Dear Friend - It is *imperative* that you read the following page from the White House web site: http://www.whitehouse.org/ask/jesus.asp
Don't delay! Your patriotism is at stake!
Liquid Alert!
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
It ain't yer daddy's Jesus...
David at 42 turned me on to this one. In his words,
Liquid Alert!
Liquid Alert!
Yeah!!!!!
I'm happy to report Mrs. F is out of surgery and doing fine. I should be able to bring her home on Friday. While they did do a complete hysterectomy, they found nothing malignant. Once she heals she'll be good as new. I'm a happy camper.
Thanks to all of my colleagues and commenters who offered prayers and good words. We're both deeply touched.
Have I told you how much I hate driving in Manhattan?
Thanks to all of my colleagues and commenters who offered prayers and good words. We're both deeply touched.
Have I told you how much I hate driving in Manhattan?
Port deal is necessary for war on Iran
Mike Whitney recalls Napoleon's advice in regard to why Bush is pushing so hard for his UAE port deal:
I didn't want him to go to war with Iraq, and I really don't want him to go to war with Iran.
Anything that presents a barrier to another criminal war on behalf of Big Corpora is a good thing. The port deal must not stand.
"If you want to understand the policy of a country, look at the map."
United Arab Emirates is located at the center of an oil-dependent world. This tiny state forms the promontory that juts out into the famed Straits of Hormuz through which 40% of the world's oil passes every day. Across the narrow straights sits Iran, the next victim on the list of "axis of evil" nations. Any attack on Iran will require that military forces quickly deploy to Dubai to forestall the closing of the straits and the subsequent devastation that would occur to world oil supplies and financial markets.
This is the critical point that is being intentionally concealed by America's diversionary media. This is the reason that President Bush continues to force the Dubai port plan even though 70% of the American people and Congress resoundingly oppose it.
As far as we know, however, Ahmadinejad has been straightforward in his claims. The IAEA has consistently found that Iran has fully complied with the terms of the NPT and that there "is no evidence of a nuclear weapons program."
That hasn't stop[ped] Washington, though. The die was cast for war with Iran nearly a decade ago in policy papers drawn up by far-right political ideologues that now control all the levers of foreign policy in the Bush White House.
The hypocrisy of this Bush-backed plan is breathtaking. Bush just finished a trip to India and Pakistan where he effectively declared himself the final arbiter of who will get nuclear technology and fuel and who won't. His actions were a clear affront to the IAEA, the UN, the NPT, and the United States Congress, who is supposed to determine such matters as treaties.
Bush has apparently elected himself the god of all things nuclear.
The NPT is dead.
Will this final assault on international agreements clear the path for war with Iran?
The UAE port deal is just more indication that an attack on Iran is forthcoming. Its location is crucial to the success of any American invasion.
For the Pentagon warlords Dubai has become the strategic epicenter of the global resource war. As peace activist and author Uri Avnery said, "Regimes come and go, rulers rise and fall, ideologies flourish and wither, but geography stands forever. It's geography that decides the basic interest of every state."
All eyes should be focused on Dubai and the tenuous future of the Straits of Hormuz.
I didn't want him to go to war with Iraq, and I really don't want him to go to war with Iran.
Anything that presents a barrier to another criminal war on behalf of Big Corpora is a good thing. The port deal must not stand.
The Solution For South Dakota
The Rude Pundit has a sure-fire plan to get the misogynistic South Dakota Forced Birth law overturned so fast it'll make your head spin. Note: his post contains both bad language and a high sexual content. Win-win! You gotta go read it, but here's the upshot:
That guy's got a pair o' solid brass ones, don't he? I hope it's nice and warm wherever he is.
Over the next few weeks, months even, as periods are missed and crocodile tears are shed (for, indeed, there will be few real regrets), you can pretty much bet that abortion on demand will become the law of the land in South Dakota so fast that it'll seem that yesterday never happened.
That guy's got a pair o' solid brass ones, don't he? I hope it's nice and warm wherever he is.
Monday, March 6, 2006
Spring is almost here: for Mr & Mrs F
Exhausted, I sought
a country inn, but found
the dogwoods in bloom.
Basho
We're thinking of you two. Get the rest you need, have some chicken soup and get ready to enjoy springtime (plant some bulbs for next year)!
(I took a little liberty with Basho, who found wisteria in bloom.)
Family matters
My ass is gonna be scarce around here until the weekend. Unfortunately, during an exam two weeks ago, Mrs. F's doctor found a mass that he didn't like the looks of. Being an Ashkenazi Jew with a family history of cancer (my wife's mom and her grandparents on her mom's side had various flavors), surgery is the only option. She goes in tomorrow morning.
The docs have prepared us for the worst but are hopeful because a C-T scan did not show evidence of metastasis. They'll be doing a biopsy while she's on the table to see if chemotherapy is warranted or not.
While we're naturally concerned, I know she will be in the best place in the world, in the hands of the best doc in the world in the field.
This is a big change for me because it's usually Mrs. F waiting in the hospital for them to put me back together. If all goes well, I'll have her back home for the weekend. Posting will be few and far between because I'll be spending most of my time in Manhattan and frankly, the world can go to Hell for all I care until I know the love of my life is out of danger. I'll let you all know how things went tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.
Gord's got the keys. Behave yourselves until I get back.
See ya's.
The docs have prepared us for the worst but are hopeful because a C-T scan did not show evidence of metastasis. They'll be doing a biopsy while she's on the table to see if chemotherapy is warranted or not.
While we're naturally concerned, I know she will be in the best place in the world, in the hands of the best doc in the world in the field.
This is a big change for me because it's usually Mrs. F waiting in the hospital for them to put me back together. If all goes well, I'll have her back home for the weekend. Posting will be few and far between because I'll be spending most of my time in Manhattan and frankly, the world can go to Hell for all I care until I know the love of my life is out of danger. I'll let you all know how things went tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.
Gord's got the keys. Behave yourselves until I get back.
See ya's.
This day in history
From Geov Parrish
Then again, maybe they were just trying to get part of their country back. I wish they'd try again.
Gee, sumthin' happens nearly every day! Go read.
3/6/1836: Mexican troops defend their country's abolitionist constitution, defeat foreign slaveholders. San Antonio, Texas. Remember the Alamo.
Then again, maybe they were just trying to get part of their country back. I wish they'd try again.
1857: Dred Scott decision by U.S. Supreme Court opens federal territory to slavery and denies citizenship to blacks, ruling that blacks are not entitled to protection under the law. The "unhappy Black Race," wrote Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney in his opinion, had never possessed "rights which the white man was bound to respect."
