*yawn*

So, it's the in bewteen holidays time of year and there's not a darn thing happening in the news worth getting worked up about. Drudge is reporting that the New York Times is running a story tomorrow about some legal challenge to Herr Bush's NSA domestic spying program -- something that could eventually lead to his impeachment, but I don't know any specifics. I saw King Kong on Christmas -- great movie, though the ending really gnawed at my fear of heights; the special effects were incredible. Yeah, that's about it except for the fact that I want to have something other than my Festivus greeting at the top of the blog...let's change it to happy holidays or somthing...I hope every had a Merry Christmas, a Happy Solstace, or Happy Festivus and is currently enjoying their Chanukah if that's their thing!

a festivus for the rest of us

Born of a fight over a doll, Festivus is the answer to a Christmas that has gone too far...so today have your meatloaf dinner, air your grievances, and perform your feats of strength. Festivus is upon us.

Happy Festivus, one and all!

lost in their own little world

They quit Body Boutique, in Lawrence, last week after noticing that the tree in the lobby of the gym was decorated with plastic figures meant to represent fetuses.

Gym co-owner Lorinda Hartzler said the tree was placed by Birthright of Lawrence, a local nonprofit that offers pregnancy counseling. Hartzler said the tree was intended to support women and their children through the holidays and was not meant to offend anyone. -- from WXPI

I am known for occasionally being in my own little world, not foreseeing how the things I say or do or write might be seen by others -- my innocent, even charitable thoughts, being seen as rather malignant. That said, even I am not this disconnected.

please accept my apologies

This here site's been bown most of the last 11 hours due to a server problem on my host's end...which is odd because I just endorsed them as having had no problems for me just this morning. Oh well, they have it up and running again so I guess I can cancel the intifada.

three wishes

I just wrote this as a bulletin for Myspace and thought I'd post it here too. Why not...

So, the president of the United States of America has decided that he knows best and removed the judiciary from the rights-sensitive activity of wire-tapping. After all, who needs a judge to rubber stamp a presidential request to spy on Americans? Bah! Dubya is King President and no old fart in a silly black robe is gonna get in his way! Come to think of it, who needs the Congress either? Bush is the kind of go-getter to create his own laws, even if it means needlessly overriding one that did the same exact thing, just with a little judicial oversight (again, the silly black robes thing). Pfft, for that matter, who needs the Constitution, especially that ridiculous Bill of "Rights". Right?

His defense is that we should trust him. Hey, I can go for that, when has he ever lied before? When has he ever usurped authority that wasn't his or defined language so it's convenient to his own purposes? I can't think of any. A man of such integrity can always be trusted completely.

...It shouldn't surprise us, he told us his intentions at least three times before...

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier." -- Governing Magazine July 1998

"I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator," -- CNN December 2000 (transcript here

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it" -- Business Week July 2001 (transcript here












note to the NSA (I know you're reading this): I didn't mean any disrespect, please don't render me

universal soldier circa 1926

It must be a slow newsday in Scotland because the Scotsman is running a story about Stalin's quest to create a race of half-ape super warriors who didn't feel pain and didn't complain when the beet harvest was anyting less than spectacular. I guess the scientist in charge, a breeding specialist by the name of Ilya Ivanov, tried to inseminate monkeys with human sperm and people with monkey sperm but, surprise surprise, it didn't work...and for not beng able to do the biologically impossible, he was exiled for five years.

An interesting quick read (and distraction from the "other news" of rising depotism in the United States).

two birds; one stone

I want to learn Spanish -- for personal and professional reasons. I have one of those 11 CD programs put out by Barron's that are marketed as the program that US diplomats use to learn the language, but the thing is, I suck at getting myself to work on it on a regular basis. I need a structured program.

I also need to travel. I haven't spent the night outside of my county in over five years (I think it's been that long). A few day trips within a couple hundred miles, but just day trips. I need to get the hell out of here. I'm going stir crazy.

Combining this need and this want, I stumbled across the idea of going to Spain and spending a couple of weeks in a school there. A little research later I found it to be a tad expensive; a little bit of thought put into it I remembered that Castillian Spanish is giggled at by Latin American Spanish-speakers...and so I redefiend my search and found this school in Nicaragua called "Proyecto Ecológico". It sounds beautiful -- a school building on a crater lake inside a nature preserve chock full of monkeys and parrots, with the option of a dozen or so day trips to nearby cities and outdoor activities. It's all pretty cheap too -- $700-ish for a month (classes, food, and lodging) plus a $700 plane ticket. It sounds incredible...though I have a fear of rural Nicaragua.

