Ha ha. Funny stuff. Now that we've stopped laughing, let's look at what should have been in the news.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Cheney cuts out middle man
...And does the shooting himself, as the Rove propaganda machine spins away.
My question is; what is this ridiculous story covering up? Did Cheney really shoot a 78-year old lawyer, or is it another red herring to keep our focus off of some other terrible shit that's in the works?
From the Minneapolis Star-Trib...
My question is; what is this ridiculous story covering up? Did Cheney really shoot a 78-year old lawyer, or is it another red herring to keep our focus off of some other terrible shit that's in the works?
From the Minneapolis Star-Trib...
Sunday, February 12, 2006
I’m entitled to my own facts!
I read recently that I’m not entitled to my opinion, but that I do have the right to be wrong. Following that sterling logic, if I disagree with the prevailing paradigm, my only opportunity to be right is to keep my mouth shut and go along, or be frog-marched to the nearest American gulag to have my hippie head bashed in.
If in my opinion the president has the right to spy on American citizens, detain them without charges or access to courts, use national security and blind patriotism to pummel the population into submission, and use his newly-minted unfettered powers to declare war on anyone who may displease him at any given moment, I have my “facts” straight and can feel free to spout away.
If I want to believe that we are now safer and more prosperous, and that combat veterans such as Max Cleland—who left three perfectly useful limbs in Vietnam—and decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry are weaklings when compared to the architects of 21st century American foreign policy, such as Dick “five deferments/I had other priorities” Cheney, and George “Champagne Unit: TANG” Bush, then they I am completely within my rights as a Stepford citizen to believe that.
But as a semi-educated, thinking and voting American, it’s not in my makeup to shut up, particularly when my country has been turned upside-down by a cabal of Orwellian thugs who don’t give a whit about the constitution, social justice, or the American people as a whole.
If my opinions are right or wrong, black or white, then I’ll adopt my own truths. Subsequently, it’s my reality that Condoleezza Rice is a vampire who thrives on the blood of dead Muslim babies. Just look at the pictures in the run-up to the unjustified and illegal war in Iraq. Condi made Bela Lugosi look like Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. She is also the darling of bloodthirsty multinational oil corporations, who had her very own super-tanker named after her.
My facts tell me that there may just be a connection between the ties of the Bush administration to the oil oligarchy, and that our Middle East “adventures” have nothing whatsoever to do with “spreading Democracy.” If I mention that out loud though, I am derided as a “conspiracy theorist” by people with a different version of reality, who think I should keep my opinions to myself.
It’s the same with the attacks of 9/11. If I think that my government either willfully or through incompetence allowed those planes to fly into the towers, I am immediately labeled a nut job. But what could be more preposterous than a theory that includes a shadowy network of Muslim extremists that infiltrated civilian flight schools in Florida, then took down four airliners using box cutters. They were so sly that the Air Force never even scrambled fighters on call for the very purpose of taking out hijacked airliners, yet several months later a Cessna 182 came within three miles of the White House and was immediately swarmed by F-16s from nearby Andrews AFB.
What about Osama Bin Laden, and the infamous “number three man in Al Qaeda”? Spooky men who have evaded capture despite the multi-trillion dollar efforts of the most powerful and technically advance nation in history? That sounds like a pretty whacky theory to me.
I’m supposed to believe that there were no warning signs, such as a President’s Daily Briefing entitled, Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. and that our intelligence community was caught completely off guard. In the words of Donald Rumsfeld, “Who knew?”
Yet for the most part, we’ve swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, as an entire population. Our national “opposition” leaders have been neutered for fear of upsetting the narrative.
My reality tells me that our electoral process is corrupted to the point that I worry we’ll never have a legitimate election again, and if we can’t maintain a true Democracy here, my facts tell me that the relatives of all the brown people that we’re bombing into a red paste in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the other countries where we commit mass murder will see through our hypocrisy and react with violence which may not be equal in force, but will dwarf our “nation-building” efforts in intensity.
Our government has turned on us, and is using 9/11 and national security as a cudgel to keep us under control while political hacks and Bush cronies expand executive power at a frightening rate. It is becoming ever more important to speak out, before we are all herded into concentration camps that are overseen by David Horowitz’s brown-shirted legions.
