'Onion' Peels Make Baby Bush Cry
With headlines like "Bush To Appoint Someone To Be In Charge Of Country" and "Bush Subconsciously Sizes Up Spain For Invasion," The Onion is popular with readers looking for a little laughter with their politics.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said people who work in the executive mansion do have a sense of humor, but not when it comes to breaking regulations.
"When any official sign or seal is being used inappropriately the party is notified," Duffy said.
"You cannot pick and choose where to enforce that rule. It's important that the seal or any White House insignia not be used inappropriately," he said.
CNN
White House to Onion: Stop using seal
October 26th, 2005---------------------------
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How Steve Forbes Just Paid For My Daughter's College Education
AmericaBlog's John Aravosis
posted about this weeks cover story from
Forbes (Registration Req.) that blasts bloggers as being basically nothing more than an angry mob out to deny the poor ol' Corporatocracy of their 1st Amendment rights. Check out John's peice because two things really stand out:
BASH BACK. If you get attacked, dig up dirt on your assailant and feed it to sympathetic bloggers. Discredit him.
ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also: Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address.
Basically, this is what Forbes counsels for the Corporatocracy:
1) All bloggers are "activist liars".
2) If you are attacked by one of these "activist liars", dig up anything you can on them and so that 'We The Corporatocracy' can put them in their place using ... our "activist liars" (e.g. sympathetic bloggers to the Corporatocracy)!
3) If that doesn't work, troll through their blogs and find any hint of your copyrighted works (even if it's a small word-for-word blurb which is clearly legal under the Fair Use clause of copyright law but let's not tell them that) and use it to Swift-Boat the "activist liars" or their fuckin' ISPs under the "Copyright Lawyers' Forever Employment Act". Their ISP may shut them down and that'll show them pesky blogging bastids that they have only have 1st Amendment rights when 'We The Corporatocracy' say they do. Damned Class-Warfare waging, keyboard-surfin', America haters!! They must understand that their news and information will be dictated by people like us -- Forbes, Redstone, Eisner, Murdoch, Turner, etc. -- because we bought this country a long time ago and we're the landlords now! We own their land through "Eminent Domain" in case we ever get bored with the golf courses we allready have, their politicians are our outsourced employees and their votes are just part of the illusion that they are really in charge *snark*, and ultimately we own the American mensch mind, body, and soul!
The thing is, if bloggers were really "activist liars", why is Forbes and the Corporatocracy so threatened by us to consider these great lengths to shut us down, drag us into courts, and bury us into financial ruin with legalese in order to silence us?!?
Simple: our "lies" are actually facts and their "facts" are the fuckin' lies.
We've got something they used to have:
Credibility. And just like those frivolous lawsuits against filesharing networks, their attacks end up giving us free publicity and we turn that into credibility. That is why the blogosphere is growing by leaps and bound just like filesharing did. Whether you're downloading an album off BitTorrent to sample before you plunk down $20 or reading a blog for your news and information instead of turning on FOX, CNN, MSNBC, etc. they are losing money and they're following the same old and tired pattern in order to get their money back:
litigation instead of
innovation.Once again, Wall Street is trying trample Main Street.
The Corporatocracy running roughshod over Democracy.
Nothing can be more clear for they are essentially bragging about it!
CORPORATION > MENSCH!The irony here is this article by Forbes is an open admission that they are encouraging the Corporatocracy to bog the justice system down with frivolous lawsuits in order to shut down something they don't like and hitting their bottom line. This article of theirs will be their own undoing for it proves systematic and willfull colussion to deny bloggers their own 1st Amendment rights. Thank you, very much, Mr. Forbes for providing us blogging "activist liars" with the very basis for our own countersuits so please do my 4 year old daughter's college fund a big favor: don't spew it -- just do it.
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You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Hey, Saint Peter -- don't you call no more
I owe my soul to the company store ...
"Sixteen Tons"
Tennesee Ernie Ford
(1955)
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When The Past Takes A Good Chomp Out Of Your Ass
Sitting here drinking some beer, I decided to type a person's name into Google and see what turned up and
got a rude awakening Go ahead and read it -- I wait to fill in the gaps.
Ready? Are you back? Cool ...
Angela Smithers and I go way the fuck back. It was around 1990-1991 or so. I had just stopped doing drugs after LSD scared me straight and my friends Tim and Dizzy (real name John) spend most of our days going to school (I was going to drop out because my father was a drunk, my mother was gambling addict, and I was sick and tired of coming home to a house with no food and wanted a job so I could eat), going to work if we had jobs and playing marathon sessions of D&D and Middle Earth. The LSD trip scared me so straight that I not only quit all street drugs, but I stopped smoking cigarettes and drinking. Reason why was because doing any of those things brought on anxiety attacks as a result of the bad LSD trip I had. I figured drugs had been a daily part of my life from age 8 to 15 -- I had a great run and enjoyed it while it lasted.
