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Lies Lies And More Lies! So, What's New?
Today Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the protests in his country that the White House had attributed to Newsweek's Qu'ran in the commode article was actually due to something wholly other. It turns out that the upheaval in Afghanistan was "more against the progress in Afghanistan and the strategic partnership with the US" Karzai said. I guess he didn't get the memo that the Qu'ran in the can story was the one being fed to us by the Bush administration. It even turns out that Karzai's admission isn't even the first mention of this administrations duplicity on this topic. Why just Last Thursday, General Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that rioting in Afghanistan was related more to the on-going political reconciliation process there , and not so much to do with the now infamous Newsweek story. Oops! Misinformation from the Bush administration... Say it ain't so.
Why hasn't the mainstream media picked up on this twisting of truth into a lie yet again by the Bush administration? You would think the media would be outraged by yet another deception since it is again being used as a device for cowing them into silence. Forgetting the media, how many times are red staters willing to let these neocon slime-balls get away with this type of Orwellian behavior? Wake up and smell the stopped up toilet... Because that's the punch bowl the Republican machine is ladling it's Kool Aid out of. Drink up fly over states... I'll take a pass!
Tuesday 3:01am 5/24/05
Read All About It!
Newsweek Was Right
By Ari Berman
Sunday 3:01am 5/22/05
Double Standards Again...
Damn... my eyes... did we really need to see this?
On Friday Rupert Murdock, the owner of Fox News Network, released pictures of Saddam Hussein in nothing more than his tighty whities. The pictures of the half clad ex dictator were featured, amongst other places, on the front pages of Murdock's London Sun and his New York Post. Do you suppose that if these pictures of Saddam Hussein cause violence and upheaval amongst the Muslims around the world that the Bush White House will make either the American soldiers or coalition soldiers who took the pictures or god forbid Rupert Murdock who published them go on Arabic television and apologize (see previous story)? You would surely expect the Bush administration to come down on these terrorist-inciting miscreants especially after the way they tore into Newsweek over their Qu'ran in the crapper story. Don't be silly.
The hypocritical behavior of this administration has become almost laughable at this point that if it weren't for the serious damage they have caused the credibility of our country within the international community. Seemingly in a rush to prove my point I just heard the titanically moronic Dubya say that "pictures don't cause people to kill" in reference to the dressed down deposed tyrants beefcake pics. Question... why then the big to do about the Newsweek article about sewer bound holy book? If a picture doesn't cause people to kill then words surely wouldn't either. Well, I guess I'll never understand the little nuances.
On a final note I was just wondering why the publishers of Newsweek didn't get the same pass as Fox Network's Rupert Murdock did? Don't worry... it's a rhetorical question.
Saturday 5:01am 5/21/05
You're Kidding Right?
So let me see if I have this right... Newsweek magazine's Michael Isikoff received information from a reputable senior U.S. government official that claimed guards at Guantanimo Bay abused the Qu'ran by flushing it down a latrine. Isikoff and Newsweek then run the story that in turn incites outrage and violence by Muslim extremists. This in turn leads to the deaths of at least 15 demonstrators in Afganastan by U.S. troops trying to control the uprising. Newsweek is then told by the same reputable senior U.S. government official that he can no longer stand by his original story. After hearing this Newsweek quickly apologizes and then later retracts the story.
Now everything up to this point is clear but then things get a little hinky from here on out for me. Our government, even after Newsweek's apology and retraction, has suggested that Newsweek magazine go on Arabic television throw themselves prostrate and flagellate themselves over the allegedly untrue story. "Whaaa... ?"
OK.... Correct me if I'm wrong but is't this same government who took our country to war without blinking an eye on the basis of information gleaned from "reliable" sources, A.K.A. Ahmed Chalabi and a defector code-named " Curveball ", only to find out after thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands Iraqis were slaughtered that the intel, like Newsweek's, was wrong? Call me crazy but I distinctly do not remember George W. Bush or anyone from his administration going on any T.V. program let alone Arabic Television and retracting their story or giving anyone from the Arabic world an apology!
