A War Of Equals

I'm a big fan of old school comic books that ran the 'What If...?' scenarios, the most famous of which is 'What If... Superman and Spiderman Co-Existed?" that ran in the late 1970's early 1980's, if memory serves.

With that in mind, here's a "What If....?" for you to consider.

Iraq, with its population of 25 million or so people is about one 10th the size of the United States.

Well, what if Iraq had the same population of the United States and the daily casuality rates remained constant?

In other words, when you read in the paper that 100 people were killed in a bombing in Baghdad today, that would translate into 1,000 people being killed instead of a hundred.

Now imagine what it would be like if 100 to a 1,000 people a day got killed in daily fighting in the United States?

Think we'd be a little upset with that, no matter how noble the intentions were of the oneswho started the war?

Just something to consider.

BREITBART.COM - Most Americans Plan to Vote for Democrats

Hot off the presses:

Most Americans Plan to Vote for Democrats
Jul 14 2:57 AM US/Eastern
By DONNA CASSATA Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their grip on Congress in November. With less than four months to the midterm elections, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule.

Further complicating the GOP outlook to turn things around is a solid percentage of liberals, moderates and even conservatives who say they'll vote Democratic. The party out of power also holds the edge among persuadable voters, a prospect that doesn't bode well for the Republicans.

The election ultimately will be decided in 435 House districts and 33 Senate contests, in which incumbents typically hold the upper hand.

Tom Courtney, a Democratic state senator in Iowa, said U.S. voters are ready to trust his party to lead.

"I honestly think it's ours to lose," Courtney said. "My experience, we're not above that. Americans are ready for change."

One does hope.

CBS | Late Show Top Ten Archive: May 02, 2006

CBS | Late Show Top Ten Archive: May 02, 2006: "May 02, 2006
Top Ten Signs Gas Is Expensive

10. It's so expensive, Batman is patrolling the streets on a Schwinn

9. It's so expensive, mobsters are dousing snitches with olive oil

8. It's so expensive, Domino's only delivers within walking distance

7. It's so expensive, moviegoers flock to 'RV' just to see someone driving

6. It's so expensive, Tom Cruise agreed to be a guest for 5 gallons of unleaded

5. It's so expensive, you're actually willing to carpool with Regis

4. It's so expensive, Starbucks is selling Gasaccino

3. It's so expensive, it's negatively influencing our foreign policy, hurting millions of hardworking Americans and threatening to throw our economy into absolute chaos

2. It's so expensive, Anna Nicole Smith married the night manager of a Texaco

1. It's so expensive, Britney Spears' baby is driving a Prius"

Atlas Shrugs: It's a CHOI to Protest The New York Crimes

Like I said, these folks can do al the heavy lifting on their own, don't need any help from lil ol' me:

Atlas Shrugs: It's a CHOI to Protest The New York Crimes

To the Lying, Redirecting, Slandering Neocon Poster

to hell with it, i've been going about all this entirely the wrong way.

I'm going to let *you* people write this for me while the rest of the viewing public pulls down a seat and shares a bucket of popcorn, mmm popcorn, and enjoys all of you going down in flames.

it's a much simpler approach.

To the Lying, Redirecting, Slandering Neocon Poster

To the Lying, Redirecting, Slandering Neocon Poster
Reply to: xxx@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-07-11, 9:22PM EDT


Nobody believes ANYTHING you people say anymore. You have lied and lied and lied - six years of nothing but lies now. You skew things around, you throw out half-truths and inanities as though you were pouring swill into a troth.
Nothing you EVER say or post is based on facts. It is all based on your extreme right wing, nonsensical ideology - an ideology that is bringing this country farther and farther down the wrong path.

YOU and you cadre of insolent, pugnacious, cowards - who NEVER fight your own battles, but rather enlist others to fight your battles for you - have done NOTHING positive for this country since taking power - complete power and control of all three branches of government.

You have Failed miserably with the economy. Though you continue to throw out bogus statistics as though real working people can't feel the pain of your bloodsucking policies. Tax cuts for the rich has been the centerpiece of all your voodoo economics - and you have succeeeded in making the wealthiest 1% EVEN richer. Congratulations.

But the budget deficit is a disgrace - and a lousy 100 Billion isn't going to make a bit of difference in the long run. You are determined to bankrupt us all with these monstrous loans from China and North Korea. But what do you care? Your foul progency will have theirs.