I also found Minerva Spanish School in Xela Guatamala -- the second largest city in that country, and an old Mayan town at that. It's the same price as "Proyecto Ecológico" but without the idealic setting. There are trips that can be made to beautiful places (including volcanos), but what I like best about this school is the opportunity for constant interaction with native people (something that would be hard in the Nicaraguan jungle). I'm also less scared of Guatamala than I am of Nicaragua (though my fear of Nicaragua is admittedly largely out of ignorance).

I am pretty well settled on the idea of going to "Proyecto Ecológico" -- it sounds like the perfect learning vacation for me -- but I wanted to post something to ask if anyone out there knows of reasons why I shouldn't go to either of these schools or have opinions on other places they have attended. I will probably look to go in July or August (as the rainy season is starting to end), though it may be in April and May -- it depends on when my school and work schedules inevitably open up. I'm on a budget, yes, but from the looks of it I can afford most anyplace in Central and South America -- so that isn't really a problem.

Any advice?

he's gone too far

Herr Bush is being attacked by all sides over this NSA spying thing, and he deserves it as much now as ever.

Much of his (and his administration) defense is that this particular program is overseen by lawyers in many different agencies, without acknoweldgement that almost all of these are in the executive branch (with a little Congressional oversight). There is, however, no judicial oversight at all...something which wouldn't have been that hard for him to get. After all, it is already legal for the NSA to record conversations and obtain a judicial warrant after the fact if they need to. Firthermore, given the circumstances and political climate in this country, Bush could have asked for a reworking of applicable law and more than liely received it from Congress. As it is, however, this whole thing is illegal.

George Will, a conservative whose opinion I usually really respect, likens the thing to an "unforced error" in tennis -- that is, an error that could have easily been avoided but for one's own mistake. As it is, Bush has so overstepped his constitutional and statutory bounds that it's scary -- what an LA Times editorial calls "Bigger Brother" and prompted Sen. Feingold to dub the president "King George".

It should not be a suprise to any of us, however, as it is a continuation of the same sort of cavalier disrespect for legal processes that the president has shown throughout both of his terms of office (the illegal war in Iraq? the whole torture thing?). This, however, is an escalation of that megalomania...this is beyond flirting with the intracacies of legal terminology and into the realm of side-stepping the judiciary when playing with the Constitution -- the very document that is the president's primary duty to protect.

Is this spying thing a horrible thing? Well, I don't like it, but it probably would have been okayed by the Republican Congress (and the judiciary may very well have gone along with it). What is horrible (and in my opinion cause for impeachment of the president and all members of Congress who knew and did nothing) is that the president made a decision that affected the very freedoms of Americans on his own -- as a king or despot might -- instead of the mechanisms that were put in place in the Constitution. That, my friends, is the unforgivable political sin.

a tyrrant in the making (part 2)

This morning, in his weekly radio address, Herr Bush "lashed out" at those that reported his authorization for NSA spying on Americans, arguing that it is essential for protecting national security (albeit detroying all that needs to be secured).

My favorite bit, however, is this:

The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am President of the US

I do agree whole-heartedly with the president here. I do expect the president to do everything under the office's power and within the law to protect my civil liberties...which is exactly why I think the President is a fuckface.

a tyrrant in the making

More and more details are coming out about the genius idea of having the NSA secretly spy (without judicial or public oversight) on communications going in or out of the US -- on mere suspicion of it being terrorism related (and we're not always right about what's terrorist related). According to one intelligence official, Bush okayed this travesty more than three dozen times since October 2001.

There is hope, however, that Bush will not get away with it...at least politically. There are many Republicans standing up to these sorts of flagrant abuses of the Constitution. Just yesterday, in voting to oppose the Patriot Act renewal, Sen. John Sununu quoted Benjamin Franklin on the Senate floor, saying "Those that would give up essential liberties in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." This before he and three other Republican Senators (Hagel, Craig, and Murkowski) voted down the extension. Today the papers quote Arlen Spector as saying there is "no doubt" that these NSA regulations are "inappropriate".

