1/27/2005:   I keep hearing people say things like, "Surely Bush won't do X because that would hurt the poor/children/seniors." And I have to shake my head because these are people that just don't get it.

Now pay attention, because I'm about to give you the single piece of information that will explain everything Bush does.

Bush believes that those who possess political, social, and hard currency in large amounts are higher up the social evolutionary paramid. These people at the top of the food chain, by merit of their various forms of accumulated currency, have shown themselves to be more successful at survival than those of lesser social, financial, and political status. Those of lesser status are therefore of lesser importance and subject to the whims of those above them. This view assumes that a person's worth is measured by their might, and like beasts of burden, those low enough on the food chain have no real value to those higher up except as another type of resource.

That's it. That's the single piece of information without which most people in America find themselves confused and upset over Bush's decisions. His lies, his deceipt, his stated goals as opposed to the actual results of his actions, they all make sense so long as you use the correct filter through which to view them. And that filter, stated another way, is that Bush believes that he has a right to use people lower on the food chain as he sees fit, and no duty to protect and provide for those people except as it maintains the lifestyles of those he considers the elite. Like cows: you make sure they have enough food and water, but you don't set them up with water beds and gold trimmed porcelain toilets. They are, after all, sources of food, leather, and raw materials for various other industries. Bush sees you and me as resources not unlike a nation of cows, horses, chickens, etc.

The children of the elite are not drafted. Except in rare cases, they do not volunteer for military duty -- military school and West Point do not count.

The children of the elite have no need for Social Security. That plan is a safety net for those that have become old or infirm, or to protect the children of those that have died or can no longer provide. This serves no immediate and tangible purpose for the elite. Force people to put their money into private investment accounts, and what have you done? You've taken money away from the government and put it in the hands of the elite. Give your money to the rich and hope you get it back when you need it. You just have to hope your investments survive better than you do, otherwise you'll be in the poor house. What's that? There are no poor houses now? You say those went away long ago? Yes, that's true. They went away back when we decided that people weren't too good at investing their own money for retirement and created Social Security. Don't worry.... They'll be back.

The children of the elite don't have to sue doctors. If they are harmed by the negligence or incompetence of a doctor, the only reason they have for suing is revenge. They will never need to worry about being able to provide. Their various investments will take care of that. But some of the elite either are doctors or are involved in the business end of the medical industry. By capping medical malpractice awards, Bush protects the elite and takes money away from people that deserve to be protected from gross malfeasance.

The children of the elite have no worries when it comes the environment. They will always be able to buy whatever they need or want. Extinction of species is considered inevitable and, frankly, not their problem. The only survival they're worried about is their own. The more pressing need for them is to be able to continue to run their various businesses. These require raw materials and energy, and the flow of these items is essential to the elite's survival. When food becomes scarce, only the rich will be able to afford to eat. When water becomes too polluted to drink, only the elite will be able to afford to drink clean water. When global warming destroys great swaths of the animal diaspora and turns green land arid, housing prices in areas that still have moderate weather and sufficient farming capabilities will skyrocket, and only the rich will be able to afford it. Too bad for the rest of us.

The children of the elite will always have a good education. The very best private schools and tutors can be had. Books, supplies, teacher to student ratio, lunches, after school programs, these are not issues for those high up on the food chain.

By stirring the international pot and fomenting terrorism in the remains of the torn Middle Eastern families affected by Bush's war policies, he creates several advantages for the elite:

• Distraction. The people lower on the food chain will be focused on a foreign enemy rather than on domestic injustices.
• Access to foreign resources. Those that would prevent U.S. access to oil reserves have been disrupted. By overthrowing Saddam Hussein, Bush has thrown the Iraqis into a civil war. The more civilians die, whether at the hands of U.S. troops or insurgents, the more governments around the Middle East that support the U.S. come under fire. It won't be long before the Saudi government is overthrow by those that direly hate the westernized Saudi royal family and their support for the U.S.
• Access to domestic resources. Create enough noise on the news with the war and with nation building's meager successes and mighty failures, and news that the administration is passing legislation allowing for drilling on Alaska's enviromentally sensitive North Slope slips right by the American public. Preserving species and keeping our environment clean are issues that do not elicit corrective motivation when images of social unrest and dying soldiers and innocent civilians immediately precede and follow that news clip.
• Funding for the war machine. Businesses that provide equipment and artillery for the Military are flush with billions of dollars in tax money garnered from the folks lower on the food chain. The elite are shoveling war funds into their pockets as quickly as their accountants can make the deposits.

