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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: A Party Inverted

Bill Bradley hits the nail on the head. Fortunately, this kind of effort is beginning with a group led by George Soros. I only hope that it isn't as cynical and devoid of real solutions to real problems as the Republican machine is.

Fight the good fight.

Danforth Writes of Sanity

John Danforth's guest column in today's New York Times expresses what so many of us are asking for--a return of focus on the real issues that face our country. It is sad how every day shows how mainstream the once-extreme right has become in the Republican party and our federal government in general. Do these people live in a vacuum? I ask that because it sure seems like the Republicans at the state level (including here in Arkansas) realize that religion-based legislation tends to divide people while ignoring the real issues at hand. But the guys running the show in our federal government do not reflect the will of the majority.

Oh well, that just means the Democrats will make some serious gains in 2006 and 2008, which suits me just fine.

Fight the good fight.

Today's Kristof Column

It is pathetic how some people let their own ideas of morality get in the way of being moral, but I suppose that is what happens when people cannot think outside of their own little lily-white corner of the world.

Fight the good fight.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

MSNBC - The Culture of Each Life

This is an extremely well-written column that sums up how I feel about the Terri Schiavo case, but it is written much more eloquently than I can write, so I will spare you the time.

Sorry I have been absent from posting lately, but my life has been a whirlwind. I will try to post some about it later.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Because Congress sucks..

I'm beginning to lose faith in even our Democrat reps. After the Alaska drilling and the bankruptcy crap I'm not sure any of these spineless twits deserve our support.

Interesting cartoon over here.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Wolcott's still hitting that nail..

He's hitting the nail on the head here.

Although it's about as subtle as using a sledge hammer pound a nail into your dry wall to hang a picture of the friend from college who would drink his beer from anything other than the can and light his farts.

I agree with him though (simply because the past week has just been one example of failure after another). America won't wake up as it sleep walks down the path of the Roman empire. We've got two countries we run, aside from our own. Democracy in the Middle East is great only so far that it's better than the government it replaced. When the leaders in these countries are placed in power by a foreign government they will probably fail.

Our dollar is sliding down hill faster than Greenspan's wrinkled claw of a hand can grasp. When you've out sourced, over spent budgets year after year, continued spending on a giant military budget going out of control, and proposed asinine reform to programs that aren't on their last legs.. Well.. You'll find a few problems. Since before I could vote we were heading down this path.. GWB has only furthered our decent with his policies. I wonder how long it will be before we wake up and see how we've painted ourselves into that corner.. Hopefully before it's too late, but I doubt it.

You can feel it in the air...

That's right.. A rant. But this is a rant on professionalism. Recently I applied to a Public Relations job in Indianapolis, IN. The email I received was very promising. My resume was praised (thank you to the great individual who brought my jumbled thoughts together), and I was asked to come up to have an interview. I suggested a date (March 18th for those keeping up) to meet with what I was hoping was my soon-to-be-boss. She confirmed that the date would be ok and asked me what time I would be available. I set 1 PM and emailed her to make sure everything would be ok and set for this time. This email was sent March 10th to make sure there was plenty of time in case whatever.. I even called her the Monday before the interview (a full 5 days before the interview), I left a message. No response to my emails or call. We drove up to Round Lake, IL on the 17th (12 hour drive with no internet, but a cell phone that worked). Thursday (the 17th) night I finally reached a computer to check my email and low and behold.. An email. I quickly opened it only to find a serious disappointment and lack of professionalism. For all the world to read here is it:

"I will calll you this afternoon also, I had an internal candidate apply
for the position and I am going to offer it to him on Monday, I apologize for
the late notice, you had a very impressive resume with great experience."

The day before the interview, with no responses to previous contact, and still no phone calls even when told she would call? I was beyond mad.. This woman suddenly gets an internal applicant and brushes me aside at the very last moment. If only karma was real...

Add to the fact that Indy has a great amount of apartments, 90% of which really suck. We returned home to find great news in the mail.. Those useless sacks of rancid ferret dung we call our government decided it was time for me to pay my personal property taxes.. So now I owe those sick twisted assclowns another 300+ pushing the total to above $1000. I guess I'm the only one who didn't get the notice that if you're pulling a whooping 8.84 an hour you're on the IRS hit list. Bastards....

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Google is the Devil

Well, not really, but this guy caught a hard break. Be sure to read both links in this Meta-Filter post.

I'm Sick...

