The Year in Review

Jib-Jab, the people that brought us the great send up of John Kerry and W in 2004 now brings us the 2005 year in review. Hearing everything at once really does make you say, Wow, I'm glad this stupid year is almost over. Seriously- how much can a guy fuck up in one year and still get out of bed in the morning?

In other news,
The question on everyone's mind regarding the ILLEGAL WIRE TAPS OF US CITIZENS boils down to one thing- has his stupidness FINALLY gone too far to the point where the media isn't going to let him go- has Teflon Bushy FINALLY screwed the pooch for good.

We'll see.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The FBI has a list of activities you should be on the lookout for- apparently we should be looking for someone we already see...

Thanks to Bob Harris for being so damn funny.

Bush to Bomb the Media- Can CNN be far behind??

Apparantly during a sit down last year the little Bushie that could floated the idea to Tony "I'm not a bad guy I swear" Blair that the US bomb Al Jazeera because they dared to be critical of the administration- thus raising questions about the bombs that have actually fallen on Al Jazeera reporters in Iraq.
Did I mention that Al Jazeera's headquarters are in Qatar- which is supposed to be a US ally.
Look out Canadian Broadcasters!
Apparantly the guy that leaked the memo that discusses Bush's suggestion is in a big pile of dookie. Classy.

For Fuck's Sake!!

House scumbags cut 50 Billion dollars in spending last night- entirely on the backs of the poor.
One word.
ASSHOLES
12 billion in cuts to medicaid
14 billion in cuts to student loans.
Can I say it again?
Yes I can.
Assholes!

Dear Mr. O'Reilly,

You are a jackass. I am a guttersnipe. This is a formal request that you please put me on your list of EVIL FAR LEFT WING Blog sites. I'm not important and I have no power- I'm the perfect target. So please- consider me a threat even though I'm not- it worked with Saddam "I'm a jackass too" Hussein- you fuckin' ninny.

THE EMERALD ISLE

I'm goin to Ireland tommorrow for the first time. Woohoo.
Be back in a couple of weeks.

SAMUEL ALITO- SCALIA II-- THE SEQUEL

Brief HERE

Sounds lke he's a super dick. So Dummy is once again demonstrating his inability to make decisions for himself. The Right Wing Nutjobs say they don't like Miers so he pulls her back and then pushes forward this Alito guy who is a right wing nut job which is exactly what the right wing nut jobs wanted.
Gee- ya think putting forward a highly contraversial nominee has somehting to do with burying the Scooter Libby/Rove/Cheney are criminals story? Real subtle there Junior. Real Subtle.

MERRY FITZMAS!!

Okay, so the whole administration isn't going down- yet. But be patient. This thing isn't over- not by a long shot. This is how it works- you chip away and little by little the dam of scum will break. Clearly the Fitzter is a pretty cautious guy- but we knew that. I think the important thing is that there is still going to be an ongoing investigation. If that ends up getting dropped, then we can start howling. Until then. See ya Scooter. Have a nice day. You Dick.

Best Week Ever??

Indictments are coming.
Miers is bumming.
White Sox win the World Series- Fuck Texas!!

The only stain on this terrific week is the terrible casualty count but once those indictments roll in at least there will be some sense that the monsters who perpetrated the all around Iraq atrocity will pay for their sins.
Oh yeah one more time
FUCK TEXAS!!!!!!!!

2000 American Soldiers Lost Over Oil and Lies- I can't wait for these Fuckers to get indicted.



Thanks to Billmon for this graphic illustration.

Pwezident Bush is Qwanky.

Apparantly having his entire White House fall down around his ears is making wittle pwesident Bush a trifle qwanky at his staff and senior leaders. Awww.
Here's the world's smallest violin to play a tune for ya.
I got an idea!!
Why don't you just resign!!!!
Then you can have all the nappies you want.
Won't that be nice?

FEMA EMAILS and Assorted Bric-a-Brac

The folks over at Michael Moore have been nice enough to put all of the already infamous FEMA emails in one place. See them HERE. (if you don't know these are emails between FEMA officials in DC and the one or two FEMA officials that were actually in N.O.- damning would be a very nice way of putting it.

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy
MUGSHOT ANYONE
Let me get this straight. The prosecutor is just out to get you. The judge is just out to get you. Paranoid much?

Syria,
UN Report used as drumbeat for war? Well thankfully we all know the President is above such nonsense. Er. Gulp.
(Note that Con Daleeza wants to be sure "Syrian officials are held accountable." And they should be. Then we can hold our own officials "Accountable" for torture in Iraq.

Nice Climate Change Video- Just in time for Halloween

There's few things scarier than nature these days. There's a great video HERE about the Shrub Administration and his zombies. Check it out.

The Huffington Blows Down the NYT

Arianna gives a nice break down of all of the Plame stuff as well as unloading on the NYT's remarkable ability to shove its head up its own ass.

This Can't Be Real!!

Harriet Miers, the probable next Supreme Court Justice, has a BLOG?
Some of the people in the Blogrole make me think it might be fake- but I can't be sure. That's the best and worst thing about the world we live in these days- it's impossible to know the difference between reality and a good joke- because reality has literally become a joke.
UPDATE Okay- after giving it a closer read- I'm gonna say 99.999% it's a joke. But a damn good one. Check it out!
In other news- Cheney is sending his spokesman out of the country at the same time Fitzgerald is supposed to be finishing up. Hmmm. Article is titled "Cheney spokesman departs country..."

More fun with Miers and PlameGate

My guess that Miers is an attempt by Rove to sniggle a conservative loo-loo onto the SC was wrong (I seem to be batting zero on this Miers thing) this weekend a source in the White House said the nomination idea came from Andy Card. However, as THIS NYT's article discusses, this entire rupture apparantly stems from a strong desire by the religious nuts in this country to "come out of the political closet" and take what they see as their rightful place at the right of God, er the President. Talking in "code" is no longer going to cut it. It's a move Shrub might be willing to make, but that his handlers will never allow. This explains why so many are angry at him even though he made a special point to nod and wink every time he said that he knew "her heart." The quackers want Shrubly to come out and say, this woman will turn over Roe, appoint God head of the EPA and deport those who want to teach evolution in school. Which has led to a fantastic screw up by the profound asshole James Dobson of the ill-named, "Focus on the Family" (yea right) who has basically came out and told the world that Bush assured him that Miers is a conservative nutcase. This is the heart of the entire Bush enigma- what the hell is wrong with people that they cannot see that he DOES NOT represent any "traditional conservative values" like smaller government lower taxes for EVERYONE etc. He's a goddamn Taliban guy and always has been. He wants God to be the President and Jesus to be his Chief of Staff. Hopefully this whole debacle will wake a few of the seemingly catatonic middle road republicans- but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm not going to say too much about the Plame thing yet- but it sounds like there is going to be some major happenings afoot over the next 2 weeks. Tick tock Rove- ya scumbag.

Oh, and although I'm not a sports guy- GO WHITE SOX!!

