Tuesday, May 31, 2005

This week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us...


McDonald's Corp. has a few more tricks up its sleeve than a redheaded clown and a townful of creepy, edible characters. The fast-food chain launched a pilot test of Blaze Net, which the Associated Press described as an ATM-style device that lets customers burn CDs, download cell-phone ringtones and print digital-quality photos. "The new flagship restaurant near Oakbrook Center mall in Illinois combines several high-tech gadgets yet to be seen in more conventional McDonald's eateries," the AP reported. "The gadgets appear alongside such food offerings as lattes in the McCafe section of the store, which more closely resembles a Starbucks than a burger joint." The move is designed to appeal to younger, hipper folks who use words like "bistro" but long for that special McDonalds tasty-taste.
McFruit dishes, McCafe, and McMusic download machines? When the golden arches feels the need to add these bizarre "hip" quirkies, something is up. The universal symbol of capitalism has found that it is vulnerable to capitalism. I'd think it'd be easier to start selling real beef burgers rather than trying to change everything. I eat McDonald's at most one time a year, and everytime I do, I can feel my DNA mutating. I am a hamburger fiend, but fastfood burgers are just gross.

Remember when McArches changed its colors from red and gold to pink, green, and purple? THAT was successful, wasn't it? It sure increased sales! Right.

These McCafes are something else. I've seen them when I've had to stop at the McBathroom while on road trips. Who is going to go hang out at McDonald's other than bored, small town teenagers on Friday nights after football games?

Improve the hamburgers! Isn't McDonald's supposed to be a burger joint? I guess competition isn't so good for McCorporation.

Free slave labor and pollution for sale!

Both [Rep.] Smith and [Rep.]Tauscher accused House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) of supporting the weak labor and environmental provisions in CAFTA in an effort to build the case with business donors that they should abandon the Democratic Party altogether. "There is no question Tom DeLay and other Republicans are saying 'Don't give to Democrats,' " Smith said.

Dan Allen, a spokesman for DeLay, countered: "These groups can decide for themselves, and, sadly for the Democrats, the record proves that House Republicans have consistently supported efforts to expand our economy as well as expand foreign markets for American goods and services."

The high-tech industry has been one of the most outspoken supporters of free-trade pacts, and its leaders contend the Dominican Republic and Central American countries offer substantial export and investment opportunities.

These "free-trade pacts" are not free trade agreements at all. The pacts intend to facilitate trade in some areas, but they end up increasing protectionism in areas like copyrights and patents, and they do nothing to remove barriers that protect highly paid professionals, like doctors and lawyers, from foreign competition. These things only exist to fill the campaign purses of morally bankrupt gops.

While CAFTA is a good idea and a necessary pact that benefits all but a few sugar corporations that mouch off farm subsidies, the form of CAFTA that the Democrats oppose is one with little protection for workers. Dems aren't against free trade in principle; they are against trade which enslaves workers in the name of "growth".

Despite the beliefs of the market worshippers, growth is only good if it does not hinder or worsen the quality of life. After all, aren't we all working so we can better our lives?

Another reason for legal reform

Court Overturns Arthur Andersen Conviction

The cronies always go free.

Hillary 2008


Heeding the Past As She Looks To the Future

I can't wait for 2008!

The Hillary Haters will always be haters. It will be interesting to see how low they stoop during the campaign.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Congrats, Lebanon, you have a Democracy(TM)!

BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun discounted Saad Hariri's absolute victory of all of Beirut's parliamentary seats, claiming citizens in the capital were "driven" during the elections. Speaking to reporters at his home in Rabieh, east of Beirut, the former army commander recently returned from 15 years of exile in France said the polls in Beirut were affected with the power of "petro-dollar," in reference to large amounts of money spent on Hariri's election campaign.
Doesn't this sound familiar? I'm not sure fledgling democracies should be basing their systems on the US. Nothing like needing campaign finance reform before democracy really takes root.

This was the first round of elections held in Beirut only. Other areas will be voting within the next few weeks.

Remembering the Dead AND the Wounded

John Wheeler writes in today's WaPo about how the wounded are an often forgetten tragedy of war. What a shame that there is no mechanism for recognizing the people who have lost arms, legs, and sight rather than hearts or brains. I would rather be dead than to have no arms and legs. The stuggles they go through... wow. Kudos to those who learn to live with it. Kudos to those who can't deal with it and choose to take their own lives. Kudos to the families who have to feed them and dress them everyday and the friends who stick around after they are no longer fully functional human beings.

War sucks. Why is peace such a bad thing?

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Neo-sadism is the post-neocon movement

"I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who said some of the images were of male prisoners masturbating. She said she saw a man hitting himself against a wall, apparently trying to knock himself unconscious.

Others said they saw images of corpses; military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners; women commanded to expose their breasts; and sex acts, including forced homosexual sex.

"There were people who were forced to have sex with each other," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said, "There were some pictures where it looked like a prisoner was sodomizing himself" with an object. He said blood was visible in the photograph.

Not everyone reacted the same way to the new photos.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he thought "some people are overreacting."
The Islamicist movement began as a response to the excesses of Western materialism and a no holds barred nihilistic approach to life. When Hasan Al-Banna formed the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, he essentially did it because he was disgusted by "loose morals" of the West and Christian missionaries who went to the Middle East to try to convert Muslims. (How would the evangelical crackheads in the US feel if there were suddenly a flood of Muslims coming to the country to try to convert Christians?) Banna was a skilled organizer, and in twenty years he had managed to erect a mini-state within Egypt, which is comparable to the Evangelical movement in the US today. The government felt threatened by his prominence. There was no violence for twenty years until the Prime Minister was assassinated in 1948, which was linked to his weak support for the Palestinians against the establishment of the Israeli state.

At the same time, Sayid Qutb, the father of modern terrorism, was living in New York. He was disgusted by the materialism and racism that characterized American culture at the time. After two years, he couldn't stand New York anymore and returned to Egypt, where he became an outspoken critic of the government. For this, he was jailed. He wrote his jihad bullshit from a prison cell, where torture was common.

Now, modern terrorism is a result of perceptions on the morality of the West and the torture of extremely religious people in Egypt. So how is it that our leaders say we are "overreacting" when the very actions that triggered terrorism in the first place are the same ones we use to try to combat it? The behavior of our soldiers is like the behavior of the monks in The Misfortune of Virtue.

What's more, the soldiers are taking photos of themselves having sex with each other. Where is the moral outrage from the right? WHERE IS THE MORAL OUTRAGE, YE HYPOCRITES?

Who said it?

If we look at the sources and foundations of modern ways of living, it becomes clear that the whole world is steeped in XXX (pagan ignorance of divine guidance), and all the marvelous material comforts and high-level inventions do not diminish this Ignorance. This XXX is based on rebellion against God's sovereignty on earth: It transfers to man one of the greatest attributes of God, namely sovereignty, and makes some men lords over others. It is now not in that simple and primitive form of the ancient XXX, but takes the form of claiming that the right to create values, to legislate rules of collective behavior, and to choose any way of life rests with men, without regard to what God has prescribed. The result of this rebellion against the authority of God is the oppression of His creatures...
Who said it?

a. Dobson
b. Frist
c. Bush
d. Jesus
e. Falwell
f. Bob Jones
g. The father of modern terrorism, Sayid Qutb

Themes: Corporate Censorship

Nine Inch Nails And MTV Clash Over Bush Photo

More on corporate censorship here and here.

Judge: Some religions don't count

Parents can't teach pagan beliefs

Jesus(TM) doesn't like pagan religions.

The crackheads have struck again, spitting on civil liberties and trying to establish a single religion.

Now, I don't like sausage on my pizza, but am I going to try to prevent people from being able to order sausage? And am I going to tell parents not to let their kids eat sausage on their pizza? No.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

France will vote "non"

NonOui

EU Rota has an interesting perspective on the Constitution.

Here is the No Campaign.

Some interesting commentary at Europhobia.

Finally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe tells us 10 reasons to vote yes.

So what are we as Americans supposed to think? And as liberal Americans? Frankly, I have to agree with EU Rota when it comes to his elite arguments and the EU, though I don't share his enthusiasm for the rise of the right in Europe these days.

Europe needs a bit more democracy. A no vote will be good for them.

