Monday, October 31, 2005

songs of buddy don: Succubus

this here songs fittin fer the day, witch tiz about a ghost, jes rite fer halloween. tiz frum that cd by them Bohemian Hillbillies name of Once Removed. heres the lyricks fer it n ifn ye click on the title with yer left mouse button, ye kin here the em pee three n ifn ye click with the rite mouse button, ye kin downlode it fer free. thang is, whuts skeeriest bout this song is how tiz about a real person, witch i aint tole the story bout how she haunted me fer years yet, but i hope to git toot by n by.

Succubus

Thirty years old and still a virgin
I could take no more of my body's urgin'
So I got down on my knees and prayed to anything that would listen
Said I would give my heart and soul just to know what I'd been missin'

I met her in a nightmare the very next week
She was crossing her legs, I was taking a peek
She caught me in the act and it's a fact she was not amused
So when she blew me a kiss, you can bet I was dazed and confused
She was a ...
Succubus
I could see she was invisible
Succubus
Her charms were irrisistible
Succubus
I could feel what I could not touch
Succubus Succubus
She was never enough but she was always too much
She made me swear to tell no one about us
Said that if I did, I'd begin to doubt us
Said that lots of folks didn't think she was even real
So I gave her my oath and with a kiss, we sealed the deal.

Week after week she flew me over the moon
Left me lying every night in a puddle of swoon
I tried to hold her close but like a ghost, she'd slip away
I could always make her come but I could never make her stay
She was a ...
Succubus
I could see she was invisible
Succubus
Her charms were irrisistible
Succubus
I could feel what I could not touch
Succubus Succubus
She was never enough but she was always too much
Our love was so hot, I could hardly contain it
I wanted to brag, I tried to restrain it
But I told my best friend and he started to laugh
He said she wasn't any more real than a photograph

I tried to convince myself that he was wrong
But the seeds of doubt he'd planted grew much too strong
At night I tossed and turned, but emptiness filled my bed
And the torment of her memory makes me wish I were dead
And with my ...
Succubus
I could see she was invisible
Succubus
Her charms were irrisistible
Succubus
I could feel what I could not touch
Succubus Succubus
She was never enough but she was always too much

She was a succubus
Succubus
Succubus
Succubus Succubus

Sunday, October 30, 2005

pitchers tuck by buddy don: jersey sunset

i dont hardly never putt no pitchers of jersey skies up in here, witch thats on a counta how that man hattan skyline wonts all the tenchun. but last nite, i couldnt resist. whut color!

jersey sunset:


nuther view of that thar jersey sunset:

Saturday, October 29, 2005

wishin of buddy don: whar i wonta be


ifn i could be whar i wonta be
twood be down in etowah tennessee
fer thars whar the blog worlds ambassador
is holdin cort fer bloggers galore

from all oer the nayshun – mayhap the worl
them bloggers will gather (sum of ems gurls)
sum pool will be shot, sum tunes will be spun
i wish i could be thar, join in the fun

in sted i will be o'er in man hattan
a grub wurm that piles of wurk has flattend
i wish i could be thar if only to watch –
(i'd make shore them folks had plenty of scotch!)

so eric n friends, i'll raze ye my glass
knowin yer blog meet will not be surpassd

Friday, October 28, 2005

pinions of buddy don: innertainin news

the news has been verr innertainin of late. tiz part of the reason that stories end once they git to happy ever after on a counta that aint all that innerestin. fer the same reason, have ye notissd how folks has verr good idees whut hell is lack but caint hardly say whut heaven is? corse, thay is this. thang is, the money line frum that song is "Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens."

but thangs is a'happenin in the news lack crazy. sentimentull favert is this here story bout a vespa-ridin mayor name of A Mayor on a Vespa, And Other Ways to Set Energy Examples. dont that putt ye in mind of that son of red molly n his vespa projeck?

ye mite could thank such trublesum times in terms of energy wood be bad news fer them that has to compete fer preshus supplies, them oil cumpnies fer instunts. as ye know, they been claimin lack nobidys bizness how they aint gougin, so tiz jes thar good luck that these stories has cum out. furstn is Exxon Mobil Profit Soars 75%:
High prices for crude oil, gasoline and natural gas helped Exxon Mobil Corp. to its highest-ever quarterly profit, $9.92 billion, up 75 percent from the third quarter last year, the company said yesterday.

Profit in the third quarter at the world's largest publicly traded oil company set an industry record, and its sales of $100.72 billion were the highest in a quarter by U.S. company, according to Standard & Poor's.

Other oil companies have reported soaring third-quarter profits this week. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, based in the Hague, said yesterday that its third-quarter profit was not far behind Exxon Mobil's: $9.03 billion, up 68 percent. London-based BP PLC reported profit of $6.53 billion, up 34 percent.
but thar luck aint no big thang n we shouldnt git the lease bit upset by it, as splaind in this articull name of Oil Industry Seeks to Cast Huge Profits as No Big Deal:
By most familiar comparisons, the $9.92 billion profit earned by Exxon Mobil Corp. in just three months is almost unimaginable. It would cover all Social Security benefit payments for three months. It would pay for an Ivy League education for about 60,000 kids. It would pay the average list price for more than 160 Boeing 737s. It would fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than two months.

Yet oil industry representatives and Exxon Mobil yesterday made a game effort to cast the record profit, earned during a quarter in which the Gulf Coast was shattered by hurricanes and gas prices rose well above $3 a gallon, as middling at best.

That's the exact opposite of what most companies do during earnings season. They usually go to some length to put their performances in the best light, highlighting certain numbers that show marked improvement while downplaying less flattering measurements.
how bout sum good news? this articull name of Voter ID Law Is Overturned; Georgia Can No Longer Charge For Access to Nov. 8 Election
is the best of the day in my pinion:
In a case that some have called a showdown over voting rights, a U.S. appeals court yesterday upheld an injunction barring the state of Georgia from enforcing a law requiring citizens to get government-issued photo identification in order to vote.

The ruling allows thousands of Georgians who do not have government-issued identification, such as driver's licenses and passports, to vote in the Nov. 8 municipal elections without obtaining a special digital identification card, which costs $20 for five years. In prior elections, Georgians could use any one of 17 types of identification that show the person's name and address, including a driver's license, utility bill, bank statement or a paycheck, to gain access to a voting booth.

Last week, when issuing the injunction, U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy likened the law to a Jim Crow-era poll tax that required residents, most of them black, to pay back taxes before voting. He said the law appeared to violate the Constitution for that reason. In the 2004 election, about 150,000 Georgians voted without producing government-issued identification.
meanwhile, ye gut to wunder how jesus wood git along today when ye thank bout how he lacked to hang out with sinners -- publicans, tax colleckters, fallen women, lepers n such. thays been a trucklode of progress since then on a counta yer modern christchuns knows better, witch ye kin read bout one of em in this articull name of Case of Gay Worshiper in Va. Splits Methodists:
The man had been attending a Methodist church in South Hill, Va., for several months. He sang in the choir. He owned a business and was well known in the community. But when he asked to become a formal member of the church, the pastor turned him down, because he is gay.
i aint writ nuthin on the harriet miers thang on a counta i caint figger out whuts a'goin on. is it sum kinda trick? i herd twuz on rachel maddows show this mornin, a setup to make it easier fer bush to push thru a much more hard rite winger to the spreme cort. dont know ifn i kin bleeve that, but this here bit of punditry name of A Departure's Lasting Damage by E. J. Dionne, Jr., seems to be rite on the mark (ye orta read the hole articull on a counta tiz sum of the bes punditry by one of our best pundits):
Republicans had railed against Democratic efforts to press court nominees (including Chief Justice John Roberts) for their views on legal issues. Back in July The Post disclosed a planning document circulated among Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The document said nominees for the Supreme Court should avoid disclosing "personal political views or legal thinking on any issue." Liberals were terribly gauche and inappropriate for wanting to know someone's opinions before awarding that person life tenure on the nation's most powerful court.

