From the White House: Fake News

Most people aren't aware that the White House has been cranking out fake news, otherwise known as propaganda, to the American people throughout the duration of the administration. The liberal media has almost completely ignored this issue, and the only places you can hear about it include the New York Times, and the Daily Show. I'll say that again - you actually have to watch a fake news show on Comedy Central, in order to get any type of real news because the corporate media is too lazy or unwilling to cover it.

In a nutshell, the Bushies have been shelling out pre-packaged news reports to local news stations, put together by PR firms they've hired in order to praise Bush and Jesus for the miracles from both. As you're settling in to watch your local hot reporter for channel 6 tell you how the local factory just laid off your uncle that keeps voting for Bush, they go to a reporter in the field who tells you how amazing Bush's plan for economic recovery is, and how people everywhere are getting back to work. It ends with, "live from Sioux City, I'm so-and-so."
There is no kind of disclaimer on these videos that would indicate it was made by the state department, the education department, or the Pentagon. It just appears like any other news report, and you're left believing that No Child Left Behind is actually working .

Sound sneaky? You're right, but it's more than that. Completely immoral? Yes, but even more than that, it's against the law.

Let's recap what we've found out has been going on in the liberal media these past couple years under the Bush administration:

• Three reporters have been found in the past year to be taking money from the Bush administration to promote disastrous and homophobic Bush policies in syndicated newspaper columns and on television. This is unprecedented, and there may be more than just these three.
  
• A reporter in the White House press corps has been getting daily press passes issued to him, cleared by the secret service and other security bodies checking for anything suspicious, in order to throw softball questions at Bush and his press secretary, typically immediately following difficult questions from genuine reporters. The other issues with this is that Jeff Gannon isn't his real name, he worked for a small right-wing activist organization called GOPUSA, and he isn't even a legitimate reporter with any credentials whatsoever. In this day and age of hyper-concern for security ad nauseam, this fake reporter was able to get within shouting distance of the president.
  
• Finally, as mentioned above, the White House is under fire from legal, ethics and media groups regarding the pre-packaged propaganda distributed to local news organizations.
  Again, you won't hear much out of pink-commie CBS News regarding this, but instead, you have to watch this Daily Show clip to obtain any kind of real information. If you need quicktime, get it, this clip is that good.

Delay's Dilemma

I'm trying to stop writing about Terri Schiavo, I really am. But like the E channel is to Michael Jackson, I'm absolutely drawn to this brutal car accident, this circus of sickening information.

More developments keep popping up each day, and the only thing more disgusting than the manufactured concern the Republicans have for this woman is their absolutely, positively, disgusting hypocrisy. I already spoke about Bush's futile care law, which he signed with his crayon and reversed R's when he was dictator of Texas - but the latest example of two-facedness comes from Tom Flip-Flop-Fucker Delay himself.

For those of you who actually have lives and don’t bother with learning about Texas politics, Mr. Delay is the Republican US House leader who, at any given time, is under a number of ethics violation investigations, and has been spearheading the campaign to force feed the dying bulimic woman in Florida (hows that for irony).

As you have listened to Tom Delay beg and plead for you to understand that he, Jesus, and Bush are all praying nightly for Mrs. Schiavo, it may be beneficial for me to allow you to look through the lens of duplicity to see the complete double standard with which these people operate daily, by telling you how Tom Delay’s father actually died: because Tom and his family decided to pull the plug.

Back in 1988, Tom’s 65-year-old father Charles had a freak accident that left him in a coma, while a breathing tube and saline solution kept him alive. According to medical documents, “extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated,” in “agreement with the family’s wishes.” Like, Terri, Tom’s father did not have a living will. Like Terri, Tom’s father, when alive, expressed his wish to never be kept alive that day. Like Terri’s husband, Tom and his mother, whom has hasn't spoken to in two years, made a humane decision. Unlike Terri’s husband, however, Tom Delay is a fucking scumbag.

