FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
TEXANS BEWARE: AGGIE
ARROGANCE RETURNING SOON

From the Houston Chronicle:

A day after upsetting previously undefeated Missouri 25-19 at Kyle Field, the Texas A&M Aggies were rewarded Sunday with appearances in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25 polls.

Click here for the rest.

You know, it's been nice these last few years. Aggies everywhere knew their football team sucked and so they kept their damned mouths shut. None of that stupid "t.u." shit. Now this. All they did was beat a greatly over rated Missouri team by a couple of field goals, but if the Aggies are true to form, and they most definitely always are, they're going to start believing that they can win the frickin' national championship. Seriously. I know how these people think. If they're not getting it on with sheep and cows, they're drooling over their football team--when their team isn't worth drooling about, however, they just get it on with more sheep and cows. But, whoa, they're number 23 now! Put that sheep down and come over here right now and start making fun of UT! I mean "t.u."

Look out home state: the Aggie-dicks are back.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ WAS, IS, AND WILL
CONTINUE TO BE A BIG FUCKING JOKE

From Crooks and Liars courtesy of AlterNet, some video of the Washington Post's conservative columnist David Brooks asserting that the White House is considering dissolving the Iraqi government:

Matthews: David, do you believe the President is looking for an out from his doctrinaire policy of staying the course?

Brooks: Not really, no I don't. I think they're looking at policy options. One of those options is trying to replace the current government which seems to be doing nothing.

Click here to see the video.

I completely agree with the notion that Iraq's government is nothing but a paper tiger--the real power brokers over there are the insurgents, the militias, and, of course, the US military. But if Brooks is right about Bush's desire to simply scrap the much ballyhooed election results and start over, what does that mean about "spreading democracy" and all that good stuff? Answer: absolutely nothing. Anybody with half a brain already knows that spreading democracy was never a US goal in Iraq. Doing away with the elected government may very well be bad PR for Bush, but it's certainly not a change of direction for American policy.

What will be interesting, if this happens, is to see if anyone in the press or in Congress has the balls to point out the utter hypocrisy here. I give even odds that nobody in the mainstream says anything at all.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

In Houston, wages don't always pay the rent

From the Houston Chronicle opinion section:

A much larger hump on the income curve is the number of people employed in Houston making $6 or $7 an hour, or maybe $60 a day.

Doing the math is pretty easy.

Sixty dollars times five days is $300 per week. Four weeks per month means $1,200 per month of total income. Since half the households in Houston are composed of one or two persons, this means total household income for a substantial portion of our residents is just that: $1,200 per month. With the cheapest apartments renting for $500 per month plus utilities, many families double up, live in cars, or make the tradeoff between food and electricity.

Drive in some neighborhoods and you'll notice the large number of little hibachi grills in the front yards of apartment units. Barbecue lovers? No. People without electricity.

Click here for the rest.

And this bind isn't simply in H-Town; it's in pretty much every city in the country. The bottom line is that, unless you've got one of those increasingly rare good-paying jobs, it is impossible to exist in our "free market" economy. As soon as I'm out of grad school, that's precisely the position in which I'll find myself.

I remember when I lived in Austin during the early 90s, at the beginning of the tech boom. There was a housing shortage then, and rents were skyrocketing. At one point, I was comforted by an article proclaiming that developers were planning to build buttloads of apartment units. As I continued to read, however, my comfort turned to anxiety when I realized that all those new apartments were aimed at upscale white collar workers, and rents were priced accordingly. That is, if you were working as a waiter or in some other crappy low wage job, you were shit out of luck. Fortunately, I managed to worm my way into a roommate situation with an informal landlord who was charging us waaay less than the market was dictating at that point. In other words, I got lucky.

But most people in such a predicament aren't lucky.

You know, this housing problem, and how most new housing is aimed at the high end, is a pretty darned good example of how the "free market" most certainly does not take care of average ordinary people in the long run. Indeed, the "free market" doesn't care about average ordinary people at all, which is why America really, really, really needs to revisit many of its assumptions about the way things work.

'Cause this is a bunch of bullshit.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Bush keeps revising war justification

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

President Bush keeps revising his explanation for why the U.S. is in Iraq, moving from narrow military objectives at first to history-of-civilization stakes now.

Initially, the rationale was specific: to stop Saddam Hussein from using what Bush claimed were the Iraqi leader's weapons of mass destruction or from selling them to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.

But 3 1/2 years later, with no weapons found, still no end in sight and the war a liability for nearly all Republicans on the ballot Nov. 7, the justification has become far broader and now includes the expansive "struggle between good and evil."

