...
I'm thankful that Bush doesn't have a twin.
...
I'm thankful that no Dennis Hastert sex tape has surfaced on the web.
...
I'm glad that Scooter Libby's name is "Scooter Libby." It will make him so much more popular in prison.
...
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Things to be thankful for
Ed Naha at Smirking Chimp:
What's in yer Socks?
The Pensito Review via Pam:
Only in Bush's America.
GOP Investigated Pres. Clinton's Cat But Only Plans 'Oversight' on Pres. Bush's Admitted Illegal Spying
Only in Bush's America.
The mission
I was reading this post at Main and Central and it got me thinking. Lurch nabbed part of a post from an active duty vet serving in Iraq:
It got me thinking about my motivations when I was in. Yes, I've seen combat, not the prolonged mess that was Vietnam and is Iraq but the short, intense skirmishes when the military is called upon to act in peacetime. Firefights with drug dealers and processors, coming under fire when inserting and extracting 'covert operatives' from hostile nations (still classified...probably; gotta check on that so I can tell you some stories), and of course the conflict in Grenada. In my case, we got to go home after the job was done. Not all of us, mind you. I lost a 6 mates during my 4 years with AFSOCOM (the old 23rd Air Force), but in general, after the mission, we got to go home to our loved ones until the next mission. And it's the mission that got me thinking. Actually, thinking about what I was thinking at the time.
The reason I volunteered (for SOCOM, not my initial enlistment; I enlisted in the Air Force to keep my ass out of jail) was for adventure and travel to strange exotic lands, and to sleep with strange exotic women. I was 17 and my brain was located somewhere south of my waist, but I digress. It's where I realized I was an adrenaline junkie; nothing beats jumping out of a C-130 from an altitude higher than Mt. Everest in the middle of the night and going more than half the distance before opening your chute. Nothing beats jumping out of a Blackhawk less than 50 ft. over the Gulf of Mexico, swimming miles to some dinky island, and then calling in an airstrike on some drug lord's secret shipping facility, and then blowing up and killing what the Navy pukes didn't get. Nothing beats extracting a 'covert operative' (who gave the signal he was in the clear) in a Communist country and then being opened up on by Soviet infantry just as the chopper flared for a landing. Yes, seriously, that's what I lived for when I was young. That and knowing there would be a woman and a bar waiting for me when I got back.
Did I ever think about the 'Big Picture'? No. Did I ever think, when we went to Grenada, that Reagan was doing it for political reasons, or any other reason than what we were told? No. It was the mission, period. I never paid any notice to the rightness or the wrongness of it. Orders came down, we trained up for the mission, accomplished it, and came home. On to the next. The thought of whether we were 'right' to do what we did never crossed my mind when I was in. The operative word, again, was home. Had I taken part in a protracted conflict, maybe I would have thought more about the morality of what I'd been told to do. I had to deal with the morality later on, and continue to do so.
I think about what these guys have had to do, under the stress of prolonged, repeated deployments [Note: My longest deployment or TDY was 90 days.], and wonder what I would do. Would I open my mouth? Would I complain about the injustice done, once the reason for the mission began to change? Would I have the chance to question right from wrong while dodging bullets?
When I was in, I knew what I was doing was right. There was the Soviet menace and my job to protect democracy from it. Black vs. White. Night vs. Day. Then. It's gotten a bit wide and gray over the years, with hindsight, hence the reason the young boy whose throat I cut when he discovered my hidey hole returns to me so often in my dreams. It wasn't black and white then and it certainly isn't now. There are guys coming back who've had to do far worse in a war, like Vietnam, with little justification from their leaders. You can kill to defend your way of life, as long as you can square it with yourself. When you begin to debate the 'rightness' of what you're doing, as you're doing it, your psyche can't help but suffer. Killing someone who would kill you is one thing. Killing someone who did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time is something else to reconcile. I have doubts about those who can. It makes me wonder about bomber pilots.
