End O'The Week

Friday late afternoon. Effectively the end of the week, even if I have a 5-8 shift tomorrow. No matter, hours fly on this gig.

Currently have the soundtrack to Dazed & Confused crankin' on the CD player, the volume causing the walls to undulate while Alice Cooper's School's Out leaves me craving some Maine home-grown. Office stragglers walk by, either amused by my audacity or annoyed by my hubris.

Fuck it!! It's Friday!! Rock on!!

Awesome soundtrack, by the way.

Tonight is Game 1 of the 3-game pre-playoff playoff betwixt the Hose & Pinstripes. Sox down 1 but with Friendly Fenway as venue. Sox need 2 of 3 to force a '78-style playoff, or a sweep to avoid the Monday afternoon mucking up of their pitching staff even further (assuming, of course, they might tary forward into the ALDS), although having said that I'm not entirely clear where the Indians mucking up the numbers plays in. Do they have a 3-way (woohoo!!)? Or does the tribe skate by virtue of being outside the division, thus earning the wild card slot and the winner of "Game 3.5" also win the AL East while the other instantly morphs into shit? I'll leave it to you, dear reader.

Game 1 I'll likely take in at a pub. Game 2 at the Bottom Line on Eye Street, D.C., tomorrow with fellow UMies. Game 3 (if the Sox ain't fragged by then) goes up against the Pats -- or so I think anyway -- and the Chargers. Check your local listings.

That being the case Sunday, Murphy's Pub in Old Town is the ultimate Boston Sports Bar in the area.

Hokay??

S'been a good week.

Here's A Keeper!

Know Your Corrupt Congressperson.

Why stop at 13? is the question...

Ayep!

You devotees may have noted by now the commentariate is peopled mostly by those with their own blog, or blogs; their own agenda to promote. Rah!

I tolerate it because they seem to always premise their announcement with, "You have an awesome blog!!!" Extra exclamation points notwithstanding, my ego is gratified. That and the process of discerning the commercial from the sincere takes more time, in and of itself, than is tolerable for this ever-shortening life. And there it is.

I've thought along those lines myself: say, "Oh Wow! What a TOTALLY AWESOME BLOG you have! Mine is better: Go to Barking Up Trees RIGHT NOW!!" Without skipping a beat.

Small matter of clicking & pasting at every next blog in the way, that is before the cows come home.

But oh well -- right?

Art is in the process more than in the product!

Write that down!

Justice Delayed Ain't Necessarily Justice Denied

Perhaps a more nuts & bolts approach would have it "Justice Meeted Upon Delay." But you have got to love the deer-in-the-headlights look on his puss, i.e., in the earlier editions of WaPo. Be that as it may, it won't constitute justice until the greasy prick is frog-marched (and thank you for that visual, Joe Wilson & John Holmes) in an orange-jumpsuit.

On the other side of Sewer Hill, Bill Frist, the other majority white meat, is looking a little doped-up as well, for his shinola is hitting the fan, but hard.

Meanwhile the ice under ol' Dubya's skates looks to be glazing thinner & thinner, and we ain't talkin' Global Warming.

[Sigh!] Only 3-1/2 more years to go.

This dreary comedy reminds me of the climax scene in Devil's Advocate, where Al Pacino, playing Beelzebubba, works himself into a frothy malted as he raconts his vision of piling all earthly corruption high into the sky, to where it will stink out even Heaven itself. And I cannot recall, or count as high as that, the number of times I would think of that scene while reading in the news the latest Republican outrage.

My guess is the movie would play to a far wider audience today than it did in '97, especially if the marketing blarred something like: "Ripped From The Headlines!!"

---------

Footnote: Spotted Jack Valenti in the Tenleytown Showcase audience that opening weekend in '97 -- Chontos & I did. Contended here that his is the representation of grease swinging both ways.

Ow! Ow! Ow!

FOXBORO -- If the Patriots are to pull off an historic three-peat this season, it will be without Rodney Harrison.

According to Steven Feldman, the agent for Harrison, the emotional leader of the club's defense has suffered a season-ending tear to his left ACL.

``I can confirm he's out for the year,'' Feldman said yesterday. ``He's probably the strongest, most positive human being I've ever met. But this is definitely a devastating incident.''

Boston Herald

Ever Wonder What Goes Thru A Squirrel's Mind When It 2bls-back Under Your Wheels?

I've never seen him as having any credibility -- ever. And this coming out a full four years after 9/11 carries with it its own peculiar stench. DailyKos concurs, nailing it at the jugular:

Of course, I'm in favor of energy conservation, and ordinarily, I'd be glad that Bush has flip-flopped on this one. But knowing this gang, these are just empty words, without the force of laws or regulations behind them - and a bit of fig-leaf for what will undoubtedly be attempted giveaways to oil refiners.

Nevertheless, I cannot help but savor the sweet taste of swagger when it is whipped:

Bush sent a memo to agency and department heads, saying the federal government must "lead by example and further contribute to the relief effort by reducing its own fuel use during this difficult time."

"Lead by example." Better late than never I always say. But just for shits & giggles, we're taking over/under bets on the side.

RIP Don Adams

"Sorry about that, Chief"

"Would you believvve... ?"

"I told you not to tell me that!"

"Come along, Chumley. Let's go see Mr. Whoopee!"

What part do you need repeated? "The part right after 'Here's the plan!'"

Gonna miss you, Agent 86.

Jumbo Shrimp Update

Bill Moyers with another great take on the holy rollers:

Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us; allow our leaders to use the fear of terrorism to make us afraid of the truth; cease to think and reason together, allowing others to tell what’s in God’s mind. Yes, we are vulnerable to terrorists, but only a shaken faith in ourselves can do us in.

Nothing Wrong With A Little Envy

Reading the Boston papers about the Patriots gets to be old hat after a while. "Tom Brady is God!!" Adam "The Instep" (??) Vinatieri is sooooo clutch.

Whatever.

I mean I love the Pats, and I read everything the Globe and the Herald dish out. Fine. But I was missing something. And then I realized I wanted to hear... a little envy... in the accolades, i.e., some reportage from the beaten masses:

Tom Brady and Heinz Field go together like ketchup and fries, and New England's quarterback painted this town red again.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

In Pittsburgh, mind you, they serve their french fries inside the sandwich; apparently makes for an easier phwolf!! But a guy'll take what he can get. Next week it'll be the San Diego papers on how L.T. was taken out of the game.

Meanwhile, back at the Monstah... The Sox have 7 games to go, including the final three against the Pinstripes. Don't remember a race this close since the season of Bucky Bleeping Dent ('78).

Gonna be an exciting week.

Sox, Pats -- Yeahhh, Baby!!

I finally figured out who Corey Dillon reminds me of -- Tiny Archibald. Both players, before they came/went to Boston, were big offensive forces who ran up gaudy numbers for nowhere teams. Archibald led the league in scoring, like, 17 years in a row, and looked to be at the end of his tether before the Celtics picked him up, converted him into a true point guard, one now with a mind predisposed to dishing it to Larry, McHale, Robert Parrish and Cedric Maxwell, and consequently winning a championship with them in '81, that against the Houston Rockets.

