Who really allowed this Rove bastard to fester?

I just read an excellent article by Matt Taibbi entitled Karl Rove -- A Latter-Day Tom Sawyer? over at Freezerbox. It's about the media's handling of Bush's Turd Blossom all these years in light of the Valerie Plame story now unfolding around him.

Taibbi assails the American media for committing the real crime in all of this--Rove's coddling by journalists and his fellow politicians who "in this country have over the years cheerily honored this vile, scum-sucking pig of a human being by calling him names like "genius" and "boy wonder" and "wizard"--as though the business of Rove's life was somehow cute, quirky and lovably mischievous."

The indictiment is strong and, I feel, right on. Taibbi continues, "We live in a country so deadened and so cynical that everything, in the end, becomes just another pastime. Just another summer blockbuster that'll probably suck, but what the hell--at least the effects will be good."

Rove may have finally stubbed his toe on Plame and suddenly the media's stepping back from the romantic image they've painted of him.

"Karl Rove is a character of a type that reappears from time to time throughout history--an unscrupulous power-chaser of the highest order, who rises to the top by demonizing and defaming innocent people. He's an elementary-school bully who proves his chops by throwing rocks at the retarded kid. And he reached a position of public honor thanks to a loophole in our national character."

That loophole sits squarely atop the shoulders of American media. If you get a chance, I highly recommend Taibbi's piece.

Huh?

Dada's translations of Bushspeak used by presidential nominee's during Senate confirmation hearings:

1. "I don't remember, Senator." (Includes "I have no memory of_____," "I can't recall ever_____," and "Not to my knowledge, sir" as well.)

Translation: "I'm lying." It's a subjective deference to the truth one has sworn to tell, absolving them of later being charged for contempt of congress and having one's ass thrown in prison.

Note: For absolute assurance one cannot later be charged for lying to congress, testify without taking oath and, even better, take along a corroborating liar with you like, ahm, say, your vice-president! (See Bush's 9/11 testimony to the senate committee.) Of course, non-sworn testimony is a precedent granted only the president and his vice president who are apparently the only one's in all the country who are above the truth. (Oops! Damn, now you've caught Dada in a lie.)

2. "I'll have to check my records and get back to you, Senator."

Translation: "Don't hold your breath, sucker." Also known as stonewalling. Widely used, not just by presidential nominees, but by White House press secretaries, the Secretary of Defense and others as well. As applied to a nominee's appointment hearing, it's a stalling tactic until confirmed at which time said empty promise is conveniently forgotten and discarded into the "chuckle bin."

Breathe deep. Can you smell your own hypocrisy?

(Note: I apologize. I've been waiting all day to post the following blog. Waiting for MSNBC to "update within 24 hours" their Chris Matthews' Hardball from the previous night. Maybe because it's now weekend it takes them 72 hours to update what they promise in 24? In any event, in trying to be fair by including the source of some of what was said on last night's show, I confess I am unable to do so at this time. Hence, unable to wait to blog this, I go forth without proper credit where credit is due. Or should I say, "discredit" is due?)
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Last night Nona over at Fish Wars alerted me to the appearance of Amy Goodman on Chris Matthews' Hardball on MSNBC. I'm a huge fan of Amy Goodman so it was with extreme anticipation I tuned into a later repeat showing of Hardball.

It was with delight I learned that Chris Matthews was not hosting his own show which meant Amy Goodman, rather than being shouted over in mid-sentence like her last appearance with Matthews, might actually be able to finish a sentence, complete a thought. And complete thoughts she did.

I apologize I can't recall the name of the other guest to counterbalance Amy's views, but talking of the John Bolton appointment Bush is likely to make of him while congress is in recess, this gentleman said of Bolton something like, "The U.N.'s in dire need of having its integrity restored," with the implication Bolton's the one to do it.

Well, I would have fallen off my chair and choked on my pretzel had I not been conditioned by four and one half years of Bush administration lies and hypocrisy. Here's Bolton, a nominee of questionable character, who lied to the Senate about never being queried in the Plame investigation; who was nominated by an administration whose seizure of the presidency in 2000 was a theft, who lied us into a war, who abrogated the Geneva Convention to torture prisoners, has held those non-combantant detainees forever without charges or due process, who has used the U.S. Secrets Act to quash testimony of Siebel Edmunds and others about the truth behind 9/11, who transferred $700 million from the budget for the war in Afghanistan for war preparations in Iraq in July 2002, without Congressional approval, lied about the true cost of the Medicare reform bill to our own Senate for its passage, who is covering up the truth on the outing of a CIA agent in violation of national security interests of the United States, etc. etc.--the list goes on and on. And yet Hardball's "other guest" was using the Bolton nomination as justification to re-establish integrity to the United Nations!

Oh my god!! You've got to be freakin' kidding! Can't you smell yourself as you're saying that, "other guest"? You stink within your own incredible hypocrisy! That'd be so laughable if it wasn't so freakin' sick. Was restoring integrity to the United Nations one of the talking points handed you before you went on-air by the pack of self-deluding, self-righteous leeches sucking the life blood from America? They who see the U.N. as an infected wound they're going to heal by pouring their own stinking shit in the form of John Bolton into?? Wow! Incredible!!

Amy Goodman didn't allow that bullshit to go down unchallenged. God bless Amy! Some days my sanity hangs by the strong threads of Amy Goodman and her "Democracy Now!"

No shortage of stuff to talk about, just who wants to?

I'm not really blogging today. It's not for lack of shit to write about. It's because of too much. So rather that focus on one outrageous issue, I'll look at none.

But there is one thing I'd really like to change here--if I could. It's that "Cost of the War in Iraq" in the sidebar. From estimates I've seen on other sites, the actual cost as measured here may be grossly understated. I suspect that's true. But until I decide whether or not to remove it, I'll confess to what I'd like to see replace it if I do take it down.

I'd like to see instead an "Impeachable Offenses by the Administration" meter measuring the growing number of criminal actions eligible for impeachment listed there.

Okay, let me go research this. Who knows? Maybe something like that exists out there in cyberland. In the meantime, remember the line from the movie, "What if this is as good as it gets?" Well, it probably is. Try to enjoy your weekend. I get the feeling things are gonna get a lot worse before they get any better.

A Note from Senator Boxer

I'm on Barbara Boxer's mailing list. The following appeared in my e-mails this evening.

"Late Tuesday night, Republican Leader Bill Frist interrupted Senate debate on the defense authorization bill, abruptly changing gears to call up a different piece of legislation that apparently demanded our immediate consideration.

"Senator Frist assured us that this was a "very important" bill that absolutely required action before the Senate's August recess. Surely Senator Frist would only postpone consideration of the defense authorization bill until September for a very good reason, right?

"So was Senator Frist calling up legislation to fix our broken health care system? No.

"Was it a bill to improve education for our kids? Nope.

"Strengthening Social Security? No, not that either.

"No, instead of finishing our work on the defense authorization bill during a time of war, Senator Frist and his buddies over at the National Rifle Association decided it was critically important to consider new legislation shielding gun manufacturers from civil liability lawsuits, and to do it right now.

"Can there be a better example of how upside-down the radical right wing's priorities are, and why we need to return control of Congress to the Democrats?"

You ever notice how so much of Republican's shady legislation gets passed in the evening or very late at night after the nation's presses have already printed tomorrow's edition of yesterday's news? Why is that I wonder?

When dreams become a little too real

Is it true what they say about tryin' anyway, though your heart and soul might shudder when situations call for spite? Dan Jones from Redbird in the Rain, Get Sounds Now CD

I awoke in a cold sweat screaming. Karen Hughes and I were the only two Texans left alive. Pleading at the bottom of a plank to Noah's ark, "Please take us with you!" he nodded in resigned acquiescence. Mostly to silence our desperate pleas, I suspect.

Giddy at this sudden rescue from mutual assured destruction, my fleeting joy faded to sudden horror once more ascending those slippery boards to join the pigs and weasels.

Thinking desperately of escape, there was no going back. The elephants were right behind us. The implication of what was expected of us as passengers on this cruise startled me to consciousness, screaming in total terror.

Nightmare inspired by Dan Jones ' Saggy Pants

Quote of the Day

"Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization". ~George Bernard Shaw

Taxpayers: Kiss another $1.5 billion of your money "goodbye"? (Or, more stenches from the trenches.)

After a House conference on energy was concluded and legislation closed to further amendment a funny thing happened. Somebody slipped in an additional $1.5 billion of our tax dollars!

This leaves me wondering who can just slip in $1.5 billion anonymously? Shouldn't the responsible party put their name on the deed so we can give 'em proper "credit"? Or maybe they'd be too ashamed to be the source of such stench?

Representative Henry Waxman (D., CA) notes that 75% of this money will be administered by a private consortium in the district of a representative name of Tom DeLay. Hmmm, anyone ever heard of this guy? Halliburton sits on the board of this consortium and $100 million has been allocated for 'administrative expenses.'

Representative Waxman goes on to protest this action in a letter to the speaker of the House, Rep. Dennis Hastert, in which he states:

"...the Energy Conference Report that raises serious procedural and substantive concerns. At its essence, this provision is a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas. The provision was inserted into the energy legislation after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure.

"The provision establishes a $1.5 billion fund......which is not subject to the normal congressional appropriations process. It appears that the $1.5 billion fund created.... can in fact be used for many oil and gas projects..... including.....'innovative exploration and production techniques' or 'enhanced recovery techniques', lavish birthday parties on yachts for arm candy wives and hediously expensive shower curtains."

Okay, okay. That's not exactly what Waxman's letter said. I enhanced that last part a bit by trying to state the unstated.

