I call bullshit

It's just not enough for the citizens of Rightwingnuttia that they have pretty cushy lives,oh no. I don't know what it is about these folks,but I am sick to death of them being in charge of some pretty crucial stuff when they have no clue at all about themselves,let alone anyone else.

I don't know when it happened,and I doubt it is only one thing that made it happen,but somewhere along the line,we pretty much seem to have lost a collective national understanding about Cause and Effect,AND that there are consequences to actions,both long and short term.

The little kids of today are going to grow up to be complete idiots,Generation Loser,if someone doesn't intervene and make it stop.

Look,I know history has an element of spin to it,that's why there are SO many books on the subject.Everyone has their own perspective,historians sometimes do bring their biases and the like with them.They're human.As it is, schools make history boring on purpose and barely focuses on any one event and rarely relates things to the present day to make it relevant.Kids learn names and dates and places and a couple of sentences to describe them,and it's on to the next thing.

So I have to ask why the law? What the hell is Jeb up to?

Good-Fucking-God

Why the Katrina-like response to rescuing our people from Lebanon? Blah3 via Maru:

A reliable source tells me that the reason the United States has been so slow in evacuating its citizens from Lebanon is that the public diplomacy (i.e., P.R.) issues raised by evacuating under Israeli assault are so complicated. Individuals within the State Department, I am told, have been reluctant to create an impression that the Israeli assault on Lebanon is as bad as it is or that civilian U.S. citizens are being threatened by U.S. ally Israel. If a conflict this severe had broken out in, say, Indonesia, the American embassy would have been shut down the next day and its personnel and families rapidly brought to safety. That's how things normally work. In this case, however, the diplomatic message sent by shutting down the U.S. embassy in the face of Israeli bombing would have contradicted the U.S. government message of support for the Israeli mission against Hezbollah terrorists, which, when added to the general concern within lower-level diplomatic circles about ever creating a Fall of Saigon-style visual for the news media, have led the Americans to be slower than they could have been about getting U.S. citizens out of harm's way. [my ems]

I'm hardly ever speechless.

Type or I'll shoot...

Sort of in the same vein as my previous post, but from an unexpected source. I am now pointing a revolver at my finger to get it to link to an article in the The American Conservative about how the hardly-ever-right wing is reacting to the Noo Yawk Times disclosure of warrantless spying.

But the notion that the program was "carefully crafted to safeguard civil liberties" was a leap of faith - and conservatives used to assume the opposite: that liberty needed to be guarded against government. There was no judicial approval of these searches and no congressional oversight of the program, but the side of the aisle once distrustful of federal schemes nodded blind assent.

Was it so long ago that prominent conservatives vigorously opposed Bill Clinton's power grabs and his trampling of due process? Or was there a hidden asterisk noting that government power should only be limited when Democrats occupy the White House? Now security trumps - or, in reality, political promises of security. Or perhaps, like the prior proclamations of fidelity to limited government, the fixation on safety is simply another ruse to smear liberals and spur donations.

The Bush administration simplified the issue: freedom of the press kills. Snow warned that "the New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether the public's right to know, in some cases, might overwrite somebody's right to live." Treasury Secretary John Snow, in a letter to Bill Keller, denounced the Times article as "irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide." "Freedom-loving people" thus becomes a trump card against the First Amendment. And "freedom of the press" threatens to become the single biggest obstacle to the U.S. government forcibly imposing freedom on the rest of the world.

Survival of the Republican congressional majority may hinge on suppressing criticism of administration policies, and this storm of media-bashing may be crafted to keep the lid on news about other government surveillance systems. Over a period of barely six months, leaks resulted in Americans learning that the feds were conducting thousands of warrantless phone taps in the U.S., that they had arm-twisted telephone companies to turn over the calling records of tens of millions of Americans, and that our government has been sifting through international banking records to its heart's content. National Journal recently revealed that the Bush administration is continuing to pursue Total Information Awareness, even though Congress compelled the formal abandonment of that program in 2003. The endless threats of treason prosecutions against whistleblowers, reporters, and editors may be a last ditch attempt to prevent Americans from learning about secret presidential orders that would make the NSA wiretapping look like kids' stuff (my em).

