The New Road

Pictures from Mt. Tam

Here are some pictures from the sunset on Mt. Tam on Sunday:

Take it to Karl

This excellent site kicks Karl Rove's bullshit right back at him with servicemen and women giving report after report of having distinguished military careers (often in Iraq) and being proud liberals. If Karl is "Bush's Brain" then Bush's brain is shite.

Rumsfeld insanity

This from Rummy this weekend:

"The insurgency could go on for any number of years," Rumsfeld said in a U.S. television interview. "Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years.

"Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency," he told Fox News. "We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win."

Oh, man. We are so screwed.

Bush is going to be giving a speech tonight. Expect nothing new and no connection with reality.

Chickenhawk Republicans

Great article on the Young Republican in Vegas, who, even though the fervently support this war, have, um, many other things to do than actually fight the war. Excuses include: "I physically probably couldn't do a whole lot", "Frankly, I want to be a politician. I'd like to survive to see that", "As long as there's a steady stream of volunteers, I don't see why I necessarily should volunteer", "It's always in the back of my mind - to enlist". And the truly awesome, "We don't have to be there physically to fight it". Not sure what the hell that means.

Chickenhawks, every last one of them. But that fits since Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of them all conveniently found their own ways to weasel out of their wartime obligations.

Democratic Obstructionism

I'm on the GOP mailing list and this morning they sent around a link to a video that says that the Democrats are the party of 'No'. First, it's tired. That was so, three weeks ago. Second, I say thank goodness for Democratic obstructionism.

Without the Democrats obstructing we would have Bush's horrible plan for privatizing our social security.

Without the Democrats obstructing we would have lost PBS.

Without the Democrats obstructing we would have had the Senate rubber stamping Bush's uber-fascist judges.

And what have the Republicans done when they weren't obstructed? They took away Terri Schiavo's last shreds of dignity with some sick psycho displays on the Senate floor and in Florida. And Bush launched a war on a country that never attacked us and created a second Vietnam quagmire which is killing American soldiers, men and women, every day.

I understand that the Democrats can't stop every crazy stupid idea this President has. They weren't powerful enough to stop Iraq, which is the worst of all of his mistakes. But they have tried and they are becoming more effective at putting a stop to this crazy train of Bush's illegal presidency.

When it comes to opposing fascist right wing dictators like Bush, we aren't the party of "no", we are the party of "Hell NO!"

Love is...

Hysterical adult humor.

Karl Rove

Alright, I'm going to turn around on this Karl Rove thing and agree with Lori. I'm not going to let people be paid with my tax dollars turn around and call me a traitor. I was all behind Afghanistan. I wanted to see Osama get his ass kicked. Hell, I still do. Seemingly more than the President and the Chickenhawks live Rove. Rove should resign. Period.

Yes. I'm smart enough to call bullshit on a war when I know it will turn into a quagmire. Yes. I called Iraq right. I knew it would turn to shit and it did. Does that mean I'm a traitor? No. It means I'm doing my duty as an American to keep a watchful eye on the government and oppose their actions when they go against the best interest of the country.

The founding fathers didn't give us the power to vote so that we could rubber-stamp idiots into office who would act as royalty. It is our civic duty and responsibility to be active in the political discourse in America. It's the people who believe in blind faith in a God-chosen supreme overload who are shirking their citizen's responsibilities.

I'm a proud American. I'm a patriot. I'm active in my politics. I support our troops. But I don't have to support the selected President on this awful war. In no way does that make me a traitor. I supported Afghanistan. Rove can kiss my ass. And if he doesn't like me he should stop cashing my checks and get the fuck out of office.

Democrats will bite at anything

One thing that's even more predictable than a conspiracy in a Republican adminstration is the fact that the Democrats jump around like fleas on a hot brick. And that's exactly what Rove was counting on with his jabbing comments in New York. In fact, having read what the RNC released to justify his comments says to me that he had this stuff in his pocket for months or years.

Basically it's all smoke and mirrors. Watch a little Fox. You think your getting news but you actually get too much information. There is information all over the place. The idea? To keep you confused while you think you are getting informed.

The Aruba girl. Terri Schiavo. Rove's comments. It's all just smoke to keep us from talking about the real things. Like the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for going to war. A 100% impeachable offense if the American public actually knew anything about it. Of course, they don't, because of the smoke and mirrors.

