A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teen-agers could encourage sexual activity.
Okay now I know you just read that but do me a favor and read it agian.
Done? Did you understand what that paragraph says? These backwater morons would rather allow their children to be at risk for getting cancer then to risk that they might have pre-marital sex. Unfucking belivable!
Why, oh why are the conservatives so terrified of sex? Were you once chased through the woods by a giant penis? There are many things ot be fearful of in this world (Conservatives spring to mind), but sex is just not one of them.
Listen closely Jebediah, sex is good! It makes babies! It feels good! It relieves stress! It is how your wife gets you to clean out the garage! Besides if you religious types are so worried about sex then why are there so many fucking Mormons?
Cancer is bad! It kills! Enough said!
Monday, October 31, 2005
It is getting harder and harder to stay immoral with these kinds of sites slipping into the mainstream.
If you are easily offended then do not visit the link above!
I make no value judgement on this practice whatsoever, however, I do find it fascinating the types of things that different people find stimulating and acceptable. The internet, if it does nothing else, brings to the masses the most personal and private idiosyncrasies of a stunningly large number of the populace. Before the internet I had no idea how many people were marginalized by our cultural norms. They felt alone and embarrassed by their proclivities and now they find that there is a large number of like minded people in the world.
Am I wrong to feel that this is a good thing?
I make no value judgement on this practice whatsoever, however, I do find it fascinating the types of things that different people find stimulating and acceptable. The internet, if it does nothing else, brings to the masses the most personal and private idiosyncrasies of a stunningly large number of the populace. Before the internet I had no idea how many people were marginalized by our cultural norms. They felt alone and embarrassed by their proclivities and now they find that there is a large number of like minded people in the world.
Am I wrong to feel that this is a good thing?
What if FOX news had been there to report on other major events in history?
This is guranteed to put a smile on your face this Halloween morning!
I know they say that God works in mysterious ways but what the hell is the message here?
A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after adjusting a nearby microphone while standing in water, a church employee said.
The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was stepping into the baptistery as he reached out for the microphone, which produced an electric shock, said University Baptist Church community pastor Ben Dudley.
Water in a baptistery usually reaches above the waist, said Byron Weathersbee, interim university chaplain at Baylor University.
Lake was pronounced dead at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, nursing supervisor Pat Mahl said. The woman being baptized apparently had not stepped into the water and was not seriously injured.
Soooo, God does not want people baptized in Texas?
The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was stepping into the baptistery as he reached out for the microphone, which produced an electric shock, said University Baptist Church community pastor Ben Dudley.
Water in a baptistery usually reaches above the waist, said Byron Weathersbee, interim university chaplain at Baylor University.
Lake was pronounced dead at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, nursing supervisor Pat Mahl said. The woman being baptized apparently had not stepped into the water and was not seriously injured.
Soooo, God does not want people baptized in Texas?
Sunday, October 30, 2005
The question that no mainstream media reporter can seem to bring themselves to ask, yet it must be asked!
"Mr. President, did you know that Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove were the source of the CIA leak? And if you did not, why not?"
This is the question. This is the most important question. If Bush did not know that they were the leakers then either he did not ask them or they lied. If he did not ask them, then he is an incompetent moron. If they lied to him and he does not immediately fire them then he is an impotent moron.
Any of us in a similar situation would bring each possible leaker, one by one, into our office and ask them if they did it. The only reason that we would not do this is because we already knew. That is what I believe is the real truth of this treasonous act. Bush knew! He knew because either he told them to do it or he was informed that it was happening. There is no other explanation for Bush not finding out for himself and informing the prosecutor who the bad guy was.
So why haven't any reporters asked this question again? I know that Helen Thomas asked the question at the beginning of this whole process, and was relegated to the back of the room. But now the bullshit excuse that the administration would not answer any questions until the investigation was over is null and void. There is nothing for them to hide behind any more. It is time to start answering questions and the first one should be the one that I have identified as the most important. And don't let them make any of those stupid excuses about letting the process work itself out. This investigation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If George Bush could have just confronted his staff and saved all of that money then that is exactly what he should have done.
And why is Cheney not being fired? He took classified information and instructed his staff to parcel it out to discredit an enemy of the administration. And Karl Rove? He alerted reporters to Valerie Plames job so why isn't he being fired? The only answer must be that Bush knew and supported the outing of Valerie Plame. So the whole administration is corrupt and they all should be shit canned so that we can hold a special election. Maybe this time we can elect somebody who has a brain, a heart, and courage, all of the things that George should have asked the man behind the curtain for long ago.
Now see that is the power of the press! If you ask the right questions you can change history. Woodward and Bernstein did it, so why can't today's reporters show that kind of chutzpah? Let's get this done people! There is justice to be done here!
This is the question. This is the most important question. If Bush did not know that they were the leakers then either he did not ask them or they lied. If he did not ask them, then he is an incompetent moron. If they lied to him and he does not immediately fire them then he is an impotent moron.
Any of us in a similar situation would bring each possible leaker, one by one, into our office and ask them if they did it. The only reason that we would not do this is because we already knew. That is what I believe is the real truth of this treasonous act. Bush knew! He knew because either he told them to do it or he was informed that it was happening. There is no other explanation for Bush not finding out for himself and informing the prosecutor who the bad guy was.
So why haven't any reporters asked this question again? I know that Helen Thomas asked the question at the beginning of this whole process, and was relegated to the back of the room. But now the bullshit excuse that the administration would not answer any questions until the investigation was over is null and void. There is nothing for them to hide behind any more. It is time to start answering questions and the first one should be the one that I have identified as the most important. And don't let them make any of those stupid excuses about letting the process work itself out. This investigation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If George Bush could have just confronted his staff and saved all of that money then that is exactly what he should have done.
And why is Cheney not being fired? He took classified information and instructed his staff to parcel it out to discredit an enemy of the administration. And Karl Rove? He alerted reporters to Valerie Plames job so why isn't he being fired? The only answer must be that Bush knew and supported the outing of Valerie Plame. So the whole administration is corrupt and they all should be shit canned so that we can hold a special election. Maybe this time we can elect somebody who has a brain, a heart, and courage, all of the things that George should have asked the man behind the curtain for long ago.
Now see that is the power of the press! If you ask the right questions you can change history. Woodward and Bernstein did it, so why can't today's reporters show that kind of chutzpah? Let's get this done people! There is justice to be done here!
Why does MSNBC continue to propogate the lies about Plamegate?
The list of false claims that Chris Matthews and others continue to reinforce is staggering.
Claim #1: Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV claimed Vice President Cheney sent him to Niger.
Wilson did not claim that the vice president sent him to Niger; rather, Wilson stated that the CIA sent him to Niger to answer the vice president's office's questions regarding the purported Iraq-Niger uranium deal. Claiming that Wilson stated or insinuated that Cheney's office sent him to Niger lends false justification to the argument articulated by defenders of the Bush administration that, in outing Plame, administration officials were merely setting the record straight by disclosing that Plame -- not Cheney -- had authorized the trip.
Claim #2: Wilson was unqualified for his mission to Niger.
But as Media Matters noted, Wilson's qualifications for the Niger mission included diplomatic credentials (he specialized in Africa for the majority of his diplomatic career), as well as past experience investigating sales of Niger uranium in 1999.
Claim #3: Wilson's wife got him the job investigating the alleged Iraq-Niger uranium deal.
But as Media Matters noted, this assertion is disputed by CIA officials cited in The Washington Post and by unnamed intelligence officials quoted in the press. It is also unsupported by the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee report.
There are other claims which also stick in my craw but these three are the main ones which continue to muddy the waters concerning this treasonous behavior. It is especially damaging when it comes from Chris Matthews who speaks with such certainty and authority. I once adored Mr. Matthews and watched his show religiously. Something changed during the lead up to the 2004 election.
Another point that I have heard to minimize the importance of this case is that everybody knew that Valerie Plame/Wilson was a CIA agent. There is much on CNN to demonstrate that this is totally false. The point is that this is unconscionable and treasonous and it should be approached with absolute seriousness, giving no wiggle room to the individuals that perpetrated it. And any reporter or commentator who helps to provide cover for this should be fired from their jobs and replaced with real reporters
Claim #1: Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV claimed Vice President Cheney sent him to Niger.
Wilson did not claim that the vice president sent him to Niger; rather, Wilson stated that the CIA sent him to Niger to answer the vice president's office's questions regarding the purported Iraq-Niger uranium deal. Claiming that Wilson stated or insinuated that Cheney's office sent him to Niger lends false justification to the argument articulated by defenders of the Bush administration that, in outing Plame, administration officials were merely setting the record straight by disclosing that Plame -- not Cheney -- had authorized the trip.
Claim #2: Wilson was unqualified for his mission to Niger.
But as Media Matters noted, Wilson's qualifications for the Niger mission included diplomatic credentials (he specialized in Africa for the majority of his diplomatic career), as well as past experience investigating sales of Niger uranium in 1999.
Claim #3: Wilson's wife got him the job investigating the alleged Iraq-Niger uranium deal.
But as Media Matters noted, this assertion is disputed by CIA officials cited in The Washington Post and by unnamed intelligence officials quoted in the press. It is also unsupported by the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee report.
There are other claims which also stick in my craw but these three are the main ones which continue to muddy the waters concerning this treasonous behavior. It is especially damaging when it comes from Chris Matthews who speaks with such certainty and authority. I once adored Mr. Matthews and watched his show religiously. Something changed during the lead up to the 2004 election.
Another point that I have heard to minimize the importance of this case is that everybody knew that Valerie Plame/Wilson was a CIA agent. There is much on CNN to demonstrate that this is totally false. The point is that this is unconscionable and treasonous and it should be approached with absolute seriousness, giving no wiggle room to the individuals that perpetrated it. And any reporter or commentator who helps to provide cover for this should be fired from their jobs and replaced with real reporters
Just when you thought that razor blades in apples were the worst things you could get for Halloween.
"(Halloween) is a time to evangelize," said Malone, who with his wife, Pam, started a prayer ministry 10 years ago called Pray USA! "People come to your door," he said. "We want to show the love of Jesus in a very practical way."
Monday, folks who stop by their brightly lit house in Westbrook Estates will be treated to doughnuts, hot apple cider and tiny Bibles. The Malones call it Light the Night. Instead of costumes, the pair slip on T-shirts with an American flag. They set up a table on their carport and set out baskets of goodies. Kids can grab mints with scriptures printed on the wrapper or bookmarks and pencils. It's a lively atmosphere. Upbeat, Christian tunes can be heard. And the Malones offer prayer too.
"We're planting a seed in their heart," Bill Malone said. "When they take their bag of goodies home and turn it upside down, out comes their little Bibles. And maybe they'll start to read the Bible. And God ... will bring their seed to germination."
"Hey Jimmy I got a Snickers bar and some Skittles what did you get?"
"Awww man I just got this little bible and a bookmark! That house sucks!"
I see soaped windows and toilet papered trees in their future.
Monday, folks who stop by their brightly lit house in Westbrook Estates will be treated to doughnuts, hot apple cider and tiny Bibles. The Malones call it Light the Night. Instead of costumes, the pair slip on T-shirts with an American flag. They set up a table on their carport and set out baskets of goodies. Kids can grab mints with scriptures printed on the wrapper or bookmarks and pencils. It's a lively atmosphere. Upbeat, Christian tunes can be heard. And the Malones offer prayer too.
"We're planting a seed in their heart," Bill Malone said. "When they take their bag of goodies home and turn it upside down, out comes their little Bibles. And maybe they'll start to read the Bible. And God ... will bring their seed to germination."
"Hey Jimmy I got a Snickers bar and some Skittles what did you get?"
"Awww man I just got this little bible and a bookmark! That house sucks!"
I see soaped windows and toilet papered trees in their future.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
School board member votes to include "Intelligent Design" in curriculum because all of her friends were doing it.
Heather Geesey, a Dover Area School Board member, said she came to believe intelligent design was a scientific theory based on the recommendations of Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham _ both members of the board's curriculum committee.
"They said it was a scientific thing," said Geesey, who added that "it wasn't my job" to learn more about intelligent design because she didn't serve on the curriculum committee.
If this is not the best case for making sure that the science curriculum is drastically improved then I just don't know what is. This chick, Heather, needs to be forced to sit through Bio1 and Bio2 all over again until she can demonstrate that she has some rudimentary idea of what the fuck she is voting against. Listen to this horseshit!
Witold Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the families, noted in his cross-examination of Geesey that the policy was adopted over the objections of Dover High School's science teachers.
"The only people in the school district with a scientific background were opposed to intelligent design ... and you ignored them?" he asked.
"Yes," Geesey said.
AAAAARRRGGHH!!!!
"They said it was a scientific thing," said Geesey, who added that "it wasn't my job" to learn more about intelligent design because she didn't serve on the curriculum committee.
If this is not the best case for making sure that the science curriculum is drastically improved then I just don't know what is. This chick, Heather, needs to be forced to sit through Bio1 and Bio2 all over again until she can demonstrate that she has some rudimentary idea of what the fuck she is voting against. Listen to this horseshit!
Witold Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the families, noted in his cross-examination of Geesey that the policy was adopted over the objections of Dover High School's science teachers.
"The only people in the school district with a scientific background were opposed to intelligent design ... and you ignored them?" he asked.
"Yes," Geesey said.
AAAAARRRGGHH!!!!
Fat cat Senators refuse to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.25 an hour.
U.S. senators -- who draw salaries of $162,100 a year and enjoy a raft of perks -- have rejected a minimum wage hike from $5.15 an hour to $6.25 for blue-collar workers.
Unfucking believable! How can we expect these people to survive when gas costs over $3.00 a gallon? They could literally work all day and not be able to buy enough gas to get themselves home. These senate assholes have been living in their ivory towers for too long, they cannot imagine what it is like to live from paycheck to paycheck and come up short every single month. These people need to be allowed to have some dignity. They need to work and be paid adequately for that work.
I will have to give Senator Kennedy the last word on this subject.
"It is shameful that in America today, the richest and most powerful nation on earth, nearly a fifth of all children go to bed hungry at night because their parents, many of whom are working full time at the minimum wage, still can't make ends meet," Kennedy said.
Unfucking believable! How can we expect these people to survive when gas costs over $3.00 a gallon? They could literally work all day and not be able to buy enough gas to get themselves home. These senate assholes have been living in their ivory towers for too long, they cannot imagine what it is like to live from paycheck to paycheck and come up short every single month. These people need to be allowed to have some dignity. They need to work and be paid adequately for that work.
I will have to give Senator Kennedy the last word on this subject.
"It is shameful that in America today, the richest and most powerful nation on earth, nearly a fifth of all children go to bed hungry at night because their parents, many of whom are working full time at the minimum wage, still can't make ends meet," Kennedy said.
Fighting in Iraq for my freedom?
I keep hearing this talking point from the right. I saw it today on CNN during a special about the war. A soldier told his mother that she could speak out against the war because that is what he was fighting for. What? How does that add up? Is my freedom of speech in jeopardy from the Iraqis? Are they actively trying to stop me from expressing myself? Did I miss a memo?
If there is a soldier who happens to stumble onto this page and reads this I have a message for you. Come home! I do not want you to die in Iraq so that I can type these words on this computer. If that is the trade off, your life for my ability to sit on my ass typing out my thoughts, then you are released from your obligation. I would never be able to string a sentence together if I thought that that right had cost some young child their father.
By the way I find the argument only so much bullshit! Do you want to know why you are fighting over there?
Oil! You are fighting and dying so that I can drive my SUV. And by the way you must not be doing it right because the gas prices here are through the roof!
