Notes From Atlanta
This blows.
Tillman probably killed by friendly fire.
Former pro football player Pat Tillman was "probably" killed by friendly fire as he led his team of Army Rangers up a hill during a firefight in Afghanistan last month, the U.S. Army said Saturday.
...
"Suddenly the sound of a mine explosion was heard somewhere between the two groups and the Americans in one group started firing," the official said, citing an account given to him by an Afghan fighter who was part of that group, not Tillman's.
"Nobody knew what it was — a mine, a remote-controlled bomb — or what was going on, or if enemy forces were firing. The situation was very confusing," the official said.
"As the result of this firing, that American was killed and three Afghan soldiers were injured. It was a misunderstanding and afterwards they realized that it was a mine that had exploded and there were no enemy forces."
What a waste.
CNN says Al Quaida supports John Kerry
Via
Atrios,
this CNN transcript:
[Kelli] ARENA: Neither John Kerry nor the president has said troops pulled out of Iraq any time soon. But there is some speculation that al Qaeda believes it has a better chance of winning in Iraq if John Kerry is in the White House.
BEN VENZKE, INTELCENTER: Al Qaeda feels that Bush is, even despite casualties, right or wrong for staying there is going to stay much longer than possibly what they might hope a Democratic administration would.
My letter to Kelli Arena at kelli.arena@turner.com
Ms. Arena,
I want to thank you for fighting the good fight for George W. Bush. It is time that somebody down at that Communist News Network finally started fully supporting George W. Bush, regardless of truth or ethics. This war is more important than truth or free speech, afterall! We are fighting for our very lives against terrorists. (I can't tell you how bad the carpal is right now, I have been fighting so hard!)
However, thank you for exposing John Kerry for currying favor with Al Qaeda! We know he loves the French and them Arabs, and will ruin our great country if elected. I am sure that damn Democrat will make our country less safe. I know he will spend money recklessly and inflate deficits. He will bring dishonesty and partisanship back to the White House. Heck, he will probably even have sex there with his elite liberal wife.
Keep up the good fight for George W. Bush. We love you, George W. Bush loves you and God loves you. I hope all those damn Democrats die!
Who would Jesus vote for? Think about it.
gttim
Driving to Charlotte!
Leaving this afternoon to drive up to Charlotte, NC, to see Rush on their 30th Annivesary Tour. I am so excited. I have tickets to the Atlanta Show, but just couldn't wait until August. I have seen the setlist, and it looks fantastic. I saw them in 2002, and they were playing better than ever. This tour should be just as good,
provided Alex quits assaulting police officers.
Rush is also releasing a CD of cover songs to celebrate their anniversary. Looks like 3 of these made the setlist: The Seeker, Crossroads and Summertime Blues.
Concert review this weekend.
Hello, my name is George Bush.
Just thought you should know:
•I attacked and took over 2 countries.
•I spent the U.S. surplus and bankrupted the US Treasury.
•I shattered the record for the biggest annual deficit in history (not easy!).
•I set an economic record for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
•I set all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the
stock market.
•I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
•In my first year in office I set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history (tough to beat my dad's, but I did).
•After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history.
•I set the record for most campaign fund raising trips by any
president in US history.
•In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.
•I cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in US history.
•I set the all-time record for most real estate foreclosures in a
12-month period.
•I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
•I set the record for the fewest press conferences of any president, since the advent of TV.
•I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution
than any other US president in history.
•I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
•I cut health care benefits for war veterans.
•I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
•I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US
history.
•I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.
•Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US
history. (The poorest multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.)
•I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously struggle against bankruptcy.
•I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any
market in any country in the history of the world.
•I am the first president in US history to order a US attack AND
military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community.
•I have created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States, called the "Bureau of Homeland
Security"(only one letter away from BS).
•I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending
increases, more than any other president in US history (Ronnie was
tough to beat, but I did it!!).
•I am the first president in US history to compel the United Nations remove the US from the Human Rights Commission.
•I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations
remove the US from the Elections Monitoring Board.
•I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of
congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US
history.
•I rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant. I withdrew from the World Court of Law.
•I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
•I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations
election inspectors access during the 2002 US elections.
•I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate
campaign donations.
•The biggest lifetime contributor to my campaign, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
•I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
•I am the first president to run and hide when the US came under
attack (and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
•I am the first US president to establish a secret shadow government.
•I took the world's sympathy for the US after 9/11, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
•I am the first US president in history to have a majority of the
people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to
world peace and stability.
•I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded
government contracts.
•I set the all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling their huge investments in corporations bidding for gov't contracts.
•I have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
•I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
•RECORDS AND REFERENCES: I have at least one conviction for drunk
driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not
available).
•I was AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during time of war.
