Hmmmmm

Hooray for America!!

I'd like to congratulate the Department of Homeland Security for finally realizing what a threat to US Security Cat Stevens is. The poetic minstrel who brought us Peace Train and Wild World just got what he deserved. SERVED!!

Now if only we could bring the rest of these evildoers to justice. Let's see, WHO'S NEXT?

1. James Taylor


2. David Crosby


3. Neil Young AND Crazy Horse


4. Captain & Tennile - a terror team if ever I saw one


5. Neil Diamond (America? Hello, SMOKESCREEN!)


6. Don McLean


7. Carole King


8. ALL of Fleetwood Mac


9. The two surviving Bee Gees


10. Jim Croce

Once these TERROR TEN are caught and brought to justice, the world can finally rest easy. I for one am counting on it.

Blame it on Rio

So the Bush administration likes to place the blame a lot.

One guy they really like to lay some serious blame on is good ol' Bill Clinton. Clinton caused the recession, Clinton was the cause of bad intelligence, Clinton shirked his duties with the war on terror, the list goes on and on.

Want to know what you CAN blame Clinton for? And look your daddy in the face and not be a bald-faced liar?

That.

Thanks to Mikey for finding this. Graph taken from the Congressional Budget Office's Standardized-Budget Surplus or Deficit and Related table, 1962 to 2003, just so you don't think I made that thing in photoshop. :)

Top Gun 2.0

Sometimes the funniest things can come from simply chatting with people you meet on the internet

TEAMWORK IS YOUR FRIEND.

Shifty McIssue

I hate being POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS, but 'tis the season! I'll probably start talking about TV and Video Games in a few months, but until then:

"We had an attack on 9/11 where we lost over a million jobs in just about 3 months." - Suzy DeFrancis, White House Deputy Assistant for Communications

So let me get this straight. Now the Bush administration is blaming 9/11 for JOB LOSS? Give me a break, can't these people ever pick a story and stick to it?

Let's check out the US Dept. of Labor Statistics, and see what they have to say.

In the 18 weeks following the September 11 attacks (the weeks ending September 15 through January 12), employers reported 430 events involving 125,637 workers separated as a direct or indirect effect of the attacks. A majority of the layoff events took place in the weeks immediately following the attacks, and the number of new events has tapered off since then. Thirty-three states reported extended mass layoff activity related to the September 11 incidents.

My math might be a little fuzzy, but isn't 125,637 a lot less than a million?

I'm so sick of these people lying to us. Why'd we invade Iraq?

--Well, Saddam had WMDs, and he was fixing to make the world explode!

--Wait, no, Saddam is trying to MAKE nukes! He's a horrible man, and must be stopped before he can create a mushroom cloud over washington!

--Shucks, he's got Sarin Gas! He's got Mustard Gas! He can threaten Israel!

--Wait, no, his people are in the grip of a lunatic! They must be liberated! We will liberate them!

And on and on and on. Whenever the reason is muddy, they just shift the reason, shift the blame, shift the issue. It's like they are talking to a nation of third graders who need to be convinced the boogyman *exists*, instead of the alternative.

And remember, when all else fails -- blame 9/11.

Class act

Ok, this is just amazing.

Earlier this week, a woman working for a conservative company in Alabama got fired for having a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on her car. Told her she could either work for him, or she could work for John Kerry. This sort of thing isn't all that rare, these days -- I've seen a bit of it here and there. So not a huge surprise.

What makes this a pretty amazing human interest story is two-fold. First, her story was relayed on many of the left-leaning internet blogs, and one of them even set up a paypal fund for her. At last count, he'd raised about $1700 for her.

Mountain of bad publicity on the company followed, and her boss called her up and told her she could have her job back. But she said she wouldn't return without some written guarantee that he wouldn't turn around and fire her once the heat died down.

This afternoon, John Kerry called her up and told her that she could tell him that she was working for him as of that moment.

Remember JohnKerryIsaDoucheBagButImVotingForHimAnyway.com? Well fuck that noise. JohnKerryIsAGoddamnHeroForDoingThat.com

An interesting side-note to this -- the news was covered almost exclusively in the blogosphere.

Another great idea from the internet.

It's the world's shortest blog, presenting an INTERNET CHALLENGE with bounty!

The bounty will go to the first person to ask George W. Bush how many times he's been arrested, in a public forum. It currently stands at $2126.00, and it's going up every day.

Bounty Hunters, start your engines!

I forgot to add this the other day, so I'm doing it now:

Photo of a bush audience member (or security) trying to forcefully eject a heckler from a bush campaign stop.

Guess she didn't sign the Loyalty Oath that they're forcing everyone to sign if they even want to see the President or VP speak at a campaign stop.

Isn't campaigning about making your case so undecided voters can make an informed decision? Instead, Bush/Cheney is just preaching to the choir, which makes for much safer (re: no hecklers) crowds.

Thanks to Wonkette for the photo.

..and they want to pass an amendment?

TITLE 4, CHAPTER 1: SECTION 8 - RESPECT FOR FLAG
G. The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

I honestly can't believe this man is president.

Thanks to First Draft and Atrios for this. I can just see his handlers on the sidelines, running in slow motion, 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...."