A message to evangelicals:

Hi. Since McCain referred to Obama as"The One", and you know what that is secret code for, here's a reminder: Barack Obama can't bring forth the end times unless he's president, so all christians need to vote for Obama this tuesday. Remember, a vote for Obama is a vote for the rapture! And by the way, when the rapture comes, can I have all your stuff? Thanks.

Brilliantly Edited Video: McCain Vs Palin

Republicans are bad for the economy.

This happened to me....

...but I don't have room to post one of these.

What should have happened Thursday night.

McSame's speech was playing on a TV as I was checking into a hotel; when I saw that green backdrop, I thought to myself, "Don't the republicans ever learn?" I then realized, "Of course not. That's why they're republicans."

This must be considered.

The last time we had a really old president, it didn't go well.

In a perfect world...

My first act: chocolate cake for all Americans!

McCain Rode In A Nine-Car Motorcade To Get A Cappucino

LA Times:

McCain, who huddled with advisors at his desert compound in Sedona, Ariz., said nothing in public. A nine-car motorcade took him to a nearby Starbucks early in the morning, where he ordered a large cappuccino. McCain otherwise avoided reporters.

Me:
NINE CARS FOR COFFEE? No wonder he wants more oil drilling. I'd hate to see the convoy if he ever went to the Olive Garden. Can't he get one of those creepy young republican kids to get him his Starbucks? And isn't cappuccino one of those uppity liberal commie tree-hugger drinks?

A message to parents.

Nobody wants to know your kids' names, how many you have, or their favorite sports, while we are driving. Please remove those stupid decals from the back of your SUV. The same goes for the "glass broken by base/soft/golf/tennis ball" stickers.

Cindy McCain, the millionaire drug thief.

She probably had her own prescriptions, but may have left them on the private plane, or forgot which house they were in.

Dont Vote Against Yourself Part 2

If you're reading this, and would have your taxes increased under Obama, I suggest you shut up, and be proud that you can help the country that helped you get so absurdly wealthy.

Don't vote against yourself.

Who cares about gay folks getting married if you're jobless?

Back to posting....

I had to switch hosting, but now all is well.

So scarily true.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Another reason to impeach.

He's clueless. By the way, shame on the media for not reporting the articles of impeachment introduced in congress.

McCain hates beer!

The man is deranged, I tell you!

McCain thinks Putin is president of Germany.

Way to go there, McGenius.

Possibly the stupidest man in America.

Paul Harris, in The Observer:
"Johnny Telvor was not happy about Barack Obama becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. Not happy at all.

Standing outside the sturdy courthouse in the sweltering heat of a West Virginia afternoon in the small town of Williamson, Telvor smoked a cigarette and bluntly gave his opinion of Obama's historic mission to be America's first black president.

'We'll end up slaves. We'll be made slaves just like they was once slaves,' he said. Telvor, a white Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in West Virginia's primary, said he planned to vote for Republican John McCain in November. 'At least he's an American,' he added with a disarmingly friendly smile."

Can someone please get a photo of this clown? Why, oh why do we even let idiots like Johnny Telvor speak, much less vote?

Old Myths from the Age of Idiocy, to be replaced by New Truths for the Age of Reality

Larry Beinhart:

Old Myth: 9/11 was an Act of War
New Truth: 9/11 was a Criminal Act.
Osama bin Laden was not a head of state or an agent of a state. He was a religion crazed gangster with a relatively small gang. His acts were crimes.

To elevate them to acts of war was to elevate him.
Worse, it created the wrong response. So wrong that he's still out there. Proof that you can commit a mass murder against the United States and get away with it.

Only when we redefine it, will we be able to figure out a sane response to replace the current insanity.

Old Myth: The War On Terror
New Truth: The War on Terror is Bogus
There is no War on Terror. It was a PR ploy to invade a country that annoyed George Bush and Dick Cheney, to transfer mad amounts of money to the military-industrial complex, to win elections, and to allow George to play dress up.

Old Myth: The War in Iraq was Not a War of Choice.
New Truth: The War in Iraq was a War of Choice.
Even if someone actually believed that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous man with weapons of mass destruction, the problem was solved the moment that the weapons inspectors got full access to all sites in Iraq.

At that point, going to war was like the police going into a man's house to look for guns, then shooting him while he is sitting on the couch, because they couldn't find them and were tired of looking.

Old Myth: The War in Iraq Can be Won.
New Truth: The War in Iraq Was Lost Years Ago.
It was lost through belief in stupid mythologies and the failure to heed reality. It was lost through poor planning and worse execution.

