yeah, this is what I see in my backyard at night...tree "house" in the apple tree. ripe set for a dramedy that includes ghost children, psycho neighbors and canning jars. and stars snadra bullock (not that i'm still obsessing on her...if you want, you can substitute Samanthat Motron for Sandra and I'll be okay with that).

Bush Declares He's Telling The Truth This TIme

"I'm not making this up,"
Oh well then. I guess I've gotta go with Bush now. He's telling the truth. How do I know? Because he said so. What, ain't good enough for you? Dirty little Commie. You dare to question the integrity of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES? Might as well put a turban on your head and eat the rest of those children you got hanging in your sandhut.

Scooter "Free" Ride

Scooter scoots from potential felon to perenially fraudulent. Honestly, how does a person under indictment for crimes against the country get a job offer? Yes, I know I sound naive, but I'm not. Really. Doesn't it strike you as almost inevitable now that no matter what the administration pulls at our expense to enrich theirs they will somehow come up smelling like right wing roses? This man is under indictment by a federal Special Prosecutor. He is no longer working for the White House. He is supposed to be disgraced merely by being touched with the indictment wand. Had Clinton been offered a job by the ACLU (he's a lawyer after all) in the event that he was actually kicked out of office the Right wuld have been apoplectic and denouncing the ACLU as commies, reds, pinkos, terrorists sympathizers and everything that's wrong with Liberal Media. Scooter gets an offer and I'll bet not one Republican (and few Democrats) will stand up and say this is completely unethical, immoral and downright not too cool.
Of course, the unspoken message here is this: the Heritage Foundation expects Scooter, if he's convicted, to be pardoned by Bush on Bush's way out. And they would be right.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , chief of staff and national security adviser to Vice President Cheney until that indictment unpleasantness a few months ago, has found a new perch as he awaits trial.

Polls Lie, But You Know I Never Will

Hmmm...JBS couldn't stand for the John Birch Society, could it? Could it?!? Why, yes indeedy. It could. Click the red thingy if you don't believe me. The Birchers are either being hit hard by the left wing version of Freepers (may they rot in New Jersey) or the trend of right wing loonies getting more and more disgusted with our Imperial Idiot is growing.
(Hey George, God called. He said to move 10 feet farther away from Dick "Grounding Rod" Cheney the next time you see a cloud. He's getting tired of having to actually aim.)

JBS POLL
Should George Bush be impeached and removed from office?

Yes, because he lied us into war, has used the NSA to eavesdrop on the conversations of Americans without a court order, and has violated the Constitution in other ways. 59%

No, because George W. Bush was justified in going to war and continues to do a good job. 18%

No, because even though he has made mistakes those mistakes do not rise to the level of impeachment. 20%

I don't know. 3%

Hot Off The Press (Generik Should Like This One)

Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! What the hell is this? NATO is 'unreliable'? What, because they weren't necessarily so giggly about invading Iraq? David Sirota finds this item buried in a UK paper, but nowhere in the US journals:
"The Bush administration says it wants to be able to form 'coalitions of the willing' more efficiently for dealing with future conflicts rather than turning to existing but unreliable institutional alliances such as Nato. 'We ad hoc our way through coalitions of the willing. That's the future,' a senior State Department official said in a briefing this week."
It wasn't oh so long ago that our beloved White House was telling us just how unreliable and obsolete the UN and the Geneva Convention were. So, what's the message here? No matter what the law is we'll find a way around it or just scrap it altogether? No matter what the majority of people and countries believe? If that's the case, then the Bible is way overdue for a burning. But, then, Bush does have God's ear (or the other way around). He's also a horse's ass and a monkey's nephew. Not that even I know what I meant by that. Doesn't relly matter, though. If Bush can read "Pet My Goat" to children I can make shit up.

Happy Birthday Lecram

NBC is checking into whether Christiane Amanpour was wiretapped by Bush. If this is true, that a journalist was spied on in the course of her journalistic duties, then we have us a whopper of a scandal that no one can ignore. Eavesdrop on a CNN reporter? We would be entering into Nixonian territory in terms of flagrant disregard for the law. Felony and high treason all the way, baby. Just think of the prominent Americans she has spoken to over the past four years that this wiretap gig has been in business. Who knows? Bush may have dirt on many biggie politicians without their knowing it. Who knows? Bush (and Cheney) may have been using overheard info to silence their critics across the aisle.

