Article from CNN: ‘First cat’ dies

After reading the article linked above, I couldn’t help myself. How ridiculous is this? The newsworthiness of this story is questionable, at best. Iv’e got one better, methinks…

‘First Zit’ Popped. President George Bush and his family sat around the breakfast table this morning, reminiscing about the ‘Zit’ that was. You see, President Bush has not been practicing great hygeine of late and the dirt has taken it’s toll. Late last night, just before he tucked himself into the ‘First Bed,’ President Bush noticed a rather immense amount of pain eminating from above his eyebrow, left side, ever-so close to the bridge of that witchy-looking nose of his.

He slipped into the ‘First bathroom’ unnoticed to take a peak and quickly realized he had a monster on his hands. The ‘Fist Zit’ was the size of a pencil eraser head, colored milky-white to the head, and pulsating with redness infection at the base.

After peering with amazement at this gentle giant for about ten solid minutes, the President went to work on relocating the beast from his forehead to the ‘First Mirror.’  Three prolonged squeezes and a quick pinch later and the deed was done. However, the President was not fully prepared for the psychological trauma which ensued. He was so disappointed with himself and distraut over the loss of such a beautiful bundle of puss-ie goodness that he scraped the ‘First Zit’ off the ‘First Mirror’ and slipped it smoothly into the ‘First Jar,’ which also holds the ‘First Bunnion’ and ‘First Dingleberry.’

Article by NYTimes: Shoe-Hurling Iraqi becomes a Folk Hero

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush while shouting, “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” has folk hero status in much of the Arab world. The extent of his popularity is evident in the fact Libya has bestowed upon him a medal of courage - for whatever it is worth.

“Mr. Zaidi, a correspondent for an independent Iraqi television station, Al-Baghdadia, remained in Iraqi custody on Monday. While he has not been formally charged, Iraqi officials said he faced up to seven years in prison if convicted of committing an act of aggression against a visiting head of state.
Hitting someone with a shoe is a deep insult in the Arab world, signifying that the person being struck is as low as the dirt underneath the sole of a shoe. Compounding the insult were Mr. Zaidi’s words as he hurled his footwear at President Bush: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” While calling someone a dog is never polite, among Arabs, who traditionally consider dogs unclean, the words were an even stronger slight.
The incident has been a source of embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who, in a statement on Monday, called the shoe throwing a “a shameful savage act” and demanded a public apology from Al-Baghdadia.”

I say: What else can the Iraqi prime minister do, say nothing? Considering there are probably many Americans who now give this guy folk hero status too, perhaps saying nothing is better?

One has to question this tradition of Iraqi culture, however…

“But praise for Mr. Zaidi was not universal. His action ran counter to deeply held Iraqi traditions of hospitality toward guests, even if they are enemies. Those who have cooperated with or welcomed the American presence in Iraq were more apt to side with the government in their condemnation.
Ahmad Abu Risha, the leader of the Awakening Council in Anbar Province, a group of local tribal leaders that started a wave of popular opposition against Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq, said that he Mr. Zaidi’s actions were inappropriate “because the American president is the guest of all Iraqis. The Iraqi government has to choose good journalists to attend such conferences.””

Is it also Iraqi tradition to show up at ones home unannounced? That is exactly what Bush did by flying in unannounced. You pull this shit at my house I won’t let you in for starters. Then see if I answer the phone next time you call. Fucker. Pick up the damn phone and let me know you are coming over for tea so I can put a pot on or tell you to go to hell. But I guess Bush can’t do that, considering it would be highly likely a shoe would not have been the weapon of choice if the Iraqi had time to prepare a bit longer…

Article by Julian Zelizer: Obama can learn from Bush’s failures

The bigger question is, does he have enough time to review each failure and learn from it? Or better yet, considering Obama is smarter than Bush, can we assume he won’t make the same mistakes? Look, Bush is a complete failure with his best and only good attribute being a solid duck-er and weave-er when an Iraqi reporters chuck shoes at him. I was thoroughly impressed with Bush’s reaction time and fluidity of his movement was unparrelled, don’t you think? The down side is; wouldn’t it have been great to see that “size 10″ hit him smack dab inbetween those beady little eyes?

