A Pen Warmed In Hell by Nyc Labretš

Bank Of America Goes Belly Up

2009-01-17T17:52:00.002Z

Click On The Below To Enlarge

Indie MMO Game Developers Conference 2.0

2008-02-20T16:56:00.000Z

Indie MMO Game Developers Conference 2.0

Snow in Baghdad

2008-01-12T02:59:00.001Z

You Fucks Are Next

2007-11-19T03:43:00.000Z

This came from the MySpace page comments of musician Robert Wyatt, from the UK.

Have You Tried It?

2007-10-28T23:02:00.000Z

turtle

UPDATE From Nyc:

It's in my freezer right now, though I wonder why he didn't go for a Red, White and Blue Italian ice/sherbet type dealio. I mean it's obvious it could have been called "Colbert Sherbet". Maybe that one will be next.

On a personal note, I see Colbert as a complete, non-stop menace to society at large.

I mean, jeez Louise, the Maureen Dowd column was one thing, but now that his book is #1 on The New York Times Bestseller list, he's going to be beyond insufferable for at least a month...

By way of comparison, Ann Coulter's latest piece of drivel has been out for less than a month, and it looks like her crazy talk has finally caught up with her, and people are fed up with her shit, because she's dropped all the way down to #95 on Amazon.

It's about fucking time.

The Harder They Come Finally Gets The Props It Deserves

2007-10-25T11:57:00.000+01:00

Jimmy Cliff’s THE HARDER THEY COME movie soundtrack has been named by Vanity Fair as being the NUMBER THREE best film soundtrack of all time.

Damn.

That’s so awesome.

Especially since it beat out the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

Now for those of you out there in the Howdy Doodyland Peanut Gallery that are scratching your heads in disbelief and wondering what in high holy hell this album is doing so high on this list, please consider that without this soundtrack, and its influence, (and you can forget about it popularizing reggae in the USA), Punk Rock, (to name just one genre), as we know it, in all likelihood, would probably not exist.

That’s because in the early 1970s you could not turn on the BBC radio in England without hearing at least one song a day from it, if not more, since it was on the kind of heavy musical rotation that would make an MTV marketing VP, from the late 1980s, blush bright beet red and wet their pants.

That Clash song that you hear in that car ad these days? It’s a cover of the Toots & Maytals’s Pressure Drop, which is track 9 on The Harder They Come soundtrack.

Now for all you LA Surf Thrash Punks out there who believe that Sublime’s Bradley Nowell was a bigger talent than Kurt Cobain because he had greater musical range? Well, we could debate that one for a month of Sundays, all day long, until the cows come home, but one thing is true of both Nirvana and Sublime, besides them being Power Pop Trio bands, and that is they kicked ass when it came to covers, this unplugged, live, Nirvana album being Prima Facie evidence of that. In Sublime’s case, from their seminal 40 Oz’s To Freedom, there’s Rivers of Babylon, which is, that’s right a cover from the original Melodians version of it that’s the third song on The Harder They Come soundtrack.

If you’re lucky enough to have this bad boy on vinyl, like I do, I suggest busting it out and giving it another listen to and feel the warm glow of it finally getting the recognition of the place in musical history that it so richly deserves.

Many rivers to cross, indeed, but it does go to show that you can get it if you really want.

Even if it requires the patience of Job, and stuff.

If not there’s alway the YouTubes, and the opening, title song itself isn’t a bad place to start, but for myself, this has always been my favorite tune. Those that know me know why.

Now, all that being said, I haven’t seen this complete Vanity Fair list of 50 film soundtracks past their Top Ten Picks, but I do know this, if I don’t see The Repo Man Soundtrack on there, as it should rightfully be, I’m gonna scream bloody murder at the top of my motherfaluckling lungs.

But for now, I’ll be more than happy to settle for this.

~nwa

Local Boy Makes Good Internationally

2007-10-11T12:04:00.000+01:00

Sad thing is, Senator Oddo isn't even original, he completely stole the "Get the fuck out of my office" line from Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP:

Steve: Tower Records told me to shove this record up my ass! Do you know what it feels like to be told to have a record shoved up your ass?
Eminem: But, I-
Steve: I'm gonna lose my fuckin' job over this. You know why Dre's record was so successful? He's rappin' about big-screen tv's, blunts, 40's and bitches. You're rappin' about homosexuals and Vicadin.
Eminem: I mean-
Steve: I can't sell this shit!
Eminem: What-
Steve: Either change the record or it's not coming out!
Eminem: What, I-
Steve: Now get the fuck out of my office!
Eminem: What am I supposed-
Steve: NOW!
Eminem: Alright man, whatever.

More to follow...

"This Country Doesn't Torture, We're Not Going To Torture..."

2007-10-06T14:58:00.000+01:00

Right.

And I've got some land in Florida and a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya.

Speaking as a former tech from ALT, America's premiere BDSM website, let me break some news to you.

Take a look around, not only do we Americans torture, early and often, we totally love, adore and get off on that shit, in a really big way.

Forget Jack Bauer.

We use torture to sell soap and shampoo for Chrissakes:

It's The American Way, bitch.

God Bless America.

No Doubt A Taser Would Have Been Preferable

2007-10-05T23:30:00.000+01:00

JP From Welcome to Pottersville provides his always erudite commentary on this here.

Show him some love.

And spread this video of 15 year old Shelwanda Riley getting pepper-sprayed all over the web.

Thanks!

~nwa

BLOGSWARM He Fiddled While It Drowned, Or Everything Old Is New Again

2007-08-29T13:43:00.000+01:00

(Note: prior Katrina posts, including this one, are here.)

"George Bush doesn't care about black people." Kanye West, September, 2005

Kanye's a bit off the mark.

Herr El Presidente Busch has always hated and not cared a good goddamn damn about, the poor, the black, hispanics, and most importantly, their children, as his recent promise to veto any S-CHIP health care legislation for America's poor children that crosses his desk bears out

Long, long, before Katrina happened under his watch as President, he established a long running track record of this kind of as Texas Governor.

Katrina was just part of his 'more of the same' track record, that we're sure to see more of before he leaves office.

It's a pattern that they're going to run out of their Death to America playbook, again and again.

And let's call it what it is, it's not "government malfeasance", that's nonsense.

This, and the events in Texas described below paint a picture of this death by drowning of a jewel of an American city, New Orleans, being nothing less than slow-burn genocide.

It's not like people weren't warned, and sorry there's no short way to do this, this excerpt came out as part of a much longer piece written by Gail Sheehy that ran the month before the 2000 Election.

Try not to throw up while you read it.

With his promise to restore "honor and dignity" to the Oval Office, Bush is not running on issues; he is running on character. The character of a political leader, though, must be expressed through his policies on the great concerns of the time. A leading concern today is the environment. Supreme Court justices will retire, new laws will be passed, but once the environment has been degraded, the effects are generally irreversible.

Bush is an oilman, and so is Dick Cheney, who, until he was tapped as Bush's running mate, was C.E.O. of Halliburton, the world's largest oil-field services company. Over the past five years Cheney received salary and bonuses totaling $12.5 million, stock options worth nearly $39 million and, last month, a retirement package worth an estimated $20 million. Don Evans, who would likely be Bush's chief of staff, is the C.E.O. of Tom Brown Inc., the $750 million Denver-based oil and gas company.

The obvious question arises: How would these men balance the interests of the oil and petrochemical industries, which are among their heaviest contributors, with the interests of Americans for a clean and healthy environment?

Odessa, Texas, is the backyard of Midland—in every way. It is where the dirty services of the local oil and petrochemical industries are performed. The industry executives live in Midland. The working people live in Odessa.

It is where the Bush family first set up housekeeping in 1948, a couple of miles from a petrochemical plant built in 1956 that is now the sixth-worst polluter in the state of Texas. But the Bush family has long been gone, and a few years ago even the Texas agency responsible for environmental control of air and water moved out of Odessa and over to Midland, leaving no forwarding number.

That was after the plant was bought up in 1997 by Huntsman, the largest privately owned petrochemical company in the country, which expanded the plant's capacity for making plastic pellets. First, the school windows start to rattle. Then the whole building shakes. Swooosh-thwoock! It sounds like giant fireworks going off. The kids look out the windows, excited. From the tower of the plant a half-mile from the school a torch of flame shoots toward the sky. Kids who run outside feel the ground rolling. "Is it an earthquake?" "Will it blow up?" Smoke twists up from the tip of the flame. After a while the smoke turns black and lies down over the community and day turns into night. Company representatives tell frightened residents they are just burning "sweet" gas. But to residents it smells like raw diesel fuel or rotten eggs, depending on the day. "Whenever there is a rattle or an 'earthquake,' I call the representative from Huntsman and ask, 'What's going on?'" says Laura Norton, the principal of Hays Elementary School. The public-relations executive for the Odessa plant, Carolyn Tripp, goes over to the school and calms everyone down. "She calls them 'flares,'" says Norton. "She said they had to shut down parts of the plant to release … I believe she said steam, and because they're shooting it fast, it was creating a lot of pressure."

A flare is the burn-off of chemicals which are fired from a plant into the atmosphere, releasing anything from plant waste to dangerous carcinogens, but it isn't only natural or "sweet gas." Flares use steam, but what they are burning is often a toxic chemical soup that is so commonplace in Texas cities and poor counties that, under Governor Bush, the state has moved up to No. 1 in ozone precursor emissions. (Air toxics become transformed and create ozone pollution.)

Amazingly, Houston managed to outdo Los Angeles in 1999 as the city with the highest levels of ozone smog in the nation. Houston is only one of a half-dozen of the state's largest metropolitan areas to be warned by the Environmental Protection Agency that their eight-hour smog levels threaten human health. Governor Bush's latest response was to write to the E.P.A., only last June, asking that the Texas counties in violation be designated "unclassifiable" and exempted from federal penalties. The E.P.A. has asked the governor to reconsider.

In December 1998, Odessa residents living downwind of the newly expanded Huntsman plastics plant were engulfed by black, toxic smoke—so thick they needed to drive with their headlights on in the middle of the day. That eerie "flare" lasted for two weeks. Houses shook, and terrified residents couldn't sleep or concentrate. Children wheezed and coughed and came down with bloody noses and headaches. The flame climbed a hundred feet in the air and could be seen from 30 miles away at the Midland Country Club. But the Midland office of the state's environmental agency, T.N.R.C.C. (Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission), did nothing. The local air-section manager, Mike Hagan, excused the event as an "upset," which is what they call an unscheduled release of chemicals. The T.N.R.C.C. doesn't track the number of upsets at each plant, and some, like Alcoa's Rockdale smelter, can have upsets daily. Ludicrously, the agency puts no limit on the amount of toxins or duration of releases. A Huntsman Corporation executive in charge of environmental matters, Don Olsen, insisted there had been no flare. "There just isn't evidence that anything like that happened." he said. In fact, in the first three days of the two-week upset the plant burned more than 60,000 pounds of ethylene, a suspected neurotoxicant that has adverse effects on the nervous system; more than 30,000 pounds of propylene, which adversely affects breathing; and hundreds of pounds of benzene and butadiene—both recognized as highly hazardous carcinogens which promote cancer of the liver and are toxic to the heart, the blood, the respiratory and intestinal and immune systems.

Gene Collins, president of the Odessa chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., organized residents into one of the largest protests against community pollution in the state—3,100 individual affidavits from people who complained of health problems and medical bills. The enforcement division of the T.N.R.C.C. cooperated with Huntsman in negotiating a $7,500 fine, which the agency agreed to waive when the company offered to make a contribution to the betterment of the affected community. Last October, Huntsman told the Hays school it was putting in an expensive new air-quality monitor, right on the school grounds. It was actually provided by the T.N.R.C.C. in response to the community outcry. "A Huntsman person came over and explained they would be monitoring things 24 hours a day, seven days a week," says the principal innocently. "We feel confident they are monitoring the air, so we feel like it's safe for the kids."

Hays has 350 students, of which the majority are black or Hispanic. The principal admits that some parents have complained that their children are having problems with "allergies," but says the school's complete attendance records are a year or two behind. Careful about what she says, since many of the children have parents who owe their jobs to the Huntsman plant, the principal praises the company for taking an interest in their school. "They get real involved in our science fair, and they provide computer equipment." "What good does it do if you give a child a computer and then 20 years later he gets cancer from all the pollution he got from going to Hays Elementary?" asks Dr. Neil Carman, a former air-quality-control inspector for the T.N.R.C.C., widely known as "Trainwreck." "The whole system they use is a hoax and a fraud," says Carman, who quit the agency in disgust in 1992 and now works for the Sierra Club in Texas.

The Huntsman operation in Odessa is not the worst case of alleged environmental recklessness in Texas, but it is a classic example of how the interests of the oil and power and petrochemical industries are protected by the Bush administration, while the population is virtually helpless against the dangerously mounting pollution levels.

The T.N.R.C.C. insists it does have "guidelines"—E.S.L.'s, or environmental-safety levels—which are pseudo-standards that the agency can apply or dismiss at its discretion. But they mean almost nothing. Why? Because Texas is not enforcing its clean-air laws. Under the federal act signed in 1990 by President Bush, each state was allowed to choose its own strategy. Under Governor Bush, the Texas strategy was conceived by industry executives working with the governor's office and blessed by the three commissioners of the T.N.R.C.C.—Ralph Marquez, a 30-year veteran of the chemical industry; John Baker, a professional lobbyist; and Robert Huston, an oil-industry consultant—all appointed by Governor Bush.

Here is how it happened in Texas, and how it might be expected to happen at the national level under President Bush.

An alarm bell was sounded in Bush's office in January 1997 by his point man for environmental policy, John Howard, who warned in a memo that the "industry has expressed concern that the T.N.R.C.C. is moving too quickly and may rashly seek legislation this session." The legislation in question might have closed the grandfathering loophole that allows the worst of Texas air polluters to continue operating their decades-old plants with outmoded technology. That June, executives of Marathon Oil and Exxon sent a letter to other oil executives with good news: Governor Bush, it stated, "asked us to work with his office to develop the concepts of a voluntary program to permit grandfathered facilities in Texas." These are plants more than 30 years old, and they account for more than a third of all industrial emissions in the state.

Executives from more than a dozen oil and chemical companies, including Huntsman, together with their lobbyists, met through the fall of 1997 in complete secrecy until they had drafted a new law to their liking. One troubled DuPont engineer sent out an E-mail stating, "Clearly, the 'insiders' from oil & gas believe that the Governor's Office will 'persuade' the T.N.R.C.C. to accept whatever program is developed between the industry group and the Governor's Office." Then Governor Bush created a blue-ribbon committee, misleadingly named CARE, to bless the new program. On June 18, 1999, Bush sealed it with his signature on a law that makes it entirely voluntary for companies with old, grandfathered plants to cut their pollution emissions.

That spring, when Bush announced his intention to run for president, his campaign was jump-started by contributions from the owners of these same grandfathered plants and their law firms. Among the most generous were Enron ($103,100), Exxon ($19,200), and Shell ($25,000). Vinson & Elkins, the law firm that represents Alcoa on air-pollution matters, contributed $184,800. Baker & Botts, which has lobbied on behalf of eight grandfathered polluters, including Huntsman, gave $82,000.

Probably some of those highly paid lobbyists were on the links the day in mid-July when I had a late lunch at the Midland Country Club. The club, once frequented by George W., hosts luncheons for oilmen who belong to the Landmen's Association and Natural Gas Producers. After a game of golf they might enjoy oysters in crawfish cream sauce and green chili and then sit out on the veranda, boasting about their latest prospect.

Suddenly, from the veranda, I noticed what looked like a big torch in the sky. "Could that be a flare from the Huntsman petrochemical plant?" I asked the assistant manager of the club. He wrinkled his nose. "It doesn't look very nice."

I was in Midland that day doing interviews for this story. Having read a report that almost a quarter-million children in Texas attend school near grandfathered plants that emit smog-producing pollution, I had asked for an interview with the principal of the Hays school. When I called Gene Collins, a graduate of Baylor University who is the N.A.A.C.P. man in Odessa, he said, "Y'all picked a good time to come up here. Huntsman is passing out flyers in the community announcing they are going to have a flare and an upset [defined as accidental!] tomorrow starting at six a.m."

It was the first time the company had given Odessa residents a warning of a flare, though it is legally required to do so by the E.P.A. Collins sounded genuinely pleased: "They are really trying to do something for the community." Collins was not available when I called back. The company had started flaring 12 hours in advance of the time given in the flyer, and he was passing out gas masks to residents.

My Texas researcher, Mike Smith, and I drove over to Odessa to experience a flare firsthand. As we approached the low-income neighborhood of South Odessa, a rumble was noticeable, and a tall narrow flame lit the sky above the squat houses. Residents were in the streets handing out thin tissue masks. I stopped to speak to Mary Hernandez, whose neck was collared by a raw red scar. "I had a thyroid tumor removed three months ago," she said. "Like a golf ball." She was checking on the elderly residents, many of whom have obtained oxygen tanks. The mothers and grandmothers looked very worried. "This one has been going for two or three nights already," said Bobbi Palmer, a retired grandmother of 15. "The rolling—at night it sounds like thunder. The kids get very upset because the noise keeps them awake."

Collins says, "We have a much higher than normal rate of kidney cancer. So many people in Odessa are on kidney dialysis now, we have a special clinic for it. And just about everybody has some sort of respiratory problem." After less than an hour I noticed my own throat closing up. My eyes were running, my voice became hoarse, and I began to feel disoriented. The company's response had been a program called "Shelter in Place": people were told to tape their windows and seal themselves in during a flare—hardly humane in the 90-plus-degree summer heat for people whose air-conditioning is to open the windows and doors.

Dozens of Odessa residents had traveled to Austin last spring to petition Governor Bush for help. He ignored them. That evening we stopped by the Hays school to see the new monitor. It looked like a small railroad car, padlocked, with a little glass jar attached to sample the air. We could hear it "breathing," sucking in the air, but Collins said that when he'd asked for data from it, the local T.N.R.C.C. representative told him they didn't have the staff to read the data. (The T.N.R.C.C. has 3,000 employees.) After a month of chasing around, a technical person at the T.N.R.C.C. campus in Austin downloaded 13,000 pages of data documenting the emissions at the Hays school on an hourly basis from the time the monitor had been installed, nine months before.