•I refuse to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use. (wink,wink)
•All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
•All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or
bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
•All minutes of meetings of any public corporation for which I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
•Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
With Love,
GEORGE W. BUSH
The White House, Washington, DC
Note: this information should be useful to voters in the 2004
election. Circulate to as many citizens you think would be helped to be reminded about this record.
Bush's support dropping.
An interesting Financial Times article.
"Republicans fall into two categories at this time: grumbling and despondent," says one former high-ranking administration official. "People are very demoralised. This is the prime problem that the president is seeking to address . . . to show that there is a method to the madness."
...
For the pictures of torture in Abu Ghraib, the rising death toll and the sense of drift have not only soured public sentiment towards the Iraq war, they have sapped Mr Bush's support on Capitol Hill, among Republican voters and within the conservative "commentariat".
Senators such as Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican, have personalised the administration's failings in Iraq. Mr Hagel complained that Mr Bush has sealed himself off from outside advice: "To essentially hold himself hostage to two or three key advisers and never reach beyond that is very dangerous for a president."
Suddenly, Democrats in Congress are even beginning to dream out loud of recapturing the Republican-held House, believing that a wave of anti-Iraq, anti-Bush sentiment could deliver them the extra 12 seats they need.
The polls show that as Mr Bush's approval ratings for his handling of Iraq have plummeted, Republicans previously rock-solid in their support for Mr Bush's leadership in Iraq and the war on terrorism are having misgivings: only 75 per cent of Republicans supported Mr Bush's handling of Iraq, down 8 per cent over the past month, according to Tuesday's Washington Post-ABC News Poll. The problems in Iraq are even contaminating Mr Bush's approval ratings on the economy.
...
Whatever the conservative commentators complaints are with the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, one of those at the White House gathering points out that none of them would even contemplate voting for Mr Kerry. The same, though, cannot be said for Republicans across the country.
James Carville, the fast-talking Louisiana Democrat who worked for Bill Clinton and has since made a reputation as a partisan pollster and television pundit, says that when he speaks to Republican audiences he asks them whether they have come across many people in bars or supermarkets recently who say: "I voted for Al Gore in 2000, but, you know, I'm so impressed with that George Bush, I think I'm going to vote for him this time."
It is a doubly vicious taunt, as it reminds Republicans not only of the strength of anti-Bush feeling that will propel Democrats to the polls in November but, also, it hints at the increasing number of George W. Bush voters in 2000 who are having second thoughts in 2004.
Looks like the training wheel are working lose.
Your tax dollars help make the Walton family rich.
Welfare for rich people.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with over $256 billion in sales last year, has received more than $19 million from Georgia governments to build stores and distribution centers since 1987, according to a study released Monday.
...
Wal-Mart's biggest Georgia subsidy, $10 million, came in 1987 for building a distribution center in Douglas, in southeast Georgia, according to the study. The center employs about 1,600 workers.
A job for a truck loader there is advertised to pay $10.45 an hour, according to the state Department of Labor.
Other Wal-Mart distribution center subsidies were $500,000 in Carrollton in 2001; $1 million in LaGrange in 2000; $1.2 million in Monroe in 2000; and $2 million in Statesboro in 1994, according to the study.
...
Retail stores in Americus, Fitzgerald and Walton received local government subsidies of from $1.3 million to $1.9 million each in 1992, according to the study. Mattera said taxpayers should be especially skeptical of government spending to draw these lower-wage retail jobs.
Now Wal-mart will say that these communities are lucky to get the jobs, and they get a good return on their investment. However, the Walton family gets a much better return, as they currently hold positions 7-11 on the Forbes list of richest people in the world. Nice work if you can get it.
There are costs associated with having Wal-mart be such a large employer in Georgia. There is the argument of low wages. Wal-mart does not pay a living wage, but pays the lowest possible hourly wage they can get away with. One has to wonder if this is to hold prices low, or to keep the Waltons on the Forbes richest list.
Wal-mart employees are far more likely to have their
children enrolled in Peachcare in Georgia, insurance for children whose parents cannot afford or do not have access to health insurance. At the end of 2002, almost 6.2% of the children enrolled on Peachcare were dependents of Walmart employees. That is 14 times the amount of any other employer in the state.
"Most employees who make $7 to $8 an hour can't afford health insurance," said Cindia Cameron, organizing director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. "When a very wealthy employer passes off to taxpayers what is rightfully a labor force cost, that's a serious public policy problem."
....
The AFL-CIO said the number of Wal-Mart employees' children in PeachCare reflects the company's low wages and the relatively high price of its medical plan.
"You have a company increasingly shifting the cost of health care to taxpayers," said Shaun O'Brien, assistant director of public policy for the AFL-CIO. Many Wal-Mart employees, the union says, earn wages of $7.50 to $8.50 an hour  not enough to make benefits affordable.
