It's a lazy day, so here:
I was asked for a list of some Liberal Tennessee bloggers. I sent a few that I knew of and then said this:
It is a lot harder to be a Progressive blogger than a conservative one.
We tend to think and they don't.
We tend to tell the truth and they don't. (Though I got called a liar just recently)
They tend to back up anything they spout off...and we do.
We have to be fair...and they don't.
We tend to have jobs and functional families...and they don't.
They get to call names...etc.
It's a big challenge, and we do it for nothing except a personal need to see the truth out there somewhere.
Now if only we could figure out some way to make money at this????
Josh Marshall asks a perfectly rational question about the Whitehouse refusal to release documents relating to their Supreme Court nominee:
"...I'm wondering what the argument is, precisely, for the White House having access to any more information in the process of nominating Roberts than the Senate should have in confirming him.
It seems like a basic point of logic. Why should the senate's call be, by definition, less well-informed than the president's?"
TPM
The General speaks for all of us:
Karen Johnson
Infrastructure Solutions
Dear Ms Johnson,
There are rumors floating around the internet that you are Karl Rove's concubine. Is it true? I sure hope so.
There's nothing wrong with serving as his concubine. It's a position steeped in ancient biblical tradition. Mr. Rove, the deliverer of elections and master of the Christian base, deserves a stable of mistresses just as David, the slayer of Goliath and king of God's chosen people, had his own harem of concubines.
OK, well I'm not goin to post the rest of this one...You hafta read it for yourself, but as a warning, don't do it while eating.
Karen
Other wit from the General:
patriotboy
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Hey Unk!
The Associated Press
Tuesday 26 July 2005
Washington - Senate Republicans on Tuesday moved the National Rifle Association's top priority ahead of a $491 billion defense bill, setting up a vote on legislation to shield firearms manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits over gun crimes.
Peace,
Steve
Tuesday 26 July 2005
Washington - Senate Republicans on Tuesday moved the National Rifle Association's top priority ahead of a $491 billion defense bill, setting up a vote on legislation to shield firearms manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits over gun crimes.
Peace,
Steve
Support our Troops
Let's face it! Protecting gun manufacturers from being sued for selling weapons to known criminals is far more important than making sure that our Veterans who were wounded in the Iraq war get their paychecks. I mean, who are you loyal to anyway? Just because 82% of wounded veterans have had paycheck irregularities, why does anyone think this is a real problem? Unless this "anyone" happens to be lying in a bed somewhere wondering why some of his arms and legs don't exist anymore.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/27/22541/4655
The Republicans in Congress danged sure have their priorities in the correct order. You can bet your ass your local congressman ain't gonna put up with any "Paycheck Irregularities"! Voted themselves another pay raise. Hard work....hard....work.....
Charlie noticed:
Here's a fun little tidbit...John Roberts, Bush's Supreme Court nominee, doesn't think anyone in America should necessarily have the right to contraceptives.
Guns? Hell yeah!
Condoms? If righty Catholics and FundXtians get control...Well we can't have people just doing it and having fun, right? It's evil...Having sex and not making a baby....well that's the same as abortion, right?
Another little tidbit to keep in mind about John Roberts...He played a role in the Iran Contra pardons that kept George Bush, the daddy, from being impeached. Karl Rove will definitely try to orchistrate something along those lines to keep his own fat ass out of jail.
And for all of you who are keeping score on the republican values thing...Rove is not, I repeat, Not Gay. Well not all the time, anyway. Karl Rove has a wife and a mistress, so there! (How could I have been so wrong?)
And now, from Tom Tomorrow, something completely different..(Ok, not really...) But you have to go there.
Cartoonical Satire...I love it!
workingforchange
Peace,
Steve
http://whitescreek.blogspot.com/
http://commanderrapid.blogspot.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/27/22541/4655
The Republicans in Congress danged sure have their priorities in the correct order. You can bet your ass your local congressman ain't gonna put up with any "Paycheck Irregularities"! Voted themselves another pay raise. Hard work....hard....work.....
Charlie noticed:
Here's a fun little tidbit...John Roberts, Bush's Supreme Court nominee, doesn't think anyone in America should necessarily have the right to contraceptives.
Guns? Hell yeah!
Condoms? If righty Catholics and FundXtians get control...Well we can't have people just doing it and having fun, right? It's evil...Having sex and not making a baby....well that's the same as abortion, right?
Another little tidbit to keep in mind about John Roberts...He played a role in the Iran Contra pardons that kept George Bush, the daddy, from being impeached. Karl Rove will definitely try to orchistrate something along those lines to keep his own fat ass out of jail.
And for all of you who are keeping score on the republican values thing...Rove is not, I repeat, Not Gay. Well not all the time, anyway. Karl Rove has a wife and a mistress, so there! (How could I have been so wrong?)
And now, from Tom Tomorrow, something completely different..(Ok, not really...) But you have to go there.
Cartoonical Satire...I love it!
workingforchange
Peace,
Steve
http://whitescreek.blogspot.com/
http://commanderrapid.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Rock me, babies, All night long
Tonight the woods are beating to a march time. It's Katydid time in the South.
Katydids are big green leaf like crickets...and they rock! I don't mean the cool kind of rock, I mean they rock, as in rock out...a rock and roll beat...no, a march beat...no... They make the noise by...well, I'm not sure how they do it. Now, maybe It seems like a rumba beat, like the rubbing of a stick on that corn cob looking thing that Mrs. Walton would give to some lucky kid during music class in third grade. A rub with the stick would give a pleasing "Scribbidit" sound that went along with the music she played on a World War two Victrola. (Record player, to you juveniles) Now think of the "Scribbidit" noise repeated at Sousa time: "One and Two and One and two...." It goes fast, but that's what it sounds like. But there is more to it...there is a call and an answer. It takes a few nights on the porch, listening, before you can hear the talk within the beat, but there it is. A communication by auditory dance.
In the day time it is in the 90's, temperature and humidity. The big green crickets do their best to look like leaves in the trees...But at night...They rock! Some of them get off the beat now and again but then they all gather up and the night throbs on. The frogs at Lake Steve got nothing on the Katydids, but they try. The throb is just too much and the bugs win! Again and again...all night long. It is late July in the South.
It happens like this every summer. I start listening for the Katydids to start their incessant throbbing in early July but they always make me wait. They don't start until it gets so damned hot during the day that we can't do much outside except lie around the pools. I try to go outside in the evenings and listen. I think I have heard the first katydid call of summer. But not this year. I was wondering if something happened to them last week...I had to travel away for a few days and when I returned, they were hard at work, performing their summer musical revival.
It's hot and salvation comes in many forms. Air conditioning has done wonders to promote office work down here, but it may have cut us off from the natural world. Pregnant women contemplate the unthinkable this time of year. Lives are saved by fifteen dollar inflatable kiddie pools filled with a garden hose... Relief from the heat of Southern America. And come the night? The All American Cricket Drum Corps...Performing their hit tune: It ain't easy being green, so rock me baby all night long...An extended engagement for the rest of the hot summer nights.
Summer sleep can be the best. But not until late at night when it cools down to tolerable sleeping temps. Here in the gorge, we hunt the comforter around midnight. By one a.m., it's nearly always cuddling weather. Sleep hard to the incessant throb of the summer night.
Sometime during the night, they stop. I often lie awake trying to hear the last one. It is near morning, but well before first light. I wonder if they have all found lovers, or if they just get tired and give up. Most of us have done both, at one time or another. After a long night of making the rumba throb...we score, or we give up and wait throughout the next sweltering day until the night comes and signals us to start the dance once more in the darkness.
For a month and a half, we will sleep to a throbbing forest as if it were a huge deisel driven ship that pulsates throught the night toward some destination somewhere near the dawn.
It is good sleep.
