Compassion and Hate

When we started this web site, we started for a reason, and at least for my part anyway, it wasn't about hating Bush as deploring and despairing of how and why the neoconservative movement in this country rose to the level it did, how it managed through deceptive machinations to control every branch of government, including the Fourth Estate, and successfully impose its mean-spirited, dangerous, and untried, untested ideology on the American people. In short, America was being remade, step by step, in the neocons' image, and this was and is being accomplished by a combination of appeals to nationalism, the war against reason and science, and the breakdown of the separation of church and state with the help of a highly organized fundamentalist Christian grassroots movement, which has been building for decades. So it is with grief that I hear the word compassion used to describe this cold-blooded and hate-filled politics of division. All you have to do is read the Comments section on the right of this page and at the bottom. I would and never will advocate violence as a political solution. Violence may be the natural state of humans, but it is immoral. It is certainly unavoidable. Wars need to be fought and always will be, another deplorable human condition. Why do religions have to impose themselves on people who don't believe in them, through any means, all of them violent? Why must I be put to death because I don't believe in your God? Why is this intolerance and cruelty justified? What makes the Christian soldier or the Wahabist Muslim righteous? What's noble and spiritual about spilling blood? Revenge? An eye for an eye? How are you serving your God by doing that? Why does my baby have to be put to death? Why does your baby have to be tossed alive into a burning pit? What did he or she ever do to deserve that fate? Why is this the permanent condition of people? If the answer is that we're born guilty because we automatically have sin and are therefore stained, then we should all -- all of us -- die right away, all together at once, everybody on the planet, right? Just blow everybody up. Is that really God's divine plan? Then why are we even born? None of this makes sense. The fairy tales are even worse. If the point of a fairy tale is to impart an ethic or moral while you're still impressionable, any reading of history will tell you that this moral and ethic largely consists of controlling groups of people for the sole purpose of buggering their children, taking their money, telling them what to do and what to think, including killing themselves to accomplish political objectives, segregating their women, raping their women, enslaving other groups of people, doing the same thing to them, planting your seed in their wombs against their will, violently, putting vast numbers of people to death in a cruel and bloody manner -- and enjoying it -- and ordering your people to fight a "holy" war. I don't see how any of this is good. Where's the compassion that everyone's always preaching? That's where the part about heaven and hell comes in, or whatever version of it exists in other religions. This is the biggest fairy tale of all, because the way the founders of these so-called religions need to sell it is by pounding it into your head at an early age and frightening you to death with the prospect of eternal agony, that if you don't do exactly as they say, every day of your life, you "won't get in." And the people who believe in something else not only won't get in, they're automatically damned, and if the warrior god doesn't come down and throw them into the fiery pit himself, then we'll do it for you, because it's doing His work. This tautological reasoning and manipulative strategy works like a charm. If you're wondering, no, I'm not an atheist. I believe in life and purpose, and the source of all creation from which they continually spring forth, and I believe in meaning, and I think that a human being has an innate sense of morality. What that person does with it is his or her responsibility. I think people have an obligation to society. I think I'm entitled to my own belief. And the reason I feel entitled to believe what I choose to believe is because it is the right and privilege of Americans. I was lucky enough to be born here, into a society that allowed me to choose. My parents took me to temple and they took me to church and gave me the freedom of choice. I could be a Buddhist for all they care. I rejected both religions because I arrive at my own conclusions and I can't stand dogma, either on the right or on the left. Dogmatic people tend to be hard-headed and intolerant of other's beliefs and convictions, and will fight you if they can't manage to convince you. This freedom to believe whatever you choose to believe, to build your own church or temple and be able to practice your religion without being interfered with is the cornerstone of American liberty. That cornerstone is now under attack, by radical ideologists, and it's turning into a cult. There's nothing conservative about it. It's radical. The whole American landscape has changed, in my opinion for the worse, and it's beginning to frighten me. I don't have a problem with an atheist, but it's become increasingly dangerous to say so. Intimidation through smear, threats of violence, and social ostracization is against the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and the whole idea of civil rights and basic freedoms. To me atheism is just another kind of belief, and that person is entitled to it. So I'm getting to something here, which is the reason for all the "breathtakingly naive" rhetorical questions listed above: Read the Comments if you feel like it, and ask yourself what happened in this country to have produced so much rancor and hate-filled sentiments, combined with calls to violence? Is it just stupidity, or is it something more, something more dreadful? Where does it say in the Constitution or our body of laws that I can't say or feel these things publicly? What really stands out for me is that all of these acrimonious expressions and insults are entirely welcome from my point of view, feel free to tell me I'm an asshole, I really don't care, because it's not an argument and it won't change me in any way. As an insult it doesn't work, because I don't feel insulted. An expression of hate is an ugly thing, but I'm more interested in where it came from, what circumstances have created this hate. That's why we started this blog. My understanding is that people who are disinformed, misinformed, uninformed, and unread usually hate anybody who doesn't see things as they do, because it threatens them. They can't tolerate anybody who isn't like-minded. And because they feel threatened, naturally they threaten back, hence the violence. Bullying is actually encouraged in this country, and has resulted in more young people's deaths than anyone wants to know about. It's one of those forbidden subjects. People also feel threatened by independent thinking, another casualty of the imposition of religion into daily life. If you won't think about it, you can't think about it, which is exactly the objective of the people who control your life. It's called tyranny. And with tyranny comes oppression. None of this can be accomplished without the suppression of ideas. Independent thought is dangerous. Which is why people like me used to automatically get put to death, usually after torture. Some of you reading this are no doubt smiling right about now, judging from what I'm hearing on the radio, reading in the papers, and seeing on TV. That's kind of sick, isn't it? There's a word for that too: sociopathic. It means "of, relating to, or characterized by asocial or antisocial behavior or a psychopathic personality." Adolf Hitler was a sociopath. Ann Coulter is a sociopath. These people need to be taken off the streets and institutionalized, and given heavy medications so that they don't hurt anybody. We're living in a society, in case you haven't noticed. People who live in societies have obligations to one another, because if we can't manage to live together without killing each other, none of us can live. It's why you're not supposed to drive on the other side of the yellow line. Red means stop. Green means go. Without these types of social conventions, we all become a menace to one another. Civility is one of the most important social conventions of all, especially when you live in a heterogeneous society, made from disparate cultures and far away places. That's what the Statue of Liberty represents, before Bush put her in jail without a trial. And you smiling people proudly go along with that. You're too full of hate and a desire for revenge to know what compassion is. The death of compassion, my friends, is the death of civility, and without civility, you can't live in a civil society. We become barbarians.

