10/29/2007:   I love it when people with no opinion of their own and no hard facts on which to base an argument decide to lob email bombs at me. One recently decided to tell me what a jerk I was, but couldn't put together a cogent argument to work with. Don't get me wrong -- her obvious frustration was downright cute. You could almost hear her stamp her little foot as she blustered, but at the end just went away with a whimper.

Poor neocons. Things have gone so badly for them lately, and it looks like they can only get worse. The embarrassing part of it all is having to defend George Bush for his evil idiocy, or Ford for losing business due to their reputation for lousy products, or a Republican Party that completely overwhelms the adjective "scandolous," or... well, the list of Fox News talking points just goes on and on. Poor, sad, little neocons....

bwuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahaaa.....hehe.... hoooo.....

Wait a minute... Dana could be a guy's name, couldn't it... Crud. That just blew my whole mental image of this moron....

10/29/2007:   The majority of Afghanistan has been retaken by the Taliban, Iraq is unstable and its fledgling government is completely useless, and Iran is enjoying watching the U.S. twist in the wind, unable to realistically wage an extended war against anyone for any reason. But none of these are the real problem. Right now, the real problem for an idiot administration like Bush's, where thinking beyond the moment requires more brain cells than they collectively command, is the one the PKK is creating. Our tenuous ally, Turkey, is more than ready to go to war with the PKK by invading Kurdish Iraq. Unless the Iraqi government can put together an army to repel this invasion, the last shred of validity the pretend to will be lost, and Bush will have put us on a patch of dirt we will never be able to leave. America's resources will be sucked dry trying to keep our thumb on Iraq.

It's the "tiger by the tail" problem. You can't let go, but you can't hold it forever. So what do you do? Have a garage sale and partition the land to neighboring countries? Bad -- someone is going to be pissed they didn't get a piece of the pie. And it makes you look stupid because the first thing you have to admit is that you didn't know what the hell you were doing when you invested all that time, money, and most importantly, lives, into tearing the country apart in the first place.

Wipe out the government and start over? Again, stupid -- you'd have to admit that democracy doesn't work for everyone, which was one of the founding principles for waging war in the first. Remember how Rumsfeld told us we'd be greeted as saviours? Yeah, not so much.

Implement a draft to fill out our military and then squash every element of rebellion and insurgency in Iraq. Yup, that seems to be the only solution that will get the tiger back in the cage. So, Mr. Bush, good luck with that. Let me know how it your political suicide works out for you.

10/29/2007:   I'm tired of thinking of polite euphemisms for Rudy Guiliani's particular brand of low intelligence quotient. Hillary Clinton announced that the day after she's elected, she's going to send envoys around the globe to reestablish diplomatic ties with other nations and make it clear that Bush's tyrannical agenda, his "cowboy diplomacy," is over. Guiliani declared that he was going to give Hillary a chance to correct what he sees as a mistaken statement, adding that Hillary was premature to talk about "sending ambassadors all around the world even before she becomes President to, in essence, interfere in the foreign policy of the United States."

Well isn't that downright gentlemanly of him? How sweet. He's going to give her a chance to say she's sorry and back down.

Rudy, you freaking moron, Bush is a dangerous idiot who, through NeoCon machinations, stole a mantle he neither deserved nor qualified for, and he abused it to trash this country so that he and his cronies could profit now and for decades to come. Rudy, you ass, Hillary is doing exactly the right thing, telling the electorate that they can expect, in her, a president with a clear and predefined plan to set things right. Rudy, you corrupt schmuck, it's not your place to give Hillary a chance to do anything. Rudy, you asinine dork, sit down, shut up, and pray that history doesn't paint you for what you are: Stupid.

Tell ya what, why don't you and Romney, the other GOP ass-clown, just agree to clean up the 2008 campaign by removing yourselves. There are old-folk homes you can retire to that consist almost entirely of Alzheimer patients that won't remember you for the jackasses you both are.

10/29/2007:   First Lady Laura Bush said Sunday that she is much more involved in policy than many people think and then went to bat for her husband on children’s health care and foreign policy.

