as much as i hate tagging unless it's done artfully and to the competition's shop window, i will acquiesce (but not silently) to lecram's.
10 Years Ago: i was living in seattle, washington in the freelard neighborhood and working for a candle supply making shop called pourette. i was heavily involved with a woman named jennifer. i was taking in seattle mariner baseball games. and i was learning the very tough art of gardening in the pacific northwest. the summer season there is actually a defined season unlike here in the central valley of california. if i wanted tomatoes, peas, carrots, radishes, dope and the like i had to watch the extended forecasts closely (and i mean the national ones, not the stoopid local ones. by the way, if i were i local meteorologist up there i wouldn't even go to work some months. a simple placard that reads "rain expected with some clearing and a chance of afternoon sun" would suffice). however, it helped me to hone my green thumb. unfortunately, i brought that green thumb back to the san joaquin valley and killed quite a few vegetable plants through overzealousness. also, i was learning that i wasn't cut out for extended and daily relationships. my true joys of an evening were to go to a nearby pub, drink guinness beer, throw real darts, work the crossword, write a drivel of a poem or two, shoot a game or two of pool and wander home. all in all a very enjoyable evening (and if i had or found someone who had the KGB, even better). my girlfriend, while not too demanding of my sobriety, was a bit too demanding of my time. a well learned lesson, the outcome of which was that we agreed (mutually, i might add) that our lives just didn't mesh after 2 and a half years. we made better friends than...the cliche.
5 Years Ago: i moved back to Fresno. decided seattle was just too damn small and conservative for a man like me. so i packed up my 1969 VW bus and cruised over the mountains to klamath falls, oregon where my beloved sister lives with my beloved niece. it was to be a weekend stop, but events conspired to lengthen the stay. on the way over said mountains of no name i was stopped by a crew laying high speed phone lines. as i was in a line of cars i turned off my engine. when it was my turn to go forward i tried to start the bus and it wouldn't. facing uphill. long story short i ended up being the only obstacle between it and a deep ravine with a river at the bottom. in other words i got out of the bus, put a rock under the wheel, got back in, tried to start it in neutral and the rock shifted. i got back out to fix the rock and forgot to set the hand brake. for ten minutes i was back to back with the bus, because it was in neutral and i had already kicked the rock out of the way. i waved to people as my body groaned against the weight trying to push me over and my legs began to tremble. the one driver who made eye contact just sahook his head as i yelled to him to get out and set my handbrake. he got the seattle one finger salute. eventually, i got out of that jam all by myself, faced the bus downhill and jumpstarted it in second gear. got to the bottom of the "hill", turned a round, got back in line and didn't cut the motor until i got to my sis's. blown oil pump, gaskets, everything. the bus's oil pan was flooding when it faced uphil and couldn't breathe. got to fresno (sanger, really), moved in with my parents for a while, laid low and was found out by people like lecram.
1 Year Ago: i was swearing to never work the rogue festival again. i had been one of its founders. i had been running venues for it for too long and last year was a bugger of a venue. i was also looking at my job and wondering why i was still working for assholes.
Yesterday: after a very long day at work mixing asphalt and running tests on it and tests on other black goo that came from the visalia airport and highway 99, i sat out on my patio with a beer and looked at the albatross that is the empty two-story fouplex built acroos the street from this past june. empty, because the bay areas owners bought it sight unseen for a cool $750,000 only to view and realize they owned a pig in a poke that was D.O.A. no way to make their money back in any timely or untikely fashion. so they've decided to rent it for a price no one will touch (i'm smelling tax writeoff). then, lecram called. he's borrowed my second car for a bit (yes, i am a "monied" man), but he evidently can't read a gas gauge. i picked him up, he bought a gas can and filled it up, we replenished the bmw and he was on his way again after a very good conversation about friends, lovers and the heartbreak of psoriasis. then, writerboy shows up at my house. only met this guy once at a barbecue. he wanted to "buy a baggie". i had to tell him that i am now a blue moon smoker and had nothing on the shelves (i stopped short of telling him that hurricane katrina had swamped my crop). he was polite and obsequious, which did nothing for me. i like my folks blunt. a dry martini ain't bad either. i watched the USA soccer team tie guatamala, but it was okay because USA has already earned their way into next year's world cup in germany (and you know i will be up watching every damn game that i can when next summer rolls around). then, i went to bed, because i had to be at work at 5 this morning.
5 Songs I Know All The Words To: Mojo Nixon's "She's Vibrator Dependent" (don't want me in it); Bloodhound Gang's "You're Pretty When I'm Drunk"; Kinky Friedman's "Waitress, Please Waitress"; the Roches' "The Boat Family" (although the harmonies kill me); Southern Culture On The Skids' "House of Bamboo".
5 Snacks: baby ruth, peanuts in the shell, microwave popcorn sans butter, celery and peanutbutter, beer.
5 Things I'd do w/ $100 million dollars: wait outside my house for the bottle and can pickers i know to be honest and hardworking and set them up right; buy a small nightclub/bar and hire musical acts that i actually like (like the Roches, Bloodhound Gang, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Joan Osbourne, Jonathon Richman, Michelle Shocked, U2, REM, Sleater/Kinney, Eyes Like Mars, the Moldy Peaches, Fiona Apple); run naked down wishon boulevard from shields avenue to belmont shouting "i have the littlest dick in the world" and then pay the cops to turn their flashers on for me; disappear for the rest of my life (with sporadic emails to certain friends and family about where they can meet me all expenses paid); pay the drycleaning bill for lecram's pants.
5 places I would run away to: AAA (when AA isn't enough just keep aaadding); Madagascar, because it was always the darker appendix to the dark continent when i was growing up and, evidently, it has an ecosystem unlike anything else; Nepal (and i'd even quit smoking in order to be able to breathe the rarified air); Molokai (has a huge telescope that i could commandeer if this was tied into the $100 million question); seattle, but only if i could afford to live on a union lake houseboat without working (the july 4 fireworks are amazing).
5 things I would never wear: a toupee, a muscle shirt, a pushup bra, mickey's mantle, lederhosen (sorry, theraminman).
5 favorite TV shows: West Wing, Xena: Princess Warrior, Arrested Development, Reno 911, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.
5 greatest joys: candlemaking, poetry writing, telescope viewing, beer drinking, masturbating.
5 favorite toys: weed whacker, pruning shears, computer, the cat, t.v.
5 people I'm tagging: probably none, because the gentleman who tagged ME knows all of my blogger friends.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Ass-Fault (Half Nekkid Thursday)
so, i work in an engineering lab. i've been doing this for 5 years now and have become way too proficient in the knowledge of soils and concrete (what it is, does, doesn't want to and shouldn't under any circumstances). if you land safely on an airport runway or arrive safely after a long or short road trip; if you survive an earthquake, because your building didn't collapse...you can thank me in part).
but it wasn't until i came to my current employer that i began to really learn about the black stuff your wheels grip. with that in mind, i present to you this pictorial tribute to my current passion. the stuff that keeps you safe. the road of happy returns: Ass-Fault. because no man should drive there alone.
HNT is a good thing. visit all of them. now, dammit!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
a polaroid generation
my good friend generik found this letter from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which says it all. we can pretend that shit happens and no one is perfect, but this is pure 100% administration fuck-up. this is the result of 5 years of cuts in FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Wetlands Protection Act. this is the result of turning FEMA into a subdivision of Homeland Security, where beurocracy (spelling on that, judges?) reigns and execution of law seems like a distant wet dream. rightwingers are trying to confuse us by saying that clinton started all of the cuts when, in fact, he didn't. but they tried that with iraq, gas prices, the recession (which may be coming around again). why can't we find a politician who is willing to say "wow. i fucked up. that started and got out of control on my watch. i will make this right even though i voted to fuck it up in the first place"? leftwingers are tying themselves to the mast of a ship that blames all republicans when some republicans are not to blame. when are the "liberals" going to accept the fact that when they refuse to budge on important issues that affect all americans they, in effect, do harm to many of them? however, this letter hits the coffin nail right on the fucking head. bush and his "employees" have fucked up in grand manner.
OUR OPINIONS:
An open letter to the President
Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."That’s unbelievable.There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
OUR OPINIONS:
An open letter to the President
Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."That’s unbelievable.There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
Monday, September 05, 2005
happy non-HNT night. i just wanna show a tattoo.wow. weird what a night at lecram's can do to one's head. especially when mustang is there. and "J". trust me when i say that these are three individuals who should never be in the same vicinity as me. drunk, drunk, stoned and drunk. and i speak of just me. them i don't know about. i hope "them" are sufficiently dizzy enough to not fall asleep until they've puked.
a nice barbecue. lots of burned meat, lots and lots of beer, tequila and devil's brew. eclectic mix of folks. good conversation that would turn dirty and/or silly at the twist of a word. jaded stopped by and starsadie (neither of whom write very much) hung out. some guy named "writerboy" was there. not a clue about that. we named him, but we want a paternity test. man, there was a lot of booze there. and no dope. nope. nada. nichts. niente. zilch. nein. nyet. null set. zippo. well, at least it was fun. otherwise i would have told them all to fuck off. so, lucky for them that they're really cool.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
News
"It is incredible, the government had no evacuation plan ... the first power in the world and it left its own population adrift."
Looting chaos hits New Orleans relief effort
Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos.
Declaring that freedom is "untidy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the looting in Iraq was a result of "pent-up feelings" of oppression and that it would subside as Iraqis adjusted to life without Saddam Hussein.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The assistant secretary of the Army resigned Wednesday, with congressional aides saying Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had him fired for questioning proposed budget cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans — the traditional way of supplying disaster victims — out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.
The Rebellion of the Talking HeadsNewscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling.
WASHINGTON - September 2 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the following speech today on the House floor during a special session to provide relief money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina:
The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years
The Administration wants out of a multinational agreement to spend at least 0.7% of U.S. GDP on development assistance for poor nations
Evacuations were halted at the Superdome before dawn Saturday, leaving several thousand people trapped in squalor as authorities diverted buses to help some 25,000 refugees at the New Orleans Convention Center.
At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.
Looting chaos hits New Orleans relief effort
Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos.
Declaring that freedom is "untidy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the looting in Iraq was a result of "pent-up feelings" of oppression and that it would subside as Iraqis adjusted to life without Saddam Hussein.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The assistant secretary of the Army resigned Wednesday, with congressional aides saying Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had him fired for questioning proposed budget cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans — the traditional way of supplying disaster victims — out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.
The Rebellion of the Talking HeadsNewscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling.
WASHINGTON - September 2 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the following speech today on the House floor during a special session to provide relief money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina:
The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years
The Administration wants out of a multinational agreement to spend at least 0.7% of U.S. GDP on development assistance for poor nations
Evacuations were halted at the Superdome before dawn Saturday, leaving several thousand people trapped in squalor as authorities diverted buses to help some 25,000 refugees at the New Orleans Convention Center.
At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.
New Orleans Going To War
(will someone please tell me that this general is not comparing new orleans to somalia, because they are both dominated by black populations or because this general is saying that it is black people who are the problem. please. someone?)
