Bears commentary

Donkeypuncher: Super Bowl Shuffle, v 2.0?

The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia

Flip Jack Flip

Abramoff Reportedly Negotiating a Deal in Which He Would Plead Guilty, Testify:

"Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, facing trial on fraud charges Jan. 9 in Florida, is negotiating a possible deal with the Justice Department, in which he would agree to plead guilty and cooperate in the wide-ranging political corruption investigation focused on his dealings with members of Congress and executive branch officials, people familiar with the talks said last night."

this.is.anfield: Bush Likes Bald

this.is.anfield: Bush Likes Bald

Weird.

And God shrieked NO!

NECA: The National Entertainment Collectibles Association

Gist: Yoko authorized a John Lennon action figure. All profits go to her wallet.

Save Cory Maye

Beltway Blogroll: A Tale Of Two Killers

Steve Guttenberg?

Metro

There are 100,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild. Only 2,000 of them make more than $75,000 (£42,000) a year. That means 98,000 actors make less than $75,000 a year. From 1980 to 1990, I shot more films than any other actor in the Screen Actors Guild apart from Gene Hackman. Everyone keeps asking me that stupid question: "What are you doing?" I say: "Why do I need to do anything? I'm rich." Do you want me to be poor again? Do you want me to go back to making tomato soup out of ketchup and water? Or would you like me to be a multimillionaire and be rewarded for all the entertainment I gave you for all those years? I'm enjoying life now. If I was a plumber and I'd done the most plumbing jobs between 1980 and 1990, everyone would be saying: "What a great plumber" - he says "f**k you to the world and he's enjoying himself." But for some reason, as an actor, you're not allowed to say: "I'm f**king rich, bro."

It's enough to make you like the guy.

WWdN: In Exile: WWdN Poker Game Schedule Changes

WWdN: In Exile: WWdN Poker Game Schedule Changes:

"The WWdN Friday game at PokerStars is moving to Tuesday, beginning December 20th. The game will play each week, except in the event of major holidays, starting at 7:00 PM EST. The buy-in will remain at $10+1."

Re "The War on Christmas"

Poynter Online - Forums

It’s no surprise, of course, that this phony call to arms, this “Christmas (ergo, Christians) Under Attack” hysteria, emanates from the bowels of Fox News Channel. The network is, after all, ground zero in the culture wars that polarize so much of America these days. Make no mistake about it: Fox is on a mission. Its slogans say, “Fair and Balanced” and “We Report, You Decide.” But in the six years that I worked there, what I heard most from Fox management were mission statements – about turning things around, taking news back from the liberals, and giving “middle America” a voice long denied it by the “east coast media elite.”

Poker addiction blamed for heist

Poker addiction blamed for heist : The Morning Call Online

Lehigh class president Greg Hogan robbed a bank. He blamed an addiction to onlne poker. Dude, you're must be a crappy poker player.

Chad Johnson sighting

Positively Verisimilitude-esque: CJ Sighting ... sorta

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Doctor Who takes anti-war stance

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Doctor Who takes anti-war stance

Whaaa!!??

ABC News: Pa. Lawmaker Guilty of Conflict of Interest

You skip the news one day and another GOP state legislator goes down on corruption charges, but check what's next for Mr. Habay (R-Allegheny, PA).

Habay faces a second trial next year on 21 counts that allege he concocted a story about receiving a suspicious white powder in the mail and directed his staff to investigate his adversaries on state time.

/snicker

Wish list.

Amazon.com: Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player: Electronics

I'll buy that.

Seed: The Other I.D.

An engineer and scientists look at I.D. -- no not that moronic Intelligent Design theory -- Incompetent Design. Basically his argument is that if you look at "the design" of the human body, if someone or thing created it, he/she/it is incompetent.

The thing that perhaps is closest to all of us is our own skeleton, and there are certainly all kinds of stupidity in our design. No self-respecting engineering student would make the kinds of dumb mistakes that are built into us.

All of our pelvises slope forward for convenient knuckle-dragging, like all the other great apes. And the only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution's way of modifying something or else it's just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student.

Look at the teeth in your mouth. Basically, most of us have too many teeth for the size of our mouth. Well, is this evolution flattening a mammalian muzzle and jamming it into a face or is it a design that couldn't count accurately above 20?...

I mean, evolutionarily all of these things make sense but in terms of a reasonable, intelligent design? They're idiocy. So, the argument is there is no intelligence there in a lot of these things.

Snicker

BREITBART.COM - Some Megachurches Closing for Christmas

At least the war is good for someone

America, United States, Times Online, The Times, Sunday Times:

"The unprecedented number of troops who are returning from Iraq with missing limbs has given the US Paralympic Team an unexpected recruitment boost and the chance to become "unbeatable" at the next Games in Beijing in 2008. More than 60 potential recruits have already been identified in sports as varied as powerlifting, archery and table tennis.
John Register, a veteran of the Gulf War in 1990, who manages the US Paralympic Academy, said: "This has been a shot in the arm of the Paralympic movement and an immediate boost. The Paralympics is a huge motivating factor for injured service members. It exponentially increases the individual's idea of what is possible."

Lemonade I guess.

If you like... try.

Pandora.com

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

Sports Joke

A Chicago man dies and goes to hell.

When he gets there, the devil comes over to welcome him. The devil then says, "Sometimes it gets pretty uncomfortable down here."

The man says, "No problem. I'm from Chicago."

So the devil goes over to the thermostat, turns the temperature up to 100, and the humidity up to 80. He then goes back to the Chicago man to see how he's doing. To the devil's surprise, the man is doing just fine.

"No problem...just like Chicago in June," the man says.

So the devil goes back over to the thermostat, and turns the temperature up to 150, and the humidity up to 90. He then goes back over to see how the Chicago man is doing. The man is sweating a little, but overall looks comfortable.

"No problem. Just like Chicago in July," the man says.

So now the devil goes over to the thermostat, turns the temperature up to 200, and the humidity up to 100. When he goes back to see how the man is doing, the man is sweating profusely, and has taken his shirt off. Otherwise, he seems OK.

He says, "No problem. Just like Chicago in August."

Now the devil is really perplexed. So he goes back to the thermostat, and turns the temperature down to MINUS 150 DEGREES. Immediately, all the humidity in the air freezes up, and the whole place (meaning Hell) becomes a frigid, barren, frozen, deathly cold wasteland.

When he goes back now to see how the Chicago man is doing, he is shocked to discover the man is jumping up and down, and cheering in obvious delight. The devil immediately asks the man what's going on. To which the Chicago man replies.....

"THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!"
"THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!"

Let them sing it for you

Let them sing it for you

Type in words. It uses clips from famous songs to sing them back to you.

SmashMyXBox.com // You donate, we smash!

SmashMyXBox.com // You donate, we smash!

Gist: Guy waits 55 hours in the cold to buy an Xbox360. Takes said Xbox and smashes the shit out of it in front of fanboys at Best Buy.

Beautiful.

Oddjacked

Oddjack Announcements: Buh-Bye - Oddjack

Oddjack, one of my favorite gambling sites, is closing. Good luck to the newest ex-Gawker Media employees.

Bad Hair Day*

*I don't think so, but that's what the shirt says.

Bomb Al-Jazeera in Qatar?

Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: BUSH PLOT TO BOMB HIS ARAB ALLY:

"PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a 'Top Secret' No 10 memo reveals.But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.A source said: 'There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it.' Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency."

Now normally, this is a laugher, except the we did "mistakenly" bomb the Al-Jazeera offices in Kabul in 2001 and again "mistakenly" bomb their offices in Baghdad in 2003.

Salon.com - Daou Report

THE STRAW MEN OF IRAQ: Ten Pro-War Fallacies

Technical Issues

funny movie:video meeting - Google Video

Wait around till the end for the punch line.

Bush and the Attack of the So-and-Sos - Wonkette

Bush and the Attack of the So-and-Sos - Wonkette:

"Many news outlets today proclaimed a softening in the administration's tone regarding critics of the Iraq war, with the president himself noting, 'I heard somebody say, well, maybe so-and-so is not patriotic because they disagree with my position. I totally reject that thought.' Heard 'somebody' say it, eh? Well, you know how if you walk by the same piece of furniture every day, you can kind of forget that it's there? Vice presidents are totally the same way."

Join Bill O'Reilly's Enemies List

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: The Bill O'Reilly Blacklist | The Huffington Post

Money shot

Hawkish Democrat Calls for Iraq Pullout - Yahoo! News:

"Seldom overtly political, Murtha uncharacteristically responded to Vice President Dick Cheney's comments this week that Democrats were spouting 'one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges' about the Bush administration's use of intelligence before the war.
'I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done,' Murtha said."

Bring it on

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth:

"The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone -- but we're not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. We're going to continue throwing their own words back at them."
--Dick Cheney

The worst liar in the worst administration ever is going to throw politicians words back at 'em? Fine, bring it on. You all ready played the "dissent = treason" canard. It won't work again.

