Presidential Bathing Beauties -- Round Two -- Dried up fruits and nuts

Candidate Gravel relaxes on the outdoor chaise lounge as candidate Tancredo attempts to "witness" before him.

This round of Presidential Bathing Beauties features Mike Gravel (D) and Tom Tancredo (R).

Who - Candidate Mike Gravel

Qualifications – Former Alaska state representative and US Senator for 12 years, left the Senate in ’81.

Platform – Would get all US troops out of Iraq within 120 days of taking office. Advocate of diplomatic approach to Syria and Iran. Wants to abolish the IRS and move to a national sales tax on goods and service and source carbon taxes for sources of air pollution. For the guest worker program, against the “war on drugs”.

What’s the deal? – Gravel is the clichéd “crazy old uncle” who shows up in the movies to add charm and humor to family get-togethers during the holidays. He’s cranky, funny, out on a limb and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

What in the hell sparked this man to run for the highest office in the land after being away from public service since 1981? Was it anger at the direction of this country? Was it a final and all consuming desire to try to save the country? Out of the blue he came and he’s been quite an interesting candidate, especially in the debates where the man lays down napalm on the podium and for the most part speaks the mind of the “average man”.

Trivia – Served in the Army Counter Intelligence Corp (1951-55) and has dyslexia. Couldn’t make that one up. Inserted over 4,000 pages of the famous “Pentagon Papers” into the Congressional Record.

Bathing Beauty Quals – None, absolutely none. This makes him the perfect candidate if the system was torn down and we were to rebuild from the ground up but fat chance in hell that is going to happen.

Can he get the nomination? – Only if he chooses me to be his running mate.

Can he become PotUS 44? – Not if he does choose me to be his running mate.

Conspiracy Theories? – The man is pretty steeped in 1960’s politics and seems to have an open mind at the ripe young age of 77. Chances are he would be able to talk a lot about events of the 60’s and how they tie in with the study of conspiracy theories. His experiences in the Intelligence Community would undoubtedly be an eye-opening subject were it broached, especially in light that he served in West Germany. I think he would be a fantastic interview subject on the Military-Industrial Complex.

Who – Candidate Tom Tancredo.

Qualifications – Colorado State Legislator, US Congress since 1999. Loves Jesus.

Platform – Hates abortion, loves Jesus. Hates rich people getting taxed, loves Jesus. Hates judges that “legislate from the bench”, loves Jesus. Hates lawsuits against medical malpractice, loves Jesus. Loves Jesus, hates atheist commie peaceniks that want us out of Iraq. Loves guns, loves Jesus. Did I mention he LOVES the Jesus?

What’s the deal? – He drank the Jesus Juice because it’s more holy than Kool Aid. Will say anything that he hopes and prays will get him into office. Hates government so very much that he wants to be a civil servant and continue to be a civil servant. Hates socialized health care so much that he’s willing to bring small business into the mix since illegal immigrants are the cause of all our health care woes, but he loves the health care plan that Congress has.

This man is so shameless in his pandering to the ignorant and sore of knees from praying that if someone told him he would win the office if he would only recreate the Passion Play, with real nails, in the Washington Mall, he’d ask, “Ten penny nails or spikes?”

Trivia – Tancredo was a College Republican who spoke publicly in support of the war in Vietnam, but told the draft classification Doctors that he had been “treated for depression”. He got a 1-Y deferment for his efforts and took a job teaching junior high school immediately afterward. I wonder if Tom thought Jesus would say he was depressed too?

Bathing Beauty Quals – Wants to bomb the hell out of Mecca because that’s what Jesus would do and God knows that Tom loves Jesus. Over-compensates for his shame at being a hawk in his head and a coward in his heart and inability to come to terms with that disparity by wanting to bomb the holy living fuck out of anyone who isn't as WASPy as he is.

Can he get the nomination? – Only if Jesus REALLY loves him.

Can he become PotUS 44? – Only if Jesus REALLY hates us.

Conspiracy Theories? – A full-blown, right wing, paranoid, Jesus freak; Tancredo’s head must be as full of conspiracy theory’s as a snakes den is full of the heebie jeebies. I peg Tancredo as a neo-anti-communist nut who still thinks the word “hippies” apply to any draft dodger who doesn’t stare back from his own mirror?

Most likely consults the seminal work of anti-communist conspiracy buffs, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” to this very day, looking for new angles on how those Godless Ruskies are still plotting to overthrow the US from within, just like that Godless Karl Marx said.

Summary – Fruits and nuts; that sums these two. Gravel being the old nut and Tancredo being the old fruit. No one can hate “teh ghey” like Tancredo does without feeling shame for a pecker or two that he might have sucked in his early hormonal days of adolescence, and not act like he does. Fruits and nuts are great in a bowl of cold cereal, not so great in positions of enormous power.

Presidential Bathing Beauties -- Round 1 -- The wide hips candidates.

Presidential Bathing Beauty hopefuls Duncan Hunter (R) and Chris Dodd (D) enjoying the view.



Who - Candidate Duncan Hunter

Qualifications – He’s a lawyer and has been in the House of Representatives since 1981.

Platform – Wants to amend the Constitution to define “personhood” at the moment of conception and make an amendment to define marriage as being between man and woman only. Believes in slashing taxes, slashing budgets (except DoD related budgets) and making sure the NEA doesn’t get a penny. Wants to build more border fencing, create a national employment verification system and reform birth right citizenship.

What’s the deal? – Seems to be parroting some of the neo-con and traditional GOP talking points (War on Terror, gays – bad / pro life - good) but appears to buck the trend on trade (one way street analogy). Right wing extremist “pundits” Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Michelle Malkin lust for him in that polemic sort of way. What a crazy 4 way that would make.

One of the things that has all but destroyed American manufacturing and crippled the financial prospects for the lower-middle class and working class in this country, is NAFTA. I give big props to Rep. Hunter for taking an anti-NAFTA stance. In the close bond between big business and big government, this is a stance that I understand can be a relationship killer for a politician.
In the shattered world of defining political leanings, Rep. Hunter is being labeled a “conservative” Republican vs. a “liberal” Republican (Giulliani, Huckabee). I just see him as being a cross between a Goldwater conservative (fiscal, trade), a Reagan Conservative (social, military) and a Moral Majority conservative (right to life, anti-gay). In other words, he’s a Gumbo Republican.