Bush is using the soldiers of our military as tools. They fight, they die, they are expendable, and isn't that a shame? So long as the public continues to believe that we have a mission to complete, which of course isn't the mission we set out to complete, but is the mission of the moment. Don't forget we had a mission to complete in finding Osama bin Laden, but there wasn't any money in it and it wasn't distracting enough after a while. And the public needs to be focused on other things so Bush can continue to pillage our resources and our social programs to the advantage of those higher up the food chain.

Hopefully, at some point, the Democratic party will start pointing out these facts to the American public. Hopefully the DNC will realize that, although they will probably hear retorts that the DNC has as many of the elite as the GOP as members, that they must use that criticism to their advantage, pointing out they have chosen, regardless of their status, to live by the social contract in spirit as well as in letter, whereas their GOP counterparts have become little more than pirates, using their status to pillage and plunder at the expense of our childrens' futures.

1/27/2005:   I found a very interesting page that deals with the election in 2008. The author of the site feels the way I do about the 2000 election, and it has a very interesting section about the South/West Factor (which I'd heard of but couldn't have described it to you from memory). I don't completely agree with him about the best candidates for 2008. The more I think about it, the more I think that it's quite possible that Hillary messed herself up by running for a Senate seat in New York. That sort of move makes any politician look opportunistic and disloyal. I'm not saying that if you're a politician you can't relocate and then represent your new home; I'm saying that it makes you look disloyal. Purely a gut reaction, but it's how I feel and I think it probably strikes a lot of people the same way. Anyway, he doesn't mention Barbara Boxer or Diane Feinstein, and I would think either one would make a great President. I most certainly feel that we've come far enough and have more than enough qualified, seasoned women politicians to choose from. This site had a poll for people to choose which politician they'd vote for, but it was limited to only a specific set of politicians or "Other". Not very open-minded, I'd say.

But what I found most interesting was the part about the 2008 GOP field, especially since it assumes that Cheney won't make the attempt (did I mention he's an evil looking bastard?). Check it out:

http://members.aol.com/ourprez08/gop.html

1/27/2005:   Juan Manuel Alvarez wanted to kill himself because his life sucks. He managed to wound himself a bit, but couldn't bring himself to actually attempt suicide. So he parked his Jeep on the train tracks and waited for a train to do the dirty work he couldn't have the spine to do. But then he changed his mind. Rather than start the car and drive away, he got out of the car and wandered off, just in time to watch the Metrolink train collide with the car, derail, collide with another train parked nearby, and kill 11 people and wound 200 more. Death, destruction, lives ended and forever altered, and all because this putz isn't man enough to take care of his own business.

They say one guy trapped in the train used his own blood to scrawl a goodbye to his family.

Damn.

Y'know, I believe in assisted suicide. I think we should put this guy in a room with the relatives of those that were hurt and killed. Give it about, oh, 15 minutes? Then open the door and pass out moist toilettes to those coming out. Mr. Alvarez will get what he wanted, those affected by his actions will get justice -- it's a win-win.

1/18/2005:   Bush said that the U.S. needs, "better human intelligence." Sounds like an admission, no?

What he was referring to was better military intelligence, but what we really need is better intelligence in the White House. And to get that we're going to need for the American people to exercise more intelligence and less ignorance and fear when electing a President.

So yeah, he's right for once. We need more human intelligence. Bush, would you care to start?

1/18/2005:   Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani says Iran does not fear attack. He said today that, "We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our military capabilities due to our ability to implement flexible strategies," and, "The United States is well aware that Iran has strongly withstood U.S. pressure for over 25 years ... Today, the Islamic Republic has acquired massive military might, the dimensions of which still remain unknown, and is prepared to attack any intruder with a fearsome rain of fire and death," it said.

Is this guy related to the Iraqi Minister of Information?

