On my way home from Europe in 1980 I was unable to connect to a flight to Seattle from London because of a snowstorm. I had been traveling throughout Western Europe for nearly 8 months, at that point living like a bohemian and busking in the street with a troupe of street performers. It was winter, I was nearly broke and I was anxious to get home. Even though in reality at that time my home was more or less where I could hang my hat for a few days.
On the boat and train ride from Calais, France to London I had struck up a conversation with a attractive young Eastern European woman. Her English was great and she had a very sexy Eastern something accent. I think she told me she was from the Ukraine. I told her I had previously been married to a woman of Ukrainian decent and had learn little in the way of understanding Slavic women based on that experience.
We shared a compartment and some of our experiences and I’m sure my story of traveling and performing seemed quaint and amusing. Not to mention the rather odd way I must of looked because I was dressed with clothes I had found on the trash heaps of the well to do neighborhoods of Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam.
She was friendly and down to earth and seemed happy to have someone to talk with during the trip to help kill the time. When we reached Dover we stayed together and walked to board a waiting train for the last leg of the trip to London as we shuffled our bags we decided we share a compartment on the train as well. I was having fun talking to her and wanted to continue the conversation.
When the train arrived at Victoria Station in London I managed to get the woman’s phone number on the very real premise I may be unable to fly out when scheduled later that night because of the weather and I had confess to her I had little money for a hotel. In fact I had about $10 US and a return airline ticket to Seattle to my name.
Maybe I'd been a bit overbearing in asking her for her number and if there may be a possibility of stay at her flat, "just in case", since we had really just met. I also had grown somewhat fond of her and wanted to continue to learn more about her. There was something about her that seemed unique and special and I thought it be odd to have her walk away where I would never see her again.
We parted at the train station and I grabbed something to eat, spending carefully so as to have a few dollars left for later, Then I went to a phone box and I called the airline only to find that all flights out of Heathrow had been canceled. It was getting dark and it had been snowing on and off. I was cold and tired and had to find a place to stay or I'd have to go to the airport and sleep there. An idea I dreaded.
I gathered my courage dropped some coins in the slot and I called the woman I'd met thinking the number she'd given me probably was bogus and something she did to be rid of me. I had to admit she was strikingly attractive when I watch her walk off into the distance at the station. I figured she had probably little interest or concern about a ne'er-do-well like me trying to crash at her flat.
The phone rang and someone answered, I recognized her voice. I ask her if she’d mind if I came over and crashed at her place for the night like we talked about. She said fine and she commenced to give me directions on how to take the tube to her flat, which as it tuned out was in a very upscale London neighborhood near St James Park.
When I arrived the doorman was very suspicious of me because of my dress, shoulder length hair and 5 o’clock shadow, and I’m sure I looked rather out of place and probably smelled of cannabis but after he call the flat and spoke to the woman I was allowed entry. I then when up to the flat and the angelic young woman greeted me and showed me where she had made up the sofa for me to sleep for the night. The apartment was modern large and well appointed. I knew I had enter a world that appeared expensive and chic.
Before she when to bed we were making small talk and having a cup of tea. I ask her what she did for a living. She told me that she was model. I was single at the time and I began flirting with her a bit, wanting to know more about her. She asked me if I be interested in seeing her modeling portfolio. The portfolio was amazing and included photos from well know fashion magazines. I couldn’t believe I was sitting in the flat of an obviously well known fashion model wearing my 2nd hand mohair trench coat that looked like something you’d wear after being released from a prison camp.
As if that weren't enough she then handed me a recent issue of Playboy magazine and opened it to the page where she was featured in a set of nude photos, “and here my Playboy layout”. she said. I did a couple of double takes looking at her and then at the photos in the magazine. My god was I dreaming?
I tried to act sophisticated and worldly about seeing her naked in Playboy while at the same time she was there ten feet away from me on the same black leather chesterfield, but my Catholic school boy upbringing made me have a short term brain freeze and I awkwardly tried to think of something to change the subject in my mind to something besides her wonderful looking naked breasts. I think I ended up asking if the weather had been bad for very long, once I could get my synapses firing again.
After a few more minutes of conversation she matter-of-factly excused herself saying she needed to get up early for a job and she left the room and went to bed. I lay on the sofa rather stunned think of what could of been. The next day I left early in the morning before she awoke, I let myself out and I headed to Heathrow airport to catch my flight. I thought none of my pals are going to belief what just happened to me. She gave me a business card with a fashion picture of her on it that she used to promote herself. She sign it with her autograph. I soon misplaced the card and I never saw her or talked to her again, although I wished I had on several occasions as the years when by.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
J&M Cafe Closing McQue (John Wayne) Once Used Washroom To Beat Bejesus Out Of A Guy
Ah the old J&M Cafe is closing it's rumored. I tipped many a cocktail glass, most definitely one to many, there in the old days when Pioneer Square didn't have so many squares. When, if you had a dispute with someone you could take it outside and not worry about getting shot. Yes in the golden days of yesteryear when men fought with their fists.
Below starting at around 3:52 on the video you can see John Wayne (playing fictitious Seattle renegade police detective McQue) in the movie McQue beat the shit out of a guy in the old men's restroom at the J&M. Just like I remember it, the men's room I mean, looking just like it did in the old days. I think I ended up in that urinal once myself.
It's actually hard to believe the cafe is actually closing. It's not the first time the often mismanaged gin joint has had to temporary close it's doors so management could go to rehab only to miraculously reopen once new financing and direction surfaced.
Below starting at around 3:52 on the video you can see John Wayne (playing fictitious Seattle renegade police detective McQue) in the movie McQue beat the shit out of a guy in the old men's restroom at the J&M. Just like I remember it, the men's room I mean, looking just like it did in the old days. I think I ended up in that urinal once myself.
It's actually hard to believe the cafe is actually closing. It's not the first time the often mismanaged gin joint has had to temporary close it's doors so management could go to rehab only to miraculously reopen once new financing and direction surfaced.
What Wingnuts Don't Get Is Guantanamo And Torture Actually Create More Terrorists
There is more then ample evidence that the American practice of using torture and harsh interrogation tactics against enemy combatants and Al Queda suspects leads to increases in terrorism, not a reduction of it. In the video below former FBI interrogator Jack Cloonan says it has become a major recruiting tool for jihadists throughout the world.
Cloonan also debunked the popular right wing rhetoric extolling a ticking time bomb 24 TV show Jack Bauer character scenarios where torture somehow becomes necessary to stop a hypothetical dooms day attack. Cloonan says "it a myth".
Matthew Alexander, a former US Air Force interrogator, points out in his book that he believes American torture tactics used at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have lead directly to as many as 3000 American battlefield deaths.
No matter how dangerous this person may of seemed in the begining, in the end he was released because the US could not prosecute him because it lacked proper evidence to prove the charge or hold him. In any case he could not of been considered so dangerous that it stopped his release to Saudi Arabian officials who eventally freed him.
The big question remains did his mistreatment in American hands actually turn the man who may of been predisposed to anti-American beliefs into a terrorist? Maybe someone should ask him that question if given the opportunity. How would you feel about a foreign power that held you captive for 6 years and tortured you and then released you when it realized it really had no way to prove your alleged crimes. You should feel all warm and fuzzy and magnanimous toward your captors according to the likes of right wing mega-nitwits like Michelle Malkin and Bill O'Reilly.
President Obama and most reasonable people know that the use of torture really creates terrorists and enemies and damages our image as a nation that protects basic human rights. Obama by closing Guantanamo is charged with the task of cleaning up the extensive and long lasting damage that has been done by the Bush administration for having created such a gulag hell to begin with.
The other hysteria on the right is the not in my backyard (NIMBY) argument which concerns where to put the prisoners should Qitmo close as planned in a year. The Federal Prison system in the end can handle anyone Guantanamo may now hold. It is another rightwing red herring to say that there is not a safe prison system in the US that can't safely hold these individuals should it be determined that they can't be release. That is if they are actually found guilty of something. God knows that America knows how to operate safe and secure prisons and detention centers probably better then anyone in the world.
But that's another issue.
Cloonan also debunked the popular right wing rhetoric extolling a ticking time bomb 24 TV show Jack Bauer character scenarios where torture somehow becomes necessary to stop a hypothetical dooms day attack. Cloonan says "it a myth".
Matthew Alexander, a former US Air Force interrogator, points out in his book that he believes American torture tactics used at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have lead directly to as many as 3000 American battlefield deaths.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in [Iraq] have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me—unless you don’t count American soldiers as Americans".Pointing to the example of why Qitmo must be kept open, right wing blowhards in the last few days have attempted to make hay over a report that a terrorist named Said Ali al-Shihri, release from Qitmo in 2007, has now become a leading Al Queda ringleader in Yemen.
No matter how dangerous this person may of seemed in the begining, in the end he was released because the US could not prosecute him because it lacked proper evidence to prove the charge or hold him. In any case he could not of been considered so dangerous that it stopped his release to Saudi Arabian officials who eventally freed him.
The big question remains did his mistreatment in American hands actually turn the man who may of been predisposed to anti-American beliefs into a terrorist? Maybe someone should ask him that question if given the opportunity. How would you feel about a foreign power that held you captive for 6 years and tortured you and then released you when it realized it really had no way to prove your alleged crimes. You should feel all warm and fuzzy and magnanimous toward your captors according to the likes of right wing mega-nitwits like Michelle Malkin and Bill O'Reilly.
President Obama and most reasonable people know that the use of torture really creates terrorists and enemies and damages our image as a nation that protects basic human rights. Obama by closing Guantanamo is charged with the task of cleaning up the extensive and long lasting damage that has been done by the Bush administration for having created such a gulag hell to begin with.
The other hysteria on the right is the not in my backyard (NIMBY) argument which concerns where to put the prisoners should Qitmo close as planned in a year. The Federal Prison system in the end can handle anyone Guantanamo may now hold. It is another rightwing red herring to say that there is not a safe prison system in the US that can't safely hold these individuals should it be determined that they can't be release. That is if they are actually found guilty of something. God knows that America knows how to operate safe and secure prisons and detention centers probably better then anyone in the world.
But that's another issue.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
What Americans Believe About God And Evolution
click on image to enlargeTwo surveys done in 2008 show the approximate number of Americans who believe in God and evolution. Surprisingly nearly 44% of Americans think that God created human beings about "10,000 year or so" ago, give or take a century. Most of these people who believe that also probably think Rush Limbaugh knows what he's talking about.
Rome Burns MSM Fixates On Kennedy And Oath
Cable News is obsessed with what happens in the New York media market. Case in point the obsession with Caroline Kennedy's withdrawing from being consider for Hillary's vacant Senate seat. They also are fixating on whether the oath of office do over really means anything. Of course whether the oath was valid only has meaning to fringe wingnuts in end. Meanwhile most of the real news gets buried.
Vote On Who Should Host MSNBC New 10PM Show
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
MSNBC's Chris Matthews Phycobabble Explained
This is a very concise and funny story from Slate's about Tweedy's propensity to sometimes not make any sense.
Here's a excerpt:
Here's a excerpt:
Nobody in TV news stir-fries his ideas and serves them to the audience faster than MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Drawing from a larder filled with old anecdotes, unreliable metaphors, wacky intuition, and superficial observations, the always-animated Matthews steers whatever's handy into the hot wok that is his brain. The sizzling free-associations skitter through his limbic system, leap out his mouth, and look for a resting spot in the national conversation, where they steam like fresh lava in untouchable heaps.Anything can set Matthews to cooking, but nothing summons his inner chef like a National Event of Great Importance such as yesterday's inauguration. If you watched MSNBC's coverage, you understand why Keith Olbermann wears a body apron and totes a fire extinguisher whenever they co-host: to keep the flying grease from setting his suits aflame.
More Proof That Limbaugh Is Irrelevant Insensitive And Unpatriotic
We already knew Rush Limbaugh was an asshole but now we have proof he is also stupid and unpatriotic. Limbaugh and others were ask to write a 400 word piece on what their hopes were for the Obama presidency. Rush said he didn't think it was necessary to write 400 words because he could do it in four words.
"I hope he (Obama) fails".
Limbaugh who lives in an out of touch ivory tower hasn't processed what that would mean exactly to millions of Americans and their families struggling to survive the economic downturn and to the overall national security of this country.
In other words if it's necessary to have a devastating depression that will theaten our lives and freedoms in order to elect wingnuts it fine with Rush.
