We'll never claim to be fair and
balanced, just honest and trustworthy
November 14, 2007
Want a Smaller Brain? Watch Faux Noise!
From TomCat
for Politics
Plus
A new study
by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show
and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and
international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank
nearly dead last:
Despite significant technology shifts, however, Pew found that
“today’s citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are
about as aware of major news events, as
was the public nearly 20 years ago.”
The results about Fox News echo findings of previous surveys. In
2003, University of Maryland researchers studied
the public’s belief in three false claims — that Iraq possessed WMD,
that Iraq was involved in 9/11, and that there was international support
for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq... [emphasis added]
I'm almost tempted to categorize this as humor,
because I laughed so hard when I read it that I sprayed my screen and
keyboard with .
It's light, small, and comes in
colors...
From Shark Fu for
AngryBlackBitch
You hush now!
A bitch is talking tasers not erotic
accessories (wink).
Brother
Rob Thurmantipped this
bitch off about the Taser Party
story and I got a good laugh out of
it.
The woman
in the story says that
having a light and colorful taser
makes her feel more confident.
Blink.
I have to admit that angle worries
me because most violent crimes are
committed by someone you know not
the wild eyed stranger you’d never
pause to tas within an inch of her
or his crazy life.
Mayhap we should be hosting a few 'girl,
that motherfucker is dangerous'
parties along with the taser-based
gatherings?
Just a thought.
Anyhoo…
Women hosting parties so that law
enforcement can demonstrate the
safest way to get your tas on
without killing somebody?
Smart, except that vodka crans are
probably a no no with all those
light and colorful tasers about.
Tasers being marketed as the new
must have weapon for women?
Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater
security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that
at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated
deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq,
according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.
Not surprising.
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some
officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist
to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal
wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I.
declined to discuss the matter.
Also not surprising. Once more, some low-level flunky will be the fall
guy. It was Lynndie England and other peons who, without any direction
from above, were on a fucking-shit-up-and-snapping-photos bender in
Tortureville. And it was Happy B. Triggerfinger who shot up some
assuredly not-so-innocent Iraqis here. Bush, Rummy, Neidermeyer,
honorable men, etc etc. Now, let us gaze into our Nostradamus-y ball of
faux crystal - you ever price the real stuff? - and, defying the laws of
the gods, written in the stars and seen by those who longingly look up
at the eternal cosmos, peer with wizard-like hubris into....the future!
The case could be one of the first thorny issues to be decided by
Michael B. Mukasey, who was sworn in as attorney general last week. He
may be faced with a decision to turn down a prosecution on legal
grounds at a time when a furor has erupted in Congress about the
administration’s failure to hold security contractors accountable
for their misdeeds.
Wow! I certainly didn't see that
coming! Nor did I see even a hint of the shocking naivety displayed by
Democratic Representative David E. Price of North Carolina:
Representative Price’s bill would extend the MEJA legislation to all
contractors operating in war zones. The bill passed the house 389 to
30 last month and is now before the Senate.
He said it cannot be applied retroactively to the Sept. 16 case, but
he said that the guards who killed the Iraqis must be brought to
justice, under the War Crimes Act or some other law.
Psst, Dave, c'mere. There are
no war crimes anymore.
You know, unless the other guy does it.
Compassionate
Conservatism
From Candace for Chapterhouse
President
Bush today vetoed a bipartisan education and health bill, at
the same time approving an increase in the Pentagon's
budget.
Thanks to Bush's greed
for oil and vengeance for a supposed assassination
attempt on his father by Saddam Hussein, (you didn't
forget about that in all the rhetoric, did you?), our health
care, education, and yes, security systems are a shambles.
We lag behind all other Western nations in these areas, yet
today Bush continues to lead this country down a path of
destruction.
Since winning re-election, Bush has sought to cut the
labor, health and education measure below the prior year
level. But lawmakers have rejected the cuts. The budget
that Bush presented in February sought almost $4 billion
in cuts to this year's bill.
Huge procurement costs are driving the Pentagon budget
ever upward. Once war costs are added in, the total
defense budget will be significantly higher than during
the typical Cold
War year, even after adjusting for inflation.
Meanwhile, today's Washington
Post reports that the real cost to fight the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan is more than $20,000:
President Bush's six-year invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq
will end up costing Americans about $1.5 trillion, or
nearly twice as much as the White House has actually spent
to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation,
rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans.
