i'm posting from firefox for linux. installed fedora on the spare.
gonna try and install some packages for blogging. there were a few i wanted to try on krak but joe was going to overhaul krak, then maybe give me cgi privs.
oh well. i'm actually quite tired, and too tired to be doing any of this right now. but suffice it to say that i kinda like the *x world.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
understatmenet of the day
Revenues in the print publishing unit—i.e., the Journal—fell 8.8 percent from the year-ago quarter. Advertising linage at the U.S. Wall Street Journal was down 9.9 percent in March alone. Worse, "Print publishing had an operating loss of $7.1 million in the first quarter." In other words, the daily diary of the American dream, the paper designed to help you make money, is probably losing money. And as the flagship drifts on, the captain who guided it into becalmed seas remains firmly entrenched at the bridge.
Friday, April 22, 2005
the well DUH post of the day
With President Bush telling the Senate to "put politics aside and confirm John Bolton," the NYT and WP both front Colin Powell chatting with some fence-sitting Republican senators and giving a less-than-rosy assessment of Bolton. The chatter was confirmed by a spokesman for Powell. He didn't explicitly call for Bolton's defeat, but Powell didn't have to, purportedly saying Bolton "had problems" with people who disagreed with him.
from slate's today's papers
bolton has problems with those who disagree with him huh.
what KIND of problems are they?
but nontheless, isn't it just like bush to put patsie yes-men (and in the case of condi, yes-women) into positions of power? that's what dictators DO for chrissake.
got lemons? try making lemonade
like this little girl did.
When I was a young girl living on the south side, I could lie in bed listening to the train horns blowing their warnings in the night. I'd pretend that I lived on the ocean and the sounds were ships traveling on a foggy night to faraway places. Maybe the people living down by the river should pretend they own oceanfront property. It worked for me.
-Janet Boggs,
Des Moines.
now THAT's putting it into perspective
a perspective that every man in American should hear:
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to eliminate the federal estate tax - a $290 billion tax break for the richest 1 percent of Americans. The true cost of the tax break over 10 years will be $745 billion.
At the same time as members of Congress voted for the huge tax break for the very rich, they're talking about slashing food stamps and Medicaid.
Kudos to Congressman Jim Leach for opposing this giveaway. Shame on Congressmen Jim Nussle, Tom Latham, Steve King and Leonard Boswell for supporting it.
-Mark L. Smith,
Des Moines.
attribution
ya, i know, a lot of letters in the des moines register were indeed worth repeating.
democrat of republican?
is the letter writer a democrat ... or republican?
Now that the judicial system has approved the execution of handicapped individuals, the medical community will have to devise a more humane method than starvation and dehydration, which are too emotionally draining for most observers.
The Schiavo spectacle was so heinous that courts may be willing to accept a simple lethal injection or pill to accomplish the same result.
We can expect that "assisted suicide," like unlimited abortion, will soon be im-posed on all 50 states. Consider how much money can be saved by emptying out the nursing homes and handicapped facilities. It might be the way to save Social Security.
-Ruth Naberhaus,
Scranton.
attribution
understatement of the day
Renewable sources could play a major role in energy self-sufficiency by 2020, while solving our greenhouse-gas emissions problem and the balance-of-payments crisis and providing job creation and energy security. If terrorists hatched a plan to undermine the United States by making it wholly dependent on foreign countries for energy and capital, they would be hunted and destroyed. But we have done it to ourselves.
attribution
WAL-MART Watch
an interesting bit in today's register about wal-mart wanting and obviously getting, a sneaky attempt to skirt the open-meetings law in iowa. disgusting. and probably nobody had any idea that shit was happening like it is. which raises two questions: are the des moines city council members that stupid and ignorant? and why does wal-mart want to do business in secret?
This was not just a routine meeting to discuss a mundane topic, such as parking requirements or sign restrictions. The issue is whether West Des Moines will forbid Wal-Mart from operating its planned Jordan Creek store 24 hours a day. It has divided the council, raised a ruckus with residents near the shopping center and led the Arkansas retail giant to hint about a lawsuit.
