May 31, 2006
Law and Order: OMFG!
Here are the email notes McBlogger was able to smuggle out of the jury box, plus my pithy comments:
Notes from jury doodie
I hate this. I get the necessity of it but oh my God I do not want to be here.
One of the jurors, an elementary teacher, said that "the law is the law. Even if you're only going 3 mph over the limit YOU'RE STILL BREAKING THE LAW." Of course, I hated her instantly.
I wonder how much detention she metes out for coloring outside the lines.
Another juror kinda reminds of a shorter Robert Plant. He spent some time in jail in WilCo so I, of course, think he couldn't possibly be bad..
I think they have people doing time there for laughing on Sunday.
I forgot my patch so I'm nicfitting like a moutherfucker. AND THERE IS NO BAR!.
I told you not to forget that flask!
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Jury Doodie
Today at 1:00 I'll be doing my duty as an American. No, I'll not be voting or spending money to keep the economy going. I'll be participating in a jury pool. Needless to say the unfunny people who run American jurisprudence (read:clerks... what, you thought the attorneys and judges decided things?) aren't much for laptops and blogging from my blackberry is just not an option.
So, if I'm able I'll email things to McSleaze. He probably won't post it but what are you gonna do?
By the way... does anyone know if they have a bar? Smoking lounge?
Posted by mcblogger at 12:46 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
US SC : Whistleblowers don't have First Amendment protections
Yesterday the US Supreme Court (featuring prominently recent Bush appointee's like John 'BSD' Roberts and Sammy 'Just One More Drink' Alito) bitchslapped government employees into continuing their shamed silence, then screamed "STFU! See how crazy you make me??!?!?".
By a 5-4 margin, the justices said the government's interest in effectively managing operations outweighs the interests that protect employee speech, even in cases where employees may be reporting inefficiencies or wrongdoing.
So, I guess we won't be hearing much about $20,000 hammers at the Pentagon anymore, now will we!
Posted by mcblogger at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Grand Theft Auto: The Tribulations
Who says the home schooled crowd has to miss out on the thrill of playing violent video games? Certainly not the creators of Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the latest in the Left Behind End Times marketing juggernaut.
Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!
· Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world
· Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City
· Control more than 30 units types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks!
· Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!
I wonder what radical clerics like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, or James Dobson will do instead of pissing and moaning about this? Probably pray for another Supreme Court Justice to die.
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 10:17 AM
Lance wasn't doping!
Oh my God! I'm sooooo relieved! Thank you, Statesman for letting me know all about this in such a timely manner!!!
The International Cycling Union appointed Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman last October to investigate the handling of urine tests from the 1999 Tour by the French national anti-doping laboratory, known by its French acronym LNDD.Vrijman said Wednesday his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely with respect to alleged use of doping in the 1999 Tour de France."
For those who actually, you know, care... Lance Armstrong wasn't doping with red blood cell booster junk or whatever in the hell he was accused of. This is for the 6 of you out there who are interested in cycling BECAUSE YOU'RE NERDS.
Posted by mcblogger at 09:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Perry and the three little pigs
Karl - Thomas Musselman has numbers from Survey USA up on regarding the Governor's race. The good news is that almost 60% of the state wants a change. The bad news is, much like my sister when shopping for shoes, they can't decide who they want.
I've been waiting for someone to say this. Waiting and waiting and waiting. Honeslty, I'm tired of it. This race is shaping up to be the three little pigs vs. the big bad wolf. Unfortunately, the 2006 Texas Governor's Race version won't end like the childhood story. Granted, a great deal can happen between now and November. We've been waiting and it hasn't started. Sure, the emails and blog updates at Chris Bell's site are nice but its hardly pulling in the 90% of Democrats that we need. For the love of God, some Democrats think PERRY is better choice than Bell not to mention the Democrats who are supporting Kinky. But I think they're all stoned.
Come on, Chris! Get mean. Get nasty. Perry's a shithead and Texans know it. They are looking for the guy who'll say that. SO FUCKING SAY IT. It's not hard, just go off script in an event and throw a punch into Perry's jaw. Don't get mad, just issue the kind of verbal assault that no Texan will have a problem understanding. A majority of the voters in this state have no idea that Rick Perry's marching orders are coming from a lobbyist in Washington. It's time they find out and the only way that's going to happen is if you tell them.
Take off those fucking gloves and HIT THE SON OF A BITCH. Give those out there who've decided to vote for someone other than Perry a reason to vote for you.
Posted by mcblogger at 09:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Is Texas ready for another Rita?; Paying interest; Jeb2012 and the best photoshop in years
"It's unrealistic to say that come June 1, everything is going to be done," said John Simsen, Galveston County emergency management coordinator. "There are not enough hours in the day."For example, the state's evacuation and shelter plan still isn't ready, though the governor's office says it will be by Thursday.
Paying the interest on the foreign-owned portion of the debt will be a burden on future Americans, draining their wallets and siphoning off the nation's wealth.
Thanks for the burden, you boomers and senile old people who voted for Bush!
In the meantime, the current president keeps talking up his younger, larger brother — up to a point. When a member of the audience in Chicago last week told the president that "we love your brother" and that "he's been very good to the restaurant industry," Mr. Bush, not missing a beat, responded to laughter that "he has been eating a lot, I noticed."
Anything to that? Let's take a look at a recent photo...
Yep. I would say el Presidente has a point. My hand to God, I didn't alter this image at all.
Sen. Frist, [far, far] right, unsure whether to use his Super Pandering Powers to battle gays getting married or extinguish a flag on fire.
Go read the post and say thanks for the way cool 'shopping!
That's it boys and girls! Have a goodun!
Posted by mcblogger at 12:58 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
May 30, 2006
Fight Club for Nerds
"This is as close as you can get to a real fight, even though I've never been in one," the soft-spoken Siou said.
Broken teeth and bones; bruises and lacerations about the face and neck; scarred knuckles. Siou, these are all signs of a real fight. If you are walking away with these then you've been IN A FIGHT.
Siou is one of a growing number of former math nerds in Silicon Valley who evidently didn't get the trophy wives, exotic cars, massive homes and phat ESOP's that some of the higher level nerds received during the dot bomb boom. These guys got the shit end of the stick and crave something real... man on man contact, but with fists instead of handjobs.
They are part of an adult 'fight club' that's formed up in Menlo Park, a suburb of San Francisco. When gaming is no longer enough, they turn to violence but not to solve disputes. They want to beat each other up which is cool since it makes things easier for the jocks in sales who every once in a while like to pound a little nerd ass.
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor."Boys have these warrior fantasies picked up from popular culture, and schools sort of force that out of them," he said. In these fantasies, "The good guys always resort to violence, and they always get the glory and the women. Math nerds, even the ones who grow up to be huge in the software industry, don't get the women. Unless they pay."
