Old cops, new cops, police stops, contempt of cop rot…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:15 AM Permalink
…just bugs the hell out of me as a former Air Force Law Enforcement Specialist (the DOD job equivalent of a precinct police sergeant) who was either better trained or just learned my lessons better than this modern group of so-called professionals calling themselves cops today. I don't mean to use such a broad brush, but it seems lately that arrests for 'disturbing the peace' or 'resisting arrest' (especially when no underlying charge legitimizing the arrest is cited) or, more properly, 'contempt of cop' are becoming more prevalent than ever.
The arrest of the professor in his own home for refusing to stop yelling at the cop is a prime example. One thing I learned from my training was that I truly was out there on the street to 'protect and serve' the public, and as that was the case, you just didn't go arresting a citizen having a bad day that wanted to yell at you, curse you, gesticulate wildly, or talk in a foul manner. None of those things were grounds for arrest and people generally calmed down when they finally figured out they could not p*ss me off, no matter how much trash they talked to me. I was a professional, out doing a professional job, and had too much pride to go making up bogus crap on which to arrest someone.
That's because I was taught the power of the pen. IF it became necessary to arrest someone who had violated the law I simply made extensive notes on the subject's conduct and attitude, and I found that this could do far more damage to the individuals career than any number of arrests for obviously questionable charges.
Foul language after being arrested for DWI? Conduct unbecoming an officer/NCO. Major scene on the street? Conduct of a nature as to bring disrespect upon the military, both violations of the UCMJ, potential career enders, and almost certainly a letter of reprimand which could end future promotions or ability to reenlist.
I know I'm speaking of military things here, mostly, but the concept remains the same. It was inexcusable stupidity to arrest the professor in his home, and contrary to the assertions that once the prof stepped outside his door he was in 'public' and subject to the complete control of the officer is pure horse puckey, the man was still on his own private property, the cop still did not have a warrant or any reasonable suspicion that the man had committed a crime; his feewings were hurt because the allegedly bad man yelled at him. And without a complainant to support the accusation of 'disturbing the peace' the professor could have been out on his lawn with a brass band playing to welcome him home and no crime would have been committed.
And 'verbal assaults' are not a crime - they are expressions of free speech and something the officer is required to respect, not make an independent judgement as to the individual's rights to express him/herself as they please, on their property or not.
As a child I was always told I could trust the police. That statement is no longer true in my opinion. You never know when you might say or do something that will cause an ill-trained cop to arrest you, knowing that he will 99 out of a hundred times get away with it as the arrested person will be so relieved at having the 'charges' dropped that they won't pursue a complaint against bad cops, not knowing that the cop himself had committed a crime by making a bogus arrest 'under color of authority' (Penal Code section 142 in California).
I am so disgusted and dismayed by the epidemic of this 'god-complex' that makes some cops think they can get away with any abuses. Just like the four officers who were caught on their own patrol cars recording monitor conspiring to make up lies to justify the arrest and prosecution of a woman whom the cop had hit from the rear. an accident for which the cop was clearly at fault, but who would rather lie, make up charges, and enlist other officers in his conspiracy to avoid censure for wrecking his patrol car. DISGUSTING! And the four cops are on 'administrative duty' drawing full paychecks despite taped evidence of their crime. The Chief there should have had four badges and guns confiscated and if not firing the officers outright should have put them on suspension without pay until Internal Affairs confirmed they should all be fired, minimally, and prosecuted, optimally.
I guess I've ranted enough, and for those cops who might read this and allege that 'being a military cop just isn't the same as being a civilian cop' I can only say, YOU do the duties comparable to those to which I was assigned, like working Town Patrol in the Philippines where in Angeles City there were 3,500 licensed bars, hookers, robbers, pickpockets, hustlers, thieves, bar brawls, shootings, stabbings and rapes every damn day of the week, or being a cop in Vietnam, or modernly, Iraq or Afghanistan in a hot war zone, then come talk crap to me.
In the meantime there is obviously a serious need for both better cops and especially better trained cops unburdened by feelings of a 'god complex'.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:37 AM PermalinkBut I'm not talking about the flu itself, I'm talking about the government's response to the flu.
WHO just came out and said the vaccine should be mandatory.
Executives from Baxter, Novartis, Glaxo-Smith Kline, and Sanofi Pasteur have seats at the advisory group that on July 13th recommended mandatory H1N1 vaccination of everyone in all 194 countries that belong to the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a report just issued by journalist Jane Burgermeister. Sweet.
Additionally, Obama has ordered the military to assist FEMA with any outbreak.
In the event of a major outbreak, civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts, the official said. The military, as it would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.
They forgot to mention "and rounding up of any protesters and riff-raff."
I have no idea if the vaccine is a good thing or a bad thing. But I do know this: the logic of our system means that the pharmaceutical companies will pursue profit at the expense of everything else. If that means killing off a few humans, so be it. Also, the logic of our system means that our government will do whatever is necessary to make themselves relevant and powerful, at the expense of all else. Combine both of those incentives and what do you get? A manufactured epidemic.
Here are 10 things you need to know about the vaccine:
#1 - The vaccine production was "rushed" and the vaccine has never been tested on humans. Do you like to play guinea pig for Big Pharma? If so, line up for your swine flu vaccine this fall...
#2 - Swine flu vaccines contain dangerous adjuvants that cause an inflammatory response in the body. This is why they are suspected of causing autism and other neurological disorders.
#3 - The swine flu vaccine could actually increase your risk of death from swine flu by altering (or suppressing) your immune system response. There is zero evidence tthat even seasonal flu shots offer any meaningful protection for people who take the jabs. Vaccines are the snake oil of modern medicine.
#4 - Doctors still don't know why the 1976 swine flu vaccines paralyzed so many people. And that means they really have no clue whether the upcoming vaccine might cause the same devastating side effects. (And they're not testing it, either...)
#5 - Even if the swine flu vaccine kills you, the drug companies aren't responsible. The U.S. government has granted drug companies complete immunity against vaccine product liability. Thanks to that blanket immunity, drug companies have no incentive to make safe vaccines, because they only get paid based on quantity, not safety (zero liability).
#6 - No swine flu vaccine works as well as vitamin D to protect you from influenza. That's an inconvenient scientific fact that the U.S. government, the FDA and Big Pharma hope the people never realize.
#7 - Even if the swine flu vaccine actually works, mathematically speaking if everyone else around you gets the vaccine, you don't need one! (Because it can't spread through the population you hang with.) So even if you believe in the vaccine, all you need to do is encourage your friends to go get vaccinated...
#8 - Drug companies are making billions of dollars from the production of swine flu vaccines. That money comes out of your pocket -- even if you don't get the jab -- because it's all paid by the taxpayers.
#9 - When people start dying in larger numbers from the swine flu, rest assured that many of them will be the very people who got the swine flu vaccine. Doctors will explain this away with their typical Big Pharma logic: "The number saved is far greater than the number lost." Of course, the number "saved" is entirely fictional... imaginary... and exists only in their own warped heads.
#10 - The swine flu vaccine centers that will crop up all over the world in the coming months aren't completely useless: They will provide an easy way to identify large groups of really stupid people. (Too bad there isn't some sort of blue dye that we could tag 'em with for future reference...)
posted by The Sailor @ 4:54 PM Permalink
Yesterday was great weather, great wind, so I played hooky and headed out to the lake. On the way I stopped at a chain liquor store for a 6 pack and ice. I was waiting in line behind a black couple at the cash register when I noticed the clerk give a hard time to the folks in front of me.
