Watch the Presidency UNRAVEL!!!!!

President Bush just announced that Harriet Miers is no longer a candidate for the Supreme Court.
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/supreme_court

Of course, if she'd had any self-respect, she would've withdrawn herself. But hey, you can't win 'em all.

See my other post on this at http://gregoryp.blogspot.com/2005/10/harriet-miers-exploiter-of-legitimate.html

Finally...SOMEONE with BALLS! Cheney was the CIA link

http://oldamericancentury.org/bb/lofiversion/index.php/t3955.html

Link to Patrick Fitzgerald's bio

A couple of months ago, I posted a big rant about the Karl Rove/Valerie Plame CIA Leak. I ranted because I have come to expect that nothing will be done about those lame fucks in the White House no matter what they do. After all, they've ravaged the people Afghanistan in search of Osama Bin Laden, a man who cannot be found (despite the fact that he needs dialysis three times a week.) They took over Iraq (or tried too, hehehe) over completely erroneous intelligence that they MADE UP, killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, wasted 2000 American lives, and spent TWO HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS just to ensure that Iraq would keep the same oil policy it had in the first place - and yet still, nothing happens to them.

But now...finally, after watching every fucking Democrat in Washington who ever had any power at all do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (and yes, that includes Big Bill - both of them) as they've lied and cheated and stoled and killed to satisfy their sick and twisted world-view, along comes SOMEONE WITH BALLS.

And I'm proud to say he's an Irish. Ladies and gentlemen, do not forget the name of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, a real American who just might have the tenacity to get those bums out of Washington - and into jail cells where they belong.

We just might have a Watergate after all...

Cheney was the link, NYTimes, October 25 (Tuesday)
http://tinyurl.com/drn7r

Big Fish, Little Fish
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051024/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_investigation_key_players

Cheney Top Aide Under Scrutiny
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/bush_administration

Libby, Rove, may resignhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102300926.html

Fitzgerald Ready to Indict Rove, Libby, Hadley
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/21/102117.php
Leave it to the Irish to get the job done!--

The Big 2000

About an hour ago, I was sitting with a friend of mine and we were watching the news. An announcement came on about how the "Big 2000" (signifying how many American soldiers have been killed in Iraq) was just around the corner. My friend said, "What happens when it reaches 2000?"

And I said, "When it reaches 2000, that's when Americans finally say "enough," and turn off their tvs and drag their fat lard-asses off their couches, all over America, and pour into the streets and en masse, demand, an immediate end to the war in Iraq."

I was laughing before I had all the words out. I laughed harder than I had laughed in months, I laughed so hard my sides hurt and my forehead began to tingle from the vibration of laughter inside my head. I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed and laughed and laughed at the very idea that My People - those wacky Americans - would actually Give A Shit at All about 2000 American soldiers dead in Iraq.

A part of me is still laughing. Fucking sad, ain't it?

I Am A Pervert

This image is fine under UNM Library's Acceptable Use Policy -
But please - no doe-eyed girls with perfect breasts - THAT'S DISGUSTING!!!!

I Am A Pervert - they tell me this all the time.

So recently, I was sitting in the Baking Company in Santa Fe and I ran into this woman I know. A local scenester, she accosted me for "collecting pictures of nude girls" on my flickr site.

"I found you on a search and looked at your favorites," she said. "Is that what you do with your time, just bounce around flickr looking for pictures of nude young girls?"

I started to respond that this was only a mere fraction of what I tend to do with my time, but then she said, "You know, lots of people think nude pictures of women is art, but I don't think there's necessarily anything arty about it."

I guess that was supposed to put me in my place - "What?!? Nude pictures of teenage girls isn't art? Omigod, I'm going to stop looking at them right fucking now!"

The presumption that I'm looking at nude girls for the sake of art is damn near hysterical to me - who said I was looking for the art? I LIKE NUDE GIRLS. Sue me. Jock Sturges likes nude girls too and he gets to pretend it's about art because he's got a kick-ass method of making silver gelatin prints of nude girls. But he still LIKES PICTURES OF NUDE GIRLS. (And trust me, I've met him, and the man IS a fucking pervert.)

So I'm sitting in the library at the University of New Mexico, checking my blogline feeds, one of which happens to be "XXX Babes of flickr." XXX is pushing it a bit - these are fairly vanilla shots, if you ask me, but I subscribe because someone else "fleshes" out the best of the best so I can spend more time doing other things on the Internet and elsewhere and less time searching for that perfect doe-eyed cutie with perfect breasts to add to my flickr favorites.

And I'm looking at this one shot of two girls holding each other - obviously an amateur shot - at the beach, and I'm reaching forward to add it to my flickr favorites when a librarian comes up (I've done this at UNM Library a hundred times) and says to me in a really loud voice, "Sir, those pictures are not an appropriate use of library computers. If you want to use library equipment, you're not allowed to look at pictures like that."

Real loud. Loud enough so that people turn around and look at me - obviously, she's trying to shame me with her policy, to make me dry and run for the nearest exit, but I just look and say,

"Oh really? I haven't read the policy. But you have and you know what's in it. Perhaps I'll just look at something else."

