Deepthroat

W. Mark Felt has come forward to say he was Deepthroat. Maybe he will inspire someone in the Bush administration.

California CEO Pay

Kevin Drum has a post about the salaries of the top 100 CEOs' of public companies in California. Those CEOs' took home $1.1 billion in 2004. Yes, that is a big number but the top ten take home 42% of that total ($ 467.5 million). If you remove those 10, you get an average of about $7 million each. I don't think that is that out of line for running a top 100 company in the world's seventh largest economy.

I do have a problem with the way the mega earners are paid though. Most of their compensation comes through stock options. I believe that this can lead to poor corporate governance and can be bad for worker's rights. A CEO can come into a company, slash health care, short the pension fund, push up profits, and do a lot of other thing that push up the stock price in the near term, but may be bad for the company in the long term. Doesn't matter to that CEO, he will have cashed out and moved on before disaster hits.

From the LA Times

Compensation critics say they don't begrudge [Terry] Semel the $230 million he realized by exercising his past options, but they're critical of the board's decision to continue giving him additional stock options year after year.

"Initially, what the board did at Yahoo was really smart. They awarded him a huge grant of options, but some of them were at a premium price," said Paul Hodgson, research analyst with the Corporate Library, a company watchdog group. "Subsequent decisions by the compensation committee have not been as inspired. They keep feeding him stock options, in enormous quantity, and they're all at market prices. They need to find a new tool."

Semel holds rights to buy an additional 22.5 million shares, which were worth about $395 million when Yahoo put out its last statement to shareholders.

[Patrick] McGurn, who advises big pension funds and other institutional investors on how to vote corporate proxies, told his clients to vote against reelecting the members of Yahoo's compensation committee this year.

Semel's "performance was great, but the calibration is so out of whack that whether they intended it or not, even paltry performance would produce a substantial payout," McGurn said. "When the magnitude of the grant is out of line, you have guaranteed a windfall to the executive. The only thing you don't know is whether the windfall will be enormous or astronomical."

I'm not writing this as an indictment of Semel, I don't know that much about the guy. I'm just saying this isn't a good way to compensate a company's CEO.

John Edwards

If you're a John Edwards fan, he will be guest blogging at the newly launched TPMCafe all of this week.

And While The Other Kids Were Busy Accepting Reality, Dick Did Not

OK, Mr. Cheney, its time to go to a rest home. You see, the completely insane shit you said over the weekend proves that it is time. You have a disease called senility. It happens to a lot of our older citizens, but a lot of our older citizens don't happen to run the country. Be sure to eat all of your strained vegetables, take your pills when they tell you to, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Seriously, what the fuck is this guy talking about. On Sunday, he said that he was offended by the accusations from Amnesty International of abuse at Gitmo. Really, offended? Umm, it is pretty much documented that it happened. Even one of your biggest shills, Thomas Friedman, had a column in the New York Times last week calling for that internment camp to be shut down. There are memos floating around about the fact that DOD pukes planned on framing the FBI for the abuse. I've yet to figure out how that helps out the level of cooperation between enforcement agencies needed to stop terrorism.

Then, yesterday, you said that we would win the Iraq war before Bush left office. Where exactly do you come up with that assessment? It is certainly not from anyone who actually understands what the fuck is going on there. They all pretty much predict a ten year minimum commitment by US troops to establish stability. You see, when we toppled their government, we opened up a can of worms.

We simply destabilize the country. Without the proper number of troops to provide law and order, a civil war broke out. A very, very complex civil war with religious, tribal, and clan loyalties involved. And remember, the winner will be sitting on trillions of dollars worth of oil. That provides a lot of incentive to win. Conversely, our soldiers are fighting for pennies and just want to get home.

Oh, and on your way to the home, could you take that doddering old fool Rumsfeld with you?

Directly Stolen From Atrios Because It Is So Fucking Funny

The Abraham Lincoln Medallion, very valuable

I Agree With Tom Delay

Poor Tommy is pissing and moaning about the use of his name in the season finale of "Law & Order". In the episode a judge is murders and Kathryn Erbe's character says, "Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." Tom Delay is furious over this calling it a "slur."

Guess what Tom, for once you're right, it is a slur. You are such a piece of shit that your name is used as a slur by mainstream America. Don't blame the show, Tom. Just look in the fucking mirror if you need to place blame.

Wishing Well 12 Million Short

I haven't really commented on Tim Noe yet. I was waiting to see how deep the fraud ran. Pretty deep, 12 million dollars deep. Looks like jail time for Mr. Noe. I want to address a different aspect of this crime, however. Since 1990 Noe has given 154,000 to republican candidates and committees. After all, thieves play with other thieves. I now make a public call for every candidate that received contributions from Noe to repay those donations to the Ohio Bureau of Workers Comp.

Chile Update

For those of you waiting on my opus about the Chile experiment, and I know you're waiting on pins and fucking needles, you're going to have to wait a little longer. Ok, last weekend didn't exactly turn out as planned. It wasn't very condusive to doing research. In fact, it was so uncondusive that on Wednesday I had to go get my ass shot full of antibiotics. Ouch!

Anyway, the burning sensation is gone and I am going to try to finish this up this weekend. I do have some open holiday invitations to various parties that I will attend so I'm not promising anything. One of the invites is to a dog wedding. Yes, actual dogs dressed up to have a wedding with catering and music, the whole deal. I dunno, only white people do shit that dumb, but I might have to go just out of curiosity. If I do, I'll post pictures.

