Why is it okay for for the financial "gurus" to receive millions of dollars in bonuses after making so many mistakes that the economy of the US still hasn't recovered from, but it isn't okay for teachers or any union member to make $75K to 100K teaching children how to read and write? For some reason unions send the almost never right into spasms of impotent fury, could it be because they're jealous that collective bargaining provides some measure of protection from arbitrary firings and ensures that workers get benefits and a decent living wage? Do they mind that the police and fire departments are unionized? Curious minds want to know.
Why is it that whenever I put something away for safekeeping that I can never find it again?
Why are doctors trying to fix something that clearly can't be fixed? Are they sure it wasn't just gas? If he had a heart I could understand, but he doesn't. Obviously death panels don't exist, since Cheney has used more than his fair share of government provided health care.
But voters quickly sniff out what this means. The government will use the "science" of comparative effectiveness research to achieve cost savings the only way government can: denial of care. The Soviet medical system kept down the heart disease caseload by placing cardiac care units on the fifth floor, walk up. Death panels, anyone?
A majority of Americans want the public option, why is it that the mainstream media and Republicans not only think otherwise, but repeatedly try to marginalize everyone that does?
I've never hidden the fact that Babylon 5 was my favorite science fiction show. Actually it's my favorite show. Period. I've been a Trekker since I saw The Man Trap on Armed Forces Radio and Television. Or Afarts as we called it.
Star Trek provided me with a vision of the future that told me I could be anyone I wanted to, that eventually everyone would be equal. And from my point of view that meant men and women could both be captains or they could be navigators or they could whatever they wanted. I had to take this on faith because female captains were pretty rare on TOS. I believe that the first one was Klingon, the rest were women Kirk tried, and many times succeeded, in bedding. It wasn't until TNG that we learned there had been a female captain of the Enterprise, who dies trying to right a blip in time and her helmsman ends up saving the timeline. But still, I just knew there would be a time when men and women were equal, unfortunately it isn't likely to be in my lifetime.
Enough about Trek, on to a more realistic version of the future: Babylon 5. Way back in the mid-nineties another vision of space appeared on television and Battlestar Galactica should thank its luck stars. B5 had aliens who didn't always get along with one another and women were considered the exact equal of men and could protect themselves. The special effects were fantastic when you remember that this was a television show that saved them for when they were needed, not as plot filler. B5 had politics galore and most importantly, it showed how easy it was to turn a liberal civilization into a totalitarian society. For two years the hints were simple and sprinkled on the wind before coming to fruition. B5 was the last, best hope for victory.
While Gene Roddenberry created and produced a great show (thank you Lucille Ball), most of the episodes were pretty much fluff except for The Famous Kiss and The City on the Edge of Forever. The stories tended towards being lighthearted and playful while touching on a few important themes. J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 was nothing like that. Most of the episodes were completely serious interjected with moments (and people thought he would always be Flounder) of humor. The story arc from first episode to the last was incredibly consistent and from today's perspective, way too prescient. Take out the space ships and the aliens and you pretty much have the present we live in and the future we're headed for.
At the end of the first season, the President of Earth was killed under what the viewers knew were suspicious circumstance, but looked like a tragic accident to others. A Narn outpost had been destroyed and the Centauri were solidifying their alliance with the Shadows. Then things got worse.
The Earth Alliance under President Cheney Clark rounded up people who didn't agree with his decisions, bombed civilians deliberately to get their leaders to surrender, forced television stations off the air until he could get his own mouthpieces to recite the company line while he declared war on former colonies of Earth and B5. In the end Clark was willing to destroy the Earth as his last act before killing himself instead of being captured.
B5 didn't portray humans as the best of the universe, other cultures and characters always had something to offer (such as the (one moment of perfect beauty) and embracing the differences made all of the characters stronger for it, Even if it took acts of evil to realize their redemption. Or, as in the video below, revenge. And how sweet it was.
Marva Hicks can certainly belt one out, can't she? The episode was about different faiths coming aboard the station to have a conference and the music was perfect for the scene and for the moral of the story. Here is a version of just the lyrics and music.Unlike most shows, B5 credits were always worthy of watching, you never knew what you were going to hear.For those who say that those who participated at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and black sites we don't know about were just doing their jobs and also believe that waterboarding and other forms of torture are okay, there will come a day (hopefully) where somebody, somewhere will stand up and fight for what is right instead of blindly following orders, especially the ones they have qualms about.Otherwise, it really is too late for the pebbles to vote.
No wonder people have given up looking for work. They did everything they were supposed to, they got more education so they could get ahead and now their resumes are the first ones discarded by employers looking to hire. Because they might leave for a better job when times get better. Like that's going to happen anytime in the near future.
The overwhelming response astonished him. He asked Cheree Seawood, one of his current assistants, to go through the résumés and help pick out several to interview. To make the task easier, he decided they should be even more rigorous in ruling out anyone who appeared even slightly overqualified (emphasis mine).
Newsday is going to put its content behind a paywall, with access limited to people who subscribe to the print edition, pay for local cable, or you can pony up $5 a week, which is $260 a year. If people wouldn't pay $50 a year for the NYTimes a few years ago, very few people are going to find Newsday to be worthy of $260 a year or $5 an article when they accidentally print something interesting.
What drugs are these people on? For eight of the twelve years the Republicans controlled Congress they had a Republican president who claimed he was the Decider and they rammed bills, useless proclamations and tax cuts through to the detriment of the country. And the spineless Democrats not only helped them, sometimes they gave them more than they asked for.