By the way I release you from that obligation as well. If you are fighting and dying so that I can drive my Durango, then come home. I will ride my bike. I value your life far more then this president does and I want you to live.
If there is a soldier who happens to stumble onto this page and reads this I have a message for you. Come home! I do not want you to die in Iraq so that I can type these words on this computer. If that is the trade off, your life for my ability to sit on my ass typing out my thoughts, then you are released from your obligation. I would never be able to string a sentence together if I thought that that right had cost some young child their father.
By the way I find the argument only so much bullshit! Do you want to know why you are fighting over there?
Oil! You are fighting and dying so that I can drive my SUV. And by the way you must not be doing it right because the gas prices here are through the roof!
By the way I release you from that obligation as well. If you are fighting and dying so that I can drive my Durango, then come home. I will ride my bike. I value your life far more then this president does and I want you to live.
In my state we love the gays.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Gay rights advocates claimed a major victory after the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to deny benefits to same-sex partners of public employees.
This is an issue that is very near and dear to my heart. No I am not gay! I just happen to be a fag magnet for some odd reason.
This is an issue that is very near and dear to my heart. No I am not gay! I just happen to be a fag magnet for some odd reason.
President Bush under attack from his own base. So we can take a break for now.
George Bush said one of the reasons he picked Harriet Miers for the supreme court was that he knew her so well. It says a lot about the president's current standing that the endorsement not only failed to save her: it may have helped sink her.
See? He is so damaged that just being his friend is the kiss of death!
The release of embarrassingly admiring notes Ms Miers had sent Mr Bush in Texas, when he was governor and she ran the state lottery commission, added a note of farce. "You are the best governor ever," she wrote in a typical example. But it also raised constitutional questions over how independent she would be as a supreme court justice.
Didn't Bush learn from Clinton not to give his girlfriend a job? It just goes to show, no matter how much ass you kiss there are some jobs you just can't have.
However, it was outrage among Christian conservatives that did the most damage. Ms Miers was a candidate to fill the seat being vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate swing vote on the court. The overriding goal of many evangelical Christians is to fill that seat with a committed and influential conservative, who would help forge an anti-abortion majority.
So the real problem with Harriet Miers is that they just were not sure she was wingnutty enough? I hate when the evangelicals say how much they just want to be part of the process when it is crystal clear that they want to control the process. Hypocrites!
See? He is so damaged that just being his friend is the kiss of death!
The release of embarrassingly admiring notes Ms Miers had sent Mr Bush in Texas, when he was governor and she ran the state lottery commission, added a note of farce. "You are the best governor ever," she wrote in a typical example. But it also raised constitutional questions over how independent she would be as a supreme court justice.
Didn't Bush learn from Clinton not to give his girlfriend a job? It just goes to show, no matter how much ass you kiss there are some jobs you just can't have.
However, it was outrage among Christian conservatives that did the most damage. Ms Miers was a candidate to fill the seat being vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate swing vote on the court. The overriding goal of many evangelical Christians is to fill that seat with a committed and influential conservative, who would help forge an anti-abortion majority.
So the real problem with Harriet Miers is that they just were not sure she was wingnutty enough? I hate when the evangelicals say how much they just want to be part of the process when it is crystal clear that they want to control the process. Hypocrites!
Friday, October 28, 2005
Christmas has been canceled!
The CIA leak investigation is "not over," special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday after announcing charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
Fitzgerald said he will be keeping the grand "jury open to consider other matters." But, he said, "substantial work" is done.
I am not happy! This is just like the time I asked for a televison for my room and my mother bought the smallest little black and white televison on the market. I had to watch that t.v. one eye at a time.
Oh good they caught that dangerous criminal "Scooter" Libby! Scooter? Scooter is the kid that ate paste in your kindergarten class. He is not some out of control megalomaniac, hell bent on destroying our way of life in this country. That is the description of his boss! You know the guy that should really be indicted! Fuck Scooter! I want Cheney, or Rove, or, dare I say it, Bush!
C'mon we all know that Scooter did not do shit without the blessing of Cheney and the other warhawks. I hope that when Fitzgerald has Libby on the stand that he grills him until his skin bursts and he gives up all of the real terrorists in this country. Until that day I am just going to sit here being pissed!
Fitzgerald said he will be keeping the grand "jury open to consider other matters." But, he said, "substantial work" is done.
I am not happy! This is just like the time I asked for a televison for my room and my mother bought the smallest little black and white televison on the market. I had to watch that t.v. one eye at a time.
Oh good they caught that dangerous criminal "Scooter" Libby! Scooter? Scooter is the kid that ate paste in your kindergarten class. He is not some out of control megalomaniac, hell bent on destroying our way of life in this country. That is the description of his boss! You know the guy that should really be indicted! Fuck Scooter! I want Cheney, or Rove, or, dare I say it, Bush!
C'mon we all know that Scooter did not do shit without the blessing of Cheney and the other warhawks. I hope that when Fitzgerald has Libby on the stand that he grills him until his skin bursts and he gives up all of the real terrorists in this country. Until that day I am just going to sit here being pissed!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Does Rove have a chippie on the side? Eeeewwww!!!
Meanwhile, Radar magazine yesterday reported on its Web site that Texas political insiders are predicting the demise of the married Rove's "very close relationship" with wealthy forty-something Texas lobbyist Karen Johnson.
"Everyone knows how close Karen is to Karl, but she's sick of it," the mag quotes a source "familiar with the situation," noting that Johnson and Rove didn't return phone calls.
Apparently Johnson's family wants her to marry her handsome ranch foreman, Rhett Hard, who works on Johnson's Cinco de Mayo property in Austin.
When I read this I thought "You're kidding! There is a woman so desperate that she will sleep with this that toad?"
The I read that Rove is also married. So I thought "You're kidding! There are two women who are so desperate that they will sleep with this toad?"
One thing is clear. I will never understand women!
"Everyone knows how close Karen is to Karl, but she's sick of it," the mag quotes a source "familiar with the situation," noting that Johnson and Rove didn't return phone calls.
Apparently Johnson's family wants her to marry her handsome ranch foreman, Rhett Hard, who works on Johnson's Cinco de Mayo property in Austin.
When I read this I thought "You're kidding! There is a woman so desperate that she will sleep with this that toad?"
The I read that Rove is also married. So I thought "You're kidding! There are two women who are so desperate that they will sleep with this toad?"
One thing is clear. I will never understand women!
Will the Bush Administration implode?
With a title like that I had to post about this authors take on the future of the Bush presidency.
Under the headline, Bushies Feeling the Boss's Wrath, Thomas DeFrank, that paper's Washington Bureau Chief, wrote, "Facing the darkest days of his presidency, President Bush is frustrated, sometimes angry and even bitter, his associates say… ‘This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help,' said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. ‘This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight.'… Presidential advisers and friends say Bush is a mass of contradictions: cheerful and serene, peevish and melancholy, occasionally lapsing into what he once derided as the ‘blame game.'" Frankly, the description already has a touch of Richard Nixon (as his presidency delaminated after Watergate finally hit).
I cannot get enough of the Richard Nixon comparison, though I would argue that Bush makes Nixon look like an amateur at deception.
Not long after, hurricane Katrina swept into town; the President refused to end his vacation; FEMA began twisting, twisting in the wind; Tom DeLay went down; Rita blew in (to be followed by Wilma); Senator Frist found himself blinded by his trust; the President nominated his own lawyer to the Supreme Court -- at this point, even some of his conservative allies began peeling away -- and then, of course, waiting in the wings, there was the ultimate October surprise, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald -- backed by a reinvigorated media and an angry bureaucracy -- ready to lift the lid on a whole can of worms not likely to be closed for years to come.
See Nixon never had the sheer volume of corruption and duplicity that this administration has made into a political art. This president wanted to be a historic president and he is going to get his wish. He is going to be known as the worst president in American history.
Under the headline, Bushies Feeling the Boss's Wrath, Thomas DeFrank, that paper's Washington Bureau Chief, wrote, "Facing the darkest days of his presidency, President Bush is frustrated, sometimes angry and even bitter, his associates say… ‘This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help,' said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. ‘This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight.'… Presidential advisers and friends say Bush is a mass of contradictions: cheerful and serene, peevish and melancholy, occasionally lapsing into what he once derided as the ‘blame game.'" Frankly, the description already has a touch of Richard Nixon (as his presidency delaminated after Watergate finally hit).
I cannot get enough of the Richard Nixon comparison, though I would argue that Bush makes Nixon look like an amateur at deception.
Not long after, hurricane Katrina swept into town; the President refused to end his vacation; FEMA began twisting, twisting in the wind; Tom DeLay went down; Rita blew in (to be followed by Wilma); Senator Frist found himself blinded by his trust; the President nominated his own lawyer to the Supreme Court -- at this point, even some of his conservative allies began peeling away -- and then, of course, waiting in the wings, there was the ultimate October surprise, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald -- backed by a reinvigorated media and an angry bureaucracy -- ready to lift the lid on a whole can of worms not likely to be closed for years to come.
See Nixon never had the sheer volume of corruption and duplicity that this administration has made into a political art. This president wanted to be a historic president and he is going to get his wish. He is going to be known as the worst president in American history.
The Presidents "red herring" Supreme Court nominee withdraws from consideration. Now King George can appoint the wingnut that he always wanted.
President Bush on Thursday accepted the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, according to a statement from the White House.
In her letter to the president, Miers said she was "concerned that the confirmation process presents a burden for the White House and its staff and it is not in the best interest of the country."
Ooooh I am sooo surprised! Come on! It has been obvious to any of us who have been paying attention that this was a headfake to distract us from the presidents real agenda. As I sit here typing in my "Captain Cynic" unperpants I can tell you that whoever George has next in the chute is going to make Justice Thomas look like a latte drinking, Vespa driving, ex-Dead head.
And all of this is going to happen after the indictments are handed down and every news agency in town will be baying like hounds chasing after "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove and will not even deign to notice the radical, fire breathing, evangelistic, inquisitor wannabe that is appointed for this judicial opening. I hope that CNN, MSNBC, and the other major news outlets can learn to walk and chew gum at the same time and keep the focus on both of these important stories.
In her letter to the president, Miers said she was "concerned that the confirmation process presents a burden for the White House and its staff and it is not in the best interest of the country."
Ooooh I am sooo surprised! Come on! It has been obvious to any of us who have been paying attention that this was a headfake to distract us from the presidents real agenda. As I sit here typing in my "Captain Cynic" unperpants I can tell you that whoever George has next in the chute is going to make Justice Thomas look like a latte drinking, Vespa driving, ex-Dead head.
And all of this is going to happen after the indictments are handed down and every news agency in town will be baying like hounds chasing after "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove and will not even deign to notice the radical, fire breathing, evangelistic, inquisitor wannabe that is appointed for this judicial opening. I hope that CNN, MSNBC, and the other major news outlets can learn to walk and chew gum at the same time and keep the focus on both of these important stories.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
George Bush is unimpeachable? Say it aint so!
Any one of Bush's crimes towers over the combined wickedness of Nixon and Clinton. And there are so many to choose from! How many times has Bush "made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States" (a key count in the Nixon impeachment)?
Unfortunately for my friend and the United States, impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Nixon and Clinton faced Congresses controlled by the other party. Because Bush belongs to the same party as the majorities in the House and Senate, nothing he does can get him impeached.
Our failed Constitutional system means we're stuck with this disastrous demagogue for three more years.
Oh this is bad. This is wrong. My brain cannot even comprehend this information. "Danger Will Robinson, danger!"
No! He will be impeached. He will be impeached and Democrats will take over the White House and little birdies will sing in the trees all over Washington. I
t is not a dream! It is real! He cannot stay in charge! We cannot survive three more years! There is not enough alcohol on this planet to get me through three more years!
Thank God I know where to get good medication.
Unfortunately for my friend and the United States, impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Nixon and Clinton faced Congresses controlled by the other party. Because Bush belongs to the same party as the majorities in the House and Senate, nothing he does can get him impeached.
Our failed Constitutional system means we're stuck with this disastrous demagogue for three more years.
Oh this is bad. This is wrong. My brain cannot even comprehend this information. "Danger Will Robinson, danger!"
No! He will be impeached. He will be impeached and Democrats will take over the White House and little birdies will sing in the trees all over Washington. I
t is not a dream! It is real! He cannot stay in charge! We cannot survive three more years! There is not enough alcohol on this planet to get me through three more years!
Thank God I know where to get good medication.
Great, now I have to find a stupid skinny single chick to bang. This is very demoralizing!
Women who are educated, married or heavy are more likely to have low sex drives, according to a landmark Canadian study that explored links between sexual problems and social and personal factors.
Well this is discouraging news. I was hoping to meet a woman substantially smarter then my last wife who believed that all things must be judged on appearance only regardless of talent, worth, intellect, or charity. I often referred to her as wading pool shallow. I was being kind.
Contrary to the researchers' expectations, university-educated women are more apt to have low sex drives -- 48 per cent compared to 31 per cent among high-school graduates. They are also less likely to have orgasms during intercourse.
"It may well be that highly educated women are different from less-educated women in many respects. Maybe they have higher standards . . . higher expectations and legitimately lower evaluations. They may be living much busier, much more stressful lives," said William Fisher, a professor of psychology and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Western Ontario who is a co-author of the paper.
Too busy for orgasms. Now that is just sad. I am particularly distressed about the higher standard part. That could present a problem. How many Cosmopolitans do you think it will take to lower those?
Well this is discouraging news. I was hoping to meet a woman substantially smarter then my last wife who believed that all things must be judged on appearance only regardless of talent, worth, intellect, or charity. I often referred to her as wading pool shallow. I was being kind.
Contrary to the researchers' expectations, university-educated women are more apt to have low sex drives -- 48 per cent compared to 31 per cent among high-school graduates. They are also less likely to have orgasms during intercourse.
"It may well be that highly educated women are different from less-educated women in many respects. Maybe they have higher standards . . . higher expectations and legitimately lower evaluations. They may be living much busier, much more stressful lives," said William Fisher, a professor of psychology and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Western Ontario who is a co-author of the paper.
Too busy for orgasms. Now that is just sad. I am particularly distressed about the higher standard part. That could present a problem. How many Cosmopolitans do you think it will take to lower those?
America finally notices something is amiss at the White House. Way to go America! Where the hell have you been?
Only one in 10 Americans said they believe Bush administration officials did nothing illegal or unethical in connection with the leaking of a CIA operative's identity, according to a national poll released Tuesday.
Thirty-nine percent said some administration officials acted illegally in the matter, in which the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, was revealed.
The same percentage of respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said administration officials acted unethically, but did nothing illegal.
Now see you read this and it gives you hope. But then you read this next part and it kicks your hope in the nuts!
The poll was split nearly evenly on what respondents thought of Bush officials' ethical standards -- 51 percent saying they were excellent or good and 48 percent saying they were not good or poor.
51% think that this administration is ethical? Did somebody spell out for these hillbillies what ethical means? They lied to get us into war! They outed a CIA agent to punish her husband for telling the truth! They lied about knowing who leaked the information. Bush continues to send our soldiers to die even though we now know the war is a farce! This administration hides behind religious virtue to propagate crimes against their own country! For you students who arrived here on a short bus, that is unethical behavior!
Here this might help.
unethical
adj 1: not conforming to approved standards of social or professional behavior; "unethical business practices" 2: not adhering to ethical or moral principles; "base and unpatriotic motives"; "a base, degrading way of life"; "cheating is dishonorable"; "they considered colonialism immoral"; "unethical practices in handling public funds"
Any questions? Dumbasses!
Thirty-nine percent said some administration officials acted illegally in the matter, in which the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, was revealed.
