"...an Invigorating Moment for Democracy..."

A different take on Congress' defeat of the "bailout" or "financial rescue" yesterday.

Willima Greider, a social reform writer CLICK

A Light Through The Leaves

"We are now in the golden age of thieves. And where I come from we put thieves in jail, we don't bail them out."
- U.S. Representative Pete Visclosky, Indiana

Friends Report, September 30, 2008

Most everyone we know around these parts was opposed to the so-called "bailout" of the Wall Street banks and financial institutions. Most people seem to think that the idea of throwing more money at bankers or money managers to solve their problems will do nothing for the rest of us since the typical banker is a trained thief. So, those who are Republicans and those who are Democrats amongst us common folk, seem to agree on this, that they don't want any more debt run up in their name by the Bush government for the sake of the fat cats.

A group of teachers gathered over coffee and the trend of the conversation was not really Wall Street, but school administrators. Hard to find positive things to say about administrators these days, either.

The weather has been fantastic and people are getting out and about a lot. As beautiful a September as people can remember.
===

LINDA -= is of the opinion that the weather has been created in honor of her quitting her job. Now when she is not working, the world has been sunny/warm.

SANDY - sent pictures of a donkey ride. I guess this is how we'll get around in the next few years?

MARGARET - says that she wishes her Senators were as good as this one: Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

SCOT and TRASE - report that their dog Riley has suffered a ruptured disk in his neck, that the surgery has been done, and that Riley today stood for the first time since the surgery. Everyone loves that dog!

IRISH MIKE recalls going into the grocery store to buy a ready-made roasted chicken for the family dinner, then looking all over the store for an egg plant. Unable to find an egg plant, he left, disappointed. Later, at the gas station, lost in thought while the pump clinked, he suddenly remembered that he had not gotten a chicken either. No one knows what comes first- the chicken or the egg, but evidently chickens and eggplants come or go together.

SKUZZA - is doing some house redecorating, or getting the old man to do it!
====

What some people are reading or talking about

ALICE - is pushing this cause: "The Wheels of Justice Tour which will beat the Delta College Lecture
Theatre, University Center MI, 11:00-2:00pm. on Oct. 9. The tour is an On the Road Nationwide Effort for Nonviolent Education and Action Against War and For Universal Human Rights and Justice.

DIG S - How the Bush Projected Budget Surpluses TUrned into Huge Deficits: CLICK
=====

Some of the humor sent in to us:

DASHMANN - Palin's spiritual adviser or "pastor" was a witch doctor in Kenya. Yes, true! Really went after witches, chased them out of town. . Then he laid hands on Sarah and prayed that she be protected against witches (among other things). Yes, true! Says Dashmann: She asked the witch doctor to tell he what to say, and he said: "Ooh, eee, ooh, ah ah, Ting tang! Walla walla bing bang."
===

from BILL FROM WNNCO:

===

from GIGI:
Here's a sermon one Mom will never forget.

'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward
heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are
but dust...' He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient
daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in
her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'
==

from JERRY:

===

WARNING:
If you get an e-mail with "Nude Photos of Sarah Palin" in the subject line, do not open it. It might contain a virus.

If you get an e-mail with "Nude Photos of Hillary Clinton", do not open it. It might contain nude photos of Hillary Clinton.

Republican Humor (60)

One of the claims about Obama is that he wants to ban guns. Of course, that's what Republicans have said about every opponent since about 1960. Anyway, here is the latest
====

At a recent rural elementary school assembly, Obama asked the audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, he started to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds, holding the audience in total silence.

Then he said into the microphone, “Children, every time I clap my hands together a child in America dies from gun violence.”

Then, one valiant little boy, pierced the quiet and said, ''Well, dumb ass, stop clapping!”

Congratulations

MARSHA for the victory by South Carolina

SPARTY and IRISH MIKE, et al., for the victory by Michigan State

DASHMANN for the victory by Western Michigan

SCOT and TRASE, et. al., for the victory by Michigan

guillotine time (part 2)

Recommended: Popular anger puts fat cat CEOs on the run
CLICK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE

Excerpt:

Martin Sullivan, the chief executive of AIG, who left the insurance giant before it was rescued this month by the federal government, received 14 million dollars, a survey in USA Today said. He also quit with a severance package worth 47 million dollars.

