Build a better mouse trap, and someone will build a better mouse. Or something to that effect. Since Reagan was President the US has been investing billions into complex systems that are designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. So after about 20 years of development we can now sometimes hit a missile mid flight....sometimes. Of course this system doesn't account for the reality of a nuke being smuggled into this country.. say over the porous Mexican border. But military types like to think big, and require big budgets to fill insatiable monetary needs. Enter Russia, President Putin now claims that they have missiles that zig zag as they approach their targets. No nice ballistic arches to calculate for interception. So now if this is true, we now have a paper weight that cost an estimate 200 billion dollars. Imagine how that money could have been used. We could be on a hydrogen economy, we could have all citizens covered by health care. We could clean up the industrial waste that was ignored by the Super Fund. We could have eliminated starvation world wide. What a shame we elect short sighted fools to office, and don't demand of our friends and family that they educate themselves on these kinds of issues.

"Bush, you are not only defeated and a liar, but, with God's help and might, a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies," Ayman al-Zawahri

Tonight President Bush will give another State of the nation address. Lets all bend over with our naked asses facing the TV so he can have an easier time blowing the smoke up our posteriors. It's thought much of his speech will focus on what a great economy we have. I would laugh if it weren't such an outright lie, and if my own family wasn't so negatively affected by this morons lack of vision, and his inept handling of our economy.

After a nice plate of BBQ Dog and a latte, Chinese workers return to the factory to make fine products for Walmart.





"funny how the ads often clash terribly with the story."

It makes me sick... I grew up in south east Michigan, where the world's biggest auto manufacturers made cars. Many of my friend's families owed their livelihood to good jobs building American cars and trucks. People could afford to live well, and there was a middle class that could afford to have a cabin “up north,” and were able to put their kids through college. Most jobs were union jobs , and workers could count on being treated fairly by management, and were afforded the simple things that people needed such as health care, and a pension for their old age. What happened? What the hell happened!? Ford laying off 30,000, GM over 25,000! Well.. many things. Allow me to elaborate.
1.As much as I am for strong unions, I feel that the UAW became overly politicized, and corrupt. I feel that they over compensated workers with excesses in health care, overtime, and pensions. The American worker just became to much of a liability to their companies. Remember I said excessive.. those things that I mentioned are needed, but perhaps not to the extent they became.
2.Auto manufacturers made the wrong products. Bigger...less efficient.... isn't what all Americans want. Meanwhile, Companies like Toyota made cars that were... safer, and more fuel efficient. They also had better resale values. American manufacturers also missed the boat on hybrid vehicles... Hell, we made satellites and space craft with fuel cells 30 years ago, and have ignored this vital technology until recently. We desperately need to get this country and the world on a hydrogen economy.
3.The Government is the biggest problem. This is a prime example of what happens when energy companies write our countries energy plans, and most lawmakers are in the pockets of the insurance industry. Our government let CAFE standards become antiquated, and in turn our car companies made cars that were more wasteful than they were in the 70's. Our leaders only talk about finding more energy, and not about conserving the energy we have. One of the biggest cost our auto companies have is health care for workers. With a government that has done nothing about health care, the costs have skyrocketed. A large percentage of the price of every new car is used to pay workers health costs. If our government actually made changes in this countries health care infrastructure.. Say even if they just insured the sickest of our workers.. Then industry could make a more competitive product. Lastly, our NAFTA, CAFTA, and tarrifs deals are killing us. We cannot hope to compete with companies who's workers are paid next to nothing and who have no benefits. Companies who have plants in South and Central America, have a decided advantage over us. As far as tarrifs go, here's a good one for you.. Soon we will be having Chinese made cars being sold in the US. These cars will pay a 2.5 % tariffs as they enter the US, meanwhile, American made cars going to China pay over 20% in tarrifs. No wonder that our trade deficits have ballooned under Bush. Our elected representatives are criminal in their apathy towards the American middle class, and workers.

So there you have it.. My opinion on some of the biggest problems in this country.

