March 2006 Archives

What do you mean global warming exists? City-sized glaciers break off Antarctica all the time.

What do you mean we are winning the War on Drugs? A whole 16% percent of allocated federal funds doesn't go to graft and corruption.

What do you mean the GOP isn't about education? We throw millions of dollars at teaching abstinence and that sex is dirty and that kids are filthy for wanting it.

What do you mean freedom of the press? The only place you can taunt the Bushites are online Chevy ads made by visitors. (Hell, this one is fun too.)

What do you mean FAUXNews doesn't tell the story? They never use sex to get a completely unrelated point across.

What do you mean compassionate conservatism doesn't work? Look at all the people who get to suffer the Lord's wrath of congenital diseases instead of being cured by stem cells which could instead become unwanted children.

What do you mean Bush doesn't contribute to the world? Look at all the screwups he's left for future presidents to clean up.

Turns out China is working on the soft touch in order to get it's way in the world. Close to home, they are offering up a pair of pandas to Taiwan. Of course, the pandas names are similar to the Chinese word for "reunion." No ulterior motive there, right?

Next, is this article in this month's Wired concerning the aggressive push by China to make Mandarin the most spoken second language on the planet. This, of course, would mean replacing English. Once again, the action seems kind of cuddly, the motives not so much.

"You know what? I really think if you walked into a cabinet meeting and started hurling your feces at the wall—Bush would name a state after you." - John Stewart on Josh Bolten's appointment as Chief of Staff

Wow. So Bush's move to "shake up his administration" is to fire the only guy who hasn't comitted a felony. Genius. John Stewart's take here.

Anyway, with the removal of Andrew Card, I imagine we'll be sinking to new levels of filth, particularly since the guy replacing him is responsible for at least $1.8 TRILLION of our national debt - all in a mere three years (PDF here). And yes, each yearly budget is in the top 5 worst in American history.

The FAUXNews idiots thinks torture is cool. That tells you everything you need to know about conservatives I imagine.

Meanwhile, GOP stalwarts are pretty much being begged not to turn away from Bush, even as his house of cards falls apart.

A little bit old, but I love this take on Bush pretending he's not pandering to apocalyptic Rapture types with his everlasting war on whatever.

No Child Left Behind leaves any subject that's not reading or math way behind as school's scramble for ways to teach Bush's unfunded mandate. Sometimes, that's all the coursework children are allowed to have. That must be because the president can't speak, refuses to read, and - judging by his budgets - can't count on anything higher than the fingers on his hands. It does suck that at least a piece of a generation of children will be suffering for his idiocy.

Scalia is channeling his inner Cheney (please, don't let you mind go there and has started flipping off members of the press.

The Army, for some reason eager to suck up to Rumsfeld, has banned the use of all privately purchased armor. So, basically, instead of worrying about saving soldiers' lives, the Army wants to save face for their jerk of a SecDef who has done nothing but sell them out since day one. Military intelligence at it's best folks.

As Jack Abramhoff gets ready to do a mere six years in the pokey for being an all-around creep, I've been wondering where the next batch of Republican fanatics are coming from. Well, there's always Joe Lieberman (audio found here). But he's not as bad as Official White House Kicking Boy John McCain who is now pandering to the religious right.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll try to cook something up for tomorrow as well.

I don't reference everything I read, which is a shame as some of it is probably more useful than what I do post.

I've decided to aid in solving that problem. If you scroll to the bottom of the sidebar you'll find a list of stories bookmarked by me on various websites. Basically it's just a list of shared RSS feed stories I gleaned from Google Reader. I hope it's of some use to you.

Hopefully I can throw together a few entries soon. I've been working on some side projects and general work stuff.

If image doesn't fit in pane, click to see full sized version at Working for Change.

