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Check out some of the new articles that we've been working on over at Swina.com. You can also add Swina's RSS feed to your friends list: http://feeds.feedburner.com/swina
Democratic buckshot is a missed shot at NSAlito
So I have to say I've been fairly disappointed with the performance of Senate Democrats last week during Samuel Alito's SCOTUS confirmation hearings. With a little coordination and planning, they could have mounted a successful opposition of Alito that would have made obvious the necessity of the filibuster. But disorganization, poor message discipline, and ego rendered the Democrats' scattershot attacks ineffective and left the path clear for Alito's confirmation...
2005: The World in Review, Part 1 of 3 - January through April
January:
Johnny Carson kicks the bucket. I wonder if he had any of that life insurance that Ed McMahon has been peddling. The death toll from the Asian tsunami reached 225,000. Muslims and Christians each blamed their own variety of heathen - the gays. Former presidents Clinton and Bush combine their wonder twin powers to lead fundraising efforts for the victims. Mahmoud Abbas is elected to lead the Palestine Liberation Organization. In a related story, "Mamma Mia " entered its 32nd month, making it the longest-running Broadway show in the history of Las Vegas. The search for weapons of mass destruction ends in futility. In the Ukraine, Viktor Yuschenko was sworn in as the president of Ukraine after a bitterly contested election fight during which a poisoning attempt left him horribly disfigured, like a cross between Andy Richter and Bill Murray in an alternate universe without makeup or salycilic acid...
2005: The World in Review, Part 2 of 3 - May through August
May:
The Downing Street Memo documents UK foreign secretary Jack Straw's "well, duh" revelation that the Bush Administration was gaming pre-war intelligence to support the invasion of Iraq. Tony Blair squeaks out re-election. The successful Bush administration disarmament of the Axis of Evil continues, as Iran announces that it will resume nuclear activity. Bush and Vladimir Putin commemorate the 60th anniversary of V-E day, giving Bush the chance to make specious and strained analogies comparing Iraq to World War II. Bush looks forward to the anniversary of V-D day, where he could recall his brother Neil's bravery in Bangkok brothels...
2005: The World in Review, Part 3 of 3 - September through December
September:
When we last left the World in Review, George W. Bush was eating birthday cake and proving that he's actually a worse guitarist than president. Which is remarkably good timing, because nothing much was happening? Meanwhile, on planet earth, New Orleans swam in its own shit. Michael Brown asked for another bowl of zuppa toscana at the Olive Garden, while thousands of New Orleans residents cowered in fear at the Convention Center. Somehow FEMA claimed it didn't know people were there, in spite of it being on MSNBC, CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, BET, MTV, Nicktoons, E!, and inDEMAND. Bush returns from his vacation (after a detour to San Diego to sell his Iraq war nu making more false WWII comparisons, and one last night in his bed in Crawford), deigning to peer down at the destruction from Air Force One (actual quote: "It's totally wiped out. ... It's devastating, it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."), and then lands and promptly assures rich white guy Trent Lott that he's going to rebuild his lovely oceanfront home and enjoy a mint julep on the porch, lawdy lawdy...
Come check out all this and a lot more at swina.com. C'mon. You know y'all have missed my ass. |
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Some of you may have noticed that I haven't made a LiveJournal entry in two months.
It's because I've given up the ghost, more or less - I've redeployed my old website, Swina.com, as the new venue for my writing. It's a full community site and group blog, with forums, link sharing, e-commerce, and lots more. Bookmark it if you like reading my babblings, because I'm done making them via LiveJournal.
Come check it out.
-FIN- |
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Jesus Christ on a beignet. When exactly did these nincompoops actually turn into self-parody?At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials."
She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown.
"He said 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.
"'I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'"
"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she added. Not that he ever would, but Bush should really resign. He is in SO far over his head it's not even funny.