Gee, sumthin' happens nearly every day! Go read.
The case for impeachment is growing
AlterNet
That may be the legal argument, but this for damn sure is about Bush. And all his merry, evil men.
By all means go read the article. Many links and an interview with the book's author.
Right now, the move for impeachment resembles a sputtering moped. Let's turn it into a fire-breathing Top Fueler.
Until recently, talk of ousting President George W. Bush has proved little more than a distant rumbling. For too long, impeachment has been deemed implausible. It's not going to happen with a Republican Congress, so the argument goes. Not with the president finishing his second term, not while we're at war.
But the distant rumbling is growing louder by the day, creating a resonant echo that is rapidly taking root in public discourse. "Impeach Him," reads the cover of this month's Harper's magazine. And in a public forum in New York City last week, journalists, lawyers, and political figures came together to discuss the case against our president.
n fact, the case for the impeachment of President Bush is arguably the strongest in American history. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) makes this amply clear in its recent book, a concise indictment of President Bush that lays out four clear legal arguments that point to impeachment as a necessary remedy for the gross violation of our Constitution. The Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush covers illegal wiretapping, torture, rendition, detention and the Iraq war. An appendix compares the impeachment proceedings of Andrew Johnson, Nixon and Clinton to the comparatively more powerful case against Bush.
The Articles of Impeachment make clear that this is no longer just about President Bush. Rather, it is about preventing the executive branch from obtaining carte blanche to disregard the two other branches of government. This is a paradigm shift that has already gained substantial footing through this administration's steady erosion of legal precedent.
It is the ultimate case of missing the forest for the trees. Behind this massive body of evidence, behind each new report of this president's transgressions of the law, is the threat of the one and only story that Americans will read for the rest of this presidency, and presidencies to come: The abuse of power, and the destruction of our Constitution.
That may be the legal argument, but this for damn sure is about Bush. And all his merry, evil men.
By all means go read the article. Many links and an interview with the book's author.
Right now, the move for impeachment resembles a sputtering moped. Let's turn it into a fire-breathing Top Fueler.
Priests Purify Shrine After Bush Visit
ABC News International
A Tijuana whorehouse would need spiritual cleansing after a visit from Bush.
The rest of the story:
These people have a strange order to their priorities. Yes, I know the dogs were a mortal insult to Hindu sensibilities, but I hope they saved some pixie dust to rid the joint of Bush's karma as well.
And these are the folks we're giving nuclear assistance to? If I remember right, they have a six-armed deity named Kali who claims to be the "destroyer of worlds".
NEW DELHI Mar 5, 2006 (AP)- Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush. [...]
A Tijuana whorehouse would need spiritual cleansing after a visit from Bush.
The rest of the story:
[...] But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.
These people have a strange order to their priorities. Yes, I know the dogs were a mortal insult to Hindu sensibilities, but I hope they saved some pixie dust to rid the joint of Bush's karma as well.
And these are the folks we're giving nuclear assistance to? If I remember right, they have a six-armed deity named Kali who claims to be the "destroyer of worlds".
Weekly reminder
Ironic Times
Be sure to read all three pages.
Survey: Only One in 1,000 Americans Can Name All Five Rights Guaranteed in 1st Amendment
Those who do are detained, questioned.
Analysis: American Economy Enters New Era
We borrow trillions from other countries to pay their workers low wages to make things our laid-off workers can afford.
Be sure to read all three pages.
On Moussaoui
After a month of jury selection, the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged with a crime in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, is set to begin today in a Virginia courtroom, and Hamilton Peterson, who lost his parents on hijacked United Flight 93, plans to be there.
"Justice must be done," Peterson, of Maryland, says. "There must be accountability."
...
I guess we can hoist a body high and claim victory, or revenge, or justice was achieved but this guy was just the dumbest member of the team. Had he been a little smarter, we wouldn't have caught him either, his DNA smeared on the pavement instead of the Chimp's only PR victory in the 'War on Terra'. All I ask is this, more than 4 years after 9/11; where's Osama?
Blame
I touched on this last night when I quoted Atrios commenting on an Andy Sullivan [I still don't get him, I never understood gay Repukes - Fixer] post. This morning my man Dave over at STF looks at another courageous Repuke, Instashithead [link to Kevin Drum; we don't link to idiots here].
And a comment struck me:
We sure as hell wouldn't have as big a recruiting problem. If blame is passed out, the ones who should take most of it, aside from the Chimp and his minions, are the Chickenhawks. Those who spoke loudest in favor of it, despite their broad-based unwillingness to serve.
All you so-called 'men' who get your kicks watching the military do their stuff, cheerleading from the safety of the sidelines. You're all pathetic, lame excuses for men and the only power you have comes from subjugating your women and arming yourselves to the teeth. If you believed so strongly in this war, you should have dropped everything and signed up. But that isn't your style, is it? You all talk a good line but, like your so-called leader, all you do is talk.
You've had your say and it's helped run this nation down the road to ruin. Now that we're there, I'm gonna make sure no one forgets your parts in it. Men? Not a chance. You're all a bunch of whiny little boys.
And I blame you!
The press had better hope we win this war, because if we don't, a lot of people will blame the media.
And a comment struck me:
But damn it, if the chickenhawks had just gone and fought...we'd have won easily, right?...
We sure as hell wouldn't have as big a recruiting problem. If blame is passed out, the ones who should take most of it, aside from the Chimp and his minions, are the Chickenhawks. Those who spoke loudest in favor of it, despite their broad-based unwillingness to serve.
All you so-called 'men' who get your kicks watching the military do their stuff, cheerleading from the safety of the sidelines. You're all pathetic, lame excuses for men and the only power you have comes from subjugating your women and arming yourselves to the teeth. If you believed so strongly in this war, you should have dropped everything and signed up. But that isn't your style, is it? You all talk a good line but, like your so-called leader, all you do is talk.
You've had your say and it's helped run this nation down the road to ruin. Now that we're there, I'm gonna make sure no one forgets your parts in it. Men? Not a chance. You're all a bunch of whiny little boys.
And I blame you!
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Let's get this straight #2
To all those 'courageous' right wing bloggers and sycophants who are 'supporting the troops/the president/the war', listen to Atrios:
...
Of course by participating in the public discourse one plays a part in something, but typing away from one's basement does not involve "facing down" anything. Not a single person who opposed this war was "cowardly" as it takes no actual courage to send other people off to kill and die. One does not get to bask in the reflected bravery of those who are actually doing what you send them to do. There was nothing courageous about supporting a war which was supported by the US government and almost the entire punditocracy, and aside from helping to stifle debate and demonize people who quite sensibly opposed the war their contribution to their noble cause was precisely zero.
