As I said a while back...
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Political
I think it was around 2 weeks before the election I wrote that even if John Kerry got the most votes I wasn't counting on him actually becoming president. My reasoning was that the neocons would cheat and do everything possible to make sure that Bush won. Turns out I was right. Kerry did get the most votes and Bush is still president. It DID happen here. Right in my own backyard.

Thanks for nothing Ken Blackwell and Diebold. I don't want to wish misfortune on either of them but it won't break my heart if they get hit by a train...


This article is from the Akron Beacon-Journal website Ohio.com


Analysis points to election `corruption'

Group says chance of exit polls being so wrong in '04 vote is one-in-959,000

By Stephen Dyer
Beacon Journal staff writer

There's a one-in-959,000 chance that exit polls could have been so wrong in predicting the outcome of the 2004 presidential election, according to a statistical analysis released Thursday.

Exit polls in the November election showed Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., winning by 3 percent, but President George W. Bush won the vote count by 2.5 percent.

The explanation for the discrepancy that was offered by the exit polling firm -- that Kerry voters were more likely to participate in the exit polling -- is an ``implausible theory,'' according to the report issued Thursday by US Count Votes, a group that claims it's made up of about two dozen statisticians.

Twelve -- including a Case Western Reserve University mathematics instructor -- signed the report.

Instead, the data support the idea that ``corruption of the vote count occurred more freely in districts that were overwhelmingly Bush strongholds.''

The report dismisses chance and inaccurate exit polling as the reasons for their discrepancy with the results.

They found that the one hypothesis that can't be ruled out is inaccurate election results.

``The hypothesis that the voters' intent was not accurately recorded or counted... needs further investigation,'' it said.

The conclusion drew a yawn from Ohio election officials, who repeated that the discrepancy issue was settled when the polling firms Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International disavowed its polls because Kerry voters were more likely to answer exit polls -- the theory Thursday's report deemed ``implausible.''

Ohio has been at the center of a voter disenfranchisement debate since the election.

``What are you going to do except laugh at it?'' said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who's responsible for administering Ohio's elections and is a Republican candidate for governor. ``We're not particularly interested in (the report's findings). We wish them luck, but hope they find something more interesting to do.''

The statistical analysis, though, shows that the discrepancy between polls and results was especially high in precincts that voted for Bush -- as high as a 10 percent difference.

The report says if the official explanation -- that Bush voters were more shy about filling out exit polls in precincts with more Kerry voters -- is true, then the precincts with large Bush votes should be more accurate, not less accurate as the data indicate.

The report also called into question new voting machine technologies.

``All voting equipment technologies except paper ballots were associated with large unexplained exit poll discrepancies all favoring the same party, (which) certainly warrants further inquiry,'' the report concludes.

However, LoParo remained unimpressed.

``These (Bush) voters have been much maligned by outside political forces who didn't like the way they voted,'' he said. ``The weather's turning nice. There are more interesting things to do than beat a dead horse.'

from Ohio.com

Fucking fascists. God Save The U.S.A.

From Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Political
During the 2004 Presidential campaign, Congressman Brown sent messages to interested Democratic supporters, volunteers, and people committed to changing our country. Continuing that fight for social and economic justice, Congressman Brown sends this message to you. If this is your first message, we welcome you. If you have been with us all along, thank you for staying the course and working to make our country better.

The following is Sherrod's report.


Grover Norquist - college friend of Karl Rove, confidante of Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney, guru of the Republican revolution - said recently: "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitols - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship."

After watching the events of the last two weeks surrounding the tragedy of the Schiavo family, the GOP strategy of
distract-and-divide is becoming more and more apparent. It may be hypocritical for the party of states' rights to involve Congress, the President, and the federal courts in a decision already decided by the state of Florida. It may be a bit disingenuous for the "party of family values" to intervene in the most personal of family decisions. It may seem ironic, even sanctimonious, for a party which hates big government to bring Congress and the President back to Washington on a Sunday night - at a cost in excess of $1 million - to advocate for more Medicaid and Medicare spending for one person while cutting Medicaid by $60 billion for our nation's most vulnerable citizens.