Bad Radio

I just heard this on an urban radio station in a very non-urban part of Ohio.

Good God Damn, that's right, you dropped the bomb on me. Welcome to our funky flashback weekend.

Nough said

Wingnuttery At Its Finest

I am glad we bought a condo in Fort Pierce, otherwise I would have never found the gems that run in the Fort Pierce Tribune. Reading the letters to the editor is such a treat. Hell, I would love to see the letters they reject. Let's take a look a Dave Cannon's letter in today's Trib. You see, Dave has the solution to the perceived Social Security "crisis." It is so simple, I can't believe this simple solution has been overlooked.

Most people think Bushes tax cuts for the wealthy are the blame. Some think that the cap for contributing is too low. All are wrong according to Dave. You see, the real problem is abortion. Abortion, you say, how the fuck does that relate? Dave astutely tells us that if all of those aborted fetus' had been allowed to grow into workers, the Social Security trust fund would be well funded. From Dave's letter to the Fort Pierce Tribune.

Below are a set of facts that will prove that abortion on demand is the reason that our Social Security system is soon to take in less money than it pays out.

1. In 1973, five out of nine Supreme Court justices struck down state laws that protect unborn citizens.

2. In 1991, when those who were aborted would have begun paying payroll taxes into the system along with employer contributions, they were not there.

3. In 1991 and each year thereafter, a new group of people began withdrawing money from the system.

4. Abortion on demand removes 1.2 million and 1.2 million employer contributions from flowing into the system each year. Contributions are drying up and new retirees are being added each year.

5. Stop abortions on demand and this decline in income will be reversed and Social Security will return to solvency.

I was chuckling as I read this thinking this was an excellent piece of satire. After all, in the first paragraph he correctly berated a writer that had appeared on Fox News to state that abortion on demand had led to a drop in the crime rate claiming that the writer couldn't see into the future. Sadly though, it isn't satire. Apparently, Dave doesn't apply those same principles of seeing into the future to his own argument. Dave doesn't need to though, he has supplied five "facts." Certainly, every single one of those 1.2 million aborted fetus' would have survived long enough to become employed, and there is absolutely no chance that any of them would have become a burden on society.

Dave Cannon, simpleton extraordinaire.

The People The Republican Party Dances With

Three crosses were burnt in Durham, NC. last night. What is it with racist hillbilly fuckwit hand cummers that they feel they have to destroy the symbol of the religion they claim to love so much? From the Durham Herald Sun.

Gutknecht noted that on May 9, members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed outside St. Luke's, among other churches, as part of a protest against the performance of "The Laramie Project" at Durham School of the Arts. The play is about the murder of a gay man, and the Westboro protesters carried anti-gay signs with slogans including "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for 9/11."

These fuckwits are happy for 9/11? These assholes probably also claim that we hate America. All I can say is Dobson and Osama, birds of a feather.

Fox Desecrates National Anthem

Last night, on American Idol Fox brought back some hack from an earlier episode to sing the National Anthem. I have to admit I didn't see the episode the woman appeared on previously, in fact, this was the only part of the entire season I saw. In fact, I don't even know which hick won. It was on in a bar I went to after a fundraiser.

The woman wasn't Rosanne bad, but she was terrible. The she was on the show is one thing, but why did Fox choose to replay this woman butchering out National Anthem? They had to know she sucked, hell they had it on tape. I understand that it’s a pretty hard song to sing, and a lot of people screw it up. Even still, why would a network that wraps itself in the flag daily, they deliberately put forth a sub par hack to sing the song that honors our great nation? Lets face it they, could have gotten pretty much any talent in the biz.

Who knows, maybe they're just cheap.

Pity, Pity, Sad England

Frowns seem to be all that are flying under the Union Jack. A recent study shows that the amount that Britons are laughing, is at a fifty year low. Could this be due to Ali G backlash? I don't know. From yahoo.com

"The findings of this study show a worrying trend towards glumness. In the 1950s we laughed for an average of 18 minutes daily but this has dropped to just six minutes per day," she said.

Morning misery is rife, with almost half of Britons -- some 45 percent -- admitting they frequently wallowed in gloom until lunchtime.

Hmm, morning misery, I suffer a little bit of that from time to time. It's usually due to a bad hangover. I'm guessing these people are wallowed in gloom until that lunchtime pint. Prozac be damned, lunchtime Boddingtons for all.

Moe And Morons

LaDonna Davis tells her story today of the horrible attack that befell her and her husband while visiting their pet chimp Moe. James Davis could not comment for the story because he has been in a medically induced coma for the last two months. LaDonna wants everyone to know that is was not Moe that attacked them, but two other chimps named Buddy and Ollie. Moe's name must be cleared.

From The Washington Post

For Davis is here to talk about a terrible thing that happened to her, an event so traumatic, so bitterly ironic, she would be forgiven for not wishing to talk about it at all. But she must. As news of the incident rocketed around the world, Davis fears some people may have come to assume that the chimp who mauled her hand and attacked her husband with such a frenzy that he remains in critical condition two months later, struggling for his life, his face forever disfigured -- was Moe.

And she wants them to know this: "I wouldn't change anything about what we did."