This is proof that this man doesn't really care about America or American ideals. He's a phony and a complete self-centered jerk, and any working class or other person who listens to this guy for political guidance is also an ignorant idiot by default.
Oh, sorry we knew that already.
"I hope he (Obama) fails".
Limbaugh who lives in an out of touch ivory tower hasn't processed what that would mean exactly to millions of Americans and their families struggling to survive the economic downturn and to the overall national security of this country.
In other words if it's necessary to have a devastating depression that will theaten our lives and freedoms in order to elect wingnuts it fine with Rush.
This is proof that this man doesn't really care about America or American ideals. He's a phony and a complete self-centered jerk, and any working class or other person who listens to this guy for political guidance is also an ignorant idiot by default.
Oh, sorry we knew that already.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
People Flip Bush The Bird As He Flys From Capitol McDermott Sells Soul For Photo With Sting
Video Obama's First Ride On Air Force One
Gay Or Straight Should It Matter?
Most liberal’s spiritual beliefs, I would venture a guess, are a little portable when it comes to participating or worrying about matters involving organized religion. We tend to be more eclectic and open minded about spiritual matters, fallen away, atheist or just not tied to dogma and the old snake oil ideas.
Yet there is no end it seems at this moment in time to the continuing hair splitting and mouse-milking tantrum being thrown over Rick Warren giving the invocation prior to the inaugural ceremonies in Washington.
Instead of ignoring the bad behavior and his wrong doing the complainers have manage to turned Warren into a cause celebre who's participation threatens to overshadowing portions of the actual ceremony.
I see this bitching as being disingenuous since, in my experience, most people, not just the people in the gay community, really could care less who gave the invocation at this sort of political event. Okay Warren is an asshole, but why make him a hero to the right by throwing a fit. I think this was an opportunity for gays to show that even though people are not tolerant to them they are capable of taking the high road and tolerating people like the homophobic Warren. I think this was in part what Obama wanted to gesture to the right by inviting Warren.
Even though I felt this way I wasn't motivated to join the argument, but then the new uproar started over HBO not broadcasting the invocation by openly gay preacher Gene Robinson preceding the mega star-studded concert yesterday. Robinson apparently was tagged as sort of a bone being thrown to the GLBT community by Obama inauguration committee after the Warren dust up.
The decision not to carry Robinson on the national television feed live has been taken by some as evidence that gays are being slighted once again by Obama. There’s a blogosphere feeding frenzy going on about who is responsible for preempting Robinson exactly so that claims of discrimination against gays, real or imagined, can be dished out later on the culprits.
It’s becoming silly.
People who don’t care about religious matters usually, are suddenly obsessed with religious invocations at political events and the sexual preferences of the preachers giving the invocations? Frankly I’m glad they didn’t include Robinson because I see my spiritual beliefs as fine with or without people like religious folks like Robinson and Warren adding their outdated dogmatic two cents.
But there’s a deeper issue. There’s a real wacky PC correctness with straight people on the left when it comes to gay rights. Sensitivity to GLBT discrimination is important and everyone, both gay and straight, should be aware of it and expose it when it exists. But I think the growing tendency to submit to a form of affirmative action or equal time based on ones sexual preference alone is wrong and counterproductive.
I support all people’s civil rights including the right to same sex marriage or to have as much sex as they wish to have with whomever they care to have it with, it’s not my business. That is exactly my point: Robinson was only important because of his sexual preference. Had Robinson gay sexual preference not been a factor in him being there in the first place hardly anyone would of given a shit whether he was seen on TV or not.
It shouldn’t matter what your sexual preference is because the world shouldn’t revolve around what one’s sexual preference is when it comes to your right to fully participate in society as an individual or give a invocation at an inauguration.
So the Obama people can't win. They add Robinson mainly because he's gay to appease gays mad about the blowhard Warren and then they get ostracized when Robinson is not seen by gays who tuned in to see him only because he's gay and not really because of what he is preaching about.
Yet there is no end it seems at this moment in time to the continuing hair splitting and mouse-milking tantrum being thrown over Rick Warren giving the invocation prior to the inaugural ceremonies in Washington.
Instead of ignoring the bad behavior and his wrong doing the complainers have manage to turned Warren into a cause celebre who's participation threatens to overshadowing portions of the actual ceremony.
I see this bitching as being disingenuous since, in my experience, most people, not just the people in the gay community, really could care less who gave the invocation at this sort of political event. Okay Warren is an asshole, but why make him a hero to the right by throwing a fit. I think this was an opportunity for gays to show that even though people are not tolerant to them they are capable of taking the high road and tolerating people like the homophobic Warren. I think this was in part what Obama wanted to gesture to the right by inviting Warren.
Even though I felt this way I wasn't motivated to join the argument, but then the new uproar started over HBO not broadcasting the invocation by openly gay preacher Gene Robinson preceding the mega star-studded concert yesterday. Robinson apparently was tagged as sort of a bone being thrown to the GLBT community by Obama inauguration committee after the Warren dust up.
The decision not to carry Robinson on the national television feed live has been taken by some as evidence that gays are being slighted once again by Obama. There’s a blogosphere feeding frenzy going on about who is responsible for preempting Robinson exactly so that claims of discrimination against gays, real or imagined, can be dished out later on the culprits.
It’s becoming silly.
People who don’t care about religious matters usually, are suddenly obsessed with religious invocations at political events and the sexual preferences of the preachers giving the invocations? Frankly I’m glad they didn’t include Robinson because I see my spiritual beliefs as fine with or without people like religious folks like Robinson and Warren adding their outdated dogmatic two cents.
But there’s a deeper issue. There’s a real wacky PC correctness with straight people on the left when it comes to gay rights. Sensitivity to GLBT discrimination is important and everyone, both gay and straight, should be aware of it and expose it when it exists. But I think the growing tendency to submit to a form of affirmative action or equal time based on ones sexual preference alone is wrong and counterproductive.
I support all people’s civil rights including the right to same sex marriage or to have as much sex as they wish to have with whomever they care to have it with, it’s not my business. That is exactly my point: Robinson was only important because of his sexual preference. Had Robinson gay sexual preference not been a factor in him being there in the first place hardly anyone would of given a shit whether he was seen on TV or not.
It shouldn’t matter what your sexual preference is because the world shouldn’t revolve around what one’s sexual preference is when it comes to your right to fully participate in society as an individual or give a invocation at an inauguration.
So the Obama people can't win. They add Robinson mainly because he's gay to appease gays mad about the blowhard Warren and then they get ostracized when Robinson is not seen by gays who tuned in to see him only because he's gay and not really because of what he is preaching about.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Not A Big Reader Frat Boy President Goes Away Leaving Extensive Wreckage
Frat boy President's legacy in 8 minutes. You could not of screwed it up more even if you plan it that way.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Japanese Man Builds Electric Car To Atone For Racing Gas Powered Subaru
Get your electric car on....
We Must Stop Pam Roach And Others From Politicizing County Elections
Protect Your Vote Support Sherril Huff For County Director Of Elections February 3rd
In an ultimate indication of political ignorance the voters of King County chose to make the County Director of Elections and elective office. Now we see why it was so dumb by just thinking what it going to be like if we should get stuck with someone like halfwit Republican Pam “war of the roses” Roach running the election office at the county. Can you imagine what he 2004 Governor’s race would of looked like with an overly partisan bag like Roach deciding who gets to have their vote counted or not.
The election is the first in the county to be conducted entirely by mail. There is no primary so the candidate getting a plurality of the vote will win. There are six candidates so the one that pulls as little as 20% of the vote will probably become the new director. The fear is that election weary voters will overlook the election and pave the way for someone like Roach or David Irons to grab the position.
When do we start the petition to repeals this ridiculous need for election for this office? All this is just a Republican plot to gain legal standing to suppress your votes. Still smarting from the Dino Rossi loss in 2004 the wingnuts are now trying to more directly control your right to vote. Remember Republicans don't win where voting isn't being suppressed in one way or the other. We want someone who has little or no interest in politics and who's only real interested in competently and fairly counting the votes period.
The problems is that the one who is most qualified and endorsed by most Democratic Party officials and organizations, Sherril Huff, who is the current King County Director of Elections, probably has a low amount of name recognition. The field also includes political hack David “I’m really a Republican” Irons as well as the obnoxious reactionary Roach.
So we strongly urge you to mail you vote for Huff and tell a friend to do the same.
The election is the first in the county to be conducted entirely by mail. There is no primary so the candidate getting a plurality of the vote will win. There are six candidates so the one that pulls as little as 20% of the vote will probably become the new director. The fear is that election weary voters will overlook the election and pave the way for someone like Roach or David Irons to grab the position.
When do we start the petition to repeals this ridiculous need for election for this office? All this is just a Republican plot to gain legal standing to suppress your votes. Still smarting from the Dino Rossi loss in 2004 the wingnuts are now trying to more directly control your right to vote. Remember Republicans don't win where voting isn't being suppressed in one way or the other. We want someone who has little or no interest in politics and who's only real interested in competently and fairly counting the votes period.
The problems is that the one who is most qualified and endorsed by most Democratic Party officials and organizations, Sherril Huff, who is the current King County Director of Elections, probably has a low amount of name recognition. The field also includes political hack David “I’m really a Republican” Irons as well as the obnoxious reactionary Roach.
So we strongly urge you to mail you vote for Huff and tell a friend to do the same.
Majority Of Americans Blame Palestinians For War In Gaza
Palestinian loss of land 1947-2005In a recent survey most Americans are quick to side with Israel and against the Palestinians when it comes to Gaza. Even though there is overwhelming evidence that Israel has used excessive force against many innocent Palestinians who are really just a desperate people who have been held captive in Gaza because of Israeli policy aimed at containing and eliminating them.
American understanding of the Palestinian question is limited to what they get via the mostly pro Israeli main stream media or compromised pro Israeli politicians. Cutoff from real news Americans can have little empathy for the plight of the Palestinians and more often then not reject as terrorist sympathizers anyone who speaks out in their defense.
Most Palestinians have been radicalized and turned to organizations like Hamas because of the long history of injustice imposed upon them by a succession of conservative Israeli governments backed by US power. Americans tunnel vision and pro Israel outlook no matter what the facts are has made the Middle East a difficult problem to remedy for a succession of US presidents. It's time that we begin to open our eyes and devise a policy that promotes fairness instead of just being the guarantor and backer of Israeli bad behavior.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I Recomended The Tunnel Option Two Years Ago
I'm such a visionary. In a February 2007 post, just prior to the advisory vote motivated by a gutless city council, county and state government in fear of taking action, I said the real compromise was the tunnel option. Surprise, now all the pols agree in principle with me.
And can we please get Nick "chicken little" Licata and Dori "stupid prices" Monson to please shut their freaking pie holes and stop standing in the way of change we can drive through.
It's time Seattle politicians and citizens embrace the idea of a tunnel and a lets get it done attitude instead of the usual talk it to death bitching and fear. It will create some jobs folks and help the economy plus save the above ground waterfront by removing a monstrous viaduct that is virtually blocking the waterfront access to Seattle.
It time to wake up a smell the concrete mixing.
And can we please get Nick "chicken little" Licata and Dori "stupid prices" Monson to please shut their freaking pie holes and stop standing in the way of change we can drive through.
It's time Seattle politicians and citizens embrace the idea of a tunnel and a lets get it done attitude instead of the usual talk it to death bitching and fear. It will create some jobs folks and help the economy plus save the above ground waterfront by removing a monstrous viaduct that is virtually blocking the waterfront access to Seattle.
It time to wake up a smell the concrete mixing.
Friday, January 09, 2009
It’s In The The P-I
When I was a kid in the late fifties and early sixties I had a Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper route on lower Queen Anne for a number of years. So did my 2 brothers.My brothers and I also operated a daily old school style PI paper stand at the Canadian Pacific dock at pier 64 on Seattle's waterfront for about 10 years, passing the operation down from one brother to the other. I was the youngest and last in the line of family lineage with the paper stand.
The CPR ran the steamships Princess Marguerite and Princess Patricia from pier 64. The ships took hundreds of passengers to Victoria on daily trips that left at 8am and returned that night at 9pm. Almost every passenger would want a morning paper to read before boarding the ship. It was a lucrative business for a precocious kid in those days.