But it was neither gauche nor inappropriate for conservatives to de mand that Miers clarify her views on a slew of issues, notably Roe v. Wade . When liberals asked for clarity, they were committing a sin. When conservatives asked for clarity, they were engaged in a virtuous act. Thus are conservatives permitted to alter their principles to suit their own political situation.

There was also that small matter of a nominee's religious views. Conservatives condemned liberals who suggested it was worth knowing how Roberts's religious convictions might affect his judging. But when Miers started running into trouble with conservatives, the Bush administration encouraged its allies to talk up Miers's deep religious convictions to curry favor among social conservatives. I guess it's okay for conservatives to bring up religion whenever they want, but never appropriate for liberals to speak of spiritual things.

Even the manner of Miers's exit was disingenuous, not to mention derivative. In announcing her withdrawal, the White House said that "it is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel." Miers's decision, the statement said, "demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers."

The White House was following, almost to the letter, the exit strategy outlined last week by my conservative colleague Charles Krauthammer. But Krauthammer was honest enough to admit what the White House could not: that all this verbiage was about saving face. The president had to know when he named Miers that her lack of a judicial paper trail would make her advice as White House counsel all the more important for the Senate to know. Bush figured that conservatives would do what they have so often done before: roll over, back him up, resist requests for documents and help him force Miers through. Bad call.
finely, have ye ever wunderd why them publicans seems to luv illegal aliens so much? oh, i know they give a lot of lip servus to keepin em out, but fack is, they lack havin em on acount ye dont half to pay em even minimum wage n they dont ast fer thar rites (ifn they know whut they are). corse, my bleef on this is based on whut they do n not on whut they say. tuther day we larnt they wuz usin illegals to rebuild new awlins, witch i shore am glad they deecided to go back to honorin set law (davis bacon) on a counta fer that kinda money, them folks doin the hirin wonts legal wurkers. but thays sum that lacks to doot even today n fer whut? makin the MREs our soljers eats! aint much more to say bout them hirin hunnerts of illegals, but ye kin check it in this story name of Texas Co. Hired Illegals to Make MREs:
A Texas employment agency was sentenced to five years of probation for hiring illegal immigrants to work at the nation's top producer of military battlefield rations, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The Tollin Group was also fined $20,000 and ordered to pay $414,000 in civil penalties Wednesday. It has been barred from Department of Defense contracts for three years.

The San Antonio-based company, which does business as Remedy Intelligent Staffing, pleaded guilty in January to hiring illegal immigrants and trying to cover it up by falsifying employment eligibility forms. The workers were hired for Wornick Co., which makes MREs -- or ''meals ready-to-eat.''
i hope everbidy has em a grate weekend. mayhap the news will be borin ... or not!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

pinions of buddy don: good news!

wuz i ever sprized this mornin to see this articull name of Prevailing Wages to Be Paid Again On Gulf Coast; Rule Was Waived for Post-Katrina Work! corse, tiz verr good news even ifn tiz two munths too late fer sum of them that gut laid off long a nuff fer halliburton subsidiairies to proov they wood git illegal immigrunts to do the wurk nobidy else wood do fer verr low wages. but tiz good news:
The White House yesterday reversed course and reinstated a key wage protection for workers involved in Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, bowing to pressure from moderate House Republicans who argued that Gulf Coast residents were being left out of the recovery and that the region was becoming a magnet for illegal immigrants.
once i had red that good news, i gut to hankern to read sum more, so i deecided i wood try to putt nuthin into todays post that couldnt be called good news. so i went a'lookin fer more n found this amazin tale name of The New Sunni Jihad: 'A Time for Politics'; Tour With Iraqi Reveals Tactical Change. now that could be sum good news indeed:
For weeks before Iraq's constitutional referendum this month, Iraqi guerrilla Abu Theeb traveled the countryside just north of Baghdad, stopping at as many Sunni Arab houses and villages as he could. Each time, his message to the farmers and tradesmen he met was the same: Members of the disgruntled Sunni minority should register to vote -- and vote against the constitution.

"It is a new jihad," said Abu Theeb, a nom de guerre that means "Father of the Wolf," addressing a young nephew one night before the vote. "There is a time for fighting, and a time for politics."
duz that mean that them rose petals will be a'rainin down on our soljers innytime soon? mayhap not on a counta seems lack thays a passel of folk that thanks them soljers is occupiers:
The sight of American soldiers in the Iraqi city was an unspeakable outrage to him. "I roamed the streets with a dagger in my pocket," he said. "I was too ashamed to come back home and see my family while Baghdad was under occupation."

Abu Theeb met a group of Syrians who had come to Baghdad. Like him, they were looking for a fight with the Americans, so he took them to his home village and formed a jihad cell.

It started off with rocket and small-arms attacks on U.S. convoys, he said. Later, a fellow Salafi fighter taught him how to set a roadside bomb using simple techniques -- a TV remote control and some artillery shells.

A former Iraqi army general who visited the village laid down ground rules for the group: Roadside bombs were the most effective weapon, but they should always be planted at least 1 1/2 miles outside the village, so as to spare its people retaliation by the Americans.

Abu Theeb's group kept up the attacks. "Something like fire was inside us," he said. ". . . When the infidel conquers your home, it's like seeing your women raped in front of your eyes and like your religion being insulted every day."
but the news wuz still manely good ifn thays folks willin to turn to pallticks instead of roadside bombs n such. nex questchun wuz whuther thay wuz innymore good news. how bout these ...
  • Grand Jury Hears Summary of Case On CIA Leak Probe; Decision on Charges May Come Friday:
    The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation presented a summary of his case to a federal grand jury yesterday and is expected to announce a final decision on charges in the two-year-long probe tomorrow, according to people familiar with the case.
    why is this good news? on a counta how seems lack we finely will git this story tole n kin move on to otherns. besides, ifn sumbidy dun rong, tiz rite they git caught.

  • Senators Question Tax Shelter Letters; Miers's Law Firm Sold Documents Backing Arrangement the IRS Criticized:
    Senators from both parties are pressing Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers about her former Texas law firm's lucrative business helping to promote tax shelters that were subsequently deemed abusive by the Internal Revenue Service.

    The actions of the firm Locke Liddell and Sapp, which Miers headed for much of the 1990s, received glancing scrutiny early this year, when the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a scathing report on the tax shelter industry. The report quoted the legal adviser of a potential investor as blasting the firm for effectively signing off on a "classic 'sham' tax shelter."
    why is this good news? on a counta how it seems lack them palltishuns is willin to give at lease sum lip servus to the idee that taint rite to cheat on yer taxes, witch ye had to wunder whuther that mite earn ye the presidentchul medal of honor the way sum on the rite lacks to cundemn the patriotick ack of payin yer taxes!

  • could they be inny more good news? how bout thisn on the mess thats been made of the fedrull gummint. i bet them publicans is happy that sumbidys a'gone half to clean it up. ye gut yer dean name of david broder claimin twill be a job that falls to yer dimcrats, witch thar jes dim a nuff to thank tiz wurth doin. he splains it all in a articull name of Will Anyone Pay the Bills?:
    It is not hard these days to find intelligent critiques of the budget policy and fiscal record of the Bush administration. Conservative and liberal think tanks alike grind out fresh analyses of the risks in the chronic refusal of the Republicans who govern the country to pay the bills they are amassing here and overseas.

    Nonpartisan budget groups -- especially those with a historical attachment to budgetary prudence -- have been even tougher on the president and his allies on Capitol Hill for their seeming nonchalance in letting the debt of the federal government climb so rapidly on their watch.

