3/15/2006:   Bush's record low ratings have some people thinking he has a "Jimmy Carter Problem". They define that as, the American people are convinced he is no longer capable of running the government.

Puh-lease.

Jimmy Carter was more than capable of running the government, but his style was a lot softer than befits a Commander in Chief. And there is absolutely NO other comparison you could draw between Carter and Bush. Carter is a highly educated and supremely humanistic man; in a word, a saint. He is a leader by example, a true moderate Christian, and a hero of peace.

No, if you want to be accurate, Bush has a "Second Term Reagan Problem". He not only can't run the government, he never did run the government. He's a vaguely self-aware mouthpiece for a political party that is out of control and running roughshod over the American people in the interest of self enrichment. Bush is ineffective, incapable, and a frank embarrassment to this nation. Worse than Ronald Reagan, Bush is barely literate, unread, ineloquent, shallow, greedy, uncaring, unempathetic, and in a word, a moron. Run the country? Bush has never successfully run a company, and he's managed, through his father's name, to be the CEO of a few. Bush couldn't run a game of bunko, much less the United States of America.

3/15/2006:   So do you think Bush Sr. watches the Iraq fiasco continue to unfold and feels vindicated?

Y'know, I didn't think much of him as a President, and I remember that while I thought Iraq War I was run well, it seemed to stop short of the goal. A few months before Bush Jr. stole his first presidential election, Bush Sr. was interviewed and said that the reason he didn't go into Baghdad was because it wasn't allowed in the United Nations resolution that permitted war on Iraq. And it was that simple. The world organization didn't agree to it, so Bush followed the letter of the law.

Imagine that.

Then his son comes along, breaks the law, lies to Congress, and diverts resources needed to chase down and capture those responsible for 9/11, to wage a war on a country that posed absolutely no threat whatsoever to our country. He has wasted $400 billion and 2500 lives to date, slashed every social program and continues to borrow $2 billion a day to fund the war and still can't seem to get decent armor for the troops but can misplace $8 billion while paying for a no-bid Halliburton contract.

Yeah, I think his daddy is thinking, "My son's an idiot, but at least he's making me look good."

What a moron.

3/11/2006:   Claude Allen, Bush's former aide, apparently thought he could operate the way his former boss does all the time. He stole retail merchandise and returned it for the cash to the tune of over $5000. Chump change, really, but then, Bush and everyone in his administration is a chump, so that kind of makes sense.

Of course, the only real connection besides the employment history is the consistency, but that consistent tone is what makes Allen's self-enriching fraud seem an echo of Bush's own.

3/11/2006:   , a man that came to power using the same formula as Hitler, and responsible for genocide and concentration camps the likes of which the world had not seen since World War II, is dead. He was arrested for his crimes and sent to the Hague to be tried, but apparently the high blood pressure he was suffering from finally ended him. His last years were spent in jail. His eternity will be spent in hell.

Now if they could just find Slo's henchmen and fellow slaughterers, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. They deserve far worse and certainly no better than their boss.

3/10/2006:   The Monkey-Faced-Frat-Boy is wringing his hands worrying about how his boyfriend...erm... Dubai... is taking the rejection of the U.S. Congress. Bush had threatened to protect his cash cow... uh... the UAE... against the whole of Congress by vetoing any bill that threatened his lover... uh... y'know.... Well, he'd have vetoed it if he could just find that darned "veto" stamp (he's never used it before, you see). He got so upset at the GOP that he shook and got all flustered. At least I think he got flustered -- he can't string two words together on a good day, so it's hard to tell.

I think that's sweet. Bush finally found something he could go all smooshy about. I guess the problem is, it wasn't the victims of Katrina, it wasn't the veterans, it wasn't the elderly or the sick or the oppressed. No, it was the Arabs and their oil.

I also think it's interesting that, after 4.5 years of scaring the bejesus out of the American public with the terrorist boogeyman, now his friends trying to buy control of American ports have the average Joe freaking out, and Bush is chagrined! Flummoxed! Put out and in a snit! But he can't really blame anyone but himself for using that tactic too many times!

The Muslim extremist rag Al-Quds Al-Arabi declared the whole business a shocking example of U.S. Congressional racism. Now if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black -- ask them what they think of Jews.

Of course, the Saudi princes are like family to the Bush gang and always have been. La familia to the Bush guapos. And if you want to end the kind of administration that makes the U.S. the eight emirate, then vote out the GOP in the fall elections.

In the end, Bush declared in a shrill and quavering voice, "I'll always love you, Dubai!!!"

3/10/2006:   With the Dubai deal on the skids, I hope everyone remembers one fact that came to light: the Iraq War has cost $400 billion so far, but we still only inspect 3% of shipments that come through our ports. And by inspect, I don't mean "check the manifest" or "look for suspicious names in the list of shippers". I mean either crack open the boxes or x-ray and chemical sniff them.