Honey, give it up. You're no Hillary Clinton, and you never will be. Hillary would run circles around you any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Just sit down, be quiet, and wait for the nightmare that is your husbands "presidency" to end.

10/21/2007:   The first couple of editorial pieces I read from Ruben Navarette seemed cogent and grounded, but since then I've come to realize that he is a racist. Anything at all that affects illegal immigrants negatively is rewarded with his ire and a screeching, illogical, and rambling, diatribe in the local media from this idiot. His latest waste of his readers' time comes right out and says that cops shouldn't enforce the law if it has to do with illegal immigrants. He claims that street corn vendors should be exempt from the law. He says that local law enforcement should ignore Justice Department mandates. He equates enforcing the law with racial profiling. He accuses the federal government of using local law enforcement as border patrol agents, but has always espoused the view that the border patrol should be virtually castrated.

Navarette's racism starts on the first line and holds steady until the last line. He's a detriment to any logical argument on border security and illegal immigration, two distinct and separate issues both in dire need of firm resolution. He shouldn't be given media attention or access. Anyone advertising with the media outlets that carry him should pull their ads until guaranteed they won't be sponsoring his racist views.

10/21/2007:   Vadre and I just got back from a week-long vacation during which I intentionally stayed as disconnected from the world as possible. There are just too many idiots out there, and hearing them spout off is aggravating. So I get back and start up my computer, and one of the first things I see is, "Chuck Norris Picks Prez." For those that don't know, there's a running joke on the Internet that Chuck Norris can do anything, even the most outlandish, impossible things. This Slashdot-spawned joke has even been used in a television commercial. But now he's being humored by the news media for his views on the 2008 presidential campaign, and I'm not sure whether to laugh or ... really laugh. Here's the quote:

I can't understand why anyone would print the views of a man that has spent decades of his life taking punches to the head. Not that his publicist did a bad job of translating his crayon scrawl so that it just sounded ignorant instead of outright stupid, but let's go over it, shall we?

"... He does not cower to the cries of any majority or minority." Not even the majority? Isn't that what we have now, a president that thinks he's the king? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a democracy, in which the voice of the majority, and even the minority, can be heard? Since when does listening to the people of the United States, of, by, and for whom this country exists, constitute "cowering"? Representing the people is in the job description, Charles.

"He does not abandon his values for what's expedient." Again, that line has been used to describe Bush. Let's just hope Huckabee's values include diplomacy, statesmanship, intelligence, and a real concern for the average American's interests, values that have been lacking in the current president, who is spectacular at not abandoning his values no matter how much the majority has cried out.

"Like our Founding Fathers, he's not afraid to stand up for a Creator and against secularist beliefs.” This common misconception is the worst. Our Founding Fathers each had their own religious beliefs, most often secular, and Chuck, like many fundie morons, needs to check their history books before repeating this drivel. They guaranteed not only the people's right to their own religious beliefs, but they guaranteed that the people would not be subjected to belief systems not their own. Period, end of story. Get over yourself Chuckie.

Like playing basketball against a bunch of 15 year olds. It's fun running up the score, but only for a while since it's not really a challenge.

10/12/2007:   Today, Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to raise awareness about global warming.

This has caused a huge controversy. Al Gore's fans (read "thinkers") are celebrating the just and appropriate reward he received. Bill O'Reilly's fans (read "mouth breathers") are foaming at the mouth about it. Their arguments, as spoon fed to them by Bill-O, are as follows:

And so, congratulations Mr. Gore. You deserve it!

10/8/2007:   A eleven year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism), was bullied mercilessly by a group of kids he shared a school bus with after they cornered him in the woods near his house and filmed his humiliation. The boy's mother filed a police report and the bullies were arrested. The boy that was holding the camera expressed remorse and apologized to the victim.

Man, this really pisses me off.

There is something really wrong with parents that produce children that bully the defenseless. And in response, this society should show absolutely no tolerance. The bullies should be thrown in jail for a couple of months. If that doesn't teach them a lesson, nothing will, and they'll end up in jail again, but I'm betting some of them would choose a different path.

10/8/2007:   Referring to the Iraq War: "It's not getting better because it's a political problem. It is a political problem we're paying for, and the Bush Administration should be held accountable and thrown out of office. They mismanaged it."