Even punishment for those at the center of the chaos comes with a gold lining.

When the government took over collapsed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ousted bosses Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron were not allowed 12.59 million dollars worth in severance payments.

Yet they still got out the door with 9.43 million dollars in retirement benefits.

What These Awful People Have Given Us. 

See more of Matson's work here: CLICK

Sunday silly Sites

"Jalopnik": The ugliest cars this year: click

or:
THE TELEGRAPH (Britain) -- 20 ugliest cars of all time. click

Get your Obama is the anti-Christ coffee mug. (It's ungodly expensive for a cup.) click

Wacko-of-the-Week, September 27, 2008

FOR THIS WEEK, we're giving a joint award to the collectivity of politicians, MEDVEDEV, PUTIN, CONDI, and BUSH for their concerted efforts to avoid responsible government and to plunge the world back into a Cold War.

As Edmond Burke so famously said, "Great empires and little minds go ill together."





Headline:
In Response to Bush Plan for Missiles in Poland, Medvedev Plans New Russian Missile Shield

Goodbye Paul Newman

absolutely Nobody's Fool 

Letter from Australia - Part 2

The end of the letter from IRENE in Australia
====
Funny that [Secretary of the Treasury] Paulson has shares in Goldman Sachs that were worth $700 million.This man absolutely cannot be given the unchecked powers that are in the bailout plan legislation before Congress.

Also this may not be news to you, but I stumbled across this website today at work ... I saw the name Bork (which rang alarm bells) - but it wasn't Robert Bork but someone named Ellen Bork. I think it supports your assertion that the current financial crisis can be blamed on Reagan - in that it's Reagan who set these wheels in motion that gave these nutters in the Bush Administration legitimacy. Check out the statement of principles (dated June 1997) and have a look at the signatories at: CLICK

There are other interesting documents - like a January 1998 letter to then President Bill Clinton calling for military action to remove Saddam Hussein. Who would have thought that these people would be running the show three years later..

Here's what I thought was a good article that was in the Sydney paper today: CLICK

Comment from BILL FROM WNNCO

[The other side of it?]

"One personal comment on the Wall Street problem. The simple fact is that they should let these organizations fail, let private money come in to purchase them, and then the whole game will reset but at a corrected level. They have to keep the gov out of this and throw the bums, at the top, out."

comment from Sparty

" ... sounds fascist to me. This is from Section 8 of the proposed bail-out legislation":

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker (62)

Wrestling's deadliest maneuver: The Nose Lock 

Letter From Australia - Part 1

This is Part 1 of a letter from our good friend, IRENE, an American living with her family in Australia. She makes some very strong points, and we would love to have all you readers of these words contribute to the discussion by commenting on them.

BIRCHES intends to run Part 2 tomorrow.
======

I am really struggling with this financial crisis. I hope the bailout doesn't go through - because if it does - I can't see any fundamental changes being made to what is a dysfunctional creation of greedy people - that is, unregulated capitalism.

Sadly, even if the Democrats win in November - there is going to be no money left to spend on education, health, infrastructure - all the necessities of a good society. Just when the US needs to invest in its people and its society in order to maintain its standard of living and "compete" in the globalised world against the likes of China and India, the government plans to invest instead in bailing out people who with their greed and short sightedness have destroyed the US
economy and ruined the prospects for future generations.

These rotten people deserve absolutely no support. If there is no bailout and the economy goes into recession even depression - well, there's still no money to spend but perhaps there will be fundamental and long-lasting changes to the market system.

People's lives might stop revolving around Fox News and Britney Spears latest antics, and they might recognise that they've been had and take some action. I apologise if I sound patronising - but people here and in America have been living in a dream where all that matters is what mass produced junk they can buy.

hahahahaha

Laugh #1 -

Right Wing Group Running Ad In Michigan Starring Reverend Wright

It's silly, it's stupid, it's jejune, it's sleazy, it's corrupt, it's deceitful, it's harmful, it's wrong.

My, oh my, aren't these stupid, sleazy, childishly wrong people funny? I for one, laugh! What some left wing group ought to do is run the tape of McCain's first marriage.