But so be it. It distracts attention from Republican Majority
Leader Tom DeLay's career-ending ethics problems, and from
Republican failures to reign in the exploding budget deficit.

Even better, it rallies the Republican far-right base for the
approaching confirmation fights for President Bush's most
conservative judicial appointments. And if that's not enough, the Schiavo family tragedy presented an opportunity for Florida
Governor Jeb Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to audition for the 2008 Republican Presidential primary: who could be more appealing to the far right -the governor of a key swing state who tried to push the Florida legislature and judiciary to "save Terri's life"? Or the
physician-senator who put his medical ethics and training aside to diagnose a patient from a three-year-old, edited set of videotapes?

The more responsible media mentioned polls showing 70-80 percent of Americans disapproving of the President Bush and Congress' involvement in this family's tragedy. Many media outlets, however, have missed the Republican distract-and-divide strategy, instead dutifully reporting on each attempt as if it's major public policy. So the Bush-Rove-Norquist strategy continues to rally the far-right base in state capitals and in Washington.

Look at a few examples in Columbus and in Washington.

In 1983, when facing a real crisis in Social Security, a Republican president and a Democratic Congress worked out a solution, making America's pension system and disability and survivors insurance program solid for decades to come. Today, Republicans have used Social Security to divide Americans, to drive a wedge between generations, encouraging young people to question senior citizens' "greed."

At every opportunity, Republican lawmakers in Washington play off rich against poor - from tax cuts to welfare reform, from corporate welfare to Social Security benefit cuts. When Democrats point out that GOP tax cuts for the most privileged are directly tied to GOP cuts in programs for the most vulnerable, they repeatedly accuse us of class
warfare.

While Ohio's schools decline and tuition at our state universities
surge upwards far faster than the national average, the governor and the legislature repeatedly deny court orders to improve our public schools and instead pass legislation allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons.

While Ohio has lost one-fifth of our manufacturing jobs in the last four years and lead the nation in job loss, the governor and
legislature hold hearings on restricting academic freedom at state universities and fiddle away their time on gay marriage legislation.

The Schiavo family tragedy, however, has led to two good things. First, millions of Americans are talking about end-of-life issues with the people they love, and many of them are adopting living wills. And second, more and more Americans - including Bush voters - are figuring out what this crowd in DC is all about.

Since I began "Dispatches from the Trenches" nine months ago, I have always asked you to do something. Continue to do what so many of you have done in the last year: call radio talk shows; write letters to the editor to daily and weekly papers; do book studies with friends; organize, organize, organize.

We need you more than ever.

Sherrod

Backward Christian Soldiers
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Political
Here is a great article on the Terri Schiavo case. It's from The Nation. I really thought the right wing whack-jobs were going to blow a vein over Terri Schiavo. I don't recall ever seeing them so rabid and out of control. They smell blood in the water folks. We better start speaking up or before we know it we'll be living in the United States of Fanatical Christianity. Don't get me wrong, I believe in God, but The God these nuts are talking about does not add up to the one I have seen in action. These are some dangerous times if you happen to believe in the values our country was founded on. These people are certifiably nuts and they'll stop at nothing (including murder) to prove their God is a just and loving God.

It cracks me up that all these pro-lifers are willing to kill to get their way. Fucking hypocrites...

Read on for a great take on the whole thing. Thanks to The Nation website.

Backward Christian Soldiers
by Katha Pollitt


Maybe, just maybe, the religious right and its Republican friends have finally gone too far with the Terri Schiavo case. Americans may tell pollsters the earth was created in six days flat and dinosaurs shared the planet with Adam and Eve, but I don't believe they want Tom DeLay to be their personal physician. I don't think they want fanatics moaning and praying outside the hospital while they're making hard decisions. I don't think they want people getting arrested trying to "feed" their comatose relatives, or issuing death threats against judges and spouses in the name of "life." I don't think John Q. Public wants Jeb Bush to adopt his wife or Newt Gingrich to call her by her first name or Senator Frist to diagnose her by video, or Jesse Jackson to pop in at the last minute for a prayer and a photo-op.