The administration does not a plan, the means, or the will to win in Iraq. Their only plan, their only goal, is to pass the problem on, so they can blame the next president for their failure.

Old Myth: If we Leave Iraq, Chaos Will Ensue.
New Truth: Iraq is Now in Chaos.
George Bush, and his gang, created the chaos. They applied everything they believed in - force as foreign policy, that the whole world wants to be like us, free marketeering, no government, crony appointments - to Iraq. It demonstrates the bankruptcy of their entire theology.

Old Myth: Free Markets are the Best Solution to Everything.
New Truth: Markets are Good for Cheap Consumer Goods, but Bad for Health.
They're bad for individual health, for health care systems, for the health of our work force, for the health of the environment. Unchecked and unbalanced, they're bad for the health of our economy.

Old Myth: All Regulation is Bad. Remove Regulation and the Free Markets Will Make Everything Better.
New Truth: An Economy Without Regulations is like a Baseball Game Without Umpires.
The cheaters take over and chaos ensues.

Old Myth: Tax Cuts Stimulate the Economy
New Truth: The Wrong Tax Cuts Can Ruin the Economy.
The truth is that the American economy has often thrived with high tax rates. Since WWII, it has never done as badly as it has under Bush, with the most cuts and lowest rates.

Old Myth: Reagan won the Cold War.
New Truth: The hippies won the Cold War.
Reagan told Gobachov, "Tear down that wall." But Gorbachov didn't. Reagan built up the military, but that didn't change anything. The people who tore down the Berlin Wall did so because they wanted to wear jeans and listen to rock 'n' roll and say rude things about their government. Like the hippies.

Old Myth: The Media Lost the War in Vietnam
New Truth: (A restatement of an Old Truth). The War in Vietnam was a stupid, useless mistake.
Bad politics, bad military strategy, and bad tactics made it worse. America's leaders and America's generals lost the war in Vietnam.

There are recordings of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger privately admitting that the Vietnam War could not be won. Then deciding not to end it, to keep it going, so Nixon could win re-election.

This is important because after Bush leaves office someone else will have to get us out of Iraq. The myth makers will rush in to say that Bush policies could have won and his successor lost the war.

Old Myth: George Bush is the Problem.
New Truth: The entire Republican Agenda Has Been Revealed as Bankrupt
George Bush acted out an agenda. It was enthusiastically backed by a Republican congress. And acquiesced to by Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who were terrified by the Republican's Big Bad Myths.

Old Myth: Religious Faith is a Good Way to Judge a Leader
New Truth: The Way People Deal With Reality, Is the Way to Judge a Leader.
The spectacle of our candidates groveling on TV over how religious they are, is appalling.

"If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office."
Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)

I did some redecorating.

I added some new things over to the left. The looney tunes are kinda cool, and I brought back the chimp-o-matic. I also changed the ad at the top. The KISS thing works, and since you're going to google anyway, you might as well get some free starbucks or other swag while you search.

Endorsement for today.

Don’t vote Oregonian Steve Novick into the U.S. Senate just because you agree with his political standpoints. Vote for him because he has a hook for a hand! And he’s 4’9”. So if you want to send a pirate-leprechaun hybrid to Washington, Novick’s your man.

McCain just makes stuff up as he goes along

The early signs of dementia?

This person could be your neighbor, episode 2

After all, how will you figure the odds without arithetic?

Just running the family business:

Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

Are people really this stupid?

From WKMG, Orlando:
LAND 'O LAKES, Fla. -- A substitute teacher in Pasco County has lost his job after being accused of wizardry.
Teacher Jim Piculas does a magic trick where a toothpick disappears and then reappears. Piculas recently did the 30-second trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes. Piculas said he then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he'd been accused of wizardry. "I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue, you can't take any more assignments you need to come in right away,'" he said. Piculas said he did not know of any other accusations that would have led to the action. The teacher said he is concerned that the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.

This person could be your neighbor.

Excellent point: In Houston, a Texan protesting amnesty for illegal
immigrants argues that anyone who can't master English doesn't
deserve to live in America.

Wake Up People!

Larry M Bartels, NY Times:
"The real incomes of middle-class families grew more than twice as fast under Democratic presidents as they did under Republican presidents. Even more remarkable, the real incomes of working-poor families (at the 20th percentile of the income distribution) grew six times as fast when Democrats held the White House. Only the incomes of affluent families were relatively impervious to partisan politics, growing robustly under Democrats and Republicans alike."