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
Friday, September 02, 2005
Sandra Bullock Gets ScarySquirrelMan And Spammers Can Keep Their Sorry Loser Asses Off My Blog
because it's my friggin' birthday i am posting this beautiful woman again. why? screw you, i got my reasons. and she makes all of my problems disappear for at least a little while when i gaze upon her visage. she is one of a very, very few number of actresses who actually get it onscreen. she understands "be natural" and "don't try to be what you can't" and "scarysquirrelman loves it when you snort while laughing".
just watched "miss congeniality 2" this morning at 1, because i couldn't sleep. it is good, but not as good as the first. dietrich bader did his best, but he was no michael caine. benjamin bratt is gone and good riddance, because he was on my hit list of men who are not allowed to touch lips with sandra (johnny depp, benicio del toro, john cusack and hugh grant are. in fact, it would give me a major boner to my chin if they did. being as sexually secure as i am in my lifestyle allows me to be candid). william shatner is as good as he ever was, the airport girlie fight was great and sandra bullock is gorgeous.
before that, i watched "the jacket" with adrien brody and keira knightly. a cool, weird, semi-scifi, redemption story. one complaint, though: no boobies. keira is almost as fine looking a woman as i've ever seen (bend it like beckham, pirates of the caribbean, love actually which may be my favorite christmas movie that i can watch any time of year) besides sandra, audry hepburn and audry tattou. but i need to see her babymakers one time before i die without having to resort to crap like "doctor zshivago" (or however that pretentious piece of crap is spelled). booooorrrrring. by the way, "bend it like beckham" is a hell of a good story. while i'm "on it" so is "whale rider", which sounds like porn, but isn't so much.
today, i left work early in order to drink away all of the useless 40 year old brain cells that i will no longer be accessing and watched "sin city". "from dusk til dawn" meets "pulp fiction" meets "kill bill" and throws in about 7 bad b movie flicks from the 50's. all in all, a grand time. two dicks way up. all of the actors did very well. brittany murphy, in particular, was excellent. i'd give it two giant cocks up the pooper, but the only boobies were so fake as to not be attractive. were i 18 it wouldn't matter. tits are tits at that age. but i'm FORTY ONE!!! and i can only appreciate the real thing, baby. actually, the real thing might make me dizzy. it's been a while. my blood pressure is higher than it should be and i don't know what blood loss to all of my joints but one would do to me for more than a minute or so. hookers might call me a dream date, but i prefer "efficient and end-result orientated". looks better on the old resume. plus, no employer will know just what i like to do when i'm on the road for the company. call it team spirit if you will.
anyway, where was i? oh yeah, drinking away old memories no longer needed. so, after i got off work i went to drug fair and bought a half rack of corona. two steps after purchasing and crossing the whoosh doors the cardboard went karrriiiiipppp and the bottles smashed onto the cement. i finally understood the heineken commercial where those bottles break and a guy somewhere else rolls over and tells his babe not to touch him. i watched the twelver leak and wondered if i should demand a replacement. after a few moments of silence for the dead i put it on the asphalt where it would dry out quicker. then i noticed my leg was leaking as well. somehow, a bottle shard had made its way out of the box and jumped up my leg, leaving a trail of cut 8 inches long. very shallow, but still red. the little shard had popped out and up, which is a little weird. i later found a bit of blood on my shorts where the glass landed after doing its shuttle impression. the drug fair folks were nice enough to give me a new twelver and aplogize even as i was telling them it wasn't their fault at all. what a great white trash moment.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."
from Scientific American in October of 2001 comes this prescient article. we have evidently known for a long, long time what would happen if a large hurricane were to hit Louisiana and yet we (as a government) have done worse than nothing. we gutted federal disaster relief to one of the few areas everyone knew would suffer the most.
from Scientific American in October of 2001 comes this prescient article. we have evidently known for a long, long time what would happen if a large hurricane were to hit Louisiana and yet we (as a government) have done worse than nothing. we gutted federal disaster relief to one of the few areas everyone knew would suffer the most.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Say Nope To Dope
"heh. reading a book with y'all. great fun. reminds me of my ranch when the help would milk the cows and i could read Reader's Digest to 'em. made me laugh. so, uh, i just want y'all to know that i'm down with y'all. good americans. all of ya. proud of ya. uh, some of ya have got piercings on ya. shiny metal stuff. just, uh, want ya to know that, uh, even though i believe self-mutification is a sin and all that, it's not as bad as some things. y'all could get an abortion or do drugs or something. eat your boogers. that would be badder. uh, but i was thinking on the way here way up on air force one that your problems are real small. especially from up there. that's like 300,000 feet or something. way high. and getting high is bad. so don't do it. just say, uh, nope to dope. because you'll never get to be me if you loose your way. and when you loose your way, then it's the highway.
so, why is clifford red? and he's big, too, huh? i never got to read this in tenth grade. now i know why. it's, uh, a real big book.
but i want to, uh, go to what i talked to before. y'all got metal on you. you know ya couldn't get by my new airport stuff with that, right? i mean, you, uh, would probably half to get half nekkid to pass. and that's not cool with this fool. heh. but i wanted to talk on this fartherer, because i did a thing when i was in my twenties, like you, that i ain't proud of, but i still got. ya see, during my hazy frat days when i was puttin' stuff in my body that can't be proved, so put your hand down young man, i got me a souveneir from a night spent with my daddy's buddies. took me out on the town, heh, and got me all fucked, i mean energized, up and we found a parlor. called 'em parlors in those innocent days. so, i want you to know that i am down with your lack of moral compass, because i still have a dick chainy.
whoops, national security is calling me. gotta go and do important things. that's what bein' pregnitent is all about, important things. signin' bills an' cuttin' off funding. good, strong leader stuff. y'all have a good class now an' remember that killin' babies is for libruls and commies."
so, why is clifford red? and he's big, too, huh? i never got to read this in tenth grade. now i know why. it's, uh, a real big book.
but i want to, uh, go to what i talked to before. y'all got metal on you. you know ya couldn't get by my new airport stuff with that, right? i mean, you, uh, would probably half to get half nekkid to pass. and that's not cool with this fool. heh. but i wanted to talk on this fartherer, because i did a thing when i was in my twenties, like you, that i ain't proud of, but i still got. ya see, during my hazy frat days when i was puttin' stuff in my body that can't be proved, so put your hand down young man, i got me a souveneir from a night spent with my daddy's buddies. took me out on the town, heh, and got me all fucked, i mean energized, up and we found a parlor. called 'em parlors in those innocent days. so, i want you to know that i am down with your lack of moral compass, because i still have a dick chainy.
whoops, national security is calling me. gotta go and do important things. that's what bein' pregnitent is all about, important things. signin' bills an' cuttin' off funding. good, strong leader stuff. y'all have a good class now an' remember that killin' babies is for libruls and commies."
Hurricanes, Floods, Drill Rigs And The Oil Gestapo
"At least 20 oil rigs and platforms are missing in the Gulf of Mexico and a ruptured gas pipeline is on fire after Hurricane Katrina tore through the region, a US Coast Guard official said. "
...um, just missing? like they were there yesterday, but today they seem to have moved somewhere else? like the companies that own the rigs didn't bother to have an environmental assessment done before building them so that (in the case of a large hurricane) their legs would stay anchored? seems to me that our wonderful government is not the only entity to misunderestimate the perils of living and working within that great locale "anywhere within 1000 miles of the hurricane corridor". we teach our children to not live within 5 miles of a mobile home park in the midwest, because that park is a tornado magnet. but we don't seem to be so concerned about oil rigs in the gulf of mexico.
wow. 20 of them just gone. missing. presumed drowned. what the fuck, folks? we're the world's leader in engineering (and, yes, it is in part because we steal a lot of brain matter from india and japan), so why didn't we foresee this and makes the appropriate moves? louisiana is a conduit for water belonging somewhere else. new orleans has been living under the threat of something like this for a long time. mobil, exxon and shell have been raking in record profits for the last two years as supplies have dwindled (and spent money on commercials telling us why it isn't their fault). now, the south is suffering and disease may be on the upswing due to floodwaters, coffins, broken sewers and the general exodus of those who stayed too long. but the let's see how much money the oil giants kick in to the kitty to help these poor folk out. or do they continue telling us that they feel our pain and there's nothing they can do about it? remember that iraq is producing oil, but we're seeing none of it. easy way to push the alaska drilling for a paltry million barrels a day? we'll see. but i do think that new orleans and its surroundings will become political pawns in the domestic oil fight.
...um, just missing? like they were there yesterday, but today they seem to have moved somewhere else? like the companies that own the rigs didn't bother to have an environmental assessment done before building them so that (in the case of a large hurricane) their legs would stay anchored? seems to me that our wonderful government is not the only entity to misunderestimate the perils of living and working within that great locale "anywhere within 1000 miles of the hurricane corridor". we teach our children to not live within 5 miles of a mobile home park in the midwest, because that park is a tornado magnet. but we don't seem to be so concerned about oil rigs in the gulf of mexico.
wow. 20 of them just gone. missing. presumed drowned. what the fuck, folks? we're the world's leader in engineering (and, yes, it is in part because we steal a lot of brain matter from india and japan), so why didn't we foresee this and makes the appropriate moves? louisiana is a conduit for water belonging somewhere else. new orleans has been living under the threat of something like this for a long time. mobil, exxon and shell have been raking in record profits for the last two years as supplies have dwindled (and spent money on commercials telling us why it isn't their fault). now, the south is suffering and disease may be on the upswing due to floodwaters, coffins, broken sewers and the general exodus of those who stayed too long. but the let's see how much money the oil giants kick in to the kitty to help these poor folk out. or do they continue telling us that they feel our pain and there's nothing they can do about it? remember that iraq is producing oil, but we're seeing none of it. easy way to push the alaska drilling for a paltry million barrels a day? we'll see. but i do think that new orleans and its surroundings will become political pawns in the domestic oil fight.
Half Nekkid Thursday
L.A. Times Interview With A Real Nutjob
Getting Agnostic About 9/11
A society of nonbelievers questions the official versionMARK EHRMAN
Anyone who types the words "9/11" and "conspiracy" into an online search engine soon learns that not everybody buys the official narrative of what took place on Sept. 11, 2001. As a professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, 66-year-old David Ray Griffin would seem to have more affinity for leather elbow patches than tin hats, yet after friends and colleagues prodded him into sifting through the evidence, he experienced a conversion. Now he's spreading the bad news. Griffin compiled a summary of material arguing against the accepted story that 19 hijackers sent by Osama bin Laden took the aviation system and the U.S. military by surprise that awful day in his 2004 book "The New Pearl Harbor" (published by Interlink, a Massachusetts-based independent publisher covering areas including travel, cooking, world fiction, current events, politics, children's literature and other subjects). He recently followed up with the book "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions" (Interlink), a critique of the Kean commission document in which he suggests that a chunk of the blame for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil lies closer to home than the caves of Afghanistan. We contacted him at his Santa Barbara-area home for a report on his journey from mild-mannered scholar to doubting Thomas.How did you join the ranks of those questioning the official account of the 9/11 events?
I was rather slow getting on board. For the first year and a half I just accepted the conventional view, really the blowback thesis, that this was blowback for our foreign policy. When a colleague suggested to me about a year after 9/11 that he was convinced our own government or forces within our own government had arranged it, I didn't accept that. Then several months later another colleague sent me [a link to] a website that had a timeline. Once I started reading that and saw all those stories drawn from mainstream sources that contradicted the official account, I decided I needed to look into it more carefully, and the more I looked, the worse it got. I considered it an obligation to kind of organize, compile the evidence and put it out there for the public.The Internet is full of 9/11 conspiracy theories. What have you contributed to the discussion?My main contribution has been the second book, [showing] that the 9/11 commission report is not worthy of belief, and the implication of that is that they were covering up the government's own guilt.What would constitute a "smoking gun" against the official 9/11 account?There are many. By just ignoring them, the 9/11 commission implicitly admitted they couldn't answer them. The towers coming down into a pile only a few stories high is a smoking gun. Many laws of physics had to be violated if the official story about the collapses is true. [The collapses] had all the earmarks of a controlled demolition by explosives. One of those is total collapse into a small pile of rubble. The fact that Building 7 [a skyscraper near the towers] collapsed when it had not been hit by an airplane, and collapsed in seven or eight seconds, that's a smoking gun. The fact that standard operating procedures were not followed that morning, and we've gotten three different stories now by the U.S. military as to why they did not intercept the planes, that's a smoking gun. The Secret Service leaving the president and themselves wide open to being attacked by [not responding immediately], that's a smoking gun. I can't say one is bigger than the other. You've got six or seven that are equally big.Critics of the official 9/11 account seem to draw sinister inferences from instances where people, buildings or physical objects didn't react or behave as one might expect in theory. For example, if the hijackers were devout Muslims, why were some drinking, eating pork chops and cavorting with lap dancers? Doesn't real life unfold inconsistently, even bizarrely? That's true, but the 9/11 commission simply ignored those questions. They're creating this image of fanatics who were so devout and convinced of the truth of their religion that they were ready to meet their maker, yet here's all this evidence that suggests they were not devout at all. [The commission] simply ignored evidence.Dissenters also seem to find it suspect that in a dire emergency, individuals and agencies bumbled, fumbled, delayed, dropped the ball or choked. Won't that occur in any emergency?Well, of course, that is the official theory. It's a coincidence theory that just happened to be that on those days, everybody became terribly incompetent. Take the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]. They've got these standard procedures: If a plane goes off course, if you lose radio contact or lose the transponder, you call the military. On this day we're told these FAA officials hit the trifecta. They got all three of these things, and yet they would stand around debating, "Should we call the military? No, I don't think so." And when they finally call, the people at headquarters won't accept their calls because they were in conference or wouldn't pass the call on. They have roughly about 100 hijack warnings a year where planes have to be scrambled, but suddenly they become just all thumbs. The whole thing is just implausible. The other thing is, if you've got accidents, screw-ups, some ought to go one way and the others the other way. Here everything goes the same way. Everybody fails to do their jobs in relation to something to do with 9/11. With others, you have alleged that inconsistencies, omissions or lies in the 9/11 record point to a cover-up, or even collusion or orchestration, by the American government. What would motivate such a scenario?You've got liberal Democrats and Republicans and Independents who are appalled by what Andrew Bacevich [a professor of international relations at Boston University] called "the new American militarism" in the book "American Empire." New meaning, qualitatively different than before. This post-9/11 push to a new level has made the world an enormously more dangerous place. Many people apart from thinking about 9/11 as an inside job have decided that the United States is doing what [Princeton University emeritus international law professor] Richard Falk calls a "global domination project." Chalmers Johnson [Japan Policy Research Institute president], a previous conservative, now says that we have become a military juggernaut intent on world domination.Have you followed polls on what the public believes about 9/11?There was a Zogby poll in New York. The question asked was, do you believe the government had advance knowledge of the attacks and consciously let them happen? Forty-nine percent in New York City said yes. I believe it was 43% statewide. That is a pretty remarkable figure. In this country there has not been a poll that asked, do you believe the government actually planned and orchestrated the attacks? The question has been raised in Europe and Canada and has gotten to somewhere around 20%. It would be interesting to have such a poll in the United States.Conspiracy theorists are often dismissed as marginal types. Where do your views on 9/11 place you in the eyes of your peers in academia? One thing to point out is, the official account itself is a conspiracy theory. It says that 19 Arab Muslims under the influence of Osama bin Laden conspired to pull off this operation. The question is not whether one is a conspiracy theorist about 9/11. It's which conspiracy theory do you find most supported by the evidence?Does your role as a 9/11 dissenter depart from your life's work as a scholar and theologian?At first glance it may seem strange, but the task of a theologian is to look at the world from what we would imagine the divine perspective, [which] would care about the good of the whole and would love all the parts. [So] 9/11, if it was brought about by forces within our own government for imperial reasons, is antithetical to the general good. Evil has been a subject of your academic writing. It's also been a recurring theme in administration rhetoric. Is that strange? In these politicians' mouths, it's used to describe certain groups and organizations when it's politically convenient to do so, and then to overlook even greater evil when it's politically convenient to do so. If you understand the divine as an all-powerful and wrathful creator who seeks vengeance, and uses overwhelming power to destroy its enemies, why then, if you've got the political power, you're probably going to think you're acting like God if you do that. The [Christian] church during the early centuries was anti-empire. Rome was the enemy. With Constantine, the empire accepted Christianity, and Christianity started accepting empire and all that entailed. There has been a long history of support for militarism, so from that perspective, it's not so strange.Prior to your 9/11 work, did you have an anti-establishment streak?I never burned my bra. I was fairly critical like a lot of Americans are, but I don't think people would have looked at me and said, "There's an anti-establishment guy."Do you get hate mail?I've had a few people suggest I need to see a psychiatrist, and one psychiatrist in L.A. even kindly offered his services.
