Last night, the Senate agreed to a six month extension of the Patriot Act. This will pass and become law (again) and the bickering and political posturing will continue for another six months. This time will run out just as the election cycle goes into full swing. I think everybody will vote for it, as anybody who votes against it will be bludgeoned with that fact during the campaign by their opponent.
Oh, well. It’s been said that there are two things you should not watch being made, laws and sausages. With this information flood we have nowadays, you can’t help but watch these bills being made in all of their gory details.

Two stories relevant to this post: Debate Rages Over Legality of NSA Wiretap Program and Surveillance Court Judge Resigns.
I usually nominally agree with Rush on most things, but this one I have to say he’s wrong. Rush’s contention is that we must give up these rights to be safe, as we won’t have them if we are dead. He also contends that this is a legal thing to do.
I can understand that we need to monitor Al Qaeda here in the US, but we can do that within the scope of the law. I do not want to suspend this monitoring by the NSA, I just want judicial oversight. That isn’t much to ask, is it?
Granted, Jimmy Carter signed an executive order back when he was President declaring that this kind of stuff was legal, but an executive order does not supersede the Constitution. Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton all used this EO and nobody questioned it. Why Clinton actually expanded it to include warrantless searches of your property and infrared surveillance of you. Now isn’t that comforting?
Rights given up are never given back. Once the government has the power to do something, they keep it, unless the people wrest it back from them. And this is something we need to do. Like I said, I’m not against this, I just want judicial oversight. If you need to monitor someone right now, and can’t get a warrant fast enough, then start the monitoring and work on the warrant at the same time.
I am not calling for impeachment, as under the twisted confines of the law, President Bush does have the authority, kind of. It’s like pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. He does not, according to the Constitution, have the authority to do what he is doing, and should revert to the Constitution.

Nothing strikes me as commentable today, other than the story about Carmen Electra. She put herself up for auction on eBay for a date and the winning bidder bid so high she would have felt obligated to sleep with him. Luckily for her the bidder was disqualified.
Other than that, it’s cold, I’m tired and I don’t want to go into work today. I have to because I’ve used up all of my sick days. I keep my thermostat at 66 to keep my energy bill down, and right now I’m wrapped up in a sleeping bag while typing. I know I’m whining, but I don’t do it very often, so I figured I would whine a little before Christmas and get it over with.
That’s it for now, I’m going to go and keep warm until I have to go into work. See you tomorrow.

In this post 9/11 world, we know that disaster can strike from man-made as well as natural disasters. In any case, it takes 48-72 hours for the local responders to re-establish basic services.
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO SURVIVE THOSE 72 HOURS? Do you have a plan? Do you have the no-cook supplies? Water? Lights? Communications?
Give your family the gift of survival this year: An emergency kit. I found this one, Readdy Freddy. I like this one because it has a hand cranked cell phone charger. There are others out there, such as the ones from Emergency Essentials. Whether you buy one of these or assemble one of your own, this is something everyone should have.

This does not justify President Bush’s position on getting warrentless wiretaps. In fact, this shows you just how bad Clinton’s Administration really was: Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls.

During the 1990′s under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon.
…, the NSA had been monitoring private domestic telephone conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s – all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks.

Neal Boortz proposed an interesting scenario, namely Osama bin Laden calls someone in the US. No one answers. Now, we know that OBL changes phones frequently. In case OBL calls back from a different phone in a few minutes, there is no time to obtain a search warrant.
Granted, there might not be time, but getting a warrant while the wiretap is in action I can understand. There is judges available 24/7 for FISA (Foreign Intelligence Services Act) and if there isn’t time to get one right now, a parallel operation should be permitted.
But this does not excuse the Clinton Administration from spying on it’s own citizens. That just shows the corruptness of the Clintons. I don’t excuse it, but at least Bush had a reason.

A NOT SAFE FOR WORK rating on this link: How not to launch a bottle rocket.
I just had to do this, the level of stupidity in this (thankfully) short clip is simply staggering. It is a testament to just how stupid some people could be, and a warning that there are worse offenders out there.

Here is another thing I am not happy with the Bush Administration over: Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts.
I am not happy, not happy at all. This should not be happening in America. I can understand being spied on by the NSA, that’s their job. But to do so without judicial oversight is just plain wrong. This needs to be rescinded or abolished RIGHT NOW and President Bush admonished for this. I can understand the want and need to monitor emails and phone calls, but within the scope of the Constitution, please.