Wouldn't change anything? Your husband lost both testicles, his nose, an eye, and most of his fingers in the attack and you wouldn't change anything? I'm pretty sure if he lives, and it is still touch and go right now, there would be a few things he would change. Like, maybe having his fucking balls back or not being horribly disfigured.

Cigarette Blows Out Window, Man Chases It

An Arkansas man jumped out of a moving car in order to retrieve a cigarette that had blown out the window. The car was traveling at roughly 60 mph. Surprisingly, the guy lived. It was probably due to the fact that he was shit-face drunk. If people living in the South want to change their image of being slow witted rubes, perhaps they should stop doing shit like this.

Tony The Tiger: Dead

Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger has died at age 91. I'm really shocked when I hear about these things, who knew this guy was still alive? Anyway, Tony is survived by CinnaMon, Bad Apple, and Toucan Sam.

Compromise

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the deal made by Senate moderates yesterday. The extreme right is typically going ballistic over this, and I've seen some far leftists complain about it too. The key thing to remember is that the vote count looked like it was going to be 50-50 with Cheney casting the winning vote, so I would chalk this up as a win for the Democrats.

I also believe that in the Senate, decorum must rule above all else. Otherwise, you end up with the clusterfuck that is the US House Of Representatives.

UPDATE: Lindsey Graham R-SC claims that only two of the three guaranteed votes will get confirmed. I would guess that Brown gets the no vote.

Christianity: Its About Letting Dogs Fuck Your Kids

What the fuck is wrong with these people? Do you really want these type people getting involved in government? From CNN.com

The former pastor told deputies he had been having sex with children for many years and "also educated the children as to how to perform sexual acts with each other and with animals," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said the pastor unwittingly implicated himself while talking to investigators. He was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a child under age 13 and one count of crimes against humanity for alleged sexual acts involving animals, the detective said.

I don't really even know what to say.

Terri Schiavo, Part Deux?

It looks like we have another Terri Schiavo type situation in Florida. A one year old was playing in the back yard in Fort Pierce and was bitten by a coral snake. The individual went inside and collapsed. From the Fort Pierce Tribune.

but he suddenly "just dropped down," Martyka said. Lying under the pool table, his breathing was shallow, he couldn't lift his head, and he was surrounded by vomit and waste.

Anti-venom was flown by jet helicopter from Miami to stop the effects, but he remains on a ventilator. Grim choices may have to be made. So, where's Jeb Bush, where's Bill Frist and Tom Delay. This individual must be a ward of the state so that there is no way he can be taken off of the ventilator. Why haven't the "fed heads" shown up outside the facility to hold a vigil. I guess the answer is that this isn't a young white woman.

BTW, Backdraft is a dalmation. God, what is that vet bill gonna cost?

Sorry, I just couldn't fucking resist.

Doing Some Research

I'm working on a post, but it involves some research so don't expect much new content here until Monday. If you would like to contribute to this, I'm looking for some people that lived in Chile under Pinochet, or people who have extensive knowledge of Kissinger. Please e-mail me at phlipsrants@gmail.com Oh, and Julie, tell Ramji to call me.

BTW, this isn't about the human rights violations that happened under Pinochet.

Domestic Terrorism

My first thought when I read the CNN.com article titled “FBI, ATF point to threat of domestic terrorism” was finally, someone was paying attention to the fervor the religious right is causing. After reading the article my only thought was, what the fuck? When did vandalism become terrorism? From the article

Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).

John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF.

Huh? How many lives have these people taken? Zero. None. Nada. How many lives have right wing extremist taken in that same time period. Hundreds. Al-Qeada. Thousands. Comparing the vandalism of the ELF and the ALF to terrorism is demeaning those that lost their lives though actual terrorism. Tell their loved ones this. I’m sorry, but this burnt up SUV is the same as your dead loved one. I’m sorry, but this mink coat with red paint on it is the same as your dead loved one.

Don’t get me wrong, these acts of vandalism are wrong. But they in no way equate with terrorism. This is simply Nixonian type propaganda. They are smearing the left by painting us with the enemy and are using law enforcement to do it. Its pure bullshit.

The article goes on to say this.

In the same period violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and anti-abortion extremists have declined, Lewis said.

Of course it has, these fuckwits are now running the government. This attack on judges is going on because the racist religious right runs the other two branches of government. Then they will have total control and guess what, liberal and even moderate judges already appointed will start turning up dead. Why? Because fuckwits like James Dobson, by the way, who is no different than the radical clerics running the madrassas’ in the Middle East, will have whipped up the radicals enough to kill. So, you tell me who the real terrorist threat is.

BTW, when I ran this though spell check, it suggested I replace fuckwits with buckets. Found it kinda funny, thought I’d share.

Pete & Pete

As of yesterday, season one of The Adventures Of Pete And Pete is now available on DVD! Holy fuck, I had no idea this was coming out. This is the most excited I have been about anything in the past six months. TAOPAP is one of the most surreal shows to ever grace television. It will soon be in my DVD player.

Won't Someone Think Of The Children

Franklin County Children's Services went on strike today. I know that there were only six votes against the strike authorization vote, so I don't know how long this will take to resolve. My best guess is about two weeks. Both sides are firmly entrenched, but both sides can't afford to stay out long.