Now with all this said and done the real question I needed cleared up is how do those in the Bush administration walk a strait line... Because it has to be next to impossible with balls that huge.
Friday 3:23am 5/20/05
Self-Loathing In Spokane
Self-Loathing Mayor Jim West
One thing that I believe can be incredibly telling about a human being is denial. How vehemently or nonchalantly a person denies something can speak volumes about their guilt as well as their claims of innocents. Take for instance breaking wind... He who denied it supplied it has more times than not proven to be a vary accurate predictor of the guilty party. In the case of infidelity I have noticed the party in the relationship that is constantly accusing the other of being unfaithful is usually the one sleeping around. Another example is the guy who is always yapping about how often he gets laid and never tires of repulsing you with stories of his sexual conquests. I would bet you dollars to doughnuts that this verbose lothario hasn't been laid in years!
Now another example of this type of denial radar is when a man constantly berates... oh let's say... homosexuals. You know the macho man I'm talking about with the constant verbal barrage of fags this and homos that. We all grew up with one or more of these overcompensating morons only to find out later that he wound up turning tricks outside the Holland tunnel while in drag (Ahem, you know who you are).
Well it turns out that the Republicans have come up with a picture perfect self-loathing denier in the form of Spokane Washington's Mayor Jim West. You see Mayor West, former state Senate majority leader and lifelong conservative, whom championed many anti-gay legislations during his tenure is in fact a bona fide lover of hot man on man sex... on the down low of course. You see it has been revealed that West while trolling the website Gay.com under the aliases "Cobra82nd" or "RightBi-Guy" had promised an 18 year old online "pen-pal" gifts, favors and a City Hall internship in return for hot Jeff Gannon type love. The only problem is that West's pen pal turned out to be a forensic computer expert working for the Spokesman-Review newspaper. Whoops!
Now all of this would be ironically humorous on many levels but for what was else was revealed about the Mayor. On an incredibly disturbing note, that has nothing to do with homosexuality, West also stands accused of child molestation. These allegations stem from one man's deposition for a lawsuit against Spokane County as well as a second man's similar allegations against West in a separate interview. The men claimed West and one of his fellow deputies (a man by the name of David Hahn, who later committed suicide when confronted with the allegations of pedophilia) forced them to perform sexual acts. This by the way was when they were both Spokane County sheriffs' deputies and West was a volunteer leader of Boy Scout Troop 345 at Hamblen Elementary School. It doesn't get more repulsively hypocritical than that! One of the men said West told him that "if I was to tell anybody, that he would kill my mom ... that she would not exist no more."
What makes all of this doubly disturbing is the vigorous nature of West's anti-gay agenda. Here are just a few of the legislations West has pushed in his career as Mayor:
· He initiated legislation to outlaw sexual contact between consenting teenagers
· He supported a bill that would have barred gays and lesbians from working for schools, day care centers and some state agencies
· He voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman
· As Senate majority leader, allowed a bill that would ban discrimination against gays and lesbians to die in committee without a hearing, (Meaning it get's no up or down vote... sounds familiar, hmmmmm?)
· And he threatened to veto a measure extending benefits to domestic partners of city employees.
To show just how delusional this prick is, after trying to push all of this bogus legislation and after the news broke of his same sex trysts he had the incredible gall to say "I have always considered a person's private life private." Oh Jimmy, you have got to be kidding me. West also stated that "I wouldn't ch aracterize me as 'gay." even though he says "I have visited a gay chat line on the Internet and had relations with adult men. I don't deny that." I guess West believes he has unshakeable hetero cred because he happened to have been married in 1990 to a Mrs. Ginger Marshall for about five years. I think not.
West whom intends to serve out the 1,150 days left in his term did however resign from the Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and was added yesterday to a national list of "ineligible volunteers." West in addition resigned from the board of the Morningstar Boys Ranch, a home for troubled teenagers in Spokane founded by the Catholic Church. All I can say is that if the allegations of child molestation pans out West should be resigned to spending some hard time in the Washington State penitentiary.
