Lying's Okay, When Something Important Like Hannah Montana Tickets Are At Stake

Sometimes you come across a story that is a barometer of how far off track this country has become. We are, in my opinion, a nation of dishonest people. From our leaders we hear such lies as "I did not have sex with that woman" to "Mission Accomplished" to "My father marched with Martin Luther King" to "If I'm elected the oil-producing countries will drop the price of oil", and we expect them, and only get angry when the other side lies. We do this because in this country, it's more acceptable to be a dishonest winner than an honest loser.
So it should come as no shock to find out that a mom has admitted to lying to win her daughter Hannah Montana tickets (for those of you who outside of the mainstream who don't know, Hannah Montana is the latest crime against the pop culture perpetrated by the follicular challenged Billy Ray Cyrus since his "Achy Breaky Heart" gave a bunch of inbred mouth breathers an excuse to boot scoot at the local trailer trash breeding ground and Budweiser dispensary). Plus, she got an awesome Hannah Montana blonde wig, because even though we like to make jokes about them, every girl wants to be blonde!
Now as House is fond of saying, everybody lies, but it's what we lie about and what we stand to gain from the lie that determines the difference. I lie to spare myself the embarrassment of past mistakes being brought to light, this mother lied about the child's father being blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq so her daughter could gain much coveted concert tickets (and who says we're a Christian nation?).
And what did this mother teach her child with this deception?

“We did the essay and that’s what we did to win,” Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. “We did whatever we could do to win.”

So Ms. Ceballos' daughter learns that honesty is less important than things, values aren't as important as winning, and worshipping at the altar of the cult of celebrity personality is the new morality in today's society.
In the meantime, Ms. Cyrus has a photo scandal brewing (which she blames on "Satan attacking". Time for the Vatican Satan squad to step in!) that's sure to place her in the running to be the next Jamie-Lynn Spears.

Ghouliani:The Final Solution

When you're a one-issue candidate, you tend to attract the singly simple-minded people, as is the case with Rudy Ghouliani, as this video of Rudy's New Hampshire campaign official shows. To this obviously Fox News addled idiot, it's much easier to wipe the planet clean of Muslims (or at least chase them back into their caves)than it is to:
1)address the security issues that allowed a horrendous assault on the US to occur in the first place, or
2)address the geopolitical issues that cause the Muslim population to "hate" Americans in the first place.
(Thanks to mike votes for the heads up on this story)

Curiouser and Curiouser

Like many people, I was shocked to hear today of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. But I was also struck about the way it was carried out The assassin first shoots her, then blows himself up? It seemed a bit odd, I mean, isn't the modus operandi typically the suicide bomber just blows himself up in close proximity to their intended victim?
Now comes the news that the US is sending a "surge" of troops into Pakistan in the wake of the assassination, after Pakistan had temporarily restricted US involvement in cross-border military operations as well as paramilitary operations on its soil.Hmmmm.
One only needs to look at the globe and see how nice and cozy Pakistan is in regards to Iran. Perhaps this lends some credence to Ron Paul's claim that we're getting ready to bomb Iran on MSNBC's Morning Joe today.
Very curious, indeed.

Next: A Promise To Leap Tall Buildings In A Single Bound

Is this the best the Democrats can muster? (No, it isn't) Can anyone, for God's sake tell me why Hillary Clinton is the front runner when she says absurd things such as “Elect me and oil prices will instantly drop!” Surely she must be intelligent to know that the president doesn't control oil prices, but maybe she's hoping that her supporters aren't that savvy.
Oil prices are set by demand, so as long as Americans insist on driving gas sucking pigs of cars, the oil prices will stay high. Sure, there are things a president can do to ensure lower gas prices, such as, I don't know, not labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization(second story down), a step towards a war with Iran that will, that's right, drive up oil prices. (of course, Ron Paul is a kook for suggesting that America's foreign policy is why we are hated in the Middle east, Hell, the whole damned planet, but what does he know? He voted against the war in Iraq that Hillary voted for, which was the start of the rise in oil prices.
Of course, Hillary has her kool-aid drinking legions who think she would be a great president, or maybe they feel that a female president would be better than a male (which, if you look at it, is chauvinistic sexist drivel.) Sure, she could be a president, just not a very good one, if her past actions are any indication of what the future holds from her.

Another Holiday Tradition: Lew's Annual Christmas Rant

I really hate this time of year. With the incessant hawking of every damned invention on the planet as "the perfect Christmas gift" to the non-stop blaring of awful Christmas music from every imaginable source, Christmas has because a time of major annoyance than a time of peace.
The most truly irritating is of course, the advertisers, of whom I'm sure would advertise their product as a sure cure for the war on terrorism, if they thought they could get away with it. Blissfully unaware of the growing stagflation, they hawk new cars and expensive jewelery as the way to "show your wife how much you really love her". Enough to pay thirty-nine percent for five years on a useless trinket destined to sit in a box for most of the rest of her life (oh, right, it's an investment, something she can pawn off in five years when she runs off to Florida with the pool boy, leaving with nothing but the debt and an awful taste in you mouth).
Then of course, there is the Christmas music. Every fresh crop of pop singers ensures us another string of new Christmas CDs, designed to cash in on the singer's popularity before all their recorded output ends up in the cut-out bin at a bargain book store. So they sing the same songs that 16,000 other singers have sung, just as sincerely and emotionally overwrought, where it will end up being about as memorable as Barry Manilow's version of Jingle Bells. Apparently no one can do anything original, like write a new Christmas song, but even if they did, most people wouldn't like it, as they fear the unknown, and tend to stick to familiar territory.
I had someone ask me what I wanted for Christmas this year, and I thought long and hard. I don't really want anything, but I do need a cheese grater, so I suggested that, and was given the dirtiest look I've managed to arouse from someone since my days as a dirty hippie at a punk rock show.
The one thing I do enjoy about the season, however, is being able to give my children presents. I don't get an opportunity the rest of the year, but the end of the year is when I get my annual attendance bonus, where the company I work for reimburses me for the sick days I did not take. It's supposed to come two weeks before Christmas, giving me ample opportunity to shop (which I loathe) and stash the loot away before Christmas. Well, once again this year, as it did last year, the company I work for screwed up and did not give me my bonus as they are contractually obligated to, so I had no money to get my kids gifts, except for the gift card my ex-mother-in-law sent me, which I was grateful to receive, but with prices the way they are these days, didn't go too far.
So today, I was a little down, a little depressed, and angry that management, who fucked up their responsibility, didn't step up to the plate (one of the corporate cliches they are fond of using)and deliver my bonus to me in a timely manner. I felt like Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Then, a miracle happened. Cindy, a good customer of mine paid me a visit. She had told me that she had prayed the night before that she may be able to deliver a gift to someone who really needed it this year, and was directed by whomever to me and my two boys. My eyes began to tear up and my throat was choked close as I thanked her very much. Suddenly, the whole meaning of Christmas was shown to me, it's the joy of giving out of love, not from obligation, that is the real meaning of Christmas.