Not an eloquent quote, just accurate one, by General Wesley Clark.

10/8/2007:   Democrats in Florida are suing the DNC because the DNC has decided to penalize Florida for holding its primaries early. Personally I think they're both wrong -- Florida should take its cues from the DNC, but if they don't want to the DNC should just shut up -- but what got me writing was the DNC's poor grasp of the Constitution. The DNC issued a statement that read, "The political parties themselves, not the states, have the legal right, grounded in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, to establish the rules by which their candidates for President and Vice President are nominated."

Pardon me?

The First Amendment to the US Constitution doesn't say a darned thing about political parties and who controls what within those parties. Who was the idiot that wrote that statement? Are they referring to free speech? Right of assembly? Freedom of the press? Or maybe they were trying to infer some power over the Democrats in the state of Florida from the principle of the separation of church and state?

I would think the Tenth Amendment would be a bit more applicable.

10/8/2007:   Mitt Romney is on tape looking a man in the face and telling him that he would either have to die or be arrested for using medical marijuana. The man had dealt with muscular dystrophy all his life, weighed 80 lbs., was confined to a wheelchair, made it crystal clear that nothing medical science had to offer worked besides medical marijuana, and that without he would die. And Mitt Romney told him he didn't support medical marijuana and then walked away.

Ignored the man's pleas and walked away.

The guy was begging Romney to answer the question, "Would you arrest me and my doctors over medical marijuana?" Romney just walked away, greeting people with his fake smile and his robotic handshake like the guy wasn't worth answering. He basically wrote the guy's life off.

10/5/2007:   Shannon Whisnant has decided he's going to keep the preserved human foot he found in the meat smoker he bought at an auction, refusing to return it to the man that lost the foot, John Wood, who had lost the foot in a plane crash but, for reasons that just sound goofy, wanted to hang on to it so it could be cremated with him and so had it embalmed. While Mr. Wood has managed to reacquire that which he was born with, Mr. Whisnant has retained an attorney to fight to get the leg back.

Ever seen, "Sling Blade?" Mr. Whisnant has the verbal tics of the main character from that movie played spectacularly by Billy Bob Thornton. It's a little creepy. No, really.

Wouldn't you think that, in spite of any legal right you might have to whatever you find in a container you purchased, whether it's a chest of drawers or a meat smoker, when it's a body part, common courtesy would seem to dictate that you turn it over to the person that grew the body part. I mean, unless it's explicitly sold, accidental retail of a body part should be handled more delicately than finding you've fortuitously purchased, say, a 1970 G.I. Joe in the original packaging or someone's size 66 boxer shorts. We're talking about the man's foot, for crying out loud!

10/5/2007:   Vicki Hulsey is proof that the adoption system in Arizona is completely broken. When officers arrived at her home, her 10 year adopted son had been dead for hours, beaten to death by Miss Hulsey using, as she told officers, her own hands. She at least did the honorable thing and plead guilty to first-degree murder. But the question that I have, given that Miss Hulsey had a long history of violent behaviour towards children and animals, is this: What the heck were the adoption agency officials thinking when they let this monster take custody of a child? How does that happen? She beat the kid until he died and her own hand was bruised and swollen. That kind of rage doesn't come easy to a normal person, and certainly not towards a 10 year old boy, and her rap sheet was a clear indicator that this would be the probably outcome. Who was the moron that processed her application and sent this child to a horrible death? I wonder how they live with themselves?

10/5/2007:   I've mentioned my views on spanking kids, so I'm not fighting the notion of spankings as a means of punishing bad behaviour when it's called for, but Ezra Hazell, a 29 year old man, had taken to making his 5 year old assume a push-up position and beating her with a nylon belt and/or a computer cable. He managed to accumulate over "100 wounds" across the girls back, butt, and legs. And all this because the 5 year old wasn't doing her homework to his satisfaction.

What kind of sick moron is this? Ezra Hazell is a sadistic sonofabitch, a weak excuse for a man, a criminal in his own home.

They need to take that girl away from him and put her in a home where she will be guided, not beaten; disciplined, not wounded; raised, not crushed.

