07 Sep

Bush Blather - Part 14,378

Bush to Couric: "One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."

Try, if you can, to remember those distant days of yore, way, way back to the nethertime of October 2000.  An eternity in political years, I know.  But those amongst you with a brain cell or two to spare may perhaps recall Governor Bush’s campaign’s response to his rather vacuous demeanor and lack of verbal acuity – “he may be dumb as a brick but that’s ok, we’ll put some smart folks around him to make all the decisions.” 

Of course, I may be paraphrasing a bit, but the question remains: with so many of those learned ladies and gentlement around him, why the hell is this guy ever allowed off script?!

07 Sep

Jersey Girls Gone Wild!

Err, not really.  Just taking some time to respond to the barely coherent blather spewing from Coultergeist’s food-deprived, whiskey-soaked lips: 

Fighting for national security--securing the homeland or wanting to make the nation safe--ought to be an unassailable objective, similar to the Amber Alert, Megan's Law, and providing body armor for the troops. Regardless of who the messenger raising these issues might be, the goals are inarguable because they are pure, true, and right. Will these issues receive more focused attention if the message is delivered by people who speak passionately because they have been personally affected? Yes, absolutely. But it's the issue that is unassailable--not the people espousing that issue. If your conservative Republican friends are on the wrong side of the issues, that's their problem.…

Ann, I don't want to get into a debate with you. It's not because I am afraid of you or your nasty bullying tactics. I'm not going to debate you because we have many, many more important issues to deal with in our country right now.  But I will leave you with this: We live in America, the world's oldest democracy. Democracy can prevail (is that what you and your friends really fear?), but that requires hard work, as President Bush might say. Every citizen in this country is entitled to his or her beliefs, and every citizen is entitled to participate. We still have the right to speak our minds to effect change (within the parameters of the law, of course). So don't try to silence the voices of victims or anyone else, merely because you disagree with them or feel threatened by their political choices. In my opinion, your method of using intimidation and insults to "win" a debate is truly unpatriotic. 

Actually, I expect that you will continue to scream and shout and smear as nastily as you want, so long as you think that that kind of behavior sells books. But we have tackled bigger bullies than you and lived through far worse circumstances than your book tour. We're not intimidated by you. We're not running away. 

And under no circumstances will we be silenced by your "godless" rantings and ravings. 

The letter is actually quite long, though well worth the read.  Ms. Breitweiser has once again proven herself articulate, intelligent, determined, raw, and righteous. 

07 Sep

Na na na na, hey hey hey, good bye!

Bye bye, see ya! Hope ya had a good, good time!

Oh, and in case anyone interested in viewing the precise moment in time when Blair began his tragic downfall, I include it here for your nostalgic edification: 

 
 
06 Sep

THF Grand Re-Opening!


Well, you may have noticed over the last few days that the site has either been down, stagnant, or both. The reason for this is that I seem to have developed some irreconcilable differences with my web host and was forced to switch servers which proved to be a helluva lot more work than I'd expected! At this point, this site seems to be both live and stable and most of the glitches seemed to have been worked out. Some of the archive text appears to have been slightly garbled in the transfer though it is not serious and I have no plans to do anything about it.

In the meantime, enjoy the site again and please please please report any glitches you find via the site's Contact link.

On a separate note, spamming on this site has evolved from a minor nuisance to an all-out menace. I am taking aggressive measures to deal with the problem. Suffice it to say that if you plan on spamming this site, you can expect to end up on the internet blacklist. So don't do it!

04 Sep

Friday Dublin Pics - Bus Atha Cliath Edition

Well, obviously the site went down yesterday for lack of bandwidth. With the onset of a new month, the site is back up for business, but I'm resigned to the fact that I have more serious server problems that need to be addressed in light of the site's recent growth. I am currently in the process of switching to a faster and more reliable server. Hopfully the process will be complete before the weekend is out.

In the meantime, it is Friday, so enjoy these pics from Jolly ol' Dublin!

Yup, double-decker buses - ain't they cool! I'm quite sorry to say that Dublin Bus is probably one of the worst systems of any city I've ever lived. The complete lack of scheduling aside, the entire bus system is shaped like spokes on a wagon wheel originating from City Centre (An Lar). This is fine if you want to go to or from downtown, but is utter crap if you want to go between any two other points in the city. Along with the lack of free transfers, it woulnd't be unusual to have to wait an hour or more to arrive at a destination that would have been 15 minutes by bike.

