Friday, August 31, 2007

Yep. MORE news

Hello all. Just when I was starting to think I can take a much deserved break from the news, it seems more and more mess has made its way into the headlines. Well, here's a roundup of some of the news shaping our world (some old, some not so old):

Craig likely to resigns
According to sources, Senator Larry "I'm not gay, but I somehow wound up in a pretty compromising gay position" Craig (R-ID) will likely has resigned after his involvement in one of the GOP's latest sex scandals. Just in case you haven't been following this story, pull up a chair. It's pretty amusing.

OK. Sen. Craig recently pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct stemming from his solicitation of sex from an undercover police officer. What makes the story even funnier is that it was done in a public restroom at an airport in Minnesota. If you think story is freakin' hilarious, you're not alone. This is further evidence that the GOP continues to implode from within because of how their self-righteousness is being pushed to the limits by their hypocrisy.

Gonzo splits
Speaking of resignations, US Attorney General Alberto "I don't recall" Gonzales has exited stage left (or would it be "stage right?"). Embattled by a barage of hearings about his questionable (albeit, legal) judicial and political tactics, Gonzales has thrown in the proverbial towel. I don't think that his resignation will spell the end of the Congressional investigations any time soon. But his time in the White House is over; so he says. As I've always maintained; in his defense, he didn't do anything illegal or nothing that the long fraternity of previous AG's haven't done themselves. But he's been misleading Congress time after time (some would say outright lying and I wouldn't be too far pressed to disagree) and finally got called on it.

Funny how everybody's "resigning" in this Administration. Wouldn't you agree?

Bush's Brain vandalized
That doesn't mean exactly what it says. That would be too easy of a shot against our dear feeble-minded Commander in Chief. Instead what I mean is that Karl Rove, Bush's mastermind and former Deputy Chief of Staff has been punked. Apparently while parked by the West Wing, Rove's Jaguar was wrapped in some sort of plastic by unknown pranksters. There was also a pro-Obama sticker on the vehicle.

On the one hand, I admit this is sorta funny. But overally, I'm a little concerned. I think that the vandals weren't pro-Obama. I think they are trying to sabotage his platform by making him guilty by association. Hello? Anybody remember Obama girl?

Nugent's killer music
As I just mentioned the possibility of conspiratorial moves made by anti-Obama activists, musician Ted Nugent publicly issued what I would consider a death threat to Senators Obama and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). During one of his concerts, he "jokingly" suggested sticking guns in their while brandishing what appeared to be assault rifles.

Fox News pundit Sean Hannity was quick to come to his defense. But I can assure you: if that had been a rapper saying those things about President Bush, all hell would've broken loose. I mean, you saw how much backlash Kanye West received after his "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment, right?! I don't like Kanye West; and most of the right-winged nation hated him even more after his Bush comments. Can you imagine what would've happened if he told George Bush to suck on his rifle?

Companies comply with warrantless surveillance
According to reports and from testimony from National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, companies in the private sector have been aiding the government in carrying out warrantless domestic spying. I was disappointed to hear that but in a way, I'm not suprised. Big business and the government have always been strolling through the park together; each with their hands in the other one's back pockets. I guess this is another reason why you should consider making your blog work-friendly, right?

"The Iraqi report"
Some time around the second week of September (if I estimate correctly, I'd say Sept. 11), General Patraues is slated to share his official report to Congress about the state of the Iraq conflict. Frankly, I don't see the point. Why not just let the White House do the reporting? I mean, it's not like they haven't already entertained the idea. Why get Petraues involved? Oh...that's right. Because it seems that he's now going to side with the Bush Administration.

I'm forever amazed at how people will play political games where the lives of innocent people are at stake. No wonder many of the troops we're supposed to be supporting are being killed; both by our enemies and by their own hands.

In a somewhat related note, am I the only person on the planet tired of Hillary Clinton lying about her support of/opposition to the war? If she and others like her would just come out and say they made a mistake, I think I'd be more likely to give them a pass.

