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Bush Seeks Additional 4,000 Troops to Overtake Congress |
Washington, D.C. Whit Pistol Senate Democratic leadership Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Dick Durbin wearing their best “You’re out your goddamned mind” faces in response to presidential troop requests; meanwhile, two Navy S.E.A.L.s (inset) somewhere are waiting to kick their asses into submission. inding all requests for funding troops in Iraq and Afghanistan impeded by the new Democratic Congress, President Bush resorted to the only weapon at his disposal Friday: Requesting even more troops, more specifically, 4,000 new soldiers with the explicit purpose of conquering Congress. Astounded Democratic leadership responded quickly, telling the press Saturday, “Of course, any action that brings greater safety to our nation will be considered. But for crying out loud, of course we’re not going to approve that. I mean, get a clue.” Critics of the White House were quick to condemn what they called a “call for a military coup” from the president as “unconstitutional.”
The White House responded with a brief memo stating: “We’ll let the militarily-supported Congress establish what’s constitutional and what’s not.” Some have been quick to characterize the measure as an attempt, however ill-conceived, by the White House to demonstrate the Democratic Congress is unwilling to work with them. Okay, it was just one guy who said that—political and pizza pundit Jefferson Shavers III. “It’s really a no-lose situation for the president,” said Shavers, revealing his dazzling smile in the quaint atmosphere of his wood-paneled office in mom’s garage. “If the Democrats turn down even more requests for troops, even those which would be serving on domestic soil, the president can point to it as further proof Congress just won’t cooperate. And if he gives them the troops, they’re all going to die. He absolutely can’t lose, unless a ridiculously low approval rating demonstrated Americans really aren’t supporting the White House military demands anymore.” While most in Congress, where the danger lies, continued to remain silent on the request after its announcement, the administration took the offensive by attempting to paint a picture of an anti-troops sentiment in the Democratic party. “I come from a different world than my Democratic colleagues, I suppose,” said Vice-President Dick Cheney, the gaping orifice of the White House whenever it has to tell America something truly odious. “Where I come from, we support the troops, we don’t try to make political ammunition out of the war they’re fighting. We supported them when they’re in Vietnam. We should support them when they’re fighting in Afghanistan, in Iraq, or standing behind you with a rifle and demanding you vote ‘yea’ on a flag-burning amendment. That’s just the way I was raised.” The administration called for an immediate vote on its inappropriately named “Kill Congress” legislation, citing an expected Taliban offensive in the spring that the U.S. would be better prepared for when it could “bypass congressional authority and get as many troops as it needs” to stabilize the region. The bill goes to the House on Monday for a vote, where its chore of passing the house should be comparably to last year’s “Snowball in Hell” amendment sponsored by insane Senator Zell Miller (D, GA). The White House refused comment to the commune, as per usual. Republican governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was contacted just for an amusing quote in his thick accent, but he turned out to be even more unintelligible over the phone than in person, so we scrapped that plan. the commune news wishes the word “coup” sounded more threatening—frankly, it sounds like something adorable is about to happen. Speaking of adorable, we found pictures of a girl who looks just like Lil Duncan on daddyslittlegirl.net. Actually, it was the naughty outfit she was wearing that reminded us of Lil, and the whole thing’s pretty disgusting now that we think about it.
