My Shortest Blog Post Ever!!

She said, "Yes!"


Details to come soon!

Democratic Factivism

This is a copy and paste of a blog post that Randi Rhodes posted on the blog at Air America. It really is worth the read. I have a couple of posts coming this week that really will highlight how far down the spiral our country has gotten. We need to wake up, Americans!!


Democratic Factivism
By Randi Rhodes on June 1, 2007 - 7:33am

There is more than a conservative grip on the media. Conservatives have their hands tightly around media's neck and are trying to choke the life out it. Freedom of the press is gasping for air and you're a witness to the crime.

I've spent 15 years in talk radio and I promise you I’ve never seen an assault on the media like I see today. The news has been canceled and replaced with the conservative daily dose of fear. And do you know why? Because the dirty little secret is Conservatives fear you. Not just you Democrats either. Our government fears all of you American people. That's why they lie and spy. They know that if we were unified around the facts as we find them we would change this entire government without a single shot ever fired simply by educating ourselves. So if they know it, shouldn't you?

Remember how public opinion changed after Katrina? If you believe in God, that was surely a message to wake up and demand better from Caesar. And if you don't believe in God that was surely a signal from this warming planet to wake up and demand better from Caesar.

Republicans can't afford another wake up call to get through to you. And truth tellers are more than a wake up call. Truth tellers, fact finders are a Category 5 Hurricane of information raising the roof on a corrupt government currently engaged in the single biggest heist in the history of the world.

So they do what they know works. They deep drill THE FEAR.

Fear mongering is so excessive in this country that how many of you can deny that you at least once thought or said, "Better to fight them there. Let's eat!"

When did war become routine?

Some of you are saying after 9/11 that's when. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Look!

Daily terror alerts (YELLOW – ELEVATED) scrolling along the bottom of Fox News while Laurie Due and her lip gloss form the words "a terror plot was foiled today."

But no prosecutions.

Al Qaeda's number three being captured again and again and again (catch and release? No…just bullcrap), small pox warnings, anthrax being sent in the mail (anyone been arrested for that yet?) fake anthrax mailings, poison pens, model airplanes that can spray you with deadly gases, exploding ferries, shopping malls as targets, chickens that are coming to either peck your eyes out or give you a deadly flu and now a walking talking bio weapon with deadly Tuberculosis turns out to be the son-in-law of a CDC microbiologist who traveled all over the world undetected!

I really used to think they scared us because Conservatives do have a deep dark penetrating fear, that somewhere, somehow, somebody in America is actually happy. But that's not the entire reason. Conservatives are afraid, of you. They don't like you but more importantly they don't trust you. They don't trust you with information or ballots.

And so terror and fear are preached without fact, artists are banned from speaking through music, television reporters have their stories killed by advertisers who make money in war, newspaper reporters are threatened with losing access to the people they must cover to make a living, but Right Wing Talk Show Hosts are praised by the President and Vice President. Some days I think Cheney will give Rush permission to invade Costa Rica. O'Reilly may be just too stupid to ask.

I try to reach people who listen to AM Radio, but I can’t make myself call liberals stupid or women Nazis. I did throw away my birth control pills and dump sewage near a school once to gain credibility…but people still listen and believe the liars and so I still have to remind people to believe nothing they hear on Talk Radio, including me!

In order to be able to speak about issues of great importance to our country, which I research and document daily, without warning people not to believe a word I say, I’d have to steal two elections, stage a coup in Venezuela while being videotaped, attend a photo op in a second grade classroom while four commercial passenger planes are making U-Turns over the Eastern Seaboard crashing into skyscrapers over a major US city, as well as breaching the most secure airspace in the country (no not Disneyland…The Pentagon I mean), let the Bin Laden's leave the country without a single question being put to them, tell every American I am so devoted to hunting Osama Bin Laden down to bring him to justice then change my mind and admit that "I don't spend much time on him", sell an invasion of an unarmed nation that never provoked us nor posed any threat to us by claiming it was Saddam Hussein that did it, bug the United Nations Security Council offices, get Colin Powell to lie to the world on International Television, slaughter 650,000 innocent people, issue an order to never photograph a flag draped coffin, cook the casualty numbers, deny that we are now building a US Embassy the size of the Vatican, under equip, under fund and underman the war effort while insisting every day for four years that THIS IS THE WAR FOR CIVILIZATION ITSELF and then begin to repeat "the problem is not Iraq, folks, the problem is Iran" over and over again.

