I think they really believe this shit

Look at this quote from an AP story on the rancor among the candidates that was generated by last night's GOP debate:

Romney continued Thursday to hammer at Huckabee's record on immigration and taxes, and likened his history of ethics controversies to another former Arkansas governor — Bill Clinton.

"I know there were a number of ethical charges and actual fines and violations," Romney told MSNBC. "That's a little reminiscent of the Clinton years."

What? "Clinton years"? Would Mr. "I wear magic underwear" Romney clarify for us, just a little bit, what these "actual fines and violations" during the Clinton years were? Because, I've got to tell you, I've lived through a whole helluva lot more Clinton years than he has and I don't remember anything like that.

Doesn't matter if it's computers or garbage disposals or...

The story of every project I've ever embarked on.

Waterboarding? Ah, it's not so bad.

I wish we had an opposition party. I plan to vote for the Green candidate Rebekah Kennedy for Senate next fall. Yes, I know that is like a vote for the GOP (provided they field a candidate against Pryor). So? You say that you don't want the Republicans to have the committee chairmanships? Why? Have there been hearings held by Democratic chairs that amounted to anything that I missed?

I for one do not want to go to bed by the light of a commuhnist moon

But I might now have a choice.

Right-brained or left-brained?

Which is it, Daniel?

Futristic cars

I want one of these.

Mind you, I don't want one of those "censors" looking at my face, though.

Demographics are fascinating

Or is that "demographics is fascinating"?

Whatever.

The president is a liar

or has been lied to and doesn't know it. Either way, he's not right about the children's insurance deal (I know: you're shocked).

From the McClatchy newspaper group:

President Bush claims that the bipartisan bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program "would result in taking a program meant to help poor children and turning it into one that covers children in households with incomes up to $83,000 a year."

That's not true.

The bill maintains current law. It limits the program to children from families with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level — now $20,650 for a family of four, for a program limit of $41,300 — or to 50 percentage points above a state's Medicaid eligibility threshold, which varies state to state.

States that want to increase eligibility beyond those limits would require approval from Bush's Health and Human Services Department, just as they must win waivers now. The HHS recently denied a request by New York to increase its income threshold to four times the poverty level — the $82,600 figure that Republican opponents of the bill are using.

I guess fundamentalist Christians won't understand why this sickens me

Candidates for governor of Kentucky are trying to out-God each other. I'm worried that we'll have a touch of this in the presidential race, too.

Marijuana is a vital part of the farm economy

Why do they even pretend that they want to eliminate marijuana production in the US? It would be an economic disaster. Seriously.

Captial punishement and the science fiction universe

We execute a lot of people in this country, compared to the rest of the civilized world. But, as you may have noticed, China executes a lot more people. Not just in head count, but in per capita counting.

Did you know that the Chinese, until now, used organs harvested from inmates on death row for transplants?

Can we all say "organlegging"?

Those damn spooky holes in Mars

I've mentioned these before but I thought I'd just mention 'em again.

It's important to remember the truth about Dan Rather and the National Guard story

The story was true. The memos that got CBS in trouble are not the story. They wouldn't be the story if they were not forgeries (and no one has proven that they were). This is just one more example of the media being terrified of the White House.

I simply can't understand what they're afraid of. Access? Then you've got a story that you run every day about how the president is fucking the American people. I don't understand.

Tom Tomorrow is on to Alan Greenspan

The cartoon is here.

Kucinich, the AARP, and health insurance

The American Association of Retired Persons had a debate of the Democratic candidates for president in Iowa last week. They didn't invite Dennis Kucinich. Oh, you may say, they didn't see any point in inviting somebody who has less than 3% in the polls in Iowa and whom everybody knows doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting the Democratic nomination. Shrug.

Did you know that Kucinich's platform calls for single-payer, no premiums, no co-pay, no deductibles, universal health insurance? Oh, and you'd get to choose your own doctor? The deatils are in House Resolution 676. Did you know that in polls the majority of Americans want this kind of health care coverage?

Did you know that through their strategic partnership with United Health Care and Aetna that the AARP will make a $4.4 billion profit over the next seven years from selling health insurance to senior citizens?

Are you outraged yet?

You can give Dennis Kucinich the money he needs to get his message out to America here.

So Cheney contemplated asking the Israelis to attack Iran

Well, I don't suppose that hurts anything, right -- thinking about asking the Israelis to do something? I think about what the US should ask other countries to do all the time and he doesn't have any more authority than I do, right? Right?

I mean, he's only the vice-president. Scour the Constitution. You won't find a fripping thing in it that gives the vice-president any powers other than presiding over the Senate. I've always thought that could be used a lot better than it ever has except when Thomas Jefferson had the job but that's another story.

Whyowhyo do we not impeach this man for usurping authority?



Impeach Cheney, remove him from office, prosecute him, try him, convict him, and imprison him. Now.

Fundamentalist Scientologists

As Bob is my witless, there are people who think that Scientology has been corrupted and that a return to its pure form is called for. Perhaps it's a joke. But how could you tell?

It's more than a metaphor

It makes more sense that he's worried about zombies than about terrorists.

Can we impeach them now?

They knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. And most people are going to say "Well, of course they knew," and then go on with their lives. The men and women who have died in the occupation won't be able to go on with their lives, will they?

There has never been a more corrupt or morally bankrupt administration. History will recall that not only was George W Bush the worst president in American history, he presided over the most jaded, ambivalent group of American ever and that they got what they deserved.


Impeach the mother fuckers, remove them from office, prosecute them, convict them, and imprison them.

Deporting father of dead soldier

Our government is capable of deeply, deeply...uhm...tasteless (?) moves. Of course, there are those that would say that our government should be concerned about what is or is not tasteful but -- good god -- can't they let the parents of men and women who gave their fucking lives in this bullshit occupation of a sovereign power citizenship? Or at least green cards?

We lost 5 nukes

For 3 1/2 hours the US military didn't know where 5 nuclear weapons were. Or so they say. It should be worth noting that Barksdale AFB is where everything from the US is routed before it goes to the Mideast. Hmmm. Y'know, we could nuke Iran and claim that they accidently did it themselves and that we need to get in there to save the Iranian people from their evil leaders.

Death tax

For the love of God!!! get that evil thing repealed so that Leona Helmsely's dog can inherit her full $12 million.

Joshua Crust.

Who would have thought that it would have been bad housing loans that started the collapse of the world economy?

I note with little further comment that we're about to have to surrender some of our sovereignty in the name of capitalism.

I stayed away from Larry Craig's story for a while

I don't think a person's sex life is anybody else's business. Unless that person has tried to make hay out of a "family values" position. Or if the sex life involves homosexual activity and the homosexualist opposes equal rights for gays and lesbians, as is the case with Senator Larry Craig. This guy has enough money to hire sex partners. Whyowhyo would he be so stupid as to solicit sex from a cop in an airport men's room? Oh, wait! He says that the Idaho Statesman has been clouding his judgment. I believe that should excuse anything he's done, right? Right?

We used to be the good guys

Read this story about the treatment an American citizen received at the hands of the American military in Iraq for whistle-blowing about illegal arms sales and then tell me something good about the US.

From Hell

No, this is not a message about the triple digit temperature that the parts of the US that aren't flooded are experiencing. This is about that most amazing of historical graphic novels.

I just indexed Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's Jack the Ripper opus, From Hell. This necessitated re-reading it and that reminded me of how absolutely wonderful it is.