Me:
When are people going to realize that it's just not that important if gay people can get married, that the vast majority of arab people are not terrorists, and that unless you are very wealthy, republicans simply do not care if you live or die? Am I the only person who will state that many, many, people in this country are flat-out stupid? I don't care if they get offended, I'm not trying to sell them something.

DNC Ad on John McCain and Iraq:

The republicans hate this ad, probably because it tells the truth. Show it to everyone you know.

Blogging from my iPod...

...while sitting in a TGI Fridays. Way cool.

Be afraid of water.

Here's a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005 (extrapolated from best available data). My buddy Bill recently underwent surgery for a hernia, it's a shame that Bush won't spend a billion a month on him while he recovers, but on the plus side, he's not at Walter Reed.

Didn't Ron Paul drop out?

I was buying a hot dog from a street vendor in Pittsburgh the other day, and standing next to the cart were about 20 people campaigning for Ron Paul. What's up with that? Is he trying to score the VP nod? He was always the least wacko of the GOP candidates. Which isn't really saying much.

100th Post- RICE MUST GO!

Perhaps the reason I'm not wealthy or famous is that I just can't lie like she does. I hope to never aquire that ability.

Because not everyone has seen it.

Attention New England:

Tom Brady doesn't care about you. Perhaps it's because Boston has fewer supermodels per capita than New York. Maybe it's because nobody in New York cares if you wear an ugly hoodie. I don't know.

Majority rules.

77% of Americans think Bush sucks. What is congress waiting for?

Mrs McCain should keep quiet.

Mr Populist, Daily Kos:

Cindy's biggest claim to fame: in 1989 she developed an addiction to percocet and vicodin, two powerful morphine based pain killers. In 1993 she was caught stealing percocet from supply of the American Voluntary Medical Team, a charity she founded to provide health care and medications to war victims in underdeveloped nations. The DEA investigated her and with the intervention of her well connected parents and McCain himself, Cindy got off the hook with the usual 90 day trip to the posh rehab. The American Voluntary Medical Team folded shortly after it ceased to be a supply point for Cindy's opiate habit.

The DEA agreed to keep Cindy's little misadventure in Lala Land from the public, but then Cindy went and terminated the guy who reported her to the DEA and the details of Cindy's sordid past as a suburban trophy wife junkie all came out when the fired guy filed a wrongful termination suit against Cindy.

A few weeks after Cindy came clean about her addiction, the Variety Club cancelled her Humanitarian of the Year Award. Boo hoo! [Another example] of Republican family values.

Why even consider electing a republican?

Lance Mannion:
If the Goverment is a car setting out to give every one a ride to work, then for 40 years the Republicans have been puncturing the tires, pouring sand in the gas tank, stealing the distributer cap, and, whenever they can get their hands on the wheel, driving it straight into the nearest ditch and then, pointing to the wreckage as the tow truck backs up to it, saying, "See, this proves that people were meant to walk."

And they do this so that they don't have to chip in on gas.

More Takashi!

The Rio Theatre, 1986. I was there, behind the wall of amps. Enjoy.

Larry King-style thoughts.

I'm glad the giants won.....In my opinion, Fifth Third is the most evil bank in the United States, and I recommend that you never do business with them.....If you like tenors singing love songs, go to betaylor.com......Cumadin pills taste awful, would it kill the company that makes them to coat them?.....I'm glad to be back at my day gig because television sucks in general, with the exception of the unedited version of Top Gear, even though they get a little harsh about American cars and Americans in general (BBC America really should stop editing the show, if we're smart enough to watch, we can figure out the british slang)....Why are my beloved NY Islanders playing as if it's 1972 again?

For the Long Island metalheads.

I've heard a rumor that the influential and mercurial glam metal band Takashi may be reuniting for a live show. They also may release the long awaited follow-up album to "Kamikaze Killers". The metal world awaits!

I'm supporting Edwards.

The man takes no money from PACs and corporations. We don't need another presidential puppet.

Needs No Title

That hairstyle kinda works for Condi, though.

A Musical Break

Because I haven't had any on for a while. Here's DEVO's video for "Satisfaction". It still annoys the purists.


Check out this great piece from LA Weekly about Mark Mothersbaugh and his amazing career and collection of music gear.

My band's holiday antics.

Kind of like the end of a Monkees episode.

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Back, with an explanation.

You would think that after getting my leg crushed by a car while riding my cycle, I'd be some kind of blogging dynamo while I recover. This has not been the case. I'm doing better, and so will the blog. Thanks for your understanding.