West Des Moines officials at least initially had the right idea in proposing the meeting be open to the public. But they backed down when Wal-Mart representatives canceled the meeting and insisted on meeting with council members individually.Rather than politely decline, council members Loretta Sieman, Bob Parks and Jim Sandager took turns meeting with the visitors. Which raises the obvious question: What did the company have to say in private that it couldn't say in a public meeting?
des moines register
Thursday, April 21, 2005
watch out rickie, we're on to you ....
santorum may be in for a ride.... one that will make him wish he had fastened his seatbelts.
i did NOT have .... what was it defined as again?
like it really mattered....
Republican Congressman Henry Hyde made some surprising comments Thursday on the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. He now says Republicans may have gone after Clinton to retaliate for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Hyde is stepping down after this term.
*giggle*
Nelson Galloway, fellow poopyhead
i got a call today.
from an old old OLD friend, nelson galloway.
the stories i could tell about him are endless, as is this blog of poopy.
however, i will be succinct and suffice it to say it was just the thing i needed today.... so thanks nelson. i'll email you soon.
but for those of you who are just dying to hear the stories, stay tuned. i'm gonna go get some help and i'll be back with a good post about PITTSBURGH P.A.
what does a bushite sound like when they dont get their way?
waaaahhhhhh
waaaaahhhhhhhh
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Thursday urged the Senate to confirm John R. Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as a key Republican senator signaled he is leaning against the nominee accused of mistreating co-workers.
Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said he is troubled by Bolton's behavior and wants to discuss it with other Republican senators.
nytimes
Quote of the Day
``I am sick and tired of a bunch of people trying to tell me that God wants a bunch of conservative judges on the court and that's why we have to change the rules of the United States Senate,'' (John) Kerry (to a group of Bay State residents who traveled to Capitol Hill for U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan's annual legislative seminar)
i couldn't have said it any better...
WaPo puts this one out of the ballpark, trying to prove that there are still some in journalism who still have respect for the craft:
Inflation and interest rates are rising, stock values have plunged, a tank of gas induces sticker shock, and for nearly a year, wages have failed to keep up with the cost of living.
Yet in Washington, the political class has been consumed with the death of a brain-damaged woman in Florida, the ethics of the House majority leader, and the fate of the Senate filibuster.
again, at WaPo
amazing that the word DUH doesn't appear in the article.
and then there were ...
one less, it seems.
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a leading advocate of the “nuclear option” to end the Democrats’ filibuster of judicial nominees, is privately arguing for a delay in the face of adverse internal party polls.
Details of the polling numbers remain under wraps, but Santorum and other Senate sources concede that, while a majority of Americans oppose the filibuster, the figures show that most also accept the Democratic message that Republicans are trying to destroy the tradition of debate in the Senate.
The Republicans are keeping the “nuclear” poll numbers secret, whereas they have often in the past been keen to release internal survey results that favor the party. David Winston, head of the Winston Group, which conducts Senate GOP polls, did return phone calls seeking comment.
Confirming public disquiet over the “nuclear” or “constitutional” option, Santorum said, “Our polling shows that.” But, he added, public thinking had been muddied by what he called false Democratic arguments that checks and balances were being eroded.
“People see checks and balances as Democrats checking Republicans, not the legislative checking the executive or the judiciary checking the legislative,” Santorum said. Filibustering presidential nominees was not something the Founding Fathers envisioned as a tool for balancing power between the branches, he argued. In other words, Democrats have managed to convince the public of their right to check Republicans in the Senate.
Santorum’s raising of reasons that Republicans should delay the constitutional option may surprise conservative activists who count him as one of the most passionate advocates for the tactic in the Senate.
“There is no doubt that Santorum was the backbone of this from the very beginning, and he continues to be,” said Manuel Miranda, head of the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters, an alliance of more than 200 conservative groups working on the judges issue.
thehill.com
DeLayWatch
has it been registered yet?
House Republicans yesterday offered to open an investigation into overseas travel and other activities by Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), as part of an effort to resolve a three-month impasse with the Democrats that has kept the ethics committee from functioning.