Civil: of, or relating to, or involving the general public, their activities, needs, or ways, or civic affairs as distinguished from special (as military or religious) affairs

Barbaric: (1) possessing or characteristic of a cultural level more complex than primitive savagery but less sophisticated than advanced civilization (2) marked by lack of restraint: WILD (3) having a bizarre, primitive, or unsophisticated quality: BACKWARDNESS

The latest Bush team lie and that of his neocon power-crazed outlaws in Congress is that we are a nation founded on Christian principles, working under the assumption that when you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it. This latest deceit is simply false. And I quote:

In 1797 our government concluded a "Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, or Barbary," now known simply as the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 of the treaty contains these words:


As the Government of the United States...is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musselmen--and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

This document was endorsed by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams. It was then sent to the Senate for ratification; the vote was unanimous. It is worth pointing out that although this was the 339th time a recorded vote had been required by the Senate, it was only the third unanimous vote in the Senate's history. There is no record of debate or dissent. The text of the treaty was printed in full in the Philadelphia Gazette and in two New York papers, but there were no screams of outrage, as one might expect today.

If this is a repost, I don't apologize, because truths need to be repeated over and over. In fact they should be screamed from the steeple tops of every church and every temple, on every Sunday. Americans need to understand their own history and how they came to be here, and why. And give up your hate, if it doesn't kill you by strangling your heart and murdering your humanity, your most precious birthright of all, it'll end up killing somebody else. It's happening right this second, in the name of America and democracy.

- Michael 11:21 AM - [PermaLink] -

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The threat of terrorism excuse... more uses then WD40.

When doing you taxes this year just deduct every damn expense and say the funds were used for "fighting terrorism."

Caught in the backwash over backflow

More than 100 Venice residents showed up to city hall Thursday night wanting to know why they'll have to pay hundreds of dollars for a new plumbing device and then pay to have it tested every year.

Answers ranged everywhere from a 30-year-old federal law to changes last year in Florida laws to blaming it on reclaimed water. The threat of terrorism was even tossed in as a possible reason.

Let's think of the uses:

• Patriot Act
• war on Iraq
• duct tape sales
• free speech zones
• ending dissent
• ankle bracelets
• Florida plumbing tax

You can also use it to clean blood stains off the road... and clean pennies.

The terrorism threat is also the modern bogeyman. If Republicans aren't too busy scaring you by saying there are gays coming out of the closet, they're scaring you by telling you there are terrorists in your closet.

"And little Johnny make sure you eat all your vegetables... if not the terrorists are going to come in the middle of the night and get you."

- rob 1:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because the Information Super Highway ain't no Freeway buddy

Texas state rupub tries to stop free internet access

Will Reed envisions a mouse in every house — computers, that is — and high-speed Internet connections for all. A wired community, he says, is an empowered one.
From his nonprofit group's East End offices, Reed is turning his vision into a reality. Although Pecan Park neighborhood residents may not realize it, e-mail, pictures and commerce now zip above their tree-lined streets. This high-speed, wireless Internet access is free for the taking.

Reed's organization, Technology for All, has pioneered this program to bridge the digital divide with help from Rice University and an enthusiastic Mayor Bill White, who has asked city libraries to join the effort. This small, wired neighborhood may eventually become a model for providing everyone in the city free, or low-cost, Internet access.

Or not.

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, has filed a massive telecommunications bill in Austin this session that, in part, bans Texas cities from participating in wireless information networks.

My favorite part:

Several telecommunications companies, which provide both dial-up Internet access as well as faster broadband connections through cable and DSL lines, say they were not involved in writing the bill.

But they were involved in getting Rep. Phil King a new car (and that really swell addition to his house... and have you seen his wife's new pearls? Why they are to die for dharling)

- rob 1:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Get Ready

I'll make this short and sour. WARNING: It may upset you, it'll no doubt depress you, and every bone in your body will argue against me, so go ahead and argue. Jeb Bush is going to be the next president. Period. We have no choice in the matter. It's already been decided. That's how it works, folks. Unless the Congress decides to change the laws restricting W. from a third term, that is. It's one or the other. I know you think this is defeatist, that I'm a foregone conclusion, a pissy pessimist, that I have no faith, that I'm not fighting the good fight. That would be a mistake. There are ways to fight, there are ways to believe, there are ways to survive. I believe too. But this will happen. Sorry I had to break the news. I know you're not in the mood, and nobody's ready for it. It's true, though. Get used to the idea, it may soften the blow when it comes. Probably not.

Meanwhile, here's a little item from Florida that may give you an inkling of Things to Come:

The 65-pound girl was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car Feb. 7 when she was shocked twice with a 50,000-volt Taser, according to a Sheriff's Office report. Police departments in Florida and nationwide have been criticized for their use of Taser guns, which some say have caused deaths.

The girl was handcuffed and placed into a patrol car, but she managed to slide her cuffed arms to the front of her. Police said the refused requests to put her arms behind her back and began kicking and screaming.

An officer attempted to subdue the girl with a neck lock, but was unable to get control of her.

Officer G.A. Nelson then used his Taser on her. When she continued to fight, and she was stunned again, according to the police report. She then complied and placed her arms behind her back.

Mackesy said the technique used on the girl - putting the Taser directly against the body - was vastly different from the common shooting of barbs into someone.

I love that, "the common shooting of barbs into someone." What makes it so special is the loving use of the words common and barbs and someone -- even if that someone is a 65-pound 13-year-old girl. Makes no difference. It's justice at the end of a stun.

Welcome to Florida. Here's your next president.

- Michael 12:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stop playing defense

There is a growing giddiness as we watch Bush's "gift to wall street" social security plan begin to crumble (shock - sometimes truth does have impact!). But if it is defeated - what progress has been made? We just prevented another step back towards the caves. True an embarrassment to Bush is a type of progress, but have we been so battered that something so small is considered progress? A victory?

