Of Birthers, Senators and Morons

Shopping day today, so here's a quickie from Kos:

In the news: John Cornyn thinks fact checking is pretext for domestic espionage. Which he's suddenly against. Chuck Grassley uses Ted Kennedy's medical condition as propaganda for his own false and nonsensical claims about "socialized medicine" killing old people -- and this is who Max Baucus is "negotiating" with to bring us his version of health care. Rush Limbaugh thinks Obama is like Hitler. Glenn Beck muses about poisoning Nancy Pelosi.

The birthers are going strong, and the teabaggers are trying to shut down healthcare reform by making town halls on the subject impossible. Dick Morris and John Bolton agree: we should have left those two journalists to rot in North Korea, because Clinton going there to secure their release made the U.S. look weak, and now other countries will steal our lunch money at recess. And Lou Dobbs never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like, as long as it was about brown or black people, but after people got angry that he peddled false nonsense he says he's now reflexively going to oppose Obama on everything.

It almost makes you want to cry. Between Cornyn, Grassley, Limbaugh and Beck, between Dobbs and Morris and Bolton, between birthers and "socialized" medicine but keep-your-hands-off-my-Medicare, the stupid is overwhelming. It's become a tidal wave of stupid. It's a giant Noah's Ark of stupid, in which two examples of every kind of dumbassery known to man have been loaded up to be set adrift on a sea of their own drool. It's the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" gameshow of stupid -- loud, with big flashing lights, and on every goddamn day of the week. It's the result of drinking conservative bong water and eating the paint chips flaking off Bill Buckley's lead-encrusted casket.

I'd be afraid for the future of our country, but I know that if these people ever actually armed themselves and tried to take over they'd all have accidentally shot themselves in the groin within the first ten minutes. Then they'd all limp to D.C. to hold a rally demanding free government healthcare for crotch-related injuries.

If they need any help to shoot themselves in the crotch, I volunteer.

See yas later.

Recess

Gleefully gleeped from YubaNet.

Note to the House and Senate: Beat on that bully sonofabitch with that case in your hand until he cries 'Uncle!'. Then beat him until he shuts the fuck up. Then just beat him. Yeah, like you got the balls to do that.

Khmer Bush

YubaNet

As leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime testify in a human rights tribunal, in harrowing detail, for the killing of more than a million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979 a central medical question remains unanswered: will the trials help a society heal or exacerbate the lingering affects of widespread trauma?

Tribunals to assess crimes of war and crimes against humanity are becoming more common. In June, Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, answered questions in an international courtroom in Paris about his alleged role in genocide in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a UN-sponsored trial, has been underway since 1993 and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 1995. The Nuremberg Trials is perhaps the most well known.

The Khmer Rouge trials offer the opportunity to better gauge the efficacy of these trials, and those lessons hold relevance across a spectrum of injustice.

“The larger question raised by our study is whether attempts to promote justice for survivors of violence – whether en masse or inflicted by one individual to another – can help lessen its psychological toll,” Sonis says. “We simply don’t know the answers yet.”

Let's have some Khmer Bush trials and find out.

William Jefferson Airplane

The title must refer to the fact that The Big Dawg's got Grace and he's Slick...

First 5 minutes is about Clinton and the return of the hostages. Then it goes into the wingtards' response. Scumbags.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
William Jefferson Airplane
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Clinton says she regrets U.S. is not a member of ICC

Ol' Hil was firin' on all her cylinders over in Kenya! I hereby volunteer a fresh oversize piston should she ever need one...

Reuters via Think Progress:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday it was a "great regret" the United States was not yet a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The United States signed the ICC treaty when Hillary's husband, Bill Clinton, was president, but it was never ratified by Congress. Clinton's successor George W. Bush later rejected the idea of joining the court.

If I did what he did, I'da rejected it too. When ya let the war criminals be the shot callers, no good will come of it and none has.

With the recent addition of the Czech Republic, 110 countries have ratified the Rome statute. Absent from the list are the United States, Russia, China and Israel.

The "Big Four" in Non-Accountability World for war crimes, imperialism, genocide, and general all-around human rights abuses.

The court only has jurisdiction over crimes committed after July 1, 2002, in countries that have ratified its treaty.

It's almost like they knew what Bush & Cheney were going to be up to when they formed that outfit. Maybe someone there was on Yoo and Bybee's e-mail list.

It doesn't look at present like Obama is going to change US policy re the ICC. If he does, listen for the sound of printing presses in The Hague burning out from printing arrest warrants for the neoNaziscons and their Bush administration.