This
will be the legacy of the Bush Administration when he is
finished playing at being president. A nation that has lost
the respect of the rest of the world, that is broke,
uneducated, and unhealthy. And we'll still be paying $4 per
gallon of gas, while Bush, Cheney, and all the rest of the
oil mongerers sit on their ranches and count their money.
Shame on anyone who voted him into office.
Know a blog that
deserves to be featured on the Blog World Report? Contact Robert.
The Wall (One of the few films online, that captured the
simplicity and intent of the design).
I recently watched the DVD film titled "Maya Lin A
Strong Clear Vision" The Story of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial.
This film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary. I had
no idea the story of the complex and contentious process to
produce "The Wall".
Ms. Lin was a Yale Architecture student, and was taking a
class in funereal designs. While in the class, saw an ad in
the paper, inviting people to submit a design for a Vietnam
Memorial. 21 years old at the time, the small class decided
submitting Vietnam Memorial designs, would be the final
project for the class. Maya drew her design rather quickly,
but took 2 months to write the description, of the intent of
the design. She finally had to finish her description due to
the submission deadline.
Mainly she wanted something apolitical, and neither favoring
or glorifying, or oppositional to war. She insisted the
names must be in chronological order (the year of death), or
they would have 500 "Smith's" in a row. She wanted
dark stone that was highly reflective, and the simplicity
and enormity would evoke emotion. She said it is meant to
draw up your pain and process it. Stark. Silent. Unimposing,
in that each person would process their feelings in their
own way. Her design had no other clutter of statues, or
flags.
Over 1,400 designs were submitted, by some of the most
prestigious architects from around the world. The organizers
went through the designs omitting wave after wave, sometimes
400 a day, eliminated until they narrowed it down to a
select few.
At that point, a panel of experts were brought in to vote on
the final choice. Maya's design won. A huge honor for an
unknwn artist, still in College.
Bitter disputes arose, some felt it insulting that an Asian
was the designer. Others said it was degrading to soldiers
to get a plain black stone with names on it. Congress was
pressed to revoke the entire plan. Another group insisted
adding statues of soldiers and a large flag. This suggestion
clashed with the core design & original intent.
The process took years and was highly contentious. As the
film review states "What began as one of the country's
bitterly disputed public monuments became one of world's
most inspirational and frequenty visited memorials".
I have yet to see The Wall in D.C., but I have seen the
replica traveling wall. It is equally powerful, and it's
simplicity goes straight to the heart. It overwhelms me. A
most beautiful memorial.
It’s that time of year again when war is
waged against all the major holidays. Here’s a
quick recap about who is at war over each
holiday.
Bill O’Reilly has revived his rants over
the War on Christmas as reported by Think
Progress:
On his Fox News show last night, Bill
O’Reilly kicked off his annual conniption
fit over a perceived “War
on Christmas.” O’Reilly’s target
last night was a decision by the Fort Collins,
Colorado City Council to celebrate the holiday
season with “an educational museum display,
plain wreaths and garlands on city property,
and trees
with white lights” rather than
traditional Christmas decorations such as
trees with “colored lights.”
The War on Christmas wasn’t always over
trivial matters such as the color of lights. It
also wasn’t always part of the “secular
progressive agenda.” Talk
to Action takes a look at the history of the
War on Christmas. It turns out that “Puritans
actually invented the War on Christmas by
instituting a ban on the holiday during their
short tenure in power in England.”
If Puritans and secular progressives have
allegedly waged a war on Christmas, there are
many forces on the right who have been waging a War
on Halloween both on religious and economic
grounds.
This time of year the most bitter “wars”
might be on the college football fields and in
the arguments of fans over who deserves to fight
for the national championship. The two teams
which play for the championship are determined
by the polls and computer rankings as opposed to
a play off on the field, leaving room for
controversy most years. If there are no further
upsets (which might be unlikely considering the
number of upsets so far this season) at least
three teams will have a strong claim to play in
the BCS Championship game. LSU and Oregon, now
ranked number one and two, both have strong
cases. The Big Twelve Champion will probably be
Kansas, now undefeated and ranked number three,
Oklahoma (currently #4) or Missouri (currently
#5). Kansas still plays Missouri and will meet
Oklahoma if neither loses before the Big Twelve
Championship game. I bet that Kansas will move
into the top two if they remain undefeated,
creating quite a question as to whether LSU or
Oregon, both with a single loss, is more
deserving of playing against them. Fans of some
other one-loss teams might also argue that their
team deserves consideration. At present I’m
most impressed with Oregon and it would be a
shame if they wind up number three without a
shot at the national championship.
