The Necrophiliac Vote

It's been a year since Terri Schiavo died, and what have we learned?

That there is no tragedy, however big or damaging to the family or loved ones of the victims, that the Christian Right Death Cult will not exploit and twist for their own aggrandizement. This woman was beyond help perhaps the day after her heart attack fifteen years before she finally died, and I really can't blame her parents for wanting to hope and believe that she might snap out of it.

But that was not to be. After a while, you have to reconcile yourself to the fact that the person isn't coming back, and it's time to let her go.

Enter the Death Cult. They embraced the 'cause' with all of the fervor they could muster, attracting mindless adherents and complete whackaloons from as far away as Alaska to come to Florida and scream and posture and fondle themselves. Even the President went so far as to take a break from his vacation to come to Washington and sign a law that would have marked the greatest intrusion of the Federal Government into a single family's life in our nation's checkered history.

Thankfully the courts killed it.

I recall those few months with no joy, although I was eager to see whether Governor Jeb Bush would violate a judge's order and get his pudgy ass locked up (to their credit, none of the Florida law enforcement officers dared try to intervene). In a chat room, one person asked me why a doctor just didn't put Ms. Schiavo down, like a dog.

I had to explain that Florida had no assisted-suicide law, and doctors who aid suicides go to prison.

So what have we learned from throwing a spotlight on this family's suffering, demonizing a grieving husband, and generally dragging a lifeless corpse through the streets?

1. That everyone needs a living will.

2. That the Christian Right Death Cult needs to be driven back into the furthest recesses of the national id, where it belongs, and to have those recesses barricaded to prevent it from ever emerging again.

Attention, All Fundamentalists!

The Sun will be eaten by a gigantic celestial dragon on Wednesday March 29, 2006!

If you live in an area extending from Brazil to Mongolia, you can trace the path of the mighty beast as it slowly eats the Sun gulp by gulp until there's nothing left! Oh, horrors!

So pray like you've never prayed before that the hideous creature will vomit up the Sun and save us all!




And for those of you who actually use your brains, here's the link to a science article:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/28/world.eclipse.ap/index.html

Message

(I posted this originally as a comment on http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com today):

Throughout late 2002 and into 2003 I consistently said that we had no business going into Iraq. I've had too many people lie to me and try to manipulate me over the years, so I can sense bullshit - and BushCo's sudden veer away from Afghanistan smelled to high heaven.

I sat and listened to every minute of Powell's address to the UNSC, and came away unconvinced. After all, I had seen artist's renderings of weapons systems in the Reagan-era defense booklets - I was certain that Iraq didn't have anything like mobile anthrax labs.

Needless to say, I was called any number of nasty names for being 'unpatriotic.' Those people got even madder when I pointed out that I was more patriotic than they were, because I was wary to spend American blood and money on ground of no value.

Now we have seen that Bush wanted war with Iraq even as far back as 1999, that he wanted to attack Iraq on 9/11, that British PM Blair had to basically fellate Bush in order to get him to concentrate on Afghanistan first, that there were no WMDs, no Iraq/al Qaeda connection and no Iraq-9/11 connection.

Which leads to an inescapable conclusion.

I was right.

Truth to tell, I hate being right, because this military misadventure has cost us untold billions of dollars, all of our credibility and respect, and 2320 American lives.

However, to all those people who vilified me back in 2003: "I fucking told you so, you stupid purblind assholes."

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Zacarias Moussaoui wants to die.

In fact, he's so anxious to go to Allah that he took the stand in the death penalty phase of his trial as the putative '20th hijacker' and talked himself into the shadow of the death chamber.

Even his defense attorneys concede that he basically committed suicide on the stand. I bet he really, really wants to see how many virgins he'll get as a martyr. So the defense is trying to paint him as crazy, and they'll succeed to a point. Moussaoui is a bit of a nut case, and his testimony on the stand was full of holes.

