ITS THE SMELL!

Every day, I come to work wondering what San Francisco will smell like today. Will it smell like shit? Like rotting fish? Like homeless people? Today I discovered a new smell, old cheese. The entire city smells like old rotting cheese.

What's in the news today?

Four Dallas Police Officers Shot

(02-16) 07:53 PST DALLAS (AP) --

Four police officers were shot Thursday as they tried to serve a federal drug warrant on a home in southwest Dallas.

Wow, I'm glad to hear that Dallas has so little actual crime that they can focus all their time on winning the war on drugs. We've been fighting that awesome drug war for like 50 years now, right? So by now we must be winning, right? How long do you suppose it will be before there's no more drugs? Another 50 or 100 years?

Aren't there more illegal drugs available now than there ever were in the history of the country? Aren't they more readily accessible than any time in history? Don't a higher percentage of people claim to have used illegal drugs than any other time in history? Oh there I go again using facts and logic. I really ought to stop thinking for myself.

More sort-of news-

House panel rips administration on Katrina response

"If this is what happens when we have advance warning," the special House committee said on Page 18 of its 530-page report about Katrina, "we shudder to imagine the consequences when we do not. Four and a half years after 9/11, America is still not ready for prime time."

Um, didn't we have advanced warning of the 9/11 attack? Something about Osama Bin Laden being determined to strike in US, a month before he striked in the US?

Also what's this shit about prime time? Is it supposed to be funny to compare this criminal corrupt regime to Saturday Night Live? Ha ha ha?

What shoebombers?

I'm surprised that last week's fake shoebomer story expired after only one 24-hour news cycle in the old media (TV, newspaper) and then lasted for about two more days in the blogosphere where it was ridiculed over and over. I would have thought that the old media would keep this freakshow alive for a few more days to keep everybody scared.

The Cheney attempted murder story is getting a lot more play than I thought it would. I figured this story would go away after a day or so since it's not really news and no one seems to care about it. It looks like the more attention it gets, the weirder the story gets. This is probably a side effect of the reflexive instinct of this criminal administration to lie about EVERYTHING.

From jesus' General:

The police report says that Whittington was 30 yards away when Dick shot him. It also notes that the elderly gentleman was hit in the face, chest and neck. Agents of the Ministry of Truth characterize the shooting as a "peppering." Taken all together, these things would suggest that the shot was fairly well dispersed.

Unfortunately, a more detailed look at the facts reveals something else. Our Deputy Leader was using 28 gauge shotgun shells loaded with 3/4 oz of #7-1/2 shot. That particular load carries approximately 262 BBs. The doctor caring for the wounded man said that he removed about 200 BBs. That means about 4/5ths of the shot in the load struck the man in an area no larger than about 18 inches in diameter.

That seems like an awfully tight pattern at 30 yards. It can only be explained by the existence of a magic BB that would ride herd on the other BBs, keeping them as bunched up as possible.

The narrative of this story is coming along nicely...

The White House kept this story a secret for more than a day. Scottie claims that no one at the White House knew about it because everyone was so concerned about getting Whittington medical care that no one had time to call the president. Sorry but that's a dog that won't hunt.

Maybe I can believe Cheney accidentally shot someone if he was actually hunting, but he wasn't. Hunting has nothing to do with what he was doing, which was shooting at caged pheasants that were released three feet away from him. He killed over 400 of them. How the hell do you accidentally shoot someone in the face with a shotgun in a situation like this?

MSNBC reported that Cheney had been drinking before shooting the old man in the face, but then all traces of this comment were erased, thrown down the memory hole, scrubbed from reality.

Then we have the blame the victim narrative.

Everything about this story is getting smoothed over and whitewashed. Whittington wasn't shot in the face, he was "peppered".

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

More peppering-

Hospital officials in Corpus Christi announced Tuesday that Whittington had suffered a "minor heart attack" and was returned to the intensive care unit.

...

"At this distance he's peppered with lot of small holes," said Dr. J. Wayne Meredith of the Wake Forest School of Medicine, who has seen similar injuries.

When did people start referring to shootings as "pepperings"? Isn't that something you do to a steak? And just what the hell is a minor heart attack?

Dailykos has a good diary entry about this that really makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

Scalia is CRAZY

Neo-Nazi Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says:

People who believe the Constitution would break if it didn't change with society are "idiots," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says.

In a speech Monday sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society, Scalia defended his long-held belief in sticking to the plain text of the Constitution "as it was originally written and intended.

