Fox News' Mike Huckabee: Won't someone cast him in a remake of 'Face in the Crowd?'
Typecasting. Heh.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Headline of the Day
Typecasting. Heh.
Aha!
Raw Story
Must still be working on the script...or trying to find an actor with even less self-respect than the ones who do the call-ins.
The company responsible for syndicating big conservative radio names like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity has been using paid actors to call in to their radio shows.
While it's unclear which syndicated shows used the service, Op Ed News' Gustav Wynn speculated that Sean Hannity would be a prime candidate.
"Hannity's record of being caught manipulating public opinion, deceptively editing video, suppressing opposing views, and lopsided call ratios through the decades speaks for itself," Wynn wrote.
A call to Rush Limbaugh's spokesman was not returned at the time of publication.
Must still be working on the script...or trying to find an actor with even less self-respect than the ones who do the call-ins.
Three Fatal Republican Mistakes That Could Spell Their Defeat Next November
If they were really fatal, they'd all be dead but I guess that's too much to hope for. Robert Creamer at HuffPo:
Believing your own spin = drinking your own bath water.
That's basically their M.O., along with calling people godless commies who don't fall for their shit. When they get caught at it, which is more and more, they double down. The lies are getting so blatant, one marvels that they can do it with a straight face, but that's their way.
Also, at this point Mr. Creamer kinda goes off the rails or needed a tidy ending and says how smart American voters are and how they're catchin' on to the Repug bullshit. Yeesh. How long d'ya have to beat yer head against a wall before you realize it feels good when you stop? How smart does that make you?
Steep dive, meet the ground. Sooner rather than later.
First, Republicans forgot the fundamental truth that it is much more difficult to take something away from people that they already have, than to prevent them from getting something for which they aspire.
... (instead of the lengthy explanation - G)
The Republicans have forgotten this important history lesson. Take away things that people already have and you're in for a world of trouble.
Want to know how completely they've forgotten this lesson? Just last week, House Speaker John Boehner actually told the Wall Street Journal that his budget will attempt to cut Social Security and Medicare. This, in spite of polling that shows virtually zero support among the voters. There will be a firestorm of opposition. Go right ahead, John, make our day.
Second, the Republicans have forgotten the all-important political principle, that you can't believe your own spin. That's especially true if you spend all of your time talking to the small group of people who agree with you. Take the House of Representative's newly-elected Tea Party Caucus. This insular crew talks to each other -- repeats each other's slogans -- listens to Fox News and has convinced themselves that most Americans agree that government spending is the worst thing since murder and mayhem.
Believing your own spin = drinking your own bath water.
The winds have shifted -- and because they believe their own spin, many Republicans have yet to notice.
Bottom line is that these guys think they're flying straight and level, and they're really in a steep dive.
Third, the Republicans have failed to learn that you can tell people that up is down, and black is white, for only so long. Or to paraphrase one of the founders of the Republican Party: "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
That's basically their M.O., along with calling people godless commies who don't fall for their shit. When they get caught at it, which is more and more, they double down. The lies are getting so blatant, one marvels that they can do it with a straight face, but that's their way.
Also, at this point Mr. Creamer kinda goes off the rails or needed a tidy ending and says how smart American voters are and how they're catchin' on to the Repug bullshit. Yeesh. How long d'ya have to beat yer head against a wall before you realize it feels good when you stop? How smart does that make you?
Steep dive, meet the ground. Sooner rather than later.
Quote of the Day
From a NYTimes piece you should read on how the End Of Days may be coming for one particular F**Prop loony hater who could be put to better use wherever they put guys with "The End Is Near!" sandwich boards.
The problem with predicting doomsday is that if you’re wrong, you have to figure out what to say the next day. And if you’re right ... well, the ratings will be terrific, for what that’s worth.
A Note to Rich People: You Should Probably Be Thinking Ahead Right About Now
If the Rude Pundit were a really, really rich motherfucker, like in the several hundred million and above club, he'd call a meeting of all his fellow really, really rich motherfuckers and he'd tell 'em that we've crossed a line, and, unless we want our houses burned down, our assets confiscated, our dogs raped, and our children killed like they were the brood of the Tsar, we better stop acting like such greedy pricks and demand that the people we all own in the government stop licking our taints clean for a little while and start acting like we're regular Americans, not First Class Black Card Americans.
The really, really rich Rude Pundit would point out that the filthy masses are getting all squirrely about collective bargaining rights and budget cuts on programs for the poor and middle class in order to pay for our tax cuts and the failure to prosecute a single person for shitcanning the economy. He'd then inform everyone that once the income gap gets more fully into the rhetorical mix, well, we really, really rich motherfuckers would be fucked and a half.
We'll round up on that. Double fucked.
More.
Oh, the irony...
Ironic Times
It's getting harder and harder to see the irony in these. I guess 'reasonably accurate reporting' is taking its place.
House Republicans Call for National Identity Card
It would allow officials at various points of entry to determine whether or not you're a Republican.
Government Grimly Holds On to Capital While Rebels Control Rest of Country
Will never surrender, vows Karzai.
Evangelists Forgive Gingrich, Themselves for Adultery, Lying
While attacking others who don’t meet high moral standards.
House GOP Wants to Cut IRS Budget for Audits
In nod to tax cheater base.
It's getting harder and harder to see the irony in these. I guess 'reasonably accurate reporting' is taking its place.
And Michael Moore is fat ...
Just like Al Gore, so they should be ignored:
...
How dare he, does he not remember his place...or that he's fat?
...
This is why ...
When the lease ran out on the Mrs.' car a few months ago, we turned it in and got a 4-cylinder, 2WD Escape instead. We still have the hotrod Limited Edition AWD V-6, but we drive the smaller-engined car more and more (except when the snow required us to use the AWD car), mostly for around-town errands where the 6-cylinder sucks it down (we've been averaging 28.5 mpg with the four and 21 mpg with the six*). I'm glad (now that prices hang around $4/gal) we made that move, especially since our past will probably come back to haunt us.
Heading up to the shop this morning for a vehicle inspection. I hope I don't notice the star in the windshield**.
*A disclaimer: I'd probably get better mileage with the 6-cylinder but it is so fun to drive. Heh ...
Heading up to the shop this morning for a vehicle inspection. I hope I don't notice the star in the windshield**.
**I am a New York State Vehicle Inspector.
McCarthyism ...
We haz it. The Long Island idiot ... no, the other one ... no, the other one ... no no, this one is convening his "Blame the Muslims" witch hunt hearings on the "Radicalization of Islam" in this country:
I don't want to know about anybody's god but this is still America (for however long that will last) and no religion, or none at all, should be held above or below another. King is just demonizing Muslims and throwing red meat to the base.
...
"What we're talking about is the demonization and criminalization of an entire American faith community here in our nation," MPAC's Alejandro Beutel said, describing the basic theory of the anti-Muslim fear mongerers this way: "You have to be on guard against all Muslims because you don't know when they're going to go all Jihad on you."
The fears over "creeping Sharia" follows a McCarthyite theme, said Beutel. "Instead of the Communist threat, it's the Muslim threat and the implementation of Sharia."
