BartBlog

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 Excerpt:
“Palast said you won the 2004 election – isn’t that amazing?
There were multiple reports of disenfranchising of Black voters on the day of the election
in 2004 in Florida and Ohio. … How could you concede the election on the day?”

We warned you: ‘Armed Madhouse’ is a dangerous book. Andrew Meyers was attacked by cops, zapped with tasers and arrested after demanding that John Kerry answer the question.

Meyers said, “In this book, it says there were 5 million votes and you won the election. …
How could you concede the election on the day?”

Meyers asked related questions including a query as to why Kerry refused to vote for impeachment.  When he passed his alloted one minute mic time, five cops jumped him, threw him to the ground, shot him with taser shockers.

Kerry, true to character, stood immobile.
Bart says: Is this it for John Kerry’s career in politics?
Can he survive another screw-up of this mega?
What was that kid’s crime, illegal speaking?
And they tasered him for non-silence?

Hey John, maybe it’s time to hang up the old track shoes and call it a career

AP story

 TRENTON, N.J. – It’s a fashion that started in prison, and now the saggy pants craze has come full circle — low-slung street strutting in some cities may soon mean run-ins with the law, including a stint in jail.

Okay, I’m no fan of the “baggy pants”.  I think it looks completely idiotic.  But I have to think back to the Sixties, when long hair on men was outlawed in some places.   Isn’t this the same kind of thing?  Young people trying to fit in with whatever they think their peer group is.  Kids trying to look cool (or whatever euphemism passes for “cool” these days). 

 In other words, I recognize that I am a complete curmudgeon when I see a kid with his pants around his knees and it just looks so silly.  But making it illegal?  What comes next, the fashion police?  Wear white shoes after Labor Day, do hard time?   

What happened to that nation of rugged individualists?  What happened to freedom of expression?  What happened to freedom, period?  I would no sooner tell you how to wear your clothes, than I would tell you how to wear your hair.  It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg. 

It just makes me giggle.  Which, when you think of it, is not very manly, but still is not a crime.

I leave you with the words of Kris Kristofferson:

Billy Dalton staggered on the sidewalk
Someone said he stumbled and he fell
Six squad cars came screaming to the rescue
Hauled old Billy Dalton off to jail
‘Cause the law is for protection of the people
Rules are rules and any fool can see
We don’t need no drunks like Billy Dalton
Scarin’ decent folks like you and me, no siree
Charlie Watson wandered like a stranger
Showing he had no means of support
Police man took one look at his pants cuffs
Hustled Charlie Watson off to court.‘Cause the law is for protection of the people
Rules are rules and any fool can see
We don’t need no bums like Charlie Watson
Scarin’ decent folks like you and me, no siree.Homer Lee Hunnicut was nothing but a hippy
Walking thru this world without a care
Then one day, six strapping brave policeman
Held down Homer Lee and cut his hair‘Cause the law is for protection of the people
Rules are rules and any foola can see
We don’t need no hairy headed hippies
Scarin’ decent folks like you and me, no siree

So thank your lucky stars you’ve got protection
Walk the line, and never mind the cost
And don’t wonder who them lawmen was protecting
When they nailed the Savior to the cross.

‘Cause the law is for protection of the people
Rules are rules and any fool can see
We don’t need no riddle speaking prophets
Scarin’ decent folks like you and me, no siree.

SATELLITE images of the elusive North-West Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have ignited a diplomatic battle between Canada and the US.

The discovery that the entire passage is now ice-free, for the first time since records began, has started a scramble for control of one of the world’s most potentially lucrative shipping lanes.

Images released at the weekend by the European Space Agency reveal a dramatic increase in the melting of sea ice. US scientists said it suggested the whole of the Arctic could be ice-free by 2030, far sooner than previously predicted.

The steady melting of the north polar icesheet has already provoked international tensions over the possibility of gaining access to the vast reserves of oil and gas believed to lie beneath the seabed…….

……..Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the US are among countries in a race to secure rights to the Arctic that heated up last month when Russia sent two small submarines to plant its national flag under the North Pole. A US study suggests as much as 25 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas could be in the area.

No Virginia, you can’t make this shit up.

