Well, this should do it for 2005. For some of you folks, it’ll be 2006 in just a few hours. I guess the rest of us will just have to try to catch up! :alc:

Of course, at our house, New Year’s Eve means just one thing: the Twilight Zone Marathon on the SciFi channel (which started about a half hour ago, and goes on for 45 hours). Whatever it is you do to ring in the new year, do it safely. There aren’t enough of us out there as it is; we don’t want to lose anybody.

Here we are, preparing to end 2005 without Morning Sedition. How f*cked up is that? I think I’ll break out my vintage December 30, 2004 episode.

Riley was on vacation in England, so Marc was on his own (a much different experience than having it the other way around). The main topic then was the tsunami, of course, (at this point, the estimated death toll was 100,000, and I remember it just kept growing – astoundingly, mind numbingly – every day) , but there were also tornadoes in LA & Sedona, AZ. The Bush administration (at first pledging a paltry $15 million in aid – the same amount as his upcoming re-inauguration parties – and then being shamed into upping it to a still insulting $35 million) was pissed at Bill Clinton for acting like a human being in the face of the deaths in Asia. Bill was in London at the time, and spoke in a way this president will never be able to – from the heart – about the tragedy, upstaging the mostly silent, ever-vacationing dubya.

Back at the end of 2004, there were “only” 1,300 US Deaths in Iraq. We’ve added, what, almost another 900 this year? And we ship them home as cargo on commercial airliners. Let’s hope at the end of 2006 our people are back home, and whole, where they ought to be.

Well, I don’t know about you guys, but we’ve got a big day planned here at my house. First, it’s off to the dump, to unload the recyclables and get rid of everything else that can’t be composted or thrown over the next-door neighbor’s fence. Then it’s off to return the empty beer bottles, which will then be followed with buying full beer bottles, after which I can get to work on emptying them again. I think that’s called the “Cycle of Life.”

Here it’s Wednesday already, and there’s no news about Marc’s new show yet. One Conan O’Brien re-run just aint gonna cut it here.

Tuesday? Seems more like a Monday, doesn’t it? Anyhow, I guess we know a little bit more about why dubya had to resort to violating the US Constitution to get his spying done.

The FISA court has approved at least 18,740 applications for electronic surveillance or physical searches from five presidential administrations since 1979. In the 22 pre-dubya years, FISA judges modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications that were approved. But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for court-ordered surveillance by the Bush administration – 173 of those court-ordered “substantive modifications” took place in 2003 and 2004 (the most recent years for which public records are available).

The judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years — the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court’s history.

Bush wants to be big brother; the courts wouldn’t let him, so he blew off the courts.

For those of you who wonder why we should support Democrats when the don’t really represent us (and I’m with you there; I can’t begin to tell you how disgusted I am with my senators, Hillary Clinton Chuck Schumer), this is why: Bush needs to be impeached in the House, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office. This won’t happen with Republicans in control.

With Democrats in control here’s an example of who we’d have as committe chairmen:

Senate:
Judiciary: Pat Leahy
Armed Services: Carl Levin
Appropriations: Robert Byrd
Health, Education, Welfare & Pensions: Ted Kennedy

House:
Judiciary: John Conyers
Gov’t Reform: Henry Waxman
Ways & Means: Charlie Rangel
Intelligence: Jane Harman

Bush and Cheney must go. We can work on getting rid of the rest of these bastids – Republican or Republican-lite – after that.

I trust that those of you who did the family thing over the weekend survived alright. Despite some rather glaring differences of opinion between myself and my in-laws over things like the MTA strike, dubya, and the whole Iraq debacle, we managed to avoid fisticuffs and have a nice time. It’s interesting how my father-in-law can think that FDR was a great man, that we need some socialism in this country to even things out between the corporatists who can afford to buy politicians, and the rest of us, that we need a national health system, that what they’re doing to old people sucks, that dubya has done a lot of really stupid things, and yet he still, somehow, disagrees with me that dubya is the worst president in my lifetime, thinks Iraq really showed all the dictators in the world not to mess with the US of A, and he still thinks that Gore or Kerry would have done a worse job – or at least wouldn’t have been any better than this idiot we have now. Oh, and that Clinton should have been thrown in jail. 😕 I mean, what does it take?

This thread ought to take us through ’til Monday morning (barring any earthshaking news). So, enjoy your weekend and Happy Holidays to all. :menorah:

:santacool:

Has it really only been a week since the last Morning Sedition? God, it seems like forever, in some ways. I still haven’t been able to listen to Marcless Mornings on AAR (it isn’t you Riley, honest; I just need some time, and a new Marc show). I can’t wait for Marc’s Nocturnal Emissions – wait, let me rephrase that….

We are happy to report that Travis has survived his surgery, and, while he reports that he “can’t really see straight,” (sounds about normal, actually) he is alive. Use this a an electronic “Get Well Soon” card. Hurry back Travis: we’re all ears :ear: to hear how you made out. 😉

According to a statement released by Abdul Maajid Ima Faahti, spokesman for Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda has officially suspended all activities in their war against freedom. In the statement, released by bin Laden’s law firm, Shapiro, Goldberg and Smith, Ima Faahti said:

We used to hate the infidels for their freedom. But with the pig Bush and his secret courts, secret warrants, secret prisons, suspect torture, massive data gathering on all aspects of his own citizens including medical, library, and financial records, the imperalist dogs no longer have any freedoms. Ha! My 23rd wife has more freedom, and I keep her tied to a tent pole.

When asked what bin Laden’s future plans were, Ima Faahti stated, “He would like a nice delousing, some dialysis, and perhaps tickets to the Jerry Springer show. He loves that Springer.”