You just gotta love the inconsistency--the hypocrisy--of that loosely-aligned coalition of single-issue groups normally referred to as the Democrat Party. What a bunch of go-with-the-flow maroons.

For eight years they droned on and on about how the Constitution was a "living, breathing document" (Bill Clinton), but now that the opposite camp has claimed the highest throne...they have suddenly become staunch constitutionalists. It's enough to cause a person in possession of a good memory to want to puke up a spleen. Or at least most of one.

I listened to Kevin Lynn's utter filth on WILK Thursday morning, and more often than not, I was chuckling at what passed as intelligent thought. Bush and the NSA are spying on Americans? Say it ain't so, Rush! Say it ain't so! Americans are being wiretapped? We are under surveillance? Are they eavesdropping on me at this very moment? This flotsam...these dingleberrys coming from the folks who offered little more than a collective 'Oh, well' when the Branch Davidians were burned to death by the, then, Reno justice department for absolutely no good reason? The Weaver family became the subject of target practice for the, then, Reno justice department all because the guy was a known separatist and he sawed-off a few shotgun barrels? Elian Gonzalez was forced at gunpoint to become a communist? And the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 169 people resulted in speedy, speedy justice, despite the fact that the whole truth was covered up? Don't take my word for it. Do a Google search for Jayna Davis.

All of a sudden, the living-breathing-constitution crowd has gotten all hysterical on our dead asses. Why? Because they make it up as they stumble along from issue to issue.

Have you ever heard of Carnivore, a controversial program developed by the FBI (Oh, no!) to give the agency access to the online/e-mail activities of suspected criminals. For many of the kooks currently running loose among us, it was eerily reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984. Wow! 1984. How prophetic! Well, that is, if you're a full-time conspiracy theorist. You know...a fu>king kook.

Anywho, Carnivore was eventually abandoned by the FBI in favor of much more effective eavesdropping software, but you get the gist of it. Those spys are doing key word searches 24/7. Now, this should not concern you unless you make it a habit of using words such as plutonium, enriched uranium, bomb-making materials, radioactive isotopes, or C-4 while sending e-mail, or instant messages. Potted, legal plants, chafer racks, Chia pets and Marcia Brady are acceptable for electronic pulsing anytime. But send a message that mentions decapitating plenty of infidels, or downing the Tappan Z bridge, and you might have your front door shattered by someone who just repelled down from a black helicopter hovering overhead.

As for myself, I could really give a flyin' funk as to who it may be monitoring all of my nonsense. If I were to mention that I'm going to storm the White House singlehandedly, take everyone contained within hostage and force them to sit through all of Frank Zappa's 100-plus LPs, I'm sure a prompt would pop up on a government-owned monitor somewhere. But after some highly-trained spook like Valerie Plame read further, she'd be sure to conclude that I'm an asshole and someone not worthy of a visit from those SOARs boys standing at the ready very close by. And trust me on this, considering it's current make-up, the Fedrule Govmint knows much more about who's an asshole and who's not than we ever will. In these respects, I will defer to their proctological expertise.

Gage Andrew was born in June of 2001, and at that time we really didn't know our in-laws very well. We're from good ole' (?) Culm County and they had relocated here from Vermont (Population: 700. Er, maybe 900. I'm not real clear on that.) Anyways, Gage's aunt and I traded many an instant message during those days. She was off to wherever it was that nuclear reasearch or whatever it is that she does was performed, and she rarely if ever saw the lot of us. The way I understood it, she had some sort of govmint job dealing with glowing particles and whatnot. Or something or other. She was there and we were where we're always at. So we'd yap away on the internet.

Our conversations were always family oriented. How was the party? How's Gage? That was a cute picture I posted of him. Stuff like that. Proof that not all of us old guys grub for younger chicks on the internet. But, knowing full well that the fedrule spy types were prone to doing key word searches of domestic electronic pulsings, every once in a while I'd type something totally off the wall. Something like When can I take receipt of the fissionable materials? And her usual retort was something along the lines of, Stop screwin' around." Or, That's not funny. My point is that way back in 2001 I knew all along Carnivore. And so did Auntie Chris.

The plain truth is that the Fedrule Govmint has always been spying on it's fellow Americans. And in my demented world, they'd be crazy not to. Would you trust the lot of us? All 300 million of us? There's no telling how many disaffected 'Johnny Talibans' we've got scheming away in their parent's basements. Wanna see your kids blown to tiny shards of monkey meat at the local mall, or would you prefer to put up with those key word searches? Or are you gonna misquote for the umpteenth time that Benjamin Franklin line about relinquishing freedoms for a dose of extra security? That line will mean nothing to you when a dirty bomb explodes within sniffing distance of your home.

So this is where I'm at with all of this spying uproar enamating from the left field bleachers. You're either feigning outrage to score some short-term political points. Or you had absolutely no idea about our domestic eavesdropping operations and you're honestly outraged. Either way, at least to me, you're coming across as a boob.

Carnivore? Who gives a flyin' funk unless they've got something to hide.

I could care less.

Spying on Americans? By golly, somebody ought to be impeached.

