This Blog's new Purpose

This blog's new purpose is to combat the evil of America, its imperialism, its ignorance, etc.

America is Falling!

8 October 2005
IS THIS THE DEATH OF AMERICA?

America's sense of itself - its pride in its power - has been profoundly damaged.

By Dermot Purgavie, Veteran US Correspondent

THIS week Karen Hughes, long-time political adviser to George Bush, began her new mission as the State Department's official defender of America's image with a tour of the Middle East. She might have been more help to her beleaguered president had she stayed at home and used her PR skills on her neighbours. At the end of a cruel and turbulent summer, nobody is more dismayed and demoralised about America than Americans. They have watched with growing disbelief and horror as a convergence of events - dominated by the unending war in Iraq and two hurricanes - have exposed ugly and disturbing things in the undergrowth that shame and embarrass Americans and undermine their belief in the nation and its values.

UNPOPULAR: Mr Bush is failing in polls With TV providing a ceaseless backdrop of the country's failings - a crippled and tone-deaf president, a negligent government, corruption, military atrocities, soaring debt, racial conflict, poverty, bloated bodies in floodwater, people dying on camera for want of food, water and medicine - it seemed things were falling apart in the land where happiness is promoted in the constitution. Disillusioning news was everywhere. In the flight from Hurricane Rita, evacuees fought knife fights over cans of petrol. In storm-hit Louisiana there were long queues at gun stores as people armed themselves against looters.

AMERICA, which has the world's costliest health care, had, it turned out, higher infant mortality rates than the broke and despised Cuba. Tom De Lay, Republican enforcer in the House of Representatives, was indicted for conspiracy and money laundering. The leader of the Republicans in the Senate was under investigation for his stock dealings. And Osama bin Laden was still on the loose. Americans are the planet's biggest flag wavers. They are reared on the conceit that theirs is the world's best and most enviable country, born only the day before yesterday but a model society with freedom, opportunity and prosperity not found, they think, in older cultures. They rejoice that "We are No.1", and in many ways they are. But events have revealed a creeping mildew of pain and privation, graft and injustice and much incompetence lurking beneath the glow of star-spangled superiority. Many here feel the country is breaking down and losing its moral and political authority. "US in funk" say the headlines. "I am ashamed to be an American," say the letters to the editor. We are seeing, say the commentators, a crumbling - and humbling - of America. The catalogue of afflictions is long and grisly. Hurricane Katrina revealed confusion and incompetence throughout government, from town hall to White House. President Bush, accused of an alarming failure of leadership over the disaster, has now been to the Gulf coast seven times for carefully orchestrated photo opps. But his approval has dropped below 40 per cent. Public doubt about his capacity to deal with pressing problems is growing. Americans feel ashamed by the violent, predatory behaviour Katrina triggered - nothing similar happened in the tsunami-hit Third World countries - and by the deep racial and class divisions it revealed. The press has since been giving the country a crash course on poverty and race, informing the flag wavers that an uncaring America may be No.1 on the world inequities index.

IT has 37 million living under the poverty line, largely unnoticed by the richest in a country with more than three million millionaires. The typical white family has $80,000 in assets; the average black family about $6,000. It's a wealth gap out of the Middle Ages. Some 46 million can't afford health insurance, 18,000 of whom will die early because of it. The US, we learn, is 43rd in the world infant mortality rankings. A baby born in Beijing has nearly three times the chance of reaching its first birthday than a baby born in Washington. Those who survive face rotten schools. On reading and maths tests for 15-year-olds, America is 24th out of 29 nations. On the other side of the tracks, 18 corporate executives have so far been jailed for cooking the books and looting billions. The prosecution of Mr Bush's pals at Enron - the showcase trial of the greed-is-good culture - will be soon. But the backroom deal lives on and, in an orgy of cronyism, billions of dollars are being carved up in no-bid contracts awarded to politically-connected firms for work in the hurricane-hit states and in Iraq. The war, seen as unwinnable, is becoming a bleak burden, with nearly 2,000 American dead. Two-thirds think the invasion was a mistake. The war costs $6billion a month, driving up a nose-bleed high $331billion budget deficit. In five years the conflict will have cost each American family $11,300, it is said. Mr Bush says blithely he'll cut existing programmes to pay for the war and fund an estimated $200billion for hurricane damage. He won't, he says, rescind his tax cuts. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel says Mr Bush is "disconnected from reality". Americans have been angered by a reports that US troops have routinely tortured Iraqi prisoners. Some 230 low-rankers have been convicted - but not one general or Pentagon overseer. Disgruntled young officers are leaving in increasing numbers. Meanwhile, further damaging Americans' self image, there's Afghanistan. The White House says its operations there were a success, yet last year Afghanistan supplied 90 per cent of the world's heroin. America's sense of itself - its pride in its power and authority, its faith in its institutions and its belief in its leaders - has been profoundly damaged. And now the talking heads in Washington predict dramatic political change and the death of the Republicans' hope of becoming the permanent government.