Kill Your American Idol - A song worth checking out.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=261065496&s=143441
Just released by Advanced Idea Mechanixx, a group from New York, with yours truly guesting on "vocal". Actually a catchy song for dancing or driving fast.

The real Rudy in 30 seconds.

Who would want this guy to be president, other than Bernie Kerik?

Why are people so greedy?

Can someone ask a trucker?

Why is it, that when there is a lane closed on the interstate, a truck will pull into the center of the highway to prevent people from driving to the merge point? Even when a sign says, "Use both lanes to merge point"? Is he upset because he picked the wrong lane? All he is doing is increasing the delay. I really want to know why truckers do this, but I don't know any, and when I pass the self-appointed emperor of the highway, he can't hear me cursing at him under my helmet.

A quick quote.

"How will America survive the twenty first century without a permanant Republican majority?
The same way a baby survives without a steel-toe boot kicking her in the face every seven seconds."
-- David Rees in the new Rolling Stone

Destruction Of National Pastime Given Two-Minute Standing Ovation

SAN FRANCISCO—A sellout crowd rose to its feet and exploded into ecstatic cheers Tuesday night as Barry Bonds completed the downfall of America's most revered sport by hitting a thundering 435-foot shot into the left field bleachers for...

I know what I'd like for my birthday.

Sort of a modified autogyro. I gotta get one of these!

Paul Potts Wins!

Paul won "Britian's Got Talent". Bravo! I understand that his CD has been released.

Progress?

He says he's seen progress. Wishing it doesn't make it so.

Sign the petition!

http://pol.moveon.org/subpoena

They get it in NYC

Imagine how many cupcakes we could bake with the money the republicans have wasted on this war?

Some info about my band.

Some of you know that I spend most of my weekends playing keyboards in a band called Easystreet. It's a decent name for a band, one that doesn't offend anyone looking to hire us for a wedding or dance. The problem is, it seems that every city on earth has a band named Easy Street, making it impossible to get a good name for our website. So I've reluctantly added a page to Myspace, even though it's owned by Rupert Murdoch. You can learn more about my swinging teenage combo at

http://www.myspace.com/easystreetov

The "ov" at the end stands for Ohio valley, where we usually play.

There are Americans that believe....

...that dinosaurs lived with a white guy who claimed to be the son of an invisible cloud being, in the desert, no more than 6000 years ago. Should people have the right to be this stupid? It cannot be good for society.

Wow.

From "Britain's Got Talent", this unassuming mobile phone salesman blows the crowd and judges away with a Puccini aria.

Learn this!

People who misuse the apostrophe drive me nuts. Don't all grade schools teach basically the same things? Click to enlarge, and visit www.angryflower.com

Trailer for Michael Moore's "Sicko"

Even fox "news" liked it.

I'd love to see the video.

Wayne Madsen-
When Vice President Dick Cheney visited Baghdad on a "surprise" visit on May 9, he was booed by U.S. troops during an appearance before them in the Green Zone, according to our congressional sources. These incidents may explain why the Army has ordered its personnel to submit web postings, including videos, to Army censors before uploading to web sites.

Another Lie Debunked.

James Boyce-

Here's the truth.

In March 1999, Vice President Al Gore was doing an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. In the course of that interview, he said:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
And guess what? It's true.

Let's quite Vincent Cerf, a man often called The Father of the Internet,

"The Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President in his current role and in his earlier role as Senator."
Marc Andreesen, Internet pioneer who actually received federal funding thanks to Al Gore, who while Senator wrote the High Performance Computing Act also credits Gore. Another Internet expert, Dave Ferber says that without Gore the Internet "would not be where it is today."

Multiple early web pioneers say that Gore was the first political leader to grasp and understand the Internet and its possibilities. They all say it was his vision and yes, initiative, that helped turn the Internet into what it is today.

Al Gore took an essentially internal government program and set it free to the marketplace.

This is something he should be proud of. But it's not just reason that is under assault in our modern world, it's accomplishment. If you're child grew up to be fluent in a foreign language, would you be proud or shamed? Proud of course, but John Kerry's ability to speak French was a huge negative in 2004.

Not only should Al Gore get credit for this work on the web, but here it is, eight years after he was misquoted, and this is what they will lead with in their attacks on him.

Video of my ancestors.

I get the same questions at work everyday.

This explains a lot.

Everybody around here calls it pop, and yet the sign above the aisle in Krogers says soda. I wonder how this data compares to red/blue state stats. Click on the image to enlarge.

