Saturday, November 20, 2004
GOLLY GOSH! WE'RE SPENDING TOO MUCH - QUICK, DO SOMETHING!
BushCo's brilliant solution to his administration's wild and dangerous overspending:
Bush Signs Into Law Debt Ceiling Increase
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Friday signed into law a measure authorizing an $800 billion increase in the credit limit of the United States, the White House said.
"The president signed the debt ceiling increase into law before he left for Chile," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
Bush left earlier on Friday for Santiago, Chile, where he will attend this weekend's Asia-Pacific summit. The Republican-dominated Congress gave its approval on Thursday to a measure to increase the debt limit to a new $8.184 trillion ceiling.
The Treasury Department had been forced to take special accounting steps to avoid piercing the debt ceiling in recent days and make sure it could pay its bills. On Thursday, the Treasury was forced to postpone its announcement of weekly bill auctions and its two-year note auction, another measure aimed at staying under the limit.
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"I've maxed out my creditcard, so how's about we just raise my limit and everyone will be happy." How come my banker just laughs when I try that?Thursday, November 18, 2004
FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH
Reuters - Thu Nov 18, 7:10 PM ET
Afghanistan's opium cultivation jumped 64 percent to a record 324,000 acres this year and drug exports now account for more than 60 percent of the economy, the United Nations drugs office said November 18, 2004. A Pashtun boy is shown walking near poppy fields near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on April 9. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)Thursday, November 18, 2004
FEAR THY GOD
I'm afraid of getting old. I'm afraid of dying. I think it must be because I don't actually believe in god.
By god, I mean an all-encompassing consciousness. A self-aware consciousness.
I don't see concrete evidence of a self-aware god. I see plenty of evidence for a beautifully ordered system, flawlessly executing itself. But a sophisticated program can do that. A thought, then, a dream if you will. I see the dream, but not the dreamer?
What if it is not more than the dream. What if there is no dreamer. What then is the point of the dream?
If there is a dreamer, why hide behind the dream? If there is a thinker, why only the thought.
Guess mama was right, I do want god to come off the mountain and sit down to tea.
Reckon introducing hisself like proper folk is the least god can do.
I'm hoping there's really somebody home, "afterwards". That it's not all just frozen and cut off, that things, that I, don't simply... stop. I don't want to abruptly cease, like an equation worked through to completion: E=(42).
On the other hand, I can't bring myself to simplistically, as exhorted to by billions around the world, "just believe". Relying on blind faith has always struck me as an uncommon stupid way to run one's life - step in a lot of shit walking around with your eyes closed.
I was raised catholic, but all religions, I think, are the same in that they all rely on blind faith of some pivotal yet illogical and unprovable premise. I could ask theologians about god, but since they by definition already believe in God, the conversation will be all about them doggedly justifying their belief and then finally admitting that they have no real proof and you just have to "have faith".
Which would, of course, be the problem to begin with.
I wonder how I'm gonna get past this one.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
15 WARNING SIGNS OF AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP
If your relationship includes this kind of manipulative hurtful crap, you're a doormat on her (or his) way to becoming a dead doormat. Get yourself out of a dysfunctional situation immediatly, get yourself some counseling help, and don't take any shit from anyone ever again.
Stand up for yourself or die:
(1) PUSHES FOR QUICK INVOLVEMENT: Comes on strong, claiming, "I've never felt loved like this by anyone." An abuser pressures the new partner for an exclusive commitment almost immediately.
(2) JEALOUS: Excessively possessive; calls constantly or visits unexpectedly; prevents you from going to work because "you might meet someone"; checks the mileage on your car.
(3) CONTROLLING: Interrogates you intensely (especially if you're late) about whom you talked to and where you were; keeps all the money; insists you ask permission to go anywhere or do anything.
(4) UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: Expects you to be the perfect mate and meet his or her every need.
(5) ISOLATION: Tries to cut you off from family and friends; accuses people who are your supporters of "causing trouble." The abuser may deprive you of a phone or car, or try to prevent you from holding a job.
(6) BLAMES OTHERS FOR PROBLEMS OR MISTAKES: It's always someone else's fault if something goes wrong.
(7) MAKES OTHERS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS OR HER FEELINGS: The abuser says, "You make me angry," instead of "I am angry," or says, "You're hurting me by not doing what I tell you."
(8) HYPERSENSITIVITY: Is easily insulted, claiming hurt feelings when he or she is really mad. Rants about the injustice of things that are just a part of life.