There is also a sadomasochistic thread running through underground fight clubs, said Michael Kimmel, a sociology professor at Stony Brook University in New York.
"Real-life fight clubs are the male version of the girls who cut themselves," he said. "All day long these guys think they're the captains of the universe, technical wizards. They're brilliant but empty. "They want to feel differently. They want to get hit, they want to feel something real. At the very least, for an hour or so, they won't feel like a math nerd."
According to the founder, the movement is really akin to something spiritual.
Gints Klimanis, a 37-year-old software engineer and martial arts instructor, started the invitation-only "Gentlemen's Fight Club" in Menlo Park in 2000 after his no-holds-barred sessions with a training partner grew to more than a dozen people. Most participants are men working in the high-tech industry."You get to be a superhero for a night," Klimanis said. "We have to go to work every day. We're constantly told to buy things we don't need, and just for a couple hours we have the freedom to do what we want to do."
DUDE... you are SOOO cribbing from the fucking movie.
One last time for the math nerds who didn't get the fucking memo: FIGHT.CLUB.WAS.LAME. Helena Bonham Carter was the love interest for fucks sake.
Posted by mcblogger at 05:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
SSSSS : Another day, another shitty Exxon
Everytime I pull off the freeway for a pit stop the anticipation rises. Is this going to be like that place in Waco? Or will it be a nice station like the Valero at Great Hills and Braker? Recently, I've been overwhelmed by NICE GAS STATIONS. Seriously, it's like they have people, you know, actually cleaning the shit and vomit off the toilets almost as it erupts from someone.
Not at all what I'd learned to expect from service stations in Texas. I began to think my luck had changed, that somehow SSSSS had purged the curse that made my constant stops to pee a miserable testament to just how nasty guys can be. Then I happened upon this jewel, the Exxon at Solms Rd and the 35 in New Braunfels. OR San Antonio. No one really knows were one ends and the other begins.
Here is a map so you can avoid it in your travels. Officially, the address is 4340 S IH 35. However, I can tell you... it's the only structure at the intersection of the 35 and Solms Rd. You can't miss it, should you be in the neighborhood. As a side note, the people inside were VERY nice and tried to make up for the horrendous state of the station. Almost seems mean to rip on their station but honestly you need to be warned... and I got all these great pics!
Here's the front of the place
Tasteful, isn't it? Let's jump right in, shall we...
The door to the mens (and, I might mention, LADIES as well) room. The lock doesn't work. For it to work, the door would have to shut completely. That wasn't happening on this particular visit.
I thought about killing it as I hate spiders. I decided to let it live. So sad and pathetic that it called this home.
The toilet (recently used, natch). Guys... seriously. FUCKING FLUSH. It's less than 2 seconds out of your day you slobs.
Can you read that? Neither can I. Write LEGIBLY you mooks.
Oh... blow jobs and gays. Yep. This is definitely Hicksville, TX. The only people more obsessed than gay men with sucking cock are rednecks and preachers.
No paper towels. IN EITHER DISPENSER. Not that it would have really mattered since there was no soap. I opted for a handiwipe when I got back in my car.
This was a bad one but not nearly as bad as some of the ones I've been to. At least this time I didn't have to destroy my shoes because the floor was a puddle. What, like you've never done that?
Posted by mcblogger at 11:05 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
When constabulary duty's to be done, to be done, A policeman's lot is not a happy one, ...
On the other hand, they do seem to have developed doughnut-eating to a science...
Three minutes. Thirteen doughnuts.
Think you could chow down that many morning morsels in that little time?
Walworth County Jail Training Sgt. Howard Sawyers didn't think he could, either, but he did. In doing so, he earned the title of world champion doughnut-eating cop.
"The secret for eating doughnuts is dunking them in water," said Sawyers, who finished third in the competition last year. "You do a semi-circle of water cups half to three-quarters full. You rip 'em, you dunk them and you shove. And you do that as fast as you can for three minutes."
God, I love the smell of stereotypes in the morning!
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 10:45 AM
Yay! Snow resigns, takes eyebrows with him.
Treasury Secretary John Snow announced his resignation today. We here at McBlogger couldn't be happier and wish Snow all the best. Not really, but it does SOUND nice, doesn't it?
Bush announced that Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr. has agreed to take the job, which will consist primarily of being the whipping boy for the Bush Administration's economic failures. Hank follows the well worn path from Goldman Sachs to the Treasury Dept. last tread by Robert Rubin whose tenure as Treasury Secretary saw the US economy grow rapidly with excellent job growth AND real wage growth, not to mention actually retiring federal debt. Paulson takes over at a time when US growth is anemic, wage growth is decreasing and stagflation is a real possibility going forward. If anyone can fix the mess it's got to be someone from Goldman Sachs because it's pretty obvious at this point that Bush knows fuckall about the economy.
On CNBC around 10:10, Randy Lert of Russell Investments andTony Dwyer FTN Midwest both agreed that the economy was basically good and that the biggest job for Paulson would be to get the message out about how good things were. Of course, what Randy and Tony don't understand is that for the vast majority of Americans things aren't great. Randy and Tony aren't particularly smart. That's why they don't work at Goldman Sachs.
Posted by mcblogger at 10:43 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Pissed at the MSM? So's Tom Tomorrow
See more at Tom Tomorrrow's website, This Modern World.
Posted by mcblogger at 12:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 29, 2006
Memorial Day
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1934, Gettysburg
On these hills of Gettysburg two brave armies of Americans met in combat. Not far from here in a valley likewise consecrated to American valor, a ragged Continental army survived a bitter winter to keep alive the expiring hopes of a new nation, and near to the battlefield and that valley stands the invincible city where the Declaration of Independence was born and the Constitution of the United States was written by the fathers. Surely, all this is holy ground.
Posted by mcblogger at 02:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 28, 2006
Bible thumpers
Another heartwarming tale from the heartland...
Couple allegedly beat child with a Bible
Clay County prosecutors on Friday charged an Excelsior Springs couple with child abuse for allegedly beating a 9-year-old with a Bible and slamming an 8-year-old into a door.
Authorities allege that Raymond Fairchild, 49, and Deborah Fairchild, 50, punished the foster children for numerous perceived transgressions such as eating too slowly, forgetting to bring the dog in, washing the dishes too slowly and not taking notes in church.
You're supposed to take notes in church? Does Opus Dei know about this?
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 09:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Don't kid yourself. Myspace is lame.
So last night I'm having drinks with some friends and two of them get into a discussion that quickly developed into a full fledged argument regarding who had the better myspace page.
At first I thought they were kidding. I mean who on Earth actually takes myspace seriously? It's an AOhelL Homepage on steroids; A place where the challenged (like my two gimp friends) can revel in their self-importance, shitty music, bad images and even tackier friends who are also myspace dorks.
