These are the ranting and dialogues of a high-strung, neurotic and semi-off-the-wall Historian and Educator. As a Virginian/Arizonan I strive to corrupt America’s youth by making them free thinking heathens and demigods. Here, you will hear the omnipresent, benevolent and omnipotent Viceroy Barbarossa. You will be enlightened or maybe just a little annoyed by his discourses on war, education, religion and the debauchery that is American politics.
While I work on the next big, long and dull post have a bit of fun at the following sites:
A Few Days Ago in a Hospital Not So Far, Far Away….
Stone Wars
Episode I
THE PAINFUL PENIS
Turmoil has engulfed the
Pubic Republic. The taxation
of trade routes to outlying toilet
bowls is in dispute.
Hoping to resolve the matter
with a blockade of deadly
Kidney Stones, the greedy NaCl
Federation has stopped all
shipping to the small Bladder
of Kevonica.
While the Congress of the
Republic endlessly debates
this alarming chain of events,
the Supreme Dick has
secretly dispatched two Jedi
Antibodies, the guardians of
peace and harmony in the
Republic, to settle the conflict....
Episode II
ATTACK OF THE STONES
There is unrest in the Pubic
Senate. Several thousand liters
of fluids have declared their
intentions to leave the Republic.
This separatist movement,
under the leadership of the
mysterious Count Cappuccino, has
made it difficult for the limited
number of Jedi Antibodies to
maintain peace and order in the
Republic.
Senator Pia Alotta, the former
Queen of Kevonica, is returning
to the Pubic Senate to vote
on the critical issue of creating
a CATHETER OF THE REPUBLIC
to assist the overwhelmed
Jedi....
Episode
RISE THE STONE
Surgery! The Republic is crumbling
under attacks by the ruthless
Surgeon, Count Sadeghi.
There are heroes on both sides.
Pain is everywhere.
In a stunning move, the
fiendish droid leader, General
Ureteroscopy, has swept into the
Republic capital and kidnapped
Chancellor Dick, leader of
the Pubic Senate.
As the Separatist Scope Army
attempts to flee the besieged
capital with their valuable
hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a
desperate mission to rescue the
captive Chancellor....
Episode IV
A
It is a period of civil war.
Rebel Oxycodones, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Pubic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon, the Shock Wave
Lithotripsy, an armored space
station with enough power to
destroy an entire stone.
Pursued by the Empire's
sinister agents, Princess
Urethra races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the
stolen plans that can save her
people and restore
the
Episode V
THE PAIN STRIKES BACK
It is a dark time for the
Body. Although the Shock Wave
Lithotripsy has been destroyed,
Imperial troops have driven the
Rebel forces from their hidden
base and pursued them across
the body.
Evading the dreaded Imperial
X-Ray, a group of freedom
fighters led by Flute Urinal
has established a new secret
base in the remote Ureter
of Kevonica.
The evil lord Darth Bladder,
obsessed with finding young
Urinal, has dispatched
thousands of remote probes into
the far reaches of the flesh....
Episode VI
RETURN OF THE SCOPE
Flute Urinal has returned to
his home Kidney in
an attempt to rescue his
friend Hard Crystal from the
clutches of the vile gangster
Java the Starbucks.
Little does Flute know that the
PUBIC EMPIRE has secretly
begun construction on a new
armored space station even
more powerful than the first
dreaded Shock Wave
Llithotripsy.
When completed, this ultimate
weapon will spell certain doom
for the small stone struggling
to restore freedom
to the Body….
|
Meet Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), the man Republicans have chosen as their Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.
Tom DeLay is at the center of a bewildering array of investigations into corruption, abuse of power, and ethics violations.
As the courts and committees investigate DeLay's misdeeds and hand down indictments, keeping track of all the scandals can be a full-time job. So we thought it would helpful to offer folks this quick and easy guide.
Tom DeLay's airfaire for a trip to England and Scotland was paid for by Jack Abramoff's credit card, and other expenses, including food, phone calls, and golf was charged on another lobbyist's credit card. That's in direct violation of House ethics rules that prohibit registered lobbyists for paying for expenses for members.
Tom DeLay invited donors to share a skybox with him at a Three Tenors concert, a skybox paid for by super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is currently under investigation by the Senate. Just two months after the concert, DeLay voted against gambling legislation that Abramoff was lobbying against. The skybox tickets were worth thousands of dollars, and DeLay never reported the gift.
Tom DeLay claims that a 1997 trip to Moscow (where he met with the Russian Prime Minister) was arranged and paid for by a nonprofit public policy organization. But people who knew about the arrangements claim that the trip was actually arranged by lobbyists and funded by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that may have served as a front for Russian companies with ties to Russian security forces.
Tom DeLay participated in a $70,000 expenses-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and gambling services company lobbying Congress.
Since 2001, Tom DeLay's political action committees and campaigns have funneled more than $500,000 to his wife and daughter since 2001.
In Texas, it's illegal for corporations to make donations to fund political campaigns. So Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee (TRMPAC) took $190,000 in corporate contributions and funneled them to the RNC, which then donated exactly $190,000 to TRMPAC-supported candidates. DeLay and TRMPAC are currently under investigation by a grand jury.
