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I wrote about this guy here, Born Again Christianity’s Jihad on America, having been aware of mega-churches for quite a while, Ted Haggard seemed more political than Chistian to me, and his “flock” ate up every word he spoke without questioning a word. Partnered up with James Dobson, the duo has been destroying human minds by the thousands, by means of a message that focuses heavily on the book of Revelations and how each of us can make this world better if we focus our spirituality less on the teachings of Jesus and more on the task of demonizing and judging our neighbors. Millions of souls collected, millions of dollars raked…”fat camp” for queer kids is in business to turn them straight, and teach them that satan tricks them into believing that they are acceptable as they are. The gay kids are reprogrammed, still gay, but equiped with enough hate for themselves to think they’re straight, marry a woman, have five kids, and ruin all of their lives someday…

The former prostitute, Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, went public with the accusations on Tuesday, saying he felt compelled to do so because he believes Haggard, a strong opponent of same-sex unions, has been hypocritical. Haggard is married with five children.

“I made myself cry and I made myself sick,” Jones said about his decision to come forward. “I felt I owed this to the community. What he is saying is we are not worthy, but he is.” Jones says he was contacted three years ago by Haggard for sex – he thinks through a gay newspaper advertisement or an online ad he posted on rentboy.com. Today, Jones showed the Denver Post an envelope addressed to him from “Art,” a name Jones says Haggard used – sent from an address in Colorado Springs. Jones said the envelope came to him with two $100 bills inside. Jones also played a recording of a voicemail left for Jones from “Art.” Jones refused to reveal what the topic of the voicemail was about because there could be legal problems and he wants to consult with an attorney.

“They want to protect the sanctity of marriage and I am trying to figure out what that means because they are not doing a good job,” Jones said of anti-gay marriage proponents. “To have someone in such a high profile position preaching against them and doing opposite behind other people’s backs is hypocritical.“

What now? Well, keep the money flowing in, put someone in Pastor Ted’s place and keep it going. Pastor Ted isn’t gay…because there’s no such thing…he’s simply been the victim of satan’s knack for temptation.

I am anticipating the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death, expecting it to be the biggest news story of the day as I wake up every morning. Bombing campaigns near the Durand Line, an arbitrary border line separating Afghanistan and Pakistan imposed in 1893 by the British, are in my opinion the potential key needed to unlock the “October Surprise” treasure chest to see once and for all whether there’s anything left inside. Confirming Osama’s death would be impossible, but a mere glimmer of hope and some battle-tested propagandists being told to believe it,would be enough to transform the final 72 hours of campaigning into a one-topic nightmare for Democrats in close races. Our national press would not have the time or the cahones to do the right thing, and as long as the story could hold past election day, the truth behind it wouldn’t even matter. It would end up in the pile along with memos from Downing Street, the NIE on Iraq’s impact on global terrorism and any piece of consensus science dealing with stem cell research or climate change.

Because as it looks right now, the voting machines are all that’s left between tranquility and the imminent skull fucking about to take place once Democrats gain the power to issue suponeas up and down the President’s org chart. Foolish isn’t even a strong enough word to describe the decisions being made at the White House these past couple weeks, with the man campaigning across the country for candidates who cannot be seen with him, some “we do not torture” oldies and the bungled discarding of “Stay the Course” thrown in for good measure. The wheels are already flat, but he intends to put the pedal to the metal regardless, like a car being chased on the highway in an episode of Cops, sparks flying all over the place as metal grinds on pavement every second the suspect remains ignorant of his own futility, perhaps too stoned or hopped up on speed to give a shit…just enjoying the buzz and feeling relevant and powerfull for as long as it lasts. Sometimes in these situations the brain becomes so addled and delusional that it seems like nothing can stop it, and with reality being what it is today, that’s certainly the case here.