From CNN.com:

Four arrested, stolen explosives found Feds: Explosives could have flattened a large building Saturday, December 24, 2005; Posted: 7:58 a.m. EST (12:58 GMT) David Brown is one of four people arrested Friday for the alleged theft of 400 pounds of explosives. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (AP) -- Authorities arrested four men and were searching for one more person in connection with the theft of 400 pounds of explosives from a storage depot. Federal authorities said the explosives are enough to flatten a large building. All of the explosives and detonating materials were recovered, and there was no evidence to suggest the theft was connected to terrorism, said Wayne Dixie of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Two brothers, Leslie Brown, 44, of Ignacio, Colorado, and David Brown, 49, of Bloomfield, New Mexico, face federal charges that include possession of stolen explosives and felons in possession of explosives, Dixie said. Authorities gave few other details, including the names of the other two people arrested Friday. A tip led to the arrests. "Investigators are still interviewing these people that are involved so we don't have all the answers yet," Dixie said. The explosives were reported missing Sunday from Cherry Engineering's storage depot eight miles southwest of Albuquerque. Stolen were 150 pounds of C-4, 250 pounds of sheet explosives, 20,000 feet of detonator cord and 2,500 blasting caps. The explosives were intact and it did not appear that anyone had tried to use the material, authorities said. Authorities said the brothers did not have experience to use the explosives. Investigators said they were continuing a search of a storage facility south of Bloomfield, where most of the explosives were found. Some of the material also was found in Ignacio and another location in Bloomfield. Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said there was a "collective sigh of relief" when authorities were notified that the explosives had been located.

From The New York Daily News:

Al Qaeda fiend targeted Bush By JAMES GORDON MEEK WASHINGTON - Before he was captured last spring, Osama Bin Laden's top operational commander was solely focused on killing President Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharaff, the Daily News has learned. The capture last May of Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader, Abu Faraj Al-Libi, apparently thwarted plots to assassinate the two partners in the global war on terror, said a senior Pakistani official, whose information was corroborated by two senior U.S. counterterrorism officials. "Al-Libi had one mission: Kill Bush and Musharraf," the Pakistani official told The News. "He wanted to kill Bush in the White House, preferably." "It was clearly something they wanted to do. There's no question about that. It's the holy grail of jihad," a senior U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed. Al-Libi organized several failed assassination attempts on Musharraf before he was nabbed, officials have said. But the plot by Al Qaeda's international operations chief to send assassins to the U.S. to kill Bush was only disclosed this week. The officials asked for anonymity because details of the Bush plot are still highly classified. The officials added that there is little evidence the U.S. mission advanced beyond initial planning by Al-Libi in Pakistan. Two years before Al-Libi's capture by Pakistani and CIA operatives in Pakistan's mountainous North-West Frontier province, near where many believe Bin Laden is hiding, American officials were informed by Musharraf envoys that the top Al Qaeda thug was bent on assassinating Bush, officials said. Officials said it was not known if Bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, personally ordered Al-Libi to hit the U.S. President. Al-Libi replaced 9/11 attacks mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003. Al-Libi's aide and successor, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed this month in Pakistan by a missile fired from an unmanned CIA predator drone, sources said. Originally published on December 22, 2005

An excerpt from a WorldNetDaily.com story:

As first revealed last week in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND, Osama bin Laden is planning what he calls an "American Hiroshima," the ultimate terrorist attack on U.S. cities, using nuclear weapons already smuggled into the country across the Mexican border along with thousands of sleeper agents. The series of attacks is designed to kill 4 million, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history. At least two fully assembled and operational nuclear weapons are believed to be hidden in the United States already, according to G2 Bulletin intelligence sources and an upcoming book, "The al-Qaida Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime and the Coming Apocalypse," by former FBI consultant Paul L. Williams.

Domestic spying? Please, please, spy some more, will you?

Between the rapidly approaching Christmas (Sorry) holiday, and the recent birth of my fourth grandrodent, I too have been busy beyond all belief. In fact, I must apologize for not responding to any of the recent well-wishes I have received from those of you who bothered to send me an electronic pulse. Thanks for bothering. And thanks for bucking up my sometimes wavering spirits while we were being led to believe that grandkid #4 might not happen at all. From a personal standpoint, I can handle plenty of grief. But I wouldn't want any of my three kids to have to deal with any. By all means, when this Christmas is but a memory, give me a buzz. It has been a long time. Too long.

Follow this. Yesterday we received a snazzy card via snail mail congratulating us on the birth of the newest, healthy addition to the family. It was sent along to us from an elected official from this city of ours. I was suprised that someone so completely busy would find the time to do such a thing, and the gesture was appreciated.

But I cracked up when I read who the card was addressed to: Mark and Gramma

That reminded me of the night when Gort invaded this adobe and had to apologize to Wifey for not knowing her name. After five years-plus of ths blogging nonsense, nobody, and I mean nobody knows Wifey's name. And while she never really understood why I have done what I've done on the internet...she did not want to be included in my mostly insane mix. Hence, the "Wifey" thing. She tolerates me. Well, to a point. Be it "Wifey," or "Gramma," there is that person that keeps all of this family stuff pointed in the right direction. She probably deserved better than to be saddled with the likes of me, but I imagine she could have done much worse. Well, I like to believe as much.

Anywho, the scribblings included in the innermost regions of that card were as follows:

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and for a happy and healthy new year.

As far as that goes, my kids are all here, my grandrodents are all here, my ailing bro' and his clan are on their way here, and so is my sister's smallish crew. The abusive step-dad of old wanted in, but he was told to squash that idea right quick. We're hoping Uncle John doesn't stagger out of the Leisure Tavern and show up here totally polluted. But mostly, we're just looking forward to spending some quality time together. Maybe we should do this more often than once or twice a year. Whatever.

All I know is, the new year will have to wait while I enjoy myself one kick-ass Christmas. We're going to play that reconstituted video of my brother's 5th birthday party for only the second time. It was filmed on a Super 8 camera in 1975, and it includes all of the long-departed folks we miss the most. I know some tears will likely be spilled, but despite the oft-bumpy road that led us to Christmas '05, we're still kickin' and we're raring to go.

Enjoy, kiddies.

I know I will.

Merry Christmas.

Do it up!

Buh-bye