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So Halo and I were up in New Jersey yesterday at Six Flags Great Adventure, and I swear I've gotten so jaded about theme parks. I spent the whole day nitpicking everything, big and small, that they did wrong. We got to the park around 10:30 and discovered that they had no attendants in the parking lot, so people were driving around wherever they wanted, I'm wondering how many accidents they have a year. Kingda Ka, their new hot-shit 456-foot high, 128-mph roller coaster was closed. It was open for only a few weeks before it pulled a Space Shuttle Columbia and disintegrated onto itself, necessitating a month of repairs. No idea why it was closed yesterday, either due to weather (it was perfect outside, but maybe a little breezy), maintennance, malfunction, or maybe the minimum wage making teenager who disinterestedly yanks the belts that are the only thing separating a rider from certain death as a pile of ground-stew.
We went to Superman: Ultimate Flight, where they failed to post a wait time on the sign outside the attraction. This proved to be a recurring theme during the day. We wound up waiting for 90 minutes, and the ride was utterly not worth it. The position in which riders are suspended looks like they are about to engage in some receptive doggie style sex. The sensation is more uncomfortable than exhilirating, especially during a disorienting inverted loop.
Afterwards we went to Medusa, which looks completely out of place, its steel Joker-colored purple and green structure towering over the Frontier Adventures land. One wall of the structure was covered with discarded gum - gross, it showed how little pride Six Flags has in its property. I think I've been spoiled from my visits to Disney, and especially Universal, who proves that you don't have to choose between aesthetics and state-of-the-art thrill rides. But this was just gross. The ride itself was great, an intense, 3-minute long megacoaster with some real adrenaline to it. Both Halo and I considered this our favorite ride of the day.
Next up was Rolling Thunder, a classic wooden coaster that puts the fear of God into riders with its disconcerting rattle. The line crawled along, even though this is one of the few Great Adventure coasters where they can load one car while running another. A little girl behind us in line bitched that it was so slow because the park was cheap. Funny part was, she's right - the only difference in running one track vs. two is labor costs, you're running the same number of trains to accommodate the X number of guests in line either way.
After that we went on the Great American Scream Machine, the park's first mega coaster. It hasn't aged well, or at least hasn't been maintained well. Chunks of the shoulder restraints were missing, and the railings were rusty and covered with chipped paint. The ride was as rowdy as I remembered, with the unintended consequence of shaking my head against the restraint like I was a baby who wouldn't stop crying.
Next we walked across the park to Batman: the Ride, which was immensely popular when I last visited the park a decade ago, but now barely drew a line at all. This is one of the more enjoyable coasters at Six Flags, and the suspended in air thing was relatively innovative at the time. This one has held up well in spite of the technological advances that have left it in the middle of the pack. Sadly, the speakers that pumped mood music into the queue area were quiet. Once again Six Flags has cut corners that pull guests out of the moment and detracts from their enjoyment of the park. Disappointing, for sure.
Last up was Batman & Robin: The Chiller. Only the Robin side was running, which apparently is the way the ride has operated for the past two seasons. TWO SEASONS? The ride is so short - 51 seconds - that it takes more than three times as long to load up the cars. The ride is a linear induction, stop-launch coaster that sends you through a short but wild track forwards, and then backwards. The backwards coaster action was quite possibly the most unusual thing I've ever experienced in a coaster, watching the track rewind in front of us was pretty wild. But 51 seconds? They could do twice as many runs by simply having a track switcher at the loading platform, so that one car could be running while the other was in the load cycle. But then, it becomes apparent that reducing wait times in line is not consistent with a theme park's raison d'être, which is revenue streams. They want you to spend as much time in line as possible, so that you'll have to spend more than one day in the park in order to see everything. Even when they do promotional discounts for a second day, a visitor is still going to pay for parking and food and maybe shop a little more on day two.
Six Flags was shameless in its revenue streaming, with ads for 1-800-petmeds on the side of trash cans. They sell their "FastLane" line reservation system, which is similar to FastPass and Universal Express, both of which are free. Except that it totally sucks. First of all, it costs $50 for two people. Second, you have to carry around this little transmitter thingy, the Q-Bot, all day. Third, you have to walk up the exit of the ride, causing a bottleneck at the exit. People actually started booing when they announced a FastLane only train on the Chiller. It's just a really afterthoughty system, definitely not worth the money.
