computer and circulated them to a third officer...

Problems Commenting On Blogs

It's been reported that many people are having problems with haloscan comments. This problem started almost a week ago. Norton Internet Security treats attempts to post a comment as an intrusion attempt. No one at haloscan has been kind enough to give a fix for the problem but a few commenters there have offered a suggestion like this:

Go to Personal Firewall on your computer and select "Configure"
Select "Networking" tab.
Select "add" and enter www.haloscan.com as a "trusted site".

I did a google search on the problem and it appears to be a problem with Norton Security. You can try to update your version of Norton Internet Security if you know how. You then still have to add www.haloscan.com as a "trusted site"
I also found some people are saying that they use AVG instead of Norton.

If anyone has figured out how to leave comments on haloscan after you've received the Norton message and javascript support error message, please explain it in the comments on this post.

"Notice to All Sinners" "The Light Is On For You" -- get your ass off the bar stool and into the confessional...

Good morning all!!!

I read the news today, OH BOY!

This appears on the front page of the Hartford Courant this fine Good Friday, I mean "Day of Fasting and Prayer":

For Catholics, A Call To Fess Up
Clergy Urge Flocks To Seek Absolution

Call it a confess-athon.

The Rev. Joseph Looney of St. Margaret's Church in Waterbury is hosting a 12-hour call for confessions today at his parish.

Frustrated with the declining number of Catholics who confess their sins before a priest, Looney advertised a "Notice to All Sinners" in a local newspaper this week.

I wonder why there is such a decline? In Waterbury, no less!! Have you ever driven through Waterbury, CT? I have -- hundreds of times -- going back and forth between New Jersey and Connecticut over the years. You cannot miss the huge cross of steel atop the hill overlooking the city. It can be seen for miles. (Very distracting when driving.) "The joke is that locals grow up believing Christ was electrocuted on the cross. More striking is the large "Hollywood"-style sign that nightly illuminates the words: HOLY-LAND USA. It was a big vacation destination in the 60's and 70's." -- check out the pictures

Looney estimates that confessions are down 90 percent at St. Margaret's, an inner-city parish. About 20 years ago, he said, crowds used to line up for confession on Saturday afternoons before going to Mass and receiving communion on Sunday.

"Now people think they are liberated, that they are all perfect," Looney said.


Gee, can't imagine why there's such a decline (90 percent!) in visits to the confessional at Rev. Looney's church.

Where has all the guilt gone???

Thank GOD I'm an atheist

"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him."
~ Arthur C. Clarke

"Suppose we've chosen the wrong god. Every time we go to church we're just making him madder and madder"
- Homer Simpson's version of Pascal's Wager

THE WAR ON CONSCIOUSNESS - by Paul Levy

About the author, Paul Levy:

In 1981 Paul Levy had a life-changing spiritual awakening, in which he began to
wake up to the dream-like nature of reality. During the first year of his
spiritual emergence, Paul was hospitalized a number of times, and was diagnosed
with having had a severe psychotic break. Much to his surprise, he was told that
he had a chemical imbalance and had manic-depressive (bi-polar) illness, and
would have to live with his illness for the rest of his life. Fortunately, he
was able to quickly extricate himself from the medical and psychiatric
establishment. Little did the doctors realize that he was taking part in some
sort of spiritual awakening/shamanic initiation process, which at times mimicked
psychosis but in actuality was an experience of a far different order. In 1993,
after many years of struggling to contain and integrate his experiences, he
started to teach about what he was realizing. He has been in private practice for over ten years, assisting
others who are spiritually emerging and beginning to wake up to the dreamlike nature of reality. In a dream come true, psychiatrists now consult with him and send him patients. A pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence, Paul is in the new book Saints and Madmen: Psychiatry Opens its Doors to Religion.

Paul has developed a unique and creative vehicle to introduce people to the
dream-like nature of reality that he calls “The Dreaming Up Process,” which is
based on the realization that the same dreaming mind that dreams our dreams at
night is dreaming our life. He teaches this dreaming up process in "Awakening in
the Dream Groups" where people who are awakening to the dream-like nature of
reality come together and collaboratively help each other to wake up in the
dream together.

Deeply steeped in and inspired by the work of C. G. Jung, Paul is an innovator
in the field of dreaming (both night dreams as well as waking dreams). He has had close to forty articles published on consciousness, dreaming and
spirituality, and has lectured about his work at various universities.