Worthy of the name "novel," it is so rich and intricate as to almost defy description as a comic book. Most who are at all familiar with his work will accept that Moore is a brilliant writer but the depth of research and the...vividness of his characterizations here is simply stupendous. The mental illness of Dr. William Gull, royal physician, Moore's candidate for the role of Jack the Ripper, is, while monstrous, at the same time almost delicate. Gull is never a slavering lunatic, but always, even in his brutalization of his victims, a man of deep belief in the powers of mystic philosophy. It may seem silly to call Jack the Ripper a man capable of great subtlety, but Gull's dialog requires multiple readings for a full grasp of the complex portrait Moore crafts of the man whom he credits with bringing about the 20th century.

And Eddie Campbell. Sigh. Campbell is one of my personal favorite cartoonists. His work here is just as deeply researched as Moore's and his evocation of the poverty and squalor of Victorian slums is perfect. There is never a mis-step. The personality of Inspector Fred Abberline, the lead investigator, comes through in his body language as though Campbell had drawn him from life. I own a page of original art from the sequence of the police drowning of Montague Druitt and I treasure it.

I understand that there is a new Top Shelf edition of this remarkable work. Obviously, I highly recommend it. No, that's not right -- I practically demand that you get it and. Get it and read it regardless of your interest in Jack the Ripper. And if you have an interest in the Ripper murders, read it as a compendium of facts (you don't have to believe that Gull was the Ripper). Get it and read it if you have the slightest interest in comics as important medium. Or as sublime entertainment.

A little bit of xenobiology for Mars

What about life that uses hydrogen peroxide to avoid that crystalline water problem and to draw more water to itself? That would be pretty useful on a cold, very dry planet, now wouldn't it? And, apparently, it could explain some of those results from the Viking missions that nobody has been able to explain by purely chemical processes.

Crime and hysteria

I received the following e-mail this morning from a University of Arkansas at Little Rock e-mail list. It came, ostensibly, to another University employee from someone at Dillard's corporate office and the UALR person thought they needed to share it:

Just wanted to let you know about the update that was provided to Brandon from the Little Rock Detectives. Please share this with everyone you know. This came straight from the Detective working Brandon’s case:

Come to find out, this is the fourth time this has happened in the River Market Area in the last 4 weeks. One of the previous three involved a young woman who was abducted, taken to ATM’s, then brutally beaten, raped, and killed. Her body was found in the SAME EXACT LOCATION as where the two suspects dropped Brandon off on Thursday night. The local media is cooperating with the Police at the request of the Mayor and is not publicizing any of these crimes as it would give “the wrong image” about Little Rock and the River Market. So instead, it continues to happen. Brandon was parked, as were the previous three, under the bridges between the Marriott and Axiom. The assailants were waiting in the shadows.

Here’s what actually took place: Brandon Harris (who sits right next to me) left a River Market restaurant Thursday night at about 9:00 pm. He was parked under the Markham/Cantrell Bridges between the Marriott and Axiom. Two men came from nowhere, stuck a gun to him and forced him into the backseat of his car. They then drove to an ATM, holding Brandon at gunpoint. They demanded his pin number, retrieved the daily limit, and drove out to the swampy area on I-530. During this drive, they continued to pistol whip him in the head. They took a road underneath one of the 530 bridges, stopped the car, shot him once while he was in the floorboard. They then pulled him out, fired twice more (both shots luckily missed) then picked up his cell phone and called someone stating “It’s done, we just threw him out at the drop off”. Brandon was smart enough to play dead until they left. He then spent the night crawling through the woods and swamp until he was found the next morning.

A group of people here at work have decided to make up flyers and start distributing them at night to people in the River Market describing the details of the four attacks. And this will continue until the city and the media has done something about it. This would be the reason why Channel 7 had some of the details botched in their report on Friday night. Please send this to everyone you know.

I read it and thought how strange to be in on the seminal moment of an urban legend. And, of course, that turned out to be the case. There have been two robberies by a pair of juveniles. No rapes. No murders. Just incipient hysteria.

But consider how something like this can impact a restaurant-entertainment area like Little Rock's River Market (think Beale in Memphis or Deep Ellum in Dallas). Something like this gets some buzz and pretty soon people are afraid to go down under the overpass to smoke dope or get blow jobs or whatever the fuck these people were doing under an interstate overpass. Sheesh.

Kucinich gets another supporter

There's still time for American to come to its senses and give the presidency to the man whose views most closely represent their own.

Afro-centrism

There are some things that I simply cannot understand. The current King Tut exhibition that is touring the US is catching flak from African-American groups because the portrayal of Tut is too white. Jesus jumped up in a sidecar Christ. Listen to the NPR story. You will hear a "scholar" of some sort saying that when school kids coming out of the exhibition were asked where Tut was from, they didn't say Africa. Imagine that.

Have you ever looked at reproductions of the tomb paintings in Egypt? Did you ever see the black servants and slaves? Notice that they are portrayed as having different skins tones from the Egyptians? Apparently there are Afrocentric "scholars" who have not and still think they are qualified to make arguments. These are the same "scholars" who a few years ago began to agitate for the position that Hannibal and the Carthaginians were black. Somehow, they are equating all of Africa with a black race. I'm stunned at the -- the -- sheer -- stupidity of it.

And why does NPR not rat these people out instead of giving them air time?

I sound like a 1960 reactionary in Mississippi, don't I? I just want people to stop using false scholarship to support a weak (or ludicrous) position.

Sigh.

Find out which presidential candidate agrees with you

If you are in the majority (53% of American voters), then you'll find that you should vote for Dennis Kucinich. Kinda makes you sick, doesn't it, that the candidate whose views most closely reflect those of the majority of Americans can't catch a break?

Anyway, the quiz is here.

We live in *very* science fiction-y universe

This the sort of thing that Robert Heinlein said defined science fiction.

We live in a science fiction universe #2,784,922

My pal, Charles, brings to my attention the idea of non-organic life, postulated by some Russians, some Germans, and some Aussies.

My sentiments are best expressed by quoting Katherine Hepburn from "Philadelphia Story": Golly.

Among the many things I don't understand

These "virtual life" games. Do not mis-understand me. I have played kitchen-table role playing games for many, many years. And I played with dolls way to long for a boy. And I still have a pretty strong day-dreaming streak. But come on.

It's the sex, isn't it?

Masturbation is illgeal in Florida prisons

I'm not even sure I know what to say about this story. Of course, there is a subtext is that only hinted at: the complaints are from a female guard.

Why do we have female guards in men's prisons? Does that make sense? I realize that it is the feminist position that women can perform any job that a man can but do we want them to?

Ethanol is bad

At least I'm not the only one who knows it. Jeff Goodell, writing for Rolling Stone, knows it, too. Greed will destroy us -- IS destroying us.

Asperger syndrome

I do not want to make light of people who may (or may not) have a serious mental illness but Asperger syndrome is one of those conditions whose existence is controversial. The autism continuum is, well, suspect on the high functioning end.

Anyway. Here's a self-administered test. I scored a 26. 'Bout where I would have figured. I expect my pals Greg and Daniel to score higher.

Parenting

I don't have much to say about this article on how American parents play with their children. I'm cogitating.

I've long noted that my generation (I'm 45) seems to have stretched childhood out a helluva lot further than our parents did. That can't be ignored in decyphering the secrets of good parenting.

Also, while the article makes a backhanded attempt at saying the children of low-income families aren't necessarily getting bad parenting, again, an important point is missed: the hunter/gatherer cultures that are referenced have waaaaaay more leisure time than the working poor. In fact, hunter/gatherers have lots and lots of leisure time. They invented art and writing and cities and animal husbandry and farming and all that stuff that we think of as civilization.