Waxmen wonders if Speaker Hastert is going to permit this Energy Conference Report to be brought to the House with this $1.5 billion slab of pork inserted by "anonymous"? Probably. Deleting it would hint of checks and balances, something that's been dead for a couple years now.

Fret not. It's what Americans want. Well, if not exactly what we want, it's what we Americans deserve.

CHOKE ON THIS, FAUX PATRIOTS!

Unfortunately, I suspect this blog doesn't get many visitors from the right. I say that's unfortunate because some days I really feel contentious and would love to be challenged by the misguided, self-delusionary, pathologicals and duped.

Many days I question why I even come here; why I continue to do this. Those that drop by and read this are the choir. You don't need to hear my preaching. Many of you have your own pulpits, preach your own sermons. Those who don't come in here, or the occasional few who stick their heads in but for a second then get the hell back out, are outside running with the hordes hell-bent on vandalizing the nation, its institutions, its libraries, schools and citizens whom they presently claim dominion over. Us! For now, we can blog our discontent. They'll be back for us later. Or so the bastards think.

Unleashed wild-eyed and frothy mouthed greed driven fungi now are in control. They run rampant, unchecked, through the streets of small town America and it's cities, chipping what gold remains from the streets and store fronts that once, at least, contained a modicum of dignity for ourselves and others globally. They wipe our blood from their feet on our Bill of (dwindling) Rights.

They're joined by their lackey radical extremists of fundamentalism duped into thinking they, too, will share the end-values of the blood thirsty marauders of ever more wealth, of absolute power. They are wrong. But that doesn't prevent them from devouring the steady diet of fear tossed them, thinking they will ultimately attain some kind of Bush--Rovian neocon gated nirvana. Still wrong!

The sickness of their evangelism lies in their ability to discern the fallacies of other extremists but not their own extremism. They can't content themselves within their own reality tunnels. They need to pull you in as well.

Simply put. fundamentalists and their extremism stinks but, sadly, they can't smell their own stench. And in their sanctimony, they facilitate the dismantling of the land they so fallaciously espouse to defend.

How is this possible? Because as an unnamed Bush official told Ron Suskind, "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality--judiciously, as you will--we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Or, as put more succinctly to Suskind by another Bush adviser, "Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered two to one by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read the New York Times or Washington Post or the LA Times."

See, at one time that would have been way too over the edge and brazenly audacious to admit publicly. But not today. Because the "big, wide middle of America" is too busy just trying to keep their familiy's heads above water to listen, or to read. "We're screwing you and you approve!" our leaders admit. Then pouring a little salt into that deep gash, they add, "And we don't care!"

Those are hackneyed platitudes we've all heard before from some of the world's greatest despots. It reveals a kind of ignorant arrogance of history that will ultimately occupy just another chapter in the long saga of totalitarianism. That is, if there's another chapter in this long history to be written. This is the first bunch that I know of, however, who've had their fingers on a nuclear button.

But in the event we transcend this dark period in our history, I'll continue to add a few words here almost daily. After all, it's the stated purpose of this blog to provide "observations from the middle of the largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs."

Keep in mind, if we don't make it through this, it's just Nature's way of moving on. If we DO make it through this period, we may emerge better than we were. Either way, I guess that's evolution.

Doonesbury's "Blossom" Wilts

Interesting that the Doonesbury's daily cartoon is getting yanked in 10-12 newspapers around the country this Tuesday and Wednesday for using Karl Rove's nickname "Turd Blossom". Apparently Turd Blossom is just too offensive for some communities sensitivities.

The irony here is, it's not Doonesbury responsible for Rove's tag, it's president Bush who gave that term of fondness to his aide. I find the imagery that Turd Blosom evokes reflective of our president's good-old-boy "country roots" he likes to exploit. But apparently it offends folks in communities served by those 10-12 newspapers.

Evidently these same folks are not offended, however, by the hundred thousand plus deaths of Americans and Iraqis resulting from the policies of Bush's turd blosom.

And there's enough irony in that to rekindle our dying steel industry!

"Feel Good" of the day

Sorry I didn't catch his name, but I was watching a British official on TV yesterday express regret at the shooting death of a suspected suicide bomber last Friday. Twenty-seven year old Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was chased down by police, pinned to the floor of an underground train station and shot five times in the head. It was later learned, Menezes was not a suicide bomber.

But the British official then went on to say had Jean Charles de Menezes in fact been a suicide bomber, he would have been successfully stopped!

If it quacks like a duck....

Geez, I'm so anxious to give Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Judge John Roberts, fair and serious consideration as to the kind of Supreme Court justice we can expect him to be.

We really need another justice 'cause with just eight, 4-4 votes are very likely. In many cases the court may be incapable of deciding anything. Indecisions could be handed down! That'd probably confuse a lot of us Americans. To some we'd look like "a nation divided....." and we know how dangerous that is, especially if you remember the rest of that quote.

Yesterday we discussed Roberts' problems with memory regarding his membership in the conservative legal organization, the Federalist Society. And then there's that case all the media want to mention, i.e. Roberts' upholding a lower court's ruling on the arrest of a 12 year old girl in Washington D.C. who was was booked, carted off, fingerprinted, and held for three hours for eating a single French fry in the subway.

These are probably examples of liberal sourgrapes. I mean, c'mon, let's give Roberts the benefit of the doubt. Serious consideration. And "Yeh, yeh, so what," if he's argued against an affirmative action program, against abortions, against environmental groups' right to sue under the Endangered Species Act or for religious ceremonies at high school graduations and for Cheney keeping his energy task force work secret from all Americans. More sour grapes?

But yesterday, Amy Goodman gave us additional insight into Bush's nomination. And I gotta say, it just looks a little slimy. It may just be we have a duck on our hands. Read the following and ask yourself if this doesn't look, waddle and quack like a duck. From "Democracy Now":

Roberts was also part of a three-judge panel that handed Bush an important victory the week before Bush announced Roberts nomination to the bench. In fact, the day before the ruling was issued, President Bush interviewed Roberts at the White House. The next day, the court released their ruling that the military tribunals of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could proceed. The decision also found that Bush could deny terrorism captives prisoner-of-war status as outlined by the Geneva Conventions.

Okay, I suppose this decision could help the Bush administration if they were ever brought up for international war crimes so I confess, this waddles just a little bit. Add to that Bush withholding some of Roberts' papers written while he worked for earlier Republican administrations because it's "privileged information." It sure doesn't look like the administration is expediting the installation of a tie breaking ninth member to the Supreme Court by stonewalling like that. Maybe, if we listen carefully--we can hear quacking in the background?

Don't you just love the mountains of information buried beneath the cloaks of "privileged information" and "national security"? There's enough buried in that landfill to.....oh, never mind. It's too scary to contemplate.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I think this is the funniest birthday card I received so far. It was presented during dinner with friends along with a couple of really great gifts.


To top it off, they also treated dinner which came with the "Happy Birthday" song by the staff, complimentary desert and a helium filled balloon. Thanks guys for a great evening!

Odds and Ends

This is a picture (courtesy of ABC News) of the oil tanker that bore the name of our National Security Adviser, the one who warned of us of nuclear clouds blooming over American cities as justification for invading Iraq (which, just coincidentally, is a humungously rich oil nation). She is now serving as our Secretary of State. It's unclear if she returned the honor by maybe tattooing an oil tanker on, ah, oh never mind.

(NOTE: To avoid any hint of impropriety, I believe the tanker was renamed. Apparently the administration didn't want us to equate the goals of a former oil exectutive with those of American foreign policy.)

OTHER CREEPY STUFF. Apparently there exist even worse torture pictures than those already released from Abu Ghraib. Thankfully, president Bush has interceded on behalf of the prisoners to prevent them from being released to the public. Reason given? He doesn't want those who experienced the oft times brutal torture of American "interrogation techniques" to suffer any further pain and public humiliation. It's nice that Bush is so aware of Islamic sensitivities.

ANOTHER ONE: I'm beginning to sense a pattern here among Republicans. They have extremely bad memories. I'm thinking back to the Alberto Gonzales confirmation hearings where he told members of congress, "I'll have to check on that and get back to you. I don't remember." I see it again and again. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld answering Rep. Cynthia McKinney's tough questioning on events on the day of 9/11, "Ah, I don't remember. Let me make a note on that and get back to you." (I wonder if he ever did, if they ever do?) And then there's Scott McClellan. Wow, he's the best. His memory seems better because he doesn't need to get back to the press corps, he just says, "I'm not gonna talk about that here," or something like, "I've answered that before."

Well, the only reason I bring it up is news that Bush's Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. was asked about his membership in a conservative legal organization, the Federalist Society. He replied repeatedly he has no memory of belonging to that group despite being listed as a member of the steering committee of the organization's Washington chapter. Nor does he remember paying membership dues to them.

This kinda bothers me. I guess my concern here is, we seem to be increasingly ruled by a group of leaders exhibiting various stages of the degenerative cognitive disease, Alzheimer's. To me that's a bit scary. Do we really want the wielders of such power over the nation and the world to be people who can't remember really important shit?

Of Empires, Preservatives, and Decay

­­­­­­­­­­Geez, it's been a great birthday weekend. Yesterday was kinda kick-back from days of dining out, of fun and frivolity which really all began a week ago last Saturday at friends who brew a great Austrian style beer themselves.

So yesterday I stayed home, nursing the growler of some excellent India Pale Ale (IPA) procured from the brewpub the day before. IPA is the product of "empire." In all the history of empires and the bastards who ignore that history and decide they want their very own, I'm unsympathetic.

Empires just seem to wreak a lot of havoc and hell on land and lives, particularly on those being civilized, liberated, or democratized. Inevitably, the empire collapses, leaving only crumbling monuments to it's once "glorious" past. Little that is good comes from empires. Except for one major exception that I can think of--India Pale Ale.

