Conservatives Are Funny People, It's Just That You're Not In On The Joke

Oh, those poor misunderstood conservatives. It's not that they're not funny, it's just that nobody "gets" their sense of humor, with the exception, of course, of other conservatives.
Take the wonderfully open minded folks at the Free Republic. Please. When some comments there made comments about Malia Obama looking like a "street whore", it was a joke made out of fear that soon, their daughters, like President Obama's, will be forced to dress like a common street trollop instead of the high-class hookers they want them to dress like. And asking them to apologize for it would be liking David Letterman to apologize for any inappropriate jokes he may have made about Sarah Palin's daughter. Except people actually watch David Letterman. I don't know anybody who would admit to visiting the Free Republic, except to catch updates on the homosexualagenda.
Even funnier is Pat Buchanan, dear old Uncle Pat to some people, which is why I don't understand why no one got his joke about how Todd Palin "ought to take Levi down to the creek and hold his head underwater until the thrashing stops.” Such wit and wordplay going on there! Levi, is of course, Levi Johnston, father to Todd Palin's bastard grandchild, and he made the mistake of actually speaking his mind, which is not funny in conservative circles. And Buchanan, former speechwriter for President Nixon, was probably recalling the good-old-days when political opponents were taken down to the Tidal Basin and drowned on a regular basis.
But by far, the funniest conservative is pro-assassination analyst Wayne Simmons who stated that Dick Cheney would never break the law. Sure, he may commit treason, get drunk and shoot his hunting partner in the face, fabricate intelligence to lead the US into an illegal war, lie about connections between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, and run a top secret assassination squad out of his office, but he would never break the law.
So the next time you hear a conservative reel off a really tasteless statement, just remember, it's just a joke. And don't expect them to apologize for your obvious lack of a sense of humor.
(Cross posted at American Insurgency)

Why Do I Have To Pay For This?

A Review by the government of the warrantless wiretapping declares it of little value in the so-called 'war on terror', but it must have had some value for the Cheney regime. While it held no value in fighting "terrorism", it did help them gather dirt on political opponents. It also helped them plug leaks with regards to the governments involvement in 9/11.
It is perhaps the information gathered by the Cheney regime that keeps him from jail for concealing a secret "counterterrorism" program from congress, probably the executive assassination ring. But, instead of going to jail, what does Cheney get for his criminal actions? Six more months of secret service protection. Security authorities in Dallas, Texas decided to cut back on former President George W. Bush's protection amid increasing costs, and he was the fucking president. So once again, the Cheney regime has gotten a pass from the Obama administration. Makes me wonder what kind of information they have on Barack?

Two Wars We're Not Fighting

Does anybody remember the war on drugs? You know, the multi-billion dollar enterprise started during the Reagan administration to rid the world of the scourge of drug use. We passed tougher laws, suspended suspects rights, all in the name of protecting our children from the very evil and nefarious type who would push their dope upon them. Same with the war on terror. How's that working out?
Not too good. It seems that Hamid Karzai, US puppet "president" of Afghanistan pardoned five heroin traffickers, and his brother has been linked by the US military to Afghan drug lords. Meanwhile, prisons here in the US are filled with pot smokers, who might buy Grateful Dead recordings, tie dye perfectly good white tee shirts, and grow hideously unsanitary dread locks. Why are they locked away? Well, we're told that some of that drug money goes to fund terrorism.
And what exactly is terrorism? The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious. So when Newt Gingrich proposes US sabotage against Iran's oil and gas infrastructure, that qualifies as terrorism. Except that the money for this proposed act isn't filtered through pot smokers. No, this comes directly from the US taxpayer.
Imagine you're working at one of Iran's many gas and/or oil structures, not really liking your job, or your government for that matter, but hey, that's capitalism. Suddenly, through no fault of your own, your body and limbs are rendered from each other and you find that the promise of paradise wasn't for real. Americans got real pissed when Neda was shot on camera, this is the same thing, except, we're killing in the name of Jesus based capitalism, so that makes it OK.

A World Class Memorial In A Third World State

"We are asking fans of Michael Jackson to help contribute to a world-class memorial for a world-class superstar by helping contribute to keeping this place safe."-Matt Szabo, press secretary to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
So who should pay for the spectacle that was Michael Jackson's funeral? The state is broke, it certainly can't afford the extravagance. You can't ask the family to pay for it, they're too busy fighting over his financial legacy.And even though his estate is looking to reap profits from record breaking record sales, don't expect them to contribute anything to this "world class ( somehow, to me, Michael Jackson and class are opposite ends of a spectrum) memorial.
That leaves Jackson's fans, the enablers, the apologists, and the idiots who bought into that whole "King-of-Pop" bullshit and believed that Michael was something more than a gifted singer and dancer and believed he changed the world by making pop music videos, dressing in pseudo-militaristic garb, and mutilating his face beyond recognition.
It is said that Michael Jackson bridged a gap in our culture between black and white, and in the end, it was his wealthy celebrity friends who got to participate in this "world class memorial" with out contributing a dime. But by asking his relatively pauper fans to foot the bill, the state of California has crossed the line.

Hypocrisy As Official Policy

As I round the corner into my fifth year here (Five years? It seems like twenty)one of the things that has really grated my cheese has been hypocrisy. I know that everybody has a bit of it in themselves, it's only human. But when it becomes official policy, that's a different story.
Glenn Greenwald has a piece about how that bastion of all things media, the official paper of record won't use the term torture when describing US 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. However, in an article about Iran's use of torture to extract confessions about those attempting to topple that brutal theocracy under a 'velvet revolution', what term do they use for techniques milder than what we ourselves (well, not really us, just the people who have forgotten who they work for, our government)? Torture! And politicians and publishers wonder why newspaper circulation is dwindling. Maybe it's because the NYT has hypocrisy as an official editorial policy that has caused people to throw their collective hands in the air and say "They expect me to pay for this shit?"
One of the many changes not brought forth by the people who promised you lotta change is the official government policy of hypocrisy. Joe Biden, today on one of them Sunday mornin', nobody watchin' did-he-really-say-that talk shows:

the U.S. "cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do."

What he meant was that although the US can tell Iran to abandon it's nuclear power program, it cannot tell Israel not to attack Iran because of Israel's paranoia about Iran's alleged atomic weapons program. And, I'm fairly sure, that after Israel attacks Iran, the Us will probably tell Russia and China, who trade regularly with Iran, not to retaliate against Iran.

The Campaign Begins Today

...we can ALL learn from our selfless Troops... they're bold, they don't give up....-Sarah Palin (from the SarahPAC website)
This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, AND oil and gas. It's energy! God gave us energy.
Much speculation has been raised about yesterday's sudden announcement by Sarah Palin that she is stepping down from her job as governor of the State of Alaska with a year and a half yet to go on her term of office. Some say there's a scandal looming, others offer more spurious explanations.
it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out.
But between the lines of her SarahPAC post, she indicates that, although she is quitting, she is not a quitter.
I'll work for and campaign(emphasis mine) for those PROUD to be American, and those who are INSPIRED by our ideals and won't deride them.
Yes, the Palin campaign for the Republican party's nomination has begun in earnest! No more being stuck way up there in Alaska, far from the national forum on issues and stuff, not having to answer to voters will allow Sarah to be Sarah. And, I know what you're thinking: won't quitting her job when the going gets tough make her look, well, like a quitter? That depends on who she's trying to woo.
The world needs more "Trigs", not fewer.
Yes, she is out to appeal to the retards, the Tea Baggers, and those people who believe that shooting moose and abortionists is not only a God given right, but a patriotic move as well.
I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks... travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade... So you see, rather than spend the remainder of her term as governor traveling around and campaigning for the presidency, she's going to quit her post so she can commit to it full time without feeling the guilt of "milking it". And this bold move has been successful so far, like Nirvana, she has succeeded in knocking out Michael Jackson.

