Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Happy Belated Birthday, Buddha!


Photo of painting of Gautama Buddha's first
sermon at the Deer Park - Click the painting
to enlarge

Buddhists celebrate April 8 as the birthday of Gautama Buddha; he was born in 563 B.C. as Prince Siddhartha, the son of the king of the Sakya people.

The prince, it was predicted, would either become a great world monarch or a Buddha--an uber-enlightened teacher. The Brahmans told his father, King Suddhodana, that Siddhartha would become a ruler if he were kept isolated from the outside world.

Siddhartha was brought up in great luxury, and married and fathered a son. But, at age 29, he decided to see more of the world and began excursions off the palace grounds in his chariot.

On his clandestine trips, he saw an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. The prince had been so cloistered that his charioteer had to explain to him about age, illness, and death. Finally, on one of his trips Siddhartha saw a monk and was so impressed that he left the palace and became a wandering ascetic, and The Buddha.
---o0o---

President Bush's approval ratings plunge deep into the toilet bowl


Political reversals, more bad news from Iraq, and the generally pathetic vibe emanating from the White House have dragged President Bush's standing even further into the toilet. The Republican congress fares no better in the popularity wars. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 38 percent of the public approve of the job Bush is doing, down three percentage points in the past month and his worst showing in Post-ABC polling since he assumed office. A third of registered voters approve of the way the Republican-led Congress is doing its job -- their lowest level of support in nine years. They're sucking even worse than POTUS!



The numbers over recent months seem to show that the plummeting GOP approval ratings are not just an anomaly, or as the Post put it "a patch of bad luck." It is a fundamental reaction against the GOP dominated Congress and Administration. And it doesn't look like that will change anytime soon.
---o0o---

Monday, April 10, 2006

"50,000 boots on the ground in Iran by June"


As you have probably read this weekend, the buzz is building around a story by Seymour Hersh in the April 17 New Yorker that the U.S. is planning a military strike on Iran because of its nuclear ambitions. According to reports by the Washington Post, members of the U.S. military now believe President Bush is leaning toward a "regime change" in Iran as the best way to end Iran's nuclear development. The Bush administration, Hersh writes, has "increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack," including the use of nuclear, bunker-busting bombs. A senior official quoted in the New Yorker, says The President views Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "potential Adolph Hitler."

A caller to Seattle's KIRO 710 on Sunday afternoon--calling from a local Air Force Base--claimed to Frank Shiers that he had seen comprehensive plans for an invasion of Iran, and that within a month and a half "we will have 50,000 boots and full support on the ground in Iran, ready to go." The guy didn't sound like a nutjob. . .but if he isn't, The White House is more dangerously unstable than we'd thought in our wildest dreams. Yes, the story sounds completely insane, and even in this Administration, would hit the high water mark for delusion and perfidy.
---o0o---

Updated index to Jack Brummet poems on All This Is That

Changes Seven/The Army
Changes Six/Conflict
Changes Five/The waiting
Changes Four/The Young Shoot
Changes Three/Trouble Ahead
Changes Two/The Receptive
Changes One/Action
The revolt in heaven
Found Poem: The Richmond Hill Oracle
Poem (and painting): The Robot Wars
I don't believe
I'm here
Ten ways of looking at lies
The Broken Chord
With our heads in the sand during the transit and eclipse
the sun plays its red song
Litany
Poem: The Developers
A raindrop's life
The mystery of the first amendment to the Ten Commandments
The Bay Of Delusion
Mad Song
Reasons To Keep On
Conspiracy Theory
The Moon Race
Mr. Flue's Grave In Hillcrest Cemetary, Kent, Wash.
The World Seems Especially Calming And Verisimilitudinous Today
Kent, Washington
Rollover
[It's the Lee Harvey Oswald smile]
Zombie Breakdown
Heaven
The Variations
You Rehearse Dying
Sonnet For Hari
Defensive Daydreaming
The Dream
Dogpaddling
The Prostethic Head & The Absence Of Blood
Tetuan - "No Paranoia, My Friend"
The Grey Visitors & Painting: The Grey Ambassador
The Bad Movie
The Bucket
The Man In The Mirror
Liftoff
Optimism Perspective
A Flight Of Swallows
Audioblog - The Prevaricator
Weather Report
Your Wooden Leg
The Revelations
Sermon At The First Church Of The Mojo Apocalypse
Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch
The Late Excavation (Text And Audio)
Jack Kerouac, Meet John Barleycorn
The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand
At The Acropolis
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
The sous-chef is a sociopath]
James Wright
Falling
[Life Is Not A Hardy Novel]
Seven
Coyote Comes Home Like A Salmon
Shorts For Jerry Melin ca. about 1988
Bird
Monism
The Golden Rule
The Countdown
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
AT HILLCREST CEMETARY IN KENT, WASHINGTON, I WALK BY THE GRAVE OF SAM THE GRASSEATER
Notes On Flying
Daybreak
Explosions
Not Past Tense Yet
the glass is not half-full
It's Getting Crowded Here
Li Po In Disgrace
The Clock
A Love Song
Bad Timing
The Killer
The Absence of Footprints
Growing Up
Gone Fishing
The M.D.s A Poem -
Acrylic
The Marriage
Driving Home To Seattle, We Watch Deer Drinking from the Skookumchuck River

Poem: Changes Seven/The Army



War develops
Like a toothache,

The caries slowly and inexorably
Gaining ground,

Until the cavity
Dominates the tooth,

Until war itself
Becomes more important

Than the reasons
For which the war is fought.

