Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Why Obama Will Be The Next President of The United States


This post is for KCA.


It's the answer submitted by a commentator at Corrente to the question: What would you do if the Republicans steal the election this time again? (http://www.correntewire.com/whither_thou_nov_5th#comment-122367)

"Submitted by basement angel on Wed, 2008-10-29 02:28.

CD - you're a wonderful, inventive writer but you have missed the point of this entire election. The same people who gave us Reagan, and Bush I and II and opposed Bill Clinton, have given us Obama. The right has pulled their punches because, for whatever reason, they endorse him. I mean, Colin Powell, the guy who endorsed Dole over Clinton, endorsed Bush over Gore (and he knew both of them personally so it is inexcusable) and claimed on the campaign trail that Clinton had decimated our military might, and even after the fiasco of the Iraq war endorsed Bush over Kerry, has endorsed Obama. You think that’s because he’s seen the light? Got any reason to think that? Powell endorsed Obama because Obama - the Democratic candidate - is, pathetically, more corrupt than the Republican candidate. That’s a sad, fuckin’ state of affairs.

Obama is a Republican candidate - that is as clear as a bell. The 527s which destroyed Kerry’s pristine military record have looked the other way at Rezko. The GOP have barely mentioned Reverend Wright - yet they go on about Ayres, a guy who has made through the system and come out the other end to be a professor at a respected university. Ooooh, booga, booga! A professor! Meantime, Rezko has been convicted of bribery (among many other things), after having inexplicably spent $675k of his own money to purchase a strip of land that allowed Obama to buy a $2.3 million house for $1.3m - you think that wouldn’t look like bribery to the vast majority of Americans if the GOP elected to acquaint them with the details of this fairly stinky case? Can you think of any reason for the sellers to demand that both properties close on the same day other than to make sure that no one besides Rezko bought the lot? The same party which gave us endless discussion about Willie Horton (that furlough program was created and signed into law by a Republican governor) has nothing to say about Rezko. Why do you think that is? Obama is in personal debt to an Iraqi national convicted of bribing state officials, and the right has said nothing.



After the debates, the Republicans pundits - the one who are on the panel to spin on behalf of Republicans - were all giving the debate to Obama. You think that the GOP has suddenly decided that, gosh darn, those Dems are just better at handling the economy?

No, they’ve done a deal with Obama like they offered Bill Clinton in 1992 - only Obama, unlike Clinton, took them up on it. Limbaugh makes a lot more money during Dem presidencies than during Republican ones. They plan on letting Dems take the heat for the fiscal crisis and put a dull finish on both Roosevelt and Clinton’s economic and social welfare triumphs. They’ll take potshots for the next four years and eat Obama alive [in] 2012. Meantime, we’ll be saddled with that cockroach, the Democratic brand on economic issues will be tarnished and no one will be able to run against him without splitting the party a second time. I used to say Rove wasn’t a genius, merely a thug. I was wrong. He has commandeered the Democratic primary process, unleashed misogyny in our ranks, and utterly destroyed the unity of the party most inclined to represent the working class. We now have two Republican parties, and two Republican candidates to chose between.

The “taking away” already happened, and it happened at the hands of the Democratic party. The real Dem candidate had the nomination stolen from her grasp and handed to GOP ringer. If McCain somehow or the other wins the election, the media and the powers that be, will take the win away from him. The media is the dominant political force of our time, and neither party has any power to reign it in. Obama is all the proof of that.

Clinton is right. We must bloom where we are planted because the parties are now utterly irrelevant for social progress. "

OrchidFête 2008

Last Sunday, my friend Pak Chow and I went to the Orchidfête 2008, hosted by the Eastern Canada Orchid Society at the Days Inn Hotel in Downtown Montreal on October 25 and 26, 2008. I took some pictures and spent all the cash I had on me to buy two catleyas, so Pak Chow had to pay for my lunch.

Here are the pictures, but please remember that I used my cellphone camera so they're not that sharp.