"The U.S. and Israel know that they can never militarily challenge Iran, since attacking the Islamic Republic would be biting off more than they could chew and would only choke them if they attempted it," it added.

Yeah, right.

I have no doubt that we could wipe out Iraq's air capabilities within a week. I have no doubt that we could wipe out all their large scale land machinery in three weeks. Given our technological capabilities, we'd make short shrift of Iran's "massive military might." Look, we've shown that having a huge pile of old stuff doesn't help when the U.S. comes swooping down on your sorry dusty butt with the latest tech and training.

But let's be clear: we do not have the manpower it would take to put Iran down in a decisive way. That just doesn't exist. We also do not have the foreign relations to build a coalition against Iran. Bush burned that like a millionaire burning a widow's pension check to light his cigar. If we so much as look at Iran wrong, we're going to have every second rate terrorist wannabe joining up with the likes of al Qaeda the very next day.

But then, George Bush and his Neo-Con masters aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree, now are they, and they could not care less how many average Americans die to rearrange the political geography of the world. You folks are just toy soldiers on a play board. Our government is being used like a really ugly version of "Risk" for grown-ups. Who knows what they're willing to do with your children's lives?

1/18/2005:   Condoleezza Rice is getting punched around a bit as Democrats take advantage of an opportunity to put hard questions to Rice in a public forum during her confirmation hearing for Secretary of State. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, awesome Congressional force and hot senatorial babe, came right out and said that Rice's constant boot-licking for Bush had "overwhelmed your respect for the truth." Rice replied, "I have never, ever, lost respect for the truth in the service of anything."

Cough-cough-(bullshit!)-cough....

She later told Boxer, "I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity." Honey, the conflicts in your own public statements impugn your integrity. Barbara Boxer is just telling the truth on you. You are Bush's lapdog. I'm sure you'll do a better job than Powell did in your new job because he clearly had problems resolving his moral compass against Bush's agenda.

Boxer came right out said that Rice's statements now about nukes in Iraq were in direct conflict with what she is on video as saying one year ago.

"This is a pattern here of what I see from you," Boxer said. "It's very troubling. ... It's hard for me to let go of this war because people are still dying." And will continue to die every single day because Bush lied his ass off to... ahem... anyway...

Among other things, Boxer pointed out that no one in the Bush administration has been unwilling to admit mistakes -- including going to war over weapons of mass destruction found later not to exist. Perhaps that's because they weren't inclined to admit to something they knew they were lying about to begin with?

Rice insisted the war in Iraq was not launched solely over WMD. Saddam Hussein, she said, welcomed terrorists (bullshit, he told Osama to get out because he didn't want to share his power with the Taliban), attacked his own neighbors (about a decade ago) and paid suicide bombers in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians (which has absolutely nothing to do with us, and which every Arab state is guilty of).

But Boxer said the bill passed by Congress authorizing the war in Iraq was, "WMD, period." Damn straight. And the language about nuclear weapons was the deciding factor for everyone in the U.S. from the halls of Congress to the average American Joe and Jane.

"Let's not rewrite history, its too soon for that," she said. Amen!

John Kerry said, "You are going to be confirmed, and everybody knows that. Whether or not it is with my vote is yet to be determined. I have reservations." And that's why I don't want Kerry to run again. He ran a lousy campaign, and now he's walking around like a fresh eunuch. No balls, totally spineless. If he had a spine, he'd have stood up and said, "You are going to be confirmed, and everybody knows that, but you're not doing it with my vote you lying bitch!" Now THAT's making a stand!

He said that he had talked to leaders in a number of Arab and European countries, who told him that they had offered to do more to help in Iraq, but that those offers were rebuffed.

Rice conceded the nation faces "tactical challenges" and acknowledged some bad decisions were made, but said she was unaware that any offers of help from other nations had been rejected.

Cough-cough-(bullshit!)-cough....

1/18/2005:   Dana Alexander, an archaeologist, has dug up fragments of stone jars in a location that may be the original location of Cana, the town where the story of Jesus' first miracle is said to have taken place. Stone jars were found there, and there's a bit of stir as to whether that may be the original location of Cana or whether it's several miles away under present day Cana.

