Title Goes Here(tm)

Going To Hell In A Handbasket, and Doing It In Style!

home page
previous entry
next entry


recommend this site

links:
Tom Paine
The Nation
Bush or Chimp?
Landover Baptist Church
The White House
The Onion
Ernie's House of Whoop Ass

we've had this many folks visit so far:

"Duct tape is the single greatest invention of the 20th century. By contrast, all the 21st century has been able to bring us so far is cloned sheep. As if bovine molestation were not already a problem of epidemic proportions..."

moshpit
(if you just gotta rant back, use the pit, that's what it's for.)

DISCLAIMER: Title Goes Here(tm) hereby expressly disclaims any implied warranties imputed by the laws of any jurisdiction whatsoever. We consider ourselves and intend to be subject to the jurisdiction only of the courts of the state of Chilikonkarne, Lower Moldavia. If you are dissatisfied with this site or with any terms, conditions, rules, policies, guidelines or practices herein, kindly piss off. Title Goes Here(tm) exists to serve Title Goes Here(tm). Title Goes Here(tm) is expressly NOT concerned with your satisfaction in any way, shape, or form. Title Goes Here(tm) is not responsible for any errors, omissions or representations on any of our pages or on any links on any of our pages. Nor does Title Goes Here(tm) warrant that the use of this information is free of any claims of copyright infringement. In short, Title Goes Here(tm) is responsible for exactly jack shit. We totally stole this disclaimer from EasyMidget, and we're sure they'd be the first to applaud us for it.

archives:

14 03 04 - 20 03 04
07 03 04 - 13 03 04
29 02 04 - 06 03 04
22 02 04 - 28 02 04
15 02 04 - 21 02 04
08 02 04 - 14 02 04
25 01 04 - 31 01 04
18 01 04 - 24 01 04
26 10 03 - 01 11 03
19 10 03 - 25 10 03
12 10 03 - 18 10 03
28 09 03 - 04 10 03
21 09 03 - 27 09 03

FEC http://www.fec.gov or Political Money Line http://www.tray.com/

The Republican Governors Assn 527 account picked up $766,183 in August and spent $326,328. Large donors included Nissan North America (Smyrna, TN) $100,000; Altria Corporate Services (New York, NY) $72,833; Gateway American Properties (CO) $50,000; Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers (DC) $35,000; Comcast (Baltimore, MD) $25,000; Tyson Foods (Springdale, AR) $25,000; Anthem Inc (Cincinnati, OH) $25,000; Thomas Saunders (New York, NY) $25,000; HMS Host (Bethesda, MD) $25,000; JRL Enterprises (New Orleans, LA) $50,000; Joseph Canizaro (New Orleans,LA) $25,000; Fred Carl (Greenwood, MS) $25,000; and Bancorp South (Tupelo, MS) $25,000.

First Energy of Akron, Ohio, and its executives have been active in the 527 arena. David Luff, manager of Government Affairs, made a $100,000 donation to the Republican Governors Assn in the fall of 2002. The corporation gave $50,000 in late 2001 to Rep. Tom Delay’s 527, Americans for a Republican Majority Non-Federal Account. President Anthony Alexander also gave $5,000. In the fall of 2000, the corporation gave $10,000 to the Republican Leadership Council Inc- State. Also in 2000, Alexander gave $5,000 to the Bush-Cheney 2000 Recount Fund.

The Center for Public Integrity

http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/index.asp?L1=20&L2=24&L3=20&L4=50&L5=20

September 21, 2003

Home > Books & Projects > The Buying of the President 2000 > The Candidates > George W. Bush >

Top Career Patrons

Name and Profile Amount

1 Enron Corporation, Houston

Enron is one of the country's No. 1 buyer and seller of natural gas with power plant and pipeline projects in Argentina, China and Puerto Rico. Enron is a top soft money donor to the Republican party. Enron's chief executive officer, Kenneth L. Lay, who served on President Bush's Export Council from 1991 to 1993, is a Bush fundraiser as is his predecessor Richard Kinder. $572,350

2 MBNA Corporation, Wilmington, Delaware $369,691

3 Sanchez family, Laredo, Texas

A.R. "Tony" Sanchez Jr. and his family own large shares of International Bank of Commerce, a chain of banks based in Laredo, Texas, that was founded by his father in 1966. Sanchez is also chairman and chief executive officer of Sanchez-O'Brien Oil and Gas, a natural gas supplier he started in 1973. Governor Bush appointed Sanchez to the University of Texas Board of Regents. $323,650

4 Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., Houston

Vinson & Elkins is one of Texas' largest law firms with 600 lawyers on three continents. Joe B. Allen, Thoman P. Marinis, Robert H. Wilden Jr., three partners in the firm's Houston office are Pioneers, a group of fundraisers for Bush's presidential campaign who pledged to raise $100,000. The firm represents Enron and Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation. $322,700

5 Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated, Dallas

Hicks, Muse is a leverage buyout firm that owns Chancellor Media, the nation's 2nd largest chain of radio stations. Its founder and Chairman is Thomas O. Hicks. Hicks owns the Texas Rangers baseball team, which he bought from Bush and his partners in 1998. He is also the Chairman of the University of Texas Management Company, which manages the assets of the state's public universities. $316,650

