Tom Talks About Gas Prices

I've only recently started reading Thomas Friedman. Up until last year, Atlanta had two newspapers. The morning paper, which was liberal, was the Constitution. The afternoon paper, which was conservative, was the Journal. I prefer an afternoon paper and I subscribed to the Journal. They had been sharing resources for quite some time, and, last year, they just morphed into one newspaper, The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. The editorial section is run by Cynthia Tucker who is liberal, and the assistant editor is Jim Wooten, who is conservative. They do try and maintain balance, but the paper does lean left. So, now I get to read some columnists that were previously only available in the Constipation. Thomas Friedman was one of them. Turns out I haven't been missing much.

Tommy lost all his stature as some sort of pundit on foreign affairs when he was suckered by informed by Crown Prince Abdullah of the Israeli suicide Arab peace plan. What a bullshit plan that was. Let me get this straight. Israel retreats to indefensable borders. We give Yassir Arafat his own sovereign state with its own airport and the ability to make treaties and just maybe the Arabs might recognize Israel. Would this be before or after they drove all the Jews into the sea? And Friedman fell for this bullshit and expects us to ever take him seriously again?

I opened today's paper and came upon this column (link requires registration) by Mr. Friedman. As usual, excerps and comments follow.

Reading the papers lately, I've lost track of whether the Pentagon plans to invade Iraq from three sides or four, and whether we will be using Jordan, Kuwait or Diego Garcia as our main launching pad.

Tom, all you have to do is ask your editors at the New York Times. They're the ones who keep releasing invasion plans.

But one thing I haven't seen much planning for is the impact an attack on Iraq would have on the world's oil market.

Well, dammit, Bush and Cheney are oil men. They probably have some idea. It's just that there are leaks at the Pentagon but none at the White House.

Depending on how the war went, that impact could be very bad and lead to a sharp spike in oil prices, like $60-a-barrel oil.

Wouldn't that suck big time?

But — wait a minute — it could also be very good, and lead to $6-a-barrel oil that would weaken OPEC and, maybe, also weaken the Arab autocrats who depend on high oil prices to finance their illegitimate regimes and buy off opponents.

And also finance radical religion of peace^TM terrorism.

Raising this oil question is not an argument against taking down Saddam Hussein. He's a bad man, building dangerous weapons, who has raped the future of two generations of Iraqis. The whole region would be improved by his ouster.

Way to go Tom. You have stumbled onto the truth. Even a blind squirrel can stumble upon an acorn once in a while.

It is an argument, though, for thinking through all the dimensions of any attack on Iraq. We're not talking about a war in Tora Bora here.

Right again. We'll be attacking Iraq.

We're talking about a war in the world's main gas station.

This should be an incentive to help Russia with its oil extraction technology. And Mexico, we're giving your people jobs. Howsa 'bout pumpin' some more oil for us?

"A proposed attack on Iraq is an extraordinarily high-risk economic adventure that could either destabilize the governments of one or more oil exporting countries by creating a prolonged period of low prices, or, if things went wrong, lead to a prolonged disruption of world oil supplies, which could be even more devastating," says Philip K. Verleger Jr., an oil expert and fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.

So Phil, you're telling us you don't know what's gonna happen? Thanks. You're a big help. Maybe Tom has some ideas.

Let's start with the $60-a-barrel scenario.

Now that would suck big time! That would really piss off the soccer moms in their SUV's.

(The price today is in the mid-$20's.) While the New York Times Pentagon keeps leaking its war plans, no one ever writes about what Saddam's war plans might be.

First, find a real good bunker to hide in.

What if Saddam responds by firing Scuds with chemical or biological warheads at Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti oilfields? The world market could lose not only Iraq's two million barrels a day, but millions more.

A real bad thing. But not as bad as an American city being nuked.

And what if the war drags on and we have as much trouble finding Saddam as we've had finding Osama?

We don't need to find Saddam. Once we defeat the Iragi army, I'm sure some of the people around Sammy will see the handwriting on the wall (Mene, mene, tekel...) and be willing to cut a deal with us.

Don't kid yourself: If prices skyrocket because of a war in the Persian Gulf, Venezuela, Iran, Nigeria and others will cut back their output and keep prices high to milk the moment for all it's worth.

During war, we have to make sacrifices. What's the other scenario?

The scenario that could produce $6-a-barrel oil goes like this: Iraq under Saddam has been pumping up to two million barrels of oil a day, under the U.N. oil-for-weapons and Palestinian bomber families oil-for-food program. Let's say a U.S. invasion works

And we all remember how fiercly the Iraqi army fought the last time.

and in short order Saddam is ousted and replaced by an Iraqi Thomas Jefferson,

Yeah. Like that's gonna happen. Call up Ripley's believe it or not. An Arab Thomas Jefferson. Maybe it's a joke. I didn't realize Tommy had a sense of humor.

or just a "nice" general ready to abandon Iraq's nuclear weapons program and rejoin the family of nations.

Which is what we're hoping for.

That would mean Iraq would be able to modernize all its oilfields, attract foreign investment and in short order ramp up its oil production to its long-sought capacity of five million barrels a day. That is at least three million barrels of oil a day more on the world market, and Iraq, which will be desperate for cash to rebuild, is not likely to restrain itself. (Now you understand why Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait all have an economic interest in Saddam's staying in power and Iraq's remaining a pariah state, so it can't produce more oil.)

And wouldn't it be nice to tell the Saudis to eat sand? And just think what that would do to the financing of international terrorism. Our 'friends' the Suadis are the biggest bankrollers of the terrorists. This is starting to sound good.

In addition, notes Mr. Verleger, if we invade Iraq in the late winter or spring,

What does the New York Times say? Have they set a date yet?

when world oil demand normally declines, OPEC countries will have to slash their own production even more to accommodate Iraq. This would be coming at a time when non-OPEC countries

The good guys.

(Russia, Mexico, Norway, Oman and Angola) have been steadily boosting their output and will continue doing so. Most OPEC countries, however, can't cut back any more to make room for them. Venezuela is broke.

And whose fault is that?

Iran, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia need cash to deal with all their debts, their masses of unemployed and new infrastructure demands.

Like I really care. Bad government has its consequences. It will be fun watching the mullahs of Iran and the Saudi princes suffer, the bastards. And Nigeria, just another sub-Saharan basket case.

(Watch Saudi Arabia. King Fahd is now gravely ill in a hospital in Switzerland, and the struggle to succeed him is in full swing.)

The Arab version of fighting over the estate. Except they use weapons and not lawyers.

Bottom line: A quick victory that brings Iraq fully back into the oil market could lead to a sharp fall in oil incomes throughout OPEC that could seriously weaken the oil cartel and rob its many autocratic regimes of the income they need to maintain their closed political systems.

And in the Saudis' case international terrorism. That is why Charles Krauthammer opined over four months ago that we needed to tackle Iraq before dealing with the Israeli-Plastinian situation. Take out Iraq and we eliminate some terrorist funding and some terrorist bases. Do you think Syria or Iran would want to fuck with us then? Without Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, Yassir Arafat is history. And good riddance to that evil bastard. He has done more harm to the Palestinians than the Israelis ever could.

In fact, give me sustained $10-a-barrel oil and I'll give you revolutions from Iran to Saudi Arabia, and throw in Venezuela.

Look. Tom gets it.

If that scenario prevails, you could look at an invasion of Iraq as a possible two-for-one sale: destroy Saddam and destabilize OPEC at the same time. Buy one, get one free.

Put Palestinian terrorism out of business. And, as an added bonus, can you imagine Bush not getting reelected with gas under a buck a gallon. Wouldn't that piss Hillary off? See, it's not a twofer. It's a threefer.

But you better prepare for the consequences of both.

And I'm sure the admisitration has.

Let's roll!

Moving Day at TCIDNN

On my way in to work this morning, I was listening to Neal Boortz, our local Libertarian talk show guy and he was badmouthing BMW's. He stated the anyone driving a BMW wished it were a Mercedes. I have this blue 2001 BMW Z3 that I was driving, with the top down, on a beautiful Georgia morning, and at that time I wouldn't have been in any other car, thank you. I disagree with you on this one Neal.

Today was the day of the big move at TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name). At least once a year we play musical employees. Supposedly, this is to save real estate expenses. I've been here in Atlanta, in the same building, for 17 years, and we have saved so much in real estate expenses that the landlords should be paying us by now. We move people out of our building into another building so we can move people from another building into our building. Then a year later, we move people out so we can move the people back in that we moved out in the last move. Is this clear? I think that the manager in charge of real estate has a brother-in-law in the moving business.

This time, the move affects me. They've decided to put an entire department from another building into our building and they're gonna put 'em in the end of the building where I have lived, in the same office, for seven years. I get to move downstairs into an office with my team lead. Good news - the office has a window. Bad news - it's on the same floor as my manager.

Being a techno-prima-donna and a slob, I have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. For the past three days I have been going through stuff and pitching what I won't need anymore. I still have instructor guides and foils from when I was an instructor many years ago. I woke up sick this morning, but since they were gonna move me this afternoon or tomorrow, I had to go in and pack up the rest of my things.

