Democrats In Congress Roll Over for the Bush-Cheney Junta One More Time

The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush-Cheney junta and Congress have worked out a tentative government bailout plan for wealthy Americans who invested heavily and recklessly on Wall Street. Although the plan puts small limits on the golden parachutes of executives who ran their firms into the ground, it does nothing to help working class Americans caught up in the foreclosure crisis, which many believe is the root cause of the national financial crisis.

Help Slow Down the McCain-Palin Cabal With Ghost Contribution

Go to this online contribution link for the McCain-Palin cabal and enter garbage data. It will waste their time and money. And the best part is, they'll think you were referred by Matt Drudge's blog. If this doesn't sound like enough fun for you, see if you can do it using only obscenities or Obama campaign memes.

Neoconservative Fiscal Policy Declared Dead on FAUX News

According the Old Gray Lady, on Sunday the Bush-Cheney junta's Secretary of the "Treasury," Henry M. Paulson, Jr, made a very interesting statement while shilling for a taxpayer-funded bailout of wealthy investment bankers and those who ensured them that does nothing to help economically distressed, lower income homeowners who struggle daily to obtain the basic necessities of life such as potable water, food, fuel, and shelter.

“I hate the fact that we have to do it, but it’s better than the alternative,” Mr. Paulson said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Translation: admitting ideological defeat is better than allowing the situation to deteriorate to the point that my friends and I might not be able to keep our entire unfair share of wealth indefinitely.

When Was the Last Time You Were Tested for HIV?

The New York Times is reporting from the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City that, because of a new test that can distinguish between new and longstanding HIV infections, the Centers for Disease Control may have been under-reporting the number of new HIV infections in the US each year for the past fifteen years. The number of people living with HIV could actually be 1.3 to 1.4 million instead of the 1 to 1.1 million it was believed to be until this study was done. Up to one quarter of those infected do not know they are HIV positive. Gay and bisexual men of all skin colors make up 53% of all new infections. Regardless of sexual orientation, blacks are seven times more likely than whites and hispanics are three times more likely than whites to become infected.

Also according the the NYT, the CDC has known of these study findings since October 2007 but held off communicating them to the rest of us until they could get them published in a major medical journal, the occurrence of which was intended to coincide with a press conference and much fanfare at a high-profile international event such as the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Two other journals refused to fast-track the article, but JAMA stepped up to the plate. However, the press conference in Mexico City was absolutely ruined when the press embargo was broken by public criticism from "a number of leading health experts" who were just hell bent on preventing as many new infections as possible.

Retirement Home Located for Dick Cheney

It will imbue to the concept of assisted living with new and pregnant meaning.

US Forest Service Is Wasting Money Looking for Producers of Legal Medicinal Marijuana

ABC News is reporting that the US Forest Service, which is suffering under the temporary control of an unqualified political lackey appointed by the Bush-Cheney junta, has wasted over $100,000 US (about 500 Euro or $12.50 Canadian) on an areal surveillance drone of limited technological capabilities intended to search for marijuana plants in a state whose citizens have voted democratically to legalize marijuana for medicinal use. The use of this drone clearly illustrates how the Bush-Cheney junta has sunk to a new low in its disdain for the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the rule of law. Instead of limiting their illegal domestic surveillance to attempting to prevent terrorist attacks, the Bush-Cheney junta is now apparently asserting through its actions that is has the right to conduct illegal surveillance with the sole purpose of countermanding the democratic decisions of one of the US's most populous states, which also just happens to have voted against the Bush-Cheney junta during the last "election." The fact that the citizens of the State of California reached the decision to legalize medicinal marijuana to alleviate suffering of those with chronic, debilitating, and terminal illnesses appears also appears to be lost on members of the junta.

Fox promises to watch hen house more closely

The Post informs us today that the US State Department has issued a promise to monitor its Blackwater security mercenaries more closely as they attempt to ensure the safety of US diplomats in a hostile civil war zone with bullets. Blackwater corporation is privately owned by wealthy donors to the Bush-Cheney junta, which is why it comes as no surprise that security cameras will soon be installed in all mercenary combat vehicles.

America's Illegitimate President Moves Goal Posts

In a vain attempt to obscure the measurable effects of the humanitarian disaster he has created in Iraq, the de facto but illegitimate president of the United States announced plans yesterday to stop monitoring factors that might make it appear as if His War is anything less than a stellar success.