'Oh, but it's a community' they say and I think they're right. A community of dipshits. To wit, I leave to get a drink thinking 'surely they will resolve this by the time I return' and 'I need way more scotch'. When I return fuckall if they WEREN'T STILL TALKING ABOUT IT. I finally started to laugh at which point one of the lames noticed and asked what was so funny. I replied that the argument was funny. The other friend asked 'how so?' to which I replied
Two people arguing about who has the cooler myspace page is a bit like two retards arguing about which is smarter.
I went out for a cigarette at that point. I didn't talk to them anymore. Frankly, given how they spend their free time I'm not sure I want to ever again.
Of course, I can say all this because I'm a blogger and everyone knows bloggers are way cooler than myspace losers.
Posted by mcblogger at 02:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 27, 2006
Shapleigh : Texans need to know that their children are in Grover’s bathtub.
Eye on Williamson has a great piece up by Senator Elliot Shapleigh that should be read by every Texas Democrat. It wouldn't hurt if some of our other elected officials and hopefuls started talking the same way.
After 10 years of the Bush era in Texas and six in D.C., we now know the pattern: tax cuts for the wealthy few, budget cuts for you and deficits as far as we can see. During this era, Grover Norquist Republicans have worked every session to shift taxes from wealth to work, from the rich to the middle class. Norquist is famous for saying “my goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” What Texans need to know is that our children are in Grover’s bathtub.
The result of the tax shift and program cuts is that income has steadily become concentrated in the hands of the wealthy. Texas started the 21st century with the greatest income inequality in the nation between the richest 20 percent of income earners and the middle 20 percent.In today’s politics of the right, tax cuts are valued over children, and budget cuts are valued over good teachers.
After a decade of right-wing leaders, Texas ranks 50th among the states for high-school graduation rates and 48th in SAT scores, and Texas’ per-pupil expenditures recently dropped from 35th to 38th. Despite these obvious failures, tax cuts, not children, come first.
Posted by mcblogger at 02:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What not to wear
Iraq, as our Dear Leader and his Faithful Ally tell us, is well on its way top becoming a peaceful, stable beacon of democracy. With a fashion police that does't believe in taking prisoners...
THE coach of the Iraqi national tennis team and two of his players were shot dead in Baghdad, apparently for wearing shorts, in a district where Islamic radicals have started to enforce brutal, Taleban-style law.
Hussein Ahmed Rashid was shot at close range with two of his players, Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Auda, in the al-Saidiyah neighbourhood, a national Olympic Committee official said.
One of the players, wearing shorts, had left the car to drop off some items at a laundry. When he returned to the vehicle, gunmen in a grey saloon car swerved and blocked the players’ car, witnesses said.
Three men in civilian clothes surrounded the car and ordered the passengers to get out. When they refused, one of the men produced a revolver and shot the players. The coach sat helplessly in the back while the assailants dragged out the players’ bodies and dumped them in the road. Then one of the assailants cocked a handgun and shot the coach in the head.
Of course, isn't it just like us libruls to not write about all the Iraqi tennis players who weren't shot for wearing shorts?
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 09:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 26, 2006
GIANT liquor stores in Austin? Thank you, Santa!
Spec's, a Houston based mega retailer of booze and something known as 'fine food' which means nothing to me, is opening three stores in Austin. Locations for the next year include the 290 and Brodie (which a friend tells me is 'down south', whatever in the hell that means), The ArborWalk at the 360 and MoPac and somewhere near Highland Mall.
For the readers in Houston Metro, let us know what you think about these folks. I'm excited. Anything that has WAREHOUSE paired in some way with LIQUOR has got to be good as far as I'm concerned. These beer people seemed to like them though this is kind of faint praise since I don't really get beer.
Posted by mcblogger at 02:40 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
PANIC! PANIC ooooooh, never mind!
The Sam Rayburn congressional office building in Washington was under lockdown for a while today while a report of shots being fired was investigated. In the end, it turned out to be a false alarm... just a repair man banging in an elevator. At this point, it is still unclear just who he was banging.
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 01:40 PM
Greenberg : Gen. Hayden's just sooo awesome!
Paul, you weren't paying attention (or maybe you're just not getting good information up there in Arkansas) but no one cares about eavesdropping on calls that could possibly be terrorism related. The problem is, the Administration was doing it without so much as a 'by your leave' from the FISA court. They were doing it illegally. The pat response from the administration was that FISA took to long, then came the revelation that they could put on the tap immediately AS LONG AS THEY AT LEAST APPLIED FOR A WARRANT WITHIN 72 HOURS. Bush, from the get-go lied to the American people about this program and about Congressional oversight. That makes him a liar. While not an impeachable offense (unless it involved an oath and a blowjob), it does create a little animosity toward el Presidente.Remember those scare headlines about domestic spying? They turned out to refer to wiretaps on international calls to and from this country, not domestic calls. And the hullabaloo died down.
Paul needs some help... there are a few things he missed on this. There were no warrants for the data. Companies were intimidated into giving it up. There was no Congressional oversight. We don't know what filters they were using. So many questions and illegal activity and we're supposed to accept that Hayden and the President know what's best? Hayden may be OK, but I'm never going to trust el Presidente's judgement. He told us tax cuts wouldn't cause deficits; They have. He told us Social Security was in dire straights; It's not. He and his Administration misled us into a war with a country that hadn't attacked us. He told us tax cuts would create jobs; They've done no such thing.Remember the big story about possibly hundreds of thousands of phone calls having been "monitored" by the National Security Agency on Hayden's watch? It turned out to be about phone company records being run through a data-mining operation designed to detect any suspicious pattern of calls from terrorists to their accomplices.
Trust el Presidente? I'd sooner trust a used car dealer who'll 'tote the note'
Domestic spying! What defense is available to those whose duty it is to protect us? Only to patiently explain the decisions they've made, even if the explanation is a good deal more complicated than the accusation. Even then, much of the explanation must remain behind closed doors, for the enemy is listening, too.
Yes, they've patiently explained their decisions. They've also lied. They've over and over used the threat of the terrorists to scare us into accepting what they say. The one conclusion I can draw is that they're doing a lot of illegal stuff and that I should mistrust them. Any official who swears an oath to defend this country and uphold the Constitution, then breaks it, deserves nothing but scorn. Most of all they don't deserve Paul's commentary on their character.
There is a fine line between balanced commentary and being an obsequious shill. Paul Greenberg walked up to that line, took a shit on it, then got in your car and drove 80 miles past. Nice work, Paul. You're a real asset to your profession.