Double Standard Time

How long is too long? German doctors today cleared suspected Nazi death camp guard fit to stand trial as an accessory in the murder of 29,000 Jews. John Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker was extradited from his Seven Hills, Ohio home in May of this year to stand trial even though he has bone marrow and kidney diseases.
The great irony here is, if Demjanjuk is guilty of the crimes he is accused of,while he certainly should be punished for them, they happened over sixty years ago. At the same time Obama was sending this 89 year old to trial, he was announcing his intentions not to prosecute anybody for the torture carried out by the Bush/Cheney regime, because, as he said, it was time to move forward.
So we're straight: Demjanjuk, a prison guard who merely followed the policies of the Nazi regime (if, indeed, he is guilty) and did not create the policies, gets prosecuted, even though these events happened in the past?
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, etc., don't get prosecuted for their crimes, even though they are the ones who created the policy that led to illegal acts being carried out, because, even though they happened within the past eight years, it's time to look forward?
So when it comes to war crimes, it's better to create the policy than to carry them out? Would Obama have given Hitler a pass as well?

News Flash:John Bolton Is A Tool

I don't watch much television news. These days it deems reporting every bit of minutia concerning the death of Michael Jackson more important than a US Congress women taken hostage by a foreign nation.
Newspapers are struggling these days, and why not? They are as about as useful as a Republican politician lecturing to us about morals.How trustworthy can a paper that offers access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors for a token fee of $25,000?
Even worse is when the very same paper publishes an opinion piece by neocon tool John Bolton advocating an Israeli strike against Iran. The reasons are both spurious and complete fabrications, starting with Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons program, and continuing on with the disputed election results from last month's elections. Never mind that such an action would be illegal under international law, Bolton (and Israel) have no use for international law, except when it serves their purpose.
As for that whole "democracy" thing, when Hamas won the majority of seats in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council, the US, (as part of the Quartet on the Middle East) voted to cut funding to the PLC. There you go, that's what you fucking get for exercising freedom of choice.
So if the newspapers are struggling, maybe they should focus less on Michael Jackson (that's why we have supermarket tabloids) and focus less on propaganda for that next big war. However, online newspapers do provide good links for bloggers, and I will continue to link to them even if some crazy judge thinks the practice should be banned to save newspapers.

Chances Are That If You Are Reading This, You're a Political Extremist Dickweed

Or maybe it's just me. Maybe you're the political extremist, and I'm the digital dickweed.
Whatever we're doing, we're pissing off the corporate media because we lack the legitimacy of capital earned by fellating corporate sponsors and favored political hacks.
Now just to be sure, the CEO of News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, home to the likes of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly, call us political extremists? I guess a political extremist is anyone to the left of Adolph Hitler. But it doesn't end there. No, John Hartigan suggests that bloggers be jailed as they are in oppressive police states like China and Burma. Because freedom of the press should only be available to those whom would use it to try and shape the agenda for an illegal war (while still maintaining that whole "fair and balanced" facade).
Less serious is the charge from CNBC host Dennis Kneale, who responded to bloggers who have called him "unwatchable", among other things, by referring to them as "dickweeds". Hey, I may be a dick weed, but at least I still have my soul.
Which is more than I can say about anybody working for the corporate media.

Mental Fundy Christiansanity-The Missing Link

Many people are jumping ship on the conservative movement within the Republican party, and I can understand why. The mental fundies are making it confusingly difficult to stay on message as they bat at straw men and scapegoat everything that doesn't fit in their strict and narrow nomenclature.
Take our current economic woes. A sane and intelligent person could say they were caused by the loss of our manufacturing base coupled with dubious banking procedures by an unregulated industry. But in the mental fundies eyes, there are three completely different reasons for the current economic crisis: Gays, Porn, and Abortion. Their God is upset with America, you see, and they feel it necessary to pass an "Oklahoma Citizen’s Proclamation for Morality" in order to curry His favor and get America rolling again.
Then there's the other school of non-thought put forth by the owners of the "Creation Museum" which states that all our troubles were caused by a "moral relativism" that came about when America embraced evolution. Never mind that America's greatest period of growth and equitable prosperity came at a time when evolution was taught as scientific fact, and since some Americans rejected that theory, our country has entered a period of decline-these people say it's true because their big book of fairy tales says so, therefore, it must be or their whole lives have been built upon a lie. But why stop there? Why not just say that our country really went down the tubes when we rejected God's mode of transportation, and replaced it with the Horseless Carriage? The only certainty in all this is that our real problems will never go away as long as we have people who elect representatives like this.

Fighting Fire With Fire Means That Everyone Gets Burned:America's Terrorist Tactics Against Iran Exposed

"They hate us because we are free....and they are not"-George W Bush
Leave it to a simpleton to provide a simple answer. The reasons that America is so reviled in the Middle East are myriad, and it all boils down to this-we won't leave their countries the fuck alone! We install puppets on almost a whim, and then, by the same whim, decide to topple them when they show dissatisfaction with being asked to perform like little monkeys time and time again. We put America's corporate interests over the interests of indigenous people, our allies' people, and even our own sainted troops. All must suffer so that rich men may become richer.
And now, we're screwing around in Iran, and have been since the Bush administration. Using proven tactics, we have been working to destabilize the current regime since, probably since 9/11, when Bush identified Iran as part of his "Axis of Evil". And the faithful corporate media has been playing right along.
-The paper of record went on record reporting a misinterpretation as a fact when in truth completely different statement.
-The creation of a martyr conveniently killed on camera by terrorists working with the CIA.
-The arrest of nine Iranian British embassy employees by Iran accused of instigating the unrest following the disputed elections. This is reminiscent of the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis, in which American embassy workers, including at least three CIA operatives, were taken hostage following the US's decision to allow the Shah into the country to seek medical treatment. Ironically, one of the agreements reached during Carter administration negotiations was that it is and from now on will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran's internal affairs." I guess that little tidbit escaped the Bush administration, or, more likely, was ignored because it was a pledge made by the highly unpopular Carter administration. The hostage crisis was seen as leading to anti-Iranian feelings in the US that have remained (especially in conservative circles).
-The continued, and quite unproven claim that Iran's nuclear energy program is a front for a nuclear weapons program.
It is highly likely that a lot of the covert activity that we are seeing in Iran was started by the previous administration. However given recent events, it is likely that the Obama administration will do anything to reverse these policies. And it is just as unlikely that we will see any honesty from the corporate media with regards to Iran.