Why the harsh words? Because this is a man who criticized Michael Schiavo for making the same decision he did only a decade earlier. Remember? Tom Delay, with all the cameras running, his hair greased up with some good ‘ole Texas beeswax, looked into your living room and said, “What kind of man is (Michael Schiavo)? I don't have a whole lot of respect for a man that has treated this woman in this way.”

Well Mr Delay, I’m glad you mentioned that, because I don’t have any respect for you, either, and if the time ever comes that you’re using a feeding tube to keep your shriveled, ethics-deprived skeleton alive, let me be the first to approach your hospital bed with the obligatory pillow.

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3/28/05 update...

It's no wonder that politicians like Delay are getting support from the people who are putting red tape on their children's mouths, or sending their 7-year-olds to break into the hospice with food and water to give to a woman who can't swallow. These are the people who are depriving the 70 other people in that hospice, a peaceful, calm, passing.

People like Jennifer Johnson, who got the call from the same hospice that her grandfather was in his last minutes, and she had better rush over to the facility to say goodbye to him one last time. Barefoot and in her PJ's, she passed by people with signs that said, crucifixion,” “torture,” and “starvation." She was then halted by police who demanded to see the ID that she forgot to bring with her, then put through a metal detector search which delayed the trek to her grandfather's room ever further - only to arrive one minute after his passing. Isn't that heartwarming?

To all of you who voted for this president and this congress based on your concern for family values, here's what you bought. Here's the return on your investment. The family values are everywhere. Take a huge whiff.

Does Being Pro-life End at Birth?

I’ve had just about enough of this Terri Schiavo thing. I want everyone who thinks George flip-flop hypocrite douche face Bush supports a “culture of life” and cares about this poor dying woman to look at a picture:
The only difference between this kid and Terry Shiavo is 19 judges, intervention from congress, the president, and Jesus himself.

See that dying kid with the ventilator shoved down his throat? This kid is now dead. I say that not to get you choked up or to Fox News you into getting all angry, white, and male.

Why did he die, you might ask? Did the mother give up on him? No, that not it. Did the ventilator simply not work? Nope, that’s not it either. He’s dead because of a law in Texas, signed by on George W. Bush. The same Law I mentioned in the original Terri Schiavo blog.
It’s what’s referred to as the “Texas Futile Care Law,” which dictates that individuals on life support…and pay attention you red-state, sap hypocrite fucks…may have their feeding tubes, breathing tubes, or bong tubes, whatever is keeping them alive, pulled out of their stomachs, throats or asses, WHETHER OR NOT THE PARENTS OR GUARDIANS OK THE DECISION.

This can happen under two circumstances:
1). the individual in question has almost zero chance of recovery, and
2). The parents CANNOT AFFORD THE HEALTH CARE.

And all you people protesting and getting arrested at the hospice where Shiavo is at – where other people are trying to live their final days in peace and their families have to walk around you or through you to see their loved ones, many of whom made the same painful decision Michael Schiavo has made – can you make one guess as to whose recently dried ink is on the bill that allows this to happen? That’s right! One George W. Bush.

And do you know how a law like this gets enacted? Meet the insurance company lobby. They approach G.W. in Texas one day, wake him up from his post-Nilla Wafer ‘n Milk 2pm nap, and say, “listen, George…we’re shelling out millions of dollars in health care for people who are basically dead anyway. Any chance of helping us out here? No, no, I’ve already eaten..I just need you to work with the Texas legislature on this new bill. Thanks, see you at Shady Oaks golf club on your next 11 week vacation.”

This occurs because George W, Tom “violatin’ ethics rules” Delay, and the other scumbag conservatives on Capitol hill don’t give one giant mountain of dead fetuses about your kid, your daughter, or your dog that needs to be put down. They’re about big business, money, and getting their base all fired up by telling stories of how someone whose cerebral cortex has been turned to gravy actually tries to smile when her mother is in the room. Oh wait, that was last night’s CNN anchor – damn liberal media!

So do me a solid, ok? Take the fucking duct tape off your mouths – take your lit candles and your useless, Republican supported fag-hating prayer circles, and go pray for the infant kid who died because his lower income mother couldn’t pay $1,790 per day to keep her kid breathing, you hypocrites.

