And Dick Seemed Like Such A Nice Guy

(from the U.S. News)
Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Cheney clips right-wing objections (10/5/05)
Press fumes over Bush timing (10/4/05)
Standing by DeLay, somewhat (9/29/05)
DeLay indicted in Texas probe (9/28/05)
More from Washington Whispers
More from Nation & World
"It's certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario," said a Bush insider. "And if that should happen," added the official, "there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP."
Said another Bush associate of the rumor, "Yes. This is not good." The rumor spread so fast that some Republicans by late morning were already drawing up reasons why Rice couldn't get the job or run for president in 2008.
"Isn't she pro-choice?" asked a key Senate Republican aide. Many White House insiders, however, said the Post story and reports that the investigation was coming to a close had officials instead more focused on who would be dragged into the affair and if top aides would be indicted and forced to resign.
"Folks on the inside and near inside are holding their breath and wondering what's next," said a Bush adviser. But, he added, they aren't focused on the future of the vice president. "Not that, at least not seriously," he said.


John Nichols Tue Oct 18, 1:08 PM ET
The Nation -- Well, of course, the investigation of who leaked
CIA agent Valerie Plame's name -- violating the federal law that bars the "outing" of intelligence operatives -- has come around to Vice President
Dick Cheney' name. While it may be news to the Washington Post -- which headlined a breathless report on Tuesday: "Cheney's Office Is A Focus in Leak Case" -- the fact is that Cheney and his aides have been likely suspects from day one.
No prominent member of the administration had more to lose as a result of the 2003 revelation by Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, that the White House's pre-war claims regarding
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been inflated than did Cheney -- who, to a far greater extent than
George Bush, had a hand in shaping the arguments for going to war, plugged them in media appearances and defended them after all evidence suggested his pronouncements had been wrong. It is important to recall that, while Bush may have deliberately fuzzed the facts in his 2003 State of the Union address, it was Cheney who leapt off the cliff of speculation with the pre-war declaration that, "We know
Saddam Hussein's been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."
No key player in the administration was more at odds with the
Central Intelligence Agency than Cheney. Indeed, Cheney's badgering of the agency to come up with "evidence" of Iraqi WMDs and al-Qaeda connections was so aggressive -- he regularly stormed into the CIA headquarters to demand a briefing and then, when the information did not fit his biases, demanded that someone else brief him -- that members of the House Intelligence Committee complained in a reprimanding letter, "These visits are unprecedented. Normally, vice presidents, including yourself, receive regular briefings from (the) CIA in your office and have a CIA officer on permanent detail. There is no reason to make personal visits to the CIA."
No top office within the administration was better positioned than Cheney's to gather the information that was used to attack Wilson and his wife and to peddle that information to the press. In fact, as Joe Wilson told me in an interview about the leaking of his wife's name that we did early in 2004, "With respect to who actually leaked the information, there are really only a few people -- far fewer than the president let on when he said there are a lot of senior administration officials -- who could have done it. At the end of the day, you have to have the means, the keys to the conversations at which somebody might drop my wife's name -- deliberately or not -- a national security clearance, and a reason to be talking about this. When you look at all that, there are really very few people who exist at that nexis between national security and foreign policy and politics. You can count them, literally, on two hands."
Wilson added that, without a doubt, "the vice president is one of those people."
And no one, repeat no one, in Washington is known to be more vindictive than Dick Cheney. So the notion that Cheney would not only have been aware of but in fact delighted in punishing Wilson by ruining the career of the ambassador's wife is entirely plausible. By all accounts, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating that prospect as his long examination of crimes that may have been committed in relation to the Plame leak draws to a close.
Does this mean that the vice president will be indicted by the federal grand jury that is currently examining the actions of White House political czar Karl Rove and, more importantly, Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby?
Don't bet on it.
Libby is blood-oath, fall-on-the-sword loyal to Cheney. A Reagan-era State Department hand and Congressional staffer who came to know his future boss when Cheney was serving in Congress during the 1980s, Libby went with Cheney to George H. W. Bush's Defense Department -- serving Secretary of Defense Cheney as Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Strategy and Resources and Deputy Under Secretary for Policy. Libby was then a founder of the neo-conservative Project for a New American Century, which promoted the vision of American Empire that Cheney and his staff had cooked up in their controversial draft Defense Policy Guidance statement during their final days at the
Pentagon. And when Cheney returned to the corridors of power, as vice president, Libby was at his side.
But the Cheney-Libby partnership is not merely a power and policy connection. Their relationship is more father-son than boss-surrogate. Libby vacations with Cheney at the vice president's $2.9 million villa in Wyoming, and Libby's access is such that he is welcome to invite friends and compatriots along to enjoy the skiing near Jackson Hole.
The likelihood that Libby would give up a relationship that has buttered his bread for the better part of a quarter century is even more remote than the likelihood that Rove would turn on Bush.
Yet, no one who knows about how Cheney and Libby operate will doubt that the two men had no secrets from one another during the period when the attacks on the CIA, in general, and Wilson and Plame, in particular, were taking place.
The vice president is a famously hands-on player. He personally requested information about claims that the Iraqis were attempting to obtain uranium from African countries -- the issue that Wilson examined in 2002, when he was dispatched to Africa and found that the claims were not credible. And while Cheney now says that he knew nothing of the report that Wilson produced before the war, the former ambassador has never believed him.
"If you are senior enough to ask the question, you are senior enough to get a very specific response," said Wilson. "In addition to the circular report that was sent around as a consequence of my trip, I have every confidence that one way or another the vice president was briefed as well." Yet, it was the vice president who continued to claim, long after Bush had dropped the line, that Saddam Hussein was a nuclear threat. And Cheney always went much further than Bush or others in the administration when making that claim. Indeed, it was Cheney who specifically stated prior to the Congressional votes on authorizing the use of force in Iraq that, Hussein had "resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons." Cheney claimed in the same speech that, "Armed with an arsenal of these weapons of terror, and seated atop 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of the world's energy supplies, directly threaten American friends throughout the region, and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail."
It is certainly reasonable to argue that Cheney had more reason to strike out at Wilson than anyone else in the administration when the former ambassador revealed the truth in a New York Times opinion piece that appeared in the summer of 2003. And, while Cheney may not have done the deed directly, it is comic to suggest that the vice president -- who was in constant contact with both Libby and Rove around the time of the leak -- could have been unaware of any serious effort to discredit Wilson by "outing" his wife as a CIA agent.

