The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 8/23/2004

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

Mirror (in case geocities is wacky or, in case of trouble in New York, check it for messages): http://129.79.148.33/vidiotcontact/

I'm baaack. This update is a little late because, well, I just had to get out of Gotham for a few hours. Anyway.

Before I get to the reams of articles I've collected, let me just say how much I'm enjoying the sinking of the "Swift Boat for Losers". Even though the records support Kerry's version of his military history and William Rood, who served with Kerry and had been silent for 35 years, has come out and said this ad is false, some people are eating this crap up. But there's so much out there that discredits the ad. From the anti-muslim slurs of one of it's authors, to charges by Thurlow that there was no enemy fire having been proven false, to don't even get me started on O'Neill, and to ...oh hell, just read Saletan's piece on it. Add to that Novak's (a.k.a. The Prince of Poop's) denial of a Bush connections to the ad when the NYT clearly shows that there are AND a Kerry volunteer found a flyer supporting the Swift Boats campaign in a Bush/Cheney campaign office no less and you have a pile manure so deep, an industrial pig farmer would be impressed.

Have you seen the latest installment? "Swift Boats for Guano, Part Deux"? Jeesh. Talk about misleading. They took lines out of Kerry's 1971 testimony totally out of context. For instance: You hear Kerry say "...they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads,..." Making it sound like he was the one accusing soldiers of atrocities. Well, funny thing, that little snippet was actually preceded by "I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit - the emotions in the room and the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They told stories that at times they had..."

Now, you can plainly see that he was not directly accusing anyone of war crimes. He was merely recounting the testimony of other soldiers.

"Swift Boaters for Truth" my big fat lilly white ass. "Swift Boaters for as many lies as you can cram into 30 seconds with dirty republican money and not give a crap who knows that Karl Rove is behind it" is more like it.

Compound all of that with the fact that one phone call from the giggling idiot would put a stop to the whole thing makes it all the more appalling.

Kerry is fighting back. (Albeit a little belated for my tastes) What he said was right on, said with the proper amount of umpf, and loudly applauded. But look for a new "Kerry is unhinged" meme to emerge from the GOP spin machine. Even Bob how-low-can-I-go Dole has started into the game.

Gee. Remember way back when, when "Fortunate Son" came out? Remember how our liberal media barely even mentioned it until it's author started getting smeared? Sweet Jesus! what have we done to deserve these sniveling media sycophants?

BTW, did you know Kerry's also a recent hero? A senator was choking and Kerry didn't hesitate and did the heimlich. Saved the guy's life. So TAKE THAT monkey boy! You, who sat there on 9/11 for 7+ minutes waiting to hear what happened to the stupid goat. Oh, and Monkey Boy, what about YOUR service to this country? (Or anyone else's of any import for that matter.) Hell, you didn't even get a medal for showing up! I betchya you don't even play rugby fair, and almost anything goes in that game. Only a real asshole could foul in rugby.

On a lighter, less irritating note--just LOVING the McGreevy thing. It's Fabulous! Who knew he was so anti-bush? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Trekkie News: Shatner to appear on Enterprise! (I do not shun my geekness, I embrace it!)

Good question of the week: Islam: Religion or political ideology? 

Weird furniture of the week: Aqua Creations

Action idea for the RNC in NYC: Ringout.org

Presidential Debate Schedule (why did Kerry agree to this crap??)

Movie clip of the week: Fuck New York (profanity alert, obviously.)

Turncoat of the Week: Zell Miller (why is this guy still considered a democrat?)

Absentee Ballot Information

Unbelievable Product of the week: The Quantum Sleeper

Cool space pics of the week: Cassini

The fact that they're intimidating elderly black voters in Florida should be shouted from the rooftops. But it's not.

Excerpt: State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

Pakistan is pissed off because leaking Kahn's name allowed a whole slew of terrorists to get away.

Excerpt: Yet senior officials said Tuesday that some al-Qaida fugitives escaped after news reports revealed the arrest of a computer expert for Osama bin Laden's network who was cooperating with investigators.

Our illustrious media "broke the story" ...at 4am eastern time.