Republicans seized on North Korea's reported nuclear test last week as further evidence that the need for strong U.S. leadership extends beyond Iraq.

Bush's changing rhetoric reflects increasing administration efforts to tie the war, increasingly unpopular at home, with the global fight against terrorism, still the president's strongest suit politically.

Click here for the rest.

I wrote this in Real Art comments yesterday:

I often wonder if Bush's advisors are smarter than we give them credit for, if they're playing some entirely different game, with lots of misdirection. Do you ever wonder why we really invaded Iraq? Surely not for WMD, which they must have known weren't there. Surely not to get access to Iraq's oil reserves because we have fairly safe and stable access in other countries. And surely not to "spread democracy" because that's just fucking stupid on its face.

I would add to that comment that we are surely not there to fight terrorism, either: in fact, the war is doing precisely the opposite; it's creating terrorism, and we know that now for sure. My own bet continues to be on the "control the spigot" theory, that the idea is to transmute our awsome military power into massive economic leverage by exercising hegemony over the Middle East from huge bases in Iraq, making all other industrial powers kiss the US imperial ring in order to get cheap and plentiful oil. But who really knows? Bush certainly isn't saying, and it's very possible that he actually believes his own bullshit, but someone working in the White House must know, and, ultimately, your guess is as good as mine about what they're really up to.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
BLOWOUT WEEKEND III:
LONGHORNS, TIGERS KICK ASS ON WEAKLINGS

From the AP via ESPN:

McCoy breaks Texas TD record in bashing of Baylor

Colt McCoy already had a really cool name for a Texas quarterback. Now he's written it into the Longhorn record book.

Next, he probably needs a nickname. "Six Shooter" maybe?

McCoy threw for a school-record six touchdown passes Saturday night and No. 6 Texas recovered from an early 10-point deficit to roll to a 63-31 victory over Baylor, seizing sole possession of first place in the Big 12 South.

With a 50-yard fourth-quarter strike to Limas Sweed, the redshirt freshman from West Texas put his name above James Brown and Chris Simms who shared the school single-game record of five.

And yet when it was over, all McCoy wanted to talk about was his slow start: His lone interception -- "dumb" -- and a scoring throw that probably should have been picked off if not for a great catch by tight end Jermichael Finley.

"I shouldn't have thrown that," McCoy said. "Their secondary did a good job."

Really?

Click here for the rest.

My vote for Colt McCoy's nickname would be "The Doctor," as in "Doctor McCoy." I'm sure it'll never happen. Anyway, it's cool that our new QB broke the TD record and all, and after winning the OU game last week he's really starting to look like the real deal, but, to me, what's interesting about this latest Longhorn blowout is that the Baptists of Baylor scored 31 points. In Austin. I mean, thesed guys haven't been competitive, really, since there was such a thing as the Southwest Conference, and even then they always had a tendency to choke when playing in the Texas stronghold. I've heard rumors that the Bears are much better this year, which is fine by me. It's just makes Texas look all the better when they beat 'em.

Again from the AP via ESPN:

Bowe's 3 TDs highlight LSU's rout of Kentucky

Dwayne Bowe caught three touchdown passes to move into second-place on LSU's career list, highlighting a 49-0 victory over Kentucky on Saturday night.

Bowe caught six passes for 111 yards to spearhead the No. 14 Tigers' fifth blowout in as many home games. His first two touchdown receptions, thrown by JaMarcus Russell, went for 7 and 48 yards. Backup quarterback Matt Flynn threw the last from 8 yards out in the third quarter, making the score 42-0.

And

LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC) has struggled in both of its road games, losing the first 7-3 at Auburn and the second 23-10 last weekend in Florida -- a game decided in large part by five LSU turnovers.

That sloppiness prompted biting criticism on local sports call-in shows throughout the past week, and LSU responded by scoring touchdowns on its first four possessions to jump out to a 28-0 lead by halftime.

Click here for the rest.

Ho hum. Another Saturday, another blowout. Don't get me wrong: it's an SEC win for the Tigers and all, but I sometimes wonder what Kentucky thinks it's doing in the conference--I suppose for basketball, but why field a football team? There's no way blowing out Kentucky is going to shut up the radio rednecks on the airwaves here in the Red Stick, all of whom think they'd be much better coaches than, you know, the ones who actually make a living doing it. Only a bona fide national title run will close their bug traps, and I'm starting to realize that's not such an easy thing for an SEC team to do, even a truly great team. I think that after Auburn's upset of Florida today that the conventional wisdom on campus is getting to me: the SEC is the toughest conference in the nation, Kentucky's pathetic play notwithstanding, and if any of its teams can make it to the end of the always brutal and bloody season undefeated and without injury, the national championship game is simply a formality.