The results were shocking. Even Dr. Carman, the former T.N.R.C.C. inspector who had worked for years in the Odessa plants, had never seen anything like it. "It's like having an open incinerator in your backyard, but this incinerator is burning a very large soup of toxic chemicals," said Dr. Carman after analyzing the data from the three days in mid-July when I had followed the flare in Odessa. "With all of the toxic air releases occurring in Texas—tens of thousands of them—this is the first time a continuous monitor has recorded, in real time, emissions from a flaring episode in Texas," to Dr. Carman's knowledge.

The "normal" level for benzene in the area ranges from .5 to 2 or 3 parts per billion (p.p.b.) molecules of air. The evening I was in the neighborhood the benzene level spiked up to 6.5 p.p.b. At 11 p.m., after the last local newscaster left, the benzene level jumped to 13. But we were still being exposed to the effects of a truly stratospheric climb recorded at seven that morning—up to 269 p.p.b., at least a 200 percent increase!

And benzene wasn't the only deadly carcinogen the plant was spewing. There were also high levels of toluene and butadiene, both neurotoxicants that are considered extremely hazardous to children's development as well as to the reproductive health of men and women and particularly to the unborn. "This is dramatic evidence that these flares are not burning everything, but rather releasing a mixture of highly toxic chemicals into the air at ground level," Dr. Carman said. "I can tell you, the T.N.R.C.C. has no idea what this stuff does to people. They are certainly not going to tell anyone that it is killing them, because that is bad for 'bidness' in Texas."

The Huntsman plants are among hundreds of such outmoded, free-flaring facilities. And the saddest part, says Dr. Carman, is that what comes out of most of these plants is not even monitored. When I read off the data from the Hays monitor to a director of enforcement at the T.N.R.C.C., Joe Vogel, he was evasive. He isn't a toxicologist, he said, he's a business-administration person. Yet he insisted, "A lot of short-term spikes don't necessarily have a health impact.… There is not a refinery that does not have upsets."

The managers of another Huntsman plant, in Port Arthur, had been found criminally guilty in 1999 of falsifying reports on a similar incident of a huge benzene release. (One of the convicted managers was a former state air-pollution regulator; while on appeal he still has his job with Huntsman.) "We have never been able to prove a condition of air pollution, because we were never able to prove that the smoke impacted the neighborhood," says Vogel about Port Arthur. Vogel failed to say that the T.N.R.C.C. has set acceptable levels for short-term releases, and Huntsman had clearly exceeded them and may be endangering the health of the community. The short-term safety level of benzene is four p.p.b. an hour for 24 hours. On July 11, the average measurement of benzene per hour in South Odessa was 20 p.p.b.

My call must have set off alarm bells in the Salt Lake City headquarters of Huntsman. A conference call with Don Olsen was arranged by a lobbyist with the public-relations firm created by Governor Bush's media guru, Mark McKinnon. "We bought this plant because we thought it helps Odessa and the end products it makes are necessary for society," said Olsen. He also said that the company had spent millions on putting in a new flaring system. "We're working closely with the T.N.R.C.C." But he said he knew nothing about a July flare, nor about any data generated by the expensive new monitor, and professed ignorance of any benzene releases. When he heard some of the numbers, he changed his story: "The T.N.R.C.C. or E.P.A. has not contacted us about that. It's not our responsibility to read the monitors. If they find something wrong, they have the responsibility to tell us." The next day Huntsman's excuse was to say the monitor wasn't even operating on the three days for which we had data.

Several days later, the company provided us with a duplicate of the data from the T.N.R.C.C. but insisted that all the chemicals recorded were far below levels of concern. They also tried to blame the pollution on a nearby rubber plant. Huntsman put out 2,936,559 pounds of toxic chemicals in 1998—25 times as much air pollution as the rubber plant, according to the E.P.A. Other toxic chemicals found by the Hays monitor are primarily associated with Huntsman's facility (propylene, ethylene, propane, ethane, and methane). "It's a farce," Gene Collins said with a bitter laugh. "Governor Bush has turned his head. Maybe that is how he interprets 'compassionate conservative'—I won't watch your suffering."

In the month after the Odessa upset, Collins reported, "we've had two people die from acute asthma attacks. It's really scary." Even the company's P.R. spokesperson, Barbara Laing, complained, "We fear that Huntsman is being held up as the poster child for Bush's shitty environmental record here in Texas."

I hoped to have an opportunity to ask Governor Bush about his learning difficulties, his religious awakening, and his environmental policies. Coming out of the celebratory Republican convention, I joined Bush's whistle-stop train tour through the Midwest, expecting a real grassroots trip. Instead, it was a long string of privately owned railroad cars. The campaign had hired a top Philadelphia caterer, who was told to "take care of the press, first class," which meant laying on heavy hors d'oeuvres—smoked-salmon napoleons and caviar on crème fraîche—while the train purred through traditionally Democratic states. Crowds were huge and highly charged, but the faces were almost exclusively white.

Running down the roadbed at one stop, I collared Don Evans. I asked him how Bush, as president, would balance his loyalty to the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries with the nation's growing concerns about environmental policy. The pause was long. "We'll have a policy position on the environment and energy—it's being worked on." Evans emphasized that the governor has taken "enormous constructive steps to reduce pollution."

The next morning I was told by Karen Hughes, "The governor will not be able to participate in your profile."

Gail Sheehy is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. No stranger to dissecting the corridors of power in our nation's capital, Sheehy has written about Newt Gingrich, Elizabeth Dole, George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton for the magazine.

Holy Shades of Saddam Hussein And The Fall Of Baghdad!!!

2007-08-14T19:16:00.000+01:00

Hat Tip to Suzy who posted the below clip on YouTube, Diane @ her blog Silenced Majority, who brought this to my attention & Cross posted from Wonkette:

Holy Shades of Saddam Hussein And The Fall Of Baghdad!!!

Here's a video of Big Dicky Cheney's Statue being toppled by his neighbors, who are screaming for his impeachment, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this past weekend.

Notice that the money shot is not the statue coming down, but the local Sheriff rolling up on the crowd, honking his horn in approval, and driving off.

Maybe he saw this AEI video over the weekend too.

When they're not greeting you as a liberator or with flowers in your own hometown, you might be in, as George Busch Senior might put it, deeper doo doo than you're telling yourself you are, Dick.

BWAAACKKK !!! Romney's Little Chicken Hawks!!!!

2007-08-10T13:29:00.000+01:00

"My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."
-- Mitt Romney

Click On Each Strip Below To Enlarge:

Any opinions or somethin you just wanna get off your chest
And address it about my lyrics I'd love to hear it
All you gotta do is pick up the phone and just dial up this number
It's 1-800-I'm a dick sucker I love to suck a dick
And if someone picks up you can talk all the shit you want about me
Just type in your number back and follow it by the pound key
And I'll be sure to get back
As soon as there comes a day that I fall out with Dre
Wake up gay, make up with Ray (Hey!)
So fuck a chicken, lick a chicken, suck a chicken,
Beat a chicken, eat a chicken like it's a big cock
Bawka-bi-kaw!!!
Or suck a dick, and lick a dick and eat a dick
And stick a dick in your mouth
I'm done you can fuck off
fucka-fucka-fuck offf!

Here's The Daily Show's take on it:

While I'm Cooling My Heels At My Grandparents in Yugoslavia Nixon Freakin' Resigns, August 9th, 1974

2007-08-09T12:00:00.001+01:00

Maybe if Nixon was this relaxed in front of a camera in 1960 our history might have been very different...

Wonder if Bush ends up resigning if he'll fret about being caught picking his nose on camera?

On a personal note, this backyard, in the Slovenian border town of Maribor is where I was at on that day, when my Yugoslavian Grandmother came running out of the house to break the news to me and my brother by shouting:

"Nixon kein Mehr!!! Nixon kein Mehr!!!"

Go Barry!!!

2007-08-08T13:34:00.000+01:00

“NBA official admitted today that they should have known that something was amiss when they received reports about disgraced referee Tim Donaghy officiating games in the off-season for the Harlem Globe Trotters, games in which the Globe Trotters would consistently *not* beat the spread.” Gordie Thoren

Before you people all gratuitously pile on Barry Bonds, I’d strongly suggest reading former White House Ant-Terrorism Czar, Ricard A. Clarke’s latest Cyber Punk novel “Breakpoint” to see what he has to say on the subject.

OK, I get it, Barry Bonds is not a nice person, personality-wise, (for that matter, neither was John Lennon of The Beatles), and, sigh, yes, we all wish he’d take a page out of his Godfather, Willie Mays’s Book of Dignity, and do the Cuba Gooding Jr. “Jerry McGuire” dance.

Then again, why in the hell, should he?

Show of hands.

Who here has ever been on prescription medication to improve and/or enhance their performance in life, be it work or personal?

Or had their kids put on Ritalin, so they’d do better in school?

And speaking of the “precious children” what do we tell the 6 million plus kids, that we don’t want to make cynical, or disillusion, that are currently on Ritalin?

Or does fall under the acceptable “mixed messages” category that we adults spoon-feed kids?

Here’s a hypothetical question for you.

An affordable drug, with no side-effects, comes to the market, after going through a rigorous set of FDA clinical trials, that gives you a 100% photographic memory.*

Would you take it?

Would you counsel parents who want their kids to get into the best school that they can to not let their kids take that drug, even though every other kid in the class is taking it?

Would you want the President of The United States, as well as all his advisers, to take it?

If not, why not?

If so, then how is that any different than taking a regulated drug to enhance physical performance?

As far as maintaining the “Purity of the game goes”, Cosmo Kramer, please.

I was born at night, but not last night.

“Professional” Sports in America is a rigged game.

Think it’s not?

OK, sure, feel free to tell yourself that, and just ignore the fact that the majority of all World Series games for the better part of the last decade have gone the full 7 games, for some reason.

Which is like, statistically impossible, but that's no nevermind.

Major League Baseball, first and foremost, all personalities aside, is a multi-billion dollar business.

Can you name one business in the USA that generates over a billion dollars of revenue that runs from a morally ethical center?

Microsoft?

GE?

Time Warner?

Exxon-Mobile?

Blue Cross/Blue Shield?

Any of those?

Why should MLB, or any other sports league, be an exception to predatorial way America does business?

I really don’t get the sports doping = bad idea thing.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of an adolescent/early 20s, naturally gifted athlete, in a culture that’s money driven.

On the one hand, they can go the au natural route, work their butts off to get to the top of their game and at the end of that their reward is a $2 million dollar contract.

Or they can do all that, plus add a little chemical enhancement into their regimen and at the end of that their reward is a $20 million dollar a year contract.

Guarantee you that 90% of all these young professional athletes, when looking at these sets of numbers, and planning for their futures of themselves and their families are going to make the obvious choice.

There is one answer to all this.

Let’s get honest and put a stop to the current hypocrisy and eliminate *all* performance drug testing in all “Professional” Sports.

Thanks!

~Nyc

* Jacked from Clarke’s “Breakpoint” novel.

Blogswarm - PDB bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US

2007-08-06T04:20:00.000+01:00

In honor of PDB /bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US Blogswarm Day, today A Pen Warmed In Hell sadly, (nothing to be "proud" about here), re-presents its very first ever post:

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Richard A. Clarke & The White House Reaction to the 9/!! Hearings

I fucking don't even begin to know where to start with these fucking people....

I know, let's say we start with that cocksucking bitch, Presidential NSA Presidential Advisor, Dr. Condi Rice.

One may say, given the vociferousness of her attacks on Dick Clarke, that 'the Bitch doth protest too much,' and isn't it funny how she's past adamant about not testifying under oath, publicly, yet she's burning up the airwaves all week long, on all the major news shows, with a star turn to be done tonight on '60 Minutes.'

What's up with that?

Then her comment from last year:

that....

Wait for it......

“No one could have predicted that they would try to use a…

hijacked airplane as a missile..."

I'm not the only one out here in webland that has noticed that this very scenario was a plot point in a Tom Clancy novel, Debt of Honor, where his All-American Wet Dream, Jack Ryan becomes US President when a 747 is smacked into The Capitol during a Joint Session of Congress, killing the President, mere moments after Jack Ryan was sworn in as Vice President, thus making him President of The United States of America, and shit.

All of a sudden nobody in the WH reads Tom Clancy?

Please.

Even money this is where Al-Qaeda got the idea in the first place.

Nothing's more encouraging to me when my Government keeps playing me for a fool, shows how much respect they have for me and their fellow Americans.

Blowin' In The Wind & Shit

2007-08-05T04:20:00.000+01:00

From The Maybe Dylan Was On To Something Department, Another Mr. Drinkwater Special.

Click To Enlarge:

Gmail - Re: Gizmodo Recommendation: Zero X Electric Motorcycle is Fast, Eco-Friendly, USB Compatible

2007-08-04T20:14:00.000+01:00

Gmail - Re: Gizmodo Recommendation: Zero X Electric Motorcycle is Fast, Eco-Friendly, USB Compatible

So, here's the future of vehiculosity, or at least the direction...

Your Tax Cuts At Work, An INSIDE Job!!!

2007-08-03T16:20:00.000+01:00

When they said they were gonna:

"Build A Bridge To The 21st Century"

This must have been what they meant:

minneapolis craigslist rants & raves

35W - AN INSIDE JOB!!

Reply to: pers-388385686@craigslist.org

Date: 2007-08-03, 10:28AM CDT

You see, asphalt gets really hot in the summer, sometimes approaching 160ºF. But steel melts at 2750ºF, which is FAR higher than the heat produced by sun-heated asphalt. That means that there is NO WAY the sun could have melted those steel beams, and THAT means that it had to have been taken down in a CONTROLLED EXPLOSION.

Witnesses reported feeling a rumble, hearing a loud boom or "crash" and seeing lots of smoke. These are all tell-tale signs that explosives were used, and that the construction up top was merely a cover for those who would have been planting the demolitions for weeks.

After watching the video footage, the bridge collapse happens in TWO DISTINCT SECTIONS. First, the central bridge structure, then the fore and aft sections a few seconds later. This sort of coordination is common when "pulling" a super-structure like this one. Thes portions weren't pulled down by the main structure, so they HAD to have been brought down manually.

And who stands to benefit from this? George Bush and his Big Construction cronies, that's who. Contracts like this can be worth up to $100 Billion or more, and the Big Construction Lobby (who have on their board of trustees none other than Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty - look it up) has been applying pressure on this repuglican administration since the 9/11 clean-up effort netted the clean-up crew (Masterson Infrastricture Inc. - a subsidiary of Halliburton) hundreds of millions in contract work.

Interestingly enough, the first reporters at the scene were from none other than KSTP and Fox 9 news. KSTP as you well know is a conservative talk radio station owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, and The FOX station? Yep, Rupert Murdock. Both were in the air and ready to report literally SECONDS after the collapse. Coincidence?

Also, since the Republican National Convention is going to be held here in Minneapolis, this was a well-planned stunt to use the city to procure the sympathies of the country by exploiting the dead and injured in this "tragedy." It is nothing more than a sick political stunt designed to garner republican votes in the next election.

Also of importance, was the fact that the collapse was timed to directly coincide with the passing of a train underneath. It's cargo? ETHANOL. A major shipment was going to to distributorships of E85, which could have cost the Big Oil companies millions in lost revenues. By stopping the shipment, Big Oil stood to make huge profits.

Oh, and one more thing. I heard from a credible source that what appeared to be a high flying stealth bomber was spotted by members of a kite-flying club flying over White Bear Lake just moments before the bridge collapsed, yet the MN National Guard and all branches of the military deny this. Cover-up anyone?

I don't know about you sheep, but I'm not going to sit back and just ACCEPT that there was a major, accidental structural failure of this bridge. As soon as Kos provides me with more evidence, I'll post it here.

(And if you believed any of this, you are a complete tool.)

Location: Open Your Eyes!
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 388385686

Super Models In Drug Re Hab

2007-07-28T16:20:00.000+01:00

Warning: Smoking Hot MATURE Content Ahead.

If you've got issues with good looking men and women in an institutional setting, then you need to go elsewhere.

Everybody else, enjoy this little pictorial series by that genius Steve Meisel that ran in the Italian Vogue this July that's ripped been "ripped from today's celebrity headlines".

Too bad this will never run in the American edition of Vogue, given how uptight, prudish and immature we Americans are.

But man, oh man, what fun the shit-storm of outrage and moral indignation would be if anybody did have the cajones to do this would be.

As Britney, Paris and Lindsay can tell you, Drug Rehab's, like the eponymous "Promises, Promises" have a 90% failure rate.

It's the greatest business on earth, because:

"The customer is always, always, always WRONG."

Which insures that the clientèle will always come back for more punishment for the egregious sin of wanting to enjoy themselves, which just isn't done in our Modern Day American Culture.

Talk about predatory, but that's how business is done in America.

Here's something that works, Ibogaine, which has about a 60% success rate, but you'll never hear about it because there is no money it.

In order to see the pics in their full screen glory, right click on them and select 'view image' and then go back to see more.

Enjoy!

Vogue Italia July 2007
Super Mods Enter Rehab
Photographed by Steven Meisel
Styled by Karl Templer
Models: Agyness Deyn, Denisa Dvorakova, Guinevere van Seenus, Irina Kulikova, Iselin Steiro, Lara Stone, Masha Tyelna, Missy Rayder, Sasha Pivovarova and Tasha Tilberg

An Isolated Incident?

2007-07-21T10:55:00.000+01:00

Or is there a grain of truth to that old Urban Legend that...

"Cops have the best dope?"

$2.5 million bucks in a 15 pound bag, not hard to see how something like this might have a corrupting influence on our Brave Men In Blue.

I'll bet his motives were good in joining the Police Force, as it is with most cops, then temptation like this comes along....

Detroit Cop Accused Of Stealing Cocaine

July 19, 2007

By BEN SCHMITT

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings today announced that a narcotics officer has been suspended for allegedly stealing six kilograms, about 13.2 pounds, of uncut cocaine from the department's property room.
The chief said the officer had the authority to sign out cocaine from the room and is suspected of replacing it with another substance and keeping the drug. She said the uncut cocaine has a street value of about $2.4 million.
The officer, whom she wouldn't identify because he hasn't been charged with a crime, was suspended Wednesday night with pay pending a criminal and dept investigation. His pay status will be reviewed before the Board of Police Commissioners.

"I, along with the hardworking members of this police department, have absolutely no tolerance for anyone who chooses to tarnish the image of the Detroit Police Department and defy the oath taken by police officers," Bully-Cummings said.