Excerpt: Well, 30 minutes ago or so AP finally runs the story of the exposed Al Qaeda double agent.  Being that this would put the time around 12:40am Western time, and 3:40am Eastern time, for the release of the story, this won't make the newspapers this morning.

What does the leaking of Kahn's name really mean? Juan Cole explains it.

Excerpt: We know that the Pakistani government has complained that the Bush administration blew the cover of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Not only are the Pakistanis annoyed by the blown cover , they are also furious about the cavalier way the FBI used a fiction about a plot against the life of Pakistan's ambassador in the US to entrap two merchants into what they thought was a money-making scheme that involved providing weapons to terrorists.

This is appalling and wrong. It's bad enough we don't pay teachers enough, but now, California, they're taking away their tax credits??

Excerpt: California teachers may have to scale back their out-of-pocket spending on classroom supplies after losing state and federal tax breaks that helped lower their costs.

Yeah. Herr Gropenator fits right in with the republican party and he could easily be president if it weren't for that pesky constitution.

Excerpt:Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called for a national debate on changing the U.S. Constitution in a way that would allow him to run for president.

The RNC is NYC is going to be one hell of a farce. On the face of it, they're going to put as much of an big-tent face on everything that they can.

Excerpt: And notice that not a single of the GOP's cultural warriers (other than Bush himself, I suppose) have gotten a prime-time slot. No Heather Wilson, or Rick Santorum, or any of the TV preacher set, or Marilyn Musgrave or Tom DeLay, or Alan Keyes, or Gary Bauer, etc, etc.

Meanwhile, the crazy relatives will be kept far, far away.

Excerpt: Some prominent evangelical Christians say they have not been invited to participate in or attend the Republican National Convention less than three weeks before the event is to begin.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to attend the RNC protests. According to one icky conservative website that I'm sure is exaggerating the estimate so that if half show up, they can say that it was a "big disappointment" for the organizers, 1,000,000 are expected.

Excerpt:By the time the convention starts, organizers hope to have upwards of 1 Million anti-war protestors on hand to disrupt the convention – including promises of acts of civil disobedience and violence.

(And who the hell leaked this one to the Post?

Excerpt:A number of extremists with ties to the 1970s radical Weather Underground have recently been released from prison and are in New York preparing to wreak havoc during the Republican National Convention, The Post has learned.

Yeah sure they are. They're from the CIA!)

On one hand, I don't want to be a part of something that could possibly play into the hands of the GOP.

Excerpt: Republicans said they would seek to turn any disruptions to their advantage, by portraying protests by even independent activists as Democratic-sanctioned displays of disrespect for a sitting president

On the other hand, this is my home town that these people are invading and I feel a need to voice my disapproval of the politicization of 9/11. Well, the good news is, if I do manage to get arrested, at least they'll be holding me a few blocks from my apartment.

Excerpt: According to a source inside the city government, emergency renovations are being conducted on the Brooklyn House of Detention which are to be completed in two weeks, just in time for the Republicans to arrive. In my dreams this would be to make for all of the Republicans who should be in jail, but it's pretty obvious that this is for the protesters. The Brooklyn Detention House was operational up until last year when it was closed for budgetary reasons. It has a full capacity of 815, according to the NY Correction History Society.

Honestly, I walk past the thing every week and for what seems like forever now, nothing had been happening. But, in that last month or so, the workers have been veritable bees. And seeing as our mayor seems to think that protesting is a privilege instead of a right (I shit you not. He actually said that.), it's likely that "house of detention" will be filled to capacity.

Excerpt: "People who avail themselves of the opportunity to express themselves ... they will not abuse that privilege," he said at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Because if we start to abuse our privileges, then we lose them, and nobody wants that."

And I'm not sure I want my eardrums popped by the new "speaker system" the police are planning to use. 150 decibels. (130 is barely tolerable)

Excerpt: Two possible uses cited by Browne: directing crowds to safety following a terrorist attack or other calamity, and reminding protesters where they're allowed to march and rally.

Yeah, right. Cue flying monkeys.

Is this a payoff to the Paks for screwing them over with Kahn or is it a payoff for holding bin Laden until October?

