This is just getting ridiculous

So far today, it looks like we have a theme of sorts: batshit crazy hateful ideologues.

Think Progress

Anti-gay group compares marrying same-sex couples to helping the Nazis.

Reacting to the California Supreme Court’s decision overturing a same-sex marriage ban, the far right group Campaign for Children and Families compares county clerks issuing same-sex marriage licenses to Nazis gassing Jews during the Holocaust. Here’s what they say on their website, SaveCalifornia.com:

Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had been ordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they would have been convicted of murder for following this immoral order.

(HT: Andrew Sullivan) (Andy's piece is titled "Malkin Award Nominees". Heh - G)

And if that wasn't enough, in the post just below that one:

Santorum Mocks Gay Marriage: ‘I Love My Brother. Should We Call This Relationship Marriage Too?’

Note to ol' 'Man on Dog': if you really love him, it's OK with me. I don't understand why you would want to, but then I'm not a Repuglican.

Tricky Ricky then goes on about how permitting gay marriage has totally fucked up heterosexual marriage and contributed to an increase in out-of-wedlock births in Norway of all places. I don't see how same-sex marriage affects birth rates, but he mostly made it all up anyway.

I was enjoying thinking we'd heard the last from that ying-yang, but I guess these truly important matters bring him out of the closet from under his rock.

I watched a guy named Garry Wills on Charlie Rose last night. He was talking about a book he's flogging about the Gospels. It was interesting, but the talk turned to the separation of church and state and then to gay marriage. He said that government should not be in the business of telling folks how they can formalize their love with another person, and that government should permit civil unions and stay the fuck out of the religious concept of marriage that should be left to the discretion of individual churches. Government should concern itself with equity, justice, and humanity, to which I would add screw the phony moral values of the fundie dipshits. I tend to agree with him. Well worth watching.

So much for Parsley...

Looks like Fixer'n me gangin' up on McCain's ass over his other nutjob 'pastor' worked.

In February, Ohio televangelist Rev. Rod Parsley endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain called Parsley — who once said Allah was a “demon spirit” — his “spiritual guide.” In an interview with the AP today, McCain finally said that he rejected Parsley’s support:

McCain’s statement on Parsley came after the senator earlier in the day rejected the endorsement of radical pastor John Hagee.

There's more, including a video and comments, but who needs it?

There's three religions descended from Abraham, and McCain chose to seek endorsements from two batshit 'spiritual guides' who between them called for the destruction of two of them. I'm not a religionist and I don't have much use for any of 'em, but the 'better angels' of religion can do good. Trouble is, the 'worst angels' that have caused so much trouble for thousands of years and continue to do so are much louder.

You'd think McCain would have gotten better advice from his advisors, but I guess they were too busy rakin' in the dough from the despots of various dictatorships around the world.

I actually kinda wish he'da hung on to these dark clowns until the election campaign had gotten into full sway. This was yet another indicator of the kind of poor judgment we already have in the White House and don't need any more of.

Quote of the Day

Avedon:

American healthcare is like one big Tuskegee experiment, where everyone else gets actual healthcare and the United States just gets maintained on the commercial medical industry disease.

Now I'm outta here ...

"Now for Parsley..."

Expanding on Gord's Hagee post last evening, it's time to shame McSame into throwing the other nut under the bus too. Mr. Aravosis:

... This is McCain's other pastor buddy, Rod Parsley. He's a real piece of work. Check out the video below put together by PFAW. We wrote about Parsley's offensive rhetoric earlier today (Mohammed as "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil.") ...

Off to work. TGIF!

Incoming ...

This can't be good:

BAGHDAD - Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.

...

Bad enough that this week our guys are being targeted by people who were on our payroll last week, now the big cheese has given his blessing to it. When I think about our troops having to operate in that kind of environment, where friends are 'allies of convenience' and could turn into enemies tomorrow, where the guy fighting next to you today will try to kill you tonight, it is surprising more GIs haven't gone over the edge.

It's time to go; not in a hundred years, not in 2013, yesterday.

Great thanks to Robert Farley for the link.

Heh ...

Stolen from our pal UL. Click to enolden.

You can have a peek ...

Oh wow, McSame is releasing his medical records ... sort of. Dr. Fez-head in toto (links there):

Two reporters get three hours to sift through years, and undoubtedly hundreds if not thousands of pages of McCain medical documents...but no copies.

On the Friday before Memorial Day?

Oh, no, nothing that could cause suspicion there.

The new GI Bill passes ...

And veto-proof at that. Feels good to win:

The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a new GI bill and billions in new domestic spending as part of the $165 billion Iraq war funding bill pending before Congress.

...

Turdblossom gets a Summons

ABC News

The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former senior Bush advisor Karl Rove, a panel spokesman tells ABC News.

"Although he does not seem the least bit hesitant to discuss these very issues weekly on cable television and in the print news media, Mr. Rove and his attorney have apparently concluded that a public hearing room would not be appropriate," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, I have no choice today but to compel his testimony on these very important matters."

The subpoena calls for Rove to appear before the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee at 10:00 a.m. on July 10.

July? Shit, if it was me, I'da had him report right after lunch! If he didn't show up, he'd be there at 8AM tomorrow in irons'n orange.

Rove himself was apparently not available for comment. Too busy tryin' to get aholt of the Chimp for a pardon. Bush is probably hiding from him by being out on the White House lawn not playing golf.

Actually, the July date is OK. We don't want Rove indicted until after 1.20.09, when the 'executive' will be fresh out of 'privilege'.

Update:

Emptywheel's got a good post on this. Thanks, 'Nucks.

Song of the Day

Pink - Dear Mr. President



JG.

ающий фаллос

You ain't gonna believe this! Heh.

