It's the Non-News

Much ado about Obama being the only no-show for the event in Carson City today. Can't say it excites me much, outside of Las Vegas I don't see him swaying any votes in rural or northern Nevada. Sorry folks, I can't even come up with a fantasy involving a Nevada sweep for Obama. It ain't happenin' and apparently he knows this too. Nevada Up North has more.

UK is pulling out of Iraq. Is that supposed to surprise me?

CNN chops off Blair's speech, says "obviously he's going to go on and on, we'll come back to this later". Guess it was taking up too much valuable time they needed to cover Brittany's hairdo.

Expected squealing from the netroots about Fox news coverage of the Nevada democratic debate in August. Commenters lobbing stones at Myrna over at Reno and It's Discontents. Throw 'em off the balcony Myrna.

Continued in-depth coverage of Anna Nicole's corpse: day uh, what...12?

I am seriously bored people. Stop being so damned predictable.

In the meantime:

Take a fun quiz at Konagod. The Omnipotent Poobah has the low-down on turd flinging apes and Midtopia discusses the genetics of altruism. You can test your religious beliefs at Politics Plus or revisit stuff-we-shoved-under-the-rug over at Abandon Mythology.

I'm off to surf real estate listings for Las Cruces.

Stupid People Tricks: the Dee-Dee-Dee-ization of America

I'm quite happy the hikers on Mount Hood have been rescued, not much the worse for wear. I'm especially happy that this particular group had enough sense to take with them cell phones, Global Positioning System gear and beacons. Kudos to them for not being entirely retarded.

This isn't really about them specifically but the whole mountain climber-adventurer thing in general. What the hell is it about us that makes us want to climb mountains in the dead of winter anyway?

I'm listening to the news this morning and a commentator is discussing the fact that some legislators are considering making Global Positioning System gear mandatory for hikers and the inevitable protest from some hikers.

Quoth the commentator, "you have to understand the type of personality who does this. They like taking risks, risking their lives, they don't like being told what to do".

Really? Go live in a low-rent district for a while and work a minimum wage job while trying to raise a few children and keep them out of trouble if you're up for a REAL challenge.

I don't like being told what to do either, I also don't run around doing stupid, senseless shit to prove how tough I am and then expect half the world to come bail my dumb ass out when I get in trouble. The least you can do is make it easier for the poor sots who have to put their own lives on the line to come save you.

Then we get the Kings & Queens of dumb-assdom. The ones who aren't content to be a pain in our backsides but must export their bravado and daring overseas. Get lost in the mountains in freaking Tibet and create international incidents requiring people of many nations to expend time, energy and a great deal of money trying to find you.

All of this while the native population is living in huts and carrying water in buckets and then we wonder why a lot of people in the world just don't like us. Let me 'splain this one: it's because we are stupid, insensitive, asshats. Sure, they can use our tourist dollars but they aren't going to love us, not when we consistently act a fool and expect them to drop everything to see to our needs. Get a clue.

As if that weren't enough stupid-people-trick news for me I was treated to the yuppie whining of passengers from Jet Blue. Trapped on a plane for up to 11 hours and couldn't get to your honeymoon in Aruba. That's just heartbreaking. WHAT THE FUCK, were all the emergency doors broken?

You could probably keep me in wait mode for a couple of hours, not 11 freaking hours. Open the damned door and slide your fat ass out on the wing and start entertaining the locals. They'd have sent someone to get y'all out of there in a New York minute, trust me on this.

The airline personnel on the plane were as clueless as you were thanks to US business practices that leave employees with no room for thinking on their feet. Can't have that, gotta micro-manage the peons or we might get people who could actually THINK. Would set a dangerous precedent.

All of this and more is why Mexico is eventually going to kick our ass. I have to admire someone who is living in conditions that would make most of mainstream America's hair stand on end who says "screw this". He or she may walk 20, 50, or 100 miles or more to the border, scout for a chance to cross while knowing they might well be caught, shot, robbed, raped, or simply die of thirst or exposure then walk another who-knows-how-many miles across the desert so they can maybe get a job cleaning someones toilet or butchering chickens or shoveling cow shit. All so his or her children might have a shot at a better life.

An American faced with such a dilemma will usually just whine that a Mexican took his job. Then he or she will join the Minutemen and stand around on a street corner waving an American flag while collecting unemployment, SSI, and Food Stamps.

Now if you were an employer who would you choose? I'd hire the Mexican.

Love those big brass balls and most of us gringos have lost ours. That's the only reason I can come up with for why we feel the need to show our nuts by climbing up mountains for no good reason, Pedro doesn't need to because he never lost his in the first place.

Sleeping With the Enemy?

Someone was kind enough to drop me an e-mail about this, FNC Hosts Democratic Debate.

FOX News, the Nevada Democratic Party and the Western Majority Project have jointly announced that they will host a 2008 presidential debate, which is expected to attract the top Democratic contenders for President. The debate will be presented live on FOX News Channel (FNC) and FOX News Radio on August 14, 2007 in Reno.

Now the sender wrote this:

The Nevada Democratic Party has just awarded the first Democratic primary debate to the last news outlet on the planet that should have been chosen: Fox News. We need to pressure the party into cancelling and apologizing. What do you think?

I think it's pretty damned funny. Devilishly clever too, I always prefer to fight the enemy with their own weapons.

I can't stand FOX, so what...it isn't about what I like, it's about WINNING. Would we prefer it wasn't broadcasted?

Update: CNN says the only reason Fox has the Aug. Nevada debate is because CNN passed on it. "We were offered both and chose the more meaningful time," an insider says...

So CNN passed on this one, don't know if they tried MSNBC but wouldn't that be kind of like preaching to the choir anyway? This looks like a win-win to me. FOX gets a whole bunch of viewers who would otherwise never tune in to them (and looking at their recent ratings they need some viewers) and the Democratic candidates get to reach an entirely untapped new audience. Not seeing the downside here.

Alright, it may well piss off some of the far, far left. Like they were going to vote for Obama or Richardson anyway...? Doubt that so color me not too worried.

Nope, sorry to disappoint my tipster but this does not upset my applecart one little bit. It's exactly the kind of smartass move I would have made if it were my call. Like I've said before, I like results better than I like ideology.

I'm Just Not That Wild About Harry

"This war is a serious situation. It involves the worst foreign policy mistake in the history of this country," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"So we should take everything seriously. We find ourselves in a very deep hole and we need to find a way to dig out of it."

Oh mah gawd, really? Who knew. I can't remember when the first thing I did in the morning wasn't to check the news and see how many bombs had killed how many people so I hadn't noticed.

Pity you voted for this invasion Harry. No, I don't especially hate you for it, you aren't any worse than the rest of our party, the majority of whom voted for the invasion. It only means that you are either just another political hack afraid of being called weak or incredibly stupid and believed the doctored information we were all spoon fed. Or both. I've watched you operate so I'm inclined to go with the first choice, you're just another hack.

Not a major problem for me, at least you are a hack who is mostly on my side of the issues and face it, the other side is mainly comprised of useless political panderers too.

Let me break this down for you Harry. You aren't going to be running for office again, we both know that, this is your last hurrah. Why not go out with a bang instead of a whine?

Quit jerking around with non-binding resolutions and worrying over whether or not to bend over for the republicans and change wording to satisfy their little weenie-boy-trying-to-act-macho souls like a high school girl debating whether to let her boyfriend get to 2nd or 3rd base.

Cut off the goddamned funding and/or figure out how to begin
impeachment proceedings. They're wrong, everyone with more than two functioning brain cells knows they are wrong and we are wasting time running our mouths while people are dying. You all sound like Charlie Brown's teacher, "bwah, bwah, bwah, bwah, bwah". To quote an old friend, "I ain't tryin' to hear you".

People will say you can't cut funding because that would mean you "don't support the troops". Yes, retarded people will say that, most of us are pretty much done catering to retarded people. Cutting off funding means we would be forced to bring them home, period. Besides, judging from the way we are supporting our troops now, we aren't doing such a bang up job anyway. How's about we see if we could kill a few less?

What's your next argument? Iraq will descend into chaos? Done, check another one off of your list. Terrorists will gain a foothold in Iraq? Check. Innocent Iraqis will die? Check. Terrorist organizations will gain strength? Check.

