Hepkitty's Litter Box

Hey folks,
I've been away for a bit planning and reaching the final execution of Hepkitty's suprise birthday party. We were successful! This could only have done with the help of our neighbor Ann, who along with Hepkitty's Mom and Dad and her dear friend Carol, helped pull off the best party we have held at our house to date. :)

Thanks for all the help guys, and now i'm going to get back to nursing this tremendous hangover. I'll be back to my regular rants later this week, but in the mean time just remember whenever you here someone say only private accounts can save Social Security, point at them and laugh your ass off!

tomkitty

I wrote another letter to the news today. This time it was at the behest of MOVEON.org as part of their campaign to combat the 'Nuclear Option' with respect to democratic opposition to bush's judicial nominees. Its brief, but accurate.

Dear Editor,
I have been thinking about this issue for some time now, and have something I would like to express about this 'Nuclear Option' I have heard being bandied about in regards to the Senate.

For one political party to place such a strangle hold on another is detrimental to our entire legislative process. I was taught in my political sciences classes, that majority rules best with respect for the minority.

For the republican party to be that constraining power is another example in a series of recent hypocritical acts. The republicans, a party until recent years that had been in the minority in the senate, heavily relied on the filibuster rule to maintain themselves when they didn't have the power to oppose the democratic majority with a great number of votes.

They ought to remember that things change. It was a lesson that democrats found hard to bare, and one republicans will not relish should the find themselves again in the minority, but this time with no voice with which to speak out.

The democrats approved of about 95% of George Bush's judicial nominees. 200 out of 214 I believe. Can the democrats rightfully be called 'obstructionist' with those kind of numbers? If I were Mr. Bush, I would consider that a success story.

The republicans are using their majority to gain absolute power over the federal government. They have the legislative and executive branches firmly in their hands, and now seek to stack federal courts with more 'yes-men'. We must remember that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and those who seek absolute power are often corrupted to begin with.

g'night kids,
tomkitty

You know who I feel bad for? Terri Schiavo.

This has been in the news for a long time now, and it really is a tough case to decide.

Do you know whose resposiblity it is to decide on Terri Schiavo's fate?

Her family and her husband.

Do you know whose has no resposibility in this matter?

Me, Congress and mr. bush. Collectively, we have more on our plate to focus on that actually is our business. Its surprising to me that bush would TAKE TIME OUT OF HIS VACATION (GASP!) to address this issue, but couldn't get back to DC in August 2001 after having read a memo titled 'Osama Bin Laden Determined to Attack within the United States'. Isn't george bush always talking about less government involvement in people's lives? Maybe someone should tell him that Medicare is paying 80% percent of her medical costs, and if that program is cut per his recent buget request, neither the state nor her family could afford to keep her alive.

In my opinion (which means about as much to this matter as any elected official's really, but hey I have the blog so why not, right?) if the parents want to keep her alive, then they should be allowed. If Terri Schiavo had documented a request to die if left in a vegetative state, than it should be honored. Her husband may be acting out of love by making this request, and if not, if his requests are not founded in that nobility of love, than he should just walk away and leave Terri to her mom and dad. But I don't claim to know all sides of the story (probably because it isn't any of my business). I had hoped her family and her husband could work this out themselves, in a way that is acceptable to them alone. To me it doesn't seem that difficult, but I work with computers, so most things end up being 1 or 0, true or false, on or off. I hate grey areas. :p

That congress is actually working on a Sunday (that should raise suspicion in and of itself) to consider this matter is not necessary. When people start taking about passing a bill out of no where in a three day time span, I get a little nervous.

Let it be known that if I can't communicate or move on my own, if I show no signs of a higher consciousness, and haven't in a long time, that I hope my family and hepkitty would just let me go. That's just me, I would hate to place a strain on the one's I love if it looked like I would never get any better.

This is family business. Leave it at that.

tomkitty

The New York Times > Magazine > Questions for Jeff Gannon: Blogged Down

Quote:

DEBORAH SOLOMON: Scott McClellan, the press secretary to President Bush, called on you and allowed you to ask questions on a nearly daily basis. What, exactly, is your relationship with him?

