Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been a bit on the lazy side. I'll try to put something interesting up tonight, but in the meantime let me share something...

David stopped by for a few hours last night. We sat in the living room, digging through old episodes of MTV's Subterranean on the Tivo and deciding which bands were to get the seal of approval and which the wag of the finger. As usual, the show was composed of about ten or twelve videos... eight or ten of which absolutely sucked. However, the new Muse video (for "Knights of Cydonia") may very well be the best video I've seen in years.

The song kicks more ass than a WWF Royal Rumble, but the video is a real treat. So, without further delay, I'll share it with you!

A new Zogby poll shows that a staggering majority (72%) of active duty soldiers in Iraq are calling for a pull-out within a year. So, it's now official... supporting the troops means getting them the hell out of this war.

As Dick Cheney would say, this is a "no-brainer."

I've done some stupid things in my life, and I've been caught doing several of them. However, none of which have been so shameful that I've felt the need to be put on suicide watch afterward.

Then again, I've never been this guy.

The NLCS is over, the Mets are going home. At least since game 7 was in New York they don't have too far to travel.

Even though the game didn't end the way I'd have liked, I have to say that it was one of the most exciting baseball games I've ever had the joy of watching. I'd comment on every pitch, but since many of you can't stand sports posts, let me just include this brilliant article from Jayson Stark (which is much better than I could have done anyway).

The season is essentially over for me. I don't really love or hate either of the teams heading to the World Series, so the winner won't make my year or break my heart (unlike the past two October Classics that left me glued to televisions throughout Lexington). I guess I'll have to wait until spring training to break out the ol' "How 'Bout Them Mets" line again... but it's ready for use.

Aw hell, I guess I'll just cheer for the Cardinals and watch the games... after all, who am I fooling here?

Today I decided to be a responsible American and do a little research on the Sunni/Shiite conflict. I'd grabbed snippets from the news and various websites, but hadn't really fully explored the differences or the origin of the conflict. My first thoughts were, "uhm... okaaay," upon seeing a mountain of Islamic terminology, names and dates that made this seem like far more of a daunting task than I had originally anticipated.

However, after a few minutes I managed to get my head around the big picture, leaving me open to explore the details. Now, I'm not going to post a mammoth entry about the differences between these warring factions. If you want to know more about it, then follow this link and start to explore. I just mentioned that as a way to explain how I found something that I found equally, if not more interesting.

Apparently the whole Iraqi debacle just really isn't that big of a deal in the mind of our current administration. We can thank everyone's favorite racist, Trent Lott, for blowing the lid off of that one by complete accident... way to go Trent!

“No, none of that,” Lott told reporters after the session when asked if the Iraq war was discussed. “You’re [the media] the only ones who obsess on that. We don’t and the real people out in the real world don’t for the most part.“

I have a few things on my mind.

This afternoon I'd like to bring a few things to your attention. They range from funny to scary, depending on your mood and sense of humor. Unfortunately, none of them are being widely reported.

... but to be fair, the first one really shouldn't be, it's much closer to funny than scary.

Let's start with a congressional race in Pennsylvania. I should preface this by saying that I have never seen one second of "The Apprentice," so I have absolutely no idea who he is. However, I can say that he's probably the only man on the planet that makes Tucker Carlson look like one of the Hell's Angels.

The putz pictured above was apparently a member of the cast of the hit show, "The Apprentice." He lost. Somehow losing at a television show in which multiple-bankruptcy-filer Donald Trump decides your fate in the corporate world makes someone a viable candidate for political office. That's funny right, I mean surely we wouldn't elect a guy that couldn't even come close to holding his own in the private sector to run our country... now would we?

Anyway, this marketing genius has decided that the best way to make a point about the dangers of illegal immigration in this country (one that I'm sure he suffers from daily while living in Philadelphia) is to ride an elephant across the Mexican border while being followed by a mariachi band. Once again, life becomes entirely too strange to have been scripted.

Of course, the true beauty of this is that he actually brought the creatures through the border legally and hired the mariachi band in Texas. Sooooo, I guess that's really not that dramatic after all... it just results in the priceless image of a jackass riding an elephant. I have no idea how much this cost, but to me it's worth every penny.

Moving on down the chain from "idiotic" to "scary, but not really surprising," we have a report from Newsweek International that the United States (under the direction of our fearless leader) may have actually been the ones to foul-up our negotiations with Kim Jong Il and the North Korean government.