A society of nonbelievers questions the official versionMARK EHRMAN
Anyone who types the words "9/11" and "conspiracy" into an online search engine soon learns that not everybody buys the official narrative of what took place on Sept. 11, 2001. As a professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, 66-year-old David Ray Griffin would seem to have more affinity for leather elbow patches than tin hats, yet after friends and colleagues prodded him into sifting through the evidence, he experienced a conversion. Now he's spreading the bad news. Griffin compiled a summary of material arguing against the accepted story that 19 hijackers sent by Osama bin Laden took the aviation system and the U.S. military by surprise that awful day in his 2004 book "The New Pearl Harbor" (published by Interlink, a Massachusetts-based independent publisher covering areas including travel, cooking, world fiction, current events, politics, children's literature and other subjects). He recently followed up with the book "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions" (Interlink), a critique of the Kean commission document in which he suggests that a chunk of the blame for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil lies closer to home than the caves of Afghanistan. We contacted him at his Santa Barbara-area home for a report on his journey from mild-mannered scholar to doubting Thomas.How did you join the ranks of those questioning the official account of the 9/11 events?
I was rather slow getting on board. For the first year and a half I just accepted the conventional view, really the blowback thesis, that this was blowback for our foreign policy. When a colleague suggested to me about a year after 9/11 that he was convinced our own government or forces within our own government had arranged it, I didn't accept that. Then several months later another colleague sent me [a link to] a website that had a timeline. Once I started reading that and saw all those stories drawn from mainstream sources that contradicted the official account, I decided I needed to look into it more carefully, and the more I looked, the worse it got. I considered it an obligation to kind of organize, compile the evidence and put it out there for the public.The Internet is full of 9/11 conspiracy theories. What have you contributed to the discussion?My main contribution has been the second book, [showing] that the 9/11 commission report is not worthy of belief, and the implication of that is that they were covering up the government's own guilt.What would constitute a "smoking gun" against the official 9/11 account?There are many. By just ignoring them, the 9/11 commission implicitly admitted they couldn't answer them. The towers coming down into a pile only a few stories high is a smoking gun. Many laws of physics had to be violated if the official story about the collapses is true. [The collapses] had all the earmarks of a controlled demolition by explosives. One of those is total collapse into a small pile of rubble. The fact that Building 7 [a skyscraper near the towers] collapsed when it had not been hit by an airplane, and collapsed in seven or eight seconds, that's a smoking gun. The fact that standard operating procedures were not followed that morning, and we've gotten three different stories now by the U.S. military as to why they did not intercept the planes, that's a smoking gun. The Secret Service leaving the president and themselves wide open to being attacked by [not responding immediately], that's a smoking gun. I can't say one is bigger than the other. You've got six or seven that are equally big.Critics of the official 9/11 account seem to draw sinister inferences from instances where people, buildings or physical objects didn't react or behave as one might expect in theory. For example, if the hijackers were devout Muslims, why were some drinking, eating pork chops and cavorting with lap dancers? Doesn't real life unfold inconsistently, even bizarrely? That's true, but the 9/11 commission simply ignored those questions. They're creating this image of fanatics who were so devout and convinced of the truth of their religion that they were ready to meet their maker, yet here's all this evidence that suggests they were not devout at all. [The commission] simply ignored evidence.Dissenters also seem to find it suspect that in a dire emergency, individuals and agencies bumbled, fumbled, delayed, dropped the ball or choked. Won't that occur in any emergency?Well, of course, that is the official theory. It's a coincidence theory that just happened to be that on those days, everybody became terribly incompetent. Take the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]. They've got these standard procedures: If a plane goes off course, if you lose radio contact or lose the transponder, you call the military. On this day we're told these FAA officials hit the trifecta. They got all three of these things, and yet they would stand around debating, "Should we call the military? No, I don't think so." And when they finally call, the people at headquarters won't accept their calls because they were in conference or wouldn't pass the call on. They have roughly about 100 hijack warnings a year where planes have to be scrambled, but suddenly they become just all thumbs. The whole thing is just implausible. The other thing is, if you've got accidents, screw-ups, some ought to go one way and the others the other way. Here everything goes the same way. Everybody fails to do their jobs in relation to something to do with 9/11. With others, you have alleged that inconsistencies, omissions or lies in the 9/11 record point to a cover-up, or even collusion or orchestration, by the American government. What would motivate such a scenario?You've got liberal Democrats and Republicans and Independents who are appalled by what Andrew Bacevich [a professor of international relations at Boston University] called "the new American militarism" in the book "American Empire." New meaning, qualitatively different than before. This post-9/11 push to a new level has made the world an enormously more dangerous place. Many people apart from thinking about 9/11 as an inside job have decided that the United States is doing what [Princeton University emeritus international law professor] Richard Falk calls a "global domination project." Chalmers Johnson [Japan Policy Research Institute president], a previous conservative, now says that we have become a military juggernaut intent on world domination.Have you followed polls on what the public believes about 9/11?There was a Zogby poll in New York. The question asked was, do you believe the government had advance knowledge of the attacks and consciously let them happen? Forty-nine percent in New York City said yes. I believe it was 43% statewide. That is a pretty remarkable figure. In this country there has not been a poll that asked, do you believe the government actually planned and orchestrated the attacks? The question has been raised in Europe and Canada and has gotten to somewhere around 20%. It would be interesting to have such a poll in the United States.Conspiracy theorists are often dismissed as marginal types. Where do your views on 9/11 place you in the eyes of your peers in academia? One thing to point out is, the official account itself is a conspiracy theory. It says that 19 Arab Muslims under the influence of Osama bin Laden conspired to pull off this operation. The question is not whether one is a conspiracy theorist about 9/11. It's which conspiracy theory do you find most supported by the evidence?Does your role as a 9/11 dissenter depart from your life's work as a scholar and theologian?At first glance it may seem strange, but the task of a theologian is to look at the world from what we would imagine the divine perspective, [which] would care about the good of the whole and would love all the parts. [So] 9/11, if it was brought about by forces within our own government for imperial reasons, is antithetical to the general good. Evil has been a subject of your academic writing. It's also been a recurring theme in administration rhetoric. Is that strange? In these politicians' mouths, it's used to describe certain groups and organizations when it's politically convenient to do so, and then to overlook even greater evil when it's politically convenient to do so. If you understand the divine as an all-powerful and wrathful creator who seeks vengeance, and uses overwhelming power to destroy its enemies, why then, if you've got the political power, you're probably going to think you're acting like God if you do that. The [Christian] church during the early centuries was anti-empire. Rome was the enemy. With Constantine, the empire accepted Christianity, and Christianity started accepting empire and all that entailed. There has been a long history of support for militarism, so from that perspective, it's not so strange.Prior to your 9/11 work, did you have an anti-establishment streak?I never burned my bra. I was fairly critical like a lot of Americans are, but I don't think people would have looked at me and said, "There's an anti-establishment guy."Do you get hate mail?I've had a few people suggest I need to see a psychiatrist, and one psychiatrist in L.A. even kindly offered his services.
Oxycontin, Anyone?
we've talked about and linked to sick sites in the past. we've discussed the horrors of war and seen the graphic images. we've read the comments of those who don't see the dead as human. well, this site is a video clip. and it comes not from iraq or afghanistan or any of the many hotspots around the world. rather, it comes from seattle, a city i know well and love. it's a home video of two men being beaten outside a nightclub. most of it is the aftermath as the chickenshit "winners" stand around and pose for each other.
what's worse to me, though, is that these two men are soldiers back from iraq and rightwing nuts like rush limbaugh are telling people that they were attacked by anti-war leftists. in fact, their dates had been groped, they took offense and were beaten for it. they weren't in uniform and wore nothing to identify themselves as military. i'll wager that most of the thugs shown in the video don't even vote.
From the August 26 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: One final story before we go to the break. For those of you who still have an open mind about the anti-war left in this country, this story is out of Seattle. "Two soldiers who just returned from a year in Iraq were badly beaten in an attack outside Pioneer Square in Seattle. But, believe it or not, someone caught the beating on videotape and now police are asking for help identifying the suspects. The brutality of it all was captured on tape outside of Larry's Nightclub on First and Yesler on July 31. Police say the victims were with two women who had been groped by the suspects. One of the women threw a hotdog at the suspects and walked away. But they didn't get very far. The three suspects ran after then, began attacking the two men -- two soldiers who'd come home from Iraq. The graphic videotape shows both victims getting beaten over and over again and then after one of the victims loses consciousness, a suspect starts stomping on his head. Now, the cops want your help in catching these guys. Seattle Police Officer Sean Whitcomb said, 'We consider them very dangerous.' After not getting any leads, the Seattle police have just released the video to the media, even though it happened over three weeks ago."
I think it's been on television starting last night, so the video's been seen. "But clubs and business that the Seattle newspaper spoke with" -- ah, actually -- yeah, KOMO-TV is what this is -- have just received -- "wonder why the police waited for almost a month before making the tape public. Both victims suffered broken jaws. One suffered a broken arm. Both had other broken bones and several bruises." And the [KOMO] website published some still shots of the suspects from the, from the video. So, ah, once again, ah, the anti-war left, claiming to be a peace movement, illustrates itself to be anything but.
what's worse to me, though, is that these two men are soldiers back from iraq and rightwing nuts like rush limbaugh are telling people that they were attacked by anti-war leftists. in fact, their dates had been groped, they took offense and were beaten for it. they weren't in uniform and wore nothing to identify themselves as military. i'll wager that most of the thugs shown in the video don't even vote.