We need to go on the offensive. Hard. "Freedom is another word for nothing else to lose." The Democratic Party is truly free. It has nothing to lose and everything to gain. It has been so easy for career politicians to let bits of their soul and ideals fall away at the expedience of politics as usual and electability. The only thing that can get ANY of them elected now is to fight. Fight for America. Fight for the reasons they originally went into politics (their idealist youth).

We just need to fight a little bit smarter though. While fighting (defensively, unfortunately) the bankruptcy bill why not employ a flank attack. End prohibitions against Credit Unions imposed by the banking lobby. Fight banking corruption and illegal credit card scams. Who’s fighting for Americans now? We are. Publicly state how much banking companies have given to the campaign chests of those supporting the bill. Continue to propose loudly amendments that bring heart and soul to the measure and watch the blood on the hands of the republicans stain deeper as they say, “no – our troops in harms way must have their homes taken away because of debt. They do need more to worry about.” Heck the DNC needs to place full page ads in the hometown districts of every republican representative after each vote and trumpet what their representative – their voice in congress - has done in their name.

We need to improve the coinage of our initiatives. And we need to push them fast and furious and with much ballyhoo.

Stop saying that alternative fuels are better for the world, the environment, blah blah blah. Point out it is a security issue as well (with cool side benefits like the environment). Put forth and publicize the “Long Term Homeland Security Energy Act.” Point out the dangers of our national security from foreign oil dependence, how it ties our hands, and binds us to relationships we should not have. Invest in alternative fuels, energy efficiency, and improved energy distribution. It is about the safety of your children and their future children.

Promote a host of initiatives under an umbrella campaign called the New Moral Society (or some shtick):

Operation Hope. Homeland Opportunities and Prosperity Empowerment (or something that starts with an E). A secure nation needs to be unsaddled with an undereducated and underemployed population. Loudly proclaim the billions we spend on jails versus the millions that early prevention programs would cost instead. Strongly promote small and local business. Especially local media. Give them the tax cut. This is who employs Americans, these are who buy local.

Securing America’s future. We spend hundreds of billions on the health, housing, education of adults. We ignore the children. Pre-natal and support in the first few years give America a generation of strong and mentally and emotionally ready citizenry.

End the Small Business Health tax. Health care is a business cost. Trillions of dollars worth of productivity and investment monies gone to an inefficient corrupt health care system. Hello! THIS is the crisis. Health care rationing is happening in America. Scream this out loud.

End the birth tax. The deficit will be the end of us. Roll back tax cuts, end pork programs, cuts unnecessary programs. The Rural Electrification Administration and Rural Telephone Bank are still existing government programs. Are they really necessary?

Corporate Welfare Reform. Tax breaks and loopholes, giveaways and payola. End them. Loudly proclaim the billions Americans have been paying to the corporations with their government being the middleman. The US Government is OUR government NOT GE’s MCI’s or Wal-Mart’s.

Etc. For more of the same read my post: Enough with helping people already.

- rob 11:21 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Greenspan Should Change His Name

to Shrinkingdollar. Here's a guy who really pisses me off:

"I fear that we may have already committed more fiscal resources to the baby boom generation in its retirement years than our economy has the capacity to deliver," he told lawmakers. "If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later."

If existing promises need to be changed? What the hell does that mean? How about, "I swear to honor and obey ... but right after the wedding I'm gonna screw your sister"? The U.S. dollar bill says on it "In God We Trust" and is otherwise known as a "promisary note" -- in other words, the U.S. government is guaranteeing the value of the paper it's printed on in spite of fluctuations, even though we've been off the gold standard since the days of Nixon. Printed money is only worth how many people believe in it. It's like a religion. That's why it says "In God We Trust." It's a guarantee of the money itself. Greenspan is turning it into a bad check. That lockbox just turned into a mockbox, today, right before your eyes. Now you see it, now you don't.

You know what's going on here, don't you? Bush cut all of his megabillionaire friends a break, permanently and forever, from ever paying into the system, and he's doing it with impunity, by stealing your present and your future, and your granchilren's future, and he's using Alan Greenspan to do it. These trillion-dollar deficits are DEATH and FISCAL RUIN. Your local taxes will rise like Dorothy's house in a cyclone; your benefits will vanish, along with every penny you ever paid into the system, and on top of that will be fees; your health care will be gone, because you won't be able to afford either the drugs or the operations. It's a pincerlike strategy that reminds me of the Nazi generals in WWII: You do it stage by stage, by surrounding your enemy and distracting them on one front while you attack from the rear. First get 'em by "ending Medicare as we know it", privatize the shit out of health care, share everybody's medical records with the insurance companies and HMOs, so they can screen out the really sick people, change all the laws so you can't sue the pharmaceutical companies for forcing drugs that kill you down your throat, change all the inheritance laws so that your family won't see a dime after you die, then grab all the money and laugh all the way to the bank, which is also in on it. And fuck Social Security, because we can't afford it. We maxed out the credit card stealing borrowed money -- your money. My money. The money I spent my life working for. Like my friend said, "It's not your money, they're just letting you use it." Well not anymore. It's their money, and they're not letting me use it, they're taking the food out of my mouth, and the gas out of my car, and the blood out of my veins, and the soul out of the future.

"Differing people hold differing views, and compromise is essential in getting a functioning legislature to work its will," Mr. Greenspan said.

Differing people? Who the hell is he talking about? The timid mice in Congress who sit trembling in mortal fear before the cats? Compromise is essential? Listen up: Bush's idea of compromise is to tie you to a chair, shove a cue ball in your mouth and cover it with duct tape, put a loaded revolver to your temple, pretend to squeeze the trigger just for the fun of seeing you shit your pants, and ordering you to nod "yes" or "no". That's "compromise". A functioning legislature to work its will in this case is an oxymoron: In the first place, a functioning legislature doesn't allocate a billion dollars a week to fight foreign wars and make obscene tax cuts to the highest bracket of the rich permanent when deficits are soaring and the dollar is being made deliberately weak at a time when the balance of trade sucks hard, and in the second place, "to work its will" doesn't require the legislature to be functioning in this America. Quite the opposite: The dysfunctional legislature works its will at its will, regardless of what the American people think.

And here's another disturbing development by the Representatives of the People:

The bill would create a means test that compares a consumer's income and expenses, thereby changing the current law, which allows consumers to protect selected assets and escape the full repayment of their debts. Bankruptcy courts could require bigger repayment plans. While this might deal with outright schemers, it would only worsen a raft of real-life problems suffered by single mothers, the elderly and working families who suffer financial disasters because of emergency medical costs.

