"Distrust all in whom
the impulse to punish is powerful."

Friedrich Nietzche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

"The only difference I ever found between the

Democratic leadership and the Republican

leadership is that one of them is skinning you from

the ankle up and the other, from the neck down."

Huey P. Long

Immigration Consternation -- Nothing More Than Pre-election Public Masturbation

Hey -- I hear the call-ins -- people shrieking

"We're losing our country! We're having our country STOLEN from us!"

Funny -- ironic even -- that's exactly what THEY were saying around 15o years ago when the regions we call "Our Country" were, in fact, THEIR country.

It's just racial hysteria.

But we attach labels for our protection (i.e., to keep from waking up).

The so-called "Mexicans" or "Nicaraguans" or Hondurans," are Native Americans who speak Spanish, most of them, instead of Nahuatl, or whatever, because they were invaded by the Spanish (just as most North American Natives speak English, since English-speaking people are the ones who invaded THEM).

These are the people who lived on the land before anyone -- not even the Basque -- knew there was a land here. Some of them are descendants of combined genes of Native and foreign invaders -- Spanish or French or German.

Most are Apache or Yaqui or Navajo or Aztec or Maya or Huichol, etc. The same faces that were carved in and from stone 1000 years ago. No difference from the Cheyenne, Sioux, Iroquois,*** and the rest insofar as they all were here for hundreds, thousands of years before the Europeans came looking for gold.

So who's stealing what from whom?

One simple solution: a merger between Mexico and the United States (as was suggested many years ago by John Muir -- of the VW Idiot Book -- and others) -- no questions of amnesty or being guests in the home they were run out of not so long ago -- they'd all be citizen of the Republic of North American (the Canadians could join, too).

It's just a line on a map.

I said SIMPLE -- I didn't say EASY.

But this current business is so racial it's painful.

Because the second largest group of illegals working in America and taking jobs away from our citizens? Irish -- they go to Canada and slide across to the US -- Boston, New York, etc.

When I see an INS agent pull over a blonde-hairded blue eyed freckled family, pull them out of their car and demand to see ID and Green Cards because they "look Irish and talk with a brogue," then I'll allow that this business isnt just racial hysteria.

And oh, yeah if European Jews have a claim on land that people not even related to them abandoned 1000 years ago, people not descended from Semitic stock, but who read the same book, well, is that a precedent?

And what does it mean for the Navajo or Miwok?

(By the way, I'm Jewish. And I'm glad those poor bastards out of Europe have a place to live. Europe didn't want them. Hell, the RAF attacked a fleet of ships* carrying 7,000 people who had managed to survive the Neuengamme Concentration Camp on May 3, 1945. Only 350 came through alive.** I think it's great they had Palestine to go to. I'm just talking here about who's stealing what from whom, who's got a rightful claim to what, and how those of us in Northern California should be learning at least a few basic phrases in Wintu.)

***************************************
***************************************

* The Cap Arcona, Deutschland, and Thielbeck

**The 100-Year Secret: Britain's Hidden WWII Massacre by Benjamin Jacobs (one of the survivors) and Eugene Pool. 2004, The Lyons Press, ISBN# 1-59228-532-5

***Just FYI -- The Iroquois Federation was the basic structure used for our Constituion, and since the United States, so-called were essentially in a state of anarchy after the British left, it was a good thing Benjamin Franklin knew about their organization. (Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois and the Rationale for the American Revolution by Bruce E. Johansen, 1982 Gambit Inc. Publishers. You can read the entire book here .

Some 30+ years ago, Ashleigh Brilliant penned this observation:

"One possible reason why things aren't going
according to plan is that there never was a plan."


The more things change, eh?


The following is from Wikipedia:

Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant (born December 9, 1933 in London, England) is an author and syndicated cartoonist living in Santa Barbara, California. He is best known for Pot-Shots, a single-panel comic of illustrated one-liners.

The Wall Street Journal described him in a 1992 profile as "history's only full time, professional published epigrammatist."

In a copyright infringement suit filed by Brilliant, a U.S. federal judge has ruled that, while short phrases are not eligible for copyright, Brilliant's writings were epigrams and, therefore, copyrightable (Brilliant v. W.B. Productions Inc., 1979).

Poll: California Political Pessimism Grows

The public has become deeply pessimistic that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature can work together since a massive public works plan failed to make the June ballot, according to a new poll.

The Legislature's approval rating has fallen to 25 percent -- its lowest point since 2000 -- the survey released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California shows, while the governor's popularity has changed little since January, with 37 percent giving him a positive rating.

In January, Schwarzenegger proposed a $222 billion, 10-year plan to improve the state's highways, levees, schools and public transit systems. It relied on $68 billion in borrowing that required voter approval over a series of elections.

************************

It's too bad -- having thoroughly established himself as a bully, a thug, and an asshole, insulting the manhood of the legislators along the way by comparing them dismissively to women (something the women in the government didn't especially appreciate, either) he's focusing attention on dealing with things that really need doing, but, having pissed off everyone he's dealt with till now, no one wants to see his swagger or hear his boastful voice.

Something about first impressions. And second impressions.

Well, wottehell, Archie -- he got in on meaningless superficial image stuff, and now he's going down on the same thing.

Too bad.
The projects he's addressing REALLY need attention FAST.
He should have tried a little politeness.

Ah well, Ahnold found out what every other governor found out -- no one can run California. Can't be done.

So it's some comfort -- even if cold comfort -- to see the swaggering tough guys come in, one after another, each one shouting about how he can do a better job than the poor bastard who's sitting there in Sacramento wondering whyinhell he ever wanted to be governor in the first place, only to be taken down a few pegs when he wins and finds out it's "Welcome to the Machine" as he feels his teeth and bones start to go crunch.

Link

Sinners in the hands of an angry GOP

At a messianic "War on Christians" conference, Tom DeLay warned that "the future of man hangs in the balance" as other righteous souls demanded that gay sex be explicitly described to restore "shame..."

...DeLay's legal troubles as part of a culminating war between heaven and hell.

"I believe the most damaging thing Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously in the public office, which made him a target of all those who despise the goals of Christ," said Scarborough, a former college football player and longtime DeLay ally. Taking the stage before the 200 or so adoring activists in the banquet hall, DeLay ran with the end-times theme. "We have been chosen to live as Christians at a time when our culture is being poisoned and our world is being threatened, at a time when sides are being chosen and the future of man hangs in the balance," he said. "The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won, and if we put our trust in Christ, they never will."

*******************************

As they say, if you're not getting any rhythm waving the flag, try swinging that cross.

Use it like a hammer.

Let me tell you, personally, as someone who live in Texas for a few years -- in sophisticated Houston -- I was called Yankee Jew Carpetbagger so many times, I started introducing myself as Horace C. Cola and my Wife, Moon Pie.

For them thar southren Christians to be screaming about all the discrimination against THEM?!?

Fuck 'em.

Bring back the Romans and the lions and remind 'em what discrimination really is all about.

Show em the death camps and the ovens.

A bunch of spoiled brat creeps who can't accept the fact that there are a lot of people out there whose impression of moonlight isn't the same as theirs.

Can't get over the fact that other people don't agree with their brand of hysteria.

Tough shit.