The rabid anti-smoking Nazis (and when I mean Nazi, I mean militant, Socialist “I know what’s good for you” kind of nutballs) strike again. Smoking foes try to stop parents from lighting up.
There is some point where the courts go too far and this is one of them. The courts have no right to reach into this persons life and tell them this. I grew up in a smoking house, both of my parents were 2 pack a day smokers, and it ended up killing them. If anything, it made sure that I wouldn’t smoke. And while I think smoking is a vile, disgusting habit, you should be free to smoke in your own home. If you want to pollute it along with yourself, I say go for it.
This is just another example of the nanny state that America is turning into.

I ran into an ad for ThoseShirts.com, and I wanted to tell you about them.
They’ve come up with a couple of new ones, like: “May cat has been neutered. Now he’s French.”
Then there’s “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It should be a convenience store, not a government agency.”
And my favorite, “Viva La REAGAN Revolucion.”
If you would like to buy me one of those shirt for Christmas, just punch that Paypal button over there to the right and I’ll get it in time for Christmas. But you better hurry! Time is running out!

I almost beat Mike last night with my Orks. We played a 5,000 point battle, and I matched him for once in activations. I took a bunch of smaller formations, and some new formations and went right after him. He was playing my Warlord Titan (850 points, most unit sizes is ~300 points), otherwise he would have still out activated me.
I tried some new stuff, I set up a gunline of Big Gunz equipped units on Overwatch so he couldn’t approach my lines. I also added another sqawdron of Fighta-Bommaz (Orks can’t spell) and went after him. I did make one stupid mistake, and the activations I lost cost me the game. The game ended on one die roll, he had to activate his titan to obliterate 3 of my Deth Koptas. If he rolled a one, he couldn’t activate (which he did; I only had a 16% chance that he wouldn’t). If I could have gotten one unit to unbreak after being broken, I could have swung from defeat to taking a chance on winning by how much units we destroyed.
All-in-all, a very tough game. That’s the second time Mike has beat me by winning the die roll of the game. He got me a few weeks back where we were in an assault; Who won the assault won the game. He won. Despite Mike’s “analysis paralysis” he is quite a good general now.

Jane Fonda strikes again: Jane Fonda: U.S. Troops Are ‘Killing Machines’.
Our troops are trained to be as efficient as possible at their jobs, which means killing the enemy. Dehumanization of the enemy is the only way to keep the troops psychologically intact. But when the cowardly enemy refuses to be recognized as the enemy, instead hiding among the populace, then mistakes happen. This is not a fault of our troops to mistakenly kill a civilian sometimes, it is the fault of the terrorists. The terrorists want as many civilian casualties as possible, and they will do anything to accomplish that goal.
So the troops are forced to fire back at anybody that fires at them, in self-defense. They can’t make the distinction between a civilian and a terrorist, except by the fact that terrorists shoot at them.
Yes, this is having a negative affect on our troops, and I wish there was a way around it. Freedom has a price, and it must be paid. And it gets paid every day, in the blood of American troops and terrorists. Hopefully more terrorists than troops.

…about Liberal blogs. They are full of hate. They spew vindictiveness at Bush and anybody not Liberal. I have taken up going after some of them on Tennessee Guerrilla Women. I can’t say I’m making progress, but I’m not being significantly challenged on the facts.
I remember one comment where I tore apart a quote, point by point. Once Liberal commenter came after me on every point by the “The rich are not paying their fair share” because I showed the top 1% of taxpayers are paying more than the bottom 75% of taxpayers, by a factor of 2:1.
I didn’t hate Clinton while he was in the White House. I pointed out what he was doing in a factual manner.I presented facts, not emotional arguments. I did the same with Kerry during the ’04 elections. I made statements then back them up with facts. I did not mock him, I did not call him names that I could not back up, I did not make unflattering parodies of him.
I think it’s sad, really that they are so full of hate that they can’t see clearly.