From the August 26 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: One final story before we go to the break. For those of you who still have an open mind about the anti-war left in this country, this story is out of Seattle. "Two soldiers who just returned from a year in Iraq were badly beaten in an attack outside Pioneer Square in Seattle. But, believe it or not, someone caught the beating on videotape and now police are asking for help identifying the suspects. The brutality of it all was captured on tape outside of Larry's Nightclub on First and Yesler on July 31. Police say the victims were with two women who had been groped by the suspects. One of the women threw a hotdog at the suspects and walked away. But they didn't get very far. The three suspects ran after then, began attacking the two men -- two soldiers who'd come home from Iraq. The graphic videotape shows both victims getting beaten over and over again and then after one of the victims loses consciousness, a suspect starts stomping on his head. Now, the cops want your help in catching these guys. Seattle Police Officer Sean Whitcomb said, 'We consider them very dangerous.' After not getting any leads, the Seattle police have just released the video to the media, even though it happened over three weeks ago."
I think it's been on television starting last night, so the video's been seen. "But clubs and business that the Seattle newspaper spoke with" -- ah, actually -- yeah, KOMO-TV is what this is -- have just received -- "wonder why the police waited for almost a month before making the tape public. Both victims suffered broken jaws. One suffered a broken arm. Both had other broken bones and several bruises." And the [KOMO] website published some still shots of the suspects from the, from the video. So, ah, once again, ah, the anti-war left, claiming to be a peace movement, illustrates itself to be anything but.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Rioting In The Only Safe Place In New Orleans
"Inmates at a prison in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans have rioted, attempted to escape and are now holding hostages, a prison commissioner told ABC News affiliate WBRZ in Baton Rouge, La."
now tht's what i call a story that won't sell. but it sounds like a made-for-tv movie.
now tht's what i call a story that won't sell. but it sounds like a made-for-tv movie.
I'm Just Sayin'...The Trilogy
this is sweeeeet, too. apparently, bush is willing to pass the buck onto former presidents (so long as they are democrats) as to why we are in the situation we are currently in. note that not one of his references comes from his father's tenure as head honcho:
"They looked at our response after the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. They concluded that free societies lacked the courage and character to defend themselves against a determined enemy… After September the 11th, 2001, we’ve taught the terrorists a very different lesson: America will not run in defeat and we will not forget our responsibilities."
this is his speech from san diego today. all comments direct toward the democrat in charge. none toward bush, sr. or reagan. it's only the democrats who can get ya killed or taxed into eternity. it ain't reagan whose party talked the iranians into not releasing the hostages until the election was over. it's not grenada, guatamala, el salvador, nicaragua, kuwait, suadi arabia, bolivia, or any other place where we decided to place our feet. and then run when we realized the populace didn't like us so much.
"They looked at our response after the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. They concluded that free societies lacked the courage and character to defend themselves against a determined enemy… After September the 11th, 2001, we’ve taught the terrorists a very different lesson: America will not run in defeat and we will not forget our responsibilities."
this is his speech from san diego today. all comments direct toward the democrat in charge. none toward bush, sr. or reagan. it's only the democrats who can get ya killed or taxed into eternity. it ain't reagan whose party talked the iranians into not releasing the hostages until the election was over. it's not grenada, guatamala, el salvador, nicaragua, kuwait, suadi arabia, bolivia, or any other place where we decided to place our feet. and then run when we realized the populace didn't like us so much.
Just Sayin' Redux
this is good, too. bush and the terminator ain't hooking up during bush's campaign swing through the state, because both are having problems popularity-wise and don't need to hang out together. in other words, "why would i want my picture taken with someone who's doing as badly in the polls as me?"
I'm Just Sayin'
i'm just saying that it looks like he's flipping us off again.
i don't know. maybe it's just the new orleans crowd he doesn't like. i mean the other picture makes 'em look like immigrants anyways and what's not hate about them, right?
i don't know. maybe it's just the new orleans crowd he doesn't like. i mean the other picture makes 'em look like immigrants anyways and what's not hate about them, right?
Half Nekkid Thursday...Meet Dork Tuesday
here's a new game from the creators of Half Nekkid Thursday. it's Dork Tuesday. scan and show your dorkiest pictures every tuesday (starting next week), then comment on osbasso's site so everyone can come and enjoy your humiliation.
if i can get my fucked up, pissy little big lots scanner working...i'll be right there.
if i can get my fucked up, pissy little big lots scanner working...i'll be right there.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Um, I Just Have To Post This In Its Entirety, Because It Shows Exactly Who We Voted For And What An Apology We Owe To Ourselves And Others
just so ya know, this article is from capitol hill blue, a real online newspaper. they don't make this shit up. the photo is real, the quotes are real. the alki-in-charge is real. i've been following his tirades for a long, long time. but this is the first actual, factual, pictorial proof that Shrub is out of fucking control. like nixon before him, when faced with mounting disapproval from the rank-and-file and the public-at-large he blames everyone but himself and those who created him.Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House AidesBy DOUG THOMPSONAug 25, 2005, 06:19
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While President George W. Bush travels around the country in a last-ditch effort to sell his Iraq war, White House aides scramble frantically behind the scenes to hide the dark mood of an increasingly angry leader who unleashes obscenity-filled outbursts at anyone who dares disagree with him.
“I’m not meeting again with that goddamned bitch,” Bush screamed at aides who suggested he meet again with Cindy Sheehan, the war-protesting mother whose son died in Iraq. “She can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!”
Bush flashes the bird, something aides say he does often and has been doing since his days as governor of Texas.Bush, administration aides confide, frequently explodes into tirades over those who protest the war, calling them “motherfucking traitors.” He reportedly was so upset over Veterans of Foreign Wars members who wore “bullshit protectors” over their ears during his speech to their annual convention that he told aides to “tell those VFW assholes that I’ll never speak to them again is they can’t keep their members under control.”
White House insiders say Bush is growing increasingly bitter over mounting opposition to his war in Iraq. Polls show a vast majority of Americans now believe the war was a mistake and most doubt the President’s honesty.
“Who gives a flying fuck what the polls say,” he screamed at a recent strategy meeting. “I’m the President and I’ll do whatever I goddamned please. They don’t know shit.”
Bush, whiles setting up for a photo op for signing the recent CAFTA bill, flipped an extended middle finger to reporters. Aides say the President often “flips the bird” to show his displeasure and tells aides who disagree with him to “go to hell” or to “go fuck yourself.” His habit of giving people the finger goes back to his days as Texas governor, aides admit, and videos of him doing so before press conferences were widely circulated among TV stations during those days. A recent video showing him shooting the finger to reporters while walking also recently surfaced.
Bush’s behavior, according to prominent Washington psychiatrist, Dr. Justin Frank, author of “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President,” is all too typical of an alcohol-abusing bully who is ruled by fear.
To see that fear emerges, Dr. Frank says, all one has to do is confront the President. “To actually directly confront him in a clear way, to bring him out, so you would really see the bully, and you would also see the fear,” he says.
Dr. Frank, in his book, speculates that Bush, an alcoholic who brags that he gave up booze without help from groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, may be drinking again.
“Two questions that the press seems particularly determined to ignore have hung silently in the air since before Bush took office,” Dr. Frank says. “Is he still drinking? And if not, is he impaired by all the years he did spend drinking? Both questions need to be addressed in any serious assessment of his psychological state.”
Last year, Capitol Hill Blue learned the White House physician prescribed anti-depressant drugs for the President to control what aides called “violent mood swings.” As Dr. Frank also notes: “In writing about Bush's halting appearance in a press conference just before the start of the Iraq War, Washington Post media critic Tom Shales speculated that ‘the president may have been ever so slightly medicated.’”
Dr. Frank explains Bush’s behavior as all-to-typical of an alcoholic who is still in denial:
“The pattern of blame and denial, which recovering alcoholics work so hard to break, seems to be ingrained in the alcoholic personality; it's rarely limited to his or her drinking,” he says. “The habit of placing blame and denying responsibility is so prevalent in George W. Bush's personal history that it is apparently triggered by even the mildest threat.”
Sunday, August 28, 2005
horrors!
why is it when i let friends get me lubricated i always seem to agree to impossible bets? i don't always know if i did agree, but it sure does seem like it. so, here i am again wondering how in the hell i'm going to come up with twenty pages of a horror story in 20 days. shit, just thinking about it is a horror story.
man, i either gotta sober up or stop reading the mail. both of them together promote dizziness.
i should explain. no, that would be bad. let me fabricate. you know the cute little booger from e.t.? the one with the jedi finger? what if he had hidden fangs? what if the other cute little booger (drew barrymore) was actually a baby werewolf? and she attacked e.t. in front of his friends? what if a nation of e.t.'s then descended on our planet and proceeded to poke and touch us with their fingers? and we submitted? and tried to kill all of the werewolves (except for baby drew)?
well, this is not going to be that story. this story is going to be...
man, i either gotta sober up or stop reading the mail. both of them together promote dizziness.
i should explain. no, that would be bad. let me fabricate. you know the cute little booger from e.t.? the one with the jedi finger? what if he had hidden fangs? what if the other cute little booger (drew barrymore) was actually a baby werewolf? and she attacked e.t. in front of his friends? what if a nation of e.t.'s then descended on our planet and proceeded to poke and touch us with their fingers? and we submitted? and tried to kill all of the werewolves (except for baby drew)?
well, this is not going to be that story. this story is going to be...
Friday, August 26, 2005
Friday Night Fights
i don't know how this happened. i remember hanging out at home, playing on the computer and throwing thumper off my lap. but i believe this is one of the reasons i tend to not answer my phone.
so, there i was deep in the home when the phone rang. it was across the room and off home base. i paused...then went for it. the voice said to meet at livingstone's for happy hour. i complied. then to veni's. then back to livingstone's. then to my place for drinks and whatnot.
and somehow...just somehow...i end up with an artist sleeping on my front porch. whatever happened to the glamour of it all? where is the foggy bottom of the mystery? why won't the snoring stop?
yeah, it was a round of drinking and i had about 6. so?
all i wanted was a good time...at home. i had that, traded it for something else, went there...twice...before i eased up and set boundaries. and thought of the general in strangelove who is all about protecting our bodily essenses and fluids.
after that, i had to piss.
now, here i am. getting ready to watch the rest of million dollar baby. it's friday night fights, you know.
so, there i was deep in the home when the phone rang. it was across the room and off home base. i paused...then went for it. the voice said to meet at livingstone's for happy hour. i complied. then to veni's. then back to livingstone's. then to my place for drinks and whatnot.
and somehow...just somehow...i end up with an artist sleeping on my front porch. whatever happened to the glamour of it all? where is the foggy bottom of the mystery? why won't the snoring stop?
yeah, it was a round of drinking and i had about 6. so?
all i wanted was a good time...at home. i had that, traded it for something else, went there...twice...before i eased up and set boundaries. and thought of the general in strangelove who is all about protecting our bodily essenses and fluids.
after that, i had to piss.
now, here i am. getting ready to watch the rest of million dollar baby. it's friday night fights, you know.
chat with the preznit
well, we got us a new blogger. don't know exactly how to tell you this, but he goes by the handle of george w. bush. he's an extremely friendly fella and i encourage y'all to stop by an set a spell.
http://presidentin.blogspot.com/
http://presidentin.blogspot.com/
Quiz Time
in the spirit of cameraderie, i offer my own version of a quiz. i expect you all to fail miserably.
1. Calculate the smallest limb diameter on a persimmon tree that will support a 10 pound possum.
2. Which of these cars will rust out the quickest when placed on blocks in your front yard?
(A) '65 Ford Fairlane
(B) '69 Chevrolet Chevelle, or
(C) '64 Pontiac GTO.
3. If your uncle builds a still which operates at a capacity of 20 gallons of shine produced per hour, how many car radiators are required to condense the product?
4. A woodcutter has a chain saw which operates at 2700 RPM. The density of the pine trees in the plot to be harvested is 470 per acre.The plot is 2.3 acres in size. The average tree diameter is 14 inches.How many Budweisers will be drunk before the trees are cut down?
5. If every old refrigerator in the state vented a charge of R-12 simultaneously, what would be the percentage decrease in the ozone layer?
6. A front porch is constructed of 2x8 pine on 24-inch centers with a field rock foundation. The span is 8 feet and the porch length is16 feet. The porch floor is 1-inch rough sawn pine. When the porch collapses, how many hound dogs will be killed?
7. A man owns a Tennessee house and 3.7 acres of land in a hollow with an average slope of 15%. The man has five children. Can each of his grown children place a mobile home on the man's land and still have enough property for their electric appliances to sit out front?
8. A 2-ton truck is overloaded and proceeding 900 yards down a steep slope on a secondary road at 45 MPH. The brakes fail. Given average traffic conditions on secondary roads, what is the probability that it will strike a vehicle with a muffler?
