Growing Up Gotti
Has anyone seen A&E's new series, "Growing Up Gotti"?
I watched a few episodes the other night, and I have to say I hope the rest of the world doesn't have access to this show.
To say Victoria Gotti is white trash with money is too simplistic.
She's white trash with laundered money, and three teenage sons who haven't yet been convicted of racketeering or other Mafia flavored felonies.
If you'd like a glimpse into a world where money does not buy taste and adolescent boys could use a big dose of tough love, this is the show to watch.
Picture a Long Island mansion with what could be a gorgeous swimming pool. Now zoom in on the pool, emptied except for a few feet of slimy, dark sludge, with a lawn chair thrown in for good measure. You have entered the world of Chez Gotti.
Also on A&E is a great new series called, "Family Plots," a reality series that revolves around a family run mortuary in San Diego. I have no idea why I like this show, but I do. I guess it's because the characters are all vaguely likable and sunny in a business you wouldn't think would attract that sort of thing.
With "Survivor" and "The L Word" on hiatus, I've been dwelling in a television wasteland this summer.
Were it not for HBO's "Six Feet Under," I'd disconnect the cable and read.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Laura Bush Takes Swipe at Media Coverage
WASHINGTON (Aug. 4) - First lady Laura Bush thinks the news media is increasingly filled with opinions instead of facts, and suggested Tuesday that journalists are contributing to the polarization of the country.
"I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America," she said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."
Oh, for Chrissakes.
Maybe Laura Bush doesn't like the media covering and/or exposing the lies, the bumbling and the bullshit of her idiot husband and his crooked administration.
For her to be flapping her gums to Bill O'Reilly, one of the biggest right-wing biased pundits in America, on Fox News, a network so unfair and unbalanced they are being sued for calling themselves "fair and balanced," just shows us what a whining, delusional bunch of blamers and buck passers she's running with.
On the whole, the media reports news based on what happened.
If what happened happens to make Bush look like an incompetent fool with an obvious agenda contrary to the will and the good of the American taxpayers, perhaps it's time everyone stop blaming the media for reporting simply what's so.
People need to get this into their heads:
The media OWNERS are rich guys who tend to be conservatives.
If anyone thinks the OWNERS don't have any say over editorial content, they are fucking stupid.
If the OWNERS have a scintilla of honesty, they want their reporters to report the news as they find it- without making things up, without leaving things out. They may not like the news, but it keeps their readers and advertisers happy to have their reporters maintain an honest, legitimate source of news.
The essence of writing news is to show, not tell.
I know this because I happen to be a trained journalist, with newspaper reporting experience.
If what we are shown on television and what we read in newspapers looks bad for the president and his administration, chances are it is bad.
Did the media make up those photos of Iraqi prisoners?
Did the media make up the record trillion dollar budget deficit?
Did the media fabricate Bush's plans to create an amendment that discriminates against homosexuals?
Did the media make up unemployment figures, or lie about skyrocketing gas prices?
Did the media lie about Tom Ridge using three-year-old intelligence to announce an imminent terrorist threat, conveniently timed to distract people from the Democratic convention?
If you don't like what you hear or read about our current government in mainstream media, perhaps the change needs to made with the former, not the latter.
Don't blame the messenger, Laura.
The problem lies with information contained in the message- and chances are, that bad news is probably just an honest reflection of what your husband has done to the country, and the world.
Folks, think about it.
Have you ever, in American history, heard so much controversy about the news media?
Hell, no.
Just think about why the news appears to be so biased against Bush.
Could it be he's just doing a phenomenally horrible job?
WASHINGTON (Aug. 4) - First lady Laura Bush thinks the news media is increasingly filled with opinions instead of facts, and suggested Tuesday that journalists are contributing to the polarization of the country.
"I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America," she said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."
Oh, for Chrissakes.
Maybe Laura Bush doesn't like the media covering and/or exposing the lies, the bumbling and the bullshit of her idiot husband and his crooked administration.
For her to be flapping her gums to Bill O'Reilly, one of the biggest right-wing biased pundits in America, on Fox News, a network so unfair and unbalanced they are being sued for calling themselves "fair and balanced," just shows us what a whining, delusional bunch of blamers and buck passers she's running with.
On the whole, the media reports news based on what happened.
If what happened happens to make Bush look like an incompetent fool with an obvious agenda contrary to the will and the good of the American taxpayers, perhaps it's time everyone stop blaming the media for reporting simply what's so.