<












 






Here's one of the catleyas I bought (the last two pictures up).

We met one of the exhibitors, Ms Marilyn Light, who won first prize for her exhibit on Chinese Cymbidiums, and who was kind enough to email me the link to a fascinating article she wrote about her participation in the First Chinese Cymbidium and Cymbidium Culture Exhibition which was held in Beijing, China, January 25 to 29, 2007 : http://www.orchidsafari.org/chinesecyms/chinesecyms.html

The next orchid show will be organized in March 28-29, 2009 by the Orchidophiles de Montreal at the CEGEP De Maisonneuve. I'll see you there! Bring money (and a sandwich for me, in case I spend all my money again).


I screw up the formatting again. Curse my incompetence!!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Don't Eat This Dog




Or this one:



Just don't eat dogs, m'kay?.

La blague du mardi de Bernard


Une femme de 80 ans est arrêtée pour vol.

Le juge demande: "Qu'avez-vous volé?"

Elle répond: "Une boîte de pêches"

Le juge: "Pourquoi?"

Réponse: "J'avais faim"


Le juge demande: "Combien y avait-il de pêches dans la boîte?"

Ell répond: "Six"

Le juge: "Vous aurez six jours d'emprisonnement"

Là-dessus, le mari intervient: "Puis-je dire quelque chose?"

Le juge: "De quoi s'agit-il?"

Le mari: "Elle a aussi volé une boîte de petits pois!!!".

Monday, October 27, 2008

Dirty Politics


This is from a comment at Hillbuzz (http://tinyurl.com/5o7s76) so take this with a grain of salt, but I find it interesting.

"sarah p Says:
October 27, 2008 at 5:04 am

Ok, I want to clear my conscious a little. Hopefully you could make a blog post to help some fellow clinton supporters out.

I work for a campaign and can’t wait for this week to be over.

I was doing it for a job. I was not a fan of any candidate but over time grew to love HRC.

The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.

We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obama”

We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.

We did this the whole primary and it worked.

Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc.

This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues.

Next, we infiltrate all the blogs and all the youtube videos and overwhelm the voting, the comments, etc. All to continue this appearance of overwhelming world support.

People makes posts to the effect that the world has “gone mad”

Thats the intention. To make you feel stressed and crazy and feel like the world is ending.

We have also had quite a hand in skewing many many polls, some we couldn’t control as much as we would have liked. But many we have spoiled over. Just enough to make real clear politics look scarey to a mccain supporter. Its worked, alough the goal was to appear 13-15 points ahead.

see, the results have been working. People tend to support a winner, go with the flow, become “sheeple”

The polls are roughly 3-5 points in favor of Barack. Thats due to our inflation of the polls and pulling in the sheeple.

Our donors, are the same people who finance the MSM. Their interests are tied, Barack then tends to come across as teflon. Nothing sticks. And trust, there were meetings with Fox news. The goal was to blunt them as much as possible. Watch Bill Oreilly he has become much more diplomatic and “fair and balanced” and soft. Its because he wants to retain the #1 spot on cable news and to do that he has to have access to the Obama campaign and we worked hard at stringing him a long and keeping him soft for an interview swap. It worked and now he is anticipating more access. So he is playing it still soft.

This is why nothing sticks.

The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.

There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up.

Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.

There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm.

The truth is here. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

I am saying this because I know HRC was better for the country, and now realize this. I was too late by the time I connected to her. To me Barack was just a cool young dude that seemed like a star. I didn’t know him or his policies, but now I understand more than I care to and I realize his interests are more for him, and the DNC and all working like puppets with dean. I always thought a president wanted the better good for the country. The end result I see is everyone dependent on the government, this means more and more people voting for the DNC. This means the future is forever altered. I don’t see this as america, so I am now supporting John Mccain.

Sarah Palin is a huge threat, and our campaign has feared her like you can’t imagine. If it seems unfair how she has been treated, well its because she has had a team working round the clock to make her look like a fool.

this is a big conspiracy and I am so shocked that its not realized.

