The Dusty Dog

What Dicks Do....

2008-12-26T11:29:00.005-05:00

I hate the dubya fuckers. Yup, they're fucking us over with their Midnight Regulations. I hate the fuckers that voted them into office, stupidly thinking that dubya and his dick would somehow serve America's best interests.

Speaking of dubya and his dick..... that's what dicks do. They fuck.

Last Night's Dream

2008-12-14T09:52:00.010-05:00

I had a dream last night. It was about Zuki, the Dusty Dog. I just keep reliving it, over and over. Fact is, I'm consciously trying to relive it. I am trying to remember every last detail about this dream. It's the only way that I can still feel like Zuki is with me. Sure, I have tons of photographs of her. I'm a photographer, after all. But, photographs only take me so far. They enable me to see her as she literally was. They enable me to remember how beautiful she was. They enable me to hold a piece of her forever in my heart.

But, dreams are different. Dreams, when vivid, carry along into the daytime an emotional thread that photos will never do. Granted, dreams distort that life she actually led. But, I don't care. It works for me.

I woke up with a piece of her, a piece of the emotional attachment that we had. And, that is a piece that is so hard to hold onto. It gets diluted over time, whether I want it to, or not. It becomes a memory that I will always and gratefully have, but absent some emotional impact. Maybe, I keep trying to hold onto that emotional impact of the day she died. Nothing is more emotional than that. Nothing. And, as painful as it is, it's a pain that I hold near and dear to my heart. It somehow keeps it a bit real for me.

I know that the same holds true for my brother who died May 3, 1978. That's a long time ago, but a day that I refuse to ever let go. It holds the emotion of my sadness that he died, but also the total love that we had. But, I digress. This article is about Zuki.

The dream was, as most dreams are, quite odd. I dreamed that she was physically disabled, as she was before she died. She was not able to get up on her own. She needed the help of a scarf tied around her rump. Her spinal stenosis robbed her of the strength to push herself up into a standing position. But once up, she could walk.

In the dream, I pulled her up, and she took off into a run with her best buddy, Luka, my friend's German Shepherd. This is where it gets odd. From the view of these two dog's rear ends, as I was running to catch up with them, it was obvious that they were both males; both were intact males. How odd is that? They were two beautiful male German Shepherds running down the street, past houses and other odd events.

Another dream oddness was the three WWII German soldiers who were struggling to fire some kind of archaic and damaged weapon, like a mortar gun, at the two dogs. They escaped the soldiers' efforts, and kept running down the street, me running behind them. And, that's when I woke up. I just stayed in bed, hoping to remember every single detail of the dream, including the houses they ran past and the street trees. That's all I can remember.

Zuki was a very special dog. She was a German Shepherd, but she also was part wolf. She was a human construct of an animal, a beast caught between two worlds. I rescued her from a no-kill shelter, being her fourth owner in her then short 1-1/2 years. She lived to be 7-1/2 years old, being ultimately struck down by a horrific disease that rendered her a quadriplegic, FCE. I already wrote about this in a previous post, dated October 15, 2008.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this. Maybe it's cathartic. I think I just need this little photo blog article about her. Maybe, it's my way of keeping her "alive." I don't know. I'm not sure it matters. It just works for me.

Seasons Greetings, with a Dash of Hope

2008-12-06T09:35:00.013-05:00

I hate this time of year. I really do. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not criticizing religion (at least, not now). I'm just sick and tired and totally disgusted at the commercialism that pervades this time of year. I hate it. It's obscene. It's destructive. It's downright evil.

I do realize that so much of the health of our economy is predicated on how well business, companies and stores succeed in pushing their commercial garbage, but I really think that that minor NOT little issue is maybe what is so critically wrong with our society. We've gone nuts. We're tipping off the deep end. Oh wait...... we already tumbled. Yeah, I wonder why...

Maybe, it's because we put material garbage over the health of children. Maybe it's because we think that the more crapolla we buy, the more American we think we are. People dying in our crumbling streets BE DAMNED. They're not real Americans. Crap! They don't even pay taxes, after all. We can't help them. They don't pay taxes. We can't feed them. They don't pay taxes.

Back to the Christmas season. I always wish the best seasons' greeting to my friends and family, and my coworkers, and my neighbors, and the world. My season's greeting are always about hope for peace in a violent world, hope for health and a humane prosperity, a clean environment free of the toxins of our at present excessive consumption, educational opportunities for all who want and/or need such. The list goes on.

But, one thing I can't quite stomach is the need to go out and buy shit to give to other people, be it family or friends, just to satisfy a seasonal ritual that has nothing to do with Christianity or Judaism or any other religion, and has everything to do with our bloated overindulgent consumoid society, that serves nothing but puts citizens into debt and lines the pockets of traitorous CEOs and politicians. I hate this time of year. I really do.

Oh miggod!!! This little missive is touching on so much, and I haven't even written anything. So, a few of my admittedly simplistic thoughts on the American economy.....

As a society, our economic health, which is the apparent pinnacle of our societal health, is based on consumerism. The more we buy, the more crap has to be made to satify our need to buy. The manufacturers hire more people to make more crap to sell. They flood the markets with the crap and then they spend megabucks on advertising to remind us how badly we need all their crap. It's a cyclic exercise in destruction, as the making of the crap uses energy we can ill afford to use, pollutes our precious environment, and fills our landfills with packaging and all of yesterday's crap.

Speaking of yesterday's crap.... About 20 years ago, I worked with a man from India. He made a very insightful observation about the differences between the American and the Indian societies. In America, labor is expensive, but items are cheap. Therefore, we Americans have developed a throw-away society, needing to always manufacture more stuff using cheap materials to replace, rather than fix damaged older stuff. Cars are a prime example of this, as are other appliances, like washing machines, toasters, etc. Appliances and large ticket items have become disposable, and likely include a planned obsolesce so they require the purchasing of new items sooner, rather than later.

In India, however, materials were very expensive, but labor was cheap. Indians couldn't afford to buy new stuff, because the material to make it was crazy expensive. So, they fixed everything. A car, according to my coworker, would last for 300,000 miles before it had to be replaced. This was the same with all other kinds of appliances and "fixable" items. Unlike India, Americans want to replace their cars, computers and appliances as soon as new models role off the assembly lines.

Well, manufacturers apparently found the best of both worlds. They got their cheap materials from America, shipped it overseas to the far east, India, Malaysia, China, where ever, and now could build their crap for cheap labor. Didn't matter that the labor was exploitative, or that they were trashing the environment of their cheap laborers' neighborhoods, or that they ruined the American economy by reducing the manufacturing base to skeleton-like crews. Didn't matter, at all. They made profits hand over fist. They made out like bandits. Yup, the bandits that they really are. A bunch of crooked, self-serving, now hugely and obscenely wealthy individuals that are laughing all the way to the bank. And, to add insult to injury, they even convinced dirtbag politicians that somehow their "free trade" initiatives were helpful, so they got tax breaks for their criminal efforts. Tax breaks so huge that they actually avoided paying any taxes at all. It was/is so cheap to do business "overseas" that it no longer even made any sense at all to keep manufacturing jobs in America.

Well, in my opinion, they're all a bunch of traitors, including the band of deregulators that enabled this fleecing of America. Dubya and his dick certainly come to mind. Phil Fucking Graham, too. They put America up for sale, for cryin' out loud. And, they've made a fortune doing it. There are laws against profiting from public office, but these dirtbags are apparently above the law. They've sold us all down the river. It's really quite sad.

In just over a month, Obama will take office. He is planning the largest public works initiative in over 50 years. He is going to get people working again so that they can have roofs over their heads, food on their tables, and boost the economy by buying more crap. Oh no! More crap??!!!

I dunno. I think a huge paradigm shift has to take place here. A shift that removes that concept that consumerism is the pinnacle of our economic wealth, and make it where the health of the people themselves are the basis of our economic health. Education is a key, and medical care, infrastructure, environmental health, and reduced energy consumption, are just a few of what I see to be critically important building blocks of a health society. I am holding out great hope for Obama. My hope is that he will institute a model of governing that tosses, finally for cryin' out loud, fucking Reagonomics, the voodoo economic model that was the beginning of the financial crisis we are in today. I continue to hold Obama Hope for the future. He's all we've got right now.

It Ain't Pretty

2008-11-16T08:41:00.014-05:00

Dear Goddess, where to start?

There are two issues that are weighing heavily on our society right now that hit very close to home for me. Unfortunately, both are akin to little canaries, indicative of where our society is today, and where we are on a political scale. It ain't pretty.

First is the blatant racism that has emerged under the election of Barack Obama. The second is the passage of the hate legislation making it illegal for gays and lesbians to marry. Both issues are examples of a frustrated and hateful segment of our society that is hell-bent on criminalizing otherwise legal and human feelings and activities. But, closer look of these two issues, and the closer look at who is perpetrating such hate brings me to a single conclusion: it's the same segment, the same haters, the same racist, homophobic community and their leaders who are complicit in this hate.

And, make no mistake about it.... the hate of gays and lesbians is as much a civil rights issue, as it is with race relations. Thousands and thousands of people across the country marched to denounce the passage of anti-gay sentiment, including the passages of anti-gay marriage legislation in three states this past November 4th election. Per the NYTimes online, "The demonstrations — from a sun-splashed throng in San Francisco to a chilly crowd in Minneapolis — came 11 days after California voters narrowly passed a ballot measure, Proposition 8, that outlawed previously legal same-sex ceremonies in the state. The measure’s passage has spurred protests in California and across the country, including at several Mormon temples, a reflection of that church’s ardent backing of the proposition." The passage of these legislative initiatives are clear examples of where hate is actually condoned and institutionalized by our society. Rather than spend the necessary effort to make this an inclusive and tolerant society, fat and lazy politicians defer to the prevalence of hate in our society, and allow such laws to be passed. These bums are more than just lazy, though. Their own hate is effectively muted by their collective claim that it was the choice of the majority. This, rather than taking on the issue of hate by its ugly horns. It's really sad.

News services are reporting all over this country that incidents of hate are on the rise, as pointed out by this AOL news article, "... just as many of us can feel proud of a country so enlightened that its majority can elect a minority to the highest office of the land, we must not shy away from the uncomfortable fact that a significant number of Americans dislike Obama based, first and foremost, on the color of his skin." It's a sentiment I will never, in a million years, understand.

Also, in this Yahoo article, Obama has more threats than other presidents-elect, "Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a "free public hanging." In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus." As you can clearly see here, the hatred for Obama is not only predicated on their disdain for liberals and progressives. It's mired in the good 'ol hate of the black man. None of this is a surprise, I suppose. On the contrary, it's kind of expected, unfortunately.

But, here on Long Island, NY, where racism is overt and rampant, and Hispanic immigrants are prevalent, these immigrants are taking a huge brunt of this hate. Patchogue experienced the death of a hardworking and young Ecuadorean at the hands of seven high school students for the sole reason that he was Hispanic. Marcelo Lucero was an immigrant. It didn't matter whether he was legal or illegal. That was not at issue in this horrific murder. These arguably "upstanding" good students went out last week to do one thing: "beat up a Mexican."

Now, we're forced to confront this racism head on. Miggod! It's been apparent for years. As this Newsday article points out, "In nine years, Suffolk's gone from battling day laborers to batting illegal immigrants to battling Hispanics to having our children hunt "beaners."" It should have been confronted years ago. It should be part of school curriculum, starting at very early ages, to teach tolerance and inclusiveness. But, given how lazy we are, as a society, we look the other way until a boy dies at the hands of racist aggressors. It's hard to ask the family of this Ecuadorean immigrant to hope that society will maybe learn something from his death. If I was that boy's mother, I'd not be so forgiving.

So, who the hell are these haters? What makes them hate so much? Is it so simple to say that these hateful individuals need to put down someone in order to falsely elevate their own perceived standings in this world? I cannot answer these questions. I am not a sociologist, a student of this issue. All I can do is stand against hate, fight the institutionalization of hate, and work to teach the children well, as advocated by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance agenda.

I think that the reality is that society will have learned nothing from this killing in Patchogue. I don't know. Call me negative, and without hope. It's hard to hold such hope in my heart right now. Honestly, I thought that the election of Barack Obama would elevate the issue to a higher standing, put it up front right away. Maybe, this is what this "elevation" looks like right now. It ain't pretty.

Obama Hope

2008-11-08T15:14:00.008-05:00

As I bask in the sunshine that is streaming down upon us by the Obama win, I read with curiosity today's article in the NYTimes, The Return of John McCain, But Which One?. I really don't understand why people think there are two McCains. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one, and has only ever been only one. He's the same pandering, sleazy excuse for a human being who somehow convinced people that there is some kind of noble side to him. In my opinion, he has no noble side.

This is the same McCain who graduated fifth from the bottom - 894th out of a class of 899 at Annapolis. Being a lazy, drunken sot must have had something to do with it.

This is the same McCain who got as far as he did, even while crashing three (or was it four?) fighter jets (before the one that ended him up as a POW), because daddy was a admiral who could pull strings.

This is the same McCain who only entered politics because he couldn't get four stars like his daddy.

This is the same McCain who was complicit in the Keating 5 scandal.

This is the same McCain who unapologetically continues to support the boondoggle called the Iraq invasion.

This is the same McCain who celebrated his birthday with cake on an airstrip with dubya while New Orleans drowned.

And, this is the same McCain who thinks that Obama pals around with terrorists, is unAmerican, is a socialist, and stupidly fell for the Joe the Plumber scam. Geez.......

This is the same McCain that Rolling Stone calls the Make-Believe Maverick for all of the things I listed above, and then some. Per that article, "The myth of John McCain hinges on two transformations — from pampered flyboy to selfless patriot, and from Keating crony to incorruptible reformer — that simply never happened. But there is one serious conversion that has taken root in McCain: his transformation from a cautious realist on foreign policy into a reckless cheerleader of neoconservatism."

There's only one John McCain, and he's a pandering, rightwing hack who continues to support deregulation while the banks and Wall Street laugh all the way the the US Mint. John McCain is a war hawk who is still submerged in the hate of the Vietnam era and the excesses of his unregulated buddies.

But, back to the NYTimes article..... "Some of the hatchets are quickly being buried. Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat and Senate majority leader, spoke by telephone with Mr. McCain on Friday; according to an aide, they agreed to put the attacks of the last few months behind them. Mr. Reid, who for months during the campaign had carried with him a set of negative quotes about Mr. McCain from fellow Republicans to have ready for recitation, plans on ripping up the quotes, said his spokesman, Jim Manley."

I don't know how people just "bury the hatchet" and pretend that John McCain is something that he's not. But unfortunately, Congress is made up of so many other John McCains that if they don't look the other way so as not to see McCain's very ugly personality, they'd essentially be condemning themselves.

The challenge for Obama, among all the mess that the dubya regime will leave him, will be to figure out how to work with all the Congressional dirtbags. Was he, after all, one of them? I don't think so. Thank the goddess for the new Democratic majority! I am still being showered with Obama Hope.

Victory!

2008-11-05T00:00:00.006-05:00

The republicans got spanked tonight. McStupid will likely not make 200 electoral votes, given that Obama has 338 right now. The republicans represent a dying cause, an era gone by, an America that no longer exists. His America, as seen by the crowd at his concession speech was a lily white bunch of losers who will never get it. That mindset is now in the minority. That mindset is now irrelevant.

History was made tonight.

Obama's rally is truly representative of what this nation is comprised of today. I am struck with awe. I never thought I'd live to see the day that a man of African decent would inhabit the White House. In fact, I have this vision of his girls running around there, and my heart swells. The stage they are on right now, Grant Park in Chicago, is comprised of two families, the Bidens and the Obamas. The stage is as gloriously mixed as the people in the crowd. I am so proud.

I am so proud

Toast, Burned Toast & TheTaste of Victory

2008-11-02T14:36:00.005-05:00

As of this morning, FiveThirtyEight has Obama beating out McStupid 332.9 to 205.1 electoral votes. After watching this morning's George Stephanopolis roundable, all of the panels are predicting an Obama win of approximately 240-250 electoral votes. Makes me wonder..... Given that there are 538 electoral votes to be had, will McStupid even get 200 votes? I'm guessing not. He's toast. His lipstick is burned toast. An Obama/Biden victory will be so sweet regardless.

Restoration of Faith and Trust

2008-11-02T08:59:00.008-05:00

I came across this story today, and I find it horrifying. I hope that one of the first orders of Obama's first days in office will be to rescind the two executive orders signed by the dubya regime. (I think it's pretty safe to say that if McStupid is elected, he would do nothing, and in fact, likely support this fascist piece of garbage.) I look forward to the restoration of Constitutional rights in this country of ours under an Obama/Biden administration. I look forward to the restoration of sanity in the Oval Office.

I got this from the Project Censored website. It's a wealth of information about the subversive activities that go on at the hands of government, at the hands of corporations, at the hands of lobbyists, and with a free pass from the press, the Fourth Estate.

An exerpt is included below. I encourage everyone to read it, then go to the site to read the entire story. What I find striking about it, other than the absolute unconstitutionality of this order, is that the investigation report was written in 2007, but it is still worthy of making onto Project Censored top unreported stories of 2009. Scary stuff.

Seizing War Protesters’ Assets

President Bush has signed two executive orders that would allow the US Treasury Department to seize the property of any person perceived to, directly or indirectly, pose a threat to US operations in the Middle East.

The first of these executive orders, titled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq,” signed by Bush on July 17, 2007, authorizes the Secretary of Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, to confiscate the assets of US citizens and organizations who “directly or indirectly” pose a risk to US operations in Iraq. Bush’s order states:

I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined 1) to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq . . . or 2) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order . . .

Section five of this order announces that, “because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine . . . there need be no prior notice of listing or determination [of seizure] . . .”

On August 1, Bush issued a similar executive order, titled “Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions.” While the text in this order is, for the most part, identical to the first, the order regarding Lebanon is more severe.

More here.

As Barak Obama and Joe Biden transition into their new roles, I'm sure they'll have a host of issues and just plain evil executive orders to roll back. I'm sure this is but one of many (think signing statements). Having posted this, and feeling somewhat secure that Obama will do everything within his power and judgment to end the Iraq debacle, thereby rendering protests against the Iraq war unnecessary. I sure hope so. But, I think that every single little piece of unconstitutional legislation and executive orders that were the products of the worst and most fascist regime ever to inhabit the Oval Office must be rescinded. It's Step One (or very close to it). It's a matter of restoring faith and trust in our government for all Americans and the rest of the world.

Where's The Outrage?

2008-11-01T10:01:00.007-04:00

When I first read the article about McStupid busing in 4,000 Florida school children into his rally to fill a 6,000 person venue (if that's what it was), I found it amusing that the low-life candidate of the republican party just can't get enough people at his rallies, while Obama can't fit everyone who shows up into his. I do find it amusing.

On second thought, however, I find it to be outrageous. If I was a parent of one of those kids, I'd be outraged. Of course, given my political bias, getting bused to a McStupid rally would be the worst. But, getting bused to any political rally, including an Obama rally, is an outrage. In this particular case, "The entire 2,500-student Defiance School District was in attendance, the official said, in addition to at least three other schools from neighboring districts, one of which sent 14 buses."
Fourteen buses??!! Was this an appropriate use of anyone's school tax dollars? What about the separation of politics and education, particularly for grade schools? If I was a parent of one of those children, I'd sue the ass off McStupid, his campaign, his advisors, and the school district. As a matter of fact, I'd absolutely insist, via court order if necessary, that the McCain camp show how they paid for this venture. If they didn't, they'd damned well better. I'd make that part of the law suit settlement. Where's the outrage? Where's the ACLU?

As a parent (my two children are grown now), I sent my kids to school under the assumption that they were relatively safe, hopefully learning, essentially handing over the responsibility of them to the Board of Education, the school district from where I live. If I found out later that my children were then plucked from that school setting to fill a political venue, I'd be livid. This McStupid stunt goes beyond the pale. It's a violation of trust. It's inappropriate beyond belief.