The war in Iraq is another disgrace. What the fuck are we doing in Iraq? The war on terror should be fought where the terrorists are - in Afghanistan and Pakistan - and as a matter of fact - in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, in Yemen, in Jordan and in the UAR. Fucktards! Morons! That's it - waste all our resources in fucking IRAQ you fucking fucks.

The troops STILL don't have adequate equipment! What the fuck?

You assholes are totally fucking up the environment. Generations will curse your foul asses for that, and rightly so.

The USA doesn't torture people you scummy pricks. That is one of the things that makes us GREAT. At least it used to - until the neocon scum took over.

There are THREE EQUAL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT IN THIS COUNTRY. NOT ONE BIG TRUNK AND TWO SUPPORTING BRANCHES. THIS COUNTRY DOES NOT OPERATE WITH AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY, YOU SLIMEY PIECES OF SHIT.

NOBODY IS PRO-ABORTION YOU FANATIC, RIGHT WING, RELIGIOUS NUT TOADS. PEOPLE ARE EITHER PRO-CHOICE OR ANTI-CHOICE. YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE FUCKING LANGUAGE TO SUIT YOUR SLEAZY AGENDAS.

YOU CAN'T TELL PEOPLE ON CRAIGSLIST R AND R WHAT SORT OF WORDS THEY CAN USE TO DESCRIBE YOUR FILTHY, ROTTEN, LOW-LIFE SELVES. THIS IS CRAIGSLIST R AND R - NOT FUCKING FATHER DANNY O'DONNELLS RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION SITE FOR RIGHT WING COWARD LIARS.

YOU CAN'T LIE FOR SIX YEARS STRAIGHT ABOUT ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING AND EXPECT PEOPLE TO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY - OR TO EVER BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU SAY ABOUT ANYTHING EVER AGAIN.

I realize that there will always be that 30% factor of absolute idiots, insane zealots, right wing fanatics, religious looneys, facists, true believer sheep, and flat out fucking aliens. So, I suppose you will always have company. I am just eternally grateful that those of you who don't live across the river in Jersey - live in points even farther west. Stay there!

180973083

Crooked Timber ? ? STFU Syndrome

This is a nice riff on an old standard....

"Son, we live in a world that has blogs, and those blogs have to be guarded by men with computers.
Who’s gonna do it?

You?

You, Lt. Waring?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

You weep for Reynolds and you curse the Keyboarders.

You have that luxury.

You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Reynolds’ existence, while tragic, probably saved lives.

And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don’t want the truth because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that blog.

You need me on that blog.

We use words like “fisk,” “indeed,” “heh” …

We use these words as the backbone to a life spent at home defending something.

You use them as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a woman who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the endlessly self-important invective that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it!

I would rather you just said thank you and went on your way.

Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a laptop and start to post.

Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!"

Posted by Kieran Healy May 14th, 2006 at 7:58 am

Update: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger's wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps—
His night is marching on.

I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal;
Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!"

We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;*
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet!
Our god is marching on!

In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom—and for others' goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich—
Our god is marching on.

Mark Twain, 1901

The "Real" Star of "The Da Vinci Code"

It's not going to be who you think it is.

It's gonna be the CAR the hottie drives.

Here's what one looks like:

Can't get the Mercedes one that gets 55 mpg in the States, gonna have to settle for the re-jiggered one that the EPA says gets 40 mpg.

Of course if the 80% of you Americans out there got off your fat asses and got a US Passport and saw that there's more to the world than American Idol you'd have already known about this.

Enjoy the movie, if you can afford the gas to get to the theatre to see it.

nwa

George Carlin on God

From Craigslist, WDC

---

Reply to: pers-xxxxx@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-03-11, 9:35AM EST


When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

But I want you to know something, this is sincere, I want you to know, when it comes to believing in God, I really tried. I really, really tried. I tried to believe that there is a God, who created each of us in His own image and likeness, loves us very much, and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize, something is fucked up.

Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently-run universe, this guy would've been out on his all-powerful ass a long time ago. And by the way, I say "this guy", because I firmly believe, looking at these results, that if there is a God, it has to be a man.

No woman could or would ever fuck things up like this. So, if there is a God, I think most reasonable people might agree that he's at least incompetent, and maybe, just maybe, doesn't give a shit. Doesn't give a shit, which I admire in a person, and which would explain a lot of these bad results.