Posted by mcblogger at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dell : On track to further reduce their Austin workforce
Seriously, I had to look pretty hard for this story as it disapeered from the last few spots the Statesmen posted it. So, I'm reprinting it in the supersize just in case Mikey calls and demands they pull the story
The company is expected to make an announcement about the location of the plant in India over the next few weeks, said Paul-Henri Ferrand, Dell's general manager for South Asia."The facility will be up and running by end of the year," Ferrand said. "We couldn't be happier as it will finally give us a chance to get rid of some of our rather expensive Central Texas workforce while still enjoying the abatements and other tax breaks the State of Texas and the Cities of Round Rock and Austin lavished on us. Did you know some of our employees even think they should get health insurance? Can you believe that?"
The plant, he said, will enable "substantial" cost cuts and help the company compete in the Indian market, where it trails rival Hewlett Packard Co., Indian computer maker HCL Technologies Ltd. and Lenovo of China.
Then there is another reason for opening a plant in India... they're working on getting around Indian taxes (is that all these guys think about?)
Dell currently lags largely because of taxes that result in higher prices for its products. The Indian government imposes higher import taxes on fully assembled computers than computer parts, and Dell currently ships complete computers to India.A plant in India would help the company avoid some taxes, improve delivery time and cut logistics and transportation costs.
Computer sales in India are expected to increase to 10 million annually over the next three to five years.
Honestly, manufacturing to grow the business is great. I'm all for this... however, shuttering ops centers here only makes people hate you guys. Which is why HP is doing so much better than Dell now.
Computer maker Dell sees plant in India ready by year-end
By RAJESH MAHAPTRA
AP Business Writer
NEW DELHI — Dell Inc. said Thursday its plans to build a manufacturing plant in India have made progress and that it would be ready by the end of this year, helping the personal computer maker beef up its presence in one of the world's fastest-growing markets.
The company is expected to make an announcement about the location of the plant in India over the next few weeks, said Paul-Henri Ferrand, Dell's general manager for South Asia.
"The facility will be up and running by end of the year," Ferrand said.
The plant, he said, will enable "substantial" cost cuts and help the company compete in the Indian market, where it trails rival Hewlett Packard Co., Indian computer maker HCL Technologies Ltd. and Lenovo of China.
Dell didn't give details about the capacity of the plant, or how it could come into operation in such short time. But Judy Low, a company spokeswoman, said Dell started production in China in just six months from announcing to set up a plant there.
She also said Dell had done well in selling its products here. Its revenues from India increased to $80 million in the quarter ending April, up 40 percent from the same period a year ago.
Still, the Round Rock, Texas-based company has a market share of just 5 percent in India.
Dell currently lags largely because of taxes that result in higher prices for its products. The Indian government imposes higher import taxes on fully assembled computers than computer parts, and Dell currently ships complete computers to India.
A plant in India would help the company avoid some taxes, improve delivery time and cut logistics and transportation costs.
Computer sales in India are expected to increase to 10 million annually over the next three to five years.
___
May 25, 2006 - 9:46 a.m. Copyright 2006, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Posted by mcblogger at 10:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
... in which we present another SSSSS
It's commonly accepted that there are only two constants in life... death and taxes. As any accountant can tell you, there are ways to engineer around the taxes. Death is a little harder to beat, especially if you're a kitten and Senator Herr Doktor Frist has recently adopted you. I believe, and experience has born out my belief, that there is another constant, the shitty service station. You know, the one you're forced to stop at because of an insistent bladder, despite the fact that you seriously think it could pose a substantial biohazard risk.
This weekend we bring you another installment of SSSSS. Not today. Don't even ask. We're far too busy.
Posted by mcblogger at 09:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A day of fun in Washington
What? Don't be hatin' on my mad rhymin' skillz!
The AP is calling it a compromise and in some ways, it is. R's got stricter enforcement, cheap labor and their ridiculous wall (as well as the ability to keep Manolo, the bathroom attendent of whom Frist has become so fond). The D's got a clear path for immigrants to be naturalized as well as other goodies. Of course, there are ALWAYS some hateful bitches who just want to rain shit on the parade.
"This is amnesty," added David Vitter, R-La., who tried last week to strip out provisions relating to citizenship.Not so, said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in a rebuttal to weeks of debate. "They have to pay a fine. They have to undergo a criminal background check. They have to pay back taxes, they have to learn English and they have to go to the back of the line," he said, referring to illegal immigrants who would apply for citizenship.
It's unclear when Snow will offer his resignation and the president said he has heard nothing about it."He has not talked to me about resignation," Bush said at a news conference Thursday night. "I think he 's doing a fine job. After all, our economy is strong," Bush said, fielding reporters' questions in an appearance with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"He's tired of being Bush's bitch on economic policy," said one aide close to Secretary Snow. "He's really focused on a running a company into the ground while reaping millions for himself... do you happen to know if GM is in the market for a new CEO?"
Honestly, if this really does happen, I couldn't be happier. Good riddance, John Snow.
Frist originally wanted to vote on a repeal of the Estate Tax last year, immediately after Katrina battered the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, EVERYONE pointed out that while poor people were dying in the street Congress should really be focused on something other than a tax cut for billionaires. Given that the news from Katrina has died down, Frist and his puppet, Senator Kyl of Arizona, have decided to bring it up again... this time as 'reform' which is republicanese for 'buttfucking the poor and middle classes'.
While passage of full repeal of the estate tax does not appear likely in the Senate (repeal passed in the House last April), a back-door repeal proposal put forth by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) could potentially garner enough support to pass in the Senate. Kyl's "reform," supported by a number of Republicans, would likely raise the estate tax exemption level to $5 million ($10 million per couple) and set the tax rate at 15 percent, equal to that of the capital gains tax. This reform previously reported on by OMB Watch amounts to little more than repeal, because it would cost upwards of 90 percent of the cost of full repeal.
Posted by mcblogger at 12:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 25, 2006
A Challenge to the global warming nutters
This is Myron. Myron works for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Republican think tank funded almost exclusively by companies for (wait for it) companies. What kind of companies? Oil companies mostly, which is why Myron is visiting us today.
At this point you probably think I'm making Myron up. Bitches. Here's his lame bio. Myron is the director of energy and global warming policy at CEI which means that he does 'research' sponsored by the companies he's 'researching' and shills for those same companies. There's a phrase for this... it came up a little in the early part of the decade regarding investment analysts at investment banks and brokerage firms. Conflict of Interest? Does that sound right?