We saw V for Vendetta last night. While I enjoyed the heck out of it, I gotta say some of the minor character subplots held more interest. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's odd to find a movie anymore where you flesh out your main characters with the experiences of others anymore. Guess we're just used to the crap Hollywood spews out normally. In any case, as you might imagine, the movie has many similarities with the rise of a certain band of pseudo-Christo-fascists you may have heard me ranting about.

Oh, let's see what our real-life villians are up to. Barbara Bush, after insulting Katrina victims to their faces, is now giving some aid to them. Oh wait, she's not. She's donating money to a software company run by her boy (and former savings and loan bandit) Neil.

Meanwhile, someone needs to help these folks get some more crawfish.

Another of her boys, The Moron Known As George, is in the works of giving the Chinese the job of inspecting our incoming shipping cargo for nuclear weapons. This after trying to give our port security away to a country with terrorist ties. Seriously, what the hell do these people think they're doing?

Newly on the radar racist hatemonger Vernon Robinson, running for Senate in North Carolina (I linked his psycho ad awhile back), has decided to not just decline a Planned Parenthood endorsement (seriously, what the hell were they thinking?), he decided to viciously insult them as well.

I missed this somehow, but apparently Bush's arbitrary ability to blow things up in Jesus' name is now called "The Long War." I defer you to the Colbert Report (video) for further information.

Hey, remember when duct tape and plastic sheeting could stop a biological attack? Now, the Department of Health and Human Services has proposed that buying large quantities of canned tuna will stop an avian flu outbreak. Hell, don't take my word for it, read the link.

Bush is in desperate need of someone to follow his lead. Too bad the only world leader to do so is Kim Jong Il, whose government recently said that they too would like to institute the idea of pre-emptive war, namely with us, and preferably with nukes. Thanks again George.

Speaking of other Axil of Evil finalists, FAUXNews is already reporting that we are at war with Iran. Geez, you guys and the Bushites just cut the State and Defense departments out of all the planning anymore, don't ya?

Conservatives in the wild. Cheney has an anal-retentive list of demands every time he has to stay in a hotel. Texas is pro-actively arresting drunk people while they are still in the bar. Exxon is goading and cheerleading the IRS to audit groups like Greenpeace. The worst part? The coercion works and audits do happen. Conservatives are putting the pedal to the metal to buy up lands recently released for sale by Bushites in the US Forest Service, obstensibly to clear-cut the land and plop monster homes on them. Hug a tree folks, because if these folks don't get run out of office, you'll have to show your kids pictures of what one looked like.

Meanwhile in Illinois, Gov. Blagojevich is pushing for universal preschool for every child in the state. So, as Republicans rape the land, destroy civil rights, endorse racism, and generally sell our country's legacy to our enemies, Democrats are trying to educate small children, amongst other things. Why the hell are the hatemongers in charge?

Admittedly, my tastes run counter to a lot of what the rest of you would consider normal.

That said, you're already here so you must be a bit twisted. Welcome.

In any case, got some fluff reading for you. Books that are the progeny of a couple of blogs/websites I have enjoyed.

First, we have Tucker Max's I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Now, let's be blunt about this: Tucker Max is not a nice guy. He does not have healthy attitudes towards women, or people in general - his friends specifically. That is what makes his stuff funny. If you are overly judgemental, easily antagonized, and have a respect for all humans, avoid this book.

If you enjoy frat boy humor and inwardly cringing at finding the wrong thing funny, click the following link:

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Next we have the Darth Side. First there was the blog last year about the life of Darth Vader through his perspective. It was a damn funny read. Now it is all portably collected as an e-book. If you haven't given it a thorough read last year, download the PDF and give it a try.

Oh, one more thing. I've been getting people addicted to this game for weeks. Now it's time to share. It's called The Swarm and falls right into the sick humor motif I started this entry with. Click, download, and enjoy you sick bastards.

In the interests in feeding your mind, if not necessary in a useful way, I give you the following.