Anyway. Cogitating.

Today's wallpaper

The picture is nice, of course, but the astronomy is pretty damned interesting.

As always, I find images of galaxies to be relaxing and prone to induce a meditative mood.

Something I forgot to do a couple of days ago

My pal, Greg, has an amusing (and sad and shameful) tee-shirt design available for purchase through CafePress. I bought one and wore it yesterday and had forgotten that I had it on by dinner time and got some looks I couldn't understand for several seconds at the place where we had pizza.

I wore it with pride and/or shame depending on how you look at it.

The right-wing radio hosts are insane

Oh, I know that they don't believe the bullshit they sling. They say it because it makes them money but how in the name of all that's decent can people like Savage stay on the air when he accuses a United States Senator of poisoning the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? No motive. No evidence. No nothing. Just batshit insane spewing of hatred and his 8 million listeners lapping it up.

The sorry lying bastards

The occupation is going to cost a trillion dollars, even if we immediately do a troop draw down. While this Boston Globe article is ostensibly criticizing the administration, they are either purposefully or foolishly using the administrations nomenclature, which makes it easy for the administration to insist that they are bearing any cost in the defense of liberty.

This is not a war. The war is over. Rumsfeld and Company were right: the war last days, not weeks. The war is over. Let's all say it together: THE WAR IS OVER. What we are in now is the occupation. The long, long, long occupation. How long? How long will the oil last? Because unless we begin a wholesale recall of the Congress in '08 and replace them with people who are willing to take their oaths seriously and defend the Constitution, the oil companies will see to it that we stay in Iraq until the last drop comes out of the Middle East. And then, if the Chinese haven't already used it up, we'll have a real war with them over the oil in Indonesia.




ITMFA

Murdered gorillas

Some ignorant third-world barbarians murdered a group of gorillas Sunday. We make too many excuses sometimes for violence in the support of economics. The killers wanted to make a statement about the park's opposition to the charcoal trade so they engaged in murder. The Telegraph reports the story as murder. Everybody should think of it that way.

The hell of it is that most people won't call it murder and, under the law, it isn't. I hate mankind today.

They destroyed the evidence of the stolen election

We all know that they stole 2000 but I've been trying so hard to give them the benefit of the doubt on 2004. Circumstantial evidence suggests that they stole Ohio and now they've destroyed the hard evidence. This should be investigated by Congress. Now.




ITMFA

Intelligence for profit

70% of the intelligence budget goes to private contractors. Is there nothing that they won't do to enrich their friends? At the end of the day, have they no shame?

California's thinking about the electoral college

Or, at least a Republican assemblyman or two is thinking about it. They've introduced legislation to award California's presidential electoral votes by Congressional district. Yeah, as the article suggests, that has the effect of spotting the GOP about 15 or so votes.

But is it unfair? Hardly. The president is not elected by popular vote. In many ways, the Founders expected the president to serve as a head of government and only nominally as a head of state. It's up to the California legislature and, ultimately, the California voters and, as much as I dislike the idea of giving the GOP a leg up, this ain't wrong.

Bad day for NASA

Drunken astronauts and sabotaged computers. Most amusing is the notion that they "hope" to repair a cut wire in time for launch two weeks from now. Gosh. Are they going to have to send away for the electrical tape???

Always check the source

The nuclear power industry wants us to know that biomass, solar, and wind are just awful. They're right about biomass. Any space devoted to growing crops for fuel is space taken away from food production or is former forest or grasslands.

Why don't people like to talk about solar-from-space?

The mistakes we make when we *know* we're right

Cognitive biases. Add this to your set of self-analytical check points.

Why we won't leave Iraq

A cogent look at the Democratic candidates and what they're saying about leaving Iraq.

The President declares himself dictator

In this Executive Order, the president has declared that he has the power to seize the assets of anybody he chooses. Read it and tell me that it doesn't say that. No court orders. No nothing. Anybody that he determines to have destabilized Iraq or to have helped somebody destabilize Iraq.

Why are we sitting still? Why are we not screaming? Our Congressmen and Senators take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. If they don't start impeachment proceedings tomorrow, they are in violation of their oath.


Impeach the motherfuck now.

Today is shaping up as a science day

A new subspecies of chimpanzee. And they continue to make it harder and harder to say what the difference is between us and them. Damn chimps.

Most of the time optical illusions fall apart when you're told what to look for

But not in the case of this same color illusion. Fascinating.

The imperial presidency -- again

Now the administration is saying that executive privilege trumps all. I cannot say this often enough: WE DO NOT HAVE THREE EQUAL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT. The Constitution doesn't say that. The Founders didn't intend that.

The Congress is supreme as it reflects the will of the people. It is the only branch that is elected by the people. In the end, Congress can impeach and convict everybody in the executive branch and all federal judges and there is fuckall that anybody, except the voters, can do about it.

There is no executive privilege.

Oh, and that last paragraphs deserves quoting:

"[Mark] Rozell, the George Mason professor and authority on executive privilege, said the administration's stance "is almost Nixonian in its scope and breadth of interpreting its power. Congress has no recourse at all, in the president's view. . . . It's allowing the executive to define the scope and limits of its own powers."

Almost Nixonian? This is far and away worse than any shit that Nixon tried to pull. Remember that Nixon wanted to cover up his crimes. This administration brags about them and calls you too stupid to know they're in the wrong.

Impeach the motherfuckers already. And remove them from office and prosecute them and convict them and send them to prison.

Bush is bat-shit insane

And any American who will look at the situation with a clear head will see that is the case. He believes that because God has set him on this path, there can be no argument against it. He makes foreign policy decisions on the basis of his religious beliefs. Let that really, really sink in a minute and you'll know that he must go.



ITMFA

I can only sputter with indignation

Has there ever been an administration that so loathed being criticized? The Bush Defense Department will brook no suggestion that some planning should take place.

I did think it was pretty damned funny that it was worded as "perceived" abandonment of allies in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia. This is that "reality"-based stuff again. We didn't really abandon our allies. No no no. That's just a Democratic "perception." How could Republican administrations have abandoned allies? Everybody knows that it's Democrats who want to cut and run.

The rank hypocrisy of these people almost chokes me.

"Philosophically" the president says, "Screw sick children."

It seems that the president believes that letting children in the US go without health insurance is the best way to take care of them. And he has the brass to claim that it's a philosophical position: if you expand a children's health insurance program, well, people might take advantage of it because it would probably be cheaper than private insurance and if people don't buy private insurance then the president's cronies aren't enriched and this administration is about nothing if it's not about enriching cronies.

When will people realize that health care (and health insurance) for profit is a sin? It's vile. It's wicked. You don't have any money, therefore, being sick is you own damned fault and why the hell should my hard earned tax dollars go toward making sure you get better? Fuck you.



By the way, this is my 600th post!

The concept of sovereignty is not that hard to grasp

But, it seems that it means nothing to the Bush administration. Unless our "ally," Pakistan, violates its own laws and does something about terrorists based in the "Federal Tribal Provinces," we're going to take care of it for them.

I'm conflicted. If we had overthrown Musharraf when we found out that Pakistani intelligence had acted as the paymasters for the 9-11 terrorists, I probably wouldn't have complained too much about Pakistani sovereignty. But, as it is...

Something I don't understand

Why is it that it's always the staunch defenders of family values that get caught with prostitutes? Let me make it clear that I do not think that Sen. Vitter's liaison with a prostitute disqualifies him from sitting in the US Senate. I think Sen. Vitter's sex life is his own business.