Dillon, if memory serves, has the single game rushing record, (Oh, I could Google it, but who really needs that kind of precision on so little time before bedtime?) and seemed to repeatedly rush for ridiculous season totals for the Bungles, often (well, a coupla times anyway) getting 200+-yard games, serving no real purpose in Cincinnati. He then goes to the Patriots, runs for a steady but sublimely understated 1600+, and, of course, wins a championship.

Two more TDs today, helping the Pats snap the Steelers 16-game in-season winning streak. Pay-back's a Bertrum, babe... !

Good to be a Boston sports fan.

Gore For President

You laugh now.

He's got a real shot here folks. For one thing, he's been against the Iraq war from the get-go. Hillary Clinton voted for it, as did Senators Joe Biden (D-DE) and former 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry (D-MA). All three will surely vie for the '08 nomination. The latest polls show that a majority of Americans want the U.S. to bring home the troops now. This growing anti-war fervor will be a major factor in the next primary election, and can bode very well for the former veep.

Additionally, Gore is Mr. Environment, and has been preaching the global warming gospel for 20+ years. Most recently he preached to the proverbial choir at the World Environment Day conference in San Francisco, a five-day U.N. gathering to promote pro-environment practices. A growing chorus of scientists believe the recent frequency of strong Category 4 and 5 hurricanes such as Katrina and Rita may be linked to global warming. They believe that rising global temperatures warm the oceans, which in turn fuel hurricanes and intensify their power. On this issue, Gore just might have a groundswell of very interested listeners for a change.

The Ostroy Report

Meanwhile, my erstwhile favorite Russ Feingold just voted "aye" on John Roberts to the SCOTUS.

Demon Rummy (No, not the one at DoD!)

The drunk is no longer dry? (And you thought it was another pretzel.):

"When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot," said one insider. "He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: "Stop George!"

"I wanna know!" scoops "All the news that's fit to print" one more time.

Good To Be Alive

Today is the 1st Day of Autumn. Sweet!

If memory serves, foliage peaks in Maine and Vermont 1st week of October; in Massachusetts, the 2nd week; here in Virginia, roughly 'round All Hallows Eve. And if you're slow-driving down Route 1, you can keep the peak for a month and a day.

Only the best place in the world to be at the best time -- east coast America!

What Flavor Kool-Aid Was That Anyway?

Just spent the last 45 minutes sifting through old email that had been languishing in my primary address' inbox. Why I save old messages, or, more simply, not delete them after dispensing with their content accordingly, i.e., replying, forwarding, ignoring, deleting, etc., is of no real import, but I'm tired as I write this, as I tend to be after any long day of grinding it out on the phone and in front of the computer, and have no desire to spend even more time billowing on the topic that is swirling the interior of my skull simply to entertain you bastards with another update of the blog, or to more precisely indicate my mood -- my blahhhg!!

But please do remind me, the topic is interesting: Why good and, up until recently, standard-bearer progressives and civil libertarians use 9/11 as a hook to justify their having gone over to The Darkside. I cite celebrities like Christopher Hitchens, Dennis Miller, and Ron Silver as some finer examples. But then Miller, according to Al Franken, always was a conservative. Which may be, but Miller was always wildly irreverant while skewering everybody, not just the left. I loved his rants on HBO; ate 'em with a spoon. I even bought his first Rants book. But when he declared "I back up my friends," while invoking a moratorium on criticizing Bush, I had had it. Now I can't stand him with a viscera that rivals the hideous contempt I hold for the stitchless emperor hisself.

As for Hitchens, he continues to assail Mother Theresa and Henry Kissinger while offering Dubya his nose; a standard of pliability believed to have been achievable only by the shorter Circ contortionists.

On a more personal level, a very good friend continues to insist to this very day that Dubya's shit carries with it the scent of lilac. To wit:

Who, pray tell, would do better? Was Al Gore gonna e-mail somebody in New Orleans some help? Would Kerry have organized a Fast Boat Flotilla? Riiiight.

This suggests, to me, that competence will be the theme of the 2008 presidential tilt. Advantage, Red.

I have other friends and a [cough] family member or three who continue to scope the world through a red funnel; though I take them in stride for I had long ago squinted, shrugged and finally accepted them for who they are (pod people). But my man "Heavynews" was a self-described Libertarian and had, as I could determine over ten years of friendship, as sharp and irreverant a tongue as they wag. And always to my great delight, he could readily and breezily dismiss Republicans with a sneer: "Howard Phillips!! I thought he was dayde!!"

Hell! He voted for Clinton!!

He was funny, quick-witted, and surgical as a scalpal. And to hear him now as he lapses into this repetitive and oh so lame talking-point routine of "what would Gore" or "Kerry have done" as though it were a defense for all that is Bush -- and never mind the absurd contention that "competence" will be a Red advantage (well, then again, the Senate Democrats really do suck big dogs!!) -- is akin to witnessing a spiritual death, and for this one I mourn.

Heavy baby, we hardly knew ye.

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As for the celebrities...

Yo! Mel... ! Ah-nold... !!

Bruce!!!

I loved ya' once, babes...

Maybe twice...

But now yer movies just totally blow!

[Heavy Sigh]

Okay, Bledsoe to Terry Glenn makes me kinda sentimental...

Although not as sentimental as, say, Grogan to Stanley Morgan...

Or Plunkett to "Mini" Mack Herron or Randy Vataha...

I need another bottle...

Stylin'...

MNF on ABC: Skins @ The Cowboys, w/the Boys in their throwback unies. They're up 3-zip as I write this. Watching 'em, I think about the old days of watching the Pats when they, like, totally sucked, or when they were the most talented in the NFL but, for some foolish culture of failure, couldn't make it count.

I miss the red unies w/Pat the Patriot; not that I mind the Flying Elvis.

Memory Lane Alert: 1st half of the '76 1st round playoffs: Patriots v. eventual champs Oakland Raiders. Me & little bro Jeff playing Rec Hoop at Somerville High (he the starting 1-guard, me the splinter splendor -- worse yet: he was a Stabler fan... >GAH!!<). The TV sitting on the stage behind one-end basket. Foul shot to be made. Instead, all eyes are planted on the little black & white as RB Andy Johnson is hauled down short of the goal line. Everybody at the paint, both sides, groan heavily, minds on the tube, not on the floor. Funny shit looking back.

Of course, the Ben Dreith call on Ray Hamilton's hit upside The Snake's head was more than compensated by THE TUCK RULE -- AHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAAAA!!!

25 years later. Hmmph... !

Father Don't Forgive Them

Another inbred troll allowed to run loose in the parish:

The Catholic Diocese of Austin is investigating after a priest called about 15 children to come forward during evening Mass so he could prick them with an unsterilized pin to demonstrate the pain Jesus suffered during crucifixion.

I used to be Catholic... but I gave it up for Lent.

