usaBay: Dispute: Item not as described

Well, I have watched the President's speech.

Actually, I watched his Army Recruitment infomercial .

First, let's get the obvious gripes out of the way. Bush, stop exploiting 9-11 to cover your ass every time you fuck up. That well is drier than any of your Arbusto ones. Also, when you want to take your case to the American People, how about not appearing in front of an audience of uniformed soldiers? The Troops We All Support are duty bound to applaud you right or wrong.

If you had any balls, you'd take your case to the majority of Americans who don't approve of what you're doing. You don't have to convince the military. You need to convince me and all the people who think like me.

Or you ought to at least seem like you want to.

In watching the newstainment coverage of the speech there is a lot of reporting that 61% of The American People don't think you even have a plan for Iraq...that you are "making it up as you go along." Gotta admit, that deserves some coverage. Polls also show that only 34% of Americans think we are winning the war. An understandable consclusion when you consider that major combat operations were declared by you to be at an end two years ago, and I guess you can't be "winning" a war that is supposed to be over.

Another interesting poll being covered is that although the President is adamant about not setting a timetable for troop withdrawl, 51% of Americans say they want one. Gotta love the people cheering the President's strong stand and devotion to democracy even when he's pretty much saying, "Fuck what the majority of Americans think, I'm doing what I want. They had their chance, but they re-elected me anyway."

So, why aren't the newstainment channels (who are so liberal, dangit!) devoting about 61% of their coverage to criticism of the President if 61% of us are critical of the President?

I saw a lot more interviews with dead soldier's widows agreeing with the President than dead soldier's widows who want to know why their husbands died when nothing the President has said about Iraq has turned out to be true.

Not the reasons for the invasion. Not the WMD. Not the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Not the connection to 9-11. Not the cost of the war. Not the reaction of the Iraqi people. Not the connection to terrorism and the training of terrorists. Not the projected cost in human life (Coalition and civilian). Not the degree of international support. Not the postive impact of opening Iraq's oil markets. Not the strength of the insurgency. Nothing.

Nothing.

To me "Soldier's widow outraged over Administration misrepresentation of war" is a much more important story than "Widow supports President in spite of faulty justification for war."

Let's put it in a way the average American can understand. Say you're a shopper on eBay. Imagine you saw this auction:

Description: War
Strike a blow against the criminals of 9-11, protect the American Homeland, and bring democratic freedoms to an oppressed people. Limited engagement invasion with shocking and awesome power. Limited casualties both civilian and military. Destroy terror, protect civilization. Easy victory. Guarenteed love and adoration of a liberated people. Help make sure people die where you don't know anyone, instead of here in the USA!

All shipping costs included. No refunds, returns, or exchanges. Ask all questions before you bid.

Starting Bid:$50 billion*
Buy it Now cost: $60 billion.*

*Numbers taken from low and high end predicitons of Budget Director Mitch Daniels [Forbes 4/11/03, W. Post 3/28/03, NY Times 1/2/03, respectively]

You say, "Holy Crap! Love! Adoration! Shock! Awe! Revenge for September 11th! Count me in!"

Then you click that Buy It Now button without a second's thought.

Then, not only is your credit card debited for $150 billion more than the agreed upon amount, you are continuously debited at a rate of $9 billion a month with no end in sight!

Thank goodness you don't actually have to look at any of the hundred thousand or so dead bodies you bought. At least that part of the item description turned out to be true.

Is this the transaction you agreed to?

Has it reduced Terror or promoted it? Iraq didn't become a center for terrorists until after we invaded. Now we're there in force and we can't seem to do anything about it. We lose an average of 2 soldiers a day. While Bush was making his speech an Iraqi lawmaker and two more US soldiers were killed.

At least 12,000 Iraqi civilians killed...though the number is estimated to be far far more than that. 16,000 militants and insurgents killed. 1,735 US soldiers killed. Over $200 billion tax dollars spent.

Bush, the seller, says it is worth it. That, in effect, you got a good deal. What do you think?

I'm filing a dispute. You should too. This seller deserves a negative feedback rating, because he's just going to keep ripping people off for as long as he can get away with it.

Flag Burning Bullshit Burns Me Up

"It's time to stand up for our symbol. I consider defecating on the flag, urinating on the flag, burning the flag with contempt -- just to mention three -- to be offensive conduct, not speech."
-- Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah

Holy Crap.

We have thousands of people DYING in a war that is more controversial than any war we have ever fought in history (though it gets less coverage than the Michael Jackson case), and the only things you Republicans can find to do is cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and rewriting the constitution to ban flag burning.

Sir, with all due respect, I submit that there are plenty of laws already in place to protect us from people defacating or urinating on anything in public, let alone a flag...and if they defacate or urinate on a flag, there's likely to be people taking pictures and cops right there, and enough witnesses to make sure they pay their debt to the society they are protesting. As to "burning with contempt"....careful there, Senator, you're starting to sound like a Liberal Democrat with your desire to legislate against hate crimes. Or is it better to hate people (like gays and blacks) than it is to hate an inanimate object (flags, for example.)?