Tuesday 8:18 pm 5/17/05
B.R.A.C.
As I watch American soldiers die in Iraq by the thousands, as I watch enlisted men and women and the National Guard do three and four tours of duty, as I watch the government add insult to injury by cutting your benefits, I have to ask what else do you need to make you realize that this administration used you as disposable pawns in an unjust war and then whored out your patriotism for votes in the 2004 Presidential elections. Oh... O.k., how about the Bush administration entertaining the idea of having the largest number of base closures in history with our country at war? Would that finally convince you? The Pentagon on Friday morning recommended closing 33 major bases and recommended significant reductions of forces at another 29 major bases. Military officials said the document also called for closing or realigning 775 smaller military locations. They've even proposed closing Walter Reed Medical Center, an Army hospital, and make it part of the Bethesda Naval Hospital because they don't believe its necessary to have separate Army and Navy medical facilities in the same state. This official screw you to the military calls for changes in all 50 states, with a net loss of 10,782 military positions and 18,223 civilian positions, not counting the businesses that make their living serving these people. Mission Screw-You Accomplished!
So let's get to the real reason for these base closures... Why it's MONEY of course. You see those tax cuts you got way back when and the unjustified war your fighting in now have bankrupted our country. So Bush now needs to cut the deficit any way he can without repealing the insane tax cuts and/or pulling out of his Iraqi war... You see that would be admitting he made a "mistake" (GASP!). So you have to suffer once again for your country while America's riches 1% make little or no sacrifices. I would feel worse but you helped vote this schmuck into office and now we all have to deal with him. Even your favorite lunch buddy Rumsfeld said the closings would save the U.S. military almost $50 billion over two decades. Weeeee! Yeah, That'll help. Our country is $7,782,816,546,352 (that's trillions) in the hole as of April 10th and to top it off the Senate gave final passage yesterday to an $82 billion emergency war-spending bill, sending President Bush a measure that will push the cost of the Iraq invasion well past $200 billion mark... If we keep letting the neocons get away with this shit, it will be not only you, the soldiers, that will suffer but dare I say the rest of the free world.
Real Fake
Now let me dredge up an old question that always baffled me about the 2004 Presidential elections. You in the military could have voted for John Kerry, a real war hero with three purple hearts, yet you overwhelmingly chose the draft dodging party boy George Bush who never even had boot one in country during the Vietnam war. Hell he never even left the states! For shit sake he lost his qualification to fly the F-102 when he failed to take his flight physical in July of 1972. John Kerry by the way condemned the proposal to close Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, saying, "It simply makes no sense to close Otis in the post 9/11 world."
Doesn't it piss you off? Don't you feel used? You were suckered just like the religious right, strung along for your votes and then tossed aside like a used MRE.
The military can't even meet its recruitment minimums. Even after they cut the minimum time solders need to serve, even after they've begun accepting drug addicts by showing potential soldiers how to fake drug test results, even after they've begun accepting high school drop outs by telling possible enlistees how to get fake GED's online, even after they've begun accepting criminals by covering up their records they still cant make their quotas.
Well I guess American men and women aren't as willing to throw their lives away for a senseless, needless war that was based on lies. Perhaps you are starting to wise up to the scams this administration is running on you... Bush and his administration are not pro-military they are faux-military! Now let's see if we can get the religious right to wake up and smell the Kool Aid!