Those guys own the president and the congress and, apparently, at least Big Tony Scalia and Uncle Clarence Thomas.. and they're still throwing tantrums.

A bunch of babies .. malignant, vicious, terrified, furious at anyone who ISN'T terrified, anxious to "give 'em something to be terrified about."

They talk a whole lot of Jesus, but they walk a whole lot like Julius Streicher.

They wouldn't know what "humble" means if Billy Graham rose from the dead and tried to explain it to them.

They may hold a bunch of morons in thrall, but there are plenty of us out here who know their true face -- and it's a genuine demon from their own created Hell.

Grow up you malevolent babies.

Link

Bush Blames Saddam for Iraq Instability

By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer

March 29,2006 | WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Wednesday that Saddam Hussein, not continued U.S. involvement in Iraq, is responsible for ongoing sectarian violence that is threatening the formation of a democratic government.

***************************

Of course not -- how could God's pal Jimmy Olson ever be
wrong?"
It must be the guy who's been hiding for three years and in custody for two, yeah, that's the ticket.

What, does he think he's in the 5th grade?

You may never see a better definition of the word "pissant."

"I ran out of gas. I had a flat tire.
I didn't have enough money for cab fare.
My tux didn't come back from the cleaners.
An old friend came in from out of town.
Someone stole my car.
There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts!

It wasn't my fault, I swear to god!"

Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers Movie

Link

A great quote

Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"

Raskin replied:

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

The room erupted into applause

"It is dangerous to be right
when the government is wrong."

Voltaire

Judicial intemperance - Scalia flips message to doubting Thomases

Minutes after receiving the Eucharist at a special Mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a special blessing of his own for those who question his impartiality when it comes to matters of church and state.

“You know what I say to those people?” Scalia, 70, replied, making an obscene gesture under his chin when asked by a Herald reporter if he fends off a lot of flak for publicly celebrating his conservative Roman Catholic beliefs.

“That’s Sicilian,” the Italian jurist said, interpreting for the “Sopranos” challenged.

**********************
Big Tony S -- what a sophisticated, cultured fellow he is -- seems to be doing Uncle Junior more than Tony Soprano.

Link

Is the Media Only Showing the Bad News in Iraq?

From The Huffington Post -- an excerpt from Paul Rieckhoff's blog (read the entire article via the link above):


"...The President and others have been blasting the media (except for Fox) for only showing the bad news.

"I believe that press coverage in Iraq is definitely too narrow.

"But too negative? I don't think so. If you are looking for good news stories in a war zone, you are looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place. It is like looking for virgins at the Playboy mansion--you might find a few, but they're certainly not the majority. If you want good news stories, go to Disneyland. Not Iraq...

"I thought I'd try something new: I asked a soldier on the ground what he thinks about this debate. The guy I asked is a very trusted old friend of mine--an infantryman serving in Ramadi right now who supported the initial invasion of Iraq 100%... one simple question: "What do you say when people say the media doesn't tell enough good news stories out of Iraq?"

"I never hear that because we all here know the good news stories are bullshit and do not really affect the mission in any way...

"What are the good news stories? I would love to hear them. Spare me the heart warming tales of a single family or school or neighborhood that was helped. Operation Iraqi Freedom is, at this point, an abject failure. This is the most dangerous place on earth and it's getting worse, not better...

"... The "we don't hear good news from Iraq" mindset is one that is totally ignorant of Iraqi culture. There is no good news."

************************
Hmm, in the words of Big Brother (i.e., jeb Bush's Little Brother) and his handlers: "Obviously a malcontent."

Of course if any of those Rec Room Patriots who were just too goddamn precious to actually serve in the military (and no I do NOT include a Rich Kid in a Rich Kid's National Guard Unit) -- they'd know that "malcontent" is the norm for any good, coherent fighting force.

Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays

Three Years On, Americans Ignore Pleas of Repression Even Worse than Saddam’s

Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the Green Zone, the secure area officialdom has carved out within Baghdad, gays Iraqis are met with indifference and derision...

The Badr Corps is committed to the sexual cleansing of Iraq,"said Ali Hili, a 33-year-old gay Iraqi exile in London who, with some 30 other gay Iraqis who have fled to the United Kingdom, five months ago founded the Abu Nawas Group there to support persecuted gay Iraqis...

The well-armed Badr Corps is the military arm of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the powerful Shia group that is the largest political formation in Iraq’s Shia community, and was headquartered in exile in Tehran until Saddam Hussein’s fall. The SCIRI’s Badr Corps is trained and commanded by former Iraqi army officers.

The Ayatollah Sistani, the 77-year-old Iranian-born cleric who is the supreme Shia authority in Iraq, is revered by SCIRI as its spiritual leader. His anti-gay fatwa—available on Sistani’s official Web site—says that “people involved” in homosexuality “should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

*****************

I thought the Ayatllah Sistani was the "moderate" we were cheering on.

Well, I've said it before and I've said it again -- I have no dog in this fight -- being neither gay nor Muslim

BUT

when the choice must be made between the people who say "This is the way I live," and the people who say "This is the way YOU must live," there's no question that sides must be taken and no question which side is the right side to take.

Not for an American.

Doesn't matter if it's Ayatollah Sistani or Pat Robertson. They both exemplify Voltaire's astute observation:

"As long as men believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities."


***********************

NB: Now that I have struck the big bad standing-up-for-freedom stance, I want to make it clear that there is a high probability the BS level of the above is extremely deep (doesn't diminish the validity of Voltaire's comment one bit, just shows it's not limited to the Bad Boy Badr Corps) --

This from Juan Cole, a source more reliable than most (such as Gay City News, The Wall Street Journal, WashingBrain Times and The New York Times:

"The implication given by exiled gay Iraqi, Ali Hili, of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage, that Sistani has called for vigilante killings of gays, is untrue, though it is accurate that Sistani advises that the state make homosexual activity a capital crime.."

Link

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement - The Boston Globe

When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers...

Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

*************

So let's see -- King George the Third, he was a midnight madness motherfucker, wandering around the palace, brains turned to cottage cheese from porphyria.

And King George the 43rd ... well how about that coincidence...

Interesting ... and history will also show that they both believed they had Divine Right. (Holy Blood, Holy Grail, eh, Monkey Boy?)

And that both of them were so miserably inadequate to the demands of office that, in the words of Little Richard Penniman, they "got what they wanted but lost what they had."

Too bad for us that sociopathic dummy plans to take us all down with him.

Link

“I have never made but one prayer to God,
a very short one:

‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’

And God granted it.”

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Quotes of the Day

Bush Launches Massive Shock & Awe Offensive... Against U.S. Media:

As the Bush administration's Iraq fiasco spirals further out of control, a new phase of the war has begun: an all-out assault on the American media for simply reporting the news. The scope and audacity of this attack is breathtaking: on cue, a bevy of administration officials and rightwing talking heads has begun taking direct aim at the press, accusing reporters of fabricating the Iraq crisis.

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And oh yeah -- (see note below on dealing with an indefensible record by attacking your opponent) -- also attack the media, tell the people that what they are reading and hearing is all lies and the result of completely biased selection (but of course, not what they hear from YOU -- they can trust you to tell them the truth and never never never fudge the facts -- well, this time, anyway, this time it's the truth -- for sure -- yeah, that's the ticket).


