Feeling informed

Since I don’t have much time to go online here in the Bible Belt, I have to depend upon whatever local rag provides news around Fayetteville. (Or USA Today, and, er, no thanks.)

So what have I learned today? On page 1A, I learned that our FAA and military supposedly had trouble communicating with each other on 9/11. So much forr practice drills that would rules out things like this from ever happening.

Also on page 1A, I learned that Bush, despite his inability to offer new evidence to support his theories, still claims that Saddam was linked with al-Qa’ida. But, he added, there is no evidence that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11. Gee, couldn’t he have admitted this before invading Iraq?

On page 2A, they ran an article about a conservative group trying get theaters to pass on airing Michael Moore’s new film. Ahhh, you have to love these red-blooded Americans definition of freedom. These people will harp about how great this country is and how we all have an abundance of freedom to do whatever we want, but the minute somebody disagrees with them, then that person shouldn’t enjoy the same rights. Whatever happened to just letting people see the movie and decide for themselves what to think about it? Shockola! What a concept!

Buried on page 12A was some little story about a car bomb at a recruitment center in Baghdad, 41 people dead, 150 injured. You know, no biggie. That shouldn’t be on the front page at all, especially with 6/30 just a couple weeks away.

And, since I’m in the Bible Belt, there was a “Faith” section. This being Friday, there was also a “Weekend” section that had a big picture of Jessica Simpson on the cover. I’m sorry, but she’s ugly. I can’t understand why she’s popular since these “artists” aren’t famous for their “talent.”

And if I was in a mood to complain, I’d mention that my cell phone doesn’t get service in any part of this city. But I’m on vacation, so I try not to be bitter. I had pork last night, I’m happy.

D'oh!

So here I am in North Carolina. I just went to South of the Border and snapped a few photos, and planned on posting these and other photos I snap during the rest of my stay here.

But the USB cable to my digital camera is in Rhode Island.

Whoops.

I guess you may not be hearing from me for a while...

Gone fishin'

I'm heading down to North Carolina for this Metal Nation thing. My friend didn't want to go alone, knew I liked roadtrips and that I'll take any chance I get to leave this state, so I'm tagging along. With any luck, I can snap more photos like this. One always seems to find visual treasures beyond the Mason-Dixon line. :)

I'm taking the laptop with me, but there will be light blogging until Monday. Matt is going to take over, Lumenia is super busy but may post something, and if you have any time to rant, F'in Mat, feel free.

Now... To the Batmobile!

But record companies are losing money, and it's all MP3's fault!

Dear God,

Please, make the pain stop.

Thanks,
tas

P.S. - Why the fuck did you let Bush steal the election?

The largest group of doctors in the US can't be wrong

If the American Medical Association says the morning after pill should be available, then what's the FDA's problem with it?

Just the basics are needed

I'll let this story speak for itself.

At least 10 million people caught up in 20 conflicts around the world are in dire need of basic food, shelter and medical care because humanitarian workers can't reach them, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday. ...

Humanitarian workers are also blocked from helpng 3.5 million Palestinians, 3 million people in eastern Congo, 1.6 million in northern Uganda, 1.5 million in Ivory Coast, 1.2 million in the northern Caucuses, 1 million in Afghanistan and 500,000 in Liberia...

I've placed emphasis on situations that we have to take some responsibility for. 3.5 million Palestinians lack food, shelter, and medical care. Yet when Israel complains about terrorism and marches in there with their bulldozers, our government hardly says boo about it. As reprehensible as suicide bombers are, if Israel and the US are keeping millions of Palestinians in extreme poverty, is it really any wonder why they resort to using such tactics?

Oh, I know, some people will whine, "How dare you blame America first! Those Palestinians are sub-human killers!" Blah blah blah. Well, if you're one of those people, fuck you. No, actually.. No. That's what I want to say, but that won't get us anywhere. I'm just going to state the facts: Poverty breeds terrorism. If we are culpable in allowing Israel to place millions of Palestinians in extreme poverty, then we are partly responsible for the violence borne out of it. Give these people a home and a job, and I guarantee you that suicide bombers will become a thing of the past. This isn't anti-semitism; it's common sense.

