Welcome to the home of the very worst of the meretricious poetasters!
number 78 for 10-31-05:
A New Era of Responsibility
The obvious story to begin with is the pick and ultimate rejection of Harriet Miers.
This is a strange story. Not strange because it all made sense, which it did, but strange because things making sense was something that I thought lost to time in much the same fashion as the pet rock or my hopes for actually making money doing this shit.
Here's the timeline. Bush nominates Harriet Miers for the position of Supreme Court justice. I write a brief bit about it, pointing out how I don't support her as I did Roberts after consideration because of the fact that she has no experience.
I then sit back and await a bunch of articles showing how all of the Republican leaders are falling into lockstep and supporting her anyway, the revelation that she's strongly anti-abortion, and a subsequent filibuster that results in the sadistic choice, whereby Bush says if you nominate Miers I might do something you guys want instead of shitting in your face, like agree to withdraw a few hundred troops (In other words, get what he wants by giving the Dems something they can use to say they offered a token resistance.). I then expected confirmation, followed by a majority decision against Roe V. Wade in about five to ten years.
Instead, here's what happened.
Republicans DIDN'T fall into lockstep. In fact, they crapped in the president's hat and said, "How dare you nominate someone without experience? What the fuck were you thinking? This is the SUPREME COURT!" At first, they did this because she wasn't notoriously right wing. Then they did it after finding out that she was totally against abortion. The pressure increased, the Republicans didn't offer enough votes to confirm her, and she was withdrawn.
What the FUCK?
What the...
How the hell did that happen? I'm as perplexed as a dreaming dog, wagging my damned feet and getting nowhere.
It's a pleasant surprise, and I don't know how to handle it.
I'll just say, thanks. At least, until Bush nominates his uber-conservative guy tomorrow morning.
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"...the documents provide a rare glimpse into the world of domestic spying, which is governed by a secret court and overseen by a presidential board that does not publicize its deliberations." (From the below article) You HAVE to be kidding me.
You mean, we gave the FBI almost unlimited surveillance power with no checks and balances governed by a secret court, and some people are ABUSING it?
You'd think someone would have seen this coming.
Oh yeah, a shitload of people did. It's just that no one listened to them, and now they're being investigated.
Me? Hell, I love America, Jesus, and fucking war. No way they're gonna be ever looking into me. And hell, if I don't have anything nice to say, why would I say it at all? I say fry these commie bastards back to the hell they deserve, and then later some historian can write a book out of it claiming that we didn't know what the hell was going on, but it's all okay now because the United States of the World are so great, or else. Right?
Let the eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagle soaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar,
With wiretaps for eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeveryone!
This message brought to you by Big Brother.
We're watching you.
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There is a law in many states that allows pharmacists not to distribute drugs if they have a religious aversion to doing so.
I remember reporting on it a while back, and I've forgotten my position, but let me just say, evaluating it now, that I believe it makes sense. You shouldn't have to compromise your integrity or beliefs for any jobs. Too bad this doesn't extend to every job, where you're regularly required to compromise your beliefs and your integrity for a dollar, but it's a policy I support.
However, laws must provide for exceptions, and in that this law fails, something needs to change. Currently, in places that are very religious where abortions are near impossible to get and religion is the norm, even RAPED women cannot get their hands on the "morning after" pill.
The one in the article below finally found one, but the pharmacist on duty said that offering a pill that induced abortion would compromise his morals, so he refused to give her one.
Ergo, the solution to this is simple. Take any drug that pharmacists dispute (it's easy enough to make a list) and make them available at every public hospital.
As it is right now, it discriminates unfairly. I pity both parties here. The state should have had more foresight in this matter.
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This girl pisses me off. I've been tromping around Mt. Rainier for seven adult years now and I have yet to even SIGHT a damned buck, but she found a killed a fucking black bear, the first one of the season, and she's eight.
Congratulations, though, kid. You little bastard. You little lucky fuck.
I'm bitter, but this story is actually really heartwarming. I'm just kidding around. I'm happy for the girl.
Any time I can read a story about kids living a happy, engaging life as opposed to being thrown in front of a fucking train (see below) is cause for celebration.
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So! Rosa Parks. What can I say about Rosa Parks that hasn't already been said about the troops?
What does that mean, you say? It means that demonizing Rosa Parks is like shitting all over America, and there's a reason for that. She, like Martin Luther King, has become a symbol for the endeavor for equality, and in that, she deserves to be lauded in the same sense that we honor MacArthur. MacArthur is not the reason we won the war, the reason we won the war are all of the courageous, unnamed people under his tutelage, but Douggie still gets the movies.
Do I think Rosa deserves state burial? No more than any of the men lynched for believing in equality. But given that we have to focus our energies somewhere, better a woman like her, and given interviews I've seen, she'd probably feel much the same as I do, which is very reassuring.
And plus, how many historical figures got that way by being a pissant? "Hey, nigger, get to the back of the bus!"
Furrowed brow. "Honkey, go FUCK yourself!"
Now THAT is some fucking pinash. Makes me think I might some day have something to offer history.
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There are 26 million people in Iraq.
There are 295 million people in the US.
We talk about the military cost of our deaths. And I would not belittle them for a second. Each and every life, I believe, is a disgrace on our president's name, but a reason to sing the name of that soldier. He did what is the hardest for his country. Dying for a noble cause is easy. Dying for an ignoble cause is hell. And one might argue that dying is not easy either way, but I'd rather lay in rest knowing that I'd done the right thing instead of questioning.
"What if the soldier believed they were doing right, Neal?"
