Oh, Festivus

Today's Iraq American War Dead Tally Is At: 2,966.

9/!!'s death toll was 2,973.

Only 8 more to go.

4 Years Ago Today, Joe

We need your voice today now than ever, so sad that you've been gone.

Here you are on stage, at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in NYC, looking all Johnny Cash like, 3 weeks after 9/!!.

You're a class act, always.

festivus

This picture was created by World Class Photographer Kristopher Johnson who is featured on the A Pen Warmed In Hell sidebar linked under the word "Beauty".

Please visit his site to see his work, you won't be disappointed in that he's currently one of the best photographers working in New York City today, and if you've got the means, think of him first if you've got a photography project you want to have done.

You can't possibly go wrong and his Rates are a complete bargain.

When you do hire him, tell 'em Nyc sent ya. :-)

The Rumsfeld Memo And Me

This is from a Crooks & Liars comment I posted earlier this evening on a thread about Matt Damon saying that the Bush twins oughtta be serving it Iraq that refused to go through on HaloScan, so I'm posting it here instead.....

I don't know how many times I need to repeat this until it sinks in...
We WON the war in Iraq.
A long time ago.
We deposed Saddam.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
If there were any WMDs in Iraq, there aren't any there now.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
Plus, since Iraq is in an utter state of chaos today, it's going to be impossible for the Iraqis to develop a WMD Program of any sort for the conceivable future, irregardless of how motivated they may be to create one.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
Additionally, we set up a "democracy" in Iraq as well.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
Again, and etch this one into your brain, so you don't forget, we *already* won the war in Iraq.
It's the OCCUPATION of Iraq that we're having a hard time dealing with.
How's that for a set of "talking points" to flip at the chickenhawk wing-nutters out there?
Try it out on them, if your experience is anything like mine, you'll get to hear them stutter.
BTW, if this sounds familar, it is, since it was one of the options that Rumsfeld listed on his Pre-election day memo of November 6th:

Below the Line (less attractive options):

¶Continue on the current path.
¶Move a large fraction of all U.S. Forces into Baghdad to attempt to control it.
¶Increase Brigade Combat Teams and U.S. forces in Iraq substantially.
¶Set a firm withdrawal date to leave. Declare that with Saddam gone and Iraq a sovereign nation, the Iraqi people can govern themselves. Tell Iran and Syria to stay out.

Ok, so he buried in there under the less attractive options, but it's there. How cool is that? Bet it's one option that they're seriously considering over at 1600 Penn & The Pentagon since you know that they're actively looking for a way out and that every single Refucklican candidate from Cheney, McCain, Rice, Ghouliani on down don't want to go into the 2008 election with the Iraq millstone around their necks.

9/!! v. Iraq

Another Craigslist posting by me:

9/!! v. Iraq

---

Reply to: pers-245915627@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-12-08, 10:49AM EST


The whole over/under odds betting thing is so popular with you jocks for brains people, here's one for ya bloodthirsty "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" folks:

The amount of Americans killed on 9/!!, 9/!!, not counting the 24 that are still reported missing, and the 19 hijackers, is at 2,973 dead people.

As of today the amount of American soldiers killed, not maimed or otherwise wounded, in Iraq stands at 2,922 dead.

That's a difference of 51 dead people, with 9/!!, 9/!!, still holding a slim lead.

What's the over/under for Iraq combat deaths catching up 9/!! deaths by:

Channakuh?

Kwaanza?

Festivus?

Xmas?

or

New Years Eve?

Added bonus points if instead of betting, any of you Chicken Hawks put your money where your moufs are and "support the troops" by enlisting in the military.

Contracting for Halliburton or KBR doesn't count.

See you in hell.

And, oh, by the way, Happy Holidays, you bitches.

• Location: It's Hamurabbi Time!!!
  
• It's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I Fear Something Terrible Has Happened.....

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.....

And another one is gone.

Jerry Springer, citing the many commercail opportunities that have come his way, and aren't likeley to return, since his appearance on Dancing With The Stars, has folded up his tents and quit doing his Air America Radio show, Springer On The Radio.

I can't stand it.

This sucks, he was, hands-down, the best host that Air America had.

Well at least we took the House and Senate, but that's a small consolation for this loss.


Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!!!

7 Million In US Prisons And Moore's Law

It took the United States of America 218 years to reach the "1 million citizens in prisons" mark.

