Blagojevich: How I missed thee!!!! Er: How I will miss thee!!!

I was just thinking yesterday, in fact, that we hadn't heard from Rod Blagojevich lately. Considering myself a Daughter of Illinois, I was concerned about the troubled former Governor. Concern myself no more: he's back in the news!!!

Beyond all the other things he'd be facing (conspiracy and fraud charges), he was also indicted today by a Grand Jury on 16 felony charges.

In a completely unrelated story, the state of Illinois will be holding elections to replace the guy Blago appointed to replace Obama. Burris it turns out did try to help Blago's campaign but failed. So, the State of Illinois is scraping the bottom of the barrel. They can't even get successful corrupted officials.

We will never get anyone elected from Illinois in the White House again. We are smeared.

Head's Up: An early and incomplete version of Wolverine origins has been leaked unto the web. Sounds more like a viral campaign. But spokedevils... sorry, spokespeople for 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, are claiming they will prosecute the culprit to the fullest extant of the law. Wow, all that for a song and dance man from down under who put on some claws and growled.

Don't download it. At least wait till its out in theaters to pirate a film. Have some decency will ya (I don't promote piracy. Its against the law hence the word PIRACY. Don't do it if you know whats good for you).

Stocks make it a 3 day rally but small business lending is down 57%. Well, thank you news people for raining on whatever parade we had going!!!

Life on Mars ended. Jury is still out on whether the ending hit the mark. Not sure if anyone noticed this rare gem of a show. Not sure if anyone notices anything anymore.

Tonight, ER ends and as many entertainment critics are saying, its the end of an era. The 2nd golden age of television is over. Now the better shows are on cable. They're right. But having those shows on the big network that only require bunny ears (oops... not even that is enough anymore) was nice. So long ER. I'm gonna miss ya! With BSG gone, I have like nothing left to watch. Which is really ok.

We're off the air!!!!!!

6 November 2007
Dateline....

Don't you miss that? Don't news outlets know how to be newsy anymore? Did Walter Cronkite take that with him when he retired?

Anyways, I've been out of it for a few weeks. I'm moving into the gritty part of the semester and I'm actually beginning to enjoy it. Granted, I'm jobless (which sucks) and I'm still nursing a perpetual broken hand. But no worries...

I have several things with which to undertake on this November day. They are as follows:

1. Hillary Clinton's "victimhood"
2. waterboarding
3. Writers' Guild Strike
4. My awesome presentation in Global Studies last week
5. Pakistan: 'nuff said

They will not be attacked in that order. Also, I will be writing another get to know the candidates here in a week. I will also be filling you in on some WWII stuff that is rather current. On Sunday, we will have Armistice Day which is a significant day and not just for veterans.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, we move on to the opinions.

Pakistan. Its not even the only one undergoing political upheaval. There is some going on in Georgia. Suicide bombings are taking place with more frequency in Afghanistan. First, a small history of this nation. The nation originally was two chunks sliced from India in 1947 in what is called Partition. This was a bloody birth for the young nations. In 1971, the eastern part split away and became Bangladesh. Pakistan has alternated since 1972 between Prime Ministers named Bhutto, first Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, and military leaders. In 1998, the nation became nuclear just after India did which led to a war particularly in the long contested borderland, Kashmir. In 1999, the current military dictator Pervez Musharraf took over in a bloodless coup. Since then he has reigned over the Muslim state with a heavy hand and yet, the current US administration has fostered a closer relationship than most would find comfortable. Benazir Bhutto returned from 9 years of exile just last month.

On November 1, Bhutto left Pakistan for Dubai. The following day the Supreme Court of Pakistan reversed an earlier decision to allow for an election to proceed in January without scrutinizing the previous election that was challenged by Wajihuddin Ahmad. At 1720, November 3, the Pakistani television reported that a state emergency was imminent. Twenty minutes later, the private media went off the air. At 10 minutes after 6 PM, local time, the state run stations reported that indeed the state emergency had been declared. At 7, it is reported that constitution has been suspended.

