Oh grow up already

Matt Drudge calls it an "outrage" that a new work of fiction has a character who considers killing President Bush. I'm sure the loony conservatives will all freak out, in chorus.

Give me a break. Why don't we just declare ourselves the Soviet States of America and get it over with already. Read the rest of this post...

Cheney just got booed at the Yankees game

(I was thinking of retitling this: "Yankee fans tell Cheney 'go fuck yourself.'")

I just got a live phone-in from the Yankees vs. Boston game in NYC taking place right now. Dick Cheney just got booed by the crowd!

Even as my friend Michael called me from his seats at the game, God Bless America was still playing in the background. During the 7th inning stretch at Yankees Stadium, they play God Bless America and show on the big screen pictures of anyone famous who's in the audience that night. Dick Cheney is apparently in the audience, and as soon as his face went up, the entire crowd started booing! As my friend Michael tells it, this is the blue-collar Bronx we're talking about, and Cheney is still getting booed - not a good sign for the Bush-Cheney ticket. As soon as the camera guys realized Cheney was getting booed, they quickly switched the picture on the screen to someone else.

Michael's read of the situation, as a die-hard Yankees fan: The election is over.

(ESPN just confirmed the story (thanks to Buzzflash for finding this):

Cheney, who visited both clubhouses after batting practice, watched part of the game from the box of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and part from a first-row seat next to the Yankees dugout, where he sat between New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Cheney was booed when he was shown on the right-field videoboard during the seventh-inning.

Read the rest of this post...

Ok, read this, we have a bit of a problem here

A very intersesting story in the NYT today. First, remember that young US soldier who disappeared months ago - you probably don't because the military and the media totally stopped talking about him. His name is (was) Keith Matthew Maupin. This is him:


According to Al-Jazeera, he just got murdered by the militants holding him captive. Why did we hear nothing about this man all these months? That's a damn good question.

Then, we also receive word today that the militants are threatening to behead US Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Hassoun is a Lebanese-born Muslim. Note how now the military - with no definitive proof - is implying in these stories that Hassoun is a deserter. They pretty much say it outright, and in other stories the US military won't even confirmt that the guy got kidnapped at all. The line they're clearly implying is that "once an Arab, always an Arab," and that he packed up to join his fellow dark people in the desert.

Now, apparently, there's no real proof of this, and certainly none that the military is releasing. But it is ok, apparently, for them to release their suspicions that the guy is a deserter and therefore a traitor. Reminds me of when those US sailors died way back in the early 1990s, on the USS Iowa I believe, rather than admit that it was an accident the military concoted some phony story (that was later proven to be untrue) that star-crossed gay lovers blew the ship up.

Methinks this military has no credibility left. Read the rest of this post...

Asking Bush about blood and semen

If this is the tact the radical right wants to take on gay marriage, it works for me. Let's demand that our congressmen and the president answer these questions about blood and semen.

"Why do so many diseases target gay men? The body is not built for sodomy. 'The anus opens into the rectum which is not as well suited for penile penetration as the female vagina is. Both the anus and rectum have rich blood supplies, and their walls, thinner than the walls of the vagina, are easily damaged. When penetration occurs, it's easier to tear blood vessels, which in turn increases the risk of acquiring or receiving an infection as penile skin and/or semen comes in contact with the partner's blood or semen.'"

Read the rest of this post...

A Pharmacist's View on Gay Marriage

More babble from the bigots of the radical right. This article, however, does have a lot of good humor to it, including:

- "The idea of 'gay marriage' or 'civil union' would have been ridiculous 3,000 years ago."

Ah yes, I can just imagine my Hebrew slaves wanting to have a civil union! Oh how I pine for the good 'ole days... Read the rest of this post...

Study finds conservatives too dumb to speak at graduations

I like my title better. Read the rest of this post...

New Effort Encourages Removal of Christian Kids from Public Schools

Yes, let's put them in the care of Catholic priests where they'll be safe... Read the rest of this post...

Supreme Court Bars Enforcement of Internet Porn Law

Guess the GOP can have fun after all in their hotel rooms at the convention. Read the rest of this post...

Dad of beheaded American blasts Bush, Rummy

Reuters:

The father of an American civilian beheaded in Iraq accused President Bush and the U.S. media Tuesday of ignoring the 'horrible face of war.'

'People like George Bush and (U.S. Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld don't see the pain that people have to bear -- they don't know what it feels like to have your guts ripped out,' Michael Berg told a news conference.