So rather than be just another mindless religious robot, mindlessly and aimlessly and blindly believing that all of this is in the hands of some spooky incompetent father figure who doesn't give a shit, I decided to look around for something else to worship. Something I could really count on.

And immediately, I thought of the sun. Happened like that. Overnight I became a sun-worshipper. Well, not overnight, you can't see the sun at night. But first thing the next morning, I became a sun-worshipper. Several reasons. First of all, I can see the sun, okay? Unlike some other gods I could mention, I can actually see the sun. I'm big on that. If I can see something, I don't know, it kind of helps the credibility along, you know? So everyday I can see the sun, as it gives me everything I need; heat, light, food, flowers in the park, reflections on the lake, an occasional skin cancer, but hey. At least there are no crucifixions, and we're not setting people on fire simply because they don't agree with us.

Sun worship is fairly simple. There's no mystery, no miracles, no pageantry, no one asks for money, there are no songs to learn, and we don't have a special building where we all gather once a week to compare clothing. And the best thing about the sun, it never tells me I'm unworthy. Doesn't tell me I'm a bad person who needs to be saved. Hasn't said an unkind word. Treats me fine. So, I worship the sun. But, I don't pray to the sun. Know why? I wouldn't presume on our friendship. It's not polite.

I've often thought people treat God rather rudely, don't you? Asking trillions and trillions of prayers every day. Asking and pleading and begging for favors. Do this, gimme that, I need a new car, I want a better job. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday His day off. It's not nice. And it's no way to treat a friend.

But people do pray, and they pray for a lot of different things, you know, your sister needs an operation on her crotch, your brother was arrested for defecating in a mall. But most of all, you'd really like to fuck that hot little redhead down at the convenience store. You know, the one with the eyepatch and the clubfoot? Can you pray for that? I think you'd have to. And I say, fine. Pray for anything you want. Pray for anything, but what about the Divine Plan?

Remember that? The Divine Plan. Long time ago, God made a Divine Plan. Gave it a lot of thought, decided it was a good plan, put it into practice. And for billions and billions of years, the Divine Plan has been doing just fine. Now, you come along, and pray for something. Well suppose the thing you want isn't in God's Divine Plan? What do you want Him to do? Change His plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a Divine Plan. What's the use of being God if every run-down shmuck with a two-dollar prayerbook can come along and fuck up Your Plan?

And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well, it's God's will." "Thy Will Be Done." Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing.

So to get around a lot of this, I decided to worship the sun. But, as I said, I don't pray to the sun. You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. Two reasons: First of all, I think he's a good actor, okay? To me, that counts. Second, he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn't fuck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that God was having trouble with.

For years I asked God to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog, Joe Pesci straightened that cocksucker out with one visit. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a simple baseball bat.

So I've been praying to Joe for about a year now. And I noticed something. I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't. Same as God, 50-50. Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the wishing well and the rabbit's foot, same as the Mojo Man, same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles, it's all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.

And for those of you who look to The Bible for moral lessons and literary qualities, I might suggest a couple of other stories for you. You might want to look at the Three Little Pigs, that's a good one. Has a nice happy ending, I'm sure you'll like that. Then there's Little Red Riding Hood, although it does have that X-rated part where the Big Bad Wolf actually eats the grandmother. Which I didn't care for, by the way. And finally, I've always drawn a great deal of moral comfort from Humpty Dumpty. The part I like the best? "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again." That's because there is no Humpty Dumpty, and there is no God. None, not one, no God, never was. In fact, I'm gonna put it this way. If there is a God, may he strike this audience dead! See? Nothing happened. Nothing happened? Everybody's okay? All right, tell you what, I'll raise the stakes a little bit. If there is a God, may he strike me dead. See? Nothing happened, oh, wait, I've got a little cramp in my leg. And my balls hurt. Plus, I'm blind. I'm blind, oh, now I'm okay again, must have been Joe Pesci, huh? God Bless Joe Pesci. Thank you all very much. Joe Bless You!

-George Carlin

this is in or around Wash DC

Life In A Parallel Universe

Mary Matalin and David Gregory's exchange on Meet The Press, 19 February 2006:

MR. GREGORY: OK, but Mary, if that’s the case, first of all, you know, the vice president of the United States accidentally shot a man for the first time since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton. Much different circumstance, admittedly. And the vice president’s office doesn’t feel an obligation to disclose that to the American people directly. You do it through a ranch owner in Texas? It just—it just strikes me as odd.MS.