I think that I made about $25 dollars a week on average. For years during cruise season I’d wake myself up at about 5am and jump on my bike to head for the waterfront where I’d sell papers from 6am to about 7:30am to passengers boarding the ships. It was like taking candy from a baby because in those days no adult in their right mind would not want to start the day out by reading the daily newspaper.
Boy how times have changed.
Anyone growing up at the time I did in America probably has a hard time psychologically imagining not having newspapers. Like most of us of the post WWII war era I took great comfort in the daily ritual of getting the paper each day and systematically reading each and every section. This was the way to get most of your real news even with broadcast and cable TV news becoming a big factor.
It affects me deeply when I hear reports of the sale and possible demise of the PI. It was definitely the better of the two daily newspapers in Seattle in my mind and experience. I rather it be the Seattle Times that was going under. Working class people read and trusted the PI more or less as their newspaper and conservatives, business type and squares read and revered the Seattle Times. Having worked for the PI as a new boy only added to my allegiance.
I had other reasons to hate the Seattle Times based on the fact that I was fired from a job at the Times as an adult. I got a job there as an advertising copy boy just after I returned from 3 years of military service in 1968. I had becoming more and more alienated with the establishment and society in general and demonstrated that by letting my hair grow out. I also had several disagreements with my supervisor about my liberal and pro union political positions. I was fired after working there for 6 months when I told my boss to get fucked when he gave me a ultimatum to cut my hair or be fired. So I said fuck the Seattle Times and made it a point of never buying that paper unless absolutely force to do so. All my childhood prejudices about the Times versus the PI were resoundingly reinforced for life then and there.
Of course, taking my involvement with this blog and the growth in the blogging community it's not hard to see what is happening to the print newspaper industry. It would have been completely impossible to imagine this day back in the hay day of the print news business when I was selling those papers on the waterfront. People would of thought you insane to suggest there would be a day when major cites like Seattle would not be able to support a newspaper like the PI.
Can’t we all get together and buy the PI perhaps, or is the Stranger now the de facto liberal newspaper in Seattle? One thing for sure I want that sign that’s on top of the PI building saved. Perhaps we can put it with the hat and boots in that park.
To me this is all very sad it's like losing a old friend.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Vashon Maury Island Glacier Gravel Pit Protesters Mostly Shooting Blanks
I live on Vashon Island where the popularity of supporting the on going protest against the expansion of Glacier Northwest’s mining project on neighboring Maury Island is up there with supporting motherhood, scorning Republicans, wearing wool socks with sandals, wearing tie-dye shit, bitching about the ferry service and being an hippie.
In other words it sacred stuff with the mostly left leaning liberally bent artsy-fartsy crowd of on island folks.
Although I moved here only 4 years ago from West Seattle one of the first things I became aware of was that people who SUPPORT the gravel pit project, if anyone had the nerve to actually openly proclaim it, are considered akin to child molesters, and/or Republicans.
Such was the passion of the “no gravel pit” liberal majority of people who live here. Everyone I met was against the gravel pit but, it seemed to me that many of them, when asked about it, really couldn't articulate why other than it seemed to them to be in line with the island thought police belief system and their personal, but rather vague general environmentally related concerns.
So by writing this article I expect to probably soon be impeached from my position as a Democratic Party PCO, emotionally tarred and feathered by my neighbors and band from participating in the social scene at the Café Luna and local Thriftway. But I will go to the store and for coffee with my head held high in defiance for I must live and eat after all and I must just get my opinion out there before I die from the peer pressure to conform with the majority and the island group think on the subject.
Lately the protest here have reach critical mass because the mining company’s ten year odyssey to expand the mining of aggregate and sand on it’s Maury Island site and build a dock to load the materials out has apparently reached the stage where it has jumped through all the Federal, State and County, hoops and obtained all the necessary permits to go ahead and begin construction of the proposed new loading dock.
Work has begun to remove the old crumbling remains of a previous company dock. In response the die hard locals have been rallying and protesting in mass to the extent of even attempting what appear to be symbolic blockade by sea or standing around singing cornball knock off Christmas carols about Glacier being the big bad modern corporate robber baron who is going to poison all the local children after it kills all the salmon while it contaminates your water.
The main opposition to the expansion of mining is based on a number of claims by protesters that the project will damage the sole remaining aquifer which supplies the island its water by exposing it to arsenic left over in the top soil on the Maury Island site from years of being up wind from the old ASARCO Tacoma Smelter, an environmental nightmare of bygone years brought to you by a company that was one of the worse polluters ever. Glacier had no direct association with the arsenic pollution on Maury Island, but like all islanders was a victim of ASARCO past irresponsible behavior.
I always find it ironic that so many tree hugging environmentally conscious people could end up living on a island where the top soil is some of the most arsenic contaminated you can find in the Western world.
Opponents also believe that the mining expansion would damage the marine habitat, including damage to ell grass, salmon, orca whales, and other species who occupy the waters around the site of the mining and proposed loading dock.
Trying to be open minded about whose right here is difficult. On one hand you have a foreign owed company in Glacier who seems to have met all the requirements needed to go ahead and mine the land it owns and build a dock to efficiently get it’s products to market.
It's hard to argue that Glacier has not gone through a politically and legally charged 10 yearlong permit process successfully. While on the other hand you have a large number of citizens who actually live here on Vashon and Maury Islands who have raised valid concerns about just what the expansion would mean to the environment here, their quality of life and of course some adjacent property values and the views from their sunken deck.
You would think that the permit process could be trusted and would assure that any valid environment impact claims are addressed. Remember, this is not a project where it can be argued that the project somehow slipped through the cracks of regulation. All three members of the 34th District State legislature delegation have openly opposed the project for years. In fact 34th District State Legislator Sharon Nelson actually lives on Maury Island and made her political bones based on organizing opposition to the project through her affiliation with Preserve Our Island, an organization who’s main goal has been aimed at stopping the Glacier mining expansion and dock from the beginning.
There was an attempt to change the rules of the game when a State Senate bill was introduced last year that would of turned Maury Island into a aquatic reserve. You got to give it to them for trying. The effect of which would of further hamper Glacier's attempt to get the necessary permits. It failed in the spring of 2008 when it couldn't get through the house. Other legal challenges to the permit to proceed with the project were recently struck down by the State Supreme Court when it upheld a appeals court decision based on provisions of the Shoreline Protection Act and Glacier’s right to build a dock apparently grandfathered into that same law some years ago.
I’m personally torn on whether the project should go forward. Many Democrats legislators who don't have a direct interest in the issue and tend to be more conservative when it comes to regulating valid business activities and ventures take no position on the issue. They believe that government can sometimes interfere with commerce and job creation by over regulation and burdensome bureaucratic requirements.
Democrats and liberals who are indifferent about the project. like the Governor herself it could be argued, don't speak out about it because it's political kryptonite with the left to do so and would be just plain dumb to lose votes over if it is not necessary to be openly for or against it. The opponents of the project tend to want to turn those who also see Glacier's side of the story into political footballs who they like to kick to the curb. Politicians from the 34th District pretty much tow the party line because they wouldn't get elected if they suddenly proclaimed they should try to be open minded about Glacier.
As a former small businessperson myself I tend to agree that government can be a hindrance to commerce when it interferes even when businesses are good neighbors and acting in good faith.
Certainly here it can be argued that Glacier did what was required by law to do to get the permits and that the opponents of the expansion had a level playing field on which to exercise their opposition and try and stop it from going forward. The opponents of the mine expansion and dock lost this one it appears even though they had considerable political support from within King County and in the State Legislature.
One of the observations I’ve made being here on island is that the opponents just plain don’t want any kind of expansion of the gravel pit or dock no matter what environmental permit requirements are met or not met period. It’s been a non-starter for 10 years with the opponents from the beginning. It’s this sort of closed minded approach that troubles me even though I would say my liberal credentials are as good as the next liberal hippie baby boomer out here.
But, they should be frank about it and actually say that they are against aggregate or gravel pit mining of any kind anywhere, and that they simply don’t believe that the mining of aggregate rock is an important local business resource or governmental or building industry consideration which effects thousands of workers or that could save taxpayers money given the state of the economy. Instead I think it can be argued that they have raised a number of red herrings in opposition to the expansion and tried to expanded the playing field when Glacier continued to meet every demand and requirement place upon it. Opponents arguments tend to be based on emotional issues rather then legal ones.
But it's intellectually dishonest I think for the opposition not to come right out and say, "we don't want your freaking gravel pit no matter how environmentally safe you make it"!
One thing is for sure, opponents of the gravel pit and dock have also kept the company honest and that part of it represents a good thing and something that was needed to insure that Glacier fully complied with the law. The opponents should keep Glacier's feet to the fire but I think they also have to admit that they are mostly shooting blanks here if they think that the project can be stopped at this stage short of someone buying the company out and closing the gravel pit.
What are Glacier’s rights here one should ask? It’s apparently true that Glacier is sitting on a gold mine of an rather rare and accessible aggregate deposit and has known for a long time that it would become more valued as time passed. Aggregate and sand is used for cement and building of course and is one of the basic needs for anyone building anything. Because of this the business value and profits from the expansion are sure to grow considerably.
Think about the massive highway construction that is planned in Washington State and the immediate region in the coming years and you can see its won’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Glacier’s motivation in using extensive and costly lobbying tactics to get it’s way in the political arena on the approval of the project.
But was it above board and legal. I would say you have to answer that question, yes.
Glacier makes the argument that having to truck aggregate long distances, which is what is done now, would add millions of taxpayer dollars to state projects and that seems to make sense. Also if opponents were successful in stopping the loading dock part of the project Glacier would be running a significant number of large trailer dump trucks via the Vashon Highway route and on to Washington State Ferries in order to get it’s aggregate to market. One barge hauls 186 trailer truckload.
I’m sure most islanders wouldn’t want to see all those trucks rolling down a two lane potholed Vashon highway and on to the ferry on a daily basis for the next 35 years for various reasons. So the new loading dock makes sense from a safety as well as a wear and tear on the ferry system and highways system point of view.
Most local Democratic politicians are not going to dare to speak their minds candidly on this issue or be open-minded about Glacier’s side of the story. It would be political suicide for them to even hint that Glacier has done everything required of it to get the permits and so now we should perhaps try and build a working relationship with the company to make sure that it does what it has promised to do. Protect the environment and the aquifer while it mines and meets it obligations as a responsible company and good island neighbor as it expands mining on Maury and builds and uses its loading dock. Glacier owned land has been zoned for mining for more than 40 years and it seems that they have a history of trying to follow environmental laws and regulations.
Unfortunately, most island types are rather lefty knee jerk stereo-typically environmentally polarized and closed minded about business or corporations being allowed to do anything. Even when it’s pretty obvious that it has done everything required of it to meet community and government environment requirements. It creates a nearly impossible atmosphere to work or be reasonable.
Admitting that Glacier has made reasonable arguments to support it’s right to do business in a way that is lawful is needed here as a first step, and less pandering from politicians to the choir because they are more interested in being reelected then looking at both sides of the story or what may be best for the greater community.
I don't think you should be a predisposed liberal leaning anti business islander who thinks it fashionable to knee-jerkily jump on the nearest political feel good anti business pumpkin wagon that happens to come down the pike. Just because it's popular amongst a group of people who generally admire iconoclasts and those who question authority.
In the spirit of full disclosure my brother is 1st District’s State Representative Al O’Brien and the opinions expressed here are entirely mine alone. Daniel O'Brien
In other words it sacred stuff with the mostly left leaning liberally bent artsy-fartsy crowd of on island folks.
Although I moved here only 4 years ago from West Seattle one of the first things I became aware of was that people who SUPPORT the gravel pit project, if anyone had the nerve to actually openly proclaim it, are considered akin to child molesters, and/or Republicans.
Such was the passion of the “no gravel pit” liberal majority of people who live here. Everyone I met was against the gravel pit but, it seemed to me that many of them, when asked about it, really couldn't articulate why other than it seemed to them to be in line with the island thought police belief system and their personal, but rather vague general environmentally related concerns.
So by writing this article I expect to probably soon be impeached from my position as a Democratic Party PCO, emotionally tarred and feathered by my neighbors and band from participating in the social scene at the Café Luna and local Thriftway. But I will go to the store and for coffee with my head held high in defiance for I must live and eat after all and I must just get my opinion out there before I die from the peer pressure to conform with the majority and the island group think on the subject.