Glorious day to be out theme parking - perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky, mid-80s with slight humidity and a nice breeze the whole day. Sitting on the patio drinking overpriced American piss beer and snarking out on the scary public. New rule: if you get a Henna tattoo anywhere between your knees and your shoulders, you will grow up to be a gigantic whore.
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The scale and scope of the Bush administration's failure in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is astounding, even to someone who has been as critical of them as I have. This is surreal and sickening, watching as Bush and his merry band of nincompoops sputter around thanking one another endlessly while the fuckups pile up. He sounds like he's talking about Fallujah when he stands up there smugly grinning for the cameras. "They're making good progress." Is he talking about Iraq? "The convention center is secure." Fallujah? This speech is out of control - Bush is reminiscing about getting drunk in New Orleans and blowing sunshine up their asses ... for some reason he keeps saying "this part of the world" in reference to the Gulf Coast ... hey asshat, try this part of the COUNTRY. And then Gov. Blanco announces "Project Hope," reminding me more of the mayor of South Park than a real politician. FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP THANKING ONE ANOTHER!
Bush said, "I recognize that the devastation requires more than one day's attention."
Let's talk about days, shall we?
On Monday, as the hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast, Bush was in Arizona, literally eating cake while "sharing a laugh" with John McCain. Cake! Marie Antoinette is alive and well. On Tuesday, as 20 feet of water inundated the Big Easy, Bush was playing dress-up again, this time as country music star, playing a guitar on stage with Mark Willis. Think of Nero and his fiddle. He was off giving stump speeches that promoted his morally dishonest Medicare drug boondoggle. He was "catapulting the propaganda" in speeches that piss on the memory of the "greatest generation" by conflating Iraq with WWII. On Wednesday morning, after all hell broke loose Tuesday night, Bush woke up in his bed in Crawford. On Wednesday night, Condoleeza Rice was laughing it up at Spamalot on Broadway and getting accosted by an outraged woman as she bought a $3,000 pair of shoes while New Orleans drowned and seethed.
The out-of-touch, incompetent, indifferent George W. Bush made his priorities clear this week. The well-being of America comes third. Pushing his misguided, malfeasive policies comes second. "Going on with his life" comes first. Smirk, smirk, smirk.
Why was Bush not back in Washington until Wednesday? It was on Sunday morning that the National Weather Service issued a warning of a disaster of biblical proportions, citing "human suffering incredible by modern standards." Sunday. For Bush to tell the obvious, insipid, indefensible lie that nobody could have foreseen the levees breaking, when FEMA predicted exactly that as the third most likely disaster to strike America (behind terror in NY and tremors in SF). Several publications hypothesized about this very possibility as well - so to claim that nobody saw it coming is beyond unbelievable.
And where's Dick Cheney in all of this? He's been conspicuous by his absence. Americablog suggests he's gravely ill and hiding out in Wyoming. That would explain why Bush seems so rudderless, his puppetmaster is infirm.
I was sickened to hear FEMA chief Michael Brown (who Bush thinks is doing "a heck of a job")doing the CYA shuffle and blaming the victims. The elderly, the sick, the poor, for not leaving when they didn't have the means - and people don't realize that the price of leaving isn't just a $50 Greyhound ticket. You have to have money for food, for lodging ... the victims couldn't know in advance that aid would be made available to them. You have to assume that if you evacuate, you're paying for a three-day vacation for yourself. And urban poor simply do not have that kind of scratch - especially at the end of the month when many of them depend on government assistance checks that come on the 1st of the month. Unlike another hurricane victim whose home was destroyed by the hurricane - Sen. Trent Lott. As Bush saw fit to remind us:Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house is going to come a fantastic house, and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.
