The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 10/10/2005

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

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

Resist the Regime!
General Strike: Nov.2

Some Katrina Relief Info

Hurricane Housing.org

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

Welcome to my Rutgers classmates.

Ohmygawd. Ohmygawd. Ohmygawd. Ohmygawd. The thrill and antici-(say it! say it!)-pation of a flurry of indictments (maybe 22!?) is nearly killing me. The anticipation is more intense than dangling an unwrapped chocolate bar in front of me when I'm starving AND premenstrual. Karl Rove must be quaking in his gelatinous flesh. Could it be? Could they really have overreached? Does something like that happen outside of the movies? The amount of overreach is so great, so tremendous, it's hard to imagine that they've actually let it get so far. But I think they have! I predict an 80% chance of a shitstorm, with a series of indictments in the near future.(Maybe even Jeff Gannon?) Much dancing will ensue. No wonder they had to stage a huge distraction (I mean, we already hate him here in NYC. How much worse can he make it for himself here.)

And don't discount the DeLay/Abramoff scandals. They go pretty deep too. I think, at the end of the day, we'll be a little stunned at who is connected to it.

I think instead of just comparing all of this to Watergate, we should just come up with a word the describes the level of mendacity of this administration.

I shall ponder...

Now, maybe you understand why he needs to put his own personal lawyer and friend on the Supreme Court. He needs someone there who will protect his interests over the long term. He knows full well that he's done a lot of nasty crap that will be brought before the Supreme Court and he wants to make sure he's got a huge ally. (And all this crap about how Souter was a stealth candidate and actually ended up being the opposite of the GH wanted in a justice? Well, they're just saying that so we'll accept Mier as a justice, hoping that she'll be another Souter.) At the end of the day, with this administration, nobody gets punished. Ever. For anything.

However, we all need to put this all into perspective. In Pakistan, a whole generation may be lost. Links to donation sites can be found here.

Monty Python Site of the Week: All the scripts in glorious colour coded HTML.

Motorcycle of the Week: Yamaha's DEINONYCHUS

Site of the Week: Bush crony jobs

Google Spinoff of the Week: Gizoogle

Alarm Clock of the Week: Sonic Alarm

Must-Read of the Week: Ireland: I wanted to slap him

Kitchen Accessory of the Week: Armadillo Bread bin

Halloween Site of the Week: Carve a pumpkin

Free Movie of the Week: Star Wreck

Experiment of the Week: Archimedes Death Ray

Speech of the Week: Al Gore on the Media

Movie Note: I saw Serenity last week. I LOVED it.

For anything else you might say about the environment, here is one clear argument for preserving the environment to the best of our ability.

Excerpt:Investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported this month in the Journal of Virology that compounds secreted by frog skin are potent blockers of HIV infection.

Biodiversity. Who knows what the hell we're killing off.

But nooooo. We've got to wreck everything.

Excerpt: Almost a fifth of all ill health in poor countries and millions of deaths can be attributed to environmental factors, including climate change and pollution, according to a report from the World Bank.

I think Chavez is challenging Bush to assassinate him. Everything he does, it's like he's got his thumbs in his hears, his fingers are wiggling and his tongue is sticking out. He's moved his money to Europe.

Excerpt: Venezuela has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday. "We've had to move the international reserves from U.S. banks because of the threats," from the U.S., Chavez said during televised remarks from a South American summit in Brazil.

Ouch.

Then, he nearly gets a Nobel Peace Prize

Excerpt: Nobel Peace Prize 2005: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez makes the final list

(Though, the guy who got it, ElBaradei, is just as much a slap in the face. Remember, he's the guy the Bushies hated for not toeing the WMD line on Iraq. Now, maybe, the Nobel prize will give the IAEA some teeth in the event the Bushies try doing the same thing to Iran.)

So, let us get this straight. A GOP controlled congress goes against the wishes of the administration and passes a bill, 90-9, that basically affirms the geneva conventions and limits the use of torture by our troops.