Apparently we made some promises to Lil' Kim that we didn't intend on keeping. AND, just to prove exactly how serious we were about not keeping those promises, we broke them in a matter of days. Enjoy this quote from the aforementioned article:

On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, Washington agreed that the United States and North Korea would "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations."

Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions against North Korea designed to cut off the country's access to the international banking system, branding it a "criminal state" guilty of counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

Now THAT sounds like normalization of relations if I've ever heard it. So, to the surprise of what I would have to assume is no one, our government is in some way directly linked to this entire damn North Korea abandons peace talks crap. So, now we'll throw more sanctions at them. These people are already living on a healthy diet of grass soup and whatever happens to crawl into their bed at night... so yeah, economic sanctions are probably the key to starting a revolution up there.

And finally, as we move from "scary, but not really surprising" to "holy crap those guys are scary" we make our way to, you guessed it, Israel!

The wacky Israelis are at it again, this time testing all kinds of interesting new "less lethal" weapons on innocent West Bank protestors. Israel would like to take this opportunity to remind you that they are a democratic nation and welcome free speech and the open exchange of ideas. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's screw with the Muslims!

It appears that "less lethal" rubber bullets just aren't enough these days, even though they often (rather often) tend to be considerably less of the "less" and more of the "lethal."

Nah, Israel has decided to step it up a notch, covering non-violent protesters with some sort of blue dye. I have no idea what this stuff is, and I'd imagine that our non-violent protesters do either, but I can assure you that when the government you're protesting starts blasting you with some sort of mystery-liquid, it's rarely going to be a good thing. I'm sure we'll hear about how this chemical causes birth defects or cancer in a few years, but hell, that's a few years from now... no time to worry about that, especially when your president may be facing rape charges.

I guess very little of this matters, as the entire planet seems to have gone crazy. I'm going to just curl up on the couch with the new Chuck Klosterman book, a glass of bourbon and some chicken wings, wake me up when it's all over.

Hey, it's time for more from Brian Schweitzer!

A few months ago I asked all of you to get acquainted with Montana Governor, Brian Schweitzer, hoping that he'd eventually run for President of the United States. He seems to be in and out with Ben Chandlerian frequency, but lately he seems to be raising his profile... something that I'm rather fond of.

Now, I won't go back into the litany of reasons why I'm so fond of Governor Schweitzer as a Democratic candidate for POTUS. I'll just say that despite taking issue with some of his policies and raising my eyebrows to a few of his statements, he seems to be a solid character... and a VERY voter-friendly one at that. However, if anything was going to throw me onto the Schweitzer train completely it'd be an eco-friendly solution to our dependence on foreign oil that simultaneously creates thousands of jobs in rural America and saves the dying coal industry.

WOW!

This article is certainly worth a read. Unless Barack Obama comes roaring out of the gate sometime soon then I'm now 100% behind Schweitzer in '08... assuming he runs.

Just don't make me vote for Hilary Clinton.

"Here we go again," said Paul Weyrich, a leading religious conservative with close ties to the White House, referring to the avalanche of negative factors that he predicted would keep "embarrassed Republicans" from voting, just as the Watergate scandal did in the 1970s. "If Republicans win, it will prove God is a Republican, since it will take a miracle."

Once again, I find myself a slave to technology. First it was the DVD, then the Tivo, and now I'm shackled to the XM Radio.

I've owned an XM since 2002, but since I was getting very little use out of it, I turned the service off a few years ago. Recently I've found myself doing a fair amount of driving, so the radio is back on! What have I missed in my absence, you may ask? Well... apparently MC Lyte and Marley Marl are the two most popular classic hip-hop artists of all time, Vern Gosdin has written more songs that Ryan Adams on a coke binge, and you weren't allowed to release a song in the late 80's or early 90's unless you were really, really white.

Not just Caucasian, I'm talking about REALLY white... roughly the shade of Ryan Adams' nostrils during a particularly prolific songwriting binge.

Honestly, the 90's were the decade of the white man. Now, not to say that essentially every decade up until this point hasn't been essentially the decade of the white man, but the 90's was somehow worse... it was the decade of the white man that grew up in the mall. I'm ashamed of myself for some of the albums I owned in that time period. Howard Jones comes to mind, as does George Michael, but recently (this morning on the way to work) I came to an important decision. I think I may have determined the exact moment that whiteness in American music peaked... September 26, 1995, the release of the FRIENDS soundtrack.

