FREEDOM AND WEEP
Posted March 27, 2006

Joke of the Week

    An arrogant silver-spoon asshole posing as a down-home bumpkin walks into a talent agent's office and says, "have I got the act for you." He starts the act by wrapping himself in the flag and carrying the cross, and then begins sodomizing the entire armed forces by sending them one by one into an illegal and immoral hellhole of plunder and torture, mumbling "bring it on, bring it on' with every thrust.
    Then he brings in the families of the dead to act out over two thousand military funerals and turns his back on them, pantomiming the ripping up of veteran health benefits while embracing a bed-ridden Mary Matalin made up to look like Terry Schiavo. The Vice President then enters the office and pisses all over the grieving mothers as Donald Rumsfeld watches a writing machine sign the death certificates before wiping his ass with them and handing them to the weeping fathers.
    In an interesting flourish to appeal to a multi-ethnic audience, the bumpkin hangs the families of over 200,000 Iraqis from the roof so they can watch through the office window, screaming in a horror we can't hear since the windows are closed.
    The bumpkin pauses to catch his breath and gargle with a $700 bottle of champagne and the agent tries to kick him out, realizing full well no rational audience in the modern world would sit for such an abysmal vaudeville, let alone pay for it, but the bumpkin points his finger at the agent and tells him to shut up, "No one interrupts me until I want to be interrupted, and then it's not called interruption, it's called dialogue."
    The act then escalates in ways that even the agent is horrified by, and this from a man who during his thin years booked strippers and barn sex acts at backwater Klan rallies.
    The bumpkin brings almost a million people from the South into the tiny office, axes a sewage pipe in the ceiling, and rides on a stationary bike with Lance Armstrong as the drenched descendants of slaves are flushed out into the hallway and onto the street. He and Lance act out riding all the way to California, floating really, atop the flood of shit and piss as a group of retired actors enter to play senior citizens being force fed over-priced Lipitor while the bumpkin lectures them on the biggest threat to their survival - Social Security.
    After sitting through close to eleven hours of an ever-escalating narrative that includes lecturing the heads of India and Pakistan (played by Ron Silver and Stephen Baldwin) on the differences between their cultures, the talent agent - terrified to ask a question and getting labeled either unpatriotic or un-Christian since the bumpkin is still wrapped in the flag and holding the cross - braves a meek interruption in the most subservient tone he can muster;
   "How does it end?"
   To which the bumpkin responds "um," and looks to the wings for a line cue. It is at this moment the agent realizes the bumpkin is in fact not a man at all but a huge puppet, when he sees crouching behind the bumpkin a porcine man whose fake smile barely hides the bitter contempt he has for the puppet, the agent, the potential audience and show business in general, and that this man has his arm up the puppet's ass.
   The puppet turns back to the talent agent and furrows his brow just long enough for the agent to realize it's not resolve that's being expressed but a futile search for something that might sound at once homespun and clever, but, having run out of time on the long road to clever, the puppet simply settles for rude.
   "It never ends," says the puppet.
   Flabbergasted, the agent blurts, "what do you call this act?" knowing the ticket price to such an extravagant epic would surely be out of each for the average theatergoer and would therefore require a pithy title to catch the eye of the uber-rich. The bumpkin pauses for affect and, not knowing what an affect is so much as being dimly aware that smiling sometimes can create one, smiles and replies, "it's called 'Compassionate Conservatism.'"
- Tom Gilroy: The Aristocrats -

Boston Legal to the Rescue

   Two weeks ago, in the "Stick It" episode of ABC's Boston Legal, actor James Spader, as attorney Alan Shore, delivered a speech one might pray someone would have the balls to deliver to Congress, a speech the likes of which I've never heard on television, and it's fucking pathetic that it has to come out of the mouth of a fictional character to get aired on a network. How the hell did this get past network censors?
   A woman has been accused of not paying her income tax. Her attorney doesn't know how to defend her since she admits she's guilty, but he finally rises to the occasion, delivering the following summation to the jury...

    Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up. They didn't. Then when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute. Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorist suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers, certainly we would never stand for that. We did. And now it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive illegal domestic surveillance on its own citizens, you and me, and I at least consoled myself that finally, finally, the American people will have had enough. Evidently we haven't. In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all, torture, warrentless search and seizures, illegal wire tappings, prison without a fair trial or any trial, war on false pretenses, we as a citizenry are apparently not offended. There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there is no clear indication that young people even seem to notice.
   Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think that instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way, made a placard and demonstrated at a presidential or vice-presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The secret service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control, and in effect criminalize protests. Stop for a second and try to fathom that. At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there, if you're wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed. This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America! Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed.(Shaw walks over to the witness chair and sits down)
   Judge: Mr. Shore, that's a chair for witnesses only.
   Shore: Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.
   Judge: Please get out of the chair.
   Shore: Actually, I'm sick and tired.
   Judge: Get out of the chair.
   Shore: (getting out of chair) and what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un-American.
   Prosecutor: Evidently it's speech time.
   Shore: And speech in this country is free, you hack. Free for me, free for you, free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say stick it.
   Prosecutor: Objection!
   Shore: I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry, and God forbid anybody challenge it, they're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American, Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!!
   Judge: Mr. Shore, unless you have anything new and fresh to say please sit down. You've breached the decorum of my court room with all this hooting.
   Shore: Last night I went to bed with a book, not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism." Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles then to live up to them." I know we are all afraid. but the Bill of Rights? We have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes is trying to say. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her.

   The jury finds Hughes "guilty." The judge gives her no jail time, despite the wishes of the prosecution.

   The speech won a well-deserved "Wings of Justice" Award from Buzzflash, and a predicable write-in campaign from Republican wingnuts to cancel the show. Please write to ABC and thank them for having the balls to air it, not to give in to political pressure, and to continue to air one of the best shows on television.

 
 

Your Government at Work

Wonkette got this email from a Marine:

Just to let you know, the US Marines have blocked access to “Wonkette” along with numerous other sites such as personal email (i.e. Yahoo, AT&T, Hotmail, etc), blogs that don’t agree with the government point of view, personal websites, and some news organizations. This has taken effect as of the beginning of February. I have no problem with them blocking porn sites (after all it is a government network), but cutting off access to our email and possibly-not-toeing-the-government-line websites is a bit much.

Initially all web blocking was done locally at the hub sites in Iraq. If you wanted a site “unblocked” you just had to email the local administrator with a reason (like, “I’d like to read my email, please.”), and if it wasn’t porn or offensive, they’d allow it. Now, all blocking is done by desk-weenies at the USMC Network Operations Center in Quantico, VA, who really don’t care if we get our email (or gossip) out here, as they get to go to happy hour after working 9 to 5 and go home to a nice clean, warm home with a real bed! (Sorry, I’m a little peeved.)

Unfortunately anonymizers don’t work out here (never have). Anyway, I had a few minutes today and thought I’d look and see what else was banned on the Marine web here. I think the results speak for themselves:

• Wonkette – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.wonkette.com/) is categorized as: Forum/Bulletin Boards, Politics/Opinion.” 
• Bill O’Reilly (www.billoreilly.com) – OK 
• Air America (www.airamericaradio.com) – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) is categorized as: Internet Radio/TV, Politics/Opinion.” 
• Rush Limbaugh (www.rushlimbaugh.com) – OK 
• ABC News “The Note” – OK 
• Website of the Al Franken Show (www.alfrankenshow.com) – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) is categorized as: Internet Radio/TV, Politics/Opinion.” 
• G. Gordon Liddy Show (www.liddyshow.us) – OK 
• Don & Mike Show (www.donandmikewebsite.com) – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.donandmikewebsite.com/) is categorized as: Profanity, Entertainment/Recreation/Hobbies.” 