Even more damning than the class factor is the race issue. MSM pundits are openly wondering whether Bush would have responded with more urgency if New Orleans was full of Natalee Holloway's doppelgangers. You look on the television, and almost all the victims and refugees are black. America's dirty little secrets about race are on display for all the world to see. This thing is ugly on so many different levels.
Not the least of which is the underfunding of the Army Corps of Engineers' attempts to shore up the levees, and it's no secret where that money went. It went to Iraq, along with 40% of the National Guard troops of each of the affected states, plus half of their helicopters, and many of their amphibious vehicles. For what exactly do you need a light-armored amphibious vehicle in the desert?
In front of the whole world, America is showing that it can not multitask. The laborious Iraq debacle is a lead weight around the neck of the Republic, and we are so preoccupied trying to keep wheels from coming off in Iraq that refugees in New Orleans are not given the relief given to third world countries? America is no longer a superpower. We are a limping giant. Wake up America, the emperor's buck-ass naked. This is the exact same non-response we would have if somebody had detonated a dirty bomb. You'd have to deal with mass evacuations, food and water logistics, and pandemonium on the streets. Why would FEMA and the rest of the Federal government do any better in that situation? Everything they've done since 9/11 to increase the security of the country is a load of shit. The expensive, useless bloatracracy known as the Department of Homeland Security, which has eviscerated FEMA over the last few years.
The chickens have come home to roost. George Bush's litany of disastrous decisions has yielded staggering, shattering consequences that have resulted in the eradication of an American city and more deaths than the entire War on Terror. This makes 911 look like a scraped knee, and the Bush administration has stumbled, fumbled, and bumbled when the Generalissimo couldn't wrap himself in a flag and bomb a third-rate despot into submission.
This is a stunning, abject, miserable failure of leadership. Even for the Bush administration, with its track record, this is, to be sure, a new high-water mark.
I am utterly shocked and appalled by what I've seen in the past week. Words can't even express the depths of this disaster, and the culpability of Bush personally and his administration more generally.Seratonin says::  disgusted. |
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dude, this stuff sucks to eat. its not fatal... but it sucks a lot. especially when mixed with tequila and beef fajitas. take my word on this--your body rejects everything that is not bolted down inside of it, and continues to do so for a good 12 hours. not a good thing.
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 Everything I hate about Virginia encapsulated in a single event:
A crowd of 5,500 morbidly obese lower-middle-class sweatpants-wearing Springer refugees trampled the shit out of one another at a NASCAR racetrack trying to get their hands on used $50 surplus iBooks.
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Jacked from Atrios:"But whether it be here or in Washington or anywhere else, there's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job," Bush said on the ranch. "And I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say."
"But," he added, "I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."
The comments came prior to a bike ride on the ranch with journalists and aides. It also came as the crowd of protesters grew in support of Sheehan, the California mother who came here Aug. 6 demanding to talk to Bush about the death of her son Casey. Sheehan arrived earlier in the week with about a half dozen supporters. As of yesterday (Saturday) there were about 300 anti-war protesters and approximately 100 people supporting the Bush Administration. In addition to the two-hour bike ride, Bush's Saturday schedule included an evening Little League Baseball playoff game, a lunch meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a nap, some fishing and some reading. "I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy," he said when asked about bike riding while a grieving mom wanted to speak with him. "And part of my being is to be outside exercising." It's probably easier to "go on with your life" when you haven't had your child killed in Iraq. What a douchebag. You'd think his handlers were more PR-savvy than this.
The wheels are coming off the Bush administration.Seratonin says::  hot |
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Or, the Curse of Charlie Murphy.
First Rick James dies. Then Dave Chappelle goes batshit crazy.
And now ... Eddie's wife leaves him.
Sigh. Next thing you know, Charlie will be trying to hit the high F in "Loving You."
Note to self: put money on Prince in celebrity deathpool.
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| » I'm in trouble |
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So according to AOL Cityguide, the best pizza in DC is right down the block from my new apartment.
I took the Pepsi challenge tonight, and it lives up to the hype.
I'm in deep, deep trouble.