One thing I would like to say on this issue. Nobody should be turning down wage increases in return for to retain current health care benefits or additional pension benefits in todays corporate climate. They will only end up getting cut in the future until we come up with National Healthcare Plan.

Evolution

One thing I’d like to bring up concerning the brouhaha going on in Kansas over evolution. The fight revolves around whether or not intelligent design should be taught in biology classes. By the way, the total amount of time used to “teach” this is about one minute. A single sentence is read. Of course, what more could you say about it? This issue is so dividing in Kansas that eighteen people ran for school board in Dover, KS. Fourteen emerged from yesterdays primary to run for seven seats.

Here’s what I want to talk about though. If you believe in evolution, and I do, you must also believe in one indisputable fact. We are not the final form, that is, unless we destroy the planet. Homo Sapien will eventually evolve into something else. For the purpose of this writing we will refer to the thing we will evolve into as Homo Next.

I don’t know what the differences between Homo Next and us will be. I don’t know how many subtle changes have to happen before we become Homo Next. Smarter people than me will have to figure that out.

This creeps a lot of people out even though we will all be long dead before this happens. It might happen though natural selection or it might happen though human gene tampering. But, like I said earlier, it will happen. I think this is one of the hang-ups for stem cell research that we will somehow play God and create new forms of human life. I understand the abortion angle, but these are never going to be formed as humans. Abortion is just the selling point for the masses. And I never hear right wing Christians oppose helping people have children.

Stem cell research though is really about making life better for Homo Sapien, not creating Homo Next. This is the fight we need to be focusing on with the religious right.

Nuclear Day

I am currently listening to the Senate debate on the confirmation hearing of Priscilla Owens. This is the debate that Bill Frist wants to use to invoke the nuclear option. Bill Frist feels he needs to do this because he is beholden to James Dobson. Frist feels Dobson can hand Frist the presidency in 2008. I guess Frist doesn't own a mirror. Nobody that creepy looking is probably going to win the presidency in our lifetime.

Supposably a deal is very close to being in place to stop the nuclear option involving six moderates from both sides.

Christocrats

Kevin K found this interesting quote in the Charlotte Observer. It is from local wingnut Rod Parsley.

"We're not Democrats. We're not Republicans. We're Christocrats," he [Parsley] declared.

No, you're not Rod. You're Christofascists. You want to impose your beliefs on me. Well, fuck off and stay the fuck out of my life. You're also currently a tax cheat in my book, because you're actively using your church for political purposes. I would love to see the IRS step on your dick.

Beat On The Brat

Cincinnati city councilman Sam Malone was arrested Saturday morning for domestic violence after his son showed up at an area hospital to be treated for a beating with a belt. Doctors then called police and Malone was arrested.

This asshole doesn't even sound remorseful in this article. Look at these quotes.

Malone said what happened was a "parental intervention" after his son had a discipline problem at school.

"Our children cannot be expected to act in a disrespectful way to teachers and other individuals in positions of authority," he said in a prepared statement. "Proper discipline is an important and necessary component of good parenting."

I was unaware that beating your child was a necessary component of good parenting. What a fuckwit.

George Galloway

This should be fun to watch today. George Galloway is scheduled to testify at the US Senate committee looking into the oil-for-food program. He came out swinging right off of the plane. Check out these juicy quotes from MSNBC.

“I have no expectation of justice from a group of Christian fundamentalist and Zionist activists under the chairmanship of a neocon (President) George Bush who is pro-war,” Galloway told Reuters after arriving in Washington for the hearing.

“I come not as the accused but as the accuser,” he added.

“It’s Mr. Coleman who’s been all over the news and he’s a lick-spittle, crazed neocon who is engaged in a witch hunt against all those he perceives to have betrayed the United States in their plan to invade and occupy Iraq,” Galloway told Associated Press Television News.

I can't wait to see what this guy is going to say in his testimony.

NYT To Start Charging For Some Online Content

The New York Times will start charging $49.95 a year to access all of its online content. The Op-Ed pages will be a part of the pay website. Here is why this is a bad thing. Other newspapers will surely follow suit and I 'can't spend the thousands of dollars it would take to become a subscriber of all the sources I pull from. This makes information easier for the government to control.

It is actually happening right now. How? You go to GOP.com where you find Ken Mehlman's talking points and a letter to the editor generator. Then Ken's letter shows up here in the Albany Herald, here in the Florida Sun-Sentinel, here in the Tulare Advance-Register, and here in the Lowell Sun.

Having free online content allows for a level of transparency in journalism and that is certainly needed with all of the propaganda being put out today.

Credibility

Here's the thing about the Newsweek story about US interrogators desecration the Quran. Newsweek has since backed off the story. Previous to the Bush administration, this story would have no legs. In fact, there would be no story because it would never ever fucking happen. We no longer have any credibility in the world. Forget about the Quran, the Bushies have flushed this country down the toilet.

Juan Cole has an excellent post today dealing with the fact that Gitmo is probably a lab to try out new interrogation techniques. Rumsfeld's dirty little secret is now out in the open. How they thought this wouldn't happen, I don't know.

One look at history shows us why this is bad for the US. During WW II, German parents told their children when they marched off to war to find an American unit and surrender. The fathers had fought in WW I and knew the Americans would treat them well. This caused the second world war to be a lot less bloodier than if they fought to the death. We have lost that, and that will be paid for with the blood of future generations.