Dizzy started to date a chick named Star and he'd always want to drag Tim and I over to her place whenever we went and seen her. We all got along fine -- Star loved Tim and I because we were the boneheaded, hairband listening, mullet-wearing hams of the group. Personally, I was torn between a chick I had a crush on at school and Star's sister. Star's sister, dammmit all to hell, had a thing with Tim's younger brother Eric. So, basically Tim and I were dateless ... but that was cool! We were the entertainment and fuck if we didn't provide it by goofing off swinging our long blond and red mullets around to Metallica's "And Justice ...", headbutting signs, chest butting each other, doing voices (Tim could do both a Scotsman and an uncanny Butthead impression while I would do pornographic "ThunderCats" dialog between Lion-O, Snarf, Slithe, and Mumra) while Star and John necked on the fuckin' porch.
It was on one of these days spent at Star's place where I met her sister's friend Angela Smithers, who was in the 7th grade at the time. That would make her about 14 going on 15. I was 18 or just 19 -- something like that. Angela kinda wanted Tim's brother Eric but she wouldn't move in on her best friend's territory. So, here we are were just hee-hawing around and when Angela had to go eat supper, Star's sister walked her home. When she came back, she told me, "Angela likes you."
Well, hot damn!
Of course, like a ninny, I said that I already had a crush on a girl named Heather Braden at school but didn't have the balls to persue her because she was dating some shithead on the football team named Jason Smith -- a shithead I was sure I could take out since he was drunk all the time but I was such a shy, timid, ol' fuckstain that I let the crush torture my ass for long time. I was reassured that Angela
really liked me and, after a few cajoles from Tim, John, and Star who told that it was in best interest to drop the idea of ever getting anything going on with Heather in favor what was clearly under my fucking nose -- an adorable, pitite, brown curly haired Angela Smithers that had the balls the make the first move. So I buckled and gave her chance.
We went steady for about 2 weeks but we never kissed. I think the reason why was because I didn't get that vibe from Angela that approved of PDA because goddamn Dizzy and Star we like sucker fish on each other. Every time those two would suck face and neck, I'd think it was my time to move in for a kiss on Angela only to see Angela rolling her eyes and the hornivores. I said to myself, "Nawp, if she's rolling her eyes are Dizzy and Star, I don't want to botch anything!" so I'd check myself and be content to hold Angela's hand. But after a while, I started getting the feeling that Angela didn't like me and when she was around and Tim, Star, Dizzy, and Star's sister were up in their attic shooting the shit, I mentioned it. I said, "I don't really think Angela likes me."
Immediately, Star's sister left us. When she came back 5 minutes later, she had Angela with her. Actually, no. Angela was in the lead walking up the steps to the attic and when she got to the top, she looked dead into my eyes with her hands on her hips and said bluntly, "Why would you think I didn't like you?" I had no goddamned response to that at all. Let me shoot straight with you -- of all the women I ever had in my life (which hasn't been many - after Angela and I parted ways, I think I only had 3 or 4 relationships up to my current age of 31), Angela was the
only one that has ever reduced me to having a Ralph Cramdon moment. That's right! Not even Christina -- who gave birth to my lovable wench of a daughter 4 years ago -- could do it.
"Homina-homina-homina", was the only thing that could escape my yap in response to Angela.
All I could do is take her hand and say I was sorry.
But I can't say Angela and I were happy. As I said, I was rather boneheaded. What really hurt Angela and I from ever finding out if we'd have a rewarding relationship was, first of all, the AGE issue. Gotta remember she was going on 15 and I was around 18 or 19. Despite us both being fuckin virgins, society alone saw that as statutory rape waiting to happen. As Angela tells in the article, she hated school and was getting bad grades. What she doesn't tell you is that her mother attributed her bad grades to me and wanted Angela and I to stop seeing each other. I've always been respectful of parents wishes and I told Angela at the time that she needs to keep her grades up and no be dropout like me. My belief was one can pick their lovers but can't pick their parents and I wanted to always be on the good side of Angela's parents.
To compound the issue, Dizzy's bother Duke -- a former football player for MHS and on his way to the Navy -- hammered me real good when he found out that my 18-19 year old ass was seeing a 15 year old chick. His exact response was: "Dude, do you have to put diapers on her before you take her out?!?" So, between that and Angela's parents, it made want to crawl into the nearest whole. Another thing was Angela and I never got any time to ourselves to got to know each other. Every time we got together, Tim, Dizzy, and Star were around. That left Angela and I with phone calls as the only avenue to really talk and communicate one and one. But what really fucked it all up was me. With Angela in 7th grade and me in High School (I flunked two grades), Heather Braden would always be at the table behind me at lunch. After two weeks or so, Angela got suspended from school and her parents forced her to break up with me. I remember at the time being relieved because my mind was torn between the lover I knew I could never have and the lover I actually did have. When Angela called me up crying to break up with me, she asked me if I would wait for her. What she meant was would I hold off dating until the age issue was no longer an issue.
My reply is something I don't want to repeat here. Even though it was 4 words in legnth, it was the most coldhearted thing I ever said to anyone up to this very day and if Angela were to go on with the rest of her life despising me for it, I wouldn't blame her because for the next two years, I despised myself for it. How come? A few days after we broke up, Star's sister gave me message from Angela that would haunt my every living day:
A day will come when you will be starving for someone to not only love you but for someone you can love. You'll look at the future and see nothing but a blur. You'll look at your present and see only those who you want to have but can't. Then, and only then, will you look at your past and realize that the person you always dreamed of was there under you nose the entire time ... and you swept that person under the rug.