MATALIN: It strikes you as odd because you live in a parallel universe. It did not strike Americans as odd.

Hmm....

Under your guidance, Ms. Matalin, Vice President Cheney has managed to garner for himself a solid 29% approval rating among his fellow Americans.

Which begs the question, who exactly is it that is living in a parallel universe, the 71% of Americans polled that disapprove of the Vice President, or....

YOU?

Take your time, there's no 'right' answer to this question, except for the one that you have for yourself.

Good day, Madame.

Now if this was only 404 instead of 403 Forbidden

Wow, finally some good news.

This link:

http://www.anncoulter.com

currently yields this message:

403 Forbidden:

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /cgi-local/welcome.cgi on this server."

Looks like Ann is down for the time being.

Let's see her get out of this one.

Might not be so easy, considering how Actionable it is:

Federal criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. §115 (a)(1)(B).

That law states:

"Whoever threatens to assault…. or murder, a United States judge… with intent to retaliate against such… judge…. on account of the performance of official duties, shall be punished [by up to six years
in prison]"

I expect she'll be getting a knock at the door from the Feds any minute now.

peace,

nwa

Ann Coulter Tip Submitted Tto Drudge

ann coulter link on your page isn't working.

might have something to do with her comment last night about her wanting to poison a sitting US Supreme Court Justice which also is noticeably absent on your page, despite the news breaking about 6-8 hours ago.

What's uip with that, and oh, btw, your friend Art, from Maryland sez 'hi, guy.'

Day-O, Yo!

CNN.com - Transcripts

More on Harry Belafonte's background later.

Short version....

Without 'Day-O' there'd be no Civil Rights Movement, yo.

"
BLITZER: President Bush today defended his tactics in fighting the war on terror even as critics like Harry Belafonte keep trying to hold his feet to the fire.

Joining us now from New York is Harry Belafonte.

Mr. Belafonte, thanks very much. Welcome to THE SITUATION ROOM.

BELAFONTE: Thank you, Mr. Blitzer.

BLITZER: The new Gestapo. You know, those are powerful words, calling an agency of the U.S. government, the Department of Homeland Security with, what, about 300,000 federal employees, the new Gestapo. Do you want to take that back? BELAFONTE: No, not really. I stand by my remarks. I am very much aware of what this has provoked in our national community. And I welcome the opportunity for us to begin to have a dialogue that goes other than where we've been having one up until now. People feel that I talk in extremes. But if you look at what's happening to American citizens, a lot is going on in the extreme.

We've taken citizens from this country without the right to be charged, without being told what they're taken for, we've spirited them out of this country, taken them to far away places and reports come back with some consistency that they are being tortured, that they're not being told what they've done. And even some who have been released have come back and testified to this fact.

BLITZER: But let me interrupt for a second. Are you familiar -- and I'm sure you are, because you're an intelligent man -- what the Gestapo did to the Jews in World War II?

BELAFONTE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: And you think that what the Department of Homeland Security is doing to, you know, some U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism is similar to what the Nazis did to the Jew?

BELAFONTE: Well, if you're taking people out of a country and spiriting them someplace else, and they're being tortured, and they're being charged without -- or not being charged, so they don't know what it is they've done.

It may not have been directly inside the Department of Homeland Security, but the pattern, the system, it's what the system does. It's what all these different divisions have begun to reveal in their collective.

My phones are tapped. OK? My mail can be opened. They don't even need a court warrant to come and do that as we once were required to do.

BLITZER: But no one has taken you or anyone else, as far as I can tell, to an extermination camp and by the tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, even millions decided to kill them, which is what the Nazis did.

BELAFONTE: Well, Mr. Blitzer, let me say this to you, perhaps, just perhaps had the Jews of Germany and people spoken out much earlier and had resisted the tyranny that was on the horizon, perhaps we would never have had...

BLITZER: Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, are you blaming the Jews of Germany for what Hitler did to them?

BELAFONTE: No, no. What I'm saying is that if it an awakened citizenry, begins to oppose the first inkling of the subversion of government, of the subversion of our democracy, then perhaps an early warning would have saved the world a lot of what we all experienced. I'm not accusing the Jews at all. BLITZER: Well, I just heard you say perhaps if the Jews of Germany had done something earlier then that might not have happened. That's what I thought you were getting at.