Darwin writes about the GOP

CHAP. VII. SLAVE-MAKING INSTINCT. 219—This ant is absolutely dependent on its slaves; without their aid, the species would certainly become extinct in a single year. The males and fertile females do no work. The workers or sterile females, though most energetic and courageous in capturing slaves, do no other work. They are incapable of making their own nests, or of feeding their own larvæ. When the old nest is found inconvenient, and they have to migrate, it is the slaves which determine the migration, and actually carry their masters in their jaws. So utterly helpless are the masters, that when Huber shut up thirty of them without a slave, but with plenty of the food which they like best, and with their larvæ and pupæ to stimulate them to work, they did nothing; they could not even feed themselves, and many perished of hunger.

I opened fourteen nests of F. sanguinea, and found a few slaves in all. Males and fertile females of the slave-species are found only in their own proper communities, and have never been observed in the nests of F. sanguinea. The slaves are black and not above half the size of their red masters, so that the contrast in their appearance is very great. When the nest is slightly disturbed, the slaves occasionally come out, and like their masters are much agitated and defend the nest: when the nest is much disturbed and the larvæ and pupæ are exposed, the slaves work energetically with their masters in carrying them away to a place of safety. Hence, it is clear, that the slaves feel quite at home. During the months of June and July, on three successive years, I have watched for many hours several nests in Surrey and Sussex, and never saw a slave either leave or enter a nest... The masters, on the other hand, may be constantly seen bringing in materials for the nest, and food of all kinds.

One day I fortunately chanced to witness a migration from one nest to another, and it was a most interesting spectacle to behold the masters carefully carrying, as Huber has described, their slaves in their jaws. Another day my attention was struck by about a score of the slave-makers haunting the same spot, and evidently not in search of food; they approached and were vigorously repulsed by an independent community of the slave species (F. fusca); sometimes as many as three of these ants clinging to the legs of the slave-making F. sanguinea. The latter ruthlessly killed their small opponents, and carried their dead bodies as food to their nest, twenty-nine yards distant; but they were prevented from getting any pupæ to rear as slaves. I then dug up a small parcel of the pupæ of F. fusca from another nest, and put them down on a bare spot near the place of combat; they were eagerly seized, and carried off by the tyrants, who perhaps fancied that, after all, they had been victorious in their late combat.

At the same time I laid on the same place a small parcel of the pupæ of another species, F. flava, with a few of these little yellow ants still clinging to the fragments of the nest. Although so small a species, it is very courageous, and I have seen it ferociously attack other ants. In one instance I found to my surprise an independent community of F. flava under a stone beneath a nest of the slave-making F. sanguinea; and when I had accidentally disturbed both nests, the little ants attacked their big neighbours with surprising courage. Now I was curious to ascertain whether F. sanguinea could distinguish the pupæ of F. fusca, which they habitually make into slaves, from those of the little and furious F. flava, which they rarely capture, and it was evident that they did at once distinguish them: for we have seen that they eagerly and instantly seized the pupæ of F. fusca, whereas they were much terrified when they came across the pupæ, or even the earth from the nest of F. flava, and quickly ran away; but in about a quarter of an hour, shortly after all the little yellow ants had crawled away, they took heart and carried off the pupæ.

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. Salute

Ohio GOP scandal unfolding...

Hobin Rood steals from the State to give to the Rich. Another day, another GOP scandal.

In other retarded republican news...

California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — hoping to promote road and transit projects across the state — went to a quiet neighborhood of San Jose Thursday, and helped 10 city road workers fill in a massive pothole. Standing before a swarm of cameras, he insisted, "I'm here today to let everyone know that we're going to improve transportation."

But it turns out the pothole he helped fix wasn't a problem just hours before because it wasn't even there. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the crew dug it up, specifically for the event. And, what's more, the nice clean vests that the workers wore were given to them, brand-new, Thursday morning.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Exclamation Today!

I reader pointed out that I was posting too many random articles just because I wanted people to read them. These were in addition to my daily posts. To combat this excess of information, I am going to start writing "Exclamation Today!", which will include a few notable articles enhanced by some smartass comments. This will be in addition to my one or two daily posts.

Awesome news
Americans are waking up!
For the first time, a majority of Americans say they are likely to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton if she runs for president in 2008, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday.
Hillary haters are going down!

Today's "I can't believe this is real!"
Doctors seek kitchen knife ban

Random nonsense
Gay problem solved! Keep your kids away from plastic, and your boy will be straight! Thank God(TM), the world is saved!


Thanks, Robbie.

Corporate censorship

Righties are always saying how something is only censorship if the government is the entity placing the restrictions. However, since corporations control so much government policy, attempts by corporations to silence critics are a de facto form of censorship. Attempts this week by BP and Morgan Stanley to silence critics by pulling their ads is corporate censorship. He who controls the purse strings controls everything, right?

I say let them pull their ads. Less exposure means less business for them. I just hope editorial boards don't cave to their bullying pressure.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

But Newsweek was wrong, right?

FBI documents show repeated detainee complaints over Koran mistreatment

The article comes with a nice photo of the Jihad Youth, complete with their green martyr headbands. Awww...

2008 Olympic Boycott

Chinese people are losing their homes without compensation, many of whom are now in jail for complaining about it. But who cares for the lowly man when you can make $42 billion in profits from the Games? Free-market capitalism at its finest.

This is what happens when you give the Games to a dictatorship. This is what happens when your love for money becomes so great that you don't give a shit what happens to people. This is what happens when you engage with a Communist country because of its lucrative markets and slave labor.

300,000 people are losing their homes. 300,000 people are victims of the "Market." If you aren't outraged about this, you don't have a soul.

I will be boycotting the Games. I hope others will join me.

This makes me want to surrender my US passport

This is dreadful news. There were more people who voted for the American Idol than who voted in the Presidential election. I am so ashamed.

I think that if you voted for the American Idol, you shouldn't be allowed to vote for your governmental representatives anyway. Do you really have nothing to do than let your brain rot on your couch two nights a week? Ok, I am kidding about not being allowed to vote. Besides, I bet most of the Idol voters were under the voting age anyway. After all, don't most four year olds have cell phones these days?

American Idol producers should be arrested for disturbing the peace and made to produce an "American Political Idol" democracy awareness campaign. I've often thought that a great reality television show would be to stick three dems, three gops, and three politically apathetic people into a house and let them go at it, sort of like the Real World, only it would be the real world. (This idea is my intellectual property, so if you are interested in producing it, let me know. Otherwise I will use the courts to sue.) I think reality television may be the only way to get people back to reality, but it must be reality and not Survivor.

Support the troops (not TM)

The Veterans of Foreign Wars has an Unmet Needs program to assist military families in need (you know, the ones whose spouses are currently serving their second or third tours in Iraq). Please visit the site to see how you can support the troops without putting the $2 ribbon on your SUV.

For righties:

Stem Cell Info

As Mr. Bush is finally gearing up for his first veto (evidence that the gops are falling apart) and I am being eaten by mosquitos in my backDCyard, I'd like to take this opportunity to praise the scientists of the world out there. They are some of the hardest working people out there and spend their lifetimes learning instead of watching American Idol. You Culture-of-Lifers out their are so blinded by your ideology that you haven't even bothered to learn about stem cells. **Be consistent, ye hypocrits: Shouldn't you be out there protesting invitro fertilization, because thousands of embryos are destroyed each year just so barren women can have kids (and usually three or four at a time)? Plus, it is not God's will(TM) to be artificially inseminated. If he wanted you to have a baby, he'd make you pregnant the one time a year your husband forces you to have sex.**

Culture of Life(TM)- It doesn't mean having a good life! How many research opponents do you think are out there who actually have a disease that could be cured by stem cells?

We're getting closer...

A Texas judge said Thursday that the treasurer of a political fundraising committee organized by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) violated the state's election law by failing to report $684,507 in contributions from corporations and other donors in 2002.

Elitism, fascism, and the GOP

From today's WaPo.
The campaign to prevent the Senate filibuster of the president's judicial nominations was simply the latest and most public example of similar transformations in Congress and the executive branch stretching back a decade. The common theme is to consolidate influence in a small circle of Republicans and to marginalize dissenting voices that would try to impede a conservative agenda.
House Republicans, for instance, discarded the seniority system and limited the independence and prerogatives of committee chairmen. The result is a chamber effectively run by a handful of GOP leaders. At the White House, Bush has tightened the reins on Cabinet members, centralizing the most important decisions among a tight group of West Wing loyalists. With the strong encouragement of Vice President Cheney, he has also moved to expand the amount of executive branch information that can be legally shielded from Congress, the courts and the public.
Those who cross party leaders often pay a price, usually by losing positions of influence.
Bush created a top-down system in the White House much like the one his colleagues have in Congress.
Bush has essentially turned most of the agencies into political arms of the White House. "It's not just weakening agencies but strengthening political control of the agencies," he said. Major policies such as Social Security are produced in the White House, while Cabinet heads and their staffs are tethered. After the 2004 election, the White House began requiring Cabinet members to spend as long as four hours a week working in an office near the West Wing.
Bush has demanded similar loyalty from GOP lawmakers -- and received it. Republicans have voted with the president, on average, about nine out of 10 times. Critics and some scholars charge that the Congress now seldom performs its constitutional duty of providing oversight of the executive branch through tough investigations and hearings. This has coincided with a dramatic increase in overall government secrecy.
"We have never had this kind of control over information," said Allan J. Lichtman, a professor of history at American University. "It means policy is being made by a small clique without much public scrutiny."