Excerpt: The US has signed an agreement to waive off 495 million-dollar debt Friday in Islamabad.

Just a word about the new Anne Coulter replacement: Michelle Malkin. The word? Ewww.

Excerpt: I refer, of course, to our gal Annie's lunatic interview with the British newspaper, but most directly to the performance last night on HARDBALL of Michelle Malkin, a rising young harpy with the face of a stewardess and the analytical skills of a tack hammer, although possessed of considerably less charm.  She was just inches from a clean getaway when she opined that she'd read somewhere that John Kerry's war wounds were self-inflicted.  This, of course, sent Matthews into the ionosphere while Michelle popped her eyeballs.  He cuffed her around pretty well and then my main dude, Olbermann, took a proper whack on his show.

Though, I was watching Hardball on Friday and they reported on Matthew's exchanges with Thrulow and Malken. Tweety actually behaved like a journalist for a change, instead of the usual GOP parrot. So Friday, they mentioned Thursday's show AS IF it were a news story. Only in our media could a journalist behaving like a journalist be considered a news-worthy event.

Since Bush says Kerry can't get security briefings on the road, then I guess this blogger is right, Bush won't be getting any briefings in Crawford.

Excerpt: Apparently Bush is going to spend his vacation at Crawford, Texas without access to the most important daily intelligence briefings. Why do I say that? Because Bush has made clear that it's nigh impossible to give such briefings when the recipient is outside of Washington, DC, at least when the recipient is John Kerry. Read on...

I don't want to harp on the economy. Really. It's too depressing. It all just seems so...bad.

Excerpt: The world’s economies and financial markets are awash with debt, especially the U.S. and Japan. Everyone is playing the carry trade made possible by the lowest interest rates in half a century. Banks are borrowing short and lending long. Hedge funds are still leveraged with short-term money while investment portfolios are long. Homeowners have borrowed short-term and invested long-term in their homes. The Fed will begin a rate raising cycle that may not last long if the economy rolls over, the market collapses, or if the U.S. gets hit by another terrorist attack.

This doesn't belong anywhere here, but I have to include this Thom Hartmann article on how Cheney speaks to the reptilian brain.

Excerpt: When Dick Cheney recently took John Kerry's comment about sensitivity in the war on terror out of context and spun it for his audiences, he was performing a psychologically masterful bit manipulation of all three brains.

The coming wars will be as much about water as they are about oil.

Excerpt:The risk of wars being fought over water is rising because of explosive global population growth and widespread complacency, scientists said on Friday.

Oil and water are connected in ways we don't usually think of.

Excerpt: The energy security of the United States is closely linked to the state of its water resources. No longer can water resources be taken for granted if the U.S. is to achieve energy security in the years and decades ahead. At the same time, U.S. water security cannot be guaranteed without careful attention to related energy issues. The two issues are inextricably linked, as this article will discuss.

And of course, as the World Banks screws people over for oil,

Excerpt: The World Bank has declared itself to be more concerned with the needs of oil companies than the impoverished people it officially serves, by ignoring most of the recommendations of a pathbreaking report that the lender itself commissioned over three years ago.

so do they screw people over for water.

Excerpt: Aguas Argentinas is a case study of the rush to privatize water services in the last decade by European and U.S.-based companies, backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

I'm convinced that there's something in Long Island water. That little niblet of land has produced Howard Stern, Bill O'Reilly, Dee Snyder, the Baldwin boys and so many more. Now, there's Dr. Marilyn O'Grady.

Excerpt: STATEN Island cable subscribers will be the first metropolitan area residents to see a new commercial calling for a boycott of Bruce Springsteen's anti-Bush concert tour.
The 30-second spot was produced by Dr. Marilyn O'Grady, an opthalmic surgeon from Long Island who is also an outspoken Conservative Party candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Boycotting the great god of rock. Indeed!

Hey! What did you guys do with all that money?

Excerpt: Pentagon auditors have concluded that Halliburton Co. failed to adequately account for more than $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing a Pentagon report.