10/4/2007:   Romney loaned himself $8 million dollars so he could keep pace with Giuliani. The last time I heard of someone loaning their campaign millions of dollars to stay afloat was Kathleen Harris, the woman in Florida that aided and abetted the Bush clan in defrauding the Florida electorate to get George Bush into the White House in the first place.

Let's hope Flipper Romney bankrupts himself the way the Wicked Witch of the East did. I'm not even remotely worried about him winning, I just want him to hurt for being a part of the NeoCon branch of the GOP.

10/4/2007:   According to Rudy Giuliani, if the Democrats get the presidency, my taxes will go up $3000.

Really? I can have the NeoCon retards out of the White House and prevent two-faced, greasy, lying, flip-flopping morons like Guiliani from screwing things up worse than the MFFB already has for a measley $3000?

That's all?!

Do you take checks?

10/4/2007:   Four Republican Senators are retiring next year, and even though the Democrats have completely lost any semblance of a spine, the GOP congressmen are looking at having their numbers further reduced in the next election.

And I think that's just plain cool. Maybe someone (John Conyers?) will have the cojones, once the numbers are favorable enough, to tell Nancy Pelosi to kiss off and start impeachment proceedings. Man, that would be HISTORIC.

10/4/2007:   Loscar Rodriguez was arrested for beating his son with a belt for getting bad grades.

Arrested.

For using a belt to administer a spanking.

A belt.

Arrested.

The man was detained for leaving a couple of bruises on his sons butt, spent the night in jail, appeared before a judge, and was released on bail.

...

Nothing. I just found that interesting...

10/4/2007:   Fran Townsend, a representative from the Department of Homeland Security, had the temerity to stand on national television and defend torture as a valid means of interogation. She seems smart enough, but her flaming ignorance of the reality of torture is numbing given her post in the organization formed to secure the U.S. She wouldn't come right out and admit what techniques were used, or agree that the techniques that were mentioned in the leaked Justice Department memos were torture.

It amounted to, "I won't tell you squat, but we're doing the right thing. Trust us."

She uses the same talking points all the NeoCons do, and they go like this: they don't define the techniques used as torture, therefore the United States does not engage in torture. Nice, huh? So waterboarding, severe hypothermia, physical beatings, electric shock to the genitals, etc., these are not defined by these people as torture, so they are, by definition, without sin. That's lovely.

And then they go on and on about how Al Qaeda uses torture. Kind of like, "I didn't do it, but if I did, they did it first!" I guess because Al Qaeda's human rights record is a standard we are attempting to achieve...?

This bitch is sick. How do you look yourself in the mirror, Fran? How do you justify your black soul to your kids? I'd apologize for you, saying that you take your lead from your superiors, but you clearly buy the propoganda, hook, line, and sinker. You're passionate about torture. You love it. You swear by it. You shine it up and pin it to your patriotism for all to see.

What has happened to this country to make it sink so low?

10/4/2007:   Hell no. They're here illegally. Sorry. Go back, come back in legally, get a driver's license. Until then, too bad.

10/4/2007:   There's an enlightening, and rather scary, report on CNN about the terrible state of the dams around the country. It's scary, and useless. Given the response to Katrina, a disaster they saw coming, were warned about, watched happen, and then shrugged and walked away from, if you think a single penny will be spent under Bush's watch to repair these dams, you are a FOOL.

10/4/2007:   I just got done with the first stage of developing support for a fiscal printer in a point of sale application. For those of you that don't know, when I'm not verbally punishing the Monkey Faced Frat Boy (MFFB (tm)), I'm a software architect. Anyway, I managed to beat this printer into submission today, and I just wanted to give myself a little public pat on the back. I'm a Coding God, I tell ya.

Quick story about it: The company that makes the printer, we'll call them Nospe, has subsidiaries all around the world. When I first starting researching the communications protocol for this printer, I was a bit confused. I assumed there surely must be a OPOS driver for it. Low and behold, not only is there not a driver for it, but the code they provide is badly written Visual Basic code, and the code and the sparse documentation is all in Spanish. Well, while looking around on the Internet, I contacted this company's U.S. office. I just figured it was one big happy company and all the subsidiaries would be aware of the full product line, or at a minimum would be able to look it up. Makes sense, right?