Looks like the mission is accomplished. Now knock off the political weenie pulling and do something that matters. If they call you weak, kick 'em in the nuts. They'll have a hard time calling anyone anything when they're doubled over nursing their scrotums.

It's your big chance to make a splash Harry, grab the brass ring or go out like a chihuahua. Your choice.

Viva Progress, A Little Bit of Truth About the Good Old Days

I had started this rant last night but over tiredness and pissed off did not make for a very good combination so I saved it and this morning Buckdog posted something along a very similar line from the Canadian point of view.
Since most of us have reached the conclusion that for better or worse, language matters, I've been giving some thought to William Donohue of recent infamy and others of his ilk.

We, or the MSM at any rate, have been referring to them by such terms as "Christian conservatives", "values voters", and "fundamentalist Christians". Those terms may be polite and fairly inoffensive but I don't think they accurately depict who and what these people truly are. Those terms in fact tend to lend them an air of reasonableness and legitimacy that they just do not deserve.

Much as I might favor "socially retarded, anally retentive, control-freak assmonkeys" somehow I just can't feature Anderson Cooper or Soledad O'Brien saying it which would kind of defeat the purpose of changing the terminology in the first place.

Here are a few alternative proposals:

Christian Extremists
Religious Radicals
Christian Despots
Religious Anti-Socials
and my personal favorite: Social Regressives

Socially regressive is exactly what they are and I like to call things by their true names. "Conservative" implies that they are attempting to preserve some better way of life that we all once enjoyed. I'm not sure in what fairy tale we enjoyed this "better way of life" but they claim it is so.

Let me take you back to the year of my birth, back in the good old days when unmarried women who got pregnant were sent away "to visit an ailing aunt" and gay people had to hide in closets stuffed with high-heeled slippers with fuzzy fake-feather balls on the toes.

January 14 - George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama.

February 11 - CIA Domestic Operations Division is created.

March 18 - Court decides poor must have lawyers (Gideon vs. Wainwright Supreme Court trial)

June 12 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

June 17 - The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.

August 18 - American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

August 28 - Martin Luther King delivers his "I have a dream" speech on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

September 15 - American civil rights movement: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing results in 4 deaths and 22 injuries.

November 22 - John F. Kennedy assassination: In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and US Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn-in as the 36th President of the United States.

November 24 - Vietnam War: Newly sworn in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.

Those are just a few highlights from "the good old days". Don't forget that our public schools were still teaching children to "duck and cover" in the event of a nuclear attack and just about every town had at least one building with an official "fallout shelter" sign, likely posted not far from the omnipresent "whites only" signs. Miscegenation was still a crime in some states, in others it would only get you killed.

Pardon me for my complete lack of sappy, fond nostalgia.

I also remember who the people were who promoted and propagated all of the aforementioned loveliness. It was the Christians. The same God-fearing, bible-quoting, hellfire and damnation Christians as we have today, in many cases the direct offspring of the original pain in the ass idiots we fought before. The bible was used then, as it is now, to justify everything from racial prejudice and legalized discrimination to engaging in military actions we had no business being involved in.

I'd have expected us to learn something from this. Nope. The Regressives have learned to cloak their intentions and meaning quite a bit better but leopards don't change their spots and they are still exactly what they were in 1963: social regressives.

Maybe we haven't spent enough time and effort informing the younger generation about the realities that existed within our own lifetimes, preferring to feed them the misty, rose-colored version that time often lends to our memories.

I went to elementary school in a semi-rural, mainly agricultural district. More than half of my classmates were Hispanic, mainly first and second generation children from Mexico. Nearly all of their parents were farmworkers. The people who picked the crops for the food we all buy at our local supermarket. Even back then those crops would have rotted in the fields if farmers had to find white, American citizens to pick them.

Despite the disproportionate number of Mexican and Mexican-American children in my school all of the teachers were white. Not criticizing that, I doubt one could have found more than a small handful of Latino teachers in the US back then.

The problem was the attitude. I didn't really think about it much or it didn't penetrate my 7-year-old consciousness until the day W. disappeared. Until that day I simply took for granted my status as a golden child in the eyes of my teachers.

W. was Mexican, I don't know if she was in the US legally or illegally but her English was just good enough to barely get by. She was always quiet, never talked much to anyone and as far as I could tell, didn't have any friends. No one picked on her but no one paid her any attention either, myself included. I might have been unusual only in the fact that I even noticed she existed.

She disappeared one morning during recess. I noticed her seat was empty sometime after returning to class. I didn't think too much of it at first, assuming she was in the bathroom or some other logical place until our teacher started calling us up by name to pick up our graded assignments. Naturally W. was not there to respond when her name was called.

Nothing happened. When W. still had not appeared by the next recess I asked the teacher where she was and was told she must have gone home. Several hours later the police arrived at school with W. in tow. They had found her wandering about a mile from school. She said she had "felt lonely" and was trying to walk to her grandmother's house...in Mexico. No one at school had reported her missing.

You would think this would have resulted in at least an apology to her parents. Nope. W. was expelled from school for being "unmanageable".

Even at age 7 I was aware enough to know that had I gone missing for even 5 minutes there would have been a massive outcry. Can't have little curly-haired, blue-eyed children going missing, what would people think? One less dark-skinned child in the classroom...no big deal.

I also had enough sense to understand my own complicity in the matter. I had never spoken up, never questioned why the brown-skinned children were ignored, never questioned why all the goodies and attention always went to those of us with lily-white complexions. Enough sense to feel shamed. Where was the shame from the people who were supposed to be our role models?

Today we don't and indeed cannot get away with this behavior. I'm thankful for that. Still we have this large group of people who having failed in perpetuating this type of institutionalized discrimination against certain ethnic groups have now turned their attentions to gay people, single parents, the poor, and anyone else who doesn't fit into their world view of what constitutes a human being. And we've been letting them get away with it.

Now maybe some folks out there really long for the good old days, high-heeled slippers, beehives and all. Me, I prefer today and should I be lucky enough to live to see it, the future. Hopefully a future where we've put a little bit more of the "humane" into humanity and people like Mr. Donohue don't even merit a mention on the evening news because normal folks just don't go around worrying themselves about what other folks do in their bedrooms or demonizing the weakest among us.

Hopefully enough of us will stand up and call the people who would do this what they really are and refuse to accept it.

ConAgra Foods and Wal-Mart: A Terrorist Link?

Since we are happily accusing everyone who screws up of committing "terrorist acts" I feel obligated to point the finger at ConAgra Foods and Wal-Mart and their devilishly clever plot to poison peanut butter & jelly eating democrats across the nation.

I didn't pay too much attention to the press release this morning but decided to glance at my peanut butter when I was making dinner and lo and behold...I had the winning numbers!

Since I had already eaten about 1/3 of it and I'm not dead I have to assume mine either was not contaminated or I'm a lot harder to kill than ConAgra figured. Take that you devils, foiled again.

Guess that nixes my plan to bake peanut butter cookies for the local Minutemen.

Things You Never Needed or Wanted to Know About What Old White Folks Really Talk About

My dearest other, like all of us, has his own particular stereotypical groups that drive him bonkers. One of those is that group of women often referred to as "Soccer Mom's". Suburban, SUV driving, ponytail pulled through the ballcap wearing women of the 20 t0 30 something variety. You know, slightly toned down real-life versions of Desperate Housewives.

I'm not sure if he really dislikes them, they just scare him to death or it's their penchant for suddenly whipping in front of his 2 tons of automotive might. That's beside the point though.

Dear one bought the wrong trash bags, scented trash bags. Me being happily oblivious to what he is doing as my new computer just arrived, I am suddenly assaulted by a strange odor.

Me: what the hell is that smell?
Him: trash bag, sorry, bought the wrong ones.
Me: ah, no biggie
Him: smells like that cheap perfume all the soccer mom's wear
Me: (laughing and trying not to choke) Perfume? No honey, that's the same scent as they use for those "deodorant tampons".
Him: you mean all these years I've been smelling......

Oh the look on his face. A herd of wild buffalo could have easily walked through his wide open mouth. Priceless.