Unless.

He has made political hay by calling Bill Clinton immoral and have campaigned on "family values" and opposes gay marriage. Then he becomes hypocritical scum and not only should he be hounded from the Senate, he should be held up to public ridicule at all opportunities.

I feel sorry for the hell that his wife and children will catch but it he'd kept his fucking mouth shut beforehand, I would be screaming for his critics to get the hell away from him and leave his family alone.

This is a matter of goose sauce.

A short story that I would like to read

They found an Inca skeleton in Norway. How did he get there?

Short story? I'd read a whole novel about him.

Well, stipulating that it was decently written.

We're some damned smart chimps

And it looks like we can help those that are as smart get better. Curing a form of mental retardation is simply wonderful news. But it's a very science-y story so it won't make the mainstream press. Sigh.

This what we all need to do

Well, maybe we don't all need to run for Congress but we certainly need to do everything we can to deny the Democratic nomination to our Congresspersons who won't stand up and file articles of impeachment.

These people are criminals. The war with Iraq was a violation of international law. The wiretapping program is illegal search and seizure. The signing statements are declarations that the executive branch is above the law. The refusal of the vice-president to comply with records release legislation is illgal. The lies about the reasons for the war are certainly a good reason. A little investigation will reveal that both Bush and Cheney have suborned perjury, don't you imagine? What more do they need?




Impeach the motherfuckers, remove them from office, prosecute them, try them, convict them and imprison them.

Poisoning our pets

Disclaimer: I am an animal lover. I will go into a burning building to save my pets. I would probably go into a burning building to save your pets. Between shooting a stranger and shooting my dog, may I suggest that you not be a stranger.

It seems that the pet food industry is mostly unregulated. And we all know that in a capitalist society, unregulated translates into dangerously filthy or corrupt or some other form of unsafe in someway.

As you may be able to tell from my disclaimer, I'm the sort of person that is dismissed by non-pet people as a nut. I suspect that the pet food industry is dominated by non-pet people. It just makes a sort of Darwinian sense: people who care about animals will want to provide quality food products for them; that undoubtedly is more expensive than ignoring quality and safety. Therefore, non-pet oriented people will make larger profits in the pet food industry and will be able to survive better in our free trade economy.

I suggest that if you have a pet, you investigate non-commercial pet foods. Search the web.

Pollution-related deaths in China

It seems that the Chinese pressured the World Bank to alter a report on pollution-related deaths. Seems that 750, 000 Chinese died from bad air or water or whatnot.

Is that a lot? I've bumped a few numbers around on the calculator and I still don't know. The population of China is about 1 1/3 billion. So 750,000 is about .06% of the population. Seems like a lot. The population of the US is just a little over 300 million. That rate would translate to 170, 500 or so. Is that a lot? We had 42, 636 road fatalities in 2005. We had 17, 011 AIDS deaths the same year. And 16, 692 murders.

Finding data about air pollution deaths in the US isn't easy. Emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease. We don't like to talk about what the causes of those sorts of things are.

I'm just sayin'.

We shouldn't let Fred Thompson get a free ride

The crusading Watergate staffer was a rat. Just another reason that the public came to see government as all crooked after Watergate. Well, it would have been a reason if we'd known about it.

Does the NYPD have an Irony Division?

It seems that it is illegal, in New York, to recite the First Amendment to the US Constitution through a non-electric bullhorn.

I find this guy's schtick very appealing. I wish I had thought of it. Or had a job that would let me go down to the Federal Courthouse everyday and preach the Constitution. I'd do it as one of those whooping, Pentecostalist-types. I've got the spirit for the Word of Madison! And of Franklin! And of Hamilton and of Jay and even of dear old John Dickinson!!

I've got to give this serious consideration.

Why?

It seems that the City of New York doesn't want to be photographed. This defies sense. I don't recognize my country.

So historians will make a prominent note of Darfur

Not because of the failure of will of the West to stop ethnic cleansing -- hell, history will show that when we did something about ethnic cleansing it was the exception. No, apparently Darfur is the first in a series of conflicts triggered by climate change. And it won't be the last. Not by a damn sight.

Conflicts over water. Mass migrations caused by the rising sea levels. Starvation on a continental-scale. This is the stuff of dystopian science fiction and it certainly looks like our future. Watch the Sahel for the next 5 years and Southeast Asia for the next 10 for a glimpse of what 50 years from now will look like all over the world.

What Americans really think

I've said for a long time that it wasn't possible that most Americans believed like the GOP. Now there's a great big poll that shows I was right: Americans are progressives.

And why wouldn't they be? It's the only decent way to think. Help those that can't help themselves. Make those who are the most able carry more of the load. Keep the environment clear so that we can pass a liveable world on to our children. Don't force your religion on anyone, ever. Let people live their lives in peace without unwarranted intrusion.

These also just happen to the be core beliefs of the Democratic Party. There is a difference. A Big Difference.

Cutting off all aid to Saudi Arabia

It seems that the House has wised up, somewhat and has added an amendment to the foreign aid bill that will cut off Saudi Arabia.

Now, somebody explain to me why were giving aid to Saudi Arabia in the first place? The per capita income is $13,600. The budget surplus is $70.7 billion. Jeeze.

How can educated people be so stupid?

I'm appalled.

Linguistics

More on the Pirahã language.

Absolutely glorious

Today's wallpaper is simply stunning. And, say what you will about the lack of science being done on the ISS, or what kind of station we could have had, it is still a monumental achievement.

Iesu Christu

It seems that the rumors we heard in September '01 had more credibility that we had thought. It seems that when planes were allowed to whisk members of the Saud and binLaden families out of the US in the week after the attacks, the FBI didn't know who had chartered the planes. Could have been the Saudi royal family. Could have been OSAMA BINLADEN. For Christ's sakes. And they didn't know who was on the planes. And they thought some people were that may not have been.

On the basis of nothing but past performance, I'm not going to chalk this one up to the investigative ineptitude of the FBI (which is very, very real, despite the myths that Hoover promulgated that still linger). I'm going to attribute this one to the administration making every effort to accommodate the families of their business partners: the Sauds and the BinLadens.

Never ever ever forget that the Bush family is in business with the BinLaden family. And they don't deny it. They claim that Osama is a black sheep that was disowned. Why should we believe that? Because they say it's so?

The money for the 9-11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia. It was funneled to Afghanistan through the Pakistani intelligence apparatus. The attackers were Saudis. And we invaded and occupied Iraq.

Impeach the motherfucker. Then prosecute him for treason, convict him, and imprison him.

Hunh

Israel launches its satellites (spy stuff mostly) into retrograde orbits. That means they head west. They do it to avoid dropping rocket stages on their nervous neighbors.

It is left as an exercise for the reader as to why everybody else heads east.

Not as bad as I expected

Mingle² - Online Dating

Seems that the words "gun" and "torture" are more serious that the expletives I often employ. I like that.

The vice-president asserts that his office is not an executive branch entity

I think he thinks it is an Imperial branch entity.

It seems that Mr. Cheney has issued an order exempting himself from the law regarding protection of classified documents. He's covering his ass on La Plame. He's afraid that Scooter might roll over on him to keep from going to prison.

Where does Cheney get the authority to issue any kind of order? He has no Constitutional powers. None. I still get hacked off when I remember him giving operational orders to fighter planes defending Washington on 9-11.

Let's all say this together: Dick Cheney has no Constitutional authority.