Did anyone else watch Alan Greenspan on 60 Minutes last night? The guy can’t resist a blonde. Leslie Stahl exposed an interesting fact: that Greenspan’s star rose when Clinton was president and we had 8 years of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Coincidence? Greenspan himself admitted that of all the presidents with whom he has served, Clinton was the most intelligent. Does anybody really believe that Greenspan was responsible for the economic success of the Clinton years? If that were the case, why were those years bracketed by such lackluster performance? I think the Clinton team’s brains made Greenspan look good, not the other way around.

Greenspan was publicly humiliated by GHWBush, which may account for him letting junior go ahead and wreck the economy. Mabe he even egged him on a little bit. There was a lot Greenspan could have said and done to discourage the abusive lending practices that are now crashing the housing markets and dragging us toward a deep recession. He also encouraged Bush’s tax cut manias and kept interest rates so low that there was no incentive to save, only to borrow. Greenspan is a schmuck. He got all shirty with Leslie when she asked him if he shouldn’t keep his mouth shut now that he’s out of government – like he did when he was in government. Oh, no, he declaimed! That would be preventing him from engaging in his profession! Hey, Alan, when you were working for me and my fellow citizens the last few years, you weren’t telling me what I needed to know. How come your wealthy clients are willing to trust your advice now? If I were them, I’d go look for some of Bill Clinton’s old financial advisors and ask them for advice.

He won’t tell the American public what he invests his own money in, but he’ll go on the record as saying we’re going to have a recession and some very difficult times ahead. Gee, thanks Alan.

And for sheer chutzpah, it would be hard to beat his chortling over how he would obfuscate the facts whenever he was called before the Congress to testify. Meshugenah bastard.

Everyone has been sounding off concerning the illegal issue, much to the chagrin of Congress. Senators from both parties wanted to slip the immigration bill through in the dark of night, but thanks to talk radio and the internet, it has dawned on both republicans and democrats that our interests aren’t being served, and people are mad. Me among them. It reminds me that term limits would be a good thing.
But what has not been discussed is the root cause of illegal immigration. Why are Mexicans risking money, life, and limb to come here? Why aren’t there enough jobs and a good enough economy in Mexico to attract these people so they can make a better life for themselves there? Why can’t the 12 – 18 million illegals here be upwardly mobile in Mexico? Why do they feel the need to leave their homes and travel hundreds of miles to work for less than minimum wage, even suffering abuse from employers and having no recourse, because they are illegal?
(more…)

Dear Mr. President,
This week, for the first time, Mexican truckers are being permitted to transport cargo into the United States without having to meet U.S. standards. Additionally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been ordered to limit their border inspections in order to ease the inconvenience to foreign travelers entering our country.
This is your doing, sir. What happened to the law and order governor of Texas? Why are you trying to eliminate our southern border?
Why are you not building the fence in spite of the fact you have the money, and manpower to do so?
Build the damn fence! Enforce our laws!
Do I have to put in Spanish for you? -Grimgold

Estimado Sr. Presidente,

Esta semana, están permitiendo por primera vez a los camioneros mexicanos para transportar el cargo en los Estados Unidos sin tener que cumplir estándares de los E.E.U.U. Además, han ordenado los oficiales de la protección de las aduanas de los E.E.U.U. y de la frontera limitar sus inspecciones de la frontera para facilitar la inconveniencia a los viajeros extranjeros que entraban en nuestro país.

Éste es el tu hacer, sir. ¿Qué sucedió al gobernador de la ley y de la orden de Tejas? ¿Por qué estás intentando eliminar nuestra frontera meridional?

¿Por qué son tú que no construye la cerca a pesar del hecho que tienes el dinero, y la mano de obra a hacer tan?

¡Construir la cerca maldita! ¡Hacer cumplir nuestras leyes!

¿Tengo que poner en español para ti? -Grimeangolde

Tony Snow laments the loss of Freedom of Press.

“Rather than having some in depth and thoughtful analysis pieces, you’ve got process, process, process. And a lot of times you have people doing the process piece as opposed to trying to sort of get into the guts of the thing. It is difficult. News organizations don’t have the resources they used to have to set people free to do a lot of those long investigative pieces and series that they used to do. But it doesn’t change my thinking that the profession is poorer for it. So I do think a lot of times…