Every Tuesday, at 10:00 AM we have a team conference call to discuss problems, I/T requests, and projects. This usually lasts about 30 minutes. Recently, my manager decided to sit in on the call, which adds about 10 more minutes to the meeting. Plus, I have to be careful not to make any sarcastic remarks as he doesn't really appreciate my sense of humor. We also have picked up a new team member and he's not really sure how to code his SHTS yet. He just doesn't have his SHTS together yet.

For those of you who came in late, SHTS is our Stupid Hourly Tracking System that we use to track how we spend our time. I discussed SHTS in More detail in this post back on May 1. ( Hey! Blogger's archive links work again.)

Our new guy doesn't quite have the nuances on how we make up our accurately code our time. Fortunately, our manager doesn't either. Anyway, off our manager went on a twenty minute explanation of why we use SHTS and how we were supposed to support our customers. In the true spirit of a bureaucracy, we were not supposed to give our users excellent support because if we did and performed too well, upper management would think that we were overstaffed and reduce headcount! The message I got from this meeting was mediocrity was the key.

The meeting went on for over an hour.

I was able to put the phone on speaker and pack up some of my stuff, but, I needed to pitch some stuff, and the trash receptacles were outside my office. I also needed another box. Finally, the meeting ended and I was able to finish packing. Got all my books into three boxes and everything else in my desk.

About that time, the person in charge of the move came by to doublecheck on what was being moved.

Me: Uh, my desk, my chair, my PC, and one bookshelf.

Her: Your desk?

Me: Yep. My desk.

Her: I thought that was going to the warehouse.

Me: No, it's going downstairs to my team lead's office.

Her: Not to the warehouse?

Me: No. Downstairs to my team lead's office.

Her: So there will be two desks in that office?

Me: Yeah. Mine and his.

Her: Aren't there already two desks in there?

Me: Yes. The old one will have to be moved out so we can move mine in.

This was just the start. Then we had to talk about my bookshelf and the other desk which was going to the warehouse. Now we came to the old coax attached dumb terminal (which didn't attach to anything and quit working around the time we pulled out all the coax) and the old desktop laser printer that needed a fan, which we couldn't afford to replace.

Her: What are you gonna do about them?

Me: I'm gonna leave 'em here.

Her: No. You have to get rid of them.

Me: They're no good. I don't want them. Throw 'em in a dumpster.

Her: No. You have to take care of them. I only do furniture. Call the facilities person. She'll get rid of them.

About this time I felt like saying they're freaking paper weights. Leave them for the next occupants of this office. I'm a cripple. I shouldn't have to be moving. Don't you value Diversity (All hail Diversity!)?

I figgered I'd just forget about them. Ooops! I goofed! Unfortunately, I had to pick up another box from the pile right outside of her office. 'Have you called facilities yet?' Damn! Busted!

So, I call the facilities person and she says no, you have to call asset management. I called him and he said that it wasn't really his responsibility, but he'd come get 'em and hide 'em somewhere. He works for the same manager as I do so we can work together.

So now it's after 12:00, I feel like crap, and I've still got to unplug my PC and get it ready to move. Finally, around 1:00, I have everything packed up and labeled. Now I can go home and crash, which I do. I slept most of the afternoon. I'm feeling much better and not yet sure if I'm going to work tomorrow. And if I do, whether I should go to my new office or to the warehouse.

Not really sure where my desk will be.

Cynthia Smears Da Judge

I had dinner at my friends Michael and Cindy's house on Saturday night, and Michael asked if I had heard Cynthia McKinney's primary election radio ads. My radio listening consists of my local National Proletariat Radio station (for the classical music) which doesn't take advertising (Well, actually it does. It's just not real advertising), local hard rock stations (I don't think that's Cynthia's demographic), and conservative talk radio (I know that's not Cynthia's demographic). So, no, I hadn't, but knowing Cynthia, I could imagine that she would be running a real smear campaign. And to no one's surprise, she is. Michael showed me the pertinent info out on the web and I said to him, 'Thank you. I know what I'm gonna do for Monday's blog.'

I've talked about Georgia's 4th Congressional District before. It consists of three parts:

• South DeKalb County - Mostly black, mostly poor. Solid 'on the plantation' Democrats. Keep 'em poor. Keep 'em in failing schools. Keep 'em voting Democrat. All their problems are caused by those mean, evil, rich white folks who live in
• North DeKalb County - Dunwoody, where I live. We're mostly white and mostly well off. We work hard for our money and pay the taxes to support those who live in South DeKalb County. You'd think they would show a little gratitude, but since we're all racist bigots up here we don't deserve any gratitude. We want to kill old folks and starve the poor. As you can probably guess, we are mostly Republicans. Or, in my case, Libertarian, altho' I do vote Republican if there is not a Libertarian candidate.
• Central DeKalb County - Decatur, Stone Mountain, and part of the city of Atlanta. Here are the swing votes. Decatur contains Emory University. I call the people around Emory the Emmoroids. As can be expected, they vote for Democrats.

So, the game is rigged. Whover wins the primary, wins the seat. Normally, Cynthia runs unopposed in the Democratic primary. This year, however, she has a challenger. Her opponent is Denise Majette a former DeKalb County judge. Since Cynthia is now running against a black, female Democrat she has to crank up the smear machine big time. In last Thursday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation was this article about the radio ads from both candidates.

Less than a month before their showdown at the polls, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney and her challenger are facing off with different radio ads.

I wonder which one deals with the issues and which one smears her opponent?

Majette's doesn't mention McKinney, while McKinney's attacks Majette by name.

I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!

Majette --- who McKinney claimed is backed by conservative Republicans

She hasn't claimed backing by the World Wide Zionist Conspiracy^TM yet, but give her time. She'll make that charge soon enough. Its them damn Jews out to get me!

--- uses her ad to attack Republicans. The ad says Majette has "the record to take on the Republicans and get our fair share" of federal money for schools and health care. It also touts her degrees from Yale University and Duke University Law School and her nine years as a DeKalb County State Court judge.

Sounds pretty qualified to me. And she's stressing positives. Doesn't sound like much of a Democrat.

McKinney's ad, by contrast, names Majette repeatedly.

Once again. I'm shocked! Shocked I say!

"Abuse of power sometimes is an angry, out-of-control cop beating up a teenager in California. Sometimes it's an angry, out-of-control judge like Denise Majette," the announcer says.

Or an angry out-of-control looney like Cynthia McKinney making baseless allegations about 9/11.

The ad goes on to say that an appeals court had overturned a prison sentence Majette gave and accuses her of hiding a trial transcript to cover up mistakes. "She can't be trusted with our rights or our votes."

Wow! Sounds serious. I wanna know more about this. I bet Denise Majette does also.

Majette on Wednesday said she didn't know the basis for the accusations, but added: "My opponent has always been a negative campaigner."

See! She does want to know more. I do too. And Sainte Cynthia d'Arc (according to the Arab Times) a negative campaigner? Judge Majette oughta be ashamed of herself.

McKinney did not respond to the Journal-Constitution's requests for an interview.

For the third time. I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!

University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the ads represent a reversal of traditional roles. "Typically the first real solid shot comes from the challenger," said Bullock. "The challenger has to pry votes from the incumbent. It is a surprise to see the incumbent go negative before the challenger."

Sounds like Cynthia might be a little worried. Be still my beating heart.

OK. What were these allegations all about? Could this be some real serious abuse of power by Majette? Could this be comparable to a white cop slamming a black on the hood of a car? The AJC did a follow up article on Saturday.

McKinney, who represents the 4th Congressional District, launched a radio ad campaign this week that compares the former DeKalb State Court judge to an "angry, out-of-control police officer beating up a prisoner." It says Majette, who is challenging McKinney in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary, "lied and hid the existence of trial transcripts to cover up mistakes she made that deprived innocent people of their rights."

This is beginning to sound serious. I'm really worried now. We definitely don't need an out-of-control person representing the 4th Congreszsional District. We need a voice of reason and sanity.

It concludes that Majette "can't be trusted with our rights or our votes."

Which implies that Cynthia can.

Majette denies the accusations, which are based on the 1998 trial of Linda Hamilton.

Now, we're gonna here the real story. I'm reading with bated breath.

Hamilton, charged with driving 17 mph over the speed limit, demanded a jury trial and was found guilty. In handing down her punishment, Majette sternly chastised Hamilton for insisting on a costly, time-consuming trial and sentenced her to two days in jail plus community service and ordered her to pay a fine of $1,000.

And got up from behind the bench and bitch slapped her. And probably told the cops they should have beat her up. Sorry. Got a little carried away there. Just figgered that was gonna be Cynthia's next accusation.

Hamilton, seeking to challenge her sentence, sought a transcript of the court proceedings, but ultimately had to ask the Georgia Court of Appeals to order Majette to release it. The appeals court eventually reversed the conviction and said Majette had not properly advised Hamilton of her right to be represented by an attorney. Hamilton paid a $92 fine and served no jail time.

So justice was served.

On Friday, Majette denied any wrongdoing in the case. "I didn't hide any records, and I didn't deny her her rights," she said.

And I didn't bitch slap her even tho' I wanted to.

McKinney's campaign manager, Bill Banks, said the campaign will soon focus on the congresswoman's accomplishments for the district. But first, he said, McKinney wants to smear her opponent draw attention to what she considers Majette's failings.