The same percentage of respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said administration officials acted unethically, but did nothing illegal.
Now see you read this and it gives you hope. But then you read this next part and it kicks your hope in the nuts!
The poll was split nearly evenly on what respondents thought of Bush officials' ethical standards -- 51 percent saying they were excellent or good and 48 percent saying they were not good or poor.
51% think that this administration is ethical? Did somebody spell out for these hillbillies what ethical means? They lied to get us into war! They outed a CIA agent to punish her husband for telling the truth! They lied about knowing who leaked the information. Bush continues to send our soldiers to die even though we now know the war is a farce! This administration hides behind religious virtue to propagate crimes against their own country! For you students who arrived here on a short bus, that is unethical behavior!
Here this might help.
unethical
adj 1: not conforming to approved standards of social or professional behavior; "unethical business practices" 2: not adhering to ethical or moral principles; "base and unpatriotic motives"; "a base, degrading way of life"; "cheating is dishonorable"; "they considered colonialism immoral"; "unethical practices in handling public funds"
Any questions? Dumbasses!
I have a lobbyist? Cool!
The Secular Coalition for America has hired Lori Lipman Brown as its congressional lobbyist and national voice. Brown's main job? To educate the public about mistaken notions regarding atheists while making sure religion doesn't get a ringside seat at issue debates.
Brown started her new job in mid-September with a flurry of hot-button social issues roaming the national landscape, from staples like same-sex marriage and abortion to new ones like a federal trial dubbed "Scopes II," which looks at a school board's mandate that "intelligent design" be taught in Dover, Pennsylvania.
Brown plans to monitor several issues closely, including stem cell research, access to emergency contraception, physician-assisted suicide, school vouchers and faith-based initiatives. But her first foray into federal lobbying focused on an issue that caught the eye and ire of Brown: an education reauthorization bill that passed last month.
Hot damn! The Godless now have a voice on the hill! I actually don't have many personal issues that I would like to see addressed except, "born again" pharmacists who refuse to give women the "morning after pill", candidates for public office having to identify some religious affiliation to even have a chance to be elected, the teaching of "Intelligent Design"theory in public school science classes, and the religious rights strangle hold on this country! Okay I have a few issues.
Brown started her new job in mid-September with a flurry of hot-button social issues roaming the national landscape, from staples like same-sex marriage and abortion to new ones like a federal trial dubbed "Scopes II," which looks at a school board's mandate that "intelligent design" be taught in Dover, Pennsylvania.
Brown plans to monitor several issues closely, including stem cell research, access to emergency contraception, physician-assisted suicide, school vouchers and faith-based initiatives. But her first foray into federal lobbying focused on an issue that caught the eye and ire of Brown: an education reauthorization bill that passed last month.
Hot damn! The Godless now have a voice on the hill! I actually don't have many personal issues that I would like to see addressed except, "born again" pharmacists who refuse to give women the "morning after pill", candidates for public office having to identify some religious affiliation to even have a chance to be elected, the teaching of "Intelligent Design"theory in public school science classes, and the religious rights strangle hold on this country! Okay I have a few issues.
Happy 35th Birthday Zonker!
As I have mentioned before Doonesbury bears much of the responsibility for politicizing me and it is very relevant 25 years after I first discovered the pocketbooks while looking for reading material for my plane ride to college. Doonesbury blazed the trail that is now being turned into a comedy highway by televison shows like "The Daily Show" and "Real Time".
Garry Trudeau raised political satire to an art form and we are forever in his debt.
Long live Doonebury!
Garry Trudeau raised political satire to an art form and we are forever in his debt.
Long live Doonebury!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Wil it be Rove? Libby? Cheney? Who, oh who, will be indicted tomorrow. I am going to bed early tonight so that tomorrow comes faster!
Bracing for indictments against top aides, the White House on Tuesday rallied behind Vice President Dick Cheney but refused to answer questions about whether he told his chief of staff about the CIA officer at the heart of a two-year leak investigation.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan would neither confirm nor deny a report in The New York Times that Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, first learned about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, in a conversation with the vice president on June 12, 2003, weeks before her identity became public in a newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.
President George W. Bush ignored a shouted question about Cheney's role amid growing signs that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will seek charges as early as Wednesday, when the grand jury is scheduled to reconvene.
In addition to Libby, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, could be indicted, as well as others, lawyers close to the case said.
Scurry, scurry, little liars you will find no place to hide.
Once you ruled, but now you're doomed, you shouldn't ever have lied.
Justice comes for those who sin and now it comes for you.
Your God has turned his back on you and the devil wants his due.
And once you are gone we have much to do you have left an incredible mess.
But you didn't care, it did not matter much, because it wasn't on a dress.
Yep. I am sooo keeping my day job.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan would neither confirm nor deny a report in The New York Times that Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, first learned about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, in a conversation with the vice president on June 12, 2003, weeks before her identity became public in a newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.
President George W. Bush ignored a shouted question about Cheney's role amid growing signs that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will seek charges as early as Wednesday, when the grand jury is scheduled to reconvene.
In addition to Libby, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, could be indicted, as well as others, lawyers close to the case said.
Scurry, scurry, little liars you will find no place to hide.
Once you ruled, but now you're doomed, you shouldn't ever have lied.
Justice comes for those who sin and now it comes for you.
Your God has turned his back on you and the devil wants his due.
And once you are gone we have much to do you have left an incredible mess.
But you didn't care, it did not matter much, because it wasn't on a dress.
Yep. I am sooo keeping my day job.
American death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000!
According to CNN we have reached this bloody milestone in our criminal war.
That is 2,000 young American lives that have been lost for a lie!
2,000 families that have ben stabbed through the heart by this administration.
How many more? How many more lives will it take to satisfy this God of destruction? How many more before George Bush can go to sleep at night satisfied that he has become a historic president by standing on the corpses of his fellow Americans. How many?
And how many Iraqi's have been lost to this behemoth? How many children swallowed up by our greed and careless destruction?
Too many! Too fucking many!
That is 2,000 young American lives that have been lost for a lie!
2,000 families that have ben stabbed through the heart by this administration.
How many more? How many more lives will it take to satisfy this God of destruction? How many more before George Bush can go to sleep at night satisfied that he has become a historic president by standing on the corpses of his fellow Americans. How many?
And how many Iraqi's have been lost to this behemoth? How many children swallowed up by our greed and careless destruction?
Too many! Too fucking many!
Monday, October 24, 2005
The White House threatens to sue "The Onion". Hah hah. That's a joke right? Right?
"It has come to my attention that The Onion is using the presidential seal on its Web site," Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel to the president, wrote to The Onion on Sept. 28. (At the time, Mr. Dixton's office was also helping Mr. Bush find a Supreme Court nominee; days later his boss, Harriet E. Miers, was nominated.)
Citing the United States Code, Mr. Dixton wrote that the seal "is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement."
Well this is fucking sad.
Somebody needs to go and calmly explain to the White House what a joke is. "It is what your boss has made of this presidency."
Citing the United States Code, Mr. Dixton wrote that the seal "is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement."
Well this is fucking sad.
Somebody needs to go and calmly explain to the White House what a joke is. "It is what your boss has made of this presidency."
Jon Stewart loves my Blog! (Okay he just likes blogs in general but one can hope.)
I am full of love for Jon Stewart! He is so cool! And he is the best governor ever! Uh...well he is great on his show.
I am also a big fan of Bill Maher and he always gets several big laughs out of me on Friday nights. But Jon is something special! He has a sneaky way of making you think that he is simply poking fun at a subject and all the while he is educating your loser ass.
Here is his take on blogging;
Responding to question from a student who wondered how to get news outside of the mainstream media:
"You've already done it" through blogs, which Stewart called "agile and nimble." He added: "Now all you have to do is figure out how to get more porn on them."
"Some blogs are written really well, some are written by people who were given a jar of Ritalin and allowed to write as long as they can."
"I believe in the 12 percent theory of goodness...that 12 percent of things are good and the rest is crap. Same for blogs: 12 percent are written really well and the rest is just maturbating by their keyboard...not that there's anything wrong with that."
See! That is totally about me! I am the Ritalin guy! And for Jon's information I have to take Ritalin to masturbate or else I would keep getting distracted and forget what I was just doing.
Oh and Jon hates the war;
"I don't know if he's the worst president ever. I do know that the Iraq war was one of the most egregious mistakes we've ever made."
Uh Jon, I hate to correct you brother but....of course he is the worst president ever!
I am also a big fan of Bill Maher and he always gets several big laughs out of me on Friday nights. But Jon is something special! He has a sneaky way of making you think that he is simply poking fun at a subject and all the while he is educating your loser ass.
Here is his take on blogging;
Responding to question from a student who wondered how to get news outside of the mainstream media:
"You've already done it" through blogs, which Stewart called "agile and nimble." He added: "Now all you have to do is figure out how to get more porn on them."
"Some blogs are written really well, some are written by people who were given a jar of Ritalin and allowed to write as long as they can."
"I believe in the 12 percent theory of goodness...that 12 percent of things are good and the rest is crap. Same for blogs: 12 percent are written really well and the rest is just maturbating by their keyboard...not that there's anything wrong with that."
See! That is totally about me! I am the Ritalin guy! And for Jon's information I have to take Ritalin to masturbate or else I would keep getting distracted and forget what I was just doing.
Oh and Jon hates the war;
"I don't know if he's the worst president ever. I do know that the Iraq war was one of the most egregious mistakes we've ever made."
Uh Jon, I hate to correct you brother but....of course he is the worst president ever!
America, a superpower no more!
The president of the United States is uniformly projected as a fool, anti-freedom, anti-science, anti-common sense. Sometimes unwitting, sometimes witting.
"Superpower" is dead by most definitions, except for the one used to describe both the Soviet Union and the United States in the good old days -- that is, possession of huge stores of weapons of mass destruction. Luckily, most of those mocking us and our works night after night have not reached the point of suggesting we are going to use those weapons. They are pretty useless right now.
The single-superpower model lasted little more than a decade. In fact, when a single superpower is mentioned around here, folks are often talking about China rather than the USA.
I have mentioned this several times before right here on the website that brings you truth and nothing but the truth. (Well sometimes it brings you rumors and nothing but the rumors.)
We have lost the standing that we once held in the world and our fall from power will go down in history as the direct result of the policies of George W. Bush. This is a president who has often stated his confidence that history will vindicate his decisions.
Well Mr. President, history is here. And what does the history of this presidency illustrate? Corruption, impulsivity, inadequate understanding of other cultures, ignorance of science, an adherence to a radical form of worship, ego, arrogance, etc, etc, etc,.
George Bush you are finished here. You have done an unimaginable amount of damage and left your successor a mess too large to ever repair in one term. You are the proverbial bull is the china shop. And the china shop was America.
"Superpower" is dead by most definitions, except for the one used to describe both the Soviet Union and the United States in the good old days -- that is, possession of huge stores of weapons of mass destruction. Luckily, most of those mocking us and our works night after night have not reached the point of suggesting we are going to use those weapons. They are pretty useless right now.
The single-superpower model lasted little more than a decade. In fact, when a single superpower is mentioned around here, folks are often talking about China rather than the USA.
I have mentioned this several times before right here on the website that brings you truth and nothing but the truth. (Well sometimes it brings you rumors and nothing but the rumors.)
We have lost the standing that we once held in the world and our fall from power will go down in history as the direct result of the policies of George W. Bush. This is a president who has often stated his confidence that history will vindicate his decisions.
Well Mr. President, history is here. And what does the history of this presidency illustrate? Corruption, impulsivity, inadequate understanding of other cultures, ignorance of science, an adherence to a radical form of worship, ego, arrogance, etc, etc, etc,.
George Bush you are finished here. You have done an unimaginable amount of damage and left your successor a mess too large to ever repair in one term. You are the proverbial bull is the china shop. And the china shop was America.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
If ever there was a title invented just for me it would be this one: Ubersexual.
Now, however, maleness has hit back, she says. While metrosexuals were obsessed with self-image and lifestyle, the übersexual is politically aware and passionate about real world causes. The metrosexual has women who are his best friends, while the übersexual respects women but retains men as his closest confidants. The metrosexual grooms his hair: the übersexual grooms his mind. The metrosexual reads Vogue and Cosmo, the übersexual the Economist and the New Yorker.
Ah yes it fits like a tailored suit. So who are my famous counterparts?
Their übersexual counterparts include George Clooney, Donald Trump, Pierce Brosnan and Bill Clinton, who are fashionable and wear tasteful clothes, but are unashamedly masculine, not least in their often complicated and very heterosexual lifestyles. Salzman's book proclaims the world's leading übersexual as the rock star and anti-poverty campaigner Bono.
'Ubersexuals are the most attractive and compelling men of their generations. They are confident, masculine and stylish,' she said.
Good no more shaving my back! Red meat, Beer, and Porn are on the menu for tonight. Life is good.
Ah yes it fits like a tailored suit. So who are my famous counterparts?
Their übersexual counterparts include George Clooney, Donald Trump, Pierce Brosnan and Bill Clinton, who are fashionable and wear tasteful clothes, but are unashamedly masculine, not least in their often complicated and very heterosexual lifestyles. Salzman's book proclaims the world's leading übersexual as the rock star and anti-poverty campaigner Bono.
'Ubersexuals are the most attractive and compelling men of their generations. They are confident, masculine and stylish,' she said.
Good no more shaving my back! Red meat, Beer, and Porn are on the menu for tonight. Life is good.
Director of "March of the Penguins" says that Creationists don't get the film
The director hit back at the commentators he believes have wilfully misread his film. “If you want an example of monogamy, penguins are not a good choice,” Luc Jacquet told The Times. “The divorce rate in emperor penguins is 80 to 90 per cent each year,” he said. “After they see the chick is OK, most of them divorce. They change every year.”
NI_MPU('middle');
In fact the rate is substantially worse than the American divorce rate, which is about 50 per cent.
Mr Jacquet, who has never made a film for the cinema before, is concerned that his documentary has been hijacked. “It does annoy me to a certain degree,” he said. “For me there is no doubt about evolution. I am a scientist. The intelligent design theory is a step back to the thinking of 300 years ago. My film is not supposed to be interpreted in this way. Some scientists I know find the film interesting because it can be a good argument against intelligent design. People should not jump on these bandwagons.”
You know if these people would study science rather then sit around finding fault with it, they might actually have some idea of what the hell they are talking about.
This shit cracks me up sometimes.
NI_MPU('middle');
In fact the rate is substantially worse than the American divorce rate, which is about 50 per cent.
Mr Jacquet, who has never made a film for the cinema before, is concerned that his documentary has been hijacked. “It does annoy me to a certain degree,” he said. “For me there is no doubt about evolution. I am a scientist. The intelligent design theory is a step back to the thinking of 300 years ago. My film is not supposed to be interpreted in this way. Some scientists I know find the film interesting because it can be a good argument against intelligent design. People should not jump on these bandwagons.”
You know if these people would study science rather then sit around finding fault with it, they might actually have some idea of what the hell they are talking about.
This shit cracks me up sometimes.
I think I may have been insulted here.
Did you ever find out something about yourself that you did not know and you do not like. Well I did.
You were born in a Year of the Rat!
Well that really increases my self esteem. The most troubling part is how accurately this astrological sign seems to reflect my personality.
The socially adept Rat possesses charisma, charm, intelligence, and the ability to verbally exchange their eclectic knowledge. Sociable and romantic with complex emotions, those born into this 1st sign of the Eastern zodiac form deep emotional ties with others. The always thrifty Rat, counts their pennies and knows how to spot a bargain. Impatient with those of slower wit or actions, this soul needs a bright partner willing to lend an ear with a good sense of humor. The talkative Rat is also a natural writer and critic with an eye for details. High-strung, curious, and ever alert to their environment, the essence of this curious and intellectual sign is 'concealment'. Rats gather strength during the midnight hours they rule, between 11:00pm - 1:00am.