For instance, a news article had testimony from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the planner of the September 11th attacks, in which he states that the White House was dropped off the target list because it was too small, and therefore hard to strike with a plane. Moussaoui went to pilot training by himself, while the rest of the hijackers took their training in pairs. Moussaoui and the 'Shoe Bomber' were not exactly the sharpest pencils in the box.

So I think the worst thing we can do to Zacarias Moussaoui is to sentence him to life without parole, and let him live a long life caged like an animal.

Voting with Their Feet

It was quite a sight.

Those who could tear themselves away from the NCAA Basketball Championships could see thousands (as many as 500,000 by police estimate in Los Angeles) of Hispanics marching in protest against HR 4437. What is HR 4437, you might ask?

Well, in a nutshell, HR 4437 - already passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives - says that whoever comes into this country illegally is guilty of committing a felony, and anyone who employs, harbors or aids such an illegal immigrant also commits a felony. For those of you without a legal background, a felony is any offense punishable by time in state prison (misdemeanors are generally punished by jail time).

Needless to say, this has many people very upset, and the 'base' of the Republican Party (who are still gnawing their entrails at the sight of a supposedly "free and democratic" Afghanistan trying a man for apostasy) are quite torn in two by this. First, the racist bunch, who don't want any more non-whites in America; and second, the business owners who emply these people because no American wants to work for what they're paying the illegals.

HR 4437 is being spearheaded by the odious Rep. Sensenbrenner, whom we have met before in these posts as the blithering, bloated buttmuncher who refused to hear any criticism of the Patriot Act last year. The other "person" behind this draconian little piece of crap is Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado.

Rep. Tancredo (who may be of Italian descent, but with a surname derived from the Gothic Tancred you never quite know) is an odious little racist who is on record as more than willing to let the GOP collapse rather than soften his position.

Meanwhile, the protesters march. Many of them are American citizens, and if they never had a reason to vote before, they certainly do now.

Ho, ho. Let the chips fall where they may, and we shall march on a road of bones.

I'll get the popcorn.

Just Call Me Candide

Well, I finished my gardening and landscaping projects for this year, and before my self-imposed deadline of April 1st. Let's recap:

1. I expanded the garden and sprinkler line I built on the north side of the house in 2004 to cover the entire north side, extending all the way to the garage entrance. I planted impatiens, fountain grass and plumeria.

2. I planned, built and installed a sprinkler system to cover the south side of the house and the front yard.

3. I built a garden on the south side of the house.

4. I expanded the garden in front of the southeast window, and moved 5 Chinese holly bushes into it from the front garden.

5. I built a garden in the back yard, transplanted three more bushes to it from the front garden, and planted plumbago between them.

6. I dug up and leveled the front garden, converting half of the 10x21 foot space into a small patio with two potted climbing mandevillea, and the other half into an improvised Japanese-style 'dry' garden. I used Bermuda green stone to simulate water.

So, I'm done with my gardening until the weather here in Florida cools off again in December. Now it's time to start planning indoor projects, and designing a sprinkler system for the back yard.

***

Meaningless Milestone Time!

This is my 300th post!

The Worst People in the World

The title's a bit harsh, but I'm a harsh mood tonight. I had to spend the first half of my day attending a meeting (on my day off, mind you), and the rest of the day doing a wonderful landscaping job in my front garden. Stage Two of that will be coming up starting tomorrow.

But I'm not here to talk about that - well, maybe a bit.

I want to talk about Christians. Not the normal sort of Christians, the ones who are generally kind, tolerant people and give to charities and adopt children regardless of their genetic makeup. I'm talking about the Christian Fascists. These people believe that their flavor of Christianity should be the only one - and it ain't vanilla, folks. They want to make "Christianity" the only religion in this country, or at least in government, and never mind the fact that we have a plethora of object lessons in the form of states who have welded Religion and Government together.

Namely, Afghanistan.

Hoo boy, I am watching the unfolding case of Abdul Rahman with great interest, mainly to see if the poor guy manages to stay alive, but also to watch Bush's religious base start gnawing its own entrails at the thought that we spent American lives and treasure to unseat the Taliban, just to see a man tried for apostasy under the shari'ah and condemned to die.