Hey! Look! There is a boy in a well! Gotta watch that! Oh, is he ok? Well, what about this woman dying over here...

Who cares about Rove? He is an idiot. Stay on Iraq. Bring the troops home.

No wonder people thing Congress is lost

Today they are debating flag burning. What the hell is that? I'm sure even the most ardent anti-flag burner would put other issues well ahead of that one. In particular the war in Iraq (shown here in terms of flags that represent the number of dead.)

Just so we are clear

These insane gas prices have nothing to do with reality. Exxon and Mobil are making more money than they know what to do with. And the kingdom of Dubai is creating a winter wonderland theme park in the fucking desert. We, in the meantime, as is the custom in Republican administrations, get the shaft.

Bush is just off target

Obviously with 60% of American's wanting us out of Iraq, God's man in the White House has some 'splaining to do. Let's see how he explains it to use fools:

As we work to deliver opportunity at home, we're also keeping you safe from threats from abroad. We went to war because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens.

By who? By Saddam? No. Facts and reports all say unequivocally that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. And the man who did attack us is running free as a bird.

Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror.

And we are losing.

Why are they fighting us there? Because it's cheaper to fight us there. When they can cause millions of dollars of damage with a cheap road side IED, why even bother with elaborate terrorist plots?

These foreign terrorists violently oppose the rise of a free and democratic Iraq, because they know that when we replace despair and hatred with liberty and hope, they lose their recruiting grounds for terror.

He really has to come up with some new bullshit lines. They don't like us because we don't understand them. We are trying to turn their country into a neo-con Christian holy land and, surprise surprise, they aren't digging that.

Let's cut the crap and bring the troops home. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The longer we stay the more bodies there will be on both sides. It's really just a question of how many people you want to die. And the longer we stay, the more we will lose on a monthly basis. That's because we will be sending in fresher recruits who don't have enough training, and because the insurgency is constantly getting stronger and more skilled.

There is nothing Bush can say that will justify this war. There is nothing Bush can say that will convince anyone that he isn't completely disconnected from reality while our sons and daughters die for no good reason. The problem we have is that we have an intransigent idiot in office who would rather drive onward into insanity than look weak by actually trying different approaches to this horrible situation.

Sex Ed

I got a solid education in the facts of sex in my middle school. It was presented by my family doctor who presented slides and answered questions to a co-ed group in my biology class. It was straightfoward and simple, and I learned a lot.

Now there is a movement to do "abstinence only" education. So I looked around at it. I found a system called Sex Respect. Which is a Catholic woman's initiative to have kids follow Christ and his anti-sex teachings (?).

What's interesting to me is that there is no education in her sex education. She says this:

"Sexuality is more than a physical act; it is a combination of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. Teaching kids about sexuality is more than passing on facts. It’s passing on attitudes and values."

Which assumes that she actually passes on any facts, but she doesn't. If I search the site for penis, vagina or masturbation I find nothing. And when I look for conception the only place I find it says that kids don't need to know about it. In fact, the site, and the approach, is more about ignorance than education. Knowledge of this stuff appears to be wrong.

So my question is, if kids don't know what a penis is, or what a vagina is, then they will make up their own strange ideas. I know I did. Kids are interested in sex. That is natural. You kinda need to know what sex is before you can understand how not to do it.

Actually I have no problem with teaching kids the value of abstinence. It's true that an easy way to avoid teen pregnancy and STDs are simply to avoid sex. I certainly don't need a lot of dogma about Christ, Jesus, Mary, and the rest of them to convince me of what is an anatomical fact. But there it is, there is a lot of information on faith, Jesus, Christ and the church.

Here is the sites answers to the question of whether or not such information is required:

The SEX RESPECT program on abstinence education offers a positive alternative to sex education courses that focus primarily on anatomy and physiology.

Principal Jo Jean Morris observes, “We have known that the kids are sexually aware. We felt it was inadequate to just say to them, “this is what a man looks like; this is what a woman looks like.”

“We felt like what we were doing wasn’t the answer,” said Bob Galore, health teacher. Galore said the classes had formerly consisted of biology and anatomy and discussing family planning and family life. “That part of it isn’t necessary when we’re talking about the emotional and psychological effect.”

