Leela the One-Eyed Cat tried to get in between jesus and the Roman soldier, but I told her it was no use. Jesus had to die for our sins. She's a good Kristian Kitty.

I wonder what kind of reception that thing gets?

Don't get behind in your Left Behind reading! Enjoy a latte and re-read Tribulation Force (the book is better than the movie!)

Thank You, Knights of Columbus!

Christ holding a fetus

Jesus, Jesus Everywhere

Eclipse

Big Flag, Texas

Where we mailed our ballots from, Saginaw, Texas

Um, who's the other guy?

VOTE!!!!!!!

BIlly Bob's, Stockyards, Fort Worth, TX

Joe T's

Imagine how big the jesus would have to be...

Petrogylph, Puerco Pueblo, Petrified Forest NP

Dodging...

Need some wood?

At the museum, Meteor Crater AZ.

Searching for higher ground

Been way overloaded with planning, packing and purchasing for our trip. Just wanted to check in and recommend this to anyone who hasn't seen it.

I was talking to my mom a few weeks back and she was lamenting that although she'll be voting for Kerry, he still doesn't light her fire. Going Upriver is the movie that will do that. You can download it here. I have a pretty fast connection and I just set it up to download overnight and - presto - I had the movie waiting for me in the morn. Watch it. And then have some friends over to watch it with you. It's well worth it.

John Kerry is a leader. He is noble. And he is too much of a gentleman to kick the shit out of that asshole poser in charger. Does that mean Kerry can't lead us? No, Kerry is a diplomat. Bush is a bully. This is the yin and the yang, folks. Light against dark, good against evil. To think how far we've fallen in four short years...


"My friends, the high road may be harder, but it leads to a better place." -- John Kerry

Escape From LA

We are actually going to try and dodge the Apocalypse.

My wife is scared that terrorists are going to strike Los Angeles before or during the election, either with suicide bombers or the big one- a nuclear weapon.

So we're going to leave town for the week before the election.

Are we nuts? I ask myself this, but then I start to think...

We were in New York on 9/11. We know terrorism happens. We saw it with our own two eyes. Out our window. We didn't suffer directly like a lot of people. But we were "terrorized." We were in a city under attack.

So if we feel like timing a well-earned vacation with an Orange-alert, who can blame us?

The crazy thing is, we're going to be in TEXAS for the week running up to the election.

Am I fucking insane? We will be staying in the home of a Fox-Watching Dittohead, too.

I AM fucking insane.

(Disclaimer: this Dittohead is otherwise a great guy. We believe he might have a brain tumor that has altered his personality.)

I will be biting my lip IN HALF in those sure-to-be intense FINAL DAYS.

Anything can happen in this election. This group of ReaganNixon-ite Jesus Freak Neo-Con Death Jockeys have BALLS. The bad kind of BALLS. Not the "Let's Roll" kind of balls, but the "I ain't showin up for my physical. What are they gonna do? My daddy's George Bush, motherfucker" kind of balls. The DUMB kind.

Sure- they'll steal it again. Actually, what ever they are going to do, they've already done. People started "early voting" today. On those touchscreen machines.

Poof. There go all the Kerry votes. (DELETED! -Strong Bad.)

We'll be going to Meteor Crater, AZ. And Oatman, AZ, named for Olive Oatman, a poor woman whose family was murdered before her eyes by Indians, was sold into slavery, and who was disfigured before returning to her people. So of course, they've named a tourist-trap roadhouse after her. (She never even lived in the area.)

And the meteor crater? Well why not- let's see the footprint of a previous apocalyptic event. The footprint left by an ENORMOUS EXPLOSION.

If we're right, and all of our friends die in LA, and we have to keep on living, in Texas, in the America that dawns after that horrific moment...

Am I fucking insane?


Originally published at the Dodging the Apocalypse '04 Headquarters. As if you cared.



"A country that hides something is a country that is afraid of getting caught. . . ."
GW Bush April 13, 2004

CEASE AND DESIST TO ROCK THE VOTE!

EXCLUSIVO!

