Goodbye and Good Luck

In 5 short days it'll be like waking up in a jail cell with a bad hangover, an overwhelming sense of shame and the need to bankroll quickly and cleanly to cover court costs and attorney fees...

It'll feel almost exactly like that, except a hundred thousand times worse.

I still feel dirty... so should you.

Beware! More Blood...

I must be a grownup now, because I'm always bitching about my taxes, but seriously, I don't want anymore of my hard-earned dough going to Israel so they can do this ...

I don't see how the Palestinians are supposed to be such big terrorists when they are the ones getting killed. I saw a Norwegian doctor (Mads Gilbert) on tv last night. He flew to Gaza as soon as Israel started bombing. He doesn't have enough equipment for anything -- not even enough I.V. carts and the Israelis won't call the massacre in Gaza a crisis because they "...suspect the hospital of harboring Hamas terrorists..." Here is a picture of a Palestinian family for the Israeli Government and Joe Biden and George Bush. I want my yearly 3+ billion dollar gift to Israel refunded so my fellow citizens can pay their heating bills and Palestinians don't ever have to take another family portrait like the one below.

Happy New Year!!!

Voter Fraud Watch Redux

Remember November 2000? In Florida, where W's brother just happened to be governor, all of those ballots marked Gore had to be thrown out and in violation of the US Constitution, the Supreme Court dubbed W. "the Decider".

What about 2004? When the Department of Justice engaged in vote caging, and used dubious tactics to bar deployed military personnel and minorities and lower income people from voting. That, coupled with the votes lost due to "technical problems" in Ohio, points to yet another presidential election stolen by BushCo.

Now it's 2008 and BushCo's fat cat friends don't want to give up their lucrative, thieving ways -- and dammit, McCain is old and it is his turn to be President. So in Michigan, the Republicans are once again attempting to use vote caging -- by using foreclosure lists to prevent hard hit Michigan citizens from voting.

Can you imagine the scene at the polls???

Hard-Working, Laid-Off, Tax-Paying Citizen Ruined By BushCo ("Citizen"): I'm John Q. Public. May I please have my ballot?

Heartless, Greedy, Unpatriotic Asshole GOP Election Judge ("Unpatriotic GOP Asshole"): Let me see... hmmmm.... I'm very sorry, Mr. Public. You won't be voting today.

Citizen: What do you mean? I've been coming to this polling place for 20 years!

Unpatriotic GOP Asshole: Yes. But you are no longer a homeowner in this area. You lost your home. You can't pay your bills. You don't get to vote.

Citizen: I lost my home because the factory where I've been working for the last 25 years moved to China. My heating bill tripled and my daughter developed leukemia from drinking polluted water. Now we rent an apartment in this precinct with another family. It's crowded, but at least our kids didn't have to change schools. Now, please hand me my ballot. Besides, property ownership is not a voting requirement. Does the GOP even know how to spell constitution anymore? (authors note: please see Constitutional Amendments 14, 15, 19, 24 and 26.)

Unpatriotic GOP Asshole: I am so sorry you've had such a hard time, but that hard time is precisely why you CAN'T vote. We simply don't trust that you will continue to be a loyal Republican and if we think you won't vote for McCain, you lose your right to vote.

And the Democrats, in a surprising and long overdue display of chutzpah, ARE ACTUALLY CHALLENGING THIS BEFORE THEY LOSE ANOTHER ELECTION. The Democratic National Committee is taking the GOP to court in Michigan and in Ohio, their Secretary of State has stricken the dubious vote caging policies put in place before the election in 2004 by her Republican predecessor.

Ohio Republicans are crying foul -- because today's Republican policy makers see a level playing field as a threat to their continued looting and tyranny. It is the only thing they see clearly these days. However, 2 Ohio "voters" are now suing Ohio for not weighting their votes more heavily, by throwing out the votes of others. Ohio Republicans are also attempting to challenge voters via foreclosure listings. Boy, those Republicans really put country first! Not! Actually, Republicans are trying to prevent homeless citizens (whose numbers have greatly increased during BushCo's tenure) from voting at all anywhere in the country. Now THAT'S compassionate conservatism and good, old fashioned patriotism. Sure, sure, sure!!!