6 Bass family, Forth Worth, Texas

The Bass brothers inherited their millions from grand uncle Sid Richardson, a Texas wildcatter. Robert and Lee Bass joined President Bush's Team 100, a group of $100,000 donors to the RNC. The family agreed to finance Harken Energy's drilling in Bahrain in 1990 when George W. Bush was a Harken director. In 1995, Bush appointed Lee Bass Chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. $275,927

7 The Sterling Group, Houston

Sterling is a merchant bank that buys up ailing chemical companies. Petrochemical executives Gordon Cain and Frank Hevrdjes created it in 1987. Toxic emissions from the Texas City plant of one of its subsidiaries, Sterling Chemical, has sent nearby residents to the emergency room more than once. Sterling Chemical president J. Virgil Waggoner has been a top donor to both the Governor and his father. $262,000

8 Bank of America Corporation, Charlotte, North Carolina $237,000

9 Farmers Insurance Group, Inc., Los Angeles

Founded in 1928, Farmers Insurance Group is the nation's third largest seller of homeowners and automobile insurance. The company operates in 31 states including Texas. In 1995, Farmers Insurance contributed $50,000 to Gov. Bush's Inaugural. Since then, the company has seen its profits grow in the wake of Bush-backed legislation to restrict personal injury law suits. $235,250

10 Pilgrim's Pride Corporation/Lonnie Pilgrim, Pittsburg, Texas

Pilgrim's Pride is the nation's fourth largest poultry producer. Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, now the company's Senior Chairman, started the company with his brother Aubrey in 1946. Over the last decade, Pilgrim's Pride has been fined more than $500,000 for pollution violations. In 1989, he gave out $10,000 checks on the floor of the state Capitol while lobbying lawmakers on workers compensation reform. $230,750

11 Sam M. and Charles J. Wyly, Jr., Dallas

Brothers Sam and Charles Wyly oversee a sprawling empire that includes: Maverick Capital Ltd class='datatd'., an investment fund, Sterling Software, a computer software company based in Dallas, Texas, Michaels Stores, Inc., the nation's largest arts and crafts retailer, and GreenMountain.com Company, a marketer of electricity from environmentally friendly sources. Both were members of President Bush's Team 100. $222,773

12 Arter & Hadden L.L.P./Thomas G. Loeffler, Cleveland $221,050

13 Andersen Worldwide, Chicago $220,575

14 Baker & Botts, Houston $210,621 (James Baker III from Bush the Elder’s Administration and the Florida Recall infamy)

15 Locke, Liddell & Sapp, Dallas $184,867

16 Union Pacific Corporation, Omaha, Nebraska $183,600

17 Denitech Corporation, Irving, Texas/Dennis Berman $177,500

18 Jenkens & Gilchrist, Dallas $176,550

19 Beecherl family, Dallas $169,000

20 Peter and Edith Jones O'Donnell, Dallas $158,000

21 Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., St. Louis $152,500

22 Texas Utilities Company, Dallas $151,549

23 Robert McNair and family, Houston/ Cogen Technologies $149,000

24 Crescent Real Estate Equities Company, Fort Worth, Texas $146,500

25 Hixon Properties, Inc., San Antonio, Texas/ George Hixon $141,000

You can download the campaign finance disclosure form (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format) for Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign from

http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/downloads/BOP2000/pfd/BUSH.PDF

http://edstrong.blog-city.com/read/177016.htm

links you to edstrong, which provides stories about the latest Bush antics.

Also www.WhiteHouseForSale.org a web site that tracks Bush Campaign Contributors or other sites like www.opensecrets.org that post who's giving what to whom. http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/index.asp if you want to check by large PAC or organizations. For example, if you check Phillip Morris, you'll see that almost all of their donations go to the Republicans. (Small wonder, Republican Presidential candidate, Bob Dole, was spewing the lie that "there is no proof that smoking causes cancer." - how much did they pay him to say that?)

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/bush/bushfin.html

The First Round of Fundraisers -- June 2003 President Bush

June 17 Washington Hilton Hotel Washington, DC $3.5 million

June 20 Ritz Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation Greensboro, GA $2.5 million

June 23 Sheraton New York Hotel New York, NY $4 million

June 27 San Francisco Airport Marriott San Francisco, CA $1.6 million

June 27 Century Plaza Hotel Los Angeles, CA $3.5 million

June 30 Miami Airport Hilton Miami, FL $1.8 million

June 30 Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay Tampa, FL $1.2 million

Vice President Cheney

June 24 The Jefferson Hotel Richmond, VA $500,000

June 24 Home of Richard Egan (co-founder of EMC Corp.) Hopkinton, $1.2 million

June 30 Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park Grand Rapids, MI $500,000

June 30 Hilton Akron Fairlawn Akron, OH $600,000

First Lady Laura Bush

June 20 Home of Mayor Bob Corker Chattanooga, TN $500,000

June 25 Philadephia, PA $565,000

June 25 Indian Hill home of Mercer Reynolds Cincinnati, OH $800,000

or get the official listing of donors straight from the Bush Cheney 04 Campaign website

http://www.georgewbush.com/Donors/

Bush-Cheney 2004 Pioneers and Rangers < Donor Information < Home

(As of June 30, 2003)