Normally, I'd say my life is so-so. Not much movement anywhere, just hanging tough and wondering where the next punch is coming from. You know, weathering the storm or the lulls between. But something exciting has happened. I put my resume on the internet and I got hits (not punches). Two outfits contacted me. One was a recruiter for a San Jose firm that's looking to pay someone $45,000-50,000 a year to do what I do. The other was a regional heavyweight. I turned down the San Jose gig, because...well...it would mean moving to San Jose. The second I submitted my real resume to and am hoping they would like to talk. I don't know that I would accept that offer either ( I do like my current employer). However, my current employer has an automatic printout anytime an applicant puts a resume on monster.com and it matches up with their search words. So, they saw it. And they freaked. It's now possible that I will be offered a promotion and transfer to Poulsbo, Washington. I want to go back to WA if possible and financially feasible. So, stirring the pot has been good. I found out that it's a major seller's market for someone like me. There are no qualified technicians out there to handle all aspects of an engineering lab. Makes me feel good finally for sticking this out for over 5 years and getting as many certifications as I can.
Also, that bad BMW I own finally got a hit on cars.com. Who knows? If someone wants to buy it they'll find it to be a sweet, sweet ride.
So, I'm happy as a restless soul can be. Which is what I think I now have figured myself to be. I guess I always was, but thought I was just unhappy or hard to satisfy. Perhaps, I just refuse to settle when I think something on the horizon is calling to me. perhaps i simply refuse to commit. whatever it is and whatever happens, I now that change is the only constant. And, once again, I rush to embrace it.

Let's Get Serious

If "talking" to "regular" people is all it takes to be President, then I'm voting for Mickey Mouse. Remember that the Generals on the ground in Iraq have recently stated that one (ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!) Iraqi battalion is ready for operations sans American military supervision and accompaniment. ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
In this "talk" the "grunts (read: officers and one Iraqi soldier)" are much more upbeat. Hmmm....why might that be? Because maybe (just maybe) they were vetted, coached and threatened? Nah...couldn't be. our president would never stoop to such levels, such abrogation of moral honesty. Why, if a leader of our society were to do something such as that then he should pilloried. And Bush is not an immoral man. Look at what he's done to find the culprit who outed Valerie Plame. Look at what he's done to find the person who fabricated the Niger uranium claims. Look at what he's done to corner the Iraq/Al-quaeda link liar. Look at what he's done to stop poverty. And AIDS. And genocide in the Sudan. And global warming (have you heard that the Northwest Passage may be open again within the next decade?). Look at what he's done to slow the bank accounts of the corporate mightys. Look at what he's done to ensure our domestic tranquility at the expense of "spreading" "democra-fascism" throughout the world. I mean, come on. People, this President has pushed us further toward global likeism than any leader since...uh...well, you get the point. A heck of a guy. FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! BOO-YAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Democrats, Liberals, Europeans, Africans, Asians, Canadians, Russians (and all of those damn new countries under their sway), UNers, World Courters, World Bankers, World Tribunalers, and all of the other global thinking people are full of ess-aytch-eye-tee. Poo Poo.
P.S. And Greenpeace is anti-human.

Why'd I Even Blog?

Plamegate:
From Murray Waas in the National Journal comes this breaking story.
From Democracy Now comes Amy Goodman's interview with Murray Waas this morning.
And from 9/29/03 we get a White House press conference with Scott McClellan soon after this story hit the media.
...You know, I was going to spend my time today researching political stories and see what caught my fancy. I was in the mood and feeling ornery. Ready to spew forth my own little brand of venom on the Bush badministration for its hypocricy and discomboobulated conswervatism. Man, I was there. In the zone. Locked and loaded. A 5000 pound missile with words stenciled on it that read "Say Hi To Nixon For Me". or "Benedict Arnold Shoulda Had A Hung Jury". Or "My Bosses Went To Iraq And All I Got Was Bombed". But noooooooo.......! I find that I'm bored and all I want to do is watch TV. So, that's what I'm going to do. Ta.

Quag-Miers

it's a funny pickle. harriet miers is nominated by bush to the supreme court and the group that goes ape-banana-shit over it is the right wing. obviously, her lack of ANY judicial experience should raise two eyebrows straight to heaven. obviously, her statement that bush is a genius should cause ANOTHER tsunami to happen and this time roll right over the biblical lands. obviously, she is strong on rolling back abortion rights...or is she? obviously, she's big on constitutional interpretation...or is she? obviously, she has no track record on anything...or does she? james dobson claims that (from conversations he's not allowed to discuss) she's anti-abortion. other pundits claim they've been told that "on background" she falls right in line with the Right. democrats look up from the foxholes they've chosen to inhabit for the last five years and can't seem to find the weapons they brought into battle with them. instead of talking about her lack of judicial experience, why aren't they rattling sabres over bush's claim that her faith is enough? why aren't they agreeing with the Right who opposes her and then informing the public that the reason george will is against her is because she hasn't proven herself conservative enough? that is the real reason the Right is against her. it's not the lack of good lawyering or the lack of ever having been a judge. it's that her paper trail isn't cohesive. the conservatives don't consider john roberts a true conservative. he's not religious enough. now they have a fundamentalist, but she's not legal enough? come on. bull....shit. the Right realizes it bought a pig in a poke with roberts. he may turn out to be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who will work to overturn every "liberal" ruling from the past 300 years or so, but they can't bank the farm on it. they feel that they are OWED. owed by this administration that they helped elect. owed by bush who claims visions from god (no one else seems to be that close to the Almighty other than him in the administration, though. noticed?). now they want a justice who will tell the congress in nomination hearings that god will kill all of their firstborns if he/she is not voted onto the bench.
and the dems sit by and wonder what the next step in acting more civilized is. note to dems: civilized is a word 86'd by webster's because it's "archaic, nondemonstrable and naive to the max". get on board the reality bus. miers shouldn't be on the court, because she's a wolf in sheep's clothing. whose wolf is what everyone is debating. but it's clear to me that she is bush's wolf. he's nominated her on the "trust me" ticket. in other words, he will not give out any concrete specs for her viability. why? that is the question. it may be that she has none other than her unswerving loyalty to bush. and the possibility that she helped cover up his national guard days.
necessity is the mother of invention, but
graft is the bastard of hubris.