So I write to tech support, and they reply that the printer in question isn't one of theirs. According to "SDAPS", misspellings and grammer included:

I looked at the printer. Right there on the front it said, "Nospe." Looked at the email. "Nospe." Looked at the printer. Looked at the email. Heavy sigh...

Anyway, long story short, some very nice folks in Venezuela answered my question (sorry, no, there's no OPOS support for that model), and even gave me a diagram for the cable, which wasn't mentioned AT ALL in the documentation and which had a proprietary pin-out. I haven't built a cable since I was in college, but it worked the first time. Now I've not only coded up support for the printer, but I got to brush up on my Espanol while translating the docs into English for the next poor slob that comes along and has to support my code. A job well done, all in all.

10/3/2007:   Bush, who spends $7 billion a month on Iraq, bleeding us dry so he can tell prime ministers the world over that we're "kicking ass," has vetoed a bill that would spend $7 billion a year to help 8 million kids get adequate medical coverage. He's worried that parents might be prompted to drop private coverage for their children to get cheaper coverage under the bill.

So let me get this straight. These parents are, as most parents would, probably making huge sacrifices to get their kids the medical coverage they need, and if this bill had gone through, they might have been able to rely on the social net and have a more normal life, affording clothes, books, decent food, that sort of thing, rather than paying out hundreds a month on medical insurance. I think that's the kind of thing that elites like Bush don't understand because they live so far above what is considered "normal" that they have trouble picturing the day to day difficulties that normal people deal with. Nevermind that we're talking, at the end of the day, about 8 million kids. Bush is bound and determined to make sure there's plenty of extra cash for his life-sized game of Risk.

For those that are curious, Bush's other three vetoes, all in his second term, have been against stem cell research and a war funding bill with timelines for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Hey, at least he's consistent. He wants to send the American people into the meat grinder as though they are resources for him to expend, but he doesn't want to overspend on the care and maintenance of that resource. In his mind, it comes down to his personal wallet. The treasury is his budget for generating personal wealth. And if you're confused by that statement and still believe that the Iraq war wasn't ultimately about oil, you need to wake up, Sparky.

10/3/2007:   I saw a clip about Vesuvius in which they interview some of the kids living in Naples, at the feet of the restless volcano. It was interesting to see the opinions of the young people they talked to. One girl thought the volcano was extinct, even though its last eruption was in the 40s. Another boy thought that Naples was out of reach of the volcano. I guess he forgot the last eruption wiped out parts of Naples, and the biggest lava flow can still be seen frozen on the side of the volcano.

This kind of ignorance of the obvious reminds me of Bush. There are a surprising number of people in this country that seem ignorant of the damage Bush has done to our constitutional freedoms and the framework of our government, even though it's been all over the papers and TV. He's personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the Iraq war alone, but no one seems to blink an eye about his familiar rumblings now turned against Iran. I guess living under the umbrella of doom has a numbing effect. Like the rodent that grows calm as the snake devours it, the average U.S. citizen is oddly mute about the corruption at the highest level of our government. And like the rodent, we are being eaten alive with nary a kick or squeal. The greatest Democracy in history is going the way of the Roman empire when Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

10/2/2007:   I hear Ford is having a really bad time. As someone that had the misfortune to purchase an Escort once and got treated really badly when I took it to get it worked on, I have absolutely no sympathy for FMC. I feel really bad for the workers, since they'll get screwed when Ford has to start shutting down plants, but FMC is getting exactly what it deserves.

10/2/2007:   Last month, Russia announced it was going to resume exercise flights of its long range bombers, and sure enough, shortly after that announcement U.S. fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian bomber that got within 50 miles of the Alaskan coast. And I just want to say, thanks a lot, George Monkey Faced Frat Boy Bush, for screwing up the world peace. Jerk.

10/2/2007:   Richard Viguerie, conservative strategist, in explaining the need for a replacement for the GOP, said, "...The Republican Party is beyond salvation. They have lied and betrayed the conservative voters one time too many. And this will be a major effort that will go far beyond the '08 election." Fundie whack jobs Tony Perkins and James Dobbson harmonized with Viguerie, whining that if they didn't hear more religious extremism from the candidates, they'd click-clack over to the fainting couch, throw themselves down, and refuse to come out and join the party.