Now to reader commentary:

Franks says: “…The CEOs and other corporate leaders should not only take zero salary, they should have no stock options or other income off the company until it turns a profit, without the chance of making any of that back. It’s their terrible leadership that’s done this damage, and they need to acknowledge that and suck it up.”

What if CEO’s worked on commission? That would be cool. I bet the market would flourish, and a whole lot of people would fail too.

Moe says: “What can he learn? Don’t use your ego as precedence for going to war and claim other paltry, pathetic, unsubstantiated excuses as your reasons. Just because “Daddy” couldn’t get the job done when he was in office, doesn’t give Jr. the right to try again.”

If I’m not mistaken, Papa Bush recommended against invading Iraq the second time. Personally, I think Papa Bush did the right thing by not taking Bahgdad the first time. Saddam was the evil dictator we knew, and he was a stabilizing force in this part of the world.

Centervoice says: “I’m not saying one way or the other whether the policies were good or bad, but, relative, to, say, Clinton (healthcare reform), Bush did a lot more of what he said he was going to do if you ask me.”

Sure, he did alot, but most of his policies are bad. You cannot separate the quality of a policy decision from the act of doing it.  Giving you a check is not a tax cut. An insufficient drug program is not a solution for Medicare. And, “No Child Left Behind” promotes mediocrity. This is not a way to lead our country into the future - however, to the last point, I suspect my children will be better off because they will go to private school if public education aint cutting it.

Article at CNN: Illinois Democratic Lawmakers begin impeachment effort for gov

Obviously this is a huge news story just about anywhere in the US, but living just about 60 miles from downtown Chicago the news, the uproar, is almost overwhelming. Understandably so, the focus is on Chicago “pay-to-play” politics. Chicago has a long lineage of dirty politicians and unfortunately some good politicians get wrapped up in the fray, and might do so this time. Now, I’m am not implying Blagojevich is a good guy or even a good politician. On the contrary, his record speaks for itself - he has a 13% approval rating in the State of Illinois, the lowest of any governor to hold the seat. That’s not good considering the proceeding governor, George Ryan, is currently serving time for lying to investigators for taking cash and gifts while serving as governor.

Which begs the question, “How fucking stupid is this guy?” That is, if he is guilty of a crime. Based upon the fact the Feds have arrested him and will likely charge Blagojevich within the next thirty days, one can only assume the Feds have a pretty good case. You don’t just arrest and ultimately charge a governor of a state unless you have airtight facts to back you up.

This is what I think will happen…

Within the next month or so, the Feds will charge Blagojevich with using his position for the purpose of financial gain. Then, over the next few months, maybe even sooner, Blagojevich lawyers will work with the Feds to come up with a plea deal. The deal will include, perhaps, a minimal amount of financial restitution - considering it does not seem like he had actually taking any money on the attempt to sell Obama’s senate seat. However, all of this; investigation, bringing him up on charges,  bargaining back and forth for a plea deal, it all costs money and my guess is they will have Blagojevich pony up some dough to offset costs - not to mention what he will have to pay to cover his lawyers.

Additionally, Blagojevich will resign his governorship. However, he will not do this until he has a plea deal - he would be stupid to do so, as then he would not have the governors seat as leverage in the plea deal. All of the political players calling for his resignation right now is just a show, a way for Dems to distance themselves from the new pariah, that is Blagojevich. Regardless of whether he is guilty or innocent of the crime, the status quo has already convicted him - as is the case with our system in general. You see, people are actually guilty until they prove themselves innocent. I imply of such in my prior paragraph.

Anyhow, Blagojevich will remain governor until he gets a good plea deal, which may amount to a small amount of prison time and restitition of some sort. He has two years remaining on his governorship, so I have to image this may get stringed out for the next year or so, but beyond that Blagojevich will need to make a deal so he can leverage his position.