Think about that, Pat Robertson and James Dobson. You cheerleadered (cheerled?) the war - for this.

Mea Culpa

As a Republican and self-identified True Conservative, I shall speak these words on behalf of the Republican Party.

It's all my fault.

Yes, absolutely.

Everything.

My fault. Yes indeed.

But then, it's a family thing. Ever since a member of my family screwed up the orders between Napoleon and Ney at Waterloo, my family has spread destruction and mayhem throughout the world.

Great-Great-Granddad sank the Titanic (and it was tough putting a steam engine on an iceberg to ram that damned ship in just the right spot).

Great-Granddad started World War 1 by telling the Kaiser that the British didn't have the balls to declare war.

Granddad blew up the Hindenburg.

My Dad sank the Andrea Doria (a thousand tons of dry ice to thicken the fog was hard to find).

It was implied that I had something to do with 9/11, but please rest assured that the Challenger was the last time I dabbled in the family tradition.







Am I being sarcastic enough?

The Taliban Can-Can

We've come to associate the word 'Taliban' with the worst sort of religious extremist (usually Muslim), particularly with the zanies who ran Afghanistan flat into the ground after the mujahedin wore down the Soviet armies and their Afghan catspaws. Taliban, by the way, means 'students.'

So what other 'students' are there in the world?

There are Jewish Taliban, for starters - people who claim that the land they stand on is a definitive Gift from God, which gives them the right to act like complete assholes if they choose. All in the name of the Eretz Yisrael. There is no room for compromise in their religious perspective; these people want the 'others' (Muslims and Arab Christians) out of Israel - or, if one recalls Rabbi Meir Kahane, exterminated.

There are Christian Taliban, most often seen here in America. These people have left behind the 'love thy neighbor' diktat and have embraced a kind of Death Religion - people who do not conform to their way of believing must be driven out or exterminated. Women are to be reduced to domestic servants and brood mares, children are to be taught absurdities in place of facts, and sexual inverts are to be "cured" or killed. The courts will be cowed, the legislature reduced to little more than saying 'amen' and the 'unitary executive' will be granted the powers of the Puissant Vicar of God on Earth.

In America, it is the Christian Taliban who are most to be feared, because these people have allies. Senators and the like with a major hard-on for the Oval Office kiss and court the Christian Taliban, because, like all true believers, they are submissive to their leaders and more than willing to lose their individual identities within the comforting mass of similarly confused, alienated and frustrated people.

The Founding Fathers of this country knew what happens when you weld religion and government together - you get a monster that destroys with impunity. And it sometimes costs a great deal in terms of lives to set things right.

Odds and Ends

Can we please ship Pat Robertson off to Afghanistan? I'm absolutely certain that he would welcome the chance to preach his message of love and tolerance to the Muslims over there.

***

Was it just me, or did President Bush come across as a pissy teenager while answering questions from the Press Corps? He acted as if it actually annoyed him to answer questions.

***

An NBC correspondent said today that things in Iraq are actually worse than the news media are reporting. Hmm. The Bush Administration says one thing, while the news media say another. Which one is right?

***

I've received the corected galley for my third book, and it has to go back for some more corrections. Seems the publisher managed to screw up twice. Oh well.

***

I've started writing again to the stories I contribute to the Spontoon Island website (http://spontoon.rootoon.com) and they're very good. Actually, all of the contributors are doing a smashing job.

War Without End

Selah.

Dear Leader actually held a press conference today, that is if you consider a press conference to be a room full of people asking questions while the person who's supposed to answer those questions tap-dances around and makes evasive non-resposnive remarks. At some moments it looked like he was just going to order one of the reporters shipped off to Guantanamo for having the temerity to question the President.

In response to one question, Bush said that it would be up to "future Presidents" to decide when to bring the troops home.

"Future Presidents?"

What ever happened to a quick victory? A coworker of mine is coming back from Iraq, having been lightly injured at some point in his tour. Another is deploying in June for 18 months. The Chowderhead-in-Chief is going to end up getting us all killed before long.