Republicans Oppose 'Cash For Clunkers' Program

Tony Peyser

Whatever their complaints may be
The subtext that's always lurking
Is rage at anything Obama's done
That happens to be. . . working.

Oily Taint ...

And the rest of them. Our pal Maru:

...

Remember when the news used to give you something called… let’s see now, what was it… uh, facts? All we get now is variations on shit like Senator, your republican opponent says your bill calls for the mercy killings of thousands. Why do you hate freedom, you murderer? Even formerly-dignified wonk shows are featuring loonytoon haters such as Michelle Malkin and that Orly Taintz Borat character. I’m so fucking disgusted I could puke.

Surprised the fuck outta me ...

But they actually did the right thing:

Washington -- The Senate will vote today on rescuing the "cash for clunkers" program, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said late Wednesday, announcing a deal he expects to pave the way for an extra $2 billion to keep the initiative alive at least through Labor Day.

The agreement by Senate Democrats and Republicans "accomplishes what we need to accomplish," said Reid, who earlier declared he has the votes to pass the popular program.

The House has already passed the bill, and President Barack Obama has said he would sign it.

...

Hypocrisy much?

The headline of Greenwald's latest:

Hillary Clinton demands accountability for war crimes

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

I love ya, I really do. I like you a lot more than I like your husband. That said, my dear, I think it might be wise to refrain from calling for war crimes trials in other countries until we decide to prosecute our own criminals. As long as those who criminally lied us into two wars, detained innocents without cause, tortured others, and killed thousands, American and Iraqi alike, remain free, we are in no position to point fingers at, or lecture, anyone else.

...

We need to teach those Kenyans that if they don't prosecute their criminals in high office, then they'll perpetuate their "culture of impunity," and that would be awful. Those Kenyans apparently fail to understand that if you immunize high political officials when they commit crimes, that creates a "culture of impunity" -- I love that phrase -- which ensures future rampant criminality in the political class. How can those Kenyans not realize this?

Clinton's sentiments echoed what Obama told Africans when he spoke in Ghana last month, when he demanded that they apply "the rule of law, which ensures the equal administration of justice" and vowed that "we will stand behind efforts to hold war criminals accountable" -- meaning African war criminals. As we send murderous, crusading civilian units around the world to accompany our invading armies -- while ushering a regime of torture wherever we go -- and then announce we will only Look to the Future, Not the Past, when their crimes are exposed (despite our best efforts to keep them concealed), do we actually expect anyone to take these sermons seriously? [em in orig]

...

Other than that, I hope all is well with you and the family. Remember to kick Bill in the nuts once or twice a month, just to remind him who's boss.

Regards,

Fixer

Who's that Black Man in my White House?

Most of the news is about the Repug shit that's going on. I'm sick of it. I want to kick all their asses up around their ears. Hell yeah, that would be wrong, but it'd sure as shit shut 'em the fuck up and that'd be good enough. I can't do it, of course. I mean, I could but it'd get all the wrong kind of press ("Rampaging Socialist Disrupts Disruptors At Town Hall Meeting!"). Gotta find other ways, and people are working on it.

This is by Spadecaller. Some comments as well.

Spadecaller's poem characterizes a new and frightening voice of the Republican Party. Since the election of our first black President, Barack Hussein Obama, the Republican party has gravitated to the fringes of the partys extreme. A shocking 58 percent of Republicans polled doubt Barack Obama is an American born citizen. Since Obama's entry into the White House there has been a rise of hate crimes, hate speech from mainstream politicians, threats of secession by state officials, open threats of revolution, and numerous threats against the Presidents life. The young presidency has encountered reactionary forces far beyond anything yet experience in American history. In contrast to the astounding fact that a black man succeeded in garnering the support of Americas voting majority, racial tensions have risen to a critical mass and the opposition party is willingly supporting the ideologies traditionally associated with the KKK and White Supremacists.

This is why ...

I don't give a damn if mercenaries live or die.

Vid shamelessly stolen from Larisa.

They should hang the lot of them from a bridge in Fallujah.

Quote of the Day

Digby:

...

To extend this a bit, 15 million people protested the Iraq war and the coverage was virtually nil. Lobbyists bus 100 people into a Congressional town hall and the media hypes the "Tehran-like" atmosphere of them ...

Seems like the teabaggers and birthers are the new Joe the Plumber ...

A government program that actually works?!! It must be stopped!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

North Korea: 2 US journalists pardoned

Yahoo!News

All good, but no big surprise.

And who would you have sent to negotiate when it comes to young women? Go Big Dawg!

Anxiously awaiting the video of them thanking him...

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away..."*

*Apologies to John Lennon.

