Too little ... too late

Washington (April 30th) Just back from her photo op in Baghdad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Pictured below showing how much integrity she has) found herself up against an unexpected adversary - Colin Powell, her predecessor at the State Department.



Powell threw her off message by revisiting the question of whether the U.S. had a large enough force to oust Saddam Hussein and then secure the long term peace of Iraq.

He said he advised Bush before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to send more troops to Iraq, but that the administration did not follow his recommendation.

Rice responded, "I don't remember specifically what Secretary Powell may be referring to, but I'm quite certain that there were lots of discussions about how best to fulfill the mission that we went into Iraq."

Most of us know that Condoleezza would jump off a cliff, if George Bush told her to do it. However, a lot of us had faith that Colin Powell would end up being the lone voice of reason within the Bush administration. That was obviously not to be, and it's too late now. What the hell happened to you Colin?

Colin Powell sealed his fate when he gave his now infamous address at the UN, in the days leading up to the war in Iraq. He sat there will his little vials of powder and satellite pictures, and he sold the war to the American people and to the world.



Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet offered you up Colin, based on information they knew was most likely bogus. Tenet may have physically sat behind you that day, but you were left in the spotlight alone. Who better to deliver false information than their most trusted lackey.

It has been reported that Powell knew the gravity of your speech that day, and he was not happy about it. When Barbara Walters asked him if he felt it has tarnished his reputation, he said, "Of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."

That speech was your chance to make an impact on history. Criticizing troop levels today will do little to nothing now that the war machine has started. Colin ... Colin ... Colin. You are trying to close the barn doors long after the horses have run away ... and died.

Rush to justice?

Rush Limbaugh turned himself into Palm Beach County police today and was booked, fingerprinted and his mug shot taken (Below). This was the culmination of a three-year investigation into illegal drug activity by the radio show host.



Limbaugh was "doctor shopping" or illegally deceiving multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions for Oxycodone. He received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion.

Before his own problems became public, Limbaugh had decried drug use and abuse and mocked President Clinton for saying he had not inhaled when he tried marijuana. He often made the case that drug crimes deserve punishment.

"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up," Limbaugh said on his short-lived television show on Oct. 5, 1995.

He had gone as far as to suggest that women found guilty of any drug charge should have their children taken away from them permanently.

This is a perfect example of how hypocritical major right wing players can be. They decry drug use, yet they use them (Limbaugh). They decry sexual perversion, and then get caught with prostitutes (Swaggart) They decry corruption, and then they participate in it. (Delay, Reed, Cunningham, etc.)

This fat little slime ball will never spend one day in jail. What a shame.

Snow Job

The place is Washington. The date is April 26th. George W. Bush formally names Tony Snow as his pick to replace Scott McClellan as his press secretary. This is a job that comes with a great deal of pressure and public exposure.



Tony Snow is no stranger to this type of exposure. For a long time he has been a commentator for Fox News, a network that has long been philosophically sympathetic to President Bush and his administration.

Karen Finney, the Democratic National Committee spokeswoman, put it Wednesday, "To our mind he is just moving from one part of the conservative infrastructure to another."

Although the job of press secretary will be new to Tony, the job description is almost identical. He will take the factual news of the day, and then twist and turn it into something that resembles a cow cake.

Gas or hot air?

Today George W. Bush made a very important announcement while aboard Air Force One (A.K.A Idiot Airlines)

President Bush is trying to calm Americans' outrage over soaring gas prices by ordering an investigation into whether the price of gasoline has been illegally manipulated, his spokesman said Monday.



This is like Jack the Ripper calling for Scotland Yard to immediately form a murder investigation in 1888.

You really can't make this stuff up folks.

I wonder if this investigation will start ...

1) After the one looking into the CIA intelligence leaks
2) Or the one looking into FEMA's failure to protect the levies of New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina swept in.
3) Or the one looking into this administration's mistakes that were made leading up to September 11th 2001
4) Or the one looking into WMD intelligence failures in the days leading up to the Iraq war

Britney or Bin Laden?