======

Laugh #2 -
Interestingly, a recent university study suggests that some Republicans, when confronted with facts which contradict their prejudices, tend to "backfire" and believe even more strongly in the false idea. Instead of seeing an error, they fight the facts.

I know you think I'm lying about this, so go here and see for yourself: CLICK

Lipstick Update

Next President of the U.S. explains to Hamid Karzai how to take the money and run.

Patriotic Mother gets charged --

Probably she should be made "Mother of the Year."
You know, the Second Amendment Mother-of-the-Year.

Poor, misunderstood lady hobbles out of court on her walker after being charged for buying assault weapons for her 14 year old son because he was being bullied at school.
CLICK

Good Bye 225727

Epitaph: The world is a better place without you.

FLA. DC Number: 225727
Name: HENYARD, RICHARD
Sex: MALE
Hair Color: BLACK
Eye Color: BROWN
Height: 6'02''
Weight: 170 lbs.
Birth Date: 06/26/1974
Initial Receipt Date: 08/19/1994
Current Custody: MAXIMUM
Current Release Date: DEATH SENTENCE
DOD: September 23, 2008

CLICK

John has a great idea!

Give him his due:
McCain says that no executive of any company rescued by the government should receive greater compensation than the highest paid government executive. Bravo! That sounds like a great idea.

And if they don't like that and they quit, so much the better!

Roger Maynard is an Alaska cartoonist. More of his work can be seen here:
CLICK

Monday Morning Friends Report, Sept. 22, 2008.

When people get together these days, they are talking politics and football. Oh the weather gets in there,too, but mostly that's been excellent this week in Michigan.

Here's what some of you are saying about Sarah Palin, the topic that seems not to go away not matter what.

PAM - sent a reference to an article about Palin and Obama. We loved this quotation: She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." CLICK


SPARTY - sent this wonderful quotation: "Sarah knows how to field-dress a moose. I know how to castrate a calf. Neither of those things has anything at all to do with this election. But since we know so much about Sarah's special skills, I wanted to make sure you knew about mine too."( Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge (D), quoted by Iowa Politics.)

DASHMANN - emails that there's an old saying that applies to Palin: "And then she opened her mouth."
====

BILL FROM WNNCO - Grandpa goofing off with granddaughter. Lots of you will recognize BILL.



FELIX - reports that the Mellencamps of Indiana sponsored a boxing match that featured their own son. Felix himself was the ring announcer, and Felix's lady, PILOT, was the ring doctor.

BILL FROM WNNCO - sent this site which shows a woman doctor who was caught in a mass shooting, talking to Congress about gun control. She's against it! You can see it here: CLICK

DASHMANN - says he had a chance to cheer up his brother-in-law who has been a strong UM supporter. In the process, he says some pretty great things about the University of Michigan. Here's a quotation: "... UM is special ---it’s where everyone wanted to go and really wants to go-- Wish I had been smart enough to be accepted and succeed there. Keep supporting it, and revel in it. Hoping this encourages you."

ALICE - says this is the proper way for a woman to weigh herself. She says she's been doing it wrong up to now.

Teachers responsible for more gun deaths

Shawn Roe, 36, was a convicted criminal and had "an active criminal history," when he was shot dead by police in Washington state on Saturday. The suspect shooter was in possession of three handguns and had murdered 2 people, including a conservation officer. He also fired at least one shot at sheriff deputies who confronted him in a convenience store.

Yes, yes, of course, there ARE laws against crazy people having guns. Yes, there ARE laws against convicted criminals having guns. So, don't get all excited. It wasn't the guns' faults.
==

We at BIRCHES blame this on the teachers. If the schools would simply educate students about gun ownership, when the kids grew up and went crazy, they wouldn't run around with guns. And a properly educated child will not grow up to be a gun carrying ex-convict.

As Dashmann has often said, "We need to teach more of that there triggernometry."

CONGRATULATIONS to:

DASHMANN - for Western Michigan's win.

MARSHA - for South Carolina's win.

SPARTY, IRISH MIKE, AMY, and others - for Michigan State's win.

Welcome

Welcome back to Alice who has been offline for a long time. Glad to have you return to our community of sages.

