Christian Right Seeks ‘No Fly’ Status for ‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’

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James Dobson, of Hocus-Pocus on The Family

"Hell, we'll take Islamo-fascista over non-believers any day of the week. It's no secret who we have more in common with...and who we see as a bigger threat."

And in a related but more serious vein, who says terrorist acts have to be in airplanes? Or done by foreigners? Go read Mark Karlin:

Integrally related to the GOP tacit alliance with terrorists in terrorizing America is the fact that one of the most dangerous threats comes from the right-wing heirs to Timothy McVeigh, the militia movement, the Turner Diaries, etc, being stoked on by FOX and politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

In a series of year-long gun attacks on American by Americans who believe Glenn Beck and his right-wing media colleagues that white males are victims and guns are their defense against "Socialist Tyranny," the U.S. is confronting a possible "lone wolf" terrorist attack, and one might consider many of these shooting terrorist attacks by those who have heard the siren song of "patriotic" armed rebellion implied by Beck and his right-wing media cohorts.

Don't be afraid. Be ready. Mr. Karlin, whom I respect and has given me prizes, hates guns and that is his business. I hate snow shovels, but I'm an expert with those too because, like guns, it's better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.

Shopping day today. See yas later.

Crickets ...

Sorry I wasn't around yesterday evening but the Mrs. and I went to meet our friend Jersey Guy and his wife at the Sheraton JFK last night as they passed through NYC on their way to Florida. We had a great visit and the time flew by too quickly. Unfortunately, their return itinerary won't take them back this way as they head home, but there's always next year when they make their pilgrimage to the warm weather again. It was wonderful to finally meet them in the flesh.

See yas later ...

Credibility. Not.

Thanks to Slate

Perfectly Safe Airlines

I couldn't figure out a way to snag this, but go see Perfectly Safe Airlines.

Try it...

Actually, it entitles - belay that, guarantees - the wearer to leave the supermarket/movie theater/men's room/whatever line bare-chested and supine.

T-shirt photo gallery. Some of the 59 of 'em are funny. Your idea of 'funny' may be different than mine. Some of these may turn up here later as well.

Terrorists and Their GOP Enablers Who Terrorize Us

Contributing to our theme so far today is Mark Karlin:

But the larger goal seems to show that a relatively small number of ragtag extremists can immobilize and make a quivering fool out of the U.S.

As the pro-military Stratfor Global Intelligence report succinctly puts it, "The purpose of terrorism in its purest form is to create a sense of insecurity among a public. It succeeds when fear moves a system to the point where it can no longer function. This magnifies the strength of the terrorist by causing the public to see the failure of the system as the result of the power of the terrorist. "

No group is of more assistance to the terrorists in creating this mindset of helpless hysteria than the GOP. The Republican leadership has a synergistic relationship with terrorism. It can't survive without the terrorists, because it has no tenable governing program except to wither taxes down for the rich, Wall Street and corporations until they pay none: that's about it. So, it needs the terrorists (after all, Bush did nothing to prevent 9/11, even though he was warned about likely impending Al Qaeda hijackings and he didn't pursue Osama bin Laden either) to create the same numbing, paralyzed chaos that the terrorists themselves want to achieve.

It should be noted that we terrorize the shit out of millions of people right back what with bombing, invading, and occupying countries that didn't have much to do with 9/11. The difference is that it makes them angry at us, as it should, and their leaders seem to have no interest in making them afraid.

Remember, anger directed at us redirects those people's anger away from their own mostly totalitarian and oppressive governments. It's win-win for terrorists and despots.

And for the Military Industrial Complex's bottom line. By doing a pretty good job of pussifying this country, which really doesn't have anything to be afraid of, into a state of permanent war, the GOP, even out of power but possessed of its Mighty Wurlitzer, has largely succeeded in its Masters' agenda.

The GOP has no shame of course, but Americans who fall for this shit oughta be ashamed of themselves.

Update:

Joe Conason

If we lived in a confident, politically mature society, we would be able to see that tabloid hysterics and direct-mail posturing will do nothing to defeat Al Qaeda. We would understand why President Obama prefers to engage Islam in dialogue rather than demonize a billion Muslims. We would realize that even as we endeavor to destroy a nihilistic enemy that perverts faith, we ought to maintain our composure, our values and, at the very least, our capacity for honest debate. But that would require an opposition loyal to something bigger than itself.