Bully-Cummings said he is a veteran narcotics officer who had access to drug evidence in criminal cases.

She said the FBI is assisting in the criminal investigation and internal affairs is involved in the departmental investigation.

Free Scooter!!!!

2007-07-03T19:32:00.001+01:00

Click on image to enlarge.

Ann Coulter Win Ugliest Dog Of The Year Award, Again!!!

2007-06-26T16:20:00.000+01:00

It's That Time Of The Year Again......

As sure as the rain will fall, and the sun will shine, I'm a gonna get me what's mine, I find it absolutely amazing, to no end, that each, and every year, that one can count on two con-current events happening simultaneously ....

One is that:

"Teh Ugliest Dog In The World"

Willl be beknighted:

And Ann Coulter will do a live, stand-up remote on Tweetiebird's, aka, Chris Matthews, Hardball show on MSNBC:

Coincidence?

Or is it.....

Satan?

Given the inherent bias of this site, my money's not on Satan.

I'm just sayin'.....

UPDATE: The above pic of Coulter is from a year ago, these two are from yesterday's appearance to flog her POS book, now out in paperback:

What's really scary is not only Coulter, but her Kool-Aid swilling fans that surround her.

If there was ever an indictment of America's Educational System, the fact that she has so many of these pin-heads that like her, and what she stands for, than that is it.

I fear for my country's future, if this is what our self-proclaimed "best and brightest" are into these days.

Meditations on "Freedom" Fries Michael Moore's Sicko and The Ghettoization of America

2007-06-25T07:52:00.001+01:00

If you recall, in March of 2003, as the United States was ramping up towards its invasion of Iraq, there was a bit of a kerfluffle between ourselves and the nation of France over France's lack of support for the war.

Things got so bad between us that there was a movement, spearheaded by now disgraced Republican Congressman Bob Ney, to eliminate all things France from the American Lexicon, not the least of which was to rename "French Fries" "Freedom Fries."

But we weren't going to go as far as abandon Washington DC, the city in which Ney made his proposal, despite it having been designed by a Frenchman, Lafayette, nor ship The Statue of Liberty back to France.

It was essentially just an attention getting PR gimmick, one of many of the jingoistic ones that were in vogue at the time, such as trying to run the multi-Grammy award winning Dixie Chicks out of town on a rail, and impugning the patriotism of any and all Americans that questioned entering this war on what we know now to be lies and the flimsiest of evidence.

Ney pushed it so far as to have the menu changed in the Congress's Rayburn Office Building Cafeteria to reflect this, the picture you see here on the left was taken during this time period.

I can personally vouch for the authenticity of this sign, in that it was during this time period that I was in the employee of lobbyists on Capitol Hill and the Rayburn was the spot that I would have my breakfast in instead of at home because my job entailed being up on The Hill at an ungodly hour.

On my very first day that I was working there, as I was ordering my scrambled eggs I was shocked to find myself standing in front of that very sign that had garnered so much national attention.

What happened next was even more shocking.

As I was waiting for the counterman to finish my order I was approached by a black woman who I estimated to be in her late 40s/early 50s. In her hand she was holding a plastic oyster shell that contained a hard-boiled egg

This Blog Is Not For The Weak Minded

2007-06-23T20:02:00.000+01:00

Wow, things are even worse in this neo-Puritanical culture than I thought. Here's what earned me the ignominy of an NC-17 blog rating:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
* hell (19x) * fucking (5x) * dead (4x) * shit (3x) * bitch (2x) * sex (1x)

Pathetic.

As if my words could do more damage to young minds of America than the failed, rated G, Public School System of America.

Cut me a fucking break.

These cocksucking, priggish, fucked in the head, shit for brains, bitch, cunt prudes, who probably haven't ever had a decent fucking, (y'know the kind involving, horrors, that unholiest of human acts, sex), are now officially dead to me.

What has anyone ever gotten from any of them, except a world of misery, anyways?

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

2007-06-23T19:50:00.000+01:00

Now this is a lot of hard work.

Awesome.

The Watergate Nixon Shrine

2007-06-17T04:20:00.000+01:00

I had a client in the Watergate building on the 6th floor. Right next door to them was the actual office where the break-in occured, so, on this, the 35th Anniversary of the scandal, I thought I'd post some of the pics that they were kind enough to allow me to take, here.

Enjoy this little slice of Washington DC history....

GigaOM GigaOM Top 10 Most Popular MMOs «

2007-06-14T16:17:00.000+01:00

GigaOM GigaOM Top 10 Most Popular MMOs «

If I had a dollar for each person on all these, it would be $36M per month.

Nice revenue stream.

UPDATE:

Nyc here, trailing Dennis.

As much as I am loathe to send anyone away from A Pen Warmed In Hell, to some other point on the Werld Wide Websicle, (that we know and love as the tube of trucks that is the Internets, only to have the 50 odd people that show up here everyday leave and never come back), there are times when one must defer to another's Superior Kung-Fu.

In this case it's the work of Mr. D. Wong, who has given the world the first, last, and always, word on MMORPGs.

See here.

Ya'll come back now, see ya real soon.

~nyc

SiliconValley.com - Networking sites launchpad for business

2007-06-14T16:07:00.000+01:00

SiliconValley.com - Networking sites launchpad for business

Fascinating look at how flexible Web 2.0 is, and how fast moving! These kids today...

The Singularity Approacheth....

2007-06-14T10:27:00.000+01:00

"Is It Live, Or Is It Memorex?"

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug. "

For the last several years it has been a running gag between me and those that know me that it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between what we know as "Reality" and what passes for the fine reportage from "America's Finest News Source," otherwise known as "The Onion".

Nation Hoping For A Windy Flag Day

June 5, 2007 | Issue 43•23

WASHINGTON, DC—With June 14 just a week away, citizens nationwide are hoping that brisk, windy weather is in store for this Flag Day.

"A Flag Day without wind is like a Columbus Day with mail delivery: It just doesn't feel right," said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Roger Jessup, who is serving as this year's Flag Day grand marshal. "I long for the Flag Days of my youth, when the winds were always strong and steady. Seems like in the past few years there's barely been a breeze and Old Glory just droops. Except for Flag Day '02, when it was so blustery the flag whipped right around the flagpole."

Jessup, whose duties include answering Flag Day mail from the nation's children, added that if everyone tried as hard as they could to be good this week, "perhaps Starry Stripes, the Flag Day Fairy, will blow some nice breezy air our way."

Well, I'm here to tell you that today, June 14th, 2007, at exactly 5am, EST, the Flag Day commemoration here in the United States Of America, The Weather Channel led with an item about the effects that gusty winds will have on the Stars And Stripes that will be proudly flown today.

I don't know any other way to put this....

We're in big fucking trouble.

Tell Me The Part Again How Our Healthcare System Isn't Broken....

2007-06-14T04:11:00.000+01:00

.... Because I'd love to hear it.

In Russia, in the Ukraine, the world's best region for growing crops, in the 1930s, millions starved to death because of a broken political system.

In America today, the country with the world's best Health Care, millions of the uninsured are going to end up just as dead as those Ukrainian peasants, as a result of a system of doing things that is just as broken as what those Ukrainians had to deal with 2 generations ago.

(Insert appropriate Santanya quote here.)

UPDATE: This has gone viral, with the latest news being that the Hospital in question is looking at being shut down within 2 weeks if they don't get it together.

Whatever.

I call *bullshit* on that because what happened at this one particular hospital is not the cause of the problem, but merely a symptom.

Deal with it.

7 Minute Sopranos

2007-06-11T01:11:00.000+01:00

For those of you living under a rock, or who don't have HBO, here's a little something to bring you up to speed tonight, in case you're wondering what all the fuss is about:

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Paris Hilton programming.

The Shawskank Redemption Courtesy of Al Gore's Current TV

2007-06-08T04:20:00.001+01:00

The 8th of June, 2007, was the 1,500th day since 1 May 2003, on which our President of these here United States of America, one George Walker Bush, stood on the deck of the battleship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, and declared to all and sundry that....

"Major Combat Operations In Iraq Have Ended"

And, for those of you keeping score at home, yesterday, 8 June, 2007, was also the very same day that combat deaths by US Servicemen crossed the 3,500 killed in action threshold.

You can look it up.

I don't know why, but I didn't see or hear any mention of those two facts anywhere yesterday.

3,500 dead in war over a course of 1,500 days is not all that big a deal, it works out to 2.33333 killed a day, which is nothing, compared to the casualty rate of our Civil War of the 1860s, (since Abraham Lincoln's name has come up, see above), in which, in a single battle, in a single afternoon, late in the war, that 3,500+ Americans were killed fighting other Americans.

And those 3,500 dead were on the Union, the winning side, of the battle.

As far as loathing the 'Cult of Celebrity' in America goes, you're welcome to your hate, and shit, but dude, it was ever thus.

Whose face is on the One Dollar Bill?

"First In War, First In Peace, First In The Hearts Of His Countrymen."

From its inception, The United States Of America has been, first, last, and always, about the cult of celebrity.

George Washington was a celebrity, Ben Franklin was a celebrity, Jimi Hendrix was a celebrity, Jackson Pollack was a celebrity, FDR was a celebrity, Thomas Edison was a celebrity, Steve Jobs is a celebrity, Al Sharpton is a celebrity.

Celebrity.

Celebrity.

Celebrity.

Celebrity in America is the engine that drives the train of our culture.

When Clark Gable appeared bare chested on screen in Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night" sales of mens white cotton T-Shirts plummeted.

When Monica Lewinsky was mentioned to be a thong wearing gal, sales at Victoria's Secret's lingerie section skyrocketed.

Without celebrity in America, not a damn thing would happen here, so you're welcome to condemn celebrities all you want, but without them, where do you think we'd all be?

More insightful commentary like this here.

Wayne Gretzky-Style 'Field Sense' May Be Teachable

2007-06-07T15:51:00.000+01:00

Wayne Gretzky-Style 'Field Sense' May Be Teachable

May I suggest the perfect platform for this: The WiiMote!

Do The Math: The Billion Dollar US Presidency

2007-04-02T19:58:00.000+01:00

From the very beginning, it's a been a given that money and celebrity has always been part of US politics, for example, the Father of Our Country, George Washington, was not only the most famous colonialist and Army General, but he was one of the richest men in America, being that the woman he married, Martha Custis, was an extremely wealthy Colonial Era widow.

Her fortune, in today's dollars, would handily eclipse the multi-billion dollar Heinz Ketchup one of John Kerry's wife, Theresa Heinz Kerry.

That being said, in all the gushing reports that are coming over the transom today about the Presidential campaign fund raising efforts over the amounts being raised in the last quarter by the front running, secondary and tertiary candidates, of both the Democratic and Republican candidates, there is nary one mention that the hundreds of millions of dollars coming from campaign contributors, so far, is for a job whose annual salary is, wait for it...

$400,000.00 a year.

Or, $1.6 million dollars over the course of the 4 year term of office of the US Presidency.

Let me put this another way.

Well over a billion US dollars is going to be raised and spent, between now and November 2008, for a job that pays less than $2 million dollars.

That means roughly for every $625 dollars that is spent, (roughly the weekly salary of the average US wage earner), the return to the the one that wins the election will be $1 US dollar.

What's wrong with this picture?

Don't know about you, but if I spent $625 and only got $1 dollar back, I'd feel kind of foolish, wouldn't you?

Please bear in mind that the winner of the election, among their other duties, will to be to present Congress with the annual Federal Budget for the United States of America.

Seen in this light, it does kind of eliminate all the grousing that will invariably go on over the Federal Budget, since whoever it is that is going to be putting those numbers together, does subscribe to a different set of mathematical principles that the average person does.

Then again, it might be worth it to whoever spends that $625 dollars to get $1 dollar back if they get to claim the title of "Most Powerful Person In The World" for a short period of time, so to them this might be an entirely logical endeavor.

All kidding aside, I don't know of anything else that points out just how fundamentally flawed our entire political campaign process is in the United States, and I mean all of it, not just presidential campaign politics, since the reality is is that we live in a "top down" society, so what happens at the presidential level does impact what happens locally, and when comes to politics in America, it all draws from the same well.

The biggest problem with this is not the obscene amounts of money needed to run for political office in America, but the fact that it excludes so many worthwhile and qualified people from even contemplating running for office.

Try to look at it from their perspective, not only does one's personal life have to be squeaky clean and appropriately worshipful, (at this writing, there's only one avowed atheist serving in either chamber of Congress), or face a daily hammering in the media for some off-hand comment you made when you were a 15 year old boarding school student, but then you've got to raise enough money, in the course of just a single campaign cycle, that could put your kid's kids through Harvard Medical or Law School, all for a thankless job that barely pays the rent, that, once you've been elected, you've got to gear up for again, and again, every few years, and then go through the whole fund raising process again, in an interminable 'lather, rinse, repeat' mode.

Is it any wonder that most people who would otherwise run for office take a good look at the way the game is rigged and respectfully decline to pursue that option?

This is obviously a huge, intractable problem, that's not going to go away anytime soon, certainly not during the 2008 election cycle, so what's the solution and just how soon will it be able to be implemented?

It's not going to be enough to say, 'Oh, this is bad, we've got to get the money out of politics', because that's been said and tried before, and has brought us to this current impasse.

Another approach needs to be tried, and I'm afraid at this current juncture the only that readily presents itself is to let this current process go through to its bitter end and burn itself out and collapse under its own weight.

The catch is is that when that inevitably happens, which if history is any sort of a guide, it will, the holder of the US Presidency, while they may be an extremely powerful person, as far as something like that goes, they will no longer be considered "The Most Powerful Person On Earth", and nor will the United States of America be the most powerful nation on earth anymore.

It's a shame really, things could have been so different.

White House Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner

2007-03-29T15:28:00.000+01:00

"I like to tear the tops off of small animals in my spare time..." Karl Rove

On Meeting Tom Delay In An Unusual Place In NYC

2007-03-26T14:06:00.000+01:00

(This is a cross-post from a comment I left on Crooks & Liars)

I shook The Bug Man's hand this past week in NYC.

I was in the lobby of the newspaper, The Forward, (an Air America sponsor, btw, more on this below), going to see them on business, when I looked up and saw the disgraced congress critter.

I couldn't help it, I blurted out his name, which led to him sticking his paw out for a shake.

I was too close to refuse it, so I took it. For a piece of ooze, I must admit that he had a decent firm and grip, not too gross and clammy, as you might expect.

That's the nicest, most charitable, thing I can say about him, outside of the fact that he looks just like his mug-shot in person, only shorter, balder, (I'm taller, leaner, and have much better hair, thank you very much), and Delay doesn't look like he's missing too many meals.

Anyways we locked out mitts for a moment, and as we did, Mr. Delay said to me,

"Nyc, it's a pleasure to meet to meet you."

To which I responded:

"Sir, I couldn't possibly begin to say the same to you, not after what you and yours have done to my country."

He kinda drew back, not sure if he heard me right, and just so there was no mistake I asked him,

"How's that case of yours in Texas coming along for you?"

He said it was great, that "they didn't want to to trial" at which I just snorted, and then I asked him about this new Congress, and what he thought of them and he replied that he was "disappointed."

I'll bet.

The elevator arrives, and as you can expect, it's not just awkward in there, but as Delay's fellow Texan, Kinky Friedman, would say, a complete tension convention in there.

He nattered on about how his congress had done some great work in the 12 years he worked on the Hill, and I told him that I had seen it up close and personal for the near three years I worked on the Hill and that it was going to take a generation to undo.

Finally, the elevator stopped at our floor, we were going to same place on separate business, and the last thing he heard from me was,

"I need to take a really hot and soapy shower now."

What I'm having a real problem with here is that, given its illustrious history, wtf is going on that The Forward would let something like that into their offices?

I don't get it.

I didn't ask then, but I can ask now. If anyone has an answer to that question, I'd love to hear it.

My hunch is is that it goes beyond making the rounds for his new book.

Another question is, is that in Delay's three person party, one was a tall nebbishy dude and the third was this uber-hottie, that was most definitely not his wife. How do human scum-buckets like him attract women like that? The Kissinger thing doesn't apply here, since he's been driven out of office, or does it?

~nyc

The Untapped, $5 Trillion Market

2007-03-20T16:10:00.000Z

Dennis Crow, Our Pen Warmed In Hell regular contributor wrote:

The Untapped, $5 Trillion Market
Doing the math on this suggests that the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) folks average $1250 per year income. Hmmmm, I made about $5K last year. I guess things could be worse.

Let me, Nyc Alberts, respond to this:

$5K last year?

Ouch.

I didn't do much better, myself, but then again, I know I'm not my motherfucking khakis, so it doesn't sting as much as the TV tells me that it's supposed to.

So there.

This article is slightly disingenuous in that while it states that the purchasing power for the 4 billion Bottom of the pyramid (BOP) folks is $5 trillion dollars, it completely leaves off just how many trillions of dollars of purchasing power we 2 billion folks at the Top of The Pyramid (TOP) have to spend.

Put the TOP and BOP cash figures together and divide by 6.5 billion, and then you'll really have something to work with.

In the meantime, consider this, courtesy your friend and mine, Tyler Durden:

"You are not your motherfucking khakis"

It's About Fucking Time....

2007-03-15T02:01:00.000Z

"Mr President, you're leading us off a cliff.

Stop.

I yield the floor."

This is Even Funnier

2007-03-11T21:09:00.000Z

As it turns out, Mr. Matt Sanchez was actually outed by a guy named "Larry" on Christmas Eve of 2006 on a Chairman Mann Coulter Fansite on Myspace.

Here's the entry from the Myspace page itself:

Larry

I am surprised that Mr. Sanchez has such right-wing views, considering his past. I recentlyy stumbled across irrefutable proff that Mr. Sanchez is the former gay-pornstar actor "Rod Majors" who professed to be bisexual when he was pushing his pornograpgic material to the gay public. I would have thought he'd be ultraliberal. This is plain, pure hypocrisy and I have forwarded my evidence to "The Smoking Gun".America needs honesty right now. Not so hypocritical garbage passing himself off as the guardian of morality.
Posted by Larry on Sunday, December 24, 2006 at 1:15 PM
[Reply to this]

J.D.

