November 2006 Archives

Somewhere 120 miles southeast of the island of Antigua

Proof positive that even the nicest of locations and people can just positively get on your nerves.

I've been on a cruise since last posting. Started out in drydock in Norfolk for a few days (now THAT'S fun) and then on to Miami, Grand Turk, St. Barths, St. Maarten and the aforementioned Antigua since then. Honestly, very clean install and go live for the casino on the ship, plus I've had a few good days in the sun. There isn't much to complain about - except that there is.

The ship ordered under-spec equipment, and the company more or less let them do it in order to get a contract out before year's end. Can't blame Aristocrat; money is money. Also, they still cut my check. Not biting the hand that feeds and all that....

So, we didn't have exactly the right equipment, not sure where that got off the tracks but it did. The ship wants me to stay until the parts get in (you know, as opposed to YESTERDAY when they were supposed to meet us) and I definitely want home for Thanksgiving. So we're collectively at an impasse. Namely, I'm going home and they're pissed about it.

Kudos to the guys at the home office for pulling for me. I'd definitely be shopping for new employment if I missed Grand Turkey Day to be stuck here with folks openly hostile to me.

I know I don't talk about work much, mostly because it's fairly routine. Also because I don't want to mix a blog and work for obvious job security and litigation type crap. I also don't want you to get the wrong idea about things that go bad and my opinions of people. Case in point, I had a horrible, horrible, godawful series of server builds in Puerto Rico a couple weeks back, but I sure don't blame the good people who worked at the casinos for it.

I also don't have too big of an issue with this ship, with the possible exception of the head IT guy who has just recently become a raging asshat. He's even right to do so in a certain-point-of-view kind of way. Either way, his attitude and those of his higher ups have completely soured on us.

It could be better.

Let's start it out like this. Their rules were: no spouses come along, we eat with the crew, we get one day off. Over time they've let us eat in the officer's mess, then the regular passenger restaurants, and have let us hit the shore when the casino is closed. Like I said, it hasn't been all that bad, all things considered.

It just hasn't been without its bumps.

I know, you're saying, "Shut up John. You're in the Caribbean." You're right, I am, and have been away from home for awhile too.

I miss home. I miss Leslie. I miss my dog. I miss my life.

I've been out a whole lot more than I've been in the past few months and am feeling the burnout coming. I've definitely feeling the loneliness.

Frankly, sitting out on my veranda, drinking some Makers and Coke and listening to the ship cut through the waves on a totally dark night should be damn cool.

It's cold comfort on a warm night at 2 am Atlantic time.

I'll chat with you when I'm back in the States.

Lousy-ana-Texan 11/7/2006 09:23PM PST
This is a disgusting display of American voter ignorance.

- Comments from the fascist conservative bloggers at LittleGreenFootballs

The House is Blue, and the Senate may yet be, but that might take awhile to find out.

The best news for continuing to vote against the GOP? Mark Foley.

Get this: 110,317 people (at last count) had to actually vote for Foley in the FL-16 election, narrowing going to Tim Mahoney. Yeah, these "values voters" and "compassionate conservatives" still had to click on a pedophile's name. Asshats.

You could argue that Joe Negron was the real candidate, not the GOPedo. I would point you to the Friends of Foley campaigns, like Ohio-15, where Deborah Pryce will likely win, and New York-26, where Thomas Reynolds already has.

Face it, vote for pedos and friends of pedos and you immediately lose the moral high ground. As if declaring unnecessary wars, legalizing torture, taking bankruptcy away from citizens but not your corporate sponsors, and declaring any contrary voice a traitor wasn't bad enough.

A last look at the corruption issues in this year's election and how many of the scumbags fared.

The Dems have a leg up they didn't have yesterday. Use it to piss on the Bush agenda. And in case he missed it, the New York Times spells it out for him.

I'm off on a two week business trip with minimal internet. Keep the faith people.

Polls are closing and results will follow. Cross your fingers.

Currently still reading on problems with voting, well, everywhere.

Follow it where I have been:

Bloomberg

DailyKos

TruthOut

ThinkProgress

Black Box Voting

DubyaD40

Conservative radio maggot Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call and jam a voter protection hotline.