Rangers

Pioneers

Rangers

First name Last Name State

Michael M. Boone Texas

Katherine E. Boyd California

Steve Burd California

Joseph C. Canizaro Louisiana

William O. DeWitt, Jr. Ohio

Richard J. Egan Massachusetts

Christopher F. Egan Massachusetts

Frank E. Fowler Tennessee

Sam Fox Missouri

Bradford M. Freeman California

Hank Greenberg New York

Al Hoffman Florida

Robert W. Johnson IV New York

Nancy G. Kinder Texas

Steve Lessing New York

Carl H. Lindner Ohio

Stan O'Neal New York

George E. Pataki New York

Jamie Reynolds Georgia

Ned L. Siegel Florida

Gregory W. Slayton California

Eric Tanenblatt Georgia

Zachariah P. Zachariah, M.D. Florida

Pioneers

First name Last Name State

Jack Abramoff D.C.

Alfred S. Austin Florida

Cathy Bailey Kentucky

Lawrence E. Bathgate II New Jersey

Carole L. Bionda California

Teel Bivins Texas

Al Cardenas Florida

James Cayne New York

Peter R. Coneway Texas

Dan Cook Texas

Alfonse D'Amato New York

Michael J. Egan Massachusetts

Thomas Everist South Dakota

Richard T. Farmer Ohio

Frank Gargano New York

David F. Girard-di Carlo Pennsylvania

Thomas L. Johnson Texas

John C. Kern Ohio

Bobbie & Bill Kilberg D.C.

Fred W. Lazenby Tennessee

Michael Lebovitz Tennessee

Tom & Nancy Loeffler Texas

John Mack New York

Bob Martinez Florida

Fernando A. Mateo New York

Stephen P. Payne Texas

Jerry Perenchio California

Sergio Pino Florida

Ralph Reed, Jr. Georgia

Thomas Renyi New York

Thomas M. Reynolds D.C.

Harold Reynolds Georgia

Raul R. Romero Texas

Dwight Schar Virginia

Stephen A. Schwarzman New York

Peter F. Secchia Michigan

Alex G. Spanos California

Ronald Spogli California

Shawn & Michelle Steel California

John T. Steen, Jr. Texas

W. R. Timken, Jr. Ohio

Dr. John B. Tsu California

Bob Tuttle California

Ray Washburne Texas

J. Roger Williams Texas

More Bush Donors

In some of the following, the organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Akin, Gump et al

Altria Corporate Services

American International Group

Amway

Andersen Worldwide

Anheuser-Busch

Anthem Inc.

Arter & Hadden LLP

Baker & Botts

Bancorp South

Bank of America Corp

Bank of New York

Bath and Body Works

Bear Stearns

Blackstone Group

Blank Rome LLP

Blue Cross/Blue Shield

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp

Chancellor Media (the nation's 2nd largest chain of radio stations)

Columbia/HCA Healthcare

Comcast

Credit Suisse First Boston

Crescent Real Estate Equities Co.

Denitech Corporation

Diebold

EMC Corp

EMC Corp

Enron

Ernst & Young

Farmers Insurance Group

First Energy

General Electric

Goldman Sachs

GreenMountain.com

Hallmark

Haynes & Boone

Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated (Leveraged Buyout Firm)

Hilton

Hixon Properties, Inc.

HMS Host

Home Depot

Hyatt

Intel

International Bank of Commerce

JC Penney

Jenkens & Gilchrist

Lehman Brothers

Limited

Locke, Liddel & Sapp

MBNA Corporation

Merrill Lynch

Michaels Stores, Inc.

Nissan North America

Phillip Morris

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Reynolds

Ritz Carlton

Southern Co

Sterling Software

Structure

Target

Texas Rangers Baseball Team

Texas Utilities Company

The Sterling Group (Merchant Bank that buys up ailing Chemical companies)

Tyson Foods

UBS Financial Services

Union Pacific Corporation

UST Inc

Vinson & Elkins

Vinson & Elkins LLP., Houston

Walmart

Bush Ancestry

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~addams/presidential/bush.html

Bush’s Military Records

http://www.talion.com/georgebush.html#2

TomPaine.Com The Truth About Bush’s Military Service

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/3671

Texas Rankings Under Bush

http://www.uiowa.edu/~policult/politick2000/www.georgebush2000.com/www_georgebush2000_com.html

Bush’s Major Deceptions and Outright Lies

http://www.tylwythteg.com/enemies/Bush/bush4.html

Bush Official Re-Election Website

http://www.georgewbush.com/default.aspx

Bush Donor Information

http://www.georgewbush.com/Donors/

(type in a dollar amount and select a state to get a list of all donors who donated over that dollar figure in that state)

Bush Cheney Website Anyone But Bush in 2004

http://www.gwbush.com/

The Truth About the Coverup on 9/11 Why Planes Weren’t Scrambled to Protect Us

http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm

Analysis of Tax Cuts Citizens for Tax Justice

http://www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm

MisLeader.Org Daily Chronicle of Bush Deceptions

http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df09192003.html

Bush’s New Math Conceals Real Cost of Tax Cuts

http://www.hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/opinion/op1203eda.html