In other words, smear early, smear often.

"What we're trying to show is she doesn't have . . . good judgment" Banks said. "We felt she was vulnerable in this area."

And Cynthia McKinney does have good judgement? Stop it! You're killin' me!

Emory University political scientist Merle Black said the ad's comparison between Majette and a vicious police officer is a bit of a stretch,

A bit of a stretch? A bit of a stretch? Man this is freakin' bungee city! This guy has a firm grasp on the obvious. And he teaches at Emory? With comments like that he may have to get out of academia. He's making too much sense.

but for the most part, the ad is "just another day at the office in terms of a political campaign."

Especially a campaign involving Miss Big Fat Mouth.

"In politics, fairness is not what it's all about," he said. "The idea is to be unfair.

And when are the spineless Republicans gonna learn this? I miss Lee Atwater.

The idea is to put your opponent on the defensive and make her explain."

When they gonna make Cynthia explain why she's a wacko?

Majette's current ad focuses on her record, though she is beginning to criticize McKinney in her public statements as spending time stirring up controversies instead of paying attention to the district.

And being an all around looney. Examples? Hell yes we have examples. From the AJC to you.

After the terrorist attacks last fall, McKinney was castigated for implying that the Bush administration may have known about the planned assaults but did nothing to stop them so friends of the president could profit from the devastation. She also was criticized for apologizing to Saudi Prince Alwaleed after then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani rejected the prince's offer of $10 million for the Sept. 11 victims.

And she continues to make us proud.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the Democratic primary, where, for the first time in my life I will be a Democrat and, I will be voting for Judge Denise Majette. I hope she wins and rids of us of our wacko Congresscritter.

Here come da Judge! Here come da Judge!

Saturday Ramblings

No blog yesterday and a short one today.

I was really tired at work yesterday, so I took off early, ran some errands, and came home and took a nap. My friend Cindy came over and picked some tomatoes, cucumbers, and black eyed peas from my garden. We went out to a Mexican restaurant, she went home, I did some finances, watched Monk, and went to bed. So, no time to blog last night.

Today, I slept late and ran some more errands. I went to the store and now I'm home and it is already late afternoon. Cindy and her husband are having me over for dinner tonight, featuring stuff from my garden. All I have to do is a little computer work (Will program for food.). The nice thing about going to their house is that Michael, her husband is the wine buyer for Greens package store in Atlanta. We always have good wine, usually three bottles. If you are in Atlanta, and want some good wine advice, go to the Greens on Buford Highway and ask for Michael Bishop. Tell him the cripple sent ya'. He'll take good care of you.

So, not much time left to do much writing. But, I did find this little tidbit in the first section of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.

Former President Clinton and his wife have asked a court to have taxpayers reimburse them for legal costs related to the Whitewater investigation, their lawyer said in a statement late Friday.

Now let me get this straight. They and the McDougals looted Madison Guarantee Trust, Hillary made this incredible profit in cattle futures (Why didn't we just give Hillary $1 billion every quarter and watch her turn it into $100 billion and in no time flat we would have eliminated the national debt?), Bill used the Arkansas State Troopers as a procurement squad, he had shady dealings with Don Lassiter, they illegally obtained 1000 FBI files (Oops we goofed! Just a bureaucratic snafu), they trashed the Constitution, they rented out the White House, they sold secrets to the Chinese for campaign contributions, and they politicized the IRS and FBI. I could go on and on but I do have to be somewhere tonight. They ran up huge legal bills by stonewalling every investigation and now they have the unmitigated gall to ask me to pay their goddam legal bills?

The Clintons raked in millions of dollars last year after leaving the White House. The former president earned $9.2 million on the lecture circuit, and Hillary Clinton --- now New York's junior senator --- received an $2.85 million advance on her memoirs.

And they want me to pay their goddam legal bills?

But they still have legal bills totaling between $1.75 million and $6.5 million, according to the financial disclosure form Mrs. Clinton was require to file as a member of the Senate. The Clintons paid $1.3 million in legal bills last year, according to the Senate filing.

Aw, you're breaking my heart here. They've also stiffed some of their lawyers. Listen up. We're gonna give these two assholes generous pensions for the rest of their lives. God knows how much money they've socked away from all the money they got from selling pardons. Let their Hollywood friends pay their goddam legal bills. Leave us poor hard working Americans out of it. I mean, they want to take money from working families^TM to provide legal relief for the rich. What does Little Dickie Gephardt and Little Tommie Daschle have to say about this? Legal relief for the rich? This sure doesn't sound like something Democrats would be for. As an aside, Nixon paid all his legal bills. He didn't even have a legal defense fund like the Clintons did. The only bill I'll pay is the plane fare to get these bozos out of the country. They could go on the same plane as Alec, Barbra, Martina, Robert (Altman) and Tom (Cruise). To Bozo the clown, may you rest in peace, I'm sorry I sullied your memory by calling these two crooks bozos.

And now for our daily dose of comedy we amble on over to democrats.com, the web site of the Vast Left Ring Conspiracy, or maybe it's just the Democrats' version of the Onion. On their home page they have a quotomatic function that puts up a different quote of the day every time you hit reload. I got a big kick out of this one.

"Under Clinton, spending on counterterrorism more than doubled; the 1993 World Trade Center bombers were caught; and the largest counterterrorism operation in U.S. history thwarted the planned millenium attacks.

What millenium attacks? What about the embassy bombings and the USS Cole? And the largest counterterrorism operation was aimed at right wing religious groups, for example, Waco and Ruby Ridge.

After the 1998 attack on our embassies in Africa, President Clinton authorized Tomahawk missle (sic) strikes against Bin Laden.

And hit an aspirin factor in the Sudan and wiped out some tents and goats in Afganistan

It is also worth noting reports that the current Bush Administration backed away from some of the more aggressive measures for dealing with Al Qaeda which Clinton had passed on." -- Danvers is a former special adviser to President Clinton on national security, quoted in The New Yorker, p. 6 William Danvers, 13-May-02

What aggressive measures is he talking about? The only aggressive measures Clinton used involved his teeth aggressively biting his lip. And it is also worth noting that the Clinton Administration was offered bin Laden on a silver platter and turned down the offer. What a bunch of crap this is.

That's all I got to say for today. More to come on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday Potpourri

I'm actually in a pretty mellow mood tonight so don't expect a good rant out of me. Heck, I'll even clean up my language.

I've noticed every now and then someone from Boeing visits my site. If you're a sysprog, there's a good chance I may know you. So, hi. And having worked with them, I can tell ya, Boeing has some really good sysprogs.

I noticed the House passed some legislation to relax the embargo with Cuba. No link, I just heard it on National Proletariat Radio as I was driving home. Charlie Rangel, noted (sarcasm on) Libertarian (sarcasm off) Congressman from Harlem stated that a policy of engagement would be best for the Cuban people. I wonder why relaxed trade sanctions will help the victims of a repressive regime in Cuba, while harsh trade sanctions were designed to help victims of a repressive regime in South Africa? I'm just dumb, I guess and don't understand the big picture.

From today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation:

Israeli officials acknowledged Wednesday that flawed intelligence probably led to the air strike that targeted a leading Hamas militant but also killed 14 other Palestinians, including nine children.

Had the shoe been on the other foot the story in the Arab papers would have begun:

Palestinian thugs officials acknowledged Wednesday that flawed intelligence probably led to the homicide bombing that targeted women and children that only killed 14 Israelis, including nine children. There were supposed to be at least 20 people on the bus sputtered the Palestinian propagandist spokesman.

Oh, here's an interesting article about Puerto Rico. Some excerpts and comments:

Puerto Rico's transformation is a product of a unique, lucrative and conflicted relationship with the United States, which took the Caribbean island from Spain in 1898.

Contrast Puerto Rico with Cuba, which the United States also took from Spain in 1998. But among Latino's in the United State, Cubans look down on Puerto Ricans. And why does Puerto Rico have a lucrative relationship with the United States?

Puerto Ricans were made American citizens in 1917 and many fought and died for the U.S. military, but islanders can't vote for president and have no vote in Congress. Puerto Ricans pay no U.S. income taxes but receive more than $13 billion in federal funds annually, including veterans' and other benefits.

Wow! What a deal that is! No taxation with no representation and they get money. Where can I sign up for a deal like that?

But some argue the relationship scars the psyche.

Scar away, Jose.

'We are neither here nor there,'' complains Carlos Pesquera, leader of the New Progressive Party, which wants the island to become the 51st U.S. state.

Why? Y'all got a great deal right now. Georgia should have a deal like that. Wanna trade?

The governor, on the other hand, is pushing for even more autonomy, saying Puerto Ricans ''have come along building our own destiny.''

Destiny. Shmestiny. You're getting $13 billion a year from the Feds. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Meanwhile, tax incentives that once lured U.S. companies are expiring, raising questions about the island's economic future. Unemployment officially stands at 12 percent but private economists say it's nearer 25 percent. In Manati, welfare recipients pick up benefits at an old tobacco warehouse.

But they can sleeep on the beaches and eat coconuts.

The colonial-era plaza where families strolled in Salgado's youth is now roamed by drug addicts and drunks, and Salgado keeps a .38-caliber pistol hidden under his guayabera shirt.

Uh. Oh. No gun control?

