So ...

The question arises. How close are the Disney execs and the Bush family?

And just an aside, the WiFi project I put on hold when the Mrs. went into Sloan 6 months ago became a reality yesterday. As I sit at the kitchen counter, keeping the Mrs. company while she cooks an excellent dinner, I wonder how I lived without it.

Lies

And why I try not to. Once you compulsively lie, you blur the distinction between them and truth; they become interchangable. Since I won't link to the Powertools, I'll steal the quote from TBogg:

First the Senate Democrats browbeat a television network into changing a program so it won't reflect badly on a Democratic administration. Then a Senate committee puts out a report that airbrushes history, leaving out the most important evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda, for the sole purpose of making a Republican administration look bad. I think it's really important to work hard to get a Republican majority in the Senate, so the Dems won't be able to pull stunts like these! [my em]

...

You can't make this shit up.

Update:

And speaking of lies*:

...

The release of the Phase II report, incomplete as it may be, at least serves to remind the American people of one thing: that this is an administration addicted to lies, one that is unwilling (perhaps unable?) to wean itself off the propaganda it has pushing for the last three years...

*Tip o' the Brain to Atrios.

Sunday Fun

I've been kinda discouraged as of late,personally,and just as a citizen overall.I don't feel inspired to do much,my energy is reallllly low.

Which means it's time for a little fun.A diversion or two,just to recharge.Sooo,let's see what I can pull out of my bag o'tricks on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Kat Von D is a tattoo artist,currently featured on the TLC series Miami Ink on the TeeVee. Kat is cool,I LOVE her work.Tattoo artists don't get enough credit for being artists in their own right,and what's remarkable about Kat is that she's only in her early 20's,she's not even reached a peak in her development as an artist yet.And she's better than alot of the men in this male dominated field. Her specialty is portraits and pin up girls.I am SO getting one of her t-shirts.Click through her site to the gallery pages,it's worth a few minutes of your time.

As I've mentioned before,we've been in the process of remodelling our house for the better part of the last 7 yrs,and my job has mostly been clean up,but I also have done most of the interior re-designing and decorating.Which for me means paint and painting techniques.Jan Dressler Stencils are expensive,but the large stencil kits for murals are FANTASTIC.Her dead tree catalog is also full of ideas if you're looking to paint a room.Her techniques are almost idiot proof,anyone who can hold a paintbrush or a rag can do them.

Then there's looking to the heavens for inspiration.

Aric McBay's site,In the Wake, looks at life if the grid were to crash,ala a post industrial/technological /post peak oil crash. The site is all about living off the grid,basic survival,practical stuff.Yeah it's a tad"radical"(or alot,depending on how you define "radical"),but practical info is practical info.Ya never know when such things will come in handy.Whether you agree with the politics/philosophy or not,this site is impeccably researched.A couple years ago I had some correspondance with Aric,he's one of the good guys.

One Spirit is a sponsorship program I have been part of for several years now(it used to be called Spirit Rising).The focus of this organization is Lakota families,especially children, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southern South Dakota,our poorest citizens who have been isolated and forgotten.My personal experience has been wonderful,I've become quite close to my sponsored child's mom over the years,though we've never met in person.She's a love-and one of the bravest people I know.You send no money(though there are organizations within One Spirit that do take cash for things like heating oil in winter and other projects),you're matched to a child,and you send them stuff a few times a year.I made a commitment to sponsor a child thru high school,it's a long term thing to me.If the program seems like it's your cuppa tea and you have questions,please feel free to email me(we also need to discuss reality on the rez and certain key points of cultural respect in the items you choose to send a sponsored child or family) at gardenspirit1 at hotmail dot com. Please consider helping,you'll be doing a lot of good,even if you can only do a little.This is really great bunch of volunteers doing really good work in an area with very trying circumstances.

Seeds of Change is an organic gardening supply site I like alot.They have tons of varieties of heirloom seeds,some varieties having a history going back to the beginnings of America and earlier.It's amazing how much diversity there is just in vegetables,stuff we never see in supermarkets.Seed Savers Exchange is another way cool resource too.I've spent many an afternoon lost in the dead tree version of their catalog.I've found varieties my great grandparents used to grow on their farm when I was but a wee child.

Happy Sunday All.

The Happiest Place on Earth?

Go see 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera. Be sure to see it all.

Whatever Happened to the America of 9/12?

Frank Rich looks at where we were 5 years ago and, more importantly, where we are headed today. Via Rozius.

At the National Cathedral prayer service on Sept. 14, 2001, President Bush found just the apt phrase to describe this phenomenon: "Today we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called 'the warm courage of national unity.' This is the unity of every faith and every background. It has joined together political parties in both houses of Congress." What's more, he added, 'this unity against terror is now extending across the world."