Article by Mallory Simon: Atheists take aim at Christmas

Atheists from around the country are implementing a new campaign to dispel God-believers, in an effort to push the word of God. You see, God has been speaking to atheists for the better part of a year now, since His disgust with starting the Christmas holiday earlier and earlier each year, boiled over. His master plan is to have the atheists convince the fundamentalists He does not exist so they will stop using Jesus as an excuse to give gifts to one another and take a couple days off work.

The atheists, who claim they do not believe in God, actually have a direct line to God now and are wholehearted believers. The problem they face, as pointed out by God, is most people just wouldn’t get it. Consider this; Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God, which Jesus never claimed, and DNA evidence now indicates is not true. Jesus’ birthday was actually in April, but they celebrate his birth in December. And God notes religion was made up by people, who couldn’t possibly understand what He is or what He may or may not stand for. Those are made up human things.

Further complicating issues is this idea of “faith,” which is a non-instinctual trustworthiness of an idea which was manufactured by humans who, as noted above, do not have the capacity to explain what God is in the first place.

The atheists are attempting to promote goodness for goodness sake, rather than using fear to instill a sense of purpose in people. They are working toward convincing people morality is not mutually dependent upon religion, and in fact, is often mutually exclusive of it. Furthermore, by the grace of God, they are hearing first hand how to combat fundamentalists from God, Himself.

Through the new ad campaign, atheists can now have the wisdom to promote their cause while having the big guys support, and God can go about his business without having some group of idiots claim they know who He is. This looks to be a win-win. Now, if we could only convince the “fundies.”

Update: One atheist placard, stationed in the legislative building of Olympia, Washington was found in a ditch just an hour after being placed next to a nativity scene. I guess nothing shocks me these days…

Upon finding out about the removal of the sign, the athesists placed a temporary sign in it’s place: “The incident will not stifle the group’s message, Gaylor said. Before reports of the placard’s recovery, she said a temporary sign with the same message would be placed in the building’s Rotunda. Gaylor said a note would be attached saying, “Thou shalt not steal.”“

Look, I’m not an atheist, but you can’t help but howl out loud when you read the comments made by Mrs. Gaylor. Talk about sticking it to em. Everyone has their right to free speech in this country and fundamentalists who choose to deface or take away a persons right to free speech is a hypochrite. Look, you go ahead and believe in your God, I will try not to knock you for it. But don’t turn around and break your own rules because it doesn’t mesh with what I believe. Granted, the sign does slam those who follow religion but there is nothing slanderous or libelous about the sign. The State of Washington - City of Olympia allowed it, so leave it be morons!

Article by Stephanie Brien: City Council will wait on Prayer Decision

The city I live in is going to vote on the issue of praying before city council meetings, apparently the vote has been postponed until next year. An alderman by the name of Jim Kaplan has proposed the council say a prayer or have a moment of silence prior to start of every city council meeting. It appears there is already a split, as some alderman have come out against praying before each meeting.

“9th District Alderman Terry McCarthy said religion should be kept private and said they should leave the meetings the way they are.”

Although I agree religion is a private matter, one could argue this prayer or “moment of silence” to be used as a way for some people to prepare for the meeting. The problem I have is, why implement this as a part of the council meeting when you are more than welcome to take a moment of silence or pray on your own?

The Jim Kaplan argument is; “Kaplan has watched the way that Congress has conducted a prayer and he believes a moment of reflection is a good thing for the City Council. “If it’s good enough for both houses of Congress … then I don’t see why we should be any different,” Kaplan said.”

Here is the problem with this argument Jim, this assumes there is a connection bewteen a “good thing” and the houses of Congress. Furthermore, this assumes what the houses practice is actually the right thing to do. I know from personal experience, and suspect you have to, the houses of Congress are often far from right. And more often than not, they are far from representative of the People.

Personally, I like a moment of silence from time to time. I’m agnostic, so praying is not really my thing, but I know it is for others. I certainly would not want to take prayer away from those who feel it enlightens them or serves a purpose in their lives. However, is there not a short period of time prior to your city council meetings in which you could say a few words to yourself, or whomever it is you pray to? Why impose extra time on what I can only assume is a very tight schedule for the city council - considering all the things wrong with our city, I hope the time is used wisely to address really important issues taxing our city-folk.