I don't know. I'm not prepared to put my thoughts onto theirs. I know there is dissent about this war in the military. I know men have died that didn't want to. I know men have died believing this cause is ignoble.
But right or wrong, one of the things that solidifies my thinking that this war is ignoble is the fact that, right or wrong, it could have been avoided, and less Americans would die.
"But Neal, then more Iraqis would be dying as a result of Saddam's rule!"
If Saddam sharpened a stick and went to poking out eyes constantly, he would not be NEAR so successful as we have been at slaughtering Iraqis. The latest reports suggest that though we have lost 2,000 men and some 13,000 have debilitating injuries, 26,000 Iraqis have DIED as a result of our invasion.
That is approximately one in every 1,000 people in Iraq dead, as opposed to our one in every 150,000, who died voluntarily as a result of being in the military. And that's just since the insurgency started.
In other words, our dead are noble, but they chose it. We put 26,000 deaths unnecessarily on people in Iraq. If that's not ignoble, ask me again, I'll show you something else.
It's hard to tear down religion. Sometimes good comes from what it does.
It's never easy to slight a war, and that's why we should fight to avoid them.
We fail.
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Why is this news?
Ford workers are spending more than the allotted 48 minutes a shift in the bathroom, so supervisors have been asked to clamp down.
This is news how?
Why?
I mean, if you spend more than 48 minutes out of eight hours in the damned shitter, you should be fired. It's obvious. They're trying to turn this into a worker's rights issue. There are worker's rights issues at Ford, let me stress, that I have read of. But one of them is not, "Oh, Jesus, I need an hour on the shitter out of every eight."
Sweet Christ, this is sensationalism, and it does a cause that I respect, earning proper wages and breaks for hard workers, a total disservice.
This is what Republicans point to and say, "Aha! People abuse corporation goodwill!", which is a crock of shit. Let's not give them any more evidence, huh?
Glad the article has no named writer for it, either. Shit, might make a bad career move taking responsibility for this article, huh?
Good going. Give the Ford company a way to distract stockholders from the fact that because they make vehicles that are faulty and guzzle gas, it's all the worker's fault.
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Advertising a church? You're cool.
Advertising a for-profit church? You're cool.
Advertising for a wrestling match where the contestants beat the holy snot out of each other? You're cool.
Advertising a cell phone network which encourages children to waste money and become morons? Boffo.
Advertising a car that gets 12 miles per gallon despite looming economic oil crisis? Aw, shucks. Awesome.
You're a private business that sells adult magazines, and you want to put up a billboard to advertise your business that involves neither nudity, words implying nudity, hell, an ad that just says, "Bernie's, exit 153.", and there's a law against you that judges will not strike down.
This is a violation of the freedom of speech, even if you don't agree with the speech.
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When President Clinton was impeached, I actually agreed with the process. At the time, I thought he'd besmirched the office. I thought, frankly, it was one of the worst things a president could do. I didn't know about Bush. I didn't know he was coming.
And in retrospect, I still encourage Clinton's prosecution for perjury.
I don't think we should have spent 8 times the amount of money that we spent on the 9/11 commission on it.
But I'm glad we prosecuted a president for wrongdoing. It keeps presidents sincere, or at least better at covering shit up, the more likely.
I am, and I am not shitting you when I say this, watching the news right now and watching right wing pundits, the same who believed that Clinton should have been impeached and removed from office, saying that Libby and Rove deserve to be left alone because "perjury isn't really that big of a crime".
These are the same people that called for Clinton's head.
My position? Clinton should have been fried, and by God, so should Rove and Libby. And for covering it up, Cheney should resign.
Bush should stick to his guns and fire at least Rove, as he said he would through Scott McClellan.
What will happen?
Well, what's already stated. Bush is stressing that Libby is innocent until proven guilty and trying to split hairs about what he did through paid PR firms.
"I'm going to bring back a new era of responsibility." - Bush's campaign promise before election.
Yep. He was gonna bring back the good old morals and values to the White House, eliminating the scandal that plagues Clinton's second term.
Uh...whups?
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And finally, a millionaire just paid 690,000 dollars for a car the pope once sat in.
The man who bought it has over 600 cars.
If I had a few million dollars, I would collect some things, no doubt. I might even have a Star Wars toy room. Hell, right now I have over 300 DVDs, and I enjoy the hell out of them on a tv that cost an arm and a leg. I imagine I might even build myself a private theater.
But if I EVER spend enough money to feed the homeless in a large city for most of a year on BULLSHIT, I would not feel content to look myself in the eye. If I paid 690,000 dollars for a car, I would fly up to myself from the past and shoot myself in the head.
That people can do this bullshit in a world so full of misery alone is proof that there is no God.
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ENDLESS HORROR WITH CHILDREN (FOR GOD)
We gather today to thank you, God.
For the mother who put her 2-year-old child on train tracks to be run over.
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For convoluting the mind of an elderly man so much that he thought his caregiver was stealing from him, and for allowing that man to have a gun and shoot said caregiver.
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For sending a cat into the path of a car which then swerved and ran over 36 children.
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For electrocuting a preacher in the middle of a baptism. (Way to reward the faithful).
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PATENT BULLSHIT (we shouldn't care, but we do)
This is no shit AND patent bullshit.
Apparently, the guy who plays Harry Potter has a crush on Hermione. No shit? Really? I mean, anyone with half a brain would have a crush on her. Hell, I have impure thoughts about her ass that would get me jailed were I to act on them. Should we give a shit about it, though? No. It's nothing but fluff in the air, but apparently it merits more time than the war in Iraq or Libby.
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