Michael Jackson: What Will Happen

With the passing of Michael Jackson yesterday, there has been an effort by his celebrity friends to beatify him, which is fitting, since like some men of the cloth, he couldn't keep his hands off children. With all the glowing tributes around the world, plus his own addiction to plastic surgery, it's hard for some people to forget that he was merely a gifted an talented human being. And, for what it's worth, one hundred years from now, all that will be left of his legacy is the most important part: his music.
What struck me following the news of his death was not the immediate response, nor are the rumors of his prescription drug use as a probable cause, since he was his generation's equivalent of Elvis. What I read yesterday was the story of his people following him into the hospital pleading for the doctors to save him.
Not to be crass, but a megacelebrity ( or do I mean ubercelebrity?)like Jackson employed an army of helpers, I'm sure. From the personal trainer, a nanny or two for the photo op prop tots, nutritionists, housekeepers, personal security, drivers, you're talking about a lot of people who relied on Jackson for their daily bread. So what is likely to happen once all the glowing tributes have faded, and the twenty-four hour news cycle pounds the story into the ground, is one or two of those former employees, non-disclosure forms be damned, will be a spate of tell-all books, leaked to supermarket tabloids, lurid details of just how fucked up a drug addled celebrity with more money than guidance can get when surrounded by sycophants who won't tell him no. And, barring a suit by the Jackson estate, people will pour through them, cluck their tongues and feel, better them selves because they know that if they had that much money and talent, they wouldn't have squandered it like Jackson. And then, it twenty years or so, all that will be left is his music. Which is as it should be.

Bull's Eye On Bull Shit

John McCain cites the death of Neda as a criticism of the Obama administration's handling of the situation in Iran. This is, of course, from the guy famous for singing "Bomb Iran" to an old Regents song, which, if we had done that, would have likely killed a lot more Neda's than the one allegedly shot by government forces during protests this past weekend.
What you won't hear a thing about from Flak Jacket Johnny is how US forces killed two protesters in Iraq.(They were demanding back wages that likely ended up in Dick Cheney's bank account.) In fact, the US has been killing protesters in Iraq and John McCain has stood silent, even supporting the war.
No, McCain doesn't mind US soldiers killing protesters in Iraq because it's all in the name of spreading democracy, or, the US equivalent. Killing protesters in Iran is one less person who gets to die at the barrel of an M-16 (or under the fallout of a depleted uranium bunker buster bomb) therefore they are not collateral damage to the cause of a neocon wetdream: worldwide capitalist corpocracy masquerading as democracy.

The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave

Some people insist insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different result. Another popular train of thought is those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
I'm not sure which category this falls under, but some sources are now saying that the US may want to install the Shah's son as monarch in Iran. Which makes all the quibbling about "democracy" all the more cynical, especially since none of these people American citizens to control the streets of Washington DC following the Bush election fraud debacle of 2000. And crown prince has been generating a lot of publicity lately.
With the housing market worsening and welfare rolls increasing, the Obama administration is probably glad to have this distraction from the failures of it's economic stealfromus. It won't tkae too many more gruesome videos to sway the television watchers into supporting another war which only benefits a small portion of Americans, in another oil rich Middle eastern country that has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with continuing an insane foreign policy that we were promised was going to change.

Lessons Learned From My Dad

(Image poached from here)
Around here, every weekend is Father's Day. I don't get ties, or coffee mugs, license plates, tee shirts or other bric-a-brac emblazoned with "WORLD'S GREATEST DAD" on them, no do I desire or require them. My kids tell me I'm the best dad with out prompting, and I'd just as soon that be kept as our little secret. No, I don't get a lot of material things from my guys, and that's okay, because I get a lot more from them-happiness. Spending time with my kids gets better and better as they get older because we spent so much time together when they were younger.
I learned a lot about life from my own Dad. My demand for absolute truth & honesty stems from his insistence on it, not only from me, but from his politicians, and media representatives. A lot of my more tin foil hatted predilections stem from his indulgences in all things conspiratorial. He feared everything, from feminism to the Beatles, were all part of a commie plot to undermine the youth of America. But besides the positive lessons, even some of the more negative things influenced me as well, in a good way.
As an instance, my Dad was prone to spanking, not just slight taps on my fanny but more along the lines of oh-my-god-he's-taking-off-his-belt-get-the-fuck-out-of-here type of spanking. These stopped shortly before my mother died, and were infrequent enough, but from it I learned not to spank my children. Reason works well, and if introduced at an early enough age, sticks a whole lot better than beatings.
Growing up, when choosing a career path, it seemed no matter choice I made, instead of encouragement, I was always told "Yeah, but that's a hard field to break into". He often encouraged me to "join the service", although, years later, he expressed relief that I never did, as I would have never turned out the way I have if I had taken that advice. So from that, I have learned to encourage my children to be the best at what they choose. And I think I have been rewarded with two wonderfully talented children.
My Father was also staunchly reactionary. If we were to discuss politics, you had better have something to back up any argument you may feel compelled to present. So from that, I learned it is better to be right than it is to follow a political leaning.
My dad grew up as an only child raised by alcoholic parents, and could never understand why all his children couldn't get along. He wasn't aware of sibling abuse, so many times I felt near torture at the hands of an older brother who almost seemed to delight in kicking my ass because he decided I needed it. From that I learned to be fair with my own children, to protect the weaker one from the whims of the stronger one.
My dad is no longer with us, and I miss him a lot, especially thinking how he would be prouder of my kids than I am of them myself. But a lot of the good that was in him now lives on in me, and will be carried on by my children as well. And for that Dad, thank you.

Not That Anybody's Trying To Pull A Fast One

Way to go, BBC. At least when you get caught manipulating popular opinion you do offer up a mea culpa.


It not be what the internets were invented for, but it has become it's most practical and important use (next to the proliferation of pornography, of course):catching the powers that be in a blatant lie designed to sway public opinion towards the will of the corpocracy. That these people have been pushing for a war against Iran for a long time goes with out saying. And if they can't get people all concerned about Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons program, perhaps the antiquated notion of "defending democracy" can rouse the masses, or at least those who still think that we're a democracy.

We Stole The Election And Would Have Gotten Away With It-If It Weren't For Those Meddling Americans

So Iran is accusing the US of meddling in it's election crisis. I can't say for sure, but, yeah, that sounds about right. We've been meddling in Iran for years now, and we probably will in the future. Every time, it's always come back to bite us on the ass, but, hey, if we haven't learned by now, we never will. The US is like the annoying big brother who keeps picking on the weaker and smaller countries, denying it when it gets caught, in spite of incontrovertible evidence.
I think before we start meddling in other countries, we need to fix a lot of the problems we have here. Our health care system is not exactly the best in the world, our education system is crumbling, our political system is corrupt, our economy teetering on the brink of collapse, the only thing we're getting better at is becoming more of a police state, which means we're not as free as we think.
America is devolving into a genetic cesspool full of slack jawed, Nascar loving, beer swilling television watchers who can only spell USA from sheer repetition. We think we're better than everyone else because we're too stupid to pay attention. Television shows us bright shiny objects and we want to go to there.
So load the computer generated graphics, cue the stirringly patriotic theme music, it's time for payback-and this time, it's in dollars.