The Terri Schiavo freak show is so deeply crazy, so unhinged, such a brew of religiosity and hypocrisy and tabloid sensationalism, just maybe it is clueing people in to where the right's moral triumphalism is leading us. Before Congress jumped into the act, Republicans may have seen a great opportunity to paint the Democrats as the "party of death." No thanks to the Dems, who mostly cowered, the stratagem backfired: The weekend after Schiavo's feeding tube was withdrawn, 75 percent of Americans told CBS pollsters they wanted government to stay out of end-of-life issues, and 82 percent thought Congress and the President should have kept away. Jesse Jackson seems not to have gotten the memo--he's calling for the Florida legislature to overturn thirty years of carefully crafted medical ethics and pass a previously rejected bill requiring patients in a persistent vegetative state to remain on life support forever, unless they've left a written directive to the contrary. If that's the "religious left," forget it.

It's about time Americans woke up. The Schiavo case only looks unprecedented: For decades, women seeking to terminate pregnancies have faced gantlets of screamers, invasions of privacy, violence in the name of "saving babies," charges of murder and of evil motives, politically motivated legal obstacles, spurious medical "expertise" (abortion causes breast cancer; Terri Schiavo just needs therapy). There is the same free-floating vitriol: Abortion is the "Silent Holocaust," while, according to Peggy Noonan, those who support Ms.
Schiavo's right to die are on "a low road that twists past Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz" (that would be the same road that Tom DeLay and his family went down when they withheld life support from his critically injured father--the same road, in fact, that Robert Schindler, Terri's father, took when he turned off his mother's life support).

Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue showman who wants to make America a "Christian nation" and to "execute" doctors who perform abortions, is the Schindlers' chief strategist; other
Operation Rescuers in the hospice parking lot include the Rev. Pat Mahoney, who freely gives out Michael Schiavo's home address; Cheryl Sullenger, who served two years for conspiring to bomb an abortion clinic in 1987; and Scott Heldreth, a convicted sex offender who told an AP reporter that driving long hours to the hospice and getting arrested was all his 10-year-old son's idea.

In this transposition of the abortion drama, Terri Schiavo is the defenseless fetus; her husband, Michael, is the callous "convenience" aborter; and the Schindlers are the would-be adoptive couple doomed to childlessness by tyrannical judges. But there's a difference. Abortion happens to women--bad girls, sluts. Because of the shame and secrecy around abortion, you can believe, probably wrongly, that you don't know anyone who's had one and, thanks to your virtuous life, that you would never need one yourself. But anyone can fall into a permanent coma, and death comes to us all. Millions of people have had to make end-of-life decisions for loved ones or for themselves;
they've had to think about what a life is--a pulse? a reflex? a thought?--and what a person is, and what that person would have wanted. And because of this collective experience, most Americans know that to "err on the side of life," as the enthusiastic death-penalty fan and Medicaid-cutter George
W. Bush advises, is just a slogan.

Your wife with Alzheimer's who's
stopped eating and drinking is alive. Do you intubate or not? Your father in a stroke-induced coma is alive. Do you treat his pneumonia or see it as "the old man's friend"? When do you go for aggressive treatment, when do you let the person go, when do you decide the person has already gone and only their body is there in the bed? Over three decades, Americans won the right to make these painful, intimate decisions for themselves. That right--not disability rights or the possibility of medical miracles--is what is at stake in the Schiavo case. Most people, especially young people like Terri Schiavo, are never going to write living wills: Should no weight at all be given their spoken wishes or the conviction of their loved ones that, like Tom DeLay's father, they "would never have wanted to live like this"?