Back in June the Mr. and I sprung some big bucks to go to a Kerry fundraiser to promote EOA and see Tenacious D. The D were good but opening for them was this amazing fucking band who did some rockin, hillbilly, hiphop that will blow your mind. The Naked Trucker doesn't have a CD out yet but they have some awesome political songs* -- that have an obvious expiration date -- so we worked our extreme fanaticism to the bone and got a link to these trax just for you! Download and spread 'em!

And for video of these awesome performers, check out this link. Be carelful tho, it'll make you cry!

*writers(David R. Allen, David Koechner, Thomas Chan, J.P.Fitting, and Andy Paley) and the artists (The Naked Trucker And T-Bones featuring the Dickaround Gang). The publisher is Magnetic Oblivion Music Company.

Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy

And just in time for Halloween!

In case you are not a fan of Air America Radio -- and you should be -- you may not know that Bill O'Reilly wrote a book. No, not those books, I'm talking about O'Reilly's thriller, "Those Who Trespass: A Novel Of Television and Murder."

Now if that goon writing outright fiction isn't scary enough, entertain the thought that the protagonist (O'Malley?) engages in sex with underaged prostitutes...and describes it all for you in graphic detail... [[[shudder]]]

If this doesn't make your skin crawl... the book is out on tape and is READ BY THE AUTHOR... in the same bullying, patronizing, gassy voice that he uses on his "news" shows... don't believe me? Take a listen...

Just make sure you have all the lights on first and a hot shower with plenty o' disinfectants available...

or as an antidote you might check out this great website: Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly, Intl., An Organization of Hope

This Ain't Yo' Daddy's Viet Nam...

I'm still sick. Even sicker now. Yesterday, couldn't even get out of bed at all. Sux.

So today I'm finally eating some toast and waiting for the debate which will probably just sicken me even more...

In the meantime, I'm just cribbin from Atrios. Read Atrios. And then read him again...

Seymour Hersh spoke at Berkeley last Friday, October 8th. He told a story about recently receiving a call from an American lieutenant in Iraq who'd just witnessed other American soldiers killing non-combatant Iraqis. I typed up what he said from the Real Video file here. The story begins at about 41:45.

UPDATE: I'm told Hersh has said much the same at other events, including this October 1 appearance on the Diane Rehm Show. I haven't listened to it myself, however.

HERSH: I got a call last week from a soldier -- it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy.

It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary... It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit -- we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody...

They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents."

You read those stories where the Americans, we take a city, we had a combat, a hundred and fifteen insurgents are killed. You read those stories. It's shades of Vietnam again, folks, body counts...

You know what I told him? I said, fella, I said: you've complained to the captain. He knows you think they committed murder. Your troops know their fellow soldiers committed murder. Shut up. Just shut up. Get through your tour and just shut up. You're going to get a bullet in the back. You don't need that. And that's where we are with this war.

We Won't Forget

What's De-Meaning of the De Truth, Mr. Cheney?

So I ranted a couple of days ago about the Evil One's false outrage at Edwards' "demeaning the sacrifice" of our Iraqi Allies... let's talk about demeaning sacrifices, Dick:

Press Reports on U.S. Casualties: About 17,000 Short, UPI Says

i think, therefore i'm not george w. bush

some beautiful, bush-league deductive reasoning from "phil" in a comment posted on Atrios

Bush just had his Dukakis moment.

Kerry said there has to be an exception to parental notification when a father rapes his daughter.

Bush said it's a simple decision, up or down, no exception.

Bush is objectively pro-daughter-raping.

CHIMPAPALOOZA!

Bush in the debate 30 seconds ago: "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft..."

How many internets do you have?

fevered ramblings

well, my generous partner shared his evil cold with me (THANX HONEY) and i'm really not thinking too straight. but the blog keeps beckoning me. i don't know if this actual shit is what's keeping me awake, or needing to write it down and get it out of my system is keeping me awake, but while i'm waiting for the nyquil to kick in i'll jot down some of the stuff that's stuck in my craw..