.

Link

Bush Blasts Democrats on Economic Issues

By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer

March 24,2006 | INDIANAPOLIS -- President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney launched a two-man offensive against the Democrats on Friday, with Bush suggesting the opposition party would stall the economic recovery and Cheney portraying Democratic leaders as weak on combating terror.

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Kee-rist -- Rule One in Politics: If you can't find any way to defend your own record, attack the opposition.

Link

Are Late Innings the Time for a Relief Pitcher?

"...One person who met Mr. Rove said he attributed Mr. Bush's problems more to external events, in particular Hurricane Katrina and Iraq, than to anything the White House did wrong..."

**********************

But it's NEVER EVER EVER THEIR fault, nossir, they're perfect and wonderful and anyone who sez different is a vile treasonous monster who's actually willing to look at things objectively.

It's the Dark Lord, the Unholy One to blame it on -- except most people who hear that term immediately think of either Cheney or Rove anyway.

Link

Will Bush Hire a New Senior Adviser? - New York Times

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: March 23, 2006

WASHINGTON, March 22 — President Bush's suggestion on Tuesday that he may add a new senior figure to his White House team raised questions about the future of two of his closest and most powerful aides, Andrew H. Card Jr. and Karl Rove, as they struggle to put Mr. Bush's White House back on course.

Mr. Rove told associates in recent days that he was confident he could resist calls to bring in new advisers. Still, Mr. Bush's decision not to squelch speculation about such a move — "Well, I'm not going to announce it right now," he said Tuesday at his news conference, with Mr. Rove watching — did nothing to restore diminished Republican confidence in a White House team that once promoted a reputation for efficiency, order and impeccable political instincts.

****************

Got to have some Jonah or other to throw over the side and blame everything on...

Boyoboyoboy -- won't MonkeyBoy be surprised when he finds out, after all is said and done, HE'S the one they'll blame it ALL on?

**************************

Link

A clarification note on the post below:

US military men and women have ALWAYS been in the position of cleaning up reality after some space cowboy in the White House made an international mess. The EXPECT that will usually be the case.

And that includes the Halls of Montezuma, the Shores of Tripoli, the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Spanish, etc...

They have ALWAYS known that's their job, and they have ALWAYS done it with all they've got -- still do. Doing the job, of course, includes a lot of necessary grumbling and mocking of the higher-ups. As any real officer knows, "Once they stop complaining, watch out."

(Incidentally, I also regard the practice of fragging as being among the highest of military traditions -- sometimes there's nothing else to be done with or about some newbie with shiny bars on his collar. )

But what military personnel ALSO expect is for those politicians to keep their word,
to fulfill their contractual obligations, including (but not limited to):

Providing medical care for injuries incurred while on active duty

Paying the monies they have promised

Releasing personnel from active duty according to the contracts they signed

Paying pensions according to degree of disability, again, incurred while on active duty


I support -- unconditionally -- the people who put on the uniform and who live in situations surrounded by things no human should ever have to see.

I am ALSO continually and unconditionally clamoring for this corrupt administration to keep its promises to those troops.

However -- and this is the reason for this clarification, I also regard ANYONE who at this point in the game, actually believes that ANY promises made by the government will be honored and won't have an escape catch -- I regard those people as almost certain to be too dumb to figure out which way to hold the boot, in order to read the instructions written on the heel that tells them how to pour the piss out of it.

Bush says war could outlast his presidency

--Hell if he has his way, it could outlast the pyramids.

The whole idea is endless war -- that way, the goal of the psychotic religious right to "drown the government like a baby in a bathtub" can be achieved -- "Sorry, we're at war, no money for the sick and dying, no money for legal aid, no money for roads or anti-pollution. Just to to rely on big corporations to take care of that, you know -- retirement funds, health insurance..."

The method?

Lie lie lie anyway anything to get us in there, into Iraq. And once in, they knew their mewling puking whining excuse would be:

"Maybe it was wrong to go in, but NOW THAT WE'RE IN THERE, WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE."

It's psycho logic, but it's compelling, so even the Dumbocrats are nodding their heads, "Yep, they're right about that."

As I recall, we couldn't just leave Vietnam.

At one time, Orwell's 1984 was a cautionary tale ... with these fanatics, it's become the blueprint:

"We have ALWAYS been at war with Oceania."

Meanwhile, they rape the lives of the men and women who join up, who are courageous and/or patriotic and/or dumb enough (because they believe these Rec Room Patriots know what they're doing and will honor their promises).

They lie to them, make promises they never intend to keep (re-upping bonuses, for one), strangle the families until they fall apart, refuse them medical benefits ...

And that drunken pissant has the indecency to stand before the press and smile and giggle when talking about this obscene little war he's so proud of.

"Hey mommy, look at me -- I'm up here standing behind the podium and everyone wants to hear what I have to say."

He doesn't -- they never do -- notice the total disgust and contempt on the faces of those people waiting to hear what he has to say.

Link

FBI Was Warned About Moussaoui

---"Oh, if ONLY someone could have known, could have told us, if only we could have imagined...."

Agent Tells Court Of Repeated Efforts Before 9/11 Attacks

By Jerry Markon and Timothy Dwyer

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; Page A01

An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative was plotting to hijack an airplane, according to federal court testimony yesterday.

Agent Harry Samit told jurors at Moussaoui's death penalty trial that his efforts to secure a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings were frustrated at every turn by FBI officials he accused of "criminal negligence." Samit said he had sought help from a colleague, writing that he was "so desperate to get into Moussaoui's computer I'll take anything."

That was on Sept. 10, 2001.

Samit's testimony added striking detail to the voluminous public record on the FBI's bungling of the Moussaoui case. It also could help Moussaoui's defense. Samit is a prosecution witness who had earlier backed the government's central theory of the case: that the FBI would have raised "alarm bells" and could have stopped the Sept. 11 attacks if Moussaoui had not lied to agents. But under cross-examination by the defense yesterday, Samit said that he did raise those alarms -- repeatedly -- but that his bosses impeded his efforts.

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OOOPS!

Link

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Study Supports Possible Connection between Climate Change and Malaria Rise

Since the 1970s, the highlands of East Africa have witnessed a surge in malaria outbreaks. Because the mosquitoes that carry the disease do not thrive in cooler climes some researchers have suggested a link between this rise and climate change. A 2002 study found no such connection, but a new analysis of the data--including five more years of records--seems to show that a modest increase in temperature could lead to a population boom in mosquitoes and, therefore, malaria.

****************************

British Medical Journal ran a story about 10 years ago saying that this was coming and even printed topological maps showing the anticipated rise in altitude of the disease. Guess which highlands were on that map?

At present, with malaria still relatively restricted to hot weather lowlands, worldwide malaria causes between 1.5 million to 2.7 million deaths each year.

More than half a million of those are malnourished children who, the World Health Organization states, with enough food, could survive.

And oh, but there is SOME good news here -- the swamp on which was established Washington D.C. will be a PERFECT breeding ground for becoming a new malaria basin.