    What has been harder to discern is what the opposition Democrats would actually do to remedy the situation that may well confront them if their party comes back to power in the 2008 election. The other day, the thinking branch of the opposition -- centered these days in the Democratic Leadership Council and its allied organizations -- offered at least the start of a response.

    At a panel headed by the DLC's chairman, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, the answer that emerged was: Strike a bipartisan bargain that would involve some short-term tax increases in return for long-term savings on entitlement programs and improvements in the administration of government.
  • then ye gut this good news, witch the title sez purty much everthang ye need to know bout this good news fer the rich who hate payin thar taxes: In Hurricane Tax Package, a Boon for Wealthy Donors. i half to add mitt, that aint yer pure good news, but ifn more folks will give to wurthy causes even ifn thar jes a'doon it to git a tax brake, tiz a good thang.

  • but thays one story that ye dont half to thank much about to figger how tiz a good thang, witch tiz a articull bout them white sox name of Sox' Sweeping Statement; World Series Win Is First In 88 Years: White Sox 1, Astros 0:
    And suddenly the ball was on the ground, headed toward the shortstop, and then it was in the first baseman's glove, and their cool exterior faded, and the White Sox rushed past those Houston Astros players who wanted to disappear into a hole, and they amassed near the pitcher's mound, grabbing each other and holding on.

    The champions of baseball hail from the South Side of Chicago following the White Sox's 1-0 victory Wednesday night in Game 4 of the World Series. A series that was thought to be so evenly matched, so full of dramatic, seven-game potential, was really not so even at all. The White Sox swept it in four games, all of them close. But not that close.

    "This has been an unbelievable season," White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said. "Chalk one up for the little guys. We're a bunch of low-maintenance guys who fight you every day. And now we're number one."
tiz kindly lack a rainbow coallishun winnin on a counta how thar owner is jewish, thar genrull manjer is black, n thar manjer is hispanick. i reckun thats one of the thangs i luv most bout sports, witch the only thang that matters is whuther yer inny good. them white sox dun proovd thar wurth n it cum on a day when the news could be red as good fer a change.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

pinions of buddy don: law or man

everbidy knows the united states is a grate eggspearmint in gummint. the mane thang bout it is how tiz a gummint ruled by laws, not by individual humans. twuznt always so, as we know frum our own histry. the king of england at one time wuz above the law n could deecide who gut arrested without no trial, who gut tortchurd, who killt. me n miz bd has ancesters that wuz killt on a counta not bleevin in the rite flavor of christianty.

but we are governd by laws, not men, even if they are trine to change that to whar if mr bush (a man) deecides sumbidy is a enemy combatunt, that person dont have no rite to a trial by a jury nor to face them thats chargin him nor to make inny deefents. tiz agin whut we stand fer, but thays sum that thanks its ok.

tiz also the case that our gummint thanks it aint no big deal to go after innybidy that disagrees with em. so them that wuz agin the war wuz branded as traiters or blame-amurka-fursters or whutever. taint whut ye eggspeck in a land whar thays a free eggschange of idees, but thats how them adults in charge wonts it.

whut kinda news has these adults in charge brung us on this fine day? heres the list:
  • Measure Would Alter Federal Death Penalty System; House Legislation to Renew USA Patriot Act Would Loosen Some Provisions for Execution:
    The House bill that would reauthorize the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law includes several little-noticed provisions that would dramatically transform the federal death penalty system, allowing smaller juries to decide on executions and giving prosecutors the ability to try again if a jury deadlocks on sentencing.

    The bill also triples the number of terrorism-related crimes eligible for the death penalty, adding, among others, the material support law that has been the core of the government's legal strategy against terrorism.
  • Bush Aides Brace for Charges; Grand Jury May Hear Counts in Leak Case Today:
    In a possible sign that Fitzgerald may seek to charge one or more officials with illegally disclosing Valerie Plame's CIA affiliation, FBI agents as recently as Monday night interviewed at least two people in her D.C. neighborhood. The agents were attempting to determine whether the neighbors knew that Plame worked for the CIA before she was unmasked with the help of senior Bush administration officials. Two neighbors said they told the FBI they had been surprised to learn she was a CIA operative.

    The FBI interviews suggested the prosecutor wanted to show that Plame's status was covert, and that there was damage from the revelation that she worked at the CIA.
  • Planned GOP Budget Cuts Target Programs Such as Foster Care [the good news is how ye wont half to wurry nun bout rich folks missin a nuther tax cut!]

  • 2,000th Death Marked by Silence and a Vow; Bush Says War in Iraq Will Require More Resolve, While Protesters Plan Vigils:
    Washington marked the 2,000th American fatality of the Iraq war with a moment of silence in the Senate, the reading of the names of the fallen from the House floor, new protests and a solemn vow from President Bush not to "rest or tire until the war on terror is won."
    In a speech delivered just hours before the Pentagon announced the death of Staff Sgt. George Alexander Jr., Bush's voice cracked as he acknowledged those who have died in the war. "Each loss of life is heartbreaking" he said. "And the best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom."

    Despite the mounting death toll and the growing public dissatisfaction with the war, Bush said that the United States is making steady progress by killing enemy fighters, training Iraqi troops and guiding Iraq toward democracy.
  • Bigger, Stronger Homemade Bombs Now to Blame for Half of U.S. Deaths:
    BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 -- After 31 months of fighting in Iraq, more than half of all American fatalities are now being caused by powerful roadside bombs that blast fiery, lethal shrapnel into the cabins of armored vehicles, confronting every patrol with an unseen, menacing adversary that is accelerating the U.S. death toll.

    U.S. military officials, analysts and militants themselves say insurgents have learned to adapt to U.S. defensive measures by using bigger, more sophisticated and better-concealed bombs known officially as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. They are sometimes made with multiple artillery shells and Iranian TNT, sometimes disguised as bricks, boosted with rocket propellant, and detonated by a cell phone or a garage door opener.
  • 3 Servicemen, 3 Stories of Dedication; Burials at Arlington Honor Those Who Fought in Iraq:
    Three men who chose to risk their lives for their country by serving in Iraq were laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. One had switched military branches to pursue his dream of flying helicopters; another could have retired but chose to remain in the service; and a third decided to reenlist on the condition that he be sent to Iraq.
  • Vice President for Torture:
    VICE PRESIDENT Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans.
  • Dick at the Heart of Darkness:
    If W. wants to show people now where the White House has been dishonored in far more astounding and deadly ways, he'll have to haul them around every nook and cranny of his vice president's office, then go across the river for a walk of shame through the Rummy empire at the Pentagon.

    The shocking thing about the trellis of revelations showing Dick Cheney, the self-styled Mr. Strong America, as the central figure in dark conspiracies to juice up a case for war and demonize those who tried to tell the public the truth is how unshocking it all is.

    It's exactly what we thought was going on, but we never thought we'd actually hear the lurid details: Cheney and Rummy, the two old compadres from the Nixon and Ford days, in a cabal running the country and the world into the ground, driven by their poisonous obsession with Iraq, while Junior is out of the loop, playing in the gym or on his mountain bike.
    Secrets and lies; Fitzgerald's indictments, if he brings them, could do more than convulse Washington -- they could reveal the hidden history of how we went to war:
    Oct. 26, 2005 | Tensions between Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the CIA were nearing a peak in the summer of 2003, months after the initial invasion of Iraq. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, fumed at what he saw as a "hedging strategy" by the CIA to deflect blame for bad Iraq intelligence.

    "I recall that Mr. Libby was angry about reports suggesting that senior administration officials, including Mr. Cheney, had embraced skimpy intelligence," wrote New York Times reporter Judith Miller, in a recent summary of her meetings from 2003. "Such reports, he said, according to my notes, were 'highly distorted.'"