Sorry about the light blogging yesterday. I experienced a slight meltdown and then had a vision of life in a post-apocalyptic world. Wait, that sounds like straitjacket time - my computer went on the blink. Literally. It had a blinking orange light where the steady green 'on' light oughta be and wouldn't start. Deader'n a fuckin' doornail.

It was just about the same sensation as when your motorcycle flames out twenty miles from your truck out in the middle of the desert. It gets awfully quiet, the world expands exponentially, and you get the sinking feeling that you're all alone out in the middle of it. And you are. Then you get over it and start in on trying to get it running again so you don't have to walk for eight hours to cover the distance you rode in twenty minutes.

I managed to bang out one little post on Mini-Hal while I was figuring out what to do next. With the desktop out, I was starting to feel as if I had ceased to exist as a human being, same feeling folks get when their car breaks and the mechanic can't get it fixed by lunchtime.

I've almost been expecting it. The cooling fan's been running a lot more than usual lately and it was getting louder. We had a computer years ago that wouldn't start when the fan went bad, so that's where I looked first. I peeled the fan out and sure enough, it had a notchy bearing like the steering head bearing on a motorcycle that's been pounded in a straight line too long. I don't know a damn thing about computers, but I knew that wasn't good. Whether that's what's really wrong with Hal is a moot point until I get a new fan in, but it needs replaced so that's where I'm starting.

I was a radio repairman in the service, so I was ready for anything when I opened Hal up. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there aren't any tubes in it! I should have known - the tube tester disappeared from the drugstore some time ago.

I started looking for parts. I called all three of the local computer joints listed in our phone book. Got three voice mails and am still waiting for call backs. Yeesh. Makes me wonder what those guys do for a living. It used to be that you got drugs at independent motorcycle repair shops that were only open at night. Maybe now it's 'puter shops. Heh.

I tried to look for parts online on Mini-Hal, but our ostensibly 3G air card is hampered by the weakest tower in the AT&T system by their own admission, one bar on a good day, like a wireless dial-up, only slower. It takes five or ten minutes for a page to load, you click on wherever it tells you to next, five or ten more minutes, repeat a coupla more times, and eventually get a "page not found" and start over someplace else. Grrrr. It took hours. Finally got a phone number for Dell and got the part on its way from a nice kid in the Phillipines. It's shipped and in a coupla days I'll be able ta try an' figger out what else needs to be done ta get Hal arcin' an' sparkin' again.

Didja ever have one of those "lights on in yer head, dipshit" moments? I sure did. About the time I was feeling all proud of myself for getting the part ordered against all the forces in opposition, Mrs. G came home for lunch. I told her what all had gone on and she came up with one little sentence: "Why din'tja hook the laptop up ta the DSL?"

Doh. Hand. Forehead. Smack. Get up off the floor. Repeat. She does that shit to me all the time. Actually I think I do it to myself.

Installed some software, cleared some space, hooked up a coupla cables, and here I am, all hi-speed like God intended and all's right with the world, in sort of an 'OK Temp' fashion. About my only problem is pulling out the keyboard from under the desk and wondering why it doesn't work. Hand, forehead...

On a good day, that would have been the end of it. Not so fast, white boy.

Came time to schlep down to the post office and pick up the mail. Went into the spare bedroom, where I can smoke, to watch a little news while I put on my pants (the folks at the PO are a buncha soreheads if I don't) and shoes. The TV is about thirty years old and runs on a box from the cable company. The box itself is so old that the cable company quit charging me rent on it years ago. Pointed the clicker at it and - nuttin' honey. Changed batteries, recalibrated it, bupkis. Oh, well...

As a mechanic, I know all too well that things happen in threes. The thought of "Oh shit, what's next?" came to mind as I surveyed my choices of transportation to go for the mail. I pondered which vehicle was a) least likely to break, b) which one did I stand the best chance of fixing by the side of the road using only my rocket scientist mind and roadside debris, and finally c) which one would I be most likely to be able to push a mile uphill to get home. I chose the Royal Enfield even though it failed to meet criterium 'c' by about 300 pounds, which is what I would have used even if all these dark thoughts hadn't been clouding my mind. Since all my troubles had been with electronics, the RE barely has any, and doesn't need them to run as long as the battery isn't dead. There is something to be said for old school simplicity.

Got the mail, got the cheapest remote they had at RiteAid, got the TV working, so far so good. As the fellow who just jumped off the 30th floor said as he went past the 15th.

I guess ya gotta have a day like that once in a while to remind you of how well things go normally, but yesterday was plenty, thank you, Jesus. Pardon me for bending yer eyeballs with it. Later.