Seems at the zenith of British empire, getting kegs of beer to its troops in distant places like India before they rotted were unsuccessful. So to keep the troops happy, brewers went to work and discovered by adding more hops to the mix, that acted as a kind of preservative. The beer's "shelf-life" was greatly increased. Distant trips to India were no longer a problem. Who knows how much longer the British Empire thrived because of happy troops suppressing and exploiting subjects in the hinterlands? IPA is probably the best thing to ever come from empire building.

Of course, the only trouble with any beer--like yesterday's in a bottle--once tapped one must drink the damn stuff lest it die there. And there's nothing sadder for great beer than to pass from existence imprisoned behind walls of glass. Of course, I wouldn't feel the same remorse, say, for members of the Bush administration. But I digress. Or maybe that's a non-sequitur. Or wait, possibly that was a great segue?

So I started my post-birthday "long weekend" by stopping by Nona's Fish Wars this morning. Oh crap! This damn Plame case just gets more and more rotten. It's excellent reading, but where does this shit end?

Now we learn our very own Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Andy Card the Justice Department was launching an investigation into the Plame case but then waited 12 hours before delivering official notice to the White House! How much evidence can be destroyed in 12 hours if someone were so inclined? I don't know. Ask Ollie North.

What does it say about the state of the nation when your very own Department of Justice leader facilitates torture by abrogating international treaties and it's now revealed he could have facilitated the destruction of evidence in the Plame case as well? Oh wait, I forget. Historical precedence for this was established years ago by Nixon and Reagan. Some of those same veterans of Watergate and Iran-Contra are back in the White House today, repeating history. As we learned from before, what's the big deal, right?

"Welcome back, Dada!" I thought to myself. Then I remembered tonight we're being taken to another great "birthday dinner" by very good friends.

Well, I was so unprepared for the slime being revealed 'neath those White House rocks being overturned, I've decided to extend my birthday at least another day.

Now, how much India Pale Ale is still in yesterday's opened growler that I must rescue from imprisonment 'hind those glass walls today? Not sure. But I'm up to the task.

Have You Ever Seen a Mad Cow?

So far, it's been a great birthday weekend except for a few minutes. Yesterday my wife and I ventured over to my favorite brewpub for a couple quaffs on draft. On our drive over, we passed through the massive dairy "factory farm" gauntlet lining the side of the interstate. It's the only part of the journey that's unpleasant--the sight of all those gentle beasts borne solely to serve us.

Sometimes it triggers memories of a grade school field trip in Los Angeles. After learning the different "models" of cows like guernseys, jerseys, and holsteins, we were rewarded with a day at the dairy. The dairy turned out to be a dairy product manufacturing plant. It was interesting to see the "Fun things with milk!" that can be done. At the end of our tour we were rewarded with free ice cream sandwiches.

Looking back, I realize this was part of my citizen-as-consumer indoctrination so generously sponsored by Carnation. Spending summer vacations on the farm, I had the pleasure to meet real cows. They weren't at all like Borden's logo cow, "Elsie." They didn't talk. But they were nicer than Elsie. You could tell it by looking in their eyes. They weren't trying to sell me anything either. But they gave and gave of themselves for us. Some gave us milk. Some didn't. Those are the ones we ate.

But in all those summers on the farm, I never saw a mad cow. In fact, they have the gentlest eyes of any creature I've ever met. And they're so undemanding! A little field with some grass pretty much satisfies 'em.

But those unfortunate enough to live on modern factory farms aren't fairing well at all. In 100 degree heat, with not enough shade for them all, they have little to live for 'cept chow time. They can't even "snack" between meals because there's no grass. Instead they live in huge pens carpeted by several feet of their own excrement. I don't think Borden's Elsie has ever had to endure the indignity of standing in 100+ degree sun all day in her own shit.

Next time you get the chance, look into a cow's eyes. You'll never see a mad cow in there. Not even on a factory farm of those standing all day in the hot sun in heaps of their own waste. You'll see the gentlest of animals, there to serve you.

"Make mine a double cheeseburger!"

American Armageddon

Ooooh boy. Did Molly Ivins' 7/21/05 column, "Big time trouble, America continues to weaken, but why worry?" really hit the nail on the head or what? If you think the U.S. is the cat's pajamas, then you must be one of those heavy sleepers who continues to silence your alarm with the snooze button, trying desperately not to wake up--forever!

I'm taking a short break from my birthday "transcendence" weekend to blog this morning. It's freakin' eerie, however, that in a birthday telecon from my niece and nephew last night, I had mentioned the 1989 demise of the USSR, people dancing atop the casket of communism as symbolized by a crumbling wall and then comes Ivins article to me this morning.

Oh, 1989, was that an exciting point in historical time or what? The dogmatists of capitalisn were right, had prevailed, glorious times were ahead! Prepare for peace dividends and crumbling trade barriers. But now we see that was all bullshit. If you haven't begun to suspect that what's good for American industry isn't good for America, to sense things are drastically wrong, you're still hitting the snooze button. What a different world you're gonna find when you finally wake up!

The death of communism didn't herald the arrival of a new age of peace and prosperity borne on the wings of capitalism. No, what becomes increasing clearer daily is communism's obituary merely preceded our own.

I won't go into a detailed discussion of the dire kind of economics the U.S. practices. This is not the venue for that. It'd only trigger those "hit the snooze button" reactions. Economics is boring shit. But economics is gonna kick our asses if we don't wake up. (It may already be too late. We may have all overslept this one.)

I know little of economics, but the warnings of those who do are out there. It's not the kinda stuff traditional Wall Street orthodoxy will tell you about though. And as Ivins chides, "the mainstream media keep treating the whole problem as though it were about a bunch of protesters in turtle costumes at the G8 summit."

But listen to highly respected investor Warren Buffet. He's trying to tell us. Warren warns America's destiny is not that of an "ownership society" but a "sharecropper" nation. Or Check out "America's Truth Deficit" by William Greider of the NY Times who posits "we face structural economic problems as serious as those that destroyed the late Soviet Union." Or, if you think you can handle it, try a little "Economic Armageddon" by Brett Arends, chief economist for investment banking giant Morgan Stanley who predicts America has a one in ten chance of avoiding "economic armageddon--maybe!"

In the slim chance you haven't hit the snooze button and returned to *la-la-land*, if you're still with me, if you check any of the dire warnings of the Casandras above, then you might want to next check out vacancies under bridges and freeway overpasses as I suggested yesterday. We probably have a future together there--as neighbors!

But for now, it's back to my birthday weekend transcendence. I have a rendezvous with a microbrew and a green chile cheeseburger in a small college town cradled 'neath majestic mountains. To enjoy it while I still can.

My last rant before 'ascending'

You know how hard it is to come to this blog every freakin' day and try not to succumb to the temptation to comment on Rome as it burns? To bitch about this or moan about that? It's so antithetical to who and what I perceive I am. And yet, it's easy to do when you see the country collapsing around you and watch fellow citizens desperately digging their nails into the sides of the slippery slope that angles steeply downward to the abyss below them. That pit that is becoming increasingly populated by people losing their grips.

There are folks all around us trying desperately not to become the next 27 year United employee losing 1/2 their retirement. Trying to avoid being one among thousands of job loss statistics of Kimberly-Clark, DuPont, Gateway, EDS, Alcatel, General Motors, etc. You know, those little stories in the financial pages of the Wall Street Journal that make the price of investor's stocks surge upwards on such news?

People are trying not to be one of those on the outside of locked (forever!) mid-west manufacturing plant's or southern garment shop's doors. Or there's grandmothers and unsuspecting consumers being gobbled up by those glamorous CEO's like Kozlowski, Ebbers, or Lay whose bottom feeding corporations Tyco, World Com, and Enron afforded 'em obscene multi-million dollar glamor parties and showers behind a $6,000 curtain! (How many month's rent or meals for your kids could that shower curtain have provided your family?)

And then there's the 670,000 fewer women, infants, and children who won't be served because of future WIC budget cuts. Or the 300,000 fewer children in low-income working families who won't be provided child care, or 370,000 fewer families and elderly and disabled individuals who won't receive rental assistance vouchers, and nearly 120,000 fewer children that would've been served through Head Start but now won't be.*

Reminder: These are Bush's budget cuts that run through 2010. Many of us won't really get pissed til it actually hits you or me. By then the Bush gang'll be long gone, living luxuriously and safely on the French Riviera, soakin' up the rays, pondering when his war'll ever end over a platter of catsup soaked freedom fries with Jenna and Barbara.

Bush's discretionary cuts in the budget will increase while the needs of a growing American population is increasing. Simply put, there'll be more need, less help. Yeh, yeh, statistics are a drag. Until those statistics jump up and bite us on our own asses. And trust me, they will.

Here's a few boring stats of what to expect between now and 2010. If this part bores you, skip it. But trust me, these stats will sneak up behind you. Bush's cuts will include 15% less for Education and Training; minus 23% for the Environment (who the fuck needs clean air and water, right?); minus 14% Health (who the fuck needs health?); 11% less for Income Security; minus 10% Justice (who gives a tinker's damn for justice, right? -- see permanent cuts in your rights under the "Patriot" Act being renewed); minus 16% for Veteran's (as veteran's needs grow rabidly by our government's permanent war for permanent security). Those are just some of the areas cut. Not affected? Read on.