That's it! You're not getting your invoices paid for that kind of skulduggery! Bad halliburton! Bad Bad Halliburton! Shame on you!

Excerpt: A new Pentagon audit has criticized Halliburton's accounting for billions of dollars of work in Iraq, as a threat to withhold about $600 million in payments beginning on Sunday hangs over the firm.

Never mind.

Excerpt: The U.S. Army said it would continue paying Halliburton Co. in full for feeding and housing U.S. troops in Iraq, reversing an earlier statement.

(Gee, I wonder who pressured them to reverse THAT decision??)

I hate the idea of Big Brother. I hate the fact that my employer, if they so choose (and I'm pretty sure they do), can watch me type a personal email on my personal email account via the web and be legally able to do so because I'm using my lunch hour to communicate with friends and family on a system they own. It may be well within their legal rights, but they do not own me and they do not own my thoughts and if they do read my personal emails, they are ethically reprehensible even though they are within the law. But all of this is just annoying when compared to what the PTB (powers that be) wants to do (and is probably quaking with excitement at the prospect of doing) in the event of a terror attack.

Excerpt: A literal reading of electronic eavesdropping laws—coupled with a new FCC proposal—may make it easier for Washington to watch you online

And in the court of public opinion, they've already started building their case. (By making such a big deal of the web here, they're basically blaming the freedom of the internet for terrorist attacks.)

Excerpt; The Internet's importance to Al Qaeda was highlighted this month by the disclosure that Pakistani authorities had apprehended Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a suspected Al Qaeda computer engineer, and collected a wealth of electronic material.

Bartcop had this on his Friday page, but I have to include it for it's sheer stupidity. Some girl with a wheat allergy had her first communion "invalidated" because by definition, the church says that a wafer has to include some wheat.

Excerpt: Haley was diagnosed with celiac disease, a genetic disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the lining of the small intestines in response to a food protein called gluten — found in wheat, rye, oats, barley, and related grains. Symptoms in children include weight loss or failure to gain weight, irritability, listlessness and diarrhea.

Honestly, I'm speechless. Organized religion. How the hell does it control people? Are there really that many weak minds out there? (I'm so lucky to be living in NYC) Honestly, I just don't get it.

Excerpt: It is time we recognize that religious beliefs have consequences. As a man believes, so he will act. Believe that you are a member of a chosen people, awash in the salacious exports of an evil culture that is turning your children away from God, believe that you will be rewarded with an eternity of unimaginable delights by dealing death to these infidels — and flying a plane into a building is only a matter of being asked to do it. Believe that "life starts at the moment of conception" and you will happily stand in the way of medical research that could alleviate the suffering of millions of your fellow human beings. Believe that there is a God who sees and knows all things, and yet remains so provincial a creature as to be scandalized by certain sexual acts between consenting adults, and you will think it ethical to punish people for engaging in private behavior that harms no one.

They're both doing it.

Here's Kerry's foray into controlled-sponteneity.

Excerpt: So goes the back story of the Kerry campaign's newest signature, the "front porch visit" - though the porch is optional. Mr. Kerry and his running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, have held 10 such homespun events, in middle-class neighborhoods across Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and here in Oregon since stumbling across the form in mid-June.

It's just that Georgie's handlers a quite a bit more, how shall we say, overt about it.

Exceprt: A Republican National Committee practice of having people sign a form endorsing President Bush or pledging to vote for him in November before being issued tickets for RNC-sponsored rallies is raising concern among voters.

But look at the pictures to see the real difference.

We need more energy sources! Iran has what we need!.

Excerpt: British gas major BG Group has shelved plans to set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Pipavav in Gujarat and is instead exploring option of supply gas to India from Iran.

Hey! I have an idea. We'll say Iran has nukes!

Excerpt: Bolton also cited a recent press report that said Iran had tried to buy deuterium gas from Russia. The substance could be used to boost an explosion in a nuclear bomb.

Uh. No it doesn't.

Excerpt: IAEA inspectors have reached a tentative conclusion that the contamination came from equipment provided by the nuclear smuggling network headed by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, sources close to the agency told JDW.

Damn. Now what? Russia likes Iran, right?

