I give up

For now I can't access any sites via Bloglines. Its OK, because I could use the break. If I think of something I want to post about, I will. Until then I'll just hang loose.

If you decide to use this as an open thread, feel free. I love to read what you have to say.

Monica Goodling

Here's my take on the Monica Goodling thing. And its worth exactly what you're paying for it.

Why can't she go, with her attorney, and testify? Does she assume every single question will lead to her self-incrimination? She can testify and use her attorney's expertise to avoid answering incriminating questions, right?

Perhaps she's looking for an overall amnesty, which isn't dumb at all, but she could help further the cause of understanding and justice. I guess she's just a coward.

Hey, its just my opinion and there are many more out there.

Must read IMHO

Trust me. I'm never wrong. A snippet.

The presiding judge in the José Padilla case has held that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a speedy trial does not protect American citizens from being indefinitely incarcerated by the Pentagon.

Padilla had filed a motion to dismiss the case on the ground that the federal government had denied him his right to a speedy trial. Padilla has been in custody since May 2002 and his trial, which is scheduled to begin in April, is not being held until some five years later.

From May 2002 until January 2006, Padilla was held in U.S. military custody as an “enemy combatant” in the “war on terror.” In January 2006, the Pentagon chose to transfer custody of Padilla to the U.S. Justice Department, which had indicted Padilla on terrorism charges in U.S. District Court. (Ever since 9/11, U.S. officials have had the option of treating people suspected of terrorism either as “enemy combatants” or as federal-court defendants.)

Last Friday, the presiding judge in the case, Marcia Cooke, denied Padilla’s motion to dismiss. The judge held that when a person, including an American citizen, is held in custody by the Pentagon as an “enemy combatant,” the time doesn’t start running with respect to his right to a speedy trial. It begins running, she held, only when he becomes part of the federal criminal-justice system.

Gee, I wonder if the judge’s reasoning applies to the rest of the Bill of Rights as well. Maybe the First Amendment doesn’t apply if it’s the Pentagon that is suppressing speech and assembly as part of its perpetual “war on terror.” Or maybe the Second Amendment prohibits only the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), not the Pentagon, from seizing guns from the American people, as it is doing as part of the “war on terror” in Iraq.

Our 18th-century American ancestors would have found Judge Cooke’s ruling to be ludicrous. If a military department of government is exempt from the restrictions of the Bill of Rights, then the entire executive branch is exempt for the obvious reason: Whenever the government wants to exempt itself from the Bill of Rights, all it has to do is employ the military to do the dirty deed. The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to protect the American people from the federal government, not a particular department of the federal government.

So, how comfortable are you under your new dictatorship? Cuba? How quaint. But their dictatorship is different from yours, right?

(read more)

New Bush Plan to Gut Endangered Species Act

Northwest spotted owl

Jesus H Christ with rheumatism, can no one stop this idiot? Bush would shit in his own bed.

Key Wildlife Protections Weakened by a Series of Administrative Redefinitions.

The U.S. Interior Department is preparing a wide-ranging set of regulations which substantially weaken the federal Endangered Species Act, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Biological Diversity.

"These draft regulations slash the Endangered Species Act from head to toe," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "They undermine every aspect of law - recovery, listing, preventing extinction, critical habitat, federal oversight and habitat conservation plans - all of it is gutted."

The draft regulations would:

* Remove recovery of a species or population as a protection standard;
* Allow projects to proceed that have been determined to threaten species with extinction;
* Permit destruction of all restored habitat within critical habitat areas;
* Prevent critical habitat areas from being used to protect against disturbance, pesticides, exotic species, and disease;
* Severely limit the listing of new endangered species; and
* Empower states to veto endangered species introductions as well as administer virtually all aspects of the Endangered Species Act within their borders.

"Kicking responsibility for endangered species protection to the states will make it nearly impossible to restore national oversight when states fail to protect endangered species," stated Southwest PEER Director Daniel R. Patterson. "State biologists will be under enormous political pressure to accommodate development interests while lacking, in many cases, even rudimentary legal protection to defend scientific concerns about species survival."

Apparently it isn't just Americans and "dark skinned" people Bush hates.

Question: Do you want to wipe out that spotted owl? We might be at the top of the food chain, but that doesn't mean we're gods.

(read more)

Paper or plastic? San Francisco decides

Update below

You don't need to decide, its paper or bio-degradable plastics. The fines are pathetic, but...

This environmentally friendly city put a green spin Tuesday on the checkout question "Paper or plastic?," becoming the first in the nation to outlaw non-recyclable plastic bags from use in supermarkets, drugstores and other large retailers.

