The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 1/10/2005

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

...'cause I'm angry and my friends are sick of listening to me...

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January 6: On one hand, a dark day in our democracy; on the other, a not so dark day; (and on a third, mostly unnoticed hand, an abhorrent day for our media.)

First, the dark day: Because the election was only challenged and briefly debated. Everybody stated ahead of time that they would vote to certify the election, but that they had problems with how it was conducted. It was like a big ole' circle jerk. It made me think that they were all too scared to look too closely at the election because it puts ALL elections into question, including theirs.(And Kerry's email to his supporters last week was appalling. Jeeze. He's fallen into that place were all my most embarrassing ex-boyfriends go. It's that "What the hell was I thinking??" place.)

Second, the not so dark day: Because for the first time since 1877, a challenge was made casting at least a small cloud on GW's second term in office. Also, I'm proud to be female, since it was only the women who had the balls to stand up there and challenge it.

And the abhorrent media day: The coverage of the story was ridiculous. It was stuffed way down deep in the 30-minute broadcasts, as if it were only a mildly remarkable event. It was historic for Pete's sake!

{sigh}

So, overall, I'd have to say it was mostly dark, with only a few bright spots.

Oh, and the fact that it looks like Gonzales will be confirmed is too nauseating to comment upon.

Democrats suck and they better get their acts together fast. I'm sick of this crap.

Protest Bush on Inauguration day: Either go there and turn your back on him, or don't spend a dime that day.

Weird Picture of the Week: A UFO over Mt. Saint Helens?

Reference Website of the Week: The Moon Organization

Programming note: I will not be covering too much on the tsunami now since mainstream media has gone berserko with the story. Unless of course something interesting happens...like the possibility of the US taking over the oil industry there under the guise of "helping the Indonesians get back on their feet."

Excerpt: A conservative not-for-profit think tank has targeted seniors in at least three misleading scare-tactic letter campaigns to raise money for their own organization, RAW STORY has learned.

Excerpt: Colombian traffickers had stitched heroin packets into the stomachs of the six puppies, police said, with all of them having visible belly scars.

Excerpt; His demonstration of Microsoft Media Center crashed during the presentation on integrating digital photography, and later a Microsoft product manager failed to access the internet with a Tablet PC.

Excerpt: "When the 109th Congress convenes in Washington in January, Senator Bill Frist, the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928, plans to file a bill that would define 'political paranoia' as a mental disorder, paving the way for individuals who suffer from paranoid delusions regarding voter fraud, political persecution and FBI surveillance to receive Medicare reimbursement for any psychiatric treatment they receive," writes Hermione Slatkin, Medical Correspondent for the Swift Report. "Rick Smith, a spokesman for Senator Frist, says that the measure has a good chance of passing­something that can only help a portion of the population that is suffering significant distress."

Excerpt: Pyongyang warned the danger of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula is growing in a New Year's editorial published in North Korea's three major newspapers.

Excerpt; Tamara says many stores selling "support the troops magnets" are not really supporting the troops. "I asked one, they manager had no idea, she said she had no idea where the money went."

Excerpt; Those right wing extremists who continue to perpetuate the myths, largely discredited now in the wider world, spouted by the venomous tongues of those in the rogue regime in Washington are the real anti Americans. They are the ones who will ignore the fact that the whole reason this unnecessary project called "the war on terror" began was preventable, they ignore the facts that even though the taliban was committing human rights abuses, the Bush regime were talking to them.

Excerpt; The idea that today's conservatives are in any way defenders of individual liberty, the free market, and what Russell Kirk called "the permanent things," i.e., the sacred traditions that have accumulated over time to constitute the core of our Judeo-Christian culture, is no longer a defensible proposition. Instead, what used to be called the conservative movement has morphed, almost overnight, into a coterie of moral monsters, whose political program is one of unmitigated evil.

Excpert; "When I saw the speech my eyes lit up," said John R. MacArthur, whose book "Second Front" examines wartime propaganda. "The comparison between the propagandistic manipulation and uses of Christianity, then and now, is hidden in plain sight. No one will talk about it. No one wants to look at it."

Excerpt:House Republicans suddenly reversed course Monday, deciding to retain a tough standard for lawmaker discipline and reinstating a rule that would force Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step aside if indicted by a Texas grand jury.

Excerpt: The survey, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, showed that blog readership has shot up by 58% in the last year.

Excerpt; The New York Times is considering subscription fees to the online version of its flagship newspaper, which now is available for free, but it has no immediate plans to do so, the company says.

Excerpt: Most importantly for our consideration today though, are the increasing fears that these cosmic ray surges are the responsible agent for the mutation of the “highly virulent avian flu strain” known as H5N1.

Excerpt; An advisory issued Monday by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI urges the Transportation Security Administration to have airport screeners keep an eye out for wristwatches containing cigarette lighters or altimeters.

Excerpt; Building on an idea started here before Thanksgiving.  Hopefully, this is the first in a series of articles on "the Bible for progressives."

Excerpt:But, the legislature will also look at a measure that would put the marriage issue on license plates.  The bill calls for traditional marriage to be displayed on car licenses.  If passed the plates would have interlocking gold wedding bands superimposed over a red heart over the legend "Traditional Marriage."

Excerpt;When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance, it shall be the woman's responsibility to report the death to the law-enforcement agency in the jurisdiction of which the delivery occurs within 12 hours after the delivery. A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Excerpt: The U.N. atomic watchdog agency has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs, diplomats said Tuesday.

Excerpt: The Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve just a few thousand years ago, by some fundamentalist interpretations. Science informs us that this is mere fiction and that man is a few million years old, and that civilization just tens of thousands of years old. Could it be, however, that conventional science is just as mistaken as the Bible stories? There is a great deal of archeological evidence that the history of life on earth might be far different than what current geological and anthropological texts tell us. Consider these astonishing finds:

Excerpt:An audit of Texas' spending of nearly $600 million in U.S. government anti-terrorism funds found some of the money was spent improperly, including to buy a trailer that was used to haul lawn mowers to "lawn-mower drag races."

Previous rants

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
daou report

Here are some excellant blogs:

Bartcop
Daily Kos
Atrios
Tacitus
Josh Marshall
DNC: Kicking Ass
Two Glasses
Brad DeLong
The Wonkette
Urban Survival
Greg Palast

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

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.