Lately the protest here have reach critical mass because the mining company’s ten year odyssey to expand the mining of aggregate and sand on it’s Maury Island site and build a dock to load the materials out has apparently reached the stage where it has jumped through all the Federal, State and County, hoops and obtained all the necessary permits to go ahead and begin construction of the proposed new loading dock.
Work has begun to remove the old crumbling remains of a previous company dock. In response the die hard locals have been rallying and protesting in mass to the extent of even attempting what appear to be symbolic blockade by sea or standing around singing cornball knock off Christmas carols about Glacier being the big bad modern corporate robber baron who is going to poison all the local children after it kills all the salmon while it contaminates your water.
The main opposition to the expansion of mining is based on a number of claims by protesters that the project will damage the sole remaining aquifer which supplies the island its water by exposing it to arsenic left over in the top soil on the Maury Island site from years of being up wind from the old ASARCO Tacoma Smelter, an environmental nightmare of bygone years brought to you by a company that was one of the worse polluters ever. Glacier had no direct association with the arsenic pollution on Maury Island, but like all islanders was a victim of ASARCO past irresponsible behavior.
I always find it ironic that so many tree hugging environmentally conscious people could end up living on a island where the top soil is some of the most arsenic contaminated you can find in the Western world.
Opponents also believe that the mining expansion would damage the marine habitat, including damage to ell grass, salmon, orca whales, and other species who occupy the waters around the site of the mining and proposed loading dock.
Trying to be open minded about whose right here is difficult. On one hand you have a foreign owed company in Glacier who seems to have met all the requirements needed to go ahead and mine the land it owns and build a dock to efficiently get it’s products to market.
It's hard to argue that Glacier has not gone through a politically and legally charged 10 yearlong permit process successfully. While on the other hand you have a large number of citizens who actually live here on Vashon and Maury Islands who have raised valid concerns about just what the expansion would mean to the environment here, their quality of life and of course some adjacent property values and the views from their sunken deck.
You would think that the permit process could be trusted and would assure that any valid environment impact claims are addressed. Remember, this is not a project where it can be argued that the project somehow slipped through the cracks of regulation. All three members of the 34th District State legislature delegation have openly opposed the project for years. In fact 34th District State Legislator Sharon Nelson actually lives on Maury Island and made her political bones based on organizing opposition to the project through her affiliation with Preserve Our Island, an organization who’s main goal has been aimed at stopping the Glacier mining expansion and dock from the beginning.
There was an attempt to change the rules of the game when a State Senate bill was introduced last year that would of turned Maury Island into a aquatic reserve. You got to give it to them for trying. The effect of which would of further hamper Glacier's attempt to get the necessary permits. It failed in the spring of 2008 when it couldn't get through the house. Other legal challenges to the permit to proceed with the project were recently struck down by the State Supreme Court when it upheld a appeals court decision based on provisions of the Shoreline Protection Act and Glacier’s right to build a dock apparently grandfathered into that same law some years ago.
I’m personally torn on whether the project should go forward. Many Democrats legislators who don't have a direct interest in the issue and tend to be more conservative when it comes to regulating valid business activities and ventures take no position on the issue. They believe that government can sometimes interfere with commerce and job creation by over regulation and burdensome bureaucratic requirements.
Democrats and liberals who are indifferent about the project. like the Governor herself it could be argued, don't speak out about it because it's political kryptonite with the left to do so and would be just plain dumb to lose votes over if it is not necessary to be openly for or against it. The opponents of the project tend to want to turn those who also see Glacier's side of the story into political footballs who they like to kick to the curb. Politicians from the 34th District pretty much tow the party line because they wouldn't get elected if they suddenly proclaimed they should try to be open minded about Glacier.
As a former small businessperson myself I tend to agree that government can be a hindrance to commerce when it interferes even when businesses are good neighbors and acting in good faith.
Certainly here it can be argued that Glacier did what was required by law to do to get the permits and that the opponents of the expansion had a level playing field on which to exercise their opposition and try and stop it from going forward. The opponents of the mine expansion and dock lost this one it appears even though they had considerable political support from within King County and in the State Legislature.
One of the observations I’ve made being here on island is that the opponents just plain don’t want any kind of expansion of the gravel pit or dock no matter what environmental permit requirements are met or not met period. It’s been a non-starter for 10 years with the opponents from the beginning. It’s this sort of closed minded approach that troubles me even though I would say my liberal credentials are as good as the next liberal hippie baby boomer out here.
But, they should be frank about it and actually say that they are against aggregate or gravel pit mining of any kind anywhere, and that they simply don’t believe that the mining of aggregate rock is an important local business resource or governmental or building industry consideration which effects thousands of workers or that could save taxpayers money given the state of the economy. Instead I think it can be argued that they have raised a number of red herrings in opposition to the expansion and tried to expanded the playing field when Glacier continued to meet every demand and requirement place upon it. Opponents arguments tend to be based on emotional issues rather then legal ones.
But it's intellectually dishonest I think for the opposition not to come right out and say, "we don't want your freaking gravel pit no matter how environmentally safe you make it"!
One thing is for sure, opponents of the gravel pit and dock have also kept the company honest and that part of it represents a good thing and something that was needed to insure that Glacier fully complied with the law. The opponents should keep Glacier's feet to the fire but I think they also have to admit that they are mostly shooting blanks here if they think that the project can be stopped at this stage short of someone buying the company out and closing the gravel pit.
What are Glacier’s rights here one should ask? It’s apparently true that Glacier is sitting on a gold mine of an rather rare and accessible aggregate deposit and has known for a long time that it would become more valued as time passed. Aggregate and sand is used for cement and building of course and is one of the basic needs for anyone building anything. Because of this the business value and profits from the expansion are sure to grow considerably.
Think about the massive highway construction that is planned in Washington State and the immediate region in the coming years and you can see its won’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Glacier’s motivation in using extensive and costly lobbying tactics to get it’s way in the political arena on the approval of the project.
But was it above board and legal. I would say you have to answer that question, yes.
Glacier makes the argument that having to truck aggregate long distances, which is what is done now, would add millions of taxpayer dollars to state projects and that seems to make sense. Also if opponents were successful in stopping the loading dock part of the project Glacier would be running a significant number of large trailer dump trucks via the Vashon Highway route and on to Washington State Ferries in order to get it’s aggregate to market. One barge hauls 186 trailer truckload.
I’m sure most islanders wouldn’t want to see all those trucks rolling down a two lane potholed Vashon highway and on to the ferry on a daily basis for the next 35 years for various reasons. So the new loading dock makes sense from a safety as well as a wear and tear on the ferry system and highways system point of view.
Most local Democratic politicians are not going to dare to speak their minds candidly on this issue or be open-minded about Glacier’s side of the story. It would be political suicide for them to even hint that Glacier has done everything required of it to get the permits and so now we should perhaps try and build a working relationship with the company to make sure that it does what it has promised to do. Protect the environment and the aquifer while it mines and meets it obligations as a responsible company and good island neighbor as it expands mining on Maury and builds and uses its loading dock. Glacier owned land has been zoned for mining for more than 40 years and it seems that they have a history of trying to follow environmental laws and regulations.
Unfortunately, most island types are rather lefty knee jerk stereo-typically environmentally polarized and closed minded about business or corporations being allowed to do anything. Even when it’s pretty obvious that it has done everything required of it to meet community and government environment requirements. It creates a nearly impossible atmosphere to work or be reasonable.
Admitting that Glacier has made reasonable arguments to support it’s right to do business in a way that is lawful is needed here as a first step, and less pandering from politicians to the choir because they are more interested in being reelected then looking at both sides of the story or what may be best for the greater community.
I don't think you should be a predisposed liberal leaning anti business islander who thinks it fashionable to knee-jerkily jump on the nearest political feel good anti business pumpkin wagon that happens to come down the pike. Just because it's popular amongst a group of people who generally admire iconoclasts and those who question authority.
In the spirit of full disclosure my brother is 1st District’s State Representative Al O’Brien and the opinions expressed here are entirely mine alone. Daniel O'Brien
Friday, January 02, 2009
Oh Shit Think Global Warming Was Bad Mere Childs Play Compared To Yellowstone Super Volcano Eruption
The last week of so there has been a significant change in the number of earthquakes in Yellowstone Park. It could be a sign of a coming eruption. I remember seeing the special on the Yellowstone super volcano on NOVA and having it scare the shit out of me.Well there goes half the known species on earth and talk about cloudy and gray. The last time they had one of these eruptions it killed off the dinosaurs I think. At least it will save you from having to worry about losing your job, refinancing or anything other then survival.
In case you haven't heard Yellowstone Park is really the caldera of an old super volcano that been dormant for 620,000 thousand years, and scientists say Yellowstone should “blow its top” every 600,000 years, so we're kind of due.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Let’s Call It What It Really Is Israeli Aggression
I know that Hamas is shooting rockets into Israel and I know that there is blame to be meted out to both sides , but I think the response by Israel is sort of like trying to kill a housefly with a bazooka. It demonstrates Israel’s real intention, which is to destroy or badly wound Hamas as much as possible before the leadership vacuum that exists here in the United States with Bush and Condi Rice in power closes on the day of Barack Obama's inauguration.
For years Israel, with the full cooperation and the military might of the United States behind it, has suppressed or man handled anyone it perceives may represent the claims of the Palestinians to disputed territories that Israel perceives belong to it and that make up the one sided view, at least in the United States, of what constitutes the greater Israel.
Little is said about Israeli aggression in the US because of fears of a backlash from the Jewish lobby that pretty much contols American politicians through their fear of being seen as anti-Semitic, pro Arab of palling around with terrorists. Ask Jimmy Carter, whose book entitled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid brought calls from many in the Jewish community that he be branded anti Israel. Yes, the same Jimmy Carter who probably knows more about the Middle East then most American politicians and who actually engineered a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel during his presidency.
This unfair treatment of Palestinians led inevitability to the election of the radical Hamas Party by a majority of the people in the disputed territories because they had reached a sort of limit on trying to be reasonable with Israel and because Israel has never been really reasonable with them. Brutally crushing all dissent whenever it surfaced. Carter referring to the boycott and blockade of Gaza said this in 2006.
It is very difficult in this country to see anything but Israel’s side of the story. But you can believe this: every bomb that falls on a Palestinian in the mind of those people whether dropped by Israel or not is seen as being dropped on them by the United States.
The people of the United States want freedom from terrorist and radical groups like Hamas. Yet, they will never get it unless they realize that their government, in their name, has historically never treated the Palestinian question or the people of Palestine fairly or even handedly as a true arbiter of justice in the Middle East. Until we do we will not make significant progress. Carter recognized this and was demonized for saying it out loud.
It’s time we start telling the truth about Israel’s warmongering and bullying when it comes to the Palestinian peoples right to a just settlement of the Palestinian question and their grievances.
For years Israel, with the full cooperation and the military might of the United States behind it, has suppressed or man handled anyone it perceives may represent the claims of the Palestinians to disputed territories that Israel perceives belong to it and that make up the one sided view, at least in the United States, of what constitutes the greater Israel.
Little is said about Israeli aggression in the US because of fears of a backlash from the Jewish lobby that pretty much contols American politicians through their fear of being seen as anti-Semitic, pro Arab of palling around with terrorists. Ask Jimmy Carter, whose book entitled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid brought calls from many in the Jewish community that he be branded anti Israel. Yes, the same Jimmy Carter who probably knows more about the Middle East then most American politicians and who actually engineered a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel during his presidency.
This unfair treatment of Palestinians led inevitability to the election of the radical Hamas Party by a majority of the people in the disputed territories because they had reached a sort of limit on trying to be reasonable with Israel and because Israel has never been really reasonable with them. Brutally crushing all dissent whenever it surfaced. Carter referring to the boycott and blockade of Gaza said this in 2006.
“The Palestinian people are now being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42 percent voted for Hamas candidates in this year's election. Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees cannot be paid, and the UN has reported food supplies in Gaza equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa, with half the families surviving on one meal a day.”Jimmy Carter op-ed Boston Globe December 2006.
It is very difficult in this country to see anything but Israel’s side of the story. But you can believe this: every bomb that falls on a Palestinian in the mind of those people whether dropped by Israel or not is seen as being dropped on them by the United States.