With questions mounting about DeLay's past dealings with lobbyists, ethics committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said he would name Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), a lawyer who sits on the committee, to head a subcommittee to "review various allegations concerning travel and other actions by Mr. DeLay." Hastings said it would be up to Hart's panel to decide whether to bring in an outside counsel.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said he would welcome a "fair process that will afford me the opportunity to get the facts out." (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
But Democrats said the concessions outlined by Hastings did not address their chief objections to rule changes that the Republicans pushed through in January, most notably a new provision that would cause a complaint to be dismissed -- rather than lingering in limbo -- if the chairman and ranking minority party member cannot agree on whether to take up the case.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said he would welcome a "fair process that will afford me the opportunity to get the facts out." (Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
But Democrats said the concessions outlined by Hastings did not address their chief objections to rule changes that the Republicans pushed through in January, most notably a new provision that would cause a complaint to be dismissed -- rather than lingering in limbo -- if the chairman and ranking minority party member cannot agree on whether to take up the case.
this should be bringing down the republicons
if any issue was able to do it, this should be it. what an miserable failure.
NEW YORK — Tom Burke recently tried to print out a boarding pass from home before one of the frequent flights he takes.He couldn't. When the San Francisco lawyer got to the airport, he was told the reason: His name, or one similar to it, is now on one of the Transportation Security Administration's terrorist watch lists.
"There was a certain irony to it," says Mr. Burke, a First Amendment expert who is suing the federal government on behalf of others who have found themselves on either the TSA's "no-fly" or "selectee" list.
Almost 3-1/2 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a year and a half after Congress ordered law-enforcement agencies to consolidate and coordinate its terrorist screening processes, the status of the watch lists remains uncertain and is a cause of frustration for thousands of travelers as well as the nation's airlines.
Every day, thousands of people like Burke find themselves unable to do things like print a boarding pass and are pulled aside for extensive screening because their name, or a name that sounds like theirs, is on one of the watch lists. Even well-known lawmakers, like Edward Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts, have found themselves caught in the screening dragnet.
usatoday
brownback is a yellowback
anyone who is afraid of gays is a fish, just waiting to be baited.
A leading Senate Republican warned Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) yesterday that a move to recognize gay marriages in the nation's capital would trigger a sharp backlash from Congress, and the mayor acknowledged that the District could jeopardize its budget agenda and domestic partner benefits if it mishandles the issue.
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (R), the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District, said he wanted to hear more from Williams but opposed a statement by the city's attorney general that "validly married same-sex couples" may file joint D.C. tax returns.
Letter Of The Day
I am extremely disappointed that all five of our congressmen followed U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in voting for the bankruptcy bill.
The legislation was opposed by a large number of law professors and bankruptcy judges. Credible studies demonstrate that a majority of bankruptcies result from divorce, death in the family, sudden medical crises and/or job loss.
This bill does nothing to close asset-protection trusts that allow the wealthy to retain their fortunes when filing bankruptcy.
It also does nothing to curb predatory lending practices or make corporations such as Enron more responsible to shareholders. This means the majority of Iowa's elected representatives voted to penalize middle- and working-class families for occurrences beyond their control while supporting corrupt corporations and a double standard for irresponsible wealth.
One can only hope that the next election brings opponents smart enough to cite our current representatives' allegiance to corporate lobbies at the expense of their working- and middle-class constituents.
-Ben Saddoris,
Osceola.
attribution
social security minus the security
a ltte in the globe today from an 18 year old, speaks like it was written by rush limbaugh. replete with stats that no 18 year old would know by him/herself.
but it took that letter to see and understand what the bushite people are doing.
there's no question social security needs tweaking. it's been tweaked many times in the past, and was built to be tweaked in the future.
however, the bushite people are screaming that the 'only way' to tweak it 'this time' is to move to privatize the system, and dump an unearthly sum into the stock market.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Joke of the Day
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin had too much personal power and that Washington was closely watching the trial of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
attribution
this had better be the straw the breaks the camel's back
Washington -- The growing price tag of tax breaks to oil, gas, nuclear, coal and other energy producers in a new House energy bill is raising concerns among White House officials and some conservatives, who say the costly subsidies aren't needed at a time of sky-high energy prices.
Republican leaders had promised a slimmer version of the energy bill the House has passed the last few years to avoid worsening the federal deficit. But a new analysis by a watchdog group showed that lawmakers added $35 billion in the last three weeks since the bill was introduced -- a total of $88.9 billion in subsidies to industry over 10 years in the bill.
attribution
WOO HOOO
(CT) Governor Rell has signed a bill that recognizes same-sex civil unions in the state.
This comes after the Senate quickly passed the revised bill which added a definition of marriage.
Letter Of The Day, Part II
Letter Of The Day
you're lucky. today, we have TWO!