“We need more voices,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party’s up-and-coming leaders. “Our party’s challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive — we need to attract the middle again. ... When one party controls all the levers of power in Washington, they’re going to try and villainize whoever they can on our side. It gives us an opportunity now to try and harness the energy and point it in a positive direction, so that we can attract the middle of the country to the common-sense conservative views that we have been about as a party.”
As the Bible states (Job 4:8), those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it, and by pandering to the lowest common denominator the Republicans coddled a section of society which attacks its own instead of working together. 80 percent of voters do not identify with the Republican party or its ideals and unless there are some major changes in attitude those in the middle will run even further away.
Cheney wants Obama to quit "dithering" on sending more troops to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, back in the real world, a majority oppose sending more troops off to die in another useless land war in Asia.
Singing for her supper. Or not.The Performance Royal Society caused itself a little bad publicity by telling a woman who sings while she stocks shelves in a grocery store that she needs a performance license. Meanwhile musicians also don't approve of the government using their songs for torture. Britney Spears and Eminem qualify, but the Bee Gees?
And this is a surprise? To whom? The political landscape has become a pressure cooker with no release valve and some nut will take the opportunity to do what the voices tell him to do. Unfortunately those voices belong to pundits and preachers who influence millions of people and that makes it increasingly likely that more than one person will decided to take matters into their own hands. When you talk about someone as if they aren't human, as if they are the devil in disguise, the hate factor is ratcheted up into the stratosphere and logical thought flies out the window. It won't occur to the perpetrators that they have lost the moral high ground, listening to the right justify killing someone at church is proof of that, and that the repercussions of their actions will bring about almost everything they fear. Martial law, restrictions on what few civil liberties we have left and confiscation of as many weapons as possible. But that won't stop them because their hatred knows no bounds.
My issue is with the Secret Service and the cavalier way they seem to be doing their job. There is never, and I mean never, a good reason for people without a badge to have weapons around the President. It has been almost 46 years since the last successful attempt to take the life of a President and there have been unsuccessful attempts since then. Squeaky Fromme, Sara Jane Moore and John Hinckley spring to mind and you would think that the Secret Service would do everything in their power to prevent another attempt. Especially since they were so good at making sure that people who were wearing tee shirts protesting the war or the administration and who were exercising the right of free speech, weren't allowed into events where Bush and Cheney were speaking. Why does the Secret Service hold the Second Amendment in higher regard than the First? But then I remember, the Secret Service has members that are comfortable hanging ropes that look like nooses in training facilities.
In October 2000 there was a television show named Freedom whose premise was a coup that started with the killing of the President by flying a plane into the White House. It wasn't on long but as I think back it doesn't seem to be that far fetched. No matter how many times the previous administration and their cheerleaders repeat the opposite, somebody did foresee using an airplane to attack the United States and it isn't that far of a stretch to think that someone will use the diatribes of Cheney and the encouragement of "pastors" to set the country back on the "right" course.
As I'm sure many of you have noticed, I don't post as often as I used to. There are several reasons for this, all negative. I'm tired. Tired of wasting my time pointing out the hypocrisy and stupidity of what passes for politics. Tired of posting about the same issues as very little has changed since I started blogging four years ago and what change there has been has not been for the better. No matter how many times we've been promised "hope and change".
Civil rights are disappearing daily courtesy of a a group of grumpy old men hell bent on returning us to a past where those who aren't like them knew their place. The people's wishes are consistently and constantly ignored by their "representatives" in Congress. Newspapers are disappearing at an alarming rate while so-called reporters piss and moan about a blogger getting to ask the president a question, totally ignoring the fact that reporters haven't done their job in so many years that they have made themselves irrelevant.
Then there is the ex-Vice President who made secrecy his policy while in office, and has used every legal procedure to prevent public knowledge of his activities for the last eight years, is now writing a memoir that will only reflect his point of view and make up facts and ignore the truth to portray the beginning of the 21st century dismemberment of the United States in a glorious light. If he was shorter and his epicanthic folds were different he could be our very own Kim Jong Il but the press likes to ignore those aspects of his character.
I'm tired of taking care of my mother. I have had little to no help and no time off for the last nine years. Unfortunately, she still recognizes me so I'm still holding up my side of the bargain but it becomes more difficult by the minute. Eight years ago I had a thriving practice, could afford to buy a car, go on vacation and pay my rent. Today I wonder how to afford toilet paper because food stamps will cover potato chips but not personal toiletries. I was so broke I sold the car but the person can only make payments so now I'm still destitute but have no transportation. And I still have to pay car insurance until the car is fully paid off but I can't take the dogs to the dog park. The first of the month is going to be a disaster of titanic proportions and I have no resources to ameliorate the situation.
I've tried leaving her for a few hours at a time but the stress isn't worth it. Shopping has become a hit and run affair. The dogs get out, burners are left on high on the stove, she totters around the neighborhood making everybody nervous because they think she is going to fall and if I take her out she deliberately wanders off if I go to the bathroom. Even if I take her to the same place all the time her sense of direction is so impaired that she can't find her way to the front door by herself. I can't put her in a home until I find a job and I can't find a job until I put her in a home.
I'm tired and losing hope faster than Afghani civilians during a surgical air strike. It shames me that the average American citizen won't stand up for their rights as they disappear into the ether yet can cheer on the Tiananmen tank protester or cry for Neda while turning their back on their fellow Americans in trouble as they occupy their time worrying about the latest celebrity divorce or who is going to win the current reality show du jour.
