KicK! Making Politics Fun

I am sure I was not alone in early 2003 saying this idiot in the White House had no idea what he was getting us into with his war in Iraq. A parochial stay at home dad whose world view extends little past the brush line of his Texas ranch who has no concept of THE OTHER. These specific OTHERS are much like George W. Bush in that their religion comes first which there is no chance of changing. Whether it's executing a teacher in Sudan, beheading 15 year olds in Afghanistan, beating and jailing rape victims in Saudi Arabia, or shooting your neighbors in the head in Iraq, we are not going to change them by hook, crook or war (which only incites them further).

This one picture of the march in Khartoum to force the government to execute a woman whose grade school students named a teddy bear "Mohammad" says it better than any graphic I have ever seen. Look down that street into infinity going far beyond what you can see - from North Africa to Indonesia. Hundreds of millions of people who think the same way. It is a different world we have no business being in. Osama bin Laden is right on at least that. Calls in sudan for Execution of Briton (NYT)

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MENDING WALL
Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

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Henry Hyde, congressmen from Illinois dead at 83. Henry Hyde is most remembered as the loudest voice in congress denying women their right to choose an abortion and as the leading House Manager in 1998 to impeach President Bill Clinton. Though it was Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay who decided to have an impeachment, it was the once respected Henry Hyde who gave it the gravitas needed for it to proceed.

While Hyde and the rest of the other reactionary Republican House Managers fell over themselves talking the high moral ground over sexual matters, what went around finally came around to bite him on the ass, latch on, and follow him to the grave. His past long term adultery, unlike Bill Clinton's, ruined a marriage. As was the case with Impeachment House Manager Bob Barr who was photographed licking whipped cream off of women's breasts and paid for an abortion, as was the case with House Manager Bob Livingston who was found to frequent prostitutes, Henry Hyde also never recovered from the hypocrisy and the shame.

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General, thanks for your service, but I believe in what Colin Powell said when he said that having openly homosexual people serving in the ranks would be bad for unit cohesion.

The reason for that, even though people point to the Israelis and point to the Brits and point to other people as having homosexuals serve, is that most Americans, most kids who leave that breakfast table and go out and serve in the military and make that corporate decision with their family, most of them are conservatives.

They have conservative values, and they have Judeo-Christian values. To force those people to work in a small tight unit with somebody who is openly homosexual goes against what they believe to be their principles, and it is their principles, is I think a disservice to them. I agree with Colin Powell that it would be bad for unit cohesion. Duncan Hunter

Some issues like this one get to the very core of our differences. All Republican candidates agreed with Duncan Hunter in celebration of America's pride for religious intolerance and bigotry, while the rest of us are shamed by it. Unlike other Western Democracies where gay and straight soldiers fight side by side without controversy, Republicans tell us most of our troops are bigoted Christian conservatives who will not tolerate gays in their units. As is the case in the militaries in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc... It is why we fight, to substitute their BAD religious intolerance with our GOOD religious intolerance.

Though there were nine official Crusades, in truth it was one war in one place, Christians versus Islam in the Middle East. After 200 years of the bloodiest warfare in history - even considering a few Papal Surges to make it seem to go well - it was all for naught. We have five years into this one with only 195 to go before our final loss. Time, time, time is on their side... yes it is...

If you missed the debate CNN has the complete video and transcript that is very easy to naviagate at Republican Debate: Analyzing the Details

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Need anything more to tell you the US economy is down the pooper?

Rappers, led by internationally recognized economist Jay Z, are now requesting to be paid in Euros, rather than US Dollars. You can't really blame them. The euro bought an all-time record $1.4752 on Friday, and the British pound also has been trading at its highest levels against the dollar since the early 1980s. The Canadian dollar, often called the "Loonie," reached parity with the dollar in September for the first time since 1976, and has climbed steadily since. The euro bought $1.4655 yesterday, while the Loonie bought $1.0373.

With the Euro you can get almost half-again more bling, blow, and ho's. Plus, name one international drug figure that has been busted for laundering his Euros. Of course, President Bush and VP Cheney are probably paid in gold, right into their Swiss accounts, but watch them withdraw it in Euros. If they ever do. The lesson here? Buy American, but spend Euros.

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November 28, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Jump on the Peace Train
By MAUREEN DOWD

Condi doesn’t want to be Iraq.

She wants to be a Palestinian state. It has a far more hopeful ring to it, legacy-wise.
The Most Powerful Woman in the History of the World, as President Bush calls her, is a very orderly person.
Like her boss, she loves schedules and routines and hates disruptions. As a child, she was elected “president” of her family, a position that allowed her to dictate the organizational details of family trips, according to “Condoleezza Rice: An American Life,” a new biography by The Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller.

As an adult, Condi was worried about taking the job of top diplomat because it would mean traveling and being away from her things and habits.