Of course, LSU already has two conference losses...

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ROCK AND ROLL SHOW OFFS:
FRANK ZAPPA AND STEVE VAI

I recently found yet another fantastic clip on Youtube, and I figured I'd better post it sooner rather than later, assuming that the popular video website is eventually going to have pull its best stuff due to various lawsuits, if they don't cut some fantastic deals first.

Anyway, the clip is taken from Video from Hell, FZ's promotional video for his tour supporting the album Jazz from Hell back in the mid 80s. I saw it years ago when I was an undergrad at UT and barely remember it. That is, I barely remember it except for this particular live performance, which has taken on near-icon status in the section of my brain reserved for Frank Zappa worship. The studio version of the song, "Stevie's Spanking" from the 1984 album Them or Us, is typical Zappa fare, a simple but infectious groove, lots of ornamentation, with naughty, near-obscene lyrics, all serving as an excuse for long and complex guitar solos. The "Live duet version" played at a 1982 concert in Rome, however, does away with the lyrics entirely and just goes for the jam.

And what a jam it is! It opens with about twenty seconds of FZ guitar fanfare, essentially musically introducing then wunderkind Steve Vai's solo, approximately two minutes of sheer guitar virtuosity. They hit the hook and then go into Zappa's solo, which isn't as good as Vai's, and certainly isn't the best I've ever heard from FZ, but still pretty great nonetheless. Ultimately, none of that matters one way or the other because those first two solos are only the warm up for the duet. Three minutes into Zappa's guitar meanderings, he steps over into Vai's spotlight and the two play together for the rest of the eight minute song. And lemme tell ya, it's fucking magic.

It's so weird that what first attracted me to Zappa when I was a kid were his funny lyrics and bizarre compositions. Of course, I still love those aspects of his work, but what's kept me with him for so many years is the incredible playing on every single song he's ever done. Eat your heart out, Eric Clapton. Bite me, Jimmy Page. Take some heroin, Duane Allman. Go to hell, Randy Rhodes. Zappa and his crew were always better than everybody. If you consider yourself a rock music fan at all, you simply must go check out this performance of "Stevie's Spanking."

Click here to rock the fuck out.



$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Frankie



Phil



Paz



Sammy



Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

HOMELAND SECURITY KEYSTONE COPS

From the Houston Chronicle:

Officer demands apology in airport case

A TSA report obtained by the Houston Chronicle appears to blame Reece for the incident, which began when screeners at a checkpoint asked Bataineh whether he had a laptop computer in a computer bag.

Bataineh shook his head, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop and alarm clock with a nine-volt battery taped to it. They also said Bataineh was wearing shoes that they suspected had been "gutted out."

"The shoes had been tampered with and there were all the components of (a bomb) except the explosive itself," according to the report.

Instead of detaining Bataineh or calling the FBI as they could have and should have done according to security officials, a TSA official asked Reece to investigate.

Reece examined the shoes and found no reason for concern, then put the battery in the clock and found that it functioned properly, according to Hoffman.

Reece found no reason to detain Bataineh and allowed him to enter the boarding area over the protests of screeners, according to the report.

Click here for the rest.

This is classic Bush stuff. Fail, without even following your own procedures, and then blame someone else. Fortunately, people, even patriotic cops, aren't falling for that ploy much these days. Still, this story is disturbing, if only because it reinforces what a joke homeland security is under the Bush administration. They swore to protect us, but all the agencies charged with doing so appear to be in total disarray. The chemical plants are still wide open. The borders are still wide open. And FEMA...well, nuff said on that.

What is Bush doing to protect us from terrorists?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

E. coli strain found in cows near spinach field

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Investigators still do not know how the feces could have contaminated the spinach implicated in the bacterial outbreak. They also do not know if the ranch used manure from the cattle to fertilize its fields. Nor is there evidence that livestock entered the spinach fields on the ranch. However, wild pigs roamed the property, they said.

"There's lots of wildlife and lots of potential for breakdown in the fencing," Reilly told reporters.

The strain of pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 was found in three cattle fecal samples collected at the ranch, one of four under investigation, the officials said. It matched the strain found in sick patients and in bags of recalled spinach.

Investigators continue to look at irrigation water and the hygiene of farm workers as potential sources of the bacteria.

Click here for the rest.

