Football: the new National Religion?

Read about how the schedule of businesses in Nebraska revolves around Husker games. Of course, this could just be a symptom of Nebraska's nightlife, of lack thereof.

Another reason I should drive with a camera

Fortunately, I had my camera along for the ride so I could snap a picure of this car I saw on the highway:

Does this even need a caption to make it funnier? I just wish I could drive and actually take a good picture at the same time.

On the topic of crappy radio

I listened to Michael Savage's radio show last night, and he had a guest host on. While listening to this guy rant and not make a whole lot of sense, I wondered who he was.

After a commericial break, he comes back on the air introduces himself as Mancow. Yes, THAT Mancow. The same man who used to have a syndicated morning talk show. Didn't he lose his show because he, uhm, sucked?

When he introduced himself, I said, "Mancow?!" My friend in the back seat reacted with somethin along the lines of, "Oh God.." I told Matt about it today, and he had the same reaction.

If this is type of quality personality that the right lets speak for them, we soon might not have to worry about them taking over the country. I wish I could provide examples of what he said last night, but I cannot find a transcript.

All-American Propaganda.. Paul Harvey!

So I turned on the radio while I got dressed, an Paul Harvey came on. His "news" is always goo for a laugh, but today I really wished he would check his notes. After a glowing two minute speech about Wal-Mart and how Wal-Mart associates are so helpful which made me wonder what Wal-Mart's these associates are at and what planet are they on, his first news story talks about how the World Bank and IMF says that the American economy is growing and should continue to grow into 2004 and everything is great and nobody should complain and blah blah blah.. Of course, for the ACTUAL story, all youneed to do is look a couple entries down.

Somebody try telling me that Paul Harvey isn't a propagandist, I need a reason to get violent.

This is a good start...

...but we have a lot of catching up to do if we hope to match the power of international football fans. We need more guns at sporting events! Get them before they breed!

Newsblast!

A gay, married canadian couple has been has been denied entry into the United States as a married couple. Well, this sure makes me feel safer We can't have these gays running around married and all, it might offend some backwads hicks in the south who still think it's OK to fuck a cousin.

The US has deployed Patriot missiles in South Korea. I'll give you three guesses as to how happy North Korea is about the situation.

The IMF and World Bank will be meeting in Dubai. Topics of discussion will be the lagging global economy, poverty, reconstructing Iraq, kick-starting the Palestinian economy, and the possibility that the US dollar will crash and burn because our trade deficit is too high and the world economy is too dependent upon Americans living beyond their means. The collaspe of of WTO talks in Mexico will also be high on the agenda, I imagine. Sounds like there's a lot of stuff hanging in the balance there, doesn't it? Let's see if the US media reports about any of it.

Where's all this money from our "growing" economy going if new jobs are being created? To Forbes list of the 400 richest people in America, of course! Their combined imcomes have increased 10%, totalling almost a trillion dollars.

Media Whores Online points out that the Bush "I Lied" story, where he admits that Saddam had no link to 9/11, made it all the way to page 22 in the New York Times, and page 18 in the Washington Post. Maybe MWO and people like me are just super-smart or, but one would figure that when Bush admits that Saddam was not linked to 9/11, along wih him admitting that Iraq has no WMDs, THIS WOULD BE FRONT PAGE NEWS ON EVERY PAPER IN THE COUNTRY SINCE THIS WAS THE BASIS FOR GOING TO WAR. Honest to fuck, this is common fucking sense. But nope, some major media outlets buried the story. Somebody tell me again that the media is liberal and I'll smack you upside the head.

PSA: American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund needs donations, especially after Hurricane Oh Shit!, I mean, Isabel. Salvation Army islooking for donations, too.

Whenever Tom Delay opens his mouth, something stupid is sure to come flying out. Here are his comments in reply to Senator Kennedy's criicism of Bush's war: "I call on all the vociferous Democrat critics, from Kerry to Dean and from Daschle to Pelosi, to have the courage to tell their hero Ted Kennedy that he went too far. Are they leaders or are they just liberal pundits?" It gets worse, "It's disturbing that Democrats have spewed more hateful rhetoric at President Bush then they ever did at Saddam Hussein." You know, it's great a high ranking Republican leader will combat what he considers to be "hateful rhetoric" with more hateful rhetoric, and we do not see one counterpoint to what Kennedy said. Great way to argue, jackass. Will you next ask Kennedy if he wants to settle this on the playground?