BELAFONTE: Well, what I was getting at really is that if all citizens, the Jewish community, the Christian community and all else had taken a very early aggressive stand rather than somehow suggesting or thinking or feeling that this would have gone away, we might have found that Germany would have been in a far different place than it wound up in.

BLITZER: Let me get through some of these other points, because we don't have a whole lot of time.

BELAFONTE: OK.

BLITZER: When you were in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez, you said that Bush is the greatest terrorist, the greatest tyrant. Are you saying that President Bush is worse than Osama bin Laden?

BELAFONTE: I'm saying that he's no better. You know, it's hard to make a hyperbole stick. I obviously haven't had a chance to meet all the terrorists in the world, so I have no reason to throw around the words like the greatest or make some qualitative statement. I do believe he is a terrorist.

I do believe that what our government does has terror in the center of its agenda. When you lie to the American people, when you've misled them and you've taken our sons and daughters to foreign lands to be destroyed, and you look at tens of thousands of Arab women and children and innocent people being destroyed each day, under the title of collateral damage, I think there's something very wrong with the leadership.

BLITZER: What you did say in Venezuela was that President Bush was, and I'm quoting now, the greatest tyrant in the world and the greatest terrorist in the world.

BELAFONTE: Yes, I did say that.

BLITZER: So you did use the word, the greatest.

Here's what you were quoted as saying in "The Raleigh News and Observer" on January 16th. And I'll let you amend or clarify your remarks.

"When you have a president that has led us into a dishonorable war, who has killed tens of thousands, many of them our own sons and daughters, what is the difference between those who would fly airplanes into buildings killing 3,000 innocent Americans? What is the difference between that terror and other terrors?"

Now that raises the issue of moral equivalency. Are you saying what the Bush administration, what the president is doing is the moral equivalent of what al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden ordered on 9/11? BELAFONTE: I think President George W. Bush, I think Cheney, I think Rumsfeld, I think all of these people have lost any moral integrity. I find what we are doing is hugely immoral to the American people and to others in the world.

BLITZER: And the same, or if not worse than al Qaeda? Is that what you're saying?

BELAFONTE: Well, I don't want to make those kind of comparisons. I'm not too sure all of what al Qaeda has done. Al Qaeda tortures. We torture. Al Qaeda's killed innocent people. We kill innocent people. Where do the lines get blurred here?

BLITZER: Well, I think the argument is, and correct me if I'm wrong, that al Qaeda deliberately wanted to kill as many people as possible in the World Trade Center and those two buildings. They didn't care if they were executives or janitors or crooks or anybody else. They just wanted to kill as many Americans as possible.

The U.S., when it goes after terrorists, there may be what's called collateral damage, but they're trying to kill enemies of the United States, those who have engaged in terror or similar actions. Do you understand the difference?

BELAFONTE: I understand the difference. What I don't want to get stuck with, or be guided by, is what you call collateral damage. That does not cleanse us morally. All of a sudden, it's beyond our capacity or our means to have made a difference in what we've done to thousands and thousands of Arabs.

I'm quite sure if you went through each and every body, you would find that somebody was a baker, somebody was a store keeper, somebody was a cab driver, somebody was a student. I don't know, you know, murder is murder. And just because you may do it under different guises does not remove the moral imperative.

We are in this war immorally and illegally. And we have no business doing what we do.

BLITZER: What about -- and these were very, very damning words that you said a few years ago, and I wonder if you still stick by them. When you call Colin Powell, the secretary of state at that time, or Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser now the secretary of state, plantation slaves.

It's one thing to disagree with them, but when you get involved in name calling with all the history of our country, plantation slaves, isn't that crossing the line?

BELAFONTE: Not at all. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of plantations in America where people are slaving away their lives. You know, one of the big problems that we have in this country is the inability to be honest and to be straightforward.

We've never had a dialogue in this country on the real issues of slavery. I don't even want to get stuck there. But what I said about Colin Powell is that he serves his master well. And in that context, I was asked to describe what that meant. And I used the metaphor of slavery and the plantation. And I stand by it.

So Colin Powell was viewed to be this rather moderate, honest human being. He stood before the United Nations and lied and knew he was lying. I mean, where do we draw these lines here?

