separated at birth?

what's lower than pond scum?

The expensively-dressed and all-too-influential pundits on Hardball were just arguing about the McCain campaign's use of Barack Obama's middle name of "Hussein" as being equivalent to the use of "Milhous," as in Richard Milhous Nixon. Much discussion was given over to the notion that "Hussein" is a Muslim name.

Huh?

Last I heard, names aren't religious. They are cultural. "Hussein" is an Arab or a Middle Eastern name. It may commonly be found in countries with large Arab populations, and it may commonly be found attached to humans who are members of the Muslim religion. It is also used by people who are not.

The only reason Obama's name is being fussed over by the right is to paint him as having some kind of terrorist affinity. They are doing it to insinuate that he may not be a true American and might even harbor some sort of malicious intent against the United States of America. That is repugnant, racist, and intolerable in a free society.

Of course Pat Buchanan thinks it's just peachy, that there's nothing wrong with doing that because, in his words, "but it's working!"

So, if I spread the rumor that Pat Buchanan likes to fuck five year-old boys because he's a Catholic and I manage to get him fired, is there nothing wrong with that either? After all, it would have "worked," and in Pat's nixonian world-view, that's the only thing that matters. Truth, integrity, honesty, dignity, gentlemanly fair play, none of those things count to a single one of them. It's not just winning, it's winning at any cost that determines the boundaries of propriety for these treacherous scumbags.


I have no idea how these subhuman creatures can live with themselves. Four more years of their rule and this country will cross over the line to totalitarian fascism. If we don't start to fight back and make them fear us, we are dead.

the times, they are a-chaaaaangin'

DATELINE - July 30, 2008:

Karl Rove cited for contempt of congress.
Cheech and Chong announce reunion tour.


Must be something in the water...

speaking of pets

I was just sitting here watching the debut of this History Channel show about evolution with tonight's episode being about the development of eyes in living organisms, and the freeloader was enjoying a prolonged snooze in his special private chair right beside me. Nothing disturbed him the whole evening and he wouldn't even budge when I petted him, but about forty-five minutes into the program they started discussing the eyes of cats and in particular that luminous reflective quality they have. As the narrator talked about the biological cause for said reflectivity they ran film clips of various cats of all sizes from housecat to lion, films that were shot in the dark and basically showed a nearly black television screen with a slightly less black silhouette of the cat with prominent greenish spots of eyes shining back at the camera. The previously comatose kitty next to me was suddenly in full alert, fixedly staring at the television, ears pricked and pointed forward, and his breathing speed was elevated. He was completely transfixed by what really amounted to a pair of green dots bouncing around the television and remained that way until that part of the show had been over for a couple of minutes.

I am constantly delighted by the faculties that three billion years of evolution have been able to embue the residents of this planet. How can anybody need gods when nature is so amazing?

Love for sale....

I'm stunned: Rent a pet????

I just can't get my head around this. I can't imagine what it's like for babies to go from one place to the next in a matter of hours and days.

Talk about lack of committment...

I have SERIOUS doubts about this.

Need a fur fix? Volunteer at a shelter.

Is there a law they haven't broken?

Yet another in a string by this administration and its minions:

"Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility, an internal report concluded on Monday."

NYT on the "Justice" Department Hirings

I'm two things in one...

...a man, and a mare.

who could have anticipated that?

The news broke today that columnist/hit-and-run driver Robert Novak has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, which may have caused the lack of realization that he hit a sixty-six year-old man, "splayed" him across the windshield of his black Corvette convertible, and sped off. I think we're all shocked and surprised by this discovery.

Robert Novak has brain tissue in his tumor?

crappy pilot, documented

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_mccain_lost_five_u.htm

Freedom Friday

Silent Posting
With His Blog Kaboom a Young Soldier Told of His War. Last Month, the Army Made Him Shut It Down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR2008072303970.html

Cartman conservatism

Rupert Murdoch's "Wall Street Journal" (irony quotes) has the most amazing editorial today, written by one Andrew Klavan, explaining how George W. Bush is like Batman, and once again explaining why we liberals are such pussies and conservatives are manly he-men who wear rubber suits with fake nipples. You can read the whole sordid mess at http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121694247343482821.html , but I'd like to reproduce one little piece of it here so you can decide for yourself whether to waste your time reading it.

Klavan says:

"That's real moral complexity. And when our artistic community is ready to show that sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values; and that while movie stars may strut in the bright light of our adulation for pretending to be heroes, true heroes often must slink in the shadows, slump-shouldered and despised -- then and only then will we be able to pay President Bush his due and make good and true films about the war on terror."


