The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 6/20/2005

(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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It was nice to go away for a few days. It was MUCH needed... though the sunburn I got was so much NOT needed. (Right now, my shoulders remind me of the movie "Ssssss".)Sometimes I don't like going to bike week though. Only because you always hear of someone dying on a bike and if you're a head case like me, you immediately expect it to happened to you. This time, we found out that the sweetest guy died on his bike last year. He was well over 300 pounds and looked meaner than hell, but he was actually just a giant puppy. I guess he and his girlfriend (who was also sizeable) were on his Harley, driving home from Pennsylvania when something happened that caused the steering to break. He had ape bars and I guess when they lurched, 500+ pounds of people snapped the bars like sticks. They both died and I guess when they found them, they were still holding onto each other.

I only mention this because a) people know motorcycling is dangerous, but I want anyone who's seriously thinking of it to think long and hard about it. It's fun, it's cool, but it can kill you. And b) I felt the need to mention Jeff because it's such a loss. Good souls are very rare. Those who look at bikers and think "Scheevie, scary, mean, violent" would've seen just that if they had seen him. But he had a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody. He really was a 300-pound teddy bear. Remember, appearances can be deceiving.

RIP dude.

Now on to politics.

The boil that is the Downing Street Memo continues to fester. It's funny though. I mean, I'm pissed these guys lied to everyone to be sure. But I've known they lied from the get-go. The outrage I feel now is not at them. No, what I'm really pissed about is the fact that the issue is only festering. Why on earth hasn't it exploded into a pile of infectious goo? I cannot understand how anyone who reads it or even hears of it and who DIDN'T think that the Bushies lied to get into Iraq aren't now climbing onto their rooftops and screaming until their lungs bleed. Can their veils really be too heavy to remove? Is it possible to really close one's eyes to the truth? I mean, yes, I guess one can, but how does one get to that point? Is it all the McDonald's food that is consumed? Is it all of the bad FOX reality programs that are watched? I don't get it.

And here's how much I don't get it.

I was speaking with a republican this weekend about politics and what not. She was very well-informed. She knew her facts and her dates. But it was fascinating to watch her take the same information that I had and twist it into something unrecognizable. We discussed taxes (She's against all of them except for a National Retail Sales Tax), Kissinger (She's a BIG fan) and Communism. Now, to her, Communism and the USSR was practically a religious thing. She must've said "the fight against Communism" a dozen times. When I pointed out to her that Communism might have just been window dressing for something a little more, shall we say, Western-business oriented, well, I thought she was going to explode. When I started to say that Communism was demonized to create public support for what was basically an economic policy to bolster private business interests, she ACTUALLY said "Our government doesn't lie like that."

At which point, I put my head down on the bar and said "Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry I brought any of this up" and then mouthed to the bartender "Help. I'm with a republican. Give me some scotch." She nodded sympathetically as she poured my drink.

As I review the conversation in my memory banks, especially the part where she said "Sounds to me like you hate America. Maybe you should just leave!" I get even more incensed. It's people like her who have been duped by this "No tax, small government, Communism bad, Capitalism good" ideology. And she has no idea how these general sorts of beliefs will, in the end, destroy that which most humans find to be precious: the environment, society, and health. She thinks she's extrapolating a no-tax policy out to it's logical utopian conclusion, and maybe she's right in a theoretical way. But for some reason, these people seem to forget about human nature. They forget that if you take away income tax, people with lots of money will still hold on to their money when the poor will have no choice but to spend what little they have. She thinks that leaders are wise and smart, when in fact, many of them are driven by greed and power. Human nature is what fucks up everything and somehow, people like her don't take it into consideration.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah, I know: Whomever's not pissed off about the Downing Street Memo is a fucking idiot.

Database of the Week: Bush Lies

Interesting Site of the Week: The Worst Jobs

Porn Site of the Week: Notes on the History of Pornography

Informative Site of the Week: Russian Georgia

Must-Read of the Week: Bill Moyer's "The Mugging of the American Dream"

List of the Week: Media Email Addresses

Interesting Website of the Week: Mystic Places

Downing Street Video of the Week: Hijacking Catastrophe

Computing Site of the Week: The "Complete Freeware Collection"

Art of the Week: Berlesconi Fat Soap Sculpture

Flash of the Week: They Lied

Useful Travel Site of the Week: Speed Traps

Voyeuristic Site of the Week: My First Time

Anonymous Notification Site of the Week: You Have B.O.

