28
Apr
Yesterday Dennis Hastert and others addressed the problem of skyrocketing gas prices and what they planned to do to combat it. To drive home their point, he left in a hydrogen fueled car. This is a purely alternative vehicle that uses NO gasoline. That’ll sure send a message to Exxon, Shell, and OPEC will it not?
Well, in this case, no it will not:
After sending the message for approximately one block, and not even out of camera range, Hastert ditches the hydrogen car for his SUV. His staff have all kinds of reasons for it, but it’s meaningless. The message sent to the oil industry was “don’t worry, we’ll do some photo-ops and nothing will change.”
I say the first bill Hastert needs to sponsor and pass is all Representatives will use hydrogen only vehicles while doing business inside the Beltway. Send Hastert a note and tell him he needs to do that, NOW! ( Oh, and before someone makes it a partisan issue, there were Democrats there too. This was a cluster-fubar. )
Just received this from an unnamed high-ranking federal official.. I
think it came from Scott McClellan.
- Technorati Easter Egg Roll, Dick Cheney
24
Apr
Moussaoui asked for death. Now, you gotta understand, this guy is borderline retarded. If someone commits suicide, how is that in relation to martyrdom? If the state grants Moussaoui his wish of death, they are merely assisting him in his desire to die. They are not killing him, he has already done that. I vote to finish the job. There’s no way this is an issue of martyrdom.
- Technorati Zacarias Moussaoui
23
Apr
A while back I did a piece on Charlie Sheen connecting dots regarding 9/11 and coming up with a whacked out conspiracy theory that only someone looking for a whacked out theory could believe. People then basically insinuated in somewhat simple terms that I was whacked out for not believing whacked out theories by whacked out Hollywood types. I didn’t really believe them, but tired of the rather banal debate. However, someone who knows Charlie better than I or any of the debaters here to this point as spoken out on the mentality it takes to believe the 9/11 Conspiracy theory:
The restraining order is the latest chapter in the stormy marriage between Sheen, a one-time playboy, and model/actress Richards, 35, who filed for divorce from him last December, after less than three years of marriage.
I really like this part:
Im deeply saddened because this is clearly demonstrating a wanting and willful attempt at what I describe as a radical and transparent smear campaign and clearly a departure from sound, sane, responsible co-parenting, Sheen said.
It is a reaction to a failed marriage, a reaction to some twisted desire — real or imagined — to hurt, to punish, to discredit, to completely torpedo, to undermine my perception as a responsible father … a contributing father, a guy who would give his life for his children.
Seems like he recognizes the strategy quite well.
For the lurid details, and they are QUITE lurid, Smoking Gun has the warrant.
23
Apr
Now, I have been pissing a fit over oil companies making BILLIONS in profit while the average family is getting raped at the pump and nothing is being done about it. However, what I’ve not advocated is anything like this:
SEN. KENNEDY: The president, the president should have called the head of the oil companies into the White House and started jawboning. He should have done that a week ago. Why he doesnt do that, I do not understand. He ought to be pointing out that hard-working Americans, middle-class people, who have their sons and daughters in Iraq and in Afghanistan, that this is not a time for greed. And he ought to activate and call the Federal Trade Commissionwhich is basically a sleepy organization that has given an interim report in terms of price-fixing and gouginghe ought to get them off and have them working seven days a week, 24/7, to make sure that we know exactly who is price-gouging. And third, we ought to have a bipartisan effort to recapture, recapture these excessive profits that are going to the oil industry and return them to working families and middle-income families.
Taking money from the rich and giving it to everyone else? Sounds a lot like Communism to me.
And to think, I just wanted to send them all to jail for a long time.
( Just a note to those ready to wig out, follow the Communism link before commenting. OK? )
First of all, before going any farther, it’s important to note a few facts about this situation:
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Williamsburg is a town of about 5,000 people tucked in the Appalachians. This ain’t a sprawling metropolis. Everyone in Williamsburg knows each other or who they are. Alternative lifestyles in a town this size stick out like a sore thumb. It’s not obscure, it’s not "underground", you’re never just a member of the nameless millions wandering the cold streets of a city. You are noticed everywhere you go.