So it starts off by saying that the biology information is in itself inadequate. And then goes on to say that it's even unneccesary.

The answer to whether this is religously based or not receives another non-sensical answer.

Is your chastity message some church-related or religious drive?

This program has been used in both public and parochial schools. Ms. Jo Jean Morris, a principal, observed that she “could find nothing in the SEX RESPECT program that any parent, depending on their own choice of lifestyle, would be offended by. “I don’t see how anyone could object to it.” This program has been carefully developed to reflect a public health perspective and to show that sexual self-control can bring freedom, maturity, confidence, and good health. That sounds like good sense, not “religious drive.”

First she says, in answer to a question about the religious fundamental of the program that nobody would object to it. I know I would, but that wasn't the question. Then, in perhaps the strangest answer, she says that it's good sense. Which then then appears to say is the opposite (?) of "religious drive".

Ok, I'm confused. As with all of this stuff. Because the dogma is so arbitrary and wrapped up and results from people's own personal phobias that they project on others, it all devolves into a mass of illogical silliness quickly.

The really sad part about all of this is that the government is now taking sides on this and siding with kooks like this. Why can't we just provide information based on the facts. Here is how a frog copulates, a snake, and a human. Here are the results. The leave the dogma for the home.

Toy Story 2

Megan is all into Toy Story now. She has been watching Toy Story 2. It just occurred to me that there is something deeply flawed with the plot. Woody is a toy from the 50s. There is no way that Andy is the original owner. In fact the prospector says as much when say that "No hand-me-down toy is going..." as he is threatening Woody.

The point is that Woody must have gone though this before. He must have had a series of owners, and been in the box between owners.

Batman Begins

I saw Batman Begins with Mel last night. We went to see it in IMAX and I made the mistake of sitting us too close to the screen. The images were distractingly far away, and the fight scenes, which looked to be great, were impossible to follow.

That being said, wow. This is a far better Batman movie than anything previously. They went out of their way to make the character more realistic and accesible. Though I still found myself out on a believability limb a few times late in the film.

Morgan Freeman was good in a supporting role as the new Q type character. Michael Caine was excellent as Alfred. Gary Oldman was underused completely as Gordon. Liam Neeson did a very good job in his dual purpose role.

Definitely worth the view. Even if you aren't the big comic book movie fan. Like Spider Man I think this movie is accessible to the average person. But with this movie in particular I would recommend that very young kids stay away. Some of the images are just far too scary and graphic for little ones. Though, as with almost every picture I see nowadays, there were several very young kids in the audience.

Downing Street Memo

Finally the Democrats are really starting to move on the Downing Street Memo. If you watch the Fox News (Republican propoganda machine) you wouldn't know it, but there are now seven memos that popped out of Britain that show that the war was pre-planned, but sadly the aftermath wasn't planned at all.

So now Conyers is holding a forum (he can't hold hearings because he Republicans won't let him) to talk about the DSM. Already the term impeachment is being bandied about. I really like that.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Lori and I saw "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" last night. It was better than I expected. There were some missteps in the middle. Some scenes that should either have been cut or embellished. But it was good. It was exciting at points, and there was a chemistry there.

Where I lost it a little was the super-hero aspect of the characters. They took it a little too far. One of the things I liked about "True Lies" was that, in general, the characters still seemed human. Where this movie they went a bit too far with their super-spy abilities.

I thought it was at it's best when Pitt and Jolie were talking about their relationship in the midst of some tremendous action scene. I also appreciated the use of silence. Which is an art form that has been lost in the MTV-cut movies of the past few years. Particular in Jolie's Tomb Raider series.

Wall Street Journal

I just got a call from the Wall Street Journal. A reporter there wanted to know more about podcasting. I think the publicity around this book is going to be a whole lot more fun than the publicity around Code Generation in Action.

No real surprises, but...

But the Schiavo autopsy results are out:

...she would not have been able to eat or drink if she had been given food by mouth as her parents' requested.

Ok, so it turns out that she couldn't have just gotten up and walked around as a bunch of the nurses said (but never testified to).