Excerpt: Despite his victory last night, McCain has two major obstacles remaining: House GOP leaders object to attaching it to a spending bill, and Bush could veto it. However, senior GOP Senate aides said they believe the differences could be bridged, either by tweaking the measure or by changing the field manual.

Now, Bush has threatened to veto that bill. He's never vetoed a bill before, but that bill, he'll veto. Alls I can say about that is WTF? So basically, he's saying that torture is acceptable behavior. I can't figure that out for the life me. Is he afraid that if it's not on our books, it would be more of a war crime? I mean, I can't seem to figure it out at all. And how is this move viewed by others? Well, check out this headline.

Excerpt: Bush White House declares torture vital to US security policy

Oh, and then there was the passage of the Leave No Oil Company Behind Act.

Excerpt; In a cliffhanger vote held open by Republican leaders until they won, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by two votes on Friday a bill clearing the way for U.S. oil refineries to expand.

And it was a circus of a vote too. Reminiscent of the Medicare vote. The republicans held it open way beyond the time allotted to pressure a few senators into switching their votes. Watch the video. It's a amazing.

And finally, what the hell is wrong with Indiana?

Excerpt: Legislation has been introduced in the Indiana legislature that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.

(Seems like someone tapped them on the shoulder and said {ahem} "Dude! So NOT a good idea.")

From a guy who understands conspiracies and criminal activity.

Excerpt:Clearly the grand jury was not totally stacked against DeLay politically, and clearly its members saw convincing evidence. But this reporting is also very close to the reporting described by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in All The President's Men - reporting that came very close to landing the reporters in jail, for grand jury secrecy rules apply to the press, as well as grand jurors.

This congress really has it out for the little guy.

Excerpt: Under orders to whittle agriculture spending by $3 billion, Republicans in Congress propose to slash food programs for the poor by $574 million and subsidies and conservation programs by $1 billion each, The Associated Press has learned.

And it doesn't stop there.

Excerpt:"It’s hard to believe that the Republican leadership would stand in the way of emergency funding to help millions of families and seniors heat their homes this winter," said Kerry in a statement. "By blocking the LIHEAP amendment on procedural vote, the Republican leadership has sent a terrible message to Americans because tonight politics was placed ahead of helping families."

Do they even have souls? Or do they relinquish those the moment they get elected? Or is the US bankrupt.

So, post Katrina, the Iraq quagmire, is it possible they're still even thinking of attacking Iran? Sure sounds like a setup is in the works.

Excerpt:Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have caused the deaths of all eight UK soldiers killed in Iraq this year.

Cheeeriste!

Excerpt: According to Gertz, the report claims: "Iran's nuclear program is well-scaled for a weapons capability, as a comparison to [Pakistan's] nuclear weapons infrastructure shows…When one also considers Iran's concealment and deception activities, it's difficult to escape the conclusion that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons."

A feud shut down a part of the internet this week.

Excerpt:Two major Internet backbone companies are feuding, potentially cutting off significant swaths of the Internet for some of each other's customers.

While that was annoying enough, it points to a larger problem: Who controls our internet. If it's so easy to block of huge portions of it, who's to say large portions won't be blocked off in the event of a government's decision to really start controlling what the people see. Maybe that's exactly what the Europeans had in mind.

Excerpt: After troubled negotiations in Geneva, the US may be forced to relinquish control of the internet to a coalition of governments

Let's talk about the economy, shall we? One might not consider it an aspect of foreign policy, but it really is. For instance, earlier in this blog post, I mentioned that Hugo Chavez is taking his toys (in the form of US Treasury notes) and moving them elsewhere.

Excerpt: Venezuela has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

See, US Treasury securities (and bonds) is the way we finance our deficit spending (i.e. tax cuts, war, more tax cuts, more war). At present, China and Japan are major holders of US securities. So what happens if China and Japan decide that buying our debt is not such a bargain? What if we decide to attack North Korea, Iran or Venezuela and both or even just one of those two countries is against us doing that? They could easily stop buying securities altogether. What could we do?