Nice Shirt

Sitenews

mcSey

For some reason, my blogroll... ain't rolling. The page takes a while to load. I'm gonna assume this a bloglines.com problem for a couple of days, and then I'll take care of it if it duresn't go away.

This has to stop

Detainees Deserve Court Trials:

"Adel is innocent. I don't mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist. The whole thing was a mistake: The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken.

The military people reached this conclusion, and they wrote it down on a memo, and then they classified the memo and Adel went from the hearing room back to his prison cell. He is a prisoner today, eight months later. And these facts would still be a secret but for one thing: habeas corpus"

I'm starting to think that there are hundreds of Adels down there. That's about the only conclusion that I can reach as to why people ostensibly elected to defend the Constitution have been pissing all over it. At some point the powers that be realized that a large majority of the people down there were not terrorists. They may have been fighting against American forces in Afghanistan, but fighting an occupying power does not a terrorist make.

This is a CYA operation by someone who realizes that when the truth comes out, and it will, that when the truth comes out they are well truly fucked. This whole regime is well and truly fucked and will go down in history as undoubtedly the worst of all-time.

They are "proper fucked" as Turkish would say.

Happy Birthday zengrrrl!

The Heart of Torture

Hullabaloo

If there's debate why put it behind us?

CNN.com - Bush adviser: Intelligence accusations?'flat wrong' - Nov 14, 2005:

"President Bush's national security adviser defended the administration Sunday against accusations that it misled the nation about the need for war with Iraq as Democrats stepped up their attacks on the president's candor.

Stephen Hadley told CNN's 'Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer' that those claims were 'flat wrong.

''We need to put this debate behind us,' he said. 'It's unfair to the country. It's unfair to the men and women in uniform risking their lives to make this country safe.'"

You admit that there's debate on a subject, dismiss the other side as "wrong" with no proof to back up this assertion, and then claim we should put the debate behind us... why?

Because you know can't win that debate on facts perhaps?

What do you expect when rape is your national sport?

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.co.uk

Izzy, Rishi, and 8chez

Cool view of the newspapers

Internet Service to Put Classic TV on Home Computer - New York Times

Duh.

Party Poker Blog:

"Subject: Did you see this about the 3 Billionth hand at party On Monday night, the world's largest online cardroom, Party Poker, dealt its 3 billionth hand. Prior to the big hand, and as an incentive to get players to celebrate with them, Party announced a prize opportunity for the players involved in the 3 billionth hand. The hand occurred at 10:51 EST on a $0.50/$1.00 limit hold%u2019em 6-max table.Everyone at the table immediately scored $10,000 for being in the 3 billionth hand. An additional $50,000 was set aside for the person who would go on to win the hand. Humorously, 4 of the 6 players at the table folded before the river. Apparently the 10,000 :1 odds on their money to chase a miracle runner-runner were not appetizing enough to warrant a call. At least one player was clearly aware of the situation at hand proclaiming 'we did it' in the chat box before the flop. The same player folded after the flop."

OK lemme sort this one out for you. There's six players at the 3 billionth hand to be dealt on Party Poker. Each one of them instantly gets a $10K bonus. The winner of the hand gets an additional $50K. This is .50/1.00 Limit Hold-Em. The max pot is like 10 bucks. So they were all ready up $10K on the hand with a chance at $50K. Why not play for the miracle? So you lose eight bucks on the hand... for a chance at $50K? I think that would be worth it when you're all ready up $10K.

I just saw a bald eagle

They nest around here at this time of year, and it's not at all unusual to see one in a tree along the river. As there population has increased over the last few years, its becoming common to see them flying several miles from the river. We see them passing over my folks house fairly regularly.

On the ride home from breakfast today sitting ten yards off the road in a corn field was a bald eagle. Damn those things are big. Two and a half foot tall birds roxor. I slowed down to about 20, and then realized my camera was in the lapatopa bag in the trunk:(

I pulled over and the girls and I watched it for a couple minutes, but when I opened the trunk the thing took off. Six foot of wings flapping a few times and it was off. Very cool bird. Now I want to catch one diving. We had a golden eagle take a swipe at Mazzie (our chihuahua) two years ago, but I've never seen a bald eagle dive at prey.

Cynicsim anyone?

Capitol Hill Blue: GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party's decline

Top 10 Bushisms

From an email forward:
Top 10 Funniest Bushisms Of All Time
The Top Ten Funny Mistakes, Misstatements, Bloopers and Blunders By President George W. Bush
1. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

2. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

3. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

4. "There's no doubt in my mind that we should allow the world worst leaders to hold America hostage, to threaten our peace, to threaten our friends and allies with the world's worst weapons." South Bend, Indiana, Sept. 5, 2002.

5. "There's an old...saying in Tennessee...I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says Fool me once...(3 second pause)... Shame on...(4 second pause)...Shame on you....(6 second pause)...Fool me...Can't get fooled again." Nashville, Tennessee, Sept. 17, 2002.

6. "See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

7. "The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the -- the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003.

8 "I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend." on visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005

9. "Wow! Brazil is big." after being shown a map of Brazil by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 6, 2005

10. A TIE BETWEEN:
"Rarely is the question asked, 'Is our children learning'?" Florence, S.C. Jan 11 2000
"The illiteracy level of our children are appalling." Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 20004

She does all her own stunts

Conference Blogging

Achievement Technologies: Skills Tutor

Technorati Tags: Live Blog

ecto Test -- Convention blogging.

Still blogging the convention. Educational Resources is next.

10:50 -- Selling Quickmind.net. How's the Safari support?

10:55 Teachers will like the integration with state standards.

11:04 Multicast from the server?

11:06 Keyboard shortcuts for the web app?

11:15 Pro dev stuff on Office, Inspiration, etc... plus integration to lesson plans

Technorati Tags: Live Blog

Conference Blogging

Got here at 8:00 AM. Intro session, general BS. 9:30 Wireless Generation presentation. Guy is lost. Walkouts all ready. Sad to see someone die onstage.

Pearl Fang's New Movie Trailer

Pearl Fang: Lazarus of Little Rock Trailer

Go check it out.

It's all Judy Miller's fault

What Judy forgot: Your right to know - Los Angeles Times

Gist: Fitzgerald said that if Miller had testified he would have indicted in Oct 2004. That bitch subjected us to four more years of Bush.

Duh.

CBS Poll Finds Public Takes Plamegate Seriously

Even their own know it.

KnoxNews | No Silence Here:

"But sadly, what they say about absolute power is coming to reality in the 2005 GOP Washington. Republicans in just 10 years have developed the arrogance it took the Democrats 30 years to develop.'

-- Former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK), writing in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "

You might want to sign this guy.

The Sun Online - News: Red card for tackler, 9

Gist: Four foot tall nine year old kid runs on to pitch during a Premiership game at Everton, slide tackles 6' 180 lb. opposing defender.

Worse than Watergate?

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: Plamegate: Worse than Watergate | The Huffington Post

If Rove and Libby are indeed indicted (adding Cheney to our Merry Fitz-mas gift list would just be getting greedy), I believe it will shake up our government in a way we haven't seen since Watergate.

To borrow a phrase from that era, let me make myself perfectly clear: I'm not saying that Plamegate is the same as Watergate. I'm saying it's worse. Much, much worse. No one died as a result of Watergate, but 2,000 American soldiers have now been killed and thousands more wounded to rid the world of an imminent threat that wasn't.

Could there be anything bigger?

Top 10 Talking Points in the Plame Affair

The WitList: The GOP%u2019s Top 10 Talking Points in the Plame Affair:

"2. We lied our way into a war that%u2019s cost us thousands of lives, $300 billion , and the respect of the civilized world, and this is the worst Fitzgerald can come up with? Sweet!"

Read the rest. Good stuff.

Hammers, Hiltons and Dial-a-Shot

Tao of Poker: A Poker Blog

Pauly. the incomparable poker blogger, explains the origin of some of the poker lingo that has sprung up from poker Blogistan.

Why Patrick Fitzgerald Gets It

Booman Tribune ~ Boo!

With Freehs like this who needs enemies?

PERRspectives Blog: Freeh at Last: Revenge and Revisionism at the FBI

Duh.

Bloomington native reports the news: HeraldTimesOnline.com

Former Faux News reporter David Shuster

He went on to recount his six-year tenure at Fox. "At the time I started at Fox, I thought, this is a great news organization to let me be very aggressive with a sitting president of the United States (Bill Clinton)," Shuster said. "I started having issues when others in the organization would take my carefully scripted and nuanced reporting and pull out bits and pieces to support their agenda on their shows.

"With the change of administration in Washington, I wanted to do the same kind of reporting, holding the (Bush) administration accountable, and that was not something that Fox was interested in doing," he said.

"Editorially, I had issues with story selection," Shuster went on. "But the bigger issue was that there wasn't a tradition or track record of honoring journalistic integrity. I found some reporters at Fox would cut corners or steal information from other sources or in some cases, just make things up. Management would either look the other way or just wouldn't care to take a closer look. I had serious issues with that."