Mark Foley and Bob Ney going out like they did, Dennis Hassert playing out the Christopher Guest meets Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ role of a Pig to perfection, and now we’ve got even more shame in the form of George Allen’s campaign turning violent to keep a constituent from asking a couple questions, Congressman Jim Gibbons running for Governor of Nevada being accused of drunken sexual assault (wait for it…”alcoholism yada yada yada I love Jesus”), Congressman John Sweeney knocking around his wife last December, Rush Limbaugh’s embarassingly ugly attack on Michael J. Fox, the consistent contradicting of what Bush himself says concerning torture and stay the course by Cheney and Rumsfeld, complete with some scattered jerky bullshit about how the right thing to do now is to preemptively strike Iran and Korea, courtesy of Bill Kristol (the Drew Bledsoe of geopolitical punditry) and Brit Hume…”it’s hard work”.

Amen to that! And watch out for cluster bombs if you’re going to be traveling through the Pashtun and Baluch regions around the Pakistan/Afghanistan border in the next few days. Don’t forget to bring along a first aid kit, plenty of clean underwear, at least ten pints of blood in a cooler and of course your pre-paid legal card in case someone tries to steer you towards Guantanamo along the way.

(SOURCE – Miami Herald) After a week of early voting, a handful of glitches with electronic voting machines have drawn the ire of voters…several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen — the final voting step. Election officials say they aren’t aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don’t know how widespread the machine problems are because there’s no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems…Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist…A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said…Joan Marek, 60, a Democrat from Hollywood, was also stunned to see Charlie Crist on her ballot review page after voting on Thursday. ”Am I on the voting screen again?” she wondered. “Well, this is too weird.” Marek corrected her ballot and alerted poll workers at the Hollywood satellite courthouse, who she said told her they’d had previous problems with the same machine. Poll workers did some work on her machine when she finished voting, Marek said. But no report was made to the Supervisor of Elections office and the machine was not removed, Cooney said. Workers at the Hollywood poll said there had been no voting problems on Friday. Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up…

I’ve been messing around with perl and how to link input from an html file to a database for most of the day’s nap time, knowing now that it’s only a matter of seconds before they’re up and ready to toddle, so the idea now is to relay a few details that have shocked my brain over the past few weeks…15 months into their lives, Max and Sam both appear to be smarter by the day. Sam will bring over a book that contains pictures of objects, with each page turned showing another color. About two weeks ago I began asking him questions like, “do you see a mushroom?” “do you see a ladder?” “do you see a motorcycle” – and about 4-5 is his average, even when he’s tired. Max prefers to point to the pictures and have me say what it is, but on occasion he’ll play it Sam’s way as well. Without enough time to research, I have no idea if this is normal or not. Sometimes I’m baffled, thinking ‘how do they know this already?’ The book ‘Goodnight Moon’ is getting worn out this week, but the same kind of ‘Where’s Waldo?’ game takes place now.

Emotionally they’re up and down opposite of one another from week to week, month to month, especially when it comes to the need for affection and/or the most exciting idea at the time being to go over and take whatever the other is playing with. In the runup to nap time, they have a tendency to go after one another…a push, one comes back, another one, and so on. Worst that comes of it I suppose is the toy is swiped and run off with, while whoever got robbed chases and howls until justice is handed down and peace restored. Contrast that situation with how often (Max especially) they move in to give each other “loves”, and it’s nothing short of the most exhilirating symphony I’ve ever heard…speaking of music, they dance all the time now, following mama and dada’s lead for months and now whenever the sounds go off, they’re throwing down, Sam is the king when it comes to this, as Max sometimes seems to be self conscious, gettin’ down for ten seconds or so, then stopping…OK, I’m hearing voices upstairs…

Misery all sticky arrives in words from far away
Packages of bile needing to be gulped down
More and more arrive dripping as you sleep
Another time in another life it will go down easy

Who does this numbskull think he’s kidding when he says something like this? “The United States does not torture”…is this said solely for the benefit of voters with autism? If so, the ones who can understand enough to vote are most likely hip to the flip at this point.

