Hurricane season is over

I cut down more than half my my Azelias so you can actually see my house now. Now I have to power wash it and rake the roof again, stupid pine trees, your getting cut next. I raked a lot of my yard too but under the years of pine needle buildup all there is is sand and a few random weeds and saw palmettos. Im going to be burning Azelia branches for the next 3 months, at least.


New Radiohead

You can download the new Radiohead and pay whatever you want for it at Radiohead.com. Enjoy my pretties!

Update from the Durty South

Well, I got a new awesome camera. A Kodak P880 for the photography geeks. I got some cool pics of my house, cars and some places in town where I live. I love this place!

My house:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Me and Joy working on the V-Dubs today:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Cars:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

My collection of VW parts and tools, they get their own room:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

2 GTIs in less than a week

Got my new car to replace my .:R32 last Wednesday. Had to go up to Atlanta to get it but it was a good deal. Its a 95 GTI VR6 and the guy put a Cup Kit on it, thats why its so low. It has A/C, runs awesome, handles good and is fast, what else could you ask for?

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Crazy multi-color interior:
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
VR6 of doom:
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Also got an old school Rabbit GTI for Joy yesterday. Its stripped except for a Euro 16V swap. Its in great shape rust-wise and is going to be an awesome Autocross car:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Goodbye Panzer

Farewell to a friend

Sold my R32 today. All I have left is the memories of one the greatest road trips of my life with my friend Joy all over Florida in that car. Jacksonville, Cape Canaveral, Orlando and Disney World, Tampa outside of Busch Gardens, Clearwater Bridge, picking up Bandit from Punta Gorda and driving it down from Greenville, South Carolina to Jacksonville to close on my house. Im gonna miss 0-100mph in 14 seconds and all the props and VW love I got from people, the Ferrari-like sound and great stereo. Goodbye my friend, Panzer, you left your mark in my heart forever.

The man-crush

This is for you Joe, its ok to like Johnny Depp:

Original link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/08/POP.TMP?g=true

Justin Timberlake and I should be together.

Certainly not in a physical sense, or any other way that would jeopardize my marriage. This isn't about switching sides, experimentation or a fetish for guys who used to be in boy bands.

I just really want to hang out with him. Like, forever.

We're talking, of course, about a Man Crush -- the completely non-sexual feelings that develop when one heterosexual male finds another dude to be so cool that Guy No. 1 wants to spend as much time as possible with Guy No. 2. Aristotle had a Man Crush on Plato. Richie Cunningham had a Man Crush on the Fonz. And for the entire month of April and part of May, everyone in the Bay Area with a Y chromosome had a Man Crush on Golden State Warriors star Baron Davis.

The Man Crush has always been a delicate subject among straight men, with a very complicated rule set. It's considered OK to spontaneously proclaim your love for an NFL quarterback when he just scored a touchdown. It's not cool to point out that Bob from human resources always looks nice in that blue sweater. It's socially acceptable to have a poster of a shirtless and sweaty James Hetfield from Metallica on your wall, but never a half-naked or even fully clothed picture of Orlando Bloom.

But we're at a crucial point in Man Crush history, where a perfect storm of events could make it possible for even the most insecure guy to proclaim his undying like for his fellow man.

A new "Ocean's Eleven" sequel arrives in theaters this week, co-starring the holy MC trinity of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Those three actors working together -- and that Don Cheadle ain't bad looking either -- have inspired more guy-on-guy crushes since members of the band Led Zeppelin were in their Misty Mountain Hopping prime.

"Ocean's Thirteen," the cinematic Man Crush event of the summer, will be followed by king metrosexual David Beckham's U.S. soccer debut in August, Timberlake's "FutureSex/LoveShow" HP Pavilion tour stop in September and then a potential San Francisco mayoral race repeat of Gavin Newsom versus Matt Gonzalez. It may be 72 degrees in the Sunset District without a cloud in the sky as you read this, but make no mistake: It's definitely raining men.

So why do so many guys fight it?

Every human being on the planet is born with the ability to figure out who he or she would find attractive if his or her sexual preference suddenly reversed polarity. Ask any straight woman what female celebrity she would want to date if she were a man: Chances are good she already has a list in her head, if not written down on a Post-it in her wallet. (Chances are even better that Eva Longoria is in the top three. Chicks dig Longoria.)

