Bill O'Reilly
I have decided after a lot of thought to wait until after the new year to do my study on what Bill O'Reilly is. Well at least after Xmas. This simply because this man is going absolutely insane because people and business are saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Last time I checked Mr. O'Reilly this is a free country and any person and/or person can say whatever they want to say, not what you want them to say. Bill O'Reilly is a miserable failure as a person and now he wants to make sure that Constitution is used as toilet paper by the religious right, this on the heals of several religious groups threatening to use the Constitution to sue corporation who use Happy Holidays. Their contention that it is a violation of their constitutional guarantee to freedom of religion. They of course forget to mention that by suing this companies to use Merry Christmas they are infringing on the other two huge religious holidays that take place in December, Kwanzaa and Chanukkah.

I can't really fathom why it is suddenly a crime to say Happy Holidays as it has been used for years on end. Only recently has this become a problem as the Religious Right and Fox News fight to shred the Constitution to make this country under one religion. Read the Constitution people. You are precisely the people that the founding fathers were thinking of when they put in the religion amendment. Don't believe read their own words on religion.

Now as for the term Happy Holidays. Holiday is derivative of Holy Day and the reason corporations and yours truly used Happy Holidays is so that we can include Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Chanukkah, and the New Years all together so I don't piss off anyone.

Well that's not entirely true if what I say angers the "fine" people at Fox News and the Religious "Right" then that will only make me even more sure that what I am saying is the right thing.

Bill O'Reilly has gone off the deep end
First it was a serious comment, then it was just a joke, now it was a statement taken out of context. Yup that's good ole' Bill O'Reilly continuing to change what he said about San Francisco.

On his radio show last week, Bill O'Reilly said that he hoped that the terrorists attacked San Francisco and that we wouldn't help them if they did. This was because in the previous election the San Fransisco electorate, in Bill O'Reilly's words, had voted to ban military recruiters from going on school campus. Of course this is an absolute lie. No where in the bill that was passed is any word even resembling ban, but naturally Bill O'Reilly couldn't care less about that. What terrorist hitting a site and military recruitment have to do with each other only Republicans know.

Also, on his appearances, and on his own show, on The Daily Show, he continues to assert that he is an independent and will go after anyone that is wrong, no matter party affiliation. Yet if you just simply watch his show, listen to his show, or read his work he always refers to anyone on the left of the political spectrum as radical liberals. He never seems to attack and Republicans. So, some time after Thanksgiving, because I don't want to ruin my holiday I am going to watch his show for a week. After that week is up I will report my findings. It is simple I am going to log how many negative things he says about liberals and/or Democrats and negative things he says about conservatives and/or Republicans. I am waging 15/1 odds that is is liberals over conservatives even though I think that 1 is way to high for conservatives

Check back in.

Well here we go
I've given up smoking so bare with me. I am on the nicoderm cq patch and I'm a lil woozy.

Well a lot has been going on and I am ready to talk about some of it. First let's talk about the gas prices.

I am currently taking an Economics course where I have been taught a part of the high prices is supply and demand (the hurricanes didn't help either). But right now we are in a period (between Labor Day and Thanksgiving) where travel is light. And yet the price of gas, at least where yours truly lives, has gone up over 40 cents. The politicians tell us this is because Hurricane Rita has damaged oil rigs and refineries. Unfortunately after Hurricane Katrina, which caused the same destruction, prices rose to the same level. Why? Because it was at the height of Labor Day travel. Even though the supply has been severely cut the demand has also been severely cut. And if you know economics if demand goes down and supply goes down there should be little or no change in cost. I am also tired of those people, Bill Maher included, who like to use the rest of the world is paying more routine. That is true but they always have and our gas prices were never affected. We need someone in power who doesn't make money off of oil. My mother, and to a lesser extent me, make money off the oil companies because of inheritance from her father. I'm willing, and so is my mother, to take a pay cut.

Now to Tom DeLay. As most of you know I don't like Tom DeLay and I called for him to stepdown months ago for his illegal actions. Well now he has been indicted in Texas for actions stemming from those that got him reprimanded in Congress. Most would expect him to take this head on, but naturally he brought politics into it saying that the prosecutor was just attacking a Republican. This prosecutor has gone after more Democrats than Republicans, so there goes that argument. Then DeLay goes onto say that this is the most baseless and political indictment in the history of the United States. Seems he forgot he was part of the crew that indicted President Clinton for having an extramarital affair, which isn't illegal.

