Why we lose

Just read... Wrap your head in duct tape first so it doesn't explode.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

"Dad's an idiot. I can't wait until mom gets home."

My Jesus

An excellent quote from Froggy:

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You know, the GOP likes to play that they are the party of god, but Jesus didn't go around holding $1000 a plate fund-raisers for Herod. He wasn't noted as "one of Caesar's Pioneers." He's famous for walking with the sinners, forgiving thieves and prostitutes, and lending a helping hand to the poor...

Ann Richards

She was my governor when I lived in Ft. Worth. Let's hope she overcomes this latest hurdle.

Godly men

It's a hot day on Indiantown's Brady Ranch. And pastor Doug Giles has his hands on a gun. A wiry man in fatigues and a crumpled cowboy hat, he crouches between two fat oak trees. Then he locks his sight on a 500-pound nilgai antelope and pulls the trigger.

The bullet hits with a force so fierce that the animal sails four feet into the air. Then for a moment it regains its footing and tries to scramble away. But a shattered front leg flops like a jelly-filled sack. When the minister fires again, the antelope tumbles to the ground.

Giles sells a video of the hunt after Sunday services at his Aventura Clash Christian Church ...

And explain to me how Jesus would justify this? Shouldn't a 'pastor' be somewhat non-violent? This is as bad as going to the Far East to fuck children. Killing animals (or anything else) for no reason other than to mount their heads on a wall is unconscionable to me. Ladies and gentlemen, all life is precious and the sooner we realize that, the better off we'll be.

And before all you hunters crawl up my ass, I'm not talking about actual 'hunting season', culling the herd hunting. We have a deer hunt here on Fire Island because they have no natural predators and they'd overrun everything. I understand that. I'm talking about the Cheney-type clowns who go to farms here and in other countries to kill shit for no reason other than the animal's features make a nice 'trophy'.

I knew it

I knew Lardass was on the take.

Thanks: C&L

Carville and Begala

As most of you know, I think Carville is either an idiot or on the take, and Begala isn't much better but tolerable. I don't think they should speak for Democrats. Scott at FDL:

...What's amazing, though, is Michael's archival find--the alternative suggestion advanced at the time [the 2000 election season] by Paul Begala and James Carville, the Democratic Party's self-appointed saviors:

By choosing former Georgia governor Zell Miller as his running mate, Al Gore could add intellectual brainpower, rhetorical firepower, and lots of plain old populist piss-and-vinegar to this staid election.

[...]

...

Couple of fucking morons.

Dear Repubs

At Huffpo:

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Anyway, the reason I'm writing is, I want to ask, Are you all scumbags? Are you all only interested in your personal wealth, political power, and foisting your idiotic form of fundamentalist Christianity on others? By whatever combination of lies, manipulation, intimidation, deceit, and hypocrisy is necessary?

Surely not. Sheer statistical probability alone requires that there be some of you who are not scumbags. For those who aren't, then, I have several questions:

...

I had that thought this morning as I watched the sun rise over the East River. I don't care what anybody says, New York has the most beautiful skyline of any city in the world.

For all those interested, mama's doing fine. We're hoping to have her home either tomorrow or Saturday. Thanks again for all the good wishes, prayers, and kind words.

Sark Drops Feudalism for Democracy

This is positively HUGE! Drop whatever you're doing and run to My Way News!

LONDON (AP) - There are no cars, roads or dentists and the only ambulance is a converted tractor, but Sark - a tiny self-governing island in the English Channel - embraced the modern world Wednesday, when legislators voted to swap its feudal government for democracy.

After around 450 years of rule almost exclusively by landowners, the smallest independent state in the British commonwealth will allow each of the 600 residents to stand for election.

"It is an enormous leap, a bigger leap than we had wanted. The island was hoping to reform through evolution, not revolution."

Despite the move to embrace modernity, the island retains some unusual laws. Only the head of state - the Seigneur - has the right to keep pigeons or an unspayed female dog.

The use of tractors - the only mechanized transport on the island - is also strictly regulated, with only one passenger per vehicle allowed - except up and down the 300-foot high Harbour Hill.

Actually, I once saw a photo of the Dame of Sark with her motorized invalid carriage. She was tearin' up the roads. That was during the Nazi occupation.

I hope their revolution doesn't give 'em a nosebleed in the wake of their headlong rush into the 18th century.

Be sure to click on the link. It's a lovely place.

Walschwitz

Never one to let bad taste stand in my way, The Guardian sent me here. You vill go look. If you do not, ve haff vays of making you...

Iraq through the prism of Vietnam

General William Odom, USArmy (Retd.), former Director of the NSA, has a few things to say.

The Vietnam War experience can't tell us anything about the war in Iraq - or so it is said. If you believe that, trying looking through this lens, and you may change your mind.

The Vietnam War had three phases. The War in Iraq has already completed an analogous first phase, is approaching the end of the second phase, and shows signs of entering the third.

Gen. Odom has a good historical perspective and knows whereof he speaks. Go read.

Big Business admits it...

Sirotablog

This new article and this new article in the Financial Times finally exposes the real issue fueling Big Money's freakout over Congress moving to stop the Dubai port deal. The first article is most brazen. It quotes the president of the Business Roundtable "warning that renewed political attempts to block the takeover of port facilities could jeopardise both foreign investment and forthcoming trade negotiations." The Roundable, which represents 160 chief executives, dismissed serious security concerns and claimed the controversy is "just another iteration of economic isolationism like the outsourcing debate was." So there you have it in black and white from Corporate America: profits are more important than security.