That happened in 1994.

Today, in 2006, a scant 12 years later, the number is now at 7 million citizens in prison, and climbing.

Abramoff Does The Hokey Pokey Today!!!

In honor of that, A Pen Warmed In Hell, brings you a visual blast from the past from our archives. Seems like it was only yesterday that they slapped the cuffs on him, my how time flies.

BTW, I've been to Jack's old restaurant, "Signatures" and I gotta tell ya, judging from the quality of the offerings, and the prices, it wasn't the food that anyone went there for.

Michelle Malkin Watch: "Troops love Fox News: "The greatest thing"

This just in from that America's Favorite, Chicken Hawk, our Michelle:

"The New York Times published excerpts this weekend from Iraq war veterans who have contributed on-the-ground diary accounts to the New York State Veteran Oral History Program. This one was eye-catching:

First Sgt. Kevin Lyons, Third Armored Cavalry Regiment

FOX NEWS

Finally some local Iraqis went across the Syrian border, and they were buying televisions and satellite dishes. So this squadron bought one — and Fox News! It was like the greatest thing. It was the biggest event we had in two months. They hooked up the satellite dish and there was Fox News. I’m sitting there in Iraq and we’d go up to the briefing room, and if we didn’t have anything to do we’d sit there for hours at a time. At night we stayed up late just to watch Fox News.

Now, that is an endorsement!"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this professional, cowardly, (don't see her volunteering to go to Iraq, though she looks able-bodied, for a Chicken Hawk), racist just loathe The New York Times?

Except when it serves her purposes, I guess.

The troops love of Fox News might explain this bit from the same New York Times this past weekend:

"The marines had been on a continuous foot patrol for several days, hunting for insurgents. They were lost in the hard and isolating rhythms of infantry life.

They knew nothing of the week’s news.

Now they were being told by an Iraqi whose house they occupied that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, one of the principal architects of the policies that had them here, had resigned. “Rumsfeld is gone?” the sergeant asked. “Really?”

Mr. Menti nodded. “This is better for Iraq,” he said. “Iraqi people say thank you.”

The sergeant went upstairs to tell his marines, just as he had informed them the day before that the Republican Party had lost control of the House of Representatives and that Congress was in the midst of sweeping change. Mr. Menti had told them that, too.

“Rumsfeld’s out,” he said to five marines sprawled with rifles on the cold floor.

Lance Cpl. James L. Davis Jr. looked up from his cigarette. “Who’s Rumsfeld?” he asked."

Wow.

This grunt didn't even know who Rumsfeld was before he signed up.

Wonder what role Fox News, and America's great Public School system, had to do with that, Michelle?

God Bless The Dow Jones!!!

This was originally written on September 5th, 2006.

Since The Dow Jones hit a "new high" of 12,218.01 points today, I thought I'd bump it up to here.

On January 20th, 1993, as Bill Clinton was about to become President the Dow Jones Industrial average closed at:

3,241.95 points

Eight years later, on January 19th, 2001 the Dow Jones closed at

10,587.59 points.

This is a gain of

7,345.64 points.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11669218/

To express this the way you asked, the Dow is currently trading at 11,460 points, which means that if it was at 10,587 points when Bush took office then it has risen all of

873 points

In the 5.75 years Bush has been President.

Clinton: Dow up by 7,345 points in 8 years.
Bush: Dow up by 873 points in 5.75 years.

You figure it out.

Btw, this averages out to about 150 points a year, which means that the Dow has been gaining a little over 1% a year for the last 5.75 years versus the 10% it usually gains.

Want to tell me how great the economy is doing again?

This is a New Depression and no one wants to admit it.

Don't get me started on how much value the Dollar has lost to the Euro in the last 5 years.

It's down 30%, which means that maybe a lot of Americans won't be going to France anytime soon, but the French will be over here playing tourist and buying our cheap, Made In China goods, and wondering how Americans got so fat, not eating any French cuisine, except for our fries.

How To Declare Victory In Iraq

Leaving off the fact that we've already "won" the war/invasion of Iraq in the Spring of 2003, and that we are already the "victors", please allow me a way to say that there is a way out of all of this.

It's not all that complex.

It's a rather simple idea, really.

Let's just go back to our original Causus Belli, the threat of Saddam Hussein possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction to be used against The United States of America.