David Ickes The George W. Bush Story

http://www.davidicke.net/tellthetruth/conspiracy/nativeson.html

President H.W. Bush’s Pardon List

http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/bushgrants.htm

Bush’s Radio Addresses By Date and Topic

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/

Bush’s Press Briefing Archives

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/

Background on Robert Swan Mueller Bush’s Shill in the FBI Directorship

http://www.drewhendricks.freeservers.com/robertm.htm

Bush 41 Asserts in 1998 that had he overthrown Saddam Hussein in 1992.. "The United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=17966161

The Bush Body Count

http://www.bk2k.com/bushbodycount/index.shtml

The Bush Files

http://existentialmoo.com/politics/archives/cat_iraq.shtml

Google Search Results for Bush’s Best Buddy Sun Myung Moon

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Sun+Myung+Moon&btnG=Google+Search

The Consortium The Goods on Sun Myung Moon

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon.html

The Case for A Bush Impeachment

http://www.serendipity.li/impeachment.htm

Bush Backtracks – Cover-up of Perjury

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/000563.html

Details on the 2003 “Coalition of the Willing”

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.-led_coalition_against_Iraq

Bush’s Broken Promises

http://www.democrats.org/specialreports/brokenpromises/

Bush Blocks Release of Records of President Reagan and Vice President Bush

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2001/09/presrecs.html

Bush Drunk – in 1992

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/bush/bush.html

Bush Drunk Driving Record

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushdui1.html

Cheney’s Youthful Indiscretions

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/cheney_doc.html

Bush Picks His Nose

http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=960813

Funny Bush Videos

http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/bushvideos/

Well, if you did not already have a totally rad reason for running right out and buying a $60,000 Hummer, here's one you simply can't resist: thanks to the BushCo tax shifts, you can now write the entire cost of the Hummer off your taxes. That's right, kids - buy a Toyota at $12K that gets 40mpg, pay a tax on the purchase. Buy a Hummer at $60K that gets 10mpg, write off the whole thing courtesy of Dubya and the good oil boys.

Meanwhile, the number of people in utter poverty in America rose for the second time in two years, the first time THAT has happened in over a decade. That would be right around the time the LAST Bush was in office. The poverty rate was 12.1% last year, up from 11.7% in 2001, the Associated Press reported. Nearly 34.6 million people lived in poverty, about 1.7 million more than the previous year.

That's 34.6 MILLION PEOPLE LIVING IN UTTER POVERTY in the world's most prosperous country. What a bunch of losers - they should just buy a Hummer (the world's butt-ugliest car) so they can get a $60,000 tax cut instead of whining about food and rent. Jeez.

Let 'em eat Hummer

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that these are just some of the ways what BushCo wants to spend the money that it gets from the middle class who can't afford to buy Hummers and so have to pay taxes:

"A new curriculum for training an Iraqi army for $164 million. Five hundred experts, at $200,000 each, to investigate crimes against humanity. A witness protection program for $200,000 per Iraqi participant. A computer study for the Iraqi postal service: $54 million."

$54 million to STUDY the Iraqi postal system?? Wait, there's more:

"$100 million to build seven planned communities with a total of 3,258 houses, plus roads, an elementary school, two high schools, a clinic, a place of worship and a market for each; $10 million to finance 100 prison-building experts for six months, at $100,000 an expert; 40 garbage trucks at $50,000 each; $900 million to import petroleum products such as kerosene and diesel to a country with the world's second-largest oil reserves; and $20 million for a four-week business course, at $10,000 per student."

Ummm... spending US taxpayer money to import oil into one of the world's most oil-rich nations? Excuse me, but WHAT THE FUCK?

According to the Associated Press, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has found traces of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium in Iran.

"The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the readings were registered by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency looking for evidence of a possible nuclear weapons program.

The diplomats said the minute quantities of the substance were found at the Kalaye Electric Co. Earlier this year, U.N. inspectors found enriched uranium particles at Iran's uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz."

Considering the fact that uranium has a shelflife of like a gazillion years, could not these trace molecules be leftover from when Iraq actually had a weapons program, say, oh, like the first Gulf War 10 years ago?

I give BushCo 3.5 seconds to pounce on this and go from "minute particles" to insinuating ready, willing and able nukes. Watch that weasel 'misspeak' and use this to justify the 87 billion extra he wants for his little Iraq oilraid.

Esteemed cough*bushit*cough US veep Dick "Undisclosed Location" Cheney tries to weasel out of his Halliburton ties with a completely straight face. Well, sorta straight. He actually has a little of the psycho axe-wacko look in his eyes, dontcha think:

Dickie actually thinks average americans are going to believe that black is white and night is day because he says so. "He doesn't have a financial interest in the company," a top Cheney aide told CNN.

Cheney's financial disclosure forms show that he continues to receive deferred salary from the company and therefore has a stake in whether the company stays profitable. He is expected to receive three more installments of his deferred salary -- in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Over the past two years his deferred payments totaled roughly $368,000.

As Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey rightly points out, "If you ask everyday Americans if someone has a financial stake in a company that provides them with annual compensation, I am certain they would answer, 'yes.' "

Let's see... you get paid bigger bucks than most americans will ever see every year by a fatcat oil company, said company gets awarded the fatte$t po$t-war recon$truction contract since WW2 without any outside bidding allowed, by an administration of which you are numbah 2 dog, hmmm... no, no conflict of interest there, no bushit, yessir, may I have another sir!

El Presidente Bush has a clear vision for America and the world. The way he formulates this clear vision is to keep his eyes closed so that pesky things like the truth don't impinge on it. From the Associated Press:

"Bush said he insulates himself from the "opinions" that seep into news coverage by getting his news from his own aides. He said he scans headlines, but rarely reads news stories.

"I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news," the president said. "And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." "

---

"Why yes, your majesty, that suit looks perfectly maaahvelous on you!"

Yowza. This be the fearless leader of the free world, folks, getting his news from his yesmen. And we wonder why he seems so out of touch. Hey, George, feel a draft yet?

I was duking it out with some eggeheads on a discussion board a while back. The topic was The War Against Terrorism (how ironic that a guy named Bush would dream up that acronym). And the fella says (quote):

"Don't kid yourself people, the "war" has only just begun. Remeber, it's not a war on the Taliban or even just Al-Quada(sp?), it's a war on terrorism. Pockets of terrorists exist in many many places (not talking about a single terrorist or a small group here, we're talking about organized, trained outfits). The goal of the administration is to eliminate these terrorists. It's gonna be a long drawn out process, much of which I would bet we don't see or hear about (nor do we need to). I personally don't think it's a matter of if someone is next, it's a matter of who. Iraq, Somallia, Iran, Libya - who knows."

Jeesusaitch.

Wow. Thanks for setting me straight, buddy, I feel better. Now, when men in black come kicking your door down at 3 am and take you away as a terrorist, I'll be secure in the knowledge that I don't need to know about it. I'll also feel excellent knowing that I don't need to know about anything the guys in power don't want me to know. It saves me from thinking for myself, such a deal! Especially since the guys in power have such an incredible track record of having my best interests at heart...

That really is my point when I ask who exactly we are at "war" with. Because its waaay too easy to just point at someone who is in your way and utter the magic word "terrorist" and disappear them. Who watches the watchers?

Have we all forgotten we fund terrorism all over the globe? Only we don't call it terrorism until the cockroaches we funnel millions to have outlived their usefulness...

Does anyone remember their history? Osama bin Laden was our prized freedom fighter in Afghanistan, we put the Taliban in power, the Ayatolla Kohmeini was our dedicated revolutionary against the tyranny of the Shah (who was our bestest buddy until he wouldn't let us boss him around anymore), Saddam Hussain was our posterboy for US/MiddleEast socioeconomic partnership. Moammar Khaddaffi, Manuel Noriega, Ferdinand & Isabel Marcos, Idi Amin, anyone remember those guys?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

A nation of sheeple. Wave the flag, it makes us feel good and misdirects our attention. Dubya has said that finding Osama is no longer a priority, the Taliban is no longer in power, Saddam is a non-issue so that leaves exactly who? what?... and yet BushCo is threatening Syria and Iran and Yemen and everyone else with unilateral action. Isn't using the "terrorism" bogeyman as a justification for war against everyone we don't like in the Middle East just a little on the weak side?

I don't much care for Canadians, maybe we can get them declared "terrorists" (not really, I was thinking of the "Blame Canada!" rallying cry from the SouthPark movie)...

----

"Why of course the people don't want war. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

- Herman Goering, statement made at the Nuremberg trials.

------

A friend of mine, a serious academician with a PhD in Human Sexuality (yep, you can get a doctorate in sex - pay attention, slackers!) once told me that "the range of human sexuality is absolutely astounding". I tend to agree.

Here's an amusing little true fetish anecdote, lifted verbatim from the website of one of the world's top dominas:

"My billy had a Star Treck Fetish for "The Gamesters of Triskelion" episode. I liked to whip him to track 22 of the CD, and I often put him in jail and brought him 'nourishment'. The 'providers' bid on him and I made him call Me his 'Drill Thrall', and I trained him as My 'thrall'. He had to do a lot of jumping jacks and situps, and I made him wear a 'training harness' he fashioned out of electrical tape and pantyhose. I wore a silver outfit (which I liked) and I made him wear a collar with a shock devise just like Captain Kirk did in the episode. Mistress Anastasia also liked doing this session with him, and She actually had a special Star Treck outfit that She wore."

Here's another one, that I personally found hysterical to contemplate:

"My robin had a comic re-inacment fantasy, where he got to play the boy wonder, and Anastasia and I chased him around the studio and we would catch him in a net. He said keywords like "gadzukes" a lot, and "holy domination!". We wore rubber catsuits, and I was usually Cat Woman, and She was Spider Woman. We would catch robin and tell him he's 'wimpy'. To make it more difficult for him, we would make him wear heels with his outfit which also included a cape. Sometimes I would give him 10 minutes to hide, and We would sneak around looking for him. He usually wound up hog tied at the end."

Ok, Robin in heels. I'm sorry, but that is just the farking funniest thing I've contemplated all day:

Gadzooks!