...
I don't want to know about anybody's god but this is still America (for however long that will last) and no religion, or none at all, should be held above or below another. King is just demonizing Muslims and throwing red meat to the base.
Look!
Shiny stuff!!!!
Keep us distracted by any means necessary because if they didn't we would have had our "Cairo moment" years ago.
...Why are there so many bright, shiny things sparkling at us at every media turn? Whence, and whither, come these many distractions? Why is so much blame shifted from the Masters of the Universe whose lifestyles have been affected not at all by their catastrophic asset-stripping of the middle class? Why do our corrupt media institutions, those serving the elite and those serving the passive sofa-bound infotainment consumer, spend so much time lying to Americans about who, exactly, is responsible for the collapse of the dream of our middle-class, both former inhabitants and aspirants?
Why? Because the elites atop the pyramid that is the teetering American economy are desperately afraid. They fear that Americans will all, suddenly and at once, realize that we are being set against one another in a finely honed scheme of blame-shifting and division. Those who screwed us over — and continue to screw us over by driving our government’s priorities far afield of what we all want — know that if the scales fell from our eyes, things could get very ugly for them very quickly.
...
Keep us distracted by any means necessary because if they didn't we would have had our "Cairo moment" years ago.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Gordon George Shuttleworth, Speed Demon
Through the twin miracles of 'cut & paste' and 'YouTube', I have created a video extravaganza for your viewing pleasure over at Fixer & Gordon. Enjoy!
WikiLeaks cables recount how U.S. pressured allies
EssEffChron
How d'ya say 'spineless wimps' in German?
No doubt all the perps are safe as long as the Spaniards have a guy sitting on the case with no intention of reopening it.
Note to U.S. war criminals: Have at it. Nobody's going to come after you.
They have received little attention in the United States, but a set of WikiLeaks disclosures of confidential documents has caused an uproar in Europe by showing that U.S. officials pressured Germany and Spain to derail criminal investigations of Americans.
After German prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents allegedly involved in el-Masri's abduction, a February 2007 cable quoted the deputy U.S. chief of mission in Berlin as advising a German diplomat to "weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S." if the agents were prosecuted.
The German government withdrew the warrants five months later.
How d'ya say 'spineless wimps' in German?
A Spanish judge announced a criminal investigation in January 2009 into whether six lawyers in President George W. Bush's administration had approved torture. They included former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and John Yoo, the UC Berkeley law professor whose memos as a Justice Department attorney authorized the near-drowning technique called waterboarding.
WikiLeaks cables from April and May 2009 said Spanish officials were being warned about the case by diplomats from the Obama administration and by a visiting U.S. senator, Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who allegedly told Spain's foreign minister that the prosecution would have "an enormous impact on the bilateral relationship." The Miami Herald has reported that Martinez was carrying that message for the Obama administration.
The documents also quoted U.S. diplomats as urging Spain to transfer the case from Judge Baltasar Garzón, known for far-reaching investigations of suspected international law violations and for criticism of U.S. policies. The cables described Garzón as a "publicity-loving" jurist with an "anti-American streak" and said Spain's chief prosecutor was trying to remove him.
Spain's government has since suspended Garzón for allegedly exceeding his authority in another case. Another judge has taken up the case of the Bush administration lawyers but has not decided whether to reopen it.
No doubt all the perps are safe as long as the Spaniards have a guy sitting on the case with no intention of reopening it.
Note to U.S. war criminals: Have at it. Nobody's going to come after you.
A b-o-o-o-y and his g-o-o-o-ats
LATimes on environmentally friendly reforestation:
Living with goats. Man, he's livin' the dream!
Uh-oh... Time ta get ta town, Mark.
Sounds like a lead pipe cinch to me.
Grazing, low-cost and environmentally friendly, is becoming a more common practice in restoration and conservation efforts. In 2008 and again last year, goats were put to work clearing weeds near Angels Flight in downtown L.A. — though not nearly so many. In 2009, the conservancy also used goats in the preserve.
For many years, goats were removed from natural areas because they were known for eating everything in sight. Now, conservationists and fire safety officials realize that the creatures are efficient as long as they are monitored.
That is the job of the goats' keeper, Mark Choi, 41, who will basically live with them as they chomp their way across the valley as part of the Portuguese Bend Restoration Project.
Living with goats. Man, he's livin' the dream!
An additional 120 goats will arrive this week. Choi has nicknamed one friendly goat Pepper for the charcoal freckles dotting her face.
Uh-oh... Time ta get ta town, Mark.
The goats will stay around for a couple of weeks; the exact time will be determined by how quickly they eat.
"It's on goat time," Choi said. "It depends on their appetite."
Sounds like a lead pipe cinch to me.
Governor Brown Redux: The Iceman Melteth
MoDo does Moonbeam:
Less Jesuit and more Buddhist these days, I hope.
My kinda guy!
If you want to dish on tiger blood and Adonis DNA, go elsewhere. In the fantastic, monastic world of Jerry Brown, the talk veers toward Wittgenstein, the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and preventing the collapse of the American empire.
“We’ve got to hunker down,” he says. “We’ve got to get more discipline. We don’t have a lot of time, and we’re an aging white society for the most part, and we need to get our act together.”
The shock of dark hair is gone, but Jerry Brown is still Jerry Brown. The prickliness, bluntness, questioning, calculating. That against-the-grain attitude; disdain for materialism, emptiness and politics as usual; that Jesuit-Buddhist outlook.
Less Jesuit and more Buddhist these days, I hope.
In the old days, he tried to get people to accept their limits when they didn’t think there were limits; now that they’ve learned the hard way that there are, his gospel sells well.
He’s pondering putting a drinking tent outside the Statehouse to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger’s smoking tent (which the ex-Governator took with him, along with his Conan the Barbarian sword).
If the legislators approve his plan, a mix of spending cuts and tax extensions, the big test will be a referendum on it in June. If his plan passes, California could become the laboratory for how to do things right, the anti-Wisconsin (Yay! My em). It is remarkable to watch the governors on two coasts, Brown and Andrew Cuomo, both sons of iconic liberal governors, boldly go against the grain to do what works today. They are eliminating or reforming many of their dads’ hallmark programs.
He was a precursor to the Tea Party, and he admits he tends to be a “tear-it-apart guy.” “But I feel I’m in a more constructive mode at this time of my life,” he said. “I understand hostility and alienation from the soulless bureaucratic state, but the Tea Party is a tear-it-apart group. We have to have continuity along with change if we’re going to hold the place together.”
After watching Meg Whitman squander $178.5 million of her own money, Californians seem to be getting a kick out of Brown’s cheap side. With his gift for symbolism or, some say, gimmickry, he froze state hiring, banned official cellphones and barred state agencies from giving out swag — coffee mugs, hats and cups. He flies commercial, often solo, on Southwest Airlines, with a senior citizen discount.
“It’s a message,” he says. “The medium is the message.”
