George W Bush - The Record

LAW ENFORCEMENT: He was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. He pled guilty, paid a fine, and had his driver's license suspended for 30 days. His Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.

MILITARY: He joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. He refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about his drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, he was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

COLLEGE: He graduated from Yale University with a low C average. He was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE: He ran for U.S. Congress and lost. He began his career in the oil business in Midland,Texas in 1975. He bought an oil company but couldn't find any oil in Texas . The company went bankrupt shortlyafter he sold all his stock. He bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of his father and his father's friends in the oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, he was elected governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS: He changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. He set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
He cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
With the help of his brother, the governor of Florida, and his father's appointments to the Supreme Court, he became President after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES: All records of his tenure as governor of Texas are now in his father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC investigations into his insider trading and his bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that he, or his Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT: He became the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record. He invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
He spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury
He shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
He set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
He set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
His largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of his best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron.
He changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
He appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.
He's broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
He garnered the most sympathy for the U.S.after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacyin world history.
He set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest him in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
He has cut health care benefits for war veterans and supports a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.In his State of the Union Address, he lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

He has so far failed to fulfill his pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

I Always Thought He Was Big Dick Anyway

This is just too much fun!

Limbaugh Detained Over Viagra

From one old pill head to another Rush, make sure you have an Rx next time you're holding drugs. By the way Rush, does this mean that there is actually someone out there who would have sex with you? Or that you're just really hopeful? Either way, ewwwwwwwww!

Reconnecting With An Old Friend (not a friend that's old)

Recently it's been running through my head the many friends that I've had that, for assorted reasons, I've fallen out of contact with. This seems to be how it is in life. You make acquaintances in different settings, some of them become friends, some of those seem to stay in contact for years on end while others move on and you lose touch.

After not having heard from "Kev" in several months, either via phone call or email, I decided to write him an old fashioned, USPS delivered, letter. Kev and I first met at a bar in Corpus Christi called The Other Door in about 1987. We became friends through hanging out and our mutual involvement in local theater. I'll always treasure the "Best Actor" statue that Kev gave me after I got a rave review in the Corpus Christi Caller Times (we're talking big time now!) for my performace in a one act play called "Lone Star" which Kev talked me into auditioning for and acting in.

We maintained that friendship through my move to San Diego and Kev's move to Key West. Kev, if I remember correctly, moved for love and I moved because I loved California. Many months passed after those moves where we lost touch with each other but eventually we would be in contact and catch up on where we were and what was going on. Kev eventually made the move to Los Angeles which allowed us to visit one another since I was just down the road in San Diego.

I recall so many great get togethers. There was a weekend that Kev came to celebrate his birthday and rented a limo for a night on the town that included dinner at The Hotel del Coronado. Great night it was even if the details are a bit fuzzy. There was a day/night of revelry in Tijuana the details of which, well, we'll just keep those between the participants. Suffice to say that it was a long trip back across the boarder. A longgggg trip with a lot of ups and downs! Kev knows stories about me that I'm glad only he knows and for this, I am grateful.

I ended up back in Corpus Christi after my foray into SoCal and am now, of course, in Austin. Kev remained in LA where he has worked for a large law firm for several years now and had sent warm greetings when I got through rehab some 10+ months ago. I got busy with getting back into and on with life and some time passed before I realized that I hadn't heard from Kev in a while. So I wrote him and this week I recieved an email back.

Kev has had some trying times: the death of both parents in the last two years, his own experience with a bad case of shingles and the reminder that our health and life is a fragile thing and must be lived as if each day is the last.

As he and I move towards 45 (we are just a couple of months apart in age but I'm older has Kev is inclined to gleefully point out), we're at that great point in life where one can look back on a good deal of life experience and also look forward to all that is still possible. Knowing that he is ok and that he's been part of my life for so long warms my heart.

Friends Rock and So Does the New Apartment!

I haven't posted since seeing The Breakup due to the fact that I moved last weekend and everything surrounding those dates has either involved preparation for the move or recovery from the move. There were countless trips down the stairs from my 2nd floor place and countless trips up the stairs to my new 2nd floor place (to think I almost moved to a 3rd floor!) leaving me with a strained knee and no zip for the last few days. But I'm in now and I love it! It's bright and sunny, has a nice layout, a large L shaped balcony (I mean really large!) with a pool view in a complex with huge oak trees and quiet neighbors. I'm jazzed.

I'm also jazzed about the fact that three friends offered to help me move. I didn't have to beg, bribe, cajole or plead, they just offered. Offered. Of their own free will. Amazing. The one with the most hours and trips up and down stairs was VelvetSaje who, despite the heat (nothing like 100 degree temps to make you wish you weren't moving), never complained, not even once. There was Mike, from my 12 Step group, who helped with the "sacred", antique makeup table (a table that my mother unnecessarily obsesses about everytime I move...it hasn't been damaged yet despite her absolute certainty that it will be!). The next morning JN, my former squeeze and still faithful friend, made one trip with his truck that would have taken me 5 in the vehicle I was using. Oh lawdy, do I feel blessed!

Needless to say, the next time any of these three move, they have someone already signed up to help.

The Best Part of The Break Up

I went yesterday to see The Break Up, the just released "romantic comedy" with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Normally, I couldn't give a rat's patootie about seeing something like this in the theater....would much rather wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it at home. If then.

The movie got old after about 10 minutes. As my mother put it, listening to a couple argue and fight (which is the basis for the whole film) wears on your nerves rather quickly. I'm not a fan of either actor unlike seemingly most of the country and even seeing Ann Margaret wasn't too exciting.

What was exciting and the reason we paid to see this in the theater was the fact that The Old 97's appear in the "break up" scene towards the end of the movie. Now that was worth waiting for! The Old 97's are fronted my my nephew, Rhett Miller, who is enjoying a rather notable year with the release of his second solo album, The Believer. The scene was actually shot at a 97's show in Chicago and there are a couple of brief close ups of Rhett although the entire scene lasts less than a couple of minutes.

The movie would have been SO much better with more Old 97's and less Jen and Vince!

The Theft of Democracy

Day in and day out the news brings us revelation after revelation of the bumbling, perverse, crooked antics of W and his gang. It's so bad, I haven't even been able to write about it...it just makes me physically ill when I think about the damage this bunch has done to this country. Of course, yesterday W was on the radio pushing the the effort to enshrine discrimination into the Constitution in the form of a ban on gay marriage. No better time to revive your pointy headed base than when you're at Nixonian levels in the polls. With five months to go to the elections, my imagination simply races with the emergencies, terror threats and social agenda that the neocons will come up with in order to mitigate or prevent their losses come November.

What bothers me most about these thieves is how they got into power. Think way back to November of 2000 and you'll recall that there was that little fiasco about who really won the election. That question went all the way to the Supremes who awarded the issue to W and installed him as President. Realizing that we (theoretically) live under the rule of law, Al Gore conceded the election despite a great deal of evidence the election was stolen.

Many of us held out hope that we'd see an end to this morally bankrupt administration in 2004. Indeed, the night of the election, exit polls seemed to indicate that we would as there was every indication that Kerry would win Ohio and, therefore, the Presidency. But the result was four more years of the incompetence and thievery we'd been experiencing. According to a well written and researched article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr in Rolling Stone, "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" , it appears that Republicans stopped over 350,000 Ohio voters from casting ballots or having their votes counted which would have been more then enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. If this is true, then our system of government has suffered a crime on par with the election thefts of many third world countries, not once but twice.

This is a ruthless bunch and I fear that we are only one "terrorist" attack away from martial law and a brutal dictatorship. I have no faith that the truth will ever make it out to the mainstream media.