The Democrats' attempts to protect them were defeated yesterday. The same G.O.P.-led majority doomed another worthy amendment that would have exempted from the means test military personnel who fell into bankruptcy in their civilian lives after being called to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Contrast that with the bill's gaping "millionaire's loophole," detailed by Gretchen Morgenson of The Times. The bill spares this popular gimmick, which lets wealthy people file for bankruptcy yet still protect major resources in five states that cater to sheltering assets from creditors in special trusts.

Unamended, the bill is a gift to the credit industry and deserves defeat. It needs a fairer balance, including clearer credit information for consumers, who are barraged by credit card offers from companies that make little attempt to ensure that their targets can handle such debt. Consumers are voters, too. They can see the double standard of a crackdown on ordinary people by lawmakers who tolerate corporate bankruptcies that cost workers their jobs, pensions and health benefits.

Doesn't that just warm the cockles of your heart? And all the Times can say is, "It needs a fairer balance." Yeah. And if we all get down on our knees and pray, maybe Bush won't pull that trigger. Don't bet on it. The odds are long.

- Michael 6:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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CIA Director Goss and the President just want you to know:

"It's Hard... really hard. Sometimes we have to work past 5. Sometimes even work on Saturdays. Its really hard. Making plans and presentations. Powerpoint is really hard."

CIA Director Goss Amazed at His Workload

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - In a rare public appearance Wednesday, CIA Director Porter Goss said he is overwhelmed by the many duties of his job, including devoting five hours out of every day to prepare for and deliver intelligence briefings to President Bush.

FIVE Hours to prepare for the Presidential briefing? Does that include all the coloring in with the crayons? Because I think that could be delegated to a deputy director or something.

Remember - this is a guy who

abolished a daily 5 p.m. meeting that had been used since the Sept. 11 attacks to coordinate counterterrorism operations around the world, intelligence officials said on Tuesday.
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The move appears to reflect what Mr. Goss has publicly said was his concern that the C.I.A. under Mr. Tenet may have devoted too much time and resources to terrorism at the expense of other issues.

- rob 5:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Gee, the women's dorm sure has a lot of teddy bears.

Robots to Watch Children Showcased

REDMOND, Wash. Mar 2, 2005 — The teddy bear sitting in the corner of the child's room might look normal, until his head starts following the kid around using a face recognition program, perhaps also allowing a parent talk to the child through a special phone, or monitor the child via a camera and wireless Internet connection.

The plush prototype, on display at Microsoft Corp.'s annual gadget showcase Wednesday, is one of several ideas researchers have for robots.

But don't be frightened about this... its from Microsoft. The peeping toms will only see an error message.

- rob 5:31 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Propagannon or GannonGate or what might in the end by RoveGate is not a dead, though the Corporate Media did their best to ignore it.
(I keep worrying that Olbermann might not get invited to next year's Christmas party.)

Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter - Ranking Members Author Resolution of Inquiry on GannonGate

Washington, DC - The Ranking Members for House Committees on Rules, Judiciary, Government Reform, Homeland Security and Ways and Means have authored a Resolution of Inquiry, which would require the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to turn over all documentation regarding James Guckert's (AKA Jeff Gannon) regular access to the White House.
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"We cannot allow the White House to stonewall the United States Congress and the American people on an issue of such importance. This is a matter of national security and unethical White House media manipulation. Everyday more questions are raised and so far, the White House is not providing any answers. We intend to find out what the White House is hiding." stated Congresswoman Slaughter.

"We had hoped that the half dozen congressional and senate requests for information would have been sufficient. However, to date, they have not even merited a response from the White House or its agencies. We hope that this resolution gets to the bottom of whether any processes were abused in favoring Mr. Guckert, a fake reporter from a fake news organization," Rep. Conyers said.

The Resolution of Inquiry would force the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to cooperate with Congressional leaders in determining the nature of Gannon/Guckert's regular access to the White House and whether or not Secret Service security protocols were violated and if so, by whom.

The resolution must be considered by the Judiciary Committee within 14 legislative days and, unless blocked by the Republicans on the Committee, will be put before the full House for consideration.

- rob 5:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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And I needed a DVD player on my work laptop to watch training videos

SUNY chancellor has three drivers

ALBANY — The state's public-college system has three people on the payroll to drive Chancellor Robert King, whose $250,000 salary and $90,000 housing allowance already make him the highest-paid official in the state.

Raymond Sellie, Edward George and Thomas Winterstein all work for the State University of New York, are paid a total of $174,700 a year and chauffeur King and other officials, according to job descriptions from SUNY.
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King said having a driver allows him to accomplish a lot of work while he travels to campuses and makes other official stops. "Really, the car has been kind of my office away from home," King said.

Some Purchase College students said the drivers did not seem to be a good use of SUNY's limited funds.

Is our children learning?

- rob 5:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Jef Raskin - the "daddy" of the Macintosh died this past week.

Not only was he an expert in Human/computer relationships, he was quiet well versed in human/human relationships.

Jef Raskin - The Flawed Calculus of Torture

It is 4:00 AM, and what has propelled me out of a warm bed was an opinion piece on America's National Public Radio. I have heard editorials with which I agree, and those with which I disagree, but never before have I heard one which blatantly supported murder as a policy, and covering it up as the best way of handling the moral aftermath.

Commentator Matt Miller suggested that torture was a method the United States should resort to in order to gain information from high-ranking Taliban prisoners. In support of this violation of American and international law, he cited an incident in Sri Lanka, where three men, suspected of having planted a bomb in Colombo's central train station, refused to tell where it was located. Their interrogator threatened to kill them, but still they would not speak. Then he shot one of them dead, and, immediately, the other two told him where the bomb was. The bomb was defused, and dozens or perhaps hundreds of lives were saved.