Seeing that America is partly responsible for this situation, then I have absolutely no problems with blaming America first.

As for Afghanistan's million, great. Just great. I'm not sure how much I can say about this one, because I don't know how many Afghani's were in dire need of help before 9/11, but a million people is still a million people. This exists after we bombed the country back to the stone age, and this is happening under a government that we installed. Hence, it's a failure that we're responsible for. It's rather sad that Bush lied to the nation and set his eyes on Iraq while this crisis is going on in Afghanistan.

And not to ignore "good" news

Gas prices have dropped! Now, instead of paying $2.13 a gallon, I can pay $2.05!

Big. Fucking. Whoop.

They love us! They really love us!

Latest poll shows that the liberated Iraqis want us to get the hell out. In the meantime, Iraqi oil pipelines keep getting attacked. There's also this comforting blurb about the Iraqi police near the end of the linked article:

On Tuesday, dozens of Iraqi Shiites complained that Shiite truck drivers who had sought refuge in a police station in the Sunni town of Fallujah were instead handed over to extremists, who killed them after they were unable to pay a ransom. Six of them were found dead Monday in a morgue in Ramadi, also a Sunni town.

This is who we're depending on the keep Iraq secure after June 30? Jesus Christ.

Why are US trucks bringing radioactive material into Iraq?

Why why why?

Noooo...

Johnny Ramone has cancer, and it's not looking good. :(

This seriously sucks. First Joey, then Dee Dee... I read Dee Dee's autobiography after he died. By the end of the book, he talked about kicking the smack habit, knowing that he needed to in order to live, and things were looking up. If anything constructive can come out of these events, consider that book to be it. It's become one very powerful anti-drug book.

Sigh.

Terrorism? Where?

The new State Department report on "Patterns of Global Terrorism" fails to take into account literally hundreds of terrorist attacks in 2003. It also seems to gloss over the fact that our good buddies Pakistan seem to be quite the base for terrorist groups connected to al-Qa'ida.

Loaded Mouth Insultathon!

Taking any chance I can get to leave this state, I'm going to North Carolina Wednsday night, not to return until Sunday. I'm contemplating bringing the laptop with me to upload goofy pictures to the blog, but the majority of updates well probably be done by Matt.

Matt has already asked me if he can post ANYTHING he wants.

Uhm...

So I have a feeling this blog will turn into an insultathon over the weekend. :) People may not be as insulted as they were over the "Asshole of the Week" columns by [ahem] Rabid Bitch, but this could be a close second.

So I figured I'd set the tone early here. I thought of a new song title! Ready?

"I sent Abu Ghraib footage to America's Funniest Home Videos."

I know that's pretty weak, but it's a start.

Eat your vegetables, like french fries!

No shit. While they're on a roll, I think the government should designate Bush as a vegetable, too. At least they would be accurate for once. :)

And the award for the best, no bullshit headline goes to...

"US film board rules Fahrenheit 9/11 unsuitable for teens," from the Hindustan Times. God forbid that teenagers in this country ever get subjected to a bit of reality. It's much too dangerous to have 16-17 year olds see a movie that displays some horrors of war; we can just wait until they're 18, recruit them, and ship them off to see the real thing!

The Compulsive Liar

Cheney needs to get some psychological help. Seriously. He's caught in another lie about Halliburton, but yesterday he just couldn't stop. Offering up no new evidence, Cheney again makes the long disproven claim that Saddam was connected to Osama. This guy just can't stop lying. Hey, didn't the GOP have a recent president impeached for lying...?

[14:02 update: Salon's also pissed that the media refuses to call Cheney on his lies, remembering the treatment Gore got from the press 4 years ago where, essnetially, they just made shit up about him. Here, Cheney is caught flat out lying -- twice in one day! -- and nothing. Unfuckingbelievable.]

Why did they support it in the first place?

The League of Women Voters will not be supporting electronic voting machines that don't provide a paper backup. But if this sentence from the article is any indication, this election could possibly already be screwed.