I now return you to the regularly scheduled coverage of Anna Nicole Smith. Have a beautiful day.

Goin' With the Flow: More Anna Nicole Coming to a State Near You

The non-stop coverage of Anna-Nicole's death has now exceeded even my most gloomy expectations so I've decided to nominate my choice for "best Anna Nicole post".

It wasn't difficult since there was only one that took things in a unique direction. The winner is Reno and It's Discontents for Nevada is the Anna Nicole Smith of the 2008 Democratic Caucuses.

Whether you like it or not my fellow Americans, Nevada is America at both its best and its worst. Like Smith, one day you’ll find us all gussied up in our finest implant-enhanced sequined gown and the next, we’re wandering around the town drugstore in a daze and a dirty powder blue velour jump suit that makes our ass look huge. No matter how hard it is to watch sometimes, Nevada today is as American as apple pie. A look at the ratings for syndicated entertainment shows and American Idol tells you all you need to know about what Americans think is important these days. Being famous for something (anything) is the way to go. Smith was the American dream–trailer trash done good, or least done rich and famous, and as much as we wanted to look away, we couldn’t because, after all was said and done, at least part of us wanted to be like a part of her. She was fat and thin, rich and poor, unknown and famous, straight and stoned, sexy and frumpy, loved and despised, happy and miserable, all image and seemingly no substance.

Don't get too excited if you're from South Carolina, Myrna the Minx has your number too and you're Jessica Simpson.

So ignore us if you dare, just remember that while you were busy courting the Streeps, the Simpsons, and the Reeds, the heartland moved to Nevada, and along with the rest of the west, we are setting the political trends for the future of this country.

Head over and read the rest and at least have a good chuckle.

Western Democrats Do Not Eat Quiche

Looks like I may not have been completely off base with my little rant about Westerners having a bellyful of Southern and Eastern politicians. Per the Nevada Appeal:

More often than not, presidential candidates are elite Easterners who don't connect with Western voters. Most of the 18 (!) politicians who have already announced for president are Easterners or Southerners who know little if anything about the West - people like Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani, who probably couldn't find Yucca Mountain on a map if their life depended on it.

According to Klein, "The Democratic Party is being reborn (in the West) with a raft of colorful candidates who have won the hearts of independents and moderate Republican voters." That's true in Nevada, where Democrats now occupy three statewide offices previously held by Republicans. So the Silver State isn't nearly as "red" as it used to be, thanks to an unpopular president and GOP congressional scandals. Once President Bush lied to us about Yucca Mountain, he was in deep doo-doo (that's how they say "problem" in Texas) around here. And he still is as we sink deeper and deeper into the Iraqi quagmire.

During an early debate among Democratic presidential hopefuls in Carson City on Feb. 21, we'll have a firsthand opportunity to hear what they say about Yucca Mountain and other western regional issues, and we should rule out any of them who don't know how to pronounce the name of our state.

I'm not sure Nevada is any less "red" than it used to be so much as it is that the red party has gone off the deep end. The average westerner just can't get with the "my way or the highway" style of governance. It's why the democrats lost them before. Don't tread on me is a good saying to keep in mind out west. Guess you could say we have a regional case of problems with authority.

Oh, for those in doubt, it's Nev-aaaa-da, A as in apple. Not Nev-ah-da.

Hat tip to America for Richardson

I had to read about the purging of the blogrolls by Atrios and Daily Kos over at the Galloping Beaver because, doh, I rarely read the big blogs. They could close up shop and unless one of the smaller blogs tells me, I wouldn't know it. They've become too much like MSM for me.

Apparently the recent purge was taken by many as their way of deciding who was or was not worthy. May have been, may have been simply trying to maintain a relatively short blogroll. Either case, I don't care. They can do whatever they please. It isn't like any of them would ever have linked me so I have no vested interest in the matter.

My blogrolling policy is: I don't have a set-in-stone policy. I might even link a "major" blog if I start following one fairly regularly. Mostly I assume everyone already has those links so why bother.

I look for blogs that interest me. Period. They don't have to agree with my views 100% or update every 5 minutes. Individuals tend to have lives and blogging takes up a fair amount of time. They can flat out disagree with me on most issues if I can find any logical rationale to their point of view.

I've removed a few blogs even in the short few months I've been blogging. Usually after a few months of no activity. Now and then because it went or I became aware it was assmonkey-driven. If people want to carry on a crusade for freeing 3 time murderers they can do that, I don't have to link them.

Today I dropped a few dead ones and one because the writer continues to believe we are in mortal danger if we leave Iraq and we must continue to increase troop presence there at all cost. In his view this is not even open to discussion. He has a right to believe and express that but obviously at this stage, if someone continues to believe this then I have no more words for them.

I added a few North Town, Divided We Stand United We Fall , and Flimsy Sanity. I'm not sure what I'll do if and when my blogroll goes nuclear but I doubt purging it for size will be the answer. It's my on-line bookmark list so if I still visit, even occasionally, it stays.

Thanks to the move by some of the big players of the blog world I'm going to make more of an effort to keep an eye out for interesting, lesser known blogs and add them. My little contribution to keeping internet democracy alive.

Crank Up the Volume

Buckdog, Blue Lyon and And yes, I DO take it Personally posted about what at first glance appear to be two separate matters. Are they though?

Interesting that our administration is working so hard to build a case against a nation that it has clearly stated "we have no intention of invading". Why would they do it then?

Maybe invading Iran isn't the point. Maybe, just maybe they are running out of ways to make us pee our pants in fear and maintain some support for staying in Iraq. After all, if they can convince us that Iran is the bogeyman a lot of skurred little sissy-cons will insist we stay in Iraq, "so we don't have to fight them here".

This is particularly important when one considers the timing, today the House begins debate on the little matter of sending more troops to Iraq. Can't have them deciding we shouldn't send in more cannon fodder now can we?

Do I doubt that Iran, or at least some elements in Iran, are arming and assisting insurgents in Iraq? Nope. Will sending in more troops put a stop to this? Not a chance in hell.

The point is: they are doing it because we are there. How long do you suppose the Iranians would want to keep sending in supplies to Arabs if there were no US forces in Iraq? I'm guessing not too long. There's some history there.

But, but, but, Iran is developing nookular weapons you say. Could be. Exactly how is our staying in Iraq going to be a deterrent to that plan? I've heard a lot of talk about "tactical strikes" against nuclear facilities in Iran. Explain to me exactly how that would work out with over 100,000 of our military sitting on Iran's doorstep like fat, juicy hens in an unprotected hen house. Is that what they mean when they talk about expected "collateral damage"?

I'm not quite sure why I keep fighting this issue. At this late stage of the game it definitely isn't because I think anyone who doesn't get it is going to suddenly have an epiphany. Maybe it's just habit or to leave a record.

Maybe it's because I resent the hell out of having my country ride the short bus.

Al Qaeda's Newest Advisor: John Howard

Much is being made of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's comment regarding the '08 US election in general and more specifically about Barack Obama.

Who does this Howard think he is telling Americans how to vote is what most of us here are asking. I think we are looking at this all wrong. Howard isn't telling us who to vote for, he's acting in the capacity of advisor to Al Qaeda.

“If I were running Al Qaeda in Iraq,” Mr. Howard said, “I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.”

Surely Mr. Howard realizes how much most Americans thoroughly resent foreign interference in their elections. I mean he'd have to, right? Surely he couldn't be THAT clueless, could he? Therefore it follows that he could not possibly have been addressing his comments to us. He had to have been speaking to Al Qaeda.

Does that fall into the category of "emboldening the enemy"?

Not quite sure what his intent was here. I have to conclude Mr. Howard is either a) rooting for an outcome favourable to Al Qaeda by pissing off the entire US citizenry or b) he seriously believes Al Qaeda wields a great deal of influence on our elections and that Obama would do them some serious damage so he is trying to trick them into supporting him.

It has to be one of the above, unless you go with the beautifully simple "Howard is retarded" there is no other logical conclusion.

I did enjoy Mr. Obama's response.

“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,” Mr. Obama said. “Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”

Basically a polite way of saying "shut up and show us your balls". Let's see them Mr. Howard....if you can extract them from the deathgrip Dubya has on them. Ah, didn't think so.