Let us all hope that Bush and company will have their feet put to the fire over this. Since 9/11, Bush has taken measure after measure showing that he has no problem passing on liberties for a little security -- and therefore deserves neither. Even if he is never held accountable for his misdeeds, there is hope that some of these outrageoumisapplicationsns of power will be reigned in -- and their expansion curtailed.

because the patriot act wasn't repressive enough

...the president okayed domestic spying by the NSA -- without oversight, without any sort of judicial approval. My God, how can anyone defend this? What price are people willing to pay to be "safe" from the terrorists™?

understatement of the year

A 37-year-old woman named Lisa Clark is marrying the 15-year-old father of her soon to be born child even though she prefers "someone older". Oh, I don't even know where to begin...

too much love to go around

Know that feeling where just two wives isn't quite enough (your other four marriages having ended)? Charles "Ed" Hicks does. Can you imagine being number seven and turning on Dr. Phil to see the current two wives of the man who jut proposed to you talking about the funkiness of it all? Man, to be a fly on that wall...

so close, yet so far

Along the same lines as my post the other day ... I was reading this article about Bush's speech today to the Woodrow Wilson Center and thinking to myself "wow, maybe Bush really is starting to turn around and admit that he's not perfect". After all, the other day he admitted for the first time that tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed and that he misjudged the welcome we'd receive. Suddenly, in this speech today, he's admitting the intelligence was wrong and that he was responsible for fixing the problem. "Okay," I think, "this is something". Until I read this:

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," the president said.

A typical Bushian doublespeak: Yes, the intelligence that said he was a grave threat to the United States and Middle East was wrong, he's saying, but he was a threat to the United States and Middle East and needed to be removed.

If my eyes could roll any further back into my head, they would.

it takes an internet

Once upon a time MTV stood for "Music Television"; a suitable name in that programming, when not actual music videos, was almost always music-related. Kids these days don't even know -- MTV is all about the "Real World" 30-sec clips of videos on TRL and much more about "teen culture" (an oxymoron, but work with me here) than anything close to music. The revolution that MTV once was seems to be coming around, however, as revolutions often do, thanks to the internet -- as MTV will soon be launching a music service. Imagine that, eh? Music Television providing music. Incredible.

the fast food will get ya

George Jolicoeur has gained 140 pounds in the 15 years bewteen jailhouse weigh-ins but it may have something to do with his latest scam. According to the article, he buys tacos then goes back the restaurant dressed as a fireman or policeman and tells them there's a hair in it and he wants his money back. Of a dozen or more questions that could be asked here, the one that bothers me the most: who would mistake a 500 pound man for a fire fighter?

cheeky mr. bush

Brian Williams of NBC was able to spend a day with the president a few days ago and out of all the answers that Bush gave, I find this to be the most puzzling: "I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome." The question, of course, was about the mistaken idea that we'd be welcomed into Iraq as liberators.

Welcomed, but not peacefully...like armed intruders stealing your valuables.

Fantastic dodge Mr. Bush, fantastic.

But honestly, on a whole, it seems that Bush might, might be waking up to the fact that he is not omnisicent and infallible. That maybe, just maybe, mistakes were made -- in fact he admits a few (and refuses others, like the insufficient initial troop strength). That's a first for him, some personal growth on his part. It's not enough to save him, but it's something.

iraq: a preview

So let's say the president grows a pair or, at the very least, we elect a president in 2008 who has the strength and fortitude to admit that we don't belong in Iraq and pulls us out, what will the place look like when we're gone?

Well, it seems there'll still be torture in the prisons, as US and Iraq officials have found the second torture chamber in a month operated by Iraqis. The stuff that happened there can't even begin to be defined away by Condoleeza.

all better

Ignore the previous post please. The part about it not looking right that is, not the part about not using IE and switching to Firefox; you'll thank me later so here's a pre-emptive "you're welcome."

i give up

If you're looking at this blog on internet explorer, it looks like crap. This is, in large part, because Internet Explorer is total crap and you should be surfing the internet with Firefox. I will try to fix the style sheet so that Bill Gates can look at this, but not tonight -- I've been trying for too long now.

the ex-christmas project

Regular visitors will notice that I took down the link to the Christmas project, this is because no one's donating (or even clicking on the link -- it's not in the top 10 visited pages at least). If you're still interested, however, feel free to visit Heifer International's site and donate yourself. I'm buying a goat for the family this year and will add the $10 I donated to that.

I really like this group though, check them out (while I beat the dead horse).

in other words

The GOP has a rather shabby looking ad tha ttheir running (including on their site) that flatly tells the Democrats that "retreat and defeat isn't an option" because "our soldiers are watching...and so is the enemy". I have to ask if this is even patriotic (as the opposite of what the GOP is calling the Democrats) as it seems to me to be telling the soldiers that they are little more than pawns in some policy -- that their deaths mean absolutely nothing and that there's no end in sight. It seems more henious to me than the usual "stay the course" bullshit that spews from the mouth of the president in that it takes the option of acknowledging mistakes and misfortue competely off the table.