Peace,
Steve
Katydids are big green leaf like crickets...and they rock! I don't mean the cool kind of rock, I mean they rock, as in rock out...a rock and roll beat...no, a march beat...no... They make the noise by...well, I'm not sure how they do it. Now, maybe It seems like a rumba beat, like the rubbing of a stick on that corn cob looking thing that Mrs. Walton would give to some lucky kid during music class in third grade. A rub with the stick would give a pleasing "Scribbidit" sound that went along with the music she played on a World War two Victrola. (Record player, to you juveniles) Now think of the "Scribbidit" noise repeated at Sousa time: "One and Two and One and two...." It goes fast, but that's what it sounds like. But there is more to it...there is a call and an answer. It takes a few nights on the porch, listening, before you can hear the talk within the beat, but there it is. A communication by auditory dance.
In the day time it is in the 90's, temperature and humidity. The big green crickets do their best to look like leaves in the trees...But at night...They rock! Some of them get off the beat now and again but then they all gather up and the night throbs on. The frogs at Lake Steve got nothing on the Katydids, but they try. The throb is just too much and the bugs win! Again and again...all night long. It is late July in the South.
It happens like this every summer. I start listening for the Katydids to start their incessant throbbing in early July but they always make me wait. They don't start until it gets so damned hot during the day that we can't do much outside except lie around the pools. I try to go outside in the evenings and listen. I think I have heard the first katydid call of summer. But not this year. I was wondering if something happened to them last week...I had to travel away for a few days and when I returned, they were hard at work, performing their summer musical revival.
It's hot and salvation comes in many forms. Air conditioning has done wonders to promote office work down here, but it may have cut us off from the natural world. Pregnant women contemplate the unthinkable this time of year. Lives are saved by fifteen dollar inflatable kiddie pools filled with a garden hose... Relief from the heat of Southern America. And come the night? The All American Cricket Drum Corps...Performing their hit tune: It ain't easy being green, so rock me baby all night long...An extended engagement for the rest of the hot summer nights.
Summer sleep can be the best. But not until late at night when it cools down to tolerable sleeping temps. Here in the gorge, we hunt the comforter around midnight. By one a.m., it's nearly always cuddling weather. Sleep hard to the incessant throb of the summer night.
Sometime during the night, they stop. I often lie awake trying to hear the last one. It is near morning, but well before first light. I wonder if they have all found lovers, or if they just get tired and give up. Most of us have done both, at one time or another. After a long night of making the rumba throb...we score, or we give up and wait throughout the next sweltering day until the night comes and signals us to start the dance once more in the darkness.
For a month and a half, we will sleep to a throbbing forest as if it were a huge deisel driven ship that pulsates throught the night toward some destination somewhere near the dawn.
It is good sleep.
Peace,
Steve
Monday, July 25, 2005
Catching up
I have a ton of catching up to do. I have a rant I need to finish and grass that needs to be mowed. (Yes, I mow grass...just not very much of it. Right now, it looks more like cutting hay, actually)
For those who nees a political rant fix, here's the short version:
Karl Rove will go to jail or be pardoned.
If Rove is pardoned instead of scapegoated, Bush will lose the 06 House elections so badly that he may not finish his term in office, which he may not do anyway.
Something really really big is cooking with the Special Prosecutor.
The Administration mouthpieces are absolutely shaking with fear....watch them and listen to their voices quiver.
The Dem insiders are so happy that Howard Dean is saying he doesn't have to fan the fire any more and can turn to the Positive Democratic Message. Now if Dean can just kill off the old guard, he just may save our country after all.
Iraq is hell bent toward civil war and there's not a damned thing America can do about it. Get out now! When it's over, we can hand over Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney to be tried as war criminals, and make our peace with the victors and negotiate for a few drops of oil out of the big pipeline that was the cause of all this way back before we got 11,000 Americans killed or injured.
Geroge W. Bush will spend his final days of freedom holed up inside his compound near Crawford Texas. Unlike David Koresh, Bush will be taken alive.
Peace,
Steve
For those who nees a political rant fix, here's the short version:
Karl Rove will go to jail or be pardoned.
If Rove is pardoned instead of scapegoated, Bush will lose the 06 House elections so badly that he may not finish his term in office, which he may not do anyway.
Something really really big is cooking with the Special Prosecutor.
The Administration mouthpieces are absolutely shaking with fear....watch them and listen to their voices quiver.
The Dem insiders are so happy that Howard Dean is saying he doesn't have to fan the fire any more and can turn to the Positive Democratic Message. Now if Dean can just kill off the old guard, he just may save our country after all.
Iraq is hell bent toward civil war and there's not a damned thing America can do about it. Get out now! When it's over, we can hand over Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney to be tried as war criminals, and make our peace with the victors and negotiate for a few drops of oil out of the big pipeline that was the cause of all this way back before we got 11,000 Americans killed or injured.
Geroge W. Bush will spend his final days of freedom holed up inside his compound near Crawford Texas. Unlike David Koresh, Bush will be taken alive.
Peace,
Steve
Why we go to Family reunions
Yes, Virginia, there is a reason why we go to reunions to see our most and least favorite relatives and inlaws. Semi organized mayhem, there is the guarantee that someone will be quite displeased with some aspect of the accomodations or food or lack of a golf course, but I'm pretty lucky in this respect, my situation is heavy on the "most" favorite side. There's no one to avoid amongst my inlaws...unless it's me?
But the real reason we go to these things is this:
Jealous?
Cousins
And then they become men...
Luke
Hayley and her Gramma Bette
Aunt Lois
That's "Ahhnt" Lois...The Grand Dame, currently. The holder of this exalted title changes over the years. Aunt Lois is hanging in there fairly well, for now.
And only one Bush supporter in the whole inlaw reuinion crowd. Amazing!
Peace,
Steve
But the real reason we go to these things is this:
Jealous?
Cousins
And then they become men...
LukeHayley and her Gramma Bette
Aunt Lois
That's "Ahhnt" Lois...The Grand Dame, currently. The holder of this exalted title changes over the years. Aunt Lois is hanging in there fairly well, for now.
And only one Bush supporter in the whole inlaw reuinion crowd. Amazing!
Peace,
Steve
Friday, July 22, 2005
Friday...It's a bird!
It's Friday...In honor of South Knox Bubba, here is the fabled "Bird in the Hand" everyone is always talking about:
Thomas took care of catching all of these that got into our room in the Mountain lodge in Costa Rica. First light was very noisy with allthe swallow chirping. This one seems ot be some kind of sparrow.
The iguanas of the Parque del Manuel Antonio seemd to come in several different colors, depending on where they were found. They came in several different sizes too, but mostly big and bigger.
I haven't been able to follow the Rovian follies all that close but I do have this though to share. Rove will go to jail, or he will receive a Presidential Pardon. The timing of the pardon will be critical. If Rove has to be pardeoned before the 06 elections. Bush could lose the House of Representatives and face impeachment with a Democratic majority. Long odds, but well within the realm of possible outcomes.
This blog has received some interesting comments of late, including a certain amount of conservative talking point repitition. That's fine by me! Ideas may be shared and shot at in the comments section. On some political blogs, I learn more form the comments than the original piece. That's what Free speech is all about. Share your ideas with me, whenever you feel like it.
Cheers,
Steve
Thomas took care of catching all of these that got into our room in the Mountain lodge in Costa Rica. First light was very noisy with allthe swallow chirping. This one seems ot be some kind of sparrow.
The iguanas of the Parque del Manuel Antonio seemd to come in several different colors, depending on where they were found. They came in several different sizes too, but mostly big and bigger.
I haven't been able to follow the Rovian follies all that close but I do have this though to share. Rove will go to jail, or he will receive a Presidential Pardon. The timing of the pardon will be critical. If Rove has to be pardeoned before the 06 elections. Bush could lose the House of Representatives and face impeachment with a Democratic majority. Long odds, but well within the realm of possible outcomes.