On a lighter note, if you look at the bus signs you may notice that the destinations are listed in Irish (Gaelic) as are all the signs around the country. Although Irish is rarely spoken in daily life, it is still the official national language which means that all public works and organizations operate bi-lingually. There is even a T.V. station called TG4 which is an all-Irish network (although they mostly show programming in English).

There is a spectacular short film about this called "Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom" - My name is Yu Ming where "A bored Chinese shopkeep learns Gaelic and moves to Dublin only to find the locals no longer speak their mother tongue." I highly recommend taking the 13 minutes to watch this film.

On the other hand, a short ride on Dublin bus can get you here:

and here:


30 Aug

Now accepting caption suggestions - Special DOUBLE Edition

Ok, here you go. Suggest your own captions in the comments section or by clicking here .

 


 

30 Aug

The Glorious Bush Economy

More charts for you fun-lovin' kidddos out there.  Courtesy of Think Progress:

Poverty, All Races (Millions)

Poverty, All Races (Millions)
 
 
Number of Uninsured (Millions)

 


But don't worry people, the economy is booming, just like Bush says.  There's nothing to see here.  Please disperse! 

 

30 Aug

Senator Shadow (R - Evil) - Part Deux

Ok, at this point 95 out of 100 Senators have confirmed that they were not the secret shadow Senator of Evil who placed the hold on the porkbuster accountability bill. Check out the link and see if you can get a confirmation from the remaining five.

TPM has their money on Senator Stevens - you know, the crotchedy old kook from Alaska, the Bridge to Nowhere dude - after digging this little number up:

One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn’s bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.

“He’s the only senator blocking it,” Coburn said of Stevens.

So the Head Honcho of Pork Politics, huh? Why am I not surprised?

29 Aug

Update on Senator Shadow (R - Evil)

I mentioned this in yesterday’s Link Vomit and it seems TPM has taken the ball and run big-time:

Just before the August recess, the Senate was set to vote on a bill co-sponsored by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would create a public, searchable database of all federal grants and contracts. Envisioned as a Google-like website, it would provide free, immediate access the information, which can be alarmingly difficult to obtain.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed the measure July 27th, and S.2590 seemed to be speeding on its way to full Senate passage when, in the dark of night, an unknown Senator placed a "secret hold" on the bill. According to Senate rules, the bill will never come to a vote as long as the hold continues.

So who's the culprit?

Since he/she is unlikely to fess up, bloggers from the left and right have united in the effort of eliminating suspects one by one. The only way to do this is to call your Senator's offices up and get an answer. Over at Porkbuster.org, they're keeping a tally;

Senator Hutchinson has gone on the record as a no. I’m still trying to reach Senator Cornyn. But I would strongly urge each of you to make a quick call and report your experience.

UPDATE: At this point, 59 Senators have been contacted. Out of these, only Senator Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Saxby Chamblis (R-GA) have refused to go on record. Check out the full update here and please let us know if you discover any new information. Let’s teach this person they can't get away with this kind of shadow BS in the internet age!

29 Aug

Cheney bracing for U.S. economic crash

Although I am, by some crazy twist of economic hoo-doo, considered a card-carrying member of the middle class, I somehow seem to be suffering from a constant lack of extraneous cash that would qualify me to join the ranks of investors in this country. If, however, I suddenly found myself awash with fiduciary abundance, I would certainly seek to invest it in such a way as to balance growth and safety.

To accomplish this, I would likely enlist the aid of whoever I felt had the most knowledge and foresight of where the economy was heading. Someone privy to a wealth of information on which sectors were winners, and which would be losers. Somebody like, say, the ‘acting’ President of the United States:

Via a tip to PEEK, I was directed to a May report that flew under my radar: Are Dick Cheney's Money Managers Betting on Bad News?

According to Kiplinger's, the Cheneys, who may be worth close to $100 million, have invested the vast majority of their wealth overseas, in markets that do not fluctuate based on the U.S. dollar:

Vice President Cheney's financial advisers are apparently betting on a rise in inflation and interest rates and on a decline in the value of the dollar against foreign currencies. That's the conclusion we draw after scouring the financial disclosure form released by Cheney this week.

Well, it appears that somebody in a position to know says that the U.S. economy is heading for one giant turd-storm in the near future. Glad my money is safely tucked away in textbooks and mac & cheese!