Bush: U.S. doesn’t torture prisoners

WASHINGTON – President Bush said Friday the United States does not torture prisoners, trying to calm a controversy created when Vice President Dick Cheney embraced the suggestion that a “dunk in water” might be useful to get terrorist suspects to talk. Continue reading →

I note that any time you have the party of Limbaugh, Hannity, Delay in power, when the public grows weary of their failure to legislate effectively, it will always be the other side’s fault. When Iraq is over and done with, these people will blame Democrats for its failure, just like they have by laying the failure of Vietnam on the doorsteps of anti-war protestors. Ex-GIs don’t hold any sway, regardless of how many join in the protest, as to this crowd there’s absolutely zero chance that their failure to lead the country in any aspect of government has anything to do with their own actions. So now we have the argument that Congress has been a failure because of the obstruction of Democrats. Here are some facts to chew on:

1. July 17, 2003 – House Ways & Means Committee – Portman-Cardin Pension Bill – The bill that had been agreed upon by both sides of the committee was substituted just prior to midnight by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) who informed everyone that it would be voted on the following day. Committee Democrats met in a room to craft a Democratic alternative, which prompted Thomas to call the Capitol Hill police to run the Democrats out. Like many pieces of legislation put to vote by Republicans in this Congress, there was no time to review the bill or propose ammendments. The problem with this bill was it “would allow companies to reduce the amount of money they have to set aside to meet future obligations to defined benefit plan participants.” Basically it would allow them to cook the books, then down the road move to do what the airlines did by shifting pension responsibilities to the government. I wrote about this a while back: “To inflate earnings companies predict high returns on their pension funds whether they are realistic or not. By predicting a high rate of return, more money can be redirected from the pension funds to the balance sheet, creating higher earnings and investment. A fund can legally be predicted to make a return of 8%, come in at under 1% and the next year be predicted to again come in at 8%…When this happens, the federal program (PBGC) picks up the slack and provides the workers a portion of what they should have received from the company they worked for. In 2001 PBGC reported a surplus of $8 billion, but last year it reported a deficit of $23 billion.”
2. The Patriot Act – Originally crafted in the House Judiciary Committee and approved by a 36-0 vote. The bill is sent to the Rules Committee, where Republicans “simply chucked the approved bill and replaced it with a new, far more repressive version, apparently written at the direction of then Attourney general John Ashcroft”. The Rules Committee rejected ammendments, denied the chance for up or down votes within the committee, and the Ashcroft version went to the floor.
3. Of the 111 rules introducted in the first session of this Congress, only twelve were open. On the opening day of the 104th Congress, then-Rules Committee chairman Gerald Solomon announced his intention to institute free debate on the floor. “Instead of having seventy percent closed rules, we are going to have seventy percent open and unrestricted rules.” That was 1995, in response to Democratic power having turned an 85% rate in 1977 to 30% in 1994. So from Solomon’s statement in ’95 to today, the rate is 10.8%. Even Democrats at their worst (30% is horrible for an open democracy), aren’t as nasty as Republicans today.
4. Subpoenas – From the 1950s until the GOP takeover in 1995, no Democratic committee chairman issued a subpoena without either minority consent or a committee vote. In the Clinton years, Republicans got rid of that standard and issued 1000+ and went over 2 million pages of documents to find Democratic crimes, misappropriations, coverups, etc. Since George W. Bush became President, this same Congress has issued ZERO. With reasons for going to war with Iraq, no-bid contracts, Katrina…they’ve found NOTHING worthy of a hearing or investigation!?!?!

Those are a few examples out of many. It’s interesting to study the differences between the creators of our democracy, what they intended for Congress to do, and what it is today. Anything the President wants, he gets, and oversight is a thing of the past. There are no checks and zero ballance. This is not the fault of a minority party.