Excerpt: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has informed his Russian counterpart Sergey Ivanov on US plans to shift its forces stationed around the globe, in some cases potentially bringing them closer to Russia's borders, Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters while flying home from Russia, where he met with Mr. Ivanov, The Associated Press reported. During his visit to Russia, Mr. Rumsfeld met with Mr. Ivanov in St. Petersburg to discuss a broad range of issues, including security problems and the fight against terrorism.

But the Russians aren't stupid.

Excerpt: President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia would boost its military procurement budget by 40 percent next year, news agencies reported.

They know the game.

Excerpt: Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday that Moscow would never allow NATO inspectors to check its nuclear sites despite fears that they are poorly protected and weapons and material could be stolen.

Leave it to a bunch of backward-thinking neocons to resurrect the only enemy they actually understand.

Ummm, did anyone else put this together? If we remove our troops from Europe,

Excerpt: The United States is expected to announce Monday that it is pulling 100,000 troops out of Europe and Asia, the Financial Times newspaper reported Saturday.

where they already have bases and systems and communities built, won't new bases and systems and communities have to be built somewhere else? And who gets the building contracts? I wonder.....Hmmmm, just let me think a minute, I know the answer ... it's right on the tip of my tongue...wait, wait, I know this one...

Finally. Some reporters have been subpoenaed. (Of course, the Time reporter stuck to his guns, but Pumpkin Head (Tim Russert) caved.)

Excerpt: A federal judge has held a Time magazine reporter in contempt of court for refusing to testify in an investigation of the leak of a CIA officer's identity, rejecting requests from two media organizations to quash federal grand jury subpoenas seeking information from the media.

As well as Judith Miller. (who deserves a subpoena for so many other things.)

Excerpt; Lawyers for The Times said the paper expected that it would be served a separate subpoena for its records. They said the paper would fight that subpoena, too.

But there's some curious stuff about it. Is there a journalist mole?

Excerpt: This would mean that by sometime in July at the latest, Fitzgerald had submitted an argument to that effect to the judge -- and the reporters would have known this. So, not only did the reporters obviously know if they had make-or-break proof, they indisputably knew that the special prosecutor was aware of it.

Billmon explains a lot of stuff here, like, why not Novak? or What's the big scoop? (Billmon can be quite brilliant.)

Excerpt: This is the most solid piece of evidence for the proposition that the leak of Plame's name was part of an orchestrated White House campaign to discredit Wilson, and not an unauthorized Novak "scoop" that was quickly exploited by administration flacks, who simply pointed Novak's reporting out to other key journalists. (That would have been slimy, but not illegal.)

I was flipping around and stumbled upon the Krugman/O'Reilly debate on CNBC. It was astounding. I was glued. O'Leilly lied easier than your average New Jersey driver cuts you off.

Excerpt: The really astounding thing is that O'Reilly has gotten away with his shit for so long without having been punched solidly in the mouth even once.

Now, I read this thing about Najaf, that Sadr was willing to call a truce.

Excerpt: Shiite rebel leader Moqtada al-Sadr is prepared to accept a UN force in Iraq, a spokesman said on Saturday, as peace talks between the cleric's militia and the Iraqi government broke down in the holy city of Najaf.

But then it disappeared and now Najaf is a friggin' mess.

Excerpt: Iraqi Ministry of Health officials Friday said 77 Iraqis were killed and 70 were wounded in heavy fighting overnight, including six Iraqi police officers killed and 25 wounded.

What? Did Bush need some sort of a victory in Iraq in time for the RNC so he nixed any peace deals?

And speaking of what's needed by the tine of the RNC. The rumor mills are churning out questions about the real death toll in Florida. What if the death toll is in the thousands? That would make 9/11 pale in comparison, and that's a comparison the Bushies don't need as a backdrop to their convention. It's a cynical thought I know, but you know what? These people are capable of ANYTHING.

Excerpt: These figures came from our own eyes, medical personnel, various county sheriff's deputies, and eye witnesses or residents from the worst devastated areas. CNN and the rest of the world biased and controlled media are fooling none of us who live here. The current CONFIRMED body count in our 3 county area on the west coast of Florida is near 400 as I write this.

