Sorry, no update this week. I only have one of my papers "done" (because, you know, they're never really "done"), one of my art directors is in tears, I've had no time to do much of anything and I have to leave for an accupuncture appointment that I'm dreading (not all accupuncture is painless) AND I just found out my health insurance won't cover it those bastards. (You know I could treat this problem I have with western medicine costing 10's of thousands of dollars. Idiots.) Oh, and I just realized this morning that I'm turning 41 next month. JEEBUS! When the hell did THAT happen!?

It's killing me to not update because there's so much to rant about! Alas, I cannot. I'll try to do something soon. Keep checking. I'll be back 'cause with the crew we have running things right now, it can only get bumpier.

The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 4/11/2005

(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.

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/

This is going to be a brief update, as will the next few weeks. I have mucho mucho crap to write for my classes. I have one 20-page paper that is a case study on Bush's lead-up to the Iraq war, which has been so interesting that I've put way too much effort into it. The other 20-page paper is about environmental regimes-- what works, what doesn't and why and I've only just begun that one. Both are due May 3 or something. Yikes.


List of the Week: The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

Must-Read of the Week: Lurching towards theocracy

Gallery of the Week: Ingenious, but perhaps impractical devices

How-to of the Week: Instructions for Making a Film Canister Leyden Jar

Photos of the Week: Living Jewels

Superstar of the Week: Clinton goes to Rome.
(as opposed to GW, who got booed.)

Not Sure It's Safe Site of the Week: Fun with microwave ovens.

Story update: Think my paranoia about the coming pandemic is just paranoia? Guess again: Angola's neighbors put on Marburg alert and Marburg Virus Spreads to Zaire and Bird Flu Strains Might Combine and "Hot zone": the Angola Marburg virus outbreak and (yikes) Marburg Airborne Transmission in Angola? (Kinda' makes this list of dead microbiologists oh so scary. )

Story Update: The Schiavo memo was real. But don't wait up for that apology.

Story Update: Clint Curtis, the guy that exposed the existence of vote-rigging software to congress (video), passed a lie detector test.

Story Update: Plamegate is over. I repeat, Plamegate is over. Novak will remain free. As will Karl Rove, et al. Please return to your sofas.


Hero of the Week

Gen. Wes Clark for calling Perle out on the carpet.

Excerpt:Sometimes life imitates art. Yesterday, it imitated an episode of "Crossfire." For more than three hours, Clark and Perle reprised their confrontation before the committee in September 2002. The two men entered in twin gray suits and red ties, and took adjacent chairs at the witness table. Clark scribbled in pencil, Perle with a fountain pen. Only Perle's reading material -- he put on the witness table a copy of "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" -- suggested he was not expecting what was to come.

They're not all bad, they're just drawn that way.

Now that I finally understand what PNAC and all that is about, I understand why they want new nuclear warheads.

Excerpt: The head of the nation's nuclear weapons programs proposed yesterday that Congress approve funds to study the feasibility of building a new, more reliable nuclear warhead that could be deployed without nuclear testing in less than 10 years.

See, to them, not having shiny and new nuclear warheads is just as bad as not having nuclear warheads at all.

Though, just because they're not always malevolent, doesn't mean they're never malevolent.

Excerpt: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used his brief three-nation tour of Latin America this week to step up US threats against Venezuela and pressure the region's governments into joining Washington's campaign to isolate the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Whitewash

I totally agree with this headline.

Excerpt; 601 pages that aren't worth reading.


They're talking about the most recent investigation into the intelligence regarding Saddam's WMDs. I just got done reading the part on Iraq and the Office of Special Programs, the office created by Wolfowitz and Feith that pretty much fabricated and politicized everything, wasn't even mentioned! Jeebus! (They SAY that the OSP is part of Phase 2 of the investigation. Which I assume will be released AFTER the mid-term elections.) Remember, In Bushworld, Liars move up as straight shooters take the hits

Excerpt: Worse yet, the commission concluded in a 600-page report that intelligence wasn't politicized. Uh-huh. Frankly, only a politicized commission could possibly have concluded that "no one from the White House or Pentagon contributed to the mistaken intelligence."
If I get an A on my paper regarding Bush and the Iraq war, I'll post it 'cause I made quite the diagram of who's who in the OSP. If my prof. pans it however, I'll climb under a rock and the paper will never again see the light of day.
Excellent Idea of the Week

If you want to do business with Argentina, you better be prepared to be up front and honest.

Excerpt: The Inspector General's directives, issued in February and March, build on two resolutions he issued in 2003 and ban offshore companies that cannot prove they have real business activity in their places of registration. The new rules apply only to the capital district of Buenos Aires, the sphere of Nissen's authority.

Of course, with our politicians skirting campaign finance laws using off-shore accounts, don't look for the US to make any similar moves against offshore banking.

DeLay is probably thanking his lucky stars that the media was obsessed with the pope's death. Otherwise, they would've had to talk about all the crap going on in DeLay's life right now. (Rumor Mill: Rove is gunning for DeLay.)


This can't be good

GM was downgraded by Moody's.

Excerpt: General Motors Corp.'s debt ratings were cut one notch to Baa3, the lowest investment grade, by Moody's Investors Service. The ratings company also said it was reviewing Ford Motor Co.'s debt for a possible downgrade.

(I assume that GM pulled their ad out of the LA Times because the LA Times was writing about how sucky they were doing.)

Meanwhile, the chimp opened his mouth and crap came out.

Excerpt: So Mr. Bush has decided that he's going to risk causing a global financial panic in an effort to scare the living shit out of those who don't know any better, by alleging that there's at least a good possibility the United States government may default on its Treasury obligations.

And here's something that can't possibly go wrong.

Excerpt: China plans to build 40 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years, making them the main power source for its booming east coast, a government technology official says.

And this too sounds like a fabulous idea.

Excerpt: The U.S. Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey where it would be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, said a government report released Wednesday.

'Splain this to me.

They're too broke to help out the little people.

Excerpt: The I.R.S. will close up to 105 of its 367 walk-in centers, which dispense forms and advice, said Mark W. Everson, the agency's commissioner. Hours when the I.R.S. answers telephone calls will also be reduced, he said. After the current tax return filing season ends on Friday, people with simple tax returns will no longer be able to file using a touch-tone telephone. Last year 3.8 million taxpayers, most of them with low incomes, used this Tele-File system.

But they have plenty of scratch to pay private investigators so they can screw the little people.

Excerpt: Sometime this month, the Internal Revenue Service will ask debt collection agencies to submit bids to chase down delinquent taxpayers.

News of the Weird

Interesting papal facts.

Excerpt; In 964 Pope Benedict V raped a young girl and absconded to Constantinople with the papal treasury only to reappear when the money ran out.

If it's true, it's weird.

Excerpt; Insane U.S. Experimental Bomb Test, in Attempt to Change Jet Stream, Suggests Time May Be Near For Invasion and Occupation of North American Continent

I can relate. I hate cockroaches too.

Excerpt; Three men were hospitalized with burns after they set off 36 cockroach fumigation devices aerosol cans filled with chemicals which apparently exploded after their contents came into contact with an oven pilot light.

I didn't talk about the finger in the chili thing last week 'cause I had a feeling she was lying. Now, it appears I might've been right.

Excerpt: The woman who claims she bit into a human finger while eating chili at a Wendy's restaurant has a history of filing lawsuits including a claim against another fast-food restaurant.

The question remaining is: where'd she get the finger?

 

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.