Blog of the Week: Music for Maniacs

Tech of the Week: Robot Suit

Life-like Robot of the Week: Repliee Q1

Interview of the Week: Karen Kwiatowski

I just have to share a few headlines of the week.

Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight

4 held in goat-for-coke scheme

Man eats wife, chokes and dies

Sure, you can try it the old-fashioned way.

Excerpt: The fundamental question is whether Congress and the American people were misled into an unnecessary, illegal war that has turned into a quagmire. Are the indications of false statements and misrepresentations sufficient to justify a pursuit of the truth?

But here's the real impeachable offense.

Excerpt:The money, about $700 million, was taken in July 2002 from a budget item that had been approved for the war in Afghanistan, Woodward wrote.

And for clarification, I repeat:

Excerpt: "Gets to a point where in July, the end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ...Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the Treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."

Just like they got Capone on tax evasion, you can get Bush on this. The lying thing, sure, it's bad, but it's too hard to pin him down on that I think. This money thing, it's tangible. It's 100% against the constitution. There's no way to defend it. NONE.

And for a second count

Excerpt:American officials lied to British ministers over the use of "internationally reviled" napalm-type firebombs in Iraq.

Think it can't happen because of a Repuglican controlled Congress? I'll give you two reason why it could happen:

One:

Excerpt:President Bush, working to gain support for his ambitious domestic agenda, is encountering increasing resistance from an unlikely place: American business, a usually reliable ally.

And two:.

Excerpt:House Democratic leaders presented caucus members with "some of their most encouraging internal polling data yet, arguing that the numbers show growing weakness among Republican incumbents and new hope for attracting viable Democratic challengers to take them on," Roll Call reports.

Just what do they do with all of that information??

Excerpt: I went looking for a part-time job recently, and was spooked beyond the pale at the following discovery: Almost ALL of the major retailers, food stores, grocery stores, etc. are all using an online application process now.

Do they really want to know how many times I visit creaturesinmyhead.com?

Excerpt: The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers' online activities. Data retention rules could permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity months after Internet providers ordinarily would have deleted the logs--that is, if logs were ever kept in the first place. No U.S. law currently mandates that such logs be kept.

If you're confused by what's going on with coingate in Ohio, read Krugman's take on it. Thankfully, he sums it all up.

Excerpt: The Toledo Blade's reports on Coingate - the unfolding tale of how Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation misused funds - deserve much more national attention than they have received so far. For one thing, it's an entertaining story that seems to get weirder by the week. More important, it's an object lesson in what happens when you have one-party rule untrammeled by any quaint notions of independent oversight.

No wonder they covered it up for the 2004 election.

Excerpt:Democratic allegations of a GOP cover-up in the loss of $215 million managed by a Pittsburgh firm have surged in the last few days. Records released last week show that high-ranking aides to Gov. Bob Taft worked to suppress revelations about the hedge fund loss in the final days before the presidential election.

Did you know they were passing a spy on your neighbor law?

Excerpt: This bill would have serious consequences for our democracy, requiring you to spy on all your neighbors, including going undercover and wearing a wire if needed. Refusing to become a spy for the government would be punishable by a mandatory prison sentence of at least two years.

I may have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. (I think we should all develop a secret code amongst our friends that says "They are surveilling you through me." Something like pull on your left ear twice then scratch your nose.)

And you'll eat GM foods, whether you want to or not!

Excerpt: Legislation aiming to prevent counties, towns and cities from making local decisions about our food supply is being introduced in states across the nation. Fifteen states recently have introduced legislation removing local control of plants and seeds. Eleven of these states have already passed the provisions into law.

If you lied, you get rewarded,

Excerpt:Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.

if you tell the truth, you get mugged.

Excerpt: A Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress about alleged financial irregularities was badly beaten outside a bar - an attack his wife and lawyer believe was designed to silence him.

I'm shocked. Really I am.