These are the real reasons why I don't eat meat.

Excerpt: Americans each chomp their way through an astounding 100 kilos of meat every year - that's a medium steak per person per day. This worries Robert Lawrence, because a meaty diet with so many calories in saturated fats squeezes out healthier fruits, vegetables and grains. But, as he told Liz Else, he's busy providing the academic ballast for a national campaign to save the country from itself. And fortunately for him, he's an optimist

We should eat a lot less meat for the environment.

Excerpt: World water supplies will not be enough for our descendants to enjoy the sort of diet the West eats now, experts say. The World Water Week in Stockholm will be told the growth in demand for meat and dairy products is unsustainable.

And there's always that mad cow thing to worry about.

Excerpt: In letters to the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. meat industry argues that current regulations are sufficient to deal with the problem of mad cow disease in the United States. Further regulations, the industry argues, would not provide any added safety for consumers. Instead, landfills would be flooded with animal parts that would no longer have any market value.

Let me see if I understand this: It's better to make money on a "product" that might kill then it is to err on the side of public safety, because, well, it would cut into profits?

Who raised these guys? A pack of wolves? I want to speak with their mothers!

I don't want to jinx it, but don't we all remember what happened when Dean said something something about the media?

Excerpt:What happened in the campaign that inspired the media to turn on Dean and throw their support to uninspiring Kerry? A clue may be found in a story published in the Washington Post on November 19, 2003. The Postreported: "In an interview Monday night [ll/17/03], Dean unveiled his idea to 're-regulate' utilities, large media companies and businesses offering employee stock options. He also favors broad protections for workers including the right to unionize."

Now Kerry has said somethingsimilar.

Excerpt: Distinguishing himself from President Bush, Kerry says, "I'm against the ongoing push for media consolidation. It's contrary to the stronger interests of the country." Diversity of media ownership and content, the candidate explains, "is critical to who we are as a free people. It's critical to our democracy."

But something has to be done about the media. Now, they are planning more secret meetings between Powell and the broadcasters.

Excerpt: With the encouragement of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell, the country's broadcasters and cable operators have agreed to meet behind closed doors to decide what Americans will see on their televisions as the nation transitions from analog to digital broadcasting.

Honestly people, Alan Keyes? vs. Obama the magnificent?

He'd prefer senators to be selected by state legislatures, instead of by election.

Excerpt: Alan Keyes said Friday he would like to end the system under which the people elect U.S. senators and return to pre-1913 practice in which senators were chosen by state legislatures.

He would exempt blacks from taxes as a form of reparations.

Excerpt: The Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, Alan Keyes, who has previously lost two presidential elections and two other Senate campaigns, has now proposed that some blacks be exempt from taxes to provide for slavery reparations. Keyes, who trails far behind the wildly popular Barack Obama (D), has also suggested that senators be selected and not directly elected. This from the registration-restricted Chicago Tribune.

And his greatest hit: Abortion equals Terrorism

Excerpt: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes said Monday that women who choose to undergo abortions and the physicians who perform the procedure are essentially terrorists because "the evil is the same."

Whoa. It's almost as if the GOP has picked the absolute craziest candidate to make the absolute craziest part of their constituency feel like the GOP hasn't forgotten about them during the RNC.

He created a new currency!

Excerpt: US President George W, Bush spoke today of "the Soviet dinar," – appearing to mix up the Russian rouble and the Iraqi dinar.

And with regards to tribal sovereignty:

Excerpt: Bush responded: "Tribal sovereignty means that. It's sovereign. You're a ... you're a ... you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."

Great choice for CIA chief! He really should head up that department. He really understands the meaning of "undercover operative"

Excerpt: Rep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn't yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.

Here's more on Goss' lack of qualifications. On the CIA's intelligence on the leadup to war.

Excerpt: For some reason, Goss was comfortable bashing the CIA for insufficient intelligence collection, but he declined to criticize it for cooking up an NIE that overstated the intelligence. Was he trying to protect the White House, which had pointed to the NIE to justify its case for war (even though Bush aides acknowledged Bush never bothered reading the 90-page report)? Was Goss unwilling to indict the entire intelligence community system (which was responsible for the NIE) rather than just an inadequate collection effort?