Thank god—as we know him—we live in a country where we are all entitled to our opinions. But it appears that we now have the added bonus of creating our own reality. Democracy is even better when things like unintended consequences don’t get in the way of fuzzy thinking.
If in my opinion the president has the right to spy on American citizens, detain them without charges or access to courts, use national security and blind patriotism to pummel the population into submission, and use his newly-minted unfettered powers to declare war on anyone who may displease him at any given moment, I have my “facts” straight and can feel free to spout away.
If I want to believe that we are now safer and more prosperous, and that combat veterans such as Max Cleland—who left three perfectly useful limbs in Vietnam—and decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry are weaklings when compared to the architects of 21st century American foreign policy, such as Dick “five deferments/I had other priorities” Cheney, and George “Champagne Unit: TANG” Bush, then they I am completely within my rights as a Stepford citizen to believe that.
But as a semi-educated, thinking and voting American, it’s not in my makeup to shut up, particularly when my country has been turned upside-down by a cabal of Orwellian thugs who don’t give a whit about the constitution, social justice, or the American people as a whole.
If my opinions are right or wrong, black or white, then I’ll adopt my own truths. Subsequently, it’s my reality that Condoleezza Rice is a vampire who thrives on the blood of dead Muslim babies. Just look at the pictures in the run-up to the unjustified and illegal war in Iraq. Condi made Bela Lugosi look like Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. She is also the darling of bloodthirsty multinational oil corporations, who had her very own super-tanker named after her.
My facts tell me that there may just be a connection between the ties of the Bush administration to the oil oligarchy, and that our Middle East “adventures” have nothing whatsoever to do with “spreading Democracy.” If I mention that out loud though, I am derided as a “conspiracy theorist” by people with a different version of reality, who think I should keep my opinions to myself.
It’s the same with the attacks of 9/11. If I think that my government either willfully or through incompetence allowed those planes to fly into the towers, I am immediately labeled a nut job. But what could be more preposterous than a theory that includes a shadowy network of Muslim extremists that infiltrated civilian flight schools in Florida, then took down four airliners using box cutters. They were so sly that the Air Force never even scrambled fighters on call for the very purpose of taking out hijacked airliners, yet several months later a Cessna 182 came within three miles of the White House and was immediately swarmed by F-16s from nearby Andrews AFB.
What about Osama Bin Laden, and the infamous “number three man in Al Qaeda”? Spooky men who have evaded capture despite the multi-trillion dollar efforts of the most powerful and technically advance nation in history? That sounds like a pretty whacky theory to me.
I’m supposed to believe that there were no warning signs, such as a President’s Daily Briefing entitled, Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. and that our intelligence community was caught completely off guard. In the words of Donald Rumsfeld, “Who knew?”
Yet for the most part, we’ve swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, as an entire population. Our national “opposition” leaders have been neutered for fear of upsetting the narrative.
My reality tells me that our electoral process is corrupted to the point that I worry we’ll never have a legitimate election again, and if we can’t maintain a true Democracy here, my facts tell me that the relatives of all the brown people that we’re bombing into a red paste in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the other countries where we commit mass murder will see through our hypocrisy and react with violence which may not be equal in force, but will dwarf our “nation-building” efforts in intensity.
Our government has turned on us, and is using 9/11 and national security as a cudgel to keep us under control while political hacks and Bush cronies expand executive power at a frightening rate. It is becoming ever more important to speak out, before we are all herded into concentration camps that are overseen by David Horowitz’s brown-shirted legions.
Thank god—as we know him—we live in a country where we are all entitled to our opinions. But it appears that we now have the added bonus of creating our own reality. Democracy is even better when things like unintended consequences don’t get in the way of fuzzy thinking.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Mark Morford for your pleasure
Good thing nobody reads this blog...