Eating their own
Last week I wrote about Rep. Peter King's stand against the Dubai ports deal. Seems the Chimp is paying him back:
King is in a position to stick it right back to the White House. Let's see if he does it. I love election year politics.
WASHINGTON, March 3 - Representative Peter T. King's prominent opposition to a proposal to allow a Dubai company to take over some terminal operations at American ports may have earned him some punishment from the Bush administration: He has been grounded.
Mr. King, the New York Republican who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, confirmed Friday that a few days after he first threatened legislation to hold up the port deal, the Pentagon informed him that it could not provide an aircraft for his planned March Congressional delegation to Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
...
King is in a position to stick it right back to the White House. Let's see if he does it. I love election year politics.
Thanks to donkey o.d. for the link.
Please don't
At Iddybud:
I like John Edwards, I really do, and so does Mrs. F, but in '08 we need a person with national and international experience. We don't need someone who'll learn it on-the-job. The Chimp has screwed things to Holy Hell and we need someone who knows what they're doing in order to fix it.
I'd like to see him as a VP candidate on a Wesley Clark ticket. Wes Clark has the international connections (Supreme Commander of NATO) and the sechel to put good people in leadership positions where he is weak. We have to rebuild the foundations of this nation before we begin to move forward again.
And just to be clear, I'm not saying Wes Clark will be my choice, but Clark/Edwards does sound appealing.
On today's Meet the Press, former Senator and 2004 VP candidate John Edwards of North Carolina stated that he was considering a run for US President in 2008.
I like John Edwards, I really do, and so does Mrs. F, but in '08 we need a person with national and international experience. We don't need someone who'll learn it on-the-job. The Chimp has screwed things to Holy Hell and we need someone who knows what they're doing in order to fix it.
I'd like to see him as a VP candidate on a Wesley Clark ticket. Wes Clark has the international connections (Supreme Commander of NATO) and the sechel to put good people in leadership positions where he is weak. We have to rebuild the foundations of this nation before we begin to move forward again.
And just to be clear, I'm not saying Wes Clark will be my choice, but Clark/Edwards does sound appealing.
Oscar blogging
I'm with Roger:
I, however, won't be liveblogging. I will be dead sleeping. All I know about the movies this year is just the premise of Brokeback Mountain has given four immature mechanics too much material.
And one more thing. I'm all for any movie that makes the Jesus-freaks crazy.
...
What will make this event even more revolutionary is that I haven't seen a single 2005 movie, either in theaters or on DVD. That's at least two less than TBogg. I am less qualified to have an opinion on 2005 films than anyone on any subject, with the exception of Michelle Malkin on any subject.
...
I, however, won't be liveblogging. I will be dead sleeping. All I know about the movies this year is just the premise of Brokeback Mountain has given four immature mechanics too much material.
And one more thing. I'm all for any movie that makes the Jesus-freaks crazy.
Leaving...
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain are planning to pull all their troops out of Iraq by the spring of 2007, two British newspapers reported in their Sunday editions, quoting unnamed senior defense ministry sources.
The Sunday Telegraph said the planned pull-out followed an acceptance by the two governments that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq was now a large obstacle to securing peace.
...
Stay the course, huh? After wasting hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives, American and Iraqi, and destroying our standing in the world, we're just gonna throw up our hands and say 'oopsie'? I'm sorry, but Bush and Blair are gonna have to pay for this. For crying out loud, Bush 1 knew this would happen 15 years ago (the reason the cry 'on to Baghdad' wasn't heard after we kicked Saddam out of Kuwait) and most of the reality-based folks knew it too. Somebody's gonna have to be held accountable and be 'brought to justice'.
Saturday, March 4, 2006
Standing up
I stole this from Pauly.
What did it take for the man to do this? He has to sleep at night.
Hon. Pete Hoekstra, Chair
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, DC
Dear Congressman Hoekstra:
As a matter of conscience, I am returning the Intelligence Commendation Award medallion given me for "especially commendable service" during my 27-year career in CIA. The issue is torture, which inhabits the same category as rape and slavery - intrinsically evil. I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.
...
The obeisance of CIA directors George Tenet and Porter Goss in heeding illegal White House directives has done irreparable harm to the CIA and the country - not to mention those tortured and killed. That you, as Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, show more deference to the White House than dedication to your oversight responsibilities under the Constitution is another profound disappointment. How can you and your counterpart, Sen. Pat Roberts, turn a blind eye to torture - letting some people get away, literally, with murder - and square that with your conscience?
If German officials who were ordered to do such things in the 1930s had spoken out early and loudly enough, the German people might have been alerted to the atrocities being perpetrated in their name and tried harder to stop them. When my grandchildren ask, "What did you do, Grandpa, to stop the torture," I want to be able to tell them that I tried to honor my oath, taken both as an Army officer and an intelligence officer, to defend the Constitution of the United States - and that I not only spoke out strongly against the torture, but also sought a symbolic way to dissociate myself from it. [my ems]
...
What did it take for the man to do this? He has to sleep at night.
Desperation?
...
It appears that, to close the deal during his visit, Bush directed his negotiators to give in to India's demands that it be allowed to produce unlimited quantities of fissile material and amass as many nuclear weapons as it wants.
...
That's good.
...
But now the criticisms may focus on this question: By enabling India to build an unlimited stockpile of nuclear weapons, would this agreement set off a new Asian arms race?
And here's another question: Were Bush and his aides so eager for some good headlines -- for a change -- that they gave away the store?
...
Ya think?
...
"Last week, during a private meeting with a group of congressional leaders, [undersecretary of state for political affairs R. Nicholas] Burns suggested it was unlikely the sides would be able to quickly bridge significant gaps on the separation plan. But a last-minute decision by Bush to accept India's demands sealed the deal. . . . [my ems]
...
Let's see. I remember all the puckered assholes around here when the U.S. and Soviets were building ICBMs at an astounding rate in the 60s. We're gonna have another arms race, this time in far more unstable places than the U.S. and Soviet Union circa 1968, just to further Republican political goals. Tell me how this will make us safer? Tell me why Chimpy shouldn't be dragged out of the White House in irons right now?
Great thanks to C&L for the link.
NOLA
I've been remiss in not directing you to First Draft and Scout Prime's reports from New Orleans. Go to the bottom of the page and scroll up.
Strong-arming
...