People need to get this into their heads:
The media OWNERS are rich guys who tend to be conservatives.
If anyone thinks the OWNERS don't have any say over editorial content, they are fucking stupid.
If the OWNERS have a scintilla of honesty, they want their reporters to report the news as they find it- without making things up, without leaving things out. They may not like the news, but it keeps their readers and advertisers happy to have their reporters maintain an honest, legitimate source of news.
The essence of writing news is to show, not tell.
I know this because I happen to be a trained journalist, with newspaper reporting experience.
If what we are shown on television and what we read in newspapers looks bad for the president and his administration, chances are it is bad.
Did the media make up those photos of Iraqi prisoners?
Did the media make up the record trillion dollar budget deficit?
Did the media fabricate Bush's plans to create an amendment that discriminates against homosexuals?
Did the media make up unemployment figures, or lie about skyrocketing gas prices?
Did the media lie about Tom Ridge using three-year-old intelligence to announce an imminent terrorist threat, conveniently timed to distract people from the Democratic convention?
If you don't like what you hear or read about our current government in mainstream media, perhaps the change needs to made with the former, not the latter.
Don't blame the messenger, Laura.
The problem lies with information contained in the message- and chances are, that bad news is probably just an honest reflection of what your husband has done to the country, and the world.
Folks, think about it.
Have you ever, in American history, heard so much controversy about the news media?
Hell, no.
Just think about why the news appears to be so biased against Bush.
Could it be he's just doing a phenomenally horrible job?
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Four More Years of Hell
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Aug. 2) -- Teresa Heinz Kerry, the outspoken wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, told a rally Monday evening exactly what she thinks of the prospect of a second Bush term.
With a Bush supporter chanting ''Four more years! Four more years!'' through a bullhorn from the back of a park, the candidate's wife stopped herself to respond.
''They want four more years of hell,''
The pro-Kerry crowd erupted in applause and began its own chant: ''Three more months! Three more months.''
Now- what's the difference between a Kerry rally and a Bush rally?
Hecklers are not allowed at Bush rallies.
Even mainstream news photographers have their ethnicity questioned before they are allowed near Bush or his cronies.
People have to show ID and sign pledges that they support Bush before they are even allowed to listen to him speak.
People who buy tickets to hear Bush speak are not allowed to even wear T-shirts that don't endorse Bush, lest they get arrested.
It's all been documented.
The first amendment that allows us the right to free speech is not enforced in this regime, in fact, it's looked upon as an inconvenience by a paranoid Bush and his secretive administration.
Kerry understands that a free society must allow for assholes with bullhorns to disrupt things.
A free society was created to allow for the views of assholes, not for those with whom we agree.
Was it rude and unfair for some GOP asshole with a sense of entitlement and a bullhorn to disrupt Kerry's rally?
Yes, but we've come to expect that from an administration like this. I'm just glad we'll soon have a first lady who puts assholes like this bullhorn guy in their place.
Meanwhile, we have to tolerate three more months of this:
Agree with Bush- you get to have rights.
Disagree with Bush? Go fuck yourself.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Aug. 2) -- Teresa Heinz Kerry, the outspoken wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, told a rally Monday evening exactly what she thinks of the prospect of a second Bush term.
With a Bush supporter chanting ''Four more years! Four more years!'' through a bullhorn from the back of a park, the candidate's wife stopped herself to respond.
''They want four more years of hell,''
The pro-Kerry crowd erupted in applause and began its own chant: ''Three more months! Three more months.''
Now- what's the difference between a Kerry rally and a Bush rally?
Hecklers are not allowed at Bush rallies.
Even mainstream news photographers have their ethnicity questioned before they are allowed near Bush or his cronies.
People have to show ID and sign pledges that they support Bush before they are even allowed to listen to him speak.
People who buy tickets to hear Bush speak are not allowed to even wear T-shirts that don't endorse Bush, lest they get arrested.
It's all been documented.
The first amendment that allows us the right to free speech is not enforced in this regime, in fact, it's looked upon as an inconvenience by a paranoid Bush and his secretive administration.
Kerry understands that a free society must allow for assholes with bullhorns to disrupt things.
A free society was created to allow for the views of assholes, not for those with whom we agree.
Was it rude and unfair for some GOP asshole with a sense of entitlement and a bullhorn to disrupt Kerry's rally?
Yes, but we've come to expect that from an administration like this. I'm just glad we'll soon have a first lady who puts assholes like this bullhorn guy in their place.