"The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. ... This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

Which puts into question the fairness of the Fox coverage which continuously showed her tracking a balloon. Of course, that video was cherry picked from hours and hours of video where she did nothing. Cherry picking, a speciality of the RNC and it's cronies.

It also debunks the crazy Nobel nominee doctors that Fox and Hannity dug up who said they could cure Terry.

And then the kicker...

...there was no evidence of strangulation or other trauma leading to her collapse.

So this whole murderer thing was a bunch of crap, and those that rushed to judgment persecuted and threatened an innocent man.

She was sick and untreated. She collapsed and went into a coma. Done.

Yet more proof of Occam's Razor: Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.

It's wrong to accuse someone of murder when in reality the person just isn't doing what you want them to do.

Child abuse

I went to go see Cinderella Man at the local 25-oplex tonight. After the movie it was around 11. The whole place was pretty empty. I went to the bathroom then turned into one of the halls that was leading out to the parking lot. On a seat in the hall was a man, seated, with his three year old over his lap. He was wailing on her, and I mean hard. His wife, or, at least her mom, yelled at him about what he was doing. He said that he was spanking her because she had dropped her shoe. He stopped, the little girl got up and ran to her mom, screaming, wailing and crying. He yelled that he hadn't dropped his shoes. When she replied he told her to "Shut up", and that "Your next." Nice.

Yeah, the problem with the family in America is gay marriage. Right.

Trivia question for the day

When the Amish raise a barn, do they have to comply with county building codes?

Downing Street Memo

Almost half a million people have signed a petition asking Bush to answer some basic questions about the Downing Street Memo. This is the way it should be. Presidents should not be able to go to war on a whim. We are a country of laws. If Bush lied, he should pay the price.

I went to Church today

In fact, I went to two. The first was a Lutheran church where I met a nice you pastor who was teaching bible school in Chinese. I came to talk to him about the separation of church and state, dominionism and reconstructionism. I was very up-front, saying that I was an atheist with no intentions of attending the church, but that I would like to ask some questions if he had the time. He did and we had a nice talk about the current politics of religion.

This Lutheran pastor voted for Kerry, felt that his religion was being politicized, and was strongly against domininionsm. In fact, we both agreed that it was a very scary concept. Our conversation was pretty short.

After lunch on the way back to the office I stopped by a Baptist church for two reasons. First, to get my car washed. They did a fine job with that. Second, was to talk with the pastor. A very nice middle aged man who reminded me a lot of my old friend Joel Farley. We had a long conversation. He is a reconstructionist. He believes that both welfare a public schools should be disbanded. He does not believe in a theocracy, in fact be believes that to be an invention of the liberal press. When pushed he named a politician as the source of that, and couldn't name any outlet that he would describe as liberal being that source of that information. Suffice to say his is a Republican who (I assume) voted for Bush. Despite what you are thinking we had a very nice conversation. I was praised for being, in his words, not combative as some people are, and was invited back for another talk as he found this one very enjoyable. I may take him up on that. Though I will likely visit other churches first.

We agreed on a number of things. He really didn't proselytize to me. He quoted scripture a great deal, but mainly about a Christian's relation to government. And he spoke a great deal about history. Which kind of rambled. In fact, it was kind of a personal sermon, but directed. Which I didn't really care for. But I was there to probe and listen.

As an aside, and probably much to his displeasure if he knew, I took a page from the movie Kinsey and smiled and encouraged everything he said. Even when it was disparaging of me lifestyle, that of my friends, other races or religions. Which didn't happen that often, but was there at times.

Anyway, back to the point. He believes that there are three domains of authority in a persons life; family, civil and church. When I asked him what his ideal world would look like he said; no public schools, no welfare, a very small government. When I probed further an asked how I, or someone not of his faith would fit into that world, he said that I would be fine and that I would not be pushed to adopt his faith.

What I came away from these two conversations with is a sense that what's being heard from the Christian world are a couple of kooks in the corner with megaphones blaring something about dominionism. And that most folks, as you would expect, are content to just raise their kids, pray to their God and try to live a good life. It's really a shame about how the far right, and these radical extremists have hijacked the public face of the religion. As an extension, it seems to me that this is happening to both Christian and Muslim faiths.