The aftermath
The Spin Doctors are back!!! Unfortunately its not the band but the President's right hand men that are coming full force to spin the blame of how he has been handling the situation in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. This is the man that as a Category 4 was permanently reshaping the landscape in the south was in San Diego getting a guitar from some country singer. This is the man that after the hurricane had passed waited two days before ending his vacation (early I mind you) and flew several thousand feet over New Orleans in an attempt to show the people that he cared. This is the person that appeared on Good Morning America and said and I quote "I don't think anyone foresaw the levees breeching," when for day before the storm hit meteorologist all over the country especially on The Weather Channel said that the levees wouldn't withstand the force of the hurricane. Two days before the President's comments the mayor of New Orleans said on national television that levee's were going to breech. Then when he finally made it down to the South he visited the least damaged areas and once again flew over New Orleans saying it wasn't safe, and yet people like Harry Connick Jr. and Sean Penn had not only gotten in but Harry was handing out water and food to people at the somehow forgotten Convention Center and Sean was out in his own boat by himself rescuing people (Not like that hack Geraldo Rivera who went out with an Army post and then on national television said that he had been rescuing people, no mention of the Army. Sorry Bill O'Reilly but you can't protect your friends this time. It was broadcast on Fox News live.) This is the sorriest reaction to a disaster that our federal government has ever had. The Homeland Security Office was formed so that this kind of reaction would never happen. I guess unless terrorists are attacking government has no idea what to do. You voted for these Republicans now you have to deal with it.

Now for Fox News. I seem to remember that on 9/11 all your heard from them were all the people that died in the attacks were hero's. Flash to today and all the people who died in the hurricane or were stuck at the Superdome and Convention Center are idiots and deserved exactly what they got. If you want a taste of this simply go to FoxNews.com and read reactions from viewers. A lot of people have said that the reason the response was so slow was racism and watching Fox's coverage I can't help but agree. The only person I have any respect for on the network is Sheppard Smith who was there and saw it first hand and was shocked by the slow response not only on the state level but on national level. People like Bill O'Reilly and Shawn Hannity never went down there and only saw it second hand and made their that it was completely at the state levels blame for the slow response. And now you have Bill O'Reilly on his show call anyone who puts blame on the national government a liberal. Well if that's so then go ahead and label me that. Fox News should be ashamed of their soft coverage on this issue. Kudos to CNN and especially MSNBC who cut through the politics of this disaster and simply asked the people in charge "Why is this happening and why is the response so slow". Naturally, Fox News has jumped on the "Not playing the blame game" by blaming people for playing the game. Doesn't make a lot of sense but hey this is Bush era and it's not supposed to.

Just read
This is what's truly wrong with America that these even have to be sent around


True Story. A religion teacher assigned her class an essay on what makes a good Christian. One student wrote about praying nightly, say no to abortion, banning gay marriage, and donating money. The other student wrote about talking to God and allowing people to enjoy their lives, and supporting gay marriage. The day the teacher was to hand the papers back, she called up the second student and told him she would pray for him when he went to hell. The student asked why would he be going to hell, and why he got an F on his paper. The teacher told him that Catholicism is against gay marriage. The student looked at her for a minute, then said aloud, "I'm gay." The teacher kicked him out of class as if he had said fuck or worshiped Satan. A girl in the back of class who had a boyfriend and was obviously straight got up and left too.

If you would leave the classroom, repost this. It doesn't matter if you're straight, bi, or gay. It doesn't matter if you're catholic or not. Everyone is a human being and deserves happiness.

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I
wish they could adopt me.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the Realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

Neo-Cons on the Attack! ... again
Well I can't tell you that I'm shocked, but the neo-cons are on the attack again. I got up this morning and turned on Faux News and lo-and-behold they were blaming 9-11 on Bill Clinton. HUH?? The man who had been out of office for a year was to blame for 9-11. Not the man who was in office(George Bush). Not the men and woman that Bush had appointed to office (who at the time of the attacks had been told that an attack from Al-Queda was not only possible but coming soon). They are pointing to a memo that President Clinton had received in 1996 warning him that because Osama(not Usama as Faux News likes to say) Bin Laden had moved his operations to Afghanistan that he was going to become more dangerous. During this time Sudan says that they had attempted to turn over Osama Bin Laden to the Clinton Administration and that they had turned Sudan down. This of course the Neo-Cons love to report. Sadly this is completely false. Unfortunately for Americans in 1996 our government had failed to install the attack soveigrn nations. At this time Al-Queda had yet to the government in Afghanistan.

Another recent attack from the Neo-Cons is on a woman who lost her son in Iraq and is holding court outside of Bush's vacation home until he meets with her. They say that she is an attack dog for the liberals. One man who will remain nameless (but if you watch Fox News you will see him) has called her a loose nut. This is the same person who in January called the parents of Terry Schiavo brave moral people. So, apparently if you loose a child as long as you support Dubya you are good people. But if you disagree with anything that Dubya has to say you are a liberal attack dog nut. Sign me up please.

Now they are attacking one of their own. Recently Bill Frist reversed his stance on stem-cell research and now supports it. This is the same man who, after viewing an hour of footage of Terry Schiavo diagnosed her as being anything but in a persistent state (of course autopsies after her death showed that she was). After he reversed he stance the Neo-Cons went on the attack even him from Justice Sunday. This just proves once again that Neo-Cons are not above eating their own.

Lance Armstrong-Greatest American Athlete
Early today Lance Armstrong became the only person to ever win the Tour de France seven times and win those seven consecutively besting his own record of six. Now in my mind this makes him the greatest American athlete of all time. Better than Tiger Woods, better than Babe Ruth, yes even better than Michael Jordan.