It haunted me because she was right. Not only that, but the person I saw every time I lifted the rug of my past was her. She was the only person who loved me unconditionally. She didn't say that to guilt trip me. She didn't say that to get even with me. Through her sorrow and grief, she said that to teach me what love is, was, and always will be. And it beat me over the head for years. Here was a 15 year old girl who knew more about love than I did -- knew so much more about it that she didn't let the way I treat her phase her one single bit even though she had ever single fucking right to do so.
It haunted me so much that one day in 1993, I sat in my room with the muzzle of a loaded pistol in my mouth. Just 3 pounds of pressure from my index finger would've ended it all ... and if it wasn't for my radio being turned to WIOT's simulcast of "Rockline" which was debuting a solo album entitled "Back To The Light" by founding Queen axeman Brian May, I wouldn't be writing this right now and my mother would've scraped by brains off my bedroom wall. See, Angela forgave me ... she forgave me the moment I hung up the phone after telling her those 4 words that ended it all. My problem was that I couldn't forgive myself and it brought me to the brink of suicide that only Brian May's "Too Much Love Will Kill You" (later recorded by Freddie Mercury for inclusion of the final posthumous Queen album "Made In Heaven") stayed my hand. After the song was over, the voice of God told me that my life wasn't mine to take for I had turned it over to Him in 1989 when I quit drugs. He wouldn't allow me to pull the trigger and he used Brian May's music to drive that truth home. Instead of blowing my head off, I dropped the gun and had a nervous breakdown.
I never cried so much in my life and I made decision that no matter what, I had a shitload of sins that I had to confess not to God but to one very special person: Angela Smithers. There was no way I would forgive myself until I could make peace with her.
A few months later, Tim was dating one of Angela's friends named Shauna. I sent word down the grapevine that I needed to see and talk to Angela. Angela was dating someone else but she agreed to meet with me. The 4 of us hung out at a mall for a few hours and when Tim dropped me off, I took Angela's hand and bared my soul, telling that I was willing to do anything it took to have her if she could find it in her heart to give me the chance to make it all up to her. She refused saying that she was happy with the person she was with but if things didn't work out, I'd be the first to know. It was like a big burden lifted off my shoulders but it also made me want her that much more. I have never been more proud of a woman for Angela in that moment for shooting me down. It wasn't because I deserved it. God knows I did deserve it. No, it was because she was so damned loyal that it solidified the fact that this awesome girl was what I really wanted all along. I knew that if I had her, she would never cheat on me or do me wrong. I hugged her tightly, got out of Tim's car and away they went.
A hour later, Tim calls me up and tells me something that I will cherish to my own grave. He told me that when he pulled away, Angela started crying and said, "Saying 'No' to him was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life!" Her head was telling her to take me but she let her heart rule her head -- more proof that she was the absolute queen of my world all along. Her saying 'No' to me was exactly what I needed to forgive myself.
Fast foward to just a few short years ago. I came from Georgia and with in weeks started seeing Christina - a girl that I've been friends with for 7 years. She had just left her husband when I came back. I lost my virginity in Georgia and somehow it changed me into somebody that was more appealing to Christina. I really didn't want to get in between her and her husband but I must admit that when she did get married, it was one of the many reasons why I upped and left Michigan for Georgia out of the blue. I always thought that her husband Jeremy was garbage and that I could've treated Mouse (Christina's nick-name for she was tiny) better than he would.
When I left Athens, my former room-mate Karen told me that once I ended the relationship I had with Dawna, I would immediately find a more rewarding one upon my return to Michigan. She literally said, "Someone will be waiting for you." Karen was cool as hell and she was a Shaman. I wasn't attracted to her but the day before I left for Michigan, she whined and complained for me to stay and date her. I couldn't oblige -- I missed my family and friends back home. When I came back to Michigan, all I wanted was to tinker on my own PC and hang out. I spent the days with Tim and his wife hanging out and at night on the PC getting drunk and playing Baldar's Gate. Mouse and her husband were having problems. One night at home, Tim called me up and said, "Somebody over here wants you ... and in a bad way". Oooooh boy, that narrowed it down and the next day began the a 2 year long relationship with Mouse. It was a relationship that I should've ended within weeks because Mouse has cheated on every man she was ever with. But, dammit, the sex was good. Damn good.
While we were still together, I got laid off from Meijer's on my 90th day (rat bastards) and started my next job soon after: being a relative child care provider for my sister's kids. The MI state FIA paid for it. I was drawing $600 every two weeks -- much better money than Meijer. Mouse was pulling in $9 an hour at a Lutheran home. We were doing pretty damned good.