It's Just Plane Censorship
or
Screw Southwest Airlines

Okay, you put on your clothes, you get on the plane, you fly where you want to go.
Simple right?
Not if your t-shirt is one that criticizes his humpty-dumptedness and his handlers.
Lorrie Heasley found this out when she was thrown off a Southwest airlines plane for the horrible crime of wearing a t-shirt with Bushy/Rovey/ and Ricey with the phrase 'Meet the Fockers' or maybe 'Meet the Fuckers' (The newspaper article about the incident doesn't make it clear) but either way. "People" and by people I mean "overly sensitive morons" were offended by the shirt- and after first being told to cover it up- she was later told to take it off or get off the plane. Lorrie, being a clearly cool lady- told Southwest to focker themselves and got off the plane. Lawsuits are being filed.

Oh, and in other news, does anyone else find it remarkably convenient that there's a new "credibly sourced" threat against New York at the same time that half the Republicans in office are under investigation or indictment? I'm sure it's just ANOTHER one of those coicidences.
And speaking of under indictment- if this Fitzgerald guy doesn't indict Rove AND Libby he sucks. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that BOTH men popping up as sources for the story pretty well rules out the possibility that they didn't know they were outing a CIA agent- you have to be pretty fucking dim to believe that version of events. Man I hope they both go down. That would be an event worth having a couple of drinks about.

Bush loves Torture

Apparantly El Yutzo wants to veto a measure from John McCain to make it abundantly clear to everyone that the United States DOES NOT advocate torture.
Think about that for a minute.
El Presidente has vetoed exactly ZERO bills during his entire Presidency- he's threatened a few times (the highway bill comes to mind) but now, over this, he's willing to bust out his pen and have Karl help him write his name.
What a jerkass.
Did I mention McCain's amendment passed 90-9?

You Just Don't Get It.

Of all the misdirections and outright lies Screwbag told during his press conference (10/4) one pisses me off more than any other.

"We haven't built a new refinery since the 1970s."
and the related,
"It ought to be clear to everybody that this country needs to build more refining capacity to be able to deal with the issues of tight supply," he said.

OKAY WAIT JUST A GODDAMN MINUTE. WE??? THIS COUNTRY NEEDS TO BUILD???
The OIL COMPANIES haven't built any new refineries since the 70's!!! I need a new house- does that mean the US should build me a new house? Of course not- unless I'm a big ass company in which case Pigblossom thinks I should not only get a new house- but it should be a big giant new house paid for by the middle and lower classes- Jeebus knows he's not going to take the money from his rich buddies. Bastard.
The greedy bastards have sucked up every cent of profit for 30 years putting no money back into their companies except for exploration so they could claim more of the gold under the earth for themselves. The mere suggestion that my tax dollars should figure into the support of one of the most profitable endevours in American business makes me want to writher on the ground.
It's like putting Bill Gates on welfare.

Trojan Horse?

Okay, I take back my earlier ridicule. In retrospect it is quickly becoming apparant that Harriet Miers was yet another master move by the remarkably evil Karl Rove. Really, you gotta love the guy.
Whenever Bush talks about Miers he has that little kid with a secret look on his face as he insists that he "knows her heart." He had a similar look in in his eye when he talked about not having plans to attack Iraq. You can almost hear him thinking "wink wink nudge nudge"
Something makes me think that Stealth Conservative might be quite a bit of an understatement. I bet she's told him point blank that she'll do all kinds of nutty shit- not that either of them will admit it. Lawyer-client privilege.
If this is a Rove plot- and in this world turned upside down- nothing can ever be known for sure- then having the "base" express outrage at her nomination was a brilliant piece of political propaganda. If the winguts are angry- why on earth should we worry about her?
But think about it- this woman is (as of now) looking about 95% to be confirmed (I take back what I said about her joining the Bork Squad) and we know NOTHING about her- not really. And we won't either. We don't have a clue about John Roberts either- and he's already Chief Justice- that's 2 wildcards who's ideology we won't know until it's too late.
She went to a crappy law school, ran a lottery board- sat on a city council for one term- got into Shrub's pocket and now she's going into the Supreme Court. Instead of being a laughing stock she's got a good shot.
Rove- you truly are an evil genius- even if you end up in jail for the Plame thing you'll have succeeding in sucking up our country for the next 20 years at least- You fuckin' suck.

Flushing the Court- Even the Conservative are Rolling Their Eyes.

Okay, deep breath, no screaming.
Harriet Miers.
Never been a judge.
Bush's close personal friend.

David Frum- the President's old speechwriter and a guy who co-wrote a book with Richard Perle has already come out against Dimwit's sycophant- er I mean Supreme Court Nominee. He even admits he was the first to float her name- and it was a joke!!!!!

You can sum up this woman in one sentence (from Frum's Diary):
"She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry about that.
But come on.
Congratulations Harriet Miers- you're about to join the Judge Borks of the world as a rejected Supreme Court nominee. If Bush was half as smart as you think he was- he would've spared you this embarassment.

(Thanks to Tom Tommorow for pointing out the Frum Link)

BREAKIN' THE LAW BREAKIN' THE LAW

Okay you Republican nitwits- explain to me why your party should be in charge. You've had the run of things for a measly 5 years and look what's happened already.
HEAD OF THE SENATE
Bill Frist- being investigated for what is obviously a case of insider trading. Or else Frist is also Karnack the Magnificient. Gonna be indicted.
HEAD OF THE HOUSE
Tom Delay- Already indicted for using the Republican National Commitee to money launder campaign cash for Texas Repubs. He's also had 4 other instances where he could've been indicted but the House decided to let him walk.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITEE
Already convicted for laundering money for Texas Repubs
CHIEF OF STAFF FOR DUBYA DUMBO
Karl Rove- Named as a Valerie Plame leaker. Gonna be indicted.
CHIEF OF STAFF FOR CHENEY THE VOLDEMORT
Scooter Libby- Names as a Valerie Plame leaker by NYT Reporter Judith Miller. Gonna be indicted.

That's 2 out of the 3 branches of government. And then there's the Supreme Court- you better believe he's gonna fuck that up too. First the enigmatic John Roberts- and my prediction for the next nominee- why his best friend Alberto Gonzales of course.

How many people have to be convicted before you stubborn Republican jackasses admit that these people you claim to like so much are nothing but petty criminal thugs who'd be in jail for stealing candy from children if they weren't millionaires.

Exactly.

The following is a transcript of the NBA's Etan Thomas's speech during the protests that were ignored by TV. It's funny that the best speech of the rally was given by a "jock"-- just goes to show- don't judge a book by it's ability to play basketball...

“Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.
In fact, I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the ‘hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.
I’d show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.
I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.
Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They’ll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I'll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.
Then I'd feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I’d fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.
Then I’d introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I’d show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they’d soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain’t even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I’d introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull's eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we’ll see if they finally weren’t aware of the truth, if their eyes weren’t finally open like a box of Pandora.
I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, and justice comes in packs like wolves in sheep's clothing. T.K.O.'d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope. When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.
They keep telling us all is equal. I’d tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful. Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it's no wonder why so many think that crime pays.
Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we'll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days.”