Jim Guckert / Jeff Gannon: I was just another guy in the press room. Did I try to curry favor with him? Sure. When he got married, I left a wedding card for him in the press office. People are saying this proves there is some link. But as Einstein said, "Sometimes a wedding card is just a wedding card.''

DEBORAH SOLOMON: You mean like "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"? That wasn't Einstein. That was Freud.

Jim Guckert / Jeff Gannon: Oh, Freud. O.K. I got my old Jewish men confused.

This one is good too:

DEBORAH SOLOMON: What are we supposed to make of the fact that before reporting for Talon News, you had never had a job in journalism and apparently earned your living running a gay escort service?

Jim Guckert / Jeff Gannon: Don't let that confuse the issue. We have driven so many good people from public service through the politics of personal destruction. People on the left who disagreed with me decided that I needed to be punished by any means necessary.

This guy is impressive. Going from answering a question with a misinformed flippant remark, to evading a question all together. Wow.

As an aside, i would like to point everone over to whyareweback.blogspot.com, where you will find an on going series about the depth of plagerism involved in the gannon/GOPUSA/Talon 'News' story. Calling yourself a journalist, but never having once written an original piece, is like... oh i don't know... saying that you are for 'fiscal sanity' while creating the biggest national debt in history, or maybe that you want to create a culture based on life yet oversaw more executions than any governor in the history of... oh, lets say Texas. Naw, maybe its more like critisizing people who use drugs while you're addicted to narcotics.

tomkitty

Christopher G. Adamo

This article is being circulated by the usual suspects, Men's 'News' Daily, Cybercast 'News' Service, and others.

Mr. Adamo also works for .... GOPUSA!
Click here for his bio in their words.

I can't seem to keep myself from putting the tin foil hat on at least once a day. For some reason, everytime i see a conservative 'journaliast' write in defense of Jeff Gannnon, and the outlet that carries the piece, all i see is a link back to Gannon.


tomkitty

The Raw Story | A rational voice - Resolution on Gannon inquiry to be taken up Wednesday by House Judiciary Committee

Not that anything will come from it, and i'll bet you the only place you will hear about it on television will be on CSPAN, but it does need to be addressed. Don't let anyone tell you different. :p


tomkitty

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose

My mother had me read Doonesbury from the time i was 5 years old.


tomkitty

The Flypaper Theory: Signing On. And On. And On.

Why... that can't be right?
Not coming from the administration resposible for 'Free Speech Zones'? See, they dedicate whole 'zones' to people who want to speak freely. Fascinating idea, really.

I believe that George Bush has twice sworn to 'Uphold and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America'. So this must not really be an offense of the First Amendment. right?

tomkitty

but I thought I’d throw some out for review.

Current minimum wage: $5.15 per hour, $206 a week, $10,712 a year.

Try to image raising a child while working on minimum wage. Try imaging trying to raise two or three children when your monthly income is $824 before taxes.

The Republican Party seems to have a problem with their imagination in this regard. The Democrats, lead by Ted Kennedy tried to insert an amendment into the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. This act, favored by banks and credit card companies, prevents people from filing for banruptcy protection in order to whipe out their debt. The Democrats, for their part, also tried unsuccesfully to add protections for members of the military, single mothers, and seniors, all of which were put down.

As part of this act, it seemed to me that it would be a good idea to give people a leg up so to speak, and try and keep people making the least from feeling extra pressure by raising the minimum wage. I will give Rick Santorum some credit on the issue for just having a counter proposal to increase minimum wage however.

Lets look at Santorum’s increase versus the Kennedy one:

Santorum’s proposed increase: 6.25 per hour, $250 a week, $13,000 a year.
Kennedy’s proposed increase: 7.25 and hour, $290 a week, $15,080 a year.