A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for over twenty years, he has intimately studied
with some of the greatest masters of Tibet and Burma. A visionary artist, he is
creating an art happening called ?global awakening.? He is currently writing a
book about his work in dreaming.




THE WAR ON CONSCIOUSNESS

We are truly in a war. It is not the war we imagine we are in, which is the way our true adversaries want it. It is not a foreign war against a foreign enemy. It is a war on consciousness, a war on our own minds. The global war on terror that is being fought around the world is an embodied reflection in the material world of a deeper, more fundamental war that is going on in the realm of consciousness itself.

We have the most criminal regime in all of our history wreaking unspeakable horror on the entire planet, while simultaneously waging war on the consciousness of its own citizens - Us. If we aren’t aware of this, we are unwittingly playing into, supporting and complicit in the evil that is being perpetrated in our name.

Whether we call it the illuminati, the global elite, a shadow government, or a secret cabal, there is no doubt that there are darker, self-serving forces that have insinuated themselves into and taken over our government. The terrorists that we should be worried about are domestic terrorists who are actually implementing their agendas from deep within our very system of government itself.

The United States Government itself has become a “front” for the underlying military-industrial-financial crime syndicate that animates it. This is not to say that there aren’t many good, well-meaning people in our government – they are simply prohibited by the very nature of the corrupt system they are in from reforming it. Our system of government is rigged in such a way so that there is no way to transform the system within the system itself...............


Read the entire (long) article here (The British 9/11 Truth Campaign Forum or over at Paul Levy's site - Awakeninginthedream

via American Samizdat, via Corpus Mmothra, via Indigobusiness's "Plundered Third World" post about the Pope's new book. All great sites! (The crack in my cosmic egg is getting bigger -- I'm going madder by the moment -- GOOD TIMES!!!)


When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
~Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Pelosi meets with Syrian president

This story just illustrates what cowards there are in the bush administration and what good there is in having a FEMALE speaker of the house. For the record, I've given up on "balls". I prefer "ovaries of steel." The Bushistas have always refused to talk to their "enemies." Unless you're a defense contractor gearing up for war after war after war, it's an utterly ridiculous foreign policy to only talk to your "friends"- not to mention that we're running low on troops. From the International Herald Tribune

"...Pelosi said that during the meeting with the president she had "expressed concern about Syria's support for Hezbollah and Hamas," and had "expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria."

Reuters reported that Pelosi said she had passed on a message from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel.

"Meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks," Pelosi said, according to Reuters.

"Peace in the Middle East is a high priority. We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations" with Israel, Pelosi said, Reuters reported.

While Pelosi has promoted the benefits of dialogue with Syria, the Bush administration views the country as a state sponsor of terrorism.

At the White House on Tuesday, President Bush criticized Pelosi's visit, saying it sent mixed signals to the Middle East and to President Bashar's government.

"Sending delegations hasn't worked," Bush told reporters. "It's just simply been counterproductive."

Bush is full of it. When did the US send delegations to discuss all this? Did he mean the one that took place last week with the Republicans who visited Assad? The delegation that would not be mentioned? Bush would rather 'isolate Syria economically and politically' than actually talk to them. This way, we could provoke a war with them.

Yay Nancy.

We can stop laughing now

No More "Global War on Terror"

The Military Times reports that the House Armed Services committee is banishing the words, "Global War on Terror" from the 2008 defense budget. The Democrat(ic) Party leadership doesn't like the phrase and believes that "defense policy should be specific about military operations and “avoid using colloquialisms.”"

"Also banned is the phrase the “long war,” which military officials began using last year as a way of acknowledging that military operations against terrorist states and organizations would not be wrapped up in a few years."

Committee staff members are told in the memo to use specific references to specific operations instead of the Bush administration’s catch phrases. The memo, written by Staff Director Erin Conaton, provides examples of acceptable phrases, such as “the war in Iraq,” the “war in Afghanistan, “operations in the Horn of Africa” or “ongoing military operations throughout the world.”

“There was no political intent in doing this,” said a Democratic aide who asked not to be identified. “We were just trying to avoid catch phrases.”

This patriotic American citizen is happy to see that those cutesy phrases will be phased out. This country is not an ad agency. Save the cute stuff for underarm products. I prefer the "Illegal Invasion and Occupation of Iraq" or "The War ON Iraq".

------
Think Progress has more.