Ok, jack asses, how about this? Instead of putting the enormous amount of effort it would take to add an amendment to the Constitution which would limit our freedom to express an opinion (I know, Constititutional Amendments that limit freedom are the only kind you guys get fired up about), how about instead you work your asses off to create the kind of country people are not angry enough at to express that opinion by burning the flag.

Who burns flags anymore anyway? As speech goes, it isn't the most effective expression of anger you can make. Most people who burn flags are in other countries. Or do you think a Constitutional Amendment will allow you to go over and toss their asses in jail for doing it?

Uh, got news for you, you already do that.

Ok, I'm burning a flag in my mind, right now. Jesus says that is as bad as burning a flag in real life.

I'm also voting for a Democrat in my mind right now. And also in my mind I am loving Jesus, how is that for a contradiction likely to blow your tiny mind?

Stop trying to legislate morality and your personal political belief system. Convert me, don't persecute me. You know, like Jesus did.

Who are you people kidding about being patriotic freedom loving Christian Americans?

Oh, yeah. Yourselves.

Save NPR and PBS

There are fewer and fewer sources of information one can turn to in this country which offer detailed and non-partisan information, in addition to programming not driven by its abiliity to sell soap.

Please continue to provide funding for both NPR and PBS.

Only an information outlet not dependant on market forces can provide the public with the kind of information it needs in order to responsibly govern themselves.

I actually heard a congressman say the other day that NPR and PBS were obsolete (like the United Nations) because anything you can get on those outlets you can get in a market driven network like the History Channel or The Learning Channel.

What he meant was that anything which strives to be non-partisan is liberal and should be done away with because it isn't Republican. Anything which is not market driven is communist.

Look, if they can use our tax dollars to broadcast Rush Limbaugh to our troops overseas, they can continue to use our tax dollars to support the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at home.

You know that email petition that keeps circulating about how Congress is slashing funding for NPR and PBS? Well, now it's actually true. (Really. Check at the bottom if you don't believe me.)

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS:

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

A House committee has voted to slash half of the federal funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," and other commercial-free children's shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.

The cuts would eliminate more than $200 million for NPR, PBS and local stations immediately, with more cuts likely in the future. The loss could kill beloved children's shows like "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Arthur," and "Postcards from Buster." Rural stations and those serving low-income communities might not survive. Other stations would have to increase corporate sponsorships.

The House will vote on the cuts as soon as Tuesday. Can you help us reach 1 million signatures calling on Congress to save NPR and PBS?

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks!

P.S. Read the New York Times story on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=753

Stop the Theocratic Elite!

Just when I say I love America, they do it again. I've been preaching for 10 years that these people won't stop until they have a Theocracy.

Defend Separation of Church and State

The man who put "freedom fries" on the House cafeteria menu is back with a far grimmer proposal: the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, which would let tax-exempt churches endorse candidates. In public, Walter Jones (R-N.C.) insists his bill is about free speech. But in private, he says it's about much more. "You can't have a strong nation that does not follow God!" he preached recently to a conference of Reclaiming America for Christ, a group dedicated to fundamentalist government. "God, please!" he thundered, "God, please! Save America!"

God, please, help defeat this bill and all those who would exploit your Son for their own poltical purposes....

http://www.hr235.org/

Summary here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.235:

I've Been TAGGED...and it didn't hurt much.

If anyone but Rhonda at Skinny Dipping with the President had sent me this, I probably wouldn't do it....but what can I say? I lack the will to resist.

And as she pointed out, I am getting off easy since a lot of these things are hundreds of questions long full of personal information you just really wouldn't want to know about me (or anyone else) anyway. This is the one and only time I will be responding to one of these. If you even THINK about sending one to be funny...I will sign you up for correspondence course at Liberty Univeristy.

The main reasons I'm doing it, is because anything that gets bloggers to do a fresh post if they haven't posted in a while is a good thing (yes, I feel the guilt) and also because the request to do this isn't clogging up the internet with chain email.

Lastly, it will get my lazy ass looking at 5 blogs I haven't looked at often enough and read their recent posts...which probably all already include this exact same post since Rhonda and I read most of the same blogs. Dang it.

1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video: at least 60 (can't count them, I'm away on a trip, but I have a large collection of war movies, a nearly complete Matt Helm set, I'm not counting the DVDs of classic TV shows, since it does say "films", but I also have a ton of documentaries, which qualify. Plus I'm getting an MFA in Film Studies in a Summer Program and that means buying movies as though they were text books. Sigh.)

2) The last film I bought: Young Frankenstein (I last saw it in the theatre...and I wanted to watch it with my wife, but she has yet to find the time or interest and so it remains un-opened.)

3) The last film I watched: Das Boot, 5.5 hour version (My favorite, I watch it every couple of months, and even have the unabridged audio book for my car, a gift from my far too supportive wife.)

5) Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal/blog... Which, I send with the same caveat Rhonda gave me...that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF ANY CONSEQUENCE WHATSOEVER WILL HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU BLOW THIS WRETCHED THING OFF.

If you are a lucky recipient, copy this, change it and post it on your blog. You'll never see another one from me. Or from Rhonda...she promised, and so do I.