But ask a man to name a few guys whom he'd like to spend more time with, and depending on how close you are to a Red State, you might get a rude response. Unfortunately, we live in a time when a healthy Man Crush is still taboo, forcing millions of guys to insist that they're watching professional wrestling for the interesting storylines.

There's no Man Crush Hall of Fame or Man Crush Historical Museum, but there probably should be.

In fact, the Man Crush dates back to the Paleolithic era, where cave drawings show a prehistoric guy felling a wooly mammoth with a single spear, and then another caveman following him around for the next two weeks, offering to pull fleas out of his beard and help haul stuff down to the tar pit. Mark Antony became the second-most-powerful man in Rome based on his ability to elicit crushes from his troops (at least that's how it went in the HBO series), and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (hot!) was elected mostly on the wealthy landowner Man Crush vote.

In recent years, Hollywood has created an entire genre of Man Crush cinema, even though no studio executive has the guts to call it by its name. From "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Cool Hand Luke" to "Road House" and "Swingers," men have spent hundreds of millions of box-office dollars to spend two hours hanging out with Paul Newman, Patrick Swayze and Vince Vaughn. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has made a living profiting off the crushes he attracted in three different entertainment media: football, wrestling and action movies.

Even if you've been in denial for a decade or three, it's easy to determine your Man Crush. Here are five common categories to get you started:

Fictional Characters: Almost every guy you'll meet between the ages of 25 and 40 has experienced a Man Crush on a character played by Harrison Ford. Ninety-eight percent of the time it's Han Solo or Indiana Jones, although there's a smaller group -- kind of like the Green Party -- that will insist they have a Man Crush on his Richard Kimble character from "The Fugitive."

Sports Figures: After 49ers quarterback Steve Young made that 1988 touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings, where he broke something like 137 tackles before stumbling into the end zone, who among us didn't want to spend an entire weekend watching "Die Hard" movies and eating nachos with the guy?

Local Specimens: San Francisco's notoriously skewed eligible man-to-woman ratio may be a bummer if you're single and female, but it's great news for the regional Man Crush statistics. From San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas to Giants pitcher Barry Zito, almost every public figure is dreamy. Bay Area politicians are also hotter than average, with Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums -- an elder Man Crush -- recently joining the ranks.

George Clooney: There's a reason why this one-time "The Facts of Life" co-star continues to make more than $10 million per picture, even though half of his movies are almost unwatchably bad: He's equally appealing to men and women -- and may be the only guy making more than $100,000 per year who still drinks Budweiser.

That Guy at Work Who Always Wears Nice Shirts: There's a guy in every workplace who is kind of intimidating because his shirts always fit really well, and he can pull off things like a yellow cashmere sweater with a dark blue blazer, jeans and light brown soft leather loafers. Get over yourself. You should definitely ask this guy to take you shopping.

Guys With Falsetto Voices Who Used to Date Britney Spears When She Was Still Hot: If you had told me five years ago that I would develop a Man Crush on Justin Timberlake, I would have spit out my Zima. But you have to admit, from the "Dick in a Box" video short on "Saturday Night Live" to the singer's unfailing ability to shack up with really attractive women, he's become pretty awesome. Maybe not Daniel Craig-in-"Casino Royale" hot, but appealing nonetheless. I buy all of his albums, give them to my wife as gifts, and then listen to them myself in private. And some day, I hope that JT and I can spend a weekend bass fishing and rebuilding a carburetor together, without the rest of the world feeling the need to judge.

Should you meet your crush, there's no need to do anything special, other than the normal stammering and awkward pauses that result when conversing with someone you really admire. (The "Saturday Night Live" Chris Farley interview of Paul McCartney is a good example.) If you're doing the job right, the recipient of your crush might be a little creeped out.

But rest assured that you're doing nothing wrong. If God didn't want us to have crushes on other men, why did he make Derek Jeter so freaking cool?

Yea .:R32!

Anyone thats raced a 350Z knows they are no slouch:

Took some pictures

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Word, from the deep south

Got internet today, got a house last week. Pictures coming soon.

I call the big one bitey

Well, I had to rescue this little guy because he is too tame to let go and hes scared of other animals. I got him from an animal sanctuary who got him from someone that had trapped him when he was a baby. He doesnt know hes a raccoon, he thinks hes a dog and he acts like a puppy. Hes about a year old and still has his baby tail. His name is Bandit but I want to see if I can change it to RJ (anyone that gets that is cool).