Trivia – Served in Vietnam for the 75th Ranger Regiment, 173rd Airborne as a First Louie, not a ring tapper either.

Bathing Beauty Quals – Give Pat Buchanan a Valium, or give 4 Valiums to Ron Paul, and you have summed up his Bathing Beaty qualifications. He can’t seem to express passion and serious ideas because he cannot elicit passion and seriousness. Good intentions, some good ideas but something seems “off” in his delivery. I have a feeling that if you sat with him, off the record and talked about issues he would be able to express, one-on-one what he believes in. I believe you could disagree with him and the discussion wouldn’t teeter from a wedge due to the differences.

Can he get the nomination? – Only if Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Michelle Malkin do a 3 way lez fest on pay-per view to raise campaign money.

Can he become PotUS 44? – Not if Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Michelle Malkin do a 3 way lez fest on pay-per view to raise campaign money.

Conspiracy Theories? – If you sat down with him, off the record, I have a feeling he would give you the blank stare if you asked his thoughts about conspiracy theories. I think he knows about them in a general sense, meaning he thinks they are kooky and theorists are kooks. “Next question.” Would be his response.



Who – Candidate Chris Dodd

Qualifications – A Lawyer and has served Congress since his election to the House of Representatives in 1975 and the Senate in 1980. 32 years in DC…holy Jesus, Dodd.

Platform – Parrots the end the war in Iraq line, but doesn’t define where troops will be “redeployed”. Talks the talk on energy but only offers tax incentives for consumers to buy new energy efficient cars. How about the working poor, for whom buying a Prius just isn’t an option? Follows the standard Roosevelt and Great Society beliefs on social issues.

What’s the deal? – Dodd is one of those unknown factors. He talks the talk on a lot of issues but his total number of years inside the Beltway seems to have worn off on him like it has John McCain. I think Dodd is politically savy and knows what lingo to throw out there. I just don’t think he can walk the walk, be a ball buster when it’s needed or pull people together when he needs to.

Trivia – 2nd generation Senator, his father was one of the prosecutors at the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal. Spent two years in the Peace Corp and six years in the Army Reserves and National Guard.

Bathing Beauty Quals – If this were the Miss America pageant, Dodd would be a 1940’s version of Miss Idaho or North Dakota; personable and nice and likable but not a lot of beauty or substance or depth. He’s a wide hips sorta politician. He chose a role (stereotypical social cause Democrat) and stuck with it instead of being a visionary. It’s a shame because with his background he could have easily become one.

Can he get the nomination? – Sure, if the rest of the Democrats jump out of the race.

Can he become PotUS 44? – Sure, if he runs un-opposed…across the board.

Conspiracy Theories? – I have a feeling if you sat down with him in a cabin out in the boonies of Connecticut and a case of beer, he’d laugh it up for a while with you. If there are any conspiracy theories that Dodd might have a thought over it would be the JFK assassination. I doubt if he would follow a single theory belief in the JFK assassination, he probably just believes “someone” was behind it all.


Summary - Bet good money on Dodd to spend another 3 decades in Congress. Bet good money on Hunter getting uber rich on a lobbyist salary when he decides it's time to call all those favors back home when he leaves office. Don't bet a penny that either man will have a shot in hell at becoming the next President...thank God for small miracles.

Item #1 on the Sonny-Do list -- Pray that the Razorbacks whup the Vols.

For years I thought we Georgians would never see a Governor as lazy as Joe Frank Harris. Governor Harris, while intending to do good things, couldn’t have gotten less done during his tenure in office even if he had slept 23 hours a day. Yes, his education reforms were positive at the time and we have the Georgia Dome, but that’s about it for Governor Harris’ legacy. Now we have a real malingerer residing in the Governor’s Mansion. Sonny Purdue’s mastery of laziness is so powerful that when I recently drove down West Paces Ferry Road, I had to pull into the shopping center at the intersection of Northside Drive and take a nap. It's as though simple geographic proximity to the Governor will induce a deep state of lazy bones.

Other than trying to sue the living shit out of the Army Corp of Engineers and giving us an idea of how high the IQ’s of the Governor’s of Alabama and Florida really are when compared to his, Sonny has done little more of late than schlump his way through a prayer vigil for rain. Instead of action and leadership, Sonny will bow his head and pray for rain. I guess it’s easier for him to ask God for rain than it is for him to lead the state through this crisis. Now don’t get me wrong, I may be a member of the Church of No Permanent Abode but I do have faith and I am not mocking prayer or believers. The thought of our Governor wasting his time in a glad-handing public display rather than addressing the problem and making hard choices is just too ripe for me to pass up.

If we get a big gulley washer and the reservoirs all over the southeast fill to the brim, does this mean Sonny has favored son status with the Almighty? If that is the case, why did Sonny wait so long before he prayed for rain? If the prayer thing backfires and the drought worsens, does this mean Sonny is on God’s bad side? Should the Governor pray for something more attainable? For instance, how about a loss by Tennessee this weekend and a UGA win over Auburn? Can he get more mileage by praying that McKay and Blank can shore up the offensive line?

I’ll be praying today. I won’t be praying for rain, I’ll be praying that these stupid elected officials like Sonny Perdue don’t flush the damn toilet that this country is sitting in. I’ll pray to see a PSA on TV, with a brown and sun scorched lawn in front of the Governor’s Mansion and our bald headed, chubby boy named Sonny telling all Georgians that we have to rethink how we use this finite and precious resource known as water. I’ll pray that Bonaire’s favorite son will not embarrass us more than he already has.

The skinheads have their foot in the door -- slam the door.

Sometimes memories can come back and seem so real that I can taste sweat and blood in my mouth or smell diesel fuel exhaust on a cold dark morning where any sound rings like it’s inside a glass bell. When it happens an event will come to me in flashes with brief moments of visual and tactile clarity. A flurry of movement and I’m on the ground, a brief moment where I can see a flattened beer can on the asphalt and I can hear the sound of air rush just before the big Doc Martins’ begin stomping me. Another flurry of movement and the sensation of being pummeled followed by a vision of the hair on the side of a young man’s hand, a young man no older than me, just before I sink my teeth into the fleshy part of his hand and the pinky. I feel the resistance of his flesh and with the next two kicks I feel my teeth sink and embed deeply into his hand. Once my teeth have solid bone between them, I smell copper and then remember a flurry of arms and wails as I let go and they leave me under a bright and noisy light.