This album is without a doubt the finest example of watered-down, soccer-mom jams ever assembled on one record. I think that Perry Como actually had more soul. Just in case you're having trouble recalling the heavy-hitters that rocked Monica's loft, let's run down the list and see who we've got. Well, there's Toad The Wet Sprocket, The Barenaked Ladies, Joni Mitchell, Hootie and the Blowfish (ironically, the whitest band on the list thus far) and of course, The Rembrandts.

If that's not blue-eyed soul, I don't know what is.

Ahhh yes, The Rembrandts. If you're having trouble remembering these guys, they're the bards that treated us to that sonic masterpiece, "I'll Be There For You." Now, I won't sit here and pretend that I don't think the show is funny. Friends is a damn funny show and I'll still find myself glued to the television if TBS kicks up one of those out-of-nowhere six day Friends marathons. However, I've gotten to the point (and this happened somewhere around October of '95) that I'd rather look at Daxon's "etchings" than hear that blasted song again.

For a second I actually believed that I'd made it through that decade without one single person I knew owning that album. Then it hit me... Kevin Hall. I almost made it out without that particular scar until I realized that SK Hall himself bought a copy of that soundtrack, and I've probably heard it in its entirety. Granted, he picked it up for the Toad and Hootie (I hope), but looking back on it does that really help things?

It should be pointed out that Kevin, despite owning history's most crackerfied record, isn't the whitest person I know... in fact, Kevin grew up on the mean streets... in fact, Kevin may be the most gangstafied person I know. Kevin was one of the founding members of N.W.A., but if I remember correctly he was thrown out... something about being "too street." What? You don't believe me? Well, let the pictures speak for themselves!

As you can CLEARLY see above, Kevin and Eazy-E remained close after the breakup of N.W.A. It was, however, a friendship that would end badly. Kevin and Eazy found themselves at odds again a few years later when a bitter paternity suit managed to pit them against each other. The argument was never settled, and the two never spoke again. In one of his last acts before his life was claimed by the AIDS epidemic, Eazy sought out revenge on Kevin by releasing this photograph:

This photo, released in 1993, did immeasurable damage to Kevin's street-cred and undoubtedly drove him into whiteness at full force. To this day he hasn't recovered... he owns a Jack Bauer for President t-shirt.

Of course, it wasn't just the early 90's that got it all wrong when it came to whiteness. Whiteness in music was certainly popular in the 1980's as well. The decade that gave us Huey Lewis, Steve Winwood solo records and Hall & Oates just can't simply be let off the hook. But, of all the dreadful crap to ever be generated in that ten-year span, I think the most bothersome trend to usher out the 80's was the use of the word "bad" to mean "good."

Once again, I'll confess that I'm as guilty as anyone else of using it, and it really wasn't that bad (used in the literal sense) when it started. However, like anything else, whitey co-opted the slang and managed to use it to describe things that, well, just really weren't all that bad (meant in the slang sense).

For example, let's take a look at the most famous instance of some white guy stealing the aforementioned phrase and screwing it all to hell:


Honestly, have you ever seen anything less "bad" than that in your life? I mean it. In the history of things that aren't "bad," this particular image is like the Shroud of Turin. I'd point out exactly what is so terribly un-bad about this whole thing, but if you need me to do that then you probably got so terribly pissed off over the Friends soundtrack issue that you haven't made it this far.

Of course, the overuse and bastardization of the word didn't die with Michael Jackson (who, may I remind you, somehow got Martin Scorsese to direct that video). We started making everything in society "bad." I'm fairly sure I can even remember my grandmother using that word on at least one occasion, and I can assure you that she wasn't bad... not even one bit... or maybe she was. I'm so damned confused by where we are with that word right now that I'm not sure who is or isn't bad. Although, I'm fairly sure of one thing, this guy isn't bad... not at all, and certainly not BADD!

I'm not sure which of those two guys I was supposed to color badd, or which one intends to sex me up, so I think I'll just play it safe and back out of this parking lot slowly. Honestly, it looks like Kenny G is trying to flee a miniaturized Clarence Clemmons dressed in a Judge Dredd uniform. Not one thing, I repeat, not ONE SINGLE THING about Color Me Badd is, in fact, badd. I'm not sure what these guys are doing now, but I'd bet that the guy that did the deep, "YEAH" sounds in the background of "All For Love" is probably the most content with himself, being the least recognizable one of the group vocally.

Hell, in that day and time we had to make everything just a little badder. We took it to terrible extremes, at one point even making our dudes bad. Come on now, not our DUDES!

I'm sorry, but these dudes just aren't going to cut it. I don't like my dudes to be bad, I like my dudes like this.