The clerk was just plain rude from the get-go, hassled him about his ID, made him produce 3 ID's, and then questioned his significant other about hers. The clerk eventually, grudgingly, accepted their cash.
Me, I'm thinking the clerk was just having a hard day or was habitually rude, except when I got to the counter she was all sunshine and happiness and accepted my credit card with no problem and no request for my DL or anything that would prove it was my CC.
It was obvious, blatant racism on the clerk's part.
There is nothing I could say to the clerk. There's nothing I could say to the couple.
But I know the mangers of this chain and I said something to them. It was probably an exercise in futility, (ya just can't fix stupid), but she's going to be out of a job, and probably will blame black people even more.
I really hate this crap. There's no win/win in racism, it's all just lose/lose.
Here's some brain bleach from the same band from the title of this post.
Howdy, friends, I'm Cal Worthington and this is my dog Spot…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:01 PM Permalink
…Mayor Bloomberg, the billionaire that just loves the homeless so much he's passing out free plane tickets! [RIP Cal, I miss ya! Bill] And hot damn do we have some mighty fine vacationing bargains for you today, bargains that are just plain impossible to resist to the Big Apple, one of the largest cities in the world and, thanks to my dog Spot, one of the most inexpensive vacation packages you ever even heard any good lies about!
Why check out this this value! First we send you and you family to New York using one of those new flat rate post office boxes where if it fits, they'll ship it for one low flat rate. Then we arrange semi-tolerable accommodations for you and your loved ones at any one of the many, many homeless shelters spread throughout the city where all your meals are free, so any money you do take with you should be saved to buy Greg's Papayas or Nathan's Hot Dogs and trips to the top of the Empire State Building! The kids will love it and love you for it after they experience the sheer excitement of the seamy underbelly of what used to be the underbellies seamiest city in America! Hookers, drug dealers, and Wall Street con artists (oh, my!)! Sights the kids are unlikely to ever see again, so get going before it's to late to get gone!
Stay as long as you like! Stay until you have become such a burden to the city, during which you can do some unsurpassed sightseeing, that Mayor Bloomberg…uh…sorry, Spot…until Spot becomes so sick of extending hospitality in one of the most unfriendly cities in America that he will buy you free, that's right, FREE plane tickets home for you and your family provided someone on the other end is willing to take you in, which is a guaranteed thang as today I'm also announcing the grand opening of the "Cal Worthington and His Dog Spot Vacation Return Centers" located in cities all up and down the West Coast, where my staff will gladly verify you have a place to live without revealing that place is your own home!
So come on down to what used to be Wide-Track Town and get yourself a brand new Pontiac vacation for pennies on the dollar, no down payment required, and only a small fee charged for the initial shipping of you and your family!
Jeff Sessions again proves he is completely irrelevant…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:27 AM Permalink
…and totally insignificant to the running of the U.S. Senate, and a total waste of hot air:
The senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says he'll vote against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions says he doesn't think Sotomayor has the convictions to resist the pull of judicial activism once she becomes a justice.
His decision comes the day before the Judiciary panel is to vote on President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. Sotomayor is virtually certain to be confirmed by a vote of the full Senate by the end of next week, becoming the first Hispanic justice.
Most conservative Republicans are lining up against Sotomayor, but a handful of GOP senators are siding with majority Democrats to back her.
It never ceases to amaze me how chicken-hearted, useless, gutless, and jealous small-minded slugs like Sessions are.
He could not get confirmed to a judgeship, I believe in 1995, so now that he is a legend in his own teeny-tiny mind he will play just another stooge voting against Sotomayor for the SCOTUS.
Like anyone actually cares what he or the other useless gop goons do.
But to act as if it was a difficult decision to make, made at the last minute, is sheer sophistry at best.
To ensure the [swine flu] vaccine is available as soon as possible, the EMA is allowing companies to bypass large-scale human trials. Amid concerns about bird flu several years ago, the EMA designed a protocol to fast-track the approval of a vaccine. It let companies submit data for a "mock-up" vaccine, using H5N1 avian flu. The idea was to do most of the testing before a pandemic, so that when it hit, the drug companies could insert the pandemic virus into the vaccine.
I mean, I'm sure they would never do anything that would harm the people, now would they?
“A novel feature of the two H1N1 vaccines being developed by companies Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline is the addition of squalene-containing adjuvants to boost immunogenicity and dramatically reduce the amount of viral antigen needed. This translates to much faster production of desired vaccine quantities.”
...
Your immune system recognizes squalene as an oil molecule native to your body. It is found throughout your nervous system and brain. In fact, you can consume squalene in olive oil and not only will your immune system recognize it, you will also reap the benefits of its antioxidant properties.
The difference between “good” and “bad” squalene is the route by which it enters your body. Injection is an abnormal route of entry which incites your immune system to attack all the squalene in your body, not just the vaccine adjuvant.
Your immune system will attempt to destroy the molecule wherever it finds it, including in places where it occurs naturally, and where it is vital to the health of your nervous system.
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:07 PM Permalink
If you didn't read the Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi because it was too long, you can watch 15 minutes of youtube video and get the basics.
Also, here's an interview he did with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:03 AM Permalink
I watched the last two episodes of Torchwood: Children of Earth last night. It was fantastically dark. Basically, the story went something like Torchwood, in 1965, conceded to a race of aliens and gave them 12 children with the understanding that the aliens would go away and not harm earth. Years later, the aliens come back asking for more children -- a number equalling 10% of the earth's population -- or earth would be destroyed. (I don't even want to say what the aliens did with the children, yikes.)
Anyway, to appease the aliens and collect the children, the government issued a vaccination alert and said all school-age children had to be vaccinated. They reasoned the the children of the wealthy would not be targeted since they were the country's future leadership and that they would only take the majority of the children from the failing schools since they were expendable. It was all perfectly reasoned out and thoroughly planned and the might of the State carried out the dirty deed. (The screaming and kicking children and frantic parents were hard to watch.)
When the show ended, I felt extremely uneasy, mostly because I had just read this:
Around 12,000 U.S. children will be used as guinea pigs for an experimental swine flu vaccine known to contain the dangerous ingredient squalene, which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a host of other debilitating diseases.
All U.S. children aged 6 months to 18 years should get a seasonal influenza vaccine every year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
Which all just hearkens back to the Lone Gunman episode that foreshadowed 9/11.
Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush's evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US's major public health body. [...] The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs. [...] Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for American Values, which describes itself as a supporter of traditional marriage and "against liberal education and cultural forces", said the abstinence message is overwhelmed by a culture obsessed with sex.
Poor Kristi, she didn't get the memo the teenage sex, and pregnancy, and single mothers are to be celebrated according to the GOP's vice-presidential candidate.
She also doesn't understand statistics. The rate of pregnancy and STDs went up the most in the states that had the most aggressive Christain policies of 'abstinence.'
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:55 PM Permalink
So I've not had time to catch up with all the news. But this, forwarded by a reader (Dan D) made me LOL. Had to post it.
Today U.S. Treasury officials announced that Goldman Sachs will start printing its own currency to be called Goldman's Own Denomination or GOD for short.
"GOD notes will be used in place of the worthless dollar bills and Americans will be required to turn in all of their cash to exchange them for the new GOD," said Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.
The words of cowards, black-hearts, and the republican party…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:04 PM Permalink
…are rapidly approaching those of traitors to America that place their own personal interests and party interests ahead of the interest of all Americans - to include their own constituencies.