Not suprisingly, Myron doesn't think global warming is real. He and CEI have joined others (including such luminaries as Matt Drudge) in a SwiftBoatLiars-style campaign to discredit Vice - President Al Gore and his new movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which is about (you knew it was coming, right?) GLOBAL WARMING. Part of that campaign involves some lame commercials that are up on the CEI streams site (this one features an adorable little girl and this one is all about why the icecaps aren't really melting). The gist? Carbon dioxide is LIFE. Seriously, since plants need CO2 to live, and plants make oxygen, more CO2 means more oxygen. Honestly, that's really their point and all the established science be damned. The second video uses a little known fact to make the case for more CO2, that the Antarctic ice cap is thickening. However, it's a halftruth
"The Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner," the ad cheerily declares, while an image of a study from Science flashes across the screen. Just one problem with the claim: It's completely misleading. The study's author, Curt Davis of the University of Missouri, was so horrified that he released a statement. "These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate," he said. "They are selectively using only parts of my previous research to support their claims." Global warming is melting sea ice and the coastal areas of Antarctica at an alarming rate, which in turn has increased precipitation, thus thickening the ice in the interior. In other words, the melting coasts are making it snow more in the middle. But this is a bug, not a feature. Overall, the ice sheet is losing mass, not gaining it. As Davis said in response to the CEI ads, "The fact that the interior ice sheet is growing is a predicted consequence of global climate warming."
Of course there is the evidence that global temperatures have increased and that most life on earth exists within a pretty narrow temperature range... too hot, the biosphere collapses; Too cold and it freezes. Myron doesn't really care about that, he's too busy making bank.
Given that Myron and his pals think CO2 is such an awesome thing, I have a challenge for them. I want to put them each in an airtight container about the size of a coffin for 4 hours. I'll even give them a fighting chance by placing an ivy inside with them. Then we'll lower it into the ocean. Every 10 minutes they'll need to hit a button that transmits a signal to let us know they're OK. If the signal doesn't come, we'll know they're already dead and just release the coffin, letting it sink. I think Myron will have a newfound appreciation for the dangers of CO2 and bad rhetoric.
Plants do need CO2, however, they also need oxygen. As the atmosphere's CO2 load has increased over the last 200 years we can see that plants just don't grow fast enough to clean it out and maintain the balance. If Myron were right, we'd have plants even in deserts and no problem with CO2. Instead, we have ever increasing levels of CO2 and are in real danger of driving the kind of warming that will make earth inhospitable to plants and, shortly thereafter, us.
You send Myron an email here and let him know what you think of his shilling.
Posted by mcblogger at 04:12 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
ENRON VERDICTS OUT OF HOUSTON
SKILLING
Count One - Conspiracy : GUILTY
Wire Fraud : GUILTY
Securities Fraud :GUILTY
Insider Trading : NOT GUILTY
Lying to investigators : GUILTY
18 total GUILTY verdicts
LAY
2 Wire Fraud Counts : GUILTY
3 Securities Fraud Counts : GUILTY
Conspiracy : GUILTY
Posted by mcblogger at 11:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 24, 2006
Tom, they were laughing AT, not with, you.
Tom DeLay's legal defense prayer team sent out a lovely email to supporters today. Think Progress got a copy of it and it is indeed hilarious.
Apparently, Tommy thinks that Stephen Colbert's interview of "The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress " creator Robert Greenwald was real. No Joke, they even have the video up on their website offered as proof that some in the media believe Tommy's story.
UPDATE: Bluebonnet at Pink Dome has the story up as well.
Posted by mcblogger at 03:24 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
ACLU starts national phone 'snooping' campaign
Unlike it's ineffectual and frankly somewhat lame third cousin, the Democratic Party, the ACLU has decided to go after the Administration's illegal phone snooping/tapping/gossipmongering program at multiple levels. The strategy involves lawsuits against companies involved (AT&T, VERIZON, etc.) and filing complaints with Utility Commissions in several states, not to mention the FCC.
“We cannot sit by while the government and the phone companies collude in this massive, illegal and fundamentally un-American invasion of our privacy,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “And unfortunately, we cannot wait for Congress to act. The ACLU is mobilizing its members and supporters nationwide to demand investigations into this shocking breach of trust. And we are asking the FCC to use its authority to uncover the facts about how far the president's illegal spying has gone. The American people want answers.”
Here's a sample of the PR campaign, not exactly colorful but it does catch your eye...
You can sign the petition here... come on, it'll take two minutes out of your life and leave you feeling empowered even if you are pretty much powerless.
Posted by mcblogger at 02:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
As if just shopping at Wal-Mart wasn't degrading enough...
Can anyone vouch for the whereabouts od Dick Morris when this was happening?
Police in Tulsa, Okla., are searching for a man who hid under a woman's car at a Wal-Mart parking lot and then licked her toes as she loaded groceries into the vehicle, according to a report.
The woman said she was at the Tulsa Wal-Mart located near 81st Street and Lewis when she felt her toes being licked.
She assumed it was a dog but when she looked down, she saw it was a man lying under her vehicle.
A Tulsa County assistant district attorney said if the man is caught, he'll face a misdemeanor charge of battery or outraging public decency.
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 12:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
State Chair Cheese : Bell Endorses Richie
WOW. I know we're only a little over two weeks out from the TDP Convention, but am I the only one already tired of the campaign emails? Boyd, hermano, por favor no mas! I now have 7 pieces of collateral and one email to tell me Bell has endorsed you. All this is making my hole bleed.
I have been on the campaign trail for more than a year, crisscrossing this great state to share my optimistic New Mainstream vision about building the best public schools in the country, creating a more ethical government and returning bold leadership to a state clearly crying out for it. All along the way, I have seen one candidate for Texas Democratic Party Chair show up time and time again: at the Donkey Fest in Gainesville; the annual Democratic banquet in Lubbock; Mexican American Democrats convention in El Paso; Tejano Democrats convention in Houston; the Rural Summit in Tyler - the list goes on and on. That candidate is Boyd Richie, and he is the leader who I have seen building the kind of statewide base that we will need to mobilize our party in the future and create a winning majority.”“Texas Democrats are ready to lead again and Boyd Richie is ready to lead everyone in the Texas Democratic Party. Boyd has reached out beyond his political and geographic base to create important alliances with leaders in the minority communities - alliances he will work hard to strengthen going forward. He understands the challenges faced by working men and women in this day and age and will make sure that the labor movement continues to play a vital role in the Democratic Party. And he understands something incredibly important for our future: that we must attract more young people, give them opportunities to grow and make them active participants in the Texas Democratic Party!”
“Boyd Richie and his wife, DNC Member Betty Richie, love the Texas Democratic Party and are completely devoted to seeing it thrive again. There are no two individuals I have enjoyed meeting more over the last twelve months; Boyd and Betty bring a warmth and dedication from which our party can greatly benefit and which we greatly need. As we move forward toward victory in November, I ask you as your party’s nominee for Governor to support Boyd Richie for Texas Democratic Party Chairman.”
-Chris Bell, Democratic Nominee for Texas Governor
Seriously. I'm voting for Chris, I'll even be one of the thousands across the State working for him this summer and fall. But please, Chris, keep out of the Chair's race. Win or lose in November, we have to work seriously on rebuilding the party and Boyd's not that guy. This is one of the those times when you have to put feelings aside and go with the person who can achieve the objective. While I like Richie, he's not the right person this time around.
