One more Espresso shot

Most of my friends acknowledge when they mess up. You own up to it, you learn, you move on. Not so in Congress. No, the Republicans try to muddle the message, surround themselves with children so as to prevent hard questions from being asked, and then, when all else fails, blame the media and the Democrats.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7BBC55C7A7-13CF-42E4-92BC-A5CEA78CEC18%7D

Oh, and they get Fox News to list the pedophile as a Democrat. Just to be clear, the pedophile is a Republican, and so are the people who covered it up, ignored it, and ultimately hoped it would just go away. And somehow, the Republicans are managing to confuse gay bashing and fucking underage pages. Not sure how they are doing on that front, but if anyone votes for those fucktards next month, they will have managed it.

If pro is the the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress?

Wow, his first veto. Why did he waste it on this?

Oh, and a personal note to James Dobson:
There is a great line in Harrison Bergeron.
Eisenstock: What can I do?
Klaxon: Get cancer.

Now James, there is a lesson here. And I think that many of your ilk share the same views. It is ok so long as it doesn't happen to my family. If you, or your wife, or mother or children got cancer, or AIDS, or suffered from Alzheimer's, would your views on Stem Cell research change? I wonder... And what does it say about your morality if you let people suffer, possibly needlessly?

Apparently, North Korea is getting a missile ready to launch... http://www.google.com/news?ncl=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx%3Ftype%3DtopNews%26storyID%3D2006-06-20T153912Z_01_N20434315_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-USA.xml%26archived%3DFalse&hl=en

At last count, there were 2100 articles linked on Google News. Most are likely rehashes of the Rueters feed, one of the articles http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-20T153912Z_01_N20434315_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-USA.xml&archived=False

Not sure what to make of it. It is a sovereign country. They like to sabre rattle. Their last "missile" was actually a rocket and attempted (and failed) the dasterdly deed of putting their own satellite in orbit. If they want to launch a satellite, I say let them. I think they could better spend their money (but I think the same of the US and they way our government spends our money). And hey - I have played MOO and MOO2, and sometimes the people have to suck it up for a few years so you can get that battleship ready for the Antarens. But I digress.

As one pundit put it, they are not a threat and he believed we were over-reacting by putting our missile defense to "operational." He was subsequently pummeled and accused of being a tree-hugger. I happened to read that article (being the first link on google news for a few moments), so I am sure there are other pundits who are saying it is a completely valid reaction (or even not enough), and those people are being pummeled by people calling them war-hawks.

If I lived in Japan or Alaska (or West Coast) I might be more concerned, as that could actually reach me. However, I do not believe that North Korea really wants a war. They are so far down the Axis of Evil that I do not think that the DoD thinks about them that much. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel v. Palestine. Plenty on our plates to worry about. North Korea also seems woefully ill-prepared for anything other than a grand show.

I am not one to believe everything I see, but every report and news article I have seen regarding the DPRK seems to indicate that its economy is in tatters and they can barely feed the populace. As it used to be a Communist country, I am sure some of the history is distorted by us and there is likely a bias in the news as well. Now it seems to be just a flat out dictatorship with a German-based civil system and "communist-like" economy (thank you CIA). I am not sure what that makes it in reality, but I know some political type people who can respond and let me know.

In the end, we can banter all we want, but I am not sure yet of what to make of it, and I need to wait and see what happens. If you are a journalist, you have to talk about it. If you are a politico, you need to at least appear to be doing something about it. I have the luxury of just having my opinion. I can wax philosophic and state that I believe it to be a Bad Move given the anxiety of the US right now, but maybe they just saw their Axis of Evil ratings slip, and they need a Poochie for an episode or two.

That is right, it is good to see Gonzolas proving in front of the Senate that he is, in fact, not the least bit interested in the law, he would rather be a fucking Bushco toady. Wiretapping US citizens, not using FISA, and completely ignoring several Constitutional rights does not concern the AG. Excuse me? I thought your job was to uphold the law, not lie for the president. Go fuck yourself, and the shit colored horse you road in on, Gonzolas. You are a shitty AG. You belong with that useless fuck Kline from KS. The KS AG wants everyone to tattle on teen sex. I think he is just a perv, but it turns out he actually has an agenda - slashing abortion rights (http://www.slate.com/id/2135328/). Who would have guessed that from the backwater hell-hole that Kansas has become? Fuckers. Hmmm, I guess it turns out that the AG role is now just another useless title slapped on anyone who can cite a law and shares your political ideology. No ethics or concern for law need apply.

