KKKarl's Nightmares!

Since KKKarl and his frontboy, Commander Codpiece, have decided Americans (or anyone on the planet actually) deserve no privacy thanks to the GWOT, I have declared that KKKarl's dreams both nightmares (a still from one appears above) or his more pleasant dreams (see Gannon/Guckert male escort service promotional materials) due to the GWOCC, or the Global War on Climate Change also have no inherent right to privacy. Or to paraphrase the turdblossom hisself, when he was referring to "the wife" of Joe Wilson, his dreams are "fair game" in the ongoing attempt to bring down the largest criminal organization on the face of the earth, otherwise known as the Bush Administration or Crime Family.

"Don't Touch Me!!!"

Suppose you were just cruising along and heard someone scream the words above. Most people would look to see if someone needed help, right? Suppose when you looked to see what was going on you saw this lovely, petite and incredibly musically talented woman (at right). Okay, I know, unless she was playing or singing, you wouldn't know she was so talented, unless you recognized her and knew it was Sheryl Crow.

 

Then, suppose the only other person around was this guy (KKKarl "turdblossom" Rove, seen at left). Well one could be forgiven for jumping to the apparently incorrect assumption that Sheryl was being harassed, molested or otherwise creeped out by KKKarl. But apparently it would simply be another example of your lyin' eyes doing their thing and in spite of the fact that KKKarl appears to have just crawled out from under the rock which should never have been turned over, it is he that is creeped out by being touched by Sheryl Crow. Maybe he should hire Jeff (Gannon/Guckert) to protect him from such scary creatures. Of course I don't really need to point out that it is more than likely that most American males would consider a dream involving being touched by Sheryl the opposite of a nightmare, and that's all I'll say about that.

 

In their posting at Huffpo (linked to via posting title) Laurie David and Sheryl Crow describe their "Rove Incident" at the Annual WH Corresspondents Dinner. Perhaps their encounter with Bush's Brain was the highlight this year since the Bush Administration wasn't masochistic enough to invite Stephen Colbert for a second appearance. Maybe the Bushies actually bought Colbert's right-wing O'Reilly schtick and didn't realize what he was about until he was at the table. According to Sheryl and Laurie:

The "highlight" of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove. How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush Administration about global warming. We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.

....snip (The whole post is short and well worth reading and if you have the time, the approximately 700 comments may well be amusing and of interest as well)

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me.".............. Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

......snip

Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.

Today in a followup at Huffpo the women had this to say:

Everywhere we went today, we were asked by everyone from Congresspeople to Capitol Hill police about the "Rove incident." To set the record straight, the other night, we approached Mr. Rove at a dinner designed specifically to encourage conversations between people from different worlds. We were riding a wave of excitement having just come from talking to college students across the country about global warming. Obviously, we were very surprised that Mr. Rove found discussing such an important issue to be insulting. However, rather than continuing to focus on the encounter itself, can we now focus on the urgent need to act on global warming? We would welcome the opportunity to engage directly with the Bush administration in a constructive conversation about solutions to the global warming crisis.

Thanks Ladies! I'll discuss anything with ya'll anytime, and you can touch me anytime, just sayin'..........and Sheryl I'd love to jam and would try to play decent enough to not entirely waste your time - I hope you keep rocking in the Free World as well as playing in the USA. And..........KKKarl........you do remind me of things I've seen scurrying away right after turning over a rock.

A Great Passes (On) in the Night

Kurt Vonnegut died last night in Manhattan. He hadn't been doing well of late since a fall which did some damage to his head/brain. He wasn't stolen from us in the bud of his youth as in spite of smoking almost steady for decades, he made it to eighty-four years of age.

His last book, in 2005, was a collection of biographical essays, "A Man Without a Country." It concludes with a poem written by Mr. Vonnegut called "Requiem," which has these closing lines:

When the last living thing

  has died on account of us,

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say,

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon,

"It is done."

People did not like it here.

I think between now and my time to go, would be a good time to read again some or all of Mr. Vonnegut's wonderful books. His was a unique and wonderful voice and perspective on our world. Rest in Peace Mr. Vonnegut, and thanks for the writing.

...so it goes!

Let Us Be Lawyers for Jesus!

