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Recent Comments
Recent comments from all articles on Watching the Watchers. For a sampling of what is happening Guess you don't have any problem using someone else's site to promote your movie, huh? More unintelligent D sign.
Lee: You quoted Richard Dawkins assertion that the intelligent design proponents "have no theory". That is correct. "The theory of intelligent design" is nothing more than Casey Luskin's pseudonym. Mr. Luskin uses that pseudonum to state his opinion that an intelligent cause is the "best" explanation for "certain features of the universe and of living things." His complete opinion reads: "The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection". By using the pseudonym "The theory of intelligent design", Mr. Luskin often succeeds in tricking people to concluding that there is a scientific theory named "intelligent design". But there is no such scientific theory! It's just Mr. Luskin's cleverly disguised opinion. Intelligent design is a ruse. A rhetorical trick. A fraud. For a sampling of what is happening . thanks for this information. also read this... Corruption and incompetence. Who said the GOP was a one-note party? In many instances the so-called "incompetence" of the GOPher/lemming party is pre-planned much like the planned obsolecense of many manufactured products. "Designed to FAIL" would be another way of putting that and then when caught in their perfidy they merely say that it was down to their inability to see the obvious. These people are not incompetent in the standard definition of that word they are simply so corrupt that they think they can use incompetence and ignorance as an excuse later on if ever dragged into a court of law. Spud calls it the "Oh, Dopey me" defense. "No one could have imagined" Etc. Or the myriad financial investment types who came up with the idea of writing absurdly risky mortgages, then packaging them as securities to be sold as good, solid investments. There's a good bad example right there. These are financial professionals. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the fact that loaning high risk individuals full price on a house mortgage (in some cases up to 120% of the value of the home to be purchased) replete with teaser rates destined to become unsupportable w/i a couple of years is a pretty bad move that's designed to FAIL massively. And FAIL it has. That sed, the folks making and approving the loans all got paid big time and all the way up the chain of corruption big assed bonuses were handed out to reward this so-called incompetence. Even when the other shoe dropped wot was the down side? Some of the worst and most responsible corporate criminals got fired but got to keep their massive golden parachute payouts in the process. Gosh, I'll never do THAT agin!/snark> they said. A massive, multi-billion dollar tax payer funded crutch was then purchased fer the benefit of Big Biz while folks are being chucked out in the streets. That is, essentially, the problem these days, in a nutshell. Government underwrites risks and pays R&D funding fer BigBiz but the profits are privitised thus making the corporate world more powerful and the government weaker every time one of these incidents happens. Corporate over-influence is not a new concept to the Amreican power structure. Indeed it's been around longer than anyone reading these words has been alive. That sed, they playing field has continued to tilt further and further away from level, year after year. This cannot continue indefinitely. The San Diego Zoo of crass corporate corruption and negligable penalties is merely a microcosm of a much larger problem. Ben Franklin once sed... "He will cheat without scruple, who can without fear" These folks have nothing to fear and everything to gain. Meanwhile, the corporate media, in the main, reports some of the particulars without really bothering to inform the populace of the massive pattern that recurs time and time again. And so it goes. Be Well. Ergo, I stand here and I call SHENANIGANS. Spud is take off one tiny red plastic shoe and is thump it on the blog table unmercifully in a move he learned from watching a vid about Kruschev! ** Thump Thump Thump ** Shenanigans indeed! They WILL bury us. ...In a sea of lies and debt. Big Oil has become insanely powerful. To the point where it now writes US energy policy for itself and against the long term needs and desires of the populace. BushCo is a slimy Oilygarchy indeed. From the moronic meat puppet Dumbya "Arbusto" Boosh to the real brains behind the gig Dickless "Helliburton" Chainedheat. Even their bit players like Neo-Condi i293.photobucket.com Rice-cakes are former denizen of the world of BigOil. Here's another thought that the MSM aren't particularily curious about. The Stategic Oil Reserves. ...remember them? Huge reserves of oil that were put there in order to be dumped onto the market in order to bring prices back down to something resembling sanity. Prices are achieving nuttier levels than ever and still the morans in DC won't use the SOR the way it was intended. Makes nothing but sense if you understand the true nature of the corporatocracy that runs DC but not much at all if ya don't. The media silence is, as always, as instructive as it is maddening. Meanwhile, "I drive a Yugo" Chaves over in Venezuela has been put on the US hit list not fer being a dictator, (hell, America in it's history has destroyed more democracies and set up more dictatorships than the reverse despite all the rhetoric to the contrary) but fer having the audacity to say "Fuck You!" to the sweetheart deals cut with Big Oil, countenanced by the Monroe Doctrine and backed up with American Military power and covert operations aplenty. Meanwhile, blogworld still reels with continual arguments over whether or not Iraq and Afghanistan are primarily about the oil rather than bringing democracy to the ME. Somehow, people still aint got it in their heads that ALL US POLICY in the region since WWII has been predicated on the need for oil. The Carter Doctrine enacted when the Soviets rolled into Afghanistan back in the day states that the US is perfectly justified in interfering with the region militarily when an external force tries to interfere with their resources. The Iraq/ Afghanistan thing is actually based upon the Reagan Corrollary to the Carter Docrine which states that the US is also justified in using military force in the event of "internal stability". Did ya catch that last? Instability? In the ME?! Say it aint so!/snark> Effectively, the inherent instability of the region itself gives the US government Carte Blanche in terms of justifying any and all actions. How convenient! The nuclear tipped sabre rattling towards Iran and it's still nationalised oil fields? You guessed it. The first step to taking away chunks of over-influence from the likes of BigOil, BigAgra, BigPharma, Corrupt Int'l Banking groups, etc etc ad nauseum is to make people aware that that over-influence exists, that these groups are entrenched and that they work ceaselessly against the best long term interests of the largest chunks of humanity in order to benefit a ridiculously slim minority who, quite frankly, don't need the help. The MSM aids and abets these forces. MSM exists to distract from all these important questions with non-essential fluff pieces disguised as news, ad disguised as news, minor molehills made up into massive media mountains like Rev Wright, Bittergate, the Dean Scream Moment etc etc, ad nauseum, ad infinitum and all in an effort to shape public opinions (and especially elections) under the guise of reflecting public opinion and always in order to preserve the corrupt status quo. Blogworld exists to call shenanigans on these tactics. Spud is call Shenanigans NOW! Be Well. /Nice piece, Number Six! If it were speculation that was causing prices to rise then each month just before expiration occurred the price would crash. Say what? No, the prices would not crash just before expiration of the contracts if, in fact, there was competition for the contracts and the investing community continued to think price was going up and price did, in fact, go up. ??????? The high prices are only due to lack of spare capacity, pure and simple. As Six mentioned in the article, part of any acrtual market scarcity is due to the oil companies "judiciously" manipulating capacity. A shut down here, a slow down there, mix in increased demand and voila: scarcity and hoarding. All of which maximizes the oil producers' and refiners' profits on the planet's remaining oil.