Seriously, Republicans really, really hate democracy, don't they?

"I’m looking at all of these [races] and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to the math."

- GOP Blowhard-yet-still-American representative Jean Schmidt of Ohio

Voter turnout has been higher than predicted and voting snags have affected voters of both stripes across the nation. I may be repeating some stories here, but we've got problems in: Colorado, Maryland, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia (more), and Georgia.

It's illegal to ask for ID in Georgia

Ken Mehlman won't e-vote and maybe you shouldn't either.

A rundown of GOP lawmakers having voting problems, including the Governor of South Carolina.

In Kentucky, an attack of a voter by a poll worker. Latinos being harassed and videotaped by gun-toting conservatives in Arizona.

A California GOP congressmen had his ad forcibly played on air by using the Emergency Broadcast System.

GOP thugs in Colorado and Democratic idiots in New Jersey ransack their opponent's offices or just lock the doors. Look, both parties need to keep their basest elements in check today and let the election go forward without interference.

Democrats, you know we should be above the level of Republicans. Keep it clean, even if they aren't.

Some states are already turning to paper ballots, even (shudder) Florida, because of the problems with e-voting.

And so it goes....

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a goddamn piece of paper!"

- Bush, August 5, 2004

To start, voting "irregularities" in Ohio, Indiana, Utah, and the FBI is investigating GOP dirty tricks in Virginia.

Remember, Democrats are good for the economy.

Basically, it goes like this. You want to support pedophiles and the people that cover up for them, vote Republican. You hate the environment, gays, minorities, children, unions, families - basically if just hate more than love, vote for them. If you pretend to be a Christian but are a loathsome piece of crap, you vote for them. If you like unending war for no reason, lies, excuses, corruption, and an unapologetic assault on our civil rights, vote for them.

If you want to have a hand in destroying life on earth, vote GOP.

If you have hope, love life, wish the best for others, you vote for the Democrats. They might not be all you want, but good God, their last two corruption events involved sleeping with an intern and abusing the House postal office; not trying to sleep with little boys and advocating torture. Do the mental math on that.

One last plea for change.

Go Vote. You know what to do when you get there.

"(W)e let you go to war in Iraq. To… oust Saddam. Or find non-existant Weapons. Or avenge 9/11. Or fight terrorists who only got there after we did. Or as cover to change the fabric of our Constitution. Or for lower prices at The Texaco. Or… ?

- Keith Olbermann, to Bush - and to all of us there at the end.

More dirty GOP tricks, this time in Missouri. Plus more from Virginia. Another story from Kansas.

Republicans won't let you show flagged-draped coffins of our fallen, but they'll pimp those photos for campaign ads. Of course, Rupert Murdoch finds our Iraq War dead such a "minute" number. Kinda like when Bush called the whole war a "comma".

Then why did you asshats push so hard for this war if it is, in the end, so utterly unimportant?

Of those who survived the war and came into politics as Democratic candidates, more on the "Fighting Dems".

109 Reasons To Dump The 109th Congress. More on this from Rolling Stone magazine.

The White House has doctored the "Mission Accomplished" speech. Condoleeza Rice has given up any sense of decency attached to the office of Secretary of State and is pimping out GOP talking points in time for the election.

Info from the National Campaign for Fair Elections.

A report on how Congress might change with a Democratic majority.

For all of you tired of political ads, this is for you. Don't just read the transcript, play the audio.

"You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources. And then you can imagine them saying, 'We're gonna pull a bunch of oil off the market to run your price of oil up, unless you do the following.'"

- Bush, November 6, 2006, finally admitting the war is about oil

Bush wants to change the tone in Washington. Of course, that's one day after bashing Democrats and linking them to wanting to aid al-Qaeda. Then again, he's been all about accusing Dems of being "cut-and-run" in Iraq. He obviously isn't talking to these Democrats, including Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Iraq War vet whose opponent calls her a "cut-and-run" Democrat. Ass. Here's some more on gender issues in this campaign.

