Hmmm, Maybe, Maybe Not...

 


See, he doesn't just lie. He massages the truth. Yesterday, from the ranch, with shirt sleeves rolled up, and incredibly stupid face plastered from ear to ear, Bush told a reporter the military is meeting it's recruitment goals for July.

Nice work, military recruitment guys. Saw you on the streets of Jersey City a few weeks ago, and man, those black and spanish kids just loved your guns.

Yeah, we may have met recruitment goals for the month because high school is out! Did we meet them for the year? Not even close. But here's the other kicker: we meet the goals because they LOWER THE GOALS without public notice:

Even after reducing its target for May, the Army missed its recruiting goal by about 25 percent, according to the New York Times. The shortfall would have been even bigger if the Army did not lower its goal for the month. With no public notice, the they lowered its May recruit numbers from 8,050 down to 6,700 recruits.

Would any adult let a child get away with this?

If you were in the living room with your kid, and you said, "Listen, Johnny, you better be in the house before that clock strikes midnight" and then you pointed at a specific clock. If Johnny set the clock back an hour would it be okay if he really came in at 1 AM?

See, this is what it's like for Bush supporters, and the media, they can't even tell time. It's "time" you pulled your heads out of your asses. For them, you can come in at 1 AM as long as the clock reads Midnight.

Awesome

This is great news:

The Department of Homeland Security lowered the threat level for the nation's mass transit systems one notch today, but Secretary Michael Chertoff urged state and local officials and Americans who use the systems to remain vigilant.

Mr. Chertoff said effective 8 p.m. today, the level was being lowered, to yellow, for an "elevated" threat level, from orange, for "high," in light of long-range security measures put into place immediately after the deadly rush-hour bombings in London on July 7.

I guess this means I can start peeing all over the tracks again. Yeah me!

I wonder if the elevated threat halted Rudy from delivering his golden showers.

Oh My God!

I can't believe what I saw last night. It appears to me some liberal groups have taken a page right out of the conservative play book.

NARAL has pulled their anti-Roberts ad because conservative groups say it's misleading. To hear Ben Ginsburg complain about this on CNN last night was really priceless stuff.

The ad isn't false, and it's only misleading because of the way conservatives feel about who terrorists are, and are not.

Regardless, NARAL, and spokesman for pro-choice groups got their TV face time, just like the conservatives do. You go with an ad, you cause some controversy, then you take the free airtime to clarify your position. It's that simple, and scumbags like Senator John Cornyn, Tom Delay, and others have been doing it for a decade.

The Ole, "What If it Were Clinton?" Game

NYTIMES:

Mr. DeLay has described Mr. Abramoff, a former action-movie producer and restaurateur whose entry into Republican politics on a national level began with his election as chairman of the College Republicans, as among his "closest and dearest friends."

From the Comfort of His Ranch...

Bush lets us know:

President Bush said today that there had been no decision on raising or lowering the number of American troops in Iraq, but he asserted that the United States would not betray the Iraqi people by withdrawing its forces too soon.

"No decision has been made yet," he said. "I know there's a lot of speculation and rumors about that."

Must be hard to "show resolve" from the air conditioned confines of his ranch.


They say he looks "relaxed."

One of My Favorite Lines

Has always been, "Oh, both parties are the same...Both parties do it..." Y'know, don't insult me like that. My party might be slightly retarded in ways, and overly naive, but we're not lying scumbags from the top down. It's not even like the Republican Party gets caught in a lie here or there. Lying is the party's modus operandi, and that's just that:

Despite a zero-tolerance policy on tampering with voters, the Republican Party has quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide private defense lawyers for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to keep Democrats from voting in New Hampshire.

James Tobin, the president's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, is charged in New Hampshire federal court with four felonies accusing him of conspiring with a state GOP official and a GOP consultant in Virginia to jam Democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks in November 2002.