I remember lying on the ground with two sharp pains in my chest and side. One sharp pain when I inhaled and one when I exhaled, two pains with every breath. Each time I breathed I could feel the sensation of my breath being taken away by the pain. It felt like my side was cut open, but it wasn’t; it was the two freshly cracked ribs scraping flesh and muscle from the inside. I could see my breath and hear the idle of a garbage truck in front of the dumpster behind a business. The diesel smelled comforting to me, almost as sweet as honeysuckle, the diesel meant someone sane was there to help me. An older black man, older for me anyway since I was only 20 and he looked to be in his late 40’s, leaned in and asked if I was okay. His truck scared them away and from his cab and headlights he saw the final moments of my beat down. A half hour later I was in an ambulance and a few hours later I would be in a white duty van, being taken back to the ship with lots of questions awaiting from the duty officer when I arrived.

Yes, I remember skinheads.

They never went away, folks. They have always been with us; the last 6 years of xenophobia and Muslim hate have brought them converts. Now they feel emboldened and they are coming soon to a political rally near you. Stormfront, Aryan Nations and White Supremacists of all stripes are on their way to infiltrate and stand behind Presidential candidate Ron Paul. For the first time since Ross Perot ran for the office in 1992, we have a major not-by-the-books candidate, one that has something Perot never had; experience with the machine of Washington politics, and he’s gaining steam. The problem is the skinheads are out to wreck the party with their support.

It’s easy to say, “Well, I’m not racist and I don’t prescribe to their beliefs and supporting Ron Paul doesn’t mean I’m one of them or support them.” That sounds good but the truth is when you find common ground with groups of extremists as fucked up as the skinheads, it’s time to break that common ground and push the freaks to the gutter where they belong. It’s time for Ron Paul, and more to the point the Ron Paul supporters, to tell the neo-Nazis to go fuck themselves under threat of beating the holy living fuck out of every last one of them. I’m not a violent man, but I am all for beating skinheads shitless.

My experiences with these inbred shitheads were two fold. One was that they loved to show up at punk shows to see if there were any “easy pickings”. Easy pickings were either confused kids that were vulnerable to their recruitment. The other was people they could fight with. I had many physical scrapes with them over the years and only once, the experience I opened this post with, did they do real damage to me. The other area where I saw them was with the Klan. On more than one occasion did I run into Klansmen who were out doing their thing in packs, like wolves. Both the skinheads and the Klansmen have one thing in common. If their numbers aren’t good at the moment, they turn into pussies and won’t dare say shit even if they have guns or knives. Once they see they have the numerical and size upper hand, they’ll start the taunt and the beat down always follows the taunt. It’s like the playground in the 3rd grade on steroids with roid rage involved.

I’m not a large man; I stand all of 5’ 7” and weighed about 150 lbs back in the day, all of it muscle. But I have always “looked” like I can handle myself, which I can, and when they saw the discolored calluses on the ridge of my knuckles back then they looked at me differently, they assessed the situation and my skills more seriously. They always knew I was more trouble than was worth it unless they had a numerical advantage over me.

In the worst beat down I ever had in my life, I was surrounded by three of them, when I was alone and stranded after seeing a Minor Threat show. My old Dodge pickup died as I was leaving and I was forced to walk all the way back to the ship. I knew I was in trouble when I heard a low idling sedan cruising up behind me and low hushed voices inside the car. I stopped, stood my ground and in the end the fuckers might have sent me to the hospital but I can at least guarantee that some dumbass, if he’s still alive, has a God-awful scar and some nerve damage in his good hand, thanks to me. Wasn’t worth it, was it you fuckers? I got my licks in too.

The skinhead movement wants to prey on our frustrations with everything. They want to take advantage that we are frustrated by the lack of action by our government when it comes to immigration and border security. The longer it goes unchecked and the more angry we feel, the better the conditions are so they can start busting skulls unfettered and uncriticized by the good people of America. They want us to become so tired of the bullshit being done to our government that we are willing to jump on the same bandwagon as them when it comes to supporting a Presidential candidate. I’m not going to act all buddy-buddy with those fuckers and I hope you will shun them and point them out for the racist scum they really are.

The White Supremacist and Christian Identity movements have desperately wanted to be viewed in a more mainstream way for a long time. The conditions in this country have gone so far in the toilet that good people are now willing to lie in bed with a bunch of flea ridden shitheads just to get some change out of their government. Folks, if you lie with dogs, you will wake up with fleas. Don’t let the skinheads have a peek at the inside of the mainstream. Shoot them down and expose them whenever you get the chance.

To any skinheads out there who don’t like this post; go fuck yourselves. Fuck the Goddamn skinheads and fuck their bullshit ideas.

Oil, food, money and the dope addled brains of the GOP.

To make 1 gallon of gasoline you need to start with 2.15 gallons of crude oil.

Under optimal conditions it takes approximately 1.24 gallons of fuel to perform a single farming task on 1 acre of land.

You can make 230 gallons of ethanol per acre of corn.

Most bio-diesel made in the United States comes from soybeans, which yields only 70.13 gallons per acre.

The average steer produces 568 lb of beef.

To produce 1 lb of beef it requires between 2.6 lb to 16 lb (depending on data source) of feed.

A 1200 lb steer, from which 568 lb of beef is harvested, requires between 13.83 and 284 (depending on data source) gallons of oil.

Soybeans cost $10 per bushel, up from $7 per bushel in January of this year.

Corn costs $3.50 per bushel, up from $2.00 per bushel two years ago.

A bushel of wheat now costs $9.50, up from $5.00 per bushel in January.

A recent study in Montana shows that for a single adult the minimum living wage needed without asking for public assistance is $10.32 an hour, $20.97 for a single adult with two children. 40% of all job openings in the state pay less than $10.32 per hour. The study also found that the state’s median wage has risen by 9.1% since 2002 but the cost of health care has risen by 44% and the overall cost of living has shot up 19.7%.

Of the 56 counties in Montana, 46 have an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile. In Chicago the population density is 12,000 people per square mile, average. In 2006, the City Council of Chicago attempted to enact a Living Wage Law, which would have required all employers to provide its employees with pay that would at least equal the minimum living wage for the city.

