I'm not going to post a link to the latest terrorist attack. I haven't found much information aboutt it besides the facts and some speculation. If you have been living under a rock, this one involved car bombs and suicide bombers in Casabalanca. At least 40 people have died. Spanish, Jewish, and Belgian (?!) people appear to have been targeted. This is the second terrorist attack in a week, two big attacks that have taken place since our war in Iraq, supposedly a battle in the "War on Terrorism", ended.

Not to be a fearmonger, but to tell you the truth, I'm a little bit scared right now. I'm scared of an attack happening in this country again, and I don't see the Bush administration make proactive steps to combat terrorism. Sorry, but attacking Iraq does nothing to make me feel safe. In fact, I fear (pure speculation on my part) that our war with Iraq could habe helped prompt the new round of terrorist attacks.

I guess we just have to wait and see, that's all we can do.

Source: mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war24.html

Lazy Mouth Newsblast
It's been a lazy day for me, last day at my job and I have kept myself in break all day, making sure that I don't get a call, talking with my sister.. I haven't actually done much of anything. So, my apologies for updating things so late here. Between my lazy attitude and the fact that I woke up an hour late this morning and did not have time to browse the news, I really have no excuse. I've just been lazy.

Expect the rich to horde away some more money that Bush gave them, because his tax cut bill passed in the Senate. Bush didn't get all that he hoped for, but this man touching the economy is bad enough.

The Brits are launching a serious investigation into Fox News bias. They have said that they do not wish to censor the news, but they might be forced with a choice of who does the censoring, claiming that the business practices Fox News' owner Rupert Murdoch, how he bullies his way into a media market and forces that market to compete on his own terms, is a form of censorship that the UK might not want.

Guardian has the story about Private Jessica Lynch that was suppressed by the American media. The article discusses some very interesting things, like how Iraqi doctors tried to free Jessica themselves, but the ambulance they had her in was fired upon when it approached a US checkpoint. The "daring" rescue in the hospital was actually a made for TV movie and had about as much truth as your average reality show. Hmmm.. The American media spreads propaganda during wartime? Nawww, that could never happen! The media is [WMDs! run!] honest all the [hate SADDAM] time!

More evidence that blogging is becoming a permanent and respected part of the media: crackdowns by the man! Blogger in Iran has been arrested.

Americans have no fucking memory. Honestly, what did the media subject us to at the beginning of this year: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION! WE MUST GOTO WAR! SADDAM! WAR! SADDAM! WAR! PEACE DOES NOT COMPUTE! WAR! SADDAM! ANAL SEX! Oh, whoops, forget that last one. But now that the war is over and there's, uh, no weapons of mass destruction, this quote from an article in London's Independent really pisses me off: "Unlike Britain, complaints here at the failure to find the illegal weapons - whose existence was the main justification for war - has been mainly confined to liberal columnists and editorials in liberal newspapers." You know, what the fuck? Bush wants us to goto war because he says that Iraq has WMDs, and then when Iraq doesn't, only "liberals" are going to hold it against him? Bush is personally responsible for bombing, and MURDERING, thousands of innocent Iraqis (we will never know the tally because the Pentagon refuses to do a bodycount; gee, I wonder why), for essentially NO REASON. HWY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE PISSED OFF ABOUT THIS?! Do you understand my frustration? I wish the media here would do their goddamn fucking jobs and question the President on exactly what intelligence told him that there were WMDs in Iraq and why they haven't been fired yet for making a HUGE mistake. But no, that will never happen.

It doesn't help that the Bush administration had pretty decent intelligence reports, but chose to ignore them. Here's another quote from the linked article: "Inconveniences such as the forged documents purporting to show Iraq had bought uranium ore from Niger, and claims that intelligence analysts were forced to stretch facts to fit the theories of superiors at the White House, Pentagon and Vice-President's office, are simply brushed aside."

Lazy Mouth word of the day, boys and girls, is "impeachment". As in BLOODY FUCKING IMPEACHMENT! Argh!