A Kinder, Gentler Machine Gun Hand

Hilary Clinton is trying to "warm up" her image, in which she is seen as cold and calculating.
Excuse me, but isn't that in and of itself a cold and calculating move?
Sen. Clinton has slipped somewhat in the polls, and with the primary season busting wide open next month, she must do something to counter that slippage.
Only the loyalist of Kool-Aid drinkers are unable to see her for what she really is, the next step in turning our country over to the corpocracy that began with her husband screwing over the working class in this country by giving away the keys to the farm with NAFTA. Sure, she may have suckered some into believing she may do something about the abysmal health care system in this country, but I surely hope you don't believe she'll actually do anything about it.
As someone from the John Edwards camp stated "In fairness, I think the only image make-over that would work would be Senator Clinton saying no to lobbyist money and finally embracing an agenda of real change".
Like that's gonna happen.
Remember the days, long before television, when a politician ran on their accomplishments, not on some focus-group-created image designed to sucker voters into voting against their own self-interest? Real accomplishments, not some exploit-a-national-tragedy-for political-gain situation (I'm looking at you, Ghouliani).
Unfortunately, some people want to keep you from hearing those people who want to effect real change, which in case you haven't noticed, is what we really need.

Neocons:Truthseekers, or Raving Paranoiacs?

By now you've all read how the NIE proves Iran suspended it's nuclear weapons program in 2003. Still that hasn't deterred the neocons who feel Iran is still a danger, in spite of the report. Even presidential hopeful Rudy Ghouliani hasn't stopped banging the war drums.
How bad do they want this war? Well, leading neocon "godfather" claims the intelligence community is trying to sabotage Bush with the NIE. John Bolton, the bastion of sanity, has called for a Congressional investigation in to anti-Bush people in the intelligence community.
Hey! I got an idea! How about instead of spending time and money trying to start a war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, we track down the one person we know had something to do with it. I mean, if Morgan Spurlock can find Osama Bin Laden, there's no reason the US government can't find him either. Unless they don't want to find him.

Neocons Overstate The Obvious

Neocon war hawk and former defense policy board member under Donald Rumsfeld Richard "Prince of Darkness" Perle admitted Wednesday that the invasion of Iraq was an illegal act under international law. He also said he had the worse comb over and was really bald. Perle, who had to step down from his position on the advisory board because of questionable business ties still thinks the war was the right thing to do, just against the law, that's all.
Law means nothing to the neocons, neither international, nor the rights of citizens anywhere on the planet, with the US declaring it has the right to kidnap British citizens wanted in the US, not only for "extraordinary rendition", but in other cases as well.
Another PNAC member, Paul Wolfowitz, has been
offered a top position at the State Department apparently unable to hold a real job in the private sector since having had to step down from his spot at the World Bank for giving his girlfriend a raise, and not the kind in his trousers. Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the war on Iraq (and we all know how well that turned out) will be advising Secretary of State Rice on matters concerning WMD (because he knows so much about where they aren't).
Isn't it refreshing to know that instead of seeking new ideas, the current administration is looking for the same old stale ones?

Don't Expect Real World Solutions From People Out Of Touch With Reality

The more things change, the more Bush's perspective stays the same. Bent askew.
In his radio address today, Bush proved that the simple minded can only focus their attention on one thing, filling the War party's coffers via defense contractors. How, you may ask? By insisting that funding the wars in Aghanistan and Iraq are our top priority.
What they are really doing is distratcting the people from the real problem (from CNN):

After years of living happily beyond their means, Americans are finally facing financial reality. A persistent rise in energy prices will mean bigger heating bills this winter and heftier tabs at the gas pump. Job growth is slowing and wage gains have been anemic. House prices are sliding, diminishing the value of the asset that's the biggest factor in Americans' personal wealth. Even the stock market, which has been resilient for so long in the face of eroding consumer sentiment, has begun pulling back amid signs of deep distress in the financial sector.

This set of priorities comes from the guy who thinks faith is the answer to the world AIDS crisis. That was Ronald Reagan's solution, and look how well that worked in stopping the spread of AIDS. Real world solutions don't appeal to Bush because he has never been in toch with the real world.
Don't expect the Democrats to stand up to Bush, they have yet to do so, and to think they will now is folly. They need to look tough on terrorism by continuing to fund the US spread of it by military force, lest they be pilloried by the corporate media for their failure to do so.