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2006 earnings dropped 1% and for the third straight year earnings lagged behind inflation. The number of uninsured Americans also increased in 2006 by a total of 2.2 million.

In yesterday’s GOP debate, candidate Fred Thompson said things look “rosy” when asked to describe the economic state of affairs in America today and "We have the second-highest corporate tax penalty in the world. We need to do better than that.” Rudy Guiliani said, "The possibilities for America in this global economy are endless”. Mitt Romney said, "It's inexcusable that Michigan is undergoing a one-state recession, that the rest of the country is growing”.

National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found in 2001 that more than 4.6 million Americans--a much higher number of individuals in need of professional help than had previously been thought--did not recognize their problem and were “in denial”.

The question is—will someone do an intervention for the Republican candidates about the economy and it’s effects on 90% of the American public?

Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Jesus Party!

Coming soon to a ballot in your district, The Jesus Party. I can easily see this happening following the comments by James “The Dachshund Beater (http://www.nospank.net/dugan.htm) Dobson; that he will back a third party candidate if the Republican Party doesn’t pick someone who is, “conservative enough.” Talk about balls.

I think it’s time for the radical religious freaks to form their own political party, the Jesus Party. Where free spirits and those who live life without lies or shame are called heathens and are cursed. It’s time to put the extremists in a position where every American can see just how fucked in the head some of our worst fellow citizens are. No reason to pussyfoot around and pretend to be a “compassionate conservative”, just show the world how full of hate and contempt you really are. The rest of us can see what those folks are really all about and make some serious choices.

The current crop of 4th tier bathing beauties who are running for President are too afraid of telling hard truths and making hard choices. The Congress is locked in it’s own paralysis of doing the right things for fear of being branded as one thing or another. They are afraid of the consequences. The consequences being the loss of their cushy job in DC and that fear is something that shouldn’t be a part of the job because we all know those lobbyist positions are lined up after a career in politics. We need men and women to make the hard choices and say the things that have to be said to get us on the right track. Instead they’ll talk the talk that they believe is the talk we want to hear.

There was a time, even in the small north Georgia town I grew up in, that getting a bit too full of the Holy Spirit would bring about the response of the common sense most of us have. There was a time that we did not suffer fools gladly and it was encouraged to call things exactly as they appear to be. The fundamentalists had a side role in local politics and social issues, the role of the lunatic fringe. This was the case up until the early and mid 80’s. What precipitated this change from sanity to all-out goofiness? The fear of satanic forces.

Starting with the whole back masking phenomenon in the early 80’s I saw the attitudes in my small town change. First it was the satanic influences upon the young with rock music. Then they added the “epidemic” of drugs and they brought it full circle in the early 90’s with fear of the Clintons and the supposed hidden agenda of one-world secularism. As if the whole scene weren’t enough, my little hometown newspaper began operating a program where they asked the local citizens to rat each other out over who was selling drugs. Honest to God, they instilled fear into the citizens and then asked readers to send in their reports of suspicious activity to the newspaper, which would be forwarded to the local law enforcement authorities. The editor of the paper at that time was a former aid to radical right wing Congressman, Larry McDonald.

How did they frighten and change the minds of these simple country folks who had always maintained country smarts? Fear of everything that sits on the other side of the mountain and fear of it invading and taking over their small town, that’s how they did it. In a town like I came from, there are two mountains that separated us from the rest of the world. Nothing good or positive happened on the other side of those two mountains. To add to it, one mountain was where the drug dealers had their crops and the other housed devil worshipers. I am serious.

Lookout Mountain was where, according to rumor, pot growers had clandestine fields of dope, guarded by men with hunting rifles and woe to anyone who happened upon them. The other mountain was where two Satanists lived in their estate named Corpsewood (http://theconspiratorsnest.blogspot.com/2007/04/from-archives-look-back-at-corpsewood.html) . The mountains were more than just geological boundaries for the community; they became symbolic of barriers to keep the rest of the world at bay.

This is was a microcosm of the path we as a nation have gone down in the past 6 years. Fear of anything beyond the boundaries of our coastal areas and fear of anything beyond the borders that separated the countries we are sandwiched between. Everything on the other side is evil and satanic and we are constantly being infiltrated by demonic forces that threaten us.

In many ways, the field of Conspiracy Theory studies is similar to this phenomenon. We, the CT enthusiasts, are constantly trying to warn everyone else of the dangers we see. Dangers being guided by unseen forces, forces of evil. The problem with both CT studies and extremists religious causes is that far too often we both go into extremely radical territory. I myself understand that I have ideas that stray into the fantastic. However, there is a difference between the two groups. The radicalized religious want to alter the way we all live. They wish to enforce their beliefs upon all of us. The conspiracy theorists only want to broaden their, and your, horizons and expose the false idols around us.

It is easy to see the far religious right wishing to enslave all of us while the conspiracy theorists are trying to free us by exposing the plots. What is most surprising to me in this process is how many conspiracy theorists wind up like Texe Marrs and become caught in anti-Semitism and I really believe there is a trigger point which starts this conversion. Once they head down the “Jewish conspiracy” path there is rarely an outcome other than far right-wing political extremism.

So let’s all cheer for the formation of the Jesus Party. Perception and reality, ideaology and truth rarely meet in the center. Sooner or later the far right-wing of this country will need to show their true colors, on full display for all to see. After all, if you are going to be a full blown fascist you might as well wear the t-shirt that shows you were there for the party.

60 Minutes interview with Iranian President Ahmadinejad -- Black propaganda in its most obvious form.

Is CBS correspondent Scott Pelley jonesing for a job at Faux News? Or is he simply trying to out-Stossel John Stossel? After viewing Pelley’s interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last night I was thrown aback at several comments made by Pelley and the overall effect of the Neo-Con puff piece. I even wondered which White House flunky was given the task of briefing Pelley before his trip to Tehran.

The propaganda of Pelley’s interview was in plain view, complete with faux outrage and the Neo-Con talking points showing themselves at various points. The aggressive tone of Pelley at times made me wonder out loud, “Would Pelley have the balls to be this direct with his own President, or would he just cave and kiss his ass?” What is more frightening to me than Iran’s nuclear intentions or Pelley’s lapdog story is how many people may have watched the interview and not recognized the black propaganda at work.