Equal Justice Under Law

Dateline: The Hague, June 2010

The War Crimes Trial of Former President George W. Bush, et al.

This one's been circulating around for a while. I found a printed copy while going through a stack of paper in a dusty corner of my universe.

Brought a smile to my face.

Sharing A Dream

I've always enjoyed these Click & Drags, particularly those that are not fit for polite company. But this one from Planet Dan really taps into the subconcious. Check it out!

Thanks for the link, O'Brien!

The Face of American Facism

This is how John Kerry didn't lose Ohio & Florida:

[A] "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election.

BradBlog.com

It was taken. But Kerry let it happen. He said nothing! during the campaign about Diebold and its fraternity of e.voting facilitators, even though the warning signs were readily-to-blatantly apparent and the blogging left was screaming about it -- all throughout the '04 campaign.

And on the day after election night, while millions were steaming about exit poll discrepancies and anecdotal reports of gross irregularities in the Ohio and Florida vote-counts, he does what? He ups & concedes before brunch and without so much as a peep. It makes one almost believe the bastards were right to say the medals were fraudulent.

And to this day, Democrat leaders, John Conyers excepted, say precious f-ing little about anything that matters to anybody not already bellied up to the trough (sorry, pal, standing room only!); like social security, say (although the Repos are folding their cards on this anyway, thank the engraven image of Christ), or "Clarence & Nino & John Roberts Makes 3," or that Karl Rove, who should be remanded to the custody of the federal marshall for Treason, is now in charge of rebuilding New Orleans.

Wow! Leaves so little time to deal with the complete and total corruption of the Republic, no?

>crickets chirping<

America is dying, people!

. . .

This thing on?

Pre-Historic Blogging

The Whitehouse Report: before blogging was the thing.

Throat-Culture of Life

Amendment VI to the United States Constitution:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Texas:

[Frances] Newton, 40, briefly turned her head to look at her family as the drugs began flowing. She appeared to try to mouth something to her relatives, but the drugs took effect. She coughed once and gasped as her eyes closed. She was pronounced dead eight minutes later.

One of her sisters stood against a wall at the rear of the death house, her head buried in her arms. Her parents held hands and her mother brushed away a tear before they walked to the back of the chamber to console their other daughter.

George Bush doesn't care about black people!

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Rest In Peace, Frances.

Condolences to the family.

Word Looked Up - #6

sci-ence: n. [ME, knowledge, learning <- OFr. <- Lat. scientia <- sciens, pr. part. of scire, to know.] 1. a. The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. b. Such activity restricted to a class of natural phenomena. c. Such activity applied to any class of phenomena. 2. Methodological activity, discipline, or study <- culinary science > 3. An activity that appears to require study and method. 4. Knowledge, esp. that gained through experience.

Words Looked Up - #4 & #5

re-spon-si-bi-li-ty: n., pl. -ties. 1. The quality, state, or fact of being responsible. 2. Something for which one is accountable : DUTY.

re-spon-si-ble: adj. [Obs. Fr., corresponding to Lat. respondere, to respond.] 1. Being legally or ethically accountable for the welfare or care of another. 2. Involving personal accountability or ability to act free from guidance or higher authority. 3. Being a source or cause. 4. Capable of making moral or rational decisions on one's own, thereby being answerable for one's behavior. 5. Capable of being trusted or depended on : RELIABLE. 6. Based on or marked by good judgment. 7. Having the means to pay debts or meet obligations. 8. Required to render account : ANSWERABLE. The cabinet is responsible to the President. > -re-spon'si-ble-ness n. -re-spon'si-bly adv.

The End of History... Again

I've always liked E.J. Dionne:

Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this.

Dionne's unambiguously a progressive/liberal voice, but has always presented himself in a gentile manner and not with the anger or shrillness that makes some on our side of the dial tough to listen to. Of course, he's at that paper which has gone increasingly over to the darkside ever since Katherine Graham got her tittie caught in that big wringer in the sky.

What, you don't remember John Mitchell?

Duty, Honor, Country

Adding "The National Academies - Advisors to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine" website to the Recommended.

Doing my part to piss off the Religious Wrong.

I Stand Corrected

It's the utterly stupid thirty EIGHT percent.

Kanye Whaa... ?

Tells you how caught up in the pop-culture I am, I never heard of Kanye West before he connipted over George Bush's disdain for black people. I knew who Howard Dean was, but only because he made a credible and sustained campaign out of unstuffing GOP shirts and with no small amount of delight. Gotta love that shit!

“We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not,” Dean said.

I was a little disappointed he didn't punctuate that assessment with a "YEAAAHHH!!" I mean I kinda look for that now and feel cheated when it's withheld. Some consolation though, I said it for him when I read that.

[Sidebar: I was at the Capitol Hill Meet-up the week Dean was elected to the DNC chair. During his glad-handing (not to be confused with gland-handling, or maybe so...) I made the mistake of holding a tape recorder, because when I threw him a question from a crowd of admirers -- "Yo, Howard! Paul Newman vs. Joe Lieberman in '06!! Whaddya think?" -- his answer was a curt "Sorry, no interviews!" Of course the question widened his grin some. (Fuckin' Lieberman!)]

And so now Laura Bush finds any assertion that her Georgie doesn't like black people as >Yawwwwn!< "disgusting." You'd think she'd at least show a little disgust for marrying the prick.

Personally, I thought West's comment to be overly precise. George Bush doesn't care about people! What color they are is immaterial.

A Mile In The Shoes

Here's a story that resonates close to home. With respect to the chaos post-Katrina:

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Karen Burk, attributed the company's decision to pull guns from the shelves to ''some very fluid circumstances and changing situations" in the region. She did not elaborate far beyond that. ''We're trying to take care of our customers and community and be a responsible retailer at the same time," Burk said.

Wal-Mart clearly has issues with their guns, and they took a big hit in Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine. I've already expounded on this site my contempt for the whole Wal-Mart culture.

But living in the D.C. area, I've also given a lot of thought about what might happen if a dirty bomb is set off. I fixate about sitting at my desk at work, hearing a radio report and subsequent bulletins trickling in about mounting casualties. HazMat crews have been called to the scene; the fear of radiation, like the radiation itself, spreads throughout the southern region of the city and into the suburbs of northern Virginia. My cellphone ceases to function.

One imagines the place becoming instantly uninhabitable with major panic ensuing. I think about my ex-wife and where she must be at the moment. Do I go to her aid? Is it too late? I look out at the highway and see it filling with congestion. People running about, screaming, brandishing weapons out of fear and anger.

Do I want a gun then?

Kinda.

Conason Kicks Butt

If you must, do go through the 60-second commercial to get into Salon's lead story currently posted. Joe Conason pulls no punches in presenting a preview of history's likely assessment of this presidency of George W. Bush:

Pretenders such as these cannot extricate us from a debilitating war, nor can they rebuild the nation they destroyed; they have no idea how to allocate resources against terrorism, nor how to prepare for the disasters that will surely come. What the Republicans in power can do is set up photo ops, repeat spin points, concoct hollow slogans about "compassionate conservatism," and sidestep responsibility by whining about "the blame game."