IS AMERICA FINISHED?

Mirror.co.uk



Here's some more:

There is no sign of any clash of civilizations, nor any sign of territorial expansion. But there is enormous missionary zeal and enormous self-righteousness.
And the rhetoric changes: containment of Soviet expansion, fight against Communism, drugs, intervention for democracy and human rights, against terrorism. Blum's list of interventions up to the year 2000 covers 67 cases since 1945 (Grossman has 56, the criteria differ somewhat):

China 45-51, France 47, Marshall Islands 46-58, Italy 47-70s, Greece 47-49, Philippines 45-53, Korea 45-53, Albania 49-53, Eastern Europe 48-56, Germany 50s, Iran 53, Guatemala 53-90s, Costa Rica 50s, 70-71, Middle East 56-58, Indonesia 57-58, Haiti 59, Western Europe 50s-60s, British Guiana 53-64, Iraq 58-63, Soviet Union 40s-60s, Vietnam 45-73, Cambodia 55-73, Laos 57-73, Thailand 65-73, Ecuador 60-63, Congo-Zaire 77-78, France-Algeria 60s, Brazil 61-63, Peru 65, Dominican Republic 63-65, Cuba 59-, Indonesia 65, Ghana 66, Uruguay 69-72, Chile 64-73, Greece 67-74, South Africa 60s-80s, Bolivia 64-75, Australia 72-75, Iraq 72-75, Portugal 74-76, East Timor 75-99, Angola 75-80s, Jamaica 76, Honduras 80s, Nicaragua 78-90s, Philippines 70s, Seychelles 79-81, South Yemen 79-84, South Korea 80, Chad 81-2, Grenada 79-83, Suriname 82-84, Libya 81-89, Fiji 87, Panama 89, Afghanistan 79-92, El Salvador 80-92, Haiti 87-94, Bulgaria 90-91, Albania 91-92, Somalia 93, Iraq 90s, Peru 90s, Mexico 90s, Colombia 90s, Yugoslavia 95-99.
There was bombing in 25 cases (for details, read the book): China 45-46, Korea/China 50-53, Guatemala 54, Indonesia 58, Cuba 60-61, Guatemala 60, Vietnam 61-73, Congo 64, Peru 65, Laos 64-73, Cambodia 69-70, Guatemala 67-69, Grenada 83, Lebanon-Syria 83-84, Libya 86, El Salvador 80s, Nicaragua 80s, Iran 87, Panama 89, Iraq 91-, Kuwait 91, Somalia 93, Sudan 98, Afghanistan 98, Yugoslavia 99. Assassination of foreign leaders, among them heads of state, was attempted in 35 countries, and assistance with torture in 11 countries: Greece, Iran, Germany, Vietnam, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama

On top of this come 23 countries where the United States has intervened in elections or has prevented elections: Italy 48-70s, Lebanon 50s, Indonesia 55, Vietnam 55, Guayana 53-64, Japan 58-70s, Nepal 59, Laos 60, Brazil 62, Dominican Republic 62, Guatemala 63, Bolivia 66, Chile 64-70, Portugal 74-5, Australia 74-5, Jamaica 76, Panama 84, 89, Nicaragua 84,90, Haiti 87-88, Bulgaria 91-92, Russia 96, Mongolia 96, Bosnia 98.
35 (attempted) assassinations + 11 countries with torture + 25 bombings + 67 interventions + 23 interferences with other people's elections give 161 forms of aggravated political violence only since the Second World War. A world record

And more:

4. On the contradictions of the US Empire. The prediction of the decline and fall of the Soviet Empire was based on the synergy of five contradictions, and the time span for the contradictions to work their way through decline to fall was estimated at 10 years in 1980.
Sometimes I added a No. 5: between myth, the massive Soviet propaganda, and reality - to some extent dissolved in marvelous jokes.

The prediction of the decline and fall of the US Empire is based on the synergy of 14 contradictions, and the time span for the contradictions to work their way through decline to fall was estimated at 25 years in the year 2000. There are more contradictions because the US Empire is more complex, and the time span is longer also because it is more sophisticated. After the first months of President George W. Bush (selected) the time span was reduced to 20 years because of the way in which he sharpened so many of the contradictions posited the year before, and because his extreme singlemindedness made him blind to the negative, complex synergies. He just continued.

President William J. Clinton (elected, twice) was seen in a different light. Confronted with a pattern of contradictions, no doubt with significant differences in terminology and numbers, his violence was an intervention in Somalia that he canceled, a war against Serbia of which he evidenced heavy doubts and never any enthusiasm, and a couple of missiles fired in anger. Being superintelligent, demoralization in high places, and sex in strange places, might have been the consequences. Hypothesis: they tried to impeach him not so much for the latter as for the former - using the latter as pretext. The effort misfired, but a highly non-demoralized George Bush captured the US Presidency.