Not bad Rick. Glad you came to the table on that one. The numbers are still small, but don't you think that an additional 3-5 thousand dollars ayear might go a long way to improving the lives of those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder? Santorums proposal would let people earn $1000 a month before taxes, while Kennedy's sought an increase to $1160 a month. That is more money for food, cloths and school supplies. Is it unreasonable to increase the minimum wage? After all, the price of utilities rises constantly, along with the prices of food, rent, gas, higher education, medicine and doctors visits, etc.

Both amendments were shot down of course, but i think its fun to see just how everyone voted.

Kennedy's amentment was a squeeker at 46 to 49, with 5 not voting. Three of the five who didn't vote were Democrats. 3 republicans voted for this amendment.
Santorum's proposal had some Republican support with 39 votes, but clearly bipartisan opposition with all democrats voting against it.

I just have a few questions for the folks in congress.
1. To the 3 Democrats who didn't vote for the Kennedy amendment: wtf? not voting on this at all? Your legs had better have been broken, keeping you from voting that day. So far as i'm concerned, your not doing your job. The vote was freakin 46 - 49. Do the math you schmucks. you could have kept this going, but you let the Republicans win outright.

2. To the Democrats who voted for the Kennedy amendment but against Santorum's amendment: again, wtf?! You knew that your increase wasn't going to pass, in fact it was defeated 29 minutes before the vote on Santorum's amendment, but with 39 republicans already voting for a smaller measure, you would have gotten some increase through without much of a fight. If you were really serious about helping out the lowest wage earners, shouldn't you have for voted for Santorum's amendment?

3. To the Congessional Republicans and Democrats both: Where the hell do you get off not increasing the minimum wage even though you regularly vote yourselves pay raises? Have you not as a collective group voted yourselves pay increases totaling more than $28,000 dollars per year over the past 8 years?

Republicans can take their claims of 'increased wages will hurt job growth' argument and shove it up the asses. So far as i've seen, paying Congress an additional $28,000 per member per year hasn't done a damn thing for job growth.

Here is an idea for a petition. I hope somone gets on board with this and makes it a reality. Lets make a petition demanding that Congress members lower their pay from the current $158,000 to a nice round $100,000.

I can't imagine they would have a problem with that. Lets do the same for the office of the president ($400,000 a year (to take more vacations than any president in US history)), vice president ($186,000) and all the members of the senate (also $158,000 i believe). This would trim $37,216,000 from federal spending, and aren't these folks always yelping about fiscal responsibility?

They could convince me that they need the extra money if they can show me that the bread the buy to feed their families costs at least $300 a loaf.

This suggestion is mild compared to Hepkitty's, who thinks that they should all have to live with getting paid minimum wage. :D

Later,
Tomkitty

PS: here are the names of the three Democrats who didn't vote for Kennedy's minimum wage increase:

Max Baucus (D-MT)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)

Write them, call them, yell at them. these swine should be ashamed of themselves. lazy jerks! :p

The Nashua Advocate: New GOPUSA News Service, Cybercast News, Replaces Talon News; Now Embroiled in Scandal Over Flooding Google News With Identical Jeff Gannon Articles

You know i read this article today, but was at work, and couldn't post. I had been wondering about this Cybercast News Services. I noticed that they we're hitting the google page most of wednesday, but didn't think about it past that...

but i saw this just now.

So here are the credits (if this situation were a movie) as i have determined thus far:

James Guckert (Jeff Gannon)
Bobby Eberle
Morton Blackwell
Brent Bozell (new!)
Karl Rove(?)

something to think about.

tomkitty

CNN.com - Bush renews call for Alaskan oil drilling as oil prices spike - Mar 9, 2005: "Advocates like the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's trade association, say the refuge sits atop enough oil to replace U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia for two decades."

Ya know... I really hate this crap. This is pointless, and speaks entirely to the man who repeatedly brings this up.

OIL is the source of most of the tensions in the Middle East since the invention of the combustion engine.

OIL is the source of most of the worlds pollution.

You would think that the last thing we need is more Oil. But this idea is coming from a man who would drill a hole in his wife's head if he thought he'd find an ounce of OIL in there.