This war is ruining a whole generation of young men and women to enrich people who give not a damn about them. It is illegal and immoral and anyone who supports it is devoid of any 'moral values' they claim to have. I wish I could let them share my dreams...just once.
...
Some law student emailed me while back with some questions, and after it was all said and done she told me she supported the troops. And I know a lot of people share that sentiment and it's all really warm and fuzzy and whatnot, but honestly, I just rather you run out, sign up and catch the early-bird charter to Kuwait and get your ass over here ASAP so one of us can go home. Maybe we can arrange something, you know, by ones and twos and so on, pretty sure we could get all us over-extended types outta here in no time.
...
It got me thinking about my motivations when I was in. Yes, I've seen combat, not the prolonged mess that was Vietnam and is Iraq but the short, intense skirmishes when the military is called upon to act in peacetime. Firefights with drug dealers and processors, coming under fire when inserting and extracting 'covert operatives' from hostile nations (still classified...probably; gotta check on that so I can tell you some stories), and of course the conflict in Grenada. In my case, we got to go home after the job was done. Not all of us, mind you. I lost a 6 mates during my 4 years with AFSOCOM (the old 23rd Air Force), but in general, after the mission, we got to go home to our loved ones until the next mission. And it's the mission that got me thinking. Actually, thinking about what I was thinking at the time.
The reason I volunteered (for SOCOM, not my initial enlistment; I enlisted in the Air Force to keep my ass out of jail) was for adventure and travel to strange exotic lands, and to sleep with strange exotic women. I was 17 and my brain was located somewhere south of my waist, but I digress. It's where I realized I was an adrenaline junkie; nothing beats jumping out of a C-130 from an altitude higher than Mt. Everest in the middle of the night and going more than half the distance before opening your chute. Nothing beats jumping out of a Blackhawk less than 50 ft. over the Gulf of Mexico, swimming miles to some dinky island, and then calling in an airstrike on some drug lord's secret shipping facility, and then blowing up and killing what the Navy pukes didn't get. Nothing beats extracting a 'covert operative' (who gave the signal he was in the clear) in a Communist country and then being opened up on by Soviet infantry just as the chopper flared for a landing. Yes, seriously, that's what I lived for when I was young. That and knowing there would be a woman and a bar waiting for me when I got back.
Did I ever think about the 'Big Picture'? No. Did I ever think, when we went to Grenada, that Reagan was doing it for political reasons, or any other reason than what we were told? No. It was the mission, period. I never paid any notice to the rightness or the wrongness of it. Orders came down, we trained up for the mission, accomplished it, and came home. On to the next. The thought of whether we were 'right' to do what we did never crossed my mind when I was in. The operative word, again, was home. Had I taken part in a protracted conflict, maybe I would have thought more about the morality of what I'd been told to do. I had to deal with the morality later on, and continue to do so.
I think about what these guys have had to do, under the stress of prolonged, repeated deployments [Note: My longest deployment or TDY was 90 days.], and wonder what I would do. Would I open my mouth? Would I complain about the injustice done, once the reason for the mission began to change? Would I have the chance to question right from wrong while dodging bullets?
When I was in, I knew what I was doing was right. There was the Soviet menace and my job to protect democracy from it. Black vs. White. Night vs. Day. Then. It's gotten a bit wide and gray over the years, with hindsight, hence the reason the young boy whose throat I cut when he discovered my hidey hole returns to me so often in my dreams. It wasn't black and white then and it certainly isn't now. There are guys coming back who've had to do far worse in a war, like Vietnam, with little justification from their leaders. You can kill to defend your way of life, as long as you can square it with yourself. When you begin to debate the 'rightness' of what you're doing, as you're doing it, your psyche can't help but suffer. Killing someone who would kill you is one thing. Killing someone who did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time is something else to reconcile. I have doubts about those who can. It makes me wonder about bomber pilots.
This war is ruining a whole generation of young men and women to enrich people who give not a damn about them. It is illegal and immoral and anyone who supports it is devoid of any 'moral values' they claim to have. I wish I could let them share my dreams...just once.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Debunkitude
Media Matters debunks the Repub talking points about the spy scandal. A good read.