    This is the context in which the White House lashed out against Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had accused the administration of twisting intelligence to make a case for war, and Valerie Plame, his wife. The couple were living, breathing examples of the threat unchecked naysayers posed to the reputation of the Bush administration. So in the summer of 2003, White House officials leaked Plame's identity to the press in an effort to discredit her husband. Two years later, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is faced with the task of examining this same landscape as he decides whether to file charges for the leak of Plame's name.

    The stakes in Fitzgerald's investigation rose dramatically with the report in Tuesday's New York Times that Libby first learned about Plame from a conversation with Cheney -- not from journalists, as Libby reportedly told the grand jury. Whatever the legal implications of Cheney's alleged involvement, it puts the vice president himself squarely in the middle of the effort to discredit Wilson.
  • The strange saga of Cheney and the "nuclear threat";
    Why did the veep suddenly lose interest in the evidence?
    :
    Oct. 26, 2005 | In the wake of the release of the Downing Street Memo, there has been much talk about how the Bush administration "fixed" its intelligence to create a war fever in the U.S. in the many months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. What still remains to be fully grasped, however, is the wider pattern of propaganda that underlay the administration's war effort -- in particular, the overlapping networks of relationships that tied together so many key figures in the administration, the neoconservatives and their allies on the outside, and parts of the media in what became a seamless, boundary-less operation to persuade the American people that Saddam Hussein represented an intolerable threat to their national security.

    Vice President Cheney, for instance, is widely credited with having launched the administration's nuclear drumbeat to war in Iraq via a series of speeches he gave, beginning in August 2002, vividly accusing Saddam of having an active nuclear weapons program. As it happens, though, he started beating the nuclear drum with vigor significantly earlier than most remember; indeed at a time that was particularly curious given its proximity to the famous mission former Ambassador Joseph Wilson took on behalf of the CIA.

    Cheney's initial public attempts to raise the nuclear nightmare did not in fact begin with his August 2002 barrage of nuclear speeches, but rather five months before that, just after his return from a tour of Arab capitals where he had tried in vain to gin up local support for military action against Iraq. Indeed, the specific date on which his campaign was launched was March 24, 2002, when, on return from the Middle East, he appeared on three major Sunday public-affairs television programs bearing similar messages on each. On CNN's "Late Edition," he offered the following comment on Saddam:

    "This is a man of great evil, as the President said. And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time."
  • U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ; A Deadly Surge; The fatality rate for American troops shot up more than a year ago, and no political or military advance has been able to slow it:
    A year and a half ago, at the first anniversary of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the death rate for American troops accelerated. Since then, none of the political milestones or military strategies proclaimed by U.S. officials have succeeded in slowing the toll.

    This is among the most striking conclusions of a Times analysis of the fatalities, which have reached 2,000, U.S. officials announced Tuesday.

    Two other findings stand out:

    • The number of deaths attributed to roadside bombs has sharply increased. The bombs have overtaken rockets, mortars and gunfire as the greatest threat to U.S. troops and were responsible for more than half of combat deaths in the last year.

    • The war has taken a growing toll on National Guard and reserve units. Their soldiers now account for nearly one-third of the deaths, up from one-fifth earlier in the conflict.
  • Finely, the most importunt articull in the bunch, witch thisn wuz writ by Lawrence B. Wilkerson, witch he served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005 – The White House cabal:
    IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

    When I first discussed this group in a speech last week at the New America Foundation in Washington, my comments caused a significant stir because I had been chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell between 2002 and 2005.
    But it's absolutely true. I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes with something less. More often than not, then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice was simply steamrolled by this cabal.

    Its insular and secret workings were efficient and swift — not unlike the decision-making one would associate more with a dictatorship than a democracy.
thang to member bout all this is how ifn yers a dictatership, yer the ultimate in rule of a individual man, not the rule of law. taint whut we wont in this cuntry!

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

closings of buddy don: do ye rent or own?

yesterdy me n miz bd gut us a chants to change the anser to that questchun. used to be we wood say, 'we rent.' now we kin say, 'we owe' on a counta how yesterdy at long last we wuz able to close on our apartment, witch now tiz calld a condo.

we are celebratin today (i tuck two days of vacayshun fer the event), so i wont be bloggin much. heres sum stories wurth yer time.have a grate day. me n miz bd will spend the rest of it celebratin our new status as property owners! or at lease, mortgage owers.

Monday, October 24, 2005

pinions of buddy don: hopin fer the silver linin

thays a lot of bad news lately, witch fer sum reason that gits me hopin thays a silver linin sumwhar. lets take a look.

furst challenge is this articull name of Enemy Body Counts Revived; U.S. Is Citing Tolls to Show Success in Iraq, witch ye mite thank thatn aint nuthin but a bad flashback to the sixties when ye had yer body count everday. but it aint that n the silver linin is most of them insurgents that gits killt is insurgents n almost nun of ems women n children:
So far, the releases have tended to be associated either with major attacks that netted significant numbers of enemy fighters or with lengthy operations that have spanned days or weeks. On Saturday, for instance, the U.S. military reported 20 insurgents killed and one captured in raids on five houses suspected of sheltering foreign fighters in a town near the Syrian border. Six days earlier, the 2nd Marine Division issued a statement saying an estimated 70 suspected insurgents had died in the Ramadi area as a result of three separate airstrikes by fighter jets and helicopters.

That Oct. 16 statement reflected some of the pitfalls associated with releasing such statistics. The number was immediately challenged by witnesses, who said many of those killed were not insurgents but civilians, including women and children.
then thays that senator frum tennessee name of bill frist. taint hard to find the silver linin in that story bout him name of Letters Show Frist Notified Of Stocks in 'Blind' Trusts; Documents Contradict Comments on Holdings on a counta how could he be shore he wuznt havin no conflick of innerest ifn he dint even know whut twuz he wuz a'holdin? gittin infermayshun bout his holdins musta hepped im be know whut twuz he had to be imparshull bout.

then thays this fear that Resignations May Follow Charges. the silver linin here is easy fer them folks. aint no reason to reesign atall! seem lack that wood be jumpin the gun on a counta mr bush dun sed he wood git rid of innybidy that wuz involved in criminull behavyer n gittin indicted aint criminull yet. woodnt thay half to be cunvicted befor he wood make em leave?

then thays this sprizin bit of news, speshly fer this here wundern hillbilly, child of a speshul agent of the fbi: FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations; Secret Surveillance Lacked Oversight. i had hoped the bureau, as daddy always called it, wuz above such thangs. in sted, i half to hope that the silver linin in thisn is that they wuznt spyin on me nor nobidy i know nor nobidy yew know n so on. thang is, how kin we find out?

thou shalt not brag about havin inside infermayshun, witch i reckun this story is jes whut the man deeserves: Judiciary Panel May Ask Dobson to Testify; Evangelical Leader Says He Has Been Privy to Miers's Views.

whut we need is sum distrackshun to git folkses minds offn all that bad news that makes folks look bad n git thar attenchun on sum bad news that makes folks look good. wunder whar it could be?

corse, sum stories cums with thar own silver lined cloud that aint even dark atall, witch thats the case with a story name of Inquiry as Exacting As Special Counsel Is; A Tough Investigation Is Also Praised as Nonpartisan. at last we gut us a story bout a feller that has integrity n putts his duty to cuntry above his party. everbidys a'gone half to lack that, rite? caint nobidy attack im, kin they? shorely aint nobidy lookin to –

wait, i see it now: Republicans Testing Ways to Blunt Leak Charges. not to wurry – sumbidys a'gone find the dark cloud in that silverlined story bout patrick fitzgerald:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 - With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.
hope they dont half to do nuthin illegal this time!