This blog has received some interesting comments of late, including a certain amount of conservative talking point repitition. That's fine by me! Ideas may be shared and shot at in the comments section. On some political blogs, I learn more form the comments than the original piece. That's what Free speech is all about. Share your ideas with me, whenever you feel like it.
Cheers,
Steve
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Dang!
I'm still stunned at South Knox Bubba's closing down his blog site! Here's hoping he's just needs a well deserved break and will rejoin us when his batteries get recharged. It's a long story but the evil force seems to emanate from the Metro Pulse owner, Brian Conley, so I have started my own little protest. Everytime I pass a MP rack, I pick one up and deposit it in a comvenient trach receptacle. (If only we had better recycling in our area.)
Peace, Bubba! Maybe you'll have some more time, now. If you ever want to do some creek snorkling, come on out to Roane County. (Scotch in the cabinet...)
It's a travel day for me. Charlie, as usual, nails it:
http://www.theillustrateddailyscribble.com/daily.scribble.jpgs.05/07.20.05.john.roberts.jpg
Let's keep our eye on the prize, though:
http://www.imageshack.us/
Peace, Bubba! Maybe you'll have some more time, now. If you ever want to do some creek snorkling, come on out to Roane County. (Scotch in the cabinet...)
It's a travel day for me. Charlie, as usual, nails it:
http://www.theillustrateddailyscribble.com/daily.scribble.jpgs.05/07.20.05.john.roberts.jpg
Let's keep our eye on the prize, though:
http://www.imageshack.us/
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Summer Reading
I have not read the Harry Potter books. Nothing significant here, I just haven't gotten around to it. I did get sent on a mission to buy a book for others in the family and was surprised that I didn't get trampled or anything. I guess the uproar has died down a bit or maybe it just never reached the dark netherworlds of the Tennessee Valley. It could also be that the anti witchcraft campaign of a little church in downtown Kingston has had a devastating effect of Harry Potter sales. This is one of those little churches that has one of those billboards out front on which they put direct orders from god.
"God is against witchcraft," it said.
Harry is supposed to be a Wizard, so I guess god doesn't mind.
Jo Rowling is the nice English lady who writes these books, just in case there is anybody left on the planet that doesn't know this. She seems to have been a spunky girl who went to Portugal and wound up married and pregnant by a journalist named Jorge Argantes, who is now a finalist for the "Stupidest Human on Earth" award.
Jorge was big on giving presents to his wife. Her gave her a couple of pregnancies, one of which produced a child. He also gave her lots of bruises, black eyes, and the other results of being slapped around alot, sometimes in public. She left him and went back to England, where she struggled to get by, since Jorge refused to offer much in the way of support. To entertain her child, Jo made up stories, eventially writing them down and becoming a billionaire or billionairess, both of which have the same number, which is lots, of zeros on the good side of the decimal point.
Jorge...feeling good about yourself, you creep?
BILLIONAIRE is spelled...$1,000,000,000.00
Jorge's abused ex wife is now a significant part of the economy of Great Brittain.
J.K. Rowling has used some of her money to set up a charity to help abused women.
*****
All Right! I'm being investigated by the FBI.
My humble story should be told to all the children in America who think their government doesn't care. Kids, for the price of an ACLU membership card, you can bring the full firepower of the CIA into your very own life.
The ACLU is an organization dedicated to upholding the Constitution of the United States of America, the highest law of our nation. They work to make sure those in power obey the law and don't use their positions of power to infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens.
Rush Limbaugh is working with the ACLU on issues related to the privacy of his medical records. The ACLU thinks all Americans deserve a certain personal privacy and if something happens that benefits an obvious druggie creep like Limbaugh...well, the law is the law, as long as it works for you and me, too!
I guess you are thinking that since the ACLU is helping drug criminals like Rush Limbaugh, they should be investigated by the CIA. The Bush Administration has done such a good job of catching all the terrorists they can now go after citizens who actually think the Constitution should apply to them, too...What a silly notion!
The FBI is investigating the ACLU because they are trying to get the Bush Administration to read the Constitution they swore to god to uphold.
******
Let's see how the President's men are holding up. Here are a couple of quotes for you:
McClellan: "If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the improper disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity], they would no longer be in this administration." [White House Press Briefing, 9/29/2003]
Bush: "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." [President Bush, Chicago, Ill, 9/30/2003]
Whitehouse Press Briefing, Monday 7-18-2005
Well, all that changed in the last few days, and we now know that both of those statements are false. Scottie even announced that he had questioned Karl Rove and Scooter Libby and they had told him that they were absolutely not involved in the destruction of clandestine CIA operations which resulted in at least one execution of an American agent.
We do not know how many more American agents were killed or imprisoned because the President refuses to declassify that information.
We now know that Karl Rove, President Bush's chief of staff, is the guy who told reporters Joe Wilson's wife was a clandestine agent at the CIA, and that this was confirmed by Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief assistant. They also gave up the name of the front organization that Mrs. Wilson ran and by doing that, dear friends and patriots, Karl Rove might as well have murdered an American agent himself.
All because a very honorable man, Joseph Wilson, pointed out that George W. Bush was lying. I listened to Mr. Wilson quite a bit, yesterday, and I heard him answer every question thrown at him, completely, with no if's, and's, but's, or maybe's. Ambassador was an American hero, even before he took a bullet for truth from Karl Rove. I'll tell you morem about that later.
Peace,
Steve
Working for Change:
"God is against witchcraft," it said.
Harry is supposed to be a Wizard, so I guess god doesn't mind.
Jo Rowling is the nice English lady who writes these books, just in case there is anybody left on the planet that doesn't know this. She seems to have been a spunky girl who went to Portugal and wound up married and pregnant by a journalist named Jorge Argantes, who is now a finalist for the "Stupidest Human on Earth" award.
Jorge was big on giving presents to his wife. Her gave her a couple of pregnancies, one of which produced a child. He also gave her lots of bruises, black eyes, and the other results of being slapped around alot, sometimes in public. She left him and went back to England, where she struggled to get by, since Jorge refused to offer much in the way of support. To entertain her child, Jo made up stories, eventially writing them down and becoming a billionaire or billionairess, both of which have the same number, which is lots, of zeros on the good side of the decimal point.
Jorge...feeling good about yourself, you creep?
BILLIONAIRE is spelled...$1,000,000,000.00
Jorge's abused ex wife is now a significant part of the economy of Great Brittain.
J.K. Rowling has used some of her money to set up a charity to help abused women.
*****
All Right! I'm being investigated by the FBI.
My humble story should be told to all the children in America who think their government doesn't care. Kids, for the price of an ACLU membership card, you can bring the full firepower of the CIA into your very own life.
The ACLU is an organization dedicated to upholding the Constitution of the United States of America, the highest law of our nation. They work to make sure those in power obey the law and don't use their positions of power to infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens.
Rush Limbaugh is working with the ACLU on issues related to the privacy of his medical records. The ACLU thinks all Americans deserve a certain personal privacy and if something happens that benefits an obvious druggie creep like Limbaugh...well, the law is the law, as long as it works for you and me, too!
I guess you are thinking that since the ACLU is helping drug criminals like Rush Limbaugh, they should be investigated by the CIA. The Bush Administration has done such a good job of catching all the terrorists they can now go after citizens who actually think the Constitution should apply to them, too...What a silly notion!
The FBI is investigating the ACLU because they are trying to get the Bush Administration to read the Constitution they swore to god to uphold.
******
Let's see how the President's men are holding up. Here are a couple of quotes for you:
McClellan: "If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the improper disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity], they would no longer be in this administration." [White House Press Briefing, 9/29/2003]
Bush: "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." [President Bush, Chicago, Ill, 9/30/2003]
Whitehouse Press Briefing, Monday 7-18-2005
Well, all that changed in the last few days, and we now know that both of those statements are false. Scottie even announced that he had questioned Karl Rove and Scooter Libby and they had told him that they were absolutely not involved in the destruction of clandestine CIA operations which resulted in at least one execution of an American agent.