I would think that this would go without saying, but apparently nothing goes without saying. These are CHILDREN! Children in their formative years, not yet old enough to make mature decisions. For cryin' out loud!!! They were sent to school, for cryin' out loud. To learn, for cryin' out loud. Not to be used as props for a political rally. Where's the outrage?

And, not for nothin', but I'd bet dollars to donuts that if it was the Obama camp who bused in the children (which I trust they'd never even think of doing), the republican dirtbags would be on a tear about how the liberals are trying to steal the minds of the children by turning them into socialist automatons. I'd guarantee that.

For anyone that's interested, I did a bit of google digging, and came up with these images of the rally, and worse yet, the actual text that the school district put on the site.

John McCain Visits Defiance
October 30, 2008

Defiance students were extremely fortunate to see our political process in action when Presidential Candidate John McCain visited our city. Every child had the opportunity to attend the rally held in front of the Middle School/Junior High Complex. It was an educational experience that will be long remembered.

I continue to be amazed at the depths that the McStupid camp will plumb to maybe eek out a victory next week. I continue to be amazed at what our society allows them to get away with. I continue to be totally amazed, and outraged.

DRILL, Baby, dri.......

2008-10-31T08:39:00.003-04:00

I found this article in the Smirking Chimp. It's too good to pass up...

Palin calls for oil drilling while speaking at solar panel plant
submitted by classwarfare on October 30, 2008 - 1:08pm

click to view article from ap.google.com

Palin spoke after touring Xunlight Corp., one of a handful of solar technology startup companies in Toledo, a struggling industrial city in this swing state. The city's leaders are hoping that the solar companies will create jobs to replace some of those lost by downsizing in the auto industry.

But Palin made only a passing reference to solar power in her speech and instead renewed her call for more drilling in U.S. coastal waters. She repeated her signature anthem, "drill, baby, drill," which seemed to fall a bit flat on the audience at the plant even as it's become a popular chant at her rallies.

Ideological Stupidity

2008-10-30T18:18:00.007-04:00

I just continue to be amazed that anyone can possibly buy into McStupid's tax plan. He calls for tax cut. So does Obama. But, the differences are vast. Completely ideological opposites.

Obama has stated in a recent rally, including yesterday, I believe, that McStupid's plan calls for $200 billion in tax breaks for corporations, including $4 billion to oil industries. Was that hyperbole on Obama's part? Apparently not.

According to CNN Political Ticker's Fact Check

The Statement:
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, speaking in Canton, Ohio, on October 27, referred to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's tax plans and said, "It's not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations or $4 billion to the oil companies."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Verdict: True. Obama's statement accurately reflects two studies of McCain's tax proposals.

Two days later, on October 30, 2008, CNBC's Exxon Mobil posts biggest US quarterly profit ever is published. Per the article,

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported income Thursday that shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.

Combine this with the fact that major corporations already don't pay taxes. This from the Huffington Post,

In a stunning report released by the United States Government Accountability Office in July 2008, Americans learned that many corporations, including those with assets over $250M, reported no tax liabilities. In fact, from 1998-2005, 72% of foreign-controlled domestic corporations (FCDC's), and 55% of US-controlled corporations (USCC's), reported zero tax liability for at least one of those years.

In total, two-thirds of the corporations doing business in the U.S. paid no taxes from 1998-2005, while collectively reporting $2.5 trillion dollars in sales.

John McCain's official website would make it seem as if corporate taxes are somehow crippling American business.

I don't know how McStupid's proposal can pass the straight face test given that CNBC article and the GAO report. If, after the past eight years of dubya's trickle down tax policies hasn't convinced people that it's a pile of hooey that accomplishes only one task - transfer money from the middle class to the very wealthy - then I am not sure what anyone can say or do to convince those that vote for McStupid, particularly those of the lower or middle class, that they're absolutely voting against their own self interests. There has to be something else at play here. Maybe, the answer is just very simple. They're stupid. They're incurious, ignorant, and just plain ideologically stupid. I know this is harsh, but I just don't know what else to say.

The Undecided

2008-10-29T15:34:00.008-04:00

You gotta wonder.... Who the hell are they? Well, I had a conversation with one this week. She really hasn't made up her mind yet. Huh???

When I asked her what she was confused about, her response was typical to what I've been hearing - "I hate them both." In my opinion, of which I have many, that's such a ignorant and mindless answer. It's a cop out. It means that all she is basing her decisions upon are the TV sound bites. If that's all you've got, of course you're gonna hate them both. They are trashing each other, McStupid way more than Obama (another opinion of mine), that all you'll hear is negative crap.

I asked her what she "hated" about both of them. Her response, again quite typical - "They both are horrific liars." "OK," I said,"So putting aside the exaggerations and hyperbole that they are both guilty of, what exactly is Obama lying about?" All she could come up with was Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright, and Wright's hatred of white people.

Amazing. Another person who was participating in this conversation piped in, "That's nonsense." She had read some of Wright's sermons, and heard him speak, and she did not read or hear anything that indicated any across the board hatred of white people, the way the McStupid camp portrayed him to do, and want the electorate to believe." I concurred, as I also read and heard him speak. I stated that what the McStupid camp quoted of Wright was taken completely out of context to make him out to be a hateful bigot, and in fact, what Wright was preaching was his disdain for the horrific treatment that blacks have had to endure at the hands of whites.

I find it hard to believe that anyone in McStupid's camp really believes that Wright is practicing this concept of "reverse" racism, but they don't care. They know that if they continue to spew this garbage, the Obama camp must remain silent, or else they, the Obama camp, will be accused of racism. It's truly a catch 22 for the Obama campaign.

When I see the campaign rallies on TV (I've not been to any in person), the differences in the attendees is striking. Obama's rallies are truly a representation of our melting pot, multiracial society. There is a sea of people of all races, attending the rallies by the tens of thousands. The McStupid rallies always have a single black person strategically located right behind the candidate who is doing the yakking, so the camera will capture him, and it's virtually always a him (I've never seen a her). Those rallies are a sea of white people, all a single one thousand of them. My tendency is to say, "Draw your own conclusion." But, I am taking the next step, as I have already drawn the conclusion, of which I share herein. Believe me, this is not something I've noticed alone. There is a lot of discussion on the internet already about this very issue.

I'll start with McCain. Per Capitol Hill Blue,

McCain loved to tell jokes about lesbians, blacks, Hispanics and the Vietnamese community that occupied a large section of Arlington County, Virginia, just south of the District of Columbia.

Of course, McCain didn't use polite language in the jokes: He used names like "fags" or "queers" or "dykes" or "niggers" or "spics" or "wetbacks" or "gooks."

Feel free to read more from that article, as it has lots of other links and specific examples of the racist pile of crap that McStupid really is. It's really telling of who and what the republican party is and represents if they think that this poor excuse for a human being is the best they have to represent their party. There's plenty more where that came from. Just do a search on the words "McCain racist" and you'll get lots of hits. Miggod, it's just sickening.

Sarah Palin is her own racist bitch. This from the LA Progressive

Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.

Again, read more of this article and again put "Palin racist" into a google search, and you'll get many hits. Again, it's just sickening.

Back to my conversation with the undecided. When the only thing that she could come up with when I asked her about any Obama lies was the Jeremiah Wright issue, which of course had nothing to do with any Obama lies, my only conclusion is that she's going to vote for McStupid. She can do nothing else. Although I have always liked this person, and still do, I do believe she is a racist. I think that she doesn't even realize she's a racist, and certainly would never admit it, if she did. But, she is. Period. And sadly, I do believe that she is very likely representative of lots of undecided voters. Unquestioning, incurious, and subconsciously (at the very least) racist. It is a very sad reality of our American society.

Having written all of this, I am so hopeful that Obama will win. Aside from the fact that I do believe that he is America's best hope for progress, fairness, and respect (to undo the past eight years of the dubya and his dick regime) for our country, he will also be a role model for black people to look up to, and for white people to hopefully realize that being black does not diminish, in any way, a person's stature as a human being. That's my hope in this election.

Images:
Decision 2008 - http://current.com/items/89399625_who_really_are_these_undecided_voters
White/Black Hands - http://bolsonon.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/racist-the-latest-version-of-gotcha-politics/
McCain Rally - http://entequilaesverdad.blogspot.com/2008/08/relative-enthusiasm.html
Sarah Palin - http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1155/527062966_cc0f58daa3.jpg
Obama Hope - http://obamamedia.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/high-quality-obama-wallpapers-and-signs/

The Horrors of an Obama Presidency.....

2008-10-29T07:36:00.010-04:00

.... NOT!! Oh, the thought......

If Obama is elected, we're going to see:

1. Civil discourse in the White House for the first time since 2001.

2. A president who actually reads books and is curious about the world around him for the first time since 2001.

3. Respect on the world stage for the first time since 2001

4. A White House cabinet made up of competent, intelligent people, instead of losers and cronies for the first time since 2001.

5. The possibility of a competent and fair Supreme Court justice pick, instead of an extremist whack job, for the first time since 2001.

6. A truly compassionate administration, instead of the bogus "compassionate conservatism" that we've seen in the White House for the past 8 years.

7. Restoration of civil liberties as described (and one would have thought required) in the Bill of Rights, from what was eroded during the past 8 years.

8. A real, plausible discussion of how to end the Iraq debacle, thereby bringing our troops home, and restoring $10 billion a month back into the American economy.

9. Consideration of health care for all Americans, instead of continuing to base fair health care solely on employment.

The list goes on and on. I'm shaking in my boots. The excitement has me obsessing. Now, look at that list above, consider what I'm very likely missing, and think about what it would be under a McStupid administration. That would be the real horror.

As The Race Tightens......

2008-10-28T07:51:00.003-04:00

I found this graphic on the Randi Rhodes message board this morning. Credit goes to someone named RoyPDX. I love it.

The Dusty Dog

2008-10-27T18:47:00.008-04:00

As I resurrect my blog, I feel compelled to start with an article about the Dusty Dog. In lots of ways, she was the inspiration for this blog, and one thing I noticed as I was looking at the dates of my last articles is that I basically stopped writing here when she fell ill in May 2007. I did try to come back, but I guess I wasn't ready. I am now.

This article is a tribute to that great dog.

Those of you who are reading this who never knew Zuki, the Dusty Dog, have probably already surmised that she is deceased. After falling ill in May with severe arthritis in her lumbar spine, she required surgery to get her walking again. That surgery was a resounding success. But, after about six weeks, she went down again. This time, her diagnosis was fibrocartilagenous embolism (FCE) of her cervical spine. It rendered her, a 110 lbs German Shepherd/wolf mix, a quadriplegic. Zuki was humanely euthanized on July 18, 2007.

The name of this site is my tribute to her. As I was developing this blog in 2005, I was sitting at my computer trying to come up with a clever name for the blog, when she came into the house from her den under the front porch. I hated that she went under there. She always came out filthy. Anyway, when she walked in, I put my hand on her back, resulting in a huge cloud of dust that flew up into the room. My site was named.

When I adopted her from a shelter, she was only 1-1/2 years old, and I was her fourth owner. She was a mess. A gigantic scared, untrained and I do believe, a dangerous animal. I really started to think that I bit off more than I could chew. But, if she and I could not make it work, I promised her that she'd never spend another day in a shelter. I promised her that I would drive her out to Minnesota to a wolfdog rescue facility, if necessary. And so the challenge began.

First, she had to learn how to not hate or fear men. That was the most dangerous aspect of her behavior. It took a ton of work, and many men who I managed to coerce to test her as I trained her. She always continued to hate/fear the men whom she first met when I got her, though newer acquaintances were more acceptable to her. She also had to learn how to ride in a car. Her fear of cars was inexplicable, though I'm sure her car sickness had something to do with it. She had to learn basic commands - walk on a leash, sit, down, stay, come, and of course, paw. She was a quick study, but she was also strong willed. She knew what I wanted, but teaching her that obedience was not optional was the challenge. She had to learn not to chew on my electronics (palm pilot, TV remote, cell phone). But, the most goddess awful challenge was overcoming her horrifically severe separation anxiety. All in all, the training took two years, and two trainers. I think I was the challenge for trainers more than the dog.

Zuki was a gorgeous dog. She was a wolf hybrid, mixed with German Shepherd, and I think the most shepherd part of her was her ears. Pure shepherd. Her body, her size, her coat were all wolf. And, she shed like a wolf. She blew her coat twice a year, big clumps of fur hanging onto her, and piles and piles of fur brushed off of her. She was a fur machine.

Zuki was also very intimidating looking. I felt safe with her at my side and in my house. I knew what most people didn't - that her wolf nature made her a terrible watch dog. She rarely barked. If she felt threatened, her leary, shy wolf nature predominated, which meant that her nature was to shy away from challenges. I'm not sure how she would have done if we, I would have been seriously threatened. I like to think she would have protected me. I don't know. We were never tested.

As Zuki lay on the floor the day she died, I told her that I was supposed to use her as an ambassador to instruct people that crossing wolves and dogs is an awful thing to do. Zuki would have been a good ambassador. She had clearly straddled both worlds. She always had this feral thing going on. She was independent, proud, and confident. But, she was also a dog. She was dependent, proud and confident. She was a wolf first, I think, and a dog second. Her wolfness predominated, but she had to live in a human/dog world. For all that I truly believe is wrong with cross breeding these animals, I also feel honored to have spent five years of my life with one. I was honored to spend five years with a wolf, and with a huge, gorgeous pet. We learned our places in the house, and clearly I was alpha. Otherwise, I think she would have been living in Minnesota.

Zuki was my project and my challenge. She gave me an enormous sense of accomplishment. I know in my heart that we rescued each other. She changed my life when she came into it, and she changed it when she left, as I changed hers. I miss her more than anyone can imagine. Over a year later, I still cry. I am crying now.

Time To Resurrect My Blog

2008-10-27T07:47:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been totally preoccupied with my photography. But, now that we're one week from Election Day, and Barack Obama will very likely be elected as our next president, I think I'd love to start weighing in again.

So, I need to fix my banner. Fix my links. New links, new pics, and just some same ol' fashioned political hammering. It's cathartic for me, I guess. The need to vent, and the need to share what I learn to my very limited audience of readers is important to me. And, it's fun!

Stay tuned....

Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil

2007-05-27T07:01:00.000-04:00

For those who may have missed this, I reprint, in it's entirety, this Truthout article. It's important that everyone know why the US is really in Iraq, and what is the primary mission there. Not that this is new news. But, the fact that Benchmark No. 1 so brazenly points that out, and is what was really passed this past week by Congress, does make it new news. I'm sorry. As much as I support a raise in the minimum wage, another provision of this bill, it's just not worth Benchmark No. 1. It's a hellava way to rationalize an otherwise really bad bill. Please read:

What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies

By Ann Wright
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

Saturday 26 May 2007

On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it "supporting the troops." I call it stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The "benchmark," or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.

This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)

No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years. The $12 billion dollar "Support the Troops" legislation passed by Congress requires Iraq, in order to get reconstruction funds from the United States, to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts.

What does this "Support the Troops" legislation mean for the United States military? Supporting our troops has nothing to do with this bill, other than keeping them there for another 30 years to protect US oil interests. It means that every military service member will need Arabic language training. It means that every soldier and Marine would spend most of his or her career in Iraq. It means that the fourteen permanent bases will get new Taco Bells and Burger Kings! Why? Because the US military will be protecting the US corporate oilfields leased to US companies by the compliant Iraqi government. Our troops will be the guardians of US corporate interests in Iraq for the life of the contracts - for the next thirty years.

With the Bush administration's "Support the Troops" bill and its benchmarks, primarily Benchmark No. 1, we finally have the reason for the US invasion of Iraq: to get easily accessible, cheap, high-grade Iraq oil for US corporations.

Now the choice is for US military personnel and their families to decide whether they want their loved ones to be physically and emotionally injured to protect not our national security, but the financial security of the biggest corporate barons left in our country - the oil companies.

It's a choice for only our military families, because most non-military Americans do not really care whether our volunteer military spends its time protecting corporate oil to fuel our one-person cars. Of course, when a tornado, hurricane, flood or other natural disaster hits in our hometown, we want our National Guard unit back. But on a normal day, who remembers the 180,000 US military or the 150,000 US private contractors in Iraq?

Since the "Surge" began in January, over 500 Americans and 15,000 Iraqis have been killed. By the time September 2007 rolls around for the administration's review of the "surge" plan, another 400 Americans will be dead, as well as another 12,000 Iraqis.

How much more can our military and their families take?

Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army and US Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She served 16 years in the US diplomatic corps in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Micronesia and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.

Griles, Repugs, NOT Gale Norton Too, and Dogfish Head

2007-03-25T00:24:00.000-04:00

I think this is amazing stuff. Call it progress if you will, but I call it "it's about freakin' time" on two counts. First of all, Steven Griles has pled guilty. Second, the press is finally reporting stuff that the dubya dummies aren't happy about, and I'm sure it's because we now have a democratic congress. Lots of people seem to think that it doesn't make a squat of difference whether a person is a dem or a repug. I think it does, and particularly now.
[Geez, I'm having a hard time typing..... one beer and I'm toasted... Yea, Dogfish Head!!!)

I digress...............

Griles pled guilty for "testifying falsely before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on November 2, 2005, and during an earlier deposition with the panel's investigators on October 20, 2005." This according to CNN. As I said, two counts. A double whammy. I wrote about this miserably despicable piece of crap in January 2006, in an article called NOT Gale Norton, Too. The writing certainly was on the wall. But, I bet dollars to donuts, if the House and Senate stayed in Repugs' control, this story would have never seen the light of day. Either Griles never would have been prosecuted, and/or the press would not have bothered to write about it. So yes, boys and girls, it does make a difference. Dems in control of the House and Senate, in control of Congress in its entirety, seems to be bringing some modicum of sanity and accountability back to Washington.

Let's not forget, in all this excitement, that Gail Norton, former Secretary of the Interior, appointed by the dumbya dickwad himself, was Griles' boss. There's no way that I could ever believe that Norton is not complicit in the seedy transactions between Griles and Abramoff. Remember, folks, when Abramoff went down, Norton quietly resigned her post. Gee wizzakers, I wonder why? So, when is that dirtbag-ess going to get indicted?

Let's not get carried away here. DC is still a cesspool of corruption on so many levels, no doubt. But, I do believe that the Dems are more about maintaining their control and their jobs, thereby hovering ever so close to that fine line of corruption, but at least maybe, maybe some of them staying on the good side, whereas the repugs, in their ultimate desire for that selfish, self-serving, and self-enriching power grab, coupled with a virtual lack of concern for society at large, have almost in their collective entirety crossed that line a long fuckin' time ago.

The Tip of the Iceberg

2007-03-08T06:34:00.000-05:00

First of all, I got this image from Informed Consent, wherein Juan Cole has written a very concise and illustrated review of the series of events that led to the U.S. invasion into Iraq, and the deliberate lies that took us there. It all revolves around the fraudulent Niger yellow cake story. Cole admits in this piece that he has no idea where the original artwork credit belongs for this image, is in fact all over the internet right now, but would be happy to give such credit, if the artist comes forward. I concur, and would do the same.

I am putting this image up for two reasons: first, to direct my readers to this website, as it really tells it all. It's so simple, really. And, the case for impeachment is so strong, that it would behoove our government, the democrats now running Congress, to initiate impeachment proceedings. Or, at the very least, begin a very concerted investigations effort, complete with subpoenas, to get to the bottom of what our American soldiers are dying for, being maimed for, why Iraq is in grip of death and ruins, and why the world is a less safe place now, as a direct result of this ill-advised and poorly waged war. To do anything less would serve only to act with some degree of complicity in this felonious debacle, thereby diminishing even further the already diminished credibility of the U.S. around the world.

I appreciate that the democrats are using their Congressional powers to hopefully force the dubya administration to withdraw/redeploy? the troops sooner, rather than later. But, that is a separate task. Investigations and impeachment must also be undertaken. Makes me wonder...... Can a president who is in the process of being impeached have the legal authority to pardon those who were complicit in the act for which he is being impeached? If that's the case, then that is just one more reason to initiate impeachment proceeding RIGHT NOW.