A telephone firm was paid to make repeated hang-up phone calls to overwhelm the phone banks in New Hampshire and prevent them from getting Democratic voters to the polls on Election Day 2002, prosecutors allege. Republican John Sununu won a close race that day to be New Hampshire's newest senator.

At the time, Tobin was the RNC's New England regional director, before moving to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

A top New Hampshire Party official and a GOP consultant already have pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. Tobin's indictment accuses him of specifically calling the GOP consultant to get a telephone firm to help in the scheme.

These are the types of people the Cheney/Rove/Bush Team look to hire. Anything goes, nothing matters, win at all costs, even when shelving democracy all the while.

I should thank these types because they're the people who have given me a goal in life.

Just Like

My friend sent me this instant message. I didn't want to forget what I want to write (tomorrow), and it has value in and of itself:

Dooper76: btw...do you think it will be before or after bush leaves office that it becomes beyond clear we could have stopped 9/11

Dooper76: and that since that date...the bush white house has done everything its power to cover up every mistake

Dooper76: as well as giving the medal of freedom to tenet

He deserved that medal. He freed the Bush White House of responsibility.

We're living in a joke country.

One Brick at a Time

Freedom and Democracy being built:

Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.

The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life.

"This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

But fear not, we're not leaving til the job is done!

Truth is, the man being replaced was an L. Paul Bremer figurehead, and this new cat represents the true wishes of Iraq, albeit the member of a group bent on having Iraq being an Islamic State, similar to Iran.

No, really, WE HAD TO DO SOMETHING AFTER 9/11!

Tom Delay's Make Me Look Good Foundation

There's two ways to look at every story, at the very least.

First there's the media's way. Way down on the bottom you might get some news.


Then there's the "alternative" media's way.

Which seems to be telling you what's really going on?

Bush's Energy Bill

Obviously, not reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and doing nothing to seriously cut down emissions, or lower the cost for consumers.

How do I know this? Well, when two conservative Republicans from a state not known for oil wealth start saying it, it's tough to ignore:

U.S. Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl today voted against Senate passage of H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, warning that it is not the solution that some have suggested and will actually result in higher gas prices for Arizonans.

The bill contains numerous provisions that will distort competitive markets for energy through subsidies, tax breaks, special projects, mandates and outlandish amounts of federal spending, and it is unlikely to have any positive short-term effect on energy prices.

"This bill does little to address the immediate energy crisis we face in this country. The handouts to big business and oil companies are irresponsible and will be disastrous for people of Arizona. I cannot in good conscience, vote to pass legislation that does not adequately address issues related to energy efficiency, security, and energy independence," said McCain.

One example from the bill that is harmful to Arizona is the mandate that Americans use eight billion gallons of ethanol annually by 2012. Currently, Americans consume only 3.4 billion gallons. Such mandates will result in higher gasoline costs for states, like Arizona, that do not have an abundant in-state supply of renewable energy or who do not produce their own ethanol.

"I predict that if this bill is enacted, gas prices in Arizona will increase and air quality will be impaired because of its ethanol mandates," said Kyl. "The bill does little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and will impose huge new costs on Arizona power consumers because of the bill’s national one-size-fits-all renewable portfolio standard."

It's Not Cheating

That's what Rafael Palmeiro and the rest of the steroid-using baseball players have told themselves for years.

Calling steroid use "cheating" and a "black cloud" hanging over Major League Baseball, former Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken said he was dismayed Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance and was suspended.

He said he mostly relied on a protein-rich diet that featured chicken and PowerBars during his playing days, but there was a time he cheated. As a youth, he said, he was so consumed by winning, even at card games, he would sneakily deal himself extra cards. But he said he learned from that.

"Ultimately, at the end of the day, you couldn't say you were better than the other person because you knew you had a secret," he said. "You knew you had cheated."

These guys probably told themselves "everyone is doing it", and convinced themselves that they still had to hit the ball. It wasn't being done for them, per se. They were the ones working out; stepping up the plate.