$250 billion is equivalent to about 1 months worth of crude contracts. The way oil is different to stocks is that the contracts expire and the oil is delivered. If it were speculation that was causing prices to rise then each month just before expiration occurred the price would crash. The high prices are only due to lack of spare capacity, pure and simple. No one here has experienced with sophisticated racism !! Nothing to do with Art ! "You really should consider saving up and buying yerself a proper last name ya know." I'll have you know that I've got three good last names, all of which can be three good first names: Lee It drives the junkmailers crazy. And I know immediately that I don't need to read any piece of mail addressed to "Russ Lee Rogers"
Sorry, that should be Good Eye, Lee! You really should consider saving up and buying yerself a proper last name ya know. Is confusing when you only have two first names to those of us who are victims of the Evelyn Wood school of blog reading! ^_^ Be Well. Many of the priests who were discovered to be sexual predators were moved out of their Parishes to other unsuspecting ones. Many of them in the US were moved north as a kind of punishment. The worst of the worst ended up being put in charge in Canada during the first half of the last century of wot were referred to as "residential schools". Native children (now more commonly refered to as First Nations Peoples) were taken away from their homes forced to speak only english, and beaten if they tried talking in their native tongues. No adults. Just these poor frightened kids and the worst pedophile priests in North America. Of course they were abused. Not only abused but there is talk now of unmarked graves for some of the more recalcitrant kids that folk are still trying to find even today. Imagine that. The fact that Ratzi the Nazi was part of the massive global mechanism that undertook to cover-up the crimes to avoid bringing shame on the name of the Catholic Church and also to avoid losing priests when their were a shortage of them should not be overlooked by modern observers of the Catholic Church. It is a sinful and hidebound structure that resists change moreso than almost any other Christian faith group. Whether the Pope is truly sorry for the suffering he helped perpetuate or whether he's just getting a headache because of the legal ramifications including entire parish's put under monetarily due to massive class action suits is one well worth considering. Good eye, Russ. Be Well. PS: Spud is athiest/recovering Catholic. Raoul Walsh: "Genius is the ability to see what's there." Credit Card Execs: "Nirvana is the inability to see what's there." Lee (or any other anti-social miscreant): "Nirvana is the ability to see Raoul Walsh and never again lay eyes on a credit card exec." Well said, Lee Russ, and thank you. We've been waiting in vain for some toady in the corporate media to report the truth that Ratzinger is responsible for the action of the institutional RCC to this obscenity of obscenities for the last two decades. Anyone who continues to support this ongoing criminal enterprise known as the RCC is just as guilty as the murdering, raping, sodomizing, molesting, abusing predatory clergy and their mitered and red hatted enablers. Hah, talk about shame! ! ! ! I am presently reading David Ranan's book "Double Cross - The Code of the Catholic Church". It's a fascinating analysis of the Church which I very much recommend. (See: www.doublecross-
theopress.co.uk ) The book also covers the sexual abuse by priests and the outrageous cover up by the Church hierarchy over a long time and over many countries. Interestingly, Ranan talks about the abuse by the Church which he considers the real issue, rather than the sick priests. The priests, once found have been punished and finally moved away. The Church continues to act as if she is innocent. "Double Cross" helps understand that the Church is simply incapable of accepting guilt and of truly apologising. We should not be surprised by the Pope's words or rather lack of words - That is how the Catholic Church has been operating for 2000 years. How ironic: the "cover-upper-in chief" is now "deeply ashamed". Deeply ashamed of what? - that he wasn't able to keep the church's dark secrets secret despite his best efforts for decades? Repentance begins with acknowledgment of sin. It's safe to say that this pope has more responsibility for the scandal of the coverup of sexual abuse of children than any other human being on this planet. He's not only the number one Catholic, he's also the number one person responsible for the coverup for what has amounted to the biggest pedophile protection racket ever known to mankind. Think about it. Apologies kind of sound hollow, don't they? I think Jefferson "Geoff" Davis has a reich,.. Oops I mean a right to say what he feels....about the Confederacy. God bless America, and no place else. See how well the knuckle-dragging wing's rhetoric reflects back on them when you replace the key words: Ah, the great Fascist experience. Brings to mind the humanitarian leanings of Mussolini, Pinochet, Somoza, Bautista, etc... Hmm, just can't figure out why a caring, respectful woman would ever turn down the affections of a man that holds Fascism so true to his heart. The truth of the matter is that 95% of people don't want to mix politics and dating. When politically-inclined people date non-political people, it never lasts long because non-political people find politically-inclined people to be as boring as watching paint dry. Or annoying as hearing nails on a chalkboard. Replace the chalkboard with eyes and then use the nails to gouge them out and you've got what happens when dedicated liberals and dedicated conservatives try to date. My answer, Lee, is a. This deranged fringe of people are the kind who would try to cram one more poor soul into a boxcar to show their superior efficiency over their fellow fascists or who would cram one more body into the oven in order to show that they love the Fatherland that much more than the rest. Ah, the great Commie experience. Brings to mind the humanitarian leanings of Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, Mao, etc... Hmm, just can't figure out why a caring, respectful woman would ever turn down the affections of a man that holds Communism so true to his heart. Almasi sez: "Nor was I aware of the recruiting poster until Cadenhead contacted me. Despite now being exposed to it, I don't think of James as an ape not do I hold him in the same contempt as I do Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German empire of nearly a century ago." Right: he holds him in a different contempt: the Kaiser was depicted in the original poster as essentially subhuman savage -- but he was white. So Almasi is telling the truth about his "different contempt," because his contempt for the Kaiser couldn't be based upon race. As for the fact that challenging the comments of the intellectually dishonest and bigots is fruitless: one must anyway, else silence is assent, even consent. And: "When pressed about whether a depiction of a black athlete in the role of a gorilla might be racially loaded, [Almasi] responded with this bit of nonsense: "And you will make sure people know that Leibovitz has maxed out in donations to Hillary Clinton, right?" "I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. It's like his brain rebooted and the first thing that loaded was animus towards Hillary Clinton." It's a wonder he didn't accuse Liebovitz of racism -- after all. she is Jewish, and Jews are on the white supremacist hit-list also. 'Course that would have been too close to admitting that the cover is about race and racism.
Well if ya buy a home security system,how much are ya spending a year?The problem isn't the dollar it's what it is actually spent on.Now give me a break down sheet.lol SO WHAT!!! Well, obviously not much to you. Are you seriously contending that any of the three actions by McCain, Obama and Clinton are equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens? If you don't know what the CCC is, go here. If you do know what the CCC is and still believe what you wrote..... Well, since all the candidates are racists, (McCain calls Asians gooks, Obama attends a racist church and talks about "typical white people," and Hillary thinks Obama would not be in his position other than his race) -- SO WHAT!!! "you're a lefty fag" Ah, the innate intelligence of the conservatorium rears its juvenile little head once again. Yo' mama, you mindless pubescent. You're relating Weingarten's piece to one of total plagiarism, and the nearest one you could find was 26-years ago? So what your complaining about was his lack of research in finding a "real story"? Seems to me that you could have done some research, and found a similar bit of plagiarism than one almost 3-decades ago. Additionally if writing the results to an experiment is plagiarism, you may have a horde of angry scientists to explain to. Now before you go off the deep end and state that I'm now comparing Weingarten's drivel to actual scientific research, let me offer a response. At least his piece placed a mirror up to society, and offered us a chance to draw our own conclusions; possibly causing some silly bastard like myself to slow down, and appreciate an environment I all too often ignore. Seems to me we need more journalism like Weingarten's. To poorly paraphrase Thompson; good journalism isn't fair and balanced, it doesn't moderate, it points to the goddamn truth. Ryen FTA: His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend? The piece itself admits to the pre-arrangedness of the scenario and does not attempt to pass it off as something that happened that a reporter simply happened upon and reported on. That, in Spud's mind, is the most important difference between this piece and the fake heroin addict piece of days gone by. Was it worthy of a Pulitzer? Meh, it was, to me own mind, a trite, elitist, self-congratulatory bit of a wank to be perfectly honest. What did he imagine was gonna happen? Does he understand that Classical music is not preferrred by all. If a world famous rapper began doing an imprompteau acappella tune in that very spot first thing in the morning would he make more or less money, gather a bigger or smaller audience, be applauded or booed and cursed? What about an opera singer? A Chinese Opera singer? A bangra expert? A Nepalese throat singer? Slow year fer Pulitzers that's all Spud is saying. Be Well. "Try to get rid of this "us" versus "them" mentality, it is counterproductive." Couldn't agree more. But there's a problem: Rove, Norquist, Delay-- all the way back to Lee Atwater--have adopted this kind of absolute war/partisanship as a tactic. Norquist even publicly stating the desire to turn the debate in the various state legislatures more nasty and partisan. They know that this atmosphere favors them. So we have a generation of "dittoheads" and the empty heads like the female bloggers that prompted this story. They aren't a majority, but they are numerous, and they are addicted to this nonsense. I posted the story as a sickening illustration of the mindset. They will do everything humanly possible to keep the atmosphere this way, to reduce the debate to sound bites and inbred assumptions about what labels like "liberal" represent. So how do we go about getting, as Stephen Kay once said, "from here, to there, eventuually?" Is this a comments section or a section for a global warming denialist shill to spout pages and pages of diatribe trying to counter the article? I think the arguments posed by the bloggers have some good points. The problem is in categorizing conservatives as "this" and liberals as "that." I know plenty of "liberals" who are members of the NRA, and "conservatives" that are coke-heads. I am as pinko commie as it gets, but I have a very strongly religious life, and a very traditional and conservative family life. Try to get rid of this "us" versus "them" mentality, it is counterproductive. Dear Visitor, Your very implication that liberals, as a group, will not "teat you and others respectfully, and ... believe in family, patriotism, and hard work.." is a true testament to the insanity afflicting our country. Congratulations on being a part of the problem.