Fark headline of the day

"Man dies swimming in ocean as Isabel comes. Cause of death suspected to be stupidity"

Mini-newsblast

Is the anthrax vaccination causing our troops to fall ill to a mystery pneumonia? And will the Pentagon investigate?

Non-profit organizations have begun to make painful cuts. Government funding doesn't grow on trees in the Bush Economy.

Further increasing the odds of a MidEast Nightmare Scenario, Saudi Arabia wonders if they should start a nuclear weapons program. The Saudi's do not feel that they are under the protection of the US nuclear umbrella anymore, and they are looking for options to protect themselves against a potentially armed Iran and Israel, who the Saudi's point out lacks any international pressure to keep their nuclear program in check.

No internet at work?!

Yes, that's right, my new computer job has left me internet-less. The company doesn't feel like paying for it. I was excited to get another computer job because then I could update the site from work, but those dreams have been dashed.

So it's back to a light weekday posting schedule with a high frequency of posting on the weekends. And much whining from me about the situation. Just when I was starting to get more hits, too.. Son of a bitch.

Are we seriously thinking about raiding Syria...

...or is news about Syria just something to try and keep the Iraq mess off the front pages? This is what Syrian Foreign military spokeswoman Buthaynah Sha'ban suggested to Al Jazeera after US Undersecetary of State for Arms Control John Bolton on tuesday accused Syria of developing weapons of mass destruction, supporting terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad; occupying Lebanon, and allowing militants to cross over the Syrian border into Iraq to attack American forces. In fact, a "Syrian Accountibility Bill" with bi-partisan support is going through Congress.

Syria's reply: What about Israel? In describing this position, some will probably accuse me of anti-semitism, so here goes nothing.

A Syrian government official, whose name I forget,was interviewed on BBC Radio Newshour earlier this week, and I caught the interview while was I was on the road. The reporter asked her to answer to the US accusations, and the official did, and the report was handled in a very objective manner.

On the charges of occupying Lebanon, the official pointed out that Israel is in Palestine.

On the charges of supporting terrorist organizations Syria disagrees with the US on the definition of terrorism, and again, asked why Israel is not classified as such for what they have done to the Palestinians.

On the charges of allowing militants to go over their border into Iraq, Syria points out that it's nearly impossible to completely guard a large international border, and points out that drug smugglers are still able to get into the US, so the US is asking Syria to do something so impossible that even the accuser cannot do it in their own country.

On the charges of weapons of mass destruction, it gets more interesting. I believe Syria denied this but also pointed fo Israel for a few reasons. One, how can the US deny Syria the right to defend itself against a country that is their enemy and already has nuclear weapons of mass destruction? Why doesn't anyone speak out against Israel having a nuclear weapons program and the fact that Israel will not allow IAEA inspections? And how come nobody mentions that it was Syria who sponsered a resolution to (I believe) the UN Security Council to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, and it's Israel (the same country that still won't sign a non-proliferation treaty, I might add) who refuse to join the nuclear-free zone in the Middle East?

Yes, the anti-semitism of Syrian government and the Syrian media has to be in the back of your mind when you read Syria's reply to the accusations, but can you not agree that some of it makes sense? How can we expect countries like Syria and Iran not to want nuclear weapons when we support Israel having those same weapons? Doesn't the fact that Israel has a nuclear weapons program invent an arms race amongest other countries who are afraid that they might need to defend themselves? Wouldn't getting Israel to disarm help achieve our goal of peace in the Middle East? Why haven't we tried this? Personally, I don't think that's anti-semitism, just common sense. If roles were reversed and Israel was in Syria's shoes, I would be asking the same questions.

From my standpoint as a pacifist, it's in my interests that no countries develop nuclear weapons, whether the country is Iran, North Korea, Syria, Israel, or even the United States. I would love to see the arms race and nuclear proliferation just stop, period. So the US and Israel havng WMDs aimed at these countries isn't helping the situation, in fact, it could be causing it. Which is why I think countries like the US and Israel are playing a part in making other countries like North Korea, Iran, and Syria want weapons of mass destruction. They don't want these weapons to take over the world, they want this weapons to make sure their country doesn't become the next Iraq.

And people wonder why the rest of the world is scared of us

Senate votes for more nuclear weapon development and testing. Does this honestly make you feel safer, knowing that Bush and, more importantly, Cheney (who drew up plans to nuke Baghdad during the 91 Gulf War, ya know, just in case) and Rumsfield, want to have more nukes? Does anyone wonder why countries like Iran and North Korea want nukes after the Senate passes bills like this? Is there really any debate that this is a bad move and that the Republicans are nuts? Christ.