What's to stop us from saying:

"We went into Iraq confirm our fears, found out that the WMDs in Iraq are not the threat we thought them to be, we removed Saddam as a possible, probable, future threat, to the USA, were he to remain in power in Iraq, and, additionally, because we are such good people, we helped create the roots of a democracy in Iraq, so our mission has been accomplished."

How hard is it to say that?

What would it cost us?

It's a perfect out that allows us to leave Iraq, with our honor and dignity intact, and our heads held high.

What's not to like?

Otherwise, the argument gets caught in a perpetual "we can't leave until we win" cycle, which is, like, impossible, in the midst of a Civil War, (that's got nothing to do with the USA, save for us being caught in the middle of it), but, if we just go ahead and admit the fact that we've already won the war, and past that, done everything that we've set out to accomplish, then we're golden.

See, there is no "winning" when you try to argue with the Right Wing, that's an exercise in futility. However, if you accept their arguments at face value, and agree with them, then you've eliminated any wriggle room that they might have.

By saying that the Iraq war has already been won, what that does is is that it reframes the argument entirely in such a way that if they were to disagree with it, they would have to admit to losing, which they hate more than anything else, and it's their pride that will force them to agree with that proposition.

Happy Marine Corps Birthday!!!

Can't think of a better gift to our Marines and troops than Don Rumsfeld being dismissed, can you?

November 10, 2006

Marines Get the News From an Iraqi Host: Rumsfeld’s Out. ‘Who’s Rumsfeld?’

By C. J. CHIVERS

ZAGARIT, Iraq, Nov. 9 — Hashim al-Menti smiled wanly at the marine sergeant beside him on his couch. The sergeant had appeared in the darkness on Wednesday night, knocking on the door of Mr. Menti’s home.

When Mr. Menti answered, a squad of infantrymen swiftly moved in, making him an involuntary host.

Since then marines had been on his roof with rifles, watching roads where insurgents often planted bombs.

Mr. Menti had passed the time watching television. Now he had news. He spoke in broken English. “Rumsfeld is gone,” he told the sergeant, Michael A. McKinnon.

“Democracy,” he added, and made a thumbs-up sign. “Good.”

The marines had been on a continuous foot patrol for several days, hunting for insurgents. They were lost in the hard and isolating rhythms of infantry life.

They knew nothing of the week’s news.

Now they were being told by an Iraqi whose house they occupied that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, one of the principal architects of the policies that had them here, had resigned. “Rumsfeld is gone?” the sergeant asked. “Really?”

Mr. Menti nodded. “This is better for Iraq,” he said. “Iraqi people say thank you.”

The sergeant went upstairs to tell his marines, just as he had informed them the day before that the Republican Party had lost control of the House of Representatives and that Congress was in the midst of sweeping change. Mr. Menti had told them that, too.

“Rumsfeld’s out,” he said to five marines sprawled with rifles on the cold floor.

Lance Cpl. James L. Davis Jr. looked up from his cigarette. “Who’s Rumsfeld?” he asked.

If history is any guide, many of the young men who endure the severest hardships and assume the greatest risks in the war in Iraq will become interested in politics and politicians later, when they are older and look back on their combat tours.

But not yet. Marine infantry units have traditionally been nonpolitical, to the point of stubbornly embracing a peculiar detachment from policy currents at home. It is a pillar of the corps’ martial culture: those with the most at stake are among the least involved in the decisions that send them where they go.

Mr. Rumsfeld may have become one of the war’s most polarizing figures at home. But among these young marines slogging through the war in Anbar Province, he appeared to mean almost nothing. If he was another casualty, they had seen worse.

“Rumsfeld is the secretary of defense,” Sergeant McKinnon said, answering Lance Corporal Davis’s question.

Lance Corporal Davis simply cursed.

It did not sound like anger or disgust. It seemed instead to be an exclamation about the irrelevance of the news. The sergeant might as well have told the squad of yesterday’s weather.

Another marine, Lance Cpl. Patrick S. Maguire, said the decisions that mattered here, inside Company F, Second Battalion, Eighth Marines, were much more important to them than those made in the Pentagon back home.

There are daily, dangerous questions: When to go on patrol, when to come back, which route to take down a road, which weapon to carry, and, at this moment, which watch each marine would stand, crouched up on the roof, in the cold wind, exposed to sniper fire.