Gary Sheffield said yesterday he thought players should be suspended for a year upon first getting caught using steroids. Who could disagree?

Many of these guys are truly making baseball America's game again because it's really obvious they're the most selfish athletes in the world. So fitting. Afterall, they've made themselves bigger than the sport itself by collectively cheating, all the while erasing the relevance of true greats who came before them.

Think about where we've come as a country, and how focused we've become on the individual with regard to everything. I mean, half the athletes speak in third person these days.

Consider Gil Hodges walking home through Brooklyn with his bat and glove over his shoulder, or Ted Williams and Sandy Koufax, arguably the greatest hitter and pitcher of all time, signing up to go fight in World War II. It is so unimaginable today. Today we have athletes willing to cheat while erasing the accomplishments of the great men who laid the foundation before them. Class acts all the way.

I guess America has evolved to this point, and with it so has it's pasttime.

It's Really Amazing

Amazing these people who are such religious freaks they can lie to themselves about their own intentions when masking creationism.

The State Board of Education voted 6 to 4 in Topeka to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote.

The Kansas school system was ridiculed around the country in 1999 when the board deleted most references to evolution. The system later reversed course, but the language now favored by the board comes from advocates of intelligent design.

The intelligent design concept holds that some features of the natural world are best explained by an unspecified intelligent cause.

I'd like to know who is conducting the outside review, and when completed how they'll react if rejected. I can take a stab at both right now with confidence.

More on Jerry

I don't know that I would have lived the life I've lived had it not been for Jerry Garcia.

My friends and I used to go see Dead shows in High School. It was the ultimate rite--of-passage for all of us. So many of us don't even listen to Jerry, or the Grateful Dead anymore, but at the time they were everything to us. From there we all branched out musically, whether it was Dylan, more Jerry, The Allmans, Floyd, Phish, and for me Pavement and other singer song writer/guitarists like Jerry Garcia.

Whatever it was, he was the basis for the music we loved. We took our first road trips, made our first bootlegs, bought our first t-shirts without mom because of Jerry Garcia.

My group of friends is so big, and yet I can't think of more than a few who are not connected to me through this web of music, which started with Jerry Garcia.

I'll tell you a funny story I once heard from a friend of a friend.

My friend's dad, we'll call her Beth, is a well known professional sports Coach, and he had a good relationship with Jerry Garcia. So one weekend she decided to have a party at her house while her folks were away. Her and her friends ate mushrooms, took acid, etc.

So my friend's friend, we'll call him Joe, was upstairs going through Beth's dad's closet, and he came across his old warm-up outfit, and decided to throw it on. Here's Joe, tripping balls, rolling around Beth's house on acid. Then something strange happened, the sun came up.

Joe hadn't realized how much time had passed, and if you've ever taken a heavy drug, you know time passes in strange ways. But there was Joe, rambling around the house, and into the kitchen.

Joe hears someone say, "Hey Joe!"

"Hey Mr. Davis..." (we'll call him Davis).

Joe then realizes he's tripping in front of Mr. Davis, in his kitchen, and has no idea what to do since Mr. Davis wasn't supposed to be home. But Mr. Davis decided to come home early because the Grateful Dead were in town, and he was going to the show.

"What are you doing wearing my clothing, Joe?"

"Uhhh, uhhhh, I don't, uhhhh...," Joe replies (this is sorta how Joe told it).

"Don't worry about it. Just make sure it gets back in the closet. Hey, Joe, I want you to meet my friend. Do you know Jerry Garcia?"

Joe turns around and sitting at Mr. Davis' table in the kitchen was Jerry Garcia. Joe, tripping face, just went over to the table, sat down, and started rambling with him as Mr. Davis made him and Garcia breakfast. Joe didn't know if any of it was really happening, but it was.

I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. I've only met Joe once, but that story was so great because it could have been me, or another friend. When I was told the story I felt like it was me who it happened to. The connection between people who loved Jerry Garcia is so strong you can really live other peoples' stories like that.