WASHINGTON - A top US official cautioned that a new video taped warning by Osama bin Laden should not be taken lightly as the tape's emergence served as a vexing reminder of the US failure to track down the terror mastermind.



"The tape reminds us that four years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large, the subject of the largest manhunt in history, and we haven't been able to find him," said Harman, speaking on the Fox News Sunday television program.

I am a native New Yorker, born here in this great city on September 11th, 1970. There are several things I find absolutely amazing, and at the same time I think they are disgraceful.

1) I find it amazing that Fox News channel would allow a statement like Harman's to be made on their “fair and balanced” network. That pathetic news network is so full of crap. I am surprised they would let any semblance of truth leak out to the public.

2) I find it disgraceful that this country has spent close to a trillion dollars on our “War on Terror”, and Osama Bin Laden is still free. In fact, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mullah Omar (Taliban Leader) also remain free. We managed to kill Omar’s innocent wife and child with a cruise missile, but we never got close to him. The man lived in a mud hut and has one good eye. Their freedom begs us to ask ourselves a few very important questions:

-Did George W. Bush ever really want to catch or kill these men?

-Was it really George W. Bush's priority to avenge the 3000+ deaths that occurred on 9/11/2001? (A date that he wraps around himself like a warm blanket)

-Are these men more valuable to George W. Bush dead or alive?



I am not a big fan of pop music at all. However, I for one would like to see more videos released this coming year by Britney Spears than the "wanted" leader of Al Qaeda. Do you think you can handle that George?

The FDA is going to pot

WASHINGTON (April 20) - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it does not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The statement contradicts a 1999 finding from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, which reported that "marijuana's active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting and other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials."

There is abundant evidence that marijuana can help cancer patients, multiple sclerosis patients and AIDS patients. There is no scientific doubt that marijuana relieves nausea, vomiting, certain kinds of pain and other symptoms that don't respond well to conventional drugs, and does it more safely than other drugs.

The FDA statement noted "There are alternative FDA-approved medications in existence for treatment of many of the proposed uses of smoked marijuana."



Listen to that statement that the FDA is making. Read it once again. They make no mention of the multiple dangerous side effects that come with those FDA approved medications. The FDA is not thinking about the sick people who would benefit from medical marijuana. They are merely protecting the profits of the drug companies. The same drug companies who used to employ most of them. The same companies who still pay into their retirement accounts. I really believe that if Merck or Pfizer could patent marijuana, the FDA's tune might quickly change.

In the interest of full discloser, I am a Pfizer stockholder. There are some days I have second thoughts about my ownership of a drug company. However, by comparison, I think Pfizer is one of the most responsible of the drug companies. Some drugs do save lives and there is a place for medication. However, the FDA and their hypocrisy makes me sick to my stomach. Perhaps I can take an FDA product for that.

My college roommate used to say, “God gave us the cannabis plant … Let no man take it away!”

He was a smart cookie … and he ate a lot of cookies. Now that is a side effect I can live with.

STOP EVERYTHING!

"Hey ... Did you hear the big news?"

Today that couple that everyone loves to call TomKat finally had their long awaited child. The always-beautiful couple of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had a daughter. The girl, named Suri, came into the world at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches long. Her name has its origins in Hebrew, meaning "princess, or in Persian, meaning red rose.



The news made the front page of almost every newspaper in this country, and many overseas. It's on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX NEWS, CNN and even MTV. After all, so many of us couldn't really get on with our lives without knowing that TomKat's day had finally come.

On the same day, something else really interesting happened. Today, in Africa, 30,000 children died from diseases that could have been avoided. In fact, on average, this happens every single day. That right ... Three hundred and sixty five days a year. This does not make the front page of the newspaper. Actually you won't find it on any page of the paper.



Those silly Africans! Don't they understand that their life is meaningless? We would help them if we could, but Mission Impossible 3 is coming out this week and it looks kick ass!

I wonder why conservatives don't see the importance of conservation?