Pimpin' the 1st Lady

Trying to counteract the real reality that he's disconnected and clueless President Wagonfaller is pimping out his wife to the sappy ABC fake reality show, Extreme Home Makeover. I wonder if she'll try to sell us some Sears power tools too?
In the article is the following:
"I think we say, 'Mrs. Bush, the stuff is over here, the people are over there, could you grab the other end of that mattress?' " Forman said. Press secretary Susan Whitson envisioned something closer to her handing out clothing and thanking volunteers.
I mean sheesh- they don't actually expect her to actually DO anything do they????

And now, a few words from Cindy Sheehan

The following are links to Cindy's speech and remarks during and following the anti-war protest in DC that didn't take place this weekend if you were watching the news.

Speech
Remarks

Seriously, Come on already- PBS this morning didn't even mention the damn march.
What if 300,000 people march on Washington and no one gets to hear about it.
Did it make a sound?

Oh yeah, and Bill Frist is the latest in the endless march of corrupt republican politicians that will probably manage to weasel out of persecution. I'm starting to think we need a new media even more than we need a new administration.

Travesty in the Blind Media

Hurricaine Rita is cockblocking the largest anti-war protest DC has seen since the start of the war.
Bummer.
I guess God is pro-war.
Bummer.
Or maybe, just maybe, the mainstream media is owned entirely by a very small number of large corporations who are more interested in profit than what is good for America. Of course, holding such a position would require thinking and independent research on my part- so I'll just assume God is pro-war and go back to watching these idiot reporters trying to compare some uprooted trees to the destruction of an entire city.
It just makes sense.

Bush Drinking Again???

So it's one of those easy litmus test stories- the kind you immediately believe even though you know there's a 99.9% chance it isn't true- just becuase it fits so well with your already well established view of a person's character. It's like if you read a story that the Wizard of Oz Cheney drinks blood- you'd go "I knew he was a vampire" even though you know full well there's no such thing as vampires.

Then there's the source of the story (Read it here) It's the National Enquirer- not the place anyone should ever go for news- but then again- they're the ones who broke the Rush Limbaugh is a pillhead story- they seem to get the scoops when it comes to substance abuse.

So the yutz might be back on the sauce- I can say with total sincerity that I hope he isn't- for his sake- but more importantly for the rest of our sakes- the world is a trult freaky place right now and we can't afford for the Pres to not be paying attention- especially this Pres who has such a limited amount of attention to give in the first place. I keep thinking about the other day when he said "More better."

Lost

I am a huge fan of this show (so far it's the best drama I've ever seen on TV- including HBO) and since my theories regarding what the hell is actually going on changes every few days and certainly every episode I thought I would try to get a snapshot of where I stand right now. Don't bother reading if you don't watch the show- it won't make much sense.

I used to be a big believer in the everyone's dead theory- but according to the message boards I've been perusing over the past few days this theory has been explicitly rejected by JJ Abrams the show's creator- so I won't explore it here even though I think it makes the most sense so far.

Forces at work-
The show seems most interested in opposites- most primarily the individual vs the group and science vs faith. Even though Jack (group/science) is the main character of the show, Locke (Individual/faith) is actually the show's center. Locke is active where Jack is passive- Locke acts while Jack waits. Locke thinks about his personal salvation as the path to the group's salvation- Jack thinks that he himself cannot be saved without acting to save the group.
So far everything that has happened on the show has been the playing out of these two opposing forces.
But things aren't so simple. Not at all.
There are also other pairings that are very interesting-
Sayid vs. Sawyer
We're not supposed to like Sawyer because he's comfortable with the fact that he's a bastard. Instead, we like Sayid- who's a bastard too- but one we feel sorry for because he's bothered by the fact that he's a bastard. Yet, if you think about these two the writers are really screwing with us... Sayid has tortured and killed a whole bunch of people (at least this is implied) while Sawyer has only killed one person that we know of and it was in an attempt at revenge that most people would understand- if not condone. But- we don't like Sawyer- why? I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Sawyer is very much in Locke's Individual camp and everyone that falls on this side of the coin is portrayed in cautious terms on the show.
There are others too- but being that I'm quickly realizing I could write a whole damn book on this subject I'm just going to switch directions and try to focus on...

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON
The fact that nearly everyone's lives are interconnected together in one way or another in addition to Locke's insistence that the things that are happening are happening for a reason lead me to believe there is some force- whether supernatural or human- that has brought everyone together on the island. The sheer amount of coincidence we would have to swallow for there to be nothing supernatural going on makes me reject the idea that it is a human force organizing what is happening on the island. Particularly the vision Locke has of the plane and the completely accidental way they came across the hatch in the first place, and the presence on charlie's fingers of the tape with the word FATE- If we are told at any point that it's all a coincidence I will be very, very dissapointed- mostly in the writers for sheer laziness.
This is not to say that I think the whole island is magical, indeed at this point, I think the entire island was man made- probably during the 70's judging by the apparant age of the computer equipment found in the hatch. On the boards I've read an explanation that the entire island can be raised and lowered in the water- the more I think about it the more I think that's what's happening, at this point I would guess that the entire island was built as a place to experiment with different kinds of biological agents- the Others could be the the one's who were being experimented on back when the island was in use. They're immune but unable to reproduce- thus their keen interest in children. Only now I think the island is forgotten- Lost- if you will and there are other forces at work.
Still, this isn't exactly a satisfactory explanation becuase of the presence of the black rock- a ship that is clearly really old and somehow sitting in the middle of the place. Unless it used to be on the shore and the island was modified somehow to get it to go up and down- but that's pretty clumbsy. Or maybe the Black rock is the source of the disease that is being studied- the word "Quarantine," the French chics explanations about how her crew died, and the fact that Desmond gives himself an injection of some kind makes it fairly incontravertable that a disease is at play somewhere.
So what about the monsters? First, I think there are different kinds- some biological and some mechanical. The thing that grabs Locke in the Season 1 finale certainly sounded mechanical. But when Locke talks to Kate about it he says it looks like black smoke. The same balck smoke that marks the coming of the Others? I don't know. Then there's the pteradactyl (I can't spell dinosaur names) that probably killed the pilot in the pilot. Then there's whatever monster can make whole rows of trees bend- what the French chic called "the security system."
Oh, and to confuse matters worse- on the official website there is a hidden page that has a "lost" page from the Season 2 pilot where Jack gets tackled- by Jack.
Speaking of the Others- there are a few things to ponder about them. First- they have access to guns and gasoline- and boats- so I have a hard time believing that they're forced to stay on the island- if they are there they are there for a reason...

Okay enough already, I could write for hours about this- I suppose I should just break down and just start posting on the message boards.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the New Religious Propaganda

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You can see the trailer here.