Hmm.. wanting to date a guy that will behave as a gentleman, who will treat you and others respectfully, and who actually believes in family, patriotism, and hard work.. What a novel idea! Of course women would rather date a conservative..
I somehow missed this gem from the Almasi editorial the first time I read through it: Darryn "Dutch" Martin, a black conservative with Project 21 ....said in a press release: "....I believe critics are using this canard of racial stereotyping as a smokescreen to hide their true disdain for any images of interracial closeness or intimacy between black men and white women." That's certainly a candidate for the lamest, most disingenuous pap I've seen in a long time--your concern over racism means that you are a racist. Newspeak lives! Praise "Dutch" Martin to the skies. Hail the God of utter crap. Frighteningly, Martin appears to have at one time been in the foreign service of the State department, representing the U.S. overseas. According to Zoom Info, Martin's bio on TownHall used to (as of 12/21/04) include the statement that Martin "is currently a foreign service officer for the U.S. Department of State." The site no longer seems to have a bio for Martin, and the Project 21 bio says nothing about the State Department. In fact, a Darryn Martin is listed as the Political/Economic/Consular Officer to the Central African Republic on a 2001 State Department web page Anyone developing a real affection for Mr. Martin should know a bit about him. On his National Center bio, it states that "His favorite conservative writers include Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, John McWhorter, Walter E. Williams, Star Parker, Ann Coulter, and Mike Adams." Can't go wrong there.
Jails and courts are not fully using the resources available to them. Each county has a drug program, but defendants are not given information about their availability. I don't know why you'd bother contacting David Almasi, of all people. I mean, this is the Project 21 guy. Who can take him seriously? I wanted to see what he'd say, given the way his group expressed such certainty there was nothing racial about the magazine cover. He didn't disappoint. When pressed about whether a depiction of a black athlete in the role of a gorilla might be racially loaded, he responded with this bit of nonsense: "And you will make sure people know that Leibovitz has maxed out in donations to Hillary Clinton, right?" I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. It's like his brain rebooted and the first thing that loaded was animus towards Hillary Clinton. Hey, hey, hey, now wait a second, Lee! You know damned well that running a police state takes some operating cash, right? The ban also extends to other potential contractors who supply IBM equipment to the government. So if you are a small company bidding on an IT contract, and you intend to supply IBM equipment as part of the contract--you're sunk. That's a big deal to many small IT bidders. As one anonymous small bidder put it: The whole thing stinks, and someone ought to ask EPA, 'Who are you to shut down critical components of government IT, and stick people like us with this problem?' This whole episode is still pretty strange, given the circumstances in which it arose, the prominence of IBM, and the impact of such a broad ban. My initial reaction was that the EPA just might have uncovered some serious IBM wrongdoing in investigating IBM's protest of the award to another company. The more I think about it, and the more I take into account how much the fed agencies now operate like the pre-Glasnost Soviet Union, the more possible it seems to me that an apparatchik in the EPA may be punishing IBM for protesting an award which the appartchik really doesn't want to have scrutinized. I don't know what happened, obviously, but it certainly does not seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. Crazy? Paranoid? Well, Alphonso Jackson just resigned from HUD under allegations pretty similar to my suspicions about the EPA action, so if I'm paranoid, it's with reason.
For those who might not know, Almasi is, in fact, white, not black. A fact that has surprised many over the years, given that he heads an organization that bills itself as "The National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives." That a white man heads an "initiative" of an extremist conservative group like The National Center for Public Policy Research , an initiative that targets blacks, should no longer be surprising in the 21st century world of deliberate confusion and phony grassroots groups designed solely to further a political agenda. That Almasi's piece manages to leave out the fact that you contacted him in response to a press release from his group, making it sound instead like you simply solicited his opinion, is pretty sleazy. The fact that his piece says that Project 21 is "a group with which I work," but omits the fact that it is a group "which he heads" is pretty sleazy. His main response to whether he finds the photo racist or objectionable is laughably absurd: Nor was I aware of the recruiting poster until Cadenhead contacted me. Despite now being exposed to it, I don't think of James as an ape not do I hold him in the same contempt as I do Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German empire of nearly a century ago. What the f*** does his personal opinion of Lebron James have to do with anything? The question is what associations the photo triggers, not whether people who view the photo somehow develop an opinion that James is an ape or just as contemtible as the Kaiser. It's also pretty amazing how difficult it is to find out anything about Almasi's background by doing the usual web searches for that stuff. Is there some reason that none of his supposed "bios" really offers any info about him except his current position? All that said, however, this subject seems overblown to me. It is theoretically possible that Liebovitz did not intend the image as a comparison of James to an ape, however likely it was that others would make that asssociation upon seeing the picture. It is also very possible that Liebovitz is getting the one thing that she wanted all along: free publicity and more notoriety. I just don't think that this is worth the time, effort, and energy being spent on it, given all the other crap going on in America right now. I thought we had an agreement: Anything posted on Townhall was the equivalent of Faux News minus the goosestepping. You come to expect the Fucking Clueless to say shit like that. OAO I don't know why you'd bother contacting David Almasi, of all people. I mean, this is the Project 21 guy. Who can take him seriously? Come on, he's part of an "initiative" with a goal of convincing black Americans that they should think like the rich, white conservatives who would own them if they could still get away with it. The guy pretends to speak on behalf of black Americans on a regular basis. I prefer my racists to be open and upfront about who they are; snakes like Almasi are the more dangerous breed of bigot. And of course he's getting defensive, sir. White racists - and make no mistake, because Almasi absolutely is a member of that club - hate it when anyone outside their clique catches on to the subtleties of their in-jokes. They enjoy being able to give one another a wink and smile over things like this, and when someone calls them out over it, they feign ignorance. "Huh? What do you mean? Racist? Oh, how could you possibly think that?" Here he is again, pretending to speak for black America, by denying the imagery right before his eyes even exists. "Nothing to see here. Move along, please." Any attempt to engage in discourse with a man who's made a career of intellectual dishonesty will always be an exercise in utter futility. The story behind this image and its history is well documented in Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen's Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality. A discussion of the VOGUE cover and related issues is found on their Stereotype & Society website: stereotypeandsociety.typepad.c om<> "Get the piont?"