Was he cheap as a child? “During World War II, to get butter, we had little ration tickets,” he says. “I thought it was kind of fun.” His uncle Frank, he says, was so tight he had a pay phone in his house.
On his way out, he grabs an apple and a banana. They’re free.
My kinda guy!
Indeed!
From Nucks' post; just follow the link:
...
If you didn't think Boehner was complete fucking anal wart before, here ya go.
...
A primer ...
A well written, easy to understand primer about how the rich have soaked us over the past 30 years:
As Paul Krugman likes to say, "we don't have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem".
...
Several examples show this. First, a good part of the money the rich save from taxes is then lent by them to the government (in the form of buying US Treasury securities for their personal investment portfolios). It would obviously be better for the government to tax the rich to maintain its expenditures, and thereby avoid deficits and debts. Then the government would not need to tax the rest of us to pay interest on those debts to the rich.
Second, the richest Americans take the money they save from taxes and invest big parts of it in China, India and elsewhere. That often produces more jobs over there, fewer jobs here, and more imports of goods produced abroad. US dollars flow out to pay for those imports and so accumulate in the hands of foreign banks and foreign governments. They, in turn, lend from that wealth to the US government because it does not tax our rich, and so we get taxed to pay for the interest Washington has to give those foreign banks and governments. The largest single recipient of such interest payments today is the People's Republic of China.
Third, the richest Americans take the money they don't pay in taxes and invest it in hedge funds and with stockbrokers to make profitable investments. These days, that often means speculating in oil and food, which drives up their prices, undermines economic recovery for the mass of Americans, and produces acute suffering around the globe. Those hedge funds and brokers likewise use part of the money rich people save from taxes to speculate in the US stock markets. That has recently driven stock prices higher: hence, the stock market recovery. And that mostly helps – you guessed it – the richest Americans who own most of the stocks.
...
As Paul Krugman likes to say, "we don't have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem".
Saturday, March 5, 2011
In der bunker
This clip has been used for all kinds of stuff. It even has a genre - the "Hitler Downfall Parody* Video". There are two of these so far about the Wisconsin power grab. Different approaches, both pretty good.
*
First one's here.
This is the better of the two according to Josh Marshall.
*
"The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it's only fair if now it's taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like."
First one's here.
This is the better of the two according to Josh Marshall.
Thanks to WIGovPR.
Quote of the Day
From a MoDo column about Afghanistan:
Emphasis mine.
“Every conflict in the world today has its origin in the imagination of British map drawers,”...
Emphasis mine.
So would I ...
Jill says what I have for a long time:
I'd be more than willing to pay a couple percent more in federal taxes if we had good roads and infrastructure, good education for all our kids, and single-payer or affordable health care for everyone. But, by golly, the rich folks better kick in their share too.
...
What I've told these people is that if I had to pay, for example, $2000 more a year in federal taxes at my income level, but within five years our nation's economy would be on a sound footing, I'd do that in a heartbeat. And I don't even have children who are going to need a nation that doesn't look like a Mad Max movie. If I had to pay more in state taxes to get my state back on even keel within five years, I'd do it. And those numbers really WOULD make a difference to what I take home. So why is it such anathema to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a few thousand more a year?
I'd be more than willing to pay a couple percent more in federal taxes if we had good roads and infrastructure, good education for all our kids, and single-payer or affordable health care for everyone. But, by golly, the rich folks better kick in their share too.
Don't need no steenkin' driver...
Rare footage of the time I took Fixer for a ride. Or tried to. Don't worry, he saves the damsel in distress and comes up smellin' like a rose like he always does. I just sat in the mud puddle like I always do.
Thanks to dantedite, Mexico.
Clip is from Sherlock Jr. (1924) starring Buster Keaton.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Cajun Recruiter
I got this from my buddy Arnie. Some of the facts are wrong, it's a joke, but given the way the military is trying to cheat Vets outta their bennies the upshot is right on the money:
[Boudreaux, the smoothest-talking Cajun in the Louisiana National Guard, Got called up to active duty. Boudreaux's first assignment was to a military induction center, and because he was a good talker, was assigned the duty of advising new recruits about government benefits, especially the GI insurance to which they were entitled.
Before long, the Captain in charge of the induction center began noticing that Boudreaux was getting a 99% signup rate for the more expensive supplemental form of GI insurance. This was odd, because it would cost these low-income recruits $30 per month more for the higher coverage, compared to what the government was already providing at no charge.
The Captain decided that he would not ask Boudreaux directly about his selling techniques, but instead he would sit in the back of the room at the next briefing and observe Boudreaux's sales pitch.
Boudreaux stood up before the latest group of inductees and said, 'If you got da normal GI inshoranse an' you go to Iraq an' git yoself kilt, da governmen' gonna pay you beneficiary $20,000.
If you take out da supplemental inshoranse, which cost you only t'irty dollar a mont, den da governmen' gotta pay you beneficiary $200,000.'
'NOW,' Boudreaux concluded, 'which bunch you tink dey gonna send ta Iraq furst?']
Heh. Not far off the mark.
[Boudreaux, the smoothest-talking Cajun in the Louisiana National Guard, Got called up to active duty. Boudreaux's first assignment was to a military induction center, and because he was a good talker, was assigned the duty of advising new recruits about government benefits, especially the GI insurance to which they were entitled.
Before long, the Captain in charge of the induction center began noticing that Boudreaux was getting a 99% signup rate for the more expensive supplemental form of GI insurance. This was odd, because it would cost these low-income recruits $30 per month more for the higher coverage, compared to what the government was already providing at no charge.
The Captain decided that he would not ask Boudreaux directly about his selling techniques, but instead he would sit in the back of the room at the next briefing and observe Boudreaux's sales pitch.
Boudreaux stood up before the latest group of inductees and said, 'If you got da normal GI inshoranse an' you go to Iraq an' git yoself kilt, da governmen' gonna pay you beneficiary $20,000.
If you take out da supplemental inshoranse, which cost you only t'irty dollar a mont, den da governmen' gotta pay you beneficiary $200,000.'
'NOW,' Boudreaux concluded, 'which bunch you tink dey gonna send ta Iraq furst?']
Heh. Not far off the mark.
White House Home Brew!
From Obama Foodorama:
Menu follows. Shorter: lemme at it and screw the heart attack!
Enjoy the post, but here's my point:
Untaxed booze in the White House! Obama is a great American!
I know it's legal to make beer, ale, and wine at home. It's the, er, spirit of the thing.
Brewed with one pound of honey from this year's 160-pound harvest from the White House Bee Hive, the Ale was made by an unnamed White House chef who is a home-brewing enthusiast. The President, First Lady, and their guests sampled the special suds for the first time this evening. The label on the bottle reads "Brewed With White House Honey."
To go with the Ale, the Obamas served a menu that highlighted regional favorites from both Packer and Steeler countries--er, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania:
Menu follows. Shorter: lemme at it and screw the heart attack!
Enjoy the post, but here's my point:
Untaxed booze in the White House! Obama is a great American!
I know it's legal to make beer, ale, and wine at home. It's the, er, spirit of the thing.
Thanks to fkazz, Japan.
