But Who Will Save the Unicorns?!

In light of the fact that a Canadian MP has introduced legislation that would put Bigfoot on the endangered species list, I have to ask why he’s ignoring the very real threat to the survival of other species once thought mythical, but now should, and could be considered simply so endangered, no one ever sees them.

Of course the first animal that leaps to most people’s minds is the Unicorn, because it was such a majestic animal when it roamed the plains unfettered. Deforestation, as well as an exploding population has sent this animal’s once abundant numbers into a steady dive, to the point where almost no one has reported seeing one in the wild in decades, if not centuries.

But that isn’t the only animal we can fight to help save. If we can get Mexico to join this battle, perhaps the Chupacabra’s numbers can make a comeback. Numerous movies have been made in order to keep the “legend” of this animal alive, but you cannot debate that if more people were made aware of the real plight of this creature many would do their best to help it thrive again.

What about the Phoenix? Many people are under the impression that since the animal is virtually immortal that it would be hard to put on an endangered species list, but ask yourself, how many of these magnificent birds have you seen? Clearly there’s a problem raising the population’s numbers.

I could go on for pages, but I digress. I hope that MP Mike Lake will continue this fight to get Bigfoot on the list, next to the Whooping Crane, and the Blue Whale. I hope he wins that fight, and then begins again. For as Mr. Lake said

“The debate over their existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing.”

Truer words have never been spoken Mr. Lake! Fight on!

I’m The Commander Guy!

Well, President Bush has invented another name for himself.  On the heels of being “The Decider”, the president christened himself The Commander Guy a few days ago, when talking about  why he was vetoing a war funding bill that had provisions that would force a troop withdrawal from Iraq by October of this year.

The truly chilling thing is that I’m not so sure that this is  a new name, as much as he forgot what he’s called.  Is it possible he forgot it’s called Commander in Chief, but was able to remember the Commander part so he shortened the rest to “Guy”.

In honor of yet another verbal gaffe by the leader of the free world, I did a little research, and  found the 25 best Bushisms.  Some of them are funny, some are just downright disturbing, and as an added bonus, I’ve inlcuded the number one stupidest thing said by Laura Bush at the end.

25. “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right.” —Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

24. “We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates.” —Washington, D.C. Oct. 4, 2001

23. “People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in’s house and say I love you.” —Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

22. “I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet….I don’t want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.” —President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

21. “The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.” —explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004

20. “My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we’re going to run out of debt to retire.” —radio address, Feb. 24, 2001

19. “You know, when I was one time campaigning in Chicago, a reporter said, ‘Would you ever have a deficit?’ I said, ‘I can’t imagine it, but there would be one if we had a war, or a national emergency, or a recession.’ Never did I dream we’d get the trifecta.” —Houston, Texas, June 14, 2002 

18. “See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.” —Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

17. “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” —State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false

16. “In Iraq, no doubt about it, it’s tough. It’s hard work. It’s incredibly hard.” —repeating the phrases “hard work,” “working hard,” “hard choices,” and other “hard”-based verbiage 22 times in his first debate with Sen. John Kerry

15. “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” —Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

14. “I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” —Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

13. “But all in all, it’s been a fabulous year for Laura and me.” —summing up his first year in office, three months after the 9/11 attacks, Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2001

12. “I try to go for longer runs, but it’s tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It’s sad that I can’t run longer. It’s one of the saddest things about the presidency.” —interview with “Runners World,” Aug. 2002

11. “Can we win? I don’t think you can win it.” —after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, “Today” show interview, Aug. 30, 2004

10. “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.” —Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

9. “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” —to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004

8. “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” —speaking underneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

7. “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them.” —Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003

6. “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!” —President George W. Bush, joking about his administration’s failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents’ Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004

5. “If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” —Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

4. “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video)

3. “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video)

2. “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video)

1. “My answer is bring them on.” —on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003 1a. “Noone has suffered more than George and I” —Laura Bush when asked about the suffering that has been caused by the Iraq War, April 30th, 2007

Poor Paul

Remember that old song by the Coasters entitled “Charlie Brown”? Well it appears that Paul Wolfowitz has pulled some lyrics right from that classic tune. Why is everybody always picking on me? Today the World Bank president is attempting to claim that this whole fiasco is actually a smear campaign started by the World Bank, in an effort to get him to resign.