The New York Times reviewer of the film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” hits the nail right on the head when he calls the movie propaganda disguised as entertainment. It seems the marketing people have finally woken up to the buckets of money represented by the “Fundamentalist Market” best embodied by Ned Flanders on the Simpsons. And judging from the fact the movie made 30 million in its first week and the early Sunday matinee I saw was half full- it’s working. But that’s not the whole story to what’s going on with this movie- there’s also a distinct element of proselytizing going on.
Let’s examine this phenomenon.
First, take the commercials. They implement the tried and true “Based on a True Story” (BOATS) maneuver, except in a new way. Instead of attempting to add a dubious realism to an otherwise badly made horror movie, like Poltergeist or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the BOATS in this case is used as code, telling the fundamentalists in the TV audience that this is a friendly movie.
Paranoid you say? Not when one takes BOATS in conjunction with the line in the commercial where a man says “I can’t help her. There’s no injection against the devil.”
Taken together with BOATS the marketing people for this movie are sending a clear message- this movie is taking the position that exorcism is true- that God is a fact and so if you are a fundamentalist come and get it!
Which is essentially true- that’s exactly what this movie is. Rent the movie sometime. (I cannot in good faith reccomend you actually go see it at the theatre) Notice that the prosecutor has a Hitler mustache. Notice that the entire story is told from the defendant’s point of view with literally no humanizing elements. And pay extra special attention to the final speech of the film. If you still disagree- I don’t know what else to tell you.
The second tier of the marketing campaign infuriates me instead of making me uncomfortable the way the BOATS stuff does. There’s certainly nothing wrong with getting a film to its core audience- even if they’re using code. The trailer uses every CG effect in the entire film- those distorted demon faces. This is the second head of teenage based religious propaganda- “Trick Them Into Thinking They’re Going to See Something Entertaining.” It is something that’s been growing like wild in the music world with heavy metal Bible Thumpers and Gangsta rappers for Jesus.
If you’re 15 and you watch the trailer, the movie looks like a generic horror film. This is where the true synergy comes in- teenagers are both the ones with the most disposable cash- and they also just happen to be at the age where they are deciding for themselves what their religious convictions are going to be.
So the fundamentalist right gets together with the corporate marketing whores to trick kids into going to the theatre with a multimillion dollar ad campaign. Kids think they’re going to see another variation on “The House of Wax” and what they actually get is religious propaganda that ultimately revolves around one central premise- no matter what “scientists” say- demons are real. Possession is real. Satan, the horny red devil- is real.
And only Jesus can keep us safe. Indeed, medicine will actually make you sicker.
Problem is, the only real evil involved in this whole story are those who use people’s fear and gullibility to relieve them of their hard earned money and purposely design ad campaigns to draw in kids- and then give them a double switch. The worst part is it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to learn people who put together the advertising for this movie are atheist anarchists. For the marketing folks- this whole thing is simply about money. It’s disgusting and cynical in the most corrosive way- and I’m normally no detractor of cynicism.
You can choose to pretend that the election of Bush and the rise of John Roberts to the Supreme Court aren’t connected to the release of this movie and the way that it’s being marketed- but if you do- you’re as deluded as the people sitting in front of me in the theatre who cross themselves every time the dark cloaked demon popped up on the screen. We are moving towards a world where religious myth is seen as being on par with science. It’s happened before- we call it the Dark Ages.
Oh, and as a horror movie- it’s a big sucko stinkhole car crash.

The Mother of All Rip-Offs

More than ONE BILLION DOLLARS- 1,000,000,000 Has been stolen from Iraq. (It could end up being nearly 2)
Read the whole story HERE.

The snivelling dunce will somehow deny responsibility- but this stuff happened when US appointed people were in charge. Every time you think they've sucked things up over there as badly as they could possibly be sucked up- we find out something worse. Some critics are calling it the single largest theft in human history.

If you voted for Bush in 2004 you really are an idiot. Seriously.

The Day the Lights Came On in New Orleans (For a little while anyway)
OR
The Continuing Presidential Screwjob

Brian Williams via Atios:

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA



This is a photo of a note from Pigvomit to Condi I used to have an oil tanker named after me Rice.
I don't know if this is fake, but there's a link to Yahoo/Reuters with the photo HERE.
Notice the question mark. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility,"

For the 1st time EVER.
Notice he's still hedging- "didn't FULLY do its job..." More like didn't EVEN SORTA do its job.
Also, if you can see some video of Peckerhead's admission, he looks like a little kid being forced to apologize by his Mommy- which in this case is probably Rove the Assmonkey.
Now all he has to do is resign.
Hope hope hope.

Lying Liars and the Lies They Lie

There are 2 places everyone should visit.

First, go HERE to read about how the shitheads tried to manipulate the press regarding the hurricaine and most disgustingly- the way they were trying to manipulate fire-fighters who were supposed to be dispatched to fight the fires that cropped up throughout the city.

Then, go HERE to listen to the Hurricaine Katrina episode of my favorit radio show This American Life. (The episode in question is called "After the Flood") You will hear first hand accounts of how the cops and soldiers were firing weapons at people to prevent them from crossing bridges out of New Orleans. They weren't helping anyone that was suffering, they were shooting at them and stopping them from leaving. Remember these stories the next time some asshole tells you that "they should've just left."

"One way or another- this darkness got to give"
-----Grateful Dead

Going to try to start posting again. There's so much that's happened, I feel like I'm fuckin up.
Frankly every time I think about doing this I've just kind of been overwhelmed into silence. All I can do at this point is write some snarky know-it-all bullshit without any evidence or even reasoning- at this point I can't write reasonably- if you are a person so fucking stupid that you don't see how bad things are- you're a fuckwit and I don't like you anyway.

Here's some things I know.

Georgie Boy is responsible for what happened in New Orleans. Not the storm, but what happened, (or didn't) afterwards. N.O. was my favorite American city and now it'll never be the same again- oh and it laid bare the racist /classist/nauseating underbelly of the cancer in the American soul.
Rove won't go to jail for his role in outing Valerie Plame and our stupid ass media has completely forgotten the story- morons morons morons morons.
We've lost the Iraq War- in case you're not paying attention.
The last five years are going to be looked back on as one of the lowest points in American history- mainly becuase we keeping screwing up and WE AREN'T LEARNING ANYTHING.
There is the slimmest of slim chances that what happened with the hurricaine will wake the American people out of their fear centered terror party and realize there are real things to be afraid of- the suffering of the people around them- but I seriously doubt it.

On a personal note.
I got married back on June 25 to the newly dubbed Victoria Hrdina (she's taken my atrocious name without a hyphen.) She is, as far as I'm concerned, the most wonderful woman alive. (Well duh- I married her didn't I?)
I'm gonna have my sixth novel done by Christmas- I'm really excited about this one.
I think Lost is one of the best shows that's ever been on TV.

William Hrdina
Final Exam

This was my final exam for my Polysci class. I am so enamored of my answers to these questions I had to put them up.

