Sen Harry Reid: A toast to you sir!

"The U.S. Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leaders".

That's how Bill Frist reacted to the democrats FINALLY speaking up and taking a step to getting the Bush administration and the neo-conservative right to own up to the lies and deception that led the United States to invade Iraq. What the heck is Frist so riled about? That someone had the unmitigated audacity to suggest that the investigation into the lead-up to the Iraq War - an investigation that was promised a YEAR ago - that someone might actually want the "moral" right to honor their promise? Oh, the horror! Yes, Mr Frist, this is most certainly an outrage.

Ever since the Supreme Court appointed George W Bush as president after the 2000 election, we as a nation have been subjected to the lies, diversions, and repression of a regime the likes of which we've not seen (at least not in my lifetime in this country). Sure, Roosevelt tried to expand and pad the Supreme Court to further his agenda, Nixon had Watergate, Johnson lied and got us into Vietnam ...these have all gone before and plenty of other dishonorable activities by our leaders.

Clinton's stupid lying about his affair with Lewinsky doesn't belong in this conversation, in case anyone reading this was starting to foam at the mouth. Clinton cheated on his wife. He lied about it. That's wrong. So WHAT? That's got NOTHING to do with Bush ...except that GW Bush has kept trying to make folks think that he's taking the high moral road after the "shame" of the Clinton years. The Republican craziness over Clinton has always struck me as absurd. But that's politics. Heck, they had to focus on SOMETHING when things seemed to be going pretty well with the economy and we weren't in any long-term wars. Of course, we had the likes of DeLay and others at the time talking about how shameful Clinton's use of the military was, and how it was certainly possible to support the troops and not support the president. But that was Republicans talking about a Demo president. Now that it's a Republican in the White House, it's suddenly NOT possible to support the troops if one does NOT support the president. Right.

Johnson's lying about the Gulf of Tonkin is the only thing at all similar to what Dubya has been doing to this country and the world. But at least there were POSITIVE things to come out of the Johnson administration (Johnson had a rather dismal record on civil rights from his Texas days, but as president he did support and see the passage of the Civil Rights Act).

Meanwhile, we have George W Bush and the neo-cons running roughshod over the economy, repeatedly deceiving Americans into thinking there's some kind of connection between Sept 11 2001 and Saddam Hussein (admittedly, Americans should exercise a LOT more skepticism before believing what politicians imply), starting a war we had NO RIGHT to start. Ransacking any semblance of the fiscal responsibility for which Republicans of generations past had been known ...And for what? Record debt,thousands ...THOUSANDS!!! of our men and women dead for a war orchestrated from deception.

Mr Bush is "pro-life", yet has no problem with tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis dying.

Did anyone else notice that about the same time Patrick Fitzgerald was speaking to the press about the Libby indictment, we had Cheney addressing the troops and Bush talking about raising the terror alert ...hmmm. Funny how every time there's bad news around the Bush camp, there's suddenly a new terror alert.

How'd that go, George? Wasn't it something like, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again". Well, America has GOT to be getting tired of letting itself be fooled.

The emperor has been naked since before he took the throne, and folks are starting to notice that it's not a pretty sight.

Someone else got something new...

Over at my tech site I'd posted that I've got a real office at home now, with real office furniture, and a real nice new Toshiba laptop PC to replace my ol' Gateway that has served me faithfully for too many years. Oh, and I hadn't mentioned that Shirley put all of the furniture together. Yup, a large desk, 3 tall bookcases, and a lateral file cabinet. It all came in a bunch of boxes, and Shirley took care of it so I could drink beer and watch football mow the lawn and work.

Then today Shirley called me (in the middle of a rather hectic day, of course :) ...The 1994 Acura that she's been driving for 8 years had died. She'd stopped at one of the many local roadside produce stands on the way home from work, and when she got back into the Acura and turned the key ...click...click...click. Fortunately, a retired sheriff offered to give her a ride to our house, so we didn't have to worry about the car until I got home.

Well I didn't want to give up right away, so when I got home I changed, grabbed my tools, and we drove to where the ol' Acura had decided to take a snooze. We checked a few things, talked about it a little, and then went for a drive. Few things last forever, so Shirley is now the proud owner of a brand new ....(click to see)

Commander In Chief tv show

Tonight was the second episode of Commander In Chief,
a television show on the ABC network (NOTE: that link is to a weird
little site that ABC put up -- making it look sort of like a real
presidential web site). I've had plenty of things to do in the
evenings, but we've been taking time last week and tonight to watch. My
initial thought (before watching the show - and still) was wondering if
some of the writers were trying to get America used to the idea of a
woman president. After all, among possible candidates for the next circus presidential election could be Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
I can't yet say I would vote for either Clinton or Pelosi, but only
because much is yet to transpire before the next election and I would
need to learn more. I would most certainly very seriously consider
campaigning and voting for either of them, as I consider both women to
be brilliant and dedicated liberals. But I digress....

My main impressions after watching 2 episodes:

1. It ticks me off that I can get ticked off watching this show, thinking to myself how believable the rampant sleaze is.
   
2. The commercials! My gosh, let's keep the advert to show ratio
   down to 20% or so, OK? Sheesh, it was like watching an NFL game, with a
   commercial break every 2 minutes. I think we'll still watch the show,
   but we may just record it and blast through the commercials next time.


3. Did I mention the sleaze? What would motivate someone to want to
   grow up to be the likes of Rove, DeLay, Cheney, et al? I am glad I am a
   geek.

:)

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

The Kansas School Board is deciding whether to teach the theory of Intelligent Design. Well, as most intelligent people already realize, the universe was created through the intelligent design and eternal love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. For those who don't know, I am an ordained minister. This is completely true, and I can legally officiate at marriage ceremonies in all states except Utah ...for some reason the Utah legislature has no respect for those of us ordained via the internet. Some of us are too busy spreading the good word of Pastafarianism to waste time sitting through years of seminary.

Well I have decided I must dedicate myself to the spreading of the word of Pastafarianism... the news of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendage. Please join with others at The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and help the Kansas School Board realize the folly of their ways. Oh, and do as I did, and stop by the Flying Spaghetti Monster store and buy some stuff.

He talked what I needed to hear...

Many sites have already linked to this ...the Speechalist. But this one cannot be linked too often. Take a moment and enjoy a good laugh. OK, it's also sad ...but still funny.