“He is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Limbaugh told listeners. “He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act…This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.” For some reason people got upset over Rush’s analysis here, and he appologized, before pointing out that parkinson’s has made Fox almost as sick as liberalism has. Truth is, if the government started funding stem-cell research today, there wouldn’t be a cure for this disease tomorrow, so it’s clearly not worth discussing. Our missile defense shield on the other hand is a mere turn of the screw away from rendering nuclear attacks against the United States forever feckless.

Speaking of feckless, how about this President of ours! He’s on TV saying “we’ve never been stay the course”, which on its own is enough to keep you laughing and/or crying (depending on whether or not you’re in the military) for a few hours, days, deployments…here’s a video with him saying over and over and over the three word phrase most liked by the phonics monkey writing the bulk of his Iraq war jargon until just recently. Here’s a good Q&A with Tony Snow on the matter: Q: Tony, it seems what you have is not “stay the course.” Has anybody told the President he should stop calling it “stay the course” then? SNOW: I don’t think he’s used that term in a while. Q: Oh, yes, he has, repeatedly. SNOW: When? Q: Well, in August, because I wrote a story saying he didn’t use it — and I was quite sternly corrected. —— OK then, so the President hasn’t said “stay the course” in a long time, except for in August, and the Republicans who have been saying it a hundred times a day each just aren’t paying attention to what’s happening “on the ground” I suppose. Because our strategy is quite dynamic these days, what with the patrols and shooting and the new Popeye’s Chicken that opened up in the Green Zone…but wait, Donald Rumsfeld is being intereviewed by Sean Hannity on the radio today and says, “of course (Bush) isn’t backing away from ‘stay the course'”…I’m sure Tony Snow will clear all of this up tomorrow.

As for Iraq itself, it’s clearly going well over there, as the death toll has been in decline, chocolate bars are being accumulated in preparation for Halloween, and in just a few days we should be hearing an announcement on the Summer Olympics coming to Baghdad. Today something funny happened, perhaps a big of trickery in honor of October 31st…General Casey and the ambassador are holding a press conference touting the progress being made, and the lights go out. That’ll make your shirt collar feel a little tight.

F-Jackie! — Oh, and BC kicked Florida St in the teeth last Saturday, on their home turf…nail up that scalp alongside our two wins in two years vs. Clemson, last year in Death Valley and…carry the two…factor in wind…32 mason jars of moonshine…

Stupidity at high levels of government should offend everyone, especially when an example of it has to do with life and death. I posted a map of the Sunni/Shia breakdown in the middle east a few weeks ago…wasn’t overly complicated, as you had a map with two colors that your average second grader could have memorized and understood, yet we have this:

Willie Hulon (chief of the bureau’s new national security branch), asked by a reporter about the difference between Sunni and Shia muslims:

• Hulon: “The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following”
• Reporter: What about today? Which one is Iran and Hezbollah, Sunni or Shiite?
• Hulon: “Sunni.”
• Reporter: Wrong.

Terry Everett (seven-term Alabama Republican Congressman), VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL AND TACTICAL INTELLIGENCE:

• Reporter: Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?
• Everett: …low chuckle…”One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences with their religion, different families or something.”

Jo Ann Davis (Virginia Republican) – Head of a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A’s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information:

• Reporter: Do you know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites?
• Davis: “Do I? You know, I should. It’s a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it’s the Sunnis who’re more radical than the Shia.”
• Reporter: Do you know which branch Al Qaeda’s leaders follow?
• Davis: “Al Qaeda is the one that’s most radical, so I think they’re Sunni, I may be wrong, but I think that’s right.”
• Reporter: Do you think it’s important for members of Congress charged with oversight of the intelligence agencies, to know the answer to such questions?
• Davis: “Oh, I think it’s very important, because Al Qaeda’s whole reason for being is based on their beliefs. And you’ve got to understand, and know your enemy.”

No intellectual curiosity, nor the desire to even be competent enough to do their jobs!

