] Supposedly he was a great warrior and a mighty leader.
] Yet his sole contribution to the almost disastrous
] attack on the second death star was to spin round in his
] chair,waving his flabby hands about, shrieking "It's a
] twap! It's a twap!".
]
] Yet, contrary to popular belief, this idiocy was
] NOT a failing on the part of Ackbar. Nay.
] In one single day of sustained jestering, the
] Admiral managed to kill the emperor, destroy the evil
] empire and save Anakin Skywalker from the clutches of the
] dark side.

] We once thought that the power of the force
] lay with the jedi knights, but we can now see
] that it does not. The true power of the force
] lies with risible Vaudevillian comics like Admiral Ackbar.
]
] VOTE ACKBAR

Admiral Ackbar For President

] If you've ever seen a smack-head handcuffed to a bed
] gibbering uncontrollably because he can't get a fix, then
] be afraid, because that's what you'll look like after two
] weeks of internet-free cold turkey.
]
] That, at least, is according to an "Internet Deprivation
] Study" carried out by Yahoo! and advertising outfit OMD.
] Participants in the human experiment were deprived of the
] web for 14 days, and found themselves quickly succumbing
] to "withdrawal and feelings of loss, frustration and
] disconnectedness". The reason for the rapid collapse of
] their universe is - say the researchers - because
] "internet users feel confident, secure and empowered. The
] internet has become, to some, the ultimate symbol of
] modernity to the point that participants were hobbled
] without convenient access to routine information like
] maps and telephone numbers.

[ There's a somewhat scary level of truth to this. -k]

Internet junkies in chilling cold turkey experiment | The Register

Hamdi's case, decided by the Supreme Court earlier this year, was supposed to represent a high-water mark for American freedoms during wartime. He had fought for and won his day in court, an opportunity to question his captors, and a chance at national vindication at the end of it all. Hamdi's name stood for the proposition that the Bush administration couldn't run roughshod over the courts and the law in its pursuit of the war on terror. It now stands for precisely the opposite: With a yawn and a shrug, the administration sidestepped the courts and the judicial process once again, abandoning this criminal prosecution altogether and erasing the episode from our national memory. Hamdi has been stripped of his citizenship and his freedom to travel, and sent packing to his family. The rights and processes guaranteed him by the Supreme Court have been yanked away one last time, by an executive branch that held him for years for no reason and smugly claims now that it was finished with him anyhow.

Nevermind - Hamdi wasn't so bad after all. By Dahlia Lithwick

] What you will see on the ballot
]
] Shall the Constitution be amended so as to provide that
] this state shall recognize as marriage only the union of
] man and woman?"
]
] ( ) YES
] (X) NO
]
] What you will NOT see on the ballot
]
] Paragraph I. Recognition of marriage.
]
] (a) This state shall recognize as marriage only
] the union of man and woman. Marriages between persons of
] the same sex are prohibited in this state.
]
] (b) No union between persons of the same sex shall
] be recognized by this state as entitled to the benefits
] of marriage. This state shall not give effect to
] any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any
] other state or jurisdiction respecting a relationship
] between persons of the same sex that is treated as a
] marriage under the laws of such other state or
] jurisdiction. The courts of this state shall have no
] jurisdiction to grant a divorce or separate maintenance
] with respect to any such relationship or otherwise to
] consider or rule on any of the parties respective
] rights arising as a result of or in connection with such
] relationship.

What possible honest reason could exist for asking the people of the State of Georgia to sign off on a constitutional amendment that they haven't read?!

[ Because all that text won't fit on the fucking screen of our Diebold fucking voting machines. And old people will be *con-fucking-fused*. And immigrants too. Fuck, man, people would have to know how to SCROLL DOWN or press NEXT PAGE. And read. We'd have to translate that shit into spanish... i mean, that's a lot of work.

Filthy. -k]

Georgians Against Discrimination

] The NHL lock out may have postponed the 2004-2005 season,
] but disappointed hockey fans can still watch the puck
] drop in more than 50 million U.S. and Canadian homes when
] the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning
] face off against the Philadelphia Flyers in the season
] opener of the video game NHL season on G4techTV.
]
] All 1,230 regular season games originally slated for the
] 2004-2005 NHL season will be played, with results of each
] video game match-up available to fans who tune-in daily
] to "Sweat."

[ HAH! Very clever. It's not real, but I'll be interested to see how it fares.