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

This is your face awesomed off

I just got this car less that 2 weeks ago. Something I totally didnt need seeing that I dont have a job or a place to live until I close on my house. Its a VW Golf R32, one of 5000 made for the US. 240hp, 6 speed, 4WD, 0-60 in less than 6 seconds and the 1/4 mile in 14.1@99 right off the showroom floor. Dont be fooled by the 0-60 time. It looks slower on paper than it is because you have to shift twice before 60. Its in the top 10% of cars that you can drive everyday when it comes to speed and handling. I cant believe I own this piece of VW history:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

This time its for real

Well, after a very fun and fairly random road trip through Florida with Joy in her red Beetle we found my house in the country. My real estate agent, who rocks hardcore by the way, found a bank repo that went on the market that day. After looking around it I knew I wouldnt get a better deal. The house is solid and the yard is I think a little over a half acre. Its in northern Florida in a town called Hilliard. The person that lived there before must have been a gardener at some point in the past because theres nice trees and plants that just need some attention. With some cleaning, sheetrock and paint Ill have a nice place to stay. Theres some 70's decor like wood paneling and stuff that needs to go. Heres my piece of America:

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Should I do it?

I want  to buy this:



I would have to put myself out and away from my friends and family but it would be a dream come true. Im gonna do it if its at all possible. VWs all day in Florida 2 miles from the beach. No, Im quite sure it wouldnt be better than that.

Busma

I had the awesomest week of my life working on getting Old Benny Blue running after he had been sitting for 3 years in my friend Joys driveway. After she had got him home he had an electrical issue and he wouldnt crank up. He was in the part of the driveway where the water would river when it rained. Before I got there Joy and Chris worked on getting the axle nuts broken loose so that we could get the tires off to work on the brakes as they were locked up. As soon as I got there we got started on getting him jacked up and taking the wheels off. From that moment on all we did was bust our asses and sleep. We redid all the brakes and replaced all the rubber lines. I figured out the electrical issue and he cranked right up after 3 years! I mean he turned over like 3 times and started. Joy missed it when she went in the house for about 5 minutes. He started just in time for the rain to start. He didnt have brakes at that time as we were waiting for some parts from the vintage VW place down the street. I had to start him up to move him and shut the engine off and let out the clutch to stop him. Chris just happened to get home at the time and watched the craziness that was me getting the bus into the garage. Me and Joy were dying laughing and the look on Chris's face when he found out there was no brakes was priceless since I was manuvering around their cars and into their garage. After we thought we were making some headway and we could still make it to TDIfest on friday we went to adjust his valves and found the intake valve on cylinder #1 stuck open. All the PB Blaster and pounding on it in the world wouldnt unstick it. We had to pull the engine out. Luckily pulling the engine in an air cooled VW is a piece of cake. We backed him into the garage and had the engine out in under an hour. We went up to Vintage and I got new dual port heads, intake, head studs and tin for the engine. This was the point where we figured we werent going to make TDIFest which was kinda sucky. It is pretty cool that he is a dual port engine now though, just a little more power which is badly needed in a 3000 pound vehicle with a 4 cylinder engine. There was also issues with the lights, the electronic ignition, one of the headlights, the steering, the carb and probably about 20 other things that I cant remember. I also had to take the shifter out to put the short throw shift kit and which worked out well since I had to smash off the JB welded shifter knob with a sledge hammer to get the kickass 8 ball knob on. It was all worth it, my idea of a fun vacation and Benny made it the 1000 miles I had to drive him home. I also got to spend some time with my friend Nick in Virginia which was awesome. Leaving his house I took RT 15 through Maryland and Pennsylvania, one of the nicest roads Ive ever driven on, I stopped in Gettysburg to fill up. Soon enough Benny will be a camper with a sink and all. I cant wait. Heres some pictures in process and when Benny was almost ready to go home.



































Heres my new Bus, his name is Benny

Long, long painful and most fun story goes with this so heres some pics and if I see you in person I tell it to you.










Clint is my HERO!

Man I wish everyone was a republican and we could vote Bush in as our King like he would like. Too bad about that damn 2 term limit. Damn that constitution! All those stupid limits and laws! Heres a little list of all of Bushes accomplishments since hes been in office. We as a nation should be proud.