Sunday, October 23, 2005

pitchers tuck by buddy don: a stroll thru times square

heres sum pitchers i tuck last time i wuz strollin thru times square. i lack takin pitchers of folks bein natcherull, witch tiz hard to catch em. my goal is to git pitchers that has drama in em, witch these is all attemps at that n ye kin probly git a better idee whut i wuz a'shootin fer ifn ye click on em to make em bigger.






















pinions of buddy don: midterm forcast

in this corner, goliath:
  • In the Spotlight And on the Spot; Scooter Libby, Backstage No More:
    I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is known for his sarcastic, world-weary and at times dark sense of humor. He once quipped to an aide that he planned to stay as Vice President Cheney's top adviser until "I get indicted or something."

    That was during President Bush's first term, brighter days for the administration and, more to the point, before a special prosecutor was investigating Libby's possible role in disclosing the identity of a covert CIA officer, Valerie Plame.

    The joke -- recounted by the aide, who no longer works in the administration -- sounded absurd at the time, given Libby's renown for canniness and prudence. He adheres to a favorite Cheney maxim that the vice president credits to the late Sam Rayburn, a longtime House speaker: "You never get in trouble for something you don't say."

    Yet Libby could find himself in big trouble for saying too much. And this jibes with a lesser-known side of Libby, the audacious novelist and daredevil skier who has long been gripped with concern about exotic terrorist scenarios; who fervently argues his own viewpoints, particularly on matters of foreign policy; and who can become, friends and associates say, overly passionate in the face of opposing ones.
  • Contractor Accused Of Overbilling U.S.; Technology Company Hired After 9/11 Charged Too Much for Labor, Audit Says:
    Federal auditors say the prime contractor on a $1 billion technology contract to improve the nation's transportation security system overbilled taxpayers for as much as 171,000 hours' worth of labor and overtime by charging up to $131 an hour for employees who were paid less than half that amount.

    Three years ago, the Transportation Security Administration hired Unisys Corp. to create a state-of-the-art computer network linking thousands of federal employees at hundreds of airports to the TSA's high-tech security centers.

    The project is costing more than double the anticipated amount per month, and the network is far from complete -- nearly half of the nation's airports have yet to be upgraded. Government officials said last week that the initial $1 billion contract ceiling was only a starting point for the project, which they recently said could end up costing $3 billion.

    Procurement specialists said the Unisys contract illustrates the pitfalls of relying on corporations to manage ambitious homeland security contracts with little oversight from a thinly stretched federal procurement force. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, several projects have experienced similar problems with cost and performance, including efforts to hire federal airline passenger screeners and to place bomb detectors and radiation monitors at airports and seaports.
  • List of Foiled Plots Puzzling to Some; White House Document Mixes Half-Baked Plans With Serious Terrorist Threats:
    A White House list of 10 terrorist plots disrupted by the United States has confused counterterrorism experts and officials, who say they cannot distinguish between the importance of some incidents on the list and others that were left off.

    Intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the White House overstated the gravity of the plots by saying that they had been foiled, when most were far from ready to be executed. Others noted that the nation's color-coded threat index was not raised from yellow, or "elevated" risk of attack, to orange, or "high" risk, for most of the time covered by the incidents on the list.

    The president made it "sound like well-hatched plans," said a former CIA official involved in counterterrorism during that period. "I don't think they fall into that category."
  • Workplace Tremors; How Chapter 11 Is Demolishing Employee Expectations:
    Once shunned by respectable companies and ignored by Wall Street, federal bankruptcy court has become the venue of choice for sophisticated financiers and corporate managers seeking to pull apart labor contracts and roll back health and welfare programs at troubled companies.

    About 150 major corporations are now in some stage of bankruptcy reorganization, including four of the nation's leading airlines. As the prospect of other large enterprises taking a spin down Chapter 11 becomes more widely discussed in business circles ("maybes" on the list include such iconic names as General Motors and Ford), the tactics used in bankruptcy courts are shaking the very foundations of the American workplace.

    Whether an assembly-line worker or middle manager, an employee can no longer assume that promises made earlier -- health benefits or fully funded pensions -- will be there when he or she retires. The loss of security arising from Chapter 11 reorganizations has introduced a new element of anxiety into the lives of baby boomers who are approaching 60, not to mention younger workers just starting out in their careers.

    The new bankruptcy law, which took effect last week, will have little effect on corporate bankruptcies. The legislation, approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in April, is aimed at curbing abuses in consumer bankruptcies. It tightens the rules for individual filings, making it more difficult for consumers to have their credit card and other debts wiped clean in court.
  • Karl and Scooter's Excellent Adventure :
    THERE were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no collaboration between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda on 9/11. There was scant Pentagon planning for securing the peace should bad stuff happen after America invaded. Why, exactly, did we go to war in Iraq?

    "It still isn't possible to be sure - and this remains the most remarkable thing about the Iraq war," writes the New Yorker journalist George Packer, a disenchanted liberal supporter of the invasion, in his essential new book, "The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq." Even a former Bush administration State Department official who was present at the war's creation, Richard Haass, tells Mr. Packer that he expects to go to his grave "not knowing the answer."

    Maybe. But the leak investigation now reaching its climax in Washington continues to offer big clues. We don't yet know whether Lewis (Scooter) Libby or Karl Rove has committed a crime, but the more we learn about their desperate efforts to take down a bit player like Joseph Wilson, the more we learn about the real secret they wanted to protect: the "why" of the war.
in this corner, lil david:
  • Young Democrats Sharpen Tactics Against Old Rivals; New Breed on Hill Works Aggressively To Snap GOP Grip:
    With the Capitol all but deserted last Monday night, the Democratic "30-Something Working Group" seized the House floor and took aim at their Republican adversaries.

    As C-SPAN cameras beamed their performance around the country, Rep. Timothy J. Ryan, 32, of Ohio and Rep. Kendrick Meek, 39, of Florida recited a litany of GOP misdeeds -- mismanaging Hurricane Katrina and neglecting education and health care, for example -- and offered the Democrats' alternatives.

    Their conversation even veered to religion, a subject many Democrats are afraid to touch. Ryan described the problems of the poor as a moral obligation and asked of Meek: "Where is the Christian Coalition when you are cutting poverty programs? They are fighting over Supreme Court justices."

    The two newcomers -- who have served a combined six years in the House -- are part of a new generation of Democrats who are working to try to topple the GOP. Their fresh ideas, modern media skills and aggressive political tactics have inspired a party that has drifted for much of the past decade -- wedded to old notions and seemingly incapable of capitalizing on White House and congressional Republican miscues.

    As part of the new approach, House and Senate Democrats are devising an alternative agenda of key policies. Ryan is pushing proposals aimed at drastically reducing the number of abortions over the coming decade by offering support and services to pregnant women. Others are crafting a plan for reducing U.S. dependence on imported oil by using more domestic agricultural products, an approach that would have significant appeal to Midwestern voters.

    "We can't be Dr. No to everything Republicans do," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). "We have to provide our own positive ideas."
i caint hardly wait to see them idees!

Saturday, October 22, 2005

pomes of buddy don: If We Had to Obey Davis Bacon


If We Had to Obey Davis Bacon

If we had to obey Davis Bacon –
If we were forced to pay prevailing rates –
We'd have a line from New Orleans to Macon
Of greedy workers from the local states.

For they would want jobs with paid vacation
With a guarantee of work for a year
Plus the chance to become the salvation
Where Katrina's damage was severe.

Yet if we hire them there's no escape –
For if – with set law – we had to comply –
The bureaucratic nonsense and red tape
Would shrink our no-bid contract's 'higher pie'.

No, we to our shareholders must be true –
Besides illegal immigrants will do.