I spent four years in the Marines. The idea that this administration would have the chutzpah and gall to ask Marines to “fight for freedoms” while restricting allowable political “news” to that of propagandistic sycophants… I just don’t have the words. 

I am sputtering mad. And then Bush goes before a hand-picked audience and lies about it in the most cynical way. I’ve never witnessed a more disgusting and cynical example of condescending contempt for the American people. He spit in my eye.

Calling All Writers

The Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest is inspired by Wergle's creator, poet David Taub. Mr. Taub submitted "Flubblebop" to poetry.com's ongoing contest to see what would happen.

Flubblebop
by Wergle Flomp 

flobble bobble blop
yim yam widdley woooo
oshtenpopple gurby
yip yip yip
nish-nash nockle nockle
opfem magurby voey
Ahh! "Wurby tictoc?"
"quefoxenjib masaloouterp!"
bim-burm nurgle shliptog
afttowicky wicky wicky
erm addmuksle slibberyjert!
Reqi stoobery bup dinhhk
yibberdy yobberdy hif twizzum moshlap
dwisty fujefti coppen smoppen dob
tigtog turjemy fydel
saxtenvurskej brisleywum
swiggy swiggy swugyumostipijjle dobers! 

The response from poetry.com? "Dear Wergle, After carefully reading and discussing your poem, our Selection Committee has certified your poem as a semi-finalist in our North American Open Poetry Contest... In celebration of the unique talent that you have displayed, we also wish to publish your poem in what promises to be one of the most highly sought after collections of poetry we have ever published... Promises of Love."

The Wergel Flomp Poetry Contest seeks "the best humor poem that has been sent to a 'vanity poetry contest' as a joke. Cash prizes totaling $1,609 will be awarded. This contest is free to enter."

Unsolicited Plug of the Week

Emulsional Problems - Wacked out Polaroids of the Stars: This. Man. Is. Brilliant. B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T. A purveyor of vastly intelligent, hilarious and balls-honest anecdotes. Samuel Clemens smiles down from heaven on this man. Oh! And did I mention the amazing things he does with Polaroid photographs? Not digital manipulation, not collage, with the actual Polaroid itself, manipulating the emulsion as it develops. My mind is blown... and I am reminded, humbly, that I should never attempt to write a review on a Saturday morning before breakfast. ~W (http://wysdom.stumbleupon.com/)

Stupid Question of the Week

Those are Dick Cheney's actual hotel requirements. Here are Osama bin Laden's...

• One 30-pack of Milwaukee's Best beer and a jug of Mountain Dew Code Red
• A 64-inch, high-definition, flat-panel plasma television tuned to Al-Jazeera
• Two packs of Camel non-filtered cigarettes
• A half-pound of fois gras pate and a box of Ritz crackers
• Two unopened bags of Sta-Puff marshmallows
• Five tins of Dinty Moore beef stew
• A half-dozen nubile virgins
• A bag of opium
• An organic buckwheat pillow
• Three unopened canisters of VX nerve gas
• A suitcase containing $50,000 in unmarked U.S. $100 bills
• A Baxter 1550 kidney dialysis machine and six chilled pints of type O blood
• A Gideon Koran in the top drawer of his nightstand 

Thank you humorgazette.com.

What are your hotel requirements?

Answer to Last Issue's Stupid Question

Reese Witherspoon will be trapped playing simple country women, culminating in her role as Aunt Bea in the film "Back to Mayberry, Y'All," also starring Vince Vaughn as Andy Taylor, Macaulay Culkin as a grown-up but dimwitted Opie, and Pauly Shore as Barney Fife; Philip Seymour Hoffman will be sentenced to the lead role in the "Mr. Blackwell Story"; George Clooney will be forced to star in "ER -- The Movie" and every one of its ten dismal sequels; Rachel Weisz will have to endure still never being recognized in trendy restaurants; Ang Lee, suddenly becoming a born-again Christian, will direct the heartwarming chopsocky sequel, "A Walton Family Christmas on Brokeback Mountain" starring Jackie Chan as John Boy and Martin Lawrence as Earl Hamner, Jr; the producers of "Crash," after an all-night crack party, will sink every penny they have in a biopic, "George W. Bush: A True American Idol," released just as impeachment proceedings are convened by Congress in 2007.
- RSJ