Here are a list of military facilities the U.S. Defense Department recommended be closed:
Alabama
Abbott U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuskegee
Anderson U.S. Army Reserve Center, Troy
Armed Forces Reserve Center, Mobile
BG William P. Screws U.S. Army Reserve Center, Montgomery
Fort Ganey Army National Guard Reserve Center, Mobile
Fort Hanna Army National Guard Reserve Center, Birmingham
Gary U.S. Army Reserve Center, Enterprise
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Montgomery
Navy Reserve Center, Tuscaloosa
The Adjutant General Bldg, AL Army National Guard, Montgomery
Wright U.S. Army Reserve Center
Alaska
Kulis Air Guard Station
Arizona
Air Force Research Lab, Mesa
Allen Hall Armed Forces Reserve Center, Tucson
Arkansas
El Dorado Armed Forces Reserve Center
Stone U.S. Army Reserve Center, Pine Bluff
California
Armed Forces Reserve Center, Bell
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Oakland
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Bernardino
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Diego
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Seaside
Naval Support Activity Corona
Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Detachment Concord
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Encino
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Los Angeles
Onizuka Air Force Station
Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant
Connecticut
Sgt. Libby U.S. Army Reserve Center, New Haven
Submarine Base New London
Turner U.S. Army Reserve Center, Fairfield
U.S. Army Reserve Center Maintenance Support Facility, Middletown
Delaware
Kirkwood U.S. Army Reserve Center, Newark
Florida
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Orlando
Navy Reserve Center, St. Petersburg
Georgia
Fort Gillem
Fort McPherson
Inspector/Instructor, Rome
Naval Air Station Atlanta
Naval Supply Corps School, Athens
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Columbus
Peachtree Leases, Atlanta
Hawaii
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Honokaa
Idaho
Navy Reserve Center, Pocatello
Illinois
Armed Forces Reserve Center, Carbondale
Navy Reserve Center, Forest Park
Indiana
Navy Marine Corps Reserve Center, Grissom Air Reserve Base, Bunker Hill
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Indianapolis
Navy Reserve Center, Evansville
Newport Chemical Depot
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Lafayette
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Seston
Iowa
Navy Reserve Center, Cedar Rapids
Navy Reserve Center, Sioux City
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Dubuque
Kansas
Kansas Army Ammunition Plant
Kentucky
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Paducah
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Lexington
Navy Reserve Center, Lexington
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Louisville
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Maysville
Louisiana
Baton Rouge Army National Guard Reserve Center
Naval Support Activity, New Orleans
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Baton Rouge
Roberts U.S. Army Reserve Center, Baton Rouge
Maine
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Limestone
Naval Reserve Center, Bangor
Naval Shipyard Portsmouth
Maryland
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Patuxent River
Navy Reserve Center, Adelphi
Pfc. Flair U.S. Army Reserve Center, Frederick
Massachusetts
Malony U.S. Army Reserve Center
Otis Air Guard Base
Westover U.S. Army Reserve Center, Chicopee
Michigan
Navy Reserve Center Marquette
Parisan U.S. Army Reserve Center, Lansing
Selfridge Army Activity
W.K. Kellogg Airport Air Guard Station
Minnesota
Navy Reserve Center, Duluth
Mississippi
Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant
Naval Station, Pascagoula
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Vicksburg
Missouri
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Jefferson Barracks
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Kansas City
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, St. Louis
Marine Corps Support Center, Kansas City
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Kansas
Navy Reserve Center, Cape Girardeau
Montana
Galt Hall U.S. Army Reserve Center, Great Falls
Nebraska
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Columbus
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Grand Island
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Kearny
Naval Recruiting District Headquarters, Omaha
Navy Reserve Center, Lincoln
Nevada
Hawthorne Army Depot
New Hampshire
Doble U.S. Army Reserve Center, Portsmouth
New Jersey
Fort Monmouth
Inspector/Instructor Center, West Trenton
Kilmer U.S. Army Reserve Center, Edison
SFC Nelson V. Brittin U.S. Army Reserve Center
New Mexico
Cannon Air Force Base
Jenkins Armed Forces Reserve Center, Albuquerque
New York
Armed Forces Reserve Center, Amityville
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Niagra Falls
Carpenter U.S. Army Reserve Center, Poughkeepsie
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Rome
Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Buffalo
Navy Reserve Center Glenn Falls
Navy Reserve Center Horsehead
