The 935 lies of BushCo

We forget things so easily. I forget my BART ticket sometimes and have to buy one at the station.

Forgetting about why we went to war under *suspect* pretenses is a slightly larger issue. Do you remember why we went to war? It's all seen through spin-doctor induced haze...but I think I see something.

The Center for Public Integrity recently released a searchable database that details 935 'false public statements' perpetrated by the Bush administration: mainly seven individuals (George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Ari Fleischer, Paul Wolfowitz, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, and Scott McClellan)

The massive database at the heart of this project juxtaposes what President Bush and these seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (chiefly major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews.

It's not that an administration hasn't lied before, however, when I think back to the furor over impeaching President Clinton because he lied about getting a blowjob (and his definition of sexual relations) and I compare it to the lies spouted by the current administration...well there's no comparison.
What's really illustrative to me is how the number of lies told really peaks just prior to the invasion of Iraq. It's like they knew they had to lay it on thick to get the support needed to mobilize when the rest of the world (please spare me the laughable justification of the 'Coalition of the Willing') favored other means of resolving the conflict.

We became so polarized by 9/11 and the administration used the tragedy to pounce on Iraq because it could 'legitimately' establish a prolonged presence in an Middle Eastern, oil-producing country: an act the Administration deemed necessary for America, regardless if the tactic smacked of the deprecated model of the military-industrial complex.

We'll be in Iraq for decades to come. This was the plan. 9/11 just helped make it easier to execute because we were raw with frustration, anger, and sadness. We let it happen.

So I'm supporting my troops, and not the government that tosses them upon a sacrificial pyre in the name of democracy. Let's not forget our mistakes of voting this chimp and his circus trainers into office when we're at the polls on Feb 5...ok...I didn't vote for this guy, but at least two people did.

Or, you can vote for Romney and let him build more Guantanamos.

3 columns of simple joyful handclapping

So I had been pestering Ross to take a look at my blog to see if he could assist in helping me add left sidebar column, then I realized...wait a minute...what if I consulted the internets?

So I did, and guess what, someone had already put up instructions on how to do it. I'm using a Blogger template called Washed Denim, and these simple steps describe how to create the right CSS definitions in order to add the column and resize the main wrapper accordingly. Well done! Thank you bizwhiz, Jen, and Kumar.

This is good, because now I don't have to buy Ross a bottle of single malt, small batch Scotch which he so snobbishly required in order to even right-click --> View Page Source.

What do you think? You like? You no like?

007: Quantum of Solace

Sony Pictures accomplished one of the more successful reboots of a franchise with the recent 'Casino Royale'. It was the highest grossing James Bond film ever, and it took the character back to his roots, and shed the campy gadgets and *clever* one-liners (i.e. 'I thought Christmas only comes once a year'...ohhh Bond, you randy fellow).

Recently, the studio announced the new title, 'Quantum of Solace' (QoS), and released some *first look* footage.

'Casino Royale' was definitely different than its previous incarnations. Gone was the swagger and dumb eye candy. The characters were smart, deliberate, vulnerable, and introspective. The story required some mental activity from the audience. Let's face it...at the close of the film, you 'get' that Bond is kicking arse, but there were a lot of loose ends, which isn't a bad thing...leaves some room for interpretation. While there's some resolution, it wasn't the typical Hollywood style ending where Michael Bay blows hella shit up. It was refreshing stuff.

QoS picks up right after the end of the previous film and delves further into the criminal organization responsible for Vesper's betrayal.

SPOILER: Cheney has a cameo for the head of the evil organization.
Side note: want to see another good Daniel Craig film? Check out 'Layer Cake': one of the best crime dramas in years.

Nobody wants a free turdblossom

He was called the architect.He outed Plame. He was responsible for launching the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry. He manipulated the Christian Coalition to get Dubya into office. He had a crappy childhood and put all of his energy into aggressive and clandestine campaign operations that successfully launched or supported numerous GOP candidates. He also had killer neck waddle. He eventually stepped down from his role as the Grima Wormtongue...er...Chief Strategeryist.

Who is he?
Turdblossom...aka Karl 'Not Enough Hugs as a Kid' Rove. Check out the article on Vanity Fair. It's good. It's written by the guy who lived on the same street as him.

The man was instrumental in bringing the current world encompassing doom of Dubya. He did it dirty and sneaky and well, and he walked away without leaving a thumbprint on anything. One can only hope that his atomic powered battery wears down and Mitt Romney destroys the prototype blueprints. He can always get Huckabee to replace him...well not 'replace'...let's say, fill in.
But. The ol' Turdster couldn't get even get an audience during the commencement ceremony at a prestigious boarding school, Choate Rosemary Hall. The students didn't want him there. Ha.