Trio

Screw what's wrong with the world for a few minutes and remember what's right with it. Three of my favorite old broads sing a pretty song, and they mention my back yard too!

"He's out in the garage blowin' the shofar"*

Talk To Action has the most comprehensive article I've seen to date on McCain's despicable anti-semitic spiritual adviser Hagee. Commentary, beaucoup links, videos.

Two days ago I discovered that, according to John Hagee's own written words in Hagee's "Prophecy Study Bible", members of John Hagee's Christians United For Israel routinely sing, at their "Night To Honor Israel" events, a joyful-sounding song which, in scriptural terms, refers to Israel's coming, expected invasion and devastation. Building on my last discovery, of a John Hagee sermon in which John Hagee claims God sent Hitler and the Nazis, to chase Europe's Jews towards Palestine, and that Jews have dead (or non-living, inert) souls (see YouTube video towards the end of this post), this new finding helps solidify my case that Pastor John Hagee, who also has given a sermon espousing a crypto anti-Semitic conspiracy theory - of "international financial power brokers based in Europe", is an anti-Semite of the first magnitude.

I think we get that. Go see this only if you have a strong stomach.

Also see:

Psycho Christians and the media

Why the press gives McCain a pass for consorting with batshit holy men, but condemns Obama to talk-show hell for the same sin.

[...] The issue isn't that journalists share Hagee and Parsley's views so much as that they know that they are widely held, which makes them reluctant to acknowledge how truly outrageous they are. After years of nodding at the whacked-out likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the media has, to borrow Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous phrase, defined right-wing religious deviancy down. More or less "orthodox" Christian-right insanity, of the sort espoused by Hagee and Parsley, is familiar and normal, whereas black-church radicalism, with its ties to left-wing liberation theology, is not. [...]

The 'media' has a lot to answer for. They won't, and even if they did they'd never tell us about it.

*Punch line to a really old joke. If you don't know what a shofar is, you might not get it. It is not the liveried gent who drives the car. McCain, Hagee, the media - they're all blowin' each other.

Update:

Wow! I had no idea my post would be this powerful! Musta been the 'blowjob' reference. The Repugs are rightly a little sensitive about that stuff. Heh.

McCain rejects Hagee's endorsement

Out of political expediency McShame has done half the 'Wright' thing. Now for Parsley...

Capitalism ...

Yeah, we taught the Taliban a lesson. A lesson in economics:

Afghan Islamic militants get some 40 percent of their revenue from the poppy harvest used in opium production, the head of the NATO forces in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

...

Afghanistan remains the world's top producer of opium, supplying some 8,000 tonnes last year, according to UN figures. The southern province of Kandahar and Helmand are the main growing areas.

...

How long we been there now? Yeah, we're winning.

Off to work ...

Re-fucking NOLA ...

Via Cookie Jill, the AP reports the 'heck of a job' repairs on NOLA's levees ain't worth a shit:

Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses.

Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm.

...

Over the past few months, however, the corps found evidence that canal water is seeping through the joints in the sheet metal and then rising to the surface on the other side of the levee, forming puddles and other wet spots.

Engineers said the boggy ground is a more serious problem than the corps realizes. Bea said there is a roughly 40 percent chance of the 17th Street Canal levee collapsing if water rises higher than 6 feet above sea level. During Katrina, the water reached 7 feet in the canal.

...

Fuck 'em again; they're used to it by now ...

No more PNAC ...

Yay!

Apparently for financial reasons, the new American century has prematurely ended.

In a symbolic act, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), run by Bill Kristol and other neocons, has lost its internet presence.

When accessing www.newamericancentury.org one now gets redirected to the webhosters 'account suspended' page.

...

A part of the Neocon noise machine bites the dust. Looks like it'll be a good day.

Holy shit!

Our 'mechanic's blog' ("The Last Chance Garage" a.k.a. Fixer & Gordon) is 4 years old today. Time flies when yer havin' fun!

Good grief ...

Thankfully, we don't get many trolls here but it looks like we're gonna get a rash of 'em soon.

...

Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.

...

Total Ayatollah Recall

A coupla good posts at Democracy Arsenal on McFlipFlop's attitude towards the leadership of Iran:

Following-up on Ilan's post, it seems to me that McCain has a real problem on his hands. This passage from a 2003 CQ piece suggests that when moderates held elective power in Iran, McCain himself acknowledged that the theocratic leaders (ie the Ayatollah and the Council of Guardians) wielded ultimate political power in Iran:
...

But others saw the effort as futile. "People go in there and meet the moderate foreign minister and the moderates around him, and they fool themselves into thinking the regime will change," said John McCain, R-Ariz., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The religious mullahs will never let them."

So, for McCain, when the moderates held elective office, the religious clerics were the final arbiters of Iranian politics and policy. But now that a more hard-line president has control in Iran, he is characterized as the true leader and the religious clerics are marginalized. [...]
...

[...] Even in January of this year, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rather publicly overruled President Ahmadinejad in a way that directly contradicts McCain's recent assertions:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran, ordered Ahmadinejad to implement a law that would supply natural gas used to heat remote villages. The issue has become critical during an unusually harsh winter in Iran, and illustrates Ahmadinejad's weakness on domestic policy despite the high profile the anti-American populist has acquired abroad.

It certainly is disconcerting, as Ilan stated, to have in McCain a presidential candidate who doesn't understand the basic nature of Iran's political system. It certainly undercuts any credibility he has on the issue, and for all his recent posturing on Iran, it demonstrates a world view in disarray, whether on purpose or not. But whatever the root of the confusion may be, it does, in the end, perpetuate the conservative tactic of muddying reality in order to beat the politically expedient drum of fear.

I have nothing to add to that.

Song of the Day

Today, with a special dedication to George W. Bush, we bring you Jimmy Buffett's, "The Asshole Song." Enjoy!



JG.