Now, let me start off by saying, I would have no problem if that were the case. I’ve thought this was about as obvious a show of cronyism as you can get when he was appointed, he proved to be an incompetent deputy secretary of defense, leading a charge to war for inaccurate or flat out bogus claims, and he basically got a promotion.

However what makes this latest claim mystifying is the fact that Wolfowitz apologized for inappropriately giving his girlfriend a huge pay bump three weeks ago. It simply blows my mind that people who are in, or WERE in the Bush Administration think that we as a people are either so dumb, we don’t know how to work a video camera, a tape recorder, or a wordprocessor, or are too lazy to fact check their claims.

What makes me absolutely crazy is that these people, who have been in charge, and had absolute power for so long, they think that any claim they make will simply be accepted at face value. My personal favorite was when Wolfy claimed that when he took steps to get his girlfriend a pay raise, he did so not realizing that it wasn’t ethical, because he was new to the organization. Paul, unless you’re new to the world, not just the World Bank, it should be fairly obvious that using your newfound influence to get your lover a pay raise is a no-no.

But you’re right, the World Bank is picking on you. You’re the innocent bystander who got run over by bunch of meanies. Poor Paul.

Wolfowitz on His Way out, But Not Before He Gets His

Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is allegedly working to secure a $400,000 bonus due to him on June 1 before he resigns his position, according to the blog The Washington Note. Let me say that again, Wolfowitz thinks he’s due a BONUS for drawing the exact kind of negative press that can cripple an organization like this. Hubris doesn’t begin to describe these people.

And I’m getting sick and tired of people working with these criminals and nare-do-wells to make the transition smoother. Why in the name of god, would you not just say. Paul, you screwed up royally, you got caught. When people in a position such as yours, (which includes launching a corruption probe, irony of ironies) are found out to be incompetent, criminal, or just plain shady, you get the boot. Had you not given your girlfriend a raise and promotion, without any proof or documentation that she deserved it, you wouldn’t be in this mess. Time to pay the piper Paul. Get the hell out of here!

You aren’t getting a performance budget, and it’s incredibly odd that you would ask for one. As someone else on another website said. This could be the definition of extortion, “I’ll stop hurting you, and your business, as soon as you pay me” Perhaps if the World Bank really wanted to show him how to play the game, they should file charges, with the promise that they’ll be dropped, the minute he vacates his office.

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Tony Blair to Step Down May 9th

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that he will end his 10 year reign on May 9th. More interesting than the what, is the why. Apparently the abrupt announcement is at least in part due to a desire to preempt any charges in the “Cash For Honours” scandal that has started to envelope an already embattled leader.
There has been no love lost between Blair and the British people over the last few years. He has been seen as nothing more than a puppet for the Bush Administration, with the big difference being that lately Blair has admitted serious mistakes had been made in the run-up to the Iraq war.

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More Violence In Baghdad

CNN is reporting that a series of coordinated attacks have killed 127 people, and wounded another 94 in several bombings that went off at or around the same time.

The most devastating attack was at the Sadriya market where a car bomb ended the lives of 82 Iraqi citizens.

I for one am getting very sick of this bullshite. How in the name of God do you think what you’re doing is justified when you are killing people who doing nothing more than SHOPPING?! I understand, although I don’t like, the attacks on US troops, and the Iraqi army, because you think they are the enemy, but someone needs to tell me, right freaking now, what killing a bunch of your fellow countrymen accomplishes.

Congratulations! You killed people who were in the exact same boat as you! Now you’re surely going to heaven! I understand anger, I understand hatred, the world is filled with both. I don’t understand hating so much that you feel killing dozens of people is justified.

