Titanic movie outgrosses 2004 Tsunami Disaster
Mood:  irritated
It’s sickening. Truly gut-wrenching events. Obviously I’m talking about the latest massive natural disaster that has struck the Southeast Asia region this week. But what’s even more saddening is the extreme lack of global monetary relief being offered so far.

Apparently a grand total of $500 million has been pledged by governments around the world to help various countries and relief agencies to pay for the clean-up, body identification and retrieval, etc. I’m sorry but that’s just pitifully too little.

Even a film about a maritime distaster, Titanic, was capable of drawing in over $600M worldwide. So I’m at a loss to explain how a real disaster where millions of people are now homeless and over 100,000 are so far expected dead can attract even less.

Other things that go for at least $500M:

1. A fine given to Microsoft software company for bundling their Windows Media Player with the Windows operating system, or (1x) Tsunami Relief pledges.

2. U.S. Aircraft Carrier: Each one goes for about $4Billion, or (8x)Tsunami Relief pledges.

3. My favorite: Killing about half the amount of the 2004 Tsunami disaster for a whole lot more money : The War in Iraq ($20 BILLION for 2003/2004, another $20 BILLION over 2005 expected), or (80x)Tsunami Relief pledges)

If Bush Was A Horse, Would You Bet On Him?
Mood:  cheeky
So Bush was in Canada this week doing his best to push his ridiculous agendas on a country that will likely never fall for them in the way that much of America has been doing since 911. Even Canada’s ultra-establishment Prime Minister, Paul Martin, won't be duped by Bush's long-overdue appearance north of the border. It's encouraging to see that Martin has so far largely dismissed Bush's white elephant nonsense of promoting weapons in space. Martin was Canada’s finance minister for the longest time, and he is most capable of knowing that any ventures Bush is selling have little chance of becoming beneficial to Canadians over the long run.

After all, if the world was a betting racetrack, and Bush was a horse, how could anyone place their money on Bush? He’s never won a race in his entire failed business career and is currently well on his way as president to crushing his own country under the ever-increasing weight of its deepest debt ever.



Speaking of money, is it almost time to call Bush’s buck, ‘the yankee peso’? A few years ago, if you cashed a $100 US bill at the bank for Canadian dollars, you’d get about $135 CDN. This week, the low USD has converted that same $100 USD to about $115 CDN. Keep in mind, Canada population is 1/10th in size of the US and its economy even smaller. The Euro is also kicking the USD’s ass. The reason for all this is that no one wants to buy into the record American debt. Despite Bush’s ‘all is good’ rhetoric, the US economy is in serious trouble and it's long-term future in serious doubt. Well you get what you didn’t vote for I suppose.

Many people, including myself, have said that the 2004 elections were crucial to America’s long-term future and not in terms of limited concerns like terrorist security, but for the long-term strength and future of America's economic might. Now that Bush will be around for another 4 years, his uh...'leadership' appears to be steering the USA into an uncertain and unhealthy future. Eagerly waiting on the sidelines are both the Europeans and Asians - and they smell blood.

In particular, it’s China that has been making all the right money moves over the last few years positioning their economic might with the goal of one day overtaking America as the world’s economic superpower. This past year, China has been buying gold non-stop while America continues to lose jobs and waste money, resources, and focus on waging unpopular and unnecessary war.

Bush has mistakenly been running his presidency on the idea that ‘War is Business’, but in fact, he should have learned what the Chinese already know - that ‘Business is War’. In war and in business, there is a saying “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”. It seems quite clear now that very few countries will come to America’s economic aid simply because they no longer have anything to gain by doing so. For some countries and regions, such as China, there is now more to gain by allowing the US to slide deeper and deeper into debt and economic instability.

Good job Mr. Bush and welcome to Canada. Enjoy your stay, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Oh Goodie...We Got BasketBrawl on TV now....
Mood:  party time!
I am not a big fan of sports although I do enjoy it from time to time. I’m also not a big fan of violence in pro-sports but I understand why it happens from time to time. But the other day during a NBA game with the Pistons and the Paces, the biggest brawl in NBA history broke out among players and fans which caught a lot of people’s attention.

I wasn’t at the game, nor did I watch it on tv live, but I have watched 2 different clips available over the net and it’s interesting to see how differently they each portray the incident. The shorter clip shows mostly the fighting itself. I got the impression that the players, and in particular Artest, were way out of line. But once I saw the 2nd longer clip, it seemed to me that in fact, Artest was clearly avoiding the violence for the longest time,even after he was pelted with something white (cup? towel? notepad? dunno). He still remained where he was and continued to stay out of it. But a little while later someone in the stands above him pelted him in the head with a full beer cup and finally he reacted by running up into the stands and letting loose on whoever remotely looked like a threat or the beer cup culprit.

Should he have reacted in such a manner? In an ideal world, no. But everyone has a limit and in my opinion, he was clearly pushed over the line and shoving or decking a fan that assaulted him is fair game. The security was non-existent for several minutes and Artest did nothing to deserve being attacked in such a manner while he was lying down trying to remain calm and non-violent.