I could give a fuck about hockey, but these labor disputes between people whose incomes run from PRETTY FUCKING GOOD all the way to COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS truly get under my skin. These crybabies squabble over millions while the fans, who love this sport enough to spend a calculable percentage of thier income on passively consuming it, get completely fucked out of even the vicarious joy of watching their favorite player score a goal. It's just sad. -k]

G4tv.com - Press Releases - VIRTUAL HOCKEY SEASON TO AIR ON G4TECHTV

] The Republican Party acknowledged yesterday sending mass
] mailings to residents of two states warning that
] "liberals" seek to ban the Bible. It said the mailings
] were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for
] President Bush.
]
] The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned"
] and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A
] mailing to Arkansas residents warns: "This will be
] Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing was sent
] to West Virginians.

[ It's simply stunning that this kind of shit is considered acceptible public discourse. Really, remarkably low. -k]

Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible

] The time to reassert the right of the American people to
] instruct the court through the Legislative and Executive
] branches has come. America is a free nation and it is the
] duty of those who would represent the American people to
] find mechanisms for our generation which block activist
] judges from stripping us of the freedoms and values we
] believe in.

I used to like Newt Gingrich. Always saw him as a forward thinking, libertarian sort of Republican. I was wrong. He is regressive. He just flushed any respect I ever had. Its gone.

There is absolutely no element of the Republican's anti-constitutional platform that "preserves freedoms." Not one element. They want to censor the media, they want to harrass gays, they want to ban abortions (despite their supposed emphasis on healthy families), they want to force everyone in the country to practice their religion and recognize their god, they want to imprison people for protesting the government.

How dare he evoke Thomas Jefferson in the context of attempting to establish a Conservative Christian government! Thomas Jefferson was the foremost advocate of the separation of church and state! Thomas Jefferson is the reason that the Conservative Christian adgenda is illegal!

[ I've never liked Newt Gingrich, but this is beyond the fucking pale. Let's abolish checks and balances, ok? Who needs 'em. This is just absurd. And don't doubt that this gets a big jingoistic spin on the campaign trail as a measure to protect the pledge and preserve our heritage or some other fucking crap like that. I can't even believe this isn't a joke. Pure FUCKING rage. -k]

Runaway courts - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - September 23, 2004

] If we accept the idea that we are born with a large
] amount of damage, it follows that even small improvements
] to the processes of early human development%u2014ones
] that increase the numbers of initially functional
] elements%u2014could result in a remarkable fall in
] mortality and a significant extension of human life.
] Indeed, there is mounting evidence now in support of the
] idea of fetal origins of adult degenerative diseases and
] early-life programming of aging and longevity.

[ Very interesting article. Good stuff... -k]

Why we break

] No argument is more central to the Republican attack on
] Sen. John Kerry than the assertion that the Democrat has
] flip-flopped on Iraq.
]
] ...
]
] Yet an examination of Kerry's words in more than 200
] speeches and statements, comments during candidate forums
] and answers to reporters' questions does not support the
] accusation.

[ Thank you Marc Sandalow. Remarkably, there are some reporters who cling to the notion of Journalism. Of doing research and presenting conclusions rather than penning endless, identical, he-said/she-said tripe that does nothing to inform the public. Objective does not mean divorced from the world. And balance implies fairness, not equal space for unchecked garbage. It's immensely gratifying to encounter these solid grains of truth in the undifferentiated mass of spin and shill that populates the majority of mainstream news.

And even better, it appears that this was on page A-1. I wonder if it got above the fold. -k]

NEWS ANALYSIS / Flip-flopping charge unsupported by facts / Kerry always pushed global cooperation, war as last resort

] JON STEWART: Well Stephen, what do you think is going to
] happen now at CBS News?
]
] STEPHEN COLBERT, Daily Show Senior Media Correspondent:
] Jon, there's got to be some accountability. Dan Rather is
] the head, the commander in chief if you will of his
] organization. He's someone in the ultimate position of
] power who made a harmful decision based upon questionable
] evidence. Then, to make things worse, he stubbornly
] refused to admit his mistake, choosing instead to stay
] the course and essentially occupy this story for too
] long. This man has got to go!
]
] STEWART: Uh ... we're talking about Dan Rather...?
]
] COLBERT: Yes Jon, Dan Rather. CBS is in chaos, it's
] unsafe, riven by internal rivalries. If you ask me,
] respected, reputable outsiders need to be brought in to
] help the rebuilding effort.
]
] STEWART: ... at CBS News?
]
] COLBERT: Yeah, at CBS news! What possible other unrelated
] situation could my words be equally applicable to?! Now
] people need to be held accountable. The commander in
] chief, the vice president, the secretary of defense, the
] national security adviser -- everyone at CBS News needs
] to go! Jon, I can tell you, Walter Cronkite is rolling
] over in his grave.
]
] STEWART: Walter Cronkite is still alive.
]
] COLBERT: Not according to my sources ... at CBS News.

[ Brilliant. -k]

Daily Show Transcript on the Great Leader's Mistake