“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo,” Mr. Obama said, repeating the words of the Republican senator. “It will break him.”
Or this timeless jewel from the collections of traitorous speech by Jim Demint courtesy of Paul Krugman:
Sen. Jim DeMint says that America under Obama is like Germany before World War II. Republican women in Maryland say that Obama is like Hitler. Hitler comparisons are apparently rife at tea parties. What’s gotten into the GOP?
And then there is a wonderful comment by a reader in Paul Krugman's column:
The ultra-right wing Republicans don’t want to debate issues. They aren’t interested in facts. They want to stir up emotions, hurl insults and spew rhetoric. They want to lay the blame for everything that went wrong in this country at the foot of one group, regardless of little that group actually had to do with what went wrong. They label anyone who doesn’t agree with them as being “unpatriotic”, a danger to the security of the fatherland, oops, I mean the nation, and even insinuate that thier [sic] opponents are giving aid to “the enemy” with thier [sic] words. Now who does that sound like ?
Everywhere I go on the web, and admittedly I do not patronize nor read the mouth-breather's websites, I find articles full of ridiculous and traitorous statements made by one Republican Senator after another, all saying it is the goal of their party to stop Obama at every turn, damn the cost. They, and their minions, actively state their desire for Obama to be a failed president and they are working tirelessly to make it so.
These idiots seem ignorant of the fact that if they succeed in making Obama fail, Americans, all Americans, to include even the republican politician's very own constituents are damaged by the traitorous actions of a party which would gladly place party before country without even thinking twice about it.
Bastards. Worthless republican bastards that are naught but a waste of skin and with minds geared to hurting everyone else as long as the republican politician can hopefully gain more power, notwithstanding the damage they do to the people who elected them.
posted by The Sailor @ 10:45 PM Permalink
I've tried over and over to come up with a significant or even clever post about Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin making the first landing on our Moon happen, along with 400,00 NASA employees.
I don't care what they say I won't stay In a world without love
posted by The Sailor @ 6:37 PM Permalink Gordon Waller, of Peter and Gordon, passed away last Friday. He was 64. It seems a bit ironic since Paul McCartney wrote the title song of this post.
As I recall I only had enough money to buy either Chad & Jeremy or Peter & Gordon for my first 45. I went with Chad & Jeremy, but I've since bought P&J albums on vinyl and songs on iTunes, they were some of the songs of my youth.
Enough about me, here's what Peter Asher said about Gordon on their website:
He was my best friend at school almost half a century ago. He was not only my musical partner but played a key role in my conversion from only a snooty jazz fan to a true rock and roll believer as well. Without Gordon I would never have begun my career in the music business in the first place. Our professional years together in the sixties constitute a major part of my life and I have always treasured them.
We remained good friends (unusual for a duo!) even while we were pursuing entirely separate professional paths and I was so delighted that after a hiatus of almost forty years we ended up singing and performing together again more recently for the sheer exhilarating fun of it. We had a terrific time doing so.
Gordon remains one of my very favourite singers of all time and I am still so proud of the work that we did together. I am just a harmony guy and Gordon was the heart and soul of our duo.
I shall miss him in so many different ways. The idea that I shall never get to sing those songs with him again, that I shall never again be able to get annoyed when he interrupts me on stage or to laugh at his unpredictable sense of humour or even to admire his newest model train or his latest gardening effort is an unthinkable change in my life with which I have not even begun to come to terms.
Full disclosure: I worked for Peter Asher Management on my last major tour. They did the best job of any management company I'd ever worked for. Our contracts were solid, a call home would straighten out any problems with the clubs, and the prep work they did for my artist was incredible. We knew how far and directions to not only the next hotel and the next venue, but the stores and bookstores within range of our hotel. It almost made the artist happy.
posted by The Sailor @ 8:37 PM Permalink In the days before cable and network and local blow dried anchors we had Walter Cronkite to tell us what was going on. He wasn't the only one, network news then wasn't supposed to be a profit engine, it was an integral part of what they gave back to the nation in return for their broadcasting licenses. The news division was expected to lose money, but in return they actually did reporting, and reported the truth. It was the networks' version of tithing.
Remembering Walt:
He became one of the top American reporters in World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe.[9] He was one of eight journalists selected by the U.S. Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a B-17 Flying Fortress.[14] He also landed in a glider with the 101st Airborne in Operation Market-Garden and covered the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg trials and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow for two years.
I only recall one time when he choked on the air. It was while he was watching the confirmation come in on John Kennedy's assassination.
Just as he had said that, the editor handed Cronkite the bulletin. Cronkite stopped speaking, put on his eyeglasses, looked over the bulletin sheet for a moment, took off his glasses, and made the official announcement:
From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: (reading AP flash) "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time." (glancing up at clock) 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.
After making that announcement, Cronkite paused briefly, put his glasses back on and swallowed hard to maintain his composure. There was noticeable emotion in his voice as he intoned the next sentence of the news report:
"Vice President Johnson *cough* has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th president of the United States." [...] He then tossed coverage of the events to colleague Charles Collingwood and left the newsroom, but would return several hours later to anchor The CBS Evening News as scheduled.
He was originally for the Vietnam war, but after going there and seeing things for himself he just told the truth as he saw it. When he spoke out against the Vietnam War, President Johnson said "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Johnson was only partially right, he'd lost middle America when everyone knew someone in their own family or a neighbor's family that had died in the war. Cronkite just gave voice and reported facts to what middle America was feeling.
During the 1968 Democratic convention he called Mayor Daily's free speech repression for what it was "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan."
Mr. Cronkite loved science and was a big fan of the space program. When Apollo 11 launched, the first mission to land a man on the moon, he shed his studied demeanor and shouted "go baby, go!"
He was on the air for 27 of the 30 hours till Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down safely on the moon. He was awarded an Ambassador of Exploration Award by NASA. The first person to receive the award that wasn't an astronaut or NASA employee.
And he was a great and generous sailor ... after his family convinced him to give up racing cars.
He had a long, full and productive life and I've barely scratched the phenomenal events he reported on.
When I see the news media stars of today, with their carefully coiffed hair and obeisance to power and willingness to relay whatever tripe they were told by 'anonymous' sources as truth, I fear we'll never see his like again.
Thanks Walt, you gave so much more than you got. And what better thing can we say about a fellow human.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:20 PM Permalink
…which it appears the CIA was doing when they allegedly used fire ants as a torture method to interrogate 'terrorists'.
See this article from the Huffington Post detailing this shameful practice:
…A CIA supervisor involved in the "enhanced interrogation" program bragged to other CIA employees about using fire ants while during questioning of a top terror suspect, according to several sources formerly with the Agency. The official claimed to other Agency employees, the sources say, to have put the stinging ants on a detainee's head to help break him.…
So what is one to make of his bizarre claim to have used fire ants to get a terrorist suspect to talk? …
After reading this fine article I contacted some of my personal sources at the CIA and by happy circumstance actually got to speak to Jim Robertson, the covert agent-in-charge, who has requested and been granted anonymity.
I asked jim my confidential source as to just how they went about using fire ants as agents of torture.
"The difficult part was locating ant wranglers with sufficient skill to capture, train, and then activate the ants to torture on command. We got lucky when we found a rancher in the very heart of Texas whose ranch was being overrun by these critters, his livestock's health in jeopardy, and who would sell us the fire ants at the bargain basement price of only $325,000.00 each.