Southern Conservatives Reveal Their True "Family Values"
Legal Schnauzer
The Schnauz goes on to describe these instances, stuff I've never even heard of in fifty years of hangin' out with bikers and dopers and other degenerates like Libruls and mechanics. Jackin' off near a park where kids hang out, fer chrissake!
So you may well ask, "Whaddya bother with this shit for? It's a well-known fact that all Repugs are hypocritical perverts."
The answer lies deep in Schnauz's post:
Fuckin' A! Er, I mean, Amen, Brethren!
Perhaps nothing delights progressives quite like having a conservative Republican proven to be a fraud on "values" issues. It's particularly delightful when a conservative is outed in the deep-red South.
Two such outings have happened in recent days, and I'm so broken up about it that I can't wipe the smile off my face.
The Schnauz goes on to describe these instances, stuff I've never even heard of in fifty years of hangin' out with bikers and dopers and other degenerates like Libruls and mechanics. Jackin' off near a park where kids hang out, fer chrissake!
Conservatives always have a ready excuse when they get caught with their pants down--or unzipped, as the case might be:
(Lamest excuse I ever heard, and I've heard a few! - G)
Probably didn't want to use the restroom because there might be perverts in there.
So you may well ask, "Whaddya bother with this shit for? It's a well-known fact that all Repugs are hypocritical perverts."
The answer lies deep in Schnauz's post:
It's too much fun to pile on when the opportunity arises.
Fuckin' A! Er, I mean, Amen, Brethren!
Question of the Day
Why Can't Republicans Just Tell the Truth?
There's an article, but the short answer is:
Because it would put them out of business. Or worse, they'd sound like Liberals! Gasp! Either way it would derail the gravy train.
Jon Stewart Nails Fox News Hypocrisy On Teachers Vs. Wall Street Pay Levels
TPMLiveWire
Given how much Fox News has called teachers unions greedy for their pay and benefit packages, Jon Stewart expected them to have a consistent record of calling out greed in other sectors as well -- perhaps even in the financial sector.
Big surprise: the record is hardly consistent.
On Thursday night's Daily Show Stewart began by pretending to buy into the Fox argument that teachers are grossly overpaid.
...
He then played footage from just a few months ago that showed Fox anchors wailing that the Bush tax cuts must be extended for people making over $250,000 per year because those people, as one anchor put it, were almost living in poverty.
"See the difference?" Stewart asked. "Regardless of the greed-based, slightly sociopathic job bankers did wrecking our economy, those people were there every single day, twelve months a year."
A Day Without a Mexican
MoJo
The difference is that the Onion folks have to think to come up with ridiculous stuff like that. Apparently the lack of a thought process works too. Repugs are especially gifted that way.
Texas state Rep. Debbie "Terror Babies" Riddle has introduced a new bill that would make it a serious crime to hire an illegal immigrant. But her bill allows one exception:
Under the House Bill 2012 introduced by a tea party favorite state Rep. Debbie Riddle — who's been saying for some time that she'd like to see Texas institute an Arizona-style immigration law — hiring an undocumented maid, caretaker, lawnworker or any type of houseworker would be allowed. Why? As Texas state Rep. Aaron Pena, also a Republican, told CNN, without the exemption, "a large segment of the Texas population" would wind up in prison if the bill became law.
"When it comes to household employees or yard workers it is extremely common for Texans to hire people who are likely undocumented workers," Pena told the news giant. "It is so common it is overlooked."
No, this is not from the Onion. It's from a Texas Republican. Though it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference these days.
The difference is that the Onion folks have to think to come up with ridiculous stuff like that. Apparently the lack of a thought process works too. Repugs are especially gifted that way.
"let your freak flag fly"
The Rude Pundit on the Supremes' WBC decision:
Let's get a couple of things straight here: Almost no one actually supports the Westboro Baptist Church, a handful of inbred, dick-faced, walking cumstains whose accumulated intelligence and number of teeth drag the human species a few rungs down the evolutionary ladder to that level where throwing one's own shit is seen as a valid expression of dissent. [...]
But, ah, shit, much as it sucks, the Supreme Court's 8-1 decision was correct to affirm the right of the inbreds to wave their retard signs of hate. "This nation's destruction is imminent," cackled one of the inbreds like Walter Brennan on a meth binge. That was in appreciation of the decision and completely without irony.
So you see that sign up there at the Wisconsin State Capitol? It reads "Walker Sucks Koch," in reference to Governor Scott Walker and the wealthy conservative financiers whom he blows. What the Supreme Court also said was that, as long as it's in a public space, let your freak flag fly, man. "God Hates Fags" is now where the bar has been set. Surely we can be more creative when it comes to more of our causes. Justice John Roberts told us to go for it.
Be careful. For once, Rude-Man misses the point: IonlyOKIYAR.
Don't they have a law ...
Against consorting with "known terrorist organizations", let alone taking money from them?
Or is it that some "terrorist organizations" are less terrorist-y than others? Or is it that "terrorism" is okay if they're terrorizing somebody you don't like? Or is it that these guys are big shots and this is America and big shots can do anything they damn well please?
I'm going for "all of the above".
Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton (D) and former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni told the Inter Press Service that they were paid to appear at recent events supporting the MEK, an Iranian opposition group currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department.
...
Or is it that some "terrorist organizations" are less terrorist-y than others? Or is it that "terrorism" is okay if they're terrorizing somebody you don't like? Or is it that these guys are big shots and this is America and big shots can do anything they damn well please?
I'm going for "all of the above".
"Shared sacrifice"...
Benen:
Not one House Rethug voted to kill the subsidies to oil companies ($53 billion worth), but those lazy, BMW-driving union teachers are driving us to bankruptcy. Realizing, of course, that the money taken from the oil companies would go a long way to satisfying the Rethug/Teabagger demand for cuts to the budget (that's assuming they're actually worried about the deficit).
As anyone with half a brain knows by now, the Rethug plan has nothing to do with "deficit-reduction" or "spending cuts". It's all about breaking the middle class, period.
...
Here's the roll call on the vote. A total of 236 Republicans voted, and all of them opposed the effort to end public subsidies for oil companies.
...
Also note, ending the subsidies would save the federal government tens of billions of dollars, making a significant dent in the deficit-reduction campaign that Republicans pretend to care about. It's a reminder that the GOP's commitment to fiscal responsibility is shaped in large part by who'll suffer as a result of the cuts -- working families can feel the brunt of the budget ax, under the GOP vision, but ExxonMobil can't.
...
Not one House Rethug voted to kill the subsidies to oil companies ($53 billion worth), but those lazy, BMW-driving union teachers are driving us to bankruptcy. Realizing, of course, that the money taken from the oil companies would go a long way to satisfying the Rethug/Teabagger demand for cuts to the budget (that's assuming they're actually worried about the deficit).
As anyone with half a brain knows by now, the Rethug plan has nothing to do with "deficit-reduction" or "spending cuts". It's all about breaking the middle class, period.
Quote of the Day
Michelle Kraus:
Heh ...