Well, we could sell our securities at higher rates to attract other foreign investors. But China will no longer be recirculating US Dollars back into the US, dollars it has because of the huge trade deficit we have with them, dollars they will have more of relative to their own newly unpegged yuan because the dollar would most likely decline in value. We'll be hit upside our heads with a whopping dose of inflation making those Chinese goods that we love much more expensive. See where this is going?

Economic policy IS foreign policy these days. Remember what happened the last time we tried cutting ourselves off from the global economy? Smoot/Hawley tariff?? Anyone? Anyone?

So this week, in the Financial Times, there was an article that said our account deficit cannot be helped by growth in Europe and Japan.

Excerpt: As the IMF put it in its recent World Economic Outlook: “Contrary to the situation in the mid-1980s . . . the current situation involves a much wider set of players . . . and co-ordinating this response will require considerable efforts from international policymakers.”

Add to that housing prices are finally starting to decline in the hot markets.

Excerpt:A real estate slowdown that began in a handful of cities this summer has spread to almost every hot housing market in the country, including New York.

That means that an economic slowdown is imminent, if only because those people with adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) and those people who begin to lose equity in their over-priced homes will have to reign in their spending. We could be in for a "doozie of a recession"

Excerpt:Recessions begin when consumers suddenly discover they can no longer keep pace with their bills. And this one has already begun.

Fewer dollars spent means fewer dollars circulating means less economic growth to offset our account deficits. If people begin to default on their mortgages, banks begin to falter, Fannie Mae may fail, confidence in the US dollar weakens, foreign investment withers, interest rates have to go up to attract more foreign investors, and so on and so forth.

We depend on them and they depend on us and if we are constantly bucking them with our foreign policy, they could pull their money out of US dollars and just watch our house of cards go "poof". Sure, it'll hurt them too, but not us much as it will hurt us.

Comments?

Never eat anything bigger than your head.

Excerpt: The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole _ and then exploded. Scientists stumbled upon the gory remains last week.

I'd pay to hear this.

Excerpt: Scientists have taught dolphins to combine both rhythm and vocalisations to produce music, resulting in an extremely high-pitched, short version of the Batman theme song.

And speaking of music, did you know there is a Salsa music movement in the Middle East?

Excerpt: Some of the best salsa music in the Middle East comes from Egypt and Israel, for instance. Both nations have been at peace since 1979, the same period when salsa began to take hold.

This reminds me of the movie The Abyss.

Excerpt: The newly released images show a vast region of the Indian Ocean, about the size of Connecticut, glowing three nights in a row. The luminescence was also spotted from a ship in the area.

OK. When I first heard about this, I thought they were joking. But they weren't.

Excerpt:Not long ago the practice of anus bleaching was thought to be nothing more than a myth. Then, by the early 2000s, there were reports the procedure was taking off in LA. It was particularly popular with a number of female celebrities, the reports said. Now anus bleaching has taken the world by storm and is available at a beautician near you.

What is HE = PI x C/T + BM?

Excerpt: A Russian-American researcher claims to have gotten to the bottom of the mystery of laughter and has even concocted a for-real, living, breathing and sweating mathematical “Formula of Laughter”.

Though, for me, when I first saw the equation, I thought that BM stood for, well, you know, Bowel Movement and I thought "Well of course. Poop IS very funny after all."

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.

{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
counterpunch.com
thenation.com
inthesetimes.com
tompaine.com
commondreams.org
truthout.com
guerrillanews.com

a little more to the left:

wsws.org
indymedia.org

different:

whatreallyhappened.com
almartinraw.com

more different :

surfingtheapocalypse.com

really different:

goroadachi.com/etemenanki/

and for godsakes, stay away
from FOX NEWS,  MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
w atch 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.