The Jewish Wars

Quote of the Day:

The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.

-Mel Gibson, to Malibu police officers when he was arrested on DUI charges last week.

Yeah...because, you know...it was those Japanese Jews who bombed Pearl Harbor.

Amerika

The hard right turn toward Fascism in the United States continues.

I'm pressed for time this morning so I'll comment more later, but at first glance this new terrorism detainee bill is pretty scary stuff. On the surface it seems like the dark lords at the White House could use this sort of law to detain - indefinately - those who dare criticize their pitiful foreign policy. (Come on...these guys have sent the FBI to pick on old men who criticized the run up to the Iraq war!)

No my friends...this is not the America we know. And if things of this sort continue unchecked then the terrorists have indeed won.

Sullivan on Chris Matthews' show, yesterday

During a discussion on the 2008 presidential contest on Chris Matthews' NBC show yesterday, Andrew Sullivan said there was no way in hell Americans would elect someone like John Edwards in the middle of what amounts to a world war, citing the 2004 VP nominee's single term in the Senate and lack of foreign policy experience.

Ok. I tend to agree with him there (I wasn't at all keen on Edwards during the 04 primary and general election contests). But when asked who fit the bill on the Republican side Sullivan listed John McCain and Rudy Guliani.

Huh? Rudy Guliani? The man was mayor. What sort of foreign policy experience did he get in that office that trumps former Sen. Edwards'?

It doesn't really matter. Their love affair with his 9/11 performance aside, Republicans would never nominate a social liberal like Guliani.

Gratuitously Chloe

Your Weekend Tuneage

"Bailamos" - Fergie (her fabulous up-tempo diddy from "Poseidon")


"Maybe Tomorrow" - Stereophonics (a classic that was featured in "Crash")


"Precious" - Annie Lennox (for Gil...our Chicago summertime BBQ favorite!)


"Inner Smile" - Texas (a true summertime classic from the blue eyed soul group)

Madness Leads to Abyss

Quote of the Day:

The world hates President Bush more than any U.S. president in my lifetime. He is radioactive — and so caught up in his own ideological bubble that he is incapable of imagining or forging alternative strategies.

-New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman (my choice for president any day) addressing the administration's inability to prevent the Middle East's rapid fall into the abyss.

Colbert & Norton

Stephen Colbert takes on D.C. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

It's about seven minutes long, but most definately worth the look.

Under the Gun

Song of the Day: A cool summer classic from the Supreme Beings of Leisure.

Deteriorating Moral Credibility

Quote of the Day:

...the Doha global trade talks collapsed today - yet another indication of a long list that America's role and status in the world are rapidly deteriorating. We seem unable to achieve our objectives - and these failures are not registering with the political class in Washington yet.

Gambling away America's moral credibility in Iraq is one crime - but the bigger one that the Bush administration has committed is overtly showing the LIMITS of American power in the world. America's mystique has been shattered. Our military and financial limits put on open display. Friends are not counting on America as much as the case before. Foes are maximizing agendas Americans oppose.

These are dangerous times because those who are fundamentally and substantively weakening often lash out in a desperate attempt to demonstrate resolve and strength.

These are toxic matters. Bush is asking nothing of Americans. We will go on with our wars and commitments abroad without regard to domestic impact or cost -- and Americans can continue to enjoy their Wal-Mart subsidized high quality lives.

But the Doha Round failing is a big deal. It's a foreshock.

-The Washington Note's Steve Clemons, using the failure of the Doha global trade talks to say what John Kerry should have been hammering home two years ago.

I must say though, Bush IS asking an awful lot of our children. They are being sent to fight a mismanaged war that was started on the wings of a lie. And they are being passed an enormous national debt that will break their financial backs before they reach middle age.

But when we speak of sacrifice, ruining the future of our children isn't what we had in mind.

Ta Dah!

