Archive for June, 2008

I have trouble sleeping. It began with menopause—I would wake every hour or so and stay awake for an hour or so. Now, I don’t do that any more, but my body has decided that I am hard-wired for night-owl behavior and I can’t drop off to sleep before one or two a.m. This makes rising early difficult. But I have plenty of grist for the mental mill when I toss and turn in the darkness:

(1) Is it only in Texas that a 17 year old girl could be severely battered in her church as part of an exorcism? Is it only in Texas that the state Supreme Court would rule in the church’s favor and not allow her to sue, although the process so traumatized her that she was suicidal afterwards? Pray for Laura Shubert, because the court decided that ruling in her favor would “entangle the court in church doctrine”….does that mean this is the Texan idea of “separation of church and state”? The concurring six justices felt that upholding an earlier court ruling in favor of Shubert would have a “chilling effect” on the practice of religion. Am I a cynic to think that if this had been a case of a Muslim father religiously having his daughter’s clitoris removed, the ruling would have been FAR different? Or if a pagan child complained of abuse in the name of religion? Or, oh, I don’t know, if a soldier said they didn’t think they should be forced to pray and attend religious observances to be promoted? Holding down a 17 year old girl who is being attitudinal, and battering the hell out of her while her parents are out of town…that is ok, though. Hat tip to Blondesense.

(2) Endorsements are good, right? So, it is good that the wizened little Vietnamese who once was John McCain’s jailer in Hanoi thinks he would be a good President, right? Sorry, I am so squicked out by this and the picture of Tran Trong Duyet embracing McCain that I just can’t say anything more about it. Hat tip to “Sadly, No” for this little brain teaser.

(3) If what goes up must come down, then mustn’t whatever goes down come back up? Because, if so, isn’t it like burying a landmine to think that storing carbon dioxide underground in a layer of subterranean salt water will be a lasting solution? Because that is what an ethanol plant in the Midwest wants to do with the 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide they generate annually. Is it the silly inner idealist in me that makes me think finding something not related to wild-assed petroleum products usage would be a better solution? But then, the state of Ohio is in love with the idea of pumping toxic things down into Mother Earth’s bowels: hydrochloric acid from AK Steel in Middleton, chemicals from Ineos in Lima, and deicing fluid and other things from Vickery “Environmental” near Fremont. I am glad I will not be around at some future date to see what Ma Nature REALLY thinks of toxic enemas.

(4) Why are pagans SO reasonable? I mean, yes, some are bitching that Kathy Lee Gifford apologize for a stupid-assed comment about “nasty, evil pagans” on that boring morning show of hers—saying we need to sign a petition demanding her apology; but the majority says “Na-aaaah, no biggee.” I agree, it wasn’t a biggee, she is a twit, that’s all. But, if the twit had said “Nasty evil Christians” some serious shit would have hit fans from here to Jupiter. Is it just plain bitchiness that makes me think that yes, she should get a little cultural broadening of her horizons and a small butt chewing for not having anything more clever and erudite to say? And my personal note to Kathy Lee? Honey, you can call this pagan evil and nasty if you like, just so long as you believe it and stay the heck out of my way!

Yeah, yeah, this is the “drooling idiot on sleep deprivation” post of the week. On the other hand, watching baby and mama black-footed ferrets at a breeding facility on a live cam is very restful indeed: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/NorthAmerica/default.cfm

Scroll down a bit, and double click the video for full screen fuzzy animal moments!

Here are the names released by the DOD between the full moon and today (Mind you, there may be others who have died prior to the third quarter—but those names were not released yet.  They will appear on the next list):

Hospitalman Marc A. Retmier, 19, of Hemet, Calif. – Navy – Afghanistan -rocket attack
Petty Officer First Class Ross L. Toles III, 37, of Davison, Mich.- Navy – Afghanistan-rocket attack

Spc. Jason N. Cox, 21, of Elyria, Ohio, – Army- Iraq – IED

Capt. Eric Daniel Terhune, 34, of Lexington, Ky. – Marine – Afghanistan – combat ops

Lance Cpl. Andrew Francis Whitacre, 21, of Bryant, Ind.- Marine – Afghanistan -combat ops

Hospitalman Dustin Kelby Burnett, 19, of Fort Mohave, Ariz. – Navy – Afghanistan – combat ops

Sgt. Matthew E. Mendoza, 24, of San Antonio, Texas,- Marines- Afghanistan – combat ops

Staff Sgt. Du Hai Tran, 30, of Reseda, Calif.,- Army-Iraq -IED

Lt. Col. James J. Walton, 41, of Rockville, Md., Army – Afghanistan – IED & weapons fire

Spc. Anthony L. Mangano, 36, of Greenlawn, N.Y., Army – Afghanistan – IED & weapons fire

Sgt. Nelson D. Rodriguez Ramirez, 22, of Revere, Mass., Army – Afghanistan – IED & weapons fire

Sgt. Andrew Seabrooks, 36, of Queens, N.Y., Army – Afghanistan – IED & weapons fire

Cpt. Gregory T. Dalessio, 30, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Army – Iraq – small arms fire

Spc. Ryan J. Connolly, 24, of Vacaville, CA – Army – Afghanistan – landmine

I am too stricken with increased numbers, especially more names of those boys only 19 years old to say much here today. Old 60’s songs are playing in my head, and red Flanders-style poppy seeds are on my counter awaiting a soft bed.