I was recently bitching about the skewed tax structure and how corporations get away with murder, and I was told that if you make more, you should pay more, and I should just "cope". Cope? COPE?? What the fuck do you mean, just cope? I work 80 hours a week and you think I should pay a higher percentage than your lazy, cheap beer-drinking ass? If you make 5, they take 1, but if I make 7 they take 4??

That's the single best argument I have ever heard for underachieving. See, if you work really hard and make lots of money like it says in the American Dream(tm), the government is going to take disproportionately more away from you because, well, its just the right thing to do don't you see. And guess what, if you start making REAL money, you can hide it all inside a corporation or a trust fund and pay no taxes, just like IBM and General Motors do every year!

Can someone PLEASE explain to me exactly what is so damned wrong with a 10% across-the-board flat tax and no one gets any kind of loopholes. Oh, don't even get me started with fiscal responsibility and accounting from the government...

Still moving old files on to this new server. Here's a prophetic entry from spring of last year:

-----

It occurs to me this morning that I bitch too much and my life is pretty sweet. I have a nice house, I live in a nice climate, my laptop is a rocket. There's starving kids in Africa, I really should eat all my broccoli.

And then, I think about this kind of stuff, and it makes me want to puke up the broccoli:

The US was threatening war on Afghanistan way before 9/11, as a result of the breakdown in talks between the Taliban, the US gummint, (oh, this is rich, are you ready? ) Enron Oil and Gas Co., Unocal, and OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation). We're in it up to our ears.

Among many other sources reporting on this: BBC news, 9/18/01, Guardian 9/28/01

An interesting and generally ignored DIRECT tie between Big Oil(tm), Dubya, and Afghanistan:

Enron, OPIC cut mega deal with Uzbekistan, 1996

"Unocal Looks To Afghanistan's Taliban For New Profits" 1997

How's this grab you: "Former Unocal Consultant Appointed U.S. Special Envoy To Afghanistan", January 10, 2002. The guy is Big Oil(tm) and pro-Taliban. What up with that eh? How can Dubya appoint this guy and pretend this is not about a naked oil grab?

Look up the Carlyle Group. It's a shadowy, privately-help group with over $14 billion in defense contract and oil holdings. Notice one of their top muckymucks is Daddy Bush. Notice their profits have soared since 9/11. Look up a little company called Halliburton. Notice the Vice President, Dick Cheney, owns the sonofabitch.

This is about the world's largest untapped oil and natural gas reserves (Uzbequistan, Tajikistan, and North Afghanistan) having nobody of consequence with their hands on the tiller since the USSR broke up. This is about a pipeline to the Gulf (the reason the Soviets wasted so much time trying to take Afghanistan before). It's about MONEY, baby.

Watch Dubya's buddies make a BIG grab for oil in the region in the near future, watch them try to strongarm and bully Iran and Iraq and Syria into giving up oil rights. Watch all kinds of lies and monkeybusiness coming out of the White House as they try to keep a lid on their imperialistic moves. Liars and thieves in this administration. They planned all this years ago, read the PNAC (Project for the New American Century) manifesto, its a frikking Bush & Co. roadmap for world domination.

Just like the FDR administration kept quiet about Pearl Harbor to get people PO'd enough to go into WW2, this administration knew the how, where, and when of 9/11 and sat on it. Among many credible reports to various government agencies was one by two respected scientists, top world experts on Gulf Syndrome, who reported intelligence they had received to the Pentagon that a direct and violent strike against the Pentagon would be made on Sep. 11. Jeb Bush, governor of Florida and Dubya's brother, quietly activated the National Guard on Sept 7th. On 9/16, "60 Minutes" reported that Dubya's closest cronies suddenly and inexplicably sold all their airline stock just days before the attack (the story was subsequently 'overlooked' by the media).

Here's a really nasty one: FEMA sent the Urban Search and Rescue Team (the guys that look for victims in rubble) into NYC the day BEFORE the attack. That's right, the day before . Tom Kennedy, a FEMA official, told Dan Rather live on the air on Sep. 11th that his team was deployed on Monday night (the 10th) and went right into action Tuesday morning. Those fuckers knew the WTC was gonna be hit. Wave the Flag? More like Wag the Dog.

Just when you thought shit on teevee couldn't get any more disgusting, along comes a for-real version of the 'violent cartoon' parody from The Simpsons.

The Happy Tree Friends have become an underground net cult favorite and spawned a CD, but now they are hitting the airwaves in the UK, and will probably be in the USA by next spring, since MTV is bankrolling them.

Cute, yes, so farking cute it makes you wanna puke. But then you do puke for real, when they get chainsawed in half, strangled with each other's guts, or chopped into sushi by a psycho teddybear who thinks he's back in the 'Nam delta.

You know what? I ain't that fucking old, and I know bad taste when I see it. These 'cartoons' are really in bad taste. How much entertainment is there in watching a character slowly get their eyeballs corckscrewed out while rivers of blood pump out from their limb-torn torso?

This is what passes for humor now? These brainiacs can't come up with anything funnier than cheap slasher thrills? And I'm giving them free publicity by linking to them off this post *sigh*. World truly is going to hell in a handbasket...

Ok, we finally got this puppy cookin', things are working the way they are supposed to, now we gonna backfill all the entries from the crappy free blog server they were on.

Ok, let's see what's in the news today...