His grandfather fought at Iwo Jima, he said, and his father was a marine in Vietnam. This was his second tour in Iraq. “Here’s the deal,” he said. “Someone points a finger at you, and you go.”

“The chain of command?” he added. “You know how high I know? My battalion commander is Lt. Col. DeTreux. That’s how high I know.”

And so between the marines and Mr. Menti and his family, the split reactions to news of Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation made for surreal scenes.

Mr. Menti, 50, a radiologist by training, spent part of the afternoon trying to impress the meaning of the news on the young sergeant beside him on the couch.

The war policy was soon to change, he said.

“I think in one year you return to America,” he said.

The sergeant sat implacably.

“This is good for you,” Mr. Menti said. “No?”

He spoke of years of fear. Under Saddam Hussein, he said, they were afraid. Now, with the American troops and insurgents fighting in Anbar, they are still afraid. He returned to the news of Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation.

“People in America are very happy,” he said. “I saw this on TV. And I am very happy. Thank you, American people.”

He pointed at the young marines before him, smoking on his couches, drinking his hot, sweetened tea. “These soldiers, in Iraq, they make freedom?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sergeant McKinnon said.

“What kind of freedom?” he asked.

He had been talking about the living conditions in the province since the night before, when the marines appeared at his door.

There are almost no schools, he said. There is almost no medicine. There is little food, and no electricity except from generators. The list went on. No water. No work. Violence. Abductions. Beheadings. Explosions.

His son-in-law had been kidnapped by insurgents seven months ago, he said, and a note the insurgents left said he was abducted for being friendly with American troops. He has not been seen since.

In Baghdad, he said, Iranian-backed death squads were killing Sunni citizens. The country was falling apart.

“You like freedom?” he asked the sergeant. “This kind? This way?”

“No,” Sergeant McKinnon said.

“I think you and I and many people do not like freedom in this way,” he said. “I believe this. I am sure.”

“It is wrong, the American Army coming here. It is wrong.”

He looked at Sergeant McKinnon, who is younger than many of his 14 children. He was trying to draw him out.

“If American Army came here for three months, four months, O.K.” Mr. Menti said. “But now is four years.”

If there were no American military presence in Iraq, he said, there would be no insurgents. One serves as a magnet for the other.

Mr. Menti spoke to the sergeant as if he were an American diplomat, as if he had some influence over the broad sweeps of American foreign policy. The sergeant remained quiet and polite.

“I don’t think he realizes that we’re trying to make this country safer for him,” he said to Lance Corporal Maguire.

“I think he realizes that we’re trying to make it safe, but that the more we stay here the more people come in and make it worse,” Lance Corporal Maguire replied.

They went upstairs, to pack their gear for the next move, planned for after dark, to another house and another night of looking down on the roads, waiting for an insurgent with a bomb to step within range of a rifle shot.

Sergeant McKinnon spoke of the squad’s isolation. “I only found out yesterday that the Saddam trial was over,” he said. “Another Iraqi told me that.”

He turned to the task of planning for the night’s fire support.

Up on the roof, Lance Corporal Maguire mused about the news. Whatever Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation might eventually mean, it did not matter here yet, and it would not keep them alive tonight.

Another marine, Lance Cpl. Randall D. Webb, was scanning traffic through his rifle scope, worried that they had been spotted and the insurgents would soon know where they were.

“I think they see us,” he said.

“Man, they all see us,” Lance Corporal Maguire said, and lighted another cigarette.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

First Long War Marine to receive Medal of Honor

By Staff Sgt. Scott Dunn, Headquarters Marine Corps

Quantico, VA (Nov. 10, 2006) -- A corporal who died shielding men in his care from a bursting grenade deserves America’s highest military decoration, President Bush has confirmed.

Actions by Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who would have turned 25 today, merit the Medal of Honor, Bush said at the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ dedication ceremony, which coincided with the 231st Marine Corps anniversary.

“And on this special birthday, in the company of his fellow Marines, I’m proud to announce that our nation will recognize Cpl. Jason Dunham’s action with America’s highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor,” Bush said in front of approximately 15,000 people.

The announcement prompted a booming “Ooh-rah!” – a spirited cry among Marines –from the back of the crowd, and a long applause followed.

On April 14, 2004, in Iraq near the Syrian border, the corporal used his helmet and his body to smother an exploding Mills Bomb let loose by a raging insurgent whom Dunham and two other Marines tried to subdue.