At one point Ahmadinejad appears to recognize the tactics of Pelley as being propaganda and he jabs back at him by equating his questions and tone with the work of the CIA. It’s foolish and naive to think that the Agency would not be interested in talking with Pelley or his crew after their return to the states, or to see the raw tape of their trip. With this in mind it’s interesting to note his sly smile and measured pacing of his responses and the comments themselves.

I’m not going to put my head in the sand and declare Ahmadinejad an innocent because he is not an innocent. This man is a carbon copy of our own President. Both are radical extremists with no conscience and they manipulate religious extremists into following their dangerous, hateful example. Neither man will be satisfied until the world is engulfed in flames.

What is depressing about the Pelley piece is the way it highlights the continual slide our Fourth Estate makes as it toes the corporate line; and the loss of insight that we cannot gain because our press stays on topic to suit the politicians and corporations and their agenda. At one point Pelley has the gall to tell the Iranian President, “I am just a reporter. I am a simple average American reporter.”

No Mr. Pelley, you are not just a simple average American reporter. I’m sure that if we compared your yearly salary with 95% of the American press corp we would see that you aren’t average. You would be in the financial elite of the class. As for proclaiming yourself as simple, please spare all of us the ridiculous self-depreciation. Show me a talking head who is not self-obsessed and far too complicated and I’ll show you a talking head who works the news in Chattanooga or Sioux Falls or a Class II or III or IV market.

Even Satan hates developers and McMansion dwellers

Greased palms keep the gears of capitalism turning and all of us know that. To think otherwise, that big political donations don’t have a positive effect for the givers of such contributions, is foolish, deceitful and naive. Does big business give money away to politicians as though they were charity, just to be nice? No, they do not. Do they do it simply because they “like” someone’s political stance? No, they do not. They do it to buy favor even if favors are not explicitly promised since such a promise would make the contribution a bribe and illegal.

We rarely get to see this process exposed to the light of day. Even with campaign laws written so that we can search for political contributions, sometimes online, we rarely look to see who is giving money to whom. I fall into that category as well, and when I have searched I mostly do not recognize the names of the contributors. Occasionally our media will expose some of this and we are left to consider the ramifications. Today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a story that lays out how a major developer is greasing the palms of DeKalb county officials to get what they want.

I cannot say these county officials have taken bribes by the developer, but I can say that this smells fishy and the appearance of improper conditions for campaign contributions are the first thing I think of. Can they really maintain integrity and an unbiased view when they vote for this thing? I can’t say that the developer has given them bribes, but I will say that it certainly smells fishy to me that a Florida based developer, who is facing a major downturn in the Florida real estate market, would donate thousands upon thousands of dollars to county officials in DeKalb County, Georgia; who just happen to hold the yes or no vote on a project that will make millions for them and contribute nothing positive to the quality of life in the area they wish to redevelop. It will in fact turn an already busy and thriving area, which suffers from horrible traffic gridlock, into an even larger traffic nightmare and it will destroy and transform yet another former suburban district into the new Mecca for the greedy and tasteless of Atlanta.

The North Druid Hills corridor that they wish to redevelop is an area I am highly familiar with, in fact I will be moving back to Decatur in a few weeks, away from the worst mistake I ever made which was moving to Sandy Springs in 2002. I will in fact be living on North Druid Hills Road, and their project will indeed effect me. I am intimately familiar with the area targeted for redevelopment and I already have a major experience dealing with a similar development to which is planned by the Sembler Co.

I live a little more than a mile from the Perimeter Place development in Dunwoody and that development has totally fucked the area in terms of traffic and quality of life. Before that development was begun, driving through the connector roads that slice across the northern side of Perimeter was the perfect means of getting around the plug of traffic associated with the mall and the many office towers that are clustered in the area. Now the area is hopelessly plugged with traffic, the task of running errands is useless, as the development has created a third bottleneck for the flow of traffic. The other bottlenecks are the location and heavy traffic of Perimeter Mall and the layout of the cross connecting roads themselves as they were designed in an “S” shape for their entire length and not as straight thoroughfares.

The Perimeter Place development will be nothing when compared to the monstrosity that is planned for the area between I-85 and Briarcliff on North Druid Hills Road. The Sembler development will destroy affordable housing in the form of apartments on Briarcliff. Affordably priced apartments within a few mile radius of the development will suddenly become “fashionable” and the average working man and woman will have to move to yet another affordable apartment complex. The neighborhoods of the area, which have been shattered by the trashy infill buyers and developers will finally be ruined as the last of the greedy with no tastes will want to scoop up the remaining ranch house properties to make them McMansion hell.

Sembler will in effect, destroy the final vestiges of a neighborhood and a district all for their profit. The average citizen is being chased away by greedy and tasteless fucks who have a shitload of money and absolutely no common sense, human decency or good taste. Sembler is not interested in the common good for the citizens of DeKalb County, it is not interested in the community itself and it is not interested in the long-term quality of life for the residents of DeKalb County. Sembler is only concerned with one fucking thing, making a bigger pile of cash and fuck anyone who stands in their way.

Sembler has no interest in the fair and honest workings of the local government, they do not give a shit who takes their money all they want is for those who accept their money to vote in their favor. Sembler is the epitome of what is fucking wrong in this country as whole, the greedy want more and the average citizen who is in their way gets trampled over and to ease their way through the system they give fucking cold hard cash to politicians as their means of exercising their first amendment rights.

If DeKalb County officials allow this travesty to happen, we can say without doubt that mere trinkets and baubles distracted them into selling the rest of us out; and the price was just a few grand. I wonder how easy it is for the Sembler execs to blow through the same amount of money that they have already donated to the Dekalb officials. Their monthly greens fees are probably cost more than what they slid into the pockets of these officials.

The Conspiracy Theory "Fear" chart

Click on the chart to get a good idea of where I stand on believing in what we should be afraid of from my Conspiracy Theory centric worldview. For an explanation, I rate these items on what we should be afraid of and what we should not be afaraid of when weighed against what is a rational belief vs. what is an irrational belief.

Senator Craig pulls the Three Stooges Victim of Circumstance defense...out of thin air!

Idaho Senator Larry Craig has taken a new and bizarre defense of his misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for playing a round of party time footsie in a Minneapolis airport last June. His new strategy? The Three Stooges Victim of Circumstance defense. Unlike the Stooges, in particular, Curly; Larry Craig is a US Senator and the victim of circumstance (ignorance?) shouldn’t be a defense. Ignorance may be a partial requirement for US Senators but that only applies to cooked pre-Iraq war intelligence.