We do not know how many more American agents were killed or imprisoned because the President refuses to declassify that information.
We now know that Karl Rove, President Bush's chief of staff, is the guy who told reporters Joe Wilson's wife was a clandestine agent at the CIA, and that this was confirmed by Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief assistant. They also gave up the name of the front organization that Mrs. Wilson ran and by doing that, dear friends and patriots, Karl Rove might as well have murdered an American agent himself.
All because a very honorable man, Joseph Wilson, pointed out that George W. Bush was lying. I listened to Mr. Wilson quite a bit, yesterday, and I heard him answer every question thrown at him, completely, with no if's, and's, but's, or maybe's. Ambassador was an American hero, even before he took a bullet for truth from Karl Rove. I'll tell you morem about that later.
Peace,
Steve
Working for Change:
Monday, July 18, 2005
Bottom Line
Ok, I read too much and think too much and don't act enough on what I think, so there. I keep a rack full of magazines and books in handy places so I can grab one and read my mind off of something it has gotten hung up on. Here's something I ran across that sort of made me go, "Huh?"
90% of all heart bypass surgeries have no effect on the patient's lifespan.
Between 1% and 2% of patients will die during the operation.
40% of bypass surgery recipients will have cognitive deficits as a complication.
The beneficial effects of any of the surgeries that remain in patients for as long as 2 1/2 years after the surgery are roughly equal to the same in patients who never actually had the surgery but thought they did and received the same post op physical, drug, and diet therapy.
Statistically, only one in ten bypass surgeries should have been performed. There is a legitimate need for this in some emergency patients but 9 out of 10 are getting screwed!
Senator Frist? You listening? Does this mean you got rich mutilating cats and performing unnecessary operations?
(Businessweek, July 18, 2005, page 32, just in case you want to read it yourself.)
The bad news is...I have to eat better and workout more...You too!
My fat self is hereby, so resolved!
OK, Now...
The Karl Rove treasonous acts eventually have no real relevance to America except for this:
(Insightful Snark, From Josh Marshall:)
Frank Rich says, this isn't about Valerie Plame or Joe Wilson or even Karl Rove. It's not about exposing a CIA agent. That's merely the tear in the fabric, the third-rate burglary, if you will.
This is about a president who knowingly took his country to war on the basis of lies and the war on the homefront against anyone and everyone who's tried to peel back the lies and expose the truth.
So there!
W will soon announce the name of an outrageous Supreme Court nominee that he hopes will take Rove out of the news spotlight. Maybe, maybe not...When you boil all the potatoes down to mush and swizzle through the leftover lumps, you still have the same bottom line.
President George Bush lied, lied, LIED, America into a stupid war we have no chance of winning in any meaningful sense.
Peace,
Steve
*****
My vote for Rant of the Week:
Thrusting his fists skyward, he rattled off the seemingly insurmountable challenges civilization has overcome in the past -- slavery, communism, restricted suffrage, segregation, disease, apartheid -- and roared,
"So now we are called to use our political institution, our democracy, our free speech, our reasoning capacity, our citizenship, our hearts, and talk with one another, reason with one another, see the reality of this problem, act as Americans, and understand that it's a different issue than any we've ever faced."
Then the crescendo:
"We have to make our stand!" he thundered
. "This is our home!
So who is this man?
Al Gore, the Magnificent...President in Exile
algore
90% of all heart bypass surgeries have no effect on the patient's lifespan.
Between 1% and 2% of patients will die during the operation.
40% of bypass surgery recipients will have cognitive deficits as a complication.
The beneficial effects of any of the surgeries that remain in patients for as long as 2 1/2 years after the surgery are roughly equal to the same in patients who never actually had the surgery but thought they did and received the same post op physical, drug, and diet therapy.
Statistically, only one in ten bypass surgeries should have been performed. There is a legitimate need for this in some emergency patients but 9 out of 10 are getting screwed!
Senator Frist? You listening? Does this mean you got rich mutilating cats and performing unnecessary operations?
(Businessweek, July 18, 2005, page 32, just in case you want to read it yourself.)
The bad news is...I have to eat better and workout more...You too!
My fat self is hereby, so resolved!
OK, Now...
The Karl Rove treasonous acts eventually have no real relevance to America except for this:
(Insightful Snark, From Josh Marshall:)
Frank Rich says, this isn't about Valerie Plame or Joe Wilson or even Karl Rove. It's not about exposing a CIA agent. That's merely the tear in the fabric, the third-rate burglary, if you will.
This is about a president who knowingly took his country to war on the basis of lies and the war on the homefront against anyone and everyone who's tried to peel back the lies and expose the truth.
So there!
W will soon announce the name of an outrageous Supreme Court nominee that he hopes will take Rove out of the news spotlight. Maybe, maybe not...When you boil all the potatoes down to mush and swizzle through the leftover lumps, you still have the same bottom line.
President George Bush lied, lied, LIED, America into a stupid war we have no chance of winning in any meaningful sense.
Peace,
Steve
*****
My vote for Rant of the Week:
Thrusting his fists skyward, he rattled off the seemingly insurmountable challenges civilization has overcome in the past -- slavery, communism, restricted suffrage, segregation, disease, apartheid -- and roared,
"So now we are called to use our political institution, our democracy, our free speech, our reasoning capacity, our citizenship, our hearts, and talk with one another, reason with one another, see the reality of this problem, act as Americans, and understand that it's a different issue than any we've ever faced."
Then the crescendo:
"We have to make our stand!" he thundered
. "This is our home!
So who is this man?
Al Gore, the Magnificent...President in Exile
algore
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Arachnids
Maybe this isn't a good time to point out that you can click on the image to make it large, but you can!
See the boyfriend at the top left? This spider is so large that other species of spiders make their webs inside this one. I counted three different species. Tough place for your condo!
See the boyfriend at the top left? This spider is so large that other species of spiders make their webs inside this one. I counted three different species. Tough place for your condo!
Happy Anniversary
We just got back from Costa Rica around 1 a.m. last Thursday morning. It is worth noting that the trip from Central America to Atlanta took roughly 4 hours. It took 10 more hours to get to Knoxville. It took another day before all our luggage caught up to us. The nice lady at the Delta baggage counter suggested we wait in the airport until the next two planes arrived so they wouldn't have to send our luggage to our house by courier. We might could have ridden bicycles home from Atlanta faster than the Delta airplane got us there and she wanted us to hang around after midnight to see if, by chance, the baggage people in Atlanta noticed our stuff and threw it on the next plane...
"Why sure, nice lady...no problem..." We left.
Irony happens, I have decided. You don't have to look for it very hard but most folks seem to go through life in a fog and unaware. I have two little pieces of the world for you to ponder, this morning. They seem particularly poignant because I just traveled in a country that has no Military and gets along fairly well.
They don't really have much of a police force either. WE chatted with two Costa Rican policemen at the bus station in San Jose after a thief ran off with Joseph's backpack. They were very apologetic, but pointed out that they had warned us to be careful watch our luggage.
Anyway, atomic weapons celebrated an anniversary on July 16. This is the anniversary of the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb, a weapon so terrible that it should never have been used. It was.
People are still dying from the effects. Suicide bombers use much more humane methods.
Naturally, the American press didn't mention this, but don't worry, the rest of the world remembers.
Conservative Republicans are so proud of Ronald Reagan because they say he ended the cold war and ended the threat of nuclear anhilation at the same time.
If you believe that, you probably believe that Karl Rove just wanted to set the record straight when he blew the cover off Brewster-Jennings, an entire covert CIA operation, ruining years of work and putting a multitude of patriotic American CIA agents in jeapardy of being murdered.