By a 10-1 vote, the Board of Supervisors required the use of compostable or recyclable bags — a move officials predicted could soon be imitated by other cities nationwide. One supervisor voted against the ban, saying the issue needed more study.

Each year businesses here dispense an estimated 180 million plastic bags, killing marine life and clogging landfills, said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.

The Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, written by Mirkarimi and co-sponsored by six other supervisors, gives major supermarket chains with more than $2 million in annual sales six months to make the switch to biodegradable bags. Pharmacies and retailers with at least five locations have one year. Violators face fines of up to $500.

Come on other cities, join San Francisco.

What took so long? I can't remember how many years ago I started insisting on only paper. I found the paper bags to be environmentally superior and more useful. There's nothing like a nice paper bag for wrapping presents. Yeah, I'm that cheap.

Update: As expected, Faux News came down on the wrong side of this. Brit Hume said this will confuse recyclers. They won't know if the plastic bags are recyclable or not. What a tool.

(read more)

Survey: Many Americans see little point to Web

Posting is sporadic because of problems I'm having. Hell, this might not even work.

A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released Friday.

Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.

I say great. There are too many of us already. And, if you think I'm one of them, please keep your opinion to yourself. Thank you.

(read more)

Bloggers, please abandon Haloscan...please

I so fucking hate Haloscan. I try to post a comment and it usually doesn't work. Yeah, it might be a conspiracy against me, but I think its just a matter of Haloscan's suckage. There has to be something better out there, so use it.

Thank you. I'll take my meds now and calm down.

Good for Reuters

Update below.

Initially they reported two guys, after a failed bank robbery, took a bus load of children hostage.

Since that time, they've corrected the information.

Two armed men took over a school bus in the Philippine capital Manila on Wednesday and were holding 32 children and two teachers hostage, police and television reports said.

It appeared they wanted to highlight the lack of educational opportunities for children from a local slum community. A local politician, Senator Ramon Revilla, entered the bus to talk to the gunmen and try to persuade them to surrender.

One of the hostage-takers told television he would surrender if he was promised that 145 children at a day care center in the Tondo suburb were provided with education.

Well they are nearly correct. It is 3 men and not 2. Access abs-cbn.com for more info if you wish.

Update: This story is very frenetic. Initially ABS-CBN said Reuters had said the hostage takers were running from police. Reuters has denied they stated that and had reported the men were in the bus when it started its run. ABS-CBN has acknowledged the correction. Ain't breaking news fucking fun?

(read more)

Must read IMHO

Please check out this post and do access the "smaller blogs". The A-listers aren't the only game in town and not necessarily the best.

Snow's Cancer Metastisized

One thing I've learned in reading blogs and blogging is where real compassion can be found.

White House press secretary Tony Snow, who has become the face of the Bush presidency over the last year, has cancer again.

Snow's deputy, Dana M. Perino, broke into tears at an off-camera briefing this morning as she announced that the cancer has spread to his liver. Doctors discovered it when they operated on Snow on Monday to remove a small growth that had developed in his lower abdomen.

And this blurb is followed by this.

President Bush, in brief remarks to reporters later in the White House Rose Garden, asked Americans to pray for his ailing spokesman, who he said called him this morning from the hospital to pass on the information that his cancer had returned. [emphasis mine]

I've posted before about a Republican with leukemia and wished him the best. And there are other posts as well.

The point is Dems are compassionate. They don't like to see anyone, regardless of political stripe, to suffer from cancer.

Well, except for this fucking asshole.

And what is this shit where Bush had "brief remarks" about his colleague who will most likely die? The height of his compassion is beyond belief.

(read more)

H/T Thoughts of an Average Woman.

US Navy Conducts a Dress Rehearsal for Operation Iranian Freedom

Yeah, I'm lazy, but this is a must read IMHO.

Things aren't going well back in Washington. It's all Alberto Gonzales and the fired US attorneys, 24/7 on the cable news channel. What can the administration do to change the conversation? How about sending the US Navy to engage in a few maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

I lost the link, sorry, but the author said his sources say an attack on Iran will be on April 6 or April 8. I really hope he is wrong. Nothing good will come from an attack on Iran. And many disastrous outcomes are much more likely.

Check out Booman Tribune.

Must read IMHO

There's good/bad stuff out there. Check out this post.

My perspective

I'm sad.

George W Bush has taken the presidency twice illegally. He's attacked two countries illegally. He's destroyed the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. He's ruined many good government programs and agencies by appointing incompetent gits. He's destroyed any good will among the countries of the world. He well may take the US into WWIII. He's rubbed the Americans' noses in shit.