Yeehaw! You go, Rich! So do you think Obama will be the VP if Hillary gets the nomination, or will she pick someone else? And if Obama gets the nomination, will he be smart enough to steer into the spin and pick Hillary as the VP? Either way, the Democrat that sits in the Oval Office will make history. This is such a cool time to be alive!

Guiliani's response: "So what? I have the best chance of beating Hillary."

(falling over laughing)

10/2/2007:   In Grambling, Louisiana, teachers used a noose and chains to illustrate racial crimes to a kindergarten class. The kids were draped with chains and, at least in the case of one little girl, had a noose constructed from yarn (or something similar) placed around their necks. They did not clear the activity with the school administration.

This has caused a huge uproar. The activity has been characterized as "egregious" and "unacceptable." I have to tell you something: if I was trying to explain racial discrimination, violence, and lynchings to my kids, I would probably do the same. Maybe not the noose, but certainly the chains. I want my kids to understand the horror of slavery and the subsequent hate crimes that occurred after slavery was abolished.

I think the whole situation has been overblown. I'm certain the teachers have learned a valuable lesson in having potentially controversial lessons vetted before going forward with them. But putting the teachers on leave is going overboard.

10/1/2007:   In a recent town hall style meeting with college students, John Edwards daughter, Cate, explained that, while she and her father don't agree completely about the gay marriage issue, she understands his problem with it is the term "marriage." She was clear that he's not comfortable with using marriage to refer to same sex unions, but that he is adamantly opposed to discrimination based on sexual orientation.

I'm okay with that. Really -- Look, I don't expect a deeply religious man to be able to reconcile the teachings of the Old Testament with Jesus' lack of direct discourse on the topic of homosexuals. Jesus was quite simple and clear about the Golden Rule approach to spirituality, but fundies typically ignore Jesus' teachings where homosexuality is concerned, preferring to lean on the Old Testament stance of fire and brimstone for gays. I respect John's position on it, even if I don't agree with it. In his position, I'd probably do the same. I don't think the majority in this country is ready to be quite so advanced in their thinking. Tolerance is still new here, I guess.

10/1/2007:   Yeah, so? Act stupid, get treated stupid.

10/1/2007:   Guiliani is claiming that he's the only Republican that can beat Hillary Clinton. He gives that as the primary reason why Republican's should vote for him. Yeah, that's it. "I can beat Hillary." Nothing else. What a dork.

Maybe he should fake some more phone calls from his wife during speeches. Whatever.

10/1/2007:   Apparently, just off the AP wire, ultra-right-wing, foaming at the mouth, "evangelical" religious anti-abortion whack jobs are organizing a third party, name not yet announced, intended to provide a haven for candidates that would support their Christianity-only, First Amendment hating, anti-women's-rights and anti-privacy agenda.

Oh, the horror! It's like the Green Party putting Nader out there and sucking votes out of the Democratic Party. Between this and the GOP ignoring black and Latino voters, this is just AWFUL!

heheh....... Oh, man, karma is slow, but when it works, it's is soooo cool!

10/1/2007:   It's not exciting stuff, predicting the obvious, but here it is: Hillary and Barack will be the frontrunners when the DNC puts in their nominations. And if money picks the winner, the Democratic nominee is practically a shoo-in. Hillary and Barack have collected between $17 million and $20 million a piece in the last three months, while Rudy, the GOP frontrunner, has has embarrassingly little to crow about.

And yet...

Frankly, I refuse to expend any appreciable energy on any candidate that doesn't speak out about shoring up the constitutional framework intended to protect the United States citizenry from its own government and the destruction that can be caused by a single, power-hungry, evilly ambitious group of men. Bush didn't screw things up on his own. It required a cabal manned by the members of PNAC and its following, a horrible group driven to rule the world and suck it dry by using our own freedoms against us. PNAC has publicly stated that they want to disrupt the Middle East and, through designs and machinations they have never succeeded in fully fantasizing, rebuilding the nations there as subservient feeder nations for the reborn United States Of The Elites. And until a candidate rises to the top that states unequivocably that our democratic system is not prepared to deal with the current world of sounds bites, CGI rendered 30 second Superbowl spots, and and corrupted propogandized "news" organizations, and offers to shore up our government against lobbyists, election fraud, the two political party ceiling, and attacks on the separation of powers and the Bill of Rights, I can't take the candidates seriously.