Ooooh spooky! Here go find yours.
You were born in a Year of the Rat!
Well that really increases my self esteem. The most troubling part is how accurately this astrological sign seems to reflect my personality.
The socially adept Rat possesses charisma, charm, intelligence, and the ability to verbally exchange their eclectic knowledge. Sociable and romantic with complex emotions, those born into this 1st sign of the Eastern zodiac form deep emotional ties with others. The always thrifty Rat, counts their pennies and knows how to spot a bargain. Impatient with those of slower wit or actions, this soul needs a bright partner willing to lend an ear with a good sense of humor. The talkative Rat is also a natural writer and critic with an eye for details. High-strung, curious, and ever alert to their environment, the essence of this curious and intellectual sign is 'concealment'. Rats gather strength during the midnight hours they rule, between 11:00pm - 1:00am.
Ooooh spooky! Here go find yours.
65% of Iraqi's support attacking our soldiers
The poll, undertaken for the Ministry of Defence and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.
It demonstrates for the first time the true strength of anti-Western feeling in Iraq after more than two and a half years of bloody occupation.
The nationwide survey also suggests that the coalition has lost the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which Tony Blair and George W Bush believed was fundamental to creating a safe and secure country.
I don’t think that it gets much clearer then this. We have done our damage, and staying in Iraq will really only increase the negative impact that we have on that region. It is long past the time to move out.
It demonstrates for the first time the true strength of anti-Western feeling in Iraq after more than two and a half years of bloody occupation.
The nationwide survey also suggests that the coalition has lost the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which Tony Blair and George W Bush believed was fundamental to creating a safe and secure country.
I don’t think that it gets much clearer then this. We have done our damage, and staying in Iraq will really only increase the negative impact that we have on that region. It is long past the time to move out.
SNL outed FOX news as a Bush White House fanzine.
Did you see SNL last night? I rarely watch the show anymore (having been spoiled by a much superior cast lo those many years ago) but they were dead on in their portrayal of Brit Hume and the rest of Fox’s sycophantic behavior when it comes to this administration. They did a hilarious send up of Bush’s poorly rehearsed Q & A with the troops in Iraq.
Hopefully somebody will post this for those who missed it to see.
Hopefully somebody will post this for those who missed it to see.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Cindy Sheehan left a post at Common Dreams that made me cry. I hate to cry alone. Your turn.
I received this e-mail today from a distraught Gold Star Mother:
How?
I have so many questions.....How I do I stop the vulgar pain in my chest? How do I do this? How I do I continue to breathe but cannot live? How do I do this? How do I keep my soul in my body? How do I do this? How do I close my eyes wondering if sleep should come but yet knowing if I sleep I will awaken to know this is not a nightmare but my life? How do I do this? How do I love someone with my every being but cannot ever hold him again? How do I do this? How do I go on without that sweet face that brought more joy to my life than I ever deserve never be seen by my eyes again? How do I do this? How do I stop the scream that no one hears but me? How do I do this? PLEASE TELL ME...how do I live without my child, my son, my heart, my soul, my joy, my validation to my life...Please tell me ...how do I do this? How does the world go on without Steven....how do I do this?
*****
I received this e-mail yesterday from a mom who doesn't "qualify" to be a Gold Star Mother (from the other org., she does belong to GSFP) because her son committed suicide. He suffered horribly from PTSD.
Hi,
He (Gov. Mitt Romney, R-MA) was asked about his five boys and his answer was that they were grown, with families and they made their own choices. He then reminded everyone that our children chose to enlist. Aggressively recruited would be a better phrase. And then not told the truth, only to discover like my son that he had made a big mistake. He went on to say that he had attended all the funerals. Kevin said simple, no you haven't... Both Kevin and Debbie felt that the wall was up and that no change of attitude would be forthcoming from our Bush "yes" man. On the positive side his chief of staff spoke to Kevin privately about veteran affairs and that they would like to improve the system.
I find that I can't get Jeffrey out of my mind. I can see him at 11- 12 years old jumping in the car, when I'd pick him up at a friends. It's so real...it's almost like you can reach out and touch him. What a world of hell this administration has put us in. One we will live in all the rest of our days...
How?
I have so many questions.....How I do I stop the vulgar pain in my chest? How do I do this? How I do I continue to breathe but cannot live? How do I do this? How do I keep my soul in my body? How do I do this? How do I close my eyes wondering if sleep should come but yet knowing if I sleep I will awaken to know this is not a nightmare but my life? How do I do this? How do I love someone with my every being but cannot ever hold him again? How do I do this? How do I go on without that sweet face that brought more joy to my life than I ever deserve never be seen by my eyes again? How do I do this? How do I stop the scream that no one hears but me? How do I do this? PLEASE TELL ME...how do I live without my child, my son, my heart, my soul, my joy, my validation to my life...Please tell me ...how do I do this? How does the world go on without Steven....how do I do this?
*****
I received this e-mail yesterday from a mom who doesn't "qualify" to be a Gold Star Mother (from the other org., she does belong to GSFP) because her son committed suicide. He suffered horribly from PTSD.
Hi,
He (Gov. Mitt Romney, R-MA) was asked about his five boys and his answer was that they were grown, with families and they made their own choices. He then reminded everyone that our children chose to enlist. Aggressively recruited would be a better phrase. And then not told the truth, only to discover like my son that he had made a big mistake. He went on to say that he had attended all the funerals. Kevin said simple, no you haven't... Both Kevin and Debbie felt that the wall was up and that no change of attitude would be forthcoming from our Bush "yes" man. On the positive side his chief of staff spoke to Kevin privately about veteran affairs and that they would like to improve the system.
I find that I can't get Jeffrey out of my mind. I can see him at 11- 12 years old jumping in the car, when I'd pick him up at a friends. It's so real...it's almost like you can reach out and touch him. What a world of hell this administration has put us in. One we will live in all the rest of our days...
Our young people aren't numbers. Our young people are confined to early graves because of criminals who should be confined to prison that are profiting handsomely from the undeclared mess in Iraq. The Iraqi people are less than numbers. If they are counted or thought of at all, they are very often wrongly counted as "insurgents" when they are children and women.
If mere numbers will wake America up, think of Don and Condi when they say that this occupation could last at least a dozen or more years.
What number are you comfortable with? One was too much for me.
I can barely make myself read these letters and Cindy's response because their emotion is so raw and palpable that it breaks my heart. I feel so blessed that I do not have a child in peril in this war. However I feel that my entire country is in peril because of this war. We must fight to spare these young lives and in turn spare our country.
The time to act is now!
Hannity desperately tries to take the heat off of his buddy Karl Rove by attacking the Clintons. WTF?
It was inevitable that Hannity would find a way to bring the Clintons into the Rove legal scenario. He couldn't find a way to blame them directly but he tried to make the Clinton's legal problems worse than Rove's while suggesting that they were given legal breaks. 10/21/05
Hannity was urging and at times pleading with his radio audience to fight back suggesting that Karl Rove is getting a raw deal.
Simplifying Rove's legal situation, Hannity concluded that he was in trouble because he couldn't remember specific conversations. Hannity asked his listeners if they could remember stuff that happened two years ago trying to get them to see Rove as a victim.
Then he came up with his Clinton comparison claiming that Hillary Clinton said that she didn't recall something 200 times during her Whitewater testimony and Bill Clinton used the excuse 265 times in one questioning. Hannity's tone and rhetoric carefully but clearly implied that the Clintons are the real criminals but they weren't forced to answer any questions like Rove.
comment: Hannity just can't believe that his great empire may be crumbling. He was the White House main man during the last campaign getting the exclusive interviews with Bush and Cheney. After the debates, Karen Hughes chose Hannity for the first spin session and the Swiftboat Vets had free reign on H&C. Why even Karl Rove gave him a phone interview when Bush was kicking off the Social Security campaign. Is Hannity's heady time about to end? No wonder he wants to fight back.
Sniff. Sniff. Do you smell that? Smells just like desperation. I deem it a good smell.
Hannity was urging and at times pleading with his radio audience to fight back suggesting that Karl Rove is getting a raw deal.
Simplifying Rove's legal situation, Hannity concluded that he was in trouble because he couldn't remember specific conversations. Hannity asked his listeners if they could remember stuff that happened two years ago trying to get them to see Rove as a victim.
Then he came up with his Clinton comparison claiming that Hillary Clinton said that she didn't recall something 200 times during her Whitewater testimony and Bill Clinton used the excuse 265 times in one questioning. Hannity's tone and rhetoric carefully but clearly implied that the Clintons are the real criminals but they weren't forced to answer any questions like Rove.
comment: Hannity just can't believe that his great empire may be crumbling. He was the White House main man during the last campaign getting the exclusive interviews with Bush and Cheney. After the debates, Karen Hughes chose Hannity for the first spin session and the Swiftboat Vets had free reign on H&C. Why even Karl Rove gave him a phone interview when Bush was kicking off the Social Security campaign. Is Hannity's heady time about to end? No wonder he wants to fight back.
Sniff. Sniff. Do you smell that? Smells just like desperation. I deem it a good smell.
I have found the perfect way to lose these last stubborn pounds.
Kerry McCloskey: The Ultimate Sex Diet
This sounds exactly like what I need!
Oh, I guess I need a partner.
There is always a catch.
This sounds exactly like what I need!
Oh, I guess I need a partner.
There is always a catch.
I totally had this idea when I worked as an editor on my yearbook at my school.
A photo spread of partially nude students posing for a Torrey Pines High School literary publication has prompted the parents of a 16-year-old girl pictured in the magazine to file a $1.5 million claim against the school district yesterday.
I don't think that I seriously thought that I would get away with putting the pictures in our school yearbook but I did have some tasteful scantily clad photos of two willing subjects. Anyway when our assistant principal got wind of the idea he called me down to the office (a place I was intimately familiar with) and told me, in no uncertain terms, that there would be no cheesecake in our schools yearbook. Sheesh! He wouldn't even look at the photos to see how tasteful they were.
We had very successful yearbook sales that year, but I always thought that I could have marketed them to other schools if I could have included those "artistic" photos. We could have made a mint!
I don't think that I seriously thought that I would get away with putting the pictures in our school yearbook but I did have some tasteful scantily clad photos of two willing subjects. Anyway when our assistant principal got wind of the idea he called me down to the office (a place I was intimately familiar with) and told me, in no uncertain terms, that there would be no cheesecake in our schools yearbook. Sheesh! He wouldn't even look at the photos to see how tasteful they were.
We had very successful yearbook sales that year, but I always thought that I could have marketed them to other schools if I could have included those "artistic" photos. We could have made a mint!
Two wars are not enough so George Bush wants to start some shit with Syria.
Mr. Bush was not specific about what steps the international community should take against Syria. He said the United States has started talking with U.N. officials and with Arab governments.
"Today a serious report came out that requires the world to look at very carefully and respond accordingly," Mr. Bush said.
Syria hotly dismissed the report and geared up to fight growing Western sentiment to punish it with economic sanctions.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier Friday that Syria must be held accountable for the slayings. "Accountability is going to be very important for the international community," she said.
Does anybody else have the unshakeable feeling that they have seen this movie before?
And doesn't Bush remind you of the schoolyard bully constantly taking every accidental bump or sideways glance as a reason to call the other kid out?
"You want a piece of me? I will see you in the parking lot after school!" Of course then he shows up with all of his buddies in tow. Essentially King George is picking fights for others to fight and die in.
"Today a serious report came out that requires the world to look at very carefully and respond accordingly," Mr. Bush said.
Syria hotly dismissed the report and geared up to fight growing Western sentiment to punish it with economic sanctions.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier Friday that Syria must be held accountable for the slayings. "Accountability is going to be very important for the international community," she said.
Does anybody else have the unshakeable feeling that they have seen this movie before?
And doesn't Bush remind you of the schoolyard bully constantly taking every accidental bump or sideways glance as a reason to call the other kid out?
"You want a piece of me? I will see you in the parking lot after school!" Of course then he shows up with all of his buddies in tow. Essentially King George is picking fights for others to fight and die in.
Friday, October 21, 2005
FOX's Shepard Smith is gay? Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Shepard Smith, who hosts a popular program on Fox News and received widespread praise for his work covering Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, also dodges questions about his sexual orientation.
Smith once chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place. When I declined, he asked me to dinner the next night, another invitation I politely refused.
We sat at the bar chatting and drinking martinis until 3 a.m., our conversation interrupted only when he paused to belt out the lyrics to whatever showtune was being performed.
Okay I don't know who this Kevin Naff guy is and he may be just making this whole thing up. But he talks about suspicions that Anderson Cooper has been rumored to be gay as well, and if he was going to fabricate a flirtatious episode wouldn't he be more likely to choose Cooper as the protaganist over Shepard Smith? I mean look at Andersons dreamy eyes. No contest.
Smith once chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place. When I declined, he asked me to dinner the next night, another invitation I politely refused.
We sat at the bar chatting and drinking martinis until 3 a.m., our conversation interrupted only when he paused to belt out the lyrics to whatever showtune was being performed.
Okay I don't know who this Kevin Naff guy is and he may be just making this whole thing up. But he talks about suspicions that Anderson Cooper has been rumored to be gay as well, and if he was going to fabricate a flirtatious episode wouldn't he be more likely to choose Cooper as the protaganist over Shepard Smith? I mean look at Andersons dreamy eyes. No contest.
My senator threatens to throw a HUGE fit if they try and take away our truckloads of highway money.
A freshman senator from Oklahoma, saying he was answering America's call to stop wasteful spending, tried Thursday to divert $452 million from two massive Alaska bridge projects and spend some of it on a hurricane-damaged bridge in New Orleans.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment to rescind federal money from the Knik and Gravina bridges won him the fury of Sen. Ted Stevens and only a smattering of votes.
His attempt failed 82-15 after fist-pounding arguments from Stevens, R-Alaska.
Stevens threatened to quit, to become a "wounded bull on the floor of this Senate," and he vowed that if his colleagues passed the bill, "I will be taken out of here on a stretcher."
"I will put the Senate on notice -- and I don't kid people -- if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from our state, I'll resign from this body," he said. "This is not the Senate I came to. This is not the Senate I've devoted 37 years to, if one senator can decide he'll take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another."
Oh snap! That will teach that young whippersnapper to go against our Uncle Ted. One thing you can say about Ted Stevens is that he always so dignified in how he deals with the opposition. He always maintains his cool.
Besides that the bridges do not go to "nowhere". One goes to Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is not "nowhere". It is right next to nowhere.
The other bridge actually does go to "nowhere". But the hope is that once we build the bridge then "nowhere" will become "somewhere".
You see you have to think big. Big and expensive. That is the Alaskan way.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment to rescind federal money from the Knik and Gravina bridges won him the fury of Sen. Ted Stevens and only a smattering of votes.
His attempt failed 82-15 after fist-pounding arguments from Stevens, R-Alaska.
Stevens threatened to quit, to become a "wounded bull on the floor of this Senate," and he vowed that if his colleagues passed the bill, "I will be taken out of here on a stretcher."
"I will put the Senate on notice -- and I don't kid people -- if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from our state, I'll resign from this body," he said. "This is not the Senate I came to. This is not the Senate I've devoted 37 years to, if one senator can decide he'll take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another."
Oh snap! That will teach that young whippersnapper to go against our Uncle Ted. One thing you can say about Ted Stevens is that he always so dignified in how he deals with the opposition. He always maintains his cool.
