April 2004 Archives

Still think conservatives have your best interests at heart? Wrong again. When Nightline runs its tribute to our fallen soldiers tomorrow night, any affiliates owned by the Sinclair group will be forbidden to air it. And yes, they are unabashed Bush backers. So much for that First Amendment.

Meanwhile the government is apparently too busy spying on Castro to look for Bin Laden. I can't even make up stuff this irresponsible.

Bonus feature: how to play with religion to your own sick ends. The show is on PBS this weekend. You'd think people would be ashamed at this level of intolerance and ignorance, but perhaps I give the species too much credit.

To top it all off, we've managed to piss off the very people we came to grab WMDs from liberate.

I've been doing my fair share of ranting here lately and I know it just irritates some of you. Granted, I can't turn on the TV without my government lying to me; but that's alright as I wanted to introduce you to others who feel as I do. These are letters to the editor from the Peoria Journal Star. I was trolling on their site the other day looking for any stories I might have missed and ran into the following: a) a statement from a soldier in Iraq currently given yet another extension, b) a citizen from Tiskilwa addressing the "vision thing", and a Galva resident stating what should be obvious to all of us not blinded by partisan propaganda. Read 'em fast as I don't know how long these stay online.

Don't think you have the right to draw whatever you want; granted this kid was out of hand, but I doubt he's the next John Walker Lindh either. The Other Mrs. Bush? Read on.

People who feel loyal to computers. Actually, I've done this a time or two myself. In more tech news, head here to get a host file that will block most domains that spawn pop-up ads. You'll thank me later. Just for fun, a profane interview with Jack Valenti.

Ten points for anyone who knows that reference.

So, I just got done watching the WB News while vacuuming. Yes, the WB has news, go figure. And yes, I vacuum. Anyway, one story I wasn't paying attention to today was this misdirection about Kerry throwing medals or ribbons of medals away during the 70s. Apparently - and this is the height of political pandering - the GOP is trying to convince people that ribbons and medals are not the same thing.

In some cases they are correct. Ribbons by themselves do not always come with medals. However, every medal (as I understand these things) comes with a ribbon so that the person who earned it (yes, you EARN medals; not get them from hiding in an secret undisclosed location) can wear them on the "fruit salad" you see folks wear on dress uniforms. What does this mean? Kerry isn't "flip-flopping" on this one, but the Republicans are still lying and treating us like idiots.

In the interests of getting people to shut up about this and talk about serious issues - like, say, why my brother and 130,000 of his closest comrades-in-arms are getting shot at in Iraq - here is a site related to Navy medals (and ribbons) and one concerning where your favorite GOP dolts were while they should have at least paid lip service to serving their country (you'll have to scroll down a bit because - as is usual - they are hiding the truth).

Doonesbury got in a nice dig Sunday that requires more reflection than your usual comic strip offers. Enjoy.

The Orange County Register is delivering a disturbing series this week on high levels of lead content in Mexican candies. This pretty much bites for me as I like a lot of those on the list.

Well, we can't get any information out of the government on how many terrorists they've caught by humiliating the rest of us at airports, but we keep hearing stories like this one, where a woman was stopped from boarding a plane because she did not match her pre-cancer treatment ID photo. To be fair however, we continue to find out terrorists can affect our lives, like this poor guy who had his Social Security number abused by an Al-Qaeda scumbag.

Maureen Dowd unleashes the phrase of the year: Bushworld. An edited version is here, the original is linked to the New York Times (login/password: wallenfeldt/guest). The following is a series of articles on the life and death of Lt. Brandon Ratliff. If you are blind to reality and aren't too busy calling dissenters traitors and waving flags, realize that real people's lives are affected by war. This poor guy is just another example of how we forget what we do to our troops, both on and off the battlefield.

From KWTX, a story about concerning phone cards for the troops.

And in the interests of advancing the species, a group of female students at Spelman College are trying to combat the negative images of women in rap videos. I doubt anyone is listening to anything but the almight dollar in this debate, but I wish them the best. God forbid we not go through a day without some high school drop-out making millions calling his own mother a ho.

Seriously, what is wrong with this country? We've got the FCC fining radio personalities left and right for being controversial, but leaving Oprah alone when she discusses the same thing. I mean, if you are going to let Limbaugh preach hate and get away with it, why not let people like Howard Stern talk about sex if 15 million people want to listen to it? I'm not saying everyone approves of such behavior, but when did we elect the morality police and where do they get off selectively judging people?

To top that off, Doonesbury has been running a rather timely and disturbing storyline, which starts here. Today's entry has been considered "obscene" and has been censored or banned by various papers. Idiots.

The New World Order teaches children early that the FBI will bust into your life at any moment. And bonus, its all in the service of a bunch of corporate fiends.

Here's a ray of hope though: some churches actually realize that Bush is destroying our planet and have enough backbone to say something about it. Good for them. He may think he's a Christian, but does a real awful impression of one with that whole greed, warmongering, destruction, close-mindedness and lying routine. He was probably more likeable as a cocaine addict.

I'm not an blind-to-reality-ultra-patriot, but this is beyond stupid even to me. Someone kindly flog these people please.

I figure, if a bunch of punks who did everything they could to avoid military service in Vietnam question whether a guy who went and served two tours deserved his medals, the entirely appropriate response would be to knee-cap the slimy low lifes. John Kerry merely handed over his military records. Talk about restraint.

This guy is a realist. When given the choice between a date with a cute young lady and a Playstation 2, he went for the game console.

I'm ranting again. Actual real life posts will re-appear soon.