Impeach the motherfucker, prosecute him, convict him, and imprison him.

A Jim Hightower column about Bush & Co. and enriching their cronies

There are some really startling numbers in this related to how great an increase there has been in federal contracts for formerly government services since Bush came into office.

Good vs Evil and the Bush Administration

An excerpt from a forthcoming book by Glenn Greenwald. It reinforces the opinion that I hold from time to time that Bush is a True Believer, in the way that only reformed drunks can be. Cheney and the rest are bastards aiming at making money for themselves and their buddies.

If you wanna buy this book, use this link. I'll make a nickel.

Stipulating that Bloomberg is a credible candidate...

...which I think I dispute, does this mean that we're looking at an election season where among the viable, serious candidates are a woman, a black, a Mormon, and a Jew? The mind boggles. Just imagine what's happening in George Wallace's grave right now.

But really, a 5'7" Jew? America is not ready.

It seems that we've really messed up Iraq

I knew it was bad but I didn't realize that it was 2nd worst in the world. Seems to me that it can't get much worse so we should just leave.

Come to Jesus

http://christiancondoms.com/

Single men and single women

Anybody got any idea as to why there seems to be such a geographical split, vis a vis, east-west?

The blue represents an excess of single males, the red an excess of single females. It's from the February issue of National Geographic.

A little Tuesday science

Seems that this fellow believes that black holes don't exist. And, of course, he's done a buncha calculations and people who think he's wrong have done a buncha other calculations and other people will study both sides' calculations and one of these days the Large Hadron Collider will be on-line and there will be experimental data to compare to the calculations and the theories will be refined further and, thus, is science made.

But, let's pause a moment and think about how the Large Hadron Collider would work in a comic book. And let us be afraid. Very afraid.

Week-old news

I had to ruminate on it a while. I mean, how could I quickly analyze something that makes so little sense as arming the Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

Let's walk through this: we are attacked by Sunni Saudi Arabian terrorists, funded with money from Saudi Arabia that is funneled through Pakistan. So we invade Afghanistan, which, in all fairness, is being used as a safe haven and base by the these Sunni Saudis. Then the president spins a web of lies regarding Iraq: he says that helped al-Qaida, he says they're trying to buy materials for nuclear weapons, he says they're lying about destroying their weapons of mass destruction, he says they're violating all the UN resolutions that imposed sanctions on them at the end of the last war, etc etc etc. All lies. The Republican Congress gives him a blank check; don't forget that the Democrats went along -- wouldn't want to appear soft on terruhists.

So we invade Iraq. Oh, we're supposed to be hailed as liberators by the people of Iraq. They're going to swarm to us with flowers. That was another one of those lies. The Pentagon knew better and told the White House but, no matter. So the war is over in just a few days because, honestly, no Third World country can stand up to the US armed forces -- they don't have the training or equipment or will. Ah, but the occupation begins. And it is a long one. Keep in mind that Saddam's Ba'athists were secular socialists, not religious at all -- hated by Osama bin Laden for that very reason. But, they were nominally Sunni and they hated the Shi'a with a passion because the Shi'a are funded by Iran, as close to a traditional enemy as a 90-year old country like Iraq can have.

We purge the Iraqi army and police of Ba'athists. This means we also purge it of Sunnis. The Saudis don't like this. Al-Qaida doesn't like this. We go further. We install a majority Sunni government, and in short order, hell breaks loose. The Sunnis blow up an especially favored Shi'a shrine and the war is on: Sunni vs Shi'a. And we're standing around watching. And getting killed for our trouble and the civil war grows. Car bombs and roadside bombs are the favored tools of the Sunni. People disguised as police or the police themselves are the favored tools of the Shi'a.

After a few years, Bush & Co. decide that a increase of 20,000 combat troops will make it look like they're trying to pacify the country when, in reality, all they want is for the Shi'a and Kurds to hand over the oil. But the Shi'a and the Kurds won't do that until they've defeated the Sunnis. So we "surge." And, no surprise, it doesn't work. Because we still aren't dis-arming the militias.

It is important to keep in mind that we in the US only think we have a gun culture. Sure, they're easy to get and relatively inexpensive but there are numerous families who don't have firearms almost nobody takes to the streets shooting to celebrate weddings or births or to even the score in the tradition of the Hatfields and McCoys. The Iraqis? They've got a gun culture. And WE'RE LETTING THEM KEEP THEIR GUNS which THEY ARE USING TO SHOOT AT AMERICAN SOLDIERS and at their co-religionists who do or don't believe in the sanctity of the Imam Ali, depending.

So every Iraqi male over the age of 13 thinks his manhood cheapened if he doesn't have an AK-47 with which to impress chicks and Allah. So we let them keep them.

So the surge doesn't work. The civil war grows worse.

And then a brilliant idea comes to someone. Hey! Let's buy the loyalty of the Sunnis with guns! They love guns, right? And everybody is just as greedy and materially oriented as we are, right? Great! We give them guns if they promise to quit fighting...with...al-Qaida...I....guess. Oh! And they have to quit fighting...with...the Shi'a.

Waitaminute. I musta tole it wrong.

I know this is a serious matter but...

...it seems that the Democrats mainly want to get all het up about things that the average voters will be dismissive of. I can't help but believe that this is to avoid being pushed to begin impeachment proceedings.

Seems that the e-mails story is going to catch some traction as it turns out that people in the White House purposefully used RNC e-mail accounts to conceal official business and then lied about it. People in the White House breaking the law and lying?? In the Bush White House?!?? Yawn.

Yes, I've succumbed to ennui about the wrongdoings of the White House. I'll feel better later in the day, I'm sure.

This never occured to me

I hadn't thought through all the implications of Bush's call for more ethanol fuel. My analysis stopped at: so he's aiming for world-wide starvation and environmental degradation. Hunh. Seems mighty short-sighted and even dangerous but it wasn't a terribly surprise that he was proposing something he hadn't thought through.

I just didn't consider that I hadn't thought it far enough through and that it could be construed as simple political cover for the obscene profits that the oil companies (his patrons) are making. They can simply whine that it would be foolish for them to build more refinery capacity if the US is expected to cut consumption of gasoline by 20%. In fact, the ethanol push practically guarantees that gasoline prices will skyrocket and the oil companies can wring their hands and bemoan the burden on the poor, poor consumer, but what are the supposed to do?

Ads

Some of you may have noticed that all the way down at the bottom of the page there's a little set of Google AdSense ads. They're context driven, in that they pick out words from the posts and put up appropriate ads.

If you click on them every once in a while, I make money. And all you're doing is sharing a cookie. Unless you don't.

Maybe if you said you need lab equipment to make bullets...

Seems that you have to register to buy some lab equipment in some states. What on earth would we do if terrorists and/or drug dealers wanted to buy guns? Waitaminute. I musta tole it wrong.

My copy has endnotes

Seems that Andrew Ferguson, a writer for the Washington Post, hates Al Gore. Hates him so much, in fact, that he made up stuff about Gore's recent book, The Assault on Reason. seems that Mr. Ferguson didn't like the fact that the book had no footnotes. It's got endnotes but I'm imagining that Mr. Ferguson didn't read that far. He seems to have gotten to page 88, where there is a Lincoln quote that Mr. Ferguson believes to be unreferenced. It isn't. But that doesn't stop the media in their never-ending quest to take one of the men most qualified to be president of the United States (and who won the election in 2000 despite their efforts) and make him seem like something he isn't.