A Tale Of Two Riots

Following the results of alleged election fraud, riots broke out in Iran. Stupid Iranians. It's just an election, not like it's anything important. I mean, when vote fraud was discovered in the US presidential election, Florida in 2000, and Ohio in 2004, Americans didn't take to the street. Of course, many of them didn't even hear about the fraud until way after the election, but that's beside the point. Americans don't really take to the streets unless it's for something really important and life affecting.
Like a basketball championship. Elections are only every four years, but the NBA playoffs, they hold those every year. And winning those is really important because it determines bragging rights for a bunch of beer swilling television watchers until next year. So it's no surprise that Lakers fans rioted after their team won the NBA championship. Now those official Laker jerseys mean something, at least for another year, and really what's more important anyway?

By His Own Rules Means He Doesn't Follow The Law

In a new book on Donald Rumsfeld, the author claims that George Bush deceived him into thinking that his job as Secretary of Defense was safe, then dumped him after the 2006 midterm elections. Which only goes to show that these snakes can't even trust their own kind to be honest.
The book, entitled By His Own Rules:The Story of Donald Rumsfeld, an aptly named tome for a book about a man who flouted laws, ethics and decency to make himself richer and more powerful, is by a former Washington Post reporter who covered the Pentagon. It's intentions, I'm sure, are to garner sympathy for Poor Old Rumsfeld, whom the book portrays as ..."an honorable man, deeply patriotic, a good friend to many and unfailingly loyal to those he has served"... Honorable? Yeah right. This is a man who called in political markers to fast track FDA approval of the killer known as aspartame, a dangerous artificial sweetener whose numerous symptoms include death. Not to mention the fact that he pushed for the illegal invasion of Iraq, which has cost many Iraqis their lives and US taxpayers over half a trillion dollars. There's your honor, if you can find it.
It's not a shock that this book comes from a member of the corporate media elite. Their job is not to report on events, but rather, to mythologize and cover up for the cabal of corporate criminal elites and banksters that actually run the country. I've become convinced (and become more convinced everyday) that very few of the nations wealthiest people came about their wealth honestly, fairly or ethically, and they hire scribes like Bradley Graham to paint a more flattering picture of themselves so that the masses don't see what kind of monsters we really have running the show.

Don't Cut Into My Racket

"To include these other groups diminishes their memory.......These people are not in the same category as Jewish people..."-Assemblyman Dov Hikind
Is he referring to the Armenian Genocide? No, he's discussing the inclusion of Gays, Gypsies and Jehovah's Witnesses in a Brooklyn Holocaust Memorial. (Why Brooklyn needs a Holocaust Memorial isn't even being discussed). Sure, the Holocaust(TM) was horrible for millions of European Jews, but, like 9/11, the Holocaust has been very good for Israel.
It has allowed them to invade Syria and seize the Golan Heights. It has been the reason for numerous military incursions into Lebanon by the IDF. It has even been used as a justification for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as threats against Iran by the Israeli government.
And as for the fears that inclusion of other groups sought out for persecution by the Hitler regime might lead to people forgetting about the horrible suffering inflicted upon the Jews, that ain't gonna happen. Television shows, movies and books appear every couple of months to retell the story of the Holocaust, even if some of those stories turn out to be complete hoaxes.
All over the planet, at any given time, one group of people is trying to eradicate another. Iraq, Darfur, Cambodia, Gaza, Armenia, the list goes on, and now, Assemblyman Hilkind, you are being just as bad by trying to eradicate others who suffered alongside your people from the list of victims of the terrible Nazi death machine.

Even Though You're A Minority, You Should Still Be Able To Force Your Delusions On Everybody Else

Does America really need a lesson in spirituality from Newt Gingrinch? A guy who changes religions almost as much as he changes spouses? In his bid for the 2012 nomination of the GOP, Newt states that "Americans" are surrounded by Paganism. Uh, wouldn't that mean that Christians are outnumbered by Pagans? If they were, you can bet dollars to Gingrinch wives that he'd be pandering to them. I mean, if Newt were an Ancient Roman, you can be sure he'd be first in line to nail Jesus to the cross.
The truth is that Newt is a free market capitalist who worships the Almighty Dollar. His political pandering to the paranoid base plays right into their persecution complex. The cynical sermonizing he serves to psychotic sky worshippers is just there to sell the schedule for his selection as the supplicant office seeker. And they suck it up like a swarm of mosquitoes on a summer night. Why? Because, as George Carlin once said, if you can get people to believe in an invisible guy in the sky, you can get them to believe anything, whether it's a band of swarthy Middle Eastern Mohammedans moving microorganisms through Mexican tunnels to the majority of monotheists being maltreated by a minority of heathens.
All this overly alarmist admitted adulterer is accomplishing is winning the wing nut wack jobs still clinging to the side of the capsized Republican party. This is not inclusion, it is exclusion, which is a good thing, because as lame as the Democrats seem to be, there's nothing lamer than converting to Catholicism to capture votes.

It Took A Judge To Decide This

Some people will swallow anything. Like the Rockman said, "You see what you want to see, and you hear what you want to hear. You dig?"
Taking self delusion to an extreme, a consumer in California had somehow come to believe that a sugar coated breakfast cereal aimed at young children was actually nutritious because it offered something known as "crunchberries", and that said "crunchberries" were in fact a real fruit found in nature. Shocked to find out that, no, those said berries were never real fruit, just artificially fruit flavored pieces of gluten and corn meal, she decided to sue the makers of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries. Next they'll tell us Jean LaFoote was not only not a real pirate, but was an animated character voiced by an actor who was known to wear shoes. Or that Smedley the elephant died from hardened arteries due to downing too much Peanut Butter Crunch.
Sorry, but Crunch Berries contain as much fruit (and sugar) as those plastic gallon jugs of orange drink on the bottom of shopping carts of single moms at Save-A-Lot on the first Tuesday of the month. That someone decided to sue the makers of Cap'n Crunch shows that this person,is either stupid, stoned, gullible, looking to make a quick buck from a nuisance lawsuit, or any combination thereof.
Sanity stepped in when a judge threw the lawsuit out, but now we know for sure: "crunchberries" are not real fruit. And, I assume, soon there will be a disclaimer on every box reminding us of it.

Occasionally, Our Leaders Will Let The Truth Slip Out

Giving credence to the aphorism that even a broken clock is right twice a day, the Obama administration has admitted that Iran has a right to nuclear power. And as signees to the Non Proliferation Treaty, Iran has allowed inspections of their enrichment facilities, which has yet to yield any evidence that Iran is doing anything but building a nuclear generator. As fellow signors to the same treaty, the US has no right to stop them from building the plant, which Iran is doing with help from Russia. And therein is the problem.
With the US manufacturing sector contracting for the 16th straight month while bankruptcies are up 37%, one of the things we could have done during the Bush years was offer our services to Iran in assisting their nuclear program. But instead, the administration fed us all a line of crap like this and this, which now they admit was just a load of crap. So instead of exporting our know-how to a people with money and oil, we decided to waste money, resources, and more importantly, human lives, to fulfill a neocon wetdream of a permanent American empire. They gambled away our future but we all lost while they all won.
At least now, on his impending trip to Egypt, Obama has the sense to say no stern lecture would be forthcoming on human rights abuses. Just one more moral high ground we gave up to appease a vision through blood splattered glasses.