Upon starting the job at my sisters, her next door neighbor was someone my family has known for years: The Gordons. Donna Gordon had a friend named Angie. She had two toned hair parted down the side and piercings up the wazoo. She was only a few inches shorter than me and a little on the portly side like me for my daughter was on the way. The worry of being a Dad had me eating pizza like mad. Anyway, Angie would regularly hang out at my sisters with me while I jammed music or played my PS2. She would just sit there ... and every once in a while smile at me when I looked at her. It was wierd because I was wondering, "Who the fuck is this chick and why is she here?!? I'm taken, for Christ sakes! If she things I'm going to cheat on Mouse with her, she's dead wrong!"
After a few weeks of that, Angie stopped hanging out which didn't bother me at all because it was rather strange. The only time I saw her was early in the morning when I got off work at the bustop on the way home. Fast forward a few months, the security guards of the apartment complex were handing out eviction warnings. They came to my sister's door and I had to sign the clipboard. On the cliboard plain as day, I saw the name ANGELA SMITHERS. No shit, I thought. She lives around here? Damn, I need to talk to that girl -- it's been a long time. Tim lived just a hop, skip, and a jump away so I asked him if he could turn up anything. He couldn't -- he believed that she had allready been evicted. Oh well, no big deal.
Earlier this year -- long after Mouse left me and the end of working for my sister -- I came home from a hard day's work under a rolloff trailer fixing slack adjusters all for a weekend of some vodka and online gaming with my clanmates. After it was all done, I'm sitting here at 3AM or so tinkering on my PC, letting my mind wander. It conjured up memories of working with my sister and how the money was better. I then remembered Angie who hung out there .............. and it all clicked together. Angie was actually my Angela Smithers from way back and I didn't realize it. Of course I didn't realize it -- she wasn't the same petite, little, adorable thing that my mind kept as a memento. This "Angie" chick had two-toned hair, for crying out loud. She didn't look like she did in those newspaper photos.
When I realized that, I shed some tears because I should've known. She hung around and gave me that expectant look every once in a while as if to say, "Do you remember me yet or what?" and I it just didn't click. Once again, she's under my god-damned nose! Once again, I owe her a huge fucking apology! Once again, timing makes it impossible for us to see if we're each other's soul mates. Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck! And it saddends me to find out just a few hours ago by the article that life has been kind at all to her and she has more pressing matters with her poor daughter's battling lukemia. But what that article does not show is that earlier this past Summer, Angela's mother had passed away. She wasn't that old, either -- something like in her late 40s - early 50s or so. I can't remember what caused it but I do remember actually picking up the Monroe News, seeing her obituary, and being floored with it.
Angela's plight in poverty is not a burden she shares only here in Monroe. But since we've got a long history, my heart goes out to her ... and I've been sitting here as I type this wondering if I hadn't said those 4 words in the first place, would her life turn out different. You know what, I'll go ahead and tell you what those 4 words I said to her back in the day were:
Only God waits forever.
It was cold and heartless. But it came from a stupid boy who really was cold and heartless. Confused as well. But that boy is me today at 31 years old and I can say from the bottom of my heart the same thing the rock group YES has for one their songs: Angela Smithers, wherever you are, I would've waited forever for you to come into my life.
Often times at night, I wish I would've stayed in yours.
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Say Cheeze
A Texas judge on Thursday ordered Republican Rep. Tom DeLay to appear in court next month to face the charge that he conspired to funnel corporate money to state political campaigns.
The summons calls for DeLay to appear in the court in Austin on Oct. 21, court officials said.
DeLay's lawyers have said they do not want him to be handcuffed, photographed and fingerprinted when he appears in Austin.
Oct. Court Date Set For DeLay
CBS News
September 29, 2005----------------------------------
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on Thursday turned himself in at the Harris County sheriff's bonding office, where he was photographed, fingerprinted and released on bond on state conspiracy and money laundering charges.
...
"What we're trying to avoid is Ronnie Earle having him taken down in handcuffs, and fingerprinted and photographed," DeGuerin said last month. "That's uncalled for, and I don't think that's going to happen."
Delay Turns Himself In
The Dallas Morning News (Hat tip to Raw Story)
October 21, 2005----------------------------
This is former Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Why is he smiling in his arrest photo -- a photo he and his lawyers fought hard to avoid? Could it be the endless accusations of corruption which lead to him being rebuked twice by his Republican colleagues? Could it be because of his money laundering? How about his conspiracy charges? Ahah, might it be the "liberal media"?
It is neither of these.
Tom DeLay is smiling because he just saved 15% on his car insurance by switching to Geico.
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What the hell we fighting for?
Oh, just surrender and it won't hurt at all
Just got time to say your prayers
Yeah, while you're waiting for the hammer to
Hammer To Fall ...
Queen
"Hammer To Fall"
1984
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Neil Boortz Has A Nightmare
A few days ago, Conservative Garbage Dumpster Neil Boortz
went on a wild tangent of blatant class-warfare claiming that if America is faced with an event that threatens lives, everyone should be saved but if there's no time to save everyone, the rich should be saved first. In his words, "this is as it should be."