Bush: Saddam not invovled with 9/11

Well, he finally came out and said it, while Hans Blix came out and said what most progressive people in the country knew all along: Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction. Of course, Bush still says, without any proof, that Saddam has ties to al-Qa'ida.

Well the media point out that not only did Bush lie to the American public, but has cost us the lives of thosands of innocent Iraqi's and American troops? Or, a better way to state the question: will the media finaly begin to do their jobs?

Now that I'm employed again, I can't post until nightfall. Wah. But now that I have a comments feature that nobody is taking advantage of, AskMen.com has a list of the 10 kinkiest spots for sex outside of the bedroom. What should and shouldn't be on the list? Post your thoughts on the matter.

(Yes, I do realize that this isn't news, but sex does get people talking, right? Tee hee.)

The proper response is "Blow Me!"

Lockheed-Martin wants to create fees for your right to protest. There have been protests at the defense contractor lately, atone protest 52 peaceful activists were arrested. Now Lockheed-Martin, working through the local DA, wants $15,000 out of them because they say that'show much money they had to pay for corporate security at the protests.

You know what? The proper reponse is, "Blow me!" After responding, one also has to ask where all the Republicans who bich about frivolous lawsuits are for this case, why aren't they protesting against such an obviously frivolous lawsuit and ranting about the local DA? Hypocrites.

If corporation start charrging protesters for the right to protest, I'm going to hand them a bill of my protesting expenses. I expect my meals to be paid for and a mint on my pillow, assholes. Hearing about stories like this just pisses me off. How much power do corporations think they have? If you manufacture items that KILL people, you're going to get PROTESTERS! Duh! And it's people's right to protest, as mandated by the Constitution! If you think this will disrupt your business, then you have a choice to gear your business towards another line of work or stop bitching and pay for extra security that you don't really need to handle peaceful protesters. What's next, a bill from the cops? Maybe Lockheed-Martin could hand them a bill for the air they breathed while protesting? Or how about paying to clean that cloth which cleans blood off a nightstick after a bashes someone's head open? Not that that last situation happened at the protest, but I'm just taking Lockheed-Martin's "logic" to where it leads, to ridiculous solutions.

The benefits of being poor

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I rant about Bush. A lot. So, not wanting to be negative all the time, I tried to think of something good that has happened in my life that the Bush administration played a part in. So, since I have been rather poor this year, and last month and a half was a particularly tough one to go shopping and keep food on the shelves, I had to tighten the belt. A lot. I've lost 15 pounds! Fuck the Atkins Diet, I'm on the Arbusto Diet!

For full disclosure, it helps that I had a construction job where I was running around all day. But Bush helped out with that job, too, because it was constructing nuclear submarines for the Navy! (One big explaination for why I got out of there as quick as possible.)

So, thanks to Bush and a new diet of eating a lot less then I used to, I'm shedding the pounds and I'm not starting to look like Karl Rove anymore!

See, even I can say something good about our President. Can't complain about me being partisan now, nope, nossir.

On the good news front, I just got another job that's far, far away from any defense contracts, with better pay to boot. So I should be puting a few pounds back on, but that's fine by me.

One for the people (finally)

The Senate voted to rollback new media regulations the FCC wishes to put in place. You know those regulations that the Republican-led FCC voted for with little public hearings and 99% of the over 700,000 letters they got regarding the matter were AGAINST their decision, but they blantantly ignored the democratic will of the populace even though this is supposed to be a government by and for the people? Yeah, those regulations.

See how your senator voted, and hold them accountable if they voted no.

The Senate's effort may be fruitless, because the next battle for this bill is in the House, an if it passes there it goes to Bush, who said he would veto the bill. If he vetos this, keep in mind that he's going against the will of 99% of the populace who spoke out against the new media rules, and there's really no question that Bush would be speaking for the corporations which pay him off. That, while not surprising, is something that can be held against him in the 2004 campaign.

When will this recall election be held?

From Salon yesterday:

It all seemed like an intentional effort to pick a fight with the Supreme Court's conservatives. And on some level, at least, legal experts predicted that the Supreme Court will take the bait. Richard Epstein, a professor of law at the University of Chicago and a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, said he thinks it is likely that Supreme Court will reverse the Ninth Circuit decision almost immediately. While he is no fan of Bush vs. Gore, he said the Ninth Circuit's decision is even worse. "This is a case of judges taking a bad decision and extending it in a grotesque fashion," Epstein said.

