The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 3/28/2005

(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...

Cost of the War in Iraq

Remember these faces.

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OK. That's it. I'm going to talk about the Schiavo case... but I'm not going to talk about Terri Schiavo. As I said last week, she's none of anyone's gawdamn business. No. What I'm going to go off on is the ribald, and I mean RIBALD hypocrisy of the GOP. (Meanwhile, for them, killing healthy people is AOK.) How DARE they! Bastards! They spend the entire 2004 election cycle talking about state's rights and the sanctity of marriage and now in 2005, in one fell swoop, they take the opposite stand for Schiavo because politically, it excites their base! (And look at who's funding a lot of this!) It blows my mind and I can't stand it anymore!

Listen, I understand that in politics, each and every decision is not going to thrill me. If it did, we'd have healthcare for everyone, no corporate personhood and forgiven debts for the whole friggin planet. And I even get the whole "fighting" for what you believe in thing. But contrary to how a repuglican would spin it, when you manipulate the system to win, you don't "play the system", you pervert the system and I'm damned sick of it. You know, maybe I'm not rich 'cause I don't "play the game." I don't worship the almighty dollar. I don't hoard my money, play the market along with the "pump and dumpers" and reap my profits, social responsibilities be damned. But dammit! Why the hell is that greedy, self-centered crap "acceptable" behavior to begin with?! It's immoral, plain and simple.

Sorry, I'm just so pissed off this week because day after day, I've been subjected to some religious sycophant spouting off on how inhumane it is to starve Terri Schiavo, or how "GOD" wouldn't want us to act that way towards another human being, when the fact of the matter is that the whole thing should be a private FAMILY matter and this whole thing is just another media-created, Gary-Condit-Lacie-Peterson-Micheal-Jackson, distraction-from-reality thing. [Micheal Rivero over at whatreallyhappened.com has a theory: Since the war killed so many innocent people and the prison torture thing is just so ugly, the media is hell-bent on trying to convince Americans that they aren't bad people after all and that Americans really do care about their fellow man (or, in this case, woman.) Keep them happy and keep them shopping.]

The reality is that GW's numbers are WAY down, that this week was the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, that GM is failing in a BIG way, our deficit is dangerous, that the price of oil is up and inflation along with it, that GW is winding up to a war with Iran, that the Pentagon recently confirmed unilateral pre-emptive AND proactive strikes are now official U.S. FRICKIN' policy and that the parasitic neocons are firming up their grip and pushing us towards Empire overreach. THAT'S what our illustrious media should be talking about instead of this Schiavo CRAP! [Read that Ritter interview on the Parasitic Neocons, and this article about Neocons and Priuses makes a lot of sense.]

And you know what? They're not even doing the Schiavo story any justice. Note the narrative: greedy, evil, possibly abusive, self-centered husband vs. pious parents and loving family, as well as Terri being in a "questionable" vegetative state. But every time this case is heard in a court of law -- how many times has this case came before a judge? -- they all ruled in favor of the husband. Since 1998! EVERY TIME! What does that tell you? It tells you that the narrative the media is using to distract us from any real news is just that: a narrative, a story. In other words, A BIG, FAT, OSTENTATIOUS LIE!!!! HOW UNUSUAL!!!!!!!!! MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS LYING TO US!!!!!! Who 'da thunk it!

ARRRRGHGHGHGHGHhghghhghghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

.

.

.

.. OK. I'm back.


GOP & mainstream media: the REAL reasons for gun control and my alcoholism.

{sigh}

The only thing that could POSSIBLY cheer me up is if Farscape's Ben Browder joins the cast of SG1.


Way Too Much Time on Their Hands Site of the Week: How to really confuse your party guests.

Free Web Utility Site of the Week: Ourmedia.org

Satire of the Week as well as Must Read of the Week: Interview with the Devil

Good Idea of the Week: Freecycle.org

Cool Tech of the Week: Giant Spiderbot (Though, I wholly don't approve of its present use.)

Video of the Week: The use of explosives in the 9/11 attack

String Theory Interview of the Week: Parallel Universes: Michio Kaku

 

Evil Fucks of the Week

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Co. in Des Moines, Iowa, for trying to foreclose on the home of soldiers, despite a law to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen.

Excerpt: Keira Welter knew the law was supposed to protect a soldier's property from creditors during active military service. But for months, she said, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Co. did not seem to care about the law, no matter how many times she explained her case.

I'm having a flashback.

Does anybody else remember the Iraqi defectors that turned out to be ALL WRONG, besides me?

Excerpt: An Iranian exile accused Tehran on Thursday of secretly purifying uranium for use in nuclear weapons at a recently-constructed underground facility at a military complex called Parchin. "Iran has completed an underground tunnel-like facility in Parchin, which is now engaged in laser enrichment," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian exile who has reported accurately in the past about hidden atomic facilities in Iran.

Hello? Is anybody there??????

It's like a whole collective, mass-amnesia thing.

What about this citizen snoop thing. Does anyone remember that? Well, it's back too.

Excerpt: But now, CTS may be on the way back, if Tony Tether -- the head of Defense Department far-out research arm Darpa -- has his way. The agency's proposed 2006 budget calls for $20 million over three years for CTS. It's part of an expanded, $340 million push by Darpa to develop technologies for urban battles (see Falluja, Najaf, etc.)