I don't know who this Andrew Craven is, but I do know one thing. If you violate your values "in order to maintain those values," you don't have any fucking values.

idiocracy

From a local news reporter at KAKE, Channel 10 in Wichita, Kansas:

"For a typical homeowner with a hundred-dollar water bill, the forty percent increase would raise their bill by around forty dollars."


To be fair, she had a gorgeous figure and strong white teeth.

sigh...

I buried my beloved baby boy at a corner of the house that I can see from my kitchen window. There was an old, expired rosebush of my mother's there that I've just never had the heart to cut down. Less than a week after I put my beautiful white kitty next to it, this appeared. I love you Monchy, and I will miss you forever, my son.

just one thing

Latenight television has introduced me to the wonderful philanthropist Jeff Paul. Jeff has a program called "Shortcuts to Internet Millions!" that he sells for a low, low price that shows anybody how to build their own website and watch the money pour in. It's like automatic money, according to some of the real people that Jeff shows on his infomercial. And not only does he show you how to make as much as eight thousand dollars in one day just by letting the online orders flow in, he offers twenty-four hour a day trained, expert telephone consultants to help you become a millionaire with Jeff's system and answer any questions you might have about how to make your fortune on the World Wide Web. Sure sounds great, Jeff, and I'm ready to send you my money to get your "Shortcuts to Internet Millions!" if you can just answer me one simple question:

If your trained, expert telephone consultants are so well-versed in your program that they can help anybody to get rich online working from the comfort of their own living room, how come they are working as inbound telemarketers?

"this is bullshit"

Undead columnist Robert Novak has been charged with hitting a pedestrian and fleeing the scene in his black Corvette convertible today. Novak was quoted in a 2001 Washington Post article as saying "I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don’t run the country, all I can do is yell at ‘em. The other option is to run ‘em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

Never is such a very long time to deny yourself, isn't it?

valley of the dollars

I just discovered that ten percent of the American populace is on anti-depressant drugs. Thirty million of my fellow Americans are so stressed out that they are willing to completely mess up their brain chemistry to hide from their own lives. We don't just live in the world of Orwell, we live in the world of Huxley as well, 1984 meets Brave New World. With the fact that antidepressants are incredibly profitable for the pharmaceutical companies and that the vast majority of these prescriptions are paid for by insurance companies, it's no wonder that so many Americans lack health coverage.

If we truly live in the greatest country in the world, how come every tenth American finds their life unendurable without powerful chemicals that permanently alter their brains?

an affair to remember

I just got this email from the McGoo campaign:

It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair. We want you to be the judge. We've compiled two videos of the more outrageous moments of this not so secret love affair. Follow this link to watch the two videos and vote on which one you think is better. Your vote will determine which video we put on the air. The media is in love with Barack Obama. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny.


You know what's really funny? The fact that John McGoo, the '72 Maverick, taunted Barack Obama into making the trip to the Middle East that is garnering him so much attention. What is really bothering him is that the media (HIS media, dammit, the one he paid for with the barbecues at the multimillion dollar cabin in Sedona that his millionaire thieving druggie second wife owns, and the special captain's chairs for the reporters that kiss the most ass on the Double Talk Express, the ones who used to sloppily fluff him every hour on the hour until his crassness and willingness to take any position that was politically expedient at the moment started becoming more and more difficult to overlook) is not berating and belittling Obama the way this crappy pilot who graduated right next to the bottom of his West Point class expected them to.

Here's some advice for you, Maverick:
"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."


I think he was talking to you. Perhaps some doughnuts with sprinkles would cheer you up. Now man up and quit your fucking whining. It's embarrassing.

I'm proud to be an American...

...where we tor-ture en-e-mies:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/21/torture/index.html

anniversary

July 20, 1969 - in the greatest single accomplishment of mankind, human beings set foot on another world for the first time in history.

I hear Beachboys

Governor George Bush's auxiliary wife has returned from her junket to Iran, and it seems things didn't go well. It appears the Iranian government rebuffed her noble diplomatic overtures and instead apparently lectured her about American arrogance.

Ms. Rice was quoted as saying "we expected to hear an answer from the Iranians but, as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious. It's time for the Iranians to give a serious answer. They can't go and stall and make small talk about culture, they have to make a decision. People are tired of the Iranians and their stalling tactics. We will see what Iran does in two weeks, but I think the diplomatic process now has a new kind of energy to it. If they do not decide to suspend then we will be in a situation where we have to return to the Security Council. From time to time, it is important to invigorate the diplomacy. I think that the fact that we went may have been a bit surprising to the Iranians, and they didn't react in a way that gave anyone any confidence. I think we've done enough to demonstrate that the United States is serious and to assure our partners that we're serious."



The deja vu in here is so strong, it's almost louder than reality...