Oh yeah. David Letterman, on his show no less, tells Bill O'Reilly that he's 60% full of crap. Finally, a late night talk show host is doing something other than glitterati spooge and sponge-off.

Cherokee Nation, Cherokee Tribe! Evidently, this nation finally remembered that they have always held gay people in high regard as mystical people.

Considering that the Bush group refused to listen to Clinton holdouts about the Bin Laden threat prior to 9/11 it's amazing to read that Cheney claims if we had been wiretapping before then we could have stopped 9/11. How much more did they need to know about the threat before doing anything at all about it? They knew Clinton tried to target bin Laden with missiles. They knew of the reports about bin Laden planning on attacking us with hijacked planes. So, basically they needed a burning bush to point the way? Without big fat arrows pointing to the intended targets there was no way for them to even get close to an inkling of a suggestion of a whisper of a rumor that bin Laden had a hankering to get at us? Puh-leeze.

And a big happy birthday to that uber-maestro of demonic maestros: lecram.

New Year's Musings

Just pisses me off when I'm not allowed to post because of questionable content.
I read the Daily Kos today and clicked on the "boy are they stoopid" link. the link's writer asked for submissions to name a convention in contrast to 'Kosyearly". So, I did.

"Since it's Cheney who really runs the administration, how about:
Dick's Dicks in '06
and for the women:
Dick-WAC Heart Attack."

What's questionable about that? Quite catchy if you ask me and I know you did. What's that you say? The website probably didn't want suggestions that might in any way disparage our Commander-In-Thief? Oh. See, I didn't read it that way. I thought it was an honest and open environment for everyone. Not just the brainwashed...huh. Go figure.

Hee hee. Scott McClellan reads about as much as Bush:

Q Scott, Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and corruption and tax evasion here in the federal court in Washington. Already the DNC has put out a statement essentially saying that this is another example of what they are calling the "culture of corruption and abuse of power" that has been the hallmarks of the Bush administration. Any response?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I've seen press reports that indicate that he has -- he and his clients have given to both Democrats and Republicans. So that's the first thing that I would say.Secondly, I'm not sure if he's actually entered a plea at this point, but the wrongdoing that he apparently now is acknowledging he was involved in is outrageous. And if he broke laws, he needs to be held to account and he needs to be punished. And beyond that, I think we'd just be speculating about things at this point, and I'm not going to engage in speculation.

You can read the links to find the lies, but I'll tell you now that it looks as if Abramhoff gave not one dime to any Democrat in quite some time and lots and lots to Republicans. As for his clients, they're not on trial at this point, so it seems that Scottie (good doggie) is already in smear mode. The first thing he would say is "he and his clients have given to both Democrats and Republicans"? Wow. That is as political and partisan a statement as I've ever heard come out of Scottie's (good doggie) mouth. Flat-out saying "it ain't just us". Not even a denial. Straight to the smear. Do I think that Dems are just as greedy as Reps? You bet. However, the Reps are in power and suffering the slings and arrows of folks who realize Reps are terrible at balancing greed with running a country. The Dems got very good at it. They learned to share some of it with us little people. The Reps can't quite get the hang of it. That's why all of the scandals. They don't understand that as the rich get richer, so must the poor and not as poor rise as well. Do they really think that someone like me is going to be swayed by a recitation of the Clintons' wealth? I know they're filthy rich. I, also, know that the very people pushing Bush and Cheney make the word "filthy" smell like baby's breath (which, to be honest, we all know can be somewhat offputting right after a good burping). Democrats accepting cash, favors, trips? Gasp. Ya think? But who is it getting caught? It ain't the Dems. At least, it ain't the Dems en masse. It's those idiot Reps who claimed the higher moral ground and then ground it under their heel. Almost as if they felt they were owed their due. Almost as if they felt a few trillion or so into the pockets of them and their backers was an acceptable butcher's bill for wiping out those devilish Dems. No mention of the fact that the trillions would be taxpayers' money, taxpayers' retirement, taxpayers' medical coverage, taxpayers' children's future, taxpayers' social security net, taxpayers' children's military deaths. No mention of the fact that they would be dispersing radioactive waste in Iraq. No mention that help would be scaled back to Asia in time of tsunami crisis, because one government wouldn't allow us military fly-over privileges while our aircraft carriers idled offshore. No mention that genocide is not cool if the victims aren't white (and therein can we blame both parties and most of America). Not a word about torture, carpet bombing, collateral damage, 100,000+ Iraqi civilians dead. No mention of a CIA agent's outing by the administration.
So much to condemn as an enlightened 21st century American. And so little to defend.