Here in America we LOVE guns. We worship Guns. We equate guns with sexual potency. We want everyone around the world to have guns. Thats why we are the biggest exporter of arms, and the nation that is most likely to be at war at any given time. You see there are very good reasons we need guns. There are people out to get us. Rogue nations, boogy men, people with dark skin, that worship a different way. To make sure we can keep passin' out the guns we make sure that the five biggest arms dealing countries, (US, Britain, China, France, and Russia) are also members of the UN Security Counsel. We're not paranoid mind you.. no, no. We just like the money that weapons generate for folks like the Bushs and Cheneys. We'll leave the paranoia to the common citizen who we keep in a perpetual state of fear. Did you know that the US defence budget, (the visible budget) is as large as the rest of the world combined. Our missile defense funding is larger than most countries, and the thing doesn't even work. You were also lied to about the so called Peace Dividend, after the cold war was over. Our spending now is the same. Of course, it has to be as thugs like Osama Bin Laden are still about.

World Military Budgets:
United States 420.7
China* 51.0 Russia* 50.8 Japan 41.4 United Kingdom 41.3 France 34.9 Germany 27.4 Italy 22.3 Saudi Arabia* 22.2 India 16.2 South Korea 14.8 Israel* 9.9 Australia 9.9 Brazil 9.7 Turkey* 9.2 Canada 9.1 Spain 8.5 Netherlands 7.2 Taiwan 6.6 Greece* 6.5 Mexico* 5.6 Sweden 5.2 Iran* 5.1 North Korea* 5.0 Ukraine* 5.0 Singapore 4.7 Norway 4.2 Poland 3.9 Kuwait 3.5 Egypt* 3.3 Portugal* 3.1 Belgium 3.0 Colombia* 3.0 United Arab Emirates* 2.8 Pakistan 2.8 Denmark 2.6 Vietnam 2.3 Czech Republic 1.9 Syria* 1.9 Argentina 1.6 Philippines* 1.6 Hungary 1.4 Cuba* 1.1 Sudan* 0.7 Libya* 0.6 Yugoslavia 0.6 Luxembourg 0.2 Iraq N/A

We're going the way of the Romans. Soon to be toppled over by the weight of our military budget, and the hate we spread around the world as we muck around with the affairs of other nations.

"It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently."
-- Jack A. Abramoff


Picture found on: http://skimble.blogspot.com/

At the heart of President Bush's relationship with corrupt Political money guy Jack Abramoff is the Marianas Islands. What are the Marianas islands? A upscale vacation spot? Site of the first Nuclear bomb test? The latest backdrop for Girls Gone Wild? Nope, the Marianas islands are a neverland of American manufacturing. Deep in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, these islands are a boon for fat American companies that want the “Made In America” label on their goods, yet want to escape paying real Americans to do the work, or paying taxes as they would in any of the American states. It takes a “heckaofalot” work to keep this sweetheart deal going, and Abramoff was just the guy to do it. Textiles are one of the most common things made in the islands, and are made by workers brought in from Asia, and held in nearly slave-like conditions. Poorly paid, and often unable to go home, these workers make your cheap “American made” golf shirts. Meanwhile evidence mounts that the Bushies lied about the extent of the relationship between George Bush, and Abramoff.

Dear "Concerned Citizen":

Thank you for contacting me regarding the recent reports of domestic surveillance activity by the U.S. Government. The challenge of balancing America’s national security needs with personal privacy rights has been made more complicated in recent years as technology has become more advanced and more intimately involved in American life. At the same time, our military and law enforcement agencies must have the tools they need to protect the country.

The Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 and created a special court, which operates in closed session, to consider government wiretap requests in national security cases. Two Supreme Court cases had previously established that domestic wiretaps for national security purposes do not inherently violate the fourth amendment's protection against unreasonable searches, but do require judicial approval. Congress passed FISA to bring the law into conformity with those decisions. I am concerned about recent reports of potentially unlawful domestic surveillance activity without approval by the FISA court. There will be congressional hearings on this topic this year, and I will be looking very carefully at the circumstances of this program.