| Guilty: Libby Takes Blame in Plame Name Game Court Battle Continues as Worms Claim Ownership of Anna Nicole’s Body Finely Aged Winemaker Ernest Gallo Corked Failure of Sirius Radio Blamed on "You Can't be Sirius!" Ad Campaign |
Guilty: Libby Takes Blame in Plame Name Game Court Battle Continues as Worms Claim Ownership of Anna Nicole’s Body Finely Aged Winemaker Ernest Gallo Corked Failure of Sirius Radio Blamed on "You Can't be Sirius!" Ad Campaign |
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Driving My Life AwayOmar Bricks here, writing to you from the seventh ring of hell, or as it is known in mapese, Nashville. How'd I get here? What am I doing here? All fair questions. If you come up with any plausible answers, let me know. It all started, if these kinds of things can ever be attributed to simple cause and effect, with a 12-hour repeat listening of the Eddie Rabbit tune "Driving My Life Away." This was caused, I assure you, not by conscious choice but rather Foghat putting the CD player on one-track repeat when he was listening to the new Counting Crows album the other day and I'll be damned if I know how to switch the thing back. By the way, I won't be held responsible for my dog's taste in music. As long as he limits his crap-listening to the hours when I'm not at home, well, that's his own deal with the devil and not my problem. Most people that visit Bricks Manor are impressed enough that my basset hound knows how to operate the CD player at all, but after I have Foghat make everyone omelets they usually forget about how impressed they'd been by the whole CD thing. Because they're too busy throwing up half-cooked omelets.
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To be perfectly honest, I was so wrapped up in working on the development of my latest invention, a pneumatic fly-stunning air cannon, that I didn't even realize the song was on repeat for the first six hours or so. And by then my body rhythms had so completely melded with the song that I couldn't very well shut it off without risking serious epilepsy, so I rode it out until I fell asleep on the floor in a pile of freshly unwashed laundry. When I woke up, the song was still playing, but I don't count those hours in my total even though it thoroughly infiltrated my usual Driving Miss Daisy-themed dreams. Before you start asking why in the hell I put that song on in the first place, let me explain that it's the only halfway decent track on the disc. The rest is all Bulgarian folk music and European techno, which is every bit as shitty as it sounds. The CD itself came in a Discman I bought for seven dollars at the Salvation Army, I didn't realize there was a disc inside until I got home. Even before this all came up the Discman purchase was revealed as a mistake, since I'd envisioned Foghat using it to listen to his shitty musical tastes in a way that didn't crawl up my own ass like a hungry banana slug. But if you've figured out a way to get a dog to wear headphones, you're handier with a roll of duct tape than Omar Bricks, that's all I can say about that. Anyway, the song repeated for another hour straight after I woke up, by which time I couldn't even hear it any more, it had so completely rewired my internal landscape. But then the CD started skipping, probably the disc glues coming apart after so many hours of constant spinning, and the skipping music was causing Foghat to freak out, running around and pissing on everything at a slightly higher rate than he normally does. I had to get the disc out of the player with the toilet plunger, though from the way Foghat looked at me there was probably an easier way, maybe a button on the CD player or something. I don't pretend to have a PHD in consumer electronics. At first it was a relief that the music had stopped, but then I started to feel my insides twist around like two snakes at an orgy, and I began to feel an irresistible compulsion to drive my life away. It was sort of like that scene in Naked Gun where Reggie Jackson gets hypnotized and runs around shooting everybody with a machine gun, yelling "Say hello to my little friend!" It was like my brain wasn't my own, I was just holding onto it while a buddy was in the can. Before I knew it I was behind the wheel and out on the open road, with Foghat riding shotgun. Then I put the shotgun in the back seat because I'll be damned if that dog hasn't been freaking me out with his marksmanship as of late. All was well out on the open road, except for the fact that I didn't have any Eddie Rabbit tapes in the car, and none of the Mexican oompa-oompa tapes that came with my car were scratching that itch. This distracted me so much I didn't even realize I was driving to Nashville. I'd had some vague visions of Vegas in my head, maybe the sunset strip or Baja California... in all honesty it wasn't that well-planned of an excursion, but I think Nashville is too harsh a punishment for such minor indiscretions. Everything you've heard about this place is true: it's full of rednecks, everybody moves slower than Ed McMahon getting up off the couch, and everyone's got real shit taste in music. Not to mention the high asshole-to-Bricks ratio. When I cruised the Bricksmobile IV through the pedestrian entrance at the CMA Music Festival, you wouldn't believe the number of assholes who were yelling at me to turn down the Mexican polka tunes. Look, Slocum, you think I'd be listening to this shit if I could get it out of the tape deck? I left the toilet plunger at home and I don't trust Foghat with that shotgun after he tried to use it to open a can of Kibbles 'n Bits back in West Virginia. Don't hate a player just because you weren't smart enough to get around the cover charge, Hoss. You'll get yours when I get behind the microphone on the main stage. Bricks out. º Last Column: Christmas: Don't Try This at Homeº more columns
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Swing-to-the-Left Voters Can Eat MeAs one of two conservatives in the commune office, the other being a complete asshole, I felt quite alone watching the election coverage back in November. It was like the 1994 election, only horribly inverted—Democrats, Democrats everywhere, and not a successful attack ad in sight. Piss on the current administration, I say. Not because I’m not a loyal Republican, but because I firmly believe if the president had kicked a little pay-off action to the voters again (we call it tax relief) he could have skated all his cronies back into office with ease. “Iraq-a-what?” millions of greedy undecideds would have said, dollar signs clicking comically in their eyes. I love it in cartoons when you can see dollar signs rolling in someone’s eyes—it wish everybody was that honest in real life.