Then, of all things, to send these "Bad Dudes" out to save the President of the United States? I'll tell you what, if I'm ever the president (and kidnapped) I hope that my safety and the safety of the free world doesn't revolve around two dudes of this nature.

What started as a warm and fuzzy love song to XM Radio has now evolved into a rant on Bad Dudes... it's amazing that I can perform even the simplest of tasks with this kind of attention span. Feel free to add your own thoughts on things that were bad that shouldn't have been, other great whitey music, Kevin's hip-hop career or tips and tricks for playing Bad Dudes. That's what blogs are for, sharing utterly useless information.

Robert Byrd has once again taken to the floor of the Senate to shake a 500 year-old finger of disapproval at the Bush Administration... it's about time.

As you probably know, Mr. Byrd is a personal hero of mine. Just give me a few beers and some Bob Byrd on Youtube and I'm satisfied for hours. But really, how could you NOT get behind a man that owns a vest as spectacular as this one?

Anyway, on with the speech. It's a knockout, but his always seem to be. Stay tuned after the lecture to see how you can make a difference in two days!

Senator Robert C. Byrd

US Senate Floor Remarks
September 13, 2006

Mr. President,

September 11 has come and gone, and as we remember those lost on that fateful day, and contemplate events since the horrific attack, one truth stands out.

The war in Iraq has backfired, producing more recruits for terrorism, and deep divisions within our own country. It is a war we should never have begun. The detour from our attack on Bin Laden and his minions, hiding in the cracks and crevices of the rough terrain of Afghanistan, to the unwise and unprovoked attack on Iraq has been a disastrous one. Mr. Bush’s war has damaged the country because he drove our blessed land into an unnecessary conflict, utterly misreading the consequences, with the result now being a daily display of America’s vulnerabilities to those who wish us ill. The United States is a weaker power now, especially in the Middle East, but also in the court of world opinion. Where is the America of restraint, of peace and of inspiration to millions? Where is the America respected not only for her military might, but also for her powerful ideas and her reasonable diplomacy?

Our country may have deviated occasionally from its positive global image in the past, but Abu Ghraib, the body snatching for torture, euphemistically called rendition, Presidential directives which unilaterally alter conditions of the Geneva Convention -- these are not the stuff of mere slight deviations from the America of peacefulness, fairness, and goodwill. These are major policy and attitudinal changes of Tsunami-sized proportions. Our friends shake their heads in disbelief. Our enemies nod wisely and claim they knew all the while. I cannot remember a time in our history when our elected leaders have failed the people so completely, and yet, so far, are not held accountable for costly misjudgments and outright deceptions.

Take our Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, for example. He misread the Iraqi situation entirely. He adamantly dismisses suggestions for a larger force in Iraq. He failed to object when the White House’s Coalition Provisional Authority disbanded the Iraqi army, only to have them go underground and provide fodder for the insurgency. He insisted that the Iraqi people would view our soldiers as liberators not occupiers, and even failed to properly anticipate the equipment needs of our men and women in harm’s way.

Secretary Rumsfeld continues to insist that we are not facing a civil war in Iraq despite convincing evidence to the contrary, and yet he sits comfortably in his office as the echo of his errors in judgment and strategy continues to cost thousands of lives.

Then there is President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. These men continue to try to make the American public swallow whole the line that the war in Iraq is the front line of a global war on terror, which must be continued at all costs. Stay the course, they say, despite three years of discouragingly little progress in Iraq. The body count is approaching 2,700 for our side, tens of thousands for the beleaguered Iraqi people, and billions of American tax dollars, of which an embarrassingly large chunk has been wasted by irresponsible contractors, and government officials who lack the proper respect for the public purse. Many of our allies have left the field, recognizing the truth that the Administration fails to see: namely, we had the weapons to win the war, but not the wisdom to secure the peace.

Yet, too many in the public are complacent about the numerous violations of their trust and the continuing loss of life in Iraq. Some of our citizens have apparently been convinced that it is unpatriotic to criticize one’s country when that country is engaged in an armed conflict. In fact, in our land today, there is a troubling tolerance for government overreaching on fronts at home as well as abroad. This Administration has repeatedly used fear and flag-waving to blunt the traditional American insistence on the Bill of Rights, personal freedom of thought and action, privacy, and one’s right to speak and write as one pleases. Such a cynical exercise on the part of high officials of our government is unconscionable. It is shameful behavior for which there is no excuse.

