A musical Dedication

To Teddy Kennedy, I hope you love this one as much as I do From, Rob

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!

The comprehensive "piece of crap" (aka Immigration bill) has been wounded. Most likely mortally! All I can say is that Cornyn and Hutchison, both R-Texas, voted the right way. Some illuminating quotes on this one: "Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues," Bush said. They did, GW. They came together and said to themselves "Holy shit, the unwashed masses are really pissed about this and no matter how much special interest money I might get, or what great pork I can trade for, I better kill it or find another day job." "Everyone knows that our immigration laws are broken," Schumer said. "And a country loses some of its greatness when it can't fix a problem that everyone knows is broken. And that's what happened today." Let's explore that logic, Chucky. A government fails to enforce the laws that is passes. Should they: a. Quit fucking around and enforce the laws they have b. Quit fucking around and at least "try" to enforce the laws they have c. Fuck around, yet eventually enforce the laws they have d. Have a shit flinging monkey fest in which they solve nothing, call their own people racist, ignore the voters and generally fuck around, other than making a bunch of law breaking people legal and giving them free crap. It seems that in Washington logic, D is the congressman's answer. Or at least it would have been, until thousands to millions of people gave a collective "WTF" to their officials and told them that we'll let you play your stupid political games all day long but America, for the most part, expects you to not give our country away. I still expect that the next election will have a great deal of turn over just from this issue alone and well it should. So for all the congressional members consider this your notice, much like the one that the old media establishment received over "Rathergate" and the like: The Internet has leveled the field. You once thought that the people were stupid and easy to fool. Individually, that very well may be. But collectively, we are smarter than you, we have more time than you, we have a more vested interest than you and we are watching you. If you try to screw us, we will notice and we will return the favor, in spades.

Non-binding resolutions

Today, the House is debating a "non-binding resolution" regarding the war. Are they going to pull funding, stop the war, limit troops, bring our troops home or any of the things that the Democrats promised before the election? Are they going to provide a new direction, put forth a new plan, start up diplomacy or show us how they have "a better way?" Let's see. Here is the proposal, in it's entirety: IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. SKELTON (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, and Mr. JONES of North Carolina) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on ______ CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq. Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That— (1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and (2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq. Take note, Democratic voters, this is what your vote got you for the 06 elections. Their whole plan has boiled down to "we disapprove of the President." All the stuff that they promised you, they knew they couldn't do it. Oh sure, they might really care about the troops and they might really want to stop the war and they really might have a better idea, but we haven't seen it exicuted. Have we? Either they lied to you or they don't hold the strength of their own convictions to stand up and fight for it. That's between you guys and them, though. Me. I'm stuck with the House full of people who's sole response is a non-binding resolution that expresses disapproval. Well pardon me for being underwhelmed by their efforts. This is nothing more that Domestic politics in the face of a international issue in which their own words damage the reputation of our country and embolden the enemies of our nation, thereby endangering our troops. It's sad and pathetic. I may disagree with the Democrats on a lot of issues but I do wish that they were the party of John F Kennedy instead of Teddy Kennedy. At least JFK had the conviction and patriotism to stand in the face of the Cuba missile Crisis and not play with the domestic political agenda instead of dealing with the business at hand. You're a pale shadow of what you used to be, Democrats. Find your love of the country and consider it closely because this, non-binding partisanship, is not what you promised us, nor what we need.

The benefits of a classical education

One of the bonuses for those who read this blog of me going back to school is that it makes my posts even more erratic and less cohesive. It's like giving the poo flinging monkey more poo from new diverse sources. It's exciting! So today's concept is one that had totally passed out of my memory. I had initially learned about it in art school when we were discussing the origins of painting pigments and the various plants that were used in different times. However, it showed up today in my biology class during a discussion of the history of Binomial nomenclature. The term is the Doctrine of Signature and it refers to an ancient European philosophy that held that plants bearing parts that resembled human body parts, animals, or other objects, had useful relevancy to those parts, animals or objects. So what does that mean? It means back in the day, since a walnut looks kinda like a brain, if you had a brain ailment or a headache, they'd treat that by having you eat or otherwise ingest walnuts. If you had a liver issues they'd give you liverwort. Now it seems like a backward idea today, but back then they considered the shape of the article to be an expression of it's powers. Of course that would never work, but just in case I'm sending a boatload of these to Washington. Of course, I'll probably have to soak Ted Kennedy's in gin.

Kennedy Released from Hospital

Mass. Senator in good spirits, still dazed. FP Washington D.C. - Senator Ted Kennedy was released from Georgetown University Medical Center Wednesday night with only minor bruising and abrasions after being smacked across the face by Judge Samuel Alito's crank. Judge Alito's zipper trout left a mushroom-shaped imprint on Kennedy's right cheek but the senator suffered no broken bones. The hearing loss was only temporary. The assault happened quickly and no one was really aware of what happened until afterwards. Senator Leahy was seated next to Kennedy. "We were just digging through our notes during a lull in the hearings when all of a sudden there was a loud thud and Sen. Kennedy slumped over in his seat," Leahy said. Spectators were unsure what sparked the ire of Alito's meat hammer. "We can only guess as to why it happened," said Senator Feinstein. "I don't suspect the Senate or even Senator Kennedy himself will order investigations into the matter." The matter brought an end to day three in the confirmation hearings. Democratic Senators grilled Alito with tough questions and biting statements. The latest unofficial poll of the Senate showed that Alito is now expected to be confirmed to the Supreme court in the range of 95+ votes for. ***** Thanks Rodge and welcome, C&S readers. More FIU

**BREAKING** Must credit FIU Press

News channel at a loss for controversy explanation FP Only a week removed from previous woes, FoxNews is now having to explain why an apparent warning sign appeared briefly over Sen. Ted Kennedy's head during a live news broadcast. "We're not sure what happened but as soon as we find out, we will release a statement," said Joel Williams, a spokesman for FoxNews Channel. It was a typical day on Capitol Hill, when apparently a warning sign appeared on screen as soon as the camera focused in on Sen. Kennedy. It wasn't immediately known what the sign read. Pundits were quick to explain the possibilities. Some speculated it was just a random computer glitch. Another analyst thought it could be a misplaced public service announcement. A more sinister scenario included an intentional attempt to obscure Sen. Kennedy's face. A CNN employee who wished to remain anonymous suggested "[I]t was probably just more right-wing Rethuglican hackery over at Faux News. Stupid top-rated [expl] [expl]-holes." Of those who theorized a possible misplaced public service announcement, it was unsure whether the ad was for pool-side safety or travel warnings for Massachusetts and D.C. highways. Previous... More FIU Thanks Will, Marc, Ace, Mike P. and Nickie G.