here's a bullseye into how American

It's sadly ironic when people in America, the wealthiest country in the world, go into debt while trying to pay for a basic need such as health care. Then that debt prevents them from securing other basic needs, such as housing and car loans. This has become, unfortunately, the American way.

--source

today's MUST READ

it's a long thread, but one worth reading and getting a jest of what North Iowa is all about.

saw on irc today

"In this season finale episode, which first aired on December 7, a local statue of the Virgin Mary bleeds from its ass. Townsfolk think it's a miracle. Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI visits to inspect the statue in person, determines that it is instead bleeding from its vagina, and declares: "A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle. Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the time.""

from

saw on irc today

"In this season finale episode, which first aired on December 7, a local statue of the Virgin Mary bleeds from its ass. Townsfolk think it's a miracle. Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI visits to inspect the statue in person, determines that it is instead bleeding from its vagina, and declares: "A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle. Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the time.""

from

does this say more than it reads?

The House has a mortgage-lobby-friendly bill pending; one of its two sponsors is Bob Ney, R-Ohio, perhaps better-known these days as the "Representative No. 1" cited in an indictment revolving around fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

i see civil war

i just can't tell what the time frame is. but there is civil war being brewed in the middle east.

and like all things bush, this will be a disaster. both for the region, and for the world. too much is at stake. and too little available.

cbs news isnt very full of good news tonite. story after story. misery everywhere. and some would have you believe that i would blame bush for it all.

and after that, i've got a bridge to sell ya.

any question on who's the president now?

A front-page article last Tuesday about foreign governments' security concerns regarding satellite photography available through Google referred imprecisely to security measures applied to some of the imagery. Although images of the White House and its environs are now clear in the Google Earth database, the view of the vice president's residence in Washington remains obscured.
(go to article)

--nytimes

i just had to reprint one last letter

because this one hits the nail on the head without even swinging.

According to the Army Times, the Army and Marine Corps are recalling more than 18,000 body-armor vests because they failed ballistic requirements when they were manufactured in 1999-2000.

Many of those vests may now be in the war zone. The Nov. 16 recall order is the second in six months for the Marines. The Corps recalled more than 5,000 vests in May. All of the vests involved were produced by the same manufacturer, Point Blank Body Armor Inc. of Pompano Beach, Fla., under contract to the Marine Corps.

The first recall, and a subsequent investigation that led to the second recall, came in response to a Marine Corps Times investigation that showed that the Corps knowingly accepted vests that failed to meet requirements in 2003 and 2004.

This is the Bush administration's version of "support the troops."

—Frank P. Belcastro, Dubuque.

Letter of the WeeQ

It is said that if we leave Iraq now, Iraq will sink into a civil war. I thought that I knew the definition of civil war, but I looked it up just to be sure. Iraq is already engaged in civil war. The politicians say that the insurgents now concentrate on Iraqi civilians. That is civil war.

—Paul Jensen, Ogden.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

comes today from my hometown newspaper, and there were several that made the short list of contenders. you should really read them all.

By KEVIN YOUNG, Sheffield

And so we have come to the end of the long, sad, sordid story of Angela Johnson and Dustin Honken.

If there is an appropriate comment to make, it would have to be the words of wisdom we used to have on a sign that sat in our living room which said, “No one is completely worthless. They can always serve as a BAD example.”

this is a test, this is only a test

and no, there's no need to contact your local DHS snitch.

what it means

was the first header of the letters to the editor in today's des moines register:

"Substantial stability has been achieved in the north and south," Dec. 19 editorial). English translation: The Kurds and Shiites have established de facto independent states complete with secret prisons and torture chambers in the oil-rich north and south while retaining joint control of the central government.

—Ian Binnie, Des Moines.

i am amazed at the letters today

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051225/OPINION04/512250320/1035/OPINION

under the heading eavesdroppers.

and not one thought it was ok for the president to spy on Americans.

i'm sorry

i'm sorry to all the catholics out there who might be offended by my next statement:

pope benedict looks like he's saying to himself: gee, all this for me, i'm the king, i get to sit on the throne, they come for ME.

Letter Of The Day

The president says he has allowed spying on United States citizens to protect U.S. citizens. My question is who, or what, is going to protect us from the president?

attribution

life has vindicated seymour hersh how many times now?

The WP does front a big story on U.S. air strikes in Iraq killing many civilians in the Anbar province. And inside, the WP reports that U.S. air strikes have overall increased five-fold in the past few months-which might be evidence that Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article was on target.

from today's papers

Letter Of The Day

Gay and lesbian couples are asking for equal rights granted by state-recognized marriage. Certain heterosexuals oppose granting gay couples the privilege of marriage partly because they think it would unravel their revered institution of marriage.

