Headin' West

Up until the last couple of weeks, it was a great time to be a Yankee hater. I was giddy with New York just stinking up baseball and in last place after losing three in a row to the fuckin' Devil Rays. Oh, how sweet. Then they won 10 in a row. Fuck. Well, they still got a long ways to go to get back to first place, and right now they are bouncing around .500 with an obscene $200 million payroll. So it's still good. I'm not much of a sports nut, but I love my baseball. And the only thing better than my team winning is the Yankees losing.

I'll be going to my first game of the season at Dodger Stadium on Memorial Day. The Cubs will be in town and I'll be sitting with about 9 or 10 guys that I went to college with. All from Chicago or vicinity. Nothing like rooting for the visiting team when you go to the park.

So after today I'll be in L.A. and Phoenix for the next 12 days or so. I doubt I'll get around to writing in my blog, but you never know. Just a warning that the world might be denied the wonder of my wit for a few days while I reconnect with some old friends that I haven't seen in a really long time. It will be a breath of air from being around so much meanness in Boston.

Talk to you all soon.

Cell Out

So I went to Radio Shack and joined The Dark Side yesterday. I got my first cell phone. Well, it is a prepaid type, so I didn't go completely Darth Sidious or anything. I pay as I go, so I won't be sitting on the subway talking with my friends to pass the time or, hopefully, any of those other things I hate about cell phone users. I got it basically so I could have a phone while I'm traveling. I'm going to L.A. this week and need to be able to get ahold of people while I'm there so I can meet up with friends and the such. Plus, the wife can find me if she needs to. And it is so hard to find pay phones now, so my hand has been forced.

The funny thing was trying to figure out what and how to buy. I did a bunch of looking stuff up on the net, because I was no way going to walk into a store blindly asking to get a cell phone. I would've ended up with an empty bank account and a 10-year contract. So I decided on Virgin's "pay-as-you-go" cell. Pretty good deal, same per-minute price no matter where I'm at, and they had a phone on sale for $40. So I go to the Radio Shack. I find the phone among the ones at the Virgin display and one of those creepy Radio Shack employees comes over and asks me if I need help. I point to the phone I want and ask him the only question I had. I just wanted to make sure I read the roaming rule right, so I asked him to make sure calling outside of my area was the same price. So no problem. I point to the phone and I say "this one is on sale right?"

"Yeah", he says, and then asks me if it's for a kid.

"No, it's for me."

Apparently this kind of phone plan is popular for parents to get their children, and the fact I was buying the phone as well sparked this question. After he calls over to a younger kid employee to help me, he points out a phone higher up on the shelf that he says I should get instead. The price on that phone is $99.99. I make a remark about how it's too expensive and he says he thinks it might be on sale too. So as I'm asking him what the difference is the kid has come over, baggy pants and all, and the manager goes to see if the other phone is on sale, and tells the kid to tell me why I should get the $100 phone. He says the flip-phones are better.

"Why, is it clearer?"I ask.

And I swear to god this is what he said: "It's cooler."

"Cooler?"

"Yeah."

"Oh kaaayyy, so is there a real reason to buy this over the other one?"

And he goes to tell me that with the flip-phone you can't accidentally hit the button while its in your pocket and make a phone call that will take your minutes. But he also mentions that you can lock the keypad on the cheaper one anyway, with one little motion. He also mentions that the sound isn't any better or clearer. The manager come back to tell me that the pricier phone is in fact on sale as well - For $89.99.

"You know what? I'm going to stick with the $40 phone instead of the $90 one."

So white boy hip-hop kid goes to get my phone. He come back with two, and says he just found one he didn't know they had and told me it was just like the other one but that it was on sale - for $89.99.

"But it's got a camera!", he says.

"Ohh kaaayyy. But I've already got a camera, what I need is a phone."

So after turning down their protection plan, and that seemed to annoy him, he finally starts ringing me up. He asks me how I've survived without a cell phone. I was tempted, but resisted because I just wanted out of the hell that is Radio Shack, to try to explain to the dumbass that cell phones were not the same as food, water and shelter. I don't think he would have understood anyway. It just would have made his head hurt.

So I have a cell. Please god don't let it make me stupid like these other people.

Scumbag Du Jour

As anyone who reads this blog by now has probably figured out, I have some issues with the mainstream media. From the dumb bimbos who should be modeling in front of SUVs at auto shows instead of reading the news to pretty-boy airheads like Bill Hemmer to flat out liars like O'Reilly and Hannity, the mainstream media is awash in shit. We deserve better than what they offer up as journalists in this country. This isn't even taking into account the garbage they sell as "news" to begin with, such as the runaway bride, Michael Jackson's trial, the Terri Schiavo death-watch, the tearful farewell to Raymond's cast, and the latest celebrity wedding/birth/pregnancy/divorce/affair/addiction/rehab/awards show.