For many ordinary Americans, the stem cell debate was the first time the religious right strove to deprive them of something valuable. It's one thing to make women pay for sex with childbirth, or to deprive your children of modern scientific education, or to ostracize homosexuals, but it's going too far to value a frozen embryo more than Cousin Jim with Parkinson's. Now, with the Schiavo case, Americans have another opportunity to ask themselves if they really
want to live in Randall Terry's world, where the next Michael and Terri Schiavo could be anyone of us.

Fascism On The March. The Truth Comes Out.
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Political
FASCISM: often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

I don't truly believe a lot of the conspiracy theories that are being bandied about by the more radical element of my liberal brethren. Theories like The Bush regime closely resembles The Nazi Party of Germany in the 30's. Or the "secret societies" etc. that Bush and his cronies belong to that are slowly implementing their plan for ruling the world. I find the theories fun and interesting but I also find it hard to fathom that so many republicans could be smart enough to pull it off. That said, if I were a nut job extremist right-wing whacko intent on taking over a nation, I wouldn't do a thing differently from what Bush has done in 5 years in office... Maybe it can happen here.

This is from DailyKos.com and it's smoking gun proof that Bush and the Republican Party have no interest in the Constitution or The America we all grew up loving.

Again Thanks to DailyKos.com I think this is a letter from 3 readers of the site who were also involved in the described incident...read on.


This is incredible.

Very rarely does the everyday public get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes in a normally-secret Bush Administration.

But Monday, March 28, the Secret Service called three everyday people into their offices to discuss why we were kicked out of a presidential event in Denver last week where Bush promoted his plan to privatize Social Security. What they revealed to us and our lawyer was fascinating.

There we were - three people who had personally picked up tickets from Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez's office and went to a presidential event. But as we entered, we were told that we had been "ID'ed" and were warned that any disruption would get us arrested.

After being seated in the audience we were forcibly removed before the President arrived, even though we had not been disruptive. We were shocked when told that this presidential event was a "private event" and were commanded to leave.

More astonishingly, when the Secret Service was contacted the next day they agreed to meet with us this Monday, March 28 to discuss the circumstances surrounding our removal. We had two big questions going into this meeting:

How is the Bush Administration "ID'ing" citizens before presidential events?

Why was an official taxpayer-funded event called a "private event" - leading to citizens being kicked out?

Most shocking of all, we got answers to both questions.

The Secret Service revealed that we were "ID'ed" when local Republican staffers saw a bumper sticker on the car we drove which said "No More Blood For Oil." Evidently, the free speech expressed on one bumper sticker is cause enough to eject three citizens from a presidential event. (Similarly, someone was ejected from Bush's Social Security privatization event in Arizona the same day simply for wearing a Democratic t-shirt.)

The Secret Service also revealed that ticket distribution and staffing of the Social Security event was run by the local Republican Party. They wanted us to be clear that it was a Republican staffer - not the Secret Service - who kicked us out of the presidential event. But this revealed something else that should be startling to all Americans.

After allowing taxpayers to finance his privatization events (let's call them what they really are after all,) and after using the White House communications apparatus to set them up, Bush is privatizing the ticket distribution and security staffing at his events to the Republican Party. The losers are not just taxpayers, but anyone who values the First Amendment. Under the banner of a "private event" the Republican Party is excluding citizens from seeing their president because of the lone sin of expressing the wrong idea on a bumper sticker or t-shirt. The question for Americans is - will we allow our freedom to be privatized?

Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise. Alexander Young
Denver residents


I was emailed this account by the people involved, so it's straight from the horse's mouth.

The AP did a story on this as well.

"They hadn't done anything wrong. They weren't dressed inappropriately, they didn't say anything inappropriate," Recht said. "They were kicked out of this venue and not allowed to hear what the president had to say based solely on this political bumper sticker.

"The very essence of the First Amendment is that you can't be punished for the speech you make, the statements you make," Recht said.

