President's latest approval rating (Gallup/USA Today) continues disastrous freefall. . .

The USA TODAY/Gallup poll's most recent results for President Bush's approval rating in 2006: May 5 - 31% approve; 65% disapprove; 5% no opinion. As recently as January, 2006, the numbers were 43% approve; 54% disapprove; 3% no opinion.

The U.S.A. Today article points out that even the hard-core Republican faithful (what they like to call "the base") are deserting the President. It looks more and more like we'll see some reverse-coattails momentum in the mid-tern elections. Heh heh.
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Poem: Another politican resigns in disgrace

Sending out feelers
And testing the ground
The right place was one
Place he couldn't be found.


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Poem: Changes Nine/The Taming Power of the Small

1.
The wind drives across heaven
And reminds us of
The taming power of the small

The wind is air
And bumps clouds together
Across the sky

Transient
Like people
Who cannot change nature

But change the world
Breath by breath
A deed at a time

2.
The strong press forward
Tilting against obstructions
Dragging the feeble along

The spokes burst from the wagon wheels
Blood vanishes
And fear gives way

3.
True wealth like laughter
Is not selfishly hoarded
But shared with friends and strangers

Pleasure shared
Is pleasure doubled
The moon is nearly full

4.
An owl sits in the plum tree
And she doesn't know
I'm glad she's here

5.
This is as good as it gets
And it gets this good
Every day.
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Copyright (c) 2006 by Jack Brummet

Top spook resigns amid bribery and prostitute allegations

CIA Director Porter Goss has resigned after only one year, amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.



In a last minute Oval Office announcement, neither President Bush nor Goss offered a decent reason for why the head of the spy agency was leaving after only a year on the job.















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The Lego Church

click to enlarge


The Abston Church of Christ, made with LEGO pieces, was built by Amy Hughes, a software developer. Abston's name comes from the plastic used to make Lego pieces--Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. The Church is 7 x 5 1/2 feet and 30 inches tall.


click to enlarge

The church has 400 people in the sanctuary and choir loft, with rooms for thousands more! It has nearly 4,000 windows, including fantastic, majectic windows surrounding the altar, restrooms, mosaics, incredibly ornate flooring, a baptistery, a nave, and a huge, pipe organ.


click to enlarge

Click on Amy Hughe' web site for lots of photographic goodness and more information.
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No Pants Day -- Reminder!

Blowback

The word blowback has come into fairly common usage recently, at least in the new and old media. . .

According to dictionary.com, blowback is

1: the backward escape of unburned gunpowder after a shot

2: misinformation resulting from the recirculation into the source country of disinformation previously planted abroad by that country's intelligence service.

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The G.O.P. = The New Dumb

Yes, the Republicans are the new dumb. Perhaps they haven't always been that way. . .but even our most beloved President pulled things that you would be drummed out of office for today. . .

In 1861 and 1862, President Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeus Corpus. Habeus corpus, put simply, is a writ ordering that a prisoner be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not the prisoner is being imprisoned lawfully. Habeus Corpus essentially prevents us from holding someone prisoner indefinitely without trial.



During the civil war, in 1861, Link suspended habeus corpus due to massive riots, and a threat by the slave state Maryland that it would secede from the Union (and therefore leave Washington, D.C., in the south). The suspension was also intended to tame the Copperheads, or Peace Democrats, and anyone in the Union who supported the Confederacy. Lincoln's order was overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court. But Lincoln did nothing to reinstate the doctrine. On the other hand, The Confederate Prez, old Jeff Davis, also suspended Habeas Corpus and imposed martial law.

Habeus Corpus was not actually restored until 1866, long after Lincoln's assassination.
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Friday is No Pants Day - mark your calendar, and buy some spiffy boxers

Click montage to enlarge
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Lyrics to Dialogue I by Chicago

I always liked this song, and wish that there were more call-and-response rock songs. There must be many others, but I can only think of a few. . .Elvis Costello has several where he does both voices, Jack Straw by the Grateful Dead, and of course, Wooden Ships by Crosby, Stills and Nash.


Terry: Are you optimistic 'bout the way that things are going?
Pete: No, I never ever think of it at all.
Terry: Don't you ever worry when you see what's going down?
Pete: Well, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all.

Terry: When it's time to function as a feeling human being,
will your Bachelor of Arts help you get by?
Pete: I hope to study further, a few more years or so.
I also hope to keep a steady high.

Terry: Will you try to change things, use the power that you have,
The power of a million new ideas?
Pete: What is this power you speak of and the need for things to change?
I always thought that everything was fine, everything is fine.