I Want Justice

2007-02-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

One of the strongest arguments for keeping American troops in Iraq is the resulting bloodbath if we just pull up our tents and leave. I've been scratching my head over this dilemma for the past few years, because on the one hand it seems to make no sense, given that the American invasion already unleashed a full-blown blood bath. On the other hand, I wrestled with the notion that maybe, just maybe the argument holds some merit. I sure do not want to be responsible for advocating such a horror. I like to believe that that is not who I am.

As I think about this dilemma, this contradiction, I have been sure that I am not alone in my ambivilence. I have continued to be angry about the whole stinkin' mess. I'm angry that the invasion was based on lies and deceipt. What makes me most angry about this is that I knew before the invasion that the Niger document was a fraud. For that, I hold the mainstream media and press responsible. If I knew, so did they. They had the power to trumpet this lie to the world, but instead chose silence, in deference to the decision made by madmen.

I'm angry that so many American families are forever changed by the death and injuries perpetrated by out dumbass decider. I'm angry that thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Iraqis have died or been maimed or their survivors, like the Americans, are changed forever. I am sorry that I often find myself using the collective "we" when I talk about the American invasion. "We invaded Iraq." But, "we" didn't. I had nothing to do with it. I was a helpless bystander watching a horror unfold before the American people. I'm not one of those who supported the decision. I'm not a "we", but I keep using the term. I am, after all, an American. I am, after all, deeply ashamed by the horrors perpetrated upon Iraq in my name, as an American. I am so angry.

Today, in the Washington Post, is an article written by William E. Odom, called Victory is Not an Option. It is one of the best bits of writing that I've encountered that describes the ambivilence and the dilemma of staying in Iraq or calling it quits. An excerpt:

1) We must continue the war to prevent the terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces are withdrawn soon. Reflect on the double-think of this formulation. We are now fighting to prevent what our invasion made inevitable! Undoubtedly we will leave a mess -- the mess we created, which has become worse each year we have remained. Lawmakers gravely proclaim their opposition to the war, but in the next breath express fear that quitting it will leave a blood bath, a civil war, a terrorist haven, a "failed state," or some other horror. But this "aftermath" is already upon us; a prolonged U.S. occupation cannot prevent what already exists.

William Odin has distinquished credentials. He a retired Army lieutenant general, was head of Army intelligence and director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan. He served on the National Security Council staff under Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, he's not just some pundit talking head. He's got experience. And, for him to come out and say what he's saying indicates that he also has scruples. He's earned my respect.

I want justice. I want those responsible to be held accountable. I have a somewhat vindictive nature. I don't believe in the death penalty. I don't believe that torture is appropriate under any circumstances. But, I do believe that people should live the lives that they created for others. I would just love to see dubya and his dick, and condi and rummy too, living in the slums of Sadr City, behind bars, and under the authority of the Iraqi prison guards. I cannot think of a more apt justice. Of course, I would also take great glee in being a fly on the wall and watching dubya, his dick, rummy, condi, and all the little generals reading about the failures that they created; the misery they brought upon the world. I'd love to see them grimace over how the historians will be writing about their failed administration.

Gas Turbines and War Profiteering?

2007-01-15T06:59:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm back in business here in the blogosphere; I dunno. I've never lost my interest in the politics of the day, but my attention has shifted dramatically from actively blogging to my photography. Ever since I fell into the bay with my old camera, and have been upgrading my equipment, taking my photography to the next level of technical ability and expertise, I've spent all of my time either taking pictures, post processing images, or just plain spending money for the equipment I need. For instance, you'd think that buying a tripod ballhead clamp, never mind the tripod itself, would be just finding what I like and buy it. But, it's not. I've been researching, asking questions, obsessing, till I finally did made my decision. I've been trying to go on the cheap, modify my existing ballhead, but doing so without throwing good money after bad. Unless you're familiar with the topic, you likely have no idea what I'm talking about. But, more about that later.

As I said, I'm back to blogging, and it's a particular article in Yahoo News that has caught my attention. Of course, it's about the Iraq debaucle. However, I now find that the word "debaucle" does not adequately define or describe the dubya policies and ventures in Iraq. Outright criminality is more like it. War crimes isn't saying too much. What these cockroaches have done is nothing short of criminal, and off the backs of well-meaning soldiers, who are likely just misinformed chumps doing their damnedest to be patriotic. They're heroically losing life and limb for nothing. That's a hard pill for them and their families to accept, but I do believe they are finally getting it. No one, not anyone, not even the most patriotic person wants to venture into that meat grinder called Iraq anymore. Nothing but an exercise in futility, for sure.

Case in point, and the reason for this resurgence in my blogging interests - the Yahoo news article, Bush Plan's $1B won't go far in Iraq. The article discusses how the $billions$ was never really enough, and the insurgency and sabatage are resulting in just throwing good money after bad.

"It is symbolic, at best, and is unlikely to have substantial impact in Iraq," Gordon Adams, a budget expert at Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center, said of the Bush aid proposal.

But, to really capture what this whole fiasco was about, let's take a look at this next exerpt:

For electricity alone, Iraq needs $27 billion to fully rebuild the grid to meet growing power needs, Baghdad's Electricity Ministry estimates. In a new Iraq oversight report, the U.S.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) says Iraq's electricity demand averaged 8,210 megawatts last year, but peak generation reached only 4,317 megawatts. Baghdad residents got only six hours of power a day on average last summer.

The U.S. reconstruction effort added more than 2,000 megawatts of generating capacity to a system that produced 4,200 before the 2003 U.S. invasion. But the grid has been crippled by toppled transmission towers and other sabotage, insurgent attacks, looting, poor maintenance and poor planning.

The GAO reports that 16 of 35 gas turbines the Americans installed in Iraqi power plants — even though Iraq lacks an extensive natural gas network — are using crude oil or other low-quality fuels, producing as little as half the rated power and causing frequent shutdowns.

"Why did the United States purchase natural gas turbines to generate electricity when the necessary supply of natural gas was not assured in Iraq?" the auditors asked.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... It certainly begs the question of who exactly benefitted from the construction of these gas turbines. Was it a no-bid contract to one of dubya's dick's henchmen to line their pockets? My first reaction of course is OF COURSE! Kind of a no-brainer that should be followed to its source, that being the contract's beneficiaries. Maybe Greg Palast has some information about this apparent war profiteering venture. Maybe CorpWatch does. In my few minutes of google research on this issue, I came up with this lil' exerpt from a ThomasNet IndustrialNewsRoom article, dated March 21, 2006:

Some believe mistakes are more to blame than are extrinsic problems. For instance, Americans installed gas-turbine generators rather than having built or overhauled more of the oil-fuelled, steam-run plants. “Iraq doesn’t have pipelines to deliver natural gas from its oil fields, so plant operators resort to low-grade oil to run the gas-combustion engines, reducing power output by up to 50 percent and potentially damaging the machinery,” notes AP. Meanwhile, demand continues to rise as Iraqis invest in imported air conditioners, washers/driers, DVD players and other power-hungry appliances. To help fill the gap, households or neighborhood groups are buying diesel-run generators, stringing dangerous makeshift wiring around their homes.

If the GAO isn't investigating this, then for sure we have some corruption goin' on in DC. Like that's a big surprise......

Images:
Absolut Corruption from PinkDome
Expose Corruption from The India Tribune

Photo of the Day

2006-12-16T09:19:00.000-05:00

Actually, the photo was taken on August 15, 2006, but I didn't post process it till this morning. I was viewing older images just to see if anything was worthwhile, and I came across this one. "Hmmmmmmm.........," I thought to myself. The original RAW file looked awful, but after applying some postprocessing magic, I offer up this image, which I call, Lifeguarded Beach on a Cloudy Day:

click to enlarge

Photo of the Day

2006-10-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

Another butterfly. I shot this 8/31/06
click to enlarge

Iraq Body Count

2006-10-11T08:42:00.000-04:00

Admittedly, it's not very accurate, that there is a high margin of error. The headline leads with "600,000" as the estimated count. Six hundred thousand dead Iraqis since the 2003 American invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, retribution for 9/11, and to remove WMDs. That's 600,000 dead people in exchange for one lunatic who's "fair" trial is questionable. That's 600,000 dead Iraqis for WMDs that never existed. That's 600,000 dead Iraqis for an act of terrorism that they had nothing to do with.

Oh yeah, the estimate....... According to the NYTimes, "But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths." Well, excuse those who complain that 600,000 is inaccurately high. The lower end is just above 426 thousand, and climbing. That's then 426,000 for getting one man, for WMDs that never existed, and retribution for an act of terrorism that they had nothing to do with.

Oh my freakin' god!

Here we are, a few weeks before midterm elections, and these republican dirtbags are complaining that the estimate is too high; that it's politically driven. So, I'd like to know what they feel is an acceptable number for this Iraqi invasion folly. Is 100,000 dead Iraqis acceptable for taking down one man? Is 100,000 dead Iraqis an acceptable count for WMD's that never existed, or for retribution against an act of terrorism for which they had no culpability? Is 200,000 an acceptable number? 50,000? What? I'd like to know.

Of course, let us not forget that "axis of evil" notion perpetrated by the dubya regime. Remember that? The countries they included were Iran, North Korea and Iraq. So, they attacked Iraq, the ONLY GODDAMM COUNTRY WITH NO NUCLEAR CAPABILITY. That, or course, means that they attacked the one country that could not fight back. Why coudn't they fight back? Well, because the UN sanctions had already crippled Saddam's ability to create WMD's. The neocon dirtbags went after the one country that was the weak link in their axis. All it accomplished was to get those other axis nations to better build up their nuclear arsenals in case the US had notions of going after them. The neocon cockroaches have created a more dangerous world by fueling the fires of hatred against us, and by resurrecting the nuclear arms race.

It's that simple, really.

For those of you repukes who continue to support this evil dirtbag neocon regime, I salute you. I salute your stupidity. I salute your ignorance. I salute your dumbass bullshit asswipe notion that the republicans are the good guys. And, I'll be celebrating over your dismay when impeachment of these neocon crooks begins. I'll be celebrating when they're convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and for breaking the laws of this great nation and its Constitution to empower themselves to accomplish the demise of what was at least a somewhat sane government before they took the reigns (pun intended).

Fuck all of you republican dirtbags who support, against all evidence of wrongdoing, a government that has gone awry. Fuck you all. I hate anyone who can support this neocon insanity. I hate you all for supporting the regime that will make our children pay for these dirtbags' selfishness, with either their taxes to pay the deficits, and for their lives when the bombs start falling. Your support of the neocons have set our world back to the cold war days. Thanks for fucking nothing.

Photo of the Day

2006-10-07T23:46:00.000-04:00

click to enlarge....

Impeach Bush

2006-10-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

Bwahahahahahaha.............. My friend, Pat, sent me the link to this photo. It's great.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2006/10/05/2003291089.jpg

Photos of the Day

2006-10-01T14:11:00.000-04:00

I took a walk to the pond yesterday.

Trouble in Dubya Land

2006-09-20T07:24:00.000-04:00

This is an article I drafted on September 20th, but never posted. I guess I was looking for some more links, etc. But, then I got involved with some marathon work weeks, and what little time I had was spent playing with my relatively new camera and post processing the images.

However, even though this is "old" news, it's not old news. It's same shit, different day, but with older references. It's now October 1st, but I'm posting it anyway, and not updating it at all. I'll save my energy for more current stuff. I just hate the thought of just deleting it. I work too hard (maybe, I can't remember) on this stuff.

There is an article in the NYTimes online today that caught my eye. In For Governors in G.O.P. Slots, a Liberal Turn, the article describes how repugs are using ...... pandering to voters by adopting values that they have previously defined as tantamount to an obscene phone call. Yup, boys and girls, they are advocating "liberal" values, in order to distance themselves from their cockroach hero, the dubya king, because they know that to remain at his side is tantamount to political suicide.

Unlike other campaign seasons, when a popular president has been an asset to local politicians, many candidates this year are trying to distance themselves from President Bush, either by staking out ground in contrast to him or, as is the case with Mr. Schwarzenegger, treating the president like a communicable disease.

Democratic candidates across the country have responded by constantly reminding voters of their opponents’ conservative leanings, wherever they exist, and trying to tie them as much as possible to the White House.

But, you have to remember that even though these GOP lying bastards are doing this just to get elected, they will be, and often are if they're incumbant, the same dirtbags who will vote to exonerate the dubya king cockroach by passing that dubious piece of legislation that will make it legal to wiretap American citizens and excuse the neocon cockroaches who engaged in the practice when it was clearly deemed illegal by the US Supreme Court.

Remember, when you go to the polls, what these dirtbag repubs really stand for. Remember that they'll be falling all over themselves to criminalize abortions and stem cell research, reduce funding for veterans and homeless people, cut funding for education while granting tax relief to the richest US citizens. They'll uphold failed voodoo economics because it's really just a scam to transfer wealth upwards to their friends and contributors. Remember how they consistently vote to weaken environmental laws, favoring corporate profits over clean air and water. Remember these things. The GOP are just playing a dispiccable shell game to gain the votes that really represent the majority of American's values.

It's NEVER Too Late

2006-09-12T07:44:00.000-04:00

Finally, some in the press are taking a real hard look at the lies, deceipt and truly treasonous offensed committed by dubya, his dick and the other neocon dirtbags. Yes, it's too late to stop the Iraq debaucle. Too late to save the lives of the American soldiers killed there. Too late to recover the priceless stolen artifacts from the Baghdad Museum. Too late to prevent the lost of limbs and eyesight of the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. But it's not too late to hold these treasonous bums accountable. In fact, doing so couldn't come soon enough.

Following is an exerpt from the transcript of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Bush, from Crooks and Liars:

Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

The President — and those around him — did that.

They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused; as appeasers; as those who, in the Vice President’s words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."

They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken… a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated Al-Qaeda as much as we did.

The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had ’something to do’ with 9/11, is "lying by implication."
The impolite phrase, is "impeachable offense."

Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space… and to this, the current, curdled, version of our beloved country.

Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears the full brunt of the blame for 9/11.

Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he has seemed not even to be the man most responsible — for anything — in his own administration.

Yet what is happening this very night?

A mini-series, created, influenced — possibly financed by — the most radical and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into our homes.

The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry story blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option.

How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death… after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections… how dare you or those around you… ever "spin" 9/11.

ELECT DEMOCRATS in November. Hold the cockroaches accountable.

Historic Seven Minutes

2006-09-11T23:09:00.000-04:00

I watched the movie, "The Path to 9/11". It was awful. Aside from being factually misleading and a hype for the repugs, it was really boring. I played solitaire on my PDA while I watched the show. I read magazines. I ate Cheerios. But, I did at least turn my attention to the show from time to time over these past two evenings. Tonight, they interrupted the movie for a message from the dictator. I turned to the Learning Channel and watched Miami Ink, instead.

But, the absolute biggest and most glaring omission was........

............. the historic seven minutes of My Pet Goat.

.

The Tragedy of 9-11

2006-09-11T06:27:00.000-04:00

There is a ton of press and editorializing about 9/11 today. It's September 11, 2006, the 5th anniversary of that tragic event. But, we're no safer today. On the contrary. We never caught the perpetrators of that horrific act of destruction. On the contrary. Instead, we're embroiled in a war that has nothing to do with 9/11, but was initiated using 9/11 as the excuse. Turns out it was a BIG FAT LIE FROM DAY ONE. Of course, anyone who reads real news, is curious about world events, is NOT a jingoistic lunatic bent on revenge already knew it before the march to war. We all knew the Niger documents were forgeries. We all knew that there was NO CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ AND 9/11 before this nation invaded Iraq. We knew. And, if we knew, sure as shit dubya and his dick and all the other fascist neocons knew.

The fascist neocons had effectively duped Congress (who clearly was asleep at the switch) and the entire nation, who was already tasting the blood of revenge for 9/11. That, in and of itself, has now become the larger tragedy, and I do not mean to dishonor those victims and their families who suffered and died from those terrorist actions of 9/11. But, the tragedy we have now certainly overshadows that horrific act of terrorism. In fact, we've now taken good ol' American terrorism and sent it to Iraq, wherein almost as many American soldiers are now dead as those who died in the World Trade Center. And, tens of thousands of Iraqis have paid with their lives for an act that had nothing do to with them.

So, here we are today, with a falacy of a movie about 9/11 which aired last night, such fiction that even Disney agreed to air statements during the movie three times saying that it's not a documentary. But, the statements weren't really strong enough. And goddess can only ask who really read them? What they didn't say was that it's a biased pile of bull. The fact that it's being aired one month before the midterm elections, makes it a tragedy unto itself.

It's a tragedy because it serves nothing but to bias peoples' minds before the midterm elections, by making the Clinton administration, and by association the Democrats the number one target of blame for 9/11. Yet, the Bush administration callously allows Bin Laden to walk free today, and Al-Qaida is as strong a threat as ever. Where's the freakin' justice? But, ever since dubya and his dick were elected to office that sad, sad day six years ago, they've done their damnedest to blame Clinton for every single debaucle that they themselves have embarked upon. This tragedy of a mini-series, of which part two airs tonight, is nothing but a huge political ad for the repukes. That's all it is. A big, republican, totally free, political advertisement, thanks to Disney.

One of my favorite bloggers is Taylor Marsh. I am quoting her latest (as of this writing) blog entry, because she says, so succinctly, what is on lots of our minds.

People will say I'm being political, that I hate George W. Bush. What people think of me is immaterial. The truth of it is that today I am simply an American who doesn't understand why we let the man who perpetrated the American massacre on 9/11 get away. It infuriates me, sickens me. It's not that I think it would change the attacks in Iraq, or solve the Middle East challenges. It's because when someone commits mass murder on American soil he doesn't get to walk away free and negotiate safe havens with our "ally," while American soldiers continue to die for retribution that was way off target.

But the worst of it is that upon the dead of 9/11, George W. Bush has now placed the bodies of 2,668 American soldiers, including thousands of wounded and maimed, while perpetrating a fraud on the American people who trusted him to make the wrong right. It doesn't get any worse than what George W. Bush did after 9/11. He has dishonored the victims of 9/11, then added insult to murder by taking us into a war for vindication when the real enemy hid elsewhere. We now have the proof, which makes today all the more painful.

Today, I am marking the tragedy of 9/11 by remembering who is really to blame for the mess we're all in, as a nation, today. I remember those who died on 9/11, and I remember those who continue to die today because the events that happened on 9/11 enabled this dubya regime to engage in an oil venture that continues to cost tens of thousands of lives today. For that, I continue to be truly saddened. But, I will vote in November 2006, and I will vote in November 2008. I will hold these fascist neocons accountable.

A Row of Boats

2006-09-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

click to enlarge

The News That Didn't Make The News

2006-09-09T09:26:00.000-04:00

This entire heads-up article comes from a website called Project Censored. Every year they post a listing of the top 25 news stories that did not make mainstream media news. However, most of us who follow the Blogosphere are already aware of most of these stories. The problem lies in the fact that most of America does not even know what the Blogosphere exists, its main purpose, and in my opinion, where the real and accurate news reporting takes place.

This article is a heads-up listing of this years "non" stories, that are really mind benders. And, those who complain that mainstream media is left wing biased certainly have their collective heads up thier asses. But, I digress..........

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
Throughout 2005 and 2006, a large underground debate raged regarding the future of the Internet. More recently referred to as “network neutrality,” the issue has become a tug of war with cable companies on the one hand and consumers and Internet service providers on the other. Yet despite important legislative proposals and Supreme Court decisions throughout 2005, the issue was almost completely ignored in the headlines until 2006.1 And, except for occasional coverage on CNBC’s Kudlow & Kramer, mainstream television remains hands-off to this day (June 2006). 2 Most coverage of the issue framed it as an argument over regulation—but the term “regulation” in this case is somewhat misleading. Groups advocating for “net neutrality” are not promoting regulation of internet content. What they want is a legal mandate forcing cable companies to allow internet service providers (ISPs) free access to their cable lines (called a “common carriage” agreement). This was the model used for dial-up internet, and it is the way content providers want to keep it. They also want to make sure that cable companies cannot screen or interrupt internet content without a court order.