Hell, he doesn't even think he's qualified.

Excerpt: It is true I was in CIA from approximately the late 50’s to approximately the early 70’s. And it's true I was a case officer, clandestine services officer and yes, I do understand the core mission of the business. I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified. I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably. And I certainly don't have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day, 'Dad you got to get better on your computer.’ Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have.

He's a stooge.

Excerpt: The Goss CIA appointment is designed to do one thing: protect George W. Bush and his cronies. The rest of the country can go to hell.

But, honestly, Goss scares me because of this: He's a croney of Cheney's. If Cheney has someone on "his side" heading the CIA, God only knows what he'll be capable of doing. Cheney was a huuuuge reason we went to war with Iraq and he only had to INTIMIDATE a few people to do it.

Excerpt: Additional evidence that Cheney played an early planning role is contained in a previously undisclosed National Security Council document, dated February 3, 2001. The top-secret document, written by a high-level N.S.C. official, concerned Cheney's newly formed Energy Task Force. It directed the N.S.C. staff to coöperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the "melding" of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: "the review of operational policies towards rogue states," such as Iraq, and "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields."

Imagine if Goss did his dirty work for him from the inside. (FYI: Did you know where Goss was on the morning of 9/11?) Goss' nomination may not be blocked by the timid democrats, so he'll probably get in. Let's just hope that this trial balloon gets popped and fast.

Excerpt: They're not just going to trying to confirm Goss, they're going to try to legislate him into a position so that the next administration has its hands tied.

Oh boy. Now they want to test to see if you're hungover? Jeeze. I'm hungover after one margarita. This stupid little body of mine WANTS to be an alcoholic, but is fully incapable of it.

Excerpt: "Morning after drivers" who climb behind the wheel after tying one on the night before could soon face the prospect of roadside checks for DWH -- driving while hungover.

It's becoming a police state and all fun will be outlawed.

Excerpt: Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.

I just can't see a Kerry/Edwards person doing this.

Excerpt: A local woman claims someone vandalized her car because of a Kerry-Edwards campaign sticker in her back window.

I personally look forward to being as friendly as possible to the republican delegates while they're here. Not just because the media is watching, but because they're people after all. Misguided people. Horribly, pathetically and probably irrevocably, misguided people, but people nonetheless.

Of course killing the estate tax negates any reason anyone would donate a crapload of money to get out of paying the estate tax. I may be a rocket scientist (or weather girl, depending on who you talk to) but I don't have to be anything special to figure that one out.

Excerpt: "Not only would repeal of the estate tax clearly devastate our nation's charities," commented Lee Farris, Senior Tax Policy Organizer at Responsible Wealth in Boston, a group that monitors economic inequality. "Repeal would cost the U.S. Treasury $1 trillion over the next two decades. At a time of record deficits, we as a nation cannot afford this double drain, on revenue as well as on philanthropic funding."

So you think abolishing the IRS and creating a national sales tax is a good idea? Think again.

Excerpt:Of course, it is completely idiotic to think that the American people will ever allow this to happen. The idea of taxing all consumption sounds nice in theory until you realize just how broad the definition of “consumption” would be under Linder’s plan.

As if lawyers aren't creepy enough, Falwell is starting a law school.

Excerpt: The Rev. Jerry Falwell will open a law school this month in hopes of training a generation of attorneys who will fight for conservative causes.

Librarians rock.

Excerpt: The American Library Association (ALA) today welcomed the Department of Justice's decision to rescind its request that the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents instruct depository libraries to destroy all copies of five Department of Justice publications addressing forfeiture. 

Kurt Vonnegut seems to like them a lot.

Excerpt: So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

Hey! You can't have that trial of Saddam. He may say something we don't want the world to hear. And we can't have any elections over there either. (Don't want them showing us up when we won't be having ours!)