No Title, Because That Would Most Likely Be Misleading And I would Never Want To Do That To You And (After All) I Am Already The Cosmic Gallactic Univ

(ersal Big Head In The Sky Who Loves A Huge Hummer Of A Post Title)
wow. it seems today's my day. if you know my previous posts, then you know that i posted a resume on monster.com. that was when? Saturday or Sunday? Maybe last Friday? Yeah, I think it was Friday. Hmmm...took longer than I thought.
When I got home today from work I found a message on my phone from a materials supplier who wanted to talk to me, because he has two openings. His is a company I know well. I test against it all of the time. I create asphalt mix designs (actually making asphalt in my lab) from its material and specifications in order to see if the material will do what it wants it to do. He called from L.A. Who knows where he has openings for. It could be L.A. It could be San Jose. Or Fresno.
Then I logged in to my email. On the bulk mail page I found two messages of interest. One was from the guy who called me. Very good so far. I decided to talk to my boss before answering that one. But then I read the second one. It was from a "head hunter" who may have not read my resume all of the way through. It's for a job in San Jose. I have most of the prerequisates, but I don't have a "Degree in Science or something equivalent". I wrote her back to tell her this. I also wrote that if the degree had any waiverability to it I would be interested. She wrote back almost immediately that the degree waiver had been lifted if the applicant had good enough experience (and, unfortunately, has experience in word, excel and something else). she says the pay should be $45-55,000 with benefits and a company car. i know i'm already either:
a) out of my depth
b) dealing with a company that is desparate for qualified talent.
Either and both could be the case. Don't even think for a moment that I know how to downplay my expertise. I love my knowledge and talent in the lab. I'm one of a rare breed who chooses to stay in the lab. A lab technician by definition makes the least amount of money per hour. Most technicians start in the lab and move on, because they want state wages when they can get on field job. Lab techs who stick it out become valuable commodities. As an example, I know more about asphalt and how to make it then my degreed managers do. I also know more about soil than most engineers do, because i used to deal with it every day. I looked at it, kneaded it, compressed it, stretched it, tore it apart, broke it down, reassembled it, theorized about it. Engineers know what it's supposed to do. Technicians know what it does. An amazing concept in many ways.
Engineers spend so much money to attain a piece of paper that states they know soil or asphalt or concrete. With that paper they can earn $50,000 right out of college. But they may not know what friable clay actually looks like. They may not understand what "heavy flushing" means when they look at asphalt. They may not know how to recognize "rootlet voids". When looking at a blueish soil from the foothills what would they say? Can they tell you what the Valley normally uses for an asphalt emolliant on highways? What is the minimal degree faranheit atmosperically allowed when paving in the Valley? When are you allowed to use a laser temperature gun as opposed to a metal asphalt thermometer when inspecting paving on the mat?
I can answer these questions. An engineer can't always. But an engineer can use a calculator to solve for an angle on a slope. An engineer can tell you how steep your hill can be and still build on it. He can formulate a theory based on my tests that lets you manifest your dreams.
I can't do that. I can only help. I can only provide reality. And both are equally important. But the engineer can look at what I've done and extrapolate. I cannot look at what he's done and interpolate.
So, the Astros will be playing the Cardinals. Who will be playing the White Sox? It's still up to chance.

Indiana Means In Diana And Nothin' Else!

we here at dyerama central, known clearinghouse of information, wish to pass along the following alert to anyone residing in the state of indiana: your rights to assisted pregnancy (i.e. you're infertile and wish to go the surrogate route, you're unmarried or gay) may end soon. a proposed bill has been introduced to the Health Finance Commission. it is Request Number 20061258. within this "request" is a line which states that an unmarried person may not be an intended parent. further down (and it's long) is a section that would require "intended parents" to describe in detail their lives and livlihoods (okay on the surface). however, within this list is: "values" and "relationships". read further and one finds that the bill would require one to list any and all "faith-based" associations and activities. evidently, this proposed bill has the backing of the commission's chairperson, state senator patricia miller. however, yesterday she withdrew this bill from consideration. one wonders why. one's mind boggles. one shakes the magic eight ball for insight into how this neanderthal was ever elected. then one checks the map that shows all 50 states, peruses past statewide voting tendancies, and shrugs. unles, of course, one has been to indiana in the past lifetime...then one doesn't even have to look at stats. one just knows.
p.s. ginandtacos has a good line on this topic as well. look to the october 6 entry.

fed up in fresno

so, i decided to post on monster.com and whore out my expertise. i did this, because today i found out that a field technician who is returning to washington and was going to quit working for my comapny was offered a lab manager position in poulsbo. he has no lab experience whatsoever. he evidently is a great field tech, but...he has none of the below. when i accepted employment with this company i made a point of telling it that i would be willing to relocate in order to help the company (and myself). i think that i am in the grips of yet another behemoth that will hold me back at all costs in order to keep me where it wants me. at my last job i was told i was their "secret weapon". in other words i did such a good job that they would never tell me when a rival company was interested. but they would tell lesser qualified employees about openings elsewhere. simply put, i am a bit put out. i can run 98% of an engineering lab's tests (plus, i have learned a few tricks that aren't in any test manual). i can run a lab. my only weakness is that i will tell managers where they can stuff it when i think they are being unreasonable or supercilious. so, does anyone know of lab openings at an engineering firm in washington? i'd actually like to move closer to my parents and one of my brothers and his family (who live in spokane). i'm tired of being the player not to be named later.