USGS Moves to Catalogue Every Last Little Bit of Dinosaur Shit That Could Possibly Be Sold For Profit By Exxon-Mobile

Observers remain conflicted about the signifigance of a USGS project to identify some of the last remaining untapped fossil fuel deposits on the planet. However, industry insiders explain that it is expected to be much easier to plunder extraterritorial arctic resources than those within our borders, which enjoy the unfortunate protection of domestic environmental regulations.

Suburban Enviroterrorists Admit to Contaminating Philadelphia's Water Supply with Biologic Agents

Stay out of the Schuylkill for the time being. There's more shit than usual in it. One wonders what would happen if millions of gallons of untreated sewage from North Philly were "accidentally discharged" on Suburban Square.

The sky is falling, hell is freezing, and the United States of America is running out of bullets.

New Theory Explains Colony Collapse Disorder: Beetle Yeast

According to this abstract, a possible or probable cause of CCD is the small hive beetle, an invasive species that evolved as a parasite of African honey bees. This beetle was [accidentally, I hope] introduced into Florida in 1998 and can now be found as far away as Pennsylvania. It invades hives, feeds on pollen and brood, contaminates honey with its feces, and leaves behind a species of yeast that grows on the pollen and produces a honey-bee alarm pheromone that attracts more beetles and eventually causes the bees to abandon the hive. And we thought mice and roaches were annoying. Compared to African honey bees, European honey bees are much less responsive to the alarm pheromone produced by the beetle fungus, and the researchers think that the bees might not respond to an infestation of the beetles until it is too late [and their only option is to go take showers in a motel and then set up a new, clean, spacious ferral hive in someone's attic].

I'm Not Sure If This Will Help, But I Feel The Need To Try

According to MoveOn.org, there will be hundreds of emergency veto rallies across the country today to protest the president's impending veto of a military spending bill that requires him to begin extricating our family members in the troops from the sectarian disaster he has allowed to unfold in Iraq. I plan to attend the rally on the northwest corner of Center Square (Philadelphia City Hall) at 5:15 today with my friend Jason [with whom I was planning to attend the Night of a Thousand Stevies in a few short weeks—until I saw the "film" that started it all, Gypsie 83, which was an entertaining movie even though it inaccurately stereotyped Pennsylvania and its inhabitants in several ways].

So anyway, if you go to a rally [here's where to find one more convenient for you if Center City doesn't work], bring pots, pans, noisemakers, and creative signs. The one in Center City will convene at Center Square and proceed down Market to Senator Specter's office at 6th and Market in the square brown [appropriate color choice if you like bullshit] federal office building. He's been saying he wants to bring our family members in the troops home as soon as possible and that Congress must hold the executive branch constitutionally accountable, but he continues to vote for the Bush-Cheney junta's profoundly flawed policies that were formulated on cynical lies and distortions intended only to enrich materialistically his cronies in certain military-industrial sectors of the economy. Strangely, local corporate media outlets have been ignoring this dishonest behavior. The organizers of today's rally intend to change that.

The Independent has another possible explanation for CCD (colony collapse disorder), an as-yet unexplained syndrome that has resulted in a 70% decrease in the honey bee population of the East Coast [of North America] over the winter months. Honey bee populations on the West Coast and in Europe have been similarly effected, although not as precipitously. Although the article states that there is mounting evidence that transmissions from mobile devices could be interfering with bees' ability to find their way back to their hives, it also states that the honey bee population in Britain has not been effected. This last bit of info is enough to give me a gut feeling that, unless British officials are lying, the cause of CCD will turn out to be a new pathogen and not increasing amount of wireless transmissions or toxins in the environment. Britain has just as many mobile phones per capita and at a similar population density as the Northeast, but it is protected from many pathogens by miles of water.

Once again, the Bush-Cheney junta proves itself utterly incapable of making the world a safer place. Maybe they should try some do-as-I-do policy initiatives. Clearly, the do-as-I-say initiatives are becoming increasingly counterproductive.

Iran returns hostage child soldiers to the UK.

Want to have fertile babies? Stop eating so much hormone-laden beef. Just a thought while I'm working on my review of Children of Men...