gthedamned, aka gthedada would like to wish jackthedamned, sweetest one-year-old in the country, a happy first birthday. since he's not too good with the calendar yet, we're taking him to the ballgame saturday and having a big bbq/party on sunday. twenty or thirty adults, as many as ten kids, all in my apartment and backyard. oh, and we're feeding them all as well. there will be a tip jar, and possibly straight up solicitations as the evening wears on.

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last night, a thought occurred to me. our prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment is bullshit. first of all, all punishment is cruel and unusual. that's why it's punishment. if it was pleasant and normal, it wouldn't be any deterrent at all. however, as it stands, it isn't deterrent enough. i think we need to crank up the levels of cruel and unusual on our punishments. armed robbery? first, you get shot. in the arm. it's your responsibility to get to the hospital. after you get out, everytime you walk into a rob-able establishment, you get it in the stomach with a sack of quarters. after a few years of this, few people would be tempted to return to a life of crime. corporate fraud? government garnishment of wages ensuring you live at minimum wage for the rest of your life. second, they stick a live weasel up your ass. second offense, it's a badger. third, a wolverine (sticking with the mustelid family, naturally).

i watched the gameshow identity last night (with heroes over until next year, and the fact that i need to buy some new books, or at least go to the library, i'm watching more tv than i'd like. i still probably watch less than the average american. maybe 50% less.). penn jilette is a whore (not because of this show, he just is).

while watching, siouxs! made an interesting observation. all of the primetime gameshows these days are going vertical with their displays of people. deal or no deal (the non-game gameshow), 1 vs 100, and now, identity all feature a stack of humanity. i can only imagine that our corporate overlords (specifically the ones at general electric) are using their squawking peacock to further devalue the (non-wealthy and caucasion) individual. true, there are individual contestants, but they seem like caricatures that could be easily invented by our collective prejudices, and therefore serve as symbols of our unconscious rather than real people.

ok, that's quite a rant. i'd better take my meds.

i'd like to point out that my baseball blog is now far surpassing this one in terms of hits this month. siouxs! also had a good observation about this.

"more people care about baseball than [care about] what you think."

how true. even i care more about baseball than i care about what i think.

thank you, oh wise and fearless leader, for showing us the light. all of the violence in iraq is someone else's fault. thanks be to our almighty christian god that it isn't our fault, even though we did force iraq into a state of anarchy and chaos that would make any society come apart.

someone else's fault. the most beautiful three words in the world to a politician. someone else's fault means a chance at (re)election. and the best part is that it's bipartisan! double points if the people you're pinning the blame on are brown.

the economy, that's someone else's fault too, right? they say it usually takes a few years for changes in economic policy to make a significant change in the economy itself, so the current problems are the fault of those jokers from last term. you remember those guys, they're the ones who tied up hundreds of billions of dollars in a war based on false pretenses, and then funded it by cutting the taxes of the wealthy at a much higher rate than the middle class so that the poor and middle class could keep sending their sons and daughters to die needlessly and expensively.

fuck bush, just for old times sake.

insurance hassle: jack has to go in for surgery next week, and thanks to the barely navigable fine print of my "explanation of benefits" with our new (and not as comprehensive, thanks) insurance, i'm not sure if he's fully covered for the procedure. it may be classified as an elective procedure, so it gets fuzzier already there. the best i can tell, it should be covered, but even if it is, i don't know if i'm on the hook for my deductible, his, or both. i'm already behind paying the hospital for souixs!'s stay when he was born. deductibles are a bunch of shit. insurance in this country is the biggest racket that exists.

the amazing thing to me is how much the baptists who raise me rail against gambling, but nearly every one of them is insured. insurance is just like casino gambling: no one would be in that business if they weren't assured to come out on top. the difference between health insurance and gambling is that if you're taking a lot of money from a casino, they buy you breakfast. if you're taking a lot of money from the insurance company, they might cancel your policy.

vote democrat. they're in quite a few pockets too, but at least it's a step in the right (left) direction.

condi claims "i never got the memo" despite the fact that we've been hearing about this one for literally years now. i even remember that it was headed "bin laden determined to attack inside u.s." or something very similar, and i wasn't at that cabinet meeting. will the blatant lies never end? do the republikkkans think so little of the american people? apparently so.

the g.o.p. has a lot in common with the catholic church; they're both fantastically wealthy, they both mask backwards thinking as conservatism and/or morality, and they both harbor pedophiles and protect them from harm. part of me revels in sadistic glee that this has happened so close to the midterm elections, but then part of me feels guilty for being glad that a pedophile was making sexual advances at a child. at least monica lewinski was of age. i wonder how the anti gay lobby is going to handle this...