Thanks to John at STF.
Down the road
Don't think we're well on our way toward a Fascist state? Think again.
Great thanks to the lovely Pam.
Your tax dollars at work
ReddHedd:
Nothing like a well-funded propaganda campaign. Any time the DNC wants to send us money to do what we do, lemmie know. We'll arrange a direct deposit thing. Yeesh.
Shorter WaPo: The US Government is willing to pay just about anyone -- Iraqi news stations, right-thinking bloggers, whatever -- to get out the message that they want you to hear. Your tax dollars at work, in a mass-e-mail campaign or newscast or blogwhore near you.
...
Nothing like a well-funded propaganda campaign. Any time the DNC wants to send us money to do what we do, lemmie know. We'll arrange a direct deposit thing. Yeesh.
Boycotting into oblivion
Mercury has a list of companies who do business with gays and lesbians whom James Dobson wants his Focus on the Fetus wingnuts to boycott. From the looks of the list, they won't be doing business with anyone.
Up is Down
Call me naive but we're not living in the America I know either.
Excellent article via Mustang Bobby.
One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.
...
That's no America I know, I would have argued. We're too strong, and we've been through too much, to be led down such a twisted path.
What is there to say now?
...
I evidently have a lot poorer insight regarding America's character than I once believed, because I would have expected such actions to provoke -- speaking metaphorically now -- mobs with pitchforks and torches at the White House gate. I would have expected proud defiance of anyone who would suggest that a mere terrorist threat could send this country into spasms of despair and fright so profound that we'd follow a leader who considers the law a nuisance and perfidy a privilege.
Never would I have expected this nation -- which emerged stronger from a civil war and a civil rights movement, won two world wars, endured the Depression, recovered from a disastrous campaign in Southeast Asia and still managed to lead the world in the principles of liberty -- would cower behind anyone just for promising to "protect us."
...
Excellent article via Mustang Bobby.
A GOP Christmas
Yes, the War on Christmas goes on...or at least the War on Christmas Spirit. I can only ask, what would Jesus think?
Instead of incessantly yelling 'Christmas, Christmas, Christmas', maybe we should remember the spirit of Christ's teachings instead of bandying his name about in false piousness. I'm about sick and tired of folks who demand others say 'Merry Christmas', yet are the same ones who support the war in Iraq and all the crimes associated with it. I don't remember Jesus teaching 'Peace on Earth and goodwill toward white Protestants'. It's about time you people began to live your faith.
Like my grandmother always said, 'actions speak far louder than words'. My Jewish wife is far more 'christian' than most of you who claim to be.
...
The government's home heating supplement now stands at a half or less of what the poor will need if predictions of a harsh winter pan out and fuel bills increase 25 percent. Various studies have established that, in a pinch, the poor scrimp on food purchases in order to meet heating bills. Yet Congress's stinginess is being compounded by the administration's recent decision to reject a request from New York and several other states to increase food stamp outlays to the poor as fuel bills mount.
...
Instead of incessantly yelling 'Christmas, Christmas, Christmas', maybe we should remember the spirit of Christ's teachings instead of bandying his name about in false piousness. I'm about sick and tired of folks who demand others say 'Merry Christmas', yet are the same ones who support the war in Iraq and all the crimes associated with it. I don't remember Jesus teaching 'Peace on Earth and goodwill toward white Protestants'. It's about time you people began to live your faith.
Like my grandmother always said, 'actions speak far louder than words'. My Jewish wife is far more 'christian' than most of you who claim to be.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas in Iraq
...
Noor, whose name means light in Arabic, was born with a severe form of spina bifida. Iraqi doctors lack the resources to treat her. They sent her family home, telling them the baby had 45 days at most to live. Barring a miracle, the light in their lives would go out.
Noor beat the odds and will be 3 months old Friday. Her time, though, is running out. No one is sure how long she will live in her condition.
But Noor's family might get the miracle they have dreamed of, thanks to soldiers from the 48th Brigade Combat Team's 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment.