Link to original:

http://www.alternet.org/story/40678

 Where Bush's Arrogance Has Taken Us
    By Jim Hightower
    AlterNet.org

        Wednesday 23 August 2006

An illegal war, a long list of eroded rights, and a country run by and for the benefit of corporate campaign donors - all courtesy of the imperial presidency.

    During his gubernatorial days in Texas, George W let slip a one-sentence thought that unintentionally gave us a peek into his political soul. In hindsight, it should've been loudly broadcast all across our land so people could've absorbed it, contemplated its portent - and roundly rejected the guy's bid for the presidency. On May 21, 1999, reacting to some satirical criticism of him, Bush snapped: "There ought to be limits to freedom."

    Gosh, so many freedoms to limit, so little time! But in five short years, the BushCheneyRummy regime has made remarkable strides toward dismembering the genius of the Founders, going at our Constitution and Bill of Rights like famished alligators chasing a couple of poodles.

    Forget about such niceties as separation of powers, checks and balances (crucial to the practice of democracy), the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and open government-these guys are on an autocratic tear. Whenever they've been challenged (all too rarely), they simply shout "war on terror," "commander-in-chief," "support our troops," "executive privilege," "I'm the decider," or some other slam-the-door political phrase designed to silence any opposition. Indeed, opponents are branded "enemies" who must be demonized, personally attacked, and, if possible, destroyed. Bush's find-the-loopholes lawyers assert that a president has the right to lie (even about going to war), to imprison people indefinitely (without charges, lawyers, hearings, courts, or hope), to torture people, to spy on Americans without court or congressional review, to prosecute reporters who dare to report, to rewrite laws on executive whim?and on and on.

    Here, we are pleased to give you a sense of the enormity of what Bush & Company are doing under the cloak of war and executive privilege in a handy-dandy poster format.

    The War President

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
-George W., August 2004
  • Number of Americans killed in Bush's Iraq war as of August 2006: 2577
  • What Bush press flack Tony Snow said the day the total number of American dead reached 2,500: "It's a number"
  • Number of Americans killed since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003: 2,438
  • Number of Americans wounded (a vague term that includes such horrors as brain damage, limb blasted off, eyes blown out, psyche shattered, etc.) in Bush's war:
    • Official count: 18,777
    • Independent count: up to 48,000
  • Estimated number of Iraqi civilians (men, women, and children) killed in Bush's war since Saddam Hussein was ousted: 38,960
  • For Iraqis, the bloodiest month of the war so far: June 2006
    more than 100 civilians killed per day
  • Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit's advice to Iraqis who see TV reports of innocent civilians being killed by occupying troops: "Change the channel."
  • Percent of Iraqis who want American troops to leave: 82
  • Stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq since Bush committed Americans to war in 2003 on the basis that Saddam had and was about to use WMDs: 0
  • Number of nations in the world: 192
  • Number that joined Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" (COW) to invade Iraq: 48
    (The list includes such military powers as Angola, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Latvia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Romania, Solomon Islands, and Uganda.)
  • Number of COW nations that actually sent any troops to Iraq: 39
    (Of these, 32 sent fewer than 1,000 troops. Many sent no fighting units, deploying only engineers, trainers, humanitarian units, and other noncombat personnel.)
  • Number of the 39 COW nations contributing troops that have since withdrawn them: 17
    (An additional 7 have announced plans to withdraw all or part of their contingents this year.)
  • Number of COW troops in Iraq: 150,000
  • Number of these that are U.S. troops: 139,000
  • Number of White House officials and cabinet members who have any of their immediate family in Bush's war: 0

    Follow the Money

We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
-"Howling Paul" Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary, in testimony to Congress, March 2003
  • The official White House claim before the invasion of what the war and occupation would cost U.S. taxpayers: $50 billion
  • As of July 2006, the total amount appropriated by Congress for Bush's ongoing war and occupation: $295,634,921,248
  • Current Pentagon spending per month in Iraq: $8 billion (or $185,185.19 per minute)
  • Assuming all troops return home by 2010, the projected "real costs" for the war: More than $1 trillion
    (includes veterans' pay and medical costs, interest on the billions Bush has borrowed to pay for his war, etc.)

    Bonus Stat!

  • Annual salary of Stuart Baker, hired by the Bushites to be the White House "Director for Lessons Learned": $106,641
  • Number of lessons that Bush appears to have learned: 0

    The Imperial Presidency

"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
George W., August, 2002.