Tearing Down The Curtain On The Corpocratic Selection Process

Anybody who is an avid reader of this here blog (both of you), or knows me knows how I feel about American Idol. To me, it takes the Nascar/football/sports ethos and applies it to the arts, music, where it doesn't belong. I like a variety of different singers, and am mature enough to know that you can't compare Louis Armstrong to Harry Nilsson, both great singers, but very disparate in musical stylings, anymore than you can compare Pablo Picasso to Andy Warhol.
All that aside, I was somewhat dismayed to find out that this years winner won because of vote fraud. It seems that an Idol sponsor,AT&T, admitted providing free mobile phones and texting services to fans of Allen, a singer, guitar player and pianist, at parties organized in his home town of Jacksonville, Arkansas. And why would a corporation favor one contestant over another?
Does AT7T disapprove of Adam Lambert's lifestyle choices? In these days, are there any people out there left who are still shocked to find out there are gay people in the entertainment industry? That would be akin to being dismayed to find out the Republican Party is full of rich white men. What do they say to the two people I know who watch the show and wanted Lambert to win (one admittedly staying on the phone for two hours to cast her vote) only to find out that this election was as rigged as Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004?
In the end, it's just a television show, and although their commercials tell us that casting a ballot for your favorite contestant is the "single most important vote you can cast", in the end, if it's the choices they want you to make, it's really not much of a choice at all.

Dick Cheney Vs. History

The term "history" is tossed around too much these days for my liking. Jay Leno's last show as touted on NBC as "going down in history". Last night's local news story on an American Idol contestant mentioned Season 8 as having "gone down in the history books". But does any one really think that at anytime in the future, they'll really be looking back at the viewing habits of one nation that may or may not be around one hundred years from now, let alone be reading books?
But is history the real reason Dick Cheney is afraid of prosecution for his war crimes? A lengthy trial, legal motions and appeals processes assure that Dick Cheney will more than likely be dead before he ever sees the inside of a prison. And after the evidence that torture memos don't show what Cheney claimed will be all the torture photos showing the horrific abuse of detainees authorized by Cheney himself.
Long after the fall of the Nazi regime and successes like the Volkswagen, the Autobahn in Germany what remains for history are all the atrocities, the death camps, gas chambers, soap made from humans, and lamp shades made from human skin. All of which make Adolph Hitler the most despised person in history. Right now, Dick Cheney stands as the most despicable person alive. Any trial that may expose his truly heinous crimes may in fact over time, lead to Dick Cheney knocking Hitler down to the second position.

Please Lock Me Away

Every day, billions of people talk to an invisible guy in the sky, asking him to special favors for them, and this is considered to be normal behavior. Even though no one has ever seen this guy, people take it on faith that he exists because they want to believe it and no amount of logical persuasion can sway them otherwise. And this is considered normal. Acceptable. Sane.
While this aberrant behavior is considered to be regular, there are psychologists who think that people who question the official government conspiracy theory about 9/11 are mentally ill. It's not as if the Bush administration ever lied about anything. And everybody knows that politicians are revered the world over for their honesty. Surely one would have to be crazy to think that the government would send thousands of people to their deaths for no reason.
The official 9/11 commission report is like a scab on a large wound. You can pick at it for a while, but eventually, you open that wound up again, at a time when some people would like to move on and forget the sinister dealings of the Cheney regime. You know, the regime that thought it perfectly alright to sodomize children, torture people to create a fictional link between Saddam and 9/11, and treason is justifiable when it covers your ass. That there were those at the end of the Cheney/Bush regime who still supported that evil cabal should direct people to the truly mentally ill.
I believe we are being lied to about 9/11. Thgere are too many questions left unanswered for me. If you wish to read more, try here for starters. And if it makes me mentally ill for still having the ability to question why a steel framed building that was not struck by a plane still managed to collapse like a controlled demolition, then lock me away, or at least adjudicate me mentally defective and give me a big government monthly stipend for the remainder of my days.

Change Means Changing Your Position After You've Been Elected On An Agenda Different From The Corpocratic One

AS you spend this Memorial Day celebrating your freedom by searing the flesh of a dead animal that was manufactured by a corporation to eventually end up on an assemblage of amassed dung, you, like that animal you consume have no choice. Hundreds of thousands of your fellow Americans have died, not for your freedom, but for the freedom of our leaders to decide whether you shall remain free, or end up in indefinite detention. Yes. like The Deciderer before him, President Obama has, perhaps more eloquently, claimed special rights for him not afforded him by the constitution.
How much different is President Obama from his predecessor when he sets up a timetable with Iran for talks before sanctions are applied when Iran has yet to be found to be developing nuclear weapons?
How fee are we really when the FBI can indentify a disparate group of men that share the majority of the country’s opinion that the war on terror was wrong, radicalize them, offer them cash incentives for following the lead of the FBI informant and then finally, after a year, get them to accept fake weapons?
No, until you realize that the only freedom you really have is the choice between blindly following these assclowns, or pretending they are as irrelevant as they would be in any given free society, you will be a slave to their political whims.

I Don't Remember

As many Americans prepare to spend their Memorial Day weekend doing things to honor those fallen soldiers fighting to protecting corporate America's business interests (coincidentally, are exactly the same as America's interests, which is why there are so many box store Memorial Day sales)such as shopping, watching sporting events on television, eating and getting sloppy drunk at family barbecues, I struggle to remember, what was the final reason we're in the quagmire in the first place.
Was it because of the 4000 Sony PlayStation 2 units Iraq purchased in 2000? You know, those toys contain a CPU that can used for military applications, which is a good thing they're made in China, because we'll never have any military confrontation with them any time in the foreseeable future.
I do remember that most of the justifications given by the previous administration were in fact lies cooked up by US intelligence sources to sway a nation of television watchers into supporting a war sold to them by corporate media propaganda. And I think we all remember those lies having heard them so many times we can recount them in our sleep.
And I do remember the reasons those who opposed the war gave for our invasion of Iraq: oil, oil, oil, oil, Israel, and oil. The reasons given, by both pro and anti-war types were nearly innumerable, even using a dollar vs. euro scenario as a pretext.
And since there is no one concrete real justifiable reason that we should have invaded, can any person give me one good reason why we are staying there?

Evil Never Goes Away, It Just Assumes A New Shape

Back in March when Sy Hersh broke the news aboutDick Cheney's executive assassination ring, I suggested in the comments section at another blog that perhaps one of the victims of said squad might have been Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Always the one to tell you "I told you so", I told you so! It seems Ms. Bhutto spilled the beans about Osama Bin Laden being dead before the appropriate political mileage could be garnered from it by Mr. Cheney. Not that the compliant corporate media would spoil the party their defense contractor owners/sponsors were having with all the billions they were making from the war in Afghanistan.
Speaking of making billions from scare mongering and ghost fighting, the PNAC is back, albeit, with a new name and some new faces to replace the ones that already have cashed in from the last "New Pearl Harbor". I wonder if their cause to "protect democracies from terrorism" extends to the Palestinians?