Whatever the reason I want to extend my personal and heartfelt thanks to Prime Minister Howard for doing his part to campaign for the democratic party by pissing off nearly the entire country. You go John-boy.

Pahrump Farts #5

I've neglected the local shenanigans lately. Between the illness and death in our family, my computer hassles, and trying to fight off a growing case of apathy and depression over national affairs I didn't have the heart for it.

Not to mention we are only approximately 20 or 30 thousand in number here, not exactly movers and shakers of the universe. On the other hand we are a fair enough sampling of what goes on in small town and semi-rural America, both the good and the bad.

We've had a fairly typical month or two here. The usual and expected number of small town crimes involving car chases accompanied by cheering sections composed of local homeless people, local gentry confronting sanitation workers with shotguns because they did not approve of trash pick-up on windy days, and the ever present wild burros not yielding the right-of-way in traffic.

There is talk of establishing a shelter and services building for our homeless but it isn't meeting with much support. Considering the last attempt to establish such a program met with threats and vandalism by locals I'm not holding my breath.

Current services consist of the providing an occasional hotel room and shower and a bus ride out of town. Capt. Arlene Torres, of the Pahrump Salvation Army states, "The agreement is they have to be out in the morning at six. Our driver takes them to Las Vegas and they take a bus wherever they're going," Torres said. "We haven't done it in the past month. The last time we did it was in November, a woman who came from California."

That does resolve the problem from the Pahrumpian point of view, just shift the problem to someone else.

The big news of the week is we are now home to a brand-spanking new chapter of the Minutemen. Featheriver was more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt than I am. Naturally I had to look up their mission statement.

Now they say they are not a racist organization but I have to wonder.

Future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures with no common bond to hold them together, and a certain guarantee of the death of this nation as a harmonious "melting pot."

No worries, we already have rancorous, squabbling cultures...and that isn't even counting ethnic or religious minorities. I'm pretty sure we killed any melting pot notions when we killed off most of the Native Americans, enslaved Black people, imported and subsequently tried to deport Chinese and Mexican workers as our business needs fluctuated and oh yeah, confiscated the property of and incarcerated Japanese-Americans. If I missed someone I apologize, hard to remember everyone off the top of my head. We've been awfully busy.

Since even we of white, European descent are usually preoccupied with destroying each other I have to assume this must mean only certain rancorous squabblers are unwelcome. Now who might that be? I bet it's those darn Canadians, always coming over here and refusing to learn the language and assimilate our ways. Can't even get into a good shouting match or fistfight with most of them.

Accordingly, the men and women volunteering for this mission are those who are willing to sacrifice their time, and the comforts of a cozy home, to muster for something much more important than acquiring more "toys" to play with while their nation is devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens.

My understanding is that this organization was founded to assist in patrolling our borders. That's the official line anyway.

That leads me to an entirely new set of questions. Where are these millions of illegal invaders around here? I've been looking for them and I swear, outside of Ed Goedhart's dairy in Amargosa, I can't seem to locate many at all. Now if these proud new Minutemen want to head over there and fight for their right to shovel cow dookey for minimum wage I can get behind that. I can't think of a more fitting mission for them.

Then there's the border question. Which border are they here to protect? We share some border with 5 other states. I haven't heard any complaints about rampaging Oregonians or Idahoans. We seem to have a relative truce with Arizona 'ceptin when we get to fighting over water. That leaves California and Utah.

Now much as some locals would like to seal the border against invading liberals from California we just can't do it. Our gaming based economy needs those California dollars. Kick them out and poof go the casinos.

By process of elimination that only leaves the Utah border. Waves of invading Mormons intent on coming here to experience the joys of sinning out from under the watchful eyes of their brethren. Hell, one of them even managed to become a state senator. Insidious devils.

I'm so glad to have solved that mystery. Now I can sleep in peace knowing the local Minutemen will be protecting that Utah border and I will be safe from invading Utahns.

Assmonkey Language Control Part II

As several commentators stated, yes, language does matter. It's a tool for communication and one I frequently use as a deliberate verbal stick in the groin. It's my weapon of choice.

Wizard commented:
If we defend the right to free speech of Marcotte & McEwan, we must also defend the rights of Coulter & Limbaugh.

I do. They have an absolute right to spout any views they want to. Just as I have the same right to make fun of those views and play verbal kickball with them. I've never advocated for forcibly silencing them.

I did read the post in question. I'd also have to call the Christian conservative movement "Christofascist" because plain and simple, it is. Check the definition of facism.

A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.

Oppressive, dictatorial control.

Calling the movement "fascist" isn't "hate speech". It's the truth. No one, Marcotte included, ever advocated to encourage violence against them or any loss of civil rights, including the right to believe what they believe as objectionable as it may be to some of us.

Some of us do strenuously object to their attempt to enact their particular beliefs into laws. It's incredibly simple: if you believe birth control is a sin, DON'T USE IT. If you believe same-sex marriage is a sin: don't marry a person of the same gender as yourself. Trying to control everyone else's choices and beliefs in these and other matters IS fascism.

Wizard also brought up the Mel Gibson and Michael Richards incidents.

There are some very clear differences that ought to be apparent to most sane people. Much as I detest Fundies I do NOT have any right to verbally or in any other way, harass them in their homes, their workplaces, or anywhere in the public domain. I cannot imagine approaching a group of door-to-door evangelists and screaming obscenities and insults at them. I do have every right to attack their views here, my blog, my rules.

If the argument was, and I sense it really was, a rant at Edwards for hiring them in the first place, there is merit to that argument. Certainly if he is attempting to appeal to the center they are a poor choice.

I don't have a problem with people changing their minds, I do it fairly often as more information becomes available but this was a case of the information was already there, flip-flopping all over the board at the first jab was over the top.

Did you know that Marcotte has consistently referred to Jesus as "Jeebus" in all her writings (one blogger counted 114 such references). Can you imagine Edwards rage if she have used a similar derogatory reference for Mohammad? Can you image the Muslim rage?

I sometimes refer to him as Jay-sus, more a play on Southern pronunciation than an attempt on my part to insult a being I do not believe in as a "divine saviour". I cannot insult that which I do not believe exists. I'm sure Muslims would be outraged if I did the same to their deity, we've all seen the violence that has ensued after some well-publicized incidents. Are you trying to say the Christian right might behave in the same fashion? If they do then I'd advocate for having them jailed, the same as I would for Muslims who behave in this manner.

Yes, jailed. People who cannot keep their hands and feet to themselves forfeit the right to live with the rest of us.

The current president of this country publicly declared he did not view me, an Atheist, as a citizen. Imagine my outrage. I did not even contemplate assaulting him. So does that make Atheists more civilized than religious people?

Donohue was never going to vote for Edwards, neither were his followers so exactly why is his opinion of any importance? It isn't. For that matter neither is mine or yours either as we were never going to vote for him either.

In short, it pisses us off that someone like Edwards represents our party. Fine. Attacking the bloggers is your right, you are free to do that all day long but you have to expect your logic and rationales are going to come under scrutiny when you do.

Assmonkey's Guide to Controlling Language

I'm sure by now everyone has already at least heard about the John Edwards flap over his hiring, then reported firing, then backtracking yet again and not firing two liberal bloggers he had hired for his campaign, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

I'm not really going to talk about that much. I've always considered Edwards a weaselly-weasel and I am an old woman with weasel radar.

Suffice to say, the writings and opinions of Marcotte and McEwan were not a state secret, he was or ought to have been fully aware of their positions and choice of language before he hired them. Hiring them then bending over for the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, then rolling over one more time when at least some segments of his base protested should never have happened at all. If you don't like the delivery don't hire that messenger. Good grief, and they called Kerry wishy-washy.

So the affair doesn't please me, it also does not surprise me, it's about what I expect from Edwards.

What truly yanks my too easily yanked chain is nonsense like this.

But she certainly was colorful in her in her rant! Yet it is that very color that marginalizes her position. Substituting the "F" word for logic, clear thought, facts or reason diminishes her into total obscurity.