There isn't a doubt in my mind that the national press are incompetent at best and bordering on treasonous at worst. An independent Fourth Estate they most definitely are not. For the last fifteen years they have persisted in reporting one side of the story, the GOP side, no matter what the circumstances and no matter what the story. Fair, balanced and objective no longer seem to be the operating requirements for "journalists". In depth reporting has gone the way of the dinosaur and bloggers have had to take up the slack.
The press, along with what passes for Congress for that matter, breathlessly reports in glowing terms or jumps to do the bidding of anything that the GOP wants. Virtually without exception and definitely without question. There have been a few that haven't followed the party line but it's more like throwing a few slices of bread to the masses and then they "see the light" and fall back into line.
I've watched in amazement and with quite a bit of disgust as they hang on to every word that anyone named Cheney utters, determined to anoint them as the second coming of the GOP. Torture? Not a problem for anyone except what they term the liberal left or foreigners that don't know what they are talking about because they didn't suffer through 9/11 and therefore don't know anything about the effects of terrorism. Heaven forbid that they should accurately report what torture is or that it is against the law in the United States and around the world and that it doesn't make us safer but it does make us less trusted.
If the press had done their job objectively before the 2000 election the outcome would have been much different. If they had done their job after 9/11 the United States would not have been hoodwinked into invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 (I'm sorry but I can't use 9/11 twenty five times in one article), had no weapons of mass destruction and wasn't a threat to the United States. But they didn't and as a result hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children either died or are suffering miserably. And that includes citizens and taxpayers of the United States.
If the press were doing their job objectively today, Cheney and his family would not receive the exposure they are getting and it most certainly wouldn't be as positive. Last week there were not dueling speeches between the President and a former Vice President, there was a Presidential speech (that I didn't bother listening to because it wasn't necessary) and a rant from an angry, fearful coward who knows he broke the law and doesn't want to go to jail. But not to the press, not even remotely. Cheney is being held up as the man who has our national security interests at heart and Obama doesn't.
When I was a young girl in the sixties, the New York Times was the paper of record and in the seventies the Washington Post was the leader in exposing the Watergate scandal. Today neither one can be depended upon for objective reporting and then they wonder why newspapers are folding for lack of readership. They can blame it on Craigslist or Twitter but the truth of the matter is that the press doesn't do their job of reporting the news, they are too busy trying to make the news into something that pleases their masters. Which amounts to inane babble that informs no one and prevents the truth from being revealed.
The press spends their time carrying water for people who only care about themselves and their so-called legacy and refuse to see that they are repeating the mistakes that got us into the Iraq debacle in the first place. Once again while the US is preoccupied with straw men, North Korea is not only rattling it's saber, it's testing nuclear weapons and threatening its neighbors. And the press? They are concerned with how wonderful Cheney is and why the Obama administration relies on background briefings instead of giving them every name, rank and serial number of their sources. As if the Bush administration was as open as possible. Is Jennifer Loven serious? I don't remember any complaints when Bush and Cheney quoted unnamed sources stating that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or when Jeff Gannon was masquerading as a reporter. If I was President Obama I would start calling on the smaller news outlets exclusively and ignore the hypocritical Cheney ass kissers such as the AP, NY Times and the Washington Post. And that isn't arrogance, it's common sense since the press is going to make up the story they want anyway. Just like they have done for the last fifteen years.
If I was Colin Powell and knew where the bodies were buried I would seriously think about whether or not I owed any loyalty to the Bush/Cheney administration and then report immediately to the Hague, Spain or our most useless Justice department and clear my conscience. Let the chips fall where they may but I wouldn't for one second more think about how I had compromised everything I held dear just to keep those bozos out of jail. Neither the administration nor the Republican party deserves my loyalty since they haven't shown me any.
And what in the world makes Cheney think that he is a Republican, he's not. What he is though, is a five time draft evader, a torturer, a traitor, a hate monger, a liar of the first order and a criminal for the war crimes he authorized and idolizes. He is even slimier than Limpballs, and that is saying something. Why hasn't he faded into obscurity like every other vice president? He doesn't deserve to be a Jeopardy question but he continues babbling his bushit on Sunday morning talk shows. How to "Shoot Friends and Interrogate People". Indeed.
Good grief, the twerp just can't shut up. The person that is hurting this country the most is the same one who was hell bent on destroying it in the first place. And his name isn't Osama or Obama, it is Cheney. In my life there have been very few people that I have actively hated, they can be counted on one hand and don't include my thumb, but Cheney leads the pack. I would rather be forced to live with my ex mother-in-law for the rest of my life than to have Cheney continue to...it wouldn't be prudent for me to put into print. Good God I hate that sorry ass excuse for a man.
Naughty, naughty. The crew without a clue continues to make the news long after they should have ridden off into the sunset. Condieliesalot gets caught in a biggie and is the first one being thrown under the bus, who could have foreseen that? Oh well, you lie down with dogs, you're bound to get a few fleas. Can you shop for shoes when you're in jail?
In written testimony she lied to the Senate Armed Services Committee and stated that she couldn't recall any specific details about the CIA requesting permission to use alternative interrogation techniques when she had already given verbal permission for waterboarding.
According to the new narrative, which compiles legal advice provided by the Bush administration to the CIA, Rice personally conveyed the administration's approval for waterboarding of Zubaydah, a so-called high-value detainee, to then-CIA Director George Tenet in July 2002.
