Who'da thought ...

Rush Lintball would endorse Hillary?

As Hillary Clinton battles to keep her presidential bid alive, she may be getting help from an unlikely source: conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

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Needless to say, the pill-head, festering boil on the ass of America has his own reasons why, none of which are helpful to Dems.

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I want Hillary to stay in this…this is too good a soap opera," Limbaugh told fellow conservative talk-show host Laura Ingraham on Fox News Friday. He reiterated the comments on his Monday show and replayed the exchange with Ingram.

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There is a special place in Hell for Lintball and his cronies.

Now I'm going to work.

Just because ...

I'm sick of the Dem primaries already and praying it'll be wrapped up today, music blogging. A nice little ditty from Queen, the chorus of which I sang (not well) to Mrs. F last night and then had to find the YouTube of:

Queen - '39

Matthews fellates McCain, obviously ...

Lardass is getting so low that he doesn't even care about it being obvious anymore. Gord wrote about 'Pastor' Hagee's endorsement of McCain, and McCain's apparent endorsement of Hagee, yesterday. As Amato points out, if this bigoted asshole endorsed Hillary or Obama, Mattews would have been in a froth.

... I didn’t think Tweety would give the Hagee story a mention. He brought up the name of Farrakhan numerous times when he talked about Obama and was all over Hillary today, but still silence on Hagee ...

Yeah, Chris can't get the words past McCain's balls. All the pundits are showing their true colors now that the general election race is getting closer. Can't upset the Rethug money machine, can we?

Update:

Howie "The Whore" Kurtz gets in on the suckfest:

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So according to Kurtz, the media has given "scant attention" to the Obama/Farrakhan matter even though Obama has never had anything to do with Farrakhan, and "little pickup" to the fact that Obama met once (ten years ago) with two Chicago law professors who were Weather Underground members 40 years ago. But the most beloved media figure in decades, John McCain, this week openly embraces one of the most extreme haters in the country, says how "honored" and "proud" he is to have his endorsement, and that still hasn't made Howie Kurtz's column.

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They're all lined up to kiss the prom queen ... so to speak.

Off to work.

Sniper

Got this from bustedknuckles:

A particular USMC sniper was really good at his job, because he had devised an interesting method for drawing insurgents out into range.

He would yell out some insult at the enemy and when someone stood up to reply, Bang! One less insurgent!

After every mission his company commander would ask him, 'How many insurgents have you shot today?'

One particular day when asked about the number killed, he reported 'Five killed and I let one go.'

'Let one go?' roared the company commander. 'What do you mean, you let one go?'

'Well, I got myself dug in and yelled out 'Osama is a Homo!' This big insurgent popped up and yelled 'Bush is a bastard!'

'I just couldn't bring myself to shoot a fellow Democrat.'

Yep - Unity!

A Fitting Tribute

IWR

Click to emlargendepetulantsmirkin'

On the bill it says, "What used to cost 50 cents now costs two bucks thanks to asswipe. In addition, two also matches his IQ!"

What struck me as particularly funny is that the $2 bill is known to us old farts as the 'whorehouse bill' because that's what basic services in such time-honored establishments used to cost. It takes a platinum credit card to get laid these days.

Thanks, Georgie, for making the cost of everything go up. If there was ever the perfect denomination bill to put your smirkin' mug on, it's the 'whorehouse bill'.

Hypocrisy Alert: Bush (Need I Say More?)

AlterNet

In yesterday's news conference, President Bush sharply attacked Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) argument that the president "should never fear to negotiate" with America's enemies. Bush told reporters:

It will send a discouraging message to those who wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners. It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity. [...]

Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, look at me, I'm now recognized by the President of the United States.

Perhaps Bush forgot all the times that he sat down and had his picture taken with leaders of questionable human rights credentials:

I guess it's different if he poses with 'leaders of questionable human rights credentials' that he's paying to be his 'friends'.

Not only does Bush talk outta both sides of his mouth and out his ass, he also talks outta his neck.

What. An. Asshole.

Saudis Urged To Leave Lebanon

Al Jazeera

The Saudi Arabian embassy in Beirut has called on its nationals to leave Lebanon a day after a US warship was positioned off the country's coast.