BTW, even though I'm fairly certain Newsweek got the facts correct, its just bad journalism to single source a story.

New Blog

OK, I'm going to do some whoring now. One of my good friends has started a blog. Go read this, it's much better than the crap I write.

Thanks For Taking That Thorn Out Of My Side

Now go away and die. That's what the Ellsworth Air Force Base closing is to John Thune. Thune ran hard on the issue when he took out Tom Daschle in last year's election. Now he must be thinking "et tu, Bushte" as the Pentagon is preparing to take a quarter of a billion dollar shit on South Dakota. Thune told his constituents that he had the president's ear on the issue. From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

But Thune is in a unique position, having defeated a Senate leader in Tom Daschle. In part, that stems from the fact that Daschle was able to get Ellsworth off a closure list 10 years ago. Daschle has said Ellsworth was on the initial list before it became public. But it was removed after he had conversations with President Clinton and his staff, according to an Associated Press report.

"Tom Daschle successfully defended the base in the 1990s when we did this the last time," [Bill] Richardson said. "John Thune will be queried hard about his ability to defend it now with his close relationship with the Bush administration."

Ouch. Looks like a one and done type situation.

Blogger!!!! This thing has been a bitch today.

UPDATE: Since this was just a frustration post I'll slip this in here. Comments are always welcome. Praise me, flame me, whatever

2006 Ohio Gubnatorial Race Is ACT's Top Priority

The Wall Street Journal reports that today in the Washington Wire. They called the 2006 race the most important in the nation. The next seventeen months should be fun. ACT's e-mail list raise a ton of money. A couple of months ago Barak Obama raised almost 700,000 dollars in one day for Robert Byrd's upcoming race using ACT's list. Do you hear me Coleman campaign?

We have suffered way too long in Ohio without having properly funded Democratic statewide candidates.

Ohio Military Installation Closures

Donald Rumsfeld announced the list of base closures today. The Ohio installations that will be closing are the following.

Army National Guard Reserve Center, Mansfield Army National Guard Reserve Center, Westerville Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Dayton Mansfield Lahm Municipal Airport Air Guard Station Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Akron Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Cleveland Parrott U.S. Army Reserve Center, Kenton U.S. Army Reserve Center, Whitehall.

That's not bad. We could have gotten hit a lot worse. Here in Columbus, we are happy that DSCS was spared.

UPDATE: Actually, for Columbus this is great. DSCS is expected to gain 1700 jobs!

Today We Fight Hand In Hand With Harry Reid

You were probably introduced to Harry Reid before you knew it. If you saw the movie Casino, you saw Harry. The movie was loosely based on the life of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. Harry Reid was the Nevada Gaming Commissioner that basically told Rosenthal to go take a flying fuck in 1978. They tried to car bomb, bribe, and otherwise intimidate Reid to no avail.

Today another bunch of mobsters will attack Reid. Today they send their AM radio footsolgiers to battle. Rush "Pill Box" Limbaugh, Sean "I'm A Silly Little Cunt" Hannity, Glenn "Femme" Beck, and all the others today will bash Reid on their shows. They got their marching orders from Miguel "Computer Thief" Miranda. Its all about the nuclear option in the Senate. It is a smear campaign to appease fundies.

Well, guess what, Harry Reid has stood up to real mobsters with actual dicks, so if you think these pussies are gonna threaten him, you're dead wrong. But still, we must fight with him. Call these assholes, and call them out. Shove the true American peoples will straight up their asses.

Remember this:

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row

The Security President

Yesterday, as the terror threat level eventually went to red at the White House sending people scurrying like rats into the street, George Bush rode his bicycle. He was clueless to the fact that a plane was dangerously close to the White House. This is in accordance with White House protocols set up after 9/11. What the fuck? The protocols that cover terrorist attacks don't include bothering the President. That plane was close to getting shot down. Who the fuck was going to make that call?

Then again, perhaps it is a good idea to have that dumbass out of the loop on these things. We all saw in Farenheit 911 that people with much faster decision making ability need to be making the call. Who knows how the dipshit in chief would have handled this situation. I'm guessing he would have got off of his bike and fucked a goat.

Dr. W David Hager

Dr. Hager, Bushes appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration, is a strong opponent of women's rights. He vigorously fought to have the FDA reject over the counter sales of emergency contraception. In fact he is against all forms of contraception, well, almost all. In his personal life, however, he practiced a far more insidious form of contraception than the pill or Plan B. He repeatedly raped his wife in the ass. From The Nation.

Sometimes Hager would blithely shift from vaginal to anal sex. Davis protested. "He would say, "Oh, I didn't mean to have anal sex with you; I can't feel the difference," Davis recalls incredulously. "And I would say, 'Well then, you're in the wrong business."

and

For Davis, the diagnosis [narcolepsy] spelled relief, and a physician placed her on several medications to attain "sleep hygiene," or a consistent sleep pattern. But Davis says it was after the diagnosis that the period of the most severe abuse began. For the next seven years Hager sodomized Davis without her consent while she slept roughly once a month until their divorce in 2002, she claims. "My sense is that he saw [my narcolepsy] as an opportunity," Davis surmises. Sometimes she fought Hager off and he would quit for a while, only to circle back later that same night; at other times, "the most expedient thing was to try and somehow get it [over with]. In order to keep any peace, I had to maintain the illusion of being available to him." At still other moments, she says, she attempted to avoid Hager's predatory advances in various ways--for example, by sleeping in other rooms in the house, or by struggling to stay awake until Hager was in a deep sleep himself. But, she says, nothing worked.