Last fall, Rice acknowledged to the Senate Armed Services Committee only that she had attended meetings where the CIA interrogation request was discussed and asked for the attorney general to conduct a legal review. She said she did not recall details. Rice omitted her direct role in approving the program in her written statement to the committee.
A spokesman for Rice declined comment when reached Wednesday.
I'll bet they have a comment, it just can't be printed.
It's a good thing we defeated the Taliban when we did. Otherwise they might have gotten stronger and be on the verge of taking over Pakistan and its nuclear weapons. Does anybody really think that getting Saddam Hussein and the mythical WMDs was more important than getting Osama bin Forgotten? Or that it made the world safer for democracy? I think not and no matter how many times Cheney, who should be waterboarded until he STFU, says that Obama is making the United States less safe it will not change the fact that Bush and Cheney didn't capture bin Laden, they didn't defeat the Taliban, they didn't secure Afghanistan and now Pakistan is tumbling into the abyss. Good job boys, I feel safer already. Not.
Excuse me? Somebody needs to reread the definition of evil.
Releasing the Justice memos opened a door and the contents repulsed many people. But these were not evil men who drafted the memos. These were not evil people who carried out the methods authorized by them. They were our fellow citizens who were trying to protect us from the real evildoers.
And they did a bang up job, didn't they? Too bad they didn't start working until after the damage was done. Perhaps if they had paid attention to a briefing memo entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" or followed up on either of the two Clinton plans for al-Qaeda instead of dismissing their concerns as "chicken little" alarmists or ignoring the warnings from intelligence agencies all around the world we wouldn't have traveled to the dark side and compromised everything that America stood for.
I want my country back, with its head held high and our ethics intact.
My first blog. Prior to this moment I have ventured into the online literary world twice. These were very brief posts on Dkos after the recent "National" election.
My interests are varied, but I have a few favorites that occupy a good percentage of my thinking time. Depending on my mood I can focus on politics (the stuff that gets glossed over on the national infotainment that describes itself as news), things that fall into the geek category (science, electronics, etc.), cooking/nutrition (from recipes to the latest health news) and anything else that strikes my fancy.
I am an Acupuncturist by trade, a borderline geek by nature and a home cook by intention. Almost any problem can be solved or defused by food. Whether you are hunting/gathering (shopping), prepping, cooking , presenting, eating or digesting, your mind should be focused on what you are doing. The above activities can be creative and relaxing with the reward being you get to eat the results. Digesting usually makes most people calm and sleepy. Thanksgiving springs to mind. National eating holiday.
People usually know how to drink water, come in out of the rain, find sexual companionship, but cooking intimidates the most adventurous person. As Lao Tzu is reported to have said, "The journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step". So I just might write about the wonders of the dark leafy greens that Americans avoid with such creativity while embracing the statins and colonoscopy in their stead.
I had hoped there would be more Wil Wheaton on CSI last night. Oh well, there are two other CSI's. The way they have been recycling plot twists, he could easily get a better gig. Maybe one where we can see his face. They used a fingernail clipping as the key piece of evidence on LV and NY in the same week! He's better than a clipping. Maybe he could have a recurring role?
A few days later I wrote this one.
People are looking outside California for places to live. Number one reason is a better quality of life. Not for their kids, but for themselves. They want houses they can place a king size bed and furniture in the same bedroom. They don't want to look into their neighbors kitchen, living room or backyard. They really don't want their neighbors to have the ability to do it either. They want to be able to afford something else besides their house. Traffic, taxes, politics, watching what they work for count for nothing.
In the last week two different households decided to check out our neighbor to the immediate north. For right now that means Oregon, but both of them are capable of relocating outside the US. A woman who shares my birthday is moving to Arizona, she bought over the w/e and is now checking into her pension plan, plans to be gone in a year. As soon as her new house is completed. Arizona? I would rather go somewhere a little more green.
My only hope to get out of this state is to accidentally get roped into marriage or have there be national recognition of the CA Acupuncture license and I can move to another state. Zip, zilch, nada, a snowball's chance in the nether regions springs to mind for both those options. Since I no longer take insurance, staying here isn't required. Just a compatible scope of practice.
Someplace green with old trees and very little traffic would be great. A really good grocery store would rock. Of course, it is a little difficult to make money when you are isolated. Hmmm, will have to think on that.
Well, I didn't get roped and there isn't national recognition of the CA Acupuncture license but I'm finally moving. And with the most exquisite timing in the world, a reader named G. who reads me via the Feedburner Flare (thank you!) sent me this encouraging message.
Regarding your acupuncture license being good only in California - Reno is right on the border of California and Nevada, so you should be able to work in California while living in Nevada. You should be able to find people interested in your services around Lake Tahoe. I think you should give it a try! I wish you all the luck in your journey.
Thank you so much for your wishes and for your fresh idea. I like it except for a couple of things. One, I would probably still have to pay CA taxes while receiving only the benefit of not having wasted the last fourteen years, which now that I've written it sounds pretty stupid and two, I would need special dispensation from the Board while I try and get all the CEU's I'm behind on and aren't in the budget. I will check on that tomorrow. I haven't been able to leave mom alone but the complex we are supposedly moving to has quite a few senior citizens and maybe I'll be able to find someone to watch her while I'm gone all day. However you look at it, it's an idea worth trying. Once again, thank you.
It wasn't until August that the blogging fire really took hold. I was picking up speed, having finally recovered from the previous election disappointments and then there was Katrina. From before the storm hit to the inhumane treatment during and after, I went on a tear. I ranted and railed about how it wasn't all incompetence, that it was deliberate and time marched on while the victims were forgotten.