After acquiring the ants and transporting them to Dick Cheney's secret underground lair, where most torturing was done while VP Cheney, his lap covered with blankets, sat and observed with a faraway -type of smile on his face and the blankets mysteriously moving up and down in a rhythmic fashion. Funny how he made sure no one EVER looked under that blanket, which was always incinerated immediately after the torturing stopped.
The ants themselves were put through an intensive and rigorous training program, which included language skills, studies of the human body, paying particular attention to nerve centers so that they might inflict the most pain possible with the fewest number of ants, and martial arts training to facilitate inducing maxim pain, karate chopping the torture victims with all six legs while simultaneously stinging and biting in unison on command with the other fire ants. I don't know if you've ever been bitten and stung by fire ants, but nothing is worst than six simultaneous karate chops from CIA trained fire ants!
The program was doomed to failure for several reasons: terrorists are normally used to dealing with fire ants and other deadly insects in their daily lives and have, for the most part, developed an immunity to their bites and stings. Also, our interrogators kept losing track of the ants, often stepping on several million dollars worth of agent ants a day, and finally, complaints from the big Dick of some sort of chafing in an unspecified location of his body.
The program was ultimately stopped when it was discovered that a large number of fire ants, say about 50% of them, had developed sympathy for the terrorists and were actually passing on any and all intelligence they could gather to the terrorist allegedly being tortured. Just why they turned on us and defected will never be known for sure, but it is suspected that the defection was prompted by the heavy panting of the Big Dick which just happened to be mostly in the frequency ranges which fire ants use for communication. When they discovered how badly they were being treated, how hard they were forced to work, the long hours of martial arts practice, and their disgust at the thoughts radiating from the Big Dick they arranged an en masse defection.
It was actually kind of embarrassing how they escaped by overpowering the single guard posted to watch them, after which they simply formed a straight line and one-by-one marched out of the Big Dick's hidden, underground and undisclosed location, ironically the same location where the Big Dick always hides in an emergency or for a late night unauthorized rendezvous."
This is where this sad tale of torture must end as my informant's phone line went momentarily dead, then began playing elevator music, and finally a teenager came on the line saying, "Little Caesar's Pizza, may I take your order? Our special today is a south-of-the-border epicurean delight with freshly harvested fire ants piled high to ad that 'special' taste that can be found nowhere else!"
I thanked the young man, declined to make an order, and hung up marveling at the speed with which the CIA covers its tracks.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), seeking to discredit Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy, cited her 2001 “wise Latina” speech, and contrasted the view that ethnicity and sex influence judging with that of Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who “believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices.”
“So I would just say to you, I believe in Judge Cedarbaum’s formulation,” Sessions told Sotomayor.
“My friend Judge Cedarbaum is here,” Sotomayor riposted, to Sessions’ apparent surprise. “We are good friends, and I believe that we both approach judging in the same way, which is looking at the facts of each individual case and applying the law to those facts.”
Cedarbaum agreed.
“I don’t believe for a minute that there are any differences in our approach to judging, and her personal predilections have no effect on her approach to judging,” she told Washington Wire. “We’d both like to see more women on the courts,” she added.
A coward is a coward and cowards, much like a drowning…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:22 PM Permalink
…man will clutch desperately at the tiniest bit of flotsam or debris to keep his head above water to the point that many would-be rescuers have been seized by the desperate drowner, forced under by the victim seeking to climb on top of them, and have been drowned themselves while attempting rescue.
The situation I bring forth here involves nothing heroic and differs from the drowning scenario because here I wish to address cowardice.
There is now a cowardly punk, a major (Major Coward?) in the U.S. Army who is refusing to follow the lawful orders given him by his superiors under the cowardly pretense that President Obama is not an American citizen and therefore not able to issue deployment orders as Commander-in-Chief. He seeks conscientious objector status as well, even though in a moment when his cowardice slipped his mind HE VOLUNTEERED TO SERVE IN AFGHANISTAN. There are no allegations that he was coerced, cajoled, begged, blackmailed, or that he volunteered because his family was being held and threatened.
I'm not going to lend any credence whatever to this scurrilous coward using a false premise, disproved time and time again, that the president is not an American. To my mind the only 'non-American' showing the skunk's stripe running down his cowardly back is the soldier so fearful of being sent to Afghanistan that he has desperately grasped for this false premise regarding the president in order to escape performing the sworn duty for which he volunteered.
Besides, he took an oath to follow the orders of all superior officers, so failing to recognize the president's authority does not absolve him from following the orders of his superiors to deploy to Afghanistan. He should be immediately prosecuted by courts-martial for failure to obey the lawful orders of his superiors. Once he volunteered he came under the authority of the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
This puke is so cowardly that while advancing in rank to a reserve major, allegedly an officer and a gentleman whose word and honor are beyond questioning, then volunteering for assignment to Afghanistan, and now as his rotation date nears this yellow-bellied, tail between his legs, whimpering, mangy dog of a man seeks a way out (come to think of it, while 'man' isn't appropriate for this coward he certainly should not be called terms he obviously disdains: A Reserves Major in service to the Army Reserve).
While it is true, in some cases, that a reservist has a right to ask that any orders of assignment be canceled, such is not the case here.
It seems one of two things have happened here: either his cowardice rose to the surface as his rotation date came near, the more his cowardice commanded his actions. The second is that this puke has grasped an opportunity to politicize the Army Reserves and, acting under orders of the republican party is taking this opportunity to attempt to, futilely, once again try to pretend President Obama isn't an American despite this matter having litigated several times by the same California-based attorney, Orly Taitz, that is perfectly aware that this matter has been litigated and lost as SHE was the attorney of record in several cases on this matter. That, plus the fact that a volunteer seeks 'conscientious objector status' as he can rest assured his military career is over.
His orders to Afghanistan have been pulled, not by request of Major Coward who could have requested their cancelation, but by by the Army Reserve, which, if staffed by anyone with commonsense, recognizes the actions of a coward and/or a political puppet more loyal to a political party than to the country he swore an oath to defend.
Either way Major Coward remains a coward and unworthy not only of his rank, but the distinct honor of wearing the uniform of a military MAN.
Perhaps he harbors fantasies of being able to overcome what has been established in courts-of-law, but his attorney, Taitz, is obviously aware that she has lost this case several times and is now once again frivolously and without merit, IMO, bringing the same matter to a different court hoping for a different decision.
Isn't that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results? IMO she should be severely sanctioned by the court, complaints made to the appropriate bar organizations, and, possibly, revocation of her ability to practice law. Too severe?
SHE REPRESENTS COWARDS AND WASTES VALUABLE COURT RESOURCES AND TIME.
Disbar her and put Major Coward in Ft. Leavenworth.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:16 PM Permalink
…to hear, IMO, bigoted white men like Jeff Sessions (Is he the one from 'Mutt and Jeff?'), Pat Buchanan (who absolutely sounds like a rabid dog as he hyperventilates discussing her), and every other gop talking head on television doing their best to savage Judge Sotomayer while seeming to forget entirely that it was one of THEIR OWN, George the Lesser bush, that originally appointed the Judge to the bench?
And ain't it wonderful to watch the further self-destruction and complete meltdown of republicans as they alienate more and more Latinos and persons of Hispanic descent while simultaneously reminding our large and diverse Black citizenry of America that they remain only a breathe away from being themselves condemned, ridiculed, and marginalized by republicans who hide their prejudices in their heathen little minds, a smile on their face, and a knife ready to stab them all in the back at the first opportunity they believe they can get away with it?