Posted by mcblogger at 12:43 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 23, 2006
Austin Legend Clifford Antone Dead : Could this day suck more
Some of you will remember Antone for his eponymous downtown blues club where the Red State Blues concert and fundraiser was held during the 2004 cycle. Some of you will remember him only as a nice guy you liked to help out where he could. Some will remember him best for the break he gave them by allowing them to perform at his club.
All of us at McBlogger will remember him as a friend, an Austin original who will be missed long after today.
photo:AA-S
Posted by mcblogger at 04:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Clinton to UT Grads : Global aid cheaper than War
I would post this under MOTO but I have too much respect for President Clinton who, while speaking to graduates of the UT LBJ School of Public Affairs, said
"We have to realize in an interdependent world we cannot kill, jail or occupy all of our adversaries," he said, prompting applause at commencement ceremonies for graduates of UT's Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs.Clinton's comments come as national support for the war in Iraq has eroded amid mounting casualties and sectarian violence, while President George W. Bush's approval ratings have dipped to new lows.
The former president suggested that it would cost the United States no more than $40 billion a year to end the world's most extreme poverty, its worst threats of disease and send 130 million children to school who won't otherwise get an education.
A big part of terrorist recruitment IS the need to feel useful and a 'part' of something. Sounds absurd, I know, but it's the truth. These terrorists are the product of their environments; Countries that gave up on their economies and on educating their populace have created terrorists that are attacking us. That's not to say I want to cut them any slack, the point here is that it's cheaper and better to make friends with people and help them modernize. No one is saying it will end all our problems. However, it's a start and one we should take if for no other reason than that it wrecks the least amount of havoc on the Federal Budget.
Posted by mcblogger at 02:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bigot calls Madonna "boring"
Bill Donohue, self-styled leader of a group calling itself the Catholic League (wasn't that a group of meanies during the Counter-Reformation?) spends a lot of time being upset with modern culture. You know, blasphemous movies, kids and their loud music that's really just noise, books printed with movable type... So it's no surprise that he was just a little perturbed at Madonna's latest concert tour, which features her singing while hanging from a cross wearing a crown of thorns.
Though Donohue said that Madonna "has been spicing up her act with misappropriated Christian imagery for a long time," he thought that her faith in Kabbalah might inspire new respect for religion.
"I guess you really can't teach an old pop star new tricks," he said. "Poor Madonna keeps trying to shock. But all she succeeds in doing is coming across as a boring bigot."
No Bill, you're the boring bigot. Try finding a publisher for a photobook of your erotic fantasies if you don't believe me.
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This will never catch on here
Pity the poor lawmakers of Oregon.
SALEM, Ore. --Oregon legislators and staff members should not be drunk while performing their official duties, a citizen panel says.
The Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature adopted that recommendation Monday, although the panel decided to leave it to House and Senate leaders to draft rules against intoxication and possible penalties.
The new policy was suggested by Steve Doell, president of Crime Victims United, who said he and another member of the group noticed alcohol on the breath of at least one legislator at the end of the 2005 session while they were advocating tougher drunken-driving penalties.
Next thing you know they'll be banning legislators from cruising around with loaded firearms, picking up hookers.
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Former Senator Lloyd Bentsen passes away
The Statesman just put this out:
HOUSTON — Lloyd Bentsen, a courtly Texan who represented the state in Congress for 28 years and served as President Clinton's first treasury secretary, died Tuesday morning, his family said. He was 85.Bentsen, the Democratic vice presidential nominee 1988, died at his home in Houston, according to the family
His distinguished political career took him from the humble beginnings of a county office in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1940s to six years in the U.S. House, 22 in the U.S. Senate and two in the Clinton Cabinet, where he was instrumental in directing the administration's economic policy.
Posted by mcblogger at 10:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bush's abuse shows ingenuity of the system he's trying to destroy
Robyn Blumner has a wonderful op-ed up at the SacBee. Supersize for the full text but first, some highlights
Bush represents the flag-wavers who are long on enthusiasm but don't have any real appreciation for the nobility of America. It isn't our big, expensive military or our big, expensive economy that bestows greatness. It is our modesty. America's magnificence lies in its grounding principle that power must be diffuse. We built a system based on the assessed fallibility of man, where a president is limited by Congress, the courts and the Constitution.
Nothing better illuminates Bush's contempt for American checks and balances than his abuse of the presidential signing statement.According to a Boston Globe report, Bush has asserted the authority to disregard more than 750 laws by essentially writing provisos into them — a power he stole from Congress.
The Republican leadership in Congress is standing by while its house is being pillaged. The power to write federal laws is Congress' alone. The president's duty, as expressly stated in the Constitution, is to faithfully execute the laws he signs, not to add asterisks on parts he intends to ignore.
This is a great read for anyone interested in just how far the Republicans have gone in their effort to abdicate the responsibilities, under the Constitution, of the Congress of the United States. If only there were some Democratic members of Congress talking about this...instead of just an op/ed by Robyn Blumner.
Robyn Blumner: Bush's abuse of power shows the genius of the system he's destroying
By Robyn Blumner
Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, May 21, 2006
It's only three more years. That is the coldly comforting phrase used by people who can't wait until our destructive, intellectually limited president has permanently gone fishing.
But the changes that George W. Bush has made to our nation's constitutional firmament may not depart with the first family's bags.
His disregard for the separation of powers has so dramatically distorted the office of the president that he may have engineered a turning point in American history.
Bush represents the flag-wavers who are long on enthusiasm but don't have any real appreciation for the nobility of America. It isn't our big, expensive military or our big, expensive economy that bestows greatness. It is our modesty. America's magnificence lies in its grounding principle that power must be diffuse. We built a system based on the assessed fallibility of man, where a president is limited by Congress, the courts and the Constitution.
But from the beginning, Bush has disregarded America's well-tested formula of calibrated and collaborative governing. His can't-think-of-any-mistakes presidency has stomped on comity and established a pattern of unilateralism that future presidents may well emulate.
Bush has taught tomorrow's leaders that, if there are no consequences for ignoring legal constraints on power and if no one stops you from conducting the nation's business in secret, you don't have to be accountable. He is ruling through the tautological doctrine of Richard Nixon, who told interviewer David Frost that as long as the president's doing it, "that means it is not illegal."
Nothing better illuminates Bush's contempt for American checks and balances than his abuse of the presidential signing statement.
According to a Boston Globe report, Bush has asserted the authority to disregard more than 750 laws by essentially writing provisos into them — a power he stole from Congress.