So what, you ask? So CNN keeps reporting this under the title, "Dig May Uncover Water To Win Miracle." No, it may uncover a bunch of broken stone jars, just like those used all over the world at that time, some stairs, some floors, the bases of some walls, and that's about it. But uncovering a miracle? Come on guys, you can do better than that.

There are no WMDs.
Never were.
No chemical weapons.
No biological weapons.
No nuclear weapons.
No possible "mushroom clouds."
Bush lied to you.
Cheney lied to you.
Condoleeza Rice lied to you.
Colin Powell lied to you.
Donald Rumsfeld lied to you.
I told you Bush was lying.
And you didn't listen.
You believed his lies.
You focused on his propoganda.
You allowed yourself to be fooled.
You re-elected him.
You elected a liar and a murderer by proxy.

1/18/2005:   Barbara Boxer is this month's Spine Award Recipient. This award is given to the person or persons who demonstrate an unusual and public loyalty to the truth against all odds and in spite of possible repercussions. Ted Kennedy has been a frequent recipient of this award, and most often when he's deconstructing the subterfuge of the Bush administration. Today, Barbara Boxer has risen to the top of the class with her public flogging of Condoleeza Rice as a representative of that same administration, one who was an outspoken banner waver in the push to obtain Congress' buy-in for military action against Iraq on the sole basis of the existence of multiple WMD programs including but not limited to nuclear weapons, a story which has turned out to be utterly and without exception devoid of any truth. Barbara Boxer whipped Rice like a bad dog, much to the bubbling delight of every intelligent, peace loving person in this nation and across the world.

If Hillary Clinton doesn't run for President, then by God, Barbara Boxer should!

1/17/2005:   Apparently there's a bit of a security crisis in Washington, D.C. It seems that, for whatever reason, the Secret Service is worried about the limousines that will be in the vicinity of the President at the inauguration. I just have one thing to say to anyone thinking of riding up in a darkened limo, leaning out the window, and taking a crack at the Monkey Faced Frat Boy, and it's this:

PLEASE OH PLEASE DON'T KILL GEORGE BUSH!

I mean, look at Cheney!! Now *that's* one evil looking bastard. At least with George I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually understand the full implications of what he's doing. He's fully invested in preservation of himself and his power base. He just obeys his orders from the Neo-Cons and gets rewarded with a cookie now and then. With Dick Cheney, he knows exactly what the Neo-Con's ambitions are leading us up to, and he fully embraces the direction they're taking us in.

I wanna say it one more time: Evil looking bastard. Man, it feels good to get that out. Dick Cheney: Evil Looking Bastard. Oh, yea....

1/17/2005:   I've made a conscious decision to never watch Fox again. I dont' give a rats butt what show they come up with. Rupert Murdock can kiss my Levi's wearing butt, along with his so-called "Fair And Balanced" news. What a joke. Even dyed in wool, foaming at the mouth, red boxer wearing Republicans have admitted that Fox News is anything but fair and balanced. Talk about yellow journalism. Those people should be ashamed of themselves. News my foot.

And Bill O'Reilly.... aw hell, why be polite? Bill O'Reilly can kiss my ass. What a Bush-worshipping, suck-up asshole. Bill O'Reilly has made a living out of recycling Rush Limbaugh's schtick -- all talk, all gas, all flame, but no heat. Bill O'Reilly will throw stastics around like they're pocket change and we're all beggars, but throw real facts at him and he ducks and dodges like a punch drunk, over the hill, hound dog faced boxer in pancake. Bill is proof that if you can perfect the I-know-everything-and-you-know-nothing-you-scumbag look, there's someone somewhere that will give you a job no matter how stupid you actually are. Especially Rupert Murdock if you aim your puddle deep wit in favor of the ultra right wing Neo-Con Republicans.

Hey, Bill! Where are the WMDs? Guess what? He doesn't know. But he's not man enough to admit they were never there and his President lied his balls off about them. Bill should feel like a fool, but he's too stupid to understand that. Bite me, Billy O.

1/17/2005:   Today CNN reported that Kraft Foods, the makers of Oreos and Jello, have decided to stop targeting kids with their ads. They said they are, "adjusting our business practices," and replacing kid-oriented ads with messages about their "Sensible solutions."

