Excerpt
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

By Lee Iacocca
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Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less
build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are
not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to-as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey,America, wake up. These guys work for us.

Who Are These Guys, Anyway?

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them-or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation... [ Read More (1.9k in body) ]

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

"With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we're sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike," said Cheney on a visit to the John C. Stennis aircraft carrier off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a close U.S. ally.

Yes, we're saying, "look how incredibly stupid we are to put all of these huge boats in this little tiny bathtub for you to send zodiac suicide bomb boats and launch silkworm missiles at if we even twitch!"

Cheney warns Iran, assures allies on Gulf visit�|�Politics News�|�Reuters.com

Giving it just a tiny bit of thought it's very obvious to me what "Ax Ishmael" means.

It means:

"I am a crazy bastard who is about to go on a shooting spree, and since I am a crazy bastard I need to make up a cool name for myself which I will use when I send pictures to a mass-media outlet, and since I just made this cool new handle up on the spot and no one knows it's me, I'll need to write it on my arm in ink so they'll be able to tell it was me."

It's very simple.

The Meaning of 'Ax Ishmael'

(Okay so maybe this is not quite so current as all that)

I just found this out a few minutes ago, and figured other people might be interested in knowing about it.

Apparently, this past September 5th, Candyman (formerly of FBR, in the days of the Commodore 64) passed away of heart failure. (...unlike his "moving to Mexico" this is for real.)

Candyman was a genuinely nice guy, and possibly one of the most prolific pirates of the 80's. He "retired" long ago, but he will still be missed.

September 5th, 2006: Candyman (FBR) died.

Hilarious!

...with one 'l' even!

Osama Team Hunger Force - CollegeHumor video

Here's a link to the Google Calendar I put up for the Phreaknic 10 presentation schedule.

For those who are into iCal, there is also:
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/c70kpuqbtqvj904ki5hqmgot6g@group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Note that I will be updating the schedule as I hear of any changes/additions.

Phreaknic 10 Presentation Schedule

And finally tonight, a Special Comment about President Clinton’s interview. The headlines about them are, of course, entirely wrong. It is not essential that a past President, bullied and sandbagged by a monkey posing as a newscaster, finally lashed back.

It is not important that the current President’s "portable public chorus" has described his predecessor’s tone as "crazed."

Our tone should be crazed. The nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as Al-Qaeda; the nation’s "marketplace of ideas" is being poisoned, by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit. Nonetheless.

The headline is this: Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done, in five years. He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration.

"At least I tried," he said of his own efforts to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden. "That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried."

Thus in his supposed emeritus years, has Mr. Clinton taken forceful and triumphant action for honesty, and for us; action as vital and as courageous as any of his presidency; action as startling and as liberating, as any, by anyone, in these last five long years.

The Bush Administration did not try to get Osama Bin Laden before 9/11.

The Bush Administration ignored all the evidence gathered by its predecessors.

The Bush Administration did not understand the Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S."

The Bush Administration… did… not… try.—

Crooks and Liars » Olbermann’s Special Comment: Are YOURS the actions of a true American?

Patrick McFarland, one of the outspoken critics of Rob Levin (lilo of Freenode/PDPC) and someone incredibly hell-bent on turning Freenode/OFTC into a high-school-esqe popularity contest, has posted what I would consider to be a load of crap on his blog about Rob Levin's passing.

"I was critical of his actions at times when he was alive,"

Translation: I made unsubstantiated accusations of tax fraud, embezzlement, and worse against Rob Levin on a regular basis.

"I just hope that since he’s gone now, Freenode can continue on without him there to lead anymore. I may have not agreed with his choices, but I don’t think there are any people out there that could have brought Freenode this far."

I also find this hard to believe, considering how often McFarland made it appear that he felt that quite possibly, lilo was the worst thing to ever happen to Freenode, and that he was also accusing Rob of demolishing projects and services through foot dragging and politics.

Note also that the reek of untruth of this post is tailed by the "No comments" flag, meaning McFarland doesn't really want anyone to call him out on this... even though one of the other things he's been critical of lilo about was one of censorship.

Now, I also felt that Spinhome was a little farcical (C'mon, a winnebago to keep an IRC operator mobile? That's overkill on the level of venture capitalism.) but I certainly wasn't getting this bent out of shape about it, since there wasn't a whole lot of donating towards this going on. Perhaps one day Freenode would have become important enough that such a thing would be warranted (which might well have been about the time they hit the $310K-mark on donations), but this sort of thing tends to be self-regulating (people don't donate to projects they feel are stupid) and attacking PDPC and Levin in the manner McFarland was engaging in was nothing but juvenile.

In closing, I find it very odd that even with the disinhibiting factor of the Internet, people still find it necessary to say things they don't believe for a moment as "last respects". McFarland should have just left well enough alone rather than make a cheap last-minute bid to try to pretend that he wasn't being a knobgoblin to a competing project.

Patrick McFarland's spotty memory

Not a joke.

Steve Irwin, a.k.a. "The Crocodile Hunter" is dead, killed by a stingray barb through the chest.

Some of the news outlets are calling this a "freak accident", but only people who've never seen the man's show would think that.

'Crocodile Hunter' dead! 4RLY!

Somewhat similar to the (almost unnoticed for years) renaming of a bridge in TN to be the "General E. Lee" bridge, vandals have completely replaced a billboard with a large, professional looking display reading "KING OF JEWS" and "KING OF BEERS".

Strange vandals deface billboard with an amusing message