Friday, October 21, 2005

weariness of buddy don: wore plum out

whut a week fer wurk. i lef a lil early yesterdy -- only 10.5 hours fer the day (whut a slacker am i!). i dream of puttin sum of these stories into a 'linkoem,' as tennessee jed lacks to call them linked up bits of doggerl -- bloggerl -- i rite ever so often. thays plenty of grist fer the mill here:
  • Aide Says FEMA Ignored Warnings; Testimony Covers Communication as Levees Breached:
    For 16 critical hours, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, including former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness accounts by FEMA's only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane Katrina had broken the city's levee system the morning of Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding, the staffer told the Senate yesterday.
  • A Palpable Silence at the White House; Few Ready to Face Effects of Leak Case:
    At 7:30 each morning, President Bush's senior staff gathers to discuss the important issues of the day -- Middle East peace, the Harriet Miers nomination, the latest hurricane bearing down on the coast. Everything, that is, except the issue on everyone's mind.

    With special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald driving his CIA leak investigation toward an apparent conclusion, the White House now confronts the looming prospect that no one in the building is eager to address: a Bush presidency without Karl Rove. In a capital consumed by scandal speculation, most White House senior officials are no more privy than outsiders to the prosecutor's intentions. But the surreal silence in the Roosevelt Room each morning belies the nervous discussions racing elsewhere around the West Wing.
  • The Cutting Cost of Spending:
    In a speech last month, Bush said he'd "work with members of Congress to identify offsets to free up money for the reconstruction efforts."

    Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a leader of a group of fiscal conservatives in the House called the Republican Study Group (RSG), has suggested that the federal government "pay for the cost of Katrina by reducing the size and scope of government."

    Democrats argued Wednesday that the real reason Republicans were trying to cut the budget was to offset some of their proposed $70 billion in new tax cuts -- including a permanent repeal of the estate tax.
  • Colonel Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes:
    As Colin Powell's right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly during President Bush's first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time.

    He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore."

    And how about Karen Hughes's efforts to boost the country's image abroad? "It's hard to sell [manure]," Wilkerson said, quoting an Egyptian friend.

    The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: "If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you're declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences."
  • Rove Told Jury Libby May Have Been His Source In Leak Case; Top Aides Talked Before Plame's Name Was Public:
    White House adviser Karl Rove told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity was revealed, a source familiar with Rove's account said yesterday.

    In a talk that took place in the days before Plame's CIA employment was revealed in 2003, Rove and Libby discussed conversations they had had with reporters in which Plame and her marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV were raised, the source said. Rove told the grand jury the talk was confined to information the two men heard from reporters, the source said.

    Rove has also testified that he also heard about Plame from someone else outside the White House, but could not recall who.
  • Judy Miller, Piece of Work:
    If you've been following the twists and turns of the saga of Judith Miller -- the New York Times reporter jailed for refusing to reveal her anonymous source or sources, making her the only person imprisoned so far in the White House leaks scandal -- there are two facts that none of the stories has made clear.

    One is the identity of the person who first told Miller that Valerie Plame, or "Valerie Flame" as she wrote in her notebook, worked for the CIA. That's something only Miller knows, or once knew -- she seems to have forgotten.

    The other is something everybody in Washington media circles knows: Judy Miller is a real piece of work.
  • Fitzgerald is no Ken Starr; The same pundits who are absurdly smearing Fitzgerald as a partisan zealot were notably silent during the Whitewater disgrace:
    Oct. 21, 2005 | With the mounting anticipation that Bush administration officials will be indicted in the CIA leak investigation, we have arrived at the stage that was always inevitable: a wave of preemptive attacks on special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and his expected prosecutions.

    While the attackers have various motives, their arguments tend to share the same specious themes: that the special counsel has "run amok"; that he is pursuing the "criminalization of politics"; that no crimes were committed except possibly in covering up administration misbehavior, which supposedly are not crimes worth prosecuting; and that Fitzgerald is somehow comparable to Kenneth W. Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel whose gross abuse of his office led to its abolition.

    To anyone familiar with the most basic facts about Fitzgerald's prosecution, the quarreling with him and his methods simply sounds stupid. Do the Republican partisans who claim that he is running a "political" investigation realize that John Ashcroft's deputy appointed him? Do those same Republicans remember that the president endorsed his appointment and the purposes of the investigation? Do they know that the original demand for an investigation came from former CIA director George Tenet?

    Having ascertained that someone probably had committed a crime by leaking Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA identity to Robert Novak and other journalists, the agency repeatedly asked the Justice Department to investigate. Eventually the department opened a case, but after three months and under intense criticism, Attorney General Ashcroft recused himself and asked his deputy to appoint a special counsel. Fitzgerald, already an appointee of the Bush administration as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, accepted the job when asked.

    So whatever damage Fitzgerald may ultimately do, he is not an independent counsel unleashed by opposition forces to bring down the Bush administration. The president has endorsed his integrity and competence, and no one has uncovered a hint of a political motive or any conflict of interest.
  • Suddenly, it's a vast left-wing conspiracy:
    I'VE BEEN waiting for quite a while now for conservatives to come up with a theory to explain why large chunks of the Republican Party are, or soon will be, under indictment. The argument I've been anticipating has finally arrived, in the form of a long lead editorial in the latest edition of the influential conservative magazine the Weekly Standard.

    The editorial, written by Standard Editor William Kristol and longtime conservative activist Jeffrey Bell, begins by acknowledging the uncomfortable fact that "the most prominent promoters of the conservative agenda of the Bush administration" are facing legal troubles of one kind or another. It cites the legal imbroglios of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist. It neglects to mention David Safavian, the chief of staff at the General Services Administration in the Bush administration; conservative activist/superlobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon; and Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe) and Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and perhaps some others I'm forgetting.

    Anyway, one conclusion you could draw from all these examples is that the Republican Party has gotten a bit corrupt. The Standard does not, however, draw this conclusion. Another possibility is that it's all just a coincidence. The Standard doesn't conclude that, either. Instead, the editorial declares, "a comprehensive strategy of criminalization had been implemented to inflict defeat on conservatives who seek to govern as conservatives."

    The wording here is instructive. The authors have obviously chosen to use the passive voice to avoid having to spell out just who has implemented this comprehensive strategy of criminalization. That's because answering that question would expose just how silly their theory is.
i do have one thang i wood lack to know: whar are them dimcrats? whuts thar plan? is it jes to hope them publicans self-deestruck? whut wood they do ifn they wuz to git inny power back? tiz bout time they tole us on a counta we need sumbidy that kin ackshly make gummint wurk n we know them publicans dont thank it orta or kin or is innythang but a problem, witch they way they run it, thar rite.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

wurk of buddy don: long daze

i wurk on wall street at a place i call good bank. this time of year, yer wall street firms is all busy figgern out how much end of year compensayshun (bonus) folks is a'gone git. ackshly, tiz only the bankers n traders that gits much. taint lack the rest of us dont git nuthin n i am verr grateful fer my bonus. but fack is, sum of them bankers i serve is a'gone git moren a bonus than i will make in ten years. thems the folks that needs thar tax cut overn over agin!

but that aint why im a'ritin this today. tiz on a counta how ye gut to wurk verr long hours this time of year. ye gut yer managin die-recktors in town frum all over the worl n they takes lots of time n effort, witch that means ye wurk 10-14 hours ever day. fer that reason, i aint gut time to blog they way i wood lack to.

ifn i did have time, i wood wonta rite bout these here stories:i caint give it more time since good bank has dun gut 3 11-hour daze frum me n is a'gone git two more n a spell on saturdy. thang is, i am one of the lucky ones n i dont never fergit it!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

pomes of buddy don: This Is No Class War


This Is No Class War

To tax investment income just creates
A major disincentive to invest
This honorable principle translates
To rich folks getting richer as they rest!