... You know listening to him [Charlie Sheen] was like listening to ranting of the crazy uncle who spent a bit too much time alone in the attic drinking lighter fluid, and diddling himself ...
Heh ...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Two words ...
Bristol Palin:
But I guess the collective memory has forgotten about that already.
In a radio appearance on Monday, Mike Huckabee attacked actress Natalie Portman for having a child "out of wedlock." Huckabee said that it's "troubling" to see people like "Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.'" Huckabee added that "it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock."
...
But I guess the collective memory has forgotten about that already.
Quote of the Day
Susie:
... I am so used to authoritarian cops who don't give a damn about anyone else's rights that I'm deeply impressed by the Wisconsin cops who are refusing to allow themselves to be used against the governor's political opponents ...
George Will Is Confused...
What's new about that, you may well ask. Given that being confused about things he knows nothing about but being an expert on everything anyway is his stock in trade, this is something new he's an expert on but knows nothing about. HuffPo:
Actually it's not. It's "falling off a log" simple, yo: Will doesn't know jack shit about anything other than a narrow (minded) right-wing agenda, and he's not real clear on that.
Much more.
I like trains for a lot of reasons. I like the idea of loading my pickup with all my travellin' junk in it on a flatcar so I have it when I get wherever I'm going and pay for the railroad's wear and tear instead of my own. I hear this is big in the Back East I-95 corridor.
Also, I like the 'street art' on the sound walls in the cities. Railroad tracks always go through the oldest part of towns because they were laid a long time ago. Think 'inner city' and 'spray paint'. Some of it's gorgeous.
You see beautiful things you'd never see from a car even if you're not driving. You see the backs of things as well - ya think the front of an oil refinery is ugly? And stuff that's not so pretty, like f'rinstance all the discarded tires lining the shore of the nether regions of Frisco Bay. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all out there.
You can meet and chat with people. You can get something to eat. You can sleep and read. You don't have to pull off the road to go to the can. You can just look out the window. Your destination will be just the same when you get there.
Air travel is faster, of course, but it's turned into such a pain in the ass that most folks use it but don't like it any more. I'd rather take the train than fly, always have, time permitting. It just needs to be more dog- and car-friendly.
George Will is too elite in his thinking to realize the value of rail. He's an ass.
One way of looking at high-speed rail systems is that they are a means by which distant communities get connected, economic development and jobs are fostered, and workers with a diverse array of marketable skills can improve their mobility and thus their employment prospects. But another way of looking at high-speed rail is that it's some nonsense that came to a bunch of hippies as they tripped balls at a Canned Heat concert. That's my takeaway with George Will's latest grapple-with-the-real-world session, in which he attempts to figure out "Why liberals love trains." It's "Matrix" deep, yo:
Actually it's not. It's "falling off a log" simple, yo: Will doesn't know jack shit about anything other than a narrow (minded) right-wing agenda, and he's not real clear on that.
Time was, the progressive cry was "Workers of the world unite!" or "Power to the people!" Now it is less resonant: "All aboard!"
Yes. Because Karl Marx invented mass transit.
Much more.
I like trains for a lot of reasons. I like the idea of loading my pickup with all my travellin' junk in it on a flatcar so I have it when I get wherever I'm going and pay for the railroad's wear and tear instead of my own. I hear this is big in the Back East I-95 corridor.
Also, I like the 'street art' on the sound walls in the cities. Railroad tracks always go through the oldest part of towns because they were laid a long time ago. Think 'inner city' and 'spray paint'. Some of it's gorgeous.
You see beautiful things you'd never see from a car even if you're not driving. You see the backs of things as well - ya think the front of an oil refinery is ugly? And stuff that's not so pretty, like f'rinstance all the discarded tires lining the shore of the nether regions of Frisco Bay. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all out there.
You can meet and chat with people. You can get something to eat. You can sleep and read. You don't have to pull off the road to go to the can. You can just look out the window. Your destination will be just the same when you get there.
Air travel is faster, of course, but it's turned into such a pain in the ass that most folks use it but don't like it any more. I'd rather take the train than fly, always have, time permitting. It just needs to be more dog- and car-friendly.
George Will is too elite in his thinking to realize the value of rail. He's an ass.
NBC/WSJ Poll Finds Americans Wary of GOP Agenda
From Slate, links at site:
Democrats? Coherent message? When we are dodging excreta from flying porcines.
It is easier to get the attention of a mule by hitting him upside the head with a 2x4 than it is to get Americans to wake up to the people who are trying to flush this country down the shitter. Our national attention span being what it is, this too may pass.
The latest survey of American attitudes toward the budget contains what could be some alarming news for Republicans. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Americans are more worried about job creation and economic growth than the federal deficit. And while they "find some budget cuts acceptable, they are adamantly opposed to cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and K-12 education." A GOP pollster who helped conduct the survey called the results "a huge flashing yellow sign to Republicans" and pointed out that the people "most concerned about spending cuts are core Republicans and Tea Party supporters, not independents and swing voters." Steve Benen seconds that: "the party's agenda is appealing to its far-right base, not the American mainstream," he says. "The public isn't buying what the GOP is selling." Kevin Drum agrees. "The tea party is still a pretty small part of America no matter how loudly they yell or how much attention the media pays to them," he says. "Out in real America, people want to tax the rich, cut stupid weapons programs, and stop subsidizing prosperous oil companies. They don't want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or education." That means Democrats "most likely hold all the cards in a budget showdown," if they can "manage to agree on a halfway coherent message."
Democrats? Coherent message? When we are dodging excreta from flying porcines.
It is easier to get the attention of a mule by hitting him upside the head with a 2x4 than it is to get Americans to wake up to the people who are trying to flush this country down the shitter. Our national attention span being what it is, this too may pass.
Brauereisterben
Of interest to beer aficionados:
I like buxom servers in overflowing dirndls!
Verrrrry interesting. You vill go. You vill enyoy.
Germans, famously, coin neologisms when a crisis hits or the culture reels in a new direction. Take die bad bank (toxic lender), kreditklemme (credit crunch), or twittern (sending a message via Twitter). Because Germany's brewing industry has fallen on hard times, especially since the mid-1990s, you'll now hear brauereisterben (literally, "brewery death") muttered across the land as well. That may sound a little ridiculous, but in a country practically synonymous with beer and brewing — buxom servers in dirndls and overflowing steins, the biergarten echoing with song — the possibility of a downturn is a major buzz kill.
I like buxom servers in overflowing dirndls!
Verrrrry interesting. You vill go. You vill enyoy.
Headline of the Day with video
The Idiot's Guide to Foreign Wars (Iraq Edition)
...that offered pidgin Arabic phrases and lists of things not to do in Arab societies, a sort of Cliff's Notes for befuddled infantrymen.
Speaking as a former befuddled infantryman (sort of), gee, thanks.
Thanks to MotherJonesVideo,
As basic and simplified as this info sounds, it's more than Bush knew about Arabs and Muslims before his bully ego sent us to an unnecessary criminal war. It's only taken 8 years and 100,000 or so deaths.