Forbes magazine reports that the two nuclear powerplants directly in the path of Hurricane Isabel will continue to run at full power. No offense, fellas, but aren't you a little unclear on the concept of hurricanes versus 'business as ususal'? What the heck are they putting in the water over at the township of Dominion, VA, one wonders. Remind me never to visit that town.

Looks like lots of folks are happy about Wesley Clark jumping in the presidential race. I wonder if any of them are aware that he's only recently become a born-again democrat, and that Clinton fired him from his NATO post for having a hissyfit while in command over in Kosovo, which might have been globally disasterous had not another general refused to "start world war three for you"? Hmmm... not so sure I want that finger on the button...

Next time you complain about having to clean out your hamster's cage, consider this: it could be worse. A LOT worse.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) would have you believe that their fascist crackdowns are a good thing and working in their favor, but the truth is they're screwed, have been screwed since IRC went live, and folks will swap whatever file they want whenever and wherever they want. Can you say "warez", dudes? Newsflash: you don't own the fucking net, and you don't rule the world.

Speaking of the RIAA, Britney Spear's new album will be released November 18th. Look for it as online files November 19th at no-name servers everywhere. Har!

Let's see, what else? The Mayo Clinic now says that high blood pressure and arterial plaque are not really the major heart-attack inducers everyone thinks they are. Cool! Pass me those buffalo wings, dude! I plan to eat and scream like Chris Farley!

From the New York Times:

"In an unusually pointed attack as part of his latest speech in defense of the Bush administration's counterterrorism initiatives, Mr. Ashcroft mocked and condemned the American Library Association and other Justice Department critics for believing that the F.B.I. wants to know "how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.""

(You mean they don't? Then why do they need to see my lending record??)

From the DNC blog: "In his FY2002 budget, Bush cut funds for the Office of Library Services by $39 million, a cut revealed one week after Laura Bush launched a national campaign for America's libraries. In that same budget, he also cut all federal funding to the advocacy group Reading is Fundamental, on whose board both Laura Bush and Barbara Bush sat."

Dude. Laura must be sleeping with Prince Valium. All she does is smile that big old plastic smile even when her husband the chimp makes the most outrageous moves. Doesn't this girl have a single ounce of backbone in her? I don't expect her to be Hillary, but I DO expect her to put the brakes on some of this twisted shit. Where was she when Dubya killed Head Start, at some Prozac party?

Laura the Librarian sez: "wooo, lookit all the purty books!"

I'm gonna reprint the whole article here, because Salma is such a smart little hottie, and if I wasn't already hitched, I'd definitely make a play for her (you can marry me, Salma honey, I'll be hella good to you). Besides, I totally agree with her take on men in general. Society teaches males to sublimate and displace emotion instead of dealing with it, and as a result we get things like assholes cutting you off on the freeway because their feelings got hurt at the breakfast table. Oh, and other little annoyances, like war.

---

(Associated Press) Salma Hayek says she's still single because she has yet to meet a man with more balls than her.

The 37-year-old star of Once Upon A Time in Mexico told Austrian magazine Woman she wants to settle down and start a family but has not yet found the right man.

Salma is a "no bimbo" zone.

---

She said: "My mum's always asking me: "When will you finally get married?" And I always say: "When I find a man who has more balls than me".

The actress, who says she has come close to marriage four times, added: "What worries me the most is that most men are so weak. Because of that they act like they don't care and like machos - because they are too fragile inside.

"They're scared of confrontation and afraid of so many things. And because of this they build up their life so they have to deal with their feelings as little as possible."

The star, who is currently dating Hulk actor Josh Lucas, said her ideal man would be in touch with his feminine side.

She said: "I find feminine men unbelievably sexy. But most men are completely incapable of getting in touch with their feminine side. They don't have the courage to confront this part of their soul."

And she added: "What am I supposed to talk about with a man who doesn't know what it's like to be a woman?"

-----

She's right - looking inside and handling your emotions is way harder than getting the piss beat out of you (I've done both, so I can speak with authority here). Now THAT is a woman worth time and trouble.

The ability of some folks to be completely oblivious never ceases to amaze me. A fella in Tennessee writes a suicide note and takes a dozen people hostage, and his relatives want to know why cops shot the dipwad.

"Why, why they had to do it the way they did." asks Catarsha Thompson, a cousin of the gunman. I dunno, brainiac - maybe because he was holding people hostage and threatening to kill them? "I understand he had hostages but he wasn't going to harm any of them. He was gonna let them go, little by little." says Catarsha. Gosh, considering the fact that as a diagnosed heavy-duty bipolar off his meds for over a year who just wrote a note stating he wanted to die and take others with him, he just might not be kidding this time, your analysis of the situation looks pretty vapid, girlfriend.

Let's recap: CRAZY with a GUN holding HOSTAGES and wanting to DIE. Yeah, I'm stumped too, Catarsha.

Being dim-witted seems to run in this family. Another cousin, Carolyn Reed declared, "Somebody had to hurt his feelings or he had to feel left out of some kind to get violent." Well, no duh, Carolyn. I get pissed off every day just watching the morning chatshows, but I don't go around taking hostages, as appealing as the thought of Bryant Gumbel begging for his pathetic life might be.