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company. Leopold says his Halliburton sources have intimate knowledge of the business dealings of both Halliburton and Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies.

#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress.

According to oceanographers the oceans are one, with currents linking the seas and regulating climate. Sea temperature and chemistry changes, along with contamination and reckless fishing practices, intertwine to imperil the world’s largest communal life source.

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
The number of hungry and homeless people in U.S. cities continued to grow in 2005, despite claims of an improved economy. Increased demand for vital services rose as needs of the most destitute went unmet, according to the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors Report, which has documented increasing need since its 1982 inception.

.......... snip ..........

As urban hunger and homelessness increases in America, the Bush administration is planning to eliminate a U.S. survey widely used to improve federal and state programs for low-income and retired Americans, reports Abid Aslam.
President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 2007, which begins October 2006, includes a Commerce Department plan to eliminate the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The proposal marks at least the third White House attempt in as many years to do away with federal data collection on politically prickly economic issues.

#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
The world’s most neglected emergency, according to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, is the ongoing tragedy of the Congo, where six to seven million have died since 1996 as a consequence of invasions and wars sponsored by western powers trying to gain control of the region’s mineral wealth. At stake is control of natural resources that are sought by U.S. corporations—diamonds, tin, copper, gold, and more significantly, coltan and niobium, two minerals necessary for production of cell phones and other high-tech electronics; and cobalt, an element essential to nuclear, chemical, aerospace, and defense industries.

These abrieviated synopses are only the first 5 of 25 neglected stories that are listed on the Project Censored website. I urge everyone to go there, read these stories, make them election year issues, whenever possible. This is critically important. It's important because, as the lastest controversy over the "Path To 9/11" movie has so clearly illustrated, the mainstream media is biased. They are bought and paid for by the right wing scheme machine. They control what they want us to believe and what they don't want us to know. Left wing bias, my ass.

A simple list of the rest, wherein you can go read the reports here:

#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
#7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

What I find particularly interesting about this list is not that the stories generally highlight misdeeds and wrongdoings by the dubya camp, but rather how these are stories that would highlight how the dubya cockroach camp and their associated mainstream media cronies are working in cahoots to prevent the world, and of course, Americans, from learning how intricately tied this administration is to corporate interests and thier profits. A great site to check out that is all about this very issue is CorpsWatch. A friend of mine mentioned to me this past thursday that his brother, who is a die-hard republican, complained that "we've got to get big oil out of Washington." And, this guy doesn't even know the half (quarter, eighth, zillionth) of it.

Photo of the Day

2006-09-08T10:40:00.001-04:00

Click to enlarge

Full Disclosure May Come Post-Election

2006-09-08T09:18:00.000-04:00

But, I would bet dollars to donuts that if the repugs retained control over the House and the Senate after November, then full disclosure will never happen.

It may be a hard pill to swallow for some of you who don't trust democrats either. But, if ever there was a reason to elect Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, WaPo has articulated it in their article, Panel Set to Release Just Part of Report On Run-Up to War. It's really evident to me that the controlling repugnants are hoping that their good looks will carry them into victory in the elections. They sure as shit cannot count on integrity, honesty, or morality to carry them to victory. They've got none. NONE.

According to this article, they are releasing only two less controversial chapters.

A long-awaited Senate analysis comparing the Bush administration's public statements about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein with the evidence senior officials reviewed in private remains mired in partisan recrimination and will not be released before the November elections, key senators said yesterday.

Instead, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will vote today to declassify two less controversial chapters of the panel's report, on the use of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war, for release as early as Friday. One chapter has concluded that Iraqi exiles in the Iraqi National Congress, who were subsidized by the U.S. government, tried to influence the views of intelligence officers analyzing Hussein's efforts to create weapons of mass destruction.

At the very least, I hope these two chapters get lots and LOTS of press in the run-up to the November elections. No doubt, there will be lots of debate and controversy. And, I bet that the repugs will be doing lots and LOTS of back peddling in how they supported this insane administration's drum beating run-up to attack Iraq.

Yes, boys and girls, this administration is insane. George W. Bush is insane. The same way that the fascists in Germany and Italy were insane in the early and mid-1900's. And, what's more insane is that the conservative ilk in the United States blindly and insanely followed their lunatic leaders, no questions asked. That's the most insane thing; the most troubling. We cannot allow these lunatics to win in November. That would be THE MOST INSANE thing of all.

Tell ABC to Tell the Truth About 9/11

2006-09-07T00:03:00.000-04:00

This is straight from the Think Progress website:

On September 10 and 11, ABC Television is planning to run an inaccurate film depicting the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks. The film was written by an avowed conservative and it largely places the blame for failing to prevent the attacks on the Clinton administration while whitewashing the failures of the Bush administration.

Our review of the film shows it to be full of such inaccuracies. Its distorted version of history is inconsistent with the 9/11 Commission Report, upon which it claims to be based. The events leading up to September 11, 2001 are too important and too tragic to play politics with the facts.

I urge everyone to go to Think Progress' website and use their form to send your message to ABC.

I find it so appauling that the repukes continue to resort to their tactic of exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 for their own self-serving political interests. The dubya cockroaches are really playing this up full tilt with dubya himself campaigning on the benefits of his terror war. And, if you haven't yet read it, you must go to AMERICAblog and read their article about this slanderous piece of crap being foisted upon the American people:

ABC is trying to use of the airwaves -- airwaves owned by you and me, and loaned to broadcasters as a public trust -- to slander Democrats and sell a slanderous, irresponsible fraud to the American people, and they're shamefully doing it just weeks away from Election Day.

..... snip.....

The ABC television network -- a cog in the Walt Disney empire -- unleashed a promotional blitz in the last week for a new "docudrama" called "The Path to 9/11". ABC has thrown its corporate might behind the two-night production, and bills it as a public service: a TV event, to quote the ABC tagline, "based on the 9/11 Commission Report".

That's false. "The Path to 9/11" is actually a bald-faced attempt to slander Democrats and revise history right before Americans vote in a major election.

The miniseries, which was put together by right-wing conservative writers, relies on the old GOP playbook of using terrorism to scare Americans. "The Path to 9/11" mocks the truth and dishonors the memory of 9/11 victims to serve a cheap, callous political agenda. It irresponsibly misrepresents the facts and completely distorts the truth.

More

The war in Iraq isn't a war against terror. It's a shameful distraction, costing thousands upon thousands of American and Iraqi lives. In the latest CNN poll, most people aren't even equating the war on terror with the war in Iraq anymore.

Asked whether the Iraq war is part of the U.S.-led war on terror, 53 percent said they believe it is a separate action, while 45 percent said they believe it is connected, as the Bush administration has repeatedly insisted.

Personally, I don't think I'll be able to watch this pile of crap. It's kind of like feeling like I should watch dubya when he's making his various speeches, i.e. The State of the Disunion, but I just cannot stomach it. I just can't. I get too nauseous.

As the King plays.......................

2006-09-05T07:28:00.000-04:00

.......... your rights erode. Are we gonna be able to survive till he's outta here? How much more damage can this dirtball do in the few months he's got left? What's the next misery making decision he's gonna make? Cancel the elections? I have no doubt that if he could go to that extreme, he most certainly would.

While the dubya regime was out and about trying to convince its subjects that all hell will break loose in Iraq and around the world if we don't win that eternal whore on terrah, his loyal legal appointees have been very stealthily undermining whisleblower protections for federal employees. It's not like they haven't done it before. This time, however, it's specifically targeted against employees who exposes federal wrongdoings specific to the Clean Water Act. Huh?? And, that serves whom? And, what? Oh, yeah. It only protects the dubya regime. Does nothing to protect whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing. Does nothing to protect American citizens at large. Period. End of discussion.

This, according to PEER. Notice the reference to the unpublished legal opinion, and the date this release:

For Immediate Release: September 4, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

BUSH DECLARES ECO-WHISTLEBLOWER LAW VOID FOR EPA EMPLOYEES — Stealth Repeal of Clean Water Act Protections by Invoking “Sovereign Immunity”

Washington, DC — The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.

Citing an “unpublished opinion of the [Attorney General’s] Office of Legal Counsel,” the Secretary of Labor’s Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act. The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity which is based on the old English legal maxim that “The King Can Do No Wrong.” It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the “sovereign” consents to be sued.

More

Will someone please give him a blowjob so we can impeach the sunnovabitch already? Please.........

King George image found at Spawn of Blogorrhea

The Bush Jeer - "What's That Smell?"

2006-09-04T10:53:00.000-04:00

One of the Vietnam era bands that I really liked alot was Country Joe and the Fish. They really put together some of the most fun, anti-war songs of the era. Of course, I'm not alone in remembering the Vietnam era, and the anti-war movement, and the the parallels to the Iraq era. Hmmmm.......... Iraq Era. Has a similarly nasty ring to it, don't it?

Anyway, as I was surfing around the blogosphere this morning, I came upon a new (to me) blog, Political Cortex. Very fun read, for sure. One of the things that really caught my attention was this song they wrote, to the tune of "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" is "We're All Gonna Fry Rag". Brought out the hippie in me. Hehehehe, funny stuff. An excerpt:

We're All Gonna Fry Rag

Come on all you unemployable men...
Listen to my Republican spin.
This war on turruh's no desprit sham...
Down yonder in `Slamo-Fascistan.
Won't none of my crooks see the light of the sun...
A rhetorical war's never done!

And it's one, two, three,
What are we waitin' for ?
Don't ask me, I don't got a plan,
Just want to drop Tehran;
And it's five, six, seven,
Servin' up that squirrelly hate.
Well now there ain't no crime I wouldn't try,
Could be... I'm gonna lie.

Well, come on you libruls and show some class...
`Fore I `cuse you all of bein' pederast.
Better go out and raise my creds...
Before my old mommie and poppie's dead.
Ain't no caprice from number one son...
When he's flown around on Air Force One.

And it's one... big... spree,
What are we waitin' for ?
You ask me, we don't need a plan,
Just got to pop Iran;
And it's time... for... heaven,
Servin' up that squirrelly hate
Well now, I done decided they gotta die,
Whoopie!... They're gonna fry.

More

Photo of the Day

2006-09-04T10:15:00.000-04:00

Framed and signed, for your viewing pleasure
Click to enlarge

Photos of the Day

2006-08-31T21:12:00.000-04:00

A different "take" on the Lighthouse.....

Common Chicory, with a bee....

Bill Maher's Analogy

2006-08-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

I think this is priceless. Maher wrote a small piece for the Huffington Post, about his take on Rumsfeld. In Rumsfeld More Stubborn Than Bush, Maher chides Rummy for taking over three years to realize that maybe the U.S. doesn't have enough troops in Iraq. Just maybe...........

The morgue in Baghdad counted more than 1,800 bodies last month, which was a record high. Or a normal month in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. But this month, the morgue is on track to receive less than a quarter of that. Why? Because we've redeployed 8,000 U.S. soldiers and 3,000 Iraqi troops to Baghdad and sent them on house-to-house sweeps for militants and weapons caches. In other words, we've knocked Baghdad back from complete and total madness to borderline chaos.

Geez, it's almost like more soldiers works better. And it only took three years to figure this out.

Of course, the forces weren't added; they were moved from other parts of the country, which will now descend back into complete and total madness. Whack-a-mole, as they say.

Photos of the Day

2006-08-26T23:29:00.000-04:00

Two photos, to be exact. I'm trying to teach myself how to properly use my long lens, my Sigma 70-300mm tele macro lens. It's not easy, and I've taken a lot of really bad shots. Zuki is one of my more cooperative subjects.

This first shot was taken with the telephoto lens. I love that neck fur. Very wolf-like. But, those ears are pure German Shepherd.

This second image, also telephoto, was taken from across the yard. Zuki is nicely framed by the Yews that are planted on either side of the steps up to my porch. I think she plays a very important part in why my cottage doesn't get robbed when I'm at work. :-)

Maybe tomorrow I will successfully capture something macro to post here. Weather permitting.......

Appauling Hypocrisy

2006-08-26T10:01:00.000-04:00

There was an article in the NYTimes a few days ago, called Iran Exhibits Anti-Jewish Art. They say it's to point out the hypocrisy of the west in its portrayal of Muslims. Bullshit. The thing that this exhibit really portrays and solidifies is the hatred of Muslims against Jews. It perpectuates this kind of hatred. It perpetuates an institutional hatred of of one religion over another.

I was really rather appauled, not by the article, but the premise of the exhibit, of course. Can you imagine the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Modern Museum of Art displaying such a racist pile of hooey? What would happen if one of these New York museums displayed an anti-Muslim exhibit? Talk about hypocrisy. And, to make it all worse, it's a goddamm contest. It's a contest about who can contribute the most creative anti-semetic image. I think the Tehran Museum wins that prize.

The cartoons are among more than 200 on display in the Palestinian Contemporary Art Museum in central Tehran in a show that opened this month and is to run until the middle of September.

The exhibition is intended to expose what some here see as Western hypocrisy for invoking freedom of expression regarding the publication of cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad while condemning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran for questioning the Holocaust.

The cartoons of Muhammad, first published in September 2005 in a Danish newspaper, were widely condemned by Muslims as blasphemous. They prompted riots in many countries, which left some people dead and several European embassies burned by demonstrators.

But, there's a BIG difference between this Iranian exhibit and the cartoon that sparked all the riots. One was a cartoon. Period. Given the right of free speech, so what? It was a fucking cartoon published by a newspaper. Period. However, Muslims seemed to take such umbrage over it that people died from the riots. Goddamm, how stupid is that.

On the other hand, this museum exhibit, with over two hundred cartoons and other images, will NOT illicit any kind of riots by Jews around the world. Why is that, do you suppose? Maybe it's because Jews around the world (I'm not talking about the Israeli military) are not prone to rioting every time someone insults us. Miggod, if we did, and given the anti-Semitic prevalence around the world, Jews would never stop rioting.

I know it's tough to be hated. As a Jew, I know that lots of people hate me. They don't know me personally. They just hate me because I'm Jewish. That includes the white supremists, Muslims, Islamists, Christian evangelicals, and whoever else. Thing is, I don't hate people because of their religions. I really don't. I find that I hate people because they hate me first. That sounds kind of juvenile, but given the violent tendencies that those who hate me display, they scare me. It's a violent hatred, wherein, given the opportunity, I think they'd kill me just as soon as spit on me. I'm not talking about just a bit of racism. I'm talking about a systemic, institutional belief that Jews are vermin, or satanic, or Christ-killers. I reiterate... It's not about their religious beliefs. I could give a rat's ass how or what or who they worship. I hate them for hating Jews.
Does that mean I'm going to take up arms and start rioting in the streets, burning tires, smashing windows, killing people because Tehran Museum exhibits hate against me, as a Jew? Of course not. So, why do Muslims think it's OK to behave in such a manner when the Danes published a stupid cartoon? Goddamm, I don't get it. I never will. In fact, if they think the world is out to get them, then that kind of behavior does nothing but solidify animosity against them. Hello............ And, DOH!

Photo of the Day

2006-08-22T21:45:00.000-04:00

I was worried about the Itty Bitty Yofi getting snatched by good-intentioned passers-by who were looking to "save" a stray, or from getting hit by a car. So, I bought the brightest, most reflective break-away cat collar I could find at the pet store. It's bright. It's reflective. And, the red threads are fraying. Yofi now looks a bit ridiculous. But, he doesn't know that.

Whatever Worked???

2006-08-22T20:59:00.000-04:00

It worked for the Nazis. It worked for the Bushies in 2004. But, this evil strategy is starting to wane for them. People are finally seeing this rhetoric as nothing but fascist bushshit. On the war on terror, per ABC News:

Much of the Republicans' problems reflect President Bush's in general, and the Iraq War in particular. By a 15-point margin, Americans are less likely rather than more likely to vote for a candidate who supports Bush's policies in Iraq. That soars to a 44-point margin among liberals, underscoring Sen. Joseph Lieberman's trouble in his Democratic primary tomorrow. But it also reaches more broadly: Moderates are 27 points more likely to oppose a candidate who favors Bush's war policies; Independents, 25 points.

On the economy, per the Economist's View:

The Newsweek poll asked people which political party they trusted to address a series of issues. By 53 percent to 34 percent, respondents trusted Democrats more than Republicans to do a better job with the economy.

Even Fox News can't ignore the numbers:

NEW YORK — Less than four months before Election Day, the latest FOX News Poll finds that voters strongly favor the Democrats on key issues such as the economy and gas prices, and give the minority party a double-digit lead for control of Congress this fall. For most of President Bush’s second term in office, more Americans have said they disapprove than approve of his job performance and that is again the case in this new poll.

There is hope. Let's keep it alive.

Speaking of voting.....

2006-08-22T15:16:00.000-04:00

New Zogby Poll On Electronic Voting Attitudes
Monday, 21 August 2006, 11:00 pm
Article: Michael Collins
New Zogby Poll: It’s Nearly Unanimous

A recent Zogby poll documents ground breaking information on the attitudes of American voters toward electronic voting. They are quite clear in the belief that the outcome of an entire election can be changed due to flaws in computerized voting machines. At a stunning rate of 92%, Americans insist on the right to watch their votes being counted. And, at an overwhelming 80%, they strongly object to the use of secret computer software to tabulate votes without citizen access to that software.

.....snip............

Viewing vote counting will soon become a process of watching computers, somewhat akin to watching the radio, but without sound. Secret vote counting with computer software that citizens cannot review is now a fait accompli. Most contracts between boards of elections and voting equipment manufacturers bar both elections officials and members of the public from any access to the most important computer software; the source code that directs all the functions of the voting machines, including vote counting.

..............snip............

The supreme irony is that HAVA was sold to Congress as the solution to the problems of the Florida 2000 election. Of course, we now know that as many as 50,000 black Floridians were wrongly removed from the voting rolls through a highly suspect “felon purge” that missed felons but captured legitimate registered voters. And we know further that over 100,000 ballots in mostly black precincts were disqualified due to the old voter suppression standby, “spoiled ballots. ” Neither of those voting rights and civil rights problems is addressed by HAVA. It’s all about “the machines.”

Something to seriously think about as we move towards November. If the repugs, via Diebold and the likes of Blackwell are responsible for the vote counting, it's a fairly safe bet that the repugs will maintain control of the house. They are already proven liars, thieves and scoundrels. If the dems are in charge, which is highly unlikely given that they are the minority party, then I hope like hell that they don't fall for the tactics that the Floridians and the Ohians resorted to in 2000 and 2004, respectively. All I really want to see is an honest, fair and open election process. Isn't that something we, as Americans, so highly tout around the world? And, after the day is done, I sure as shit hope the repugs are given the boot.

Midterm Elections Quickly Approaching

2006-08-21T20:12:00.000-04:00

I was driving home from work this evening, listening to NPR's All Things Considered. There was a segment about how badly dubya is doin' in the polls, which is now at a 61% disapproval rating for his Iraq debaucle. Then, there's a recording of him saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that "he cares what people think about the job he's doing, he really does, and he understands that people are feeling somewhat discouraged about the situation in Iraq." Discouraged? DISCOURAGED???!!! I'm not discouraged. Most, if not all of the 61% are not discouraged. We're disgusted. Completely and totally disgusted. And outraged. And I, for one, was completely disgusted and outraged from the very beginning, before the march to war.

I'm just waiting for the Dems to take Congress in '04, so the impeachment proceedings can begin. The dumbass cockroach and his dick and all the others lied like rugs to get the Iraq invasion "approved" by Congress. They aren't even admitting that they used 9/11 as a pretext for the war. Dubya is saying "we never said Iraq was responsible for 9/11." Excuse me, but he did. His dick did. They lied, and our soldiers are dying by the thousands. Iraqis are dying by the thousands.

And, in order to maintain this gigundo fiasco, they have had to sidestep the Constitution over and over. They've lied and they've broken laws, which qualify as high crimes and misdemeanors. I suggest you read Old American Century's 14 Points of Fascism, and compare what's happening in this country to what happened in Germany in the run-up to WWII.