So it is telling that in Annapolis she is running such a seat-of-the-pants operation, which seems designed to rescue the images of a secretary of state and president who have spent more time working out in the gym than working on the peace process.

W. couldn’t be bothered to stay in Annapolis and try to belatedly push things along and guide Israel with a firmer hand.

After subverting diplomacy in his first term, now W. does drive-by diplomacy, taking a playboy approach to peace. He wants to look like he’s taking the problem of an Israeli-Palestinian treaty seriously when his true motivation is more cynical: pacifying the Arab coalition and holding it together so that he can blunt Iran’s sway.
When they invaded Iraq rather than working on the Palestine problem, W. and Condi helped spur the greater Iranian influence, Islamic extremism and anti-American sentiment that they are now desperately trying to quell.
Condi has compared trying to broker deals in the Middle East to “Groundhog Day.” An Annapolis-inspired breakthrough would be thrilling, but it will be tough for Madame Secretary to turn around her reputation after so many instances of Mideast malpractice.

The tight-as-a-tick team of W. and Condi have been consistently culturally obtuse on the Middle East, even with a pricey worldwide operation designed to keep them in the loop.

First, Condi missed the scorching significance of the August 2001 presidential daily brief headlined “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” “An explosive title on a nonexplosive piece,” as she later dismissively described it.
Then she and W. failed to fathom that if Iraq went wrong, Iran would benefit.

When Brent Scowcroft, who lured the young Soviet expert from Stanford to the Bush 1 national security staff, wrote a Wall Street Journal piece before the Iraq war titled “Don’t Attack Saddam,” she didn’t call him to explore his reasoning. She scolded him for publicly disagreeing with W. Scowcroft confided to friends that he was mystified by Rice. She enabled Bush’s bellicosity rather than putting a brake on it.

“He told me several times, ‘I don’t understand how my lady, my baby, my disciple, has changed so much,’ ” a senior European diplomat told Bumiller.

Beauty queen Ingrid Marie Rivera beat 29 rivals, all beautiful in appearance, to become Puerto Rico’s 2008 Miss Universe contestant, but this writer believes she deserves another crown for sheer stoicism. Those chicas are serious about their tiara collecting down there!

Rivera was composed while appearing before cameras and judges throughout the competition. But once backstage, she had to strip off her clothes and apply ice bags to her face and body, which swelled and broke out in hives twice.” We thought at first it was an allergic reaction, or maybe nerves, "Riviera said. ”But the second time, we knew it couldn't have been a coincidence.”

Rivera's clothing and makeup later tested positive for pepper spray. Yes, the very same stuff which often makes grown men cry, all over her body, and on her eyes, in her eye make-up! In another “prank”, someone also stole Rivera's bag containing her gowns, makeup and credit cards. A bomb threat forced pageant officials to postpone the last day of competition on Thursday, said Magali Febles, director of the Miss Puerto Rico Universe pageant, who obviously views bomb threats as “pranks” as well, since pageant organizers hope to catch and expose the responsible party or parties without police involvement. Obviously their idea of “pranks” varies widely from our own.

Beauty competitions in the U.S. Caribbean territory -- which boasts five Miss Universe titles, second only to the U.S. -- are fierce, drawing boisterous audiences and accusations of rigged results, making it sound a bit like ‘Merican Big Time Wrestlin’ Even so, these “pranks” are said to be a first. Riviera, who won Miss World Caribbean in 2005, has been the center of controversy from the start. Rivals complained she was too experienced and should be disqualified.

Local media may unwittingly have contributed to her misfortunes, touting her as the likely winner, and causing jealousy among contestants. When she won, she was accused of buying the crown, reported Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Dia newspaper.

At a news conference Sunday, Rivera was at last able to unleash the tears, recounting her ordeal, and acknowledging she’d wavered about staying in the contest. “At one point I said. “Am I a masochist?” she recalled, her voice breaking, “but I said, “I am with God and this is my goal, regardless of the results.” Whatever she chooses to do in her life, I have a feeling little can stop her! SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Ingrid MarieRivera, Miss Universe (AP)

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"The Willie Horton ugliness of 1988 will be like nothing compared with the concerted attack to be unleashed by the G.O.P. on illegal immigrants next year." Bob Herbert

November 27, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Behind the Curtain
By BOB HERBERT

A friend of mine, talking about the Democratic presidential candidates, tossed out a wonderful mixed metaphor: “This is awfully weak tea to have to hang your hat on.”

The notion that Bush & Co. had fouled things up so badly for Republicans that just about any Democrat could romp to victory in 2008 was never realistic. What’s interesting now, with the first contests just weeks away, is the extent to which Democratic voters are worried about the possibility that none of their candidates have the stuff to take the White House.