Ian Fishback -- American Hero

The Blog | Cenk Uygur: A Real American Hero | The Huffington Post

Dear Senator McCain:

I am a graduate of West Point currently serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army Infantry. I have served two combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division, one each in Afghanistan and Iraq. While I served in the Global War on Terror, the actions and statements of my leadership led me to believe that United States policy did not require application of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan or Iraq. On 7 May 2004, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's testimony that the United States followed the Geneva Conventions in Iraq and the "spirit" of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan prompted me to begin an approach for clarification. For 17 months, I tried to determine what specific standards governed the treatment of detainees by consulting my chain of command through battalion commander, multiple JAG lawyers, multiple Democrat and Republican Congressmen and their aides, the Ft. Bragg Inspector General's office, multiple government reports, the Secretary of the Army and multiple general officers, a professional interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, the deputy head of the department at West Point responsible for teaching Just War Theory and Law of Land Warfare, and numerous peers who I regard as honorable and intelligent men.

Instead of resolving my concerns, the approach for clarification process leaves me deeply troubled. Despite my efforts, I have been unable to get clear, consistent answers from my leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of detainees. I am certain that this confusion contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment. I and troops under my command witnessed some of these abuses in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is a tragedy. I can remember, as a cadet at West Point, resolving to ensure that my men would never commit a dishonorable act; that I would protect them from that type of burden. It absolutely breaks my heart that I have failed some of them in this regard.

That is in the past and there is nothing we can do about it now. But, we can learn from our mistakes and ensure that this does not happen again. Take a major step in that direction; eliminate the confusion. My approach for clarification provides clear evidence that confusion over standards was a major contributor to the prisoner abuse. We owe our soldiers better than this. Give them a clear standard that is in accordance with the bedrock principles of our nation.

Some do not see the need for this work. Some argue that since our actions are not as horrifying as Al Qaeda's, we should not be concerned. When did Al Qaeda become any type of standard by which we measure the morality of the United States? We are America, and our actions should be held to a higher standard, the ideals expressed in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Others argue that clear standards will limit the President's ability to wage the War on Terror. Since clear standards only limit interrogation techniques, it is reasonable for me to assume that supporters of this argument desire to use coercion to acquire information from detainees. This is morally inconsistent with the Constitution and justice in war. It is unacceptable.

Both of these arguments stem from the larger question, the most important question that this generation will answer. Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security? Terrorism inspires fear and suppresses ideals like freedom and individual rights. Overcoming the fear posed by terrorist threats is a tremendous test of our courage. Will we confront danger and adversity in order to preserve our ideals, or will our courage and commitment to individual rights wither at the prospect of sacrifice? My response is simple. If we abandon our ideals in the face of adversity and aggression, then those ideals were never really in our possession. I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is "America."

Once again, I strongly urge you to do justice to your men and women in uniform. Give them clear standards of conduct that reflect the ideals they risk their lives for.

With the Utmost Respect,

-- Capt. Ian Fishback

1st Battalion,

504th Parachute Infantry Regiment,

82nd Airborne Division,

Fort Bragg, North Carolina

I (hope to) see dead people.

Cash4Cadavers.com

Who's gonna die next year? Wanna bet on that?

Express Written Consent

Deadspin, Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion

(Link goes to a .pdf -- You have been warned.)

See, Bush is objectively /for/ torture.

New Iraq Abuse Allegations Get McCain Moving - Los Angeles Times:

"McCain noted too that he wanted prohibitions against torture underscored in the Army Field Manual, which he said 'is the document that the Army goes by and the military goes by when in the process of interrogation and treatment of prisoners.'

Told that the White House was opposed to such an amendment and that the president might veto the bill if the amendment were included, McCain said he was unsure whether there were enough votes in the Senate to override it.

'I hope,' he said of the Bush administration, 'that they will understand why we're trying to do this and why it's so important to America's image in the world.'"

Wil Wheaton Wins World Series Of Strip Poker

The Toque: The World Leader In Canadian Humour, Parody, And Satire - Wil Wheaton Wins World Series Of Strip Poker

More on Pat Tillman

-THE CUNNING REALIST-: Anatomy Of A Disgrace

Project Censored

Project Censored

The list of the 25 most important stories not given MSM coverage this year.

Mamet on Poker and the Democratic Party

Poker party - Los Angeles Times

One may sit at the poker table all night and never bet and still go home broke, having anted away one's stake.

The Democrats are anteing away their time at the table. They may be bold and risk defeat, or be passive and ensure it.

Bush -- Man of the uh... not people

The Blog | Nicholas von Hoffman: Far From the Madding Crowd | The Huffington Post:

"Old time pictures of President Franklin Roosevelt show him crippled by polio, trapped in the back seat of an open touring car, no protective bubble, waving at the people and smiling away as though he didn't have a care in the world and might be enjoying himself. They don't do that any more.

President George Bush is never seen outdoors in public or, if he is, he is never surrounded by less than a thousand armed guards. So it was quite a surprise to read in the New Orleans Times-Picayune that, Longtime members of the White House press corps said they could not remember the last time they saw the president riding in an open car in an American city, calling the exposed journey nearly unprecedented.” By way of explanation the newspaper quoted a Secret Service agent saying, "Well, we don't normally cruise through American cities that have been virtually emptied of people." So that’s it. The politicians come out of their holes when there are no people around.

A little late

USATODAY.com - NBC's Williams: Journalists' gloves off:

"'By dint of the fact that our country was hit we've offered a preponderance of the benefit of the doubt (to the President) over the past couple of years,"

Bullshit. Fuck getting hit. When shit, like when we're "hit", is bad we need you to do your job the most. Do your fucking job and maintain a healthy skepticism. IT'S YOUR FUCKING OBLIGATION TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE AIRWAVES WE LET YOU USE!

Matilda's Advice and Rants: The Hall of Shame

Matilda's Advice and Rants: The Hall of Shame:

"These eleven congressmen, Republican conservatives all, just voted against the $51 billion package ( H. R. 3673) for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Horrible human beings, all. Rep. Joe Barton - TX, Jeff Flake - AZ, Virginia Foxx - NC, Scott Garrett - NJ, John Hostettler - IN, Steve King - IA, Butch Otter - ID, Ron Paul - TX, James Sensenbrenner - WI, Tom Tancredo - CO, Lynn Westmoreland - GA"

Fuck! Even Bugman voted for this no brainer.

Man-Dog blames the National Weather Service

CapitolBuzz: Santorum Blames National Weather Service For Katrina

In his continuing quest to give pork to PA based Accuweather.

/channeling Pat Robertson:
"O Lord could please kill off Rick Santorum. He's a young man, but cancer could get him, right?"

Damn straight.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (Worst Disaster)

Wingnut Slime Machine Attack Time

Powell regrets UN speech on Iraq WMDs. 09/09/2005. ABC News Online:

"In an interview with American ABC TV news to be broadcast on Friday (US time), Mr Powell said 'it's a blot' on his record.

'I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now,' he said."

Yes it was.

Virtual|Matter: Was FEMA packed with unqualified cronies to aid the Bush/Cheney ticket in the 2004 swing state of Florida? Take a look%u2026

Bastards

U.S. Newswire : Releases : "FTCR: Internal Memos Show Oil Companies Intentionally..."

Click through to see oil industry memos on needlessly closing gas refineries in the mid-90's to drive up pump prices. Not surprising really, but I'm surprised they got caught.

Brian Williams

Making the Quarter rounds - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com:

"An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether positive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most would agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department during those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States."

About right.

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED.

WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 TO 36 HOURS.

Unspinning a hurricane, part 1 | Needlenose

Unspinning a hurricane, part 1 | Needlenose

Let's Learn from Cuba

The Blog | Linda Cronin-Gross: Up From NYC: A Broad's Side View: Chaos in New Orleans, But Cuba Got It Right | The Huffington Post

Whoops

via BobHarris.com:

"On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency
management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the
Times-Picayune: 'It appears that the money has been moved in the
president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and
I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the
levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make
the case that this is a security issue for us.' "

Pokerstars.net Hurricane charity tourney

WIL WHEATON dot NET: Where is my mind?: Saint Genevieve

The event on September 12th will be a $5+$0 No-Limit Hold'em freezeout at 9:30pm.

The event on September 14th will be a $20+$0 No-Limit Hold'em freezeout tournament at 9:30pm

The man is just a bad President.

Taken Tuesday August 30, 2005 while New Orleans flooded. Maintaining balance, I guess.

The death of Windows

Hollywood, Microsoft align on new Windows | CNET News.com

For the first time, the Windows operating system will wall off some audio and video processes almost completely from users and outside programmers, in hopes of making them harder for hackers to reach. The company is establishing digital security checks that could even shut off a computer's connections to some monitors or televisions if antipiracy procedures that stop high-quality video copying aren't in place.