Today the price of oil broke the $70 per barrel mark. Most experts agree that we will see $75 in the next few weeks. The reasons for this are varied and debated. A fact that goes without question, is that oil executives in companies like Exxon are currently seeing record multi year profits. General Motors used to be the largest company in America. Instead GM is now facing the possibility of bankruptcy and the whole state of Michigan is feeling this economically. There once was a saying "So goes GM ... so goes the market". Presently GM is going down the toilet. Guess where this country is going.



This year the largest Fortune 500 company in America is Exxon. Do you think this is coincidence during a Bush presidency? While these fat cats watch their money rolling in, who is it that suffers? Is it the poor, who are forced to live in an environment of rising gas prices and overall cost of living? Is it the middle class, who has seen record heating costs for their homes and small businesses? It is corporate America, which must raise the price of goods and services like air travel and factory produced products? Perhaps it is all of these groups. However, I have very little sympathy for any of these groups and I will tell you why. They all sit by and watch it happen, and they do nothing about it. Even the poorest person, with the smallest voice, can do something about this situation by speaking up. Instead, most Americans are more concerned about what is currently in their closet or on their television.

I feel a great deal more sympathy for the Polar bears are starting to die off in The Arctic due to global warming effects. Most are drowning because they are now forced to swim up to eighty miles in a day to reach their food sources. Food used to be available to them for nine months out of the year. Drifting ice sheets now limit that source of nourishment to six months a year. Polar bears are excellent swimmers, but that eighty-mile distance is deadly even for them.



The Western Arctic is one of the fastest warming regions in the world, warming at a rate of 0.75 degrees C per decade for the past three decades, several times the average global rate. Norwegian studies have found the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice has declined 5.5 per cent since 1978. The Arctic is seen as an early indicator of the impacts of global climate change, caused primarily by the burning of oil, coal and gas.

As I’m sure some of you know, polar bears can’t vote. They don’t drive cars. They don’t own large homes. They don’t manage factories. They simply rely on us to not be idiots. That reliance will most likely be their demise.

Some of you will say, “Screw the polar bears!” The fact is, yes you are, but you are also screwing yourself. What’s even more palpable is that you are screwing your children, and their children after them.

I really think this film below is one of the most important films to be made in years. I think everyone in America should take the time to watch the facts presented in it. The scientific community has been aware of these facts for years. Now it is time for you to be aware of them as well. The polar bears will thank you, and so will your grandchildren.

Did Ted Bundy have a Myspace page?

When you look at this guy's Myspace name, it would seem that even he knew what he was.



I don't think I should tell my dad's new wife about this. If I do, my half brother and sister will not be allowed to use the internet untill they are 35.

Pure Evil

I normally try not to stray from the subject of politics on this blog, but today I must make an exception. Upon hearing about the death of this wonderful little girl, Jamie Rose Bolin (Pictured below), I find that I can write of nothing else.



"Regarding a potential motive, Purcell police Chief David Tompkins said, "this appears to have been part of a plan to kidnap a person, rape them, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse, then dispose of the organs and bones."

Kevin Ray Underwood, 26, was arrested Friday after investigators found Jamie's body in the closet of a bedroom in his apartment, authorities said. The girl's unclothed body was inside a large plastic tub, along with a towel used to soak up blood, officials said.

Investigators believe she died Wednesday, after being hit several times with a wooden cutting board, then suffocated with duct tape and her killer's hand. She was sexually assaulted after she died, officials said.

They have had to heavily sedate Jamie's father. He was said to have lived for his daughter, and some relatives believe this will be the end of him. My heart goes out to him. If I was Jamie's father, there is no doubt in my mind that Kevin Ray Underwood would die by my hand.

I am normally against the death penalty. The reason I oppose it, is because there are too many examples of false convictions. I don’t even think they should put Zacarias Moussaoui to death, if only because that piece of garbage wants to die a martyr.

However, I firmly believe this murder case would be a good time to use cruel and unusual punishment. Kevin Ray Underwood is slime. In fact, calling him that is an insult to slime. This guy should be made to feel great pain. Torturing and killing this guy slowly on public television is the only punishment I see that fits this act. Whether we sentence him to death or not, this guy’s days are numbered. Prison justice was invented for just this type of situation.