We released a little blurb the other day that the Obama campaign was already working on reelection and now putting our efforts towards 2012. This was to make it seem like it was above us to continue caring about 2008. Trust me, its a lie. David is very smart, but its a sticky ugly not very truthful kind of intelligence.

Its not over yet, but I think the machine is working. And its a hill to climb.

I will be quitting my post on nov 5th and my vote will be for John Mccain. Fortunately, my position has been a marketing position and I don’t feel I had any part of anything I would feel guilty for. But I look forward to getting out of this as the negativity and environment upsets me.

I wish you all well, and goodluck.

PS my name is not really sarah. but I am a female and I understand your plight."

 

The Obama National Anthem

You can start learning the new anthem and be ahead of the crowd. No need to thank me.



Via Ace of Spade HQ http://ace.mu.nu/

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Pumpkin Gallery


I'm exhausted just looking at these pumpkin carvings.


Ray Villafane - http://www.villafanestudios.com/pumpkins.htm



http://www.pumpkinway.com/





C'mon, Move to Canada!!

H/t to Sam! Thanks Sam!



Everyone welcome, even the anonymous asshole who put a drive-by comment on my blog!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Funny Prank

A prank from a Brazilian TV show in the 90s.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

You mean.. THIS Colin Powell?




flickr.com/photos/ 57453294@N00/2215286743


From: http://jellypizza.blogspot.com/



Or THIS Colin Powell?


Wikipedia re. The My Lai Massacre: In his report Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Powell's handling of the assignment was later characterized by some observers as "whitewashing" the atrocities of My Lai. In May 2004, Powell, then United States Secretary of State, told CNN's Larry King, "I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored."

Update - 20/10/08 :

The Bagman Cometh: Obama Embraces War Criminal's Endorsement, by Chris Floyd : http://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd84.html

"Democratic Party circles are in raptures over Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama. One can see the heavily-blinkered logic behind their elation; now that our national politics has been reduced to a petty squabble over spoils among shifting factions in the imperial court, a nod from a consummate courtier like Powell is indeed a glittering prize for an ambitious prince.

But out in the real world, where the operations of imperial power have left smoking trails of murder and ruin across the globe, the "endorsement" of a man who played an indispensable role in the slaughter of more than a million innocent people in a war of Hitlerian aggression should be regarded as a thing of shame, and vociferously rejected by anyone with a scintilla of honor or morality.

In fact, it is not too much of a stretch to say that Colin Powell is more responsible for the mass murder spree in Iraq than any other person except George W. Bush, who gave the actual order for the hit. For it was Powell who "made the sale" for the Bush Faction's deceitful warmongering campaign, with his infamous February 2003 presentation to the UN, laying out the false evidence about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. After that farrago of artfully delivered lies, the American Establishment – urged on by the fawning, bloodthirsty commentariat – lined up solidly behind the war. After all, if Colin Powell – so "reasonable," so "honorable," so "honest" and "bipartisan" – stood foursquare behind the Bush case for war, then it must be ironclad.

This was, again, the logic of courtiers, with little connection to reality. Powell's reputation as a wise, moderate, impartial statesman – the very thing that made him the most effective shill for the war crime in Iraq – was itself almost entirely a fiction. By the time he made his shameless UN appearance, Powell had already spent almost four decades as a bagman – and frontman – for some of the most vicious and ugly elements in American politics and government.

From the My Lai massacre to Iran-Contra, from Washington's long and murderous collusion with Saddam to its long and murderous campaigns to remove him, Powell has been instrumental in perpetrating or covering up atrocities and abominations on a gigantic scale. [For details, see Robert Parry's investigation, "The Truth About Colin Powell."]"

Click on the link to read the rest.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Instead of working on my garden, preparing it for the winter, I spent the whole day watching horror movies...


And then I took a bath with some friends...


They told me this joke:
The children begged for a bunny rabbit, and after the usual fervent vows that they alone would care for it, they got one. They named it Danny. Two months later, when Mom found herself responsible for cleaning and feeding the creature, she located a prospective new home for it.