Meanwhile, we have to tolerate three more months of this:
Agree with Bush- you get to have rights.
Disagree with Bush? Go fuck yourself.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Lynn Cheney's Secret Diary
August, 2004
Dear Diary,
Oh my, Dick finally got authorization from his cardiologists to take Viagra for his impotency problems.
As much as I've been dreading it, he appeared at my boudoir door with his bobbing member in hand the night John Kerry spoke to the American public.
Whilst my fantasies are of a strong young lass reading to me whilst I cross-stitch in the firelight, then spiriting me away to our bed of the finest chintz fabric, Dick had that gleam in his eye, the same gleam he had when he said to me one night 34 years ago, "Let's hunker down and make me a son, honeypot."
When I birthed not a son but instead little Mary, Dick was limp with disappointment. Sigh. I think that episode started his heart problems.
Now that he's a somewhat full man again, thanks to his friends at Pfizer, I cannot warm to his bear-like frame. And his four inch member may lack length, but the way it leans to the right still makes it an uncomfortable intrusion into my Sapphic tunnel of love.
But alack and alas, I did what I had to do.
I dimmed the firelight, thanks to our remote control dimmer switch made by Dick's friends at Futronix.
I removed my contact lenses that Dick's friends at Acuvue sent me. Then I asked Dick to don a dark wig, clipped into a pert bob that his friends at Monsanto sent us.
When he hovered over me, heavy with horn, and I squinted just right in the firedimmed light at his thin lips, he looked enough like k.d. lang to get my gal juices sufficiently damp.
It was then I allowed the rapture of our coupling to enfold me.
Within the three minutes Dick took to complete the act, I was at one with my faux k.d., and it was almost beautiful.
If only Dick hasn't insisted I chant, "Leahy, Leahy, Leahy" while he pistoned himself inside of me, the fantasy would have been complete.
...to be continued
August, 2004
Dear Diary,
Oh my, Dick finally got authorization from his cardiologists to take Viagra for his impotency problems.
As much as I've been dreading it, he appeared at my boudoir door with his bobbing member in hand the night John Kerry spoke to the American public.
Whilst my fantasies are of a strong young lass reading to me whilst I cross-stitch in the firelight, then spiriting me away to our bed of the finest chintz fabric, Dick had that gleam in his eye, the same gleam he had when he said to me one night 34 years ago, "Let's hunker down and make me a son, honeypot."
When I birthed not a son but instead little Mary, Dick was limp with disappointment. Sigh. I think that episode started his heart problems.
Now that he's a somewhat full man again, thanks to his friends at Pfizer, I cannot warm to his bear-like frame. And his four inch member may lack length, but the way it leans to the right still makes it an uncomfortable intrusion into my Sapphic tunnel of love.
But alack and alas, I did what I had to do.
I dimmed the firelight, thanks to our remote control dimmer switch made by Dick's friends at Futronix.
I removed my contact lenses that Dick's friends at Acuvue sent me. Then I asked Dick to don a dark wig, clipped into a pert bob that his friends at Monsanto sent us.
When he hovered over me, heavy with horn, and I squinted just right in the firedimmed light at his thin lips, he looked enough like k.d. lang to get my gal juices sufficiently damp.
It was then I allowed the rapture of our coupling to enfold me.
Within the three minutes Dick took to complete the act, I was at one with my faux k.d., and it was almost beautiful.
If only Dick hasn't insisted I chant, "Leahy, Leahy, Leahy" while he pistoned himself inside of me, the fantasy would have been complete.
...to be continued
Lesbian Soft Porn, Anyone?
"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave.
"The young woman was heavily powdered, but quite attractive, a curvesome creature, rounded at bosom and cheek. When she smiled, even her teeth seemed puffed and rounded, like tiny ivory pillows.
"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."
Authored by Mrs. Dick Cheney
from her novel "Sisters," published in 1981.
"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave.
"The young woman was heavily powdered, but quite attractive, a curvesome creature, rounded at bosom and cheek. When she smiled, even her teeth seemed puffed and rounded, like tiny ivory pillows.
"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."
Authored by Mrs. Dick Cheney
from her novel "Sisters," published in 1981.
Only Decent (aka: white) Americans Can Snap Dick's Pic?
Get a load of this!
Bush's reelection campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney.
A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist "probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president."
Allowed?
A spokesman for the president's reelection campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes.
"All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the vice president of the United States," the spokesman said.