Why do you think the media feels this way about Gore? Is it because he's handsome? And rich? And smarter than they are? And that he's got a good-looking wife? And a heart? Did I mention that he's smarter than they are?

This is the sort of shit that got us Bush in 2000

Well, shit like this and the cheating.

But.

My point is that we cannot let the media get started again telling us that this campaign isn't about issues because it sure as hell is. If you can't tell the difference between the positions of Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich, you're blind and deaf and stupid. Hell, the differences between John McCain and Hillary are legion.

This election is not about "authenticity" or "character" or any of those other things that the media tried to sell in 2000. This election is about the future of democracy in the United States and the lives of Americans and innocents all around the world caught up in the "war on terror."

There is no question that any of the GOP candidates would continue the occupation of Iraq. There is a chance, slim though it is, that the Democratic candidate will not. It is a cinch that any of the GOP candidates would appoint conservative ideologues to the federal bench; the moderates to get the support of the right, the right-wingers to shore up that support. The Democratic candidates are far less likely to appoint someone the bench that doesn't believe in the Bill of Rights.

Yes, they've all sold their souls (except for Kucinich and the guy from Alaska). Yes, they are beholden to the multinationals. But at least the Democrats have just enough soul left to pretend to be ashamed of it. The GOP revels in it; they don't know why anybody thinks there's anything wrong with it; it's the American way, aint' it? Yes, it's a pack of millionaires on all sides (except for etc etc etc), but Hillary and Edwards didn't come from money and their talk about their concern for those less privileged is backed up by their actions.

Oh, yeah, and another thing: The GOP thinks that health care for profit gives us the best health system in the world. They don't seem to understand that we have the worst health care in the industrialized world. No. Wait. It's not that they don't understand, it's that they don't care.

Don't swallow the lie. There's plenty of difference.

Joshua Crust

Is there a sadder, more heart-wrenching song than Judy Collin's "Song for Martin"? No, no, there is not.

I am shocked -- shocked -- to find out that Dan Rather is a bitter old man

and that CBS can't think of anything better to do to defend their worthless newscast than to make remarks about what Dan said when they damn good and well what he meant. When Dan Rather was on his game, there was not a better television journalist. He and Bill Moyers were the last of them. Now, there are news readers whose primary qualifications are that they can read and people look at them with lust. They are not journalists. They aren't even "pundits." They're models.

Feh.

I am shocked -- shocked -- to find out that in an unconstitutional program the FBI went ahead and broke some more laws

Seems that the FBI decided "in for a penny, in for pound." Over 1000 violations of rules or laws while collecting information on American citizens' domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions. There has never been a more criminal administration: not LBJ. Not Nixon. Not the Iran-Contra Reagan. These people are criminals and need to be prosecuted.




ITMFA and then prosecute them, convict them, and imprison them

I beleive I'd appeal

But then, I'm not the State of Texas. Seems that prayer is how juries decide things down thataway.

So, they didn't have enough evidence to find the guy guilty of reckless driving but they prayed on it. "Dear Lord, show us that he was reckless."?? "Dear Lord, show us that the evidence is true."???? What the hell did they pray?

Our solar system isn't really very tidy

There are lots of objects in our solar system that are only now being discovered and studied. Who knows what else lies out there?

Today's wallpaper

An exceptionally beautiful, and somewhat eerie, nebula.

The list is over a half-million names

It seems that the FBI's terrorist watch list is over a half-million names. The mind boggles.

For those who like chocolate

But don't like the idea that Nestle's and Hershey's and Mars are supported by slave labor, there is this website and the associated products.

I know that it is probably not a good idea to start looking at where everything you eat comes from. The damage to the environment, human rights, animal rights -- we'd have to give up food. But when it's something that isn't essential and when an alternative that doesn't lead to child slavery is available, why not explore the options?

The bees

This is the latest bee article. It has been suggested that this is just an environmental scare caused by the fact that environmentalists are a little on edge with so much dire climate change news in the last year.

I don't think so.

I am not an entomologist of any sort and I have not done a population survey. But. Many of the green spaces on the campus where I work are covered in white clover (Trifolia repens). In the past, the clover would be alive with a carpet of honey bees when the flowers bloomed in May. This year? Walking across the campus nearly every day, I have seen 1 (one) honey bee. My yard (not a lawn) has a fine healthy stand of english plantain (Plantago lanceolate). It is usually very popular with honeybees, bumble bees, and wasps of all sorts when it starts blooming in April. This year? Three (3) honeybees.

I have not put out any bait to see if I can attract honeybees. High fructose corn syrup softdrinks are probably a good bait. I'll try it.

I also should note that all the stories that I've seen published about the loss of bees does not mention, much less discuss, wild populations. I have no idea if the bees that I have regularly seen in the past are wild bees or "domesticated" bees but they are not around this spring.

So. "Eco-scare"? Perhaps. Real? Oh, yeah.

My desktop background

My daughter suggested that re-introduce a feature that this blog had back when it was spam: Wallpaper of the Day!

The Plame Affair

I guess I wasn't paying enough attention last year. Why didn't more people tell us that it wasn't that Cheney and Company wanted to "get even" with Joseph Wilson, they actively wanted to expose La Plame in order to end her career. That's the "underlying crime."




ITMFA and then prosecute him and convict him and imprison him

Why isn't Al Gore president?

Yep, he should be winding down a successful presidency right now. He was just too smart for Americans. Shame.

He is a man full of insights but he has one about himself that he makes* in this op-ed from the Times.






*You will probably need username: lipstickonapig and password: lipstickonapig.

And still more bad news

One more in the growing litany of "it's happening faster than we thought"s. The ice is melting in Greenland earlier and staying gone longer and the melt goes further inland than models said it should.

I'm ashamed to say that I was thinking: "I'd kinda like to go to Greenland" and then I read that last paragraph and hung my head.

Climate and migrations of peoples

A very cool animated map-thingee about when and where the great migrations occurred.

Iraqi parliament gets uppity

I'm a bit confused. It seems that the Iraqi parliament is on the verge of telling us to leave their country. Didn't the previous, *functional*, Iraqi government tell us not to come in the first place? I suspect that when the bill is actually passed, Lesser Dear and Glorious Leader will damn near laugh himself into an embolism.

We'll have two choices: ignore the parliament, which is what I would expect, or stage a coup, which is just a lot of bother. But I can guarandamntee you that we will not be leaving Iraq. There's too much money invested and too much oil to steal and we need a base from which to attack Iran and from which to support the Bushes' business partners, the Saud and binLaden families.

Do you think Watson and Crick ever imagined this?

DNA analysis is just pretty damned cool. Looking at prehistoric chicken DNA to determine if Polynesians came to South America from Easter Island is just -- way damned cool.

Vote caging

Just another name for one more dirty tactic in the GOP's voluminous bag of dirty tactics and tricks. Send a registered letter to an address you know to be wrong and then deny the voter the right to vote because, you claim, he's registered at a fake address. These are really, really sorry bastards. Criminals and traitors. And we deserve 'em because we're no carrying pitchforks and torches down to the local federal building and demanding redress of our grievances.



ITMFA and don't vote for anybody in '08 who didn't scream for impeachment


UPDATED: There's now a link to the Slate article that prompted me to make this post.

Why are some people so fascinated with Legos?

I mean, they're fun. I like to fiddle with them but I don't have enough time on my hands to make a harpsichord from Legos. I do appreciate the amount of planning that must go into these kinds of projects and the engineering that sometimes has to be worked out.