The rest of the year was occupied by Harriet Miers, various blog redesigns, plenty of jokes, posts about the troops getting screwed, the most popular post I ever wrote, how the Democrats couldn't roll over and play dead any more than they already were, and ended the year with the attempted bullying of John Ashcroft by Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales.
It's sad seeing how much I've changed and the world hasn't. I don't do as many jokes or find as many feel good stories and while evil still rules it no longer looks like a certain ex VP (I love how they use his trademark snarl to show contempt and arrogance on Lie To Me). The little people still pay the price and get blamed for it not only being so high but that without any outside positive changes in their lives they still haven't achieved the American Dream that is shown nonstop on television so it's really their fault and they aren't worthy of any help. Government is still clueless as to what the taxpayers really need and some Republicans are willing to punish their constituents for a future principle (running for national office) while those same constituents and their children are suffering right this moment.
For the last six months my personal drama has ruled my life and my posting, hopefully I'm making a change for the better. Like a good Netflix queue, I hope that the drama becomes an adventure comedy and I can return to my original goals. A mixture of politics, humor, cooking, science, space, and whatever else tickles my fancy at the moment.
I haven't been able to post for the last several mornings, I'm going to have to change my schedule around. These have been percolating in draft form so since I can't do anything at the moment, I decided to post them now.
It's amazing what posting a little data and threatening to sic the police on a black man will do. Mom tells me that baby bro stopped by. For a whole hour. For someone supposedly so smart, he missed the point by a mile. I don't care if sees me again, I don't care if he contacts me again, the mission was for him to spend time with his mother and give her a little respect. He snuck in while I was out running around and as far as I'm concerned, the mission was accomplished. Unlike the dodo we hopefully have leaving the White House in six five days.
Michael Chiklis must have a stroke every time Joe the Plumber opens his mouth and spits out more unintelligent garbage by the second, Vic Mackey realizes he has another dangerous leak in the department. At least when Bruce Willis lookalike Jerry Doyle opened his mouth something intelligent came out, like how to make money by saving or using the stock market (his former job) to get ahead. Plus, Jerry Doyle actually ran for office and I can ignore the friendship with Michael Savage. We all have friends we want to hide from time to time. I have one right now where we are pretending that the Gazans aren't being killed just because Israel has the power and some member of Hamas might lob an inefficient missile at a town with bomb shelters instead of hospitals, UN refugee centers and schools like the Israelis do. I guess Joe the Plumber believes that if there is no reporting, there are no war crimes.
Still babbling and in a few weeks he will expect to collect fees for his utterings. Hope he has as much luck as his buddy Gonzales at trting to support his lavish lifestyle after he leaves office. Should have done what his buddy Dick did. Halliburton, KBR, etc. He would have more millions in the bank by now.
Bush is still a dickhead. Espousing stupidity at every opportunity. Torture is okay in his book, although I admit I haven't read My Pet Goat. With just a few more weeks left for him to do damage, he still babbles on about the benefits of waterboarding. Too bad it isn't with him as the number one candidate followed by Cheney and then Rumsfeld. Of course, that's assuming there is justice in the world and that Americans don't do what they always do. Forget about it unless it's a Democratic sex scandal or somebody who used to work for a Democratic administration now is running for office. It's too bad that what I really think would get me investigated more than I already am if I said it out loud or put it in print. As far as I know, thoughts could be illegal at this point.
Liar, liar, his pants are almost on fire. Please don't tell me that Obama thinks Gitmo is a spa facility. Or that the innocent (women, children, families in the way) Gaza dead are going to come back to life. If you can't do the difficult things, then why the hell did you want to be President? We've already had eight years of do nothing but harm, the nation can't take much more of this incompetence. New king, just like the old king. Or as they used to say in countries with royalty "the King is dead, long live the King!" It's obvious that Obama has an addiction. It's called the Crackberry (I didn't know the President could be bought with fancy swag and cutesy toys) and it isn't even made in the states.
Once, twice, twelve times in the back. Yes, the police have established quite a nice record of civil rights for black men since Obama has been elected. Aren't you glad the race wars are over? Happy frickin' New Year.
Gee, who didn't see that coming? The states with the highest unemployment rates also have the highest home foreclosure rates. By the time we get to hell there won't even be a hand basket will be so burnt we'll have to crawl the rest of the way.
If I can't do it, then neither can you. But do what you want with Gaza, people with complain but nobody will do anything to stop the destruction. Besides, it isn't like they are real people like the rest of the world.
It's Sunday and I couldn't resist using the title. I'm not known for using ghetto jargon but this time I can't resist. Nigga pleez! Did I spell that right? It isn't my normal language.
For eight years I've been asking how dumb the crew without a clue thought Americans were. And everyday reveals even more stupidity. Well, we weren't born this morning, we didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday and some of us were able to count all the train tracks, left and right turns and the bridges that fell down to get us to this point. And by the way, Iraqis didn't want him to come over for a hello or goodbye visit.
Add to the fact that the report was never published about the corruption in Iraq, just like every other report that Bush and Cheney have swept under the Presidential seal because they truly believe that our ignorance is bliss and theirs is by divine right and you have a Presidency that is more inept than anybody who lived through the Nixon years would ever thought could be worse. Obviously they didn't want Joe the Plumber to know how badly they had screwed up the clusterf*ck that is known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, aka Mission Accomplished, which is turning out to be the fruitcake everyone passes around at Christmas hoping to never see again. For a group of idiots determined not to relive the debacle of the Vietnam War, they've managed to repeat everything except the napalming of innocent citizens. And I'm pretty sure that story will come out eventually. They haven't missed anything else so far so why should that be an exception.?
