Heh ...

Stolen from our pal Montag.

Hypocrites ...

British conservatives are just as bad as their American counterparts.

Just because you convene ...

A 'Kangaroo Court' doesn't mean you'll get a conviction:

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The Bush administration -- in which Liz Cheney's papa held a fairly high position, you might recall -- prosecuted, after 9-11, 828 people on terrorism charges in civilian courts. At the time of publication of this excellent report from the Center on Law and Security, NYU School of Law last year, trials were still pending against 235 of those folks. That leaves 593 resolved indictments, of which 523 were convicted of some crime, for a conviction rate of 88%.

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All the tough talk was just that, bullshit:

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With regard to military tribunals, the Bush administration inaugurated 20 such cases. So far just three convictions have been won. The highest-profile is the conviction of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver. The Hamdan legal saga, rehearsed here, doesn't exactly suggest that military tribunals provide swifter and surer and tougher justice. In the end, he was convicted all right, but sentenced -- not by a bunch of New York City Democrats, but by a military jury! -- to five and half years.

Then, the tribunal judge, a US Navy captain, gave Hamdan credit for time served, which was five years. So he served six months after conviction. Today he's back in -- guess where? -- Yemen.

...

Wasn't that the reason we sent these guys to Gitmo in the first place? So they wouldn't "return to the battlefield"? I wonder how long it will take this guy to show up on a plane with a bomb up his ass ...

Great thanks to Attaturk for the link.

Negro, please!

Rude Pundit is trying to figure out what was wrong with what Harry Reid said about Obama (other than using the word "Negro," but old people will do that). It seems like he was stating the obvious about racism in America, and that freaks us the fuck out.

I'm 64, so I guess I fit in the 'old' category. I remember when 'Negro' was the only completely publicly acceptable word for black people. 'Colored' was socially acceptable among whites in daily conversation. It degenerated from there. I had a boss once who used the term 'our ebony-hued brethren' in a spirit of irony. The use of 'black' came in the late '60s pretty much at the request of our ebony-hued brethren, and 'African-American' and the less cumbersome and my choice, 'Afro-American' came a little later. 'Brother' ( and 'Sister') came a lot later.

When I was in the service (1963-66), 'Negro' was too formal and 'colored' was considered pejorative, so we used the term 'splib' for black Marines. Staff NCOs and above sometimes used 'dark green Marine', but most of us thought that was as phony as a $3 bill. I have no idea of the origin of 'splib', but I have been told it's an acronym for something and would love to know what it's an acronym for.

The splibs called the white Marines 'chuck', from 'Mr. Charles', the archetypical term for slave owners of yore. Neither blacks nor whites took any offense at these words and they were helpful descriptors since we all dressed alike.

A typical usage might be:

"I'm lookin' fer Corporal Washington."

" Tall splib over there talkin' ta them two chuck dudes."

I wish we had functionally neutral terms like that now.

'Negro' is now considered by some to be an ethnic or racial slur. Not by me. I see it as archaic, but I see nothing wrong with it, though I don't use it much anymore. It is nice to be considered historic and archaic, I guess, you fuckin' whippersnappers...

There's no need to go into the truly hateful words used by both blacks and whites and every other skin color to put each other down. We all know and don't use quite a few of them, and there is nothing to be gained by it.

At this point, I must disclose that since Obama has become President and convinced all the ignorant throwback wingnut white racists that the country is on a steepening slide to socialist/fascist/Nazi/communist/mixed race godless fuckery, that I have used the word 'nigger' to make that very point. I've been called on it too, by people who didn't get my meaning.

I find myself agreeing with George Will (gasp!) on This Week With George Stephanopoulos' Hair this morning who asked the burning question, "What did Reid say that was false?"

Obama is light skinned, and whether that means something less threatening than 'African-so-black-it's-almost-blue' to many whites who don't know any better or not, or he's not black enough like some blacks may think who don't know any better or not, it's a simple statement of fact.

He doesn't have a 'Negro dialect' unless he wants to. He also doesn't have a Hawaiian dialect unless he wants to. He can slip into a light version of either of 'em pretty easily, and I like to listen to him when he does. It sure doesn't make him sound stupid like when Bush would slip into his phony Texican to sound more like Ignorant Joe Six-Pack.

I will not dignify the bullshit comparison of Reid's statement to the statement by Lott that, thank you Jesus, sent him packing other than to say that Lott's statement was demonstrably both racist and wrong. Reid's was not.