Aug. 2nd, 2005 @ 01:27 am
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| » Long time no write. |
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I haven't updated my LiveJournal in the past two weeks or so, kind of been a lot going on.
Halo and I moved into our new apartment in Fair Lakes. That's been an interesting experience, to be sure. We moved in on the 20th, only to discover that contractors were still in our apartment, doing the renovations to it that were scheduled to have been completed by the 18th. Not only were they not done, but what they did do was completely half-assed. They didn't clean up after themselves and were gratuitously sloppy - things like leaving shit in the toilet bowl and hair in the freezer. Plus they didn't fasten at least three shelves securely, left a leaky faucet in the bathtub, spilled paint everywhere, left piles of plaster dust, etc. etc. etc.
We threatened to move out the next day, and they literally begged us to stay, promised they'd take care of us, make this right, etc. etc. etc. - they're still dragging their feet on some of the repairs. They made all the right noises when we went in to complain but the proof is in the pudding.
Fortunately, most of the big stuff is out of the way and it's just the little things that remain. We've painted the apartment - the living room is Yukon gold, the dining room is sapphire blue, the bedroom is mountain resort pale olive. All we have to do now is put up our curtains, buy some plants, and a bookshelf, and we're done.
Second thing that's been eating my life of late has been the Users' Conference I was working on for my company and our clients - over 100 people showed up, and seemed really engaged and interested the whole day. We came off as being totally confident and competent, set out a primo spread for our clients all day long, and showed that we weren't afraid to have our users talk to one another - which is very telling. I had been putting in anywhere from 10 to 17 hours a day pulling this together, so to have it go off as completely successfully as it did was a relief.
A few terse comments on political issues I've been neglecting.
Roberts for SCOTUS: OK, I totally didn't see that one coming. At first he seemed pretty much non-offensive, but as more of his record spills out, he's being revealed much more to the right than was previously known. Which shouldn't come as a surprise. Still, I think the Democrats painted themselves into a corner with the nuclear compromise, so I think their resistance to Roberts would be futile.
Rove: Yup, he's totally going to jail. Too bad Bush will pardon him immediately. And then re-hire him, most likely.
Bolton: I hope the ambassador from Syria steals his toupee.
Aug. 1st, 2005 @ 09:33 am
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| » Handicapping the SCOTUS |
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 Rumor is, President Bush and his 155 IQ will be announcing Day-O's replacement at 9pm tonight. That way he can take the focus off Karl Rove for a full two news cycles - one for the anticipation and one for the release.
Here are my odds for each of his possible picks.- Edith Hollan Jones 2:1 - Woman? Check. Virulently anti-abortion? Check. Bloviates about moral values? Check. Pro-gun? Check. Anti-consumer? Check. Nominating Jones would be a love letter to the base. Shoring up the base will likely be a priority with Rovegate squatting into the air conditioning. Watch for Republicans to call Democrats sexist for objecting to her just-right-of-Genghis-Khan stance.
- Priscilla Owen 4:1 - Bush loves Texans. Bush loves nominating people he already knows. Bush and Prissypants go way back, and she's of the Scalia-Thomas mold that gives Bush such a hard-on. Bush also loves saying "fuck you" to Democrats, and nominating Owen would be one of the strongest possible ways to flip the bird leftward. Of course, Democrats would rightly filibuster, and Republicans would (reasonably) argue that if she was an acceptable Appeals Court nominee, why is she an unacceptable SCOTUS nominee? Those seven Democratic Uncle Toms in the Gang of 14 will regret their pusillanimity if Owen is nominated again.
- Edith Clement 6:1 - She has been getting a lot of press recently as a possibility, and would probably be about the best we could hope for - she has stated that the Constitutional right to privacy extends to abortion and that the law's pretty much settled on that. Her record doesn't have a lot of controversy, and her confirmation would probably be relatively smooth, given her conservative, strict constructionist reputation. However, the Dobson/Falwell/Taliban wing of the GOP would shit themselves over Bush appointing a pro-choice justice to the Supreme Court, so it ain't gonna happen.