In short, the company is bending over backward--and investing considerable technological resources--to make sure Hollywood studios are happy with the next version of Windows, which is expected to ship on new PCs by late 2006. Microsoft believes it has to make nice with the entertainment industry if the PC is going to form the center of new digital home networks, which could allow such new features as streaming high-definition movies around the home.

Hey now you can do less with your computer!

As Cory Doctorow writes:

Microsoft is also subverting copyright. Fair use and other public rights in copyright hinge on factors that can't be modelled in software. For example, people engaged in parody have a lot more flexibility in terms of how they use copyrighted works than people who are engaged in satire. The difference between parody and satire is pretty fine -- it's the kind of thing courts rule on, not the kind of thing that you get a computer to detect.

DRM apologists claim that DRM can be used to model the preponderance of fair uses, but this is completely untrue. Fair use almost always hinges on intention -- there isn't any software that is capable of reading a user's mind and determining intention.

We'll see.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Revolution on Venezuela's estates

Did I mention that Freepers were morons?

Big Brass Blog

An Arizona daily Dumps Coulter

My opinion David Stoeffler: Opinion pages get a makeover | The Arizona Daily Star ?:

"Finally, we've decided that syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has worn out her welcome. Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives."

Unfortunately they replaced her with Tony Snow.

Like you didn't see this coming.

The Raw Story | ACLU reveals FBI labeled peace, affirmative action group 'terrorist'

Hey Wingnuts! Better sick your dogs on this guy.

THE BRAD BLOG: "Mr. Bush, Specialist Young Would Also Like to Speak With You..."

Election result maps by population

Election result maps

A different take on the '04 election map.

Cenk Uygur -- Brilliant

The Blog | Cenk Uygur: The War Against Fundamentalism | The Huffington Post

"We are not fighting a war against terror. Terror is a method of warfare. Fighting against terror is kind of like fighting against rifles."

Read it.

$145,000

Experts Warn Debt May Threaten Economy - Yahoo! News

That's what you currently owe to pay our debts.

Just plain sick.

White House Briefing  News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration:

"About 50 members of the White House press corps accepted President Bush's invitation last night to come over to his house in Crawford, eat his food, drink his booze, hang around the pool and schmooze with him -- while promising not to tell anyone what he said afterward."

Note to the press. Do you fucking job. (Hint it's not to brownnose the goddamn, whoever the fuck he is.)

Dowd on Bush's Salt Lake City speech

My Private Idaho - New York Times:

"'We owe them something,' he told veterans in Salt Lake City (even though his administration tried to shortchange the veterans agency by $1.5 billion). 'We will finish the task that they gave their lives for.'

What twisted logic: with no W.M.D., no link to 9/11 and no democracy, now we have to keep killing people and have our kids killed because so many of our kids have been killed already? Talk about a vicious circle: the killing keeps justifying itself."

Some cops in Utah probably aren't going to like this.

Boing Boing: Cops have to pay $41k for stopping man from videoing them

K9 and Sarah Jane Smith coming back to Doctor Who

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

K9 and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) will be guesting in an ep of season 28 of Doctor Who. So will some dude from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now a geek aside:

IT IS NOT SEASON TWO OF DOCTOR WHO. IT IS SEASON 28.

That is all.

Why doesn't this stuff happen to me?

Mercury - Man forced to have sex at gunpoint

Red states vote Bush...

So Blue states can die for him


Click to enlarge.

Just Another Stop In Gitmo America

The Rude Pundit

The Rude One takes down John "Mistakes Happen" Loftus and the "pathetic, worthless dungheaps, unable to articulate anything more than "Terrist bad" and rage at the full moon for daring to take away the shadows they cower in, piss bucket opportunists who only need to be told where to bring the mob so, hunched over and grunting, they can lynch and burn, lynch and burn, without the niceties of trial, the delays of due process, and cavort and cackle like crazed jackals over the carrion corpses of the dead."

Great as always.

Jon Stewart -- Pimp

via Wonkette:

"Stewart: The people who say we shouldn't fight in Iraq aren't saying it's our fault. . . That is the conflation that is the most disturbing. . .
Hitch: Don't you hear people saying. . .
Stewart: You hear people saying a lot of stupid [bleep]. . . But there are reasonable disagreements in this country about the way this war has been conducted, that has nothing to do with people believing we should cut and run from the terrorists, or we should show weakness in the face of terrorism, or that we believe that we have in some way brought this upon ourselves. . .
Hitch: [Sputter]
Stewart: They believe that this war is being conducted without transparency, without credibility, and without competence...
Hitch: I'm sorry, sunshine... I just watched you ridicule the president for saying he wouldn't give. . .
Stewart: No, you misunderstood why. . . . That's not why I ridiculed the president. He refuses to answer questions from adults as though we were adults and falls back upon platitudes and phrases and talking points that does a disservice to the goals that he himself shares with the very people he needs to convince.

[Audience erupts in applause]

Hitch: You want me to believe you're really secretly on the side of the Bush administration. . .
Stewart: I secretly need to believe he's on my side. He's too important and powerful a man not to be."

It's sad, but not unusual, that the best analysis of the world's events comes from a half hour comedy show. Hitch is liberal hawk Christopher Hitchens BTW.

Major League Clusterfuck

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Police watchdog has 'crucial' Stockwell tube footage

Pat Robertson only supports killing dictators he doesn't do business with.

Pat Robertson and His Business Buddies (washingtonpost.com)

Liberian strongman Charles Taylor... He's cool, Pat's got gold mines there.

The late and brutal Zairian(?) dictator Mobutu Sese Seko... He's cool. Pat had diamond mines there.

Oh and he's got business ventures in that "great bastion of liberty, religious freedom and land of forced abortions, the People's Republic of China." It's a for profit Internets company called the Global Business Development Network.

Now I personally don't buy into the whole heaven and hell thing, but I'm pretty sure hypocrisy and lying, as Robertson did when he claimed he didn't call for Chavez's assassination two days after he did so, are pretty quick way to hell. So if I'm wrong, and I do end up in hell at least have a preacher there.

So true.

It's all about the soldiers | Needlenose:

"For better or worse, Cindy Sheehan has become a lightning-rod for right-wing/GOP criticism. By positioning themselves against her, her opponents have backed themselves into a pro-War position from which no amount of we support the troops sloganeering will offer any escape. The troops didn't go out to Iraq to die. Nobody goes out to fight a war so they can die (unless they're mental) and you don't support the troops by demanding that they stay in harm's way. "

HotOrNot + Google Maps

HotOrNot Google Maps

Oh fun...

No people liked Bill Clinton

The Blog | Cenk Uygur: Big Media Lie -- People Like George Bush | The Huffington Post

Cenk Uygur the guy with the funny name and the good points like:

Here’s the mainstream media myth that’s driving me crazy:

Americans really like George W. Bush.

News Flash – George Bush’s approval ratings are at 36%. Those are pre-coup numbers. That’s when a politician in a third world country becomes so unpopular that a couple of generals decide to show him the door. Nixon at the height of Watergate was at 39%, three points HIGHER than Bush is right now. And people despised Nixon.

To say “people like Bush” under these circumstances is to be so inaccurate that I have to question either your intelligence or your motives. How much cognitive reasoning ability do you need to figure out that 36% approval rating means people DON’T like George Bush? Do you owe the guy money or something?

The corollary to the “Americans like Bush” myth is: Bill Clinton brought disgrace to the White House and average Americans were disgusted by his actions.

Bill Clinton approval rating when he left office was 66%! On the day of his impeachment (12/19/98), when supposedly regular Americans were disgusted by his actions, his approval rating was even higher. It was 72%.

Do you think the networks will run this ad?

Be A Witness

Of course not, it points out that there is real news happening in the world while we worry about Michael Jackson, runaway brides, and a missing white woman.

So this should keep Pat Robertson out of the UK right?*

Powers to ban extremists unveiled

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has set out a list of "unacceptable behaviour" which could see extremists deported from Britain.

Fundamentalists who engage in the activities on the list could also be prevented from entering the country.

The types of conduct to be outlawed include inflammatory preaching and publishing views fostering hatred or fomenting terrorism.

*Stolen from Sploid

They just hate science

Hispanic Business Forums - Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion By ERIC LICHTBLAU

The Bush administration is replacing the director of a small but critical branch of the Justice Department, months after he complained that senior political officials at the department were seeking to play down newly compiled data on the aggressive police treatment of black and Hispanic drivers.

The demotion of the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, whom President Bush named in 2001 to lead the Bureau of Justice Statistics, caps more than three years of simmering tensions over charges of political interference at the agency. And it has stirred anger and tumult among many Justice Department statisticians, who say their independence in analyzing important law enforcement data has been compromised.