Besides that the bridges do not go to "nowhere". One goes to Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is not "nowhere". It is right next to nowhere.
The other bridge actually does go to "nowhere". But the hope is that once we build the bridge then "nowhere" will become "somewhere".
You see you have to think big. Big and expensive. That is the Alaskan way.
Religious tolerance under attack again! I for one am incensed at this censorship, aren't you? Oh by the way, she is a Witch.
"She also believes in witchcraft and paints her windows in her classroom black. Halloween is her favorite holiday and she doesn't hide the fact she prefers the dark side."
Sounds like a girl I'd like to party with. Now this really demonstrates the hypocrisy that surrounds those Christians who constantly beat the drums about religious freedoms in our public schools. They desperately want for their set of values ad beliefs to be represented in our schools but absolutely freak out when another, less accepted, religious belief asks for equal time.
You cannot have it both ways. Either you keep all references to religion out of the schools, or you open the door to Hindu beliefs, Buddhist beliefs, Sikh beliefs, Shinto beliefs, Taoist beliefs, Pagan beliefs, etc, etc, etc. If they don't want to accept this then they need to shut up!
Can you imagine how many school holidays there would be? These kids would never learn a thing.
Sounds like a girl I'd like to party with. Now this really demonstrates the hypocrisy that surrounds those Christians who constantly beat the drums about religious freedoms in our public schools. They desperately want for their set of values ad beliefs to be represented in our schools but absolutely freak out when another, less accepted, religious belief asks for equal time.
You cannot have it both ways. Either you keep all references to religion out of the schools, or you open the door to Hindu beliefs, Buddhist beliefs, Sikh beliefs, Shinto beliefs, Taoist beliefs, Pagan beliefs, etc, etc, etc. If they don't want to accept this then they need to shut up!
Can you imagine how many school holidays there would be? These kids would never learn a thing.
Creationist finds scientific definitions too confining and so he changes them. Good news, Astrology is now a scientific theory.
Dr. Michael Behe, leading intellectual light of the intelligent design movement, faced a dilemma.
In order to call intelligent design a "scientific theory," he had to change the definition of the term.
It seemed the definition offered by the National Academy of Science, the largest and most prestigious organization of scientists in the Western world, was inadequate to contain the scope and splendor and just plain gee-willigerness of intelligent design.
So he devised his own definition of theory, expanding upon the definition of those stuck-in-the-21st-century scientists, those scientists who ridicule him and call his "theory" creationism in a cheap suit.
He'd show them. He'd come up with his own definition.
Details aside, his definition was broader and more inclusive of ideas that are "outside the box."
So, as we learned Tuesday, during Day 11 of the Dover Panda Trial, under his definition of a scientific theory, astrology would be a scientific theory.
Can he do that?
Hey if you are going to challenge the legitimacy of a scientific theory and introduce your own. you are going to have to use the definitions used by scientists in this and every other field of research. If you want to play with the big boys you re going to have to stop your whining and pull up your short pants and get into the game. Pansy.
On the other hand wouldn't a college course in Astrology be kind of fun? I am surprised Berkley doesn't already have one.
In order to call intelligent design a "scientific theory," he had to change the definition of the term.
It seemed the definition offered by the National Academy of Science, the largest and most prestigious organization of scientists in the Western world, was inadequate to contain the scope and splendor and just plain gee-willigerness of intelligent design.
So he devised his own definition of theory, expanding upon the definition of those stuck-in-the-21st-century scientists, those scientists who ridicule him and call his "theory" creationism in a cheap suit.
He'd show them. He'd come up with his own definition.
Details aside, his definition was broader and more inclusive of ideas that are "outside the box."
So, as we learned Tuesday, during Day 11 of the Dover Panda Trial, under his definition of a scientific theory, astrology would be a scientific theory.
Can he do that?
Hey if you are going to challenge the legitimacy of a scientific theory and introduce your own. you are going to have to use the definitions used by scientists in this and every other field of research. If you want to play with the big boys you re going to have to stop your whining and pull up your short pants and get into the game. Pansy.
On the other hand wouldn't a college course in Astrology be kind of fun? I am surprised Berkley doesn't already have one.
Karen Hughes gets bitchslapped by some foreign bitches.
"Why does America always act as if they were the police of the world?," Barikatul Hikmah, a 20-year-old student at the Syarif Hidayatullah University asked Hughes.
Lailatul Qadar, a petite 19-year-old student wearing colorful headscarves, added: "It's Bush in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and maybe it's going to be in Indonesia, I don't know. Who's the terrorist? Bush or us?"
You know I actually believe that if Karen Hughes were to go to meet with women in a neutral setting in America she would hear the very same points being raised. People are not stupid! (With the exception of the morons who voted for George Bush TWICE!) They are noticing that this administration is filled with the worst kind of hypocrites. We preach peace and yet declare war on a whim. We bully the rest of the world and want to be excused because we have only the best of intentions. The world knows us for what we are, terrorists!
What else could we be callled? We threaten and abuse people in other countries. We bomb their homes, kill their children, and imprison and humiliate their men. We impose our will on them and then levy sanctions when they do not bend to our will.
What is it that Pogo said? "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
Lailatul Qadar, a petite 19-year-old student wearing colorful headscarves, added: "It's Bush in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and maybe it's going to be in Indonesia, I don't know. Who's the terrorist? Bush or us?"
You know I actually believe that if Karen Hughes were to go to meet with women in a neutral setting in America she would hear the very same points being raised. People are not stupid! (With the exception of the morons who voted for George Bush TWICE!) They are noticing that this administration is filled with the worst kind of hypocrites. We preach peace and yet declare war on a whim. We bully the rest of the world and want to be excused because we have only the best of intentions. The world knows us for what we are, terrorists!
What else could we be callled? We threaten and abuse people in other countries. We bomb their homes, kill their children, and imprison and humiliate their men. We impose our will on them and then levy sanctions when they do not bend to our will.
What is it that Pogo said? "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
George Bush has no idea what the American people want.
George Bush, and his presidency, are backed against the ropes taking shot after shot to the bread basket so one would assume that there is an awakening happening at the White House. There is not.
What this President does not seem to understand is that his decisions, his policy, are completely responsible for the trouble that he finds himself in today. Yet this is how he responds to a reporter's question in the Rose Garden.
Bush implicitly acknowledged the distractions in answer to a reporter's question during a Rose Garden appearance with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday, while reassuring the public that he remained focused on the pressing matters of state facing his White House.
"There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining," Bush said. "But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."
No we don't! I am the American people and I would very much like you to stop doing anything. Just sit there and wait to be impeached like a good little lame duck President. Everything you touch turns to shit! I don't want you appointing, signing, promoting, campaigning, meeting, traveling, or anything else which might further damage my country.
I want George Bush locked in a room without a phone and with one televison that only gets CNN and "The Daily Show".
Then after you have been removed from office I would like one of those presidential historians to sit him down and describe in graphic detail how completely you destroyed the reputation of the United States of America.
That is what I, an American, would like from George W. Bush.
What this President does not seem to understand is that his decisions, his policy, are completely responsible for the trouble that he finds himself in today. Yet this is how he responds to a reporter's question in the Rose Garden.
Bush implicitly acknowledged the distractions in answer to a reporter's question during a Rose Garden appearance with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday, while reassuring the public that he remained focused on the pressing matters of state facing his White House.
"There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining," Bush said. "But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."
No we don't! I am the American people and I would very much like you to stop doing anything. Just sit there and wait to be impeached like a good little lame duck President. Everything you touch turns to shit! I don't want you appointing, signing, promoting, campaigning, meeting, traveling, or anything else which might further damage my country.
I want George Bush locked in a room without a phone and with one televison that only gets CNN and "The Daily Show".
Then after you have been removed from office I would like one of those presidential historians to sit him down and describe in graphic detail how completely you destroyed the reputation of the United States of America.
That is what I, an American, would like from George W. Bush.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Thank God that MSNBC is using fact based reporting to keep the populace from panicking.
Apocalypse, now?
Katrina, other disasters fuel doomsday predictions
Is this responsible journalism? Oh they try to fix it later in the article.
So close is the correlation between recent events and the biblical prophecy of the Second Coming, by the reckoning of RaptureReady.com, its "Rapture Index" has been hovering around 160 — the highest levels since just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to the Web site, "the higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the ... rapture." When the number is above 145, it advises: "Fasten your seatbelts!"
Irwin Baxter, founder of End Times Ministries, is among those more focused on how Katrina and the other disasters, combined with key political indicators — including the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — point to an imminent apocalypse. "With all these converging at the same time, it looks to me we are very close to or just entered the (End Times)," says Baxter.
Well I know I feel better. Okay the world is ending I got it. But do we really have to let it ruin our day? Let us be lighthearted and gay. Oh wait, being gay might have something to do with all of these dire predictions.
Well fuck it, if I see the world coming to an end around me I am having sex with whoever is closest at hand. If it happens to be a guy, well then so be it.
Katrina, other disasters fuel doomsday predictions
Is this responsible journalism? Oh they try to fix it later in the article.
So close is the correlation between recent events and the biblical prophecy of the Second Coming, by the reckoning of RaptureReady.com, its "Rapture Index" has been hovering around 160 — the highest levels since just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to the Web site, "the higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the ... rapture." When the number is above 145, it advises: "Fasten your seatbelts!"
Irwin Baxter, founder of End Times Ministries, is among those more focused on how Katrina and the other disasters, combined with key political indicators — including the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — point to an imminent apocalypse. "With all these converging at the same time, it looks to me we are very close to or just entered the (End Times)," says Baxter.
Well I know I feel better. Okay the world is ending I got it. But do we really have to let it ruin our day? Let us be lighthearted and gay. Oh wait, being gay might have something to do with all of these dire predictions.
Well fuck it, if I see the world coming to an end around me I am having sex with whoever is closest at hand. If it happens to be a guy, well then so be it.
Delay's mugshot. I don't think the boy knows that he is in trouble!
You know Delay looks, for all the world, like one of those Sunday morning televangelists trying to swindle old ladies out of their retirement money. He is just going to love prison!
Former Powell aide exposes the rot inside the administration.
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
“Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences.”
Among his other charges:
■ The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was “a concrete example” of the decision-making problem, with the president and other top officials in effect giving the green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it.”
■ Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was “part of the problem”. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, “she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president”.
■ The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed, “start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam. . . and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel”.
Just another example of one of Bush's "Stepford aides" having an attack of conscience after getting away from the dark force that permeates this administration. One wonders how much more we are about to learn.
I think that there should be a twelve step program for ex-Bush administrative personnel. Their cathartic experience would be to divulge everything that they saw or did while working at the White House. Works for me.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
“Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences.”
Among his other charges:
■ The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was “a concrete example” of the decision-making problem, with the president and other top officials in effect giving the green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it.”
■ Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was “part of the problem”. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, “she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president”.
■ The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed, “start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam. . . and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel”.
Just another example of one of Bush's "Stepford aides" having an attack of conscience after getting away from the dark force that permeates this administration. One wonders how much more we are about to learn.
I think that there should be a twelve step program for ex-Bush administrative personnel. Their cathartic experience would be to divulge everything that they saw or did while working at the White House. Works for me.
Again I am shamed by my country.
US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban and taunted their opponents about the corpses, in an act deeply offensive to Muslims and in breach of the Geneva conventions.
An investigation by SBS's Dateline program, to be aired tonight, filmed the burning of the bodies.
It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban.
According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being "cowardly dogs". "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," the message reportedly said.
"You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."
The burning of a body is a deep insult to Muslims. Islam requires burial within 24 hours.
Under the Geneva conventions the burial of war dead "should be honourable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged".
US soldiers said they burnt the bodies for hygiene reasons but two reporters, Stephen Dupont and John Martinkus, said the explanation was unbelievable, given they were in an isolated area.
SBS said Australian special forces in Afghanistan were operating from the same base as the US soldiers involved in the incident, although no Australians took part in the action.
The incident is reminiscent of the psychological techniques used in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
This what is to be expected when you wage an immoral war.
An investigation by SBS's Dateline program, to be aired tonight, filmed the burning of the bodies.
It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban.
According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being "cowardly dogs". "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," the message reportedly said.
"You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."
The burning of a body is a deep insult to Muslims. Islam requires burial within 24 hours.
Under the Geneva conventions the burial of war dead "should be honourable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged".
US soldiers said they burnt the bodies for hygiene reasons but two reporters, Stephen Dupont and John Martinkus, said the explanation was unbelievable, given they were in an isolated area.
SBS said Australian special forces in Afghanistan were operating from the same base as the US soldiers involved in the incident, although no Australians took part in the action.
The incident is reminiscent of the psychological techniques used in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
This what is to be expected when you wage an immoral war.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Intelligent Design advocate claims that nobody says that God is necessarily the designer. Uh-huh then who are we talking about here?
Behe told the court Tuesday that while creationism is a religious concept, intelligent design is a scientific idea.
''Intelligent design … does not rely on any religious text,'' he said. ''It relies exclusively on physical information about nature and logical inferences.''
Behe testified Tuesday that intelligent design, unlike creationism, does not make references to religion or religious text. Although he said he believes that the intelligent designer is God, he said the intelligent design movement does not identify the designer and that there could be other causes.
Okay clearly this is a guy who is used to speaking in front of an intellectually stunted audience. For him to say that he believes that God is the designer, but that others who embrace Intelligent Design do not have to, is obviously rediculous on the face of it. Let's disassemble this a little.
The Intelligent Design theory needs two things. Intelligence and a designer. We have to believe that there is an entity that has an unfathomable intellectual capacity. He, or she, would have to have the brains to design everything from the most basic molecules to the laws of physics that would hold all of this together. He/she would also have to have an idea of what these creations were for, what their purpose was. He/she would have to be able to predict the changing needs of his/her experiment and how to facilitate that change.
Now accepting the possibility that such an entity might exist then there is another question which immediately follows that one. How?
What kind of organism would be capable of containing and controlling this unprecedented amount of energy? How large would it have to be? How would it use this power to shape the environment? I mean essentially if we buy the Christian account of creation then this creature can, with a thought, create mass by sheer force of will. How? Does he/she require basic materials and where do those come from? Or can it just make things up our of nothing? How does that work?
Okay now leaving that aside, there is another question. Where? Where does an entity with this amazing amount of power reside? Does he/she sleep? Where would it sleep? Does it eat? What does a God eat? Does it take up space? It must. From everything that we know about living vessels and how they function then this creature must be monstrous in size. He/she would literally need an entire galaxy to contain it's mass.
Then the next logical question is where did this entity come from? Was it born? Can it die? Is it the only one of its kind? That is a lot to swallow on faith. Every answer provided by these so called Intelligent Design scientists only leads to a plethora of unanswerable questions.
But let's give them the benefit of many of my doubts and accept that the Intelligent Design theory is not just a case of the old bait and switch game. Intelligent Design theory is possible and it does not necessarily have to mean that the designer is God.
So accepting all of this, then if it this is not God then who is it?
Is anybody else feeling a little dizzy?
''Intelligent design … does not rely on any religious text,'' he said. ''It relies exclusively on physical information about nature and logical inferences.''
Behe testified Tuesday that intelligent design, unlike creationism, does not make references to religion or religious text. Although he said he believes that the intelligent designer is God, he said the intelligent design movement does not identify the designer and that there could be other causes.
Okay clearly this is a guy who is used to speaking in front of an intellectually stunted audience. For him to say that he believes that God is the designer, but that others who embrace Intelligent Design do not have to, is obviously rediculous on the face of it. Let's disassemble this a little.