An AlterNet article I read a couple of weeks ago, for which I cannot seem to find the link at the moment, speculated on exactly this cause. However, the writer was willing to go where this AP writer is unwilling to go. That is, he suggested a cause: cattle waste doesn't simply drop on the ground these days; it's held in massive cesspools that tend to spring leaks fairly regularly. The idea is that the leaks were absorbed into the water table. That water was then used to irrigate the spinach, and, bang, we have an E coli outbreak. No matter how you look at this, it's the result of a lax regulatory environment in Washington. I suppose it's nice and all that modern agri-giants are making lots of money, but that's no cure for the couple of hundred people sickened by E coli, or for the three people killed. Ultimately, greed, and nothing else, made this happen.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FAREWELL MADONNA

Okay, I'm really sad right now because I just got off the phone with my mom who told me the details about how she put her dog Madonna to sleep today, so this is the only post I'm making tonight. Madonna was old, fourteen, and it was definitely time for her to go. She had been suffering from repeated strokes for the last couple of years, and, really, it was amazing that she had been doing so well for so long under the circumstances. I mean, that girl just kept bouncing back, almost like a cat with nine lives. But her luck finally ran out, no bouncing back this time, and my parents had to make what I believe to be one of the hardest decisions a person can make, euthanizing a loved one. So now she's buried in same backyard in which I played as a child.

I only lived with her for a couple of short spans in the early and then late 90s when I had boomeranged back home to take stock of my life, and she was a great comfort to me in my depressions. I grew to love her very quickly. My cats Giskard and Alec, on the other hand, hated her, of course, which was a drag because all Madonna ever wanted to do with them was hang out--the two felines terrorized the dog, despite her size and strength advantage. I did my best to keep them apart. She and I went for countless walks on the Kingwood bike trails of my childhood; she would always go into a tripped out frenzy whenever I grabbed the leash and said the word "walk."

I always walked her whenever I visited later--I allowed myself the vanity of thinking that she liked my walks better than anybody else's; she sure did act like it, but I know that she was really always my mother's dog. I am really going to miss her presence next time I'm home. The house just won't be the same without her.

Damn, I'm missing her right now even though I haven't seen her since August. The poor girl.


Me and a fairly young Madonna back in the early or mid 90s


A more mature Madonna for the new millenium

Farewell, Madonna. The world has lost a wonderful being.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

An Open Letter to James Dobson

From God's Politics courtesy of AlterNet:

You see, I'm an evangelical Christian, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. As you know, we share a common Nazarene heritage that introduced both of us to a relationship with Jesus Christ, nurtured us in the development of our faith, and educated us through their colleges.

And

But somewhere along the way, I fear you have lost your way. Your message of hope has turned into a message of partisan politics. Instead of words of encouragement, your words seem to continually blame someone else for the problems of the world.

I just read your words that were posted on your Web site on Friday about the Foley scandal, and I must say I was very disappointed, but not surprised. While thankfully you did condemn the acts of Rep. Foley, you spent the majority of your time attacking "the liberal media," the Democratic party, and gay people, who according to your thinking are the real problem in America.

Unfortunately, I don't think your statement rings true for millions of evangelical Christians, who believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures ... inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation (Church of the Nazarene Manual). Your statement comes across as the same kind of partisan rhetoric that you claim to be fighting. More hubris than humility. More politics than principle.

Click here for the rest.

I've been wondering for years when something like this was going to happen. The minister who wrote this letter is, like Dobson, a fundamentalist: I'm sure that he doesn't have the influence or power that Dobson has, but the fact that this has been written at all is significant. The problem facing fundamentalists today is that they don't really seriously advocate or adhere to the most central principles advanced by their Lord, you know, love, forgiveness, tolerance, compassion for the poor, refraining from judgment, that sort of thing. I'm not sure why all these people have essentially warped Jesus into his exact opposite--perhaps the strange bedfellow alliance with the cutthroat capitalists of the GOP bears the most responsibility. But, once the change was complete, it was only a matter of time before one of them actually read the Bible and noticed what was going on. That is, the seeds of fundamentalism's destruction were there from the beginning of the movement back in the 70s. The harshness of fundamentalism is simply incompatible with the teachings of Jesus, and therefore, anti-Christian. Finally, it looks like these people are waking up.

I sure hope this becomes a movement.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

What the Amish Are Teaching America

From AlterNet:

When the Amish were suddenly pierced by violence, how did they respond?