He says the young people driving past in Japanese cars with stereos blaring don't understand how hard it used to be. ''There was no light, no water, no nothing,'' he says.

And we had to walk ten miles to one room schools in raging hurricanes.

Salgado isn't particularly grateful to the United States, however, saying ''it had to give help'' for using Puerto Rico and its laborers and soldiers.

$13 billion a year ain't enough? Before my accident, I used to go sailing in the Virgin Islands. We chartered out of the British Virgin Islands. We used to sail down to the American Virgin Islands to do duty free shopping. One of the first buildings I saw, when arriving in Cruz Bay in St. John, was a Department of Social Security and Welfare office. Hey, we're back in America! The American Virgin Islands has ten times the population of the British Virgin Islands and lots more crime.

Oh, and back in the letters section they have a letter (third one down) from ISSAM NASHASHIBI of Dawsonville, Georgia a member of the religion of peace^TM.

Khaled Abou El Fadl has shown that he must have been asleep in his UCLA ivory tower by not noting the plethora of Muslim organizations that condemned terrorism, especially here in Georgia ("U.S. Muslims lax in decrying terrorism," @issue, July 18).

Issam, ol' buddy, I must have been asleep also, since I didn't see or hear the plethora of Muslim organizations that condemned terrorism, especially here in Georgia. Can you name me one? C'mon, just one.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is equally as guilty of promoting hatred and McCarthyism by accusing Muslims of not being patriotic enough.

Still didn't name just one. I guess it all depends on what your definition of plethora is. And we have that old standby, McCarthyism. And speaking of hatred, your religion of peace^TM spews more hatred than the AJC ever could. See Issam, we have tolerance in this country, unlike most Muslim countries. So don't start accusing us of promoting hatred and McCarthyism until your religion of peace^TM gets its act together.

I'm being good. I almost told Issam to f*** off.

And now here is a letter from a scientific sort, Jeff Joseph of Smyrna, Georgia.

Regarding the letter asking why Arab profiling doesn't make sense ("What's puzzling about Arab profiling?" July 23), I offer statistical and historical reasoning.

Bring it on. I'm a software engineer. I love scientific reasoning.

There are more than 1 billion Muslims on Earth. If one were to take a vastly stretched estimate and say that there were 100,000 terrorists among these Muslims, you would still find only one terrorist per 10,000 Muslims. This doesn't even get into the fact that most Arab-Americans are probably even less likely to be a possible terrorists.

Wow Jeff! You must have gone to Georgia Tech. I'm really impressed. Now here's some statistics for you. Out of the 19 September 11 hihackers, 19 were Muslims of Middle Eastern descent. There were no red headed Irish lassies. No 85 year old women in wheel chairs. Palestinians (You know - them Middle Eastern A-rab types) invented airplane hijackings. Over the years the majority of hihackings have been done by Middle Eastern men. How do you like those statistics, Jeffy boy?

Historically speaking, the United States approximated this same profiling during World War II by jailing Americans of Japanese ancestry. As a general rule we now regard this as a large mistake, since the vast majority of these people were patriotic Americans. The greatest testament on this that I can offer is that my father fought and killed Japanese soldiers during WWII, yet he was friends before and after the war with Japanese-Americans.

And that was a big mistake. But, we're not talking about putting Yussef and Mohammed in concentration camps. We're just asking them to put up with some additional bullshit before they get on an airplane. And there were a lot of patriotic Americans of Japanese descent (not Japanese-Americans as I refuse to use any hyphenated American bullshit) who joined the military and fought for this country. And I bet we didn't hear any 'root cause' bullshit for Pearl Harbor. Well, you got to realize that the steel embargo on Japan was causing a hardship. So let's have Yussef and Mohammed put up with the bullshit as a condition for living in the most free and tolerant nation on this planet. If grouchy old cripples were hijacking airplanes it wouldn't bother me a bit to be searched. It doesn't bother me now. I just think it's a stupid policy to ignore the people most statistically likely to hijack an airplane.

One must differentiate between enemies and friends --- and ethnicity will never tell you that.

Tell that to the people who died on September 11, Jeff.

And that's all from GOC Central for tonight.

Religion of Peace^TM and Pilots with Guns

I don't usually link to columns I agree with. I leave that to the linkers. I like to link to columns I can deconstruct or I can fisk. Today I make an exception. As Stephen Green would say, this is required reading.

I wish I had written that. I have attempted to write something like that in a few blogs, but he stated it so much better. I have a few things to add. There may be some adult language.

To the American followers of the religion of peace^TM. Are you Americans? Do you support this country? If so, how come there has not been a mass condemnation of September 11? And I do not want to hear any bullshit about Israel or 'root cause'. I'm sick of hearing about Israel and 'root cause'. The facts are that some radical members of your religion of peace^TM declared war on this country. The 'root cause' is they hate us and everything about us. Your goddam religion of peace^TM believes in killing innocent people. That is barbaric and beyond any civilized behavior. If your religion of peace^TM wants to declare war on this country do it by attacking military installations. You know, like Japan did in WWII. No, your religion of peace^TM only seems to be able to attack civilians.

And while I'm on this subject, if the American flag is objectionable to you get the fuck out of this country. This is America. During WWII, we had Americans of Japanese descent and Americans of German descent join the armed services to fight for this country. If you are Americans, prove it by fighting for this country. If you're here for jihad, get the fuck out of this country.

And another thing, you will follow the laws of this country. If the law says you have to have your driver's license picture taken without a veil, you will have the driver's license picture taken without the veil. That's how we identify you. 'But it's against my religion' you whine. 'Hey lady, in Saudi Arabia it's against your religion to drive. So do it, or don't drive. Next person in line please.'

This is the most tolerant nation on this planet. Evidence of this is the very low level of any kind of vandalism against mosques. Contrast that with what the members of your religion of peace^TM have done to synagogues throughout the world. I am really gettin sick of you assholes. Get with the program. We know there are terrorists here. You know there are terrorists here. Help us out. Do your part as Americans or get the fuck out of this country. And quit your fucking whining. It is making me sick to my stomach.

OK. I'm sorry for the diatribe and I'm sorry for the language, but we keep seeing these religion of peace^TM spokesmen on television whining about this and that and I have yet to see anyone condemn 9/11 without some disclaimers about 'root cause'. Deliberately targeting civilians is barbaric. Shooting little children in bed as they sleep is barbaric. And listening to the Palestinians bitching about the Israelis killing civilians Monday by buttheads who target civilians as their main strategy makes me want to puke. I hope the Palestinians never get a state. And they don't deserve one until they are willing to join the ranks of civilized human beings.

OK. I'm back to normal. Now, I want to talk about pilots and guns. The last time the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation had an editorial about pilots and guns I took it apart. Well here we go again. I'm sure this editorial was written by Cynthia Tucker. Cynthia is the editor of the editorial page and is very anti-gun.

In a sound bite, arming pilots sounds great: Give the pilots guns, and we'll all be safe.

I'll feel a hell of a lot safer if the pilots have guns. Hey, we agree, right?

The U.S. House of Representatives bought that line this month when it overwhelmingly passed a bill that would do just that. Now if the Senate would just pass the legislation, the House would have you believe, air passengers would be protected.

I'll be damned! Congress is actually doing one thing right! So far, so good.

Right. Would that it were so easy.

I dunno. Sounds easy to me. What's the problem Cynthia?

While Congress fools around with the issue of pilots and guns,

Fools around with the issue of guns? Haven't you been paying attention? The American public (Remember them? They're the voters.) and the pilots (You know. They're the guys and gals responsible for the safety of the aircraft and all the passengers) are overwhelming in favor of pilots with guns.

programs that would actually make the flying public safer -- air marshals on flights,

Air marshalls on flights? Do you know how many air marshalls would be required to put one on every single flight every single day? Where they gonna come from? Who's gonna pay for 'em all?

checked-baggage screening at every airport, better trained screeners for passengers and carry-on bags

But our screeners are professional. Don't you remember little Tommie Daschle saying 'to professionalize, you must federalize'? What a truckload of bullshit that was. Are we gonna start using common sense and concentrate on the people most likely to hijack planes? You know, the members of the religion of peace^TM Are we gonna ethnic profile or are we gonna continue searching Al Gore, Ray Charles, and my friend Cindy who is a small redhaired lady with green eyes? Yeah, lots of Irish lassies have been hijacking planes lately.

-- are miserably behind schedule. The agency charged with making new security measures a reality, the Transportation Security Administration, is foundering under impossible pressure.

So here's an idea. Let the pilots carry guns.

The TSA is charged with installing huge and expensive explosives detectors at 429 airports in order to screen all checked baggage by year's end. Meanwhile, by Nov. 19, it must hire 60,000 airport security officers.

Or just arm all the pilots.

Those deadlines cannot reasonably be met.

Captain Smith? Here's a gun. Only took 30 seconds.

Congress just cut the TSA's funding by $1 billion, and last week the undersecretary of transportation hired to carry out these programs -- former Secret Service head John W. Magaw -- was asked to resign amid criticisms that he was unresponsive to airlines and lawmakers,

Who want to arm pilots.

and that he and his agency were so preoccupied with meeting deadlines that the real work of improving the system was not getting done.