Despite the rants, I'm still in a good mood today. You know why? Because I don't have to return to my job! Nyah nyah! That makes me better than you. I bet you wish you were me. ;)

Welp, I woke up a couple hours late, yet again, and I'm going to be late to work. I guess nothing changes, except for the fact that this is the last day on my shitty job. :)

In more pathetic attempts to justify war and emulate the administration in Washington, hawks in the British government are attempting to downplay the fact there may not be any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Today in London's Independent, is a story with the headline, "So, Mr Straw, why did we go to war?" (referring to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw). Directly under this headline are these quotes from Mr. Straw:

Jack Straw, 21 February 2003: 'Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them'
Jack Straw, 14 May 2003: Asked of the need to find weapons of mass destruction... 'It's not crucial'

So yeah, hey Jack, what's up with that? At least the media in one country is questioning their government on its blatant hypocrisy. I wish I could say the same for the media in my country.

FCC to vote on Media Deregulation June 2
It always amazes me how quickly important dates like this sneak up on me. I could have sworn that this vote was still a months away instead of two weeks.

Indymedia has a feature story today about the FCC plans to vote for deregulation of the media. In case you have been living under a rock and do not know what this means, I'll tell you: legalized media deregulation means that the AOL/Time Warner mega merger would officially be small potatoes. Even though the media is already consolidated to the point where a mere six large corporations have control over the content in what newspapers and books we read, the television shows and movies we watch, the FCC thinks that this just isn't enough. In this age of convenience, why settle for six large corporations with a stranglehold on the media when you could have one monopoly?!

If you haven't already done so, contact your representatives in Congress. If you have done so, call the Capital Switchboard and contact them again: 1-800-839-5276. Tell your representatives that media deregulation will only serve to further erode the quality of the media and make the wallets of a few CEOs larger; it will not increase competition, it will consolidate competition. There will be no benefits to the American citizens if the FCC votes for deregulation.

The Texas Republicans are Shameless
The Texas Democrats who are on the lam have now been immortalized on playing cards. Yes, the concept developed by the Pentagon of placing ruthless dictators and murderers that we are at war with on a deck of playing cards has seemed to branch off into many different directions. But does anybody else find it wrong, and even kind of disgusting and disturbing, that Republicans are now placing anyone who disagrees with them on cards that were first used to define Saddam and other members of his regime? Does anybody else think that Republicans are trying to equate anybody who disagrees with them with ruthless dictators? I tend to think this, especially with statements like this one from a Republican legislator in Texas, describing the Texas Democrats on the lam as, "They're legislative terrorists and their leaving today is a weapon of mass obstruction." (ABC News, 5/13)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for one to be a terrorist, one has to inflict and/or harbor the will to inflict terror against a group of people. Can somebody please tell me how Democrats are terrorists for exercising democracy? What the Republicans in the Texas house are doing is wrong, it's an undemocratic power grab trying to change districts that were set after the census in 2001. Districts are only set after a census, every ten years, for a reason: redistricting is a time-consuming process that is usually quite the pain in the ass. If redistricting took place every two years, in every state, the legislative process would really be hindered and other bills would not have the time to go out to the floor.

It's hypocritical for the Texas Republicans to accuse the Democrats in their House of holding up the legislative process by refusing to give the legislative session a quorum and thus not allowing other bills to be voted on; it's the Republicans who are trying to ram through unneeded redistricting 7 years before the new census, and that's what is holding up the legislative process. They are trying to pass highly partisan, unneeded legislation that is might to boot a good number of Texas Democrats out of their jobs, then equating those Democrats with Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida when they attempt to fight this process. Then the Republicans have the audacity to attempt to spin the situation and make themselves look like the victims of terrorism. THAT is what's happening, anyone who denies this is buying into the Republican hype.

It's about time some Democrats started fighting Republicans tooth and nail. If this continues, it might even be worth it to vote for some of them in the 2004 election.

Source: Working for Change

iLoo takes a crap on Microsoft's reputation
Hopefully the saga surrounding the story about MSN developing an outhouse with Internet access will die down after today's story in the Seattle Times.

Last saturday, Loaded Mouth reported on a story that MSN was developing a "portable lavatory" with a computer inside it that would give you access to the Internet while doing your duty.