Here is the list of 14 contradictions posited in 2000:

I. Economic Contradictions(US led system WB/IMF/WTO NYSE Pentagon)

1. between growth and distribution: overproduction relative to demand, 1.4 billion below $ 1/day, 100.000 die/day, 1/4 of hunger

2. between productive and finance economy (currency, stocks,bonds) overvalued, hence crashes, unemployment, contract work

3. between production/distribution/consumption and nature: ecocrisis, depletion/pollution, global warming II. Military Contradictions (US led system NATO/TIAP/USA-Japan)

4. between US state terrorism and terrorism: Blowback

5. between US and allies (except UK, D, Japan), saying enough

6. between US hegemony in Eurasia and the Russia India China triangle, with 40% of humanity

7. between US led NATO and EU army: The Tindemans follow-up III. Political Contradictions (US exceptionalism under God)

8. between USA and the UN: The UN hitting back

9. between USA and the EU: vying for Orthodox/Muslim support IV. Cultural Contradictions (US triumphant plebeian culture)

10. between US Judeo-Christianity and Islam (25% of humanity; UNSC nucleus has four Christian and none of the 56 Muslim countries).

11. between US and the oldest civilizations (Chinese, Indian, Mesopotamian, Aztec/Inca/Maya)

12. between US and European elite culture: France, Germany, etc. V. Social Contradictions (US led world elites vs the rest: World Economic Forum, Davos vs World Social Forum, Porto Alegre)

13. between state corporate elites and working classes of unemployed and contract workers. The middle classes?

14. between older generation and youth: Seattle, Washington, Praha, Genova and ever younger youth. The middle generation?

15. To this could be added: between myth and reality. The list was a simple reading of the US Empire situation. More sophisticated discourses are certainly possible, keeping the key ideas of syndromes, synergies and demoralization

Web Traffic Updates

These are going to be in the following syntax:

WEBSITE
DATE ##
Web Traffic (Byte)
Subtotal (MB)

-----------------------------------------------------

VLADIMIR PUBLISHING
SEP 10
0
0
SEP 11
0
0
SEP 12
0
0
SEP 13
0
0
SEP 14
261
0
SEP 15
258960
0.25
SEP 16
145070
0.14
SEP 17
16628
0.02
SEP 18
2020723
1.93
SEP 19
119970
0.11
SEP 20
12649268
12.06
SEP 21
2746517
2.62
SEP 22
0
0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL for September 2005:
17.126MB
17.126MB

TOTAL IN GB:
0.017GB


DJBOBERT
SEP 10
0
0
SEP 11
0
0
SEP 12
0
0
SEP 13
0
0
SEP 14
0
0
SEP 15
0
0
SEP 16
816442
0.78
SEP 17
234124
0.22
SEP 18
16600
0.02
SEP 19
3700
0
SEP 20
116830
0.11
SEP 21
6666
0.01
SEP 22
0
0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL for September 2005:
1.139MB
1.139MB

TOTAL IN GB:
0.001GB


GPGUAM
SEP 10
0
0
SEP 11
0
0
SEP 12
0
0
SEP 13
0
0
SEP 14
0
0
SEP 15
0
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SEP 16
327567
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SEP 17
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SEP 18
0
0
SEP 19
3384
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SEP 20
0
0
SEP 21
558872
0.53
SEP 22
0
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL for September 2005:
0.849MB
0.849MB

TOTAL IN GB:
0.001GB

Katrina benefit cancelled

And all because of... Hurricane Rita. They cancelled concert for other hurricane.

