A Trapdoor In The Sun

As more money flowed through Washington and as Washington's power to regulate our lives grew, opportunities and temptations for graft, influence peddling and cutting corners grew exponentially. Power breeds corruption. - Steve Forbes We the People. These three words open the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, a document regarded by most as the cornerstone of the American democratic experience. When Gouverneur Morris wrote the preamble, he was of course referring to the common man. The words were to represent the individuals that made up the American union. The Preamble itself was a statement documenting the purpose of the Constitution, and whom it's laws applied to and protected. I propose changing the terminology. I propose rewording these three words to read: We the Corportation. After all, let's get realistic here... who is running our country and who reaps the benefits thereof? The recent Abrhamoff scandals rocking Congress and K Street may only represent a small exampl...

What's worse than a Libertarian? A LINO... or Libertarian in Name Only. Meet Jonathan Leffingwell over at the pseudo-libertarian blog Crush Liberalism . You see, if you argue with Jon's extreme right-wing bullshit topics long enough, like most Bush apologists out there in the blogosphere...he gets itchier with that ban-nation trigger than an intoxicated Cheney at a drive-by quail hunt. Apparently, I must have pushed a few buttons as I'm banned from commenting. That's not surprising though... as it is ingrained in wingnut philosophy to silence what one either cannot defend or that presents an open window to reality. What is surprising is that he accused ME of trying to pass myself off as a Libertarian. Wha wha wha? [snip] And don't peddle your "I'm a libertarian" garbage here, since you spout the Kos kiddies' talking points verbatim. I noticed at Lisa Renee's "Liberal Common Sense" blog that you mention your support for the DNC, your v...

Found this over at You Tube... pretty funny...

Welp. I'll be taking the rest of the week off from my little Blogger console. We'll be attending a Yugo wedding in North Jersey with my in-laws. I'm envisioning scenes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Hopefully, some crazy old guy won't be squirting me with Windex. We'll also get to see a little bit of the Big Apple... a first for myself. We'll get to see some sites and be nice and touristy! Peace and have a good weekend! Pictures here

Got a gun, fact I got two That's O.K. man, cuz I love god Glorified version of a pellet gun Feels so manly, when armed Glorified version of a pellet gun Double think, dumb is strength Never shot at a living thing Glorified version of a pellet gun Feels so manly, when armed Glorified version of a pellet gun Glorified version of a... Always keep it loaded Kindred to be an American... Life comes...I can feel your heart... Ooh...life comes... I can feel your heart through your neck... Glorified...glorified... Headline: Sydney Morning Herald Lyrics: Pearl Jam/Glorified G./Vs. In the name of free enterprise, some profiteer is already exploiting this poor lawyer's tragic accident . This one is actually funnier.

Old picture, however, still funny. Have a good weekend.

I've been rereading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn over the last week or so. Yeah, you're probably sitting there thinking, "Geez, Andrew, Ishmael is a pretty short book! It's taking you several weeks to read it?" All I can offer you in that regards is a hearty STFU! I rode the short bus to school, okay? Ishmael, if you've never read it, is a philosophical guide to life, environmental responsibility and eco-social understanding, sort of packaged up as a fictional novel. Ishmael is a highly educated lowland gorilla whose purpose in life is to educate human beings as to "the way things came to be this way". The actual character of Ishmael is non-descript. We discover little about his history or how he learned to communicate (telepathically) with his pupils. All of that is superficial at best, as it lends nothing to the real meat and bones of the book. What is important though, is that Ishmael is a non-human habitant of Earth, witnessing and relating the stor...

Who knew Pittsburgh would come to the game with their own 12th man? First of all, I don't want to take anything away from Bill Cowher or the Steelers team. They worked against the odds to get to the Super Bowl and played a hard fought game. But, that being said, they didn't earn the Lombardi trophy last night. They were handed it by the officiating crew. Overall, the Steelers had three big plays in the game, two of which actually resulted in an "earned" touchdown. The first was a touchdown given to the Steelers when Ben Rothleswhatshisname was downed inside the 1 yard line on 3rd and goal. Although he made a valiant effort to get the tip of the ball past the plane of the goal line, after watching it several times in replay, it's obvious that this didn't actually happen. After the officials watched it several times in replay, though, it was obvious that this was going to be a night of one-sided officiating. One would wonder if these clowns were previously empl...

The Toypresidents George W. Bush talking doll plays back 25 prerecorded soundbites, all of which either talk about freedom, terrrist, or September 11th. What wonderful words of wit do you believe is missing from this bumbling Ken? "It's clearly a budget, it's got lots of numbers." "These pretzels are making me..*cough cough*" "No, what I said to Tony Blair was, 'Al Jazeera is tha bomb.'" Doll actually says nothing. Transceiver and earpiece are sold separately. "Watch this drive." And the winner is... Sweet! Finally, I have a bookend-piece to complete my "American Heroes" action figure set ("Flight-Suit George" had been the coolest, until now!) - RK,DS

America is unofficially bankrupt. Meanwhile, tucked into some military spending bill... Makes you wonder if Bush is going to make good on that pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2008. Let's just say I wouldn't place any large wagers on the probability of that occuring. So, given that information, does extending and making tax cuts permanent make a whole lot of sense? Or do the tax cuts only hurt our economy? Well, you don't have to go to college, or try to pay for going to college to come up with the answer .