Charlie Savage in the Boston Globe (boston.com) tells us about Regent Law School in Virginia Beach, the Alma Mater of the new Monica, Monica Goodling. This Monica is the resigned justice department official who has promised to take the fifth in order to avoid "incriminating" herself for stuff she did at work for Abu "Torture Boy" Gonzales at the Department of Justice. I know the Department of Justice "used" to go after criminals, not harbor them, but we are in the reign of the Bu$heviks and even George Orwell would become confused nowadays.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.

Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation, fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in national law student competitions.

But even in its darker days, Regent has had no better friend than the Bush administration. Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of the more than 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a university website.

Monica Goodling, (seen at right during better days) with her resignation and threat to invoke the fifth before Congress, has brought, probably unwanted, attention on Pat Robertson's attempt to create lawyers to put Jesus back in charge of America where Pat thinks he belongs. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and all those other weirdos were just "liberal" lefties with no concept of the real world of greed, violence and the hopefully soon to come Last Days. Their ongoing attempt to erase the separation between church and state is just one of the Bu$h Crime Family's many attacks on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They attack science, critics, truth and anything else that tries to get in the way of their greed motivated agenda.

Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress, was one of a handful of officials overseeing the firings. She helped install Timothy Griffin , the Karl Rove aide and her former boss at the Republican National Committee, as a replacement US attorney in Arkansas.

Because Goodling graduated from Regent in 1999 and has scant prosecutorial experience, her qualifications to evaluate the performance of US attorneys have come under fire. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked at a hearing: "Should we be concerned with the experience level of the people who are making these highly significant decisions?"

And across the political blogosphere, critics have held up Goodling, who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example of the Bush administration subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions.

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is something seriously wrong at the DOJ."(my emphasis)

You know Washington DC makes sense as a terrorism target until you remember that that is where the Bu$h Administration and the remains of the Do Nothing/Rubber Stamp RePuklican Congress hang out. The terrorists would never want to wipe out their main American allies and enablers. Shooter Cheney, Condomleeza RiceCakes and the preznit are like the recuitment poster boys and girls for the bad, bad, bad, bad, IslamoFascistExtremoTerraDudes.

Another Enemy of the People?

I remember awhile ago when I heard the story of a Catholic father, or brother, that had a difficult time getting back to his parish on the North Coast of BC, it seems his name was on a US based "Terror Watch List." The thing that made it seem especially scary was that the good Irish Catholic had two, given and surname, really common Irish names. It made me wonder that if Father Dicky Doyle is on the Terror Watch List, how many Dickys get obstructed trying to fly every week. Ask Mehar Arar about the ease of being removed from these watch lists, no matter how you got on it to begin with. Heck, Teddy Kennedy was even on one for long enough to be inconvenienced, but then he is a Democrat, or is that Al Democratahbolla?

The following story linked to in the title shouldn't surprise anyone who hasn't been holed up since before Saddam crawled into the "spider" hole.

From the program in "Law and Public Affairs" at Princeton Universtity's own websitecomes this information and more about Walter Murphy.

Walter F. Murphy, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton University, is among the most distinguished constitutional scholars of the 20th century. A decade after joining the Princeton faculty, he was named the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, succeeding Woodrow Wilson, Edward S. Corwin and Alpheus T. Mason in one of the nation's most prestigious endowed chairs.

In case you suspect Mr. Murphy is a knee-jerk lefty liberal, I should point out he doesn't think much of Roe V. Wade and actually supported Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court to assist his brother in arms Scalia to bring the level of discourse and decisions there ever downward.

  In Mr. Murphy's own words, as blogged by Mark Graber at Balkinization Here after the fold, Click on Read more, are the difficulties Mr. Murphy had to deal with as an enemy of the people (well maybe the people in the White House). I've added any italics or bolding in the following.

                                                            More

"On 1 March 07, I was scheduled to fly on American Airlines to Newark, NJ, to attend an academic conference at Princeton University, designed to focus on my latest scholarly book, Constitutional Democracy, published by Johns Hopkins University Press this past Thanksgiving."

  "When I tried to use the curb-side check in at the Sunport, I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list. I was instructed to go inside and talk to a clerk. At this point, I should note that I am not only the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) but also a retired Marine colonel. I fought in the Korean War as a young lieutenant, was wounded, and decorated for heroism. I remained a professional soldier for more than five years and then accepted a commission as a reserve office, serving for an additional 19 years."