Arrogant GOP creating a new silent majority
The Senate Republican leadership in Washington, D.C., wants to abolish the right of senators to filibuster to block judicial nominations. Just one more example of the extremism and arrogance of the current leadership of the Republican Party.
I used to consider myself a Republican, but that was in the days of former Iowa Gov. Bob Ray. Would Ray even be welcome in the national leadership of the party today with its win-at-all-costs, destroy-all-our-enemies mentality?
What with the debacle of congressional interference in the Terri Schiavo case sending leading Republicans into retreat mode, the failure of President Bush to "sell" his Social Security proposal with the public and now the unpopular Senate proposal to silence the minority in judicial nominations, one wonders whether a new "silent majority" is developing. One increasingly uncomfortable with the extremism and arrogance of today's Republican Party.
-Kim Jones,
Des Moines.
***
Republicans are going for the ultimate power grab by trying to silence the voice of Democrats in the U.S. Senate. They want to change the rules and eliminate the filibuster, which has protected the voice of the minority for more than 200 years.
This abuse of power would eliminate debate and dissent in Congress, giving President Bush a blank check to push the most radical agenda and extreme judges. It would put our most fundamental values at risk by eliminating the checks and balances that keep democracy strong.
I urge our senators to stand up and protect our democracy by opposing the GOP power grab.
-Louise S. Treangen,
Ankeny.
both from the des moines register
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
what did adolf do?
i'm sure he had his way of coming up with the dubious means to torture his victims..... we now see how the bush administration did their research.
Army intelligence officials in Iraq developed and circulated "wish lists" of harsh interrogation techniques they hoped to use on detainees in August 2003, including tactics such as low-voltage electrocution, blows with phone books and using dogs and snakes -- suggestions that some soldiers believed spawned abuse and illegal interrogations.
Letter Of The Day
Grocers do not like redeeming empty beverage containers because, they say, the grocery business and the container-redemption business are inherently incompatible for sanitary reasons.
Iowa lawmakers want to address their concerns by giving them 2 cents per container instead of 1 cent.
How is 2 cents a bottle any more sanitary than 1 cent a bottle?
What's really going on?
-Rick Olson,
Indianola.
attribution
Monday, April 18, 2005
the well DUH post of the day
The buck stops elsewhere … President Bush on the new White House-approved policy that will require U.S., Canadian, and Mexican citizens to show passports even for quick cross-border trips: "When I first read that in the newspaper about the need to have passports," he told some editors last week, "I said, 'What's going on here?' "
runners up for Letter of the Day
Looking good where it counts
It's time to add the section "Personal Appearance" to my resume. The April 8 article, " It Pays to be Good-Looking, Fed Analysis Shows," states that my chances of a pay raise increase if I am above-average looking.
My worth as an employee should not rest on whether I am "tall, slender and attractive." As I work at my job, it is my education that gets the job done, not my mascara.
-Hannah Hacker,
Des Moines.
What really needs fixing
Richard Doak is correct in his April 5 column, "Let's Fix Something That Actually Needs It." Health care in this country is in a terrible crisis, and it must be dealt with. But the president ignores it and travels the country to frighten you into believing that we have an emergency with Social Security.
The truth is Social Security needs to be tweaked. We have adjusted it in the past, and we will have to adjust it again. Taking money out of the trust fund to set up private accounts will cause an emergency with Social Security funding levels.
How to fix it? Remove the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes - currently at $90,000. Let those who earn millions per year pay on all their income. They can painlessly afford it and the system will be solvent for decades.
Social Security is not a retirement investment fund, and it never was. It is insurance against abject poverty for our elderly, widows, orphans and disabled.
-JoAnn Hardy,
Mason City.
Who won?
In the last presidential election, Republicans said if voters elected John Kerry gasoline prices would go up. Did Kerry win?
-D. A. Benda,
Toledo.
atribution
letter of the day
Why is it, in a time when crude oil is selling at more than $50 a barrel, our government is encouraging the purchase of gas guzzling SUVs, Hummers, etc., with tax incentives, capital-equipment deductions and minimum tax breaks of $25,000, while the measly (in comparison) $2,000 tax incentive for hybrids is going away next year?
Bad tax breaks are a fiscal waste and send the wrong message. Correcting the current loophole and investing instead in bringing more advanced, economical and environmentally friendly vehicles to market would be far wiser.