I grew up in a sleepy forest town in upstate new york, and have a certain appreciation for wilderness. I live in the city now, but never feel at home until I'm back in the woods. Places like 'ANWR' shouldn't be ruined because of an economic problem. Seriously george. Take some money (1%) out of defense and get some one working on a clean rechargable fuel cell that can easily eliminate the need for oil. You guys spent $11 BILLION dollars on the Comanche attack helicopter, only to scrap the whole program.

$11 Billion dollars could go along way in terms of not only reducing the pollution that America (and the world) generates, but bring us out of conflict with the Middle East. Not that a neo-con would ever entertain an idea that would make the rich less richer.

"This is a way to start changing the culture," said Floyd Stoner, executive director for congressional relations and public policy for the American Bankers Association.

Thanks Floyd!
I knew you could do it!

tomkitty

CNN.com - U.S. urges China to rethink "Taiwan law" - Mar 8, 2005

Boucher said the United States objected to the resolution both because it was an attempt to solve the problem unilaterally and because it threatened non-peaceful means. --U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher

You know, i really hope that the Tiawanese have an opportunity to find their own way as an independent nation, But that comment is more than a little funny coming from anyone in the U.S. State Department given our current reputation.

Also in Foreign Affairs, from the people who brought you the coalition of the willing...

The Armageddon Nominee - John Bolton


Powell frequently complained to those cloeset to him that Bolton was undercutting him and appeared to be taking orders from Cheney and the Pentagon, rather than from his State Department superiors.

In a speech in Seoul that same month, for example, just as Pyongyang agreed to enter multilateral talks on its nuclear program as the administration had demanded, Bolton described life in North Korea as a ‘’hellish nightmare,’’ and accused its leader, Kim Jong Il, of being a ‘’dictator’’ or ‘’tyrant’’ running a ‘’dictatorship’’ or ‘’tyranny’’ no less than a dozen times.

Some U.S. and Asian analysts said the speech appeared designed to provoke Kim to boycott the meeting. Indeed, the North Korean media described Bolton as ‘’rude human scum’’ and a ‘’bloodthirsty vampire’’ and demanded that he be withdrawn from the delegation that was to take part in the talks.

Of course we're not talking to North Korea now anyway. Not that i'm trying to say that Kim Jong Il isn't a dictator (or a big bag of nuts), but isn't it strange that Saddam gets the works will this guys gets multilateral talks? I guess nations that actually have weapons of mass destruction, but not oil, are lower on our priority list generally. No need to focus on them until they actually launch something at someone, or have something we want.

Its also good to hear that Mr. Bolton isn't fond of the UN, or any good a being diplomatic. This will give the Bushies a good workout when they try to build support for their next war.

tomkitty

Oregon State Daily Barometer Online - Welcome to Bushworld

Doesn't this just say it all:

war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength

I dare say that those three statements would have been darn fine caimpagn slogans for the Bush/Cheney '04 folks.

CNN.com - Social Security blues - Mar 3, 2005

This is the never give up and never think things through attitude i have come to know and love about the Neo-Cons. Of course Novak only mentions the AARP in terms of 'planting fear' once. (btw - can someone tell me why Novak isn't looking at jail time for not releasing HIS source for HIS story on Valerie Plame, yet 2 journalist who never printed anything are??)
Remember when the AARP was buddy-buddy with the administration over medicare reformback in November 2003? I guess the Neo-Cons dont.

Here:
"AARP believes the millions of older Americans and their families will be helped by this legislation," Bill Novelli, chief executive of the group, said in a statement that acknowledged the legislation is "far from perfect." [but] "It will provide substantial relief for those with very high drug costs and will provide modest relief for millions more."

AARP -- now known only by the acronym for the name it scrapped to reach out for members beyond retirees -- plans to lend its considerable weight to push the package through with a three-day ad campaign starting Tuesday on cable television.

