Sunday, July 31, 2005

Brilliant

"I'm Swiss"

Friday, July 29, 2005

Rove Talking Points

The sixth frame sounds oddly familiar.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Hollow Core

Great article on the paradox of "Christians" in this country.
Here's a sample:

Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical.

Monday, July 25, 2005

God's way of laughing at me...

We've been gone two months and WOW, all Hell breaks lose. Five years in that death swamp and not a Bunny in site. Dammit!

Some bits of music.

In the interest of simply changing the subject for the day, a few notable music links...

This is pretty interesting.

And these are all definetly worth buying (or downloading). Fantastic shows. So happy the boards are finally out.

And this show is definetly cool for those in New England on August 6th. The first acoustic Pixies Show and it has an ocean view!

Also, I've had the chance to see a few really good bands since being here. Definetly check out ALO, New Monsoon and Hot Buttered Rum. All very solid.

Now, back to solving the energy crisis...

Friday, July 22, 2005

Onion Headline

Bush Awaits Orders From Rove On Handling Of Rove Scandal

As always, the Onion hits the nail on the head.

Updated 7 /28: This may be the funniest thing I have ever read:

Embattled Rove Seeks Asylum In Scarbourough Country

(Thanks to Calise for forwarding it.)

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Book Your Flight and Hotel

Dates Announced!!!

This is gonna be a whole lotta fun. Oh sure, maybe not running-against-someone-for-president-that-you-accuse-of-having-no-opinion-and-then-nominating-someone-with-no-opinion-on-anything-whatsoever-to-the-Supreme-Court-fun, but still.

Vegas Baby!

Case Closed.

Anyone wanna guess the angle they'll use to slither out of this one?

Here's a hint:
Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said.

Let the talking-points saga continue.

Dr. MacGuffin (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Iraq War)

This whole Rove thing is a pattern, and one I feel is pretty obvious that anyone with a pulse has begun to notice. The orchestrated campaign of lie, smear, attack, denial, smear again, denial, change the subject, demand apology from those who catch you lying, stonewall, stonewall, stonewall, etc is so apparent now that watching it actually has made me cringe out of embarrassment for how low and pathetic the Bushittes and their arms of propaganda (Fox, RNC, NYPost, etc) seem. For example, Meet the Press was funnier this week than say, Reno 911 (which is hilarious) because of RNC Chairman Ken Melman's delirium taking center stage. ' Those accusing Karl Rove owe him an apology...' What??!?!??! He exposed a covert agent and lied about it for over 2 years and then was caught in the lie about how he grossly abused his power for political retribution. If he actually murdered Valerie Plame, and was caught after lying about it for two years, I bet the RNC would still demand an apology. They are grasping, and man it is fun to watch.
When O.J. says he's gonna find the 'real killer' it seems more genuine.

But, that being said, it really is just another sideshow to the much bigger picture (why was Joe Wilson in Niger?) and that's what Frank Rich nails in his column this week. I have been so disgusted about the possibility of games being played with disregard to national security in the Plame case, I have lost focus on just how much our national security is at risk because of this war and the lies and manipulated intelligence that brought us there. This whole thing isn't about leaks- its about a lies as a means to an end of going to war and criminal activity to attack those that catch you lying. Rich rightly points out why the White House and the press seem to have done complete 180s this week: "That's why the stakes are so high: this scandal is about the unmasking of an ill-conceived war, not the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative who posed for Vanity Fair."

Rich comments on the press side of things, which has been breathtaking to watch. For example, Fox can no longer be considered infotainment- they were never news- as they have come out as clearly as I have ever seen them as pure propagandists and I defy anyone reading this to show otherwise. (The whole column is here and as always, use propagandasandwich@yahoo.com for the login and redsox for the password if you are not signed up.)

Apparently this is finally beginning to dawn on Mr. Bush's fiercest defenders and on Mr. Bush himself. Hence, last week's erection of the stonewall manned by the almost poignantly clownish Mr. McClellan, who abruptly rendered inoperative his previous statements that any suspicions about Mr. Rove are "totally ridiculous." The morning after Mr. McClellan went mano a mano with his tormentors in the White House press room - "We've secretly replaced the White House press corps with actual reporters," observed Jon Stewart - the ardently pro-Bush New York Post ran only five paragraphs of a wire-service story on Page 12. That conspicuous burial of what was front-page news beyond Murdochland speaks loudly about the rising anxiety on the right. Since then, White House surrogates have been desperately babbling talking points attacking Joseph Wilson as a partisan and a liar.
...