Everything old is new again? Second verse, same as the first? Any other cliches that work here?


Why bother?

The media is all propaganda anyway. From MSNBC:

Excerpt: Nuclear power ‘regaining stature’ as option

Regaining stature? With who? Evil morons?

WTF?

I'll never forget when Mork said to Mindy "You mean, you have nuclear energy and you don't have 'Nuke Away' spray? What do you do with all that nuclear waste? Do you just let it sit there??!!"

Excerpt: The report concluded that the government does not fully understand the risks that a terrorist attack could pose to the pools and ought to expedite the removal of the fuel to dry storage casks that are more resilient to attack. The Bush administration has long defended the safety of the pools, and the nuclear industry has warned that moving large amounts of fuel to dry storage would be unnecessary and very expensive.

The Housing Bubble

You think the housing market isn't in trouble? Either you're paying too much attention to the mainstream media,

Excerpt:This week, I thought I might bloviate about the bubble in real estate -- the catalyst being a spectacular article in the March 2 edition of the New York Times titled "Speculators See Gold in a Boom in Home Prices."

or you're delusional.

Between Greenspan's antics this week

Excerpt: If the Fed does boost rates by a quarter-point, commercial banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans, would rise by a quarter-point to 5.75 percent.

Which will have to impact the mortgage market eventually.

Excerpt: Homebuyers and homeowners can't count on the mortgage market ignoring the Fed forever.

And Fannie Mae trimming it's portfolio

Excerpt:Mortgage giant Fannie Mae, whose accounting is under investigation by federal regulators, continues to shrink its loan portfolio at a robust clip and trimmed it by nearly 1.8 percent last month, a report released Monday by the company shows.

And some anecdotal evidence

Excerpt: San Francisco Bay Area Housing Crash Continues

Along with a crunch on credit cards

Excerpt:"The new policy of some banks to raise the minimum required payment on credit-card accounts from 2 percent to 4 percent will impact many consumers," said Pamela Hart, manager of Consumer Credit Counseling Services Inc.

The bubble will pop. It's getting harder to discount those people who say that there's been a cycle in this country, wherein people buy property, pay their usury fees, build up wealth, then suffer from inflation and have to default, only to hand everything over to the banks so the whole cycle can begin again.

Excerpt: This piece is an internet classic, outlining the terrible flaws in our current banking system, and how it enriches bankers and powers-that-be at the expense of common people like us. If you have never seen it, you are in for an eye opener! If you have read it before, read it again - it is well worth it. Although originally written in 1980, the article is especially timely today in light of the new bankruptcy law that has been passed by the Senate and will surely be passed by the Congress soon.

GawdDAMMit!


Is the constitution dead yet?

Last I looked, the first amendment still existed, right?

Excerpt: Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.

State's Rights? Well, I think Florida has every right to just cut itself off from the rest of us and float on out to sea. Just lopp it off, right above the panhandle... 'cause I know we don't want what's in that panhandle either.

And you know what? You can let Michigan do that too, but I doubt Canada would want it.

Excerpt: Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House. The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.

I only ask that a few questions be answered.

Why?

Excerpt: The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad, a newspaper said Wednesday.

I'll tell you why. Because the car was shot from behind on a cleared road, that's why.

Excerpt: She was on a completely different road that I actually didn't know existed.It's a secured road that you can only enter through the Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for ambassadors and top military officials.

So why were the soldiers cleared of wrong doing?

Excerpt: The Bush administration took specific legal steps that cleared a U.S. Special Forces assassination team in Iraq from any future criminal proceedings arising from their assassination of Italian SISMI intelligence number two man Nicola Calipari.

(Of course, just to point out, the author of this piece, Wayne Madsen, though he may be factually correct, using the inflammatory phrase "assassination of Italian SISMI intelligence man" doesn't help him gain any respectability. I've read a lot of his stuff, and it's all very logical and backed up with lots of verifiable facts. It's just that his writing is, well, breathless. Listen, Wayne, a little advice: I'm allowed to be a rabid freak but we need you to not be a rabid freak! You'll never get mainstream coverage if you continue to write like a fringe reporter. I believe that what you're saying is valid -- I truly do -- SO COOL IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! We need people like you to be heard, so the lemmings can be tricked into listening to what you have to say!!!! )

JEEBUS! I'M PISSED OFF THIS WEEK.


Yikes.

SO not helping me to sleep easy.

Excerpt: Angola anxiously awaited the arrival of foreign medical experts sent to check the spread of a killer virus, as the death toll from an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg disease rose to 120 and the epidemic spread to a new region.

News of the Weird

Whew. I'm glad they figured that out.

Excerpt: Defense Scientists and Engineers are finally starting to understand the ultimate propulsion system that can make instantaneous space travel possible. The UFOs use this propulsion system to travel great distances instantaneously.

Cool. Dino soft tissue.

Excerpt: In bone blasted from Montana sandstone, fossil hunters for the first time have discovered the microscopic meat of a Tyrannosaurus rex, preserved almost unaltered since the dinosaur died 70 million years ago, scientists announced Thursday.

Imagine this guy trying to pick you up in a bar.

Excerpt: Russian doctors have conducted an 11-hour operation to replace a patient’s deformed penis with one grown on his forearm, the Moskovskiy Komsomolets daily reports.

Is that a dick on your arm are you just happy to see me?

 

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.