Jack Abramoff. Will he or won't he?
Scott (good doggie). Should he or shouldn't he?
The usual suspects. Did they or didn't they?

New Year's Resolutions

I feel the urge, nay the need, to make some New Year's resolutions. I don't know why. I don't know why. Perhaps, it's because I'm living in a new state and working a new job. Perhaps, it is truly time for new beginnings and an end to old habits. In my life I've always cast off the old when moving, like a worn cloak in need of too many darnings.
Perhaps, too, I am of an age now when one begins to think of death and the fact that I have well and truely passed into the downward arc of my life expectancy. And I look at my accomplishments so far and wonder if I've really done anything worthy of note. I look at my past and wonder how I lived to be this age. I look at my family and friends and wonder what they would have to say as my pall was lowered from shoulders and placed onto the ground awaiting final internment. And I think, "Not enough".

So, with this in mind, I make the following resolutions:

1. From now on I will fire only warning shots from my rifle unless it's being done in self-defense.

2. As of tomorrow I will not drink before noon unless I began the night before.

3. Starting tomorrow, I will show my friends all of the respect I think they are due.

4. From this point on I will no longer leave the blinds open when I masturbate to internet porn.

5. Tonight is the last time I will call George Bush a bitch-ass knob goblin.

6. Tomorrow I will begin calling George Bush many other things.

7. I resolute that next year I will stop obsessing about Sandra Bullock having sex with someone other than me.

8. Be it resolved for 2006 that I will go back to obsessing about Liv Tyler, Uma Thurman, Penelope Cruz, Paz Vega, Samantha Morton, Joan Cusack, Milla Jovovich, Chinese chicks, Audra MacDonald, Bernadette Peters, Laura Dern, and Fay having sex with men other than me.

9. I will never again (from midnight on) say "never again" again. I promise. Never again.

10. I will work to love those around me who love me first.

11. I resolve that I will never resolve to do anything that I am not capable of resolving while sober.

12. I will try to be sober more often.

13. In about an hour and a half I will beginning calling the cat Wetto and that will be that.

george bush is a bitch-ass knob goblin. bitch-ass knob goblin. bitch-ass knob goblin.

sandra, you two-timing bad boy bitch hussy. i coulda made you happy...in an anne heche coming to fresno in a drug hazed sort of way.

never again.

UPDATE: (10;26 PM)

Resolutions For 2007:

1. 12 and 13.