When asked if it is the practice of the White House to ask for racial information or if the photographer, Mamta Popat, was singled out because of her name, the Bush spokesman repeated the previous line, verbatim.
Sort of like a robot.
When a legitimate staff photographer for a mainstream newspaper cannot be assured access to the vice president to do her job because of racial profiling, something has gone frighteningly awry with our national leadership.
This is how dictatorships are born.
This is not what America stands for, and we should not stand for four more years of this paranoid, xenophobic nonsense.
Get a load of this!
Bush's reelection campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney.
A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist "probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president."
Allowed?
A spokesman for the president's reelection campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes.
"All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the vice president of the United States," the spokesman said.
When asked if it is the practice of the White House to ask for racial information or if the photographer, Mamta Popat, was singled out because of her name, the Bush spokesman repeated the previous line, verbatim.
Sort of like a robot.
When a legitimate staff photographer for a mainstream newspaper cannot be assured access to the vice president to do her job because of racial profiling, something has gone frighteningly awry with our national leadership.
This is how dictatorships are born.
This is not what America stands for, and we should not stand for four more years of this paranoid, xenophobic nonsense.
The Pope Says: feminism weakens family and promotes homosexuality
From The Herald (Scotland)
"A damning critique of modern feminism from the Vatican yesterday was published with the blessing of Pope John Paul II. The 37-page document, On The Collaboration Of Men And Women In The Church And In The World, accuses the feminist revolution of “antagonism” and of creating a spirit of competition between men and women.
The Pope will send the report to every Catholic bishop in the world. It marks another move by the church to solidify traditional family life and Christian values."
If I were the Pope, I'd completely avoid mentioning the word homosexual.
Sure, plenty of priests are gay, but for the Catholic church, the word "homosexual" is too often connected with the word "pedophile."
Being gay is no crime, but being a pedophile is and should be a crime.
Rather that issuing edicts that shame and condemn women for not being docile and subservient enough to men, seems to me the Pope ought to cast his faltering eyesight toward his own flock of philandering, gay (and straight) kiddy rapists.
When a woman's feminism leads her toward homosexuality, there are no multi million dollar jury awards to her victims. There are no victims.
With some Roman Catholic churches having to declare bankruptcy due to the cost of litigation settlements arising over pedophilia verdicts against their priests, the Pope is in no position to judge anything ordinary adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms.
The Catholic church is suffering a decline in membership and hardships in recruiting clergy. Why? Because they are still operating with 19th century tenets, refusing to evolve.
The bishops lined up to take Pope JP's place once he dies are his proteges. None show a scintilla of promise in terms of bringing the church into the 21st century.
With dinosaurs, a failure to evolve resulted in extinction.
At the rate the church is going, the next Catholic pontiff may as well call himself Pope T Rex.
From The Herald (Scotland)
"A damning critique of modern feminism from the Vatican yesterday was published with the blessing of Pope John Paul II. The 37-page document, On The Collaboration Of Men And Women In The Church And In The World, accuses the feminist revolution of “antagonism” and of creating a spirit of competition between men and women.
The Pope will send the report to every Catholic bishop in the world. It marks another move by the church to solidify traditional family life and Christian values."
If I were the Pope, I'd completely avoid mentioning the word homosexual.
Sure, plenty of priests are gay, but for the Catholic church, the word "homosexual" is too often connected with the word "pedophile."
Being gay is no crime, but being a pedophile is and should be a crime.
Rather that issuing edicts that shame and condemn women for not being docile and subservient enough to men, seems to me the Pope ought to cast his faltering eyesight toward his own flock of philandering, gay (and straight) kiddy rapists.
When a woman's feminism leads her toward homosexuality, there are no multi million dollar jury awards to her victims. There are no victims.
With some Roman Catholic churches having to declare bankruptcy due to the cost of litigation settlements arising over pedophilia verdicts against their priests, the Pope is in no position to judge anything ordinary adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms.
The Catholic church is suffering a decline in membership and hardships in recruiting clergy. Why? Because they are still operating with 19th century tenets, refusing to evolve.
The bishops lined up to take Pope JP's place once he dies are his proteges. None show a scintilla of promise in terms of bringing the church into the 21st century.
With dinosaurs, a failure to evolve resulted in extinction.
At the rate the church is going, the next Catholic pontiff may as well call himself Pope T Rex.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
August: Bush Comes Out Fighting?
Holy cow, the news is blaring about Bush's $30 million August attack plans against Kerry.