Only mindless extremists could possibly like or respect her.Clearly one or more of those mindless extremists are part of John Edward's campaign. And those folks convinced someone in Edward's campaign to hire this idiot without properly researching her previous writings or work.

Beg to differ. The writer of this claims to be a "classic liberal". Classic classist-elitist liberal maybe. Only a mindless buffoon would decide a persons choice of adjectives made them more or less credible. You sir are an idiot. A snobbish, vanilla-puddin' eatin' idiot.

I love this response to people like him from Pandagon:

If one more social-conservative-in-centrist’s-clothing tries to put this “No, really, this decision is going to hurt Edwards, for whom I had every intention of voting, I swear,” nonsense over on me, I’m going to start the cocktail hour early tonight.

I never had any intention of voting for Edwards. I also have not really followed these bloggers or their blogs, mostly because I prefer to look for smaller, more individual blogs than follow the "biggies". Many of the major blogs are quite good but one of the things I have always most loved about the "internets" is its ability to give anyone and everyone a voice. Joe Schmoe in Podunkville would likely never be asked to contribute to any major blog but he might have something to say and I might just want to know what that is. I like to keep my ear to the ground, good to know when a buffalo stampede is heading ones way.

I might agree or disagree with these two bloggers, certainly I disagree with their choice of candidate but in any case it wouldn't be based on their choice of language. If Edwards was uncomfortable with it he should not have hired them in the first place. If as a nation we are so stupid and shallow all we can focus on is a persons use of the word "fuck", then we probably deserve to keep electing the sort of assclowns we've been electing.

If the writer of the language critique post is truly representative of the majority of democratic liberals then we truly are fucked.

Money Matters

Nevada Up North had some things to say regarding a subject that has been very much on my mind. The entire post is worth a look and pretty much sums up my own views on NAFTA, the WTO and free trade in general.

Dennis Kucinich has a problem with his plan for peace. At the winter meeting of the DNC he said he wanted to create a Department of Peace. That's fine, I agree with putting as much effort to peace as we do to defense. The problem with Kucinich's big happy world is that his economic policies completely contradict he goal. In fact, his economic policies even contradict his economic policies.

He discussed the issue in the context of Kucinich which is fine, I agree, Kucinich seems to be a genuinely kind, sincere person. So is my husband but he wouldn't make a good president either. It should apply to all of the candidates as well.

The issues, ie: Iraq, Iran, Darfur, North Korea, foreign policy in general, gay rights, health care, etc. are all important to me as I'm sure they are to all Democrats. Where NV Up North and I differ from many in our pack is that we also place great emphasis on our economy.

Yes, I know, many dems do not want to vote based on economic issues, it's all about emotional appeal and stance on human rights and welfare issues. Get over it. Economy is a human rights and welfare issue and business is part of it.

This has been the hole in our bucket. Corporations are all Evil and Wal-Mart Must Die attitudes will not serve us well. They will also ensure we do not maintain any position of power we have managed to obtain.

Yes, conservative, religious fundamentalists have been a problem for us. Guess what has helped them grow their movement? It's the economy stupid. Unfortunately AlterNet while making some good points does what we-of-the-left often do, gets more than a little muddled in understanding the roots of the problem.

Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age -- he was then close to 80 -- we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."

Adams understood that totalitarian movements are built out of deep personal and economic despair. He warned that the flight of manufacturing jobs, the impoverishment of the American working class, the physical obliteration of communities in the vast, soulless exurbs and decaying Rust Belt, were swiftly deforming our society. The current assault on the middle class, which now lives in a world in which anything that can be put on software can be outsourced, would have terrified him. The stories that many in this movement told me over the past two years as I worked on "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America" were stories of this failure -- personal, communal and often economic. This despair, Adams said, would empower dangerous dreamers -- those who today bombard the airwaves with an idealistic and religious utopianism that promises, through violent apocalyptic purification, to eradicate the old, sinful world that has failed many Americans.

So, the argument is we return to a more insular economy and massive protectionism? How long do you suppose this would work before the entire system came tumbling down around our ears? Think it through, how well did it work out for Japan or the former Soviet Union?

Ok, so millions of jobs have been exported to China, India and other havens of "cheap labor". That's painful, it's also created a middle class, read consumer class in those countries. It's also pushing up the wage scales in those countries....how long do you suppose before it is no longer such a bargain to outsource to Singapore? It's inevitable.

Does this mean we have to leave half our population jobless in the meantime? NO. Absolutely not. Where we've failed miserably is in educating our people for the new realities and in not setting good policies for working with business to provide better terms for workers.

This is where the Republicans fall flat on their faces. We are not and will likely never be a "socialist" nation much as the right likes to claim all democrats are raving Marxists, that's a total myth. We do however recognise something the righties do not: government DOES have to take some responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. Leaving it all in the hands of for-profit corporations with no checks and balances was never going to work any more than leaving it 100% in the hands of government would. There has to be a partnership, no matter how unwilling and we have to be the ones to demand it.

Taking a hard line all-or-nothing stance either for or against business or free trade is not going to accomplish anything except more misery for all the people slugging along in the middle or on the bottom of the pile. I like results more than I like ideology.

That does not mean I would vote for a flaming social conservative to protect the economy, I wouldn't. Not in this lifetime. It does mean that when scrutinizing potential candidates whose social and foreign policy views I like I also have to scrutinize their economic views. Cutting off my nose to spite my face and make a point is not my forte.

We have only two candidates at this time that I see who have any grasp of the economic issues: Clinton and Richardson. Obama, I loves you but you lost me when you went stumping on the "Wal-Mart Must Die" trail with Edwards. It might have played well with the far left, for those of us living in bumfacked, podunk, Realityville it didn't wash. Try working with Wal-Mart to improve working benefits for their employees instead of demonizing them and come back in 4 years. I know, I know, I don't love them either but they are part of the American landscape and you just can't shoot them.

Instead of making fun of discount store shoppers (and yes, mea culpa, I've done it occasionally too) how about we work on ways to improve their lot in life? Killing the corporations who employ many of them will not help them. Finding ways to make health insurance more affordable, providing carrots that reward businesses for paying living wages, and simply raising the bar for what is expected in the way of working conditions, pay and benefits would help them.

Rant over. Please, please, please think long and hard about economic issues along with all the other issues before you vote. I want equal rights and access to services for all. I also want everyone to eat regularly and be able to live in decent homes. Someone has to pay for all these things so crushing Wall Street, while it might be fun in a mean, take that you weenies sort of way, would be like shooting ourselves in the foot to prove guns are dangerous.

I don't know where the saying originated but mothers all over have a saying for their children when the little dears insist on doing something mom has told them will cause them harm and they fall down and hurt themselves anyway. I'm not religious but the saying is still good.

God don't like ugly.

Hat tip to And, yes, I DO take it personally.

Bill Richardson at the DNC

Thought this speech deserved a rerun here, the more people who see it the better is my motto. Hat tips to Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth and Bill Richardson for President.

Richardson addresses...pretty much everything, even the fact that I love most of our dem candidates, I just love Bill more. Go Bill. You'll love him, really, you will.

Lambs Gone Wild

Once again the religious right is determined to interfere in public policy, this time regarding the new HPV vaccine.

Yes, the same folks who are so quick to defend the absolute right-to-be-born of a fertilized egg are also the first to object to preventing cervical cancer in their own daughters. Makes sense from their point of view I suppose: if the little tramps want to screw around they deserve to die. How very Christian of you.

I can sort of agree with them on one point and one point only: it's a shame the government has to make mandatory what should be by all rights a matter of common sense. Therein lies the problem though, common sense is not our forte, we are a nation of assmonkeys. This leads to the question of whether or not government ought to, or may even be obligated to enact legislation for the protection of the health and welfare of it's citizens.

Up to this point the answer has been yes. Think of all the other required vaccinations. Best of luck getting your child into school without an MMR record. Nowadays government has taken the issue light years further legislating smoking, and the newest trend, eating choices. I'm not going to debate those here but my point is that I did not hear the Christian outrage over these issues.

So why is this vaccine issue different? Its different because cervical cancer is definitely linked to sexual activity. Big no-no for the Christian set most of whom would tend to see this type of disease as a judgement from god.