....
....
Mini biography
Born Pierre LaBranche, this hunky French-Canadian started his movie career... (show more)

Sometimes Credited As:
Pierre LaBranche
...... .. ....
.... .. ......IMDbPro Details.. ......Add IMDb Resume.. .. ..
Filmography as: Actor
Actor - filmography
The Best of Dave Logan (1999) (V)
Touched by an Anal (1997) (V)
Jawbreaker (1995) (V) .... Convict 3
All About Last Night (1995) (V)
Built Tough (1995) (V) .... Rod
Beat Off Frenzy (1994) (V)
Bi-conflict (1994) (V) .... David
Conflict of Interest (1994) (V) .... Rod
Idol Country (1994) (V) .... First guy in barn
Laid to Order (1994) (V) .... Third guy on couch
Lunch Hour 2: Sweating Grease (1994) (V) .... Garage thief
Man to Men (1994) (V) .... No-nonsense top
Secret Sex 2: The Sex Radicals (1994) (V)
Montreal Men (1993) (V) (as Pierre LaBranche) .... First hustler
Woody's (1993) (V) .... Rod
Call of the Wild (1992) (V) (as Pierre LaBranche)
Posted by J.D. on Monday, January 01, 2007 at 4:44 AM

[Reply to this]

From the Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0538273/

Rod Majors
..

J.D.

Gee, Larry... how about chapter and verse? Put your documentation where your mouth is... if it's irrefutable, let us see it, because I wasn't able to find it at The Smoking Gun!
Posted by J.D. on Monday, January 01, 2007 at 4:34 AM

[Reply to this]

Fun Week For The Reich Wing

2007-03-11T17:24:00.000Z

This time last week the Right Wing Blogosphere was all in a tizzy because Mike Stark of CallingAllWingnuts, posted a picture of himself taken at CPAC 2007, with Michelle Malkin on his website.

They totally freaked over there on the Rabid Right, and hurled the charge of being a "stalker" at him and made all sorts of threats upon his person, which is no surprise, given the near beating he took at the hands of the thugs that were working on the er-election campaign of former Republican Senator George Allen, because Stark asked him a few impertinent questions during a campaign stop last year.

That might have been the end of it, except right after CPAC was over, it turned out that one of the darlings of the right, a 36 year old junior at Columbia U., in NYC, by the name of Matt Sanchez, a Marine Corps IRR Corporal, who allegedly stood up to some anti-war protesters at Columbia, who had been feted for his efforts on O'Reilly and Hannity's shows on FOX, turned out to be a gay prostitute and porn star.

He was invited to attend CPAC 2007 so that they could bestow the honor of giving him The Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award for his allegedly standing up to the anti-war contingent at Columbia.

It wouldn't be nearly as funny if it weren't for the fact that this gay USMC, Individual Ready Reserve, Corporal Matt Sanchez was sought out by Michelle Malkin herself, here's how Sanchez describes their meeting at CPAC:

"One of the prettiest faces on TV was among the first to greet me at the CPAC. In the world of blogging Malkin is a giant where most aspire to be lilliputian. I hoped to introduce myself to her, but she gleefully welcomed me before I could even speak. "Cpl Sanchez!!!". I was honored she even knew my name, and believe or not, she's even more attractive in person. "

Heheheh.

Too funny.

Here's the picture that Malkin with Matt Sanchez at CPAC 2007 that she gladly posed for:

It's been fun watching these idiots fall all over themselves over this, they kind of forgot all about Mike Stark's picture with Malkin.

I wonder why?

Here are some comments I wrote earlier this week in response to a wingnut about this case:

Nothing wrong with being gay and and it's not a bad choice or a mistake to be in gay porn flicks or engage in consensual sex for pay.

Columbia University isn't cheap and there's no way the Montgomery GI Bill would even begin to cover his textbook costs, never mind tuition, and I'll bet he had a better time making his money for that that way than he would have had flipping burgers.

So more power to him, as far as that goes.

I've had a gay, Annapolis grad officer try to sleep with me when I was in, that I could have turned in and destroyed his military career, but I didn't, because I had respect for them as a person.

This piece of shit, puke, Sanchez, on the other hand is a traitor and a Kapo, of the Benedict Arnold class, because by getting with Malkin, Coulter, Hannity and O'Reilly, he's sold himself out, and betrayed everyone of his sexual orientation, to people that want to outlaw people that have his sexual orientation, just so he can get ahead and have his 15 minutes.

Disgraceful.

And if he's seeing any residual income from his film career that he didn't tell his recruiters about when he enlisted then he's in violation of the UCMJ and needs to be drummed out of the Corps for being a liar.

If a traitorous kapo like that is what the "Conservatives" of modern day America have devolved into respecting, then you guys are about done.

Good luck to you.

Here's another set of pics of Sanchez and his fan base that I ran earlier this week:

This Is A Public Service Announcement: Do Not Motherflucking Call - Time to Reregister, Bitches

2007-03-11T02:20:00.000Z

Do Not Call - Time to Refuckingregister

6 Mar, 2007 General

The Do Not Call Registry is a shield against annoying telemarketing calls.

link: The National Do Not Call Registry

The Attorney General of Kansas has reminded that it may be time to re-register:

“”What people sometimes forget is that the registration is only good for 5 years…they need to re-register soon,” said Ashley Anstaett, of the Attorney General’s Office.”

link: Attorney General Urges Kansans to Register Do Not Call

And you can register a cell phone number too.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: do not call, registration, telemarketing, privacy, security, cell phones, catherine forsythe

Worse Than Katrina

2007-03-08T19:59:00.000Z

A comment I just posted on The Huffington Post:

Walter Reed is worse than Katrina.

Let me back that up.

More people have been killed in Iraq than were in Katrina.

More people have sustained life long injuries than we have seen with Katrina.

New Orleans may eventually recover, many of our Vets will never recover.

Katrina affected an area of the United States that is the equivalent in size to that of Great Britain.

Our neglected and maltreated Vets come from every State of the Union.

One thing that they are equal to in scope is that they are stains upon America visited by the Busch Administration that will linger for many, many years.

~nyc
http://apenwarmedinhell.blogspot.com/

Back Stabbing USMC Reservist Corporal Matt Sanchez Is A Traitor And A Kapo

2007-03-08T18:06:00.000Z

Note: My experience in the Marine Corps is that there is nothing worse than a back-stabber, which is what Corporal Sanchez has proven himself to be by betraying every gay person in America by consorting with their enemies on the Right.

From a recent correspondence:

On 3/7/07, Nyc W. Alberts wrote:

I'm curious, under the 'don't ask, don't tell' provisions, isn't Cpl
Sanchez in some sort of violation of the UCMJ if he's still receiving
any sort of residual income from his film work? Do you know anyone that
knows what sort of statute might apply to that or who may be able to
follow up on that angle?

Semper Fi,

~nyc

Anon Blogger wrote:

nah - i won't go after him... he did serve, after all...

Nyc W. Alberts wrote:

2 kinds of Marines, Reservists, and those that wish they were.

Now I'm going to get serious, because all kidding aside, none of this is a laughing matter and is as grave as a heart-attack.

I had a gay, black, Annapolis Lieutenant, that looked like Denzel Washington, (that took a liking to me, because I went to the College that's directly across the street from the Naval Academy in Annapolis), avidly pursue me on the Base I was stationed at in 1989, that I had to forcefully rebuff his sexual advances towards me, that I didn't turn in because, a) I would never do that, b) it would have been a waste of his very expensive taxpayer education and promising career and c) I thought the policy was/is retarded and d) oh, right, I'm as straight as an arrow.

However, I believe this guy, Matt Sanchez's, case is different than my Butter bar Lieutenant's was in that he's already been outed, and he's gotten into bed with people that are trying to outlaw people like him who have his sexual orientation, for nothing more than his personal gain and enrichment and he doesn't care that those that are orientated like him have been, and are going to be, treated like second class citizens, or worse.

I view gay Republican/Conservatives like him in the exact same way that Jewish Nazi Death Camp Prisoners viewed those among them who co-operated with their Nazi jailers, they had a name for them, "Kapo". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapo_%28concentration_camp%29

A traitor, is a traitor, Mike, and this guy totally qualifies, he did pose with Coulter immediately after her Edwards slur, with a big smile on his face, too, and I believe a valid question is if he's a traitor to his own people, then is that someone you really want representing the Marine Corps?

Max Blumenthal did a really good job of conveying this same point here: http://maxblumenthal.com/archives/39

There is of course nothing inherently wrong with Sanchez being a gay porn star or a male escort. His past is only notable because he chose to join a movement that exploits anti-gay sentiment for political gain. Coulter’s now-famous “faggot” remark was not an aberration, but rather a symbol of the politics of resentment that propels the conservative movement and its elected Republican surrogates; a reflection of the bigotry conservatives have sought to write into the Constitution through the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment. The ascendant “family values” wing of the right is also responsible for sabotaging legislation allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the armed forces, a maneuver that may now spell the end of Sanchez’s career.

Now, I'm not going to lead a charge to nail this guy to the tree, but I do want to get across the magnitude of what it is he's doing by his attempt to get with people who want to vacate the civil rights of an entire class of people, that he belongs to, in this country, and just because he served doesn't automagically entitle him to a pass, in fact, just the opposite applies in his case, because he's serving, and selling out at the same time, he should be held to account, maybe not by you or me, but by somebody he is causing harm to.

Aight, that's enough of that rant.

Libby Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

2007-03-06T17:45:00.000Z

These Are Not The Droids You Are Looking For

2007-02-20T22:02:00.000Z

Heheheh.

Guarantee you this is not what Lou Dobbs & Co. had in mind when they posted this poll.

Let's hope they pay attention to the non scientific response of their viewers that support their advertisers.

Our Neglected Vets A Real Scandal, And A Proposed Picture Project Proposal For The Chicken Hawk Rabid Right

2007-02-18T17:01:00.000Z

"Then a shy boy from Missouri
Boots blown off in The Iraqi War
Riding aluminium crutches
Now he knows the welfare kindness
Depleted Uranium color blindness
As he works from door to door"

Clash, Car Jam, Combat Rock 1982
(with a slight update by me, today)

Have a good look at this gruesome photo:

Disgusting isn't it?

I hope you're repulsed, you damned well should be, that's the entire point of posting it here.

Then I want you think about the fact that this is just one of TWENTY THREE THOUSAND wounded soldiers that are coming back from Iraq, and the numbers are growing everyday, and they are getting treated like absolute shit, after they got sent to Iraq by our Commander-In-Chief for his worthless war.

Screw Mark Foley, this is what a REAL scandal is like.

This is a disgrace and the question is, what are we going to do about it?

Here's a thought.....

The Busch Administration doesn't want you, or anyone else to see pictures like this, they went out of their way to hide pictures of coffins of the returning dead, and I don't like looking at them either, but the fact remains that we see more of Britney Shears's pussy and Anna Nicole Smith's Undead Corpse, than we do of pictures like this, because it's just too damn unpleasant to look at.

Well, fuck it, let's not hide this anymore.

How about this......

Instead of running away from images like this, how about each and every day, on every blog, that supports the troops, and hates the war, on the internet, we publish a picture like this?

That cunt Michelle Malkin and her ilk, like Mann Coulter, and Lush Rimbaugh, and his "Gitmo Gear", Sean Hannity, and all the other Chicken Hawks of the Rabid Right, they all like to wave the flag, and they get off on seeing the bombs go off and bullets get fired, but they shy away from posting pictures like this.

FUCK THEM.

Let's flood their inboxes with a picture like this, each and every day, so that every single time they callously utter the phrase:

"SUPPORT THE TROOPS"

As if it has any real meaning, they have a mental image of this war crap, that they cravenly support, just to make a dollar, stuck in their heads, so they can see the real world effects, and the damage it causes to their Fellow Americans.

Let's see how long it takes them to choke, live on the air, on their own words.

Make it impossible for them to not see this.

Do this everyday until people get so fed up that we put a stop to this madness and bring our troops home

Let's call it:

"The Rabid Right Wing Chicken Hawk Picture A Day Of A Wounded, Neglected, American Vet eran Project"

Unless, of course, you've got a better name for it.

Spread the word......

Now you read this and then you tell me how well the Iraq War is going:

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007; A01

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely -- a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them -- the majority soldiers, with some Marines -- have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.

They suffer from brain injuries, severed arms and legs, organ and back damage, and various degrees of post-traumatic stress. Their legions have grown so exponentially -- they outnumber hospital patients at Walter Reed 17 to 1 -- that they take up every available bed on post and spill into dozens of nearby hotels and apartments leased by the Army. The average stay is 10 months, but some have been stuck there for as long as two years.

Not all of the quarters are as bleak as Duncan's, but the despair of Building 18 symbolizes a larger problem in Walter Reed's treatment of the wounded, according to dozens of soldiers, family members, veterans aid groups, and current and former Walter Reed staff members interviewed by two Washington Post reporters, who spent more than four months visiting the outpatient world without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials. Many agreed to be quoted by name; others said they feared Army retribution if they complained publicly.

While the hospital is a place of scrubbed-down order and daily miracles, with medical advances saving more soldiers than ever, the outpatients in the Other Walter Reed encounter a messy bureaucratic battlefield nearly as chaotic as the real battlefields they faced overseas.

On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.

Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment.

"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."

Soldiers, family members, volunteers and caregivers who have tried to fix the system say each mishap seems trivial by itself, but the cumulative effect wears down the spirits of the wounded and can stall their recovery.

"It creates resentment and disenfranchisement," said Joe Wilson, a clinical social worker at Walter Reed. "These soldiers will withdraw and stay in their rooms. They will actively avoid the very treatment and services that are meant to be helpful."

Danny Soto, a national service officer for Disabled American Veterans who helps dozens of wounded service members each week at Walter Reed, said soldiers "get awesome medical care and their lives are being saved," but, "Then they get into the administrative part of it and they are like, 'You saved me for what?' The soldiers feel like they are not getting proper respect. This leads to anger."

This world is invisible to outsiders. Walter Reed occasionally showcases the heroism of these wounded soldiers and emphasizes that all is well under the circumstances. President Bush, former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and members of Congress have promised the best care during their regular visits to the hospital's spit-polished amputee unit, Ward 57.

"We owe them all we can give them," Bush said during his last visit, a few days before Christmas. "Not only for when they're in harm's way, but when they come home to help them adjust if they have wounds, or help them adjust after their time in service."

Along with the government promises, the American public, determined not to repeat the divisive Vietnam experience, has embraced the soldiers even as the war grows more controversial at home. Walter Reed is awash in the generosity of volunteers, businesses and celebrities who donate money, plane tickets, telephone cards and steak dinners.

Yet at a deeper level, the soldiers say they feel alone and frustrated. Seventy-five percent of the troops polled by Walter Reed last March said their experience was "stressful." Suicide attempts and unintentional overdoses from prescription drugs and alcohol, which is sold on post, are part of the narrative here.

Vera Heron spent 15 frustrating months living on post to help care for her son. "It just absolutely took forever to get anything done," Heron said. "They do the paperwork, they lose the paperwork. Then they have to redo the paperwork. You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don't put any priority on it."

Family members who speak only Spanish have had to rely on Salvadoran housekeepers, a Cuban bus driver, the Panamanian bartender and a Mexican floor cleaner for help. Walter Reed maintains a list of bilingual staffers, but they are rarely called on, according to soldiers and families and Walter Reed staff members.

Evis Morales's severely wounded son was transferred to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for surgery shortly after she arrived at Walter Reed. She had checked into her government-paid room on post, but she slept in the lobby of the Bethesda hospital for two weeks because no one told her there is a free shuttle between the two facilities. "They just let me off the bus and said 'Bye-bye,' " recalled Morales, a Puerto Rico resident.

Morales found help after she ran out of money, when she called a hotline number and a Spanish-speaking operator happened to answer.

"If they can have Spanish-speaking recruits to convince my son to go into the Army, why can't they have Spanish-speaking translators when he's injured?" Morales asked. "It's so confusing, so disorienting."

Soldiers, wives, mothers, social workers and the heads of volunteer organizations have complained repeatedly to the military command about what one called "The Handbook No One Gets" that would explain life as an outpatient. Most soldiers polled in the March survey said they got their information from friends. Only 12 percent said any Army literature had been helpful.

"They've been behind from Day One," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who headed the House Government Reform Committee, which investigated problems at Walter Reed and other Army facilities. "Even the stuff they've fixed has only been patched."

Among the public, Davis said, "there's vast appreciation for soldiers, but there's a lack of focus on what happens to them" when they return. "It's awful."

Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed, said in an interview last week that a major reason outpatients stay so long, a change from the days when injured soldiers were discharged as quickly as possible, is that the Army wants to be able to hang on to as many soldiers as it can, "because this is the first time this country has fought a war for so long with an all-volunteer force since the Revolution."

Acknowledging the problems with outpatient care, Weightman said Walter Reed has taken steps over the past year to improve conditions for the outpatient army, which at its peak in summer 2005 numbered nearly 900, not to mention the hundreds of family members who come to care for them. One platoon sergeant used to be in charge of 125 patients; now each one manages 30. Platoon sergeants with psychological problems are more carefully screened. And officials have increased the numbers of case managers and patient advocates to help with the complex disability benefit process, which Weightman called "one of the biggest sources of delay."

And to help steer the wounded and their families through the complicated bureaucracy, Weightman said, Walter Reed has recently begun holding twice-weekly informational meetings. "We felt we were pushing information out before, but the reality is, it was overwhelming," he said. "Is it fail-proof? No. But we've put more resources on it."

He said a 21,500-troop increase in Iraq has Walter Reed bracing for "potentially a lot more" casualties.
Bureaucratic Battles

The best known of the Army's medical centers, Walter Reed opened in 1909 with 10 patients. It has treated the wounded from every war since, and nearly one of every four service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The outpatients are assigned to one of five buildings attached to the post, including Building 18, just across from the front gates on Georgia Avenue. To accommodate the overflow, some are sent to nearby hotels and apartments. Living conditions range from the disrepair of Building 18 to the relative elegance of Mologne House, a hotel that opened on the post in 1998, when the typical guest was a visiting family member or a retiree on vacation.

The Pentagon has announced plans to close Walter Reed by 2011, but that hasn't stopped the flow of casualties. Three times a week, school buses painted white and fitted with stretchers and blackened windows stream down Georgia Avenue. Sirens blaring, they deliver soldiers groggy from a pain-relief cocktail at the end of their long trip from Iraq via Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and Andrews Air Force Base.

Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, 43, came in on one of those buses in November 2004 and spent several weeks on the fifth floor of Walter Reed's hospital. His eye and skull were shattered by an AK-47 round. His odyssey in the Other Walter Reed has lasted more than two years, but it began when someone handed him a map of the grounds and told him to find his room across post.

A reconnaissance and land-navigation expert, Shannon was so disoriented that he couldn't even find north. Holding the map, he stumbled around outside the hospital, sliding against walls and trying to keep himself upright, he said. He asked anyone he found for directions.

Shannon had led the 2nd Infantry Division's Ghost Recon Platoon until he was felled in a gun battle in Ramadi. He liked the solitary work of a sniper; "Lone Wolf" was his call name. But he did not expect to be left alone by the Army after such serious surgery and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. He had appointments during his first two weeks as an outpatient, then nothing.

"I thought, 'Shouldn't they contact me?' " he said. "I didn't understand the paperwork. I'd start calling phone numbers, asking if I had appointments. I finally ran across someone who said: 'I'm your case manager. Where have you been?'

"Well, I've been here! Jeez Louise, people, I'm your hospital patient!"

Like Shannon, many soldiers with impaired memory from brain injuries sat for weeks with no appointments and no help from the staff to arrange them. Many disappeared even longer. Some simply left for home.

One outpatient, a 57-year-old staff sergeant who had a heart attack in Afghanistan, was given 200 rooms to supervise at the end of 2005. He quickly discovered that some outpatients had left the post months earlier and would check in by phone. "We called them 'call-in patients,' " said Staff Sgt. Mike McCauley, whose dormant PTSD from Vietnam was triggered by what he saw on the job: so many young and wounded, and three bodies being carried from the hospital.

Life beyond the hospital bed is a frustrating mountain of paperwork. The typical soldier is required to file 22 documents with eight different commands -- most of them off-post -- to enter and exit the medical processing world, according to government investigators. Sixteen different information systems are used to process the forms, but few of them can communicate with one another. The Army's three personnel databases cannot read each other's files and can't interact with the separate pay system or the medical recordkeeping databases.

The disappearance of necessary forms and records is the most common reason soldiers languish at Walter Reed longer than they should, according to soldiers, family members and staffers. Sometimes the Army has no record that a soldier even served in Iraq. A combat medic who did three tours had to bring in letters and photos of herself in Iraq to show she that had been there, after a clerk couldn't find a record of her service.

Shannon, who wears an eye patch and a visible skull implant, said he had to prove he had served in Iraq when he tried to get a free uniform to replace the bloody one left behind on a medic's stretcher. When he finally tracked down the supply clerk, he discovered the problem: His name was mistakenly left off the "GWOT list" -- the list of "Global War on Terrorism" patients with priority funding from the Defense Department.

He brought his Purple Heart to the clerk to prove he was in Iraq.

Lost paperwork for new uniforms has forced some soldiers to attend their own Purple Heart ceremonies and the official birthday party for the Army in gym clothes, only to be chewed out by superiors.

The Army has tried to re-create the organization of a typical military unit at Walter Reed. Soldiers are assigned to one of two companies while they are outpatients -- the Medical Holding Company (Medhold) for active-duty soldiers and the Medical Holdover Company for Reserve and National Guard soldiers. The companies are broken into platoons that are led by platoon sergeants, the Army equivalent of a parent.

Under normal circumstances, good sergeants know everything about the soldiers under their charge: vices and talents, moods and bad habits, even family stresses.

At Walter Reed, however, outpatients have been drafted to serve as platoon sergeants and have struggled with their responsibilities. Sgt. David Thomas, a 42-year-old amputee with the Tennessee National Guard, said his platoon sergeant couldn't remember his name. "We wondered if he had mental problems," Thomas said. "Sometimes I'd wear my leg, other times I'd take my wheelchair. He would think I was a different person. We thought, 'My God, has this man lost it?' "

Civilian care coordinators and case managers are supposed to track injured soldiers and help them with appointments, but government investigators and soldiers complain that they are poorly trained and often do not understand the system.

One amputee, a senior enlisted man who asked not to be identified because he is back on active duty, said he received orders to report to a base in Germany as he sat drooling in his wheelchair in a haze of medication. "I went to Medhold many times in my wheelchair to fix it, but no one there could help me," he said.

Finally, his wife met an aide to then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, who got the erroneous paperwork corrected with one phone call. When the aide called with the news, he told the soldier, "They don't even know you exist."

"They didn't know who I was or where I was," the soldier said. "And I was in contact with my platoon sergeant every day."

The lack of accountability weighed on Shannon. He hated the isolation of the younger troops. The Army's failure to account for them each day wore on him. When a 19-year-old soldier down the hall died, Shannon knew he had to take action.

The soldier, Cpl. Jeremy Harper, returned from Iraq with PTSD after seeing three buddies die. He kept his room dark, refused his combat medals and always seemed heavily medicated, said people who knew him. According to his mother, Harper was drunkenly wandering the lobby of the Mologne House on New Year's Eve 2004, looking for a ride home to West Virginia. The next morning he was found dead in his room. An autopsy showed alcohol poisoning, she said.

"I can't understand how they could have let kids under the age of 21 have liquor," said Victoria Harper, crying. "He was supposed to be right there at Walter Reed hospital. . . . I feel that they didn't take care of him or watch him as close as they should have."

The Army posthumously awarded Harper a Bronze Star for his actions in Iraq.

Shannon viewed Harper's death as symptomatic of a larger tragedy -- the Army had broken its covenant with its troops. "Somebody didn't take care of him," he would later say. "It makes me want to cry. "

Shannon and another soldier decided to keep tabs on the brain injury ward. "I'm a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, and I take care of people," he said. The two soldiers walked the ward every day with a list of names. If a name dropped off the large white board at the nurses' station, Shannon would hound the nurses to check their files and figure out where the soldier had gone.

Sometimes the patients had been transferred to another hospital. If they had been released to one of the residences on post, Shannon and his buddy would pester the front desk managers to make sure the new charges were indeed there. "But two out of 10, when I asked where they were, they'd just say, 'They're gone,' " Shannon said.

Even after Weightman and his commanders instituted new measures to keep better track of soldiers, two young men left post one night in November and died in a high-speed car crash in Virginia. The driver was supposed to be restricted to Walter Reed because he had tested positive for illegal drugs, Weightman said.

Part of the tension at Walter Reed comes from a setting that is both military and medical. Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, the squad leader who lost one leg and the use of his other in a grenade attack, said his recovery was made more difficult by a Marine liaison officer who had never seen combat but dogged him about having his mother in his room on post. The rules allowed her to be there, but the officer said she was taking up valuable bed space.

"When you join the Marine Corps, they tell you, you can forget about your mama. 'You have no mama. We are your mama,' " Groves said. "That training works in combat. It doesn't work when you are wounded."
Frustration at Every Turn

The frustrations of an outpatient's day begin before dawn. On a dark, rain-soaked morning this winter, Sgt. Archie Benware, 53, hobbled over to his National Guard platoon office at Walter Reed. Benware had done two tours in Iraq. His head had been crushed between two 2,100-pound concrete barriers in Ramadi, and now it was dented like a tin can. His legs were stiff from knee surgery. But here he was, trying to take care of business.

At the platoon office, he scanned the white board on the wall. Six soldiers were listed as AWOL. The platoon sergeant was nowhere to be found, leaving several soldiers stranded with their requests.

Benware walked around the corner to arrange a dental appointment -- his teeth were knocked out in the accident. He was told by a case manager that another case worker, not his doctor, would have to approve the procedure.

"Goddamn it, that's unbelievable!" snapped his wife, Barb, who accompanied him because he can no longer remember all of his appointments.

Not as unbelievable as the time he received a manila envelope containing the gynecological report of a young female soldier.

Next came 7 a.m. formation, one way Walter Reed tries to keep track of hundreds of wounded. Formation is also held to maintain some discipline. Soldiers limp to the old Red Cross building in rain, ice and snow. Army regulations say they can't use umbrellas, even here. A triple amputee has mastered the art of putting on his uniform by himself and rolling in just in time. Others are so gorked out on pills that they seem on the verge of nodding off.

"Fall in!" a platoon sergeant shouted at Friday formation. The noisy room of soldiers turned silent.

An Army chaplain opened with a verse from the Bible. "Why are we here?" she asked. She talked about heroes and service to country. "We were injured in many ways."

Someone announced free tickets to hockey games, a Ravens game, a movie screening, a dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, all compliments of local businesses.

Every formation includes a safety briefing. Usually it is a warning about mixing alcohol with meds, or driving too fast, or domestic abuse. "Do not beat your spouse or children. Do not let your spouse or children beat you," a sergeant said, to laughter. This morning's briefing included a warning about black ice, a particular menace to the amputees.

Dress warm, the sergeant said. "I see some guys rolling around in their wheelchairs in 30 degrees in T-shirts."

Soldiers hate formation for its petty condescension. They gutted out a year in the desert, and now they are being treated like children.

"I'm trying to think outside the box here, maybe moving formation to Wagner Gym," the commander said, addressing concerns that formation was too far from soldiers' quarters in the cold weather. "But guess what? Those are nice wood floors. They have to be covered by a tarp. There's a tarp that's got to be rolled out over the wooden floors. Then it has to be cleaned, with 400 soldiers stepping all over it. Then it's got to be rolled up."

"Now, who thinks Wagner Gym is a good idea?"

Explaining this strange world to family members is not easy. At an orientation for new arrivals, a staff sergeant walked them through the idiosyncrasies of Army financing. He said one relative could receive a 15-day advance on the $64 per diem either in cash or as an electronic transfer: "I highly recommend that you take the cash," he said. "There's no guarantee the transfer will get to your bank." The audience yawned.

Actually, he went on, relatives can collect only 80 percent of this advance, which comes to $51.20 a day. "The cashier has no change, so we drop to $50. We give you the rest" -- the $1.20 a day -- "when you leave."

The crowd was anxious, exhausted. A child crawled on the floor. The sergeant plowed on. "You need to figure out how long your loved one is going to be an inpatient," he said, something even the doctors can't accurately predict from day to day. "Because if you sign up for the lodging advance," which is $150 a day, "and they get out the next day, you owe the government the advance back of $150 a day."

A case manager took the floor to remind everyone that soldiers are required to be in uniform most of the time, though some of the wounded are amputees or their legs are pinned together by bulky braces. "We have break-away clothing with Velcro!" she announced with a smile. "Welcome to Walter Reed!"
A Bleak Life in Building 18

"Building 18! There is a rodent infestation issue!" bellowed the commander to his troops one morning at formation. "It doesn't help when you live like a rodent! I can't believe people live like that! I was appalled by some of your rooms!"

Life in Building 18 is the bleakest homecoming for men and women whose government promised them good care in return for their sacrifices.

One case manager was so disgusted, she bought roach bombs for the rooms. Mouse traps are handed out. It doesn't help that soldiers there subsist on carry-out food because the hospital cafeteria is such a hike on cold nights. They make do with microwaves and hot plates.

Army officials say they "started an aggressive campaign to deal with the mice infestation" last October and that the problem is now at a "manageable level." They also say they will "review all outstanding work orders" in the next 30 days.

Soldiers discharged from the psychiatric ward are often assigned to Building 18. Buses and ambulances blare all night. While injured soldiers pull guard duty in the foyer, a broken garage door allows unmonitored entry from the rear. Struggling with schizophrenia, PTSD, paranoid delusional disorder and traumatic brain injury, soldiers feel especially vulnerable in that setting, just outside the post gates, on a street where drug dealers work the corner at night.

"I've been close to mortars. I've held my own pretty good," said Spec. George Romero, 25, who came back from Iraq with a psychological disorder. "But here . . . I think it has affected my ability to get over it . . . dealing with potential threats every day."

After Spec. Jeremy Duncan, 30, got out of the hospital and was assigned to Building 18, he had to navigate across the traffic of Georgia Avenue for appointments. Even after knee surgery, he had to limp back and forth on crutches and in pain. Over time, black mold invaded his room.

But Duncan would rather suffer with the mold than move to another room and share his convalescence in tight quarters with a wounded stranger. "I have mold on the walls, a hole in the shower ceiling, but . . . I don't want someone waking me up coming in."

Wilson, the clinical social worker at Walter Reed, was part of a staff team that recognized Building 18's toll on the wounded. He mapped out a plan and, in September, was given a $30,000 grant from the Commander's Initiative Account for improvements. He ordered some equipment, including a pool table and air hockey table, which have not yet arrived. A Psychiatry Department functionary held up the rest of the money because she feared that buying a lot of recreational equipment close to Christmas would trigger an audit, Wilson said.

In January, Wilson was told that the funds were no longer available and that he would have to submit a new request. "It's absurd," he said. "Seven months of work down the drain. I have nothing to show for this project. It's a great example of what we're up against."

A pool table and two flat-screen TVs were eventually donated from elsewhere.

But Wilson had had enough. Three weeks ago he turned in his resignation. "It's too difficult to get anything done with this broken-down bureaucracy," he said.

At town hall meetings, the soldiers of Building 18 keep pushing commanders to improve conditions. But some things have gotten worse. In December, a contracting dispute held up building repairs.

"I hate it," said Romero, who stays in his room all day. "There are cockroaches. The elevator doesn't work. The garage door doesn't work. Sometimes there's no heat, no water. . . . I told my platoon sergeant I want to leave. I told the town hall meeting. I talked to the doctors and medical staff. They just said you kind of got to get used to the outside world. . . . My platoon sergeant said, 'Suck it up!' "

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

If this doesn't make you physically ill to read about, then there is something wrong with you.

Fucking DISGRACE.

The More Things Change......

2007-02-07T00:01:00.000Z

Don't ask me why, but the chatter between these pilots

Reminds me of this old Doonesbury panel from 1972:

It's Groundhog Day!!!!! Staten Island Chuck Will KICK Your ASS!!!!!

2007-02-02T16:16:00.000Z

And Staten Island Chuck kicks that punk, Punxatawney Phil's, ass!!!

Damn straight he's a fierce looking, take no prisoners looking Woodchuck, Chuck is.

If YOU lived with the world's largest rattlesnake collection, you wouldn't take no shit off of anyone, either.

~nyc

And The Groundhog's Forecast Is...

SPRING'S AROUND THE CORNER

On a chilly morning, our furry forecaster fails to see his shadow

Friday, February 02, 2007
By GLENN NYBACK
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- You can warm your heart with word from our four-pawed prognosticator that winter's misery will be short-lived.

Staten Island Chuck, a groundhog with a purpose, crawled out of his cozy tree stump at the Staten Island Zoo this morning and what he saw -- or rather didn't see -- means an early spring is in our future.

No shadow, no long winter. The formula is simple.

But after this season's record-breaking warmth that saw the mercury hit 72 degrees on Jan. 6, Chuck's prediction this morning before a delighted crowd of kids and their parents -- and some high-ranking public figures to make it official -- was a no-brainer.

More than 200 children, parents and dignitaries stood under the pavilion at the Staten Island Zoo this morning to watch 10-month-old Charles G. Hogg VII make his first appearance on the big stage.

Some hoped Chuck wouldn't see his shadow.

"I like to play in the snow, but it's cold," said Sean Berry, 5, of Mariners Harbor, a kindergarten student at Blessed Sacrament School in West Brighton who was hoping for an early spring for his mother's sake. "I like to pick flowers for my mom," he said.

Others, like 6-year-old Ava Lagana of Oakwood, held out hope for Chuck's shadow, for her dad's sake.

"More winter," was the St. Charles School first-grader's wish. "I didn't really get to make a snowman. I haven't made one in so long, and I like to throw snowballs at my dad."

Exactly why dad Lenny Lagana was pulling for an early spring, "so I don't have to wear a hat and gloves and so I don't have to get hit with snowballs," he said. Before Chuck emerged, those gathered broke out in a 10-second round of applause in memory of John Lavelle, the Island assemblyman who passed away last week.

Standing beside tuxedo-clad Advance Editor Brian J. Laline, who presided over the ceremony, Councilman Michael McMahon made the announcement as the morning's first sign of snow flurries began to fall.

"I got it, I got it, Chuck has prognosticated," McMahon proclaimed. "No shadow -- spring is coming. "Groundhog Day, an annual custom with German roots, started in Punxsutawney, Pa., in February 1886.

The Tottenville High School Chorus performed after Chuck gave his forecast shortly before 7:30 a.m.

According to tradition, spring comes early if the groundhog fails to see his shadow. Had it been clear and sunny, however, allowing Chuck to see his shadow, winter would have continued for six more weeks.

Punxsutawney Phil, Chuck's chief rival, also did not see his shadow and predicted an early spring.

Since the tradition began at the Zoo in 1981, Chuck and his predecessors have been accurate in forecasting the rest of winter 22 of 26 years, including last year.

Just 12 days after he predicted an early spring last year, Staten Island was socked with a 22-inch blizzard on Feb. 13; however, the rest of winter was warmer than normal, making his prediction correct, according to John Caltabiano, executive director of the Staten Island Zoo.

Chuck's forecast was off the mark in 1984, 1992, 1997 and 2005. (There was no prediction in 1986, in deference to Punxsutawney Phil's celebrating his 100th anniversary.)

Clutching his stuffed groundhog named "Mystery," young Thomas Cotter walked away from this morning's ceremonial forecast happy.

"I want early spring," said the Bayonne, N.J., kindergartner, "so I can go back outside and play and go swimming."

Glenn Nyback covers environmental news for the Advance. He may be reached at nyback@siadvance.com.

© 2007 Staten Island Advance

Today's Mr Drinkwater, Courtesy of D. B. Schell

2007-01-30T23:06:00.000Z

Damn, now if this isn't the story of my life I don't know what is.....

It'd be funny if it wasn't so accurate.

Thank you, Mr. Drinkwater.

Al Franken Leaving Air America Radio On Valentine's Day

2007-01-30T08:43:00.000Z

Bummer.

I posted this on the Air America site today:

Thanks, Al

This past year has been one of the most difficult and trying of my adult life and honestly I don't know what I would have done without your daily presence on the radio every working week.

To say that your leaving the air waves saddens me would be to profoundly understate how I feel about this, having Jerry Springer go was one thing, but this is on par when Bob & Ray's afternoon drivetime show left WWOR Radio in New York to be replaced by the likes of that hater Bob Grant that ultimately bequeathed us the likes of Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.