Category 5 goes down to Cat 4

"Exodus: Houston-area residents stream inland as hurricane Rita closes in

ALICIA CALDWELL 47 minutes ago

GALVESTON, Texas (CP) - Multitudes of people across the Houston metropolitan area struggled to make their way inland in a bumper-to-bumper exodus Thursday as hurricane Rita closed in on the fourth-largest U.S. city with winds howling at 241 km/h.
Drivers ran out of gas in 14-hour traffic jams or looked in vain for a place to stay as hotels hundreds of kilometres away filled up.
An estimated 1.8 million residents or more in Texas and Louisiana were under orders to evacuate to avoid a deadly repeat of Katrina.
"Whatever happens is going to happen and we are going to have a monumental task ahead of us once the storm passes," Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said. "Galveston is going to suffer, and we are going to need to get it back in order as soon as possible."
The storm weakened Thursday morning from a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane to a Category 4 as it swirled across the Gulf of Mexico, and forecasters said it could lose more steam by the time it comes ashore late Friday or early Saturday.
In the afternoon, Rita made a sharper-than-expected turn to the right, and it appeared that Houston and nearby Galveston might escape a direct hit. Instead, it looked as if Rita might come ashore near Port Arthur, Texas, or Lake Charles, La., at least 100 kilometres up the coast.
But it could still be a dangerous storm, one aimed at a section of coastline with the United States' biggest concentration of oil refineries.
Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, said there are about 30,000 Canadians in Texas at any given time. He said efforts were underway to contact 175 permanent residents who have registered with consular officials in Dallas.
In New Orleans, meanwhile, Rita's outer bands brought the first measurable rain to the city since Katrina, raising fears that the patched-up levees could give way and cause a new round of flooding.
Highways leading inland out of Houston, a metropolitan area of four million people, were clogged up to 160 kilometres north of the city. Service stations reported running out of gasoline, and police officers carried gas to motorists who ran out. Texas authorities also asked the Pentagon for help in getting gasoline to drivers stuck in traffic. Shoppers emptied grocery store shelves of nonperishable items.
To speed the evacuation, Gov. Rick Perry ordered a halt to all southbound traffic into Houston along Interstate 45 and took the unprecedented step of directing the opening of all eight lanes to northbound traffic out of the city for 200 kilometres. I-45 is the primary evacuation route north from Houston and nearby Galveston.
Among those fleeing Houston was Chandra Ewing, 19, of Mississauga, Ont. The Rice University student was driving with a school chum, headed to San Antonio, where the friend's uncle lives.
Ewing said the car had moved just 2.2 kilometres in 4 1/2 hours, but they were glad to be on the less congested Interstate 90.
"If we run out of gas I don't know what we're going to do," Ewing said.
Though the two had left early in the morning, Ewing said she was worried about not making it out of the area before Rita hits.
"It's constantly been on my mind. I try not to think about it. Whenever I do, I get upset. We're trying to keep our hopes up."
Other motorists, frustrated with the delays, were turning around and heading back.
"It could be that if we ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere that we'd be in a worse position in a car dealing with hurricane-force winds than we would in our house," said Trazanna Moreno, who tried to leave Houston for the 360-kilometre trip to Dallas on U.S. 90.
With traffic at a dead halt, some people got out of their cars and played catch on freeway medians. Others stood next to their cars, videotaping the scene, or walked between vehicles, chatting with people along the way. Tow trucks tried to wend their way along the shoulders, pulling stalled cars out of the way.
Hotels filled up all the way to the Oklahoma and Arkansas line.
Frank McKenna, Canada's ambassador to the United States, issued a consular alert Thursday.
"Canadians in the projected path of hurricane Rita who are concerned with their safety should make plans to temporarily leave the area and inform friends and family of their current whereabouts," McKenna said.
"Canadians residing in or travelling to these areas should monitor local news and weather reports, follow the advice of local authorities, and contact their travel agent or tour operator to determine whether the situation will disrupt travel arrangements."
Forecasters predicted Rita would come ashore somewhere along a 645-kilometre stretch of the Texas and Louisiana coast that includes the Houston-Galveston area near the midpoint.
Forecasters warned of the possibility of a storm surge of 4 1/2 to six metres, battering waves and rain of up to 38 centimetres along the Texas and western Louisiana coast. Eight to 13 centimetres of rain were possible over New Orleans, where engineers raced to fortify the city's Katrina-damaged levees and pumps.
The U.S. mainland has not been hit by two Category 4 storms in the same year since 1915. Katrina came ashore Aug. 29 as a Category 4 hurricane.
Galveston, Corpus Christi and surrounding Nueces County, low-lying parts of Houston, and mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders as Rita swirled across the Gulf of Mexico. Oil refineries and chemical plants in and around Houston began shutting down, and hundreds of workers were evacuated from offshore oil rigs.
Environmentalists warned that the stretch of coast threatened by Rita is home to 87 chemical plants, refineries and petroleum storage installations, raising the possibility that the storm could cause a major oil spill or toxic release.
NASA evacuated Johnson Space Center and transferred control of the international space station to the Russians. Storm surge projections put most of the NASA space centre, situated about 30 kilometres southeast of downtown Houston, underwater in the event of a hurricane above Category 2.
Although Houston is 100 kilometres inland, it is a low-lying, flat, sprawling city whose vast stretches of concrete cover clay soil that does not easily soak up water. The city is beribboned with seven bayous that overflow their banks even in a strong thunderstorm. Those bayous feed into the Ship Channel, Clear Lake and Galveston Bay.
Scientists have warned that the storm surge from a hurricane could cause the bayous' currents to reverse, pushing water back into the city and swamping mostly poor, Hispanic neighbourhoods on the southeast side of Houston.
Along the Gulf Coast, federal, state and local officials heeded the bitter lessons of Katrina: Hundreds of buses were dispatched to evacuate the poor. Hospital and nursing home patients were cleared out. And truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals, and rescue and medical teams were put on standby.
"Now is not a time for warnings. Now is a time for action," Houston Mayor Bill White said.
Galveston was a virtual ghost town by late Wednesday. The coastal city of 58,000 - situated on an island about 2 1/2 metres above sea level - was nearly wiped off the map in 1900 when an unnamed hurricane killed between 6,000 and 12,000 in what is still the country's deadliest natural disaster."