Here Is The Big Gay Agenda
Revealed! The horrifying secret plot to homo-amplify America. Also: Dig this hetero agenda!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, January 27, 2006
Here Is The Big Gay Agenda
Revealed! The horrifying secret plot to homo-amplify America. Also: Dig this hetero agenda!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, January 27, 2006
I have spoken with my gay friends. I have been to yoga classes and men's health spas and Restoration Hardware, chic rug shops and the Castro Starbucks and really cute restaurants featuring mixed baby greens that cost $12. I have observed. I have taken notes. I have checked the fashions and the cars and the skin-tight T-shirts, the newsletters and the bumper stickers and the secret codes hidden within the rainbow flag.
It is time to come clean. It is time to reveal the truth. After all, the religious right has been hammering at it for years, the pseudo-Christians and the homophobes and the sexually terrified all fully and truly believing that there is a plot, a massive, deep-seated agenda among the gay community not only to decriminalize and demystify homosexuality but to actually coerce and cajole and actively lure the innocent white babies of America into the sordid and well-dressed "gay lifestyle," so much so that, much like aliens living in underground cities in Area 51, well, there must be something to it.
Just look. Look at the wanton slew of nasty e-mails I received -- intermixed like bloody shrapnel amid a huge stack of gorgeous e-mail enthusiasm, mind -- in response to my recent column extolling the virtues of the heartbreaking, perspective-altering "Brokeback Mountain" phenom, wherein I dared to suggest that this spare and potent little film might actually help deflect the savage karmic pain of people like Samuel Alito and move the human experiment forward, just a little. What nerve I had.
Mark, gay films move us back. To tell society, which includes children, that to stick a penis inside someones anus, a wholey unnatrual act is ok and normal is ubsurd. I don't hold anything against gays, I'm not one to judge people, they can do what they please, but to shove their pervertions down everyones throat, and to try to make it mainstream and teach children honosexualiy is a normal thing for people to do is sick. -- Steve W
Or this:
It is really hard to believe that people like yourself are gloating over this film and are so proud of the degradation of our country (USA) that you have joined the masses and are HELL BENT on the destruction of Christianity, family values, and everything that is decent and what out forefathers have fought and died for in this country. Your kind are the real BIGOTS! You are the enemy of everything that is decent and good, you love death and destruction (that is what the homosexual lifestyle will lead to)... -- Larry L
Isn't that sweet? Doesn't it make you feel good to be an American? Sure it does.
But you know what? Adorably rabid, misguided homophobes like Steve and Larry, they might have a point after all. Because after all my observations and when I really allow myself to be honest, I become convinced of the existence of a truly shocking gay lifestyle, an actual gay agenda far more sinister than even desperately misguided and morally lost people like Steve and Larry can comprehend.
Do you know what it is? Do you want to know the real gay agenda, what 96.8 percent of all gay couples wish for every single day including Sunday? Here it is:
From what I can glean and above all else, the gay people of America seem to want this simply inexcusable level of boundless, unchecked normalcy. It's true. For some reason, they believe the utterly disgusting idea that they should be able to live their lives in peace and trust and health, with full support and assistance from their schools and hospitals and government, just like everyone else. I know. Shudder.
It is, in fact, remarkably similar to what heteros want. And women. And black people. And immigrants. And dwarves. That is, to be able to fall in love and maybe even get married (or at least have the option) and have decreasing amounts of sex and raise a family and hold down a good job and pay their taxes and argue with their lovers over who the hell spent 200 bucks on long distance to their mother, all while not having to worry about getting the living crap beaten out of them with tire chains by Arkansas and Alabama and most of Texas, or secretly loathed by small-minded pseudo-Christians who wouldn't know Jesus' true message if it bit them on the other cheek.
Ah, the deviousness of it all, the sheer nerve to desire the same sort of lives as everyone else. But do you want to know the kicker? The true aspect of the "gay agenda" that makes the religious right's skin really crawl? Here it is: When all of that normalcy is in place, when these repulsive gay beings who like to walk around in public and eat at restaurants and drink their lattes and laugh out loud and stick things into each other's bodies for sexual pleasure, well, they want the most appalling thing of all: They just want to be left alone.
I know. It's hideous. How dare they! How dare most gays ask not to be harassed and not really care to flaunt their sexuality or convince anyone that homosexuality is cool or righteous or the only way to be, beyond reassuring children that it's OK to be whatever religion or sexual orientation your mind and body and heart and soul guide you to be. Can you imagine? What horror. Ignorant, intolerant schoolteachers should protest that nasty idea right now. Oh wait.