The RNC research committee has come up with a document titled: "NO JOKE! DEMS TAKE ROSIE VIEW House Dems Take Policy Advice From Rosie O'Donnell And Ban Use Of "War On Terror""

Pick yourselves up off the floor now. Yes, the Democratic Party takes it's cues from O'Donnell. It's finally out in the open. I feel so much better that the world knows who comes up with talking points for the party. She's funnier than Lush Bimbo.

As per usual, The RNC is completely wrong, off base and terribly stupid. Their research sucks. If anyone in the RNC research committee would have checked, they would have noticed that in fact George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers had all said that the GWOT is not a good name according to research done by Think Progress. I happen to remember when this renaming was a topic of discussion and blogged about it somewhere at Blondesense. George Bush came up with this delectable morsel that rolled off your tongue:

"We actually misnamed the war on terror, it ought to be the struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world.”"

Ah yes, the "TSAIEWDNBIFSWHTUTAAWTTSTCOTFW" I think that's why they went back to GWOT.


PS. From Missouri Mule: Sign the petition to keep Rosie on the Air. KeepRosie.com

Such Lovely People, those Republicans

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) chose fund-raiser Fred Malek as a national finance co-chair for his campaign.

Malek was arrested as a young man for killing, skinning, and barbecuing a dog.

Nixon once asked Malek how many Jews worked in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Think Progress

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

While the congress was out of town, Bushie appointed a Swift Boat funder, Sam Fox, as ambassador to Belgium. He knew that the congress would never appoint him. Furthermore, the legality of the appointment is questioned by Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post.

It can happen there.

France is introducing paper trail-less electronic voting machines and people are concerned. As they should be.

“We have doubts about the reliability of these machines,” Gilles Savary, a spokesman for Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party candidate, said in an interview. “I don’t want to lecture America. But we don’t want France to fall into the same Kafkaesque balloting as happened in the United States.”

Indeed. This is what happened in America. Everyone woke up one morning and realized the similarities between the voting machine debacle and a Kafka novel- we had huge debates though over whether it was Kafkaesqueness of The Trial or The Metamorphosis.

another country gone completely mad

Like it wasn't bad enough that the RAF flabbergasted Top Guns with the suggestion that they perform suicide missions... the Top Guns replied, "After you, sir."

And the British government's faux astonishment at how the Iranian's are parading their hostages on video to the world...










The Telegraph reports: "Channel 4 said today that it was considering delaying a controversial drama about British soldiers abusing Iraqi captives after fears it could harm negotiations to secure the release of navy personnel held in Iran." Gee, ya think?

Kids do the darndest things

Tue Apr 3, 8:52 PM
5th-Graders Accused of Sex in School-
Union Parish, Louisiana

Five fifth-grade students face criminal charges after authorities said four of them had sex in front of other students in an unsupervised classroom and kept a classmate posted as a lookout for teachers.

The students were arrested Tuesday at the Spearsville school in rural north Louisiana, authorities said. Two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year old boy were charged with obscenity, a felony. An 11-year-old boy, the alleged guard, was charged with being an accessory.

"After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore," said Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley. "But this comes pretty close."

Authorities said the incident happened March 27 at the school, which houses students from kindergarten through 12th grade. A high school teacher normally watches the fifth-grade class at the time, but went to an assembly for older students and the class was inadvertently left unattended, Buckley said.

The class, which had around 10 other students, was alone for about 15 minutes, he said.

"When no teacher showed up, the four began to have sex in the classroom with the other elementary students in the classroom with them," he said.

It took a day for authorities to find out about the incident...

At least it wasn't drugs.

I will bet that no one told 5th graders that they weren't allowed to have sex in the classroom. Interesting court case on the horizon.

boo fucking hoo

Bite me

"The US remains “obsessed” with the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and is unlikely to allow Arab investment into sensitive sectors such as airports and ports for years, says Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire Saudi investor." -financial times

Aaargh. This is why the liberals piss me off around here.

Nassau looks at smoke-ban in parks

Oh fer gawd's sake. I have to go outside and take a picture of the smokestacks that loom over the huge county park across the street from me. Many county parks are at the breezy seashore where sand being blown in your face is more common than cigarette smoke which dissipates about a second after you try to blow it in someones face. Seeing fat men wearing Speedo's at seaside county parks cause much more damage to the populace, in my opinion.