Go, Obama, go! We're from Chicago and you can't trick us, you GOPpy, crappy, pansy, crybaby neocons. We INVENTED voter fraud back when your great-granddaddies were still getting pantsed at Andover and we reformed ourselves long before John McCain took bribes from Charles Keating during the Savings and Loan Scandal.

We are on to you crooks and you aren't getting away with it this time.

Just in case you thought this would be a free election

In St. Paul, Minnesota -- where everybody is nice! -- they are arresting journalists and bloggers who are trying to cover the Republican National Convention, including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Maybe you would like to sign the petition, requesting that Nice St. Paul, Minn., nicely respect the constitution and a free press. Go here.

Also, please note that while you had to tune in to PBS last week to watch the Democratic Convention, all of the big 3 networks are broadcasting hour-long edited versions of the Republican Convention, including most of the bigger speeches.

(Like the one where W. remembers to say 9/11 for the eighty gazillion bajillionth time, and tangentially compares "the angry left" to the Vietcong who tortured McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. Yeah, you bet your flat ass I'm angry, W.)

And some of the things you might have missed watching the convention on ABC, CBS or NBC, included Big, Bad Barbara Bush of the Beautiful Brain laughing when hearing about the deaths of 13 people during a bridge collapse in Minnesota last year and Papa H.W. checking his watch while Laura rambled through her Halcyion high, smile plastered firmly to her stepford face.

Hurricanes - R - Us!!! -Greedy Oil Party

Mi amor, mi chingador ... te conoceré en el infierno

Four hundred eighty-eight years ago today Cuitláhuac led the Aztecs against Hernán Cortés and his Spanish merceneries, driving them out of Tenochtítlan.

Cuitláhuac was dead of small pox within a few months. (Bioterrorism was created by the Western man.)

Cortés had been greeted by the Aztecs as a god. They believed him to be an incarnation of Huitzilopochtli, god of war and patron of Mexico. This was because Cortés' lover la Malinche told him how to act in order to best the Aztecs. and so Cortés ended up lucky in love and money.
According to legend, Malinche was sold into slavery by her Aztec mother after her mom remarried and wished to leave her land to children by her 2nd marriage. (Aztec inheritance was matrilineal). Malinche was in the way and so she was placed on the auction block.

She passed through many tribes and ended up translating for Cortés because she knew so many languages. He was a conquistador thousands of miles from his wife, so he lived up to his name and conquered Malinche and with her help (the Spanish never would have succeeded without her) he conquered the Aztecs.

According to other legends, Malinche had several children by Cortés and when he left Malinche in order to return to Spain and his European family, she was so heartbroken that she drowned her children and herself.

Malinche was doomed by all of the gods in all of the heavens of all of the religions to search the earth for the souls of her children and not to return to the gates of heaven until she finds them. Her dead children of course, are hiding from her, seeing as she drowned them. So she tears at her hair and she keens and moans in her grief and that cry will turn your blood to ice in your veins and because of that cry, the ghost of Malinche is called La Llorona.

And to this day La Llorona snatches little children from the shore and drowns them. Perhaps she mistakes them for her own, she has been searching so long. Perhaps, she hopes to trick the gatekeepers and sneak into heaven with someone else's child.

Today, in Mexican spanish, a malinche is an unforgivable traitor. and La Llorona is a folk song and a cautionary tale used by parents to warn children away from the water.

Today, Tenochtitlan is el D.F. (Distrito Federal) or Mexico City as we call it in english-speaking countries. The city's residents speak spanish, not nuahtl.

The wheel turns.

"Let them eat yellow cake!"

Well, they tell me of the pie up in the sky

Waiting for me when I die

But between the day you're born and when you die

They never even seem to hear you cry

But as sure as the sun will shine

I'm gonna get my share now, what's mine

And then the harder they come

The harder they fall, one and all

Ooh, the harder they come

Harder they fall, one and all

-- from The Harder They Come

by Jimmy Cliff

************************

Let them eat yellow cake!

The Greatest American Hero...

... is Dennis Kucinich. He has been ridiculed in the media for being short, but Dennis Kucinich deserves applause and more importantly, support for standing up in Congress and reading the heinous crimes of George W Bush out loud. It's a long list, but this barely scratches the surface of his misdeeds.

For those of you in the US -- it was broadcast live on C-Span, but I am sure that no other major US news outlet will even mention it -- that's the kind of censorship we've been living with. So please take the time to read them and call your Congressman urging them to support Kucinich's articles of impeachment.