Excerpt: Murder and counterfeiting charges levelled in Baghdad against two U.S. protégés threaten to delay the trial of former dictator Saddam Hussein and could pose an obstacle to efforts aimed at holding elections in Iraq early next year.

At the very least, the whole "terror before the election" meme will get a full workout in September.

Excerpt: I haven't seen any news stories about it, but I just got tipped by a guy who works in Washington, and this GSA page confirms: September is about to become "National Preparedness Month."

I had this nightmare and I woke up screaming because of it.

Excerpt: Clarence Thomas has been interviewed by White House lawyers as a possible choice to be the next chief justice of the United States, says the author of a new biography.

Hey, if you don't believe that the GOP has talking points that the pundits spew, read this:

Excerpt: The point of the below posts is to demonstrate how the right wing talking point of "four months in Vietnam" has infected the public discourse.

So, in the spirit of fair play, here's some good info for the right-winger in your life.

The Broken Promises of George W. Bush: Rhetoric vs. Reality

Bush's "Strong Economy": A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Kerry is actually The 11th Most Liberal Senator

Payola Pioneering: Exposing the Bush Pioneer/Ranger Network

Presidents And Prosperity

The life on mars thing keeps popping up.

Excerpt: And according to David McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, visual evidence from the rovers is pretty enticing.

And there was life on Venus?

Exceprt; In part 1 of this interview with Astrobiology Magazine editor Henry Bortman, planetary scientist David Grinspoon explained how Venus evolved from a wet planet similar to Earth to the scorching hot, dried-out furnace of today. In part 2, Grinspoon discusses the possibility of life on Venus.

Tunguska was no meteorite.

Excerpt: Russian scientists claim the wreck of an alien device has been found at the site of an unexplained explosion in Siberia almost 100 years ago.

The british can be quite amusing.

Excerpt: Nigel Roder beat six rivals by public acclaim on Saturday to become England's first official jester for more than 350 years, succeeding Muckle John who lost his job when King Charles 1 was beheaded in 1649.

Has no one seen "Planet of the Apes"?

Excerpt: Scientists in the United States have found a way of turning lazy monkeys into workaholics using gene therapy.

(Insert applicable Bush joke here.)

Previous rant

At the very least, point your CNN-loving friends to my links page. Just getting started in reading alternate news sites gets people thinking. I have one friend who was very happy-go-lucky, thinking ol' Greta was telling the whole truth until I opened up his eyes a bit. Now, he's all depressed. He'll get over it. You gotta' get depressed before you get angry and you gotta' get angry before you can accomplish anything. We're all in mourning. We have to move through the steps. But we gotta' hurry it up.

Read. Inform. Spread the word. Even if it means your friends avoid you for awhile. If they really love you, they'll start to listen.

"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385): A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.

(Tom Ridge has practically said he'd do away with this act.)

{back}

These sites are good at culling stories from a multitude of media sites:

buzzflash.com
unknownnews.net
rawstory.com

Here are some excellant blogs:

Bartcop
Daily Kos
Atrios
Tacitus
Josh Marshall
DNC: Kicking Ass
Two Glasses
Billmon
Semi-Daily Journal
The Wonkette
Urban Survival

Link exchange:

Ilia Dreams Blog
Iraq War Blog
BushVote.com

These blogs will be covering the primaries and elections:

Salon.com's War Room
The Campaign Desk
FactCheck.org

media-bias exposed:

dailyhowler.com
mediawhoresonline.com

these are good left-wing journalism sites:

onlinejournal.com
thenation.com
inthesetimes.com
tompaine.com
commondreams.org
truthout.com
guerrillanews.com

a little more to the left:

wsws.org
indymedia.org

conspiratorial:

whatreallyhappened.com
almartinraw.com

HIGHLY entertaining:

surfingtheapocalypse.com

really good "Alternate Thinking" site:

goroadachi.com/etemenanki/

and for godsakes, stay away
from FOX NEWS,  MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
watch the BBC news
or ITN news instead.

if you must succumb to reading a newspaper: 

www.guardian.co.uk 

or any other paper in another fucking country. All of our newspapers are owned by the same idiots that own the TV stations so all of the news is all the same CRAP.