And using that definition of "inspect", if I was President, we'd inspect 100% of shipments coming into this country. Every day, all day. Either you're serious about containing the threat or you're not. When someone shoplifts a watch from your jewelry store, you don't run around the town shooting random people who look suspicious while leaving the store and its remaining merchandise unattended.

This is up there with catching and detaining less than 3% of the illegal aliens coming across the Mexian border because we just don't have the facilities to hold them. "We don't have the resources." It's a crap argument, and one that belies all Bush's noise about protecting the nation against terrorism by attacking a small, emasculated nation half-way across world that we already had under our military thumb.

3/10/2006:   At 5:22pm EST, CNN carried a story about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aerobraking to assume an orbit around Mars. Funny thing is, the clip they showed of the orbiter was the one that illustrates what would happen if it came in to low and burned up in Mars' atmosphere.

Hey, Houston: no pressure, huh?

3/10/2006:   Bush lied to Congress about the Iraq War. That's an impeachable offense.

Bush authorized illegal warrantless wiretaps. That's an impeachable offense.

The list of offenses is a mile long, but if you just take those two alone, he's got as much against him as Nixon himself, and the Nixon impeachment was such a foregone conclusion that Nixon resigned. Apparently Bush has no shame and no fear of the American public. Such is what happens when our system of government fails to self-correct. The Repubs are determined to keep him in power, even if it means a Constitutional crisis.

People of America, stand up, be heard, and throw the Republicans out of office in the fall elections.

3/3/2006:   The town of Ave Maria is being constructed by the man that originated Domino's Pizza, Thomas S. Monaghan, around Ave Maria University in Florida. The university and the town being built whole clothe around it are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida. The town and the university, developed in partnership with the Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate business, will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center, a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, at nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan envisions 11,000 homes and 20,000 residents.

Monaghan, in pitching his vision, said that in his community, there will be no pornography, birth control, or abortions. Period. Anywhere and in any form.

Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the new town, controlling commerce via provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items, and thereby preventing businesses from engaging in activites that Monaghan feels aren't godly.

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, pointed out, "If they attempt to do what he apparently wants to do, the people of Naples and Collier County, Florida, are in for a whole series of legal and constitutional problems and a lot of litigation indefinitely into the future."

So then, on CNN where I first learned of this project, they had a poll that asked the question, "Would you want to live in a community where everyone must share your values?"

And I had to think on that for a while. Because frankly, the answer is both yes and no. See, leading up to this article, I've been reading the book, "The Politically Incorrect Guide To Islam," a real eye-opener to the basic tenets and history of Islam. And I have to say, you can't help but view 9/11, Iraq, the UAE, Bosnia, Israel, Greece, Turkey, heck just about every country where Islam has had a shaping effect, in a whole new light. Wow. I had a "friend" once whose heritage was Greek who at one point expressed a vitriolic hatred of Turkey. She explained it to some extent, but I never understood the history behind the cultural divide between Greece and Turkey until I read this book. I recommend it.

But anyway...

Coming from the point of view that the world is filled with people whose views are radically, fundamentally different and sometimes violently expressed, I can see the attraction of living in a place dedicated to protecting a certain set of values. And in this case you're talking about a town that is being built from the very beginning with the understanding that if you move there, you will be living in such a society. I don't see a down side there.

Having said that, I think this town will only continue to exist if it fails, in some measure, in its charter purpose. It's the kind of town that is like a bubble. It can only really exist if there is sufficient positive pressure on the inside and sufficient opposing pressure from the outside. If the people inside fight the founding principles and obtain exceptions, they'll be more likely to retain residents. On the other hand, if the world seems ready to stamp out Catholocism, people will flock to such a town just to protect their idea of good against their idea of evil.

Would I want to live in a town where everyone shared my values? Of course! Would I want to live in a town where everyone was forced to share my values? No. I feel the way I feel and I wouldn't want to force my particular values on anyone, nor do I want their values forced on me. (And that, BTW, is a huge problem I have with Islam and the means it dictates for its spread). Would I want to live in Ave Maria? Heck no! But I feel for people that would want to. I can understand it. I'm sure it will be a very quaint and rather boring place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there myself.

Food for thought...

3/1/2006:   After Katrina kicked the hell out of New Orleans, the federal response was ... well, let's just leave out the profanity and say it was criminally weak. Bush claimed he just had no idea, golly gee, that Katrina would be such a catastrophe.

But now video is out not only showing that he knew to some extent what the probable outcome would be, but there's even video showing Michael Brown briefing a group that evacuations were not going well and they would have to plan for rescues after Katrina passed.