The people of the United States want freedom from terrorist and radical groups like Hamas. Yet, they will never get it unless they realize that their government, in their name, has historically never treated the Palestinian question or the people of Palestine fairly or even handedly as a true arbiter of justice in the Middle East. Until we do we will not make significant progress. Carter recognized this and was demonized for saying it out loud.
It’s time we start telling the truth about Israel’s warmongering and bullying when it comes to the Palestinian peoples right to a just settlement of the Palestinian question and their grievances.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Capturing The Essence Of The Commercialism Of Christmas And Mixing It With The True Meaning
A The New Symbol For The Holidays
Crucified SantaTuesday, December 23, 2008
Seattle TV News Schizophrenic Over Weather And Paranoid About People Not Being Able Go To The Mall And Damaged Goods Tots Because No Toys
I was watching KING 5 News last night and Reporter Jim Forman, who can sensationalize the shit out of anything, said no matter what don’t go out of the house tonight or you’ll probably die.
He doing a remote report from inside this new KING TV four-wheel drive SUV they’ve deemed “SNOW5” that he and other reporters have been running around in during the snow storm that shows you a live shot out the front window of the black ice covering everything and then a headshot of a talking reporter talking about the "side streets" in rotating segments. Forman is wearing a huge goofy fur lined hoody thing that is total winter attire overkill. It was more like something a drag queen would wear if it was snowing.
Then the reporter in the next segment, whose name escapes me, comes on and said not to come to the SEATAC airport no matter what or you’ll probably freeze to death or die from sleeping on the floor while being mugged by strangers who already have stole your luggage. But at the end of the report she said that if anyone wants to bring bedding and cots to the airport they be greatly appreciated. I bet that will make that cop who’s trying to get you to not stop on the drive way at the airport happy.
Then the two Asian lady anchor reporters have small talk about how nice it be if we have a White Christmas then segue into a feel bad story about the toys for tots and the toys program for poor kids that reports that the toys are just sitting there in the warehouse, “because no one came to get them." "Will Santa deliver the toys on time?“ Then it’s time for the weather and more gratuitous small talk about how it’s great weather to build a freaking snowman and have a cup of cocoa, but if you leave your house your going to die because the weather is so bad and the streets are all a sheet of black ice.
"Please remember to dress warm if your going to go out or you have to work and here's a report on how to put on chains while getting the kids ready for school." No. I'm planing on going out completely naked from the waist down you freaking idiots! What's the big deal about that?
If I was running the news when a snow storm hit Seattle I set a live camera up at the top and bottom of every steep hill in Seattle and have someone sort of wave every unsuspecting half-assed driver through. "It fine don't worry, you can make it, It's just he counter balance." I'd put that on TV for sure. Forget all regular programing I could watch those crashes 24/7. It never gets old. All the bozos crashing into each other in those slow motion sliding out of control up and down the hill snow driving videos we all know and long for from the moment we see the first flake. It gives you that Hindenburg "Oh the humanity" feeling every time you see some unsuspecting Seattlelite lose control of their car on a ice and snow covered hill.
After the commercial they come back with a story of a mall shooting in San Francisco which is just like the one we had here at Southcenter Mall. Then a story about how all the retailers are losing their asses because of the economy and the fact that the snow is ruining business. They fail to mention that they've scared the shit out of us with so much reporting about mall shootings and black ice that no one is going to the mall because we might get shot or end up in the ditch.
Now it's time for the scare the be-Jesus out of you weather report person who comes on and instead of giving you the report teases you with something like, “could it snow another three feet and bury your house and make your carport collapse tonight, well stay tuned because we’ll have the latest report coming right up”. “Remember always tune to KING5 for the latest news on how the damn storm is going to blow your god damn house down. Because we got that special storm tracking Doppler radar guided spy in the sky school net whatchamacallit super duper cry wolf storm forecast”.
Then Jean Enderson has a segment on how scientists have discovered that freezing your ass off really is a way to prolong life expectancy if you don’t take it too far. This is followed by a story of a lost puppy found wandering aimlessly in the snow in Wallingford and that’s now been placed in a giving warm animal loving home and smothered in lots of doggy toys courtesy of PETCO and the homeless dog society.
Time to throw another log on the fire I guess.
He doing a remote report from inside this new KING TV four-wheel drive SUV they’ve deemed “SNOW5” that he and other reporters have been running around in during the snow storm that shows you a live shot out the front window of the black ice covering everything and then a headshot of a talking reporter talking about the "side streets" in rotating segments. Forman is wearing a huge goofy fur lined hoody thing that is total winter attire overkill. It was more like something a drag queen would wear if it was snowing.
Then the reporter in the next segment, whose name escapes me, comes on and said not to come to the SEATAC airport no matter what or you’ll probably freeze to death or die from sleeping on the floor while being mugged by strangers who already have stole your luggage. But at the end of the report she said that if anyone wants to bring bedding and cots to the airport they be greatly appreciated. I bet that will make that cop who’s trying to get you to not stop on the drive way at the airport happy.
Then the two Asian lady anchor reporters have small talk about how nice it be if we have a White Christmas then segue into a feel bad story about the toys for tots and the toys program for poor kids that reports that the toys are just sitting there in the warehouse, “because no one came to get them." "Will Santa deliver the toys on time?“ Then it’s time for the weather and more gratuitous small talk about how it’s great weather to build a freaking snowman and have a cup of cocoa, but if you leave your house your going to die because the weather is so bad and the streets are all a sheet of black ice.
"Please remember to dress warm if your going to go out or you have to work and here's a report on how to put on chains while getting the kids ready for school." No. I'm planing on going out completely naked from the waist down you freaking idiots! What's the big deal about that?
If I was running the news when a snow storm hit Seattle I set a live camera up at the top and bottom of every steep hill in Seattle and have someone sort of wave every unsuspecting half-assed driver through. "It fine don't worry, you can make it, It's just he counter balance." I'd put that on TV for sure. Forget all regular programing I could watch those crashes 24/7. It never gets old. All the bozos crashing into each other in those slow motion sliding out of control up and down the hill snow driving videos we all know and long for from the moment we see the first flake. It gives you that Hindenburg "Oh the humanity" feeling every time you see some unsuspecting Seattlelite lose control of their car on a ice and snow covered hill.
After the commercial they come back with a story of a mall shooting in San Francisco which is just like the one we had here at Southcenter Mall. Then a story about how all the retailers are losing their asses because of the economy and the fact that the snow is ruining business. They fail to mention that they've scared the shit out of us with so much reporting about mall shootings and black ice that no one is going to the mall because we might get shot or end up in the ditch.
Now it's time for the scare the be-Jesus out of you weather report person who comes on and instead of giving you the report teases you with something like, “could it snow another three feet and bury your house and make your carport collapse tonight, well stay tuned because we’ll have the latest report coming right up”. “Remember always tune to KING5 for the latest news on how the damn storm is going to blow your god damn house down. Because we got that special storm tracking Doppler radar guided spy in the sky school net whatchamacallit super duper cry wolf storm forecast”.
Then Jean Enderson has a segment on how scientists have discovered that freezing your ass off really is a way to prolong life expectancy if you don’t take it too far. This is followed by a story of a lost puppy found wandering aimlessly in the snow in Wallingford and that’s now been placed in a giving warm animal loving home and smothered in lots of doggy toys courtesy of PETCO and the homeless dog society.
Time to throw another log on the fire I guess.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Commander In Beefcake
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Portrait Of Laura Bush And Betty Crocker Apparently Switched
Apparently a new portrait of Laura Bush was accidentally switched for one of the famous recipe cook Betty Crocker. The error was noticed when it was determined the newly commissioned work of art looked nothing like the first lady.
Government Leaders To Make Decisions Using Best Science Availiable Instead Of Old Method Of Presidential Gut Checks
One scientist was quoted as saying "this is a no brainer."
Friday, December 19, 2008
Historic Inauguration Rick Rolled Panties In A Knot Gay Media Work To Make Fat Ass Preacher With Ugly Goatee Only Thing We Will Remember
Popular and notable Gay Media types the likes of Rachael Maddow of MSNBC, Anderson Cooper at CNN and notable bloggers like John Aravosis at America Blog, and Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic Magazine have not been able to talk about much else since, as Maddow put it, "an angry gay community smarting over proposition 8" found out that Rick “fat ass” Warren had been chosen to give the invocation at the upcoming Obama inauguration.
Funny, I remember when no one gave a shit about an inaugural invocation. They'd usually have a Catholic priest Father Flanagan type get up there and say a few words about god watching over America and that he wanted Notre Dame to beat USC by two touchdowns in the Orange Bowl.
Knowing the Catholics like I do he probably held many of the same beliefs that Warren does today but no one even batted a eyebrow. The whole invocation was sort of irrelevant part of the ceremony. But not today in the touchy self interested modern world, because everything will be examined ad nauseam by every airhead TV personality and pajama-ed blogger.
Obama might be having second thoughts about picking Rick boy now, but it be far worse for him at this point if he tried to rescind the invitation. Looks like Obama, in a moment of rookie post partisan weakness, saw the invite of Warren as a gesture to America that all would be welcome at his table no matter how stupid their nonsensical religious beliefs may be, as long as they had some sort of constituency that seemed politically viable. Proving unmistakably once again, if nothing else, that Religion can ruin anything that’s good and worthwhile.
Thank you Christopher Hitchens! Who’d be my choice for the invocation, and I’m not even an atheist. I like him mainly because he'd be shocking and funny at the same time and probably leave all the evangelicals twisting in the wind contemplating the reason our founding fathers believed in the separation of church and state.
The uproar in the gay community seems to be headed in the direction of turning this historic moment of America installing it’s first black President into a full on let’s turn Rick Warren into the center of attention and have the media hanging on every word he says so we can dissect it's real meaning extravaganza.
If no one gave a shit about Rick Warren before this brouhaha, now he’s bound to be a household name and go on to probably raise millions of dollars while happily converting many thousands of new dodo heads into his bigoted flock. Thanks in part to overly outraged gays who should learn that sometimes it's good to ignore bad behavior and not throw the baby out with the bath water.
But, the animosity is well founded. Warren besides being an ugly fat ass, who looks like he needs to stop stopping at every buffet table he comes within 100 miles of, is your typical right wing anti gay fundamentalist type. But he garners a mighty sway with his fellow right wing religious fanatics types, and as fundamentalist go, I’m told he’s one of the more progressive on issues such as global warming and poverty. Obama claiming he wants to get things done saw that inviting Mr. “get rid of that fucking goatee” as a opportunity to garner support with Warren’s crowd and move forward where there maybe common ground.
By the way, my gaydar is picking up several blips on it’s screen every time I see Warren on TV giving one of his talks about what Jesus meant us to know about the human sexual response and how to suppress those natural sexual tendencies. Maybe he's really in the closet and that's the problem because as we know you hate and fear the things you suppress the most. Oh those nasty temptations.
But Obama badly under estimated the timing of the selection pickle he put himself in with the vocal panties in a knot over the passage of proposition 8 in California gay community. No more mister nice gay, one of the signs in a recent protest said or we’re really pissed about this and it’s not a good time to kick us while were down. It's like making bomb jokes at the airport.
I agree. It's not good to give people who don’t believe in equal rights such a big stage as the inauguration to reinforce their wacky belief systems. But I also think that the gay community has made its point and should use the opportunity to say fine have your freaking invocation fatso but what’s important is that we respectfully disagree and will eventually prevail and have our equal rights whether you like it or not. In effect claiming the high ground.
Now, let’s do what we came here for and celebrate our Democratic Party’s victory in the election and the historic nature of the President we are installing in office on this wonderful and historic day.
Funny, I remember when no one gave a shit about an inaugural invocation. They'd usually have a Catholic priest Father Flanagan type get up there and say a few words about god watching over America and that he wanted Notre Dame to beat USC by two touchdowns in the Orange Bowl.
Knowing the Catholics like I do he probably held many of the same beliefs that Warren does today but no one even batted a eyebrow. The whole invocation was sort of irrelevant part of the ceremony. But not today in the touchy self interested modern world, because everything will be examined ad nauseam by every airhead TV personality and pajama-ed blogger.
Obama might be having second thoughts about picking Rick boy now, but it be far worse for him at this point if he tried to rescind the invitation. Looks like Obama, in a moment of rookie post partisan weakness, saw the invite of Warren as a gesture to America that all would be welcome at his table no matter how stupid their nonsensical religious beliefs may be, as long as they had some sort of constituency that seemed politically viable. Proving unmistakably once again, if nothing else, that Religion can ruin anything that’s good and worthwhile.