the genocide in sudan is now a few years old, and yet dubya says the u.n. shouldn't hesitate to act. i guess we won't be contributing many troops to this one, as the people we would be helping are black (and not wealthy).

fucked up world we live in, folks.

fuck bush.

have you seen the ads on tv for "progress for america"? i haven't heard of a more bullshit name for a pac than this one. apparently, progress for america means going back to the days immediately after september 11th, 2001, and to start believing once again that the muslim world is full of murderous rage for all americans, that osama bin laden might have ties to iraq, and that americans should universally trust their president, who only has their best interests at heart. the commercial is such a bunch of jingoist garbage that says in so many words the same old lies, namely that democrats and muslims are the enemies of america (though they claim to not endorse a particular candidate etc.).

watch the bullshit if you haven't seen it already. progressives, we need some fresh ire for the election season.

am i the only one who didn't really care who killed jonbenet ramsey the first go round? am i the only one who thinks that her "killer" is just some nut job that the republikkkans paid to take the fall, and therefore, some of the public attention away from, let's say, the war we're losing in iraq? ok, perhaps i am the only one. i am a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but still...

i also just found out this morning that pat buchanan is a special correspondant or something for the freaking today show. he seemed to be promoting his newest book, which is a primer on reasons we should fear all muslims. my feelings on the traditional media are so cynical these days that his appearance really doesn't surprise me that much. nonetheless, i had hoped that there was some backlash from the right leaning spin that was so powerful in the immediately post 9-11 landscape.

oh, right. today show:nbc = general electric. i guess they might have an interest in painting the war in a positive light.

no one, not even mrs buchanan, should have to see that man before 8 am, though.

call me a conspiracy theorist if you want. i have been called far worse. here's my thoughts on the current stem cell argument.

virtually everything discussed in congress these days is some kind of distraction technique put up by the republikkkans to hide the fact that they're still stealing money from us hand over fist (never you mind the missing katrina relief funds, or the vast sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy republikkkan base, there's a bunch of mexicans threatening your fruit picking career! hurry, before they teach your children spanish, impregnate your daughters with non-lilly-white offspring, and make enchiladas our national dish!). the stem cell debate is more insidious than usual, though. this is the republikkkans best chance to distance themselves from dubya and darth cheney they're going to have. here's how it works.
1) make it appear that a few of those incumbents whose seats are up for grabs are in favor of actual scientific progress in opposition the phony religious proclamations of the moron in our highest office.
2) dubya threatens to use the veto for the first time.
3) fake bravado from the toadies like frist, claiming that we must broaden the scope of stem cell research (especially adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells, which have shown so much promise).
4) veto
5) "we'll keep pushing for this legislation in our next term if you give us another chance..."-type speech that fades out sometime mid-november
6) see religious wackjobs? no harm done, and now all of your moral protectors are still in office.

numerous media sources are predicting that the neo-con movement is on its way out, but in my opinion, even if we get rid of the worst of them, the damage has been done. the political realm been infected, and the religious right is resistant to the pennicillin of the separation of church and state.

the hardest part is that i'm related to most of them. my grandmother gets a christmas card from the white house every year.

fuck all of those bastards.

[tried unsuccessfully to post this yesterday afternoon... damn blogger]


this is absurd. yet another attempt to sway the easily distractable public towards the puritanical right.

sorry for the dearth of posts lately, but in all honesty, i haven't felt like it. the g.o.p. has been fucking things up so mightily that it seemed redundant to rant about the stuff. yeah, they're dragging the gay marriage thing out again, but this time, i don't think they'll be able to influence the casual homophobe as much (it's pretty hard to burn the same gays at the stake twice).

let's all just keep hoping for a conservative/neo-con rift. i feel one brewing these days.

just for old times sake, fuck bush

it seems that the good folks at the verichip company have got a great way to sell more verichips: implant them into immigrant guest workers. wow, have we really gotten to the point of chipping people like we do pets? has anyone told the fundamentalist christians about this? can you say mark of the beast, fundies (i know you can...)?

i still think that the immigration debate that we're having as a country right now is a dodge, much like gay marriage was a dodge. they're both great ways to get (white)middle america up in arms. who can remember gross ethics violations, misguided warmongering, or tax cuts for bill gates and his three hundred closest friends when there are dangerous brown people/creepy homos lurking about, seeking to attack our flagging economy/sacred bond of marriage (and divorce)?