Well, while I do hope Obama wins….anyone not a Rethug works for me; I am pissed that he caved with the rest of the Democrappers on the FISA bill. I am sure you are all surfeit with why it is a bad thing. And because I am not quite yet back in the grouping of sentient beings this week, I am only providing a short tease and a quote. (Yes, Dark Wraith is right, I am being very, very lazy)

Link: http://sideshow.me.uk/sjun08.htm#06231725

Pay ATTENTION now, cause this is important to understanding how this bill has jack and shit to do with those wild Islamic terrorists who want to kill you in your beds(turning off sarcasm). Tease:

“One communications company refused to go along with what they recognized as law-breaking, Denver-based Qwest. They reported that the government invited them to help them spy on Americans in the early months of 2001, well before the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center – at a time when the Bush administration was showing a remarkable lack of interest in terrorism.”

Go read the rest, please, I don’t want to swear, curse, and break cheap glassware all by myself.

(Edit for more punch)  And if, by chance, you think Mr. John “I’m against torture.” McCain will  be different?  Take a close look at Mr. Black, his chief strategy man through the eyes of the British news, where they say, “Work with African dictator and Ferdinand Marcos earned McCain strategist a reputation as master of dark arts of political lobbying.”  Makes me think that if he wasn’t employed by McCain, he’d likely be working for that Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe! (http://tinyurl.com/5t6xxk) 

A guest post from the Pickled Jester:

The recent declaration by Presidential candidate (and with any luck the next President of the United States) Barack Obama that he will not be using public funds for his campaign has brought about shockwaves of anger from the infuriated, and beleaguered right.  I cannot tell you how tired I am already of hearing about Obama’s ‘flip-flop’ on stated intentions.  John McCan’t and company have more than a little audacity when leveling that charge against the rival candidate, as do his supporters in the terminally uneducated and slothfully lazy ranks of conservative douche bags (Hint: if you are insulted, you’re probably one of the terminally uneducated, slothfully lazy douche bags).

I could rail on about the many policy reversals McCan’t has been father too over the years, but I won’t bore you with three pages of FACTS about his tarnished, lack-luster and spineless political history.  What I will regale you all with is the most recent spate of political attacks on Obama for his decision to rely on donations to run his already explosively successful campaign.
Publically available funding for presidential candidates limits how much money a candidate is legally allowed to raise from their base of support.  This we all know, and if any of you reading this don’t know this already, please consider one of the following options for my convenience: Commit suicide prior to the November elections, or take a leap and vote Democratic this November (since you are so easily led by fools and panders I figure you might be led just as easily by someone with a shred of independent thought). 
Well, this Monday morning brings yet more disinformation to the political storm surrounding Obama.  Factcheck.org has released an article which seeks to belittle the decision Obama made by claiming that McCan’t actually doesn’t use a terrific amount of money from lobbyist and PAC sources.  The article loudly proclaims that McCan’t and the RNC use very little money from aforementioned sources as reported by their receipts.  McCan’t receipts account for nearly one million dollars, about 1.1 percent for this campaign.  Now, in the political quagmire our nation is broken before a million isn’t very much money, but it is still a substantial amount of money to average Americans like you and me.  So fuck you John.  More importantly Factcheck.org is calling the reasoning employed by Obama a ‘lame excuse’ and an ‘overstatement in the least’.  Perhaps the term ‘fueled’ was a bit excessive, after all, 1.1 percent is not very much money at the end of the day.  But you know what those sorry pricks at Factcheck.org didn’t bother to mention?
Obama’s use of lobby and PAC money. 

Factcheck.org made no mention of the fact that total contributions to Obama’s campaign from lobby and PAC money total up to an astonishing -$750.00.  You read that correctly, it isn’t a typo.  A negative amount of money for Obama from the self-serving, corrupt lobbyists and PAC’s of Washington D.C..  How he accomplished this I do not know; I couldn’t find the exact figures for either Obama or McCan’t, and neither could Factcheck.org for that matter, and if they could find them, they aren’t sharing the information.