Navy Reserve Center Watertown
Niagra Falls International Airport Air Guard Station
North Carolina
Navy Reserve Center, Asheville
Niven U.S. Army Reserve Center, Albermarle
Ohio
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Mansfield
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Westerville
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Dayton
Mansfield Lahm Municipal Airport Air Guard Station
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Akron
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Cleveland
Parrott U.S. Army Reserve Center, Kenton
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Whitehall
Oklahoma
Armed Forces Reserve Center Broken Arrow
Armed Forces Reserve Center Muskogee
Army National Guard Reserve Center Tishomingo
Krowse U.S. Army Reserve Center, Oklahoma City
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Tulsa
Oklahoma City (95th)
Oregon
Naval Reserve Center Central Point
Umatilla Army Depot
Pennsylvania
Bristol
Engineering Field Activity Northeast
Kelly Support Center
Naval Air Station Willow Grove
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Reading
North Penn U.S. Army Reserve Center, Morristown
Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station
Serrenti U.S. Army Reserve Center, Scranton
U.S. Army Reserve Center Bloomsburg
U.S. Army Reserve Center Lewisburg
U.S. Army Reserve Center Williamsport
W. Reese U.S. Army Reserve Center/OMS, Chester
Puerto Rico
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Humacao
Lavergne U.S. Army Reserve Center, Bayamon
Rhode Island
Harwood U.S. Army Reserve Center, Providence
USARC Bristol
South Carolina
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Charleston
South Naval Facilities Engineering Command
South Dakota
Ellsworth Air Force Base
Tennessee
U.S. Army Reserve Area Maintenance Support Facility, Kingsport
Texas
Army National Guard Reserve Center No. 2, Dallas
Army National Guard Reserve Center (Hondo Pass), El Paso
Army National Guard Reserve Center, California Crossing
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Ellington
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Lufkin
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Marshall
Army National Guard Reserve Center, New Braunfels
Brooks City Base
Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Antonio
Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant
Naval Station, Ingleside
Navy Reserve Center, Lubbock
Navy Reserve Center, Orange
Red River Army Depot
U.S. Army Reserve Center No. 2, Houston
Utah
Deseret Chemical Depot
Virginia
Fort Monroe
Washington
1LT Richard H. Walker U.S. Army Reserve Center
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Everett
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Tacoma
U.S. Army Reserve Center, Fort Lawton
Vancouver Barracks
West Virginia
Bias U.S. Army Reserve Center, Huntington
Fairmont U.S. Army Reserve Center
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Moundsville
Wisconsin
Gen. Mitchell International Airport ARS
Navy Reserve Center, La Crosse
Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Madison
Olson U.S. Army Reserve Center, Madison
U.S. Army Reserve Center, O'Connell
Wyoming
Army Aviation Support Facility, Cheyenne
Army National Guard Reserve Center, Thermopolis
Friiday 7:46 pm 5/13/05
George Bush... Small Fish?
Just where does George Bush rank in the food chain of the government? Well, let's just say not very high. How did I arrive at this conclusion you ask... easy. All one needs to do is take a look at yesterday's harrowing events (well it was harrowing until we found out it was a student pilot in a single-engine, two-seat Cessna 150).
Let's take it from the top shall we... Just around 11:28 a.m. a plane (no description given) was reported to have been within two minuets of striking the White House causing alarm bells to wail inducing a mass exodus from the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the White House. Immediately Dick Cheney was secreted away to his favorite undisclosed hidey hole, Laura Bush and a visiting Nancy Reagan were taken to the white houses underground bunker and all the employees and guests were issued into the street post haste. So where was George W. Bush during this time of crisis? Where could the commander and chief of our country best put his leadership to use? Was he at the helm of the operations leading his underlings to safety? Was he helping to keep the two first ladies calm and collected in the underground bunker? Did he, in a show of courage, refuse to leave his post thereby sending a message to whatever terrorist might attempt such a audacious stunt that he wasn't going to let them scare him? The answer to all these questions is a resounding... NO! You see Mr. Bush was on a bicycle ride at a Maryland wildlife center and wasn't even alerted to the unfolding events until 12:50 p.m., one hour and 22 minuets after the incident started, and well after the plane was on the ground and the all clear was given. Makes ya' wonder doesn't it? Well the powers that be can't really be faulted. Remember how Bush froze up for over seven minuets after he was told of the 9-11 attacks. Can you imagine if this occurred on his bike ride? He surely would have tipped over!