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The Univesity of the Cumberlands, formerly known as Cumberland College, is primarily funded by the Southern Baptist Convention. Although a liberal arts school, it’s still deeply rooted in religion. Always has been, I see no reason why it always can be. Diversity is a good thing ( yeah, I know what you’re going to say, so read further ).
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The University of the Cumblerlands is a very small school. Enrollment is about 1,700 people. Once again, everyone knows you.
So, you’ve got a situation where a guy decides to bring attention to himself for being gay. No big deal under most circumstances. However, this guy is attending a very small religious school in a very small ultra-conservative community that he knew was a very small ultra-conservative community before he went. The Baptists have never been too accepting of gay lifestyles. So, imagine the kid’s shock when they decided a very small Baptist school in a very small community felt it was best he pursued his career somehwere else that didn’t have a moral conflict with his lifestyle. From reading the story, he seemed to feel that was OK with him and he enrolled at Eastern Kentucky Univsersity. I am an EKU alumni and KNOW they are accepting of gay students. Plus, the kid is now attending school with his boyfriend. Happy ending? Well, not quite. His boyfriend has apparently decided to protest Cumberlands’ decision and enlisted the help of Kentucky’s only openly gay legislator. In essence, they are protesting the state’s decision to fund a new pharmacy school in the foothills of rural Kentucky. Now, I’ve got two thoughts on this situation.
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First of all, as a primarily Baptist school ( read regligious in general ), they have the right to set ethical standards for all of their students.
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Banning funding only hurts the people living in southern Kentucky, not the school itself.
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This is purely a political issue the boyfriend is raising at the expense of the former student. That’s a very selfish thing to do by the boyfriend. If the former student wants to lead the protest, I’d be a little less leary of it. As it is, I almost feel like this was done intentionally to embarrass UofC.
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Schools all over the world set standards. I would prefer to see these standards raised even higher as I feel like the quality of person colleges are cranking out has dropped substantially since the 60′s. If you don’t like the standards a particular school has set, take your money somewhere else. Gay students are welcome at MOST colleges in this area. To pick on probably the only one that is based in religious values just doesn’t wash with me.
That’s just some thoughts. I’m sure I’ll have more as this thing progresses. It’s been suggested that Governor Fletcher will use his line-item veto to scratch the pharmacy school from the state budget. I think that’s a mistake and Ernie’s seeing the issue presented and NOT the big picture.
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( Updates already. I thought more about the original post and decided to scratch it. Sorry to Mindo for wasting her time. Secondly, as much as Scorsone has bitched and moaned and suggested funding would be cut, according to today’s news, it won’t be. )
19
Apr
This is how Neil Young’s “Ohio” is interpreted today. I’m sure they’re sincere. Fact is, they’re wrong. The Vietnam conflict was not protested “uproarious and rampant” when the US began involvement. It built up over a DECADE and culminated with the riots and protests. Secondly, it was not the popular movement made out by the media. It was protested by the very radical left symbolized by Jane Fonda. Most of the US supported the war. That didn’t stop the media or the music industry. “Ohio” became Neil Young’s swan song. He didn’t explore the issue, he just saw it on Time Magazine, knew Nixon was unpopular, and cashed in. Stating the obvious merited him the king of the anti-war movement. If he had explored the issue, he would have known that the kids in Ohio got killed not because of protesting the war, but because of the rioting and looting that had gone on for days in the name of the protest. Everything about the song “Ohio” was wrong other than the body count. That was never a concern for Neil Young or his partners. I’ve been an on-and-off again fan of Neil Young, it always bothered me that he wrote Ohio and never explored the issue or elaborated more on it.
In 1970 Neil Young again attacked something perceived solely on what he had read from afar, racism in the South. Southern Man was based on stereotypes. If that wasn’t bad enough, in 1972 he did it again. Neil Young apologists say they were anti-racism songs. Fact is, they were anti-South songs. As much as other people hate to admit it, racism was never limited to the South only. Once again, Neil Young attacked without researching or even exploring his issue to any degree at all. The fact that he attacked just turned on those that felt the same way, and he cashed in again. It’s really a shame to me. Musically, Southern Man is a classic that is totally ruined by the lyrics. Lynyrd Skynyrd called his hand in 1974.