Sunday Morning silly Sites

Watch a mushroom grow. Luckily, it's not in real time. click

Alaska Safaris: Learn to shoot and field dress a moose just like some great politicians say they do. click

These are sites that people have found on the internet, very often when looking for something else, or following an inspiration they had. So far, a number of readers have sent in examples they've found, and those often get printed, with credit given. So, if you run into a silly site, send it on.

Wacko-of-the-Week, September 20, 2008

For a very toxic week:

Frankly,
here under the BIRCHES we take our job of awarding Wacko-of-the-Week quite seriously. We really want to find the most outstanding idiots we can to recognize, aside from ourselves, of course.

This week, like the markets in New York, we feel overwhelmed. We feel like doing what Bush does: come out with a cocky look on our faces, make a short statement that doesn't seem to mean anything, and then run and hide. (We detest that man, so we won't emulate him.)

========
THIS IS A THREE PART WACKO:

DICK FULD who did so much to destroy the economy of the world. PRIDE is an awesome force, and sometimes it can be an awful thing as well. As the Bible sayeth: Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. READ ABOUT HIM HERE, CLICK
===

RONALD REAGAN, post mortem, for the deregulation, for the trickle-down (supply side) economics, for the huge budget deficits, for the
silly war against unions, for the tax breaks for the wealthy --- all policies whch did so much to bring us to this week.
===

THE AMERICAN VOTERS - who have done so much in their foolish behavior, to return this pack of scoundrels again and again into power. They seem always to fall for the clever words and images and never go for the serious thought. In both political parties there are serious well-intentioned people, so why do we always seem to prefer the liars?

Evil

Some areas we know the Reagan and Bush governments have seriously cut government services:

1. Stock market operations and rules.
2. Financial market operations and rules.
3. Airline operations.
4. Food quality inspections.
5. Meat inspection
6. Gun ownership rules.
7. Land use regulations.
8. Air pollution control.
9. Water quality regulations.
10. New product inspection
11. Trucking rules and inspections.
12. Road and bridge inspection and funding.

Most Democrats I know, and I DO know a lot of them, don't oppose capitalism or entrepreneurialism. What they oppose is letting capitalists run freely through the economy, scraping in all the money they can and ignoring the evil consequences of their uncontrolled lust for money and power.

When you let this stuff go on, bridges will fall down, and children will be poisoned by toys, and folks will die from their lettuce and cucumbers, and people will have raging diarrhea from their contaminated hamburgs, and the stock market will trample all over people's savings and their pensions that no one has yet found a way to steal entirely, and trucks will be blowing up on expressways, and rivers will produce fish no one should eat, and the mercury levels in the air will be poisoning children in their playgrounds, and your taxes will go for things you can't even imagine while the roads are crumbling, and the schools are seething.

Capitalism is fine. Unregulated capitalism is disaster.

Republican Humor (60)

[Thanks to CHRIS and to BILL for sending this on to us. Very much appreciated. ]

The Republicans are assuming that y'all out there can do what their Presidential candidate cannot do: work a computer, send and receive e-mail. This is not something BIRCHES is claiming just out of the clear blue sky. McCain himself has said so. Anyway, you're here on a computer looking at this, so you will appreciate it.
=====

How To Start Each Day With A Positive Outlook

1. Open a new file in your computer.

2. Name it 'Barack Obama'.

3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.

4. Empty the Recycle Bin.

5. Your PC will ask you: 'Do you really want to get rid of 'Barack Obama?'

6. Firmly Click 'Yes.'

7. Feel better?

GOOD

Orchard Time

It's apple orchard time in Michigan again. 

CLICK HERE TO FIND ONE 

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker (#61)

Still Learning 

that Mussolini thing again

What I found on 'WONKETTE" --- here: CLICK WONKETTE

The only reason I copy it is because it seems so appropriately snotty. Sometimes, I'm a snot. Sometimes I'm not.


Oh look what Alaskan numbskull Sarah Palin is wearing now: It’s an Imperial death smock, just like what’s his name, Peter Cushing, wore in the fascist movie Star Wars.

Gov. Sebelius - quoted without further comment

Sebelius: Obama’s race ‘may be a factor’
 9/16/08 The Iowa Independent 

IOWA CITY — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius publicly considered the possibility that Sen. Barack Obama’s race might be a factor in this year’s presidential election during an appearance here Tuesday.