Good stuff! Must read!

Word Looked Up - #3

daft: adj. -er, -est. [ME dafte, foolish <>gedafte, meek.] (1) Crazy : insane. (2) Foolish : stupid. (3) Scot. Frolicsome. -daft'ly adv. -daft'ness n.

I Love Alison Krauss

Visiting Vermont in August, I got the chance to enjoy riding the country roads through the hills & valleys, play a little golf, sample some seriously fine home-cooked cuisine, and the opportunity to hear once more Alison Krauss & Union Station on their Live album. "Maybe the best album I've ever heard," said no less an authority than this fellow.

His enthusiasm pleased me as the CD was my present to him last Christmas. He played it as we drove along the roads, and I remember smiling, that is until I frowned. The dub I had saved on the hard drive back home was lost when the system crashed for keeps.

"I want it back!" I complained.

His look was a familiar one, as though he thought his little brother was once again in earnest but nonetheless daft.

"No!"

Today saw a gorgeous afternoon in Old Town, and I strolled along King Street, past its many art galleries and restaurants, down toward the river. The street was closed to motorized traffic for the art exhibitions and music & food vendors could then cater to the milling throngs of pedestrians. Old Town has these open market fairs, like, once a month. Is it any wonder why I love it so. I didn't know about today's until I happened upon it. Gravy! A good walk unspoiled.

By the time I got to the Torpedo Factory, I impulsively made a right turn on Union Street and walked into Olsson's. I had it planned ever since I returned from Vermont, and today, it was finally determined, was the day. I picked up the CD and for my very own this time.

Listening to it now, eh?

Quid Pro Quo

Adding Mr. Phil to the Recommended, if for no other reason than he's added mine to his. And we lefty bloggers gotta hang 2gether or we hang dawg.

God, but I love the internet. That and his site's kinda cool looking.

Of course if he goes on to get a doctorate or something, I might have to pull the plug on his ass. Ain't no way I'd link to Dr. Phil, y'know?

Shoot To Kill

Driving home along the parkway I passed a woman and apparently her boy, who looked to be around 11 or 12. They were standing on the meridian strip between east- and westbound lanes waiting for the traffic to slow so that they could cross over. The woman was holding a rolled up American flag. Many had been posted along the parkway in between the "Kilgore" or "Kaine" for governor signs.

In the breakdown lane a blue family-van idled across from where they were waiting to bust their move, it's emergency lights flashing and the tailgate open. On the side was stickered an image of a large soccer ball. I remember thinking, and not in words necessarily, "Oh how fucking suburban can you get?"

In the rear-view mirror I watched them scramble across the parkway, clutching their looted American flag. I kid you not.

And I wondered: If a Zero issues a "Zero Tolerance" directive, does anybody pay attention?

If You Must Gas Up, Go Citgo!

Somebody wanna tell me why it's a bad idea to nationalize the oil industry? 'Cause I'm lovin' the thought of sticking it to the robber barons.

Was near empty out on the road. Not a problem as I was on my way to the Post Office in Arlington anyway and I knew a Citgo was just off the next exit at Glebe. I held my breath as I pulled in, noticing the low-octane priced at -- Hoooee!! -- $3.29.

A year ago, I could fill up my Saturn for $15. Six months ago it was $20. Today it was $32.86.

Jesus! -- How close to empty was that anyway... ??

My only consolation was thinking about all you SUV & Hummer Guzzler-Fuckers taking it up the chute every eight (8) miles... >wacca< >wacca<... !!

George Carlin said it best: "Whoever coined the phrase 'Caveat Emptor' was probably bleeding from the asshole!"

On The Browse...

Saturday morning. A small window to peruse right now after work-training intruded upon my lazy pleasures, and the off-hours found this body too tired.

It is gratifying, I must say, to see Dubya tanking significantly in the polls, all the while I am made to wonder at the utterly stupid 39% who still think he's doing a fine job. The downside is we're now over a week of fulmination and that takes the starch out of a body. My motivation to crank content has waned, although I'm confident the sensibility is but transitory.

It is noted the noise made about what a good job "Brownie"'s been doing has finally gotten the FEMA director recalled to Washington from what was a de facto crony-ambassador's post to New Orleans. That had to hurt. Dubya is less than nothing if not loyal to his cronies. John Dean was renowed for his warning to Nixon that, in reference to Watergate, "there is a cancer on the presidency." In Dubya's case, the cancer is the presidency. Stuff & nonsense about "the asses of evil" because I don't know from good & evil. But I can diagnose a malignancy on spec.

Meanwhile, thank whatever Christ there be for your New England Patriots!!

Boy needs his distractions.

On the Browse:

• Buzzflash had been down for what seemed all week. I didn't get the memo, so what gives? Glad to see you folks back up & running;
• The guy who told Dick Cheney to "Go [pork] yourself, Mr. Cheney" in front of a CNN camera was cuffed for his heroism. Turns out his name is Ben Marble, and losing his home in Katrina might be cause for him to lose a few of said marbles;
• Blame You!!
• If you think Katrina was tough, Cindy looks ready to give Dubya another pounding;
• As if it wasn't depressing enough having to live in Kansas;
• The Japanese offer their two cents:
  

  "But it is not clear that this president and this administration are capable of doing what is necessary." (Oh yeah it is clear: They're not!!)

• Another reason why I love Bill Moyers.
• I repeat: Feingold For President!!

Enough for now, my gentle snowflakes. One must Shhhhhave & Shhhhower...

Game Over, Man!

I'll take it.

Can U Say "3Peat"?

Halftime In Foxboro

A lead is a lead is a lead.

The first drive disturbed with Collins driving the Oakland offense in a hurry. One had grown accustomed to domination by the Patriot D in the past, but one must also take into account the radical changes that have transpired. The Moss TD was more a secondary mess-up and not linebacker.

Romeo is gone. Bruschi is benched for the season. So one focuses on the play of Vrabel, and Biesel and Brown, Chad (and how 'bout Troy still alive & kickin'... ?). No probs so far.

And if the opponent's D keys on Dillon, well... there's a man called Brady. OK? And Branch and Givens and Watson and Brown and Graham and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Gotta love the Patriot depth on O.

Oop! 2nd half...

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Press Room - #4

Mr. President, are you at all relieved or satisfied the disaster in New Orleans, and your handling of its aftermath, has kicked Cindy Sheehan out of the news?

Cue Beethoven's 6th

Looks like the Democrats are starting to frigging get it. Paul Hackett, who lost the 2nd District Congressional race in Ohio earlier this summer, is being wooed by the wigs on The Hill for a possible run against Mike DeWine. That he was particularly vitriolic, as marines who've recently been in Iraq can (and should) be, about what a flapping jerk George Bush is, and still came within 4 percentage points of upsetting the Republican nobody in Ohio's most conservative district, the Dem leadership was none to hurried to tap Hackett on the shoulder and say, "Uhmm... So how 'bout it?"