Common Goals

whoopsie. it seems that the house of representatives is at it again. unhappy that the president's illegal wiretapping has not led to any uncovering of real live bona fide terrorists other than a catholic school group and a box of Quaker Oats, it has decided to try and make it a federal crime (punishable by up to 5 years in prison) for...well, feeding the poor. nourishing the sick. clothing the children. all of those things that Jesus yada'd about.
you remember Jesus. he was that kind of homeless guy with no paper identification, he roused the rabble, sometimes depended on the kindness of strangers, spoke out against tyranny and foreign occupation, loved his brother, talked of camels being more flexible than rich folks. you know...yada. communist crap. evil-doer pap. enemy comforter stuff.
so, now our elected representatives are banding together and making sure that no one of his ilk can get to us real Americans and poison our minds unless he was born here and has an SSN number and can be tracked in the event that another law is passed letting us excommunicate the homegrown variety.
because it's the illegals that threaten our democracy. all of those brown skinned undocumented aliens out there in the field pretending to pick lettuce and grapes, but really passing along secret plans about overthrowing our way of life. keeping their backs and eyes lowered in false humility as we drive by in our cars, but really fingering their vest bombs and sawed-off uzis. thinking bloody thoughts and waiting to eat our young once they've gotten their daily quota of oranges picked.
i sleep better knowing i'm safer than i was yesterday. i walk taller now that i know only a real American is allowed to kill me legally. now i can rest in the comfort of only fearing real Americans. i now only have to fear my neighbors. and the meth dealers. and the white supremicists. and the ultra-religious. and the bigots. and the narrow-minded. and the haters. and the government.
but it's all good, because if this bill passes all of my fear will be associated only with real Americans. and that is a relief. because real Americans are much easier to recognize. we're the ones waving real American flags. we're the ones driving SUV's. we're the ones supporting our troops. we're the ones processing household chemicals into addictive substances. we're the ones spreading democracy around the world while shaving away civil liberties at home. we're the ones who see innocent humans as collateral damage. we're the ones who create kill-em-all video games and then rate them M for Mature so only mature people can play. we're the ones who offer death bonuses to soldiers and the balk at paying off. we're the ones who promise armor for bodies and humvees and then don't do anything. we're the ones who speak of compassion for all, but excoriate the poor for being poor. we're the ones who break the law and then say that it's okay, because God's on our side. we're the ones who punish the dissenter and reward the sinner.
we're the ones who think a 70-year-old man has a natural right to an artificial erection. we're the ones injecting ass fat into our faces, because there's nothing worse than looking one's age. let alone acting it.
we're becoming the Romans. not that the enemy is becoming Jesus. i don't think that Jesus or God would want any part of what we as a world are becoming.
but we're becoming the Romans as we (more and more) fear ourselves and our ability to make rational, informed, common sense decisions about the immediate world we live in. so long as we blindly follow and do what we're told we will always live in fear. and that's exactly what our leaders and their enemies want.
i love being an American. i just wish i could be a better one.
"Churches, social service agencies and immigration groups across the country are rallying against a provision in the recently passed House border-security bill that would make it a federal crime to offer services or assistance to illegal immigrants."
"America is a nation built on the rule of law, and this bill will help us protect our borders and crack down on illegal entry into the United States," Mr. Bush said after the House passed the measure. "Securing our borders is essential to securing the homeland."

Anus Horribilus?

"it is the very nature of a democracy that it not only does, but should, fight with one hand tied behind its back. It is also in the nature of democracy that it prevails against its enemies precisely because it does."
i love that quote. the rest of the article is here.

Have A Cracking Good New Year

(best of? not so sure about that. but then most of mine are dubious. so, i will leave you to greet the new year with my special smile. in hindsight, it makes sense.)
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!

Heidi-Ho

Rep. Norm Dicks gets an introduction from me to let him know that i live in his neighborhood now:

Dear Mr. Dicks, I write to you in a state of confusion. It's always been my understanding that no one is above the law. That is supposed to include the president of the United States. Perhaps, that should especially include the Prsident. And not too many years ago we proved that to former President Clinton. He was impeached for lying about an extra-marital affair. This time around, however, President Bush seems to be skating away from a much bigger lie. To wit, he had been approving unwarranted wiretapping in secret even as (and long before) he issued the following quote: "Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so"- George W. Bush April 20, 2004. This is not sex in the Oval Office. This is not parsing the definition of "is". What Bush has done is lie baldfaced to all of America about breaking a federal law. And he then continued to break it up until the present. He didn't just state the law, he told us he was following it. My confusion stems from the fact that you call the Republican party the Moral Party. Remember when your party said it was going to bring morality back to the White House? Why aren't you now going after Bush and holding him accountable for his lie? Democrats and Liberals (and, yes, there is a difference)alike would applaud you for sticking to your higher agenda. To not do so will bring you back down to where you were before gaining control of our government. As a representative of the people, you either stand firm for what makes our country great or you hide behind the colors of your party. You can choose to be an American or you can choose to be a party liner.It's your choice, but voters like me will remember your actions or lack thereof.

(this is not part of the letter)
also, Sen. John McCain wants high school students to decide whether Intelligent Design should be taught in their schools. Normally, this type of thinking would be considered an extremely liberal way of life. those colleges that let this happen tend to not be taken seriously by any other. evergreen state college comes to mind. but, if we let them decide on this, then i think it only fair that we allow them to vote on the drinking age, the voting age, the driving age, letting military recruiters on campus or not, condoms in the cafeteria...well, you see where i'm going with this. in short, it sounds like a political move by mccain to continue straddling the fence until he knows for sure who he needs to truly appease when it's voting time. not that i don't think children can't make an informed decision. i just don't see how the parents will stay out of it.