Anyway, that was my walk the walk and talk the talk for the day. I will probably do it again. I've had it in my mind to talk to some pastors for the last couple of weeks. Probably since the time that I implored anyone who was a Christian to talk to their pastors about these things. Dominionism and Reconstructionism aren't unknown in the church. Have a chat with your pastor. Find out what their position is. And if you feel comfortable I encourage you to ask your pastor to be vocal within the church system to be vocal against the extremists.

We need to come together as one America. The church isn't going away, and the secular world isn't going away either. So let's all talk together, learn that we are all Americans, and see that we can all just get along and move the whole country forward.

I think my next visit will be to a Unitarian church.

Good book karma

Two times tonight when I was faced with a tough technical problem I flipped open the relevant book and that very page had the solution. Now that is some seriously good coding karma.

Bye Bye Big Bird

In their never ending quest to rid the world of all things secular the Republicans how now decided to axe Big Bird and his friends on Sesame Street, as well as Reading Rainbow.

See, what that does is leave you with only a few options like Veggie Tales, so that our kids will be forced to listen to the Church espouse the love of Jesus Christ. Oh, and while your their; you should hate non-believers, muslims and gays. You should own many guns and use them on abortion clinic doctors. And anyone who doesn't believe the gospel should be shunned, converted or killed.

Frankly, because I have a young kid I would gladly pay a reasonably monthly fee to keep Big Bird on private air if that's what it takes. I grew up on Sesame Street. Megan loves it and rightly so. In addition to teaching the alphabet and numbers, it teaches real American values like tolerance and peace. The only values I hear from the Christian right is hate and intolerance. As the bumper sticker says, "Hate is Not a Family Value."

Immigration

Not sure what's going on with this immigration push. The Republicans have been on it since the election. I don't think they are getting any traction besides with themselves. Frankly, I don't have a problem with it. Or borders are so porous that it's really not a problem for the real terrorists to get in. And if we really got rid of all of the immigrant labor the economy would be screwed.

Strange saying answer

I talked to the guy that had the Breakfast Club line this morning. Turns out he was going to be dumping his collection of business cards, which he likened to a purse. And thus connected that to Ally Sheedy who dumped her purse in The Breakfast Club.

That's actually not one of the scenes that come to mind when I think of The Breakfast Club. I think of, the sushi scene and the punk asking her why she would eat that and not have a guy's tongue in her mouth. I think about the salami on the statue. And about Ally Sheedy shaking her dandruff to create snow on her picture.

Oh, and now that I think about it, other things come to mind as well. Judd Nelson playing air guitar to cream. That was good. And his telling the Principle that his pot was in Johnson's shorts.

Good stuff. Great movie.

Anyway, all this is timely since apparently the MTV Movie Awards is doing a Breakfast Club Reunion tonight. Though Judd Nelson will not be appearing.

BTW, I had a spare subwoofer so I brought it to the new office and hooked it into my stereo. I have Frankie Goes To Hollywood going now and that bass is pumping. Frankie has a special place in my heart since it was the first time that I really went away from my sister's tastes in music. Up until then I mainly bought and listened to what she listened to. Or the radio. Where I mainly listen to pop; Duran Duran, ABC, Michael Jackson, all that crap.

New strange saying of the day

With my new job I spend two days out of the week in a shared office in the city. I share that office with a few coworkers, but mainly a bunch of sales guys. And these sales guys are, um, raw.

But that's beside the point. They also have a set of phrases that I'm at a loss to understand. Today's is:

Dude, I'm about to go Breakfast Club on you.

I honestly don't have a freaking clue what that means. I invite you to guess, or to answer, what the hell going Breakfast Club on somebody is.

White Christians update

This from the news storm yesterday:

According to CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll data, 82 percent of self-described Republicans are white Christians - but so are 57 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of all Americans.

That's obvious just from the campaign pictures, and from the pictures on the road tour of Bush's Social Security debacle.

I'm totally with Dean on this. This has become a war. The Republicans have been playing hardball for years and we have been placating them. The fact of the matter is that they are off the edge of the map and need to be brought back in. They have a theocratic agenda at the core of the party that is fundamentally un-American. This is not a Christian state. This is not a Christians-only country. There is a separation of Church and State. Most people support that. Many died defending it, and will die defending it. At home and abroad.