The Congress, under the control of the President’s party has been submissive, a lap dog wagging its tail in appreciation of White House secrecy and deception. Even the vast majority of the opposition party has been too quiet for too long -- unable to find its voice, stunted by the demand to “support the troops.” We forget, too often, that there is a very real difference between support for the troops and support for an unnecessary war. The men and women of our military did not ask to go to those faraway places, but they were willing. They answered their country’s call. We have an obligation to support them, but we do not need to follow blindly the unthinking policies that keep them mired in the middle of a civil war.

The American public is our last best hope now. Our people must demand more from their representatives in the Congress and from their leaders in the White House. Donald Rumsfeld should be replaced by the President because he has made so many grievous errors in judgement on Iraq and because a new voice at the helm of the Department of Defense could be a breath of fresh air for our policies in Iraq. His replacement would be good for our country. Yet even a sense of the Senate vote of “no confidence” in Mr. Rumsfeld’s leadership has been blocked by the President’s party in the Senate. Personal accountability has been long absent from this Administration, and this Senator would like to see it return.

One would hope that men and women who rise to positions of awesome responsibility would have the grace, dignity, and honor to know in their own hearts when a well-timed resignation would advance patriotic goals. But, too often, the selfish love of power or some misguided show of toughness wins the days to the detriment of our country’s fortunes. Donald Rumsfeld ought to step down or his President ought to ask him to. There is too much at stake for any other course. Personally, I believe the President is derelict in his duties when he does not ask for Mr. Rumsfeld’s latchkey. The bungling and loss of life attendant to this tragic three-year long debacle in Iraq have hurt this country, its public image, and its ability to achieve numerous other national and international goals. That kind of dangerous ineptitude cannot be excused.

But like so many things when it comes to Iraq and the Middle East in general, the United States of America is stuck in neutral, with the only thing showing vigorous movement the ever spiraling price of gasoline. We have destabilized the Middle East, and handed the mullahs a way to affect the daily lives and livelihood of every American, and the efficacy of our military might -- the oil supply lines upon which our economy and our military depend.

Now that oil supply is a favorite target for terrorists who have learned the joys of bombing pipelines, and listening to America bite its nails about the high cost of gasoline, while it laments its lack of foresight in developing alternative fuels.

Now, we have passed yet another anniversary of the bloody attacks which precipitated the disastrous situation in which our country finds itself today. Yet, while we mourn, there are hard truths to confront.

Our attention has been shifted, by design and deception, too quickly from the war in Afghanistan -- a war that we needed to fight and win. Now the Taliban is on the rise in that country. Al Qaeda continues to find sanctuary in the mountains. Violence is on the rise, and peace and stability are in jeopardy.

North Korea, probably reacting to our doctrine of preemption and our newfound bellicosity, has increased its nuclear capability. Iran has been emboldened by our inability to stop the violence in Iraq, and by the lukewarm support we have garnered from traditional allies. Even the people of Turkey, one of the United States’ staunchest allies with Turkey a member of NATO, and a model of secular Muslim democracy, have turned against us. A survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States indicates that Iran has become one of the most popular countries in Turkey, and that there is a growing willingness to identify with radical Islam. A display of ineptitude and spectacular miscalculation in Iraq has cost us dearly. Disenchantment at home with the dismal results in Iraq will have reverberations for years, much like the failure in Vietnam did in the 1960's.

President Bush insists that his war must go on. He defends warrantless wiretapping of our own citizens as essential to his cause, despite a court decision that the President has no such authority under our Constitution. He defends torture and rendition, and says that they have produced valuable evidence which has subverted several terror attacks on our country. But, his credibility is so damaged that it is difficult to believe him. He demands the authority to hold terror suspects indefinitely, and then to try them using military tribunals which deny basic rights, also in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling. He seems convinced that he can “win” a global war on terror despite the demonstrated failure of his policies of unilateralism, militarism, overheated rhetoric, and a pathological dislike of diplomacy. It is up to the Congress to change course and to stop the heinous raiding of constitutionally protected liberties by a White House which does not fully appreciate the true meaning of the word freedom. I hope that we may find the courage.

---------------Back to Cory---------------

Inspired?
Mad?
Sleepy?

Take any and all of those emotions and channel them into something positive. It's the least that you can do! Follow this link to an organization that drafts letters to send to Congress demanding impeachment. Really folks, the letters are ready to go, just sign your name... it CAN'T GET ANY EASIER THAN THAT!!

North Korea is scary!