'“Senator Hackett, it’s got a nice ring to it,” Hackett said in a recent interview.' (The Hill)

Some of you, I know, weren't paying attention to his race in July and have never heard of Hackett. But having saw him on Bill Maher's HBO talkshow recently, I can only conclude this guy has the goods: a tall, rough, good-looking alpha-male type who isn't given to mealy mouthedness, unlike far too many Democrats in Congress who behave as though they were inbred solely for the purpose of compromising our rights and heritage over to the darkside.

Yeahhhh, Joe Biden/Lieberman, you know who you are!!

Of course, the greatest fear here is whether We The People can send enough of the really pissed off to Congress to replace these plasticine porters with looking-glass ties that have taken over today's Democratic Party; and this before even more corporate money can filter down through their vital organs like heroin, morphing them into just another pod bot to be plucked or plugged whenever and wherever the time and space is deemed appropriate. Here's a heresy for you, what a lot of progressives don't seem to remember was a growing disenchantment with Paul Wellstone, who "learned how to play nice," although apparently not fast enough for the deep pockets.

That is before he was >cough< offed.

So get yourself elected, Paul Hackett, and go kick some butts down the hill... before they can kick yours.

----------
P.S. It'd sure be nice to know if our perenial losers might start to give a damn enough to make a royal stink, and between now and November '06, over the now pervasive electronic vote theft. After all, this is Ohio we're talking about.

For that matter, everywhere else ferchrissakes!!

The Psychotics Are Coming... ! The Psychotics Are Coming... !

God's pissed again. Just Ask the Jumbo Shrimp:

"Katrina is God's punishment for America's tolerance of abortion rights."

I don't know enough about the psychology, but if Tom Cruise cruises by this blog, would you please tell me, Tom, if Sociopathy, in and of itself, is a mental illness. And what is the distinction between Sociopathy and Psychosis.

And please give my love to Katie.

No, really! I'm nuts about 'er...

GOP: The Party Of The Underprivileged

I mean, I always considered the mentally ill as underpriviledged. Just as I'm convinced the GOP is lousy with the criminally insane.

What say you, Rick Santorum?

Somebody Take Oedipus Out Back

We always had our suspicions as to where he got his brand of compassion:

The Beautiful Mind Strikes Again

Barbara Bush - the woman whom no less an authority than Dick Nixon said "knows how to hate," the woman who didn't want to trouble her "beautiful mind" with thoughts of "body bags and deaths" - has now offered us yet another gem. After visting refugees staying at the Houston Astrodome, she had this to say:

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (she chuckled slightly)--this is working very well for them."

What a cold, callous, wretched ghoul of a person. I just don't even know what else to say.

Daily Kos

Hmm... Think Smith College has a Skull & Bones too?

Word Looked Up - #2

sol-ace: [also sol-ace-ment] (1) Comfort in sorrow, distress, or misfortune : CONSOLATION. (2) A source of comfort of consolation. - vt. -aced, -ac-ing, -ac-es. (1) To give comfort, cheer, or consolation to. (2) To assuage. -sol-ac-er n.

The Sunday That Was A Monday

Pretty much staying away from the news today, it serving primarily to infuriate, I needed solace and so I went out. Almost didn't cut my hair but there's this new job starting tomorrow, and the shag, not nearly as lustrous as in days gone by, needed the shears. And with that thought, the lustre and all, The Bee Gees play on the hard drive.

Jeez... ! I miss the 70s.

The office in Old Town was closed for the holiday, this on a Monday that felt like a Sunday. Spent about an hour piling my effects atop the desk. I removed the contracts and the laptop and repaired to the car. The rest of the stuff I'll get later in the week.

I'll miss these folks. It was a good year and a half.

Tomorrow is another day; Scarlet was right. So here I'm hoping the salary, the health benefits and a 401K means I'll find some stability, or at least a sense thereof. Elusive that. Never had the perks before, having gone by it the hard way - an hourly or a straight commission. Hustling becomes a hassle when you hit 40 and you think you can see the window lowering. Not that we're raging at the dying of the light just yet, thank you very much.

Curious... Transition is so very familiar to me. And it still scares me.

Feh! Better get to the application and W-4s. Today's still Labor Day, and tomorrow is the first day of school.

Well I'll be... The Bangle's Walk Like An Egyptian.

God, I miss the 80s!!

If You Must Have Cable

It always sunk in deep, each time I passed the car with the bumper sticker "Kill Your Television."

Indeed. Life is wasted when watching TV. But if your addiction is all-too consuming, at least get HBO, whose programming dwarves basic and the original VHF, measurable in light years.

The current addiction for me is Entourage, and I am so very glad the season finale was last Sunday. Now I can go back to watching NFL Football.

(sigh)

Word Looked Up - #1

ver-i-si-mil-i-tude: (1) the quality of appearing to be real or true: LIKELIHOOD. (2) something appearing to be real or true. - ver i si mil i tu di nous...

actually the second time i've looked that word up...

Score One For The Mormons

Jumbo Shrimp Report Update...

Mormons To Evangelitans: Take Your Unintelligent Design And Go Suck An Egg!

Anybody But Clinton

Hill or Billary, they are the devil.

More as this travesty unfolds.

They Said There'd be Alligators and Snakes Coming In With The Tide

The picture on yesterday's New York Times front page just spoiled my breakfast, and herewith I regurgitate. Dubya and Louisiana governor Kathleen Babineaux Fucking Blanco, cheek 2 cheek, wrinkled brows and apparently trembling lips, looking as if they were consoling each other, as if either needed consolation... as if the camera wasn't right there and they'd be projecting empathy for the plight of the devastated and displaced New Orleaners anyway.

Yah! As if...

Blanco, forgetting entirely her oath to the U.S. Constitution and something in it called Due Process, is reported to have actually said, "I have one message for these hoodlums. These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary."

Being a former guardsman myself, I see someone splashing away from me through waste-deep sewage carrying a plasma TV... ? "More power to ya', mon ami! Vio con Dios! Hope that thing floats!" That is to say, in whatever language he might've heard it.

Meanwhile, Dubya once again exhibited how screwed up he and his priorities are by promising to rebuild Trent Lott's house in Mississippi. This mean we're shelving the tax cuts?

>BANNNNGHH<

So proud to be an American.

Break Up The Red Sox

Jumbo Shrimp Update: File this one under "Christ, Jesus H."

Seems the Bosox are the most evangelically religious team in the major leagues. And that about cuts it for me. Up 'til now I'd been following the Hose religiously (huhhuh, you said "religiously") since 1970. I was 10 when the Old Man took me, my sister and my little brother to Memorial Stadium in Bal'mer. Jim Palmer v. Sonny Siebert. Every time Carl Yastrzemski was announced as he approached the batter's box, you could the boys - "Yay!" - throughout the leftfield grandstands. Sister had a crush on Palmer's picture, and this was a few years before he modeled in those underwear ads.