9. A coalmine operates a NFPA Class 1, Division 2 Hazardous Area.The mine employs 120 miners per shift. A gas warning is issued at the beginning of the 3rd shift. How many cartons of unfiltered Camels will be smoked during the shift?
10. At a reduction in the gene pool variability rate of 7.5% per generation, how long will it take a town which has been bypassed by theInterstate to breed a country-western singer?
1. Calculate the smallest limb diameter on a persimmon tree that will support a 10 pound possum.
2. Which of these cars will rust out the quickest when placed on blocks in your front yard?
(A) '65 Ford Fairlane
(B) '69 Chevrolet Chevelle, or
(C) '64 Pontiac GTO.
3. If your uncle builds a still which operates at a capacity of 20 gallons of shine produced per hour, how many car radiators are required to condense the product?
4. A woodcutter has a chain saw which operates at 2700 RPM. The density of the pine trees in the plot to be harvested is 470 per acre.The plot is 2.3 acres in size. The average tree diameter is 14 inches.How many Budweisers will be drunk before the trees are cut down?
5. If every old refrigerator in the state vented a charge of R-12 simultaneously, what would be the percentage decrease in the ozone layer?
6. A front porch is constructed of 2x8 pine on 24-inch centers with a field rock foundation. The span is 8 feet and the porch length is16 feet. The porch floor is 1-inch rough sawn pine. When the porch collapses, how many hound dogs will be killed?
7. A man owns a Tennessee house and 3.7 acres of land in a hollow with an average slope of 15%. The man has five children. Can each of his grown children place a mobile home on the man's land and still have enough property for their electric appliances to sit out front?
8. A 2-ton truck is overloaded and proceeding 900 yards down a steep slope on a secondary road at 45 MPH. The brakes fail. Given average traffic conditions on secondary roads, what is the probability that it will strike a vehicle with a muffler?
9. A coalmine operates a NFPA Class 1, Division 2 Hazardous Area.The mine employs 120 miners per shift. A gas warning is issued at the beginning of the 3rd shift. How many cartons of unfiltered Camels will be smoked during the shift?
10. At a reduction in the gene pool variability rate of 7.5% per generation, how long will it take a town which has been bypassed by theInterstate to breed a country-western singer?
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Half Nekkid Thursday
okay, this ain't me. and it violates all of the rules of HNT. but ya know what? don't fucking care. sandra half nekkid is a lot more palatable to anyone looking in here than me not nekkid at all. tell me i'm wrong. so, sandra bullock joining the HNT crowd, because she's just that damn cool.
Depleted Uranium, Spam and The Boer
i've talked about this before, written to the paper to get the word out, researched it and put out the word via email. so, i'm not one bit surprised that soldiers are coming home sick from radiation poisoning. the number of tons of depleted uranium dumped on iraq this time around as reported by this article is even higher than experts predicted before the war began. however, the number of tons dropped in the first "war" is less (as reported by this article) than the actual truth. 1000 metric tons during the first bush war. soldiers from that war are still living through pain, chemo or have died. a workmate of mine in seattle had to have his gall bladder removed because of it and will spend the rest of his life on a very restricted diet. experts have estimated that somewhere around 500,000 iraqi children have died or will die from the D.U. "given" to them in 1991. now, we've left another 3000 or more tons. but, come on folks. do you expect any less from a government that claims our freedom is held together only because we are so "vigilant"? that is a military jingo. the truth is that once the the makers of uranium found out that D.U. would work well as projectiles they realized a very profitable alternative to storing it until its half life had passed. and damn researching any potential harm to anyone. so, iraq is now the most contaminated country on this planet. i wouldn't be surprised if it "glows" hot on xray pics from space. but we'll never know. those are government/military satellites that take those photos.
Radioactive Wounds of War
Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of depleted uranium use in Iraq
as for my great spam incident, it seems those whose blogs i visited and told to stay off my site have for the nonce. i don't relish having to resort to a password in order to comment on my blog. my shit just ain't that important. i'd rather bow out of this hobby if it gets too annoying. i only started it, because my friend generik told me to get my own lack of a life and stop sending him shit he couldn't post. and he knew i wanted to rant. so, we'll see. if spam is the blog meat of the future...well, i'll continue to annoy them right back until i get tired or they go away.
And we mean to be top dog still. Bow-wow.
Yes, we mean to be top dog still.
a fascinating article from europe about us and the similarities to britain after the Boer War. it even comes with a final warning to those who would gloat.
p.s. one os the spammers i left a polite little comment with has been hit by two more regular bloggers, so i'm not the only one taking an actively hostile approach. ya mon.
Radioactive Wounds of War
Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of depleted uranium use in Iraq
as for my great spam incident, it seems those whose blogs i visited and told to stay off my site have for the nonce. i don't relish having to resort to a password in order to comment on my blog. my shit just ain't that important. i'd rather bow out of this hobby if it gets too annoying. i only started it, because my friend generik told me to get my own lack of a life and stop sending him shit he couldn't post. and he knew i wanted to rant. so, we'll see. if spam is the blog meat of the future...well, i'll continue to annoy them right back until i get tired or they go away.
And we mean to be top dog still. Bow-wow.
Yes, we mean to be top dog still.
a fascinating article from europe about us and the similarities to britain after the Boer War. it even comes with a final warning to those who would gloat.
p.s. one os the spammers i left a polite little comment with has been hit by two more regular bloggers, so i'm not the only one taking an actively hostile approach. ya mon.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Previous Post Addendum
in case you missed this little tidbit in the previous post's article, i'll replay it. because it seems this a law that our local government has not been enforcing. the word "require" is defined by the Webster's Dictionary as meaning: order, command; to demand as necessary or essential. seems pretty straightforward. require equals law. and the law sits above the elected. the law protects the land on which we stand. have the mayors and councilpeople been making deals with developers to keep the fees low and get certain buildings and businesses built in the districts? who knows? no one at city hall besides tom boyagian seems to be speaking in terms other than "hey man, this is how you get to be number one".
For years, successive mayors, city managers, development directors and city councils failed to raise the fees even to keep up with inflation. Such an increase is required every year under municipal code.
For years, successive mayors, city managers, development directors and city councils failed to raise the fees even to keep up with inflation. Such an increase is required every year under municipal code.
Letter To Jim Boren
I read this on the internet and wondered why I didn't see it in the Bee. I'm told the writer is a native of Fresno and has written books about Fresno and the Valley. If these fee numbers are accurate and the City's unwillingness to raise them in any logical form is as well, then this is news Fresno citizens and voters need to know about. We are being inundated with cookie cutout subdivisions, outbid and priced by Bay area expatriots and developers and are languishing in a vapid sea of chain retailers who offer nothing but dreck. If this writer's words are true and the main reason our infrastructure is being pieced together with spit, gum and safety pins is because our local elected leaders are afraid of upsetting an applecart seemingly built by the developers themselves...well, it helps explain why the public bus system is built for a town of 5000. I lived for 9 years in Seattle when I was doing my Fresno expat thing and I experienced a dedicated bus system that convinced people of all stripes and all over to work downtown. I could get to work from in the same time it would have taken me to drive- with less stress, hassle, cost and pollution. It also freed up parking for people who wanted to shop or visit businesses and help keep the downtown core vibrant and vital. It also explains why roads in Fresno are constantly being worked on on a start-and-stop basis. I work in the engineering community and often wonder why simple projects can take far too long to finish. Perhaps, if our fees were up to par, we wouldn't have been lambasted by the state for being behind in fixing intersection curbs to accommodate wheelchairs. Perhaps, we would have the funds to synch up most of the stoplights so that flow of traffic could actually be just that: a flow. Perhaps, we could help ourselves come out from under the cloud of being one of the most polluted regions in the country. This money we've not been realizing is huge in so many ways. And, to be honest, poking a stick in the eye of Big Development could send a message that those interested in Fresno had better come armed with better vision than we've seen in the last 20 or so years.
Fresno May End Low-Fee Policy for Developers
By Mark Arax
L.A. Times Staff Writer
August 23, 2005
FRESNO — In an effort to give developers one of the best deals in California, this city has dug itself into a deep financial hole that could undermine its future even as a construction boom is turning orchards into suburbs on every side of town.
As the city looks to overtake Long Beach as the fifth largest in the state, officials project a shortfall of billions of dollars to build streets, parks, police and fire stations and other facilities to serve its 470,000 residents — and the hundreds of thousands more expected in the next 20 years.
"We're facing a world of challenge," said Mike Kirn, assistant director of public works.
The reason for the shortfall is plain, city officials say: Developer fees are far lower than those charged in most other California cities.
In an era when state and federal dollars are tight and politicians are loath to raise local taxes, most cities look to developers to pay for a big share of the infrastructure required by new homes. For years, Fresno officials have been reluctant to do so.
Today, Fresno's City Council will get a first look at a plan to raise fees to build police and fire stations. If they agree to fee hikes, the move will reverse a two-decade pattern.
Through the 1990s, while comparable cities were charging builders from $7,000 to $20,000 a house for new infrastructure, the fees in Fresno stayed at $3,500. Only last year, with its infrastructure kitty in the red, did the city raise the amount to $5,000.
Commercial developers also have paid cut-rate fees. While Modesto, just up the road, collected $520,000 for a four-story office complex, Fresno charged only $90,000.
For years, successive mayors, city managers, development directors and city councils failed to raise the fees even to keep up with inflation. Such an increase is required every year under municipal code.
Critics of Fresno's approach call those low fees a billion-dollar subsidy for the building industry and blame the low payments for a host of shortfalls in city services. For instance, some city fire crews work out of mobile homes and a 1,200-square-foot duplex and park their engines in makeshift garages.
"Fresno is still a good old boy system, and whatever the good old boys want, that's what gets greased," said Tom Boyajian, a city councilman who favors higher fees. "One of the biggest shames in this city is that growth isn't even covering its own costs."
Those views, however, aren't shared by the majority of elected officials in this conservative farm belt.
If the state government took less revenue from local coffers, the city would have more money to pay for new projects, argues City Councilman Jerry Duncan. High fees drive up the costs of houses and drive off builders to even cheaper places, he and other conservatives argue. Low fees, they believe, eventually will generate enough growth to cover the new costs.
"I'm philosophically opposed to impact fees," Duncan says. "Impact fees are hidden taxes."
That school of thought has dominated this city for decades. In the mid-1990s, an FBI investigation of extensive corruption here sent 16 developers and politicians to prison and demonstrated how influential builders dominated the city's zoning and development policies. Many of those involved in the scandal were key players in keeping development fees low.
The fact that the pattern may now be giving way is the result of prodding by a new set of city administrators who are charting a different course for the city. Fresno, they say, needs to raise developer fees significantly or face an additional shortfall of several billion dollars to serve growth from now to 2025.
"Of all the cities I've worked with, Fresno faces the biggest challenge because its developers have been under-funding the infrastructure for so long," said Bob Spencer, an Oakland-based municipal finance expert recently hired by the city to update its fee program.
"Once you get as far behind as Fresno, it's almost impossible to catch up and fix the holes in your infrastructure. Not unless you're willing to raise local taxes."
Builders here acknowledge that they have lobbied to keep fees down at a time of record profits — $60,000 and more on each house. But they say their opposition to higher fees isn't driven only by bottom-line concerns. For many years, they say, the fee program was poorly run.
"They start charging a fee in Fresno, and they couldn't tell us how or why they set it up," said Mike Prandini, head of the local building industry association.
The cost to a city of each new residence depends on such factors as the location of the subdivision, its density and whether residents are commuters or retirees. But municipal finance experts say that, on average, developer fees need to be about $35,000 for each house to fully cover the costs of services.
With its patchwork services, the city's new consultants warn, Fresno may be consigned to the status of third-rate city, attractive to big-box bargain stores but not to Nordstrom.
"Good infrastructure is what the best industries and retailers are looking for when they locate to a city," said Walter Kieser, a Sacramento-based consultant who works with both developers and cities on fiscal issues.
"In Fresno, they've done such a miserable job with the roads, parks, libraries and schools that they haven't created a nice place to live. Instead, they've allowed developers to just maximize their profits."
Over the last 25 years, as the population doubled, Fresno built one new library. The park acreage for a city its size is among the lowest in the state. For example, Sacramento, which has a slightly smaller population, has 4,400 acres of parkland compared to Fresno's 1,400.
The police headquarters, built in 1960, is so cramped that several units overflow into an annex of the old City Hall. The Fire Department's main repair and maintenance division sits in a crumbling building that dates to 1928.
When it came time for developer Farid Assemi to build a fire station to serve his new subdivisions in northwest Fresno, the city allowed him to put in a tract house instead of a firehouse. Three firefighters and their single engine will soon reside there.