Please know that I take the security and privacy needs of the American people extremely seriously. I will keep your concerns in mind as this issue comes before the Senate.

"apparently there is enough outrage from people to warrant the drafting of this canned response"
* note: the picture depicts Nelson Chang, not Bill Nelson

The Child online protection act was quashed by the courts. So the DOJ is fishing for info that will let it rejuvenate it. Online search engines have been asked to divulge search and use information, Yahoo and MSN have complied in part. Google however is standing firm on their right to keep information and possible trade secrets to themselves. My theory about this is that the DOJ is not really after information to help protect children online, but is data mining for a host of other information and is honing their techniques. How many tiny steps towards a police state will we allow the Bush regime take before we say enough is enough? Hitler only needed the bombing of the Reichstag.

You can read it here. Comments are appreciated.

The DOJ is again oversteping it's bounds, and is going after Google to force them to release information on the habits of it's users. It's all about a law that was struck down that was suppose to protect children from pedophiles. The DOJ wants to reinstate it even though the courts said the powers the law gave were too vague and broad. As a father of three, I want children to be protected. But I also want them to grow up in a free country. Support Google by putting the words "kiddie Porn Gonzales" into their engine.

Interesting... if you type the word failure into the Google search engine.. You'll get the official George Bush Biography. Those silly leftys.. slanting the listing with their unscrupulous links.
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure

Here is a wonderful gallery of underwater pictures. However, These pictures are only intended to illustrate what can be lost if we are not careful with the way we live in this world. While It's true that the worlds climate changes over the millennium, we are without a doubt contributing to changes in this last century. From third world countries trying to catch up, and in so doing so, not spending money to prevent pollution, to countries like the US that use an overwhelming amount of the worlds resources, and my sheer volume contribute immensely to pollution and global warming. Our progress is folly though. As the Earth's climate changes, species are lost. Raising the temperature of the ocean by one degree has serious ramifications. The” big conveyor” that is the Gulf Stream, could stop altogether. Most of Europe would be put into a virtual ice age. This may happen in our lifetime.We can't harm the earth,it will exist far beyond the events of humanity. The ecology of the planet is another thing, without a livable environment, we and the systems we need to sustain life will cease to exist.

Senior citizens, who make choices between medicine or shelter often cut pills in half to make them go further. Their health suffers as a result. Diabetic elderly patients are having record numbers of amputaions as a result of a lack of medication. Our elderly deserve better than the Bush administration and the GOP.



Van Gogh: potato eaters

Tonight on Larry King live Al Gonzalez said that an independent counsel to look into domestic surveillance is unneeded. He says that because lawyers in the DOJ, and the administration looked at the issue and found no problems. There is no need to look further.

Today Al Gore gave a speech with Congressman Bob Barr. It was given at Constitution Hall, which was quite appropriate considering the topic of his speech. The wholesale dismantling of the balance of power in government, and the protections given us under the Constitution. Please read it here.

The Presidents new Medicare plan is such a piece of crap he is now asking insurance carriers to “cover” the millions that are being left uncovered. I won't bore you with the details which can be read here. Several states have declared public health emergencies, and have had to step in to see that the elderly get the medicines they need and had been taking prior to the new Medicare changes. ...“ In California, officials estimate that 200,000 of the state's 1.1 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries had trouble getting their medications. “
The Bush administration touted this new plan as a way for seniors to save money over the old plan. However there is no language in the new coverage that expressly require savings. It's all left to the corporate decision makers that actually run the program. The plan does not allow for bidding to assure the lowest prices for participants. Senator Kennedy wanted bulk buying savings to be passed to the consumer, but with Bush's blessing the legislation was stricken of any such language. Thomas Scully, the main Bush negotiator, within a week of passing the legislation joined a health care lobbying firm as well as an investment company.

Richard S. Foster, chief actuary for the Medicare program, testified March 24 before the House Ways and Means Committee about the manner in which officials of the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pressured him to withhold information from Congress concerning the likely cost of the prescription drug benefit that is the centerpiece of the Medicare “reform” bill passed by Congress last fall.