As I said earlier, the term ‘fueled’ might be a bit excessive.  In that light we are forced then to examine the phrase ‘lame excuse’ as well.  I suppose we don’t have to scrutinize it, but that would me, all of us, just as lazy and just as guilty of the one-sided, haphazard, and accusatory attitude as factcheck.org is to be damned for.  To call Obama’s decision a ‘lame excuse’ is an aberration of the phrase, a gross violation of free speech, a negligent and insulting use of the freedom of the press.  Why do I hold said statement in such undeniable and lasting contempt?  Because Obama in this instance, holds the moral high ground; he has every right to condemn the RNC and McCan’t for their use of PAC and lobbyist monies because he hasn’t used ANY! 
Finally there is the very important issue of the figures Factcheck.org has used for their damning Obama’s decision.  In their own article they make the very bold claim that McCan’t and the RNC report less than 2.0% income from lobbyist and PAC funding based on their receipts. 

Based on their receipts, people.  The receipts they are required by federal law to keep and present on demand, just like the DNC and every business in this country.  However we all know the Republican party hasn’t been, shall we say…forthright in the economic arena.  All one must do is take a quick look at the economy for the last eight years to understand the Republican power over the economy.  Yet somehow our maligned Republicans have managed to ride out the shocking economic chaos they themselves unleashed without sustaining any major personal loss.  In fact, many of them have somehow, magically and inexplicably, become wealthier.  I wonder how many receipts document those substantial gains.
So at the end of this document we find ourselves staring directly at the face of bought and paid for journalism.  We stare at the hard-eyed, utterly remorseless and inimical countenance of the corporate stranglehold over our hard-won government.  We blanch when faced with the prospect of honest contemplation of how our ‘venerable’ leaders actually accumulated their monstrous wealth, hording it away for their personal use, all the while complaining of the burden taxation places upon the bulging bank accounts they so dearly treasure.  We find ourselves permitting the ruthless accumulation of personal wealth by those we entrust our futures too.  Yet we are swift to level judgment against a single man who dares to decry the inglorious tactics employed against us. 
So tell me, America, who will you believe in come time to vote?  Will you place your hopes and trust in a man whose shameless collection of veterans benefits has continued unabashedly for over three decades, a man who has no qualms with betraying not only his personally stated commitments but those of his constituency as well, a man who’s stated opinions of war are nothing less than a mocking disservice to our military…a man who isn’t worthy of your trust and confidence. 

Or will you perhaps place your expectant reliance and hope in the care of man who’s stunning rise to power has overwhelmed this nation, a man who’s urgency and dedication to much needed change and reform are nearly tangible, a man who has shown time and again the ability to persevere gracefully through adversity and ridicule…a man who is more than capable of guiding our nation to a better course into the future.

You recall my mini-rant about the racist button sold by a Republican vendor at a recent event held by the GOP? Well, the button’s creator calls it humor, which is where my “irrelevant” in the title ties in. Because as humor goes, it sure as hell is irrelevant. The only crowd guaranteed to laugh at that one with regularity would all be unrecognizable in their matching bed-sheets.

But the creator was humor impaired, witness his earlier efforts to make us all splort Pepsi through our noses:

Are any of those working for you? Not working for me, but I do have a strange craving for a Pepsi now. The first one makes me think they all failed high school civics class, you know, where they taught that a representative democratic republic needs more than one political party?

The second button calling liberals “commies” makes me pretty sure none of them went to college, because a good many college programs require at least one course in beginning philosophy. Wherein, during the part that teaches about political philosophy, one learns that theoretical Communism has more in common with early Christianity than it has in common with the Democratic Party. Course, if they HAD taken that class, they might at least recognize the militaristic, nationalistic proto-fascist behaviors that the GOP has been recently displaying. Yeah, silly little old progressive lady me, having mid-afternoon fantasies again!

And the final one? Well, that isn’t humor either. Stupid people who can’t even pass history really do get on my last nerve. Because other than the first couple waves of prissy Puritans, indentured servants, and forcibly shipped prisoners almost nobody who came to this country had English as a first language. Certainly, the slaves didn’t get the chance to study English as a second language in the holds of those ships, now did they? The Irish and Chinese immigrants who built our railroads didn’t start with English as a first language either. The Germans who fought Indians on the plains of Texas, sometimes alongside remnants of the Spanish settlers who got there before them, didn’t speak English. Nor, btw, did those Indians, who sure as hell would be happy to come up with a button asking that all who don’t speak THEIR languages be deported. They do have “time in place”, now, don’t they? The Russians who first settled in Alaska, and who explored my own beloved Nor’west were not English speakers. The Scandinavians who flowed into the Midwest and Great Plains didn’t arrive knowing how to say much in English, either. My Welsh fore bearers couldn’t even get some schmuck at Ellis Island to spell the family last name correctly, for lack of enough American English.