The way it is
I heard this on TRMS yesterday. It's so simple, even I could remember it:
There are 12 cookies in front of a CEO, a Tea Party guy, and a union man.
The CEO takes 11 of them and then points at the union man and tells the teabagger, "he wants yours".
There it is.
There are 12 cookies in front of a CEO, a Tea Party guy, and a union man.
The CEO takes 11 of them and then points at the union man and tells the teabagger, "he wants yours".
There it is.
Some news for teabaggers ...
From Athenae:
Like lemmings to the sea. They've been sold an "American Dream" that is supposed to be served on a silver platter once the US becomes ideologically pure. Instead they're gonna get a shit sandwich like the rest of us. Goebbels sold Germany that line of shit too.
...Do you think it'll help?
That you were on their side, I mean. That you did their dirty work. That you ran around with signs and your little "Don't Tread on Me" flags and all the other stupid shit you carry, in support of an agenda that has not a whit to do with you. Do you think that will protect you when it all goes down?
Do you think your corporate masters will hate you less? Do you think you'll be rewarded for not rocking the boat? Do you think you'll get bonus points because you cheered their speeches and railed against their enemies? Do you think they'll remember you, what a good boy you were, and say hey, while I'm raining down eternal hellfire on these other damned souls, let's give that one an umbrella?
Do you think they'll even remember your name? You goddamn fool.
...
Like lemmings to the sea. They've been sold an "American Dream" that is supposed to be served on a silver platter once the US becomes ideologically pure. Instead they're gonna get a shit sandwich like the rest of us. Goebbels sold Germany that line of shit too.
Indeed!
NYT notices the "we're broke" narrative the Republicans are pushing is bullshit:
No shit. More Shock Doctrine "disaster capitalism".
I have a small glimmer of hope that part of the "Dead End Quarter"* might open their eyes now. Hopefully, the so-called independents have.
...
It’s all obfuscating nonsense, of course, a scare tactic employed for political ends. A country with a deficit is not necessarily any more “broke” than a family with a mortgage or a college loan. And states have to balance their budgets. Though it may disappoint many conservatives, there will be no federal or state bankruptcies.
...
No shit. More Shock Doctrine "disaster capitalism".
...
The federal deficit is too large for comfort, and most states are struggling to balance their books. Some of that is because of excessive spending, and much is because the recession has driven down tax revenues. But a substantial part was caused by deliberate decisions by state and federal lawmakers to drain government of resources by handing out huge tax cuts, mostly to the rich. As governments begin to stagger from the self-induced hemorrhaging, Republican politicians like Mr. Boehner and Mr. Walker cry poverty and use it as an excuse to break unions and kill programs they never liked in flush years. [my em]
...
I have a small glimmer of hope that part of the "Dead End Quarter"* might open their eyes now. Hopefully, the so-called independents have.
*The 25 - 30% of the population who refuse to think for themselves and take the Republican bullshit as gospel.
Not news ...
That Bobo is a smarmy, sleazy, POS and butt boy for the rich conservatives. Reading his latest propaganda column so pissed me off I wanted to punch the monitor. I was gonna rant and rave about it but this is far more articulate than I could ever be:
Heh.
As Gordon says, "a lot more between the quotes".
Reminds me of a concept Isaac Asimov used as a prop in one of his books. People running out of resources reasoned out (read:people like Bobo) that once someone reaches 60, they are a waste of time and resources and should be done away with. Like the movie Logan's Run and an episode of Star Trek: TNG, they made the end into a ceremony, something the oldsters looked forward to instead of something to dread.
That's where they're going in this country. If the Rethugs/Corporatists thought the teabaggers and Fox 'News' would buy into it, they'd be pushing it now.
"We're going to be doing a lot of deficit cutting over the next several years," David Brooks announced, plurally, in their column in today's New York Times. Little-known fact: the byline "David Brooks" is produced by five guys named "David Brook." They all get together and agree on stuff!
...
Heh.
...
What happens when there is no money to give to the people who have no money? That is the moral question. It's fine to say that the old people should have saved more, they should have worked an extra job, they should have done without cable TV, they should have invested more wisely. Saying that doesn't change the fact that there will be old people who do not have money. These old people will believe that they need food and shelter and medical care.
Will they get it? At the arch-plutocrats' end of things, the Koch brothers' end, the end occupied by the most devout worshippers of Ayn Rand, the answer is: no. That's the goal. It's long since time for the sloppy, implicit, badly supported social contract to go away. Rich people have been trimming their contribution to the general revenue for decades now. They are not interested in paying the premium that keeps old people and ailing people or just backward people out of the streets. If the day comes that they have to travel to and from their various compounds in armored helicopters, they can afford the helicopters. It's not their problem.
...
As Gordon says, "a lot more between the quotes".
Reminds me of a concept Isaac Asimov used as a prop in one of his books. People running out of resources reasoned out (read:people like Bobo) that once someone reaches 60, they are a waste of time and resources and should be done away with. Like the movie Logan's Run and an episode of Star Trek: TNG, they made the end into a ceremony, something the oldsters looked forward to instead of something to dread.
That's where they're going in this country. If the Rethugs/Corporatists thought the teabaggers and Fox 'News' would buy into it, they'd be pushing it now.
Thanks to Jill for the link.
Get 'em out!
The recall effort in Wisconsin is getting into full swing:
From what the article says, thesecriminals Rethug senators won their seats by very slim margins and, in the prevailing climate, are susceptible to recall:
Hopefully, there are sphincters tightening in the State House.
Last month, ThinkProgress reported that Wisconsin law allows any elected official who has served at least one year of their current term to be recalled from office. Today, a group of Wisconsin voters took the first step towards invoking this recall process. According to a Wisconsin Democratic Party e-mail that was obtained by ThinkProgress:
...
From what the article says, these
... Senator Randy Hopper won his last election by just 184 votes. And Alberta Darling won her last race by only 1,007 ...
Hopefully, there are sphincters tightening in the State House.
Link via DU.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Winning hearts and minds ...
Not this way:
It's long past time to go.
1,000 More Volunteers for the Taliban
Or at least that many Afghans who might have been disposed to help the government and the NATO soldiers, but will now look the other way when the Taliban is about.
...
It's long past time to go.
Whose line is it anyway?
Guardian UK
There are 10. Sample:
Hafta see 'em wave to know for sure.
Go try this. It's harder than ya think. Demented people talk the same everywhere. On dope, on the natch, mox nix. Heh.
Charlie Sheen v Muammar Gaddafi:
The US actor and the Libyan leader have produced some choice lines recently. Can you distinguish between them?
There are 10. Sample:
#5. I am like the Queen of England
() Sheen
() Gaddafi
Hafta see 'em wave to know for sure.
Go try this. It's harder than ya think. Demented people talk the same everywhere. On dope, on the natch, mox nix. Heh.
Bienvenidos a Juarez, Tejas!
From Guanabee: Spicy Coverage For Latinos.
Dream on. He won't do anything for Americans. Other than his rich friends, that is.
Also on that page is a very strange, and probably unsettling to a lotta gabachos, Vodka ad. I always thought Meskins liked Presidente brandy.