Am I the only one laughing myself sick at the irony…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:23 PM Permalink
…of the gop, the most law-breaking, ignore the rule of law, and seeking any means of personal aggrandizement whether legal or not party in the entire history of America carping about a judicial appointment?
There are so many war criminals in the republican party that if you had a shot of whiskey every time one is named you would be in dire danger of alcohol poisoning.
republicans are traitors and brigands devoted to paying lip service to 'the rule of law' and looking every more silly and ever more self-destructive after having fought tooth-and-nail to impeach Bill Clinton for a personal flaw that had no effect at all on America or its safety. Now they are totally ignoring and willfully overlooking the hugh body of evidence documenting King George's and the Big Dick's incredible insanity in willfully violating law after law after law, damaging America's reputation, endangering our safety, pursuing and instigating illegal wars, conducting a genocide in Iraq, killing millions and displacing millions more, and abusing presidential power in the same manner as every petty dictator who ever subjugated a country. With republican support! Traitors!
When a republican sings, "This land is my land…," they actually mean that America belongs to their party and no other political entity need apply. America is theirs do with what they will, no matter how perverse, illegal, or damaging to America and Americans. (And from the sheer numbers of republicans exposed as wife-cheaters and perpetrators of immoral acts they have a good head start.)
Worst yet, they believe the entire world should be under their thumb and will bomb and destroy any country they believe is not obeying their edicts.
"You shall kneel before me Jor-el! Both you, and one day your heirs!" might as well be the official republican motto! With a few minor changes of course.
Re: Confirming a new SCOTUS judge and the ever-continuing betrayal of America by republicans…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:54 AM Permalink
…Once upon a time, long before King George and the big Dick came into power and pulled off the minor miracle of corrupting power, instead of allowing their absolute desire for power corrupt their already corrupted corporeal beings, America was a more cordial place to live, with ladies and gentlemen in the congress addressing each other in a civil manner, with the specific aim of doing good and accomplishing good works for the people of America, whether those people elected them to office or not. Country before all else; all personal differences addressed in a civil and polite manner with the objective, as stated above, of striving to help all, not carve out personal fiefdoms from which they could pour boiling oil, shoot fire-lit arrows, or cast hugh stones of recrimination upon any citizen questioning their motive to do or not do certain things.
I have always thought that republicans ate their young and cast their old into the desert to suffer the ignoble death their lifetime of arrogant self-service had earned them.
Now we come to the ridiculous circus where the republicans intend to savage a judge, Ms. Sotomayer, who was initially appointed by a republican president, George the Lesser in 1991 and approved by congress in 1992. They have made it clear that they will review the over 3,000 decisions of Judge Sotomayer looking for a very, very few wherein her ruling did not correspond to their political agenda. Also, because she was appointed to the Federal Appeals Court by Bill Clinton in 1997, approved by congress 1998., it seems clear to the gop that she has a hotline to hell.
So basically it comes down to this: according to these lines of attacks the republicans are clearly implying that George the Lesser was a total fookin' idiot to have appointed Sotomayer to the bench in the first place, a position I find hysterically funny, but true in general of the gop. They further have their panties in a bunch because Clinton, satan personified, then appointed her to the Court of Appeals so she could damn all republicans to hell, even though she handily was voted onto the court by democrats and republicans alike, so the republicans have TWICE voted to approve Sotomayor against their own self-interests, demonstrating a self-destructive bent that was finally capitalized upon the election of King George and the Big Dick.
The most insidious, inane, ridiculously stupid thing I ever heard is that the republicans who, through the auspices of Chief John Roberts and Samuel Alito, conservative appointments to SCOTUS, have moved the court farther to the right than it has ever been. What's wrong with restoring some semblance of fairness to the court by swinging it back to the middle which is, I believe, where most thinking Americans wish it to be?
And the positively incredible statements of republicans that judges should forget all accumulated personal knowledge when donning that black robe and that they must not bring their personal experiences or even their judicial experiences onto the bench with them.
Sounds great to me, but we should go much farther than this and extend the list of jobs or everyday activities of Americans.
When you get in your car, immediately forget any experience driving you have or how to drive at all. Forget all hunting safety protocols when hunting with deadly weapons (I think this one is already in effect). Drown quickly as you forget how to swim when you jump in the pool. Fire all air traffic controllers, ship captains, military pilots, and missile silo operators and replace them all with high school dropouts with no experience at all, each totally unskilled and sure to damage America's safety. Forget all the solemn vows to 'love, honor, and respect your mate through sickness or health 'till death do you part' (this is also already in practice within the republican party, compassionate conservatives all, to anyone except the mates to whom they made this vow). Complete forget how and why the advancement of America is a politicians goal and not the opportunity to further damage America, damn the cost!, instead of helping the poor, the aged, the infirm, those desperately needing relief from the high cost of medicine while having no health insurance, instead of spending every waking moment betraying American by always fighting every Democratic resolution just to oppose Democrats and hurt our citizens as they do so. (This, too is and has been in operation since November 2008.)
I could go on and on, but I fear that the depth, sheer size, and scope of the incredulity of republicans and their desire to damage or destroy America, whether by accident or design (and I expect it is by design) would probably consume what is left of my lifetime.
Everyone already knows the outcome of this Kabuki dance. After all the republicans vent their animosity to show fairness under the law they then will do exactly what they know they will do: vote to confirm Sotomayor after taking every cheap shot they can, demonstrating their animosity once again, that they care far less for America than obstructing anything and everything the Obama administration and Democrats propose for the benefit of America.
NOTE: I have heard that the republicans intend to bring forth people who have have their cases, which they lost, which had been heard and decided by Judge Sotomayor.
I'm sure, as must be the republicans, that these losers will have nothing good to say about the judge, so why call them? They ain't got nothin' else which with to flog the judge!
Another brilliant failure, demonstrating the slow but well-deserved sliding of the gop into a political tar pit which, if America is truly blessed, will result in the gop being relegated to complete political obscurity.
Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time... to BUILD UP.
And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country.
Gosh, does she need to spend more time with her family!? Is she spending her time on her campaign to be president and ignoring her vows ... to be governor? Has she been hiking that 'Appalachian Trail.' Read the whole thing and decide for yourselves.
In the mean time, stay tuned for the next (psychotic) episode of Moose & Squirrel: Dahling, What Big Antlers You Have ... or ... Republican Hopes Are Riding On My Back!
Prepare for the comeback of the century: It is well-known that Michael Jackson's brain…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:16 AM Permalink
…remains with the Los Angeles Coroner's Office. No one has really satisfactorily explained this. The truth can now be revealed.
I have it directly from a solid inside source requesting confidentiality because of her position as family hairdresser, a person not authorized to speak at all, much less to any entity that might post her comments, so I have agreed to keep Zelda anonymous and conceal her identity.
My confidential, anonymous, unknown to man or beast, person of mystery has reported that the family is in serious high level talks with the Japanese robot building company Ramen (not at all connected to the cup 'o soup makers as far as Zelda… uh… my confidential inside source could determine) to develop a robot capable of moonwalking, singing, hiding in seclusion, and able to hold children over the safety rails of balconies for the first possible brain transplant (Michael's into the computer, NOT vice versa).
The main problems so far have been to build a computer as erratic as Michael that will hold a coat of white pain and with a nose that must be glued on before each performance. No problems with drug addiction have been experienced as by happy circumstance all robots easily become addicted after the first dosing of narcotics.
My informant says that as soon as these minor difficulties are worked out there will be a worldwide tour showcasing the return of Michael.