Just because much of the media is biased does not mean that the Bush administration is trustworthy. Perhaps it is naive to expect commentators to be more honest than politicians. But the "treason" stampede among right-wing talking heads indicates just how much conservatism has changed. And the Right's knee-jerk defense of every Bush power grab has so decimated their credibility that prominent conservatives will have as much standing to gripe about Leviathan during a reign of someone like Hillary Clinton as her husband has to complain that American culture no longer respects chastity.

I do agree with the author that the media is biased, insofar as it hasn't let truth interfere too awfully much with its blowing Bush until very recently, but I don't think he meant it that way. Heh.

It seems as if the real Conservatives, with whom I mostly disagree except on Big Government and some of their fiscal policy, are finally noticing that their party has been highjacked by neocons, wingnuts, and christo- as well as regular old fascists. And leave us not forget plain ol' morons. Reveille, motherfuckers!

Granted, the author seems to be against said coup mostly from the standpoint that the Repubs may lose their majority because of it, but he says it like it's a bad thing. The congresscritters are more concerned with the security of their seats than with national security. Then there's that jail thing...

I hate it when I have to agree with a Republican, but, hey, he's right about a lot of stuff here, even if he's right for the wrong reasons.

They hate our freedom...

From The Carpetbagger Report

As if FEMA hasn't done enough already, the agency now believes it can interfere with hurricane victims living in FEMA trailer parks doing interviews with reporters. If there's a reasonable explanation for this, I can't think of it.

Residents of trailer parks set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house hurricane victims in Louisiana aren't allowed to talk to the press without an official escort, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reported.

In one instance, a security guard ordered an Advocate reporter out of a trailer during an interview in Morgan City. Similar FEMA rules were enforced in Davant, in Plaquemines Parish.

FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Rodi wouldn't say whether the security guards' actions complied with FEMA policy, saying the matter was being reviewed. But she confirmed that FEMA does not allow the news media to speak alone to residents in their trailers.

No, that's just crazy. There's no legal way for a government agency to interfere with two First Amendment freedoms, without explanation, simply because the affected Americans happen to have been victims of a hurricane.

Imagine losing your home to Katrina. You feel like your government has let you down. Left with limited options, you're living in a FEMA trailer park, which is on public property. A reporter wants to talk to you about your experiences - but the government tells you that you're not allowed to talk to a journalist without a FEMA representative on hand to monitor what you say.

Asked for an explanation, you're told, "That's just a policy."

I have a hunch we'll see this policy get "corrected" fairly soon. It's inviting a lawsuit FEMA is certain to lose. And as a matter of common sense, it's indefensible.

There is an explanation for this which is pretty obvious although not at all reasonable: our present regime needs darkness to survive. They are trying to keep their incompetence, corruptness, wrong-headed policy, botched implementation of same, and the sheer waste of many billions of tax dollars - our money - from becoming general knowledge. It's so egregious and widespread that it's awful hard for them to hide, due in large part to that "goddam piece of paper", the Constitution, you know, the one that lets you talk to whomever you damn well please even with the hob-nailed jackboot tracks from them stomping all over it.

The troops in Iraq aren't allowed to talk to the media without a minder for the same reason. The "liberal" press gets threatened and called traitors for printing stories that expose governmental law-breaking for the same reason.

From Bush on down, these assholes are scared to death of what will happen if the man in the street, not just us political junkies, finds out what they are up to and how their constant mis-management of everything they've touched has damn near wrecked this country and the world.

I have but one word for them: November.

The link in the quote goes to an article at the First Amendment Center. Check it out.

Live with it

Umm ... no:

Today during lunch, KCAL in Los Angeles presented some fuel industry pollster [sorry - no link on their site] who believes that $4/gal. gasoline isn't going to faze the American people. Instead, they will make adjustments in other spending categories to accommodate the higher pump prices. Indeed, he insists - they already have!

...

Let me explain something, being I make part of my living in the car business. People are hurting now. We've raised our prices for motor oil 18% in the past year, not that we want to, but as a small shop, we couldn't afford to absorb the increased price for long. It also affects our parts prices. The parts houses have added a fuel surcharge for deliveries, a service we can't do without because it's impossible for us to detail one guy to run all over Long Island chasing for stuff.