...but I went into work today because I'm going out of town on Friday and won't be back at work until Tuesday. Oh, and my annual performance review was today, too, though I already knew what my job rating is (Solid Performer) and what my raise is because boss-man waited a little long to perform the reviews, for which the end results are readable on our personal HR intranet page. Sheesh, talk about killing the suspense and anxiety. Actually, I'm quite glad that I found out ahead of time because the old job has been a little murky for the past few months. Not necessarily in a bad way, mind you, but just in that uncomfortable, not-really-certain-what's-going-on-here kind of way.

Yeah, so I am going out of town to my first big Warhammer tournament of the year--the Hombre, in Killeen, Texas. There are seven of us CAWS-ites* going down there for the shindig, which will have about 60 folks in attendance. Pretty good turnout for a military town in the middle of nowhere (anywhere in Texas that it isn't Austin, Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio). I am looking forward to it, though I will miss my wife dearly while I am away, until I get drunk that is, but then that only lasts for an hour. Getting back at 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning Sunday night/Monday morning will suck, but it will be nice.


*CAWS-ite: a member of CAWS (Central Arkansas Warhammer Society, aka a group of 20- and 30-something guys with nothing better to do than paint and play games with 28mm fantasy miniatures)

Is this what al Qaeda has come to?

I'm sorry, but this is too damn funny to me.

Russel Crowe is a target for al Qaeda kidnapping... As part of "cultural destabilization plot." Is anyone else finding this as totally off the wall as I am?

Seriously.. Couldn't they have picked someone a little more.. I dunno.. Powerful?

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Link to "Why we don't mourn"

While checking out Walcott's site I found this linked. This link lead me to a story that I'm finding a little bothersome to say the least. We all know our troops in Iraq are on edge 24/7.. But why are we receiving conflicting reports on the shooting of Giuliana Sgrena's body guard while they traveled to the airport? The US military says they tried to stop the car, and Sqrena has stated otherwise. Makes you wonder if there was any truth to the claims of US military targeting journalists....

Many thanks to Mr. Walcott for linking to Tom Watson's blog. It seems to have some pretty interesting stuff.

On a lighter note.. Hulk's blog should update more often, it is hilarious! HULK SMASH!!

Sunday, March 06, 2005

A Scanner Darkly

Woah, this looks hella-cool. I am a fan of Phillip K. Dick, and have seen almost all of the movie adaptations of his stuff (except for Paycheck) and have liked them all in one way or another--Total Recall was total camp, but fun, Minority Report gets undeserved criticisms as a "Spielberg" film, and Blade Runner (the director's cut) is a classic.

Daily Kos :: FEC Regulating Political Blogs? GOP Commissioners Want To

This absolutely scares the crap out of me. This would stunt the burgeoning blog community like nothing else. Good luck to them trying to actually enforce any changes to the law.

Fight the good fight.

The Moose on "political hack"

The Moose speaks the truth--more Dems need to get behind Harry Reid.

Fight the good fight.

One of My Favorites

This is a great NY Times Sunday Magazine article about Beck and the work he did to record his new CD, Guero, which should be out soon. I can not wait to hear it.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Fueling the fire under Greenspan's chair.

Well, Tom, I found this. Found more from Mr. Walcott's site. As usual, Walcott amuses and still hits the nail on the head.

A nice little article about Greenspan and his ever so brilliant ideas. How is it exactly this man, who ran a pension management firm into the ground because of his investments is allowed to speak on the Social Security issue? Seems like asking a crack head to hold you wallet while you go use the bathroom...

Friday, March 04, 2005

Students that went a little too far..

At Sana Rosa Junior College a group of Repubs decided that some of their professors were too liberal.. Too left leaning. Interesting.. I thought that's why it was called a liberal arts education (i'm here all night folks.. try the veal.). Ok, so enough of bad jokes..

This is what these Repub students did. On the doors of ten faculty members the students posted red stars and referenced communist indoctrination. This was done because, as one of these students claimed, "The opinion of the far left is presented as fact, with no alternative." Jeez... This is so open to all kinds of angles for me to break down and destruct.. Lets start, shall we?

First, you are in college, try to act like it. If you don't agree with the teacher, no one is making you take that class. You are allowed to get up, walk out, and drop the class. You may also speak with the teacher after class, in private, in their office about your concerns. You can even discuss your issues with the dean, providing you make an appointment. This is after all college, where you prepare for the "real world," where it would indeed NOT be good to post red stars on your fellow worker's cubicles.. I foresee many many firings in your future should you do this to every co-worker you don't agree with.

Second, free speech is allowed in college. If this was not true.. Well.. It would be high school, you wouldn't have the chance to protest something you feel is wrong and actually have an opinion.