Commentary from CNN: Rove says ‘marketplace of ideas’ will decide Palin’s fate

I snuck a look at this article in CNN this afternoon and felt compelled to share some of the commentary from readers. I will pipe in where necessary, but most of it speaks for itself.

Jorge says: “In four years Ms. Palin will be an afterthought. Todd will have left her for one of Willow’s friends and she will be living in a trailer park outside of Fairbanks with her 25 year old boyfriend, Bud.”

Lip says: “Sarah Palin…to bad Sarah isn’t black. Had she been black, there never would have been all the sexist ,slanderous remarks made of her. Had she been black, the media would have been sucking up to her rather than taking pot shots at her. Even Leno would have been good to her. I personally think that the level of hostility was due to the fact that the Democrat nominee was black and the media needed a scapegoat or target to shoot at and didn’t dare say or do anything that would reflect poorly on themselves.”

Nevermind she is a complete idiot. Really though; sexists, mysogynists, racists, whatever else people may be or how the media interprets a person is not very relevant. Sarah Palin is an idiot, with fundamentalist values, and absolutely no skills to be vice preident or president of the United States. Not now, not in 2012.

Jim Young says: “Get serious. We Republicans got the whooping we so soundly deserved for fielding a terrible ticket. Never forget “you can see Russia from my State” as Gov. Palin’s trump card on foriegn policy. Let this fuse burn out, and 4 years from now bring out some new blood with serious credentials.”

Couldn’t agree with you more, Jim. I’d love to see the Republicans field a candidate that may swing my vote - or at the minimum make it difficult.

Kathy in NC says: “Who cares about what Karl Rove thinks? Bush bought his ideas and now has the lowest approval rating ever. Karl Rove is irrelevant, and quite frankly so is Sarah Palin…”

Karl Rove may be hated, but he got George Bush elected…twice. Consider that.

Tom in Delaware says: “Karl makes a good point about only knowing Sarah Palin for 9 weeks.”

Yet, she insisted we need to know who the real Barack Obama was. Hmmmmm.

Lu says: “Lynn says “What happened to all of the smart people in the GOP?” well they voted for McCain; too bad there are not many smart people and the dumb ones outnumber them and got to elect our president…”

Using this theory, can we assume all the smart people voted for Bush, twice?

EW says: “Guys, ever notice how your wife or girlfirend always criticizes other women for the most petty things, like what she was wearing? Women can be some of the most loving and the most hateful creatures on earth all at the same time. Women hate each other, that’s all there is to it.”

Could you be anymore sexist in your remarks?

Linda from WI says: “I suspect that once the Republican Party has a chance to regroup and look more closely at potential leaders, they’ll find they can do much better than Sarah Palin.”

Bobby Jindal, for starts.

Blossum says: “But Palin doesn’t have any ideas, just talking points. Her followers are downscale whites with no education or they are religious fanatics. That’s not enought to win.”

Then how did Bush do it?

Article from CNN Money: Ford unviels turnaround plan

Nothing gives me more confidence than seeing auto industry top execs taking big paycuts. Can you cut through the sarcasm yet? In the case of Alan Mulally, and apparently other big American auto companies, he will work for $1 a year…

“The company announced that the salary of Ford CEO Alan Mulally would be cut to $1 a year if Ford (F, Fortune 500) actually borrowed money from the government. When Mulally appeared before the House Financial Services Committee last month, he did not agree to the suggestion of such a paycut.”

Apparently, the big three are dumping the corporate jets too…

“Ford also announced that it would sell its five corporate jets. Mulally, Wagoner and Nardelli were roundly criticized for flying their own corporate jets to Washington to ask for help last month.”

Now for me, I couldn’t care less about the corporate jets. I mean really, they aren’t the only big company execs who use corporate jets to get around. The problem is, they represent an industry which is now veiwed as a pariah. And let’s face it, American auto companies are a pariah. How come the Japanese are able to adapt? Because they have good leaders who were able to understand what the future held.

It is quite possible American auto execs knew what the future held, too. However, they are so tightly bound to the oil industry and this connection which generates gobs and gobs of money in the short term, they lost sight of what is not only important to the consumer, but what is important for our environment as well. Oh, let’s not forget their employees. Glad I didn’t.