In a New York Times article, I read, "Mr. Bush's advisers plan to cap the month at the Republican convention in New York, which they said would feature Mr. Kerry as an object of humor and calculated derision."
Whaaat?
Are these the same people who whined that the DNC convention had too much Bush bashing?
Now they are actually admitting they plan to goof on Kerry all month?
Are they kidding? America is at war! Is this really a time for 'humor and calculated derision'?
I have some idea for Bush: Rather than deriding your opponent with snippy remarks...
• Why don't you talk about your first term instead? Don't you have anything to brag about?
• Why don't you tell the voters why almost 50 American soldiers a month still are dying in Iraq?
• Why don't you explain the record multi trillion dollar budget deficit you dragged us into?
• Why don't you tell us the progress you've made tracking the treasonous White House staff member who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the media?
• Why don't you tell us how you're coming with the efforts to bring Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, to justice?
• Why don't you explain to us how the UN was irrelevant when you took us to war, then relevant once you saw you were in over your head in your "fight against terror"?
• Why don't you get straight with us about Americans being ordered to use sadistic torture against detainees at Gitmo, in Afghanistan and Iraq?
• Why don't you tell us all about that $10 billion you pledged to fight AIDS in Africa?
Does Bush really think these vital issues should be ignored in favor of playing Pin the Tail on the Democrat?
The idea that the Bush camp plans to poke fun at and deride Kerry all month is sickening at first glance.
But the good news is, research shows that approach leaves voters with a sour stomach.
That's why the Democrats in their convention tried to avoid the obvious targets of Bush's abysmal reign of terror and only mentioned his failed policies as a means to compare and contrast the two candidates.
The great part of the Bush plan to resort to put downs and wisecracks is this. When a stupid person tries to be funny, it usually fails. Wit and humor call for intellect, and Bush's fratboy humor is tedious at best.
But Bush does have some intelligent people on his staff.
But folks like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Rice doing humorous riffs against Kerry?
Yeah, I can hear the rimshots already from that group of delightfully witty raconteurs.
The best GOP joke so far?
They plan to squander $30 million this month on their comedy tour. Now that's a great way to sell a candidate who has nothing else to offer.
I say bring it on, dimwit.
Holy cow, the news is blaring about Bush's $30 million August attack plans against Kerry.
In a New York Times article, I read, "Mr. Bush's advisers plan to cap the month at the Republican convention in New York, which they said would feature Mr. Kerry as an object of humor and calculated derision."
Whaaat?
Are these the same people who whined that the DNC convention had too much Bush bashing?
Now they are actually admitting they plan to goof on Kerry all month?
Are they kidding? America is at war! Is this really a time for 'humor and calculated derision'?
I have some idea for Bush: Rather than deriding your opponent with snippy remarks...
• Why don't you talk about your first term instead? Don't you have anything to brag about?
• Why don't you tell the voters why almost 50 American soldiers a month still are dying in Iraq?
• Why don't you explain the record multi trillion dollar budget deficit you dragged us into?
• Why don't you tell us the progress you've made tracking the treasonous White House staff member who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the media?
• Why don't you tell us how you're coming with the efforts to bring Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, to justice?
• Why don't you explain to us how the UN was irrelevant when you took us to war, then relevant once you saw you were in over your head in your "fight against terror"?
• Why don't you get straight with us about Americans being ordered to use sadistic torture against detainees at Gitmo, in Afghanistan and Iraq?
• Why don't you tell us all about that $10 billion you pledged to fight AIDS in Africa?
Does Bush really think these vital issues should be ignored in favor of playing Pin the Tail on the Democrat?
The idea that the Bush camp plans to poke fun at and deride Kerry all month is sickening at first glance.
But the good news is, research shows that approach leaves voters with a sour stomach.
That's why the Democrats in their convention tried to avoid the obvious targets of Bush's abysmal reign of terror and only mentioned his failed policies as a means to compare and contrast the two candidates.
The great part of the Bush plan to resort to put downs and wisecracks is this. When a stupid person tries to be funny, it usually fails. Wit and humor call for intellect, and Bush's fratboy humor is tedious at best.
But Bush does have some intelligent people on his staff.
But folks like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Rice doing humorous riffs against Kerry?
Yeah, I can hear the rimshots already from that group of delightfully witty raconteurs.
The best GOP joke so far?
They plan to squander $30 million this month on their comedy tour. Now that's a great way to sell a candidate who has nothing else to offer.
I say bring it on, dimwit.
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