Is marital rape a part of the ownership society?

God Bless Larry Flynt

I don't know how he gets the info that he does, but this is great. Larry Flynt has obtain John Bolton's divorce records. They supposedly show that John Bolton forced his first wife into forced group sex. Christina Bolton fled their house while her husband was in Vienna. Flynt also allegedly has proof that Bolton made paid visits to Plato's Retreat, a former well known swingers club in New York. Raw Story is soon to release some records.

I really find it amazing that this asshole found one woman that would fuck this guy, let alone be a swinger. Well, that's assuming it was other women. I'm just saying, having that mustache and not being a fireman.

About Me

I am a liberal. In fact, I'm probably way more liberal than you. I actually took an online test that showed the only two famous people with views close to mine were Nelson Mandela and the Dali Llama. I'm also a realist, I know that if the government was ran exclusively by people with my views, it would be just as fucked up as the one we have right now.

I'm a single thirty six year old white guy. I drink, a lot. I smoke, a lot. I never drive less than 15 mph over the speed limit. I don't sleep much. I skip meals. In short, I am an actuarial nightmare.

I live in the Short North, which is an entertainment district in Columbus, OH. Its a neighborhood I rarely leave with the exception of work. Most of my everyday needs are located within walking distance of my apartment.

More about me later.

Craptacular

SUSA just polled all 50 governors. Bob Taft's approval rating now stands at 19%. Jesus, that's Hitler low. I don't think I've ever seen numbers that bad.

Sunshine, Lollypops, And Rainbows

Ha! Yesterday John Tierney was lamenting the fact that journalists were covering suicide bombings in Iraq. He was advocating that same old crap about hear no evil, there is no evil. These two paragraphs are the meat of his argument

I'm not advocating official censorship, but there's no reason the news media can't reconsider their own fondness for covering suicide bombings. A little restraint would give the public a more realistic view of the world's dangers.

Just as New Yorkers came to be guided by crime statistics instead of the mayhem on the evening news, people might begin to believe the statistics showing that their odds of being killed by a terrorist are minuscule in Iraq or anywhere else.

This was the headline on my daily e-mail from the NYT today.

Today's Headlines: Bombers Kill at Least 54 in Separate Attacks in Iraq.

BTW John, if a few hundred people a week are getting killed, I wouldn't call those odds minuscule.

Filibuster Deal Dead

Okay, one last post before I turn on myself. The Carpetbagger report is reporting that the deal twelve Senators put together to avoid the nuclear option is dead. When it was reported in yesterday's Roll Call, right wing extremists went nuts and Trent Lott went running for some James Dobson man love.

The DLC Is Coming

Al From, founder of the DLC, has announced that their annual convention will be held here in Columbus, OH. in July. I personally am not a fan of the DLC, but it will be cool to have them here. You know what, blah, blah, blah. I've kind of had writer's block the last week. The problem is that right now I really don't seem to give a fuck about anything. It is hard to rant or comment about news stories when nothing is appealing to you.

So, I think I'm going to go get drunk and then spend a few days ranting about me.

Strickland Stumbles Out Of The Gate

Ted Strickland officially announced his candidacy for governor yesterday in an odd conference call from Columbus, OH. He spent most of the rest of the clarifying the statements he made. Strickland claimed to have the support of Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean. He later backed off those remarks saying he "misspoke." He also said Clinton "will come to Ohio and campaign for me," then backed off those remarks as well. Both Clinton and Dean have issued statements of neutrality.

Google (Geek Stuff)

I got my first referral today from Google. I'm out of the sandbox, well, sort of. I tried doing a search and pretty much had to cut and paste straight from the blog to get a high page rating.

Social Security

Lets get one thing straight. The Social Security trust fund as it is set up now will NEVER run out of money. That is true as long as the thieves that run this country right now keep their hands out of its pocket. Yes, its true that in around 2017 we will start spending down the current surplus, but by 2030 we should start building the surplus back up. The baby boomers aren't going to live forever.

Paul Krugman writes as much in today's NYT. The fact of the matter is that the private account scheme is nothing more than a Wall Street give away. Do you think that someone is going to administer these accounts for free? No, brokerage firms are going to make billions off of this, billions of YOUR money.

By the way, the baby boomers currently have billions in the stock market right now though 401ks and IRAs. What do you think is going to happen when they retire? That gets cashed out meaning the market will drop. What do you think happens to your little nest egg then? It drops like a rock. Also, the last person guarding the corporate gates from a fraud free for all, Eliot Spitzer, is about to leave that job for the governor's mansion.

I Hope The Ohio Restoration Project Heard This

Gigi Graham, daughter of Billy Graham, got it exactly right in her keynote speech at yesterday’s Ohio Prayer Breakfast. Every right wing Christian ought to read it. I’m currently trying to get the full text to post here. It is excerpted in today’s Columbus Dispatch here. (sub. req.) She said that some of today’s Christians “don’t serve others a very appetizing entree of the faith.” Listen to this from her speech.