  "I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said. "

"After carefully examining my credentials, the clerk asked if he could take them to TSA officials. I agreed. He returned about ten minutes later and said I could have a boarding pass, but added: "I must warn you, they=re going to ransack your luggage." On my return flight, I had no problem with obtaining a boarding pass, but my luggage was "lost." Airlines do lose a lot of luggage and this "loss" could have been a mere coincidence. In light of previous events, however, I'm a tad skeptical."

"I confess to having been furious that any American citizen would be singled out for governmental harassment because he or she criticized any elected official, Democrat or Republican. That harassment is, in and of itself, a flagrant violation not only of the First Amendment but also of our entire scheme of constitutional government. This effort to punish a critic states my lecture's argument far more eloquently and forcefully than I ever could. Further, that an administration headed by two men who had "had other priorities" than to risk their own lives when their turn to fight for their country came up, should brand as a threat to the United States a person who did not run away but stood up and fought for his country and was wounded in battle, goes beyond the outrageous. Although less lethal, it is of the same evil ilk as punishing Ambassador Joseph Wilson for criticizing Bush's false claims by "outing" his wife, Valerie Plaime, thereby putting at risk her life as well as the lives of many people with whom she had had contact as an agent of the CIA. ..."

"I have a personal stake here, but so do all Americans who take their political system seriously. Thus I hope you and your colleagues will take some positive action to bring the Administration's conduct to the attention of a far larger, and more influential, audience than I could hope to reach. "

Update to Friday's Post

So what goes on behind the towering "paywall" at the New York Times, do Mo Dowdy and Frankie Richguy tickle each other as they read Rag's Mag? Well I'm only joking Frank, as you are, alone, almost enough reason to send money to the Times. Then I remember that they handed money to Judith Miller on a regular basis so she could whore for free, as a hobby while she passed on whatever lies her clients of the evening wanted spread about.

Imitation being a very sincere form of flattery and all I was kinda amused to read this in Frank Rich's column in todays Sunday Times!

It can't be lost on those dwindling die-hards, particularly those on the 2008 ballot, that if defending the indefensible can reduce even a politician of McCain's heroic stature to that of Dukakis-in-the-tank, they have nowhere to go but down. They'll cut and run soon enough. For starters, just watch as McCain's GOP presidential rivals add more caveats to their support for the administration's Iraq policy.

I'll admit Mr. McCain put in his shift during Vietnam, unlike his colleagues the Shrub and Shooter Cheney and the like. However, how he has gained respect as some kind of "military expert" is beyond me. Think about it, he spent the first part of his war bombing people he couldn't even see from about 30,000 feet above. Then he finished up as a guest of the enemy at the Hanoi Hilton, and as far as I know didn't even learn Vietnamese, but could have. What did he "tell" Ho Chi Minh? I mean ya'all didn't win that war as I recall and loose lips sink ships. But I forgot, RePukes can out spies, spy for who ever they want and even sell nuclear technology to bad guys. Those things (and bjs) are forbidden only if you happen to be Democratic.

(in)Phamous Photos

In our world of the 15 second sound bite and constantly repeated and thus imprinted image, certain photographs achieve the rank of becoming icons of idolatry and foolishness. One that certainly comes to mind in that category is the famous picture of Michael Dukakis bravely guiding a tank through some suburban corner of America. That and the picture of relapsed felon Willie Horton pretty well was enough to convince the barely concious American electorate that da Duke didn't have what it takes. Maybe the Duke's picture looks a little more impressive today if you consider that those civilian vehicles in the background "could" harbor an IED. Of course that was before the days of color coded scary alerts.

 

Who could forget the day Commander Codpiece flew a couple of miles out into the dangerous Pacific to meet with the Aircraft Carrier to celebrate the great victory in Iraq. He wouldn't really, you know, serve in the military or really even fulfill his obligation in the homeguard reserve military, back when the reserve was really about protecting America not policing nasty neighborhoods in Baghdad. If I was GWB (shudder) I would rue the day I got all dressed up with my six extra pairs of wool socks in my pants and took over an Aircraft Carrier full of seamen who probably just wanted to go ashore. It's difficult to speculate about the Chimporer though, he might gaze at photos of that silly, silly and unfortunately tragically silly day and actually tingle with some excitement caused by the dysfunctioning of the synapses in the space between his ears.