Excerpt: Buried in the 700-plus page energy bill currently under debate in the U.S. Senate is a provision that provides hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal loan guarantees for a power project apparently to be built by four former Enron executives, the interest group Public Citizen revealed Monday in a release to RAW STORY.

Yes, big business seems to have some influence with American Policy these days.

Excerpt: President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

And those with access to the policy makers are getting richer by the second.

Excerpt: They're on the government payroll, but some of President Bush's top aides have millions of dollars in stocks, real estate and other investments, according to financial disclosure forms released Wednesday.

Also, policy makers played footsie for American contracts.

Excerpt: Garant's candid advice, which top Air Force officials did not follow, is disclosed for the first time in a new 256-page report by the Pentagon's inspector general. It provides an extraordinary glimpse of how the Air Force worked hand-in-glove with one of its chief contractors -- the financially ailing Boeing -- to help it try to obtain the most costly government lease ever.

Gee, do ya' think?

Excerpt: Government censors redacted 45 names from a report charging that Pentagon officials broke laws in negotiations with aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Based on the context in which the blacked-out names appear, some could be White House officials.

The military is blaming the media for its bad recruiting numbers.

Excerpt: The mainstream media's negative reporting on the war on terror is being blamed for the recent inability of the U.S. military to meet some of its key recruiting goals.

It obviously has nothing to do with that quagmire in Iraq.

Oh, and now the GOP is going after the Red Cross for telling the truth.

Excerpt: Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby against U.S. interests.

The blogs are getting a lot of attention right now because of the Downing Street Memo thing. But it pisses me off that when they mention "rathergate" as a blog-win,

Excerpt: The former CBS anchor Dan Rather last year experienced at first hand the power of the blogosphere. After his controversial report on the clouds over George W Bush's military service, US bloggers from both sides of the political spectrum swarmed all over the story.

They always fail to mention the ties the lead blogger on that had to the GOP.

Excerpt: Mr. Rather's report hadn't been over 10 minutes when a post appeared on the right-wing Web site FreeRepublic.com from "TankerKC," saying the documents were "not in the style that we used when I came into the USAF -- can we get a copy of those memos?"

Listen, I'm all for the "I am blogger, hear me roar" stuff. But there are good blogs and there are bad blogs. Not all blogs are created equal. Be discerning. Think for yourself. And most of all, when MSM starts touting blogs, be afraid because it can only mean a few things: Either 1) MSM is going to co-opt the blog thing thereby making it impossible to discern the true, independent blogs from the corporate-sponsored ones or 2) regulation and control will hit the blogosphere like a ton of bricks, making it impossible for independent voices to be heard.

Call me paranoid, or don't. Whatever.

When I first heard about the decreased penalty payment from big Tobacco,

Excerpt:After eight months of courtroom argument, Justice Department lawyers abruptly upset a landmark civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry yesterday by asking for less than 8 percent of the expected penalty.

I knew there was something hinky going on. Fortunately, others think there's something hinky too.

Excerpt:Democratic congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Marty Meehan (D-MA) have demanded the Office of Inspector general conduct an inquiry into whether political pressure played a role in the sudden reversal of prosecutors to demand compensation from the tobbacco industry, RAW STORY has learned.

Everything you ever wanted to know about how awful tobacco is.

Excerpt: The one issue that needs to be pounded on EVERY DAY is the Tobacco Holocaust. It'sjust not possible to overemphasize the magnitude of this Holocaust which is at least 25 times the high estimates of the Jewish Holocaust.

I'd have to say yes to this: Is America Preparing for Martial Law?

Excerpt: Ultimately, the objective is develop across the land, an unequivocal acceptance by key officials (and of their coworkers and subordinates), from the federal to the local level, for an emergency situation, where civil liberties and the rights of citizens would be suspended:

Especially in lieu of this.

Excerpt: On a recent trip to NY City (last weekend) three gun-mounted, armored tanks/vehicles were driving through the streets of Manhattan. I took these pictures with my camera phone (hence the crappy quality).

As suspected, it may be bad in China.

Excerpt:The latest report from Abundant News has two photos of dead or dying birds on Bird (Naio) Island in Qinghai Lake.  In the close shot, few birds are standing and most that are not standing appear to be dead or dying.  There are no birds flying.  In the longer shot there appear to be thousands of birds on the ground and none in the air.  It seems likely that the number dead or dying is in the thousands.