Song of the Day: "Don't Feel Like Dancing," the first single off the Scissor Sisters forthcoming album Ta Dah is an infectious disco number that is sure to be a late summer smash.

(Hat tip, B-man.)

The HLS on the 101

That behemoth of government agencies, the Homeland Security Department, racks up another doozy.

On his way home from work last week, on Highway 101 just south of San Francisco, my partner was going with the flow of traffic and was behind a white SUV with Homeland Security plates when...

The driver rolls down her window and tosses her eaten apple out on to the highway.

Nice, eh?

Powerful

Song of the Day: Another track from the new Skye Edwards CD.

Powerful, indeed.

Flouting the Constitution

The hard right turn into Fascism in the United States continues. Quote of the Day:

The American Bar Association said Sunday that President Bush was flouting the Constitution and undermining the rule of law by claiming the power to disregard selected provisions of bills that he signed.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. This is a most dangerous time for the presidency and the country that office leads.

Sen. Arlen Specter (Republican-PA) said he would challenge Mr. Bush on this issue.

There really is only one remedy.

Impeachment now.

Skye's the Limit

Skye Edwards, the sultry voiced former lead singer of Morcheeba, has finally released her first solo album. "Mind As You Go" is a supberb collection that far and away beats her former band's latest effort.

Listen to the lead track, "Love Show," below.

Vigorous, Decisive, Right

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Republican-CA) has come one big step closer to earning my vote this November. I've never been against voting for moderate Republicans when they deserve it. And yesterday, Arnold bucked his party's president on an issue so important that it deserves huge kudos.

The Republicans bar for impeachment

...has been met.

Into the Woods

Heading over the Golden Gate Bridge today for a weekend of camping for Brent's birthday weekend. Back on Monday.

I'll Believe It When I See It

The Pentagon's announcement that they'll start following the Geneva Conventions leaves me a bit skeptical. Call me crazy, but we are talking about Donald Rumsfeld - and by extension the President and Vice-President.

"Trust" is a word I have never applied to these guys.

Republican: noun; see Fascist

Quote of the Day:

I don't think we're on a Fascist road right now. We are so close though, Keith.

John Dean, former White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon, on why he wrote his new book "Conservatives Without Conscience" (on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann").

Gratuitously Chloe

Because her proud Papa can.

The Dithering Bush

Quote of the Day:

Kim [Jong-il] is easily the gravest threat to American lives since Bush took office. He has the materials; he has the motive; all he lacks is a delivery system.

And the failure of his missile delivery system is not a cause for relief. It merely means that if he is to deliver the nuclear goods to his enemies, he has to find another way.

A suitcase? An Al-Qaeda suicide bomber? A Pakistani intelligence agent?

You think these options aren’t available to him? If you live anywhere near a western city you should be concerned. Or at least a little more concerned than a president who spent the afternoon at Dunkin’ Donuts.

-Sunday Times columnist Andrew Sullivan on the President's absurdly lackluster response to North Korea's recent missle launch.

SexyBack

Ok, I'll admit it...I really liked Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body." It's a tight, well produced disco track. Pure schlock and a guilty pleasure.

But his new single?

Not so much.

Spinning

Quote of the Day:

[T]he Bush administration literally seems to have no foreign policy at all anymore. They have no serious plan for Iraq, no plan for Iran, no plan for North Korea, no plan for democracy promotion, no plan for anything. With the neocons on the outs, Condoleezza Rice at the State Department, and Dick Cheney continuing to drift into an alternate universe at the OVP, the Bush administration seems completely at sea. There's virtually no ideological coherency to their foreign policy that I can discern, and no credible followup on what little coherency is left. As near as I can tell, George Bush has learned that "There's evil in the world and we're going to stand up to it" isn't really adequate as a foreign policy for a superpower but is unable to figure out anything better to replace it with. So he spins his wheels, waiting for 2009. Unfortunately, the rest of us are left spinning with him.

Kevin Drum hitting the nail on the head regarding the President's failures in foreign policy.