Rape charge recommended for Israeli president

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Police in Israel are recommending that the country’s president be charged with rape and other crimes against several women, a police announcement said.

Police issued a statement Sunday announcing that they have asked Attorney General Menahem Mazuz to charge Israeli President Moshe Katsav with rape, indecent assault and sexual harassment of an undisclosed number of women.

This righteous player from NYC has agreed to post on deadissue – we welcome him! An avid reader of the white man’s lies, an avid eater of the white man’s turkey bacon, we’re glad to have him on board.

Reid got $1M in land sale

As I see it, when you’ve got a mandatory minimum sentence for some kid a few grams over the statute limit for whatever substance they’re caught with…if that’s how our government wants to carry it when it comes to crime and punnishment down here on our level, then it’s about time the same started happening with these politicians! Hook up one of these suits with 20 years for insider trading or pay to play and you’ll see DC clean itself up REAL quick. Duke Cunningham is in the joint not even a year and he’s already cracked, writing crazy accusations about how the local papers framed him.

Introduce some of these pigs to the reality they’re forcing millions of others to fear, that warped reality that insists a “victimless crime” is something that doesn’t exist, because “society” is always the victim…you know, that same rationale religion has used to keep people in line forever, kids too with that list Santa Claus is working on all the time.  I hope the Democrats take back both houses, but I’ve got my shotgun loaded and ready for when they start acting like this last batch of Republicans with the thieving. If either house or the President had been in Democrat control these past 6 years, a lot more crooks would be going to jail. I’m dying to see whether or not it’s just as bad with all three in Democrat hands.

In the Army during the whitewater investigation…the Washington Times ran something on it every day it seemed, so I wasted many hours of my life reading about it, a ton of money was spent, with zilch to show for it in the end. So the legislature CAN round up the posse if they have the will to do so, yet nothing like that happened during this period from 00-06, and we all know a lot of people got fat. It was so easy to steal that most never thought they could be touched. The Foley thing is waking people up to it, but for me…the VA being run underbudget year after year while contractors get hundreds of millions for nothing is a million times worse.

If any collection of Americans are in more of a dire need for some non-friendly incentives to do the right thing than people in politics, I’m all ears.   

During my brief stint as a local sports media flunky a few years back, Kenny Rogers suckerpunched me in the clubhouse for no reason, and for a long time I’ve been replaying the moment again and again in my head, especially when I’m drinking…totally uncalled for. It was that moment when I decided the gig wasn’t for me, picked up my glasses and pocketprotector, both on the floor after the assault, with about 20 people laughing at the whole scene, as I stood up he hollared something at me like “WATCH THE FUCK OUT NEXT TIME” – I responded with “THROW STRIKES” – and a second assault took place, this time a teammate joined in, battering my skull with a cup still inside the jock strap, stomping on me with cleats…I blacked out.

He’s shutting out the Yankees through six in game 3.

Regardless of how she’s making you feel at the time, congratulating a female state trooper on her sex change is never a good idea.

This has been bothering me for a while now, and with conditions on the ground in Iraq being what they are, the military in general today compared with five years ago, when is the Defense Secretary’s boss going to finally tell him to focus on his own job for a change?  He’s failed at every step, yet wants to pretend he’s running the State Department…picking out Chavez and saying we need to do something about his military buildup is not supposed to be his decision to make, nor is his business at this point to play politics with our foreign policy.  If Bush had any respect for Secretary Rice, he’d put an end to this nonsense once and for all.  The man is in charge of the Pentagon, and whether he likes it or not, takes orders from someone higher up on the food chain. 

Or is the President simply too much of a wimp to do what it takes to get his shop in order?  Screw the ‘political fallout’ – the infighting has to stop – as nothing productive comes from this.