that said, here's a bit of economic thought for the racists out there who want to deport all the immigrants becuase "they're taking our jobs." right now, illegal immigrants are available to work for $2/hour with no benefits whatsoever (ok, perhaps a drive to the hospital if the lawnmower cuts your hand off, but that's it, and we will be squealing the tires out of the parking lot as soon as your foot touches the ground). that's a lot cheaper than hiring a legal citizen for $5.15/hour (dear god, we need to fix that... $5.15 an hour?!!), so a lot of less than scrupulous employers are going to go with that option. if we make immigration easier, everyone will have to be paid at least minimum wage, and immigrants have the same chance at getting a job as native born white and christian xenophobic citizens. i wonder if that thoguht can turn around in your narrow, narrow mind.

what do you want to bet that if you're reading this blog, you're a target of the nsa phone record collection? it does make you highly suspicious after all. this blog contains subversive materials/writings, and its author is not a blind flag-waving screamingly zealous pseudo-patriot, so, by association, you are a terrorist.
i realize that this must come as a shock to you, but i have a few tips to make coming to grips with your obvious emnity towards the united states a little easier.

- when making phone calls to your terrorist buddies, be sure to use a clever code. for example, when you mean "we're going to set off a roadside bomb along the entire length of i-70 to strike at the heartland" you could say "we're just going to sit around the house and watch a few movies."

- change your e-mail signature to "yours in terror."

- whenever speaking outdoors, aim your head skyward. how else are the satellite lip-readers supposed to figure out your evil machinations?

- be sure to speak ill of our dear president when in public to identify yourself as a terrorist.

- when booking a plane ticket, try not to give away too much info. for example, try not to say "i'd like a one way ticket through the wall of the oval office, i mean, to the dallas/fort worth airport."

if you follow these steps, your transition from being a terrorist (secretly, unbeknownst, even to you) into a fully functional terrorist (as broadcast by the nrc and the nsa) will be smooth as can be.

go ahead and cut those capital gains taxes again. go ahead and cut the taxes on dividends again. it ain't gonna matter after the poor and middle class revolt.

and oh yeah, you mean jack abramhoff wasn't the only crooked lobbyist in washington?

burn, fundies, burn.

so let me get this straight. dubya wants to put the head of the nsa, perpetrators of the illegal and frankly terrifying wiretap scandal in charge of the cia? i know they're all seperate organizations, but i'm pretty sure cia chief trumps head of the nsa. so either the guy is the mastermind behind, was complicit in, or was totally unaware that this wrongdoing was taking place, and he's getting a promotion?

let's try a comparison. you are a cashier for a family owned restaurant. one day, the cash register turns up empty. the managers try to put up a smokescreen, explaining to the owner that the till needed to be emptied to pay the insurance premium, but the fact remains that the money is missing, almost definitely by illegal means. now, you are the person in charge of the cash register. only you and the managers ever have access to the drawer, and you are the one who stands by it all day long. if you sat there and let the till be stolen, you deserve to be fired for negligence of your duties. if you used your key to open the drawer, and then waled away, letting one of the managers take the money, you deserve to be fired for being a part of the conspiracy to steal. if you had the idea in the first place, you're probably going to jail. but amazingly, after one manager quits to avoid a big fuss over the whole thing, the owner decides to make you manager in his place.

apply this to the situation we're seeing, and get back to me.

and here i thought dubya was so tight with vincente fox because of his proficiency en la lingua español...
good god, the man can't even speak english properly, scott, why would he be able to speak a second language fluently? the funniest part is that his ignorance is being used as a protective measure here (and not in a "i have no reccollection of that, senator" kind of way).

and according to this headline, he can't count either.

god, i only wish this excerpt meant what i thought it did...
Republicans fear an Election Day massacre.
see the full article here

this is downright scary on multiple levels. sure. lots of people in the country (and the rest of the world) pray. that's no excuse for a theocratic regime like dubya's. also, i think it's funny that he thinks the average citizen would be asking him about potholes.

and finally, this is a few days old, but is perhaps the most frightening of all. i'm not saying there shouldn't be any check on the supreme court's power, but the lawmaking body shouldn't have oversight of the law checking body. period. especially not the highest court in the land.

republikkkans are scary when they're cornered...