Neil Boortz claims that saving the rich first is "logical." How so? Because he beleives that it's the rich people who became rich by working hard, that they provide all the jobs, and all the prosperity in America. Logical my ass -- He's
WRONG! Neil Boortz is so wrong on so many levels that it's a chore to list them all. Let's really look at this logically -- without the poor and middle class (or as Neil calls them "the great unwashed" and, oh, by the way, Neil, what exactly
did you mean by
that term? The great unwashed. In what context should that be taken?!? Do you mean "the great unwashed" as in people so poor that they're dirty, have no water, and can't take baths or showers, and probably reek as bad as the garbage you spew over the public airwaves every day ... or do you mean "the great unwashed" as in "Dammit, why couldn't those lazy shiftless Katrina survivors get washed away into the Gulf and drown?!? Jumpin' Jim Jeffords, now they're gonna vote us out and the Democrats in and we'll have socialism galore by the end of the damned decade!!"
If the former, then you've got some explaining to do because Republican conservatives have saying for years that poor people like that don't exist in this country and now you flip-flop and say they do exist by calling them "the great unwashed". Why do you Republican Conservatives always send mixed messages?!? If the latter, then you REALLY got some explaining to do ... like whether or not you wear a sheet while broadcasting your show and use superlatives to mask your racist bigotry such as "other people" or "them kind" -- you know, just like those gun toting Gretna police who masked their racism by telling survivors on the bridge into Jefferson parish, "They be no Superdomes heah!" Seriously, Boortz, we need you to clarify the context there on that whole "the great unwashed" rejoinder.
Oh, yeah -- let's look at this logically: without the poor and middle class,
THERE WOULD BE NO RICH PEOPLE AT ALL! NONE! ZEEEEERO! OK? Can you grasp that, Boortz? Without us poor and middle class doing all the menial manual labor at those jobs you say the rich provide, they wouldn't be rich! You claim they got rich by "hard work"
NO! They got rich by "hardly working". You follow me?!? I'm dead serious -- rich people got rich by exploitation, not hard work. It doesn't take a lot to exploit people, either. For example, you ever notice something ironic about rich, high-profile, Republican, Conservative Christian Fundamentalist preachers such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins, Frederick K.C. Price, Lou Sheldon, Rod Parsley ...
THEY ARE RICH! Absolutely
LOADED! They've got multi-million dollar homes, drive fully loaded Lexuses and Rolls Royce's, have access to the best possible healthcare in this country, their children are attending elegant private schools, and the kicker is they haven't touched a single solitary timeclock in their entire adult life.
These fake, fraudlent, Christians shysters got rich not by working. Although they like to twist Bible scripture and claim they got rich by "following the word of God" and often tell their own perishoners that they can get rich too if they "submit totally to the word of God", it is simply not true. The Bible they wave all the time is clear -- we shall know them by their fruits. Their fruits aren't from the God of the Bible. No, their fruits come from prostating themselves at the feet of the Balaam of Capitalism.
Money.
Mammon.
They serve Mammon..
Mammon Be Thy Master!
They certainly don't serve the Christain God! How come?!? It's right there in the Sermon of the Mount where Jesus told everyone, "Don't go storing up riches here in this world and instead focus on storing up riches in the Kingdom of God - the world to come!" Later on, there was a rich man who came to Jesus and asked him what must he do to become Holy. Jesus told him to follow the Commandments. The rich man told him that he does follow the Commandments. What Jesus said next broke that rich man's heart: sell everything you got, give the money to the poor, and join me. The rich man turned away sad because he was RICH -- he was what President Bush would call a "have-more" -- and he didn't want to sell everything and give up his lifestyle for holy living. Then came the whopper out of Jesus's mouth -- a claim that drives rich people nuts to this very day. Jesus declared, "My, how hard it will be for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. I guarantee this truth: It will be easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than it will be for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God".
Did you catch that, Boortz? In other words, what this means is every time Pat Robertson or Oral Roberts claims that they themselves aren't rich or claim to not know anybody who is rich or whenever Halliburton and Bechtel get awarded with another multimillion dollar no-bid government contract, God in heaven turns to Jesus and says to him, "Crimony, you didn't by chance stutter while you were down there, did you boy?!? I'm hip deep in camel innards here! Gimme a hand, Son, we gotta clean this mess up before your Mama comes home or she's gonna have both our asses ... and not over ruining her good sewing needles!"
Exploitation.It's as simple as that -- rich people get rich by exploitation and that whole Conservative Republican "free market" zealotry those Capitalist pigs and Wall Street screamers keep yammering about is just a convenient cover for it all. The "free market" is just a justification for the exploitation of those in need: "Does the poor man need a job?!? Okay, I'll give you job but you gotta make me richer by accepting my cheap labor, cutting overhead, and maximizing profits ... and if you vote for a candidate that'll give me a tax cut, that would be bonus! I might share it with you ... or I might not! I don't care about your kids, your religion, or nothing about you. All I care about is whether or not you can push product without the overtime."