Don't Conservatives Hate Law Suites?

Apparently they don't, and I'll tell you why. I can remember a specific day in my "America Since 1945" class about 6 years ago in college when a conservative friend of mine named Dave proclaimed that there was no more de facto segregation in the United States (if you think back to your Sociology classes, you'll remember that's the matter-of-fact type of segregation that occurs without laws forcing it to occur, unlike "whites only" drinking fountains, etc). Our professor smiled and asked him to drive through downtown Poukeepsie (the city I went to college in), look around, then report back to the class what he found.

He continued to support his point, and the professor continued to support hers. The professor had supporting facts. She was incredibly articulate in showing Dave how wrong he was. She was 100% correct. She was 100% persuasive. She could have been sued.

The Republicans on the House Choice & Innovation committee voted recently along party lines to allow students to sue teachers and Universities when their ultra-fucking conservative views are not being fairly represented in class where small things like truth and facts play a role in learning about the world in which we live. I couldn't even make this stuff up, folks.
A student at Harvard gets help with after class with his calculus homework.

In other words - if you're in an anthropology class, studying the origins of man, and the paper you wrote about Adam & Eve gets you an F, you can sue the shit out of your pinko Commie science professor - well, that's Nobel Prize winning Doctor pinko commie science professor to you, hillbilly .

Those who still actually use common sense in this country have examined the law, and declare that similar suits could be filed by students who don’t believe astronauts landed on the moon, who believe teaching birth control is a sin or even by medical students who refuse to perform blood transfusions and believe prayer is the only way to heal the body. Aren't you who voted for W thanking Jesus every day for this kind of stuff?

Remember, this is from the party who continued to bitch slap lawyers throughout the Bush presidential campaign, who have been arguing that frivolous law suits have been the root cause of all that's evil in this country, right down to our health care system. Remember when they said all that stupid shit? Well, I can't think of anything more frivolous than this.

Why is this? Why are they adamant in supporting the tobacco industry, gun lobby, death penalty and reduced health care if they claim they're for a culture of life? Why is it they are for smaller government, yet we have the largest federal government we've had in the history of the united states and the largest federal deficit ever? It's all related, it's all hypocritical, and it's disgusting.

American colleges and Universities are the last standing institutions in the country that haven't been invaded by these mindless, sound byte vomiting scumbags, so they decided while they have the Supreme Court, White House, the media, and Congress, they might as well turn Boston College into Bob Jones University.

That's a cute idea, except I'd like to keep their slimy, red tentacles off the one foundation that encourages free thought, innovative ideas, research, discovery, and knowledge - the things that those on the Right most despise, fear, and try to squash on a daily basis. Honestly guys - we progressives have been, for decades, growing and expanding our beautiful colleges and universities to become the best in the world. Leave the fancy book learnin' to us, and you can keep Nascar and the Klan.

Catholic Family Values

For all the family values posturing the Catholic Church does, in addition to touching little boys where they pee from time to time and dismissing sex education as blasphemous in nations where the percentage of HIV positive people are in the double digits, they sure know how to ruin a party. A funeral party that is.

Enter John McCusker, a small business owner in the San Diego area who died recently of an unexpected heart attack, at the ripe age of 31. John was a good Catholic as he was never caught intentionally violating any of the 10 commandments, including the 8 that have nothing to do with the law, and his family was looking to have a proper Catholic funeral and burial for him. If you've never been to a Catholic funeral I can tell you, as someone who's father was a Catholic monk for 8 years, their funerals are almost depressing as their Weddings - with virtually the same amount of information regarding God and Jesus, and the same lack of information about the wedded or the deceased. Nevertheless, John's family knew this and was willing to proceed with the ceremony.

They were unexpectedly slapped on the wrist by the Catholic powers that be in San Diego, and were promptly denied a funeral at the University of San Diego and in any Catholic church or chapel in the Diocese of San Diego. Why, might you ask? Because John owned a couple of gay bars. Not adult bars, not bars with sex in the back rooms - bars where gay people can go, meet other gay people, and not get tied to a fence and beaten to death by some redneck fuck in the parking lot for making eyes at them across the pool table.