I was meandering around the bookstore the other day and saw that one of my favorite sci-fi trilogies has been re-issued. So, I figured I'd share the books with you.

Basically, the storyline involves a guy named Marid Audran, a layabout turned person-of-note as the trilogy moves on. It's set in a dusty city in the 23rd century, a time where Islam is ascendant and the West is pretty much a decadent waste of contentious mini-states. Basically, the nightmare world being created by the Bushites I imagine; though the stories predate his ilk.

In any case, since I've now signed up on an affiliate plan, if you plan on buying these books, kindly use the links provided. Or, do like I do and pick them up at the library. You can always buy them later if you learn to love the stories as much as I do.

When Gravity Fails

Fire in the Sun

To be published later this year:

Exile Kiss

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror

Turns out that whining, insecure children grow up (if they ever truly do) into Republicans. Which goes a long way towards explaining Bush, Cheney, DeLay, et al. Those little bastards must've been hell to get along with on the playground. The full study extract is available here.

Speaking of science and the White House, Jay Hansen, the head of a NASA team studying global warming, has lashed out at the administration for ignoring his team's work and warnings, rewriting said advice, and censoring the scientists themselves. The White House even censors any news from the team, "reviewing all climate related press releases," according to one email. It can't be that they are actually concerned about global climate change; only the political repercussions of being wrong, something they do a lot lately.

Speaking of wrong, KBR, one of Halliburton's many insidious arms, are in the business of serving our troops in Iraq contaminated water. So far no apologies, just a lot of excuses and finger-pointing, just like the White House does it.

Corporations like Halliburton sometimes screw up so much, even the Bushites have to pretend to take notice. Usually a fine gets levied along with a slap on the wrist. Do those fines ever get paid? Are you kidding? Not if your a pal of Dubya. Corporations are literally getting away with murder, now they don't even have to pay the penalties.

Bush is still out there preaching his "nothing is wrong" rose-colored view of Iraq. I seriously think he believes his own lies now. Meanwhile, at home we find that women's rights are further diminishes even as the rest of the world advances in its treatment of women.

You gotta like this guy running for Congress in Rhode Island:

A couple human interest stories related to the finally defeating polio, and another on a father waking up to the reality of the Iraq War the hard way.

NEWS FLASH: Soap operas and talk shows can make you stupid. Seriously, I could devote an entire website to stories of science reporting what we already know.

In actual fun and games, I saw Japan outlast Cuba last night to win the innaugural World Baseball Classic. It was a fun tournament and here are a few highlights from it. I hope they continue the concept and that more players join in.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Cartoon Network is showcasing a "Month of Miyazaki". You've already missed Spirited Away this past weekend but get on board and start watching. Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaa are broadcast in the coming weeks.

So, been going through updating the desktop, laptop, Linux box/soon-to-be server, and sorting my various flash drives. Figured I'd pass on some software links and some links that have cropped up.

First off, a wallpaper generator called Desktop Earth courtesy of a link from Tsume. I'm gonna try it out on the work laptop for kicks.

Next, like I mentioned, I was sorting some stuff on my travelling flash drives and decided I really like Firefox enough to have it on the road with me. I knew of the USB version of the app, but also have found they have NVU and OpenOffice app support as well. Consider a small chunk of my 1GB stick taken by stuff from Portable Apps.

I've been reading about this presumed Web 2.0 stuff. A lot of it seems like marketing hooey, and it probably is, but I'll try some stuff out and see if any of it is applicable to the site. I know I have a project for a Google Maps-like interface, and I probably need to be able to upload pictures without the pain of doing it like I have been (thus, no pictures lately). I'll let you know if any of these mad scientist projects bear fruit for me.

And now, to something I hope gets a little comment interest from all of you. I've been watching more than my usual share of TV lately and I've found that I really loathe some of the people on my screen. Actually, it's commercial people mostly.