For those of you who don't know, the constitution as it was originally written:

• Had no bill of rights. No freedom of speech. No protection against cruel and unusual punishment. No separation of church and state. No protection against illegal search and seizure, and so on


• Did not allow anyone to vote except white male landowners


• Specifically allowed slavery and regarded black people as 3/5 of a person

This is the world that this fascist bastard lives in and this is how he judges cases in the highest court in the land. Scarey

SHOT HIM IN THE FACE

Jon Stewart:

Jon Stewart: "I'm joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?

Rob Corddry: "Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Wittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.

"And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face."

Jon Stewart: "But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak."

Jon Stewart: "That's horrible."

Rob Corddry: "Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know 'how' we're hunting them. I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little 'covey' of theirs.

Jon Stewart: "I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob."

Rob Corddry: "Well, whatever it is they do ... coo .. they're cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.

Jon Stewart: "Okay, well, on a purely human level, is the vice president at least sorry?"

Rob Corddry: "Jon, what difference does it make? The bullets are already in this man's face. Let's move forward across party lines as a people ... to get him some sort of mask."

Try this game, it's fun

Bush's Job Approval Stuck Near Bottom

From the Associated Pissants

WASHINGTON -
President Bush's marks on overall job approval and for handling the economy are mired near their lowest levels despite a spike in consumer confidence over the past month, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

Bush's job approval is now at 40 percent and his approval on handling the economy at 39 percent. Those numbers haven't budged over the last month even with the public's confidence in the economy growing and the president delivering an upbeat State of the Union address.

I guess that's sorta good news. Only 40% of our country are fascist nazi bastards who deserve to be deported to China.

What's all this huffy-huff about a "spike in consumer confidence"? Is any sane American confident about ANYTHING AT ALL, much less the economy, which is still stuck in the Bush depression?

Over the past five years that the disaster monkey has been occupying the White House, personal income has fallen every year, jobs have been LOST every year, wealth has been shifted away from the poor and middle class and up to the top 1% of the country's wealthy elitist class.

Well paying jobs have been eliminated or outsourced overseas and been replaced by nothing at all or low-paying service/retail jobs.

Since the Great Depression, no other president who served at least 52 months has overseen a net loss in private sector jobs through this point. In addition to lack of job growth, real weekly and hourly wages have declined since the start of the recession. At a time when middle-class Americans are experiencing stagnant wages and vanishing benefits, CEO pay continues to rise.

Source: Center for American Progress, Economic Policy Weekly, Jenna Churchman, June 6, 2005

Americans are being suffocated by crushing debt that will never ever go away. Personal debt is at an all time high, which matches the federal government's debt which is also at record highs.

But you know it's all worth it to pay for everlasting war, welfare for greedy corporations, and giveaways to the ultra-mega-rich.

How do you hijack a plane with a shoe bomb?

From Atrios:

Stop Making Sense

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush disclosed new details on Thursday of a thwarted al Qaeda plot to use shoe bombs to hijack a plane and fly it into a Los Angeles building, as he sought to justify his tactics in fighting terrorism.

Um, you can't hijack a plane with shoe bombs. You can blow up a plane with shoe bombs.

Q Scott, I wanted to just ask a follow-up about the LA plot. Is there something missing from this story, a practical application, a few facts? Because if you want to commandeer a plane and fly it into a tower, if you used shoe bombs, wouldn't you blow off the cockpit? Or is there something missing from this story?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what you're referring to about missing. I mean, I think we provided you a detailed briefing earlier today about the plot. And Fran Townsend, our Homeland Security Advisor, talked about it. So I'm not sure what you're suggesting it.

Q Think about it, if you're wearing shoe bombs, you either blow off your feet or you blow off the front of the airplane.

MR. McCLELLAN: There was a briefing for you earlier today. I think that's one way to look at it. There are a lot of ways to look at it, and she explained it earlier today, Alexis, so I would refer you very much back to what she said, what she said earlier today.

Atrios makes a very good point. Can you rob a bank with a shoebomb? "GIVE ME THE MONEY OR I'LL BLOW MY LEGS CLEAN OFF!"

My Fucked Company

The company I've been working for during the past 2 months kept a few secrets from me during the interview process. After I was hired, I was told that the company is in bankruptcy, and looking for a buyer. Great, just what I need.

In 2005 I worked for six different companies. I stayed at any given company an average of two months. Every time I find a company that I can tolerate, they go out of business. For example, Epinions.com, Grand Central, and now this company.

In every case, during the interview they hide the fact that their company is in trouble and tell me whatever I need to hear to get me hired. This makes no sense, as a company that's about to go under should not be hiring in the first place.

I predict that within the next six months, probably much sooner, my currently company will be bought. I predict that 80% of the staff, including myself, will be laid off. I predict there will be no severance, or maybe a very small sevarance like two weeks.