I see it in the neighborhood too. The soccer moms are carpooling now and the kids who are old enough are walking. No longer do you see a line of Explorers and Tahoes dropping off the kids for summer school. Now they cram as many kids as possible into one car and each mom has a day to drive. And we're talking about people who can afford it. Most of my customers are 'upper one percenters'; doctors, lawyers, Wall Street and corporate types.

That's not counting what it's doing to the older folks on fixed incomes who are 'house rich' (property values in the area have skyrocketed). Aside from the medcal profession and the pharmaceutical companies gouging them, the price of gas is forcing them to walk a very thin line between existence and destitution. I know the local senior citizens' transportation ridership has almost doubled in the past year and they've added another bus to the route.

The average price of regular gas on Long Island (via personal anecdote) is about $3.30/gal and people are hurting. Not that I'm hurting, yet, but the price of my commute has doubled and it torques my sphincter every time I have to put $65 in the tank to fill up the Mrs.' Explorer; it's $40 to fill my Ranger.

With the value of real wages going down every year, as the rich get richer in this 'booming economy', the pinch is being felt higher up the economic ladder. So you tell me, Mr. Oil Company Executive, how $4/gal gasoline 'isn't going to faze the American people'? It might not faze the members of the board and their friends, but it's sure fucking with the folks down here. I'm tired of making you motherfuckers rich and you telling me I can afford to pay more. A warning: Don't come to my shop talking that bullshit because one of us will hand you your ass.

A hundred a day ...

But the oil's gonna flow soon (cough *bullshit* cough).

What's that?

Is that the sound of sphincters tightening?

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there - a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.

...

This should be good ... It's not as if we didn't know the Turks and the Kurds would be a problem.

Thanks to the Old White Lady for the link.

This is How They Do It...

The Goddess Of Talk Radio managed to find a copy of an actual Republican talking points memo (warning:pdf file) with pretty explicit instructions on how to talk about war and terrorism.This isn't the whole thing,but it's enough to get the idea.

You know why liberals don't do this? Because we aren't freaking liars that's why. The truth doesn't take that long to tell,seriously.Especially when it's big stuff at stake.The truth can be complicated,but boiling it down takes a short time. Lies on the other hand have to be crafted and tested first to see if they sink or float(like a turd in a punchbowl).

My ex husband used to fuck around behind my back all the time(note the ex ).How did I find out?Simple.It took him half an hour to explain where he was for half the night.If he had really been"at the office",then a two sentence explaination would have been all he offered. Liars just can't help themselves,they've gotta try to be all crafty and sneaky and shit,and they can't just offer a normal and rational explaination,they gotta go flying off and make things complicated.That's the first clue to me that someone is lying like a dog on a rug.(sorry Princess Shayna,no offense meant to you or any other doggies out there)

An Imperial Defeatist -- And Proud of It

Michael T. Klare at TomDispatch.

In our world, the truth is that being against empire -- against the transformation of the U.S. into a giant, gated, overarmed, globe-spanning version of a failed Rome is apolitical sanity, the sort of thing that could and should be embraced by left, right, and center. What we probably need in this country is a new American Anti-Imperialist League of the sort Mark Twain was involved in way back at the end of the nineteenth century in opposition to a war of suppression in the Philippines.

Why, then, are we squandering so many lives and so much treasure in a desperate effort to hold on in Iraq? Only one answer makes any sense from a Washington policymaker's point of view -- to remain the dominant military power in the Persian Gulf and thereby control the global flow of oil. This is the only interpretation that fits with the Pentagon's admission that it plans to retain at least some bases in Iraq indefinitely, no matter what sort of future government emerges in Baghdad (or whether such a government approves of our presence or not).

Let's be very clear: the pursuit of empire and success in what the President calls "the global war on terrorism" are mutually incompatible. The more we seek to dominate the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, the more we will provoke anti-American fury and the very violent extremism with which we claim to be at war.

A retreat from empire would also force us to use oil more sparingly and this, in turn, would enable us to address another critical threat to American security: the danger of catastrophic environmental damage caused by global climate change. As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, our shores are highly vulnerable to powerful hurricanes; and higher ocean temperatures, caused by global warming, are producing increasingly violent ones. Global warming is also contributing to the extreme drought and susceptibility to voracious forest fires in many areas of the American West. By reducing our petroleum consumption and relying more on ethanol, bio-diesel, wind power, solar, and other domestically-produced, alternative sources of energy -- but especially by putting our money into the development of such alternatives rather than to imperial expansion around the globe -- we can, in the long run, reduce our exposure to violence abroad and to environmental catastrophe at home.

