Rush Limbaugh and NBC
Media Matters for America sent
this letter to NBC asking that NBC not feature conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh as a political commentator during election night coverage. They do a good job of listing some of Rush Limbaugh's faults; "Limbaugh
compared the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity prank", "Limbaugh further
claimed that "the reaction to the stupid torture is an example of the feminization of this country", "Limbaugh, commenting on Reverend Jesse Jackson joining the Kerry campaign,
stated: "The Kerry campaign has finally gotten a chocolate chip"... and it goes on.
"Just a One-Fingered Victory Salute"
Here's our President acting presidential.
Right back at you Mr. President.
I write letters
In today's San Jose Mercury News:
No plans to fix mess on `the 280' before 880-17By Gary Richards
Q I'm not sure how you define a major bottleneck, but in the morning I get on the hell that is the 280 northbound before the 17-880 interchange. I would classify that as a major bottleneck. Why wasn't that listed in the article about bottlenecks to be fixed?
Dave Shannon San Jose
A Fair enough. The northbound stretch of Interstate 280 loses the slow lane as you approach Highway 17-Interstate 880, a change made several years ago. Caltrans gave that lane to traffic coming from north Highway 17 so those drivers can merge onto Interstate 280 more easily, a warranted change since 17 traffic often backs up a great distance on this ramp. Yet it plays havoc with those on I-280. Unfortunately, there are no plans to add a lane here.
Q By saying ``the 280,'' am I showing my Southern California upbringing?
Dave Shannon
A Most definitely.
Rosie's trip to the vet
She's not happy about it. We have to take her back Tuesday to get dental work done
Flu Shots
Chicagoans must be proud of their athletes. Members of the Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls
received flu shots despite a nationwide shortage of the vaccine. "We absolutely need them," guard Eric Piatkowski said. "The way we travel, we're going in and out of cold and warm climates. I won't say we need them more than some 85-year-old person, because obviously we don't. But I'm glad we got them.".
Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy
I was reading online articles about Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire (% who think Tucker Carlson got his *ss handed to him -- 99%, Right-wing idiots who thought Jon Stewart was out of line, 1%) and came across
this article that mourned the loss of hostile discussions on television. They mention Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman on "The Dick Cavett Show" in 1980 as a famous one. I looked it up and apparently in an appearance on "The Dick Cavett Show" one day, Mary McCarthy
declared of Lillian Hellman that "every word she says is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." OUCH!
The Office
If you get
BBC America, take the time to watch the
Office Special tonight. It takes place 3 years after the series ended and if it's half as funny as the series, it's worth watching.
Sinclair Broadcasting -- again
Yet
another story on Sinclair Broadcasting's history of questionable ethics in its practice of supporting Republican candidates for office. The good news is that the backlash on their anti-Kerry piece is hitting them in their back pockets. They've pissed off advertisers, shareholders and the FCC.
No casualities in Iraq
Pat Robertson provides some very scary insight into George W's thinking in planning for the Iraq war. According to
this article, when Pat Roberston told the President he needed to prepare the American people for casualties, Bush's response was, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."
Florida Ballots
We're already seeing problems with
online voting in Florida.
Anniversary Gifts
A friend of mine is celebrating his 10th Wedding anniversary this weekend. He wanted to know what the traditional gift was for your 10th wedding annniversary. So I found
this list for him. The Traditional list has "tin" as the 10 year gift. The "Modern" list has "diamond jewelry"!!! -- I'm pretty sure women put together the "Modern" list. I suggested to him that
Altoids would be an appropriate gift.
Yes Men
I'm reading "
Yes Men", the story of two guys who set up a web site impersonating the WTO and end up getting invited to speak at conferences by people who don't notice that the web site is fake. The book is hysterical. If nothing else, read the speech they gave to the students at SUNY. Their discussion of the use of recycled waste to make McDonald's hamburgers (with accompanying PowerPoint slides) should not be missed. These are the same guys who set up GWBush.com in 1999 , which highlighted Bush's various failures as governor and businessman, leading George W himself to say about these people, "There ought to be limits - there ought to be limits, to, uh, to freedom. But, uh...this guy's just a garbage man, that's all he is. And of course I don't appreciate it, and you wouldn't either". If you can't read the book, you can always check out the
movie.
Scare tactics
This slays me. Bush is accusing Kerry of "shameless scare tactics" by suggesting that the president would jeopardize Social Security for older Americans and bring back the military draft for young people.