Yeah, this is all old rants, old news, old issues. But, we're quickly moving forward to the November elections. And, that's a big deal. I think that this may prove to be one of the most important midterm elections in modern American history. And, I think the repugs know it. What I fear is another series of voter roles being purged by a repug-loving company; a bunch of easily manipulatable electronic voting machines; conflicts of interest between election commissions and their chairpeople who are prone to stealing elections. I suspect that an awful lot of corruption comperable to the stealing of the 2000 and 2004 elections will resurface.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Photo of the Day

2006-08-19T23:33:00.000-04:00

It's hard to think about politics when I'm having so much fun with my new camera.

A Snowy Egret and a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron were doing battle to maintain this prime feeding ground. The bait fish were jumping out of the water like crazy. It's not a tack sharp image, but I GOT THE SHOT! Click to enlarge

Photo of the Day

2006-08-16T00:21:00.000-04:00

Click on image to enlarge

Two Photos

2006-08-06T09:54:00.000-04:00

..... from yesterday's walk with my dusty dog.

The Blind Leading The Blind.........

2006-08-05T15:08:00.000-04:00

As I wrote my last article, one thing that has become astoundingly clear is that I really know nothing about Hezbollah. I call them "street thugs" because I've heard that term used about them in the past. I "hate" them because they are committed to the destruction of the State of Israel, which is what I had previously read and heard.

One thing that has become astonishingly clear (for lack of a better word) is that we, as a presumably educated society, can no longer, if ever, take what we read and hear on face value. Things are not always what they seem. My attempts to maintain my ambivalence about this whole Israel/Hezbollah crisis has taught me that Israel is not always the good guys; not always the fair player. Have they ever been? I'm not so sure about anything, anymore.

I am trying to understand. I'm really trying.

In my efforts to understand, I came across this article, called Hizballah: A Primer. It seems to be very well written, and certainly gives what appears to be a fair approach to analyzing Hezbollah's history and mission. But, it also accuses Israel of very severe atrocities and violations of the Geneva Conventions. Did Israel really commit thse barbaric acts of rape and pillage? Did Israel really plant 300,000 land mines throughout southern Lebanon? I've never seen these reports before, and certainly I'd like to see verification of this. I guess I struggle with accepting Arab accounts of events, though generally have taken Israeli accounts on face value. I continue to be miserably confused. Is this borne of the fact that I am Jewish, and generally cannot support any group/government/movement that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and of Jews. I certainly do not call for the destruction of Lebanon, the Palestinians, or Arabs, in general. I just want them to recognize Jews and Israel. Is that too much to ask of them? Apparently so.

But, this report refutes this claim of what I believed the Hezbollah to be. In fact, it dismisses the "Open Letter" to be old history and no longer relevant. Is this true? I dunno. I'm just trying to be fair and understand.

Of particular note in this report are these statements:

While it has many political opponents in Lebanon, Hizballah is very much of Lebanon -- a fact that Israel’s military campaign is highlighting.

A third element in the US insistence on labeling Hizballah a terrorist group is related to the notion that Hizballah’s raison d’etre is the destruction of Israel, or “occupied Palestine,” as per the party’s rhetoric. This perspective is supported by the 1985 Open Letter, which includes statements such as, “Israel’s final departure from Lebanon is a prelude to its final obliteration from existence and the liberation of venerable Jerusalem from the talons of occupation.”

“While Hizballah’s enmity for Israel is not to be dismissed, the simple fact is that it has been tacitly negotiating with Israel for years.” Hizballah’s indirect talks with Israel in 1996 and 2004 and their stated willingness to arrange a prisoner exchange today all indicate realism on the part of party leadership.

Since 2000, Lebanon has also been awaiting the delivery from Israel of the map for the locations of over 300,000 landmines the Israeli army planted in south Lebanon.

Israel’s initially stated goal of securing the release of the two captured soldiers has faded from Israeli discourse and given way to two additional stated goals: the disarmament or at least “degrading” of Hizballah’s militia, as well as its removal from south Lebanon. According to an article in the July 21 San Francisco Chronicle, “a senior Israeli army officer” had presented plans for an offensive with these goals to US and other diplomats over a year before Hizballah’s capture of the two soldiers. Though Israel is not in compliance with several UN resolutions, the Israeli army appears to be attempting singlehandedly -- though with US approval -- to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559.

It is unclear how the aerial bombardment of infrastructure and the killing of Lebanese civilians can lead to any of these goals, especially as support for Hizballah and the Islamic Resistance appears to be increasing. Outrage at Israel’s actions trumps ideological disagreement with Hizballah for many Lebanese at this point, and as such, it is likely that support for the party will continue to grow.

This last statement is really the crux of why I believe Israel is blowing it here. What are they thinking? Why are they thinking this? What are they hoping to achieve? Or, is a real mission so muddied by the conflict now, that Israel is mired in a quagmire? I can't help but think that if Israel follows the path of the American neocons who support them, then they'll blindly follow them over the cliff into an abyss from which extrication is all but impossible. Does the Iraq quagmire ring any bells? It all saddens me so much.

Ambivilence and Peace

2006-08-04T07:44:00.000-04:00

Joe Conason wrote an article for the New York Observer, called Dysfuction Rules In The Middle East. It truly resonates with me. He seems to somehow solidify my feelings about the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. As many of my readers have already figured out, my feelings are very ambivilent.

According to Conason,

The government of Israel appears to suffer from the same mental and moral dysfunctions that afflict the Bush administration: an urge to wage war without any plausible objectives, any viable plan for disengagement, or any rational assessment of costs and benefits. Israel’s second invasion of Lebanon, only weeks old and with considerably more justification, is already beginning to resemble the American invasion of Iraq.

My friend, mike b., made that rather disturbing comparison last week in a comment/response to my July 23rd article, They Both Make Me Sick. Mike b. said,

To destroy so much of Lebanon's infrastructure in the hope it will turn people against Hezbollah isn't very bright, but then is Israel really employing collective punishment against Lebanon? Or is this like attacking Iraq because of September 11?

And, therein lies my ambivilence. But, back to Joe Conason's article.......

Just as American policymakers badly miscalculated what would be required to occupy and stabilize Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, so Israel appears to have underestimated what kind of resistance its forces would encounter in driving Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. The Americans failed to anticipate the ruinous effects of the war and occupation on our international reputation and national interest. The Israelis somehow failed to recall the terrible stain on their national image left by their last incursion.

There is no American strategy for the Middle East. There is only crisis management, performed incompetently, and slogans about “democracy” and “evil” and “terrorism.” From somewhere inside this intellectual vacuum, the voice of President George W. Bush assures us that things are getting better in Iraq.

I really do hate that the Hezbollah, whom I consider to be dirtbags of the worst kind, are firing rockets, initially without provocation, into Israel. They began this lastest bloody conflict. At the very least, they should be held accountable for that. But, Israel's response was, and still is, so over the top, as to solidify a world against its otherwise "high ground" on this particular event. Now, it's a quagmire they've created with their indiscriminate raining of bombs and bloodshed into Lebanese neighborhoods.

Don't get me wrong. Hezbollah's only strategy ever is to fire rockets indiscriminately into Israeli neighborhoods. That is how they operate. Their mission is to destroy the Zionist "vermin" using whatever terrorist tactics their deranged minds can conjure up. But, I sure would have liked to see Israel take a more measured approach to the situation than raining bombs over Lebanon. The price they are paying for this knee-jerk reaction is too high. The price that the Lebanese are paying is immeasurable. In fact, all the Israelis are accomplishing is solidifying a commitment by the Lebanese and other Arabs to the Hezbollah mission. Smacks of what the Americans are accomplishing in Iraq, doesn't it?

We've all heard the expression, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Now, we are watching it play out in a horrific way in the Mideast. Do I know what the solutions are? Hell no. It's beyond my understanding of Mideast politics and peoples. But, I am quite certain that whoever is running this fiasco has no better grasp of the situation than I do. Olmert is just Sharon reincarnate. (Forgive me for speaking this way of a man still alive. But, functionally it's the same difference.) I certainly was never a fan of Ariel Sharon when he was "functioning", and always felt that peace was unachievable until both Arafat and Sharon left the stage. Well, I was wrong. Things are as bad, if not worse than before. And, I haven't even raised the dubya dummies' intervention. That's another shameful exercise in futility. After all, how can they discuss peace between Israel and Lebanon while they're busily immersed in their own Iraqi fiasco. That would seem rather hypocritical, wouldn't it?

Israel had a chance to negotiate with Lebanon and possibly the Hezbollah, though I have very little hope that negotiating with the party of god would have resulted in any successful outcome. Therefore, Lebanon was the primary hope for negotiations. Israel even had the UN Resolutions on their side, by insisting that Lebanon exercise its authority, with the help of the UN possibly, to dismantle Hezbollah, and maybe get the soldiers back, thereby ending the standoff. But no..... they had to flex their military muscle. Now, hope is but a glimmer in the distance, so far away that it is all but gone, if something isn't done soon. What is that something?

STOP THE FUCKING BOMBINGS. Goddamm, give peace a chance.

Art by Sergey Shutov

My New Camera

2006-08-03T22:29:00.000-04:00

My new camera was finally delivered yesterday. I'm so happy with my new Nikon D50, that when asked if plunging into the bay with my Panasonic FZ30 was worth it, I now sheepishly say "yes." At the time, I was way too depressed about losing that camera. Yet another bump in the road of life, and I landed on my feet. So, here are a few of my first shots. They're not great, but I'm in learning mode. I haven't used an SLR since I switched over to digital with my Olympus C2100 a few years ago. Basics still apply, but with some digital issues to figure out. I'm having fun.

Click on these to enlarge them.....

Zuki, my 110 lb couch puppy

A bee on the purple flower

Itty Bitty Yofi on my doggie furry rug

Who's Firing On Whom?

2006-07-31T19:58:00.000-04:00

It seems to me that people tend to forget that Israel is not the aggressor here. Hezbollah was the aggressor. They are a bunch of street thugs who have always targeted civilians, continue to target civilians and are attempting to kill as many Israelis as they can.

Israel is in retaliatory mode. It's just that Israel has better weapons, and better surveilance and a stronger military. Of course, they are going to end up killing more people in their crossfire. Hezbollah fires their rockets from Lebanese neighborhoods into Israeli neighborhoods, and if they get lucky, hit a hospital or an apartment building. Israel targets the source of the rocket fire, those same Lebanese neighborhoods, and unfortunately the civilians, whom the Hezbollah are hiding behind, using as human shields, are the ones who get killed. According to Honest Reporting:

Some 150 rockets have been fired at Israeli cities from Qana over the past 20 days. This IDF map traces how these rockets have been launched in 30 salvos at Haifa and other locations, including Nahariya, Ma'alot and Kiryat Shmona. To date, 18 Israeli civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded as a result of this rocket fire.

Hezbollah has been deliberately hiding behind and operating from within civilian areas in the knowledge that Israel does not deliberately target civilians. Thus, when a terrible accident such as Qana occurs, Hezbollah is presented with a propaganda coup, as is currently the case. Indeed, Australia's Herald Sun published damning photos "showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia. The images...show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons. Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon."

This is just a PR game for the Hezbollah, and that is one game they are winning. The graphic above says it all.

A Nice Family Photo

2006-07-27T19:32:00.000-04:00

Hell's bells, ya gotta laugh................

They Are Eating Their Own....

2006-07-26T19:45:00.000-04:00

"Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda," reports Insight Magazine.

The conservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The president has yet to understand that people make policy and not the other way around," a senior national security policy analyst said. "Unlike [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, Condi is loyal to the president. She is just incompetent on most foreign policy issues."

The thing that totally astounds me about these fools - Gingrich, Perle, etc. - is that they assume, and Goddess only knows why, that dubya seems to know about leading this country, be it foreign policy or domestic affairs. Idiots. They're all dumbass buffoons.

Condi is no more incompetent than dubya. At least she can string a coherent sentence together. And, when I say coherent, I'm merely referring to her proper use of the English language. As for what she says, well yeah, I agree. She's incompetent.

They Both Make Me Sick

2006-07-23T08:19:00.000-04:00

I came across this WaPo QT video of a panorama of the destruction of a suburb of Beirut.

I'm having a hard time thinking about what is happening in Lebanon. But, I just keep having to ask, "Why the hell did Hezbollah kill and abduct Israeli soldiers, and start firing missles at northern Israel in the first place?" Isn't this something that's getting lost in the discussion? Maybe, I'm missing something, given that the pablum that we get from mainstream media tends to simplify issues into sound bites, boiling the world's issues down to a "he said, she said" scenario.

I really hate what the Hezbollah stand for, that being the total destruction of Israel. Period. They had no provocation for their bombings. None.

But, it really saddens me that Israel's response has been so destructive. It's like pouring gasoline on a fire to put it out. Conversely, it angers me that Hezbollah keeps firing rockets into Israeli communities. Therefore, I continue to remain very ambivalent over the whole issue. Both sides suck. It's just easier for me to continue thinking that.

Israeli-Lebanon border prayer for peace (from Global Gayz)

This Week's Obsession

2006-07-23T00:03:00.000-04:00

Buying a new camera can be quite the obsession. I'd imagine that it wouldn't be quite as bad if I had a ton of money, could buy the best lens kit available and not feel like I'd be making a mistake. But, my budget is tight. Very, very tight. So, I obsessed. What camera? What lens? What if the lens isn't right? Should I see about some kind of deal on ebay? Should I upgrade to a dSLR? What about telephoto capabilities without the stabilized long lens of the dSLR-like Panasonic FZ30? On and on and on, I obsessed.

For the past week, every time I got on the computer I was researching cameras. Ever since I trashed my camera by falling overboard with it (Short Hiatus From Blogging, June 10, 2006), I've been obsessing about getting a new camera, what kind to get, should I upgrade to a dSLR, etc., etc., etc. However, I could not purchase anything until I got a reimbursement check from my employer to replace the camera, as I was working at the time it, and I fell into the drink.

I was hardly even following news events. Choosing and ordering a camera replaced any interest whatsoever that I would have otherwise had for blogging about politics. Every once in a while I'd read the news today, oh boy, and it was as depressing as ever. Nice to know that dubya is his consistantly stupid cockroach self. The blogosphere just had to proceed without me. I needed a new camera, after all.

Well, my money arrived this past week, so I bought a camera today. I upgraded to a Nikon D50, a dSLR that is so highly rated for an entry level dSLR, wherein the dpreview site reviewer claimed it to be "a pleasure" to use. It was on back order, so it's not going to be delivered for 2-3 weeks.

A friend of mine uses a D50 when he doesn't feel like hauling around his D200. Geez, I wish I could have such decisions to make. A D200 costs $1,000 more than the D50. I'll not have such a dilemma. But, he really encouraged me to make the leap. But, not before I continued to obsess for at least another week.

Below is a photo I took a few years ago at the New York Botanical Garden. It was taken with an Olympus 2100, my handy dandy great camera at the time. I look forward to going back to there with my new Nikon, and see what kind of results I can accomplish.

The Buffoon's First Veto?

2006-07-18T06:36:00.000-04:00

Dubya is poised to issue his very first veto. Of course, the bill in question would be none other than federal funding for stem cell research. He refuses to admit that any embryos used for such research come from fertility clinics, wherein these unfortunate group of pre-human, undifferenciated cells are doomed for destruction in a garbage pail. This buffoon of a president cannot differenciate between a human and undifferenciated cells. He'd rather they get discarded without stem cell fanfare so that he can turn his back on scientific progress, fucking luddite that he is, and pander to the Religious Wrong.

The buffoon in chief would rather see all cells become human, so that there are enough bodies to fight his dumbass, self-serving wars. He doesn't care about human life. He cares about oil. Period. He's an oil man first and foremost. Period. He's the buffoon in chief second. He's a human being third. The way this buffoon acts, and actions do speak much louder than words, he doesn't give a rat's ass about the "sanctity of life", as long as that life gets to be born. Only the "pre-born" warrant his hollow posturing.

As I've stated in previous articles, including "Do Nothing (but hate) Congress",

I do hope that all the repukes who advance this ban, albeit fruitlessly, will be forever prohibited from benefiting from any medical advances derived from this science. May these dispiccable repuke hatemongers suffer immensely from these dumbass displays of selfishness and self-righteousness.

Image from the heretik

Israel's Right to Defend Itself

2006-07-16T08:56:00.000-04:00

I support it. I support any country's right to retaliate against the constant barrage of incoming missiles that Israel has had to endure day after day, month after month, and year after year. I do, however, question the ferocity of the retaliation. They are exacting a very heavy price against those who had nothing to do with the attacks.

Or did they? Hamas has garnered a stronghold in Gaza. Hezbollah secured its power in Lebanon. Between the two of them, they have been almost unilaterally supported by the Palestinian and Arab worlds. The Palestinian civilians voted Hamas into power. Doesn't that make them somewhat culpable in the activities of their party of choice? Like the republicans, the neocons have perpetrated all kinds of terror into the Middle East, and by some accounts, actually popped the cork on what is happening now. Doesn't that mean that the repugs should shoulder some of the culpability? I contend that they do. Republicans support terror the way anyone who voted for Hamas supports terror.

But, does that mean all Palestinians? No.
Does that mean all Republicans? Yes.
Does that mean all Americans? No. At least, I hope not. Goddess knows, I'm trying to uphold my disdain for all terrorists, be they American, Palestinian, Israeli, Al Qaida, or whomever.

Does the Israeli response to the Hezbollah missle strikes warrant the response that it is now raining down on Lebanon? I don't know. Israel is primarily going after military targets. They have tried to warn Lebanese before the strikes. Of course, there will always be collateral damage.

On the other hand, the strikes raining in to Sderot from Gaza and Northern Israel from Lebanon have had no such restraint. They were meant to exclusively hit as many civilians as they can take out. Same scenario as the Palestinian suicide bombings. There is nothing in the plans that call for striking military targets. Not when markets and theaters and restaurants and bus stations are the targets. That singular focus on civilian targets is what truly makes a terrorist a terrorist. To me, it's that simple.

The Israelis have a right to retaliate. Hezbollah deliberately crossed the border into Israel, killed some soldiers and abducted two of them. Yes, that was a military target, but they crossed the border to do it, and they did it completely without provocation. That's an act of war. It's that simple.

How many rockets was Israel supposed to endure from the Palestinians in Gaza until they finally retaliated? What was the threshold? Ten? Fifty? One hundred? According to some estimates, Sderot, which isn't even a disputed territory, has been subjected to an average of 20 each day, and more than 3,000 since Israel pulled out of the disputed settlements. According to this Epoch Times article, written June 25, 2006,

The number of Kasam attacks on Sderot has increased since last August, when Israel removed all of its Gaza settlements in what has become known as "the disengagement." Some 3,000 Kasam rockets have landed in the area since April 2001.

Without a doubt, a lot more have been pouring into Sderot since this writing, and the Israeli reponse has been hard. They are targeting primarily Hamas militant targets. Who wouldn't? It gets real old real fast to have rockets fired at your home day after day, month after month, and year after year.

Israel has a right to defend itself from these attacks, in my opinion. Does that mean that I think that Israel is without sin regarding the Palestinians? I don't think so. The biggest problem is that Israel has a severely heavy hand, and retribution is severe. They admit it, themselves, and state that their objective is to deter such attacks. It's not working. With the mess going on in Iraq, the nuclear issues involving Iran, and the ineffectiveness of the dubya regime, Hamas and Hizbollah have become rather emboldened. The neocons popped this Middle East cork, and only the stupid refuse to believe that, or refused to believe of the possibility when the neocons wanted to march into Iraq to sieze Saddam and his oil. I suppose that's what happens when you have oil men controlling the country. Talk about a DOH moment........

Marriage Ban

2006-07-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

An Amazing Find

2006-07-08T11:32:00.000-04:00

I just found this article at Jesus General, and I was flabbergasted. Truly. What an amazing find for the person who Jesus General attributes this find to, Chris Floyd, though I cannot find the original article. Either way, kudos mon. This is striking:

For some reason, this also smacks right up against the recent reports by the Southern Poverty Law Center that discusses how the military, in their quest to find enough troops, is recruiting hate groups. Very likely, they're also recruiting psychotics, as these above photo and FindLaw clip show, and assorted unfit for duty types. The military needs bodies to carry out their Iraq mission. We all know they've raised the recruitment age to 42, in hopes of meeting their quotas. The US military is in deep shit right now, and I'm sure the entire world knows it. Very scary stuff.