The transportation system struggles with its own problems. Only 10% of the traffic lights, for instance, are synchronized, adding long minutes to cross-town trips and more pollution to an air basin already ranking as the nation's smoggiest.
California Department of Transportation officials have taken the extraordinary step of suing the city. The suit cites the failure of Fresno's fee program to deal with the problems that growth causes on state highways. Fresno has risked the safety of motorists by failing to widen and improve dozens of one-lane country roads that now serve areas with dense populations, Caltrans says.
"It takes a lot for the state to sue another government entity," said Mike Leonardo, district director for Caltrans. But, he added, "Fresno doesn't seem to think it has to do environmental studies or mitigate for the impacts of growth."
Even one of the building industry's chief lobbyists, Jeff Roberts, now agrees that "the fees need to go up." In the absence of any local lobbying restrictions, Roberts, who served 14 months in federal prison for his role in the corruption scandal of the 1990s, has become a full partner with the city as it drafts a new fee program.
Because of decades of low fees, the fund managing the fees is in the red. Builders who put in the basic streets and curbs to serve their own subdivisions are spending more on infrastructure than the small amount the city requires them to pay in fees.
Not surprisingly, builders are pressing to keep the new fee on the low end — $12,000 a house. But consultants say Fresno needs to raise the fees higher to reflect the true costs of growth.
"High fees don't raise the price of homes. The market does that," said Spencer, the consultant preparing the new fee proposal. "In fact, it's the fastest-growing cities that charge the highest fees for a simple reason: They need the infrastructure to keep growing."
Fresno May End Low-Fee Policy for Developers
By Mark Arax
L.A. Times Staff Writer
August 23, 2005
FRESNO — In an effort to give developers one of the best deals in California, this city has dug itself into a deep financial hole that could undermine its future even as a construction boom is turning orchards into suburbs on every side of town.
As the city looks to overtake Long Beach as the fifth largest in the state, officials project a shortfall of billions of dollars to build streets, parks, police and fire stations and other facilities to serve its 470,000 residents — and the hundreds of thousands more expected in the next 20 years.
"We're facing a world of challenge," said Mike Kirn, assistant director of public works.
The reason for the shortfall is plain, city officials say: Developer fees are far lower than those charged in most other California cities.
In an era when state and federal dollars are tight and politicians are loath to raise local taxes, most cities look to developers to pay for a big share of the infrastructure required by new homes. For years, Fresno officials have been reluctant to do so.
Today, Fresno's City Council will get a first look at a plan to raise fees to build police and fire stations. If they agree to fee hikes, the move will reverse a two-decade pattern.
Through the 1990s, while comparable cities were charging builders from $7,000 to $20,000 a house for new infrastructure, the fees in Fresno stayed at $3,500. Only last year, with its infrastructure kitty in the red, did the city raise the amount to $5,000.
Commercial developers also have paid cut-rate fees. While Modesto, just up the road, collected $520,000 for a four-story office complex, Fresno charged only $90,000.
For years, successive mayors, city managers, development directors and city councils failed to raise the fees even to keep up with inflation. Such an increase is required every year under municipal code.
Critics of Fresno's approach call those low fees a billion-dollar subsidy for the building industry and blame the low payments for a host of shortfalls in city services. For instance, some city fire crews work out of mobile homes and a 1,200-square-foot duplex and park their engines in makeshift garages.
"Fresno is still a good old boy system, and whatever the good old boys want, that's what gets greased," said Tom Boyajian, a city councilman who favors higher fees. "One of the biggest shames in this city is that growth isn't even covering its own costs."
Those views, however, aren't shared by the majority of elected officials in this conservative farm belt.
If the state government took less revenue from local coffers, the city would have more money to pay for new projects, argues City Councilman Jerry Duncan. High fees drive up the costs of houses and drive off builders to even cheaper places, he and other conservatives argue. Low fees, they believe, eventually will generate enough growth to cover the new costs.
"I'm philosophically opposed to impact fees," Duncan says. "Impact fees are hidden taxes."
That school of thought has dominated this city for decades. In the mid-1990s, an FBI investigation of extensive corruption here sent 16 developers and politicians to prison and demonstrated how influential builders dominated the city's zoning and development policies. Many of those involved in the scandal were key players in keeping development fees low.
The fact that the pattern may now be giving way is the result of prodding by a new set of city administrators who are charting a different course for the city. Fresno, they say, needs to raise developer fees significantly or face an additional shortfall of several billion dollars to serve growth from now to 2025.
"Of all the cities I've worked with, Fresno faces the biggest challenge because its developers have been under-funding the infrastructure for so long," said Bob Spencer, an Oakland-based municipal finance expert recently hired by the city to update its fee program.
"Once you get as far behind as Fresno, it's almost impossible to catch up and fix the holes in your infrastructure. Not unless you're willing to raise local taxes."
Builders here acknowledge that they have lobbied to keep fees down at a time of record profits — $60,000 and more on each house. But they say their opposition to higher fees isn't driven only by bottom-line concerns. For many years, they say, the fee program was poorly run.
"They start charging a fee in Fresno, and they couldn't tell us how or why they set it up," said Mike Prandini, head of the local building industry association.
The cost to a city of each new residence depends on such factors as the location of the subdivision, its density and whether residents are commuters or retirees. But municipal finance experts say that, on average, developer fees need to be about $35,000 for each house to fully cover the costs of services.
With its patchwork services, the city's new consultants warn, Fresno may be consigned to the status of third-rate city, attractive to big-box bargain stores but not to Nordstrom.
"Good infrastructure is what the best industries and retailers are looking for when they locate to a city," said Walter Kieser, a Sacramento-based consultant who works with both developers and cities on fiscal issues.
"In Fresno, they've done such a miserable job with the roads, parks, libraries and schools that they haven't created a nice place to live. Instead, they've allowed developers to just maximize their profits."
Over the last 25 years, as the population doubled, Fresno built one new library. The park acreage for a city its size is among the lowest in the state. For example, Sacramento, which has a slightly smaller population, has 4,400 acres of parkland compared to Fresno's 1,400.
The police headquarters, built in 1960, is so cramped that several units overflow into an annex of the old City Hall. The Fire Department's main repair and maintenance division sits in a crumbling building that dates to 1928.
When it came time for developer Farid Assemi to build a fire station to serve his new subdivisions in northwest Fresno, the city allowed him to put in a tract house instead of a firehouse. Three firefighters and their single engine will soon reside there.
The transportation system struggles with its own problems. Only 10% of the traffic lights, for instance, are synchronized, adding long minutes to cross-town trips and more pollution to an air basin already ranking as the nation's smoggiest.
California Department of Transportation officials have taken the extraordinary step of suing the city. The suit cites the failure of Fresno's fee program to deal with the problems that growth causes on state highways. Fresno has risked the safety of motorists by failing to widen and improve dozens of one-lane country roads that now serve areas with dense populations, Caltrans says.
"It takes a lot for the state to sue another government entity," said Mike Leonardo, district director for Caltrans. But, he added, "Fresno doesn't seem to think it has to do environmental studies or mitigate for the impacts of growth."
Even one of the building industry's chief lobbyists, Jeff Roberts, now agrees that "the fees need to go up." In the absence of any local lobbying restrictions, Roberts, who served 14 months in federal prison for his role in the corruption scandal of the 1990s, has become a full partner with the city as it drafts a new fee program.
Because of decades of low fees, the fund managing the fees is in the red. Builders who put in the basic streets and curbs to serve their own subdivisions are spending more on infrastructure than the small amount the city requires them to pay in fees.
Not surprisingly, builders are pressing to keep the new fee on the low end — $12,000 a house. But consultants say Fresno needs to raise the fees higher to reflect the true costs of growth.
"High fees don't raise the price of homes. The market does that," said Spencer, the consultant preparing the new fee proposal. "In fact, it's the fastest-growing cities that charge the highest fees for a simple reason: They need the infrastructure to keep growing."
Monday, August 22, 2005
Addendum
after some thought of tonight's transpirations i must add and/or refute something. the site to which i referred earlier this evening on lecram's blog contains three things: photographs of dead people in iraq and afghanistan, links to pornography, and comments from people who have viewed the photographs. i said it was disgusting before. i must amend that. the photos are not disgusting. they are graphic and disturbing. they are horrific. but they are not disgusting. they show the truth of what is happening. the horror. the insanity. and the senselessness. all of those show people who died. for whatever reason. for no reason. doesn't matter. they're dead and no one is any happier because of it, not in the long run.
and i wanted to say that linking these photos to pornography is disgusting, but i can't do that. the link makes sense. both are pornographic. we look at what we hope never to see personally and make judgements. and we publicly condemn what we internally seek and make judgements. and we continue to get more of both. irony? probably not.
and i wanted to say that linking these photos to pornography is disgusting, but i can't do that. the link makes sense. both are pornographic. we look at what we hope never to see personally and make judgements. and we publicly condemn what we internally seek and make judgements. and we continue to get more of both. irony? probably not.
May the God of Your Choice Not Attack Me
depressin night. lecram shot me a phone call to talk about a site he had found that is incredibly offensive and disheartening. it's not lecram's fault that i am depressed. he knew i would want to see it. he was right.
but it got me to thinking. do we, as americans, really believe that we are always right? do we believe that (no matter the cicumstances) if someone shoots at us they must be a terrorist? an enemy? are we so set in our self-rightiousness as to know the inimitable truths of the world? when we invade a country for whatever reason we are told by our government that it is being done to defend our freedom and way of life. when we topple a government we are told it is because that entity was corrupt and an enemy of democracy. when we question the reasons we are told that to question is un-american and we can't understand the ways of global diplomacy. when we stand up and argue back we are called traitors and worse.
i can forgive a government that sees farther than i do, but can't comment because of sensitive negotiations or undercover spies who are ferreting out people who want to kill at random. i know that they have access to information i never will and it could prove to be important in defending my country. i can live with that. i, also, know that our government does things which are less than nice to others or myself in order to further an aim which it believes will make me a safer person in the long run and i can accept that, too.
what i can't forgive is a government (any government) that actively defies the will of the people in order to further its own agenda and capitulates to a small segment of a society. that depresses me and infuriates me. but i can only speak to my own.
and speak i will. saddam hussein ran iraq for decades. he was a ba'athist. they were the minority, but held power through force and murder. a bad man. not to be exalted, not to be condoned. and, yet, somehow he held onto power even as the majority hated him. why? because he controlled the military? because he held the currency? for over ten years he was castrated as a world leader by the UN and the USA through sanctions. the kurds starved. but the shias and the sunnis did not. the sunnis had no political power, but they were tolerated enough that they had no real complaints about living. their complaints were about power and the civil war that got a lot of them killed. and the fact that if they complained they might be killed.
the civil war in the USA was about representation and taxes. the south felt it was underrepresented in congress and overtaxed on its goods. it rebelled. it was eventually crushed.
the north then moved into the entire region it had burned and called its taking over of the south "reconstruction". in fact, it was an invasion. the north had beaten the south, but it wasn't enough. the north wanted to make sure that the south could never rise again. and, so, it sent "emisarries" who took and brokered land; told the south that they couldn't have slaves anymore, but to call them niggers and treat them as they wished; sent slaves back who didn't have paper proclaiming them to be free; razed farms so that the north could better prosper through less competition; hung young southern men who were merely accused of having seditious thoughts. and much more. whole islands were burnt to the dirt, because they could harbor traitors. even though the natives never had anything to do with the war.
north/south. hutu/tutsi. shia/sunni. palestinian/israeli. what gives my government the right to tell another that it can no longer exist? my government has excused or supported idi amin, general pinochet, ho chi minh, south africa, post-war russia, all of the central american dictators that it put in place, any government that put my government on the fast track to exploiting and raping. my government's hands are so, so dirty. they have been for a long, long time. just like every other government's. no government maintains its authority without bloodshed or an aquiescence to. this is the rule of power. no one is innocent. no one can point a finger without having to look in the mirror.
which is why i think we as americans find ourselves in the predicament that we do. we fucked up. we invaded a country that had nothing to with what happened on 9/11/01. our leaders either needed to go to war to show the world and us that we can't be beaten or our leaders found an easy excuse to take out a president who we hated. or it was, as the president put it, "we hit the trifecta". then, it became "you're either with us or against us". "those who claim we shouldn't be there are as good as terrorists". "mission accomplished". propaganda, propaganda, propaganda. we are hutus being seduced into thinking tutsis are animals. when we will we learn that those who hate us do so out of their own blindness, not because of nationality or skin color? just as we hate them, because we're told to and it's a hell of a lot easier than thinking as an individual? especially when my government doesn't want me to?