The evening of the shooting, Amish neighbors from the Nickel Mines community gathered to process their grief with each other and mental health counselors. As of that evening, three little girls were dead. Eight were hospitalized in critical condition. (One more girl has died since.) According to reports by counselors who attended the grief session, the Amish family members grappled with a number of questions: Do we send our kids to school tomorrow? What if they want to sleep in our beds tonight, is that OK? But one question they asked might surprise us outsiders. What, they wondered, can we do to help the family of the shooter? Plans were already underway for a horse-and-buggy caravan to visit Charles Carl Roberts' family with offers of food and condolences. The Amish, it seems, don't automatically translate their grieving into revenge. Rather, they believe in redemption.

Meanwhile, the United States culture from which the Amish are isolated is moving in the other direction -- increasingly exacting revenge for crimes and punishing violence with more violence. In 26 states and at the federal level, there are "three strikes" laws in place. Conviction for three felonies in a row now warrants a life sentence, even for the most minor crimes. For instance, Leandro Andrade is serving a life sentence, his final crime involving the theft of nine children's videos -- including "Cinderella" and "Free Willy" -- from a Kmart. Similarly, in many states and at the federal level, possession of even small amounts of drugs trigger mandatory minimum sentences of extreme duration. In New York, Elaine Bartlett was just released from prison, serving a 20-year sentence for possessing only four ounces of cocaine. This is in addition to the 60 people who were executed in the United States in 2005, among the more than a thousand killed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. And the president of the United States is still actively seeking authority to torture and abuse alleged terrorists, whom he consistently dehumanizes as rats to be "smoked from their holes," even without evidence of their guilt.

Click here for the rest.

Our supposed Christian nation seems to greatly prefer the wrathful God of the Old Testament to the forgiving and loving God of the New Testament. I remember being taught in Southern Baptist Sunday school many years ago when I was a teenager that Jesus came not only to save our souls, but to free humanity from the strict and harsh laws that had bound his children for centuries before. In other words, Christ's messages of peace and tolerance supercede the violent code that came before him. Of course, I'm certainly no Christian in any religious sense these days, but I do find myself as an adult to be an adherent to much of the philosophy espoused in the Gospels: "love your neighbor as yourself." It's absolutely wonderful to see that the Amish take such words seriously; it is extraordinarily disheartening to know that most American Christians do not.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

WASHINGTON STATE HIGH SCHOOL
CANCELS ANTI-GAY BASHING PLAY

From KIMA TV courtesy of Orcinus:

Prescott and several drama club students decided to do the Laramie Project last month at the start of the school year. It's a play about the aftermath of a young Laramie, Wyoming man brutally murdered by two men for being gay.

But soon after, controversy erupted in the high school's community with students, their parents and even staff.

"When I read the play I didn't have a similar reaction," said Lee Maras, principal of Davis High School. "But the ones I did talk to didn't even want to read it, didn't even want to look at it - just felt it was inappropriate for our school."

Click here for the rest.

Since when is opposition to brutality controversial? Only when you hate the victims of such violence, I suppose. I've never seen The Laramie Project, but it has a great reputation--they even did it here at LSU a few years back, and everyone involved seemed to have a great experience with it. My understanding is that there's really nothing controversial about it; it's not even particularly pro-gay. But producing it at a high school, one of the final frontiers of rampant American homophobia, creates a situation such that public education's true purposes become obvious.

If this school was really concerned with education, there would simply be no question about performing the play, controversy be damned. But the job of public school administrators is to make sure that the wheels of the authority indoctrination machine keep moving while making it appear as though children are learning. Because the quasi-governmental nature of the school system makes everybody with a cause think they have a say in what's happening in the schools, a big part of keeping the machine functioning is playing public relations games. This school's principal sounds genuinely sympathetic to the play's message, but his job dictates that he keep all controversies minimal: consequently, PR trumps educational concerns, and that's okay because authority indoctrination, schools' main thrust, not only doesn't suffer, it is actually enhanced by arbitrarily ordering these thespians around.

This is all no surprise to me, especially after my six years inside the machine as a theater teacher, myself. Still sucks, though.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

"...and President Bush's private
mood has blackened accordingly."

From the New York Daily News via AlterNet:

First Lady Laura Bush, who is even more in demand than her husband on the political stump this cycle, also was telling aides she thought the tide had finally turned.

Now, however, friends, aides and close political allies tell the Daily News Bush is furious with his own side for helping create a political downdraft that has blunted his momentum and endangered GOP prospects for keeping control of Congress next month.

Some of his anger is directed at former aides who helped Watergate journalist Bob Woodward paint a lurid portrait of a dysfunctional, chaotic administration in his new book, "State of Denial."