Bush=Drunken Boor

From the Wayne Madsen report:
Our White House sources report that the Queen's visit to the White House yesterday was a protocol disaster. Not only had George W. Bush commenced his drinking routine early in the morning, just in time for the first mid-day visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, but his drunkenness continued well into the evening during the lavish state dinner.

Bush dreaded the Queen's visit and prepared for it by getting drunk. The Queen has never hidden her dislike for Bush who she considers ill-bred, impetuous, and a social boor. The Queen's dislike for Bush goes back to 1991 when he insulted her during another state visit by inquiring which of her children was the "black sheep" of her family. The Queen told him to mind his own business. The Queen was also unhappy that then-First Lady Barbara Bush failed to control her son during that visit to the White House. In November 2003, the Queen was incensed about Bush's Marine One helicopter tearing up her flower garden at Buckingham Palace and traumatizing her flock of flamingoes. Bush's communications staff also damaged expensive fabrics inside the royal residence. Bush never compensated the Queen for the damage and she had to file an insurance claim.

With that background, Bush groused about having to wear a white tie tuxedo for last night's state dinner. It took the direct intervention of Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice to convince Bush to wear the appropriate attire. During yesterday's welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Bush insinuated that the Queen was over 230 years old when he stated she had helped celebrate America's Bicentennial in 1776. The Queen was heard to have uttered the words, "Oh dear." Bush then winked at the Queen who was not amused by the president's antics. Bush also stated that the Queen gave him a look "that only a mother could give a child." It was not the first time the Queen had looked at Bush with an icy stare. Bush also nearly put his arm on the Queen's shoulder as he escorted her down the stairs from the red carpeted dais.

White House protocol officials remained nervous about Bush during the entire Royal visit. The Queen and Prince Phillip are sure to have much to talk about on their trip back home this evening. While the Queen was keen on visiting Virginia and the Kentucky Derby, her past dealings with the Bush family had her fearing the White House visit. Bush's boorish demeanor was in keeping with his past indiscretions around the Queen.

Republican Law & Disorder

I haven't posted a video in a while, here's a clever one. I wish I had that Law & Order sound effect at my divorce hearing for some extra gravitas.

I'm starting to see a trend.

I'm guessing that people of less intelligence are spending the day at gun shows and tractor pulls, leaving plenty of room at the beach for smart folks to make statements. I hope this continues through the summer months.

Happy Mission Accomplished Day!

Sure to be a common sight this summer.

I wonder what the minimum amount of people needed would be to create this kind of picture. It's a shame that your local newspaper will never cover this creative kind of protest. Wouldn't it be great seeing this photo instead of that insipid "Mallard Fillmore" strip?

This has to be a joke, right?

Click on image to bask in the stupidity.

Maybe he means progressively worse.

George W. Bush, January 2006: "There's progress. And it's important progress and it's an important part of our strategy to win in Iraq."

Bush, November 2005: "Iraq is making incredible political progress."

Bush, October 2005: "Iraqis are making inspiring progress."

Bush, September 2005: "Iraq has made incredible political progress."

Bush, April 2005: "I believe we're making good progress in Iraq."

Bush, March 2005: "We're making progress."

Bush, September 2004: "We're making steady progress."

Bush, July 2003: "We're making progress. It's slowly but surely making progress."

Actually, y'know what I think the president's problem is? Perhaps his definition of the word "progress." I have the reference book he uses when he doesn’t know what a word means: Mistaken P. Wrongingston's Diktionary of English. Let's see...ah, here we are. "Progress: Chaos caused by one's own incompetence that's portrayed as the result of others' malfeasance."
---The Daily Show

Bulding in sky. Plane in sky. They could meet.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ has received a copy of a letter sent to the Manhattan Borough President's office Helicopter Task Force in 1996 warning about the dangers of the possibility that planes could hit buildings in downtown New York. Moreover, four active duty and retired Coast Guard, including a retired Commandant, concurred about concerns about planes hitting buildings. The letter, dated February 18, 1996, provides the response of four Coast Guard officers to the following question: "Because of the flight path and the huge volume of tour and other flights and the resulting confusion in the air, wouldn't it be easy for a terrorist helicopter to slip under 1200 feet escaping radar detection and drop a charge on the U.N., World Trade Center or other strategic building?"

The four Coast Guard officers responded:

"Yes, your concerns are well founded. It's a security risk."

"You're right. There's a possibility of a terrorist attack."

"Your analysis is correct."

"Yes. It should be a no fly zone like Washington."

