Some of the satellite pictures of the devastation of the south Asian tsunami defy any description.

This one is particularly telling. This photo distributed by both AP and Reuters shows you Banda Aceh in Indonesia before and after the wave:



Please use the links below to donate to any organization involved in the relief efforts.

PS: as of today, the body count in the aftermath of the tragedy is estimated over 120,000.

The number of victims of the horrendous tsunami that devastated the coast of southern Asia keep increasing (55,000 as of today). Relief efforts are necessary and many humanitarian organizations are calling for help.

Here's a list of links where you can send your contribution:

American Red Cross (through Amazon.com)

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
PO Box 2247
New York, NY 10116-2247
888-392-0392
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
PO Box 372
CH-1211 Geneva 19
Switzerland
41-22-730-4222
http://www.ifrc.org

Save the Children
Asia Earthquake/Tidal Wave Relief Fund
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
800-728-3843
www.savethechildren.org

Some good news for a change: Remember the Timeline of Terror Alerts that Biltud and I put together this past summer? Well, The Nation has chosen that very study of terror alerts vs. Bush ratings as #8 of their Top 10 Outrages of 2004.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?bid=13&pid=2087

In addition, according to Blogpulse, which measures online activity in the blogosphere, our Timeline of Terror Alerts was #20 of the TOP 50 Top Blog Posts Cited in 2004:

http://www.blogpulse.com/2004_review/

;-)

Back from my hiatus. After the election results I made a sappy, highly emotional Flash slideshow as a tribute to many of my friends, hard working volunteers in the Kerry campaign. After I posted that Flash movie in my blog, I took some time to think about things and study ways to redesign my blog.

Well... a couple of weeks ago two utterly fascistic websites, the execrable pro-genocide nuts at Little Green Footballs and the mean-spirited Aussie Tim Blair and his merry gang of onanistic punks got a hold of my Flash video.

Within 24 hours not only they trash it, trashed my site, threatened some of the mirror site owners hosting the video, and threatened me personally. They crashed the sites of two of those mirror hosts and ran the bandwidth of all of those mirror sites beyond their limits, thus disallowing the viewing of the video. All these cowardly punks typing their vitriol from their moms' basements seemed quite encouraged on their nastiness. I guess that's what they do in between their sessions of internet porn.

I received some of the nastiest, most ignorant, most vicious emails I have ever read to date. Mind you, this was a sappy video of mournful Democrats with an emotionally charged song playing in the background, nothing more. It didn't mention Republicans, Bush, or right-wing bloggers, and it was made exclusively for our own consumption. Their reaction to my video was vile and incomprehensible beyond the workings of a lizard-like mind. While I sent the threatening emails (IPs and all) to the proper authorities, I would like to share with you some of the most idiotic crap these keyword warriors sent me. They are mostly one-liners apparently typed with one fist while furiously masturbating with the other:

From: pslamon@------.net
I'm so sad, I'm so sad, I'm so sad. Not. Rot in hell idiot.

Here's another compassionate one referring to the pictures of mourning Democrats:

From: Adam B-----
Get a life, or better yet don't get a life, keep this crap up and you guys will never win another election.

Speaking of onanistic compassionate ones:

From: T----P------@aol.com
Re:I am heating the baby oil up now you poor poor Democrat
Please more....It's like porn to me.

God the pain of you dumbasses is pure ecstasy to me.

The shots of a bunch of vile disgusting idiots all crying is just to nice a gift.

AHHHHHH, Good times.....................

Tim
P------ "One of those mean ole Red States" Arizona

Enjoy the next 4 years with Dubya!

Well, that was a very revealing email about Tim's personal "hobbies," baby oil and all. Ugh!!!

Here's an erudite movie critic on the merits of my Flash movie:

From: A---M---@aol.com

hi faggot. you're movie is the gayest thing I've ever seen and it made me laugh. all those dumbocrats crying was too much fun to handle. man it made my day.

Mike
4MOREYEARS

I'm glad to know that my so-called "gay movie" made your day. Are you hiding something from us maybe, Mike?

Here's another Mike sharing his sadistic tendencies:

from: m-----@hotmail.com

Dear Sir,

I’d like to thank you for your heart wrenching tribute to the
Kerry/Edwards
campaign. It was the funniest damn thing I’ve seen in a long time.

Watching poor lefties/liberals cry . . . absolutely priceless.

Warm Regards,

Mike T----

I expect someone with Mike's tendencies to volunteer as guard in places like Abu Grahib. His kind of job.