This election, the most important in decades, cries out for strong leadership. The electorate is upset, anxious and hungry for change. But “weak tea” is as good a term as any to describe what the Democrats are offering.

The latest pronunciation comes just months after McClellan was regarded as 100% honest as White House Press Secretary. White House Spokesperson Dana Perino informed the White House Press corps that McClellan was now persona non grata Friday in a prepared statement. Members of the White House press corps were especially silent following the release, presumably because it was the day after Thanksgiving, and news outlets had their hands full reporting on sales beginning at 5 a.m., and recipes for leftover turkey.

“We’re not going to touch that,” said a reporter from the press pool that asked not to be identified. “If we report that in depth, then we will have to report how we haven’t asked hard questions about the other lies coming out of the White House. Some of us still want to ask what’s up with the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. Even more want to ask about the weapons of mass destruction and Colin Powell’s speech at the UN. “

There seems to be a consensus among the press that perhaps they could have done a beer job. None have stepped forward to begin doing so, however.

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"Dummies" in this article defines those who have not paid much attention to this issue and want a quick synopsis of what this is all about. If you are an advocate of Intelligent Design you are at the wrong article, please go to this article: Intelligent Design For Morons & Imbeciles.

Nova recently broadcast a two hour special on the Pennsylvania case of Dover Parents and Teachers versus the Dover School Board who tried to push Intelligent Design into 9th grade biology classes. It went to Federal District Court under Judge John E. Jones, a Republican recommended by Intelligent Design advocate Senator Rick Santorum and appointed by Intelligent Design advocate George W. Bush. The parents and teachers were represented by the Pennsylvana ACLU while the School board by The Thomas Moore Law Center (advocates of bringing down the separation of Church and State) and the Discovery Institute (the old Creation Science organization under the new auspices of Intelligent Design).

Though it goes without saying that Intelligent Design is in reality just the latest phrase for Creationism, the ACLU had to prove so in a court of law. To that end they produced documents from the organizers of the Discovery Institute which proved just that. The other issue at play was the anonymous arrival of 68 copies of the Intelligent Design textbook, Of Pandas and People, to the Dover high school library. Under oath, two of the school board members, Bill Buckingham and Allan Bonsell - the instigators of this shell game - stated they did not know anything about that box of books. When confronted with ACLU documents that proved otherwise on the stand, Buckingham later admitted he ordered them and Bonsell paid for them.

In the few months that Judge Jones spent writing his decision, Dover residents voted out all of the Intelligent Design school board members. Unsure what the decision would be considering Judge Jones ties to Rick Santorum and George W. Bush, it was somewhat of a surprise just how hard Judge Jones came down on this silly business. Not only did he rule that Intelligent Design was religion, that it was also religious creationism in poor disguise, called for the school board members to pay $1 million to the plaintives in legal fees, but he also charged both Bonsell and Buckingham with perjury.

"In an era where we're trying to cure cancer— where we're trying to—prevent pandemics, where we're trying to keep science and math education on the cutting edge in the United States. To introduce and teach bad science to ninth grade students make very little sense to me. You know, garbage in, garbage out. And it doesn't benefit any of us who benefit daily from scientific discoveries." Judge John E. Jones

The response to the decision was what one would expect from such people. Phone and email death threats to the teachers, parents and Judge Jones requiring FBI protection and of course some quotes from the losers.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city" Pat Robertson

"To put it bluntly, I think he's a jackass. I think he went to clown college instead of law school or else he went to law school and slept during the Constitution classes because, uh, his decision doesn't jive with the law. Uh, I think he should be on a bench, but it ought to be in a center ring of Ringling Brothers Circus. He, it, it, it's disgusting." Bill Buckingham.

The complete two hours of this is available at the PBS website linked below. To see just how mud dumb stupid human beings can get, go to minute 7:20 in the last chapter to see Bill Buckingham's speech. Concluding chapter of: Judgment Day - Intelligent Design on Trial (12 min)

The videos of all 12 chapters are available at All 12 Chapters of Nova's Judgment Day -Intelligent Design on Trial (2 hours)

Michael Behe, the leading (so called) Intelligent Design scientist - degreed not in life sciences but in mathematical theory - was one of the few ID purveyors dumb enough to testify. He was made a fool of by the ACLU lawyers as he was by Stephen Colbert earlier this year. Stephen Colbert interviews Michael Behe

Short history of the Intelligent Design movement on Kick!

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Bush Issues "Thankfulness List"
Pre-Thanksgiving Radio Address
Andy Borowitz

In a special pre-Thanksgiving radio address broadcast from the White House, President George W. Bush asked his fellow Americans to join him in giving thanks for the following things:

“My fellow Americans, let’s be thankful for global warming, because as these winter months approach, it makes the world such a nice, toasty place.

“Let’s be thankful for all of the food on our tables, unless some of it is from China.