...
But in the trash-strewn, sewage-infested slums of impoverished Abu Ghraib, few children receive basic medical attention such as vaccinations, much less the kind of intensive care Noor needs.
Morgan took a military doctor to visit Noor, called Baby Nora by the soldiers. The doctor determined that she was born with spina bifida, an open spine. In the early stages of her mother's pregnancy, Noor's spinal cord did not fully close, leaving a gap where a cyst-like growth the size of a baseball now sits on Noor's back.
...
Morgan said the Marriott hotel group was willing to donate living space for the girl and an accompanying relative. Delta Air Lines has agreed to fly the child and one relative from Kuwait to Atlanta through its charitable Sky Wish program.
And Childspring International, an Atlanta nonprofit that matches sick children from other countries with doctors in the United States, is working with Children's Healthcare to arrange Noor's medical care.
"We will work as hard as we can to make it happen," said Rose Emily, executive director of Childspring. "I look forward to going to the airport and picking up this little girl."
...
A lot of good does happen in Iraq, but we have been a cause of much of the bad. This girl probably would have gotten the medical care she needed in Iraq before we destroyed much of the infrastructure and brought chaos down upon them. Let's hope we hear more good news (not contrived propaganda but real stories of progress). We owe them as much normalcy as possible before we bug out - you know we will, Rummy's already making noises and election season starts in a couple weeks.
On this day...
Whether you celebrate the birth of the progenitor of the God of your choice, rejoice at the return of the life-giving Sun, dance around an evergreen tree deep in the forest, drink brandy while watching children eschew the fruits of capitalism in favor of playing with the boxes they came in, shine the whole thing on, or do whatever it is the Hebrews do, please express a desire for Peace on Earth and Goodwill amongst Men.
A short prayer, plea, or forlorn longing for a sense of Truth and Justice on the part of the world's powermongers wouldn't be out of line either. Maniacal laughter is optional, but what you do at Grandma's dinner table is none of my business.
Merry Christmas, folks.
A short prayer, plea, or forlorn longing for a sense of Truth and Justice on the part of the world's powermongers wouldn't be out of line either. Maniacal laughter is optional, but what you do at Grandma's dinner table is none of my business.
Merry Christmas, folks.
Ted Koppel is an idiot
"The only difference between Clinton and Bush is 9/11. If it would have happened on Clinton's watch, we'd be in Iraq now too." ~ Ted 'Helmet Head' Koppel on Timmy's.
You've got to be fucking kidding me.
[Correction: PSoTD has the exact quote and the transcript. I was working from memory and there is no change in context.]
Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah
Got home in the wee hours last night. Fat. Dumb. Happy.
All the best to you and yours.
All the best to you and yours.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Can ya spare a copy?
...
Turns out the truth is no stranger than fiction.
We think it's time for Congress to heed the warning of George Orwell.
To that end, The Oakland Tribune, a sister paper of The Argus, is asking for your help: Mail them or drop off your tattered copies of "1984." When they get 537 of them, they'll send them off to every member of the House of Representatives and Senate, and to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, as well.
Feel free to inscribe the book with a note, reminding these fine people that we Americans take the threat to our liberties seriously. Remind Congress that it makes no sense to fight a war for democracy in a foreign land while allowing our democratic principles to erode at home.
...
A barrel to drop your books into is in the Tribune Tower lobby, 401 13th St., Oakland. Books may be mailed to the same address. Doors are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Oakland Tribune]
I'm digging around for my paperback version tomorrow to mail it off Tuesday. I'll be around tomorrow but I'm done for the day unless some shit hits the fan. Time to go eat, drink, and be merry.
Thanks to Jillian.
They've used it up
The carefully crafted plan for domination of the world (and its oil resources) is coming apart. Now that I look at it, it was a one shot deal. It was built so well, the gift of 9/11 to the Chimp was the icing on the cake, or the plan would never have come off the ground, maybe not have even been attempted. But they had no contingency for failure. They didn't anticipate it, couldn't allow themselves to even consider failure, and thus never planned for it.