In a move that should surprise no one, Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict was announced Sunday. I thought I was being cynical, it being the front page news this morning. Turns out cynical is the correct assessment as the verdict won't even be written up until Thursday. Thanks for manipulating the Iraqi legal process Republicans.

Republican dirty tricks and voter suppression scams in Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, and a total of 53 House races where they are robo-dialing pre-recorded messages.

The GOP is already dismissing exit poll numbers. Even leaving aside that voting machine companies are still in bed with the GOP, this bodes ill for a proper election. Click here to see what you can do to protect your vote and that of your neighbors. Yeah, even the frigging Republicans. They're not all to blame for having corrupt leaders.

And get everyone you can to the polls, particularly those wanting to vote for those who aren't friends of pedophiles.

Fox can't even say Democrat anymore. Pathetic.

One last word from Keith Olbermann. Watch it before you head to the polls.

"Two to three years are needed to build our security forces and say goodbye to our friends."

- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on how soon he believes the US will be out of his country

Remember when every Republican was blowing their top about Hillary Clinton? About "how dare she try to rule when she was not elected" and other such crap? Yeah. I almost wish one of those Republican Neanderthals would now tell Laura Bush to shut up and go back to the kitchen.

Yeah, I'm talking to you caveman.

First off, she insists that her hubby has never misled the country about the Iraq War or the War on Terror in general. (She doesn't parse them, but I refuse to be bullied into merging the two.)

Now she is "cautioning" people to be "civil" when discussing the Iraq War in campaign speeches, debates, and stories. Basically, the library lady is telling you to "shhhhh" when bringing up the fact that her husband and his cronies have no plan for Iraq, condone torture and false imprisonment, strip away civil rights, and abuse power any chance they get. Not to mention tanking the economy and pissing on 60 years of international good will. I'm sure I've missed something there, but you know the drill.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the PM al-Maliki has sided with Fat Bastard Militia Bitch al-Sadr and has had us take down checkpoints to Sadr City we had set up to help find a kidnapped US soldier.

Ralph Peters is a military specialist and has been behind the Iraq invasion since Day One. Unlike the late David Hackworth, Peters is prone to putting politics and rhetoric before the troop's interests. Which is why I always respected Hack more than Peters, even when I didn't agree with him. That said, Peters has nobly admitted that Iraq is not going well, and spreads the blame in the (mostly) appropriate places. Here is his op-ed mea culpa and credit to him for rolling this out before election day.

The Pentagon talks a good line about it's progress in Iraq, but their behind-the-scene intel speaks for itself:

Back to the elections. ComputerWorld has a study on electronic voting in all 50 states. Check it out here.

NPR follows a study on young voters that is hopefully instructive and correct.

Zogby discusses the Arab-American vote.

Bill Maher covers other BushSpeak idocies that should go since "Stay the Course" has been retired.

Also a retrospective since the last election: remember when Bush had a "mandate"?

Plus, no matter what happens next Tuesday, we're still stuck with Cheney and Rumsfeld.

"Let's not blame what's happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld....the fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president."

- Walden O'Dell, Diebold CEO, 2003

John Boehner is still defending Rumsfeld, to the point where he now blames our military leaders and the troops themselves. John Stewart wonders if Bush even listens to said generals.

Bush has given the executive office to power to arbitrarily declare martial law wherever he sees fit. That may become important next week.

The U.S. has fallen to 53rd place in terms of press freedom. We are now tied with such freedom-loving places as Botswana, Croatia, and Tonga.

The White House is aiding in push polls where they call people to try to reduce voter turnout. They can't get enough votes themselves so they are trying to discourage people from voting at all.

Doesn't really matter apparently as - in Florida and a state near you I imagine - you can vote for the Democrats all you want, but your electronic voting machine will chose a Republican. And no, it isn't random, it ALWAYS favors the GOP.

I'm sure the White House will call it a coincidence.

Limbaugh gets a free pass from the press, despite being a cruel bigot and vile piece of crap. Meanwhile, the same "liberal media" is shredding Nancy Pelosi, who MAY become Speaker of the House next week. May. As in, the election hasn't happened and they are already jumping her ass. Morons.