    By turning the other cheek, of course -- and since revenge is a dish best served on a chilled plate with a nice French table wine, he'll probably talk the Big Guy into rescheduling the rapture during next year's Oscar ceremony, just to f**k up the television ratings.
   Personally, I suspect he's stopped paying attention to humankind entirely as a symbolic boycott against Mel Gibson's production company. He might be a hostage, stashed in a vast, dark Huntsville, Alabama warehouse by Pat Robertson, along with the Ark of the Covenant and the Templar horde.
   Or perhaps we're all just a little too fixated on external metaphors.
- Cheers, Douglas A. Mitchell

It will begin with the slow but steady back-up of raw sewage beginning in the underground pipes and rising to the street level within a week with an unending flow of putrid stenched effluent for the affluent heathens that neither acknowledged nor bequeathed their talents to one and only Power of the Lord's son, whom shall reek havoc with the bowels of those winners who will have nowhere to relieve themselves, as all the land shall be filled with excrement in every hole and valley surrounding the Kodak Pavilion for a radius of 150 miles. They will choke on their own regurgitated lobster bisque and specialty pizza's from Spago's private party. They will remember their special place as torchbearers for the oppressed, advocates for the needful, benefactors of the downtrodden second-rate nominees whose tuxedos remain unstained by the wrath of Yahweh. Yea, shall the earth be moved and those who shall follow George Clooney shall find their path with the temptations of the diarrhea'd Devil and the trail of odiferous chachkies shall follow them all the days of their lives.
- watermn

    Being omnipotent, Jesus anticipated this, and as you can plainly see, He has already exacted his revenge. Jesus.
   From his misbegotten son, chris from boca
   PS The Virgin Mary is the one you should be concerned with. She will kick your ass for even asking this stupid ass question. 

He will inspire Mel Gibson to produce an imminently Oscar-worthy, but nevertheless highly controversial film, which will win the 2007 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Screenplay. He himself will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lose to Michael Caine for some syrupy chick flick in which he plays an alcoholic in Victorian London.
- way2muchsense

Mike mate
He'll piss on Pat Robertson
- Waldo

Can you say sequels? Sure you can.
- mj hovanec

By making sure more movies like Brokeback Mountain, The Corpse Bride and House of Wax are made. Then he will melt all the glaciers with his angry wrath while simultaneously taking away all poptarts.
- Kristy

Actually, someone from the rap group "Three 6 Mafia" did thank Jesus for the Oscar they received for Original Song from "Hustle and Flow". So I guess he will not be pissed off and we are safe for awhile longer.
- judinebr

"Good news today out of Washington - they haven't paid down the debt or come up with any program to do so. What they did is raise the limit of debt we can go to, to $9 trillion. It sends a great message to the kids: 'Hey are you getting an F? Don't study harder. Just make the grading curve go out to K! Then your F looks like a C!'"
- Jon Stewart -

"The mightiest of weapons is truth. And everyone knows you're not allowed to bring a weapon into a government building."
- John Alejandro King -