Gail, on the other hand, delight us with some poorly cooked tinfoil theory straight from the underbelly of Art Bell's nightmares:

From: --@--.rr.com

Dear Sir or Madam:

You are probably too young to remember but Kerry is the single person most responsible for the mistreatment of Viet Nam veterans in the 1970's. He concocted war crimes storeis out of whole cloth. This defamation of his country and his fellow soldiers was committed for the sake of his political career.

He went to Paris and met with the Communist North Vietnamese and brought their talking points back to the United States. If you want to see what John Kerry wrought look at Viet Nam. Look at the lack of political freedom and the prison camps. That is what John Kerry helped create.

Gail L------

Was that before or after Kerry shot JFK from the grassy knoll as commanded by the aliens that abducted him? Not sure if I follow...

Brian, on the other hand, seems a little bit lost in his own mind:

From: brian g-------" b--------@yahoo.com

Hail the great socialist state. Hail the grand sheocracy. Lets centralize all power to the federal government and pass laws so the girly-men can rule with an iron fist. He has a dream.

The Moops, I'm sure it was the Moops!!!

Jake, of course, had to bring race to the mixture. He couldn't help himself:

From: jake----@ny---.rr.com


Funny, Democrats love flaunting their IQ & SAT scores when
comparing themselves to Republicans: but when it comes to the lower
scores
for black and hispanics(reliably Democratic voters) you say that is
racist
amnd scores don't mean anything.

Nice Jake, nice. We now know where you stand on some things. Yup.
Rick, on the other hand, tries his best to express his feelings by banging the keyboard:

From: Rick@---------------.com
I WAS HOPING TO SEE MORE OF THE NAKED FREAKAZOIDS WHO WERE SUCH A LARGE PART OF THE "CAMPAIGN".
THAT MIGHT HAVE LIFTED THIS PIECE ABOVE THE LEVEL OF A FUNNY WALLOW IN SELF-PITY TO A TRUE KNEE SLAPPER.
GOD KNOWS I WAS LAUGHING MY ASS OFF THROUGH THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN.
YOU GUYS KEEP IT UP WHILE THE GROWNUPS HANDLE THE GROWNUP PROBLEMS.
HOPE TO SEE MORE IN 2008.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND GOD BLESS.

RICHARD A. D---------
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

Naked "freakazoids"? What campaign were you watching?

Tim, on the other hand, seemed to start the booze too early in the morning:

From: Timothy F-------", ts---------@mindspring.com

John Kerry would have defeated the Islamic fascists, but Bush is going
to hand the country over to those that would enslave our women and
force us all to worship Allah or die.

TS F-------
Los Angeles

What? Hello? I don't think I follow.

Well, the rest of the barrage of emails are no better, only less interesting and usually shorter. With the exception of threating emails we received, most of the rest were one-lines, containing one or two expletives.

The following is some of the "best" in the comments section. Here the ignorance and vitriol reached another different level:

Hooray! The Democrat party is almost destroyed! It's quivering with a wooden stake through its black heart. The Hate-America Left is snivelling over at DU, go read the meltdown!

MK,Minnesota

Get the fuck out of MY country you losers!
Sniffles the Democrat

Sorry y'all are taking it so hard, I know you had a lot of emotion wrapped up in defeating the evil Haliburton/Suadi oligarchy. Still, life goes on, your taxes will stay low, and there are still no plans for a draft.
gaw

liberals are such useless women. What happened to feminism, you pussies? cry cry cry eat me.
Liberalsareassholes

No wonder you lost. You are all a buncha faggoty girly men from taxachusetss.
Blue-State Guy

You guys are a constant source of entertainment each and every day. That's why WE let you stay around in OUR country you filthy traitors.
God I love the internet!
Miss Trixie

Well, I must say that this erm tribute (?) just confirms what I have thought about you radical, fringe commies-oh scuse me-lefties all along.....ya'll are in dire need of help.
But thanks for the laugh! Rot in hell, communists
The Pulchritudinous Patriot

Man that's a lot of ugly, dour liberals. Why are liberals so ugly, and unkempt? Sure you have the occasional cutie; and Hollywood helps elevate your inferior gene pool a little bit. But, for the most part, liberals are hideous looking sub-human creatures, never mind their despicable politics.
Thank goodness we don't have to look at the likes of Kerry and Momma-T for the next four years, two of the ugliest people on the face of the planet.
kuleshov

ROTFLMAO, that is the funniest footage since Rachel Corrie lost that wrestling match with a Bulldozer. Thanks.
Crusader

There are more like these. Quite an amazing insight into the darkness of the demented ultra-right-winger soul.