And that brings me to another thing, Boortz -- you wanna know why places like Target, Meijer, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, nursing homes, and retail stores are constantly in a perpetual state of "always hiring"? It's because they treat their workers like
OBJECTS instead of human beings. They treat them like
FODDER. They treat their people as
EXPENDABLE. It's always some ultimatum from high up -- work extra hours, or get fired. Transfer to the other store to work for the day or get wrote up/fired. Don't make any plans on your day off in case we need you or get wrote up/fired. Do this or get wrote up/fired. Don't do it that way -- do it this way instead even if your way is faster and economical, or get terminated. Don't do certain things in public on your own time because if we see you doing them, you'll get wrote up for fired. Doesn't matter if their unionized or not, places like these are always hiring because their labor force is viewed as EXPENDABLE. When the employ
er treats the employ
ee as expendable, then the exploy
ee is going to treat their JOB as expendable, resulting in low morale, low company loyalty, high employee theft rates, and that means "always hiring" because
THEY CAN'T RETAIN LABOR! Their retention rates suck because they can't keep the labor they've got and so the company is always burning money away -- pissing it away in hiring and training new employees.
It doesn't have to be that way.
But it is.
And it's because of people like
you, Neil Boortz, why people like me get hockers on their Whoppers every once in a while and I did nothing to piss them off - I just happened to walk in hungry. Their workers are so digusted because society looks down on menial laborers like burger flippers, checkout lane workers, and elderly care providers as "people who don't have a real job". People are conditioned to think this way because of mouthy, sanctimonious, self-important jackasses like YOU and, as a result of that, those same menial laborers assume that I'm like that by proxy and ... welp ... out comes that hocker. Here comes that terse glare from the checkout lady. Here comes that growl, "It's not my department" from the person wearing the Sears smock that couldn't be bothered to point me in the direction of the toilets.
Who is really a drag on society?
THE RICH!
Predominately the corporate, Republican-owned and operated media in this country. Forget this whole "liberal media" canard that idiots like you Boortz keep spewing. Speaking of which, let's conduct a quick servey here, Neil, because I have a question then been bugging me every since hurricane Katrina took a needle to my own amniotic "shark attack" media bubble: Where did Rupert Murdock and FOX News hide all the missing black people pre-Katrina?!? Seriously, it's gotten to the point now that whenever my TV is tuned to FNC after 9PM and I hear the telltale Swoooosh! GoOnG, I say to the TV, "Ahah, lemme guess -- yet
another middle-to-upper-class Catholic/Baptist missing
white woman, eh?!?" and, sure as sunrise, there's Greta Van Facelift in a split-screen showing the picture of her as she has been doing for ... oooooh, for about .... damn, I can't remeber the last time a missing black woman broke the monotony on Fox News long enough for Greta to peddle to the couch-potatoes now that I think of it. So, as I said, I would like to really know where exactly did Rupert Murdoch hide all the missing black people before Katrina struck?!?
Same goes for CNN and MSNBC for they like to emulate Fox News because they don't get nowhere near as half as much Schaivo-esque dead-from-the-neck-up couch-potatoes staring all pasty-eyed and gaped-mouthed at their pointless broadcasts of journalistic integrity. Where did they hide all the missing black people, too?!? Somebody has to know over there.
Know what I think? I think they didn't hide them at all. Missing black people have always been around. It's just if FOX, CNN, and MSNBC would've given them airtime, masses of Americans would've e-mail-bombed the station asking, "Who cares about those people?!? Gimme my missing white people! Gimme some rockets and bombs! Gimme me some more shark attacks! Shock and awe my ass into a complacent, all American, red, white and blue, flag-waving, informational defuct, Hagan Daas droolin', inoperable fucking coma, dammit!" And they provide.
Oh, check this out, Boortz -- here's something a reader at
Crooks&Liar's.com said about your tangent in their comment section:
According to current statistics, I am wealthy. I was born poor and raised poor and did not begin to accumulate wealth until I was in my 30s (when Bill Clinton was president, BTW). I made some very lucky real estate investments. I'm no genius, believe me. The thing is -- what is it about me as a person that makes me so valuable now that I should be saved, while the earlier version of myself would not to be saved? I'm the same person, with the same beliefs, the same family members (who aren't wealthy). That's very un-American.
And he hit it dead on the stick, Neil.
But before we start soaking the rich, Neil, let's be nice and fire a warning shot. Let's have the poor and middle classes send a clear and present warning to our leaders -- those Outsourced Employees of the Corporatocracy we tend to refer to as "politicians" -- as well as all the rich CEOs of business and industry: Everyone who makes less than $250,000 a year AFTER TAXES -- not gross pay; after taxes -- that listened to your hyperbole the other day Neil should stand up and
CALL OFF WORK for a day or two. Stay home, spend some time with the wife and kids if they have them and if they don't, they can spend the day relaxing and do things they always wanted to do but couldn't because they're too busy making someone else rich at their expense.
Damn straight, all the currently employed poor and middle class workers should get up, punch out, and go home or call off for that day. And maybe not just for one day -- how about two days. No, let's make it three. Oh, hell -- who are we kidding?!? Let's make it 30 DAYS! There we go ... a 30 day paid vaction just like President Bush took just recently. Call it "
THE GREAT UNWASHED AMERICAN WALK-OUT!" And when I said PAID vacation, I mean PAID. Either their employers have to pay it and if they refuse, government will just have to dole it out and, Neil, don't tell us the government dosn't have the money. If the Bush Administration can dish out billions upon billions of no-bid government contracts to Halliburton, Shaw Group, and Bechtel and if Sen. Hillary Clinton can blow $100 Million on another stupid and pointless study into violent $50 video games, then it sure as hell has the money to provide 30-days pay for "
THE WALK-OUT!"