Why is a massive shredder truck going to the Cheney residence?

Meanwhile, Republicans are already making excuses for losing and the election is still a week away.

Bush wants single people until 30 to stop having sex and is spending $50 million a year to spread the message. That's a shitload of body armor we're not buying as far as I'm concerned.

The government wants to fondle your boob job. All in the name of national security, of course.

Lynne Cheney's smut novel and her way-psycho performance on CNN the other day.

Ken Melman talks a good game about how pure his party is, but the truth is, his party actually DOES take money from the porn industry. Casting stones early, aren't you Ken?

Oh, the good news....

The Wall Street Journal thinks that Democratic control of Congress will be good for the economy. Reuters concurs, stating that the Dow could rise due to a Democratic takeover.

Apparently, Lucas may not have meant to foreshadow Bush with Revenge of the Sith, but he does note that the story eventually does have a happy ending. Here's hoping George.

I meant Lucas. Not you, you overblown, spoiled twit.

“It’s always easy to manipulate people’s feelings, especially when you are talking about diseases that are so difficult.”
- Laura Bush, on Michael J. Fox appealing for voters to vote for stem cell research advocates

You've probably heard about Rush Limbaugh poking fun at Michael J. Fox and his Parkinson's (video here). Real class act. Then again, he's a junkie, so we should know what little to expect from him. Not to mention a guy who gets busted for Viagra possession on his way to an island known for young boy sex.

More on this issue, including Limbaugh's BS, FAUXNews keeps pretending he was acting, actors and athletes run an ad against stem cell research. Wait? Aren't Republicans AGAINST actors and athletes interfering with politics? Never mind.

And of course, Colbert's take on the Limbaugh angle.

This, of course, is just another part of Republican dirty tricks and dirty election ads.

NPR is also carrying a series on the language of the administration, post 9-11. If you are tuning out politics, at least check that one out.

Plus an older article by Bruce Schneier, effectively titled "Refuse to be terrorized."

“The president engaged in a conspiracy of crimes to prevent justice from being served. These are impeachable offenses for which the president should be convicted.”

- James Sensenbrenner, morally outraged during the Lewinsky scandal but ominously quiet as his Boy George needlessly kills American soldiers in Iraq

Google has entered the political realm with NetPAC. It says it is being strategic as it passes out money to Republicans, including evil Sensenbrenner. They are hiring GOP types as well as part of their strategy.

Look, they are allowed to spend their billions however they want to, but for a company who swears it is trying to do good, coddling Chinese censors and giving money to reactionary Republicans does NOT qualify.

And neither is letting racist bloggers infest the internet.

"I have to admit that, gosh, I learned an important lesson - never to offer a helping hand to anybody ever again"
- Jim Gibbons, who unfortunately will probably end up Nevada's governor anyway

So, this plays out like a "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" ad. You're loaded and have been drinking with friends, as well as an off-duty cocktail waitress. She, after three hours of solid drinking, gets up to leave. You escort her to the parking garage, which is never a short walk. She stumbles, you help her so she doesn't fall.

At least that's your side of the story.

She says you tried to sexually assault her.

Did I mention you are married?

And almost twice the waitress' age?

Did I also mention you are running for governor of Nevada?

Here's the story thus far, including a politically motivated sheriff and a lot of "he says, she says."

As for Gibbons, he just thinks he shouldn't help people anymore. Then again, he's a Republican; he stopped worrying about helping people a long time ago.

But hell, it could be worse. Marilyn Musgrave has long been a foe of gays, and considers fighting against gay marriage to be more important than anything else. Anything. Watch her reaction, and her supportive goon squad's overreaction to being asked to choose between saving a soldier's life and stopping a gay marriage (video). Granted, a loaded question, but this lady is just plain filthy.

That's not as bad as what happened to a constituent of George "Macaca" Allen in Virginia. When trying to ask his senator a question, he was knocked to the ground by a gang of four Allen staffers. Here's his side of the story and some video. Gotta love the reporter's pro-Allen bias. What liberal media?

And so it goes....