Tookie got terminated early this morning. You can read a timeline of his final moments here. courtesy of FOX News.
The Crips are no Elks club. They are a bunch of psychopathic thugs, who are willing to kill anybody who gets in their way. And Tookie was the head Crip. He co-founded the gang, and only God knows how many other crimes this piece of trash was guilty of.
From Boortz:

In 1981, Williams was caught beating up an other inmate with his fists, and ignored orders to stop. In 1982, Williams refused to an order to line up…and told a guard “you’ll get yours boy, I can do anything now because I know what the gunmen will do…one of these days I’ll trick you boy.” Twice that same year, Tookie attacked guards with chemical substances. In 1984, Tookie was back to beating up another inmate…and didn’t stop until a guard fired a warning shot. Also in 1984, Williams was caught making out with a female visitor. He told the guard then “you are looking around too much and that’s not your job. I have dusted many officers on the street, one more would not make any difference.” Sounds reformed to me. But there’s more…1986…he beat up another inmate. 1988..he was stabbed in retaliation for a stabbing he ordered of another inmate. 1991…Tookie was again caught beating up another inmate. Same thing again in 1993. Get the idea?

Doesn’t sound to me like he was an innocent victim of the system. He was convicted primarily on testimony that he bragged about killing his victims. Again, it doesn’t sound like an innocent person to me.
My views on the death penalty I will discuss another day. Maybe.

This is circulating in the Internet, you be the judge of its veracity:
UPDATE: Never mind. Snopes says it’s false. I should have checked, but I was short on time this morning. Thanks goes to Kathy for being my fact checker.

Utah’s Evacuees. Another perspective from a relief worker in Utah.

Let me tell you a few things about the wonderful group of evacuees we received here in Utah.
The first plane arrived with 152 passengers. Of the 152, 10 were children. 3 of these children had been separated or abandoned by their parents.
As these passengers attempted to board the plane, the National Guard removed from their person; 43 handguns (it is Illegal to own a handgun In New Orleans ), 20 knives, one man had 100,000 dollars in cash, 20 pounds of Marijuana, 10 pounds of Crack, 15 pounds of Methamphetamines, 10 pounds of various other controlled substances including Heroin.
Upon their arrival here in SLC, two people immediately deplaned and lit up a joint.
During the course of medical evaluations, it was discovered that parents were using their kids to carry loads of looted jewelry (price tag still on), and other items.
One third of the people who got off the plane were angry that they didn’t get to go to Houston, San Antonio or Las Vegas.
Over the course of the next 36 hours we received an additional 430 evacuees.
Most of these, like their predecessors had to be relieved of illegal items.
Additionally, most of them, were the owners of exceptionally prolific criminal records, just like those in the first flight.
By the second night in the shelter, there was one attempted rape of a relief worker, sales of drugs on going and a gang had begun to rebuild.
When the people arrived at the shelter, they were given the opportunity to dig through piles of donated clothes from local church groups. Many complained that they were second hand clothes.
The state set up a reception center with relocation assistance, Medicaid and workforce services among many assistance groups.
This past Saturday, workforce services held a job fair. 85 of the 582 evacuees attended. 44 were hired on the spot. 24 were asked back for a second interview. Guess the others had no desire to work.
Yesterday we began relocating evacuees to be with family or friends who had agreed to take them in as well as three to the county jail.
Now in the health arena; 4 with Aids, 15% of those 582 had some form of STD, one case of TB, 2 Heroin withdrawals, 15 mental health admissions, one brain tumor and 15 nursing home patients.
Like everyone in this nation, I watched as the news media blasted FEMA and President Bush for the “poor response”.
While everyone on TV saw nothing but people being let down by government, I saw people letting down people.
Who would have ever thought that we would reach a point in time that US citizens would lie around in piles of trash complaining that no one had come to pick them up out of it.
What ever happened to people pulling together to make their circumstance better? Why couldn’t they get up and move on their own or at least just clean up the area where they had to wait for evacuation? Why did they feel the need to take a crap in the aisle of the super dome?
FEMA did not fail them. FEMA is not a response agency. State and local government is responsible for the first 72 hours. But more important, we all have a responsibility to help ourselves and neighbors.
Poverty is not an excuse to behave like animals. The rest of the Gulf Coast did not have problems like this! Difficult situations are not an excuse to loot your neighbor 24 hours before the storm even hits.
I have always said New Orleans was a toilet! Now everyone has proof that not only was it a toilet, but a toilet long overdue for a flush.
(Unfortunately it got flushed on the rest of the country)
Matthew Anderson
Salt Lake City , Utah

It’s sad, really.

Check out this guys Christmas lights.