One more Espresso shot

Concession speech at 10:30pm Central?! Holy Shit!

In another OMGWTFBBQ moment, last night I learned that Minnesota's own Michelle Bachman blamed the current economic crisis on the non-whites. Ok, not directly, but she blamed it on the Clinton-era bill that told banks they could not discriminate lending based on race or neighborhood. But keep in mind, no one has ever told banks that they had to lend to people with bad credit. They opted to do that themselves using legislation to deregulate the industry.

Continuing placing blame in all the wrong places:
(from pharyngula_rss )

In a September 25th blog post titled 'The Nation Will Right Itself If It Fixes Sex', Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath writes that the financial crisis facing Wall Street is a symptom of America's sinful sexual culture, including the acceptance of gay unions.

"Our crisis is a symptom, not the cause," writes Michael Heath. " I am not saying I know whether this financial crisis is God's judgment or not. It is not for me to know that definitively."

Heath goes on to list policy changes that would make God "crack a smile," including: End abortion rights and defund non-profit groups supporting it, amend state constitutions to ban gay marriage and eliminate domestic partnerships and civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, and end discrimination against private religious schools and homeschools.

Ooookay then. It is not those people is less desirable neighborhoods at all, it is that we accept homosexuals and allow abortions. So it is not even a legal/legislative problem, it is god getting mad at us. Clearly. Why didn't I think of that before? Of course! Katrina, dead soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, 9/11 terrorist attack, all because of the gays.

Oh, and whatever discrimination there is of religious and homeschools.
Not sure what that discrimination is, but it must be so, since a Christian said it. Oh, wait, I know what one problem of religious schools is - their science is shite. I looked through my cousins' "science" book from his xtian school (my two cousins are 1 and 2 years ahead in science, and their Mom said this school is much better than the one she had them in last year - I think they should go back to homeschooling or go to public school...). Holy-fucking-shit. Did you know that Kepler was a Christian? Two of the questions on their last test were about that. Also, an elliptical orbit is a perfect circle, just offset (so the sun is not in the center of the circle). Wow! I also learned that the sun and planets rotate around the solar system. Not sure if that was just bad phrasing (like cars go around a track) or if there has not been a mention of that whole galaxy thing. It was a poorly worded question in either case. I am sure there are some private religious schools that have a real science program. Just not that one.

Sarah Palin, answering a 2006 policy questionnaire
Q: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

PALIN: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance

Um, okay then, Governor. I hope that someone has taken the opportunity in the past two years to educate her on the history of the country. That phrase was added during the cold war - 1954. And the Founding Fathers? The pledge was written in 1892. That means the Founding Fathers had already been dead and buried for 50+ years.

That's the state to be!

The Governor of Montana has told the Federal Government and Homeland Security to bugger off on the whole RealID stuff:

He is slightly more polite than just saying "blow me," but not by much.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87991791

The audio is only 4 minutes, so it is worth the time to listen.

So, today SCOTUS said "No" to hearing the appeal of a German citizen who was kidnapped by the CIA in Morocco and sent to Afghanistan where he was confined and allegedly tortured. After the CIA figured out he was not a terrorist, he was dropped off in the woods in Albania. Next stop for him is likely the World Court. That is pretty fucked up. So much for land of the free. Bushco was heavily lobbying the courts to not accept the case, on the grounds of "state secrets."

In other legal news, a jury in Duluth was convinced by the most expensive lawyers on the planet to force a single mother living a little above poverty to pay the RIAA $222,000 for downloading and "making available" music. FUCK THE RIAA. In other news, the RIAA has let slip their hand and is considering the following bullshit (from http://www.dailytech.com/RIAA+Eyes+Next+Possible+Targets+CD+Burners+Radio+Listeners/article9218.htm) :

• "...users who buy songs are entitled to one, and only one copy. Burning CDs is just another name for stealing, in her mind. "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'."
  
• Another possible avenue of legal action for the RIAA is the pursuit of businesses that play unauthorized music in stores. The Performing Rights Society (PRS), Britain's version of the RIAA, may give the RIAA some possible ideas with its pending litigation. The PRS is suing the Kwik Fit Group, a car repair shop in Edinburgh, for £200,000 in damages. The case revolves around the complaint that Kwik Fit employees brought in personal radios which they played while working on cars, which could be heard by colleagues and customers. The PRS says this amounts to a public "performance" and should have entailed royalties.
  

Hey - RIAA - Fuck You, and your little bitch organization PRS. Overall record sales profits are down for a couple of reasons:

• Less new albums available
  
• Craptastic music
  

Keep in mind, at the height of downloading, individual album sales were up, but since there were less albums, the overall $$ were less. Also, DVD sales were up and there is not much price difference, so there was entertainment dollar competition from the movies.

The RIAA's business plan is crap. Their model is obsolete. It is like Bill Maher said (this is a little old)- GM said Hybrids are not part of our business plan. GM lost 4 billion dollars last quarter. What the fuck is your business plan?

The RIAA's plan is not more musical acts, not more variety, not more new music, not better downloading. No, their plan is sue and alienate all of their customers. And then what? What is their plan when sending blanket subpoenas to university fails their money requirements? Sue more people, hire better lawyers, and now go after CD Burners, or playing your radio at work? What The Fuck!? Has the RIAA forgotten "Fair Use" or "Time Shifting" precedents from the 70s and 80s? So, in their world, if my CD is scratched, I have to buy another copy. If I want to keep the CD at home, and put a copy in my car, I am stealing. Nevermind that the piece-of-shits who broke into my car got a CD wallet full of copies (Ha-Ha!) and I would have to purchase all of that again according to the RIAA.