Go see what ship it is that scared the crap out of the Saudis. Heh.

McCain Gets Into Bed with the Religious Right

People For The American Way

In his effort to curry favor with conservative Republican activists, John McCain has worked hard to cuddle up to Religious Right leaders. But voters should know who exactly he’s been courting.

I just love the sexual references! McCain has obviously adopted a, er, wider stance in his efforts to get the christofascist ragged fringe up his in his camp.

This week McCain campaigned with Rod Parsley, founder and president of “The Center for Moral Clarity” and leader of the right-wing “Patriot Pastors” (a church based campaign that was infamous for referring to political opponents as “secular jihadists,” the “forces of darkness,” and the “hordes of hell.”)

Just yesterday, he accepted the support of John Hagee, founder of “Christians United For Israel” and a vocal supporter of preemptive, religious war with Iran.

Rod Parsley, whom McCain has called a “spiritual guide” has in the past:

Called hate crimes legislation a “deceptive ploy of [the] liberal, homosexual agenda.”

More.

Not one to make a right-wing supporter feel left out, McCain said, “I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support.” Hagee has:

Several, but one I've never heard of before:

Claimed that George Washington designed the Great Seal of the United States to include a hidden menorah in the eagle’s tail feathers.

There's such a thing as 'just plain crazy', and then there's 'batshit crazy'. McCain sure knows how to pick 'em.

“For a man the media loves to call a maverick, McCain sure spends a lot of time holding hands with the Religious Right,” said People For the American Way Political Director Mary Jean Collins. “McCain’s embracing Parsley and Hagee is a sign that either he’s changed his mind about what constitutes an ‘agent of intolerance’ or he’s decided that a little extremism in pursuit of power is no vice.”

I think McCain knows he's going to lose, and is hoping against hope that he can pull it out of his ass if he gets enough lunatic fringies on his side.

Flowers and a Band

I just love the reactions to Ahmadinejad's visit to Iraq. Here's more from The Globe and Mail (Canuckistan):

It's a damning indication of how poorly things have gone for the United States during its five-year misadventure in Iraq that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can drive in broad daylight though this war-ravaged city and spend the night at the presidential palace, but George W. Bush can't.

Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have died since the war began in 2003, but Iraq's U.S.-backed government warmly welcomed Washington's No. 1 enemy with flowers and a band.

Yesterday's visit was even more significant given the acrimonious history between Iran and Iraq, which fought a long and bloody war from 1980 to 1988 that left upwards of a million people dead and saw the first battlefield use of chemical weapons since the First World War. The United States backed Iraq, which was ruled at the time by Saddam Hussein, with weapons and money during the war.

"If people in Washington are surprised [at the reception for Mr. Ahmadinejad] it's because they didn't understand what they were getting into."

Sometimes I wonder if Bush, Cheney, et al realize deep down just how badly they done fucked up and just won't admit it.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Pentagon: When Surge Ends, There Will Be 8,000 More U.S. Troops Than Before
After all have been withdrawn, there will be 50,000 left.

Bush: We're Not in Recession
Cites strong yacht sales

Report: 1 in 100 American Adults in Jail
Everyone else under house arrest.

Vatican Exhibit Reveals Secrets of Spanish Inquisition
Apparently it began with illegal eavesdropping.

Think about this ...

It's a good indicator of how far we've fallen under mostly Republican rule over the past 30 years:

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The FISC is a classically Kafka-esque court that operates in total secrecy. Only the Government, and nobody else, is permitted to attend, participate, and make arguments. Only the Government is permitted to access or know about the decisions issued by that court. Rather than the judges being assigned randomly and therefore fairly, they are hand-picked by the Chief Justice (who has been a GOP-appointee since FISA was enacted) and are uniformly the types of judges who evince great deference to the Government. As a result, the FISA court has been notorious for decades for mindlessly rubber-stamping every single Government request to eavesdrop on whomever they want. Just look at this chart (h/t Arthur Silber) for the full, absurd picture.