It was years in the making, over a decade at least, since the first Gulf War. Were it not for the first Bush's failure (on election day, not in Iraq), the plan would have been implemented before the turn of the century. Iraq would have been revisited after Bush 1's second term, for that was when Bush 2 was to take the throne. Clinton killed that, and the Chimp would not have been elected in '00 had he lost to an incumbent Clinton in '96. It is perfectly clear...now.
So there was this plan, where we could get to Baghdad in a couple weeks, maybe less, complete and total victory over Saddam's decimated army (remember Gulf 1?), and control of the 2nd largest (maybe the largest if some experts are to be believed) oil reserves. Two...three weeks to control of the world's most lucrative commodity. Of course we would be victorious, because we would have been victorious in Gulf 1 had only Bush 1 been resolute enough, not blinked when it came to overthrowing the oil-rich tyrant. We knew better this time, knew what to do, knew we would be welcomed as liberators (Chalabi told us so), and the oil would be ours (or at least in control of one of our puppets).
And then came September 11th and they knew they could not fail. Even liberals stood with the President, and they knew they had the power they needed. They had the Press, for none would question the 'war Presdent', and the sycophants and hangers-on came out of the woodwork to join the cause. They played the game well, playing to the far right base to create a diversion in the form of 'culture skirmishes' over everything from Intelligent Design to the Ten Commandments to the Confederate Flag. It allowed them to continue the game long after it had been played out. Had it not been for media manipulation since 9/11, Bush would never have won a second term. It was a masterful exercise, but it was designed for the 20th Century and it failed miserably. The game is over and it's just a matter of how the mess is cleaned up.
I believe it because of this from Matt Taibbi:
There was no plan for failure and they don't know how to deal with it. They fall back to what has given them success in the past. But this is why I say it was a plan for the last century. They didn't understand the nature of the Internet and didn't plan for it.
Oh yes, they know it is an excellent avenue to disseminate propaganda to the masses via Assrocket, Goldberg, World Nut Daily, and others, but they didn't count on our side being able to do research. Just as they didn't expect resistance from the Iraqis, they didn't plan for it from us (and I mean everyone opposed to what the Republican Party has done to this nation), or at least our pushback was stronger than expected. In their arrogance, they believed they could control information so completely their propaganda could never be fact-checked, never be called on their transgressions, their failures.
I think they realized it not long after the insurgency began in Iraq, not long after the Chimp's 'Mission Accomplished' moment, that victory would not come as easily as they'd planned. I believe it was a turning point, when 'Homeland Security' morphed into 'Republican Security', when they knew the plan would no longer sustain itself. It was the 'whatever it takes' moment, because they knew the plan was done.
We're at the stage of desperation, the most worrisome because a cornered, wounded animal is at its most dangerous. The 'MSM' is already using the I-word, scandal after scandal has hit the Republicans since the Downing Street Memos were exposed, and now the evidence that the vast intelligence machine of the U.S. government has been turned against Americans...American citizens. The plan is dying.
Yes, they might continue in office for another 2 1/2 years, for the apathetic, the compromised, the disenchanted, and the stupid will continue in their previous roles and the Republican Party is still powerful. They might still be successful for I doubt there is any low they would not stoop to in order to win, and that's what troubles me. I feel there might be a time when they believe they have nothing left to lose and openly attempt to create a dictatorship in this nation, a coup d'Constitution if you will. They will have to at some point for we know that at the end of this, the Republican Party will be more severely crippled than they were after Watergate.
Yes, folks, this is the end of the 'Grand Plan'. It has been exposed in all its insidious glory. There is no need for them to lie anymore, it is plain for all (save the stupid and sycophantic, for the insiders know exactly what's going on) to see. It's up to those left in government with ethics and principle to drive a stake through the heart of the Republicans' disaster. It must be done now. I beg you to remember this: If they can turn the intelligence community inward, they can certainly do the same with the military. Put nothing past desperate men.