Oh. Did We Tread On Your Italian Loafers?

oh wow. the chicago tribune is reporting this. a serious mainstream newspaper is telling us just how bad the CIA fucked up. i mean, this is bad. i knew about the operation. i knew about the indictments. but this is the first time i got to read exact details of how it went down and just HOW BADLY THE CIA SCREWED IT UP. unfortunately, it could lend credence to the white house when it says it relied on the CIA for pre-war clearance. all in all, a mesmerizing read. almost straight out of a bad james bond book.

MILAN, Italy -- The trick is known to just about every two-bit crook in the cellular age: If you don't want the cops to know where you are, take the battery out of your cell phone when it's not in use.Had that trick been taught at the CIA's rural Virginia training school for covert operatives, the Bush administration might have avoided much of the current crisis in Europe over the practice the CIA calls "rendition," and CIA Director Porter Goss might not have ordered a sweeping review of the agency's field operations.

and this one made me laugh out loud. huzzah for harry holimas!

THE good news today is that the great 2005 war on Christmas, the conflagration that launched a thousand op-ed pieces and nearly as many battles on Fox News, is now officially over. And yes, Virginia - Christmas won.

and then i find this article on a major corporation trying to whore in on street taggers and graffiti artists. evidently, t.v., billboards, newspaper flyers, junk mail and random spam mails just earning the bread for Sony investors. now, the giant is tagging walls in violation of local law. to declare that the target consumer is too busy playing Grand Theft Auto to pay attention to its newest toy is basically saying that Sony sells to morons. however, what Sony is trying to sell us is that its consumer base is the street tagger, the hip guy on the street, the next wave in fashion. and this is the very guy who would tell Sony to stick its "lollipop" up its ass and call him/it a fag based on the imagery.
"gee willikers, beav, i think the retard's fallen in love with his dad's swat stick."
also, the kid on the wall looks positively stoned out of his mind. perhaps the gameplayer was swabbed with one of those mayan toads for visual enhancement.
by the way, has anyone else noticed that the more mature rating a game has the lower i.q. it takes to play it?
"Marketers are desperate to find ways to reach people," Garfield said. "Especially young men, who are far too busy playing Grand Theft Auto to notice, say, a 30-second TV commercial."

All The King's Men

i can't vouch for the article, but it does fall in line with arguments i've made here and in newspapers. depleted uranium (DU) is a nuclear weapon. in the first gulf war, we left behind between 500 and 1000 metric tons of its dust. i have no legitimate numbers concerning this war, but pre-estimates were in the range of 1000-2000 metric tons.
the thing is DU makes a great weapon point, because it begins to burn extremely hotly and can pierce tempered steel like that which is used to plate tanks. the only problem is that it continues to burn. forget what it will do to the skin if it makes contact in that state. the real concern is what it can do in particulate form (after it's done burning). DU is depleted uranium, a radioactive substance. it cannot be thrown away by nuclear power plants. it has a long half-life and must be stored for lengths of time that greatly surpass our own lifetimes. if it is ingested through the lungs it can and often will cause fatal cancers. more often, it causes organ failure. and immune system deficiencies. and birth defects. but, because we tip our standard armaments with it, we can claim we are not using nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction. you see, a little bit of this stuff in your lungs might not do anything. standing near it will not cause your testicles or ovaries to fall off. but live around it for any extended period of time and your chances of serious or fatal disease becomes very likely. besides malnutrition, DU is blamed by many health agencies as the leading cause of death and birth defect of iraqi children since 1991.
there is and will continue to be argument as to whether using a depleted radioactive substance counts as nuclear warfare. one, the government would have to admit accountability (legally, morally and financially); two, 1991 was the first time this weapon was deployed (so there is no precedent). three, we think of nuclear warfare as mushroom clouds and thousands dead in an instant.
i think that this use falls into the weapons of mass destruction category. why? because it is more insidious and subtler. and will affect many times more people than a nuclear bomb ever could. and no one will know until it's too late. at least, the people breathing the stuff won't. those of us on this side of the ocean should. but we're content to wave our protest banners and shout out slogans about how we've been against the war since the beginning. sort of like putting a magnet ribbon on a car to invoke patriotism. words and slogans. while hundreds of thousands of people are exposed to possible cancer and worse.
isn't it about or past time to demand that our leaders hold themselves to the same standards that they do other leaders of other countries? i'm not against war per se. sometimes a country has to stop another for the greater good. that's our history as a species. but how can we justify force to stop "evil" if we participate in the very acts we accuse the others of doing? we found no weapons of mass destruction in iraq, but we are leaving the mother of all WMDs in our wake.
any of you reading this can call me to task by asking for stats backed by reference. and i can't give it to you. because there are none. not for the illnesses. not for the iraqi children (and, by now, adults). the government does not accept that DU causes illness. no independent groups have been (to my knowledge) allowed unfettered access to those people affected. the news is all anecdotal. the stats are anecdotal. even the scientists and doctors who back my claims state that we may not know the total truth for decades, because radioactive illnesses can take a long time. as for the iraqi children... no one keeps track of how they die above noting time and probable cause of death (which normally looks like malnutrition). not to mention that most iraqi families have no access to doctors. the children grow sick and die. the family wails and buries within 24 hours. where have i been going with this? well, it just seems that all sides of the so-called debate about this war of ours has concentrated itself within the guise of "liar liar pants on fire" or "it's our god-given duty". no one in the mainstream is looking at this from a humanitarian perspective and what the future holds for all of those who are actually there.
well, harry holimas. i and my mimosa (which i drink in the relative safety of my house) salute you and yours and hope you have a SSM-curmudgeon-free weekend.
cheers!