It's probably the only great story about someone else that I consistently tell over the years. That's saying something.

So, if you're bored, and want to hear some of his greatest moments, this is a good place to stream it.

The Strange Thing About Bush Christians...

They just don't have a clue.

I'm writing this because I just read this piece in the Times about Conservative Christians who are pressuring Bush to do something about North Korea, the same way they did with Sudan. Man, was I relieved when Bush solved the crisis in the Sudan. Thank God that's over, and we've moved on.

When Bush ran for office he was hell bent on using the term "We're not Nation builders..." I remember hearing it time and time again, an obvious response to what the US was doing in Bosnia, and the mistake his FATHER MADE sending troops into Somalia. Conservatives wanted no part of nations that didn't actually help the United States one way, or another. Iraq was different to them since the geo-political realities were so obvious, but places like Sudan, not so important.

Now the Bush supporters are pressuring Bush to do something about these other places Bush promised not to get involved with prior to 9/11. Not only did he make the "we're not nation builders" claim time and time again, but it's as if they were proud. They were shouting it from the HILLTOPS!

"Hey, FOLKS, WE'RE NOT INVOLVED! THAT'S OUR THING NOW! NOT INVOLVED! SEE YA!"

Then there was Iraq, of course, and we certainly got involved. In fact, not only did we get involved, but we created the situation to be involved in out of fairy tale. There wasn't even a nation that necessarily needed building, or in our case, destroying, but we GOT INVOLVED! That's what Bush does: He gets involved.

I've heard that too from Bush cronies, "The President is involved..." It's as if there's tacit admission he's not involved, and it must be reaffirmed.

"Oh, he's invovled alright...Listen, when things are getting bad this President is going to take action. He'll get involved. He'll even wave a finger if he has to..."

I can see why he never wanted to get involved because as life has proven to Bush, when he's involved things get fucked up!

But back to Bush Christians, praying for involvement. There's no more ridiculous line of reasoning than hearing conservatives talk about human rights issues in Iraq, and how we had to do something. People who worked for HR groups for decades were screaming for the US to get involved in halting genocide, military rule, etc. Conservatives didn't want to be involved. The Bush team used the information about genocide for years as a reason to be involved. It was a way to get the Conservatives to support Bush's Iraq policy. I hear people comment on how concerned Rick Santorum is about HR issues. You remember him speaking out against the "we're not Nation Builders" policy, right? You don't remember? Hmmm...

Bush Christians support him like no other group, and they've jumped on the HR bandwagon for sure. Not to say a lot of Christians haven't done missionary work around the world, and attempted to do good, but I'm talking about this new movement, so to speak. The ones who are shouting in Midland, Texas. The ones who are getting their children involved at events featuing live music, with hackysacks down by the "Jordan River" and "Dead Sea."

These people have convinced themselves in just 5 years that being involved in rebuilding other nations is something Jesus demands. They don't care about the political realities of the situation. The labor camps and mistreatment in North Korea must end now!

Where did this movement begin? Were these people clueless all these years to all these other world issues, but still supporting conservative Christians who want no UN involvement, or building of nations? Where did this change come from? How come these people are modeling what they do after what liberals do? I mean, liberals are the ones who go see live music, hackysack down by the river, and setup Greenpeace tents, as well as other helpful groups, right? Yet these people are doing this now? What's their deal? I thought all things liberal were bad, but now it's good because George W. Bush attacked Iraq and they need to act as if this is the right cause?

Yeah, yeah. That's it fo shizzle. Just like they can trick themselves into believing all the other shit they believe, now they've just taken it one step further. Instead of being led by the noses and told Iraq was a humanitarian crisis, they've decided to run with it, and make humanitarian issues around the world the new thing conservatives must fix.