Good old Yahoo! News. That is why I bow to them!

Anyways, if Rita had hit Galveston as a 241 mph storm, it would be stronger than Katrina.

Do you feel stupid today?

Do you feel stupid today? Then read these quotes and you'll feel less so.


"Golden, Ripe, Boneless Bananas, 39 Cents A Pound." - Ad in the "Missoulian" by Orange Street Food Farm

"Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing - but none of them serious." - Alan Minter, Boxer

"I think that the film Clueless was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness." - Alicia Silverstone, Actress

"How to store your baby walker: First, remove baby." - Anonymous Manufacturer

"This is no longer a slum neighborhood. I haven't heard of a Cubs fan being shot in a long time." - Anonymous Wrigley Field Neighbor, Chicago, IL

"During the scrimmage, Tarkanian paced the sideline with his hands in his pockets while biting his nails." - AP report describing Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian

"Two grand slams in a week - man, that's seven or eight ribbies right there." - Bill Madlock, Baseball broadcaster

"You guys line up alphabetically by height." - Bill Peterson, Florida State football coach

"Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl." - Bill Peterson, football coach"

The internet is a great way to get on the net." - Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate"

I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada." - Britney Spears, Pop Singer

"Most cars on our roads have only one occupant, usually the driver." - Carol Malia, BBC Anchorwoman

"The team has come along slow but fast." - Casey Stengel, Baseball player/manager

"I think the team that wins Game 5 will win the series. Unless we lose Game 5." - Charles Barkley, NBA Basketball Player

"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese." - Charles De Gaulle, former French President

"Football players win football games." - Chuck Knox, football coach

"Most lies about blondes are false." - Cincinnati Times-Star, headline

"If you give a person a fish, they'll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they'll fish for a lifetime." - Dan Quayle, former U.S. Vice President

"It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago" - Dan Quayle, former U.S. Vice-President

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system!" - Dan Quayle, former U.S. Vice President on the concept of a manned mission to Mars

"I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix." - Dan Quayle, former U.S. Vice President

"Strangely, in slow motion replay, the ball seemed to hang in the air for even longer." - David Acfield

"I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law." - David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.

"The only reason we're 7-0 is because we've won all seven of our games." - David Garcia, baseball team manager

"Sit by the homely girl, you'll look better by comparison." - Debra Maffett, Miss America 1983

"We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." - Decca Records Rejecting the Beatles, in 1962

"Chemistry is a class you take in high school or college, where you figure out two plus two is 10, or something." - Dennis Rodman, NBA Basketball player, on Chicago Bull's team chemistry being overrated

"We're just physically not physical enough." - Denny Crum, Louisville basketball coach

"Weather forecast: precipitation in the morning, rain in the afternoon." - Detroit Daily News

"The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing." - Dizzy Dean explaining how he felt after being hit on the head by a ball in the 1934 World Series.

"Can you get a ticket for running a stop sign that is not there?" - Driver school applicant

"The world is more like it is now then it ever has before." - Dwight Eisenhower

"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money." - Everett Dirksen, Congressman

"Boxing’s all about getting the job done as quickly as possible, whether it takes 10 or 15 or 20 rounds." - Frank Bruno, Boxer

"The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe." - Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and mayor of Philadelphia.

"I have opinions of my own --strong opinions-- but I don't always agree with them." - George Bush, former U.S. President

"It is white." - George W. Bush, when asked what the White house was like by a student in East London

"If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight." - George Gobel

"If you think is was an accident, applaud." - Geraldo Rivera, talk show host, to his audience on Natalie Wood's drowning

"I cannot tell you how grateful I am -- I am filled with humidity." - Gib Lewis, speaker of the Texas House

"Does the album have any songs you like that aren't on it? - Harry News, music reviewer

"Coming on to pitch is Mike Moore, who is six-foot-one and 212 years old." - Herb Score, Sportscaster

"I do not like this word "bomb." It is not a bomb. It is a device that is exploding." - Jacques le Blanc, French ambassador on nuclear weapons

"I don't want to ever, ever do something in life that isn't fun. Ever." - Jennifer Love Hewitt, Actress, in the February Cosmopolitan.

"We're going to move left and right at the same time." - Jerry Brown, Governor of California

"I have a God-given talent. I got it from my dad." - Julian Wakefield, Missouri basketball player

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas." - Former Australian cabinet minister Keppel Enderbery

"I don't diet. I just don't eat as much as I'd like to." - Linda Evangelista, Supermodel

"He's a guy who gets up at six o'clock in the morning regardless of what time it is." - Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regime of heavyweight Andrew Golota.

