This Tells the Story

Republicans hate science because science is fact. Facts are bad when your plans only work on Fantasy Island.

Here, read it.

FINALLY

Silver Jews tour:

SHOWS


03/10 40 Watt Athens, GA
03/11 The Earl Atlanta, GA
03/12 Grey Eagle Asheville, NC
03/16 Satellite Ballroom Charlottesville, VA
03/17 Webster Hall New York, NY
03/19 Middle East Boston, MA
03/21 First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA
03/22 Ottobar Baltimore, MD
03/24 Little Brother's Columbus, OH
03/25 Blind Pig Ann Arbor, MI

Read this interview about Berman.

I've Got Two Friends

They are the two whitest and blondest dudes that I know. Both of these guys because of their overly American and common names were put on the "No Fly List" by TSA. It was quite funny to be honest, but the point is this: If both made the NFL then why am I to assume they aren't both subject to arbitrary wiretaps by our government?

I'm not overly concerned with this article because I would imagine safeguards are in place, but there is some cause for concern considering how wiretaps were used in the past by politically motivated people. At a time when questioning the President has been "unpatriotic" it should make you raise at least one eyebrow.

I do really enjoy the part in the article where certain politicians looked the other way on this issue because of what seems like fear. We have the biggest jackasses in the world running this country.

Totally

After thinking about the Zarqawi situation my boy wondered aloud:

Dooper75: i mean
Dooper75: is this a war just a seriously overpriced remake of Spies like US
Dooper75: does this thing end when we launch the nukes at oursleves
WEINISH: wow. best call ever.
Dooper75: i know
Dooper75: i was actually very proud of that analogy

Pfff

These are the people we're training to take over their country:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi security forces caught the most wanted man in the country last year, but released him because they didn't know who he was, the Iraqi deputy minister of interior said Thursday.

Hussain Kamal confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the al Qaeda in Iraq leader who has a $25 million bounty on his head -- was in custody at some point last year, but he wouldn't provide further details.

A U.S. official couldn't confirm the report, but said he wouldn't dismiss it.

"It is plausible," he said.

I'd be more willing to bet that we caught him, and then let him go because we've done such a huge marketing job making this guy the scariest man on Earth. You know how much time would have to go into blaming someone else?

Lets take this further for a second.

Ever heard a New York City, actually, any city's APB for a black guy who may have committed a crime? "Uhhh, yeah, we're looking for a black male, age between 22-45, wearing baggy jeans, white t-shirt, hat on at 3 O'Clock..." The Iraqi version is quite similar, "Uhhh, yeah, uhhh, we're looking for a male...(EXPLOSION)...holy fuck, our car just hit a roadside bomb!!! Looks like Carper is dead, and Collins lost his arm and is bleeding profusely! We need backup, FAST! We're on a dirt road just outside Baquba, heading due west..."

"Uhh, yeah, over. Uhhh, can you repeat the description of that terrorist again?"

"Sure. Dark skin, sheet, towel on head, beard, mustache, goattee, somewhere between the age of 22-45. You know the drill! NOW SEND BACKUP!!!"

HOLY SHIT

Watch this dude.

ANYONE!

ANYONE IN MY ADMINISTRATION WHO IS INVOLVED WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!

Newspaper columnist Robert Novak is still not naming his source in the Valerie Plame affair, but he says he is pretty sure the name is no mystery to President Bush.

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh on Tuesday. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."

"So I say, 'Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.' "

Then again, Novak is about as believable as Curveball.

Lunch

My dad and I were talking about Bush now admitting he went to war on false intelligence. By that we mean his own, but we knew that.

Who cares? Like this is a surprise? It seems he is the last guy to the show. He's back row at this point because no one cares what he says, or what he does. People have now focused on their own representatives, if even that, and not the presidency. Everyone's thinking the same thing. How do we get past this guy? Is the market going to rise? What's with the AMT tax? Did Bill Clinton really get a bl...just kidding. Who could care about such nonsense?

It's universally accepted Bush has no clue, and is an apparent puppet for a powerful group of people who are so beyond us, all we can do is yell. Soooo, when Bush admits to something we all knew I just don't give a shit. All it does is give his puppets a moment to say, "Okay, you were right about this, but we still hate abortions..." It's become a mental exercise; more of a hindrance. The media too, they can just bob like fucking shmucks.

With that, whatever. What will be will be. Things will get worse, I hope, and dipshits will wake up. In the meantime...

SJ

Great tune.

Incredible

This passed on to via Don Law:

The MIT Media Laboratory expects to launch a prototype of its $100 laptop in November, according to Nicholas Negroponte, the lab's chairman and co-founder. The facility has been working with industry partners to develop a notebook computer for use by children in primary and secondary education around the world, particularly in developing countries. The laptops should start appearing in volume in late 2006.