The decapitated body of Berg's son Nick was found by a roadside in Baghdad and a grisly video of his beheading was posted on an Islamist Web site in May.

'What I'm trying to do is show to the American people and the British people ... that war has a wretchedly horrible face,' said Berg's father.

Read the rest of this post...

Roadside Bomb Kills 3 U.S. Troops in Iraq

And the caissons go rolling along. Read the rest of this post...

Kerry & Bush in dead heat for Florida

This will be another close finish. The fact that it's so close though makes me nervous about Kerry's chances. Read the rest of this post...

New Bush fight with Chirac delivers quick results

"France has blocked a U.S. bid to deploy NATO's new strike force to safeguard Afghanistan's elections, stoking tension between the two allies that fell out over the Iraq war, diplomats said Tuesday.

France's opposition to a proposal that could help resolve NATO's problems finding troops to make the September polls safe exasperated Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who pushed the idea hard at a meeting of allied defense ministers."

Note to Bush: Do not publically piss off people that you are asking for help. They won't come to your aid. Read the rest of this post...

American voices from abroad

Interesting read from the Boston Globe about Americans living around the world and what they hear on the ground from the international community. Living and traveling abroad myself, I have encountered aggressive anti-Americanism (regardless of my own personal views of Bush) to anti-Bush rants right down to simple confusion/frustration as to how we all got stuck in such a mess with Bush. Even the pro-business crowd who used to at least respect the US can't seem to find it in their hearts to like anything about Bush. If Bush wins in the fall, my argument of "well, more Americans voted for Gore, let's see what happens in 2004" will be gone and I will stuck listening to more of the same rants for four more years. Read the rest of this post...

Bush approval rating down to 42%

Though Kerry isn't making much of a move, Bush continues to drop. There's still a lot of time left, but Bush is going to need some seriously good news to pick up the numbers.

"And 60 percent of respondents, including a majority of independents, said the war has not been worth the cost.

Respondents said that Mr. Bush's policies in Iraq were having the effect of creating terrorists and of increasing the chances of another terrorist attack at home. Concerns about the war appear to undercut what has long been one of Mr. Bush's strong suits, his handling of the fight against terrorism. Fifty-two percent of Americans now say they approve of the way Mr. Bush is conducting that fight, down from 90 percent in December 2001.

"I watch the news quite a bit, and I'm kind of thinking it's getting these terrorists motivated to do more," said Charlie Buck, 54, a Republican from Indiana, Pa. "Whether it's their religious beliefs or it's us trying to step into their country, I just get that feeling that they feel that we're stepping into where we shouldn't be, and it's inciting them. It's stimulating them to be more aggressive in getting us out."

In what could prove to be a particularly far-reaching development for Mr. Bush — especially because he and his campaign have sought to undercut Mr. Kerry's credibility — nearly 60 percent said he was not being entirely truthful when talking about Iraq. Similarly, just 15 percent said the administration had told the entire truth when it came to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison."

Read the rest of this post...

Disgusting! Leeches!

The FDA has approved the marketing of medical leeches. I know that there are a lot of great reasons to use them and that they are very useful, but having pulled them off of myself and having some explode from taking too much of my blood, I can not stand the thought of leeches anymore. Yuch! Read the rest of this post...

Bush picks another fight with France, this time over Turkey

Bush just doesn't know when to keep his nose out of other countries affairs and thankfully, Chirac did not miss the opportunity to publically stand up to the school yard bully. One can only imagine how furious Bush would be if another country, France in particular, was to meddle in American foreign relations. I have mixed feelings about Turkey being part of the EU and admit that I am even suspicious about European reasons for not wanting Turkey, but nevertheless, it is not the business of America to decide who is and who is not part of Europe.

After yesterday's public remarks by Chirac, Bush is now itching for another round of fighting with Chirac and France. Isn't this the guy that needs international support at the moment? Bush is just another bully who doesn't know how to stop picking fights with the world. I really hate to think of who he's going to start wars with if he wins in November. Read the rest of this post...

Army planning involuntary call-up

So who out there still thinks that a draft is not the next step after the election if Bush wins?

"Roughly 5,600 soldiers from the ready reserve will be notified of possible deployment this year..." Reuters

Read the rest of this post...

Whores (the real ones, not the lobbying ones) expect GOP convention to be BIG business

Prostitutes expect BIG business at the GOP convention (I suspect cages will be big this year). I'll be at the convention, and hitting the bars looking for closeted Republicans. We need to scour the town for these guys, get pictures, and start our own family values campaign. Read the rest of this post...