The explosion dazed and wounded Lance Cpl. William Hampton and Pfc. Kelly Miller. The insurgent stood up after the blast and was immediately killed by Marine small-arms fire.

“By giving his own life, Cpl. Dunham saved the lives of two of his men and showed the world what it means to be a Marine,” said Bush.

Dunham lay face down with a shard the size of a dress-shirt button lodged in his head. The hard, molded mesh that was his Kevlar helmet was now scattered yards around into clods and shredded fabric. Dunham never regained consciousness and died eight days later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., with his mother and father at his bedside.

Dunham’s commanding officers from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, investigated his actions and nominated him for the Medal of Honor. After two years and seven months making its way to the White House, the nomination now has the necessary approval from the president. The president will present the medal and citation at a date to be determined.

Hoping the president would make the Medal of Honor announcement on their son’s birthday, Dan and Debra Dunham drove to Quantico from their home in Scio, N.Y. Dunham is buried in Scio.

“The public now knows what Jason did,” said Deb. “We still have a loss, but the gift that Jason gave helps us go on.

"The good part is that we get to make new memories and bring new people into the family; the bad news is there will be no new memories with Jason.”

The president acknowledged Dan and Deb sitting in the front row. The parents held each other close as the audience gave a resounding applause.

“We took (the applause) as a thank you for us, but it was for Jason,” Deb said. “At that point, Dan and I were missing Jason a lot.”

Addressing Dunham’s parents, Bush said, “We remember that the Marine who so freely gave his life was your beloved son. We ask a loving God to comfort you for a loss that can never be replaced.

“As long as we have Marines like Cpl. Dunham, America will never fear for her liberty.”

Before Dunham, the last Marine actions to earn the medal happened May 8, 1970, in Vietnam, according to Marine Corps History Division records. A Medal of Honor citation details Lance Cpl. Miguel Keith’s machine-gun charge that inspired a platoon facing nearly overwhelming odds: Wounded, Keith ran into “fire-swept terrain.” Wounded again by a grenade, he still attacked, taking out enemies in the forward rush. Keith fought until mortally wounded; his platoon came out on top despite being heavily outnumbered.

The last Marine to receive the Medal of Honor was Maj. Gen. James L. Day, who distinguished himself as a corporal in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. On Jan. 20, 1998, more than half a century later, President Bill Clinton presented the medal to Day, who passed away that year.

Since the Long War began, the president has presented one Medal of Honor. On April 4, 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith posthumously earned the medal for organizing a defense that held off a company-sized attack on more than 100 vulnerable coalition soldiers. In the defense, Smith manned a .50 caliber machine gun in an exposed position until he was mortally wounded.

Post election misery

Correspondence on a listserv I'm on 'tween me and a coupla friends:


Derek wrote:
> So what's happened there then?

Well, our otherwise progressive and anti-discriminatory Constitution is
to be amended to define "marriage" as "between one man and one woman,"
which it really already did, and goes even further to basically outlaw
civil unions, REGARDLESS of gender or orientation, by denying civil
unions "any status substantially similar to marriage."

WI was one of the first states to add "sexual orientation" to its
anti-discrimination clause.

Ohio has already been through this, and has shown that such clauses
essentially remove even basic protections and rights from un-married
couples, even \'common-law marriages,\' hetero or homo.

Oh, and we want to let our obviously fair and efficient government start
executing people based on DNA evidence.

gregory // two GIANT STEPS back // dj lo

",0] ); //-->
Well, our otherwise progressive and anti-discriminatory Constitution is
to be amended to define "marriage" as "between one man and one woman,"
which it really already did, and goes even further to basically outlaw
civil unions, REGARDLESS of gender or orientation, by denying civil
unions "any status substantially similar to marriage."

WI was one of the first states to add "sexual orientation" to its
anti-discrimination clause.

Ohio has already been through this, and has shown that such clauses
essentially remove even basic protections and rights from un-married
couples, even 'common-law marriages,' hetero or homo.

Oh, and we want to let our obviously fair and efficient government start
executing people based on DNA evidence.

gman // two GIANT STEPS back // dj hifio

To which I responded:

Yeah, some major bitter disappointments across the board last night.

My local guys, including a friend who ran as an out gay person, two
Republicans I voted for, and a Democrat who the DNC left out to hang
dry when he coulda easily won, lost.