Exxon Mobil sets record profit in Q4. Let's hear it for unfettered capitalism! Exxon Mobil Corp. set U.S. records for annual and quarterly profits Monday as it easily topped fourth-quarter earnings forecasts. The nation's largest oil company reported net income in the fourth quarter of $10.7 billion, or $1.71 a share, compared to $8.4 billion, or $1.30 a share, a year earlier. Excluding items, Exxon Mobil ( Research ) earned $10.3 billion, or $1.65 per share, topping a consensus forecast of $1.44 a share from analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. It also topped the record for quarterly profits it set in the third quarter, when it earned $9.9 billion. Shares of Exxon Mobil gained 2 percent in early-afternoon trading, helping to take the Dow into positive territory. For the year the company earned net income of $36.1 billion, or $33.9 billion excluding special items. That's up 31 percent from the $25.9 billion it earned on that basis year earlier. Exxon Mobil...

Bush's press conference, yesterday. Photo courteously stolen from Yahoo! " Did I leave the toaster on? Hmmm....toast. I lahk toast!" "Note to self. Remind staffers to get this damn wire fixed. I can barely hear the lines Rove is feeding me." "Damn... I thought I told that intern to plant the remote camera so it would take out Helen Thomas, but she's still there!" "I'll answer your question about my impeachable activities as soon as a pop this massive zit on my cheek. Stand back!" "Where's McClellan? Isn't he supposed to be the one out here capitulating the propaganda?" And the winner is... "Maybe Laura will let me wear the spurs next time. Man that smarts..." - Rambler Joe Snitty Runners up... "It's hard not to pick. That is to say, it's hard work. By that I mean, it's hard, hard work not to pick." - Rex Kramer, Danger Seeker "Thirty-five months and seven days...how many hours do...

Ever since Hillary Clinton's overreaching Universal Health Care project fell flat in the 90's, we constantly hear Republicans tying the very idea of government sponsored healthcare to Communism and Socialism. Privatization supposedly offers more choices and provides a lower overall cost to the consumer. In theory, they are somewhat correct. In practice, however, that is not the case. The healthcare industry is rapidly consolidating. There are maybe five major players nationally at this point, and as with what is happening to many American industries, you can pretty much make a safe bet that in the next few years, there will be even less choices. Much of this is due to deregulatory legislation that has been very healthy for corporate America over the last few years. I think this is one of the major drawbacks of an unfettered Capitalistic economy. When there are no stops in place, the Corporation is allowed to grow and absorb all that it can, thus eliminating competition and incr...

From Time.com [snip]As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought to portray the scandal as a Capitol Hill affair with little relevance to them. Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff's visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few "staff-level meetings" that were not worth describing further. "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him," McClellan said. The President's memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And th...

One of my recent blogs is the featured piece over at Bring It On!.. sort of a blogging/diary collective. Funny, though Bring It On! is probably more of a liberal site than conservative, I actually found it while browsing through some conservative blogs. It's an interesting idea though, and I'd love to see more partisan views pop up there.

So I did a little bit of ego surfing the other day.... and found that there is quite a few weblogs/sites out there that are plagerizing my sitename in one form or another. How dare they!? Don't they realize, that even though WMD has only been around a year (one year last week actually), that I thought up this little play on words years ago, and had only recently decided that this was the right time politically to abuse it? Mass Distraction - Actually, the index/intro page is really sweet. And this person has a laundry list of progressive sites in her blogroll. Mass-Distraction - Interesting. Some sorta British artie film projecty thingymajig. Weapon of Mass Distraction - Weblog of Christian Conservative Author Derik Gilbert Weapons of Mass Distraction - Wow. There's a made for TV movie by this title? Who would have thought of such a cunning play on words during the Clinton era? Weapons of Mass DistrAction Project - Some sort of pinko-commie media watchdog activist site. We...

I ran into this article while skimming the Project for the Old American Century website. It's a little dated but the points remain relevant. George W. Bush and the 14 Points of Facism

$2000 toilet seat stolen. Police have nothing to go on. Thief Makes Off With $2,000 Toilet Seat Gadget Supposedly Provided Heat POSTED: 4:41 pm PST January 19, 2006 UPDATED: 6:25 am PST January 20, 2006 SAN DIEGO -- San Diego police are searching for a valuable, high-tech toilet seat taken from an unlocked storage closet. Hamid Shoushtari bought the toilet seat on the Internet. He said the missing seat -- worth an estimated $2,000 -- is heated. He had planned to see whether he could market the seat in California when it was stolen. "We may not use it in California, but in colder places like Chicago or New York, in the morning you can program it and it will heat up your toilet seat for about 15 minutes or whatever time you want," Shoushtari said. "You sit on it, you can adjust the water temperature if you want to make it warmer or colder." Shoushtari said he did have concerns about how the toilet seat would work because it combined electricity and water, a potentiall...