There should be much more ranting about the War on Terra and "State Secrets" and the worst president ever, and his major contributer Blackwater's private christian army, and SCHIP, but really, I just don't have enough time to pick on the fascists right now.

So, instead of impeaching Bush for his crimes against America, both the House and the Senate handed him a bill that legitimizes most of his illegal wiretapping, further eroding our civil liberties and slashing the 4th Amendment. And this is with the democrats in charge of the legislature.

They should be ashamed. Shame on every one of them that did not stand up and say NO. Shame on them for ignoring the infrastructure and health care of this country while our troops are dying occupying a foreign country and they (Congress) kowtow to a corrupt regime. I knew Coleman would vote for it, he has been nothing if not Bush's lap dog. But Klobuchar, I expected better of her. She has a real background in law.

I vote no confidence in the whole federal government. The Bush administration must go. Those in Congress must go. All of them. Since it has been pointed out to me that there is no "reset" button for the government, it seems our redress is limited to two options. Mentioning one of those options is likely to get me sent to Guantanamo (advocating a revolution is apparently illegal and we are all to comfortable to actually make a go of it anyway), I implore everyone to vote out every single incumbent in every election you are able. Since we are not rich and cannot withhold funding like the companies backing the administration, the only thing we can do is vote them out. Sending emails, calling, and faxing does not seem to change the votes, even though they are supposed to represent us.

This is not yet a Fascist State. Fascism is the need of the State over-riding the needs of the individuals, intolerance of anything not in the State's interest and extreme Nationalism. It is also not yet a Theocracy. This country's path should not lead in either of those directions. Unfortunately, it has almost become an Oligarchy, in which We The People are ruled by a small minority of power holders (BushCo, Murdoch, Haliburtin, Big Oil). We need to stop this degeneration of our society. I do not want to tour the ruins of our society, while slowly puffing an INGSOC cigarette; the society we let fall on our watch; let fall to a creepy cadre of greedy, corrupt scum.

For some value of hell equal to two days before Holiday and CON!

First, my machine takes about 10 minutes to boot because of all of the crap that is installed on it to keep it safe. It is very safe, since it takes so long to do anything. Then, I cannot get to my web-app, since every few weeks or so the designated service account loses the "Log on as a Service" permission. Not sure what security thing that is, neither the Windows admin group or the Information Security people can tell us why. After reseting the password (thereby forcing the permission), my web-apps starts working again.

Then I see that the company has found a NYT article on how the pro-business SCOTUS has decided it prefers sucking the dick of manufacturers over retailers by repealing a 96 year old law about "resale price maintenance agreements." See, it used to be automatic - if a manufacturer said you have to sell this for at least $X, Anti-trust could be invoked (I believe that Microsoft got hit with this one). So, a small company said, we want to sell it for $(X-n) and manufacturer said "no." Litigation ensues. The Supremes said well, it is not automatic anymore, we don't like that law from 1911, so this is now a case-by-case basis. The right-leaning bench just took another whack at Anti-trust laws.

From the article (dissenting opinion)
But Justice Breyer said in his dissent that the court had failed to justify the overturning of the rule, or that there was significant evidence to show that price agreements would often benefit consumers. He said courts would have a difficult time sorting out the price agreements that help consumers from those that harm them.

“The upshot is, as many economists suggest, sometimes resale price maintenance can prove harmful, sometimes it can bring benefits,” he wrote. “But before concluding that courts should consequently apply a rule of reason, I would ask such questions as, how often are harms or benefits likely to occur? How easy is it to separate the beneficial sheep from the antitrust goats?”
“My own answer,” he concluded, “is not very easily.”

I am sure davedujour can guess which justices voted which way.

I am thinking this is not good for consumers. How often do companies really want to price something for significantly less than the "suggested retail price" versus the price-fixing that is likely to result. Just remember, big business is not altruistic. It is not out to help you and me. It is out to make more money. The more the better.

[Cross posted as a reply here]

A reboot [voting no confidence on the entire Executive and Legislative branches] would be chaos for a while, but is that really any different from the usual session startup? But there is no reboot clause, so we need another solution. Armed conflict is not going to be a solution for many reasons. Therefore the government has to be changed slowly, and with more input from the general population.
( very little rant, just ideas on a better America )

Apparently, it is terrorism to criticize the catholics

This is terrorism, too. Attacking the Church is terrorism. Feeding blind irrational rage against those who always speak in the name of love - love for life and love for man - that is terrorism.

(from http://community.livejournal.com/antitheism/650705.html?#cutid1)

And confirmed with this
ROME (Reuters) - The Vatican's official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of "terrorism" for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.
(from http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0211344020070502?feedType=RSS)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's second-highest ranking doctrinal official on Monday forcefully branded homosexual marriage an evil and denounced abortion and euthanasia as forms of "terrorism with a human face."

(from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070423/wl_nm/pope_gays_dc)

And speaking of terrorism
Recently Pope Benedict XVI condemned terrorist attacks against civilians in Great Britain, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey.

But, he failed to mention Israel. I guess the Jews slipped his mind. Sort of like when when Popes Pious 11 and 12 sort of forgot to condemn the Nazi's and actively collaborated with them. Oh, shit! Am I a terrorist now?

What if I just state a fact. The church excommunicated Galileo after his Heresy trial in 1633. Galileo was right and the church was wrong. Oops, more terrorism. The Catholic church lies about condom usage and tells people in Africa that the condoms are "laced" with AIDS so that they will not go against bullshit fucking religious dogma and use them. The church is wrong. What am I up to, 3 counts now? How about this? The Catholic church as in institution is nothing but a controlling, greedy, wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, gluttonous, misogynistic, racist, deceitful, hateful, self-perpetuating stain on humanity.
time passes
I think that is the Swiss Guard at the door. Lucky for me their little knives got taken away from them at the airport.