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Awesome site!

Now YOU can understand the language of the Bush administration! Click here.

Burger King is Immoral

Group asks Burger King to halt 'Star Wars' deal

Kids should be eating vegetables anyway.

Mubarak's thugs beat democracy fighters

"Of course I would say 'yes,' because the president doesn't sleep all night because he is serving us. He looks after our interests," said Saaban Mohammed Ahmed, a 42-year-old shopkeeper among about 15 people waiting for a downtown polling station to open.
Does Mubarak really think he's fooling anyone with this farce of a referendum? I guess Saaban is fooled. He sounds like he's from the Midwest.

M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E

My ninth grade English teacher used to describe things that were easy as "Mickey Mouse", as in "This test is so Mickey Mouse."

It's so Mickey Mouse to see the results of the American Family Association's boycott on Disney for the last nine years: ZERO.

Have you ever read the World Net Daily? It is a "free press for free people." They have a whole section called Invasion USA which is dedicated to immigrants. There is another whole anti-Clinton section. Bill Clinton is a "has-been", according to that wonderful leader of the Democratic Unionists, Ian Paisley.

Did you know that Christianity, not Islam, is the fastest growing religion on the planet? The reason is this:
The most shocking aspect of the growing turn of the world toward Christ is this: People are coming back from death after being prayed for by ordinary folks like you and me. To be specific, my newest book, "MEGASHIFT: Igniting Spiritual Power," documents resurrections in 52 countries, mostly in the last 15 to 20 years. And these are not the well-known, "near-death" experiences where someone on an operating-room table passes out and goes down a long tunnel toward a light. These are stone-dead corpses.
It's Mickey Mouse to see these people are cracked out on god.

The AFA has a great map with contact information for all Senators, Representatives, and Governors. Click here to contact your Congresspeople to tell them what to do. We are their bosses, not the special interests!

It is NEVER good when one man wields this much power over the masses

MURDOCH'S SEASON IN THE SUN: #1 TV, MOVIE, CABLE NEWS, PAPER
AUSTRALIA... ENGLAND.. NOW USA...

NEWSCORP Lord Rupert Murdoch can now claim the top spots in the media industry.

The 20th Century Fox, Murdoch, 74, has become 21st Century Daddy.

On Wednesday night the TV season ends with an IDOL bang and FOX finishing #1 -- for the first time -- in the ad demo, 18-49, and #1 in teens.

At the box-office Murdoch takes #1 by distributing REVENGE OF THE SITH.

In the heated cable news race, FOXNEWS [despite faulty Internet rumors] continues to dominate all dayparts, all demos, all ratings, and has all but caught CNN in ad revenues. [Hoping to jump-start its chances against FOXNEWS, NBC is preparing to rename MSNBC to 'NBC NEWS CHANNEL.']

Murdoch's SUN newspaper in London continues to dazzle and ignite the world with shock photos and splashes of Saddam's underwear and Prince Harry's swastika, defying the trend of a fading print genre.

The man from Oz has captured and conquered the popular culture.
Some GOOD news: Americans are seeing the light. New Poll Finds Bush Approval Ratings Near All-Time Lows

NEW YORK President Bush's job approval rating dropped to near its lowest point, in the new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

Forty-six percent of 1,006 adults polled over the weekend said they approved of the overall job Bush is doing. The 46% percent figure is down about 4% points since a poll taken at the beginning of May.

On the Iraq war, the president's approval mark remained at 40%. On domestic issues, the president's approval ratings are at an all-time low, with 40% approving of his policies on the economy and only 33% back his proposed Social Security changes.

The poll also indicated Americans might look for a change in Congress in 2006, with 47% saying the country would be better off if Democrats were in control, compared with 36% who favored Republicans. Nine percent picked "neither."

Recent Gallup polls found that 57% believe the war in Iraq is not "worth it."
Quack, quack, quack!

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Absolutism- no longer confined to dictators

Today I was sitting in a lecture by economist Paul Holden (not Australia's famous DJ), when I came to the realization that American politics is not going to change until we get someone in there who realizes that neither side is completely right and neither side is completely wrong (although the liberals are more right than the cons! :) ) Here was a guy saying that giving aid to developing countries (those which used to be called third world or poor) was bad. I find it quite funny (more funny strange than funny ha ha) that ultra-liberals are out there protesting the IMF, when the cons are in the back rooms secretly plotting its downfall, when the real problem is not that it gives too much aid or not enough, but that each side thinks that it is not absolute enough. The problem with the IMF is that it separates macroeconomics from microeconomics, and both sides fail to see that the two are intertwined.

Economics... zzzzzzzzzz, you say? Well, I agree if you get down to the details, but if you can think big picture for a second (go ahead, righties, you can do it), such minute details as property rights can change an entire economic and therefore political landscape. Take the example of Peru. Thanks to the work of Hernando DeSoto (the economic theorist, not the explorer), we have an idea of what a lack of property rights can do to a country. We even have an example of how giving property rights to citizens can thwart terrorism. Something for Dems to think about. I mean, if we could thwart terrorism without having our soldiers die, we could get a lot of votes and feel much safer!

Unfortunately, looking at economics seems to be a sin for Dems in power. Absolutism. And looking at peace for gops is a sin. Absolutism. The faux compromise over the fillibuster hasn't changed a thing. It's time for us to start coming up with ideas rather than ideologies.

Monday, May 23, 2005

The deal

Fret not! As much as it seems like the dems have been spineless on this, it will put us in a good position for that Supreme Court justice! All is not lost! All is not lost! (But we still need to get some friggin' leadership.)

More rightwing big brother

FAA Revokes Pilot's License Like Bush has never made a mistake before. (Has he ever done anything that wasn't a mistake?)

Big brother will take your money

According to rightwingers, the Dems want complete government control over people's lives and over business, right? Then how is it that a rightwing judge who is a bedfellow of Cheney's is writing opinions that require ranchers to pay for government advertisements?
The government is allowed to promote its own message and compel producers to pay fees, Justice Scowlia wrote.

"The message of the promotional campaigns is effectively controlled by the Federal Government itself," he wrote.

The agriculture secretary, a public official, controls the program, appoints and dismisses key personnel and has "absolute veto power" over the ads, even when it comes to their wording, Scalia wrote.

At issue is a program passed by Congress in 1985 requiring cattle producers to pay $1 for every head of cattle sold in the United States for industry advertising and research.

The Agriculture Department collects the "checkoff" fees, which total more than $80 million annually, and distributes the money to an industry group appointed by the department to run the program.
Scowlia was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Stephen G. Breyer, hardly the "liberal activist judges" we are always hearing about.

Why the hell do we need to promote beef anyway? We are a hamburger nation. If I had more energy I'd look it up, but I bet beef is in the top five highest consumption industries. I know corn is numero uno, and the veggie nuts are a fraction of the population. I grill burgers once a week (and make the best damn burgers on the planet.) You know what else? I got milk. I don't need to see celebrities all over the place telling me to drink it.

So beef consumption is up since 1985. People also have more money to buy it. This policy reeks of socialism if you ask me. And what is the rightwing version of socialism? Fascism.

What is "government speech" anyway? Sounds like newspeak to me.
Some ranchers object to paying for the ad campaigns because they don't like the generic message that all beef - American or foreign - is good. But the court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the beef program amounts to government speech that is shielded from First Amendment challenge.
Not that there's anything wrong with a little government intervention. I'd like to think I'm not going to die if I consume beef.

Crusades part 100

From AmericaBlog: DOD Web site jokes of Christian crusade against Muslims. Check out this photo.

And you wonder why they hate us?