You heard it here first, where we take the news seriously, don't take ourselves seriously, and with the hope that our audience appreciates reading about this here in VidiotSpeak first and exclusively!
Headline: Dallas police cut extra protection at George W. Bush's home…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:59 AM Permalink
…which leads me to ask, "Why the fook are we paying millions for extra security for multimillionaire former president bush's security? Especially since bush buried this country in debt from unnecessary wars of choice (a universally recognized war crime, making bush a war criminal not yet indicted), insanely reckless borrowing-and-spending, dumping regulations now causing our imminent bankruptcy, expanding the size of government virtually exponentially and who, being a multimillionaire, can afford to pay for his own protection?
See this article wherein it is reported that the city of Dallas is being forced to reduce their end of bushy's security detail for economic reasons:
The Dallas Police Department has cut back on some of the additional protection that the department provided around the Preston Hollow home of former President George W. Bush.
In addition to the usual Secret Service protection, Dallas until last week had stationed one on-duty tactical officer per eight-hour shift on the street outside the president’s home. The estimated cost of that service was $300,000 for about a year, according to police officials who asked that they not be named.
“We just had to cut it,” said one police official, who agreed to speak on the condition on anonymity. “We’re about to layoff people.”
But Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, who declined to discuss specific changes said, “Our decision on how to deploy people around security issues like this is not dependent on the budget. They’re based on other factors.”…
In early January, police department officials had said that the tab to provide crowd and traffic control at the new Preston Hollow home of former President Bush could reach $1 million a year. The $1 million figure was based on the cost of providing at least two officers per 8-hour shift on a 24-hour basis for one year.
Again I ask, what the hell are we doing paying for the security of millionaires perfectly capable of providing their own security? Hell, I'd even cut off protection by the Secret Service and recommend to bushy that he have Blackwater and others he paid millions in 'no-bid' contracts to take over his security, for free given how many millions they made in Iraq.
It also strikes me as hysterically funny that bush apparently just couldn't wait to abandon his false persona as a 'man of the land, a rancher' and return to being the city slicker he always was. The entire world now knows that bush is afraid of horses so I speculated all along that it was Laura who enjoyed riding horses around the ranch, dodging the obvious piles of equine excrement left behind by bush.
Wow! Thank goodness I tuned in MSNBC and found out…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:40 AM Permalink
…that there are top, I mean TOP people commenting upon and striving to resolve America's financial and unemployment problems.
Astute, educated, knowledgeable men such as Mr. Stephen A. Smith, former journalist and ESPN reporter, a man therefore whom has a demonstrated ability at running a country of 300 million people and obviously capable of solving our unemployment difficulties single-handedly. Or not, as, after all, the bio box did say he was a former journalist and ESPN reporter.
Why does America tolerate garbage like this and depend on these people to inform and educate them?
I don't know Mr. Smith, and 'though these comments may seem to be directed at him personally they are not. I am simply using him as a real life example of how newsreaders pretend to inform us with pretend celebrities. For all I know Mr. Smith is an M.I.T. graduate who then decided to major in economics on a full-ride scholarship from Harvard after obtaining his PhD in business marketing and financial modeling from Yale, but if so I think the bio box would have commented on that instead of 'former journalist and ESPN employee.'
And I'm certain Mr. Smith is at least as qualified to offer an opinion on these urgent matters as am I.
Wake up America, you're dreaming! (h/t to Cheech and Chong)
[...] Past president Mike Leonard, a columnist for The Herald Times of Bloomington, Ind.: "As a Hoosier, I feel that she's done something that Dan Quayle could never do. Which was to make Dan Quayle look good. ... After the election, the video of Sarah and the poultry processing factory ... that pretty much says it all. The gift that keeps on giving."
Update: In an interview with ABC ... wait, what!? It's the media's fault but she keeps doing everything she can to extend her 15 minutes of infamy!? Anyhoo
As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between the White House and what she had experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.
"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.
The WH has a 'Department of Law!?' Huh, who knew?[/snark]
I've seen comments on other sites that the reason Dems & some Repubs are 'attacking' Sarah (if by 'attacking her' they mean 'letting her talk') is that we're scared of her.
I have to admit I'm scared .... but for her not of her. I'm scared she won't make it to 2012 if someone doesn't put her on a respirator stat! She's too stupid to breathe.
And I disagree with her latest award, she's not a sitting duck, she's a turkey in a hopper.
If we don't get our priorities straight we'll get bent…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:05 AM Permalink
…in a manner that will really hurt.
I speak of a new Microsoft commercial where a rather ordinary man is greeted by applause and accolades while written narrative points out that the man helped create the USB port, now so ubiquitous I don't think there are any new computers being made without one or two. While the man waves, smiles, fills his coffee cup the voice over points out that they, Microsoft, have a different standard by which they determine their heroes.
I think this is the greatest commercial ever made as it points out such a glaring mistake now routinely made in America and elsewhere: We heap accolades, and big bucks, on 'stars' and 'heroes' based on their ability to hit a running man with a football or basketball so he can then score points in a game of absolutely no historical significance except to the players, who may then demand, and get, salaries in the millions of dollars.
We routinely call men of sports, singers who have made millions, and people such as actors heroes and stars, larger than life, commanding the attention of millions and enjoying seemingly unending adulation. Anyone remember how the Roman Empire ultimately failed because it, too, got into hero worship and the games they played while their empire collapsed around them? (And, yes, I know this is an oversimplification of the fall of the Roman Empire, but this worship of men as idols because they could slay more slaves than anyone else contributed heavily to the collapse.
Personally I believe it is already too late to to change this paradigm and return to the days when men like Nikola Tesla (without whom we would not have AC power, the electric motors he designed that remain the best and most efficient motors ever, the "step-up" or Tesla coils that enabled the advent of television, enabled cars to generate the high voltage required to run them, and many other inventions of which we will never know as the government seized his labs and classified all is work 'top secret'. Men like George Westinghouse who spread the wiring for carrying AC current tremendously after Tesla sold him the patent for AC electricity for $5,000 so Westinghouse could have it to use at the 1905 world fair, Henry Ford and other engineers that forever changed transportation and shipping; the railroad barons with the foresight to lay tracks from shore to shore; the Wright Brothers who brought us flight [and were probably rewarded with the most fame]; and countless engineers, mechanical engineers, architects, and other unrecognized persons who are directly responsible for building the greatest nation on earth, which has done nothing but atrophy and which continues to fall apart at an ever faster rate.
That's why I'm so impressed with the Microsoft commercial, but it simply doesn't go far enough. While countries like China graduate around 9,000 engineers a year the United States graduates a paltry 900 or so. With that kind of superiority in the pursuit and application of knowledge it is no wonder America is falling behind so rapidly as to be considered irrelevant.
An easy example: my Warrior Woman wife is Filipina. The Philippines started programs years ago to improve their electrical and computer hardware so now a country years and years behind us in so many areas have cheap cell phones, able to call everywhere in the Philippines and, check this out, internet access SIXTEEN TIMES faster than our best rates of transmission.
Why? Because it is a matter of pride and hard work that the country has made graduating engineers a priority, as have so many nations. America the leader in innovation and new inventions? I think not. We're too busy educating engineering students from India, China, Singapore, and many other countries and then, with no prospects of working with genuinely cutting edge companies, they return home educated, celebrated by their citizenry, and ready, able, and capable of helping their country surpass America at every turn.