Do you really want to know the real kicker would be about "
THE GREAT UNWASHED AMERICAN WALK-OUT", Neil?!? The hoot, the coup de grace?!? It will be totally spontaneous. It'll happen out of the blue out of nowhere ... sort of like a terrorist attack ... the only difference is we'll be the terrorists. Economic terrorists. Poor and middle class domestic economic terrorists getting even with our own pampered and filthy rich corporate terrorist taskmasters. Just a rolling, concerted, and collective
STICKING IT TO THE MAN!Of course, in order to pull something like this off, we'd need some degree of planning and how's this: The
GREAT UNWASHED AMERICAN WALK-OUT will happen immediately after
ANY rightwing Conservative pundit, Congressmen, Senator, Governor, or collumnist has the brass the spew what you just spewed.
Now, Mr. Boortz ... You're probably thinking, "What about my freedom of speech?!?!"
Nothing wrong with you having freedom of speech. Anyone can say anything, anywhere, anytime, but again the inverse cost of said freedom is responsibility. Freedom to say anything and everything anywhere at anytime may have consequences, Neil. Yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre has consequences for those irresponsible enough to say it. Standing somewhere in Alabama and singing a certain Megadeth song about keeping the ol' sex life in the family has consequences and most of them involve staggering out of Alabama short a few teeth but plenty of bruises and contusions. Standing up vertically in the middle of Compton and shouting "Nigger" has consequences for those irresponsible enough to say it and most of them involve leaving Compton horizontally.
See, Niel?!? With freedoms comes reponsibility and if you don't want to see
THE GREAT UNWASHED AMERICAN WALK-OUT take place, you might want to double check that tongue before giving it a wag.
To that, you might say, "Why, you punk-ass liberals, we conservatives got all the guns and we gots the monopoly on the military!" Not after
this clusterfuck of a war, I guarantee you that. I believe our troops are starting to think the GOP takes them for granted, so kiss some military votes goodbye. As for that whole swaggering "we gots all the guns" malarky, we've got something that's even more dangerous and scary to a Republican. It's more intimidating to them that all the guns in the world and more scary for them than getting chased back to their Lexuses and Volvos by a gaggle of small black children.
Do you know what that thing is, Mr. Boortz.
It's a timeclock.
As the forementioned reader of
C&L quoted earlier said:
If work was so great, why haven't the rich figured out a way to keep it all for themselves?!?
That's a mighty fine question, Neil -- do you have an answer for it?
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DLC's Whitman Whining Again
Recently, Left blogistan's
DailyKos and
Atrios took Sen. Joe Lieberman to task for his hob-knobing with all the racists, biggots, and fake Christians of the National Review (I'm calling them fake Christians because -- let's face it -- they serve Mammon more than they serve God or the American people). When Marshall Whitman of the DLC caught wind of it,
he turned on the crocodile tears:The Moose defends the honor of a great Senator.
The Moose notes that at least two bloggers launched a McCarthyite assault on Senator Joe Lieberman. The attack stems from Joe's attendance at the 50th Anniversary Celebration for the National Review. As way of explanation, Senator Lieberman has a tie with William F. Buckley because he supported him in his first race against incumbent Senator Weicker. It is perfectly understandable, that despite his differences with the magazine and Mr. Buckley, he would attend this function.
However, the bloggers employ the most obscene guilt-by-association tactics by attempting to slander Senator Lieberman because the National Review was once opposed to federal desegregation efforts. What these bloggers do not realize, or else ignored, is that Joe Lieberman bravely stood up for civil rights long before they were born.
The only thing Whitman managed to do with this pity party was put himself on my radar so the rest of this entry on TBT is dedicated to The Moose with my own special patented love:
Mr. Whitman,
I'm afraid that you're going to have to add me to the pile of leftwing bloggers that you say are launching a guilt-by-association McCarthyist assault on Sen. Joe Lieberman and, unlike
Steve Gilliard -- whom for some oddball reason showed great restraint in his response -- I won't, however. In fact,
I've allready outlined some of the many transgressions of Sen. Joe Lieberman such as how he along with the Clinton and Gore families have been card-carrying members of L. Brent Bozell III's "Parental Television Council" (PTC) and regular FOX NEWS analyst and it's ironic that you of all people would bring up the late Sen. McCarthy up since Mr. Bozell's father was his speechwriter. But it's not as ironic as you, Mr. Whitman, leaving that particular tidbit of truth out of your response, most likely because you don't want the American people to remember it.
Nonetheless, when it comes to McCathyistic tactics, I'm afraid the apples don't fall very from the tree when you consider Bozell's family tree and his PTC organization -- an organization that won a lawsuit by WWE mogul Vincent McMahon and also lambasted the hit drama
The Shield on FX Networks. The latter of which is rather interesting considering the PTC's attacks on FX Networks for
The Shield stopped when Mr. Bozell "Political Analyst" paychecks (signed by Rupert Murdoch) began to flow into his burgeoning bank accounts.