In the obsessively private Bush clan, talking out of school is the ultimate act of disloyalty, and Bush feels betrayed from within.

And

Bush has complained, these sources said, that the scandal torpedoes furious GOP efforts to reenergize a dispirited political base - especially Christian conservatives.

"There's steam coming out of his ears over the Foley thing," someone who talks to the President regularly said. "The base is starting to get turned off again."

Click here for the rest.

It's hard for me to get past the Bush archetype in my brain, you know, the one established fairly early on in his first administration, after 9/11: the guy who doesn't read newspapers, who's seemingly invulnerable to criticism, if only because he's too stupid or oblivious to understand. But that storyline comes from years ago. What's been happening in his primate skull since the war in Iraq turned sour? How's he really been dealing with the bashing he took after FEMA's failure in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? Haven't his chronically bad approval ratings rattled him a bit? I'm afraid that most people really don't know.

I've heard rumors that he's started drinking again, always a very bad thing for a recovering alcoholic to do. Personally, I think Bush should start boning up on Louis XVI's final days; maybe he'll find some enlightening info.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

From the Progressive:

“I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.”

Howards says he knew the Administration has a “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.

But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’”

Click here for the rest.

Well, this kind of bullshit is now pretty much par for the course. Republicans have been harrassing and intimidating their critics for years now--don't forget how the White House capitalized on the Plame leak in order to punish former Ambasador Joseph Wilson for daring to debunk the Niger-Iraq uranium connection. The article explains how this guy who criticized Veep Cheney to his face was arrested for it, in front of his kid, at a public shopping mall. Fortunately, the "assault" charges were eventually dismissed, and Howards is now suing the agent who cuffed him, but, needless to say, no American citizen should have to put up with this crap.

Especially from a guy who shot his best friend in the face.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

We Had Abortions

From Ms. Magazine via AlterNet:

At the time of the original Ms. petition, illegal abortions were causing untold suffering in the United States, especially for poor women who had to resort to unsafe self-induced or back-alley abortions. Today, in the developing nations, approximately 70,000 women and girls die each year from botched and unsafe abortions. Another 500,000 needless maternal deaths occur. Most of this suffering and loss could be prevented. U.S. international family-planning policies contribute to the death toll: first, by conditioning U.S. aid on a global gag rule that prevents medical workers from even giving out information on abortion (let alone providing the service); second, by withholding or providing inadequate funds; and finally, by funding "abstinence-only" rather than comprehensive sex education.

We are now starting a new petition, beginning with the names of some of the original 1972 signers. They signed "to save lives and to spare other women the pain of socially imposed guilt." Their purpose was "to repeal archaic and inhuman laws." They recognized that because of the "social stigma still wrongly attached to abortion" many would not be able to sign publicly. But they invited all women to sign-"to help eliminate the stigma."

Click here for the rest.

Okay, this is great. It reminds me of the "I had an abortion" t-shirts that have been available for a couple of years now. There needs to be much more activism along these lines. While I applaud the numerous efforts across the country and over the years to keep abortions rights, or what I like to think of as the right, for all Americans, both men and women alike, to control one's own body, on the books and an important part of civil and human rights in general, the sad truth is that the war of ideas is being lost. There are enormous pockets around the country, Baytown, Texas, for instance, where the conventional wisdom is that abortion is a horrible, awful thing. When I was teaching in Baytown, I was aghast at first about how many teenaged girls, seemingly the overwhelming majority, were pro-life. Later, I accepted it as reality, which made it only slightly less disturbing, and had little success in persuading people that women couldn't truly be equal in our culture unless they had complete control of their bodies. In short, the "immorality" of abortion is fast becoming a dominant idea, and there's no way to combat that when abortion rights supporters squeamishly hide behind euphemisms like "pro-life," when women who have had abortions feel too stigmatized to freely speak about it. The bottom line here is that abortion is good when freely chosen--of course, birth control is better, but I'll save that talk for another post. For now, I have to say that Ms. is kicking ass.

You go, girls!

I'm probably going to be slapped for saying that someday.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

AMERICA LOVES THE COCK

From AlterNet:

Let's Face It, Penises Dominate American Politics

Thank God for Mark Foley.

It proves that the American people still care about something.

It happens to be penises. But still.

They care about who talks about them, who plays with them, who covers them up, who uncovers them, who covers up the uncovering of them.

Even Jon Stewart put the big penis cover-up ahead of the fact that this government just passed a law that says that George Bush can say, "Hey you, you're an enemy combatant, "and once he says that they can whisk you away.