The reluctance to change is usually driven by the unknown. Maybe the heterosexual couples are afraid a homosexual marriage institution would have a lower divorce rate, a higher marriage percentage, less spousal-abuse cases, less child neglect and, heaven forbid, the children of homosexual marriage would grow up to be well adjusted, successful adults and possibly heterosexual.

Change is never easy, even in Iowa.

-Craig Seymour, Ames.

attribution

the difference between us and them?

us: we take our dates to movies

them: they take their wives to opening sessions of parliament in afghanistan.

i can hear cheney now: see huney, i did all this for you.

can you tell me which one of these acts are christian?

A little after 6 a.m. yesterday, the House of Representatives approved a five-year budget plan that included almost $40 billion in cuts to programs such as Medicaid and student loans. An hour earlier, the House also passed a $453 billion military spending bill that included a provision to permit oil drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The bill, which includes money for hurricane relief and preparations for an avian flu pandemic, might put lawmakers who are against ANWR in a tough spot if they do not want to be seen as voting against funding the troops. Also, some are pointing out that the legislation to help prepare the country for a possible outbreak of bird flu protects vaccine-makers from any liability, including the result of negligence.

the latest numbers

from today's papers:

The WP fronts its latest poll that shows a jump in President Bush's approval ratings to 47 percent, an increase in 8 percentage points since November. USAT, on the other hand, goes inside with its own poll, taken in almost the exact same days, that says Bush's approval rating is 41 percent. The polls agree that 52 percent of the population does not believe the Iraq war is worth fighting or that troops should have been sent in the first place. The USAT poll also reveals that 55 percent of the population sees the war in Iraq as separate from the war on terrorism.

guess us critics of this law were proven right again:

Two Des Moines children were sexually abused over the weekend by a man wanted by police since October for violation of the Iowa Sex Offender Registry law, authorities reported.

A parent contacted police Saturday accusing James Alex Conway, 35, of molesting two boys ages 7 and 10.

"He was baby-sitting at the time," Sgt. Todd Dykstra said of Conway, who had been living at the house where the alleged incident occurred.

...

Critics of the sex offender residency restriction say it does nothing to restrict where child molesters can go, and point out that most abuse occurs when an offender lives in the same home as a child.

--source

Letter of the WeeQ

President Bush wouldn't comment when asked about U.S.-run secret prisons abroad, but did say that the United States does not torture and will do everything in its legal power to protect Americans while abiding by U.S. law ("Bush: U.S. Won't Use Ransom for Captives," Dec. 7).

This president doesn't have to worry too much about U.S. law on torture (or anything else) when he's got the attorney general to write it for him as he goes along, the chief justice of the Supreme Court installed (and another justice waiting in the wings) to bless it for him, a Congress too afraid to oppose anything he does and a mainstream media that will barely raise its voice.

-Roy Applegate, Spencer.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (U.S.A. Patriot Act)is set to expire on Dec. 31.

This cleverly crafted acronym implies that anyone opposed to the provisions of the act is unpatriotic. While one may argue that they have not personally noticed any loss of freedoms during the past four years from this hastily drafted legislation, that does not make it good legislation. Many of the provisions go too far and give government too much authority, authority that is not necessary for domestic security.

Let's hope Congress, in its haste to get home by Christmas, does not simply continue the provisions in the first legislation. There is nothing patriotic about the Patriot Act.

-Rod Braun, Pella.

attribution

today's must read

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/18/AR2005121801006.html

FARPOINT.FACTOID

we're jus FULL of 'em today. from moneycentral over at msn:

More than 500,000 bankruptcy cases were filed in the two weeks before the law took effect, compared with a normal weekly volume of 30,000 to 35,000. So far this year more than 2 million cases have been filed, 49% more than the same period last year and eclipsing all previous records.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

The NYT reports that the wealthiest Americans are not the most generous in terms of the proportion of their investment assets they give to charity. A "pioneering study of federal tax data" shows that working-age people earning $50,000 to $100,000 are two to six times more generous than those earning more than $10 million.
--FROM TODAY'S PAPERS

watching 60 minutes

and there was a segment on morgan freeman.

now he's an actor who would draw me to the movies, and i don't think i've seen 3 movies in the last 20 years.

he had a line toward the very end of the piece: how do you be good to life.

you live it. i said that very same thing years ago on christopher street when i was doing my junga jim psycho babbles under the headphones walking the streets of new york city.

you live it. as true then as it is now.