(Photo: AlterNet.org)
 

    Signing Statements

    When signing a particular congressional act into law, a few presidents have occasionally issued a "signing statement" to clarify their understanding of what Congress intended. These have not had the force of law and have been used discreetly in the past.

    Very quietly, however, Bush has radically increased both the number and reach of these statements, essentially asserting that the president can arbitrarily decide which laws he will obey.

  • Number of signing statements issued by Bush as of July 2006: more than 800
    (This is more than the combined total of all 42 previous presidents.)
  •     A few examples of congressionally passed laws he has effectively annulled through these extralegal signing statements:

    • a ban against torture of prisoners by the U.S. military
    • a requirement that the FBI periodically report to Congress on how it is using the Patriot Act to search our homes and secretly seize people's private papers
    • a ban against storage in military databases of intelligence about Americans that was obtained illegally
    • a directive for the executive branch to transmit scientific information to Congress "uncensored and without delay" when requested
  • Provision of the Constitution clearly stating that Congress alone has the power "to make all laws": Article 1, Section 8
  • Provision of the Constitution clearly stating that the president "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed": Article 2, Section 3
  • Name of the young lawyer in the Reagan administration who wrote a 1986 strategy memo on how to pervert the use of signing statements in order to concentrate more power in the executive branch, as Bush is now doing: Samuel Alito, named to the U.S. Supreme Court by Bush this year

    National Security Letters

    These are secret executive writs that the infamous 2001 Patriot Act authorizes the FBI to issue to public libraries, internet firms, banks, and others. Upon receiving an NSL, the institution or firm is required to turn over any private records it holds on you, me, or whomever the agents have chosen to search.

    Who authorizes the FBI to issue these secret writs? The FBI itself.

  • Surely the agents have to get a search warrant, a grand jury subpoena, or a court's approval? No
  • But to issue an NSL, an agent must show probable cause that the person being searched has committed some crime, right? No
  • Well, don't officials have to inform citizens that their records are being seized so they can defend themselves or protest? No
  • Number of NSLs issued by various FBI offices last year alone: 9,254

    NSA Eavesdropping

    In 2001, Bush issued a secret order for the National Security Agency to begin vacuuming up massive numbers of telephone and internet exchanges by U.S. citizens, illegally seizing this material without any judicial approval or informing Congress, as required by law.

  • Number of Americans who have had their phone and internet communications taken by NSA: Just about everyone!
    (NSA is tapping into the entire database of long-distance calls and internet messages run through AT&T and probably other companies as well.)
  • In May of this year, the Justice Department abruptly halted an internal investigation that was trying to uncover the name of the top officials who had authorized NSA's warrantless, unconstitutional program. Who killed this probe, which was requested by Congress? George W himself! (He directed NSA simply to refuse security clearances for the department's legal investigators.)
  • What happened to NSA Director Michael Hayden, who was the key architect of Bush's illegal eavesdropping program and the one who would've formally denied clearances to Justice Department investigators? In May, Bush promoted him to head the CIA.
  • This past May, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales warned that journalists who report on NSA's spy program could be prosecuted under the antiquated Espionage Act of 1917.
  • Times in U.S. history this act has been used to go after the press: 0
  • Margin by which the U.S. House in 1917 voted down an amendment to make the Espionage Act apply to journalists: 184-144

    Interesting Fact:

    The New York Times reported this June that Bush was running another spy program. This one was snooping through international banking records, including millions of bank transactions done by innocent Americans. George reacted angrily to the exposure, branding the Times report "disgraceful" and declaring that revelation of his spy program "does great harm to the United States." The White House and its right-wing acolytes promptly launched a "Hate-the-Times" political campaign.

    Name the guy who was the first to reveal that such a bank-spying program was in the works: George W. Bush! At a September 2001 press conference, he announced that he'd just signed an executive order to monitor all international bank transactions.

    Watch Lists

    From the Bushites' ill-fated Total Information Awareness program (meant to monitor all of our computerized transactions) to the robust efforts by Rumsfeld's Pentagon to barge into the domestic surveillance game, America under Bush has fast become "The Watched Society."