"George W. Bush Is Dead....

2006-07-07T07:28:00.000-04:00

..... to me". This is the title of Mark Morford's column in SFGate. It's one of the best descriptions of what it's like to have dubya for president - what it's like for me personally, and what it's like for the rest of the sane world. I really do believe that those who still believe that dubya is a good president are either seriously insane or hopelessly stupid. Following is the opening few paragraphs. I really hope people read this article, pass it on to others, revel in some really good writing ability.

It is like some sort of virus. It is like some sort of weird and painful rash on your face that makes you embarrassed to walk out the door and so you sit there day after day, waiting for it to go away, slathering on ointment and Bactine and scotch. And yet still it lingers.

Some days the pain is so searing and hot you want to cut off your own head with a nail file. Other days it is numb and pain-free and seemingly OK, to the point where you think it might finally be all gone and you allow yourself a hint of a whisper of a positive feeling, right up until you look in the mirror, and scream.

George W. Bush is just like that.

Please go and read the rest. It's really good. You won't be disappointed.

On another note, I will be out of town for a week, as of Sunday. A business trip to West Virginia. Beautiful countryside, a vacation of sorts, though I will be working rather hard, I'm sure. Sometimes, it's just good to get away.

Do-Nothing (but hate) Congress

2006-06-29T04:35:00.000-04:00

They've lost their marbles. Of course, I'm assuming that they ever had marbles. But, if they once did, they are now gone. Kaput.

The "they" I'm talking about is, of course, the republicans in Congress. It seems that there is a new agenda item for which they are fighting for, now that they've lost the flag burning debate. Seems today, that they're attempting to unleash another pile of dung upon the American people:

“The American Values Agenda is a collection of legislative initiatives that speak to the values many American citizens hold dear,” said House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). “Freedom to display the American flag. . . freedom of religious expression. . .the right to keep and bear arms. . .respect for the sanctity of marriage, and the dignity of all human life. These are values that have defined the American character, protected our families, and shaped our society.

This is really quite the pile of elephant dung. It's a collection of useless, discriminatory, self-serving, santimonious, pandering and otherwise destructive bills before Congress. It makes Gingrich's 1994 Contract With America pale in comparison. Following are a few of the items that this do-nothing-but-hurt Congress is trying to foist upon the American People:

Pledge Protection Act (HR 2389; Rep. Akin)
Pledge Protection Act of 2004 - Amends the Federal judicial code to deny jurisdiction to any Federal court, and appellate jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of the Pledge of Allegiance or its validity under the Constitution. Makes this limitation inapplicable to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia or the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Seems the repukes want to bring back the 1950's McCarthy era insertion of the God thing back into the pledge, and prohibit any future challenge to that challenge in any local or federal jurisdiction. I've previously written about the God/Pledge issue in my article Pledge Deemed Unconstitutional. Obviously, my stance has not changed.

Freedom to Display the American Flag Act (HR 42; Rep. Bartlett)
States that a condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent an association member from displaying the U.S. flag on residential property within the association with respect to which such member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use. Seems that maybe some condo association took issue with someone who may have displayed a flag in a manner that caused some duress to the association; like maybe the flag was so big that it maybe obscured someone's views out their windows, maybe. I dunno. Like we need Congress to be debating this crap when our soldiers have become casualties in an illegal war, 50K Americans don't have health insurance, and the environment is being rapidly poisoned.

The Public Expression of Religion Act (HR 2679; Rep. Hostettler)
To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States to eliminate the chilling effect on the constitutionally protected expression of religion by State and local officials that results from the threat that potential litigants may seek damages and attorney's fees. This is really important. If a public entity gets sued for unconstitutionally displaying some religious artifacts and icons and other religious symbols, the defendent will not be responsible for shouldering the court costs, even if they lose. In other words, you sue and you win, and you pay the court costs. This piece of shit is intended to accomplish one thing only: prevent litigation against unconstitutional religious displays. Unfuckingbelievable

Marriage Amendment (HJRes 88; Rep. Musgrave)
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage. Of course, this heap o' dung is that same old repuke assertion that marriage only be between a man and a woman, wherein this proposal would be the first amendment, if passed, that would actually serve to restrict rather than protect individual pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. And, what the hell for? Nothing, except to pander to a bunch of scumsucking demagogues who have nothing better to do than hate.

Human Cloning Prohibition Act (HR 1357; Rep. D. Weldon)
Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2005 - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit any person or entity, in or affecting interstate commerce, from knowingly: (1) performing or attempting to perform human cloning; (2) participating in such an attempt; (3) shipping or receiving an embryo produced by human cloning or any product derived from such embryo; or (4) importing such an embryo or derived product. Fact is, cloning and stem cell research will proceed regarless of whether these dirtbags pander against it, and very likely produce very significant desease-modifying and recuperative protocols for diseases and injuries that are presently both horrific and incurable. Therefore, I do hope that all the repukes who advance this ban, albeit fruitlessly, will be forever prohibited from benefiting from any medical advances derived from this science. May these dispiccable repuke hatemongers suffer immensely from these dumbass displays of selfishness and self-righteousness.

These are but a few of the bills that comprise this pile of dung called The American Values Agenda. These are not American values. These are not bills that are trying to ensure safety, protection, and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, as otherwise described in our Constitution. In fact, this hooey is nothing but the opposite. And, all this crap accomplishes is preventing any real substantive work being accomplished by Congress, like figuring out how to get health care and educational opportunities to all citizens, reversing the scourge of poverty and diseases and environmental degradation that is plaguing this country and the world, and protecting citizens from real terror here at home, rather than some pre-emptive, illegal war that is doomed to failure. This collection of garbage bills is guaranteed to muck up the works in Congress, resulting in election year devisiveness and ultimate failure of Congress to accomplish anything substantive and worthwhile.

Up In Smoke

2006-06-28T08:17:00.000-04:00

Oh miggod! Congress has failed us. Shall we never be able to recover? The Flag Burning Amendment has been defeated this week. Oh miggod! The country is now goin' to pot (did someone say "pot"?). As is so deftly pointed out in the WashingtonPost:

The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.

The number has increased to four, from three.

Well, I'm gonna wait for some other really important debates coming from Congress now (maybe like the marriage amendment or somethin' equally pressing and urgent to salvage what's left of this country), given that this majorly important piece of legislation, one that would have vastly affected NOT this country and its problems went to pot. Hmmmmmmm............ I wonder if there is something pot related that this congress can wrap its brain around now that the flag amendment is now ...poof!!... up in smoke.

Read on the Blogosphere......

2006-06-27T06:16:00.000-04:00

Dubya is turning the big 6-0 this week. It's really quite the milestone in history. It's the first time that his age will surpass his IQ.

Neocons and Islamists and War, oh my!

2006-06-25T12:06:00.000-04:00

This is a rather shocking graph that I stumbled upon this morning at a site called Opinio Juris. If this is what Muslims really believe, then clearly their countries, their regimes, their governments, whatever, are refusing to allow people to know the truth. And very likely, most of the people are too poor to have personal computers to view the web and read for themselves what really happens. It's a very troubling commentary on Arab societies.

Carried a step further, it's a troubling commentary on what any government can accomplish by keeping its citizens in the dark about its programs. It's a way to manipulate masses, by essentially lying and scheming and repressing the truth. Kind of reminds me of the jingo idiot who blindly follow the dubya regime into a crooked, corporate war. Jingism, blind patriotism, and nationalism are what led the German people down the road to its Nazi conclusion. America is not there, yet, and hopefully will never get there, but no thanks to the neocons who are doing their damnedest to get us there. They will be defeated. They are already going to jail in record numbers. There is hope.

This graph to the right is from the same site. It's also very troubling, as it indicates that many Muslims believe that it's acceptable to target civilians for suicide bombings to protect the Islamic religion. Wow! See what an absense of knowledge can do to society; how it can manipulate people to believe such crap, particularly when I really do believe that most of the victims of such suicide bombings very likely were no threat whatsoever to the Islamic religion, and frankly, the suicide bombing itself is the biggest threat to Islam, in that it actually is a self-defeating mechanism to protect something that was not initially being threatened. Suicide bombing is an evil construct invented by evil people to use political patsies willing to kill themselves to advance a misguided and evil notion of bettering the world. I find the practice to be unconcionable, without any redeeming qualities, and nothing short of crimes against humanity, both in its planning through to its bloody end.

So, what am I trying to say here? I dunno. I hate Islamists, which are not the same as Muslims. Islamists are the radical terrorist faction of Islam who advance suicide bombings and dictatorships in the name of self-righteousness. I hate neocons, not necessarily republicans. Neocons are the radical terrorist faction of the Republican party who advance illegal war, killing and occupation in the name of self-righteousness. Both groups, Islamists and neocons, are liars, intent on duping their followings into believing whatever it takes to advance their own selfish interests.

This chart, also from Opinio Juris, shows that Muslims, as a people, do believe that democracy can be achieved for themselves, that there is some hope. Am I the only one who sees the contradiction here? They want democracy, but they support suicide bombings, and they don't believe that Arabs were involved in 9-11. The author of the article felt optimistic by this latest chart, as do I. But, until people start getting the knowledge they need to achieve commendable societal goals, until governments stop duping and lying to their citizens, such a goal will not happen. The neocons seem to maintain the lies to keep the Islamists infuriated and perpetually suicidal, and the fictitious war on terror just keeps on going and going and going........... And, all people really want is to live free, feed their kids, and work. It's all that simple. They want democracy, but will never get it with the neocons and the islamists fighting for oil and superiority.

Keeping Up, or not, In the Blogosphere

2006-06-25T09:46:00.000-04:00

I have taken another hiatus from blogging, not because I'm injured or sick, but just because I've not spent a whole lot of time on my computer. This past week, I've been working hard, coming home, and vegetating in front of he TV, usually watching dumbing-down things, like reruns of CSI or Animal Planet. Don't get me wrong. I love CSI, the original series. It's sharp, the characters are great, and the writing is superb. Not true, however, for the spin-offs, in my opinion. CSI Miami is dumb, boring, and the lead, David Caruso, makes me sick, as he plays this arrogant, holier-than-thou cop. I cannot watch the show. CSI New York isn't as bad, but I guess I just always prefered Law and Order in that time slot.

As for Animal Planet, I really get sucked in to the stories about saving desperately abused animals, Jeff Corwin's experiences (damn, he's good), and a few others. Nothing that will change the world, but my mind just needed some down time. Down time is good. It's regenerative, I believe. I sure hope so, because I've been completely uninspired in the blogging universe.

I think I've been lacking inspiration because there is just so much out there. So goddamm much shit hitting the fan these days, so many people dying for nothing more than a corporate war, vast amounts of money being sucked from social programs to both support this corporate war, otherwise known as the Iraq Debaucle, in a manner that not only will not cost the corporate interests any money, but instead allow them to profit beyond a normal person's comprehension. If you don't believe me, check out the Haliburton war profits.

Money has been siphoned away from social programs to pad the obscene profits of the pharaceutical industries, thank you very much, dubya and your fucking cronies. Interesting that as soon as the Medicare changes went into effect, making it illegal for the government to negotiate prices with pharmas over drug costs, those same drug costs skyrocketed. Our neocon repukes paved the way for that financial scam.

Mr. Schondelmeyer said one clear indication of the inflation's impact could be seen among the six million low-income elderly and disabled people who previously received drug coverage through Medicaid but were automatically switched to the Part D program when it began in January.

That shift was a windfall for drug makers, he said. "Medicaid would have paid 25 to 30 percent less under the old system, including rebates from the manufacturers, than the new Medicare Part D program is paying."

One story that really caught my attention this morning is the piece about the neocon cockroach proposal to develop a Sunset Commission. Their assault on this country, the United States, is so patently appalling, and there is no ability by the democrats to fight it, if voted along party lines, that it really does signal the unraveling of our environmental and social protections that were adopted by previous administrations. Very scary stuff.

Apparently rushing to lock in a long-sought goal before the fall elections, GOP congressional leaders may bring to a vote within weeks a proposal that could literally wipe out any federal program that protects public health or the environment--or for that matter civil rights, poverty programs, auto safety, education, affordable housing, Head Start, workplace safety or any other activity targeted by anti-regulatory forces.

....snip.....

If such a bill should become law, the sunset commission could be packed with industry lobbyists and representatives from industry-funded think tanks, and could conduct its business in secrecy. Two of the sunset proposals under consideration would mandate that programs die after they are reviewed, unless Congress takes action to save them.

This last paragraph means that if the commission decides to "review" an existing program, all they really have to do is say they are reviewing the program. Period. It would now have entered the commission's system. Unless affirmative actions are taken to maintain this particular program, the program could conceiveably die a quiet death. Corporate interests would laugh their obscenely greedy asses all the way to their banks. I'm really heartsick over this proposal. I really am. This from the Rolling Stone:

In practice, however, the commission would enable the Bush administration to achieve what Ronald Reagan only dreamed of: the end of government regulation as we know it. With a simple vote of five commissioners -- many of them likely to be lobbyists and executives from major corporations currently subject to federal oversight -- the president could terminate any program or agency he dislikes. No more Environmental Protection Agency. No more Food and Drug Administration. No more Securities and Exchange Commission.

With such corporate interests running our government policies, and the sanctimonious Religious Right advancing the Christainization of our country, coupled with neocons demanding that the press be jailed for publishing stories that they don't want the public to know (i.e., Cheney Assails Press on Report on Bank Data), we are truly headed towards becoming a fascist country.

Yes, boys and girls, IT CAN HAPPEN HERE.

Priceless Colbert

2006-06-18T13:19:00.000-04:00

This is priceless. Go to this Colbert interview of Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and listen. This is one of the best interviews I've ever seen. Westmoreland is obviously missing a few brain cells. Maybe an entire brain. Freakin' amazing that people actually voted for him. Miggod..............

Dubya's National Marine Sanctuary

2006-06-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

Ever since the news broke that dubya created the world's largest marine sanctuary, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, June 15, 2006, I've been trying to make sense of it. On its face, it sure is a good thing, however admittedly, I have not read the small print. Call me a skeptic. This from the Seattlepi:

President Bush's creation of a huge sanctuary in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is something you don't see everyday.

He created the world's biggest marine protected area. He earned rare praise from environmentalists for saving the home of whales, large coral colonies and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. Native Hawaiian groups said they can now hope for proper protection of a sacred area.

It was also Bill Clinton-like. By creating only his second national monument (vs. 19 for Clinton), Bush avoided second-guessing by Congress and periodic reviews of the protections. Big, bold and lasting: that's a fine combination.

Being the skeptic that I am, I've been searching and searching for why dubya did such a commendable and altruistic deed. It's so not like him. Really. Then, I found it:

Bush Establishes World's Largest Ocean Reserve; areas northwest of Hawaii to remain protected until oil is discovered.

Now, it all makes sense. I feel better now.

Israeli Law and Order

2006-06-17T13:10:00.000-04:00

I invite my readers to please read this article, And Justice For All (Jews), that is posted at my good friend, desertpeace' blog. I've heard both sides of the argument regarding Palestinian/Israeli confict, and frankly, I'm just so perplexed at the gross inhumanity that is perpetrated by both sides. I am also greatly heartened by the humanity that flourishes in spite of these inhumanities. Read this article. Read about truth and justice not for all. Read about some of the roots of hate and anger. I really don't know what else to say........

Gardasil and the Fight for Womens' Lives

2006-06-17T07:18:00.000-04:00

When I read in the news that researchers came up with a 100% effective vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV), I considered it a major advance. HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancer, as I understand it. It's a great advance, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it for market. This from Alternet:

The pharmaceutical giant Merck produced the vaccine, known as Gardasil, which will be nothing short of a lifesaver for countless women. Cervical cancer is the second most prevalent cancer killer among women in America, striking nearly 14,000 each year. Of those, nearly 4,000 die. Poor women and women of color will benefit the most from the vaccine, as Latino and black women suffer the highest rates of cervical cancer. Lower-income women typically lack the funds and health insurance necessary to have regular screenings for HPV.

According to the article at Alternet, Family Research Council, "opposes it on the grounds that it might encourage promiscuity among adolescent girls. Now that the FDA has approved the vaccine, conservatives are already working feverishly to limit or even prevent its use." Interesting, and really sick, in my opinion. So, I took a gander over at the Family Reseach Council's website, and there is nothing whatsoever about Gardisil, the vaccine, except some video of ABC and NBC newscasts about the vaccine, and some rather minor hesitation articulated by the FRC. But, hesitation nonetheless. What is wrong with these people?

I would bet, dollars to donuts, that if prostate cancer was considered to be an STD, a vaccine for it would be approved so fast, the FDA's collective head would fly off as they spin it to market. But no, this is a vaccine to protect women from cervical cancer. Women. They are worried that girls will become more promiscuous if given the vaccine. What about the boys? Nothing about the boys, of course, because they are not the ones who would benefit from this vaccine. A sicker bunch of moronic thinkers as those found at the Family Research Council would be kind of hard to find.

According to Katha Pollit of The Nation, in her column Virginity or Death:

Not so fast: We're living in God's country now. The Christian right doesn't like the sound of this vaccine at all. "Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council told the British magazine New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex." Raise your hand if you think that what is keeping girls virgins now is the threat of getting cervical cancer when they are 60 from a disease they've probably never heard of.

Peace Corpse

2006-06-13T06:46:00.000-04:00

This is kind of an update to my previous post. I was watching John Stewart's The Daily Show last night, when one of his "Bagdad correspondents" did an update of the death of al Zarqari. Along the banner at the top of the segment was the phrase Peace Corpse. I thought that was hilarious, and felt like sharing.

Peace Corpse. Yeah, that's it, for sure.

Act of War???!!

2006-06-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

There have been alot of baseless contentions regarding the Iraq debaucle, starting from its initial assertion that Iraq had WMD's and the Niger documents proved it, and the latest, greatest of course is that we're beating down the insurgency, and winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, particularly because we were handed Zarqawi's head on the proverbial and almost literal platter. However, the most bizarre contention coming out of the White Wash, which I first heard this morning on CSPAN's Washington Journal, was that the Gitmo suicides are considered to be an "Act of War." Huh??!!!

After searching on google using the search phrase "suicides act of war", the first hit was from an Australian news service, NEWS.com.au.

Inmate suicides 'were an act of war'
From: Reuters

June 11, 2006

Gitmo / AFP
Deaths ... inmates found "unresponsive and not breathing" / AFP

THE commander of the US Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Rear Admiral Harry Harris has described the overnight suicide of three inmates "as an act of war".
Three foreign prisoners were found dead overnight after hanging themselves with clothing and bedsheets in the first deaths at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since the prison opened in January 2002, US defence officials said.

....snip....

Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of Guantanamo, described the suicides were an act of warfare.

"They are smart. They are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us," Rear Adm. Harris said.

....snip....

Facing indefinite detention with none of the rights afforded formal prisoners of war or criminal suspects in the US justice system, dozens of the detainees have undertaken hunger strikes and attempted suicide.

Apparently, suicide attempts at Gitmo are not new. But, now that a few succeeded, it's being called an "act of war??" To me, this sounds like a desperate statement made by a desperate man, trying to arouse some kind of hatred against some otherwise desperate people.

If I'm missing something, please dear readers, fill me in. In the meantime, I'll do some more searching around. And, I'll try not to get too nauseous from the dispiccable politicizing of these suicides. That might be hard, though.

Short Hiatus From Blogging

2006-06-10T09:18:00.000-04:00

I'm back. I took a minor hiatus this past week because I had no desire to sit at my computer for more than two minutes at a time. Ya see, I had this really dumb and embarrassing accident at work. I've not followed much news or read any good books, or anything constructive. I did play quite a bit of solitaire on my PDA as I laid in bed in a painkiller-induced stupor. OK, the details........