Dear Lord, please save us from these lunatics

A Creation Museum is being built in Northern Kentucky by a guy who believes that God created the world in six, 24-hour days on a planet just 6,000 years old.
Among Ham's beliefs are that the Earth is about 6,000 years old, a figure arrived at by tracing the biblical genealogies, and not 4.5 billion years, as mainstream scientists say; the Grand Canyon was formed not by erosion over millions of years, but by floodwaters in a matter of days or weeks and that dinosaurs and man once coexisted, and dozens of the creatures — including Tyrannosaurus Rex — were passengers on the ark built by Noah, who was a real man, not a myth.

"When that museum is finished, it's going to be Cincinnati's No. 1 tourist attraction," says the Rev. Jerry Falwell, nationally known Baptist evangelist and chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. "It's going to be a mini-Disney World."
The largest museum of its kind in the world, it hopes to draw 600,000 people from the Midwest and beyond in its first year.
Now, tell me again why the Midwest is offended when we talk about how backwards they are? Ahh, because it's not backwards, it's just whacked.

How did Noah keep T-Rex from eating everything on the ark?

The sad thing is the terrorists would say it with sincerity

The War Prayer by Mark Twain

A victim of wingnut zealotry

An Afghan VJ was murdered for corrupting young Afghans by promoting anti-Islamic values. The Talaban seems to be making a comeback.

Is democracy supposed to exclude?

Oddly enough, the group that spurred the Emergency Law in Egypt 30 years ago is now a leader in the democracy movement in Egypt.

The group has a long, violent, and fairly complicated history. When you google "Muslim Brotherhood", you will get a vast array of descriptions about the organization, some more biased than others. Some rightwinger no doubt rewrote the Wikipedia page on this organization. Forget that the past 30 years have been dedicated to advocating democratic principles. This is one of the biggest problems about Wikipedia. Any dumbass can go in there and edit it, and since the right has no respect for facts (Facts are stupid things.), they can insert any old ideology they want. While it is true that the group's founder, Hassan al-Banna, was a terrorist whose ideas were propagated by the father of modern terrorism, Sayed Qutb, the group renounced terrorism in the seventies. However, they killed Sadat in 1981, so I guess the violence wasn't out of them yet.

I suppose they are like the Sinn Fein of Egyptian politics these days, and some of the militant splinter groups are like the Real IRA, which has no connection to the Irish Republican Army, are making them seem like a terrorist organization. People like Bin Fuckhead and Zarqawi claim to be members of the Brotherhood, but the Brotherhood was too moderate for them, so they had to form their own militant groups.

The question is whether they would support democracy if they were in power or would they turn Egypt into another Iran, where elections are a farce. With such a large following, one would think that there is no way they could be left out of politics. Why is there no outrage when members are arrested and detained indefinitely? I think we've heard this one before:
Chants of "Freedom, freedom! Where, where?" broke out. A speaker proclaimed: "Liberty is the hope of millions, based on the method of the prophet Muhammad." The crowd answered: "Jihad in the name of God! Death in the name of God is noble!"
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Sunday, May 22, 2005

The meek shall inherit the Earth...

The growing power and influence of evangelical Christians is manifest everywhere these days, from the best-seller lists to the White House, but in fact their share of the general population has not changed much in half a century. Most pollsters agree that people who identify themselves as white evangelical Christians make up about a quarter of the population, just as they have for decades.

What has changed is the class status of evangelicals. In 1929, the theologian H. Richard Niebuhr described born-again Christianity as the "religion of the disinherited." But over the last 40 years, evangelicals have pulled steadily closer in income and education to mainline Protestants in the historically affluent establishment denominations. In the process they have overturned the old social pecking order in which "Episcopalian," for example, was a code word for upper class, and "fundamentalist" or "evangelical" shorthand for lower.

Evangelical Christians are now increasingly likely to be college graduates and in the top income brackets. Evangelical C.E.O.'s pray together on monthly conference calls, evangelical investment bankers study the Bible over lunch on Wall Street and deep-pocketed evangelical donors gather at golf courses for conferences restricted to those who give more than $200,000 annually to Christian causes.

Their growing wealth and education help explain the new influence of evangelicals in American culture and politics. Their buying power fuels the booming market for Christian books, music and films. Their rising income has paid for construction of vast mega-churches in suburbs across the country. Their charitable contributions finance dozens of mission agencies, religious broadcasters and international service groups...

As the denomination grew, Assemblies preachers began speaking not only of heavenly rewards but also of the material blessings God might provide in this world. The notion was controversial in some evangelical circles but became widespread nonetheless, and it made the Assemblies' faith more compatible with an upwardly mobile middle class.

By the 1970's, Assemblies churches were sprouting up in affluent suburbs across the country. Recent surveys by Margaret Poloma, a historian at the University of Akron in Ohio, found Assemblies members more educated and better off than the general public.

As they flourished, evangelical entrepreneurs and strivers built a distinctly evangelical business culture of prayer meetings, self-help books and business associations. In some cities outside the Northeast, evangelical business owners list their names in Christian yellow pages.

Police in Azerbaijan Beat Back Protesters Demanding Free Vote

And why won't there be a peep from the US administration? The
mostly Muslim country, a U.S. ally in Iraq, is the starting point of the pipeline that Washington says will reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Because democracy is only good if it suits US interests.
The violence broke out as groups of protesters tried to make their way to a central square in the capital, Baku, shouting "Freedom!" and "Free elections!"

I feel sick. Maybe it's the mercury in my water.

May 12, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DOW REJECTS PROPOSAL TO CLEAN BHOPAL USING FIRST-QUARTER PROFITS

The same man who appeared on BBC World TV last December as a Dow representative to announce that Dow would finally clean up Bhopal [1]showed up today at Dow's Annual General Meeting (AGM) to suggest the same thing to Dow's board of directors and shareholders.

"We made an incredible $1.35 billion this quarter," said "Jude Finisterra," aka Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men [2]. "But for most of us, that'll just mean a new set of golf clubs. Let's do something useful instead - like finally cleaning up the Bhopal plant site, or funding the new clinic there [3]." Dow Chairman Bill Stavropolous responded to "Finisterra's" suggestion with a curt dismissal [4].

The Yes Men joined other shareholder groups in Midland, including Amnesty International, which condemns Dow's lack of response to the Bhopal crisis as a human rights issue [5].

BANKERS EMBRACE "GOLDEN SKELETON" MASCOT

Two weeks ago at a London banking conference to which they had accidentally been invited, two "Dow representatives" described a new Dow computer program that puts a precise financial value on human life.

The 70 bankers in attendance enthusiastically applauded the lecture, which described various industrial crimes, including IBM's sale of technology to the Nazis for use in identifying Jews, as "golden skeletons in the closet"--i.e. lucrative and herefore acceptable.

Several of the bankers then posed for photos with "Dow Acceptable Risk" mascot "Gilda, the Golden Skeleton," and signed up for licenses for the "Acceptable Risk Calculator," which helps businesses determine the exact point where human casualties will start to cut into profit, and suggests the best regions on earth to locate ventures with potentially very high death tolls.

See http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/dow/acceptablerisk.shtml for video and photos of the event, and http://dowethics.com/risk/ to try out the "Acceptable Risk Calculator" for yourself.

STATE DEPARTMENT FINDS FAKE DOW WEBSITE USEFUL

Dow may not appreciate the DowEthics.com website--but the US State Department finds it quite useful, and refers requests for information about Bhopal to various of its pages: see http://www.dowethics.com/statedeptfoi/ for an example.


CONTACT: mailto:dowmedia@theyesmen.org

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] See http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/dow/bhopal2004.shtml

[2] Yes Men Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno had been given one Dow "proxy" each by actual shareholders, giving them the right to attend the annual meeting and address the Dow board.

[3] Two weeks ago, the Sambhavna Trust Clinic of Bhopal opened a new wing to serve the victims whose numbers continue to grow due to groundwater contamination from the uncleaned plant site. See http://www.bhopal.org/ for information on how you can contribute.

[4] See http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/dow/2005agm.shtml for complete statements and responses, including Yes Man Mike Bonanno's feverish, red-eared tirade in a neck brace.

[5] See http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/dow_letters.html. See also http://www.proxyinformation.com/dow/summary.htm and http://www.TRWNews.net/


Again, go to http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/dow/acceptablerisk.shtml to see this corporate outrage for yourself.

More evidence that America is removed from reality

Defense, Prosecution Play to New 'CSI' Savvy
A Prince George's County jury would not convict a man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death because a half-eaten hamburger, recovered from the crime scene and assumed to have been his, was not tested for DNA.

