Finally, Some Fiscal Restraint -- On the Backs of Veterans, Naturally

I have continually faulted the Baby Doc Maladminstration for its reckless ways in spending our money like a drunken sailor on shore leave in Manila. Now I'll have to take it all back.

Seems they are trying to save some money. And, big surprise, it's coming out of the Department of Veterans Affairs. To the tune of THREE BILLION DOLLARS in budget shortfalls. All because the VA once again "misunderestimated" the cost of care for blown-up and shot-up soldiers shipped back from the sandbox.

This is yet another example of the hatred and contempt this maladminstration feels for our veterans, and it is beyond me -- really beyond my powers of imagination -- to understand the support that the motherfuckers are still receiving from active duty military and veterans.

It's insulting, actually, and humiliating to be a fellow veteran with these morons. It's not fair, but we all tend to get tarred with the same brush, and the blind pig supporters of Baby Doc have the same blood of the innocent on their hands as all the corrupt and evil BFEE fascististas.

More (Not) Surprising News from the Party of "Family Values"

Congressmen Mark Foley (R-Child Molester) resigned from Congress after the contents of several emails that he sent to a sixteen-year-old male congressional page became public.

And the Repugs are widely known as the party of family values and quashing queers. Why I have no idea. This is a common theme among the Repugs, and for the life of me I can't understand how they KEEP getting away with it.

Oh, and BTW: It's even better because Foley was one of the sponsors of the Internet Pornograph bill...

Like I say, how sweet it is.

Say Goodnight, Georgie

From our Never Rains But What It Pours Department, we learn that George "Macaca" Allen's bid for the Senate from Virginia is now on life supports and not expected to last the night.

Ever since the now-infamous "macaca" comment, compounded with Allen trying awkwardly to hide his Jewish heritage, the progressive voters in Virginia have declared him anathema.

Now, from the right, an apparently neo-confederate group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans is disowning him, because of his scurrilous comments on the Confederate Battle Flag: Allen expressed "regret for displaying the flag ... he hasn't always realized some view it as a symbol of intolerance".

Jesus, you have to wonder where Allen and the rest of these people were for the last 50 years.

So for Allen, it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. Apologize for being a racist, apologize for NOT being a racist, apologize for having a pork-shop-waving ham-sandwich-eating Jewish mother...

Hard to believe that just a few months ago this bozo was on the short list of potential Rethug presidential candidates.

But ah, how sweet it is when the mighty fall from grace.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710
Total coalition forces dead: 235
Total Iraqi Dead: 100,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1844
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1291
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1254
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347
Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 228
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 73.

It is still 864 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.

Vote Democratic in November!

Iva Toguri D'Aquino -- aka "Tokyo Rose" -- RIP

On the 26th of September, little noted in the MSM, Ikuko "Iva" Toguri D'Aquino died in Chicago.

More famously known as the Japanese-American "traitor" Tokyo Rose (who, BTW, never existed, under any pseudonym -- Toguri actually broadcast under the name Orphan Ann), Toguri was arrested after WWII, convicted of treason and sentenced to a long prison term.

With the active agitation of the American Legion. Naturally.

Back in those days we were afflicted, as we are now, with a you're-either-with-us-or-against-us mentality, and it wasn't until the Ford Administration of the 1970s that Iva was pardoned by the US government.

That pardon, BTW, was the direct result of "activist journalism" of the kind that we never see any more. Too bad. When I finally get arrested for treason (among other charges), it's sad to think that there just won't be any activist journalists out there who will give a shit about the truth.

And, just in case you're wondering, even the conservative media knows the truth about Iva D'Aquino.

Mozart Opera Cancelled in Germany

I am a big opera fan -- my wife and I have had season tickets to the Seattle Opera for several years -- so it's with more than a little interest that I note the cancellation of Mozart's Idomeneo in Berlin ... before a single performance!

Not because there were protests, riots, complaints, or even strongly-worded letters to the editor -- there weren't. It was because the opera showed King Idomeneo on stage parading around the severed heads of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and the sea god Poseidon.

The potential for upset among Muslims was cited as a reason for the cancellation. No mention was made of the ardent fundamentalist Poseidonists in the audience...

Okay, I'm of two minds about this: I believe that art for art's sake is a valuable concept, and that great art challenges the viewer. On the other hand, given the deplorable state of fundamentalist religious fervor in the world at large, to continue with the show as staged would just be asking for it. At the least I would expect an angry mob of Poseidonistas to storm the theatre -- maybe even plant a bomb or two to go off during a performance.

In Germany. In this country, it would of course be the Xian fundos making all the racket, storming the theatre, etc.

Interestingly, this particular bit of stagecraft was not even in the opera as originally envisioned by Mozart. It's a very recent addition. So maybe the answer would have been to continue the opera, but without this particular bit of business which is guaranteed to offend religious (in)sensibilities.

I really don't have an answer, except to say that it was overkill to cancel the entire opera over this. This is the kind of self-censorship that entirely too many people are engaging in these days, and we can't let ourselves fall into the trap of being afraid to offend someone. The right of free speech includes the right to say shit that is offensive.

The corollary is that people have a right to be offended, but they do not have the right to riot and blow up an opera house over it.