and i'm willing to post tattoos.
Laboratory Technician, Level 3

(blank) and Associates
Clovis/CA

I currently run all asphalt tests for this office. I am engaged in all phases of asphalt mix designs. Tests I am proficient in include: Hveem and Marshall compaction, stability, stability and flow, bulk specific gravities, theoretical specific gravity, solvent extraction, asphalt content via ignition oven, gradations, sand equivalent, coarse and fine aggregate specific gravities, CKE, particle size analysis, atterburg limits, L.A. rattler, tensile/strength ratio (asphalt), all soil compaction, expansion index, direct shear, soil permeability, cleanness value, durability index, unconfined compression, resistance values (soil), concrete cylinder compression, fractured faces, flat and elongated particles, unit weight, moisture determination (oven and microwave), material finer than the 200 sieve, Concerning field work, I am proficient in concrete specimen sampling (all phases), aggregate and oil sampling at batch plants, asphalt sampling from the roadway, batch plant supervision and inspection.I currently hold certification of Caltrans 105, 106, 125 Aggegrate, 125 Asphalt, 201, 303, 304, 308, 370, 382.I am Nicet Level 1 certified.I am ACI Field certified.I have been a co-manager of an engineering laboratory. I have been certified in all of Caltrans field concrete requirements. I have passed multiple government security clearances for field work.I have my Troxler Nuclear Gauge Safety certificate.I have more than 5 years experience in this field. My strength and enjoyment is in the lab. I am currently in the process of attaining my ACI Lab certificate and will be attempting to attain my NICET Level 2 certificates in the next month. Also, I will most likely have 8 more Caltrans cetificates as well in that time.I am a self starter and require no supervision.

HNT I got NOTHING!!!!!

i got nothing this week. so i reversed color on this tat. i like it. but i still got nothing. no story, no nothing. my life is a chasm of work hell right now and i literally don't know what day it is. lecram had to correct me earlier today when i thought it was tuesday.
but that is one good looking tattoo. better than the real thing. and you can still see the ribbon in the dancer's hands. happy HNT to all and to all a good fright.

Tabula Rasa

okay, maybe it's a cheap shot...but i'd swear i can see the president's lips moving. now let's see him drink a glass of water.
anyhoo, his doll is perhaps the next supreme. be aware, be vary aware. and to those of you who might make the assertion that charlotte mccarthy over there is maybe not so zealously partisan because it's on the record that she donated to al gore's campaign fund...think about who was gore's campaign chairman at the time-none other than democrat-turned-republican (insert triumphal music cue here) texas's now-governor rick perry. big raspberries.

next topic: the DOD has better things to do, it seems, than repay families who bought body armor and whatnot for their soldier-children when the DOD wouldn't (even though congress ordered it to last year). tsk, tsk. but maybe that money is going to the starving children of Sudan. no? well then, it must be the victims of hurricanes katrina and rita. wrong again? huh...
(by the way, two sidenotes here on the 'canes. did anyone else think on the song "walking on sunshine" and notice any irony? also, everyone knows that tornadoes target mobile home parks and wipe them from the face of the earth. that's a given. but recently there have been articles about 150,000 mobile homes springing up out of nowhere after these 'canes. so, do the tornadoes waft them up into the air, take them out over the atlantic, hand them to the hurricanes [who clean them up, polish them, get rid of the residents] and the hurricanes bring them back ready for new inhabitants? not that anyone really is. only about 5000 of the 150,000 are actually being resided in. just wondering.)

"Lady Thatcher met Mr DeLay as as one politician meeting another. It was in no way a business meeting." um, how can that NOT be a business meeting? they're politicians for crying out loud! that's all they do. they eat it, breathe it, live it, crap it and bugger it. delay does not go anywhere without an agenda. least of all, to england...oh wait, it was a golf outing. perhaps, he just wanted her advice on how best to swing a mashie. there are a few other tidbits (rumors) on thatcher's health and decline thereof. i can't say i didn't admire her after a fashion and it would be a shame for her to lose her mental prowess. casting aside the falklands photo-op war, she did much to bring england back into the mainstream of world politics. she was more than smart enough to realize that the dollar was once again invincible, reagan was on a major roll and the Cold War was being won by him. when you are no longer the world's biggest power, what do you do? well, the smart leader places her money on the biggest and strongest horse. this she did and it was the right thing to do at the time. which is more than can be said of many world leaders at any given time in history.

oops, charlotte mccarthy ( i mean, harriet miers) time again. here is her resume. then she says this: "The wisdom of those who drafted our Constitution and conceived our nation as functioning with three strong and independent branches has proven truly remarkable" and i wonder where she was vacationing when terri schiavo was being batted around by the republicans who accused the federal and supreme courts of activism in refusing to become involved in a private matter and threatened them with physical retaliation. or when the supreme court actually agreed to step in and stop the 2000 presidential vote recount? does an independent judicial branch do what the white house tells it to do? does it interpret law as decreed by a 250-ish year old manuscript and allow as how only men are created equal? thomas jefferson and ben franklin were were very wary of instituting laws that, once in ink and signed, could be used by the few to oppress the many. and they both knew it could be done through "strict interpretation" easier than through verbal manipulation.
enough for now. as everyone knows...i hate politics except when it hates me back.

friday night fights? Swing and a Spliff

oh my. it's friday, isn't it? it was monday and now it's friday. it was monday, then it was tuesdaywednesdaythursday and tonight it's not. i need a moment to do a system check...minor knot in the mid-back region next to the spine (curable with Heinieken10, per hour x2, low-level headache and small blister on finger from busting ass all day today so that tomorrow will only be a long short work experience (see above prescription); beer fluids level is acceptable (but can be topped off); red sox are beating the yankees. cheers.
okay. everything's fairly in the green.
so, let's chat. i'll open up the floor to questions first. anyone? no? you sure? great.
looking to the news:
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. the link really is to a story, but when i was at the end of it and saw the threat...well, call me immature. call me reactionary. call me...The Pale Writer.