This week’s traditional rivalry game
between Michigan and Ohio State lost some of its
luster after both lost last week, but still the
game will determine the Big Ten Championship and
who goes to the Rose Bowl. Whether Michigan
stands a chance depends upon whether Henne
and Hart (their starting quarterback and
tailback) are healthy. After being devastated by
injuries this season, along with other setbacks,
it is amazing that Michigan remains in a
position where they are still playing for the
conference championship and the Rose Bowl. Going
into the final game of the season there has not
been a single game in which Chad Henne and Mike
Hart have played a full game together. HBO
is airing a special on the history of the
Michigan vs. Ohio State rivalry this week.
...to
a man looking for a good wife and finding a
young bitch still clinging to her
rawhide bone?
"NEW
DELHI - A man in southern India married a
female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony
as an attempt to atone for stoning two
other dogs to death — an act he believes
cursed him — a newspaper reported
Tuesday."
Before
the "slippery slope" crowd spins a
bearing, this little wedding ceremony is
more or less the equivalent of adopting a
dog from the SPCA (other than the
superstitious aspect). I don't know how
effective little Selvi will be at curing
what ails this guy, but adopting her goes a
little way towards making up for his past
dog abuse. As long as the rest of the family
keeps an eye on her.
Great
Explanation Found for the
Manufactured US Housing Disaster!!
From
GEF for Suzie-Q
-
Thanks to our Friends Alan
Greenspan and the Private Federal
Reserve Bank for turning our
Shelter(Homes) into a National
ATM Card & Greed Engine.
The scam of the century is
unraveling..
“Let me get something
straight here. We find
ourselves in the midst of a
major financial meltdown,
because of what?
Because the Banksters
created a lot of money out of
thin air, in the form of debt
and gave this “air
created” money (as a loan)
to borrowers to purchase an
inflatedly priced home.
The banksters then wrote
this debt, that was created
from nothing, into a ledger
and called it a bank
asset–yet it’s still
represents money that was
created out of thin air. The
banksters then bundled these
“out of thin air” created
“assets” together with
other similarly created
“assets” and gave these
bundled assets some fancy
names, such as “High Grade
Structured Credit Enhanced
Leverage Fund” so they could
be sold to others.
Now, the people that
received the original money
are having difficulty meeting
the strict payback
requirements of their air
created loans because buried
within the loan’s contracts
are clauses that allow for the
Banksters to increase the
interest at times on this debt
that started out as nothing
more than air.
And, since many of the
people are walking away from
this money the banksters
created that was given to them
as debt, the banksters, and
those that bought these fancy
named, bundled “assets”
that were created out of thin
air are crying. Why are they
crying? Because they are
finding their “assets,”
that were created out of thin
air are worth as much as…
um… air.
So, this real estate
balloon was inflated by air
(created money). Everyone
knows what happens when too
much air is put into a
balloon. The air eventually
releases very rapidly with a
popping sound. Doesn’t the
same thing happen when air is
used to create a housing
balloon?
You Betcha!!
FCC
Should Revoke Fox's License
From
Shane C. Mason for Montana
Netroots
Listen
people, let us remove any trace
of doubt that when you watch Fox
news you are actually watching news.
You aren’t and you are doing
yourself a vast disservice to
think that you are getting
information that way. You are
only getting propaganda.
No more or no less that the same
type of propaganda fed to the
populace by the Communist
parties of China and the Soviet
Union and the National Socialist
party of German. Only this is
propaganda spoon fed to you by
the Republican party.
Judith Regan, the former
book publisher, says in a
lawsuit filed today protesting
her dismissal by the News
Corporation, the media
conglomerate, that a senior
executive there encouraged her
to lie to federal
investigators about her past
affair with Bernard B. Kerik
after he had been nominated to
become homeland security
secretary in late 2004.
-
The lawsuit asserts that the
News Corporation executive
wanted to protect the
presidential aspirations of
Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr.
Kerik’s mentor, who had
appointed him New York City
police commissioner and had
recommended him for the
federal post.
