Random Thought...

Where's the hump?

After denying that it was a vest, the WH confirmed that it was... so Bush wears a bulletproof vest to debate Kerry, but skips it when he's out in public (despite the absence of metal detectors the SS deemed necessary enough to force the host to cancel a dinner over)??

Cognitive Dissonance

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the news… the post-election polls are out. Today’s New York Times report of the CBS-NYT poll results only seems to leave one question unanswered:

What the hell is wrong with you people?!?

From the article-

• The poll reflected the electoral feat of the Bush campaign this year. He won despite the fact that Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy, foreign affairs and the war in Iraq. There has been a slight increase in the number of Americans who believe the nation should never have gone into Iraq. A majority of Americans continue to believe the country is going in the wrong direction, traditionally a warning sign for an incumbent.

• Even as two-thirds of respondents said they expected Mr. Bush to appoint judges who would vote to outlaw abortion, a majority continue to say they want the practice to remain either legal as it is now, which was Mr. Kerry's position, or to be legal but under stricter limits.

• Americans said they opposed changing the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, which Mr. Bush campaigned on in the final weeks of his campaign. A majority continue to support allowing either same-sex marriages or legally recognized domestic partnerships for gay people.

• The public appears ambivalent about the two proposals that Mr. Bush has identified as his major domestic initiatives for a second term: rewriting the Social Security system and reshaping the tax code, including more tax cuts.

• On the tax code, administration officials are discussing plans that would, among other things, lower the tax rate on higher-income Americans and eliminate some deductions. In the poll, more than 6 in 10 of the respondents said people with higher incomes should pay a greater proportion of their income in taxes; 3 in 10 said all income groups should pay the same proportion.

• On Social Security, 45 percent said a proposal to permit people to invest their Social Security withholding money in private accounts was a bad idea; 49 percent said it was a good idea. The poll also found little confidence among Americans that Mr. Bush would assure the future solvency of the program: 51 percent said that Mr. Bush was unlikely to "make sure Social Security benefits are there for people like me."

• By 48 percent to 40 percent, respondents said they believed four more years of a Bush presidency would divide the nation more than it would unite it.

• For all the attention paid to the effort Mr. Bush made to increase his support from religious supporters, 31 percent of respondents said they thought that evangelical Christians had too much influence over the administration. By contrast, 66 percent said they thought big business had too much influence over the administration.

• Finally, in one bit of presumably good news for a party that is looking for it, Americans now have a better opinion of the Democratic Party than of the Republican Party: 54 percent said they had a favorable view of Democrats, compared with 39 percent with an unfavorable view. By contrast, 49 percent have a favorable view of Republicans, compared with 46 percent holding an unfavorable one.

Another poll commissioned by CNN - USA Today – Gallup had similar results.

OK, so the majority of American voters just sent the corrupt, criminally inept son of a bitch who isn't even capable of zipping his fly back to 1600 even though they are unhappy with his foreign, domestic or social policies, don't want his tax cuts at the expense of the Federal debt, don't trust him with Social Security, believe that he's too divisive and too strongly influenced by Big Business and the Religious Right. They also like Democrats better than Republicans.

Again, what the hell is wrong with you people?!?



Suddenly, the Bush Administration's proposal for National mental health screenings doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

I Don't Like Mondays

Old age ain’t no place for sissies – Bette Davis


What a helluva weekend – helped my brother with some construction work Saturday, which involved a half-dozen trips to the dump and countless trips up and down stairs carrying some unbelieeevably heavy shit, then spent most of yesterday working in my yard. The object of the program was supposed to be general cleanup and Fall planting; the reality was more like a scene from Cool Hand Luke – using a mattock to dislodge approximately sixteen acres (ok, maybe it only seemed like that much) of brick-sized chunks of beautiful red clay while singing old spirituals. The Light of My Life gave an admirable performance in the Strother Martin role.

Positive lesson learned: even when completely neglected, your compost heap will still do its thing.

Lesson number two: my next vehicle will not be a pickup.

Lesson number three: apparently, there are muscles in your fingertips, and it is possible for them to ache. So this is a short one.

No big surprises today:

DeLay, (widely believed to be Satan’s bastard son - emphasis on bastard) is gonna walk.

Gee-Dubya managed to embarrass us at about the same level as usual. No indication of whether he saw any black people this time, though.


Oh, and for anyone who's keeping count, we're up to 106 American casualties in Iraq since 11/1. Four British troops have also been killed. Believe it or not, nobody seems to have... or give a damn about... any kind of accurate information on the number of Iraqi civilian casualties.