Essay Questions

1. Outline and explain Max Weber’s Ideal bureaucracy.

1) One of my favorite oxymorons of all time is the phrase “Ideal Bureaucracy.” It’s not as good as “Intelligence Services”, but it’s close. Even the spelling of the word bureaucracy is an atrocity of language. A better term might be, Oh God I’ve been in the DMV for three hours.
Weber’s ideal bureaucracy comes from law as opposed to from God (in the form of some charismatic guy or gal who says they’ve got God’s ear) or a King. Being based on law gives Weber’s bureaucracy a consistency you don’t find in a charismatic leader or a line of Kings.
The hallmark of this is where one’s loyalties lie. In the ideal bureaucracy your loyalty is to the institution, not to the individuals that make up the institution. This way, if the charismatic leader dies or the King goes berserk, the structure of society and the way it is run remains intact. It also creates a “schema” where our courts have become so enamored of our institutions that they’ve convinced themselves corporations have individual rights and existences outside of the people making them up.
Another characteristic of this ideal bureaucracy is a stable salaried career. A paycheck. A new idea during Weber’s time, the salaried career was immediately identified as a good way of creating institutional stability.
Because bureaucracies are by their very nature immense things, Weber recognized that it would be necessary to specialize, creating niches of intelligence that work together through the policies and procedures of the institution creating a whole made up of many different individuals. This too has upsides and downsides. On the upside we can bore deeply into a thing and learn all about it’s parts. On the downside, by specializing to such a high degree people also become stupid about everything except the one thing they know all about. It also leads to a kind of metaphysical naval gazing that allows for things like what we saw in the Pentagon movie about the Bradley.
Finally, the bureaucracy’s rules have to be written down so that loopholes can be found. Oh wait, no. I meant that Weber says you write down the rules because it creates consistency. Which it does. Only it’s a rigid, stupid consistency massively lacking in common sense. “It’s not my fault, it clearly says here in paragraph 3; section 9, that I’m allowed to steal your sandwich at lunch.

2. According to Patterson, (in his book about politics and the media called "Out of Order") why is the news media not the appropriate organization to organize campaigns (e.g., be the coalition builders between candidates and voters)?

2) First and foremost because of the reasons given in answer 4; but also because the traditional role of the press is as a watchdog over the government. This is where the nickname the “4th branch of government” comes from. “The critical task of the watchdog is not to be confused with the constructive task of the coalition-builder.” Patterson argues the media had the role of coalition-builder forced up on it and because of the necessity of being a watchdog and a coalition builder, fails at both.
p. 52 puts it succinctly
A) Journalistic values and political values are at odds.
B) Journalistic values, introduce an element of random partisanship which works to the advantage of one side or another.
C) Election news serves to drive a wedge between voters and candidates.


3. Patterson argues that political parties use to be the coalition builders and now we (society) ask the news media to play this role. What, according to Patterson, brought about this change?

3) Patterson blames the foisting of elections away from parties and onto the media on the Reform Democrats of the early 70’s. They wanted a system where “the rank and file voters would be the kingmakers.” (p.33) This was opposed to the old system where the party bosses picked the candidates. Now, all the candidates would be running against one another in a free for all and it would be up to the voters to choose the candidates. Patterson argues that it became necessary for the press to step in to magnify the exposure of the candidates in order that the public learn about them.
This is inherently problematic. The press isn’t necessarily interested in politics. It certainly isn’t their reason for the press’s existence. The media is mostly about entertainment. Patterson puts it, “The party has the incentive- the possibility of acquiring political power- to give order and voice to society’s values. Its raison d’ etre is to articulate interests and to forge them into a winning coalition. The press has no such incentive and no such purpose” (P.37). I find this is questionable. I would argue the hard right attitudes of many of the hyper-rich media moguls are indeed about forging the masses of people into coalitions in political support of whatever millionaire is most looking out for their interests.

4. Define schema and then explain and discuss the two types of schemas Patterson presented in Chapter 2.

4) “A schema is a cognitive structure that a person uses when processing new information and retrieving old information. It is a mental framework the individual constructs from past experiences that helps make sense of a new situation.” In other words, a schema is the particular bias structure of an individual. It is the lens through which a reporter reports the news.
Patterson’s 2 conflict schemas:
1) Governing vs. Game
According to Patterson, governing is boring and not particularly interesting as news. Thus, the media has increasingly over time come to view election campaigns as games. The focus of media coverage is about the tactics and positions of different candidates in the “horse race” as opposed to their positions on issues. Everything they do is seen as being done as a maneuver within the game called, “Become the most powerful person on earth.”
Where I think Patterson is wrong is that those who govern no longer see the act of governing as different from the Game the reporters are covering. I understand his point, that the things you want to do to govern, change social security, etc. are not supposed to be directly linked to where a candidate stands on an issue. Patterson sees a disconnect between these things. Only I don’t think there is a disconnect anymore, even if there was one once. Lee Atwater changed governing into a game and it has been ever since. Checkmate on Dukakis was Willie Horton and that ridiculous picture of him in the tank wearing an oversized helmet. He looked like a total jackass. The last 4 Presidents have been all about whose political spin genius was better at transforming politics into a game. You win if you manipulate the media into portraying your image in the way you want to be portrayed. This image is politics now. The actual positions of politicians have no necessary relation to actual policy goals. All that matters is what we think the politician stands for. Atwater did this for Reagan and Bush I, Carville did it for Clinton, and Rove, the biggest evil genius of them all, tells Bush II when he’s allowed to sneeze.
Because of the standardized nature of stump speeches the media will focus on a gaff or the candidates overall position in the field instead of reporting that Bush once again told the crowd he was a uniter not a divider.
2) Reporters vs. voters
I agree with Patterson on this second point. The interests of the reporters (as defined by their view of the campaign as a game) have little to no relation to what the voters actually need. I think far too few voters have any real interest in the issues, they mostly want gossip and rumors, but what they need is information on the issues, whether they think it’s interesting or not.
Focusing on whether or not a candidate is winning or losing does nothing to forward our knowledge about what they will do in office. It also makes it difficult for candidates who lack the “sexy” quality the media is looking for to get any traction, which means the voters never get to find out their names, let alone their positions on issues. Dennis Kucinich vs. Al Sharpton is a perfect example. Al Sharpton got media attention because he’s charismatic and controversial, yet they ignored his progressive agenda on rebuilding US infrastructure because it wasn’t interesting. Dennis Kucinich, in my opinion the Democrat’s best candidate and the only guy who was openly and completely against the Gulf War disaster never got any attention at all from the media. Sharpton and Kucinich had very similar support numbers in the polls, but Sharpton got all the ink. (Don’t get me wrong, even Al’s ink paled in comparison to Bush’s because Bush had all of the money in 2000, and therefore was immediately the guy to beat no matter how many people voted for him in the early primaries, not even being VP trumped Bush’s War Chest.) The result being we elected the dumbest man ever to sit in the White House.
Twice.