About 30 percent of the electorate will use touchscreen voting machines in the November election, and hardly any of the machines provide paper records that could be used in case of a contested election.

Greaaat...

What did Bush know, and when did he know it?

Unbelievable.

Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator who was fired in 2002 after complaining about bureau incompetence...

Edmonds worked for the FBI for six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks helping to translate a massive backlog of wiretaps. She claimed the FBI told her team to work more slowly, lest their efficiency undermine the bureau's attempts to leverage more money from Congress. She also claims a fellow translator tried to recruit her into one of the organizations that the FBI was investigating, but that FBI officials were uninterested in investigating a potential a mole was in their midst. The bureau fired her soon after, and in 2002 the Justice Department imposed a gag order on Edmonds. ...

In February, she testified before staffers on the 9/11 Commission that contrary to the assertions of Bush administration officials, the FBI did have detailed information indicating terrorists planned to use airplanes in a major attack against the United States. President Bush's Aug. 6, 2001, daily intelligence briefing, recently declassified, indicated as much. But Edmonds hints at more explosive details while lamenting that the gag order prevents her from elaborating.

The Mainstream Stenographers

Let's talk Dick. Here's some selected quotes from the linked article, placed out of order in a search to find the real story.

Cheney repeatedly has denied that he had any influence over the decision to award the massive contract [to Halliburton] last March. "As vice president, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts let by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government," he said on NBC's "Meet The Press" last fall.

But this is what the beginning of the article says.

Pentagon officials have acknowledged that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and other Bush administration political appointees were involved in a controversial decision to pay Halliburton Inc. to plan for the postwar recovery of Iraq's oil sector, a Democratic lawmaker [Rep. Henry A. Waxman] said yesterday.

So what does The Big Dick do when he's caught in a lie? He, uhm, lies.

"The policy of this office always has been and continues to be that if a staff member is approached with information about a pending government contract for Halliburton, the standard response is to state that we don't get involved in those decisions and do whatever is best for the country," one aide said.

So who should we believe, Waxman or a Dick? It may depend on who has something to hide.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., who was briefed by Pentagon officials last week, issued a letter to the vice president yesterday demanding full disclosure of the top-secret process that led to awarding the contract to the Houston-based oil services company.

I hate to be horribly biased, but what the hell? I know the media is supposed to report the news in an unbiased manner, but does that automatically mean they are just supposed to be stenographers for the government? Do we really have to dance around the actual story?

Here's the actual story: Dick Cheney, who could defend himself by releasing doucments that Waxman has asked for, chooses not to. Why? Could it be because he's guilty?

And why isn't the media requesting these documents from Cheney? How come there's no blurb in this story about the reporter or the newspaper being denied the same documents Waxman has also asked for?

I know the media is supposed to be unbiased, but if you have a high government official caught in a lie, why isn't his feet being held to the fire? They had no problem leaving Clinton out to dry for a blowjob, so what's the problem when there are actual crimes being committed? Isn't it also the media's job to be critical, to dig for answers, and to get the story? And if we don't have a media that functions properly, how are we supposed to have informed citizens? We have to have informed and educated citizens for democracy to function properly, otherwise we just have a bunch of brainless idiots walking into the voting booth.

I just find it disappointing that little shit bloggers like myself can look at an article like this and see the real story, but editors making more money then I'll ever see in my life can't. If a statement like that can be made, then there's some serious problems within our mainstream media.

[Crossposted to Blunted on Reality.]

There's only a few bad apples involved with the torture at Abu Ghraib

And, has dKos points out in a lengthy post you should read, those bad apples are probably in the Bush administration.

Bush is spending money like he's a drunk liberal

Headline: "Defense bill to top $1 trillion." I wish the first two paragraphs of this story would surprise me, but gaining that feeling is tough in this day and age.

As Congress moves ahead with a huge new defense bill, lawmakers are making only modest changes in the Pentagon's plans to spend well over $1 trillion in the next decade on an arsenal of futuristic planes, ships and weapons with little direct connection to the Iraq war or the global war on terrorism.