Look, I know it's hard to stop thinking about Congressman Foley and all the hot young teens parading around Washington in speedos... but we need to take a break.

While we all sat glued to our televisions, foaming at the mouth with anticipation for more lurid details involving hot Congressman-on-Page action, North Korea started acting a little jumpy. Now, I tend to believe that Mr. Kim Jong-Il isn't really very interested in blowing us up. His passion in life is film, and at the end of the day, the best films in the world come from America... the majority of which come from California.

Think of it this way, if you lived and breathed for corn, if corn was so important to you that you just couldn't imagine having a meal without an ear, would you nuke Nebraska? Probably not.

However, we should still pay attention to this wacko. He may look like some sort of creepy troll in a tracksuit, but he does still have the bomb. And even though the terrorists are hiding under our beds and stuffing every cookie jar in America with dirty bombs, it still wouldn't kill us to give Lil' Kim a glance from time to time. He's not exactly the most stable person around and he's very capable of making life VERY uncomfortable for those reading this in the Pacific Time Zone.

To explain what I mean, let me throw a few quotes out from a statement released by a spokesman for the DPRK organization:

"Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos."

"The Kim administration seeks to commit nuclear weapons to actual use against the US in case of war, never to use them as a tool of negotiations. "

"A nuclear test by North Korea will go a long way toward emboldening anti-American states around the world to acquire nuclear weapons. There is a long line of candidate states. "

Of course, if that's not bothersome enough, take a look at some of the art covering buildings in Pyongyang...

Yup... pretty scary.

So, let's make it a point, all of us together, to pay a little more attention to North Korea. I know Iraq is a complete freaking disaster, the mid-term elections are upon us and our Congressmen just can't seem to keep it in their pants... but none of that's really going to amount to much when the ocean waves are breaking on the Nevada shoreline.

Just food for thought... take it or leave it.

"Those are some dank nugs!!!"

I guess I was pretty uncool in the 90's, considering I had to google the phrase "dank nugs" to find out what the hell they were talking about.

<--- This guy came up in a google image search for "dank nugs," apparently he's enjoying some.

Last night I was watching the O'Reilly Factor...

Yes, I know, I'm a masochist.

Anyway, I decided to tune in to Mr. O'Reilly's show upon hearing that he was calling for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert in the wake of the child exploitation charges rising up against Florida Congressman Mark Foley. Although Papa Bill proudly claims his independent status, most people with one active brain cell will notice that he may at times slant a little more to the right-wing than the left-wing, so hearing him call for the head of such a prominent conservative was at the least very interesting.

While watching Mr. O'Reilly's broadcast I noticed something... shall we say, a bit odd. Here's a screenshot from that very "news"cast, let's see if you can spot the error... an little brain teaser to start your morning.

See anything unusual there? Now, for a second, let's pretend that you didn't catch it (and perhaps some of you haven't). If that's an innocent mistake, I'll accept it and move along. Those things can happen and we certainly can't rely on a NEWS network to get ALL of the FACTS correct, now can we.

So, figuring that this was simply human error and not part of some sneaky, semi-subliminal effort to confuse the hell out of the voting public (it was only up for a few seconds), I went on my merry way. Unfortunately, this morning I came to learn that Fox News now seems to be making a practice of this "mistake," tossing it up there on yet another occasion. Once again, the image is quick, but isn't all great subliminal advertising?

In case you haven't determined what I'm talking about on here, Mark Foley is a REPUBLICAN! Fox News has decided, however, that Republicans just aren't capable of this type of thing... so surely he must have been a Democrat, right? These are, of course, the same people that are loudly screaming at Bill Clinton for trying to "rewrite history..." which I find to be far more palatable than Fox's attempts to rewrite the present.

Then, just when you thought that the madness surely wouldn't go any deeper, that this is as far as they'd go, take a look at this screenshot from a recent Osama Bin Laden video:

Have they no decency? The answer is, of course, no.

It's a scary time in America. The founding documents of our society are being rewritten, schools seem to be shot up every day, and the propaganda machines are running at such a pace that the former Soviet Union would have to sit back and watch with quiet awe. Of course the Osama picture is a joke, but the first two aren't. It seems completely absurd to consider someone confusing Bin Laden with Byrd or Rockefeller, but shouldn't it be equally absurd to confuse a Republican, especially one that is now so closely linked to high-ranking Republican leadership, with a Democrat?

At best it's shockingly sloppy journalism. However, at worst it's something far more sinister. I'll let you, and your level of cynicism decide that one.

"If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."