So yes, I'm a "defeatist" when it comes to imperial expansion. But I'm a hawk when it comes to overcoming terrorism, saving American lives, averting environmental collapse, and promoting core American values. This is the only truly patriotic course that any of us can espouse.

"Mine! Mine! Mine!" and "Hooray for ME and fuck you!" are not 'core American values' no matter what we're being told by rich and comfortable imperialist wingnut greedheads.

Vote-flipping in Georgia

Atlanta Progressive News

"You've got electronic voting machines. Many people called in and shared their concern. They pushed the button for Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson came up. It wasn't one time, it wasn't two times, it was many, many times," Karen Fitzpatrick, who has been monitoring elections for US Rep. McKinney's re-election campaign, told Atlanta Progressive News in an exclusive interview.

Let me repeat: The McKinney Campaign says they have documented complaints of voters here in Georgia whose votes FLIPPED BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES on Diebold machines.

I think this is good news. It doesn't matter that this occurred in a Democratic primary, or who's doing what to whom, or for what reason - what matters is that people, voters, saw with their own eyes right in front of them that these machines are susceptible to tampering. Thank our lucky stars that the nitwit who did the tampering wasn't smart enough to hide it from folks standing right there.

I suppose it's possible that the machines are just poorly designed and manufactured to the point of being incredibly inaccurate, but I don't believe that for one second.

We've known about Diebold all along, but this brings it into the light of day. Every last one of their damn machines should be de-certified and sledge-hammered to dust. In the wrong hands, and there are plenty of them, these machines are a danger to Democracy.

Speaking of "the wrong hands", let's also work on criminally partisan poll workers and voter (read 'minority Democrat') disenfranchisement as well.

Help wanted

I was checking out "The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 252" and ran across this White House employment opportunity ad:

White House Director of Lessons Learned

Responsibilities: Director reports to President Bush once every nine years or whenever a lesson is learned, whichever occurs first.

Requirements: Three years of high school or equivalent. Ability to work alone in a small, windowless, telephone-free office is essential. Typing/Minesweeper skills a plus. MUST BE DISCREET.

$106,641 a year for a high school dropout who doesn't have to know anything or do anything except light typing and a little casual EOD. For once, I feel over-qualified!

Helpful advice for Connecticut Dems

This Modern World

Can't have it both ways, morons

War Preznit; is he or isn't he? C&L has an excellent catch from the hearing room.

Back to yer hole

A present for AOB.

Ralph-Fucking-Reed* is out.

ATLANTA - Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, unable to overcome his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, conceded defeat Tuesday in Georgia's Republican race for lieutenant governor.

...

It'd be nice if they served him with indictments soon too.

*AOB says that's his name now and who am I to argue?

That's more like it...

CNN

Americans will not have to pay for evacuation, senators' aides say

The announcement came after stranded Americans, along with politicians and their families back home, expressed anger with the situation.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized the billing policy, accusing the government of "quibbling over payment" rather than finding the most expeditious means of getting Americans out of harm's way.

"A nation that can provide more than $300 billion for a war in Iraq can provide the money to get its people out of Lebanon," the California Democrat said in a statement earlier Tuesday.

Fellow Democrat, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, said: "We must not abandon American citizens in a war zone. Our government should be focusing on the fastest, safest way to get Americans home, not how much to bill them once they get there." She had said she would introduce legislation to get the fees waived.

But on Tuesday night Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed the billing issue, telling Sen. John Sununu that she was waiving the requirement, Sununu's office said. The New Hampshire Republican is of Lebanese descent and had joined Pelosi and Stabenow in lambasting the fee.

The U.S. military does not charge for evacuations. Nor do the governments of France, Ireland, Britain and Italy, which already have ferried hundreds of their citizens out of Lebanon.

That's where I got confused. I thought the military was doing the evacuation. Hell, the Marines evacuated the goddam P.L.O. and didn't charge 'em! Well, they escorted 'em through the 'Root to a ship. Let 'em keep their guns, too. Marines evacuate folks from different shitholes all over the world all the time and I never heard of anybody being charged for it. 25,000 is a lot of people, but Marines just shrug and get on with it: 10 civilian pukes or 1000, it pays the same.