The children took the news of Danny's imminent departure quite well, though one of them remarked, "He's been around here a long time--we'll miss him."

"Yes," Mom replied, "But he's too much work for one person, and since I'm that one person, I say he goes."

Another child offered, "Well, maybe if he wouldn't eat so much and wouldn't be so messy, we could keep him."

But Mom was firm. "It's time to take Danny to his new home now," she insisted. "Go and get his cage."

With one voice and in tearful outrage the children shouted, "Danny? We thought you said Daddy!"


And then I took a nap.


A perfect weekend.

Via: Miss Cellania http://www.misscellania.com/

Friday, October 17, 2008

McCain Hearts Obama

Hat tip to: KCA


Rats! He's supposed to hump Obama. Grrr..La technique et moi....



From: http://designyoutrust.com/2008/10/16/mccain-crazy-about-obamas-butt/

La blague du vendredi de Bernard

Farid suit des cours d'anglais. Il envoie ce petit mot à sa prof :

"I sink aille am foling in love wiziou. Douillou sink it is envisageable
crak crak wiziou this ivining ?"

Elle lui répond :
"Never !"

Farid :
"Splendid ! disons never, never et demie."




Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Airport Kabuki

When we were travelling to Vietnam last summer, the latest Canadian security ruling was a ban on liquids. My son B-Boy confessed to having some cologne in his luggage and it was promply confiscated and thrown out. I confessed to nothing and was not caught until we were on our way back to Montreal. The Hanoi airport security agent found my bottle of perfume. I argued that it was equivalent to cosmetics, that he could smell that it's perfume, that I brought it all the way from Canada, etc. Finally his older colleague signalled to him, with a nod, to let me go, which he did. So, a belated thank you to that old man.




In his monthly Crypto-Gram, Bruce Schneier wrote about his own experience.


The Two Classes of Airport Contraband

Airport security found a jar of pasta sauce in my luggage last month. It was a 6-ounce jar, above the limit; the official confiscated it, because allowing it on the airplane with me would have been too dangerous. And to demonstrate how dangerous he really thought that jar was, he blithely tossed it in a nearby bin of similar liquid bottles and sent me on my way.

There are two classes of contraband at airport security checkpoints: the class that will get you in trouble if you try to bring it on an airplane, and the class that will cheerily be taken away from you if you try to bring it on an airplane. This difference is important: Making security screeners confiscate anything from that second class is a waste of time. All it does is harm innocents; it doesn't stop terrorists at all.

Let me explain. If you're caught at airport security with a bomb or a gun, the screeners aren't just going to take it away from you. They're going to call the police, and you're going to be stuck for a few hours answering a lot of awkward questions. You may be arrested, and you'll almost certainly miss your flight. At best, you're going to have a very unpleasant day.

This is why articles about how screeners don't catch every -- or even a majority -- of guns and bombs that go through the checkpoints don't bother me. The screeners don't have to be perfect; they just have to be good enough. No terrorist is going to base his plot on getting a gun through airport security if there's a decent chance of getting caught, because the consequences of getting caught are too great.

Contrast that with a terrorist plot that requires a 12-ounce bottle of liquid. There's no evidence that the London liquid bombers actually had a workable plot, but assume for the moment they did. If some copycat terrorists try to bring their liquid bomb through airport security and the screeners catch them -- like they caught me with my bottle of pasta sauce -- the terrorists can simply try again. They can try again and again. They can keep trying until they succeed. Because there are no consequences to trying and failing, the screeners have to be 100 percent effective. Even if they slip up one in a hundred times, the plot can succeed.

The same is true for knitting needles, pocketknives, scissors, corkscrews, cigarette lighters and whatever else the airport screeners are confiscating this week. If there's no consequence to getting caught with it, then confiscating it only hurts innocent people. At best, it mildly annoys the terrorists.