Terry: Don't you feel repression just closing in around?
Pete: No, the campus here is very very free.
Terry: Does it make you angry the way war is dragging on?
Pete: Well I hope the President knows what he's into, I don't know.
Oooh I just don't know.

Terry: Don't you see starvation in the city where you live,
all the needless hunger, all the needless pain?
Pete: I haven't been there lately, the country is so fine,
but my neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time,
Haven't got the time.

Terry: Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind,
I was troubled by the shapes of things to come.
Pete: Well, if you had my outlook, your feelings would be numb,
You'd always think that everything was fine.
Everything is fine.
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Alien Lore No. 73 - An amateur UFOlogist hacks into U.S. defense network looking for suppressed data on UFOs and aliens

According to The U.S. government, an Englishman, Gary McKinnon committed "the biggest military computer hack of all time." And he did it to learn what we are hiding about Aliens and UFOs.

According to Reuters, McKinnon broke into computers at the Pentagon, NASA and the Johnson Space Center, and systems of each branch of the military over a period of two years.

"U.S. officials say he caused $700,000 worth of damage and even crippled vital defense systems shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks."

"The unemployed computer programmer is now battling extradition to the United States, where, if found guilty, he faces up to 70 years in prison and fines of up to $1.75 million. His lawyer fears he could even be sent to Guantanamo Bay."

Gary McKinnon was initially inspired by the movie War Games, and years later, with information from the widely available The Hacker's Handbook, began his snooping.

From 2001 to 2001, with a simple computer, and a dialup modem, McKinnon began browsing U.S. defense computer systems.

Was he a spook? A terrorist? A thief? A lone crackpot looking for attention? Not really. He wanted to find out what the U.S. government was hiding about UFOs and alien technologies. "I wanted to ... find out stuff the government wouldn't tell you about." He was looking for the truth behind all the alien lore.

Using commercial software, and with no special knowledge, he hacked into dozens of high security systems via a hole in a Microsoft Windows program. He began searching any system that might have links to UFO informatiom.

He claims to have also found documents from the so-called Disclosure Project, who documented that technology obtained from extraterrestrials did exist. He also found evidence of cover-ups, and even evidence of airbrushed photographs used to ruse the public at large.

"I can't talk about a lot of stuff that I found. It's just not the right time," he said with a smile.

At the Infosecurity Europe 2006 conference in London on April 27, 2006, McKinnon appeared on the Hackers' Panel. When asked how his exploits were first discovered, McKinnon answered that he'd miscalculated the timezone -- he was using remote-control software to operate a Windows computer while its user was sitting in front of it.

Boom! He was busted, and now the U.S. government would like to extradite and try him, and possibly imprison him at Guantanamo Bay, near Cuba. You can read a copy of his indictment here.
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President angrily refuses to accept Veep Cheney's resignation--discussion reported to have become physical

Creator/photographer unknown (but I love you!)

WASHINGTON D.C. - President George W. Bush had little to smile about during the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. His demeanor turned noticeably chilly during Stephen Colbert's savage send-up. Even die-hard leftists and yellow-dog Democrats felt that Colbert had crossed the line. The President, however, had much more on his mind. According to White House sources speaking to All This Is That, The President and Vice-President met in the Oval Office two hours before the dinner, where Dick Cheney tendered his resignation from the office of Vice-President.

The sources said the Vice-President was emotional and adamant. "I just can't take it any more, " Cheney reportedly told the President, "For Godsakes, look at me! I'm in the Oval Office crying. I don't f***ing need this. I'm not running for anything. I just can't take two and a half more years. "

The President talked with the Vice President for half an hour, trying to convince him to stay on. When Cheney began sobbing uncontrollably, The President erupted and slapped him. "Damnit Dick--start by acting like a man! Who taught me to be tough? You, Dad. Now I won't have you in here blubbering and I sure as hell won't have you resign. Not now. Not ever. They may carry you out feet first, but you're here for the duration. Now we're going to the dinner tonight, and I expect you to be my Rock of Gibraltor. Go home and pull yourself together. "

The Vice President left, but was dubious about changing his mind. "I just don't see an upside in this for either of us Mister President."
Ten minutes before the Correspondent's dinner The President met in an ante-room with Cheney, who told him "I'm with you."

Editor's note: Several Dick Cheney hunting jokes were performed during the course of the evening--including one during a skit by The President himself. Cheney appeared calm during the dinner, even briefly chuckling at jokes aimed at his accident and possible prosecution in the Plame case.

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