While this is preliminary and
we will need to see what further
evidence in offered, but I think
that this is the tip of a very
large iceberg.
It is ironic that my post on
Veterans Day happened to focus on
World War I; today's New York
Times has an Op-Ed
piece by Richard Rubin, about
the man who is the last living
American veteran of World War I
who actually served in France. We
sent two million men over there,
and he is the only one left.
The surviving man's name is Frank
Buckles, and he is 106 years old.
A native of Missouri, he is still
living on the farm in West
Virginia that he has had since the
1940's; he drove a tractor until
he was 104.
Mr. Rubin points out what I had
remarked upon yesterday: that
World War I gets short shrift
compared to later wars.
"Perhaps
we shouldn’t be surprised.
Almost from the moment the
armistice took effect, the United
States has worked hard, it seems,
to forget World War I; maybe
that’s because more than 100,000
Americans never returned from it,
lost for a cause that few can
explain even now. The first few
who did come home were given
ticker-tape parades, but most
returned only to silence and a
good bit of indifference.
There was no G.I. Bill of Rights
to see that they got a college
education or vocational training,
a mortgage or small-business loan.
There was nothing but what
remained of the lives they had
left behind a year or two earlier,
and the hope that they might
eventually be able to return to
what President Warren Harding,
Wilson’s successor, would call
“normalcy.” Prohibition,
isolationism, the stock market
bubble and the crisis in farming
made that hard; the Great
Depression, harder still."
He goes on to say that, four years
ago, he witnessed a 106-year-old
World War I veteran in a Veterans
Day parade in Orleans,
Massachusetts, and realized he had
probably seen the last small-town
Veterans Day parade featuring a
World War I veteran.
A few years ago, when DH and I
were at Cape Cod for Memorial Day
weekend, we went to the Brewster
Memorial Day parade. We were
astonished to see a black car
driving along in the parade with a
sign proclaiming the occupant to
be a World War I veteran. Brewster
is only a few miles from Orleans;
it's likely it was the same
veteran Mr. Rubin is remembering,
named J. Laurence Moffit. How many
World War I veterans can there be
on Cape Cod? I'm glad I had the
opportunity to see Mr. Moffit in
the parade.
Mr. Rubin concludes the article:
"It’s
hard for anyone, I imagine, to say
for certain what it is that we
will lose when Frank Buckles dies.
It’s not that World War I will
then become history; it’s been
history for a long time now. But
it will become a different kind of
history, the kind we can’t quite
touch anymore, the kind that will,
from that point on, always be just
beyond our grasp somehow. We
can’t stop that from happening.
But we should, at least, take
notice of it."
Now
the veterans of World War II are
rapidly passing on as well.
According to Ken Burns, at the end
of his documentary, The War,
1,000 are dying each day. While
there is still time, we should
talk to them, get them to tell
their stories; ask them questions,
write down the answers; have them
talk to our children about the
war. Try to understand the wisdom
they gained from their
experiences. Learn what they felt,
and why. Try to understand what
the world was like then.
Because
someday we'll be down to the last
one, the last World War II
veteran, the last of his kind, and
we'll never be able to ask those
questions again of a living person
who remembers what happened. And
we need to understand, so we can
prevent it from ever happening
again, so there won't need to be
veterans of endless wars, marching
in endless parades.
Today's quote is from "The
Band Played Waltzing
Matilda," an anti-war song by
Eric Bogle, which commemorates the
battle of Gallipoli during World
War I, where 50,000 Australians
died. Go to this
link to hear it sung on
YouTube. This is just a piece of
the lyrics:
They collected the
wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to
Australia
The armless, the legless, the
blind and the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of
Suvla
And when the ship pulled into
Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me
legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one
there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the Band played Waltzing
Matilda
When they carried us down the
gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood
there and stared
Then they turned all their faces
away
Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before
me
I see my old comrades, how proudly
they march
Renewing their dreams of past
glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff
and worn
Those weary old heroes of a
forgotten war
And the young people ask
"What are they marching
for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing
Matilda
And the old men still answer the
call
But year after year, their numbers
get fewer
Someday, no one will march there
at all...
I
am a life-long bibliophile. I consider my weekly foray into the San Jose
Public Library to be golden, and I note with some pride that the San
Jose main branch has over 8,000 visitors a day. So it comes as a
surprise to learn that in fact my public library is an utter den of
iniquity.