I defend your right to opt out and so do the lawmakers, an opt out provision is written in. If you really want to kill your offspring who am I to stop you. I don't like it but I don't see any possibility of being able to protect every idiot from themselves nor do I think it reasonable to waste immense resources trying to enforce such a course of action. We have plenty of other, more cooperative people, who could benefit from those resources. I like the more bang for my buck option, call it a business decision.

Your argument for making it optional, an "opt in" choice, does not hold water. Most people will abide with the decision that the vaccine is beneficial, making it required gives it more credibility for people who are only mildly intellectually impaired. It could potentially save thousands of lives making it a good business decision. Case closed.

Now then, I have to address your argument that giving this vaccine "gives children permission to have sex". That would be hysterically funny if it were not what you dimwits actually believe. Young people having sex is not a new,modern day phenomena. Young people have been having sex since the dawn of humankind. They have never needed permission to do so.

I understand that you've been able to put the fear of Jay-sus into at least some of your offspring to the extent that fear of eternal hellfire has overcome biological drives and hormonal overdrive thus keeping Betty Sue from sullying her precious little dirty-hole with an evil, predatory man-thing. Goodie for you. So what you're saying is that if Betty Sue gets a vaccination her foul base nature will take over and she will immediately commence to fuck like a sailor on shore leave? Interesting premise for a new video series like "Lambs of God Gone Wild" but I doubt that holds much water either. I have confidence in your fear tactics.

Go right ahead and opt your daughters out since you have no problem allowing them to get cancer and die if they dare to commit the sin of having sex and while you're at it, shut the fuck up about protecting the "right-to-life" of the unborn since you clearly do not give a shit about the sanctity of human life if it contradicts your view of how that life should be lived. It's an all or nothing issue. All life or none, you don't get to defend only the ones you choose.

Go get a new bucket because yours has a huge gaping hole in it.

LA Times

Survivor-Texas

I'm not a huge fan of forwarded funny e-mails but my brother has mastered the art, he only sends an occasional one and it's usually pretty good. Yes, be afraid, I have a sibling which means there are two of us. Even scarier, he's a flaming liberal who lives in Texas (albeit in the Sanctuary for the Protection of Endangered Liberals known as Austin). No, he isn't gay but if he thought it would really wreck a fundies day he'd pretend to be.

Anyway, here's your chuckle. I'd try this for real but my car refuses to travel east and I'd have to lock the husband in the trunk to make him go to Texas.

Due to the popularity of the Survivor shows, Texas is planning to produce, "Survivor-Texas Style."

Contestants will start in Dallas, then drive to Austin, San Antonio, over to Houston and down to Brownsville. They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Odessa, Lubbock and Amarillo. From there they will go on to Abilene, Fort Worth and finally back to Dallas.

Each contestant will be driving a pink Volvo with bumper stickers that read:

I'm Gay
I Love the Dixie Chicks
Boycott Beef
I Voted for John Kerry
George Strait Sucks
Hillary in 2008
I'm here to confiscate your gun.

The first one to make it back to Dallas alive wins. =)

Terrorists 100, Us 0

My cranky meter is off the charts this week. Two days of arguing with an uncooperative computer before finally getting it through my thick skull that my hard drive was dying. Replace hard drive, works beautiful. Except for that annoying little message "network cable is unplugged". No it isn't. Die you evil traitorous machine.

Next best thing, appropriate better half's computer and try to look potentially dangerous if he dares to speak to you. Yes dears, even he is on my short list this week.

To take my mind off of my current aggravation I thought we could take a lesson from our friends of Lite-Brite fame and discuss a matter of urgent national importance. Trent Lott's hair.

Trent was a busy little weasel this morning talking about all the reasons congress should not vote for a non-binding resolution against further troop deployments to Iraq.

His primary argument was that "it doesn't mean anything". Interesting argument for a politician, since when does most of what you say or do mean anything? I must have missed that memo.

His other argument being "it sends the wrong message to our enemies". Really? Let me get this straight then, are you saying that if this resolution passes then "the terrorists" will think they have won?

Here's a newsflash for you: they already won and they have neocon sissy-girls like you to thank for it. We are scared to get on planes, we are scared to travel overseas, we pee on ourselves when we see a burka, we will soon need national security clearance to get a drivers license and we see bogeymen in every corner. When our power went out here in Dumbassville the power company was flooded with calls from local intelligentsia who thought we'd been attacked by terrorists. Gotta give them points for creative thinking, I just assumed the system overloaded since it was 13 freaking degrees.

Now we are blowing up Lite-Brite sets and prosecuting advertisers for making "terrorist threats". It's only a matter of time before toy manufacturers are sued for selling talking dolls with terrorist messages. Let's not forget we can also thank Trent and his brethren for caving in and trying to institute their very own version of Sharia law. How many people do you suppose we can send to prison for oral copulation?

Yup, I have to say it, the terrorists won big time.

Now, about your hair Trent, it looks suspiciously like an IED. I say we blow it up.

The Lighter Side of Terrorism

Nothing like having a major US city brought to its knees by cartoon characters.

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Suspicious devices that led to bridge closings in Boston and forced the evacuation of a hospital building were part of a cable television channel's marketing campaign, officials said.

The devices were magnetic lights promoting ``Aqua Teen Hunger Force,'' a show on the Turner Broadcasting System's Cartoon Network, according to a statement from Time Warner's Turner broadcasting unit.

``They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities,'' the statement said. ``They have been in place for two to three weeks.''

Go Aqua Teen Hunger Force! Um, wait a sec, they've been in place for two or three weeks? So much for early intervention. Had they been a real threat Boston would now have some brand new pre-fab holes to make into ponds.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino promised whoever planted the devices faces heavy criminal penalties.

``Two to five years for each one of them,'' Menino said.

So you're going to jail advertisers, or more likely, the working people who were paid to put up the advertising because you weren't smart enough to know the difference between what basically amounted to a super-sized Lite-Brite and an actual bomb?

'Nuff said. Every time I think we've reached the peak of retardedness someone has to go one further.

Screw the South, the West May Rise and Kick Your Ass

Nevada Up North has chosen and the verdict is We Need Richardson. My disclaimer is that we have never communicated so much as one word, this was in fact the first time I had even commented there so this is not a Nevadan conspiracy. It's an honest-to-goodness case of at least the two of us arriving at the same conclusion for much the same reasons. A good omen if one assumes that either of us might have an inkling of two things:

1. Which candidates might actually be able to make good things happen for the country and

2. Of those candidates, which one might actually be electable.

I'm not knocking the other candidates, I even really and truly like several of them but I gotta choose just one, right?

I like Hillary Clinton, I love Barack Obama, I like Kuchinich, I don't particularly dislike Vilsack or Dodd though I'll confess that as a lifelong southwesterner, I'm burnt on easterners and midwesterners and these two seem pretty regional in their outlooks. Edwards, well...he makes me cringe. Might be a personal bias, something to do with personal injury lawyers from North Carolina with great big, toothy smiles but ok, if he wins the primary I'll vote for him simply to vote against the right-wingnuts that I'm even more sick of. I won't be happy about it but I'll do it.

Yup, there really is an East-West-Midwest tug of war. See, the Easterners traditionally have treated the West like a redheaded step-child. Not quite good enough for the club Old Man, but you can clean our toilets and hand over all your resources, m'kay. The Midwest and the South, frankly Scarlett, leave our Libertarian souls screaming. Way too much trying to legislate in our bedrooms and crying Help, Help, me Rhonda for the federal government to "protect our way of life". Don't get me started on the ones that migrate here in herds, determined to change the West into their new nest-of-bible belt-values-with-a-better-climate.

You'd have to hear my better half to understand how deep this division runs. He firmly believes that the Civil War was a tragic mistake and we should have let the South secede. Nay, encouraged them to secede. Freed the people, gotten them out and then built a wall to keep Southerners out. He is not unique in this view. I used to think that was extreme, silly even. Not so much anymore, too much first hand experience with those folks, I now see his point. We voted for Titus but I firmly believe that Georgia drawl of hers is what got us stuck with Gibbons. A lot of Westerners will vote for a monkey before they'll vote for a southerner.

I have no idea how Richardson will play in the rest of the country but in the Western states I'm pretty sure he's the man.