Held Up Without A Gun

You see them all over. On television, radio, billboards, even right here at this blog, ads offering you cash for your gold. And many people are willing to do this, selling many pieces of scrap or old jewelry for dollars, but I wonder, is this because they need the money? Do they not realize that their gold will retain it's value while those dollar values are falling?
The American people are being robbed, but are so unaware of it, they don't realize it. Many of them refinanced their homes when the housing bubble was still going, but housing prices have fallen 17%, which means that if you did a refinance, you just had 17% of your homes value stolen right out of it while you were sitting on your ass watching TV. Remember Bush's "ownership society"? The plan was to tie every American down to a mortgage while those same mortgages were bundled up with bad mortgages, used for leverage by banksters to steal more money from the system in bonuses and other payout schemes.
So now, with the approaching inevitable inflation, instead of holding on to something of value, Americans are willing to accept scrap gold prices instead of market prices for the gold they possess. But why? So they can fill up their gas tanks? Take a vacation? Pay off bills? Are they just victims of economic conditions created by the corpocracy who are going to squeeze every last dime out of the citizenry before they pack up the show and take it on the road to China?

The Continuing trend of No Change

The change that was to be the Obama administration gets further and further away when facing the realities of the political climate of the corpocracy. And so now, with word coming out that Obama is reversing his position on releasing detainee photos, they've become almost as inconsistent as the previous administration. Well, I mean, the previous administration did suck in a consistent fashion but other than that....
What we never will see are the videotapes out Abu Ghraib showing children being sodomized in front of their mothers, some perv at the Pentagon has that tape and probably needs it to discharge purity of essence. What did we get from all the abuse we heaped on Muslims? According to one ex-FBI agent, not a fucking thing.
The abuses that occurred under America's auspices need to be dealt with in a punitive matter. Laws were broken, treaties (among other things) were violated, and until we locate and punish those who authorized it, this will never go away. Sweeping it under a rug will just allow this to fester, and if the Democrats are just as responsible for letting this go on, then we need to dispose of them as well.
The United States is a nation of laws. We can not throw a man in prison for twenty five years for possessing marijuana because he is poor and black then turn our eyes to real and heinous crimes such as have been perpetrated by our own government in our name because the guys who did it are rich white and powerful. Equal justice under the law is a constitutional right under the law, and if we don't punish those who ordered the law breaking, then we might as well open up our prisons and let every other criminal out as well.

Where's Osama?

Republicans are funny people. During the Bush administration, they didn't have a problem spending money to fight the eternal boogeyman, Osama bin Laden. They didn't flinch as billions of dollars were laundered through the war in Iraq into the pockets of Halliburton, Blackwater, and other defense contractors. They never took to the streets in protest even after it was proven that the war in Iraq was based on lies. Why?
Al Qaeda never existed. It was a complete fabrication of the CIA, used to justify a war that the politicians those Republicans at tea parties voted into office wanted for the sole purpose of looting the country. And al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden? He's been dead for some time now (Although it hasn't prevented him from releasing audiotapes when he's conveniently needed to scare the Americans)
Now we have the president of Pakistan admitting Bin Laden is dead, and what does the US government say? You know, the change people? Nobody knows Osama'a status. Do they intend on keeping him his memory around, just in case they need to invade Pakistan?
So please, Mr. President, don't start using old Bush administration tactics. Osama is dead, and most people these days are too concerned about making it through the economic crisis to worry about some dead guy anymore. Osama is as dead as Pontiac these days, so don't try to tell us otherwise.

One Person's Hate Crime Is Another's Belief System

Christopher Columbus discovered America. We all know that. We know it because we were taught that in school. Our parents were taught it, and their parents, and most likely, our children are being taught that as well, so it must be right, right?
Wrong.
Long before Columbus, before Leif Erickson and the Vikings, there were people living here, indigenous people who had built great civilizations, such as the Mayans, and yet, in our Euro-centric education system, those people are not credited with their discovery.
Suppose you began to question this idea. You set up a Facebook page dedicated to questioning the truth, but some people urge the owners of Facebook to remove your group from it's site. What's the big deal? It's not like you put up a page dedicated to killing all native Americans or anything. And yet, although you are not harming anyone with your belief system, you are guilty of a "thought crime" because your ideas, as ludicrous as they may be to some, and repellent to others, they are mere thoughts, that, right or wrong, sane or bull goose fucking looney, are your thoughts.
Once they can make one idea, an intangible thought a crime, then they can start adding more. Lots of people believe things that are wrong in my opinion, Christianity, Elvis is alive, the moon landings were faked, or that American Idol is the best show in the history of television. Yet, No one Demands these thoughts become hate crimes. I certainly don't. In this crazy mixed up world, people certainly have the right to believe what they will, because, they're really not hurting anyone but their own credibility.
Columbus never set out to discover America, he was merely seeking a new trade route to India by proving the world is round. He was half successful. But even with revisionist history, people will believe what they want to, in the face of undeniable facts. There are still people who believe the world is flat after all.

Sure, Queer Is In The Dictionary, But So Is Dickhead

,,as well as shitheel, dipshit, and hypocrite. You see, Sam Wurzelbacher, known by the name "Joe The Plumber", even though he hasn't plumbed an inch of (galvanized) pipe since he became the darling a spokesperson for the Religiously Retarded wing of the Republican party, feels it's perfectly okay to call gays 'queer' because the word is in the dictionary.

Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur.

Strange is Sam calling himself Joe, praising Sarah Palin and casting aspersions on other Republicans for not being as Christian as Sam/Joe Wurzelplumber is, or passing judgment on gays. Like all good bigots, he uses the old 'some-of-my-best-friends-are' excuse, then flatly states that "I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children". Because, you know, gay is a disease that is transmitted from the older gays to younger children all the time. That's why they shouldn't be teachers, either.
Well, Joe, I wouldn't want you anywhere near my children. You profess to follow a God of love, and yet you hate just about everybody who isn't white, Christian, Republican and heterosexual. Wait a minute; Joe's quitting the GOP.
Joe says he might consider running for office someday (obviously not as a Republican) but says "God hasn't said, 'Joe, I want you to run.'" Haven't you been listening Joe? Your book has tanked, you're a laughingstock to most of the country, and I'm sure your old boss has replaced your position within his company. God hasn't told you to run, he's told you to just go away.

Test Driving Digital Broadcast Television

Back in February of this year, i was under going an anxiety attack. You see, the 17th was rapidly approaching, and I had not yet purchased a digital television converter box. You see, I don't have cable, and while I watch very little television, there are those shows I like to watch, and with out a TV signal, well, I'd be forced to watching old videotapes and the same twelve DVDs I've had for years.
Just as time was running out, my ex-wife provided me with a coupon that allowed me to purchase a new converter box for a mere fraction of the cost. I hooked up my antenna, tested the system and.... they pushed the switch date back to June 12th. So it sat next to my TV, like the pile of broken DVD players I've been accumulating, collecting dust like them, waiting for the day when it becomes something resembling useful.
Then, a couple of weekends ago, while using the analog antenna reception, we came across RetroJams, a weird broadcast channel showing old videos non-stop. One of the boys suggested we try and see if we could pull it in better with digital converter box, so we turned it on , scanned for available channels, and found that a number of local channels were already broadcasting in HD digital. We watched the box office debacle Sphere, an unintentional comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson.
And it was great. The digital picture was as clear as cable television, just like we had been promised. Since then, we have been watching in HD on the local channels that have begun broadcasting the signal. Only the local NBC affiliate and the local CBS affiliate have to yet commence HD broadcast, making it hard for me to watch one of my favorite shows, 30Rock, except by turning off the converter box. And there has been other problems with it as well.
1. Every time I turn off the television for an extended period of time, the converter box shuts off, and to begin watching again, I have to scan for all the channels again.
2. On occasion, the box will shut itself as I watch it, with no advance warning.
3. Weather conditions can still alter the signal, creating interesting pixel trails and image mash-ups that are like an acid trip. In fact, if I still did drugs, it would be cool to watch just for those moments when one image melts out of another like a free associated mind trip.
4. The additional channels promised have turned out to be Christian broadcasting featuring bad Christian rock bands, televangelists, and movie and television shows from the "good old days", when injecting reality into entertainment was as far away as injecting reality into religion is today.
Sill, I am looking to upgrade my antenna, hoping to fix some problems, and am still hoping that I can start watching My Name Is Earl and 30 Rock in HD soon.