I love my friends, The Conservatives, who are at the front of the line down at the tax assessor's office each year when their new property tax estimates are released. You know, I talked about him and his family previously under "Dining with friends, playing with matches." He's the guy whose Christian driven ideology and the consequences of that ideology under the leaders he chooses to elect has him squealing like a bleeding pig every time his tax statement arrives. The guy who doesn't connect what's happening 'down here' to what's being cut 'up there'? That guy? Well, the cutting of over $70 billion in the next 5 years of federal Aid to States* already financially strapped may kill him before it's over. And it's sure as hell gonna bite the rest of us on our collective ass as well.

But I try to calm myself by repeating my mantra of the past four and a half years. I just keep saying, "It's what the people want, it's what the people want." I don't actually believe it, but I keep trying to convince myself. Okay, so it's "what we want."

Well, today is my birthday. So I'm going to practice a little transcendence over the weekend--that quality I'm sometimes chided for lacking. So if you notice any posts I make the next couple of days are mellowed out, know my consciousness has ascended to a higher plane. Or maybe another Universe. I'm gonna drive over to my favorite little college town. To my favorite little microbrewery there. To revel a bit. Try to forget for a few hours, maybe a couple of days.

I'm gonna celebrate another year with some really good beers, maybe a wicked and devilish green chile cheese burger. You know what I love about that place besides great ales? The crowd! There's something about people who appreciate good microbrews. There's a spirit of freedom from the industrial Big Three Auto-brewed beer makers. Inevitably, a guy walks in with a shirt from another microbrewy and, inevitably, that starts a conversation. And you know what else? Most the beer drinkers there are university refugees. You know, from that breeding institution of revolutionaries and communists just down the road? (Ooooh, I know, that's some scary shit to our conservative friends, huh?)

Maybe it's just testament left wingers still have taste buds, i.e. are sensitive to tasteless, thoughtless things. Hence their appreciation for good ale and their diminishing civil rights. And know what else? They know who to really blame for their rapidly rising local taxes.

Or maybe that's all bullshit. Maybe it's just a brief interlude, sitting in an air-conditioned ambience populated with like-mindeds who enjoy really good beer while Rome burns.

*Center on Budget and Policy Priorities based on OMB data.

NFL losing attendence to Political Football League?

Well, late July, pro football exhibition games just around the corner and I'm wondering how much longer the National Football League can compete with the Political Football League of Washington. Who can forget some of the great games played there? The "footballs" kicked around? Osama B. Laden, Saddam Hussein, Valerie Plame, the head of Terry Schiavo. (Hope that last one didn't offend anyone, after all, it was the Senator Frists and other self-"RIGHT"ious congressional members who decided to kick her around.)

While the NFL's season runs about a third of the year with injuries taking their toll in that time, the Washington Political Football League runs year round. One of the big advantages of DC football is it's limitless capacity to inflict injuries and to decimate. That has to leave the NFL in total awe, I'm sure.

As with all sports, whether your team's winning or losing depends on which side of the stadium you chose to sit.

- Osama B. Laden? Victory! (Forget Bush's "we'll bring 'im in dead or alive." Bush has forgotten it.) Bin Laden served his purpose, he scared the shit outta us. Get over it, move on. He got us Afghanistan.

- Saddam? Victory! He got us into Iraq. (Don't look for his trial defense to present much of a case. A real trial could be extremely damaging to his prosecutors!)

- Terry Schiavo was a loss. If you're gonna play on your sanctimonious, moral high-ground end of the field, you damn sure better not be prone to fumbling!

- Valerie Plame? Game still in progress. This one could go into Sudden Death. (Let's hope, that'd be so exciting!)

Stay tuned.....

EXPLODING THOSE AMERICAN "MYTHS"

Why is it we continue to permit conservatives to claim to be adherents of "smaller government"? Does smaller government mean bigger and bigger national deficits? That's what the figures seem to suggest. So next time you hear a conservative claim they're for smaller government, maybe you should hand 'em a copy of the above little chart from the White House OMB and ask them, politely of course, to just shut the fuck up.

(NOTE: If my household finances resembled those of our nation's in the above graph, I'd be living under a freeway overpass by now. Oh wait, in Bush's America, maybe that's where the country's headed. Just remember, there is an advantage to being one of the first ones there. You'll probably want a bridge next to a Howdy's or a library with a public restroom--if there's any libraries still open anywhere. Once located, you then get to stake claim to the best spot 'neath that cold concrete slab. I would imagine towards the middle would be best. [Call it the "New Middle Class".] Less chance of rain soaking your cardboard walls there, further from the wind and snow drifts and then there's that cushion of the huddled masses [many of 'em former conservatives!] on either side of you providing additional warmth and insulation from the elements.)

What's So F---ing Funny?

We all know what a nice guy Karl Rove is. Just ask Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, or John O'Neill. Or maybe inquire of career military men like Generals Zinni and Shinseki. Or ask Richard Clarke, Senator Durbin or CBS News. Well, these are folks Rove has issues with. But let's look at how Rove sometimes treats his "friends."

From Molly Ivins' 7/19/05 column, "You can't not care," I offer the following funny quote from Karl Rove. But first, if you're offended by profanity, be forewarned, this is in the vernacular straight from the source. It's how Rove talks. Molly had to tone it down for the newspapers, but here it is, unexpurgated:

...displeased with the job done by a political advance man he said, "We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him!" (From an article by Ron Suskind). And that was a guy who was on his side.

Oh wait, that's not so fucking funny is it? (For the entire article, click on Molly Ivins in the sidebar.)

The Chaff that Chafes

If you ever want to really separate the wheat from the chaff in a mixed crowd, just put together four little letters and say 'em out loud: "ACLU." This is best done after a drink or two when everyone's a tad less inhibited, a little less polite. Inevitably, at the mention of those four letters some of the chaff will chafe (for best results, try to keep 'em in the order shown--no inversions, like "UCLA" or such). A lively discussion will likely ensue.

I really don't know what it is about the American Civil Liberties Union that gets folks so upset, some to the point of going off the deep end. But I think it illustrates the deep divide between the citizenry of this country. I mean, what the hell's wrong with an organization founded to defend every American citizen's freedoms as delineated in our Constitution's Bill of Rights?

In the past six months or so, my wife and I attended a couple of aniti-war rallies. The attendence at those demonstrations was of such sparseness police driving by failed to see a "crowd." (I guess peace isn't much of a big deal in a neocon nation of perpetual war for perpetual profit.)

But at each of those demonstrations about half a block away stood a couple of men dressed in black with cameras sporting these huge zoom lenses. They were shadowing our little get together and instead of feeling uneasy at being observed, I was actually quite comforted. See, both of these men were sporting vests with the large letters "ACLU" across front and back. If there was to be any misadventure those days, it was going to be documented--by the American Civil Liberties Union.

So who are the folks who most oppose this organization that defends our liberty? At the risk of stereotyping here, I'd say the more conservative the person, the greater their opposition.

In yesterday's Molly Ivins column, she mentioned the reaction of the Bush administration in the headless chicken days of post 9/11. The administration sicced Attorney General Ashcroft's FBI on the ACLU! As Molly reiterated, the ACLU "does not advocate violence, terrorism or any other damn thing except the Bill of Rights. Since when is that extremist?" I ponder the same thing.

Maybe the administration goes after the ACLU because the White House is so loaded with slime mold extremists whose "work" they need to do seems to also entail the gutting of our rights at every opportunity. Neocons have an extreme agenda to implement. They don't know how much time they have to implement it. It may be possible many Americans, now in some state of Kansanesque transcendence, may awaken before they're done. And those folks will be very pissed.

In the meantime, give thanks there's still a small number of diligent defenders at ACLU following our government around, challenging their attacks on our freedoms and exposing the soft underbellies of extremist reformers to sunlight.

Dada - aka "Bettie Page"

Well, it's been kind of a slow day. President Bush is "clarifying" what he said a year or two ago about firing whoever outed Valerie Plame. (Something about having the fingers of his left hand behind his back crossed at the time.)

Wall Street's corporate earnings reporting season is upon us again and I wonder how much the big oil companies must shrivel from embarrassment when having to reveal to the rest of us how they are hemorrhaging money out their ears from obscene profits.

Meanwhile, while out driving in the car, the atmospherics must have been just right because I stumbled across radio from another planet. It was one Bill O'Reilly and a call-in guest on the radio feasting off one another's hate for 'liberals'.

Then I remembered the last thing I blogged yesterday evening; about how we should all feel better, take more pride in what we're accomplishing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I tried to show how much we, as communities across the country, have contributed towards the new freedom Iraq now enjoys.

But when I reflected on that in an effort to feel better, I really didn't. I then began to suspect anyone else who may have read that probably didn't really feel any better either.

So here's a free Iraq and I still had a kind of hollow feeling. There was just no sense of the sacrifices I'm making for such noble Middle East pursuits like installing democracies there (but NOT in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, etc., of course). So, with the day wearing on, and in desperate need of some positive, uplifting news, I did some more research over on www.nationalpriorities.org.

Well, in short, I found that I--like everyone else--was indeed making sacrifices to free Iraq! I'm not just talking about the increasing number of Coulteresque spy cameras everywhere in public. But all the other intrusions into our private lives we so willingly seem to embrace because we're all so goddamned nervous, so scared. (Reminder: Don't check out Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" from your local library!)

No, I discovered aside from those obvious, embraced measures of privacy intrusions and freedom shearings, the National Priorities Project estimates that of the $204.6 billion we've spent so far on the war, each household has contributed $1,938 to Iraq and Halliburton! Now I was getting somewhere. I was actually beginning to feel a little better. Like I was participating in something really important!

But when I learned, for example, in my state--Texas--what each of us has traded away, I really began to feel good. Just look what we've forgone for this war and tell me we're not sacrificing. Here's a few of the trade offs we Texans gave up:

2,343,817 Head Start Places for Children, or
224,863 Affordable Housing Units, or
2,373 New Elementary Schools, or
3,959,149 Scholarships for University Students!