The message is clear, if you don't want a theocracy then you have to join with the Democrats to stop this tide. And that is as clear as day to anyone with eyes to see.

The followers in the Republican party don't know what path they are being lead down. But Timothy LeHay and James Dobson signed a blood oath to the Coalition on Revival to turn this country into a theocracy. They want to build God's Kingdom on Earth right here, right now (or within two generations) so that Christ can return and bring 1000 years of peace. I know it sounds nuts, but Timothy LeHay is the author of the Left Behind series, which was a New York Times best seller. And James Dobson has lunch with the President every week and was the force behind the recent Judicial nominee fight and Justice Sunday. These aren't just wing nut crackpots. They are well connected powerful people with influence over the minds of a significant percentage of our body politic.

I talked with Lori about this and she responded like anyone would, "When I went to Church the end-times was just something that was there but it wasn't present on your mind. I was concentrating on being a good Christian." I'm sure that's the case for a lot of people. The problem is with the next level up, the leadership, who are steering the flock in a very different path. And the flock follows the preacher. Not all Churches go this way. I've talked with pastors. I know that some don't buy into it. My advice to Christians is to get informed about Dominionism and Reconstructionism and make sure that if you don't buy into it, that your pastor, priest, cleric or whatever doesn't either. And for the rest of us to get on our school boards, local councils and other positions and fight, fight, fight.

I know this probably sounds like crazy nonsense. And you may think I have finally flown over the edge. I actually hope that's the case. I would love to be proven wrong. Really, really. I invite you to do the research and to come back to me and say that this isn't happening. I will gladly (and happily) shut up about this if someone can prove to me that Dominionism is just three angry guys in cardboard box somewhere.

Dead eyes

As I was coming in on the train this morning I was noticing how many people seem just dead. They either sit there quietly staring into space. Or the are jacked into their iPods (lots and lots of iPods on the train) and stare into space. There are no smiles, and just the occasional cough.

When I got on the train there weren't many people. So I put my jacket and bag in the seat next to me, whipped out a laptop and started hacking. After a while the train filled up and I looked up to find that I was hogging a seat. So I did some elaborate moves to try and get my bag under my legs and my jacket on my lap. All the while a guy was waiting for the seat. I said, "I'll get there eventually." He said nothing, just waited, then sat down next to me, saying nothing. In fact, he seemed a little disturbed that I had tried to talk. Tried to interact if only just a little. As if I had broken some code of conduct.

Anyway, it occurred to me as I looked around that all of these people were once as care-free and happy as Megan is today. And that's really sad. There was no joy. In fact, I finally realized the true nature of the term bundle of joy. It's not the joy you bring to her, it's the joy she brings to you.

Typing

I started typing on my mother's Royal typewriter when I was around nine, I think. It looked something like this. It was fun because to type took tremendous hand strength. The keys had about a half inch of deflection before the letter impression was made on the page. In fact, you had time to think as your finger went down. So if that wasn't the rigth key you could balk it and just waggle the hammer somewhere between it's resting place and the point at which it strikes the page.

I remember being blown away by the carraige return key that I found on the selectric that I used at my mom's office.

After that I worked on a TRS-80 model I at Andy Baker's house, and a Model III at my high school. I remember at the time that I found the keys kind of mushy for my taste, having come from the school of hard knocks on the Royal.

The Apple II keyboard was a little better. And other keyboards at the time, like the Radio Shack Color Computer (CoCo), Atari 400, and others were just a joke. Though perhaps the best keyboard joke ever was the chiclet keyboard on the PC Jr. But I digress.

Anyway, then there was the Original IBM PC keyboard. A keyboard that I fell in love with right away for two big reasons. First, there was the heft. The thing was easily four pounds. It was a literal weapon. The second was the clicky keyboard. It had the tactile sense of a real typewriter without the huge deflection. Anyway, it turns out there were other fans as well, as you can see by the site.

Not that I'm aganist the spongy keyboard. There is a time and place for a quiet keyboard, like a conference, or something. But if I wan't to really get something done there is nothing like a big clackity keyboard. Like the Tactile Pro that I'm writing this on.

White Christian party

I'm not sure where Howard Dean is going with all of this. But where it is, I like it. For far too long Democrats have tried to play the peacemakers and the placaters to these extremist groups on the right.

