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The Vidiot's weekly blog: What pissed me off this week? 3/20/2005 (A day early this week.) (updated every Monday at some point during the day) ...'cause I'm angry and my friends are sick of listening to me... 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/
The Wolfowitz appointment really blows my mind. Almost as much as John Bolton's appointment to the UN did. When I first heard his name being floated, I thought it was a joke. (Go to the Daily Show's website and look for the "Add Hawk" video clip. HILARious.) I've recently done some reading up on the Bretton Woods Triad (World Bank, IMF, & WTO (Formerly GATT)) Now, the BWT was basically a Marshall Plan for the developing world: foreign aid & investment-- with multiple strings attached. Some of the strings had to do with opening up markets to free trade, opening up the financial sector and privatizing state-owned industries. Quite a boon to foreign investors if you think about it. (Think: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins and Globalization and it's Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz) By opening up trade, the already industrialized countries had new and fresh markets in which to dump their cheap, government-subsidized goods, by opening up financial markets, currency speculators had a new playground, and by privatizing industries, well, that's just good 'ole corporate greed in all its glory. Of the three in the triad, only the World Bank has anything to do with actual development as part of its mandate. (And technically, the WTO only has one itty bit in it about trade which was the stuff carried over by GATT.) The IMF more or less concerns itself with stabilizing currency and the WTO is all about trade and trade agreements. ALL of them, however, are run based on "shares" which means the bigger the economy, the more "shares" they have and therefore, the more say they have with regards to any policies and loans. The U.S. being the economic behemoth that is, well, you get the picture. Now, Wolfowitz is a neocon and the neocons are all about the free market you know. Not only that, there's a huge development project in the works these days called [ahem ] IRAQ! You do the math. It's not a head scratcher at all. The Bushies are planning on using the World Bank to fund the development of a country that the U.S. destroyed. And since they failed to get their privatization plan in Iraq the old-fashioned way, they've appointed their henchman to the World Bank to do it through the back door. And the irony of all of this is that the architect of that destruction is going to be heading up the development!!! Aiyyayaaaaa (POP!) Uh, excuse me while I go pick up the pieces of my head. Oh, and I'm not going to talk about Schiavo 'cause it's none of my gawdamn business. And I can't even get started on ANWR. Jeebus it's been a bad week.
Cool Calculator of the Week: International Salary Calculator Alcoholic Website of the Week: Droogle Vindication of the Week: Two drinks a day keep the doctor away: study Political Site of the Week: Sheeple Utility Site of the Week: Links Directory to Federal Government Websites Useful Site of the Week: Superstitions Another Oddly Useful Site of the Week: Canadianisms Something New of the Week: Vlogs Video of the Week: Lego Snuff Film Another Video of the Week: 1950s French Kissing Flash of the Week: Drumming Photos of the Week: 2005 Snow Sculptures Ebay Sale of the Week: Look for Bush's Soul, sometime after Tuesday! Evil Fucks of the Week This guy is worse than Newt Gingrich.
And this guy runs a close second.
Outrage of the Week If this isn't a backhanded way of saying "torture is ok", I don't know what is.
I wonder what he's teaching them.
Ooops. Wait. that number, 26, has been adjusted...up.
And all those people they're torturing (and apparently killing)? Not guilty.
Spin of the Week Bush's reaction to Italy pulling out of Iraq
Is a real study in spin.
But, D'OH!
(I still laugh at the irony of they guy's name: Doug Wead) Though, there might be a few skeletons in Rove's closet.
Whateverrrrr If they don't agree with the ruling, the Bushies just reject the ruling. Why didn't I think of that?
Here's what they're talking about. And in the even you don't want an audit to find out anything too damning just sit on it.
Reported on Sunday, so you won't notice. Oops, they did it again. Lied about WMDs to rally support. This time, it's about Korea.
Soon to be forgotten... One down, a gazillion to go.
The future is now. I've been saying this to myself for ages: The EU was just the beginning. There will be an AU (American Union), AFU (African Union), ASU (Asian Union), etc.
I mean, yikes.
But there are these weird deaths to account for.
And there she goes.
In light of this story.
Note to self: Eat rotting cabbage to save life.
(Here's a page that updates regularly with stories that pertain to avian flu.) In the off chance that she's not insane though, I will be shacking up with my neti pot in a cave somewhere. Abracadabra! There's no global warming. I repeat: there is no global warming.
And we have plenty of oil. I repeat: we have plenty of oil.
Yeah, plenty of oil.
More madness. Gee, I hope these are the rantings of a mad person.
But it looks like its already started.
Calling Kissinger Classic. Pinochet hid his money here in the US.
Gee, I wonder why he settled on Riggs?
Democracy is on the back-end of a stroll. In case your favorite rightwing-nut family member starts going off on the fact that "GW was right. Democracy IS on the march in the Middle East", politely remind them that democracy was on the march way before Bush stuck his fingers into that cookie jar.
Durr Dept. Is this still a surprise to anyone?
Or how about this.
News of the Weird News from Mars
Hey! Spock's a chubby chaser!
Now, I'm not so sure that this is such a good thing.
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.)
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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
Bartcop
Ilia
Dreams Blog These blogs will be covering the primaries and elections: Salon.com's
War Room media-bias exposed:
onlinejournal.com
whatreallyhappened.com
HIGHLY entertaining:
and
for godsakes, stay away if you must succumb to reading a newspaper:
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