So folks, if you're running for president and you want to appear as though you are, oh, I don't know... a Patriotic American... tell me that you'll make the Constitution your first priority, getting us out of Iraq your second, followed by border and international security, repairing diplomatic relations, re-signing international treaties, fighting global warming in a serious fashion, cutting back the H1B visa program, driving back industries that want to pillage our natural resources and preserves, cleaning up our air and water...

Geez, I'm getting tired of writing all that down AGAIN. Let me find a shorter way to say it... OH, I know: Reverse everything Bush did, make sure it can't happen again, and find Osama bin Laden. Do all that and you'll be the greatest president in history, bar none.

10/1/2007:   Is it age? Did John McCain have a better grasp of the fundamental concepts of the Constitution when he was younger and lose some of his mental capacity with age, or is he simply a relic of a bygone era that clung to Christian values as innately superior and just cause for looking with sanctimonious suspicion upon other religions? Whatever it is, Mr. McCain just slipped in my estimation when he announced that the Constitution says that this is a Christian nation and implied that, Constitution aside, anyone knows it's a Christian nation because we espouse the Christian ideals of human rights and dignity, unlike those heathen Jews and Muslims...

Okay, he didn't say that last part verbatim, but for the reaction he's gotten he might as well have. And I have absolutely no sympathy for him whatsoever. Half a religious bigot might as well be a whole one.

10/1/2007:   You'd think that, after 16 years on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas would be over the fiasco that was his confirmation hearing. But then again, he wants to declare FDR's "New Deal" unconstitutional. Talk about living in the past...

Anita Hill must have left a few scars when she outed Clarence as a mysoginistic pig. Her tales of sexual harrassment made the world news for weeks and fed a cornucopia of material to the comedy circuit for months. Even now, his name evokes the story of his joke about finding a pubic hair on top of his Coke can. Nevermind that other women came forward to back up Anita Hills exposure of Thomas' character, he grimaced through it and got the confirmation at the end.

Even though he had it coming, and even though it was over a decade ago, in a show of gracelessness, Clarence has decided to take a swipe at Anita Hill in his new book which no one is going to buy anyway and whose title I'm not going to bother looking up. He's bitter and put out about the media, Democrats, liberals in general, and especially Anita Hill. He calls her his "most traitorous adversary." He doesn't bother to refute what she had to say, but he feels she betrayed him.

Oh boo frikkin' hoo. You wussy boy. Clarence, buy your fat butt a less wimpy name, grow a spine, and get over yourself. What a dork. "Ooooo, a girl picked on me and embarrassed me about what a bully I was, ooo boo hoo hoo..." WAAAH! You dork. You acted like an ass and it bit you in the ass later. SO WHAT?! Moron.

10/1/2007:   The Supreme Court is about to convene to decide a number of issues placed before it. In the interest of helping them out, I'm going to give them the right answers. It's not cheating if it's for the greater good, honest.

The death penalty. Not unconstitutional when administered by lethal injection. Tell the murderers to stop whining.

The death penalty. Not unconstitutional solely on the basis of being administered by lethal injection. Tell the murderers to stop whining.

Can the president order a state to retry a convicted murderer? No. Does the death penalty fit child rape? No, but life imprisonment without possibility of parole does.

Habeas corpus for suspected terrorists. Yes, we should hold our courts, even military ones, to a high standard or we lose our moral foundation.

Federal sentencing guidelines. Constitutional? Yes. Should they be arbitrary? Of course not. And they need to be subject to period review.

Firearms ban in D.C. Since the Second Amendment deals with arming militias, and since the District of Columbia can't have a militia, the ban is constitutional.

So Anthony Kennedy, if you're stopping by this site again, welcome sir! And I hope you remember to vote the Right Way (tm).