Have you noticed how the immigrant problem hasn't been in the news as much? How can there be a problem when even people from impoverished countries don't consider America as a place of pride where you can improve your families lives by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Not only do we no longer make boots in this country, we use Velcro because the people in charge think that the average citizen might find that bootstraps are too difficult to operate and besides some of those people not on game shows just might make a success of themselves and that can't be allowed to happen under any circumstances. If Americans start filling in the dots, crossing the t's and dotting the i's, the curtain is going to come off the whole shebang and all the people of Emerald City will see that it was just a group of inept puppet pulling the wrong strings.
Meanwhile we have 36 more days of revelations. Not eight days of lights or twelve days of Christmas or the couple of days of that Kwanzaa thing I don't understand the purpose of. No, not even the kind from the last chapter of the Bible where the world comes to an end and only the good people go to heaven that the crew without a clue has been so earnestly working for. These are the kind of news stories that should make you want to make to pull your head out of the sand and cry tears of pain that our country has fallen so far from its ideals.
You remember the ideals our forefathers fought for don't you? Freedom from tyranny, security in one's own home, a whole bunchh of others that have disappeared and the ability to work for a living that would support your whole family instead of the whole family trying to support the one room travel trailer that is all that is left of their years of hard work and expensive schooling. That kind of thing.
It isn't so much that our pride in being Americans is losing its luster, it's that now we have to depend on other countries to give us our buffing. We'd just better hope they decide to use aluminum oxide grade instead of ceramic or we can forget sitting down for a very long while.
Geez, I knew these guys were dumb when I wrote about them earlier, I just had no idea how dumb. And how dumb might that be? Well, after killing the woman they went to a convenience store and asked the clerk how to get bloodstains out of their clothes.
Sheriff's investigators said they received the initial tip about the killing from a convenience store clerk. Two of the group members went into the store and asked the clerk if he knew how to get bloodstains out of their clothes, Strain said. The clerk told them no, and called the sheriff after they left.
Officials tracked down those two members and arrested them. Authorities established telephone contact with other members of the group who were still at the campsite and let them know law enforcement officials were on their way. They surrendered without incident.
Have you ever heard an acoustic version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean? Chris Cornell's (Soundgarden) version is...interesting. The lyrics hold up pretty well.
The truth is slowly dawning on some people. Waterboarding is torture and the United States has been torturing people for the last seven years and those who authorized it are criminals that need to be held accountable. Even if you are the current Vice President. Gee, I had no idea that for this administration vice was being used as noun instead of an adjective.
Blue light special on aisle four. Why is everybody so shocked? If billions of dollars were lost in Iraq due to no oversight, why should the 700 billion dollar bailout be any different? You didn't really think that the bailout was to help anybody except the people at the top did you? After seven years of looting the Treasury, why in the world would they stop before the last second?
What do Gretzky, Smith and Montana have in common? Their kids are all playing football at the same high school. A San Fernando Valley high school hasn't been this famous since Spacey, Winningham and Kilmer graduated from Chatsworth High.
Umm, yeah. Americans cut back on spending because the few dollars they made have to cover the important things like food and shelter. A new car? Not so much. But keep on cutting that interest rate in the mistake belief that people will borrow more. Banks don't lend to little people who have service wage jobs, they lend to people who don't need the money. So those same people can invest in foreclosed properties to rent to little people who can't afford to live in the homes they thought they owned. It's the American way.
I admit it, I'm confused. What exactly did she do wrong? This isn't the Bible belt and mentioning a German study that finds a link between maternal stress and homosexuality falls into the category of proper discussion in a Biology class. Doesn't it?
The controversy centers on an incident in June 2007, when Sheldon was asked by a student in a human heredity class about heredity's impact on "homosexual behavior in males and females." Among other references, Sheldon noted a German study demonstrating some link between maternal stress and homosexual behavior in males, according to the lawsuit.
Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) speaks some common sense on energy policy, how very few people are thrilled with the current candidates and Phil Gramm's disconnect with the average American.
Peterson: Well, Phil Gramm is a very smart guy and he knows the economy well, but Phil Gramm doesn’t know the people I know. Phil Gramm must be insulated from the working poor. If he was around the working poor, he would have never said it. The working poor are struggling. This is not a recession in their mind. This is a difficult time where they are struggling to pay their bills. ... He thinks that’s not going on out in America; he just hasn’t been out there. He must come from a pretty affluent neighborhood and a pretty affluent family. ...
Sometimes the people who whine have more and are just angry they have to spend more. The whiners I know aren’t poor.
And I thought the ABC commenters were lacking in intellectual ability. They have nothing on the Politico commenters. Heaven forbid that they should actually discuss the points of the article on energy, they're too busy getting lost on the nuances of whether the press is too liberal and giving Obama a pass and some guy defending Cheney by saying he was only in the oil business for five years. Absolutely fascinating how the 28%s are determined to stay in fantasyland. At the expense of the country.
For years Cuba has been made out to be a backward country, but if I get breast or bum cancer that's where I'm going to wish I was. Did you know that the food is pretty tasty there too?
Pat Tillman wasn't a friendly fire death, it was deliberate murder and the government is doing its best to cover it up. And being shot by the people on your side isn't friendly, it's gross negligence.
