Published on Wednesday, 30 July 2008 .
So do you remember Republican Senator Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens of Alaska, who, in addition to advocating for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, was famous for the following rant against network neutrality:
I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially…
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.
It’s a series of tubes.
And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
Yeah, so while he is aware that the internet is “not a truck”, he isn’t aware of what constitutes a felony. He also had a “series of tubes” on the brain, as that’s exactly one of the “undisclosed” gift he received from the VECO Corporation. A little Keith Olbermann for your watching pleasure:
A photo from Arlington West in Santa Barbara, as supported by the Veterans for Peace.
There are times I really wonder if this war is a part of our national consciousness, or whether it is merely an inconvenience - like a writer’s strike, a recession, or an election. To be frank, I am not a fan of the military - but as the son of a Vietnam veteran and the best-friend of someone who served in Bosnia, I try to view these sorts of issues in ways other than black and white.
The fact is that I am a humanist before I am a nationalist. While there won’t be tributes like Arlington West for the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who perished, I can’t help but think about the 4081 casualties of our U.S. troops and wonder why they had to die without being cynical about the answer.
That’s what I’ll be thinking about today. That, and the price of gas…
Published on Thursday, 27 March 2008 .
I’m missing everyone’s birthday these days, but Mitch Benn reminded me of a birthday that I really should have remembered. So Happy Birthday War!
I received this comment over the weekend from someone calling himself BorderRaven in Quote the Raven, ¡Nunca Más!. Yes, he just responded to a post I made ten months ago. Typing… hard? Words…. elusive? Point… nonsensical!
Save Our State is a bunch of well-informed people who follow a Patriotic stance to protect our nation against the long term failures of the elected government to enforce immigration laws. We ar not an anti-immigration group, but an anti-illegal-immigration group. We stand on the street to confront the evidence of failed government, and we vote. After you read the US Constitution and Amendments, read the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, the Gadsen Purchase Treaty and the Capitualtion of Couenga. Spain ruled the area for a few hundred years before Mexico took control, but Mexico ruled for 37 years. This is America, there is a border, and we will fight to preserve our sovereignty.
Citing 150+ year old treaties means oh so much in relation to our modern immigration situation. Hey, there was another American institution in existence during the signing of these treaties that would be right up Save Our State’s alley!
Why bother addressing current U.S economic policy responsible for decimating the agricultural sector in Mexico and, therefore, driven jobs that were once plentiful in Mexico to the United States? No, let’s simply reduce the conversation to a bunch of nationalist ideology tinged with standard racist rhetoric and wrap it tightly in some insane form of patriotic fervor. It’s the perfect recipe to get the ill-informed all riled up. Hell, maybe you can even get Lou Dobbs to throw out some bogus leprosy statistics to help fuel the paranoia about these “dirty brown people”.
But all of that is irrelevant.
Southern Poverty Law Center and the Intelligence Project has categorized four chapters of Save Our State as tried and true, bonafide hate groups. Groups like Save Our State are a blight on this country, and the people involved in these kinds of organizations should be ashamed of themselves.
We don’t need to protect our sovereignty from illegal aliens. We need to protect our sovereignty from groups like Save Our State.
Cartoon by Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Matt Davies
I took this photo Friday, March 7th. Granted, it’s known as one of the most, if not the most, expensive gas stations in Santa Barbara County. However, it’s not even Spring, and we’re already looking at a top price per gallon of a literal fraction under $4.00. It’s enough to make you want to pull your hair out.
And speaking of record profits for the oil companies, I can’t help but post a short quote (from Big Oil’s Record Profit Inspires Democrats to Seek $1.8 Billion, Bloomberg.com, 10 March 2008):
Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips reported earnings of almost $10 million an hour in the fourth quarter.
It’s their little way of saying, “Go fuck yourself, America! P.S. Thanks for the oil wars!”.
The article goes on to talk about the Congressional Democrats plan to cut the tax breaks given to oil companies, fueled (ha!) by the Democrats’ concern over the record profits earned by oil companies at the expense of the American consumer. They plan to “repeal a tax credit for domestic oil and natural-gas production and roll back a break for income from foreign crude…” Bwah ha he ha ha he he! My sides hurt! Oh… my sides hurt!
Oh, those Democrats really had me going there, for a moment - all this talk about “doing something” and all. Good one, guys!