Fat chance as long as there's big money in politics to turn up the volume on a failed ideology.

Speaking of war ...

The Rude One get it right:

...

3. If we do lose our shit every time some Nigerian fries his junk, doesn't that mean that terrorists are winning? It barely needs to be said, no? That terrorism contains its purpose in its name. That the real result of 9/11 is that Osama bin Laden kicked our asses because we played his game, spending ourselves into domestic insecurity in order to deal with a ghost of a foreign threat. We've done practically everything the drama queens of al Qaeda could ask ...

Be afraid, all the time. The terrorists are winning.

I lost count ...

Cdr. Huber details our involvement around the world prosecuting the "War on Terror":

...

If you treat Pakistan as a separate country from Afghanistan, like the rest of the world does, we’re in three wars. We’re in four if you consider what we’re already up to in Yemen, five if you tack on the villages we’ve blown the smithereens out of in Somalia. And if you count our involvement of one sort or other in every whack-a-do the Israelis pull, you’ll lose count of how many wars we’re in.

...

The blowback from our operations will haunt us for years.

...

Yet we continue to enlarge our military footprint throughout the Muslim world, a course of action that produces more new terrorists – like the rich kid with the skivvy bomb that didn’t go off – than it captures or kills. Of course, there’s no better way to sustain a Long War than by making your enemies multiply.

...

It ain't about "keeping us safe", it's about profit for the military-industrial complex.

Quote of the Day

Olbermann via Maru:

...

"After his disgraceful performance since Christmas, when terrorists attempted an attack in this country, Dick Cheney is the beneficiary. And if he cannot summon exactly the same kind of absolute apolitical patriotism he demanded of everyone else while he was in office, he is, by his own terms, nothing more or less -- morally if not legally -- than a traitor to the United States of America."

...

Hey ...

Between 300 and 500 people come to this page every day. We are thankful and grateful but why aren't you all following us on Facebook too? Why do we only have 22 fans? Do we ever ask you for anything? No. We don't beg you for money. We don't take advertisements. And we don't shill for anyone. What do we have to do, stand on our heads and make sparks shoot out our collective ass? We know more than 22 of you are on FB.

Come on, get with the program.

I'm sorry ...

We tried. Joe Wilson and I, and Steny Hoyer came by, and we all tried to unseat Peter King in '06 by supporting and campaigning for Dave Mejias but NY-03 is the reddest district in the state. Our failure, and the lack of a credible contender in '08 (I tried to talk Dave into running again but he's content with his local seat for now), means Peter King is still free to spout his horseshit upon the rest of you.

...

It really is frustrating watching career political hacks like Rep. Peter King get as much media attention as they do. On GMA, he reiterated his attacks on President Obama over the failed attempt by the Christmas bomber. His solution of course is for the President to just say terror, terror, terror all day long.

...

I have an idea. Whenever a pundit asks about Peter King to anyone from the left, we use just one word to describe him. Asshole, Asshole, asshole.

...

He's a boil on the ass of New York State.

Update:

And I never thought I'd say the words "I'm voting for Kirsten Gillibrand this November":

Just as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand thought she could breathe a little easier following news that GOP Rep. Peter King is "leaning against" seeking her senate seat in 2010, reports name Harold Ford Jr. as a possible challenger in a Democratic primary.

...

But I will be.

Toons

YubaNet has a lot of good 'toons today. Here's a couple:






Go see some more.

A brief interview with the devil

Mark Morford

The devil wore patent leather Bruno Magli wingtips, a Dolce camelhair jacket, houndstooth fedora.

We met at a small café on the outskirts of Amsterdam; he was dashing off to a climate meeting where he planned to heckle scientists in the form of a trembling flat-earther before cruising over to North Korea to whisper backwards Latinate phrases into the tormented ear of Kim Jong Il. Then on to Alberta to broker some new oilsands deals, and finally, off to Rome to further tempt Vatican clergy in the form of a beautiful, smooth-skinned altar boy named Rodrigo.

Not bad for an afternoon's work, he said, grinning.

But even the world's finest scientists say we're on the cusp of meltdown, what with global warming and ...

Global warming? Please. Total hoax. Evolution? Hoax. Electric cars? Hoax. All of existence? Hoax. The Bible? Actually not a hoax -- the true, literal, perfect English transcript of floaty magic-winged creatures living on sparkly clouds and judging what you eat and how you have sex, because everyone knows the Almighty loves war, college football, and large caliber handguns, hates gays, Muslims and the French, and wears a U.S. flag lapel pin that was actually made in China. Ha!