“Have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African-American?” Sebelius asked in response to a question about why the election is so close. “That may be a factor. All the code language, all that doesn’t show up in the polls. And that may be a factor for some people."

CLICK

Guillotine Time

For What It's Worth, one guy's opinion.



85 billion dollars in bailouts for the richest insurance company in the world, AIG.
Who will pay this off if the government's gamble fails? Your children and their children.

If the American middle class could understand what has been done to them in the last few years, they would be setting up guillotines on Wall Street.

Will the Republican Party Now Get the Depression it Has Worked So Hard For?

The "Reagan Revolution" is ripening now. This may be the week of the next great stock market crash.

The fat cats, who Reagan and the Bushes wanted to free from regulation, are now about totally in control of the economy, the Republican Party, and the fate of America (which is not good thing).

They have basically stolen the Treasury of the United States in the form of tax cuts to themselves at the expense of the rest of us.

They have almost bankrupted the United States by giving it an incredible debt.

They have been collecting billions from the government in "bailouts." (All borrowed against the credit of the American people.) When business could not borrow, they got the government to do it for them.

They have made Americans hopelessly dependent on a technology (oil) which is a thing of the past, not of the future.

They have paid themselves obscene salaries, severance benefits, and pensions as their companies go under.

They are now on the brink of re-electing themselves to office, all with the cheerful enthusiasm of a huge share of the American people who cannot see past their own noses (or wombs). While the ship goes down, the people scream: "Drill, drill, drill!" and "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!"

=======
All this, and the Democrats have numbly aided them.

IRISH MIKE likes to say that the Republican Party is evil. All Republicans are not evil, but the batch of corrupt people who now control that party are evil. And the Democrats are nearly as bad.

Monday Morning Friends Report, Sept. 15, 2008

What People are Talking About
Politics is dominating the talk these days around these parts. Maybe this is because Michigan has become a "battleground state," full of politicians and commercials all over the airwaves. A lot of people are getting pretty disgusted with this election, even though we know how important it is to pay attention.

Some people who used to admire John McCain (such as this blog) are amazed at the man who now is running for president. McCain seems to have turned into a plain old-fashioned liar. He's not the man we used to recognize. For one thing, there is that ad about Obama wanting to teach sex to children in kindergarten before they can even read. This is such a distortion that it doesn't belong on the air. Here's more:

JERRY - has sent this YouTube comparison of things McCain says. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: CLICK

MARGARET and SPARTY - have both sent references to problems with voter registration in some states. Is someone trying to steal an election? Who could it be?
from MARGARET: Obama Doesn't Sweat. He should. CLICK

and, from SPARTY, this: CLICK

DIG S. - Is skeptical about the government's claims in Iraq: "So the surge is working. Instead of 1000s being killed we're down to 100 per month. Doesn't change the fact it was the wrong decision to go into Iraq and ignore f**#ing Afghanistan/Pakistan."

SCOT - has been reading Anna Quindlen, from this week's Newsweek: "I never thought I would live long enough to see the day when the Republican presidential candidate would cite membership in the PTA as evidence of executive experience, when the far right would laud the full-time working mothers of newborns, when social conservatives would stare down teenage pregnancy and replace their pursed-lip accusations of promiscuity with hosannas about choosing life."
Says Scot: Well put, I thought.

PAT C. - was an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton. She says women will not be fooled by the Republican vice presidential candidate. Asked if she would vote for Palin, Pat C said: "God, no! After a while, no one can stand that screechy voice."

SPARTY - Highly recommends this article from liberal magazine, The Nation. It concerns the collapse of major financial institutions and companies in America, while the two major party candidates don't even bother to discuss it in their campaigns. Maybe the rest of us are too stupid toi understand it? CLICK

VODEA - forwards a commentary (source not stated) that the McCain-Palin ticket is talking constantly about an "unblinking" foreign and military policy. The commentary suggests that unblinking goes along with unthinking, and what we need now is someone who can not only blink occasionally, but think also.

CHRIS: McCain works magic at the convention:

====

What's happening with some of you folks

IRISH MIKE - in a steady rain, the rowers of the Saginaw Rowing Club joined a flock of similar craft from Ann Arbor and traveled all the way to Bay City. The event was a great success.