Freedom Fridays

I don't know if we'll have time to keep it up, but for now I'll say this is the series of "Freedom Friday" posts. Freedom's the topic, here's the post...

Let's compare.

Hong Kong Bans Tibetan Flags

Schoolteacher Banned for Sign Comparing McCain to Bush

Actually, what I found equally disturbing is that when I used google to find a link to an article, any article about the schoolteacher's "experience", searching for such things as "school teacher mccain sign mccain=bush secret service" (in various combinations together) I had trouble finding the news item. I finally found one that had her name, so I googled her name and mccain's together and found a handful of local Colorado stories, and some links to "leftist" blogs.

Wow.

I use google a lot and it doesn't usually take that much effort to get relevant search results. Is no one covering these things or should I worry about this google owned application eating my post? Both, I guess.

paging Dr. Freud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vqANJCATrE

stockholm syndrome

In another example of one of those good deeds not going unpunished, our liar in chief today came out and announced that he had lifted the existing presidential Executive Order that prohibited continental-shelf oil drilling off the coast of the United States, and that now the only thing standing between the public and cheap gasoline was the Democrat party. Yes, just last week, this very party of Democrats got down on their knees and collectively gave Georgie a hummer better than Jeff Gannon ever did, signing away the Fourth Amendment and any opportunity to make the law-breaking telecoms and government employees who had violated federal statutes in order to spy on Americans under the pretext of preventing terrorism.

The Democrats just barely had enough time to wipe their chins and as they stood up today, George basically kicked them in the collective teeth and cursed them for being faggots. Yet somehow, the Democrats show absolutely no sign of being embarrassed by their own craven actions, and will almost certainly now eagerly get back down on their bruised and bloody knees in order to service the oil company barons in the White House and the cronies who put them there.

What is it going to take to get a functional two-party political system in this country?

symmetry

I just realized that my marriage began and ended with exactly the same thought:

"What did I do to deserve her?"

Patience is a virtue...

Complicated issue...and yes, probably largely self-inflicted.

As a licensed agent and a member of the National Association of REALTORS, I've seen some "stuff" in the last few years. I've seen hot markets and cold markets, for both buyers and sellers, and I watched the investors from California start bailing out and looking for other markets to invest in.

The market I live in is not as volatile as most, and I've done my best to help keep it that way. When the Californians started calling a couple of years ago--asking me to show them around for a half a day (while they made the same request of other agents--trying to decide which one was the most entertaining and made the most promises, I suppose) I explained how our market is different and told them they would have to adjust their expectations. I also said I didn't "do group real estate" and if they wanted me to represent them, they'd have to commit to me. Most of them moved on to an agent who wanted to risk their time and do a song and dance. They probably bought something from one of those agents, earned the agent a commission for it, and are now likely trying to manage a short sale, with the bank's permission, or they've been foreclosed on. If they were lucky, they paid cash and they'll sit on it for a few years and it will grow. Patience is a virtue. Patience is what I think most investors lack these days.

I didn't pick up many clients that way, but I sleep well at night, knowing I won't get sued, or feel guilty about them losing their shirts or their credit ratings. I also won't get snagged for participating in shady deals (aka loan fraud). I didn't make much commission off investors the last couple of years. Some agents did, and sometimes I envy them, but when one of my clients says:
"I’m sure you already know this, but I have to tell you anyway – it is great to work with you. You are honest and ethical, and I couldn’t ask for more." I know it's all worth it.

In those feeding frenzy days, we would regularly get e-mails from mortgage lenders with titles like:
"100% investor financing!" and we kept wondering why they would want to lend money to someone to buy and investment property (not a home they would be living in) and offer to let them buy it with no money down--no skin in the game to keep them from walking if the market tanked. One day my husband decided he had seen too many offers like that and hit reply. His response was short and sweet: "Why?"

Those were the days when we frequently, jokingly, said "fog a mirror? GET A LOAN!", only we were only half joking.

I heard a little of this show on Fresh Air Tuesday.
Fresh Air July 8, 2008

I was very interested in some of the observations made about the run up to this fiasco.

I heard it while driving across town to get the key from a house we just sold. It's a foreclosure and the owner is a bank. Fortunately I didn't sell it to the investor--I'm bailing out the bank that ended up buying the loan from the originator. We're selling to homeowners and to the second round of investors to hit the market--the ones that are getting the better deal. The one's who had the patience to wait. It's still going to take a while for it to mature, but it will mature.

well, we know where we stand

In the last week, John McCain's now-former Economic Advisor Phil Gramm announced that Americans were "whiners" because the economy has never been better (for Phil Gramm) and we should just pipe down. Now we find that the Federal Reserve is going to float Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions of dollars because of their self-induced economic troubles.

