My Zen Arcade

Yes, don’t forget, it looks like McCain may be breaking federal law

Of course, that doesn’t matter.  What matters is Obama changed his mind, completely legally, to do his own fundraising, completely legally.  Again, there’s these cries of ‘flip-flop’.  I don’t understand that.  I suppose mindlessly sticking to whatever decision you made in the past, no matter what changes, is admirable if, say, you are…wait…no, it really isn’t admirable at all, is it?  It borders on suicidal.  And, in the case of Still-President-Bush, homicidal.

But I digress.

Obama takes part in legal activites and people smack him around.  McCain may have broken federal law, no one cares.

Our media, ladies and gentlemen.

So, in case you missed it, yes, we know, we were lied to, and have continually been lied to, about the Iraq war.
Here’s a couple snippets from the NYT article.

Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

–
John C. Garrett is a retired Marine colonel and unpaid analyst for Fox News TV and radio. He is also a lobbyist at Patton Boggs who helps firms win Pentagon contracts, including in Iraq

At the same time, in e-mail messages to the Pentagon, Mr. Garrett displayed an eagerness to be supportive with his television and radio commentary. “Please let me know if you have any specific points you want covered or that you would prefer to downplay,” he wrote in January 2007, before President Bush went on TV to describe the surge strategy in Iraq.

–
A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’ ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said.

–

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.

As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed.

“Night and day,” Mr. Allard said, “I felt we’d been hosed.”

More than anything, this shows the absolute contempt the Bush Administration feels towards the people they serve.

But we knew that.

And how horrible the media is for helping them.

And we knew that too.

Well, some of us did.

Some days, after hearing about McCain not supporting the GI Bill expansion, after watching the MSM rip into Obama because of some poorly chosen (though ultimately accurate) words, after seeing Clinton use that same cheap attack, after watching some of the worst political reporting in history, I almost want to move into the mountains and set up an armed compound.

And on the topic of Clinton…please…drop out.  You will not become president this round.  I’m sorry, but its true.  There are only two ways this can go for you.

1. You don’t win the nomination.  And so you don’t become president.
2. You win the nomination by getting enough super-delegates to overcome Obama’s lead, basically over-riding the will of the people.  That splits the party.  McCain wins.  You don’t become president.

Personally, a big-ass disaster for the Democratic party might be just what we need.  My concern is the timing.  The fact of the matter is that McCain is a promise of 4 more years of a failed administration.  McCain is completely unqualified in knowledge, experience, and temperment for the office of president.  We have real people with real problems.  Its time we started acting like they matter, like the 57% increase in foreclosures matters, like the fact that there’s no end in sight to the bloodshed in Iraq, like the fact that the rich get richer and the poor are just shuffled off.

McCain doesn’t care.  Maybe he used to care, but he’s decided he gets more votes from the filthy rich who don’t have any problems.

Hm.  I think I always get a little pissed at the rich around tax time.  Not because they make more than i do.  But its the complaining.  Look, I make a decent living.  I’m not rich, but I’m doing pretty good, probably better than my parents ever did.  I consider myself to be part of the ‘group that always gets screwed’ when it comes to taxes.  Not enough wealth that anyone cares about me, not poor enough to be a cause.  And I’m OK with that.  I pay my taxes.  I do so, basically, without complaint (I don’t necessarily think we spend our money wisely…).  I can’t stand people making twice what I do who then bitch because maybe this year they can’t buy the third house so they can vacation on the east coast AND west coast.  That sickens me.

I like being part of this country.  I like having roads, and hospitals, and firemen.  I like having services and defense and all that.  I know that my taxes going to help the poor also helps me, and that someday I may need that same help.   I am an American, and I am a patriot.  And I believe we should stand together or not at all.

What about you?

Time’s Top 25 blogs

Now, I actually like a number of the blogs on this list.  But I’m not sure there’s any online publication less relevant to the world of blogging (or the web in general) than Time (even though an old friend of mine writes for them).  There are many who are equally irrelevant, but I doubt any surpass it.  And none of them had the complete…I don’t even know what the word should be…but whatever it is, no one else made ‘You’ man of the year last year. 

At what point do you simply stop and put a bullet into something?

CNN decides that, by asking the questions CNN should be asking, a high school girl is heckling McCain

This is simply sad.  The question (basically, ‘why are you here if not for political reasons’) is exactly the kind of question the MSM and professional reporters should be asking.

But, apparently, only THEY can ask the questions.  Anyone else is a heckler.

Sometimes I forget how funny this strip was.  Here’s the very first:

Well, I suppose it really doesn’t look very good to get filthy rich (or, I guess, filthier richer) off of the suffering of your Lord.  Of course, it could also be that he’s unchristian in his greed and doesn’t want to share.  You make the call.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mel Gibson, who’s being sued by a writer over payment for the “The Passion of the Christ” screenplay, wants to keep financial information about the blockbuster movie out of the public eye.

Benedict Fitzgerald claimed in his February lawsuit that Gibson misled him into accepting a small payment for writing the script by saying the movie would cost between $4 million and $7 million.

Fitzgerald, who shared screenwriting credits with Gibson, claimed he agreed to “a salary substantially less than what he would have taken had he known the true budget for the film,” which the lawsuit claimed was $25 million to $50 million. The lawsuit claims fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, and seeks unspecified damages.