SKUZZA - celebrated a birthday, though she would rather not discuss the age question. She reminds us that women get more beautiful with the years.

BILL FROM WNNCO - sent this forwarded by relatives in Montana:



ALICE - got her computer repaired but has still not reappeared on the BIrches blog. This is a form of nagging, Alice. Get with it.

SCOT and STEVE - went out on big ol' Lake Michigan -- which John McCain would like to divert to Arizona, and turn over to the oil companies to drill in -- and came back with a big salmon.

DASHMANN - his kid is in a new band and doing a great job!

LINDA T - has joined the biweekly coffee klatch and is still cheering her decision to quit that job.

FELIX - reports on another foul up with FEMA: "...my father is a truck driver. He loaded a trailer full of MREs on Friday Sept. 5th and took it to Louisiana. As of Monday Sept. 15, he is sitting someplace in Texas, with the exact same load on...waiting for FEMA to tell him where to go."

Felix hiking the Appalachian Trail 

Travel PLans for some of You Folks

MARSHA - has flown to Myrtle Beach. She reports that because of Ike, the pipelines have been shut down and there is a serious gasoline shortage in some places - like her town of Columbia, for example.

PAT C and DR. BOB - leave for Italy on Wednesday.

SANDY - leaving for California for a month.

BUD and PAT W - planning on going to the beach in October.

'President' MIKE T - has gone to Texas with the Red Cross.
=====

What Some People Are Smiling About
from SPARTY and ANONYMOUS :

===

from JERRY: A little old lady was sitting on a park bench in The Villages, a Florida Adult community. A man walked over and sits down on the other end of the bench. After a few moments, the woman asks, 'Are you a stranger here?'

He replies,'I lived here years ago.'

'So, where were you all these years? '

'In prison,' he says.

'Why did they put you in prison?'

He looked at her, and very quietly said, 'I killed my wife.'

'Oh!' said the woman. 'So you're single...?!'
===
from JERRY:

notes on a train crash

The train wreck in California this week illustrates some of the problems of our current outdated rail system. Amtrak, for example, must currently operate on freight lines, because the track is not owned by the government and the freight companies have the first right of passage. Future wrecks like this one, which killed at least 25 people, are no more acceptable than airline crashes. Every effort must be made to reduce these events to near zero.

In a transportation system designed for future fast trains, the following investments will have to be made:
1. Passenger train lines have to be like divided highways. One way only.
2. Passenger train lines will have to be like expressways: no crossings.
3. Passenger trains will have to have a 'sleeping driver override,' so they will stop automatically if the track is blocked.

Recommended -- Saving Our Lakes

Go here to see an interactive map of the Great Lakes showing areas of concern for toxic conditions.
CLICK

Sunday silly Sites

See an idiot get what he earns. click

[Thanks to MARSHA for this site] Some old creepy commercial messages. click

Wacko of the Week, September 13, 2008

This week, a Joint Award
Italian Comedienne Sabina Guzzanti and Italian Prosecutor Giovanni Ferrara 

[Let us pause while you roll those sexy names across your tongue.]

The long arm of justice in Rome is threatening to reach out and snag a jokester, possibly for 5 years in jail!

Why does Ferrara want Sabina in the pokey? Because she said that the way things are going in Italy, within 20 years, teachers in Italy would have to be hired by the Pope. Then she added, of course the Pope would have died by that time and be in hell where he would be tormented by homosexual demons.

Acccording to the Prosecutor who seems not to understand about comedians and their work, Sabina has committed the crime of "offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person" of Benedict XVI.

This legal beagle is a guy who has obviously not seen Saturday Night Live or Jon Stewart or, God forfend, Chris Rock, all of whom have never met a person they couldn't violate.
CLICK FOR STORY

But, look: Sitting in a Roman jail for a few years is so much better than the old days - being drawn and quartered and having your guts strung on a post where the crows can peck at 'em.

Of course, in jail, they say, you may be tormented by homosexual devils.

Clilck on the cartoon to enlarge it.
You can see more of Pat Bagley's work by following this link: CLICK

Letter from SPARTY: "It's a pig!"

Written September 10.