As always I have a conspiracy theory on the subject... perhaps those who are really in power at 1700 Pennsylvania avenue knew there was no imminent threat and decided to overstate the danger at hand in order to one; make the Republican white house sympathetic by providing an image of a mad Muslim terrorist trying to blow up two defenseless first ladies and two; Keep the average American frightened and concerned with terrorists in planes. Just a thought...
Thursday 3:02 pm 5/12/05
Separation Of Church And State As Well As State And Church!
In an East Waynesville Baptist Church, in North Carolina a Reverend called a meeting in which he and his congregants voted out 9 other god-fearing members of his flock. The reason for the dismissal of these members (three of whom were church deacons) was for adhering to their political beliefs and voting for Democrat John Kerry in he 2004 Presidential elections. In addition to these lost sheep 40 additional congregants of the 400 member church left in protest of the Pastors actions. Yes, filled with religious capital from the Republicans Presidential election win reverend Chan Chandler kicked members of his church into the proverbial purgatorial street for voting for the antichrist John Kerry. Reverend Chandler said that the church members that voted Democrat directly supported abortion and homosexuality. Talk about feeling full of the holy spirit this guy was chock full of (sh)it. I know there is supposed to be separation of church and state, shouldn't there be some level of separation between state and church?
It was reported by one of the removed parishioners that before the 2004 presidential elections reverend Chandler said, "This is going to be a politically active church and that anyone who planned to vote for the Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry needed to leave"! If this doesn't get this church's tax-exempt status revoked for violation of the Internal Revenue Service rules against political endorsements by churches by openly supporting George Bush for president nothing will!
At the meeting where the fallen flock were removed another church member initially asked if all the parisioners could come to the altar, pray together, forgive each other and get on with the Lord's business? Chandler responded by saying if those who disagreed with him weren't going to "repent" they should leave at which point the parishioners who were voted off Reverend Chandler's island walked out the door.
This repulsive power/passion play clearly illustrates how mutually parasitic the Republican Party and the religious right have become. This is also the reason some Republicans are starting to become uncomfortable with their party. This is why I become overjoyed at these types of ridiculous, huberous filled actions of the Republicans and their puppet masters, the religious right.
It's like a sickening tasting medicine that is nauseating to ingest but you know in the end it will cure the illness afflicting you. The host in need of curing is our government the sickness consists of the dual headed parasite of the Republican neocons and the religious right and the medicine is the heinous crap they try to pull on the citizens of the United States.
I believe that each time the Republicans act out some Grand Guignol-like theater that was the Terri Schiavo tragedy it weakens the Republican's centrist base. I believe that each time the Republicans pull a stunt like the "Justice Sunday - Stop the filibuster against people of faith" scam it weakens their centrist base. I believe that each time the Republicans cry like bitches about prayer in school, the lack of Ten Commandments monoliths in government buildings or claim that the Liberals have declared a jihad on Christmas it weakens their centrist base. And each time a nutzoid Reverend kicks churchgoers out for voting Democratic it weakens their centrist base... and it's wonderful to see. The acts themselves are sickening to endure but if the end result is the mainstream Republicans becoming intolerant with their own party's transgressions against decent Americans, it is worth the pain.
In an ironic twist to these events the parishioners who were removed from their church have now retained a lawyer and are suing to be reinstated into their flock. They are also seeking to have reverend Chan Chandler, whom now claims the whole mess was a "great misunderstanding," removed from the congregation he shepherds.