In the commentator's calculations he balanced one guilty party killed against hundreds of innocent lives saved. However, that is not the right equation. For each such success, there are thousands who are tortured or murdered on the guess that they will reveal valuable information. More often than not, as history shows, they do not possess the information sought or do not have the power to do what the torturer wishes them to.
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The central issue is this: once you turn to torture you have not started down the slippery slope to lawlessness, you have slid down and fallen off. Those living under a regime that uses torture have much to fear. They have no guarantee of due process, no presumption of innocence, no opportunity to present an opposing view to protect themselves. Their torturers believe they will find the justification for their work as the victim is being tortured. First the punishment, then the investigation, and later, the cover-up. Torturers will display dead bodies and tell us what the victims would have revealed, had they not unfortunately died first. Torturers without results will dismiss any suggestion that they have erred, all blame is on the victim: they were tough and didn't talk. Or the information "revealed" is too sensitive to discuss. There are many excuses, but no one can undo the suffering of the innocent.

Torture is inherently out of control. It is the kind of excess that the United States and its Constitution were created to prevent. Every use of torture that goes unpunished, even if it was "effective", is a failure of civilization.

- rob 3:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If they can't win the war on terrorism, poverty, the deficit, or drugs; then at least they'll win the war against bare breasts.

Senator wants cable, satellite TV subject to indecency rules

Indecency guidelines that over-the-air broadcasters must follow should be extended to cover cable and satellite broadcasters, congressional Republicans who are influential on telecommunications issues said yesterday.
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Last month, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill to raise the maximum indecency fine from $32,500 to $500,000. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate but has not had a hearing.

Federal law bars nonsatellite radio stations and noncable television channels from broadcasting certain references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely be tuning in.

Isn't that strange, because most references to excretory functions are made by children or editorial members of TCS. "heh heh heh... he said he was pooped."

- rob 3:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Life in the heartland

Officers criticized following Taser use

Aurora police found themselves in the cross hairs of public criticism Monday after officers used a Taser stun gun to subdue a man accused of pilfering from a salad bar at a Chuck E. Cheese's pizzeria packed with families and young children.

"They beat this man in front of all these kids then tased him in my sister's lap," said witness Felicia Mayo, who was at the establishment with her 7-year-old son. "They had no regard for the effect this would have on the kids. This is Chuck E. Cheese, you know."

Crazy crazy stuff: who ever heard of a Chuck E. Cheese that served salad?

From a Phunkster who noted the best line in the article:

"It was really bad," Mayo said. "All that for a salad. We were like, 'We'll pay for the salad.' It was not handled correctly at all."

- rob 2:43 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Like Fed Ex - Except without Tom Hanks and the Basketball

Historic cannon completes 229-year journey to Boston

Nearly 229 years after leaving Fort Ticonderoga to help Gen. George Washington drive the British out of Boston, a 2,000-pound cannon has arrived in time to celebrate Evacuation Day.

- rob 2:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ve have vays of making you svear alligence

Video of teacher's outburst is on Web

BRICK -- The Board of Education may toughen its policy on use of wireless telephones in schools, after a videotape showing a Brick Township High School teacher screaming at his students to show respect for the national anthem — and then pulling the chair from underneath one student who refused to stand — was posted on several independent Web sites.

The damn technology is to blame.

- rob 2:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Bush Administration isn't on the job

Homeland security isn't on the job.

The FBI isn't on the job.

I guess its up to New York's Finest

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-interpol-bioterrorism,0,6901465.story

LYON, France -- The New York City police department is "very concerned" that al-Qaida is pursuing efforts to obtain chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, a senior official said Wednesday.

Michael Sheehan, the NYPD's counterterrorism commissioner, said officials know that Osama bin Laden's terror network is searching for biological weaponry and it appears to have sympathizers with medical and scientific backgrounds who could handle them.

"We are very concerned they are still trying to seek chemical, biological or radiological weapons," he told reporters on the sidelines of an Interpol conference on bioterrorism in Lyon, southeastern France.

"We don't have any information that at this time they have that capability, but we do know they're trying to get it," Sheehan said of al-Qaida, declining to provide specifics.

It'll give the guys of the NYPD Blue something to feel proud about now that NYPD Blue has been cancelled.

- rob 1:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stating the Obvious, Part 3: The Meaning of the Word Meaning

Words have meanings, and anyone unfamiliar with either the word itself or the way in which it is being used needs to consult the dictionary whenever he or she encounters it, in print or another medium. It's easy. Keep your dictionary next to you, within easy reach, and if you must, rise from your seat and walk over to it and look it up. I may sound like I'm giving orders here, but you owe it to yourself, because if you don't, terrible things will happen not only to your mind but to your whole way of life. Words have power, and that power comes from the fact that they mean something. Another cogent fact is that these meanings change over time, depending on a variety of factors, the main one being how they're used, and by whom, for what reasons. Politicians, of course, have figured out how to use words in a diabolical way, to achieve insidious ends and immoral advantages: to accrue power unto themselves; and once bestowed, power has no limits. None whatsoever. They use words to recruit armies of underlings to do their dirty work for them, and by dirty work I'm referring to a notorious, Machiavellian strategy of divide and conquer through the politics of hate and fear. It's the oldest story in the book. Read The Prince if you don't believe me. If you don't believe me, you probably don't read anyway; received opinions gotten through second- and third-hand sources pass for knowledge these days, and if that's what you think an education is, you haven't got one, and don't know the meaning of the word. Is our children learning indeed. Sure they are. They're learning how not to learn, because they're being ordered not to think. It's pretty damn scary.

So here's a concrete suggestion, not only in terms of civics, but in how to do something for your beloved country. Not this one, I mean the real America, the one that was forged in revolution, warts and all: Refresh yourself periodically throughout your life with the Declaration of Independence and frequent perusal of the U.S. Constitution -- the original one. You can find them here and here. You'll find that by today's standards, the Declaration of Independence reads like the Communist Manifesto, and I know for a fact that if you tried to introduce the Bill of Rights, which are amendments to our Constitution, no Senator or Congressman or Congresswoman would dare sign his or her name to it. It wouldn't even make it to the floor, in either house. It's a dangerous document, and a lot of Americans died for it. These "people's representatives" wouldn't have you believe it, though. They passionately invoke both documents all the time, because they're counting on the fact that you don't know what they are, since odds are great that you haven't read them. Like Humpty-Dumpty says to Alice, words can mean whatever you want if you pay them enough.