In the District, a jury deadlocked recently in the trial of a woman accused of stabbing another woman because fingerprints on the weapon did not belong to the suspect. An Alexandria jury acquitted a man on drug-possession charges in part because a box containing 60 rocks of crack cocaine that he was accused of tossing from his car during a traffic stop was not tested for fingerprints.

Prosecutors say jurors are telling them they expect forensic evidence in criminal cases, just like on their favorite television shows, including "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
Television may be the most dangerous threat to democracy.

Let me entertain you!

Last night, Saturday Night Live ran a cartoon called The Diverter. The Diverter is a superhero who creates diversions when there is a real crisis in the country. When the talking heads were beginning to discuss the poor state of the economy, the Diverter flew overhead and created some lame celebrity controversy. When the nuclear waste stored under Yellowstone began to mutate and the news anchors began to report it, the Diverter flew over LA and made Jenna Elfman of Dharma and Greg fame(?) the owner of slaves. She was subsequently arrested and the whole nation ignored the mutant nuclear waste problem to discuss Jenna's "slave owning" as well as Mike Tyson's consumption of a dog.

When a formerly respectable news show like Dateline devotes an hour show to the rumored affair between an American Idol contestant and its judge, people watch it. Meanwhile, most of America is blind to the fact that Iraq, which we "liberated", is on the brink of civil war, if it isn't already engaged in one. Let me be the first to say, WE TOLD YOU SO. No exit plan = disaster. Still, no one in America cares.

Similarly, no one cares that our government has become a joke. Dick Meyer has a good analysis of The Wreck of the U.S. Senate in today's WaPo.
The Senate has managed to conduct the business of confirming or rejecting federal judges with relative efficiency and only occasional controversy for some 200 years. That the Senate is now going nuclear (to use its own vocabulary) over this legislative chore is a symptom of a rather serious illness in the upper body. Face it: Giving or withholding consent for judicial appointments is not akin to reversing global warming or ending world hunger. As overheated as the current standoff may be, it is a solvable problem and, worse, a problem of the Senate's own making. What has created the conditions -- and prevents a solution -- for this uber-partisan debacle is a degradation in the culture of the Senate that has grown acute since 1989.
We have shamefully given our institutions away to ideological intersts. I don't care what side of the political spectrum you fall on; both sides have become slaves to interest groups. The US Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIU have way too much influence over our government. Notice their proximity to the White House. (For people who don't know DC, the Chamber of Commerce is directly across the street from the White House, and AFL-CIU is about a church away from being directly across from it.) "The American President" starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning (one of my favorite movies) is a good reflection of the lobby process. I think only political junkies appreciate that movie, though, as nothing blows up in it. I mean, one of the problems was the threat of a massive airline strike. Ooh, exciting, right? Economic destruction is SO boring, isn't it?

Howard Dean was appealing to people because he wants to distance Washington from these special interest groups and give the country back to the people. He woke me up from a deep political disillusionment and made me realize that something was wrong. When he stepped over the line and stood on a stage accepting Gore's endorsement, he lost the election. Righties laugh at him because they need someone to pick on, I guess. They see him as a perfect target. Howard Dean would have done better in the election than Kerry, and a little better could have put the Dems above Bush. But the Washington nitwits in the Democratic party managed to convince the left that he was unelectable. They are so far removed from America that they can't see that America is not interested in Washington politics. I think, though, that they could, we could be persuaded to be interested in American politics. We need a dynamic leader whom an overwhelming majority of Americans will find favor. (Half is not an overwhelming majority.)

American Idol and reality television can't go on forever, right? What is the solution? Barak Obama? He has not only my vote, but I will be there ever step of the campaign. For now, I'll focus my energy on Hillary 2008. After all, weren't the 90s a grand time? Shouldn't we go back to those days of prosperity and PEACE?

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Man kills mother, wears her skin, reads Bible(TM)

KILLER DIRECTS TRAFFIC WEARING MUM'S SKIN
A MAN killed and skinned his mother then draped himself in her skin and stepped out to direct traffic.

The 42-year-old, identified only as RZ, hit her head with a heavy blunt instrument. He then cut her throat and chopped off both her arms.

Then, with a long--bladed meat knife used for filleting meat from bones, he spent eight hours skinning the 76-year-old.

RZ's lawyer said the man committed the murder because he felt he had to make a sacrifice for God.

The court was told: 'He chose his mother because he loved her so much.'

After the killing, the man dressed himself in his mother's skin and took to the streets of Vlaardingen, Holland, on the night of February 4Unbalanced He was seen directing traffic in her skin and dressed in one of her dresses as he recited texts from the Bible, the court heard.

You can have Jesus on a towel!

Bid here!

A reason for legal reform

Windsor, Ontario, hair stylist Waddah (Martin) Mustapha was awarded the equivalent of about US$270,000 by a court in April after he testified that he became racked with depression upon seeing a fly inside a commercial bottle of water at his salon. Presumably, damages would have been more if Mustapha had actually drunk from the bottle (or even opened it). As it was, he and his wife vomited, and he required extensive psychotherapy for nightmares, loss of sense of humor, increased argumentativeness, lack of desire to shower regularly, and constipation. [Windsor Star, 4-23-05]

God is not a Republican or Democrat

More on the Calvin College speech.

I don't know why I am so obsessed with the fact that King George is speaking at this small Evangelical school and has basically snubbed our higher institutions of learning. My favorite part of the commencement speech:
"Some day you will appreciate the grammar and verbal skills you learned here," quipped the president who is not known for his eloquence. "If any of you wonder how far a mastery of the English language can take you, just look what it did for me."
Why must our country continue to mock intelligence?

What's worse is the attack that our universities have come under of late. Jeff Langstraat writes on Culture Kitchen about the way he teaches. He says:
The partisan political framing of academic knowledge production is highly problematic, especially for many of us in the social sciences and humanities. Some of the foundational principles of sociology make us particularly good targets. For instance, our emphasis on inequalities flowing from social causes based in power relationships isn't exactly amenable to a perspective that proposes atomistic individuals who "make it" or fail to based on sheer willpower and effort. Our emphasis that the meaning of any action is contextual and not inherent doesn't sit well with moral absolutists. The call of one of our discipline's founders, Max Weber, to maintain a "respect for inconvenient facts" is one the wingnuts willingly ignore. I wouldn't say that sociology is "liberal" so much as I would say that the ontological assumptions upon which sociology rest have political implications. If you want to study asocial actors making rational choices, study economics or law at the University of Chicago.
I don't think the wingnuts would have a clue what that means.

O'Reilly is a terrorist

It's difficult to believe, but there are still people who listen to O'Reilly. Now he wants Michael Kinsley's head cut off by terrorists. (Note to literal language hawks- he actually said, O'REILLY: "They'll never get it until they grab Michael Kinsley out of his little house and they cut his head off." And maybe when the blade sinks in, he'll go, "Perhaps O'Reilly was right.") Hmm... all because Kinsley says that Gitmo prisoners need legal protections. Let me step out of my left shoe for a minute and try to see his side... no, no, no, can't see it. While I'm out of the left shoe, let me suggest a plausible situation to O'Reilly and see what he says. See, if we continue on with this perpetual state of war that O'Reilly, Dimbaugh, and the like advocate, we will continue to capture people and will need a place to put them. O'Reilly says "kill 'em all". Then I tell him that we need them for information that leads to more terrorists. So he agrees, right? And then I say, where do we put them when Gitmo fills up? Wait, let me put the left shoe back on. I'm just trying to understand how in the world anyone could advocate NOT giving legal protection to people. Are they just going to hang out in limbo forever? I mean, the US gov doesn't consider them prisoners of war, and they say that US protection doesn't apply to them, so what DO they expect to do with them? Do righties honestly think that Gitmo is some limitless prison? Putting the human rights question aside, their stance still doesn't make sense.

Didn't O'Reilly once say that the prisoners are living better in Gitmo than they ever did at home? Someone did. Maybe I'm insane for saying this, but I'd take poverty with freedom any day over indefinite imprisonment.

It's time to do something about Gitmo, but I have no answers.

James Watts thinks he's the majority

Watts' whining about Bill Moyers doesn't change the fact that we don't need to worry about the environment because the Rapture is coming before we could destroy the Earth. Check out the Rapture Index. Liberalism comes in at number 29.

At least we know that the Iraq war has little effect on the Rapture Index, despite the fact that the Index is so high right now. This is because
several categories have reached the point where they cannot go higher. The categories such as ecumenicalism and globalism are at their full state of development. In addition, the "Beast government" category, which pertains to Europe's revival of the Roman Empire, is as high as it can go.
Now let me get back to my crack.