"The largest crowd ever in the state of Las Vegas." - Mark Jones, TV Broadcaster

"Pitching is 80% of the game. The other half is hitting and fielding." - Mickey Rivers, baseball player

"I'm a 4-wheel-drive pickup type of guy. So is my wife." - Mike Greenwell, Baseball player

"If only faces could talk..." - Pat Summerall, Sportscaster, during the Super Bowl

"All of the Mets' road wins against Los Angeles this year have been at Dodger Stadium." - Ralph Kiner, NY Sportscaster

"Solutions are not the answer." - Richard Nixon, former U.S. President

"Permitted vehicles not allowed." - Road sign on US 27

"A bachelor's life is no life for a single man." - Samuel Goldwyn

"SAFETY FIRST: Please put on your seat belt - prepare for accident." - Sign on backseat of Taxi

"If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again." - Terry Venables


Check out goodquotes.com for more.

Proverbs for the Wise

Do you feel wise today? Then read these proverbs and maybe you'll feel more so.

Man who walk through airport door sideways is going to Bangkok..
Man who fart in church sit in own pew.
Stand on toilet, get high on pot.
Man who run behind car get exhausted.
Man who eat jellybean fart in technicolor.
Squirrel who runs up woman's leg not find nuts.
He who fishes in another man's well often catches crab.
Man who speaks with forked tongue should not kiss balloons.
He who sitteth on an upturned tack shall surely rise.
Even the greatest of whales is helpless in middle of desert.

The hand that turneth the knob, opens the door..

Man who sneezes without hanky takes matters into his own hands.

He who eats to many prunes, sits on toilet many moons.

Man who drop watch in toilet bound to have shitty time.

War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.

Man with one chopstick go hungry.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

7/5th of all people do not understand fractions

43% of all statistics are worthless.

The fruits of my blogsurfing...

I am DandreaHQ's unofficial blogsurfer. Today I found the truth in another blog. It shall now be here.

Confucius Say...
...he who try to play both side of fence end up falling on crotch.

http://educatedeclectic.blogspot.com/

And it's funnier if you say in in a Chinese accent.

Want to be an author?

Do you want to be an author? If so, then comment to this post!

Or just click here:

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=16680615&postID=112730488113497317

Here comes another one...

...another hurricane, that is. Let's hope that high front stays moving nice and slow. Not only will we (in Maryland) not burn and boil, but if that front moves, it will pull Hurricane Rita smack into Louisiana.

I heard on CNN last night that even a couple inches in New Orleans will cause flooding. They truly don't need a hurricane that was just upgraded 10 minutes ago (as of post time) to a Category 4.

And it's not supposed to hit Galveston until Saturday. Here is from Yahoo! News:

"Rita, Now Category 4, Heads for Gulf Coast

By MICHELLE SPITZER, Associated Press Writer

KEY WEST, Fla. - Hurricane Rita grew into a Category 4 storm Wednesday, as forecasters said its winds have reached 135 mph as its churns toward landfall later this week on the Gulf Coast.

Mandatory evacuations have already been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, one day after Rita skirted past the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm, causing minimal damage."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050921/ap_on_re_us/rita_21

Also there is this picture:















I reccommend Yahoo! News to anyone who wants news about anything on the Web.

NK Backs Down

I wonder what George W. Bush threatened North Korea with, because they backed off their nuclear program. See the article below.

North Korea Agrees to End Nuclear Programs

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050919/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear

BEIJING -
North Korea' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> North Korea on Monday agreed to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances, in a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.