Yeah, and he was against arming pilots. And now clueless Minetta is actually considering arming pilots. Do you think that might have had sumpin' to do with his leaving?

Airport managers all over the country are screaming about the deadlines. "If that Dec. 31 deadline holds, you're going to see chaos out here," said Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport Manager Ben DeCosta. He strongly backs a one-year deadline extension included in the Homeland Security Administration act.

And while we're waiting, why don't we at least try arming pilots? We can do that right away.

Congress should drop the dubious notion of arming pilots and focus on fine-tuning security measures to make every passenger on every plane safer. While Congress should allow some flexibility with deadlines, it should also insist on unwavering support for installing the best security systems possible.

As far as I'm concerned, the best security system is rods in the hands of the guys up in the cockpit.

That's going to take thoughtful, reasonable debate and action -- not sound bites.

And the action I prefer is for Captain Smith to have a Glock.

Knock. Knock.

Who's there?

Mohammed.

Mohammed who?

Mohammed the terrorist.

Bang! Bang!

Mohammed the dead terrorist.

Dude! Where Are the Napkins?

Today, I would like to talk about signs that your company might be in a little trouble. The company I work for, TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name), has been budget cutting its way into prosperity for quite some time.

The first signs are subtle. Many technology companies, especially the ones with hardware on site, usually have first aid kits. When the first aid kits are empty, it is usually the first sign that cuts are coming. I was in Dallas on business about four years ago and called one of my friends who used to work for TCIDNN and who now works for Microsoft. He gave me a tour of his workplace and one of the first things he showed me was the well stocked first aid kits. He was really proud of the these as TCIDNN's first aid kits have been empty for years. Also, Microsoft has free soft drinks. One of these days, even Microsoft will fall on hard times, and the first signs of impending layoffs will be empty first aid kits and no more free soft drinks.

The next thing that happens is the gradual disappearance of secretaries and other administrative people. Usually, the jobs get outsourced. Often, as was the case at TCIDNN, the people quit working for TCIDNN and went to work for the outsourcing contractor. They did the same job and had the same desks. They just worked for a different company. But gradually they also just disappear. Hey! Where did Caroline go? Who? When you start getting more e-mails from your manager rather than a secretary, you know another secretary bit the dust. Bye Caroline. It was nice knowing you. Gonna miss you. Damn. Now I gotta figger out how to order my own business cards.

When you come in to work in the morning and your wastebasket is still full you just might want to start worrying. My sister told me at her company, they wanted the employees to start emptying their own wastebaskets. What's next? Here's a broom. Sweep the floor. Fortunately TCIDNN doesn't own any of its buildings so the landlord is reponsible for janitorial services. Our landlord is doing OK, so when I come in in the morning my desk is clean (at least the surface not covered with books and other crap) and my trash can is empty.

Another sign is massive reorganizations. For example, going from straight line management to matrix management, or going from matrix management to straight line management. I call this ploy musical managers. For those of you who don't know what matrix management is I'll explain. Matrix management, first of all, is a full employment program for managers. In matrix management, you have two types of managers: line of business managers and people managers. The line of business manager is responsible for managing whatever he is supposed to manage and tells the workers what to do. The people managers, who have no idea of what the people do, are responsible for evaluating the people. Matrix management supposedly allows the line of business manager to sharpen his focus on business rather than handling the mundane tasks of actually doing people related tasks like evaluation, career counseling, pay, and advancement. This was another one of the brilliant ideas thought up by MBA professors who have never worked in the private sector. They probably got a big laugh out of this one. I know. Matrix management. They fell for battling business units. I bet we can get them to fall for matrix management too. Pass me the bong. My sister worked for a matrix manager for over a year and never once met him.

Usually, the musical manager program is instituted right after or right before a big round of layoffs. When it happens before, people get lost (laid off) in the reorganization, but managers keep their jobs. When it happens after layoffs occur, a management group is not totally eliminated, so they cannot really decide which manager is gonna be laid off. So, they reorganize, and the manager who hasn't appropriately sucked up to his boss, gets lost in the shuffle. Often times all the managers make the cut. Even so, proportionally, more workers leave than managers. Just remember the managers' motto, as expressed by Governor Le Petomane in Blazing Saddles 'We gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen'.

Another sign is office consolidation or people shuffle. In this case, they start having people double up in offices or making cubicles smaller. We're going through that now at TCIDNN. I share a small office with one other person. He spends half his time on the road, so I have the office to myself a lot. Our building has been somewhat vacant since the last round of skill rebalancing (That's what we call layoffs at TCIDNN), so we've been overdue for a mass influx of people. It's starting next week. I get to move into an office with my team lead. The nice thing about the office I'm moving into is it has a window which my current office does not. The bad thing is moving. I'm a systems programmer, and although my system work is very anal retentive, I'm a slob. Scott Adams described me perfectly in his book The Joy of Work when he wrote about a techno prima donna. We're slobs. We have books everywhere. We're packrats. Also, people hate to share offices and cubicles with us because we are slobs and gradually encroach upon their space. It works. My two previous office mates left in disgust. The only reason my current office mate tolerates me is technically he is a mobile employee and is not even supposed to have an office, so living with me is better than living in the mobility center. I've been in my current office for over six years so I have accumulated a lot of books and other junk. I'm supposed to move next week, so I'm going through my stuff now to see what gets thrown away. At least this should be my last move at TCIDNN. I'm filling up trashcans with lots of shit. Hope they get emptied.

If I were a TCIDNN employee and found out that I was moving into this building I would be very afraid. Be very, very afraid. I have worked in this building for over seventeen years, and in the last four years this building has become a way station to skill rebalancing. All of a sudden, all the cubicles fill up. Then, mysteriously, they start emptying up as the skill rebalancing process takes its toll. Soon the building becomes a mausoleum.

Do you have a company supplied cafeteria? Here is a real harbinger of bad times to come. When I first moved into this building we had a wonderful cafeteria. It was company subsidized. The food was good and the prices were reasonable. We also ate off of real plates and used real silverware. People came from other TCIDNN sites to eat here because of the quality of our cafeteria. Ahhhh, those were the good old days. First, TCIDNN quit subsidizing so the prices went up. OK. We'll pay more. The food is still good. The service is still good. Then they changed vendors. I got in trouble about this time. I wisecracked to one of the secretaries (we still had 'em then) about how the Admin Manager had solved the long lines at the cafeteria. She changed vendors. The cafeteria sucked. No one from other buildings came any more. She overheard me and told my manager. This was about fourteen years ago. I was a smartass back then. Haven't changed. Anyway, after changing vendors the prices went up more. Food quality went down. Then the dishes and silverware were replaced by styrofoam containers and plastic knives, forks, and spoons. Ain't gonna hijack this cafeteria anywhere.

When he's in town, my officemate and I go down to the cafeteria in the morning to get coffee and relax before starting work. About two weeks ago, we got our coffee and noticed that there were no napkins, only paper towels like the ones used in the restrooms. Things must really be getting bad. They're stealing paper towels from the johns. My officemate said to me, 'It's only gonna be a matter of time before they move all the stuff (knives, forks, spoons, plates, napkins and the like) to the other side of the cash register and charge us for them too.' As it is, they charge for cups. Ten cents. I said, 'No cafeteria would be that cheap.' No? I was wrong. One of my readers sent me the following:

Penny wise and pound foolish. Briefly the cafeteria decided to control costs by discouraging napkin wastage. They put all the napkin dispensers inside the food area so one had to get napkins and THEN pass the cashiers and they started charging a penny a napkin for any napkin more than the first 2. This STOOOPID program ended when people started showing up at the cashiers with huge stacks of napkins. The cashiers would say please count them and we, I mean, the patrons would say you want 'em counted, you count 'em, and the cashiers informed management this program was over.

Just when you think it can't get any stoopider.

Anyway, I was wrong. They were just out of napkins at our cafeteria. The dispensers reappeared the next day.

So be advised. If your first aid kits are empty, cubicles get smaller, people disappear, you have to empty your own wastebaskets and the cafeteria steals paper towels from the johns, get your resume ready.

It's only a matter of time.

Another Double Standard

On Sunday mornings I like to lie in bed and read the morning paper while listening to classical music on my local National Proletariat Radio station. Yesterday, when I came to the Opinion section, I was surprised, because, once again I agreed with Cynthia Tucker on sumpin'. Her column was about Social Security and prescription drugs for seniors. She's a liberal and was against the Democrat's bill. Frankly, I was shocked. But that's not what I want to talk about so I'm not linking to it.

No, I want to talk about an article that was in the AJC on July 14, called Could Mr. Right be White about black women dating white men. Oh boy! Interracial dating. That's gonna get the racist bigots stirred up! And it did. The AJC published three letters on it. Here's the link.

Nathan McCall of Atlanta writes:

As a journalism instructor, I found the recent article on black women dating white men to be appallingly racist and typically shallow ("Could Mr. Right be white?" Features, July 14). It's one thing to say that some black women date white men because there is a shortage of available black men. It's quite another to suggest that the very group that created and perpetuated that shortage --- white men --- are also the most sensitive and romantic people on God's great earth. Please.