The end result so far is that he has been suspended for the remainder of the year without pay. While I would go along with a multi-game suspension for his aggression, it’s ludicrous to penalize someone out of millions of dollars for being attacked repeatedly without court-side protection and eventually proceeding to defend himself from the attack by the fan(s).

I have a feeling his suspension will be reviewed and eventually reduced but you never know with these things.

Here's a webstream of the longer clip I've seen: BasketBrawl

Been Busy Writing Other Stuff, Almost Forgot About This
Mood:  don't ask
Definitely miss writing this blog lately so I will be adding new entries again regularly starting this week.

Un-freakin' real.
I tune out the news for a couple of months (it's important to do that on occasion) then stick my nose back in it and surprise surprise - the world's still in a sorry state as usual.

Iraq blew up. What a shock - who'da thunk it? The Bush administration is presiding over, and ultimately responsible for, yet another international disgrace with the torture of Iraqis by the U.S. military. Naturally, no one at the top goes to jail or gets fired or even resigns.

And once again, the Land of Free has come up with another winner court ruling over in Monroe County, New York. Apparently, two parents who have been portrayed as royal idiots, have been ordered by some lame-brain judge to not have any more children.

Now I'm in no way impressed or supportive of these horrible parents since it seems they have mistreated their existing children to the point where they are all now in foster care. But 'banning' pregnancy is in no way the jurisdiction of the courts and nor should it ever be. For starters, how do you enforce it? You can't order an abortion, especially in the Bush-era. Jailing a pregnant woman doesn't seem likely or helpful. And the judge's written suggestion that the county would provide sterilization 'free of charge' is utterly moronic and outright despicable. Imagine for a second that while, today, it is those two people are worthy of such court order. What of tomorrow? Maybe people who smoke joints should all be sterilized or even hanged. Maybe people with genetic disabilities shouldn't be allowed to produce offspring because, after all, they're just going to make deformed babies that will suck at the public healthcare system all their lives. How about fat people? They take up too much space, look ugly and have tons of heart attacks. Maybe people with spots. Maybe just black people, or Hispanics, or Jews? Oh wait, that's been tried before over in Germany.

Could or would this recent court ruling one day extend to other types of 'bad' parents? The point is, once you give someone the power to control who gets to make babies and who doesn't, it's inevitable that at some future date that power could be used for a dubious purposes. History shows us this is always the way of absolute power. If this moronic NY judge had any concept of freedom and basic human rights, this idiotic ruling would never have been issued, and instead, the parents should simply have been charged, tried, and probably convicted of child negligence and/or abuse. Throw them in prison and guess what? They wouldn't be making babies there at all. Why is it so hard to just follow existing laws? Makes me wonder if the underlying motive has something to do with the fact that this self-centered judge actually believes she 'knows all' - just like God.

The Chinese have a saying, "The fish stinks from the head down". Thank you Bush Era.

---------------------------------------------

So yes, the Dub Man is back and no, I haven't eased off on Dubya and his merry band of lunatics at all. I'm just letting them dig themselves just a few more feet into the ground before I start shovelling all the dirt back in.

Hehe.
This is fun. Click here.

This is funny satire. Click here.

GAWD! How Silly Is This Gonna Get?
So Kerry said that world leaders don't want to see Bush get re-elected. Probably not the smartest thing to say publicly, and there's no chance any of them will go on record either way. Bush even tried to get the Prime Minister of the Netherlands to agree with him on this subject and he politely but clearly, refused to comment. So will they all, including possibly Bush's lapdog Blair since it wouldn't bode well for them if Kerry wins instead of Bush.

Having nothing of substance to offer voters from themselves, Bush's camp is milking this for what it's worth but it won't win them any points. Most likely, if it's all they have in their arsenal, it will cost them votes if they keep flogging this dead horse with no 'world leaders' backing them up.

Regardless, the quote itself was inaccurately reported as this recent NYT (free reg. req.) article describes:

The New York Times
The escalating argument came amid revelations that the weeklong controversy was based on an inaccurate transcript provided by a reporter covering the Florida fund-raiser where Kerry had made a similar remark. As Vice President Dick Cheney and Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, continued to criticize Kerry on the issue, the reporter - one of two allowed to attend the event on behalf of the press corps - said on Monday that he had made a mistake when transcribing his recording of the session.

The inaccurate quotation was widely reported by news organizations, including The New York Times on several occasions.

Patrick Healy, the Boston Globe reporter who covered the fund-raiser, had quoted Kerry as saying: "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but, boy, they look at you and say, 'You have got to win this; you have got to beat this guy; we need a new policy.' Things like that."

Apparently, Kerry only said he had "heard" of leaders that didn't like Bush, not "met" them. And he's totally in his rights to say such a thing. It's called "Free Speech" President Bush - look it up. Slander doesn't apply here at all. Look that one up too. All the Bushies know it's impossible for any world leader to comment either way but they continue to press Kerry and the feeble US media about this malarkey.

Oh well, to me it's further proof the Dick/Bush camp are growing worried and desperate. It must suck for them knowing they're going to lose in November.