    "Merely labeling some situation a 'war' cannot call the President's rightful powers as 'Commander in Chief' into operation, let alone boundlessly expand those powers. The so-called 'war on terror' is not the unique example of such martial political hyperbole bombarding this country today. Simultaneously, Americans are exhorted to acquiesce in enlarged governmental powers to fight 'the war on crime,' 'the war on drugs,' 'the war on poverty,' and even 'the war on obesity.' Does anyone believe, though, that under color of (say) waging a 'war on obesity' the President could declare McDonald's employees 'enemy combatants' and its fatty foods 'weapons of mass destruction,' could deploy the Armed Forces to occupy its restaurants, or could even tap its phones without submitting to judicial review?
   "Constitutionally speaking, 'war' is a very specific set of legal relations between two or more independent nations. For the most obvious example, in an actual 'war' soldiers of one nation may, within certain limits, intentionally kill soldiers of another nation without thereby being guilty of murder. Thus, according to strict constitutional logic, a 'war on terror' is an existential impossibility -- if only because 'terror' is a tactic, not a country; and 'terrorists' do not constitute one or more independent nations, but at most are mere bands of private criminals. True, a clandestine or irregular armed force of some nation could employ the tactics of "terrorists" on behalf of that nation. Then, however, any 'war' would be waged against that nation as a whole, not against just the 'terrorists' as individuals. Thus, not surprisingly, Congress has never exercised its constitutional power '[t]o declare War' to declare a 'war on terror.' See Article I, Section 8, Clause 11.
   "Perhaps even more importantly, Congress has not declared 'war' on Iraq, either, even though such a declaration would be formally possible, and notwithstanding that the President has launched an invasion of that independent nation, overthrown its once-legitimate (if obnoxious) government, occupied its territory, and imposed a new regime on its people. This absence of Congressional action is consequential, because only Congress has the power '[t]o declare War.' And the Constitution plainly understands that, absent such a declaration from the only source authorized to pronounce it, a 'War' cannot be conducted legally by the United States.
   "That the Constitution entrusts the power '[t]o declare War' to Congress alone is no historical accident, but rather is of profound legal significance. Under pre-constitutional English law, the King (the English Executive) had essentially unilateral, personal power to thrust a war upon his countrymen. If the Constitution had said nothing explicit about the power '[t]o declare War,' that power would have passed by implication to the President under 'the executive Power.' Article II, Section 1, Clause 2. By placing the power '[t]o declare War' among '[a]ll legislative Powers herein granted' (Article I, Section 1), the Constitution transformed that power from an Executive to a Legislative power. Nothing could more clearly indicate that the Constitution denies the President any pretense of power himself either '[t]o declare War' or to involve this country in actions usually appropriate only after such a declaration has been made. (For example, ordering American soldiers intentionally to kill the soldiers of some other nation, under color of the claim that such killings are not simply criminal homicides but are justified by the laws of war.)
   "Revealingly, the absence of a declaration of 'War' by Congress against any nation allegedly deploying 'terrorists' evidences the disbelief of Congressmen that a case can be made that any nation has actually (if perhaps surreptitiously) attacked the United States in that manner. And that some sort of aggressive attack is necessary for 'War' the Constitution makes plain."
- Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D.: The Constitution Limits the President Even as "Commander in Chief" -

"The smallest pay raise for troops in more than a decade and billions of dollars for expensive weapons programs highlight the proposed 2007 defense budget unveiled Monday by the Bush administration."
- The Army Times -

"A country is not only what it does, it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates."
- Kurt Tucholsky -

"It is time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It's not their government, it's your government. They work for you. They're public employees - and if they let us down and sell us out, they should be fired. That goes for the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the President of the United States."
- Bill Moyers: Saving Democracy -

"You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both."
- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis -

"We are the only people in the world required by law to take large amounts of money from strangers and then act as if it has no effect on our behavior."
- Congressman Barney Frank -

    "The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.
    "Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they 'restrain trade.' Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.
   "These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.
    "At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called 'free trade' policies have  left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other 'low cost' retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.
    "So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The 'things' they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources."
- Thom Hartmann: When Americans No Longer Own America -

"Many electric utility companies across the nation are collecting billions of dollars from their customers for corporate income taxes, then keeping the money rather than sending it to the government. The practice is legal in most states. The companies say it is smart business."
- David Cay Johnston: Many Utilities Collect for Taxes They Never Pay -