If our leaders expect us to 'invent new technologies' and count on our 'innovation' to restore America to greatness, then they better glorify, support, and give incentives to TV shows like Numb3rs and start programs to locate, identify potential engineers, pay for their education, housing, cars, a very generous salary and glorify those people as the heroes that will most benefit society and change forever the paradigm that says the man who can score the most points in a game of sport does nothing to advance technological achievements or improve the human condition. They are NOT heroes or stars or even of modest benefit to America.
Engineers build roads, bridges, railroads, highways and maintain and invent new infrastructure.
Show me a single sports team that has accomplished anything for America other than providing entertainment and getting cheap land and massive tax breaks for their stadiums that exacerbate the problem. Go ahead, I dare you.
MEA CULPA: This wonderful commercial is from INTEL and not Microsoft. I have no idea how I got Microsoft fixed in my head as the creators of this commercial, but if I could fix my head I wouldn't know how to act. I apologize to Intel and our dear readers for the gear slippage to which I occasionally (o.k., often) fall prey. This mistake was mine, mine tell you all mine, completely in it's entirety and anyone claiming otherwise should write me if they wish to assume this mistake in my behalf (the going price for assuming blame is a dollar twenty-two ninety five and a kewpie doll freshly smuggled in from Kewpie Land.)
The rest of my comments above are still accurate as far as I am concerned, so there.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:54 AM Permalink
…when it comes to our constitutional rights to travel unimpeded between and among the states of this Union. I have always (apparently inaccurately) thought that meant that any American could go to any other state by way of any means public or private, unfettered from paperwork, and without declaring the reasons for which you might need or want to use public transportation.
All Americans know that this is not true in view of the 'terrorists watch list', now a few million names long, with no explanation forthcoming from government as to the criteria used to compile that list other than generalities like paying for a one-way ticket with cash, where even an employee who says you are acting erratically (like trying to check a third bag. Mein Gott! Was ist los?), and many, many other criteria that remain secret to the public.
There apparently is no means by which you can have your name removed from this list, as Senator Kennedy (probably the most well-know and most recognized Senator in my lifetime) who has several times been detained for long lengths of time until "someone" (I think it's that little guy pulling all the levers needed to pretend to be the all-powerful wizard of Oz) ultimately either sends you through or tells you you cannot board your in-country flight at all because of the list.
Blatantly unconstitutional and a violation of your rights with no one in government designated to hear an appeal against you making it virtually impossible for you to travel by a means of public transportation freely, as envisioned by our founders.
What could be more nefarious and dangerous to travel rights than this? Glad you asked.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry told the Austin crowd that Washington needed to hear them "loud and clear" on a message of cutting spending and taxation and shrinking the government. Perry also drew some boos on his support of toll roads to alleviate traffic congestion
These privately owned toll roads will be yet another cancer on America as our governments take advantage and cancel public road projects, allow private roads to deteriorate even further, and, to boot, further exacerbate the line between the poor and the well-to-do even farther.
I can just see it now, a pregnant soccer mom with a car full of screaming kids inadvertently takes the wrong freeway exit and finds herself pulling up to beautiful tolls booth decorated with gold leaf highlights, well-lit, with at least two well- coiffed uniformed persons manning the booth.
As she rolls to booth, winding down her window, one of the men comes to the window and says, "That will be $122.00, please.
The shocked woman asks, "$122.00! Just to get across town for my son's Little League game!"
"Well, ma'am, you DID turn into the private toll road exit off the freeway. And by the way, we here at the Toll Roads Conglomerate donate five cents of every toll taken to support local sports and schools, so what are you complaining about?" he said.
She: "But I can't afford to spend $122.00 just to go 40 miles across town! Isn't there some alternative?"
He: "Well, yes ma'am there is. We have an entire fleet of tow trucks to tow people such as yourself back to the regular highway."
She: "Can't I just back up and turn around?"
He: "Oh, no ma'am, you've already crossed the spikes that will destroy your tires if you try to back up, and I'd hate to see that happen."
She: "All right, you win, please call me a tow truck to bring me back to the highway."
The attendant pushes a button on the wall and within a scant few minutes a big, shiny, new-looking tow truck arrives on the scene. The driver hooks her up, turns into a road hidden from view of the booth, and in short order indeed the woman and her children are back on the freeway and again have the choice of exits for privately-owned toll roads or state run freeways.
She: "Oh, thank you! Thank you! I couldn't possibly afforded that private road! By the way, what do I owe you for the tow?"
Tow Truck Driver: " That comes to 366.00 dollars, please."
Shocked, the woman asked, "How can you have the nerve to charge so much? I'm calling my Senator and Congressman about this! You'll see and learn the hard way that you just just can't do this to poor people like myself!"
Driver: "Collectively speaking your Senator, Congressman, the Governor of this state, the State Legislator, and the Highway Commission have reviewed this matter, found it to be efficient, that it reduces traffic for the rich people who shouldn't have to drive on the same road as you in your hoopty mobile packed with screaming kids, detracting from the serenity of traveling a road only for the rich. The rest of you riffraff will just have to sit in heavy traffic on public roads."
She, after paying the tow: "Well, at least I have the satisfaction of knowing YOU will have a horrible day."
How so the driver asked. "Well, said she, as you were lecturing me about being riffraff little Johnny was using the pocket knife he got for Christmas to flatten every tire on your tow truck while you were being such a pompous ass!" Her words quickly fading in the wind as she drove away.
At least five states already have in use or construction private toll rolls. Now what will they do with all those left over taxpayer's dollars while our infrastructure steadily deteriorates. What income reducing tax breaks were given to those powerful corporations which, although they haven the present ability to pay any taxes, will be tax free for decades. So has it been ordered, so shall it be done.
This new development will metastasize like a malignant cancer as it encourages the private sectors to come up with ever more expensive ways to fleece the unsuspecting, unprepared public, with each new cancer node more imaginative than the last.
I'm sorry I didn't post this earlier, but I urge readers to go over to Zero Hedge and check out this post about the NYSE's recent decision to change its procedures... to protect Goldman Sachs from bloggers like Zero Hedge!
Simply put, if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, it will mean that any restrictions on campaign spending by corporations will be invalid because they violate those corporations’ right to freedom of speech.
With those pesky campaign restrictions eliminated, corporations can openly buy any politician they want, as opposed to not-so-secretly buying them like they do now.
posted by The Sailor @ 5:03 PM Permalink
Submitted (almost) without comment:
Stars and Stripes is a Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper distributed overseas for the U.S. military community. Editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command, it provides commercially available U.S. and world news and objective staff-produced stories relevant to the military community in a balanced, fair, and accurate manner. By keeping its audience informed, Stars and Stripes enhances military readiness and better enables U.S. military personnel and their families stationed overseas to exercise their responsibilities of citizenship. - Revised DoD Directive 5122.11
Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, and since 1945 in the Pacific. Today, our readers number well over 350,000.
That was then, this is now. From the Stars and Stripes:
Asserting that Stars and Stripes “refused to highlight” good news in Iraq that the U.S. military wanted to emphasize, Army officials have barred a Stripes reporter from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul. [...] “Under the embed rules and the congressional mandate of editorial independence for this newspaper, it does not fall under the authority or competence of the command to decide if we do a story, what story we do, or what angle we take in writing the story,” Leonard wrote in his appeal.
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:48 PM Permalink This is a diagram of what TV shows the various star systems should now be receiving. (Full size can be found here.)
Wow, I'm sort of jealous of Capella and Beta Aquilae. They'll be seeing Star Trek the original series soon. Oh, and Procyon is lucky too. They get to see all the Family Guy episodes for the first time. I've seen both shows so many times I can practically say the dialogue.