The destruction of that unity, both in this nation and in the world, is as much a cause for mourning on the fifth anniversary as the attack itself. As we can't forget the dead of 9/11, we can't forget how the only good thing that came out of that horror, that unity, was smothered in its cradle.

This selfish agenda was there from the very start. As we now know from many firsthand accounts, a cadre from Mr. Bush's war cabinet was already busily hyping nonexistent links between Iraq and the Qaeda attacks. The presidential press secretary, Ari Fleischer, condemned Bill Maher's irreverent comic response to 9/11 by reminding 'all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. "Fear itself - the fear that paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance," as F.D.R. had it - was already being wielded as a weapon against Americans by their own government.

Less than a month after 9/11, the president was making good on his promise of "no sacrifice whatsoever." Speaking in Washington about how it was 'the time to be wise' and 'the time to act,' he declared, 'We need for there to be more tax cuts.' Before long the G.O.P. would be selling 9/11 photos of the president on Air Force One to campaign donors and the White House would be featuring flag-draped remains of the 9/11 dead in political ads.

And so here we are five years later. Fearmongering remains unceasing. So do tax cuts. So does the war against a country that did not attack us on 9/11. We have moved on, but no one can argue that we have moved ahead.

I think it could be argued that we have moved backwards under this pretender to the presidency. Recovery from 9/11 was a day at the beach compared to what it will take to recover from him.

Quote of the Day

Visual today, via the wonderful, and real smart, PZ Myers:



Update:

Had to add this one from Jeff Huber:

... Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his kiss-up generals have screwed up the war on terror so badly that Sun Tzu and Carl von Clausewitz combined couldn't fix their foibles...

Shades of yesteryear

Dr. Cole:

The McClatchy News Service has cast doubt on the numbers of killed in Baghdad for August as announced by the US military. The report finds that the "count" of declining "murders" in Baghdad for August had been intended to exclude victims of suicide bombings and mortar attacks!

Some may conclude that since the US miltiary is not making any real progress in stopping the civil war, they have now begun attempting to manipulate the numbers.

...

Yeah, Iraq is going swimmingly and there's no reason to leave. Hell, we lost 58,000 troops in Vietnam, right? We're nowhere near that yet. The U.S. government did the same thing with enemy body counts, except in reverse, 40 years ago and that war dragged on until '75. I was born after Vietnam began (my boss Harry enlisted in the Air Force 3 weeks before I was born) and I was 13 when we finally left Saigon. I do not remember a day in my youth when the nightly news did not have reports from the war zone; U.S casualties for the day and the enemy's dead.

There will be another generation of American children who will have the background of war as a constant in their lives for a long time and many will have an empty seat at the dinner table as a result.

So much for the Good Old Days.

November.

Typical

When all else fails, hide behind your kids. Rethugs have no shame, no principles, and no grasp of the term 'responsibility'.

Selective stupid

The eloquent Driftglass:

...

43%.

Bush isn't the problem. Cheney isn't the problem. Rummy isn't the problem.

The 43% of our fellow citizens who are this stupid? This fucking stupid? This fucking, Quikrete headed, Limbaugh-gobbling, Christalopithecan stupid?

They're the problem.

And mind you, piglump stupid as they are, they are also very selectively stupid.

These are, after all, many of the same human stinkweeds on the lawn of Liberty that followed every nuance, haircut and semicolon of William Jefferson Clinton for eight years with the fastidious obsession of an astronomer mapping a newly discovered solar system.

...

The reason they follow the Chimp blindly down the road to Hell is because they can't admit to themselves they were stupid enough to vote for the asshole ... twice.

Sorry, Mickey ...

But the long weekend Mrs. F and I were gonna spend at Disney World next spring is getting switched to Paris, or a B&B somewhere on the Hudson, or Las Vegas, or maybe even Sedona, but it'll be a long time (like when Lucifer starts shopping at the Burlington Coat Factory) before I patronize one of your properties again.

Yes, Disney/ABC will go ahead and run their right wing propaganda tomorrow night and Monday, no matter that the FBI backed away from it a year ago, and no matter that its director admits it is his version of events, a version that is targeted at Clinton. Folks, Disney has too much invested politically and corporately to back away from this now. The only response is to hold Disney, your local ABC affiliate, and those who support right wing propaganda on public airwaves accountable for fascism, because that is exactly what this is.

...

I presume others are of the same mind.