In other news ....

The Los Angeles Times, apparently making the mistake of drinking the water out there in Schwarzenegger's California, ran an article that posits a hideous alliance between the religious extremists running Iran and the religious extremists running al Qaeda. This is rather stupid, folks, because it presupposes that both sides will overlook the fact that they despise each other.

Let you in on a little secret - the reason I knew there was no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda was that Saddam distrusted Osama. Osama hated Saddam because he was a secular Muslim and (on the surface at least) a socialist.

So we have "government sources" trying to whip up the war fever again by conflating the Shiite government in Iran with the Sunni terrorists? Probably not going to happen, unless Dear Leader's Dark Minions decide to:

a) provoke an incident in Iraq that they can blame on Iran;

b) manufacture an incident that they can blame on Iran;

c) manufacture a terrorist incident on our own soil; or

d) just throw up their hands, yell "Screw it!" and bomb away without even the pretense of being provoked.

But by the time we finally get someone with enough testicular fortitude to declare victory and pull the troops out, the UAE and Saudi Arabia will be on the Iranian oil bourse, dealing in euros instead of dollars. Gasoline will be $10 a gallon, and George Bush will be seen on his yacht The Moneygrubber, sailing along Martha's Vineyard.

A Monday Recap

Well, today was the official Third Anniversary of George Bush's Great Crusade Against Anyone Who's Not White, Male and Republican.

But I didn't concern myself with that today, although I kept an ear to the news for any updates on the current Operation Bright Shiny Thing, which is part of Campaign Clusterfuck, which is one of the main components of Plan Destroy America.

Can you tell I'm just a wee bit bitter about the incompetence of the Bushite Junta?

So, I did the following thing:

1. Worked in my gardens on a few landscaping projects, trying to get them done before it gets too hot outside. I have a painting and tiling job inside for the summer.

This Week's Punks

There's a lot of Punks out there, folks, both Punks and Punkettes. It's time to recognize them for their outstanding Punkery this past week:

Rep. Tancredo (R-CO): For being an unapologetic racist asshole.

Republican members of the House of Representatives and Senate: For consistently voting down every budget amendment that would provide better security at our nation's ports and improving the communications capabilities of first responders.

Democratic Senators: For not immediately standing up when Senator Feingold called for the President to be censured.

Senator Santorum (R-PA): For being unable to wean himself off the lobbyist money tit.

The Bush Cabinet: For not committing suicide en masse out of shame for having led the country to this sorry pass.

The Entire Congress of the United States: For not immediately castrating and skinning alive the assholes who thought it would be a good idea and "all for the good of the country" to rip the Fourth Amendment out of the Constitution.

Any other Punks you want to name? Well, in the words of the Lord High Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado:

"There's tut-tut-tut, and Whatshisname, and also You-Know-Who;
But the task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you
'Cause it really doesn't matter who you put upon the list
'Cause they'd none of them be missed, they'd none of them be missed."

Well, DUH ....

This is from Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/695227.html):

(Emphases are mine)

Study: U.S. Mideast policy motivated by pro-Israel lobby
By Shmuel Rosner
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Middle East policy is not in America's national interest and is motivated primarily by the country's pro-Israel lobby, according to a study published yesterday by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

Observers in Washington said yesterday that the study was liable to stir up a tempest and spur renewed debate about the function of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby. The Fatah office in Washington distributed the article to an extensive mailing list.

"No lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical," write the authors of the study.

John J. Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago's political science department and Stephen M. Walt from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government do not present new facts. They rely mainly on an analysis of Israeli and American newspaper reports and studies, along with the findings of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

The study also documents accusations that American supporters of Israel pushed the United States into war with Iraq. It lists senior Bush administration officials who supported the war and are also known to support Israel, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith and David Wurmser. The authors say the influence of the pro-Israel lobby is a source of serious concern and write that it has even caused damage to Israel by preventing it from reaching a compromise with its neighbors.

****

Well, whoop-dee-frickin'-do.