I immediately point my browser to Dave's EMS Headquarters, the homepage of some sad sicko who likes to collect trauma photos that would make your skin crawl just to look at them (example above.) She shakes her head and walks away - because SHE CAN'T DO A GODDAMN THING ABOUT VIOLENCE, but Sex - well sex and nudity are just plain evil. The policy even says so.

I leave the violence and gore on the screen every time I go to the bathroom, and everytime I leave the library - lemme tell you folks, censorship is censorship no matter how you slice it - but how come they get to slice out the sex and leave the violence for everyone to view?

Harriet Miers: an exploiter of the legitimate gains of feminism

Tip o' the hat to Hart William's exhaustive report on the duplicity of nominating Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

I am completly of the opinion that this nomination needs to be opposed. It's absurd that anyone who has no judicial experience would be nominated to the highest court in the land. If anyone balks at opposing this fradulent friend of George Bush's because she's a woman, they're utterly missing the point of what the women's rights movement was for in the first place. This nominee needs to be opposed because she lacks the QUALIFICATIONS for the office, and is no reasonable replacement for the eminent (and truly "pioneering") outgoing Justic Sandra Day O'Connor.

The right to speak freely and anonymously upheld

A Delaware court has ruled that a prima facie case for defamation must be made in order to force anonymous blog posters to reveal their identities. The ruling contained language that implied that any attempt to "out" posters prior to proof of defamation would have a "chilling effect" on the right of bloggers to post anonymously, and thus would limit free speech.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051006/ap_on_hi_te/blogger_lawsuit

The Great Big Feature Story Boondoggle

I got to fuck up today in a rather big way, and it feels totally rotten. I've been working on a story for XYZ publication for months - it's actually a month overdue, a giant sprawling behemoth tale about image and message and meaning that I chased around for Too Damn Long seeking structure for, never really quite sure what the hell it was supposed to say or where it was supposed to go, but hanging on for dear life trying to Make the Damn Story Makes Sense. It never did, really, and I kept sorta waiting for the last bit of data to just appear that would make it all magically line up and become the kind of magic I've made before.

It's been YEARS (five, actually) since I had a story killed. I killed it, I guess, so overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of direction I felt in it that I was a hair-pulling mess for most of this weekend, alternating between the twin poles of writing an ARTS STORY that nevertheless was highly politcal (no matter what the fuck anyone says, this weren't no fluff piece from the get go) and writing, of all things, a white paper for a Big Fat IT-solutions company, where the writing was dull and dry and technical but for which I was paid Much Much More. I've been writing arts stories since I was nineteen and I don't think I've ever been this lost (the last piece that got killed was for a _Famous Computer Magazine_ on hacking techniques that was so freakin' dull that I was psyched it got killed, because I got a $2500 kill-fee to hand over my notes. I doubt I'll be that lucky this time around - I'll shop this fucker somewhere else, or I'll just forget it, and keep taking on private for-hire clients.

Because journalism doesn't pay. Not only does the money suck, but you can step on people's toes pretty fast, and I did. I *was* a snarky little bitch on the phone with some nameless city official today, but after a magazine has you crawling up everyone's ass for weeks and then caves in completely when someone calls to complain, it sorta makes you wonder why you don't do every gig "for-hire" and leave the investigative speculative shit for the staff writers. I will never again wonder why there aren't more stories about "what's really going on." Start sniffing around into that, and people get their feathers ruffled pretty fucking fast - which is all fun and games until you get calls from your own publisher about your professionalism.

Fuck that. My BIG FAT IT-client paid $2000 for a four-page white paper that no one will ever read. It'll be shipped to a conference in Europe where someone will "present it" from glossy four-color dossiers that will look great in my portfolio. I wrote it in six hours and the client - again, one of the biggest big dogs in the industry - was absolutely overjoyed with my professionalism. I wrote something no one will read and got $2000 and a happy client. I wrote something no one will read and got no money, plus a burned bridge or two, a severed relationship I really wanted to keep because I just thought it would be nice to write for someone local about a local issue. You decide which course of action (and clientele) I'll pursue in the future.

I want to point no fingers. It was my fault for ever taking the assignment without really have a firm idea of what the hell the client (they call them editors in journalism, but they're still "the client") actually wanted produced. Along the way I searched for clarification but was lost in it. I have no excuses other than that I thought I was onto something, but in the end, I was just another faded ex-journalist looking for easier ways to make a living.

Never Again. I never wanna feel this lost on any job again. I want to scrutinize every idea before I say, "Sure, I can meet that deadline." I swear to goddess there's nothing I want more than to be working with people who think I have what it takes to meet my end of the deal. I want to have a reputation for unparalleled excellence and professionalism. I want to be able to turn around jobs so fast that I can be onto the next thing before the ink is dry. and I want to work for people who hire ME to write stuff for THEM because journalism is a bit too political for someone who can create leaps in thought and logic as quickly as I can.

A total boondoggle. I just hope I learn something positive from it, and soon.

It's a joke...sorta...

Subject: The President's recent briefing on terrorist attacks in Brazil

Donald Rumsfeld is giving President Bush his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed by terrorists."

"OH NO!" the president exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"