This truly is an unprecedented move: the Senate Majority Leader is threatening to make the Intelligence Committee a political rubber stamp because the White House and the Republican leadership are so terrified that the President's actions won't withstand scrutiny and will be found illegal by the Committee.
Bill Frist is nothing but a cheater, who is trying to rig the Committee -- a majority of whose members WANT to provide oversight and actually DO their jobs. This is the single most craven, pathetic and weak move -- the fact that the interests of the nation would be served by an oversight hearing takes a back-seat to Karl Rove's marching orders that George Bush's authority not be questioned. Ever.
...
FDL.
So when do we go out in the streets? I mean, Frist is saying he is willing to bring this nation one step, a big step, closer to a dictatorship/monarchy. How long will we sit back and do nothing? Will it take the '06 elections stolen? Will it take another terror attack in the U.S.? Or will we just roll over and play dead?
Friday Saturday Cattle Dog Blogging
Princess Shayna says, "those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it."
La Legion Etrangere Americaine?
MM
and Lurch
have been talking about the idea we should create a new military unit(s) made up of non-Americans, the reward being U.S. citizenship at the end of their honorable service a la the French Foreign Legion. Do you think the U.S. should travel down this road?
...
I noticed a new proposal being floated to solve the manpower shortfall...offering expedited citizenship to the undocumented aliens in the country...another "pay for play" scheme.
...
and Lurch
...
I have to admit I gasped when I read this. It's an idea that does have some merit, in a quirky way. I'm sure there are thousands of young men around the world who would leap at the chance for a green card, and eventual citizenship.
...
have been talking about the idea we should create a new military unit(s) made up of non-Americans, the reward being U.S. citizenship at the end of their honorable service a la the French Foreign Legion. Do you think the U.S. should travel down this road?
One down
SAN DIEGO - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham began his first day in prison after being sentenced to eight years and four months for taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes in a corruption scheme unmatched in the annals of Congress.
...
Let's hope we can say this about DeLay and the rest of the Crooked Congressional Republican Club soon.
Thanks to AMERICAblog for the link.
Friday, March 3, 2006
George the Unready
Paul Krugman courtesy of Tennessee Guerilla Women.
And they don't give a shit or think it matters, either.
Iraqi insurgents, hurricanes and low-income Medicare recipients have three things in common. Each has been at the center of a policy disaster. In each case experts warned about the impending disaster. And in each case - well, let's look at what happened.
n short, our country is being run by people who assume that things will turn out the way they want. And if someone warns of problems, they shoot the messenger.
Some commentators speak of the series of disasters now afflicting the Bush administration - there seems to be a new one every week - as if it were just a string of bad luck. But it isn't.
If good luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, bad luck is what happens when lack of preparation meets a challenge. And our leaders, who think they can govern through a mix of wishful thinking and intimidation, are never, ever prepared.
And they don't give a shit or think it matters, either.
More McCain bashing
I think McCain is more of a danger to this nation than the Chimp because he's nothing more than:
...George Bush in sheep's clothing (if said sheep were a bleating old man whose desperation for the presidency is evident in every inch of its wool)...
Stop Fucking Him
...
If your man doesn't understand that if he's entitled to an orgasm, you're entitled to an unoccupied uterus -- stop fucking him. If he can't get it through his thick skull that his fleeting pleasure poses a mortal threat to you -- stop fucking him. No handjobs, no blowjobs, no orgasms for him whatsoever except by his own hand, until you can be completely assured of a baby-free future, at your discretion.
...
Remember: You can hold out longer than they can. I promise. Your sex toys are better,* your self-control is superior, and your stakes are higher. Stop fucking them. You deserve better. You deserve someone who is aware that your body is your domain, and who respects that. If he doesn't respect that, stop fucking him.
...
I've said this to women in the past. Ladies, you have more power than you know and it's right between your legs.
Pay off your credit cards, set off a terror alert
This one grabbed my interest big time, both for its hypocrisy and its ramifications. On the one hand, we have Chweeney telling folks to pay off their credit card debt and save more. Carpetbagger Report:
Not to mention making more money available for this administration to borrow and squander.
And then...if you do pay off your credit cards, like I did last year, this is what can happen :
The full article is at The Providence Journal.
That fuckin' Cheney is talkin' out both sides of his mouth again, or maybe out his neck. Here he is telling folks to try to pay off their credit card debt and save more, even though that's getting harder and harder to do, the way Bush is fuckin' up the economy, and when they manage to do that it sets off alarms at Homeland Security.
If they come to my house to ask me where I got the money to pay off my cards, I think I'll quote The Dick: "Go fuck yourself."
If that doesn't work, maybe a vertical butt stroke'll get my message across.
This is just fuckin' ridiculous.
"The American dream begins with saving money and that should begin on the very first day of work," Cheney told a conference here exploring how to encourage people to boost savings and be better prepared for retirement.
Not to mention making more money available for this administration to borrow and squander.
And Dick "deficits don't matter" Cheney believes he has the credibility to tell Americans they're not saving enough?
And then...if you do pay off your credit cards, like I did last year, this is what can happen :
The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.
And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.
And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs.
They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.
They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.
They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.
The full article is at The Providence Journal.
That fuckin' Cheney is talkin' out both sides of his mouth again, or maybe out his neck. Here he is telling folks to try to pay off their credit card debt and save more, even though that's getting harder and harder to do, the way Bush is fuckin' up the economy, and when they manage to do that it sets off alarms at Homeland Security.
If they come to my house to ask me where I got the money to pay off my cards, I think I'll quote The Dick: "Go fuck yourself."
If that doesn't work, maybe a vertical butt stroke'll get my message across.
This is just fuckin' ridiculous.
Loofah Twofah...
On Bill O'reilly's latest garbage mouth trash at AlterNet:
Also another post at Calling All Wingnuts.
By the way, Olbermann has been doing a hilariously great job of bustin' O'Reilly's balls lately. I've fallen off the couch a buncha times and my sides hurt!
OK, that one was fun. Here's another one about O'Reilly goin' off on Walter Cronkite over the War on Some Drugs:
Not only does O'Reilly not know his ass from a hole in the ground about nearly everything, he's liable to get his ass handed to him by a reality-based 80-something "lefty", "lefty" being defined as anyone with more brains than mouth. One who's still got more credibility in his little finger than O'Reilly could buy with all his ill-gotten money.
I guess that one's fun, too!
Keith Olbermann's unapologetic digs at disingenuous and media personalities is really beginning to wind Bill O'Reilly up. After Olbermann named him the Worst Person in the World for the second night in a row, O'Reilly began a petition to replace Olbermann.