If we don't impeach Bush, our country will never recover from this consistent abuse of power by the Executive Branch, no matter who the next President is.

Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment as read on the House Floor (obtained from the Belfast Telegraph. So much for a free press -- and shame on you, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post, etc., etc., etc.)

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to " Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX
Imprisoning Children

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

Circular Thinking

It is estimated that the occupation of Iraq has cost US taxpayers about $536 billion by the end of today, Wednesday, May 21st.

But today the Executive Idiot vetoed a farm bill because farmers "are making too much money" because the cost of food has gone up so much.

Of course, the cost of food has gone up because the cost of oil has gone up -- and the only people making money off that are Bush's friends, like the bigwigs at Halliburton and the Al Saud family.

I'm not friends with the Halliburton board of directors, or the Al Saud family (rumored to be supporting the insurgency in Iraq). I do have friends who are farmers and they are having a tough year because the price of oil is so high and frankly a disproportionate amount of people from rural areas are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- their kids are fighting the insurgents who are subject to and financially supported by the Al Saud family.

And meanwhile, our surplus food reserves are drying up. The food pantries and soup kitchens are receiving less food, just as more people are forced by the economy to use them.

So the Executive Idiot thinks the answer is to deny funding to farmers -- most of whom work another full time job to "support their farming habit" as my friend Jaybird says.

So more family farmers are forced out of business trying to pay for diesel fuel...

further depleting food reserves...

which more Americans need because everything is so expensive because of the high cost of oil and the weak dollar....

which was weakened by Bush's policies favoring his big business alliances...

which is why we are spending $750 million dollars a day to occupy Iraq...

which is why the Al Saud family sends so-called insurgents into Iraq to fight US military...

which is why Cheney and Bush threaten to attack Iran...

which is why hundreds of thousands of human beings die for oil...

which is reaping record profits for big business, Bush and his cronies...

....which worried the cat that chased the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Bush built.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

This audacity of theirs is not new.



Oh, Dick!!! I Want To Ream You!!!

Cheney, Cheney, Cheney

Mine own ravenous vampire

My Midas zombie king!!!

Go and run far away.

Just run and run and run

Take your lead heart

and your thirst and your hunger

To lie, to sneer, to kill

I caress your lily white hands

Soft as the Pillsbury Doughboy

You are soft as the Pillsbury Doughboy

Because you are old and impotent

And this is why you kill children

And this is why you kill mothers

And this is why you plunge drills

Deep into the earth's core

Because you are impotent

And so we all shall suffer

Your hanging flag

And your long shotgun

Your long, long shotgun

For you are not a man.

But you are from Wyoming

And know the glacier

Of inadequacy.

And so you kill babies

And so you kill Americans

And so you kill Iraqis

And so you kill everyone

You shoot your friends

You rape civilization

You rape the constitution

With your lily-white hands

And your limp Dick Cheney

In Hell you will be spread

Shot and speared and reamed,

Dick -- 9 times in 9 places

Forever and ever again and again...

I know I haven't mentioned it in awhile, so in case you've forgotten (you wish!) George W. Bush is a bloodthirsty motherfucker and a baby-eating asshole.

He just pocket-vetoed (the chicken-shit, sneaky form of presidential veto) probably the only military expenditure he has ever refused. Congress and the Senate passed legislation that would increase the pay and benefits of Vets. Bush didn't think they really needed a raise or a dental plan, so he let the bill expire. (Greedy baby-eating, earth-raping, soulless antichrist!)

Way to support the troops there, W!!! When you look in the mirror, do you even see a reflection?

On a brighter note, Iowa had record turnouts for the presidential primary caucuses and our Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama won with a resonably significant lead.

~

Go, Obama, go!!!

~

It's hard to come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be supporting a woman, but frankly I'm pretty pissed off at Hillary's voting record regarding American military intervention and she didn't vote against the Patriot Act and -- let's be honest -- while a million brazilian times better than W, putting the Clinton's back in the White House would be just so much more business as usual.

I like Edwards, too, however I feel his message is very close to Obama's, but Edwards lacks Obama's charisma. Also, Obama is from Chicago -- it wouldn't hurt to have a local man running the show.

~

And finally, white men have been in charge for a couple of thousand years. I'm over it. Move along, please.