But I digress. Today is not about the crap they cover or the important stuff they ignore, but the idiots who report it. There are a lot of people to hate in the media today and any one of them could make a run at the title of Biggest Scumbag Of The Press. There are oh-so-many choices. Just off the top of my head I can come up with Charles Krauthammer, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, and that twit Tucker Carlson. All would be fine choices to wear the crown. But there is one person who stands above the crowd, both for his length of service to the misinformation of the populace and the amount of lies he'll tell to discredit anyone who isn't on the extreme right of every issue.

I speak, of course, of Robert Novak. Where to begin? This old scumbag dinosaur has been around and lying for so long it's hard to know where to start with the putrid slime he spews. But I'll give it my best shot.

Let's begin with something recent. Last month on an episode of Crossfire, the annoying screaming match show that has finally been put out of it's misery, Novak went on another one of the conservative's typical tirades about liberal bias on college campuses. He went on to make this claim:

The real problem with the universities, Paul, is that they don't invite conservatives. They have only left-wing speakers on campuses like Berkeley and Harvard. They don't let people like me tell them what the truth is about America.

So here's the thing about this stupid comment. As Media Matters points out, not only have many conservative politicians and commentators spoken at both of those universities, but Novak himself spoke at Harvard just one year earlier. Really. April 8th, 2004 he spoke at Harvard where, according to Novak, people like him are not allowed to speak. OK, so I know the guy is old, but if he can't remember he spoke at one of this country's most prestigious universities just one year earlier then Alzheimer Boy should not be writing articles in newspapers or doing commentary on major news networks. I'm guessing he does remember, he's just a big fat fucking liar.

Before and after the presidential campaign season, Novak went out of his way to promote the Swift Boat assholes, calling what their book and ads "accurate", "exactly correct", and "meticulously researched", despite all the facts that came out to discredit them completely. And there was probably a good reason for this. Something he failed to mention on all of his TV appearances talking about this subject was his connection to the publishers of the book "Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry"(Regnery Publishing). The first one being that his son is the Director of Marketing for Regnery Publishing. He also sits on the board of a conservative organization with both the chairman and president of Regnery Publishing. And last but not least, they are the same company that publishes The Evans-Novak Political Report, which is edited by you-know-who. Scumbag fails to mention this when talking about the Swift Boat Liars' book and ads.

And then there is my favorite. In 2003 he wrote an article for the Chicago Sun-Times that revealed the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative who happens to be the wife of Joe Wilson, the former ambassador who wrote a report that discredited the claim of a Saddam-Nigeria nuclear connection that the Bushies were making. He got the information from an administration source, presumably as retaliation for what Wilson had done (piss off Bush). Now you know all that, and there is a big investigation and all that going on. If it had been a person from the left who did something like that, there would be calls for their head and shouts of "Traitor!" and "unpatriotic" for endangering the life of an undercover US agent, with Novak leading the charge.

But for some reason it is OK for him. And he refuses to answer any questions about his involvement in the situation, even though he keeps commenting about it for CNN. And CNN does not even mention his involvement (you know, causing it) when they interview him.

And this just in: When discussing the Democrats' compromise proposal to let a couple of Bush's wacko judicial nominees through, but not the others they've blocked Novak said it was "like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber."

Really Bob? How exactly is a judge getting passed over for a promotion to the federal bench like getting slaughtered by the Nazis?

What a prick.

I'd pay money to see him beat with a baseball bat.

The Inside Outsider

So John Kerry gave a speech in Baton Rouge the other day. Among the things he said? Well, he criticized the Massachusetts Democratic Party for considering putting a line in their platform that says they are committed to upholding the law when it comes to gay marriage in the state. You know, it being legal here and all. He also decided to now paint himself as a political "outsider" and railed against the evil Washington people:

''Washington seems more and more out of touch with the difficulties the average family is facing," Kerry told the crowd of about 150 last week in Baton Rouge. ''Go out of here, take some anger and a little bit of outrage at the fact that Washington is not dealing with the real concerns of our country."

Six months after his presidential bid ended in defeat, Kerry is on another cross-country campaign. This time, he is running against the political establishment.

Hmmm, so John Kerry is more "in touch" with regular people than those Washington people? I happen to live in the same neighborhood in Boston as John Kerry. Well, where one of his houses is anyway. His $12 million house. It's on a street called Louisburg Square. A street where no one except residents of the street can park their cars. There is also a park in the middle of Louisburg Square:



Pretty, huh? I've never been inside the park. As you can see, it's gated. And Locked. Who has the keys? The residents of that street. If I were to enter the Louisburg Square Park, I would be trespassing and could be arrested. There is a sign that says so.

Yet somehow this douche-bag thinks he's more "in touch" with the struggles of regular folk. And he refers to Washington like he's some sort of neighborhood activist, and not a guy who has been in the Senate (which in Washington by the way) for the last 21 years. Not that he's actually done anything while he's been there.

Is it any wonder why the dilettante lost to the retard last November? What an ass hole.

I'm even more proud of myself for voting for David Cobb.