Yesterday, the Urban Legends Reference Page Snopes posted a report which said that the iLoo story and concept was false. At the time, Snopes was correct, Microsoft did come out and say that they were not developing an Internet-connected shitter.

Well, today the Seattle Times has an article where Microsoft admits that the iLoo was a project that they were working on, but they have since dropped it because of all the bad press that iLoo got when the project was made public.

I have emailed Snopes about this, and I'm sure I'm not the only person to have done so. Snopes is a great resource and they aren't wrong about this story, the story changed because Microsoft lied yesterday.

No time to post entries this morning when one has to get the oil changed on their car. You should see something this afternoon if work isn't too busy because 12 people call out "sick" to, instead, goto job interviews.. Hey, that's what happens when your employer tells you that you job will be moving to India soon.

The Speaker of the House in Texas seeks to have the Democrats who have boycotted the legislative sessions arrested. Of coursem the Texas Democrats have said that all the Speaker needs to do to make them comeback is throw the undemocratic and highly partisan redistricting plans back on the shelf, but appearently they don't believe in democracy in Texas. Look where their former governor is and how he got there.

A War on What?
If you have been reading the news today, you probably already know most of the details about the three car bombs targeting Americans, Western nationals, and a business which was a joint US/Saudi venture. As the bombs went off, terrorists got into a gun fight with security guards trying to make entry into the buildings. The attacks are assumed to have been timed in conjunction with Colin Powell's visit to Saudi Arabia, and the first (and only suspect that is being reported about) is al-Qa'ida. Ananova reports that over 40 people have died, and The Hindu reports that the death toll may rise to over 100. CNN interviewed a woman who lived in one of the targeted compounds, and she makes a statement that should tell us how powerful these car bombs were: "My villa, which is about 4,500 square feet of concrete, shook like a cardboard box. [The] power [was] cut out. Windows [were] blown out. I ran for cover."

Certainly, this is nowhere near 9/11 and the strength that al-Qa'ida showed that they had then, but if this is the work of al-Qa'ida (I see no reason to believe that it's not; then again, I'm no expert on terrorist organizations within Saudi Arabian borders), then it looks like the government is going to have to start questioning its tactics in the "War on Terror". If the War on Terror was accomplishing its goals of ridding the world of terrorism, then we shouldn't have a sizable terrorist attack targeting Americans less than two years after 9/11. And I don't want to use a tragic situation before it's 24 hours old to hammer down a point, but if we are to believe the Bush administration's line that we were in Iraq because they were a terrorist state, how does one explain the latest terrorist attack? Could this latest attack be in response to our war with Iraq? If the members of the right wing media who have been assailing doves about how the wars are working, how we have not seen terrorist attacks since Bush bombed Afghanistan, how safe Americans are because we are keeping the terrorist groups from retaliating; if these people do not question their said beliefs since the attacks happened in Riyadh, then there is no question that they are lying to us. (As an avid Loaded Mouth reader knows, I already have no question about this.)

Some people will read that last paragraph and accuse me of blaming America for these attacks. Well, if it turns out that the car bombs and building raids in Riyadh were in response to our wars in Iraq in Afghanistan, then yeah, I am. What is it now, a month since the war in Iraq ended and we removed Saddam's administration from power, an administration which we said had weapons of mass destruction and supported terrorism, yet we did not have proof to back up either claim, and now there's been another terrorist attack targeting Americans and Westerns? If somebody can't look at this situation and question the military tactics of the Bush administration, then they are being foolish.

Possible terrorist act?
There has been at least two explosions at a compound housing US nationals in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. One blast has reportedly occured inside the building, and the building is reportedly on fire right now. This is all the information I could find right now.

One hopes that this was not a terrorist attack, and there is not indictation yet as to what caused the explosions. You have to wonder.. Sigh. Hopefully nobody has been killed.

Newsblast!
Workers at a plastic plant that Bush will use as a tax payer funded photo opportunity for the 2004 campaign-- er, excuse me, speech, will not be paid for the day since Bush is speaking at the plant. Workers options are to take a vacation day, work saturday, work at another plant, or take an unpaid day off. Hopefully Bush loses some votes out of this deal.. Oh, wait, he wasn't democratically elected in the first place.