So, here's my current list of people I'd like to pimp slap, in current order of annoyance:

1. The Taco Bell "good to go" imbecile

2. The Verizon Guy

3. Jared from Subway

4. Debbie from Sprint

5. The Burger King

I know you have others. Pop in a comment and let me know.

A few of you have tried to take me to task for being anti-religion. Some of you have gone as far as to accuse me of hating God.

First off, the latter of you are frigging idiots. Not buying Pat Robertson's crap is not the same as turning my back on the Creator. If you pull your head out of your sphincter long enough, you'll begin to see that.

As for the others, you're probably right. I draw a severe line between being religious and being spiritual. If the former involves listening to angry, politicized rabid hate spewers, then, yeah, I am all against that. And that is primarily what I see out of organized religion today. When they aren't trying to subborn the political process or take away people's civil rights or extort money out of the government, they are resorting to preaching some twisted "it's not you, it's them" brand of religion that puts more focus on saying the right words than doing the right deeds.

Frankly, I want no part of it. That ilk is about as spiritual and Christian as a kid smoking dope in his basement listening to Marley music is a Rastafarian. You can't go through the motions; you actually have to BE what you profess to be. And from what I've been seeing; these hypocrites certainly are not.

In any case, let's take a snapshot of the Talibangelicals today.

Amazingly enough, it is still newsworthy to comment that Bush's policy are driven by twisted evangelical motives, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. Here's a story concerning missionary work in Africa, particularly that of Purpose Driven fame Rick Warren. I admire his dedication but totally question his focus.

Here at home, pseudo-Christians are looking to create enclaves of their form of morality. You know, the kind that's pro-White, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-anything but some twisted "Leave it to Beaver" episode. South Carolina is a choice for some, probably due to its history as a bed of racism and secession. Incidentally, I'm all for letting the southern states leave again. They take all our tax money and reinstitute racism. What's to like?

Meanwhile, the owner of Domino's Pizza, when he isn't funding abortion clinic bombers/assassins of doctors, is buying trying to build a city in Florida dedicated entirely on extremely strict Catholic beliefs. I think he should be able to do it. That said, I also think the residents of that city should have their rights restricted and we shouldn't have to pay for one piece of asphalt, one street light, one hate-filled textbook they plan to brainwash their children with. They should also have to face mandatory military service to this nation just so - at some point in their lives - they actually have to face what living in America is really like.

But I'm just kind of an ass like that.

Here's an article related to the rise of the religious Right and its threat to the rest of us.

Where has this gotten us so far? Well, we have Supreme Court justices receiving death threats from "compassionate" conservative psychos. We have a Democratic party so cowed and afraid of being labelled allies to terrorists that they refuse to stand up to Bush, even when one of their own is leading the charge. We have the GOP calling the shots in the media, even as it still cries about a non-existent liberal slant. Hell, even the Secret Service parades around mascarading as FOXNews reporters, though FOX and many others don't seem to have a problem with that.

But not everything is coming up roses for Bush and his pseudo-Christian base. Indiana, a state so full of conservative racists that it might as well have sided with the Confederacy, has lately had doubts about Dictator Bush. According to the Boston Herald, solid Bush supporters say the following about the Iraqi people: "(A) lot of them are worse off today than they were under the dictatorship." Strong opinion against the efforts of a guy you voted for twice. And let's be honest, even Iraq's former Prime Minister says the country is in a civil war. And he should know better than Bush. He lives there, instead of going over once a year for photo ops with fake turkeys like Bush.

Some of it is Iraq, some of it is Bush's inability to protect our country. For example, pertaining to the Dubai ports deal, one local says of his fellow residents, "(T)hey don't want someone with a turban running our ports." I did warn you they were racists, right?

Meanwhile, evangelicals themselves are warning Congressional Republicans to "do better" on their issues on this election year.