Thank god it's not going to be that bad, Thom Hartmann has got the wonky thing down and I'm hoping that he has on some of your same regulars like Stormin' Norm Ornstein, Christy Harvey, Tom Oliphant, Joe Conason, Melanie Sloan, Paul Krugman, on on a regular basis, but not your old friend Martin Luther, sorry, though I'm going to miss all the theme music and the bits like "Wait, Wait, Don't Lie To Me." and "The Hate Email of the Day..."

Then again, for me it's just as well, as that I'm interviewing with the DNC's Grassroot's Campaign this Wednesday for work for the 2008 Presidential Campaign and maybe it's time to apply all this that I learned from to that effort of finishing the job and taking back the White House.

"Norm In The USA!!!"
(Norm Ornstein's of AEI theme song plays on the air)

I love that song, "Because it can only mean one thing, it's time for......"

Man, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm gonna miss that bit with the theme music, especially Christy Harvey's song.

Sniff....

Love you dawg and good luck with whatever it is that you do next, fighting the good fight.

~nyc A Pen Warmed In Hell

PS: I wrote this elsewhere today about the AAR Chapter 11 stuff:

"Air America may have gone bankrupt, so did Chrysler, Arthur Andersen and Enron, to name a few others, if memory serves, but even with that, we did manage to get the House and Senate back.

So there, you bitches.

neener neener."

by DigitalComponents at January 29, 2007 - 2:41pm | login or register to post comments | email this comment

And I wrote this on an Electronic Dance Music mailing list, that has gotten madly political ever since the year 2000 Presidential S/Election, gee I wonder why. (My co-correspondent's name has been changed for obvious reasons):

Tigger The Tiger wrote:

I really hope that when Al leaves, they put Thom Hartmann's show on in its place. Currently Thom is an "alternate" syndication by AA, but he is the smartest person on that network, and his show actually gives you information every day that helps you see positive directions for change, not just things to get pissed off about. Plus, almost every day he will have at least one guest on from the hard Right, and try his best to engage them in a real, rational debate, which does a great job of exposing most of their positions for the ridiculous things they are...

Ditto all that.

And Thom *will* be the replacement, which is better than we could have hoped for.

Thom is a wonk's wonk, but not near as funny, and I'm gonna miss the bits Al did on the show, nobody on radio today does that kind of thing anymore.

The only thing close to losing this kind of a voice on the airwaves when when Bob & Ray (the comedian Chris Elliot is Bob's kid), went off the air on WOR Radio in NYC in the 1980s to be replaced by spewer Bob Grant at the dawn of AM Hate Radio. That really sucked, as did losing CBS Radio Mystery Theater at about the same time.

This is bad, but not near as bad as those were.

And yeah, Thom is good w/the conservatives in not fighting with them just on GP. Only Jerry Springer comes close. In fact he even wrote a book with one of them, Lamar Waldron, (the graphic novel guy), on the Kennedy assassination not too long ago called "Ultimate Sacrifice". http://tinyurl.com/yoca4t I know this because I have wing-nut friend, that's obsessed with JFK, (this friend makes Entropy look like Che Guevara, btw, it's amazing we didn't come to blows this past fall when I was working with him. The Mark Foley thing in the middle of the job didn't hurt from keeping me from doing something stupid), and he asked me track down the book and I had a lot of fun telling him who Thom Hartmann is.

heheheh.

Speaking as a writer, I don't know how Thom does it, the man must write his books in his sleep, because I have no idea how he finds the time to do what he does.

I'm still mad at AA for dropping Mike Malloy, though.

No kidding, though teh Phoenix station Mike's on is also an AAR affiliate, you can hear their bumpers during the commercial breaks on the stream.

The show's archive's have been moved from the White Rose site to NovaM Radio, here's the latest batch: http://www.novamradio.com/archive_malloy_hiq.php (Warning, Premium Content).

~nyc

So there you have it, folks, Air America Radio's ass has been pulled out of the sling, and Big Al kisses off his loyal listeners on Valentine's Day, a day that just doesn't work for my family, (having 100 members of my family die in Dresden, Germany on that date in WWII speaks to that, how do you think my hair got white in the picture here, huh?), and me, since on Valentine's Day, 2005 I had the bad luck to have Paul Wolfowitz, that murderous scumbag, cross my path, as I was gong out to a nice crab dinner, in front of the Bethesda Barnes & Nobles.

Ugh, that's enough to put any man off of his feed.

Wow....

2007-01-27T12:08:00.000Z

This is "Awe" by Edyta of Poland

Hey! Big Dick "Hogwash" Cheney, This Is A Taste Of What Waterboarding Feels Like

2007-01-25T10:59:00.000Z

There will come a day, Darth Cheney, when your Sith Lord Mind Tricks will lose their power.

Actually your approval ratings are about 18%, so they already have, you just haven't woken up and smelled Father Ted's amphetamines yet.

You got a taste of your own, courtesy of Wolf Blitzer talking about your gay daughters impending baby, you big, sniveling, hypocritical baby

"DimeStoreFool" a Wonkette commentator put it best when s/he said:

"dimestorefool says:

For a moment there I thought I was watching Lon Chaney and not Dick. The veep turned white as a ghost and nearly shat himself and then Wolf lets the fucker squirm away:

"Well, er, um...the public.. um...may be interested...um..in the lesbian...um...thing... we ..you know...it seems relevant Mr. Veep..um....and ..er... entirely appropriate...um...your lesbian daughter...uuuh.who I do wish well..well let's move on."

How in the hell do these sorry-ass reporters look in the mirror in the mornin? This piece of human filth has spent a nice long career voting against rights for every minority group on the planet and when his own daughter decides to play for the other team the topic is suddenly off limits. Fuck him and the reporters who enable this sorry bullshit.

01/25/07 01:01 AM"

It won't be long from now that you'll look back on questioning like this as being a friendly exchange.

Enjoy Scooter's trial, Big Dick.

Worst. State. Of. The Union, Ever.Bully.

2007-01-24T07:55:00.000Z

Pathetic.

Jim Webb Rocks, tho', yo.

And Nancy Pelosi sitting in that old fat fuck's old chair, Denny "The Pigface and Body" Hastert made me weep like a BABY.

How cool is that!!!!

Mano A Mano Colbert V. O'Reilly, APWIH Reports, You Decide

2007-01-23T08:36:00.000Z

Who do you think won the Funny Sweepstakes?

Granted, A Pen Warmed In Hell is biased, but it's really not even close, now is it?

"It's 55 Minutes Past Eleven" The Clash, Sandinista!

2007-01-17T20:15:00.000Z

Countdown to the Apocalypse: Scientists Change Doomsday Clock

Last Edited: Wednesday, 17 Jan 2007, 3:00 PM EST

Created: Wednesday, 17 Jan 2007, 1:00 PM EST

By Heather Scroope
01/17/2007 --

The end of the world may be drawing a bit closer.

Scientists on Wednesday changed the time on Chicago’s Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight, or the apocalypse, based on what they said is the “most perilous period since Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” during dual announcements in London and Washington, D.C.

"We foresee great peril if governments and societies don’t take action now” to offset climate change, said astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who has warned that the survival of the human race depends on its ability to colonize space because of the increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth.

“It is now five to midnight,” he said of the clock, which was introduced in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to assess the threat of a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War.

The scientists said to avoid disaster, we must reduce the “launch readiness” of the United States and Russia – 2,000 of their 27,000 nuclear weapons are able to launch within minutes — remove nuclear weapons from day-to-day military operations and stop production of nuclear weapons material such as highly enriched plutonium and uranium.

As for global warming, “Through flooding and desertification, climate change threatens the habitats and agricultural resources that societies depend upon for survival. As such, climate change is also likely to contribute to mass migrations and even to wars over arable land, water and other natural resources,” Bulletin scientists said in a statement.

The group specifically singled out Iran and North Korea as examples of the threat posed by countries striving for nuclear technology.

"North Korea's recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions ... the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials ... are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth," the scientists said.

Click here to visit the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Web site.

The decision to move the clock forward reflects "growing concerns" about a “second nuclear age."

“This change reflects global failures” to combat nuclear threats and global warming, said Kennette Benedict, the Bulletin's executive director.

In addressing the threat posed by the use of a nuclear weapon, she said: "The damage that it would create would be civilization-ending.”

“As we stand at the brink of a second nuclear age and at the onset of unprecedented climate change, our way of thinking about the uses and control of technologies must change to prevent unspeakable destruction and future human suffering,” she said.

• Click here to read a Bulletin article detailing the threats (pdf).

There is a “great possibility that the earth in 2100 will only dimly resemble” what it looks like today, said Lawrence M. Krauss, professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University.

“Science may have changed the world … but it hasn’t changed the way people think about the world,” he said, pointing to Albert Einstein's belief that we must change our way of thinking if we want to survive.

We must “seek new approaches to address these threats,” Krauss said.

In defining the second nuclear era, the scientists pointed to “porous national borders, rapid communications that facilitate the spread of technical knowledge and expanded commerce in potentially dangerous dual-use technologies and materials."

In addition, there needs to be an improved nuclear inspection agency under the International Atomic Energy Agency to keep countries in check, said Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a BAS director and co-chair of the International Crisis Group.

"For example, through vigorous diplomacy and international agencies like the [IAEA], we can negotiate and implement agreements that could protect us all from the most destructive technology on Earth — nuclear weapons," he said.

In warning about “runaway climactic or environmental devastation” Sir Martin Rees warned, "There is now more chance than ever of a few nuclear weapons going off in a … conflict.”

Rees is president of The Royal Society and professor of cosmology and astrophysics and master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.

“As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change,” said Hawking, who recently made headlines after announcing his plans to tour space in 2009 aboard one of Richard Branson's planned Virgin Galactica space flights.

University of Chicago scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project and were concerned about the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war formed the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1945. In 1947, members unveiled the clock as a simple model for showing the threats posed by nuclear weapons.

Wednesday's "time" change is the 18th since 1947, the most recent before Wednesday's update being in 2002 following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

One Man In The Name of Love....

2007-01-15T20:51:00.000Z

The reason why they, starting with the Reagan Administration, destroyed the Public School System in America is so that they, hopefully, according to their plan, can keep any more men like Martin, and myself, from arising out of the populace.

Fuck them, too bad that plan is not gonna work.

Not if I have anything to say about it, and believe me I will and do.

They can continue to try to implement this plan, but it's going to be over my dead body.

A Beastie Boys Break - Intergalactic

2007-01-13T06:33:00.000Z

Need to lighten the mood up a little bit, after all it is a Friday Night in the Big Apple and I've been a hard working guy and I could use a musical treatsies like only this crew can deliver and DAAAARRRROOOOPPPP!!!!

Semper Fi, My Brother In Arms Corporal Jason Dunham

2007-01-11T15:21:00.000Z

"The good part is that we get to make new memories and bring new people into the family; the bad news is there will be no new memories with Jason.” Deb Dunn, Mother of Jason, 10 November 2006

Do you really need any further proof that when George W. Bush utters the word "Sacrifice" it means that an another innocent American will die?

Coming on the heels of last night speech, the sheer naked political opportunism of exploiting Corporal Dunham's valorous, and needless, death by broadcasting the posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony on live, national TV is a new low, for someone I thought couldn't possibly go any lower.

First he debases the Presidency, and now he's gone and used the most sacred and hallowed ritual of our Military for his own ends like this?

What's up with that?

(Note to any Chickenhawk whack jobs that want to turn around and say that I'm doing the same thing, you can go to hell. The difference between what I'm doing here is that I want this insane slaughter of my Marines to STOP, whereas you and your President want it to go on for as long as you can get away with it, and that's just disgusting, and you know it.)

Not a doubt in my former military mind that the only reason this BuschCo White House is bestowing the Nation's Highest Honor on you Marine, is that for them it's just your luck that you're birthday is the same day, 10 November, as our beloved Marine Corps.

Which means that this, your death, is just another one of their cheap PR gimmicks for them.

It's what they do and what they always, always, always will do

Truly he has no shame, or any sense of it, or he would have done the right thing and recused himself from this ceremony.

I dread to see what he does next.

On behalf of a grateful Nation, A Pen Warmed In Hell offers its deepest condolences to Corporal Dunham's family, we hope that someday you will find it in your hearts to forgive this man for taking away your son.

Semper Fi, Devil Dog.

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in ev'ry clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job--
The United States Marines. Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines!!!

The Patron Saint Of A Pen Warmed In Hell

2007-01-11T06:50:00.000Z

This song is why Mark Twain is named

"The Patron Saint of A Pen Warmed In Hell"

Sadly, it's truer today than when he first wrote it over 100 years ago, sadly it looks like we just never learn, do we?

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated was written in 1901 by Mark Twain, as a parody of American imperialism, in the wake of the Philippine-American War. It is written in the same tune and cadence as the original Battle Hymn of the Republic.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated
by Mark Twain

Lyrics
Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger's wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps--
His night is marching on.

I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal;
Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!"

We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;*
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet!
Our god is marching on!

In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom--and for others' goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich--
Our god is marching on.

* NOTE: In Manila the Government has placed a certain industry under the protection of our flag. (M.T.)

Introducing Mr. DrinkWater....

2007-01-10T20:16:00.000Z

In Honor Of Tonight's The Surging Scourge Of Iraqaloo Speech Here's A Piece by D. B. Schell

This a cartoon from my friend D. B. Schell, who operates his site Mr. Drinkwater, where you can find this piece as well as many others that are equally brilliant and insightful.

You can always find his work on A Pen Warmed In Hell's sidebar and it's a privilege to host this piece here today, given its relevance to today's Current Event.

Thanks D. B.!

Surge On, peoples, surge on.

~nyc

PS: BTW, this is a milestone piece for A Pen Warmed In Hell in that it is the 100th post on this site. Here's to thousands more!

Site Overhaul Today

2007-01-10T18:28:00.000Z

As you may have noticed, if you're one of the 2 or 3 prior visitors to my little corner of the internebwets, I just redid A Pen Warmed In Hell's layout on impulse just now.

And what do you know?

Usually when give in to my impulses there's Hell To Pay, but in this rare case, it looks like it's worked out for the better, both for you, Gentle Reader, and myself, since I no longer have to feel inadequate because my blog's got a crummy layout.

Enjoy!

And I hope to see you back here, early and often.

~nyc

Now if I could only figure out that damn RSS code, I'd be all set.

Abramoff & Bush Sitting In A Lobby KISSING*

2007-01-09T17:43:00.000Z

Longtime A Pen Warmed In Hell readers, you know who you are, are sure remember this little gem from the Archives:

Well, well, well, guess what, it's now a matched set, this just came over the transom today:

"Jack Abramoff? Never heard of the guy. Heheheh."

It must suck to work in the West Wing these days.

Lets see how they weasel out of this one, which you know they're already burning the midnight oil doing.

Don't these two have the loveliest of smiles?

Do You Smell Something Funny?

2007-01-08T15:09:00.000Z

(See that idiot Drudge doesn't have the monopoly on the siren thingy that he thinks he does.)

Mysterious gas odor in NYC and Jersey City

F station at W. 23rd St and 6th Ave evacuated, PATH train service suspended between. 33rd Street and Journal Square and 33rd Street and Hoboken

Fucking awesome.

The Plan of the Day today was to go job hunting, since APWIH has yet to turn a dime, (people, those "ads by goooogle" on the sidebars are not up there because I'm running a charity, y'know) and thanks to some Kentucky stir fried idjit in Chelsea who forgot to relight the pilot on their stove Rachael Rat and Martha Stewart are being pre-empted to cover this nonsense.

If they figure out who this idjit is, I hope they get billed for all the lost ad revenue the local TV stations had to make good on to their clients.

It's just as well for me though, it turns out that not only is the guy I'm working for a crook, (his being banned for LIFE by the SEC from working in the Securities industry is how I know this), but also he's the same guy that tried to extort $10 million dollars from Fox Broadcasting founder and USA Networks Barry Diller by cybersquatting the URL barrydiller.org. I'll throw a link up for that as soon as I track it down, or you can just google it yourself from here.

Of all the people in NYC to get my first indoor job in 5 years it had to be this guy.

Don't know about you, but I find that kinda funny.

Oh, well, at least he's a good teacher and I'll be better able to recognize creeps like him in the future.

Sucks having to go look for another job though, since now that I know this about him, I can't work for him anymore, never mind that his current, legit, biz doing Student Loan refinancing is coming apart at the seams, because he's running out of names to call and his VoIP equipment\software is a buggy piece of shit that hasn't worked right in almost a week now, meaning my next paycheck is gonna really suck.

What the hell, it just gives me more time to concentrate on A Pen Warmed In Hell anyways, which from here on in is my real job anyways.

Click those sidebar google ads people so I don't have to go work for people like that anymore, m'kay?

Please. Pretty please, with sugar on top?

Thanks!!!!

You Go Girl

2007-01-06T09:56:00.000Z

Awesome, Nancy, looks like you've been reading my mail.

And here, all this time I thought my message wasn't getting through to anybody.

Teach our children.

Teach them well.

The Pledge of Allegiance is a good place to start, ya think?

The Lady Is In The House

2007-01-04T19:59:00.000Z

Dear Lady Speaker of The House,

What a moving speech and such a lovely and tasteful outfit too.

Congratulations and thank you.

Can't believe it, but I'm actually looking forward to The State of The Union Address for the first time in a long, long, time.

Because, Lady, you ROCK.

Our long national waking nightmare may not be over, quite just yet, but I'll take this as a start.

We have a new Congress.

Pinch me because I'm obviously dreaming, but wait, it's a *good* dream, so, on second thought, please don't, I want to enjoy this.

Now turn to, and go get 'em, cuz, they's got a lot to answer for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g71EYKgqbjg

~nyc

I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag.... Again

2007-01-04T17:08:00.000Z

Hey some things are so good, they just GOTTA be posted twice in as many day so as maybe they'll sink in.

Turn your speakers ALL the way UP.

Lyrics

2007-01-04T14:37:00.000Z

Can I Get A Witness?!?!?

Today's The Motherflucking Day!!!!

Let's Get Down To Business!!!!!

Hell The Fuck YEAH, Baby!!

(With All Apologies To That White Rapper Dude Outta Detroit)

Almost there....

It's 55 minutes past 11......

The Swearing In is only moments away.

And so much for that:

"Long National Nightmare Being Over"

The nightmare has only just begun for those Republican assholes that have run roughshod over the American Peoples.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer group of people.

And I mean that in the nicest fucking way.

:-)

Payback IS a motherfucking bitch.