So to emphasize -- the White House uses taxpayer dollars to finance these propaganda events. THEN, in order to keep out anyone who might be critical, they "outsource" ticketing and security. That way they can label the events "private" and kick out anyone they want in violation of the First Amendment.

Who in Congress will step up and call for an investigation?

You Might Be a Republican...
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Political
Thanks to Cronus.com

You Might Be A Republican If...


...you believe Bush’s tax cuts, a larger government, spending billions of dollars in wars and nation building have nothing to do with the deficit

...you believe that lying about sex is impeachable, but it is a fine thing to lie about the reasons American boys and girls are dying and being dismembered in an illegal war

...you believe spending money to build schools in America is a waste, but you support spending money to build schools in Iraq and Afghanistan

...you believe spending $40 billion a year for the Department of Education is too much, but spending $87 billion to rebuild the country we just spent billions of dollars bombing is good foreign policy

...you believe it’s patriotic and supportive of the military that Bush loves sending our troops into wars, and simultaneously cuts veteran’s benefits, military hazard pay and military family services.

...you believe raising the minimum wage to give more money to the working poor will cause inflation, but giving billions of dollars to the richest 5% of Americans will boost the economy

...you support the rights of a fetus, but if a baby is born to a poor person, you don’t believe the mother or the baby has the right to food, shelter or financial support

...you call anyone with opinions to the left of George W. Bush a "communist"

...you call yourself a “patriotic American,” but yet you display confederate flags to honor the people who rebelled against the USA

...you believe it's perfectly fine to send American jobs overseas for cheaper labor costs where children work for pennies a day in hellish conditions

...you believe everyone who isn’t a Protestant Christian is going to Hell

...you believe homosexuals should be tortured to death just for being homosexuals

...you believe we deserved to be attacked on 9/11 because we have homosexuals, feminists and liberals in this country

...you believe that liberals are a threat to humanity, but breathing dirty air, drinking dirty water, the polar ice caps melting and other ecological problems are good for you and good for business

...you believe that AIDS is divine punishment for sinfulness, even when babies are born with it

...you believe that people without scientific training are qualified to determine the content of biology texts

...you believe that federal welfare weakens people, but corporate welfare strengthens business

...you believe that global temperatures are affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate that occur in cycles exceeding 10,000 years, even though you don't believe that the earth is that old

...you believe that while you could never be homosexual yourself, other heterosexuals could easily be converted to homosexuality just by being in the presence of a homosexual

...you believe that state courts can't be trusted to punish businesses or examine ballots fairly, but you believe they can be trusted to administer the death penalty fairly

...you believe that power wielded by business is good but power wielded by government or the people is dangerous

...you believe that environmentalists don't care about nature, but mining interests, power companies and major polluters do

...you believe that youths won't have sex if they're never taught about birth control

...you believe that the ACLU is bad, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the NRA is good, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution

...you believe that inheritance doesn't breed the same type of slothfulness that other forms of entitlement do

...you believe that communism was not a viable system while simultaneously believing that only the "genius" of Ronald Reagan was able to defeat it

...you believe that all Americans compete on a level playing field
...you believe that Ken Starr is really a gentleman

...you believe that there is some magical quality about unregulated markets that cause businesses to operate in the public's best interests

...you believe that Republicans that sell missiles to our enemies deserve to be on Mt. Rushmore

...you believe that not examining ballots and appealing to judges is the best way to determine the outcome of an election

...you believe in state-sponsored public prayer in schools, as long as the children aren’t praying to any gods other than your god

...you believe that you love Jesus Christ, and that Jesus Christ loves you, and that Jesus Christ shares your hatred of liberals, the ACLU, feminists, environmentalists, AIDS victims, homosexuals, President Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the poor on welfare

...you believe that socialism hasn't worked anywhere, and that Europe doesn't exist or is irrelevant

...you believe that biology teachers are corrupting the morals of sixth-graders when they teach them the basics of human sexuality, but the Holy Bible, which is filled with sex and violence, is good reading for all children