Officials at the White House and the Justice Department said no political pressure had been exerted over the statistics branch. But they declined to discuss the job status of Mr. Greenfeld, who told his staff several weeks ago that he had been asked to move on after 23 years of generally high marks as a statistician and supervisor at the agency. Mr. Greenfeld, who was initially threatened with dismissal and the possible loss of some pension benefits, is expected to leave the agency soon for a lesser position at another agency.

More Hypocrisy

Whiskey Bar: Aid and Comfort

on supporting the President. This time courtesy of the American Legion. Funny how the Internets uncovers this stuff. This is another case of "Clinton wants to go to Bosnia? We're against that, but we support our troops." vs. "If you don't support Dear Leader Dubya you're unpatriotic."

So it's ok to call for Robertson's assassination right?

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Robertson Calls for Chavez's Assassination

He's certainly done more harm to this country than Chavez has.

Moron

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Debate Brews Over Use of Koran in Court

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Traditionally, witnesses taking the stand in court are sworn in by placing their hand on the Bible (search).

But when Muslims in Guilford County, N.C., tried to donate copies of the Koran (search) for courtroom use, judges turned them down.

Chief District Court Judge Joseph Turner (search) says taking an oath on the Koran is not allowed by North Carolina state law, which specifies that witnesses shall place their hands on the “holy scriptures,” which he interprets as the Christian Bible.

Of course, he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, but it's sad that this guy is a judge.

It's not tragic. It's evil.

De Menezes execution - www.ezboard.com

All hail His Noodly Appendage

Open Letter to the Kansas School Board

Tiny 40GB drive

Toshiba Releases First Hard Disk Drive Based on Perpendicular Magnetic Recording

2 inches wide 3 inches long a quarter inch deep. 40 GB. Wow.

DC Media Girl

DC Media Girl

Go girl go.

Fables of the reconstruction: "The Most Stupendous Combination of Dumb and Sick in Years."

Instapundit creation Ann Althouse

So sez Mithras.

Apple - Mighty Mouse

Just got an Apple Mighty Mouse (multi-button Apple mouse aka fourth sign of the apocolypse) and all I can say is...

meh.

Before I had this mouse hooked up I had two different mice for my G5. I started with the standard Bluetooth one button mouse. Playing WoW with a one button is untenable so I procured a two button M$ scroll mouse. Both of those optical mice tracked on the table my Mac sits on. The Mighty Mouse doesn't. I need a mouse pad under it. Blech... so 1997.

Second the buttons... or actually lack thereof. This is a "two button mouse" but Apple outcuted themselves and the mouse appears to have only one button and a scroll doohickee (had to lookup the technical term for that one... it's not a wheel but it does scroll... it's more like the "eraser mouse" on some laptops). The trick is the surface of the mouse is touch sensitive. Click on the left hand side of the button you get a left click. Click on the right hand side of the mouse and you get a right click... in theory. The problem here is that when I mouse, I leave my pointer finger permanently on the left button and my middle and ring fingers on the right. I click the right button with my ring finger and use the middle for scrolling. Being touch sensitive with my big paw all over it the Mighty Mouse interprets my right clicks as "all button mash" which it helpfully defaults to... a left click. To get a right click I actually have to lift pointer finger off the left side of the mouse. I know that sounds a lot like George Jetson complaining about how many times he had to push the button that day, but it is incredibly annoying and after an hour of mousing I have a sore pointer from lifting it awkwardly off the mouse.

The side buttons are nice. OS X has a kick ass window manager feature called Expose. By default if you drag your mouse outside the top left corner of the screen the "All Windows" feature of Expose activates and the desktop "zooms out" and all your open windows are tiled on the screen. Left click on the one you want and it zooms (literally) to the front. It's the only app-switcher faster than "alt-tab" (ok openapple-tab) I've seen. By default the side buttons activated this feature. That's cool. What's not so cool is there are "two" side buttons, but there really aren't. There's a button on each side of the mouse, but they both do the same thing. It's one button, and there's no way to make the left side button do something different than the right.

The scroll doohickey works pretty. My complaint here is more form the function. Normally I scroll with my middle finger, but this doohickey works more like a laptop eraser mouse and I need to use my pointer finger as my middle is not dextrous enough to control the pointer. Once you actually get scrolling, it's sweet. I can see real uses for this thing for graphics people. To quote Eazy-E "I got front and back and side to side." You really can scroll around in circles, diagonally, whatevs, so for working with large images I can see some potential for this scroller. Now if they'd just put it in a better mouse.

So the final verdict is ick. Cool scroll thingee and it nice to have Expose available from anywhere on the screen, but go get a $29 M$ five button jobby for your Mac if you need a multi-button mouse (and you do).

Daily Kos: Ahh, the good ol' days

Daily Kos: Ahh, the good ol' days

"You can support the troops but not the president."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years."
--Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
--Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
--Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
--Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."
--Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
--Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

Republicans on committing troops to Bosnia in the '90's. Zero US troops died in combat in Bosnia.

If Fox News had covered Rosa Parks

The Huffington Post -- Cenk Uygur

Cindy Sheehan – in case you’ve been living in a box or you only watch the mainstream media – is the mom of slain Iraq War veteran Casey Sheehan. She is protesting in front of George Bush’s Crawford ranch this month. This grieving mom has been characterized as a flip-flopper, accused of putting on a public circus, lambasted as a publicity seeking grandstander and criticized for not truly speaking for her family since an aunt and a godmother Matt Drudge found somewhere in the Sheehan family disagrees with her. The conservative attack machine is in high gear in the efforts to tear this woman down.

That made me think of how it would have been in the Civil Rights era if Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and the rest of the gang were around back then.

O’Reilly: “Rosa Parks claims she speaks for all of the African-Americans in the South, but in fact, we have found two African-Americans who say they disagree with her. They say she’s just trying to gain publicity and doesn’t speak for anyone in her race. They would know, they’re black.”

Hannity: “Could Rosa Parks be angling for a Senate run? What does she have to gain from her public stand? Coming up next, the incredible story of how this woman might be deceiving the whole country!”

10.8 Million???

Newsday.com: Report: Crowe reaches phone-hurling settlement

Remember when Russell Crowe threw a phone at that hotel clerk a while back? "Sources" say he's dropping 10.8 Million on the problem to make it go away.

Russell -- next time you need to throw a phone at somebody I'm available for 1% of that amount... a mere 108K to bounce a phone off my noggin. I'll knock it down to 50K if you say, "May I trouble you for the salt?" afterward.

Why America must be destroyed*

New York Daily News - Daily Dish & Gossip - Rush & Molloy: For Trump, tacky is Koz for concern:

"Some of Jessica Simpson's fans weren't content with an autograph when they saw the 'Dukes of Hazzard' star walking down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. Her more rabid admirers actually began ripping pieces of her clothing, our spy reports.
As paparazzi snapped, Simpson began pounding on the door of Valentino's boutique, seeking sanctuary.
'Let me in, let me in!' she pleaded.
Store security kept the lensmen at bay. Simpson showed her gratitude by spending nearly $15,000 on a gray cable-knit sweater with a faux-fur collar and two bags."

*Because there are people in America who can shop at a store where two bags and a sweater cost $15K, and I know school teachers who are on food stamps.

The NCAA is staffed by morons

Hit and Run

A group of Georgia football fans took up a collection to pay for a Boise State player's father to fly from Baghdad to see his son play against the Bulldogs in Athens.

But the NCAA rule book got in the way.

You read that right. Georgia fans wanted to fly a dad from Iraq to Georgia to root /against/ Georgia and for his son. The NCAA said, "No dice."

Mark Simonson on Typography in the Movies

Typecasting

Simonson grades movies based on their realistic use of fonts. e.g. Why did they use a font created in 1978 for a flier in a movie set in the 50's?

Google China... Warez central

Finding warez using Google | The days start here

Wow.

Matthew Shepard Online Resources - Religious Right Hate Speech - Nazi Propaganda
vs. Religious Right Anti-gay Rhetoric

Go check that out and see how very very similar the wingnuts rhetoric on gays is Hitler's on Jews.

Flying Dog

Courtesy of EvilD

Chadfox meets Ms. Russell

stop touching my food.: jane russell trumps charo any day

Cool things happen to Chadfox.

Casemods Will Not Get You Laid

Motorcycle Case Mod : Gizmodo:

"Dear Friends: Do not think that by creating a case mod that looks like a bike and writing Computer Bike (click link for pic) on the side and then draping your couch with gray fabric will a woman come and sit by you or want to have anything to do with you. The image you see above%u2014of a lovely lady lying next to a case mod so dork-tastic that it kind of goes all the way around the concept of dorkiness and comes out on the other side%u2014was staged by a computer magazine with a huge modeling budget. They%u2019re trying to fool you into think that you will get girls with case mods. This is false. Instead, you will get the satisfaction of building a case mod and then you will look back on the years between your sixteenth and twenty-fifth birthday and wonder why you didn%u2019t get laid more. It happened to me and it happened to everybody at ExtremeTech. Don%u2019t let it happen to you."