Around and Around We Go

Here we go again! Bush gets harshly criticized at Coretta Scott King's funeral, and today we have news that a terrorist plot was thwarted four years ago. Of course this is a lie, OF COURSE it's a lie. IT NEVER HAPPENED.

CNN BREAKING NEWS

President Bush says in mid-2002, U.S. disrupted al Qaeda plot to use shoe bombs to hijack plane for attack on L.A.'s Liberty Tower.

I call bullshit. I know for a fact that this never happened because everything Bush says is a lie. If Bush says it's raining, he's lying. If Bush says the sky is blue, that's a lie. See? You know he's lying because his mouth is moving.

On Tuesday, for the first time in his illegitimate presidency, at King's funeral Bush was in a room full of people who were not hand picked by his handlers, who did not sign loyalty oaths, who did not have scripted questions and pre-approved speeches. For the first time, he was outside his bubble, and he was taken to task and then some. He sat there like a brain damaged MONKEY and rolled his eyes as he was slapped in the face with plain damning truth.

"She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar," Lowery said. "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there [pointing at Bush]. But Coretta knew, and we knew, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."

The disaster monkey rolled his eyes and squirmed and didn't know what to do. Who are these colored folk who dare to criticize me? Don't they know that weapons of mass destruction was like 14 excuses ago?

Then today, to knock that story off the front pages, we get what? TERRA! TERRORISM THWARTED! Back to the terror well, the gift that keeps on giving. The news media dutifully plays along just like they always do.

WE ARE JUST THAT STUPID

This just posted by the Associated Asshole newswire-

(02-08) 18:19 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

At least eight senators were among 200 people being held in a Capitol parking garage Wednesday night after a security sensor indicated the presence of a nerve agent in their office building. A later test proved negative.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT. Sure. Yah I believe that. Every time the news media starts to report bad news for the White House, there's news of terrorism. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

The alert level changes. A second in command in Al-Qaida is arrested (we now have over 7,000 Al-Qaida second in commands). A city is under threat of attack that never happens. A fake terrorist plot is pretended to be thwarted.

What's in the news this week? Chief Torturer Abu Gonzales testifies in a senate hearing where he repeatedly refuses to answer any questions at all about George Bush's illegal wiretapping of American citizens (such as me). Then, right on cue, we have a fake terrorist threat on the capital.

Just how stupid do they think we are? Well since we re-elected this bastard, I guess they already know the answer. We are highly fucking stupid. All that's left is to put a little scare into the senators that are calling for investigations. Trust us or you'll all be killed by the terrorists they say. Look a nerve agent! It doesn't really exist but hey we're going to scare you anyway.

The nazi bastards in the Bush crime family will stoop to any level to keep their entrenched hold on power, what little they have left. Anyone that threatens their regime is reminded that they can be killed at any time.

For the nazi Bushists, terrorism is the gift that keeps on giving. Whenever they need to change the narritive or keep the rubes (all of us) in line, they just dip into that reliable terrorism well that never dries up, and it's never failed them. Never, so long as our incompetant, whorish, and traitorish newsmedia go along blindly, just as they ALWAYS do.

Batshit Crazy Wingnuts, Go Away

If you are a batshit crazy right winger, go away. Read someone else's blog, like Assrocket's Powerline or the Drudge Report or some other blog that's fit for the brain of a five year old.

Turn on Fox News. Watch Scarborough Country. Listen to Rush Limbaugh. Do whatever you want, just go away. Don't read my blog, don't comment on it. I don't want your stupidass comments, I don't want you reading what I have to say. You won't understand it.

You are ignorant of the entire world. You have no understanding of anything that goes on around you except your own sparkly shoes. No one cares what you think, especially me. Infact, I find you vile, treasonous, and a waste of space on this planet. You do not deserve to breath the same air as I do. You are a worthless human being, if you can even be called human.

Go about your stupid meaningless life. Go shop at Walmart and make the Chinese rich. Go put more gas in your SUV and make the Saudis rich. Go to public school and learn how sex is bad and will kill you and drugs are bad and will kill you and how the war in Vietnam, the holocaust, the eradication of the native Americans, and other major world events never really happened.

Just go. Go now. Get the fuck off of my blog.

A little common sense

I'm bored at work so I decided to read some of the moronic bullshit that rightwing Senator Joe Lieberman puts on his website. I was reading his congratulatory puff-piece on Bush's state of the union speech. None of it is worth reading because Joe Lieberman is nothing more than a sycophantic right-wing lunatic. But this part is interesting:

We remain a nation at war - at war in Iraq and also at war with Islamist terrorism around the world and it was important for the President to discuss it with the nation tonight. Now we must look to the details of his forthcoming budget to see how well funded his plans are for achieving progress and victory in the years ahead.