Take this sentence, for instance: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Let's parse this, okay? "We hold these truths to be self-evident": WE refers to WE THE PEOPLE, meaning all of us here, not just some of us (slaves weren't considered people then, they were property of we the people); HOLD THESE TRUTHS: HOLD is a verb, used in its 7th sense, according to Webster's 10th ed., meaning "to have in the mind or express as a judgment, opinion, or belief" -- in this case, all three; THESE is the plural pronoun form of THIS, meaning the person, thing, or idea that is present or near in place, time, or thought or that has just been mentioned -- in this case, it refers to the objects that directly follow it, which is the word TRUTHS, which have yet to be elaborated; TRUTHS is the plural noun form of TRUTH, used in its second sense, meaning a (1) "the state of being the case: FACT" (2) "the transcendental fundamental or spiritual reality" b "a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true" c "the body of statements and propositions"; TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, a further elaboration of THESE TRUTHS, meaning "evident without proof or reasoning" -- in other words, a given, a proposition to be assumed on the merit of the argument to come; after the comma, a list follows, of what exactly these self-evident truths consist: THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL -- without going into parts of speech, let's just deal with this idea, which is an Enlightment ideal, and may be found in the writings of John Locke and David Hume, among others -- what Jefferson is getting at here is that Americans are planning to throw off the bond of the English caste system, that here in America you're not automatically born into an economic class from which you may never escape; the Republicans hate that idea and are working violently and successfully against it with all their money and might, because it threatens their holdings and their grip on power; this is exactly what Jefferson was trying to get away from; it's a truly revolutionary concept, one that hadn't been tried yet; of course it's not true, then as now, but that's why it's an ideal instead of a fact: it was something to aspire to, and has deep and dangerous implications for any society whose individual members supposedly possess a natural right to elect their representatives in a government; THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, another revolutionary notion taken directly from the Enlightenment, meaning you get your rights as a citizen from birth, as opposed to having rights bestowed on you or taken away by a king, and that these rights are UNALIENABLE, a variant of INALIENABLE, meaning "incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred" -- a concept with which Americans have become entirely unfamiliar, in fact I doubt anybody even knows what the word means, since you never see or hear it anywhere except in this one sentence, recited mindlessly, by rote: think about it for a minute -- "incapable of being surrendered or transferred" -- does anybody reading this honestly think that's the case here in "America"? Don't make me laugh, I'm too busy crying, not only at the death of unalienable rights but also the death of meaning; THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, which may be the strangest phrase of all time -- it's out there circling Jupiter, if it hasn't altogether left the galaxy -- by LIFE he means they can't just come and kill you; take a step back in time: The kings could do whatever they wanted, to whomever they pleased, and what pleased them the most was to take your children and use them in his armies, and to send these armies around taxing every household at the end of a gun to pay for his wars of expanding empire and conquest, and if you didn't pay them whatever they asked for, they'd shoot you on the spot -- that's what he means by LIFE; LIBERTY means they can't just come and take you away and enslave you or throw you in a dungeon and torture you for no reason (from this radical concept came the right to trial by a jury of your peers and the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty, another casualty of the Bush administration: You no longer have your LIBERTY); AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, which was ridiculed in the British magazines and broadsheets to the point where the landed aristocracy reduced it ad absurdum, until it meant nothing; HAPPINESS in this context means that since you are by nature born with the right to transcend the class you were born into, without discrimination, you could own property through the fruits of your labor -- as opposed to the charter of the king -- that is, you are free to pursue it without being harassed, killed, or imprisoned by all the king's men, and thus be entitled to the franchise, which is the right to vote, on which this entire system of a liberal republican form of constitutional government depends; in other words, a democracy. (Some sentence, huh?) What Jefferson was doing here is laying down the foundation for the possibilities of people to form their own government. And don't you think for one minute that George Bush doesn't understand what a dangerous idea this is. I doubt that he's read either the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution he swore on a bible to uphold, but you better believe he knows what they represent, and he's antithetical if not downright hostile to the democratic principles of government on which this country is based. And the really terrifying thing is how many of us he's managed to convince -- by subverting the meaning of words. Subversion is another word of choice in the mirror tactics of smear -- they accuse any dissenting voice of practicing what they themselves are engaged in doing, which is nothing less than subverting the intentions of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and twisting them to achieve their own tyrannous end, which is permanent one-party rule and the end of the separation of powers. In his day, Jefferson and all the signers and ratifiers of the Constitution were officially traitors to their king, who sent armies over here to hang them. That's what started the American Revolution. They called it "taxation without representation," but that was really just an excuse to make the break from tyranny. And that's only one sentence out of the document! I think Jefferson was 17 when he wrote it. Pretty fucking amazing, isn't it? And now here we are, in Bushland. It's all gone.

MONARCH: n. 1: a person who reigns over a kingdom or empire: as a: a sovereign ruler b: a constitutional king or queen 2: one that holds preeminent position or power

TYRANT: n. 1: a: an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution b: a usurper of sovereignty 2: a: a ruler who exercises absolute power oppressively or brutally b: one resembling an oppressive ruler in the harsh use of authority or power

- Michael 3:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I won't be posting today, but I thought I'd quickly update our (unfortunately) continuing series: Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

U.S. Cites Array of Rights Abuses by the Iraqi Government in 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 - The State Department on Monday detailed an array of human rights abuses last year by the Iraqi government, including torture, rape and illegal detentions by police officers and functionaries of the interim administration that took power in June.

- rob 3:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Okay... just one more quick one.

Aren't fascists always the ones with the snappy outfits?


Rice doing her Matrix thing.


Bush looking to kill some bugs from Starship Troopers.

- rob 3:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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This shit's as silly as a FOX show.

Excerpt: The high-profile investigation into FBI agents' allegations of detainee abuses at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is not examining the conduct of the man who oversaw the interrogation operation at the time that prisoners were allegedly shackled in painful positions and exposed to extreme temperatures to break their silence.

Army Major General Geoffrey Miller commanded Camp Delta, the intelligence-gathering prison, from fall 2002 until spring 2004, when the Pentagon sent him to Iraq to take over detention operations amid the Abu Ghraib scandal. According to several internal FBI memos made public in a lawsuit, agents assigned to help in the interrogations say they alerted Miller about the abusive techniques they witnessed at Guantanamo, but Miller rebuffed them.

Despite Miller's key role at Guantanamo, the US Southern Command assigned a one-star officer, Brigadier General John Furlow, to conduct its investigation into the alleged abuses. Under Army regulations, an investigating officer must outrank anyone he or she investigates, and Miller's two stars place him beyond Furlow's reach.