US weapons inspection teams have pulled out of Iraq because it looks more and more like Saddam did not stockpile weapons of mass destruction. So, uhm, Iraq was a threat to what? Our oil supply? And we just killed thousands of Iraqis with our bombs to find no WMDs? Should there be a war crimes trial against Bush because of this? Will we ever see one?

From the "Who gives a shit?" department, President Kennedy got busy with a 19 year old intern, or so a new biography about him claims. Dayum, I guess he liked to bang'em when they're fresh. But think about it, isn't this the way you would rather find out that a President had sex with an intern, instead of finding out through a $60 million witchhunt that we paid for, brought to us by right wing assholes for the purpose of throwing the President out of office? While we're on the topic, for all of you morons who say that Clinton dragged the nations through this and had no morals and should have resign and what should we tell our children and blah blah blah, fuck me if I'm wrong, but he at least tried to hide what he was doing. What brought it out to the public was the rabid right spending $60 million of our money an in
"investigation" to get him removed from office. It's their fault that Clinton's actions became public knowledge then instead of 40 years later. So, who lacks morals now?

In BIG news: Firemen have to use a crane to lift a 700lbs man to get him out of his apartment and to a hospital. Gee, I can't imagine why a man who weighs 700lbs would need to goto the hospital.

Alternet has a good article about race and reporting, concerning the black New York Times reporter who got canned for fabricating his stories. Of course, since this man is black, so white people have decided to turn this into a race issue. The linked articles makes a good point about this double standard, reminding us that white people never had to face prejudice due to Mike Barnicle of the Boston Globe, who fabricated stories and still has a job.

The Austin-American Statesman has a local story which could have national implications. To avoid a partisan redistricting plan by Texas legislators, the Democrats in the Texas House have boycotted House sessions where redistricting is on the agenda, breaking the required quorum needed for a vote. Texas governor Rick Perry called this move "cowardly and ugly", while the Texas House Speaker resorted to how an eight year old would handle the situation - with name calling. He called the absentee Democrats "chicken Ds". (I hope this man wasn't elected on the basis of verbal creativity.) But the Democrats, in a letter to the House, point out, "We did not choose our path, Tom Delay did." Texas isn't the only state where Republicans who hold the majority are trying to redraw district maps, drawn up after the census in 2001, to give Republicans more of a majority in state legislatures. And it's all being orchestraed by that known asshole, Tom DeLay. The Republicans in Texas don't like the dirty move played by the Democrats? Well tough, I say. It's about time the Democrats started playing dirty, they still have a lot to do to catch up to those GOP jackasses in the dirty tricks game.

You know how it goes: power goes out during the middle of the night, screwing up your alarm clock. Suddenly yourre going to be an hour late to work on a super-busy monday and can't update the blog for a while. Today, friends, is one of those days. Hey, with any luck maybe I'll get fired form my shitty job, and then I'll have time to write blog entries AND regular columns again! I might even update the photo of the week WEEKLY, too, and get the time to learn/work with style sheets and switch from Blogger to Movable Type. Sigh.. I can't wait to move back to Rhode Island is ditch this 11-8 shift with a two hour commute. It's killing any time that I used to have.

Here's hoping it's not too busy today.

Salon has an article about another side of Bill Gates - the philanthropic side. Ignoring the loathsome, ruthless business-side of this life, this article makes me thing that Gates is a man that I could have a lot of respect for. I used to think that Gates gave to charities to put a good face on himself for public view. Sure, he donated $4 billion to AIDS research, but what's $4 billion to a man who is rich almost beyond comprehension? Well, Gates has dug a little deeper into his pockets. Salon points out that Gates has said that he will give away 95% of his wealth, which is $43 billion dollars right now, and he is will on his way towards completing this goal, giving to cause like AIDS, vaccines for other deadly diseases, and healthcare and educational opportunities in the Third World. I'm having trouble hating the guy right now.

A mental health clinic in Oregon seeks to employ a Klingon interpreter, I shit you not. Could you imagine what a conversation in Klingon would sound like with a mental health patient who has tourettes?