24 and torture

I want to say right out front that I watch 24, I've seen every episode of every season and I think it's a good show- exciting, interesting plot twists etc. But, this season the shows already fascist-tending politics have really gone into hyper-overdrive to a degree that very nearly has me ready to stop watching. Especially regarding one single issue- TORTURE.
I mean everybody's getting some this year. The Defense Secretary's son, women, men, Jack's girlfriends husband, CTU employees, it's like torture-fest 2005.
By this point in the season the message the show is trying to send to viewers is crystal clear. Sometimes (especially with terrorists) you need information in a timely manner so sometimes you have to torture the person to get the information quickly. On the show everyone who knows something tells- all that is necessary is an electrical cord to the chest. The one woman who was innocently tortured holds out until the mistake is discovered and she goes back to work once the torture is finished.
THe thing is- the entire idea is just innaccurate. When you're being tortured you'll say anything, it doesn't have to be the truth, it just has to be whatever will get you to stop sticking the taser against my neck and pressing the button.
Taken by itself you could say that 24's use of torture is just a plot device gone mad, but taken in combination with the Muslim Father who will kill his entire family for the cause it's clear there's an agenda being braodcast here. One that Paul Wolfawitz would like. I keep waiting for the patented 24 twist to recast what's come before- but still, I think whatever gestures the show makes will probably be too little too late. At this point I'm watching as much to boggle at the lengths fiction has to go to justify what our country is doing in real life as anything else.

Keller Williams Rules

On a musical note, I went and saw Keller Williams last night in Indianapolis. I've seen him quite a number of times (I think around a dozen now) but GODDAMN last night's second set was one of the most high energy kick-ass shows I've seen in years. He's absolutely on fire. Run don't walk to Ticketmaster and see him!!
For those that don't know, Keller is ONE guy who sings and plays bass, piano, tubes, theramin, drums and the fucking best guitar you've ever heard. He uses live looping to layer all of the above into a groove while soloing over the top on geetar. What can you say about a guy who plays original as well as covers Phish, the Bee-Gees, the Dead, Talking Heads and closes with a sing along a cappella version of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. And that was just during the second set.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

I urge you to go to this website, but hold onto your hats!
This is the sentence at the top of the page:
"The most honest man who ever lived claimed to be the Son of God, is missing from his grave, and is worshipped 2000 years later on every corner of the most powerful nation on earth---how crazy is it not to believe what he says?"
Who can argue with logic like that?

Don't miss the candidates for the antichrist and the "hidden messages" in song lyrics.

Guckert/Gannon- The Video Collections

For anyone who's been asleep for the last month, here's 2 collections of Guckert Video.
The first, HERE, is a collection of news stories and parodies about Guckert- this also tells the basic story of what the story is about.
The second, HERE, is a collection of questions the Guckster asked Scott McClellan and the President. Really tough questions, let me tell ya!

Robotic Monkey Arms!!

In a story that should give pause to those who think we aren't living in the future already- scientists have rigged up a robotic arm to a monkey, attatched some electrodes into his brain, and now he can make the arm move.
Think about this for a minute.
We can take wires, stick them in the brain, and boom, we've got a cyborg monkey.
The Luke Skywalker hand is almost a reality.
Now tell me some more about how everyone under the age of 30 aren't potentially going to live forever. Tell me that if we were spending all the money we spend on killing eachother we couldn't have food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education for everyone on the entire planet. Tell me that the only thing holding us back isn't our imagination.
If we could just get the people who want to blow shit up (Both our guys and theirs) to fuck off we'd all be livin large.

Hunter S Thompson Dies

On the laptop I wrote my first 4 novels on there were 2 pictures taped to the front. One was a picture of Samuel L Jackson from Shaft- and the other was a large black and white photo of Hunter Thompson with his signature cigarette. In many ways, it was these 2 photos that got me through on tough writing days. Thompson himself is a prominent role-model for Lance, the character in Portal.
Now, Hunter is gone.
Hunter S Thompson killed himself yesterday in what the news is saying was a self inflicted gunshot wound. All of the coverage of his death is about his books, of course Fear and Loathing in Vegas topping the list. This kind of bums me out because the HST found in those books were NOT the real man.
They were an image.
A persona as carefully crafted as a professional wrestler's. That isn't to say the man wasn't out on the edge of things, I think he was, but he was much more aware of what he was doing than people give him credit for. To see this side of him though you need to read his letters as chronicled in the two enormous volumes released over the past several years.
They reveal a very smart, very sharp guy who probably understood American Politics better than anyone except Noam Chomsky- of course the lens he was looking through was much different. (He picked out Carter and McGovern months before the mainstream journalists did. But he didn't just pick them, he knew them. Hell, from his letters he knew EVERYBODY- from Carter to McGovern to Carville to Gary Hart. Thompson was one of the people they called and wrote to.
What's funny is I'm not the kind of guy who I would think would like Thompson. What with the guns and the explosives and whatnot- I hate that shit. But through the letters it was obvious that in many ways Thompson was a bit of a wuss. (For example, he writes of his Hell's Angels beatings for years afterward.) Overcompensation is hardly a rare tactic to overcome such things.
I'm very sorry for his son Juan. I don't know if Hunter was planning his suicide or if it was a surprise, but either way, my best wishes to him for his loss.
Now, the media is going to talk about the death of an image and the man will be quietly mourned in the hearts of those of us who saw the genius in what he was doing. To some degree, no one really knew him except his family- I hope when he left he was stright with them, there is no doubt being his wife and kid wasn't easy- of the man or the image.

See you around the bend Dr. Gonzo. We'll miss ya.

Iraq Elections

A quick reality check for those liberals who are giving Bush "Credit" for the elections in Iraq. Now while I of course agree the elections were a good thing- in as much as they were elections- but I still say Bush gets NO NONE NADA credit for what he did.
Why?
Well, let's use an example.
Say there's 100 people. I blow up say, 10 or maybe as many as 15 of them.
Then I take the remaining people to Disneyland.
Am I a hero?
I don't think so.
But if we didn't liberate them, they'd still be living under Saddam Hussein.
Sure, tell that to the people in Africa.
They don't have enough oil to go to Disneyland.
So until this "Freedom and Democracy" talk applies to everyone, including us in the US, that argument is a dry hump.

State of the Union Lies and Misdirections.

Every year one of these articles comes out taking Shrub's claims one by one and puts them in context or explains where he's full of shit. You can find this years, HERE.

AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT YOU'LL FIND
“In the long term, the peace we seek will only be achieved by eliminating the conditions that feed radicalism and ideologies of murder. If whole regions of the world remain in despair and grow in hatred, they will be the recruiting grounds for terror, and that terror will stalk America and other free nations for decades. The only force powerful enough to stop the rise of tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, is the force of human freedom…. And we have declared our on intention: America will stand with the allies of freedom to support democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world….
“Our aim is to build and preserve a community of free and independent nations, with governments that answer to their citizens, and reflect their own cultures. And because democracies respect their own people and their neighbors, the advance of freedom will lead to peace.”
President Bush is certainly correct regarding the correlation between autocratic governance and the rise of extremism. However, the United States has long been the primary backer of repressive governments in the Middle East and, under President Bush, military and security ties with these dictatorships has increased. It is important to note that sixteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, whose family dictatorship has received tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware and security assistance from the United States since President Bush came to office. The man believed to be the lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Attah, is Egyptian, whose autocratic Mubarak regime receives more than two billion dollars worth of taxpayer-provided military and economic aid annually. None of the hijackers or any prominent Al-Qaeda leader has come from Iran, Syria, Palestine, Taliban Afghanistan or Saddam’s Iraq, the countries that President Bush most commonly cites as needing greater freedom in order to support American security interests.
If President Bush was serious about promoting freedom, he would call for an immediate cessation of arms transfers and any forms of security assistance to Middle Eastern governments which do not “respect their own people and their neighbors.” He has not done so, however.
To cite just one example, there have been few greater allies of freedom than Egypt’s Saad El-Din Ibrahim and his Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, and its journal Civil Society. Among the Center’s activities was monitoring elections and workshops and civic education. Unfortunately, in 2001, Egyptian authorities arrested Saladin and twenty-seven associates, shut down the Ibn Khaldun Center, and banned their journal. Despite this, U.S. aid has continued to flow to Mubarak’s corrupt dictatorship.
Finally, democracies do not necessarily respect their neighbors. Israel is an exemplary democracy (at least for its Jewish citizens), but it has maintained an oftentimes repressive occupation of its Palestinian neighbors since 1967, including widespread and ongoing violations of international humanitarian law.