So, it sounds to me that for some reason Nathan thinks it is the fault of white men that there is a shortage of black men. No reasons given. Just a statement with no facts. I'm assuming he's saying that there is a shortage of black men because they're in prison. So, if that is the case, the high crime rate in the inner city is the fault of white men. The high drug use in the inner city is the fault of white men. Well, yeah, according to Maxine Waters, the crack epidemic is a CIA plot. Hi Jamal. I'm from the CIA. Here's some crack.

Well maybe poverty is the problem. Yeah - that's the ticket. And we all know that poverty in the inner city is the fault of white men. Those mean old Republicans want to starve the poor and keep 'em in poverty. I'm here to tell you that throwing money at poverty will not solve it. We've thrown $5 trillion at it and we still have it.

In a previous post I gave a roadmap on how any person in this country of reasonable health and of reasonable intelligence could rise above poverty and live very well. Three steps:

1. Education - Stay in school. Learn how to read and write English. We speak English as the primary language in this country. Getting an education is not 'acting white', it's acting smart.
2. Start work at an early age. Work part time jobs while in school. Flipping burgers is not beneath anyone.
3. Do not have children you cannot afford. The quickest route to poverty in this country is not having an education and having children you cannot afford.

Unfortunately, the most important thing needed to rise above poverty, education, sucks. Our education system is broken and needs repair. It's not gonna be the teachers unions that repair it because they are part of the problem. And the NAACP opposes vouchers, even though 60% of blacks polled, prefer vouchers. The Democrats want to keep blacks dumb and dependent on the government. That's a disgrace. But, I digress. Back to Nathan.

As a journalist, I know reporters can find someone to say virtually anything to support a point. And I would have no trouble doing the reverse --- find women to testify that white men are insecure, and that given a dating choice between an all-you-can-eat crab legs special and an evening at the museum, white men will opt for Red Lobster every time.

Yeah, Nathan. Just love them crab legs. This is disgusting. Substitute black for white and fried chicken for crab legs and tell me just how racist and bigoted this sounds. And this bastard teaches journalism? Now we know why so many journalists vote Democrat. They're freaking bigoted idiots!

And let's not even talk about the headline, an obvious throwback to the supremacist views that "white is right."

I didn't get that impression at all. But that is because I'm not looking for racism in everything I read. I never realized the AJC was racist. I hope someone tells Cynthia Tucker about that. Cynthia, by the way, is the editor of the editorial page and is black. Nathan is an example of someone who is just looking for for examples of racism. I wonder how he feels when he sees ads for white sales?

Reading stories such as this actually makes me grateful for Jerry Springer and Ricky Lake. As insane as their programs are, at least they demonstrate that human frailties are as much a reality for whites as for anyone else.

Nathan, I think you've been watching too much Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake. And, wouldn't you think a Journalism professor would know enough to spell Ricki Lake correctly?

Nathan's letter was amusing. Curtis Lake's letter was full of vitriol and blatant racism.

Black women who date the 'enemy' are fools

Nothing like some mean spirited name calling to start off a letter. White men are the enemy. Bitches be fools.

I just want to clear up this foolishness once and for all: If you are a black female, your "Mr. Right" is not white. He is black like you.

Tell 'em Curtis! Keep dem bitches in the 'hood! Now tell 'em why.

White folks are our enemy. How can black females stoop so low as to engage in intimate relations with the people who forcibly took us from our homeland and slaughtered, raped and enslaved our ancestors?

Here we go with the slavery^TM thing again. OK. Let's talk about it.

Black people do not have the franchise on slavery^TM even though they like to think so. Slavery^TM has been in existence since the beginning of time. Every culture up until a few hundred years ago had slaves. It was the mean old white Europeans who abolished slavery^TM. Many white men in this country died in a bloody civil war to abolish slavery^TM. And, unlike what we saw in Roots, it wasn't the white man who captured the blacks to drag them off into slavery^TM. They were captured and sold by their black brothers, so you may want to take up some of this slaughtered and raped stuff with some people in Africa. And guess where slavery^TM still exists? In Africa. And guess who the slave owners are? African blacks. Yeah, slavery^TM was a blight on this country's history, but it's over, and right now, blacks in this country have more freedoms and a higher standard of living than black people in any other country on this planet. So shut your freaking mouth and be glad that you had the good fortune to be born here and not in Africa.

Stop lusting and think. There are no "good" white folks. Black females who date white men only make themselves look like fools.

See, all white folks are evil racist bastards. Curtis, you are a racist bigoted jerk! Here again, substitute white for black in this letter and there would be massive protests in front of the AJC's offices. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be in town fighting each other to get in front of the cameras bemoaning the fact that the newspaper could publish a letter like this. By golly, the editor who allowed this letter to be published should be fired or forced to go through massive diversity awareness training.

The last letter by Doug Forbes of Indianapolis is just laughable.

Colorblind mating is not for the birds Implicit in the recent article on interracial dating is the view that racial preference in mate selection is the result of segregation. I suggest that it is vice versa. Consider this: During the last Ice Age, a species of bird lived in the north Pacific region. One branch of this species spread westward across Eurasia. Another branch spread eastward across North America. When they met again in Europe thousands of years later, they had developed physical differences. In other words, they had become two subspecies; i.e., races of the same species. One race, the Lesser Black-backed Gulls, has dark backs and yellow legs. The other race, the Herring Gulls, has pale backs and flesh colored legs.

I'm just waiting for someone to complain that the naming of the Lesser Black-back Gull is racist. Nathan has probably already composed his letter.

Physical divergence beyond a certain point will diminish sexual attraction. Such is the case with the Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backs. Although they have overlapping breeding grounds, they remain distinct. Normally, they do not interbreed. Because mate selection and child rearing constitute much of the social life of birds, racial preference in mate selection results in racial segregation generally. Essentially, the two subspecies lead separate lives within the same geographic area.

But Doug, we aren't birds.

OK What do I thin?. I'm all for interracial relationships. I'm for integration. Believe it or not, I'm not a racist bigot. I despise people who are. People like Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, Al Sharpton, and their new friend Curtis Lake make me sick. Multiculturism makes me gag. What a crock that is. Ya wannna see multiculturism in action? Go to the Balkans. That's what the liberals want for us. This is America. We are Americans. We're not African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Asian-Americans, or any other hyphenated Americans. And another thing. I was born here so I am a native American.

But, but, you gotta be a racist. You're always poking fun at black people like Cynthia McKinney. Yeah, Cynthia would be funny if she weren't so dangerous. I poke fun at Cynthia because she is a disgrace. She, like many other black leaders, do more harm to their people than the KKK ever could. By blaming white people for all their problems and fostering dependency on government, they keep them poor and ignorant. A fine example of that is Curtis Lake, who is probably one of Cynthia's constituents. All I can do is shake my head and wonder why.

I don't know how Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters and all the other black 'leaders' can sleep at night. I guess if one gets enough money, selling out one's followers must be easy.

I couldn't do it.

Israel Shamir aka Uncle Yasser

I was not planning on posting today, but I got the following from alert reader Randolph Addison:

I have the impression that Arab news was, unsurprisingly, duped. Best of the Web Scroll down to "The Cynthia McKinney Fan Club" (4th entry). [The Chinese recently reported an article from The Onion as legitimate US news and then vilified The Onion, stating that they were purposely put out propaganda to trick people. Uh huh.]

When doing my fisking, I also thought this was too good to be true. And usually, if sumpin' sounds too good to be true, then by golly it is too good to be true. I also thought Democrats.com was too good to be true. Since, I have absolutely no journalistic integrity, not to mention being very lazy, I did not check out the veracity of the Ode to Cynthia Even, if it wasn't true, it still offered me an excellent opportunity to have a little fun. Well, boys and girls, I did a little Google (Every time I use Google, I always think of Carl Sagan. He used a term in Cosmos called googleplex.) search on Israel Shamir and here is what I came up with. Excerpts follow.

Israel Shamir is a leading Russian-Israeli intellectual, writer, translator and journalist.

Don't forget Palestinian apologist.

After returning to Israel in 1980, Shamir wrote for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz and Al Hamishmar newspapers and worked in the Knesset as the spokesman for the Israel Socialist Party (Mapam).

Aha! A socialist. That's why he likes Cynthia McKinney and Barbara Lee.

He also translated selected chapters of Joyce’s Ulysses, (into Russian)

Joyce's Ulysses is dull and boring enough in English. Imagine how dull it must be in Russian.

His most popular work, the Pine and the Olive, the story of Palestine/Israel, was published in 1988. Its cover carried a painting by the Ramallah painter, Nabil Anani. As the first Palestinian Intifada began, Shamir had left Israel for Russia, where he covered the eventful years 1989-1993. While in Moscow, he reported for Haaretz, but was sacked for publishing an article calling to the return the Palestinian refugees and the rebuilding of their ruined villages.

See. Even back then he was an Uncle Yasser.

He wrote for various Russian newspapers and magazines, including Pravda and Zavtra weekly. In 1993, he returned to Israel and settled in Jaffa.

Wouldn't it be ironic if he got nailed (pun intended) by a homicide bomber?

In response to the second Palestinian uprising in thirteen years, Shamir has temporarily abandoned his literary occupation and resumed his work as a propagandist journalist. In the midst of all the endless talk of a " Two State solution", Shamir, along with Edward Said, has become a leading champion of the ‘One Man, One Vote, One State’ solution in all of Palestine/Israel.