I don't see how that relates to...

You don't? You don't see how I can hurl BS into the culture on a spit and a whim before I even eat my morning sacrifices? Let me put it this way: Millions of you actually believe the Bible is literal fact, but you think climate change is a grand, devious ruse. Come on. Who but me could pull off such a masterstroke? I should have my own goddamn reality show. Oh wait, I have all the reality shows.

[...] You feel me?

I think I do.

How about now?

Please take your tail out of there.

I'll toss out some names and current events, and you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. All right?

Bring it.

Go...

Bonus: Morford at Facebook.

Suck the lunch of boiled scorn

A photo gallery of horrible translations.

There is none so blind as he who will not see

From an article in the LATimes about the "White Cemetery" in Kabul:

For 25 years, the cemetery has been watched over and its greenery tended by Rahimullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name.

During the Taliban years, an angry Mullah Mohammed Omar stormed into the cemetery with his gunmen and demanded to know why a Muslim would guard the graves of Christians. Rahimullah tried to sidestep the Taliban leader's question.

"Because I am illiterate and illiterate people are blind," Rahimullah reportedly told Omar.

They don't have to be stupid unless they want to be.

Misperception as Policy

From Firedoglake:

Dear Right-Wing Bedwetters: George H.W. Bush Sought to Try Lockerbie Terrorists in US Court

Remember the Repug tone of those days: G.H.W. Bush, the nation's youngest naval aviator in WWII, who was shot down during a bombing run over a Japanese-held island, was a wimp. And Ronald Reagan, who appeared in a photo as a lieutenant in the horse cavalry reserves, natty in his jodhpurs and boots, was a hero.

So what's new?

I think we should do like in recruit training: wake the bedwetters up every hour on the hour and make 'em go. Or rubber sheets so it doesn't get on the rest of us.

An Uneasy Feeling

Bob Herbert comments on the nation's future:

We’re not smart as a nation. We don’t learn from the past, and we don’t plan for the future. We’ve spent a year turning ourselves inside out with arguments of every sort over health care reform only to come up with a bloated, Rube Goldberg legislative mess that protects the insurance and drug industries and does not rein in runaway health care costs.

The politicians will be back soon, trust me, screaming about the need to rein in health costs.

We keep talking about how essential it is to radically improve public education while, at the same time, we’re closing libraries and firing teachers by the tens of thousands for economic reasons.

The fault lies everywhere. The president, the Congress, the news media and the public are all to blame. Shared sacrifice is not part of anyone’s program. Politicians can’t seem to tell the difference between wasteful spending and investments in a more sustainable future. Any talk of raising taxes is considered blasphemous, but there is a constant din of empty yapping about controlling budget deficits.

Oh, yes, and we’re fighting two wars.

If America can’t change, then the current state of decline is bound to continue. [...]

We're screwed. I'd like to see America be smarter than it is, and we have a lot of smart people, but to quote an old song, we're "gettin' so much resistance from behind...", the difference between now and then is that instead of the people being in the streets on their own to protest the government, the stoopids have been conned into the streets to protest a buncha made-up shit.

The Game ...

The rules of the 'War on Terror' by Professor Campos:

...

Our national government and almost all of the establishment media have decided to play a similar game, which could be called Terrorball. The first two rules of Terrorball are:

(1) The game lasts until there are no longer any terrorists, and;
(2) If terrorists manage to ever kill or injure or seriously frighten any Americans, they win.

...

There is no end. "We were always at war with Oceania."

Off to work ...

What we are ...

As usual, Drifty hits it right on the head. It's all because of this guy:

...

If we were a nation with 30 million angry, active rocket scientists, political historians, economists or religious scholars…then the president of PBS would be commanding the high seven-figure salaries, and Conservative cesspit dwellers would be busking for change on America’s street corners, reciting goony free-verse “values” paeans to tax-cuts, shotguns, Reagan and Jebus.

...

But we’re not.

We’re a nation with 30 million angry Goobers whose bloody political paw prints are all over virtually every act of Conservative fuckuppery and treason this country has suffered for the last generation.

...

Indeed!

Please read the whole thing.

Quote of the Day

Roger Ailes the Good:

So when does Brit Hume advise Charles Krauthammer that if he accepts Jesus as his personal Saviour he will walk again?