“Let’s be thankful that Pakistan will have free and fair elections, and maybe someday we will, too.

“Let’s be thankful for the iPhone, except for those losers who actually paid full price for it.

“Let’s be grateful that I didn’t take out a subprime mortgage on the White House like Mr. Cheney told me to.

“Let's be thankful that nuclear weapons haven’t fallen into the hands of the wrong people, like Nancy Pelosi or Rosie O’Donnell.

“Let’s be thankful that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s writers are on strike, and hopefully will stay that way for the rest of my term in office.

“Let's be thankful that even though my approval numbers are falling, they’re still higher than my grades at Yale.

“Let’s be thankful that Osama bin Laden dyed his hair in his last video, because that made him look really gay.

“Let's be thankful for Guitar Hero III, which really helps you get through those long Cabinet meetings when they're going on and on about the economy.

“Let's be thankful that our military commanders have nothing bad to say about the war in Iraq until after they’re retired.

“Let's be thankful that in nine months it will be August and then I can go on summer vacation again.

“And finally, my fellow Americans, let's be thankful that, even though Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, I’m still a lock for the Nobel War Prize.”

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November 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Winter of Our Discontent
By PAUL KRUGMAN

“Americans’ Economic Pessimism Reaches Record High.” That’s the headline on a recent Gallup report, which shows a nation deeply unhappy with the state of the economy. Right now, “27% of Americans rate current economic conditions as either ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ while 44% say they are ‘only fair’ and 28% say they are poor.” Moreover, “an extraordinary 78% of Americans now say the economy is getting worse, while a scant 13% say it is getting better.”

What’s really remarkable about this dismal outlook is that the economy isn’t (yet?) in recession, and consumers haven’t yet felt the full effects of $98 oil (wait until they see this winter’s heating bills) or the plunging dollar, which will raise the prices of imported goods.

The response of those who support the Bush administration’s economic policies is to complain about the unfairness of it all. They rattle off statistics that supposedly show how wonderful the economy really is. Many of these statistics are misleading or irrelevant, but it’s true that the official unemployment rate is fairly low by historical standards. So why are people so unhappy?

The answer from Bush supporters — who are, on this and other matters, a strikingly whiny bunch — is to blame the “liberal media” for failing to report the good news. But the real explanation for the public’s pessimism is that whatever good economic news there is hasn’t translated into gains for most working Americans.

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If you have arrived at this article looking for the truth on this matter you are in the wrong place, please click this link to go to Intelligent Design for Dummies.

If you have an IQ around room temperature this is the right place for you.

In Nova's recent two hour documentary which put Intelligent Design to rest both intellectually and legally, one character stood out, Bill Buckingham. He shows up in a few clips throughout the piece saying some of the most dumbass things imaginable. To see his best speech go to minute 7:20 in the last chapter at Concluding chapter of: Judgment Day - Intelligent Design on Trial (12 min)

Sadly Bill Buckingham and the mentality he represents is not some small radical Islamic Fundamentalist cult, but the mentality shared by most Americans. While upwards of 90% of the civilized world accepts evolution as a no brainer, less than 50% of Americans do. Accepting Intelligent Design (creationism) is not just a denial of evolution, but a denial of all science that validates evolution: biology, anthropoloty, geology, cosmology, chemistry, and physics to name a few. Of course it also defies all logic, reason and common sense, but that is what faith is suppose to do. These are the same Republicans pounding their drums to forced prayer in school, to discriminate against gays and lesbians, deny woman choice, advocate torture and preemptive war, build walls, round up the Mexicans and hate Hillary Clinton so much their teeth bleed.

They are responsible for a world that now sees us as the United States of Duh...

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Hate crimes, new hate groups and growing membership in hate groups is risings. Though African Americans take the burnt of it, most of the blame for these hate organizations, websites and membership increases can be laid at the feet of the GOP's Tom Tancredo and CNN's Lou Dobbs who have sanitized and popularized racial and ethnic hatred under the auspices of anti-immigration. The Geography of Hate NYT

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Yes indeed, front page Houston Chronicle! A recent study at the University of Texas found, unbeknown to all but a select few, that college students drink a lot on football Saturdays! And as improbable as it may seem, the bigger the game, the more they drink!

Being from Wisconsin and watching just about every Packer and Badger game ever played with a group of friends, and attending many of the games myself, this is unexpected news to me!

With the unexpected findings from the good people over in Austin, I am sure other studies will follow which may find that it may not just be college students, but that men throughout America drink more on NFL Sunday's than on say, Easter. We may even find that more people actually get drunk on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other holiday!

With this news so enlightening, I am planning a study of my own. I will soon be taking a long hike through Yellowstone National Park to see where bears take a crap. I do have some preconceived notions on this, but I plan to stay mum until the facts are in. I would hate to ruin the surprise for yall.

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