And sometimes you can be too successful. GOP stalwarts have forced through a bill in South Dakota that bans all abortions. It is probably unconstitutional even in this day and age, and goes beyond what even most ardent Republican members publicly wish for. So now they are squirming, caught between their rhetoric that sides with now-successful zealots and the rest of the electorate. It's called chickens coming you to roost you idiots. Choke on it.

It turns out you can play a twisted form of Monopoly called "Patriot Act: The Home Version." You can download and print the game board and cards here. Be warned though; you aren't actually supposed to win.

Speaking of games, I've been watching a lot of the World Baseball Classic - yes, I know it's March Madness time but, a) baseball is my favorite sport, and b) you obviously haven't seen how shredded my bracket is right now. As our still-presumed national pasttime, you will be surprised that the US team was spanked by Mexico the other day and didn't even make the semi-finals. Japan did through some odd combination of math and proceeded to tear Korea a new one after losing to them twice in the tournament.

My point here, besides being able to watch good baseball earlier than I'm used to this year, is that this has been a blast, but not one for the US. So, why do we keep doing it? By "it" I mean, why do we send a team of superstar home run hitters and expect them to play small ball against the world's best? Why do we send spoiled brat shooting guards who can't play a team game to the Olympics and get our asses handed to us by legitimate, respectable, and talented TEAMS? Can we back off this rugged individualism crap just enough to actually show the world our best?

I blame idiots like Bush really. Not that he's the cause, but he's the effect of this "I" philosophy we all drink at the trough of. Sometimes you need friends, teammates, and - dare I say? - actually allies instead of a "coalition" of brutal dictators and the British. Too bad we don't subscribe to that philosophy anymore. Which is probably why on Monday, Japan, with only two MLB players, goes for the championship against Cuba, which have none of course.

I love my baseball, but boy do we Americans have a lot to learn about sports - and life.

Alright, still slowly plugging away at entering the archived (and full of dead links apparently) stories.

Anyways, just because I do this once in awhile, I was checking the visit stats, which usually tell me how things trend. Like, most of my traffic is now from the U.S. I mean, it mostly always is, but foreign visitation is down, probably because I haven't redirected to the blog site better. I still get emails wondering why I haven't posted since right around Christmas. I should probably work on that.

In any case, I usually get pretty good solid numbers from other English-speaking nations: Canada, the UK, Australia, for instance. And the usual decent bumps from various European nations and Mexico, not to mention the lost folks looking for other Wallenfeldt's.

But THIS was really weird:

I mean, what the hell? Algeria?

Oh, also noticed the Okie traffic has increased lately. Hi guys.

Another oddity is the amount of negligible but noticeable traffic from morons at Free Republic using the various images I post on the site. Scary that I am feeding the minds of fascist pigs, but maybe if they are visiting, they are reading. Probably not; I''m sure I just come up pretty high on image searches. It's depressing almost.

Well, now that I've bored you to death, I'll let you know that other posts are coming over the next few days.

Remember back when you had a conservative Republican in office, you could at least count on them not to tank the economy or drive the nation into even deeper debt? Yeah, I have a hard time remembering that too. I mean, Gerald Ford was the last fiscally responsible GOP president we had...and I'm not even sure about his numbers. Let's put it this way, the last time the Republican'ts held office with a fiscally responsible leader, I was getting excited about what kindergarten would be like. Seriously, how DO these jerks keep pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people the way they do?

Probably the same way they justify illegal wars, shredding the Bill of Rights, and turning the country over to big business and Talibangelicals.

Here's some recent financial news for you to chew on so you can see where I'm coming from.

The GOP-controlled Senate has to raise the nation's debt ceiling to cover the cost of Bush's "budgets". In case you are playing along at home, the current level is $8.2 TRILLION, which is over $3 trillion more than what it was when Bush entered office, and they have to raise it ANOTHER $781 billion. Fiscal conservatives, my ass.

But hey, Bush doesn't raise taxes, right? That's a good thing you argue. Well sure, if he was honest about not taking income from Americans, you'd have a point. But you're wrong. Bush has decided to increase fees on American citizens, to the tune of $47 billion a year.