Because I said So, Part II

as we all know by now, president bush has broken a major law. he went around FISA (the secret court put in place by jimmy carter that authorizes warrants for wiretapping) in order to spy on americans. he did so without the consent of this secret court (that has granted over 10,000 warrants and denied only 4 in 20+ years. he, also, did not inform congress in toto. no dorothy jokes there, please. and no changing inform to perform. civility, people.
so, here's my version of bush's various versions of the defense:

1. No, I didn't.
2. I'm not going to discuss sensitive military programs.
3. No, I didn't. Yeah, I did. Forgettaboutit.
4. Yeah. I did. So what?
5. It's not so much what I did as what they didn't tell me I couldn't do.
6. Clinton and Carter did it.
7. We're investigating the leak, because it's federal crime to leak this sort of thing.
8. No comment.
9. Iraqi elections. Good stuff. Bought a well there once.
10. I have this book I like to read called My Pet Goat.

and that was it. thankyouthankyouthankyou. and if you're into Half Knackered Harry Holimas as much as I am, then finish that beer and get me another. and we shall toast to ourselves and all who love us. and to all who don't...enjoy the canape.


(9:20 pm) added note:
the rain is falling like beach rain. a heavy drizzle with some mist. if you stand in it too long you will get very wet. but to watch? oh so cool. wetto is very, very confused. but she got all new cat litter. amazing how many times they go use it when they hang inside all of the time. those poor bushes back at my last place...and it would explain my problem getting bulbs to grow.

#312 from Reasons To Hate Cats: They won't fertilize for you. In fact, they crap where they crap on purpose.

whether it's to intentionally kill all living organisms within a two foot radius is up to debate. the fact that it does is not. if i could just teach her to shit in the woods.

Because I said So

coming down buckets up here today. basically, a solid week or more of rain. it's making up for the two weeks of dryness before. i'm coming on to a cold so all harry holimas plans are on hold. but it was bound to happen. a bug was flying around the office and peeing in one coffee cup after another, puking up on keyboards and mouses (love them little mousies, mousies what i love to eat...), rubbing its bum on telephone mouthpieces and the like. so, cali-boy takes one in the shorts as he was too busy forcing his body to adjust to a new climate. i've called in sick to work and tried to get some sleep, but Wetto (my cat) has cabin fever and is modifying her daily freakout schedule. normally, it's a once-a-day thing. now, it's every hour. i've gained a new appreciation for the cartoon strip called "get fuzzy".
but my copy of the 11th book in the robert jordan "wheel of time" series arrived yesterday and i've been happily devouring that in between naps.
another joyful thing is the sound i hear a few times a day. now, in fresno i would hear the (taped) bells of st. therese every hour. what a wonderful, relaxing thing. up here in this ship repair town the sound is that of foghorns as ships pull in and ships pull out and work shifts end. it's much too far away to rattle the good china (speaking of which, has anyone ever put out the bad china?), but it's a gentle reminder of the fact that i am surrounded by water. and the shipyard has grand fireworks shows when it finishes a job. there was an aircraft carrier parked here and when the work was finished they held a 45 minute show to celebrate. i could see most of it from my front window. too bad i didn't get a photo of it before it left. ah well. my digital camera will arrive soon and then i can bore you all with how ugly it is up here.