The chief U.S. envoy to the talks praised the breakthrough as a "win-win situation" and "good agreement for all of us." But he promptly urged Pyongyang to make good on its promises by ending operations at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
"What is the purpose of operating it at this point?" said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. "The time to turn it off would be about now."
Despite the deal's potential to help significantly ease friction between the North and the United States after years of false starts and setbacks, Hill remained cautious.
"We have to see what comes in the days and weeks ahead," he said.
The agreement clinched seven days of talks aimed at setting out general principles for the North's disarmament. Envoys agreed to return in early November to begin hashing out details of how that will be done.
Then, the hard work of ensuring compliance will begin, officials attending the talks said.
"Agreeing to a common document does not mean that the solution to our problems has been found," said Japan's chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae.
Another Japanese official, who spoke on condition he not be named in order to discuss the issue more freely, noted that there was no common understanding among the participants about the nature of North Korea's nuclear program.
The head of the U.N. nuclear nonproliferation agency welcomed North Korea's decision to allow inspections, saying he hoped his experts could take the country at its word as soon as possible.
"The earlier we go back, the better," said Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the
International Atomic Energy Agency' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to a joint statement issued at the talks' conclusion, the North "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
"The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," the statement said.
Responding to Pyongyang's claims that it needs atomic weapons for defense, North Korea and the United States pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence, and also to take steps to normalize relations.
"The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade (North Korea) with nuclear or conventional weapons," according to the statement, in assurances echoed by
South Korea' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> South Korea.
The talks, which began in August 2003, include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.
The negotiations had been deadlocked over North Korea's demand to keep the right to civilian nuclear programs after it disarms, and the statement acknowledges the North has made such an assertion but doesn't go beyond that.
North Korea had also demanded that it be given a light-water nuclear reactor at the latest talks — a type less easily diverted for weapons use — but Washington had said it and other countries at the talks wouldn't meet that request.
Putting aside the question for now, the statement said: "The other parties expressed their respect and agreed to discuss at an appropriate time the subject of the provision of light-water reactor" to North Korea.
The North will have to build trust by fulfilling all its pledges before that issue would be discussed, said Sasae, who is director of the Asia and Oceania Bureau at Japan's Foreign Ministry.
North Korea has also refused to totally disarm without getting concessions along the way, while Washington has said it wants to see the weapons programs totally dismantled before granting rewards. The statement, however, says the sides agreed to take steps to implement the agreement "in a phased manner in line with the principle of 'commitment for commitment, action for action.'"
The other countries at the talks said they were willing give energy assistance to the North, including a South Korean plan to deliver electricity across the heavily armed border dividing the peninsula.
"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy.
North Korea was promised two light-water reactors under a 1994 deal with Washington to abandon its nuclear weapons. That agreement fell apart in late 2002 with the outbreak of the latest nuclear crisis, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a secret uranium enrichment program.
The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs from its publicly acknowledged plutonium program, but hasn't performed any known nuclear tests to prove its capability. In February, the North claimed it had nuclear weapons.
Japan and North Korea also said in the statement they would move to normalize relations regarding "the outstanding issues of concern." The reference appears to allude to Tokyo's concerns over its citizens that the North has admitted abducting.

Dandrea HQ Blog of the Week Award

And the dHQ Blog of the Week Award goes to...

(drumroll)

...

http://thelastnoel.blogspot.com/

Alex No. 3

accotsalas: Moo
MadSax5: thanks for the input on the blog
MadSax5: moo you
accotsalas: Mmhmm
MadSax5: the reason i am on today...
MadSax5: is to hump a dead moose
accotsalas: And lemme guess, I'm that moose?
MadSax5: hael no
accotsalas: (Damn)
MadSax5: WHERES MAH BOY
accotsalas: ...
MadSax5: if MJ said that it would mean something entirely different
accotsalas: Yea, micheal jordan is always losing his balls
MadSax5: wrong mj
accotsalas: I know
MadSax5: i know you know
accotsalas: I should have figured it out...knowing all about your obsession with the delightful Monteray Jack cheeses
MadSax5: but i'm sure you knew that all along...
accotsalas: Mmmmhmmmm
accotsalas: But I think it was truly the secret message, "man job"
accotsalas: Or perhaps forcasting the win of the next Mediterranean Jousting contest?
MadSax5: wrong both time
saccotsalas: Damn
MadSax5: it was the arousing Mexican Jew dance
accotsalas: Ahh...those strange fella's who insist on investments in yard care service
MadSax5: yesMadSax5: they were dancing with a lawnmower today
MadSax5: yesterday it was a weedwacker
accotsalas: Mm'heim
MadSax5: ?
accotsalas: I dunno, but it sounds Jew enough
MadSax5: i SHALOM !
MadSax5: That's mexican and jew at the same exact time
accotsalas: Si
MadSax5: da
MadSax5: oui
MadSax5: hehehehe
accotsalas: Ah, the very rare french tittering giggle
MadSax5: DAMN FTP SERVICE!
accotsalas: (he..he...Beafis he thaid tit...he)
MadSax5: eh?
accotsalas: Beavis and Butthead man!!!
MadSax5: aahhhhhhhh
MadSax5: 90's shows!
accotsalas: Its all clicking...
MadSax5: nooo
MadSax5: it's not
MadSax5: say have you conversed with regan about our thingie?
accotsalas: It's all sitting down in a pile of elephant feces making a "squeesh" kinda sound
MadSax5: really
accotsalas: No, I keep my thingie to myself, unlike you
MadSax5: that's da truf
MadSax5: dawg
accotsalas: Fo sha'nizzle
accotsalas: My hizzly-wizzly
accotsalas: Aight?
accotsalas: Gotsta go be picking up my umbrizzle for da dis dang drizzle
MadSax5: Alex No. 3 coming up
accotsalas: In conclusion, suck my dizzle
MadSax5: sounds like a plan
accotsalas: I concur!
accotsalas: (Sounds like a sentence of the type our English teacher would like us to refer to as "exclamatory)
MadSax5: concurrance is golden
accotsalas: Does that make gold concurrian?
accotsalas: Or is it one of those square-a-rectangle-but-rectangle-not-a-square-type-things?accotsalas: Bah humbug, Aaron's speechless
MadSax5: truth again
MadSax5: hey
accotsalas: Hey is for horses
MadSax5: prepare for www.vladimirpublishing.com to actually have something on it!
accotsalas: Gr
MadSax5: ?
accotsalas: Vladimir?
accotsalas:
MadSax5: da
accotsalas: oh, and let me make the site instead of those crappy templates
MadSax5: hahahaha
MadSax5: lololololOL!
MadSax5: you still running that web design site?
accotsalas: Not running per se
MadSax5: but panse?
MadSax5: *pan se*
accotsalas: per se
MadSax5: expound on "not running per se"
accotsalas: per..."say"
MadSax5: how is is running man se?
MadSax5: *it*
MadSax5: *pan*
accotsalas: not "running", exactly
MadSax5: yes i invent latin words
MadSax5: but it is running...
MadSax5: in the black market?
accotsalas: I prefer African American Enterprise, but more or less yes
MadSax5: how then?
MadSax5: holy buddha alex is speechless now
MadSax5: alex is deceased
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: lies
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: nooo
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: FALSEHOOD!
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: ahhhhh
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: damn you!
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: dick
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.
MadSax5: sorry
accotsalas: accotsalas is no longer signed on.