Random thoughts on Sports
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Sports
Joe Montana is the greatest QB ever. Period. It was this simple for opposing teams. If the Niners were down but Joe had a minute and the ball then you were going to lose. Give Joe two minutes and all his time-outs and he could lead a drive from the next town over to beat you. He was just that good. Elway had more talent and Marino put up bigger numbers in that era but one guy has 4 super bowl rings...Joe Montana. He'd probably have 6 rings but some horrible officiating that gave a playoff game to the Redskins cost him a shot in 1983 and a ferocious Giants defense knocked him out of a playoff game in 1986. The guy was simply the best to ever play the position. If you don't believe me just ask John Madden.

ESPN has ruined sports. I think it's great that they cover as many games as they do but that abomination they call Sportscenter is the worst thing to ever happen. Sportscenter has done more to hurt the quality of play at all levels of sports than steroids, big money, free agency, and salary caps ever have. Nowhere is this more obvious than the NBA. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson saved the NBA only to have Sportscenter come along and destroy it. Watch a game from the 80's on ESPN classic then tell me the quality of play is as good today. Thanks to Sportscenter it's all about making the highlights now. Dunks and 3's are all that matter. It's too bad because the NBA used to be great.

Jim Rome is the biggest poser on the air. What a fucking loser. The next positive thing he has to say will be the first. He's the Rush Limbaugh of sports talk, a guy who has a deeply disturbed, loyal following of dorks who aren't in on the joke. He has his moments but as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Steroids in baseball. Roger Clemens has won 6 Cy Youngs and Barry Bonds has won 7 MVPs. C'mon, are these guys that fucking great on their own? In 100+ years of baseball no one was ever that great for that long, especially pitchers. Clemens was almost a castoff when he signed with Toronto. There were a lot of people who thought he was done at the time. All of a sudden he has a "new workout regimen" and he comes back better than ever. Yeah right. His new workout is called sticking a needle in your ass and getting huge and mean. Bonds was a freaking beanpole when he broke in to the bigs. I'll buy arms and legs getting bigger through weightlifting but you ain't ever going to convince me that a dude's head will grow three hat sizes because he's been lifting. These guys owe their longevity to science. They had crazy talent on their own and the roids made them supernatural. Unfortunately anything they do will be tainted forever. Bonds can hit 1000 homers but in my book he'll never be half the player Henry Aaron was.

Steroids have been out of control in baseball since at least 1995.

more later....

God help us...
Need further proof on how stupid the average republican is these days? Read on... This comes from the Washington Post so unfortunately it's actually true.

Now this is party loyalty: Nearly two out of three Republicans say they would support President Bush even if his political opponent were the father of our country.

In a theoretical matchup between George W. Bush and the other George W., George Washington, 62 percent of Republicans said they would vote for Bush and only 28 percent said they would back Gen. Washington. But because Democrats and independents went strongly for Washington, he held a healthy, 19-point advantage over Bush.

(WAIT, THERE"S MORE)

The Washington College poll provides more evidence of the woeful state of Americans' historical knowledge. Eighty-seven percent of those polled were unaware that Washington's first inauguration was in New York City -- 13 percent thought it was in yet-unborn Washington, D.C. -- and more than a quarter believed Washington lived in Monticello or had a Gettysburg address.

(THANK GOD FOR THINKING DEMOCRATS, NOTE WHO IS NUMBER TWO IN BEST PREZ EVER...)

A separate poll, by the Gallup Organization, found that only 5 percent of Americans believe Washington was the greatest president, putting him two percentage points ahead of Jimmy Carter. The leaders: Reagan (20 percent), Clinton (15 percent) and Lincoln (14 percent). The current president was tied with Washington at 5 percent.

For the love of God please tell me there aren't really people in this great nation who actually think dumbfuck Dubya is our greatest president. How fucking stupid can a person be? Well with 5% of the poll choosing Dubya, it looks like people can be more fucking stupid than I ever imagined possible. How did we end up here?