I tried posing as real work once, but everyone recognized me for who I am. As for the magazine cover...it's a lot like an inside joke, with the inside joke not being particularly funny. Then again, it's Annie Leibovitz, so what else should we have expected? Very astute article and excellent, clear points -- the artistic allusion is skillfully done, but does the subject have a right to understand the concept and comparison? I don't know. If he isn't told, he is being exploited and possibly humiliated. Then again if he is functioning as a paid model then posing for the picture is his only responsibility and care. If he doesn't like the result, his recourse is to not work for that photographer again. Is he different than another model because he is a sports star and his picture carries more weight than just his looks? I don't think so. I do like the picture, but regret that it's not a closer imitation of the poster, if you know what I mean. That said, I find the poster extremely offensive, and America's political and social intellect hasn't changed much since then, just replaced Germans with Arabs and Muslims. It's ridiculous why anyone would have a problem with the magazine cover. Obviously, Lebron is handling his career and his business opportunities very well. Everywhere he goes, people kiss his a** because he's wealthy and successful enough to get the best of everything. He's got his priorities right, and is focusing on the $$$. Any idiot who would rather be poor with no opportunities just to avoid being in a photographic recreation of an old WW1 propaganda shot has questionable judgment. It's good to see that LeBron won't let a little false pride come between him and a genuine money-making opportunity. Good for him! Damn straight. And more importantly- let's see the ways that the Kind King image has been utilized to criminalize black men, and humiliate white women, and totally obscure women of any other race. What does that mean? White men are invisible, normal, and saviors. That's a big red warning sign when put on a magazine cover. Twas Beauty that killed the Beast! Are we still talking about this? Sheesh!! Here's the deal, peoples. With the MSM attempting to give populist Dem candidate Obama his "Dean Scream" moment by proxy through endless replays of the selectively outrageous soundbytes of Reverend Wright's sermons the country has become race concious in a way we haven't seen for a very long while. I realise that Obama's speech the other day welcomed a new national dialogue on the usually verbotten subject but THIS is ridiculous. The article in quetion was one celebrating the apparent perfection of the human body with Gisele and LeBron as two prime example of fitness/ hawtness levels that men and women should aspire to or at least envy. Men tend to favour a wedge shape with washboard abs while women still tend towards the unrealistic wasp-waisted Barbie-esque form which modern fashion still promotes despite health concerns. Lebron is a great athlete and Gisele Bundchen is ...well, Gisele Bundchen fer farks sakes! They both look good in the shot and anybody who wants to see this as being racially demeaning to LeBron James obviously has waaaaay too much time on their hands. Men are celebrated in our society for being big, imposing and aggressive, women are celebrated for being smaller, HAWTTer and doable. Fair? Maybe yes, maybe no. True? Undeniably. Annie Liebowitz obviously wanted to stir a little stink with this pic but due to prevailing over-sensitivities in the zeitgeist vis a vis racial sensitivity she got more than she bargained for. Good fer her. This cover'll prolly sell a shiatload more copies cos of that and isn't that really the point here? Quite frankly whenever Spud looks at that picture I don't really see Lebron James other than as this blur to the left of Gisele Bundchen. I have mentioned that she looks HAWT in that shot haven't I? Cos she does. Such HAWTNESS!! MMMMMmmmm Gisele Bundchen. Be Well. Indeed. Why provoke critical thought? I was much happier until I learned that gasoline is a finite resource, now this?!? God. Damn. It. Who cares what you think or say. It's a magazine for god's sake. Quuit trying to be the pc police. I don't give a damn if she's with King Kong or Godzilla, it's a damn magazine that wants to sell some issues. Get the piont? Probably not, you seem to have posed as a faux journalist instead of real work. Bosinia & Hillary.... Just how many trips did she go on which included I've enjoyed TV today, Every news show I watched, brought this up.. Just another in a long line of anti-military servicemen and women insults by the Clinton's who used military aids assigned to the White House as servants, took their entire traveling circus to Afghanistan for Thanks Giving Dinner and put them at the head of the line in front hundreds of servicemen and women or when Bill Clinton described career service members as "career military servants" WHO DO YOU WANT TO ANSWER THAT PHONE?" What amazes me? CBS broke the story. You remember CBS? Who cowered on the carpet before Il Douchebag for running a TRUE story about...? I know, that must Jesus over the horizon...... I simply HAVE to think that the "too small, too poor, or too dangerous" quote was said tongue-in-cheek. That said, it was a dumb remark, and it makes me seriously question what's going on (or not going on) in that head of hers. Definitely don't want to see her as POTUS. Hillary has been lying all her life. That is the dysfunction of the entire Clinton family. Not anyone who has been exposed to the Clintons believed that she had any foreign policy experience or any other credible experience besides bucking for corporations in the law firm of Rose. The media has given her such latitude and such a free pass. I hope that she now leaves the race. Leave NOW Wow. So even Taylor Marsh is admitting Hillary is a liar. I hate