Big Biz is in on the grim joke: "National Security" is a big scam the way Bush is doing it.

Office Pirates

So there I was (relax, it's not a fairy tale war story), pursuing truth, justice, and the American way on behalf of our readers like I always do. I exist only to serve. Anyway, proving the old adage that even a blind old pig will find an acorn once in a while, somehow I got to this article in the NYTimes, which was interesting enough that I went to the subject site, Office Pirates, to see what I could see. Pretty good, jokes, videos, shit like that. Go see. Don't go if you ain't got a coupla minutes to cruise around. Let me know whatcha think.

Midwest Values

Good interview with Al Franken. From BuzzFlash.

BuzzFlash: Do you feel that redefining and accurately framing progressive values is one of the biggest keys for progressives to win the election? Have you jumped on the Lakoff framing bandwagon?

Al Franken: I have, to some degree. It just drives me nuts that these guys have stolen values, when they're corrupt, dishonest, greedy. They hire people by cronyism. They hijack religion and Jesus, when Jesus talked about helping the poor. As I always say, if you cut out every passage in the New Testament where Jesus talks about helping the poor, or helping the least among us - if you cut out each one of those passages, you'd have the perfect box to smuggle Rush Limbaugh's drugs.

Read and enjoy.

I should have known...

This line at Cursor piqued my prurient interest:

...gay ex-prostitute goes down.

I thought to myself, "Wow! A true enthusiast! Gets after it even when there's no money involved!"

But, of course, there was. It was about Texas politics.

Power and Fantasy

Maureen Dowd compares our two national centers of fantasy and denial. At Donkey O.D.

There is a crash of ideologies between the country's two most self-regarding and fantasy-spinning power centers. The Bush crowd cringes away from gay cowboys spooning, gay authors flouncing, transgender babes exploring and George the Dashing Clooneying in movies about the glories of free speech and the dangers of oilmen influencing policy.

But as I looked around Vanity Fair's slinky Oscar party on Sunday night, it struck me that the bellicose Bushies do share a presentation aesthetic with Tinseltown's trompe l'oeil beauties: you see no furrowed brows, no regretful winces, no unflattering wrinkles, no admissions of imperfection, no qualms about puffing up what you really have, no visible signs of hard lessons learned, and no desire to confront reality in the mirror.

In Hollywood terms, we've reached an Indiana Jones crisis moment in our parlous protectorate. The cave is collapsing, the snakes are encroaching, the vehicles are exploding, the crushing ball is rolling down on us. The public has stopped buying the administration's sugary spin. The Washington Post reported yesterday that 80 percent of Americans - cutting across party lines - say sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq likely. More than a third call it "very likely." Half also think the U.S. should begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, the poll found, and two-thirds say the president has no clear plan for Iraq.

The widespread resistance to the Dubai ports deal, even among newly fractious Republicans, indicates that Americans have lost faith in the president's competence - a faith shredded by the White House's obtuseness and lies on Katrina.

I love MoDo. The Vanity Fair post-Oscar party is the hottest A-list ticket in Tinsel Town, and she managed to brag a little on herself for getting to go to it, and weave the administration into the phoniness at the same time! Way to go, Red!

Fire Chief Caught On The Lamb

This one's just for fun. From The Smoking Gun.

"You caught me Alan, I tried to fuck your sheep."

Thank God for reality. I couldn't make this shit up!

Veto this, Chimp-o!

From the WaPo

Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) will attach legislation to block the deal today to a must-pass emergency spending bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A House vote on the measure next week will set up a direct confrontation with President Bush, who sternly vowed to veto any bill delaying or stopping Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Co.

Yo, Dubya, you ran your mouth and threatened these guys. Put up or shut up. Let's see you veto your war money. It's your choice: Dubaiously controlled U.S. ports or more money to throw down the sand-hole. Congress might over-ride the veto and you'll get your money and no port deal.

Wanta know the ironical part?

DP World officials suggested yesterday that within days, Peninsular & Oriental's operations will belong to them, no matter what Congress does.

They're not going to stop unloading ships in those port terminals. International trade and corporate profit trumps the War on Terror.

And why not? In Bushworld, Green Money beats out a phony, made up, political Red Herring anytime.

Besides, Bush needs the UAE for bases for the jump-off into Iran.

Just one

I'm off to the city to visit the Mrs. I just want you to leave you with some wisdom from Jo Fish:

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The last time the US sent military forces in to intercede in a civil war, we had to build a monument to 58,000-plus Americans who lost their lives taking sides in a civil war that both the Preznit and Vice-Preznit ran away from, in spades. This time, those two cowards started it and we, the People own it. Unfortunately.

Iraq will affect the political discourse in this country for the next 20 years. It will not be over when the troops come home, on many levels. For the American public, the troops, the economy, this war has damaged us all immeasurably.

And get a dose of reality from Kevin Hayden. I've been saying this for almost 2 years.

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Yes, I can compare Bush to Hitler. The numbers of corpses do not need to match. The willingness to maintain that death rate, to practice torture, to murder POWs, to develop a gulag that includes foreign ones we've exiled people to via extraordinary rendition... these are the tools of Stalin and Hitler. The only brake that has kept the numbers of dead smaller has been the press digging out the details. And when they are silenced, the numbers will rise.

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I'm outta here...

It ain't yer daddy's Jesus...

David at 42 turned me on to this one. In his words,

Dear Friend - It is *imperative* that you read the following page from the White House web site: http://www.whitehouse.org/ask/jesus.asp

Don't delay! Your patriotism is at stake!

Liquid Alert!