I am sure all the wingnuts and libertarians will now want to scream about the free market. However, is this really a free market? Consider if you were to try and open a store. Could you actually compete against Wal-mart? With the government giving Wal-mart subsidies for it stores and distribution centers, it has lower overhead. With Wal-mart shifting traditional insurance costs to the state, it has much lower labor costs. How could a single store, or even a small chain, hope to compete? This does not even take into account how Wal-mart will pressure wholesalers to get ridiculously low prices, as in the
Vlasic Pickle incident. With all these government subsidies given to Wal-mart, nobody can hope to compete. It is not a free, or fair, market.
Not to worry, however. While you struggle to pay your taxes, the Walton family is probably very grateful for all the help, and money, you give them.
Accident prone wrestler back to Olympics.
You can only hope he makes it in one piece.
The past few weeks, Rulon Gardner has been as careful as a 264 1/2-pound man can be, especially one who's had misadventures with snowmobiling, motorcycles, basketball and bows and arrows.
"I'm pretty darn safe," said Gardner, who stayed out of jeopardy Sunday to advance to the Athens Olympics, where he'll defend the heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling gold medal he won in 2000.
...
Actually, the weird things have happened all his life, like the time he accidentally punctured his stomach with an arrow during fourth grade show-and-tell. Or the notor- ious snowmobiling accident in 2002 when he was stranded for 17 hours and frostbite cost him a toe. Gardner keeps the toe in formaldehyde in his refrigerator.
I guess the toe is used to the cold by now. Actually the nine-toed wrestler has been through some tough times and has still made the Olympic team. It will be good to see him representing the USA again.
Letters to the AJC.
Thomas Nelson
comments on Zell Miller teaching at one of our universoties.
Frightening lessons
So, Zell Miller wants to teach again! ("When Miller leaves Senate, he aims to teach," News, May 21) What will he teach?
After telling the Georgia electorate that he wanted only one term as governor, will he teach a course in honesty or after living off the Democratic party for years will he enlighten us with a course on loyalty? Or as a good Marine will he tell us what Semper Fi means?
Great practical joke.
Scientists viewing the volcano webcam on New Zealand's White Island were surprized by the
appearance of a pink dinosaur. Dino, from the Flintstones, can be viewed near the rim of the volcano
here. Scientists figure the harsh climate near the volcano will deal the little guy. The actual page for the webcam is located
here.
Go read this.
We are doing very bad things. Bush should be impeached.
Q: I would like to go back to the first incident, when the survivor asked why did you kill his brother. Was that the incident that pushed you over the edge, as you put it?
A: Oh, yeah. Later on I found out that was a typical day. I talked with my commanding officer after the incident. He came up to me and says: "Are you OK?" I said: "No, today is not a good day. We killed a bunch of civilians." He goes: "No, today was a good day." And when he said that, I said "Oh, my goodness, what the hell am I into?"
From a Marine with 12 years of service.
Via
Gamersnook.
I love this guy.
Joshua Ellis made some
cool banners for us liberals to put on our websites. I like the banners, but what I like even better is
his rational for doing so.
I made these banners because I'm tired of being expected to feel ashamed because I don't want to help right-wing assholes turn this country into a shitkicker theme park. I'm tired of having my patriotism questioned by people who think Thomas Jefferson was a sitcom character. I'm smarter, better educated and more informed than these people -- why the fuck should I be forced to treat their opinions as if they were equally as valid as my own? You wouldn't ask a six year old how to tune a Lamborghini's engine...so why should you care about the political opinions of people who can't point out their own goddamn country on a map? I've lived in the Middle East and spent time with Kurdish insurgents; I don't give a shit what some semi-literate Midwestern retard who's never been more than two hundred miles from home and whose idea of intellectual exercise is watching "Jeopardy" thinks about the intricacies of Islamic theology as it relates to the metaphysical notion of jihad. Fuck him.
Am I an elitist? If by "elitism" you mean "expecting people to actually know what the fuck they're talking about before they start talking about it," then yes, I'm an elitist. Fine. These banners are for other "elitists" who are proud of actually being smart and, y'know, knowing something about the world they didn't get from Fox News or the cover of the goddamn Reader's Digest.
Can I have a "Hell Yeah!"
I love this woman.
Pelosi questions Bush's competence.
"The emperor has no clothes," Pelosi, D-California, told reporters on Thursday. "When are people going to face the reality? Pull this curtain back."
...
"The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue for me, and that is the competence of our leader," Pelosi said. "These policies are not working. But speaking specifically to Iraq, we have a situation where -- without adequate evidence -- we put our young people in harm's way."
...