BLITZER: How do you know Colin Powell knew he was lying? He says, and he's said as many times, he says he thought he was giving accurate information, although he subsequently learned that it was not accurate. But there's a difference between misspeaking and lying.

BELAFONTE: Mr. Blitzer, you have access to a lot of information. More than once we've discussed the fact that Colin Powell went before his president, went before others and said, "I can't say this. It is not correct. There are things about it that touch me deeply and disturb me."

And all of a sudden there he was in front of the U.N., despite this disclaimer, doing what he did. The world's at war. People are dying every day. These are human lives. Where do you draw this line of distinction?

Is it because they're over there and we're here? Is it because we sit on some righteous place saying that we're the finest nation in the world and that all else is less than we are? That's unacceptable in 21st century society.

BLITZER: Harry Belafonte, unfortunately we have to leave it there, we're out of time. But it was kind of you to spend a few moments with us here in THE SITUATION ROOM. I see you're not backing away from one word of what you said.

BELAFONTE: No, I can't. Dr. King is my mentor and I believe in truth, and that's what I'm doing.

BLITZER: Harry Belafonte, joining us in THE SITUATION ROOM, thank you very much.

BELAFONTE: Thank you, Mr. Blitzer."

Here's One Solution.....

Tip of the pen to Wonkette and company, thanks!

Mike Malloy Is Off The Air In New York City

What fresh hell is this?

Mike Malloy has been taken off of AirAmerica's New York affiliate, flagship, station WLIB, and is being replaced with....

get this.....

The fucking SATELLITE SISTERS.

ugh.

Are you fucking kidding me?

First the AirAmerica suits take Morning Sedition and Mark Maron off the air, right when Howard Stern creates a morning comedy vacuum by moving from AM to Sirius, mind you, and replaces him with Rachel Maddow, and now THIS.

WTFF?!?!

I'm gonna be sick.

Mike says that it's being done for financial reason, i.e. ABC Radio offered AirAmerica an offer they couldn't refuse to run the Satellite Sisters in his place.

Whatever.

This is so retarded, I don't even know where to start.

In past days, I'd say something like, oh, I dunno, write your congresscritter, or alert the press, but as of late those standbys have proved more useless than a FEMA issued umbrella in New Orleans last August.

Drop AirAmerica a line here and let them know how you feel:

http://www.airamericaradio.com/contact

nwa

The Political Difference Between The USA and Canada

Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada, had this to say on Bill Maher's HBO show on the 30th of July 2004:

MAHER:

I have been dying for the Democrat or somebody to say, which is,

“What if we had a President who believes in science?”

He said that last night. Because I really think the huge divide in this race is between religious people. Every time I hear somebody who talks about President Bush – here’s one in USA Today, and every day I hear this:

“God puts people in authority for good reason.”

I wonder if this guy will agree with that if Kerry gets elected.

But it seems like the Bush people are all religious people, and Kerry is saying,

“You know what, there’s another way to go.
We’re steering the ship of state, we can use a compass instead of a Bible."

It just seems like that’s where it’s coming down to in this country and the world.

CAMPBELL:

I thought that was a really important comment. I thought it sent a really important message. Because, you know, I don’t think you could be elected Prime Minister of Canada if you had ever said that you thought God wanted you to the run, and that you thought the jury was still out on evolution.

MAHER: Right.

It's just the opposite here in the United States, isn't it?

Good luck getting elected Dog Catcher if you profess a doubt in the existence of god.

How did things get this far?
http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/print/t_hbo_realtime_073004.htm

I'll be writing more on this subject later, but wanted to post this here now before I forgot.

nwa

huh.

Previously, here on, A Pen Warmed In Hell, I made a snarky little comment about how we should all be grateful that Herr Uber Presidente Busch didn't name a horse to the US Supreme Court, as Chief Justice, (It's a Caligula joke, for all you Jay Walking Fools in the Peanut Gallery), and that was meant to be a joke, albeit one that was in extremely poor taste, and shit.

Then Katrina happened.

Ooops.

While Brownie, former head of the Arabian Horse Association and FEMA, may not be a horse, per se, undoubtedly he has proven himself to be a horses ass, now hasn't he?

Ha ha!

It's A Story Problem....

.


"It's up to you not to heed the call-up
'N' you must not act the way you were brought up
Who knows the reasons why you have grown up?

.
Who knows the plans or why they were drawn up?"
.

On 9/5/05, Derek wrote:


The difference is this wasn't planned, 9/11 was.