The Whore Lived Like a German

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women?
So where is the proper balance between tolerance and persecution? The German government should be partly blamed for treating the Turks as second class residents, as many of them have been forbidden citizenship. However, blame is not going to solve the problem. Punishment of these schoolkids will help. If they are not punished for fear of "racism," another generation, far worse than this one, will grow up with these religious idiocies in their heads.

Enlisting Turkish cops with proven sensible track records is a start to eliminating the problem. People talk, and if there is someone there to listen, we can understand the full extent of the problem and come up with solutions. Fear is what keeps people from talking about this problem. Trust will come with properly trained cops.

The German government should pass a law categorizing these "honor" murders as a separate class of murders, much like hate crime is categorized in the US. It will distinguish these types of murders from the actions of common thugs and will bring more attention to the problem. Fathers who order their sons to kill their daughters should be punished in the same manner as their sons.

Why are these people in Germany? Were they forced out of Turkey for their extreme beliefs? Perhaps the German government can work out some deportation plan for families whose daughters are in jeopardy?

Bottom line is there are many actions that can be taken that don't overstep the boundaries of tolerance while at the same time move closer to eliminating this religious psychosis that plagues Turkish women in Germany, but action needs to be taken quickly lest these boys who taunt grow up.

Friday, May 20, 2005


This is justice!
posted by Daedalus

Send them to Iran to see what REAL oppression is like

One pro-family leader is worried that American Christians could be facing a new form of inquisition. Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families senses that anti-Christian feelings are on the rise among some segments of America. He says he is concerned that born-again believers could be facing tough days ahead. "I'm concerned about the possibility of real persecution in the United States toward conservative Christians," Bauer states. "Harper's Magazine this week has a cover story entitled 'The Religious Right's War on America.' So there's a lot of rhetoric out there, very hateful rhetoric, aimed at traditional Christian conservatives -- and that can be very dangerous." Many Christian leaders have expressed their worry over the increase in "hate speech" aimed at Christians and the lack of public uproar over it.
Gary, perhaps if you weren't trying to ban everything you don't like, we wouldn't feel the need to defend ourselves from your wrath. I don't like sausage on my pizza, but I am not trying to ban it.

Poor, poor Gary, I'm so sorry that people are coming to arrest Christians and throw them in jail cells for their beliefs. I am so sorry that Christians are being rounded up and executed for their faith. Slaktivist says it best:
In many times and in many places, Christians have faced persecution because of their faith.

The United States in the early 21st century is not such a time and place. Right now, as you read this, people are suffering imprisonment, disenfranchisement and physical harm because they are Christians. None of these people live in the United States.

The United States is a liberal democracy with a Constitution that guarantees freedom of conscience. This makes it a haven against religious persecution for people of all faiths and of no faith. Christians in America enjoy rights and legal protections that Christians in other parts of the world -- China, North Korea, the Sudan -- can only dream of.

The United States is also a country whose culture is shaped by the mores and conventions of its overwhelmingly Christian majority. This culture makes it not only acceptable, but often popular and advantageous for Christians to be outspoken and public with their professions of faith. By culture and convention, Christians in America enjoy privileges and power that their coreligionists in other countries could never dream of. When or where in history was it ever easier to profess Christianity in whatever form you might choose?

And yet scarcely a day goes by, regardless of whether or not it is "Justice Sunday," in which some group of American Christians does not claim that they are facing "persecution."

They dare to use that word.

This is delusional, pathological. These people are insane. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ -- and the brothers and sisters of those Christians facing actual persecution in the world's forgotten corners -- but they are insane.

When protected, privileged and pampered American Christians claim to be facing persecution they spit on the wounds of their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world and in history who have known firsthand what religious persecution really is. They mock not only their fellow Christians in this great cloud of witnesses, but also those of other faiths who have suffered or are, now, today, suffering genuine persecution.

Such a person was recently interviewed on the PBS program "Now." He described both the real, physical suffering he experienced and how his faith in God gave him the strength to endure it:

... Nightmares come, because I stayed five days without food or water, with torture. I always have this feeling, like conscious dreams. Sometimes these scenes appear in front of my eyes, even while I am not asleep.
I put my faith in God. Our strength and our resistance come from our faith in God, especially a person who considers himself not guilty and he is the object of abuse and punishment. There were others who couldn't resist [the torture], and they gave up names of innocent people to trade for their release from prison. But God gave us the strength, and we believe in God. For a truly faithful man, God gives the person the great strength to be patient to endure the pain, abuse and insults that we were subjected to.

The man who described this persecution is named Haj Ali. You may not recognize his name, but you've seen his picture.
Gary, you deserve Iran for a day. Maybe you wouldn't take your freedom for granted.

When it comes to energy, terrorists are our friends

Libya lobbyist holds seat on top U.S. Energy board

Makes you wonder what was in Cheney's energy policy papers...

Oil is colorblind.

Iraqi patriarch slams US evangelicals

Good old evangelical crackheads:
The head of Iraq's largest Christian community has denounced American evangelical missionaries in his country for what he said were attempts to convert poor Muslims by flashing money and smart cars.
I'll give you a dollar if you love Jesus!

This reminds me of a Morman guy I met who had spent a year trying to convert Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Umm... hello? Anyone home in that head of yours?

I guess they laid off the godcrack long enough to realize it wasn't safe to stay in a country in the midst of a civil war, as many of them are leaving.

U.S. continues pursuit of 'unchecked executive power'

An abbreviated summary of the latest report from Amnesty International, titled "Guantanamo and beyond: The continuing pursuit of unchecked executive power." From The Daily Star in Beirut.

Why has this report not showed up in the American media?

The US "pick-and-choose" approach to international law and standards is pathetic. Isn't America supposed to be a nation of principles? Am I allowed to go out and say, I don't like this law, so I am not going to follow it? If I am caught speeding, I am fined for breaking a law I don't like. What is the US government's punishment? I suppose it is that we are losing our competitive edge, but that doesn't affect people like Bush whose policies are the cause of this.

What's more, why is the public not outraged that a nation that preaches freedom and democracy has such a horrendous record on human rights? When are people going to get off their asses, stop watching American Idol, and start being productive members of a democracy? When their kids are drafted? When they are forced to go to church every week? When they are forced to wear gold stars on their clothes? I mean, there has to be a breaking point somewhere, right?

Thursday, May 19, 2005

This is a gem!

The Bible.

The GOP Congress hates our troops

A House committee passed a bill that would limit women's role in combat even further than it is. So, despite the fact that our troops are exhausted and that the military is finding recruiting difficult, the gops pass the bill anyway.

In the Army, women are expected to and do the same training as men. Women have been "in combat" for years with zero problems. Name one time that a mission has been compromised because of gender if you dispute this. Even voice interceptor teams, which sit far from the front lines to monitor radio comms, could come under fire. You mean to tell me that because of my gender, my Arabic language skills are not needed in a combat zone? What's more is that I know many women who kicked men's butts in physical fitness, shooting, and all sorts of "manly" combat skills in the Army.

I am sick and tired of people who have never spent a day of their lives in the military trying to make policy. I'm not saying that only generals should make policy, because that would be disasterous, but we need to have defense policymakers that have a clue about defense. This includes RUMMY, who has destroyed our military TWICE now in his position. Why do the generals hate him? Hmmm...

How long before the rightwing pundits and before Psychobitch Coulter begin to applaud the gops for this policy, which effectively states that they believe women should be in the kitchen baking pies while the men go off to work?

Full WaPo article

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

NY Times to charge to read columnists online

Bye, bye, Thomas Friedman.

Is this 2005 or 1005?

Banned Pregnant Graduate Walks Anyway

Good for her. I bet, though, that the reason she is pregnant is because they don't teach sex ed in her Catholic school.

The kicker? "The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation."

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

USA is not a Christian nation

The Treaty of Tripoli states:
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Authored by American diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, the treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation. The treaty prevented religious war with the North Africans.

Perhaps it is the time to reintroduce this treaty and this line of thinking into American political discourse in light of current events. American foreign relations with the Muslim world began with it.

American Justice

Amen to what Robert Cohen wrote in his column today. I am tired of Americans mistaking revenge for justice. The use of the death penalty in this country has given the word justice an entirely different meaning, leaving us with just a vague notion of the real concept of the word.