In court filings Tuesday, attorneys for Gibson and his production company asked the court to seal the movie’s financial records and only allow Fitzgerald’s lawyers access to them. The information details the movie’s domestic and foreign box office receipts, production costs and distribution expenses.

The defense is also seeking to dismiss some of Fitzgerald’s claims, including fraud, which if proven would allow Fitzgerald to seek punitive damages.

One Higher Power: Why does the media only cover when prayer goes wrong

Where is the ABC News report of the higher power saving my grandfather’s life from a diabetic episode based on a “hunch” - a “still, small voice” my uncle heard and heeded?

Well, first off, the media often does these kind of human interest stories, so lets not act all oppressed.
Second, I’m sorry, exactly how is this comparable to a little girl being murdered by her parent’s craziness?
Third, does it not strike you as, perhaps, contradictory that god saved your grandfather but not this little girl?
Oh, wait, perhaps neither event is related to god whatsoever!
W00t!
A breakthrough!

Yeah, why aren’t they covering all sides of everything?
A kid drinks drano and dies.
Why doesn’t the media show how well draino unclogged my pipes?
A person dies in a car accident.
Why doesn’t the media cover everyone who walks away from an accident?

Look, you can have your crazy. Thats your business, so long as you don’t push your crazy on others.
But lets not expect the media to go covering all your ‘miracles’.
(oh, and for the record, the media gives a free ride to religion, as a rule…but when it kills someone, well, it has to be called to task.)

(I make reference to body counts below, a couple times. I am only referring to American dead. 4000. For the purpose of this post, we’ll forget about the astronomical number of Iraqis who have died in all this. The argument described below is based purely on how the troops, and the price they and their families pay, are being manipulated by the media and government.)

First, lets make it abundantly clear. The President’s people are not going to bring him around, very often, to families that want the war to end. They certainly won’t be getting any camera time.

Second, this is part of the stupidest argument people use to justify continuing the war. It is, like all good politics, aimed at your emotions.

People say things like “don’t let their deaths be in vain” or “Don’t dishonor our troops by bringing them home before the job is done”. While I do agree that any life that has been lost is a tragedy, we aren’t doing anything for the fallen soldiers by continuing the war (or not, for that matter). To be blunt, they are dead. They are, in fact, no longer a part of this world.

The “don’t dishonor our troops” is a very cheap shot. I am sorry that they might have to come home, their sacrifices having been in vain, perhaps. Their sense of honor besmirched. But if it comes down to therapy for a few thousand soldiers versus EVEN ONE MORE DEAD BODY, I’ve got the number for a few good shrinks. Hurt feelings and disappointments and such are not reasons to keep shooting.

Similarly, the ‘died in vain’ line translates to “please don’t let our loss be in vain” from the families and loved ones. I sympathize with these people, I truly do, regardless of their stance on the war. I can not imagine the pain of their loss.

But I would ask them this: If we left Iraq now, no more of our soldiers would die. No more sons, and daughters, and fathers and mothers coming home in body bags. If we stay in Iraq, more families will feel the same pain that you do. How many are you willing to let die in order to feel that your son’s death had meaning? How many families do you want to feel the same pain as you?

They forget that winning, if such a thing is possible and ever gets clearly defined, isn’t just about effort and determination. It is about blood and body parts spread out in the sand.

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Most of the families of the fallen that he meets with have one request of the President, which is: Do not let my loved one’s sacrifice be in vain…Q Aren’t there also families of the bereaved who ask him to stop the war?

MS. PERINO: There have been, but the vast majority have all asked him not to allow that sacrifice to be in vain. But certainly there are some.

Q The “vast majority”? Can you say that with certainty?

MS. PERINO: Well, he has said that repeatedly, and that is true for the I think almost nearly a thousand families of the fallen that he’s met with.

Am I the only one who sees the contextual differences between the three statements below?
That aside, the fleeting expletive policy is just insane. What if Bono had gotten up there, tripped and banged his head and said ‘FUCK!’, which would be a pretty understandable thing to say?
The fact is that if hearing ‘fuck’ or ’shit’ on the air is going to corrupt your children’s morals, then, I have to say, you are doing a pretty crappy job of raising your kids.
I’m honestly not making fun the desire to keep this language on the air by people who don’t want their kids to hear it. What I’m making fun of is their belief that their children are not only a hair’s breadth away from going all evil and horrible, but that somehow a single word might do it.
We make a number of concessions to this attitude, and many of them reasonable. For example, we keep alot of things (not just words) relegated to timeslots of 10pm and later. I have no problem with asking parents to do something similar, like not letting their kids watch live awards shows.

Court will examine profanity rules - Yahoo! News

The FCC changed its policy on indecency following a January 2003 broadcast of the Golden Globes awards show by NBC when U2 lead singer Bono uttered the phrase “f—— brilliant.” The FCC said the “F-word” in any context “inherently has a sexual connotation” and can trigger enforcement.

NBC challenged the decision, but the case has yet to be resolved.

The Fox programs at issue in the case before the high court are a Dec. 9, 2002, broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards in which singer Cher used the phrase “F— ‘em” and a Dec. 10, 2003, Billboards broadcast in which reality show star Nicole Richie said, “Have you ever tried to get cow s— out of a Prada purse? It’s not so f—— simple.”