We are entering a very dangerous time.
Thanks to the lovely Jane for the Matt Taibbi link (which you should read in its entirety).
It was years in the making, over a decade at least, since the first Gulf War. Were it not for the first Bush's failure (on election day, not in Iraq), the plan would have been implemented before the turn of the century. Iraq would have been revisited after Bush 1's second term, for that was when Bush 2 was to take the throne. Clinton killed that, and the Chimp would not have been elected in '00 had he lost to an incumbent Clinton in '96. It is perfectly clear...now.
So there was this plan, where we could get to Baghdad in a couple weeks, maybe less, complete and total victory over Saddam's decimated army (remember Gulf 1?), and control of the 2nd largest (maybe the largest if some experts are to be believed) oil reserves. Two...three weeks to control of the world's most lucrative commodity. Of course we would be victorious, because we would have been victorious in Gulf 1 had only Bush 1 been resolute enough, not blinked when it came to overthrowing the oil-rich tyrant. We knew better this time, knew what to do, knew we would be welcomed as liberators (Chalabi told us so), and the oil would be ours (or at least in control of one of our puppets).
And then came September 11th and they knew they could not fail. Even liberals stood with the President, and they knew they had the power they needed. They had the Press, for none would question the 'war Presdent', and the sycophants and hangers-on came out of the woodwork to join the cause. They played the game well, playing to the far right base to create a diversion in the form of 'culture skirmishes' over everything from Intelligent Design to the Ten Commandments to the Confederate Flag. It allowed them to continue the game long after it had been played out. Had it not been for media manipulation since 9/11, Bush would never have won a second term. It was a masterful exercise, but it was designed for the 20th Century and it failed miserably. The game is over and it's just a matter of how the mess is cleaned up.
I believe it because of this from Matt Taibbi:
...
Up until now this president's solution to everything has been to stare into the cameras, lie and keep on lying until such time as the political problem disappears. And now, unable to comprehend that while political crises may wilt in the face of such tactics, real crises do not, he and his team are responding to this first serious feet-to-the-fire Iraq emergency in the same way they always have -- with a fusillade of silly, easily disprovable bullshit. Bush and his mouthpieces continue to try to obfuscate and cloud the issue of why we're in Iraq, and they do so not only selectively but constantly, compulsively, like mental patients who can't stop jacking off in public. They don't know the difference between a real problem and a political problem, because to them, there is no difference. What could possibly be worse than bad poll numbers?
...
There was no plan for failure and they don't know how to deal with it. They fall back to what has given them success in the past. But this is why I say it was a plan for the last century. They didn't understand the nature of the Internet and didn't plan for it.
Oh yes, they know it is an excellent avenue to disseminate propaganda to the masses via Assrocket, Goldberg, World Nut Daily, and others, but they didn't count on our side being able to do research. Just as they didn't expect resistance from the Iraqis, they didn't plan for it from us (and I mean everyone opposed to what the Republican Party has done to this nation), or at least our pushback was stronger than expected. In their arrogance, they believed they could control information so completely their propaganda could never be fact-checked, never be called on their transgressions, their failures.
I think they realized it not long after the insurgency began in Iraq, not long after the Chimp's 'Mission Accomplished' moment, that victory would not come as easily as they'd planned. I believe it was a turning point, when 'Homeland Security' morphed into 'Republican Security', when they knew the plan would no longer sustain itself. It was the 'whatever it takes' moment, because they knew the plan was done.
We're at the stage of desperation, the most worrisome because a cornered, wounded animal is at its most dangerous. The 'MSM' is already using the I-word, scandal after scandal has hit the Republicans since the Downing Street Memos were exposed, and now the evidence that the vast intelligence machine of the U.S. government has been turned against Americans...American citizens. The plan is dying.
Yes, they might continue in office for another 2 1/2 years, for the apathetic, the compromised, the disenchanted, and the stupid will continue in their previous roles and the Republican Party is still powerful. They might still be successful for I doubt there is any low they would not stoop to in order to win, and that's what troubles me. I feel there might be a time when they believe they have nothing left to lose and openly attempt to create a dictatorship in this nation, a coup d'Constitution if you will. They will have to at some point for we know that at the end of this, the Republican Party will be more severely crippled than they were after Watergate.