Man, that's got to be the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time.

If shares of Kraft don't fall right through the floor, I can't imagine why not. The entire management and marketing staff should be dragged kicking and squealing like little girls from the building, their stock options revoked, their bonuses retracted, their ties cut off mid-chest, and their plaques burned lest any evidence remain of their tenure.

Kids don't make dietary decisions, parents do. And parents buy what kids want. And kids want what they see on TV. It's about that simple. It's not a tough equation and, with the help of Bill Cosby pushing Jello products and generations of kids unscrewing Oreos to eat the creme filling first, Kraft is sitting on a sugar filled and coated gold mine. One which they apparently are just plain tired of trying to find new ways to spend. So they're committing marketing suicide by touting the nutritional aspects of their various offerings.

What putz came up with that idea? It reminds me of DHL's decision in the early '90s to stop advertising in the U.S. and rely on direct in-house marketing. The Americas super region died a truly horrible death before DHL was purchased outright by Deutsche Post, combined with Airborne Express, and marched back into the limelight to shake up the shipping business in the States. Now when I tell people I used to work for them they don't say, "Who?"

Stop marketing to your target market? Dumb. Really dumb.

1/16/2005:   Last night I heard Karel, a talk show host on KGO who I'm quickly getting to really like, describe Democrats as "Bush's battered wife". That line just cracked me up. It's so true. Karel was on a tear about Bush and popped that one off. Too funny...

Ok, so I skipped writing in December the way I do almost every year because, frankly, the holiday season just wears me completely out. But now that I'm on, let's recap, shall we?

No weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration took advantage of the media flood of coverage on the tsunami in the Indian Ocean to quietly announce that the search for WMDs would cease as it appeared there never were any. He lied, I kept saying he did, I screamed it at everyone that would listen leading up to the election, and 59 million people didn't care. See right panel.

Grilled cheese sandwich watch: Today I grilled up two sandwiches for my kids. The first one looked like Pete Wilson (the TV and talk show host) on one side and Ghandi on the other. The second one looked like Ahnold Schwarzenpoobah on one side, and on the other side it looked like Ahnold but with long fake eyelashes. I dunno, the second sandwich seems to contain a message, although I'm not sure what it is....

Osama bin Laden. Still on the loose because Bush looked at Saddam's oil fields and decided that the 3000 people killed on 9/11 just didn't compare. Now Osama is America's #1 political pundit, and is the only man in history to make terrorism a viable alternative with a 10,000:1 ROI. This cave dwelling lice factory makes George Bush look like a complete moron and a wimp, and George is too busy destroying America to care. I know where Osama is. Ready? This is my prediction: He's in Pakistan. Yup, that's right, the original source of the Taliban, a nation formed by splitting India down the middle to house the Muslim population, a nation that from the word "Be" has hated western civilization, a nation that almost as a whole loves Osama and hates the U.S. I know, half of you are yawning as if to say, No duh, while roughly 59 million of you are amazed by my oracular powers. That same 59 million people, who by the way have no idea what the word "oracular" means, just happen to be the same dim-witted folks that voted Bush back into power.

1/16/2005:   So next we're going to attack Iran. At least that's what's on the news. Folks, I have argued before, and I have to stand by it, that the U.S. is in no position to attack Iran. We have used up our military machine. We have neither the people nor the equipment to attack Iran. The tacky truth is, George used up his military currency on a useless war. I suppose he could start bombing Iran, but unless you intend to repave the whole darn thing with a nuke, all you're going to do is create a HUGE wave of terrorists. This isn't like Iraq -- Iranians are by and large fundamentalist Muslims and they will go nuts seeking revenge. Have you forgotten the hostage crisis of the 1970's? I haven't, and there are, I hope, enough people left who do remember to fight this. There's something to be said for letting sleeping bears lie. If you want to get rid of a wasp nest before it gets too big, you don't hit it with a stick. You wipe it out completely or you don't bother. Same here.

Since we simply don't have the resources or economy to support another war, I'm guessing that, as stupid as Bush is, even he won't be able to wage a war against Iran.