To fix this, airport security has to make a choice. If something is dangerous, treat it as dangerous and treat anyone who tries to bring it on as potentially dangerous. If it's not dangerous, then stop trying to keep it off airplanes. Trying to have it both ways just distracts the screeners from actually making us safer.

This essay originally appeared on Wired.com: http://tinyurl.com/4m6vvj

Monday, October 13, 2008

Don't Want To Brag, But...


via Financial Week (http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/REG/810099991/1036)

(Reuters)—Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report based its findings on opinions of executives, and handed banks a score between 1.0 (insolvent and possibly requiring a government bailout) and 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).

Canadian banks received 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).

U.K. banks collectively scored 6.0, narrowly behind the United States, Germany and Botswana, all with 6.1. France, in 19th place, scored 6.5 for soundness, while Switzerland’s banking system scored the same in 16th place, as did Singapore (13th).

HIGHEST SCORES
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Luxembourg
4. Australia
5. Denmark
6. Netherlands
7. Belgium
8. New Zealand
9. Ireland
10. Malta
11. Hong Kong
12. Finland
13. Singapore
14. Norway
15. South Africa
16. Switzerland
17. Namibia
18. Chile
19. France
20. Spain
....

39. Germany
40. United States
44. United Kingdom


LOWEST SCORES
124. Kazakhstan
125. Cambodia
126. Burundi
127. Chad
128. Ethiopia
129. Argentina
130. East Timor
131. Kyrgyz Republic
132. Lesotho
133. Libya
134. Algeria

SOURCE: World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009.

Getting Ready For Halloween

Via: Miss Cellania http://www.misscellania.com/

Animator and illustrator Mark Gervais created this window display for Halloween last year...You can buy this display on DVD for your haunted house. Go to Gervais's website: http://www.hallowindow.com/ 

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Saturday Movie Review

I saw the latest Indiana Jones (The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and I agree with this clip.

Warning: NSFW and not for children under 25.




Nota Bene: The SouthPark clip was found via Cynical-C Blog, where I also found a thread about how some people hate Will Ferrell and all of his films.

Which leads me to this confession: I love Will Ferrell in Anchorman and when he does Dubya Bush. Otherwise, meh..



To continue with confessions: I also love to watch Steven Seagal films. Yes, all of them.

And I hate that Napoleon Dynamite guy and that Borat guy. Did I say I hate, I meant: I find them physically repulsive, like looking at close-ups of leeches' mouth.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Culture en péril - Update

I know, I know, I should just STFU, but there's a longer version of a video I posted a week ago. It's called: Culture en péril - The long version.



There are subtitles. Enjoy!

How Politics Make People Crazy

A few days ago, I read a post at Cynical C Blog that says: "In 1988, Obama lent a stranger $103 to fly home to Norway", and "In 1996, McCain shoved a woman in a wheelchair into a wall".

I sincerely thought that the post was a joke, so I left this comment: "Obama was also seen washing the feet of lepers in a Mother Theresa clinic, while McClain was caught stomping on a bunch of puppies while sipping the blood of orphaned babies".


The anointed one dreaming about lending - nay, giving - more money to people in need

The evil one happily recounting his beating up of a blind toddler on crutches


Turns out the post was serious. The reader is actually expected to believe that Obama is Jesus and McCain Satan, and vote accordingly.

Today, somebody posted these drawing:




Dream of Sarah Palin being beaten up for the crime of being... uh...Republican?

My question is: why? What did Sarah Palin ever do to this person to deserve such raw hatred? What did Obama ever do for this person to make him willing to lose his humanity in his support of a candidate? Did Obama lend him some money in 1988, perhaps?

A Weird Moment


So the Ex, B-Boy and I were riding in a car on the highway, on our way back from Sherbrooke to Montreal.

And I suddenly realized that the Ex was driving while wearing earphones listening to Shanya Twain on his iPod.

Sitting next to him, B-Boy was wearing his earphones watching a video on his PSP.



And me in the back seat, I was wearing my earphones listening to Chris Brown on my cellphone/Mp3 player.




Weird, no?