They are raising the taxes on cigarettes in Nassau so that a pack will cost $7.00. Oh lookie, they are trying to make us like NYC. They are also talking about banning smoking outside altogether. We have over a million and half people living in a measly 2000 square miles in Nassau County. Can you imagine the air pollution that already exists since almost everyone in the county over 16 drives a car (oh excuse me, an SUV) even if to travel 1 mile? Plus the county is downwind from NYC's boiler room, New Jersey, not to mention 2 airports close by, LaGuardia and JFK. The air pollution is astounding. If it weren't for the ocean breezes, it would be like L.A. here.

This is just the beginning of the police state.

I've been waiting for this

I've been waiting for a state to secede from the union so I could move there.

(I kind of hoped that my state or even my island would do it because I like the beach, but I could definitely could get into the mountains and the dark, dark skies at night in beautiful Vermont.)

Married With Cows

I wanted to be a singer
and sing my own true songs........
They wanted to know my measurements,
was I a redhead or a blonde?
And before you send your tape.....
Send us a great big picture
and for the last five years - your weight.

"We're not signing married women
Their husbands make them quit!"
With years and years of experience
Our investments have to stick!
So I didn't send that picture,
My hair type or my weight
I didn't bother fooling them
I didn't send a tape
For the rules they were describing
I never could kow-tow.....
So I told them,
"I ain't single
I'm married with cows!"

This is the Rosie I like

Rosie O'Donnell will continue to speak out about 9/11 and vows to seek the truth about that horrible day. She is being slammed by the so-called "right" (would make Orwell proud) on blogs, in the newspapers and on television. No, she doesn't need a psychiatrist as the pundits suggest. She's not paranoid and delusional. It's the so-called "right" (and some lefties in denial) that needs their asses/brains examined for willfully turning off their critical thinking when it comes to 9/11. We all watched the same thing, but some people SAW what happened. "May those who have Eyes, See; and those who have Ears, Hear."

Why is greater America afraid to seek the truth about 9/11? Because it hurts. So many Americans blindly believe in the book of Genesis as if it really happened that way. It hurts to think that the world came into being in such a violent way as science suggests. It's in the back of everyone's mind that a terrible world war is on the horizon. They think that it's best for them to believe that this is some sort of pre-rapture event rather than take responsibility for allowing a tiny but powerful number evil people to take over the world.

It hurts like hell to come to grips with 9/11. It's almost as painful as watching that day unfold on the news and wondering what would happen next. Those crumbling towers signified the crumbling of the American dream, which really was a dream, and to this day, there are those, especially employed by the spin machine, whose goal it is to put you back to sleep, back in your prozak induced coma because they are emotionally unequipped to deal with the real tragedy behind 9/11. Tough shit, I say. Wake the hell up.

SIGN THE PETITION TO KEEP ROSIE ON THE AIR. KeepRosie.com

Butthumpboy, Eager to Put His Texas Air National Guard Credentials to Good Use, Tries Desperately to Join the RAF:

Headline: "Fury at RAF Kamikaze plan"

Beginning Text: "RAF Top Guns were stunned last night after being asked to think of being Kamikaze pilots in the war on terror.

"Elite fliers were shocked into silence when a senior RAF chief said they should consider suicide missions as a last resort against terrorist targets."

One of PoLT's high white horse souses alerted him this a.m. that Leutnant Shrub even now is making preparations to make himself available to the RAF in order to help give proper lessons in the aeronautical maneuvers necessary to achieving great success at Kamikaze techniques.

And a note to those of you who have always pooh-poohed the Leutnant's efforts as a member of the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War: Not one bomb was dropped from even one plane on Texas during the entire history of that conflict.

Rest of the article is being carried by both at Signs-of-the-Times and the British SUN.

Know Your Hypocrites

One of them might be yours.



Conservatives who are complaining about the pork in the Iraq spending bill ought to think about last year, reports Think Progress.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “They used this serious effort, what should have been a serious effort to fund the troops as an opportunity…to get pork for various and sordid products back home.”

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS): “So why are we going through this exercise of heaping pork on the backs of our men and women in uniform and trying to put artificial dates which will not occur?”

"Just last year, these same conservatives endorsed a spending bill that included $15 billion in domestic spending, including “$4 billion for farmers, $1.1 billion for Gulf Coast fisheries, and $1 billion in grants to states.”

The bill also included the notorious $700 million Railroad to Nowhere in Mississippi... Fully 18 senators who last week opposed the Iraq spending bill — including Minority Leader McConnell and Minority Whip Lott — voted last year to preserve the Railroad to Nowhere.