- Alberto Gonzales 8:1 Fewer hangers, more leashes! Like Owen, "Speedy Rendition" Gonzales has been with Bush since the days when Rove and McClellan would bicker like a pixelated married couple on COPS over who got first dibs on an Austin gay bar glory hole. However, his "moderate" stance on abortion makes him radioactive to the right - so radioactive that Democrats wouldn't even have to object to his waterboarding, fluorescent light sodomizing ways in order for his nomination to be scuttled. Probably not going to happen, although just wait til Rehnquist dies.
- Janice Rogers Brown 12:1 Same political and ideological reasons as an Owen nomination, but without the personal loyalty. At least she would have been on the correct side of that ridiculous eminent domain decision last month. Plus, Bush <3's empty gestures to token Negroes, and Republicans love accusing Democrats of racism. Like being black excuses you from being a stupid bitch.
- Sen. John Cornyn 20:1 Easy confirmation, followed by the most ironic assassination ever.
- Samuel Alito 50:1 Forget that his name is reminiscent of a delicious Sausalito cookie from Pepperidge Farm, his nickname is "Scalito" because of his judicial resemblence to that fat, smug grody-looking, orgy-having, duck-shooting fuck who'll probably be the next Chief Justice. Bush loves Scalia-style judges, but his penis works against him.
- Emilio Garza 80:1 His Daddy almost nominated Garza, and Bush loves nothing better than showing up his Poppy. He can pander to illegal immigrants later. Now is the time to pander to Jesus freaks.
- Karl Rove 1000:1 Because the Congressional Medal of Honor simply wasn't honorable enough for this great, great, GREAT, super terrific, great, great guy.
Pretty much any way we go, we're fucked.
Jul. 19th, 2005 @ 02:06 pm
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| » Goodbaaaa cruel world |
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Baa the time you read this, I will already be gone.
Why am I suddenly craving gyros and Kool-Aid?
Jul. 8th, 2005 @ 07:10 pm
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| » My Wonkette impersonation |
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How much prison sodomy do you think Karl Rove will enjoy before Bush pardons him? And will Rove accept that pardon, knowing full well he'll have to go back to paying Jeff Gannon to make him squeal like a pig?
Speaking of which, ass sex is still a good option for those of you who don't own any coat hangers.
To all the smug, macho, simple-minded pricks who voted for Bush in direct conflict with your own self-interest, I hope all your condoms break.
<3.
Jul. 2nd, 2005 @ 01:32 pm
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| » Roundup of randomness |
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I see you got your bong there, Bong Boy!
Americablog exposes the source of the playbook used by Karl Rove, desperately trying to forget about his latent homosexuality by asserting his alpha-maleness at the expense of Democrats' patriotism:"Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
-Hermann Goering 4/18/46 Just call this the 43rd Reich.
Stealing a page from Bill Maher. New rule: Democrats need to stop apologizing. For anything. Period. Republicans have mastered the art of fake outrage when people on the left (or the right, for that matter) speak obvious truths about things like our Guantanamo techniques being reminiscent of despotic tyrant regimes, or about the GOP being a "white Christian party." But Rove can slit your mother's wrists and make your father watch her bleed to death while he anally rapes him, all while dressed in a SS uniform, while advising Bush to issue an executive order overturning the Emancipation Proclamation and the 19th Amendment, and the entire GOP establishment would stand behind it and argue that anyone who disagrees hates America, freedom, and apple pie.
Apologizing - especially when you're right - makes you look like a pussy. Voters, wanting to exert their fake masculinity as much as politicians, see the tail-turning as weakness and vote accordingly. It's a very easy leap of logic to make, that if Democrat X won't defend himself, how can he be expected to Defend Amurrca? Democrats need to get over this idea that they can take the high road and win any arguments, or any elections. Because it just isn't working.