I guess we shouldn't expect California's roller coaster ride to stop anytime soon. The whole article is a good read, and it's a safe bet that the Supreme Court will become involved. It'll be interesting to see if they attempt to weasel their way out of this one.

Have I told you how much I hate Hewlett-Packard?

HP knows quality when they see it. That's why the makers of computers and printers which frequently don't work (at my first help desk job, I had an HP desktop that rebooted everytime I slammed my fist on my desk) purchased two shiny new jets for their executives.

How does a company who is in the red do this? By laying off workers, of course.

What's a few jobs cut here and ousourced to India there when it means new perks for the executives? Fuck the little people that actually build a company and generate profit for these assholes, they are meaningless compared to HP's two shiny new jets! Meanwhile, the laid off workers are probably wondering where there next meal will come from.

Honest to god, shouldn't this be illegal? If your company is using declining profits as an excuse to shitcan employees, then goes out and buys jets for its executives, shouldn't these executives be thrown in the slammer? Think about what they have done to workers and their families. Think about it. Do these high paid execuitves really need another perk?

In a perfect world, HP's shiny new jets will crash into a mountain somewhere. Honestly, I'm kind of hoping they do.

Two incomes? Too bad.

If I hear any more crap about how he income is turning around and growing, I'm going to scream. Where are the jobs? And furthermore, how come middle class families whose houses have two incomes, sometiems reaching levels of a combined $70,000 a year, cannot make ends meet? How can anyone say that the economy is growing when the middle class is being left behind? Bush's tax cuts haven't saved them, and the growing costs of health care and energy prices cetainly aren't helping.

Not to mention a mortgage, insurance, and property taxes. I have unmarried friends who just bought houses who need to have roommates just to pay the skyrocketing costs of the priviledge of owning a home. Back when I was looking to buy a house in this area, mortgage, insurance, and tax costs alone hovered around $800 a month. Well, it's higher now.

Recovery my ass. I would say that it surprises me that some people can afford to live, well, a lot of them can't. While Bush hands out tax cuts to the wealthy, we're left wondering just what the hell is going on.

Cha-Ching!

The Big Dick, our vice president, says that $87 billion might not be enough for Iraq and Afghanistan. Thenhe used the old and tired line about how much will it cost if Congress doesn't shell out all the billions that the White House asks for. Of course, it doesn't seem that anyone fromt he mainstream media has replied to that tired query wih, "Yes, Mr. Cheney, you are correct. Can you please tell me why the White House has been holding back aid for rebuilding Afghanistan for over a year if this is such an important issue?"

And, oh yeah, how much more money will Halliburton get, since The Big Dick is still on their payroll?

Welcome to Bush's America

Question: How can you, normal citizen without too much money at your disposal, be busted for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction?

Answer: Run a methamphetamine lab.

As reprehensible as producing drugs is, shouldn't laws against drug producers remain within the jursidiction of drug laws? But in North Caolina, a man with a meth lab was busted for making weapons of mass destruction because meth is considered a "chemical weapon." How long will it take for this "logic" to be applied to growing pot?

In California, federal prosecuters charged a man with "terrorism using a weapon of mass destruction" because a pipe bomb exploded in his lap. What exactly is the definition of "weapon of mass destruction"? I mean, if a pipe bomb can explode in a man's lab and it doesn't kill that man at point blank range, the destructive power of such a weapon is pretty weak, don'tcha think?

But, ever since the Patriot Act became law, it has been creating new definitions of terrorism, and the act that was supposed to curb terrorism is now being used against normal citizens, for normal crimes. Gee, who didn't see that one coming?

As I promised yesterday, here's a link to a column in the Providence Sunday Journal, "Going After Globalization" (registration required). Still a must read.

Hopefully I won't be so unemployed soon...

I've got a job interview this morning, so posting is going to be light today. Otherwise, I hope you wish me luck and hope that bad things do not happen to me. :)

One thing I have been reading today is a Salon interview with Tucker Carlson, a conservative host from CNN's Crossfire. You know, the one with the bow tie that you love to hate. But, I have a new found respect for the man with quotes like this:

"Well, what I think the problem is in general and, not just with Fox, but the genre, is that it encourages you to use a straw man. So for example you see hosts bring on, 'This is Jeffrey Mohammed X, and he's the president of the Association to Kill White Motherfuckers," and he'll be presented as a spokesman for black America. And then the host will say, "Well, how can you support lynching white people? That's just wrong!'