Third, I haven't really seen too much of the far right presenting their "facts" while still acknowledging any alternatives. Hello, pot? This is kettle.. You're black.

Fourth, why is it that most of the problems seem to be from liberal professors? Is it because that's all there are? Do we even have any conservative professors, or are the conservatives not up to the challenges of higher education? I see stats here and there about how many liberal professors there are at Ivy league colleges, but never any stats about conservative profs. What's up with that?

Fifth, if you're going to go around marking people's door claiming they're commies.. Don't be pissed when some people call you and your group/party/etc etc fascists. Not Nazis, fascists. It all smacks of McCarthyism (sic).

All in all.. Here is the story about it. We really shouldn't allow our professors to be treated like criminals because they offer views different to yours. College is where you are suppose to learn and be exposed to different cultures and ideas. If you don't want to be exposed to these things and consider there could be other ways of life than yours and people aren't going to hell because they don't share your vision of God/politics/etc etc don't go to college.

What. The. HELL?!?!

Blumenthal: Recycled rhetoric

Here is another great take on the origins of Bush's Social Security hack plan. Does BushCo really honestly believe that there is a crisis? Or are they just a bunch of greedy bastards who want to have their cake and eat it too? I am tired of them purporting to do good things for the American people when all of the evidence is to the contrary.

Fight the good fight.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Deficits and Deceit

Great column from Paul Krugman today about the "starve the beast" tactics of the right. Pretty pathetic how they take the majority of citizens for idiots. Way to go, guys!

Fight the good fight.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Greenspan: "Consumption Tax"

Greenspan is off his rocker. The biggest problem with a national consumption tax that doesn't tax items that would negatively impact the poor is that in times of crisis people will stop buying items they don't need (FYI, I am not advocating that food and basic services be taxed by a national sales tax). This happened post-9/11, and the economy (in terms of sales of goods and services) took two years to recover. Meanwhile, states and municipalities that rely heavily on sales taxes for revenue took a major hit. Unless there is an outbreak of unemployment tied to such a crisis, the one constant about the income tax is that people will generally still pull in the same levels of income.

Fight the good fight.

The New York Times > Washington > New Poll Finds Bush Priorities Are Out of Step With Americans

I'm so happy we re-elected this guy; he's such a great president and is so in tune with the average American. Wow, how could I have ever said anything bad about him at all? And it's amazing that he wasn't re-elected by a greater margin seeing that so many people agree with him on the major points. Oh, yeah, that's right, he was re-elected because Karl Rove is a political genius, not because of any substance.

The New York Times > Washington > New Poll Finds Bush Priorities Are Out of Step With Americans

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Ankle bracelets on immigrants?

Holy poop on a stick, Batman! Is this for real!? Are we taggin legal immigrants with the same devices we use on criminals? I'm not so sure this is good idea.. It feels like it could lead to the next thing.. Next thing you know, our kids will have them so we'll "know where they are." Followed by the government needing to keep a track of all its "citizens."

The Department of Homeland Security (that STILL sounds like something sinister.. like the Fatherland or the Motherland...) is becoming more of threat to real freedoms than a tool to protect our freedom.

This was on NPR and it's rather.. Disturbing.

Moss finds a new home in silver and black.

Yup.. The Vikes got rid of the biggest example of what's wrong and what's right with the NFL. Moss was traded to the Raiders and will receive a base salary of 7.5 mil a year. Vikes receive linebacker Napoleon Harris and a first round pick.

I think Moss will fit into a club that has a reputation as being a little over the top. I've never been a Raiders fan, and now I've got more reason not to be one. Randy Moss' skill is only overshadowed by his immature antics on and off the field. I can respect the skills, but not the crap attitude. As far as I'm concerned.. The Raiders got exactly what the deserved.. A great player with a piss poor attitude who won't perform to expectations until he stops believing his own hype.

Here's the link to the full story.

I Love Political Cartoons...

This is pretty mean, but damn it made me laugh.

Fight the good fight.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

It's Avoid a Question Barbie.

Ms. Coulter strikes again.. Or maybe gets struck again. You would think someone would lend her a shove to dig that hole she's sinking into in this clip.

If she can't answer a question or at the very least admit to not really having an answer, why does she just keep babbling like someone pulled the string in her back for another one liner attack on Dems? Why not just say you have no opinion on the question or give a real answer?

edit: A tad more just for good measure, and to once more add fuel to the fire that the bleech job had passed through the insanly think skull of her's and into her small brain.