I guess ole’ Larry boy’s denial runs deeper than the Marianas Trench otherwise he would have done the Ted Haggard defense and checked himself into one of those homosexual rehab joints that claims to cure men of the gay. Is he so afraid of his true nature that he would rather drag this out in full view of the American public than to admit he’s gay? Or is he so addicted to the power and money grabbing position of upper echelon politics that he can’t let it go without one final desperate and pathetic attempt to hold onto his position, lobbyist money and beard?

I have a feeling that if he fights this the kiss and tell partners he has met will come out of the woodwork, one has already given details of an encounter they had at a train station. I can’t help but wonder if Sen. Craig is one of the politicians that pornographer Larry Flynt has gotten the goods on? If so I hope Flynt floats what he knows to the public.

In cases like this it is easy, I am afraid, to get an impression that there is a certain amount of gay-bashing and homophobia involved with my comments. I want to clarify that I have no concern what a man or woman does for sexual pleasure as long as it’s between fully consenting adults and none of the participants walk on hooves or paws. I may not get off on what someone else gets off on but hey, that’s the way the rubber gag ball bounces.

In Craig’s case my anger and frustration hit on several levels. One is that we should all understand that if a person in power exploits their sexual preferences yet hides them out of fear or shame, they open themselves up to blackmail. Sen. Craig was fully open to blackmail because of these two known sexual encounters with men in public places. In Craig’s case he also voted against the civil rights of homosexual Americans all the while he was engaging in homosexual sex. Sen. Craig claimed to be a fully heterosexual man with a family and derided the members of the homosexual community who wanted to start their own family, with the person they loved and were willing to commit for life to.

Sen. Craig isn’t a sad victim of “circumstance”, he is a lying, degenerate, hateful, ignorant old fuck who needs to go away and stay away. Hypocritical fucks like him do not deserve the honor and privledge of serving the people of this country and the state of Idaho. Sen. Craig needs to stop getting his excuses from the Three Stooges.

Sociopath Tuesday! Politicians, athletes and the big toe of Big Brother!

There is simply too much going on right now to pick a single subject. Within the last 24 hours there has been the resignation of AG Alberto Gonzalez, another senior GOP Senator has been thrust into a sex scandal, Michael Vick apologists have been in over drive and there has been a curious media blackout regarding the murder of the former leader of the GOP in Georgia. It’s just too much to digest and sift through in one sitting.

AG Gonzalez, the man who never met a spy program he didn’t love, will be trying to outrun possible perjury charges for lying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Of course the Democrats will capitulate and not seek those charges, nor will they ever seek to bring to justice the liars and un-American bastards who have led our nation into a deep, dark sewer over the past 6 years. Gonzo will head back to Texas with the blessings of his President after a brief tenure as the head of the Justice Department and a history that will show him to have been the most destructive and least protective AG in the history of that cabinet position.

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho once again shows me that maybe the really wild sex fiends are the members of the Republican Party. I have no problem with the homosexual community, gays and lesbians are just regular folks trying to get by and live their lives too, in my eyes. I feel sorry for closeted gays who cannot tell the world how they really feel. However, I have no sympathy or patience for a hypocrite like Craig, who maligns and demonizes the gay community, all the while he is looking for kinky public sex in an airport. If Sen. Craig were to just come out and tell us that he does indeed suck dick and he was wrong for demonizing the gay culture and wrong for repressing his true sexuality, I’ll jump on the man’s bandwagon and back him 100%. Instead we get another bullshit lie that his toilet stance is a bit “wide legged”.

Speaking of lies, Michael Vick, the disgraced former star athlete is now getting the coddling he so desperately wanted all because he finally admits his guilt for torturing animals for the sheer pleasure of it. Hey Vick, I forgive you since you admit that you did it. Now, how about working on atoning for your cruelty and show us some action instead of words on how you will re-enter society as a normal human being. It’s not simply enough to say I’m sorry. You have to do a little more than that. I’m sorry only works when a 5-year-old get’s caught sneaking cookies out of the jar.

It’s was not “immature” what you did to those dogs, as you so innocently described it, it was inhuman, vicious and anti-social. MV7, I hope you realize that psychologists have found a link between children who torture animals and serial killers. Prove to us that you can contribute to society instead of producing more pain and suffering like you did and then we can start talking about you taking snaps again. You have a serious mental condition to not see the torture of animals to be disturbed behavior. To the apologists, leave the man’s dick alone and stop sucking it like it was candy. He fucked up and all the excuses you can muster do not make it all right. It’s not about race and it’s not about the victims being “just dogs” and it’s not about other crimes not being hotly prosecuted by the feds. It is about acceptable behavior in a civilized society. If you find nothing wrong with his actions or still believe in him regardless of what he has confessed to; please seek psychiatric help. You have a serious sociopath condition and need medical attention.

As for the murder of the former head of the Georgia GOP, Raphael Gonzalez, it’s difficult to gauge what did happen and the cause. Gonzalez was murdered along with another man in a 3-person murder suicide down in Orange County Florida. Even the Atlanta media has been tight lipped about this and only trickles of info have come out. What is known is that Gonzalez and the other victim were roommates in a house that was owned by Gonzalez. The killer was a former roommate and Marine, who took his own life after murdering them.

Strange tidings on this Tuesday morning. Sometimes there is too much for your paranoid blogger to fully comprehend and write about. I’m sure my ADD and OCD predisposition do not help.

"Big Brother is helping." - Eldrin fucking Bell is still an idiot par excellence

(NOTE: For folks looking for my comments on the latest news about Big Brother's Little Helper, Eldrin fuckin' Bell; here is the link: http://theconspiratorsnest.blogspot.com/2008/07/titties-guns-and-butts-county-eldrin.html )

If this doesn’t just take the cake. Twice in one week we have seen metropolitan Atlanta officials thumbing their noses at any thought of civil liberties for its citizens. First it was the idea of controlling the masses by restricting the style of clothing a person can wear, now we have former Atlanta Chief of Police Eldrin Bell wanting to do mass background checks on it’s citizens by demanding all landlords in Clayton county turn over the lease agreements with their renters to the county.