"We tend to be judgmental and critical, instead of loving," she said, adding: "God expects us to love. And it’s his job to convict. And it’s his job to judge."

And this from a subsequent interview.

"I believe it as a Christian that the gospel of Jesus Christ is above issues," she said. "Meaning that it’s for those who have had abortions, who are going to have abortions, the gospel of Christ is above that. It’s for the homosexual, it’s for the non-homosexual, and it’s for those in prison. It’s for everyone.
"And you have to stay above that. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have personal beliefs in some of these things. But it’s how you approach it."

Here is my take on this. It is God’s job to judge souls, not yours. When the religious right enters the political arena, they do so to judge others though morality based laws. By doing this they are in effect “playing God.” They are deifying themselves. They are making themselves into their own craven false idols.

They say they’re enforcing God’s will. They don’t have the authority, only He does. They say they’re saving souls. A soul can only save itself. He does not want those souls saved though brute force anyway. How do we know this? He sent us His own son to teach us that. His son taught us peace and love, not violence and hate. The religious right does not follow the teachings of God. Their leaders use religion to build themselves palaces paid for with the blood and sweat of their followers. They are charlatans.

Cold Sheets

The New York Post has the real story behind the run away bride today. Her Fiance, John Mason had become a born again virgin five years ago and wouldn't have premarital sex. Jennifer Wilbanks apparently bolted to Vegas because she needed laid. Vegas, baby, Viva Las Vegas!

Its My Cult And You Can't Play With It

A church in North Carolina has excommunicated all the Democrats that attended it. The stupid hillbilly fuckwit church manager told them Sunday that they had to approach the alter and repent for voting for Democrats or leave. None would, and they were all kicked out. Forty other church members resigned in protest. See the news story here, bandwidth permitting. This site is currently getting bombed with hits, so it may take a few days.

The news story doesn't make clear whether or not the rattlesnakes were immediately issued afterward, or if they waited until communion. Remember, a 1954 law prohibits churches from taking part in politics. What's that I hear coming? Oh, Its the four horsemen of the IRS. The Taxman cometh!

Thanx to georgia10 for the heads up.

Finally, Someone Is Protecting The Children

A Benton Harbor, MI school superintendent is thinking of the children. There is an evil presence at the middle school. Oh, my God, Is it drugs? Its gotta be drugs, right? No, this particular evil is far more insidious than drugs. Well, then it has got to be teen pregnancy. Oh no, our children are fucking without condoms and getting pregnant. Say it ain't so. No, that's not it. Its worse. Its a threat of the gravest nature. Its worse than terrorism. Lean in close to your computer screen, this evil must not be spoken around the ears of the innocent.

Actually, the children were not going to speak it. They were going to play it in their marching band. It is the song "Louie Louie." The song was made popular by the Kingsmen in 1963 and investigated by the FBI for two years to determine the lyrics.

I think this morals shit has officially jumped the shark.

ONN Reporting That Strickland Will Enter Governor's Race

I actually heard about this last night. This will make it a three man race on both sides if Lee Fisher decides to get in. I haven't really had a chance to think about what this does to the race. The conventional wisdom when it was a Fisher / Coleman head to head race was that Fisher would beat Coleman and then get crushed in the general election.

Rand Bitchslaps Rumsfeld

A recent study from the Rand Corporation slams Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon for fucking up the Iraq war. The report calls for "a case for change, and even urgency" in our Iraq policy. The report rips Rumsfeld for not planning for post war security because Rumsfeld thought it would be a walk in the park.

Rumsfeld has fucked up virtually every single thing he has ever touched since Bush made him Defense Secretary. Remember when he wanted to reduce the size of the Army by two divisions? I shudder to think how bad off we would be now if he would have succeeded.

This war is going exactly like I said it would before it started. If I sat in a bar in Columbus, OH, with none of the intelligence available to Rumsfeld, and got this right, Rummy should have been able to get it right. The Rand Corporation's assessment validates my views. While its nice to hear people who actually know what they're talking about proves me right, I still wish I were wrong.

So, what's next? I think this was a one shot deal that we fucked up. The civil war has already begun. I'm not saying we should bail, but we must prepare ourselves for the fact that one way or another, the Shia are going to enforce their will on the Sunni minority (who will go down fighting) with possibly the Kurds breaking away to form their own country. A real peace there is ten years away and will take thousands of deaths to achieve, and that’s only with no further foreign intervention in the region.

Note: I found this report via Juan Cole. If you want to learn a lot about what is going on in the Middle East, check out his site.

Something Smells

Unless the Zarqawi letter found recently by US troops in Iraq is verified, I have to think this is government propaganda. Morale is down? These guys never make statements like this, especially to a vicious senior member. We'll have to wait and see if the military releases the document for verification.

Steven Colbert To Get Own Show

This should be funny. Steven Colbert is going to do "The Colbert Report" following "The Daily Show." It is going to be a Bill O'Reilly type show. The NYT reports they might even do live throws.

Stump Sam

Talk about low budget. ABC News Now is now offering Stump Sam. Go to this website and fill out the form. If Sam Donaldson can't answer your presidential trivia, (1950-2005) you win a free hat. ABC News Now is a real up and coming player on the news scene. Their viewership increased 25% over the last year. It was 8, now it is 10.