Yet now, embracing this secret, one-sided, slavishly pro-government court defines the outermost liberal or "pro-civil-liberty" view permitted in our public discourse. And indeed, as reports of imminent (and entirely predictable) House Democratic capitulation on the FISA bill emerge, the FISA court is now actually deemed by the establishment to be too far to the Left -- too much of a restraint on our increasingly omnipotent surveillance state. Anyone who believes that we should at the very least have those extremely minimal -- really just symbolic -- limitations on our Government's ability to spy on us in secret is now a far Leftist.

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Hey, if you're not guilty, you've got nothing to hide, right? Unless you're one of those Islamocommiehomobabykilling-ist progressives. See, Joe McCarthy was a genius!

G-L-O-R-I-A!

My mom was a big fan of Gloria Steinem. In fact, Gloria's a lot like my mom, a tough old broad who looks adversity square in the face and calls 'em like she sees 'em. I might not always agree with her, but when she's right on ...

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McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, "I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don't think so."

Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.

"I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It's a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting."

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I'll say this though, putting Bush's (or McCain's) military record up against Kerry's and both come up lacking.

Shit, if being able kill somebody is a qualification for being President, I'm in. The US government spent a lot of your money teaching me how to kill people quickly and efficiently, and that makes me ready for the Presidency? Who knew? Anybody got a couple hundred million I can borrow?

I think I'm gonna redecorate the Oval Office. That carpet has got to go. Heh ...

Ahmadinejad pokes Uncle Sam in eye on Iraq visit

A little follow-up to Fixer's post about Amadina... Ahmedeeny... fuck it, the second coming of Hitler's visit to Iraq. AFP via Raw Story:

Top officials from the US-supported Iraqi government welcomed Ahmadinejad with hugs and kisses on a trip that opens a new phase between former enemies which fought a bitter war in the 1980s.

The televised lovefest was enough to give supporters of US President George W. Bush a seizure.

Bitchin'! I get this warm fuzzy visual of 'em going stiff as a board and doing a perfect heel pivot straight back 90° into the supine position. One bounce, tops. Ahhh...

Liquid alert!

After a red-carpet welcome at President Jalal Talabani's Baghdad residence, Ahmadinejad travelled to the heart of the US presence in Iraq -- the Green Zone citadel -- for talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Whaddya wanta bet the local mortar- and rocket men got the day off in honor of the visit?

At Maliki's office, Ahmadinejad took a verbal swipe at Bush, who on Saturday accused him of "exporting terror".

Ahmadinejad's response: "Bush cannot solve US problems in the region by accusing others. Gone is the era of accusations. The Iraqi nation does not want the US.

"Six years ago there was no terrorism in our region. As soon as strangers (the Americans) put their foot in the region, the terrorists came here," he said.

One mouthy little fuck lippin' off at another. Ahmadinejad's righter than Bush, though.

Joost Hiltermann, a Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the Iranians were profiting from the US presence in Iraq.

"The Iranians were very happy that the regime of Saddam Hussein was removed," said Hiltermann. "They were just not happy that it was done by the Americans."

Yet for all the rhetoric, if the US forces went home, Iran would have to fill the security void. "For all practical purposes they want the Americans to stay, they just don't want them to succeed," Hiltermann said.

Well, Bush is big help to Iran here. He'll have the U.S. stay, and we'll succeed when pigs fly.

(Juan) Cole instead sees US complaints against Iran as part of a game of influence over the leading Iraqi players. "I see the whole thing as a jealous girlfriend story," he said.

The Iraqis know that the US presence is "here today, gone tomorrow," Hiltermann said, while their relationship with Iran has been "forged by history and geography, and will be forever".

'Gone tomorrow' is fine with me. The Iraqis'll settle their problems a lot quicker if their phony government's ATM leaves. Might be a lotta hash get settled in the process. So be it. Let 'em get after it.

I'd still like to see Bush and Ahmadinejad do a 'two men enter, one man leave' steel cage deal in speedos. Ha!

Judge reverses self on Wikileaks

EssEffChron

(02-29) 17:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge in San Francisco who had ordered the shutdown of a whistle-blowers' Web site where private bank documents were posted changed his mind Friday, conceding his original ruling might not have been constitutional.

I guess the judge would rather reverse himself than have the state court of appeals do it.

