Sea of red, or not?

This is an image of "red" and "blue" states as of the 2004 election. Seems like a sea of red. It's the most dominant, as if the blue has been marginalized or retreating.



This is the same image based on population. More people live in blue states than in red ones. Rhode Island, with a population of 1.1 million is roughly twice the size of Wyoming, which has 500,000.


Comp Sci Dept at University of Michigan

How's this sound?

I pledge Allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America. And to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all.

When...

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag carrying the Cross."
- Sinclair Lewis

The trick.

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."
- Robert Frost

Tom DeLay Indicted, Frist Investigated.

"If you needed any more evidence that this country desperately needs new leadership in Congress, this provides it. They have the wrong priorities, as evidenced by the choices they've made on the economy, health care, education, and the role of government in saving in protecting its citizens in times of crisis.

And now it's clear that they've completely lost their way when it comes to issues of ethics and integrity. The House Majority Leader's been indicted, and the Senate Majority Leader is under investigation."

Always.

"The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say."
- Tom Stoppard

Then...

At today's congressional hearing into FEMA's bungling of the Katrina aftermath, ex-FEMA director Michael Brown said:

"FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications."

Then what exactly does it do?

Your tax dolllars at waste?

From DailyKos:

"Democrats are now the party of fiscal sanity and responsibility."

Less than half

Only four out of the nine Congressional districts of the state of Tennessee have Republican representatives in Congress. Less than 50 percent. If you are from the state of Tennessee there is a better than 50 percent chance you have a Democratic representative. This means that people in these districts vote Democratic.

So how is it considered a "red state"? The eastern part of the state was dominantly Republican during the Civil War, as it still is. However, Republican then meant you supported Abraham Lincoln. Sixteenth President of the United States? Remember him? Emancipation Proclamation? Gettysburg Address? Ringing any bells? Lincoln is still hailed as the greatest Republican (like, ever). But people who identify themselves now as Republican and proudly Confederate, vote against what their party stood for. This is ignorance and hypocrisy. More of the former.

Philosophy of Life.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

Did you know...?

It takes just one quart of oil to contaminate two million gallons of fresh water.

Go.

"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me."
- Noel Coward

Test: Are you American?

From DailyKos:

1. You decide that the relationship with your partner is over. How do you break the news you are leaving?
a) Leave a tearful note on the table and slip quietly away
b) Calmly discuss the reasons with your partner for your decision
c) Attack them with a chair in front of a rabble of cheering pumped-up inbreds on national television.

2. You and your mates decide to have a game of football in the park. What do you need to take?
a) A ball
b) A ball and 2 coats
c) A ball 50 crash helmets, 4 tons of body armour, 20 cheerleaders, a marching sousaphone band with a grand piano on a trolley, and a team of orthopaedic surgeons specialising in spinal injuries.

3. You are driving along a country road when you accidentally run over a rabbit. What do you do?
a) Stop and see how badly injured it is, taking it to a vet if it is still alive
b) Carry on driving, but hope it is still alive, or if not, that it died quickly
c) Strap it across the bonnet of your car and drive home hollering, whooping and throwing empty Budweiser cans out of the window.

4. You wake up in the morning with a stiff neck after sleeping in an awkward position. What do you do?
a) Ignore it. It will probably loosen up as the day progresses
b) Take a couple of aspirins and get on with things.
c) Take yourself to a prostitute-addicted TV evangelist faith healer in an ill-fitting wig, who will lay his hands on you head, whilst screaming about the devil in front of an audience of gibbering inbreds.

5. What do you have for breakfast?
a) A bowl of Cornflakes, slice of toast and a mug of tea
b) Glass of orange juice, croissant and a cup of coffee
c) A bag of donuts with ice cream, a 32 ounce steak with six eggs sunny side-up, fifteen pancakes with maple syrup, a ten waffles, five corn dogs and a diet root beer.

6. You and your partner decide to take the plunge and get married. What sort of ceremony do you have?
a) A quiet party with a few friends in a registry office
b) A church service followed by a traditional reception at a hotel
c) A minute long mockery at a 24 hour drive-through chapel in Las Vegas, presided over by a transvestite vicar dressed as Elvis.

7. Your 14-year-old son is going through a difficult phase, becoming disruptive at school and reclusive at home. What do you do?
a) Don't worry. Its just a phase and will pass.
b) Encourage him to get out more, get involved in team sports or join a youth club.
c) Take him to an armoury and buy him an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons and enough ammunition to slaughter a small town.

8. You fancy a night in watching something funny on TV. What kind of comedy do you choose?
a) A sitcom like Fawlty Towers or Father Ted
b) A sketch show like the Two Ronnies or the Fast show
c) A thinly disguised morality play set in a massive lounge where the audience whoop for ten minutes every time an overpaid actor with a superglued grin on his face makes an entrance to deliver a lightweight wisecrack.