Link

Here's the dilemma -- even if this amazingly short-sighted whatever-it-is in Iraq proves fantastically successful according to whatever goals and aims the administration is claiming this week:

Most Americans do NOT want our country to be the sort of monster it seems to becoming -- a bullying, invading, torturing, murdering, vicious, the mindless, conscienceless, incompetent power-crazed soulless THING killing indiscriminately and and then pissing on the promises they made to the military volunteers they sent to do their dirty work (and their families) while shutting down the rights of the rest of its citizens and putatively headed by a swaggering sock puppet who is filled by the slimy hands of some of the most unwholesome creatures we've ever seen anywhere outside of an H.P. Lovecraft story -- let alone in a presidential administration -- and that includes Nixon's (from whence came the hard core of this crowd).

I know we've often and always been one or more of those things -- any Latin American and/or Native American history will show that. But that doesn't mean we want to enshrine every bit of THAT sort of behavior and shitcan the good things.

Just because this country has not always or even often lived up to its Bill of Rights does NOT mean we are ready to just tear it up and become what we always accused the Soviet Union of being.

Unfortunately, it really looks like that's exactly what this band of creeps that have come out from under the rocks (except for Dick Cheney who STILL can't stand much daylight) -- that's what they're working hard to make permanent.

Or as I have personally heard kids sing in the rich River Oaks section of Houston:

"This land is my land
It is not your land
I have a shotgun
You have not got one
If you don't get off
I'll blow your head off
This land was made for only me."

Cute, the little girls I heard singing that and dancing around the big living room.

Real cute.

President says he sees progress, but explaining where is difficult

OK -- you know I despise the man -- but still -- you couldn't get a passing grade on a Junior High Book Report with that crap.

Link

Bush Asks U.S. to Look Past Iraq Bloodshed

By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer

March 20,2006 | CLEVELAND -- Beginning the fourth year of an unpopular war, President Bush defended his Iraq record on Monday against skeptical questioning. He said he could "understand people being disheartened" but appealed to Americans to look beyond the bloodshed and see signs of progress.

**************

He still doesn't seem to understand there are some of us out here who find the bloodshed itself the criminality of it all, regardless of the "progress."

Suppose We Just Let I-ran Have the Bomb -- David E. Sanger

We LET them?

What if -- perish the thought -- they want to run their own country?

New York TImes, 3-19-06

PRESIDENT BUSH'S message to Iran these days sounds unambiguous: The United States will do what it takes to keep the mullahs from getting the bomb. Diplomacy is vastly preferred, President Bush and his aides insist. Yet it was no accident that the just-revised National Security Strategy declares: "This diplomatic effort must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided..."
*****************
Well, if there was anyone in this administration who knew what diplomacy was, that might be meaningful. Oh right, tell me how the Queen of Spades is so diplomatic.

(The reference is not to Ms Rice's race, but to the Bushwah Admin trying to "Shoot the Moon," as in a game of Hearts, where the Queen of Spades is the 13-point monster. In this case, Shoot the Moon means getting the whole pipeline string -- Iraq, Iran, Syria -- Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, no Black Sea, no tankers waiting in line for months. I mean no disrespect to Ms Rice. She does not inspire contempt, as do the rest of the Bushies. Only sadness. I had hopes she could have been so much more than a State Department Discipline Mistress.)

*************************

"The reality is that most of us think the Iranians are probably going to get a weapon, or the technology to make one, sooner or later," an administration official acknowledged a few weeks ago, refusing to talk on the record because such an admission amounts to a concession that dragging Iran in front of the United Nations Security Council may prove an exercise in futility. "The optimists around here just hope we can delay the day by 10 or 20 years, and that by that time we'll have a different relationship with a different Iranian government."

**********************************

Right -- like they won't be Muslim any more?

Or we'll have a president who's actually interested in making peace?

Who isn't hag-ridden by his mother and obsessed with a desperate need to defeat Poppy?

Who isn't trying to bring on the Final Days?

Who isn't so terrified of the bad brown people who might take his unearned fortune away from him, he's totally unable to do anything but drink and run around in fear, jumping up on the kitchen chair because a Muslim mouse is running around, pursuing its own cheese.

Who isn't a drunken sock-puppet bully and who hasn't packed his administration with other bullies and sock puppets.

(Dick Cheney acts tough, but there are bigger boys with their hands up HIS sock puppet ass.)



And I go back to the initial question:

Suppose we LET IRan have the bomb?

These people no longer worship God --
they've erased the line and now think they ARE God.

Link

Ann Calvello died the other day -- 76 years old.

I did an interview with her 35 years ago -- a movie called "Derby" had come out in 1971, about a kid in Akron who wanted to be a derby star -- and he got his shot, was skating for the Bay Bombers, but she was a lot more interesting --a monster on the track and a delight off it: funny, sharp, dangerous -- kept you awake and laughing.

I had gone to the stadium with another man, but there was a new skater on the team, tall brunette, really beautiful woman, with a face that, in repose, could have been one of Fillipino Lippi's sorrowful Renaissance angels (although in some of the photos I took, she was in a fight and looked like Grendel's mom storming out of the cave). Anyway, my friend had fallen instantly head over heels for her. It wasn't hard to do. And he’d introduced himself to her by saying "I'm hopelessly in love with you," leaving me to do the story by myself.

I thinkI had the better time.

She could have blown me off -- she did that with press people a lot. But instead, she said:
"You want the interview? You want to know who we really are? You come drinking with us."

And I did, at the bar across Stanyan Street from the stadium.

I assumed -- well, I hoped -- ok, I can survive this.

Mostly they were all sort of mellowed out after an evening of smacking the crap out of other guys. And while we talked and drank, I kept thinking -- finally asked her -- where do I know you from, why do you look so familiar. And we figured it out. I had grown up seeing her, in pictures and on TV -- she'd skated for the Philly Panthers when I grew up there.

(There was a whole copyright thing about the name, "Roller Derby" at the time -- the man who'd originally set up the league owned the name, he said. So in later years, it had to be called "Roller Games" or some such bullshit. That's another story.)

Because of the movie, she talked a lot about the new kid, saying he wanted to roll BIG but he was too small. Meaning he smashed hard like a big guy did but should have been at least 6 inches bigger and 40 pounds heavier to last because it took bulk to sustain the hits. He had the will and the toughness, but didn't have the technique he needed to last long. And wasn't really interested in learning it because he was a star.

I said, "Really?" and she said, "Watch this."

Called him over and said, "This guy's a fan, saw your movie..." and without getting off the bar stool, she threw a shoulder and elbow into him and knocked him on his ass right there in the bar.

She turned to me and said "See? Look at that -- he doesn't dodge, doesn't roll with the fall. He's gonna break."

Ms Calvello was not very big herself, not in physical size, although at 5’7” you wouldn’t have called her petite -- even if you'd never seen her work.

But she was what people call “bigger than life.”

She was fearless, and she was a "big hitter," but the really big noise associated with her skating was usually the sound of the person she'd knocked over, skates up, helmet down, hitting the wood.

She wouldn’t have lasted 10 years in Roller Derby -- let alone 50 years – without a whole lot of smarts and a hard-won knowledge of the craft. She picked her angles and could knock anyone, no matter how big, on her ass without having to take the full hit herself. (She could use her helmet, too, when the occasion warranted.)

She was funny and bright, and had that relaxed way a cat has, one that knows the claws are right there if needed.