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But no, goddammit, he put his faith in the conservative religious base once again, and trusted his purges of minority voters in key states would do what he needed. Well, that left a lot of your guys shit out of luck, Mr. President. We’re all financially fucked now. And don’t expect the healthy sense of fear and respect we’ve been getting from enemy nations, now that the cursed undecideds have lame-duckified both the president and congress. Old Glory (yes, you capitalize it, goddamn you) has become a welcome mat we can roll out to terrorists, dictators, fascists, welfare moms, pervert artists, and other enemies of the great republic. I still remember watching it on the TV, knowing it was coming ‘cause all the polls pointed to disaster. As usual, I was here in the commune office, conveniently located where I sleep and eat chicken wings. I remember having most of the year off, for whatever reason—I’m only the Office Manager, work stoppages aren’t any of my business. All I know is we hadn’t been publishing since April or something and a lot of the reporters had taken off for long vacations, which meant I could crank up the Creedence. It was better than hearing the news folks actually covering the elections proselytizing about “wake up calls” and “referendums on the war.” It’s not a war, idiots, it’s an occupation—at least get that part right. A war is when both sides agree they’re fighting, and we clearly haven’t gotten on board that wagon yet. Regardless of semantics, forgetting who voted for what and why, we all have to thank the Undecideds. Yeah, they get the capitalization treatment now, too, ‘cause they’re a group—the same group that keeps fucking things up for everybody. At last the Democrats and the Republicans can find common ground together, a mutual enemy. These la-dee-dahs and their lack of conviction. How could anyone over the age of 10 and under the age of 90 not know what the hell they stand for, and which political group makes the weak promises to give them just that? How could complete morons, who predictably somehow make it out to the polls on election days, not pick one big fat emotional issue and react with gusto on that? Going right into the congressional elections of 2006, just like 2004, 2002, 2000, and every election in-between, before, and to come, these numb-nutted weasels had every reason to believe they knew there was a big military presence in Iraq, there was a major SNAFU with the future of social security, and they either had a good job or no job whatsoever. Did these guys wake up bankrupt, old, concerned with immigration and terrified about the environment on Tuesday morning? You assholes had plenty of time to register with a party or at least warn either party of your voting intentions. But no, you had to leave it to the last minute to make a commitment toward the party you want to let you down for the next 2-6 years. If we had known, maybe we could have kissed a little more Christian ass before that fatal Tuesday. Promised to make fireproof flags or give an abortion doctor a death penalty or something. Thanks for nothing, losers. º Last Column: The New War on Povertyº more columns
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Quote of the Day“If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no inheritance. Die already, Uncle Franco… just… die.” -Winthrop ShurikenFortune 500 CookieWho’s the man? More specifically, who’s the man who shattered your kneecap with a club and took you out of the competition? Now would be a good time to switch to NetFlix from your previous practice of watching the movie on the video store display TVs. Keep your eye on the sparrow. Lucky jeans: Levi, Bugle Boy, Lee, and Auel.