Politics is a brutal game - the GOP understands that. The Democrats still don't. Our side needs the unity the Republicans have. Their side is pretty much a cult of personality - the Bush Davidians. Our side is hobbled by infighting and disloyalty. Should loyalty to party be the Democrats' first priority? No, of course not. But it's time for us to stop eating our own.
And I've had it with all the crowing about Democrats being nothing more than a "party of opposition." You're goddamn right the Dems are the party of opposition. Opposition to the dismantling of Social Security. Opposition to infantile, delusional wink-wink "trust me" warfighting. Opposition to the demolition of the wall between church and state. Opposition to unfettered assaults on individual privacy and rights. Contrary to how they've acted recently, Democrats are not the GOP Lite. They need to find their spine and regain their identity, and having Dean and Reid in leadership positions is a good start. Sacking Lieberman and other appeasers wouldn't be a bad idea either. Losing a big naval base in his state wouldn't hurt on that line item.
In other news: have we run out of missing white girls already? I think I saw Wolf Blitzer's beard interviewing a cat stuck in a tree. Sheesh.
Jun. 25th, 2005 @ 12:14 pm
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| » "controlled demolition" of the World Trade Center |
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I'm not really one to pimp conspiracy theories, but here's the granddaddy of em all...
As reported in today's Washington Times, of all places...A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings." This isn't the first I've read of something like this, but the first time that it's been reported by UPI and picked up by one of the nation's most conservative newspapers. Here's a very well-documented and plausible theory written by David Ray Griffin, former Professor of Theology at the School of Theology at Claremont and Claremont Graduate University, and the author of The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 and 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions.
Of course, don't expect this story to get any traction - far be it for the WaPo, NYT, or CNN to challenge the conventional wisdumb of the Bushies.
Jun. 15th, 2005 @ 11:09 am
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| » Living vicariously |
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I made French toast Saturday morning for Halo and the Eponymous Drunk, who crashed here after Buzz last night - fresh sourdough battered in egg, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and Grand Marnier, stuffed with marscapone cheese, honey, blueberries, and strawberries. Topped with powdered sugar and served with vanilla and strawberry syrups. Syri?
Whatever. It looked good as shit.
Edited: for dinner, skewers of chicken (in a lemon, garlic, and fresh rosemary marinade) with paprika seasoned red onions, green peppers with a touch of powdered mustard, sweet red peppers, grape tomatoes, and sprigs of fresh rosemary for presentation.
Edited again: Bought a wok on Sunday. Made pork stir-fry with peppers, broccoli, water chestnuts, and bean sprouts, served with Thai peanut sauce and Fiery Noodles of Death(tm).
Someone needs to give me my own restaurant.
Jun. 12th, 2005 @ 07:41 pm
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| » An open letter to David Brooks of the New York Times |
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Dear Mr. Brooks,
I am writing you in regards to your most recent column, "In Africa, Life After AIDS," published in the New York Times on 9 June 2005.
Now a positive test is not a death sentence.
You have got to be shitting me. Your most recent column is the most detached from reality, head-up-your-ass thing I have ever read in my life.
Now a positive test is not a death sentence.
Did I miss the part where they found a cure?
Now a positive test is not a death sentence.
So you're telling me that all those Africans infected of AIDS won't sooner or later be killed by it?
Now a positive test is not a death sentence.
I hope you didn't burn your lips blowing all that sunshine up your readers' collective ass.
Now a positive test is not a death sentence.
I hope you get HIV, so you can report first-hand on what an uplifting, life-affirming experience it is.
In fact, I hope you get that overhyped Super AIDS that the Times attempted to pimp into hysteria earlier this spring. Maybe then you'll get a Pulitzer.
Dumbass.
Yours in Christ,
Jay Fenster
Jun. 9th, 2005 @ 01:08 am
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| » Halo and I got the apartment! |
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792 square feet of SWEET. Huge windows, wood-burning fireplace, tons of closet and drawer space, separate laundry room, freshly remodeled kitchen and bath, separate vanity, and a 10-minute commute.
Jun. 8th, 2005 @ 07:45 pm
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