And so the list goes. On and on. And that's just here in Texas! And then it hit me: Realizing how much we are sacrificing for Iraq diminished rather than enhanced my appreciation for our sacrifices. I was right back where I'd started the day. Feeling pretty damn gloomy.

That's when I came across a site offering to identify my inner female just dying to get out. Feeling in the midst of an identify crisis, I took the challenge. A new personality, if not a sex change, sounded somewhat alluring. What follows is the inner me based on a few simple questions. Even I was stunned and, truthfully, it's the best I've felt all day!

DADA:

You are Bettie Page Girl next door with a wild streak You're a famous beauty - with unique look. And the people like you are cultish about it. What Famous Pinup Are You? Take This Quiz :-)

Quote of the Day

President Bush is the best midwife ever at delivering
"born again" Muslims.

~ Dada (thanks to NPR for the "born again Muslims" and my mid-wife friend which, in combination, gave "birth" to this quote. [ugh, sorry!])

Let's give credit where credit's due!

On behalf of our president, "Thank you, America!" Maybe I'm out-of-bounds here, doing something I think our president should do. Forgive me if you think so. Maybe Bush doesn't want to come right out and express his gratitude because it might set some folks to thinking, "Hey wait a sec! Hasn't this been proven to be a fallacious war based on lies?" Or maybe Bush and Cheney just don't feel they owe you any gratitude. You know, kinda like, "You 'elected' us, we wanted this, you pay for it!" I don't know.

Well, whatever the reason, I feel all the good folks back here in the States haven't been given enough credit for the "liberation" and "democracy" now being enjoyed in Iraq today, so I just thought I'd take a second to thank every American reading this for their contribution to the war.

We all know the terrorists attacked us because they hate us for our freedom. But with the liberation of Iraq, Iraqis are beginning to love us for setting them free. And for that, I think we should all give ourselves a little credit where it's due.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to thank each and every one of you personally for your specific "donation" to the effort. But let me credit a few as part of all who've given so generously.

Thanks to the folks of:

Santa Cruz, CA who have given...............$ 45.2 million
Taos, NM......................................... $ 1.2 million
Atlanta, GA.....................................$255.3 million
Eau Claire, WI.................................. $ 31.6 million
Eugene, OR......................................$ 60.1 million
The State of Kansas............................. $ 1.7 BILLION!

Those are just a few. These are figures as of 26 May, 2005. Sorry space doesn't permit crediting everyone here on this page. But to check out your area and take proper pride in your community or state's contribution, you can go to the Local Cost of the Iraq War.

Take some pride. Let's all feel good about this!

Greyhound weekend wrap-up.

I dropped by the local greyhound adoption being held yesterday. There were an unusually high number of greys up for adoption due to unfortunate circumstances described in yesterday's message. I'm happy to report that 8 or so of those 11 needing homes were adopted! That was a very successful day.

I tended two of those dogs for about an hour each while there. Having fostered a greyhound only once and failed, i.e. we ended up keeping her, confirmed that fostering those greyt dogs is not something my wife and I should do. They're just too tempting to resist--as the two I "hung with" attested to yesterday.

Last night, we were guests along with another couple of friends for dinner at the home of parents to three incredibly gorgeous greyhounds. It's interesting that, had we no greyhounds in our life, we wouldn't have these two great couples in our lives either. We met through our dogs! They also live close to the ballpark which detonated fireworks the night before, frightening our Pony (picture below).

Before we went out, we checked the promotion being offered attendees at last night's baseball game: "Free hats and Girl Scout sleepover after the game." Sounded innocuous enough (if you're not the parent of a Girl Scout) as we bade Pony and Annie farewell for the evening.

So about 9:30, in the excellent company of friends who happen to live close to the ballpark also, we suddenly were confronted with the explosions of fireworks (sigh, again!). Apparently the game had ended and the team had some leftovers from the night before. We expediently excused ourselves from our hosts and other guests to speed home to the dogs. Fortunately everyone present, being greyhound owners, understood.

Arriving home, we found Pony trembling, but the scents of our host's greys upon us distracted her as we turned on some "noise" in the house. Crisis averted. All in all, it was a good day save for the traumas caused nearby wildlife and unexpecting pets by exploding pyrotechnics.

With "scapegoats" like this, who needs IDIOTS?

Today there's one of those local greyhound adoptions being held where retired racers are placed in loving homes. But today's adoption is *special* as a result of a horrendous act of negligence and abuse that occured when "eight dogs from Tucson died of heatstroke on their way to a racetrack in Juarez, Mexico."

"The dogs were part of a cargo of 35 dogs crammed inside a truck built to transport 20 dogs. The truck was ventilated, but it was not enough to cool the dogs during the five-hour drive and a six-hour delay at the border. It isn't clear whether the dogs died in the United States or Mexico." (El Paso Times, July 5, 2005)

From the Tucson Citizen:

"A Tucson trainer of racing dogs has been severely punished - and rightly so - after eight greyhounds died in his care.

"The state Department of Racing suspended trainer Jesse Burgess' license for 60 days and fined him $500. Tucson Greyhound Park permanently terminated its license with Burgess.

"Burgess lamented the actions, saying, 'I'm the scapegoat. They're taking away my livelihood.' "

Oh Jesus! I'm so choked up for this dog trainer's loss of livelihood after the unforgiveable abuse heaped on innocent lives of trusting, loving greyhounds. I'm absolutely sickened by this man's atrocity.

And so it is. Today there will be another greyhound adoption held. I've heard another Tucson kennel dumped 250 greyhounds on top of the one's resulting from the above gross negligence. These "greyt" dogs are being dispersed to different cities and towns in an effort to find them caring homes. The local adoption organization and its network of foster parents/homes have their big hearts and hands full. Bless 'em!

A Nose for Winners!

As "long" as this seems to be the weekend for introducing our family of fine friends, I'd like to just take a brief second to again pay tribute to this blog's founder, (Mister) Cooper. It seems in my previous post, I made "short" shrift of Cooper's "lengthy" nose, a nose I'd tease did as much to win him races as his lean, sleek body. Here's proof of that great nose at the end of that most kissable snout. Win or lose on a damn dog track, he was a total winner at the house!

Goin' to the dogs......

I'm so in need of a respite from the bullshit of this Rove thing. Just when you think there's a chance we might get this slime mold off our backs, it looks like he may weasel his way out of another tight spot. But there'll be plenty more to say in the days ahead as another rotten episode unfolds around him. For now, however, I'll focus on a sweet diversion.

Okay, I should explain. This site was begun in part because of the sudden, unexpected loss of "Mister" Cooper in May. He was a gorgeous, sensitive greyhound, a rescue dog off the Tucson racetrack. (His picture is the very first entry on this blogsite.) Mr. Cooper had a very long snout and I would sometimes tease him how his nose was probably responsible for him placing in more than a few races.

We still have two greyhounds remaining. A nine year old female, also retired from Tucson. Her racing name was Maricopia Pomo. I honestly don't know where breeders come up with the names like that for these dogs. I really wish they'd just stop breeding these gentle animals and let the industry die. But so long as greyhound racing continues, a need to place these great companions in homes will exist.

I only went to the dog races once years ago. It was a transgression before I was enlightened. Seems to me, trying to remember that experience, a greyhound race happens pretty fast. That's why I can't imagine naming a racer Maricopia Pomo. Like the race would be over before the announcer could get her name out. Maybe he just calls 'em by their numbers during the race, "And in second is Six, followed closely by Eight in Third." Something like that. I don't know.

Well, it was obvious Maricopia Pomo would never work as a permanent name. I imagined her getting off her leash and out in the street. In the path of an oncoming United Parcel truck or something. In a panic I would anxiously scream, "Mar-I-Cop-pee-ah--'Honk'--Screech--*THUD*--SPAT--Oh Shit!!!" See? A shorter name is definitely a healthier name.

And so it was. Upon her arrival at our home almost six years ago, Maricopia Pomo became "Carol." Truthfully? It was a name I'd picked out for our next dog months, maybe years, before she ever arrived. A day or two with us and I realized, she was no Carol. "Carol" was a small, fast, and quirky girl and after spending a short time with her, the obvious name for her suddenly manifested. The "Pomo" part of her track name became "Pony." It was a natural fit. She's our little horse.

Pony is also my co-author. She often is beside me as these thoughts unfold on the computer screen. After nearly five years, Pony has become a permanent indention on the consciousness of both me and my wife. She's still as quirky as ever and, while she'd be the last to admit it to anyone, has become extremely attached to us and her life among the family.

Living within a mile or so of the baseball park, tonight we'll face another challenging evening with Pony. Why? Fireworks are on the post-game agenda. So around 9:30 or 10:00, the house will vibrate with the sounds of TV's, CD's and radios. All to mask the sounds of explosions that so upset ol' Pony. She'll be okay because that's a little trick taught to us by her now departed brother, Cooper. Our retired racers seem to be hypersensitive to such perturbances of the norm.

I was going to also mention our other "daughter" Annie herein. But I seem to have run on about Pony. Better save Annie for another day. Annie, although a greyhound, never raced a day in her life. I'm not sure if that was "lucky" for her, or her misfortune. She, too, has a checkered past. But that's for another blog, another time. We'll get back to Annie. Just as we'll get back to Karl Rove.

Quote of the Day

Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, I think the Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives.


--Sunday Portland Oregonian

Something stinks!

Dined with a dear friend last night. He was just back from a few days in San Francisco. In between the salad and entree, he presented my wife and I with this gift. It was a little something he'd spotted in a shop in the Haight-Ashbury district he thought we'd like. He was right. We all enjoyed a good laugh from it. I took this picture when we returned home before hanging it in our vehicle.

