The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 3/14/2005

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

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

Cost of the War in Iraq

Remember these faces.

Media Contacts

Track your congresscritters here!


Free stuff can be found here

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

Wow. I can't get over Bush's appointment of Bolton as UN ambassador. (Guess who's idea it was.) And I'm not the only one. (A sampling: Bush Gives the UN the Finger, The Neocon's Wet Dream, and of course, the Rude Pundit has an opinion.) Not for nothing, but at time when the US has been acting like ruler of the planet, appointing someone who doesn't believe in what the UN stands for as an ambassador to the UN really sends a message that the rest of the world probably won't like. It's a message that says "Hey, we don't care what you think. International law is optional. OUR Nation State is sovereign. Your sovereignty, however, is up for debate."

Now, I'm not all that crazy about the UN either. It certainly has its problems. That being said though, it's the only game in town. Since its inception, the US has used it as a battering ram. At least when Russia was the USSR, at least then there was some sort of a balance to US hegemony. Now, there's nobody standing in our way and woe is the country that tries. The problem with the UN as I see it is thus: It was set up in a bilateral world, which is bad enough. Now the world is unilateral, with the US at the helm. On top of that, the last four administrations in particular have acted like the US will always be the hegemon by either controlling the UN or ignoring it altogether. Now, way back when, in the Federalist Papers, Hamilton said something to the effect that the strong obey rules that don't benefit them because they know that eventually they won't be strong anymore and will need those rules to protect them. Unfortunately, the US isn't acting like that. The US is acting like an out-of-control cowboy, drunk on what he thinks is an endless supply of power. Appointing someone like Bolton to the UN is not only like appointing Scalia to head the Supreme Court, it's a big giant "fuck you" to the the notion of the rule of international law.

The Bush administration is a menace to global society. Period.

 

Economic Blog of the Week: Bull Not Bull

Informative Site of the Week: How to file a FOIA Request.

Mac Virus of the Year (since there are so few of them): W97M.Thus.A

Weird Sex Advice Site of the Week: 10 Things Every Girl Should Know About Boys and Their Privates

Story Update: The Lefkow family murder 'seems' to have been solved. But it still strikes me as mighty convenient.

Story Update: A theory for why Hariri was killed: To Make Way For Large US Air Base In Lebanon


Evil Asses of the Week: Congress

They'd rather cut food aid instead of going against the all-powerful farming lobby.

Excerpt: Cuts in food programs for the poor are getting support in Congress as an alternative to President Bush's idea of slicing billions of dollars from the payments that go to large farm operations.

And the second outrage of the week: The passing of the bankruptcy bill, A.K.A. Screw the little people. (At least my Senators didn't vote yes.) This bill is such an overt handout to the credit card companies. Hey you! In the red states! Is THIS really what you wanted, 'cause it's what I expected! (Act against this bill NOW while we still CAN!)

I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! THESE IDIOTS DON'T REPRESENT "WE, THE PEOPLE"! THEY ONLY REPRESENT WHOMEVER IS SHOVING MONEY UP THEIR BUTTS!!!!!!

ARRRRHHHGHGGGGGGGGGGHGHGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TAR!!!!!!

FEATHERS!!!!!!

{breath}

Ok. I'm back.


No more delay...

How much longer can DeLay stay in power?

Excerpt: Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in Texas, his home state.

I guess it depends. If he gets to investigate himself, like Rumsfeld did, he'll get off scott free.

Excerpt: U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's top brass were exonerated yesterday of accusations that they ordered, or turned a blind eye to, the brutal torture and humiliation of detainees at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

(Here's a Kos diary on the DeLay seetcheeyation.)


War Prep: Iran

OH, yeah. We're SO going to bomb Iran.

Excerpt: Clark blames "unspoken macroeconomic drivers" for the U.S.' determination to attack Iran, in particular the fact that the Tehran government plans to open a euro-based oil exchange in 2005 or early 2006, which, if successful, "would solidify the petroeuro as an alternative oil transaction currency, and thereby end the petrodollar's hegemonic status as the monopoly oil currency." This, says Clark, would deliver a devastating blow to U.S. corporations, which own both the London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the main global oil traders.

Remember, that's why we went after Iraq.

Excerpt: Oil and the dollar were the real reasons for the attack on Iraq, with WMD as the public reason now exposed as woefully inadequate. Should we now look at Bush and Blair as brilliant strategists whose actions will improve the security of our oil supplies, or as international conmen? Should we support them if they sweep into Iran and perhaps Saudi Arabia, or should there be a regime change in the UK and US instead?

And if the petroeuro thing isn't enough, there's this:

Excerpt; Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced here Tuesday that Iran has discovered two new oil and gas fields in the south of the country.

Besides, our Navy is prepped and ready.

Excerpt: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is on the move in Atlantic Ocean and is possibly headed towards the Mediterranean Sea. The convergence of three carrier groups in the corridor of the Middle East will send very strong message to the Syrians and Iranians. There are indications that soon US is moving two more aircraft carrier battle groups to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. This will spell a formidable strike force for Iran and Syria who are in defiance on issues of Lebanon and Nuclear weapons development.

Who's your daddy?