Heh. Maybe Portland is now the most dangerous border town in Mexico.
You know that stereotype of Texans being big, dumb idiots? Well, Texas Governor Rick Perry is doing his best to keep that image alive. During a press conference yesterday, while admonishing the current administration for its failure to secure our border with Mexico, he asked, "“How many more American citizens are going to have to die?” Continuing, he said, “There have been 34,000 Mexicans killed directly attributable to the drug wars. It is a very dangerous place. Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.”
Shhh...if no one tells him it's Mexico, maybe they'll actually do something to help the Mexican people.
Dream on. He won't do anything for Americans. Other than his rich friends, that is.
Also on that page is a very strange, and probably unsettling to a lotta gabachos, Vodka ad. I always thought Meskins liked Presidente brandy.
Heh. Maybe Portland is now the most dangerous border town in Mexico.
Hucka Sucka Mothaf**ka
Media Matters
Well, the Brits were a bunch of imperialists, and they did arrest his grandfather.
CSM
I wonder why? Heh.
I guess "misspoke" is the Repug word for "lied his ass off to pander to fools" when they get caught at it which is every time.
Keep it up, Huck-Man. Let's see if you can be elected President with 20% of the vote. With all the other wingnutjobs running, I bet you're not even right-wing-whacko enough to win the primary.
Speaking on WOR's The Steve Malzberg Show, Huckabee -- a Fox News host and potential presidential candidate -- said that "one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American ... his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British are a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."
Well, the Brits were a bunch of imperialists, and they did arrest his grandfather.
CSM
The executive director of Huckabee's political action committee said the former governor misspoke.
"When the governor mentioned he wanted to know more about the president, he wasn't talking about the president's place of birth — the governor believes the president was born in Hawaii," Hogan Gidley said. "The governor would, however, like to know more about where President Obama's liberal policies come from and what else the president plans to do to this country — as do most Americans."
Gidley said Huckabee meant to reference Obama's childhood in Indonesia, where he lived from the ages of 5 to 10. Gidley didn't explain the connection to the Mau Mau uprising.
I wonder why? Heh.
I guess "misspoke" is the Repug word for "lied his ass off to pander to fools" when they get caught at it which is every time.
Keep it up, Huck-Man. Let's see if you can be elected President with 20% of the vote. With all the other wingnutjobs running, I bet you're not even right-wing-whacko enough to win the primary.
Headline of the Day
Fox Buses In Footage From Sacramento To Make Union Protesters Look Violent (VIDEO)
Notice the B-roll footage in the background at the end of the clip, complete with the calming backdrop of palm trees and....wait there are palm trees in Madison, Wisconsin?
Update:
From Think Progress:
Digby asked of the video, “What’s wrong with this picture?” adding, “If you guessed the snowless ground and palm trees in Wisconsin you win a big prize. Your sanity.”
I've been hoping to win that back...
Yay!!!!
Just got back from the vet with the little red beast. She got the staples out of her incision and Dr. Grove gave me clearance to turn 'em loose outside. I'm heading out with them to make sure the stir-crazy little varmints are good and tired. Heh ...
Tone deaf ...
Not really. Self-serving, most definitely. Ted Rall via Avedon:
Ain't nobody gonna look out for us except us. No hope, no change, business as usual.
...Hard times, doncha know, are for the little people. "We had to [my italics] impose a freeze on pay increases for federal workers in the next two years as part of my overall budget freeze," said Obama. "I think those kinds of adjustments are the right thing to do [in Wisconsin]."
"Had to." Interesting pair of words. They imply that there was no other choice. What a brazen lie.
Three more words: Tax. The. Rich. Rich people and corporations are making out like bandits. If they paid their fair share, there’d be no need to cut budgets.
"Adjustments." How bloodless. For normal people, Herr President, losing two percent of one’s pay is not a mere adjustment. It hurts.
...
Ain't nobody gonna look out for us except us. No hope, no change, business as usual.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
26 miles across the sea...
I spent the last hour (how did it get so late?) watching trippin' on videos of the Catalina Grand Prix motorcycle race, both old and new. Took me back to my youth, it did. Go see what I distilled 'em all down to at Fixer & Gordon.
We could have predicted this
Information Clearing House
The usual suspects.
There's more.
Note to Barry: Listen to SecDef Gates. Don't listen to the warmongers.
Afterthought:
Sometimes I think about things in terms of motorcycles. I have often maintained that there are a buncha old Russians riding around on and pumping water etc. with Beemers ("Kriegselefanten") and Zundapps left behind by Wehrmacht soldiers who thought they could get home faster without them.
In Libya, same-same, but add Moto Guzzis and Gileras to the list. The Eye-ties knew they could swim home faster without those.
Here's hoping future generations of Libyans are not so blessed with abandoned Harley-Davidsons*.
*It's a metaphor. I know our military uses Kawasakis.
February 27, 2011 "IPS" -- WASHINGTON - In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage U.S. intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.
The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organized and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
Among the letter's signers were former Bush Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Bush's top global democracy and Middle East adviser; Elliott Abrams; former Bush speechwriters Marc Thiessen and Peter Wehner; Vice President Dick Cheney's former deputy national security adviser, John Hannah, as well as FPI's four directors: Weekly Standard editor William Kristol; Brookings Institution fellow Robert Kagan; former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor; and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman.
The usual suspects.
There's more.
Note to Barry: Listen to SecDef Gates. Don't listen to the warmongers.
Afterthought:
Sometimes I think about things in terms of motorcycles. I have often maintained that there are a buncha old Russians riding around on and pumping water etc. with Beemers ("Kriegselefanten") and Zundapps left behind by Wehrmacht soldiers who thought they could get home faster without them.
In Libya, same-same, but add Moto Guzzis and Gileras to the list. The Eye-ties knew they could swim home faster without those.
Here's hoping future generations of Libyans are not so blessed with abandoned Harley-Davidsons*.
*It's a metaphor. I know our military uses Kawasakis.
Always start in the cheap seats...
Darrell Issa probes staff
Insert own joke here: __________________________________________________________
Daddy Frank is moving on
HuffPo
Best o' luck, Pops. Just keep afflicting the comfortable.
New York Times opinion columnist Frank Rich is leaving the newspaper after 31 years to join New York Magazine.
Rich will join New York as an essayist beginning in June, where he will write monthly on politics and culture and serve as an editor-at-large. Rich will edit a monthly section anchored by his essay as well as deliver weekly commentary on NYMag.com, according to an announcement. His final Times column will run on March 13.
Best o' luck, Pops. Just keep afflicting the comfortable.
Headline of the Day
Fetus To Testify in Favor of Heartbeat Bill
The crazy, it burns just like the stoopid...
Shouting at the wind ...
D-cap has a great post up* showing what we could do to make our government more representative of the people, as opposed to how it is now. Great suggestions and well thought out (like every post D-cap writes) but he knows how far it would go, had someone the Balls of Steel needed to attempt it in the first place:
As we all know, in our current political environment, the people getting an equal say in how they're governed is the last thing our elected representatives want. Also, taking an objective look in the mirror has never been considered a virtue in America.