Olbermann responded and the duel is on...
Mike Stark decided to add a bit of gas to the fire by calling O'Reilly and mentioning Olbermann's name...
O'Reilly promptly cut him off and proceeded to tell him that "we have your phone number by the way" and that he should expect a visit to his door from the local authorities so that "you will be held accountable. Believe it."
According to Stark: "It didn't get broadcast - Bill dumped it. This sound comes from the Bill O'Reilly premium membership I just paid for. (I vomited in my mouth as I hit the 'Finalize Order' button). Listen to it [HERE].
Also another post at Calling All Wingnuts.
By the way, Olbermann has been doing a hilariously great job of bustin' O'Reilly's balls lately. I've fallen off the couch a buncha times and my sides hurt!
OK, that one was fun. Here's another one about O'Reilly goin' off on Walter Cronkite over the War on Some Drugs:
Cronkite came up on O'Reilly's radar when he penned a fundraising letter for the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonpartisan group seeking a more humane approach to drug issues. "Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home," Cronkite wrote. "While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its causalities are the wasted lives of our own citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs."
For O'Reilly, attacking drug reform is a favorite pasttime, and he was on Cronkite like a hungry dog on a juicy bone. On the Feb. 24 edition of "The Factor," O'Reilly began by portraying Cronkite as "a very far-left guy" who lives "in the same left-wing precinct" as Bill Moyers and Tom Brokaw. Not to put too fine a point on it, said O'Reilly, Cronkite is "more far-left; he's always been that way, but he masked it."
"Anyway," O'Reilly continued, "he wants to legalize drugs." Actually, Cronkite didn't say that, but for the talk show host it's "truthiness" rather than truth that counts. Worse, said O'Reilly, Cronkite "lied" by saying the war on drugs had not made our streets safer. "That's not true; the war on drugs broke the back of the crack that was out of control in major cities all across the country," O'Reilly claimed.
Not only does O'Reilly not know his ass from a hole in the ground about nearly everything, he's liable to get his ass handed to him by a reality-based 80-something "lefty", "lefty" being defined as anyone with more brains than mouth. One who's still got more credibility in his little finger than O'Reilly could buy with all his ill-gotten money.
I guess that one's fun, too!
More on voting theft in Ohio
From AlterNet:
You bet yer bippy we'll 'stay tuned', buddy. Keep on this.
There's a lot in between the quotes. Go read. There's a lotta Repubs in Ohio need to go to prison with Bush so we can have our country back.
Did 308,000 canceled Ohio voter registrations put Bush back in the White House?
It turns out, we missed more than a few of the dirty tricks Karl Rove, Ken Blackwell and their GOP used to get themselves four more years. In an election won with death by a thousand cuts, some that are still hidden go very deep. Over the next few weeks we will list them as they are verified.
One of them has just surfaced to the staggering tune of 175,000 purged voters in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), the traditional stronghold of the Ohio Democratic Party. An additional 10,000 that registered to vote there for the 2004 election were lost due to "clerical error."
As we reported more than a year ago, some 133,000 voters were purged from the registration rolls in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) and Lucas County (Toledo) between 2000 and 2004. The 105,000 from Cincinnati and 28,000 from Toledo exceeded Bush's official alleged margin of victory -- just under 119,000 votes out of some 5.6 million the Republican Secretary of State. J. Kenneth Blackwell deemed worth counting.
There are more than 80 other Ohio counties where additional pre-November 2004 mass eliminations by GOP-controlled boards of elections may have occurred. Further "anomalies" in the Ohio 2004 vote count continue to surface.
In addition, it seems evident that the Democratic Party will now enter Ohio's 2006 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, and its 2008 presidential contest, with close to a half-million voters having been eliminated from the registration rolls, the vast majority of them from traditional Democratic strongholds, and with serious legislative barriers having been erected against new voter registration drives.
Stay tuned.
You bet yer bippy we'll 'stay tuned', buddy. Keep on this.
There's a lot in between the quotes. Go read. There's a lotta Repubs in Ohio need to go to prison with Bush so we can have our country back.
More on 'brown skinned beauties'
I love it when a big-time blogger like The Rude Pundit expands on an idea from one of my posts:
Where can I get one of those 'rubber udders'? If I stuck it on a bull, I bet I could fool Fixer into...
Naturally, I'm only kidding. I would never do that to Fixer. That's a disclaimer so I don't have to have someone else start my car for me.
Since he was a young man in Midland, the President has had a favorite cow. Indeed, he used to fuck a particularly sassy hereford heifer in the barn on his family property. Young George thought it was love; indeed, love would never be as pure for George, even if sometimes Laura puts on the rubber udders for him to fondle. Jeb found out about it, spying on his brother through a knothole in the old red-painted wood, and, being a particularly enterprising Bush, he started charging the neighbor kids a buck a peek. It's the reason why so many particularly incompetent and/or evil people from Texas seem to have positions of great power in the Bush administration: if a man has watched you fuck a cow, you better treat that man well.
Where can I get one of those 'rubber udders'? If I stuck it on a bull, I bet I could fool Fixer into...
Naturally, I'm only kidding. I would never do that to Fixer. That's a disclaimer so I don't have to have someone else start my car for me.
In the right sidebar next to the above paragraph at the Rude One's are the words "Coulter's Snatch". Click it if you got a strong stomach.
Oh the enormity of it
From the wonderful folks at After School Snack, an encyclopaedia, so to speak:
Below is a list I compiled with the help of Elise and Christopher, regarding Bush related fiascos. If you like it, we all contributed, you don't, blame me. After watching some of the recently released FEMA briefings, I was pissed off. (If you haven't yet, go look at the AP video and see what Bush knows before he says that no one could have seen this coming.) Fuckers!!
...
Time for a new keyboard
...During his surprise visit to Afghanistan, Bush sought to revive the image of a general on the frontline...
A general? Every time I look at Bush, the Mel Brooks line comes back to me:
The King looks like the piss-boy!
Great thanks to Rising Hegemon.
Frustration
I know where David's coming from:
I've thought about this a lot since the '04 elections. My family home in a little town in Germany is a tempting move. Paris also beckons, as does the Alsace, but I'm here for the duration. If it gets too bad we'll leave, but not when there's a chance we can win and restore...not restore because then we'd be going backwards...lead this nation forward into its bright potential future. While my faith in my fellow Americans to do what's right has been severely tested over the past half decade, I still see glimmers of hope, over the past few weeks especially. I'm praying it won't come to, as David puts it:
But if it does, I'm there. Hell, I took an oath to defend the Constitution and I always figured I'd go out in a blaze of glory. Beats dying in your sleep. What did Patrick Henry say? America is worth saving. Liberty or Death, pick one.