Here’s a list of the Senators who (1) voted to kill the Coburn amendment and (2) voted for the pork-filled bill in 2006, but (3) voted against the 2007 Iraq supplemental:

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT)
Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX)
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Sen. John Warner (R-VA)

In other hypocritical news...
Nancy Pelosi on the WH complaints of her trip to Syria.

‘It’s interesting because three of our colleagues, who are all Republicans, were in Syria yesterday and I didn’t hear the White House speaking out about that,’ Pelosi said… ‘I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go,’ said Pelosi, who is to meet Syrian leaders Wednesday. ‘And I think it’s an excellent idea for us to go, as well.’”

In other hypocritical news, Rudolf Guiliani is upset that the media is paying attention to his wife,"Attack me all you want. There's plenty to attack me about. Please do it. But maybe, you know, show a little decency." Didn't he recently suggest that his third wife would attend cabinet meetings? Speaking about wives- Can anyone remember the famous Heinz Ketchup fiasco? It's such a karmic bummer when conservative strategies come back to bite them in the ass.

And lastly, not for nothing, but the British outrage that Iran had the audacity to show pictures of the British captives got me thinking...

The Waste Land. 1922

by T.S. Eliot (1888–1965).
Excerpt
I: The Burial Of The Dead

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

McCain: "American People Are Not Getting The Full Picture Here"

Oh yes they are, Senator.


John McCain takes a leisurely stroll through the streets of Baghdad wearing a bulletproof vest and accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead,” according to NBC News.

McCain said in a press conference in the heavily guarded Green Zone that "Americans just don't see Iraq's gains." McCain claimed to be able to stroll the streets of Baghdad. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) bragged in the conference, “We went to the market and were just really warmly welcomed. I bought five rugs for five bucks. And people were engaging.” Wow. What gains. 5 rugs for 5 bucks. I'm so going to Baghdad. Oppressed people have such bargains.

Uh oh. Spoke too fast:

"Less then 30 minutes after McCain wrapped up, a barrage of half a dozen mortars peppered the boundaries of the Green Zone, where the senators held their press conference. Though he was argumentative, McCain wasn't completely out of touch on Sunday. Admitting "we have a long way to go," the 2008 presidential candidate acknowledged that previous rosy assessments have been inaccurate. "I'm not saying 'mission accomplished,' 'last throes' or 'dead enders.'"
- Checkpoint Baghdad

"The deaths of six American soldiers were announced on Sunday. Two of those died when a roadside bomb exploded southwest of Baghdad just before midnight Saturday. The other four died a few minutes later early Sunday when they responded to the first explosion."
-McClatchy Washington Bureau

In other news...

Heck of a fucking job, Bushie:
"As Al Qaeda rebuilds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden to cement control over the network’s operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

The new leaders rose from within the organization after the death or capture of the operatives that built Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leading to surprise and dismay within United States intelligence agencies about the group’s ability to rebound from an American-led offensive."
Read on

UPDATE: Check it out. Pissed On Politics reports that in order to gain 'street cred' in Baghdad, you want the US Troops to do a faux invasion of your business. Then you are less likely to be targeted by radical insurgents. Wow.

UPDATE: And in nice news, Michael at Eternal Ecstasy pays tribute to his good friend named Liz who is also an artist and musician.

"Exclusive: Bush admits guilt in handling of 9-11"

"President George W. Bush surprised reporters at a White House press conference this afternoon when he admitted that not only had he not done enough to prevent 9/11, but that the real perpetrators were actually members of a US shadow government that had been controlling US politics for over 100 years.

"Mr. Bush, who was speaking from within a human shield made up of large and bulky Secret Service agents, had decided that his Christian convictions made it necessary for him to tell the truth after watching a re-screening of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.

"I am willing to endure the consequences," said a shaken Bush. "The Jews killed our Savior, and Mossad, working with members of my administration, attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

"Mr. Bush also denounced the American media for their sycophantic coverage of post-9/11 events."


Check out the rest of the article at Signs-of-the-Times.

Thought for the day

"How we burned in the prison camps later thinking: What would things have been like if every police operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive? If during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever was at hand? The organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and, not withstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt."

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

hat tip Information Clearinghouse

Got Civilization?

"It's "inexcusable" that those dadgumed Iranians aren't civilized like us."