The Difference Between UCLA Medical Center and the FBI

The difference is that at the UCLA Medical Center, if you abuse the privacy of patients, your ass gets fired. At the FBI, they just say that "we're not as abusive as we used to be" and Congress just pats them on their heads.

As far as I know, at the FBI, nobody has been fired, let alone verbally upbraided, for abusing the National Security Letters. On the other hand, UCLA is firing 13 people and disciplining another dozen, for poking around Britney Spears's medical records.

This is where I should also point out that Bush's stance of "Telecom Immunity or Death" is all about covering his ass from the outrage that will engulf and fry his sorry ass if it ever becomes public knowledge how much AT&T and Verizon gave to his goons without a warrant. But you should know all that by now.

Captain Obvious, Pollster

A clear majority of Americans think the Federal government is secretive. And they're not teribly happy about it.

I Should Really Care About Shit Today

Except that I picked up a DVD of "Blazing Saddles" from the discount bin yesterday.



Check back later.

In the meantime, go read up on the origins of cats.

Our Growing Police State

The cops in Washington, D.C., a place where one might expect them to have a passing familiarity with the Constitution, are now going to go door-to-door and conducting "voluntary" searches. The cops are doing the same thing in Boston (you know, "cradle of liberty" and all of that false advertising).

The cops obviously think that if half-a-dozen heavily armed storm troopers show up residents' front doors, most will let them search.

Take some good advice from Nancy Reagan:

Just say "no."

Close the door, politely, in their face. And then, if you have a lawyer, call him or her, in the event that the cops try to use that rejection as justification for a search warrant.

Caturday

Jake is lying on the back cushion of the chair in my bedroom.


The cover to the chair is a blanket, which saves me from having to laboriously clean the chair of cat hair. The other cats will lie there from time to time, but for now, that is Jake's place.

Our Moron-in-Chief

This was on "Countdown" tonight; I had to go track it down, for it was almost unbelievable:

President Bush spoke about the war in Afghanistan during a video conference with US military and civilian personnel in Afghanistan.

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks."

Those are the words of a true idiot, one who has no clue as to what active-duty military service, let alone combat, is like. I know of no man who has been under fire who would ever describe the experience as "romantic." Remember, he had his chance when he was younger to "be on the front lines, helping a young democracy succeed" and he ran from that as far and as fast as his father's connections could take him. But he was as interested in going off to play sojer in Vietnam as was Dick Cheney. Or John Ashcroft. Or Karl Rove. Or Bill Kristol.

Can't we get this guy fitted with a Taser Belt, so Dana Perino can administer a shock to him when he says things that are so utterly stupid and insensitive? They fitted him with a "cheating pack" during the 2004 debates, just replace the radio receiver with a shock pack. They could even run a fund-raiser; make a donation for charity and you get to administer an electric shock to Chimpy. The line to do that would be unbelievably long.

What a fucking moron we have for our president.

Satire or Prophecy?

You decide:



(H/T to the Alternate Brain)

Captain Obvious Speaketh!

The country is "going through a tough time," says Our Preznit, Captain Obvious.

Yeah, and what was your first clue, President Genius? Oil at $111/bbl? Gold at $1,000/oz? Investment houses going up? Foreclosure rates skyrocketing? Commodity prices doubling? Unemployment rising?

"Bush said this was not the first time the economy has been rattled.."

Sure, things were a lot tougher in the Great Depression. Probably not for your family, though, Chimpy. We aren't up to the massive breadlines and bankers jumping out of the windows of skyscrapers.

Not yet, anyway. But given your great leadership and your obvious concern for the lives of everyday Americans, we're not so far away from that. You know, Chimpy, you modeled your presidency on Reagan, to the point of buying a chunk of property in Texas so you could clear brush on your all-too-frequent vacations.

But who knew that the presidency you would truly be modeling would be those of Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover, rolled into one?

Watch. Think. Is This So Far Away?

Found on Harper's:





If you think that you will resist such things, remember that the cops who would do this are quite possibly your friends, your neighbors. You see them in the stores, you might have chatted with them at your kid's ballgames or swim meets.

Will you shoot them?

For all the "cold, dead hands" and "come and get them" and "molon lave" slogans I've seen, as far as I know, everywhere that gun confiscation has been carried out, from Nazi Germany to Britain to Australia and New Orleans (right after Hurricane Katrina hit), nobody has ever stood their ground against the authorities. Nobody.

Where there was resistance, look how long it took before people gave up hope that "surely, they cannot be such monsters." The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was three years after the Germans formed the ghetto to isolate the Polish Jews and prepare them for extermination.

Will you shoot them if they come for you?

Are You Defaulting on Your Debt?

Don't expect any help from Washington about it.

Unless your name is Bear Stearns. Then you're going to get all of the help you might need.

There may be good reasons to bail them out. But the picture being given is that if you are large enough, the government will help you. But if you're a little guy, then just suck it up and go die in the corner.