Kid suspended for gun drawing
Sorry for the reference to Faux News, but this story was too good to pass up. Apparently, a 13-year-old kid was suspended from school because of his drawing of a gun. Though the picture didn't include any blood, bullets, or people; school officials considered the drawing threatening enough to take action against the student.

I guess that in light of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the laundry list of other worldwide shootings school officials have been prompted to turn the schools into another police state. Better safe than sorry, right? I just hope that one day the schools will be as vigilant toward the dismal state of the educational system as a whole as they are about violence control.

Louisiana school bans racially-charged shirts
I found this article on BET of all places. The sky must be falling. At any rate, school officials in Louisiana are banning the student body from wearing "Free the Jena Six" t-shirts; worn in protest of the racist charges faced by six black youth in connection with assaulting on a white student. Citing "disruption"as the justification for the schools ban, students were prohibited from wearing the shirts on campus grounds.

I don't know about you; but I think it's ironic that the school district is far more vehement about banning t-shirts than they are about addressing the racially-charged issues that gave birth to the shirts in the first place. Where are the priorities?

I double dog dare anybody to say that racism is over and done with.

Well, that's it for now. As more news develops I'll try to keep you posted. Or not.

- ACL

11 "Insiders" spoke their mind. Join in...:

heiresschild said...

craig - i read his story the other day. funny in a toe-tappin', foot pattin', hand slidin' under the stall sad kind of way. what an embarrassment to so many.

gonzales (+ the other 3) - yep, the high places are coming down. (i'm going to find that scripture verse)

nugent - i know we have freedom of speech, but i do think there should be some limits on what people say. of course, some would say then it isn't freedom of speech. if certain comments were made against the president of the u.s., people would be hauled in so fast. i just don't have any words for this one or the rest of the listed items. oh yeah, racism is over and done with. well, not really; i just wanted to take you up on your double dog dare. i definitely know racism is alive and thriving. thanx for the updates.

Anonymous said...

- I first saw the Craig story on MSNBC. I haven't stop laughing since.

- Good riddance to Gonzo. That dude was on something.

- Interesting theory about Rove's car. If you like conspiracies. LOL.

- Nugent is a acid-head anyway. When has ANYTHING this guy ever said matter?

- I've got an interview coming up soon. Does that mean the feds have all the comments I left; or just your posts? I'm hoping that you're the only one who'll go down for this blog! Hahaha!

- Petraues is another lapdog for the Bush Administration. I don't know why you were expecting different. Hillary's no different. She'll say anything to get elected. Kucinich is the way to go. The more I listen to him the more confident I get in him.

- I guess making pretty crude and frankly BAD drawings is as punishable as shooting somebody. Well not quite, but it's getting there.

- The state of Louisiana is a joke. Bigots and racists will continue to inbreed with their sisters down there.

Anonymous said...

On Craig: Uhmm...after every other recent sex-scandal involving GOP members, are there even any members left that aren't hiding their homosexuality and/or pedophilia from their families? I mean....Wow.

On Rove: As I was reading about this online (which was more or less in the same context that you presented it as; liberal White House staffers/vandals), the news on my television was spinning it as GOP staffers who were symbolically preventing Mr. Rove from leaving his job. Not for the day, but for good. It's interesting to see how regardless of what the subject is, if you stick the words "White" & "House" in the midst of it you will always get 2 or more versions, regardless of how lighthearted the subject matter may be.

On Nugent: Typical Nugent. But, what do you expect from somebody who has sported a mullet for the past 40+ years. On the bright side, only other people sporting mullets take him seriously. On the down side, Michigan is full of mullets.

-n

Anonymous said...

@ J.Alex: "Kucinich is the way to go. The more I listen to him the more confident I get in him."

I've been spouting off about this since long before the last presidential election. In addition to all the good that would come of his winning the election, we would also finally have an attractive first-lady in office. Why doesn't more than 1-4% of the voting population see this?

-n

Andre said...

@ Heiress: I'm not even trippin' on Craig making a mockery of the Senate. Most of the folks in Congress do that everyday. I feel bad for his family; who will most likely bear the grunt of his stupidity.