As he announced his ruling, White observed that he was encountering "a definite disconnect between the evolution of our constitutional jurisprudence and modern technology."

Thanks for pullin' yer head outta yer ass, Your Honor. Bright out here in the 21st century ain't it?

Sunday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

Wanda Jackson (bio) is one of my favorite singers from my youf. She still is.

The video is from the PBS documentary "The Women Of Rockabilly", but a good bit of the b&w TV is from Town Hall Party, which was on live from Long Beach*, California, for years. When I was a kid, I'd stay up after the parental units retired and sneak downstairs and watch it. I might have seen this live.

*In my research, I discovered a discrepancy. The sources say it was done in Compton. I remember it as being from Long Beach. Mox nix. The two towns aren't very far apart. I'd like to see 'em do a show like this from Compton these days! Heh.

One of the featured artists who was a big influence on Ms. Jackson is the late Rose Maddox. I met her several years ago at a bluegrass festival and told her that I used to watch her on THP. She looked me right in the eye and said, "That was a helluva long time ago!". Yep.

Prepare to be entertained and ed-joo-kay-ted. Enjoy.

I've always wondered about that...

So who's winning?

UL, on point as usual:

When high-ranking U.S. officials sneak into Iraq they wear flak jackets, there is no advance notice and the trips are rushed and cloaked in secrecy, but when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the second coming of Hitler visits as he did today his trip and itinerary are announced well in advance and he is greeted with flowers, pomp and ceremony.

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Yeah, so how's that war thing working out?

Full Mental Jackoff

The Top 18 Titles for the Upcoming Oliver Stone Movie About George W. Bush

Repugs v Osama Hussein

I'm not going to get into the Clinton/Obama deal right now, but Mark Morford has some good verbiage about how the wingnuts are gearing up to deal with Obama should that be the way the cookie crumbles:

Right now, deep in the GOP dungeons, they're planning their racist, disgraceful assault. Whatever will it be?

No, the problem for GOP strategists is not how to inflame the troglodytic, Limbaugh/Coulter-grade sects of the party who, assuming Obama goes the distance, are already hugely terrified of the notion of a black liberal president, given how he'll surely be a slippery slope straight to gay marriage and rampant lesbianism in schools and hourly shriekings to Allah as everyone's forced to give up their guns and drive a hybrid moped to the tofu store.

Ooh! Mopeds and tofu! At my age, anything that even makes it seem as if time has slowed to a crawl might be a help. I might not live any longer, but it'll sure feel like it...

Which leaves us with the one true hot button, the ugly issue everyone expects: race. This is the card the right will have to play very, very carefully, as the slightest slip-up in demonizing Obama's skin color and playing to America's nastiest, deep-set racist tendencies will offend millions and only make Republicans look like the party of old, white, sexist, racist, classist warmongering men they very much are.

Because here's the thing: When they stole two elections for Bush, the brutal, homophobic conservative machine was tightly organized, had focus, mountains of cash, Karl Rove, the backing of a very nefarious, deeply inbred team of ultra-wealthy war hawks hell-bent on taking over the nation and ruling with a flaccid peni- ... er, iron fist. But now, this monstrous machinery has collapsed, failed, fractured into so many warring factions. There is much foment. There is enormous discord. Iraq is a disaster. Amid the smoking wreckage, McCain stumbles.

And hence, it's almost a sure bet that the remnants of Bush's Republican machine, mangled and disgraced though it is, will still struggle mightily to find a hugely shameful, pitiful pathway toward playing on Middle America's darkest fears. All puns, unfortunately, intended.

Please read the rest.

This is why ...

We have to continue crawling up the collective ass of our elected reps over the FISA bill:

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That's all this is about. The telecoms don't want the amnesty. The overriding goal is to shut down these lawsuits and, most important, eliminate the discovery phase so that the full extent of Administration lawbreaking is permanently hidden. This is about burying the evidence, as every single action by the White House since the Democratic takeover of Congress has been. Bush may have a soft spot in his heart for his corporate buddies, but he's really not interested in indemnifying them. He's interested in immunity for himself.

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Indeed, because the telecom execs will fall back on the 'Nuremberg Defense'. "We were just following orders ... his orders," as they all point to the Chimp.