Storms in U.S. divert gaze from worsening Iraq...yeah, remember this one? that "war" over "there"? wasn't going so well, people dying, soldiers getting blown up, constitution in crisis and all that? still happening...yup. didn't go away. except from the papers, of course. it seems judith miller being freed from jail is more newsworthy than 62 iraqis being blown to pieces along with 5 of our soldiers. karen hughes handing out books about our presidents to children in istanbul (by the way, the four photos on the book's cover were of washington, kennedy, lincoln and...you guessed it...bush) is also more noteworthy. but the iraq "experience" is still kicking up dust in the rear view mirror and gaining again. unless, of course, we can generate another diversion.

some time ago i was sent a link by lecram to a site that traded photos of dead iraqis from american soldiers for free porn access. lecram did not send it for prurient reasons. he sent it to inform me of a gruesome and immoral "hobby" going on. i did not blog about it. instead i sent it to a fellow blogger. he posted about it and sent it to other friends who could investigate it. little did we know at the time that this would become something of news importance. we were just trying to get the word out about this atrocious site. now, i find who the first blogger was to see it and post about it. don't click on the link unless you know italian. now, though, the press is beginning to run this story and ask questions. like "how can it be legal to trade desecration of the dead for 'lolitas-r-us'"? this link gives multiple links to those in the press picking up the thread. and about time. the site started as a place for soldiers to post nude pictures of their wives/girlfriends (huh?). it eventually morphed into what it is when the site's owner was sent pictures of iraqi dead (civilians, insurgents, terrorists...what's the difference, right?). he chose to then open the porn up to anyone who would email him or post macabre shots. and give free access to retail porn. i can understand soldiers using morbid humor to relieve the daily stress over there. cops do it, too, over here. we civilians tend to not understand the pressures constantly placed on soldiers. they are not the decision or policy makers. they are the front line holding the decisions and policies together on a shoestring budget and no armor for their trucks. and getting shot at and blown up...however. trading death for what one can only hope is a good 30 second jackoff is just wrong. FUCKING wrong! there is plenty of free porn to be had out there (and way more fun). more than i can shake my stick at. one doesn't have to buy a dime's worth in order to get off. so, there you have it. straight from the ass's mouth. my moral two cents, which is worth $.00014 less than it was when you started reading this post.

The Senator's aide chuckled rather loudly and said, "What VA? By the time this administration is done there won't be a VA." cue villain theme music, an offstage "bwahahahah!!!" and four shots of something strong. the Veteran's Administration actually works? despite the budgetary cutbacks they've experienced over the past 6 years or so? go figure. they should be bankrupt by now. they should be mere rubble under the boots of Small Government Nazis. we should be watching old soldiers lining up for the "special showers". that's how much conservative compassion this administration has had for those who served our country (for better or worse) in times of war and peace. once again: front line grunts paying the political price instead of those politicians on both sides of the corporate boardwalk who try to gut needed programs in order to free up money for their pet pork. at the moment, this IS a republican pogrom. but politicians will be politicians no matter who's in power. sell to the highest bidder and hope they have really good lawyers who can hide the shady dealings, reword untimely sales of stock and redistribute focus when it it all spills out (what politico can honestly think nowadays that the BIG fuckups will go away? especially with us fuckass bloggers getting involved).

now, it's important to remember that the Texas District Attorney is well known for his indiscriminatory pursuits of justice. and it's important to remember that a cia agent's outing is still not solved at the highest level. this man in Texas has managed to convince a grand jury that Tom (How To) Delay should be indicted for conspiracy (granted, grand juries merely rule on the general news). this indictment follows in the footsteps of not less than three rebukes by the House On Ethics and Reform in the last three (?) years. the majority leader has a few marks on his record? seems to me that if his scoresheet belonged to me i would be paying very high insurance rates and unable to secure loans or any kind of real financial help. but How To still has the public backing of the largest insurance company in the world: the republican party. if things went this south for me i'd be worried that the check cashing place on the corner wouldn't really hold my check until monday.

the one time i ran afoul of the law (in any meaningful way) was when i got really, really, really drunk and insisted on driving. it was a barbecue after a matinee at second space. we started at one actor's house where we drank beer and ate. then we went to the "english" pub where i used to work and drank guinness (notice how i separate beer from guinness?). after some games of real cricket we sojourned to the roadhouse. i had been given $5 by a friend who couldn't go and had told me to buy a kamakazi and drink it for her. when the gang got to the roadhouse one of my compadres talked the bartender into giving the two of us a pitcher of kamakazis for the same price. i remember saying to him "that's damn slick". then i turned to view the pool table. then i woke up and was driving through a school fence at 3 a.m. the only thing that woke me in time was the cigarette ember burning into my hand, because my head was slumped down onto my arm. at the station i blew a .27. at the court appearance to plead guilty to drunken driving 2 or 3 months later the prosecuter's assistant's jaw hit the floor when the judge read off my blood alcohol level. so did i actually. i hadn't heard what it was. and i immediately thought of how i drove right through the fence without hitting the posts and no car rammed me and nobody was hurt. and only one word came to mind: wow. i'm alive.

and all of this makes me think of my cat who expects me to feed it, house it and then leave it the fuck alone. this is the tabby translated into siamese. holy cat on a cross, saint francis. i don't know her name, but thumper is her game.

HNT Goes Coastal

we walked into the theater and claimed our spots. we were first in line, the three of us. picking seats in that back row (because that's usually the safest place in a Neo-Surrealist show) we began to enjoy our beers. lecram had run out after the previous show and bought a fifth of C.C. you see, the Neo-Surrealists are what some might categorize as "drunken fools on a parade float with four flat tires and nowhere to go". in plainer words, they don't care what happens so long as they have fun and make us have fun in the process. but i don't agree. i think they have a master plan to show themselves as aliens, take over the world and then redo mount rushmore to make it look like mojo nixon, lyle lovett, ed wood and all of southern culture on the skids. oh, and they're drunk. the Neo's, that is.