Hopefully this will prove to be a microcosm of what will eventually happen to the entire Republican Party who have sadly been reduced to being the puppet of the far religious right. Hopefully in time rational Republicans will see fit to remedy the radical religious rights' infection of their party and lance the boil that is this extremists groups hate filled bigotry.
Tueday 8:26 pm 5/10/05
Weak!
What do you do if you're the president and your second term has started out with a whimper, all the programs you have been pushing have stalled, the people who had elected you have to sell their first born to fill their gas tanks and your poll numbers are in the shitter? Why I think I might hold a surprise press conference in prime time on all the major networks and all the 24-hour news channels. Brilliant! Ok, now what if it did absolutely nothing for your slumping 2nd term, stalled programs, soaring gas prices or your dismal poll numbers? Well apparently if you're the Bush administration you capture a big big big terrorist and parade him around like a prize show dog. Ol' George made the announcement in his patented preening smug fashion as though he had personally had taken this terrorist kingpin down himself. As Bush held court over his mini photo op/press conference the media awaited his earth shattering news with baited breath waiting to hear who Bush and his Republican super friends had apprehended... They wouldn't have to wait long... here it comes... wait for it... A-A-A-A-A-Abu Faraj Al-Libi from Libya, come on down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... Fucking who?
Well, according to our president and his propaganda machine, Abu is the number 3 man in Al Qaeda food chain. Our president claims this capture could very well break the back of the Al Qaeda terrorist regime. This is of course if you believe what Bush said in his grand announcement. Supposedly the finest computer analysts our government has to offer now have Abu's laptop in their hot little hands deciphering every megabyte morsel his hard drive is harboring, and they claim it just might contain the whereabouts of the big man Osama Bin Laden.
Here's the deal. You see, since we kept the capture of Al- Libi so quiet, if we do find Osama's address or P.O. Box number on this computer we will have the element of surprise on our side when we go to apprehend him. It would be a real tragedy if we had paraded Al-Libis capture all over national T.V. and 24 hour news stations for propaganda purposes and political gain because that would surely tip off Bin Laden giving him ample time to change which hidey hole he is sequestered in... "Um, Ooops"! Well maybe next time... Let's just hope the poll numbers are better so Bush wont feel the need to perp. walk the next evil do'er we nab. Se la vie!
By the way the people of the Pakistani village, where Al-Libi was captured, said that if they knew the man walking around their town was an Al Qaeda leader they would have most surely hidden and protected him from the American forces. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
Tursday 4:19 pm 5/5/05
The Lord Sure Does Work In Mysterious Ways!
Runaway bride Jessica Wilbanks
I watched the story about Jennifer Wilbanks, the missing bride to be bride, unfold on TV like a bad episode of CBS's Without A Trace. As I followed the story line I hoped it wasn't another case of a sociopath like Scott Peterson or Mark Hacking offing his unknowing wife for some narcissistic reason that only he can rationalize. All I know is that my heart went out to the family... until I heard them speak. On a Saturday morning around 6:00 I had flipped on the tube to find a man praising god, thanking his lord and savior and owing some miracle he had experienced to his families unyielding faith. After a few more minuets of self-important praise I learned that the man on the news was the brother of the missing woman's would be brother-in law and he was patting himself and his family on the back for praying so hard that the missing bride had surfaced... ALIVE! Praise Jesus! Yes she had turned up at a roadside convenience store crying hysterically sporting a terrible haircut and a whopper of a story. As it turns out she had contacted the local authorities earlier in the morning saying an average Hispanic man and a nondescript Caucasian female had kidnapped her. She claimed that after the media coverage became too hot for them to handle they thought it best to just release her unharmed and with change for the pay phone and a Slurpie. The police then proceeded to trace her call after she said she didn't know where she was. After tracing the call to a New Mexico 7-11 they patched her through to her frantic fiancé' (whom by the way it was later released that he was sound asleep). The brother in law said the telephone reunion was both tearful and joyous. Praise the lord! The reporter then asked if one of the reasons they believe the bride showed up alive and kicking was due to their unshakeable faith. The brother in law said with a thick southern drawl and without even the slightest hesitation "Our faith is the "only" reason she was still alive. Praise the lord!