Meanwhile, Republicans are behaving true to form lately, whipping out the race (and gay, feminist, et al) card in an election campaign in North Carolina (video here). And hell, this guy is an African-American. Talk about a case of self-loathing. Another self-loather is behind an email spread across Colorado by a GOP state congressman. In it, it apologizes for Bush's failures to confront the effects of Hurricane Katrina with the following statement: "President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks." Um, yeah, that was the entire problem. Idiot.

Actually, here's some video of what Bush heard and, more importantly, said before the hurricane hit. This, of course, was before he ran off to eat cake with McCain and picked a guitar while New Orleans sank.

In the Late to the Party category, Sandra Day O'Connor has ripped the Bushites and other GOP scum for setting the beginnings of a dictatorship. Gee, maybe you should have thought of that BEFORE illegally making him the winner of the 2000 election, Sandy.

Instead of working on such things as ethics and, possibly, actually protecting America instead of just saying you'll get around to it, the White House is working on...containing leaks. God forbid they actually stop lying about something. No, let's just make sure no one tells the lies. Real convenient. But, let's face it. Rumsfeld helped make Saddam into the monster he became. Cheney shoots his friends and gives the government to his business cronies, and Bush holds hands with the villians who fund Al Qaeda and has the nerve to call anyone who disagrees with him a traitor. If I were THAT DAMNED CORRUPT, I'd focus on getting rid of whistleblowers too.

They aren't the only ones. The guy who blew the whistle of Diebold's faulty software, which caused them to be decertified in California, is being charged with multiple felonies and being sued by his former employer. So much for rewarding those who do good deeds.

Oh hey. Been paying off some bills tonight and I was reminded of another genius result of the Global War on Terroristic Heathenites Who Scareted Da Prezident And Made Him Wee-wee a Bit in His Pants. This couple in Rhode Island decided to pay off their JC Penney credit card and made a big payment - over $6,000 - in the interests of getting their credit in order. You'd think that's a good thing, right? Being fiscally responsible? An example for others to follow some would say. Nope. Homeland Security flagged the huge payment and rang up the Soehnge couple as suspected terrorists. Apparently, having good credit makes you a tool of Osama bin Laden. Which would explain Bush's budgets every year I suppose. He'll not be mistaken for fiscally responsible, that's for sure.

Bush is famously going on about how he doesn't listen to polls. That's all well and good, that "being his own man" thing - geez, how much crap did he get for being a spoiled mama's boy when he was younger? - but not when pretty much EVERYBODY thinks you are a blithering idiot. He's screwed up more things than I even imagined he was capable of, and he seems to be utterly unaware of his stupidity. In any case, here's what your fellow citizens are actually wising up to.

Hell, many Republicans are getting tired of Bush's crap. Americans at large give Bush a mere 34 percent approval rating. What's this mean to you? It means a good third of our fellow citizens are utter friggin' idiots without any concept of reality.

Despite Bush's best efforts at blatantly lying in this instance, 80 percent of Americans are pretty sure Iraq is heading into a civil war, with our troops caught in the middle. As for said troops, 72 percent of them want the war to end this year. Then again, 77 percent of troops actually believe their mission is “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.” Bush's lies DO work; which makes it just that much harder to discredit the man.

Our opinion in the region is so bad that even Syrian opposition groups are turning down millions in US funding rather being linked to Bush and America at large.

Then again, maybe they SHOULD question our commitment to democracy. Only 22 percent of Americans can name every member of the Simpsons family, but only 1 in a thousand can name all five freedoms granted by the First Amendment. Depressing, and despicable.

I know I've been belated in posting, but I hope to do some catching up this week. Stick around as I catch up on some scary evangelical news, begin to do more favorite books entries, and generating just rant my irritating ass off.

Have a good one folks.