Dark Horses and Flying Pigs

Holy-moly, I asked for it and I got it. Truths are beginning to fly out of the mouths of politicians at an alarming rate, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill calls Cheney "delusional" regarding his views on Iraq and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebrasaka, tells his fellow Senators who are reluctant to take a clear stand against the current Iraq policy that if they are more concerned with their poll ratings than with stopping the proposed troop "surge" then maybe they "should find another job -- perhaps selling shoes".

Keep an eye on the sky people, pigs will begin to fly any day now.

Okay yes, I'm delighted with both statements. It's refreshing and hopeful to hear some of our leadership spit out the unvarnished truth and consequences be damned. On the other hand as a democrat I'm concerned that our party is already sliding down that slippery slope of handing over the '08 election one more time.

Hagel may very well run in '08 and I'm going to do what I usually do and fly in the face of most of the political "experts". The "experts" are doing what experts get paid to do (state the obvious), yammering about how Hagel may not have a snowballs chance in hell of winning his primary because of his stance against the war and lack of lockstep loyalty to his party.

Keep believing that and watch Hagel wipe the floor with your faces.

Most of America could give a shit less about either party. Understand this: we don't trust either of you and frankly, you could almost say we hate you. We think most if not all of you are a bunch of elitist bastards more concerned with keeping your stranglehold on the rest of us than with actually accomplishing anything. Most of the time we're right.

Looking at Hagel's voting record I'd have to say he's as bad or worse than all the rest. He is a true conservatives conservative. The problem is he speaks the language. He has a firm grasp of some of the basic things that appeal to Americans in general. He understands that running against the grain on some major issues plays to our love of voting for the dark horse. Ask Joe Lieberman. He understands that most of America will happily overlook most of his stances on other issues even if they are diametrically opposed to their own views if they decide he is the man with the big fuzzy brass balls. We love our big fuzzy brass balls.

The experts can spin 10,000 reasons that Bush squeaked back in against Kerry in '04 but it came down to one simple thing: Americans believed Kerry had no cajones. It's really that simple.

So I'm going to go out on a limb here and make my call. Hagel is most likely the greatest danger to a democratic win in '08. I have very little faith Hillary Clinton would stand a chance against him. Obama might. Maybe on a good day. John Edwards might make a good showing on Dancing With the Stars but up against a big hairy set of huevos he'll be toast. I'm holding my breath waiting for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to show us his testosterone level, my money is on him.

Yeah, I hear you laughing out there, "oh please, some guy from New Mexico". Yup, some guy from a state a lot of Americans think still belongs to Mexico. There's an advantage to coming from a podunk little state. You don't get to be as insulated from the realities of us unimportant little commoners and you might just speak the language. Ask that guy from Arkansas, Bill Clinton.

Huked on Foniks For Pundits

Funniest thing I've heard today: Tom DeFrank speaking on the Lou Dobbs show, "this president has the courage of his convictions".

I'll allow Mr. DeFrank that this was a true statement. I'm going to have to point out that so do paranoid schizophrenics. Having the courage of ones' convictions can be a powerful thing, for better or for worse. When one has the courage of ones' convictions in spite of all factual evidence that your convictions are either false or detrimental then it is commonly called "stuck on stupid".

Looking at the facts, that Mr. DeFrank (and many like him) receive upwards of $7500 to state the obvious for common folk such as myself, and the fact that at least 50% of the common folk elected this administration I'm forced to conclude that Emperor Bush is not the only one who is stuck on stupid.

Now I can say our Naked Emperor is a fool, that he's a paranoid, megalomaniacal warmonger with dreams of conquest and that he has sent this country on a path that will haunt us for at least a generation and increased the threat to the personal safety of every American and to the country in general at least 50% by his actions but coming from me it doesn't mean much. I'm no one of any importance so it matters about as much as if I told you the moon was made of cheese.

On the other hand, I think I could cough up $7500 if I could find someone whose words would carry some weight who would appear on primetime CNN and call a spade a spade. Quit talking around the Bush and just get on there and speak the truth: we have an insane person running our country.

See, it isn't difficult. A lot of us know it already. Just get up there and say it straight out in plain English that every American can understand. To hell with the sensibilities of the 30% of our population who are so intellectually impaired they cannot grasp this concept. The rest of us are tired of being dragged around by the mentally deranged. I have nothing against people with mental illness, I just don't think they ought to be controlling countries, particularly not countries with as much military capability as this one.

As far as I can tell just about everyone who is "anyone" is more concerned with losing face in public than with stopping this train wreck. If you're more concerned with your image or your poll ratings than with the fact that your country is being systematically destroyed and that it's likely to get worse, much, much worse, then really, I have to wonder if you have the worlds best exit plan or if you are just stupid.

I wonder how long until Canada begins contemplating a border fence to keep out all those pesky Americans?

Semi-Coherent Thoughts on Death and Dying

Today is more or less our first day of going back to some semblance of routine. I say more or less because it isn't exactly routine yet. I still have chores to do such as clearing out the Christmas ham that she won't ever be having after all and tending the small herd of semi-feral cats we've inherited.

What always strikes me is how little we really leave behind us. In the end it comes down to returning Netflix videos and cancelling accounts. For most of us our greatest claim to immortality will be the credit card offers that will continue arriving years after the rest of the world has forgotten we ever existed. I've been through this enough times to know that dying is the surest path to a four-star credit rating.

This death has been different for me in that it isn't me who has been so greatly affected. I already said goodbye to most of the people who ever loved me years ago. I'm sad and I will miss this lady but her passing hasn't left a huge hole in my life and she didn't take most of my history with her, nor do I carry the memories of most of hers. It's been difficult because she took my husband's, one of the few people left on this planet I feel connected to.

I had to watch him say goodbye to the last remaining person who shared his history and understand completely how that feels. I think it may be more painful than going through it myself. I've had 25 years to get used to my disconnectedness so I'm sure time has softened the edges but it's not exactly the sort of thing you forget.

The process of dying is not something I look forward to but being dead doesn't trouble me much because I think it's most likely I will simply cease to exist. Nothing too scary there, kind of sad but basically it just means I won't be around to grow more flowers, someone else will though so no major loss. What scares me is leaving my better half behind to cope by himself. The world is an ugly place and it's particularly ugly to disposable people.

That includes the majority of the worlds' population. Religious folks like to put a different spin on things, claim we are all "special in God's eyes". They talk the talk but they almost never walk the walk. Most of us are disposable people, bodies to be valued as consumers or worker bees or to fight our wars and don't forget to fight for our causes such as protecting the rights of the unborn. Fuck 'em once they're born but by God we're going to make certain they get born. We have to insure enough are born to keep up the supply of bodies to use or convert for our causes.

I'm not religious and this puts it all in a very different perspective for me. Every single life has value because much as I hate to break this down for you...this may well be all we get. I can't just shrug it off and say "oh well, now she's in God's hands" because that's bullshit. Convenient, self-serving bullshit. It makes some people feel better to believe this, more importantly it makes it easier to justify treating others in any way they find convenient.

Okay, I'm rambling a bit. I'm still walking around feeling slightly surreal. I think what I'm trying to say is don't worry so much about the afterlife, start worrying more about THIS life. We've become numb to the numbers, too many people suffering and dying every day so we don't even think about it much, it's overwhelming. Stop and pick one of that number, any one, and really think about what it would be to be them or to be one of their loved ones left behind. Walk in their shoes for one minute. Do this every day.

If we could ever get every single person on this planet to do this for one minute of every day I think we might actually be able to make some progress as a species. Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming. It will never happen. So now you understand why I'm not so troubled by my own mortality. Sometimes leaving a bad situation is the better option.

Getting What You Pay For

While I am on the topic of American conservatives cutting off their noses to spite their faces I thought I'd tackle the behemoth of US retail, the mighty Wal-Mart.

Unlike most of my brethren on the left side of life I'm not staunchly "anti-Wal-Mart". I have more of a love-hate relationship with it.

I believe in facing facts and the fact is I live in a podunk little town and at last check neither Nordstrom's or even J. C. Penney's were shit hot to come here. No Home Depot either, not even a Target. We have a couple of little individually owned clothing retailers if you enjoy wearing Hawaiian-flower print caftans or nothing but T-shirts emblazoned with skater or thrasher images.