So, allow me to recap for the Catholic Church, since it has enough trouble justifying it's recent unflattering headlines in your local paper: If you are a Priest and you ruin kids' lives by sexually molesting them and pressuring them not to tell mom and dad, your punishment is transferal to another district. If you are a member of the small business community who owned a couple of bars in which boys might have kissed each other, you're barred from the Church.

Keep in mind, the issue here is to give someone a funeral. You have to ask yourself how much this church respects life if they're unwilling to accommodate someone in death. This exactly why when I see a salvation army donation bucket, or I hear about various Catholic charities around my home state of Maine, I cannot bring myself to support them financially. Until they start supporting people in my life, my pockets are mysteriously empty for people in theirs.

This is not to say that all Catholics or even a majority feel this way, because there were many good Catholics in Southern California who are completely bullshit about this, as they should be. What it does reflect poorly on, however, is their leadership. The lack of pressure on the Catholic church to forward their minds at least past the 15th century is disturbing and it's costing lives, especially via their stance on sex education in this country and abroad. Until they're able to get their collective heads out of their asses (or that of their alter boys'), the few bad apples will in fact spoil the whole bunch.

U-G-L-Y, You Ain't Got No Alibi!

State Representative Al Edwards from - where the fuck else - Texas, has decided he's seen enough bumping and grinding during half-time of his favorite, prayer-proceeded high school football games. Edwards, a 26 year Veteran of the Texas house that Tom Delay just redistricted gets offended by high school girls, making Elvis-like moves "with them hips of theirs, gyrating and such." Edwards went on to say, "them hips are for birthin', not movin' all about for wide-eyed, sexually denied perverts like me!"

When we last visited our heroes in the South, they were trying to legislate how people wear their underwear. Now, they're trying to outlaw forms of dance, not pleasing to the God(s). Under the bill's provisions, any school in violation of this, how do you say, "dancing," would lose some of it's state funding by an amount deemed appropriate by those who gasped, covered their mouths, and said 152 Hail Mary's before gagging on their own hypocrisy and passing out. Amen.

I'd like to also point out that Edwards is a Democrat, as was the person who introduced the aforementioned panty-legislation, and that just goes to show you Southern Democrats have the potential to be as completely asinine as American Republicans. One need only spend a few minutes Googling Zell Miller's fits of schizophrenic, venom-spitting rage to understand this.
And you know - when a law is made by legislators, in effect you're saying that "if you violate this rule, we will send people with guns after you." I just hope the cheerleader police doesn't forget to go after these idiots first.

Terri Schiavo hates Tom Delay

Will you please let this woman die with dignity for fuck's sake? Have you heard about the battle going on down in Florida? The one between the evil "love-the-fetus-hate-the-human" Florida Religious Right led by Jeb and smirking wiseass brother?

About 15 years ago, Terry Schiavo had a stroke which was a direct result of her battle with bulimia, and it effectively ended her life. Her brain is still alive, however she cannot talk or communicate in any form. She cannot make meaningful expressions, understand anyone around her, walk, eat, swallow, or function like any living person whatsoever. She cannot feel pain, and she cannot react with meaningful emotion, according to all doctors' testimony. Doctors say she has zero chance for recovery. She's a vegetable now, and she will be 50 years from now. Her husband has said that she verbally made it known that she would not like to be kept alive in a vegetative state if her life ever came down to it. Her parents, and the state of Florida want to keep her alive.

I can't imagine what her family members must be going through - to see a loved one in that state must be gut-wrenching, every single day. But realize this - the motive for not letting this woman, or ANY person die with painless dignity is clear and simple: the Bible says you can't, and Republicans are more than happy to play with her like a political football to appeal to their conservative, knuckle-dragging base.