so, they we are. lecram has handed me the fifth. i have yet to open it. i had been drinking most of that afternoon, but it was all beer. i don't like to mix beer with the hard stuff on the weekend. so, i left it capped and sealed. then, daniel walked in and asked in his childlike voice "so, where that drink?". or something to that effect (one year it was "who's got the fucking booze?"). i have to admit now that the bottle was for him and his cohorts. i have learned over the past 4 years that (when walking into one of his shows) one should come well stocked.
but i digress. we're here for the show.
well, i don't remember how it started other than lights down. but the lights down part was pretty good. then a man was rubbing northern quilted toilet paper through his crack while yelling at the quilters that the stitching was'nt tight enough. then really bad carpentry...hit a bit close to home. at one point a mime fucked up a heckler. the c.c. came back out for the portrait session. somewhere in there, they threw cheese at us. generik and i were given chocolate as a love gift by a naked man whose genitalia always reminds me of a lotus blossom on the pond. i mean literally. and that's all i mean... shut up.
there were bouncy balls with a black light. a "go fly a kite" song. zuskha wasn't there this year and she is my favorite techie in the world, because she's really pretty and got naked for the show last year. in fact, there were 4 or 5 naked women in that booth. where'd that go?
so anyway. i'd broken the rule of the festival that said no pictures allowed during a show. well, i didn't break it really. when daniel was hanging out before the show and told me he was doing the "love" skit i told him about HNT and asked him if it would be okay to use him for it. he agreed and told the actors that there would a flash during the skit. but when it started i couldn't do it. he was on top of his game that night. i've seen that skit 4 times now and this year was by far the best (even though it wasn't zuskha). it was tight. and i didn't want to interrupt it. so, i didn't get The Shot. what i got was bathroom humor:

disgusting. immature. freakish. not the high brow i was expecting. i felt dirty afterwards. i hate myself now... i ate his chocolate.

Roger Roger, Over Rover

president bush wants to allow the military to wander our streets and tell us what to do in the event of a(nother) catastrophic event. contrary to popular belief, there are some critics of this plan. and this is the government which i think broke our basic agreement with it by not protecting us from weather beyond our normal control. so, i do not give the benefit of doubt any more. and this proposal of bush's is ludicrous at best. at worst it's ...well, i don't see a worst. i see fascism. i see a strangelovian operetta filled with all of the "worst" things that our government can think of to throw at us in times of stress in order to divert with either a new scare (and reason for continued patriotism) or an old triumph (and reason for renewed patriotism). the only reason we went crazy down in new orleans after the flood was because we thought we had been left to die. i watched it from the west coast and couldn't believe my eyes. i couldn't believe what i read. it started bad really quickly and then it went straight to hell. but do i think that letting the military step in as if it's martial law is right? why, wouldn't that basically say that the government has quit the business of our safety if it means giving up afghanistan and iraq?

have you heard of the davis-bacon act of 1931? neither had i until today when i read that president bush had suspended it. go here to find a summary of it. or go here to read the actual act itself.
evidently, federal contractors working to rebuild any area damaged by the recent hurricanes need not pay a local area's prevailing wage (don't read that as union wage...not even close!) to workers hired. in louisiana that prevailing wage is about $9 per hour. many of the people who would apply for these jobs are the very locals put out by the storms and in need of jobs and money. now, they will work for minimum wage or thereabouts. if they can even get the jobs. word is going around that the contractors are trying to hire as many undocumented workers as they can find.
apparently, bush looked at the money he was willing to let go of to help the storm reconstruction and looked at the amount of bodies needed to do the work and sagely decided that the only way in which to keep the budget under control was to roughly halve the wages. hey, let's all give a damn hearty round of applause to those white house bean counters, huh? kudos to youse guys! and let's not forget that oh-so-humble white house counsel who looked into the murky, murky past and saw an opportunity to do good for the common citizen by suspending a major law that protected the common citizen up until today, but was now "keepin' the kid down on the farm". big, big shout out!
hell, you'd think the "citizens" down around the Big Easy would be more than grateful for this government handout. minimum wage? so what? it's a job and those folks who were dumb enough to choose to live 6 feet under sea level should be grateful to bush for this show of generosity. and they should just get to work and tote that cotton. damn, i love this country! what a great way of life! now shut up and eat your gruel!

Can We put Bush's Face On It?

Official Announcement

The government today announced that it is changing its
emblem from an Eagle to a CONDOM because it more
accurately reflects the government's political stance. A
condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the
next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you
a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.

i like to write to the Fresno Bee with my pompous, self-serving genuflections. it beats actually doing anything concrete to change society. the following are the most recent two i wrote and considered sending. enjoy, hate, froth, writhe, undulate...whatever. i'm becoming pretty damn cynical, so i don't really care much anymore.

It seems the media and the populace at large are content to be enthralled with Mayor Autry's taxpayer-paid excursion to Louisiana where he is conducting a touchy-feely, goodwill tour full of newsbites.Yet I have not seen or read of one instance in which a family has been issued an invitation to our city while they sort out their affairs at home. Are we really looking to bring 300-400 evacuees here or are we merely paying for a re-election junket? Autry looks good "getting down" and yucking it up with selected Lousianans, but what is he actually doing? I'm beginning to seriously doubt that a few busloads of displaced poor people will be allowed to enter our county. It's really the "thought" that counts anyway, right?

While we focus on Mayor Autry's re-election tour in Louisiana it may be time to, also, think on how we might respond to a natural disaster happening closer to home. We now know that we can't rely on the federal government to protect us in any manner resembling that which it agreed to when any of us became citizens. That agreement involves our government protecting us from harm to our bodies and our properties from individuals or events that endanger our basic way of life. That is democracy. In return, we work hard and tithe a certain percent to its coffers. This is the big question. What did we receive from it when Katrina hit? Answer: platitudes, assurances, denials, finger pointing and death. There will be a next time and chances are the response will be the same without common outrage forcing change at the highest levels. This is an American tragedy. Not White versus Black. Poor versus rich. American. How do we not let our government simply wipe this blood off its hands? If we don't speak up, shout out, then history is doomed to repeat itself.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1108972,00.html

booger.com to me

well, my blog won't let me upload pictures, so i guess no HNT this week. what the fuck? last night it wouldn't let me post with pictures. in fact, it wouldn't let me post at all. today, i find the post did go through, but according to blogger.com it didn't. now, no picture even on my create window. fuck it. i'm getting tired of this crap anyway.

FEMA, Michael Brown and Bush

2005


Departments
Election 2004

FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions in False Claims to Help Bush Win Fla. Votes
by Jason Leopold
September 19, 2005

Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to published reports.

“Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections,” according to a May 19 Washington Post story.

Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown “and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.”

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims.

“As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal [FEMA] consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show,” the Sentinel reported in a March 23 story.

“Two weeks later, a Florida official summarizing the hurricane response wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handing out housing assistance "to everyone who needs it without asking for much information of any kind."

The records the Sentinel obtained were contained in hundreds of pages of Gov. Jeb Bush's storm-related e-mails the paper received from the governor’s office under the threat of a lawsuit.

The explosive charges of mismanagement of disaster relief funds made against Brown and FEMA were confirmed earlier this year following a four-month investigation by Richard Skinner, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. Skinner looked into media reports alleging that residents of Miami-Dade were receiving windfall payments from FEMA to cover losses from Hurricane Frances they never incurred.

Hurricane Frances hit Hutchinson Island, Fla., about 100 miles north of Dade County, on Sept. 5. Miami-Dade officials described damage there from heavy rain and winds of up to 45 mph as ''minimal,'' according to the Post.

Indeed. A May 14 story in the Sun-Sentinel said: “Miami-Dade County residents collected Hurricane Frances aid for belongings they didn't own, temporary housing they never requested and cars worth far less than the government paid, according to a federal audit that questions millions in storm payouts.

Responding to those allegations, Brown held a news conference Jan. 11 blaming the overpayments on a “computer glitch” and said the disbursements were far less than the $31 million that was cited in news reports and involved 3,500 people. Moreover, to silence his critics who said that Hurricane Frances barely touched down in Miami-Dade, Brown cited a report by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions there and as a result that a bulk of the payments was legitimate.

But according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA had refuted the weather maps Brown claimed to have obtained from them. That report prompted Congressman Robert Wexler to send off a scathing letter to President Bush calling for Brown’s resignation.

Bush rebuffed Wexler. However, the DHS’ inspector general launched a probe to determine how widespread the problems were involving overpayments to Miami-Dade residents. In May, the inspector general released his report. What he found was damning.

“The review found waste and poor controls in every level of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistance program and challenges the designation of Miami-Dade as a disaster area when the county "did not incur any hurricane force winds, tornados or other adverse weather conditions that would cause widespread damage."

In identifying one of the overpayments, the inspector general’s report said FEMA paid $10 million to replace hundreds of household items even though only a bed was reported to be damaged, the inspector general’s report said.

"Millions of individuals and households became eligible to apply for [money], straining FEMA's limited inspection resources to verify damages and making the program more susceptible to potential fraud, waste and abuse," the report states.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, said during a committee hearing in May that Brown “approved massive payouts to replace thousands of televisions, air conditioners, beds and other furniture, as well as a number of cars, without receipts, or proof of ownership or damage, and based solely on verbal statements by the residents, sometimes made in fleeting encounters at fast-food restaurants.”

“It was a pay first, ask questions later approach,'' Collins said. ''The inspector general's report identifies a number of significant control weaknesses that create a potential for widespread fraud, erroneous payments and wasteful practices.''

But the most interesting charge against Brown is that he helped speed up payments in Florida and purposely bypassed FEMA’s lengthy reviews process for distributing funds in order to help Bush secure votes in the state during last year’s presidential election.

Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, who was a top federal flood insurance official in the 1970s and 1980s and a Texas insurance commissioner in the 1990s, told the Post “that in the vast majority of hurricanes, other than those in Florida in 2004, complaints are rife that FEMA has vastly underpaid hurricane victims. The Frances overpayments are questionable given the timing of the election and Florida's importance as a battleground state.”

FEMA consultant Glenn Garcelon actions certainly lends credibility to questions raised by Hunter.

On Sept. 2, 2004, Garcelon, wrote a three-page memo titled "Hurricane Frances -- Thoughts and Suggestions."

“The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President Bush had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry,” the Sentinel reported in its March 23 story. “Winning Florida was key to the president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it is portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the team effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local officials, the insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies such as the Red Cross.”

Gov. Bush received the memo Sept. 30, 2004 shortly before a swell of payments made its way to residents in Miami-Dade who did not sustain damage as a result of Hurricane Frances.

A couple of weeks before Gov. Bush received the memo from Garcelon, Orlando J. Cabrera, executive director of the Florida Housing Finance Corp. and a member of the governor's Hurricane Housing Work Group, said in a different memo to Gov. Bush that FEMA was allocating short-term rental assistance to "everyone who needs it, without asking for much information of any kind," the Sentinel reported.

In addition, "standard housing assistance," of up to $25,600, Cabrera wrote, is "liberally provided without significant scrutiny of the request made during the initial months; scrutiny increases remarkably and the package is far more stringent after an unspecified time."

The DHS audit report found that, under Brown, FEMA erroneously distributed to Miami-Dade residents:

* $8.2 million in rental assistance to 4,308 applicants in the county who "did not indicate a need for shelter" when they registered for help. In 60 cases reviewed by auditors, inspectors deemed homes unsafe without explanation, and applicants never moved out.

* $720,403 to 228 people for belongings based on their word alone.

* $192,592 for generators, air purifiers, wet/dry vacuum cleaners, chainsaws and other items without proof that they were needed to deal with the hurricane. Three applicants got generators for their homes, plus rental assistance from FEMA to live somewhere else.

* $15,743 for three funerals without sufficient documentation that the deaths were due to the hurricane.

* $46,464 to 64 residents for temporary housing even though they had homeowners insurance. FEMA funds cannot be used when costs are covered by insurance.

* $17,424 in rental assistance to 24 people who reported that their homes were not damaged.

* $97,500 for 15 automobiles with a "blue book" value of $56,140. In general, the report states that FEMA approved claims for damaged vehicles without properly verifying that the losses were caused by the storm.

---
Jason Leopold is the author of the explosive memoir, News Junkie, to be released in the spring of 2006 by Process/Feral House Books. Visit Leopold's website at www.jasonleopold.com for updates.