House and Senate versions of the 2005 defense authorization measure contain a record $68 billion for research and development - 20-percent above the peak levels of President Reagan's historic defense buildup. Tens of billions more out of a proposed $76 billion hardware account will go for big-ticket weapons systems to combat some as-yet-unknown adversary comparable to the former Soviet Union.

If what I read is true, then that means this bill will blow wads of defense cash on weapons that we can't use in the war on terror. The money will be spent to fight an, ahem, "as-yet-unknown adversary."

What the fuck is that shit about? As-yet-unknown? Are we going to draw their name out of a fucking hat or something? Will Bush have a bingo ball in the Rose Garden, crank the handle a few times and then pull out a ball? "And the lucky winner is... Micronesia! Prepare for war! Don't mess with Texas!"

Excuse me while I bury my head in the sand for the next decade. I just can't take it anymore.

Fark Headline of the Day

"You're drinking, you're hungry, you microwave the cat"

The final note on Reagan

If the right, in preserving Reagan's legacy, didn't insist upon ramming lies about him down our throats, then the partisan battles you saw after his death wouldn't have happened. They DO know that the left is filled with a bunch of media watchdogs, right? They DO know that if they use the mainstream media as a vehicle for their lies, they will get smacked down -- no matter what the circumstances are -- right?

The Republicans had the choice to make Reagan's death a non-partisan affair. Instead, they made Reagan a political football for this election year. That being the case, they realy have no right to accuse his detractors of disrespect. All they had to do was stop lying, and everyone would have bene happy. But they decided to lie, and they know perfectly well that those lies are going to be met with the truth. The GOP asked for it, and they got what they deserved.

Holy Mayor McCheese!

Headline: "Mobs Attack Indian Theaters Over Lesbian Film."

Well, if I'm too lackadaisical to do anything today...

I'll point out somebody who isn't. In comments to yesterday's post about the flaws of electronic voting, Melanie is urging you to write to Diebold. From their website:

"If you have further questions regarding our services in the election industry, please call us toll free to speak with a Diebold representative.

"U.S.A.: 1-800-433-VOTE (8683)

'Or you can e-mail us at susan@dieboldes.com "

Hey, it wouldn't hurt. Personally, I can't see the big deal with is with Congress getting some common sense and passing a bill clearly stipulating that all voting machines need to have a verified paper trial in order to be legal. Has the political climate in this country become so partisan that even non-partisan legislation like this wouldn't be able to pass?

Not really in the blogging mood today. Sorry.

...in the meantime, here's some dog blogging. Just because



And I just found this cartoon which explains a lot...



Heh.

Holy fuck

Headline: "Fla. Voting Machines Have Recount Flaw."

I'm not even going to read this whole article, because I still can't get over the fact that it's 2004 and stories like this can even exist. Nevermind the fact that four years after arguably the most contested and flawed election in history, our government is allowing companies to develop electronic voting machines with security flaws the size of Texas. Nevermind the fact that these new machines aren't even legally required to produce a paper ballot backup so the vote knows who they actually voted for. Nevermind the fact that half of our society is still so computer illiterate that technology scares them and they'll probably fuck up their vote on an electronic machine anyways. Nevermind the fact that Diebold is run by a diehard Republican who pledged to deliver Ohio to Bush.

Why do these stories even exist? It absolutely boggles my mind that we, as a society, can even allow our voting booths to have such flaws, especially after the last presidential election. How come it's an independent journalist like Bev Harris is digging up the real story on Diebold, and not a high profile journalist from the New York Times or Washington Post? If these papers don't have investigative journalists who can do their fucking jobs, why don't they hire Bev Harris? I mean, honest to fucking god, what's the big deal here? How come nobody's feet are being held to the fire for the mere existence of flaws that could easily be fixed?

Sunday is Cartoon Day!

As always, two by Ted Rall.

Feeling inadequate?

Holy shit.

Sunday is Sex Day! (Again?)

What are some things you make a conscious effort never to do during sex?

For example, my one word answer: fart.