Monthly Archives: April 2006

Republicans: Do They Think We’re Stupid?

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Here’s why I wonder if Republicans think the rest of us are stupid: They line up to howl about issues that they think will get them attention, then quietly slink off and do exactly as they please.

Case in point: the Republican Congressional leadership are all loudly calling for lower gas prices, energy efficiency, and anything that makes them look like they’re doing something about the problem. So they held a press conference recently at a BP gas station in Washington DC, and Speaker of the House Denny Hastert (R-IL) showed up in a hydrogen fueled car. Very nice, very environmentally aware.

Then in this slideshow (only 2 slides, relax) watch what happened when he drove away:

SFGate: Hastert leaves in a hybrid, switches to an SUV

How 4$king CYNICAL is that pair of images??

Meanwhile, not only is my senator pushing a “Healthcare for Hybrids” act, I think he owns one, but I can’t find an article confirming this. Maybe it’s just buried in the bio-chaff. Anyway, you’d never catch him doing anything as cynical as switching cars just for the window-dressing, because he doesn’t have a cynical bone in his body. And he doesn’t think we’re stupid, either.

Via Nevada Thunder

Rush Limbaugh Arrested

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Oh, it was only matter of time, but still it’s sweet as candy on the tongue to type the words “Rush Limbaugh Arrested.”

I about had convulsions just now when we were watching the tail end of Numb3rs, and a news teaser came up with the news that Rush Limbaugh had been arrested (oops, I did it again).

Rush Limbaugh Turns Himself In On Fraud Charge In Rx Drug Probe

MIAMI, April 28 — Talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh surrendered to authorities Friday on a charge of committing fraud to obtain prescription drugs, concluding an investigation that for more than two years has hovered over the law-and-order conservative.

Somehow, “surrendering to authorities” just doesn’t give the same, “oooh!” feeling.

He’ll be given supervision, and has to pay for it himself. But the fact remains; Rush Limbaugh was under arrest for prescription drug fraud, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

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Fogless Shower Mirrors

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If you only knew how many fogless shower mirrors we’ve bought over the years, and Chad Everett reminds us of the perfectly simple solution that was… staring my husband David in the face the whole time.

That’s right. Spit. I know, it isn’t pretty. It works. When I was learning how to scuba dive, the instructor told us not to buy the de-fogging stuff for our masks because a: it didn’t work very well and b: it cost money. Instead, we should just spit in the mask, then spread it around and rinse. What do you know? It worked. I tried it in the shower and it works there too. Probably better than the original coating.

We’ve been given the same advice on many snorkeling trips, and in fact most of the time we now don’t even bother to bring mask goo with us when we snorkel in Maui… spit works better, and doesn’t sting if it gets in your eyes.

So simple. And it works on fogless mirrors, too? I guess that’s the last Z-Fog we’ll have to buy.

Not As Far From The Madding Crowd As I’d Like

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Unlike ***Dave, we had a ton of young visitors today for Take Your Progeny To Work Day. They started out being taken around on a tour to meet all the team leaders, and then they were in various activities all day.

Toward the latter part of the afternoon, however, the rot set in. Their minders had other duties and tasks that needed attention, and eventually most of the boys ended up in the break rooms watching cartoons, while most of the girls wandered back and forth between whereever the activity room was and their mothers’ desks.

Can’t help but wonder what the travel vendor thought when they came in with pizza for the staff today, and watched the leftovers being demolished by the kids. Fortunately, they ordered about 40 full-size Gino’s East pizzas, so there was plenty and then some to go around.

Still, it’s scary how much one kid was like her mother… this is someone with rather outre’ taste in attire (especially in an office environment). Like mama, like daughter. The kid was clomping around in high-heel ankle-strap wooden clogs and an eye-popping, over-accessorized, outfit that screamed “TORRID!”… much as her mother’s outfits do… (and “yikes” to that, I say). Same hair, same clothes, same makeup, same feeling of “what is she thinking?” I felt sorry for the kid, she doesn’t know any better, but she probably comes in for a lot of teasing and harrassment at school.

Dr Who Season Two Spoiler!!

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Oh, happy, happy, joy joy! I am just busting with glee over the spoilers in the link below to the SciFi channel site. It concerns: season 2, which is airing in Britain but won’t air here for a long time, and major characters.

I will only say, DO NOT CLICK on the link unless you want to be spoiled about next season, and in particular about one specific episode next season. I’m not even going to hint.
Sci Fi Wire — The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

I will just say, though, that I’m a long-time fan, and… I’m very, very happy right now.

The Marriage Amendment AGAIN

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Salt Lake Tribune – Salt Lake Tribune Home Page

The prominent conservative Protestant figures included leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, as well as the president of conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and a handful of Episcopal bishops.

That would be the dissident conservative Episcopal bishops who want to either force the Episcopal church much farther to the right, or completely destroy it, or loot the property (but more likely all of the above).

Yeah, they’re not the mainstream. But they are lending a spurious appearance of it to this collection of extremists.

And of course, it’s all in cynical service to the Dark Lords of the Religious Right, because it’s a galvanizing issue to get the conservative vote out this fall.

Illinois General Assembly Introduces Impeachment Proceedings Against Bush

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Illinois General Assembly has Impeachment Resolution introduced | ImpeachPAC

State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) introduces HJR0125 in the Illinois General Assembly, utilizing the Sec. 603 procedure and calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush!

WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature; and

WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without warrant; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without charge or trial; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter; and

WHEREAS, the Republican-controlled Congress has decline to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; and be it further

RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

It may be a pipe dream. It may not pass both houses of the Illinois legislature. It’ll die in committee when it’s sent to Congress. But California is sending one, too. And they’ll be on the books.

It seems one of the greatest Founding Fathers of them all, Thomas Jefferson, provided for a way to initiate impeachment proceedings from a State legislature, enabling local awmakers to bypass a hostile Congress if necessary.

Excuse me, I have to go write my local legislators now – and urge them to pass Illinois HJR0125.

(10 minutes later)

Okay, here’s what I emailed just now to the state senator and state representative for my area. Both are Republicans, both are probably a little shaky for their next election, because my area is skewing more and more to the Democratic side.

I am a registered Democrat, resident in Hoffman Estates. As such, you probably aren’t interested in my point of view. However, I ask you to vote in favor of HJR0125, the joint resolution to impeach President George W. Bush.

I firmly believe that this country will be bankrupted by his policies, and I believe that he and his administration have lied or misled this country into war with Iraq, and they’re about to lie and mislead us into war with Iran, possibly with the use of nuclear weapons. I believe that his policies are encouraging a small minority of religious extremists to remake this country into one more to their liking, with reduced rights and freedoms in the name of security.

You may not agree with me, [IL legislator], but I ask you as a constituent to consider voting for this resolution. The incompetence and greed of the Administration and their corporate allies will ruin this country’s image, infrastructure, and economy for years to come.

Well, I guess that makes me a net-rooter now. Or perhaps I should describe myself as a netrootlet.

Via this useful website, I’ve just submitted a letter to the editor and emails to my congresspeople in one swell foop. Here’s what I ended up writing (tried for short and snappy, since it’s supposedly for publication in “my nearest newspaper:”

Thomas Jefferson himself provided a way for state legislatures to initiate articles of impeachment, and now our Illinois General Assembly is readying HJR0125, a joint resolution calling for impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush.

My only regret is that Jefferson left us no provision for making it a package deal.

Crazy 8’s 20th Anniversary CD

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Oh, I might just have to have this.

20th Anniversary Edition

Amazon.com: Law and Order: 20th Anniversary Edition: Music: The Crazy 8’s

Because the Crazy 8’s were my favorite, favorite, dripping wet with sweat favorite dance/party band in college and after. I was first introduced to their infectious brand of funky saxy ska at a show in… Springfield, OR at a place that was called “Edison’s Bar and Grill.” It was a funky place with books and boyhood memoriabilia that was nailed or glued or screwed down so bar patrons couldn’t swipe it, but it had a big stage and a big dance floor. I went with my friends Lizby and Jean, and we were reduced to puddles of sweat at the end of the first set. What a fun band for dancing! Man! They just kept playing bigger and bigger venues – probably the wildest was an appearance at the University of Oregon EMU (student union) Ballroom.

hist_a_crazy_8s.jpg

See this picture? It’s captioned “The Crazy 8s: Breaking Records at the UO in 1984.”

I was there.

I remember the bizarre outfit lead singer Todd Duncan was wearing, and I also remember thinking at the time “What is he thinking? Whatever.” I was way back in the back of the room with my friends, because the front was a total mosh pit… but I was there, and it was big drippy fun. The 8s did a version of “Law and Order” that nearly had us making picket signs and marching on Washington (remember, this was in the Reagan years). Ah, good times.

They never quite hit the big time and eventually disbanded in the 90’s, but they still enjoy regional success for occasional “reunion” gigs. And I think they still must get some airplay, too. They got a nice mention in Willamette Week when the CD was originally released a couple of years ago. I bet the release show/reunion was a blast. They’re still occasionally playing gigs, from what I can tell.

Yep, for a long time while living in Eugene and Seattle, the Crazy 8s were at the very top of my favorites list. I think the last time I saw them was at a concert in Seattle – probably Bumbershoot in the early 90’s, not long before they broke up. That was a fun time because someone started yelling “Hey, Red!” at me from across the room, and it turned into a mini-convention of all the redheaded people in the place. As it was a very large, very packed venue (with plenty of lighting so we could spot each other) I soon found myself dancing with a bunch of total strangers, all of whom had various shades of red hair. The crowd looked at us in some bemusement, but it was fun being part of people who looked like me for a while, and of course the music was great.

Oh, yes. I MUST have this.

60 Minutes Tomorrow: CIA Knew ‘No WMDS in Iraq’ 6 Months Before Invasion

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Ex-CIA agent says WMD intelligence ignored�|�Reuters.com

CBS said the CIA’s intelligence source was former Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and that former CIA Director George Tenet delivered the information personally to US President George W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top White House officials in September 2002. They rebuffed the CIA three days later.

“The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy,” the former CIA agent told CBS.

US allegations that Saddam had WMD and posed a threat to international security was a main justification for the March 2003 invasion.

As my husband David says, anybody with half a brain knows that the people of the United States, Britain, and the world were being lied to by our elected leaders.

Meanwhile, in other news, as of right now there have been 2380 US military deaths and somewhere between 35,000 and 39,000 civilian deaths to date. And that’s not counting coalition military deaths, contractors, and journalists.

All are dead for a pack of lies.

And yes, I’m thinking of installing a couple of webcounter widgets.