Well Ronnie didn't really cause the end of the cold war with the Soviet Union and at the same time, the seeds of the future threat of nuclear anhilation were being sown by Richard Nixon on his visits to China. Since then, China has become the most dangerous country in the world, second only to the United States of America.
China has nuclear weapons. But they would never use them, right? Nuclear weapons are just too terrible, right?
America used the Atomic bomb on Japan. between one and two hundred thousand Japanese civilians died in a blinding flash of incediary light so hot that it has no color. Atoms themselves were destroyed along with those innocent people. 9 years after this incredible act of war, the American Congress voted to place "In God We Trust" on our money and to require our children to pledge an oath to "one nation under God" so the whole world would know how godly and virtuous we are.
Nearly every single scientist that worked on the atom bomb project became a pacifist. One of them gave this quote to the press on this anniversary. it is from the Bhagivad Gita and is a statement by the Hindu god, Vishnu:
"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
The article is from the British press..of course! It is worth reading:
news.bbc
Well why is this ironic?
As we pour our dollars into China in order to wear and then throw away cheaper and cheaper things we don't really need, China becomes richer and richer. For a Communist country, they got a lot of Billionaires, now. No middle class, but lots of dirt poor peasants to help make very rich people, very richer people
In addition to having billionaires, they got the bomb. They've always had Generals, too. One Chinese General had this to say last week.
Ironic, don't you think?
"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," the official, Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, said at an official briefing.
china
Peace,
or die.
Steve
"Why sure, nice lady...no problem..." We left.
Irony happens, I have decided. You don't have to look for it very hard but most folks seem to go through life in a fog and unaware. I have two little pieces of the world for you to ponder, this morning. They seem particularly poignant because I just traveled in a country that has no Military and gets along fairly well.
They don't really have much of a police force either. WE chatted with two Costa Rican policemen at the bus station in San Jose after a thief ran off with Joseph's backpack. They were very apologetic, but pointed out that they had warned us to be careful watch our luggage.
Anyway, atomic weapons celebrated an anniversary on July 16. This is the anniversary of the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb, a weapon so terrible that it should never have been used. It was.
People are still dying from the effects. Suicide bombers use much more humane methods.
Naturally, the American press didn't mention this, but don't worry, the rest of the world remembers.
Conservative Republicans are so proud of Ronald Reagan because they say he ended the cold war and ended the threat of nuclear anhilation at the same time.
If you believe that, you probably believe that Karl Rove just wanted to set the record straight when he blew the cover off Brewster-Jennings, an entire covert CIA operation, ruining years of work and putting a multitude of patriotic American CIA agents in jeapardy of being murdered.
Well Ronnie didn't really cause the end of the cold war with the Soviet Union and at the same time, the seeds of the future threat of nuclear anhilation were being sown by Richard Nixon on his visits to China. Since then, China has become the most dangerous country in the world, second only to the United States of America.
China has nuclear weapons. But they would never use them, right? Nuclear weapons are just too terrible, right?
America used the Atomic bomb on Japan. between one and two hundred thousand Japanese civilians died in a blinding flash of incediary light so hot that it has no color. Atoms themselves were destroyed along with those innocent people. 9 years after this incredible act of war, the American Congress voted to place "In God We Trust" on our money and to require our children to pledge an oath to "one nation under God" so the whole world would know how godly and virtuous we are.
Nearly every single scientist that worked on the atom bomb project became a pacifist. One of them gave this quote to the press on this anniversary. it is from the Bhagivad Gita and is a statement by the Hindu god, Vishnu:
"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
The article is from the British press..of course! It is worth reading:
news.bbc
Well why is this ironic?
As we pour our dollars into China in order to wear and then throw away cheaper and cheaper things we don't really need, China becomes richer and richer. For a Communist country, they got a lot of Billionaires, now. No middle class, but lots of dirt poor peasants to help make very rich people, very richer people
In addition to having billionaires, they got the bomb. They've always had Generals, too. One Chinese General had this to say last week.
Ironic, don't you think?
"If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," the official, Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, said at an official briefing.
china
Peace,
or die.
Steve
Saturday, July 16, 2005
More Tico
White faced monkey at Playa Manuel Antonio
Tica Marilyn
Thomas is the Nature boy son of the Nature boy. This little guy wouldn't turn loose when he tried to let it go.
OK, so this is a bit of a cliche shot, but I like it...so there. It's the Pacific ocean in the Parque del Manuel Antonio.
And for you daily dose of Snark:
Bilmon cuts through the crap on the Karl Blove affair:
"...these ridiculous word games only underline a point I made in my last post: At no time in this whole sorry affair has Karl Rove -- or his boss, for that matter -- made much of an effort to do the right thing, as opposed to doing the wrong thing in such a clever way that he could get away with it."
Billmon
Friday, July 15, 2005
Costa Rica
Rio Pacuare...Aboriginal Thomas
The creek that ran through the lodge on the Pacuare River cuts through some very interesting mineral deposits as it carves its way down the lush mountain side. Hector, one of our guides, is very knowlegeable about the natural history of the area. He and his wife gather mud from these deposits and process it at their home, put it in jars, and sell it to the spas. When he started rubbing "mud" on his body we were surprised...then we did it too and Wow! It really did make our skin feel really soft and smooth. None of us, including the girls, have ever found anything like it. Absolutely no grease or oil...amazing.
Thomas is the Blue Boy.
This is the creek where it joins the river. Joe has turned back to his natural color.
This is the Jesus Christ lizard. So called because it lives beside the water and can run over the water's surface without sinking, to escape predators. Long toes on the rear feet and high speed legwork do the trick.
The creek that ran through the lodge on the Pacuare River cuts through some very interesting mineral deposits as it carves its way down the lush mountain side. Hector, one of our guides, is very knowlegeable about the natural history of the area. He and his wife gather mud from these deposits and process it at their home, put it in jars, and sell it to the spas. When he started rubbing "mud" on his body we were surprised...then we did it too and Wow! It really did make our skin feel really soft and smooth. None of us, including the girls, have ever found anything like it. Absolutely no grease or oil...amazing.
Thomas is the Blue Boy.
This is the creek where it joins the river. Joe has turned back to his natural color.
This is the Jesus Christ lizard. So called because it lives beside the water and can run over the water's surface without sinking, to escape predators. Long toes on the rear feet and high speed legwork do the trick.
Truth and consequences
Do we really want a corrupt government in these United States of America? This is the question we must really face up to and answer.
Everyone knows President George Bush is lying.
Everyone also knows that he is a coward, afraid to face up to open and honest public questioning.
Everyone knows that Karl Rove is a scumbag piece of dung.
Everyone knows that Donald Rumsfeld is mean and incompetent.
Everyone knows that the Iraq war is an unprecedented disaster and had nothing whatsoever to do with fighting terrorism "over there".
Everyone knows this, even those who so adamently refuse to publicly admit these truths...no, not "Truths" that word has been so corrupted...Let us use a better word: "Facts".
So it comes down to this: We must want a corrupt nation. We must want to be lied to. We must want to walk around going "La, la, la, I can't hear you..." and pretend that America is still the "Home of the brave and the Land of the Free"
Well, I don't! I get angry everytime I see a Newsperson let one of Karl Rove's operatives tell a lie. America needs truth, and needs it now. Here is a truth:
Regardless of whether Karl Rove can be convicted of treason, he is still a traitor for lying America into a stupid war that his fellow neocons are incapable of managing.
Karl Rove then committed one of the lowest acts a man can commit. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly announced that the President of the United States had lied in his State of the Union Address, Rove did not do the manly thing and confront Wilson with rebuttal evidence. He couldn't because it does not exist, we have learned. Wilson told the truth. The coward Rove couldn't face Joe Wilson. Rove could not face a man. He attacked a dedicated, hard working, honest and completely innocent woman instead. The fallout has been devastating to American Intelligence. By destroying the career of, not only Valerie Plame, but a large number of undercover operatives, Karl Rove committed treason against our Nation. But greater than that, he announced to the world that he, Karl Rove, holds personal standards of conduct that are unworthy of human society.