...
The outcome of all that - I'm not sure how to say what I'm gonna say, so I guess the best thing is to be blunt - is this:
I am renouncing my country.
The Democrats will not save us in 2008, assuming one gets elected and assuming we'll even have an election. They will not save us even if they take back Congress and the Presidency. Nothing can undo what the Bush administration has wrought on the world in a four-year term. The cure would be so harsh, shocking, and devastating that any politicians who tried would be thrown out of office.
It cannot be be undone.
...
Oh man I was in a bad mood. But not any more, because the upshot of all that angst and anger and gnashing of teeth was this: I've decided to leave the US.
Not now, not this year, but before 2010, sooner if certain things give evidence that escape might be harder, such as any requirement of permission to leave like the Soviet exit visa, freezing of assets or prohibition on international movement of funds, confiscation of gold and personal arms, and the like.
...
I've thought about this a lot since the '04 elections. My family home in a little town in Germany is a tempting move. Paris also beckons, as does the Alsace, but I'm here for the duration. If it gets too bad we'll leave, but not when there's a chance we can win and restore...not restore because then we'd be going backwards...lead this nation forward into its bright potential future. While my faith in my fellow Americans to do what's right has been severely tested over the past half decade, I still see glimmers of hope, over the past few weeks especially. I'm praying it won't come to, as David puts it:
...It will take a peoples' insurrection to save this country. A second American Revolution...
But if it does, I'm there. Hell, I took an oath to defend the Constitution and I always figured I'd go out in a blaze of glory. Beats dying in your sleep. What did Patrick Henry say? America is worth saving. Liberty or Death, pick one.
Thursday, March 2, 2006
Who Dares to Question the Dubai Port Deal?
Joe Conason
I agree. It's only prudent to question an administration that has a penchant for extending 'free trade' to include get-rich-quick deals with the Devil. The Devil usually comes out on top. And we lose.
How fortunate that the opinion pages of our mightiest newspapers are open to diverse viewpoints. We would otherwise miss the opportunity to learn from liberal, conservative and centrist pundits alike that opponents of the Dubai ports deal - which now include about 70 percent of the American public - must be crazed, racist and xenophobic.
Such is the conventional mainstream wisdom, which blesses all trade as "free trade" and venerates corporate globalization as the one truth faith. To question those assumptions, even in the name of national security, is considered a sign of benighted partisanship, economic ignorance or worse.
These pundits don't condescend to engage in serious debate. They gush over Dubai's luxury hotels and skyscrapers, without mentioning the utter absence of democracy, transparency and human rights. They praise the United Arab Emirates for behaving like an ally against Al Qaeda, while ignoring its recent connections with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. They seem to think that if any foreign firm is allowed to operate an American port, then a company that is wholly owned by a foreign dictatorship must be treated the same way.
If none of that makes sense to you, then you're obviously a racist, bigoted, xenophobic protectionist. Remember that for most if not all critics of the Dubai Ports World takeover, the most troubling issue is the Bush administration's casual approach to vetting the deal. The more we learn about this process, the less confidence we have in it. To doubt the competence of this government is neither xenophobic nor racist.
I agree. It's only prudent to question an administration that has a penchant for extending 'free trade' to include get-rich-quick deals with the Devil. The Devil usually comes out on top. And we lose.
Ultimate SciFi Quiz
Got this one via Paul the Spud over at Shakes' Sis:
I posted this because I like the results. I especially like Cowboy Bebop. I'd probably be more like Jet than Spike, but it'd be fun hangin'it out with Faye.
Too bad they didn't have Ghost in the Shell on that quiz, but it's more CyFi than SciFi. Cyber-babe Motoko is always about three drops of ink from bein' nekkid! My character would be Batou.
I return you now to Reality, such as it is.
You scored as Deep Space Nine (Star Trek). You have entered the dark side of the Star Trek universe. The paradise of Earth is far from you and you must survive despite having enemies on all fronts. But you wouldn't have it any other way because you thrive in conflict and will know what needs to be done to take care of those around you. Now if only the Founders would quit trying to take over the galaxy.
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)
100% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)
100% Moya (Farscape)
100% Serenity (Firefly)
100% Enterprise D (Star Trek)
88% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)
88% SG-1 (Stargate)
88% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)
81% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)
75% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
75% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)
75% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)
75%
I posted this because I like the results. I especially like Cowboy Bebop. I'd probably be more like Jet than Spike, but it'd be fun hangin'
Too bad they didn't have Ghost in the Shell on that quiz, but it's more CyFi than SciFi. Cyber-babe Motoko is always about three drops of ink from bein' nekkid! My character would be Batou.
I return you now to Reality, such as it is.
The Worst of Durst
'Tis the season. In the spirit of the Oscars, Will Durst gives out his own awards:
Plenty more. Go read and have fun.
And here at Worst of Durst Comedy Ltd., having never spied a bandwagon we weren't willing to jump on, it is giddy with self congratulation that we settle in for the most serious and consequential of all the awards ceremonies: the Will Durst "Thank God For These Liquid Squeezebags Because I'm a Comic" Awards.
Set yourself down in a comfortable chair and relax folks. We got your back. And be assured, not a single Brokeback Mountain joke in the bunch.
# THE FOR CRUM'S SAKE, COME ON, GIVE HER THE MONEY, SHE SLEPT WITH A 90 YEAR OLD GUY FOR A YEAR AND A HALF AWARD: Anna Nicole Smith.
# THE IF THEY WERE A HORSE, WE'D HAVE TO SHOOT 'EM AWARD: The Democratic Party.
# BEST MAKEUP: Harry Whittington.
Plenty more. Go read and have fun.
Anybody who tells you it couldn't possibly get worse is a fool
Molly Ivins is in a ramblin' mood today in a piece about the cost of Bush's incompetence.
Me 'n Fixer have kinda had our hearts set on warm tropical breezes, scantily clad brown skinned beauties, and big rum drinks with little umbrellas. They'll probably close down Gitmo just before they round us up, and we'll get to spend winter in a camp in North Dakota. That's like a gulag in Siberia without the charm.
Now there's a comforting thought! Gee thanks, Molly. I guess it's a blessing sometimes that Chimpy's head hurts when he reads, unless there's pictures.
Hmmm. Winter in North Dakota might be warmer than I thought, and it's a long way from the rising oceans, but the 'brown skinned beauties' up there are cows! I hope they have milk crates. Or at least milking stools.