(9) CRUELTY TO ANIMALS OR CHILDREN: Kills or punishes animals brutally. Also may expect children to do things that are far beyond their ability (whips a 3-year-old for wetting a diaper) or may tease them until they cry. Sixty-five percent of abusers who beat their partner will also abuse children.
(10) "PLAYFUL" USE OF FORCE DURING SEX: Enjoys throwing you down or holding you down against your will during sex; finds the idea of rape exciting.
(11) VERBAL ABUSE: Constantly criticizes or says blatantly cruel things; degrades, curses, calls you ugly names. This may also involve sleep deprivation, waking you with relentless verbal abuse.
(12) RIGID GENDER ROLES: Expects you to serve, obey, remain at home.
(13) SUDDEN MOOD SWINGS: Switches from sweet to violent in minutes.
(14) PAST BATTERING: Admits to hitting a mate in the past, but says the person "made" him (or her) do it.
(15) THREATS OF VIOLENCE: Says things like, "I'll break your neck," or "I'll kill you," and then dismisses them with, "Everybody talks that way," or, "I didn't really mean it."
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This list posted as a public service announcement. The more you know....Tuesday, November 16, 2004
LESBIAN COUPLES MAKE FINE PARENTS
Teens with Same-Sex Parents as Normal as Peers
By Alison McCook
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers raised by two women appear to be as well adjusted as those who are raised by male-female couples, a new report indicates.
"Their adjustment is pretty normal - that is, indistinguishable from a matched group of kids being raised by opposite-sex parents," said study author Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Specifically, teens with same-sex parents appeared to be no more likely to have psychological problems, struggle at school, try intercourse, or have problems at home, the investigators found.
Critics have argued that same-sex parents "may in some way harm the children that are raised in these households," Patterson told Reuters Health. "And I think that our results speak to that concern, to some degree."
Previous research about children raised by same-sex parents has shown that by and large they tend to fare as well as their peers raised by a man and woman.
One study of teenagers raised by divorced lesbians found they had similar self-esteem as teenagers of divorced heterosexual parents, and appeared to fare better if their mothers had a partner living at home, their fathers were supportive of the relationship, and they learned of their mothers' orientation when they were relatively young.
To investigate further how teenagers fare with same-sex parents, Patterson and her colleagues reviewed information collected from a national sample of 44 12- to 18-year olds -- 23 girls and 21 boys -- living with mothers in same-sex partnerships.
The researchers compared those adolescents to 44 teens with mothers in opposite-sex relationships.
As reported in the journal Child Development, the investigators found that, overall, teens with parents in same-sex relationships appeared to have relatively high levels of self-esteem, little anxiety, few signs of depression, and to do well in school.
They were no more likely than other teens to have symptoms of depression, problems with self-esteem, or anxiety. They also reported feeling equal levels of warmth from their parents, and caring from adults and their peers.
Moreover, teens with mothers in same-sex unions appeared to get comparable grades, and be just as likely or unlikely to get in trouble in school. They were also no different in whether or not they had had sex, or been in a romantic relationship in the previous 18 months.
Patterson noted that teens who appeared to be most well adjusted in school also tended to have a particularly warm and close relationship with their parents. Clearly, parental closeness is connected to teenage well-being, she added; whether one causes the other is still unclear.
SOURCE: Child Development, November 2004.Tuesday, November 16, 2004
"WE HOLD OURSELVES TO A HIGH STANDARD OF ACCOUNTABILITY"
"He's dead now." It's all just a fucking videogame anyways, right? You heard the new Attorney General, the Geneva Convention is just "quaint" and "outdated" ...
U.S. to Probe Shooting of Wounded Iraqi
By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - The U.S. military is investigating the videotaped fatal shooting of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine in a mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, a Marine spokesman said.
The dramatic footage was taken Saturday by pool correspondent Kevin Sites of NBC television, who said three other prisoners wounded a day earlier in the mosque had also apparently been shot the next day by the Marines.
The incident played out as the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, returned to the unidentified Fallujah mosque Saturday. Sites was embedded with the unit.
Sites reported that a different Marine unit had come under fire from the mosque on Friday. Those Marines stormed the building, killing ten men and wounding five, Sites said. The Marines said the fighters in the mosque had been armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles.
The Marines had treated the wounded, he reported, left them behind and continued on Friday with their drive to retake the city from insurgents who have been battling U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq with increasing ferocity and violence in recent months.