Now George W. Bush is an obviously incompetent President.There is no measure of his performance that anyone can point to that is good. He is too afraid to face the world without his dog, Karl. Bush will not fire Karl Rove because Rove will destroy Bush if that happens. What we have left is a nation corrupt at its highest level...I believe this corruption is unworthy of Americans and all they have faced with courage and pride up to this point in our county's history. We are at a decision point where we must decide and have the courage of that decision. If we accept corruption, then our country will have died.
I do not think we will. I believe in the courage of America.
I believe America is still the home of the brave!
Peace,
Steve
Everyone knows President George Bush is lying.
Everyone also knows that he is a coward, afraid to face up to open and honest public questioning.
Everyone knows that Karl Rove is a scumbag piece of dung.
Everyone knows that Donald Rumsfeld is mean and incompetent.
Everyone knows that the Iraq war is an unprecedented disaster and had nothing whatsoever to do with fighting terrorism "over there".
Everyone knows this, even those who so adamently refuse to publicly admit these truths...no, not "Truths" that word has been so corrupted...Let us use a better word: "Facts".
So it comes down to this: We must want a corrupt nation. We must want to be lied to. We must want to walk around going "La, la, la, I can't hear you..." and pretend that America is still the "Home of the brave and the Land of the Free"
Well, I don't! I get angry everytime I see a Newsperson let one of Karl Rove's operatives tell a lie. America needs truth, and needs it now. Here is a truth:
Regardless of whether Karl Rove can be convicted of treason, he is still a traitor for lying America into a stupid war that his fellow neocons are incapable of managing.
Karl Rove then committed one of the lowest acts a man can commit. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly announced that the President of the United States had lied in his State of the Union Address, Rove did not do the manly thing and confront Wilson with rebuttal evidence. He couldn't because it does not exist, we have learned. Wilson told the truth. The coward Rove couldn't face Joe Wilson. Rove could not face a man. He attacked a dedicated, hard working, honest and completely innocent woman instead. The fallout has been devastating to American Intelligence. By destroying the career of, not only Valerie Plame, but a large number of undercover operatives, Karl Rove committed treason against our Nation. But greater than that, he announced to the world that he, Karl Rove, holds personal standards of conduct that are unworthy of human society.
Now George W. Bush is an obviously incompetent President.There is no measure of his performance that anyone can point to that is good. He is too afraid to face the world without his dog, Karl. Bush will not fire Karl Rove because Rove will destroy Bush if that happens. What we have left is a nation corrupt at its highest level...I believe this corruption is unworthy of Americans and all they have faced with courage and pride up to this point in our county's history. We are at a decision point where we must decide and have the courage of that decision. If we accept corruption, then our country will have died.
I do not think we will. I believe in the courage of America.
I believe America is still the home of the brave!
Peace,
Steve
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Pura Vida!
Hola, mi amigos! Esta un buen dia en el estado del Tennessee!
Aqui esta la photographias de la vacacion en Costa Rica.
OK, so my Espanol is pretty bad. But the Costa Rica trip was pretty danged wonderful. We provided lots of amusement for the wooly monkeys in Manuel Antonio, as you can see.
Sloths were all over the place, but not until you saw your first one. I looked for two hours before the first sighting. Once I learned to recognize the signs of habitation in a tree they lived in, I could pick them out fairly easily, even riding down the road.
The nicest place we stayed, we had to kayak down the Rios Pacuare to reach. More on this one later.
Here we learned the meaning of "pura vida" which translates to "pure life"...but it is much more than that. It is the Costa Rican way of life. It is also how they say hello, good bye, whassup, thanks, uh-huh, and take care.
This is the Parque de Cultura in San Jose. They seem to love George Bush there. Why don't you copy the nice picture to your own computer and blow it up so you can read the wonderful things they say about him?
Peace,
Steve
Aqui esta la photographias de la vacacion en Costa Rica.
OK, so my Espanol is pretty bad. But the Costa Rica trip was pretty danged wonderful. We provided lots of amusement for the wooly monkeys in Manuel Antonio, as you can see.
Sloths were all over the place, but not until you saw your first one. I looked for two hours before the first sighting. Once I learned to recognize the signs of habitation in a tree they lived in, I could pick them out fairly easily, even riding down the road.
The nicest place we stayed, we had to kayak down the Rios Pacuare to reach. More on this one later.
Here we learned the meaning of "pura vida" which translates to "pure life"...but it is much more than that. It is the Costa Rican way of life. It is also how they say hello, good bye, whassup, thanks, uh-huh, and take care.
This is the Parque de Cultura in San Jose. They seem to love George Bush there. Why don't you copy the nice picture to your own computer and blow it up so you can read the wonderful things they say about him?
Peace,
Steve
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Miss me when I'm gone
Dear,
My friends who are also Right Wing Whackos,
(The rest of you can read along just for fun...this really doesn't apply to you...Really!)
You folks have a break coming...I am leaving for Costa Rica soon, and won't be back for a week or two. In the mean time you guys will have to figure out how to amuse yourselves without my irritating babbling in the blogospheric winds. I don't think it will be all that hard, but just in case I hope to leave you with some helpful hints, just to fill the void of my absence.
It'll be sort of like when you have a tooth that the filling fell out of and it's been hurting all weekend, and then you finally get in to see the dentist after sitting in his reception room enjoying the .75 seconds free of pain between each heartbeat which seems to thump right on top of that nerve ending in your jaw must be the one connected to your legs, arms, chest and the top of your head which mostly includes your face...And roughly seven thousand heatrbeats later, when the dentist gets through telling you about his last fishing trip he took and how his wife got mad at him because he hadn't finished painting the gutters before he left, he finally injects the magic juice into the hole he bored into your jaw with the dental equivalent of posthole diggers...and the pain just stops.
But, that is too great a shock to your system, being so suddenly pain free after dreading your next hearbeat for the last fifty one hours, and you stick your toungue into the hole in the tooth and poke around in there to see if the pain will come back...Where have you gone, pain, old friend?
"I'm still here", says your pain, "It is just that your physiological mainstream media that once would tell you about something that was very wrong with your body has been taken over by the medical version of Fox News."...You will now feel only odd sensations that have nothing to do with whether your tooth will survive, to nourish future generations of fat cells, or not. For the next three hours, the field reporters of your nervous system will only jabber about missing white children, mostly teenage girls, the last throes of some obviously liberal fed insurgency, and the weird sensation of drool running down your chin.
The Dentist is a good and Christian man so you can trust him to do the right thing. You need not have a care in the world, just be sure to get your prescription filled...(Did I ever tell you about my family dentist who filled five of my teeth that didn't have cavities so he could support his drug habit?...True! Douglasville, Ga. 1970, found out 5 years later from another dentist) But your Dentist wears Red and Blue ties, so you needn't worry. Supports the troops, too...Got a Yellow ribbon on the back of his Lexus SUV!
So what are you going to do without ME, WhitesCreek, to point out how rotten and corrupt the leaders you voted for have always been (and that your dentist's other car is an Beemer M4)?
Just pretend it is the weekend and you have been holding for the next available representative...
Your call is important to us! Really!
For the Gold Standard in East Tennessee Blogging,
Press 1
For your minimum daily requirement of Satirical Snark,
Press 2
For a daily collection of biting humour,
Press 3
For the latest Hissy Fit on Tom Delay,
Press 4
For Political Toonery of the Satirical kind, often regarding Cat Killer Frist,
Press 5
For the accurate information regarding Global Warming which invariably contradicts whichever Administrative spokesmen is calmly stating that we can't stop destroying planet Earth because we'll lose jobs,
Press 6
For the most disgusting and perverted, not to be viewed at work, but incredibly prescient, analysis of political events guaranteed to make you feel very uneasy,
Press 7
For "Really out there" allegory,
Press 8
For all other help, search the links on the right of this Blog and pick randomly.