It's taxing death to tax inheritance
Or so the living heirs loudly complain –
They so deserve their wealth since birthright's chance
Decreed they be bequeathed effortless gain!

In fact the only thing we ought to tax
Is money earned by elbow grease or work –
We can balance our budget on the backs
Of the lowly lucklessly working jerk!

This is no class war – do not think it is –
They must protect what's theirs – not yours or his!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

ramblins of buddy don: a lil this n that fer tuesdy

furst thays a weather report ye mite wonta read name of Warming to Cause Harsher Weather, Study Says:
Extreme weather events -- including heat waves, floods and drought -- are likely to become more common over the next century in the United States because of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by Purdue University researchers.

[...]

Under this scenario, which assumes the amount of carbon dioxide in the air will roughly double over the next 100 years, the coldest days of the year in the Northeast will be as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, and the temperatures currently experienced on the 18 hottest days of the year in the Washington area will prevail for two months.

The Southwest will become drier and hotter, the paper predicts, while the Gulf Coast will become warmer and experience less frequent, but more intense, rains.
then thays that story that jes wont go away, the one whar sumbidy deecided to putt party above cuntry agin, witch thats whut they dun when they tride to smear joseph wilson by revealin his wife wuz a secret agent. ye kin read how tiz cummin closern closer to dick cheney in a articull name of Cheney's Office Is A Focus in Leak Case; Sources Cite Role Of Feud With CIA:
As the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name hurtles to an apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office, according to lawyers familiar with the case and government officials. The prosecutor has assembled evidence that suggests Cheney's long-standing tensions with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame.

In grand jury sessions, including with New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Fitzgerald has pressed witnesses on what Cheney may have known about the effort to push back against ex-diplomat and Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, including the leak of his wife's position at the CIA, Miller and others said. But Fitzgerald has focused more on the role of Cheney's top aides, including Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, lawyers involved in the case said.

One former CIA official told prosecutors early in the probe about efforts by Cheney's office and his allies at the National Security Council to obtain information about Wilson's trip as long as two months before Plame was unmasked in July 2003, according to a person familiar with the account.

It is not clear whether Fitzgerald plans to charge anyone inside the Bush administration with a crime. But with the case reaching a climax -- administration officials are braced for possible indictments as early as this week-- it is increasingly clear that Cheney and his aides have been deeply enmeshed in events surrounding the Plame affair from the outset.
corse, ye gut yer corrupshun stories, witch ye half to wunder whuther these folks thanks thar above the law. seem lack the dont never speck to be held accountabull fer thar ackshuns (i reckon the figger god is a'lookin tuther way too). ye kin read all bout yer moral values group at wurk in a articull name of Lawmaker's Abramoff Ties Investigated; Ohio's Ney Has Disavowed Lobbyist:
As federal officials pursue a wide-ranging investigation into the activities of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his arrest on fraud charges in the purchase of a Florida casino boat company has increasingly focused attention on a little-known congressman from rural Ohio.

Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) placed comments in the Congressional Record favorable to Abramoff's 2000 purchase of the casino boat company, SunCruz Casinos. Two years later, Ney sponsored legislation to reopen a casino for a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented.

Ney approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House. The company later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying. It also donated $50,000 to a charity that Abramoff sometimes used to secretly pay for some of his lobbying activities.

Meanwhile, Ney accepted many favors from Abramoff, among them campaign contributions, dinners at the lobbyist's downtown restaurant, skybox fundraisers, including one at his MCI Center box, and a golfing trip to Scotland in August 2002. If statements made by Abramoff to tribal officials and in an e-mail are to be believed, Ney sought the Scotland trip after he agreed to help Abramoff's Texas Indian clients. Abramoff then arranged for his charity to pay for the trip, according to documents released by a Senate committee investigating the lobbyist.
do they thank tiz ok to lie n steal n even profit by murder? i gut to read my bible agin to figger how that fits with whut jesus wood do.

then ye gut yer collaterull damage, civilyuns -- women n kids -- killt by our soljers, witch we aint even add mittin we dun it n ifn we did, twuz a honest miss take. that story is tole in a articull name of Iraqis Say Civilians Killed in U.S. Raids; Military Asserts Fatalities in West Were Insurgents:
BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 -- A U.S. fighter jet bombed a crowd gathered around a burned Humvee on the edge of a provincial capital in western Iraq, killing 25 people, including 18 children, hospital officials and family members said Monday. The military said the Sunday raid targeted insurgents planting a bomb for new attacks.

In all, residents and hospital workers said, 39 civilians and at least 13 armed insurgents were killed in a day of U.S. airstrikes in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a Sunni Arab region with a heavy insurgent presence.

The U.S. military said it killed a total of 70 insurgents in Sunday's airstrikes and, in a statement, said it knew of no civilian deaths.

At Ramadi hospital, distraught and grieving families fought over body parts severed by the airstrikes, staking rival claims to what they believed to be pieces of their loved ones.

In Albu Fahad, a community on the east edge of Ramadi, family members gathered Monday in a black funeral tent. A black banner listed the names of the 18 children and seven adults allegedly killed by the F-15 strike.

Residents and the U.S. military gave sharply different accounts of the air raid.
core, ifn ye gut a party thats been a'claimin that gummint caint do nuthin rite n ifn that same party is in control of everthang in gummin, taint no sprize that thangs dont wurk (makes me wish we had them folks that bleeves that gummint -- witch thats the people when ye thank bout it -- kin wurk). a good eggzample of whut happens when such a party is in cuntrol is tole in a articull name of Messages Depict Disarray in Federal Katrina Response:
As Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans on Aug. 29, Michael D. Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared confused over whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had put him in charge, senior military officials could not reach Brown and his team became swamped by the speed of the unfolding disaster, according to e-mails to and from Brown.

When Chertoff belatedly named Brown the on-site disaster coordinator on the night of Aug. 30 and declared Katrina an "incident of national significance" -- the highest- order catastrophe under a new national response plan -- Brown and his assistants privately complained.

"Demote the Under Sec to PFO [Principal Federal Officer]?" an outraged FEMA press secretary Sharon Worthy wrote Brown at 10:54 p.m., soon after Chertoff's decision. "What about the precedent being set? What does this say about executive management and leadership in the Agency?"

"Exactly," replied Brown, then-under secretary for preparedness and response, according to e-mails obtained by The Washington Post.

The e-mails also show that the government's response plan, two years in the making, began breaking down even before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Before the storm hit, Brown's deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, said White House pressure to form an interagency crisis management group was irrelevant, even though a task force and principal federal officer are key parts of the plan.
finely, ye gut the rank hypocrussy of all them palltishuns eggsplaind in a bit of fine punditree name of 'Rule of Law'? That's So '90s:
Those who thought investigations were a wonderful thing when Bill Clinton was president are suddenly facing prosecutors, and they don't like it. It seems like a hundred years ago when Clinton's defenders were accusing his opponents of using special prosecutors, lawsuits, criminal charges and, ultimately, impeachment to overturn the will of the voters.

Clinton's conservative enemies would have none of this. No, they said over and over, the Clinton mess was not about sex but about "perjury and the obstruction of justice" and "the rule of law."

The old conservative talking points are now inoperative.

It's especially amusing to see former House majority leader Tom DeLay complain about the politicization of justice. The man who spoke of the Clinton impeachment as "a debate about relativism versus absolute truth" now insists that the Democratic prosecutor in Texas who indicted him on charges of violating campaign finance law is engaged in a partisan war. That's precisely what Clinton's defenders accused DeLay of championing in the impeachment battle seven years ago.
i wish one side or tuther wood git to whar they wood putt cuntry above party, whar they wonted truth in place of spin, whar they knew the gummint is of the people, by the people n for the people, not of, by n for the parties. i bleeve folks wood make such a stand a winner ... but them, i aint nuthin but a ole hillbilly.