From the great Bill Maher
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Political
This is from the LA TImes via Buzzflash.com

COMMENTARY

Kids Say the Darndest, Most Stalinist Things
By Bill Maher

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher."

February 18, 2005

A new survey found that a majority of high schoolers think newspapers should not be allowed to publish without government approval. And almost one in five said that Americans should be prohibited from expressing unpopular opinions.

Lemme tell you little darlings something: This is my livelihood you're messing with, so either learn the Bill of Rights or you don't deserve Social Security.

Now, to those of you who think I'm overreacting: Yes, I understand that when you're in high school you're still very young and that no one really cares what kids say anyway -- it's not like priests are dating them for their brains.

But the younger generation is supposed to rage against the machine, not for it; they're supposed to question authority, not question those who question authority.

And what's so frightening is that we're seeing the beginnings of the first post-9/11 generation -- the kids who first became aware of the news under an "Americans need to watch what they say" administration, the kids who've been told that dissent is un-American and therefore justifiably punished by a fine, imprisonment -- or the loss of your show on ABC.

President Bush once asked, "Is our children learning?" No -- they isn't. A more appropriate question might be, "Is our teachers teaching?" In four years, you can teach a gorilla sign language. Is it too much to ask that in the same amount of time a kid be taught what those crazy hippies who founded this country had in mind?

I know the Morals & Values folks want us to take time out of the school day for prayer and the Ten Commandments and abstinence training and at least two theories of evolution -- the one agreed upon by every scientist in the world and the one that involves naked ladies and snakes -- but, lest we forget, last month the people of Iraq risked death and danger to send a simple, inspiring message: America, get out of our country. But also, we want the freedoms you take for granted.

Now, I didn't mind being on the losing side of the last election. But as a loser, I guess I have some "unpopular" opinions -- and I'd like to keep them. I'd even like to continue to say them right out loud on TV, because if I just get up there every Friday night and spout the Bush administration's approved talking points, that's not freedom or entertainment. It's Fox News.

Check out this link...it's a must see
Scary but true

Back in business
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Political
My sabbatical is over. It's time to get back to work. We lost the election but the fight rages on. Look, it's not our fault that a bunch of brain-dead rednecks are too stupid to get out of their own way. What do you expect from people who watch TV 30-50 hours a week, think Limbaugh is something more than a radio host, and and actually believe that the GOP has their best interests at heart while they are fucking them? It's to be expected. What will eventually save us is the fact that these current faux-patriots from the dreaded red states will end up jobless and penniless. Once that happens they'll go running to the government for help and they'll find out that the party they so dearly love has eliminated the programs they now desperately need. It happened in '88 it will happen again. It's good to be back. More later.

Except for this...
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Political
I know I am supposed to be on a political sabbatical of sorts but I couldn't resist adding this to the mix.

This is from H.L. Mencken. I guess he was a prominent newspaper writer in the early part of the 20th century...apparently he was also a prophet.

Read on and enjoy....From H.L. Mencken

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre -- the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H.L. Mencken

I couldn't resist. Now back to sports and movies!

Let's talk a little sports...
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Everything else
I am a sports fan. A big time sports fan. I love Baseball, Football, NCAA Hoops (I hate the NBA) and Hockey. Total sports geek here. I don't do the fantasy leagues, I don't bet, and I am not a big fan of Sportscenter on ESPN. (stay tuned for my post on why ESPN has ruined sports in general and the NBA in particular) I just love my sports. I guess I am one of the few fans out there who just watch because they enjoy the games. I don't have an angle like gambling or fantasy geek leagues to keep me interested. I suppose some would say that makes me even more of a geek than most but I prefer to see myself as a purist. Think of it as enjoying art for art's sake or something. All I know is that sports beats hell out of most TV shows.

If I had to rank my favorite sports the list would look like this I guess...