This is the same President who trotted out his Monkey Boy, Tom Ridge, right after the Democratic Convention to announce a
high risk of terror attacks based on info that was
years old.
More Jon Stewart
John was kind enough to provide a
link to the video of Jon Stewart on Crossfire.
I write letters
Sports Editor:
In reading the results for the Fairbanks Memorial in San Luis Obispo in today's (10/17/04) paper, you chose to print the name of the top men's finisher for Santa Clara, but not the top women's finisher? Why print one and not the other?
Dave Shannon
San Jose
San Jose Mercury News
I picked up the San Jose Mercury News this am and scanned it to see if they list the results from Katie's X-C meet in SLO. They did, below is the item:
"Santa Clara freshman Michael Delaurenti placed 18th at the Fairbanks Memorial in San Luis Obispo, covering 8,000 meters in 27:19.5. The Broncos were sixth in the nine-team race.
The Santa Clara women were seventh."
Where the BLEEP is the line that says "Senior Katie Hansen was the top women's finisher for the Broncos, covering 5,000 meters in 19:02.5"?????? I think I'll write a letter...
Jon Stewart on Crossfire
Read the
transcript of Jon Stewart's appearance on CNN's Crossfire, if for no other reason than to read this line from Jon Stewart to Tucker Carlson:
"You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show."
Team America
If you look at the
Kids-in-mind website -- which reviews movies and assigns each film three category-specific, objective ratings on a scale of 0 to 10, according to quantity and context: one for SEX & NUDITY, one for VIOLENCE & GORE and another for PROFANITY -- you'll see this description under "profanity" for Team America:
PROFANITY 10 - 62 F-words and its derivatives, 12 sexual references, 9 scatological terms, 59 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, 14 derogatory terms for homosexuals (some are in an ongoing play on words referring to the Film Actors Guild as F.A.G.), 1 derogatory term for African-Americans, 6 religious profanities, 15 religious exclamations (1 in French with no translation).
I have to go see this film...
Sinclair
I mentioned the Sinclair Broadcast Group in an 10/11 post. I sent the email below to their Sacramento affiliate (just for the heck of it).
Hello, I wanted to alert you to an important story. Apparently a national broadcast group -- "Sinclair" I think is their name -- is actually a front for the Republican National Committee. The first clue was their refusal to broadcast "Nightline" in April whenTed Koppel read the names of the war dead. It was"too political" they claimed at the time. I didn't believe that then but thought perhaps that they were just being overly cautious. Now however, they are actually going to broadcast part or all of an anti-Kerry documentary produced by "POWs for Truth" -- who have merged with "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" (the people who produced the anti-Kerry ads) -- prior to the November election. While they claim that this is "news", it is in fact an obvious attempt to pervert the political process. I can't imagine anyone who calls him/herself a journalist working for such an organization. Could you investigate this egregious violation of journalistic standards and report to your viewers how we might end Sinclair's abuse of the airwaves?
Thank you,Dave Shannon
George says
You too can create witty Bush cartoons like this by going to
George Bush Says
George Bush makes his point
Bush Loyalty Quiz
I took the
George W. Bush Loyalty Quiz. My results:
Your score is 0 on a scale of 1 to 10. You hate Bush with a writhing passion. You think he is an idiot, a liar, and a warmonger who has been a miserable failure as president. Nothing would give you greater pleasure than seeing him run out of the White House, except maybe seeing him dragged away in handcuffs.
Stupid Bush
Searching "bush stupid" on Ebay brings up
two items. Searching "Kerry stupid" brings up no results. I think that pretty much tells you all you need to know.
John Eisenhower
John Eisenhower, son of Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote
this piece explaining why he will be voting for John Kerry. He cites many reasons, war, deficit and the declining middle-class but I loved this quote of his father, from the 1960 Republican Convention, "If ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above principle, we shall lose both." Patriot Act anyone?
George Bush opposes slavery
In the 2nd presidential debate, when asked who he would appoint to the Supreme Court, President Bush specifically cited the
Dred Scott case of 1857 as a bad decision and would avoid those types of judges. While it's heartening to know that our president opposes slavery (I actually believe he would support it if he thought it would help mobilize the religious right), Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) felt perhaps George Bush's civil rights record wasn't all that great, and in fact
Bush may be just a tad out of touch with African-American voters.