I can't be sure, but Bush administration wanting to cut cotton subsidies

Excerpt:A Bush administration proposal that would cut billions of dollars in subsidies to big cotton growers has struck at a core GOP constituency, setting off a battle in Republican congressional ranks that pits budget cutters and prairie-state populists against traditional agricultural interests.

may not necessarily have anything to do with decreasing the deficit as much as it does with the WTO saying those subsides are illegal

Excerpt:World Trade Organisation appeal judges on Thursday upheld a ruling declaring illegal billions of dollars in subsidies to US cotton farmers.

And even though the Bushies tend to disregard international law, rules made by the WTO -- rules that are basically made by the US Treasury -- must be obeyed if the the Bushies want to keep up their greedy ways. Money rules.


I KNEW it!

It was propaganda.

Excerpt: A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated.

Of course, the army denies that.

Excerpt: The Pentagon is flatly denying a report claiming the U.S. military fabricated the details of how the deposed Iraqi dictator was captured, allegedly staging the "spider hole" scenario.

But the only place that printed the denial was the "respected" {ahem} World Net Daily.


Just so you're aware...

There has been quite the cluster of earthquakes in the Pacific North West.

Excerpt: That being said, the excitement is more about witnessing a growing 'volcano' right off the coast of Vancouver Island. A scientific 'SWAT team' from Seattle is sailing this afternoon for a spot off the coast of Vancouver Island, where they suspect an underwater eruption is under way.?

Our 'media' sux.

Hard at work informing us of the important stuff.

Excerpt:House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) will unveil a report at 10 a.m. today blasting the GOP-led House of Representatives for allegedly abusing powers in quelling the voice of the minority in Congress, RAW STORY has learned.

Oooops. Sorry. That was in the parallel universe I usually visit when I get fed up with this one.

In this universe, Michael Jackson showing up in court wearing his pajamas was the lead.

{sigh}

All we get these days is propaganda.

Excerpt;   Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.

Meanwhile, here's something about blogs I had always suspected: While the blogs on the left are mostly truly activist, the blogs on the right are mostly GOP funded.

Excerpt: On the left side, some of these became deeply enmeshed with political parties, “527s,” and campaign advocacy groups -- and are now a new generation of no-holds-barred partisans and major party fund-raisers, the liberal equivalent of George W. Bush’s “Rangers” and “Pioneers.” On the right, a number of these bloggers were already political operatives or worked at long-standing movement institutions before taking up residence online.

What do they know that they aren't telling us...again?

Boo!

Excerpt:The first possible human-to-human transmission of bird flu between two unrelated people has raised the spectre the lethal virus could be changing to become more easily spread between humans, a Canadian influenza expert warns.

And double boo!

Excerpt: Britain's capital city is "more at risk" from bird flu than a terrorist atrocity on the scale of the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, London mayor Ken Livingstone said on Sunday.

Meat is evil.

OK, that's it. I'm never eating beef again.

Excerpt: ONCE they were a byword for mindless docility. But cows have a secret mental life in which they bear grudges, nurture friendships and become excited over intellectual challenges, scientists have found.

Or chicken for that matter.

Excerpt: Extendible conveyor enables rotating fingers to harvest chickens against the house walls and in corners. Conveyor and drums can sweep a distance of 23 to 70 feet, with a working height of 94" and length of 36 feet. Fabricated of high strength stainless steel formed construction. Conveyor and main power unit is operated by wireless remote control, permitting the operator to move freely in the house without being confined to the harvester.

(Say it like you mean it.) "Denny Crane"

Boston Legal is a fairly decent show. This week, however, it was censored.

Excerpt: This Sunday's episode of ABC's Boston Legal focusing on censorship was itself censored, purged of all references to Fox and Bill O'Reilly. And nobody's talking.

Well, I watched it. It was obvious what network they were referring to. But the thing that made me sit up was this one scene where James Spader was talking about free speech and he said "and some networks are even censoring their night time dramas."

Mars, bitch!


Weird News of the Week

Teeny weeny boy.

Excerpt: Standing just 50cm tall and weighing less than 5kg, however, Zul Hanif is only slightly bigger than his five-month-old sister Zurin Hazlin.

DO NOT piss off your cat.

Excerpt: A man cooking in his kitchen was shot after one of his cats knocked his 9mm handgun onto the floor, discharging the weapon, Michigan State Police said.

Perhaps, from the cat's point of view, it was a preemptive attack, and -- I might add -- fully justifiable under current US law.

Excerpt: A local firefighter is asking the state of Wisconsin to re-categorize stray cats as an unprotected species, which would allow anyone with a small-game hunting license to shoot them.

 

Previous rants


What do we do about all of this crap? I have no idea. Part of me wants to start teach-ins at my local pub. Just go to the bar, rant and rave and inform the idiots who still think Dan Rather is telling them the truth. Another part of me wants to organize a voter observation program to insure that this moron isn't in the White House all the way to 2008. I sincerely believe that if we protected the voting rights of the underprivileged that any Democrat could SWEEP any election. And we'd have to start with the Florida Election for Governor THIS FALL (like these guys!.) I don't think Democrats are the answer. But they are at least a start.  

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}

 

 

Who am I?:

I am a biker chick who lives in NYC. This blog is about current events and my left-leaning, ascerbic spin on those events. Nobody pays me anything to do this. Nobody tells me what to write. I will NEVER tout anything for anybody's money! EVER!


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.

 

1