The Republican leadership in Congress is standing by while its house is being pillaged. The power to write federal laws is Congress' alone. The president's duty, as expressly stated in the Constitution, is to faithfully execute the laws he signs, not to add asterisks on parts he intends to ignore.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are joining in their own emasculation when they utter not a peep during this bloodless coup. I don't know why Republicans have a reputation for strength. When blindly supporting a president from your own party takes precedence over guarding Congress' historic role, "Republican leadership" becomes an oxymoron.
It is not just liberals who have recognized the danger. I challenge anyone to read an important new report by the libertarian Cato Institute (www.cato.org) and not be chilled. "Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush" is an unblinking 28-page analysis of our slow devolution into autocracy. Its message can be summed up with this quote: "Under (the president's) sweeping theory of executive power, the liberty of every American rests on nothing more than the grace of the White House."
A meek and pliant Congress is allowing this new paradigm to take root.
It wasn't until the White House started getting nervous about the confirmation prospects of Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA chief that it bothered to brief the full intelligence committees of the House and Senate on the domestic wiretapping and information-collection programs that had been operational for years. For the previous five months, the White House stonewalled lawmakers' questions on warrantless domestic wiretapping of Americans. Republican Sen. Arlen Specter was so frustrated that he threatened to cut off funding for the NSA's wiretapping program if the information he had requested was not forthcoming. But rather than rallying around Specter and standing firmly for the oversight role of Congress, his colleagues left him to flap in the wind, with an empty threat on his lips.
Where is Congress? Why is it that the revelations surrounding a secret database of millions of Americans' phone records, warrantless wiretapping by the NSA, secret overseas CIA prisons, memos excusing torture and other horribles authorized by Bush had to come from the press? The same press that, according to ABC News, is having its calls checked so sources can be unearthed. The same press that administration shill William Bennett suggested should be prosecuted under a 1917 espionage law for telling the American people the truth about what their government is up to.
Our lawmakers are MIA. They have handed the game board to Bush and he has taken it and gone home. He now controls his pieces and theirs.
But it wasn't their game to give away. It was ours.
Holding the Executive Branch to account for its actions, demanding that it respect the law and insisting that it fully report to Congress on its activities — these are nonnegotiable duties of Congress, because they are key part of our inheritance.
Being answerable to another is humbling. It makes you more careful in your actions. It requires that you consider how you will defend your decisions. George Bush has freed himself of this constitutional imperative and is showing the next president, and the next, how it is done.
About the writer:
* Robyn Blumner writes for the St. Petersburg Times. Reach her at blumner@sptimes.com.
Posted by mcblogger at 12:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 22, 2006
MOTO : Need to examine prison populations...
Here is a brilliant article on prison population in the US. Apparently, 1 out of every 136 US citizens is in jail. This number does not include Republican elected officials who are currently only indicted for bribery and misconduct so we can expect it to go much higher.
The sad part about this article? The very end
Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, which supports alternatives to prison, said the incarceration rates for blacks were troubling."It's not a sign of a healthy community when we've come to use incarceration at such rates," he said.
Mauer also criticized sentencing guidelines, which he said remove judges' discretion, and said arrests for drug and parole violations swell prisons.
"If we want to see the prison population reduced, we need a much more comprehensive approach to sentencing and drug policy," he said.
Since when does a thoroughgoing mastery of the obvious make you a quotable source?
Posted by mcblogger at 09:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Republican Activists! As likely to cause panic as a dead lawn
There's been a lot of talk recently from the more unsavory members of the Republican Party (read: the preachers and anti-tax nutters) about how disapointed they are with their electeds.
OK. I get it. It's frustrating as hell when you work hard to elect people and they don't behave as you'd like. However, your whining and carping is making me want to puke blood, you ineffectual half-wits.
Do me a favor: Quit whining and DO something about it. You've got Steven Hotze acting like an asshole threatening that his voters won't show up to the polls for Perry in November. While I'm thrilled about this as it makes it more likely the Democratic candidate will win, I'm also upset because these BITCHES KEEP THREATENING AND NEVER ACT.
How the FUCK is anyone supposed to take you seriously, Doc Hotze? Honestly, if I was a Republican elected (and I very well might be), I would be laughing my ass off when you came calling. Or Dan Patrick. Or Grover Norquist. So far the only disaffected R with the sack to actually step up and put his money into actually defeating someone is Leininger and his win/loss record sucked just a little less than the A&M football team's. Even the Harris County Republican Party couldn't gather up the courage to do much more than issue a resolution against HB3. Wimps.
It's no wonder these guys aren't listening to you... you're all gutless. All talk, no action. I would call you pussies but a friend recently informed me that's not cool. So, I'll call you cunts.
Posted by mcblogger at 01:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
I'm The Recycler!
We are bombarded everyday with the claim that Democrats have no new ideas. Of course, that isn't true... in fact, you have to admit that some of their old ideas, like civil rights, a modicum of economic justice, or respecting personal privacy still have some merit. What is rarely said is that the republicans are mostly rehashing old ideas themselves.
For example, take Busholini's plan to deploy the National Guard to the southern border. We'll be sending in too few a number of troops, who aren't trained or equipped for this mission, for what we're assured will be only a limited commitment. And of course as the Border Patrol stnads up the National Guard will stand down. Sound familiar? All that's missing is the assurance that our troops will be greeted by the illegal aliens with flowers and pan dulce.
Also getting into the recycling spirit is Darth Cheney.
This is the time of year when politicos and public figures fan out across the country, showering graduating collegians with their pearls of wisdom and life lessons. Consider what Doctor Evil had to say back in 2004 in Tallahassee...
I think, for example, of the first time I met my friend and colleague Secretary Don Rumsfeld. It was back in the 1960s. He was a congressman, and I was interviewing for a fellowship in Washington, D.C. Congressman Rumsfeld agreed to interview me, but things didn't go all that smoothly -- just 15 minutes later, I found myself back out in the hallway. Don's impression of me was that I was kind of a detached, impractical, academic type. And I thought he was a brash, cocky, young politician. And we were both right.
Those of you who have been around a while can also recall a few times when life took an unexpected turn not always in a positive direction. As I mentioned a moment ago, I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming. My undergraduate experience, though, began at a place called Yale. But I didn't finish. I dropped out after a few semesters. Well, actually dropped out isn't quite accurate. Asked to leave would be more like it… Twice…The second time around they said, don't come back.
And last Friday, at LSU in Baton Rouge...
I think, for example, of the first time I met my friend and colleague Don Rumsfeld. It was back in the 1960s, when he was a congressman and I was interviewing for a fellowship on Capitol Hill. Congressman Rumsfeld agreed to talk to me, but things didn't go all that well. In fact, he pretty much threw me out of his office. Don had the impression of me that I was kind of a detached, theoretical, impractical academic type. And I thought he was a brash young politician with attitude. We were both right.