Bell argues that an unsavory population has been dumped on Clayton County by the Atlanta Housing Authority and in an attempt to clean up the streets he wants to basically spy on every single house and apartment renter in Clayton County to see who is living there, under what conditions and report back to the landlord whether their renter has been naughty or nice. For those not from Atlanta, if you have ever traveled to the Atlanta airport, Clayton County is the area immediately south of the airport. If you could roll down the window next to your seat and chuck an empty Coke bottle, you’d be tossing it into Clayton County.

Bell’s comments on this are actually terrifying, "This is not to say Big Brother is watching," he insisted. "It says Big Brother is helping." The folks in Clayton county need to seriously address the lunatic ramblings of Bell and get his ass out of office. Don’t say you had no idea he was a nut, you all watched him on the evening news for years when he was the Atlanta Police Chief. Bell’s desire is proof positive that bastards who wield power are never satisfied until they have probed and prodded every single corner of control. There is only one distinction between dictators, are they large or are they small?

Will someone down in Clayton County please take the bottle away from the lips of Eldrin Bell, I think he is drunk enough with the power and doesn’t need more.

The Oral Majority

I wonder if I am limiting my sexual enjoyment by only having sex with free spirited liberal leaning women? It seems that tough talking manly men in the Republican party are pretty adept at giving head based on current events. Should I stop chasing the wild east Atlanta bohemian women and start focusing on the guys wearing Brooks Brothers suits who haunt the state capitol?

Florida State House Rep. Bob Allen got busted last month for soliciting oral sex from “a pretty stocky black guy” in a public park restroom late one evening in July, for $20. The “stocky black guy” turned out to be an undercover cop and wham-o, Allen got hauled off to the pokey (no pun intended) for a little Q&A at the Broward County jail. Hmmm…even as a straight man I’ve always heard about these so-called cruising spots. Allen must have thought he was at Hartsfield-Jackson.

For Allen’s defense he says he was in no way at the park looking to give a quick, public BJ to settle his lustful little right wing heart. No, he says he was all askeered of the big scary black man and offered to give this man $20 to suck his hoo haa just to keep himself from being a “statistic”. You know, I’ve felt very nervous and unsafe in certain locations and times around Atlanta over the years. Defusing the situation by paying to give a dangerous looking man a wet sloppy hummer was the last thing I thought of doing.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-allentape0307aug03,0,1892734.story?coll=orl_tab01_layout

If that weren’t enough, the National Federation Chair of the Young Republicans, Glenn Murphy, has resigned his position after police reports have surfaced that accuse him of giving an unwelcome blow job to a young man while he slept. Ya know, I’ve woken up to the wonderful sensation of oral pleasure being performed on me while I was asleep on many occasions. Of course, it was being done by a Birkenstock wearing hippie chick who was being extra nice to this paranoid bugger with her reckless sexual abandon.

http://www.takingdownwords.com/taking_down_words/files/glennmurphy.pdf

What is it with these uptight, gay bashing, family values sort of Republicans giving BJs away like they are candy? Hell, they are even paying to give oral pleasure. No woman even gave me so much as a nickel if I let her go down. Maybe these moral high road fellas are onto something very progressive and forward thinking? Do Republican women act this way too?

Good Lord, have I been making a mistake for all these years by sharing my bed only with wild liberal women? Are the Republican women little sexual hell cats, who’s wiles are so great that they can drive 100% hetero dudes into paying strangers to give juicy oral action in public men’s rooms and on unsuspecting Young Republicans while they doze away? What sort of sexual pixie dust are these people sprinkling?

Romney-Vision!

Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has created a new philosophical tenant with his claim that his sons are showing their support for American servicemen by traveling across the nation helping him to get elected. Honestly, this is the most brilliant philosophical stance I have ever heard. I think I will base the foundation of my life on it. For example:

From this day forward I will my support for the poor and under-privileged of America by buying top of the line designer clothing. Looking sharply dressed will inspire them to get themselves together.

I will show support for the Iraq war by setting fire to 10 additional gallons of gasoline a week. I’ll simply burn the gas in a pit.

I will show my support for global warming initiatives by leaving the doors open to my refrigerator. This will cool the planet.

I will show my support for the health insurance industry by quitting smoking. I will switch to chewing tobacco instead.

I will show my support for the 1st amendment by telling anyone with a differing opinion to shut the fuck up. Some folks waste freedoms and don’t deserve what they get.

I will show my support for free trade and the global economy by buying 2 tons of imported Chinese wheat gluten and making dog food out of it. Any problems that occur afterward are just road bumps of capitalism and the only victims in a free market are those without a plan.

Wow. I feel better now that I have a new direction in life. Who knew that justifying selfish stances could be so liberating?

Give me vacation or give me death

The trick of getting what you want, it seems, is to simply threaten Congress that you’ll take away their vacation time and you can get anything you want. Over the weekend sweeping new powers were given to our Dictator in Chief after he threatened to take the T-Bird away and make the politicos stay inside the beltway until he got what he wanted. What did he get? Power that had so far eluded him is now fully in his grasp and what was once illegal is now legal. The President can authorize spying on Americans without a court order simply if the American in question is “reasonably believed” to be communicating with someone outside the United States.

If you demystify the wording, you and I could be defined as “reasonably believed” to be communicating with people outside the US simply because we have Internet access, which makes communication with people around the world instantaneous and secretive in nature. It doesn’t matter if you are or are not communicating with someone in another country, you have the means to do it and that is all they really need to know to place you under surveillance.

The Democrats and the Republicans have sold us out for less than beans. They sold us out for some down time with the family and a chance to hit the fundraising circuit. They sold us out so they can get afternoon catnaps and consolidate power and money at fundraising engagements with fat cat businessmen and greedy bastards who’s souls are corrupted by money and power. The average American is no longer a cog in the wheels of American society; we are only the grease that lubricates the gears of money making.

As John Lydon once said so famously, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”

The paranoid voting segment -- vastly underrated

After giving it some deep thought it's time I threw my hat in the ring and run for public office. It's not like I can screw things up worse than they already are. I'm going to live up to the standards of our current leaders:

I'll be as sexually pure and unblemished as Senator Vitter.

I'll be as fiscally responsible as Senator Stephens.

I'll be a responsible drinker, like Georgia representative Ben Harbin.