ImpeachBush.org currently has 983,130 people voting to evict W from the White House. They are pushing to make it a million person referendum ASAP. If you haven't done so, click here and get counted.

Why? Surely (you are thinking to yourself) W will be gone in a year. But we must impeach him anyway,

• because of 9/11 happening due to his negligence and on his watch and yet he dares to use it to terrify us;
• because hundreds of thousands are dying worldwide because of his thirst for oil profits;
• because since he stole office, most of us want to emigrate to Canada;
• because he lied about Iraq;
• because he is lying about Iran;
• because he and his staff committed treason by outing the entire undercover intelligence unit in Iraq and Iran and are putting our military in jeopardy in that region without the benefit of intelligence;
• because he has set back progressive environmental procedures and policies at least 25 years, rendering this planet poisonous for my future great-grandchildren;
• because he has turned the constitution into a bird cage liner, forever destroying our system of checks and balances unless we impeach him
• because he has ignored the Geneva Convention
• because he has rolled back habeus corpus
• because of these and so very many reasons
• and now for the latest...

While he causes all of these horrible, terrible dramas worldwide, he makes a movie for real and true... starring his damned scotch terriers, the Drunken Twins, the Stepford Wife, Alan Jackson (who should now return all of his gold records and music awards) and Tony Blair (who should probably be evicted from the UK).

Go on, you know you want to visit the page and watch it in the media player of your choice. Go on, click it, click it , click it...

But don't forget to first add your name to the call for impeaching Bush.

Fearless, Foolish Frivolity

I haven't completely lost consciousness. I am not sticking my head in the sand, but I have had to adjust perspective. You see, bad shit is happening because of my country and I am ashamed and sickened and saddened...and...and...

But what else can I say about that?

I still pay attention and contact my representatives and yell, scream, coerce and debate. But really, what else can I say about that. I feel like Cassandra screaming into a hurricane. Very, very bad shit is happening because of and within my country -- and I don't presume to compare the wussy miseries occurring within to the tragic blood-letting without, but the voodoo hoodoo hippie dilletante in me knows it's all connected like some global geopolitical version of reflexology. Just remember; we did not elect that sick, fascist fuck twice and that did not change any outcomes.

All of that being said anyway...frivolity...

I've decided to adopt the bullshit hoodoo voodoo hippie dilletante perspective of giving energy to that which is good and denying energy to that which really needed to disappear 8 years ago. I intend to project joy, gratitude, love and luck like some demented karmic Pollyanna in hopes that maybe THAT will work a little better than the bitching and testifying. That's probably a messed-up wrong-headed approach to generating joy, gratitude, love and luck, but I'm going to let form follow function in this case.

So:
Here's to all of the love we make, break and take. Here's to the attending pain it comes with which reminds you love is bigger than sweetness and more love and luck to those who are too chicken to love and too candy-assed to get hurt.

Here's to the woods and all of those who protect them, as well as those who enjoy them.

Here's to being one lucky woman because I have so many I love, not to mention the greatest kid in the world.

Here's to my fat ass which keeps me warm and is an excellent, portable, ergonomic cushion.

Here's to the whiskey which fertilized this bullshit post.

Here's to getting kissed so deep, sweet and well the arches of your feet break out in a sweat.

And here's to you. Thanks for stopping by.

Notes from the weekend

I keep dreaming that I'm performing again.

*******

My son's dad moved thousands of miles away for the winter as if he doesn't have any responsibilities or obligations here.

*******

Yesterday, I had a few drinks with a vet to celebrate blood and occupation and explotation, corruption, death, history, murder, oil, billionaires, economics, rape, racism, dead children, amputees, blasé, blasé, blah... I also found out that the day before was the birthday of the Marine Corps. It was founded on November 10, 1775 in a tavern -- which maybe explains how I know so many Marines.


*******

You don't even want to know some of the scary conspiracy theories my mechanic laid on me when I brought in my car. Here's the scariest one: vocal imprints of every person who has ever talked on a cell phone will immediately pull up your photo and your file at the FBI if you place a call there.

*******

I went to the upscale organic grocery store hungry. Big mistake! However, I do have a giant box of organic chocolate truffles and a bottle of mead. You know you so want to come over for snacks and flicks.

Bush Is Not Our President

"Because, Mr. Bush, in the seven years of your nightmare presidency, this whole string of events has been transformed.