"The US Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush..."

Does this news blurb remind anyone of South Park? Yeah, the one where the Priests see nothing wrong with doing alter boys, the problem is actually that the alter boys are going to the police, media, and lawyers about it. If they would just stop doing that it would all be ok.

Yeah, the problem here is that the citizens were informed of your illegal activities. But Bush says they are OK, so he better find out who told people about these "OK" activities. Because they are need for the war on terror, right? So they must be OK. Just that you don't need to know about it. Yeah.

In Summary: Bush broke the law, lied about it, then when people found out he shifts the blame to a leak and the press. What a fucking ass.

Regarding the Padilla case, the Justice Department said the US Circuit Court had "...infringed on President Bush's authority to run the war on terror..."

This is the same court that has let Bushco throw peopleUS Citizens in a Navy Brig for years (YEARS!) without charging them with anything more than being an "enemy combatant"

And then, then those useless fucks said:
"There is nothing remotely sinister about the government's effort to pursue criminal charges that minimize evidentiary complications," the brief said, adding that "there is no basis for questioning the good faith of the government in moving forward with the indictment."

minimize evidentiary complications WTF? This sounds a little too much like "Well, don't let the lack of evidence get in the way of finally prosecuting this guy on some bullshit charges after we left him in a hole without charging for anything for over 3 years..."

Plus Bushco's illegal wiretaps? Impeach! Impeach that fucking asshat dictator. So, FISA doesn't move fast enough? 72 hour retro rule for wiretaps? You cannot file your brief with FISA within 3 days of starting a tap on someone? Is that just laziness or outright fucking incompetence? And FISA has rejected - what - 8 taps in 27 years? Which would imply that Bush is wiretapping people he knows for which FISA would smack him down.

How do we get rid of him? So, his buddies bugger up elections in Florida and Ohio. He launches a war on known bad data and defends it, then lies about it (2100+ US Soldiers have died so far, plus a minimum of 30000 Iraqi Civilians). His administration outed an undercover CIA agent. He has run up the largest deficit ever (starting with a surplus, at that). He has cut social programs while giving tax breaks to his friends. But he says "Jesus" and claims to be a Christian, and he has his war on (War on Terra), so people cut him slack. WHY?!

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
-Benjamin Franklin

I know these jokes are old, but with the trial opening up in PA over teaching Intelligent Design, cough, Creationism, cough, in Dover, PA (A group of parents is suing the district saying that teaching ID violates Separation Church and State). I am looking forward to the evidence based on the district's own documentation. And WTF is it with people saying this a real fucking scientific debate? There is no real debate here. None. ID is not science. Period. The only debate here is arguing about how they were able to convince school boards in KS and PA, and why if they will teach ID they will not teach about the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to debate whether Evolution should be taught in schools. The hearings are a prelude to other hearings, including "Should women be allowed to work?" and "Poor Crop Yields: Weather or Witchcraft?"

A fossil found in South Dakota is that of a never before seen species of dinosaur. The horse-sized creature lived some 66 million years ago, or, as it's known in Kansas – yesterday.

Both jokes shamelessly stolen from Drinking Liberally

US religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has called for the US to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4177664.stm

I know, there are really decent Christians out there, and I am good friends with a few. But it is whack-jobs like these that make the whole religion seem suspect. I am pretty sure there is no where in the Bible where Jesus tells his disciples to carry out assassinations. Christians like this make Baby Jesus cry.

You know the world is a strange place when Russia is accusing the US of violating freedom.

The Russian Interior Ministry has denounced the arrest of U.S. journalist Judith Miller who refused to reveal her source, Itar-Tass reported Thursday. The decision violates journalists' rights and the freedom of press, the Ministry said.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/07/07/judithmiller.shtml

I grew up in a time when the Soviets were our enemy, and represented all that was bad about government and society - corruption, your own citizens going hungry, limited freedom, secret police... Hey! Wait a sec, that seems to be happening here. I know, i know, by saying that I am helping the terrorists win.

Let me try to be a good little citizen, "I am a God-fearing Christian and we just have to have faith that what God is telling Bush to do is the right thing." Oh, wait, that's right, I do not believe any of that shit.

I think my insomnia makes me even more cynical.

You know the book is bad when...

On the Fox News Channel, Bill O'Reilly — another frequent critic of the senator — said Monday that he had read the book and "there's little new" in it. The most negative accounts, he said, come "from anonymous sources, which is not good. Far too many accusations are coming from people who are settling grudges in a cowardly way."