Well, of course, it's wrong! This guy doesn't represent anybody! The classic flipside, which I've seen much more, is that you get some 62-year-old, semi-retarded cracker whose like the lone member of his chapter of the KKK, and he represents white supremacists. How many white supremacists are there in America? There are about nine, and they're all mentally retarded. [heh!]

We really try to be above that. If we have some crackpot on the show, that crackpot speaks for people."

WTO talks collapse.

Today is "Bash Globalization!" day at Loaded Mouth

I've printed the Green Party's report on the WTO earlier today, so let's continue the topic. Today's Providence Sunday Journal has a great anti-globalization editoral which, unfortunately, they have yet to publish on their website. It's a must read, it says all the things that you are not supposed to hear about globalization through the mainstream media, like:

"The trouble with globalization as it is currently spreading is that there are numerous widely divergent nations making and selling stuff in the world market, and many have labor, environmental and other standards way below those of Western nations and Japan, if they exist (or are enforced) at all. And in many of these Third World places, the (corrupt) politicians and the enterpreneurs are one and the same. The effect is to lower inflation-adjusted wages for almot everyone -- except the honchos of certain kinds of large businesses and the investiment types who act as intermedisries for international financial deals.

Why don't we hear more about this accelerating vicious circle? Because it's those who benefit from the current system control national politics and most of the news media. [emphasis mine] ... These Democratic and GOP politicians have little or no contact wih the American proles suffering the ravages of globalization. They make photo-op campaign visits to factories, but their social life (and, of course, their fund-raising) is spent entirely with fellow rich folks."

I want to high-five this guy. More from the editorial:

"No economy is going to be sound that does not include a large, healthy manufacturing sector. You have to make things; the blue smoke and mirrors of 'services' isn't enough. A great American hope, of course, has been that an increasingly sophisticated high-value-added services sector would more than offset our dwindling manufacturing.

Dream on. The services sector, too, is coming under assault as U.S. firms 'outsource' such things as call centers, software and so on."

I think projo.com will have a link to this tomorrow, I will post it then so you can read the full editorial. It really is a must read.

Green Party WTO meeting/protests report

I hate writers block. I have plunged myself into news from the Cancun WTO meetings, yet I still don't know where to start. So I figured I could take the lazy way out and let somebody else do the work for me. Here are some excerpts from a Green Party report by their representatives on location:

"Outside of the official meeting zone, 20 kilometers away, over 10,000 protestors are being completely barred from entering. Tempers are flaring between the activists and military, mostly because the activists are not being allowed any chance, in any way, to make their concerns known to the officials. But, for the most part the demonstrations have remained calm and peaceful. A sad exception to this occurred September 10th,2003, during the Massive Peasant and Farmers March, when a South Korean farmer named Kyung Hae Lee committed ritual suicide by stabbing himself in the chest with a knife while standing atop of a barrier erected by the military. His suicide was a last act of desperation to bring to the attention of the world the urgent plight he and other small farmers face under the current rules being negotiated on agriculture at the WTO."

"Whenever a protest or activist group has gotten through, they have been swamped and surrounded by military police and restricted by moveable barricades."

"From the inside, our Green experts say that the reality of what is going on in the negotiations is that the WTO is falling apart. There are four areas of primary discussions which are major sticking points for the group. Those are agriculture, non-agricultural products, development and the Singapore issues. For instance, under the agricultural agreements, the USA and the EU have a joint position that is being blocked by the G-21, made up of mostly developing countries. They have a position that is not compatible at all to the US/EU. The United States and the EU refuse to stop or reduce their subsidies on agricultural exports. An example of this is subsidies provided for cotton. Four western African nations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, and Chad, have economies that are being destroyed by these subsidies, because local growers cannot compete with the low market prices US/EU countries can provide. This leads to tens of thousands of people losing their jobs, and facing severe poverty and starvation, which is contrary to one of the basic tenants of the negotiations of the WTO, which is supposedly very concerned with helping developing nations thrive, not destroy them, which is what is happening. These four African nations are demanding a resolution for this problem so that they can survive."

It's a great overview of what has happened at the meetings and the protests. Worth a read.