The amount of info on this program is to great for my brain to follow anymore. The GOP are a great bunch of people. When is comes to chicanery of all types , the person in the administration who is usually behind it is none other than our friend Darth Cheney.

You'll be happy to know they were killed in your name. We're sorry our target was not there, but these deaths are just a small price to pay for the security of the American public. More faulty intelligence.. oh well, stay the course. Perhaps we should bomb some American homes to show how REALLY serious we are in this war on terror. That we're willing as civilians to shed our blood for security. that will show the world we mean business.

This event is Dawinian theory on a grand scale. To bad American evangelicals dont' have these kind of events.



" so call me evil, I know alot of you were thinking the same thing."

The name of the painting is Guenica, it was painted my Pablo Piccaso for exhibition in the 1937 World Fair. You've probably seen this painting before, but do you know what inspired it? It's about the German bombing of a sleepy little Italian village for three days that killed over 1600 civilians. It wasn't about rooting out military units hidden within the town, but the wholesale slaughter of everyone who lived there.
2004: Fallujah (as taken from Wikipedia) [In a highly publicized attack on March 31, 2004, four private military contractors from the U.S. company Blackwater USA were dragged from their vehicle and killed. Their bodies were then mutilated and burned. A crowd of militants and townsfolk, estimated to number over a thousand, beat and dragged the burnt corpses behind automobiles, then hanged the dismembered remains from the girders of Fallujah's bridge over the Euphrates River. These acts were videotaped by journalists and broadcast worldwide. This led to a failed US attempt to recapture control of the city in Operation Vigilant Resolve, a siege of the city called Operation Plymouth Rock and a successful recapture of the city, resulting in the death of over 1,000 insurgent fighters, in November 2004 called Operation Phantom Fury. ] The last part is quite sanitized. While they claim 1,000 insurgent deaths, most of the dead were actually civilians.. women, children. Eye witnesses told of a soccer field that was filled with the dead. Pictures and film footage of the events in Falljah are rare as most of the embedded reporters had their materials destroyed and confiscated by US commanders. After the Vietnam war the use of Napalm: a highly flammable gel that was used to bomb large areas with fire, was banned as an unethical tool of war. As if there is such a thing. Napalm was banned for the same reasons chemical and biological warfare are banned. Because the use of it produces results that are to horrific for civilized peoples to accept. Enter Willy Pete... white phosphorous. Reports have since come out that in the destroying of Fallujah American troops used white phosphorous, to indiscriminately bomb areas of the city, and burn up all the individuals that reside there. Reports of people burning from the inside out, there clothes not even being singed emerged. The fire consumed all it encountered. The true death count is unknown as per the US cover up. This is a rather old story. But when it was originaly reported, the news media was still affected by Bush's shroud of deceit. To read more in depth about his event and the effects of WP on people please check here. Thank you michael the tubthumper .

Having been in sales most of my adult life, I would say I'm pretty good at sizing people quickly and accurately. Ones looks at a persons body language, hears the timbre of the voice. The choice of words and how they listen. Where they look when they think, and speak. Having watched the initial Alito hearing, and now the morning of the first day of questions, I feel confident that Judge Alito will be a good jurist on the Supreme Court. Yes he is conservative, and may when given leeway rule in a conservative manner. But I believe that on the whole he will be a honest jurist who will follow the guidelines of stare decisis. I think he should be confirmed quickly so that we can move on to issues that will make an immediate difference. Issues such as domestic spying, the leaking of CIA agent identity, and the war in Iraq. We need to pick our battles and when we do we need to attack them fiercely and without hesitation. The appointment of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court is not an issue we should oppose.