If you think about it he has done something that more than likely will never be done again. And add to that he started this amazing feat just a couple of years after being told by his doctor that the testicular cancer which was affecting him gave him maybe ... maybe a 5% chance of surviving.

Any of you who have ever tried riding a bike up a hill know how hard on the legs and chest it is. This is something that Lance excels in. The mountain stages all 7 years is where he took the yellow jersey and never relinquished it.

So here's to you Lance on going out on top. Thank you for letting us ride with you the past seven years. I don't know where we go from year but it has been a great ride up to now.

Karl Rove-Evil Emperor
Well here we go again. Just a little under two years the wife of an ambassador was outed as a secret agent working in Africa. Shortly after that came out it was suggested that someone in the White House (Karl Rove) had leaked the name. President Bush, when asked about this, point blankly said that if it was found out that anyone in the White House leaked that kind of information they would be immediately fired.

Now, flash forward to today. Matt Cooper under charge of being jailed if he didn't release his source released emails identifying Karl Rove as the person from the White House who leaked this woman's identity.

Sadly, and completely expected, Bush has not only not fired the evil dictator Karl Rove, he had him sitting behind him at a news conference where he said that they were going to wait until the proof was in. Sorry Mr. President, but the proof is already in. Rove's lawyer has even said yes his client did release her name.

Of course here comes Fox News to Bush's rescue. First it was Bill O'Reilly actually lamenting democrats for already convicting Karl Rove (even though the evidence is clearly against him). This is the same man who had already tried and convicted the two brothers, a DJ, and a boat captain for Natalie Holloway's death even thought as of this point she is still only missing. Just in case you missed it (and if you watch Fox News you have) all of those people have been freed for lack of evidence. Next John Gibson has decided to give this piece of trash a medal. Why? Because he outed the wife of a man who was against the war in Iraq and was the person that came out and stated that the intelligence that Iraq had tried buying WMD's from Iraq was just plain wrong.

That's how Republicans deal with a potential mess that would make Watergate look like a petty crime. Karl Rove releases the identity of a secret agent (putting her at a great risk) to get back at someone who called Bush and England on information that was wrong and Fox News attacks Democrats and liberals for wanting him brought to justice.

Another person who has someone come out of this cleaner than a whistle (also happens to be a hard stand Republican) is Robert Novak who actually wrote the article that outed this woman. Now how has someone who actually outed a secret agent to the world not being charged with anything but two other people (one is in jail, one released his sources) who passed on the information are in deep trouble. Gotta love Washington this time of the year.

July 4th for liberals
Over the weekend I went to Nebraska to spend the 4th of July with my brother and my former roommates. As we were drinking and eating some great food I realized by at least a 4 to 1 margin the people at this party were liberals. And we all knew why we were there, to celebrate the greatest country in the world's independence. We were all in agreement that the war in Afghanistan was a proper war even though that country never attacked us the people in power supported and hiding out the people did. We all agreed that the Iraq war was the biggest bumble in America's history (and even weirder we were all in agreement if we were going to attack a country without being provoked it should have either been North Korea (who has nuclear missiles pointed at us) or Saudi Arabia where most of the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were from.

Now all this really surprised me considering I lived in Nebraska for nearly 8 years and rarely found a liberal and yet here I am at a 4th of July party and well over 75% of the people there were liberals.

So what I am basically saying is that even liberals can celebrate the 4th of July

Greatest American?
I watched with bewilderment Sunday night as the Discovery Channel announced that Ronald Reagan was voted greatest American. Of all the choices people had: there were the founding fathers who without them we wouldn't even be a country, George Washington who was the first president of this country, Abe Lincoln, who freed the slaves and brought this country back from a break that threatened to end the America we know. Let's see there was Benjamin Franklin who invented many of the things we use today, and one of the most important people of the world Martin Luther King Jr. who in the 60's used non-violence to help bring about equal status for blacks and whites and all our great humans. And that's just to name a few. Out of all of those people Americans select a man who was a part of giving us the second greatest deficit in this country's history (second only to the present president), he was a part of the Iran-Contra debacle all though by all accounts he was so out of it at that point he can pass. But what most Americans give him credit for was ending Soviet rule over Russia, which he had absolutely nothing to do.

Another thing I was bewildered about was our current president was 6th. This is a man who lied about our reasons going into Iraq. On the day most people think he proved he was a strong president (9/11) he was sitting in a school room looking absolutely bewildered as to what to do. He has almost single handedly given us the largest deficit in the history in this country just five years removed from having the largest surplus in the history of the country. The list goes on and on and on and I'm just too tried right now to go further.

But my belief and mind you this is a theory, the reason that Reagan was first and Dubya was 6th was due to all those conservative talk shows out there who just couldn't bare to see anyone but a Republican be first in this list. The problem with this list is that people could vote as many times as they want and honestly that's just not scientific or showing a true poll.

My top five is:
5. George Washington (father of the country)
4. FDR (took us out of the worst depression in our history)
3. Abe Lincoln (freed the slaves and kept the country together
2. King (gave one of, if not, the best speeches in history)
1. Our Founding Fathers (if not for their work on writing the Constitution we wouldn't be Americans)