I’ve been swiming upstream lately with the new semester starting this week, trying to get smart on the material and ahead on assignments, so politics has been far down on the list…though, the reaction from Republicans on this matter of a middle aged man hitting on a teenager had to be addressed.  My memory immediately reverted back to swallowgate, and what the right had to say about President Clinton during all that.  Matt Drudge made his bones on that story, and he in particular seems to be saying that there’s blame to go around, on both sides of the communications, calling the page a “beast”…Newt Gingrich defends Hassert and Congress covering up the whole thing by claiming that they would have been gay bashing…the White House refers to it as a lesser scandal, a few “naughty emails”, no big deal…but back to Drudge, here’s a transcript:

And if anything, these kids are less innocent — these 16 and 17 year-old beasts…and I’ve seen what they’re doing on YouTube and I’ve seen what they’re doing all over the internet — oh yeah — you just have to tune into any part of their pop culture.  You’re not going to tell me these are innocent babies.  Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth?  The kids are egging the Congressman on!  The kids are trying to get this out of him.  We haven’t got the whole story on this. 

You could say “well Drudge, it’s abuse of power, a congressman abusing these impressionable, young 17 year-old beasts, talking about their sex lives with a grown man, on the internet.”  Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages.  This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen.  These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth.   Oh yeah.  Oh, I haven’t…they were talking about how many times they’d masturbated, how many times they’d done it with their girlfriends this weekend…all these things and these “innocent children.”  And this “poor” congressman sitting there typing, “oh am I going to get any,” you know?

Am I missing something here?  The guy was in charge of lawmaking in regards to adults who prey on young people, AG Gonzalez has been focusing (rightly) on the dirty doings of pedophiles on the internet…either it’s mea culpa time, or a lot of these Republicans are looking to be severely weighed down by karma for a long time.  It’s bad enough that the man was kept in a leadership position for so long, but for the objective of retaining control of the House to justify a coverup of something like this… 

Anesthetic is administered to the patient in an innovative, cost-sensitive manner that respects the sanctity of his/her religious beliefs (aversion in the Muslim faith to alcohol/drug use).  This is carried out by corrections officers, who place the patient in a chair, customized with an elaborate system of straps used to restrain the patient’s head, shoulders, arms, abdomen, legs and ankles.  Following the anesthetic is a routine medical procedure practiced throughout the world every day.  A flexible plastic tube is inserted into the patient’s nose, down past the throat and esophagus and into the stomach.  during this phase the anestetic may begin to wear off as the patient reacts to the procedure, and at this time should be re-administered as necessary by corrections officers by tightening whatever strap has appeared to have loosened.  Of course this should not be perceived as the result of a poor job having been done initially, as the tube procedure will at times provoke a release of testosterone allowing the patient to experience brief spurts of enormous strength, often combined with a simple, misguided emotional reaction steming from a metaphorical connection of some kind between insertion of the tube and a criminal sexual act understood most often as one involving a victim and one or perhaps several attackers.  As foolish as this association certainly is, one must never doubt the capacity of a sick, primitive mind to draw such conclusions.  In this case the patient confuses an effort to save his/her life within an attacker/victim construct, merely due to the essential delivery by force of a foreign object into an orifice.  The medical staff’s job is not to attempt reasoning around the patient’s warped sense of reality, but to instead carry out the rest of the procedure in a calm, professional manner.  Anesthetic now strong once again, it is now time to deliver through the tube, life saving nourishment, deposited within the patient’s stomach, enough to ensure survival, though overhead costs should not factor into the amount of food used. 

NOTE:  Intelligence officers do have the authority to determine the amount of food delivered as well as the feeding tube’s thickness.  It is unacceptable to challenge this authority, and by doing so it can and will result in immediate termination and/or prosecution. 