Well,
according to two Christian and family values advocacy
organizations–the local Values Advocacy Council and the Phoenix-based
Alliance Defense Fund–the San Jose library is a veritable hard-bound,
first edition of the Sodom and Gomorra instruction manual, and we must
protect the innocent.
Not having filters is outrageous! We must make our
libraries family-safe once again. We must protect our children and
grandchildren from Internet pornography.
–Larry Pegram,
President, Values Advocacy Council
The Alliance Defense Fund, which describes itself as “dedicated to
aggressively defend religious liberties, protect the sanctity of life
and promote traditional family values,” works by providing legal
services for individuals and organizations that advance its causes. In
other words, “you oppress, and we’ll fund your defense - whaddya got
to lose?”
Founded
by a group of high-profile Xristian Xrazies leaders such as D. James
Kennedy and James Dobson, the Alliance Defense Fund sees itself as the
anti-ACLU. As a legal group, it assists and augments the efforts of
other wingnutters to “keep the door open for the spread of the
Gospel.” The ADF has been active on issues including pushing
“marriage protection,” exposing the “homosexual agenda” and
fighting the supposed “war on Christmas.”
ADF claims many “victories” before the Supreme Court, including:
Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000), which allowed the Boy Scouts to
fire a Scout Leader due solely to his sexual orientation, and Zelman v.
Simmons-Harris (2002), upheld Ohio’s school voucher system, which
allows for parents to send their children to private or religious
schools with taxpayer-funded vouchers.
The
ADF also won United States v. American Library Association (2003), in
which the Court voted to allow the federal government to withhold
federal funds if libraries did not comply with the filtering called for
by the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000. So you see, things
are not looking good for San Jose.
In no time at all, the ADF, using half-truths and ham-fisted tactics,
turned library filters into a cause celebre at San Jose City Hall. The
pressure tactics were diabolically clever and mundanely predictable:
City Council members opposing filters risk being accused of being in
favor of children looking at smut.
Not
only did ADF inform San Jose it had a major moral outrage (who knew?),
ADF offered a solution (out of the goodness of their christian hearts,
no doubt): Adopt the ADF filter policy verbatim, and the organization
will defend the city at no charge against First Amendment
challenges–all the way to the Supreme Court. “Let us pay to censor
yourselves,” seems to be their operating procedure.
Libraries
are public institutions in the United States, and one of the absolute
hallmarks of what separates us from the rest of the world. They are
funded by our tax dollars, and in times both good and bad, Libraries
experience what the rest of the economy experiences. So is it not then
the case that Libraries are also beholden to the same separation of
Church and State as other public entities? If you give one religious
group its way with the libraries, are you not endorsing one religion
over another? Are you not doing something that establishes some sort of
endorsement of a state-sponsored religion?
Now,
as good Scissorheads know, I am not a
conspiracy theorist, and in fact I almost never use tin foil for any
reason whatsoever. That said, I cannot help but wonder if there is a
larger movement afoot. Do the Christians want to shut down the
libraries? I suspect that they might.
Here’s the deal: libraries contain knowledge, unfettered and free.
Want to learn about evolution, the “junk science” of global warming,
where babies come from, how old the earth is, go to the library. Want to
learn about atheism, paganism, other cultures and religions, go to the
library. Want to learn about the GLBT experience, alternate families,
how to defend your civil rights? Go to the library.
And lastly, consider this: Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden for
knowing too much, they ate from the tree of knowledge.
My personal hero and future
president Dr.
Monkey von Monkerstein
just posted a brilliant and
insightful piece about
waterboarding and how
disgusting it is that our
government not only does it,
but pretends it’s not that
bad. They even have their
cronies in the MSM who write
pieces on how it’s okay to
do it because it's just sooo
effective at yielding
information on terrorists.
In the post, Dr. Monkey
suggested that we waterboard
all these BushCo feckers and
THEN ask them just how
effective and “not that
bad” it is, which would,
frankly, be a just
punishment for their
lying-sack-o-shit selves.
However, it occurred to me
that we might go one better.
Picture this:
Put all the BushCo a-holes,
both past and present
(Rummy, Condi, Cheney,
Wolfie, Kristol, Mukasey,
Powell, Babs the Impaler,
Crazy Eyes, Jenna and
Not-Jenna, all of ’em),
into a big room.