-Pat Bowen,
Winterset.
atribution
iowa legislature, a funny klan
couldn't let this one slip by without notice. an editorial in the local paper, about the legislature voting themselves a raise:
It's also been several years since lawmakers raised Iowa's minimum wage, thanks to Republicans who refuse to debate the issue and Democrats who do little more than talk about the idea every two years.
But Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson argues that's an unfair comparison.
"The minimum wage really isn't a huge issue because I don't know anybody working for that," he said.
Well, some introductions apparently are in order, senator.
According to the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute, 74,000 Iowa workers earn between $5.15, the minimum wage, and $6.65, the threshold reached if lawmakers ever raise the wage floor by $1.50. Most of those workers are adults and 59 percent are women. Many bring home a large chunk of their family's income.
But Iverson's right. There really is no comparison between a raise for 74,000 people toiling for economic table scraps and a pay hike for 150 part-time politicians who struggle to decide which interest group will feed them free food today.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
divide and conquer... if dean is really a leader, he would take advantage of this.
NEW YORK -- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a man known for frank talk, offered a blunt description of the state of his party, which broke camp here Friday after nominating President Bush for a second term. "The Republican Party," he said, "has come loose of its moorings."WaPo
60 minutes tonite - teen parties in KS
cbs 60 minutes... on the teen drinking and parents. the hypocritical producers are highlighted, somewhat.
oh this prosecutor is comparing it with sex.
he asked if its ok to have kids consume
that we're saying, we give up.
that's probably right.
but i dunno. i support the parent supervision.
let those kids get the consequence of drinking while they're under their parents eye.
what better lesson can there be.
clipped segment from slate's Today's Papers
something lost amongst the republicons who are whining that they don't have it all...
Ninety-four of the 162 active judges now on the U.S. Court of Appeals were chosen by Republican presidents. On 10 of the 13 circuit courts, Republican appointees have a clear majority. And, since 1976, at least seven of the nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court have been filled by Republican appointees.
the LAT
to hell with you CBS
watching face the nation, bob schieffer is letting this bitch from the chicago tribune, explain the filibuster, and why democrats are using it.
the bitch is lying, and putting forth the 'we're the victims' argument that republicons are using because only 90% of the judges have been approved.
FUCK YOU CBS, AND FUCK YOU BOB SCHIEFFER.
Quote of the Day
this is no doubt a bush sympathizer, who listens to rush limpball and ann(thrax) coulter too much.
"The concept of three branches of government is based on the relationship between a little boy and his mother and his father, not a three-legged milk stool."--David Rader, Urbandale.
Letter Of The Day
today's winner comes from the local paper:
On the day of this writing, the number of American dead in this administration's war has reached 1,724. With grief and anger, I implore the reader to reflect on this question: For what are they dying?
Throughout history, wars have been fought for conquest and profit. The feudal lords in the Middle Ages did not themselves participate in war any more than presidents and dictators do now.
Presidents and dictators declare the wars, and their citizens are told it is their patriotic duty to go to war and kill others sent by their rulers to do the same. It has always been this way.
The rulers declare the wars; their subjects fight them. The rulers have all to gain and nothing to lose; the people have nothing to gain and everything to lose — especially their lives.
I find cruel irony in the fact that the most bellicose members of this administration never served their country in wartime. In all of history, no war has ever been declared by the people. I long for the day when a president or dictator calls for war — and no people show up for it.
By HAROLD W. HOPP, Mason City
all i can say is .... about friggin time.
it took this long, not using a 'new process' but using an old method, only in a new way.
from the independent
it took this long, not using a 'new process' but using an old method, only in a new way.
For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible. Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the
hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.
In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.
The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view. Academics have hailed it as a development which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in the number of great Greek and Roman works in existence.
Some are even predicting a "second Renaissance".
Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford, described the new works as "central texts which scholars have been speculating about for centuries".
from the independent
Last Wednesday, John posted a link to the story about, Eric Berndt, a student at NYU Law School asking Antonin Scalia if he ever sodomized his wife. Thanks to Impeach Bush for pointing us to the student's response to his critics which was posted by Wonkette.Any doubts about whether Scalia should be asked this question will be assuaged by reading his hateful, homophobic dissent in Lawrence v. Texas. And realize that under the theocracy, everyone will be asked these questions, because sodomy is going to be illegal for everyone, not just the homos.
from americablog
from americablog
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