But the administration knows how guilty it is. That's why it has so quickly trashed any insider who contradicts its story line about how we got to Iraq, starting with the former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill and the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke.
(Emphasis mine)

Friday, July 15, 2005

The (New) Truth

Krugman discovers that the truth is irrelevent and facts are actually meaningless distortions coming from "attackers." Just like evolution is considered one of many theories.
Great piece. Really says a lot about what has happened to this country.
(Password required, just use propandasandwich@yahoo.com as the email and redsox as the password to view it if you don't have an account.)

Also, here are what those facts actually are for anyone that has a brain and not a party. (Or a party and a brain that are completely disconnected when shown reality.)

Thursday, July 14, 2005

How low will they go?

A former CIA analyst talks about his classmate, Valerie Plame.

The Daily Show wraps it up nicely for those who are lost. More here, here.

This is how far the GOP has sunk... their actual talking points on the Rove issue.

Your moral majority ladies and gentlemen.

Stay tuned tomorrow when Fox News uncovers a far more damaging, and more importantly, distracting story of a covert CIA agent that President Clinton outed- WHEN HIS LESBIAN WIFE SLEPT WITH HER!!!

Monday, July 11, 2005

Media catches up on Rove story

This is absolutely hilarious. Scott McClellan getting cooked by the FINALLY alive White House Press Corps. Crooks and Liars has the video. NBC New's David Gregory nails him. Why this didn't happen nine days ago when the rest of the world had the story is beyond me. Maybe this email was what they needed, but nonetheless, better late then never.

Also, Bush made a promise to fire whoever was responsible for the Valerie Plame leak from the White House. Was that just more Bushit or is Rove really getting fired?

Rummy Poetry

My literary genius friend Knoefel sent me this article in Slate that I missed on Donald Rumsfeld's poetry. It's funny in that bizarro world kind of way, especially because his words are not altered. Here's a sample:

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Soldier Field


On July 9, 1995, ten years ago today, the greatest American band of all time played their last show at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. The Grateful Dead closed out the show with Box of Rain, and it's last line says it all:

"Such a long long time to be gone, and a short time to be there."

ps: The sky really looks like that out here. Sunsets are amazing.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Media Whores

Brit Hume, absolutely breathtaking. His first thought after seeing the terror in London was of the possibility of financial gain. The video shows how unbelievably mental he is.
Also look at this and then imagine yourself immediately thinking as he did, "Hmm, time to buy."

Bob Novak, exposed? This is a pretty good hypothetical.

The White House Press Corps. - (typical day) - "Mr. President, you look great today. Don't you just hate tough questions? We all really love how you're spreading freedom. Do you think Michael Jackson is guilty? Oh, is that all for today? Great, you look tired anyway and plus, we've asked enough hardball questions for now... we love you Mis-ter Pres-i-dent."

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Rove + Leak = Treason

According to Laurence O'Donnell White House Deputy Chief of Staff and President Bush's head political advisor Karl Rove was the source of the Valerie Plame leak. More here. This is a treasonous act if it is true, at least according to President Bush 41. If indeed guilty, Rove will surely figure out a way to avoid persecution because the law has never applied to him or his boss. We'll see how the liberal media plays it... probably too busy covering Tom Cruise and the mean, though not treasonous, things Howard Dean says.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Moderate Pragmatist Out, Right Wing Whackjob Christofacist on the Way

Bush is going to replace O'Conn0r with someone that makes Scalia look like Ralph Nader. This is a nightmare I only wish I could wake up from. The Democrats look pathetic in their begging to be taken seriously. "Please seek out are opinion... oh please." Yeah right. Bush, and the right, have been waiting for this opportunity for years, and are polishing their goose-stepping boots right now. Guard your uterus...

On a related note, fair and balanced Faux News has hired C. Boyden Gray as their "Fox Supreme Court Analyst." As Media Matters correctly points out, Fox, continuing their most cherished standard of lieing to their audience by omission, told their viewers nothing of C. Boyden Gray's current job- founder and chairman of the Committee For Justice, a leading lobbying group supporting Bush judicial nominees.

That's Fox News, fair and balanced.

Fox News is a trademark of Pravda.