This morning when I got in the car, I was overwhelmed by work done by the 'air freshener' overnight. Sadly, our vehicle now reeks of deception, destruction, death, deficits and declining approval ratings. (Actually, that last one has a kind of appealing aroma.)

You can fool some of the gods some of the time?

Okay, I saw this on Truthout. (No honest ~ I swear I did!) "Islamic leaders and peace groups are criticizing the California National Guard for a flier posted in its headquarters suggesting the United States execute Islamic terrorists with bullets dipped in pig's blood to deny them entry to heaven."

I have just one question: Does the California National Guard really believe that Allah is so goddamned stupid he doesn't know it was the freakin Guard that put pig's blood on the bullets?

First there was the revelation the Guard was spying on Raging Grannies and God Star Families for Peace, people who've lost a family member in Iraq, and--geez!--now this. Just a reminder, Californians, these are the people guarding you and your state.

Sleeping better?

Kudos to Representative Sensenbrenner (R., WI) for introducing a bill in congress that would stop the "sunsetting" of 16 provisions of the USA Patriot Act due to expire this year. Apparently he agrees with George Bush that terrorists attacked us on 9/11 because they hate us for our freedoms.

To maintain increased American security, Rep. Sensenbrenner feels terrorists, seeing our former rights permanently taken from us, will be appeased, less envious and, hence, less inclined to attack us again. Result--a safer America!

"Oh, Woe Is Me!"

Boy, some days I come to this medium so unprepared for the news that awaits me here. Like today. Such sad news and me, without my hanky--or a tissue even! I could feel my eyes moistening as I read the sentence handed down to former Worldcom CEO Bernie Ebbers.

Back in the late 90's, in those days of stock market "irrational exuberance," I owned a few shares of MCI-Worldcom. Without much market savvy, I relied on the glowing recommendations of "go-go" analysts and the rosy growth projections of Worldcom's charismatic leader Ebbers.

Most of my investments from back then resemble the Fallujah boneyards today after the incursion remnants of the U.S. military in that former city. But I actually made a couple of bucks on Worldcom. One of my "genius" investments. I was lucky on that one. Many weren't.

So Bernie Ebbers learned his fate today for an $11 billion scam on former investors and employees of Worldcom. He would serve 25 years in prison. "Even with possible time off for good behavior, Ebbers, 63, and with what his lawyers describe as serious heart problems, would remain locked up until 2027, when he would be 85."

Oh, seeing Ebbers leave the courtroom in tears! And that's where I got so choked up. That we would sentence an elderly man with a serious heart condition, to 25 years in prison. He may never live to see the light of freedom again. Just for impacting the lives of tens of thousands of trusting employees and investors. I hope you didn't come to this commentary without a handkerchief.

And what ever happened to?

Which reminded me of Enron's CEO Ken Lay. Or as Bush once liked to call him, "Kenny Boy!" Can we ever expect to see him brought to justice? Maybe that was Ebber's mistake. He was part of the "old school" management techniques that ultimately hold those of authority accountable. Compare that with Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay who appears to be part of that new management style, much like our present leadership in Washington that is accountable to no one, responsible for nothing.

Or maybe the sad news for Worldcom's poor Bernie Ebbers today resulted just because he didn't know Bush better. Maybe if Ebbers had been known to Bush as "Bernie Boy" all of this prison shit coulda been avoided?

Word of the Day

TURD BLOSSOM (tûrd blŏs'əm), n.
1. cowpie splat made by bovine waste when it hits the ground.
2. George Bush's nickname for his aide, Karl Rove, which is said to have originated by a bristling Dubya when Rove started getting accolades from political writers as the mastermind behind Bush.*
* from Boy Genius, by Carl M. Cannon

Dada says, "This is how we here, in Texas, nickname our best friends. 'Dude' and 'Bubba' are so passé, you 'Turd Head.' " (Ahm, don't take offense at that, it's intended as a term of closeness and respect in the 'Bushesian style.')

Bush's great economy

I was over at Bartcop and read the following from "Kelley K". It was too priceless to pass up. Here, in it's unexpurgated form, is how it happened according to Kelley.

"The Economy"

"Was over at a friends house tonight visiting and met this wing-nut blowhard. He started saying the economy was going great but the Liberal media was bad-mouthing it.

"That was too much, after biting my tongue and letting someone else reply first.....

"I said I knew someone whom all his children have college degrees and none of them can get a job, they have all been unemployed for over a year now. That doesn't sound like a great economy to me.

"And this loudmouth moron pipes off with ... 'Well, I'm not surprised you know someone like that, that's just like some lazy ass Liberal, they are probably on welfare, sit around drinking and eating pizza all day while the rest of us pay for it.

"And the socialist scumbag parents would still say they are good kids.

"Well my friend, you may have half of it right and I think you may know these people too, its....President George Bush and Laura Bush!

"All their kids graduated college over a year ago and none of them has a job!!

"Ha HAHHHHH!!!

"Yeah, I baited him, but holy cow he swallowed it hook, line, and sinker...Ate his foot all the way up to the kneecap!!

"His girlfriend was even laughing!"

Kelley K

Dada says, "Way to go Kelley. Looks like you went fishing and hooked a huge one!"

Anyone seen my humor?

So, I admit that words aren't flowing easily for me today. Not sure why. Probably a combination of factors that sit just below the surface. Always there. Always seething. From glaring examples like the video of airshow aircraft colliding with the resultant explosion, deaths and follow-up explanation that went something like, "This has been done many, many times before safely." Like, what could have possibly gone wrong? At this point, no one knows. Maybe, just maybe, hurtling aircraft towards each other at subsonic speeds has some inherent risk, despite having performed this same maneuver many, many times over safely? Duh? Or is that just my innate cynicism surfacing?

And there's today's questioning of the president's press secretary about the ongoing Valerie Plame outing and Karl Rove's possible involvement. The network news' (yeh, I know, I left the TV on that channel too long again!) I happened to be watching concluded its story by saying this may turn out to be an embarrassment for the administration. Is that the best we can fuckin' expect or hope for of this administration ever? A major embarrassment?

How much crap can one consume of pathologies reeking mayhem upon humanity before they exceed "major embarrassment"? I guess I live in a freakin' alternative universe where kids who make a "beer-run" on a 7-11 store get a second chance and the goddamned power brokers destroying lives globally are labelled criminals and sent to prison?

So I apologize for being at a loss for words. For getting queasy at the thought of exactly who might have perpetrated those bombings in London. Terrorists? The French reacting to the loss of their Olympic bid? Zionists? Some covert British/American shadow government black op? (Google "false flag" operations.) Spend some time on Jeff Well's blog and his excellent discussion on 9/11. Oh yeh, I forget. Time. That's a real problem. That commodity we're all short of because of the demands of day to day hustle to 'get by' while those in power 'get by' with atrocities, risking possible "embarrassment."

Some reading this may think: "Oh Dada, just another loose cannon conspiracy theorist who's lost his humor today." Well, maybe we should ask ourselves why exit polls in the recent Ukraine election are valid, but not in Ohio? And maybe paranoia about 9/11 would wither and fade if only we had been delivered more answers, leaving fewer questions. Questions that investigative panels were too squeamish to ask.

"Dada chill out!" was the advice given me by a friend. "At my age, thoughts must and do turn to the transcendent," he said. That's nice. If only it were that easy. How much happier those in power would be if we all cared so much!

Network news for................????

Okay, so I accidentally leave the TV on past the top of the hour this evening before I realize I'm watching CBS network news. It's that time of year again when we get to see hurricanes blowing shit over, sparks from downed power lines angrily lashing out and rooftops flying off schools. By this time, Dennis is onshore and most of the worst is over.

But it takes me a few minutes before I realize what I'm watching next. It's some guy with a microphone getting his hair really messed up. He looks to be wearing inflatable balloons. He's not. He's just in a wind tunnel. They're illustrating the effects of wind upon a body at ever increasing speeds.

For this, they picked one of their older on-camera journalists. You know, the guy whose 60 year old skin is losing its elasticity but gaining in "sagnicity" which becomes embarrassingly more evident as the tunnel wind speeds increase to 80, to 90, then 100 mph. His jowls are now flapping in the 'breezes' reminiscent of those old 60's astronaut movies that demonstrated the effects of increasing gravity units, or "G"s, imposed upon them. Except here, his jowls are really, really flapping. Repulsively so. It's not a pretty sight.

I think I have some vague earlier memory of such bodily disconfigurations demonstrating the effects of nuclear winds from atomic blasts. (Except in those, after the disheveling by winds, victims were usually fried and, because of the high radiation doses, left inedible for the unfortunate, starving survivors. But I digress.)

About this time, the wife walks into the room, looks at Distorted Man and asks, "What the hell are you watching?"

I explain enthusiastically, "A lesson illustrating the hazards of hurricane winds!"

She pauses, twisting her neck back and forth, trying to make out flappy guy's face in 100+ mph winds and then asks, "So, where's the rain, falling palm trees and decapitating metal signs?" and leaves.

In a lucid moment, I shut the TV off. This is not news. I feel so taken in, like an idiot.

Interesting stories.

From Recovering Liberal, the following breaking story in London today:

U.S. AND BRITAIN's SECRET PLAN FOR IRAQ WITHDRAWAL

America and Great Britain are secretly preparing to withdraw most of their troops from Iraq according to a secret document written by Defense Secretary John Reid for Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and leaked to England's conservative Sunday Mail Newspaper.