The power of the people
Is hidden in the masses

Until every poor boy
Becomes a warrior

Under an iron man
With iron fists at the top.

When the war ends
There is no victory.

The win goes to those
Who lost least

And every shucked poor boy
Goes home to his plow or factory.

The king bestows medals and ribbons
On the officers

And divides the swag
Among those who need it the least,

Want it the most,
And stop at nothing

To replenish the coffers
With the spoils of victory.
---o0o---

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Alien Lore No. 70 - Report on the Ontario UFO crash...



UFOlogists say there is a conspiracy by Canadian and American agencies to hide the information about a UFO recovered from a swamp in 1989.

In the 1980's, UFO sightings in Canada escalated to a fever pitch. . .specifically, around nuclear power plants. On Nov. 4, 1989, Canadian Defense Dept. radar picked up an object travelling at phenomenal speed over Carp, Ontario.

The UFO stopped suddenly, and dropped like a stone.

The Canadian and American governments were informed about the landing and triangulated the UFO to an area off Almonte and Corkery Roads. The ship had landed in deep swamp. Two Apaches and a Blackhawk chopper headed for the area the following night. The helicopters carried full weapon loads. They were part of a black-ops American unit that specialized in UFO and alien recovery.

The Apache attack choppers spotted a glowing, blue UFO, 70 feet in diameter sphere. Both gunships unleashed their full weapon loads of 8 issiles each. All 16 were exploded downwind from the ship. The missiles carried VEXXON, a nerve gas that kills on contact. Exposed to air the gas breaks down quickly into inert components. Immediately after having completed their mission the gunships turned around, and headed back across the border.

The Blackhawk landed and a six man strike team charged out and entered the UFO through a portal. No resistance was encountered. Three dead crewmen were found.

Later, a team of technicians shut-down the UFO. On November. 6, 1989, trucks were brought into the swamp and the UFO parts were transported to a secret facility in Kanata, Ontario.

The locals were informed that a road was being built through the swamp. The humanoids were packed in ice and sent to an isolation chamber at the University of Ottawa. CIA physiologists performed the autopsies.



The reptilian, fetus-headed beings, were listed as Non Terrestrial Entities.

The ship was partially reassembled at the underground facility in Kanata. Unlike previous recoveries, this UFO was no explorer or voyager. It was heavily armed and armored. No rivets, bolts, or welds were used in fastening, yet the craft has no seams--likie it was formed from one solid piece of magnesium alloy. It was powered by a cold fusion reactor. It had independently targeting electronic beam weapons.

Hmmmmmm. . . in the cargo hold, were fifty Soviet nuclear warheads. Their purpose was
revealed by advanced tactical/combat computers located in the flight deck. The aliens had agreed to defend China from the free world's combined military and nuclear forces.

The Soviet warheads found in the UFO were destined for Syria. CIA operatives in the Middle East have noticed huge movements of Chinese "technicians" and "advisors". China is also supplying the Arabs with bacteriological agents, Migs, Hind gunships, tanks, and
missile launchers.

The Warheads were hijacked from Soviet subs in the Dragon's Triangle. A section of alien controlled Pacific once frequented by Russian subs. After losing some 900 high yield warheads and 13 vessels, commanders were ordered to steer clear of the area. You think?!

Also discovered on board were spheroid, brain implants. The CIA and Canadian government had allegedly performed mind experiments for years, a continuation of the CIA psychological warfare project known as MKULTRA. Using signals transmitted at the same wavelength the human brain uses, researchers could control the test subjects. The alien implants utilize the same principles except that the whole unit is subminiaturized and contained in the brain. Fortunately the implants can be detected by magnetic imaging. All implanted folks are officially classified as Zombies.

The Zombies are programmed to help overthrow Mankind in the future. When China finishes with Israel it will invade Europe. Chinese bacteriological weapons will be launched at the Arctic. The winds will carry the diseases into Russia and North America. In days hundreds of millions will be dead. Anyione who survives will have to reckon with Chinese, aliens, and
the Zombies.



The aliens want all out war so that human resistance would be minimal, when they invade. They tried this same tactic once before with Nazi Germany. Most of the scientific advances we have today came from German science which was based on alien technology. Had Hitler won the war, the earth would have become a concentration camp to depopulate the continents for aliens.

Data aboard the sphere explained why the aliens are so comfortable on earth. Some 675 million years ago, an interdimensional war destroyed most of their civilization, and forced them to leave the earth. They have returned to take back their planet.