There may be some reading this who supported Congress intervening in a family, State of Florida issue, and if this includes you, I'd like for you to consider the following points about this case, very few of which you're going to hear about in the corporate media:

• Those who want to keep this poor woman drooling on herself for the next 50 years have had not only their day in court, they've had their days. Before the recent escalation to various circuit appeals courts,NINETEEN state of Florida judges have reviewed and heard both sides of this case over SEVEN years. They have all, unconditionally, sided with Terri's husband in that she never wanted to be kept alive and suffering this way. They have sided with the doctors who testified her life is now meaningless, as she cannot process information or live any type of beneficial life.

• That testimony I just mentioned does not just include that of her husband - it includes other people who knew Terri who stated at funerals and on other occasions, that she didn't want to be kept alive artificially if ever incapacitated.

• Bush, head of the culture-of-life movement, defended his record-high 152 executions as governor of Texas by saying all of those who died had their day in court, and the courts ruling was final. Hmmmm...

• Republican House members characterized Terri as suffering, starving, and whose care is at the hands of murderers. I'm not sure if the thousands of caring, and frankly amazing Hospice workers around the country feel the same way. Hospice exists to make sure people die with dignity and with the least amount of pain possible. Even though Schiavo cannot feel pain, they've given her morphine just in case.

• Schiavo had a court-appointed, unconnected-to-the family guardian ad litem (guardian at law)- which is a PHD who has a law background as well, whose job it is to spend a month with Schiavo, assess her ability to respond to stimuli and her general state of vegetativeness, and write a report. His conclusion is that Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, did everything he could, the woman is brain damaged beyond any repair or signs of life other than lower brain stem movement, and has agreed with the court's rulings. Listen to an interview with him yourself.

• There are parents sending their kids to the hospice where Terri is, with duct tape over their mouths, huge signs that say "choose life," and "stop renegade judges." There are other dying members of other families in this same hospice, perhaps looking for a little peace at this point. I suggest these people take their kids, pack up the mini-van with the "Pray for bumper stickersickers on them, and perhaps look for a fucking job.

• Listen to the language these people use when speaking about the judges in the case. The 40 or so judges considering this case have been called anything from activist to murderers, as if their upholding of the law and the constitution put them at fault. The more you use language like this, the more Tom Delay threatens the judges on the case (which is illegal), the more judges and their family members will have to watch out for or lose their lives over cases like this. Nice job Tom...if someone ever takes a shot at your head through a scope some day, I'll giggle myself silly and have a beer at your funeral. In fact, it's chilling in the fridge now.

• Terri's feeding tube and hospice care are paid for byMedicaid. Tom Delay, House majority leader and the figure in charge of this fight for the Republicans, passed two bills recently to reduce Medicaid coverage helping Terri stay alive.

• We now know that Tom Delay, leading the charge for the Republicans to keep this woman alive, pulled the virtual plug on his own dad several years ago when his family had to go through the same personal decision.

• The 5-4 conservative ruled U.S. Supreme court wouldn't even hear this case. They looked at it, and said "there is no federal question here," and kicked the case back to Florida. That means Congress, in passing this bill superseded 19 Florida judges, 7 years of Florida State court rulings, and the Supreme court.

• The Republicans have coined their latest vomit-inducing bumper sticker phrase during this debate as "the culture of life," that they're trying to protect. The Republican party supporting a culture of life? Culture of life my ass. Their culture of life in the past 4 years alone has included:
-1 unjustified war which has taken 10's of thousands of lives
-An allowance of the assault weapons ban to expire, as well as other gun control legislation
-Unabashed support for the death penalty, including that of minors as well as mentally incapacitated individuals by your current president, along with Texas setting the record for number of executions during his dictatorship there.
-Support for justice department members who favor torture as a legitimate inquisition method

• George W. Bush, culture of life king, signed legislation into law in Texas as governor called, the futile care law which enables hospitals to pull the proverbial plug (or feeding tube) on patients who cannot afford health insurance coverage for life support. (read the law itself here)

• (update) Not including the US Supreme Court over 40 judges have either looked at the case, or withdrew their ruling because they had no say in the jurisdiction.

• The Republicans have capitalized on and jumped all over this case not because they care about this woman, but because they are trying to appeal to their right-wing conservative base. You want proof? A memo, obtained by several network news organizations and circulated by the Republicans in the senate asks their party to consider fighting this in congress because, "this is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a co-sponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats." You can read more about the memo here, and here.