And now comes a curious new contract for KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing Immigration and Custom enforcement. It's a contingency contract -- the contingency they have in mind apparently being "in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States." Canadians drowning from global warming? Mexicans feeling the return of PRI? Ah, but the contract also specifies the detention centers are to "support the rapid development of new programs." New programs? Far be it from me to speculate.
The alarmmeisters in the blogosphere, whose imaginations know no bounds, are already positing any number of horrors. (I cannot imagine where they get some of these far-out ideas. From reading the right-wing blogosphere?) What surprises me is that the administration has planned for ... whatever it is it's planning for. How forethoughtful of them to have something in place in case ... a lot of citizens need to be rounded up or something.
Me 'n Fixer have kinda had our hearts set on warm tropical breezes, scantily clad brown skinned beauties, and big rum drinks with little umbrellas. They'll probably close down Gitmo just before they round us up, and we'll get to spend winter in a camp in North Dakota. That's like a gulag in Siberia without the charm.
One of the problems we have here is that in order to fix a mistake, it is first necessary to recognize that you've made one. But we're dealing with George W. Bush. We should be getting ready for three Katrinas next year, but first the administration would have to recognize that global warming is taking place.
One of the most discouraging morsels of news in recent days is that President Bush was so enchanted by Michael Crichton's novel purportedly debunking global warming that he asked Crichton to the White House to chat with him. HELP! Why can't we ever get a break? Think what would happen if the president read the "The Da Vinci Code."
Now there's a comforting thought! Gee thanks, Molly. I guess it's a blessing sometimes that Chimpy's head hurts when he reads, unless there's pictures.
Hmmm. Winter in North Dakota might be warmer than I thought, and it's a long way from the rising oceans, but the 'brown skinned beauties' up there are cows! I hope they have milk crates. Or at least milking stools.
Wow, what a concept!
There's a new website called ReadtheBill.org that proposes Congress should put all new bills on the web at least 72 hours before it goes to the floor for debate to give citizens a chance to read it. Wouldn't hurt for the lawmakers to read 'em before they sign 'em, either.
You can help. Go read.
You can help. Go read.
You are what you eat
And pretty soon you'll glow in the dark:
Watch out for green clouds of shit coming your way, Gord.
...
THIS time they're being paid by the big food and chemical companies to gut the food safety regulations in place now in the individual states. On top of that, they're gutting California's Prop. 65, which requires businesses to warn people when they might be exposed to dangerous chemicals!
...
Watch out for green clouds of shit coming your way, Gord.
Suck my ass
All you spineless Dems who wouldn't stand against Alito. Go see Pam:
Let me ask you. If the South Dakota abortion ban ever gets before SCOTUS, how do you think they're gonna rule? When anything faith-based gets before SCOTUS, how do you think they're gonna rule? Idiots.
Reading this love note from the freshly confirmed Supreme Court Justice to the head of Focus on the Anus gives me visions of Strip Search Sammy Alito knelt before his master Daddy Dobson, ready to do, oh...you get the picture...
Let me ask you. If the South Dakota abortion ban ever gets before SCOTUS, how do you think they're gonna rule? When anything faith-based gets before SCOTUS, how do you think they're gonna rule? Idiots.
Rethug realities
Rep. Peter King (R-Idiot) is thinning down his Kool-Aid with real water. Reelection time is fast approaching and there are certain realities in play when you run on the Rebub ticket in NY. My neighbor Blondie has more on the dipshit's changing stance:
The port deal hits close to home for King, on several levels. His district is a valid target for al-Q, as opposed to his Rethug colleagues from say...Kansas or Wyoming, who probably wouldn't be able to see the mushroom cloud from their office windows, just as they didn't have the Stench of Death blow over their houses from the WTC from September 11th until Thanksgiving.
Peter King, the only republican congressman on Long Island has grown a bit of a conscience and is an outspoken critic of the UAE port deal. I believe he is up for re-election in November and realizes that allying with the bushistas isn't going to play well with his constituents (who mostly voted for John Kerry).
...
The port deal hits close to home for King, on several levels. His district is a valid target for al-Q, as opposed to his Rethug colleagues from say...Kansas or Wyoming, who probably wouldn't be able to see the mushroom cloud from their office windows, just as they didn't have the Stench of Death blow over their houses from the WTC from September 11th until Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
R.I.P. Republican 'Personal Responsibility'
Glenn Greenwald expands on Fixer's post about fixing responsibility for the administration's failure in Iraq.
There's plenty of blame to go around, that's for sure. It is not exactly Bush's strong point to admit his mistakes or take responsibility for his actions, so it comes as no surprise that the people who influenced his decisions are the same way.
For the last couple of years, the tactic of war proponents was to simply deny reality and pretend that the disaster in Iraq was just fiction, nothing more than the invention of an American-hating media. That little tactic isn't working any longer. All but the hardest-core Bush loyalists have abandoned this war long ago. And anyone with eyes can see that our Iraqi project is a disaster - at best, it will achieve nothing in exchange for the incalculable costs our country has endured and will have to pay for a long time to come. At worst, it will ensure the opposite of our goals.
Finally forced to accept the reality of their failure, war proponents have only two choices left: (a) admit their error and accept personal responsibility for their horrendous lack of judgment and foresight, or (b) blame others for their failure while insisting, in the face of a tidal wave of evidence, that they were right all along. Guess which option these Shining Beacons of Personal Responsibility are embracing?
And then we have those self-defenders who will sink a level lower than even the level to which Kristol descended by seeking to blame war opponents for the war's failure. At least Kristol had the intellectual honesty and decency to try to shove the blame onto those who actually influenced the prosecution of the war (the Defense Department and the military). These "blame-the-war-opponent" types are actually trying to blame their own failures on people who control nothing and influenced nothing.
Virtually every prediction the President and his followers made about this war has proven to be false, while virtually every prediction made by war opponents has proven to be true. The President and his followers controlled every part of this war with an iron fist, ignoring anything which their political opponents said and insisting on the right to exert full-scale, undiluted control over it. And now it has failed. And it's everyone's fault except theirs.
There's plenty of blame to go around, that's for sure. It is not exactly Bush's strong point to admit his mistakes or take responsibility for his actions, so it comes as no surprise that the people who influenced his decisions are the same way.
It's our fault
Does Gavin M. find a Repuke who admits failure in Iraq? Sadly, No!
Those damn naysayers...
Following William F. Buckley's concession that the Iraq War is a fucked deal, Jeff 'Protein Wisdom' Goldstein takes up the genius argument that it's critics of the war who are are to blame for anyfailuresunrealized successes of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy. [my em]
...