"The $35 an hour skilled auto worker lost his job to a Mexican who made one tenth the amount. After losing his job, the auto worker might have begun bagging groceries in Safeway for $12 an hour; so did his wife, who used to stay home with the kids. Compare their combined $24 an hour with his previous $35. But thanks to NAFTA, the family had two jobs instead of one. And, a third job arose from this new economic agreement: the couple hired a baby sitter for $7 an hour."
- Saul Landau: The Country's Going to Hell at Home and Abroad -

"It is also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion."
- Aristotle -

    "The fact that corporate interests dominate government agencies that regulate them is not new. This has been going on for decades. Furthermore, multinational corporations and their cartels have always been the largest source of funding for the environmental movement. Without corporate funding and grants from tax-exempt foundations that the corporations control, the environmental movement as we know it wouldn't even exist. Their game plan is brilliant: Use environmentalism as an excuse for expanding government power in all aspects of life; strengthen their already substantial control over every level of government; make sure that they themselves are exempt from any unmanageable restrictions on their ability to operate at a profit; use those same restrictions to destroy competition from any business venture outside the cartel; and create a world-wide corporate state, based on the model of collectivism, which they fondly describe as The New World Order. Once you understand this game plan, the thrust for global power under the banner of environmentalism becomes painfully clear.
    "It's essentially the same tactic used on all fronts. Whether it is the war on pollution, terrorism, crime, drugs, pornography, or any other evil, those leading the war and banging the drums don't give a hoot about any of them. Their primary concern is to whip up public support for the expansion of their power and funding under the pretense of combating evil. Unfortunately, with the corporate mass media solidly in their camp, it is difficult for the average person to see through this ploy and escape the trap."
- G. Edward Griffin: Environmentalism Question - Wrong Assumptions -

"Anything can happen, but it usually doesn't."
- Robert Benchley: The Ice-Breaker -

"No one expects a Mrs. Fields cookie to be good for you, but who would guess that a single Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate & Walnuts cookie has more than 300 calories and as much saturated fat as a 12-ounce sirloin steak? It's also got six teaspoons of sugar. If you can't resist Mrs. Fields, share the smallest bag of Nibblers (six half-ounce cookies) with a friend. Or walk a few feet and look for a piece of fruit at another store instead."
- Ten Foods You Should Never Eat, #5 -

    "Upset over President Bush's secret and possibly illegal domestic wiretapping program, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin introduced a resolution on Monday censuring the President. Finally! Now is the time for the Democrats to stand up to the administration's blatant violation of the law with a largely symbolic bit of political theater!
   "Censuring, of course, is Congress-speak for a statement of official disapproval. A motion to censure is considered far less severe than impeachment, which has happened to two presidents, but more formal than spanking, as Herbert Hoover learned the hard way.
   "Though unlikely to pass, Feingold feels the motion is an important step towards accountability, saying, 'We all believe that there should be wiretapping in appropriate cases but the idea that the president can just make up a law in violation of his oath of office has to be answered.'
    "Unfortunately for Feingold, the President then immediately signed into law the 'President Can Just Make Up A Law In Violation Of His Oath Of Office' Act of 2006."
- Daily Show Web Headlines -

"A person getting enlightened is like the moon reflecting in the water. The moon does not get wet, the water is not disturbed. Though it is a great expanse of light, it reflects in a little bit of water; the whole moon and the whole sky reflect even in the dew on the grass; they reflect even in a single drop of water. Enlightenment not disturbing the person is like the moon not piercing the water. A person not obstructing enlightenment is like the dewdrop not obstructing the heavens."
- Dogen: Flowers Fall -

"Blame someone else and get on with your life."
- Alan Woods -

"A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment."
- Willis Player -

"To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author."
- Charles Caleb Colton -

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."
- Peter Ustinov -

"It is up to us to reveal the truth. It is up to us because we owe it to the families, we owe it to the victims. We owe it to everybody's life who was drastically altered, horrifically that day and forever. We owe it to them to uncover what happened."
- Actor Charlie Sheen Questions Official 9/11 Story -

"Don't take Umbrage^®. The side effects are horrible. Try Xanex^®." 
- Horace J. Digby -