(Meanwhile, the photog who shot that picture? Arrested.)

To make matters worse, China's not really on the ball about this thing.

Excerpt: Chinese farmers, acting with the approval and encouragement of government officials, have tried to suppress major bird flu outbreaks among chickens with an antiviral drug meant for humans, animal health experts said. International researchers now conclude that this is why the drug will no longer protect people in case of a worldwide bird flu epidemic.

I only have a degree in biochemistry, so I'm pretty ignorant about such things, but wouldn't giving the birds a human-based anti-viral promote mutation that might make it resistant to the human-based anti-viral? Just puttin' it out there.

Well, it looks like SOMETHING is up. A bunch of vultures have died in India.

Excerpt: We hear about reports from India of cattle possibly dying from H5, and we hear reports of loss of poultry, we then hear about vulture die off in India. My best guess is the vultures probably have whatever the cattle, migratory birds and poultry have. Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

And there might be a few dead birds in upstate New York.

Excerpt: South Korea has halted the import of poultry products from New York state after the United States reported a suspicious case of bird flu in the region, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said on Tuesday.

As well as South Carolina.

Excerpt: South Carolina wildlife officials are warning residents and visitors to stay away from sick sea birds they may see on the shore.

I saw a story on the news a few weeks ago about dogs being shipped from China to the US for adoption. At the time, I thought it was strange because we have so many dogs here already, the dogs didn't seem to be anything special and I couldn't figure out why anyone thought it was a) an interesting story or b) thought it was a good idea to begin with. Now, if I were REALLY paranoid, I would suspect that shipping cute little puppies over here for adoption by unsuspecting 'mericans would be an ideal way to get a pandemic started.

Alright. So call me paranoid.

I know a few people who can't get their kids to use a sponge.

Excerpt: Dolphins in Australia have been observed using tools, and they seem to pass on their specialist knowledge to others. This is the first time cultural transmission has been confirmed in a marine mammal. Lacking hands, dolphins are limited in what they can do with a tool, but some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, have devised a way to break marine sponges off the seafloor and wear them over their snouts when foraging.

A very cool invention. VERY 007-ish.

Excerpt: An Israeli Inventor has developed a breathing apparatus that will allow breathing underwater without the assistance of compressed air tanks. This new invention will use the relatively small amounts of air that already exist in water to supply oxygen to both scuba divers and submarines. The invention has already captured the interest of most major diving manufacturers as well as the Israeli Navy.

Weird glowing craters on Mars.

Excerpt: Do the rims of the Martian craters in the picture above appear to be glowing electrically? They are not glowing, but they look that way for a good electrical reason.

Man-titties.

Excerpt:A MAN’S nipples are perfectly suited to soothing a crying baby until it can be fed, according to a report on fatherhood.

Well that can't be covered by insurance.

Excerpt: A bald eagle crashed through a window of a home and landed in the living room, scattering broken glass, feathers and a salmon carcass across the floor. Homeowner Jean Stack heard the crash and initially wondered if someone had thrown a dead fish through the window.

I have three words for this guy: Seek help now.

Excerpt:At 54, William Windsor sleeps in a crib, eats in a high chair and does it in his diaper -- by choice. Believe it.

Insert Bush Joke Here.

Excerpt: New research is beginning to explain how the brains of alcoholics become smaller and lighter compared to those of non-drinkers, and what functions may be lost due to chronic drinking.

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}

Who am I?:

I am a biker chick who lives in NYC. This blog is about current events and my left-leaning, acerbic 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!

Use this instead of Google:

Clusty.com

These sites are good at culling stories from a multitude of media sites:

buzzflash.com
unknownnews.net
rawstory.com

Here are some excellent blogs:

Bartcop
Daily Kos
Atrios
Tacitus
Josh Marshall
Two Glasses
Brad DeLong
The Wonkette
Urban Survival
Greg Palast
Mark Crispin Miller

Link exchange:

Ilia Dreams Blog
Iraq War Blog
BushVote.com
Dommecile.com
Funny Farm

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 (and whose companies are diversified in industries that support the war machine) so all of the news is all the same CRAP.