This information that the US Coast Guard considered such a scenario makes Condoleezza Rice's comment on May 15, 2003 that "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center," a blatant falsehood.

Fred Thompson, what an actor!

He's trying hard to convince us that tax cuts work. But we know he's only acting. You might believe him for about an hour, but then you get hit with the harsh light of reality as you exit the theater, and all you want to do is go home and maybe have some ice cream.

Jim's Book Club- first selection.

Here's a book Oprah won't make her army buy, it may be too deep for them, anyway:


http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Christian-Nation-Sam-Harris/dp/0307265773

The shotgun is hidden behind the shrub...

...and the secret entrance to the "undisclosed location" is the tree behind Dick's left shoulder.

Rudy, you got some 'splainin' to do.

Remains of 9-11 victims were used to fill potholes, contractor says
By Thomas Zambito

New York Daily News

NEW YORK - The pulverized remains of bodies from the World Trade Center disaster site were used by city workers to fill ruts and potholes, a city contractor says in a sworn affidavit filed Friday in Manhattan Federal Court.

Eric Beck says debris powders - known as fines - were put in a pothole-fill mixture by crews at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, N.Y., where more than 1.65 million tons of World Trade Center debris were deposited after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I observed the New York City Department of Sanitation taking these fines from the conveyor belts of our machines, loading it onto tractors and using it to pave roads and fill in potholes, dips and ruts," Eric Beck said.

Beck was the senior supervisor for Taylor Recycling, a private contractor hired to sift through debris trucked to Fresh Kills after the trade center attacks. Before the arrival of Taylor's equipment at Fresh Kills in October 2001, the debris was sifted manually by workers using rakes and shovels.

Beck's affidavit was filed by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims who are suing the city in hopes of creating a formal burial place for debris that they say contains human remains.

"It's devastating," Norman Siegel, an attorney representing the families, said of Beck's statement. "When the 9/11 families found about this, they were wiped out."

The families argue that the cleanup was hurried and slipshod, with the result that more than 400,000 tons of debris weren't properly combed for human remains.

The city recently asked Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the lawsuit, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he would like to turn the garbage dump into a "beautiful park."

In his first few months on the job, Beck said Taylor's mechanical sifters found 2,000 bones per day. He recalled finding "bones, fingers, skulls, feet and hands" as well as a man's chest and "the full body of a man dressed in a suit." The remains were catalogued and turned over to the city, he said.

But Beck said he was pushed to sift the debris quickly, and that remains may have been missed.

"I was constantly told . . . to move the job, to run the conveyor belts faster and to keep the tonnage up," Beck wrote.

Other affidavits support Siegel's claim that the sifting process was shoddy.

One comes from Theodore Feaser, the retired director of mechanical operations for the city Sanitation Department.

"From my experience at Fresh Kills, I am absolutely convinced that if the City of New York unearthed, resifted and washed the debris at Fresh Kills . . . it would find hundreds of human body parts and human remains," said Feaser, a 20-year veteran who supervised the recovery effort at Fresh Kills for the Sanitation Department.

Diane Horning, the president of WTC Families for Proper Burial, urged Hellerstein to allow the sifting to continue so that loved ones' remains will be found.

"There is no place to leave flowers," said Horning, whose son Matthew, an employee of Marsh and McLennan, was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. "There is no feeling of solace or closeness to your loved one."

This needs repeating.

Here's a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005 (extrapolated from best available data). My buddy Bill recently underwent surgery for a hernia, it's a shame that Bush won't spend a billion a month on him while he recovers, but on the plus side, he's not at Walter Reed.

Another republican lie refuted.

From www.thesimpledollar.com

Public education and private education in America are roughly equal, even though private school students score higher. Why? Demographics. Private school test scores are better because the demographics of their students are tilted highly towards groups that do well no matter whether they’re schooled in public or private schools.
If you’re paying for private school, you’re not paying for a great education - you’re paying for demographics. The report actually says that on average, your student won’t do better on standardized tests in private school compared to public school; the only thing that makes a difference is their race, their income level, and their parents’ involvement in their education.
One more thing: you know all of those doomsday stories about how America’s schools are falling behind those of other nations? Those reports are similarly flawed because of Simpson’s paradox.
Take South Korea, for example. Their test scores in math and science dominate America and I do admire their strong education system. But read that article more closely: only 60% of their students of high school age actually attend high school; the “bottom” 40% are actually funneled into separate vocational schools. Thus, when standardized tests compare 12th graders in Korea and 12th graders in the United States, if you individual compare demographic groups, the United States does at least as well as Korea, but if you combine all students as a whole, South Korea appears to dominate the United States. That’s because their high schools, much like private schools in the United States, are full of students whose personal demographics are universally geared towards greater educational success regardless of the schools.
This same phenomenon is true in many countries; the United States is relatively rare in that they place all students in the same high schools and they have compulsory attendance requirements. Most of the nations that exceed the United States in average scores have high schools that are demographically skewed in some fashion.
In short, the best investment you can make in your child’s education is by being involved. Your involvement is a factor you can control - your race and (to a degree) your other demographics can’t be changed. Instead of dropping $50,000 on getting your kid into that ultimate private school, tone down your career a bit and get involved: find out what your child is interested in, be involved and interested in their homework, and let them know that they really are important to you. Love is the one investment in your child that can really pay off.