"I believe that the president's leadership in the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment and experience in making the decisions that would have been necessary to truly accomplish the mission without the deaths to our troops and the cost to our taxpayers."
...
"Rocket-propelled grenades, not rose petals, greeted them," Pelosi said of U.S. troops. "Instead ... of Iraq being a country that would readily pay for its own reconstruction ... we're up to over $200 billion in cost to the American people."
Tom "Bug Killer" Delay, not the same guy as Bill "Cat Killer" Frist, of the party that never apologizes, wants Pelosi to apologize.
Zell Miller just can't shut his mouth.
More crap comming from his mouth in the AJC.
"Yeah, it makes me sad. But some of these people who are my critics should walk a mile in my shoes. They should sit in the caucus meetings and hear what I heard, and then they would know Zell Miller."
It should be noted that Zell sits in the Republican caucus. He is not welcome in the Democrats caucus.
Do we need to remind everybody not to dump pets?
The AJC has a story about how
Easter rabbits are getting dumped this time of year. Ironic to give kids a rabbit celebrating the resurrection of Christ, a celebration of Christian values, and then a few months later dump it on the side of the road.
Instead of dumping it, you should at least eat it yourself. A domestic rabbit will last as long in the wild as a cute virgin alter boy at a Catholic parish.
Her on steroids?
Naaaaaaa!!!!
TV Show Finales.
First up last night was Angel. I have not seen every show, but do like watching it. The humor in the show has been just hilarious at times. Some of the wisecracks border on outrageous.
The finale last night was great. Good people died, bad people were treated well- as they knew they would be- and there was no happy ending. The only moral is that it is the worthy who continue to fight under impossible odds. In the thank you clip to the fans, they also showed one of the funniest moments in TV history, IMHO- Angel as a muppet. I loved that episode.
And thankfully Spike did not die. I would hate it if his character was killed and then couldn't go to another spinoff.
Then came Lenny Briscoe's last episode Law & Order. It was okay. Nothing special. I still hate to see him go. I am sure is wisecracks will be carried on by another character.
Powerball winners have a daughter.
And she might not be to bright. After winning, she asks her father:
"Dad, can we still go to Wal-Mart?"
You can still eat at McDonalds to, but why would you? Teenagers...
Lenny catches the subway home.
Bummer, Lenny Bricsoe (Jerry Orbach) is written off Law & Order. The king of wisecracks is to be replaced by Dennis Farina. Could be good. L&O usually does a great job of casting for its ensemble and guest roles.
"She shopped till she dropped," he once wisenheimered about a comely corpse in a chichi boutique.
...
After being told a killing was the work of the devil: "No, this was done by someone who knows the neighborhood. Satan's not a local."
...
Crime scene technician: "Last time we sifted a dumpster, the Investigating Officer got in here himself."
Briscoe: "That's fascinating. I think you missed a spot over there."
...
Van Buren: "What about Dr. Hampton? Any man in her life?"
Briscoe: "Yes, but his name is Fluffy and he's been neutered. Other than that, her social calendar is pretty light."
...
In one episode, when commenting on a decapitated victim, Briscoe chimed in with, “Hope his parents weren't getting him any hats for Christmas.”
...
Green: “Did anyone find any type of weapon in Peter Rubin’s home?”
Briscoe: “Not unless you count the world’s most boring record collection.”
...
Rey: “You ever pay for it, Lennie?”
Lennie: “I was married, wasn't I?”
...
"New Hampshire. I spent a year there one weekend"
More.
MSNBC has a
great story on him.
Somebody needs to put together a definitive collection of his best lines.
The porn did it.
Another right wing idiot starts blaming porn for the abuse scandal in Al Ghraib prison.
No, it wasn't the porn. It was the sexually repressed, right wing little monsters you raised that did this.
Always the porn in these people's minds.
If the porn didn't cause this to happen, what did.
What could cause people to do such nasty things to prisoners. What could have caused it. What could somebody say that would lead people to believe it is okay to torture and humiliate Arabs.
What could somebody say.....
I think there should be no mercy shown to these sub-humans. I believe that a thousand of them should be killed tomorrow. I think a thousand of them held in the Iraqi prison should be given 24 hour[s] -- a trial and executed. I think they need to be shown that we are not going to roll over to them ... Instead of putting joysticks, I would have liked to have seen dynamite put in their orifices and they should be dropped from airplanes ... They should put dynamite in their behinds and drop them from 35,000 feet, the whole pack of scum out of that jail.
...
Right now, even people sitting on the fence would like George Bush to drop a nuclear weapon on an Arab country. They don't even care which one it would be. I can guarantee you -- I don't need to go to Mr. Schmuck [pollster John] Zogby and ask him his opinion ... The most -- I tell you right now -- the largest percentage of Americans would like to see a nuclear weapon dropped on a major Arab capital. They don't even care which one...
