Scumbags of the Week

Scumbag Senators who Voted To Let Government Spies Snoop on Americans Without Warrant or Oversight:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Wayne Allard (R-CO)
John Barrasso (R-WY)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Thomas Carper (D-DE)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Norman Coleman (R-MN)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Pete Domenici (R-NM)
John Ensign (R-NV)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Charles Hagel (R-NE)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
James Inhofe (R-OK)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Joseph Lieberman (Me, Myself and I-CT)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
John D. Rockefeller the Fourth, Esquire (D-WV)
Ken Salazar (D-CO)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
John Sununu (R-NH)
John Thune (R-SD)
David Vitter (R-LA)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
John Warner (R-VA)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Non-Scumbag Senators who voted for constitutional standards and the rule of law in surveillance

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Joseph Biden (D-DE)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Robert Casey (D-PA)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
James Webb (D-VA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Major Scumbag Senators who couldn't be bothered to show up and vote

Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (promised to oppose immunity provision, but didn't)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Barack Obama (D-IL) (promised to oppose immunity provision, but didn't)

Here's a weekend task:

1. Find the Senators from your state, and click through the link to find information on how to contact them.

2. Do it. Make that phone call.

3. Congratulate or berate your Senators (as appropriate) for their vote yesterday. Let them know that you're aware of the constitutional issues involved.

4. Tell them you're aware that there will be a vote on "cloture" (stopping debate and moving on to a vote) for the Intelligence Committee version of the FISA Amendments Act. Ask them to vote to continue debate on the bill. Ask them further to support Senator Christopher Dodd's filibuster of the bill, if it should come to that.

5. Tell them you're a registered voter and that you'll be writing a letter to the editor about their conduct next week, either to congratulate or to berate depending on their conduct.

- From Irregular Times -

How to Cheat

The World's Largest Prison Break

Mutant super-cockroaches from space

"It's nice to see that one of the staple plot devices of science fiction is actually true. Apparently, a trip to space can give you superpowers; at least if you're a cockroach.

"According to Russian news agency Novosti, baby cockroaches conceived aboard a satellite in September have apparently grown up to be faster and tougher than their terrestrial brethren.

"The first creatures ever conceived in space also grew more quickly than ordinary Earth-bred cockroaches.

"Could these positive effects be due somehow to the effectively weightless environment during conception, or to a healthy dose of radiation?

"The report does not reveal whether any of the 33 new super-roaches have yet attempted to destroy the Earth, or taken to writing free verse.

"Nor are we told any details of how the conception took place, but perhaps it's a good thing that the world is denied a full account of free-fall cockroach sex."

- Stephen Battersby: Mutant super-cockroaches from space -

St. Pinocchio Memorial - Where politicians go for career health care

Robert Caldwell arrived and hastily took a seat with his new support group just as the testimonial phase got underway. "My name is Cindy Mathews and I'm a councilwoman from Des Moines," began the pleasant looking young woman at the podium, "and I'm also suffering from a rare strain of the politically life threatening disease known as, An Inability to Lie or Deny."

The room went silent for quite some time, aside from those, that is, who upon hearing the news were moved to weep openly.

"She's so young!" blubbered a visibly shaken female senator, whose Kleenex was rapidly turning mascara saturated purple.

"But wait, there's good news!" added miss Mathews, causing the crowd to immediately perk-up in their seats. "Thanks to Dr. Burns and the staff here at Pinocchio Memorial, I'm happy to say that my disease is now in full remission!"

- D.W. Steep: St. Pinocchio Memorial - Where politicians go for career health care -

Heath Ledger's Video of Ben Harper's "Morning Yearning"

Mazel tov! Israel provides medical marijuana.

The medical use of marijuana is legal for licensed patients in Israel, but only recently has the Health Ministry begun to provide pot at one clinic in Tel Aviv.
Patients suffering from cancer, AIDS and Crohn's disease can purchase Israeli-grown cannabis at the clinic. On patient called it "a blessing."
The Israel Cancer Association is considering offering information about medijuana's beneficial effects on its website.
Israel has long been ahead of the marijuana curve. In 1964, Dr. Habib Edery and Dr. Raphael Mechoulam discovered THC.

- From Celebstoner -

Free Speech Zone #3: Free Cloverfield

My favorite scene in Cloverfield is the one where the guy with the video camera wanders into a Cineplex where Cloverfield is playing and makes an illegal copy of the film which he posts to the internet so people can see a shaky video version of a shaky video version of a monster movie that deconstructs monster movies to such an extent it virtually contains not one single cliché of the genre, a film made by elimination, that refuses to show you what you want to see because the guy with the camera is much more interested in the girl than the monster, so it's in fact a doomed love story with a monster in the background. Critics are lambasting the film for using imagery right out of 9/11, buildings falling down in New York City, without actually making any sort of comment on the event itself, but they don't seem to get the concept of deconstruction. It's exactly like 9/11. The terrorist is a monster that is never explained, the official story is certainly a sham, we'll never know what really happened because all we've got are video remnants picked up by future archeologists who have to piece together the event through the eyes of observers with something else on their mind. And it will certainly be used as an excuse to start a "war on monsters" in Cloverfield II. Like your standard terrorist cell, you never see the whole monster, just bits and pieces, but artists are posting their versions of what they think it looks like here. Hasbro's coming out with a $100 toy of the monster but it's not bin Laden, it's a hideous multi-limbed beast with a lot of teeth, more like al Qaeda, perfect for placing under the Christmas tree so your kids can play with it, pretending to be terrorists themselves, knocking down New York with sound effects in their heads, every viewer a new al Qaeda cell, ready to inflict meaningless damage on whatever's nearby in the name of amusement. Yeah, it's food for thought because, not despite, what's left out of the film. See it but don't pay for it. Use this torrent. That's what a real terrorist would do.

If you're new to this, you'll need a bittorrent program and a player.

T-Shirt of the Week

Order from T-Shirt Hell

Don't Take My Word for It

"The spiritual path ruins the body, but subsequently restores it to health. It ruins the house to reveal the treasure, and with that treasure it builds better than before."
- Rumi: Mathnawi -

"While Judaism in its entirety is for the Jew, its creed and its ethics are for mankind."
- Morris Joseph: Judaism as Creed and Life -

"Forming a new world religion is difficult and not particularly desirable. However, in that love is essential to all religions, one could speak of the universal religion of love."
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama -

"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it."
- Frank Zappa -

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."
- Samuel Johnson -

"Sometimes the mind, for reasons we don't necessarily understand, just decides to go to the store for a quart of milk."
- Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider: Northern Exposure, Three Doctors -

"As a person acts, so he becomes in life. Those who do good become good; those who do harm become bad. Good deeds make one pure; bad deeds make one impure. So we are said to be what our desire is. As our desire is, so is our will. As our will is, so are our acts. As we act, so we become."
- Bihadaranyaka Upanishad -