And I spent the evening with her and the team, drinking and laughing until the bar closed. And I said Good Night and staggered home

"BIGGER THAN LIFE"

Absolutely true.

She was so alive that here I am 30+ years later, and I can put myself right back on that barstool and see her lighting up the room, the scene still shining in memory.

She was a solid gold, diamond-studded "something else”

She was the definition of what people mean when they say that someone is "something else."

Goodbye, Ann – thanks for one of the best nights of my life.

Allawi Says Iraq in Middle of Civil War

March 19,2006 | LONDON -- Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in a TV interview aired Sunday. His comments were immediately rejected by Britain's defense secretary.

Allawi told the British Broadcasting Corp. there was no other way to describe the increasing violence across the country.

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi told the BBC. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Allawi heads the Iraqi National List, a secular alliance of Shiite and Sunni politicians that won 25 seats in December parliamentary elections.

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I dunno -- is it partisan of me to put a little more value on the opinion of the man whose opinion we trusted enough to appoint him to lead the country?

Allawi just gave his definition of civil war.

Why don't Defense Secretary John Reid and any of the fumble-fucks who blundered us into this actually state THEIR DEFINITION of CIVIL WAR? WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN FOR THEM TO CONSIDER IT AN ACTUAL CIVIL WAR?

Or is it "We can't let you know because then the insurgents would know."

Into the Valley of Death Rode the 600.

March 17, 2006—In biology, two heads are rarely better than one. But this unusual golden coin turtle, found in China, appears to be doing just fine. A businessman from the city of Qingdao says he bought the reptile at an animal market last year.
According to press reports, the turtle's two heads cooperate well and can even eat at the same time. Its owner says the reptile eats more than one-headed turtles do and has grown over the past year.
Story continues:

A Friday cat drawing by the late Kerry Thornley.

Friday's Cat is full of claws.

Ambidextrous unearthed this quote yesterday, no doubt from someone else, but that's what Blogs do -- pass the information along --- it's a classic and a premise for a thesis in Political Science, Journalism, or Philosophy:


"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?"

-Alan Colmes -- April 2003 -- Fox News

Hunters Can Take Up to 325,000 Seal Pups

March 16,2006 | TORONTO -- Canada's contentious seal hunt will soon start, the government announced Wednesday, despite protests by Paul McCartney and other animal-rights activists who condemn the killing of the pups as inhumane.

Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn charged that the media have misrepresented the hunt, and said Canada is committed to ensuring the seals are killed by humane methods.

"Canada's harp seal herd is a conservation success story," Hearn said in Ottawa. "We continue our surveillance and monitoring to make sure that Canada's is the most tightly regulated, closely watched and, above all, most humane seal hunt in the world."

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What does that mean, "most humane?"

That a prize goes to the guy who can crush a baby seal's skull in only one smash?

(The white fur goes to making --- guess what -- souvenir toy seal pup dolls. The meat is either left out on the ice or goes to make sausage.. .and the little guys' willies? They're used as Chinese Medicine -- either served in upscale restaurants or ground up and sold to dirty old men in Japan and Germany so they can get it up and go to Thailand, Burma, etc in Southeast Asia and have sex with children, 10 years old and up a little bit (to bone a virgin is to regain virility, but first you have to get at least one bone.)

So isn't that sweet -- beat baby seals to day so you can rape baby Asians. Watta business, eh?

Oh but wait... here's some more spin....


"Aboriginal and Inuit hunters begin the commercial kill in November in Canada's frozen Arctic waters. The spring leg is slated to begin in the Gulf of St. Lawrence next week and move later to an arc about 30 to 40 miles from Newfoundland."

But hey, if they're natives, it's ok ... mostly native Norwegians who represent the processing companies, native Maritime Provinces Euro-descendants (Irish, English, French)... if there's one Micmac in a thousand, it would be a big surprise.

But wottehell, it's the most humane mass slaughter of wild animals in the world, so that's cool, right?

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So a baby Harp seal crawls into a bar and the bartender says:

"What'll you have?"

And the Baby Harp Seal says:

"Anything but a Canadian Club."

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They love to talk about how dangerous it is out there on the ice floes, as if clubbing little helpless things to pulp is a MANLY pursuit. I don't see why some other MANLY types couldn't go out there with M-16's and show 'em what it's like on the other end of the spectrum.


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Link

Largest Iraq Air Assault Since '03 Begins

You get the idea this is Bush doing his "Top O' the World, Ma!" desperate goin' down in flames "kill 'em all and let that demon I pretend is Jesus sort 'em out" freakout?

(Or wasn't the purpose of the Pentagon plane on 9-11 to break the pentagram and release whatever it is they have under the middle of that 5-sided device?)

Link

Rice Calls on China to Explain Buildup

By ANNE GEARAN AP Diplomatic Writer

March 16,2006 | SYDNEY, Australia -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that China must be more open about its military buildup and play by international economic rules as its influence grows around the world.

"I heard that there's going to be a 14 percent increase in the Chinese defense budget. That's a lot," Rice said during a diplomatic visit to Australia, a country with broadening economic ties to China.

"China should undertake to be transparent about what that means," Rice said following a meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

China's parliament on Friday approved a 14.7 percent increase in its annual military budget to $35 billion. The Beijing government said the money would go toward salaries, new equipment, training and higher fuel costs...]

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Explanation?

"Your asshole Monkey-in-Chief has de-stabilized the entire Asian World because he's SCARED of the mean old brown-skin folks.

He's playing with his DICK while Kim Jim-Bob is building nukes and launching missiles.

The Russias are in chaos.

The Japanese are only 50 years away from the rape of Nanjing.

You got a question -- tell it to us face-to-face.

Or are you like your boss -- just one more of this administration's craven showboaters, talking tough when you're around your friends.

What a waste -- you actually have an education, even if it's a Cold War fixation.

And while we're on the subject, what about YOUR arms stockpiling?

Hey lady, DIG YOURSELVES FIRST."

*************************************

Updated Strategy Backs Iraq Strike and Cites Iran Peril

New York Times

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: March 16, 2006

WASHINGTON, March 15 — An updated version of the Bush administration's national security strategy, the first in more than three years, gives no ground on the decision to order a pre-emptive attack on Iraq in 2003, and identifies Iran as the country likely to present the single greatest future challenge to the United States...

But chief among the sections that remain unchanged is the most controversial section of the 2002 strategy: the elevation of pre-emptive strikes to a central part of United States strategy...

***********************

briefly stated, this is Bush's pre-emptive policy:

"MOMMY -- THOSE BAD BOYS DOWN THE STREET ARE SCARING ME. THEY MIGHT EVEN DO SOMETHING BAD, SO CAN I HAVE DADDY AND HIS FRIENDS BURN THEIR HOUSE DOWN? PUUHHLEASE!

Link

Watkins warned Ken Lay about the fraud at Enron

"March 15,2006 | HOUSTON --

Sherron Watkins, the former Enron accountant who warned higher-ups the company was a house of cards ready to fall, testified Wednesday she discussed her concerns with company founder Kenneth Lay only to learn months later that her job was threatened for speaking up...

Within two days after her session with Lay, Enron sought advice "on the consequences of terminating you," federal prosecutor John Heuston told her.

*********************************

My question -- what sentence would be given to some black guy who mugged an old lady for her pension check?