Bring in some of these
“questioners” who are
ordered to waterboard people
and let them set-up for
their
“interrogation”—whatever
they need—buckets, water,
bags for the heads, etc.
Have the questioners select
a person at random from the
BushCo studio audience.
After all, I’m sure one of
them has eaten
falafel or couscous or
something lately, and we
know what a great indicator
of terrorist activity that
is. They can start with
anyone--Cheney, for
instance. He’s probably
got lots of information in
that satanic head of his;
let's see how much he'll
spill when he's being
"questioned."
Force
the BushCos to watch as that
person is waterboarded. Then
another person. Then another.
Have a TV camera panning
between the torture and the
BushCos. None of them will be
allowed to leave or look away.
I mean, they claim this is an
effective tactic that isn’t
that bad, right? Shouldn’t
be that big a deal. Just a few
minutes of waterboarding per
person, nothing like day-long
sessions or anything.
Broadcast this scene LIVE on
prime-time TV. Have ads
leading up to the broadcast
encouraging everyone to tune
in for an important matter
of national security.
Then let’s see how long
these fuckers last before
the American people rise up
and throw them bodily out of
their government offices and
onto the streets of D.C.
Bush Hates Kids and Other Americans
From BAC for Yikes!
The
president appears to be attempting to remake his terrible image.
He is suddenly concerned about fiscal responsibility -- well,
unless the subject is war. The problem with the new Bush
strategy is that he's going about it in precisely the wrong way.
Is anyone surprised?
President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress,
on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and
education programs prized by congressional Democrats.
He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war
budget although the White House complained it contained
"some unnecessary spending."
Bush vetoed a $606 billion health and education bill, his
sixth veto. Congress has only been able to override one of
them, a politically popular water projects measure. The
president claims that Democrats are acting like a teenager
with a new credit card.
Hummmm ... the Democrats want to spend money on health care
and education? What teenager would want to spend their money
on THAT?
The president, on the other hand, IS spending money like a
teenager -- wanting it for war games, like $6.3 billion for
the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, $2.8 billion
for the Navy's DD(X) destroyer and $3.1 billion for the new
Virginia-class attack submarine.
The pesky Democrats want to spend tax dollars on things like:
a 20 percent increase over Bush's request for job training
programs.
$1.4 billion more than Bush's request for health research
at the National Institutes of Health, a 5 percent increase.
$2.4 billion for heating subsidies for the poor, $480
million more than Bush requested.
$665 million for grants to community action agencies; Bush
sought to kill the program outright.
$63.6 billion for the Education Department, a 5 percent
increase over 2007 spending and 8 percent more than Bush
sought.
a $225 million increase for community health centers.
The nerve of them .... geezzz!
Since winning re-election, Bush has sought to cut the
labor, health and education measure below the prior year
level. But lawmakers have rejected the cuts. The budget that
Bush presented in February sought almost $4 billion in cuts
to this year's bill.
Democrats responded by adding $10 billion to Bush's request
for the 2008 bill. Democrats say spending increases for
domestic programs are small compared with Bush's pending war
request totaling almost $200 billion. [...]
The $471 billion defense budget gives the Pentagon a 9
percent, $40 billion budget increase. The measure only funds
core department operations, omitting Bush's $196 billion
request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, except for
an almost $12 billion infusion for new troop vehicles that
are resistant to roadside bombs.
As we all know, the Drug Problem is the gravest problem facing
America today. People getting high and having a good time, cancer
patients smoking marijuana to relieve the nausea from chemotherapy
— this is unthinkable in a Christian Nation!
So far, the War on Drugs hasn’t been very successful in spite of
the trillions of taxpayer dollars we've spent and the
Constitutional rights that we've trampled. But we will not be
deterred. This just means we have to spend more trillions and
stamp out even more of that pantywaist “Constitution.” We’ll
apply everything we learned from Humpty Dumpty: More Horses! More
Men!
Our knight in shining armor has finally arrived. Those crybabies
in Iraq don’t want Blackwater in their own country?? That’s
fine. Their loss is our gain. We can use those dedicated warriors right
here in the USA.
We’ll soon be turning a corner in the War on Drugs. Treehugging
potheads, you’ve met your match. Blackwater — along with four
other private contractors — will be joining the War on American
Citizens Drugs.