to admit it but she's starting to remind me of Bush... The first instinct is to lie, and then spin and then attack. If you stoop to fight in the gutter with immoral people long enough, it becomes a part of you. And it has been this way from the beginning for this administration. G. Bush and Co. has never cared what the people of this nation think... nor what the United Nations think... nor what the weapons inspectors report... nor... and it goes on and on. The fix for this is impeachment, but our "established loyal opposition" Ms. Nancy Pelosi has taken that "off the table". We are in desperate need of real change. Interesting. #6, would it be fair to say you're among the "enlightened" who reject much of the scientific proofs of 2,500 year old Biblical truth on the basis of not enough documentation, yet you accept that pagan practices from 25,000 years ago (that connot possibly be proven to have actually been done as you claim) are real? Sad about being hated. As to us LGBT, there is no difference except sexual orentation. The only thing is that we choose a different life style. Yes, we love hot andiffd sexy style. But you shouldn't deny our honest and kind-hearted characteristic.For my circle of LGBT friends, I also know some from www.bimingle.com . Yes, they are hot sometimes, but also serious and honest when it comes to love. No matter whom they will show it to. Therefore, whoever needs help, we would also be kind enough to show our love and help to you. We lonove the world too.<> A massage-inist, maybe. A meschugga-nist, probably. But a misogynist? I doubt it. America's little motto used to be "don't tread on me," but that long ago changed to "anything that prevents a discussion of substance." Want to talk about the immense economic inequality? Can't; you're a Socialist. Want to talk about why labor/employees are never represented on the Board of Directors of corporations? Can't; you're a Communist. Want to talk about how badly America's moral and international standing is being hurt by policies of torture and unilateral military adventures? Can't; you're a deafeatist and an America-hater. Want to talk about the dangers of rap and hip-hop culture, where even music award shows not infrequently break out into brawls and gunfire? Can't, you're a racist. Want to talk about why Geraldine Ferraro is W R O N G? Can't; you're a misogynist. Want to discuss why Christians feel the need to "worship" in my face, when they can worship in their own space and on their own tiome, any time they want? Can't; you're anti-Christian. Want to talk about the long and financially bloody history of deregulation of business? Can't, you're anti-business and probably anti-capitalism/anti-
prosperity. Want to discuss the place in history of a president who started an unnecessary war that is bleeding the country of funds, soldiers, status, and sanity? Can't; you're a bush-hating sufferer of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Want to asky why the hell our health care system has more parts to it than squares in a square mile memorial quilt, and costs more than anywhere else on the planet? Can't; you're anti-free market. Want to ask why our own government subzidizes the shipment of decent jobs to other countries? Can't; you're anti-free trade. Want to discuss how life in 21st century America did in you and your entire family? Can't; you're dead.
I'm a woman, of Hillary's generation, who has long considered herself a feminist. On this, I agree with you and Keith. I guess that makes me a misogynist, too. Ha ha ha.....now that's a funny comment from a 75 year old white woman...can you say senile ??? No, but when I read your juvenile comment and I can definitely say "idiot." Ha ha ha.....now that's a funny comment from a 75 year old white woman...can you say senile ??? Barack got 90% of the black vote , because he is black, if he was white...Hilary would get most of the black vote. Race and gender, notwithstanding, Barack Obama is where he is at because he is an extraordinarily attractive human being with an extraordinarily attractive message. Period. Just the view of a 75 year old white woman. Or, if you want to be terribly vicious, mention to them that their practice originated with pagan practices some 25,000 or more years old. Boy, like pouring chromic acid into water! This is not unusual, the many facets of Xtian belief practice what is loosely akin to "raise the screens, Mister Sulu", which is, anything that might lead anyone in another direction is of Satan, plain and simple. Having been raised and then summarily excommunicated from the Pentecostal Holiness variant of Xtian thing, oh, believe me, you name it, it's outlawed: Jews, Catholics, Methodists, Mormons, Islam, Zen, Buddhism, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Sufism, and these are the kinds of people that make me fucking howl when I see them saying grace....over a Big Mac! But then, widdle people with widdle bwains do widdle shit. Over and out. Well, he's resigned now. Not that it matters--there's an endless line of these people waiting to break into the show biz that we call national politics. This is a guy who met almost daily with Karl Rove, was assigned to go to both the Norquist breakfast and the Weyrich lunch, and came into apparently frequent contact with Our Feckless Leader HIMSELF. He was praised highly by Ralph Reed ("Tim's just flat-out the best I've ever seen at this job, and I've seen them all") and Chuckie Colson ("My experience has been a lot of times when we have had serious questions and we needed administration backing to get them through...if we call Tim, all of a sudden things get through"). If you can be known by the company you keep.... The most absurd part of Goeglein's public persona, to me, was his professed admiration for Ernie Pyle and Edward R. Murrow, who he claimed to be his heroes in the world of