Dr. King was absolutely right when he said he longed for a time when men will be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. That day is coming, but as long as there is political advantage to be gained by the exploitation of race in this country, and as long as people teach their children to hate and look down on others on the basis of race, religion, color, or creed, that day will come more slowly than it should. It's been that way since the dawn of time and will probably continue 'til the planet is stardust again, but as individuals we do not have to participate in madness.

Headline of the Day

Calif. judge orders police to return 60 pounds of marijuana

Way ta go, yer honor dude!

Just kill 'em ...

And you don't have to send them back. We're worried about Gitmo and secret prisons? We're doing the same things to illegals detained here waiting for deportation:

Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.

But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.

...

Who cares? They ain't real 'Murikans.

Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East L.A.

So there I was, just kinda blissfully cruisin' YouTube, which is kinda famous for serendipitously jerkin' me this way and that. I watched the video below and it took me to East L.A. and Whittier Boulevard and Lowriders (¡Que chachabingos!) and Hoppers and all in all fun to watch and flat killed an hour and I'll be back later, ese...

The California Council for the Humanities is an independent nonprofit organization and state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. We support and create programs that bring Californians together around their history and culture. Since 2001 the Council has been engaged in a statewide initiative, California Stories, designed to tell the larger story of California. The latest campaign under California Stories, called How I See It, is giving young people opportunities to share — in their own words and through a variety of media — what their lives are like, what they care about, and what it's like to grow up in today's California.

No thank you very much. Been there, done that. I'm glad I grew up in the California I grew up in. It's long gone.

This 90-minute documentary tells the story of Chicano rock n roll and how it defined and continues to define the Latino community in East Los Angeles.

Thanks to CaCouncilHumanities.

Underwear Bomber Jokes

Daniel Kurtzman's Political Humor Blog

"Even if the bomb works, there's going to be 72 very disappointed virgins." --Jon Stewart on the Underwear Bomber

Many more. This one's for Fixer and Jersey Guy:

"I guess you heard about that kid that tried to blow up the plane on Christmas Day with a bomb he had hidden in his underwear. Before he could get the bomb lit, some hero passengers grabbed him. They dragged him into first class. See, I had no idea that's how you got upgraded on Delta. I thought it was a point system." --Jay Leno

Anybody got a match?

[A big welcome to all of Skippy's readers. - F]

Thanks to IWR.

Obama Does What Bush and Cheney Would Not

Shorter: acted like a grown-up and a leader.

The Rude Pundit, links at site:

Let's give some credit here amid our constant dismay on the left with the President: Yesterday, Barack Obama did something quite extraordinary in these weaselly times when he stood up and took blame for the fuck-ups that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to publicly turn his balls into boiled jizz bags. The President actually looked like a pissed-off boss when he spoke, like a man who understood what might have happened had Abdulmutallab decided to try to blow up the toilet instead of the flotation device under his ass. As Joan Walsh in Salon says, you can't imagine George W. Bush ever treating the American public with such honesty; you can't imagine him thinking he could trust Americans to reveal what went wrong on 9/11. Barack Obama was more of a real man, a real leader, yesterday than the faux macho George W. Bush was in his entire presidency.

Obama's speech was fascinating for many reasons, not the least of which was his saying that "the buck stops with me." There was a subtle thread throughout of a repudiation of the way the Bush administration treated terrorism. "We are at war," he asserted, but then in a fuck-you to those who wanted him to say the word "war," he added, "We are at war with al-Qaeda." That's an easily apprehended specificity, a group (however diffuse and ill-defined it may be), and not a vague notion like a "war on terror" or, as Bush said, a "war with extremists." What Obama could have said that he did not is, "Man, Bush left me with a shitty, hole-filled security infrastructure that's built with Tinker Toys and tape." Instead, he said what's fucked and what he's gonna do.

Most bracingly, Obama told Dick Cheney, "Go fuck yourself," by saying, "Here at home, we will strengthen our defenses, but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. That is exactly what our adversaries want, and so long as I am President, we will never hand them that victory. We will define the character of our country, not some band of small men intent on killing innocent men, women and children." In other words, don't go bugnuts just because one dude on one plane lit a fire.

Bonus: under no circumstances should you click this at work.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Not much video, so just close your eyes and dig it.

Jann Browne & Emmylou Harris ~ Mexican Wind

Thanks to reddirtgirl55, UK.

What happens ...

When Jesus freaks are put in their place:

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Portugal's Parliament voted to approve same-sex marriage today.

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Quote of the Day

Maru:

"I wish you Negroes would quit being so sensitive," says idiot.

It's too good ...

We have our own Manchurian Candidate and we didn't even know it. We just loved him for the comedy.

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

SPR

Click to embiggen

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.