I think these people need to be forcibly converted to Christianity ... It's the only thing that can probably turn them into human beings."
Who would say something like that?
From Fark.com
Possible new Led Zepplin CD covers.
Ouch.
Ohhh.
Yet again.
Stradivarius almost made into a CD holder.
A 320-year-old missing cello is now back with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, having possibly avoided becoming one of the most expensive CD racks ever.
A nurse found the $3.5 million instrument made by master craftsman Antonio Stradivari lying by a trash bin — and almost had her boyfriend convert it into a CD holder, police said Tuesday.
...
The prospect that the prized instrument could have been turned into a CD holder "is so abominable. I get sick when I hear it," said Robert Cauer, a Los Angeles-based expert instrument restorer.
Scary!
Hey, Bush ran in the Bay-to-Breakers race.
You know the big party race in San Francisco?
Take a look.
OMG, a Def Leppard tribute band.
Don't ask how I found
this. Just how dedicated are they? Not very.
Bob Duda, the drummer, has two arms.
Winning hearts and minds in Atlanta.
This afternoon will Bush land at Dobbins Airforce Base so that he may attend a
$15,000-a-couple dinner fundraiser at the home of Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli. This will distrupt traffic between the Dobbins and Buckhead during
rush hour. Thats right, tens of thousands of commuters will have their drive home disrupted by President Bush so that he may raise 2.25 million dollars. Lovely, isn't it?
Cipollini out of the Giro.
It appears that continuing was doing him more damage.
He is bummed. What a shame. As some may know, he was taken down by his own teammate. He told the press that his team brought the wrong riders. He wanted other riders for the Giro. I did notice that his team was not able to dominant the setup this year.
Meanwhile, Alessandro Petacchi is kicking some serious ass, and has now won 4 of the 5 buch sprints. While Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo team is not as dominant in the last few kilometers of a race, Petacchi is truly the fastest man in bike racing now. I don't think Cipo could have gotten around him. Hopefully we will see these two duel at the Tour.
Also on the Giro, what is with OLN not having any night coverage of the race. I can't watch the show at 3 in the afternoon.
Idiots write letters.
Today's idiot is Ken Carr of Alpharetta who writes to the AJC:
I was outraged by Cynthia Tucker's comparison of white Southerners gleefully torturing black Southerners during Jim Crow to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
She should apologize for her openly racist and inflammatory remarks.
Perhaps it is the white southerners who gleefuly tortured black southerners who should do the apologizing. Anytime we can look at our history to learn, we should. It is by looking at our mistakes as a society that we learn not to make more mistakes. Torturing anybody for race or religion is well below what Americans stand for. Maybe anybody who does not understand that should move to another country.
Idiots still write letters.
From Bill Burns of Acworth to the AJC:
The moaning and groaning over the so-called torture at Abu Ghraib makes me sick; there was no torture.
Torture is standing in a window 100 stories in the air with a raging inferno behind, a sea of asphalt below and your heart in your throat as you pray for the miracle that isn't coming. Torture is falling for seemingly endless hours, fear permeating your every pore, knowing you are about to die. And for what?
The prisoners, who were hardened terrorists, not average Iraqis, were only made fun of. The only wrongdoing was the stupidity of taking photos.
#1 Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Any comparisons only show that the party making said comparison are uniformed morons, like Bill Burns here.
#2 The wrongdoing was the torture, because we lost the moral high ground. Our brave soldiers are now much more likely to be tortured ad killed because of Bush and his idiots actions in not maintaining Geneva Convention regulations.
Why does George W. Bush and Bill Burns hate our brave soldiers?
Florida so loves children, they hate abortion, and even kill over it.
However, rape a 12-year-old girl, and you only get 10 days of probation.
A man who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 12-year-old received a penalty much lighter than usual — 10 days of sex-offender probation — angering the girl's mother.
That would be
this judge. There is an email (lherendeen@seminolecountyfl.us), as well as phone number ((407) 665-4239).
Florida's Seminole County Republicans lists him as a GOP candidate for the 18th Judicial Circuit. Must be doing somebody a favor.
Billboard interview with Rush. (The Canadian band, not the drug addict.)
An informative interview. It is so great to see these guys getting the props they deserve after 30 years. I saw them twice on their last tour, and it was amazing the things they could still perform onstage. I am looking forward to seeing them this year on their
30th Anniversay Tour.
If you would like to see an amazing DVD of them, check out
Rush in Rio.
Also making the rumor rounds is the pending release of a
Rush EP of cover songs. Rush has never released a cover verion of any other artist's song. Looks like a little Yardbird's cover?
Louisiana state representative introduces bill that addresses crack problem.
No, not the drug problem. This is about real serious stuff. The type of stuff that will cause the disintegration of the moral fabric of our society.