Our Torture Is Better Than Your Torture

Just to set the matter straight, when other countries torture it's bad. However, when the US engages in torture it's okay, because "if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture", even if that torture was not to save American lives but to attempt to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11.
Americans have been conditioned, Jack Bauer'd into thinking that torture is a good thing, because there are so many people out there who wish to do us harm. And rather than discuss the reasons that people may want to do us harm, because we are not the sainted country the rose colored glasses wearing, beer swilling, flag waving, television watchers think we may be (after all, we torture people to justify acts of aggression against nation states sanctioned into near submission), it's better to pretend that we don't torture children, run assassination squads, or bomb civilians.
America needs to grow up. Our moral high ground has been washed away by an ocean of blood, spilled in our name.

Wha' Happened?

Ah, for last year, during the primaries, when the most important issue facing the United States was how to properly display your patriotism by wearing flag lapel pins. Love of America outweighed every issue, from dealing with the impending mortgage crisis, reining in gas prices, or formulating a safe and sane exit strategy from Iraq. And no one loved America, or so they claimed, than the Republican party.
Now, it's a different story. Almost half of Georgia Republicans would like to secede from the nation. Kind of hard to love that flag when you're no longer part of it, isn't it folks?
So, are they all sore losers? Do they think that John McCain has a better handle on things and he and Sarah Palin would have done a better job of dealing with the steaming shitpile that the previous administration dumped on Obama's doorstep? Have they become the America hating terrorists they feared not too long ago? Has not their God equipped them with the strength of character and courage to deal with tumultuous times?
Naw, they're all just a bunch of pussies who can't take the heat. Any one from the left who would have suggested secession during the Bush/Cheney regime would have been rounded up and hung as a traitor. I say we give all these wusses their own state (like Mississippi) and be done with them.

Bullets & Unicorns: The Magical World Of Arlen Specter

Proving once again the long held idea that there is no real difference between the two arms of the corpocracy we call political parties, Arlen Specter has announced he will switch parties for the 2010 election. Is he the first rat to desert the ship since pundits have written off the Republican Party as just as relevant as a Pontiac since the blowout in the past election, or is he expecting a difficult primary run from a challenger more in tune with the lunatic fringe that is the GOP these days?
Specter first rose to prominence working for the Warren Commission, where he crafted the "Magic Bullet" theory to cover up the conspiracy to have JFK murdered. Later, Specter fought the extradition of the Unicorn Killer from France, where Ira Einhorn had gone to escape justice.
So now, Specter will close his eyes, click his heels together and transform himself from one political belief system to another, all for the sake of holding onto a job. I guess it beats real work.

You Cried Wolf Once Too Often

I've been ho-humming the recent swine flu outbreak (or, as some people would prefer it to be called, the "Mexican" Flu) because I've heard this before. Remember the Avian Flu that was to going to kill millions of people? How about SARS? How about that Global War on Terror? Global warming Climate change? Gay marriages?
What these all are connected by is someone made money from it. Dick Cheney, and a host of Republican donors (i.e., Erik Prince) benefited from the war in Iraq, I mean, the Global war on terrorism, er, make that the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism. Donald Rumsfeld, as the owner of the intellectual property for Tamiflu, stands to make as much from the Swine (a/k/a/ "Mexican") Flu scare as he did from the Avain flu scare. And St Albert of the climate change cult is making as much from the swine flu scare as he will make from carbon emission trading.
Knowing that the causes for war in Iraq were pretty much made up. And the reason the previous administration was so eager to use torture was to provide a non-existent link between Saddam Hussein and alQaeda. was the current flu pseudo-pandemic created in a bio weapons lab? Is it all somehow related to the 81 microbiologists who have died mysterious deaths since 9/11?
Or is it all just a coincidence, perfectly timed to distract the masses from the ongoing torture debate? Personally, I'll go for the latter.

Nobody Wants To See That

Here's three signs you're doing too many drugs:
1. You dub yourself the Wizard
2. You attend events wearing wizard robes
3. You decide, while attending said event to doff your wizard robes (how would people then recognize you as a wizard? You wizard's staff?)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally opposed to public nudity, but there's a time and a place for it. Unfortunately, these proper conditions rarely occur, and so you're forced to see someone naked who would be best served leaving their clothes on. But isn't that always the case?
This is another example of the Idiocracy that we've become. Rather than go to see a performance by an artist, we're constantly forced to have to deal with selfish people who want to add their stamp to it, whether or not it spoils the performance for everybody else. When I go to a festival such as Coachella, I'm there to see the many acts on the line up, not have some asshole show me his asshole. Take your neediness and thirst for attention somewhere else. Or better yet, grow up!
being the father of two young boys, I know that when they are younger, they like to run around and flap in the breeze. Sure it's cute, but at some point in parenting, it behooves a parent to teach a child that, while there's nothing wrong with a little full frontal, people's right to not see your junk overrules your right to wave it in front of their face.
To make this a full piece of performance art, police at the event came along to taser the Wizard, thereby making it more entertaining for everyone involved. I know we're devolving into a police state where cops are ever more eager to taze people, but in some cases, I do believe it's justified. Just put your clothes on, dude. Nobody wants to see that.

Michelle's Organic Garden

(To the tune of the Beatles' Octopus' Garden)
I'd like to be
In DC to see
Michelle's organic garden cause a fuss....
Wait a minute! How can something as uncontroversial as an organic garden at the White House cause a stir? Easy. Big business. It seems that the Mid America CropLife Association thinks that an organic garden sends the wrong message to consumers about "conventionally" grown food based products. Surely there's nothing wrong with Frankenfoods, right?
And just who is the Mid America CropLife Association anyway? You think, well, Mid America, they're just a bunch of farmers, right, but then you look at the way they spliced two words together to make one where there wasn't before (CropLife) even using capitalization to point out just how clever they are and you know you're dealing with chemical giants like Monsanto, DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences.
MACA feels that Michelle, as part of the ever trend setting Obama family, is sending the wrong message because "(t)he time needed to tend a garden is not there for the majority of our citizens, certainly not a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family’s year-round food needs.” Of course they don't, that's why most of them don't grow their own food.
You don't suppose that maybe Monsanto is worried because second quarter profits have slipped, and that means smaller bonuses? Because that's what it comes down to: some of you still have money in your pocket and that's money that big business wants to take from you, even if they have to force you to take out another mortgage to get it. They don't care that organic farming works to minimize global warming, they can always fan themselves with stacks of hundred dollar bills.