I knew something was Screwy-from-St. Louey during the playoffs two years ago, the Grady days, when Trot Nixon hit a walkoff against the A's. "I'd like to thank the Lord Jesus Christ... " >click< Beddy Bye!!

Still, ya' gotta love that obscure pitcher Mike Myers doesn't reflexively push the jibber-jabber:

The Sox evangelicals said they often have been asked if they believe God wanted them to win the World Series rather than the Yankees or the Cardinals.

''I don't know what he thinks," Myers said. ''If I knew that, I'd be God."

I almost came down with the bug (not unlike the time I actually did drink the kool-aid freshman year at UMass, but it lasted only a week) when I thought I saw Jesus playing centerfield and leading a miracle comeback against the Yankees. But dingbat Curt Schilling cooled me out right proper when he went stumping for Dubya in New Hampshire last October. Bloody sock and all.

Uhm, Curt? What Would Jesus NOT Do?

Now you know why this team is called "The Idiots."

Is The Media Responsible?

A cold splash to the face of white middle-class America is New Orleans, eh? Imagine, then, what it's been like in Baghdad lo these last couple of YEARS!! One administration chucklehead speculated the only thing worse that could happen to a city than what's happened in New Orleans is if a nuclear or chemical weapon were set off.

Oh, goody!! Dubya has us "over there so they can't get us over here," and meanwhile has so disemboweled our national guard and reserves, by putting them over there where they can't do any good over here -- and now we find the third worst thing that can happen to a city is beyond their ability to cope.

But back to my original point. Note all the video footage of the disaster unfolding in New Orleans: The wailing in the streets; the wanton death & destruction; the close-ups of lost souls seen thru their respective windows -- all because of the seemingly limitless access to the carnage for a suddenly fascinated media. The coverage has been 24/7, a marked contrast to the way the media portrays the war and by the way we've been prevented from bearing witness. It is remarkable nonetheless how the pain inflicted by nature upon the people of Crescent City seems not at all dissimilar to the considerably longer-felt suffering inflicted by the Bush administration upon the Iraqi people.

Why the difference, you wonder? It's because our military in Baghdad embedded the reporters, keeping them close as they would have their enemies closer. And reporters who dared venture off independently would run the risk of getting shot. And in New Orleans, the military is... uhm...

Just where the HELL are they anyway... ??

Well, Joe & Jane Couch-Potato, there you have it! You can't even turn on your TV now without having the insanity of thousands of people chanting "Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!" shoved down your fatted gullets, now can you? And I betcha didn't know you could have been seeing that same shit every day for the last three years had you only tuned into the BBC.

Love it or don't, we're seeing it now like we've never before. And that is a healthy development. Even better news, the coverage is now shining a bright light, as it had been so remiss in doing throughout the Bush presidency, on the glaring shortcomings of the man, the gaping void in his character, and his inability to lead as revealed. And the growing consensus would seem to comport with what so many of us have known from the beginning, that George W. Bush is at best a callous and empty suit, but, more importantly to America's standing in history, so criminally incompetent that an uncorrupted Congress wouldn't think but to quickly convene to debate his removal from office.

And that is why progressives have despised the Main$tream media.

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Social Club - #1

• AOL News Headline: Ohio High School Has 64 Pregnant Students

Where was I?

You Want Peace? Work For Justice!

This news out of California is tremendous, but it may be sublimated given the timing during the New Orleans Aftermath story; not unlike a day in 1973 when the Supreme Court decided an obscure little case called Roe v. Wade -- the same day LBJ died. But just as Roe has been fought over these 30-something years, and will continue to be so for years to come, so shall whatever case to be inevitably handed down that addresses Gay Marriage vs. The Rights of The Backward States to maintain their primitive cultures.

On that latter point, I say "tremendous," as one who, in his youth, was cartoonishly phobic. But I'm here to tell you now that evolution is a scientific fact and I know equal protection under law when I see it.

Full Circle

Sister Marguerite of the Kingston Diocese writes in and suggests I "mention the idea that our national guard can't deal with the New Orleans disaster because they're in Iraq."

Thank you, Sis. I think Huff-baby concurs with your thesis and says it best.

The Very Definition of Compassionate Conservative

Linking through Talking Points Memo, you'll find what, prior to which, appeared to be monumental blundering by Dubya & The Repos in response to the emergency in the Gulf. But that's what they want you to think. Check it out: The Speaker of the House of Representatives thinks it a bad idea to rebuild New Orleans:

"It doesn't make sense to me," Hastert told the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago in editions published today. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask."

And it dawned on me, Republicans want to see our cities destroyed. And you know why? They're Blue areas. They don't vote Republican. That, then, is the Grand Plan that takes us way beyond "Starving the Beast" and way back into time. Imagine America as an agrarian society once again.

You did say they wanted to bring us back to the 50's, right? But you didnt say it was the 1850s.

Bastards!!

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Press Room - #3

With respect to the devastation in Louisiana & Mississippi, has the Champagne Unit been mobilized yet?

Sidebar, Yerronner!

The Know It All Fantasy Football League had their 13th draft last night. "Gon & Dreg" drafted pretty well methinks. Will keep you posted.

But being a lad homesick for his native New England, it occurred to me that, while at this time, it is Great! -- just Great!! -- to be a Boston sports fan this century, this business of fandom carries with it a curious pathology, a mania. To live & die with professional athletes, at an adult level, is patently absurd. And yet, you'll note my links list over on the right has the sports page right near the top (after I've gratified my ego, of course). What I'm discovering as strange, however, is the realization that my passion for the Red Sox has waned correspondingly with my increased passion for the Patriots!

But why? They're both defending champions. And that may be it. The Sox aren't supposed to be champions. They were the forever-to-be star-crossed losers cursed by the mighty Babe. It was a romance with the Olde Towne Team we carried, for they were us, stiffs just going to work every day, grinding it out only to hit the wall in the end. I loved the Red Sox. And I still do, but the lust is gone. It ain't the same.

My love for the Patriots, however, is far more visceral. The need to knock heads, to push hard back when pushed. Then to elegantly circumnavigate resistance with the pass, or by running through or around or away from it. At the end of the day, you're bloodied and bruised and yet you feel great. The endorphins are still pulsing.

And since the Patriots do all of that better than anybody else, anywhere, and, if they win it again this year, anytime, then -- Man!! -- I just can't get enough of 'em!

Go Pats!!

More On The Spectacularly Incompetent SOB

Need we say more... ?

But it does bring up something that we joke about often, but apparently have never taken quite seriously enough: our President is an idiot. I don't mean an average, run-of-the-mill idiot. I mean an idiot who apparently, for the entire duration of his presidency, literally was paying absolutely no attention to even the most life-threateningly critical tasks of government.

From the Daily Kos

Proving The Rule

This exception to what I said about MSNBC in the previous post: Countdown with Keith Olbermann. If I'm up after midnight, it's only because I'm either watching Baseball Tonight or Olbermann's summary of the day.