Yes this represenative wants to outlaw wearing pants well below the hips.
A Louisiana state representative wants to make it illegal for people to wear low-slung pants that expose underwear -- or more. But he's having trouble getting some of his colleagues to take him seriously.
When the bill came up for debate earlier this week, Rep. Derrick Shepherd, a Democrat from the New Orleans suburb of Marrero, was met with catcalls on the House floor. The bill would make it a crime to wear clothing in public that "intentionally exposes undergarments or intentionally exposes any portion of the pubic hair, cleft of the buttocks or genitals."
Launching a fiery speech in support of the bill, Shepherd said, "There comes a time in every society where we must draw a line of decency, where we must speak to a group of individuals who would flaunt the laws of our state, who would flaunt the morals of our community."
I'm glad they don't have anything more important to do in Baton Rouge. I guess everything else is just great down there. I guess that the state ranks 41st in percentage of college educated citizens, and 36th in annual income, is of no concern to the representatives. But wear you pants to low, and that is serious stuff.
Cipollini still hopes for stage win.
After a crash in stage 4 that left him with 24 fresh stitches in his shin and elbow, Cipo finished yesterday's stage 5, and
still hopes for a stage win, perhaps on todays stage 6. It will be tough, however, as young upstart Alessandro Petacchi of Fassa Bortolo has been fairly dominant this year. The Italians will battle at some point this year.
Defending champion Gilbert Simoni of Saeco is currently in the maglia rosa, the lovely pink leader's jersey. Hey Pink is the new black!
Lance Armstrong and the USPS team are not contesting the first of the Grand Tours, as they tend to rest up and race little else other than the Tour de France. Of course real champions, like Eddie Mercx, race all the big tours. Simoni challenged Lance to come race the Italian tour, but Lance didn't step up to the plate.
Not The Onion.
Fish hunting in Vermont.
The hunter's prey darted into the shadows, just out of reach of Henry Demar's gun.
"Come on, stand up and be counted," Demar muttered. "There was a ripple that came out of the weeds. There's something out there."
Dressed in camouflage, gripping his .357 Magnum, Demar was primed to shoot. But this time, no such luck. With a flick of its tail, his quarry -- a slick, silvery fish -- was gone.
Fish shooting is a sport in Vermont, and every spring, hunters break out their artillery -- high-caliber pistols, shotguns, even AK-47s -- and head to the marshes to exercise their right to bear arms against fish.
Is this where Ted Nugent vacations?
It is a controversial pastime, and Vermont's fish and wildlife regulators have repeatedly tried to ban it.
They'll have to pry my gun out of my cold, wet, slimy, scale covered hand.
"They call us crazy,...
Noooo!
Salon.com on Karen Hughes.
Well not Salon,
but writer James C. Moore
In the carefully rendered world where Hughes lives, the weapons of mass destruction are not missing; they have only to be discovered. Terrorists hate freedom and liberty and equality, instead of hating Americans. A man who won a Silver Star for shedding blood for his country needs to explain himself, while a young lieutenant who skipped out on an officer's commission and a coveted pilot's slot has "served honorably." On Planet Hughes, life is returning to normal in Iraq, the horrors are diminishing and the casualties of Americans and Iraqis are not that significant. It's a happy place where presidents never make mistakes and there is never anything to be sorry about. One can almost see her in the back of the room, her mouth rounded with expression and secretly moving in unison with the president as he speaks the words "Donald Rumsfeld is a superb secretary of defense."
After all of the troops have come home, a powerful cleric is ruling Iraq with a theocratic government and Bush has been retired to his ranch by an angry electorate, the president's closest friend will be undaunted. Years from now, when historians begin to insist that Iraq was the greatest geopolitical mistake ever made by an American president, she will be there disputing their interpretations.
Karen Hughes will always believe.
Go read this article to see how a former hack reporter became one of the most influential people in America. To think this can happen is rather scary, but what about Bush is not?
The AJC gets letters.
From Jim Stoll in Kennesaw:
Like another writer, I am shocked and dismayed over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans ("Humanity was removed," Letters, May 10).
However, unlike her, I do not consider Iraqis my brothers and sisters. I am a practicing Catholic, and my brothers and sisters do not drag human beings through the streets, dismember them, set them on fire and hang them from a bridge. Neither do they celebrate while others are doing so.
I saw those pictures, too. You cannot strip humanity from someone who has none to strip.
I guess during his crappy education he never studied The Crusades or the Inquisition. Next monkey please...
Ohh, and didn't God say to love all people of the earth. Or did your Catholic God forget about that? What a fucking mororn!
Failed deals not the cause of slow resurrection.