i prefer a populace that talks to one another even if it disagrees.
but it got me to thinking. do we, as americans, really believe that we are always right? do we believe that (no matter the cicumstances) if someone shoots at us they must be a terrorist? an enemy? are we so set in our self-rightiousness as to know the inimitable truths of the world? when we invade a country for whatever reason we are told by our government that it is being done to defend our freedom and way of life. when we topple a government we are told it is because that entity was corrupt and an enemy of democracy. when we question the reasons we are told that to question is un-american and we can't understand the ways of global diplomacy. when we stand up and argue back we are called traitors and worse.
i can forgive a government that sees farther than i do, but can't comment because of sensitive negotiations or undercover spies who are ferreting out people who want to kill at random. i know that they have access to information i never will and it could prove to be important in defending my country. i can live with that. i, also, know that our government does things which are less than nice to others or myself in order to further an aim which it believes will make me a safer person in the long run and i can accept that, too.
what i can't forgive is a government (any government) that actively defies the will of the people in order to further its own agenda and capitulates to a small segment of a society. that depresses me and infuriates me. but i can only speak to my own.
and speak i will. saddam hussein ran iraq for decades. he was a ba'athist. they were the minority, but held power through force and murder. a bad man. not to be exalted, not to be condoned. and, yet, somehow he held onto power even as the majority hated him. why? because he controlled the military? because he held the currency? for over ten years he was castrated as a world leader by the UN and the USA through sanctions. the kurds starved. but the shias and the sunnis did not. the sunnis had no political power, but they were tolerated enough that they had no real complaints about living. their complaints were about power and the civil war that got a lot of them killed. and the fact that if they complained they might be killed.
the civil war in the USA was about representation and taxes. the south felt it was underrepresented in congress and overtaxed on its goods. it rebelled. it was eventually crushed.
the north then moved into the entire region it had burned and called its taking over of the south "reconstruction". in fact, it was an invasion. the north had beaten the south, but it wasn't enough. the north wanted to make sure that the south could never rise again. and, so, it sent "emisarries" who took and brokered land; told the south that they couldn't have slaves anymore, but to call them niggers and treat them as they wished; sent slaves back who didn't have paper proclaiming them to be free; razed farms so that the north could better prosper through less competition; hung young southern men who were merely accused of having seditious thoughts. and much more. whole islands were burnt to the dirt, because they could harbor traitors. even though the natives never had anything to do with the war.
north/south. hutu/tutsi. shia/sunni. palestinian/israeli. what gives my government the right to tell another that it can no longer exist? my government has excused or supported idi amin, general pinochet, ho chi minh, south africa, post-war russia, all of the central american dictators that it put in place, any government that put my government on the fast track to exploiting and raping. my government's hands are so, so dirty. they have been for a long, long time. just like every other government's. no government maintains its authority without bloodshed or an aquiescence to. this is the rule of power. no one is innocent. no one can point a finger without having to look in the mirror.
which is why i think we as americans find ourselves in the predicament that we do. we fucked up. we invaded a country that had nothing to with what happened on 9/11/01. our leaders either needed to go to war to show the world and us that we can't be beaten or our leaders found an easy excuse to take out a president who we hated. or it was, as the president put it, "we hit the trifecta". then, it became "you're either with us or against us". "those who claim we shouldn't be there are as good as terrorists". "mission accomplished". propaganda, propaganda, propaganda. we are hutus being seduced into thinking tutsis are animals. when we will we learn that those who hate us do so out of their own blindness, not because of nationality or skin color? just as we hate them, because we're told to and it's a hell of a lot easier than thinking as an individual? especially when my government doesn't want me to?
i prefer a populace that talks to one another even if it disagrees.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
May the god of your choice bless you.
One of my favorite musician/songsters is running for Governor of Texas on an independent long shot ticket. If he wins it would be the first reason I've ever found for moving to that state. When a gentleman can pen songs like "Asshole From El Paso" and "We Reserve the Right To Refuse Service to Anyone" and "Ride 'Em Jewboy" (a song about the Holocaust) as well as pro-choice songs, love ballads, satire about women's rights, mystery novels that are damn funny and insightful; when Lyle Lovett says that this gentleman was a big influence on his career; when said gentleman can call Willie Nelson his next "Energy Czar" and tout "No Teacher Left Behind", support gay marriage because "they should have the right to be just as miserable as the rest of us", thinks the Ten Commandmants should be put back in schools but retitled as the Ten Suggestions, isn't against the death penalty but is against putting-the-wrong-damn-guy-to-death penalty, then I'm firmly on the side of Kinky Friedman--a man I was fortunate enough to see in Seattle in the mid 90's. If he wins, I could finally begin to show the Lone Star state some respect. The New Yorker wrote a wonderful essay about Kinky's run for Governorship and I highly recommend it.
If, of course, you are not convinced of his potential for Governorhood, then I recommend you go here and read some of his (in)famous thoughts. Salt of the earth, damn randy, and cats are highly respected.
Last Hurrah For Uncle Duke
Hunter Thompson got his final wish as his ashes were fired from a cannon.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Cindy Sheehan
Ms. Sheehan has received the Buzzflash "Wings of Justice" award for her unstinting efforts to make King George look in the mirror and own up to his lies and propaganda that has killed many, many people. So far, she will admit that hers may be a futile effort. But she will not stop and she will not be used by either war side to further agendas that are not her own or less than honest. She is a true patriot (even though I hate that word) and American who deserves our respect even if we don't agree with her. She is Democracy in action. She personifies what it means to be American and how much it can hurt.
I Hab A Dode
just want to do a quick shout out to vicks vaporub. i have lived on this stuff anytime i've had a cold for all of my life. it is a healing elixir. congested chest, nose? dab it, smear it, rub it. all good.
but this time around my summer cold has been acting in a very funny fashion. i first felt the symptoms on the day of lecram's last meat burning. i thought it was allergies at first, but eventually i had to give in and admit that i was sick. i tried the special lecram home remedy (turn the shower on as hot as you can stand it, stick your butt in it for as long as you can stand it, then apply vicks behind the ears). that seemed to work and i felt i was on my way to kicking this cold in record time (two days). unfortunately, it returned two days after that with more congestion and a mucus buffet. being a smoker i am used to these things taking their time. but this morning at 5 i was awakened by a most godawful pain...in my ear. my throat was raw and my sinuses were blocked (i assume the raw throat was from snoring due to the sinus thingy and not due to last night's nocturnal admissions), but the weirdest part was that my left ear was totally clogged. i couldn't hear anything. and it hurt like hell. after half an hour of tossing and turning, hoping it would go away, i moved to the couch in order to get some more sleep while sitting up. eventually, the pain subsided to something liveable. i went into work this morning and found that two other people have had this cold and experienced the same ear problem. now, that's somewhat of a relief, because i thought i was going deaf. i seriously thought i had a problem beyond the cold. well, the ear has never popped today. it has been stuffed up all day long. the pain has come and gone and come again. i noticed that it would begin to hurt more when i needed to blow my nose, so it is definately connected to my sinuses...
but just now i decided to put some more vicks behind my ears to see if any change would occur and-lo and behold- it seems to be easing the pressure somewhat. not completely, but some and anything is welcome.
so, snaps to vick vaporub, which sits in an exalted place in the medicine cabinet right next to that wonder drug sayman's salve. this salve can cure cancer, i swear to god. i have yet to try it on a burn, cut, infection, fungus, ingrown toenail, skin problem, heat rash, jock itch, surface hemorrhoids or athlete's foot and not had complete satisfaction. you won't find it at your local store (though they might order it for you), but it used to be a stock item in all pharmacies and drug stores. they even came out with a soap that was supposed to be dermatologically stupendous and it disappeared as well.
so, if you are tired of looking for the next great cure for common maladies, then stop and go back in time to the two curatives that stand the test of time.
by the way, anyone have special home remedies for colds that they absolutely swear by? i can riff all day on the benefits of theraflu, but i'm asking about the remedies that your ma and pa used on you and weren't bought in a package from a store. anyone?
but this time around my summer cold has been acting in a very funny fashion. i first felt the symptoms on the day of lecram's last meat burning. i thought it was allergies at first, but eventually i had to give in and admit that i was sick. i tried the special lecram home remedy (turn the shower on as hot as you can stand it, stick your butt in it for as long as you can stand it, then apply vicks behind the ears). that seemed to work and i felt i was on my way to kicking this cold in record time (two days). unfortunately, it returned two days after that with more congestion and a mucus buffet. being a smoker i am used to these things taking their time. but this morning at 5 i was awakened by a most godawful pain...in my ear. my throat was raw and my sinuses were blocked (i assume the raw throat was from snoring due to the sinus thingy and not due to last night's nocturnal admissions), but the weirdest part was that my left ear was totally clogged. i couldn't hear anything. and it hurt like hell. after half an hour of tossing and turning, hoping it would go away, i moved to the couch in order to get some more sleep while sitting up. eventually, the pain subsided to something liveable. i went into work this morning and found that two other people have had this cold and experienced the same ear problem. now, that's somewhat of a relief, because i thought i was going deaf. i seriously thought i had a problem beyond the cold. well, the ear has never popped today. it has been stuffed up all day long. the pain has come and gone and come again. i noticed that it would begin to hurt more when i needed to blow my nose, so it is definately connected to my sinuses...
but just now i decided to put some more vicks behind my ears to see if any change would occur and-lo and behold- it seems to be easing the pressure somewhat. not completely, but some and anything is welcome.
so, snaps to vick vaporub, which sits in an exalted place in the medicine cabinet right next to that wonder drug sayman's salve. this salve can cure cancer, i swear to god. i have yet to try it on a burn, cut, infection, fungus, ingrown toenail, skin problem, heat rash, jock itch, surface hemorrhoids or athlete's foot and not had complete satisfaction. you won't find it at your local store (though they might order it for you), but it used to be a stock item in all pharmacies and drug stores. they even came out with a soap that was supposed to be dermatologically stupendous and it disappeared as well.
so, if you are tired of looking for the next great cure for common maladies, then stop and go back in time to the two curatives that stand the test of time.
by the way, anyone have special home remedies for colds that they absolutely swear by? i can riff all day on the benefits of theraflu, but i'm asking about the remedies that your ma and pa used on you and weren't bought in a package from a store. anyone?
Friday, August 19, 2005
Friday Night Fights
Well, it's Friday night once again. THE night of the week where we're all too tired to do anything but dream of tomorrow. Because tomorrow is the stuff of dreams. Saturday. Freedom. Liberation from the sins of the workweek. The one true anarchical moment in our sea of troubled discipline. So, tonight I choose for my loud music something by the Pogues. If I must bow to my masters for 5 days a week and spend Sunday trying not to think about the doom looming then, dammit, for 45 minutes tonight I will groove to a band and frontman that encompass enough anger, angst, pathos and downright fantastic talent to fling my soul into a whirling dervish of I don't give a flying monkeyfuck who calls the cops as long as I can piss in my front yard and wiggle my wiener in spiraling arcs of daredevil ne'er-do-well while I swig beer from a sippy cup and think about taping condoms to the front door of the neighboring Catholics. Tomorrow I'll awake and quite possibly regret some (if not all) of tonight's nocturnal admissions. But that's tomorrow. Tomorrow, the day of infinity and brazen nonchalance. When that money in my pocket finally finds a match. When I can't stands it no longer and I just gotta dance.
But it's still Friday. And I look at the clock and see that it's what I would consider late on any other night of the week, because my brain is still twisted around that godawful maypole called Work. I know tomorrow is free even should I decide to go to work. It's still free, because everything I do tomorrow is my choice. No one else's. I can choose to lie on my couch and watch sports on television all afternoon. I can garden. I can hit Big Lots, all of the 99 cent stores. I can take a drive to the mountains. I can scrape the black scum out of my toilet. I can quit smoking. I can quit drinking. I can learn to be more tolerant of my friends. I can become a serial killer. Write the next great haiku. Install a despot who is sensitive to my need for semi-ripe papayas, Bombay Toast and the fertile plains of Virginia. Stare at a spiderweb up in the corner for thirty minutes wondering where the broom is. Get emotionally involved with a tomato while I slice it to death. All good.
So, you know what I've decided to do now that I'm done? I've decided...to choose. I choose all of them and I'll find out tomorrow how many I have time to actually do.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
HNT Post Mortem (I'm very late)
i'm thinking of braiding my nipple hair, whaddya think? man boob need a shave? or should i let it go rasta?
Stems and Seeds
These are some quotes sent to me by friends concerning DRUGS and DRUG USE. See if you can figure out who said them (or is supposed to have since the scribe was probably as high as the speaker/writer).
