I'm not going to name names, but perhaps before seemingly intelligent people decide to dismiss outright the gift to humanity that was Ayn Rand,  they should TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!!

Peace.

I've been unable to wrap my head this. In a town where Libertarianism has apparently run amok and tax payers do not feel that they should be burdened with trivial things such as justice for victims of violent crimes, why is the focus mainly on rape victims? I mean, why not privatize the entire police department? If you're a victim of a crime, the police department could then charge you fair market value for solving that particular crime. The invisible hand of the market will take care of everything (except, of course, for those who cannot afford to pay for justice).

Now it is making a little more sense to me. I just read an article in World Net Daily defending Palin against attacks on this issue. In defending her, they provide the missing piece of the puzzle. Rape kits are not just forensic tools. They also include emergency contraception:

For the sake of my own mental health, I've done my best to avoid the news today, but received the following via e-mail subscription:

"Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."



Setting aside the assertion that there was a link between Iraq and the events of 9/11, which any rational person should reject by now, my plea today is the same as it was seven years ago: When the time comes, many years from now, for us to calculate the cost of this tragedy in terms of human life, I ask only that the number of innocent people that we kill in their name be added to, not subtracted from, the number of those who lost their lives on this day.

Jeanna, Jess, Sage, and I shared a moment of sadness Monday for for the 17 year old daughter of Sarah Palin, as we realized that she truly has no choice. Not only will she have a child, but there will be a wedding, shotguns and all.

With this still in mind, statements from the McCain camp today seem very strange to me. Neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin believe that a woman should have the right to choose, yet both seem strangely compelled to assure us that, in this particular case, it is very much a matter of choice.

Yes, abuse of power is bad. Yes, wanting to fire a librarian over a political disagreement is bad, but the underlying nature of that political disagreement is also worthy of some media attention. Sarah Palin wanted to ban books.

Test post--Playing with phone.

Dear CNN,

Please stop pretending that we are obsessed with O.J. Simpson.
We're not. You are.

Love,

Swampus

The most recent change in marketing strategies designed to sell us more war seems to have done very little to shift opinion in the general population. A September 7 AP/Ipsos poll shows a modest 4 point change since February: From 61% to 57% who think the United States "made a mistake in going to war in Iraq." This is barely outside the MoE of +/- 3.1. http://pollingreport.com/iraq.htm

Sadly, though, when watching CNN, one gets the genuine impression that a far greater impact has been made among folks inside the beltway and among folks who, you know, actually make laws. Either they are believing their own lies now or they no longer feel the need to pretend that we matter.

As much as I complain about Bush, I'm mostly feeling betrayed by my own party and by the miserable failure that is our mainstream media. Bad people will always try to use power to do bad things. Where are the people who are supposed to call them on it? For how much long will they get a free pass?

Google exact phrase matches for "Meerkat Manor" and "Fucked up": 607 (has increased by about 20 since yesterday for those tracking at home--New season coming up, after all).

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22meerkat+manor%22%2C+%22fucked+up%22&btnG=Google+Search

Howard Dean, March 15, 2003:

We’ve had two fine people. United States Senators, Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry, who’ve done a lot for our country and they have served us honorably and if they win the nomination either one of them I am going to support them and do every thing I can to help them win the White House. But, I don’t think we can win The White House if we vote for the President’s unilateral attack on Iraq in Washington and then come to California and say we are against the war. And I don’t think we can win The White House if we support the President’s “No School Board Left Standing Bill” and then come to California and tell every body that we are going to do all kinds of things for education. And I don’t think we can win the White House if we skip the most important abortion vote in the last year and then come to California and talk about pro-choice.

I am not surprised that only 15% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 vote because we have not giving them a reason to vote and we are going to give them a reason to vote now.
[...]
Senator Kerry was reported to have said that he could win without the South. I do not want to win without the South. I want to go to the South and I’m going to say to white guys that drive pick up trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back of their car.
[...]
I want my country back. We want our country back. I am tired of being divided. I don’t want to listen to the fundamentalist preachers anymore. I want America to look like America. Where we are all included, hand in hand, walking down. We have dream. We can only reach the dream if we are all together – black and white, gay and straight, man and woman. America.

Tomboy:
You dress pretty casual and you have short hair
that's pretty easy to style. You are probably
frequently mistaken for a young boy. You are
very passionate and fall in love easily.


What Kind Of Lesbian Stereotype Are You???
brought to you by Quizilla

Bush lies:

Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and MoveOn have all started petitions calling for an independent bipartisan investigation into Bush's lies:

Howard Dean's petition
Dennis Kucinich's petition
MoveOn's petition

FCC vs. Democracy (the rematch):

Consumer's Union has a petition in support of H.R. 2052 and S. 1046. If passed, these bills will undo Michael Powell's transgressions against media diversity:

"On June 19, a bipartisan vote of the Senate Commerce Committee overturned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to significantly reduce protections regarding who owns the media in the America.

But the fight is not over. S. 1046 must now go to the full Senate for approval. Make your voice heard - write your Senators to urge their support of S. 1046.

Your participation takes two minutes and will make a difference."

Learn more
Sign petition

Ari Fleischer: "I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are."

Uhm...What???

I'm beginning to suspect that Ari Fleischer and Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf (the Iraqi Information Minister) are twins that were somehow separated at birth.

Poll #154640
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

Do you think this person is real?

The rise in paganism has been ofset by the lack of "wild weather". Don't know what the fuck I'm talking about? Well, I guess you haven't been reading...

The Rapture Index!!!

Dean has been featured in Doonesbury all week.



Gary Trudeau's web site: http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/