Condi the Congenital Liar

In a predictable huff, Condi Rice claimed in the wake of the Chris Wallace/Faux News spanking administered by the Big Dog that the Clinton Administration had not left the incoming Baby Doc Maladministration any kind of a plan to deal with Al Qaeda.

Wrong. Once again, wrong. Raw Story has the juice on this, yet another in a never-ending series of lies coming out the yapping maws of the minions of the BFEE.

Check it out. Not satisfied with just a retelling, they've reproduced photocopies of the actual memo. Read it and see for yourself who's telling the truth and who's lying.

Flag Desecration?

Take a look at this photo:

It seems to me that stepping on the flag is something that used to be called "flag desecration" and I am certain will be prohibited in the proposed constitutionally amendment being touted by the right wing.

. . .

So what are we to make of this photo, wherein it is revealed that the feet trampling that flag belong to Fearless Leader and Pickles?

I got these photos over at the Unknown News site, where they have a Reuters photo essay on Baby Doc's visit to a NYPD firehouse to commemorate 9-11.

I guess nothing says "honor the memory of 9-11" like trampling on the American flag.

Olberman Dishes Some Monkey Smackdown

Keith Olberman, who runs the Countdown show over on MSNBC that has become true "must-see" television, last night delivered a smackdown to Der Monkey Fuehrer that has to be seen.

Over at Crooks and Liars you can catch the video, or read the transcript.

Olberman is the natural heir to the great Edward R. Murrow, and he seems to be almost alone in his committment to true journalism and the concept of the Fourth Estate. More power to him. Let's hope his example will help the weak-kneed sob-sisters in the media to develop some balls and start doing the jobs they are supposed to be doing.

How a Democrat is Supposed to Act

Bill Clinton bitch-slapped Chris Wallace nearly to tears yesterday on Fox News, and it was great political theater. For those who missed it, you can see the replay over at YouTube.

This is the kind of thing I want to see a lot more of in Democrats: some good old fashioned kick-ass take-no-prisoners bad-attitude assaults on the lying liars in the wingnut media. Leave it to the best president in the last 40+ years to come out swinging and show the lily-livered pantspissers in the Democratic party how it's done.

Now I'm hoping that they'll learn their lesson and show some fucking backbone for a change. Time to stand up to the assholes at Faux News and the rest of the media. Take back our country!!!

Oil Prices Drop; Gas Now at $2.38 -- Surprise, Surprise

Yep, must have an election coming up. Amazingly, crude oil prices are dropping below $60 a barrel and the price of gas is falling down to 2005 levels.

Big Oil and the BFEE think the American people are really stupid, to fall for this disgustingly transparent ploy.

And sadly, they are, by and large, correct. They've got it down to a science and have been able to play the Moron-American voting bloc like a well-tuned fiddle for lo these many years.

But there is an election coming up, and they may have outsmarted themselves this time. With guys like Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Jim Webb in Virginia, we have a real chance of taking back congress.

Get out and volunteer for your local Democratic candidate. All politics is local, and you can make a difference.

I'm Back

As promised, it's Monday and I'm back in action. But I am still profoundly exhausted from this ordeal. My wife the nurse says that it's because of the excision of the lymph nodes, which makes sense.

So my thumb is healing up nicely, as is the gash under my arm, and I am back to work fulltime now. I'll have a couple of posts today, and little by little I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Thanks again to all of you for your words of encouragement and the healing thoughts you sent my way.

--Farnsworth

Update

Just so you all know that I'm still alive. It's a lot more painful than I expected it to be, even now, two weeks post-surgery, and it really took a lot out of me. I'm back at work full time now, and at the end of the day I'm totally exhausted.

Let me heal up a little more, and I'll try to get back into it starting next Monday.

Thanks again for all of your notes of concern and congratulations. They meant a lot to me.

--Farnsworth

Dodged the Bullet!

One week ago tomorrow I had the end of my thumb amputated from the knuckle down, in an attempt to rid myself of a melanoma that was starting to get a strong grip on me.

The results of the biopsy of the thumb and the lymph glands in my left armpit are in: No metastasis!

I'm now as cancer-free as I was four and a half years ago, before I first noticed the telltale symptoms.

Of course, I am still in pain and find it difficult to type. But let the rejoicing go on without me for another week or so, and I ought to be back as good as new. Well, almost -- I am missing half a thumb. The best movie review I'll be able to give is "one and half thumbs up".

Thanks again to all of you who expressed your concern and sent the "healing thoughts" my way. I'll see you back here in a week or so.

Going Dark

I managed to get my surgery moved up by one week, so tomorrow bright and early I report in for my thumbectomy.

I'm assuming that they are going to give me some first class drugs to take, so I probably won't be blogging -- or doing much of anything other than watching the old movies that I recorded off the Turner Classics channel and drooling on my bib -- for the next week or so.

Thanks again for all of your kind words and healing thoughts. I'm sure everything will turn out fine.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641
Total coalition forces dead: 230
Total Iraqi Dead: 100,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1816
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1263
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1225
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347
Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 200
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 45.

It is still 892 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.

Vote Democratic this fall!

Friday Cat Blogging