The same five men were still in the mosque on Saturday, Sites reported.
On the video, as the camera moved into the mosque during the Saturday incident, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead.
"He's (expletive) faking he's dead!"
"Yeah, he's breathing," another Marine is heard saying.
"He's faking he's (expletive) dead!" the first Marine says.
The video then showed a Marine raising his rifle toward a prisoner lying on the floor of the mosque. The video shown by NBC and provided to the network pool was blacked out at that point and did not show the bullet hitting the man. But a rifle shot could be heard.
"He's dead now," a Marine is heard saying.
The blacked out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated Press Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the bullet striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood splatters on the wall behind him and his body goes limp.
Sites reported a Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.
NBC reported that the Marine seen shooting the wounded Iraqi had himself been shot in the face the day before, but quickly returned to duty.
A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, Maj. Doug Powell, said the incident was "being investigated." He had no further details, other than to confirm the incident happened on Saturday and that the Marines involved were part of the 1st Marine Division.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement that the 1st Marine Division is investigating an allegation of the unlawful use of force in the death of an enemy combatant in Fallujah during combat operations on Saturday.
The Marine has been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the results of the investigation, the U.S. military said.
"We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability," said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "The facts of this case will be thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons involved."
Lt. Col. Bob Miller, who NBC said is heading the investigation, told the network that the rules of engagement allow the use of force in self-defense.
"Any wounded — in this case insurgents — who don't pose a threat would not be considered hostile," said Miller.
The events on the videotape began as some of the Marines from the unit accompanied by Sites approached the mosque on Saturday, a day after it was stormed by other Marines.
Gunfire can be heard from inside the mosque, and at its entrance, Marines who were already in the building emerge. They are asked by an approaching Marine lieutenant if there were insurgents inside and if the Marines had shot any of them. A Marine can be heard responding affirmatively. The lieutenant then asks if they were armed and fellow Marine shrugs.
Sites' account said the wounded men, who he said were prisoners and who were hurt in the previous day's attack, had been shot again by the Marines on the Saturday visit.
The videotape showed two of the wounded men propped against the wall and Sites said they were bleeding to death. According to his report, a third wounded man appeared already dead, while a fourth was severely wounded but breathing. The fifth was covered by a blanket but did not appear to have been shot again after the Marines returned. It was the fourth man who was shown being shot.
The CNN broadcast of the pictures used pixilation to cover parts of the video that could lead to public identification of the Marines involved.
NBC's Robert Padavick told members of the U.S. television pool that the Pentagon had ordered NBC and other pool members to make sure the Marine's identity was hidden because "they (the military authorities) are anticipating a criminal investigation as a result of this incident and do not want to implicate anybody ahead of that."
In New York, NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the network did not broadcast the prisoner being shot because of the "graphic nature" of the video.Tuesday, November 16, 2004
WELCOME TO JESUSLAND
CONFESSIONS OF A CULTURAL ELITIST
Win or Lose, Kerry Voters Are Smarter Than Bush Voters
by Ted Rall
NEW YORK--Democratic hand wringing is surrealy out of hand. No one is criticizing the morally incongruous Kerry for running against a war he voted for while insisting that he would have voted for it again. Party leaders have yet to consider that NAFTA, signed into law under Clinton, may have cost them high-unemployment Ohio. No, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, darling of the "centrist" Democratic Leadership Council, blames something else: the perception "in the heartland" that Democrats are a "bicoastal cultural elite that is condescending at best and contemptuous at worst to the values that Americans hold in their daily lives."
Firstly, living in the sticks doesn't make you more American. Rural, urban or suburban--they're irrelevant. San Francisco's predominantly gay Castro district is every bit as red, white and blue as the Texas panhandle. But if militant Christianist Republicans from inland backwaters believe that secular liberal Democrats from the big coastal cities look upon them with disdain, there's a reason. We do, and all the more so after this election.
I spent my childhood in fly-over country, in a decidedly Republican town in southwest Ohio. It was a decent place to grow up, with well-funded public schools and only the occasional marauding serial killer to worry about. The only ethnic restaurant sold something called "Mandarin Chinese," Midwestese for cold noodles slathered with sugary sauce. The county had three major employers: the Air Force, Mead Paper, and National Cash Register--and NCR was constantly laying people off. Folks were nice, but depressingly closed-minded. "Well," they'd grimace when confronted with a new musical genre or fashion trend, "that's different." My suburb was racially insular, culturally bland and intellectually unstimulating. Its people were knee-jerk conformists. Faced with the prospect of spending my life underemployed, bored and soused, I did what anyone with a bit of ambition would do. I went to college in a big city and stayed there.