by the way, i wouldn't be doing my duty if i didn't remind everyone that they should research the articles of impeachment, because that is what's going to happen to bush if i have my way...though definately not before next year's congressional elections. democraps need to pull even with or overtake the republithugs in order to make it happen. oh, and the dems need to grow a spine. sometimes, it's more important to take a stand and risk public failure than it is to not and ensure re-election. these so-called public servants are not so much. on either side of the aisle. when they're voted out or they retire they go right into lobbying business and begin earning 10-20 times what they were as "public servants". so, for most of them this whole elected gig is just one rung on a ladder that keeps going up. it's resume fodder. it's glitz and glam and gary glitter. and every season we look to the rookies, hoping they will provide the shock and awe so desparately needed to infuse conscience and moral fiber back into that cesspool we call washinton, d.c. but then we get pissed if they don't line up with everything we stand for. no wonder they become so jaded so fast.
some of my friends like to blame the current climate solely on bush and his bedfellows (he did get a man date after all). but really it's us. we vote them in. or we don't vote at all. either way we bitch when things don't go our way. and, yes, politics is as broken as the california welfare and child support systems. but defending our way of life as a democracy does not mean going to the polls when asked to and then ignoring it after that. and it doesn't mean banging a gong and screaming about crypto-facism and then not voting at all. voting is not a privilege. it is a duty. the pols are supposed to work for us, but as long as they know or feel we're sheep who will do what we're told they will continue to walk all over us. on both sides of the aisle.
maybe it's time for someone to buy two hours of airtime on all of the major network stations and run "network" so no matter which channel you turn to...there it is.

Godzilla VS Meganaire

okay. wait a minute.so, yeah, here i am suggesting impeachment upon president bush. but i haven't thought about the ramifications of it. if bush is booted then cheney assumes the mantle. and cheney is vastly more intelligent, machiavellian, inhuman and driven. this wouldn't be nixon/ford. this would be...worse. much worse. there would be no waffling. there would be plundering and raping at a meteoric pace.
as a liberal democrat i should be loudly cheering bush's latest gaffe that actually qualifies a major crime. you know? finally, something that no one can deny. but yet...
i begin to wonder who leaked that bit of news to the papers. have you noticed that the white house has not announced an investigation on any paper's page one? bush condemned the leak. he even went so far as to say that that information was top-secret. and he couldn't believe that someone would leak it? think back to valerie plame and compare these two. with plame they promised an investigation and bush said that anyone involved in the leak would not be working for the white house anymore. then he amended that to anyone arrested. then he watered it down to anyone found guilty. eventually (in one speech) he changed it to convicted. this time there's nothing. and to me the question now becomes "is this the house of cards that was supposed to fall a long time ago and somehow hasn't yet?".
so, we boot bush and in comes cheney. and that scares the hell out of me. he's been running the show. so, who leaked the info? why do we always think it must be a person of conscience? i think there's a pony's chance of the leaker being someone greedier. someone more like cheney.
and suddenly i wonder if keeping bush in might be better than allowing cheney full access. what're the fucking odds on this one?
but i'm also the guy who stands in the drizzle up here and yells "piss harder". so maybe i'm not the proper barrister. and maybe sometimes a piss is just a piss.

Has Bush Created Such A Mess That Impeachment Can't Be An Option?