Which, anyone with half a brain would realize, that would sound the death knell for Israel. There would be a mass expulsion of Jews. Can't you just imagine Cynthia McKinney screaming to high heaven if we had a massive influx of Jewish immigrants.

His most recent essays have been circulating widely on the Internet

And providing blogging fodder for people like me who just love to ridicule loonies.

and are now posted on many prominent media sites.

Which makes 'em easy to find. Just Google Israel Shamir.

With every new article, Shamir is establishing himself as a propagandist journalist whose work speaks to the aspirations of both the Arab world Israelis and the Palestinians.

Mass suicide for the Israelis. Killing and looting by the Arabs.

His most recent works include Acid Test, Rape of Dulcinea, Galilee Flowers, Joseph Revisited and Kid Sister.

I'll have to see if Amazon carries 'em. Must be fantastic reading.

Shamir (50) lives in Jaffa, he is father of two sons.

Izzy. Stay away from the bombers.

And now, another example of the wit and wisdom of Israel Shamir called Why I Support the Return of the Palestinians (or Why I Support Israeli Suicide).

Palestine is not a dead object, it is a living country.

Full of suicide bombers.

Palestinians are her soul.

Some soul. A people with unbelievable hatred for another race. We haven't seen hatred like this since Nazi Germany. And we want to give these people a state? We fought WWII to defeat a state like this. Palestinians are soulless nihilists.

Palestine is what Palestinians are re-creating in real time,

Hatred and killing.

in the same way that France is what the French create and re-create every day.

Now there's a great comparison. The French? If only the Palestinians were more like the French. Here Mr. Sharon. Here's all of our bombs and weapons. We surrender. Please don't hurt us. Have some cheese.

It is a vast confusion of mind, to presume one can love France and abhor French,

I don't know. I have no problems with that. The French abhor us, and many of us abhor them. Ever been to Paris? Neat city. Rude inhabitiants. Sacre bleu! Ze Americans zey are barbarians.

as what kind of France would exist without the French soul.

A nicer place to visit?

Only silly tourists from rich countries, pestered by beggars, prefer to stay in reclusive posh hotels where they can enjoy the country without encountering the natives.

In France this would be a bad thing because...

It is like loving a beautiful lady but hating her character and her very essence. To love a country and wish away her inhabitants is the kind of romance that can only appeal to those who have a passion for necrophilia.

No, actually that's the way it works in France. At least in Paris. When ya get outside of Paris the French are not nearly as snotty. And the Palestinians love the land that Israel sits on and have spent the last 54 years wishing the Jews away.

The late Russian thinker Lev Gumilev described a country as a symbiosis of people and landscape. Palestine and Palestinians are inseparable, the peasants and their olives and springs of water and the mountains and the domes of the ancestral sepulchres on the hill-tops need each other and have grown to complement each other.

He left out the bombs and the AK47's. Hold on, we're getting to the good parts.

The Palestinians are not an obscure mean folk.

No. They're a bunch of cowardly murderous bastards.

They created the Star of Ghassul,

An eight pointed star unearthed at Ghassul. I looked it up. For more info.

wrote the Bible,

Funny. I thought the Jews did that. At least the Old Testament. Even Christians admit that.

built the temples of Jerusalem and Garizim,

The Jews.

the palaces of Jericho and Samaria, the churches of the Holy Sepulchre and Nativity, the mosques of Haram a-Sharif,

I'll give him that.

the harbours of Caesarea and Akka,

The Romans. 'What have the Romans ever done for us?'

the castles of Monfort and Belvoir.

Thought that was the Crusaders.

They walked with Jesus, defeated Napoleon and bravely fought at Karameh. In their veins, the blood of Aegean warriors, Bene Israel, David's heroes, the first Apostles of Christ and Companions of the Prophet, of Arab riders, Norman Crusaders and Turkmen chieftains blended in the unique composition.

I'm really impressed. Izzy's laying it on real thick.

Its spark did not run out: the poetry of Mahmud Darwish, the wisdom of Edward Said,

The wisdom of Edward Said? What? The freaking wisdom of freaking Edward Said? Excuse me. I gotta take a break before I use foul language or pound on my keyboard too hard.

the perfect olive oil, the fervour of prayers

Death to the Jews!

and the valiant courage of intifada prove it.

Yeah. It takes a lot of courage to shoot an eight year old girl when she's asleep in her bed. Charles Johnson thought this guy was on heroin. I thought he was on LSD. I think he's moved on to some new and different mind altering drug. But wait. It gets better.

Without the Palestinians, Palestine dies.

The Palestinians are doin' a pretty good job of dying with Palestine.

Her rivers run poisoned water,

Yeah. That's what Suhu Arafat said right before Hillary kissed her.

the sources dry out, the hills and valleys are disfigured, her fields are worked by imported Chinese, while her sons are imprisoned in ghetto.

They are only in a 'ghetto' because they refuse to live in a peaceful coexistence with Israel. Over the past 54 years since Israel was created, the sole purpose of the Palestinians has been the total destruction of Israel. It's in the PLO charter. They never got around to changing it after Oslo. Izzy, when you were doing all those translations did you ever read any real history?

The idea of a separate Jewish state collapsed.

Huh? It never collapsed in Israel and the idea never existed in the Arab world so how could it have collapsed?

During last ten years, the mad policies of Israeli

Called self defense.

government imported over a million of Romanians, Russians, Ukrainians, Thai and African laborers.

They can't employ Palestinians. They have this annoying habit of blowing up.

Some of them claim Jewish descent: Peruvian tribes, Indians from Assam and the endless refugees from the Soviet Union moved in.

That's because they were being persecuted were they used to live. Many of the refugees came from Muslim countries where the 'religion of peace' were killin' 'em off. And Izzy, you were born in Siberia. You must be one of the 'endless refugees from the Soviet Union'.

Now the Jewish Agency plans to import a Lembda tribe from the South Africa, in order to ensure the Jewish character of the state.

Goddamn Arabs multiply faster than rabbits. I cannot understand why the Arabs can't be a little more patient. At the rate they're going, the Israeli Arabs are gonna outnumber the Jews in 20 to 30 years. If you're still alive then Izzy, you'll find out how neat it will be to live in a state run by the Palestinians. At least until they take away all your possessions and kick you out. 'But. But. I'm your friend.' 'You're a dirty Jew. Get out of our country.'

Paradoxically, those who still bear some part of the Jewish traditions are isolated in the Jewish state, as late Dr Yeshayahu Leibovich or imprisoned as the Moroccan Jewish Rabbi Arie Der'i.

You got me on these Izzy and I'm too lazy to look them up. Maybe some other blogger will. But, your credibilty is not very good.

The fantasy of the Jewish ingathering has collided with the reality.

Yeah. The Arabs hate the Jews. They want to kill 'em all or drive them into the sea. They've been saying that for over 50 years. Haven't you been listening, Izzy? Those are really powerful drugs you're on. You need to be real careful. This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?

We must end the delusion.

Funny that he uses the word delusion, since he, himself is so delusional.

Let the sons and daughters of Palestine come back and rebuild Suba and Kakun, Jaffa and Akka.

They can't. They're too busy making bombs and blowing themselves up.

Instead of consecrating the Green Line, let us erase it and live together, the children of Palestine, of first settlers, of Moroccans and Russians.

Let the lamb lie down with the lion. Give peace a chance. Kumbaya.

We should live in one state, not only because of the blatant failure of Oslo.

He finally got sumpin' right. Not the one state part, as that would be a disaster, but the failure of Oslo. As James Taranto is fond of saying, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

The very idea of partition is wrong.

I agree. Let's round up the Palestinans and move 'em all to the Gaza Strip. Hey Yasser. Here's your state. Don't forget your baby wipes!

We can follow the example of New Zealand, where the European incomers live together with the native Maori,

Ya see, the Maoris don't blow up. And anyway, that's a bad example. When the Arabs outnumber the Jews, they'll do exactly what they have done in every Arab country. They'll take all their possessions and expel them.

the example of Mandela's South Africa,

Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

the example of Caribbean, where children of Spanish settlers, African slaves and native Amerindians blended into the beautiful new race.

Got some news for ya Ziggy. The native Amerindians in the Caribbean all died of European diseases or were slaughtered by the Spanish.

Let us tear up our Declarations of false Independence and write a new one, of mutual dependence and love.

Of suicide and the total destruction of Israel.

Mr Quisling, Mr Vichy, meet Mr. Shamir. Y'all got a lot in common.

Sainte Cynthia d' Arc

Hold me back! Hold me back! My sister asked me today when I was gonna fisk someone again, and, like a miracle this (link courtesy of Charles Johnson) appears. Charles already did a pretty good job, but, I cannot resist the temptation of piling on. Here goes.

Things must be bad indeed if a woman steps forward to the line of fire.

And things are really bad. We're gonna find out why.

When France was fading away,

Which time was that? It's happened so many times. Hi. I'm French. I surrender. Here, take my rifle.

a shepherd girl Jeanne d'Arc took a heavy sword and led the flower of French nobles to assault the walls of Orleans.

Oh, that time. Even then the French were pansies. And then he goes on to give some more examples of brave and heroic women. And now, some America bashing follows.

Now it is the turn of the US to feel the chilly wind of eternity on its face.