Derek

xxxxxxxxxxx

I dunno Derek, the kids on the local listserv might call that response weaksauce.

There are sins of commission, and in this case, sins of omission.

"JACK (V.O.)

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

I'm a Recall Coordinator. My job is to apply the formula.

It's a story problem.

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 miles per
hour.

The rear differential locks up.

The car crushes and burns with everyone trapped inside.

Now:

Do we initiate a recall?

Take the number of vehicles in the field:

(A) multiply it by the probable rate of failure

(B) then multiply the result by the average out-of-court
settlement

(C) A times B times C equals X...

If X is less that the cost of a recall, then we don't do one.

BUSINESSWOMAN
Are there a *lot* of these kinds of accident?

JACK
You wouldn't believe.

BUSINESSWOMAN
Which car company do you work for?

JACK
A major one"
Fight Club, 1996/9

The New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune, ran a 5 part series on just this scenario playing out, National Geographic and Scientific American both had extensive pieces on it, the New Orleans Mayor has been begging for help with the levees and Louisian's United States Senator Landrieau has had a bill languishing in the Senate for the last 3 years seeking funding to shore up that region against the sea, and most damning, DHS/FEMA ran drills within the last 2 years or so on what would happen if a hurricane of this size hit New Orleans.

My thinking is so grim at this point I wouldn't put it past these people to have done one of their Cost/Benefit Analysis's and figured it would be cheaper and more cost effective to just let this American underclass, that they created, btw, to up and fucking die, by simply dragging heel at a crtical moment, which is exactly what is happening here.

After all, once they're rescued, they've got to be sheltered, clothed and fed, and that costs.

Who's gonna foot the bill for that?

Sounds like a viable "plan" to me.

Given our track record with the genocide that we committed against the mentally ill in this country by dumping them en masse in the streets 20 years ago, (making Ronald Reagan the greatest mass murderer in USSA history, so far. Just you wait until the dismantling of Social Security kicks in in the next decade or so), what we are seeing here is completely consistent with our Ruling Class's core values.



this is in or around USSA" It's A Story Problem.... "It's A Story Problem....
Reply to: anon-95511111@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-09-05, 11:01AM EDT


'It's up to you not to heed the call-up
'N' you must not act the way you were brought up
Who knows the reasons why you have grown up?

.
Who knows the plans or why they were drawn up?'
.

You Gonna Reap What You Sow

You can't have a get the fuck out of my way, hell-bent, every man for himself, 'get as much as you, as quick as you can, while you can, and to hell with everyone and everything else' culture, with all that goes with that, and then turn around and expect the events of last week to go any differently than they did.

Sorry, the numbers don't add up, and it just doesn't compute.

What is happening in New Orleans, and what will continue to happen, for a very long time, think of this as the first tip of a long line of dominoes, is entirely logical.

You put your bling-bling garbage in that our ghettoized American culture insists on ramming down the throat of the American Psyche, you're gonna get your garbage out.

It's that simple.

Ayn Rand had a fictionalized version of shit like this happening in Atlas Shrugged, and now it's going to play out in real time, just like in a bad, overwrought, novel like hers.

The irony being that in this Real Life version that we are living through the one's that would be the heroes in her fantasy land, as well as in any one of the protagonists of Tom Clancy's typings, are the villians of this piece.

A veritable Rogues Gallery we've got ourselves here that we've empowered with the Stewardship of this country and its Ciitizenry, and my suggestion to them is to go out and enjoy yourselves as much as you can now, fellas, buy those Ferragamos, take in a Monty Python show on Broadway, take a month long vacation, enjoy that fabulously prepared meal, take a cruise, do all that gluttonuous shit now, give yourselves medals for a job well done while you're at it, do all that, and go to sleep at night secure in the knowledge that you know history will not be kind to you.

This is gonna be a slow moving trainwreck, and to do my part to prepare for it, Christmas is most definitely cancelled.

I certainly won't be shopping at Wal-Mart this year, since they cut their werker's checks in affected areas after they didn't show up for work for 4 days.

Fuck 'em.

Same goes for McDonald's which stopped paying their people right away.

I mean what the fuck?

Let's go over for this again.

16 acres of prime downtown NY City real estate got totalled, (versus Katrina affecting an area about the size of Great Britain, btw), and the country SHUT DOWN for the better part of a week.