Now it was time for the father of the groom and the father of the once missing bride's turn to do a little gospleizing. The cameras framed both fathers who proceeded to do a do-ci-do with the interviewer to the sweet sweet music of the two men praising the lord. "By god's grace she has returned to us" the almost father in law shouted. "Because of our faith we never gave up hope she would come back to us" the missing brides dad sniffled. Praise the lord!
By now this pretentious pious pandering pack of preaching putzs' had started to piss me off. These self important bible thumpers were saying that their little missing Jennifer's life was spared because they prayed so darned hard and so darned well. This implies that if a person of faith's loved one goes missing and eventually turns up dead it was because they didn't pray as darned hard or as darned well as these god-fearing families did. What sickening hubris! In the end it was this exact behavior that makes the story so satisfying and enjoyable to a godless heathen like me.
Earlier in the day when I had first turned on the television and saw that the runaway bride had surfaced I turned to my wife and made a prediction. I said to her, as god is my witness (just kidding), "by the end of the day it's gonna' turn out that she ran away". I made this prediction after seeing what loons and goons her and her fiancé's families were and thought that I would surely run as far away as I could aas well. Amazingly as the day progressed and the story unfolded I saw the prediction that I had made to my wife had fully materialized and then some. It turns out that not only did she run away because the families had stressed her out to her beyond her breaking point but that she had actually been planning to run away for quite a while. Yes, not only had she packed her bags well in advance but she also remembered to take a pair of scissors so she cut her hair so no one would recognize her. Ahhh so ungodly... Ahhh so refreshingly sweet and satisfying! I do so love indulging in schadenfreude whenever possible.
Now in the aftermath of this tragedy/celebration/tragedy the families pastor thought it best to continue invoking the name of the lord to explain the situation that was quickly becoming untenable. This pastor who was to have married the two lovebirds claimed the stilted groom said, "everybody has a right to make a mistake... and in the bible the mistake she made is called sin". WHAT? Now she's a sinner? What a difference a few hours makes. Boy these people are really full of God's forgiveness aren't they!
The point that I am trying to illustrate by exploiting/enjoying this families inconsequential pain is that if god really existed do the people who believe in him really want this omniscient being to take time from his infinitely busy schedule to bring back runaway brides who are busy doing who knows what behind a New Mexico 7-11? Now just for a minute imagine if their god was actually paying attention and granting this families prayers. Did he for no real reason unnecessarily spare this non missing woman's non endangered life but choose to let 9 year old Jessie Lundsford or 13 year old Sarah Michelle Lunde be raped and murdered at the hands of their molesters? How sickening a thought is that?
9 year old Jessie Lundsford and 13 year old Sarah Michelle Lunde
Now take for instance this old standby example... When a sports team thanks the almighty after their big win do they really have the audacity to believe their god gave a shit who won their game? Does the team think god liked their team better than their opponents thus granting them the win? Do they think maybe god took their team and the points? If god really existed do these fools actually think he has nothing better to do with his time than to ensure their team wins? What idiocy!
If the evangelicals want to be taken seriously by modern society they really have to learn to put things into a bit of perspective. Don't get me wrong, us liberals and progressives take you seriously but only because of you frighten us with your ability to self-delude. You people, and by people I mean anyone whose faith rises to the level of zealotry, are truly scary... but then again most people who hear voices, see holy ghosts and virgin mothers, speak in tounges, believe an invisible man who lives in the sky listen to what they are saying and actually answers, and believe anyone else who doesn't subsribe to these afflictions is destined to burn in torment in eternal hellfire till the end of time are very very scary.
Monday 4:44 pm 5/2/05