Gonzo and the other crooks and liars are only 'coming down' politically. It bothers me to think that they all get to retreat to their lives of opulence despite all the mess they've put the country through. God, if I could screw up half as much as they did and get virtually unpunished for it, I wouldn't mind "coming down" either.

Regarding Nugent: You're absolutely correct. If this "joke" involved the President, the comedian would be in a boatload of trouble. Not only would his/her career be crucified in the media (the conservative media especially), they'd no doubt get tossed in the slammer (Gitmo, anybody?!)

Andre said...

@ J. Alex:

- I like Keith Olberman's parody of it. I'm not sure if it's on Youtube yet but if it is, I'll find it.

- Funny thing about Gonzo. He said that his worst days were better than his father's best days (as a migrant worker). I doubt that. Well, unless you consider getting rich and affluent because of your close ties to a President who'll defend every lie and screw up you make as being "better".

Maybe he's right...

- You have to read Hippie's post about conspiracy theories. If I can accept Humpty Dumpty being involved in a conspiracy, I can think that for a legitimate presidential candidate.

- I'm sure that some idiots who actually listen to this loser may take him seriously.

- Sorry dude. Anything you say on my blog is public domain.

- Interesting thought about Kucinich. I like him, but I tend to think his views are a little too liberal.

- The schools are doing such a crappy job of teaching kids anything. So why stop at art?

- Jim Crowism didn't die when its legislation did.

Andre said...

@ Nic: "...are there even any members left that aren't hiding their homosexuality and/or pedophilia from their families?"

In one word: No.

Lately, I've started to change my mind about gay marriage. I'm now less of a supporter of marriage itself. But I'd still support civil unions. But the problem with our society is that we've gotten so convinced that we should prohibit anything we don't agree with, that we've created an 'underground' society of homosexuals. People have to pass as heterosexuals just to get acceptance; most of all from die-hard, Bible-thumping GOP folks. The end results are cases like Craig's.

Regarding Rove's story: You're absolutely correct. Spins are put on just about every story out there. In a related note, if you haven't seen it, I was amused at the spins CNN and Fox News put on Craig's resignation.

I'm trying to master the art of learning about a story and drawing my own conclusions. Even some of my ridiculously concocted ideas are better than the spins put on by the media.

You know Nic. I've noticed more mullets around Flint than I care to speak of. What's the deal with that?

Finally, what's all the hub bub about Kucinich? As I said, I think his ultra-liberal views are just as inane as most of the ultra-conservatives on the other side of the campaign trail. Having a hot wife doesn't change that. But then again, I'm not sure if I've seen her. How hot is she...?

The H.C. said...

Hey Dre,
I couldn't help but notice you completely skipped over the whole Hillary/ Norman Hsu thing even after she threw your man Obama to the wolves. Careful, or you'll end up at CNN with the rest of the Democrat scandal ignorers. Good rip on the right-wing though.

Andre said...

You know Hippie, I must admit I didn't know about the Hsu story. I heard some schoolyard fighting about boosters and special interest groups (leading the assault was that Gravel guy), but that was about it. But frankly I'm not suprised. I learned a long time ago that we're not the ones who get presidents elected; the special interests groups are.

The H.C. said...