Americans are treated like enemies by the Bush cabal. They are spied upon, disappeared and tortured. Absolutely no one is safe from the US government. I've said it before, unless you have no secrets whatsoever such as infidelity, you don't want the government knowing everything about you. Your medical records, emails, IMs, bank records, phone calls are all open to these assholes.

And all the while, the American public is complacent. They're comfortable with the McMansions, fast food and SUVs and they just don't give a damn.

Sooner or later Americans will wake up and realize the country they thought they lived in is gone. They'll realize they have been fucked and will soon crash and burn. Its a matter of time and I hope its soon because they must get a clue or it may be too late to save the republic.

America can't survive 2 more years of Bush and the neo-cons. Its that simple.

Cat blogging

I have no idea if this is gonna work. I can't seem to link to or download anything via Bloglines and I'm not sure Blogger is gonna work either. So just click on the link below and have fun.

Yes, I know its very early cat blogging which by tradition comes on Friday or Saturday, but I want to get rid of this link to the cat.

Maukie is a neat black cat with green eyes. If you tease her with your mouse, you can make her purr and meow. You can also make her paw go up - see if you can figure out the trick …

Although she didn’t make Mauke, Anneke Hut has got it on her website: Link

(via neatorama)

This can't be good

Just when you thought things couldn't get worse...they do.

For some reason the US's use of thermobaric warheads in Fallujah flew under my radar. Sometimes I'm quite content my radar is set so high.

Don't these scientist ever tire of producing more and more ugly munitions to kill their fellow human beings?

And these fucking things are portable. Now you just know they'll be traded on the black market.

Jane’s reveals that China’s Xinshidai Company is churning out thermobaric warheads for the venerable RPG-7. Thermobaric explosives are ‘volumetric’ – the explosion comes from a cloud rather than a point source, and produces a blast that lasts longer. Even though this increase in duration is measured in milliseconds, it makes thermobarics far more destructive than condensed explosives, against both buildings and people.

BTW, I rarely read Jane's because its just so depressing.

(read more)

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

It seems Henry Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is carrying the load right at the moment in an attempt to reverse the lack of oversight of the Bush cabal.

If your Congress critter is on that committee, please consider sending them a little encouragement to keep up the fight.

If you go to the Wikipedia site, there are direct links to each committee member. Or, you can look on the right sidebar of this site for info on how to reach House members.

Majority members.

Henry Waxman, Chairman, California
Tom Lantos, California
Ed Towns, New York
Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
Elijah Cummings, Maryland
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Danny K. Davis, Illinois
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
William Clay, Missouri
Diane Watson, California
Stephen Lynch, Massachusetts
Brian Higgins, New York
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Jim Cooper, Tennessee
Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
John Yarmuth, Kentucky
Bruce Braley, Iowa
Paul Hodes, New Hampshire
Chris Murphy, Connecticut
John Sarbanes, Maryland
Peter Welch, Vermont

Minority members.

Tom Davis, Ranking Member, Virginia
Dan Burton, Indiana
Christopher Shays, Connecticut
John M. McHugh, New York
John Mica, Florida
Mark Souder, Indiana
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
Chris Cannon, Utah
John James Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
Michael R. Turner, Ohio
Darrell Issa, California
Kenny Marchant, Texas
Lynn Westmoreland, Georgia
Patrick McHenry, North Carolina
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Brian Bilbray, California
Bill Sali, Idaho

(source: Wikipedea)

(reference this post over at Bad Attitudes)

Reconsider your career goals here, lady

From Overheard in the Office.

Blond in scrubs: When people around me are sick and won't stay home I'm not coming to work.
Redhead in scrubs: You are a nurse.
Blond in scrubs: I hate having sick people around me.
Redhead in scrubs: You are a nurse.
Blond in scrubs: If a person is sick they should stay at home.
Redhead in scrubs: This is a hospital.

1100 Marshall Street
Little Rock, Arkansas

A must read IMHO

Its pretty long, but comes from Chuck Dupree so ya know its worth reading. A snippet.

Even non-Bush-related issues, such as the number of people who expressed support for “old fashioned values about family and marriage” or who support allowing school boards to fire homosexual teachers, have moved left by about ten percentage points. If you haven’t seen the graphs, I recommend them, they’ll give your spirits a lift. From more support for government programs to less social conservatism to less religious intensity, the country is moving in a consistent direction, and it’s not one the Republicans would choose, at least not the Republicans of the recent past.

Important blog site

Anything They Say is a goodie and nails the Gonzales situation cold.

For your consideration

I'm only doing this because I love the name of the site: Strange Women Lying in Ponds.

WARNING: She's a righty, a real righty, but I still love the name of the site.

Didn't my masthead say something about ECLECTIC?