What the hell are they feeding you hillbilies?

By now, pretty much everyone has heard that Bush confirms that there is no link between Saddam and 9/11, and we've all figured out that the whole WMD bit was a load of Bushit and Iraqui WMD don't exist. Even Bubbles the Chimp has caught on that Dubya and his goons lied out their ass in order to get a spooked America to write him a blank check to go after 'terrorists' and damned be common sense, allies, civil liberties, the budget, and just plain regular sanity.

So, if Osama is no longer a 'person of interest', and Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, and Iraq has no nukes like Dubya said he did, and the whole thing is a load of hooey, what the fuck are we doing dying in the sand over there? Oh yeah, all those bitchin' oil wells that Vice President Dick Cheney's oil company, Halliburton, and Daddy Bush's oil conglomerate, the shadowy Carlysle Group, now have exclusive dibs on. THAT's why our sons and daughters are dying in the sand.

Up until now, only openly anti-Bush media (read: far left-wing counterculture mags and radical bloggers) said, in so many words, "the Bush administration is lying about everything". The mainstream media, when exploring the possibility at all, used euphemisms like "misspoke" (what the fuck is that?) and "of a contradictory nature".

Now, no offense to linguists, but 'MISSPOKE" IS NOT A REAL WORD (go ahead, find it on your spellcheck - it ain't there). Just like 'deplane' is not a real word, it's something Tatoo says on Fantasy Island. My granny never would have accepted 'misspoke' as an excuse. She'd have added 10 extra smacks just for trying to snow her. So I think that when we take Dubya out behind the woodshed for this one, we add a little something for 'misspeaking'.

But I digress. The real news here is that the mainstream media has begun to use the word "lie" in reference to the whole 9/11-Iraq-WMD-Halliburton Bushit. First, it was an angry op-ed piece in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune a few days ago, and it sent shockwaves across the net ("oooooh, they used the "L" word!). This morning, the folks over at the Chicago Sun-Times fired, not a shot across the bow, but a full-on round broadside into the SS Dubya.

They didn't just use the word "lie", gang. They open by comparing the Bushit mindset to the infamous reichminister of nazi propaganda, Josef Goebbels. Let me tell you, I was so impressed coffee came out my nose. Makes me want to move to Chicago, just to live amongst people who have the guts to call fascists by their real name.

It's a terrific piece. It examines the elements of the big lie, layer by layer. It also, quite rightly, points out that the only Americans 'making sacrifices for the war effort' are the poor and middle class. The rich get tax cuts, and don't join the Army as grunts to become cannon fodder.

Let's impeach the sonofabitch and throw him and his thieving buddies in jail to rot. I could care less if the president lies about a blowjob from an ugly bimbo, but I care a LOT if the president lies about a war that kills soldiers daily, unilaterally bombs a sovereign nation into the stoneage, wrecks foreign relations centuries old, gives all the "rebuilding" contracts to his closest oil buddies, and spends us so far into the ground we won't see daylight for another five generations.

Bush is a fake, a spoiled kid playing toy soldiers with our lives.

No, really:

Well, it looks like legendary record producer Phil Spector murdered B-movie star Lana Clarkson after all.

Originally, Phil claimed Lana had shot herself. I dunno about you, but I've never heard of a beautiful woman commiting suicide by shooting herself in the face from several feet away. Come to think of it, I never heard of an ugly one doing that, either. Or a man, regardless of his looks.

Phil, famous for making other people famous (like the Beatles and the Ramones), has a long history of being a total control freak with his women. Just ask his ex-wife Ronnie Spector, formerly front chica for 50's girl group The Ronnettes. To hear her (and the police reports) tell it, he was one abusive SOB, a borderline psychopath.

Anyways, Phil is out on a cool million bail. Will he do da run run like Roman Polanski did? Stay tooned.

Phil Spector looking spiffy and swearing he "never touched da bitch!"

Props go out to that hardworking spaceprobe, Galileo. It's been going around and around Jupiter taking pics for almost a decade now, even though its main mission officially ended back in 1997.

It looks like Galileo is winding down and might be crashing into one of Jupiter's largest moons, Europa, but the NASA eggheads don't want that to happen, so they're gonna crash-land the badboy into Jupiter instead.

According to NPR, Claudia Alexander, Galileo's final project manager, says NASA officials worried that the spacecraft's orbit could send it crashing into Europa. They didn't want to risk contaminating a moon that might harbor life (Galileo's magnetometers found evidence that liquid oceans still exist under the ice of Europa), so they decided a suicide plunge into Jupiter would be best.

Go to the NASA website on Sunday to see webcasts of the final hours of data and pics from Galileo before it dies, as the Klingons would say, "a glorious death".

Galileo and Jupiter. I just love real-life space stuff, don't you? It makes me feel ubercool and modernage.

A 70-something man shot a doctor in the urology department of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Baldwin Park, Ca.

The suspect was seen fleeing the premises by security cameras, and cops put out an APB for an old guy with a walker. "10-4, 10-4, suspect was last seen wearing an open-back hospital gown and pushing a regulation mobility-assist device. Witnesses report suspect fled the scene at speeds of up to .5 miles per hour."

Personally, I hope grampa gets away with it. :D