What about someone who mugged a few thousand old ladies?

What about some white guys in suits that mugged several thousand old ladies?

That's justice for Lay and Skilling.

They always talk about how @*($%^$&%@ tough they are, how they're hard-chargers and Top Guns and all.

They'll fit right in when they're doing their 50 consecutive 10-year jolts in Leavenworth.

You say you want some BIG NEWS? How about this?

From Der Spiegel Online

AFRICA'S NEW OCEAN -- A Continent Splits Apart

By Axel Bojanowski

Geologist Dereje Ayalew and his colleagues from Addis Ababa University were amazed -- and frightened. They had only just stepped out of their helicopter onto the desert plains of central Ethiopia when the ground began to shake under their feet. The pilot shouted for the scientists to get back to the helicopter. And then it happened: the Earth split open. Crevices began racing toward the researchers like a zipper opening up. After a few seconds, the ground stopped moving, and after they had recovered from their shock, Ayalew and his colleagues realized they had just witnessed history. For the first time ever, human beings were able to witness the first stages in the birth of an ocean.

Normally changes to our geological environment take place almost imperceptibly. A life time is too short to see rivers changing course, mountains rising skywards or valleys opening up. In north-eastern Africa's Afar Triangle, though, recent months have seen hundreds of crevices splitting the desert floor and the ground has slumped by as much as 100 meters (328 feet). At the same time, scientists have observed magma rising from deep below as it begins to form what will eventually become a basalt ocean floor. Geologically speaking, it won't be long until the Red Sea floods the region. The ocean that will then be born will split Africa apart. (More pix below)

That's a pretty big hole in the ground .

Greetings from Where All Hell Broke Loose -- The Big Hole

Hey -- how about freedom FROM religion?

From The Carpetbagger Report

If you're not familiar with deranged pastor Fred Phelps and his unhinged Westboro Baptist Church, consider yourself lucky. Phelps has an odd hobby: bringing his far-right followers from state to state in order to protest at the funerals for troops killed in Iraq, literally celebrating their death with signs that read "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs." (Phelps and his followers believe soldiers' casualties are God's revenge on a country that is insufficiently hateful towards homosexuality.)

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Well, nothing insufficiently hateful about this noisy bit of vermin that crawled out from under some rock and picked up a cross. I don't see why soldiers (former and current) in uniform, couldn't gather outside Westboro Baptist Chusrch of a Sunday morning making a joyful noise unto the Lord (hmmm... Sex Pistols or Bloodhag or AC-DC or Black Sabbath or pretty much anyone loud enough.)

(Optional -- signs that say "If you like heaven so much, you might want to die? Ask us how.)

A GRACIOUS CORRECTION OF THE JERUSALEM POST

by Jerry Falwell

Earlier today, reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue...

While I am a strong supporter of the State of Israel and dearly love the Jewish people and believe them to be the chosen people of God, I continue to stand on the foundational biblical principle that all people — Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Jews, Muslims, etc. — must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to enter heaven...

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Anyone who would consign ANYONE to the sort of psychotic torture pit perverted monks dreamed up during long nights alone in their cells, tortured by guilt and suppressed sexual desires (let alone compound the viciousness with a smarmy Pilsbury Doughboy smile) is both a demon and a sadist.

And, as a true believer, I would imagine, WILL create a Hell for himself to justify his supercilious patronizing sputings.

Hell is only for believers.

Link

Bush says Iraqi troops to take over by year's end

Washington -- President Bush promised for the first time Monday to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, setting a specific benchmark as he kicked off a fresh drive to reassure Americans alarmed by the recent burst of sectarian violence.

Bush, who until now has resisted concrete timelines as the Iraq war dragged on longer than he expected, outlined the target during the first of a series of speeches intended to lay out his strategy for victory. While acknowledging grim developments on the ground, Bush cited progress in standing up Iraqi forces capable of defending their nation...

*****************

I don't object to him changing his mind -- I don't know if setting a date or not setting a date is the better course.

What I object to is that hypocritical little low-life pissant motherfucker setting the dogs loose on anyone who previously thought setting a date might be a good thing, savaging anyone who disagreed with him and barking about "Treason!!"

The little shit seems to forget he's President of the United States, not the United Arab Emirates. Doesn't matter that he bought his way into the office, with his brother blocking people of color from the polls in 2000, and payoffs to Scalia et al. Doesn't matter that he had Diebold to tilt the results in Ohio in 2004. He's got the job and we are his bosseses -- not Exxon, not Prince Faisal, not Mommy, not any of his homoerotic towel-snapping, sadistic bully buddies.

He acts as if the American public is his enemy, instead of -- now that he's worked his will -- the entire rest of the world.

If he'd ever tried to read the constitution before he let his Male Mother Dick Cheney tear it up, he'd know that.

Link

Milosevic Son Alleges Father Was Murdered

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH Associated Press Writer

March 14,2006 | THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Slobodan Milosevic's son alleged Tuesday that his father had been 'killed,' while a U.N. war crimes tribunal official said the court had been told that the late Serb leader had regular access to unprescribed medication and alcohol smuggled into his prison cell...

The former president's son, Marko Milosevic, flew to the Netherlands to claim his father's body.

'He got killed. He didn't die. He got killed. There's a murder,' Marko Milosevic told AP Television News on arriving in Amsterdam for the short drive to The Hague, where his father's body has kept at the National Forensic Institute since his death was discovered Saturday."

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Right, little Marko -- NOW you care about who's getting murdered.
Didn't seem to bother you when those dead bodies were paying for your limos and hot tubs.

Statues of Egyptian Goddess Unearthed

- - - - - - - - - - - -

March 13,2006 | CAIRO, Egypt -- An Egyptian-German archaeological team has discovered 17 statues of Sekhmet, an ancient Egyptian goddess with the head of a lioness and the body of a woman.

The statues, estimated to be about 3,000 years old, were found during restoration work on the temple of Amenhotep III, in the southern city of Luxor, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said in a statement Sunday.

Last week, the team discovered six similar black granite statues depicting Sekhmet seated on a throne and holding the 'key of life' in her left hand. Two of those statues were broken, with only the lower parts found...

Sekhmet was considered the goddess of war and recovery.."

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As if Hillary NEEDED any more encouragement, out of the past comes the lion-headed honey.

"North Korea: U.S. Is Preparing Invasion"

WITH WHAT? THE BOY SCOUTS?


March 12,2006 | SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea accused the United States on Sunday of stepping up preparations to attack and said that justified the communist state's nuclear weapons program.

North Korea's Minju Joson newspaper cited planned drills with South Korea and other U.S. military activity in the Asia-Pacific region as evidence Washington was preparing to invade."

**************
Bush is one cocky-ass sonofabitch rich kid I'd LOVE to play poker with -- he doesn't even know how to bluff. Of course, that's not his goal. He's Nova Mob and his goal is to bring on Armageddon. Then his mommy will love him.

Van Gogh -- they say he was bats.. hmm. But they never said he did paintings of them. Of course, anyone who saw Giant Fruit Bats in Holland back then might have been considered a bit of the not quite alright ... still it's pretty accurate. (Note that he's included the hook extension of the thumb on the top of the wing. Pretty accurate.)

