Willie Style

Switched over to South Park, so much more entertaining and not depressing. Not the best influence, but something to rid myself of the horrific violent streak I've had recently.
Where does it emanate from?
I don't know exactly. If I were Catholic, I'd go see the Father.
But I'm not, so I have to blame myself and my own father and the people around me and my situation and my choices and my lousy boss and not getting my checks on time and being the office bitch and getting phone calls at 1am in the morning and goddamn fucking Gap and Sears calling me on Sunday morning to collect $$$ and gas prices going up and my truck getting old and working my ass off to no great reward and the fucking A/C being out 2 days and worrying about who I haven't called recently because they will call me soon enough to bitch me out for not being a good friend (there's more than one) but they don't know what's up in my life now and for not having the balls to stand up for myself and for allowing people to walk over me and for one second giving into others when I know goddamn well that I'm right and for fucking fags that act like fags (i am one so i can say that, does it make it better?) and well, just I need to chill the fuck out and smoke a bowl, drink some Shiraz, eat something savory and start the day anew.

Keep telling myself and others - "Let's get on with the program! What's the holdup?"
I hate that as I get older, I have less patience. But ya ain't gettin' younger!!

Carpe Fucking Diem, eh?!?!

...but the disgusting circus remains.

Terri Schiavo died today, 31 March 2005.

Larry King is on for 3 hours. God he should die too I think.
Sean Fucking Hannity is trying to prove she could still talk. He should die first though.
The doctor, Cranford, says she was absolutely brain dead. He is the expert on dying.

Crazy news today - O.J.'s lawyer died - trippy...

Please, please, do not go to bed at 6am on a Monday morning ever again, especially when the server is down at 8am!!!

...The owner of Katz's Deli is opening a gay bar across the street...

http://www.bletchley-park.com/archives/000262.html

I digress, yesterday it was a car, today it is this... and ooo, this!

http://www.autoweek.com/files/
specials/2005_geneva/lexus_is/pages/z1.htm

I'm getting all wet...

(from Kos):
The 2000 Republican Platform: "Medical decision-making should be in the hands of physicians and their patients."
The 2004 Republican Platform: "We must attack the root causes of high health care costs by: ... putting patients and doctors in charge of medical decisions."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, March 17, 2005: "So our -- Congress has acted tonight and the House of Representatives acted last night. ... It is clear to me that Congress has a responsibility since other aspects of government at the state level have failed to address this issue."
House Majority Leader Tom Delay, March 19: "For one person in one state court to make this decision is too heavy. ... It does take all of us to think this through."

DC's Inside Scoop has the full GOP talking points, rumored to have come from Rick Santorum's office.

(from ABC News)
- 70% of Americans say it is inappropriate for Congress to involve itself in the Schiavo case.
- 67% of Americans “think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.” (Just 19% believe the elected officials are acting out of concern for her or their principles.)
- 58% of Republicans, 61% of independents and 63% of Democrats oppose federal government intervention in the case.
- 50% of evangelicals oppose federal government intervention in the case, just 44% approve of the intervention.
- 63% of Catholics and a plurality of evangelicals believe Schiavo’s feeding tube should be removed.

Joined the gym last week, forgot to mention. Got bent over the desk and youknowwhat after I left $300 poorer, but spending money on myself for health reasons, when I haven't in such a long time is absolutely 100% worth it. Almost 30, I gotta start paying more attention.

Gas prices are up, wages are stagnant, ppl are dying in Iraq and in our backyard. What do CNN and FOX do last nite? Broadcast the live vote of the Schiavo bill.
Please please lawmakers go back to the really important stuff. Now I'm scared with the "right-wing base" all excited and energized that the gay marriage amendment is up for debate again.

(from Newsday)
Here's Tom DeLay, ready to tell the rest of us how to live our lives.

Personally, I can't think of anyone I'd less want to see stomping around in my own family life at the most delicate imaginable moment, say while the grief-stricken Henicans were confronting a decision concerning a comatose loved one.
Tom DeLay, the former small-town Texas exterminator.
Tom DeLay, the most powerful man in Congress today.
Tom DeLay, the feared Republican enforcer seemingly on the verge of criminal indictment for fund-raising abuses.
Tom DeLay, a legislator so famously hard-hearted that he is known around Washington, with both trepidation and respect, as "The Hammer."
Yes, that Tom DeLay.

And what was he doing at week's end?He was inserting himself - not into my family, thank God - but into poor Terri Schiavo's. And the moment could not possibly have been worse.
Continue here

(from Digby)
By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.
Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.
This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

(from Andrew Sullivan) - CONSERVATISM COME UNDONE: So it is now the federal government's role to micro-manage baseball and to prevent a single Florida woman who is trapped in a living hell from dying with dignity. We're getting to the point when conservatism has become a political philosophy that believes that government - at the most distant level - has the right to intervene in almost anything to achieve the right solution. Today's conservatism is becoming yesterday's liberalism.
(my words) - GO TO HELL TOM DELAY!

Oh yeah, my friend Melis sent me a link to the video for the Dancing Air Force White Boy that made the rounds on the Web a while back. God, it's funny and Hot! Can I get some of those moves?!

Go here for a link to SXSW's Torrent of Free Tunes - over 700 bands have allowed MP3s of their music to be included in a torrent (either full length or 30-sec clips). Great way to listen to all the SXSW music offered without even going.

Air America is finally broadcasting on Austin radio and it's on - you guessed it - KOKE-AM 1600. Why is that funny? Well, in San Diego, it broadcasts on KLSD-AM. Such irony. They have lots of shows but Al Franken is on from noon to 3pm.