Letter Of The Day

Even I could write a better column about health care than David Yepsen offered us on Dec 11.

Yepsen erected a straw man called "socialized medicine," then began stabbing it with his ink pen. The result was merely confusing because no one is proposing socialized medicine — where all doctors work for the government — as a solution to runaway health-care expenses.

I would begin my column by typing "Google.com" into my computer. There I could quickly find the 2004 Harvard study that found we could all save money by booting the thousands of tangled health-insurance plans we now endure and adopting a single plan that covers us all. That takes government action, to be sure, but it is not socialized medicine. And it has nothing to do with Italy or FEMA or any of the other inkblots that bled from Yepsen's straw man.

—Jerry Depew, Laurens.
attribution

what is UP with pinnacle systems?

they don't seem to support mac at all, much less for the digital video creator 80 i paid $100 for.

it's hard to imagine why someone who lends themselves to being at the pinnacle of digital video (no pun intended), is sorely lacking support for the macintosh.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Dazzle/Digital+Video+Creator+150+Support/Download+Area/Drivers+-+Updates/Pinnacle+USB+Hardware+Installer+for+Studio+8+and+Studio+8+QuickStart.htm?mode=documents

Letter Of The Day

Letter-writer Tom Quiner says, "Contrary to the multitude of letters about the greedy rich, it is the superproducers who pay our nation's bills far beyond their numbers. We owe them our thanks."

Oh, quit playing that violin already.

According to the IRS, the top 1 percent had incomes of at least $295,000 per year, while those of us in the bottom 50 percent had incomes that did not exceed $30,000 per year to spend on rent, food, transportation, etc.

Considering the rich are getting President Bush's tax-cut windfall while funding for student loans and public assistance is being slashed and kids from "the bottom half" are fighting an ill-planned pre-emptive war, the last thing the superproducers deserve is our thanks.

—Michael Nottingham, Coralville.

attribution ⁃

a good example of the folx i live around

can be found HERE

it's the VOTING MACHINES stupid!

A top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee.

--source

from today's papers

The NYT says inside that Democrat and Republican senators have agreed on a measure that would require the White House to give Congress regular, classified updates about the U.S.'s secret prisons abroad. The House hasn't considered similar legislation, so, of course, nothing might come of this.

nothing might come of the fact that the administration has been denying the very existence of secret prisons and yet they're gboing to be giving regular updates on them? how exactly does that work?

testing out the new mac GUI for blogger

and i think i may just be at that point where i can tell zoundry to go stuff it. they were actually getting worse, not better imho. anyway, um, this is the new mac GUI, etco. i guess you can find it anywhere. but i'll try and get a link in there.

and even the quote is a fine piece of work. WOW. i'm in heaven.

cbsnew ran a segment on pensions

and was glad to hear one of the delta pilots that is suing delta over it, that it was 'grand theft in the first degree' and somehow it didn't take much for me to believe him.

wouldn't you?

that's the way i like it, uh huh, uh huh.
that's the way i like it, alright.

Asked if they would "definitely" or "probably" vote for the Democrat or the Republican in next year's fall congressional election, 48% said the Democrat would get their support, compared to 40% who said they would vote for the Republican. While 3% said they plan on supporting a third-party candidate, 9% said they were unsure.

--source

WARNING: more incompetence ahead

from today's papers

USAT takes a brief look at the companies that have been assigned the $300 million project. One of them is named the now-often-cited Lincoln Group, which started two years ago and had "no experience in public relations, advertising or other media work." One of the group's founders is a 30-year-old guy who's been active in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, during the bidding process, one of the companies asked the Pentagon if the military will "protect them from U.S. and foreign media inquiries."

tuesday, december 13th.... sure it's not friday?

today's jus been one thing after another.

woke up at 5 to the humidifier off. and the nightlight out. strange. they're all plugged into this surge protector and it was like ... real wet down there. i immediately saw that there was a problem with the humidifier. just bought the thing and have been raving about it to almost everybody who would listen and read. anyway, um, it didnt take long before i knew ihad a problem that would require me getting shoes on and going down into the basement, amidst morw cobwwebs than the house on 1313 mockingbird lane.

so after flipping the circuit breaker, to both of the breakers for the living room (thank GOD i knew something about electricity), i realized i had to cut the mac off ... oh well. i could have had a fire. and i can't think of any reason i DIDNT have a fire. this house would have gone up in a second. shit. i really really need to take better care of these kinds of things. i'm kinda worried about all the cables i got going into this wall-socket. i thinki'm ok tho. i reallydont run taht much. tv, and the computer. and now that i have the lcd's., it should be less. anyway, um, i need to get on over the bathroom. i had to stick 3 suppositories up there and i'm starting to feel the rush. it normally will get right down to the very end, and then bug the hell outta me with this constant feeling of having to go.

like i said, its only half way thru the day. what was your morning like?