The American concept of justice is what allows the Patriot Act to exist, an act which permits the detention of sixteen year old girls for their essays or what makes us feel like we are in a police state when we try to visit places like Independence Hall in Philly. It is this mindset which separates us from the war in Iraq or the lack of a statement of condemnation by our president for the massacre in Uzbekistan. Revenge for 9/11 is still in the fronts of American minds.

We must go back to the beginning, back to Plato's concept of Justice, and work from there. Somewhere, the word Justice became lost in translation. How can we have so little respect for life that we give our government the power to end it? (And those who proclaim they want a "culture of life" are the staunchest proponents of this power!) Is it really television, as Cohen says, that has shaped our concept of Justice? Are we just as barbaric as those who have killed to kill them ourselves?

Justice would be eliminating terrorism, not through killing, but by fixing the problems that create it. We will never eliminate evil; people like Zarqawi will always exist. It is the bane of human existance, the reason religion exists, and the reason that government is necessary. However, we do have the power to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance that are tools for monsters like Zarqawi to use in progressing their agendas. When I say we, I mean people, not only Americans. Americans can do a lot in their position of leaders. We don't need to throw money at others- we can lead with our ideas and our technology. Sadly, the "ideas" that have dominated global discourse are the warmongering policies of the past half century. Our universities have become businesses; our schools are a joke. That is why we must first educate ourselves, but we must start from the beginning.

Bush's "love" for democracy

How often has the right spouted off that freedom rhetoric, laid claim to the democracy movement in the Middle East, or praised Bush for his "love for democracy"? We see time and time again this "love for democracy" only extends to those causes that suit American interests, and we have seen it again this week, when, not only did the administration fail to support the democratic protestors in Uzbekistan, but it also failed to condemn the brutal murder of 500 - 700 people at the hands of the authoritarian regime.

One of the "explanations" for the lack of support is that the Uzbek regime claims the rebellion was begun by Akrimia, a group that the regime accuses of having ties to the terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. This accusation most likely stems from the popularity of Akrimia, which the regime sees as a threat to its power. These types of excuses are expected from dictatorial assholes like Karimov. You know, because unarmed women and children are SUCH a threat...

Is Karimov such an ally in the War on (insert enemy here) that Americans can just look the other way when 700 innocent people are murdered, people whose only crime was demanding freedom? Where is the outrage, people? Where is the outrage?


Please take the time to support the democracy craving people of Uzbekistan this Wednesday at a protest near you.

Where is the missing link?

So the Bush administration knew about the oil for food corruption scandal but did nothing about it. How do we find out if they were actually a part of it? We know DeLay's connections with Naftasib, a known player in the oil-for-food scandal, and we know the Bush campaign still owes $314K to Abramoff, but where is that missing link? How can the oil tycoons of this administration not be connected to such an oil scandal, especially in light of the past good relationship these people have had with Saddam?

Man, I wish I didn't have a job so I could spend more time investigating this. I'll do my best in my spare time.

Monday, May 16, 2005

"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy."

Hmmm... George Lucas may have something here. What happens when democracies turn into dictatorships? Funny, though, the movie was written 30 years ago during the crimes of the Nixon administration.

I'm not a big fan of Star Wars, mostly because of those annoying characters like Ja Ja B... whatever it was called. The themes are good. It's a bit like the Bible in space, you know, good verses evil, temptation, redemption... I wonder if Flagmerica will be able to apply the themes to today's world. They'll probably boycott it as being immoral or something along those lines.

I don't know if the critics are reading too much into the film, but it seems to me that "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy" is a lot like another quote we've heard from you-know-who. At least Anakin can make his subjects and verbs agree.

Philadelphia- birthplace of freedom

I spent the past weekend in Philadelphia, USA, the city of brotherly love and the hometown of Benjamin Franklin, he of the "They who sacrifice essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety." Funny how the birthplace of American liberty and the Constitution resembles a police state. You have to stand in line for tickets to tour Independence Hall, then you are given a specific time to stand in the security line. After an invasive airport-like screening process, you are permitted to enter the building that houses the Liberty Bell. The set up is not impressive. When you have arrived to the small area that actually contains the liberty bell, you must wait for people to get out from in front of it so you can take a photo, then you exit the building to go to Independence Hall. Be careful not to step in the wrong place, however, for the gestapo will scream at you. There is a road that runs right in front of IH, but pedestrians are only permitted to walk in front of the building if they have gone through security.

Once you are inside the security compound, there is no bathroom. They really should put a warning sign before you stand in the security line, because it just doesn't seem possible that you could be confined for an hour without having restroom facilities around. You do have the option of leaving the "secured" area, going to the restroom at the visitors' center, and then waiting in the security line again, though you will most likely miss your tour time if you do that.

I don't know if the security guards are trying to impress the tourists or if they are there to scare people, but they are pretty rude. I know that tourists are irritating; however, they don't need to scream at people like that. I don't understand the need for it all, anyway. If some terrorist freak wanted to take out Independence Hall, a car bomb right in front of it would do the trick. Ditto goes for suicide bombers. It would be quite easy to run up to the building and destroy it regardless of these pervasive security procedures. There just is no common sense in it all.

The police state is alive and well, folks. The irony in this is that American independence was declared from this spot, and our Constitution was written on this spot. What is Liberty if you aren't even free to tour the sacred relics of our nation's founding?

They hate us for our freedom?

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Judge who exonerated Cheney on Exxon payroll

Again?

Amen!

Sirota dug this up:
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

The only thing we have to fear is a rainbow

So, will the people who called us conspiracy theorists take back their evil words now that Tom Ridge has admitted that the Bush administration used the terrorism "alert system" as a means for political gain? Or will they continue to ignore the revelations that have been divulged by so many who were forced out by this adminstration? How much truth does one have to hear before they start to see what is going on? Duh, people. Didn't you notice that the orange level went bye-bye the day after the election???????????? ????????? ???????????? ?????? Yes, lots of question marks for me. I just can't understand how you people honestly believe that 2+2=5!

Boy, reality television sure has affected your capacity to understand what really is reality. Because we all know that when people are trapped on a deserted island, someone comes around and makes you compete with another team in tasks to win Pringles and booze.

Evangelicalism- it's only immoral if someone else is doing it!

Late last October Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took to the pulpit as the featured speaker at a morning service... "I want to share with you some information about how...God has called me to stand in the gap," he declared. "Not only for others, but regarding ethical and moral issues in our country."

For Hager, those moral and ethical issues all appear to revolve around sex: In both his medical practice and his advisory role at the FDA, his ardent evangelical piety anchors his staunch opposition to emergency contraception, abortion and premarital sex.
Ahh... the perfect moral leader.
Hager cast himself as a victim of religious persecution in his sermon. "You see...there is a war going on in this country," he said gravely. "And I'm not speaking about the war in Iraq. It's a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians. It wasn't my scientific record that came under scrutiny [at the FDA]. It was my faith.... By making myself available, God has used me to stand in the breach.... Just as he has used me, he can use you."
However, his ex-wife tells us the truth about his moral convictions.
According to Davis, Hager's public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent. Several sources on and off the record confirmed that she had told them it was the sexual and emotional abuse within their marriage that eventually forced her out. "I probably wouldn't have objected so much, or felt it was so abusive if he had just wanted normal [vaginal] sex all the time," she explained to me. "But it was the painful, invasive, totally nonconsensual nature of the [anal] sex that was so horrible."
Is raping your wife allowed in the Bible(TM)?
"Even though I was trained as a medical specialist," Hager explained in the preface to As Jesus Cared for Women, "it wasn't until I began to see how Jesus treated women that I understood how I, as a doctor, should treat them."
Maybe he should read his Bible(TM)again, because Jesus didn't rape and sodomize women.
Sometimes Hager would blithely shift from vaginal to anal sex. Davis protested. "He would say, 'Oh, I didn't mean to have anal sex with you; I can't feel the difference,'" Davis recalls incredulously. "And I would say, 'Well then, you're in the wrong business.'"
I get it now! They hate sex because they don't know how to do it!
In his private practice back in Kentucky, Hager doesn't prescribe emergency contraception, because he believes it is an abortifacient, and, not surprisingly, his was one of the four votes against widening its availability.
That's because he thinks you can just sodomize a woman if you don't want to get her pregnant.

And the hypocrisy of the evangelical crackheads just keeps coming...

Read about his criminal behavior in the Nation article

Maybe the dress was too revealing...

School suspends boy for wearing prom dress

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. (AP) -- A high school senior who thought it would be funny to wear a dress to his prom was ticketed $249 for disorderly conduct, suspended for three days and banned from his last track meet.