Kutner Was Murdered

Okay, I'll admit it; I'm a fan of the Fox series House. I started watching it a couple seasons ago, mainly because it usually followed another favorite Fox series of mine, Prison Break.
At the start of the season prior to this one, House, a diagnostician, had lost all the members of his old team, and had held auditions for members of his new team. He started out with a large number of hopefuls, then whittled them away for various and sometimes spurious reasons. One of the most determined doctors was one Lawrence Kutner, played by the actor Kal Penn. I had recognized him from something, and it wasn't until a trip to the video store jogged my memory that I realized he was Kumar, the easy going stoner college student from the Harold and Kumar series of films. So because of that, or perhaps in spite of that, Dr. Kutner became one of my favorite characters on the show.
So it came as shock to me that on this past Monday's show, that Lawrence Kutner killed himself. I hadn't yet heard the story that the actor, Kal Penn, was leaving the show to go work in the Obama administration. I did know that the new team would be supplanted by the old team, as Chase and Cameron's screen time had been cut back when they were replaced. But still on the payroll 9and in the opening credits) they were do to come back according to a report I had read in Entertainment Weekly
I thought, as House did in that episode, that Kutner was murdered, and still feel that way, as the storyline concerning his death will continue until the end of the season. First clue: at the morning meeting, when House asked where Kutner was, Dr. Taub made a cover story about him having to take his dog to the vet. Was Taub covering for him, or did he know that Kutner wasn't coming in, so he made a lie up to cover up something?
Second clue:Kutner's funeral service was a Hindu service. All very fine, because Kutner was an adopted child of murdered Indian parents. Except Hinduism doesn't approve of suicide. I believe the suicide angle was put there to get a mental health message out to people due to the bad economy leading to a higher suicide rate.
In the episode previous this one, Dr. Kutner had diagnosed the patient's condition, in a very House-like way, and yet he let Dr. Taub take the credit. Taub had been having a crisis of faith due to his being unsure as to whether he wished to stay on House's team, and was about to be canned by House unless he proved to House that he was worthy of being on the team. House had discovered the ruse because he had bugged the patients bed and confronted Taub about it.
Following Kutner's suicide, Taub showed no sadness. He didn't attend Kutner's funeral, even though earlier in the season, they had started to develop a friendship. And when everybody else was mourning him, Taub was trying to distract them with their patient. He especially became impatient with House when House began investigating Kutner's death as a murder. In short, I believe that Dr. Taub killed Kutner and made it look like a suicide (Taub had attempted it earlier himself).
That is my theory, anyway, and only time will tell if I'm right , or just making shit up. But if I am (and I firmly believe I am) remember, you read it here first.

Vanishing America

A friend at Facebook sent along a link to this site, which I almost immediately dove into, especially the drive-in theaters. Once abundant and plentiful in the era of mobile America, the drive in theater has now gone the way of the drive-in restaurant (now they're all drive thrus). Now all that's left are the drive-in churches.(God knows where to find you because you're always in your car)

I have fond memories of the drive-in. Mom and dad packing up the kids in the burgundy 1966 Buick SportWagon packed full of snacks and fruit punch to go see Our Man Flint, my sister and I in the very back with blankets spread out, wandering to the snack bar to use the rest rooms (Where, we found out, they sold real food. Dad, can we get a pizza?)in our jammies, playing on the playground, and enjoying the cartoon, as well as the ads for the snack bar, and the clown clock in the corner of the screen that told us how many more minutes we had to go before the feature started. Or, conversely, how much time we had left to buy something at the snack bar.
But now, the drive-in is rapidly disappearing, like the Ash tree or Circuit City. Once representative of the mobile American society, the drive is as much an anachronism as the daily newspaper, both unnecessary in the age of the internet where NetFlix can deliver movies to you, pizza places exist on every corner, and news is available on demand, for free.

Anything That Worries Newt Gingrich Is A Good Thing

This morning, I caught a glimpse of Newt Gingrich on Fox News, attempting to usurp Rush Limbaugh as the de facto GOP leader, talking about how disappointed he was that we weren't calling it 'the War On terror' anymore. I saw only about thirty seconds before I made the kids plug in their X Box. When the US is the one killing women and children we can hardly be labeling it as a war on terror when we are as bad as the terrorists themselves. The core democratic value of 'innocent until proven guilty' isn't being met when we kill only 'suspects' with out a fair trial, such as we are constitutionally guaranteed ourselves.
Why we are fighting in Afghanistan is a matter open for debate as well, since it was thermite and not jet fuel that caused the twin towers to collapse. Oh come on, I hear you say, the US wouldn't cover up it's role in the worst terrorist attack on it's own people any more than it would cover up bankster fraud or it's role in the drug trade. Is it only a coincidence that in places like Somaliaand Afghanistan, places involved with oil and oil distribution do American al Qaeda members like Adam Pearlman Gadahn surface?
The American Idiocracy is more self-involved, unaware of what their government is up to because they're too busy getting drunk and watching college sport play-offs while being subjected to mind numbing advertisements for alcohol products and foods laced with mood altering and mind numbing flavor enhancers. Someday, they may wake up and realize all the evil being done in their name.
Which has Ol' Newtered worried. Someday, there may be a third party to challenge the corpocracy's two party stranglehold on the US political system. This threatens Newt's cushy position as a paid pontificator and think tank traveler and may force him to do more than write bad alternate history screeds.

Controversy Is Blooming In Holland, Michigan

Spring is here and in West Michigan, that means it's time for the annual Tulip Time Festival in Holland, MI. It's the time of year when city residents (the white ones, anyway) celebrate their heritage by donning wooden shoes planting tulips, and riding floats dedicated to far right agendas. Lots and lots of tulips. And if you like tulips, this is the place for you.
The people of Holland have been having this festival for eighty years now, and one of the highlights has been the Tulip Time Parade. Nothing controversial here, right?
Well, it seems that this year because of a change in it's 501c3 tax designation, anti-choice group Right To Life of Michigan won't be allowed to sponsor a float in the Muziekparade, the largest of three parades. The new status requires the festival to refrain from endorsing organizations whose objective is to influence legislative outcomes.
Now, some are calling for a boycott of the parade, because they can't enjoy it if they aren't ramming their far right agenda down everyone's throat. Even though other groups were also rejected, reading the comments here would lead you to believe that Christians have been singled out for persecution and it's all Obama's fault. And this from the people who didn't have a problem with Bush's "free speech" zones.

There's No End To That Dick

Dick Cheney, what a guy. Loves to torture, runs his own death squads, and now, according to Seymour Hersh, he has planted moles in the Obama administration. I guess elections don't apply to Dick Cheney.
Not that the moles can affect policy too much, but these Cheney/Rumsfeld loyalists report to him and keep him informed of what's going on. I imagine Cheney in his undisclosed location, large conference table filled with lackeys with files detailing how close the new administration is coming to uncovering some of the many crimes committed by Cheney while he had his hands on the reins of power (Come on! You don't think that Bush was running anything, do you?)
So even though the American people overwhelmingly told the Bush administration to go fuck themselves, Cheney decided he wasn't going to listen to them. Either that, or he's just looking for a way to get more no-bid contracts for Halliburton.