Thank you Christopher Hitchens! Who’d be my choice for the invocation, and I’m not even an atheist. I like him mainly because he'd be shocking and funny at the same time and probably leave all the evangelicals twisting in the wind contemplating the reason our founding fathers believed in the separation of church and state.
The uproar in the gay community seems to be headed in the direction of turning this historic moment of America installing it’s first black President into a full on let’s turn Rick Warren into the center of attention and have the media hanging on every word he says so we can dissect it's real meaning extravaganza.
If no one gave a shit about Rick Warren before this brouhaha, now he’s bound to be a household name and go on to probably raise millions of dollars while happily converting many thousands of new dodo heads into his bigoted flock. Thanks in part to overly outraged gays who should learn that sometimes it's good to ignore bad behavior and not throw the baby out with the bath water.
But, the animosity is well founded. Warren besides being an ugly fat ass, who looks like he needs to stop stopping at every buffet table he comes within 100 miles of, is your typical right wing anti gay fundamentalist type. But he garners a mighty sway with his fellow right wing religious fanatics types, and as fundamentalist go, I’m told he’s one of the more progressive on issues such as global warming and poverty. Obama claiming he wants to get things done saw that inviting Mr. “get rid of that fucking goatee” as a opportunity to garner support with Warren’s crowd and move forward where there maybe common ground.
By the way, my gaydar is picking up several blips on it’s screen every time I see Warren on TV giving one of his talks about what Jesus meant us to know about the human sexual response and how to suppress those natural sexual tendencies. Maybe he's really in the closet and that's the problem because as we know you hate and fear the things you suppress the most. Oh those nasty temptations.
But Obama badly under estimated the timing of the selection pickle he put himself in with the vocal panties in a knot over the passage of proposition 8 in California gay community. No more mister nice gay, one of the signs in a recent protest said or we’re really pissed about this and it’s not a good time to kick us while were down. It's like making bomb jokes at the airport.
I agree. It's not good to give people who don’t believe in equal rights such a big stage as the inauguration to reinforce their wacky belief systems. But I also think that the gay community has made its point and should use the opportunity to say fine have your freaking invocation fatso but what’s important is that we respectfully disagree and will eventually prevail and have our equal rights whether you like it or not. In effect claiming the high ground.
Now, let’s do what we came here for and celebrate our Democratic Party’s victory in the election and the historic nature of the President we are installing in office on this wonderful and historic day.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
USA USA USA We're Number One!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
A Nation Of Sniveling Pussies Get What They Deserve
Will No One Arrest These Criminals, Harry Reid Must Go Pelosi Too And Screw A Truth Commission Go For Long Prison Terms And Restitution Because I Don't Support The Death Penalty But If I Did...
Well Dick Cheney comes on TV as says rather matter of fact that even if there were no WMD he thinks the war with Iraq would still of been worth it and necessary, "Saddam was a bad actor". Then he takes a breath and answers the next question about whether he approved torture and he says yes, and he do it again because yada, yada, fucking yada. End of story and now Keith says, "it time for the worst persons in the world".
It's always Bill O'Reilly, Russ Limbaugh, or Rupert Murdock which is not funny anymore . Aren't they suppose to retire the prize or something if you win it so many times in a row. Keith needs some new shtick when it comes to his personal Billy O'Reilly hating gambit. He kind of lowers himself to O'Reilly's level ever time he mentions the nitwit.
I bet two Catalan friends in Spain summer before last that Bush or Cheney and probably several others would be in jail within five years for the damn international crime spree they've been on the since coming to power. They disagreed and said that people like Cheney and Bush always get off.
Maybe in Spain my foreign friends but not in America for the law is suppose to be above politics as usual. My god my little amigos what would Thomas Jefferson think?
It's a fucking felonious crime my fellow citizens to do the things that Bush and Cheney have done. We just need someone with enough balls and integrity to prosecute their weaselling asses. Stop whining about how it going to tear us apart or that we need to go through a national girlie man healing process. What a total line of bull dung that would be.
The healing process that's called for by our constitution is: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW period.
Bush gets a shoe thrown at him in Iraq because he's lowered the presidency to the level where shoe throwing is now a feasibility demonstration by whomever. But I think we should not throw shoes here, we should be throwing the book at this SOB.
I said to my Catalan friends that it had to be because the fucking US constitution would have to be not worth the paper it was printed on if it didn't happen. How could people directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths including 4000 American military personal, all base on their personal whims, go un-prosecuted.
Am I some kook crying in the god damn wilderness here? You bet I am. But, if that asshole Cheney was standing here before me I have to make a citizens arrest of the bastard for murder and theft of billions even if I had to take his fat ass down doing it myself.
Wake up for Christ sake, is this America folks? Where is our freaking soul and sense of right and wrong. Who will be our champion to vanquish these criminal bastards. One things for sure it won't be the gutless Harry Reid and the second place most gutless Nancy Pelosi. These people are failed leaders. This go along to get along crap has got to stop.
Reid and Pelosi wake up in the morning ready to compromise their own freaking mother if it meant they be safe and protected in their highfalutin career paths . Weak and despicably without honor or much integrity, neither one. Reid and Pelosi continue to do the same thing over and over and we expect a different result which makes us all by definition insane. Their ruled by the powerful interest not the common folks interests and cannot be trusted farther then you can throw either one of them. Who in the hell chose them to be our leaders in the Congress.
Please god give us a fucking leader, anyone but these shells of nothingness. My Kingdom for a horse that will prosecute these felons.
But we all sit here while Rome is fucking burning going dum de dum de dum de fucking dum. I'm tired after travelling all over this damn country working for over a year to get Obama elected to just go on like it's time to play the flip side of the LP. What the fuck is wrong with us as a people anyway that we continue to take it in the ass from these people without even so much as a whimper. Hey hand me that Vaseline please, I'm ready for some more please!
Bush and Cheney must be prosecuted or respect for the rule of law and order means absolutely nothing. If their murder, mayhem and larceny go unaddressed we are spiritually and morally bankrupt as a country, Get it.
Are you listening Mr President Elect. I am that kooky voice you hear in your conscience over here crying in the darkness for justice. Screw a truth commission tell that special prosecutor to go for the maximum allowed under the LAW.
p.s. Can you get that guy at your office to stop sending me emails asking for donations. I'm totally tapped out since I dedicated my life and my spending money for the last twelve months to getting you elected. But thanks for the nice email message from you and Michelle saying that it was people like me that made it all possible and that this was really our victory. Nice touch by the way.
Well Dick Cheney comes on TV as says rather matter of fact that even if there were no WMD he thinks the war with Iraq would still of been worth it and necessary, "Saddam was a bad actor". Then he takes a breath and answers the next question about whether he approved torture and he says yes, and he do it again because yada, yada, fucking yada. End of story and now Keith says, "it time for the worst persons in the world".
It's always Bill O'Reilly, Russ Limbaugh, or Rupert Murdock which is not funny anymore . Aren't they suppose to retire the prize or something if you win it so many times in a row. Keith needs some new shtick when it comes to his personal Billy O'Reilly hating gambit. He kind of lowers himself to O'Reilly's level ever time he mentions the nitwit.
I bet two Catalan friends in Spain summer before last that Bush or Cheney and probably several others would be in jail within five years for the damn international crime spree they've been on the since coming to power. They disagreed and said that people like Cheney and Bush always get off.
Maybe in Spain my foreign friends but not in America for the law is suppose to be above politics as usual. My god my little amigos what would Thomas Jefferson think?
It's a fucking felonious crime my fellow citizens to do the things that Bush and Cheney have done. We just need someone with enough balls and integrity to prosecute their weaselling asses. Stop whining about how it going to tear us apart or that we need to go through a national girlie man healing process. What a total line of bull dung that would be.
The healing process that's called for by our constitution is: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW period.
Bush gets a shoe thrown at him in Iraq because he's lowered the presidency to the level where shoe throwing is now a feasibility demonstration by whomever. But I think we should not throw shoes here, we should be throwing the book at this SOB.
I said to my Catalan friends that it had to be because the fucking US constitution would have to be not worth the paper it was printed on if it didn't happen. How could people directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths including 4000 American military personal, all base on their personal whims, go un-prosecuted.
Am I some kook crying in the god damn wilderness here? You bet I am. But, if that asshole Cheney was standing here before me I have to make a citizens arrest of the bastard for murder and theft of billions even if I had to take his fat ass down doing it myself.
Wake up for Christ sake, is this America folks? Where is our freaking soul and sense of right and wrong. Who will be our champion to vanquish these criminal bastards. One things for sure it won't be the gutless Harry Reid and the second place most gutless Nancy Pelosi. These people are failed leaders. This go along to get along crap has got to stop.
Reid and Pelosi wake up in the morning ready to compromise their own freaking mother if it meant they be safe and protected in their highfalutin career paths . Weak and despicably without honor or much integrity, neither one. Reid and Pelosi continue to do the same thing over and over and we expect a different result which makes us all by definition insane. Their ruled by the powerful interest not the common folks interests and cannot be trusted farther then you can throw either one of them. Who in the hell chose them to be our leaders in the Congress.
Please god give us a fucking leader, anyone but these shells of nothingness. My Kingdom for a horse that will prosecute these felons.
But we all sit here while Rome is fucking burning going dum de dum de dum de fucking dum. I'm tired after travelling all over this damn country working for over a year to get Obama elected to just go on like it's time to play the flip side of the LP. What the fuck is wrong with us as a people anyway that we continue to take it in the ass from these people without even so much as a whimper. Hey hand me that Vaseline please, I'm ready for some more please!
Bush and Cheney must be prosecuted or respect for the rule of law and order means absolutely nothing. If their murder, mayhem and larceny go unaddressed we are spiritually and morally bankrupt as a country, Get it.
Are you listening Mr President Elect. I am that kooky voice you hear in your conscience over here crying in the darkness for justice. Screw a truth commission tell that special prosecutor to go for the maximum allowed under the LAW.
p.s. Can you get that guy at your office to stop sending me emails asking for donations. I'm totally tapped out since I dedicated my life and my spending money for the last twelve months to getting you elected. But thanks for the nice email message from you and Michelle saying that it was people like me that made it all possible and that this was really our victory. Nice touch by the way.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Bush Karma Tour "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog"
It's proof of the utter disconnect on the part of one of the major cable networks when you hear CNN reporters like Don Lemon asking rhetorically, "how could such a thing like this happen, and why would someone want to do such a thing?" The truth may hurt your narrow minded virgin American ears but if it does you should start to wake the fuck up.
BECAUSE IN THE EYES OF MANY IN THE WORLD YOUR PRESIDENT IS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE, YOU DIDDO HEAD!
That's how, and I think he's lucky it was only a shoe. What a disgusting little weasel, phony, wimp, chest pumped out so when you walk you look like you have a stick up you ass, shadow or a man this frat boy president really is on his Iraq victory tour, really!
Shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with Cairo-based network Al Baghdadia Television, should be given an award not demonized. Bush later compared it to someone giving you the finger when you drive by in a motorcade. Again showing his on going lack of understanding of middle eastern culture. Bush again and again misses the point entirely. Showing the sole of your shoe to someone and calling them a dog is an extreme insult in this culture.
Can anyone remember a more embarrassing moment for any American president in modern times happening naked before the world. Maybe daddy Bush puking his guts out at a state dinner in Japan is a distant second. George W. has lowered the prestige of the office he holds and represents to the world to an all time low.
Yes, good bye you DOG and good riddance! Go back to Crawford Texas or Dallas or wherever and crawl back under that rock you should of never come out from under in the first place.
Liar, thief, murderer!
BECAUSE IN THE EYES OF MANY IN THE WORLD YOUR PRESIDENT IS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE, YOU DIDDO HEAD!
That's how, and I think he's lucky it was only a shoe. What a disgusting little weasel, phony, wimp, chest pumped out so when you walk you look like you have a stick up you ass, shadow or a man this frat boy president really is on his Iraq victory tour, really!
Shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with Cairo-based network Al Baghdadia Television, should be given an award not demonized. Bush later compared it to someone giving you the finger when you drive by in a motorcade. Again showing his on going lack of understanding of middle eastern culture. Bush again and again misses the point entirely. Showing the sole of your shoe to someone and calling them a dog is an extreme insult in this culture.