 

Not to be outdone, one of the current weirdos vying to be Preznit has entered his own absurd photo-op for admission to the Weirdo Photo Hall of Shame Archives. In order to prove his assertion that thanks to the "Surge," the streets of the market districts in Baghdad were perfectly safe, he and Captain Queeg gomer Lindsey Graham went shopping. By the way guys, real men don't shop! The Straightalk Express didn't think anyone would notice that they were wearing bullet proof vests, and were accompanied by over 100 heavily armed troops. Also they were escorted by armored humvees, three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache attack copters with the added protection of having snipers on the rooftops and the district they were in practically sealed off from the rest of Baghdad. I'll go shopping, hell shoplifting, anywhere in L.A. if I can have that kind of posse.

 

So there we have a brief glimpse in to the family photo duds albums of three highly overtouted pompous asses. One will never be president and another with any luck will never be president. The third, unfortunately IS president, but never should have been and will most likely go unchallenged for the rest of time as the worstest preznit ever (and ever) (and ever Amen - Randy Travis).

 

Sometimes though a photo can capture that elusive quality called "leadership." I think the secret isn't in the photographer's technique, but in his choice of subject. So to kinda of rinse out our eyes and remind ourselves what leadership might look like, I will end this little missive with a photograph that defines the quality of leadership.

 

McCain Market Photo Credit:Photo taken April 1, 2007. REUTERS/Sergeant Matthew Roe/10th Public Affairs Operations Center/Handout (IRAQ). detailing by rHk - Sgt Roe is undoubtably still in Baghdad rather than Arizona or the "Green Zone" of Washington D.C., like the StraightTalk Express.

Vista = bad view

The reviews keep coming in on the new flagship Microsoft OS, Vista, and they are far from glowing. The link in the title refers to an article by Andy Rathbone author or innumerable computer books titled (fill in the blank) for Dummies.

His evaluation of Vista is pretty clear in the following quote:

For more than a year, I poked and prodded my way through hundreds of Windows Vista menus and dialog boxes. But after I finished writing “Windows Vista For Dummies” and “Upgrading and Fixing PCs For Dummies,” I turned off my Vista PC. On the rare occasion I fire it up to double-check a few settings, Vista constantly reminds me why I’ve never installed it on my main PC. Let me count just a few of the ways:

Myself, I kinda lost interest in Vista when it sneered at the amount of memory I had installed and refused to even give me a glimpse. When I move on from XP, it will more likely be to Linux or a BSD flavor than what appears to be an OS that redefines the whole meaning of "bloated."

Mr. Rathbone explains a lot of the problem with the following:

Lack of drivers. Vista still lacks drivers for lots of hardware, perhaps because of a lack of Vista enthusiasm among vendors. To be fair, Windows XP also suffered a dearth of drivers after its release. But you could usually download a Windows 2000 driver that worked just as well in XP. Vista lacks that safety net, leaving loads of equipment bound for the landfills as Vista owners replace equipment that worked fine with Windows XP.

Forced software upgrades. During the tech boom, people felt obligated to upgrade their software with each new version. Nobody wanted to be left behind on the tech curve. Today, people realize they can crop a photo just as easily with last year’s version of Paint Shop Pro as the latest version. Unfortunately, Vista sucker punches its owners into buying Vista versions of their software because hundreds of Windows XP software packages won’t run under Vista.

Joe Lee, over at the Democrat (Where Tate County Meets the World) adds his observations, such as:

If you are considering getting the Vista computer operating system, DON'T. At least don't get it for a year or two. Nothing works correctly with it. Nothing, that is, except Bill Gates' own stuff and a few vendors he apparently made deals with.

He even suggests a reasonable explanation for the mess,

The problem is that Gates is so paranoid about someone figuring out the blue smoke and mirrors upon which his fortune is built, that he will not share enough program information with other software operators to allow them to do their jobs.

In my experience the majority of the problems people, me at least, have with Windows has always been getting around the various "security for Bill's wallet" features of Windows to do normal stuff like clear out a virus infestation or do a re-install. I guess you don't get to be the richest guy on the planet by accident.

  But it could all be good news for Apple and the Mac since as Joe points out:

Mac has been at a disadvantage all these years because so many more programs would run on PC. Vista has eradicated that advantage for at least a year or so. Outside of the limited Microsoft monopoly stable, we have not found a single program we use that works properly on Vista.