  • Number of data-mining programs being run secretly on us by the federal government: Nearly 200 separate programs at 52 agencies
  • Number of "local activity reports" submitted to the Pentagon in 2004 under the "Threat and Local Observation Notice" program (TALON), which directed military officers throughout our country to keep an eye on suspicious activities by civilians: More than 5,000
    (They included such "threats" as peace demonstrators and 10 activists protesting outside Halliburton's headquarters.)
  • Number of official "watch lists" maintained by the feds: More than a dozen run by 9 different agencies
  • Number of Americans on the Transportation Security Administration's "No- Fly" list: That's a secret.
    (TSA concedes that it's in the tens of thousands. In 2005 alone, some 30,000 people called TSA to complain that their names were mistakenly on the list.)
  • Most famous citizen who is on the No-Fly list and has been repeatedly pulled aside by TSA for additional screenings at airports: Sen. Ted Kennedy
  • How can you get your name removed from TSA list? That's a secret.

    Name That Guy!

    In 1966, a young Republican congressman stood against his party's elders to cosponsor the original Freedom of Information Act, valiantly declaring that public records "are public property." He said that FOIA "will make it considerably more difficult for secrecy-minded bureaucrats to decide arbitrarily that the people should be denied access to information on the conduct of government."

    Who was that virtuous lawmaker? Donald Rumsfeld!

    Only eight years later, Gerald Ford's chief of staff strongly urged him to veto the continuation of FOIA. Who was that dastardly staffer? Donald Rumsfeld!

    Who is now one of the chief "secrecy-minded bureaucrats" who routinely violates OIA's principles? Right, him again!

    Regime of Secrecy

"Democracies die behind closed doors."
- Appeals court judge Damon Keith, ruling in a 2002 case that the Bushites cannot hold deportation hearings in secret
  • Increase in the number of government documents marked "secret" between 2001 and 2004: 81 percent
  • Number of government documents stamped "secret" in 2001: 8.6 million
  • Number of government documents stamped "secret" in 2004: 15.6 million (a new record)
  • Cost to taxpayers of classifying and securing documents in 2004: $7.2 billion ($460 per document)
  • Number of previously declassified documents that the CIA tried to reclassify as "secret" under a 2001 secret agreement with the National Archives, even though many had already been published and some date back to the Korean War: 25,315
  • Number of different "official designations" the government now has to classify nonsecret information so it still is kept out of the public's reach: Between 50 and 60
    (They include such stamps as CBU: Controlled But Unclassified, SBU: Sensitive But Unclassified, and LOU: Limited Official Use Only.)
  • The only vice-president in history who has claimed that he, like the president, has the inherent authority to mark "secret" on any document he chooses: "Buckshot" Cheney
  • Number of documents Cheney has classified: That's a secret.
    (He claims he does not have to report this to anyone -- not even the president.)
  • Of the 7,045 advisory committee meetings held by the Bushites in 2004, percentage that were completely closed to the public, contrary to the clear intent of the Federal Advisory Committee Act: 64 percent (a new record)
  • Number of times from 1953 to1975 (the peak of the Cold War) that presidents invoked the "state secrets" privilege, which grants them unilateral power in extraordinary instances literally to shut down court cases on the grounds they could reveal secrets that the president doesn't want disclosed: 4
  • Number of times the same privilege was invoked between 2001 and 2006: At least 24
  • Under Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno issued an official memo instructing agencies to release as much information as possible to the public. In October 2001, AG John Ashcroft issued a memo canceling Reno's approach, expressly instructing agencies to look for reasons to deny the public access to information and pledging to support the denials if the agencies were sued.
  • 2005 FOIA requests still awaiting a response at year's end: 31 percent
    (a one-third increase over the 2004 backlog)
  • Median waiting time to get an answer on FOIA request from Bush's justice department: 863 days