Naturally you won't see this displayed on websites belonging to the US media, even though several members of AIPAC are under investigation into influence peddling on behalf of Israel. We're already the best friend they ever had, and their chief source of money - but why lobby to keep the pot boiling as it is?

And the idea that Wolfowitz, et. al. are behind the war in Iraq is not news, people - it's been known for quite some time that the neocon agenda was being planned out and masterminded by Wolfie and Perle.

Does this sound anti-Semitic?

Too bad.

Book Update

First, a little background:

I started writing a science fiction novel back in 1979, shortly after graduating high school. Over the next quarter-century or so, that one book ballooned into three. The first book of the trilogy, Fastoshi: Chronicles, was published in 2003; the second, Morshrarthi: Interactions, in 2004.*

The third and final book in what I call the Empire of the Race trilogy, 'Atshnegjir: Rebirth, has cleared its first galley review and should be available online for purchase later this year.

You can hit the link "My Novels" to take you to the AuthorHouse website to buy the books, if you're interested.

The Empire trilogy is a type of alternate history, tracing the history of an alien race, including its contact with and observations of the human race. It covers a lot of ground in terms of time, from about 800,000 BPE to 12,400 AD, and over the course of writing the books I've created an entire culture for these aliens. Language, alphabet, psychology, religion - pretty much everything I can think of.


*The boldface vowels are marked out as 'long' vowels.

"Foreign Affairs" Article - Worth A Read!

I just finished reading this from an upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060501faessay85301/kevin-woods-james-lacey-williamson-murray/saddam-s-delusions-the-view-from-the-inside.html

It's an illuminating look inside the Hussein regime's inner circle and military establishment from the Iran-Iraq War up to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. And it also shows the negative effects of living in a bubble where no one is brave enough to tell you the truth or even hint that there is bad news.

A Fine Lenten Friday

Hey, it's Friday!

Where are the drinks?

You might want to go over to DailyKos for that, since it's Rum and Coke Friday over there. No time for that over here.

So, what's going on?

Well, today's the observance of the feast day of Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. Not bad - pig farmer and former slave becomes a saint.

Ah, but it's also the middle of Lent, so good Catholics out there need a dispensation before tucking into the corned beef and cabbage. I'm not having any of that, but will celebrate my Irish heritage by drinking Irish beer. So there.

It's also the second day of "Operation Swarmer," the huge air assault campaign into north-central Iraq designed to shore up George Bush's sagging poll numbers.

Hey, I've got a great idea!

Let's give up war for Lent!

Happy Anniversary?

This month marks the third anniversary of Our Great Adventure in Preemption, the doctrine that we can send in the troops and/or bomb the bejesus out of anyone we don't like under the excuse that we're "pre-empting an attack." Or, to use a sporting metaphor, the best defense is a good offense.

But it tends to make people distrust you, and they might seek out others who feel just as distrustful of your motives, and when they have enough people arrayed against you, you find that striking first really has very little meaning.

It's after the Ides of March, and I haven't seen any victory parades to mark the occasion of Our Glorious "Mission Accomplished" Victory over those dastardly Iraqis and their weapons of mass destruction.

Oh, wait. Yeah, my bad - there were no WMDs.

So we celebrate our defeat of a tyrannical regime that had links to al-Qaeda and was connected to the 9/11 disaster, right?

Afraid not.

So we're celebrating bringing democracy and peace to Southwest Asia at the point of a bayonet and the muzzle of a gun?

Yes!

Hooray! We're fighting a War For Peace! Drinks all around!

The "We" Word

President Bush, his Administration and his many apologists all keep insisting that "we are better off" now that Saddam Hussein is in custody, and that "we are safer" nearly five years after 9/11, thanks to Dear Leader's God-driven crusade against terror.

I have a question, Mr. President:

What's this 'WE' shit? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

If your sole definition of "we" is "the rich people who grow fat off my tax cuts, war profiteers and Halliburton stockholders," then I guess you and we are better off. But the dead in military graves throughout the United States call you a liar, Mr. President. Most of them were blown up after you strode onto the flight deck of that carrier to declare "Mission Accomplished."