This is, in fact, the most sinister gay agenda of all. Normalcy. Lack of fear. Happiness. The right to be miserably in love just like everyone else and have it recognized by the culture as, well, no big deal. Safe. Healthy. Beautiful, even. What nerve.
To Steve and Larry's great dismay, gay people do not seem to care in the slightest for converting anyone to homosexuality, which of course would be the equivalent of converting a frying pan into a doorknob. It simply cannot be done. It's bitterly sad that this must be repeated so frequently in terms so simple that even Steve and Larry can comprehend, but gayness is no more a lifestyle choice than is blond hair or blood type or that knowledge, deep down in your skin, that Bush is raping the soul of the nation. It just is.
Much can be learned from this shocking revelation. Much we can glean from the gay agenda's "true" motivations -- most notably in how it contrasts with the famed and beloved Christian neoconservative heterosexual agenda, the one that instructs that you please keep your mouth shut and blindly believe in the same bitter God as everyone else, and by the way please bury your true sexuality and get married at 23 and pop out six kids and become quickly and quietly miserable and gain 30 pounds and stop having sex entirely and get divorced at 50 and wake up just in time to watch yourself die.
Oh my yes, that has proven to be just so much better, hasn't it, Steve? Larry?
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Words of wisdom
From the Rude Pundit.
For earlier in the broadcast, David Gregory reported on the White House shooting down a widely-supported plan to rebuild New Orleans and said it could be done more cheaply. 'Cause, you know, that hope worked so well in Iraq. Gregory also reported on the White House's refusal to give documents to the bullshit committees investigating the response to Katrina. Indeed, the entire White House response has been the same as it was for the 9/11 Commission, the same as it was for any investigation of the "intelligence failures" on Iraq, the same as it was for any questions about NSA spying, the same as it was for the Plame affair, the same, the same, the same: the President ain't gotta tell you shit 'cause he's the motherfuckin' President, bitches.
For earlier in the broadcast, David Gregory reported on the White House shooting down a widely-supported plan to rebuild New Orleans and said it could be done more cheaply. 'Cause, you know, that hope worked so well in Iraq. Gregory also reported on the White House's refusal to give documents to the bullshit committees investigating the response to Katrina. Indeed, the entire White House response has been the same as it was for the 9/11 Commission, the same as it was for any investigation of the "intelligence failures" on Iraq, the same as it was for any questions about NSA spying, the same as it was for the Plame affair, the same, the same, the same: the President ain't gotta tell you shit 'cause he's the motherfuckin' President, bitches.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Comforting words from the idiot in chief...
"Federal courts have consistently ruled that a President has authority under the Constitution to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance against our enemies. Predecessors of mine have used that same constitutional authority. Recently there was a Supreme Court case called the Hamdi case. It ruled the authorization for the use of military force passed by the Congress in 2001 -- in other words, Congress passed this piece of legislation. And the Court ruled, the Supreme Court ruled that it gave the President additional authority to use what it called "the fundamental incidents of waging war" against al Qaeda.
I'm not a lawyer, but I can tell you what it means. It means Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn't prescribe the tactics. It's an -- you've got the power to protect us, but we're not going to tell you how. And one of the ways to protect the American people is to understand the intentions of the enemy. I told you it's a different kind of war with a different kind of enemy. If they're making phone calls into the United States, we need to know why -- to protect you."
But wait! There's more!!
"What I'm talking about is the intercept of certain communications emanating between somebody inside the United States and outside the United States; and one of the numbers would be reasonably suspected to be an al Qaeda link or affiliate. In other words, we have ways to determine whether or not someone can be an al Qaeda affiliate or al Qaeda. And if they're making a phone call in the United States, it seems like to me we want to know why.
I'm not a lawyer, but I can tell you what it means. It means Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn't prescribe the tactics. It's an -- you've got the power to protect us, but we're not going to tell you how. And one of the ways to protect the American people is to understand the intentions of the enemy. I told you it's a different kind of war with a different kind of enemy. If they're making phone calls into the United States, we need to know why -- to protect you."