Face it Underground just sucks. It will never be a nightlife mecca again. The area is crime ridden, and access sucks. Not to mention every parking lot near underground will be trying to figure out how to screw the partiers. (Of course that last reason hasn't seemed to hurt Buckhead.)
New Swatch billboard in Times Square.
Bunnies having sex!
Why would anybody find this offensive. Okay, maybe because they are sexually repressed religious freaks. Or parents. Anyways, I think little bunnies doing it doggie style are so cute! The kids probably think so to!
One very cool prefab house.
I was looking at
houses like this on the web
a few months ago. Some are very cool. I looked at this one back then and was very impressed. I am glad to see it in production.
Delta threatens bankruptcy.
Yes,
Delta is threatening to take their ball and go home if they can't get deep wage concessions from the pilots union. Of course Delta was threatening the union before, while it was stashing millions of dollars away for it officers retirement fund. Personally I would love to see the airline go out of business. It is a crappy airline with probably the worst customer service of any major airline currently flying. The cutomer service reps would charge their mothers an extra $100 to swap flights. My main hope is that somehow during this struggle Delta ends up loosing some of the gates it monopolizes at Hartsfield International Airport. It would be nice if we could get some smaller airlines that are known for customer service and good prices to begin flying here. You know which ones I am talking about, the airlines that make money.
If you are going to be flashy...
Be really flashy!
Mario Cipollini wears what nobody else would on the first day of the Giro d'Italia. Or would want to.
For those who don't know, Mario always wears outrageous time trial suits. He usually gets fined for non-regulation uniforms, but the team picks up the fines. He is getting press for his sponsors.
Another look. (
My hand was a higher than that guy's. Much higher.)
Yet another look.
Mario, day two!
Edited to show proper picture of man with hand on Cipollini's bottom. Joke isn't the same without it.
Should the dying founder of AA be given 3 shots of whiskey when he was dying.
Some interesting discussion about
this blog post on
Fark.com. As a recovering alcoholic I would be tempted not to give them to him, as he was dying a painful death and most likely on drugs. Since he was stoned at this point anyway, would it have mattered. I know I want to go sober. If I was zonked on pain medication, then the medication is for a purpose. The whiskey would not be. I vote no.
Not to slander a dead man, but Bill W. did not have good sobriety for 30 years. He did experiment with various drugs during his 30 years being alcohol free. It was not important that he stayed sober. What is impportant is that he taught others that by helping other people try to stay sober, an acoholic can keep himself sober.
In the Fark.com thread it is funny how many people have this hatred of AA. Perhaps they are just a little scared of it. I know it helped me, and has helped keep me sober for over 15 years. My life is certaibly better than it has ever been. I rarely go to meetings anymore, but practice what I learned everyday of my life. Of course if I was still drinking, and wanted to keep drinking, I would probably be badmouthing it just as much as they are.
Hurry up! Gotta get there!
Maybe they could have gotten there a tad bit late.
Seven people died when their rented SUV veered out of control and went airborne while passing other cars on Interstate 95. It was one of the deadliest highway crashes in Maine history.
Two women and a child were fatally thrown from the Ford Explorer, while its other four occupants believed to be two children, a woman and possibly a teenager died inside. Three of the dead were children under the age of 10.
The Explorer went out of control Sunday afternoon after clipping one of the cars it was trying to pass, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
From The Daily Show.
Reporter: Finish this statement, "When Nadar is elected President..."
Nadar supporting college kid: "Blah, blah, blah..."
Reporter: "Wrong! The correct response is "...monkeys will fly out of my ass."
Kerry's anti-war path taken by others.
From the AJC:
The man who would likely be Sen. John Kerry's most credible defender against the slings and arrows aimed at him by Republicans unfortunately suffered the fate of too many Vietnam veterans -- an untimely death. That man was Lewis B. Puller Jr., the son of the most decorated Marine in the history of the corps, Lewis "Chesty" Puller Sr.
...
Puller recounted his tragic tale in "Fortunate Son," the most compelling piece of literature to come out of the Vietnam War. The book deservedly won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize but is particularly relevant now amidst the controversy over the anti-war activism of Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate. Puller shows us how men who decided to sacrifice their lives for what they believed was a just cause came to actively oppose the war, risking approbation from fellow veterans and the military they respected.
...
Puller's transition from a patriotic young officer who cared deeply about the men in his platoon to a critic of the war he eagerly joined seems to parallel Kerry's. Like Kerry, Puller didn't immediately question the cause he fought for while fighting overseas or even upon returning. He abhorred student protesters who burned American flags and demonized veterans for committing atrocities against Vietnamese civilians. His anti-war views took some time and reflection.
...