As I was getting ready to disembark from the boat, I took my life jacket (we're required to wear them) off. Then, as I was stepping off the boat, a 25-foot Boston Whaler, onto the dock, apparently the wind (it was a very windy and rough day) blew the boat away from the dock, which was tied, by the way, but with enough slack in the line to accomodate tides. So, there I was, I guess in a momentary lapse of judgment, given that I've embarked and disembarked a zillion times to/from boats and docks, betwixt and between. Down I went, into the drink, between the hull and the dock. Needless to say, that is a rather scary place to be.

At first, I couldn't breath because the water was cold, and I was a bit in a panic. However, as soon as I gathered my senses, a few seconds later, I realized that the bottom was reachable, so I could just stand. Then, another panic set in. My camera!!! Oh shit, my camera was completely submerged. Only after I handed it up to my co-worker who was on the dock, did I then begin the joyous effort of figuring out how to get out of the water. There wasn't a ladder to be seen, neither on the dock or the boat. My boss, who was in the boat, also panicked. He threw me a line, bless his heart. So, I stood there in water up to my chin, holding both ends of the line. "Mike?????? Thanks a freakin' bundle", I said. He then tried to haul me over the gunnel, but that wasn't gonna happen. I told him to stop, so I could climb up the horizontal structures of the dock, which I succeeded in doing. I think we all need to work on our rescue protocols.

By the time I got out, needless to say, I was akin to a drowned rat. I have some of the most severe bruising I've ever had in my life on both upper arms, my right hip and right knee, and my left lower arm. But, the worst is what is possibly a cracked rib on my right side. That hurts. Alot. It hurts to cough, to laugh, to sneeze (oh miggod) and to just breath. I had x-rays done yesterday, because my doctor wants to be sure I don't have a pneumo or hemothorax. "Wouldn't I know that already?", I asked. She said, not necessarily. And, of course, I get to file all the workers compensation bureaucratic crap, which is necessary to recover lost work time, and most importantly, to replace my camera. My camera!!! Waaaaaaaa...........................

So, I'm back in business, rather sore and the biggest bruise, I think, is to my ego. Fallin' in the drink is rather hard to live down here at work. It's kind of funny, actually, and when I tell it, which I have numerous times, I always include the part about how my boss tossed in an entire unattached rope to me. He's a great guy, and there's nothing to really do now, but laugh. But, it still hurts to laugh.

SEE UPDATE Dusty Doggie Now at Eponym

2006-06-03T15:41:00.000-04:00

UPDATE - As of today, June 10, 2006, I'm back at Blogger. The deal-breaker is the ability to post images inline with text, and on the fly. So that's that.

I've been in a little hiatus from blogging lately, as far as you all can tell. But, in fact, I've been doing blog stuff like crazy. I'm a blogoholic, ya know. I had read an article, Eponym Blog Host Review, wherein the author was saying that he feels that this new blog hosting site, Eponym, is really good. I figured I'd give it a try.

I like Eponym alot. I like that I can easily create a 3-column blog, that it has categories, that it's very configurable, though template tampering is something I have to investigate further. But, it does provide the ability to import your own template. Image posting is easy. And, it's neat and clean and comfortable to use. In fact, there are quite a few services that Eponym provides that none of the other major free blog hosting sites provide, as indicated on their Comparison Chart.

My new blogsite is still named Dusty Doggie, and I invite you all to take a look. I was able to migrate all my posts from my this site, but I left the comments behind, because that was a huge effort for which I saw no purpose.

I'm looking for comments, opinions, constructive criticism, gut feelings, etc. Should I abandon Blogger for Eponym? Should I not? One thing I am asking is that you post your comments there, rather than here. Unless I get a really compelling reason to stay here, consider me there.

I'm going to leave this Blog alone, and post new articles and images to Eponym, so please bookmark the page and go there instead. If all goes well, I'll just stay there. If not, I'll come back here, and of course let you all know over there.

Court Flushes Whistleblower Rights

2006-05-30T19:59:00.000-04:00

High court trims whistleblower rights

In a victory for the Bush administration, justices said the 20 million public employees do not have free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs.

Critics predicted the impact would be sweeping, from silencing police officers who fear retribution for reporting department corruption, to subduing federal employees who want to reveal problems with government hurricane preparedness or terrorist-related security.

Supporters said that it will protect governments from lawsuits filed by disgruntled workers pretending to be legitimate whistleblowers.

I'm disgusted. So totally disgusted, I cannot even tell you. Federal employees have just lost one of their rights of free speech.

Here's a hypothetical.... If a federal worker is surfing porn, and believe me, particular co-workers in the federal government do surf porn, a co-worker who becomes a whistleblower, as of today, can no longer be protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act for reporting this if a supervisor decides to protect the porn king over the whistleblower. How's that for total bullshit? But, the only thing that previously protected a whistleblower was the WPA. Till today. Now, that's gone. This is what the neocon-loving cockroaches voted for. I'm gonna be sick. Really sick. Thank Goddess that I blew the whistle before this ruling became law. I was protected from the retaliation my supervisor tried to lay on me.

This from the NYTimes.com:

"We hold that when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court.

...skip....

In writing the decision that reversed the Ninth Circuit today, Justice Kennedy noted that the Supreme Court has made it clear in previous rulings "that public employees do not surrender all their First Amendment rights by reason of their employment." On the other hand, he wrote, "When a citizen enters government service, the citizen by necessity must accept certain limitations on his or her freedom."

What freakin' limitations? We're not stupid. We know that the only reason the neocons won this battle in the supremely neocon court is because they don't want to be outed for the repeated misdeads, cover-ups, blunders and outright lies. If you don't believe me, check out Wikipedia's listing of famous whistleblowers. They all reported misdeeds perpetrated by miscreants, and got retaliated against for doing so. This from the National Whistleblowers Center:

“Almost every major credible whistleblower exposed wrongdoing as part of their ‘professional duties,’” stated Stephen M. Kohn, Chairman of National Whistleblower Center. “That is the definition of whistleblowing. The ruling is a victory for every crooked politician in the United States,” Kohn Said. The Court struck at the heart of whistleblowing: When an employee learns of corruption as part of his or her ‘official duties,’ and exposes the wrongdoing, five Supreme Court judges have granted permission to fire the honest public employee,” Kohn added.

As a result of the five member majority decision, a person who burns the American flag is protected from retaliation, but an honest public employee who exposes waste, fraud and corruption can be fired. The decision defies common sense,” Kohn said. Justice Kennedy authored both the decision protecting flag burning, and today’s decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos.

I feel really sick.

Memorial Day - Let Us Never Forget..... THE TRUTH

2006-05-29T08:05:00.000-04:00

Today is Memorial Day. There are millions of flags waving. Parades happened or will be happening everywhere. The weather is warm and the skies are blue, so there will be billions of hot dogs and hamburgers getting grilled. Let's not forget the multitudes of kegs and micros that will be imbibed today. Today is a day to party.

But, it is also a day of remembrance for those soldiers who have fallen, sacrificed life and limb to fight for this country. However, when a statement is put out by the White Wash, it makes me cringe. Literally, I cringe. Today, the prez and his main squeeze will participate in a Wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The hypocrisy makes me wanna puke.

I am writing about Memorial Day today because I just read an article by a fellow blogger who has summed up the meaning of this day in a very significant way. Taylor Marsh points out the hypocrisy of the right wing scheme machine (Rachel Maddow's term) and the myth of Republican assertion that they are stronger and more capable to protect our homeland (the fascist's term) from terrorists and whatever machinations of their deranged brains they happen to put out to mainstream media for dissemination to a gullible American populace. As Taylor pointed out, there are 50+ vets who are "storming the hill", running to take back Congress and put it in democratic control again. All those 50 vets are running as democrats.

I am not going to re-write Taylor's article. Instead, I am exerpting two paragraphs, and I strongly urge my readers to navigate over to her site and read the entire article, MEMORIAL DAY: The Republican Military Myth Revealed. It's worth it. It's Memorial Day, and we must never forget.

In 2000, George W. Bush allowed former POW and war hero Senator John McCain to be impugned within an inch of his personal life (to McCain's disgrace, he not only let it pass, but supports the culprits). This was followed by Ralph Reed comparing a three-limb amputee and war hero Senator Max Cleland to Osama and Saddam, something he later stated he'd do again. Mind you, Reed never served. It's a disease in the Republican party that has infested the ranks, which has led to the trigger happy chickenhawk Republican that is costing this country Her very life. Dick Cheney is now a legend for his 5 deferments. John Ashcroft had 7 deferments. The list of non-serving neocons is long: Speaker Hastert, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, former majority leader Tom Delay, Missouri's Roy Blunt, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Dana Rohrabacher, Bill Frist, Mitch McConnell, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum all chose not to serve our country, but the list goes on and on.

Democrats, on the other hand, are military people by service: General Wesley Clark, Representative Dick Gephardt, Representative Bonoir, Senator Tom Daschle, Vice President Al Gore, Senator Bob Kerry, Senator Inouye, Senator John Kerry, Representative Charles Rangel, Senator Max Cleland, Senator Teddy Kennedy, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Jack Reed, Senator Fritz Hollings, Boswell, Peterson, Thompson, McBridge, Pete Stark, Gray Davis... Senator George McGovern, Senator John Glenn, Vice President Walter Mondale, and, except for Ike, President Jimmy Carter, who served more years in the service than any other president. Of course, we all know that Bill Clinton dodged the draft during Vietnam, but he also didn't wage premptive war. Let's also remember that it's not Democrats vilifying soldiers who stand up and speak out.

Thank you, Taylor Marsh.

Today's Walk along the Bay

2006-05-28T17:07:00.000-04:00

Today, my dusty doggie and I took a wonderful walk along the bay. It was dead low tide, so the birds were feeding like crazy. I got some shots that completely made my day. When I'm out shooting, I really don't always know what I'm focusing on. I just try to get a good shot, and identify the species later. A favorite subject of mine are the egrets. They are always around, but shooting them can be a bit tough. Today however, were two species that I never saw before, and as luck would have it, they were more than happy to be photographed. In fact, so was this one particular egret. How unusual. I was hiding in the brush, and dusty doggie was unhappily complying with my command to sit still. I love this dog.

Click on the images to enlarge....

The egret strutted past these two shorebirds, obviously on its way to something yummy that it had eyed.

This same beautiful egret caught a fish moments later, and I caught it catching the fish. Color me happy.

Turns out these shorebirds, which I had no idea what they were when I was shooting, are Ruddy Turnstones. At least, I think they are Ruddy Turnstones. According to the The Sibley Guide to Birds, the very orange legs seem to be the most distinguishing characteristic among shorebirds. Fact is, these shorebirds, sandpipers, etc. are sometimes quite difficult to tell apart. Also, according to the Sibley guide, if these are indeed Ruddy Turnstones, they are merely migrating through, and are on their way to their summer habitat at the northern fringes of this continent. How cool is that?

As we were leaving the beach, I decided to take one last look along the water, and lo and behold was this fabulously billed something-or-other. I started shooting like crazy. This bird turns out to be an American Oystercatcher, which appears along the east and west coastlines of the United States.

The Sibley Guide to Birds is a great resource. It was a wonderful investment for me, given how much I love shooting birds. Today was a great day.

Dumbya as Truman

2006-05-28T10:22:00.000-04:00

Before I write about my observations from this morning's CSPAN open call-in show, I'd like to make a single comment regarding this latest (of many, lately) Constitutional crisis that is now facing Congress and the White Wash. In particular, the FBI raid of Rep. William J. Jefferson's (D-La.) office after finding out and indicting him on bribery charges. The burning question I have is did other indicted or accused members of Congress, and even those who have already pled guilty, be they from the House or Senate get their offices raided by the FBI? Was DeLay's office raided? Was Cunningham's? Were anyone's office raided and files and computers taken, other than Jefferson? I suspect not, because it's only Jefferson's indictment that has caused such a reaction. Think about it. The rest of the Congressional slimeballs were republican neocon cockroaches. Jefferson is a black democrat, who apparently is also a cockroach. I suppose if you're a member of Congress who happens to get caught with greased palms, it's bad enough. If you're a democrat, that's scores extra points. A black democrat, well hell's bells, that must be the jackpot.

Don't get me wrong. I, in no way, support any such bribery activities, grease palms, corruption, whatever. But, for god's sakes, people, where's the equity? Why is the press allowing this kind of hypocrisy to go unchallenged?

Now, to this morning's CSPAN..........

The initial question that the show's host, Steven Scully, asked of his audience was, "What do pople think about Bush's West Point commencement speech?" Of course, the item that rose to the top immediately was dubya's comparison of himself to former President Truman. As always, the phones start ringing off the hook, I'm sure, even though we cannot hear them. How do I know? I've tried to call in, but I never got past the busy signals. Never.

Anyway, the phone dialogue proceeded to deteriorate (for lack of a better word) into those who are for dubya and how this country is under attack by the liberals against good Christians who support the war on terror, and the liberals who bashed this administration's supposed support (again for lack of a better word) of the Christians who are fighting against the evil Muslems. In fact, the neocon supporters seem to use their hatred of Europe because the Europeans have allowed the terrorists to breed within their countries, according to one caller.

There was one caller who felt that this war is against Christianity itself. The Christian extremists (obvioulsly racists) use their Christianity as the basis for their mutual support of dumbya and the neocons. Conversely, the liberal callers did an excellent job of questioning the corporate backing for this war, stating that were it not for corporate interests, there would be no war. I tend to agree, obviously, as anyone who knows me already knows. The entire CSPAN segment was a weird clash between religious ideologues and apparently well-informed free thinkers.

One caller mentioned that when Truman took office, war profiteers were making crazy profits from WWII, but Truman effectively put a stop to that. I don't know if this is true or not, so I navigated over to Wikipedia and looked up Truman. What I found is rather interesting, though the question about war profiteers was not answered. The only reference that dubya made that appears to be even close to any similarity to Truman was the advent of the Cold War, wherein the Truman Doctrine was the beginning of it all. That's it. Period. Of course, the Cold War was a war against a nebulous enemy, the Communists, for which this country sank into severe Constitutional crises, most notibly stomping upon First Amendment rights to free speech. Interesting that dubya would make such a comparison.

In fact, there are other aspects of Truman's legacy, from what I read at Wikipedia, that are so diametrically opposed to dubya's philosophies, that the dubya comparison is tantamount to a joke. A stupid joke that obviously goes right over our stupid buffoon of a president's head. For instance:

Fair Deal

Following many years of Democratic majorities in Congress and Democratic presidents, voter fatigue led to a new Republican majority in the 1946 midterm elections, with the Republicans picking up 55 seats in the House of Representatives and several seats in the Senate. Although Truman cooperated closely with the Republican leaders on foreign policy he fought them on domestic issues. He failed to prevent tax cuts and removal of price controls. The power of the labor unions was significantly curtailed by the Taft-Hartley Act which was enacted by over-riding Truman's veto. The onset of the Korean conflict in 1950 once again required an increase in taxes.

As he readied for the approaching 1948 election, Truman made clear his identity as a Democrat in the New Deal tradition, advocating universal health insurance, the repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and an aggressive civil rights program in a broad legislative program that he called the "Fair Deal."

Now, back to dubya's comparison of himself to Truman, of particular note is the Truman Doctrine, signed into law in 1947, which was foreign policy "that the U.S. government would support Greece and Turkey with military and economic aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet orbit. The Doctrine shifted American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union from détente to, as George F. Kennan phrased it, a policy of containment..."

Metaphor

The "Truman Doctrine" has become a metaphor for emergency aid to keep a nation independent. Truman used disease imagery not only to communicate a sense of impending disaster in the spread of communism but also to create a "rhetorical vision" of containing it by extending a protective shield around noncommunist countries throughout the world. It echoed the "quanrantine the aggressor" policy Franklin Roosevelt proposes in 1937. The medical metaphor extended beyond the immediate aims of the Truman Doctrine in that the imagery combined with fire and flood imagery evocative of disaster provided the United States with an easy transition to direct military confrontation in later years with communist forces in Korea and Vietnam. By presenting ideological differences in life or death terms, Truman's rhetoric increased the nation's feelings of insecurity and constrained future foreign policy decisions [Ivie 1999]

Sound familiar?

It's also amazing that dubya has to go back in history to compare himself to a former president. It's pretty obvious why he chooses to do so. He has nothing but a failing record, and he sure cannot talk about anything relevant to his own failed policies on every level of government. He's got the anti-Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to crap. His record is nothing but failed ventures and crap.

From Last Weekend's Walk (click to enlarge)

2006-05-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

Yet Another "Live Vote"

2006-05-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

The MSNBC website has an ongoing "live vote" right now asking if the reader believes that dubya should be impeached or not. First of all, I'd like to add that if abject stupidity qualifies for impeachment, then dubya sure does qualify for such dubious distinction. However, I really believe that dubya alone should not be impeached. Cheney MUST also be impeached. He is so completely culpable in everything that this poll asked about dubya. In fact, an awful lot of people, including me, do believe that dubya's dick is, in fact, the driving force behind all the actions and decisions coming from the White Wash, I mean House. Dubya himself is just way too stupid, too clueless, too incurious to be soley responsible.

Below is a screen shot of the poll right after I cast my vote this morning, May 27, 2006, which pretty much indicates that the majority of Americans are of like mind in their total disgust with this administration:

Tricklin' On Down to Dubya's Bank

2006-05-24T07:22:00.000-04:00

"Bush's recently passed 77 Billion tax cut for the rich will leave 68% of all households with no benefits at all," according to OpEdNews.com.

About 87 percent of the benefits of the reconciliation conference agreement would flow to the 14 percent of households with incomes above $100,000 with:

55 percent of the 87 percent of the benefits going to the 3 percent with incomes above $200,000.

22 percent of the 87 percent will go to those earning more than $1 million a year, which represent only 0.2 percent of all households.

5 percent of the benefits will go to those with incomes below $75,000, which is 75 percent of all American households.

2 percent of all benefits will go to households with incomes of less than $50,000, which is 60 percent of all households.
\In dollars terms, the average tax cut for:

The 20 percent of households in the middle of the income spectrum would be just $20.

The average tax cut for those in the top 1 percent of the income spectrum would be $14,100.

For those with incomes above $1 million, the average tax cut would be $43,000.

Now, given the state of this faltering economy, don't you just feel all tingly and warm and fuzzy knowing that dubya gave you a $20 tax break? Doesn't it just warm your heart? I bet it really warms the hearts of those who receive $43,500. That's about the entire annual salary of those who are getting the $20 bucks. The people who need the money the least will get the most, and for which this $87 billion tax break bill will have absolutely no impact on their lifestyles. Conversely, those who make the least will get the least, for which this sham of a tax break will have absolutely no impact on their lifestyles.

Trickledown economics at its finest. Its finest, of cousre, is that it's a sham and it doesn't get any better than this. Reagan invented voodoo economics and dubya is taking it to the bank. His bank.

Finally, we need to mention that 68 percent of all households would receive no benefits whatsoever from the tax-cut package.

This is Republican “trickle down” economics.

Containment's just another word for nothing left but oil

2006-05-23T06:54:00.000-04:00

The U.S. military is already gearing up for this outcome, but not for “victory” any longer. It is consolidating to several “superbases” in hopes that its continued presence will prevent Iraq from succumbing to full-flown civil war and turning into a failed state.

Huh??? What outcome is that, you ask?

Apparently, there's a new buzzword coming out of DC these days. It's called "containment" according to Newsweek Politics online. The US is no longer even considering any kind of victory. They are just trying to save face. They're trying to save face by stating that they are setting up these super military bases, wherein the Iraqis will accept that limited presence as one that will keep their civil war in check. They call it "containment." But, read that above statement again. They are hoping. Hoping?? HOPING?????????? Holy wishful thinking, Batman.

So today’s containment is a furtive policy being developed willy-nilly behind the scenes, as Bush’s pragmatic second-term officials seek to clean up the vast Mideast mess left by the ideologues who dominated in the first term. A series of cautious concepts similar to those that came to dominate the cold war are emerging as the least worst way of holding off powerful forces that are also going to be around for along time: disintegration in Iraq, expansion in Iran, Islamism all over.