Unlike the crew without a clue and their military advisers, the troops knew they were probably going to die on Hamburger Hill their mission in Wanat, Afghanistan. If only our leaders had the courage that our overworked, overburdened and underprotected troops have. If they aren't being shot or blown up, they're being electrocuted back at the base. Meanwhile, the brass thinks the powers that be deserve to travel in style. Why is it that Reserves, National Guard and regular troops are considered so expendable?
Given their rulings over the last few years, this can't possibly be good. Aquatic life doesn't stand a chance. If mining companies can't take care of the workers, the odds of them protecting marine life are pretty small. Couple that with the Supremes belief corporations über alles, toss in a little gold and the fish are going to, as they used to say "swim with the fishes." Plus, the Supremes don't believe in states rights. Or citizens for that matter.
What is wrong with this story? Thirty six years in solitary for a murder he probably didn't commit and the prosecutors suppressed information that might have helped him, but was found guilty because a guy who had been on death row says he saw him do it. Guy formerly on death row gets a pardon and the former member of the Black Panthers who was serving time for armed robbery, gets solitary becomes one of the Angola Three.
Oh yeah, the Taleban are running for their lives. Not. It seems they feel so comfortable with the non results produced by Operation Enduring Freedom that they can execute those they call American spies in broad daylight. Isn't is wonderful what great allies the Pakistanis make? Unfortunately, it's to the Taleban. Which is probably why CBS has kicked Lara Logan upstairs and the smearing of her reputation by Murdoch owned entities has begun. Can't afford to have the truth on the nightly news at this point.
You know Peggy is desperate when she starts stealing phrases from Aaron Sorkin. Let McCain by McCain? Which one? He's been a major flip-flopper for the last year. He was against torture before he was for it, etc. It sounded better when it was let Bartlett by Bartlett, which was used not because he was trying to cover his mistakes, but because he was timid in implementing his policies. Lil Peggy's excuse is her misconception that poor widdle McCain isn't getting enough positive press as Obama. Give me a break, he's had many years of press and if you feet that sorry for him you should have said something eight years ago when Rove and Bush were savaging him.
They can hope all they want, I'm not holding anyone's jockstrap in this election. And as to Obama's "I had to bite my tongue", he could have bitten it clean off and it would have been an improvement. The more he opens his mouth, the more he shows me the arrogance and disdain for women that turned me off twenty years ago.
Not according to John Adams, but Cheney has increased the power of the position way past what the forefathers had planned. Dan Quayle was important because he made George Bush the First look smarter than a stump and the Secret Service didn't have to worry as much about a wackjob trying to kill the president.
It is past time for Mugabe to go. Preferably to hell. He and his supporters make Saddam Hussein look like a school boy and considering how he was demonized... Cutting off an opponents wife's feet and a hand and then burning her alive is so far past cruel that I can't believe it really happened. But it did and it wasn't the first time. The week before they burnt a 21 year old pregnant woman to death because her husband dared to stand up to the regime. Harassment by the police is making it difficult for anyone to oppose Mugabe's government, especially if you keep getting arrested for running.
Our lovely Pakistani allies executed a woman they accused of being both a US spy and a prostitute. They say it was the Taliban but after seven years why are there any still around, much less in another country that is supposed to be on our side?
The envy, oh the envy. Other countries get to execute minors and you know the death penalty proponents are jealous. Albeit too soon to use it for the election and won't be considered the least bit hypocritical. If McCain, Kristol, Bush and Cheney have their way, all of Iran will pay for their crimes. As if the crew without a clue needed an excuse to step in and bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. I thought that was what was supposed to happen in Afghanistan, but it got forgotten along with Osama bin Laden. Not enough oil.
Laura Bush is pledging $10.2B for Afghanistan. Was this at the behest of the House of Representatives or has something else been changed in our Constitution without the hassle of being amended? I guess the people of New Orleans should move to Afghanistan if they expect to get any help instead of living under a bridge while supplies get stored in a warehouse at the cost of $1 million a year. And are then given away to states other than Louisiana. Because FEMA didn't think that New Orleans needed any more help. I guess selling one's home at a loss because you can't get back is standard operating procedure. So much for an ownership society. Or a Christian nation.
At noon on January 20, 2009, Obama might declare victory, until then he's just having Bush moments such as Mission Accomplished and Bring It On and we all know how well those turned out.
The digital age has seriously arrived. At the Kremlin. Our media, while deficient in way too many respects, has at least had token coverage of opposing points of view, in Russia, not so much. While some people in America put little gaffe they can find on YouTube, the media in Russia does the exact opposite. You so know that Bush and Cheney would love to be able to do the same thing. Erase their opponents from the media. Completely. Not just what they said, but their images too. Along with his parental issues, now he's probably got a serious case of Putin envy. One can only hope that Bush and Cheney don't discover some political Viagra before January 20, 2009.
I addressed this yesterday but Time does it better. I've been getting my news from various sources for all of my life and by no stretch of earthly imagination can I be considered young. It's called research and it used to be required in order to graduate from high school. But I guess when you can buy your term papers off the web it removes the necessity of finding different sources that say the same thing, but in a different way. It also lessens the ability to think through and sort information into retainable categories and realize when you've read the same thing before so that you don't get confused.
I love BART. In San Jose we have the Light Rail but it isn't very convenient to get to or to get somewhere useful. Like Fremont. If we had decent public transportation, I would use it as much as possible. When I hang out with the BARBarians, I take the bullet CalTrain to Millbrae and then switch to the BART. If we meet on the Oakland side, I have to drive to Fremont and then take the BART. Not as much fun. And while ridership is increasing by leaps and bounds due to the encouragement of the high price of gas, Schwarzenegger's response is to take money away from public transportation in an effort to balance a budget that needs money coming in, not just cutbacks. I guess he isn't as much of an environmentalist as he says. But the Hummer and the cigars told us that a long time ago.