* The war on drugs to me is absolutely phony; it's so obviously phony, ok? It's a war against our civil rights, that's all it is. They're using it to make us afraid to go out at night, afraid of each other, so that we lock ourselves in our homes and they get suspending our rights one by one.
* Why is pot against the law? It wouldn't be because anyone can grow it, and therefore you can't make a profit off it, would it?
* Your denial is beneath you, and thanks to the use of hallucinogenic drugs, I see through you.
* Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather.
* Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.
* I have never seen two people on pot get in a fight because it is fucking IMPOSSIBLE. "Hey, buddy!" "Hey, what?" "Ummmmmmm...." End of argument.
* You see, I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And If you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn them. 'Cause You know what the musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrEAL fucking high on drugs... The Beatles were so fucking high they let Ringo sing a few songs.
* Here is my final point. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography and smoking and everything else. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?
* I believe that God left certain drugs growing naturally upon our planet to help speed up and facilitate our evolution. OK, not the most popular idea ever expressed. Either that or you're all real high and agreeing with me in the only way you can right now. (Starts blinking)
* They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it's not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference.
* Christianity has a built-in defense system: anything that questions a belief, no matter how logical the argument is, is the work of Satan by the very fact that it makes you question a belief. It's a very interesting defense mechanism and the only way to get by it -- and believe me, I was raised Southern Baptist -- is to take massive amounts of mushrooms, sit in a field, and just go, "Show me."
* The war on drugs to me is absolutely phony; it's so obviously phony, ok? It's a war against our civil rights, that's all it is. They're using it to make us afraid to go out at night, afraid of each other, so that we lock ourselves in our homes and they get suspending our rights one by one.
* Why is pot against the law? It wouldn't be because anyone can grow it, and therefore you can't make a profit off it, would it?
* Your denial is beneath you, and thanks to the use of hallucinogenic drugs, I see through you.
* Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather.
* Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.
* I have never seen two people on pot get in a fight because it is fucking IMPOSSIBLE. "Hey, buddy!" "Hey, what?" "Ummmmmmm...." End of argument.
* You see, I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And If you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn them. 'Cause You know what the musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrEAL fucking high on drugs... The Beatles were so fucking high they let Ringo sing a few songs.
* Here is my final point. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography and smoking and everything else. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?
* I believe that God left certain drugs growing naturally upon our planet to help speed up and facilitate our evolution. OK, not the most popular idea ever expressed. Either that or you're all real high and agreeing with me in the only way you can right now. (Starts blinking)
* They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it's not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference.
* Christianity has a built-in defense system: anything that questions a belief, no matter how logical the argument is, is the work of Satan by the very fact that it makes you question a belief. It's a very interesting defense mechanism and the only way to get by it -- and believe me, I was raised Southern Baptist -- is to take massive amounts of mushrooms, sit in a field, and just go, "Show me."
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Cindy Sheehan
But the most promising avenue of attack is likely to be the one sketched out by Fox News Channel eminence Bill O’Reilly on Aug. 9, when he declared that Cindy Sheehan bears some responsibility for “other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.”
Cindy Sheehan arrived at the "Western White House" pretty much alone and vowed to stay there alone until our cowardly "president" came out to parlay. Since then, she has been joined by a handful of likeminded demonstrators. The media picked up on it immediately and turned it into the circus it is today. Sheehan did not start this. Sheehan was not duped by the liberal left wing or al-quaeda. She has been outspoken about the war for a long time. Now, people like Bill O'Reilly are slamming her for taking a stand. She bears responsibility for how others view her? I think not. Those who think she is doing harm to our nation can make their own stand. They can speak out on their own, for themselves. They can greet the press with placards and ribbons and pictures of Terri Schiavo and call themselves "grieving parents for war" and they would be well within their rights. And not one pundit would call them to task. Not one pundit would level charges of treason at their black-creped doorsteps. But let a mother take her grief and her beliefs to the streets in public and challenge our "president" to a High Noon meeting...well, that's just not American. In fact, it's actually more...Chinese. Remember the man who stopped an entire caravan of tanks shortly after the Tianamen Square massacre merely because he could no longer turn a blind eye to the brutal ways of his government? Remember how that became an international symbol for standing up to repressive regimes and dictatorships? How the common person could effect even a tiny bit of change? And how we all should learn a lesson from his naked bravery? How is Sheehan any different? She wants simple answers to simple questions. Methinks even Bush could handle this one without a secret microphone pack under his coat. He can disagree with her beliefs honestly and come away clean. Sheehan would probably thank him for his time and answers even if they don't sound like what she would hope for. But he doesn't. Instead, he hides on his ranch. He rides his bike and tells the press that Americans want a president who is physically fit (color me nostalgic, but I prefer one who is mentally fit). So, now appearing physically fit is the requirement for that job? That is the overriding qualification? Well then, do I have a Governor for you.
But that's getting away from the point. And the point is: what is Cindy Sheehan doing that makes her appear treasonous? What has she said that can be construed by anyone other than right wingers as anti-American or pro-Taliban or -al quaeda? She is horrified by this war and its human cost. She is horrified by the claims for war that have all been demolished by facts. She is horrified by the fact that neither Bush nor any official in his inner circle are willing to speak honestly about their mistakes and misjudgements. She is horrified that her son may have died because of lies. She is asking for clarification. She is asking for a moment of sanity. She is asking for help with the closure she can't yet find. She is grieving. She is, also, being divorced by her husband who is grieving as well. Do you think this is easy for her? Evidently, people like O'Reilly do. It must be easy, because in the world of the right wingers and those who just want reality to go away being against the war takes no courage. It takes no moral fiber. It takes no strength. It only takes a coward and a traitor and a liberal press.
Cindy Sheehan is no coward. She is no traitor. The only thing she is not is a sheep. And there is no liberal press following her around, eating up her every word. There is only a press that, like vultures, descend on the dead or dying in order to feast. Like Bill O'Reilly. The only thing that separates O'Reilly from the mainstream press is that he has no interest in the truth behind the news. He has self-interest and nothing else. The regular press will, at the least, eventually get it right. Even, though, it's often too late to fix the damage.
I just wonder what the White House will dream up next in order to harm Sheehan in the eyes of the public. Bush's popularity is as low as it can reasonably get. Good thing for him he can't run for another term. But Sheehan can continue for as long as it takes and I will support her and those like her who choose to stand as individuals and question those who are supposed to serve us.
We are the owners of this country, not the temps we vote into place.
Cindy Sheehan arrived at the "Western White House" pretty much alone and vowed to stay there alone until our cowardly "president" came out to parlay. Since then, she has been joined by a handful of likeminded demonstrators. The media picked up on it immediately and turned it into the circus it is today. Sheehan did not start this. Sheehan was not duped by the liberal left wing or al-quaeda. She has been outspoken about the war for a long time. Now, people like Bill O'Reilly are slamming her for taking a stand. She bears responsibility for how others view her? I think not. Those who think she is doing harm to our nation can make their own stand. They can speak out on their own, for themselves. They can greet the press with placards and ribbons and pictures of Terri Schiavo and call themselves "grieving parents for war" and they would be well within their rights. And not one pundit would call them to task. Not one pundit would level charges of treason at their black-creped doorsteps. But let a mother take her grief and her beliefs to the streets in public and challenge our "president" to a High Noon meeting...well, that's just not American. In fact, it's actually more...Chinese. Remember the man who stopped an entire caravan of tanks shortly after the Tianamen Square massacre merely because he could no longer turn a blind eye to the brutal ways of his government? Remember how that became an international symbol for standing up to repressive regimes and dictatorships? How the common person could effect even a tiny bit of change? And how we all should learn a lesson from his naked bravery? How is Sheehan any different? She wants simple answers to simple questions. Methinks even Bush could handle this one without a secret microphone pack under his coat. He can disagree with her beliefs honestly and come away clean. Sheehan would probably thank him for his time and answers even if they don't sound like what she would hope for. But he doesn't. Instead, he hides on his ranch. He rides his bike and tells the press that Americans want a president who is physically fit (color me nostalgic, but I prefer one who is mentally fit). So, now appearing physically fit is the requirement for that job? That is the overriding qualification? Well then, do I have a Governor for you.
But that's getting away from the point. And the point is: what is Cindy Sheehan doing that makes her appear treasonous? What has she said that can be construed by anyone other than right wingers as anti-American or pro-Taliban or -al quaeda? She is horrified by this war and its human cost. She is horrified by the claims for war that have all been demolished by facts. She is horrified by the fact that neither Bush nor any official in his inner circle are willing to speak honestly about their mistakes and misjudgements. She is horrified that her son may have died because of lies. She is asking for clarification. She is asking for a moment of sanity. She is asking for help with the closure she can't yet find. She is grieving. She is, also, being divorced by her husband who is grieving as well. Do you think this is easy for her? Evidently, people like O'Reilly do. It must be easy, because in the world of the right wingers and those who just want reality to go away being against the war takes no courage. It takes no moral fiber. It takes no strength. It only takes a coward and a traitor and a liberal press.
Cindy Sheehan is no coward. She is no traitor. The only thing she is not is a sheep. And there is no liberal press following her around, eating up her every word. There is only a press that, like vultures, descend on the dead or dying in order to feast. Like Bill O'Reilly. The only thing that separates O'Reilly from the mainstream press is that he has no interest in the truth behind the news. He has self-interest and nothing else. The regular press will, at the least, eventually get it right. Even, though, it's often too late to fix the damage.
I just wonder what the White House will dream up next in order to harm Sheehan in the eyes of the public. Bush's popularity is as low as it can reasonably get. Good thing for him he can't run for another term. But Sheehan can continue for as long as it takes and I will support her and those like her who choose to stand as individuals and question those who are supposed to serve us.
We are the owners of this country, not the temps we vote into place.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Be Sheared And Baa Not
From E.L. Doctorow on September 9, 2004 comes this very, very (in my mind) accurate depiction of what we, as Americans, have allowed our country to become. Each of has a choice: to stand up and speak out against repression, facism, censorship, the stifling of dissent, corporate jingoism clothed in patriotism, the furtherance of the elite at the expense of the commoner...or we can be sheep who think it's easier and safer to just go with the flow, be sheared and baa not. It is the individual's choice and we all know which is the easier path. But, for my money, the easier path is the more dangerous of the two and more cowardly. It is the individual who effects change, just as it is the group who usually takes that change and turns it into sponsor dollars. But it is the sheep who baa not that allow our leaders to do what they want willnilly without having to answer to choruses of boos. We stood up once before this war began and shouted out "NO!" in one loud, common voice that resonated and was mirrored across the world. Since then, we as a people have done nothing but watch our children die in a vainglorious effort by megalomaniacs to ensure their own power into the next generation. They don't care about us. They never did. Many of the parents of those in power right now were once affiliated with the Communist party. After that, they became New Deal Democrats under Kennedy. Disillusioned by that, they became or trained their children to become what we now brand "neo-cons". They have no roots, history, culture or true experience in commitment to anything. They change like the wind if their politics blow south. They will do anything, say anything in order to regain power, because that is all they are about. And the tragedy of it all is that they make those morons who reside in the House and Senate look like saints in comparison.
"But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war."
"But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war."
Esprit de Corpse
My great friend Generik sent me this article, which is about as juvenile as my previous post about the jumper. I hope you like it...actually, it'd be funnier if you didn't:
"I was at the Reagan Presidential Library in February of this year," he told WND. "'Dutch' was my commander in chief. I have personal interest in getting this individual and trying to protect the desecration of presidential graves against First Amendment rights."
To be honest, as soon as I stop laughing I'll try to figure out where the "rights" part plays a factor. Until then, bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
And when I die I will encourage everyone to do whatever they want on my grave (in fact, let me know what you think of). Sex would be awesome, spilling beer (a lot of beer) would be even better. Desecration? You could dig me up, prance my skeleton around in girlie undies, use my skull for an ashtray and I'd still give you a call the next weekend.
"I was at the Reagan Presidential Library in February of this year," he told WND. "'Dutch' was my commander in chief. I have personal interest in getting this individual and trying to protect the desecration of presidential graves against First Amendment rights."
To be honest, as soon as I stop laughing I'll try to figure out where the "rights" part plays a factor. Until then, bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
And when I die I will encourage everyone to do whatever they want on my grave (in fact, let me know what you think of). Sex would be awesome, spilling beer (a lot of beer) would be even better. Desecration? You could dig me up, prance my skeleton around in girlie undies, use my skull for an ashtray and I'd still give you a call the next weekend.
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