Hey Dre,
First off, I feel I need to apologize for the phrase "rest of" in my comment. I didn't mean to imply you were amongst them. I didn't get a chance to respond as well as I would have liked to your post so let me continue please.
Larry Craig- Well, I have to admit it's interesting to hear so many of my Democrat friends who normally would be saying, "What someone does in their sex life is nobodies business." providing themselves with a caveat to make it everybodies business mostly because he's a Republican.
Rove-You know, he's not really the Devil, or the Anti-Christ, or the Evil Architect. He's simply a good political advisor that Dems figure must have some kind of evil powers or how could he have kicked the shit out of them in so many elections. Once again, the political problem with Democrats is they don't look at themselves enough.
Gonzales- I have to wonder; If the Republican's went after the first Hispanic A.G.(Or for that matter, first black, first women, or first any minority) the way the Dems did, would we be reacting the same? (I know, I'm defending the Republicans, but this really was an orgy of Rep. bashing. Someone had to do the other side.)
The Nuge- You know the way some of you feel when a member of a group you belong to does things that totally don't represent you? That's how Ted makes me feel. I'm glad we have someone who defends hunting so adamantly...but I mostly wish it was someone else.
Gun Drawing- Interesting. Nas gets to sing "Shoot'em up" at Virginia Tech but a little kid can't draw a picture of a gun. What the hell is the standard for this kind of thing? Sigh. (H.C. draws a picture of a gun and shoots himself with it while listening to Nas.)
Jenna Six- I have no idea what this whole thing is about except what I've read here. But I do have a question; Since when is it exceptable for six people to beat the crap out of one person for any reason short of self-defense? I assume there was some extreme bigotry. But are you all in favor of attacking any idiots we disagree with? Is it O.K. if we hate what they stand for? Apply that logic to world affairs and you have......Bush's foreign policy. Am I missing something? Please educate me on why it's any different. Using force over someone is a poor way of showing your the better person and it rarely changes people's opinion of that person. It can however, change their opinion of you. Didn't Ghandi teach us anything?

Great Post Andre!

Andre said...

Yo Hippie,

"First off, I feel I need to apologize for the phrase "rest of" in my comment. I didn't mean to imply you were amongst them."

Eh. Whatever. No harm done. You know how much I can't stand politicians in general; not least of all the two idiotic powerhouses.

"Well, I have to admit it's interesting to hear so many of my Democrat friends who normally would be saying, "What someone does in their sex life is nobodies business." providing themselves with a caveat to make it everybodies business mostly because he's a Republican."

Lord knows I'm not defending Dems, but I think this is more about calling people out who are so loud and boisterous about being anti-stuff while they're secretly engaged in it themselves. Kinda like when William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson was at some summit last year talking about corruption only to then get caught up in a scandal himself.

"Rove...simply a good political advisor that Dems figure must have some kind of evil powers or how could he have kicked the shit out of them in so many elections."

No argument there. The best way to overlook your own ineptitude is to attack your opponent. It's too bad for the Dems that Rove is better at what he does than...oh, let's say John Podesta.

"I have to wonder; If the Republican's went after the first Hispanic A.G.(Or for that matter, first black, first women, or first any minority) the way the Dems did, would we be reacting the same? (I know, I'm defending the Republicans, but this really was an orgy of Rep. bashing. Someone had to do the other side.)"

Good question. I have to wonder the same thing; especially when minority presense in key Cabinet positions has been a pretty scarce thing for Democratic Administration. One thing I have to give it up to Bush for: he had a strong minority presence in his group. Too bad they're all crooks and liars.

Nugent is an idiot. Case closed.

As far as Nas goes: For one, I don't claim to like him. Hell, I don't claim to like most rappers. But even I think the juxtaposition between his lyrics and gun drawing is off base. Well, actually not really. Because in neither case do I believe violence is being promoted. Nas' songs (including "Shoot 'Em Up) tell stories of violence as seen by those in the streets. But it fascinates me when the greater society tries to somehow attach a homogenous stigma on all rap. In reality, people like Nas, Common, and Talib Kweli produce music that speaks more to self-improvement and elevated consciousness than violence and destruction. It's also pretty unnerving to think that rappers like that would somehow try to cherry-pick violence-centered songs at a place devasted by killing (VT). Similarly, suspending a kid for a drawing that shows no evidence of psychological danger is in itself distrubingly alarmist.

Finally, with the Jena Six: One of the major problems with their case is that they're being tried for attempted murder; which carries with it a maximum of up to life in prison. I mean, who hasn't been in a fight before? Hell, not even people in the Pistons/Pacers brawl were slapped with anything more than minor assault charges. Besides that, this case is unfortunate because Jena officials failed to act on the other racially charged events that led up to this altercation. Nooses being hung from trees, a white guy pulling a shotgun on two teens (who were able to wrestle the gun from the white guy; only to later get charged for theft of his gun), and the racial build up to the fight itself. Essentially, this case is about looking the other way as the instigators cause all the trouble while [viciously] attacking the folks who respond to it.