journalism. Edward R. Murrow? The famous journalist who said that "No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices" idolized by a PR shill in the administration of the president who has done his level best to terrorize a whole nation? Maybe he lifted his statement about admiring Pyle and Murrow? ummmm, umm, SCUZE ME!, pardon me, BUT, Chimptitude McHolypants, let me get this straight, TALKS TO GOD DIRECTLY, and GOD TALKS BACK!, and THEN, DEAREST pRESIDENT needs a "liaison to the religious community"????!!!?? Even GOD? can't do anything to help George The Lessor MAKE ANY FRICKING SENSE WHEN HE TALKS?????!!!??? to others, most especially the "religious community"????!!!!! I think I'm getting this straight, but it's sooooooo VERY Twilight Zone! siri@legitgov.org Goeglein, a former TV news producer and communications director for Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), is a graduate of the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University The Ernie Pyle School of Journalism? More like the Gomer Pyle school if'n ya asks me! Where did he find the stuff to plagarise? Prolly used the same resource that Nancy Nall, bogga gal extrodinaire, used to unmask his shameful ways. ie. Teh Google! Now whenever Spud encounters this heir to Jayson Blair Spud's gonna refer to him as Tim Googlin', you know ...just fer giggles. Spud luffs a good giggle. Laws yes. Be Well. /The goggles, they do nuthin'. I say, great work Harry! It was bound to come to light at some point... Now, check out these clowns. THE LEAST BELIEVABLE MOVIE SOLDIERS! COPY AND PASTE IF YOU NEED TO...IT'S HYSTERICAL. I apologize for being inactive: Currently down with a bug, getting better, etc. However, in my days off from work, I've had ample opportunity to watch...yeppers...MSM's brainwashing, of course. Stories, of course, abound about the decline in the nation's economy, the busted housing market, but....hey...no clue as to the root cause! As if we're watching either Ripley's or Unsolved Mysteries, m'kay? Methinks they are scared shitless to actually admit that globalization, trickle-down and all the other FAILURES...are just that. 50 plus years of eliminating about everything FDR and crew welded in to prevent this crap from happening again, well, man and boy, gone are the regs, and what do we see? Yes. 1927 all over again. Same players, new uniforms. Same root causes, too. Golly gosh. Oh, well, at least I have my chicken noodle soup, which, yes, works far better than $800 worth of crap from the pharmacy. Maybe God's telling me something? Over and out. Schiffren would be a joke if the population had the sense to have a sense of humor (her alma mater, Bryn Mawr, must be so proud). She's the Quayle speechwriter credited with Quayle's loony tirade against Murphy Brown and single motherhood. She's also an atrociously bad "pundit" and "observer" of things political, who one minute denounces democrats and liberals for their lack of seriousness, and the next minute writes a National Review Online piece describing Nancy Pelosi's party to celebrate becoming House Speaker, and spends the majority of space talking about the women's jewelry, clothing, general appearance ("Naturally I wore the traditional Republican double strand of choker-length eight-millimeter pearls. Just that morning, on the front page of the New York Times, was a picture of notables at the funeral of President Ford. In it, Barbara Bush, Lynne Cheney, Doro Bush, and Mrs. Ford herself all wore them. In my youth I wore them as an ironic icon; now that conservative matron is me.") Her incredible objectivity jumps off the page: " why, in God's name, would I want to waste a night watching these wealthy commies congratulate themselves on the ascension of their very minor demon queen to a position of power?" So Schiffren isn't likely to be taken too seriously by the reality-based world. Really, she isn't. She once wrote a piece literally panting for George Bush's body on the infamous day of the prez landing on the carrier in his "flight suit." And her blog piece on the likely communistic roots of the union which begat Obama is just a take-off from an equally insane piece by the reliably insane Cliff (give me accuracy or give me Prozac) Kincaid. Kincaid finds it somehow ominous that Obama was, apparently, friendly with Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist, in Hawaii, leading Mr. Accuracy to pant that "Obama's communist connection adds to mounting public concern about a candidate who has come out of virtually nowhere..." And what did Frank Marshall Davis, who so scares Mr. Accuracy, believe in? According to a source that Kincaid relies on for the fact that Davis was a Communist (these are Kincaids own words): ...[Takara] notes that Davis, who was a columnist for the Honolulu Record, brought "an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world" and that he openly discussed subjects such as American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation. She described him as a "socialist realist" who attacked the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Man, that send shivers down my spine. I'm scared out of half my wits. I know because I feel a sudden affinity for the duo of Schiffren and Kincaid. Do this pair of nitwits have the kind of following that would translate into the MSM making Obama's hidden communist past an actual issue? If so, we're too far gone for the election to mean anything, anyway. Obama's speech (October, 2002): Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars. My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain. I don't oppose all wars. After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne. What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair. The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not - we will not - travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.