2 Quickies

1) The NYTimes spiked the story about Bush's hidden microphone during the debates.
(Spiked, for those who do not know, means they wrote a story, then decided not to run it.)

2) An article about the US General stupid enough to tell a room full of people that it's fun to shoot people.
He can think it's fun all he wants, this is America. He has the right to say it too. But jeez, don't you think it would be better if he had the decency to keep his insane mouth shut? I mean do you really want people to know you are a murdering pig?

These 2 stories are connected.

No Tomorrow
Bill Moyers

---This is directly copied from a zmagazine email. I've been trying to tell this to people, but they won't listen. They think I'm overstating the case. Well read on.---

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that thedelusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sitin the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the firsttime in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power inWashington.Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologueshold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what isgenerally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, theiroffspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is thedanger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.
Remember James Watt, President Ronald Reagan's first secretary of theinterior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engagingGrist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congressthat protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of theimminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after thelast tree is felled, Christ will come back."Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he wastalking about.
But James Watt was serious.
So were his compatriots outacross the country. They are the people who believe the Bible isliterally true - one-third of the American electorate, if a recentGallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good anddecent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index.That's right - the rapture index. Google it and you will find that thebest-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the "LeftBehind" series written by the Christian fundamentalist andreligious-right warrior Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribeto a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple ofimmigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wovethem into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions ofAmericans.
Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer GeorgeMonbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted tohim for adding to my own understanding): Once Israel has occupied therest of its "biblical lands," legions of the antichrist will attack it,triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon.As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the messiah willreturn for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of theirclothes and transported to Heaven, where, seated next to the right handof God, they will watch their political and religious opponents sufferplagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the several years oftribulation that follow.
I'm not making this up.
Like Monbiot, I've read the literature. I've reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the WestBank. They are sincere, serious and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy.That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelations where four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man." A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed- an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144 - just one point below thecritical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter Heaven and sinners will be condemned toeternal hellfire.
So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go toGrist to read a remarkable work of reporting by the journalist GlennScherer - "The Road to Environmental Apocalypse." Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed - even hastened - as a sign of the coming apocalypse. As Grist makes clear, we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half theU.S. Congress before the recent election - 231 legislators in total andmore since the election - are backed by the religious right.
Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th Congress earned 80 to100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair RickSantorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House SpeakerDennis Hastert and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score100 percent with the Christian coalition was Sen. Zell Miller ofGeorgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the Senate floor: "The days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will senda famine in the land." He seemed to be relishing the thought. And why not? There's a constituency for it. A 2002 Time-CNN poll foundthat 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think theBible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations, or in themotel turn on some of the 250 Christian TV stations, and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why peopleunder the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth, when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why careabout global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in therapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God whoperformed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"Because these people believe that until Christ does return, the Lordwill provide.
One of their texts is a high school history book,"America's Providential History." You'll find there these words: "Thesecular or socialist has a limited-resource mentality and views the world as a pie ... that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece."However, "[t]he Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth ... while many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people."No wonder Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers."
He turned out millions of the footsoldiers on Nov. 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics. It is hard for the journalist to report a story like this with any credibility. So let me put it on a personal level. I myself don't know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about. So I have always been an optimist. Now, however, I think of my friend on Wall Street whomI once asked: "What do you think of the market?" "I'm optimistic," he answered. "Then why do you look so worried?" And he answered: "Because I am not sure my optimism is justified."I'm not, either.
Once upon a time I agreed with Eric Chivian and theCenter for Health and the Global Environment that people will protect the natural environment when they realize its importance to their health and to the health and lives of their children. Now I am not so sure.It's not that I don't want to believe that - it's just that I read the news and connect the dots.I read that the administrator of the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency has declared the election a mandate for President Bush on the environment. This for an administration: That wants to rewrite the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and theEndangered Species Act protecting rare plant and animal species and their habitats, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the government to judge beforehand whether actions might damage natural resources. That wants to relax pollution limits for ozone; eliminate vehicletailpipe inspections, and ease pollution standards for cars,sport-utility vehicles and diesel-powered big trucks and heavyequipment. That wants a new international audit law to allow corporations to keep certain information about environmental problems secret from the public.That wants to drop all its new-source review suits against polluting,coal-fired power plants and weaken consent decrees reached earlier withcoal companies. That wants to open the Arctic [National] Wildlife Refugeto drilling and increase drilling in Padre Island National Seashore, the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world and the last great coastal wild land in America.
I read the news just this week and learned how the Environmental Protection Agency had planned to spend $9 million - $2 million of it from the administration's friends at the American Chemistry Council - to pay poor families to continue to use pesticides in their homes. These pesticides have been linked to neurological damage in children, but instead of ordering an end to their use, the government and the industry were going to offer the families $970 each, as well as a camcorder and children's clothing, to serve as guinea pigs for the study. I read all this in the news. I read the news just last night and learned that the administration's friends at the International Policy Network, which is supported by ExxonMobil and others of like mind, have issued a new report that climate change is "a myth, sea levels are not rising" [and] scientists who believe catastrophe is possible are "an embarrassment."I not only read the news but the fine print of the recent appropriations bill passed by Congress, with the obscure (and obscene) riders attached to it: a clause removing all endangered species protections from pesticides; language prohibiting judicial review for a forest in Oregon;a waiver of environmental review for grazing permits on public lands; a rider pressed by developers to weaken protection for crucial habitats inCalifornia. I read all this and look up at the pictures on my desk, next to the computer - pictures of my grandchildren. I see the future looking backat me from those photographs and I say, "Father, forgive us, for we knownot what we do." And then I am stopped short by the thought: "That's not right. We do know what we are doing. We are stealing their future. Betraying their trust. Despoiling their world."
And I ask myself: Why?
Is it because we don't care? Because we are greedy? Because we have lost our capacity for outrage, our ability to sustain indignation at injustice? What has happened to our moral imagination?On the heath Lear asks Gloucester: "How do you see the world?" And Gloucester, who is blind, answers: "I see it feelingly.'"I see it feelingly.
The news is not good these days. I can tell you, though, that as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free - not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. And the will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. What we need is what the ancientIsraelites called hochma - the science of the heart ... the capacity tosee, to feel and then to act as if the future depended on you.
Believe me, it does.