I'll lead with rock steady certainty like Senator McCain.

Our Governor, the charity case

Talk about creative interpretation. The AJC is reporting today that the Ethics in Government Group has filed a complaint with the state ethics committee regarding our Governor’s donation of campaign funds to his personal PAC. The PAC, Perdue PAC, was apparently setup last month as a nonprofit entity and state laws allow a political campaign to donate leftover election funds to nonprofits, other candidates or political parties.

To the tune of over $750,000.00 our Governor is sliding funds around in a nonprofit that was setup to “push his agenda”, according to the AJC. Hmm, the Governor needs ¾ of a million dollars to push his agenda? The weight of the office itself doesn’t give the Governor a leg-up on the competition? He needs a fleet of wheelbarrows full of cold hard cash to get the job done? This is just a flagrant flaunting of power and money in the faces of Georgia citizens.

I believe I can add something to our Governor’s “Sonny do” list, how about knocking off the shit for a change, Sonny?

Which bottle do politicans suck from?

One thing you can never underestimate about politicians is their inflated sense of self and the thin skin which covers that ego. The Speaker of the House here in Georgia has come up with a doozy. In a press conference earlier this week, Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson had this to say about bloggers,

“Those dadgum blog sites. You know what I predict is going
to happen? I predict somebody’s going to sue one of those site domains for
slander, and somebody’s going to get hit with a big suit because there’s no
accountability, and they say and do things about people that are blatantly
false.

“If y’all did, you’d get sued in a New York minute ... Somebody’s going
to sue ‘em and hit ‘em with enough money ... and somebody is going to say, ‘We’d
better be careful with this.’

“We’re brazen now because people will say things ‘cause they know
there’s no accountability. There’s no reason for it. It bugs me a little. I see
‘em do it about people who’re private citizens. I accept my role as a public
official. They can say I’m bad, dumb and ugly, and truth is a
defense."

“I know everybody thinks that’s going to last a while. I don’t believe
it’ll last too much longer.”

Isn’t it funny how our employees, public servants such as politicians, get their panties in a wad over little things like the exercise of free speech by their employers, we the citizens for whom they work for? Bitching and moaning by the unwashed masses at the neighborhood Waffle Hatchi doesn’t bother them in the least but when their constituents put their beliefs online it’s a different story.

Dissent becomes slander, criticism becomes brazen behavior and accountability is only applied to non-politicians in the minds of these egotistical idiots. Grow a thicker skin, Mr. Speaker. If the Speaker want’s some cheese to go with his whine he only needs to follow the rats who fatten themselves under the gold dome downtown.

Political discourse has gone downhill, that is a fact. But it’s the behavior of politicians and their ability to work the lowest common denominator that has brought things to the point they are now. Who are our great leaders in the state of Georgia? Who is the bright boy who clears the fog and bullshit of politics to help lead this state into a brighter future? There isn’t one and we are left with the dimmest bulbs the state can offer. Dear God, if we even had a new George Busbee among us I would be thrilled. If another Sam Nunn came to power I’d be ecstatic. We are stuck with a bunch of mouth breathing parrots who make JB Stoner look like a brilliant and progressive thinker.

All we have are a bunch of spoiled brats running this state, some of whom can’t even come to town without getting a Goddamn DUI arrest on the books. Grow up, Mr. Speaker and do what’s best for the entire state of Georgia, not just what the special interests groups , who donate huge amounts of money to political parties and campaigns, want the elected officials to do for them. Maybe folks will be a bit more civil when critiquing the House when our representatives act like leaders, instead of the glad handing money grubbers we now have. Until then, you politicians are the ones who made this bed so you need to learn to lie in it. Change the sheets or go sleep on the couch if the mattress doesn’t suit your delicate sensitivities.

Executive Branch Three Card Monte

The past week has brought to light an aspect of the Bush administration that has only been reported peripherally. The revelation that VP Cheney is not only violating the Presidential Records Act intentionally but has also created his own security and classification system for documents and is claiming that he, his office and his responsibilities are not connected to the Executive Branch, shouldn’t be surprising. The fact that no one seems to give a damn and holy hell is not being raised is surprising. Cheney’s control over the shadow government has been documented several times since the 9/11 attacks, what we are now seeing are glimpses of the mechanisms he has put in place to work behind a veil of secrecy of his own creation.

Several months after 9/11 there was an article published by Time Magazine that provided a general overview of Cheney’s whereabouts in the days and weeks following the disaster. Site R was described and vague details of how the shadow government operates were given. Cheney is many things, but dumb and disorganized he is not. The processes we are now being seeing for the first time, such as his customized document classification system are simply the surface gloss covering what he and his office and henchmen are doing as day-to-day work.

The fact that the Fourth Estate is rolling over and purring like a content kitten and not making this a major news story is one more piece of evidence that the so-called “Liberal Media Bias” is simply a fable and term used by propagandists. Our senior members of the Executive Branch are showing all of us once again that they believe the laws of the land do not apply to them, that they are above the law and complicit in this conspiracy to circumvent the law is our mass media, the Fourth Estate.

The details of what Cheney and his staff are and have been doing in secret will most likely never be learned. Document shredding appears to be a full time job at the Naval Observatory and we have seen first hand that those who are the leaves on this tree of power do not open their mouths, even with the threat of prison hanging over their head. Their loyalty is to individuals and to the maintenance of power, not to our nation and certainly not to their fellow Americans. The scandal that brews beneath the surface of this process in the office of the VP may never see the light of day, and it never will if the corporate news leaders have their way.

But few care and why should they with Paris Hilton nearing the end of her jail stint and an interview ready to happen with the giant of journalism, Larry King. We have pregnant white women being murdered to satisfy your news jones and if that isn’t enough to satisfy our need to be informed about the world around us we still have Barry Bonds waiting in the corner with his juiced race to surpass Henry Aaron for the home run record. With race, murder, sports and celebrity to ponder who needs to spend time thinking about boring politics?

It happens to all of us

The New York Post is reporting that the girlfriend of disgraced World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, has left him. We all know that part of the firestorm which forced him to resign was his cronyism in getting her a job and massive pay increases. So, Wolfowitz is now stuck without a job, without a girlfriend and the still stinking corpse of that Iraq albatross around his neck. It couldn't happen to a more deserving dickweed.

Maybe this will give him some motivation to work on those personal grooming issues?