The Weekend Starts Here

Whether you're sticking around the house to do some summer cleaning, or if it's a day at the beach you have planned, I highly suggest this playlist for your weekend iPod:

Golddigger - Supreme Beings of Leisure
Under the Gun - Supreme Beings of Leisure
Seven Days In Sunny June - Jamiroquai
I Can't Get Next to You - Annie Lennox
Backtafunk - Bee Gees
When We Are Together - Texas
Work To Make It Work - Robert Palmer
A Night to Remember - Shalamar
Bailamos - Fergie

Hate Groups Infiltrating U.S. Military

File under what the fuck:

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization...

The report said that neo-Nazi groups like the National Alliance, whose founder, William Pierce, wrote "The Turner Diaries," the novel that was the inspiration and blueprint for Timothy J. McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, sought to enroll followers in the Army to get training for a race war...

The 1996 crackdown on extremists came after revelations that Mr. McVeigh had espoused far-right ideas when he was in the Army and recruited two fellow soldiers to aid his bomb plot...

...the report...provided evidence on 320 extremists [in Iraq] in the past year, but that only two had been discharged.

726 service members were discharged during 2005 simply for being gay. That is up 11% from 2004. Yet these neo-Nazi skinheads are infiltrating all branches of the armed services - in violation of a 1996 law - and only TWO have been discharged? Again I ask, "what the fuck?" These guys aren't signing up to fight because they are patriots. On the contrary. They are terrorists, plain and simple. They wish to use their military training to start a civil war at home. As Steven Barry wrote in Resistance, a neo-Nazi magazine:

Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman's war. It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and 'cleansed.'

When a gay person enlists in the military, he does so because he is a proud American, risking life and limb to protect his country. And then he is thrown out - dishonorably, like common street trash - simply for loving someone of the same sex.

Yet, as this article clearly demonstrates, when a neo-Nazi skinhead joins the armed services he does so not out of any sense of patriotism or love of country, but rather to obtain the training and weapons needed to start a war against his fellow Americans.

That is called treason.

And in George W. Bush & Donald Rumsfeld's military, that is apparently ok.

Up On the Roof

The weather in San Francisco is superb this morning. Sunny, warm, comfortable...the perfect day to grab a cup of coffee, the Chronicle and the dog, and head up to the roof deck to enjoy this wonderful view.

Yes...on this Friday morning, life is good.

Little City

Brent treated me to a nice birthday evening yesterday. Martinis at the lovely LJ's Martini Bar (can't wait to go back for Happy Hour) followed by the 7:25p showing of "The Da Vinci Code."

The film has been out for almost two months now so the crowds are starting to thin out a bit. I'd estimate that there were all of twelve people in the theatre when we walked in. Then, just before previews started, a guy walked in who, from a distance, looked very familiar. As he got closer we realized it was our buddy Steve. He joined us and we chatted and had a good time watching the movie (I'd give it 3 stars). Coincidence? Yes. Unusual? In a little city like San Francisco, not really.

Then, when we got home, we ran into our neighbor who was taking out his trash. We mentioned we had just seen "The Da Vinci Code" and he said he and his wife had just got back from the same movie at the same theatre.

Turns out they were sitting four rows in front of us.

I know I said this is a little city. But damn!

Settling In

The move is now complete. I am officially (finally!) a San Franciscan. The new place, located in upper Noe Valley just off where Market Street turns into Portola, is shaping up nicely; and we were able to host friends and family this past weekend to celebrate my entry into Forty-Something Land.

The stress of being away from Brent has subsided, the anxiety over packing up & moving is nowhere to be found, and I have my eye on a couple of nice job opportunities. Life, for the most part, is good.

Since I am no longer living on California's beautiful south coast, the South Coast Journal no longer exists. Beginning today the random thoughts, opinions, and cyber outbursts from yours truly will come your way via Wayne's Whirled.

Welcome.