Senator Clinton Compares POTUS To Alfred E. Neuman

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The Aspen Times/Associated Press today reported that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ripped into President Bush in a speech Sunday, saying he has damaged the economy by heaping tax cuts onto the rich. Click on the link above to read the full article.

"I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington," Clinton said, referring to the Mad magazine character with his catch-phrase "What, me worry?"
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The "Indian Head" Test Pattern

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Do you remember falling asleep in front of the television, and maybe being awakened by that loud tone? You may think there is nothing to watch on those five hundred channels now, but in the 50's and 60's, you received only one to four stations, all of which stopped broad-casting sometime around midnight. When stations "signed off," or, quit broadcasting actual programs in the old days, that is, in my youth, they would air a five minute program, called Sermonette, or Moment Of Faith, followed by the National Anthem and that obnoxious hearing test tone, playing over the famous Indian Head test pattern.

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President George W. Bush Speaks About Universal Values

"The relations with, uhh — Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh — because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know — European values, they're universal values. And those values — uhh — being universal, ought to be applied everywhere."

— POTUS George W. Bush, at a press conference with European Union members, June 20, 2005, in Washington
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More Supreme Court Positioning By Sen. Specter

The New York Times reported this morning that Senate Judiciary Committee chair Senator Arlen Specter has speculated that President Bush should name Justice O'Connor as Chief Justice. That doesn't seem all that likely, since O'Connor was well-aware of an incipient movement to pressure the White House to draft her should Rehnquist leave the court. She retired anyway.

Sen. Specter's statement indicate that he is clearly not taking directions from the White House--which should lead to an interesting confirmation hearing or two. Republicans don't seem to be able to keep Specter on the reservation any longer.
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Top Ten Internet Downloads 1995-2005

CNET, one of the biggest application download sites on the internet recently listed its top ten downloads of the last ten years:

ICQ
Winamp
Firefox
Napster
WinZip
iTunes
Ad-aware
Skype
RealPlayer
Adobe Acrobat Reader
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Poem: Optimism

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In our tarpaper shacks,
We build crystal dream palaces
To colonize
When our ships come in.
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Oh S**t! - Rehnquist To Retire? - Selecting The Next Chief Justice And Associate Of SCOTUS

Maybe the craziest part of this whole SCOTUS drama is that The President may actually nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales despite the massive, and apparently deep opposition from his own right-wing political base. And maybe the next weirdest part is how the Democrats have claimed Justice O'Connor as one of our own. How far we have sunk!


Robert Novak today speculated that

"Conservatives who have spent more than a decade planning for this moment to change the balance of power on the Supreme Court are reeling from blows delivered by two dissimilar political leaders: Edward M. Kennedy and George W. Bush. Sen. Kennedy has succeeded with the news media in establishing a new standard of 'mainstream conservatism' for a justice. President Bush has put forth ''friendship'' as a qualification for being named to the high court.

In the same article, he writes

"Adding to the tension is word from court sources that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist also will announce his retirement before the week is over. That would enable Bush to play this game: Name one justice no less conservative than Rehnquist, and name Gonzales, whose past record suggests he would replicate retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on abortion and possibly other social issues. Thus, the present ideological orientation of the court would be unchanged, which would suit the left just fine."

Who knows how all this will play out? Will it help moderate POTUS's choices? Will he buckle on Gonzales? Will he select an old centrist and a young redneck?
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Painting of Caligula

Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur?

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur.

Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum. . .

Painting: Grey Alien No. 7

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Another Missing Kid (From The 19th Century)

Click Poster To Enlarge.

This child, abducted in 1894, is said to "have been abducted by an organ grinder[1] and may be touring the country with and collecting pennies for one of this class."


[1]
A musician who plays a hurdy-gurdy[2] and usually performs on the street. In popular images and accounts, the organ grinder is often accompanied by a trained monkey. The kidnapped child appears to have been snatched to perform the monkey's traditional duties.

[2] A musical instrument that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs (like the music boxes you may have had when you were a child).

Instructions From The C.I.A.

Here are a couple of panels (translated) from a manual our C.I.A. distributed in Nicaragua.


The C.I.A. encouraged the Contras, and regular folks to rise up against the leftist Sandinista government at any cost. . .even by destroying and destabilizing the country's infrastructure.
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Audioblog - Poem: The Prevaricator

He refurbished each retelling with new locales and personnel,
Variants and permutations to keep it fresh and new.
He turned the truth and the truth chicaned.
Those tall tales soared into the ozone

And came up gasping for air. When he told a whopper,
Great Moby rolled three times in Davy Jones' locker.
He needed a Croy to map whom he told what to
When and why, who they knew he knew and how,

Who had been where, and with whom when
Or why about whom, where and which,
When they knew what and how.
He peddled wholesale lies

When retail truths would sell undiscounted,
Adding loops and conditions
To those overloaded circuits humming
With crazed electrons. Soon enough,

Like a tree in the woods
When no one hears it fall,
A lie is just a mighty wind blowing
With no one to hear it at all.
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Copyright (c) 2005 by Jack Brummet