Monday, October 17, 2005

pinions of buddy don: nuther harvest moon



i been trine lack crazy to git a good pitcher of the moon. aint nowhar near whut mr rneal (blogger formerly knowd as south knox bubba) kin do, witch ye kin see his magickcull pitcher here. but i gut to thankin bout all them thangs thats been sowed over the las few years, witch we seem to be reapin em rite n lef:i aint gut time to rite much more bout them articulls, witch they purty much splain tharself. meanwhile, i gut a hard day.

ifn yer the prayin kind, could ye say a lil prayer fer mama. she went on vacayshun to lost wages n gut sickern a dawg. as miz bd sez, sum folks lose thar shirt in lost wages; mama lost her gall bladder, witch the prognosis aint bad, but ye never know ...

Sunday, October 16, 2005

pomes of buddy don: cuple quizickull verses

  1. Can we assume intelligent design
    Will prevent the evolving of bird flu
    From one that wipes out fowl like turpentine
    To one that kills off folks like me and you?

  2. And if democracy is on the rise
    Why are our moral values so corrupt
    That we who are its stewards let these guys
    The legislative process interrupt?

Saturday, October 15, 2005

memries of buddy don: aint we dun been here befor?


Inflation In Sept. Highest Since '80; Federal Benefits To Rise Up to 4.1%

Sex, Envy, Proximity

80% of Poor Lack Civil Legal Aid, Study Says

aint gut time fer more on a counta me n miz bd has gut to go on over to man hattan sos i kin pick up my erbs frum kamwo over in chinatown n visit the strand bookstore in the village n such.

Friday, October 14, 2005

ramblins of buddy don: could it be a curse?

dont know whuther ye have notissd, but seems lack thays a curse on this administrayshun. seem lack everthang they dun tride to do since cindy sheehan set up camp near mr bushs ranch set ('quiet on the set!') has faild. they caint git no brakes, no how no way. tiz a day when the stories in the noosepapers speak fer thar self!
  • Scandals Take Toll On Bush's 2nd Term:
    With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks.

    Bush's main partners on Capitol Hill likewise are spending time defending themselves as the president's legislative initiatives founder. The indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for alleged campaign funding illegalities has thrown Republicans into one of the most tumultuous periods of their 11-year reign and created the prospect of a leadership battle. And while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) deals with a subpoena in an insider-trading investigation, a bipartisan majority rebuked Bush over torture policies.
  • DeLay's Telephone Records Subpoenaed:
    AUSTIN, Oct. 13 -- A Texas prosecutor subpoenaed telephone records for the home phone of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and the phone of his political campaign Thursday.

    Also subpoenaed by prosecutor Ronnie Earle were records for two phone numbers of DeLay's daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro.

    DeLay is facing charges of money laundering and conspiracy in a Texas campaign finance case.
  • For Injured U.S. Troops, 'Financial Friendly Fire'; Flaws in Pay System Lead to Dunning, Credit Trouble:
    His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.

    The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.

    But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
  • Ex-FDA Chief Would Not Aid Plan B Inquiry:
    The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration declined to cooperate with an inquiry by the Government Accountability Office into the agency's controversial decision to reject nonprescription sales of an emergency contraceptive.

    According to congressional staffers who have read the draft GAO report but were not allowed to copy it, the document has several footnotes indicating Lester M. Crawford did not respond to requests for an interview.

    During the period examined by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, Crawford was deputy FDA commissioner and then acting commissioner of the agency. He was confirmed as permanent FDA commissioner in July and then abruptly resigned last month.

    The draft report, which is being reviewed by the FDA and members of Congress, describes the agency's decision-making process on Plan B as highly unusual because officials in the commissioner's office were directly involved and the FDA office directors who normally rule on applications refused to sign the rejection letter. An FDA advisory panel earlier voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal.
  • A Polling Free-Fall Among Blacks:
    In what may turn out to be one of the biggest free-falls in the history of presidential polling, President Bush's job-approval rating among African Americans has dropped to 2 percent, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
  • Losing That Wealthy Feeling:
    Ours is a wealth-driven era, when huge increases in home values and, before that, stock prices make people feel richer and cause them to buy more. They spend more of their regular incomes, borrow more or sell something, most likely stocks. You can imagine this "wealth effect" as a powerful afterburner that's boosted the economy for roughly 20 years.
    While everyone is now worrying about the economic impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- on consumer confidence, energy prices, inflation and the federal budget -- the real story may be whether the afterburner is flaming out.
  • That Was a Short War on Poverty:
    As soon as President Bush announced his first spending package for reconstructing New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the Republican Study Committee and other conservatives switched the subject from poverty reduction to how Katrina reconstruction plans might increase the deficit that their own tax-cutting policies helped create.

    Unwilling to freeze any of the tax cuts, these conservatives proposed cutting other spending to offset Katrina costs. The headlines focused on the seemingly easy calls on pork-barrel spending. But some of their biggest cuts were in health care programs, including Medicaid, and other spending for the poor.

    Thus, the budget Congress is now considering would cut spending by $35 billion and cut taxes by $70 billion. Excuse me, but doesn't this increase the deficit by a net of $35 billion?
  • Bush's Chat With Troops Draws Flak; War critics and some military leaders disapprove of the president's carefully staged videoconference with soldiers in Iraq.:
    WASHINGTON — President Bush touched off a new round of controversy over his policies in Iraq on Thursday when he conducted a videoconference interview about this weekend's constitutional referendum with a small group of handpicked troops stationed in Iraq who reinforced his upbeat view of the conflict.

    The closely coordinated exchange drew disapproval from Democratic critics of the war as well as some Pentagon military leaders.

    The soldiers were carefully coached. Before the session began, a Pentagon communications official, Allison Barber, was heard asking one of them, "Who are we going to give that [question] to?"
so whut kin the dimcrats do to take add vantage of this kinda news? duz innybidy have a idee? turns out, thay is sumbidy, witch he writ his idee in a letter to the new york times. ye mite be sprized who tiz. i lack his idee!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

pomes of buddy don: it's just a natural coincidence


it's just a natural coincidence

it's just a natural coincidence
of earthly cycles boundless and immense
that so-called global warming could create
the hottest year since 1998

and do not think releasing CO2
as proved by analytical review
should lead us to admit we are to blame
for heating up the world as with a flame

and surely we should not accept as true
a fifty percent hike in CO2
in just one hundred years would heat our seas
in terms of fahrenheit by 2 degrees

we will not change! we'll do just as we please,
as easter islanders might fell their trees

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

pinions of buddy don: party above cuntry

tiz a story as ole as the greeks n probly older, witch thats whar folks putts thar party abuve thar cuntry. back in 427 bc, a historyun name of thucydides writ a histry of the times follerin the peloponeeshun war. heres whut he writ on that topick, witch ye kin read the hole thang here:
10.36 The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention. The leaders in the cities, each provided with the fairest professions, on the one side with the cry of political equality of the people, on the other of a moderate aristocracy, sought prizes for themselves in those public interests which they pretended to cherish, and, recoiling from no means in their struggles for ascendancy engaged in the direst excesses; in their acts of vengeance they went to even greater lengths, not stopping at what justice or the good of the state demanded, but making the party caprice of the moment their only standard, and invoking with equal readiness the condemnation of an unjust verdict or the authority of the strong arm to glut the animosities of the hour. Thus religion was in honour with neither party; but the use of fair phrases to arrive at guilty ends was in high reputation. Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished between the two, either for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape.
a lil earlier in the same histry, thucydides splains how tiz ever the same:
The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same; though in a severer or milder form, and varying in their symptoms, according to the variety of the particular cases.
so whut ye a'gone do bout all them ills? how bout a lil bloggin as therpy?