I'm Gonna Miss Laughing At Bush Next Year, For 2 Whole Seconds
If he wasn't such a danger to his own military, the US economy and America's civil liberties and freedoms, I'd want him around for another 4 years to laugh at because he's so completely idiotic. Last week, he was speaking to a room full of Texans and said that John Kerry was "soft on military intelligence". Now that's one for the books. The good people at Buzzflash said it best: Bush calling Kerry "soft on intelligence" is like:

... being called "short" by Yosemite Sam.
... being called "fat" by Jabba the Hutt.
... being called a "draft-dodging, coke-snorting, privileged, lying, underachieving loser" by George W. Bush.

Oh, the irony. Wasn't it Bush who led his nation into an illegal war based on faulty, selective, inadequate, compromised, distorted and now clearly proven beyond any measure - BAD INTELLIGENCE? Despite the GOP spin over the last few months that the war was waged "to save the Iraqi people from a dictator", the truth is that the war was sold as a means to prevent Iraq from developing and using it's NON-EXISTENT "weapons of mass destruction" and to take control of Iraq's massive oil reserves. Period.

Where the hell does Bush get off calling Kerry soft on intelligence? It wasn't Kerry, but Bush, who was president when the worst ever US intelligence failure took place on 9/11/2001. Kerry actually fought in a war, Bush hasn't. Kerry has chaired and been part of numerous committees on Foreign Relations, Security, Intelligence, and even Pappa Bush's illegal Iran-Contra scandal.

Bush is resorting to lame mud-slinging simply because he knows the end is in sight. The latest polls from practically every news source have been showing Kerry would likely win the next presidential election and Americans are becoming less and less supportive of both Bush and his failed policies.

Some People Never Learn
He's spent the last 3 years, milking the 9/11 attacks for his ultra-conservative, almost fascist, agenda. Why would Dubya stop now in this election year?

Last week, Bush's campaign let loose some TV ads featuring images of the 9/11 attacks and so far the reaction has been mixed. Support for the ads has come from the people in his administration and campaign. Criticism for the ads has come from the rest of the planet including many families who lost loved ones at WTC.

Dubya, Dubya, Dubya, when is he ever gonna learn? If he wasn't mentally-deficient, I'd say he was just a cruel, tactless, asshole rich-kid. But since he is brainless, I won't.

Rachel Corrie, One Year Later
Just before the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and now long since forgotten, there was a news item that flashed briefly before our eyes of an American woman killed when she was run over and crushed by a bulldozer manned by an Israeli soldier.



Her name was Rachel Corrie and she was wearing a bright fluorescent orange jacket that even Stevie Wonder could see but somehow two soldiers from the Israeli military's "Blind, Deaf & Ignorant" division, overlooked the unarmed, unthreatening, 23 year-old American woman and crushed her to death anyway. And to make sure she didn't bother them again, they reversed the bulldozer over her guaranteeing her head and chest would be crushed.

Maybe things are different in Israel but where I come from, home demolition is conducted with basic safety measures and if someone, protester or not, is blocking the way, the demolition is halted until the human being can be removed from the area. But again, things must be different for Israelis when it comes to the Palestinian areas.

With regards to the Israel's practice of demolishing thousands of Palestinian homes (there have not been thousands of Palestinian suicide bombers so the lame excuse that these are not civilian homes but homes of terrorists is a blatant lie) is illegal and contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates U.S. law, including the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits the use of U.S. military aid against civilians.

I am in no way shocked when I hear that both the US and Israel ignore domestic and international laws when it suits their agenda, but it doesn?t disgust me any less. What sickens me even more is that this type of unnecessary and unjustified killing seems to not only be "A-OK" with the Israeli and US governments, but also for 'some" of their citizens. Here's a sample of quotes I found related to Rachel's death:

Tom Cohoe 3/16/2003 10:02PM PST
"An asshole died fighting for the wrong side in the front lines of a war. I am not in mourning."



Sklt Lqr 3/16/2003 01:37PM PST
"blockin' horse 4 peace, man. OK, what is it with this weird, childish, petulant desire of the anti-war crowd to stand in front of things? Please, for the love of G-d, don't let one of these nitwits decide to stand in front of my car while I'm trying to get somewhere."



Bloodthirsty Warmonger 3/16/2003 10:06PM PST
"Rachel Corrie was the protester who sought martyrdom by KNEELING in front of a Israeli bulldozer. I sent the article about her death to www.darwinawards.com. I wonder if Saddam Hussein will send her mother $25,000, as he's done with families of suicide bombers."



foobar 3/16/2003 10:14PM PST
"Charles, are you sure her name is really 'Corrie'? Or could it really be 'Khouri'? Just wondering."


Scott Ganz 3/16/2003 09:50PM PST
"It's hard not to think of her mother. 'Oy, behaving like this you'll never land a husband!' Seriously, though. A woman who adores genocidal fascists was killed because she did something stupid. We should at least pretend to be upset."

Nice bunch aren't they?

Speaking of Rachel's mother, here's what she really thinks of her daughter and it does NOT resemble Mr.Ganz's bullshit statement in any way.



R.I.P. * Rachel Corrie * 1980-2003