Following the lead of Harvard, Princeton and other schools of higher learning, George Wallace will now also be cancelling their early admissions program, citing as others have, the amount of undue pressure being put on students to over achieve at the expense of their current educational challenges.  Though not everyone is pleased about this change in policy.  Zed Miller, an aspiring hog farmer from Henagar had been planning to “git my application in dere ‘fo it be time to haul slurry down ta-da crick at night, but dey stomp ou-at dream din-ey?”  Planning to retake the GED exam in a week, now he’s not sure if “rushin” makes sense anymore.  “What I gonna jump to hoots fo now if they’s done fixinna wait till later on anyhow?  I’z better to study what’s goin on night time wit this slurry fo now, stedda gittin caught up wit dat mess.”

A little while before this last season started they were filming scenes in Chicopee, MA – about 15 minutes from where I live, and where I’m actually going to for an appointment tomorrow.  The actor that plays Vito says in an interview on set that, “my character Vito is driving to somewhere and gets lost in Chicopee.”  Continue reading →

Vanity Fair keeps hounding me for pictures of Cleo, for their next cover…I sent them this list of links and told them to find what they wanted on their own.  She’s got an agent now, so suddenly I’m being handed a supponea to appear in court over some bullshit building code involving the litter…it’s getting out of hand…now I know how Garry Coleman’s folks felt!

• http://deadissue.com/archives/2005/08/20/family-pictures-new/
• http://deadissue.com/archives/2006/03/20/she-wasan-am-er-i-can-girl/
• http://deadissue.com/archives/2005/11/26/thanksgiving-photos/
• http://deadissue.com/archives/2005/07/17/family-pictures/
• http://deadissue.com/archives/2005/11/03/new-pics-of-the-babies/
• http://deadissue.com/archives/2005/11/03/new-pics-of-the-babies/

Fellow friends of the felines:  Black Dog (ironic) – Dusty 

The entire thing is under the fold – a blockbuster, hell of a read, probably will be the first time in my entire life I look forward to waking up on Sunday for a program on this channel…the setup:  Chris Wallace has him on and apparantly the arrangement prior to the interview was that half of it would be spent talking about Clinton’s fundraising…looks like question three is where he attempts to sandbag the former President with “Why didn’t you do more to get Bin Laden?”…from there it’s an instructional video on “How to be a Democrat and not look like a pussy every time you’re on national television”.  Boy does he lay it out there too.  Take a look!

Continue reading →

I told myself I wasn’t going to bore all of you with the details of what’s bugging me Continue reading →

While I’m not a big fan of John McCain, I have always been impressed by John Warner…Lindsey Graham was a fellow I’d seen a lot from in some instances, but overall I’d have been reluctant to call myself a fan of his, although I have written positively on him in the past.  Lawyers are difficult creatures to trust in the first place, and since a great number of Senators happen to share this attribute, it’s sometimes difficult to hear their voice for even a minute without instinctively checking to make sure your wallet is still in your back pocket, which is doubly strange considering their voice is inside a radio or television.  A few times during the questioning of AG Gonzalez though, it was very easy to sense a great difference between Graham and one of his more empty-suit colleagues like Orin Hatch, as he wouldn’t simply pretend that he was addressing a talk radio convention, but actually play the role of a Senator with something at stake, and sometimes it would even come across as if what was at stake had more to do with the republic than himself.

Yesterday I was blown away by Senator Graham when he was asked by the wrinkled talking head about whether or not there was concern over how his constituency would respond to his positions.  Those being that in order for this country to retain the high ground as well as the ability to tell the world with a straight face that our democracy is something to emulate, it would be a grievous error to implement a policy that allowed the government to try, convict and possibly execute a terrorist suspect without having allowed the accused to even see the evidence being presented against them.  The talking head asked him this and in response Graham said something to the effect of, “the United States will do fine if Lindsey Graham is no longer a senator, but if we begin convicting people of crimes without providing them the evidence being used to make the case, we’ll be a worse off in the end…imagine if Iran or North Korea captured one of ours, tried, convicted and executed them without having provided an opportunity to see and dispute the evidence against them, Americans wouldn’t stand for it…so whether or not I’m reelected isn’t relevant on the level of this point in our history and what we decide to do at this point in regards to these detainees.”  I paraphrased there, but that was the crux of it, and it gave me a great feeling to hear him say it. Continue reading →

Quick hits – out of sorts at the moment – dug into the dirtbag here (all short videos – my favs on YouTube), enjoy!