Brrrr! Where's my coat?

It came from unexpected direction. People of Saudi Arabia America became hostage in the hands of a few men with too many dollars in their pockets and endless greed in their hearts. For millennia,

For millennia? Isn't that 1000 years. He can't be talking about us. We've only been oppressing Cynthia's people for 400 years.

the difference of income, education, and standard of living was not so vast in one land. The wealth of the nation could provide every Saudi American with a superb education, perfect medical care, happy childhood, secure old age, guaranteed home, and free time to open one's mind to new thoughts and old friends. Saudi Arabia America could be on its way to the Golden Age of universal happiness and wisdom.

See how easy Saudi Arabia works?

Instead of it, a small group of men squeezes the nation in order to add another billion to their coffers.

Sounds like the Saudi royal family to me.

They would surely destroy Saudi Arabia the US by their limitless greed.

Now, I know he's talking about the Saudi royal family.

The devotees of radical Islam Mammon, they are totally devoid of compassion to the people they live amongst. They do not see the local people as 'their own kind'. If they want to show compassion, they send money toPalestine Israel. Out of five dollars the Saudi royal family American taxpayer gives for aid, four dollars land in the coffers of the thugs in Palestine Jewish state. They appear unstoppable, as the politicians are scared of them and docilely raise their hands and sign the pledge promising to send more money to Yasser Arafat and his thugs Israeli generals. Support of Palestine Israel is not a foreign policy. It is the covenant of radical Islam Mammonites, and you sign it with blood. With Israeli and American Palestinian blood.

This guy is a real wacko. And here comes the best part.

But one woman refused to sign the pledge. One woman, Cynthia McKinney, a member for Georgia, dared to refuse.

And I live in her district. I'm so proud.

Four hundred congressmen signed it; they preferred their own personal advancement to the good of the country.

No Izzy, you butthead. Unlike the Arab world, this is a republic, and the people are sick of Arab booger eatin' moh-rons. We're still pissed about 9/11.

Ancestors of Cynthia were slaves in her native Georgia.

Yeah we know. She keeps reminding us of it.

But she is one of a very few free persons in the US Congress.

Excuse me Congressman Barr, I just heard from Izzy that you were a slave. Is that true?

As we Israelis were used to say about our Golda Meir, she is the only man over there.

This guy is an Israeli?

She is a black woman, but she is the whitest man of them all, they would say before the Politically Correct era.

Izzy, you better not call her white to her face. She hates white people almost as much as she hates Jews.

She knew the billions of Israeli aid are needed for the poor people of the United States, for her own Afro-American community.

Nothing about the billions of aid sent to Egypt.

She wanted to uphold the sovereignty of the people and congress of the United States, in face of encroaching servility to the Jewish Lobby.

Oh my God! The Jews run everything! Where is Pat Buchanen when we need him?

She is not alone. Another wonderful Afro-American congresswoman, Barbara Lee,

One of the few people in Congress who's a bigger communist than Cynthia. She represents the Peoples Republic of Berkeley.

cast the only vote against the slaughter in Afghanistan;

What's the latest bogus civilian body count? 3000? 4000? Just think how many we could have 'slaughtered' if we had been trying.

John Conyers, Jessie (sic) Jackson Jr, and Maxine Waters supported the cause of Palestine on different occasions.

Duh! Most liberal blacks are anti-semites. I've never been able to figger that out since there were a lot of Jews who went to the South to help out during the civil rights movement.

Ron Paul of Texas voted against all-house resolution sending obsequious greeting to General Sharon. Nick Rahall, John Sununu, David Bonior did not bend.

Don't have a clue as to what he is talking about here. Somehow, I don't think he does either. He must have just dropped some more acid. OK. Do not drink anything for the next paragraph. I am not responsible for liquid spraying on you terminal.

Cynthia was just more outspoken in seeing the evil.

Outspoken? That's a freakin' understatement! She won't shut her freakin' mouth!

She said[i], "There are many Members of Congress who want to be free. I am one of them.

Slavery^TM ended 150 years ago Cynthia. It's old news. Let's move on.

I wanted to be free to vote according to my conscience, but I had been told that if I didn't sign a pledge supporting the military superiority of Israel, no support would come my way.

Except from Arabs and Muslims.

And sure enough, I didn't sign the pledge and no support came my way.

Except from Arabs and Muslims. Over 1/3 of her campaign contributions came from Arabs and Muslims from outside her district. Wanna see a list? Go here.

I suffered

Not as much as I did living in your district.

silently

Oh how I wish it were silently. But she will never shut her big fat mouth.

year in and year out, because I refused to sign that pledge.

But, somehow, she kept getting reelected. Some suffering.

And then, like a slave that found a way to buy his freedom

Always gotta get slavery^TM in there.

... I went to work

I bet that was a new experience.

... I wanted to be free

Must be interesting to be a slave who makes $150,000 per year. And that's before the bribes.

... Free to cast the votes in the United States Congress as I saw fit and not as I was dictated to".

Hi Cynthia, my name is Irving. I'm the head of the World Domination Zionist Organization^TM. Vote the way we tell ya or it's off to the cotton fields with ya.

Now she stands for re-election, and her chances are dim,

Be still my beating heart!

as the frightful World Domination Zionist Organization^TM AIPAC, the spearhead of the organized Jewish community, targeted her. They do not want to see independent and free congressmen on the Capitol Hill.

Actually, they, like most rational Americans, don't want to see racist, bigoted anti-semites on Capitol Hill.

Their huge financial might, network of connections in the media and universities are used to smother every free voice.

Let's see. The New York Times. CNNABCCBSNBC. And we all know how pro Israel Peter Jennings is. And we really have problems in the universities. I mean look at how pro Israel they are at Berkeley.

They succeeded to unseat Earl Hilliard, another racist bigot Black Congressman, who did not bow to Sharon, and now plan to do Cynthia in.

Please! Please! Please! I'm gonna do my part. I'm voting in the Democratic primary.

If they succeed, the cause of racist bigotry freedom will suffer a huge setback. If she succeeds, the myth of Jewish omnipotence will evaporate, and America will look towards better days, as support or rejection of segregated Israel speaks volumes about true agenda of a candidate.

Better days will be when we wipe radical Islamic terrorism off the face of the earth.

Cynthia is not 'against Jews',

If you knew Cynthia, like I know Cynthia. Oh. Oh. Oh what a racist.

as there are many very good folks of Jewish origin.

Not to Cynthia. She hates all Jews. She got it from her daddy, Billy.

While the organized Jewish community implements quite a disgusting policy, in domestic and foreign affairs alike,

Yeah. Like trying to keep the nation of Israel from being overrun by a bunch of bloodthirsty Palestinians. Guess, you haven't noticed all the bombs going off.

there are wonderful outsiders, 'the remnant of Israel'.

Just musing here. If blacks call someone they think is acting white an Uncle Tom, what would these outsiders be called? Uncle Yassers?

Rejected by the community and rejecting it, they stand for suicide integration in Palestine and in the US.

Uh, Izzy, we have integration in the US. And there is integration in Israel. It is ironic that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Arabs can actually vote.

Some of them have supported Cynthia's campaign;

Some Jews even supported Hitler. They realized too late what a mistake that was. There are dumb people everywhere.

another outsider manages her campaign.

That, I cannot comment on. I tried to find out who her campaign manager was. It's possible. If so, he/she must be an Uncle Yasser. Skipping down through some garbage we come to.

Cynthia's is not a divisive voice of Blacks vs. Whites, nor Democrats vs. Republicans, neither Left against Right

Izzy, if you had any credibility at all, it's now been completely shredded. She's a racist, partisan Democrat and a communist to boot. Scotty, beam Izzy up. We're getting close to the end, but put your feet up because it's gonna get real deep.

This woman with a name from the love lyrics of Propertius, the delicate Greek poet, who called himself 'a pale knight in thrall of my angry Cynthia', is an all-American figure, brought forth by the spirit of America.

See. What'd I tell ya?

The great country does not want to die. In such moments, the land calls for its sons and daughters to step forward to the line of fire.

And whom do we get?

Cynthia heard the call.

Hark! I detect a fanfare of trumpets. The sky opens. The sun shines through. Cynthia stands alone, sword in hand, ready to smite the evil Jews.

Support of Cynthia is the ultimate test of love to America,

Man, can I have some of that shit you're smoking?

of belief in America's future in the family of nations, as an equal and friendly nation,

We ain't equal. We're the only super power and we're friendly as long as people don't mess with us.

not as an enforcer for creed of Greed.

Saudi Arabia is much more greedy than we are. And, wouldn't Creed of Greed be a neat name for a rock band? With apologies to Dave Barry.

It is paramount to rally around her, as the French nobles rallied to Jeanne d'Arc.

Was that before or after the retreat?

Whether you are a descendant of African slaves or Muslim immigrants,

You be Cynthia's folks. Praise Allah!

a son of Confederacy

Not a likely Cynthia supporter.

or a Daughter of American Revolution,

Even less likely.

a freedom-loving Jew

No freakin' way!

or a born-again Christian.

Not even close.

- it is the time to unite for Cynthia and for America.

Amen brother! Call the Vatican! Wake up the Pope!

Let's hear it for Sainte Cynthia d'Arc!