And after you challenged the insurgency to "bring it on."

The wounded and maimed Americans in hospitals throughout the nation (and are in danger of losing their veteran's benefits, thanks to your stupid economic policies) call you a liar.

The dead from Black Tuesday accuse you, Mr. President, of making this land less safe.

You have lost Iraq.

You have lost this "war" on terrorism.

You are losing (finally) the support of the very God-addled, power-drunk masses who worship every disjointed, stuttering, smirking word that drips from your mouth.

You have failed us, George W. Bush.

Juxtapositions

Here's a few interesting contrasts I gleaned from a cursory glance at the news on Yahoo this morning:

One:

a. The President (you remember him? The guy who takes a shitload of vacations?) has been going about the country trying to revive support for his war in Iraq. He pooh-poohed the idea that the country is sliding toward a sectarian civil war.

b. Sectarian killings have continued in Iraq, with some 120 bodies being found over the past 36 hours or so. Yep, things are really improving.

Two:

a. Debbie Harry of "Blondie" was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

b. The group Black Sabbath was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I would have loved to hear Harry sing "Iron Man" while Black Sabbath performed "Heart of Glass." Would've been a lot of fun.

Fun with Phones

Senator Russ Feingold announced on the Sunday morning chat shows that he was planning on introducing a motion to censure the President for violating the laws of the nation he serves and violating the Constitution he swore an oath to protect and defend.

So today I picked up the phone.

I called my two Senators, Mel Martinez (R) and Bill Nelson (D), and after communicating my opinion (without descending into epithets, personalities or any vulgar language), I asked their staffers for the 'Big' men's opinions on the matter.

I will have to admire the consistency - both offices stated that the Senators had not yet formed an opinion on the subject, as it was too soon after Feingold made his announcement.

I'll wait a day or two before asking again.

- UPDATE -

The floor debate in the Senate started about 10 minutes ago, with a series of little niggling procedural delays by the GOP side of the aisle. Feingold started his address only to be interrupted by Arlen Specter over when the Old Fart was getting a copy of the censure resolution. Feingold didn't lose his cool, which is a far cry from the reaction I would have had (bashing Frist and Specter over the head with a lead pipe to shut their fucking mouths).

- UPDATE -

Specter's talking now, and while he poked some holes in the argument, he seemed to actually support parts of it. We'll have to wait and see, but I think very strongly that it will fall to a party-line vote, and get voted down.

Milestone

About two days ago, I posted a comment to a post by the Immortal Patricia, over on http://morning-martini.blogspot.com, in which I quoted Walt Kelly's Pogo saying "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Well, today I got an email from a person identifying themselves as leoj@zoominternet.net, who says:

"well then let us kill ourselves..please YOU START WITH YOU!"

I am so happy I could spit.

I've just been flamed!

Cuteness Wars!

Or, Beware of the Cute Things.

Have some insulin handy.

Earlier this year, people were going all dewy-eyed over the baby panda cub Tai Shan at the National Zoo in Washington. Not to be outdone by the furor raised by the six-month-old cub's antics, video has been released from China showing no less than sixteen panda cubs, ranging in age from 6 to 11 months cavorting in the snow. The video has been shown on a number of news outlets, including CNN.

I will wait for the obligatory "Awww..." if you've seen it.

Now a zoo in the Netherlands has released video of the first polar bear triplets ever born in captivity. On a cuteness scale, I'll give the pandas higher marks than the polar bears.

Deja Vu All Over Again

While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place.
-- President George W Bush, 10/2002 (courtesy of whitehouse.gov)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told senators Thursday that the United States faces "no greater challenge from a single country" than from Iran.
-- CNN, 3/9/06 (courtesy of CNN.com)


Do these assholes and slimy nutbaggers think we're fucking stupid? That we ALL have the collective attention spans of frigging mayflies?

We're seeing the same tired scenario play out again. Our Leader accuses, which causes a targeted nation to start acting defensive, and Our Leader claims that as justification for bellicose rhetoric / sanctions / war. Need I remind them:

- That Saddam was our best friend in the world in the early 80s during the Iran-Iraq War (complete with picture of Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand)?