And

Anything else, in between penises, is just marking time. Fail to get bin Laden, who cares? Discover proof that the administration made up stories so they could have their war in Iraq, no big deal, not even news, according to the New York Times. Best estimate is that US bombs and artillery killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians, it would be rude to mention it. Then there's all that money that disappeared. Paul Bremer blew through twenty billion (yes, Billion) dollars that was supposed to be held in trust for the Iraqi people and there's no records and nothing to show for it. After that was gone, the occupation authorities blew through another twenty billion that was supposed to go for the reconstruction of Iraq. Let's not ask where the money went -- no major media outlet has.

If you're in the cable news business, you're happy. This is the first really good penis since Bill's.

Click here for the rest.

Well, it's not fair to say that America loves the cock, although many individual Americans do, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that in the personal realm: it's more like politicians, pundits, and reporters love the cock. They love the cock so much that it drowns out everything else, especially important political and economic issues, with big huge wads and wads of steaming hot semen.

To be honest, if the American people suddenly decided to start sexually objectifying men instead of women, demanding that the seemingly endless media display of breasts be replaced with a seemingly endless media display of penises, things here in the US might become really interesting. Maybe men might become more concerned with something besides dominating the people around them. Maybe men would finally decide to make love, not war.

Actually, that would probably drive lots of American men stark raving mad.

But that's not what this is about at all. The political and journalistic classes aren't really obsessed with penises. They just don't want to talk about the issues that are important to real people's lives because that would make obvious how our current political arrangements favor them and the wealthy elite for whom they work, but nobody else really. Penis talk is simply a sick substitute for political discussion. Nobody really cared that Bill Clinton was getting it on with Monica Lewinsky, but they needed something to pretend that they were doing their jobs, and striking out with Whitewater and a bajillion other bogus scandals, blowjobs did the trick nicely. And that's what's happening right now with this Foley scandal. Sure, there's definitely an issue there, but, ultimately it pales when compared to everything else.

But the Democrats, like the Republicans, are far more comfortable being outraged about penises than torture. Sick fucks, if you ask me.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
TEXAS BEATS ARCH RIVAL OKLAHOMA, LSU LOSES

From the AP via ESPN:

Frosh QB plays like a vet as Horns handle Sooners

Now, it's the No. 14 Sooners who are finding ways to lose -- like having their best player give up on a loose ball near his end zone with the game still on the line in the fourth quarter.

Adrian Peterson thought the ball bouncing off his hands meant an incomplete pass, not a fumbled lateral. Texas cornerback Aaron Ross wasn't sure, but scooped it up and scored just in case, and wound up with the touchdown that sealed a 28-10 victory Saturday in the 101st edition of the Red River rivalry.

And

Ross' first interception with more than seven minutes began an exodus of Oklahoma fans. The rest began heading out when Paul Thompson -- who was 15-of-27 for 209 yards -- was picked off by Ross again, drawing chants of "Poor Sooners" from the Longhorns fans.

Click here for the rest.

Heh. "Poor Sooners" indeed. God I love this. I just love beating Oklahoma. By the way, here's an old joke: why doesn't Texas fall into the Gulf of Mexico? Because Oklahoma sucks! Ha! And suck is what the Sooners did today at the Cotton Bowl. They sucked in spades. Sucked, sucked, sucked. Well, okay, they played just well enough to make it worth watching for the average football fan--they even had a three point lead at halftime. Other than that, however, they just sucked. I guess it's not going to be Bob Stoops' year to win the national championship. Or the Big 12. Or even the division. Again. Ha! When Peterson dropped that ball that Ross returned for a TD, they all looked like the bunch of big, dumb Okies they are.

And now Texas has the inside track to win the conference. Again.

Hook 'em 'Horns!


Texas coach Mack Brown is dunked after Texas beat Oklahoma 28-10 in their football game, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2006, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Meanwhile, in Florida...again from the AP via ESPN:

Tebow, Gators dominate LSU, 6-0 for first time since '96

Backup quarterback Tim Tebow threw two touchdown passes, including one on a play that could have came from basketball coach Billy Donovan's playbook, and ran for a score to give the fifth-ranked Gators a 23-10 win against No. 9 LSU on Saturday.

And

LSU's quarterback has had better days. Russell finished 24-of-41 for 228 yards with a touchdown. But he also had four turnovers.

Click here for the rest.