Your call is very important to us...Really!
Peace,
Steve
*****
Quotes of the day:
A televised debate between a Fundamentalist Christian Minister and a Muslim Cleric was on yesterday. I watched but had to change the channel before I hurt myself laughing...
FundXtian:
"Jesus was the son of God. We have the inerrant proof given us in the Bible."
FundXlim:
"Jesus was merely a prophet, as clearly stated in the Quran, which being of more recent origin than the Bible is more correct...People who claim to be his followers don't appear to heed his words anyway."
My friends who are also Right Wing Whackos,
(The rest of you can read along just for fun...this really doesn't apply to you...Really!)
You folks have a break coming...I am leaving for Costa Rica soon, and won't be back for a week or two. In the mean time you guys will have to figure out how to amuse yourselves without my irritating babbling in the blogospheric winds. I don't think it will be all that hard, but just in case I hope to leave you with some helpful hints, just to fill the void of my absence.
It'll be sort of like when you have a tooth that the filling fell out of and it's been hurting all weekend, and then you finally get in to see the dentist after sitting in his reception room enjoying the .75 seconds free of pain between each heartbeat which seems to thump right on top of that nerve ending in your jaw must be the one connected to your legs, arms, chest and the top of your head which mostly includes your face...And roughly seven thousand heatrbeats later, when the dentist gets through telling you about his last fishing trip he took and how his wife got mad at him because he hadn't finished painting the gutters before he left, he finally injects the magic juice into the hole he bored into your jaw with the dental equivalent of posthole diggers...and the pain just stops.
But, that is too great a shock to your system, being so suddenly pain free after dreading your next hearbeat for the last fifty one hours, and you stick your toungue into the hole in the tooth and poke around in there to see if the pain will come back...Where have you gone, pain, old friend?
"I'm still here", says your pain, "It is just that your physiological mainstream media that once would tell you about something that was very wrong with your body has been taken over by the medical version of Fox News."...You will now feel only odd sensations that have nothing to do with whether your tooth will survive, to nourish future generations of fat cells, or not. For the next three hours, the field reporters of your nervous system will only jabber about missing white children, mostly teenage girls, the last throes of some obviously liberal fed insurgency, and the weird sensation of drool running down your chin.
The Dentist is a good and Christian man so you can trust him to do the right thing. You need not have a care in the world, just be sure to get your prescription filled...(Did I ever tell you about my family dentist who filled five of my teeth that didn't have cavities so he could support his drug habit?...True! Douglasville, Ga. 1970, found out 5 years later from another dentist) But your Dentist wears Red and Blue ties, so you needn't worry. Supports the troops, too...Got a Yellow ribbon on the back of his Lexus SUV!
So what are you going to do without ME, WhitesCreek, to point out how rotten and corrupt the leaders you voted for have always been (and that your dentist's other car is an Beemer M4)?
Just pretend it is the weekend and you have been holding for the next available representative...
Your call is important to us! Really!
For the Gold Standard in East Tennessee Blogging,
Press 1
For your minimum daily requirement of Satirical Snark,
Press 2
For a daily collection of biting humour,
Press 3
For the latest Hissy Fit on Tom Delay,
Press 4
For Political Toonery of the Satirical kind, often regarding Cat Killer Frist,
Press 5
For the accurate information regarding Global Warming which invariably contradicts whichever Administrative spokesmen is calmly stating that we can't stop destroying planet Earth because we'll lose jobs,
Press 6
For the most disgusting and perverted, not to be viewed at work, but incredibly prescient, analysis of political events guaranteed to make you feel very uneasy,
Press 7
For "Really out there" allegory,
Press 8
For all other help, search the links on the right of this Blog and pick randomly.
Your call is very important to us...Really!
Peace,
Steve
*****
Quotes of the day:
A televised debate between a Fundamentalist Christian Minister and a Muslim Cleric was on yesterday. I watched but had to change the channel before I hurt myself laughing...
FundXtian:
"Jesus was the son of God. We have the inerrant proof given us in the Bible."
FundXlim:
"Jesus was merely a prophet, as clearly stated in the Quran, which being of more recent origin than the Bible is more correct...People who claim to be his followers don't appear to heed his words anyway."
Saturday, July 02, 2005
In the Summertime
Several folks asked for a picture of WhitesCreek World Headquarters this time of year. I just ran down the hill and took this. Hand held, bad light, and I irritated a White tail fawn that was drinking at Lake Steve.
My Mom always thought my house was claustrophobic in the summer because of the leaves. Oh Well...
What's wrong with Sandra?
Since yesterday's beligerancy, we have learned that Justice Sandra is giving it up and going home. She was originally appointed by Ronnie Reagan and has actually served America fairly well. The question for America is who will replace her?
Actually, I wonder if the question isn't more like, "Should we let, George Bush, a man that 25% of his own party thinks shoukld be impeached for LYING and starting an illegal WAR, choose the person who will Judge America for the rest of his or her life?"
I think Bush should have to face Congress under oath and answer a few questions before he gets to do any more appointing.
President Bush holds up Justices Thomas and Scalia as his idea of model Supreme Court Justices. Sandra disagreed with Tommy and Tony quite a bit. She had such liberal ideas that she even thought it was legal for the state of Nevada to pass a law letting workers care for their newborn children without getting fired. President George didn't like that idea.
Here's a few more things that George's model judges disagreed with Sandra about:
Sandra thought Women should be allowed to attend all schools that receive public funds. Not Tom and Tony!
Sandra didn't think it was a good idea for states to fund religious training. Not Tom or Tony, which is odd, considering they hold to different religions. Wonder whoch one they think should be funded with your tax money?
Sandra thought that the Government, that would be George W. Bush's Government, should not be able to jail American Citizens without charges, right to an attorney, or any other basic rights.
Scalia and Thomas thought this was a fine idea. Got that? If George says you are a terrorist, you're screwed, whether you are or aren't,
At least in Tommy and Tony's world.
Is that what we want? Judges who will step and fetch for a man who is about to be impeached?
See, I have this huge problem with what is about to happen...I have this old fashion idea that the Supreme Court is supposed to represent America and not just George Bush.
Silly me!
Well, here you go...If you have the same silly idea, Now is the time to get busy. Here's a place to start:
moveonpac
Peace,
Steve
*******
Other stuff:
....laboring under the misapprehension that they're birds.
sheepworld
Scientists have found bone tissue in a Tyrannosaurus rex that they say shows the 70-million-year-old animal was an ovulating female. The estrogen-derived tissue, they determined, is similar to tissue now present only in living birds producing egg shells.
The discovery team concluded in a report to be published on Friday in the journal Science that the finding "solidifies the link between dinosaurs and birds" and "provides an objective means of gender differentiation in dinosaurs."
The story from my favorite Baptist Church:
Landover
And Now for something completely different:
Quotes for your thoughtful amusement:
(I don't know why this one reminds me of the Bush Administration...)
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; Arthur Conan Doyle
The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. -- John Maynard Keynes
(Tyler...This ones for you:)
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards. -- Mark Twain
(And since I am part of the R&D Department, This one is near to my heart:)
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work. -- Thomas Edison
Actually, I wonder if the question isn't more like, "Should we let, George Bush, a man that 25% of his own party thinks shoukld be impeached for LYING and starting an illegal WAR, choose the person who will Judge America for the rest of his or her life?"
I think Bush should have to face Congress under oath and answer a few questions before he gets to do any more appointing.
President Bush holds up Justices Thomas and Scalia as his idea of model Supreme Court Justices. Sandra disagreed with Tommy and Tony quite a bit. She had such liberal ideas that she even thought it was legal for the state of Nevada to pass a law letting workers care for their newborn children without getting fired. President George didn't like that idea.