• Think about your family going through the same battle - would you really want the U.S government stepping in as high appeal court, overruling 19 judges in your state, deciding whether or not you can live or die? Is anyone else scared shitless about ethics committee investigated Tom fuckface Delay R-TX deciding what you can and cannot do with your own life? Oh, you're cool with that? Sorry.

• I'm tired of Bush being praised for "taking the time to come back to Washington" on short notice to sign this legislation from congress into law. You know why? Because he's SUPPOSED to be in fucking Washington! (Remember him setting a record for vacation time for a sitting president during the mountains of threats communicated by CIA officials about a Bin Laden orchestrated attack? What amazing prioritization this guy has.)

• The entire premise of the conservative party, from the days of slavery to gay rights, integration, or anything other thing worth fighting for, has been STATES RIGHTS. Period. What kind of violation of states rights is it for the Florida state court of appeals to be out-ruled by the federal US congress? I guess states rights only applies when your ancestors wanted to ass-rape your African American "hired hands," or when black people in the south wanted a fucking education.

So what has the "state's rights, less federal government" party done? They've looked to the US Federal Congress to subvert the state's ruling, and subpoena poor Terri to "testify" before the US Government! What a great idea! After that, let's strap her in on a tilt-a-whirl at Disney Land, and see if we can make more of a spectacle out of this poor woman! Maybe we can do a commercial that says, "Hey Terri, you're about to have the government keep that feeding tube down your throat for the next 50 years of your miserable life... What are you going to do next?" Then Jeb Bush can put his claws around her mouth to make it move, while a voiceover says, "I'm going to Disney Land!"

The bottom line is, the US congress interfering with this family issue for the purposes of using this woman as a political football will make these Republicans (and Democrats who voted for the bill last night) burn in the same hell they're always trying to scare us with. I just hope they're not hooked up to life support for the last 40 years of their miserable lives to delay their arrival.

Social in-security

Bush had one of his staged, Republican only town meetings recently to discuss his plans to rape social security and turn it into a forced 401k. When asked to explain how his plan would help save the oldest and most effective social system in the world he said that....well, allow me to let George explain it to you in his own words:

"There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you?

"It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

"Okay, better? I'll keep working on it." —President Bush, Tampa, Florida, Feb. 4, 2005

If you really want to give yourself a treat, download the audio clip here.

Thanks George, that clears it up for us. We'll try to ask "more simpler" questions in the future, while you fire the staff member who shows you all the smart reporters' questions before they're asked.

Monkey Business

A particular debate in this nation is starting to gather more steam, getting more and more recognition from the corporate media in this country...and I'm actually embarrassed anyone would even have to write about it.

The current hot button topic across small, conservative-red, miniature flag-waving American towns? Evolution.

This particular discussion shows that no, not all debate is healthy, because sometimes it's often embarrassing convincing people outside the scientific community that the case we all thought was closed after the 1925 Scopes trial should really still be closed. The scientists - you know, the people who went to school for years and spend most of their lives researching stuff, and providing facts that prove things - are actually having to engage the conservative religious community in debate at school board meetings, in front of city councils, or anywhere else they are confronted by these knuckle-draggers (pardon the pun, because of course we all evolved from knuckle-dragging beings.)

Those on the Right have taken a cue from our...let me try to force myself to type the word here...President, who stuck his middle finger up at the scholastic community by saying the jury is still out on evolution. I think the quote was something like, "well, gull-dang it, I sure as heck dunno how we got here, but I do know Jesus created all of us and that's all I have to say about that, now excuse me while I drop a bomb on the Museum of Science in Boston."

That's right. The guy who scored enough legacy points to drink and snort his C-minus average self through Yale, isn't quite so sure if the millions of scientific publications, research, discovered fossils, museums, and entire scientific community should be believed over, "says so right in this here Bible."