The Intelligent Design theory needs two things. Intelligence and a designer. We have to believe that there is an entity that has an unfathomable intellectual capacity. He, or she, would have to have the brains to design everything from the most basic molecules to the laws of physics that would hold all of this together. He/she would also have to have an idea of what these creations were for, what their purpose was. He/she would have to be able to predict the changing needs of his/her experiment and how to facilitate that change.
Now accepting the possibility that such an entity might exist then there is another question which immediately follows that one. How?
What kind of organism would be capable of containing and controlling this unprecedented amount of energy? How large would it have to be? How would it use this power to shape the environment? I mean essentially if we buy the Christian account of creation then this creature can, with a thought, create mass by sheer force of will. How? Does he/she require basic materials and where do those come from? Or can it just make things up our of nothing? How does that work?
Okay now leaving that aside, there is another question. Where? Where does an entity with this amazing amount of power reside? Does he/she sleep? Where would it sleep? Does it eat? What does a God eat? Does it take up space? It must. From everything that we know about living vessels and how they function then this creature must be monstrous in size. He/she would literally need an entire galaxy to contain it's mass.
Then the next logical question is where did this entity come from? Was it born? Can it die? Is it the only one of its kind? That is a lot to swallow on faith. Every answer provided by these so called Intelligent Design scientists only leads to a plethora of unanswerable questions.
But let's give them the benefit of many of my doubts and accept that the Intelligent Design theory is not just a case of the old bait and switch game. Intelligent Design theory is possible and it does not necessarily have to mean that the designer is God.
So accepting all of this, then if it this is not God then who is it?
Is anybody else feeling a little dizzy?
Warrant issued for Delay. One more time just for fun WARRANT ISSUED FOR DELAY!
A Texas court on Wednesday issued a warrant for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's arrest, and set an initial $10,000 bail as a routine step before his first court appearance on conspiracy and state money laundering charges.
Travis County court officials said DeLay was ordered to appear at the Fort Bend County, Texas, jail for booking, where he'd likely be fingerprinted and photographed. DeLay's lawyers had hoped to avoid such a spectacle.
The warrant, known as a capias, is "a matter of routine and bond will be posted," DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said.
The lawyer declined to say when DeLay would surrender to authorities but said the lawmaker would make his first court appearance Friday morning.
The charges against the Texas Republican stem from allegations that a DeLay-founded Texas political committee funneled corporate money into state GOP legislative races through the National Republican Party.
I just have to ask myself should I dig into my stocking first or start with the presents.
Travis County court officials said DeLay was ordered to appear at the Fort Bend County, Texas, jail for booking, where he'd likely be fingerprinted and photographed. DeLay's lawyers had hoped to avoid such a spectacle.
The warrant, known as a capias, is "a matter of routine and bond will be posted," DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said.
The lawyer declined to say when DeLay would surrender to authorities but said the lawmaker would make his first court appearance Friday morning.
The charges against the Texas Republican stem from allegations that a DeLay-founded Texas political committee funneled corporate money into state GOP legislative races through the National Republican Party.
I just have to ask myself should I dig into my stocking first or start with the presents.
Bush not angry at Karl Rove for being a traitor, just for being caught being a traitor.
Other sources confirmed, however, that Bush was initially furious with Rove in 2003 when his deputy chief of staff conceded he had talked to the press about the Plame leak.
Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.
But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussen tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.
A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.
"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way," the source said.
This does not surprise me in the slightest that this is what happened. I have no doubt that the White House is run entirely on the premise that "the ends justifies the means". I guess the only thing that I am surprised about is that somebody is willing to talk about this unbelievably unethical behavior. These people are criminals from the top to bottom.
So I ask again, How is that Impeachment coming?
Bush has always known that Rove often talks with reporters anonymously and he generally approved of such contacts, one source said.
But the President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussen tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.
A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.
"Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way," the source said.
This does not surprise me in the slightest that this is what happened. I have no doubt that the White House is run entirely on the premise that "the ends justifies the means". I guess the only thing that I am surprised about is that somebody is willing to talk about this unbelievably unethical behavior. These people are criminals from the top to bottom.
So I ask again, How is that Impeachment coming?
Pentagon reneges on bonus offer to National Guard and Army reserve troops. This is the Administrations idea of supportiing our troops.
The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).
The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.
Damn this is low! You trick these poor grunts into signing up and placing themselves in harms way and then take back the offer if they manage to survive their tour of duty. This administration sucks beyond belief!
I wonder what impact this will have on those recruitment numbers? If they have plans to continue fighting this war they are going to have to fight it using foreign mercenaries because I think that Americans are getting a little too informed. Sometimes the complete incompetence of this group of Yahoos almost makes me laugh. Almost!
The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.
Damn this is low! You trick these poor grunts into signing up and placing themselves in harms way and then take back the offer if they manage to survive their tour of duty. This administration sucks beyond belief!
I wonder what impact this will have on those recruitment numbers? If they have plans to continue fighting this war they are going to have to fight it using foreign mercenaries because I think that Americans are getting a little too informed. Sometimes the complete incompetence of this group of Yahoos almost makes me laugh. Almost!
The University of California is being sued for providing educational information? Oh it is just by those loony Creationists!
The University of California at Berkeley is being sued for running a website for school teachers called Understanding Evolution.
Anti-evolutionists claim that the site breaches the American constitution on the separation of church and state because it links to religious organisations which believe faith can be reconciled with Darwin's theory of evolution, reported the website Inside Higher Ed today.
So the University is being sued by a religious based group for linking to religious based groups. They are essentially making the Evolutionists argument for them. If it breaches the constitutional rule seperating church and state for them to link to religious based sites on an educational webpage, then it sure as hell does the same if they teach the religious based Intelligent Design theory in the classroom.
The Creationists seem unaware, or are trying to appear unaware, that they are promoting a anti-science agenda. This is just another example of the extreme form of hypocrisy that these groups engage in. They want the protection of the seperation of church and state when it serves their needs but then wants it suspended when it rains on their parade.
Anti-evolutionists claim that the site breaches the American constitution on the separation of church and state because it links to religious organisations which believe faith can be reconciled with Darwin's theory of evolution, reported the website Inside Higher Ed today.
So the University is being sued by a religious based group for linking to religious based groups. They are essentially making the Evolutionists argument for them. If it breaches the constitutional rule seperating church and state for them to link to religious based sites on an educational webpage, then it sure as hell does the same if they teach the religious based Intelligent Design theory in the classroom.
The Creationists seem unaware, or are trying to appear unaware, that they are promoting a anti-science agenda. This is just another example of the extreme form of hypocrisy that these groups engage in. They want the protection of the seperation of church and state when it serves their needs but then wants it suspended when it rains on their parade.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I think this guy has a case.
A Romanian prisoner serving 20 years for murder has sued God for failing to save him from the Devil. The inmate claims his Baptism was a contract with God to keep him out of trouble.
"God even claimed and received from me various goods and prayers in exchange for forgiveness and the promise that I would be rid of problems and have a better life," he wrote in the suit.
"But on the contrary I was left in the Devil's hands."
Court officials said the suit will likely be dropped because they're unable to subpoena God.
I don't know who God would get to take his case because. as we all know, lawyers all go to Hell.
"God even claimed and received from me various goods and prayers in exchange for forgiveness and the promise that I would be rid of problems and have a better life," he wrote in the suit.
"But on the contrary I was left in the Devil's hands."
Court officials said the suit will likely be dropped because they're unable to subpoena God.
I don't know who God would get to take his case because. as we all know, lawyers all go to Hell.
I am simply going to call this post "I told you so!"
Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment banning abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother, according to material given to the Senate on Tuesday.
Only as moron would believe that George Bush would ever appoint anybody to the Supreme Court who had not promised him personally that they would vote to overthrow Roe vs. Wade.
Only as moron would believe that George Bush would ever appoint anybody to the Supreme Court who had not promised him personally that they would vote to overthrow Roe vs. Wade.
Is anybody surprised that when a corrupt U.S. government tries to teach democracy to Iraq that fraud occurs? Really?
You know evertime our military starts instructing the Iraqi's in how to hold elections they must look at each other, make the jerking off hand gesture and then burst out laughing.
I believe that in most of the world we are viewed as the biggest hypocrites on the planet.
We talk democracy and then steal elections in our own country.
We talk peace and then bomb the shit out of every country that looks at us sideways.
We preach human rights while restricting access to voting booths for our black citizens.
We talk about working together gloabally while we refuse to adopt the Kyoto accords and refuse to honor the nuclear arms reduction recommendations of the G8 summit.
We talk about humanitarian relief while refusing to provide adequate care for our own citizens after Hurricane Katrina.
We are standing on the shakiest of moral ground.
I believe that in most of the world we are viewed as the biggest hypocrites on the planet.
We talk democracy and then steal elections in our own country.
We talk peace and then bomb the shit out of every country that looks at us sideways.
We preach human rights while restricting access to voting booths for our black citizens.
We talk about working together gloabally while we refuse to adopt the Kyoto accords and refuse to honor the nuclear arms reduction recommendations of the G8 summit.
We talk about humanitarian relief while refusing to provide adequate care for our own citizens after Hurricane Katrina.
We are standing on the shakiest of moral ground.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Bush administration raises hypocrisy to an art form.
We're told that we must wait for an investigator's report to know if anyone in the White House broke the law by leaking a covert CIA operative's name to the press - even though the public already knows the operative's name and the two senior administration officials who did it.
We're told not to question the character of the man who assured us that anyone found to be involved in the matter would no longer be part of the administration - yet has fired no one.
We're told that associations with known sleazeballs such as alleged shakedown artist Jack Abramoff aren't really suspicious unless, presumably, videotapes of illicit cash being stuffed into politicians' jacket pockets are uncovered. We're told the deliberate concealment from Congress of the true cost of the Medicare bill was just harmless politics as usual.
We're told that intentional efforts to manipulate public opinion with undisclosed payments to talk-show hosts, a White House-planted phony reporter (who ran a gay escort service on the side) and actors posing as genuine TV news reporters in what amounted to taxpayer-supported propaganda pieces - deeds the General Accountability Office has called out-and-out illegal - was just a little enthusiastic advocacy.
We're told that hiring incompetent cronies to run an agency charged with preparing for and responding to disasters - well, no one has tried to defend that one, though the usual suspects have tried mightily to shift the blame.
We're told that there's nothing odd about the president nominating yet another close crony - his own counsel - to the Supreme Court, and then calling her the most qualified candidate for the position.
We're told that profoundly misleading statements by leaders we implicitly trust and that caused Congress and the nation to support the invasion of another country, shouldn't be considered lies because, well, they haven't admitted they were lies.
This gang was morally outraged that Clinton got blown and then lied to his wife and the American people about it. And they were right to feel that what he did was wrong. It was. But nothing that Clinton did, or was accused of doing, is anywhere near the criminal and unethical behavior that is running rampant in this administraton.
Lies to start a war.
Committing treason to punish those that called you on those lies.
Lying about what the Generals are telling you they need to win the war.
Lying about the record of your presidential opponent.
Lying about lying about your presidential opponents record.
Lying about outing the CIA agent.
Lying about who is at fault for the poor response to a national disaster.
Lying about how your Supreme Court nominee might vote on Roe vs. Wade, when we all know that you know.
Undoubtably there are more lies to come. We unfortunately still have three years to go in this administration. That is unless we impeach his ass!
We're told not to question the character of the man who assured us that anyone found to be involved in the matter would no longer be part of the administration - yet has fired no one.
We're told that associations with known sleazeballs such as alleged shakedown artist Jack Abramoff aren't really suspicious unless, presumably, videotapes of illicit cash being stuffed into politicians' jacket pockets are uncovered. We're told the deliberate concealment from Congress of the true cost of the Medicare bill was just harmless politics as usual.
We're told that intentional efforts to manipulate public opinion with undisclosed payments to talk-show hosts, a White House-planted phony reporter (who ran a gay escort service on the side) and actors posing as genuine TV news reporters in what amounted to taxpayer-supported propaganda pieces - deeds the General Accountability Office has called out-and-out illegal - was just a little enthusiastic advocacy.
We're told that hiring incompetent cronies to run an agency charged with preparing for and responding to disasters - well, no one has tried to defend that one, though the usual suspects have tried mightily to shift the blame.
We're told that there's nothing odd about the president nominating yet another close crony - his own counsel - to the Supreme Court, and then calling her the most qualified candidate for the position.
We're told that profoundly misleading statements by leaders we implicitly trust and that caused Congress and the nation to support the invasion of another country, shouldn't be considered lies because, well, they haven't admitted they were lies.
This gang was morally outraged that Clinton got blown and then lied to his wife and the American people about it. And they were right to feel that what he did was wrong. It was. But nothing that Clinton did, or was accused of doing, is anywhere near the criminal and unethical behavior that is running rampant in this administraton.
Lies to start a war.
Committing treason to punish those that called you on those lies.
Lying about what the Generals are telling you they need to win the war.
Lying about the record of your presidential opponent.
Lying about lying about your presidential opponents record.
Lying about outing the CIA agent.
Lying about who is at fault for the poor response to a national disaster.
Lying about how your Supreme Court nominee might vote on Roe vs. Wade, when we all know that you know.
Undoubtably there are more lies to come. We unfortunately still have three years to go in this administration. That is unless we impeach his ass!
After Kanye West tell the world that George Bush hates black people, black people return the sentiment.
2%! Has any president ever received just 2% approval rating from any group? I think that the Klu Klux Klan rates somewhere around 5%.
All I can say is that it is clear that my ebony brethren are way ahead of the curve yet again on public opinion. They lead the world in fashion, musical tastes, and pop culture and now they are leading the way in political sophistication.
I wonder how low King Georges numbers will drop for the rest of the country before he takes the honorable way out and just ends his life in some pretzel eating frenzy?
All I can say is that it is clear that my ebony brethren are way ahead of the curve yet again on public opinion. They lead the world in fashion, musical tastes, and pop culture and now they are leading the way in political sophistication.
I wonder how low King Georges numbers will drop for the rest of the country before he takes the honorable way out and just ends his life in some pretzel eating frenzy?
In the Army if you are shot, and slip into a coma, you don't get paid. "Get back to work you Sad Sack!"
Having nearly lost his life in Iraq, the 1st Infantry Division soldier became lost to the Army payroll system because of a paperwork snafu as he lay comatose in a veterans hospital near Chicago. As a result, an Army bureaucrat classified him as absent without leave and cut off his pay, as is sometimes done when the system loses track of a soldier. The theory is that a GI wrongly listed as AWOL will start shouting and then the issue can be resolved. "That may work for an able-bodied soldier," says Michael Hurst, a former Army finance officer, "but it doesn't work so well for a guy in a coma in Chicago."
You know I find it so hard to understand why we are not doing very well in Iraq. Clearly this is a crack military unit. Hey I support the troops but the Bureaucracy is mindnumbingly stupid.
"Anybody seen Doug?"
"No Captain. I lost track of him after that big firefight we had in Fallujah."
"Shit. I'll bet that asshole went AWOL! Well I'll teach him. I'll cut his fucking pay."
"Hey Captain maybe he got wounded."
"Nah. He is probably just trying to screw Uncle Sam out of some of that sweet taxpayers money."
You know I find it so hard to understand why we are not doing very well in Iraq. Clearly this is a crack military unit. Hey I support the troops but the Bureaucracy is mindnumbingly stupid.
"Anybody seen Doug?"
"No Captain. I lost track of him after that big firefight we had in Fallujah."
"Shit. I'll bet that asshole went AWOL! Well I'll teach him. I'll cut his fucking pay."
"Hey Captain maybe he got wounded."
"Nah. He is probably just trying to screw Uncle Sam out of some of that sweet taxpayers money."