[what] The (PC the Dems and the Libs) want America to abide by is going to be the death of us. You have that pretty right except that the phrase in parentheses should be "free marketeers." My wife keeps saying "What the hell's the matter with people? Can't they see what's right in front of them all the time?" Visitor has answered that question. In the negative. /'Feckless' is a good word. People should use it more often. Especially these days, when we're lip deep in circumstances where the term fits. Stop Being Afraid!!! One of the things of which I'm the most afraid is what would happen to this country if we pursued Ron Paul's announced principles of economics (derived in toto from the "Austrian school of economics"). Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who gets IT!!! Our government spends too damn much money!!! Thats IS the problem, wake up stupid people!!! He's not going to make you feel good about getting your $600 rebate check. He's not going to promise you universal health care for everyone. He may make you feel good about doing what needs to be done and that is,... TAKING BACK OUR GOVERNMENT!!! Maybe he's not the "winning" candidate, but were not betting on the Super Bowl either. We should be trying to pick someone to be President of the United States of America and take control of our screwed up country. Stop Being Afraid!!! Geoff Well JBS, you originally atacked the post on the grounds that I simply don't understand how federal agencies are funded. Now you're defending the elimination of the web site on the grounds that it's redundant, and that maintaining any online federal database is expensive. So what was it that I didn't understand about agency budgeting? As for the redundancy, surely the DOC was aware of the redundant aspect of the web site when it started it up. What changed? Why was the site considered enough of an improvement over existing sources to undertake the development costs, but now--after considerable praise from the public about its usefulness--considered not worth the maintenance costs? As to the cost, I can't dispute you because I have no idea what it costs to maintain a federal web site. I also don't know whether you have any idea. But I do know that several hundred thousands of dollars is (a) not an awful lot compared to other costs the government happily incurs, and (b) probably more than the DOC needs to incur to maintain a site that combines info from two other sites. And as I keep saying, killing this site seems contrary to the administration's frequently announced goals for statistical information. The very fact that you think "Federal cost control is viewed as an extremist or right-wing partisan position" says an awful lot about your perspective. That's a nonsense statement worthy of the far right talking heads. I do view as an extremist position the idea that making helpful government information available to the public is somehow less important than the activities that this administration has thrown billions at. No one is against cost control. I am definitely against cost control that adversely impacts public access to information while ignoring the much higher costs of keeping information from the public and, even worse, of spreading the government's views (try standing up againt the absurd waste of money involved in paying journalists to tout government policy under the guise of journalism, for example).
"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, it ain't a backhoe." True, maybe it does cost a whole to run a website. Problem is, amidst continuing economic bad stuff, it does look sorta-maybe bad that a site would shut down, as all it offers is regrettably bad news. Doth that mean Uncle Big Brother is up to something? Hard to say, but with the current track record, Orwell's now up to 34,500 RPM. Over and out. JBS, I think the relevant question is how much this 1 website added to the total cost; especially as someone else mentioned, this administration has seen fit to dole out billions of dollars to questionable and downright wrong reasons. I appreciate your desire to help me look non-partisan. Hopefully you will use the strategy yourself sometime. It will help you seem more credible. I do believe that the Census and BEA websites are adequate in providing the public the economic information they desire. Not to mention that Census offers a Data Ferret tool to help ferret information from all the published data. As to cost for website management, it cost several hundereds of thousands of dollars for a Federal agency to produce and maintain security certification and accreditation packages for each and every system they operate on the internet. The cost is due to the oversight requirements mandated by agencies such as NIST and OMB, and asundry legislation passed by Congress. Eliminating a redundant website system is actually a positive step in the direction of Federal cost control. I realize that Federal cost control is viewed as an extremist or right-wing partisan position. But I feel it is a wise and important part of the duty of the Federal government. I know this idea is offensive to many. But that is my, as you say, "partisan" opinion on government spending. Gosh Visitor, thanks so much for your helpful critique. Don't suppose you can be bothered to explain exactly how the way that "funding works in Federal agencies" explains why the DOC is aborting a useful, inexpensive, and popular tool that clearly furthers the administration's publicly announced goals r.e. statistical information? If you do that--manage to provide some responsive info that supports your intense opinion--next time you may not look so partisan. (I say "may not," there is no guarantee). Your criticism of the Commerce Department is unfounded. Your lack of understanding of how funding works in Federal agencies is obvious by your remarks. There is no conspiracy by the "Administration" to quell a free flow of information. You are letting your paranoia get the better of you. I suggest you talk to folks inside the DOC before write ridiculous jaundice drivel like this. If you do that, next time you may not look so foolish. (I said "may not", there is no gaurantee.) He who controls the spice controls the universe. In this case the spice is information. This transparent excuse of "budgetary constraints" coming from the man who gave the US it's first 2 and 3 Trillion dollar budgets is pure unmitigated gall. In BushWorld no news is good news one imagines. Bush must go. The spice must flow. GObama. 08ama '08. Let's not fergit the fact that Bush filled the DOJ with fourth rate law graduates from Regent including the now infamous Monigoo. They were uberly loyal, underly qualified neo-crusaders and when Obama takes the WH he should make weeding them out a priority. Either putting lobbyists in charge of positions that used to counter lobbyists powers such as at the EPA or DoI or simply installing unscrupulous loyal Bushies sometimes unmitigated biatches like Tim Griffin USA this president is the last guy on the freaking planet who should be whining about not having all of his nominees getting the gigs. He should feel damn lucky he isn't tarred and feathered and awaiting trial for War Crimes. Be Well. /'Feckless' is a good word. People should use it more often. Seems suspicious that a very senior white house adviser recently left the white house to "spend more time with his family"....or was it to test various means of manipulating the votes in preparation for the next big one. drilling in alaska is to our current economic crisis as a teaspoon of water is to lake superior... number six has it just about right. all of michigan feels your pain, first, last and always. We had it worst first. You are absolutely right about the flight of good paying jobs being the cause of this. it was not inevitable that those jobs go overseas, it was political choices that were made. and we let it happen. while a lot of folks were busy worrying about the gov'mint taking their guns away, the gov'mint took their jobs away instead. caught looking the wrong way again, damn. But seriously, hang on to those guns, folks, you will need them to knock off the liquor store down the street to get money to get food to feed your kids, in a few years. the big D? maybe, i been thinking lately, thats what we should root for, because that's what it would take to force real change, not just banda |
There was a bumper sticker around some years back:
RELIGION IS FOR THOSE WHO COULDN'T PASS QUANTUM PHYSICS
Mahr's law...that this nation is contaminated with too many Larry-the-cable-guy types...is then, correct.
QED
Over and out.