But what happens when such a solution interferes with tax cuts for the rich? Where will the money come from to fix all these problems? Where will the troops come from when all these battles need to be fought? Are the people from these states like Texas going to sign up to fight? I mean, obviously they're not too educated since they didn't really know there was a major human rights issue in Iraq partially caused by Bush/Reagan, and that North Korea was a real problem. 5 years ago, they didn't know these things. So I guess the military will be the option for many of these people still. They'll sign up because it's the right thing to do. Jesus would want you to be in the thick of the jungle, AK-47 in tow.

Afterall, these holy folks are soooooo different from those crazy insurgent Muslim people, right? Riiiiiight.

The religious right will always be able to trick themselves into thinking whatever it is they need to believe. Whatever the end is, they'll find the verbal means to get their followers there. That's what they do. Their leader is no different. Not smart enough to think things out, but clearly dumb enough not to. Clearly dumb enough to know what the ends are, and the means to make that point. Clearly not smart enough to think dynamically, like his followers, who are now passing on these beliefs to their children.

The children, afterall, are at that stage, like young liberals, where they know a good cause when they see one. Ahhh, but they too will be corrupted, right? I mean how many times have you heard it said that "once you leave college you'll become more conservative..."? Well, these young people are now standing up for human rights, so what are their parents going to do when all these children realize that it really does matter? They'll end up liberal, if I had to bet.

But it won't matter since these people only live for today.

Rambling, rambling, rambling...

Ten Years Ago Today

I picked up a guitar for the first time, as he put it down for the last time.

Not sure if it's just a coincidence, but I feel the first jam during Zeppelin's Ten Years Gone is the greatest studio jam ever recorded. So I dedicate it to thee.

Prior to 9/11

Bush mentioned terrorism, uhhh, never.

More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

And now that I've seen what he has done since mentioning it, I wish he was as ignorant about terrorism today as he was when he took office.

That's Nice

Conservatives try to silence black woman who doesn't nod her head like the rest of their goose-steppers.

Herm Edwards

Is a jackass, plain and simple.

"That's how we practice! YEAH!!!" That also maybe why your QB can't stay on the field, and neither can your best defensive player.

Comedy

From Dean Ween:

Reader: My best friend is a tall, beautiful blonde with great looks and a wonderful body. The trouble is, whenever we're together the guys look right past me and check her out. How can I get guys to realize I'm there too? -Ignored

DW: I honestly have no idea.

You'd Think?

NYTIMES:

White House has failed to turn over any of the information requested by the 10 members of the disbanded Sept. 11 commission in their renewed, unofficial investigation into whether the government is doing enough to prevent terrorist attacks on American soil, commission members said.

The members said that the Bush administration's lack of cooperation was hindering a project that was otherwise nearly complete.

"You'd think that the administration would be doing all it could to help address some of the answers that the 9/11 commission proposed to make the country safer," Tim Roemer said.

Why would I ever think that?

Right

Nice letter to the editor in today's NYTIMES (Sports):

Bush's Good Friend

To the Sports Editor:

O.K., is it just me or does anyone else feel very little sympathy for these overpaid egotistic athletes who get caught with a needle in their rear? Explain to me exactly how someone doesn't know what they are ingesting.

What gets me even more is the president publicly acknowledging that he thinks Rafael Palmeiro (a good friend) is telling the truth. Wasn't it at President Bush's insistence that Congress made combating steroid abuse in professional sports a priority? Now that a good friend has been outed, he's rushing to defend him?

Tiffany West
Tacoma, Wash.

Fun Fun

Nothing like going to see a great show, meeting a really attractive girl, chatting a while, getting her phone number, and then having her not call you back. But it's even better when you see her and sister partying in the NYTIMES on Sunday morning:

On Wednesday night at Soho House, his guests were Nina Cieslak, a 24-year-old German who was interning at the United Nations for the summer and who met Mr. Biron at a Century 21 office, where they were each apartment hunting; and Lauren and Courtade Miller, 25 and 23, a couple of knockouts from Naples, Fla., who met Mr. Biron at a party for a Turkish fashion designer.

At least I aim high...and young...