Where there is CONTROL, there must be KAOS. Please let Get Smart be as funny as the original, since the trailer was pretty good. I wonder what Maxwell is going to drive since they don't make the Opel GT anymore. My brother had one and he gave it to me. Crunchy was a great car. Oops, my bad. There's a new one! And it looks really cool. Interesting commercial, the woman's fantasy shows you more of the car, the man's is all about speed. I want one.
Fundamentalists are the same the world over. Nuttier than fruitcakes and more than willing to molest children. Specifically (unless it's in the Catholic church), young girls. From the FLDS compound in Texas to the moral Haredim in Israel to murdering daughters and mothers as an "honor" killing in Iraq, women are treated as something less than a man. Something to be used, abused, hidden and then thrown out with the trash because she is no longer pure. All under the guise of religion. god must be so proud. If most abusers learn from their parents, does that mean that God abuses us?
Not quite as good as three fifths. Bush, Cheney and McCain are so disappointed that they won't have to pull an October surprise in order to maintain control of the country, the Democrats are going to give it to them as a gift. ON the bright side, innocent U.S. citizens won't have to die in a convenient terrorist attack. Hopefully.
Abstinence education is doomed to failure. By biology. Teens are going to have sex, whether adults like it or not. Get over it. It would be infinitely preferable if they knew how to do it safely, that they do it with people in their own age group and at their own discretion rather than have it forced on them by an adult that they trusted. Correct information is valuable so they know how their bodies work and where babies really come from. Along with communicable diseases if they aren't careful. Parents tend to forget that teenagers won't be teenagers all their lives and sooner or later they need to know the truth. When it comes to sex, sooner is better. And more effective. For a country that uses sex to sell everything, we certainly are repressed in real life.
He could leave the country and I wouldn't care. Pastors come and go but the congregation usually stays. What makes him think that the members of his church are going to vote for him now that he's decided they aren't good enough to pray with? Quick answer? There aren't enough of them to matter. He's definitely a politician, anything to get elected. And everybody is falling for it.
Greek mythology told us that. Hera, Artemis and Aphrodite were not gods that people messed with. Zeus and Apollo may have gotten all the attention for their sexual conquests but the women were not second class citizens of Olympus. Or Greece.
OMG! Whatever happened to having a sense of humor? I've been reading (and starring) Stuff White People Like almost since it began. What a hoot! When he did the top 10 ten rap songs and I realized that I have a couple of them on my iPod, but Going Back to Cali by LL Cool J (this video is hysterical and helps to prove the point) didn't make the list I was so heartbroken I almost choked on my tea. I think I'm white but somebody forgot to inform the genes that determine how much melanin I display. As usual the commenters at ABC have gone off the deep end, proving that they come from the shallow end of the gene pool. Oops, Gato Barbieri just finished and the Scorpions are up, my German blood shows up occasionally.
Armchair warriors, indeed. On to the next milestone that people will ignore. The only thing that Cheney regrets is not being able to drop a nuclear bomb. He probably gets a stiffy just thinking about it. Noble, necessary and just. That would be my description of the war crimes that Bush and Cheney should both be charged with, not a description of an illegal and immoral war perpetrated on people who had done nothing and were capable (at the time) of doing nothing to us.
I'm running the new Firefox Beta and while I like some aspects of it, I miss some of my extensions. Specifically Tab Mix Plus (just found a build that works), Colorful Tabs (now that one is working) and Forecastfox. There are a couple more that I wish were working, but I'll just have to wait.
Don't drink the water. Or bathe in it, brush your teeth or cook with it. No wonder people think that bottled water is better. If you live in Alamosa, CO, it is. Makes you wonder how many other city's community water systems are in trouble. Other than all the drugs and hormones that they admitted to a few weeks ago.
Selfish and stupid. Deliberately bringing a child into the world when one knows it will die shortly after it's born, usually painfully and completely unaware, is cruel. No matter what your religious beliefs, you are not putting the child's welfare ahead of your own personal interests. Purposefully having a child whose mental impairment means that someone will have to care for it for the rest of its life, is cruel. With the technologies of today, that child could outlive the parents by many years and then who is going to love them? Who is going to fight for the benefits that they will need? Because with the growing lack of compassion people have for those less fortunate, they will have a miserable and lonely life after the parents are gone. What kind of parenting is that? Maybe because I'm watching my mom lose her mind and realize that if it happens to me there will be nobody to make sure that I'm not living on the street that allows me to take the "cold" view.
I'm more than a little tired of the sexism/racism question in the race for president. For me it's empty suit against another dynasty. I can't and probably won't vote for Obama. I live in California so my vote really doesn't count. Otherwise John Edwards would be my candidate but the media made sure that wasn't an option for me.
Oh boy, another day, another stolen laptop with unencrypted patient data. No wonder people aren't as worried about their phones being tapped and their internet habits being tracked as they should be. With all the data that has been lost over the last five years it's no surprise that the average person doesn't care.
You don't say. Wow, a newspaper that states the obvious like it was a new phenomenon. Of course health costs are cutting into wages, Bush's plans have done so much to help the economy. Of his friends and cronies. Walgreen showed a profit for its second quarter, what a surprise. Not.