This of course leaves the internet, my favorite shopping mecca. Much as I love internet shopping though I have to admit that sometimes one just needs a pair of socks. Then there are those little emergencies like when my coffeemaker gave up the ghost with no advance warning. Sorry, I'm not waiting till next week for a cup of coffee to make a $49.99 political statement, that ain't happening. If waiting till next week would save Darfur I'd do it, I'd most likely even give up coffee but I'm not doing it just to stay on the politically correct "good list".

I'm far from wealthy, trust me on that one, but I count myself fortunate that I'm in that group of people that can make choices as to where I shop, it's nice to have options. What about the roughly 40% of my community that do not have credit cards? No internet shopping for them, assuming they even own a computer and have an internet connection. They could drive the 60+ miles to Las Vegas I suppose. If they own a car capable of making the trips reliably and can afford the gas. Then again that's bound to piss off the environmental lobby.

That leaves the evil-employer-from-hell issue. I wouldn't want to work at Wal-Mart. Somehow I don't feature myself loving the hell out of being on my feet all day smiling at frazzled moms toting screaming toddlers. Thing is, I wouldn't want to work at a bank either for much the same reasons and they pay nearly as badly as Wal-Mart. They also utilise the trick of not covering any benefits for part-time employees and then hiring mostly part-time employees. No one is talking about Bank of America though, why is that?

The people who work at Wal-Mart are going to work somewhere and odds are good it will not be in a nice office job with full benefits at $12 an hour. No, because if they didn't work at Wal-Mart for $8 or $9 an hour they'd be relegated to working for one of those little mom-and-pop shops selling Hawaiian-flower print caftans for $6.15 and hour, full-time with no chance of benefits, ever. Or maybe the graveyard shift at the local convenience store selling 2-for-a-dollar hotdogs to drunks at 3 am. I'm voting for them to get hired at Wal-Mart. Even given our Nevadan penchant for firearms a body is still less likely to be shot in the head in Housewares barring runs on limited-availability clearance sale items.

What really kills me though (and here I am going to absolutely piss off most of my political allies) is that the very same folks who advocate so fiercely against globalization which contrary to popular mythology is not simply a bunch of "elitist leftists" but an overwhelming percentage of the "working class" are the very same folks who shop and work at Wal-Mart.

Per the Chicago Tribune
The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed for the third straight month in November, to the lowest level in 16 months.

The gap between imports and exports fell 1 percent, to $58.2 billion, the smallest shortfall since July 2005, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, as exports hit a record level and the deficit with China declined from an all-time high.

The fact that this occurred at the exact same time Wal-Mart faced it's first sales decline in 10 years is not coincidental.

Wal-Mart is the single largest importer of foreign-produced goods in the United States, their biggest trading partner is China, and their trade with China alone constitutes approximately 10 percent of the total US trade deficit with China as of 2004. As of 2004, 60% of products sold at Wal-Mart were imported into the United States from other countries. Wikipedia

Numbers don't lie. We can choose globalization and free or at least freer trade or we can give up inexpensive consumer goods. We can't have both.

I've listened to endless ranting and raving here in Podunkville and from that self-appointed "Champion of the Middle Class", Lou "Let's-Eat-the-Mexicans" Dobbs about the selling out of America and how we need to keep our manufacturing jobs here and for Americans. They huff and they puff and pontificate until they give literal meaning to the term "redneck". Then they jump into their affordable vehicle full of foreign-manufactured pieces and parts and go shopping. At Wal-Mart.

Excuse me for rolling my eyes.

Nevada's Traditional Values

Myrna the Minx at Reno and It's Discontents on the State of Nevada:

Nevada ranks first nationally in the percentage of our population that is homeless (D.C. isn’t a state). Its finally great to be first for a change isn’t it? The comments degenerate into the usual blame the immigrants and lazy people, and there is also ignorant speculation that a drop in housing prices will help the situation. Since all homeless people own homes and 41 percent of homeless people in the US are living in families , that makes perfect sense. Couple our high homeless population with our other worst ranking, meth use, add in our 44th ranking in k-12 education and you have a recipe for low taxes. You get what you pay for. And you’re an idiot if you can’t see that a high rate of homelessness, excessive drug use, and a lackluster K-12 education system aren’t related.

The lady speaks the truth. Ask any 10 Nevadans, chances are at least 6 or 7 of them will tell you "it's the illegals". Yeah, the illegals. Not the majority of Nevadans who squeal like pigs when asked to pay a penny in taxes for useless stuff like education, law enforcement, or mental health care.

We like to stick to important issues here in Nevada. Like making sure we don't have to register our guns. You never know when you might need to shoot one of those pesky homeless people or an illegal.

Those same 6 or 7 people would probably also tell you how 9/11 happened because of the democrats. We are losing in Iraq because of the democrats too. Democrats are also likely to blame for everything from crime to global warming. Bets on whether or not we killed Kennedy just to try and make republicans look bad.

So what is the difference between the Reds and the Blues, aside from Blues clearly being the the root of all evil? Myrna has this interesting little bit on The Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives. Great advice for parents wanting to insure their children grow up to share their traditional values: be sure your kids are easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3.

Easy enough. Just whup 'em around a little bit with the butt end of your shotgun next time you're robbed and have a mental breakdown, lose your job and become homeless and don't forget to pull 'em out of school as soon as they are old enough to get one of those minimum wage jobs. That'll teach 'em.

End Run Around the Home Team

In a move that should come as no surprise to anyone, Emperor Bush has staged a successful end run around any attempts to prevent implementation of his latest Iraq battle plan.

ABC News has learned that the "surge" Bush is expected to announce in a prime time speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad Wednesday.

An additional battalion of roughly 800 troops from the same division are expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday. ABC News

It's a done deal, troops are on the ground and moving in faster than a pack of yuppies at a Pottery Barn clearance sale.

Gets even more interesting when you consider from whence they are coming. Our supposed "commitment" to Afghanistan and our UK and Canadian allies not withstanding, apparently keeping the Taliban out of the mix is no longer a priority.

Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq.

According to Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata and other senior U.S. commanders here, that will happen just as the Taliban is expected to unleash a major campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar. The official said the Taliban intend to seize Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city and the place where the group was organized in the 1990s.
Baltimore Sun

Deanie Mills at Blue Inkblots has more.

My son fought with honor and bravery in that bloody desert country; once during the now-famous Battle of Fallujah in November of '04, and again more recently, in locations scattered throughout the Anbar province. He saw one friend get both legs and an arm blown off, another lose a hand, another get killed by a bullet to the head, and more horrors than he would be comfortable knowing I was writing about in such a public place. He also once drove a Humvee over an improvised explosive device that blew up beneath him. He was medivacced out, checked over, and sent back into combat.

Now, he's finding out that Marines like him who are "short-timers," completing their final year in the service, are being badgered and harassed and downright threatened in an attempt to force them to go back to Iraq, even if their own unit is not scheduled to do so. Marines in Dustin's unit, for instance, are being told that if they don't re-enlist in order to deploy with their own units (which aren't scheduled to go back until they are out of the Marines), then they must actually join other units that are scheduled to return soon.

Younger, more vulnerable Marines succumb to such pressures, and now, due to the new "surge" policy, those Marines will be deploying a full month ahead of time and held over for FIVE MONTHS longer than their usual tours. (If, of course, they survive that long.) And they won't even be with their buddies they served with before and upon whom they have come to rely for their lives, because they were pressed into another unit that was due to deploy soon.This is happening because the Marines are being pressured to come up with thousands of troops THEY DON'T HAVE for this so-called, politely-worded "surge."

I cannot honestly add much of anything to what Ms. Mills had to say in her post, there is much more so head over if you can bear to read another manifesto on this "surge", this was the one that really spoke to me and for me.

And Ms. Mills, I'm with you, I keep hoping that I might be proved WRONG.

Any Better?

I wasn't satisfied with the look but hadn't gotten around to changing it, thank you to Pesu for egging me on. Let me know if the colors work better or worse for you. I'm always willing to reconsider the course.