Those of us who've been around a while can also recall a few times when life took an unexpected turn, not always in a positive direction. As I mentioned a moment ago, I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming. My college experience, though, began at a place called Yale -– but I didn’t finish there. Instead, I dropped out after a few semesters. Actually, dropped out isn't quite accurate. Asked to leave would be more like it… Twice… The second time around, they said, don't bother coming back.
More rehash, anyone?
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 10:05 AM
Molested at the Hancock Plaza 24 Hour Fitness - It's not as funny as you'd think.
I went to the Travis County Delegation meeting Saturday then afterward to lunch with some great friends one of whom works out at the 24 Hour Fitness at Hancock Plaza here in Austin. Apparently, one night this past week, a female member was swimming when a male member, pulled out his member and began to 'enjoy' himself. While watching the woman swim. At this point, most of the group I was with died laughing because it's funny. Then the reality sets in and you realize this woman was molested, which kinda sucks all the comedy out of the moment. Then you get the willies and and ask what happened next.
The woman was of course freaked out and reported it to management WHO.DID.NOTHING. Then she went to corporate.
I spoke to district manager Becky Most around 3:15 pm, who reviewed the security tapes and admitted that the man was, in fact, visibly masturbating. She admitted that the problems with sexual predators is an "ongoing problem at this location." If you work out here, you need to know this to protect yourself, because the club has no intention of doing so. Becky Most said "It's a public club, we can't be everywhere at once. Swim at your own risk." It is not a public club, I paid a hefty initiation fee in addition to a monthly fee, which I thought was access to the clubs without harassment.
This is honestly, one of the biggest fuck up things I've heard about in the last several months (and I'm including the recent Special Session). Beyond the fact that it's gross, what if this guy had decided to rape her? Oh sure, it's all fun and games ('an ongoing problem at this location') when it's just some random jackass rubbing one out. What the hell are they going to do when someone decides they want more than that?
You can see the whole story, in every graphic detail, here. If you're a member of a 24 Hour Fitness, you might want to consider cancelling your membership and going elsewhere.
Posted by mcblogger at 10:00 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 21, 2006
The War on Vegetables
How quickly Americans toss aside the heroes of previous conflicts! Who today recalls that during the Reagan regime's desperate struggle against the budget, public education and childhood nutrition, lowly ketchup was pressed into service as an ersatz vegetable? Citizen! How can you look the other way while schools crack down on condiments?
CHANDLER, Ariz. -- One Arizona high school has added another item to its list of banned substances: bottled ketchup.
One student at Basha High School in Chandler was disciplined after being caught with a ketchup bottle two days in a row. And the principal said the school called the parents of several others found with the contraband.
The smuggling began after the school cafeteria limited students to three packets of ketchup per hamburger. You can get extra packets, but they cost 25 cents each.
You also can bring your own packets. But bottled ketchup is banned because the school said it would be a health code violation."
Dare we say it? When ketchup is outlawed, only outlaws will have ketchup?
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at 10:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 20, 2006
Congressional Democrats should be on the offensive
TNR has a good piece up (supersize for the full text) regarding calls for a presumptive Democratic majority in Congress next year to begin impeachment proceedings against el Presidente. While I would love to see the man gone, as TNR astutely points out, it's far more important to restore Congressional oversight of the Executive.
What oversight Republicans have performed has been woefully inadequate. As documented by CQ Weekly in 2004, nearly every time a Republican chairman promises to pursue an investigation, he suddenly loses interest once the cameras turn away. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, once swore to "let the chips fall where they may" in his investigation of prewar intelligence. He then all but gave up on the probe until he was shamed into acting by Democrats. Even self-styled Republican mavericks have been timid. Richard Lugar once promised to use the Foreign Relations Committee to grill senior administration officials about their plan for Iraq. According to CQ, he "declared himself satisfied with lower-level administration witnesses after the higher-ranking ones he wanted refused to show." John McCain, the one Republican who tackled the Jack Abramoff investigation, essentially gave up on the inquiry once it started to threaten his party's pooh-bahs.
Hear Me Now
by the Editors
Post date: 05.19.06
Issue date: 05.29.06
Nancy Pelosi, dare we say, did something smart last week. She told her Democratic colleagues, several of whom have become enamored with the idea of impeaching the president, that, if their party gains control of Congress, impeachment is verboten. "We want oversight and checks and balances," Pelosi's flack told reporters. "Impeachment was never her interest."
These are dismal times for Republicans, and now they are even worse. Pelosi has effectively banished the specter of crazed Democrats returning to power to impeach President Bush, a handy bogeyman for Republican fund-raisers. The truth is, it is not impeachment Republicans fear; it's simply oversight. Since 2001, Congress has sat idle as the executive branch gradually proclaimed new powers for itself, and it has aided and abetted Bush's every failure by refusing to operate as a check on his administration. So, while Democrats are wise to distance themselves from the I-word, they shouldn't be bullied into abandoning promises to aggressively investigate the Bush administration. In fact, they should be running on the issue, not away from it.
GOP control of Congress deserves to end this year, not least because Republicans have abused--and then abandoned--government oversight. Six years of chasing every wild accusation leveled against the Clinton administration have been followed by almost six years of near-total deference to the executive branch. In the Clinton years, a single House committee, Government Reform, issued over 1,000 subpoenas and spent millions of dollars investigating the White House and the Democratic Party. More than two million pages of documents were handed over. In one inquiry alone--the grave matter of the politicization of the White House Christmas list--Republicans took 140 hours of testimony.
Nobody wants to return to those days--except perhaps to experience the sheer delight of watching a congressman solve the Vince Foster "murder" by shooting a pumpkin. But, in terms of congressional oversight, what has followed in the Bush years is even worse than the abuses of the Clinton years: nothing. Congress has brushed off the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. In the rubberstamp House of Representatives, the abuses at Abu Ghraib have merited a total of a dozen hours of sworn testimony. The use of propaganda by government agencies? A collective yawn from the GOP. The housing and urban development secretary's boast of denying federal grants to contractors who dislike Bush? Silence.
What oversight Republicans have performed has been woefully inadequate. As documented by CQ Weekly in 2004, nearly every time a Republican chairman promises to pursue an investigation, he suddenly loses interest once the cameras turn away. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, once swore to "let the chips fall where they may" in his investigation of prewar intelligence. He then all but gave up on the probe until he was shamed into acting by Democrats. Even self-styled Republican mavericks have been timid. Richard Lugar once promised to use the Foreign Relations Committee to grill senior administration officials about their plan for Iraq. According to CQ, he "declared himself satisfied with lower-level administration witnesses after the higher-ranking ones he wanted refused to show." John McCain, the one Republican who tackled the Jack Abramoff investigation, essentially gave up on the inqui