Musharraf has claimed that he declared martial law to protect the nation from terrorists. In reality, it is a power grab.. Bhutto has stated that Pakistan is returning to a dictatorship. Musharraf has expressed some dismay with the media's "negative" reporting. "The media could not lend a helping hand to improve the situation" said Musharraf in his speech to the people of Pakistan. The Army has entered the Supreme Court and detained detained Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry because the "judiciary is not working efficiently".

Since the emergency began, journalists, lawyers and other "terrorists" have been detained or in some cases, killed. As seen in other power grabs throughout history, liberal middle classes and the ‎educated classes have been targeted. These are the people who are going to object and will be able to do more than merely object but rally opposition. They pose a huge danger to the regime that Musharraf wants to hold onto. And of course, protests and violence as the Army cracks down on media outlets and regular citizens alike.

What may disturb many Americans is Musharraf's references to Lincoln. Lincoln, though credited with preserving the union and abolishing slavery, made some decisions that, in hindsight, are not considered the wisest. During the Civil War, as with any war, the executive retained certain powers that were stipulated under the constitution. One of these was Habeas Corpus. Over the course of American History, there have been several times when laws have been imposed and rights infringed. Presidents Adams (the first one), Wilson, Roosevelt (the second one) and Nixon have all made strides to make being American a lot tougher.

Bush is right in there who buttered up this military leader so that we could use Pakistan for our wars. Now, we don't even know what to do. The State Department tells Musharraf to knock it off. They keep expressing disappointment. Oh, like that's a threat? Well, yeah, it could be since their alliance was rather... lucrative on their end.

I want to send out a huge "oorah" (I'm ex Navy) to Geo TV and ARY one for deciding to continue reporting the news on the Internet. By doing so, they are working to keep not only their fellow Pakistanis informed but also the rest of the world. Otherwise, we are all stuck with Musharraf and the sanitized state-run media (which I'm sure even you guys are sick of). They're risking a lot to not be complacent and keep working to bring out the truth. For those who understand Urdu go for it. Even if you don't they do speak in English occasionally. For myself, I know Hindi and can make out some of the words and get the gist.

In the meantime, the story is receiving little coverage here in the United States. The Cable News outlets are barely mentioning it. CNN has paid it some attention whilst Fox has devoted nightly opinion shows to Dog the Bounty Hunter. Bill O'Reilly is a lost cause: his show is an excuse to show banned or salacious material that his stooges find on the Internet that "we should not see" and then are shown anyways.

I need to move on. What else is on the list? Hillary Clinton. Lately she has found that the rest of the Democratic candidates are ganging up in her like the Republicans have been. There has been some call that its an "Old Boys Club" and they are ganging up on her cause she's a chick. Well, I don't know about her being a woman, but I don't think that's why. Its called ganging up on the guy in the lead. Or in football, the guy with the ball.

She's the receiver and the ball slips. She dives as does everybody else, those on the team, on the opposing team and the kickers (Paul and Kucinich). They all pile up on the ball. Its going to be about who has the ball when the ref pulls the bodies off.

So, why the complaining? Because it works! By playing the victim she gets women who know what she means. Women can't get a decent run for anything in this country. Men are unable to claim that they are just ganging up on the leader because it sounds sexist. They're screwed.

But is it that tough for a woman in a man's world? Can a woman become the leader of a country? I would like to take this time to point out that both India and Pakistan have elected women as leaders. These are two nations considered far more conservative than the United States. In addition, the first elected women Prime Minister (Ministress?) was Sirivamo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka in 1960, the same year the United States elected its first Roman Catholic. 1974 saw the first women president in Argentina, Isabel Perón, otherwise known as Evita.