Sinclair Broadcast Group.. AKA "Whores for Bush"
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is
broadcasting "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" - an anti Kerry documentary - prior to the November election. Even though this is a blantant attempt by a broadcaster to affect the outcome of the election, Sinclair sees this as a "news" story. This is the same broadcast group that refused to allow it's ABC stations to air the Nightline episode in April on which the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were read, saying it was too political.
In the cards for George W. Bush
This is weird (yet funny). You can buy a deck of cards called "The W Deck", that has pictures of George Bush dressed in many different, and disturbing, ways. The King of Hearts has him as a French Poodle.
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
The problem with the Bay Area being so overwhelmingly Democratic is that certain Democrats feel they are entitled to the office and everyone else can go to hell. This year's poster child for the "Just vote for me *sshole, I'm a Democrat" award is
Carole Migden who is running for State Senate in District 3.
Matier and Ross write in the San Francisco Chronicle that Migden has been less than pleasant at many of her campaign appearances. Between refusing to shake an opponent's hand, telling cities to stop "whining" about losing money to the state, and telling Mill Valley Councilwoman Anne Solem "to give it a rest" she's alienated the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce and The Marin Independent Journal so much that they've declined to endorse her. However, as Matier and Ross point out, given that the district is 53 percent Democratic and only 17 percent Republican, Migden is a slam dunk come Nov. 2.
Top Ten
Congratulations to my brother John. His
Top Ten entry made number 2 for the week (Q: Top Ten Names for the New Washington Baseball Team. A: The Washington Slightly Overweight Interns).
Completely Out of Touch With Reality
Given the report by the U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq (see post of 10/6/04), and given that Dick Cheney came out afterwards and said that the report,
"justifies rather than undermines President Bush's decision to go to war." (I'll pause here to let everyone finish laughing) ... doesn't John Edwards statement that the Bush Administration is "
Completely Out of Touch With Reality" just sum up the Bush administration perfectly?
Where for art thou WMD's
Apparently Saddam had no
Weapons of Mass Destruction. So with the help of Molly Ivins, let's review the
Bush Administration's statements about the existence of WMD's. Here are some of my favorites:
- "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." -- Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002
- "We know for a fact there are weapons there." -- Ari Fleischer, Jan. 9, 2003
- "We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad." -- Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
- "We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so." -- Bush, May 3, 2003.
VP debate
My thoughts:
- Was anyone else surprised that Dick Cheney had absolutely nothing to say about the Federal Marriage Amendment?
- Dick Cheney lied about not having met John Edwards before that debate.
- Dick Cheney cited factcheck.com when I'm pretty sure he meant factcheck.org. Factcheck.com directs you to a site run by the anti-Bush activist billionaire, George Soros. How funny is that?
Cindy Sheehan video
Please take the time to watch
Cindy Sheehan's video on RealVoices.org.
George Bush's record on civil rights
Emil Guillermo of the
San Francisco Chronicle writes about
George Bush receiving a damning report card from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in their draft report entitled,
Redefining Rights in America: The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration, 2001-2004 Some of the highlights:
1. "found the Bush administration lacking in support for civil rights, stating that effects of past segregation and discrimination still 'persist and hamper equal opportunity in education, employment, housing, public accommodations and the ability to vote.' ";
2. The report noted the president's funding for civil rights enforcement -- far less than that of previous administrations -- as an example of his failure to consider the issue a priority;
3.The report said two examples showed how a lack of funding undermined civil rights efforts. First, it took Bush to task for a lack of leadership regarding the Help America Vote Act of 2002, legislation specifically designed to expand the Voting Rights Act and prevent another Florida vote fiasco, in which millions of blacks and other minorities were deprived of the right to vote. The report blamed the administration's failure to meet funding deadlines as the reason this upcoming election will "most likely disenfranchise some eligible voters."
Apparently the Bush people want to censor the report. I can't imagine why. I've downloaded it and will publish it on this website for reference purposes.
Supreme Court Hijacks the election
Here is an article by Edward Lazurus entitled "The Supreme Court's Excessive Secrecy: Why It Isn't Merited". He cites an article in the October Vanity Fair (which I'm going out to buy immediately). Lazurus says, "David Margolick succeeded in getting several former Supreme Court clerks from 2000 to describe precisely what happened. Based on their reports, Margolick tells the disturbing story of how a highly polarized and politicized Court stumbled inexorably towards an intellectually indefensible decision" and goes on, "Five unelected justices, by a single vote, hijacked a presidential election at least in part out of fear that, left unchecked, the Florida recount would put Al Gore in the White House. The Justices weren't applying the law; they were choosing a President."