The Helsinki Complaints Choir

They turn complaining into art.

Rush = moron

“There’s no question the left has been trying to destroy the family structure.” — childless, thrice-divorced paragon of family values, Rush Limbaugh

Fox News Devoted 12 Times More Coverage To Anna Nicole Than Walter Reed

Our national media embarrassment was again on full display on Friday. Both MSNBC and Fox News devoted more coverage to Anna Nicole Smith - three weeks after her death on Feb. 8 - than they did to the multiple developments involving the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed military hospital.

The most lop-sided coverage by far was aired by Fox News, which featured only 10 references to Walter Reed compared to 121 of Anna Nicole - roughly 12 times the coverage. MSNBC featured 84 references to Walter Reed and 96 to Anna Nicole.

Please read and help get out the truth!

AMY GOODMAN: Do you see a replay in what happened in the lead-up to the war with Iraq — the allegations of the weapons of mass destruction, the media leaping onto the bandwagon?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, in a way. But, you know, history doesn’t repeat itself exactly twice. What I did warn about when I testified in front of Congress in 2002, I said if you want to worry about a state, it shouldn’t be Iraq, it should be Iran. But this government, our administration, wanted to worry about Iraq, not Iran.

I knew why, because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

Olbermann's Special Comment on Secretary Rice's comments.

Rice is too stupid to be embarassed.

Even New Zealand Gets It

Creationism Explained!

Wow. By the way, the Bible doesn't say it's a sin to click on the ads up top. Scientists concur, heh, heh.

Very True

Another revealing anecdote.

At a farewell reception at Blair House for the retiring chief of protocol, Don Ensenat, who was President Bush's Yale roommate, the president shook hands with Washington Life Magazine's Soroush Shehabi. "I'm the grandson of one of the late Shah's ministers," said Soroush, "and I simply want to say one U.S. bomb on Iran and the regime we all despise will remain in power for another 20 or 30 years and 70 million Iranians will become radicalized."

"I know," President Bush answered.

"But does Vice President Cheney know?" asked Soroush.

President Bush chuckled and walked away.

Blocking Debate

These are the faces of evil.

At my house, it's 0%

Bush Overall Approval Rating 28% (CBS Poll)
President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night to a nation that's strongly opposed to his plan for increasing troops in Iraq and deeply unhappy with his performance as president, according to a CBS News poll.

Mr. Bush’s overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent, a new low, while more than twice as many (64 percent) disapprove of the way he's handling his job.

Two-thirds of Americans remain opposed to the president's plan for sending more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq — roughly the same number as after Mr. Bush announced the plan. And 72 percent believe he should seek congressional approval for the troop increase.

Escalation

From the good folks at MoveOn. You might want to join them.

Just as we suspected. (No wonder my house is cluttered)

The Ideological Animal
Psychology Today

Most people are surprised to learn that there are real, stable differences in personality between conservatives and liberals—not just different views or values, but underlying differences in temperament. Psychologists John Jost of New York University, Dana Carney of Harvard, and Sam Gosling of the University of Texas have demonstrated that conservatives and liberals boast markedly different home and office decor. Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and they tend to have more travel documents, maps of other countries, and flags from around the world. Conservatives are neater, and their rooms are cleaner, better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional. Liberals have more books, and their books cover a greater variety of topics. And that's just a start. Multiple studies find that liberals are more optimistic. Conservatives are more likely to be religious. Liberals are more likely to like classical music and jazz, conservatives, country music. Liberals are more likely to enjoy abstract art. Conservative men are more likely than liberal men to prefer conventional forms of entertainment like TV and talk radio. Liberal men like romantic comedies more than conservative men. Liberal women are more likely than conservative women to enjoy books, poetry, writing in a diary, acting, and playing musical instruments.