More excuses ...

Excuses are like assholes. Everybody's got one and they all stink. The Dems have a lot of them when it comes to their level of fail. This one, in particular, chaps my ass (using the nearly-dead as an excuse for not pissing off the Rethugs). The Great Orange Satan via Joe:

Democrats have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate, meaning they should be able to push through the Democratic agenda without interference from an irrelevant Republican minority. Except that it's the Democrats we're talking about, and there's always an excuse why they can't do the right thing.

Now it's that they really only have 58 votes.

You see, Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd are too sick to show up! Both have been wheeled in for key votes in recent months, and one thinks the same could be done for key health care votes, but they have become the newest excuse for Democratic impotence in the Senate.

...

Investment advice ...

From Maru:

Invest in Kleenex futures now!

The sequel to the conservatard masturbatory fantasy Red Dawn starts shooting September 8th.

Umbrellas and rain wear too. The spooge'll be flyin'. Heh ...

Problem?

What's a little forgery between friends?

Update:

Funny, but I don't know if I like the idea of using a member of my family to make the joke.

Update Zwei:

And Badtux has the real deal. Obama's a fucking alien! I'll believe that before I believe he was born in pre-Kenya.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Economy Slightly Less Worse Than Expected
Translation: you can come in off the ledge, but leave the window open.

Attorney General Still Undecided About Prosecuting Bush Officials
May hold them in Guantanamo until he makes up his mind.

Perfect! That's what it's there for. Take yer time, Eric...

New Jersey to More Than Double Solar Power Generation
Once deal finalized with Mafia, rabbis.

Sex Toys for Dogs Debut
Not shown: leg toy.

Maybe ...

People should pay more attention. Digby's right, and its one of my pet peeves; people don't know enough about how our government works or what the issues are really about. It's your country, people. What those weasels in Washington do affects us directly. Why wouldn't someone want to be as informed as possible?

...

Everyone in the place was complaining about the insurance companies and how broken the system was. But they were also convinced that the Democrats are trying to pass socialized medicine. When I asked what they thought that meant, they said, "government takeover of health care." And they were seriously worried about how that was going to affect them.

I don't know where these people are getting this. They aren't political, they don't listen to talk radio or read blogs. This is just what's out in the ether, what people are saying in casual conversation. The ear worm is "we've got a problem, but the Democrats are going to take over health care and make things worse." It's not entirely surprising, but it's depressing nonetheless.

Voter apathy is one of the things that really annoys me, along with being misinformed. In this day and age, with the advent of the intarwebs, there is no excuse for not getting what's going on in the government, be it local, state, or federal.

It seems to me, the people who bitch the loudest don't vote and have no clue of what they're really bitching about. To those who don't vote: Shaddap! To those ignorant of the issues: Go find out before you open your trap!

Now, I can tell from the first sentence if someone watches Fox 'News' or not. Usually I don't waste my time with people who watch Fox. It just ain't worth it because they generally don't want to hear anything. The plain old uninformed are fun to watch as their expression changes when you calmly explain what some piece of legislation means to them. You see the light bulb go on over their heads.

Example:

Customer/Acquaintance/Friend: "Obama's gonna raise taxes to pay for health care."

Me: "Do you make more than $250K/year?"

C/A/F: "Are you kidding?"

Me: "Then you have nothing to worry about."

C/A/F: "No shit?"

Me: "Dude/Dudette, 95% of Americans won't get a tax increase. Only the really rich are gonna pay more and even those making $250K will only pay 1% more."

C/A/F: "That's not bad."

Me: "Indeed. Go now, and spread the word ..."

I'm tired of people pulling stuff out their ass on subjects they know very little to nothing about. I get it a lot in the car business, folks who think they know something about cars lecturing me. Do they realize, when they flap their traps to an expert on the subject, they just come off sounding like a bigger moron? Just because their buddy or some moron on TV says something doesn't make it accurate or true.

Listen, the reason the Chimp and his henchmen got away with so much is that nobody ever questioned anything, nobody doing anything but the most superficial thinking about the threat from Iraq, or how innocent people ended up at Gitmo, or how the government tapped your phones and read your email without warrant - I could go on forever. Yes, our lapdog news media shoulders a lot of blame but if our populace weren't so ignorant, they wouldn't have gotten away with so much.

There are very few people I trust with my future or my money, certainly no one in Washington. While I can't grab them by the balls and win their hearts and minds, I sure as hell keep an eye on what they're doing to protect myself from their fuckups. If you don't know, or don't care, then you can't bitch about what they do to you.