Michael, over at Thumping the Tub, has written quite a nice post on his blog about some of the naughty stuff that is associated with the oil business. This is an issue I'm quite attuned to, and I find this info to be important for all. You see, oil is a finite recourse, and by many estimates we only have about 40 year left at current availability. This means that more people and nations will be clamoring for it. China is dead set to find long term partners to supply it's growing energy needs. Is war in the future? One thing that people just don't seem to grasp is that oil is used for much more than filling the tanks of wasteful SUVs. We use it for plastics, medicines, fertilizer, and lubricants. I find it appalling that people choose to drive these rolling tributes to their egos, knowing full well that people are dieing for the oil they burn so happily. The facts are that SUV's are wasteful, and are not as safe as people assume they are. They roll over easily, and of course their large mass assures death to the other guy if there is an accident. Fact is, that we are in Iraq for the oil.. Over 2000 Americans, and by many accounts, over 100,000 Iraqi's have died as a result of our war. Think about this next time you buy a vehicle.

Many rumors are swirling about that our Commander and Chief is once again hitting the booze, and possibly, anti-depressents. Pretty serious stuff if true. But on a lighter side, here is a video of the President making a speech apparently under the influence of something.. :) -the video is a gag, though I saw a video of a young drunk GW once.

As reported by the Associated Press, former U.S boss in Iraq requested 500,00 troops but was denied by Donald Rumsfeld. Whitehouse spokespig Scott McClellan says that Bremer was just one voice among many, and that the decision was ultimately up to US commanders. Hmm, What did Bremer know that the Whitehouse refused to admit, or hear. Was he actually one of the few cognitive people on the ground in Iraq? We all know that General Sanchez was just a Whitehouse lackey who found it easy to throw low ranking personnel to the wolves rather than bring forces to bear against the officers and civilians that ordered and condoned torture and miss treatment. So with this new Bremer information we know once more that this administration is incompetent in it's waging of this unnecessary war.
AP image

Brad Shilliday Brad Shilliday Brad Shilliday Brad Shilliday Brad Shilliday

Next they will be checking our stools for traces of Falafel.
“We’ve had this authority since before the Department of Homeland Security was created,”

Shades of Terry Gilliam's (of Monty Python fame) movie Brazil. In case you've never seen this incredible movie, it's about a fictional government that perpetrates terrorism on it's own population to perpetuate an eternal police state, and war on terrorism. Of course the movie itself was born of the Irish Republican Army's bombings of English targets during the 70's and early 80's, but it shows much relevance in terms of current times. It's seems that there may be English SAS operations that may involve the terrorist like bombings of Iraqi civilian targets, and that the specter of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is being evoked to support the continued bombing of Iraqi civialian areas. By many reports Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been dead since the beginning of the war. Our presence in Iraq must be justified. Our continued harvesting of Iraqi resources depends on a continued occupation and control of Iraqi government and military. Civil war is that justification, as is the perception of a vast terrorist network operating there. This Story will tell you much more about these events.

Our freind at the Skeptical Observerhas made a couple important observations. Although the news media's main take on this story at the moment is the false news of survivors, the real story is mining safety deregulation at the hands of the Bush administration. These guys have no problem trading blood for money. That is as long as it's someone else's blood. Cowardliness, greed, and incompetence have been the hallmark of this administration. This story isn't the first tragedy associated with the Bush administration, and with several years to go, it won't be the last.

Cindy Sheehan is the most observable parent of a soldier killed in Iraq. However, she is not the only one. Paul E. Schroeder has posted a letter to the WAPO, it speaks painfully of a parents grief over the death of a child, and his coming to grips with the result and meaning of his sons death. Some parents of the dead in this tragic and needless war need the comfort of this false patriotism to get through the grief, but this brave father has stripped away the veil of deceit and stares the ugly truth in the face. Please read his letter here.

African American Environmentalist Association.
To say that George Bush will go down in history as a top protector of the environment is at the best laughable. These guys might very well be smoking crack. Not physicaly, but you know... metaphoric crack.
Read this

***I amended this post because the guy that wrote the stuff about Bush sent me this.

Thank you for the recognition but be careful slandering us. I assure you we do not smoke crack and I would be happy to take a drug test anytime. In fact, if I were you, I would remove the crack comment. And for the record, Teddy Roosevelt was one of the biggest RACISTS ever to walk the Earth.