Goose-stepping in style ...

(My wife found this handsome-but-bizarre clog with a little Hitler mustache in the Sierra Trading Post catalogue and pointed it out to me... sharp eyes, the 'stache not that easy to see on the small photo. She also gave me the headline, one worthy of Vogue -- or perhaps The Onion)

I wrote the one below but it now works better as a subhead: Celebrate the anniversary of the anschluss with fashionable footwear!


So here it is -- footwear with a little Hitler mustache.
Waffen SS nostalgia, perhaps?

The people at "Joseph Seibel of Germany" have dubbed this "The HOPE CLOG." And they're hoping for .. .what exactly?

WAR -- what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

WHO is it good for? Well that's another story -- Kellog Brown and Root, Halliburton, Dick Cheney, The Busha Nostra in general, the Bin Ladn family in Saudia Arabia, the mfrs and suppliers of oil-well equipment, pipe, drill bits, etc... et al.

In murderous life as in murder mysteries, the key is always always always:

CUI BONO?
(Who benefits?)

So ask ourselves, who benefitted from 9-11? (Clue, whose popularity ratings and ability to effect any sort of authority, were swirling around the drain?)

Who benefitted from going into Iraq instead of going after Al Quaeda?

In fact, who benefitted from passing Al Quaeda off as an actual organized structure rather than just an affiliation of people who despise America, sometimes for cause?

Who benefits from Osama Ben Ladn still being on the loose?
(Think Michael Meyers in the Halloween series, Jason in the Friday the 13th series, Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes series.)
Who benefits from the villain still being uncaught?

Obviously the people who want to keep on making the sequels.

Which might explain why, in the aftermath of nearly 3000 people burning to death in the WTC, the Spoiled Brat smirked "I think I just won the Trifecta."

Whether complicit before or after the fact, isn't it about time people point the finger (no, not THAT finger) at Bush, Cheney, et al and say it:


J'ACCUSE!

The best kitty of all.

Friday = Kitty Day

Wattya mean, he's not a pussy?

Heeere Kitty kitty kitty (her name is Fluffy -- ain't she cute?)

Friday = Kitty Day

World Bank Approves Aid for Palestinians

March 07,2006 | JERUSALEM -- The World Bank on Tuesday announced a $42 million grant to the Palestinian Authority, which was plunged into a financial crisis by a drop in revenues after the Islamic militant group Hamas won Palestinian parliament elections in January.

A World Bank statement said the money was to help the authority meet immediate financing needs and to "avoid suspension of vital basic services to the Palestinian population."

*****************

If the formerly terrorist Israeli goverment and the currently terrorist United States government can get over themselves long enough to realize that the LEGITIMACY of HAMAS will begin the full transformation and resolution of the dynamics of Palestine-Israel, and to some additional extent, the surround Middle East.

That means Monkey Boy needs to pay attention to his former "Smart Jew Wolfowitz" , who is currently running the World Bank.

Ahhh, the Good Old Days.

It just seems like we weren't as alienated,
weren't as separated from each other then, not as much as we are now.

Or is that just an old guy's imagination clouding the memories?

Why did CRASH win the big prize and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN NOT?
Well, maybe because in LA, the cops don't regularly break the boredom
of a long shift by pulling cowboys over and humiliating them.

The difference between civil rights and civil liberties
is that civil rights protect WHO YOU ARE.

Civil Liberties protect WHAT YOU DO (like free speech, free association, use of one's own body, etc.)

I know that gay is BOTH what you are and what you do.

But when thuggish violent morons are on the prowl,
a WHITE gay male can pretend
NOT TO BE the kind of target that they're looking for.

People of color can't.

The message of intolerance is broader and more complex in CRASH.

And the idea that a man can be BOTH a stupid thug and a selfless hero
IS a new theme for Hollywood.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

It shows Bush as a leader,
out in front,
where he's actually risking his precious ass.


This from Bad Attitudes:


In 1962, American journalist Eugene Lyons, author of the 1937 nonfiction classic Assignment in Utopia, gave a lecture about what turned him from a pro-Leninist radical in 1928, when he took a news job in the Soviet Union, into the conservative, fiercely anti-communist Reader’s Digest editor he became years later.

“It was ... the appalling contempt for human life which I found to be the hallmark of communism in practice. For I found myself in a world where such age-old concepts as justice, conscience, human dignity, the values that set man apart from the beasts, were despised as a species of treason. ...”

“Do men and women have an intrinsic worth, or are they merely the raw stuff for building some dehumanized state structure? Is the human being the final measure of all things, or merely a statistic?”

Two generations have passed since Lyons gave that talk, and the Soviet empire has been, as conservatives say, “on the ashheap of history,” for going on two decades.

A great irony is how true this sounds for 2006 if one substitutes “global capitalism” for “communism” and “corporate structure” for “state structure.” Communism is all but dead; yet, in our new world economy, dehumanization seems very much alive and on the march. The biggest difference is that the perpetrators' flag isn't red.

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THIS is Pork Tornado's #1 Worst Album Cover of All Time (any doubts that Wilmer Valderamma realized it's so obnoxious he could turn it into an actual comic character named Fez?)

Below is the comment written therein -- I can't improve on it:

"This album cover was made because not enough people in Tino’s hometown hated him. Por Primera Vez means “for the first time”. As in- For the first time, I have an excuse to wear my little sisters clothes. I’m sure he was referring to de-flowering a virgin, based on his oh-so-seductive pose. He doesn’t look the least bit creepy or unnatural. What he looks like is a smoldering latin heart throb…wearing Jordache shorts that were made for an eight year old girl, and an izod golf shirt that is stretched so tight you can see through it. The colors used in the title block are timeless, assuming your idea of time is between 1976 and 1978. It was a close race between Tino and Devastatin’ Dave for the number one spot, but the element that pushed it over the edge was Tino’s left hand on his abdomen. I don’t know why that triggers my gag reflex, but it does. If anyone has any ideas that would make this album cover more uncomfortable to look at, please don’t tell me."

As far as I'm concerned, this one -- Pork Tornado's #7 Worst Cover of All Time is the winner, but they have another favorite -- probably because it was posted before Wilmer Valderrama brought it to life as as Fez on That 70's Show

#6 -- Pork Tornado's Worst Album Covers of AllTime

Pork Tornado's #3 Worst Album Cover of All Time -- The Reverend in Rhythm (let's regale in that steely-eyed but compassionate stare -- spiritual, eh?)

This is #10 from Pork Tornado's 10 Worst Album Covers of All Time. (Someone told them these were snazzy outfits.)

Priests Purify Shrine After Bush Visit

March 05,2006 | NEW DELHI -- Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush. But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.

After the dog visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.

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They brought dogs into a Hindu shrine -- Way to go, Rover.

Link

Message from Cassandra*

Those who survive the apocalypse the Bushies are obviously trying to bring on will look back and see that the first TRUE peace in Palestine/Israel came as a direct result of Hamas being elected.


*Not "thecassandra pages" blog, but the other one -- (from Wikipedia)

In Greek mythology, Cassandra ("she who entangles men") (also known as Alexandra) was a daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen Hecuba, who captured the eye of Apollo and was granted the ability to see the future. However, when she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions.