Mine is a common story. Every day in America, hundreds of our most talented young men and women flee the suburbs and rural communities for big cities, especially those on the West and East Coasts. Their youthful vigor fuels these metropolises--the cultural capitals of the blue states. These oases of liberal thinking--New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston--are homes to our best-educated people, most vibrant popular culture and most innovative and productive businesses. There are exceptions--some smart people move from cities to the countryside--but the best and brightest gravitate to places where liberalism rules.
Maps showing Kerry's blue states appended to the "United States of Canada" separated from Bush's red "Jesusland" are circulating by email. Though there is a religious component to the election results, the biggest red-blue divide is intellectual. "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" asked the headline of the Daily Mirror in Great Britain, and the underlying assumption is undeniable. By any objective standard, you had to be spectacularly stupid to support Bush.
72 percent who cast votes for George W. Bush, according to a University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and Knowledge Networks poll, believe that Iraq (news - web sites) had weapons of mass destruction or active WMD programs. 75 percent think that a Saddam-Al Qaeda link has been proven, and 20 percent say Saddam ordered 9/11. Of course, none of this was true.
Kerry voters were less than half as idiotic: 26 percent of Democrats bought into Bush-Cheney's WMD lies, and 30 percent into Saddam-Al Qaeda.
Would Bush's supporters have voted for him even if they had known he was a serial liar? Perhaps their hatred of homosexuals and slutty abortion vixens would have prompted them to make the same choice--an idiotic perversion of priorities. As things stand, they cast their ballots relying on assumptions that were demonstrably false.
Educational achievement doesn't necessarily equal intelligence. After all, Bush holds a Harvard MBA. Still, it bears noting that Democrats are better educated than Republicans. You are 25 percent more likely to hold a college degree if you live in the Democratic northeast than in the red state south. Blue state voters are 25 percent more likely, therefore, to understand the historical and cultural ramifications of Bush's brand of bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy.
Inland Americans face a bigger challenge than coastal "cultural elitists" when it comes to finding high-quality news coverage. The best newspapers, which routinely win prizes for their in-depth local and national reporting and staffers overseas, line the coasts. So do the cable TV networks with the broadest offerings and most independent radio stations. Bush Country makes do with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity syndicated on one cookie-cutter AM outlet after another. Citizens of the blue states read lackluster dailies stuffed with generic stories cut and pasted from wire services. Given their dismal access to high-quality media, it's a minor miracle that 40 percent of Mississippians turned out for Kerry.
So our guy lost the election. Why shouldn't those of us on the coasts feel superior? We eat better, travel more, dress better, watch cooler movies, earn better salaries, meet more interesting people, listen to better music and know more about what's going on in the world. If you voted for Bush, we accept that we have to share the country with you. We're adjusting to the possibility that there may be more of you than there are of us. But don't demand our respect. You lost it on November 2.
Monday, November 15, 2004
WHICH AMERICA WAS THAT, AGAIN?
This was in my inbox this morning. I don't know who wrote it, but s/he speaks complete truth, and about damn time:
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"Is the South the REAL America?
Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.
And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?
Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?
No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don't get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I've been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off.
Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What's more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don't think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn't be so fucking arrogant if I wasn't paying for your fucking bridges, bitch.
All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it’s a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.
The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.
Let’s talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.
But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that's ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we're fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you're fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that's a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don't talk about religion as much as you because we're not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you're too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain't us up here in the North, assholes.
Well this gravy train is fucking over. Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass.
And no, you can't have your fucking convention in New York next time. Fuck off. "
Sunday, November 14, 2004
GOD WANTS ME TO BE RICH, MUTHAFUKKA!
The neocons tell me the economy is great, but my bank account says I'm doing much worse. They try to insinuate that it's god's will, that my "lack of prosperity" is equal to my "lack of faith", that if I believed harder then maybe I could make a decent wage and live phat like them.
I thought Jesus said "Sell everything you have, give it all to the poor, and come, follow me."
I don't hear a Hummer in that sentence. I don't hear 'pray for bling'.
I definitely don't hear 'spend our great-grandchildren's money and all the world's resources today'.
Maybe the neocons know they are bringing about the end of the world, so why not spend it all since you can't take it with you...