DEBATE SHIT THAT DON'T STICK

1. dickhead acts all aghast because edwards doesn't include iraqi partners in the coalition casualty numbers. fuck you, cheney! i thought dead iraqis weren't being counted. what does an iraqi have to do to be counted when he or she dies? be wearing the right colored uniform? carrying the right kind of gun? we know that being an innocent child doesn't qualify them for any type of body count as far as the u.s. officials are concerned. (tell that to the troops who have to live with the memories of the innocents they've killed.) according to factcheck.ORG - there is no OFFICIAL count anywhere. if edwards is "demeaning their sacrifice by not counting" them then why aren't you, the one in charge COUNTING them? you're an asshole.

2. complain all you want about kerry and edwards being absent from the senate during this campaign. they are trying to save this country (and this world). at least they're doing it on their own dime. you and the chimp are doing it on air force one and two which is my dime. and that's not even counting the unexcused absences like vacation time and time spent in your chicken-shit undisclosed location.

3. for the life of me i don't know how anyone can compare george w.'s. record to kerry's or edwards'. edwards may be relatively new to the game but as far as i can tell he didn't spend the first 40 years of his life pissed drunk, pissing on cop cars, or pissing away daddy's money. as a senator, edwards has at least some foreign policy experience and as a former texan i know for a fact that the governor of texas is basically a figurehead. it's the lt. gov. that does the real work.

THE KING OF ALL MEDIA IS NOW THE KING OF ALL CLASS WARFARE!

so now that howard stern says he's going to satellite radio next year, all the poor (and the pedestrians) will be abandoned to the religious wingnuts and right-wing whackos who will control the airwaves!

Bush and his cronies are all about dividing to conquer. howard is part of the privateers now. the rest of us will have to choose between insurance/food and entertainment. which would you choose?

free speech shouldn't cost money!

when free speech costs money, only the rich will (hear howard) speak freely.

if the King of Free Speech speaks in the forest but his listeners can't afford to get in, does anyone hear him?

howard's always been for the working stiff. i'm currently "under employed." my partner works for a small, famous family entertainment company that keeps telling him to work faster so they can lay him off when he's finished. they've been telling him that for four years. we have to buy our own health insurance which means we can't get covered for any pre-existing conditions (anything treated for the LAST TEN YEARS). we can't afford cable, movies, dinners out, etc... our one luxury is this computer and a decent internet connection. we sure as hell aren't going to be able to pay $13 bucks a month for radio PLUS $7 PER EXTRA RADIO

you can say i'm whining but this is what bush has done to us and now howard is playing into his privateering hands.

WHO ATE BUSH'S BRAIN?!

watch out for a cool new party idea! and i came up with it! i've been in correspondence with the folks who made the movie "Bush's Brain." want to throw a scaaaaary halloween party? want to come to mine? stay tooooooooooooooned! BOO!


FREEWAY BLOGGING

got this missive from scarlet pimpernel. if you've ever wanted to be a radical but were too afraid to cross the road, here's your chance:

Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 3:35 PM
Subject: Freeway Free Speech Day: Oct. 13th

Dear Friends,
Thanks so much for your help over this past year... We're heading into the final stretch before the election and hopefully prepared for whatever fresh hell may follow. On October 13th, activists in all fifty states will be putting up handpainted signs expressing their political beliefs on the freeways and highways of this nation. So far there are just over 400 of us signed in from 160+ cities and suburbs in 40 states. At the rate people are signing up there's no doubt there'll be over a thousand of us come the 13th, and I truly hope you'll ask your readers to join in. The rules are simple: paint a sign and put it where people will see it. Let me know the city/suburb/township where you'll be doing it and how many of you there'll be. I'm putting together one hell of a press release.

http://www.freewayblogger.com/freewayfreespeechday.htm

Signs can be any size, large or small, and can say whatever you want them to. When the Founders of this nation gave us the right to free and unfettered political speech, that meant we had the right to speak out and make our feelings known to as many of our fellow citizens as possible if we chose to do so, and on October 13th, that's just what we're going to do.

