Late

I didn't write about the 'big John Kerry statement on Iraq' because...well...maybe he should have come up with it during the '04 campaign two years ago. That's one of the reasons I want him to stay out of the '08 Presidential race. Two years late and a couple bucks short is not what I want in a President. Note to John, see: Feingold, Russ; Gore, Albert; Clark, Wesley. If you won't stand up for your honor when it counts, see: Swift Boaters, how will you stand up for ours when push comes to shove?

Fundies

Driftglass:

...

If you don't voluntarily slot it [Brokeback Mountain] into a DVD player and voluntarily set aside a couple of hours to watch it, it has no more power to work it's Terrible, Nancification Mojo on you or your weak-willed whelplings -- or inflame the tender sensibilities of your morally stunted God -- than a lost episode of "The Prisoner" in an abandoned Chevy at the bottom of a mine shaft, or a pornographic mosaic under a heap of Atlantean rubble on the ocean floor.

How is it that the same human atavisms who whip themselves into rabid, ass-biting berserkers at the thought of someone, somewhere buying a copy of "Brokeback Mountain" in a Wal-Mart bargain bin...can also believe that they can make History, Cosmology, Chemistry, Archeology, Paleontology, Biology, Reason, Physics and Causality vanish in a burst of phuqutard willpower if they just close their potato-bug eyes and Wish Reeeeeal Hard?

...

They are a vicious, dangerous cult that has declared war on The Enlightenment, and sworn blood-oaths that Science, Tolerance and Reason are to be treated as enemy combatants in that war: traitors to Heaven to be tortured, but never trusted.

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Driftglass goes on to cite the article in WaPo that I did the other day and then finishes up with the unassailable truth:

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It doesn't matter what we say or what we do, or how reasonable we are or how much of the middle ground we cede to them in the cause of the commonweal[th] and keeping the peace in the family: Hate and fear is not what they feel, it's who they are. They're are on one, long, mean Blood-o-the-Lamb drunk, and no matter how often they are appeased, they will always find another excuse for rage.

For another pogrom.

Another purge.

Another bonfire.

I have no wish to try to reason with this filth any longer, Mr. Dennett. They have been steadily, unblinkingly goose-stepping towards the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with torches in hand for 30 year[s] and have been crystal-clear about their intentions.

...

Unfortunately, when you compare christian fundies with the Taliban or the Nazis, people's eyes glaze over. "Oh, that couldn't happen here," they say and I say horseshit, look at South Dakota. If these people had their way, our women would be wearing burkhas and walking 10 feet behind their men. Certain books and lines of thought would be banned.

I thought I wouldn't have to deal with these Jesus freak assholes when I left the Republican Party. Tell me again how these people gained credibility in the most advanced nation in the world? When I was young, we used to laugh at them. I beieve back then, their biggest goal was preparing for the Second Coming. For a long time, I thought devout christians were multi-orgasmic (now I know the concept of 'orgasm' doesn't even enter their thought processes). Go back to the little world you inhabited when I was a kid and stay out of governance. Idiots.

Cheeseheads

Smart folks.

Rules are for proles

Government agencies that use private information services for law enforcement, counterterrorism and other investigations often do not follow federal rules to protect Americans' privacy, according to a report yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

The Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and two other agencies examined by the GAO spent about $30 million last year on companies that maintain billions of electronic files about adults' current and past addresses, family members and associates, buying habits, personal finances, listed and unlisted phone numbers, and much more.

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It highlights a difficult truth about the government's increasing reliance on information services: By outsourcing the building of rich dossiers, the government is sidestepping checks on surveillance approved in the wake of domestic spy scandals involving the FBI, Army and other agencies in the 1960s and 1970s.

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And I wonder why I get so much junk mail. I thought the Rethugs were all aboout less government meddling? But they have a problem with big government too, right? I swear, if the Dems blow it in Fall, I'm moving to Europe.

Via memeorandum.

Fellatio

Lardass deepthroating DeLay. I've heard him call himself a journalist.

...

MATTHEWS: ...and Hillary was a know-it-all.

DELAY: Nothing worse than a woman know-it-all

[...]

MATTHEWS: Thanks. I owe you one. I owe you two -- today and last night.

DELAY: No you don't.

MATTHEWS: No, I do.

DELAY: I appreciate it.

...

Matthews is another piece of shit who should swing.

Katie

CultureGhost says it short and sweet.

Josef* would be proud

Not that it surprises me in the least, but it's nice to know we were right.

WASHINGTON - In a disturbing turn of events for an administration already plagued by sagging poll numbers and waning support for the Iraq war, Friday's revelation that the Bush Administration issued direct guidelines for programming to media outlets is troubling even die-hard conservatives.