Somewhere I'd also have to find time to smear anyone who comes close to the truth, out covert CIA agents who may be able to refute my claims of a forthcoming nucular (yes that's how you have to spell it now) holocaust, set up a Warrantless Wiretapping Program to spy on Gay Rights Activists and Quakers, rename it the Terrorism Surveillance Program, intimidate whistleblowers, and place my cronies in every single government agency from the Food and Drug Administration to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to the State Department, appoint corporate judges and religious zealots to oversee Women's Health, The US Military and the Attorney Generals office.

But I don't have that kind of time I have to do the news because there's like two people doing it, and one of them is on Comedy Central!

The endless barrage of lies and the word “unknowable” over and over and over…has made people indifferent. Indifference is a strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between good and evil, cruelty and compassion, opinion and fact.

Strong words are needed now. Call these Right Wing Fear mongers what they are. Bush's Elite Republican Guard or Fascists. Go ahead. You'd be telling the truth.

Practice Democratic Factivism.

You can listen to me with the warning not to believe a word I say or you can listen to what I say and check it out for yourself by reading. Reading is for cool people!

A listener suggested we read a book together. I like this idea. Let's read Al Gore's book The Assault on Reason together. If we all do it (including people who think I'm wrong) none of us will have to burn it when we're finished.

What do you say?

Final Report on the 60 Day Sleep Challenege

Hi,

Today is June 3rd, a few days after my 60 day sleep challenge ended; May 30th. You'll remember the goal as to get myself into a better sleep routine. Also, I gave myself the following conditions.

1. No alcohol
2. No caffeine
3. No chocolate
4. Avoid dessert and processed sugars

I gave a progress report on May 6th, to keep you posted on how I was doing. Here are the final results.

-I’ve lost 5 pounds. I am now at 170. I don’t have any pictures to so you as I’m still working on getting back in shape. I’ll have a before and after photo for you soon as I am still working out and working towards my goals.

-I did cheat a few days with the alcohol and chocolate. Just a stray Hershey kiss here and there and one small piece of 80% dark chocolate. (Hey, it has a lot of antioxidants!) And the alcohol was in social situations were it would have been rude not to share a drink. That said, never did I get drunk and I didn’t go over two drinks per occasion. Overall, it was a HUGE reduction in my alcohol and chocolate intake. Though I must be honest, for the past few years chocolate intake has been far greater than alcohol. (Damn sweet tooth!) I do feel better because of it.

-For the first few weeks, I got rid of caffeine completely. Did my body good. (Wait, sorry, it’s milk that does that.) I slowly reintroduced caffeine with green tea because of the benefits of antioxidants it contains. I’m now drink “half-caff” coffee in the morning. So my usually two cups now only has the caffeine of one cup. I’ll have a cup or two of green tea at the office, but I don’t drink any caffeine after 3pm. So far, I’m feeling good.

-Overall, I am sleeping better. I am still waking up during the night most days, however the number of wake-ups have drastically lessened. I also have realized that many of my wake-ups are caused by external stimuli. And that by eliminating those stimuli, I sleep better.

For instance, the way my apartment is set up, I hear a lot of the noise generated by my roommate when she comes home late at night. Since she is on a different schedule rarely does she go to bed at the same time as I do. We’re working on a remedy to that here in the apartment, however, there is another solution coming very soon.

I’m moving out. Now before you lose yourself singing that Billy Joel song, (because I sure as hell ain’t dancing no Twila Tharp routine) let me explain why. I’ve decided to change careers, well at least day-job paths. I’ve been accepted to a massage therapy school in New Jersey. My classes start July 20th and will run through until April. I know moving to a quieter environment, as well, as starting on a path that my soul tells me is the right path, will improve my sleep tremendously. (As well as exhausting myself as I continue to work out.)

Well, that’s it for now. The details of my move, and my new path, will come in future blog posts. Thanks to every one for there continued support!