Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 10:36 PM
I'd like to personally ask JK Rowling to release the damned book already so I can go back to my internet not being covered with people trying to spoil it for the Potter nuts.
Because I really don't care if: Voldemort kills Hermione. Or Draco creates the Horcrux. And that Hagrid killed by Snape.
The meme needs to die.
Actually, Voldemort raises Dumbledore from the dead in order to dispatch Harry.
SEEEEE IT EVEN SNUCK INTO MY BLOG!
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( 3.1 / 58 )Friday, July 13, 2007, 10:58 AM
cross posted from DailyKos
September 11, 2001 is a day, in the eternal words of 32nd President of the United State Franklin D. Roosevelt, which will live in infamy. It was a day in which over 3,000 innocent American's lost their lives when terrorists carried out their radical agenda and turned passenger airplanes into cruise missiles, slamming them into two of the worlds tallest buildings and symbolically crushing the epicenter of economic globalism.
The nation, and indeed the world grieved at the sight of such a signally horrific sight. The fabric of our nation was shaken, and a generation of Americans lost their innocence.
In the wake of that terrible tragedy Americans united in way unseen since the attacks on Pearl Harbor. We set partisan differences aside and put our faith in the 43rd President of the United States, George Walker Bush.
Initially, the President reacted and behaved like any responsible President or person would do. He rallied us to the flag and started the healing process. Regardless of his culpability in the actual attacks themselves, or his slow response to them, he was at his finest in the days following September 11,2001. But from that apex, he has fallen.
The reasons for this fall are many and complex. They are an entangled web of lies and deceits, of policy miscalculations and misplaced priorities and ambitions.
It was once remarked that the true self is shown when man is at his worst, not his best. That is certainly true for the Bush Administration. Since the terrorist attacks upon this country, the Bush Adminstration has been shown for what it is, it's true colors exposed.
The Bush Adminstration and indeed the Republican Neo-Con establishment has been exposed for what they truly are: Criminals.
But for all their crimes, for all their attempts to subvert the spirit of the Constitution and the will of the American people, perhaps one of their most egregious errors, their most unforgivable sins against this nation has been their willingness to use fear to manipulate the people. To silence critics.
Case in point, Homeland Security Secretary Micheal Chertof's recent deceleration that he feels it in his 'gut' that Americans could be at risk for a another terrorist attack. This as public scrutiny of the President has hit an all time high. This as Mister Bush's Attorney General and Vice-President come under increasingly stronger criticism. This as the President willfully subverts the Rule of Law. This as support for his war tumbles to an all time nadir and even members of own party, who have so loyally backed him, begin to abandon his ever-sinking ship.
You can't help but ask why Chertof chose now to issue such a vague yet ominous warning to the public with no other context or support beyond "Summer is a time they like."
But this isn't the first example of this sort of distraction technique, in fact the only difference between now and past is that former HHS Tom Ridge drug out color-coded charts and a rolls of duct tape.
As I noted earlier, people are shown for who they are when they are their worst. Mister Bush has been shown for who he is (or at least who his advisers are.) People think Mister Bush is an idiot. That's not true. The man is smart. Smart in the way Hitler was. (No I am not saying he is Hitler, put your flamethrowers down.)
He understands that people 1) have a short attention span 2) respond well to fear and 3) will allow you to pretty much do whatever the hell you want when they're afraid enough.
Of course it's not exactly a new tactic either. The aforementioned Hitler used it to take over Germany, and then it was used again during the Cold-War and Vietnam.
The problem for Mister Bush is that the majority of Americans have come to realize the reality of the situation: the Al-Qaeda Nightmare isn't as scary as he wants us to believe.
There aren't terrorists lurking around every corner anymore than there were Communists carrying little red books around. The paper tiger has been spotted. And like the boy who cried wolf too many times, Mister Bush has overplayed his card.
The sad thing is though, Al-Qaeda is a threat to this country. We must deal with terrorist threats before they become 9/11 again. But we can't do that if the President and All His Men are using Fear Politics for their own political game.
Using Fear Politics, the Mister Bush (et al) pushed us into a War with Iraq on false premises. And as the situation in Iraq has destabilized, the Adminstration has had the nerve to tell us that Iraq is the forefront of the war on terror. That it is an imminent threat to the Americas.
It's like not closing the door to the hen-house, and when the fox steals all the chickens and eggs, saying you have a real fox problem. And the American people see it.
Which brings us back to crying wolf and the politics of fear. Mister Bush's crime against America, against his people: by using the fear card for his own personal gain, to protect himself, he has discredited himself with the American people to the point we no longer trust him. He has put himself in a position that when says something, we can longer even take it for face value. And by doing that, he can no longer govern his people effectively, because he will now spend more time trying to prove or cover himself than actually running the country.
And its sad and disappointing. Mister Bush was in a unique position after 9/11 to use the good will we had engendered from both the Clinton presidency and sympathy of 9/11 to make the world a better place. He had an opportunity to unit American across bi-partisan lines. but he touched the forbidden fruit of the politics of fear and gorged himself fat upon it, and history will remember him for that.
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( 3.1 / 47 )Saturday, June 9, 2007, 05:00 PM
Note:This is the retelling of the story as I was telling it to a friend (or three) on aim. total time lost to this disaster? 2 hours.
So my apartment complex has like school-grade firealarms on each individual building on the outside, and some fucktard pulled it
Its now been going off for....over an hour and a half
So I called Star City VFD, and the guy said he thinks his chief has the master key. however he doesn't know where or how to get hold of him, and that I could do a 911 call
I called MECA [Mon County's emergency call center], and they gave me frank's[the guy in charge of building these and maintainace] number so I called him and he called me back, he's apparently 5 hours away from here, and the only way to turn them off is to go into the utility closet and turn it off there
Well, I tried to pry it open with a screwdriver. no luck. so I called frank back and he said he'd call the contractor and see if he can get it taken car off, but that he didn't mind, in fact suggested I break the door
So I am waiting for him to call me back. then I am going down there with a hammer.
It had been going off for over two hours at this point.So I headed back down stairs hammer and screwdriver in hand.
andy 1. door 0.
I. r. winner.
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( 2.9 / 40 )Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 12:50 PM
Those of you readers of my blog, know I am not exactly a right-ist. Enjoy this banner ad that was/is on this blog.
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( 3 / 40 )Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 12:32 PM
I just spent like an hour running back and forth between "Tanner's Alley" and my office trying to get some ugly ass purse picture in their ad for tomorrow's paper to "look more like the product."
As the proprietor noted:
"it just looks ugly like that, and as you can see," they point to the hideous yellow abomination of leather, "it's a really nice purse."
This is a copy of the ad they sent us to re-size into a more narrow 1.833x5 spot:
You'll note how ugly the purse is.Oh yeah, and the ad is black and white.
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