On the Today show Howard said the Republican party was mainly for Christian white people. Exactly. Bingo. The responses I have read have been shock about the characterization, but no defense from it. It's all, "we have to get away from characterizations", not hard numbers about the diversity of the party. Why? Because they are the party of Christian white people. Duh.

The other response I heard was on right wing radio this morning. The woman said she was offended because she is a woman. Howard didn't say Christian white male. He said Christian and white, both of which she is. I'm not sure what her problem is. Besides being a lunatic fringer right wing Christo-fascist.

So, go Howard!

Megan at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

We took Megan and Josephine to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk yesterday.

They had a blast. We found out that Megan is a freak for rides and will ride anything as soon as she is at the right height.

Double Standards, Part Two

The other recent conservative double standard comes with the recent Deep Throat revelations. Conservative pundits are now going off on how Deep Throat was a bad person, and how Nixon had been wronged. On a tangent, what's funny is how they dig up felons, like G. Gordon Liddy, to attack this guy.

Anyway, so what is the conservative standard for impeachment? We had the impending impeachment of Nixon, which was over breaking and entering, conspiracy, lying to congress and the people. We had the impeachment of Clinton, which was over a blow job. And we have the should be an impeachment of Bush, which would be for lying to the American people about the war, as well as for a variety of other reasons. So where is the line? Do blow jobs rate above burglary?

When will the conservatives and the Republican leadership have one set of standards that they apply to everyone. And frankly, when will they start to reign in their dogs in the executive branch.

The Other Bomb

In addition to the Downing Street Memo, which told us that Bush was rigging intelligence to get the outcome he wanted with Iraq. There is now evidence that we actually had started the war before Congress had even voted on it.

It was a huge air assault: Approximately 100 US and British planes flew from Kuwait into Iraqi airspace. At least seven types of aircraft were part of this massive operation, including US F-15 Strike Eagles and Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack planes. They dropped precision-guided munitions on Saddam Hussein's major western air-defense facility, clearing the path for Special Forces helicopters that lay in wait in Jordan. Earlier attacks had been carried out against Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and mobile air-defense systems. The Pentagon's goal was clear: Destroy Iraq's ability to resist. This was war.

But there was a catch: The war hadn't started yet, at least not officially. This was September 2002--a month before Congress had voted to give President Bush the authority he used to invade Iraq, two months before the United Nations brought the matter to a vote and more than six months before "shock and awe" officially began.

Impeachment is deserved, and nigh.

Compassionate Conservatism

In response to a story on a burned down mosque the gang at the conservative hate site "Free Republic" were almost united in their responses.

Some samples:

"Hatered or common sense?"

"Oh dear, I sure hope the firefighters didn't "mishandle" the ashes. "

"Act of God?"

"Burn, Baby, Burn."

"War on Terrorism is the ultimate 'faith-based' initiative."

What was that about compassionate conservatism again?

Cute Megan Picture

It's Summer time!

Double Standards

I love how the government, the RNC and the right wing hate machine have double standards when it comes to sources. Having lost every reason for going into Iraq the administration fell back on citing Amnesty International reports about Saddam Hussein. Then, when Amnesty International says something they don't like, they are suddenly an extremist organization.

BTW, I'm pretty sure the draft is coming. The Army can't recruit soldiers anymore because support for the war is failing.

American Theocracy

A while back I talked about an American theocracy. I knew something was blowing in the wind but couldn't put a name on it. The comments I got at the time downplayed my fears saying that nobody in the right was looking to make a theocracy. Now I have a name for it, and that name is Dominionism.

Think about it this way. Six years ago when Hillary said there was a vast right wing conspiracy everyone thought she was being hyperbolic. Now nobody disputes the right wing conspiracy, and most folks in the right think it's fantastic. So if you don't think a movement can work, think again. And at the center of the right wing movement, is this dominionist rubbish.

This is scary. Christian, or not, this is not the way America should go. This was never meant to be a theocracy.

Little conservative Snowflakes

This program will get your embryos going. But only if you are conservative Christians:

It took two and a half years to bring themselves to fill out the papers. On their forms, they said the adopting family must be conservative Christians and, ideally, include a stay-at-home mother.

Nice.