- That the CIA toppled the government in Iran in the 50s, and do you think the Iranians have forgotten that?

- That Iran is three times larger and has twice the population of Iraq?

- That the last military adventure in Iraq has resulted in billions of dollars pissed down the toilet to no good purpose? Even our allies think we're idiots now.

So, we do it again.

Here's a riddle: What is it when you fail at something and you keep trying it over and over again, in hopes of a different result?

It's called insanity.

The Coming Comeuppance

You see, I'm a great believer in the Karmic Law, also known as the Threefold Rule. The Rule goes something like this:

Whatever you do, good or bad, comes back to you three times over in your lifetime.

Or, "What goes around comes around."

So, with that in mind, can you imagine the kind of karmic hell the Bush Crime Family is in for before their lives run their courses?

Criminal indictments, fines, prison time, disease, protests, and eventual death in bed of some horribly disfiguring conjunction of Bird Flu, Alzheimer's and Scabies?

And worst of all, watching as a Democratic successor wields the same "unitary Executive" powers that these right-wing cryptofascisti have managed to sculpt out of fear and the scraps of our civil liberties.

I keep the idea of the Threefold Rule in my mind, and remain confident that these people will get what they deserve.

Observation to Start the Day

"We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves."
- Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I Scene 2.

Closing the Barn Door

The Senate will soon take up a bill that will make President Bush's illegal wiretapping legal. Now, as if this weren't outrageous enough, it also runs smack into a little bit of the US Constitution. Specifically Article I, Section 9, which prohibits the establishment of an ex post facto law.

Ex post facto means "after the fact," and fits this sorry episode of our nation's legal history quite appropriately. The idea that the President of the United States can break the laws and the Senate will then turn around and retroactively make his transgression legal boggles the mind.

But what do you expect from a gang of criminals, greedheads and outright slaves that regularly use the Constitution as blotter paper for the blood that oozes from their ravaged anuses?

Welcome to Stalin's America.

Roto-Rooter Time!

Our Dear Leader is beset on all sides, as people of a certain rodentlike persuasion start to abandon the floundering morass of incompetence that is his administration. Leaks abound, and reporters (those who aren't wearing shock collars) are reporting things that are just bad about the government.

But once again the Bloated Smirking Cocksucker, Dick Cheney, rides to the rescue with the properly Nixonian answer:

Send in the Plumbers.

Yes, start changing the laws and hunting down people who blow the whistle, leak information that the government doesn't want YOU (the voting taxpaying citizen of this dying Republic) to know, or journalists who don't slavishly toe the Party line.

I keep wondering if I fell asleep with my head in the Wayback Machine, and have woken up in Stalinist Russia.

Can You Say, "Rosenbergs?"

I thought you could.

The only al Qaeda member currently in custody who had a hand in the 9/11 attacks, Zacharias Moussaoui, is due to go to trial in Virginia soon. Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

But wait a moment. Federal law allows the death penalty if the person was directly involved. Moussaoui was in jail in Minnesota at the time, as I recall.

However, this is the George Bush Administration, where laws can be ignored at whim and the laws modified or "fixed" later to cover up the mess. Depending on the jury, Moussaoui might get death, which will mark the first time that the US Government has ordered someone to die for no reason since the Rosenbergs.

For those of you playing along at home, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair in Sing Sing Prison after being found guilty of treason for supplying nuclear secrets to the Soviets back in the 50s. They were the first Americans executed for treason in peacetime in US history.

This should be interesting, so cook up some popcorn.

Patience, Patience ...

"Be still, my soul; thou hast endured worse than this." - Homer, The Odyssey

"Be patient; Allah does not deny the reward of the righteous." - The Koran, Hud, Surah 11:115

Which is true, when you get right down to it.

Of course, it really hasn't been quite this bad before. A Kentucky legislator and his Sunday School class are circulating a petition to determine which of his fellow members are Christians. Needless to say this has the non-Protestants and non-Christians very uneasy, especially if someone starts gauging a candidate's electability based on their religion (which is still unconstitutional).