No Tree Left Behind

I was in a good mood today. My wife and I got our tickets to Ireland for this summer, I've got a vacation trip to LA and Phoenix coming in two weeks that I'm excited about, and it's Friday. But then I read this story in the Chicago Tribune about Bush's new rule to allow new roads to be built in almost 60 million acres of currently protected forest under a Clinton era roadless rule. This is the highlight of the announcement:

In announcing the policy, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, whose department includes the U.S. Forest Service, praised it as cooperative, collaborative conservation. "Our actions today advance President Bush's commitment to cooperatively conserve inventoried roadless areas within our national forests," Johanns said. He added that his department "is committed to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of our local communities while protecting and restoring the health and natural beauty of our national forests."

Fucking Dubya will shit on a plate and tell you it's a T-Bone. He builds roads through national forests and calls it "protecting and restoring" them, just like he calls weakening clean-air laws a "clear skies" initiative. And he does it with a straight face. I don't even get angry anymore, just sad. He really does just want to destroy it all before he leaves. Fuck I hate him.

Graceless Under Fire

So what the fuck do you have to do to get fired from CNN? Now, I've previously talked about my hatred for that stupid bitch Nancy Grace. Seems it's not just my opinion that she's a bad evil person. It's also the opinion of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals:

Nancy Grace, the host of a self-titled legal show on CNN Headline News, "played fast and loose" with her ethical duties as a Fulton County, Ga., prosecutor in 1990, a federal appeals panel has declared.

And this isn't the first case this evil bitch has played fast and loose with her duties as a prosecutor in Fulton County Georgia:

This is the third time Grace's conduct as a prosecutor has been criticized by an appellate court.

In 1997, the Georgia Supreme Court skewered Grace for her actions in prosecuting Weldon Wayne Carr for allegedly setting fire to his house and murdering his wife. Carr later was freed when Fulton prosecutors waited too long to bring him up for a retrial. While the court reversed Carr's 1994 conviction for other reasons, the justices said Grace withheld evidence entitled to the defense and made improper opening statements and closing arguments.

"We conclude that the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable," wrote then Chief Justice Robert Benham. Carr v. State, 267 Ga. 701 (1997).

In 1994, the Georgia high court voted 6-1 to reverse a heroin trafficking conviction won by Grace because she "exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument" by referring to drug-related murders and serial rape, which were not at issue. Bell v. State, 263 Ga. 776 (1994).

So here's my point. She is employed as a legal "analyst" at CNN, and she has been admonished three fucking times by courts for "inexcusable" behavior. At what point are you no longer qualified to be in this job? She obviously has no respect for due process or even the idea of innocent until proven guilty. Did you see this cunt (apologies to my wife) going on every day basically saying the fiance killed the woman who turned out to be the so-called runaway bride? She never once even considered that it could be anything else. This is what she said to the woman's father before she was found, "Mr. Wilbanks, this sounds completely unlike Jennifer to just disappear. I just don't believe it's a case of cold feet."

Really Nancy? How the fuck would you know? Got to know her real well during the time she was missing did you? Unless you were one of this woman's 14 bridesmaids or went to one of her eight bridal showers (who the fuck does that?), I'm guessing you know nothing about her. Hell, I don't have to guess, it was proven to the world.

And I have yet to hear about an apology from her for stoking the flames of sensationalistic journalism and good old fashioned male-bashing. She's not the only one in the mainstream media to do it, but she does it with the most venom.

So take the same situation but apply it to CNN's medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Personally, I think he is the best reporter CNN has on their staff, which is really sad when you think about it. A neurosurgeon is the best journalist at a 24-hour news network that employees hundreds of people who have degrees in journalism. But let's say that Dr. Gupta had been admonished several times by the state medical board. It would be expected that he really wouldn't be the best person to be the network's medical consultant and they would get rid of him. But the Bitch from Hell lawyer apparently doesn't have to live by the same standards. CNN should fire this hack. Shit, they should have never hired her in the first place.

And of course the network has "no comment" about the most recent court admonishment.

Oh, and just a reminder of the title of her new book:

Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System.

The fucking nerve.

You can share your thoughts about this horrible human being with CNN here.

Some Of The News That's Fit To Print

Can't think of a lot to write about today, so I'll just share a couple of things I read about in yesterday's New York Times. First, there is this editorial by Bob Herbert, From 'Gook' to 'Raghead', which talks about American soldiers committing acts of violence against Iraqi civilians. I figured these kind of things were going on, we have a history of this kind of shit, but I wonder why this is the first time I've read anything about it in the main stream media? And why only in an Op-Ed column instead of an actual news story? You know, like some actual investigative journalism? CNN has plenty of time to tell me everything I never wanted to know about some stupid woman who ran from her wedding, but can't find two seconds to report that some of our own soldiers are driving around smashing bottles on the heads of innocent civilians.

And then there's this article from Paul Krugman, A Gut Punch to the Middle, that exposes the real agenda to Dubya's Social Security "reform". I think he makes a really good point that by turning it into a program for the poor, Bush will be successful in getting it demonized as a form of welfare, which will make it easier for future politicians to scrap altogether.


We've got 3 years and 8 months left of this ass-hole. God/Buddha/Allah/Kucinich help us.