Anyway, back to Sen. Joe Lieberman, a man whom today is not the same Joe Lieberman of the 1960s. Let's be brutally honest, Mr. Whitman -- if the American tax-payers still had all the billions of dollars Sen. Lieberman (and his buddy Sen. Kohl) spent upon study after study after study on violent video games throughout the 1990s, there would more than enough federal funds to give his constituents
and the rest of the American citizenry the quality government-funded healthcare that seems to be always present in the stump speeches of the typical DLC candidate. Sadly, Joe Lieberman and Hilary Clinton today believe that $50 video games
bought primarily by 18 to 34 year olds resulting in a $10 billion industry that competes with directly with the Hollywood Flim and Entertainment industry (which I'm sure isn't making their lobbyists happy) are more important than giving the American people what they want. Is a track record like that tantamount to great public service or textbook sanctimonious lipservice? Sure sounds like the latter to me. I think the Joe Lieberman of the 1960s would've have delivered healthcare to the American people long before ranting and raving about Sub-Zero, don't you?!?
Maybe that's why Sen. Lieberman -- and to a greater extent Hillary Clinton, the Gore family, and the elite Democratic party in general -- loath and despise Mortal Kombat: all that spine plucking hits too close to home ... in much the same way as the $1,200-a-weekend man-whoredom of former White House plant Jeff Gannon hit too close to home for the
real salaried whores of the corporate, for-profit, Republican-owned and operated, mainstream media to deal with and devote coverage to (but if it was Bill Clinton with his pecker tracks on the blue dress of a government clerk, that's a different can of worms).
Thank you, Mr. Whitman, for amusing me and please do America a favor -- save your crocodile tears for people who actually give a rat's ass about the DLC and start delivering results to the American people instead of whining and throwing a pity party. Neither I, Atrios, Kos, Gilliard, or the American people are going to buy that bullshit. Oh, and the next time you see either Ms. Clinton or Mr. Lieberman, please tell them to stop wasting $100 million on useless studies on video games under that age old "in the interest of the children" rubric in order to filch votes, money, and power for your agenda and instead deliver the healthcare your candidates keep promising. Otherwise, my name might become more familar to you and the rest of the American people in the coming years ... and I'll bring grassroots/netroots hell with me. That's not a threat, sir. Threats are for the insecure and if I'm not insecure about stomping a mudhole into the DLC or the GOP at my blog, then I'm not insecure about doing so on the campaign trail for I think it's best for me to make promises instead.
I like keeping my promises.
Very Sincerely,
Jason Sizemore
C/O
TBT: The Brutal TruthMonroe, Michigan
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Seig Heil
Not too long ago, TBT loyalist Disco Destroyer (dude, I think you're my only audience with this blog) tipped me off in my HaloScan about Bush intending on imposing martial law on America. Now, I was skeptical about it because I figured it was a conspiracy theory and in no way shape or form would the Ol' Shrubster try anything that fuckin' stupid.
Boy, was I wrong ...President Bush, stirring debate on the worrisome possibility of a bird flu pandemic, suggested dispatching American troops to enforce quarantines in any areas with outbreaks of the killer virus.
Bush asserted aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling U.S. outbreak of a bird flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing experts to fear it could become the next deadly pandemic. Citing concern that state and local authorities might be unable to contain and deal with such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military.
Whoa! Wait a sec -- I thought the Ghestapo-erm, I mean, the PATRIOT ACT give him that power?!? If not, then I'm sure Ashcroft and Ridge are voicing their displeasure: "Fuck! I knew we forgot something!!"
Here's the ominous part:
Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, called the president's suggestion an "extraordinarily draconian measure" that would be unnecessary if the nation had built the capability for rapid vaccine production, ensured a large supply of anti-virals like Tamiflu, and not allowed the degradation of the public health system.
"The translation of this is martial law in the United States," Redlener said.
Ahah, so that's why President Bushitler wanted Gov. Blanco to hand over control of the National Guard in the wake of Katrina -- he wanted to conduct a "martial law" test excercise on a small city to gauge it's acceptance and it's effectiveness as a barometer for declaring martial law on a grand scale in case of another national emergency such as a another terrorist attack ... or a health epidemic. Fucking rightwing fascist bastard.
Despite the fact of the Republican "ownership society" in Washington, I doubt very much Congress will grant the use of this power because Congress's approval ratings are just as bad as Bush's right now and
his campaigning days are over. The GOP, on the other hand, has 2006 to worry about if they want to keep the trifecta. Some Republicans are allready distancing themselves from Bush as they want to win re-election because the alternative is having Democrats take over ... and with that comes soepena power -- something the Republicans don't want in light of PlameGate, FEMA-Gate, Tom DeLay's conspiracy & money laundering scandal, Jack Abramoff's scandal, and Frist's insider trading deals.
Bush won't pass "Go".
Bush won't collect $200.
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