Amy Goodman is Goddess

Woke up, fell outta bed... Dragged a comb across my head...

Arrived alive but late for work this morning. Let it be a lesson, never reset your snooze alarm fresh out of slumber because you may fuck it up. And I did. Fortunately the internal clock finally kicked in, and only 45 minutes after the digital on the bedstand was supposed to.

The upside of running late for me is I get to listen to Democracy Now and The War & Peace Report with Amy Goodman. After the last few years of suffering the spirit-numbing pro-Bushwar cheerleading that is Clear Channel MisCommunications, they who own no fewer than 8 radio stations here in the nation's capital, and over 2000 nationwide (to understand the significance is to know that at one time, no company/corporation/individual could own more than 1 TV station & 1 radio & 1 newspaper at a time in a single city -- y'get me?), I finally stopped listening to the news while driving when the Repos started hacking away at public broadcasting. (Did I hear right? Did All Things Considered actually replace Daniel Schorr with Jonah Goldberg? Next thing you'll tell me is Bill O'Reilly is my biological father -- AIYEE!!)

So I'm running late, right? By 8:00 a.m., I'm supposed to be on the subway and 2/3rds of the way into town. But this morning I wasn't; I was in my car on 123 queuing up to get onto 66 to get into another mile-long que to Vienna (fun stuff, that bumber2bumper traffic). But today I got to crank on WPFW 89.3 and catch the beginning of Amy Goodman's best-in-the-business reportage. Only through her do you get a full measure of how well Dubya hasn't been handling the Katrina devastation. By the way, do you think the Houston Champagne Unit's been mobilized yet?

That Pacifica Radio plays in only 5 cities in this country is an outrage. The good news is the Counterinsurgency in Radio has opened on another front and the allied forces have landed on the beach.

D'be nice to know when the weather will clear sufficiently so the larger planned invasion on the 24-hour TV news front can commence. Maybe CNN can be induced to return to its Turner roots and zag, now that MSNBC's zig to be FauxNews-lite is complete. One might think Time-Warner, assuming their empty scrotums aren't still being tugged on by the Repo-controlled FCC (and what're those chances?), would realize there's money to be made off 50% of us jonesing badly for real investigative news coverage. At least Comedy Central gets it.

America needs a Progressive TV news network. Al Gore, George Soros, et al., call your offices.

GOP Declares War on Science

Not an original or even recent headline, I grant you; just the most recent assault on another front. I had the misfortune of having to meet the chucklehead Barton back in the mid-90s when I was working a beat on the Hill for The People's Radio Network. (By the way, never believe a word Pat Choate tells you.)

Anyway, the sense I'm getting here inside the beltway is the Repos are feeling the heat about the Iraq debacle and genuinely fear losing control of Congress in '06. And so they're throttling up their grand scheme to completely disembowel the federal government, or as much of it and as fast as they can, from any further oversight as it pertains to the corporate fancy, in the event they are indeed kicked to the curb and not nearly soon enough.

P.S. A shout of solidarity to Raymond Bradley, director of the Climate System Research Centre at the University of Massachusetts. Keep fighting the bastards, Ray!

Gary Hart for President

Hey, why not? I was a Rockin'-25 in 1984, and I thought Ronald Reagan was a serious asshole. But having witnessed the current squatter, this utter abomination in cowboy boots and rictus personality barking banalities like "They Hate Us for Our Freedom's on the March!" or "It's Hawrd Werk!", why I get positively all sniffily over the Gippah! And now that the erstwhile Senator from Colorado came out with this, I thought, "Well awwwright!!"

Lookey here: the way Hillary and Biden and Bayh are going, I figure I'll be a-going too -- to Europe that is, 'cause there ain't NO WAY I'm playing ball with these ankle-grabbing DLC drones. They are the Pod People... ! They're sell-outs... !! Watch to see how quickly they roll over for John Roberts next week. Biden's already a steaming sample unfit for the cat's box, what with his steerage of the Bankruptcy Bill and enthusiasm for CAFTA. What a prick!

"Bayh!!" says you?

"Bye!!" says I.

Right now, I figure the choice is Feingold, although he's starting to give me the heebeejeebees with his 6-of-1/half-dozen-of-another over John Roberts.

And if not Feingold, why not Gary Hart? Ok, probably not. He's been a litte too chewed-up by the scandal mill and by time, losing too much of the luster he once had. Ach, the ignominy of getting punked by Walter Mondale. And that was before Donna Rice.

Al Gore... ? Hmm... Lately, he's been every bit the firebrand we always knew he could be ever since he bitch-slapped William Buckley, the moderator, over SDI at the '88 primary debates. He's acknowledged his 2000 campaign lacked the courage of his convictions, and that he never should have listened to the neutered inside-the-beltway campaign consultants (I mean, Warren Christopher... ?? To run the fight in Florida post election day... ?? What, Barney Fife wasn't available... ?? At least he kept a bullet in his shirt pocket.) -- and he still WON the thing. And lately he's been ramping up the rhetoric on Iraq and Global Warming.

The perfect parallel, of course, is 1960 loser and VP Dick Nixon. He skipped an election cycle in '64 (well actually he lost again, to Pat Brown in the California Senate race) and came back to win it in '68. So why not Gore? The timing seems to be perfect, especially since the current crop of enablers cannot seem to learn from John Kerry's meltdown.

Just keep those frickin' inbred DLCers out.

CardCarryingMember

Call your attention to Jonah Gelbach's endeavor, now posted as one of my preferred sites.

Not to be confused w/the NRO's Goldberg, this Jonah's an old softball buddy and fellow Minuteman alum >Rrrrah!<. And from what I can see on his blog, he also has a bigger vocabulary than me (annoying, that). And just as I've come to know him from the diamond and poker table, his writing is ruthlessly prolific and unapologetic. More to my delight, he has a special, uhm, affinity for Rick Santorum, perhaps the smarmiest of the Jumbo Shrimp (which is sayin' a lot).

Jonah's true blue, and his blog is a must-read.

Arianna: The Neo Gray Lady

To think Al Franken once referred to her as "The beautiful but very evil Arianna Huffington"... Is there a better daily publication, on-line or on the newsstands, than The Huffington Post? When it comes to effectively casting grappling hooks in order to haul down the towering but darkly corrupt Gullivers of our time, Huffington goes for the jugular, be it Tim Russert's of Meet The Press or Arthur Sulzberger's and his New York goddamn Times:

It’s pathetic, really. And wildly counterproductive. For far from rallying support for Miller, today’s pitiable plea instead calls attention to how little support for Miller there actually is… even among the Times’ own op-ed columnists. Not one of them has written a single word about their incarcerated colleague during the entire month of August[.]

I'm looking forward to the day when Judy Miller is released from the slammer. I suspect she'll be expecting garlands and cheers, when, out of the sea of microphones and flashing bulbs, someone, not buying into the Joan of Arc routine Miller will inevitably be attempting to project, and ask, "Did you sleep with Ahmad Chalabi?"

"How about Karl Rove?"