Swatrsineggie-something is going to run for re-election

(surprise, surprise)

*sarcasm*


From the New York Times:

"September 16, 2005
Schwarzenegger Announces Bid for Re-election in California
By JOHN M. BRODER
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 16 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, to the surprise of almost no one, declared today that he would seek re-election as governor of California in November 2006.
The announcement came at the end of a town hall-style meeting here, after a carefully screened crowd lobbed softball questions at him about his efforts to revamp California's schools and budget process. No one, however, asked him about his plans for next year, when his term expires, even though his appearance had been promoted as the forum for announcing his re-election plans. So he asked himself if he would run.
"Of course I'm going to finish the job," he responded. "I'm a follow-through guy."
"I'm not in there for three years," Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, added. "I'm in there for seven years. Yes, I will run again." The crowd inside the auditorium applauded, as protesters outside chanted, "Hey hey, ho ho, Schwarzenegger's got to go."
Mr. Schwarzenegger came to office two years ago after defeating 135 other candidates in a tumultuous recall election and ran then-Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, out of office. That term concludes a year from this November, and Mr. Schwarzenegger is eligible to run for a full four-year term.
His announcement was timed to the final weeks of his push for three ballot initiatives that have so far generated little enthusiasm and comes when his popularity is at its lowest point since he took office. He is regarded as a victim of his own mistakes and a newly energized movement of teachers, nurses, public safety workers and public employee union members whom Mr. Schwarzenegger has portrayed as special interests standing in the way of progress.
Mr. Schwarzenegger the politician has been something of a novelty act - a sort of Hercules in Sacramento vowing by sheer force of personality and celebrity to sweep clean the stables of state government.
But the novelty appears to have worn off. His approval rating dropped by nearly half this year to 34 percent in the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll, taken in August. A Field Poll this month found that only 36 percent of voters would like to see Mr. Schwarzenegger re-elected. "The invincible Teflon-coated superhero turns out not to be able to repeal the law of gravity," said Martin Kaplan, who studies politics and popular culture at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School. "Once your poll numbers fall below 40 percent, you are fair game for anyone. Gary Coleman probably thinks he could beat him now."
Mr. Coleman, the former child actor, ran in the recall election. He did not get many votes.
Democrats, relishing a battle with a weakened incumbent, said they planned to tie Mr. Schwarzenegger to President Bush and to make the gubernatorial election a referendum on the president, who is suffering his own approval-rating problems.
"California cannot afford four more years of the Bush-Schwarzenegger agenda," said Phil Angelides, the state treasurer and one of two announced Democratic candidates for governor in 2006.
Mr. Angelides and the other Democratic candidate, Steve Westly, the state controller, both beat Mr. Schwarzenegger in hypothetical trial heats, according to the Field Poll. But those matchups have little practical value 14 months before the election, and many Democrats consider the two relatively unknown politicians to be weak opponents for Mr. Schwarzenegger. Some hope for the candidacy of some movie star ex machina like Warren Beatty or Rob Reiner, or Senator Dianne Feinstein, the most popular politician in the state.
But Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said none of them is interested. Ms. Feinstein is running for re-election next year.
"I don't see any others forthcoming," Mr. Torres said. "But Arnold has two very formidable opponents."
Maybe. But 14 months is a long time in politics. Mr. Schwarzenegger will spend tens of millions of dollars this November to promote three ballot initiatives that he calls critical to his efforts to reform state government. One would extend to five years, from the current two, the time it takes for a public schoolteacher to earn tenure. A second would take the power to draw legislative districts out of the hands of elected officials and turn it over to a bipartisan panel. The third would alter state budget rules to give the governor more power to make midyear cuts to balance spending and revenue."

See the website at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/national/16cnd-arnold.html?hp

Random Quotation

Even on the highest throne in the world, we are still sitting on our ass.

- Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)

Smart man.