Most importantly though, the use of this commercial is a move from the Iraq war as the result of some misguided idealism to that of a policy decision for the scoring of political points. It turns the war into something less than a battle and more into one of dog-wagging -- our troops staying becoming more of a defiant "fuck you" to the opposition (in the attempt to rally the base come next year's election and this year's opinion polls) than anything approaching noble.

Lastly it just shows how out of touch the Republican Party is. Most Americans, the polls show, agree with the Democrats in their opinion. Even normally hawkish people (like Murtha -- Democrat, yes, but uber-Republican in military maters) are seeing this, but the Republican Party refuses to budge, refuses to even allow for discussion the possibility that their man fucked up in sending us into the middle of a desert where the people don't like us, giving the terrorists™ we're supposedly fighting some prime exercise in their tactics. It really makes me sick, that the ruling party could be such assholes, so imperialist and holier-than-thou.

I don't know, I just viewed the ad and this is what comes to mind...

the most depressing thing

You know that airplane that skidded off the runway in Chicago and how the one person killed was a six-year-old kid? Yeah, it happened while the kid was eating McDonads and singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town". The image in my head is a kid that was kicking his feet, food smeared on his face, and otherwise as happy as he could be. I can't imagine how much Christmas is forever going to suck for everyone in that family...especially when that song's played ad infinitum everywhere this time of year.

aren't we all?

...looking for Chelsea AND destined to marry her I mean. Shawn Cox, you're not alone...though maybe a little more out of it than the rest of us.

did i miss something?

I'm just catching up on the late news before I go to bed, when I came across this article about the further unravelling of the so-called "coalition of the willing". Bascially, most everyone is threatening to pull out and Bosnia has joined...anyway, I'm puzzled by two pararaphs:

In his strategy for Iraq, announced Wednesday, President Bush said expanding international support was one of his goals. He also seemed to address the issue of more allies withdrawing.

"As our posture changes over time, so too will the posture of our coalition partners," the document says. "We and the Iraqis must work with them to coordinate our efforts, helping Iraq to consolidate and secure its gains on many different fronts."

First, if "expanding international support" is truly one of the president's goals, he's not doing very well...obviously. More puzzling, to me at least, is the second part of that -- the quote -- when the fuck has the president's posture changed? On anything? Ever? Did I miss something?

I want to figure what the hell that man's on. I really do.

a cool t-shirt site

Busted Tees has a bunch of hilarious t-shirts and a LED scrolling belt buckle...friggen hilarious. Check them out and enjoy their BOGO sale:

Buy 3 Get 1 FREE at Busted Tees! (Offer Ends Dec. 7!)

(and yes, these guys are one of my advertisers, I just think some of these shirts are hilarious, even just to look at -- check 'em out, really)

yay america!

...if this were an Iraqi newspaper, I would've just made $1000 for that title. Nice, huh?

Yeah, we've heard over and over and over again from the right that the war in Iraw is going great, that the country as a whole -- hellholes aside -- is like a giant desert country club where everyone drinks ice cold lemonade next to in-ground pools that everyone has. Okay, maybe not that swell, but swell enough.

Unfortunately, the Iraqi newspapers don't see it -- and so the military is paying Iraqi newspapers to see it.

Yeah, this makes us look good. Not only have we invaded a foriegn country over false premises, tortured a few people, melted a few civilians with white phosporus, and otherwise brought the very center of the Middle East to the brink of civil war...now we're propogandists. The terrorists hate imperialists -- that's what "islamofascism" is all about (it ain't about Islam, that's for sure)-- and we keep acting more and more the part of imperialist every day.

...and yet George Bush is still considered a decent leader by some. What gives?

50 years today

one step closer...

...to partying all night long. I like the idea of bars and such staying open past 2am -- sometimes you just don't want to leave, even long after you've reached the bottom of the glass.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

It turns out that the powers that be have finally come to pull their heads out of their asses and lake a deep breath of reality -- and realize that there are bigger killers than terrorism. Specifically, one report is showing that 390 times more people die of traffic accidents than international terrorism. Imagine that...as budgets for taking away peoples' pocketknives quadruple seventeen times over, the normal stuff of life is killing more people. A quick googling of the CDC shows 20 times more people died of the flu in 2002 than terrorism in 2001 -- and then there's the at least 1300 people that died in Katrina.

That last bit is the greater tragedy, if you ask me, because FEMA has been hit especially hard by budget cuts since 9/11 and its move under the umbrella of Homeland Security. The vast majority of "emergency" funding in this country is devoted to the possibility of terrorism...a possibility that will most likely occur, but only after tens and hundreds of thousands of American citizens die of other causes every single year, causes that are losing fundage to the spectre of terror.