Anybody want our Constitution? We don’t seem to be using it any
more.
Ten Years After --- I'm Going Home
From Hector Diego for The
Walrus Speaks
Ten
Years After is a band that deserves more
notice than it gets. No guitarist beats Alvin
Lee. I drove my old man crazy with Ten
Years After, playing them constantly and at full
blast.
Alvin Lee is the kind of guy, he comes by to see
your daughter, you throw him out immediately. But
man, does this guy have the chops.
The President is a wingtard who thinks the
Almighty guides his hand at everything. He
also fancies himself a genius on a par
with Plato, and a savior, so therefore
anyone who questions him must be doing so
because they hate their country. Even if
they are working undercover for the
country, exposing them as the traitors
that they are is the right thing to do.
The President is also bedeviled by an evil
media full of traitors that never misses
an opportunity to make him look bad.
Whether the dissenters are traitors
or motherfucking
traitors, the stupidity of the
President is all too apparent. It is a
needless expense of money to supply such a
person with “advisers,” since he knows
it all already. Surrounded by ass-kissing
toadies, the President will never hear
from his own staff that he could possibly
do anything wrong-and if there are those
brave enough to make that notation,
they’ll be gone soon enough. You are
either with the President, or you are an
enemy of the state. It’s as simple as
that.
Here’s hoping that the people
suffering under the thumb of this idiotic
President will be released from their
misery soon, so that their country can
begin the process of repairing all the
damage that he’s done.
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has denounced as
“traitors” those in Iran who have
criticised its nuclear programme, state
media have reported.
Mr Ahmadinejad said the
“internal elements” would be exposed
if they did not stop pressurising his
government, in a speech at a university
in Tehran.
Reformists and several senior
clerics have challenged Iran’s nuclear
policy.
Last week, Mr Ahmadinejad was
quoted as claiming his government’s
critics were less intelligent “than a
little goat”.
The comparison was made in a
speech he made in South Khorasan
province on Wednesday, according to
Farda, an Iranian website affiliated to
so-called pragmatic conservatives.
Although the remarks were
reported by a number of conservative and
pro-reform newspapers, Mr
Ahmadinejad’s spokesman has insisted
he was misquoted in an example of
“press charlatanism”.
A new study
by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show
and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and
international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank
nearly dead last:
.
Founded
by a group of high-profile Xristian Xrazies leaders such as D. James
Kennedy and James Dobson, the Alliance Defense Fund sees itself as the
anti-ACLU. As a legal group, it assists and augments the efforts of
other wingnutters to “keep the door open for the spread of the
Gospel.” The ADF has been active on issues including pushing
“marriage protection,” exposing the “homosexual agenda” and
fighting the supposed “war on Christmas.”
The
ADF also won United States v. American Library Association (2003), in
which the Court voted to allow the federal government to withhold
federal funds if libraries did not comply with the filtering called for
by the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000. So you see, things
are not looking good for San Jose.
Not
only did ADF inform San Jose it had a major moral outrage (who knew?),
ADF offered a solution (out of the goodness of their christian hearts,
no doubt): Adopt the ADF filter policy verbatim, and the organization
will defend the city at no charge against First Amendment
challenges–all the way to the Supreme Court. “Let us pay to censor
yourselves,” seems to be their operating procedure.
Libraries
are public institutions in the United States, and one of the absolute
hallmarks of what separates us from the rest of the world. They are
funded by our tax dollars, and in times both good and bad, Libraries
experience what the rest of the economy experiences. So is it not then
the case that Libraries are also beholden to the same separation of
Church and State as other public entities? If you give one religious
group its way with the libraries, are you not endorsing one religion
over another? Are you not doing something that establishes some sort of
endorsement of a state-sponsored religion?
Now,
as good Scissorheads know, I am not a
conspiracy theorist, and in fact I almost never use tin foil for any
reason whatsoever. That said, I cannot help but wonder if there is a
larger movement afoot. Do the Christians want to shut down the
libraries? I suspect that they might.
Force
the BushCos to watch as that
person is waterboarded. Then
another person. Then another.
Have a TV camera panning
between the torture and the
BushCos. None of them will be
allowed to leave or look away.
I mean, they claim this is an
effective tactic that isn’t
that bad, right? Shouldn’t
be that big a deal. Just a few
minutes of waterboarding per
person, nothing like day-long
sessions or anything.