I can't believe it's not a democracy!

As we wait to see if the "Jeff Gannon, man for hire" and "Condoleeza Rice is a filthy lying whore" stories get legs

(i.e., they aren't actively ignored by the main stream media), go to Twinkle, twinkle, blah, blah, blah, etc. for some of the edgiest shit on the internets. You doubt me? Read the second post for today. The one about the Southern Poverty Law Center. Dana is a fucking genius.

Remember during the 9/11 hearings

how Condi kept on insisting that there was no way that "we" could imagine that terrorists would hijack planes to crash them into buildings? Remember how Richard Clarke methodically went through the events from the departure of the Clinton administration through 9/11, detailed the W administration's mishaps and stated that no one in the Bush administration was interested in addressing the Al Qaeda problem? Remember? SusanHu (a Daily Kos diarist) does and she lays it our for you.

And a general reminder: I visit Atrios and Daily Kos each about five to ten times a day, sometimes more. Between their postings and the postings or comments of others, I find that I am better informed on a whole variety of subjects than the average bear who relies on our disgraceful main stream media (and I don't mean the Jeff Gannons and Fox "news" idiots out there, I mean the supposedly legitimate "journalists" and "reporters" who sully our air waves and vomit their musings on to millions of feet formerly pristine newsprint paper). Go to Kos for front page news and ongoing diaries that discuss and illuminate Condi's filthy, deadly lies. 3,000 people died on 9/11. How many might still be with us if grown ups ran the White House in 2001?

Update: The story is finally up at Yahoo (front page). Here is the link. Go to the article and rate it a "5" (scroll to the bottom of the article to rate it), so that the story stays up on Yahoo's front page.

Poll: Seniors Key to Slip in

Bush Rating. The article states: The public's confidence in President Bush's job performance and the nation's direction has slipped in the opening weeks of his second term, particularly among people 50 and older, according to an Associated Press poll.
Adults were evenly divided on Bush's job performance in January, but now 54 percent disapprove and 45 percent approve. The number who think the country is headed down the wrong track increased from 51 percent to 58 percent in the past month. * * * Older Americans, especially those 65 and above, were most responsible for the declining confidence and approval numbers.

Ah, it is true, with age comes experience and, this article shows, the ability to spot a loser from a mile away. Now that W's disapproval rating clearly outwieghs his approval numbers, do you think the main stream media will start to ask some difficult qustions? Nope, me neither.

A graphic understanding of the W administration's

pay for play scandal.

the best

Power Point presentation ever.
Note: I remember first hearing about power point and many people were talking about it like it was the next best thing since sliced bread (which, when you think about it, is spot on). I finally saw a presentation and realized it was the same old boring meeting crap dressed up with some new tech touches. So take the same old meaningless bullshit presented at your typical department meeting, power point it and suddenly you're a fucking genius.

Bush lies about FAA hijacking warnings pre-9/11 and his attempt to hide

the truth about those warnings prior to the recent "election" are covered in today's New York Times.
To be frank, we (those of us who read and embrace critical thinking) know that W et al. have gone out of their way to cover up their missteps, to muddy the waters, to protect the Saudis, etc. So this "breaking news" doesn't surprise me. Nor will it surprise most of the folks living in the NYC metropolitan area, the families of 9/11 victims and many others. But what will W's supporters say? More importanttly, how will W and the republican machine spin this story to shield the boy king from scrutiny? Oh, I forgot, the media will do it for him, just as they have for the last four years. Stories like this make me happier by the day that I gave up cable, got that big fucking tv set out of my tiny apartment and generally stopped reading/watching the traditional media. Want to know whats going on? Look to your left. Literally. Atrios and Kos are two of many excellent on line sources for real news. Winston Smith can only do so much after all.

Jeff Gannon, man for hire.

If you haven't heard about "Jeff Gannon" a "journalist" with Talon News, a conservative "news organization", who got White House press credentials despite having a journalism career that began with attendance at a three-day course thrown by some conservative/thug organization, then you must read this diary at Kos. Long and short, Jeff Gannon is his "professional name," well, for journalism. Seems the man behind the name, James Dale Guckert, along with being Talon's star reporter also owns some websites. Typical stuff really, JeffGannon.com, hotmilitarystuds.com, etc. Not kidding. The jokes, they really do write themselves.

Walmart to close unionized store in

Quebec. Fuck you Walmart, I don't buy from union busters. Congratulations Quebec, you should be able to air out that cheap American crap smell in a few days.

I'm back,

and I'm packing dsl. Thank you Verizon. Really, they were great. I am going to cancel Earthlink today and I can't wait. The customer reps who I have dealt with, while polite, have been completely ineffectual. Oh, and Earthlink is not blue. Check out Buy Blue to see for yourself. Of course, I don't have any illusions that Verizon is deep blue (it is probably red as well), but all of the representatives/tech support people I spoke to were in the U.S.*, knew their stuff and were beyond helpful. I recommend Verizon dsl to anyone, without reservatons.

*I'm not xenophobic (my grandparents were Italian born and they never really mastered english), rather I am tired of dealing with people who speak book-learned English but cannot engage in everyday american English. My requests/questions to the first-tier Earthlink reps simply went unanswered because, quite frankly, they could not understand me and I could not understand them. That is unacceptable. (I must note that the upper tier reps (levels two or three) were american english speakers and were equally unhelpful.) I also believe in supporting american based businesses that don't outsource their telephone support services. We have lots of people in this country who could do this work better, if more expensively. And I have decided that it is worth it to me to spend a little more for the tech/customer service support I want (although, here's the kicker, Verizon dsl costs less than Earthlink). Hey american multinationals, want to save money? How about keeping the american support staff while cutting the obscene levels of deferred compensation given to the upper levels of management? That would work. (Note: in a former life I was a tax attorney, and trust me, lots of time was spent by corporation management and their legal enablers finding creative ways to overcompensate the top executives with little notice to the shareholders, et al.)

Ok, the e-mail link is up.

I finally figured out how to get an e-mail address set up just for this site (thank you .mac) so if you want to, you can send me an e-mail. DSL isn't up and running yet. Those fuckers at earthlink had my dsl service linked to them and they finally freed up the line (of course they are charging me a termination fee for service I've never had. Hello FCC? I will get this resolved, the question is how much blooodletting there will be. On their end. I will not shed a drop.). Fortunately--surprisingly?--the folks at Verizon have been fabulous. Sure things got a little screwy on their end, but everyone I have dealt with has been professional and helpful. Color me impressed.
Anyhow, once dsl is up adnd running I will be able to have a better blogging experience. And I finally purchase my Wacom pad (graphic tablet)....I love the new technology smell ....mmmm. So once I master photoshop and illustrator (well, after I buy it), I hope to be able to display some photoshopped pics and/or cartoons. Until then, I'll be trolling the internets for stories of interest.