I'm lucky these two games were on at the same time. Defaulting to my real team, Texas, meant that I didn't have to watch my current school get its clock cleaned by what appears to be an extraordinarily good Florida team. LSU had a total of five turnovers, equaling OU's number in that category, and, like OU, they lost. I'm traditional on interception and fumble philosophy: if you turn the ball over five times, you don't deserve to win. Not that I wanted them to lose, mind you, it's just that losing is the only outcome possible when you can't seem to hold onto the ball.

What really bums me is that the know-it-all sports radio blowhards here in Baton Rouge were already highly critical of LSU coach Les Miles, who I consider to be pretty damned good, in the weeks following the Auburn, loss and I'm sure this loss is going to send them into chattering hysterics. Miles, I think, just needs another couple of years to get it going--remember, former coach Nick Sabin was unable to repeat his disputed National Championship run during his last year here, and lost a couple of big games he was supposed to win; Miles was given a good program, but it was not completely without problems, and he needs some more time to fine tune the Tigers to his own style. Goddamned radio fuckers, fucking calling him out for running the damned ball on first down. "This ain't the Big 12, yuck, yuck," they said. Stupid bayou trash motherfuckers. Got live crawfish infesting their brains, if you ask me.

Anyway, the Tigers need to deal with the turnover issue, for sure, but they'd better not fire Miles after only two seasons. Nothing like disharmony in a college town where they expect you to win the national championship every damned year.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ON THE OTHER HAND...

From ABC News courtesy of Eschaton:

Three More Former Pages Accuse
Foley of Online Sexual Approaches

"I was seventeen years old and just returned to [my home state] when Foley began to e-mail me, asking if I had ever seen my page roommates naked and how big their penises were," said the page in the 2002 class.

The former page also said Foley told him that if he happened to be in Washington, D.C., he could stay at Foley's home if he "would engage in oral sex" with Foley.

And

The page said Foley maintained e-mail contact with him even after he started college and arranged a sexual liaison after the page had turned 18.

Click here for the rest.

Well, this appears to be the serious solicitation that seemed to be missing from the im's and emails reported earlier in the week. At this point, I don't think a criminal investigation of Foley is out of line, nor are demands for the resignations of Republican Congressional leaders who acted to hush all this up.

I mean, this new information, along with the fact that he's been doing this for eleven years and has yet to be actually accused by a victim, also indicates that Foley was careful to some extent about actual attempts to hook up, waiting as he did for this one page to turn eighteen, which suggests that he was trying to stay away, at least as far as having sex is concerned, from the underage boys with whom he was corresponding. Maybe he was grooming these kids to be potential future sex partners, but it seems certain that he was attempting to set up liasions, one way or the other. It's not unreasonable to imagine that this particular dirty old man was up to something more than simply being a dirty old man. I'm not sure about specific legalities here, or what constitutes probable cause for an investigation of statutory rape, but "come to my place for oral sex" strikes me as being much better than the old "I thought I smelled marijuana" line cops use to justify searching hippies' cars.

So, okay, I am now officially ready to jump into the feeding frenzy.

Nonetheless, I still stand behind everything I've said about the Foley scandal thus far. The issue of Republican hypocrisy is extraordinarily big, and I'm afraid that what I believe to be a major key to discrediting the Conservative Movement overall is being lost in the stampede to unseat the Congressional leadership. Also, the Democrats went for the jugular on this way too quickly, making great use of, and thereby legitimizing, the conservative and fundamentalist continuing crusade to drive mainstream American culture into hysterics over sex crimes and sex in general: the words "predator" and "molester" were being thrown about by Democrats, as well as the corporate news media, well before they had any real reason to use them--strengthening anti-sex hysteria can only come back to haunt the so-called liberal party. Finally, it's quite disgusting that this, a trashy sex scandal, is the only issue about which Democrats feel moved to display brazen and righteous indignation. As if torture, illegal wiretapping, illegal invasion, election tampering, environmental destruction, coddling the rich while screwing the poor, failure to protect us from terrorists, a seemingly infinite number of lies, and on and on, wasn't enough.

This Foley scandal, however it ends up, has taught me a great deal about how politics in this country actually work, and I already thought I knew a lot. I didn't think it was possible, but I think I'm becoming even more cynical.

CODA: If you still think I'm foolish for being cautious about calling Foley a "predator" or "child molester" for some quick and cheap political gain, check out these two Wikipedia articles here and here about a couple of enormous scandals from years gone by that ended up being totally bogus. And that's just two; there have been and will be many more. It's always good to withhold judgment, especially when nobody else is.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Paz



Frankie



Sammy



Phil



Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$