December 2007 Archives

"We've had a pretty good economic run for patricians as we outsource our best jobs to China and India....Congress can help me by reducing taxes for my rich buddies and the oil industry, and by driving the middle class and the government further into debt and penury...Congress can also help fund my theft of oil from Iraq in our illegal war there, which also helps push up the profits and stock value of Halliburton and Exxon Mobil."

- Bush, in a satirical spoof quote

What he really said, which isn't much different.

"This economy's pretty good. There are some -- there's definitely some storm clouds and concerns. But the underpinning is good."

- Bush, lying through his teeth, or to just the millions of Americans who don't own oil companies

The dollar has lost over 25% to most major foreign currencies, even 15% to the Mexican peso, and our rate of exchange is awful. We're over $9 trillion in debt, a quarter million people may lose their homes, health insurance is unafforable, Chinese products poison our kids and kill our pets, we're in a war without end that costs tens of millions a day. But everything is rosy if you ask George Bush.

He's wrong. And we're going to keep finding out how wrong he is about the economy as he is everything else he speaks of.

I heard about a tent city in Washington State on Weekend America today. Eighty people live there, some who give blood to make money, others have jobs but can't afford housing.

I also read about another tent city in the Inland Empire of California, currently home to 200 people. Some of these folks are homeless, others used to rent until pushed out by those losing their homes who have pushed rental prices higher. Basically, your standard conservative Trickle Down theory at work. The rich get poorer, the middle gets poor, and the poor get shafted.

In New Orleans, rebuilding has destroyed a tent city near City Hall. And now "progress" is going to tear some public housing and create less places for the poor to live. Not that, by most indications, the buildings didn't need torn down, but like anywhere else in the country, somebody wants to lay down condos, not homes for the working class or the poor. This week, many were gassed, clubbed, and arrested as they voiced their opposition to the plan.

These are horror stories, man. This is the stuff my grandparents told me about the last time the government stopped giving a damn about working people are geared the economy to squeeze every last dollar in order to line their own pockets.

So yeah, our so-called rosy economy is making more homeless, not to mention destroying our collectives dreams of a better tomorrow; and Bush is probably starting fiddle lessons.

This is not how America should be, but we've been told to believe otherwise.

I know, this is going to come up first on the page. Deal with it. Also, I swear I'm balancing catching up on posts and clearing out links with the reality that, hey, you don't want to wade through all these tabs. So, um, stay tuned?

Anyway, long time friend Stacy is an LDS member and into literature so this link passed on by her is totally relevant to her and a fun observation to the rest of us. With all this whining by fundamentalists about Mitt Romney being a Mormon and how we'll all be cast into a lake of fire, or at least molten Velveeta, if we vote for him, it's important to realize that there may actually be a real reason to wonder how Mormons get anything done at all.

And no, fear not, I'm not endorsing Romney. There was no kool-aid offered me. I'm just saying people should bust him or praise him according to his politics, not whether he speaks to the same Angry God on bended knee like Southern Baptists do...or is on bended knee for other reasons. Yeah Larry Craig, we're still talking about you.

Normally I don't get enough time to read the weekly mags here in town, but I picked up a CityLife over at our favorite gyro joint for lunch recently and brought it back to the office to read while I watched servers do their thing. (Incidentally, if you're in town, we'll likely take you to Stephano's.

So, back to the CityLife. There was an interesting article in their on the myths and fearmongering of "socialized medicine". OOOOOO!!! Scary! It's reality mixed with humor and a poke at the fearmongers from a certain political party. Read it here.

So...FOXNews decided not to run an ad that showed the Constitution being shredded by the acts of the Bush Administration. I find this hypocritical given their big thumbs up for Swift Boat Idiots and random racist bullcrap, but they are a company and can do whatever they want.

Too bad conservatives are incapable of understanding this concept of "live and let live". NBC recently turned down an ad from a conservative group asking us to support the troops. Nice sentiment, no? Well, it comes packaged with a campaign to extend the war at all costs and continues the evil meme of targeting anyone against Bush and his little war as weak-willed traitors.

So, NBC, trying to stay out of the fray, said no. Now they are being castigated by conservatives as being anti-troops and whatnot. What hypocrites!

Then again, this is the "family values" crowd that protects people trying to pick up teenage boys and cheat on their wives with random guys in airport bathrooms. This is the crowd that attacks JFK and Jimmy Carter for their religious beliefs, and even lets Nixon have no morals and vote in Reagan who got divorced. Hell, the only good thing about Mitt Romney I can say is that he's at least trying to fight this religious intolerance in his party. Granted, he's trying to get their support but at least he's aware there's a problem.

Sheesh. What a pack of repressive, short-sighted fools they are.

Every year I try to give a shout out to Gabe and Tycho over at Penny Arcade and link you to their Child's Play charity, which gives toys, books, and games to sick kids in hospitals; usually those undergoing long term care.

Basically, it is a way for gamers to give back to the community and show that not everyone who has played a first person shooter is an immoral serial-killer-to-be. Plus, it is a good cause all on it's lonesome.

This year: six countries, half a million raised so far. Help keep it going.

I've got a few tech-related links to pass along, some more relevant and useful than others.

Enjoy.

First off, some things you can do with your obsolete technology once it has outlived it's usefulness.

Speaking of old tech left by the wayside, New York City recently cut the last DC electrical line. By last, it is definitely the last line in NYC, but most likely the world.

The Car Talk guys say that our automakers can easily get cars to 35 MPG using already available technology. And hell, if those guys can figure it out, you know Detroit is lying. Seriously, have you heard their radio show? Great guys, funny, but more importantly, they're mechanical geniuses.

Some notes from a pandemic test. Um, we could probably do better.

Considering the coming end of the space shuttle era.

Hey! You know all those stories about lead-filled Chinese toys? Wanna know where some of that lead comes from? Well, according to this story, it comes from our slagged down computers we've thrown away. Instant karma, folks.

I'm back from New Mexico and mostly over whatever plagued I had to deal with there. Food? Still mediocre but improved in that part of the state, which is weird considering the fare in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. Rooms? Improved, but then again the company had to fork out since the rooms the property offered were the long ago office rooms in a building that hadn't been worked on much since I was last there three years ago. So yeah, nice rooms, but the alternative?

Anyways, since I had to rebuild the computer earlier this year, I have no clue if I have your addresses correct. So if you've got 'em to send, please do so. Thanks.

First things first, if the media is as liberal as conservative crybaby/blowhards say it is, then why the hell does the media constantly repeat Republican lies, slogans, and talking points?

Answer: Rupert Murdoch owns half of big media and CNN is too pussy to not have people like Lou Dobbs, Campbell Brown, and the excrement known as Glenn Beck.

Mike Huckabee compared legalized abortion to the Holocaust. Nice touch, you bastard. An unwed mother with seemingly no options and a rape victim are exactly like Himmler and Doctor Mengele.

On the other side of the planet, religious extremists in Sudan were set to flog an English teacher for having let her students name a teddy bear Mohammed. Now, I'm all about self-determination but Sudan is a mess. We've got a country rule by a pack of fanatics who are either starving or killing their non-Muslim countrymen in Darfur. And now this sign of moderation. The president there was finally coerced into "pardoning" her and letting her go home. That's nice, but it should be a sign to us to stop letting our religious nutbags take over our own country.

News from the bin Laden front as NPR addresses and The New Republic reports on how Osama is kicking Bush's butt in the war of ideas.

Of course, common sense and the American people are the losers in this fight. Thanks again, George!