thank god for our brilliant lawmakers. they're talking about passing a law that would place penalties on energy price gouging. how revolutionary. does anyone believe that there will be a single corporate bandit taken down with such a law? this law would make a nationwide standard for price-gouging (likely at the expense of states with a lower cost of living), but it won' t address the real problem. oil companies are currently taking a certain percentage of the price of oil as their profit. this percentage has remained the same even thought the price of oil has skyrocketed, pulling the profits through the roof as well. when the price of oil goes this high, the oil companies need to lower the percentage to take some of the pain out of filling up.
but i guess that makes me a communist.
fucking republikkkans.

bolivia has nationalized its natural gas industry in an attempt to avoid being exploited by the energy gobbling united states, adding another latin american country to the list of "people who are tired of being exploited by the united states." another major component of this group is "most americans."
even most of the democrats don't really care about the little guy. (one of) the problem(s) with representative democracy is that too much effort is expended trying to be reelected. we need to cut their salaries down to a living wage; maybe then, we could get some leaders who were actually in it to be the voice of their constituents. i'll bet they'd fight a lot harder for universal health care if they were uninsured.

yeah, i'm trying to pick a class fight. rich political bastards.

today marks the three year anniversary of the flightsuit aircraft carrier "mission accomplished" speech. three years ago, our president tried to claim that major combat operations in iraq were over. in that three years vast numbers more american soldiers have died than during the official war itself. every day, thanks to dubya, rumsfeld, cheney, etc., we create new terrorists (and though it was hardly true when it was a talking point, now there are lots of foreign fighters using iraq as a great place to hurt the people of united states on pennies a day). can we really continue to believe that this man has the best interests of our troops in mind? are there any remaining military families who are glad they voted for him instead of kerry? as only a man who has never risked his own life can do, george w bush is wasting the lives of our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, and a disproportionately large percentage of our working class and poor teenagers. does this man care about anything but his own personal wealth (and the wealth of those close to him, so they can be there to bail him out as his dad had to on more than one occasion due to his business incompetence).
he doesn't care about any of the lives lost in the name of "freedom." he profanes the names of the september eleventh victims by using them the create more useless death and to perpetuate the fear that makes everyone else willing to give up their rights. he casually spends the lives of our troops to fight a meaningless war, and now is talking about the possibility of doing it all again in iran, which is much larger than iraq, and would be infinitely more dangerous for our already weary military.
happy anniversary, you vile bastard. i'd wish you to taste the acid that should come from your contemptible deeds, but you'd probably have something from your pharmabuddies for that already.
fuck bush.

really? you mean he doesn't want to tax his freshly infused tremendous family wealth? who would have thought. god forbid the government try to take in more money to slow the hemmoraging economy.
are the neo-cons the most fiscally irresponsible lawmakers ever to hold power in the united states? well with the exception of andrew " 'mater sack" wilkinson from the fictional tennessee district of hog holler county, who actually burned the tax revenues from his constituents before buying a wagon large enough to transport the entire hog holler county seat (he claimed it was a way to avoid property taxes, and won every subsequent election in a landslide, even though it never worked. what can i say, my people aren't always the brightest.), the answer is unequivocally and somewhat confusingly, yes.
tax-and-spend is considered a bad word when applied to liberals, but where does tax-cut-and-spend-anyway fall in the spectrum? this is really going to suck in about ten years (not that it's a picnic now).
dipshits.

ok, a little more on this whole attempted popularity-saver push from dubya...

opening up the federal oil reserve is a too little/too late prospect. while it is already paid for, it amounts to a drop in the bucket when compared to our nationwide thirst for fossil fuel. the trickle from the federal reserve might just cover this weekend's nascar race at talladega. now, before you think i give a damn about nascar, think about this: my warehouse manager is driving (roughly 500 miles) to alabama to see this parade of fuel waste. average nascar events are attended by 100,000+ spectators. even if most of them aren't traveling quite so far, just try to imagine how much gas that amounts to for one "sporting event." we might as well just be pouring the stuff on the ground.

as for record oil company profits, here's what our fearless leader has to say:
"Americans understand, by and large, that the price of crude oil is going up and that the prices are going up, but what they don't want and will not accept is manipulation of the market. And neither will I."
i'm sure he conducted a thorough poll to determine what americans will accept. i'm sure said poll was conducted at gas stations, and was not limited to drivers of luxury vehicles, but rather a representative segment of the population. no way those of us in the lower 90% would ever want government intervention to keep us from spending rent/insurance/food money on gasoline. no fucking way.

ethanol: not a solution if it requires more fossil fuel energy to make than it produces. period. if we can use renewable energy to make ethanol, then we can talk.

that's our president. that's a man with his finger on the pulse of the nation.

goddamn, fuck bush