The assignment of a junior officer to investigate the allegations raises questions about whether the probe, which the Bush administration announced in January and has repeatedly touted in response to questions about the FBI memos, can reveal the full scope of responsibility. Furlow's report is due to the Southern Command commander, Lieutenant General Bantz Craddock, in five days.

Unbelievable. Only in America would the public just not give a shit about this kind of power-abuse.

- ThePoliticalPenguin 2:00 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Yee haww! Someone with a circulation larger than say 10 people (i.e. not This Century Sucks) also noticed a little thing called: Treaty of Peace and Friendship

The Nation - Our Godless Constitution

One of his Administration's current favorites is the whopper about America having been founded on Christian principles. Our nation was founded not on Christian principles but on Enlightenment ones. God only entered the picture as a very minor player, and Jesus Christ was conspicuously absent.

Our Constitution makes no mention whatever of God. The omission was too obvious to have been anything but deliberate, in spite of Alexander Hamilton's flippant responses when asked about it: According to one account, he said that the new nation was not in need of "foreign aid"; according to another, he simply said "we forgot." But as Hamilton's biographer Ron Chernow points out, Hamilton never forgot anything important.
...
In 1797 our government concluded a "Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, or Barbary," now known simply as the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 of the treaty contains these words:

As the Government of the United States...is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musselmen--and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

This document was endorsed by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams. It was then sent to the Senate for ratification; the vote was unanimous. It is worth pointing out that although this was the 339th time a recorded vote had been required by the Senate, it was only the third unanimous vote in the Senate's history. There is no record of debate or dissent. The text of the treaty was printed in full in the Philadelphia Gazette and in two New York papers, but there were no screams of outrage, as one might expect today.

I tell you TCS is just so cutting edge. Soon all website's will feature black backgrounds, typos (okay - misspellings), and run on sentences.

- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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When it comes to getting away with selling nuclear technology, its alway about "who you know"

A High-Risk Nuclear Stakeout
The U.S. took too long to act, some experts say, letting a Pakistani scientist sell illicit technology well after it knew of his operation.

WASHINGTON — Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year.

Two Western nuclear weapons specialists who have examined the top-secret designs say the hundreds of pages of engineering drawings and handwritten notes provide an excellent starting point for anyone trying to develop an effective atomic warhead.

"This involved the spread of very sensitive nuclear knowledge, and it is the most serious form of proliferation," one of the specialists said.

We watch and wait while Khan sell nuclear secrets to Libya, but we'll make stuff up about Saddam wanting to buy nukes. Does the Bush administration conciously want to make the world a more dangerous place? (Cue Rapture speculation)

But the nice thing about Khan is I get to show this photo of him again:

- rob 3:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A friend says this:

The Bush Administration’s war on facts, science, and reality continues…

Here’s an article about the nonexistence of more “science” alleged by the Bush Administration. This unsupported BS is killing people, and now our country is urging the United National to follow down this immoral and wrong path: Deadly Ignorance

Thank god we elected the more “moral” of presidential candidates, eh? (Keep in mind that “a large body of scientific evidence” – the real evidence, not the made?up stuff – “suggests that the free provision of clean [hypodermic] needles curbs the spread of AIDS among drug users without increasing rates of addiction.” (Emphasis mine.) What the heck is moral about increasing preventable death?

I add that the cost of needle exchange programs dwarfs the cost of treating AIDS patients – obviously. So, if the moral argument doesn’t do it for you, how about the economic one?

The idiocy continues unabated. Damn the facts, his mind’s made up…

Thanks D!

- rob 3:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
- Abigail Adams 3/31/1776

The ladies save democracy: Senators Clinton and Boxer, Representative Tubbs Jones And Others Unveil Major Election Reform Bill
Legislation Would Enact Sweeping Reforms By Next Major Election Cycle in 2006

Verified paper trail... what the voters sees is what is audited. Can't think of a more important bill. Make sure everyone knows that a vote against this is a vote against democracy. It's that simple.

- rob 3:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Keeping your priorities in order

FCC Censorship

When the Federal Communications Commission fined Clear Channel Communications $27,500 last year for each of eighteen incidents of "indecent material" spouted by shock jock Howard Stern, it sure seemed like a lot of money. But in retrospect those fines look like chump change. On February 16th, the Bush administration won House approval for a bill that would raise the maximum FCC fine to $500,000 per violation.
...
A review of fines levied by other federal agencies suggests that the government may be taking swear words a bit too seriously. If the bill passes the Senate, Bono saying "fucking brilliant" on the air would carry the exact same penalty as illegally testing pesticides on human subjects. And for the price of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl, you could cause the wrongful death of an elderly patient in a nursing home and still have enough money left to create dangerous mishaps at two nuclear reactors. (Actually, you might be able to afford four "nuke malfunctions": The biggest fine levied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year was only $60,000.)

I can't add anything.

- rob 2:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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liberalism declared dead more often then Apple Computer

USNews.com: John Leo: Can liberalism survive? (3/7/05) (he's writing from the future!)

QUESTION FOR THE DAY: IF LIBERALISM isn't dead, then why are autopsies performed so regularly? In the latest examination of the much-probed cadaver, the New Republic 's editor-in-chief, Martin Peretz, recalls that John Kenneth Galbraith, in the early 1960s, pronounced American conservatism dead, citing as heavy evidence that conservatism was "bookless" or bereft of new ideas. Peretz writes, "It is liberalism that is now bookless and dying." Liberals, he says, are not inspired by any vision of the good society; the liberal agenda consists of wanting to spend more, while conservatives want to spend less.

Bush is a liberal... he certainly likes spending more. And what's this about bookless? I've got some Phillip K. Dick and some... okay I'm bookless but I have trouble reading more than I can easily cut and paste. Buy my wife is liberal and she's got a lot of books.

I think the issue is liberalism means many things to many people. I believe the idea that people can govern themselves is pretty liberal. I believe the saving the environment is pretty liberal (and yet "conservation" would make you think "conservative" but nothing makes sense these days). I believe making America more secure in the long term by investing in alternative energy sources is pretty liberal. I believe taking care of our young early on so they don't become a burden to society later is pretty liberal (and cost effective too). Hell all that namby pamby crap of 'cast a first stone' and 'give him your other cheek' is way out their liberal. So am I missing something?