9. Whilst getting ready for bed, you stub your toe on your wife's dressing table. What do you do?
a) Shout and swear a bit, after all, it did hurt
b) Make a mental note to move the table so it doesn't happen again
c) Immediately call a hotshot lawyer with an uptown reputation, and sue your wife's ass.

10. There are peace talks in another part of the world. What do you do?
a) Let them get on with it but offer your advice if needed
b) Let them get on with it and offer help to both sides
c) Ignore all parties wishes and protests and take over the talks.

11. There are global concerns about the emissions from cars, do you:
a) Introduce incentives to switch to cleaner cars
b) Invent a new cleaner fuel
c) Continue to use and invent dirtier cars, ignoring the global concerns about the emissions.

12. There is a war in another part of the world, do you:
a) Monitor to see if Human rights are being infringed and step in when necessary
b) Monitor to see if Human rights are being infringed and bring the culprits to justice
c) Invade the country flattening all buildings, fire at all allied and enemy airplanes killing people no matter which side they're on. After all, a kill is a kill.

13. Your city has been the victim of a terrorist attack you should:
a) Treat victims, clean up and find those responsible
b) Treat victims, clean up and find those responsible and bring them to justice
c) Treat victims, clean up and find those responsible, but continue to support and fund terrorist activities abroad.

14. You're on holiday abroad, do you:
a) Enjoy the local culture and food
b) Enjoy the local culture and food but look forward to getting home
c) Complain and whinge that the country that you are visiting is nothing like home.

15. You are fat and unhealthy, do you:
a) Diet and exercise
b) Do nothing
c) Eat even more and try to be the fattest person of all time.
==============================================

Answers:
If you answered mostly (a)'s & (b)'s then you are a normal well balanced individual.

If you answered mostly (c)'s you are a complete American.

GOP in TENN?

SurveyUSA recently released poll of gubernatorial approval ratings:

Governor Phil Bredesen (D-TN) has a higher approval rating among Republicans (53%) than Democrats (47%).

People with a college and post-graduate degrees approved him 57% and 54%, respectively. Half of those without college degrees disapproved of him.

I'm sure you know what this means, right?

Oh, good, cuz I don't.

That's it...?

From MSNBC.com:

"The Democratic Party’s most powerful constituencies — gays, feminists, African-Americans, environmentalists — would be chagrined to see Democratic senators join the Republican majority to give Bush a landmark victory by confirming Roberts."

This almost seems like commentary disguised as a journalistic piece. I vote Democratic, but I'm obviously not in any of these categories. Why can't just regular-every-day-Joes be considered "powerful constituencies"? Everyone has to be pigeonholed into a specific category. A lot of people vote Republican who aren't right-wing nutjobs (as I like to call them). They're just for small government and less taxes. That the current actions of Republicans don't fit that description is irrelevant. From this article, Democrats are the equivalent of the Green Party. Inconsequential. Rather hard to justify when you are in 40-45% of elected government in the nation.

Maybe they'll quit stereotyping Dems, when we stop calling them "nut jobs." Just maybe.

For real.

There are probably some Iraqis wondering what they have to do to get a Gulf Opportunity Zone.

Scoop

The reason I read blogs is find the "unofficial" version to everything. Double-super-secret deep background, as they say.

Find your own "real" news at http://blogsearch.google.com/

"Take a hint..."

Bill Maher:

"On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side."

Barack Obama (D-IL)

Quoted from MSNBC.com:

"I hope we realize that the people of New Orleans weren't just abandoned during the hurricane. They were abandoned long ago—to murder and mayhem in the streets, to substandard schools, to dilapidated housing, to inadequate health care, to a pervasive sense of hopelessness."

Word. For. Word.

"Extending the war into Iraq would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Exceeding the U.N.'s mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

from Why We Didn't Remove Saddam
- by George H.W. Bush

"You're trying to do what?"

From Eleanor Clift:

"...if somebody had tried to withdraw a feeding tube from a brain-damaged woman at the Superdome, Bush would have sent in the Marines..."

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Oh, yeah. It's on like Donkey Kong!

October 2004

National Geographic article regarding Louisiana Wetlands, from the Fall of 2004.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)...or not

From DailyKos:

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck

FEMA turns away generators (See entry from 3:32 P.M. by Ben Morris, Slidell mayor)

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"

Read carefully

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."

God bless 'em, at least they try.

Godzilla, Louisiana

A colleague just remarked that the footage out of New Orleans resembles the aftermath of a Godzilla movie. I can imagine a sea-monster climbing out of the ocean and wading through the river, before he tosses the top of the Superdome like a Frisbee. This monster was Katrina, and it wasn't fictional.

from AMERICAblog:

"...if all those people in [New Orleans] looked like the cast of Desperate Housewives, would Bush have stayed on vacation until the 3d day AFTER the hurricane hit?"

Bumper sticker.

If you're against gay marriage, don't get one.