If we follow some of the news backwards, we can find examples of the dubya lies, one of which is this one wherein they have no plans to stay in Iraq forever. We know that's a lie because while they were saying this, they were also in the process of building the largest US embassy complex in the world, complete with 21 buildings, theater, swimming pool, hotels, offices, etc. I wrote about that in a previous article, Mission Accomplished, which can be found in my April Archives.

Of course, I don't believe their crap for one second. Sure, containment would be nice. But, they are just figuring a way to stay out of the mess, behind their embassy walls, basically containing the bloodshed from reaching their own complex. But, you have to wonder why in hell they are building this complex amid this bloodbath, anyway. Fact is, the other big lie was the link of Iraq to 9/11. Invading Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 or Osama bin Laden, or any such altruistic endeavors. It was all about the oil. It's still all about the oil. As Iraq sinks into this low-key civil war, the neocon concept of containment is merely saving their collective face, so they can continue their presence in Iraq, maintain the puppet government, and control the Iraq oil.

Containment, my ass. These neocon cockroaches are dispiccable liars with only one interest - oil. Saving face is all about making thier mega-embassy appear to be an acceptable strategy now that they are no longer striving for victory. They've given up. Thousands upon thousands of people are dead and maimed. Families destroyed forever. A country in ruins. And, they have given up. But, I suppose there is nothing else that could be done, given that this Iraqi debaucle was a failed mission from Day One. It's just taken years for these dummies to recognize that. They are just trying to save face. Amazingly enough, they are working like dogs to convince voters that they deserve re-election. That sure is a whole other thing that makes me wonder who the remaining 29% of Americans are, and where their dumbass heads are at.

Photoshop Contest

2006-05-23T06:44:00.000-04:00

Of all the mock-ups and Photoshop inventions, this one really made me laugh. It's part of a Fark.com Photoshop contest in which the theme is "Police bust GW after finding his MySpace page." Check it out. There's more. Hehehehe.........

No Time Like the Present

2006-05-22T06:35:00.000-04:00

Now, here's a person who is more hated than dubya telling people that people really do like dubya. According to Knight Ridder Washington Bureau:

"The American people like this president," White House political guru Karl Rove said last week. "People like him. They respect him. He's somebody they feel a connection with. But they're just sour right now on the war. And that's the way it's going to be. And we will fight our way through."

Excuse me? When does Rove talk have any merit whatsoever outside of earshot of dubya himself? As far as I can tell, it doesn't. People hate the lying sack of excrement more than they hate his dubya puppet.

Rove says people are just "soured" on the Iraq War. Well, NO SHIT SHERLOCK! (Happy Birthday, Arthur Conan Doyle.) I, for one, was soured on the Iraq war before it was an Iraq war. I couldn't imagine how the hell this administration could venture into a foreign country, invade it with shock and awe force, and do so based on forgeries. We in blogosphere knew the Niger documents were forgeries well before the invasion. But, mainstream media refused to carry that news, and for that I lay most of the blame for this quagmire. But, for all the blame, I hate dubya and this neocon regime even more. But, I digress....

This Knight Ridder story expounds upon dubya's falling ratings, pointing out that much of the fall is because he isn't even liked as a human being anymore:

It's not just the way he's doing his job. Americans apparently don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either.

A drop in his personal popularity, as measured by several public polls, has shadowed the decline in Bush's job-approval ratings and weakened his political armor when he and his party need it most.

...snip...

"When he loses likeability, the president loses the benefit of the doubt," said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Iowa. "That makes it much harder for him to steer."

Aides in the president's circle say Bush still has it. They suggest that his likeability will serve as a get-out-of-trouble card no matter how mad people get about the war in Iraq or other woes.

Aides in the president's circle have about as much credibility and likeability as the dubya cockroach himself, not to mention the rove cockroach. They all have their collective pea brains up where da sun don't shine. And, that's a fact. As far as I can tell, people are finally starting to see dubya for the lunatic buffoon that he is. How they got duped into believing his crap in the first place is another story, one for the shrink's couch. But sometimes, it takes a while, and for those who have finally seen the light, I am happy for them. Maybe now we can maybe, maybe move on to IMPEACHMENT proceedings against dubya and his heartless wonder.

Thank You

2006-05-21T20:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning, I walked for a cure for arthritis. I raised a total of $330.00, which was pretty good. It's $330 more than the Arthritis Foundation would have if I didn't walk for the cure. This is my second year walking for the Arthritis Foundation, and I'll likely keep doing it for as long as I am able to do so, which hopefully, will be forever. There are over 170 different kinds of arthritis, and I am saddled with at least three kinds - psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis and Dupuytren's contracture. Each one is a nuisance, to say the least, and sometimes I need to eat painkillers just to make it through the day. Sometimes I don't. One day is always different than the next. It's always a surprise.

I want to very publicly and most sincerely thank everyone who contributed to my donation effort. I will keep the link up on my sidebar for a short time longer, just in case there are any stragglers who still wish to donate.

Your contributions kept me going. Your support keeps me going.

I'm back......

2006-05-19T21:19:00.000-04:00

.... and here are a few images from my trip....

Off for other worldly things...............

2006-05-16T06:02:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving town for a couple of days. Not a vacation, unfortunately, but rather a business trip. I like business trips. They help to invigorate my interest in my job, and this particular trip, though bound to be boring as all get out at times, is also necessary for me to learn more about one aspect of my job.

I'm a geographic informations systems coordinator for the place that I work, which shall continue to remain nameless. GIS is computerized mapping. It's about collecting spatial data in order to create databases of specific aspects of locations, like plants and animals, their habitats, or developments, or shoreline changes, or fault lines, or whatever. The data is used to learn, study, explore relationships, organize, and monitor natural systems, all of which is connected to my job. I absolutely love it.

That was a really brief description of GIS, for sure. An even more simplistic explanation is that I make pretty maps. I use everything from shorelines, elevation contours, vegetation mapping, species locations, developments, satellite imagery, etc., all to make these maps.

So, I'm off for a few days. My readers should not worry about me. I'll be back and I'll be writing again in about one week. Maybe sooner. Fact is, I have become somewhat of a blogoholic. Not only about writing and designing my own blog, but also about reading others' blogs. I'll actually miss it all for the week. But, I'm sure I'll be keeping busy with other more worldy things.

Greg Palast - Kudos To You, Mon....

2006-05-14T14:15:00.000-04:00

This morning, I had the unexpected pleasure of turning on CSPAN and finding that Greg Palast, one of my favorite writers and journalists, was a guest. Unfortunately he was a guest with that dirtbag R. Emmett Tyrrell, the Editor-in-Chief of the American Spectator. If you're not familiar with the American Spectator, I can only sum it up as follows: I've been wondering who were the 29% of Americans who still support the dubya regime. Tyrrell is a prime example, a total blowhard who cannot think of anything else but to call everyone not of the neocon ilk a "socialist". Very reminiscent of Limbaugh and Santorum. Blechhhhhhhh... enough of him.

My real point of this article is to alert readers to one of the most amazing things I learned this morning from Mr. Palast. As they were discussing the illegal wiretapping and the huge database that the government is keeping of Americans' phone records, he mentioned a company called ChoicePoint. ChoicePoint, it seems, is that same company that was used by Jeb Bush, and his sidekick Katherine Harris, to develop a phony list of felons, predominantly African Americans and democrats of course, to toss off the voter roles in Florida in order to hand over the 2000 presidential election to his brother, the cockroach.

Holy mother of scandalous stories (this is Mothers Day, after all), is there really a pattern here? Realy an actual conspiracy to defraud on the part of this great American democracy? Apparently, there is. According to Palast, from his website:

This is: the snooping into your phone bill is just the snout of the pig of a strange, lucrative link-up between the Administration's Homeland Security spy network and private companies operating beyond the reach of the laws meant to protect us from our government. You can call it the privatization of the FBI -- though it is better described as the creation of a private KGB.

snip....

he leader in the field of what is called "data mining," is a company called, "ChoicePoint, Inc," which has sucked up over a billion dollars in national security contracts.

Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain't nothing. You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration. Five years ago, I discovered that ChoicePoint had already gathered 16 billion data files on Americans -- and I know they've expanded their ops at an explosive rate.

They are paid to keep an eye on you -- because the FBI can't. For the government to collect this stuff is against the law unless you're suspected of a crime. (The law in question is the Constitution.) But ChoicePoint can collect it for "commercial" purchases -- and under the Bush Administration's suspect reading of the Patriot Act -- our domestic spying apparatchiks can then BUY the info from ChoicePoint.

Who ARE these guys selling George Bush a piece of you?

snip....

And worse, they KNEW the racially-tainted list of felons was bogus. And when we caught them, they lied about it. While they've since apologized to the NAACP, ChoicePoint's ethnic cleansing of voter rolls has been amply rewarded by the man the company elected.

And now ChoicePoint and George Bush want your blood. Forget your phone bill. ChoicePoint, a sickened executive of the company told us in confidence, "hope[s] to build a database of DNA samples from every person in the United States ...linked to all the other information held by CP [ChoicePoint]" from medical to voting records.

This is exactly the kind of crap Tyrrell and his American Spectator buddies support. He even went on to say that in order to win the "war on terror", we have to lose a few civil liberties. At which point, Palast jumps in to say "THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR!" The war on terror is, in fact, an undeclared war against not only the Iraqis, whom we invaded in order to liberate their oil for our cockroach coffers, but also against the American people, the chumps who continue to believe that there is some kind of "war". We were attacked by a few Saudi nutcases, which did not constitute an act of war. If it did, we should have attacked Saudi Arabia. But, that was never going to happen. After all, the Bush Crime Family is part of OPEC, that cartel that is now pushing up the price of oil and making them all richer than god.

And, speaking of this phony war, here's another little piece of neocon lunacy. Apparently, there is this leaked document (click on this image to the left) which indicates that:

"... there are over 30 pages of documentation obtained by the BBC and the National Security News Service (Washington) indicating that the FBI was pulled off the trail of [bin Laden] on September 11, 1996 - and reactivated exactly five years later. According to agents and higher level sources in the CIA who spoke with us, before the attack on the World Trade Center, these cases were shut down for political reasons. While President Clinton "constrained" investigations of alleged Saudi funding of terror networks and the making of the "Islamic" atomic bomb, Bush "Jr." effectively "killed" those investigations - until September 2001."

Essentially, what Greg Palast points out in his article See No Evil: What Bush Didn't (Want To) Know About 9/11 is that even though Bill Clinton started this policy failure, dubya took it to the next level, and effectively killed off any further investigations into the Saudi family's ties to terrorism:

The Family Business

I still didn't have an answer to all my questions. We knew that Clinton and the Bushes were reluctant to discomfort the Saudis by unearthing their connections to terrorists -- but what made this new president take particular care to protect the Saudis, even to the point of stymying his own intelligence agencies?

The answers kept coming back: "Carlyle" and "Arbusto."

While some people have guardian angels, our president seems to have guardian sheiks....

This is such an ugly history, and there is so much to read, and all I want to do is stick my head in the sand, like so many Americans choose to do, and I have so much dog fur floating around my house (Dusty Dog is blowin' her coat), and my house is such a mess, that I just don't have the time to know it all. Therefore, I trust people like Greg Palast to do the hard investigative work that he does, and teach those of us who are inclined to listen. It seems that more and more Americans are becoming more inclined to listen. At least, I hope so. However, there are those 29% jingo blowhards who will support the neocons no matter what. They are hopeless, and I try not to dwell on their stupidity for too long. It just ruins my day.

Thought for the Day..........

2006-05-14T13:58:00.000-04:00

.... and every day:

"Of all the questions which can come before this nation, there is none which compares in importance to the great central task of leaving this land an even better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuation of the nation."
----------- Theodore Roosevelt, 1908

Big Lie of the Week

2006-05-14T10:18:00.000-04:00

I lifted this entire article from SaveTheInternet.com. I didn't get pre-approval, but I did register with them, and I will be putting up a banner in my sidebar as soon as I finish posting this article. I find it appalling that the ISPs, who are merely providers to the internet are now attempting to gain control of it, for the sole purpose of making money. And, to be sure, these are the same scoundrels who have already bought into the neocon scheme machine. Mainstream media has already been bought out by them. The only really free press anymore is the internet. But, not for long if these bums and crooks get their way. Be afraid. Be very afraid.......

Don’t be fooled. Web sites like “Hands Off The Internet” are industry front groups — the products of high-priced consultants bought and paid for by the cable and phone industry. Companies like AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and their trade associations are spending millions every week to mislead and misinform the American public.

Their latest attempt to hoodwink Internet users is a cutesy cartoon at www.dontregulate.org — a clever piece of industry propaganda that is riddled with half-truths and outright lies.

The animation is an example of Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness” in action. Telco giants cloak their real intentions behind a populist message that sounds plausible, while undermining the work of genuine public and consumer advocates.

Visit our “Big Lie” page for a quick guide to cutting through the industry spin.

For a hilarious take on the Bell’s “Astroturf” campaign, visit Jesus’ General.

Birds in My Neigborhood

2006-05-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

I took a walk today.........

Ding Dong, the Witch is goin' down.........

2006-05-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

Late breaking news -

KARL ROVE INDICTED

This image is an old one, and it's been circulating around the web for at least a couple of years. Finally, it isn't just a joke. Finally, it has some basis in reality. I just look forward now to the jerk going to prison. He's been getting away with his illegal crap for way too long. And, it finally caught up with him. The neocons just got too brazen, like they thought they were invincible. They are not. According to Truthout:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, did not return a call for comment. Sources said Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, Friday and met with Luskin for about 15 hours to go over the charges against Rove, which include perjury and lying to investigators about how and when Rove discovered that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative and whether he shared that information with reporters, sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.

I suppose they have to be really thorough, but why did it take so long? And, if this isn't the biggest of the big scandals to hit the White Wash, I mean House, and just in time for Sunday talk shows, then we'd be in for bigger treats. Maybe, just maybe they are working on the Cheney and Bush indictments. But, that would be impeachment, wouldn't it? And, only Congress can initiate impeachment proceedings, right? Which of course means we will have to wait until the Dems take over Congress in 2006.

My New Look

2006-05-13T12:23:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: I fixed the problem with IE and Opera
It was really simple and stupid. I forgot to close a tag, and Mozilla didn't recognize that the same way. Regardless, I look forward to comments, be they kudos types or constructive criticism.

Life is GOOD

As you can see, I have re-done my template. If you read the "About" paragraph in the sidebar, you'll see I'm having a few problems. It really infuriates me that each browser will make things look so different. But, it is what it is. Therefore, I recomment using any of the Mozilla products, which I highly recommend anyway. They are more stable than anything else, and have way more options than anything that Bill Gates feels so inclined to charge fortunes to provide to the computer consumer. Basically, IE sucks. Opera is trying, but Mozilla has it down, and they are constantly improving their products.

Mozilla

Poll: 2004 Election Was Stolen

2006-05-12T08:50:00.000-04:00

This graph is located at OpEdNews.com, and amazingly enough it points out that the only news viewers who believe that the election was not stolen are the Faux Fox News. Golly gee, what a surprise.

But let's look at the demographics on this question. Of the people who watch Fox news as their primary sourc of TV news, one half of one percent believe it was stolen and 99% believe it was legitimate. Among people who watched ANY other news source but FOX, more felt the election was stolen than legitimate. The numbers varied dramatically:

Here are the stats by network listed as first choice by respondent and whether the respondent thought the election was stolen or legitimate.
Network Stolen Legitimate
ABC 56% 32%
CBS 64% 31%
CNN 70% 24%
FOX .5% 99%
MSNBC 65% 24%
NBC 49% 43%
Other 56% 28%

Update To Shedders

2006-05-12T08:07:00.000-04:00

After I posted my Shedders article, I took a walk to the bay. Lo and behold, there in the water were two horseshoe crabs procreating rather swim-illy. I took the above photo as they saw me and started swimming away. Sometimes I feel quite fortunate to be living where I am living, and seeing what I'm seeing. I also love my camera, and I rarely go out without it. Hence, the above photo. Click on it to see the bigger version.

Life is good................

Goin' Down

2006-05-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Bush Down 6% In One Month -

This was lifted from one of my favorite blogsites, Taylor Marsh. Read the rest there.

Wiretapping on a Grand Scale

2006-05-11T07:09:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting question: What is the biggest database in the world?

Here's and interesting answer: The US Government's warrantless domestic wiretapping program.

Amazingly enough, in spite of previous reports, and carried today by USAToday, apparently a few nameless whistleblowers have come forward to report that the US has indeed been collecting a vast database of domestic phone calls.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret. ........ (much more at USAToday)

This latest piece about the US wiretapping program points out two things: first, dubya is a lying sack of shit, along with the rest of the neocon cockroaches, and secondly, it's a fairly safe bet that your calls are included in this program. So, if you thought you may be exempt from the wiretapping scheme because of your rather benign activities, you are likely very wrong.

On top of this very dubious and legally troubling endeavor by the neocons to dismantle the Constitution, dubya nominates none other than "Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to lead the embattled Central Intelligence Agency, re-igniting a debate over the domestic surveillance program that the onetime head of the National Security Agency once ran." according to the Huffington Post article called Bush Wants Domestic Wiretapping Tsar To Run CIA... And, at Yahoo News, "Talk of Hayden's nomination rekindled debate over the administration's domestic surveillance program, which Hayden used to oversee as the former head of the National Security Agency."

In an article by Deep Intelligence Index,

NEW YORK -- Former National Security Agency director Bobby Ray Inman lashed out at the Bush administration Monday night over its continued use of warrantless domestic wiretaps, making him one of the highest-ranking former intelligence officials to criticize the program in public, analysts say.

"This activity is not authorized," Inman said, as part of a panel discussion on eavesdropping that was sponsored by The New York Public Library. The Bush administration "need(s) to get away from the idea that they can continue doing it."

Goddamm, it's all coming together for the neocons. Make no mistake, these guys are fascists. The neocons running this country fit every one of the 14 Points of Fascism that are listed at Old American Century.

What do you see....... A browser issue

2006-05-08T20:02:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, I have recreated my blog, by downloading a simple template from Blogger, and attempting a few hacks to personalize it. The original template was gray, but I saved the images from it, recolored them in Photoshop, and used them in the template instead of the original gray ones. Then, I designed this kind of a line drawing .png image from a photo of my dog, and put it into the title bar. It's as far as I got for now, because I've been in absolute learning mode, and just hacking away at the template until I got it reasonably where I wanted it. The header bar is too wide, and there's this funny light blue patch above and on the right side of the screen, between the header and the Blogger search bar. Ok. Life is good.

Then, an interesting thing happened at work today. A short time after I got there, I opened up Internet Explorer and navigated to this blog. Amazingly enough, and something I never expected, was that the blog appearance was very different. The dog .png image is centered, rather than at the left, it's not transparent, and has a gray background. Also, there is now a blue sidebar instead of the white one.

When I got home, I opened up a few other browsers, and again there was a difference. All the Mozilla browsers, Firefox, Mozilla and Seamonkey, show the same thing. IE is different from Mozilla, and Opera is again different than the other two. In fact, Opera is the one that I most tried to design for.

Following are the screenshots. If you all don't mind, please comment for me as to which one you see when you visit my site. I need to resolve this issue, though I don't know how to do it yet. If you click on the image, you'll navigate to a full size image to see it better.

This is Seamonkey's image, and the browser I used to design my template. My two concerns with this were that there was no differentiation between the articles and the sidebar, both being white. Also, of course, the header bar is too wide. But, I designed it to have the dog at the left side.

This is what I saw when I got to work. The most noticible difference is the blue sidebar and the centered dog image.

Finally, this is what I see when I use Opera. It has both the left sided dog and the blue sidebar. It's what I was mostly trying to accomplish when I designed the template.

So everyone, what are you seeing? Any particular preferences? However, Opera was what I was trying to design, except the header being too wide. I need your comments.

Thank you for your support.