Here's part of the editorial from the school:

Mr. Rove would be a very interesting speaker, and having him give a Special Program address could make sense. However, he is unfit to deliver our graduation address. The point of the graduation ceremonies is to celebrate the seniors and the unforgettable time they have spent at Choate and to bring the community together around the climactic moment on the school calendar. Instead, we will be deeply divided. A graduation speaker should inspire us. More importantly, he should represent the values of the school and serve as a role model for the graduates as they enter the adult world. Rove does neither of those two things.(emphasis mine)

Zing!

Turdblossom: he might be able to fool his carefully segmented direct mail list consisting of (but not limited to) unemployed adults, religious zealots, ill-informed voters, and debt-laden graduates who somehow think that his army of neo-cons care about them, but he can't fool some critical high school students. I wonder if he's angry and bitter.

The Wii: what can't it do?

Nintendo should hire this guy right now.

What? The 3D imaging is nuts!

Tom Cruise will like this, as I'm sure this kind of technology would be perfect for his mothership. He could fly all the way to visit Xenu using only his fingertips, a al Minority Report.


And the English kids with McQualifications will most likely be serving Happy Meals to his kids.

Praise the Lord and beat your wife for birthing your gay son

So I might offend some of you, but you're going to have to deal with it. It's OK. You'll always have Christ and I know that you Christ because you care.

Not to mock the big JC, but do some Christians really believe that God hates gay people...or at least gay cowboys?

Well, I guess if you're in some 'Christian' circles they do given the protest of Heath Ledger's funeral by the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS. Apparently this 'house of the Lord' is protesting funeral of the actor because he played a gay cowboy in 'Brokeback Mountain'.

Their website has a sweet, yet chastising domain name. I wish they made hats because I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to wear one of these messages of eternal love: GodHatesFags.com. Isn't that cute?! I totally want to put a little smiley face emoticon here! Yay!

Ironically and coincidentally enough, FoxNews, a bastion for neo-con repressive sentiment and 'anti-liberal' views, has lots of juicy details. FoxNews: a place where Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Bob Allen, or Ted Haggard would feel comfortable talking about the 'dangers' of homosexuality...that is...er...until after all of the...ahem...indiscretions. Ahem.

I digress.

I'm so glad that people like this exist, because they really help define the spectrum of religious zealotry. We have some people so caught up in hatred and self-righteous judgment that they don't seem to mind to exhibit hate group actions by protesting a funeral. Granted, this action may draw some more git-r-dun folks to Topeka, and their website will see some hits, but in the end what's really going to happen?

Heath Ledger will leave an impressive body of work behind, while a nasty, ignorant, and dare I say dangerously homogeneous, 'church' will bitterly wither away, choking on its own spite, for I'm sure more than a handful of that lovely house of the Lord have some parishioners that are finding their same-sex pray partner a little more interesting than constant messages of myopic hate.

Hate it up, haters. Let it burn you up so it frees up space for better people.

Best. End Credits. Song. Ever.

Waaaay better than the Griggs rap (Deep Hard) at the end of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Seriously.

Valve released The Orange Box last year to much enthusiasm...ok I was I excited. It was a bundled package of 5 games, one of which was a unique puzzle-shooter called Portal. The timeline looks to run parallel to the Half-Life universe. It takes place at the Aperture Science labs (a smaller competitor to the Black Mesa labs, which was the progenitor setting of the Half-Life series). In fact, later levels allow the player to look in abandoned conference rooms where slideshow presentations are still looping comparing Aperture grants to Black Mesa's. Pretty funny.

The game involves the player using brains to solve non-linear 'puzzles' by using a 'portal gun' which allows the player to manifest the equivalent of a wormhole (or tesseract, for all us Madeleine L'Engle fans) on a certain surface thus allowing the player to move through walls and other applicable surfaces.
The player is apparently held captive in Aperture Science by a bland computer, GLaDOS, who's later revealed to have a much larger (and sinister) role in the game. She's maniacal, twisted, conniving, and funny. If she wasn't trying to kill you, you'd want to hang out more.

"Good news. I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin to make me stop flooding the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin. So get comfortable, while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters."

I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that you kill your companion cube and the cake is a lie.

The end credits feature a song written by Jonathan Coulton. The song is called 'Still Alive', and is sung by Ellen McLain (check out her interview by IGN), who voices GLaDOS and other Half-Life 'overseer' type characters.

The latter part of the tune made me think of some folks who are 'doing science and still alive'...Benny, Brown, Dysard, and Shags...you know who you are.