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Man finds Jesus and Jesus tells him to trash a church! Now see this is why I will never understand religion.
I will just chalk this up to a poor connection between God and this dude.
Karl Rove describing his limitations and why he hates black people so much.
"I will punish anybody who makes me feel inferior. Which unfortunately for the world includes everybody.!"
"Look I have a big head. Isn't that enough?"
Ooooh Bush is in so much trouble!
The 2005 International Commission of Inquiryon Crimes Against Humanity Committed bythe Bush Administration of the United States
The tribunal will deliberate on four categories of indictable crimes:
1) Wars of Aggression, with particular reference to the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention, with particular reference to the abandonment of international standards concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and the use of torture.
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, with particular reference to systematic policies contributing to the catastrophic effects of global warming.
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, with particular reference to the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote “abstinence only” in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic.
I love the fact that almost everything the administration has done is a reason to indict them. It is almost beyond belief that virtually every decision that you make would have a negative effect on the country and even on the planet. I have no idea if this Commission will have much of an impact but throwing their log on the bonfire which is burning down this White House sure could not hurt any.
On a personal note I must admit to really enjoy waking up everyday to find yet another investigation, or leak, or news report which reveals just how incredibly corrupt this group of yahoos really are. It just does my liberal, ex-hippie heart a ton of good.
The tribunal will deliberate on four categories of indictable crimes:
1) Wars of Aggression, with particular reference to the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention, with particular reference to the abandonment of international standards concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and the use of torture.
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, with particular reference to systematic policies contributing to the catastrophic effects of global warming.
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, with particular reference to the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote “abstinence only” in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic.
I love the fact that almost everything the administration has done is a reason to indict them. It is almost beyond belief that virtually every decision that you make would have a negative effect on the country and even on the planet. I have no idea if this Commission will have much of an impact but throwing their log on the bonfire which is burning down this White House sure could not hurt any.
On a personal note I must admit to really enjoy waking up everyday to find yet another investigation, or leak, or news report which reveals just how incredibly corrupt this group of yahoos really are. It just does my liberal, ex-hippie heart a ton of good.
Principal cancels prom in hopes of stopping teen sex. Stopping teen sex? Yeah right!
I never found that the Prom offered the guarantee of wild sex and debauchery that so many kids believed that it did. The dresses are too expensive to mess up, the dance is too chaperoned to get funky, and the parents are usually waiting up to see how your date went.
When I was in school I always found that there was more sex during lunch or right after school. Or during school. I was naughty!
Okay so I didn't get laid on Prom night and I am still pissed about it. My date was not my first choice and I had no attraction to her and I made no moves. I had a nice time but not a NICE time. Now graduation? That was an entirely different story. If you are looking for me later I will be over here down memory lane.
When I was in school I always found that there was more sex during lunch or right after school. Or during school. I was naughty!
Okay so I didn't get laid on Prom night and I am still pissed about it. My date was not my first choice and I had no attraction to her and I made no moves. I had a nice time but not a NICE time. Now graduation? That was an entirely different story. If you are looking for me later I will be over here down memory lane.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
How desperately do the Marines need recruits? Just ask the 85 year old woman they tried to recruit.
A Seattle woman who has been an anti-war crusader for the peace for the past 58 years is being recruited by the Marines.
"He wanted to recruit me for my skill in the Arabic language," she said. "I don't speak Arabic. I learned a little French but my accent is terrible."
The general thought she did. He urged Mercer to seize the opportunity to defend our nation and spread the message of freedom.
Her reaction: "Well, I just thought they were pretty desperate for wanting an 85-year-old.
You know my first thought is what an unpatriotic bitch! I mean she is 85 years old! You know she doesn't have a job to worry about losing, or anything important that could possibly take the place of winning this war against terror. If we don't fight them over there, then we will be fighting them over here! Hee hee.
You know my favorite part is that not only is she 85 years old, but that she is an 85 year old peacenik! It really does not get any better then that!
"He wanted to recruit me for my skill in the Arabic language," she said. "I don't speak Arabic. I learned a little French but my accent is terrible."
The general thought she did. He urged Mercer to seize the opportunity to defend our nation and spread the message of freedom.
Her reaction: "Well, I just thought they were pretty desperate for wanting an 85-year-old.
You know my first thought is what an unpatriotic bitch! I mean she is 85 years old! You know she doesn't have a job to worry about losing, or anything important that could possibly take the place of winning this war against terror. If we don't fight them over there, then we will be fighting them over here! Hee hee.
You know my favorite part is that not only is she 85 years old, but that she is an 85 year old peacenik! It really does not get any better then that!
Colonel's job is to apologize to families for the innocent Iraqi's killed by American troops.
"This was a terrible accident -- it was not intentional," Wood, 42, said with an army interpreter by his side. "The soldier who did this did not intend to shoot and kill a woman. I wanted to apologize on behalf of those soldiers.
"I know that explanation doesn't make anything any easier."
"She was pregnant. She died right away," Nasser said again and again.
I somehow doubt that there are any words of condolence that could possibly make these families feel any better about the loss of their loved ones.
This has always been the part of this conflict that I have found to be the hardest to deal with.
Imagine living your life and suddenly having a foreign army invade you and indiscriminately kill your friends and family. Yeah I know that the military tries to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, but for me one innocent death is too many.
How many civilian casualties is acceptable to this administration? How many children are disposable in the interest of this great crusade? How can we argue so fervently for the life of an unborn fetus here in America and then allow so many innocents to die in our name in another country? How is that acceptable to any loving, caring, human being? How?
"I know that explanation doesn't make anything any easier."
"She was pregnant. She died right away," Nasser said again and again.
I somehow doubt that there are any words of condolence that could possibly make these families feel any better about the loss of their loved ones.
This has always been the part of this conflict that I have found to be the hardest to deal with.
Imagine living your life and suddenly having a foreign army invade you and indiscriminately kill your friends and family. Yeah I know that the military tries to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, but for me one innocent death is too many.
How many civilian casualties is acceptable to this administration? How many children are disposable in the interest of this great crusade? How can we argue so fervently for the life of an unborn fetus here in America and then allow so many innocents to die in our name in another country? How is that acceptable to any loving, caring, human being? How?
Friday, October 14, 2005
Oh thank God! Fundamentalist Christians can now leave America and go screw up another country.
After more than 30 years of organizing testimonial dinners for right-wing Israeli politicians, handing out checks to Israeli charities, and forming alliances with conservative Jewish leaders and groups, evangelical Christians may finally be getting a chunk of the "Promised Land."
This is great news!
"Okay no pushing just form a line over there and we will get the boats ready for your departure. No pushing there is room for everybody. And remember if you happen to fall overboard I am sure a friendly whale will swallow and spit you up whole in Israel."
Now for the rest of us we can get science back in our schools and more violence and sex in those damn movies! Our long national nightmare is almost over!
This is great news!
"Okay no pushing just form a line over there and we will get the boats ready for your departure. No pushing there is room for everybody. And remember if you happen to fall overboard I am sure a friendly whale will swallow and spit you up whole in Israel."
Now for the rest of us we can get science back in our schools and more violence and sex in those damn movies! Our long national nightmare is almost over!
Scotty McCLellan picks a fight with Helen Thomas by calling her a traitor. Pussy!
THOMAS What does the President mean by "total victory" -- that we will never leave Iraq until we have "total victory"? What does that mean?
McCLELLAN: Free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East, because a free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions --THOMAS If they ask us to leave, then we'll leave?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm trying to respond. A free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the broader Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions of al Qaeda and their terrorist associates. They want to establish or impose their rule over the broader Middle East -- we saw that in the Zawahiri letter that was released earlier this week by the intelligence community.
THOMAS They also know we invaded Iraq.
McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, the President recognizes that we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. And when you're engaged in a war, it's not always pleasant, and it's certainly a last resort. But when you engage in a war, you take the fight to the enemy, you go on the offense. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here. September 11th taught us --
THOMAS It has nothing to do with -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
McCLELLAN: Well, you have a very different view of the war on terrorism, and I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism. The President recognizes this requires a comprehensive strategy, and that this is a broad war, that it is not a law enforcement matter.Terry.
TERRY MORAN On what basis do you say Helen is opposed to the broader war on terrorism?McCLELLAN: Well, she certainly expressed her concerns about Afghanistan and Iraq and going into those two countries. I think I can go back and pull up her comments over the course of the past couple of years.
MORAN And speak for her, which is odd.
McCLELLAN: No, I said she may be, because certainly if you look at her comments over the course of the past couple of years, she's expressed her concerns --
THOMAS I'm opposed to preemptive war, unprovoked preemptive war.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- she's expressed her concerns.
I hate bullies! I sometimes feel sorry for Scott but this time he is acting like a petulant child and he needs to get a rap across his knuckles. This is what this administration is known for, attacking the messenger.
McCLELLAN: Free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East, because a free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions --THOMAS If they ask us to leave, then we'll leave?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm trying to respond. A free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the broader Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions of al Qaeda and their terrorist associates. They want to establish or impose their rule over the broader Middle East -- we saw that in the Zawahiri letter that was released earlier this week by the intelligence community.
THOMAS They also know we invaded Iraq.
McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, the President recognizes that we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. And when you're engaged in a war, it's not always pleasant, and it's certainly a last resort. But when you engage in a war, you take the fight to the enemy, you go on the offense. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here. September 11th taught us --
THOMAS It has nothing to do with -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
McCLELLAN: Well, you have a very different view of the war on terrorism, and I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism. The President recognizes this requires a comprehensive strategy, and that this is a broad war, that it is not a law enforcement matter.Terry.
TERRY MORAN On what basis do you say Helen is opposed to the broader war on terrorism?McCLELLAN: Well, she certainly expressed her concerns about Afghanistan and Iraq and going into those two countries. I think I can go back and pull up her comments over the course of the past couple of years.
MORAN And speak for her, which is odd.
McCLELLAN: No, I said she may be, because certainly if you look at her comments over the course of the past couple of years, she's expressed her concerns --
THOMAS I'm opposed to preemptive war, unprovoked preemptive war.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- she's expressed her concerns.
I hate bullies! I sometimes feel sorry for Scott but this time he is acting like a petulant child and he needs to get a rap across his knuckles. This is what this administration is known for, attacking the messenger.
Bush fakes video conference with the troops and NBC gets video of the rehearsal. Ohhhh Busted!
A brief rehearsal ensued.
“OK, so let’s just walk through this,” Barber said. “Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?”
“Captain Smith,” Kennedy said.
“Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?” she asked.
“Captain Kennedy,” the soldier replied.
And so it went.
“If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?” Barber asked.
“That’s going to go to Captain Pratt,” one of the soldiers said.
Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a “carefully scripted publicity stunt.” Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.
“If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can’t do it in a nationally televised teleconference,” Rieckhoff said. “He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that’s not a bunch of captains.”
Okay now I am not naive, I know that there is lots of scripting that occurs whenever any president is before the cameras, but this administration has taken it to an all new level. I feel that there is never a time that the president is answering the concerns of Americans without having the benefit of seeing the questions ahead of time, or having cherry picked supporters to ask the questions, or has been loaded with talking points from which he never strays.
What I would like to know is how were these soldiers chosen? Were there any soldiers that were turned away because they might respond in an non-supportative manner? Were the soldiers in the video Q and A given the script ahead of time? I think that we deserve the answers to those questions.
“OK, so let’s just walk through this,” Barber said. “Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?”
“Captain Smith,” Kennedy said.
“Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?” she asked.
“Captain Kennedy,” the soldier replied.
And so it went.
“If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?” Barber asked.
“That’s going to go to Captain Pratt,” one of the soldiers said.
Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a “carefully scripted publicity stunt.” Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.
“If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can’t do it in a nationally televised teleconference,” Rieckhoff said. “He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that’s not a bunch of captains.”
Okay now I am not naive, I know that there is lots of scripting that occurs whenever any president is before the cameras, but this administration has taken it to an all new level. I feel that there is never a time that the president is answering the concerns of Americans without having the benefit of seeing the questions ahead of time, or having cherry picked supporters to ask the questions, or has been loaded with talking points from which he never strays.
What I would like to know is how were these soldiers chosen? Were there any soldiers that were turned away because they might respond in an non-supportative manner? Were the soldiers in the video Q and A given the script ahead of time? I think that we deserve the answers to those questions.
The cause of Faith is....wait for it.....Evolution. Someone check and see if Pat Robertson's head exploded.
It is possible that strong levels of belief in God, gods, spirits or the supernatural might have given our ancestors considerable comforts and advantages. Many anthropologists and social theorists do indeed take the view that religion emerged out of a sense of uncertainty and bewilderment - explaining misfortune or illness, for example, as the consequences of an angry God, or reassuring us that we live on after death. Rituals would have given us a comforting, albeit illusory, sense that we can control what is in fact ultimately beyond our control - the weather, illness, attacks by predators or other human groups.
In his book Darwin's Cathedral, David Sloan Wilson, professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University in New York state, says that religiosity emerged as a "useful" genetic trait because it had the effect of making social groups more unified. The communal nature of religion certainly would have given groups of hunter-gatherers a stronger sense of togetherness. This produced a leaner, meaner survival machine, a group that was more likely to be able to defend a waterhole, or kill more antelope, or capture their opponents' daughters. The better the religion was at producing an organised and disciplined group, the more effective they would have been at staying alive, and hence at passing their genes on to the next generation. This is what we mean by "natural selection": adaptations which help survival and reproduction get passed down through the genes.
I live for this stuff! I have to admit I have spent more then a reasonable amount of time pondering why it is that some people are so certain that there is a God and that they have chosen the proper method of worhip, and why others are completely unimpressed by religion as a whole.
I also have wondered why the non-religious seem more aware of the inconsistencies in the many beliefs while the faithful seem to take no notice at all. Well the words that I live by are as follows;
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Plato. Or it could be Socrates, I always get them confused. I know he wore a sheet and sandals.
In his book Darwin's Cathedral, David Sloan Wilson, professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University in New York state, says that religiosity emerged as a "useful" genetic trait because it had the effect of making social groups more unified. The communal nature of religion certainly would have given groups of hunter-gatherers a stronger sense of togetherness. This produced a leaner, meaner survival machine, a group that was more likely to be able to defend a waterhole, or kill more antelope, or capture their opponents' daughters. The better the religion was at producing an organised and disciplined group, the more effective they would have been at staying alive, and hence at passing their genes on to the next generation. This is what we mean by "natural selection": adaptations which help survival and reproduction get passed down through the genes.
I live for this stuff! I have to admit I have spent more then a reasonable amount of time pondering why it is that some people are so certain that there is a God and that they have chosen the proper method of worhip, and why others are completely unimpressed by religion as a whole.
I also have wondered why the non-religious seem more aware of the inconsistencies in the many beliefs while the faithful seem to take no notice at all. Well the words that I live by are as follows;
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Plato. Or it could be Socrates, I always get them confused. I know he wore a sheet and sandals.
Bush's anti-science agenda is creating nation of stupid people.
How much longer can we afford to allow this administration to slowly dumb down our populace in the selfish hope that they will be too ignorant to see through Republican's bullshit in the upcoming elections?
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Being Stalked by Intelligent Design
Great article on Intelligent Design, go read it. I said read it!
My mood today is bossy.
My mood today is bossy.
The CIA knew that the Iraq war would fail.
A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq.
Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says.
The report determined that beyond the errors in assessing Iraqi weaponry, "intelligence produced prior to the war on a wide range of other issues accurately addressed such topics as how the war would develop and how Iraqi forces would or would not fight."