Letter of the WeeQ

Sunday, at Wal-Mart, I saw a person try to put an item in their jacket. At first I thought this person was a jerk. I was buying and they were stealing. I paid for my purchase without notifying anyone.

But after I returned home, I became convinced that it was OK to steal. Perhaps this person lost their job due to the cascading effects of the superstore's dominance of other businesses. Perhaps this person has a minimum-wage, part-time job without health care. In any case, the Walton family certainly has enough money to cover the loss.

When I compare the theft of a $15 item to the grand larceny by corporate America, which ran Enron into the ground, which reaps record oil profits, which passes out cash to God knows who in Iraq, and which occupies the seats of government and takes bribes, I now see the act of stealing a small gift for a poor child as heroic.

I dare say that the treatment by Wal-Mart and the police of this person would be harsher than for those who do not steal their millions in the bright fluorescent light of a store.

-Greg Wilcox, Des Moines.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

Is Iowa 41st in the nation in the amount it pays the football coaches at its state universities? Why not?
-Anne Crane,
Des Moines.

attribution

there's a problem with mac IE's interface

there are noi buttons for italic, bold, and what have you like there are in other browsers' windows. i wonder if anybody knows about it. because as it is, there's not much you can do with this

Quote of the Day

A man couldn’t start his car because a cat was in front of it. I saw that on the news. Who wants to know?”
-- Sandra Schultz

attribution
http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/12/12/local/doc439d14b5d582f938523390.txt

Letter Of The Day

I am sickened that our government would kidnap, questionably interrogate, and hold an innocent German man, Khaled Masri, in a manner reminiscent of Stalinist Russia ("Pressured to Stop al-Qaida, CIA Makes Mistakes," Dec. 5). That is not consistent with our nation's ideals.

-James Blackburn, Des Moines

attribution

watching washington journal

and he's doing a program on how the media never shows the good stuff about iraq. he's got lines only for officers, and lines for enlisted. then there's the rest of us who dont matter.

the one thing that this 2nd lieutenant said was: "it's very hard to get the brass to listen to ya"

sums it up rather nicely about how this administration has basically flipped every body who didn't matter off, like punks.

a long time ago, i proclaimed that the definition of terrorist didnt exist

and i wondered just who could be classified as terrorst - making the example of george washington would have been a terrorist in present day. and now we see the definition of terrorist is being used against peaceful protestors.

The names and licenseplate numbers of about 30 people who protested
three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files,
the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado said Thursday. The
Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest
and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act. ACLU legal
director Mark Silverstein said the documents show the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task
Force wastes resources generating files on “nonviolent protest.” “These
documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen
peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked
‘counterterrorism,’” he said. “This kind of surveillance of First Amendment
activities has serious consequences. Law-abiding Americans may be reluctant to
speak out when doing so means that their names will wind up in an FBI
file.”

source

they jus keep coming

another wonderful letter in the register:

In response to your Dec. 5 headline, "Pressured to Stop Al-Qaida, CIA Makes Mistakes," I suggest that kidnapping and torturing someone should be described as crimes, not "mistakes."

—B.R. Douglas, Des Moines.

there just seems to be an overdose of good opinion

in today's des moines register. another writer's opinion rings true to form of how to be good citizens:

We need to put a stronger emphasis on these subjects, and the first step is to find highly qualified and dedicated teachers instead of relying solely on them to fill coaching positions.

—Erin Linn, West Des Moines.

something else i saw

was another adjective to how the fundamentalists win:

This is a typical fundamentalist reaction. Take the extreme, dehumanize the outsider and produce hatred

from The Rev. Denny Coon, Des Moines.

Letter Of The Day

well, i'm back to using blogger's GUI to enter my blog entries. there's no zoundry for the mac. sure wish there was, what a great tool. anyway, on to today's show. today's winner:

Why do we need a victory plan for Iraq when Bush declared "mission accomplished" two and a half years ago?

—Norene Kelly, Johnston.
attribution

did you know?

that American law does not apply to prisoners held abroad. one has to wonder, just what laws DO apply? i think the bushevics believe they are above the law. how else to explain condiloozer rice running around the globe proclaiming that we do not torture, when the whole world knows we do, and that American law is this, and American law is that, or rather isn't anything when it comes to doing what they want to do.