We Livein a Science Fiction Universe, part 1,122,417

Data encoding through genetic engineering of bacteria? No good will come of this. I can see the monstrous half-computer, half-protozoan beasts attacking New York or Tokyo now.

Oh! Better yet! People coming down with horrible bacterial infections that cause them to become automatons, slaves to the hive mind of the Bacterial Intelligence.

Seriously, this is cool beyond words. Are we the smartest chimps around, or what?

Messianic Judaism doesn't get a lot of press

but some of you know that I've spent far too much time fiddling around with 1st century CE Christianity and Judaism, when messiahism was hot stuff. So I've always been interested in it, in all eras. This is a cult about which I wish I knew more. Now that I think about it, a book of Jewish messianic cults would be a pretty interesting read. even one based on secondary sources.

Old-timey lunar bases

Dwayne Day is a pretty cool space historian. I have a couple of his books. Here's his essay on proposed missile bases on the moon.

There are some really interesting alternate universes out there. I think any of the ones where Chesley Bonestall paintings became reality would be something to see. Well, maybe not that one of the mushroom clouds over Manhattan but just about any of his others.

We have torture guidelines

And apparently the guideline isn't: Don't do it. It seems that the United States, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the country that saved the world from despotism, has a set of rules about how to go about torturing so that it's legal. It makes me sick.






ITMFA and then prosecute them, convict them, and imprison them

It really can't be both ways

This could be the CIA's subtle way of trying to influence the Plame case. By stating that her tenure dates are classified, they're saying she was a covert agent, something they've declined to do before.

I'd say that means that Cheney and Co. are criminals.




Impeach the Mother Fucker Already and then prosecute him and convict him and imprison him

And look how much our presence has improved life in the Korean peninsula

It seems that the president had no exit strategy for Iraq because he never intended to exit. Of course, when we heard about the multiple permanent military bases being built all over the country, we kinda figured we were there for the long haul.

Need a place to base troops in a volatile region where your very presence is an offense to the people and your so-called "allies" don't want you? Hell, just illegally invade a country you don't like to begin with, steal its oil and build your bases there. Win-win, right?





ITFMA, and then prosecute him and convict him and imprison him. (I got that last part from Greg but I like it so I'm going to use it)

Climate tipping point

More from Greg:

The “tipping point” will come within a decade. Since there’s no way in Hell we’ll do anything about it before then, can we all just accept that ½ to ¾ of the people on Earth are going to die in the next 100 or so years from all the shit – wars, famine, disease, populations shifts – that we now have no chance of avoiding.

Myself, I intend to spend what few golden years I’ll have saying, “I told you so, you stupid fucks.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3223473&page=1

Greg

I have no outrage left

Thanks to my pal Greg for pointing this one out:

It seems that the vice-president doesn't want anybody to know whom he sees at his official residence. Hmmm. Does he know that I own that house? Perhaps they should also have a secret entrance for visitors they don't want identified.



ITMFA

I've never liked Michael Isikoff

As is often the case, Isikoff looks at some issues with a remarkable amount of clarity and other with complete obliviousness.

He pisses me off with "The United States Department of Justice has not always been above politics. John F. Kennedy, after all, appointed his brother and consigliere Robert to be attorney general." What is that supposed to mean?

And he seems to think this is relevant: "Bush's role has remained shadowy throughout the controversy over the eavesdropping program. But there are strong suggestions that he was an active presence. On the night after Ashcroft's operation, as Ashcroft lay groggy in his bed, his wife, Janet, took a phone call. It was Andy Card, asking if he could come over with Gonzales to speak to the attorney general. Mrs. Ashcroft said no, her husband was too sick for visitors. The phone rang again, and this time Mrs. Ashcroft acquiesced to a visit from the White House officials. Who was the second caller, one with enough power to persuade Mrs. Ashcroft to relent? The former Ashcroft aide who described this scene would not say, but senior DOJ officials had little doubt who it was—the president."

The Democrats are so hot on the Justice Department because they know that it will ultimately be a case of no harm -- no foul and they won't have to pursue the president. They are studiously avoiding setting up grounds for impeachment. Any member of the House of Representatives that hasn't called for an impeachment investigation of the president and/or the vice-president has betrayed his oath of office and needs to go come November 08.





ITMFA

I shot a Taco Bell clerk once for trying to give me hot sauce

Once you're willing to break your own quiet little rules about blogging about crime, it starts seeping out like, uhm, hot sauce from a foil packet punctured by gunfire. Or something.

Wendy's Manager Shot Over Chili Sauce

By Associated Press

Tue May 29, 9:34 PM

MIAMI - A manager at a fast-food restaurant was shot several times in the arm early Tuesday trying to protect the chili sauce, authorities said.

A man in the Wendy's drive-through argued with an employee because he wanted more of the condiment, police said. The worker told the customer that restaurant policy prohibited a customer from getting more than three packets.

The man insisted on 10, reports said. The employee complied, but police said the customer wanted even more.

The manager came out to speak to the man, said Miami-Dade police spokesman Mary Walter. The customer then shot the manager, who was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

The customer fled in his vehicle with a female passenger, authorities said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

There's a spooky science fiction short story lurking here

Caves on Mars. This just struck me as really creepy.

Why we're occupying Iraq

Of course the war and the ensuing occupation was about oil. And anyone who says otherwise is ignorant or a liar. No other choice of motivation.

The first damned benchmark for measuring whether or not the Iraqi government is doing what it is supposed to do is that they must pass a law that gives away their national resources. I-- I-- I can't even come up with words to express my outrage.

That the Dear and Glorious Leader and the Lesser Dear and Glorious Leader have been working for over six years to enrich their business partners is not a shock any more. Outrageous, yes, but shocking? No. That the Congress of the United States is complicit in this raping of a sovereign people causes me to gasp. Why? Because I forget -- time and time and time again -- that the government of the United States was taken from the people and given to the military-industrial complex many years ago. George Washington warned us against it and so did Ike.

I don't know what more I can do to wake up the American people to the fact that their government is NOT operated for their benefit. I don't think it is too late to take it back. It will be an extremely difficult task but it could be done.

The role of Congress in relation to the military

George Lakoff and Glenn Smith of the Rockridge Insititue have thought about the Constitution. Most members of Congress have not. So these guys and gals take an oath to protect something they don't really understand and then let some idiot like Dear and Glorious Leader or Lesser Dear and Glorious Leader tell them what their role is. Joshua Crust.

A casual reading of the Constitution, like the one you get in a junior high civics class gives the impression that the three branches of our federal government are of equal power, with all those "checks and balances." It doesn't take more much more than the reading ability of a 10-year old to see that isn't the case. There are no final checks on Congress other than the people of the United Sates. Veto? It can be overridden or the president can be removed. Court decision ruling an act unconstitutional? Amend the Constitution or impeach a few justices. Congress wins. Every time.

FDR made some cultural changes that created our imperial executive. It was a time of national crisis, unlike any faced before or since. There were people starving in the midst of plenty; unemployment rates were at 25%; the idea of revolution was not too far fetched. So, in relief and gratitude that somebody was willing to lead, Congress ceded muuuuuuch of its authority to the executive. The Supreme Court whacked most of it in the head and the New Deal really died a-borning but gate had been opened and with time, the presidency got the upper hand.

Regulatory agencies. Executive orders. A permanent war footing. Undeclared wars.