The intelligence "also provided perceptive analysis on Iraq's links to al-Qaeda; calculated the impact of the war on oil markets; and accurately forecast the reactions of ethnic and tribal factions in Iraq."
And here we go.
I knew that as soon as the Presidents approval rating slipped down far enough that all of the agencies and individuals who had been afraid to criticize a popular president would start to speak their minds. We are going to see a flood of this type of information. And every bit of it brings us closer to impeachment.
Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says.
The report determined that beyond the errors in assessing Iraqi weaponry, "intelligence produced prior to the war on a wide range of other issues accurately addressed such topics as how the war would develop and how Iraqi forces would or would not fight."
The intelligence "also provided perceptive analysis on Iraq's links to al-Qaeda; calculated the impact of the war on oil markets; and accurately forecast the reactions of ethnic and tribal factions in Iraq."
And here we go.
I knew that as soon as the Presidents approval rating slipped down far enough that all of the agencies and individuals who had been afraid to criticize a popular president would start to speak their minds. We are going to see a flood of this type of information. And every bit of it brings us closer to impeachment.
Little Scotty McClellan shucks and jives but he cannot shake the White House Press Corps attack dogs.
Q Back to Miers for a moment. When you say that Ms. Miers understands that religion has no role in the business of the Court, at the same time the President has said he knows her heart, her beliefs, her character; he talked today about people wanting to know about her life and, therefore, her religion. How are we not to interpret that her religion was one of the factors in his selection?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President makes selections based on potential nominees' qualifications and experience and judicial temperament. That is what he has done in each and every instance when it comes to appointing people to the bench. He has a long track record of appointing people who have a conservative judicial philosophy, one that is based on interpreting our Constitution and our laws, not making law from the bench. And that's what he bases his decisions on, not someone's religion.
Q So her religion played no role in her making it to the final group and then, ultimately --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, the President makes decisions based on the person's qualifications and experience and judicial temperament.
Q All right. So there was no -- no role at all in the President's decision-making of Harriet Miers' religion?
MR. McCLELLAN: That's part of who she is. That's part of her background. That's what the President was talking about in his remarks in the Oval Office.
Q Why is Karl Rove calling up religious leaders telling them it's okay, she belongs to an ultra evangelical church
MR. McCLELLAN: We're calling up a lot of people --
Q Why that?
MR. McCLELLAN: -- to reach out to them and talk to them about the President's selection of Harriet Miers. And what he is emphasizing in those conversations, Terry, is that she is someone who is strongly committed to a conservative judicial philosophy.
Q What is somebody's --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, why wouldn't --
Q Wait, wait, wait. What relevance does how a person prays have to the judicial philosophy?
MR. McCLELLAN: Didn't say that it did.
Q So why are you peddling it?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of her background, Terry; it's part of who she is.
Q But you just said it was not relevant to judicial philosophy.
MR. McCLELLAN: People want to know who she is. And when you're getting to know someone, you want to know what their qualifications and experience are, you want to know what their judicial philosophy is, and you want to know who they are. Faith is very important to Harriet Miers. But she recognizes that faith and that her religion and that her personal views don't have a role to play when it comes to making decisions.
Q It seems that what you're doing is trying to calm a revolt on the right concerned that Harriet Miers isn't conservative enough, by saying, it's okay, she is conservative enough, because she goes to this church.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, it seems like the media wants to focus on things other than her qualifications. Maybe your news organization would rather focus on things other than her qualifications and record. The President believes we should focus on her qualifications and her record and her judicial philosophy. And that's what we emphasize.
Q Why is his top aide going around and telling people how she prays?
MR. McCLELLAN: He's simply talking about who she is and what her background is. And you're being very selective in your comments there, because what he emphasized and what Dr. Dobson said he emphasized, was her conservative judicial philosophy. That's what it should be based on.
Q Scott, isn't -- the bleed-over here, though, that Karl was making an argument that her religious faith and her membership in the evangelical church was evidence of what her judicial philosophy -- conservative judicial philosophy would be. He was using it to buttress the question of how she would rule -- am I misunderstanding that?
MR. McCLELLAN: See, David, there's some that have -- no, there's some that have a litmus test for the Supreme Court. The President does not. The President does not ask candidates their views on issues that may be controversial, like abortion. The President looks at them and asks them what their judicial philosophy is; are they someone who is going to strictly interpret our Constitution and our laws, rather than -- and not make law from the bench. The President doesn't believe people should be legislating from the bench. He believes that judges ought to be looking at the law and applying the law.
Q Scott, if that's the case, then, wouldn't Karl's statement to Mr. Dobson have been, "you know, what church she belongs to is completely irrelevant to how she would serve on the Supreme Court; I'm not even going to tell you what church she went to because it doesn't have anything to do with her philosophy." Wouldn't that be the consistent statement?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of who she is, David. We're just pointing out facts about who she is. But that's not what we're emphasizing. What we're emphasizing is her judicial philosophy and her experience and her qualifications.
Q So there was no effort, to your mind, that it was not Mr. Rove's desire here to use her church background as evidence of how she may approach cases from the bench?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think I already described what we were talking about in these outreach efforts. If you want to interpret them differently, that's your right to do.
Q I was asking how you were interpreting.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I just explained it.
Q If personal views don't have a role to play, then why would anybody from the White House talk about what church she goes to and what the beliefs are of the people in the church?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of who she is. And faith has played an important part in her life. But she recognizes that religion and personal views and ideology don't have a role to play when you're a judge, but people want to know who she is. And that's been an important part of her life.
Q Scott, was she a member of Texas Right to Life?
MR. McCLELLAN: Not that I'm aware of. I think she attended some events.
Q Well, Dobson said that Karl Rove told him that she was a member of Texas Right to Life.
MR. McCLELLAN: I think she attended some events.
Damn, you know ever since Bush started hitting the bottle he has had just the hardest time keeping his hidden agenda hidden. Imagine my surprise that Bush picked this Supreme Court nominee due to the fact that she is a born again Chrtistian.
If you are planing to get an abortion you might want to make an appointment pretty damn soon.
MR. McCLELLAN: The President makes selections based on potential nominees' qualifications and experience and judicial temperament. That is what he has done in each and every instance when it comes to appointing people to the bench. He has a long track record of appointing people who have a conservative judicial philosophy, one that is based on interpreting our Constitution and our laws, not making law from the bench. And that's what he bases his decisions on, not someone's religion.
Q So her religion played no role in her making it to the final group and then, ultimately --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, the President makes decisions based on the person's qualifications and experience and judicial temperament.
Q All right. So there was no -- no role at all in the President's decision-making of Harriet Miers' religion?
MR. McCLELLAN: That's part of who she is. That's part of her background. That's what the President was talking about in his remarks in the Oval Office.
Q Why is Karl Rove calling up religious leaders telling them it's okay, she belongs to an ultra evangelical church
MR. McCLELLAN: We're calling up a lot of people --
Q Why that?
MR. McCLELLAN: -- to reach out to them and talk to them about the President's selection of Harriet Miers. And what he is emphasizing in those conversations, Terry, is that she is someone who is strongly committed to a conservative judicial philosophy.
Q What is somebody's --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, why wouldn't --
Q Wait, wait, wait. What relevance does how a person prays have to the judicial philosophy?
MR. McCLELLAN: Didn't say that it did.
Q So why are you peddling it?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of her background, Terry; it's part of who she is.
Q But you just said it was not relevant to judicial philosophy.
MR. McCLELLAN: People want to know who she is. And when you're getting to know someone, you want to know what their qualifications and experience are, you want to know what their judicial philosophy is, and you want to know who they are. Faith is very important to Harriet Miers. But she recognizes that faith and that her religion and that her personal views don't have a role to play when it comes to making decisions.
Q It seems that what you're doing is trying to calm a revolt on the right concerned that Harriet Miers isn't conservative enough, by saying, it's okay, she is conservative enough, because she goes to this church.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, it seems like the media wants to focus on things other than her qualifications. Maybe your news organization would rather focus on things other than her qualifications and record. The President believes we should focus on her qualifications and her record and her judicial philosophy. And that's what we emphasize.
Q Why is his top aide going around and telling people how she prays?
MR. McCLELLAN: He's simply talking about who she is and what her background is. And you're being very selective in your comments there, because what he emphasized and what Dr. Dobson said he emphasized, was her conservative judicial philosophy. That's what it should be based on.
Q Scott, isn't -- the bleed-over here, though, that Karl was making an argument that her religious faith and her membership in the evangelical church was evidence of what her judicial philosophy -- conservative judicial philosophy would be. He was using it to buttress the question of how she would rule -- am I misunderstanding that?
MR. McCLELLAN: See, David, there's some that have -- no, there's some that have a litmus test for the Supreme Court. The President does not. The President does not ask candidates their views on issues that may be controversial, like abortion. The President looks at them and asks them what their judicial philosophy is; are they someone who is going to strictly interpret our Constitution and our laws, rather than -- and not make law from the bench. The President doesn't believe people should be legislating from the bench. He believes that judges ought to be looking at the law and applying the law.
Q Scott, if that's the case, then, wouldn't Karl's statement to Mr. Dobson have been, "you know, what church she belongs to is completely irrelevant to how she would serve on the Supreme Court; I'm not even going to tell you what church she went to because it doesn't have anything to do with her philosophy." Wouldn't that be the consistent statement?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of who she is, David. We're just pointing out facts about who she is. But that's not what we're emphasizing. What we're emphasizing is her judicial philosophy and her experience and her qualifications.
Q So there was no effort, to your mind, that it was not Mr. Rove's desire here to use her church background as evidence of how she may approach cases from the bench?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think I already described what we were talking about in these outreach efforts. If you want to interpret them differently, that's your right to do.
Q I was asking how you were interpreting.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I just explained it.
Q If personal views don't have a role to play, then why would anybody from the White House talk about what church she goes to and what the beliefs are of the people in the church?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of who she is. And faith has played an important part in her life. But she recognizes that religion and personal views and ideology don't have a role to play when you're a judge, but people want to know who she is. And that's been an important part of her life.
Q Scott, was she a member of Texas Right to Life?
MR. McCLELLAN: Not that I'm aware of. I think she attended some events.
Q Well, Dobson said that Karl Rove told him that she was a member of Texas Right to Life.
MR. McCLELLAN: I think she attended some events.
Damn, you know ever since Bush started hitting the bottle he has had just the hardest time keeping his hidden agenda hidden. Imagine my surprise that Bush picked this Supreme Court nominee due to the fact that she is a born again Chrtistian.
If you are planing to get an abortion you might want to make an appointment pretty damn soon.
Creationist exhibit in a museum. Now see this is why I drink so heavily!
Suspended overhead in one display, for example, is a replica of a Pteranodon, a pointy-headed flying reptile with a 33-foot wingspan, hollow bones and a bony ruffle on its skull.
Visitors are told: "Each of these unique design features indicate that Pteranodons were created to fly, not that they slowly evolved into flying creatures."
Similar creationist viewpoints appear on plaques throughout the museum, a 3,500-square-foot prototype for a series of regional museums 10 times that size, the first of which is planned for Dallas in 2007.
Finishing the tour with their two sons in tow, Robert and Debbie Archer, surgeons from Tulsa, said they were gratified to visit a museum that reflects their beliefs and not Darwin's.
That is why he developed the museum, said G. Thomas Sharp, founder and chairman of the Creation Truth Foundation."There is so much demographic data telling us that about 50 percent of the American public believes in the biblical story of origins," said Sharp, 62, a former high school science teacher.
There so much wrong with the above sentences that I don't know quite where to start. Okay let me start here; "What the Fuck is wrong with you people?"
I knew a guy that constantly talked about UFO's. He was convinced that they were real and he was upset the scientists would not seriously pursue the many stories that showed up in those UFO themed magazines. I knew a girl who was convinced that the woods behind her house was populated by elves. She claimed to have seen them and when questioned as to why others had not, she said that they were very shy and untrusting. There are societies that believe the moon landing was fake. There are groups that think Jesus was an alien. There are those who think that every stain on a window or the wall behind the fridge looks like Jesus or the Virgin Mary.
The point is there are ignorant people everywhere! If we were to build a museum to suit he beliefs of every American there would be no room for houses. And where would anybody go to find the truth? Scientists are doing a pretty good job of exposing the bullshit and ferreting out the facts. They have made some flat out amazing discoveries in just the last five years. There is so much to learn. How will we continue to learn with these rediculous sideshows cropping up everywhere? We won't!
Look, here is the point. Everybody is not right! Most people are wrong! The truth will never fit neatly into anybodies preconceived ideas of what the truth should look like. The truth is ugly. But it is the truth. Get used to it!
Visitors are told: "Each of these unique design features indicate that Pteranodons were created to fly, not that they slowly evolved into flying creatures."
Similar creationist viewpoints appear on plaques throughout the museum, a 3,500-square-foot prototype for a series of regional museums 10 times that size, the first of which is planned for Dallas in 2007.
Finishing the tour with their two sons in tow, Robert and Debbie Archer, surgeons from Tulsa, said they were gratified to visit a museum that reflects their beliefs and not Darwin's.
That is why he developed the museum, said G. Thomas Sharp, founder and chairman of the Creation Truth Foundation."There is so much demographic data telling us that about 50 percent of the American public believes in the biblical story of origins," said Sharp, 62, a former high school science teacher.
There so much wrong with the above sentences that I don't know quite where to start. Okay let me start here; "What the Fuck is wrong with you people?"
I knew a guy that constantly talked about UFO's. He was convinced that they were real and he was upset the scientists would not seriously pursue the many stories that showed up in those UFO themed magazines. I knew a girl who was convinced that the woods behind her house was populated by elves. She claimed to have seen them and when questioned as to why others had not, she said that they were very shy and untrusting. There are societies that believe the moon landing was fake. There are groups that think Jesus was an alien. There are those who think that every stain on a window or the wall behind the fridge looks like Jesus or the Virgin Mary.
The point is there are ignorant people everywhere! If we were to build a museum to suit he beliefs of every American there would be no room for houses. And where would anybody go to find the truth? Scientists are doing a pretty good job of exposing the bullshit and ferreting out the facts. They have made some flat out amazing discoveries in just the last five years. There is so much to learn. How will we continue to learn with these rediculous sideshows cropping up everywhere? We won't!
Look, here is the point. Everybody is not right! Most people are wrong! The truth will never fit neatly into anybodies preconceived ideas of what the truth should look like. The truth is ugly. But it is the truth. Get used to it!
Nixon and Bush separated at birth.
Everything old is new again. I very literally wake up and think that I am living through the 1970's again. Yeah I am older and not nearly as good looking but the country as a whole is eerily similar.
We have soaring gas prices, an unpopular war, and a corrupt administration. So with my lava lamp retrieved from storage and plugged in on my desk I think that it is time to put the Bushies through the same scrutiny that the American press gleefully put Nixon through during Watergate. My firm belief is that when all is said and done, the malfeasance perpetrated by this group will make Nixon look like a poser and George Bush will go down in history as the worst example of a world leader since the beginning of time.
The constant manipulation of the media alone is worth a special category for sleaziness. Nixon tried to make the aggressive reporters go away but due to his unfortunate personality he just emboldend them to pursue him even harder. Bush and, his brain, Karl Rove have done an amazing job at intimidating the press and redirecting negative press coverage. They have also clearly used terrorism as a handy red herring to throw out to the press whenever it gets too hot for them. These are bad guys of the first order. They are blazing new trails in their underhanded, unethical, amoral, approach to government.
I am saving my pennies now because when these administration hacks start to write tell all books about what really happened, they will all be at the top of my must read list for years to come.
(By the way the comic above comes courtesy of my political Yoda Garry Trudeau and retrieved from this wonderful site.)
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