It's about fucking time, inn't matey?

Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on behalf of the American People.

Finally...

An end to this nonsense.

Whew.

And here I was thinking it would never end, and shit.

Republican Bitches and gentlemen!

It's SHOWTIME!

Hurry hurry, step right up!
Introducin the star of our show.. his name is..
(The Democratic US Congress!)
You wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now
So without further adieux, I bring to you
(The Democratic US Congress!)

Let's get down to business

I don't got no time to play around

What is this?

Must be a circus in town

Let's shut the shit down on these Republican clowns;

Can I get a witness?

(HELL YEAH!!!!!)

[The Democratic US Congress]

Quick gotta move fast, gotta perform miracles
Gee wilikers, American People,

"Holy bat syllables!"

Look at all the bullshit that goes on in Gotham when I'm gone,
time to get rid of these Republican rap criminals*

*[The American People]

Hey!
Democratic US Congress! !!
It Sounds like an S.O.S.

[The Democratic US Congress]

Holy wack unlyrical lyrics American People, you're fuckin right!!

[The American People]

To the Rapmobile - let's go!

The Democratic US Congress! !!!

The Democratic US Congress!!!!!

[The Democratic US Congress]

Republican Bitches and gentlemen!

It's SHOWTIME!

Hurry hurry, step right up!

Introducin the star of our show.. his name is..

The Democratic US Congress!!!!!!

You wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now!

So, without further adieux, I bring to you

The Democratic US Congress!!!!

(What you guys couldn't get Billy Shears? Ed.)

[The Democratic US Congress]

You bout to witness, hip-hop in its most purest
more rawest form, flow almost flawless
Most hardest, most honest known artist
Chip off the old block, but oh Doc is BACK
Looks like Batman brought his own Robin
Oh God, Saddam's got his own Laden
With his own private plane, his own pilot (update: not any more he don't, Editor.)
Set to blow college dorm rooms doors off the hinges
oranges, peach, pears, plums, syringes
(*chainsaw sound* VROOM VROOM! Yeah, here I come
I'm inches, away from you, dear fear none
Hip-Hop is in a state of nine-one-one so..

[Chorus 2X: The Democratic US Congress]
Let's get down to business
I don't got no time to play around, what is this?
Must be a circus in town, let's shut the shit down
on these clowns; can I get a witness? (HELL YEAH!)

[The Democratic US Congress]
Quick gotta move fast, gotta perform miracles
Gee wilikers American People, "Holy bat syllables!"
Look at all the bullshit that goes on in Gotham
when I'm gone, time to get rid of these rap criminals
So skip to your lou while I do what I do best
You ain't even impressed no more; you're used to it
Flows too wet, nobody close to it
Nobody says it but still everybody knows the shit
The most hated on out of all those who say they get hated on
in eighty songs and exaggerate it all so much
they make it all up, there's no such thing
Like a female with good looks who cooks and cleans
It just means so much more to so much more
people when you're rappin and you know what for
The show must go on; so I'd like to welcome y'all
to The Democratic US Congress and Andre's car-ni-val, c'mon! Now

[Chorus]

[The Democratic US Congress]
It's just like old times, the Dynamic Duo
Two old friends, why panic? You already know
who's fully capable, the two caped heroes
Dial straight down the center, eight-zero-zero
You can even call collect, the most feared duet
since me and Elton, played career Russian Roulette
And never even see me blink or get to bustin a sweat
People steppin over people just to rush to the set
just to get to see an MC who breathes so freely
Ease over these beats and be so breezy
Jesus how can shit be so easy?
How can one Chandra be so Levy?
Turn on these beats, MC's don't see me
Believe me; BET and MTV
are gonna grieve when we leave dog, fo' sheezy
Can't leave rap alone, the game needs me
'til we grow beards, get weird and disappear
into the mountains - nothin but clowns down here
But we, ain't fuckin around round here
Yo American People (whattup?) Can I get hell..? (HELL YEAH!) Now

[Chorus]

[Outro]
So there you have it folks (The Democratic US Congress!) has come to save the day
Back with his friend The American People, here to remind you that bullshit does not pay
Because (The Democratic US Congress!) and The American People are here to stay
and never go away, until our dying day
Until we're old and grey (The American People!)
So until next time friends, same blonde hair, same rap channel
Good night everyone, thank you for coming
Your host for the evening (The Democratic US Congress!)
Oh! Heh

Music To Burn In Hell By If You're A Minority Republican

2007-01-04T00:34:00.000Z

Tonight's Pen Warmed In Hell Musical Selection Comes Straight From Those Good American over @ Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/tblj4

It's a debut CD from Zandosis and it's a little bit they call:

"George W. Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell"

An Instant Classic If there ever was one.

At least from the perspective of us here at a Pen Warmed In Hell.

Makes a great post-Festivus gift.

And the critics all agree, it's hellaciously teh awesomeness.

In fact none other than Joey Bobby Briggsy sez. "Check It Out".

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Love them or hate them, Zandosis unleash their debut full length cd, "George W Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell". Just in time for the mid term elections, Zandosis unleashes a shotgun blast of mayhem. Sounding like Mike Patton fronting a guitarless Melt Banana on crack. This cd has been six years in the making. For those not familiar with the band: Drummer Stewart Voegtlin started beating on double boilers and copper pots as a wee boy; smashed crockery followed. Several ad hoc kits later he was slashing and bashing with suburban Death Metal fiends, Lustmordem; terrifying posh Buckhead youth with rural heathens, Asmodeus, all while air-drumming at home to S.O.B., Bathory and Possessed. Wooed by the freedoms of late '60s european Jazz, Voegtlin sent the double kick drum to the shed and worked Metal's intensity into wave and pulse drumming - styles typified by Sunny Murray, Rashied Ali and Dutch madman Han Bennink. There are blast beats; there are relentless ride cymbal attacks and there's a bit of the unpredictable: conch shell, trombone and [broken] clarinet are given the selfsame mistreatment. Bassist Tony Gordon - honestly it's hard to tell if he's playing a Fender bass or if it is playing him. He's got the most unique bass sound anyone's ever heard, as often it sounds like something completely not a bass (most often it sounds like two battleships making love). His solo project is called Freebass, and again you'd be hard pressed to pick out any bass sound. Vocalist Marshall Avett started the Old Gold label in 1994; been playing with unrecognized geniuses in groups like More, Mato, Charlie Parker, Petland Toy Faktory, and Zandosis; likes ice cream; has cats named Fatty Nacho and Squeak; and has never ridden a crest of power like he feels when he announces these songs and launches into the resulting attack of sound and electricity.

Product Description
Love them or hate them, Zandosis unleash their debut full length cd, "George W Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell". Just in time for the mid term elections, Zandosis unleashes a shotgun blast of mayhem. Sounding like Mike Patton fronting a guitarless Melt Banana on crack. This cd has been six years in the making. For those not familiar with the band: Drummer Stewart Voegtlin started beating on double boilers and copper pots as a wee boy; smashed crockery followed. Several ad hoc kits later he was slashing and bashing with suburban Death Metal fiends, Lustmordem; terrifying posh Buckhead youth with rural heathens, Asmodeus, all while air-drumming at home to S.O.B., Bathory and Possessed. Wooed by the freedoms of late '60s european Jazz, Voegtlin sent the double kick drum to the shed and worked Metal's intensity into wave and pulse drumming - styles typified by Sunny Murray, Rashied Ali and Dutch madman Han Bennink. There are blast beats; there are relentless ride cymbal attacks and there's a bit of the unpredictable: conch shell, trombone and [broken] clarinet are given the selfsame mistreatment. Bassist Tony Gordon - honestly it's hard to tell if he's playing a Fender bass or if it is playing him. He's got the most unique bass sound anyone's ever heard, as often it sounds like something completely not a bass (most often it sounds like two battleships making love). His solo project is called Freebass, and again you'd be hard pressed to pick out any bass sound. Vocalist Marshall Avett started the Old Gold label in 1994; been playing with unrecognized geniuses in groups like More, Mato, Charlie Parker, Petland Toy Faktory, and Zandosis; likes ice cream; has cats named Fatty Nacho and Squeak; and has never ridden a crest of power like he feels when he announces these songs and launches into the resulting attack of sound and electricity.

Track Listings

1. Dick Cheney Bleeding To Death On The Streets Of Detroit
2. Paul Wolfowitz boiled alive in his own urine
3. William Kristol raped in prison
4. A menstruating Condoleeza Rice dropped in the amazon river, eaten alive by piranha in 60 seconds
5. Ari Fleischer split right down the middle
6. Colin Powell Uncle Tom
7. Michael Powell choking to death on the shattered glass of my TV screen
8. Donald Rumsfeld buried up to his neck in dogshit with lawnmower on top
9. Richard Perle torn apart by jackals
10. Fuck John Cage
11. William Rehnquist torn apart by six-foot bull sharks
12. Bill Frist kept alive in a persistent vegetative state and broadcast 24 hours a day on his own cable network
13. Bill Frist kept alive in a persistent vegetative state and broadcast 24 hours a day on his own cable network
14. Clarence Thomas on the wrong end of a gay porno
15. Bill O'Reilly's face sanded off, pureed, injected into an enema bag and administered to a willing Rick Santorum
16. John Ashcroft Flattened under the weight of a 5,200 pound replica of the ten commandments
17. Rush Limbaugh sodomized by a 30-pound Cuban cigar
18. Trent Lott asking for directions in Brooklyn [aka fuckin' cracker]
19. Pat Robertson plagued by locusts
20. Tom Delay shoved in a Roach Motel, poisoned, and eaten from the inside out by tarantulas

Tell all your friends and don't forget to mention that Nyc sent ya.

And It's No Sacacacacaaarrrriiiffiifffiiicceeee....

2007-01-03T09:04:00.000Z

Back by popular demand!!!

Because YOU asked for it!!

Here's this week's episode of.....

Axiomatic Truths Of The Universe Theater:

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets their wings."

"Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten."

And, of course, the most immutable, axiomatic TRUTH of them ALL:

Every time George W. Bush utters the word 

"Sacrifice" 

another American will

DIE.

Tune in next week for an another episode of..... Axiomatic Truuuuuths Of The Universe Theater!!!!!!!

Guess Who's Back?

2007-01-03T07:16:00.000Z

How you like *dem* apples?

And here you were thinking that "High Noon" was only a movie.

Think again, you Reflucklicant bitches.

:-)

heheheh.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Goosebumps....

2007-01-03T02:11:00.000Z

It wasn't until I got to a newstand on my way to work today, and saw the front page of today's New York Fucking Times that it hit me....

Today, Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007, is the first full 24 hour day that New York State is no longer being governed by a Republican.

As are the majority of the rest of the states of these here United States, because on Monday, January 1st, 2007 is when all the new Democratic Governer's were sworn into office.

Wow.

I totally spaced that and mixed it up with US Congress, which, oh, guess what?

It will pass into the Democratic Majority in just a little over 12 hours from this post.

Fuckin' ayyyyyyy!!!!

We Have A Winner!!!!! A Pen Warmed In Hell's Long National Nightmare Is Over.

2007-01-02T20:21:00.000Z

(UPDATE: Blogger is being a little bitch right now, and not letting me post these pics the way I want them to go, and also since I've got to get ready for the below mentioned POS day-job, so, much to my chagrin, these two pics will have to do for now.

I'll put the rest up when I don't want to gash my teeth, rend my cloth and tear my hair out like I'm actually in Hell, for reals. ~nyc)

Despite what the "new & improved" Blogger might have to say about how long I've been on their corner of the internets, it's been a long, long, long time that A Pen Warmed In Hell has had a presence, and I gotta tell ya. it can get pretty discouraging sometimes because nobody's been leaving any comments here.

Kinda depressing, flying blind, it can be.

Not to mention discouraging too

Well, finally the ice has been broken.

First jurassicpork popped in and said "hi" and just now today, enigma4ever, of Watergate Summer, just left me some nice words of encouragement, and I gotta tell ya, The Spiritual Patron Saint of A Pen Warmed in Hell, Mark Twain, himself, is right, you can:

"Get by for two weeks on the strength of a compliment".

Who knew?

So I want to do something special for them both, and since I'm not in a position to award cash prizes, at least not yet, if anyone out there wants to show me how to set up a PayPal donate link, or sell advertising, in addition to Google's Adsense Program, here on A Pen Warmed In Hell, so I can, like, y'know, I'm like everybody else and I really want to quit my day job, they don't understand me over there anyways, so it's not like there'd be any hard feelings, and do this full time, that'd be awesome.

In the meantime, and since it works so well with the President Ford stuff that I'm planning on writing here, here are some honest, Out-Sourced, Injun, pictures that I took last year, when I back to DC last Spring to visit my girlfriend in DC, (babs you are SO missed), of the actual office that the Watergate Building Break-In, which led to the Fall of Richard Nixon, happened in.

There's actually a freaking Shrine, of sorts, in there.

How cool is that?

I hope you all like them.

More to follow.

~nyc

110th Congress Swears In Tomorrow!!!!

2007-01-02T19:33:00.000Z

In light of that, here's The Pledge of Allegiance as sung by America's Children.

Please, let's not let these kids down, they are our future, after all.

The Gerald Ford Is Dead. Long Live The Gerald Ford!!!!!!

2007-01-02T18:33:00.000Z

A National Day of Mourning Under A Full Moon

This is a "placeholder" post because I have a lot to say on the subject but for now here's my letter to Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Jopurnal, that she didn't run, (just like the one I wrote her for the Reagan Porn Funeral column she wrote where I asked her, since her son was so taken with the Pomp And Circumstance, and LOVED the military Uniforms there, which Branch Of Service was she going to recommend to him to Enlist in, hmmm?), but for now here's the letter to, (cue: swine snorting noises), Miss Peggy:

The following letter has been submitted via the OpinionJournal article response feature.
Contents of response as follows:
#---

Name: Nyc Alberts
E-mail: DigitalComponents@gmail.com
City/State: NY, NY
Date: Sun, December 31st, 2006

Subject:
Re: Ford Without Tears

Comment:
As much as I disagree with pretty much every word that you write, and speak, this is right on the money.

President Gerald Ford represents what the Republican Party used to stand for before they went off the deep end as they have.

One thing I'm not seeing in all these eulogies is how he stood by his wife, Betty, in getting the help she needed. At that time there was still a huge stigma in American society for those afflicted with alcoholism and/or drug addiction seeking any sort of help because of the bogus shame that the Neo-Prohibitionitic Puritans of America had saddled it with.

He could have easily just tossed her to the wolves, but being a decent man, he didn't, and that has had a huge transformative effect on American
society, to the better, at least on the health issues side. The criminal issues stuff around this is another matter though that I'm not going to get into here.

RIP Mr. Ford.

Stay tuned to A Pen Warmed In Hell, there's more to come....

A Friend Writes....

2007-01-02T03:10:00.000Z

This is a letter written by a friend to the Editors at The Washington Post yesterday.

Since I'm not sure if they're going to run it, I will:

"Dear Editor:

It was with great sadness to learn that yesterday, December 30, 2006, the U.S. death toll for soldiers in Iraq reached the 3,000 mark.

Just a few days prior, the U.S. toll on its soldiers mirrored that of the
deaths on 9/11/2001, 2,973.

For many, this is the time of year for great joy. For me and my
family, it is one of great sadness. I wish to convey to our soldiers
on the field that the solidarity of the United States is behind them.

Yet, I can't help but wonder if this great sacrifice was truly worth
it, especially in light of the now public views of one of our great
Presidents, now also deceased.

The nation continues to mourn for every life lost, U.S., Iraqi,
Coalition or otherwise, and hopes that the bloodshed will not continue to dominate the new year as it did the past.

No...it's not Viet Nam.

It's even more pointless.

These are my friends dying, day after day, and it literally hurts to keep looking down this neverending path."

~S

I don't see how any of us can feel any different.
3,000 pointless, futile deaths, when are we going to finally have had our fill.

Congress needs to get on the stick, that's what we elected them for, now.

The Land Of The Rising Boobies New Year's Rocking Eve

2007-01-02T02:11:00.000Z

Decidely NOT work safe:

Forget Janet Jackson.

This is how they do it, "Wardrobe Malfunction" Stylee on *live* National
TV in Japan on New Year's Eve, 2007:

Make sure you're paying *very* close attention at the 2 minute mark, you
won't be sorry.

(h/t http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/ )

Added bonus:

Don't know if this one has made the rounds yet, it's a modern day update
of Woody Allen's line from Annie Hall about how he'd like to do to his
date "what Eisenhower had been doing to the country for the last 8 years":

(h/t http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/ )

Down The Memory Hole: On Donna Brazille on HBO's "K Street" in 2004

2007-01-01T10:18:00.000Z

Ported over from a comment I left at C&L 1/1/07 on a thread about CNN mispelling US Senator Barack Obama's name with that of a notorious terrorist who *yet* to be brought to justice.

Speaking of Donna Brazille, TBH, http://www.haloscan.com/ comments...0113201#1465076

During the election season of 2004, Brazille did a cameo on George Clooney/Steve Soderburgh's little seen HBO mini-series, "K Street" shot on location in Franklin Park, at 14th and K Street, NW, talking with Matalin & Carville's fictional, multi-ethnic, Wunderkind, faux lobbyist character named Francisco, on a park bench, that I used to go by every working day when I lived there.

(Always a trip when something that's that so dailylil in my life familiar appears on a nationally broadcast TV show.)

This was when, on the show, the fit hit the shan at their fictional lobbying firm, with the Justice Department closing in on them for some shady deal that they were in the middle of, and instead of Brazille telling this Francisco character that they, Matalin & Carville, were going to "hang him out to dry", "or throw him to the wolves", or some such other euphemism, Brazille instead told him something along the lines that Francisco should watch out for himself because the 'white boys in DC always take care of their own' but also that he should always be aware that he was in 'Chocolate City' as well.

I couldn't help but think of the firestorm that would have erupted if the negative was flipped and someone of her position was white and made disparaging comments about corrupt black lobbyists to a white colleague.

Then about a year later New Orleans Mayor Nagin nearly got nailed to the tree for using the same "Chocolate City" language.

I'm not real big on double standards, and it really irks me when someone from our team, like Brazille, who knows better, effs up like that.

We simply just can't afford a Trent Lott/Strom Thurmond type gaffe like that, even on a fictional, Roman A Clef type TV show that nobody watches, except a bunch of C-SPAN weenies and assorted sundry wonks.