Bush and others in the anti-science crowd know they can't argue on their own merits - they cannot use education, research, or anything resembling scientific fact to provide their own theory to account for how humans just "appeared," and they realize that simply arguing against well established theories like evolution, relativity, and gravity make them look - well, retarded. So instead, they've done two things: 1). they're organizing and raising money to fight this fancy book-learnin', and 2). they're developed their own "theory," called Intelligent Design.

The first method is a bit scary when you see the numbers. The nonprofit Discovery Institute in Seattle has spent a million bucks annually to try to promote their scowling, anti-evolution theories. Evangelist James Kennedy (I know what you're thinking! No, no relation) has established a Creation Studies institute in Florida costing millions of dollars, and Jerry Falwel's evil petri dish, Liberty University in Virginia, has established a conference called "Answers in Genesis," which has raised (are you sitting down?) nine million dollars. Nine MILLION Dollars. Nine million that could have been donated to rebuild tsunami-flattened villages in Asia, help develop an AIDS vaccine, or could have been neatly piled, lit on fire and inhaled - all three of which would have been far better utilization of that much money.

The second method they're using to combat evolution, Intelligent Design, is a more modern development that is exciting the South more than a pig roast in cousin Zeke's bath tub on the front lawn. Intelligent design is the new creationism baby! It's a theory that is supposed to provide empirical proof for the existence of God, and show that natural selection is not really natural selection but instead the direct result of a white-bearded God in the sky moving our adaptations and DNA around like a chess game.

While many evangelists, preachers, and soccer moms are foaming at the mouth (via salivary glands evolved to help us digest food and therefore survive the past several million years) at the thought of being able to challenge evolution, their theory has several obvious flaws:

- People who support Creationism or Intelligent Design say that science has been wrong in the past. While this is true, only one thing has been able to prove scientific theories invalid over the course of it's history: more science. Think about it. When the earth was hypothesized to be flat rather than round, it was a scientist who stood up and said, "no, actually, I've got some data that proves you wrong." When we thought the Earth was the center of the Solar System, it was Galileo, under threat of death, who invited people to look through his telescope so people could see for themselves how wrong they were - or at the maid bathing next door. Later it was science that proved that women weren't sinking or floating in lakes due to supernatural proof that they were witches, but rather because of buoyancy properties in the human body. In other words - when science is proven incorrect, it's due to more science, and the same can be said for supernatural theories when they are proved wrong.

- When Creationists say that evolution is just a theory, they're intending the word theory to be synonymous with guess. Scientific theories are not developed by simply "taking a stab at it," they're actually based on years of research, study, and real world application. There are many other scientific theories today that are widely accepted as more than just a stab in the dark. For example - as you read this, you are not flying off your chair straight up into space infinitely. We explain this with what we've learned from the theories of gravity, rather than saying "God is holding everything down with His magic fingers." NASA uses the theory of relativity in their work daily (the famous E=MC2, where m = mass and c = the speed of light), and wouldn't really call this theory just a hunch. In fact, it was this scientific theory that further expended on Newton's laws of motion.

- The book of Genesis, while well written from a literary standpoint, is just that - it's a story. It's a story written by men 2 millennia ago in order to convince people of something. Scientific theories are there for everyone to examine, prove, disprove with better science, and overall further the field of science, understanding, and our world around us.

- By contrast, the Biblical tales of Adam and Eve are there to explain what people thousands of years ago could not explain, and to teach moral lessons, like women are inferior because the come from men's ribs.

Basically, what it all boils down to is this. People advocating creationism or intelligent design have absolutely no intention of contributing to science for the good of anyone. The whole thing centers around the need for the Christian Right to interject religious teachings into public schools. Bear in mind that Creationism and other entertaining stories can be told and sold to children in any other forum - at Church, at home, and in private schools. When it comes to education of our citizens, I think we should all do our part to make our kids' science education a little less vulnerable to the rest of the world pointing and laughing.

Welcome to the site

Welcome to the newly uploaded website, RageAgainstTheRight.com. This web site will serve two primary functions.

The first will be to educate people in terms of giving them news that you really can't get from the mainstream corporate media.