School district administrator Jim Gottinger said the discipline was for more than just the dress, noting Kerry Lofy, 18, was dancing in a sexually provocative manner at the prom, according to a police report.

Lofy doubts that was the real reason he was disciplined Monday.

"The whole night was that kind of dancing. They can't single me out and say, 'Oh it was you, it was only you,'" he said. "I think it's over the dress."

Lofy said Lake Geneva Badger High had no problem letting him go to Saturday's prom with another male, but that school officials drew the line at his dress.

"I thought it would be more appropriate for there to be one person dressed like a girl and a person dressed like a guy, than for there to be two guys to go," said Lofy, a member of the school's track, ski, powerlifting and soccer teams.

Also, he thought people would find it funny to see a 6-foot, 185-pound male in a black, stretchy, spaghetti-strap dress.

When Lofy showed up in the dress, a blond wig, open-toed platform sandals, blue earrings and a necklace, teachers turned him away. He said he showed up later with a tan-and-black plaid leisure suit over the dress, went inside and whipped off the suit during a dance-off. A security guard escorted him out, he said.

Lofy said when he went to school Monday, the school liaison police officer issued the disorderly conduct ticket.

"They thought I was mocking the school," he said.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Has the dumbing down rebounded?

Thanks to Jim Gilliam...
O'Reilly's ratings are in a freefall

A CNN insider wrote in to TVNewser noting O'Reilly's ratings "hemorrhage" since October.

October: 3,166,000
November: 3,080,000
December: 2,610,000
January: 2,478,000
February: 2,391,000
March: 2,320,000
April: 2,178,000
May-to-date: 2,096,000


There is some hope for this country!

The last line is classic

Nixon kin to seek Clinton's Senate seat -Newsweek
Tue May 10, 2005 10:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon, Edward Cox, plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Hillary Clinton, Newsweek reported in its Web edition on Tuesday.

Clinton, a Democrat from New York, faces re-election next year and is mentioned as a likely contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Cox, a New York corporate lawyer and Republican, will argue that he could work better with the Bush administration and that New York state needs bipartisan representation, Newsweek said.

Like Clinton, New York's other senator, Charles Schumer, is a Democrat.

A spokeswoman for Clinton was not immediately available for comment.

Cox married Nixon's daughter, Tricia, in a White House wedding in 1971.

Nixon resigned in disgrace in August, 1974.
We all know that today's gops are the party of Nixon.

I'm ready to travel again
posted by Daedalus


Everyone should see these once in their lives!
posted by Daedalus


Difficult to believe that this is just a few miles from a city of 16 million people, isn't it? At the Giza pyramids in Cairo.
posted by Daedalus


Jesus, Mary, and Joseph allegedly walked down this alley in Cairo
posted by Daedalus

Corporate green (yes, that's an "n", not a "d")

CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, announced that he would double spending on research for cleaner technologies. I hear a gasp! from the left, followed by "what's the catch?
The GE announcement is the most dramatic example yet of a green revolution that is quietly transforming global business. We tend not to see it clearly in the United States, in part because the Bush administration opted out of the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect in more than 140 countries in February. But if you're GE and you do billions of dollars of business in Europe (where all 25 members of the European Union ratified Kyoto) you already have to comply with global environmental policies, regardless of what the Bush administration says. What Immelt did was to apply the rules that shape GE's operations abroad to the company as a whole.
full WaPo article

This is a good demonstration of self-enforcing rules that Dems need to think about when they are making regulatory policies. One of the negative stereotypes of the left (and whether it is still true at this time is up for debate) is that we want government to solve all of our problems. Yes, regulations are necessary, but over-regulation just gives the gops something to whine about.

Dems, let's wake up and start offering incentives for good behavior such as this. Or better, let's come up with ways that we can create self-enforcing mechanisms for similar behavior, such as creating education programs. With these types of mechanisms, unbridled corporatism that enslaves American citizens will be controlled.

Monday, May 9, 2005

English is not a single language

So, would Savage call them retarded? Ahh, no, they're immigrants and shouldn't be here at all, right?

Can you imagine...

The Saudi Arabian government has in place a nationwide, self-destruction explosive system composed of conventional explosives and dirty bombs strategically placed at the Kingdom’s key oil ports, pipelines, pumping stations, storage tanks, offshore platforms, and backup facilities. If activated, the bombs would destroy the infrastructure of the world’s largest oil supplier, and leave the country a contaminated nuclear wasteland ensuring that the Kingdom’s oil would be unusable to anyone. The NSA file is dubbed internally Petro SE, for petroleum scorched earth.
The NSA says this is true.

You can't keep a sick man down...

Al Mutamar Newspaper claims that Zarqawi might be sick or wounded, according to US officials. Apparently, the computer they got when they chased his vehicle, you know, the one he jumped from while it was moving to escape, included information about his health. Officials also say that Zarqawi was seen in a mosque in Anbar where he addressed the audience.

Now, how did they let a sick man jump from a moving vehicle escape?

Church perverts vs. frivolous lawsuits

I'm not sure what to think about this one. See, this is one of those gray areas. The gops should have a difficult time with this, seeing that this is sexual morality verses frivolous lawsuits, a champion cause of the gop and the US Chamber of Commerce.

I think, though, that I'm going to have to side with the church on this one. It is utterly riduculous that a person should come forward 35 years after they have been molested in search of "justice." Justice in these cases usually means money.

The Church could end it's problems by coming up with a training program that is taught to kids about how to report these things. That way, some idiot won't one day come to the "realization" at age 45 that he was molested when he was ten, which has caused all of his problems in life, even though he couldn't remember it for 35 years. Unfortunately, any talk of sex around children is a no-no to cons, so any training program that could be taught in Catholic schools or in CCD classes would never fly with sheltering parents. So Catholics have put themselves into a quandary. Do they open up and start a discussion on sex with their children, or do they continue to keep their mouths shut and let their kids get molested?

This question is black and white to me.

Hindsight is always 20/20 (but Bush's is better!)

Yalta- a necessary evil?

When I was a child, I did not understand the difference between Western and Eastern Europe. I didn't understand why we called it the Soviet Union when it was Russia. I didn't understand why the country was afraid of nuclear war. Frankly, I didn't understand partisan politics. In school, we always ran out of school year by the time we got to World War II. I think this was more of a convenience than anything, for teachers wouldn't have to talk about Vietnam or US Foreign Policy during the Cold War. I guess they thought it was too complicated for us to understand. Back then, there were gray areas, you know?

Bush condemned the Yalta agreement today. His partisanship extends beyond American borders. Why do we never hear him condemning gop support of dictators? Why not go to Iraq and apologize for the Iran contra affair? I hope Hillary will do so when she's prez. I hope she will apologize to the Kurds for the gops' selling of chemical weapons to Saddam. I hope she will apologize to Iraqis for the gops' putting Saddam into power.

I became fascinated with the Cold War in college. It was something new, and it finally explained a lot of the questions I had as a child. It WAS too complicated for a ten year old. It IS too complicated for many adults, including Bush. White is "freedom." Black is "insert enemy here." Being that the world isn't really black and white, the Yalta agreement was a compromise to end a horrendous half century of war. We all know the atrocities of Stalin now, but could we anticipate those back in 1945, when everyone was too tired from the war to think about ideology? Even Stalin wanted peace. Containment was part of the policy even as FDR was inking the treaty. Some people's freedom was limited as a result of desire to end war. Where is the "survival of the fittest" idea that the gops are always tossing around?

I believe in Franklin's statement "They who sacrifice essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." However, the "safety" of Yalta was neither little nor temporary. We knew what the Russians were capable of. We were on the verge of nuclear holocaust even as early as 1945. Although horrifying, the sacrifices made by Eastern Europeans liberated Europe from war, and Europeans don't forget that. Today, the continent that had never really seen peace throughout it's history has been relatively free from war for sixty years, with the notable exception of the Slavic wars of the nineties. (An FDR worshipper took care of that despite the objections of Congressmen who took money from Russian agents to keep Milosevic in power.)

America played a huge role in Europe's division. No one denies that. But it is not right to start blaming others to try to destroy a legacy. FDR liberated the world from war. FDR helped create lasting peace in Europe.

Read Arthur Schlesinger's thoughts on the subject here.

One thing Bush did right:

Bush placed a wreath at the Latvian Freedom Monument, a towering obelisk symbolizing this small country's struggle for independence. While he is unpopular across much of Europe because of the Iraq war, Bush got a warm welcome here.
While celebrating the triumph of the Soviet Union, at least he did not forget to honor those who suffered under it.