Cool view of the newspapers

Today's Front Pages - Map View

Flash app the displays the current front pages for 460 newspapers from 45 countries.

"Staff Puke"

Daily Kos: OH-02: Limbaugh calls names:

What Rush Limbaugh just called Paul Hackett, Iraq veteran running for Congress from. Support the troops... unless they don't agree with you politically. Then you have to attack their service record. Typical dopehead type move.

I'm glad you lost your hearing Rush... now if you would just lose your voice... and your anal virginity to a guy named Bubba in the Big House.

Man Dog doesn't like the Declaration of Independence?

Santorum: the pursuit of Happiness harms America - (via) Santorum Exposed: The Blog:

"'It is an entire culture that focus (sic) on immediate gratification and the pursuit of happiness and personal pleasure. And it is harming America.'"
--Rick Man Dog Santorum

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
--Thomas Jefferson et al

Supposedly via a Phish msg board

(via) stereogum: Rolly Polly Phishheads:

"I must say folks last night was the most intense night of my life. I was released from the hospital this morning, the doctor said i was lucky to be alive. With furthur tests i might have suffered slight brain damage, the doctors are at this moment unsure.
Yesterday me and a few buddies decided to drop acid, and during our trip we decide to smoke bowls. We were having a great time up until my friend said 'hey i heard on a phish board that if you put gasoline in the bong it will get you way faded.' So being the stupid ass stonner that i am, i decided to indulge. We went to the local Chevron and put in $1 of premuium with techron into my 3 foot roor. I took the first hit. At first i felt really dizzy, i started vomiting, and then i passed out. That night i woke up in the hospital with the worst headache i have ever had. Needless to say i am luck to be alive.

I must warn everyone to never try anything like this again. I realize i have a slight drug problem and i am now enrolled in a treatment center. If i can give anyone advice it would be to never try anything that is out of the ordinary, no strage drug combos. BE SAFE OUT THERE PEOPLE!"

Multi-button Apple Mouse!

The Apple Store (U.S.)

You oughta filter that George.

Bush: Intelligent Design Should Be Taught

You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes
--Dubya 08/01/2005

I glance at the headlines, just to get kind of a flavor. I rarely read the stories.
--Dubya 10/03

Juan Cole on "media bias" in Iraq.

Informed Comment :

"Let me just suggest that if bombs were going off in Republican neighborhoods in the United States, the local mayor couldn't mollify the Republicans by saying, 'But we painted the school! "

It's Burberry!

Google Search: Burberry plaid

For months I have been trying to think of the name of a common plaid design. It's burberry.

That's not a baby, man.

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.co.uk

3.5 years in Zimbabwean pound me in the ass prison for a man competing as a woman in track and field events.

On DRM

Slashdot | Toshiba HD-DVD Player Planned to Enforce HDMI:

"'If you try to grill steaks on any grill other than our own, it instantly turns into hamburger!'

'And I would buy this why?'

'Well, since I'm in marketing, I'm assuming it's because people are stupid!'

'Well, if I were surrounded by that much stupidity, I'd think people were stupid too.'"

--Nova Express /. user (100383)

Man-Dog on keeping women barefoot and pregnant (and out of college)

CapitolBuzz: Santorum Book Excerpts

I said that?

"Might I suggest a nice retirement to Aruba. I hear disappearing acts are big down there right now."
--Me to a forum poster named doughennig

Fargus has fun on the Interstate

Fargus runs into a sore winner.

Wonkette - The Matt and Judy and Patrick and Robert and Karl Show

Wonkette - The Matt and Judy and Patrick and Robert and Karl Show:

"When you say 'speech,' we think 'freedom,' so excuse us if we blow past recapping last night's pep rally to cogitate a bit more on the last act of the Matt and Judy Show. William Safire thinks Robert Novak should 'finally write' the column that would explain how it is that he's sunning himself down on Pennsylvania Ave. while Cooper and Miller are learning how to make shivs. That's a nice thought, but that would require Novak to honest. And what's that saying about a leopard changing its spots? A turd cannot grow a spine, either. (Not that the distinguished Mr. Novak is a turd. Just observing. He is also not a leopard and also we sort of doubt that's human.) But revelations are likely.

Facing jail, Matt and Judy might talk, or -- worse for He Who Must Not Be Named (Karl Rove) -- they'll go to jail with lips still sealed but outrage on the part of friends and colleagues will shake lose the which White House source outed Plame to smear Wilson. Or maybe prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will fall out of love with his rectitude on the subject and issue the long-ago completed report on the matter. All of those things are bad for HWMNBN (Rove). Maybe he didn't do anything criminal -- we sort of doubt he did -- but it will tarnish an already dimming image of this administration to have his dirty smear job finally out in the open, what with this being the presidency of George %u201Cuphold the honor and decency of the office%u201D Bush.

Of course maybe Rove wasn't involved, WMDs will be found, Saddam was involved in 9/11 and unicorns will appear in the back yard if you wish real real hard. "

Wheaton in the WSOP

PokerStars.com Official Blog: Wil Wheaton joins Team PokerStars

Go man go.

I did not know that.

THE HANGING STRANGER: What Does Happen When You Burn An American Flag?

;)

Operation Yellow Elephant continues

Daily Kos :: I'm fed up:

"Subject: It's Monday morning dudes. It's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the moorrrnnnnning! Those are the lyrics to reveille. I know it sounds like a French word but it's really not. It's the song the bugler blows to wake you up when you're in the Army! Isn't that cool? My mom used to sing that to us all the time when we were little to get us out of bed until my big brother threw a lamp at her. She was an Army brat when she was a kid. As a matter of fact she was born in the Panama Canal Zone when her parents were stationed there. She loved the Army life, always says moving from one fetid swamp to the next third world hellhole at the drop of some general's hat, never staying in one place long enough to make any real friends was the best kind of life for a child. ? ? ?
But enough reminiscing. By now you know why I'm writing. I just checked your website again and still no link to GoArmy.com. Why? Have you been infected by a virus or something? Or is it just apathy? I see so much apathy and downright traitorous behavior lately I'm getting disheartened. Walter B. Jones, the congressman from NC who invented 'freedom fries' now wants an 'exit strategy'. Chuck Hagel, also ostensibly a Republican but obviously a trojan jackass in horse's ass clothing says 'we're losing in Iraq'. It's like these legislators have been replaced by Demorat pod people. Even my own parents don't seem to care anymore. I called yesterday to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day and asked them to help me convince you to enlist. When I read them my previous missives my mom said, 'Mark, you need to get laid.' My dad just hung up the extension. And they even voted for President Bush!!! Twice!!! I gotta tell ya that was a real blow and I got more than a little weepy after that. It's so frustrating trying to be brave and stay the course when everybody seems to be turning all sissy mary on me.
Here's the thing. Hagel is wrong. Jones is wrong. My mom's right but that's irrelevant. We're not losing in Iraq!!! WE'RE NOT, WE'RE NOT, WE'RE NOT!!!! We're building 14 permanent bases there, does that sound like we're losing? We killed over 500 insurgents last week alone. That's real progress! If you add it all up we've killed over 26,000 of the islamofacist ne'er-do-wells since March 2003. Pissant Sunnis (the enemy) make up about 20% of the population of Iraq. Iraq has about 25 million people. At the rate we're killing them it'll only take...hang on, I'm figuring it out right now...um, never mind. WE'RE NOT LOSING, OK?!!! ?
I'm back. Phew that was close. I got so worked up I almost choked on my Count Choculas. I have to remember to take small bites. Look I've about had it. I let you guys rest on the Lord's day yesterday and didn't bother you. But unless I hear back from you or see a GoArmy.com ad on your website by tomorrow I'm telling. That's right, I'm going to write to President Bush and Karl Rove, and yes I mean THAT Karl Rove, not the
one who was indicted for selling child pornography in 1989, and tell them that you're a bunch of shirkers. I know they'll listen to me and you're gonna be in big trouble. So there. Do you want that? Do you really? Then please do as I ask so we can all get back on message comparing Dick Durbin to Adolf Hitler or Neville Chamberlain or whatever it's supposed to be. ?
As always I remain stumped by your indifference. Your comrade in arms, Mark Garrity"

Noe to take Ohio GOP down with him?

The Columbus Dispatch - Election

She makes me want to...

For a crowd of angry voyeurs on the make

There's that commercial where the guy is at some European looking terrace, and he says something like, "I wanna do something crazy." to a woman that is obviously his wife/S.O. He then kind of pushes her away and yells at the top of his lungs, "I LOVE THIS WOMAN!" She makes me want to do that. I don't know her personally or anything, but that's still what she makes me wanna do.

Nothing but love Atzbo, nothing but love.

Mark Cuban on Macrovision

What am I missing Macrovision? - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _:

"Macrovision Corporation (Nasdaq: MVSN - News) announced today that it has filed suit against Sima Products Corporation and Interburn Enterprises Inc. The lawsuit charges that SimaVideo Enhancers which are principally used to allow consumers to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted DVDs, infringe Macrovision patented copy protection technology and also violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Which got me completely confused on several fronts.