Here are some points to consider-

• We are not at war with anyone. No one is at war with us. The Constitution plainly says that only Congress can declare war, see Article 1 of the Constitution. They did not declare war, thus we are not at war. That's a little trick I call logic.


• If we really are at war in Iraq, who are we at war with? We invaded and occupied Iraq, does that mean we're at war with ourselves?


• How can you be at war with terrorism? Terrorism is a method, not a person or a state. You can not be at war with a method or an activity.


• Although it is universally accepted as fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that Al-Qaida attacked us on September 11th. None. Nada. Zip. The only reason we think that Al-Qaida attacked us is because George Bush said so, but we know Bush is a pathological liar who has never spoke a word of truth in his entire life.


• How do you declare victory on a budget? This is very strange Orwellian language.

Bush says stuff, media claps and cheers and begs for more

Why does shit like this get any play in the news media?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush called Wednesday for an end to violence triggered by drawings of the Prophet Mohammed but also said press freedom should be exercised with sensitivity.

You mean Bush can just get on TV and tell the world to do stuff and they'll, like, magically do whatever he says? If it's so easy then why doesn't he call for the freedom fighters in Iraq to surrender to their new rulers? Why doesn't he call on China to stop taking our precious oil? Why not call on congress to stop investigating him?

Of course to anyone who's capable of rational thought, we know that when Bush says these things, he's not talking to "the world", but to his small base of lunatic supporters. The rest of the world doesn't listen to Bush because he has no credibility, and thus America has no credibility.

When he threatens military action against countries like, say, Iran, people laugh because we have no authority anymore. None. This crap is purely for "domestic consumption" of the moron-Americans who continue to prop up this neo-nazi regime.

Is the San Francisco Police run by George W. Bush?

Over the past few days, the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the only newspapers in this country that attempts actual journalism, did a series of articles on the rampant incompetence and corruption of the San Francisco Police Department.

It's common knowledge in San Francisco that the city has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the country, and the lowest crime clearance rate OF ANY CITY IN THE COUNTRY including a 28% solvency rate for murder and other violent crimes. For any criminals reading my blog, that means you have a 72% chance of getting away with murder, where the national average is something like 55%.

The San Francisco Police may or may not respond to a 911 call regardless of the importance. I can tell you from many firsthand experiences that getting a police response, if it happens at all, will take upwards of 20 minutes and requires multiple calls.

The Chronicle pointed out that SFPD officers routinely break the law by using force when situations do not warrant it. Complaints against officers are never acted upon, infact the worst abusers are often promoted.

On Monday, the chronicle did a story on one of the worst offenders of criminal use of force, officer John Haggett. Everything in the article was factually accurate.


On Tuesday, after several articles had been done on the SFPD, the city finally responded. They dressed police chief Heather Fong up in a police costume, which we can assume she never actually wears to work because she isn't a patrol officer, and pointed out that the picture that was published in the John Haggett article was not of John Haggett, but someone who isn't even a cop at all. It turns out he's a taxi driver.

Now obviously this is a stupidly embarrassing error on the Chronicle's part, but this is completely immaterial and irrelevant. Heather Fong did not refute any of the chronicles allegations about rampant corruption and criminal conduct, nothing about illegal use of force on innocent civilians. She just went on and on about the picture being the wrong person.

Ever since then, the story about the SFPD has kind of gone away and been replaced with front page articles about the man in the picture.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say the police department was run by George W. Bush and Karl Rove. This PR strategy is taken directly out of their playbook. When someone points the finger, attack the finger. Do everything you can to distract and confuse the public. Find an irrelevant point that takes the attention off your own wrongdoing and point the spotlight on something else.

This is very fucking disturbing that it is happening in San Francisco, a supposedly liberal anti-bush city. Police Chief Heather Fong has proved that she is corrupt and she needs to be fired and held to account for her horrible management style. The entire city should be outraged at this disgusting use of PR tricks and DEMAND that someone be fired.

Worst San Francisco Drivers

The worst San Francisco Drivers:

Bicycle Riders

• Refuse to stop for stopsigns or red lights


• Ride on the wrong side of the street, or against traffic on one way streets


• Ride on the sidewalk instead of the bike lane


• Generally disregard every single law, but then complain that car drivers don't respect them

Muni Drivers

• Never yield right of way to pedestrians in cross walks


• Run red lights


• Drive with wreckless disregard for human life

Asians

• Have no concept whatsoever of the world around them. Drive completely oblivious to other people


• Always driving while on cell phone, always


• Complete disregard for pedestrians


• Able to pass driver's test with total lack of understanding of driving laws

Vote

Use the comments to vote in this fair and balanced poll:

1) Pull out of Iraq now
2) I hate America