Coupled with the following headline:

ALLAWI PREDICTS IRAQ CIVIL WAR DUE TO LACK OF AMERICAN VISION

Iraq's former interim Prime Minister and American sympathizer, Iyad Allawi, has stated that Iraq is trundling towards a civil war that will negatively impact the rest of the world if the Iraq crisis is not resolved soon. The Disenchanted Forest

I'm sure there's no connection, nor any American plans to greatly reduce or withdraw troops from Iraq while we're winning the war on terrorism there. But just supposing we were concocting some draw down, wouldn't that be seen as a possible sign Bush made a mistake? (Oh silly! Bush doesn't make mistakes!)

No Huevos Please! (cont'd)

I confess. Being new to blogdom, I'm prone to spend some time exploring other blogs when I could be adding posts here. Call it "Research & Development."

But in reading other's efforts, if I encounter something I really enjoy, I'll link to it. This is what happened this morning. I don't know how wise it is to bring it to your attention in the likelihood you may just click on it and leave here. So okay, okay, with that in mind, before I reveal this new link, let me just relate how it came about. (For those of you in a hurry, feel free to skip to the end of this and split I guess. [sniff, sniff])

Most times I can't begin to tell you how I ended up at a particular website seconds after arriving there. It's a short-term memory thing I guess. (Thankfully there's those "back" arrows!) But landing in the middle of a new blog this morn, I was reminded of a month or two ago when I learned of a college senior in the state of Kansas who was graduating and denies dinosaurs ever existed. Why? Well, there's just no way Noah's ark--big as it was--could have held them all! That's an example I like to cite that makes some suspect Kansas may have been "intelligently designed."

But here I was, on this blog that included a far more extensive look into "What's the Matter with Kansas?" After devouring the evolutionist vs. creationist morsels offered therein, I explored other topics. And there's a wide and varied range of them. It's an intelligently designed site itself and very well written. So, if you get a moment, check out Bitch Has Word. Gotta love those strong, opinionated women sans huevos!

Quote of the day (please note No. Korea & Iran!)

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline ~ it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." ~Frank Zappa

Dada says, "I'll drink to that!"

On Symbiosis

Once more the tragedies of terror hit the western world and the fear level rises. Terror alert levels in the U.S. are being expressed in warmer and warmer "clownfish" colors. As one commentator expressed on News World International with these latest London bombings, "president Bush has been given a gift." The Bush administration knows this.

One need only look to Bush's sinking approval ratings prior to Sept. 11, 2001 and their immediate soaring afterwards to see the benefits reaped as a result of Bin Laden's actions four years ago.

In Nature there exists certain symbiotic relationships between the most disparate entities that benefits both. The prime example is that of the clown fish that lives with immunity among the poisonous tentacles of the sea anenome. The brightly colored clownfish acts as a kind of flashing diner sign, "Eat Here!" that attracts unsuspecting fish which are killed and devoured by both the anenome and the clown.

Well, the comment that Bush was handed a gift by the terrorist attack yesterday only reaffirmed the symbiotic relationship between him and the likes of Osama bin Laden. Bush was endorsed by terrorists during the 2004 election. He is their poster boy for recruiting and growing the tenacles of terrorism world-wide. In return, he feasts on the deaths and maimings of innocents by the stinging tenacles of terror cells.

The more fear rises, the more Bush benefits. As alert levels begin to resemble the bright colors of the little clownfish, the posterboy acts tougher. Terrorist recruitment goes up, terror rises, retaliation increases. More innocents perish amid the growing rubble of "civilization"while the urchin, clownfish, terrorists and poster boy thrive.

Hollow words on hallowed ground

As I was watching Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice express regrets to the tragic bombings in London yesterday, I was braced for an outrage. In no time, Rice delivered. Her 'condoleezences' of grief to the British rang empty with her stereotypical words of the hypocrite. Saying something like, "....these were just innocent people on their way to work," I dove for the TV remote, muttering profanities that unsettled my dogs. I pondered--like I always do at such utterances--if these bastards have any clue of the hypocrisy that drips from their tongues whenever they open their mouths? I concluded long ago from listening to our president, they do not.

Here's the Secretary of State bemoaning the loss of innocent lives in London while untold thousands of innocent Iraqi lives seem much less tragic and far, far less noteworthy. Ignored actually. And I wonder how many Americans without their sanctimonious soundblockers stuffed tightly in their ears hear what I hear and react as I react to such pronouncements? (Anyone ever broken a TV remote diving for it, or traumatized a pet into a cardio-pulmonary near death experience?)

As some outside observers have noted, the cultures of this world are built on fear. We fear everything, we fear everybody and all differences. It's pervasive, it's historic. I don't know, maybe its genetic? Taken to its ultimate as it so often is, we kill each other out of those fears. Like yesterday in London. More innocent victims. More hypocrisy laid bare.

WORD TO THE WISE(ass)

I suspect Karl Rove and I have something in common: we both went to high school. Well, if so, I'd like to share something with Karl. It's a little thing I learned from one of my best teachers, Ms. "O.", who taught (for me) those hard to grasp math classes like algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. And she taught them impeccably. She was very left-brain gifted. In my three years under her tutelage, I never saw her make a mistake.

But what I really learned from Ms. O. was not in the classroom, but a lesson she gave to me long afterwards outside classes. And because Karl Rove and I both went to high school, I thought I'd share this with him.

"I know you're considered a brilliant political strategist, Karl. I agree, if "brilliant" includes taking down your enemies by any means possible. But you have to admit, it's also easier to appear the "genius" many consider you when you have the Supreme Court and Congress facilitating your dismantling of successful government controls/programs and erosion of everyone's constitutional rights.

"Well, I've been reading about your alleged involvement in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. I'm pretty sure you're much too sharp to leave evidence leading to your direct involvement in such a treasonous act. I mean, that's what assistants and power delegation are for, right? To keep your fingerprints off any damning evidence. Unless, of course, things have been too easy for you for so long, you've gotten careless.

"So here's the lesson my old math teacher, Ms. O., taught me. Despite being very good at what she did, manipulating numbers and making complex calculations with ease that were extremely abstract and incomprehensible to me, Ms. O did make a mistake.

"You see, Miss O. finally erred one day in her car. She pulled out in front of an oncoming lemon-ladened semi-truck. That was probably her very first and certainly her last act--she made a miscalculation!

"That's the lesson I just wanted to share with you, Karl. That, despite your brilliance, despite the ease you currently enjoy manipulating people with the aid of a friendly government, financial backers and propoganda machine, don't get careless. Be ever vigilant. Like Ms. O., don't miscalculate. Always look both ways and, certainly, watch your backside for oncoming semi-trucks!"

Reminder: This is OUR media!

I was just reflecting on that Zogby poll again tonight. The one that our media whores sold to us as news because 42% of Americans think president Bush should be impeached if he lied about his reasons for taking us to war!

Think about that. That's how OUR media reported it.....that was the "shocking part" of the story they chose to dwell on. I say they're even worse at interpreting freakin' statistics than I am. Why, I'm beginning to think they can't write a story unless it's something handed to 'em outta Karl Rove's office.

Just ask yourself, "Shouldn't this be the real story and the way it should have been reported?".....

"Fifty percent of Americans do not feel the president should be impeached, even if he lied about his reasons for this war!"

That's the real story. That's how it was NOT reported. Think about that. That's the sad news on our media. We should all be very concerned!

And think about the 50% of our fellow Americans who apparently think it's okay to have a loved one or friend killed or maimed because of lies told us by our government for this war. This should concern each and every one of us even more!

Freedom Flees, Freedom Flourishes

Okay, okay, I admit to feeling pretty glum about the anti-flag burning movement that seems to have our nation's representatives so giddy these days. (See my previous post, " Latest distraction from *real* attrocities," June 23rd.)

I confess I'm not a big flag burner. In fact, I've never burned a flag. But I've always thought such a shocking act a wonderful symbol for the freedom of speech we supposedly claim to enjoy. But now that's very much at risk by our faux freedom defenders in Washington.

That had me very depressed--until this morning. You see, yesterday I took a little drive amid cars ladened with those little yellow "Support the Troops" ribbons. But I noticed other ribbons with messages like "Bring 'em Home, Baby on Board" or "Spay and Neuter" (obviously, this one, an extremely brazen suggestion for Condoleeza Rice and George Bush!).

Beginning to feel ostracized, I even joined the ribbon crowd awhile back when I was referred to the Support Our Ribbons site by my friend Nona over at Fish Wars.

It was there I fell in love with a "One Nation Under Ribbons" ribbon. On a recent shopping trip, I parked my little ribboned rig next to a monster truck with a ribbon that demanded, "One Nation Under God." I confess to intimidation, knowing how intolerant some on the religious right can be. Fortunately, I left before they ever saw my retort to their suggestion.

A recent episode of "Law and Order" involved an accident with a hit and run vehicle sporting a yellow "Support the Troops" ribbon. One of the officer's rued they would have an easier time locating the guilty party if his car did not have a ribbon!

According to SupportOurRibbons, a news crew was sent out by Boston's Channel 5 to interview representatives of that alternative ribbons maker. But sadly, after shooting an hour's worth of material on the new craze as it relates to consumerism, politics, women, etc., the story was scrapped. In its place Channel 5 ran a feature on Boston's first all female masked wrestling group!

Apparently, ribbons on cars is too controversial to be shown on television.

And here's where my new found optimism was born. Those little yellow ribbons and the alternative ribbon responses they're generating have become our newest icons, from herd mentality to spirited individualism. Maybe--just maybe, if our freedom-of-expression right to burn flags is stolen from us, we can replace it with our new symbols of nationalism.

So don't fear. If we can't burn our flags, we'll just burn our freakin' ribbons!