This event is being covered by Air America, MTV, Pacifica Radio and will be receiving national and international media attention, so do what you can to spread the word. I don't know what, if any effect this'll have on the election, but I do know this - we're sure as hell gonna know how to express ourselves when they try to steal it this time around.

Thanks Again,

Scarlet P.

Open Letter to Howard Stern - **TOTAL RECALL**

June 29, 2004

Dear Howard,

I know you have a big announcement scheduled for tomorrow morning. I fear it will be that you are going to satellite radio.

If so, you are playing right into Bush's hands.

Bush is privatizing you!

If you go to satellite radio you are being privatized.

Just like they are privatizing our military (halliburton, caci) our power supply (enron) and our education system (no child left behind emphasizes testing over teaching so much that kids have to be tutored - by teachers for hire)

ONCE THEY'VE MOVED EVERYTHING INTO THE PRIVATE SECTOR - AND THEY OWN EVERYTHING - IT WON'T MATTER IF THEY ARE IN OFFICE OR NOT!

Please think about it.

Cassandra




Fascism: 1. A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism. - American Heritage Dictionary

LATEST UPDATE ON STERN'S ANNOUNCEMENT June 30, 2004

LATEST LATEST UPDATE ON STERN'S ANNOUNCEMENT October 6, 2004

Cost of Sirius Subscriptions (notice cost per additional radios)

Bush Can't Even Get This Right!

It should read "We Lie!"

And of all the assorted ignorant, stubborn, malicious, deadly, evil lies that Darth Cheney told tonight, would he be so stupid as to lie about never having met Edwards before?

OF COURSE HE WOULD!

This is important, why? Check out "Cheney vs. Reality" by the DNC.
That's why.

Perfect Gift For Your Littlest Future Draftee!

Very meaningful link from the front page of AOL today:

Jeweled Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head For 53 years, he's been a spokes-potato for children of all ages. Now the high-carb charmer and his Mrs. are movin' on up. The exclusive, limited-edition Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, hand-encrusted with sparkling Swarovski crystals, took more than 80 hours to make. Price: $8,000 each

For more info check out the very meaningful definition of conspicuous consumption at Wikipedia.org

Then, if you're as angry as I am, consider sending a buck or two (really, every single dollar counts) to Coalition Against Militarism In Our Schools (CAMS) P.O Box 3012, South Pasadena, 91031.

UPDATE: The big bad RNC puts the bootheel down on the neck of your little Rock-the-Vote, MTV-watching, peace-loving, future-draft-dodging-hippie-scum

Cut Out That Terrzm!

Atrios is laughing his ass off at this video and so are we!

Beware Peace Lovers and Non-Whites!

As a teacher, artist and political activist I found myself perusing the LA public library for books that might give guidance on how to work current events into my drama lesson plans. What I found was this handy little guide for teens: Live Aware, Not in Fear: The 411 After 9-11*.

Unfortunately the authors, apparent "public safety experts" and political appointees by the governor of Virginia "with years of experience in domestic preparedness for terrorism," are better suited to writing propaganda for non-"Arab appearing", neo-con youth.

The first chapter gives a scenario that includes the young reader being invited to participate in a college protest "against the bombings of Afghanistan and the escalation of the war on terrorism to other parts of the world." [emphasis mine] It deftly leads the reader to conclude that to participate in such an action is to be motivated by fear and quotes FDR's "only thing we have to fear is fear itself." However it glosses over such fear-induced arguments - and uses them in it's justification for staying home - as "You aren't in favor of war or killing ... but isn't this a matter now of kill or be killed? Don't we have the right to avenge their deaths, to retaliate? Isn't the United States entitled, no, required, to defend herself and prevent more innocent citizens and visitors from being killed at the hands of fanatics and zealots?" Basically, the book's argument boils down to this: protesting the violence of our government is acting out of fear. Bombing other people (wrong country, wrong people, wrong war - BEFORE THEY BOMB US!!!!!) isn't.