Can anyone remember a more embarrassing moment for any American president in modern times happening naked before the world. Maybe daddy Bush puking his guts out at a state dinner in Japan is a distant second. George W. has lowered the prestige of the office he holds and represents to the world to an all time low.
Yes, good bye you DOG and good riddance! Go back to Crawford Texas or Dallas or wherever and crawl back under that rock you should of never come out from under in the first place.
Liar, thief, murderer!
Friday, December 12, 2008
It’s Simple Stupid If Your In The Market For A Car Buy American
Or how to ruin your Southern Republican right to work State Senator's day and help autoworkers everywhere.
The main problem with the auto industry crisis that’s somewhat overlooked is that no one is selling cars. Not the big 3 or the many foreign car makers that have non-union plants in the Southern US. Listening and reading about the crisis you'd think that the problem were only a domestic crisis. The fact is that aside from the general financial crisis, which has apparently put the American companies in danger of collapse more then the foreigners, it's a problem of Americans not buying the cars that are made in this country when they have access to the credit to do so.
The failure by democrats to pass a bridge loan bailout bill through the Senate was mainly because of Southern Senators opposition based on their regional protectionism concerns about the foreign car makers plants in their right to work states being organized at sometime in the future by the United Autoworkers Union. Not because of some ideological opposition base on a dislike of government intervention in the free market and union workers are over paid.
But that's the bullshit reason they'd like you to swallow and if your not outraged about it your not paying attention.
Next in line is your job.
What to do at this point is the question. I think the bigger problem is one of poor public relations by the car companies and the widespread misconception that all American cars are somehow inferior to their foreign competitors. Americans should realize that American made cars are not all the low quality gas-guzzlers that the public perception of them seems to be. The facts are that GM, Ford and Chrysler are now producing or on the verge of producing a number of really good vehicles with great mileage and generous warranty protection plans. I admit their not perfect, but the difference in quality is not enough for most Americans not to consider buying a American car.
My suggestion is that we show the foreign companies and their Republican lackeys they can’t just destroy the dignity of millions of American blue collar worker and their families. Blood should be thicker then any foreign car company indirect Republican shill front man’s Senator’s union busting manipulations of worker everywhere.
The sad reality, also mostly ignored by the media, is that most of these foreign car makers are locating their plants in US right to work States because they are trying to avoid labor union activity in their own countries. In fact, in most cases they can build cars in their US non-union Southern plants cheaper then they can build them in their own country because their foreign plants are heavily organized by unions. I wonder what autoworkers in unions in Germany, Korea and Japan think about the union busting going on here.
So, these foreign automakers themselves should be ultimately held responsible for exploiting workers everywhere.
That’s why Americans should wake up and start to address this double standard by these protectionist Republican Senators but also by the foreign car making companies too. So I say boycott the real exploiters of American auto workers and autoworkers throughout the world and buy American cars made by unionized workers.
The main problem with the auto industry crisis that’s somewhat overlooked is that no one is selling cars. Not the big 3 or the many foreign car makers that have non-union plants in the Southern US. Listening and reading about the crisis you'd think that the problem were only a domestic crisis. The fact is that aside from the general financial crisis, which has apparently put the American companies in danger of collapse more then the foreigners, it's a problem of Americans not buying the cars that are made in this country when they have access to the credit to do so.
The failure by democrats to pass a bridge loan bailout bill through the Senate was mainly because of Southern Senators opposition based on their regional protectionism concerns about the foreign car makers plants in their right to work states being organized at sometime in the future by the United Autoworkers Union. Not because of some ideological opposition base on a dislike of government intervention in the free market and union workers are over paid.
But that's the bullshit reason they'd like you to swallow and if your not outraged about it your not paying attention.
Next in line is your job.
What to do at this point is the question. I think the bigger problem is one of poor public relations by the car companies and the widespread misconception that all American cars are somehow inferior to their foreign competitors. Americans should realize that American made cars are not all the low quality gas-guzzlers that the public perception of them seems to be. The facts are that GM, Ford and Chrysler are now producing or on the verge of producing a number of really good vehicles with great mileage and generous warranty protection plans. I admit their not perfect, but the difference in quality is not enough for most Americans not to consider buying a American car.
My suggestion is that we show the foreign companies and their Republican lackeys they can’t just destroy the dignity of millions of American blue collar worker and their families. Blood should be thicker then any foreign car company indirect Republican shill front man’s Senator’s union busting manipulations of worker everywhere.
The sad reality, also mostly ignored by the media, is that most of these foreign car makers are locating their plants in US right to work States because they are trying to avoid labor union activity in their own countries. In fact, in most cases they can build cars in their US non-union Southern plants cheaper then they can build them in their own country because their foreign plants are heavily organized by unions. I wonder what autoworkers in unions in Germany, Korea and Japan think about the union busting going on here.
So, these foreign automakers themselves should be ultimately held responsible for exploiting workers everywhere.
That’s why Americans should wake up and start to address this double standard by these protectionist Republican Senators but also by the foreign car making companies too. So I say boycott the real exploiters of American auto workers and autoworkers throughout the world and buy American cars made by unionized workers.
Betty Page The Baby Boomer Male (And Female) Archetypical Ideal Of A Babe
Betty Page died yesterday in Los Angeles. Page was an icon of the 60's generation and our sexual revolution. I’ll admit I went through puberty at a time when Betty Page was at the peak of her career and remember as a young Irish Catholic school boy being somewhat conflicted about having a perplexing fondness for Betty and photos of Betty. Perhaps that’s why to me she always represented in many ways the ideal physicality and spirit that any healthy sound minded male who was naturally interested in girls would be looking for in a woman. She was perfect. In many ways I think I’m still looking for those Betty Page qualities in women I meet. That's why I think Page probably remains the gold standard female personification for many males and yes, many females born between 1945 and the mid 1960's.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
It All About Busting The Union Plain And Simple
Much like Ronald Reagan's busting of the Air traffic controllers union as one of his first official acts as President the Republican opposition to the automaker bailout is based totally on busting the UAW Unions.
The opposition to the bill is comprised of mostly Southern Senators with foreign car making plants located in their States. It's a blatant attempt to destroy the union's survival and with it the fear of the UAW ever organizing their State's non union scab plants. Their little way of keeping wages low and the worker in their place.
The opposition to the bill is comprised of mostly Southern Senators with foreign car making plants located in their States. It's a blatant attempt to destroy the union's survival and with it the fear of the UAW ever organizing their State's non union scab plants. Their little way of keeping wages low and the worker in their place.
Electronic Medical Records Will Be Key Part Of Obama Initial Healthcare Reform
I’m retired and with my regular bills I can’t afford to carry medical insurance. Like many Americans I considered myself to be in good health at the time I retired and hoped that I would be able to make it to 65 and Medicare eligibility without coverage. I was 60 at the time and it seemed like a reasonable gamble. I also hoped that in the interim government would finally realize it needed some form of national health insurance that would provide universal coverage to all. A concept I see as one that should be the right of all citizens.
Well I didn’t make it. Luckily I had a fall back plan. About two years ago I had a medical emergency when I was diagnosed with a blot clot in my lower leg. Since I’m a Vietnam era veteran with a military related disability and eligible for coverage I turned to the VA for medical treatment. In the course of follow up treatment of the clot, and the VA doctors attempts to find the cause, I was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer.
Today all I can say about it is thank god for the VA. The excellent treatment I received for the blood clot and the cancer ended in success. My blot clot has disappeared and so has my prostate cancer. My follow up screening indicates that the surgery was successful in removing the cancer and it has left me with little or no side effects associated with this type of surgery.
But the point I'd like to make here is that I became quite familiar with the VA medical delivery system, at least in the Puget Sound region, and so far I have been extremely impressed. Like many I had a skeptical concept of the VA before I went there for treatment. But, what I found was that the quality of care there was comparable or better in many cases then treatment in the private sector. One important example of innovations found at the VA is the working agreement that the VA hospitals in the Puget Sound Region have with the University of Washington Medical School and Harborview Medical Center. The doctor who perform my cancer surgery at the VA was actually a professor at the University of Washington Medical School who taught doctors how to perform prostate cancer surgery. Not bad eh when it comes to finding a qualified doctor?
In the mid 1990’s the VA health care system was in deep crisis when the then under secretary for health at the VA Kenneth Kizer began to work his magic. One of his many reforms was the computerization of the medical records of veterans. The system he help created has become the envy and model for all medical delivery systems not only in the United States but in the world. The cost savings were enormous and the access to individuals medical information has revolutionized medical treatment systems. For instance, I can go anywhere in the world where there is a VA health care facility and access my complete medical treatment history from the closest computer terminal.
This universal accessible medical records database also created a systematic way to tract such thing as population disease occurrence patterns as well as problem areas like medical error and more mundane areas like lab test results. The benefit derived from the continuity of care created by the electronic record system brought about major systemic benefits to the modern VA system. Computerized record keeping helped turn the VA into one of the most admired medical deliver systems in the world, saving lives and lowering costs substantially, as much as 25% per patient according to a number of studies.
At President Elect Obama press conference today naming Tom Daschle his Health and Human Services Director Obama responded to a question about where the money was coming from for health care reform, especially in light of the economic situation. The President elect said he would aim first to lower medical cost and attack areas were medical treatment can be made more efficient. This reform should bring about substantial cost savings making the creation of a national health care system more of a reality. At the center of this cost savings and efficiency will be the computerizing of your medical records.
Well I didn’t make it. Luckily I had a fall back plan. About two years ago I had a medical emergency when I was diagnosed with a blot clot in my lower leg. Since I’m a Vietnam era veteran with a military related disability and eligible for coverage I turned to the VA for medical treatment. In the course of follow up treatment of the clot, and the VA doctors attempts to find the cause, I was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer.
Today all I can say about it is thank god for the VA. The excellent treatment I received for the blood clot and the cancer ended in success. My blot clot has disappeared and so has my prostate cancer. My follow up screening indicates that the surgery was successful in removing the cancer and it has left me with little or no side effects associated with this type of surgery.
But the point I'd like to make here is that I became quite familiar with the VA medical delivery system, at least in the Puget Sound region, and so far I have been extremely impressed. Like many I had a skeptical concept of the VA before I went there for treatment. But, what I found was that the quality of care there was comparable or better in many cases then treatment in the private sector. One important example of innovations found at the VA is the working agreement that the VA hospitals in the Puget Sound Region have with the University of Washington Medical School and Harborview Medical Center. The doctor who perform my cancer surgery at the VA was actually a professor at the University of Washington Medical School who taught doctors how to perform prostate cancer surgery. Not bad eh when it comes to finding a qualified doctor?
In the mid 1990’s the VA health care system was in deep crisis when the then under secretary for health at the VA Kenneth Kizer began to work his magic. One of his many reforms was the computerization of the medical records of veterans. The system he help created has become the envy and model for all medical delivery systems not only in the United States but in the world. The cost savings were enormous and the access to individuals medical information has revolutionized medical treatment systems. For instance, I can go anywhere in the world where there is a VA health care facility and access my complete medical treatment history from the closest computer terminal.
This universal accessible medical records database also created a systematic way to tract such thing as population disease occurrence patterns as well as problem areas like medical error and more mundane areas like lab test results. The benefit derived from the continuity of care created by the electronic record system brought about major systemic benefits to the modern VA system. Computerized record keeping helped turn the VA into one of the most admired medical deliver systems in the world, saving lives and lowering costs substantially, as much as 25% per patient according to a number of studies.
At President Elect Obama press conference today naming Tom Daschle his Health and Human Services Director Obama responded to a question about where the money was coming from for health care reform, especially in light of the economic situation. The President elect said he would aim first to lower medical cost and attack areas were medical treatment can be made more efficient. This reform should bring about substantial cost savings making the creation of a national health care system more of a reality. At the center of this cost savings and efficiency will be the computerizing of your medical records.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Licata Flip Flops And Now Supports Streetcar Expansion
Apparently Seattle City Councilmen Nick Licata had a epiphany Sunday night and decided to change his earlier position in opposition voting Monday to support the plan to expanded the Seattle streetcar network. The plan was past by the council on Monday in a 6 to 3 vote.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Most People Who Believe In God Don’t Care If Atheists Don’t And Saturday Night Live Isn’t Really That Funny Anymore
Most people who believe in god are secure enough with that to not fear the atheist who doesn't. I'm sure the feeling is mutual. But no one in their right mind REALLY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT IT.