An investigation by the Justice Department showed that Tom DeLay accepted a trip financed by the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, breaking House rules that prohibit accepting travel expenses from "a registered lobbyist or agent of a foreign principal."
Knowing that he faced investigation for a growing pile of scandals, Tom DeLay and the GOP House leadership purged the Ethics Committee of Republicans -- including Chairman Joel Hefley (R-CO) -- who weren't willing to overlook charges against DeLay, replacing them with members loyal to the leadership. They then changed the Committee rules to make it more difficult to begin investigations. Democrats on the Committee have refused to take any action in protest until the rules are restored.
Tom DeLay has pushed lobbying firms to deny jobs to Democrats, and hire only Republicans, resulting in another Ethics Committee admonishment for inappropriately pushing a lobbying firm to hire a former GOP congressman. DeLay has pressured GOP lobbyists to make contributions to Republican candidates and the RNC.
Tom DeLay and the Republican leadership kept open the vote for the Medicare bill for three hours -- long past the 15 minutes specified in House procedures -- in order to pressure Republicans to vote for the bill. Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI) said GOP leaders offered "bribes and special deals," leading to an investigation by the Ethics Committee, which admonished DeLay.
When DeLay and his fellow Republicans were redrawing the Congressional districts in Texas to push Democrats out of the House, he used the Federal Aviation Administration to try and track a plane containing Democratic state legislators. The House Ethics Committee investigated DeLay's actions and once again admonished him.
In 2002, executives at Kansas energy company Westar wrote a memo outlining how they could purchase a "seat at the table" with $56,500 in contributions to political committees associated with Tom DeLay and the GOP. DeLay was later admonished by the House Ethics Committee for creating the appearance of impropriety.
President Bush and his top officials are on tour trying to sell their risky plan to privatize Social Security to a skeptical public. It seems the more they talk about their plan, the less popular it becomes. Learn the latest news about the death of Bush's Social Security privatization sales pitch below.
Jun 2, 2005: Cox In the Henhouse
Jun 2, 2005: Gov. Dean Talks About Retirement Security and the GOP's Failure to Address the Problem
May 31, 2005: Lame Duck: If it Quacks Like a Bush…
May 20, 2005: Bankrupt: Social Security or Bush's Argument?
May 17, 2005: Chairman Thomas Defies Bush On Private Accounts
May 16, 2005: Bush Being Dragged Down by Social Security Benefit Cut Plan
May 13, 2005: White House Moves Disability Benefits to The Chopping Block
May 12, 2005: Top White House Economist Contradicts Bush
May 11, 2005: Disappearing Pension Funds: The Need for Stronger Social Security
May 10, 2005: Is it Still Called a Benefit If You Don't Get Anything?
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press WriterSat Jun 4, 8:39 AM ET
National Democratic Chairman Howard Dean was defending another of his comments Friday after telling liberal activists a lot of Republicans "have never made an honest living in their lives."
Republicans called his Thursday comment "mudslinging." Some fellow Democrats expressed reservations over his choice of words, too, before Dean amplified his comments.
"The point I was making is clear: Republican policies have declared war on hardworking Americans," Dean said Friday. "I will continue to criticize Republican leaders and their policies, and the Democratic Party will continue to offer constructive alternatives."
The Democratic chairman made the initial comments about Republicans doing "an honest day's work" Thursday during a speech to a Washington conference sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future.
While discussing the hardship of working all day and then standing in line for eight hours to vote, Dean had said, "Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."
Republican spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said Dean's comment shows his priority "is to generate mudslinging headlines."
Dean has made comments that stirred controversy before. A recent example occurred in May, when Dean said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence."
The House ethics committee is investigating whether DeLay violated congressional rules by taking foreign trips paid for by lobbyists. The Texas Republican has not been charged with a crime, but Dean said later he would not apologize.
• __
Democratic Party efforts to recruit anti-abortion candidates and take a more moderate position on abortion drew fire Friday from Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women.
She told activists at the Campaign for America's Future meeting that leading Democrats are trying too hard to redefine the party's stance on key issues.
Leading Democrats, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads Democratic efforts to win seats in the Senate, and party chairman Dean have been overly eager to recruit supporters — and candidates — who don't support abortion choice, she said.
In Pennsylvania, anti-abortion candidate Bob Casey Jr. is the front-runner among Democrats to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record).
Gandy said she was concerned about Democrats trying to build support "if it means throwing women's rights overboard like so much ballast, ... if it means abandoning the core principles of the Democratic Party."
Efforts by Democrats and others to blend religion and politics also drew Gandy's criticism.
"So many political leaders are trying to be Republican lite and they're being encouraged by the Democratic Party," she said. "Please, somebody tell them we don't need two Republican parties."
These are the ranting and dialogues of a high-strung, neurotic and semi-off-the-wall Historian and Educator. As a Virginian/Arizonan I strive to corrupt America’s youth by making them free thinking heathens and demigods. Here, you will hear the omnipresent, benevolent and omnipotent Viceroy Barbarossa. You will be enlightened or maybe just a little annoyed by his discourses on war, education, religion and the debauchery that is American politics.