So, take that knee jerk crap, and your lousy all-too-often-heard excuse of “It was a joke, gee, don’t you have a sense of humor?” and shove it all where the sun doesn’t shine. You aren’t funny. You are NOT acting “American” and the Statue of Liberty, if she came to life, would put you over her knee and paddle your deserving fanny with that book of hers. You don’t speak for me, and you know what, if I thought you did? I’d possibly prefer to be a commie than someone aligned on your side of stupid!

Your sincere “dripping fang liberal” who gets Dracula-moods on occasions like this!

Labrys

Not THAT one, the other one: George Carlin!  He has died, and with the loss of one more man who can make us thoughtfully laugh at our own stupidity, the world is definitely poorer.  We could still give that listening a try, we could try harder to prove this statement of his to be incorrect:

“I sort of gave up on this whole human adventure a long time ago,” he said a couple of years ago. “Divorced myself from it emotionally. I think the human race has squandered its gift, and I think this country has squandered its promise. I think people in America sold out very cheaply, for sneakers and cheeseburgers. And I don’t think it’s fixable.”  (George Carlin)

Friendly fire they told the parents.  Shot in the chest during a firefight, friendly fire, that is what parents of Kamisha Block were told.  But she was shot FIVE times, including once in the head and her mother got suspicious at the funeral.  A fellow soldier named Norris killed her and then shot himself.  Her commanders knew at once that she had been murdered by Norris.  He had been harassing her and the 1200 page Army report that her family finally succeeded in wresting from the Army confirmed he had “abused” her.

What does that mean?  Is it a euphemism for “raped” the way Victorian age Americans used to say “outraged”?  Does it mean he beat her up and the Army did nothing about it, and left him in place to become her murderer?  What, in Iraq, the troops don’t have enough enemies firing rockets, RPGs and rifles at them?  IEDs and car bombs aren’t dangerous enough?  Now female soldiers have to worry about being abused and murdered by their own comrades at arms, too?

I can’t help but feel outraged myself, in this neo-Victorian age of euphemisms.  That would be lies and bullshit, for those of us less inclined to gild the lily.   I cannot imagine the heartbreak and anger her family must feel, and my sincere sympathies go out to them.  I hope they make someone in that chain of lies pay dearly.

I am officially out of gas. Not talking the $4.50 per gallon sort. But I will post pictures and irrelevancies….as well as relevancies, as I find them, when I am insomniac or otherwise actively trying to lose my mind.

Why vote for a lesser evil like Cheney, for instance, or McCain….go for the gusto?!

I saw a really silly piece on the news the other day.  It claimed that bumper stickers contribute to road rage.  It seems the oh-so-scientific sorts sat in traffic and didn’t move when the traffic light changed, to judge the “road rage reaction” that they got.  And they say that the people with bumper stickers, even nice ones like fluffy kitties, HONKED at them TWO SECONDS faster than folks with NO bumper stickers.

Wow.  Two seconds while sitting still at a green light.  That isn’t road rage, you imbeciles—that is a polite notice that you should wake up and move before someone rear-ends the person behind you because, seeing the green light, car #3 won’t even slow down.  And maybe it really means those of us with bumper stickers are simply paying more attention!

So on that note, I display for you MY new bumper sticker, already ordered from Buzzflash.com.  Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.  Cause the only road rage I get from bumperstickers?  Comes from seeing the sheer number of Bush/Cheney ‘04 stickers.  I feel better now with an “answer” to that problem!

That’s me of late, my batteries are low.  Lucky for me “Brilliant at Breakfast” is on the ball and alerting me to my worst fears being true and not only boogymen in my mental closet.  I thank that blog for alerting me to a deal not yet openly announced!

For all those pronouncements I screamed about “This war is for oil, that is it; it’s got jack to do with spreading democracy” are now oh-so-very-real.  Just pass me the Cassandra mask now, ok?  You see, Saddamn Hussein’s real crime wasn’t gassing Kurds or killing Shiite countrymen; his real crime was throwing out the big American oil companies.  And now that the dust is settling on the bodies of more than 4000 Americans and Gods only know how many Iraqi men, women and children, the “Oil Giants” are back.

+++Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.+++(this from the NYT)

Did you see that?  The “no-bid” part?  Gee, oil companies round the world…and these guys got it without even submitting a bid; no competition had a chance.  But oh, yeah, I GET it, we already paid didn’t we—-our bid was in bombs and blood.   Plunder and spoils in the form of oil.  It makes me wonder, if we are going to do Trojan War metaphors….who got sacrificed to launch the “fleet” with a fair wind?   Oh yeah, Truth…..right?  (Who could the vengefully murderous queen, show her to the appropriate bathtub, please.)