Gay marriage/gay rights amendments, lost.
Decrim marijuana in Colo and NV, lost
Schwarzwenegger, re-elected, (what the fuck is *wrong* with you
peoples in CA?!?!)
Kinky Friedman, lost.
Harold Ford, lost.
Lamont, lost.

And it goes on and on and on.

Major suckitude on all fronts.

But you know what?

I just don't care anymore.

Why?

Because the first called seat last night came straight outta Vermont
and you motherfuckers elected a SOCIALIST to the US Senate!!!

What's in the water up there, T-Snake?

Mind mixing up us all a batch of Kool-Aid from it?

Let's go to the tape, shall we?

Santorum, GONE!
Harris, GONE!
Weldon, GONE!
Ney, GONE!
Sherwood, GONE!
Foley, LOST!

Delay's old seat in DEMOCRAT Nick Lampson's hands!

28 Democratic Statehouses including a major upset in MD where a
popular Republican *incumbent* lost to O'Malley, a Democrat!

Not 12, not 15, 20,or 25, seats, but, count 'em, **27** House Seats!!!!

And that's not counting the 13 that haven't been decided yet.

There were only 33 US Senate Seats in play yesterday.

Out of the 67 not up for election a solid 40 were already in
Republican hands v. The Dems 27.

Out of the 33 seats that were in play, the Republicans only needed to
win 5 last night to get to the majority of 60 that they needed to
absolutely control the US Senate.

That didn't happen either, did it?

What happened yesterday with the US Senate Races yesterday was an
absolute miracle.

Yeah, a lot of shit didn't go right yesterday, but being that on the
whole, we ran the fucking table and mopped the floor up with these
assholes, and while it may be a small victory, (God, I've kinda
forgotten what that feels like), I'll friggin' take it.

Seriously, we did good, real good, and while there's gonna be a lot of
work ahead of us from this point on, let's enjoy and savor this for a
little bit, m'kay?

Don't look now, but we just earned us some major political capital,
and hopefully we won't squander it, like Bush did.

Mmmm, subpeona power.

Speaker Of The House Pelosi.

Don't know about ya'll, but me likey.

:-)

~nyc

Stuck In The Mud, or Metaphors Are Us

On November 6th, 2006, The USS Intrepid Floating Museum was to be moved from her berth on the West Side of Manhattan, where she had been living after her Naval decommissioning, to Bayonne, NJ, so that she could undergo a much needed overhaul and get all spruced up for future generation of war-pr0n loving Americans.

The above pic is from an Ebay promotion where 6 seats were to be sold at $100k a pop.

Guess what?

Wouldn't you know it?

Here in the land of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coullter, and Rupert Murdoch's flag waving, jingoistic, war-profiteering gang over there at Fox News there were...

No takers.

None.

Zilch.

Zero.

De Nada.

The Big Zero.

Goose Eggs.

Not one of those fucker wanted to step up to the plate and do the right thing with their ill-gotten gains.

At least none that wanted to put their money where their moufs are and "Support The Troops" in a tangible way, past putting a magnetic yellow sticker on their Stupid Ugly Vehicles.

Which is just as well, because after sitting in that one spot for the better part of 20 years, a lot of silt built up and she got, well, stuck in the motherfucking mud!

How's that for a metaphor for our age?

And on the Monday before the Mid-Term Congressional Elections, no less.

(Full Disclosure: I once kinda briefly lived aboard the USS Intrepid a few months prior to my enlistment in the US Marine Corps, here's the story I've relayed elsewhere to a friend about it:

Back in 1986 I worked on a Michael Keaton movie called 'The Squeeze' and practically lived on board this sucker for about two weeks because it was 8 hours between call and my commute home, (we shot at night, yuck), was a 2 hour journey each way, so a coupla mornings I'd do the linger in the background thing until everybody left and I'd go sleep for a few hours in my little hidey-place.

It was funny, on the days I left with the crew the pre-Ghouliani era hookers were waiting for us at the exit gates. Always made me feel like I was leaving a factory in the 1930's instead of modern day film location. :-)

When the movie came out, it was clear that they had re-shot some of the sequences that didn't involve HS Marching bands, NJ General cheerleaders, Marine Corps Color Guard and John Davidson, in a studio in North Carolina....

.... I was a Set\Parking PA,Craft Service, Evian Water Boy, Stepin Fetchit.