"Has your husband returned from La Cote D'Azur yet... ?"

What was that line in RoboCop... ? Ah yes...

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"

The Enemy of My Enemy

I was in London a couple of years ago and found myself agog at all the Starbucks emporiums there were. It seemed to me from Fleet Street to Kensington High Street to Piccadilly and back there was a Starbucks on every block and a pub on every corner, and me with so little time.

Back here at home, I live in the [urp] burbs and spend way too much time transiting to my offices in the city and back again. Consequently, the only expedient spot to pick up breakfast-to-go is the nearby Starbucks at the strip mall.

Now I've always objected to mega-corps on principle. Their penchant for voracious expansion, anti-trust behavioral disorders, pounding the consumer when not screwing the labor (or while they're screwing the labor) -- you know the drill -- usually triggers my gag reflex. The best example, and only across the divide at the strip mall is a Wal-Mart. Google those SomeBitches when you have a year. Suffice it to say I don't do Wal-Mart.

As for Starbucks, I found them objectionable the day they bought out my favorite hang-out in Harvard Square (and corresponding franchises, of course), the Coffee Connection. Moreover, I laughed hysterically one Saturday night while listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. An aside by Garrison Keillor when he referrenced "It's a Starbucks, "or as I like to call it: 'Ten Bucks!'"

Be all this as it may, a piece in today's Seattle Times has thrown them in a newer light:

A national Christian women's organization is accusing the Seattle-based coffee maker of promoting a homosexual agenda because of a quote by author Armistead Maupin, whose "Tales of the City" chronicled San Francisco's homosexual community in the 1970s and 1980s.

Remind me to explore further why I consider "Conservative Christian" as an oxymoron akin to "Jumbo Shrimp." And yeeaaah -- that's now the working title of all my future rants about the Holy Rolling Bible Thumping Arse Buggerers (and how's that for irony??) -- The Jumbo Shrimp Report. Watch for it!

Meanwhile, if you crave a breakfast sandwich, Starbucks' beats McDonald's' hands-f'ing-down. At least the eggamuffin at Starbucks is toasted, eliminating the rubbery texture. Moreover, ol' Mickey D's doesn't have Eggs-Florentine McMuffin's, now do they... ??

Throw in an Iced-Vente-Americano, and your total comes to $5.73. Thanks for coming by.

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Press Room - #2

Mr. President, your earthly father once explained why he stopped short of invading Baghdad during Operation Desert Storm by saying -- and I quote:

Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.

My question is, sir, do you derive any satisfaction in proving your earthly father right?

Questions That Get You Kicked Out of the Press Room - #1

Due respect, Mr. President, can you pronounce the word NU-CLEE-YER?

Said, "California is the place y'oughta be."

Another reason why I love The Golden State; reported by AP on Saturday:

A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints . . . The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution.

More on the "scientific" frauds of Intelligent Design, a.k.a. Creationism Warmed Over, another time. California's doing all the Progressive heavy-lifting in this country, no thanks to Hillary, Joe Biden or Joementum. Note they're also getting sued by the federal government for insisting cars sold in the state have to meet raised fuel emissions standards; standards established by the state because Congress is owned part & parsal by the auto & fossil fuel industries (when not by the Pharmaceuticals, HMOs, et al., but we digress) and is incapable of legislating practically or productively and would rather roll-over, splaying their hind-legs, while the creature we call president humps them mercilessly when he isn't otherwise consigning our bravest to die for no other reason than that we, The American Driver, may continue to [heart] our Iraqi oil and go on with our mindless and obsessive burning of more gas and more gas and more gas. [Insert sound-effects from the trough here.]

What, you really thought Dubya was a sufferagist?

Of course, by federal government we mean this administration's so-called Justice Department doing General Motors' & Haliburton's bidding, and, while doing so, instantly converting years of Repo noise about "States' Rights" into so much methane only to be blown out the collective aft chute. Now that's an energy plan!

Of course who the presiding panel of judges are, hearing either case, makes all the difference in how the merits [politics] will be determined.

John Roberts, the president's on line-one again -- uhm, don't tell anyone... again.

"If You Can Keep It"

Ben Franklin's response, when asked if the Continental Congress voted these United States to be a Republic or a Monarchy, was said to be, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Well we've lost it, assuming we ever really had it in the first place. Measureably one might go as far back as 1960 as the Nixonians would have you believe, although some contend they were doing in southern Illinois what they accused the Kennedys of doing in Chicago. But certainly in 2000 We The People were deprived of our say, beyond, that is, our indicating our preference for the other guy and by more than a half-million votes, not including the 2 million more that went to Ralph Nader. Would it be fair to conclude, then, that had Nader forseen the long-term damage his candidacy hath wrought (while keeping in mind we remain entirely sympathetic with his reasons for running, while paradoxically holding his stating he'd do it again as contemptuous), at least 3 quarters of his votes would've gone to Al Gore?

Same thing in 2004, only it was electronically, thus far more rampantly, corrupted, and consequently less easy to prove. Which is why one Republican congressman called for exit polls to be federally banned. That way, you see, the discrepancies in vote-counting, causally related to the criminal slight-of-hand, would be complete but beyond notice. All of this, of course, is deemed "non-news" by the corporatized 4th estate. We'll have a rant about that down the road.

Despite all of this, it appears the Republic will not be returning to health anytime soon. Check out that last graf on the link.

Which now begs the question as to what kind of government is the United States left with? A Plutocracy? An Oligarchy? A Fascist Dictatorship?

(D) All of the above?

I'm beginning to get the sense of how right Thomas Jefferson was when he suggested that in order to maintain a healthy Democracy/Republic, bloody revolution would be necessary every 25 years or so. Something about watering the roots of the tree with the blood of patriots.

Having endured the stench of this presidency for 4-1/2 years now, we hold these truths to be self-evident.

Beware the DINOs

Give the Repos credit, they put lipstick on a pig and called it the DLC. But don't be fooled: A Republican-lite is still a Republican. And if there's any question as to whether Will Marshall is a Repo stooge or if the Democratic Leadership Council isn't at best Vichy, then you can be sure the questioner is one of them.

Scarier still is Hillary's one of them too. Russ Feingold, we need you... but not if you intend on grabbin' your ankles for John Roberts.

Ye' foller... ?!

Evolution in Real Time

The Arizona Daily Star reported yesterday that John McCain is now on board in advocating Intelligent Design as a scientific alternative to evolution and ought to be taught in our public schools. The Star also indicates the Senator didn't stop there:

"On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement."

Not yet announced as official is the Senator's intention to pursue his party's nomination for president in 2008. Relatedly, unconfirmed reports say the Senator's start-up campaign committee is already planning to modify his 2000 campaign theme, "The Straight-Talk Express," in order to conform with his evolving positions and rename it "The Straight-Talk-My-Ass Express."

Genesis

In the beginning, Man created god, who in turn created heaven and the earth.

Every point in that universe is the center.

Therefore I am the center of the universe.

Humbly submitted.