So it wasn't that they were ignorant. They just didn't care. It simply wasn't a priority. They had luncheons to go to and vacations to take. Hey, if those folks weren't smart enough to get themselves out of harms way, well, surely they can't expect the federal government to just drop everything and run to their aid, now can they?

Yeah, Bush, Brownie did a heck of a job, didn't he?

Jackass...

3/1/2006:   Ok, so according to a news report that aired tonight, there are, by some estimates, about 25,000 prostitutes in Chicago. I find it hard to believe that there are that many working girls there, but ok, let's go with that for a moment....

The same news report said that most prostitutes average about 4 johns in a night. According to the 2000 census, there are 2.8 million people in Chicago. A little quick math, divide by 2, round down, carry the one...

That would mean that roughly 7% of the male population in Chicago is hiring a hooker on any given night.

Uh huh.

Tell ya what, let's cut that number in half to account for any margin of error, hookers that only work part-time, winter nights, etc. Now we're at 3% of the male population.

Hm.

Well...

No, sorry, I'm not buying it. Look, if there are no repeat customers, that means the entire male population hires a hooker every 100 days. That's three or four hookers over the course of a year for every single guy in Chicago. Even if you figure repeat customers, maybe even guys hooked on hookers, you end up with some ridiculously big numbers.

Geez, I wish these guys would check their numbers. In news, sensationalism for its own sake just makes you look stupid.

What he probably should have said was that there are 25,000 current and former prostitutes, and that on any given night, of those still in the business, 10% are on the streets, and that a single prostitute averages 1.8 customers per night, something like that (all those numbers are made up, BTW). That would have taken the totals down into the realm of the believable. But leaving out salient facts because they make a problem seem not quite as urgent is just dumb.

3/1/2006:   Senate Republicans moved Wednesday to prevent Democrats from trying to add more civil liberties safeguards to a renewal of the 2001 Patriot Act due to expire next week. Bill Frist, indicted legislator and Bush puppet, shut-off the debate on amendments to the Bill (y'know, that stuff we hire our legislators to do) with votes orchestrated to pull the measure off the committee calendar.

Now, why do you suppose Frist would want to accelerate such a bill? Why, I can tell you! It's because Congressional elections are being held this year, and the GOP has got a LOT of ground to recover before November. With the exposure of criminal activities by Bush and the majority of the Republicans in Congress, they need to shove all the dirt under the carpet, under the bed, under the sofa, maybe even get a Cat front-end loader in there to scoop out the tonnage. They need a little time to let the average U.S. citizen forget the horrible things this administration has been doing. They need time, and they need it badly, so the sooner they get this Act renewed -- regardless of what it does to your Constitutional rights -- the better for them. Once it's passed, it's out of the limelight, and how it affects you becomes academic.

As long as federal agencies don't get caught listening to your private conversations, opening your mail, photographing your family, examining your library and shopping choices, holding you without charges, legal representation, or bail, etc., it's invisible to 99% of the population. No big deal. It all goes away and they can spend the extra time slamming the Democrats, making them seem unpatriotic for holding up an act that removed your 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Amendment rights. For those of you that can't count, that's more than half the original "so called" Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments that another Congress, over 200 years ago, members of which had just recently fought a great and terrible war to free this country from direct and crushing tyranny, decided to guarantee the citizens of this great country.

Those darned rights-preserving Democrats. What the heck are they thinking, anyway? Here they are, trying to guard our borders and redirect the fight against terrorism against actual terrorists instead of spying on citizens, leaving the borders wide open, and attacking countries that have nothing to do with terrorism. What dopes, huh?

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin and patriotic American, said, "No one has the right to turn this body into a rubber stamp. The White House played hardball and the decision was made by some to capitulate."

Amen, brother.

3/1/2006:   For those of you that don't care how your government works, here's a peek under the hood of the Patriot Act. You think it's to protect you from terrorism, but various people have glued unrelated crap to it, like the following:

3/1/2006:   Tony Blair, long-winded girlfriend of George Monkey-Faced-Frat-Boy Bush, gave a speech that boiled down to:

I'm sure he was thinking all that. He just forgot to say it.

He also got a little hysterical when a member of Parliament asked about the differences in extradition agreements between the U.S. and Britian

(3/3/2006...) Hm. I was writing this and apparently left off. I hate when that happens. I had a point I was getting to and I forgot to finish... So anyway...

Blair has spent the last few years now trying to make the deal he signed with the devil sound like it was the right thing to do. The problem he's having is that the devil is still the devil. Gee Dub Bush is still an elitist jackass, and everyday another sin comes to light. Blair is in the unenviable position of having to apologize, excuse, and explain his affiliation with such an administration every single day of his tenure. Poor Tony's career has turned into a long, guilty, hell.

I feel for him. I really do. I suspect, given the nature of Britain's relationship with the U.S., that he had no real choice in the matter. Sucks to be him.....