One of the more interesting tasks on that job was they had me go out and buy gallons and gallons of that ghetto wine, Ripple, because Micheal Keaton's lovable loser character is supposed to take a bath in it according to the script, though I think they cut that scene out of the movie.

Another example of the profligate wastefulness of Hollywood.

The again, it wasn't a total waste for me, by the end of shoot, Über-hottie, Rae Dawn Chong, Tommy Chong's daughter, and the movie's love interest was calling me by my name. :-) How cool is that?")

Update: After several weeks of effort, an effort that cost significantly more than the $600K they tried to raise in the $100k per seat promotion, they finally got the mud cleared from the propellors and got the old girl moved so she can get her 21st century Museum refurbishment.

If things go according schedule, she should be back just in time for a triumphal return to Manhattan just in time for the 2008 Presidential elections.

Then again, I wouldn't hold my breath.

2 Daniels In The Lion's Den

More Fun With Craiglist and the Mark Foley Scandal

Some whiner posted:

Gerry Studds

Reply to: xjhcjx@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-10-23, 3:57PM EDT

How come when Gerry Studds was having real live ups the ass sex with a 17 yo page the newspapers didn't say anything?

Here's my reply:

re: Gerry Studds Reply to: xchxcu@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-10-23, 4:41PM EDT

Back in 1982, 20 years before the Catholic Church boy rape scandal broke in 2002, The movie "Airplane! The Sequel" featured a sight gag about a Catholic Priest reading a magazine called "Altar Boy" and checking out the centerfold.

A review of the movie on Amazon may provide the answer you are looking for:

"Back in the early 80s, it was still possible to do mild gags about paedophilia (not only Graves's chumminess with the cute kid who visits the cockpit, but also the priest looking at the centerfold of "Altar Boy" magazine)."

Times change.

But boy fucking is still as much a punchline today as it was then, isn't it?

I think it's hysterical that Mark Foley broke NO laws, but yet the smear machine, that the Rebumblicans have spent the last 25 years building to destroy people, and institutions, has been turned against them in the way it has in this case.

Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people.

And I mean that in the nicest way. :-)

Can't write this shit.

Too funny.

It's a knee-slapper.

I work with a Republican, and when this story broke I had to "call out laughing" just so I wouldn't get fired, or beat up, at work for being unable to help myself from laughing in the dude's face.

Y'know, if maybe you guys weren't so fucked up in the head, and repressive around the subject of sex, so many guys like Mark Foley wouldn't exist in our society.

It's called being "hoisted by your own petards" and reaping what you sow.

Until you're willing to have a GROWN-UP conversation about sex in this country, and that means NOT hounding The Surgeon General out of her post when she tries to initiate a public health conversation about masturbation, then this isn't, and won't be the last time, you're gonna buy yourselves a scandal like this.

BTW, there was a Republican that got busted fucking a *female* page at the same time Studds was fucking that boy and he got censured too, only, unlike Studds, he wasn't re-elected.

Boo-hoo on you.

Now run along, boy, and get out the vote!

"There aren't a lot of things in this world that one can be sure of, but I do know this; anytime you go by a House of Worship, of any size, and of any denomination, that's filled to its rafters with people, you can be certain that the vast majority of those people haven't actually taken the time out to read The Bible, or whatever ancient, "Sacred Text" that they subscribe to, because if they had read it, that House of Worship would be nearly empty."
~Nyc Alberts, NYC, October, 2006

* this is in or around Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose

* no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

How Many of Me - Census Search

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

"Christians" The Church And The Bible

"There aren't a lot of things in this world that one can be sure of, but I do know this; anytime you go by a Church, of any denomination, that's filled to the rafters with people, you can be certain that the vast majority of them haven't read The Bible, because if they had, that Church would be nearly empty."
Nyc Alberts, October 2006

I'm going to expand on this later, but for now, these two links from Marshall Brain should help with the background thinking on this:

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god-challenge.htm
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/bible.htm

150,000 Gun Deaths in USA Since 9/11?

Due to Technical Difficulties, and my skillset in putting this up, in order to properly see these strips, it's best to click on them 1 by 1.

Sorry about that and thanks for your patience.








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Is that true? I'd love to see a cite for it.

Where in Washington, D.C. is Reverend Moon?: This really happened at the Senate office building

Where in Washington, D.C. is Reverend Moon?: This really happened at the Senate office building