"In emerging nations, the issue isn't connectivity," Negroponte said at the Emerging Technologies Conference on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Cambridge campus Wednesday. "That's not solved, but lots of people are working on it in Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, etc. For education, the roadblock is laptops." He and his colleagues believe that equipping all children in the world with their own notebook computers will greatly improve the level of education and help stimulate children to learn outside of school as well as in the classroom...

The laptop can be powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10-to-1 crank rate, so that a child will crank the handle for one minute to get ten minutes of power and use. When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap, according to Negroponte. The laptops will be rugged and probably made of rubber, he said. They will have four USB ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone-enabled, and come with 1GB of memory.

Sick.

Thank Me Later

As much as I want to post about the tax provisions the House of Representatives won't be passing (you know, the one to fix the AMT, and help middle to middle upper class people), I am instead just going to hook up some of you with this absurd show.

BONOBO: SolidSteel Mix: 12.9.2005

Why, Oh Why?

It's BECAUSE he's a Jew! The same reason most right-wingers wouldn't vote for Joe Lieberman is now the same reason President Bush and Dick Cheney keep mentioning Joe Lieberman: He's a Jew.

First thing is first, Joe Lieberman should not be secretary of defense. Anyone whose ass I could kick clearly across a room should not be Defense Secretary. Don Rumsfeld, that dude's a bull. Hate to simplify like this, but I want a person who knows what it's like to have been in a war to be secretary. Yeah, I know, Kissinger's a genius, etc., and like Lieb a Heeb, but still, doesn't do it for me at all.

So now we have Lieberman as the guy Republicans look to for an excuse. "Well, if you heard what Senator Lieberman said...he had it just right...Other 'liberals' have it wrong..." They love Joe Lieberman.

All you liberal voting Jews, check it out, we got your boy! How bad can we be? He loves Israel! He loves his wife, Hadassah! He loves Shabat dinner! Give us your liberal Jew vote! Granted, we'd never vote for the Heeb ourselves, but we'll take your vote for sure. Shalom, bitches!

In all seriousness, I don't buy Joe Lieberman. Never have; never will. I don't trust him, and feel that while he is certainly on some of the right sides of issues, his stance on the biggest issue: the Middle East, concerns me terribly. I think his religious convictions will get in the way of sound decisions, and do believe he'd be all for blurring the lines between religion and government.

Uh huh

Just like the US. Bunch of white guys showed up, killed the locals, etc...

``No nation in history has made the transition to a free society without facing challenges, setbacks and false starts,'' Bush said today, comparing the establishment of a free Iraq to the founding of the U.S. Over the past two and a half years, he said, Iraq has undergone ``a remarkable transformation.''

The New York Daily News

Has put together a great series about 9/11, the cash, and all the other factors.

This is the first article of many, and when I'm done reading them all I'll post the rest.

4-year Scandal of the 9/11 Billions

He Just Changed His Mind!

Really, that's all that happened.

I love scumbags like Rep. Knollenberg:

Amtrak certainly knows how to lose money, but the railroad says it can lose less if only it can get out of the business of hauling cars of "premium" freight like perishables behind its cross-country trains.

Instead, Congress has told Amtrak to increase sharply the number of carloads it hauls or forgo $8.3 million in additional federal money.

The order, contained in the transportation bill signed by President Bush last month, was inserted late in the process by Representative Joe Knollenberg, an appropriations subcommittee chairman from Michigan. The Detroit businessman who owns the only company that supplies such rail cars happens to be a large donor to Mr. Knollenberg, a Republican, and other Michigan lawmakers.

Mr. Knollenberg acknowledged that the order, known in Washington as an earmark, was likely to help the businessman, Anthony Soave, and his company, ExpressTrak. But he said the main goal was to help Amtrak make money by hauling freight.

Until Friday, he had aggressively defended the provision.

"If you do it right, you are not just throwing money at the wall," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "It gives this idea some push to make it produce some profit. I think there is some possibility of this succeeding."

But Mr. Knollenberg changed course Friday afternoon. After documents obtained by The New York Times raised questions about lobbying by ExpressTrak and its lawyers to obtain the $8.3 million for Amtrak, Mr. Knollenberg released a statement saying he would work to reverse the legislation.

"I have decided to repeal the provision and rescind the funds in question," he said.

I CHANGED MY MIND, I CHANGED MY MIND, I CHANGED MY MIIIIND! YEAH! I CHANGED MY MIND!

Thing of Beauty

I love connecting dots.

A few days ago I wrote about Congressman Steve Buyer carving out exemptions for the drug maker Eli Lilly, the company that gives him more money than any other.

This weekend I came across this story about how Wall St is excited since Eli Lilly is beating expectations. How and why? Well, it just so happens that Eli Lilly is doing so on the back of the very drugs Rep. Buyer is getting exemptions for.

Again, nothing against Eli Lilly, but isn't it nice when a congressman can make their lives easier by funnelling taxpayer dollars into drug companies?