Wait. Maybe I shouldn't post this. It makes me seem kinda' sad.
Russia spent what, 25-30 years trying to do the impossible: the task of conquering Afghanistan.
America did everything possible to keep that from happening (Makes me wonder why when their only natural resources are opium and top-grade marijuana) (Iran Contra-The Sequel?) including arming Osama bin Laden and his band of merry murderers and providing training from the Green Beret operatives there surreptitiously.
Afghanistan is one of the major factors causing the Russians to spend money endlessly until the entire empire collapsed under the weight of all spending. I'm more than certain there are Russian strategists supplying the Taliban/bin Laden with arms and intel and simultaneously stirring anti-American propaganda through the Middle East and laughing their collective arses off as they watch America follow the same disastrous path which they traveled before with results nothing short of a catastrophe.
Face it, bush borrowed-and-spent more money than anyone in history, oversaw the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich ever seen, (with the exception of churches) recklessly took America into an unnecessary war of choice (a war crime by itself as we were not provoked by Iraq), broke the banks 'til they began collapsing, damaged the reputation of the world's finest soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines by allowing waivers for know criminals, drug dealers, felons of all stripes, and did this while reducing America's fighting forces to little more than conscription with the stop-loss plan that renders thousands of military men and women to nothing more that chattel forced to fight with broke down, semi-destroyed or damaged equipment America cannot afford to repair so these conscripts can at least perform the duties for which they were conscripted.
I would also be sure that the Russians, through diplomatic channels, keep seeding anti-American sentiments, especially with Iran, and seeking to tie our hands to the point where if we do attack yet another Muslim country we will clearly be at fault, despised, ridiculed, disrespected, and the laughing stock of the world once again.
I strongly suspect that there are mutual defense pacts already signed between Russia, China, and Iran, bearing in mind the billions and possibly trillions of dollars in cold hard cash, reactor parts, uranium, yellowcake, oil, and other resources that could be shared mutually.
And anyone dumb enough to believe America still has the most formidable fighting forces on earth are fooling neither themselves nor anyone with normal powers of observation.
No, ultimately some country/ies will someday will have its or their way with America, won't even have to resort to date-rape drugs either, and will then leave Lady Liberty soiled, used and abused and begging for a 'morning after pill' that the traitorous gop will deny her.
Well, at least I won't have to watch the news for a few weeks…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:41 AM Permalink
…now that a guy who sold a boatload of records has passed away. Yes, I'm speaking of Michael Jackson (and for the first, only, and last time) who's claim to fame is the millions made selling records, popularizing the 'moonwalk', and who once showcased the talents of Elmer Berstein in a song called Thriller.
I have nothing against the worlds most well-known androgynous performer, but in my opinion he suffered mental maladies so severe as to, allegedly, deliberately infect himself with a disease in an attempt to make himself whiter. A sad, sad man and, IMHO, NOT an example we should hold forth to children as some type of demigod to be worshipped and feted for day after day after day, with every self-appointed friend and expert (think Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc.) propounding they were the closer and better friend and all the others are frauds and cannot speak for the family.
What a shame the family didn't get a period of mourning before providing the funeral for their lost family member and instead are barraged daily and non-stop by every talking head, commenters, supposed friends, people with their own agenda, and people desiring and aspiring to be able to claim friendship, however tangential and tenuous may be the connection they claim, seeking to accrue fame by an appearance on TV or a radio talk show where Jackson's name is mentioned.
Yes he was talented, but I believe a blind fool could see that he possessed more than a sufficient number of problems to keep teams of psychiatrists busy for a lifetime, and parents failing to explain this to all the little children are being derelict in their parental duties unless, as many will, they simply ignore all the brouhaha.
Which brings me 'round full circle to the fact that it will be unnecessary to tune in any cable news networks which will be broadcasting all Michael, all the time, until something really important or catastrophic occurs.
A real time saver, as I need not watch all the hoopla; just change the station or watch any of my over 2,000+ DVD's (My son got this really cool movie database where you just scan in the barcode using the Macs built-in camera, revealing a wealth of information from the barcode, and making it easy to alphabetize them to shelve them in order. I thought I only had 1,000-1,200 DVDs so you can imagine my surprise at the final count!). (I have entirely too much time on my hands!)
May he R.I.P. finally rid of all the hangers-on, sycophants, hustlers, and others seeking to use or attach themselves to his fame and ride his coattails for self- aggrandizement. The dogs will be fighting for every scrap of Jackson's fortune for years to come instead of paying tribute, offering their respects to their 'hero', and letting him rest in peace.
And the loser of the, "I'll never give up; never surrender…"
posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:23 AM Permalink
…contest of willpower is (drum roll in the background) (wait for it!) STORMIN' NORMAN COLEMAN!!
Yes, Stormin' Norman Coleman has finally succumbed to the tenacious kryptonite-hurling attacks of Al Franken, an unearthly patient candidate who just kept wading through ever deeper excrement increasingly being hurled at himself and the Democratic Party since the '08 elections.
Ah, the people of Minnesota owe a great debt of gratitude to the republican party and Stormin' Norman, both of whom deprived the state of their lawfully elected Senator for the last seven months or so, ignoring the requirement that the state be represented by two Senators lawfully elected by a majority of Minnesotans, and damaging, perhaps permanently, democracy, by now forcing a candidate to not only win with a majority of votes, but whom must now be prepared with a phalanx of attorneys to continue the fight for victory and the assumption of office by the winning candidate if there remains time to be seated for that term.
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but other than the Bush/Gore illegal fiasco that gave us our first court-appointed president, I have never seen such a prime example of arrogance, whining, and overall general cowardice than that exhibited by Stormin' Norman. I expect to hear on the news any day now that Stormin' Norman, and his band of merry employees that know they may not be able to find any other jobs after this, have seized the in-state offices of Senator Franken, chained themselves to any desk, chair, or radiator they can find while threatening to conduct a coup against Minnesota leadership, from the governor down and to include the Senator himself.
It will be a difficult, arduous battle for them as they will be armed only with staplers, pencils and pens, paper airplanes, rubber bands shooting paperclips, and a promise to stay until the last mutineer has died of starvation or old age.
After nearly eight months of waiting, almost 20,000 pages of legal briefs, and millions of dollars in election costs, Al Franken emerged Tuesday as the next United States senator from Minnesota, ending one of the most protracted election recount battles in recent memory.
Mr. Franken, 58, a former comedian and author, could be seated in the Senate as early as Monday, leaders there said, providing Democrats with something they had long hoped for: 60 votes, and thus at least the symbolic ability to overcome filibusters.
Norm Coleman, a Republican who had held the seat for a term, conceded on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the Minnesota Supreme Court issued a ruling in Mr. Franken’s favor, the latest in a series of findings that had left Mr. Franken ahead in the count. In weeks past, some Republican leaders had urged Mr. Coleman to press on to the federal courts if need be, but those calls faded Tuesday.
Wanna bet that 'those calls [that] faded Tuesday' were from what's left of the anemic leadership of that shipwrecked-on-a-desert-isle party, the gop, who begged and pleaded with Stormin' Norman to just give it up and stop embarrassing himself, the party, the state of Minnesota, the Senate in general, democratic elections, and the judges who continued to deny Stormin' Norman his fiefdom.
And congratulations to Senator Al Franken, now ready to accept the title, duties, and seat in the Senate he duly won.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