Late Friday a series of memos between senior Bush Administration officials and management at Viacom, Inc. were leaked calling for the media giant to focus on stories and programming choices that "reinforce the Administration's positions" and to "ignore and/or discredit points of view in opposition to the Bush Administration's foreign policy objectives for the purposes of National Security."

Democrats and key civil rights figures were quick to comment on this latest chapter of alleged government malfeasance. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer issued a statement calling for a congressional inquiry. "This is it. This is a smoking gun. For years we've been saying that liberal and moderate points of view aren't being accurately reflected in the media and this proves our point. The Bush Administration is clearly out of touch with the American people, and Viacom should be ashamed."

...

How many more knowingly did this administration's bidding? When the war crimes trials start, the board of Viacom should be in the dock along with the Chimp, Cheney, Rummy, and the rest.

*Goebbels that is. Hat tip: Maru.

Afternoon pedophile

And the hits keep coming:

As I noted earlier, a senior Homeland Security Department law enforcement agent was busted last October for exposing himself to a girl in the food court of a mall.

Next to the recent arrest of DHS spokesman Brian Doyle on child sex charges, this was just one more reason to take Operation Predator away from DHS, I said. "Predator" is the agency's program to bust child sex criminals.

Now we discover -- that law enforcement agent, Frank Figueroa, used to run Operation Predator.

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The Bush administration, liars, theives, and sexual deviates.

Great thanks to AMERICAblog for the tip.

Moral values and security

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday at his Maryland home on charges he used his computer in an attempt to seduce a child and transmitted harmful materials to a minor, according to the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office

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Why is it always the Repukes, wingnuts, and Jesus freaks who get caught in sex crimes stings? Please, please don't lecture me about morals anymore. I've got more morals in my little finger than all these guys put together.

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Judd said that Doyle, in the first conversation, told the detective his position with DHS and "started immediately into pretty vulgar language. He explained in graphic detail the sexual acts he wanted to perform with this 14-year-old."

As the two continued chatting online, police said, Doyle gave her his home and office phone numbers, and the number to his government-issue cell phone. He also had explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as the girl, authorities said. [my em]

...

And now let me ask another question and preface it by saying, when I was in the military, especially those of us with a security clearance, we were constantly being reminded that our enemies (the Soviets back then) would attempt use our 'questionable sexual dalliances' to extort secrets and information from us and we should stay away from relationships (and anything else) that could compromise us. I wonder, just say, if an 'enemy' would use this man's 'proclivities' to blackmail him to give up DHS info? I thought the Repukes were the party of 'security'?

Just sayin'...

Update:

Taylor Marsh sees things along the same lines.

Dear Bug Tom,

Tom, you're through. If I warned you once I warned you an infinite number of times, you do not emulate Me. You do not take My name in vain. You do not presume to speak my Commandments. Who do you think you are: Charlton Heston?

Another thing Tom - I'm sick and tired of the prayers.

...

God's pissed.

Search terms

For those who got to the Brain using the following search terms:

"Nightmares and the brain"
"Kick grandma"
"Wives to fuck in Altus, Oklahoma"
"Extremely macho elf"

Hope you weren't disappointed. Heh...

Update:

And while I'm going over site stats, a big welcome to the regular readers at the U.S. Senate (I won't disclose your office domains; wouldn't want to test the employment waters, would we?). At least somebody over there is listening.

Feingold [hearts] gays

Pam:

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Big Kahuna Dem spine located -- are you listening, jellyfish Dem leadership? Russ Feingold is not afraid of wrath of the fundies; he's not bobbing and weaving in an attempt to avoid discussing civil equality. He was asked about his position on this while at a Kenosha County listening session over the weekend in in Paddock Lake, Wisconsin, and he declared his firm support.

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Ahem, ladies and germs, this is what leadership is all about. This is what I want to see in a man who could be President.

Welcome to the 20th Century

I'm not being snarky. I'm happy as hell to see this:

Kuwait - Women made history in Kuwait on Tuesday by voting and running for office for the first time in a local by-election after the conservative, US-allied Gulf state granted them suffrage last year.

Polls opened at 8am for the vote to fill a single seat in the 16-member Municipal Council. The rest of the members were elected or appointed last year.

"Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for for more than 40 years," Khaledah al-Khadher, one of the two female candidates, told Reuters at a polling station in Salwa suburb.

...

Vote your asses off, ladies. All the best.

A tip of the yarmulke to The Head Heeb.

???

Tomorrow, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Plamegate Update

Mr. Fitzgerald is being pretty quiet these days, but the wheels of justice are slowly, inexorably grinding away. Truthout:

The special counsel appointed in late December 2003 to investigate the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson found out the identity of the Bush administration official who disclosed her undercover status to syndicated columnist Robert Novak just two months after the probe began.

That month, Justice Department investigators working on the leak case approached a senior official in the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney who had been identified by witnesses as having played a major role in the Plame Wilson leak.