Update (Sunday):

Tristero @ Digby's:

I assume someone will collect and publish the list of commercials for show 2 - show 1 being broadcast without ads. I for one will take that list very seriously. Any sponsor whose products I can avoid, I will, and those that [I] can't will hear from me. [my em]

And from Blondie:

Daily Dave*

Mejias Press Secretary Gabby Adler sent me this dispatch via email on Labor Day:

FARMINGDALE - Dave Mejias, Democratic candidate for Congress in New York's 3rd Congressional District, observes Labor Day by calling for a national commitment to working families. As a Nassau County Legislator, Dave Mejias has championed labor issues; his record is in sharp contrast to his opponent Peter King's record. Mejias believes a national commitment to labor in this country is necessary for a national minimum wage increase, continued workplace safety and the protection of Social Security.

"I have stood up for hard working families, and it's time Washington does the same," said Mejias. "Peter King and George Bush have turned their backs on hard working people. Instead of increasing the minimum wage, making health care affordable, maintaining workplace safety codes and securing social security they have given tax cuts to the wealthiest and special breaks to corporations making it harder for working families to make ends meet."

Peter King's voting record proves he has turned his back on working families:

• King voted YES on HR 653, which resulted in nearly $40 billion in spending cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, student aid, child support enforcement and other working family programs.

• King votes YES on HR 3010, which would have cut critical funds for job training and employment services, college aid, elementary and secondary education programs and rural health funding.

• King voted YES on HR 525, which would exempt health plans from state consumer protection rules and offer minimal health plans to younger workers.

• King and the Republican controlled Congress have prevented an increase in the minimum wage for over 9 years. Under current law, a full time worker earning minimum wage in the United States makes $10,700 a year, almost $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.

• King supports of the Bush plan to privatize Social Security (The New York Sun, 3/14/05)

Dave Mejias has the voting record to match his rhetoric. Mejias authored legislation to protect the rights of domestic workers, voted for the living wage bill that increased the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour for workers doing business with Nassau County, and fought to eliminate gender based pay inequity for 911 operators in Nassau County. Mejias earned the State AFL-CIO endorsement last month in the 3^rd Congressional race; it was the first the AFL-CIO had ever endorsed King's opponent.

And the Wall Street Journal, can you believe it, thinks Eliot Spitzer's presumed gubernatorial win and Hillary's efforts can soften up traditionally Rethug seats like Peter King's in NY-03.

Vote for Dave Mejias in November. Do you live in NY-03?

Dave for America

Dave's ActBlue page.

And remember, we're also highlighting House races throughout the country. Drop me an email if you know of one you'd like us to post on. See who we've highlighted so far.

*Not so daily lately because my offline life has been nuts.

Quote of the Day

Watertiger:

FUCK YOU, CHRISTIE TODD WHITMAN and your bosses in Washington, D.C.

The American Dream

Today's 'must read' is to go listen to George Carlin.

"It's a big club. And you ain't in it."

DHS Investigates Palast

I always hear rumors last, but when I do hear one, I put it out as if I heard it first...

Yes, the rumor's true. Greg Palast is facing a criminal complaint from the Department of Homeland Security stemming from his filming the Hurricane Katrina investigation for Link TV and Democracy Now. The film's producer, Matt Pascarella, is also facing the legal wrath of Big Brother.

It appears the complaint is about filming a sensitive national security site owned by Exxon petroleum. It seems that photographing major Bush donors is now a federal offense.

Reached at an undisclosed location, Palast says, "Let's not get over-excited. They haven't measured us for our orange suits yet."

Take it from one who knows, Greg: they're pretty much "one size fits all". The latest trend is for old-fashioned lookin' black-and-white striped outfits, which is plenty enough reason fer this ol' squatty-body to stay on the straight 'n narrow. I don't mind being locked up, but they doesn't hafta make me look fat!

During questioning by Homeland Security, Palast asked, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be looking for Osama? Or for guys with exploding shoes? ... We're journalists." At Palast's request, Homeland Security confirmed that Louisiana is, indeed, still part of the USA but did not respond when asked if the First Amendment applies there.

They probably don't even know what the First Amendment is. They just know it's a felony to tell the truth about this administration.

Priorities

This is probably an old joke, but Sumo tells it well:

Four U.S. Presidents get caught up in a tornado...and off they whirled to the Land of Oz.

Better yet, click here and scroll down to it. She has good 'toons and commentary.

Sharpen them canines, boys...

National Journal

This is how it goes lately between the White House and the press corps -- constant sniping and gibes, a battle fought largely between the lines. "You guys are a bunch of negative, nattering, pro-terrorist pinkos." "Oh yeah? Well you're gonna lose big-time in November."

