Friday, May 27, 2005

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

Walking up 1st street...La Primera

A Picture Share!

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A Picture Share!

An Album Share!

Scariest cab ride...ever.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

A Picture Share!

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Amen!

Duck and cover time

Texas lege enshrines anti-gay provision in state constitution

"I have been a member of this august body for three decades, and today is one of the all-time low points. We are going in the wrong direction, in the direction of hate and fear and discrimination. Members, we all know what this is about; this is the politics of divisiveness at it's worst, a wedge issue that is meant to divide.

"Members, this is a distraction from the real things we need to be working on. At the end of this session, this Legislature, this leadership will not be able to deliver the people of Texas fundamental and fair answers to the pressing issues of our day.

"Let's look at what this amendment does not do: It does not give one Texas citizen meaningful tax relief. It does not reform or fully fund our education system. It does not restore one child to CHIP [Children's Health Insurance Program] who was cut from health insurance last session. It does not put one dime into raising Texas' Third World access to health care. It does not do one thing to care for or protect one elderly person or one child in this state. In fact, it does not even do anything to protect one marriage.

"Members, this bill is about hate and fear and discrimination... When I was a small girl, white folks used to talk about 'protecting the institution of marriage' as well. What they meant was if people of my color tried to marry people of Mr. Chisum's color, you'd often find the people of my color hanging from a tree... Fifty years ago, white folks thought interracial marriages were 'a threat to the institution of marriage.'

"Members, I'm a Christian and a proud Christian. I read the good book and do my best to live by it. I have never read the verse where it says, 'Gay people can't marry.' I have never read the verse where it says, 'Thou shalt discriminate against those not like me.' I have never read the verse where it says, 'Let's base our public policy on hate and fear and discrimination.' Christianity to me is love and hope and faith and forgiveness -- not hate and discrimination.

"I have served in this body a lot of years, and I have seen a lot of promises broken... So... now that blacks and women have equal rights, you turn your hatred to homosexuals, and you still use your misguided reading of the Bible to justify your hatred. You want to pass this ridiculous amendment so you can go home and brag -- brag about what? Declare that you saved the people of Texas from what?

"Persons of the same sex cannot get married in this state now. Texas law does not now recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, religious unions, domestic partnerships, contractual arrangements or Christian blessings entered into in this state -- or anywhere else on this planet Earth.

"If you want to make your hateful political statements then that is one thing -- but the Chisum amendment does real harm. It repeals the contracts that many single people have paid thousands of dollars to purchase to obtain medical powers of attorney, powers of attorney, hospital visitation, joint ownership and support agreements. You have lost your way. This is obscene...

"I thought we would be debating economic development, property tax relief, protecting seniors' pensions and stem cell research to save lives of Texans who are waiting for a more abundant life. Instead we are wasting this body's time with this political stunt that is nothing more than constitutionalizing discrimination. The prejudices exhibited by members of this body disgust me.

"Last week, Republicans used a political wedge issue to pull kids -- sweet little vulnerable kids -- out of the homes of loving parents and put them back in a state orphanage just because those parents are gay. That's disgusting.

"I have listened to the arguments. I have listened to all of the crap... I want you to know that this amendment [is] blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry." - Senfronia Thompson

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Once again, the buck stops...SOMEWHERE ELSE.

U.S. Memo Faults Afghan Leader on Heroin Fight

""Although President Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty in trying to implement an effective ground eradication program, he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership, even in his own province of Kandahar," said the cable, which was drafted by embassy personnel involved in the antidrug efforts, two American officials said."

...and SOMEWHERE ELSE AGAIN:

"The cable also faulted Britain, which has the top responsibility for counternarcotics assistance in Afghanistan, for being "substantially responsible" for the failure to eradicate more acreage. British personnel choose where the eradication teams work, but the cable said that those areas were often not the main growing areas and that the British had been unwilling to revise targets."

---

What was the Bush Dynasty's first multimillion dollar commodity? It was black and sticky, but it wasn't oil.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

An Album Share!

Saturday, May 14, 2005

A Picture Share!

White trash entertainment center.

Friday, May 13, 2005

A Picture Share!

"Punto", todos perro.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

run for your lives!

It's good that there is a plan in place in the capitol in the event that an airplane enters restricted airspace. The fact that the plan is apparently "RUN!"...not so good.

People fleeing Capitol, White House told to run

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Run."

That was the urgent order shouted by guards at the White House, Capitol and other official buildings in Washington on Wednesday as a small plane in restricted airspace set off terror alerts.