The story says the aliens will launch their attack soon, because if they wait too much longer, it will be impossible even for the aliens to reverse the ecological damage inflicted on the Earth by us.
---o0o---

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Gonzales will not rule out wiretaps on purely domestic phone calls

According to a press release by Congressman Adam Schiff:
During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the NSA's secret domestic wiretapping program. The Administration has cited the Authorization to Use Military Force and the commander in chief powers as authorizing the NSA to intercept international communications into and out of the U.S. of persons linked to al Qaeda or related terrorist organizations.

After citing his concerns that there was no limiting principle to the Administration's claim of authority in the War on Terror, Rep. Schiff asked the Attorney General whether the Administration believes it has the authority to wiretap purely domestic calls between two Americans without seeking a warrant.

"I cannot rule that out," responded the Attorney General.
---o0o---

Friday, April 07, 2006

Make your very own Chevy Tahoe commercial

Chevy cordially invites you to make your own Tahoe commercial. I made one (but forgot to add a soundtrack)...

Click here to see jack's commercial.

4/10/2006 update. Alas, Chevy has removed my commercial. I don't think it was what they were looking for. . .the last few frames had the text:

And when I hit you, my 12 airbags go off.
They have to remove you from the road with shovels and firehoses.

Is this a great country or what?
---o0o---

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Flashback: President Bush vows to "take care of" CIA leaker (with SFW POTUS photo)


President Bush speaking at a
press conference in Feb. 2004

Former VP Chief of Staff Scooter Libby has testified that President Bush authorized him to disclose the contents of highly classified intelligence documents to the media. The disclosure was made to bolster the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq, according to a federal court filing by the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

All This Is That remembers that in February, 2004 The President welcomed a Justice Department investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA operative.

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of. "
---o0o---

A second joke I know by heart


OK, I lied when I said I only knew one joke by heart. Yes, besides the Ungawa joke, there's the Kangaroo joke:

A proper British couple saved their money all year to go on holiday to the outback of Australia. It was to be a real "rugged" adventure. After am endless airplane flight, and a savage bus ride into the Outback, they arrived at their long-awaited destination. . .a tarpaper shack in a clearing with several Land Rovers parked on the side.

Tired, but eager to get started, they went in to speak with the "tour director. "

"G'day mates", said a friendly man behind the counter. "Here's some keys for a Rover and a map. Just follow the trail along and you'll circle back 'round after a few hours." The couple took the keys, jumped in one of the trucks and proceeded along the trail.

About a mile down the trail, they happened on an aborigine who was right in the middle of the road, hopping wildy about, and having sex with a kangaroo. The woman turned to her husband in shock: "Barbarians!", she said. "Drive around...that's disgusting!!"

The man detoured around the man and beast, and resumed the ride. . .horrified by what they'd just witnessed. No sooner had they stopped talking about the incident when they happened upon a one-legged aborigine, screwing a knothole in a tree by the road.

"Savages!!" the woman cried in horror. "Turn this truck around! I can't take any more of this!!" Her husband complied and they returned to the shack. Finding the director again behind the desk, the man exploded: "We've saved all year to come on this trip! We wanted to enjoy the beauty of the wilderness, and what do we see? First, there's a pervert screwing a kangaroo in road, then a one legged man screwing a tree!!! I can't tell you how disappointed we are!"

"Aw, c'mon now mate" said the director..."You can't expect a one-legged bloke to manage a roo!"
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 69 - President Jimmy Carter's UFO Encounter

During Jimmy Carter's tenure as Governor of Georgia, he sighted a UFO in Leary, Georgia.

The sighting was on January 6, 1969 at 7:15 P.M. Governor Carter filed a report with the NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). The report explained that there was a large, bright object in the sky. It moved toward him from a distance, stopped, moved away, and then departed. It had a blue color at first, and then turned red. It was more like a light than a solid object. The object looked to be the size of the moon. It was about 300-1000 miles away and 30 degrees above the horizon.

Robert Sheaffer, a scientists that works for the government believes that Jimmy Carter really saw Venus, but Carter denies that. He even signed a paper that states that he encountered a UFO.


A former Defense Intelligence Agency official, a senior Stanford Research Institute policy analyst and the constitutional attorney Daniel Sheehan have all confirmed that President Carter's attempts to obtain UFO information was thwarted by illegal actions by rogue military and intelligence entities.

Ronald Reagan also had encounters with UFOs. Click here to read about one.

Click here to read about Goldwater, Nixon, and Ford's close encounters.
---o0o---

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

New Riots In France


Demonstrators, ahem, rioters, opposed to a new jobs law massed in downtown Paris Tuesday, threw rocks, tore down signs and ripped up park benches.

Tactical riot police fired tear gas, charged the crowds, and made some arrests. The police said one million people were demonstrating and rioting all around France. Leaders of the protest said it was more like three million. The Eiffel Tower was closed, and plane and train service was halted for the second time in a week.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin cooked up the despised "first job contract" in an attempt to jump start the economy and lessen youth unemployment. De Villepin claims it would encourage job growth hiring by allowing employers to fire workers under 26 during their first two years on a job without giving a reason. As it stands currently, it is extremely difficult to fire amyone in France, and when you do, you essentially have to pay them off.


---o0o---