And why is this a big deal? It means parity with previously having only those fuckheads Hannity, Savage, and O'Reilly to listen to in Austin. Well, except for Howard Stern, but he's on FM where he's loud and clear. Having Stern and Franken is more than even. Yay!

Tried to get into Alamo Drafthouse South last nite for Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic" and yet again, they had to turn away ppl b/c it was at capacity. No passholders or ticketbuyers got in. Maybe just maybe I'll get to see one of them before the week is up.

One of my favorite dirrrty bloggers has been in Austin for SXSW Interactive. Ana Marie Cox, better known as Wonkette, was talking about blogging in general and then later on, forgot her ID and couldn't get into her own afterparty.

At South by Southwest here in Austin (www.sxsw.com) I have seen Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Jimmy Kimmel (w/ GF Sarah Silverman), Dennis Quaid, and Elijah Wood as of March 15. All of them were last weekend. Rafiel even gave a beer to Elijah and chatted and touched him. I was not that lucky but got a contact high. Then partied with my non-celeb friends (u know u who are) at various Austin establishments on Sixth and Fourth. But dammit, I did NOT take my camera phone, so no I cannot prove any of this, but I don't care b/c it really happened.

as in O'Donnell - http://onceadored.blogspot.com/

Steve posted a coupla nice articles highlighting all the behind-the-scenes goings-on of the GOP and its Media Machine. http://stevesmarketanddeli.com/blogger.htm.

Also, would like to point over to the blog at North Dallas Thirty - http://northdallasthirty.blogspot.com - he posts some good reads. Monday he talked about creationism v. evolution. We NEVER get tired of debating that, eh?

just watched live coverage of Martha leaving for home on her jet. only in America do we celebrate our criminal celebrities in such a way haha. she did look thinner!

(reprinted from a DNC email today but edited by me)
Texas residents are facing severe cuts if George Bush's new budget becomes law. Here are just a few of the cuts Texas faces under Bush's 2006 budget (hereafter referred to as Dubya):

Homeland Security
-The Dubya 2006 budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $55.7 million cut for Texas. These cuts will take police and firefighters off your streets.
-The Dubya budget cuts the COPS program, which has put 6,124 officers on Texas streets, by 96 percent.
Health Care
-The Dubya budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. Texas's share of these cuts is $2.7 billion.
-Dubya's budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs he touted during the campaign, even though more than 626,000 Texas residents have lost their health care coverage since Dubya took office due to his failures.
Education
-Dubya underfunds his own No Child Left Behind Act by $13.1 billion in his budget. In Texas, that means a shortfall of $1.1 billion, leaving behind 272,271 Texas children.
-Dubya promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of the Union address, but his budget is $6.6 billion short. That's $516.7 million less than what's needed in Texas, a real burden for the 355,653 students in Texas who receive the grants.
Other Priorities
-The Dubya budget would require many veterans to pay a new $250 annual "user fee" to use the Veterans Administration health care system, and would double the prescription drug co-payment for the 1,754,809 Texas veterans.
-Dubya cuts Texas clean water programs by $17.7 million.
-Dubya's 2006 budget also cuts the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program -- which helps low-income families afford heating fuel in the winter -- by $234.4 million, including $5.2 million cut for Texas residents.

Again, where is the outrage? I looked on OpenSecrets.org this morning for unrelated reasons and then looked up people in various ZIP codes to see who contributed what and to whom. Surely all these old grayhairs that contribute dollars to Dubya would like to know about all these. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the RNC" I can hear them saying.

Read the first post from March 1 on Steve's blog, about the Supreme Court justices and who nominated them. And you wonder why GOPers are concerned about who is on the SS. Duh, they've already gotten to choose most of them, but as Steve points out, apparently, they aren't right wing enough.
http://stevesmarketanddeli.com/blogger.htm

(reprinted and paraphrased from a MoveOn PAC email today) -
...the Senate is debating the nomination of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a lifetime appointment to the Circuit Court of Appeals -- the second highest court in the land. Myers is the first of 20 nominees Bush has re-submitted in his second term. All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by Senate Democrats (as compared to 204 judges they accepted) because these nominees consistently sided with corporate special interests over the rights of ordinary Americans.

The Senate has the power to approve or reject judicial nominations because judges -- above all else -- must be trusted by Americans on all sides to rule fairly. So why does Bush refuse to send new nominees both parties can agree on? Because while his presidency will be over in 4 years, the judges he appoints will be on the bench for the rest of their lives. This is Bush's big push to lock in his hard right, corporate-friendly ideology for decades to come -- and that is exactly why we must not back down now.

Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan judges re-nominated by President Bush:

1) William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry. He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with potential profit. In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip mined.

2) Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability. His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence.

3) William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money for their healthcare system as a result. He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled.

As President of the Senate, Dick Cheney has even threatened to push these 20 through by using a parliamentary trick so abusive even he calls it the "nuclear option." If they can get away with it, the "nuclear option" would eliminate the right to filibuster -- a rule that has allowed 40 or more Senators to keep extremists from all sides off the courts for centuries.
If that happens, when Supreme Court vacancies begin to open up in a few months there will be no motivation for Bush to nominate justices acceptable to both parties, and no ability for Democrats to oppose even the most dangerous extremists.

--Where is the outrage in the media of this? On any talk show? In the papers? Maybe in the blogs? This is ridiculous.

Scissor Sisters were on Leno last nite performing Laura, gaying it up as best they could.

I can't shake this flu/cold/allergies/whatever the hell it is that I have. I feel good except for that tingling burning inside my head behind my eyes. Make it stop.