From the White House website itself in April 2004 is the transcript of one of his speeches. Below is a portion. Click here to view the entire piece. It speaks for itself. Bush broke the very law he claimed he was upholding and would uphold. He lied. Plain and simple to the people in the audience and to the nation. This is much, much worse than a blowjob. Remember that as he was speaking these words he had already reauthorized warrantless wiretapping multiple times. This should be considered a treasonable action:
(italics are mine)
"Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.
But a roving wiretap means -- it was primarily used for drug lords. A guy, a pretty intelligence drug lord would have a phone, and in old days they could just get a tap on that phone. So guess what he'd do? He'd get him another phone, particularly with the advent of the cell phones. And so he'd start changing cell phones, which made it hard for our DEA types to listen, to run down these guys polluting our streets. And that changed, the law changed on -- roving wiretaps were available for chasing down drug lords. They weren't available for chasing down terrorists, see? And that didn't make any sense in the post-9/11 era. If we couldn't use a tool that we're using against mobsters on terrorists, something needed to happen.
The Patriot Act changed that. So with court order, law enforcement officials can now use what's called roving wiretaps, which will prevent a terrorist from switching cell phones in order to get a message out to one of his buddies.
Thirdly, to give you an example of what we're talking about, there's something called delayed notification warrants. Those are very important. I see some people, first responders nodding their heads about what they mean. These are a common tool used to catch mobsters. In other words, it allows people to collect data before everybody is aware of what's going on. It requires a court order. It requires protection under the law. We couldn't use these against terrorists, but we could use against gangs.

Harry Holimus

so, "dr. germ" and "mrs. anthrax"---two leading scientists in saddam hussein's bio-warfare department--- were released today from U.S. custody. evidently, their story that all bio-weapons had been destroyed before our dirty little war began is true. we, on the other hand, are merely saying that they represent no threat to us. we are not saying, "oopsie. whaddya know? that goldurned saddam wasn't shittin' us. maybe we shouldn't have forced out those UN inspectors right before we started bombing. um, i mean we shouldn't have bombed. um, i mean it's all about the democracy, ya know? don't be a defeatist. defeatism sucks and takes away from analyzing history...later on."
wait a minute. hold the phone. wasn't it dick cheney who claimed that saddam kicked the UN out that last time? why, i think it was. not us. no sir. we did not tell the UN we could no longer vouch for the inspectors' safety, because we were about to begin taking out biblically important sites (evidently, oil rigs and financial centers aren't). even though those inspectors had completely unfettered access to any and all sites and the saddam regime was no longer slowing them down. not ONE WMD. nowhere. nada. nights. niente. zip. zilcho. null set. absent. did saddam have them? well, you bet. who did he get them from? well, democracy and freedom. back when iran was the axis of evil. so to speak. wait, it still is. funny how the enemies of your enemies are your frineds until they're not and your enemies still are. kind of makes a person wonder if the shenanigans are worth it in the long run. unless, of course, democracy and freedom for a people who don't know what the hell you're talking about are on the line. then, it's an imperative. until it's not. or until the military/industrial complex whispers that its backers (read: manufacturers) aren't making a big enough profit from the annual "blow everything up so all of our military budgets can be renewed for the same or higher level". did you know that? before each year fiscally ends for the military there is a mass movement to explode as many armaments as possible. why? because if you don't then the government decides in its infinite wisdom that your branch of the military must not need as much money the next year. the military would have us believe that these armaments have a very short safe life expectancy, but that's not true. we're using artillery in iraq right now that have been stockpiled for years. but to keep even with the other military branches each branch feels the need (no, knows the need) to rid itself of as much artillery as possible. this is "rising to the highest level of one's incompetence" as possible. our government will slash funding for groups that prove they can operate within their boundaries. militarily, that is. why doesn't it, instead, reward for fiscal responsibility? ironic, too, that it is cutting funding on the very domestic and social groups that need more and complaining that they don't do enough oversight and rein in their spending (even as these groups watch their funding diminish each and every year). so, simple government math. overfunded military + needless spending = more. underfunded domestic/social programs + need = no more free handouts you lazy welfare queens and useless commoners.
how i got to this from iraq i don't know. but if you'd been on the receiving end of my phone call with my boss 30 minutes ago about something i have no control over, you wouldn't know or care.
Harry Holimus!

Bush Tried To Snow Us This Weekend And The Weather Up Here Shows Him How It's Really Done

hey, it's snowing a bit tonight. it probably won't stick around (it won't get cold enough). but still, whoo hoo! it looks great falling through the streetlights.
and that reminds me: as we all should know by now, president bush broke the law by authorizing spying on US citizens without first getting warrants as proscribed by judicial system. thinkprogress.com has dug up some of alberto gonzalez's testimony before congress when he was being nominated to attorney general. oopsie...he flat-out said bush was not above the law and that he would inform congress if illegalities were commited by the Chimp. go here for more.