Auto industry execs have not represented leadership. they have represented greed.

Taking a pay cut is a gimmick, just like drilling for offshore oil.

Keeping these idiots at the helm of these companies is a travesty.

The only ones who will suffer are the blue collar workers who will lose their job and their retirement. Do you think by taking a pay cut this will adversely effect the lives of these top execs? Dont’ kid yourself.

Although there are number of variations of spam (excluding the ever-popular lunch meat), I would like to focus on email spam, which is defined as follows;

“E-mail spam, known as unsolicited bulk Email (UBE) or unsolicited commercial email (UCE), is the practice of sending unwanted e-mail messages, frequently with commercial content, in large quantities to an indiscriminate set of recipients.”

“E-mail is an extremely cheap mass medium, and professional spammers have automated their processes to the extent that millions of messages can be sent daily with little or no labor costs. Thus, spamming can be very profitable even at what would otherwise be considered extremely low response rates.”

If you notice the last part, in bold, implies there is good money to be made even though most spam email is not responded to. This means there are a small number of “idiots” who are responding to these spam emails. If we could address the small number of people who respond to these emails to stop - i.e. cut them off completely from an email account - we could stop spammers cold in their tracks. Likliehood of making this happen…nil.

However, if we could convince business owners from avoiding these criminals we may be able to make some headway. You see, the other part to this story is spammers make money from the businesses the advertise for through their spam email campaigns;

“…even though spam appears not to be economically viable as a way for a reputable company to do business, it suffices for professional spammers to convince a tiny proportion of gullible advertisers that it is viable for those spammers to stay in business.”

It is virtually impossible to stop the spammers as networks are now commonly setup in such a way they are not traceable - or very difficult to trace. For example, an undetected trojan horse could be sitting on your home computer right now, proliferating spam from your own network. And you are not the only one, as millions of unsuspecting people are being used as pawns in this very profitable game.

So the best way to address the problem may not be at the root. Nailing down the idiots who respond to these emails is just as far-fetched. But we may be able to make headway by confronting the business owners who use spam as an avenue to promote their products and services. Now, it is true many of these businesses may not know they are using a spammer to promote their products, but if we actively contact and pressure the businesses which are listed in the spam emails we receive, then perhaps we can make the point to enough of them to make a difference.

Article by Julien Zelizer: Bush should do something to stop crisis

I have to disagee here, Bush should do nothing at this point. All this guy does is fuck things up.

“The lame-duck president is believed to be one of the more impotent figures in American politics — a commander in chief who is unable to do much because he lacks political muscle.”

Bush lacks no muscle, let alone political muscle. He may be a good politician, but he is of below average intelligence and has been taking this country for the fool the past eight years. Who voted for this idiot in 2004?

“The president finishes his term as one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history. Democrats won control of Congress in 2006 and this year, they expanded the size of their majority significantly.”

He will go down as the worst president between 1 and 43, no doubt. And Republicans will use Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008 as fodder to claim that’s why everything is fucked up. As if this ecxcuses the first six years..

Russ says: “And why should Bush do anything? Anything he does is compromised and undermined by the left. And what is Pelosi or Reid doing? They are the so-called leaders of Congress, an oxymoron if there ever was one.”

Russ, this isn’t about left and right, it is about right and wrong. Bush has been on the side of wrong from the start.

“President Bush started his term on the promise of bringing new civility to Washington and boasting of his ability to reach across the aisle in Texas. Early in his presidency, he displayed some flashes of this new tone with No Child Left Behind and with his initial response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. But that bipartisan approach quickly faded into Karl Rove’s strategy of playing to the base of the party.”

The Bush legacy in a nutshell. Problem is he never pulled through for the “fundies” (fundamentalists) either.

Tillzen says: “Bush should NOT act! It his actions that are the problem. Benign neglect becomes him, and when he acts he only makes it worse. “The decider” only helps if he decides correctly, and we need only look at the War / the Economy, and the Nation to see his track record. He should go home, and clear brush. Deep thought is not his “thang.”"