"Run. Get out. Keep running," police said as they hustled people out of the Capitol with a calm intensity. "Keep going," officers told the crowd. "We're under attack," at least one officer was heard saying as the alert level skyrocketed from yellow to orange to red, the most serious threat.

Good grief

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Apocalypse Soon

The Risk of inadvertent nuclear launch is unacceptably high
by Robert S. McNamara

It is time—well past time, in my view—for the United States to cease its Cold War-style reliance on nuclear weapons as a foreign-policy tool. At the risk of appearing simplistic and provocative, I would characterize current U.S. nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. The risk of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch is unacceptably high. Far from reducing these risks, the Bush administration has signaled that it is committed to keeping the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a mainstay of its military power—a commitment that is simultaneously eroding the international norms that have limited the spread of nuclear weapons and fissile materials for 50 years. Much of the current U.S. nuclear policy has been in place since before I was secretary of defense, and it has only grown more dangerous and diplomatically destructive in the intervening years.

Today, the United States has deployed approximately 4,500 strategic, offensive nuclear warheads. Russia has roughly 3,800. The strategic forces of Britain, France, and China are considerably smaller, with 200–400 nuclear weapons in each state’s arsenal. The new nuclear states of Pakistan and India have fewer than 100 weapons each. North Korea now claims to have developed nuclear weapons, and U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that Pyongyang has enough fissile material for 2–8 bombs.

burden

pup still up

working girl

working

Monday, May 09, 2005

A Picture Share!

Sunday, May 08, 2005

ranchero

My bar

El Ranchero Bar

How do you find a gay bar in tijuana? listen for cher blasting from the windows.

A Picture Share!

weird pod thingy at the beach

silver strand state beach, coronado ca

Calle 5 de Mayo (my street)

don't drink tequila then go shopping for cutlery

Plaza de Santa Cecilia

everybody's dog

You have a new Picture Mail

tijuana

You have a new Picture Mail

Arch at La Primara and Revolucion

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Co-workers

Perro Up

Perro Down

An Album Share!

Theocracy Rising

Here we go...

Democrats voted out of church because of their politics, members say

WAYNESVILLE, N.C., May 6 — Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP.
Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn't support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church meeting in this mountain town, about 120 miles west of Charlotte.

''He's the kind of pastor who says do it my way or get out,'' said Selma Morris, the church treasurer who was among those voted out. ''He's real negative all the time.''
Chandler didn't return a message left by The Associated Press at his home Friday, and several calls to the church went unanswered. He told WLOS-TV in Asheville that the actions were not politically motivated.
The station also reported that 40 others in the 100-member congregation resigned in protest after Monday's vote.
During the presidential election last year, Chandler told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either leave the church or repent, said former member Lorene Sutton.
Some church members left after Chandler made his ultimatum in October, Morris said.

Hummers

I get angry every time I see a Hummer. It’s not the fact that they are huge and dangerous to anyone that isn’t in one. Neither is it the fact that I’ll probably always be too poor to afford one. It doesn’t even have much to do with the fact that any “professional” who can afford one can write-off the entire purchase amount on his or her taxes. My rage can be attributed to what the Hummer represents.

The Hummer represents a dead-end economic system based on fossil fuels, namely petroleum. Oil. Why are we occupying Iraq? Why are there higher instances of childhood asthma and emphysema in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Washington, Tampa, Memphis, and other large cities than in their smaller, rural counterparts? Why do we have acid rain and smog? The answer to these questions is…our oil-based economy.

The next question is, what is the root of our oil-based economy? The answer is, the automobile. As long as the quickest way to get from point A to point B is in a car, we are slaves to oil. As long the best mass transit systems our cities have are dependant upon cramped, dirty, unreliable, gasoline powered buses we are slaves to oil. As long as our sense of self-worth and identity, in our own eyes and in the eyes of our peers, is dependant on the kind of fucking car we drive, we are slaves to oil. As long as we are willing to sit in front of the television and watch our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, lovers, our sons and daughters, friends, fellow Americans, go into battle (in Hummers) and sacrifice everything for an otherwise desolate piece of real estate so that we can continue to be defined by what we drive, we are slaves to oil. As long as an oil baronette sits in the Oval Office, we are slaves to oil.

So, think about all that, between cell-phone calls and road rage on your way to work tomorrow. Just think. Meanwhile, us pedestrians will continue to scurry from corner to corner, breathing your exhaust and trying not to get run over by your big, shiny Hummers.

finding my way around in here

O.K. What we have so far is me figuring out how to post pictures to this blog. Now all I need to figure out is how to delete them...

what? Posted by Hello

blog face Posted by Hello

Sunday Morning

thumb

My thumb and me.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

wtf

hmm