On top of all this there are currently 7 female presidents worldwide: Chile, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia, The Philippines and Switzerland. There are 4 Prime Ministers: Germany, New Zealand, Mozambique and The Netherlands Antilles. Only Suadi Arabia and Monoco have never had a female anywhere in government. Sweden became the first to recently have their "cabinet" be more female than male with an 11-9 count. If these women can make it, what's wrong with Hillary? If Benazir Bhutto could make it?!?!?!? Hell, some countries who've managed to be led by a woman have been Norway, Canada, Ukraine, Panama, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Peru, Latvia, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Malta, Turkey, Portugal, France, Jamaica, and I don't know... GREAT BRITAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I need to get onto other things. Like Waterboarding. Yeah, Waterboarding. The practice is torture. Messing around with the legal terminology all you want does not change the fact that it is torture. It is also form of coercion.

You hold a gun to a person's head and tell them to tell you what you want to know or they die. Hmm... tough choice. Either they bet you bluff or they spill their guts/lie. They more than likely lie. When you say "tell me what I want to know!!!" Gee, ok. I'll tell you. And we have laws to reject confessions from being admissible as evidence. So, what makes the evidence gleaned from this practice any more credible? Because its the CIA?!?!?! Oh God, we're all fucked!!!!!!

Now, the Writer's Strike. Beyond the fact that I've waited long enough for Battlestar Galactica. The writers have now seen fit to stop working. As ticked some of us may be, there is a point to this madness. It is the fees that are made off internet and DVD sales. These writers create material that is, like it or not, intellectual material. Depsite the traditional way of seeing the writing as a product for the show and therefore, the show's proberty, we've changed where something conceived in someone's mind is now their proberty. Even if they were paid a salary to do it and should be happy.

But with the MPAA and RIAA raising a ruckus about intellectual property and the copyrights it is now coming back to bite them. Well, its biting the MPAA. The RIAA has its own hydra to worry about. It cannot have it both ways. The writers want to have some of the take when it becomes natural that a film or TV show which 20 years ago made a splash at the box office, faded, maybe made some money in Video sales and rentals then died, is now making killings years after its wrap party. These goods now make money in perpetuity and the writers feel they should, too. So, in essence I agree with them. I just hope that people start watching more news or something.

All Right... last thing... I think.... well two. I had to give a presentation in class on Thursday. My topic was the Global Civil Society and particularly warfare of modern era. I stood up at the front of the classroom and lectured on this with a 72 count powerpoint presentation. I went to town and talked about everything. And when I was done speaking there were a lot of questions. I spent another 45 minutes discussing those.

Afterwards, I was outside with many of my classmates. I got a bunch of good reviews and was even told I should teach the class. So, I feel pretty good about that. I did very well when I thought I might not.

Today, in my Comparative Constitution class, a question was posed to us in the course of debating headscarves in Germany. The Metric system has yet to be adopted in the US making us the lone holdout against the rest of the world. What was brought up was our reason for not jumping on the bandwagon. It would cost trillions to change over all the measurements in the entire country. Well, other western nations have done that and we wouldn't be talking about a 2 year switchover plan. More like 20 year.

And, those trillions would create jobs. Which would create taxes. So, the trillions would end up in government coffers in some way. The government could even go so far as to offer tax deductions to companies who such and such money to implement the plan especially if they do so quicker than mandated by the 20 year plan. We'd start saving money because we spend gobs of money every year on conversions. Yes, conversions!!! In the end companies would save money. They also wouldn't have to make things like speedometers in two sets of numbers!

Ok, on this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

A scant four years later, the last unit to surrender after the Civil War was the CSS Shenandoah. It circumnavigated the globe and went looking for ships to sink. Um, kind of sounds rednecky if you ask me, which you didn't. And it managed to fire it guns off the coast of Alaska.

On this day in 1917, the third battle of Ypres ends as does the irregular papers printed celebrating the "entrenched" battle being waged there.

Back in 1935, Edwin Armstrong revealed his radio discovery called Frequency Modulation aka, FM.

In 1985, "Irangate" was undergoing and it was uncovered that Reagan authorized shipments of arms to Iran.

Time to blow this popsicle stand.

Smoking Lamp is out!

Where the hell have I been??!??