Blair: 'God will be my judge on Iraq'

By Andy McSmith

***********

Tony Blair has proclaimed that God will judge whether he was right to send British troops to Iraq, echoing statements from his ally George Bush.

Contradicting warnings from advisers not to mix politics and religion, the Prime Minister said that his interest in politics sprang from his Christianity and its "values and philosophy" had guided him in public life.

Explaining how he managed to live with the decision to go to war in Iraq, Mr Blair replied: "If you have faith about these things then you realise that judgement is made by other people. If you believe in God,it's made by God as well." His remarks, made in an interview to be shown on ITV's Parkinson show tonight, invite comparison with President Bush, a born-again Christian, who has made a virtue of bringing religion into politics. But they also carry the risk of inflaming opinion in the Arab world, where the term "crusader" is commonly used to condemn Christian leaders who meddle in the Middle East.

It is also exactly the sort of comment he has been repeatedly urged not to make for domestic purposes, because of the risk that a sceptical British public will react badly to politicians who appear to be "preaching". Mr Blair was instructed by his former director of communications, Alastair Campbell: "We don't do God."

As well as invoking God as the final judge of the Iraq war, Mr Blair also explained how his religious and political beliefs came to him simultaneously. "There were people at university who got me into politics. I kind of got into religion, politics, at the same time, in a way. And until the age of about 20 I really wasn't very interested in politics at all," he told Michael Parkinson. "That's how I got interested in it."

He refused to accept a description of himself as a "Christian socialist" - but only because the phrase contained the "s" word. "It's a long time since anyone used the word socialist about me," he said.

He agreed that his politics could be described as Christian "in terms of the values and the philosophy". He also confirmed that religion illuminates his politics. "If you have a religious belief, it does - but it's probably best not to take it too far," he said.

Roger Bacon, who has been trying unsuccessfully to meet Tony Blair since his son, Major Matthew Bacon, 34, was killed in Iraq, said last night: "This would explain why he won't see the parents. How can he speak to us when God told him to send the troops out to Iraq so our sons could be killed?"

And Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra in 2004, said she was "quite disgusted" at the comments made by the Prime Minister. The Military Families Against the War campaigner said: "How can he say he is a Christian? A Christian would never put people out there to be killed.

"A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm actually quite disgusted by the comments. It's a joke."

During his eight-year premiership, the only decisions that have caused Mr Blair sleepless nights have been those that involved taking the UK to war, he said. But he added: "The only way you can take a decision like that is to try to do the right thing, according to your conscience. And, for the rest of it, you leave it to the judgement that history will make."

Mr Blair refused to say whether he had prayed for guidance on whether to send British troops into Iraq - which has cost the lives of 103 British troops, 2,300 US soldiers, and up to 30,000 Iraqis, with many thousands maimed or injured, in a conflict which has claimed more lives since the fall of Baghdad than the war itself.

There have been persistent reports that Mr Blair joined the President in prayer for God's guidance at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, in 2002, at the summit at which many people believe a secret decision was reached to invade Iraq.

The claim was made in a book by the Christian author Stephen Mansfield, who said he had heard it from White House officials. It was later backed up by a writer on Time magazine, David Aikman.

Mr Bush once told Palestinian leaders: "God would tell me, 'George, go end the tyranny in Iraq' and I did."

Mr Blair's Cabinet includes several deeply committed Christians, such as Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, who is a Roman Catholic, and the Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong - but they rarely break the injunction not to mix religion and politics publicly.

Tony Blair has proclaimed that God will judge whether he was right to send British troops to Iraq, echoing statements from his ally George Bush.

Contradicting warnings from advisers not to mix politics and religion, the Prime Minister said that his interest in politics sprang from his Christianity and its "values and philosophy" had guided him in public life...

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Oh Tony, if there IS a God, you and Bushwah surely DO NOT WANT THAT DEITY to judge you.

What you both have done -- ringing that God bell over and over and over again until you bent that bell in prusuit of empire, power and wealth -- amounts to fucking God in the ass for your own glory. And perhaps you remember, in your mythology, what happened to the fellow who merely wanted to share the throne.

You'd both be far better off letting us judge you -- we probably wouldn't much worse than an "Upside-down-Mussolini with an Angry-Crowd/ pitchforks & torches/ up the hill to Doc Frankenstein's Castle" Combination (difficulty level 3.7).

Unless, of course, we decided to let the Iraqi's judge you inwhich case, you'd WISH they'd leave it at hanging you up by your heels and beating you with sticks.

Remember -- in the cosmic meta-world of gods and judgments -- it's the people from Abu Ghraib and Gitmo who get to decide.

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We need public financing of elections.

NO INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS.

No more bribery masquerading as "free speech."

We end up paying for their bribes, anyway --

At least this way we might be able to remind

that pack of vermin in congress

who they're SUPPOSED to be working for.

Haven't really seen anyone refer to this great old story, one that popularized an age-old catch-phrase about what happens to people who react with fear:

John O'Hara: Appointment in Samara --

A man sees Death giving him the wide-eye and arm-wave in downtown Baghdad, and the man telling his boss he had to leave town, death is on his tail, he's going to Samarra to lay low for a while.

And the boss, later in the day, running into Death and saying, "Hey how come you threatened my man?"

And Death said, "Threatened? I didn't threaten him -- I was just surprised to see him here in Baghdad since we have an appointment, he and I, in Samarra."


And that will serve and stand as the most concise and elegant precis of this administration's blundering in Iraq that may ever be. Too bad none of them intellekshual neocons ever took a litachoor course in college.


Some say "you never see the one that gets you" --

others say: "the ONLY one you ever (actually) see is the one that gets you."

From 2/5/05: Condoleezza Settles into State Department, Lays First Clutch of Eggs

---once again, Baba Yaga --
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After a rocky and controversial start as the new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice made the State Department her own today when she laid her first clutch of eggs in an assistant’s filing cabinet. As many as 200 or more nymphs are expected to emerge from the egg sac over a period of several weeks. The fact that Rice had evidently been secreting pheromones to signal her readiness to mate may account for the small number of Senators who protested her recent appointment as Secretary of State. “That explains why the male Senators were so complacent,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, “But we’re still wondering about Diane Feinstein and Hillary Clinton.”

After an elaborate ritual courtship dance followed by copulation, Rice removed and devoured her beau’s head, effectively putting to rest the question of why she never married. “It’s a little known fact that cannibalism does not always occur when Secretaries of State mate,” said white house spokesman Scott McClellan, “but in this case, she wasn’t digesting a significant amount of prey.” Rice reportedly killed and ate several lawyers last week, not her preferred prey, as they do not have high nutritional content.

The nymphs, who will be virtually indistinguishable from Rice except in terms of size, will feast on the corpse of their father for the first months of their life. Like most children of political figures, they will then undergo several stages of molting and private education before they are fully-grown. “I’m thrilled to become a mother for the first time,” said Rice, who expressed hope that only a few of her offspring would consume each other. When asked if her decision to reproduce at this time was in some way connected to a future invasion of Iran, Rice replied that it was “Not on our agenda at this time.”

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Ahhh, sad but true -- better to present a few perfect gems than to try, as with a tv miniseries, for example, to string it out for another season and another, when you said what you wanted to first time around. Still, I would love to see more. A master and an artist.

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