The senior official decided to cooperate with the investigation and told Fitzgerald that Libby and Rove spoke to reporters about Plame Wilson, the attorneys said.

The official has been identified by attorneys and four current and former White House officials as John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton.

Hannah worked with Libby on the issue of weapons of mass destruction as part of an informal team known as the "White House Iraq Group." Hannah told friends last year that he was worried he might be implicated by the investigation, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Libby was indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators related to his role in the leak. Hannah was named Cheney's national security adviser the day Libby was indicted.

Maybe it's just me, but I see a world of irony in that last sentence! Here's the money shot, folks:

Rove told FBI investigators on five occasions and testified twice before a grand jury that he distributed damaging information about Plame to the Republican National Committee, outside political consultants and the media after Novak had disclosed her identity, according to the attorneys who are familiar with Rove's testimony.

However, Rove was actually a source for Novak and another reporter who wrote about Plame Wilson but failed to disclose that fact in nearly a dozen times he was questioned about his role in the leak.

Sources said that Fitzgerald is now preparing the paperwork to present to a grand jury outlining the charges against Rove in hopes of securing an indictment.

I feel the blood draining from my brain...

Sex tourism thriving in Bible Belt

Reuters

ATLANTA (Reuters) - In a sleazy hotel room, "Brittany," then aged 16 and drugged into oblivion, waited for the men to arrive. Her pimps sent as many as 17 clients an evening through the door.

A "john" could even pre-book the pretty young blonde for $1,000 a night, sometimes flying in and then flying out from a nearby airport.

None of this happened in Bangkok or Costa Rica, places that have become synonymous with sex tourism and underage sex.

It took place in Atlanta, the buckle of the U.S. Bible Belt, where the world's busiest passenger airport provides a cheaper, more convenient and safer underage sex destination for men seeking girls as young as 10.

"Men fly in, are met by pimps, have sex with a 14-year-old for lunch, and get home in time for dinner with the family," said Sanford Jones, the chief juvenile judge of Fulton County, Georgia.

It's all about "moral values", ain't it? Talkin' about 'em, that is.

Another man drove from North Georgia, with a bag containing a teddy bear, a love note and condoms, snorting methamphetamine on the way.

I wonder how he felt, poppin' wood and holding out a teddy bear, when he met the little girl?

He expected a 13-year-old girl, but instead found Heather Lackey, a corporal with the Peachtree City Police Department.

I think they should post the johns' names and photos in their hometown paper, and on the dayroom wall of the jail they go to. Let the incarcerated parents of young children know about it. They'll deal with it.

The sex slaves are trafficked in and out of cities to supply sporting events, conventions or rap concerts.

Only rap concerts? Do I detect a tinge of racism here?

"This is a place where you can buy, sell or rent kids. It must be stopped."

Sometimes, "DUH!" just ain't enough.

DeLay will resign

AP

Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader
Tom DeLay said Tuesday he is resigning from Congress in the face of a tough re-election race, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.

Bush said the Republican Party won't suffer from DeLay's decision to resign from Congress. "My own judgment is that our party will continue to succeed because we are the party of ideas."

I just had to put that one in there. It took a long time to get all the coffee and Danish out of my keyboard!

DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said he would make his resignation effective sometime before mid-June but contingent on the congressional calendar.

If it was up to me, Security would have escorted him out of the building instantly.

This is good news. He is probably the worst, most powerful, criminal bastard to ever grace Congress' tainted halls. That takes some doing. Good riddance. The Republic will be more secure without him.

A word to our Texas friends: Elect Lampson, and make sure DeLay gets locked up.

"Welcome! Kneel!"

Will Durst on immigration, illegal and otherwise:

You ask me, the term "guest worker" is a bit of an oxymoron. Another way of saying, "Welcome! Kneel!"

I got to be honest. I fail to understand the fear here. "You let all these Mexicans in, they're going to take all those fruit-picking jobs I've dreamed of all my life. Working outdoors, sleeping in my car, fighting with dogs for food. Just like camping, only different." I do understand this is an emotional subject, not always rooted in what you call your logic. A couple of years ago, I was in Billings, Mont., and actually saw rednecks hassle some Native Americans: "Go back to where you came from." Talk about unclear on the concept.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free." That's not just an archaic inscription on a big green lady, that's a philosophical summons to heroism. The United States of America that we know and love. A country in which we're all immigrants. And when you look at the big picture, with California as a former part of Mexico, in essence, they are going back to where they came from. Maybe its we Anglos who should be carrying the green cards. Who wouldn't just love to take a bullhorn into the Capitol Rotunda, yell "migra," and watch Congress scatter? OK. Just me.

Heh. It ain't just you at all, Will.

On this day

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn.

On Laura's new book

Mrs. F as she heard the news: "Oh God. What is it, four pages long?"