Bill Moyers was host until recently of the weekly public affairs series"NOW with Bill Moyers" on PBS. This article is adapted from AlterNet,where it first appeared. The text is taken from Moyers' remarks uponreceiving the Global Environmental Citizen Award from the Center forHealth and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.

Noam Chomsky

There's a very interesting excerpt from Noam HERE.

"In fact the Pentagon announced at the same time two days ago: we’re keeping 120,000 troops there into at least 2007, even if they call for withdrawal tomorrow.
And the propaganda is very evident right in these articles. You can even write the commentary now: We just have to do it because we have to accomplish our mission of bringing democracy to Iraq. If they have an elected government that doesn’t understand that, well, what can we do with these dumb Arabs, you know? Actually that’s very common because look, after all, the U.S. has overthrown democracy after democracy, because the people don’t understand. They follow the wrong course."

He's saying (as I read him) that a "democratic" Iraq will do things we cannot let them do, so what we have to do is give them the government we think they should have. i.e. one that will keep US interests at heart. We won't stand for anything less.

Propaganda is a 4 letter word.

Via Tom Tommorrow

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
....A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.
The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta.

I'm glad the Iraqis voted. I just don't think it matters very much. They voted for Saddam too. 104% in the last "election." In the end, I'm not sure if this was any different. Sure, our guys were there to protect the Iraqis from the other Iraqis, but they still saw American soldiers standing around everywhere with guns. Just like when they voted for Saddam. I'm not saying it's the same- I don't think it is at all, but in terms of perception... I just don't know. I heard on NPR that the US media, reporting so authoratatively on the election, wasn't allowed to see the voting- a block outside the green zone. The sole source of the "positive" signs in Iraq are coming from the military. Grain of salt people, that's all I'm saying.

"Democracy in Iraq."

"For the only time in memory, electoral candidates are afraid to be seen in public and are forced to campaign from underground cells, with many afraid to even link their names to their faces in the media. There are no public rallies where voters might glean some information about candidates' positions. As one voter told CNN, he would prefer to vote for George Michael, since he knows more about the singer than about any of the candidates running for office."

Read the whole article here.

Yikes.

Seymour Hersh ran a very frightening article for the New Yorker this week that lays out what he sees as Dubya's long term military plan.
It seems Iran is our next target- and if it's not, the Dubya Crew is trying hard to make it look like it's going to be. The plan, according Mr. Hersh, is for our lack of support cause to the EU's attempt at negotiations to fail. This will bring the issue into the UN. We try to pass sanctions, a move that will be vetoed by either China or Russia. Then, saying we have no choice, we bomb the shit out certain areas, destabilizing the country. This will cause the people in Iran to rise up and fight for a western style democracy.
What a bunch of idiots.
There's more.
The Pentagon wants autonomous control of "secret ops" teams outside the oversight of anyone but Dubya himself.
Anyone who remembers Iran/Contra should be gettting a stomach ache at the previous sentence. This is exactly how that debacle happened- removal of Congressional oversight of Pentagon secret ops. And now we're setting things up for a reprise. Ugh.
This year is giving me a headache.

Why People who like him are Nitwits

In Shrubs inaugral speech to "peacefully transfer power" to himself he said the word

FREEDOM: 27 times.
LIBERTY: 15 times.

THE SPEECH WAS 12 MINUTES LONG!
TWELVE MINUTES!!!

"And always twirling twirling towards freedom!!" ----Kodos the alien on the Simpsons.

(Thanks to the Daily Show for the tally and the wonderful montage.)

The Process of Writing.

One question people ask writers all the time is, "How do you come up with the ideas?" It's a question all writers are uncomfortable with not because we get asked it all the time, but because I don't think the bulk of us know how to answer the question. It's not that we're being cagey- It's just really hard to describe- even for people who describe things for a living.
I'm working on my 6th novel right now. It's still pretty early on in terms of a novel- 10,000 words (Most novels are 90-135,000 when they're finished.) but it's at this point the idea you hope will end up being a novel actually does, or doesn't, take on a life of it's own.

This novel started as a dream and a phrase. "Inside and outside." The dream was vague, a variation on the film The Game directed by Fight Club Director guy where I, in the dream, did something bad that wasn't what I thought it was. I sat with this for a while ( a week or two) , then just before Christmas I had the image of this kid waiting for a train. He's going somewhere fun, but this guy sitting next to him is bothering him. That was it. No details. I go down to Florida for a relaxing vacation. When I get back, I know the kid meets the other main character in this train station- but I don't know who the other main character is.

When I write, it's like I'm watching a movie inside my head. The entire scene is just there in the mind's eye and you try to describe as best as you can what you're seeing. It's like a 3-d moive though- you can go into the charaters and know their thoughts or feelings at any given moment, rewind and replay the same thing from multiple angles.

But here's where it gets tricky- at the best moments, I in no way feel like I'm writing WHAT is happening, I'm only writing HOW I'm seeing what is happening on it's own. It's like watching a thriller where you are absolutely guessing and rooting for what you want to have happen, and I believe that rooting influences the story, but in the end, your just watching the movie and you find out what happens when you get there.

For instance, when I started writing my last book (Clearing at the End of the Path- 1st 3 chapters available here. ) I had a female character I was just going to have this serial killer kill in the virtual world as a way to introduce the theme of the book. Only when I started to write, that's not what happened. He didn't kill her- she killed him. The scene stayed in the book, but ended up 3/4 of the way through instead of at the beginning, and it's meaning was totally different. This girl became Molly, the main charater of the entire novel, totally changing the tenor and eventual result of the book.

I didn't mean for that to happen. I don't care how weird or "cheesily mystical" that sounds. I'm as cynical as most people, if you don't believe that, read a few old entries. Still, there are great swaths of this thing we call existing that I don't begin to claim I can understand- and while I don't understand where this writing thing comes from, I'm indescribably grateful to be able to do this thing- and I say that at a time my writing has cost me a hell of a lot more money than it's made me. Every book I hope someone will come along to help on the financial end of things, and when they don't all I can do is write another novel- the writing is the reason, the publishing is the gravy. Granted, I really like gravy.

Farneheit WINS

In yet another wacky twist- Farenhiet 9-11 beats out Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 for the People's Choice Award of the Best Movie in 2004. Sp2 and Sh2 collectively made 10X the money Farenheit did, yet F911 wins!
See the entire segment here.
To quote the thankfully now sans-career Yakov Smirnov, "What a country."
I can't wait to see him win another Oscar.
Oh, and by the way, did anyone else catch the 6th Grade Michael Moore logic line in last night's episode of 24. The show's always been a little right of Stalin politics wise, but this season they're spreading it on a little thick. It's like Wolfowitz is a script supervisor or something this season.

Hoorah

Congrats to the Democrats for taking the novel and courageous position that we should count votes!!


We've fallen pretty far haven't we?