If you read this and were annoyed that I stopped blogging, I apologize. Several things happened and I shall break them down as succintly as possible:

1. FINALS! Yes, there was finals and I was stressed beyond all measure. But I got out with an A, 2 B's and a C. I call that a good semester. I can do better, however.

2. I had things to worry about like the holidays.

3. I worked a ton during the break.

4. I really didn't care but I did remember. I cannot use the lame excuse of forgetting.

5. I rediscovered my love for all things Galactica, Firefly and Science Fiction novels in general.

So as you can see, I just wasn't ready for running a blog of this nature. Speaking of "nature", I want to add that nature is fucking cold right now. It's like 10 and were happy for 10 here in Minnesota.

Besides that, I want to ask what is the nature of this site? I must reiterate that I basically posted a mission statement right at the top of this page. See it up there? I will, however, restate it now in a different form. I will try, to the best of my ability, to distill local, state, national and international politics, economics and downright newsiness for you my loyal reader (as in there is 1 of you). I aim to add my own opinion (when I feel warranted) and to analyze pertinent facts and events surrounding a particular story, developing or otherwise. I will not let my own political bias hinder my ability to attack those who need attacking, i.e. politicos who just plain screw up. Or CNN or Fox for being media... well, the media. The media just sucks anyways...

I'll admit that I have a healthy fascination for the weather (and weather reporting... there's some real comedy in that, let me tell ya), spies, International bodies like the United Nations, Anderson Cooper, weird crimes, idiocyncrasies that bother me, stupid politicians and history. I like to ground each entry in "back in the day" sections. I feel knowing what others were experiencing on this day in yoner year (oh, alliteration...) is helpful and also reminds us that others trod this grund before. Sometimes there are startling acheivements, disasters, battles or just plain oddness. I like the oddness.

There are some bits of news I failed to make any comment over the intervening 43 days. This was an oversight on my part. Here is a list of news items I failed to make a comment on and may try to make up for my apathy/lack of time:

1. Saddam Hussein was executed. The Iraqi government hung the former dictator in a fashion unbecoming to most western nations. His corpse was danced about by Shiites celebrating his recent demise. On Fox, a particularly amusing graphic was displayed showing his corpse. On the left side of the screen was Saddam "Alive", and on the right, his "dead" body. I couldn't help but be befuddled and amused by this. It reminded a friend of a moment in a film when someone was sorting dead rats and saying "alive"... "dead". We believe it was Transylvania 65000.

2. Gerald Ford died. He was never elected President, but nevertheless, led our country througho ne of its darkest periods. He also open the military academies to women. And pardoned Nixon. The flags will remain at half mast for another week or so. (Yes, I said half mast not half staff...)

3. Barbara Boxer v. Condoleeza Rice. What?

4. Donald Trump v. Condoleeza Rice. Double What?

5. Trump v. Rosie. eh....

6. The Next Harry Potter will be "The Deadly Hallows". That's hallows like hallowed ground, hallowed be his name and hallowe'en.

7. Pinochet, Chilean dictator, died at age 91. No one cared and it only rated below Harry Potter and The Don.

8. Tim Johnson, a US senator, was hospitalized with a mild stroke. Before he was even evaluated, US news outlets were already discussing the possible return of power to Republican hands. They weren't even waiting to see if he died.

9. Ex Russian Spy turned British citizen and author (and Muslim), Alexander Litvinenko, was finally covered in depth by 60 Minutes. About bloody Time!

10. Denver shut down for snow: $Billions. Holiday travellers stranded in terminals on stiff, smelly cots: ^#$^ %&#!!!! Laughing at my sister for moving there and claiming they hardely get any snow there: Priceless.

Back in the year 1265, The English parliament convened at the Palace of Westminster for the first time.

In 1892, the first game of basketball was played at a YMCA in Springfield Massachussetts.

And the Nazis, in 1942, agreed on the "final solution" to the European Jewry. The result was the holocaust the significant impact on world politics, culture and geography.

That's it from my end.