William F Buckley – “Iraq War is a Failure” … Phish performing Tube (check out the piano!)  … The Wire – Stringer Gets Airholed by Omar and Brother Mouzone … More Omar … Omar Testifies Against Bird (“I robs drug dealers”) … Bruno at Daytona Beach (HILLARIOUS) … NE Patriots – Defend the Dynasty … The Triple Lindy (Rodney) … Bill Hicks standup … Sam Kinison standup … Patrice O’Neal standup (!) … Deadwood – Dority Fights Cpt. Turner … Galactic (great band) …Phish – Peaches en Regalia (Zappa cover) – Boise, ID …

Eisenhower Warns of the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

In an idiotic war you need an equally idiotic populace who will put up with conscription or be fighting an opponent with a less idiotic populace than your own in order to win. In a fight as deranged as this one, with most of our military in Iraq and Osama in Pakistan where there’s not a single US troop on the ground…you need a populace that’s dizzy enough to stand for it in the first place, but that doesn’t solve the problem of where you’re going to get enough idiots to hop into the meat grinder voluntarily…especially now that football has started.

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I think there are two clear paths ahead. This nation can listen to the dictates of fear and hubris as the administration alternately ignores Al Qaeda and then trumpets their success. Alternately brags about success in Iraq and then ignores it, and all the while beats the tom-toms for war with Iran.
Yes, our country could slide that way if we listen to the dictates of fear. But we have nothing to fear in this country. We’re still the greatest power in the world. And we can be the greatest force of good in the world. And we can keep ourselves safe.
I’d like us to resolve on this 5th Anniversary of 9/11, that we as Americans no longer need live in fear. We should live in determination that we’ll protect ourselves. Support our friends and allies around the world. Work together to solve the common problems that face mankind. And above all, we’ll make sure that at home that we never sacrifice the liberties and rights that define our country. Even in an effort to protect ourselves.
We can have it all. We can do it all.
We just have to be courageous and face the facts as they are and work for the future as we want it to be. (PODCAST)

When I remember 9/11, the images that haunt me are those of the people jumping to their deaths, and the many times afterwards when Osama would show up on my TV screen. To this day there aren’t any people jumping off of tall buildings one after the other, but Osama’s face has been a mainstay, along with the knowledge that his heart is still beating. I don’t want to let politics get in the way here, so what I’ve done is cut and paste segments of print from a series of world-wide sources concerning the location of Osama today in Pakistan, and the latest news on our combined efforts to catch him. I think we can all agree that taking care of this guy should be a priority, no?

HUNDREDS of Pakistani troops are reportedly withdrawing from the crucial war on terror battleground of North Waziristan – the lair of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri – amid heightening concern about the likely impact of what is described as a “Faustian agreement” reached between Islamabad and Taliban militants. (The Australian – Pakistanis give up on lair of Osama)

Under the terms of the deal, Pakistani forces will not only withdraw from the region, but also return arms seized from militants, pay reparations, and have no say in militants coming and going from the area into Afghanistan. (The Times of India – Bush backs Pak-Taliban deal)

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Since I disagreed with that idiot running the Rolling Barrage, Paul bounced. His #1 thing was Clemson football, and after last year he told me to watch out because Clemson was bringing back all their starters on offense. Now…BC held them to 10 points and beat them IN DEATH VALLEY…something Florida State could not do when it counted at the end of last season. BC gets no love in the rankings early, Clemson is given #18 leading into the rematch, this time in Boston. Goodbye BCS Paul – SOUTH AIN’T SHIT!
Ronnie Van Zant sucks!  General Lee suckED!