Yes, folks, this is the end of the 'Grand Plan'. It has been exposed in all its insidious glory. There is no need for them to lie anymore, it is plain for all (save the stupid and sycophantic, for the insiders know exactly what's going on) to see. It's up to those left in government with ethics and principle to drive a stake through the heart of the Republicans' disaster. It must be done now. I beg you to remember this: If they can turn the intelligence community inward, they can certainly do the same with the military. Put nothing past desperate men.
We are entering a very dangerous time.
Thanks to the lovely Jane for the Matt Taibbi link (which you should read in its entirety).
Thanks to TGW for the Taegan Goddard link.
Data mining
Or, It promises to be a good New Year.
Seems this NSA spying thing went a lot farther than most thought. In Gillard's words, "The Bush Administration went batshit."
The only bright side is, hopefully the Brain has made it to the White House Enemies List. I'll wear that as a badge of honor.
Seems this NSA spying thing went a lot farther than most thought. In Gillard's words, "The Bush Administration went batshit."
...
The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said. [my em]
...
The only bright side is, hopefully the Brain has made it to the White House Enemies List. I'll wear that as a badge of honor.
Supporting the troops
If you're giving this season... They can't be home for the holidays.
Thanks to Melanie for the reminder.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Made it...
Started the day with heave-hos rancheros at the Donner Lake Kitchen. It was all downhill from there, at least as far as Sacramento. On that part of I-80 you can tell when you're catchin' up to a big rig miles ahead of time. I love the smell of fryin' truck brakes in the morning!
On the 200-mile stretch of I-5, I just stayed a good interval behind trucks as much as I could. You get to see a lot of nice new cars that way, when they fly past in the hot lane. There was enough traffic that it looked like a parade of (speeding) circus elephants, each one's trunk holding the tail of the one in front. Those city drivers follow each other way too close (worse: they follow me way too close), and they are forever hittin' their brakes and making the brake lights come on. Like they could stop in time if they ever had to! You should never need your brakes just runnin' down the superslab if you're doin' it right.
West on SR 41 to 46 (the intersection where James Dean was killed) to US 101 and here we are at the beautiful, centrally located, and pretty cheap Premier Inn in Pismo Beach. Terrific view of the Pacific Ocean from our door. Also of K-Mart, but this joint is 50 bucks a night cheaper than the fancy place we had to stay at T'giving. Other than that, the only functional difference is dial-up instead of wireless service. For $50 per, I can live with it.
The phone you hook up to is on the nightstand and the closest wall plug is across the room. Note to self: add an extension cord to mini-Hal's accessory suite. I have no idea how long the battery lasts in one of these things, so see ya later.
On the 200-mile stretch of I-5, I just stayed a good interval behind trucks as much as I could. You get to see a lot of nice new cars that way, when they fly past in the hot lane. There was enough traffic that it looked like a parade of (speeding) circus elephants, each one's trunk holding the tail of the one in front. Those city drivers follow each other way too close (worse: they follow me way too close), and they are forever hittin' their brakes and making the brake lights come on. Like they could stop in time if they ever had to! You should never need your brakes just runnin' down the superslab if you're doin' it right.
West on SR 41 to 46 (the intersection where James Dean was killed) to US 101 and here we are at the beautiful, centrally located, and pretty cheap Premier Inn in Pismo Beach. Terrific view of the Pacific Ocean from our door. Also of K-Mart, but this joint is 50 bucks a night cheaper than the fancy place we had to stay at T'giving. Other than that, the only functional difference is dial-up instead of wireless service. For $50 per, I can live with it.
The phone you hook up to is on the nightstand and the closest wall plug is across the room. Note to self: add an extension cord to mini-Hal's accessory suite. I have no idea how long the battery lasts in one of these things, so see ya later.
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