Why Jackie Robinson Day Made Me Sad

No it wasn’t because the man is gone, and it took 60 years for a tribute to be carried out in the right way. It’s certainly not because I’m one of those tools who thinks it’s racist to celebrate this one black man. (I’m not kidding I heard that 3 times the last couple of day) I’m sad because Jackie Robinson embodied everything this country desperately needs, and he did it so long ago, as was pointed out ad-nauseum on Sunday, many kids will have to ask why players are wearing number 42.

Despite the lip service being paid to Jackie and god knows there was a ton of it, I still get the feeling that there are a lot of people who just do not understand the kind of man Jackie was, and the effect he had on this country. Jackie was a man who put simply, had to be perfect in every way. Not only did he have to be a damn good baseball player, but he had to be a good man. He had to take everything that was thrown at him, and not only survive it, but rise above it in a way I just don’t think a person would, or could do in this day and age.

Can you imagine Barry Bonds in Jackie’s situation? He would have set the cause back 15 years! Not because he couldn’t play baseball, Bonds was a hall of famer before he took steroids (allegedly) but because his enormous ego would not have allowed him to be the conciliatory person Jackie was. That’s not to say that Jackie was a “step ‘n’ fetch it” type guy, from all accounts he was incredibly principled. But he knew when the situation called for standing his ground, and when it called for blending into the background.

Jackie put an entire generation’s, and every generation after hopes and dreams on his shoulders, and did it willingly, and knowing full well what he was doing. I don’t believe there has ever been a time when this country needed a leader like that more, and then we do now. Leadership, both in the civil rights movement and in general now seem to be more about who can get the most face time. Does anyone really believe Al Sharpton stood up and railed about Don Imus for any reason other than to get some free press? Does anyone feel comforted by George Bush’s expressed outrage at the Virginia Tech shootings, while commenting how important it is to have the 2^nd amendment? Why in the name of god, do all our leader embarrass us more than uplift us? When did being a “strong leader” mean being stubborn? In an era when getting the most votes from a bunch of pre-teens means you’re a great musical talent, will we ever see a leader that makes decisions based on our best interests, instead of what they think will be accepted? And please don’t tell me Dubya is doing that, however small his fan base becomes, he’s still catering to a specific group, and in no way shape or form is he thinking of the greater good. If he thinks he is, he’s stupider than I thought. I’m honestly asking is the era of the man (or woman) that puts others ahead of themselves, without exception, gone? Can we ever get it back?

Thoughts like that are why Jackie Robinson day filled me with pride, and then almost immediately, filled me with sorrow.

But….No one could have foreseen this! My Government told me so!

Former intelligence officials confirmed to the Associated Press Monday a Le Monde newspaper report that France’s foreign intelligent service had heard about an al Qaeda plot which was “likely to involve a US airplane.” The French paper had also reported that France informed the Central Intelligence Agency prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Of course this means that basically every other intelligence agency in the world sensed something was coming, EXCEPT the CIA. But yeah, George Tenet deserved a medal

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How about you go for a stroll today Mr. McCain?

John McCain has done absolutely nothing to help his campaign in the last few months, but his constant attempts to prove that he can win the right wing over with the same idiot bravado, and proclamations that we’re winning the war in Iraq has given his campaign a hard push backwards when he said Iraq was safe enough to take a stroll through.

It got another hard push when pictures circulated of him wearing a bullet proof vest, and being escorted by several heavily armed soldiers. Just days after that visit, this bombing seems to accentuate just how moronic his claims really were. In this instance, I wish the terrorists could just allow him to be wrong, instead of demonstrating it.

From RawStory:

A blast ripped through a canteen in the Iraqi parliament complex inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Thursday, causing casualties, a correspondent for state television said.

Iraqiya television flashed a bulletin at the bottom of the screen but no other details were immediately given about the explosion, which marks a major breach of security in the most heavily guarded site in Iraq.