According to MacroVision CEO Bill Krepick, Sima and Interburn infringe Macrovisions intellectual property by
offering products that enable users to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted content by illegally removing our copy
protection system

Now maybe I%u2019m reading this wrong, but the way I understand it, the CEO of MacroVision, a company that sells copy
protection software to DVD publishers, is sending out a press release saying%u2026

"Our software doesn%u2019t work. It sucks. We can't stop a bunch of little companies from writing software that
completely busts our copy protection that we are selling for millions of dollars to publishers."

Rude Pundit on the 101st Fighting Keyboarders

The Rude Pundit

College Republicans, ostensibly you support the war. Recruitment is down. Don't let the terrorists win. If you just graduated, join the military. We don't need you in the workforce anyway.

Porn star Mary Carey on her dinner with Dubya

Wonkette - Remainders: Give 'em the Shaft Edition:

"Mary Carey: 'I was told that they had people ready to tackle me if I tried to get close to [President Bush]...Republicans can party almost as much as porn stars...I was getting propositions to have threesomes with wives or mistresses, I was offered money from oil tycoons...I am a fully converted Republican now."

"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text."

EUobserver.com

Valery Giscard d'Estaing on the EU constitution... that he drafted.

Real Christian Jimmy

CBC Arts: Televangelist breached guidelines: ruling:

"'I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one (homosexual) ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died,' Swaggart said."

File under things that look bad

North County Times - North San Diego and Southwest Riverside County columnists

Duke Cunningham R-Ca sold his house to a defense contractor for 1.6 million in 11/03. Nine months later said defense contractor sold the house for 900K. Just a bad business deal by the contractor, right?

What if I told you that in the interim Cunningham supported that contractor's bid for tens of millions of dollars of defense contracts and that said contractor was awarded those contracts?

It could be nothing. It could be a bribe.

File under things that look bad

North County Times - North San Diego and Southwest Riverside County columnists

Duke Cunningham R-Ca sold his house to a defense contractor for 1.6 million in 11/03. Nine months later said defense contractor sold the house for 900K. Just a bad business deal by the contractor, right?

What if I told you that in the interim Cunningham supported that contractor's bid for tens of millions of dollars of defense contracts and that said contractor was awarded those contracts?

It could be nothing. It could be a bribe.

6 GOP Senators who won't condemn lynching

Law Dork: Dirty Dozen?

Shelby R-Ala
Cochran R-Miss
Lott R-Miss
Alexandar R-Tenn
Cornyn R-Tx (a good way to get rid of judges maybe?)
Hutchinson R-Tx

Gotta get that racist vote in the South.

It's a looooong list.

Things my girlfriend and I have argued about

By Mil Millington, I guess.

The Rude One on the Downing Street Memo Denials

The Rude Pundit:

"Bush, though, oh, christ. First he started with conspiracy theories: 'Well, I -- you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who 'they dropped it out' is, but -- I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there.' So, let's see here: Bush is making the accusation that someone passed the memo on to the Times of London in order to undermine Tony Blair's bid for re-election, but he has no idea who it might have been. And he doesn't deny the validity of the memo (except for vague, blindingly confusing 'somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth'). That's like saying, 'Those pictures of me with my cock in Tony Blair's mouth and a Union Jack hanging out of my ass were only made public to hurt his election chances.'"

Irish Mickey Ward and Arturo Thunder Gotti

Three of the best fights ever.

m'k

New Scientist Breaking News - Rivals spur men to produce better sperm

Go Jesus

Baptist Top 1000

's General. Find Jesus' General in that list. Go there. Laugh.

Good point

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish:

"'Now that the Pope has spoken, let only those Catholics who are without similar sin cast stones on gay marriage. If you wish to rely on the Pope's decree with regard to gay marriage, you MUST also support what ELSE the Pope said in the same speech. In addition to condemning gay marriage, the Pope also condemned DIVORCE, ARTIFICIAL BIRTH CONTROL and TRIAL MARRIAGES. If you're Catholic and relying on the Pope's condemnation of gay marriages to support your own opposition to same-sex nuptials, you had better not be ... divorced, have ever used condoms or birth control pills and never have 'shacked up' with a lover who was not your spouse. If you have, you have NO moral authority, at least based upon your Catholicism, to attack gay marriage without being considered a complete hypocrite. Pretty tough pill to swallow, huh?'
-- Chuck Muth

A Wonkette post without an anal joke?

Wonkette - Dean Outs Republicans:

"Truly shocking news out of California, courtesy of Drudge: In S.F., Dean calls GOP 'a white Christian party'In other news, NOW members described as 'liberal feminists'! College professors called 'intellectuals'! NASCAR fans turn out to be 'middle class Americans'! SKY TOTALLY BLUE!!!!!

We kid. Dean's brazen characterization of Republicans as white and Christian is, obviously a grievous insult to the seven percent of blacks and 22 percent of Hispanics who consider themselves Republicans, as well as to the 16 percent of those "with no religion" who cast their lot with the GOP. And, as we all know, no Republican has ever made a sweeping generalization about the core constituency of the Democratic party. We're all baby-killers now.

How we overthrew Haiti's democratically elected leader.

The Huffington Post | The Blog

In 2004.

Novelty: We need it.

Let%u2019s grab a cab to the United States - U.S. News - MSNBC.com

If you're capable of converting a car into a boat, you should be able to come to the United States. Somewhere in the archives is the story of a man who converted a 1951 Chevy truck into a boat to get here from Cuba. These dudes converted a taxi into a boat to get here from Cuba. Both groups were sent back from whence they came. That's just wrong. If you can convert a car into a boat, we should have a place for you.

Barack Obama 6/4/05 Knox College

Saturday, June 4, 2005 — Good morning President Taylor, the Board of Trustees, faculty, parents, family, friends, and the Class of 2005. Congratulations on your graduation, and thank you for allowing me the honor to be a part of it.

Well, it’s been about six months now since you sent me to Washington as your U.S. Senator. And for those of you muttering under your breath “I didn’t send you anywhere,” that’s ok too – maybe we’ll hold a little Pumphandle after the ceremony and I can change your mind for next time.

So far it’s been a fascinating journey. Each time I walk onto the Senate floor, I’m reminded of the history, for good and for ill, that has been made there. But there have also been a few surreal moments. For example, I remember the day before I was sworn in, when we decided to hold a press conference in our office. Now, here I am, 99th in seniority – which, I was proud wasn’t dead last until I found out that the only reason we aren’t 100th is because Illinois is bigger than Colorado. So I’m 99th in seniority, and the reporters are all cramped into our tiny transition office that was somewhere near the Janitor’s closet in the basement of the Dirksen Building. It’s my first day in the building, I hadn’t taken one vote, I hadn’t introduced one bill, I hadn’t even sat down at my desk, and this very earnest reporter asks:

“Senator Obama, what’s your place in history?”

I laughed out loud. Place in history? I thought he was kidding! At that point, I wasn’t even sure the other Senators would save me a place at the cool lunch table.

But as I was thinking about what words I could share with this class, about what’s next, what’s possible, and what opportunities lay ahead, I think it’s not a bad question to ask yourselves:

“What will be my place in history?”

In other eras, across distant lands, this is a question that could be answered with relative ease and certainty. As a servant of Rome, you knew you would spend your life forced to build somebody else’s Empire. As a peasant in 11th Century China, you knew that no matter how hard you worked, the local warlord might take everything you had – and that famine might come knocking on your door any day. As a subject of King George, you knew that your freedom to worship and speak and build your own life would be ultimately limited by the throne.

And then, America happened.

A place where destiny was not a destination, but a journey to be shared and shaped and remade by people who had the gall, the temerity to believe that, against all odds, they could form “a more perfect union” on this new frontier.
And as people around the world began to hear the tale of the lowly colonists who overthrew an Empire for the sake of an idea, they came. Across the oceans and the ages, they settled in Boston and Charleston, Chicago and St. Louis, Kalamazoo and Galesburg, to try and build their own American Dream. This collective dream moved forward imperfectly – it was scarred by our treatment of native peoples, betrayed by slavery, clouded by the subjugation of women, shaken by war and depression. And yet, brick by brick, rail by rail, calloused hand by calloused hand, people kept dreaming, and building, and working, and marching, and petitioning their government, until they made America a land where the question of our place in history is not answered for us, but by us.

Have we failed at times? Absolutely. Will you occasionally fail when you embark on your own American journey? Surely. But the test is not perfection.
The true test of the American ideal is whether we are able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life’s big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.

We have faced this choice before.

At the end of the Civil War, when farmers and their families began moving into the cities to work in the big factories that were sprouting up all across America, we had to decide: Do we do nothing and allow the captains of industry and robber barons to run roughshod over the economy and workers by competing to see who can pay the lowest wage at the worst working conditions?