Now, Neil Young is getting ready to release ANOTHER protest song. Once again relying on the most radical extreme left argument going, Impeach President Bush for lying. Lynyrd Skynyrd got it part right in 1974, which is more than Neil Young’s ever bothered trying to do. It’s not so much a Southern man don’t need him around anyhow, it’s the US that doesn’t need him around anyhow. Neil Young, to this day, is Canadian. Our politics is none of his damn business. He’s just doing what Mick ( A Brit ) and the boys tried to do last year. Cash in on the latest hot topic from the largest market. If either of them were truly concerned, they’d dig a little deeper into their topics than the latest headlines from Berkeley.
It’s time someone new called Neil Young’s hand on his political meddling where it doesn’t belong. Ronnie Van Zant can’t do it for us any more.
I read this on RealClearPolitics:
This morning on The Today show, Bob Shrum offered some advice to help President Bush rebound from his slump in the polls. If Shrum was trying to be serious, he continues to demonstrate he still has no idea why his candidate lost the 2004 election. If he was being mischievous in the hope Bush might go crazy and listen to him, he laid out a perfect plan for Bush to destroy his presidency.
Now, the first thing I did was ask myself, Why was Bob Shrum on The Today Show? Now, although Bob Shrum has been involved in about everything the Democrat has done in the last 35 years, the winners have ignored Bob Shrum. It’s referred to as “the Shrum Curse”. However, I think it’s a little more than that. The guy obviously is very bad at what he does. So, why would The Today Show accept an offer from Bob Shrum to give advice to anyone? Parody? Satire? Beats me. Needless to say, the response has been fairly overwhelming that Shrum’s advice isn’t very good. I think the fact anyone actually felt compelled to critique Shrum’s advice in the first place is a waste of time. I’m not going to. I knew it would be bad. The shocker, and the story, would have been if it had been anything but wrong.
New Orleans is electing their mayor right now. They’ve got a handfull of legitimate candidates and about 15 quacks running. One of them I can call more my own than they can, Roderick Dean lists Louisville as his hometown. It doesn’t matter. One of the quacks will win, probably in a landslide. As dangerously inept and 100% wrong in how he handled Katrina, Nagin knows how to stuff the ballots. The easiest thing to manipulate during an election is absentee ballots, and this election is going to be about 75% absentee with Nagin sending workers to several cities to collect absentee votes. I’m sure most of the ones for Nagin will make it back to New Orleans. The Federal Election Commission needs to be all over this election. New Orleans has suffered because of constant corruption in the politics. The need to clean it up NOW. But I can guarantee you, they won’t do it. They’d rather take their chances with Nagin handling another Katrina than think about the options presented to them. Even if those options mean voting someone who’s not chocolate.
And if you all do what I expect and re-elect someone you know can’t and won’t take care of you, don’t come running to me when Nagin destroys New Orleans again during the next hurricane.
12
Apr
Which reminded me of this story a while back:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents for espionage, and said Venezuela was suspending cooperation with the U.S. agency.
Chavez, who regularly accuses the U.S. government of plotting against him, said the DEA isnt absolutely necessary for the fight against drug trafficking.
Which, reminds me of this story a while back as well:
The American singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President Bush the greatest terrorist in the world on Sunday and said millions of Americans support the socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
Belafonte led a delegation of Americans including the actor Danny Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West that met the Venezuelan president for more than six hours late Saturday. Some in the group attended Chavezs television and radio broadcast Sunday.
No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, were here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people … support your revolution, Belafonte told Chavez during the broadcast.
At the time, I didn’t have a clue what Belafonte was referring to. Now, I guess we do. Not only was Chavez apparently offering cheap gas for the poor, he’s apparently providing cheap cocaine for Hollywood.
All silliness aside, when Chavez kicked the DEA out, I think it sent a pretty obvious signal to the feds. Hey Hugo, can you say "NORIEGA"?
- Technorati Hugo Chavez, Harry Belafonte, Venezuela, drug trafficking, cocaine