Yesterday's Election

We had a 16% turnout yesterday. Beefy. The smoking ban amendment to allow smoking in bars failed. It was a pretty poorly run campaign. Hell, even I forgot it was election day until I got home from work. The smoking ban amendment's campaign should have at least put the election date on their lit.

When The Housing Market Bursts: Ramifications

First of all, let me state that housing bubbles burst all of the time and they are a relatively local issue. They can be as small as a neighborhood or as large as a state. Houses are usually a good investment, but they’re not fixed assets. They’re not made of gold or some other permanently valuable substance. Ultimately, they are only as good as they are built. So, what happens when the impending housing bubble bursts? Lots of bad things. Let me give you one example.

Life is good. You’re doing the wife, two kids, and a dog thing. You get offered a promotion, but you have to move to Dallas. Or even worse, your job moved to Dallas without you. The problem is that the housing bubble burst where you live six months ago. You’re upside down on your mortgage. You’re stuck in a house that you can’t afford to pay for and can’t afford to sell. While you look for another job, your health care cost spike because you’re paying for aptly named COBRA health insurance. You find another job, but it is 100 miles away. You have to drive it every day and pay a ridiculous amount of money for gas. Worst-case scenario, you end up in foreclosure. Ohio leads the nation in them.

Now imagine you live in a town where the main source of employment suddenly leaves. In a couple of years, you start to see boarded up homes everywhere. Now you’re really upside down on your mortgage. You might as well take the loss, because you’re basically living in Flint, MI.

A Word On Lakoff

A lot of people have asked me what I think of George Lakoff lately, so I thought I'd chime in here. I think Lakoff is a brilliant marketing theorist. His ideas about how framing works to sell candidates and issues are spot on. I don't think the actual frames he suggests are that good.

Alabama's Book Banning Bill Buried In Committee

Gerald Allen's bill to ban books about homosexuality was killed in committee. Allen couldn't even get enough members of the House Education Committee to show up to vote. Damn, I would have liked for that to pass. Why? Because as Matthew Dessem points out on PoliSciFi, the bill contained this language.

No public funds or public facilities shall be used by any state agency, public school, public library, or public college or university for the purchase, production, or promotion of printed or electronic materials or activities that, directly or indirectly, sanction, recognize, foster, or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of the state of Alabama.

The indirect recognition part of this bill would have effectively banned the Bible. I would have liked to watch Allen twist in the wind on that.

What Richard B Myers Really Said In Chairman's Risk Assessment

I would like to clarify what Richard Myers means in these two paragraphs from today's New York Times.

The officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Congress in a classified report that major combat operations elsewhere in the world, should they be necessary, would probably be more protracted and produce higher American and foreign civilian casualties because of the commitment of Pentagon resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

and

The annual "Chairman's Risk Assessment," which is required by Congress, warned that additional major combat operations "may result in significantly extended campaign timelines, and achieving campaign objectives may result in higher casualties and collateral damage."

This means one thing. We're going nuclear if another conflict happens any time soon. George Bush's folly war in Iraq has pushed the American military to rely solely on nuclear deterence. No wonder they moved the doomsday clock up one minute the other day. What a sad day.

How Good Is George Bush At Protecting Us?

Not very good, according to a scathing report obtained by the Washington Post. The Department of Homeland Security's web site Ready.gov actually gives the wrong advise on what to do in the case of a nuclear attack. The website suggests in a graphic that you could survive a nuclear blast as close as one block away by simply walking around the corner of a building to get away from the explosion. The text reads "Consider if you can getting out of the area." Really. That's fucking helpful. The problem is that the building would be vaporized. I love this paragraph from WAPO.

"Ready.gov treats a nuclear weapon in this case as if it were a big truck bomb, which it's not," said Ivan Oelrich, a physicist who studies nuclear weapons for the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists. "There's no information in Ready.gov that would help your chances" of surviving a nuclear blast or the resulting mushroom cloud, he said.

So, Bush's baby's website has no helpful info. None. It's been three and a half years since terrorists last struck this country and we can't even manage to get correct info on a fucking web page. That is ridiculous. If you really want to find out what to do in case of a terrorist attack, try this Rand Corp web page

Election Day

Today is Election day in Ohio. Don't forget to vote. Here in Columbus we're looking at about an 8% turnout. Pretty pathetic. In an election with such a small turnout, precious few votes can make the difference. So, if you think your vote doesn't matter, your wrong. Ha, I just heard a GOTV commercial on a London, England radio station. The ad said "If you don't do politics, there isn't much that you do do." That sums it up better than I can.

FWIW, these are the candidates and issues I'm supporting today.

Columbus City Council

Kevin Boyce
Mary Jo Hudson
Maryellen O'Shaughnessy

Columbus School Board

Andy Ginther
Betty Drummond

Yes on Issue 2

Update: I just heard an ad on local radio to vote yes on the Chillicothe City Schools levy. They commissioned a country music song to urge people to vote yes. Very funny.

Republicans Trying To Ban Abortion In Ohio

Eighteen republican House members have introduced HB 228. This bill would ban abortion in Ohio. While I'm sure the stupid, hillbilly, keen on Jesus, trailer trash hand cummers are overjoyed, I'm sick and fucking tired of the republicans wasting taxpayer time and money debating laws that even if they were passed, would be immediately struck down by the courts. Of course, Derrick Seaver, turncoat bitch that he is, jumped on the bandwagon.