I was at the Dem hdqrs yesterday afternoon and there were a couple of women making voter ID calls. One of them talked to a woman who said if Obama loses this election she'll never vote again and that her husband felt the same. After the caller hung up she was telling everybody in the office about the conversation she'd just had. Then she said, "You know, I think I feel the same way."

In driving around today, listening to NPR and Air America, all I heard was "lipstick on a pig." Tonight I turned on Olbermann to see what his lead story was - "lipstick on a pig." Then I checked CNN - "lipstick on a pig." Now, I know Barack Obama has talked about a number of issues in the last 24 hours but I have no idea what he said about those issues because all I've heard is "lipstick on a pig."

The Republicans stole the election of 2000, probably stole the election of 2004, and in the last two weeks have flat-out lied repeatedly about McCain and Palin's positions on the issues. If this election is lost because the Obama campaign is unsuccessful in getting the media spotlight off the silly stuff and McCain wins, despite the last four years, his flip-flops, his 90% support of Bush, his selection of Palin, and their lies I don't think I'll ever vote in another presidential election, either. (And I haven't even included the malignancy of white racism.)

A McCain win will be proof, at least to me, that our political culture has so poisoned the system that voting in a presidential election is a waste of time.

Footnote from Sparty, September 11

I felt better after my rant last night and enjoyed an afternoon of golf today. Just now I turned on the television to see what earth-shattering events took place while I was playing golf. I checked MSNBC in time to see the beginning of a Chris Matthews interview of two campaign strategists. The first question he asked was, "Did Barack Obama call Sarah Palin a pig?"

Shakespeare was wrong - first, we kill the journalists - at least the t.v. variety.

GOODBYE ASGARD II

Lost off Belle-Île-en-Mer, France, yesterday, with all crew rescued. This Irish friend came to celebrate American Independence in better times.
CLICK

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker (#60)

our leader

I've always been very impressed by George W. Bush's sense of duty, if not his heroism.

When there was a war in Vietnam, he volunteered: to serve in Texas.

On 9-11, when Washington and New York were under attack, he went to Louisiana to watch.

When New Orleans was assaulted by Katrina, he went to Arizona to be with John McCain. Yes, it's true!

When New Orleans was attacked by Hurricane Gustav, he went to Texas to observe the rescue efforts.

NOW: It's Texas's turn. It's predicted that hurricane Ike will assail the Texas coast this weekend. I wonder where Bush will be this time.

concerning pigs

BARACK OBAMA - in talking about JOHN MCCAIN's claim to be a "maverick" and a "change agent" Obama said: "You can put lipstick on a pig -- but it's still a pig."

SARAH PALIN - is all upset about this, evidently. Considers it an insult; or at least her talkers do. We at BIRCHES would encourage her to stop believing that everything is about her. In this case, the pig is someone else.

--another educational failure

The Literate Among You Will Get It

--- seen online

SOMEECARDS

you've been robbed

Here's the only thing you really need to know about Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac:

The U.S. Government has now promised 500 billion dollars to bail out the rich once again.

This is the kind of socialism you don't hear the Republicans bitching about: SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH.

Where will the money come from? Out of the taxpayers' pockets of the middle class.

Right now it will be added to the debt being passed on to your children and grandchildren.

another blow to our rights

Wait til the Supreme Court hears about this abuse of police power.

Police in Washington DC have arrested a home-protecting patriot member of the Virginia militia (disorg.) for carrying an AK-47, a pistol, numerous rounds of ammo and loaded clips, and hand grenades.

If the cops can do this kind of thing, it will severely limited the ability of our militia members to protect their homes and families and keep our enemies out of the country. And this is to say nothing of the approaching deer hunting season. What will the guy do for meat this winter if his guns are seized by the government? CLICK

and furthermore

AND ESPECIALLY CONGRATULATIONS TO FELIX: for Indiana's great win over Murray State!

Apologies for the oversight.  

Republican Humor (59)

This year we are deep into gender politics. Everyone is worried about how the women will vote. For the Republicans, there is also the question about how the men will vote. Here is an intellectual approach to the matter they're sure you will all just love.
=====

Men: Before you vote, consider this:

If you vote for OBAMA, you get this:


But if you vote for McCain, you get this:

I don't know about you guys, but looking at this in a logical manner, McCain appears to be the better candidate.