But what eventually turned Puller into a dissenter regarding the policy justifications for the war was the addition of protesting veterans to the anti-war movement around 1971. Here were men like him who "were not starry-eyed intellectuals or malcontents" but "soldiers and Marines, many of whom had paid for their perspectives with shattered lives and limbs." When these anti-war veterans headed to Washington to protest during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, Puller was tempted to join them. Instead, Puller chose to stay close to his beloved father, who was dying of a massive stroke at the family home in Virginia.
Read it, and then email it around. Then get a copy of
Fortunate Son: The Autobiography Of Lewis B. Puller, Jr.
Bobby Brown ordered to stand trial for hitting Whitney.
T
his is real stupid and a waste of taxpayer money. I mean how good of a witness can Whitney be as drugged up as she normally is. Hell, she was probably drugged up when Bobby was slapping her ass around for not rolling his joints just right. Let it go. I am sure the two love birds can work it out themselves.
In a recent interview on the TV program "Dateline NBC," the 35-year-old singer described the incident as a "little spat." He said the two were playfully "slap boxing" and Houston took one of his jabs a "little serious."
"I got big hands, man. I would hurt her, you know? It would be more than just a little cut on the lip," Brown said.
You know what they say: "Big hands, no career."
RIP, Caesar.
Zoo Atlanta's new male silverback gorilla died. He was a bit over weight and had some gastrointestinal problems, but his death was a shock. Sadly, he never mated with the zoo's female gorillas, although they had shown interest in him. What a shame!
Women soldiers have come a long way and are just like the men.
Luckovich.
A lead paragraph I never thought I would read.
From USAToday.com:
PHOENIX (AP) — School's in for Alice Cooper. The rock star, whose hits include School's Out, is being awarded an honorary doctorate by a Christian liberal arts college. The 56-year-old will receive the honorary degree at Grand Canyon University's commencement ceremony Saturday.
Must be some really old acid kicking in.
Tough questions on Bush's bus tour.
"Mr. President, as a concerned Democrat who served on a same color boat as John Kerry, I would like to know how you answer the charges that you are a much stronger candidate on national security, and that your tax cut plans are the best way to increase employment?"
Oh, and
Bush isn't even on the bus. He is flying.
Pat Tillman: "He's f -- ing dead."
A sensational and telling
SFGate.com story on Pat Tillman.
Tillman's youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the microphone. He hadn't written anything, he said, and with the starkest honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides.
"Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's f -- ing dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f -- ing dead.''
What? This didn't happen for God, as well as country? A professional athlete turned soldier, and we're supposed to believe that he'd have no use for piety? Robbed of a cliche, where does that leave us?
Challenge yourself
His brother-in-law and close friend, Alex Garwood, described how Tillman handled his duties when he became godfather to Garwood's son. He came to the ceremony dressed as a woman. Not as a religious commentary. He was doing a balancing act.
"We had two godfathers, no godmother,'' Garwood explained. And what NFL player turned Army Ranger wouldn't don drag to make that math work?
Who on earth was this guy?
He was the same person who often talked late into the night with his linebackers coach at ASU, prying apart stereotypes about college football players and future soldiers.
"He talked about gays,'' Lyle Setencich, the former ASU assistant said. "He asked me, 'Could you coach gays?' " Setencich told Tillman yes. He could, and he had. He repeated that at the memorial service, televised on ESPN, in front of the sports world, showing another side of a coach, another side of an American hero.
Challenge yourself.
Go read
the story. It is neither for or against the war. It is just a story about a man.
Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Yes, it is being rereleased and quickly to. Of course you don't think for a second that Monty Python would lower themselves to anything as crass as trying to exploit the popularity of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" do you?
"It's shameless commercial opportunism on our part," confesses Terry Jones, shamelessly, referring to the fact that Monty Python's Life of Brian is being rushed into rerelease.
The original plan was to get the newly struck prints out this August - the month that marks the 25th anniversary of the defunct British comedy troupe's merrily blasphemous tale of an accidental messiah unknowingly rousing the rabble of Judea, circa A.D. 33. But then a wee thing called The Passion of the Christ by some guy named Mel Gibson came along, and suddenly crucifixions, Roman despots and virgin birthing were in the news.
"We just saw the opportunity and thought we'd take it," Jones says. "We're definitely trying to cash in on Mel's enormous success."
I just bought a new Mustang.
No, it is not a GT. I am loving it now, but am starting to get the buyer's remorse one feels after spending a bunch of money. The power of the car will help erase all that. Vroom, vroom!
Update: Vroom, vroom!
A condom would have been a better method.
A 17-year-old boy shot his girlfriend in an abortion clinic in an attempt to stop her from having an abortion. Condoms prevent more abortions than bullets, but they aren't allowed to teach that anymore.
The only thing that amazes me is that this did not happen in Florida.
Crap, I've drooled on my keyboard again.
Sweet!
Hint: Put the two pieces together.