Out of touch

WASHINGTON (April 14) - The widening circle of retired generals who have stepped forward to call for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation is shaping up as an unusual outcry that could pose a significant challenge to Mr. Rumsfeld's leadership, current and former generals said on Thursday.



Retired Two-Star General Charles Swannack, the commander who led the elite 82nd Airborne Division during its mission in Iraq, has joined the chorus of retired generals calling on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to leave the Pentagon.

My Grandfather was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 82nd Airborne. He was younger than I am now when he died. He fought and died alongside his troops at The Battle of the Bulge. Otherwise, I am sure he too would have made general after the war.

There is no room for incompetence anymore. The lives of American soldiers are too important to be in the hands of someone who is this ineffective. Every day, it becomes more obvious that President Bush is not the only miserable failure in this administration.

Time to step down Donald. Go find something more useful to do with your hands. I have some suggestions.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 11 — Falah al-Ogaidy squinted through his glasses at the numbers scrawled across white boards at the Iraq Stock Exchange.

The share value of the Baghdad Soft Drinks Company hovered at 2 dinars. It had not budged in three trading sessions. Mr. Ogaidy sighed. He owns four million shares, worth about $5,400 on that recent morning.

"The prices after the war were so high," said Mr. Ogaidy, who imports Chinese sewing machines. "People were happy, thinking there would be a good economy and stability. But everything happened the other way around."



Guards with Kalashnikov rifles stand outside next to razor wire and concrete blast walls. The ringing of a silver school bell at 10 a.m. announces a session's start. Shouting and hand-waving fill the room, and cups of thick Turkish coffee are passed around. Another clanging at noon signals the close.

Analysts and investors rattle off an endless ticker tape of reasons for the downturn: the threat of full-scale civil war, the virulent insurgency, lack of a government, a shaky economy, a dearth of foreign money and of course an unemployment rate of 60 percent..

If stock markets are any measure of a nation's confidence, then the numbers at the nascent Iraq Stock Exchange show that faith in the country may be at its lowest ebb.

When asked for a comment, President Bush said that the situation was a prime example of how everyone in America looks at the glass as half empty. “This represents a great buying opportunity. If you were looking to get in on the ground floor, exchange traded shares in date merchants are at an all time low right now!”



Just when you thought all the profits were to be found in oil. (Who knew?)

Be Prepared

April 9th 2006 -The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S. officials and independent analysts.

No attack appears likely in the short term, and many specialists inside and outside the U.S. government harbor serious doubts about whether an armed response would be effective. But administration officials are preparing for it as a possible option and using the threat "to convince them this is more and more serious," as a senior official put it.

According to current and former officials, Pentagon and CIA planners have been exploring possible targets, such as the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan.

Due to the fact that much of our available military force is already deployed in the Middle East, the administration has been forced to look within. To pick up the slack, our National Guardsmen have been enlisted into the “War on Terror” and stretched to their limits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Who then is left to fight for our freedom in Iran? Not to be deterred, Donald Rumsfeld has once again thought of an ingenious solution. The one major uniformed force not yet tapped for mandatory service was plainly obvious … The Boy Scouts of America.



Hundreds of thousands of these brave young men have started to pack for the western border of Iraq. The military has offered a unique incentive for these happy campers. For every nuclear target successfully eliminated, the responsible troop and it’s den leader will receive their nuclear merit badge.



If that weren’t enough to get the Iranians on the run, a flanking pincer maneuver will be conducted from the south and east by dozens of Girl Scout Troops. Armed with poison boxes of Samoas and Lemon Drop cookies, they will wreak havoc the likes of which Iran has not seen since the reign of the Shaw. Rumsfeld has dubbed this sneak snack attack Operation “Out of the Box”

Commander Ariel Sheehan of Worster Massachusetts (Pictured Below) talked with reporters yesterday and was quoted as saying “I am ready to kick some Iranian ass for the good of worldwide democracy, and Christ our Lord.”



Jump on the team, and come on in for the big win!

One night in Bush

WASHINGTON (April 8) - President Bush has hit new lows in public opinion for his handling of Iraq , his campaign against international terror and his overall job performance. Polling also shows the Republican Party surrendering its advantage on national security.