I'd sure like to know how come we're whiners who need to suck it up, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are just poor unfortunate folks that need a hand in troubled times. If I recall, us ordinary Americans aren't the ones who gambled our futures on worthless stock market maneuvering, pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries and compensations while sucking the finances of the citizenry dry.

Is it because that's the real republican base?

be afraid

I see a tremendous amount of truth here:

http://www.correntewire.com/lies_damnable_lies_and_political_commentary

must be spring...

...because the Snow is gone.

I won't be shedding any crocodile tears for Tony Snow. This wretched excuse for a human being helped enable the worst excesses of the Bush administration with a smile on his face and an insult for we who support the Constitution and rule of law on his lips. If I believed in such a place, I would say that I hope he's burning in hell.

Since I don't I'll just say "good riddance."

irony on wheels

From today's Washington Post editorial page, courtesy of Fred Hiatt:

"It takes a certain kind of man -- it's almost always the owner of a Y chromosome -- to take a gander at the Hummer, in all its broad, burly, paramilitary gas-guzzling glory, and see himself behind the wheel, striking fear and loathing in the hearts of ecologically sensitive motorists."


It's not caused by the Y chromosome, Fred. It's caused by the miniature penis attached to the owner of the Y chromosome. Drop your pants and you'll see what I mean.

all guns are loaded

I used to think a lot of Jesse Jackson. Despite his overt religiosity, I felt that he was an intelligent man who honestly cared about improving America and the world. I still think his heart is in the right place, but I wonder if he is as bright as I once thought he was. Mr. Jackson has had a few public missteps before, but his latest little star turn on the Foxist "News" channel is unbelievable. Here we have a man who has been around the media for decades, who has been tripped up by them before and routinely vilified by them, and he is foolish enough to think that there is such a thing as a private conversation in their own studio? Without even addressing the content of what he said during this embarrassing episode, I would think that anybody who has been in the position that he has been in for this long would understand that you assume all microphones are live.

Always.

Period.


And all the more so when you are in the lair of the beast.

so much for principles

Barack Obama has officially abandoned and ignored his previously stated support for the Constitution, voting to strip us of our Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure by our elected aristocracy. I guess we really do have too much freedom in this country.


"When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled."

blue

blue for the holiday...and the mood.
Back to black tomorrow....

broken heart

RIP Monchy. You were even better than your namesake. I have to go cry now.

jumping the minnow

The History Channel has officially descended into self-parody. When you give your television program a grandiose name like "MonsterQuest" and then, after coming up dry on every legendary monster you search for, you are finally reduced to devoting hour-long prime time shows to trying to find imaginary five-pound rats in New York City's subterranean realm, it's time to admit that you have milked your premise dry. It didn't work for Leonard Nimoy in the Seventies, and it's not working any better for you now.

If you are just bound and determined to seek things that aren't there, perhaps you could try "In Search of Real Science on The History Channel" next.

I'm not imagining things

I live in the midwest, where Cox Communications is the big cable/internet service provider in the region. For several years, their commercials have made me snicker and wonder whether they ever actually listened to what they were saying. Picture a cute teenage girl saying "gosh, Mom, what did we do before high-speed Cox?" or another classic advertising their movie channels with the tagline "you'll love staying home with Cox!"

Now I'm sure.

Tonight, I saw a promo spot for a new cable sports service. And just what, you ask, are they offering this time?




The Cox Soccer Channel.

in case you were wondering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4_MsrsKzMM

too good to be true?

I've been a MySpace member since late 2005, and while I don't spend a lot of time there, I at least visit my account enough to keep it updated and to have some idea of what is going on in the MySpace universe.

Every time that I visit my page, I am confronted with the customary MySpace advertising, but something has started bothering me in the last few months. Some of the biggest advertisers on MySpace are the dating and matchmaking services, folks who make big claims about their ability to hook you up with the love of your life, or at least the ravenous sex partner of your dreams.

However, I sense that these ads may be a bit misleading.

You see, for the last three years that I have been seeing these ads, one site in particular has shown the names, ages, and faces of the same three women. Teresa, Katherine, and Amanda, who are evidently a nurse, an attorney, and a financial industry professional, are said to live within twenty miles of my location, and all three of them are not only educated, professional females, they are gorgeous young women who are incredibly photogenic and experienced at posing and manifesting that pouty, come-hither look that you usually see on the covers of cheap "men's magazines."

I'm puzzled.

If these attractive, professional women in their middle twenties are so desireable, so exquisite of face and form, so intellectually gifted, so successful in the fast-paced and competitive world of American business, and so close to me geographically, why in the world are they still available after three years of having their profiles delivered to people like me on a daily basis?