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's assertion that only God can judge his decision to invade Iraq is actually unworthy of him, his forebears in Number Ten, and God. Blair went into Iraq mainly as a quid pro quo, agreeing to Dubya's grand Mesopotamian Adventure on the condition that the US stomp hell out of Afghanistan and al-Qaeda (who were, after all, responsible for 9/11).

But I must remain patient, and trust in the fact that these assholes will overreach themselves and their entire shabby house will collapse in on itself.

But you'll notice I'm not holding my breath.

Holy State? Holy Shit!

This is from KMOV in St. Louis, Missouri (emphases are mine):


State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri’s official religion

12:28 AM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006
By John Mills, News 4

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.
House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is pending in the state legislature.
Many Missouri residents had not heard about the bill until Thursday.
Karen Aroesty of the Anti-defamation league, along with other watch-groups, began a letter writing and email campaign to stop the resolution.
The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.
The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."
State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.
KMOV also contacted Gov. Matt Blunt's office to see where he stands on the resolution, but he has yet to respond.

***

One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, wrote a letter to a group of people who expressed concerns about the establishment of an "official" religion in the United States. After the bad example of the English Civil War and the horrible Religious Wars in France and Germany, they were worried that, being in the minority, they'd be easy targets.

Jefferson coined the phrase "wall of separation" to describe the delineation between the State and the Deity.

Do you know what group expressed concern?

Baptists.

One of the very groups that are trying to force this country into having a recognized State religion.

All one has to do is look at Iran or Afghanistan (pre-2001) to discover the delights of having God and the State in the same boat. Dissent becomes blasphemy, those in power become God's Vicars on Earth, and law becomes Holy Writ.

One might hope that the voters in Missouri will put a stop to this stupidity, but I'm not hopeful.

Break the Law? Fix It!

The Bush Administration and the corrupt GOP Congress should start calling itself 'The Fix-It Government.' If they don't like something, or if they violate an existing law, they just backtrack a bit, fix or adjust the law, and everything's quite hunky-dory.

Violate the FISA by spying on ordinary Americans without a warrant? Fix FISA.

Violate the law and common decency by using torture? Fix the laws and ignore all those inconvenient treaties.

Fuck Dick Cheney

I mean that.

Fuck him right in the ear.

How dare that fat, bloated, smirking cocksucker DARE chastise the American people for not saving enough money? What kind of unmitigated gall does this gangster whose rapacity would make Alphonse Capone himself blush have to collect $1.3 million (after taxes) and then tell US that we're not saving enough money?

Well, Dick, maybe if your cronies in the oil industry hadn't jacked up prices to over $2 a gallon;

Or if your friends in the pharmaceutical industry wouldn't price drugs through the fucking roof;

Or if your company wouldn't gouge the US military at every single godsdamned opportunity;

Or if your friends in the health care industry would act as if they fucking cared about the sick, rather than bilking them for aspirins at $10 a pill;

Or if you and the empty suit in the Oval Office actually cared, we might be able to save a bit for that rainy day or for retirement.

Okay. I'm done for now.

An Insightful Thought

"I hope you good, loyal Americans understand that in the long run the Islamist extremists are going to win. Because you can't beat numbers, and you can't beat fanaticism - the willingness to die for an idea.
"A country like ours, preoccupied with Jet Skis, off-road vehicles, snow boards, Jacuzzis, microwave ovens, pornography, lap dances, massage parlors, escort services, panty liners, penis enhancement, tummy tucks, thongs and Odor Eaters doesn't have a prayer - not even a good, old-fashioned Christian prayer - against a billion fanatics who hate that country, detest its materialism and have nothing really to lose.
"People who don't give a shit and have nothing to lose will always prevail over people who are fighting for some vague sentiment scrawled on a piece of parchment. Folks, they're gonna getcha, and it ain't gonna be pleasant."
- George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion, 2004, pp. 134-135.


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