Or do we try to make the system work by setting up basic rules for the market, and instituting the first public schools, and busting up monopolies, and letting workers organize into unions?

We chose to act, and we rose together.

When the irrational exuberance of the Roaring Twenties came crashing down with the stock market, we had to decide: do we follow the call of leaders who would do nothing, or the call of a leader who, perhaps because of his physical paralysis, refused to accept political paralysis?

We chose to act – regulating the market, putting people back to work, expanding bargaining rights to include health care and a secure retirement – and together we rose.

When World War II required the most massive homefront mobilization in history and we needed every single American to lend a hand, we had to decide: Do we listen to the skeptics who told us it wasn’t possible to produce that many tanks and planes?

Or, did we build Roosevelt’s Arsenal of Democracy and grow our economy even further by providing our returning heroes with a chance to go to college and own their own home?

Again, we chose to act, and again, we rose together.

Today, at the beginning of this young century, we have to decide again. But this time, it’s your turn to choose.

Here in Galesburg, you know what this new challenge is. You’ve seen it.
You see it when you drive by the old Maytag plant around lunchtime and no one walks out anymore. I saw it during the campaign when I met the union guys who use to work at the plant and now wonder what they’re gonna do at 55-years-old without a pension or health care; when I met the man who’s son needs a new liver but doesn’t know if he can afford when the kid gets to the top of the transplant list.

It’s as if someone changed the rules in the middle of the game and no one bothered to tell these people. And, in reality, the rules have changed.
It started with technology and automation that rendered entire occupations obsolete –when was the last time anybody here stood in line for the bank teller instead of going to the ATM, or talked to a switchboard operator? Then companies like Maytag being able to pick up and move their factories to some Third World country where workers are a lot cheaper than they are in the U.S.

As Tom Friedman points out in his new book, The World Is Flat, over the last decade or so, these forces – technology and globalization – have combined like never before. So that while most of us have been paying attention to how much easier technology has made our lives – sending emails on blackberries, surfing the web on our cell phones, instant messaging with friends across the world – a quiet revolution has been breaking down barriers and connecting the world’s economies. Now, businesses not only have the ability to move jobs wherever there’s a factory, but wherever there’s an internet connection.

Countries like India and China realized this. They understood that now they need not just be a source of cheap labor or cheap exports. They can compete with us on a global scale. The one resource they still needed was a skilled, educated labor force. So they started schooling their kids earlier, longer, and with a greater emphasis on math, science, and technology, until their most talented students realized they don’t have to immigrate to America to have a decent life – they can stay right where they are.

The result? China is graduating four times the number of engineers that the United States is graduating. Not only are those Maytag employees competing with Chinese and Indonesian and Mexican workers, now you are too. Today, accounting firms are emailing your tax returns to workers in India who will figure them out and send them back as fast as any worker in Indiana could.

When you lose your luggage in a Boston airport, tracking it down may involve a call to an agent in Bangalore, who will find it by making a phone call to Baltimore. Even the Associated Press has outsourced some of their jobs to writers all over the world who can send in a story with the click of a mouse.
As British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said, in this new economy, “talent is 21st century wealth.” If you’ve got the skills, you’ve got the education, and you have the opportunity to upgrade and improve both, you’ll be able to compete and win anywhere. If not, the fall will be further and harder than ever before.

So what do we do about this? How does America find our way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be?

Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government – divvy it up into individual portions, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, education, and so forth.

In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it – Social Darwinism, every man and woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say to those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford – tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job – life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child born into poverty – pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes that we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we will be Donald Trump, or at least that we won’t be the chump that he tells: “Your fired!”

But there a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it has been government research and investment that made the railways and the internet possible. It has been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools – that has allowed all of us to prosper. Our economic dominance has depended on individual initiative and belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity – that has produced our unrivaled political stability.

And so if we do nothing in the face of globalization, more people will continue to lose their health care. Fewer kids will be able to afford this diploma you’re about to receive.

More companies like United won’t be able to provide pensions for their employees. And those Maytag workers will be joined in the unemployment line by any worker whose skill can be bought and sold on the global market.
Today, I’m here to tell you what most of you already know. This isn’t us. This isn’t how our story ends – not in this country. America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes.

It is this hope that has sustained us through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of nuclear crisis. And it is because of our dreamers that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous, and more admired than ever before.

So let’s dream. Instead of doing nothing or simply defending 20th century solutions, let’s imagine what we can do to give every American a fighting chance in the 21st century.

What if we prepared every child in America with the education and skills they need to compete in this new economy? If we made sure college was affordable for everyone who wanted to go? If we walked up to those Maytag workers and told them that there old job wasn’t coming back, but that the new jobs will be there because of the serious job re-training and lifelong education that is waiting for them – the sorts of opportunities Knox has created with the strong future scholarship program?

What if no matter where you worked or how many times you switched jobs, you had health care and a pension that stayed with you always, so that each of us had the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business?
And what if instead of cutting budgets for research and development and science, we fueled the genius and the innovation that will lead to the new jobs and new industries of the future?

Right now, all across America, there are amazing discoveries being made. If we supported these discoveries on a national level, if we committed ourselves to investing in these possibilities, just imagine what it could do for a town like Galesburg. Ten or twenty years down the road, that old Maytag plant could re-open its doors as an Ethanol refinery that turns corn into fuel.

Down the street, a biotechnology research lab could open that’s on the cusp of discovering a cure for cancer. And across the way, a new auto company could be busy churning out electric cars. The new jobs created would be filled by American workers trained with new skills and a world-class education.

None of this will come easy. Every one of us will have to work more, read more, train more, think more. We will have to slough off bad habits – like driving gas guzzlers that weaken our ecomony and feed our enemies abroad. Our kids will have to turn off the TV sets and put away the video games and start hitting the books. We will have to reform institutions, like our public schools, that were designed for an earlier time. Republicans will have to recognize our collective responsibilities, even as Democrats recognize that we have to do more than just defend the old programs.

It won’t be easy, but it can be done. It can be our future. We have the talent and the resources and the brainpower. But now we need the political will. We need a national commitment.

And we need you.

Now, no one can force you to meet these challenges. If you want, it will be pretty easy for you to leave here today and not give another thought to towns like Galesburg and the challenges they face. There is no community service requirement in the real world; no one’s forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house, and the nice suits, and all the other things that our money culture says you can buy.

But I hope you don’t. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks to little of yourself. You need to take up the challenges that we face as a nation and make them your own, not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. You need to take on the challenge because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential. And if we’re willing to share the risks and the rewards this new century offers, it will be a victory for each of you, and for every American.

You’re wondering how you’ll do this. The challenges are so big. And it’s seems so difficult for one person to make a difference.

But we know it can be done. Because where you’re sitting, in this very place, in this town, it’s happened before.

Nearly two centuries ago, before civil rights and voting rights, before Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, before all of that, America was stained with the sin of slavery. In the sweltering heat of southern plantations, men and women who looked like me would dream of the day they could escape the life of pain and servitude into which they were sold like cattle. And yet, year after year, as this moral cancer ate away at the American ideals of liberty and equality, the nation was silent.

But its people would not stay silent for long.

One by one, abolitionists emerged to tell their fellow Americans that this would not be our place in history. That this was not the America that had captured the imagination of so many around the world.

The resistance they met was fierce, and some paid with their lives. But they would not be deterred, and they soon spread out across the country to fight for their cause. One man from New York went west, all the way to the prairies of Illinois to start a colony.

And here in Galesburg, freedom found a home.

Here in Galesburg, the main depot for the Underground Railroad in Illinois, escaped slaves could freely roam the streets and take shelter in people’s homes. And when their masters or the police would come for them, the people of this town would help the escape north, some literally carrying them in their arms.

Think about the risks that involved – if they were caught abetting these fugitives, they could have been jailed or lynched. It would have been so easy for these simple towns people to just turn the other way; to go on living their lives in a private peace.

And yet, they carried them. Why?

Perhaps it is because they knew that they were all Americans; that they were all brothers and sisters; and in the end, their own salvation would be forever linked to the salvation of this land they called home.

The same reason that a century later, young men and women your age would take a Freedom Ride down south, to work for the Civil Rights movement. The same reason that black women across the south chose to walk instead of ride the bus after a long days work doing other people’s laundry, cleaning other people’s kitchens.

Today, on this day of possibility, we stand in the shadow of a lanky, raw-boned man with little formal education who once took the stage at Old Main and told the nation that if anyone did not believe the American principles of freedom and equality were timeless and all-inclusive, they should go rip that page out of the Declaration of Independence.

My hope for all of you is that you leave here today with the will to keep these principles alive in your own life and the life of this country. They will be tested by the challenges of this new century, and at times we may fail to live up to them. But know that you have it within your power to try. That generations who have come before you faced these same fears and uncertainties in their own time. And that though our labor, and God’s providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that distant horizon, and a better day.

Thank you, and congratulations on your graduation.

Thank you for being my Senator, sir.