    Halliburton

"Halliburton is a unique kind of company."
- Dick Cheney, September 2003
  • Total value of contracts given to Halliburton for work in the Bush-Cheney "War on Terror" since 2001: More than $15 billion
  • Amount that Halliburton pays to the Third World laborers it imports into Iraq to do the work in its dining facilities, laundries, etc.: $6 per 12-hour day (50 cents an hour)
  • Amount that Halliburton bills us taxpayers for each of these workers: $50 a day
  • Amount that Halliburton bills U.S. taxpayers for:
    • A case of sodas: $45
    • Washing a bag of laundry: $100
  • Halliburton's campaign contributions in Bush-Cheney election years:
    • In 2000: $285,252 (96 percent to Republicans)
    • In 2004: $145,500 (89 percent to Republicans)
      Plus $365,065 from members of its board of directors (99 percent to Republicans)
  • Increase in Halliburton's profits since Bush-Cheney took office in 2000: 379 percent
  • Halliburton's 2005 profit: $1.1 billion
    (highest in the corporation's 86-year history
"Since leaving Halliburton to become George Bush's vice-president, I've severed all of my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind."
Former CEO Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, September 2003
  • Annual payments that Cheney has received from Halliburton since he's been vice-president:
    • 2001: $205,298
    • 2002: $162,392
    • 2003: $178,437
    • 2004: $194,852
    • 2005: $211,465
  • Cash bonus paid to Cheney by Halliburton just before he took office: $1.4 million
  • Retirement package he was given in 2000 after only 5 years as CEO: $20 million
  • Number of times in the past two years that Republicans have killed Sen. Byron Dorgan's amendment to set up a Truman-style committee on war profiteering to investigate Halliburton: 3
  • Naughty word Cheney used during a Senate photo session in 2004 to assail Sen. Patrick Leahy, who had criticized Cheney's ongoing ties to Halliburton: "Go #@! percent yourself.

For my fellow Pantera fans

The response to E! for their request to re-enact Dimebags death on stage:

The original link:

http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=4865

Hi Beau. I¹m leaving John¹s comments in cause he¹s a nice guy and I know this was difficult for him to send on through. I¹m also blind copying a whole list of folks who will most likely copy a whole other list of folks until maybe this spreads like a good email should and end up on 100,000 websites to show the world what a collective bunch of tasteless morons you all are.

Dime¹s birthday is this coming Sunday and your timing couldn¹t be worse. Not that there is a good time. In fact, in honor of his birthday, I think I¹ll send this around to a few of our favorite music websites who will most likely print the whole damn thing word for word, including your phone number and email. For good measure, I¹m going to throw in the top 50 major daily music and some of the top TV writers in the country and why not, the weeklies as well.

I realize there is nothing anyone can do to stop E! from producing garbage like this below, as you¹ve built your audience on the backs of other people¹s private lives, creating some type of warped reality out of your garbage, which is merely excuses for programming on the cheap and at the expense of others.

I would like to request that you please read this out out loud to all the creative geniuses in the programming department that came up with this idea.

...

We have received your request to license footage on Dimebag Darrell Abbott for your upcoming production of, "25 Most Chilling Hollywood Murders."

While we realize the average E! audience most likely has the IQ of an umbrella, they collectively are a smarter bunch than the lot of you. Your programming creativity falls somewhere to the bottom of the middle at best, and that¹s saying a lot.

I ask that you all please take a moment from your busy days and close your eyes. Live out the fantasy of playing your favorite instrument onstage. Your closest friends in the world surround you, either in the band or in your crew. From one side of the stage, a man approaches. Thinking he¹s a security guy or a drunk fan who¹s just a bit out a line, you continue to perform. Two seconds later, he lifts his arms, aims a rifle at your brother, your best friend, your buddy and blows his brains out, not three feet from where you are. In the nanosecond it takes you to comprehend the magnitude of what just happened, he does it again ...and again ...and again ...and again ...and again ...and again before taking aim and murdering additional members of your extended family as well as fans that have come to see you play. Two of your crew are shot but survive, but of course, will never be the same gain.

Now imagine it¹s a few years later and you turn on the TV set. Just in case you may be having at least a five minute respite from that scene that plays over and over in your head, just in case .....you flip through the channels and there it is. Again. Only with some two bit actor who thinks this is his big Hollywood break.

And please, if you don¹t like that scenario, make believe it¹s your child who got his brains splattered all over a stage in Ohio. And then you turn on E! Oh, the magic of television!

In case none of this appears clear enough and you need a definitive answer to your request...no. The answer if no, and on behalf of everyone that was there that night and everyone that misses him every day, you can take that no and shove it up your collective asses.

And, for your second request, yes, you can quote me on that.

Sincerely,
Jane Hoffman

i am....

i am a big pink stinky who stinks... and is stupid.
-love, zoe
p.s. tim is a hot sex machine. fin

Can you pass an eight grade test?

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!
Blog Archive
Pages: 1 2 3 4