Nobody says it exactly this way, but if you had a magic decoder ring and pointed it at the daily news cycle, that would be the translation.

So let's assume the latest oracular visions are correct and the GOP suffers a major defeat, something approaching if not matching the stunning Democratic losses of 1994. That would be the political equivalent of an earthquake. But would it have any implications for the media? Would it change the dynamic between the Bush team and the journalists who cover them?

A November defeat for the Republicans will change everything. If Bush suffers a major political setback, the media will feel freed up to tear into this war as they have never done before. Again, it will not be a conscious, orchestrated decision -- there will be no covert meeting at which senior editors and producers conspire to declare Iraq an epic failure. But the pack will change direction, as it always does when it smells blood.

Journalists are dumb beasts in the main, but they have sharp teeth and there are a lot of them.

If ever an administration needed to be "catastrophically deconstructed" by a pack of snarling, previously whimpering curs who were beaten into submission, it's this one.

November.

Malice + Incompetence = Bush & Rummy's Criminal War

Kos

One of the questions that constantly comes up in looking at the myriad snafus the Bush Administration has unleashed is this: incompetence or malice? (And yes, I know, "both" is a distinct possibility.) This story furnishes some powerful ammunition for the malice alternative.

[...]

"Then, just as we were barely into Afghanistan Rumsfeld came and told us to get ready for Iraq."

Scheid said he remembers everyone thinking, "My gosh, we're in the middle of Afghanistan, how can we possibly be doing two at one time? How can we pull this off? It's just going to be too much."
...
"The secretary of defense continued to push on us that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we're going to take out the regime, and then we're going to leave," Scheid said. "We won't stay."

Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like security, stability and reconstruction.

Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said.

"I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today.

"He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war."

The Iraq clusterfuck is by design. Making a plan and not telling us would have been one thing. They're good at not telling us stuff anyway.

Knowing they needed a plan, but not making one so we wouldn't find out as part of a P.R. plan to lie us into an unnecessary war is positively criminal. Past criminal. I don't even have a word for it.

I'm beyond "get a rope". We need four ropes for each one of these criminal bastards. Four ropes attached to four Humvees going in four directions.

Good work ...

For greedy Wall Street weenies who usually don't want to part with a dime:

On September 7, 2006, New York Downtown Hospital will open The Lehman Brothers Emergency Center, a new state-of-the-art emergency facility serving all of Downtown New York. This project is critically important because Downtown Hospital is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan. It is the first responder to virtually every medical emergency in the area, providing life-saving medical care for 33,000 emergency patients each year and responds to approximately 5,000 ambulance dispatches annually.

...

The project, which will cost approximately $25 million, was made possible by a $5 million gift from The Lehman Brothers Foundation. Additional funds were raised through the support of many generous donors, including The New York Stock Exchange, The Starr Foundation, The Bank of New York, AIG, and JP Morgan Chase, each of which donated $1 million or more to the project. The Hospital is working diligently to raise the last $4 million needed for this critical project.

...

I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt on their reasons for doing it. A lot of those folks wouldn't be alive were it not for NY Downtown, their incredible staff, and the miracles they performed on 9/11. The hospital is a fixture in NYC, serving the Lower Manhattan for over a century and a half.

...

The Hospital's first incarnation, The New York Infirmary, was founded in 1853 by a medical and social pioneer determined to provide care for the impoverished women and children of Lower Manhattan. The pioneer was Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., the first female physician in the United States.

...

They let him live.

This idiot swore he wouldn't be taken alive. Were I the New York State Troopers chasing him down, I would have granted his wish. Would have saved me and my neighbors a nice chunk of tax money.

(Carroll, New York - WABC, September 8, 2006) - After a very tense stand off, the newest man on the FBI's Most Wanted List surrendered peacefully on Friday night.

Ralph "Bucky" Phillips is accused of a violent crime spree -- shooting three New York state troopers and killing one of them -- after escaping from prison.

...

His confidence tonight was his downfall. When unarmed and surrounded on all sides, he put his hands up and gave in.

...

This guy should have a 10mm entrance wound between the eyes. What a waste of my good air. One of the reasons I'm not a cop.

Bucky ... heh ... grown man ... called Bucky ... heh ...

Know what?

There's something that pisses me off much more than anything the Chimp can do. Well, it's part of the same problem. Little men asserting what little power they do have by beating on their women. Motherfuckers.

A word of advice to you lowlife assholes. If you have the urge to pop your girl and I'm walking by at the time, you'll be eating the rest of your meals through your ass with a straw. If you want to beat on somebody, try taking a poke at me. I'll give you an education in 'anger management'.