I knew folks'd have to pay to get home commercial, but their own government makin' 'em pay to get 'em the Hell out of a war zone is so chickenshit I never considered it.

Oh, now I remember: Republicans don't think government should provide emergency services to citizens for all that tax money, do they? It's supposed to go to their accomplices buddies.

It was embarrassing enough hearing about the Chimp's antics at the G-8. I guess gettin' caught bein' life-endangering cheapskates was too much for State.

I never thought I'd catch myself saying this, but good on ya, Condi. A day late and a dollar short, but it was the right thing to do. For once.

A tip o' the Brain to Shakey's Sis. I was over there tryin' ta tell a joke and saw Waveflux's post on this.

Quote of the Day*

*More of a themed** thing today. Bulldog:

...

So, Ehud Olmert, Fuck YOU! If you make the decision to continue to escalate things by engaging Iran and/or Syria, you may be held responsible for starting WWIII. Granted, that would make some people pretty happy, but it isn't the way to solve this situation.

And while I'm at it: John Bolton? Fuck you too, you walrus-'stached asshole! The shit you just pulled by vetoing a draft proposal to admonish Israel for the killing of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of the only power station in Gaza was reprehensible. You are definitely living up to the kind of diplomat I and many others thought you'd be.

...

**If you haven't guessed, the theme is 'fuck you'.

Comments

Is Haloscan sucking ass or what?

Never mind ...

What is WRONG with these people?

Honest to Christ,is there some sort of toxin or something in the air where these morons work and live?It's time for some massive toxicology screenings,because something is seriously,basically,organically WRONG here.

Behold The Wingnuttery

You know,I know they hate everything and everyone except money and violence and greedy,nasty white people,but the rest of us aren't ready to go to hell in a handbasket quite yet.I've got grandbabies I'd like to see grow up in a relatively sane and safe world.I'm not asking for perfection,just some basic understanding of Cause and Effect,maybe with an eye towards,oh,how 'bout a better future? I know,it makes sense,which means it's evil and traitorous,I keep forgetting.

Why do these fucks even bother getting out of bed in the morning if they hate the world and everything in it so much? Let's see now,they hate:

Brown people in general

Anyone who isn't a James Dobson"christian"

Liberals(which is anyone to the left of them)

Poor people(even white ones really)

Middle class working people

Women(especially their naughty parts)

Little kids,especially poor and middle class little kids

Who am I leaving out?

That's an awful lot of hatin' to be doing every day.And it might be just me,but the list seems to keep expanding to include every single soul outside their very narrow parameters.Hell,they don't even like clean air and water for fuck's sake.Something is WRONG with them,not us,THEM.

The Big Iraq Candy Mountain

From DCDL, a member of Drinking Liberally:

In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain, it's a land that's fair and bright,
No one's ever heard of IEDs, and the streets are safe at night.
Kidnappers all have rubber knives, and the car bombs don't go off.
There's a nice cool breeze, and no disease,
And we finally found those WMDs,
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

Chorus:
Oh, the flowers and sweets from the crowds in the streets
By the Coca-Cola fountain,
The eagles soar, and there's no civil war,
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain, the terrorists always lose,
And the folks have purple fingers, and they vote for who they choose.
The women wear just what they want, and the men can shave their beards.
The people are free, there's democracy,
And Sunni, Kurd, and Shi'a are a family
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain, not a single child is hurtin',
And billions of dollars are all well spent, thanks to friends at Halliburton.
The schools are freshly painted, 'lectricity runs all day.
They get HBO, and there ain't no snow,
And the people never, ever want our troops to go,
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

Nicely done, in my not-so-humble-opinion.

This may explain Bush et alia...

This headline in the LATimes caught my eye:

When Man Mated Monkey

Of course, the very idea of ancestral human beings and chimpanzees "exchanging genes" makes people squirm, because (let's face it) this means sexual intercourse between our ancient human and animal ancestors. It is hard enough to contemplate our parents copulating; to think of our very great-grandparents not only descended from "monkeys" but having sex with them is difficult to conceive. But conceive is what they evidently did.

In Bush's case, and many others, I think think the man-on-monkey relations occurred a lot more recently. It would add a whole new dimension if his dad's sister was the simian...