Try again later.Women Other Than Christina Ricci We Want Chained to Our Radiator1. | Original Wednesday Addams, Lisa Loring | 2. | Landlady—You spend the night there and tell me it’s heating just fine | 3. | Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (still count as one) | 4. | Diana Rigg, circa 1968; or now, what the hell | 5. | Anybody but that hippie chick protesting for radiator rights I got now | |
| Paparazzi Buried With Anna Nicole SmithIt’s a new year, and I’m proud to inform you I’m no longer bagging groceries at the Safeway. They wanted to go in another direction, whatever that means. So now I volunteer at the local library, but I also help my mom with a lot of home repair, which I might not get paid for, but I assure you is work. Of course, in my spare time, I review movies accurately (even superiorly) for the commune. Oh, look—I have the spare time now.
Ghost RiderIt’s about time somebody recognized the link between carnival people and demons of the underworld; unfortunately, this movie seems to make it out to be a good thing. Nicolas Cage, America’s first entirely comic book actor, has found a medium well-suited for him, as a scenery-chewing, Elvis-imitating, flaming-motorcycle-riding stunt driver who occasionally bursts into flames, laughs like a player in Reefer Madness, and beats the hell out of demons. Wait—demons are subject to earthly laws? Wow, the devil sucks. And so does director Mark Steven Johnson. The difference is, the devil knows the meaning of the word “subtlety.” The Number 23Speaking of His Satanic Majesty, he appears as beloved actor Jim Carrey in this film. If you detest conspiracy movies, go and see this one and feel justified in your hatred. The most abstract and ridiculous coincidences become testament to Carrey’s insane number-counting obsession. Carrey worked for reduced pay because he really wanted to make this film, and no one wanted to pay him his usual salary; turns out he really believes in this stuff, but what can you expect of someone being actively courted by the Church of Scientology? They’ve got to be asking themselves how they let this guy slip by during his multi-million dollar heyday. Joel Schumacher, Satan’s personal foreskin, brings his personal touch of evil to a motion picture already headed toward a Wal-Mart 2-for-1 DVD pack. ZodiacEveryone has been begging David Fincher to show restraint in his filmmaking for ten years, and this is how he proves everyone wrong. Zodiac is dreary where the usual Fincher film is disgusting, methodical where Fincher is usually flashy, and ambiguous where all other Fincher movies are resolved. The wisdom of making a true-life drama of an unsolved case aside, I would say movies of unanswered questions only have any importance to us when they impact us all or remain unanswerable—but let’s face it: If they bag this guy tomorrow on some DNA evidence, this movie doesn’t even get a DVD release. It becomes an extra on an edition of American Justice you can order directly from A&E. For just once in my life I wish I was Roland McShyster, only so that I could tell you with clear conscience they catch the guy in the end of the movie and his name is Bob Zodiac. Being ethically retarded would certainly have its advantages, but no. *Sigh* Wild HogsAnother excellent mystery: What devious fiend in Hollywood thought John Travolta could again carry a movie, if only we hooked him up with three additional stooges? This is exactly the kind of movie that, ten years ago, would have been sent directly to Burt Reynolds or Clint Eastwood to star in; but nowadays Clint’s an auteur more than an actor, and Reynolds only answers the door when it smells like alcohol waiting. So Travolta quickly volunteered to play the role of the aging dullard going through a mid-life crisis, and he takes his other friends along, since they can no longer carry a movie by themselves either. Martin Lawrence is considerably less crazy in this movie, and as a result considerably less interesting, while William H. Macy defies the rumors about himself and proves he will take a movie role even without a good script or any complexity of character. Tim Allen is inexplicably present. I’ve over-critiqued my welcome, no doubt the Hollywood elite would agree. But with a shovel this loaded, they couldn’t really expect me not to wallow in their mud. The studios do tend to dump a lot of sub-par movies in our theaters between January and May, “dump” being far too accurate a term. Enjoy their droppings. |