The AP-Ipsos poll is loaded with grim election-year news for a party struggling to stay in power. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction, the largest percentage of the Bush presidency and 13 points higher than a year ago.

This poll puts the President's approval rating slight above 30%. To put things in perspective, Nixon scored a 25% approval rating in 1974 amid the infamous Watergate scandal that eventually led to his August 1974 resignation from office.

At a press conference yesterday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan (Pictured below) demonstrated to the press corps how President Bush likes to have polls presented to him.



Mr. McClellan went on to say that although the President's numbers are very bad, they are still not as low as Paris Hilton who scored a 25% approval rating in an earlier public opinion poll. "After all ... he added ... who has more experience with polls than Paris?"

Et tu Scooter?

Today archaeologists in Lebanon announced the discovery of a new biblical scroll, the Book of Judas. Biblical scholar Art Vandelay says “These scrolls are unequivocally the most important find within the Christian community in the last 500 years. The Book of Judas will redefine the events that led to the crucifixion of Jesus.”

The Bible's New Testament Gospels-- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- depict Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, as a traitor. In biblical accounts Judas gives up Jesus Christ to his opponents, who later crucify the founder of Christianity. As told in the New Testament, Judas betrayed Jesus for "30 pieces of silver," identifying him with a kiss in front of Roman soldiers. Later the guilt-ridden Judas returns the bribe and commits suicide, according to the Bible.

The Gospel of Judas, however, portrays him as acting at Jesus' request. The lost pages seem to portray Judas in a much different light than the bible has for all these years. It goes on to describe Judas as Jesus' closest friend, someone who understands Christ's true message, and therefore he is singled out for special status among Jesus' disciples. “So he asks Judas, who is his friend, to sell him out, to betray him. It's treason to the general public, but between Jesus and Judas it's not treachery."



While we are on the subject of treason, Archaeologists also say that have uncovered other interesting information. On the very same day, they have found proof that disciple Scooter Libby was ordered by George W. Bush to out Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. It was not 30 pieces of silver, nor was it demons that caused him to betray his country. It was merely the pride of his President, and Bush's need to compromise national security for his own political purposes.

God bless America.

It's logical

The F/A-22 fighter, nicknamed the Raptor, is being billed by the Air Force as a new chapter in the annals of air power, the most technologically advanced warplane ever built, a stealthy flying antenna that can capture enemy intelligence as it drops smart bombs while soaring at 1,000 miles an hour. 


At the moment, the Raptor costs $258 million apiece. That is far more than any fighter jet ever built, nearly four times the cost in today's dollars of the price tag originally advertised by the Air Force, and about five times the cost of the F-15, the plane it will replace. 




This price tag does not include the millions it takes to train just one pilot to fly it. Please don’t get me wrong … The Raptor is a very cool looking plane, and my Grandfather was a Navy carrier pilot. However, this kind of expense is totally screwed up.



A box of food that will feed a whole family for a week costs roughly $50.00. There are so many unfortunate families in this country alone, that donations fall far short of the need. For the same cost as ONE Raptor, we could send 5,160,000 boxes of food out to the hungry families of this country. The vast majority of them include young children

I know … I know … the box of food can’t fly 1,000 miles and hour, and it can't shoot medium range AMRAAM and sidewinder missiles. Yes ... it also doesn't have a M61A2 20-mm Cannon. However, for those of you saying “… but the plane is SOOO cool”, I give you a quote which might hit home.

"As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy, than to create."
Capt Spock - The Wrath of Khan

Hail to the Thief

WASHINGTON – From Iraq to deficits, from immigration to port security, some of the most pointed criticism leveled at President Bush is coming from within his own party. Republicans these days are almost sounding like perennially divided Democrats.

The rising GOP angst stems from Bush's deep slump in the polls and the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war.

But it also reflects a political reawakening as Republicans follow their own political interests in this midterm election year and as would-be 2008 presidential contenders seek ways to set themselves apart — from each other and from Bush.

Which just goes to show the saying is absolutely true: “There is no honor among thieves.”