Here's a few more things that George's model judges disagreed with Sandra about:
Sandra thought Women should be allowed to attend all schools that receive public funds. Not Tom and Tony!
Sandra didn't think it was a good idea for states to fund religious training. Not Tom or Tony, which is odd, considering they hold to different religions. Wonder whoch one they think should be funded with your tax money?
Sandra thought that the Government, that would be George W. Bush's Government, should not be able to jail American Citizens without charges, right to an attorney, or any other basic rights.
Scalia and Thomas thought this was a fine idea. Got that? If George says you are a terrorist, you're screwed, whether you are or aren't,
At least in Tommy and Tony's world.
Is that what we want? Judges who will step and fetch for a man who is about to be impeached?
See, I have this huge problem with what is about to happen...I have this old fashion idea that the Supreme Court is supposed to represent America and not just George Bush.
Silly me!
Well, here you go...If you have the same silly idea, Now is the time to get busy. Here's a place to start:
moveonpac
Peace,
Steve
*******
Other stuff:
....laboring under the misapprehension that they're birds.
sheepworld
Scientists have found bone tissue in a Tyrannosaurus rex that they say shows the 70-million-year-old animal was an ovulating female. The estrogen-derived tissue, they determined, is similar to tissue now present only in living birds producing egg shells.
The discovery team concluded in a report to be published on Friday in the journal Science that the finding "solidifies the link between dinosaurs and birds" and "provides an objective means of gender differentiation in dinosaurs."
The story from my favorite Baptist Church:
Landover
And Now for something completely different:
Quotes for your thoughtful amusement:
(I don't know why this one reminds me of the Bush Administration...)
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; Arthur Conan Doyle
The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. -- John Maynard Keynes
(Tyler...This ones for you:)
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards. -- Mark Twain
(And since I am part of the R&D Department, This one is near to my heart:)
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work. -- Thomas Edison
Friday, July 01, 2005
Bird Blogging
In the spirit of Friday Bird blogging, Here's my pic:
Oh, wait...That's a Cope's Treefrog in the suet feeder...Try this guy. I'm pretty sure he's a bird:
Oh, wait...That's a Cope's Treefrog in the suet feeder...Try this guy. I'm pretty sure he's a bird:
By the numbers
Good news for Bush supporters! 50% of Americans think he should NOT be impeached, if it is found that he lied about the Viet Nam, I mean IRAQ war.
The best news of all for Bush, is that only one FOURTH of all Republicans think he Should be impeached.
The rest of them think that it is just fine to violate commandments number:
5, (Kill all you want as long as it's profitable)
7, (Steal all you want as long as it is white collar crime)
8, (Lie...well that's what this rant is all about today)
and 10, (It's their oil and it really needs to be our, no, MY OIL)
as long as you don't get caught with number 6 or 9.
Of course those are the Catholic numbers...If you are a protestant Republican you have to go for 6, 8, 9, and 10, and hope nobody catches you on number 7. Jews, who wrote the old testament and should have gotten it right, have a different numbering system still, but that's another story...This one is all about George getting caught, and I don't care what the number is, it is still...
Lying!
But...3/4 of all Republicans don't care!
Way to hold on to the base, George!
The survey found that 3/4 of all Republicans are either more stupid... or just more evil... than we thought. They think it's OK for the President of the United States to Lie, causing the deaths of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of citizens of other countries.
Angus Reid writes:
"Pre-war speeches by Bush mentioned specific chemical agents, such as mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve gas as banned substances allegedly secured by Iraq. State secretary Colin Powell assured the United Nations (UN) Security Council in February 2003 that Hussein possessed biological weapons."
Now we learn from the London Times (You don't think an American paper is going to tell you this first, do you?) that the American Commanding General has admitted that U.S. and British aircraft flew over 21 thousand sorties and bombed nearly 400 targets as much as nine months before the war began! This was referred to in the Downing Street "memos" which have been so poo-pooed by the right wing.
What this means is that George Bush's war began six weeks before Congress voted to give him the power to go to war!
Nine MONTHS before he declared war.
Bush (and by that I mean the four horsemen Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, and Wolfowitz...George is just the toad in this game) had every intention of provoking Saddam into war. Plan A was thwarted when Hussein allowed the U.N. inspectors back in to Iraq. Plan B involved the illegal bombing. By bombing Iraq... the Bushistas hoped to provoke Saddam into firing back...which he never did!
They then had to manufacture WMD's and the mythical connection to 9-11 and terrorism as the reason to attack.
Here's a good overview:
Smoking Gun
So what does all this mean?
It means that Howard Dean, because of his anti Iraq war stance, is perfectly positioned to attack George Bush inthe coming election cycle.
It also means that Congressman Harold Ford is absolutely right to come out against the Iraq war.
It means that Who ever is the Democratic nominee for Senator from what used to be the "greenest state in the land of the free" should start yesterday hammering George Bush and those who have supported his illegal actions in government.
And...It means that things are going to get even more disgustingly nasty. Something no one looks forward to..but it must be endured if we are to save our Nation from the malignant evil that has infested and taken over the once noble Republican party.
Courage, America!
Peace,
Steve
The best news of all for Bush, is that only one FOURTH of all Republicans think he Should be impeached.
The rest of them think that it is just fine to violate commandments number:
5, (Kill all you want as long as it's profitable)
7, (Steal all you want as long as it is white collar crime)
8, (Lie...well that's what this rant is all about today)
and 10, (It's their oil and it really needs to be our, no, MY OIL)
as long as you don't get caught with number 6 or 9.
Of course those are the Catholic numbers...If you are a protestant Republican you have to go for 6, 8, 9, and 10, and hope nobody catches you on number 7. Jews, who wrote the old testament and should have gotten it right, have a different numbering system still, but that's another story...This one is all about George getting caught, and I don't care what the number is, it is still...
Lying!
But...3/4 of all Republicans don't care!
Way to hold on to the base, George!
The survey found that 3/4 of all Republicans are either more stupid... or just more evil... than we thought. They think it's OK for the President of the United States to Lie, causing the deaths of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of citizens of other countries.
Angus Reid writes:
"Pre-war speeches by Bush mentioned specific chemical agents, such as mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve gas as banned substances allegedly secured by Iraq. State secretary Colin Powell assured the United Nations (UN) Security Council in February 2003 that Hussein possessed biological weapons."
Now we learn from the London Times (You don't think an American paper is going to tell you this first, do you?) that the American Commanding General has admitted that U.S. and British aircraft flew over 21 thousand sorties and bombed nearly 400 targets as much as nine months before the war began! This was referred to in the Downing Street "memos" which have been so poo-pooed by the right wing.
What this means is that George Bush's war began six weeks before Congress voted to give him the power to go to war!
Nine MONTHS before he declared war.
Bush (and by that I mean the four horsemen Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, and Wolfowitz...George is just the toad in this game) had every intention of provoking Saddam into war. Plan A was thwarted when Hussein allowed the U.N. inspectors back in to Iraq. Plan B involved the illegal bombing. By bombing Iraq... the Bushistas hoped to provoke Saddam into firing back...which he never did!
They then had to manufacture WMD's and the mythical connection to 9-11 and terrorism as the reason to attack.
Here's a good overview:
Smoking Gun
So what does all this mean?
It means that Howard Dean, because of his anti Iraq war stance, is perfectly positioned to attack George Bush inthe coming election cycle.
It also means that Congressman Harold Ford is absolutely right to come out against the Iraq war.
It means that Who ever is the Democratic nominee for Senator from what used to be the "greenest state in the land of the free" should start yesterday hammering George Bush and those who have supported his illegal actions in government.
And...It means that things are going to get even more disgustingly nasty. Something no one looks forward to..but it must be endured if we are to save our Nation from the malignant evil that has infested and taken over the once noble Republican party.
Courage, America!
Peace,
Steve
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)