Stormin' and Struttin'

well, we've got another severe storm warning plus high winds. the winds have taken down a tree and a telephone pole on my block. in the seventh inning of the giants/nationals game there was a loud crack and an equally loud pop. the tree broke at its root base, grabbed onto a phone line from across the street, failed to keep itself upright with that, went to the ground with the line still in its clutches and the pole (rotten from the inside out) followed. the police are here now with lights flashing to let drivers know they should take another route. no rain, thunder or lightning, though. speaking of police...
it seems there was a child abduction at heaton elementary school this afternoon (about a four minute walk from my house). the 7 year old boy lives at the end of my block. the cops put out an Amber Alert, so it's on the radar. i'm sure the registered sex offender down my other street will have had a visit by now (whether or not it's warranted)...
the lightning has now arrived. beautiful forked lightning with three, four and five prongs. it remains to be seen if it will attack my neighborhood ( it can pour rain two miles away and leave my house completely dry often). but the sky light is gorgeous. the clouds are forming overhead, looming dark and foreboding. the wind is picking back up again. i won't be surprised if the power goes out at some point tonight...
still waiting for some city worker with a chainsaw to get the tree off of the street. still waiting for SBC to come and look at the phone line on the ground. perhaps, police cars should be equipped with saws of some kind instead of just guns, vests, restraint jackets, tasers, mace, etc. at least they're here...
as for the fringe festival, well. it was a very good time. lecram and i partied it up, coffeed it up, played it up and networked it up. the hotel we stayed in this year (because the essex hotel was sold to the city) was, uh, functional. no perks like rooftop access or The Mirror That Looks Back At You. it did have beds and a bathroom. and, really, what more does one need (other than Magic Fingers)? however, there was no interest in hanging out there if it wasn't necessary. no more Air Travel Hotel next year. it's just too dandy a place for poor slobs like us. oh, and how do flies make it seven stories up and into an open window? i thought they had like a 30 foot ceiling or something.
i saw ten plays this time around. and i was 8 for 10 in the good vs. not good scheme of things. a much better average than most years. not too much nudity this year. but plenty of cheese throwing, canadian club sipping, laughing. i even got spooged on by a giant penis (took me 5 minutes to get it all out of my hair).
the food was, of course, fantastic. friday night we supped on vietnamese food (their meatloaf is very interesting). saturday it was roast beef and lamb (at original joe's, which was the site of a robert downey, jr movie shoot on monday). and sunday it was indian. we naturally hit the Sunshine Kitchen for breakfast one morning (you can get rice with your eggs, bacon and toast, but i DIDN'T).
and a lot of time was spent at the powell street BART station drinking coffee and trying to guess who was a native and who was a tourist...it was a lecram thing. i won by pointing at him and yelling "TOURIST!!!" over and over again. the "scenery" was very nice with plenty of european women cavorting about along with the chinese stewardesses staying at our hotel. in the theater i developed a crush on the main actress from "Go!". she was pretty, but when she began acting she became beautiful. and stage talent turns me on like almost nothing else...
...the rain has arrived. heavy downpour. we'll probably get a quarter of an inch in about an hour. in some states that would be considered a fine spring mist, but here in september it's pretty much unheard of. the lightning is hitting about every five to ten seconds and it is almost directly overhead. the raisins (a bazillion dollar crop) will be ruined if this storm is widespread. i feel sorry for the policemen standing guard over the tree. and for the family of the lost little boy. this turn of the weather can only make it more fearsome...
we ended our fringe tour by attending the closing night party. now, in past years this event had been plenty boring and pretentious. i almost opted not to go, but that's where the bar was and generik (who is a hell of a host even if he wouldn't take me to a giants game and can't hold his liquor) and i weren't finished toasting each other. off we went and to my surprise it was a hell of a shindig. all of the actors showed up and stayed. whether it was because of all of the press they received this year (hadn't ever gotten any before) and a new sense of community was born or because they all thought they could win an award (and almost all of them did, because the festival founder greatly expanded the categories this year and very rightly so) or they had nowhere to go and the food was free or they wanted to meet those super sexy rogue festival creators and rub up against their auras...who knows? but it was a grand time for all. and the hangover wasn't so bad the next day.
on monday, lecram and i were up at the crack of ass (which is much later than dawn and shouldn't be experienced in front of the children) and down to powell station for one more gulp and ogle. then, we cruised it down highway 101 and over 152 with a stop for lunch at casa de puta. i had an unbelievingly normal burger with fries and lecram had the crow pot pie (i believe it was called the "casa de caw caw"). after a stretch and a good casa de poo poo we headed back to I-5 and cut over to 99 via the Firebaugh exit. a good trip back with plenty of good conversation, though most of it came from the radio. and in spanish. and they wouldn't take calls from wedos ("no habla honkie")...
...so, KVPT (our local public station) is off the air and not showing NOVA. i assume it's because of the storm. and the pizza delivery guy is lost and asking me for directions to an address that doesn't exist (i directed him to the house of my former car mechanic). the rain is still falling, but not as hard and the light show has eased. i wonder if this is the lull before the back edge hits. that's how it usually works here. the front dumps and blows and acts like a colicy baby, then mellows like a pothead on primo weed who's into computer games, then hits again as it exits as if to say "bitch! don't you ever hold out on me again!"....
and that's it for my adventures in The City. a good time, but it didn't refresh me in the normal manner. at work today i was a son of a bitch. didn't like anything. didn't want to do anything. i was tired and my back hurt and they shorted me on my paycheck (but it turned out to be okay, bacuse they told me they could get away with it...cool. next holiday pay period i will NOT be going into work on a saturday to help out a manager if they won't pay me overtime and they can just kiss my overqualified ass). tonight i'm better, because i left without working extra, got a nap in and watched the giants beat the nationals in a late inning comeback AND barry bonds hit a monster of a homer that shut up the boos (yes, virgina, he CAN hit them farther than santa claus, so shut the fuck up and go to sleep). and it looks like the padres lost, so the giants creep within 4 or 5 games with a handful left to play. exciting to the finish. and the giants beat the stinking dodgers head to head this year and could finish up better in the standings. bite me, L.A. and now we have a storm and i do so love inclement weather. it hurts my pocketbook sometimes when no asphalt can be paved, but rain is more important than asphalt. rain brings forth, asphalt covers up.