But wait! There's more!!
"What I'm talking about is the intercept of certain communications emanating between somebody inside the United States and outside the United States; and one of the numbers would be reasonably suspected to be an al Qaeda link or affiliate. In other words, we have ways to determine whether or not someone can be an al Qaeda affiliate or al Qaeda. And if they're making a phone call in the United States, it seems like to me we want to know why.
This is a -- I repeat to you, even though you hear words, "domestic spying," these are not phone calls within the United States. It's a phone call of an al Qaeda, known al Qaeda suspect, making a phone call into the United States."
Here's the text of the Kansas State U. speech. Try to read it without laughing or throwing up.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Impeach Him
Great idea, but let's wait for Dick and that whack-job from Alaska, Ted Stevens, to die first since they are the next two in line for the presidency.
Oust Feinstein
Several Democrats, including Nelson and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, already have said they don't think a filibuster is warranted.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
A New Post
As we barrel into the new year, it is time to either turn this thing into a living, breathing blog or let it rest.
2005 ended on a high note for political junkies of my stripe. We saw the Cunningham Scandal, and the Abramoff Scandal which represents systemic Republican corruption, and another fiscal compromise of our political process. Unfortunately, the prosecutor for the largest political scandal of the century is a Bush recess appointment hack named Alice Fisher, who is an enthusiastic Republican donor and has never prosecuted a case in her life. I expect a few sacrificial lambs to go down, DeLay being one of them, but the entire filthy K Street Project is alive and well as is the "Contract with America."
Here in California, Ahnold promised $222 billion to rebuild California's infrastructure, but didn't really come up with a plan to pay for it other than borrowing us further into debt, but that's the way Republicans run economies in the 21st century. It's amusing to watch the "flip-flops" of Bush hacks when they realize the people really don't like the snake oil they're selling, and they try to look moderate to get the mythical "swing voters."
Look for 2006 to be a humble year for the party in power. Too bad there isn't another party that can take advantage of their glaring missteps. We may have single-party government for a long, long time.
2005 ended on a high note for political junkies of my stripe. We saw the Cunningham Scandal, and the Abramoff Scandal which represents systemic Republican corruption, and another fiscal compromise of our political process. Unfortunately, the prosecutor for the largest political scandal of the century is a Bush recess appointment hack named Alice Fisher, who is an enthusiastic Republican donor and has never prosecuted a case in her life. I expect a few sacrificial lambs to go down, DeLay being one of them, but the entire filthy K Street Project is alive and well as is the "Contract with America."
Here in California, Ahnold promised $222 billion to rebuild California's infrastructure, but didn't really come up with a plan to pay for it other than borrowing us further into debt, but that's the way Republicans run economies in the 21st century. It's amusing to watch the "flip-flops" of Bush hacks when they realize the people really don't like the snake oil they're selling, and they try to look moderate to get the mythical "swing voters."
Look for 2006 to be a humble year for the party in power. Too bad there isn't another party that can take advantage of their glaring missteps. We may have single-party government for a long, long time.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Friday, September 02, 2005
More Pics
Minneapolis skyline with the Mississippi River in the foreground on our first day out June 21.
Sartell outside of a really cool bike shop just north of Minneapolis.
Me at Lake Harriet, a popular hangout and photo-op in Minneapolis.
July 4.
Sartell outside of a really cool bike shop just north of Minneapolis.
Me at Lake Harriet, a popular hangout and photo-op in Minneapolis.
July 4.
The Pacific Ocean
Here I am at the Pacific Ocean in Bandon, Oregon on August 14. I figured that since I rode all those miles that it wouldn't be sacrilegious to dip my tire in the Pacific, but the tide was out, so this is as near to "dipping" as I went.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Back Home
Here I am back at the ol' ranch. I logged almost 3,000 miles from June 21 to August 13. It has been an interesting transition back to my life in Santa Rosa. I am honest and for true going to post some brilliant prose and analysis about my trip, but I'm going through culture shock and a serious writer's block which can only be purged by writing about the trip. Quite a conundrum.
Check back in a day or two.
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