Then again, 59+ million people gave a liar and murderer his job back so he could do it some more. That sends a powerful message to an evil man like Bush. Maybe he'll really take us into Armageddon after all... stupid git.

1/16/2005:   Georgia schools must begin removing stickers from text books that claim that evolution is a theory and that the student should keep an open mind when considering the evolutionary model.

I think that's great because, at the heart of the matter is the old creationism vs. evolution debate, and I personally don't agree with creationism. There is no evidence of creationism and all the evidence points to evolution. Some would argue for intelligent design, which amounts to assisted evolution. Ok, whatever.

But having said that, I don't see what the big deal is. Of course evolution is a theory. So is electromagnetism, relativity, and gravity, but these are so abstract that no one argues with them anymore than they would argue with the stipulation that the world is round. Ask someone what electricity is and more than likely they'll start to describe something no one has ever actually seen, the electron. But no one would dream of saying that electricity is the fire of the gods coursing through the metal wires.

I guess it comes down to not giving a single inch to a group of people who want so badly to believe in something they've never seen that they'll ignore the evidence laid before their very eyes.

1/16/2005:   Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, in defense of Tim Roemer, a candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committe, said the party should remember that, "George Bush is the enemy." But while the Monkey Faced Frat Boy poses the greatest threat to the American way of life since Osama bin Laden and disco, he is not the DNC's enemy. The GOP is. Bush was a lame duck as soon as he got elected. He will never be elected President again.

No, the DNC's own worst enemy is... The DNC. They need to recognize that Bush won by playing on people's fears and their hatred. Gay marriage, abortion, the 2nd Amendment, these were nothing to fear, but Gee Dub used them like crowbars to pry people away from the Democratic Party. The DNC needs to neutralize these threats and show the American people that the Democrats are for the people and can be responsive to the needs of the people.

The most important thing we can do is get the Republicans out of the White House and begin restoring environmental protections, foreign relations, peace treaties, fair taxation, reasonable social programs, and education.

1/16/2005:   I think laws regarding substances that have been shown to not be physically addictive should be left to the states to decide. Cocaine, heroine, methamphetamine, these are the substances that cause the most havoc when it comes to illegal drugs. Marijuana is not on that list and shouldn't be. Should its use be controlled, regulated? Absolutely, but at a state level. Let each state decide for itself how it wants to handle controlling a substance with advantages in the realm of medicinal treatment.

1/16/2005:   Until the American public went insane with outrage, Bush had pledged only $25 million in aid to tsunami victims. That was $10 million less than he was spending on his inaugural ball.

What a dork.

1/16/2005:   Was I the only one that looked at the pictures coming back from Titan, the only moon in our system with a substantial atmosphere, a small planetoid by its own right, and think, "Is that it?"

Ok, so I'm spoiled by the spectacular wealth of imagery coming back from the Mars Explorer missions. But so far I've only seen six frikkin' pictures come back from this tremendously important mission (some of those being composites), and I have to admit I'm a bit stumped. Why couldn't they put a small rover on that lander? Shouldn't they be putting small rovers of some kind on every lander mission? Something with a huge battery supply and just bit of mobility? And if you can't land a rover there, how about sending Bush? A seven year mission traveling billions of miles better have a pretty cool pay-off, don't you think? That sepia-toned picture of sand and rocks was rather anticlimactic. I spent maybe two minutes peering at those pictures, then I flipped back to the Mars mission web site and spent about a half hour checking out the latest stuff to come from Mars.

Oh, and that sound clip of the descent? Yeah, just so much white noise. Whoop-t-doo. Come on guys, how 'bout releasing the rest of the material. Now.

1/16/2005:   Prince Harry wore a Hitler costume to a custome party and that old rag "The Sun" busted a frikkin' spleen over it. Folks, if he'd worn a Saddam mask or, even worse, a George Bush mask, no one would have a said a thing. But because the Sun, that paragon of journalist and ethical behaviour, cried foul, everyone is up in arms, at least they are in England, I guess.

What a dried up bunch of ninnies. Get over yourselves. I say the kid should just ignore the entire hoohaa and get on with life. And next time dress like Lenin.