Those damn naysayers...
"...and you want to let the air out of him and mail him home flat."
Garrison Keillor on impeaching Bush:
Even though GK wasn't referring to him,if I mail Bush's ass home flat, his teeth will come under separate cover.
Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life? The man was lost and then he was found and now he's more lost than ever, plus being blind.
Meanwhile, many Democrats have conceded the very subject of security and positioned themselves as Guardians of Our Forests and Benefactors of Waifs and Owls, neglecting the most basic job of government, which is to defend this country. We might rather be comedians or daddies or tattoo artists or flamenco dancers, but we must attend to first things.
The peaceful lagoon that is the White House is designed for the comfort of a vulnerable man. Perfectly understandable, but not what is needed now. The U.S. Constitution provides a simple ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.
Even though GK wasn't referring to him,if I mail Bush's ass home flat, his teeth will come under separate cover.
Old, used, and wrong
No, not my story about the hooker on Okinawa...never mind. Kreetcha's pissed. And correct by the way.
Portents
I've said it (and quoted him) quite a few times, Frank Zappa was one smart dude. I've been a huge fan since early in the 70s, both of the music and the man. Today Crooks and Liars has a treat for Zappa fans like me. An appearance on Crossfire where:
...Frank argues against censorship and tells Washington Times wingnut John Lofton, to "kiss my ass" in 1986...
He sure needed a lotta commas...
Geov Parrish puts the Dubai port scam in perspective and manages to sum up Bush's record in one sentence while discussing this administration's poll numbers! Amazing.
I think the word 'ordinary' is code for 'just another Bush family and military-industrial corporate war-profiteering scheme'. I think I would have used 'usual' or 'normal'.
So it has come to this. After two stolen elections, a secret energy task force, Enron and assorted other corporate scandals, massive tax cuts for the rich, the largest federal debts and trade deficits in world history, blowing up the ABM treaty, killing stem cell research, laughing off global warming, allowing 9-11 to happen, stonewalling its (and every other) investigation, failing to catch Osama bin Laden, the PATRIOT Act, still-unsolved anthrax attacks, launching a secret prison system, denying due process to both foreigners and Americans, engaging in torture, monitoring Americans' phone calls, e-mails, and faxes without a warrant, launching unprecedented foreign and domestic propaganda campaigns, blurring the line between church and state, trying to overthrow Hugo Chavez, using lies to launch an illegal invasion of Iraq, badly mishandling both the occupation of Iraq and the resulting insurgency, outing Valerie Wilson (and lying about it), grandstanding on Terri Schiavo, pushing through a miserable Medicare prescription drug law, privatizing public lands, trying to privatize Social Security, securing CAFTA, appointing two reactionaries to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Abramoff scandals, and botching Katrina's aftermath as well as its rebuilding, among many, many other things -- after all that -- the tipping points that bring Cheney and Bush to this abysmal public standing are shooting a lawyer and defending an ordinary transnational corporate deal.
I think the word 'ordinary' is code for 'just another Bush family and military-industrial corporate war-profiteering scheme'. I think I would have used 'usual' or 'normal'.
F*%k You South Dakota
Molly Saves the Day is posting some important information that many women may need to know about if the Wingnutters prevail in other states. And I'm all about freedom of information.
Read it all here,if you need this info before Blogger takes it down.
For the women of South Dakota: an abortion manual
I understand that you're probably really angry right now. Maybe you're reading a blog expressing that anger -- the anger that your state thinks it knows better than you what to do with your body. Maybe you're anxiously wondering where the nearest abortion clinic is, now that you will have to leave the state to get to one. If you have a serious medical condition, you might be doubling up on birth control methods, leading to a lot of worry and possibly negative side effects.
But what you need right now isn't the righteous anger the rest of the blogosphere will give you. You need more.
No textbooks or guides existed at that time to help them, and the equipment was hard to find. This is no longer true. For under $2000, any person with the inclination to learn could create a fully functioning abortion setup allowing for both vacuum aspiration and dilation/curettage abortions. If you are careful and diligent, and have a good grasp of a woman's anatomy you will not put anyone's health or life in danger, even if you have not seen one of these procedures performed.
DISCLAIMER: I am posting this as information only. Whether anyone chooses to act upon this information is their own concern. I believe in the free exchange of information and ideas. I believe this information has been kept from women for too long, and there is no reason they should not know about a procedure being performed on their own body, and no reason women should be kept in the dark about how to perform it -- especially if someone they know is having their health jeopardized by this law.
Read it all here,if you need this info before Blogger takes it down.
Stars and Stripes
The GIs have had it:
And of course, they don't really mean it:
Um, dickface? When the GIs see the only purpose they're serving is as targets for any idiot with an AK or RPG, when they see their mates killed and maimed every day and the violence only getting worse, they see what their government thinks of them. That's what their thought processes are all about. Maybe this clown should grab a rifle and head over there. Wonder how long it will be before he wants to come home? Fucking idiot.
WASHINGTON - Seventy-two percent of troops on the ground in Iraq think U.S. military forces should get out of the country within a year, according to a Zogby poll released Tuesday.
The survey of 944 troops, conducted in Iraq between Jan. 18 and Feb. 14, said that only 23 percent of servicemembers thought U.S. forces should stay "as long as they are needed."
Of the 72 percent, 22 percent said troops should leave within the next six months, and 29 percent said they should withdraw "immediately." Twenty-one percent said the U.S. military presence should end within a year; 5 percent weren't sure.
...
And of course, they don't really mean it:
...
But Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute, said troops who say the U.S. should withdraw could be concerned for their own safety, or they could be optimistic about progress so far, or they could simply be opposed to the idea of operations in Iraq.
"You have to pick apart each servicemember's thought process to understand what that means," he said. "I think this is about personal circumstances, and not proof there is a higher rate of troops who desire departure."
...
Um, dickface? When the GIs see the only purpose they're serving is as targets for any idiot with an AK or RPG, when they see their mates killed and maimed every day and the violence only getting worse, they see what their government thinks of them. That's what their thought processes are all about. Maybe this clown should grab a rifle and head over there. Wonder how long it will be before he wants to come home? Fucking idiot.
Simple-minded frat boys
A great rant by the even greater Neil Shakespeare:
'But they tried to kill mah daddy!'
...
But there's no worry in your camp, is there? No remorse over blood spilt in a War of Agression based on lies against a country that had done nothing to you. Your money will still be there in the bank when you're out of office and leave your inhuman mess behind for someone else to clean up, won't it?
...
'But they tried to kill mah daddy!'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)