Apparently there's this email floating around from a certain SFC Raymond Reynolds from Denison, Iowa which highlights the good things going on in Iraq by our troops and is highly critical of anyone who says otherwise. Its posted on the Galva-Kewanee Armed Services Group message list if you are interested. Basically, he ends the statement with a veiled threat to beat up John Kerry, which is just my interpretation of it. I could be out of line there, but there was a certain vehemence to it. SFC Reynolds' previous internet appearances have come in the form of a request for sweet corn and in a statement much less belligerent and focused. Simply put, I feel for the guy, but don't agree with his motivation.

I agree with one thing the NCO says. There is not a lot of positive spin in the mainstream press. I read about it because I'm gathering news from all types of sources just to keep up on events; but I realize Tom Brokaw isn't making that the highlight of his evening routine. If anything, watching the Iraqi people actually accept the work of our troops at least makes it easier for us to realize the good we can do when we use our people wisely.

SFC Reynolds is certainly entitled to his opinion. After being home for a couple weeks, I am sure he heard a lot he did not care to hear. That said, while I realize our military is doing good things and commend them for it, these acts in no way make the president's decision to invade any more wrongheaded and incorrect. Its quite pathetic and opportunistic for conservatives to jump on one man's opinion and try to make political hay out of it; especially trying to use his frustration to turn the entire motivation of the president into a theory that is more evocative of the Peace Corps or Unicef than of his combative bluster of last year.

Saddam Hussein was a jerk from, well, probably the day of his birth. This was never news. It was also not a revelation that he abused, mistreated, and murderered his citizens. There was ample motivation to gather up the world and remove him from power on that alone. However, this was not the approach taken by our leaders. A vendetta to atone for some unfinished business by George H.W. Bush (which even the former president himself never bought into as an argument) and this concept that Iraq: a) had WMDs that could b) actually be delivered all the way to the US because c) the B'aath Party was in bed with Al Qaeda was not the way to gather the world together to achieve this worthy goal of liberating a society. Which is fine, as that was not the stated goal.

Let's review. We did not go in to save the Iraqis from their leader. If that were the case, Galva, Illinois wouldn't be pulling the equivalent weight of the country of Lithuania. Any moves to make people believe that is a lie. We have not found WMDs, the supposed ones could never reach American soil while launched from Iraq, and Iraq was not in cahoots with Bin Laden and the Bully Boys.

So, while I believe more of the good deeds of our troops should be acknowledged in the media - and the sooner the better - I still stand on the fact that we were lied to, our troops were put into a dangerous situation made worse by poor planning and someone supposed to be a world leader who taunts terrorists to "bring it on" and shoot at our friends and family. In short, this is not the type of person who should be running a day care, much less a nation.

Everyone makes a mistake from time to time. Its human nature to err on occasion. That is, unless you are the egotistical, power hungry fool who just happens to run this country.

Apparently George Bush doesn't think he's made any mistakes in relation to the war in Iraq. That's pretty much what I gathered from his press conference yesterday. The worst part? The part where he keeps harping about this supposed "Coalition of the Willing" there to help me out. I'm not going to respond to this other than to quote Dave Clarke from the Kewanee Star Courier who posted the following tidbit on a sidebar in today's(?) paper (thanks to Jim Doherty at the Galva-Kewanee Armed Services Yahoo Group for the text):

"GALVA HAS MORE TROOPS IN IRAQ THAN 12 COUNTRIES

"The Galva National Guard Unit has more troops in Iraq than 12 foreign countries among the 34 listed in the 'Coalition of the Willing'. Battery F of the 202nd Air Defense Artillery, has 120 soldiers now stationed near Baghdad while, as of March, Lithuania was listed in official sources as having 118 troops, Slovakia 102, the Czech Republic and the Phillipines, both 80, Albania and Georgia, each 70, New Zealand 61, Moldova 50, Macedonia 37, Estonia and Canada, 31 each and Kazakhstan 25.

"The United States has approximately 130,000 troops stationed in Iraq. Galva, Illinois has a population of 2,700 people. The Galva Guard Unit is made up of soldiers from the surrounding rural communities."

Now let's be clear here. The Star Courier is not a radical paper. It is the local news for what is a fairly conservative farming area in the MidWest. If the editor of such a paper takes the time to use facts to question this grand coalition we keep getting told is behind our troops, then shouldn't we all continue to press the issue as to the parameters and mission scope our armed forces are being told they are operating under? They, of course, will do their jobs; our's is to make sure their lives and service are being used truthfully, honorably, and without negligence or malice from our government. I have yet to be convinced of any of that.

What's funny is that his re-election campaign is scaling back the ad blitz with the conclusion from strategist Matthew Dowd that, "The two things voters know about Kerry today more than anything else is that he's a flip-flopper and he's going to raise your taxes." I don't know anything about that, but I'm pretty sure his guy is a liar and is trying to kill my brother. And I didn't even need a political ad to tell me that.

Not all is negative on this post. I will quickly end with vodka-flavored ice cream, Peeps, and the Brit that reminded us all last week why Las Vegas actually exists. Good for him, I say.

Don't have too much to pass along really. The news has been really depressing to be quite honest and I'm sure most of you are aware of that.

Here's a student who is long overdue for his class.

Oh, and all that crap about file-sharing causing a decline in music sales? A lie. Its all about the lousy songs if anything. Not that this is the first time anyone has said that.

Hmm, what else? Oh, a pattern of behavior from the Bush administration. Funny how they are always right and everyone else is either: a) evil, b) a "flip-flopper", or c) unpatriotic. When I was a kid, irrational behavior like that usually got my backside tanned. For good reason I might add.

Further describing our leadership with the business model of a spoiled four year old, I have collected a series of Boondocks cartoons that made me chuckle recently.

Finally, this cover from The Economist is a few weeks old, but still is a pretty good concept for elections in the next few years; or so I think.