Chapter three is all about economics and entitled "Dollars and Sense." After some rudimentary facts about why middle class folks might be suffering after 9-11 (all based thinly on trickle down economics and having nothing to do with tax cuts to the rich, corporate welfare and crony capitalism/corruption), it ends with this scenario: a friend has told you about a wealthy family who "appear to be from the Middle East." They "live in the biggest home in the neighborhood... yet neither the mom or dad seem to work... You recall a TV program warning people to look out for suspicious situations and activities ... It fits the profile. But you've heard your dad say how bad profiles are." Since Dad is so busy and "worried about his own money problems ... Maybe Mrs. Hansen, your economics teacher, would be a good person to talk with about this." (Oh now I see what the economics connection is.) Great idea! A book for your child that tells them not to talk to you, but to a teacher instead, especially when it comes to politics! (Hey Big Brother! We're watching you, you mother fucker!)

I had to stop reading at that point. I had a lesson to plan. More to come! Three more chapters. And lots o' quotes. Some by Peggy Noonan, even! Betcha can't wait!

*brought to you by HCI, Health Communications Inc. The same folks who brought you those insipid Chicken Soup for the .... everything but the bowl as far as I can figure...

The Booby Prize

There is no way to "win" in Iraq. George Bush was right to repeat "wrong war, wrong time, wrong place." I'm sure he didn't mean to do it, but he only strengthened Kerry's argument. (What a moron!) [As Al Franken says, the "What a moron!" part is silent.]

The only thing we can do is repair the aberration that is George W. Bush. We can only hope to supplant this freak and prove to the rest of the world that he was just a rip in the space time continuum. It was all some sort of "who shot JR?" nightmare/binge-drinking-induced blackout and we can all wake up now. Only we've racked up one hell of a tab during that lost fucking weekend and before we can make amends we've got to either pay the bill or we'll have to post the bail.

And the bail is going to consist of pouring money into Iraq to rebuild their infrastructure. Yeah, sure, it would have been nice to spend that money here first, but that's the price you pay for temper tantrums. And it takes about two brain cells to rub together to figure out that if you pay able-bodied men money to clear debris and rebuild they'll be too fucking busy to improvise explosive devices. Duh!

So when Kerry talks about "winning" in Iraq, I have no idea what he means. Not if he means winning in the same sense as that whiny little brat, W. Winning is not about killing more and flattening a land. I trust Kerry knows that. And I can only hope that Kerry is referring to this part of the debate when he talks of winning:

Kerry: My message to the troops is also: Thank you for what they're doing, but it's also help is on the way. I believe those troops deserve better than what they are getting today.

You know, it's interesting. When I was in a rope line just the other day, coming out here from Wisconsin, a couple of young returnees were in the line, one active duty, one from the Guard. And they both looked at me and said: We need you. You've got to help us over there.

Now I believe there's a better way to do this. You know, the president's father did not go into Iraq, into Baghdad, beyond Basra. And the reason he didn't is, he said -- he wrote in his book -- because there was no viable exit strategy. And he said our troops would be occupiers in a bitterly hostile land. That's exactly where we find ourselves today. There's a sense of American occupation. The only building that was guarded when the troops when into Baghdad was the oil ministry. We didn't guard the nuclear facilities. We didn't guard the foreign office, where you might have found information about weapons of mass destruction. We didn't guard the borders. Almost every step of the way, our troops have been left on these extraordinarily difficult missions. I know what it's like to go out on one of those missions when you don't know what's around the corner.

And I believe our troops need other allies helping. I'm going to hold that summit. I will bring fresh credibility, a new start, and we will get the job done right.

On another note, the winning moment from the Big Spin last night for me had to be this -- from The New Republic Online:

Reporters want to talk to the brand-name spinners. The first inkling that the Bushies know their man didn't do so well comes minutes after the debate ends when Karl Rove walks into the press filing center. Like a game of telephone, the conventional wisdom that Kerry won the debate is already seeping out across the sea of journalists in the room. Into this skeptical ether, Rove tries out a line: "It was one of the president's better debate performances and one of Kerry's worst." Vince Morris of The New York Post stares at Rove and asks, "Can you say that with a straight face?"