Many on the Right consider the media to have a progressive liberal bias - but in fact the opposite is true. From the way the media covered the Bush/Kerry Presidential campaign, to the lack of news surrounding Bush's illegal use of propaganda (i.e. paying 3 separate journalists with tax dollars to push his agenda, submitting fake, scripted commercials as news stories to air on various media outlets, having a fake reporter lob softball questions to Bush in the press corps, and on and on...), to unbelievable laziness in terms of investigating White House use of torture, environmental policy, social policy and civil rights, the lack of reporting on the criminals in Washington is unacceptable, and does us all a disservice.

My aim will be to gather news and facts from various independent, small yet reputable media outlets, and get them to anyone who is denied reality due to lack of coverage. I'll post everything I can on different topics in this blog you'll never hear by watching NBC Nightly News. This current administration and it's supporters do at least one disservice to most Americans daily, and I believe lack of knowledge is the only reason why people keep voting them in. I will do my tiny part to change the education level so people start voting for their best interests, instead of bumper sticker slogans.

The second objective will be to link other progressive web sites, and data they share with the world daily, to enable people to understand where progressives are coming from, what we stand for, and why we're starting to scream like hell from the roof tops. I should mention, as you paw through the site, that it is still very new, and my goal will be to add information almost daily.

However, don't take this web site's word as absolute truth. Look things up yourself - Google the very things I'm talking about and do your own reading. Some of the stuff here may seem incredibly biased and unbelievable - until you realize you weren't exposed to the story in the Washington Post, or you missed the latest vote on the Senate floor, or you didn't watch the documentary that supports exactly what I'm saying here with hard facts. If you think I misstated something, email me. I'm going to make mistakes and want to correct them.

Please note that this site is not an attack against all Republicans, or even Republicans in general. It's aimed at Right-Wing conservatives, and despite who represents the Republicans these days, there is a small difference. Not all Republicans are Right-Wing conservatives, and not all Right Wingers are Republican. I have friends who vote Republican, and they're actually fairly liberal people. They're just completely misguided :-)

If you ARE a Right Wing Conservative however, I AM attacking you. I'm not here to be civil, to tone down my language, to be nice, or to really even give you a chance to speak. I hate your philosophies, resent your assaults on Democracy, and will therefore do everything I can, every single day, to silence your voice and crush your ideology with facts, science, reason and open thinking.

Your ideology and your President are missing all of the above at this point, and I truly believe you're needlessly making millions of people's lives incredibly difficult on a daily basis.

You have 50,000 AM radio, television stations, magazines and web sites to go to where your uninformed, sheep-like, cookie-cutter opinion is praised daily through scare tactics, misinformation, and outright racism, sexism and homophobia. If you don't like what is said here, go join the sheep herd, or talk to the boys at the country club. It's time you feel some of what we on the left and in the center have been feeling for years. Your soundbyte slogans about loving or leaving America, or saying we're unpatriotic for holding our government accountable is offensive, and it's complete bullshit. It's your discourse, and it's the juvenile level you operate on, every single day. We don't hate America - we hate your version of America, and we're just about at the breaking point.

And that brings me to my final prefaced point - whether you're progressive or conservative, you have to realize one thing about my ideology: I'm not a stereotypical liberal. I'm not a tree-hugger, I don't wear tie-dye, and I don't have a giant peace bumper sticker on my car. I'm not gentle about politics - I'm bitter, sarcastic, and I've just about had it with the politics of those on the Right, and hypocrisy they spew on a daily basis.

I'm the kind of person who fights back - who doesn't believe in everyone holding hands and singing, and that visions of world peace are nice in theory, but certainly never possible. I'm the kind of progressive who believes in a better quality of life through education, science, dissent, questioning the government, holding them accountable, and fighting for the general quality of life for every living person, whether or not they're black, Hispanic, female, male, white, gay, straight, or even from Alabama. I believe in channeling anger and frustration into action. This web site is my way of stopping myself, and perhaps some of you from going completely insane.

With all of that said, I welcome you not only to my world, and to my perception - but the perception of tens of millions in this country, and exponentially more around the world. Welcome to RageAgainstTheRight.com