Holding my breath, crossing my fingers, knocking on wood

Okay, maybe it's just me. But in NASA's announcement of the resumption of shuttle flights with Discovery on July 13th, I couldn't help reflect back upon the tragic ending of Columbia in 2003. And then I flashed to the movie, Apollo 13. With tragic events like that, don't you think NASA administrators could pick a better day to resume shuttle launches than the 13th for Pete's sake? Oh well, I'll be holding my breath, crossing my....yeh, whatever. Good luck Discovery!

No huevos please!

Okay, I confess. I'm a groupie of strong, independent, progressive women. Women I profess a profound love for because of their tremendous courage and dedication to their convictions in an age of leadership pathologies inflicting far too much destruction upon the world.

Hopefully over time, I'll be able to further delineate some of these persons I consider to be true modern day heroes.

As was pointed out to me by my wife, these women possess a brassiness that many honor by, curiously enough, attributing them with having that part of the male anatomy which in Spanish is called huevos! (Not the best subject to be discussing at breakfast over a plate of huevos rancheros.)

I just find it extremely ironic some choose to honor such principled women by awarding them men's testicles. I think we pay them no greater insult! But I digress.

The great news I wish to share herein, however, is the nomination of 1,000 women from more than 150 countries for this year's
Nobel Peace Prize! Forty of these women are from the United States. Three of them I am very familiar with, having written each of them in the past to express my appreciation for some action they've taken that's left me awe inspired.

The three I chose to highlight here from this impressive list are:

1. Congresswoman Barbara Lee who was "the only member of congress to vote against the post-9/11 resolution giving president Bush unbridled power to use military force against anyone suspected of having committed the acts, or intending to do so in the future." I remember upon hearing that, I wanted to move to another state, to another city--any city--in her district. I serisously doubt were that same vote held today, she would be the sole dissenting member of congress. Representative Lee continues to work tirelessly for peace and human rights.

2. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. "As a result of questioning her congressional colleagues about the lack of full investigation after the September 11th attacks, a retaliatory campaign successfully unseated her for one term, but in 2004 she was easily reelected. In her first term, she got passed legislation to extend health benefits for Vietnam War veterans, victims of Agent Orange, and sponsored legislation to end the use of depleted uranium weapons." If you're not familiar with Representative McKinney's work, ask Don Rumsfeld who she is. He still bares the scars of the blistering he got from their last committee grillings.

3. Medea Benjamin "founding director of Global Exchange to make labor and environmental concerns more important than corporate profits. After September 11, she mobilized thousands of women when she co-founded the peace group, Code Pink: Women for Peace." She's a real thorn in the side of neocons. I've enjoyed personally watching her piss off Vice President Cheney and Richard ("you'd better be careful what you say") Perle who treat her with disdain. But she keeps coming back, just like her fellow Code Pink members.

These are just three of the 1,000 women nominated as a group for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. They represent millions of women globally who dedicate themselves tirelessly toward establishment of a better world for us all, despite the best contrarian efforts of our leaders.

Woodshop Capitalism

We Americans are a funny lot. The Medicare bill promoted by the administration cost 40% more than they said it would. That's a tremendous windfall for the pharmaceutical industry.

Bush and company lied about the costs of the program to our own congress! Cost? About $140 billion extra. We pay for that. Those are our tax monies shuffled over to the pharmas. But that doesn't upset us. Why? Because they're doing it. Why? Because they can.

Our prescription drug costs put the squeeze on elderly, poor, the underinsured and uninsured. The same drugs cost 10-50% less in Canada. Our government represents the best interests of the drug industry over our own. Why? Because it doesn't upset us all that much.

Many Americans go through Canada to procure their U.S. drugs at cheaper Canadian prices. But that's in the process of changing. Canada is beginning to clamp down on drugs exported to U.S. citizens. Why? They fear shortages for Canadians. Why? Because 8 U.S. pharmaceutical companies have already placed limits on the amount of drugs sold to Canada knowing some have been getting back to Americans, at cheaper prices!

I anticipate some of us getting upset by our loss of these cheaper drugs, but I suspect nothing will be done to stop it. Why? Because the pharmaceuticals can do it. Why? Because we allow it!

So what will be the end result? Will we blame Canada? Will we find somewhere else to get cheaper drugs? Maybe Moldova or Malawi? But how long will it be before our government backed pharmaceuticals shut those off too? Don't worry, it'll be okay. It's just gonna cost us a little more, that's all. Let's just put our heads back in the vise clamp and tighten a little more. Once the pain subsides, repeat step 3 above, again.

Dining with friends, playing with matches

For some years now, we've had these friends I call "The Conservatives" with whom we meet for dinner or share a wedding or funeral now and then. Despite our extreme political polarity, our friendship has been testament to the socio-electromagnetic theorem "opposites attract." Whenever we've gotten together, a lot of laughs have ensued. I suspect, however, on a deeper level we really detest each other passionately.

During the past 10 years the friendship's survived, thrived even, despite an occasional tense moment that always lurked whenever we'd drift into politics as conversation. Like the afternoon Mr. Conservative attempted to quote Rush Limbaugh to me.

Sitting on my patio, on my patio furniture, enjoying my beer, I thought there was a limit to the hospitality one should extend. Quoting the blatherings of a sociopath was beyond those limits. Strained hospitality continued sans Limbaugh who was denied seating at our table. That was back in the 90's. But we survived that afternoon.

Since the bloodless coup of 2000, I've detected an increased tension whenever we get together. The laughter's less frequent, more strained.

Mr. Conservative is a primo example of a Thomas Frank citizen in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas?, i.e. he has some of the same concerns as we radical liberals. Like healthcare, rising local taxes, drug and food safety. He enjoys the environment. Thinks the war a mess. You know, cares about programs and people we see being abused and decimated under Bush. But Mr. C. can't make the connection between his conservative, Christian driven, ideology and the consequences of that ideology under the leaders he chooses to elect! (Despite my best efforts to continually remind him.)

And that's where the real frustration comes in, because when you can't get someone to connect their concerns with their conservatism, you might as well go outside and run full speed, head first, into the nearest brick wall. Of course, that solves nothing. That's just the urge borne of frustration. It's they who need to hit the bricks because their lucidity gene is hopelessly locked in the OFF position.

If the last time we dined out, the usual political banter had gotten as bad as it usually gets, I could have handled it, like always. Enjoyed it actually. But that night, it went further. It got worse!

Recently I heard Bill Moyer's "Take Back America" speech. In that speech, Moyer's mentioned Jared Diamond's new book describing how American elites "cocoon themselves in gated communities, guarded by private security guards, and filled with people who drink bottled water, depend on private pensions, and send their children to private schools." Gradually, they lose the motivation 'to support the police force, the municipal water supply, Social Security, and public schools.' Any society where the elite insulate themselves from the consequence of their actions, Diamnond wrote, contains a built-in blueprint for failure."

My first reaction to that was,"Yeah, but that's the extreme." And then I flashed back to that last dining experience with The Conservatives. Their son, little "Buddy" Conservative, Jr. joined us. That's not unusual, he seems to really enjoy the inevitable fray that occurs, the thrill he gets from breaking bread with we "insurgents" of little faith.

Buddy's around 30. We've watched him grow up, but were shocked to learn that evening how his strong Christian faith is manifesting itself. This he revealed right there at the table by gutting himself and laying open his innerds for all to see. A quick glance was all I could manage. It appeared to be a seething mass of some kind of neo-Nazi libertarianism gone amuck. (Thank God I'd finished my entrée.)

You see, Buddy exposed his disdain for police and firemen because he's law abidingly straight and it's not his house that burns down, why should his taxes go to support them? The local Community College should be disbanded because he doesn't need, nor like paying for it. (Tsk, tsk, it's attendence is over 75% Hispanic.) He loves our war that's decimating Iraqi 'terrorists' (of whom, approximately 80% are women and children); hates the thought of that huge Social Security chunk outta his paycheck which goes to seniors now on Social Security. And the frosting on his cake is, to make America a better place "we should just turn it over to the big corporate conglomerates!"

My God! As Bill Moyers had so eloquently told me, I'd just glimpsed Jared Diamond's "blueprint for failure!"

That was last January. Our "last supper" with The Conservatives. I suppose we've done those because it's as close to ex-patriots, Paris street cafes, 1920's pseudo-intellectualism as we could get. And somehow it made the food taste better.

But this last time, despite the great food and sense of 'dining with danger,' I was left feeling queasy. Perhaps it's because I came away from that evening with the tacit realization when the Revolution comes, we'll have to kill each other.

Quote of the day bastardized for the New American Century

You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln

Updated:

You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time unless, of course, they're Americans. -- Anonymous?

Slip slidin' away

Last night my eyes began to bleed. Yes, sitting, silent, staring and stunned by the latest Zogby poll my eyes, in total disbelief, began hemorrhaging. Seems 50% of we Americans believe Bush should not be impeached even if he lied about his reasons for going to war!

So this is where the strong partisanship we enjoy today leads us? So blinded half of us are willing to risk the last remnants of the nation?

I recall former president whatshisname was impeached over his misinterpretation of the definition for the word "sex." Opinions differ whether that was warranted.

But let me get this straight. If our leader wants a war bad enough to lie the nation into it, into convincing us to risk our sons and daughters dying for it , that's okay with half of us? To die for a lie? I don't know what sedative we're on, but whatever it is, let me have some more!

When Bush assumed control of the presidency, I joked that "he was a moron, which probably explains his popularity with the American public." I was just kidding about half of that. I don't believe our president is a moron. But I'm not so sure about the other half.

Just another Cuban slapdown

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, my congressman who voted against the Bush war, said yesterday of Guantanamo, it's "the only place in Cuba where religious freedom is allowed."

Hey, what's all my hair doing on the floor?