College Football
Baseball
NFL Football
Hockey
NCAA Hoops

I have been following this stuff since I was old enough to get what was going on. I love it. I know this stuff like the back of my hand. My girlfriend often marvels at how much brain space I have wasted with sports knowledge. (How many people can say their brother's nickname is derived from the name of former Viking running back Brent McClanahan?) Yup, if it's classic rock or sports I have it stored up here somewhere. I am a sports geek but hey it beats doing drugs and drinking... I am telling you this to lay the groundwork for upcoming entries. My post on the best uniforms, NFL Films, ESPN etc. will make a lot more sense if you know where I am coming from. So there you have it, I am a sports dork and proud of it. Let the games begin!

And now for something completely different...
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Everything else
You know I have been venting my spleen on this blog for 7 months now. It's been 99.7% political. I could use a break from the political stuff for a while. I think it's time for some good old-fashioned fun. It's time we did some mindless, meaningless straight up blogging...at least for a while. All I have left to say about the political stuff is this... Unlike a lot of democrats, I am over it. Seriously! I am over it and it feels good to have my life back again. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the current state of political affairs, but I need a break. Hell, we all need a break. So I am going to have some fun with this thing for a while. I hope no one minds...

Don't pull any punches...(Hilarious!)
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Political
This is from www.fuckthesouth.com
I think it's pretty funny. I also think it hits the nail right on the head. I would love to credit the writer but he has to remain anonymous. Seems his little rant has more than a few people pissed off enough to send him death threats. The death threats only seem to prove his point. This may be a record for F-Bombs in a post.

Read on and enjoy....

FUCK THE SOUTH

Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.


And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?


Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don't get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I've been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off.

Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What's more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don't think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn't be so fucking arrogant if I wasn't paying for your fucking bridges, bitch.

All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it's a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.

The next dickwad who says, "It's your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That's right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It's too easy, asshole, they're blue states. It's not your money, assholes, it's fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

Let's talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It's fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that's right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that's just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.

But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that's ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we're fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you're fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that's a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don't talk about religion as much as you because we're not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you're too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain't us up here in the North, assholes.


Well this gravy train is fucking over. Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass.

And no, you can't have your fucking convention in New York next time. Fuck off.

Author Unknown

Nice rant from somewhere...
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Political
I don't know where this came from or who wrote it. I lifted it off a forum where someone else had posted it. The guy who posted it received it in an e-mail. The writing is not very good and a little overwraught but I liked the passion.

Thanks whoever you are....here it is...

... The American people have spoken, and they have sent the world a message:"We're barely bright enough to chew our own food."

Incompetence, incoherence, inarticulateness, pettiness and random savagery apparently do not deter the majority of Americans. The thing that really,REALLY matters to Americans? Homos. And foreigners.Both must be stopped at any cost.

Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of bigotry, amending state constitutions around the country to prevent same-sex couples from having any rights beyond the right to live on the margins of society. We clearly have far more to fear from The International Homosexual Conspiracy (tm) than we do from North Korea and the collapse of the American health care system.

Apparently, we are truly a nation of slack-jawed yokels, awed only by grotesque displays of wealth and violence, reverent only of the bossman and beholden not even to our children, since we seem content to mortgage their future in favor of a $300 tax refund that we have traded for decent jobs, healthcare, and a just society.

We make pious noises about worshipping a Just and Merciful God, while doling out destruction and horror upon the innocent, pausing only to pat ourselves on the back for waging a "just" war to rid the world of tyrants that audaciously aspire to exist after they lose their utility to us in endless low-level conflicts to control the world's oil supply.

We seem to have become cheap, venal, vulgar and petty while we apparently don't have the ability to reason our way out of the dilemma of taking care of the sick, watching out for the elderly, and teaching our children not to be credulous, callow dupes.


The world's richest and most powerful nation seems to have lost its moral compass. We have lost interest in leading by example in favor of taking by force. I would like to say that I believe that one day in the future America might regain its senses. Unfortunately, I am not terribly optimistic. The best I can offer you is to remind you that Nixon also won a second term.

author unknown...