Its funny how one GOP aide once said of the AARP's support for the Medicare drug bill: "It's a tsunami. They're pulling out all the stops to get this over the finish line."

How is it now that the AARP now is being deamonized for using 'scare tactics'?

Oh.. Yeah.. its their own fault for failing to unquestioningly lie down and obey the bush administration. Damn them for looking out for their members over listening to president bush's wanton assertions that only private accounts can save them now.

Look how fast the attack dogs are let loose at the slightest signs of resistance. God forbid that the AARP can't endores their plan just because the administration doesn't have a real plan yet. If the AARP isn't carefull, they'll get the same treatment as the CIA, the 'liberal' media (CBS, Helen Thomas, etc.), the UN, 'old' Europe, Richard Clarke, the Teacher's Union, the Democratic Party, environmental scientists (well, science in general really), Joseph Wilson, Scott Ritter, and anyone else who is a 'boulder in the middle of the road' to their ideology.

If the administration had a workable plan, perhaps senators and congressmen would be facing less opposition from their constituents. Perhaps if the administration gave up this 'my way or the highway' nonsense, they might be able to work with others in the name of a more inclusively desgned reform. But noooo... They are like pitbull with it's jaws lock on a nice juicy piece of meat. Even though the meat is tainted, they just won't let go.

At least they have come far enough to admit that private accounts aren't going to work by themselves, but now they have to understand that private accounts might not work at all. I'm not saying they couldn't if they were crafted properly, but until the administration is willing to do less lecturing and hold honest to god discussions with what they percieve to be their opposition, then they really aren't going anywhere with this.

Puts me in the mood for another Op-Ed...
I gots some thinking to do folks.
Later,

tomkitty

CNN.com - Poll: Most Americans unfamiliar with blogs - Mar 3, 2005

This is as close as they have come to mentioning the Gannon story on their website since February 9th (i think i mentioned that before), and the only reason i consider this related to Gannon is that as of the time of this post, it is being linked from their politics page as well as their tech page. It mentions the Rather thing, but quite frankly that is not enough.
I know CNN has had several reports on air on the subject, but seriously now. Do they have their eyes shut and their fingers in their ears or something?? WAKE THE #$%!!* UP!
You are making yourselfs out to be exactly what the bush administration wants you to be, a marginalized set of talking heads that the public is becoming less and less willing to trust.

But what should i expect from the channel that has become the best source for news... about Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart.

Do us all a favor and merge with Fox News and be done with it already. That way we only need one channel to both ignore the administration's wrong doing and blindly support them at the same time! This would save me precious time in my day by only having to ignore one channel instead of two.

tomkitty :p

In Afghanistan, Limbaugh lectured students on importance of "truth" in journalism[Media Matters for America]

Strike that. There is clearly nothing holy left in this world. A professional liar and drug addict is talking about truth, a professional prostitute is reporting from the white house, and george bush, a man who can't balance a check book, is talking about reforming social security.

Thats right folks, all truth and beauty in the world is dead. There is clearly no god given that these things are happening and not one of those folks has been blown off the face of the earth by a lightning bolt yet.

The Raw Story - A rational voice - Twenty-six congressmembers sign onto resolution forcing vote over Gannon

If I'd had a TiVo, I'd set it to record all house activity on CSPAN from here on out. That the Rupublicans, by the act of voting against this resolution, prove that they don't care enough to look into a security breech accompanied by abuse of power...

Well, like I said, lets see what happens next.

tomkitty

Google, Yahoo tumble on downgrades - Search engines sink after RBC brokerage cuts ratings, price targets; FindWhat also hammered.



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I wonder if that has anything to do with this.

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Google Press Center: Zeitgeist - Week Ending Feb. 28, 2005


tomkitty

Another good post from 'Why Are We Back In Iraq?'

Speaking as a graphic designer... When i see a piece similar to one that i have done before, i can be either flattered (if done by a child), amused (if done by an idiot) or pissed (if done by a hack).

Has anyone shown this to Bob Allen? I'd be interested in his reaction.

tomkitty