"From its beginning as the most neglectful protection ever of the lives and safety of the American people ... into the most efficient and cynical exploitation of tragedy for political gain in this country's history ... and, then, to the giddying prospect that you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism would be nearly invisible.

"But at last this frightful plan is ending with an unexpected crash, the shocking reality that no matter how thoroughly you might try to extinguish them, Mr. Bush, how thoroughly you tried to brand disagreement as disloyalty, Mr. Bush, there are still people like Daniel Levin who believe in the United States of America as true freedom, where we are better, not because of schemes and wars, but because of dreams and morals.

"And ultimately these men, these patriots, will defeat you and they will return this country to its righteous standards, and to its rightful owners, the people. "

Keith Olberman 11/05/07

Rule of Law

You Fit Into Me

You fit into me

like a hook into an eye

a fish hook

an open eye

-Margaret Atwood

Twit is my inspiration. Go see his original which spawned this hellion.

Bush's Updated Body Count

A little over a year ago, I posted Bush' s body count. In honor of General Petraeus' eagerly anticipated State of the War Address, I thought it was time to update the body count of the murderous traitor and miserable failure. Also, it was very convenient of the general to give his report the evening before the 6th anniversary of 9/11 -- providing W the opportunity to falsely tie these 2 unrelated events together for the billionth time.

• 152 Executed in Texas while he was governor (6 years)


• 2976 9/11 fatalities (because either he didn't read any of dozens of reports or he just chose to let it happen)


• 3754 Americans killed in Iraq


• 299 Coalition forces killed in Iraq (not from the U.S.)


• 30,000 Iraqi troops killed


• ~75, 000 Iraqi civilian deaths (conservative estimate)
  
• 440 Americans killed in Afghanistan


• 278 Coalition forces killed in Afghanistan (not from the U.S.)


• 3485 Afghan civilian victims (this is a difficult number to find )


• 8587 Afghan troops killed

124,971 human beings killed by George W. Bush.

What a miserable failure and a murderous traitor! (Let's stop the bloodshed and impeach this administration.)

Hippocrites

Evidently, the law does not apply to anyone working for the Bush Administration. W just commuted Scooter Libby's sentence within hours of the judge insisting that Scooter spend his appeal time in federal prison. I suspect that the federal prison Scooter should have been sent to is much more humane than Gitmo. Just another example of how this administration is nothing but a bunch of candy-asses and hippocrites.

Cheney got married so he didn't have to go fight in Vietnam. Then he worked for the Nixon administration which prolonged that war.

W joined the National Guard so he didn't have to go to Vietnam and did not report for duty for an entire year. He was never punished for this.

Now W and Cheney have made certain that other people die in war -- something they were both too chicken to do. They completely destroyed our intelligence operation in Iran and Iraq, most likely putting our military over there in greater danger. They let an underling take the fall, and now they have commuted his sentence.

Meanwhile, how many people continue to rot in Guantanamo Bay? How many people are tortured there without even being charged?

And for some reason, our Democratic Congress is too chicken to impeach these war criminals, these treasonous traitors who would put our nation's safety in peril in order to line their bottomless pockets.

And every time we try to remind them of the law of the land, this so-called Executive Administration scoffs at us; they laugh at us; and they give the entire country the finger.

Eagles have to soar together,

Because chickens can't fly.

It is time to throw the chickens out of the roost.

Impeach the motherfuckers already!

Impeach them now!

Impeach them before the crazed, greedy, sociopaths name themselves Deciders For Life! (If you don't believe this cabal is capable of doing that, think again. NO ONE has stopped them from doing anything, up to this point.)

Impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach, impeach!!!

Do you get the message, yet?

Bush Really Respects Life

Last year he was working hard to create some spin regarding the "culture of life". But he's responsible for alot more death. So here is his current body count:

82 Executed in Texas while he was governor (6 years)

2976 9/11 fatalities (because he didn't read reports)

2577 Americans killed in Iraq

322 Americans killed in Afganistan

3000 Afghani civilian victims (minimum estimate)

39,702 Iraqi civilian victims(minimum estimate) (I'll bet the Iraqis are sure glad Saddam Hussein is finally gone!)

= 48,659 Fatalities. What a miserable failure!

BTW -- I borrowed this image called the "U.S. Dead in Iraq" from The Blue Balloon Weblog.