Afghan who had statues destroyed killed.

 I’m not in favor of state-sponsered murder (capital punishment) but hey, this guy got what he deserved.

 Highly recommended, David Attenborough’s The Life of Birds.

Ohio election workers convicted of rigging ’04 presidential recount

CLEVELAND – Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio’s most populous county. Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said.

Hate to say we told ya so, but we told you so. It’s claimed they did it to avoid a lengthy manual recount. Uh huh. I’m sure it had nothing to do with swaying the election to Bush.

How ya feel about that now, huh? Good choice, to throw over democracy for a king?

These guys have an excellent point- one that anyone with a high school education and a smattering of critical thinking skills can make:

Fox News is not a legitimate news organization. And should not be treated as such.

After spending a week being force-fed the daily propaganda spew that is Faux Jazerra, one becomes alarmed that such crap is being drilled into people’s heads as “news” or “facts”, such as the absurdist slandering of Obama  that the reich wing has attempted to run up the war party uber alles flagpole- but thankfully smacked down by CNN. We dwell in dangerous times when large amounts of our neighbors knowingly, willfully seek out lies and government propaganda- knowing that it is bullshit, every moment- in order to continue to reside in their little fantasy world, a world where King George is a “good man”, where we’re winning in Iraq, Murtha is a traitor, where its your business if Bruce and Steve want to marry, and America is a force for good in the world, if everyone would just shut up and do what we say.

 And people wonder why LH and I want to move to a desert.

Please, please, if only one thing gets accomplished in my lifetime, let it be the end of “morality by force”- the practice of allowing a small group of repressed, mythology spouting dimwits to make laws “for the good of us”. 

Case in point- our fair state of Georgia, which is one of only 3 states in the nation to not allow beer and wine sales on Sunday. When people think of Georgia, they often think of the mountain banjo player in Deliverence as being a typical resident. Well, they might be right, at least as far as who lives in the governor’s mansion:

“You have to always be attuned to where public opinion is, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to follow that,” Perdue said in the interview. “A good leader always leads in a way that they think is the right direction for Georgia on significant issues. But simply populist, popularity-type issues are not necessarily always followed. But you have to be attuned to it.”

Despite having the support of a majority of Georgia’s citizens, our governor has decided that he knows better than us, and the bill will most likely not make it to a vote. Used to be the republican party was the one for “limited government”. Ha. Now its full of moralistic busybodies who feel that because they claim to have read a book that divines some sort of mystical “right path”, they can tell others what they can do in the privacy of their own lives. Like who they can marry. What medical procedures they can have. What drugs they can or cannot take, based on your marital status. When you can buy alcohol. I realize we’re supposed to be respectful of other people’s beliefs, and I’ll respect them- by not laughing in their faces.

I just don’t want to f’n LIVE by them. Move to Iran, you intolerant theocratic jackasses. Your type runs the show over there.

Now you have this to ponder at the Waffle House:

Manager Puts Camera in Bathroom

The list of evidence in Villa Rica’s latest crime starts simply: a rubber band, a nine volt battery, and a tiny camera.

Capt. Brian Camp with the Villa Rica Police Department puts it all together, saying, “He used the rubber bands to secure this camera under the sink in the women’s bathroom. If you were looking for it, you would have seen it.”

Police say Keith Christman, a manager at the Waffle House on Conners Road, used the wireless camera to capture images of women using the bathroom. The wireless camera would send the live streaming video to a receiver connected the restaurant’s computer. Police say he would then burn the images onto a disk.

Ok, all together now:

 EEEEWWWW…..

Mr. Bush’s overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent, a new low, while more than twice as many (64 percent) disapprove of the way he’s handling his job.

 At least Nixon had the sense to realize when he was whupped, and left. State that in your union tonight, King George.

Iraqi PM told Bush to withdraw US troops from Baghdad

Sun Jan 21, 3:30 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki proposed to President George W. Bush in November to withdraw US troops from Baghdad and let the Iraqi government take over security in the capital, a US newspaper reported.

Citing interviews with several unnamed administration officials, the Washington Post wrote that Maliki made the suggestion in a presentation to Bush on November 30 in Amman, Jordan.

But soon after, Bush rejected the idea, the paper said.

Which means that King George’s “When the Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down” blather was one more in a seemingly endless litany of lies he has used to sell his optional war of agression.

And I’m sure we’ll hear more of them tonight, if any of us are daft enough to actually watch his SOTU address. Trust me, the TTP bunker will be showing something a bit more civilized. Like Looney Tunes, perhaps.

Robert Anton Wilson, 74; Illuminatus trilogy writer

Robert Anton Wilson, a futurist, philosopher and coauthor of the Illuminatus trilogy, a cult science fiction series about a secret global society, died Jan. 11 at his home in Capitola, Calif. He was 74.

The author of 35 books, Wilson wrote about extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs and what he called quantum psychology. He explored outrageous ideas in a serious way and once described his writing as “intellectual comedy.”

Wilson was one of those writers whose work I encountered in high school. Between his bizarre descriptions of the “world behind the world”, Hunter Thompson, and Jack Kerouac, you have one questioning, snotty teenager.

And no, to all you wiseasses, nothing has changed but my age.