Yea, it seems more and more, that Fascism and Neo-Conservatism are one in the same. if you haven't read the recent Beast article "top ten signs of an impending police state" you definitely should. it's a quick laundry list of the atrocities being committed against us by our imperial president. I'm sorry, but this stuff is seriously getting out of hand.

Now the whitehouse is tapping journalists phones the reason, so they can find out who is leaking information to the press. You know like Abu Graib, our secret prisons in Romania and other un-american atrocities committed by the Bush administration. The goal apparently is to stop the american people from finding out any damaging info about the Bush administration.

And PS, they're tapping your phones too . actually if you want to be technical, they aren't actually listening to your phone calls, they are simply recording every number you dial. So they know everyone you call. the daily show explains .

And if that wasn't bad enough, they're spying on the Internet. The following quote is from a key witness in the lawsuit against AT&T saying it was against the law for the them to comply with the NSA spy program. Hello Totalitarianism!
"In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities."
More of his story here

This all clearly has little to do with terrorism, and it has everything to do with detecting ANYONE who disagrees with the policies of the executive branch. Watergate was nothing compared to this.

the "Legitimate power of the executive" as dick Cheney calls it, is just a polite way of saying, the imperial president.

I'm leaving North Street and heading a few blocks up Richmond into a much nicer apartment. the one we're in now is dirty, small, and a haven for too many crackheads. Molly and I are moving into a much bigger and nicer place now.

A picture of the new apartment on Richmond.



It has a porch in the back, off-street parking, all utilities and appliances included, 2 bedrooms, a big living-room, a real kitchen with counters and storage, and it's in a nice building, not like this one.
Very excited, I can't wait to have a porch and more space, it's going to be a good summer.

__________________________________________________

I'd also like to mention one of my new favorite beverages,
Wild Irish Rose. one bottle costs a whopping $3.50, and after about half of it you start slurring your words. It's a red wine with 18% alcohol, but it's not bitter or cough syrupy, it's like a light sherry, easy to drink. Great for bonfire parties, camping, and barbecues. it's my fun summer wine.




At this point in the bottle Molly and I were too drunk to stay inside, so we went for a drunken stroll around the neighborhood. it was too fun, we aren't lightweights, this is just good wine.

Thoughts,
ok supply and demand right, if America raised the fuel efficiency standards on vehicles we would all save money. if there was some incentive for car companies to make more fuel efficient cars, or if there was an incentive for people to buy more efficient cars, the price of gas would go down and everyone would save money. do you think that this is a good use for government?
We need to demand that car companies make more fuel efficient cars. The fuel efficiency standards haven't been raised since the 1970s, raise them 2-6 mpg and we'll be saving a lot of oil and paying a shit load less for gas as a nation. We will be using less gas because we have switched to more fuel efficient cars.
Thoughts from you guys?

You think I'm kidding don't you?



On June 2 the the pentagon will test a 700 ton bomb at their Nevada testing site. This is the largest open air explosion ever at the site, no others come close. This test just happens to be called called "Devine Strake" seriously. what the hell is wrong with the people in our government? apparently they are all about the holy war metaphors.

---

From Washington Post
"This is the largest single explosive we could imagine doing," said James A. Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which is conducting the test.

The June test will detonate 700 tons of heavy ammonium nitrate-fuel oil emulsion -- creating a blast equivalent to 593 tons of TNT -- in a 36-foot-deep hole near a tunnel in the center of the Nevada Test Site, according to official reports. It aims to allow scientists to model the type of ground shock that will be created, and to weigh the effectiveness of such a weapon against its collateral impact.

I'm tired of the short term political 'solutions' to the increase in gas prices. Artificially lowering the price of gas by giving a gas tax holiday, or rebate checks, and all the other bs will just screw up supply and demand, and ignore the real issue of declining fossil fuel supplies. I'm also pissed that we are giving tax breaks to the richest company in the world Exxon-Mobil, which has made record profits the past 6 years straight, but they still get breaks from the government.

La Times sums it up well


Oil and politics don't mix
April 28, 2006

NO DOUBT PRESIDENT BUSH hoped his Tuesday speech to the Renewable Fuels Assn. would mollify grumpy Americans tired of high gas prices. But by proposing dubious policies that - at best - might save a few cents per gallon in the short term, while doing little to address the underlying problem of U.S. oil dependence, the president did something worse than nothing: He ushered in a silly season for wrongheaded, economically ignorant proposals by headline-chasing politicians.

Just a few short months ago, Bush was paying lip service to addressing the country's oil "addiction." On Tuesday, he offered us gas junkies a cheaper, faster fix by deferring new deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And now, after a week's worth of 1970s-style economic rhetoric, the prospects for successful detox seem all the more distant as public officials scramble to follow the president's lead in dreaming up their own "solutions" to the oil market. Like most insta-legislation rushed to the floor in the wake of controversial news - think Terri Schiavo - the gas-price proposals should be ignored and scorned.

Take the calls to root out alleged misdeeds by oil companies. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wants to look at Big Oil's tax returns "to make sure [they] aren't taking a speed pass by the tax man." Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) proposed breaking up the industry altogether. And state officials want their piece of the witch hunt too. On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he had sicced the California Energy Commission on the case. In Arkansas, a candidate for attorney general also pledged to investigate oil companies, even though that state's anti-gouging law only applies during emergencies.

Everyone likes to see a villain squirm. The problem is, the Federal Trade Commission already has been sniffing out price gouging in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and has yet to uncover one instance of illegal behavior. Election-year investigations into marketwide collusion and gouging are window dressing, nothing more.

Worse are renewed calls to authorize drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to relax environmental restrictions on polluting refineries. A still-lower circle of populist hell is reserved for embarrassingly baldfaced sops to voters, such as the Senate's $100 taxpayer refund. Or that body's proposal to increase farm energy subsidies by $1.5 billion. Or its push for a 60-day federal gas tax holiday.

All of these proposals would provide scant relief even while encouraging continued fuel overuse. As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress on Thursday, "Unfortunately, there's nothing, really, that can be done that's going to affect energy prices or gasoline prices in the very short run."

Sensible policy would focus on curbing consumption. Indeed, if politicians were being honest about breaking the addiction, they'd admit that it might make sense to hope that gas prices stay high - which would drive down demand and perhaps spur businesses to get real about alternative fuel technologies and improved auto mileage.

As a Texas governor running for president wisely said in 2000, the "Strategic Reserve should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before an election."