Twenty years later, they decided to compare the subjects' childhood personalities with their political preferences as adults. They found arresting patterns. As kids, liberals had developed close relationships with peers and were rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, and resilient. People who were conservative at age 23 had been described by their teachers as easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3. The reason for the difference, the Blocks hypothesized, was that insecure kids most needed the reassurance of tradition and authority, and they found it in conservative politics.

The most comprehensive review of personality and political orientation to date is a 2003 meta-analysis of 88 prior studies involving 22,000 participants. The researchers—John Jost of NYU, Arie Kruglanski of the University of Maryland, and Jack Glaser and Frank Sulloway of Berkeley—found that conservatives have a greater desire to reach a decision quickly and stick to it, and are higher on conscientiousness, which includes neatness, orderliness, duty, and rule-following. Liberals are higher on openness, which includes intellectual curiosity, excitement-seeking, novelty, creativity for its own sake, and a craving for stimulation like travel, color, art, music, and literature.

The study's authors also concluded that conservatives have less tolerance for ambiguity, a trait they say is exemplified when George Bush says things like, "Look, my job isn't to try to nuance. My job is to tell people what I think," and "I'm the decider." Those who think the world is highly dangerous and those with the greatest fear of death are the most likely to be conservative.

Liberals, on the other hand, are "more likely to see gray areas and reconcile seemingly conflicting information," says Jost. As a result, liberals like John Kerry, who see many sides to every issue, are portrayed as flip-floppers. "Whatever the cause, Bush and Kerry exemplify the cognitive styles we see in the research," says Jack Glaser, one of the study's authors, "Bush in appearing more rigid in his thinking and intolerant of uncertainty and ambiguity, and Kerry in appearing more open to ambiguity and to considering alternative positions."

By 2004, as the presidential election drew near, researchers saw a chance to study the Jost results against the backdrop of unfolding events. Psychologists Mark Landau of the University of Arizona and Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore sought to explain how President Bush's approval rating went from around 51 percent before 9/11 to 90 percent immediately afterward. In one study, they exposed some participants to the letters WTC or the numbers 9/11 in an image flashed too quickly to register at the conscious level. They exposed other participants to familiar but random combinations of letters and numbers, such as area codes. Then they gave them words like coff__, sk_ll, and gr_ve, and asked them to fill in the blanks. People who'd seen random combinations were more likely to fill in coffee, skill, and grove. But people exposed to subliminal terrorism primes more often filled in coffin, skull, and grave. "The mere mention of September 11 or WTC is the same as reminding Americans of death," explains Solomon.

As a follow-up, Solomon primed one group of subjects to think about death, a state of mind called "mortality salience." A second group was primed to think about 9/11. And a third was induced to think about pain—something unpleasant but non-deadly. When people were in a benign state of mind, they tended to oppose Bush and his policies in Iraq. But after thinking about either death or 9/11, they tended to favor him. Such findings were further corroborated by Cornell sociologist Robert Willer, who found that whenever the color-coded terror alert level was raised, support for Bush increased significantly, not only on domestic security but also in unrelated domains, such as the economy.

When these natural desires are primed by thoughts of death and a barrage of mortal fear, people gravitate toward conservatism because it's more certain about the answers it provides—right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, us vs. them—and because conservative leaders are more likely to advocate a return to traditional values, allowing people to stick with what's familiar and known. "Conservatism is a more black and white ideology than liberalism," explains Jost. "It emphasizes tradition and authority, which are reassuring during periods of threat."

A message to congress.

This photo provided by Beach Impeach Project, peace activists lay in the sand to spell out 'IMPEACH!' in 100-foot tall letters on San Francisco's Ocean Beach Saturday, Jan. 6, 2006. (AP Photo/Beach Impeach Project, John Montgomery)

America has spoken.

As long as there's no war on Christmas cookies, I'm okay.

You can call me a traditionalist, but to me it's just not Christmas without cookies, and Coca-cola in glass bottles. Wishing you a wonderful time doing things you like with people you love around the winter solstace. And a happy new year.

Watch. Learn. Help.

Net neutrality is important.

Monty Python: Bicycle repairman!

Because It's silly.

Howard Dean - Post Election Address

How about Gore/Dean in '08?

GOP Priorities.

The House took 140 hours of sworn testimony to get to the bottom of whether Bill Clinton had misused the White House Christmas-card list for political purposes, but only 12 hours on prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.