There's too much at stake now for us to be doing stupid stuff like that, because the Reich wing-nuts are waiting for us in the hall, loaded for bear, with sharpened knives and brass knuckles, just lying in wait for any and every opportunity that may present itself to pounce on, no matter how minor.

Don't believe it?

Look at the frenzy they went into over Kerry's botched joke.

That, and we've got to find a way to close ranks, circle the wagons and march in lock-step, a set of skills that the Republicans have mastered, yet seems to elude us still.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given every indication that she's gonna be cracking the whip, starting this Wednesday, yay.

Let's hope she follows through.

~nyc

Happy New Year Except For the 3,000 Dead Americans in Iraq

2006-12-31T20:11:00.000Z

Hot Off The Press, 3,000 American Military Dead In Iraq

All fatalities with active DOD links have been confirmed by The Department of Defense.
3,000 Americans Murdered In Iraq

Happy New Year.

BOOM!!

Gee, Matt, you prick, where's your flashing blood Red Siren now?

You're a pig.

Saddam Hussein Will Hang By The Neck Until Dead!!!!

2006-12-29T16:01:00.000Z

From Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad And The Ugly by way of sample on Big Audio Dynamite's first song, Medicine Show on their 1985 debut album, This Is Big Audio Dynamite:

"Wanted in fourteen counties of this State
The condemned is found guilty of crimes and murder
Armed robbery of citizens, state banks, and post offices
The theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison
Perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children
Inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion
Receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods
Passing counterfeit money, and contrary to the laws of this State
The condemned is guilty of using marked cards...
Therefore, according to the powers vested in us
We sentence the accused before us
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (known as the Rat)
And any other aliases he might have
To hang by the neck until dead
May God have mercy on his soul...
.... Proceed!!!!
Duck you suckers!!!!
(sound of rapid gunfire)"

Now that the above fate is also that of Saddam Hussein, partly for the one-time gassing of of 30,000 of his own people, (though I know that that isn't what he was on trial and sentenced for, but still....), using the poison gas that the Government of The United States of America sold him, wouldn't it be possible to apply the same standard to the Executives of Big Tobacco?

Hehehheh.

I ask this question as a life-long smoker.

After all the poison gas of cigarettes murders 400,000 of our fellow Americans, each and every year, so I gotta ask, what's the motherfucking difference?

I know, I know, nobody puts a gun to anybody's head to make them smoke, I've heard that one, but the fact remains that even after the ill effects of cigarette smoking became widely known, as well as the efforts of Big Tobacco to supress those findings, this industry, and those that lead it, spend hundreds of millions of dollars, each and every year, to not only produce and distribute these death sticks, but to advertise them to the general public as well, in many cases targeting this advertising at children, in the hopes of getting them addicted and buying their products at an early age.

Once addicted, a lot of choice is removed from people that they would otherwise have, in fact that's the whole point of getting people addicted to something in the first place.

So, ask yourself here, just who is more evil?

Saddam Hussein who gassed his own people, for political advantage, or Big Tobacco who gasses to death 10 times as many people in The United States of America each year, as a way of making a buck?

If Saddam Hussein is being held to account for his "Crimes Against Humanity"then why can't Big Tobacco be held to account in the same way too?

I'm just sayin'....

Introducing Yahuda Bangs.....

2006-12-28T02:09:00.000Z

Let's all give a fiery A Pen Warmed In Hell welcome to today's guest author, none other than The World's Famous, Revolutionary, Firebrand, of The Far East, One Yahuda Bangs himself, most recently hailing from The Little Red Email, who has graciously deigned to grace our presence here today with his pick for A Pen Warmed In Hell's Regular Feature, which you have all come to know, and love, as our greatly anticipated:

A Pen Warmed In Hell's First Annual Political Cretin of the Year Award.

So may we bring to you, without any further adieu, the man you all know, and love, who needs no further introduction, the one and only Yahuda Bangs!

Take it away, Yahuda!

A Pen Warmed In Hell's First Annual Political Cretin of the Year
by Yahuda Bangs

One of the most time honored traditions in media is the year-end feature listing the superlative (or superlatives) in any particular category. The task this year has fallen upon me, and the category on which I’ve been asked to expound by my overlords in A Pen Warmed In Hell's Media Bunker (located deep inside Manhattan’s Underground Subway System) is that of

Political Cretin of the Year.
Occasional dalliances in the Far East aside, this column has primarily concerned itself with the field of American politics, and it is thus from this field that my candidates are drawn.

Looking back at the American body politic of 2006 provides a panoramic view of scumbaggery in all its myriad forms:

From the naked hypocrisy of a morally and ethically bankrupt ruling party clinging tenaciously to a fictitious moral high ground, claiming to the very end to be the party of family values (all the while sheltering pedophiles within their ranks), to the dying spasms of the same party attempting to cling to power through fear, intimidation, and outright electoral fraud.

From a Vice President so inured in treachery that deception was his natural strategy for dealing with a simple hunting accident, to the lapdog right wing media that attempted to spin the incident as having been the fault of the shot rather than the shooter, only to be slapped back into line by, of all people, gun nuts.

From the outright lies told by an American president to continue the war in Iraq, to the fraud and mismanagement committed by those whose financial interests lie in the continuation of a pointless conflict physically destroying one country while simultaneously corroding the collective soul of another.

So you see, even the most cursory glance back at 2006 produces a bumper harvest of scumbags from which to chose, and picking one choice rose from this field of bastards is a difficult task.

In choosing a “Cretin of the Year” I had to ask myself to accept the heavy responsibility of assigning ultimate blame for the horrible mess the world is in on one individual alone. The individual in question, I realized, would need to be one revered by some and despised by others, someone whose fingerprints could be found on the levers of power (even if actual power were held by some ruthless shadow-cabal, and the prints put there only for appearance).

Though there are many worthy choices for Cretin of the Year, the criteria left me with only one true candidate to fill the position of ceremonial head scumbag. Thus, without further adieu, I’d like to announce the man to whom this dubious honor is bestowed.

Our Cretin of the Year is a man who has proven himself completely divorced from reality. He is an individual whose bumbling clownishness has forever besmirched the reputation of not merely the presidency, but of the nation itself. The damage done to America’s standing in the world by our Cretin of the Year cannot be mended by the mere passing of time. Indeed, this individual’s performance record is so shoddy that his very name will go down in the annals of history as a stain on the reputation of the high office (a position gained through dubious means) itself:

Gerald R. Ford.

Though decades have passed since this buffoon, this taint on the high office itself, was removed from power, I believe I speak for everyone at when I say that that the damage done to the nation by his decision to pardon Richard Nixon, not to mention his pithy ‘Whip Inflation Now’ button campaign, can never truly be…

Excuse me.

…What? No, no, the internet’s been down since the earthquake, I haven’t seen the news since…

He what? You don’t say. Wow. That changes everything. No, no. I totally agree, that would be a bad move.

This just in.

Former President Gerald Ford has passed away at the age of 93.

A Pen Warmed In Hell wishes him a glorious afterlife. May death come swiftly to his enemies!

In unrelated news, for his unparalleled role in the ongoing destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, for overseeing the collapse of the American military, for willfully ignoring impending environmental challenges, and for blindly leading his lemming-like constituency as well as much of the world over a cliff and into a dark abyss from which return will be nigh impossible, the A Pen Warmed In Hell award for Cretin of the Year goes to.....

George W. Bush.

Again, for the third year in a row.

Way to go, Asshole.

We Made It!!!!!!!

2006-12-26T04:55:00.000Z

Iraq, the gift that keeps on giving.

With the 4 Christmas Day Deaths in Iraq we finally, finally, finally beat the record of 2,973 murdered on 9/!! by 2 dead Americans.

9\!! ~ 2,973 Dead
Iraq ~ 2,975 Dead

For a moment there I thought it just wasn't going to happen, got it in right under the wire, which just goes to show ya that you can never misunderstimate the "Can-Do" spirit of the American people, when they set their minds to a goal.

Isn't this the Best Christmas, ever?

Here's the story fresh off the wire:

"By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 26, 2006; 6:57 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American toll beyond the number of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad injured at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The attacks occurred in a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood.
In separate attacks, a bomb exploded in a central Baghdad market, killing four people and wounding 15 others, police said. Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighborhood of the capital, killing four policemen and injuring 12 people.
In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, another roadside bomb killed three civilians _ including an 8-year-old girl _ and wounded six other people, police said.
The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 _ five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The milestone came with the deaths of the three soldiers Monday and three more Tuesday in roadside bomb attacks near Baghdad, the military said.
President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said.
Democratic leaders have said the Bush administration has gotten the U.S. bogged down in Iraq when there was no evidence of links to the Sept. 11 attacks, detracting from efforts against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
The AP count of those killed includes at least seven military civilians. Prior to the deaths announced Tuesday, the AP count was 15 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday. At least 2,377 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers."

Fucking Awesome!!!

Bush said, "Bring It ON!" and I guess he got taken up on it, huh?

Merry Christmas.

Merry Monday

2006-12-25T17:35:00.000Z

Jurrasic Pork expands on his ever burgeoning "It's A Blunderful Life" meme, complete with PhotoShopped illustrations done by a talented collaborator over at Hooterville.

Go check it out, tell him Nyc sent ya.

Today, of all days, when the death toll in Iraq, 2,972, pulls to within one death of tying the 9/!! record of 2,973 dead.

That enough of a Christmas "miracle" for ya?

Don't go too heavy on the eggnog.

Oh, and Pope Nazi?

Quit kidding yourself and your flock with your delusions.

All the "Prayer's For Peace" in the world are not going to bring back a one of those men and women, so knock that bullshit off.

Thanks.

James Brown, Genius Of Love

2006-12-25T14:11:00.000Z

Rest in Peace dear man, and thank you so much for making the world a better, and a whole lot more fun, place, while you were here.

Your music will live FOREVER and we will all love you a day longer.

Oh, Festivus

2006-12-24T04:01:00.000Z

Today's Iraq American War Dead Tally Is At: 2,966.

9/!!'s death toll was 2,973.

Only 8 more to go.

4 Years Ago Today, Joe

2006-12-23T14:11:00.000Z

We need your voice today now than ever, so sad that you've been gone.

Here you are on stage, at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in NYC, looking all Johnny Cash like, 3 weeks after 9/!!.

You're a class act, always.

festivus

2006-12-23T05:00:00.000Z

This picture was created by World Class Photographer Kristopher Johnson who is featured on the A Pen Warmed In Hell sidebar linked under the word "Beauty".

Please visit his site to see his work, you won't be disappointed in that he's currently one of the best photographers working in New York City today, and if you've got the means, think of him first if you've got a photography project you want to have done.

You can't possibly go wrong and his Rates are a complete bargain.

When you do hire him, tell 'em Nyc sent ya. :-)

The Rumsfeld Memo And Me

2006-12-16T01:46:00.000Z

This is from a Crooks & Liars comment I posted earlier this evening on a thread about Matt Damon saying that the Bush twins oughtta be serving it Iraq that refused to go through on HaloScan, so I'm posting it here instead.....

I don't know how many times I need to repeat this until it sinks in...
We WON the war in Iraq.
A long time ago.
We deposed Saddam.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
If there were any WMDs in Iraq, there aren't any there now.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
Plus, since Iraq is in an utter state of chaos today, it's going to be impossible for the Iraqis to develop a WMD Program of any sort for the conceivable future, irregardless of how motivated they may be to create one.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
Additionally, we set up a "democracy" in Iraq as well.
Done.
Success.
Mission Accomplished.
Again, and etch this one into your brain, so you don't forget, we *already* won the war in Iraq.
It's the OCCUPATION of Iraq that we're having a hard time dealing with.
How's that for a set of "talking points" to flip at the chickenhawk wing-nutters out there?
Try it out on them, if your experience is anything like mine, you'll get to hear them stutter.
BTW, if this sounds familar, it is, since it was one of the options that Rumsfeld listed on his Pre-election day memo of November 6th:

Below the Line (less attractive options):
¶Continue on the current path.
¶Move a large fraction of all U.S. Forces into Baghdad to attempt to control it.
¶Increase Brigade Combat Teams and U.S. forces in Iraq substantially.
¶Set a firm withdrawal date to leave. Declare that with Saddam gone and Iraq a sovereign nation, the Iraqi people can govern themselves. Tell Iran and Syria to stay out.

Ok, so he buried in there under the less attractive options, but it's there. How cool is that? Bet it's one option that they're seriously considering over at 1600 Penn & The Pentagon since you know that they're actively looking for a way out and that every single Refucklican candidate from Cheney, McCain, Rice, Ghouliani on down don't want to go into the 2008 election with the Iraq millstone around their necks.

9/!! v. Iraq

2006-12-08T17:18:00.000Z

Another Craigslist posting by me:

9/!! v. Iraq

Reply to: pers-245915627@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-12-08, 10:49AM EST

The whole over/under odds betting thing is so popular with you jocks for brains people, here's one for ya bloodthirsty "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" folks:

The amount of Americans killed on 9/!!, 9/!!, not counting the 24 that are still reported missing, and the 19 hijackers, is at 2,973 dead people.

As of today the amount of American soldiers killed, not maimed or otherwise wounded, in Iraq stands at 2,922 dead.

That's a difference of 51 dead people, with 9/!!, 9/!!, still holding a slim lead.

What's the over/under for Iraq combat deaths catching up 9/!! deaths by:

Channakuh?

Kwaanza?

Festivus?

Xmas?

or

New Years Eve?

Added bonus points if instead of betting, any of you Chicken Hawks put your money where your moufs are and "support the troops" by enlisting in the military.

Contracting for Halliburton or KBR doesn't count.

See you in hell.

And, oh, by the way, Happy Holidays, you bitches.

Location: It's Hamurabbi Time!!!
It's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I Fear Something Terrible Has Happened.....

2006-12-06T14:11:00.000Z

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.....

And another one is gone.

Jerry Springer, citing the many commercail opportunities that have come his way, and aren't likeley to return, since his appearance on Dancing With The Stars, has folded up his tents and quit doing his Air America Radio show, Springer On The Radio.

I can't stand it.

This sucks, he was, hands-down, the best host that Air America had.

Well at least we took the House and Senate, but that's a small consolation for this loss.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!!!

A Pen Warmed In Hell by Nyc Labretš

Bank Of America Goes Belly Up

Indie MMO Game Developers Conference 2.0

Snow in Baghdad

You Fucks Are Next

Have You Tried It?

The Harder They Come Finally Gets The Props It Deserves

Local Boy Makes Good Internationally

"This Country Doesn't Torture, We're Not Going To Torture..."

No Doubt A Taser Would Have Been Preferable

BLOGSWARM He Fiddled While It Drowned, Or Everything Old Is New Again

Holy Shades of Saddam Hussein And The Fall Of Baghdad!!!

BWAAACKKK !!! Romney's Little Chicken Hawks!!!!

While I'm Cooling My Heels At My Grandparents in Yugoslavia Nixon Freakin' Resigns, August 9th, 1974

Go Barry!!!

Blogswarm - PDB bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US

In honor of PDB /bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US Blogswarm Day, today A Pen Warmed In Hell sadly, (nothing to be "proud" about here), re-presents its very first ever post:

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Richard A. Clarke & The White House Reaction to the 9/!! Hearings

Blowin' In The Wind & Shit

Gmail - Re: Gizmodo Recommendation: Zero X Electric Motorcycle is Fast, Eco-Friendly, USB Compatible

Your Tax Cuts At Work, An INSIDE Job!!!

35W - AN INSIDE JOB!!

Super Models In Drug Re Hab

An Isolated Incident?

Free Scooter!!!!

Ann Coulter Win Ugliest Dog Of The Year Award, Again!!!

Meditations on "Freedom" Fries Michael Moore's Sicko and The Ghettoization of America

This Blog Is Not For The Weak Minded

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

The Watergate Nixon Shrine

GigaOM GigaOM Top 10 Most Popular MMOs «

SiliconValley.com - Networking sites launchpad for business

The Singularity Approacheth....

Tell Me The Part Again How Our Healthcare System Isn't Broken....

7 Minute Sopranos

The Shawskank Redemption Courtesy of Al Gore's Current TV

Wayne Gretzky-Style 'Field Sense' May Be Teachable

Do The Math: The Billion Dollar US Presidency

White House Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner

On Meeting Tom Delay In An Unusual Place In NYC

The Untapped, $5 Trillion Market

It's About Fucking Time....

This is Even Funnier

Rod Majors

Fun Week For The Reich Wing

This Is A Public Service Announcement: Do Not Motherflucking Call - Time to Reregister, Bitches

Do Not Call - Time to Refuckingregister

Worse Than Katrina

Back Stabbing USMC Reservist Corporal Matt Sanchez Is A Traitor And A Kapo

Libby Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

These Are Not The Droids You Are Looking For

Our Neglected Vets A Real Scandal, And A Proposed Picture Project Proposal For The Chicken Hawk Rabid Right

The More Things Change......

It's Groundhog Day!!!!! Staten Island Chuck Will KICK Your ASS!!!!!

And The Groundhog's Forecast Is...

Today's Mr Drinkwater, Courtesy of D. B. Schell

Al Franken Leaving Air America Radio On Valentine's Day

Wow....

Hey! Big Dick "Hogwash" Cheney, This Is A Taste Of What Waterboarding Feels Like

Worst. State. Of. The Union, Ever.Bully.

Mano A Mano Colbert V. O'Reilly, APWIH Reports, You Decide

"It's 55 Minutes Past Eleven" The Clash, Sandinista!

One Man In The Name of Love....

A Beastie Boys Break - Intergalactic

Semper Fi, My Brother In Arms Corporal Jason Dunham

The Patron Saint Of A Pen Warmed In Hell

Introducing Mr. DrinkWater....

Site Overhaul Today

Abramoff & Bush Sitting In A Lobby K*I*S*S*I*N*G*

Do You Smell Something Funny?

(See that idiot Drudge doesn't have the monopoly on the siren thingy that he thinks he does.)

Mysterious gas odor in NYC and Jersey City

F station at W. 23rd St and 6th Ave evacuated, PATH train service suspended between. 33rd Street and Journal Square and 33rd Street and Hoboken

You Go Girl

The Lady Is In The House

I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag.... Again

Can I Get A Witness?!?!?

Today's The Motherflucking Day!!!!

Let's Get Down To Business!!!!!

Abramoff & Bush Sitting In A Lobby KISSING*