This is America and if you get upset by secular symbols your missing the point of freedom of thought which is one of the principles the country is suppose to be based on anyway. It's hard for rational people to understand what all the fuss is about over the different, and apparently competing religious and anti religious displays, at the State Capitol. I guess our bill of rights and constitution allow you to be as ignorant stupid and narrow minded as you want as long as you don’t interfere with my right not to be. Please!
NBC’s Saturday Night Live episodes ratings skyrocketed during the presidential campaign because of America fascination with Sara Palin and Tina Fey’s impersonation of the VP nominee. But without Fey's now departed spot on impersonations the show isn’t very funny anymore.
The Obama impersonation guy sucked and Amy Poehler's Hillary is lame and predictable. It appears that the only people who really like this show are people who live in New York and cable news talking heads who love to use it as banal filler content to counter their overly redundant shallow news reporting. The SNL sketches often fall completely flat. My suggestion for similar comedy would be MAD TV where the sketch writing and talent often leave SLN in the dust.
This is America and if you get upset by secular symbols your missing the point of freedom of thought which is one of the principles the country is suppose to be based on anyway. It's hard for rational people to understand what all the fuss is about over the different, and apparently competing religious and anti religious displays, at the State Capitol. I guess our bill of rights and constitution allow you to be as ignorant stupid and narrow minded as you want as long as you don’t interfere with my right not to be. Please!
NBC’s Saturday Night Live episodes ratings skyrocketed during the presidential campaign because of America fascination with Sara Palin and Tina Fey’s impersonation of the VP nominee. But without Fey's now departed spot on impersonations the show isn’t very funny anymore.
The Obama impersonation guy sucked and Amy Poehler's Hillary is lame and predictable. It appears that the only people who really like this show are people who live in New York and cable news talking heads who love to use it as banal filler content to counter their overly redundant shallow news reporting. The SNL sketches often fall completely flat. My suggestion for similar comedy would be MAD TV where the sketch writing and talent often leave SLN in the dust.
Licata Obstructs Progress On Expanding Streetcar
Seattle City Council member Nick Licata once again has demonstrated his tendency to stand in the way of any viable rapid transit idea that comes up in the City of Seattle. It plays into his long history of obstructing progress and taking the political course of least resistance.He’s predictably happy to always present a narrow-minded small idea counter proposal to any idea that’s bold or forward thinking. Licata single-handedly is probably the council member most responsible for Seattle's laughable nationwide reputation as the champion of major cities when it comes to lots of talk an little or no action.
He was against a progressive option during the Viaduct vote and invariably ends up against just about anything that reflects original thinking or the least bit of risk of his personal political capital. If Licata were in charge of the Lewis and Clark expedition it still be stuck in Saint Louis. Licata’s addiction to parochial and dated group think stifles the life out of the city and has a history of strangling the baby in it’s crib on every worthwhile and progressive idea that comes before the City Council.
The current controversy is about expanding the streetcar lines throughout the city. Licata opposes it because he’s worried about where the money will come from rather then getting off his ass and finding the funding necessary to build it. He is also worried about whether the riders will actually ride a streetcar.
Well if you build streetcar lines in neighborhoods that actually have people in them instead of exclusively in just Paul Allen urban renewal south Lake Union neighborhood I’d venture to guess that you’ll get your riders. It also seems to me that since the Obama administration is about to spend billions on infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy that as a politician it would behoove Licata to be out there getting the GD money to expand the streetcar lines rather then falling back on his habit of whining about what we can’t do.
God it may put someone to work and create a green transit system that better reflects what a great city Seattle can be instead of the shitty carbon based bus system that Licata apparently thinks is just fine.
I know Licata is still the pet of many of Seattle’s liberals who are apparently most impressed by the last person they talk to since they continue to vote for this guy like sheep being lead to the slaughter. Licata’s small time ideas are outdated. Seattle needs better and bolder leaders now more then ever. Leaders who are willing to take political positions that demonstrate real leadership and new thinking, not the play it safe political course of least resistance that have personify Licata's tenure as a member of the dinosaur faction of the city council.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Senator Richard Shelby Is A Lying Union Busting Sack Of Shit
Alabama Senator Richard Shelby seldom mentions the massive government subsidies the State Of Alabama paid to get Mercedes Benz to open a plant there while he's attacking a bailout for American car makers.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
American Workers Live In Fear Of Their Paternalistic Employer’s Phony Authority
“Take my freaking soul boss, I have no use for it”.
American workers have become gutless undignified tools living in fear of their employers every whim. Thankful they can just show up and work for near minimum wage and if their lucky lick enough boot to also receive a shitty health insurance package with a $5000 deductible.
You may as well be dead.
People like anti union Senator Richard Shelby from the right to work State of Alabama and his fellow Republican working class ball busting buddy South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford take great pride in complaining about workers who make more then $10 dollars per hour. They equivocate it to extortion that working stiffs could actually make an average of $28 dollars per hour like union autoworkers do.
Oh my fucking god, can you imagine actually making $28 bucks an hour!
Then there’s Mitt Romney, another lying sack of shit politician born with a silver spoon in his mouth nonchalantly going on how he’d strip the pensions of thousands of autoworkers as part of his answer on how to save the US auto industry. I guess it’s easy for him to say, but what about the thousands of workers who’s pensions are at stake who believed they had a binding contract with their employer made in good faith and based on years and years of showing up and working their butts off producing the employers products.
Look at the States these people like Shelby and Sanford represent and you’ll find they’re some of the most unfavorable for income levels. In 2007 Alabama ranked 47th and South Carolina ranked 42nd. By the way heavily unionized and forward thinking Washington ranks number 11. Surveys show that states with larger numbers of union members consistently rank higher in wages then states with low numbers of union members.
The main goal of the Shelby's of this world is to bust unions so States like Alabama can continue to have the anti-union heavily tax payer subsidized foreign auto companies producing cars there that cost less because of the exploitation of the unrepresented lower wage happy as a clam don't ever complain local workers. One must also understand that the comparably higher wages paid by the right to work State non union automakers are the direct result of fear by the company of being organized by the union.
But the bigger problem, as I see it, is that most workers who would benefit from a union as strong and effective as the UAW representing them don’t get it either. They’ve been taught and condition to think of themselves as the rugged individual who will rise to the top on the basis of his own merit. Not as a class of workers who have more in common with each others well being as a group then their phony paternalistic boss would like to programmed them to believe.
Sure some workers will rise to the top but most won't. The game for the employer is to make everyone believe that it's possible for everyone to become part of management if they kiss ass and keep their nose clean and management uses the group think as a way to keep all employees in line and in fear of ever questioning the boss's authority or their ability to play a part in controlling their wages or working conditions.
Proof of this widespread ignorance is the recent survey over 60% of the people who were asked thought the auto company should not be bailed out. Basically willing to allow millions of workers to loss their livelihood because they can't get their freaking heads around what's actually happening here.
The president of the United Steal Workers Leo W Gerard says that no one gives a shit about the “people who have to shower after work.” But they give billions of dollars no strings attached “to the people who shower before they go to work.” At least the automakers are promising to pay the loans back here.
The myth of over paid autoworkers being to blame is just plain bullshit. The additional myth that American car companies are making inferior cars is also mostly bullshit. But it difficult to figure out for the typical no nothing and believe everything I hear American.
Most of these people are the same ones you hear complaining about unionized construction workers they see taking a break on the side of the highway. They’ll complain endlessly about how these workers are overpaid or lazy. But what they are really saying is I wish I had that type of security and good wages instead of working like a dog for the low wage I get. Meanwhile I’m in constant fear of being fired if I don’t kiss the employer ass on a daily basis. It’s every man and woman for himself or herself. These workers have literally sold their souls and dignity so they can live from paycheck to paycheck working at their crummy job. That they'd probably be better off losing given the destruction it does to their psyche.
I admit that unions are not perfect and maybe if your some hi-tech nerd you MAY not need a union. It’s been my experience that most blue collar workers do. One must admit that the labor movement has in fact improved the working conditions of workers they represent in most cases, and that has had the direct effect of raising every worker’s boat whether they are union or not.
So wake up and stop bashing the workers and their unions for exercising their right to earn a decent wage, health care benefits or a damm pension to retire with in dignity just because your too dam scared and uninformed to fight for your own rights and dignity as a worker.
American workers have become gutless undignified tools living in fear of their employers every whim. Thankful they can just show up and work for near minimum wage and if their lucky lick enough boot to also receive a shitty health insurance package with a $5000 deductible.
You may as well be dead.
People like anti union Senator Richard Shelby from the right to work State of Alabama and his fellow Republican working class ball busting buddy South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford take great pride in complaining about workers who make more then $10 dollars per hour. They equivocate it to extortion that working stiffs could actually make an average of $28 dollars per hour like union autoworkers do.
Oh my fucking god, can you imagine actually making $28 bucks an hour!
Then there’s Mitt Romney, another lying sack of shit politician born with a silver spoon in his mouth nonchalantly going on how he’d strip the pensions of thousands of autoworkers as part of his answer on how to save the US auto industry. I guess it’s easy for him to say, but what about the thousands of workers who’s pensions are at stake who believed they had a binding contract with their employer made in good faith and based on years and years of showing up and working their butts off producing the employers products.
Look at the States these people like Shelby and Sanford represent and you’ll find they’re some of the most unfavorable for income levels. In 2007 Alabama ranked 47th and South Carolina ranked 42nd. By the way heavily unionized and forward thinking Washington ranks number 11. Surveys show that states with larger numbers of union members consistently rank higher in wages then states with low numbers of union members.
The main goal of the Shelby's of this world is to bust unions so States like Alabama can continue to have the anti-union heavily tax payer subsidized foreign auto companies producing cars there that cost less because of the exploitation of the unrepresented lower wage happy as a clam don't ever complain local workers. One must also understand that the comparably higher wages paid by the right to work State non union automakers are the direct result of fear by the company of being organized by the union.
But the bigger problem, as I see it, is that most workers who would benefit from a union as strong and effective as the UAW representing them don’t get it either. They’ve been taught and condition to think of themselves as the rugged individual who will rise to the top on the basis of his own merit. Not as a class of workers who have more in common with each others well being as a group then their phony paternalistic boss would like to programmed them to believe.
Sure some workers will rise to the top but most won't. The game for the employer is to make everyone believe that it's possible for everyone to become part of management if they kiss ass and keep their nose clean and management uses the group think as a way to keep all employees in line and in fear of ever questioning the boss's authority or their ability to play a part in controlling their wages or working conditions.
Proof of this widespread ignorance is the recent survey over 60% of the people who were asked thought the auto company should not be bailed out. Basically willing to allow millions of workers to loss their livelihood because they can't get their freaking heads around what's actually happening here.
The president of the United Steal Workers Leo W Gerard says that no one gives a shit about the “people who have to shower after work.” But they give billions of dollars no strings attached “to the people who shower before they go to work.” At least the automakers are promising to pay the loans back here.
The myth of over paid autoworkers being to blame is just plain bullshit. The additional myth that American car companies are making inferior cars is also mostly bullshit. But it difficult to figure out for the typical no nothing and believe everything I hear American.
Most of these people are the same ones you hear complaining about unionized construction workers they see taking a break on the side of the highway. They’ll complain endlessly about how these workers are overpaid or lazy. But what they are really saying is I wish I had that type of security and good wages instead of working like a dog for the low wage I get. Meanwhile I’m in constant fear of being fired if I don’t kiss the employer ass on a daily basis. It’s every man and woman for himself or herself. These workers have literally sold their souls and dignity so they can live from paycheck to paycheck working at their crummy job. That they'd probably be better off losing given the destruction it does to their psyche.
I admit that unions are not perfect and maybe if your some hi-tech nerd you MAY not need a union. It’s been my experience that most blue collar workers do. One must admit that the labor movement has in fact improved the working conditions of workers they represent in most cases, and that has had the direct effect of raising every worker’s boat whether they are union or not.
So wake up and stop bashing the workers and their unions for exercising their right to earn a decent wage, health care benefits or a damm pension to retire with in dignity just because your too dam scared and uninformed to fight for your own rights and dignity as a worker.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Tina Fey Girl Gone Wild
In a effort to play the sex appeal card Tina Fey is dancing and not wearing as much clothing. See her dance here.
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