...
It is really time Americans took a hard look at our system and organization of government (which we won't) and change the things that are driving us into the cesspool (which of course we won't). For over 200 years we have basically followed the principles and doctrines of the founding fathers -- Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and all the other 18th-century scholars. Stability in the process of law has been our strength. It might now also be one of our greatness weaknesses. Plus, it is the 21st century, and most Americans are barely treated as 3/5 of a person.
...
As we all know, in our current political environment, the people getting an equal say in how they're governed is the last thing our elected representatives want. Also, taking an objective look in the mirror has never been considered a virtue in America.
*I linked to his xpost at Michael's place because D-cap's page loads slowly on my machine.
On the sea ...
Aboard the good ship Lunatic.
As a cruiser, it's my worst nightmare accidentally getting on a ship (they generally book with Holland America Line, like we do when we go down south) with all those idiots. Thankfully no Caribbean for us this year so the odds are reduced.
As a cruiser, it's my worst nightmare accidentally getting on a ship (they generally book with Holland America Line, like we do when we go down south) with all those idiots. Thankfully no Caribbean for us this year so the odds are reduced.
We never learn ...
The crux* of the biscuit:
We have no money. Our military is stretched thin. We're bogged down in Afghanistan.
Considering all that, I can't believe we actually think it might be wise to get involved in yet another Middle East (yes, I know it's North Africa, you know what I mean) conflict**.
Didn't anybody listen to SECDEF's speech the other day?
The vets who hang around here know how it goes. First we establish a "no-fly zone" (we saw how well that worked in Iraq between wars there). Next, we send in some "advisers" to "help them transition". And as soon as the first boot touches the ground, we'll be there to stay.
Barry and Hillary ought to have their heads examined forthwith. My advice: Leave it to the Europeans. It's in their backyard.
(And just saying, this has AIPAC's fingerprints all over it, for the usual reasons.)
*Link thanks to Sean Paul Kelley.
...
So, both rhetorically and tactically, moves are being made that would lead one to think that military action of some kind [in Libya] is coming. Whether that’s the right thing to do is something nobody seems to be considering.
We have no money. Our military is stretched thin. We're bogged down in Afghanistan.
Considering all that, I can't believe we actually think it might be wise to get involved in yet another Middle East (yes, I know it's North Africa, you know what I mean) conflict**.
Didn't anybody listen to SECDEF's speech the other day?
As he winds down a remarkable Pentagon career – overseeing two long and very costly wars, wrestling with a military-industrial complex resistant to his budget moves aimed at questionable weapons, and shaking up the senior officer corps – Defense Secretary Robert Gates has a message for his successor.
"Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it."
...
The vets who hang around here know how it goes. First we establish a "no-fly zone" (we saw how well that worked in Iraq between wars there). Next, we send in some "advisers" to "help them transition". And as soon as the first boot touches the ground, we'll be there to stay.
Barry and Hillary ought to have their heads examined forthwith. My advice: Leave it to the Europeans. It's in their backyard.
(And just saying, this has AIPAC's fingerprints all over it, for the usual reasons.)
*Link thanks to Sean Paul Kelley.
**And you know, if we asked them, I'd wager a great sum that the Libyan people don't want us there, in any capacity, either.
What is it ...
With God's mouthpieces? You know, if there was the god the Jesus freaks claim keeps an eye on us all, how come he hasn't smited any of these assholes?
Asshole #1, in my backyard:
Asshole #2, in Louisiana:
A couple questions:
1)Were I god, I'd be one pissed off Mohican these idiots are using my name and values to molest little kids. How can God sit back and let this happen? I mean, I'm always hearing about "miracles" happening (aren't they attributing one to Pope John Paul), how god cures people and shit. How about a couple miracles now; a strategically placed lightning bolt perhaps?
B)And the reply is often "God works in strange ways and he has a plan for us we can't understand". Hey, I'm down with that but I don't know. Seems to me that if I were the loving, benevolent god they claim He is, I can safely assume there would be no place in my master plan that involves little children being raped.
You can all fuck off.
Asshole #1, in my backyard:
...
Police say 30-year-old Juan Carlos Amaya raped a 12-year-old girl in their church's youth group.
A member of the Iglesia Evangelica church told reporters to leave today after the arrest of Amaya. Investigators say he was in a position of power, planning spiritual events and even counseling teens.
...
Asshole #2, in Louisiana:
The Rev. Grant Storms, the Christian fundamentalist known for his bullhorn protests of the Southern Decadence festival in the French Quarter, was arrested on a charge of masturbating at a Metairie park Friday afternoon.
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A couple questions:
1)Were I god, I'd be one pissed off Mohican these idiots are using my name and values to molest little kids. How can God sit back and let this happen? I mean, I'm always hearing about "miracles" happening (aren't they attributing one to Pope John Paul), how god cures people and shit. How about a couple miracles now; a strategically placed lightning bolt perhaps?
B)And the reply is often "God works in strange ways and he has a plan for us we can't understand". Hey, I'm down with that but I don't know. Seems to me that if I were the loving, benevolent god they claim He is, I can safely assume there would be no place in my master plan that involves little children being raped.
You can all fuck off.
A question ...
For these crazy, Jesus freak, anti-choice assholes:
The newest incarnation of craziness.
My question is this: How come, if you people care so much about the unborn, so much about protecting every fetus and allowing them to come to term, you don't have some kind of support and adoption network for the unwanted children?
I mean seriously; these people want to force women to have children, regardless of their financial situation or any other factor women consider (I'm not a woman so I certainly don't feel qualified to speak about what they go through when having to make this difficult decision) when deciding to have an abortion. Fine. You wanna do that, make sure the children are taken care of after they're born. If you force a woman to bear a child against her wishes, you'd better be there to pay the bills and raise the kid after they're born.
It's about time somebody stood up and framed it like that. These people are always going on about "personal responsibility"; let them take responsibility for their actions because Jesus sure as hell ain't gonna do it.
First, it was South Dakota. Then Nebraska and Iowa. The similarly worded bills, which have quietly cropped up recently in state legislatures, share a common purpose: To expand justifiable homicide statutes to cover killings committed in the defense of an unborn child. Critics of the bills, including law enforcement officials, warn that these measures could invite violence against abortion providers and possibly provide legal cover to the perpetrators of such crimes.
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The newest incarnation of craziness.
My question is this: How come, if you people care so much about the unborn, so much about protecting every fetus and allowing them to come to term, you don't have some kind of support and adoption network for the unwanted children?
I mean seriously; these people want to force women to have children, regardless of their financial situation or any other factor women consider (I'm not a woman so I certainly don't feel qualified to speak about what they go through when having to make this difficult decision) when deciding to have an abortion. Fine. You wanna do that, make sure the children are taken care of after they're born. If you force a woman to bear a child against her wishes, you'd better be there to pay the bills and raise the kid after they're born.
It's about time somebody stood up and framed it like that. These people are always going on about "personal responsibility"; let them take responsibility for their actions because Jesus sure as hell ain't gonna do it.
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