osama bin who?

remember this guy?

It is the American people and their economy. And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice.

It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the time when they most needed him.

But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to execute the operations - all praise is due to Allah.

And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told him: "All that you want for securing America and removing the weapons of mass destruction - assuming they exist - is available to you, and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections, and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an unjustified war with an unknown outcome."

But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America.

So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future. He fits the saying "like the naughty she-goat who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth".

So I say to you, over 15,000 of our people have been killed and tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have been killed and more than 10,000 injured. And Bush's hands are stained with the blood of all those killed from both sides, all for the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business.

have a nice day!

can u taste the waste?

this was something i meant to post here as well. having to do with maps and whatnot. better late than never, ne! happy tofurky day everybody!

sorry to the world

here they say it in their own words. and pics. keep hope alive.

rhinos do it best 

still tepid, still dreaming

this 30 minute preview from the folks at votergate tends to leave one with a sinking feeling in the pit of one's stomach. good thing it was all just a bad dream.

more scapegoating!

from john mcCarthy of the associated press:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

...

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost in this election because officials mistakenly believed a computer that stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did.

...

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told The Columbus Dispatch that on one of the three machines at that precinct, a malfunction occurred when its cartridge was plugged into a reader and generated a faulty number. He could not explain how the malfunction occurred.

more sories like this and it will become even harder than it already is to accept bush as supreme democratic overlord of the theocratic states of americaland.

scapegoat time!

in order to come to terms with the election results, it's time to do what any red-blooded, freedom-loving american would do: blame someone else!

Imagine being an undecided voter in Clark County, Ohio, last month. You kind of think John Kerry has some good points about the war in Iraq and the economy, but you feel more comfortable with George Bush's faith and his resolve. One day, you open your mailbox to find a letter from someone in England you've never met. It starts like this:

"Don't be so ashamed of your president: the majority of you didn't vote for him. If Bush is finally elected properly, that will be the time for Americans travelling abroad to simulate a Canadian accent. Please don't let it come to that. Vote against Bin Laden's dream candidate. Vote to send Bush packing."

It's signed Richard Dawkins, a professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University. And you're thinking, ashamed of Bush? Canadian accent? Who is this pretentious Brit and why is he writing to me?

can you say backfire?

In 2000, Al Gore won Clark County by 324 votes. And since Ralph Nader received 1,347 votes, we can assume Gore's margin would have been larger without Nader on the ballot. On Tuesday George Bush won Clark County by 1,620 votes.

The most significant stat here is how Clark County compares to the other 15 Ohio counties won by Gore in 2000. Kerry won every Gore county in Ohio except Clark. He even increased Gore's winning margin in 12 of the 16. Nowhere among the Gore counties did more votes move from the blue to the red column than in Clark.

you see? there was nothing wrong with our effort on the american left at all. we were done in by our well-meaning brethren across the pond. now i can sleep at night.

america! fuck yeah!

indecision 2004: blow by blow

nice shirt 

a very special treat from our good frinds at fresyes! since i was at rehearsal last night and couldn't enjoy the climax of democracy day, 559 por vida has offered a recap:

Greetings from 559 por Vida and the Fresyes.com West Coast Editorial office. Namely my living room. Tonight is election night, and well, we’re pretty busy. So rather than invest time and effort into a full-fledged, in-depth, and any other possible big-fat hyphenated adjective you can think of political report, we’re presenting this blow-by-blow account:

4:58pm: Why on earth am I still sitting here? I haven’t done a smidge of work for 2 hours at least and Kerry just picked up Vermont. It sucks being a democrat in the United States…not because of the politics, but because of the colored maps. Republican states look like crotch rot.

5:33pm: Had to stop by the market and grab some beer. I’m starting to get the jitters. I told my friend Cevin that he’s not invited to come over tonight because I might hit him with a broken bottle. Cevin thinks everything is funny. Kerry kills in Illinois.

5:41pm: Just realized that I’ve never cared so much about Ohio in my entire life.

6:18pm: I’m really enjoying how frightened all of these morons on TV are to be the first to say anything. “Remember that you didn’t hear it here.” Jesus people are chickenshit. But I guess that if you screw the pooch as bad as they did in 2000, you tend to err on the side of caution.

6:40pm: Just traded my roommate a few beers for dinner. Raviolis are excellent with politics.

7:00pm: Bush kept Missouri. Oh well, that would have been a stretch. No polls closing for another hour…I wonder what else is on…

7:06pm: Man, I really love Full House. Not all the episodes, but the one where the Tanners et al go to Hawaii and get to jam with the Beach Boys. Don’t fucking judge me, you’ve all seen it.

7:31pm: Jeff Greenfield just referred to ARkansas as arKANSAS. I don’t know what to say about this. Did he just come up with that? Should we change the pronunciation of Bakersfield to baKERSFIELD?

7:55pm: Fuck Ohio.

7:56pm: Ohio, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.

8:01pm: Kerry takes Pennsylvania. Starting to feel better. Watching early returns is a bummer because all the districts that report early are 2 horse towns who always vote republican…is The Real World on tonight?

8:22pm: How the shit did John Kerry lose Florida…He gave back thousands of votes from 2000. Dammit. This is not looking good.

8:23pm: The Real World is on tonight. Reality…sweet, sweet reality…rescue me.

9:11pm: Just realized that I forgot to watch the Daily Show tonight. I think listening to Wolf Blitzer try to be smart is almost as funny though.

9:42pm: MSNBC just called Ohio for Bush. The mistake by the lake rears its ugly head.

9:43pm: Wait a minute, CNN has just labeled Ohio as a green state…do you think they did that just to fuck with Ralph Nader? Too close to call. Whatevs. 17 minutes ‘til The Real World.

10:04pm: Carville just said that Kerry needs a “double inside straight” to win. Furthermore, if I hear another Red Sox reference I’m going to shit pinstripes.

10:18pm: Ok, 11 states have voted down gay marriage legislation at this point, Bush has a Jefferson Davis like hold over the south, and the exit polls are telling us that voters are choosing morality as their key voting issue. Rove etc. have used fundamentalist church people as the cavalry. It’s official. We’re in Salem, and they’re burning us at the stake.

10:19pm: Sorry about that, I’m allergic to the rapture.

10:30pm: Wait a sec…Measure Z passed in Fresno! The Zoo is saved! Maybe we can get the little girl named Angel to campaign for the Democrats.

10:41pm: Just had an awful thought…Patriot Act II.

11:00pm: Going to bed. Hoping to wake up surprised, but my money is on depressed. America…what happens when 290 million strangers are picked to live in a country, stop being polite, and start being…gulp…real.

jesus wept

tom tomorrow pretty much hits the nail on the head this mourning:

those of you who "don't agree with Bush on social issues," but voted for him because you thought Kerry would somehow not be serious about the war, or maybe because you'll do a little bit better on your taxes under Bush--I'm afraid you may get the country you deserve, a country in which conservative fundamentalist Christians are calling the shots on abortion and civil liberties and gay rights and a lot of other things you probably care about, or at least should. But hey, you made your bargain. It's just too bad the rest of us--the 48% as of this writing, who voted for another, very different America--have to get dragged down with you.

if life is fair and we get exactly what we deserve, may god have mercy on us all.

oh god.....

no! no! No!! 

something sure smells fishy. i will go to sleep now. when i wake up, bush better be a lame duck.

make us proud!

happy democracy day, john kerry!