Bitter. Liberals have been slow to grasp the mainstream reaction to the no-values culture, chalking it up to Karl Rove, sinister fundamentalists, racism, or the stupidity of the American voter. Since November 2, the withering contempt of liberals for ordinary Americans has been astonishing. Voting for Bush gave "quite average Americans a chance to feel superior," said Andrew Hacker, a prominent liberal professor at Queens College. We are seeing the bitterness of elites who wish to lead, confronted by multitudes who do not wish to follow. Liberals might one day conclude that while most Americans value autonomy, they do not want a procedural republic in which patriotism, religion, socialization, and traditional values are politically declared out of bounds. Many Americans notice that liberalism nowadays lacks a vocabulary of right and wrong, declines to discuss virtue except in snickering terms, and seems increasingly hostile to prevailing moral sentiments.

Well, it is obvious I don't have a large vocabulary... but let me come up with some liberal rights and wrongs. Join me won't you?

Right	Wrong
Tell the truth as to why you are going to war	Lie your way into a war
Wage war as a last resort	Wage war because Halliburton's share price is in the basement
Providing healthcare to the elderly	Creating a huge bureaucracy to provide seniors with a small drug discount while providing big pharmas lots of money. Hide the true cost of the bureaucracy from congress.
Respecting your elders (and making sure they don't have to spend their retirement asking if you "want fries with that"	dismantling the social security safety net for a privatisation scheme that adds trillions to the debt, actually reduces benefits, but does give more money to Wall Street
That you should not steal	Illegally transfer money ear marked for Rebuilding Afghanistan and locating bin Laden and spend it on planning your pet war against Iraq
That you shouldn't lie about others	You can work at Fox News

blah blah blah.

But it is fun to see that the long death of Liberals is still being discussed. As is their lack of ability to see right from wrong (or in my case left and right when giving directions).

Flashback to an early eighties Bloom County:

- rob 2:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stars and Constellations

Since it's Oscar night and America always comes first, I think it's time to rename the constellations after our stars. Following is a list straight off the cuff, but I'm open to suggestions; feel free to offer your own in the Comments section and I'll post 'em. Here they are, in no particular order:

Northern Hemisphere

Cassiopeia: Mama Cass
The Big Dipper: The Big Bopper
Ursa Major: Ursala Undress
Cancer: Victim
Leo Minor: MGM
Bootes: Hooters
Corona Borealis: Corona Beerealis (lite)
Hercules: Arnold
Ophiuchus: Abu Ghraib
Vulpecula: Really Strange
Draco: The Big Duck
Orion: Oreilly
Taurus: Bullshite
Triangulum: Adulterum
Cetus: Fetus
Aries: Fairies
Pisces: Littles
Perseus: Merciless
Auriga: Orelse
Pegasus: Chockinaw
Gemini: Paris and Hilton
Coma Berenices: Very Como
Serpens: Maureen Dowd
Sagitta: Agitas
Aquila: Tequila!
Ursa Minor: Early Elvis
Delphinus Equuleus: Delmonico's Horseribs
Lynx: Blondie
Camelopardalis: Cameltoes'r'us
Virgo: Virgina (pronounced Ver-JYNE-ah)
Leo: Panetta
Sextanus: Bushless
Andromeda: Bowie
Cepheus: Cethruus
Hydra: Mr. Hyde
Canis Major: Major Nelson
Canis Minor: Major Healy
Canes Venatici: Canned Truth
Lyra: Harpo
Cygnus: Ciglewinsky

Southern Hemisphere

Monoceros: Animocerous
Lepus: Bring'emon
Eridanus: G'ridovus
Columba: Colombine
Fornax: Viagra
Phoenix: Penax
Sculptor: Culprits
Aquarius: Sequoialess
Pisces Australis: Chicken of the Sea
Capricornus: Corny Capra
Sagittarius: Macusaddadus
Scorpio: Rove
Octans: Cheney
Reticulum: Bush
Horologium: Condoleezza
Argo: McClellan
Carina: Carousing
Crux: Exactly
Musca: Loosa
Circinus: Washingtoneum
Telescopium: Televisionem
Microscopium: Tryanfoolenum
Norma: Desmond
Ara: Fleischer
Pavo: Yanni
Tucana: Froot Loops
Chameleon: Clintoneums
Volans: Volariwhoa-o
Vela: Copsllfelia
Puppis: Popeye's
Crater: Moon Unit Zappa
Corvus: Toyota Corolla
Libra: Gulag
Antila: The Hun
Grus: The Pundits
Pictor: The Fourth Estate
Indus: Ghandi
Centaurus: Horsemanuresens
Malus: America

- Michael 10:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Demockery

You gotta read this column.

Remarkably brazen, given that the only checks Mr. Bush seems to believe in are those written to the "journalists" Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Karen Ryan, the fake TV anchor, to help promote his policies. The administration has given a whole new meaning to checkbook journalism, paying a stupendous $97 million to an outside P.R. firm to buy columnists and produce propaganda, including faux video news releases.

This White House seems to prefer softball questions from a self-advertised male escort with a fake name to hardball questions from journalists with real names; it prefers tossing journalists who protect their sources into the gulag to giving up the officials who broke the law by leaking the name of their own C.I.A. agent.

. . . Mr. Bush is on shaky ground if he wants to hold up his administration as a paragon of safeguarding liberty - considering it has trampled civil liberties in the name of the war on terror and outsourced the torture of prisoners to bastions of democracy like Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. . . .

"I live in a transparent country," Mr. Bush protested to a Russian reporter who implicitly criticized the Patriot Act by noting that the private lives of American citizens "are now being monitored by the state."

The White House wants its Republican allies in the Senate to stamp out the filibuster, one of the few weapons the handcuffed Democrats have left. They want to invoke the so-called nuclear option and get rid of the 150-year-old tradition in order to ram through more right-wing judges.

The president loves democracy - as long as democracy means he's always right.

Jeff Gannon was given a free pass through a gauntlet of security checks, and Maureen Dowd's press pass was revoked. They took it away. She's been covering presidents since 1986. You better start worrying.

For anyone who doesn't know this already, "Pravda" in Russian means "Truth." And Ann Coulter wants to take a baseball bat to my head.

- Michael 12:16 AM - [PermaLink] -

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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response."
 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



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"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



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

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"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.