The Constitution gives the authority to declare war to Congress. We all know that. Some of us also know that the United Nations Charter sort of compromises that by making war of aggression illegal and describing the circumstances under which war is okay. So maybe the idea of legally declared war is quaint. Okay. I'll even accept that. But that doesn't mean that the power to decide when to go to war now rests in the executive branch. Recall that the army is funded through sunset legislation. It has to be reauthorized every two years. The president is command-in-chief of the Congress's army. Just like in the ancient Roman Republic from which so much of the spirit of our Constitution is drawn. The Congress tells the president when it's time to go to war. And what the victory conditions are and when the war is over.

If Congress chooses to end funding for a military mission, it isn't the president's prerogative to leave unfunded troops in the field. The ending of the funding is the same as an order to bring the troop home. The president doesn't get to decide what is in the national interests. Congress does. The president didn't take an oath to defend the country. He took an oath to defend the Constitution. One would think that means he needs to understand it and obey it.

Or be removed.

Since he serves at the will of the Congress. The people's representatives.






Impeach the mother fucker already. And end the illegal occupation of Iraq.

Gasoline prices

My pal, Greg, writes:

We need to put these motherfuckers in jail. They spent the nineties buying up independent refineries and shutting them down. Now we get this:

"The Energy Information Administration predicts that crude oil prices will average about $66 a barrel this summer, compared with $70 last summer. But it predicts that gasoline will average about $2.95 a gallon this summer, up from an average of $2.84 last summer.

"Industry executives say the anomaly reflects a temporary drop in refinery activity, partly because of scheduled maintenance and partly because of unscheduled interruptions."

Why the fuck aren’t we putting these evil bastards in jail? I mean, sure, it probably helps to fight global warming to raise gas prices, but not as much as a goddamn carbon tax. I want these fuckers’ thumbs nailed to a wall.

I am shocked -- shocked -- to find that Homeland Security would violate the law

So it's against the law for them to screen us according to how dangerous they think we might be. Will anything be done about it? No. Will anybody care? Very damn few. And there will be those that continue to insist that it's better to have the Gestapo than terrorists. It was only 7 years ago that we didn't have to have either.




ITMFA

The CIA's 9-11 report

Seems that there are Congressmen who are going to demand that the CIA divulge the contents of its internal 9-11 investigation.

"But [Wyden] did say that protecting individuals from embarrassment is not a legitimate reason for protecting the report's contents from public review." I wonder if protecting individuals from prosecution would be considered a legitimate reason?

"[Wydne] also said the decision to classify the report has nothing to do with national security, but rather political security." Does he really think that will fly? This administration is known for declaring anything and everything a matter of national security.

But, as I've said many times, it will be the professional intelligence employees of the US government that will actually save us from dictatorship. They hold the keys to the kingdom. And they are not all of one mind.

What interests me

I write on this blog about just about everything that interests me except for crime and sex. I don't write about sex because my upbringing (hi, Mom!) make me uncomfortable talking about it. I haven't written about crime here because mostly it would just be the thrill of perversion and violence and there must be better, more substantial thrills of perversion and violence on the web. But this was just too gruesome and weird and suggests a short story that nobody would ever have accepted as realistic.

And it seems the above link isn't working so here:

Pittsburgh Police Find Baby in Freezer

By JOE MANDAK, Associated Press Writer

Thu May 17, 10:21 PM

PITTSBURGH - A woman was charged with abuse of a corpse Thursday after police found the remains of a baby in her freezer.

Police charged Christine Hutchinson, 22, of Pittsburgh, after interviewing her Thursday evening, several hours after the remains were found in her apartment.

Officers got a tip from someone who knew Hutchinson that there was "possibly a baby that was dead and was in a freezer in an apartment in Bloomfield," a working-class neighborhood several miles east of downtown, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said.

Detectives found what initially appeared to be a late-term fetus in a brown bag in the freezer, police said, though it wasn't immediately clear whether the remains resulted from a miscarriage, late-term abortion or a death shortly after birth.

But later, Lt. Daniel Herrmann said the abuse of a corpse charge applies only to human beings. Under the law, he said, a fetus is not considered a human being.

An autopsy was scheduled for Friday. Police said that they did not believe the death was recent but gave no further details.

Police also questioned the woman's ex-boyfriend but said they do not believe he was the father. He was not charged.

Hutchinson was in custody awaiting arraignment late Thursday. A criminal complaint and police affidavit were not immediately released.

It was not immediately known whether Hutchinson had an attorney.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

A guest post to the Garden from my pal, Greg

The Sweet Smell of Hypocrisy

By Greg Girkin

This week, to the surprise and (I’m certain) horror of his Fox New employees, Rupert Murdoch came out in support of the fight against global warming. He even called it global warming, and not the right-wing crowds’ neutered term, “climate change.” As an Australian, you’d think the changes that have already taken place in Australia would have made him take this stance years ago. Still, better late than never.

From the Salon article about his change of heart:

Last week, the media mogul pledged not only to make his News Corp. empire carbon neutral, but to persuade the hundreds of millions of people who watch his TV channels and read his newspapers to join the cause. Messages about climate change will be woven throughout News Corp.'s entertainment content, he said, from movies to books to TV sitcoms, and the issue will have an increasing presence in the company's news coverage, be it in the New York Post or on "Hannity & Colmes." Yes, as Murdoch said in an exclusive interview on his climate plan, even Fox News' right-wing firebrand Sean Hannity can be expected to come around on the issue.

Does this astonish no one but me?

Oh, sure, I’d love to be in the room when those idiots O’Reilly, Hannity, Cavuto, and Gibson are told that they will eat their words in public and support climate change, even if it makes them look like bigger jackasses than they already are (I mean, that’s good comedy). But the astonishing part isn’t that Bill O’Reilly is going to have to take a stance that he’s ridiculed people for having, it’s what this says about the cynical way they manipulate their audience.

Since its inception, Murdoch’s Fox News has howled that the “liberal elite” were slipping liberal messages into everything from music to television commercials. They’ve howled at the indignity of these elites secretly manipulating the public. Unlike the left, Fox is “fair and balanced.” Yet here he is, from that same Salon article:

The more I've looked into it, the more I've been able to see what we can do, not just from an operations standpoint but by subtly introducing [the climate issue] into our content.

Once again, the right proves that when they accuse “lefties” of doing something, it’s because that’s what they’d be doing if they were in charge.

If you’ve ever watched an episode of 24, which features weak liberals opening the country up to attack and strong-man Jack torturing his way to a better tomorrow, you should already have realized he was manipulating his audience for his own political ends. But it takes some real balls to admit it publicly, especially when you run a network that has spent its entire history pointing fingers at everyone else.

Just think what would happen if the head of CBS had said this same thing 6 months ago. Fox News would have gone on a campaign to have him stripped of his citizenship (but only because public execution is impractical). And yet here he is, admitting he uses all his network programming to advance his personal political agenda. Do we hear howls from the left? Do we hear anyone even commenting on it? No, of course not. We hear crickets.

I love the sweet smell of hypocrisy cooling on the kitchen window sill as much as the next guy, but come on!

This is exactly the reason why we used to have limits on media ownership in this country: so that a single person couldn’t use his web of media companies to manipulate the public, stifling dissenting opinions. These days, the laws are hamstrung to the point that this guy can actually brag about using his media holdings to sway public opinion.

Before it’s too late, we’ve got to break up these giant media conglomerates. The experiment has failed. Allowing corporations to absorb networks, TV stations, and newspapers has done exactly what we feared: stifled opinion, misled viewers and readers, and eviscerated the news divisions of every media outlet they absorbed. But do we have the political will in this country to take this step?

Of course we do. As long as Murdoch and others of his ilk decide to get behind it.

I’m not holding my breath.