You do remember this, don't you?

It was only 4 years ago.

I know some people reading this may be on some sort of medication that impairs short-term memory, but what is this?

Mass hypnosis?

Trading was halted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for the better part of a week, Major League Baseball and the NFL stopped playing their games, advertising on broadcast and cable was suspended, and the bulk of tv stations ran nothing but news instead of their regular programming.

None of that, absolutely NONE of it is happening now.

A few telethons here and there, look into rescheduling the upcoming LSU game, and making a decision as to where to put The Saints for the time being, let some uppity rappers and actors get a little outspoken and stray briefly off the reservation, and that's about it.

What the fuck is wrong with us?

We just had the equivalent of a couple of low level nuclear bombs dropped on us, and nothing.

Where's the National Dismay?

Why hasn't a National Day of Mourning already been set?

Why did it take the death of Rehnquist to have our flags set at Half-Mast in this country?

Why are there still SUV commercials for those Stupid Ugly roll-over Vehicles that extol their virtue in handling extreme rainy conditions still running on my Cable TV?

Or that GE Commercial featuring a computer generated elephant splashing around in a forest rain while 'Singing In The Rain' plays in the background?

Isn't that just a might in poor taste right now?

Why is THE FUCK is there a game on?

Any fucking game?

Why is anyone playing sports anywhere right now?

We're all too fucking busy fretting about the price of gas now to devote those kind of psychic resources to it.

Never mind that people's, "how am I going to take care of myself and mines?" seems to be the prevailing mindset in this country right now, which given how tight conditions are getting, I can't blame a lot of people for it, but here's the thing.

We can't afford to not pull together as a society, we just can't, that's just suicidal, because once you get locked that everyman for himself ethic, you also lock out the ability to work well with others in a crisis.

This is what we are seeing, it's as clear as the last steps of an Euclidean Proof.

Eric Clapton has a musical phrasing for it when he sings,

'Baby you know that old saying is true, furthur on up the road, you gonna reap just what you sow.'

Short term it's really not good, long term behavior like this can be ultimately crippling and fatal and do much more damage to us than Al Qaeda could ever dream of.

New Orleans, being the economic lynch pin it is, is not the spot where you want to have this sort of breakdown occur because the problems that will arise out of it are going to run signicantly deeper than just the price of gas going up.

Between our debacle in Iraq and this, a lot of people might look at the great and mighty United States differently, and start to think that we're not as great and mighty as they once thought.

Enough people do it and we're in big fucking trouble.

The body count is going to spike alarmingly in this next week, watch.

And they won't be able to put it out on Friday afternoon this time.

It wouldn't surprise me when caught with his Chertoff and his pants down around his ankles, and his DHS/FEMA pinheads sit down and do their After-Action Analysis Evaluation Reports and run the numbers and they realize that the amount of American people that died during the DELAY in getting them the aid that DHS & FEMA have taken BILLIONS from the Treasury is supposed to provide the populace in the first fucking place is greater than the loss of life on 9.11 and in Iraq, thus far, COMBINED.

Scumbags.

If these guys aren't the REAL looters here than I don't know who is.

The blood of anyone that died trying to get some food to eat is a stain that no flood will ever wash off of them.

I'm done.

nwa

Digging Up the Truth in a Heart of Darkness

.
"I want everybody to listen 2 the wurds of this song...."

Thank you, Katrina.

You've just exposed the point I've been trying to make for years, though nobody took me seriously.

Which is, that the great and grand and glorious United Super States of America, for all its ferocious might, is just inches away from being a Third Werld Country.

Whatever.

Think Abu Ghraib was bad in terms of diminishing our stature on the Wurld Stage?

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

You think that this is a flood?

Pray that China doesn't choose this moment to drop their USSA dollars on the currency market.

Why?

Because if you think this unfolding situation in New Orleans is bad, it's nothing compared to what might happen if the totally "United Super States Of The Americas" were to default on a Treasury Note that was backed by the Full Faith, Credit, Promise and Credibility of the USSA.

When that happens, you will see fat, rich, overdressed, and overfed, WHITE Americans looting & rioting in the streets.

Eric Clapton does have a line in a song of his where he does talk about......

"you gonna reap what you so.....

peace the fuck out, you fucking bitches.

Bush Isn't Hitler....

"Bush Isn't Hitler.... He's Nero."

~Nik Landauer 2003