The boil ...

On Haiti's ass has returned.

Haiti's deposed dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier plans to address his countrymen Tuesday to explain his stunning return to the nation that exiled him 25 years ago.

...

I doubt this will end well. Those poor people don't deserve it.

To-ga!

Well, not really. The car came and collected the Mrs. about an hour ago for her semi-annual business trip to her clients on the West Coast (San Francisco to LA and points in between over 10 days) and I'm home with the girls. I laugh that I've gotten so domesticated that the only change in my routine is that I can watch unlimited amounts of European football without the Mrs. nagging at me reminding me of the other things I need to do. No wild parties, no tit bars with the mates, no staying up late, and no excessive drinking.

Yikes! I'm getting "mature". Heh ...

Update:

And let me just voice my annoyance with a steady rain coming down on top of a foot of snow. What a bloody mess ...

How it works ...

Or, "Why you can never win an argument with a wingnut".

...

So here it is, the always-subject-to-expansion-or-refinement list of wingnut arguing tactics, as it stands now:

Rule #1: Deny, deny, deny.

Rule #2: Attack, attack, attack.

Rule #3: When facts are undeniable, change the subject. This can be done in various ways, for example:
- Introduce irrelevant details on a tangential point.
- Pluck out from what your opponent said an individual phrase you think you can attack, even if it’s one that was just tossed off quickly, and treat that as if it’s the focus of the entire discussion.
- More subtly, try to tie your opponent up in piles of minutia to the point where everyone, including your opponent, loses track of the thrust of their argument.
- Apply Rule #4.
Whenever possible, insist that your changed subject is the "real" one under discussion.

...

Many more at the link.

Great thanks to Avedon for the link.

Dear ABC and Christiane Amanpour ...

If it were me, I'd have killed him with my bare hands. I guess you never had to deal with anybody suffering with PTSD. Might wanna check that before you do a Town Hall after the next shooting*.

Regards,

Fixer

*You know there'll be another one.

It's OK if it happens to Libruls, but...

Raw Story

Fox News contributor Mara Liasson said Sunday that while defending use of gun imagery, Fox News employee Sarah Palin actually admitted that political discourse can cause violence.

Palin defended herself by saying, "Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."
...

"Here she is saying, when you talk about blood libel, that is the definition political discourse, a manufactured lie causing violence," noted Liasson. "In this case she paints herself as the potential victim."

"Here she is agreeing with the left that political discourse can cause violence."

Fox News pundit Brit Hume attempted to disagree but Liasson stood her ground.

Amazing.

Palin herself is not mentally equipped (I could stop there...) to see the terrible irony that political discourse causing violence is only a bad thing when the left does it to her. I hope nothing happens to her, of course, but if it does I can only hope that's it from some mad lone gunman that thinks she isn't right wing enough.

Tell it like it is!

Raw Story

DoJ veteran sees ‘dangerous precedent’ in letting Bush officials walk

Actually, a lot of them see it. This is the only guy so far with the balls to say it. Out loud, that is.

Hebert, who served in multiple supervisory positions at the Department of Justice, commented that "everybody" from the Bush-era has seemed to land their own "get out of jail free card."

“Bush and Cheney are not above the law," Hebert concluded. "Whether it’s the president, the vice president or any federal office holder who violates the Constitution or federal law, or there are serious allegations suggesting that such violations may have existed, then the Department of Justice has a duty and an obligation to fully investigate that.

"And if there are no consequences to any of the actions that violated the federal law in the last administration, then why would anybody think that they would ever be prosecuted for doing it in the future?"

Good question. Bush and Cheney in orange jump suits shovelin' cow crap* on a federal prison farm, on the other hand, would be a powerful reminder to pols to act right.

*They are particularly well suited to this task by temperament and experience, as are most politicians.

Quote of the Day dos

From "Why We Should Take Jared Loughner's Politics Seriously", a 'recommended read' at Truthout:

Political literacy, we learn, is no longer even a requirement for seeking political office, but is in fact seen as a drawback. And an important source of such political guidance, the left, has all but disappeared from mainstream life.

The War on Logic

(Thank you to the person who sent me the corrected link.)

Paul Krugman

My wife and I were thinking of going out for an inexpensive dinner tonight. But John Boehner, the speaker of the House, says that no matter how cheap the meal may seem, it will cost thousands of dollars once you take our monthly mortgage payments into account.

You'll have to read it to get that connection.

The key to understanding the G.O.P. analysis of health reform is that the party’s leaders are not, in fact, opposed to reform because they believe it will increase the deficit. Nor are they opposed because they seriously believe that it will be “job-killing” (which it won’t be). They’re against reform because it would cover the uninsured — and that’s something they just don’t want to do.

And it’s not about the money. As I tried to explain in my last column, the modern G.O.P. has been taken over by an ideology in which the suffering of the unfortunate isn’t a proper concern of government, and alleviating that suffering at taxpayer expense is immoral, never mind how little it costs.

I think there's an answer in this as well to Fixer's query about the logic of the right in these 'comments':

The diktat of right wing 'logic' is that it's ideologically immoral to alleviate suffering when the interests of money and power are involved and the checks keep coming.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Army Testing Recruits for “Spirituality”
So they're prepared for holy war.

Pentagon Official: Martin Luther King Would Support Current Wars
Gandhi would call for nuking Iran.

Pope John Paul II Miracle Confirmed by Vatican
Considered a miracle he hasn't been linked to pedophile scandal.

Fox News President Tells Anchors to “Tone it Down”
Stop saying “alleged President” Obama.

Travel Restrictions to Cuba Eased
Regular flights carrying baseball scouts have begun.

Nothing to see here ...

Move along:

In an article titled, “6 Lunatics Inspired by Fox News and Glenn Beck,” published on Oct. 28 — so six weeks before before Jared Loughner’s terror attack in Tucson that left six people dead and 13 wounded, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — Jim Edwards, columnist for BNET, recapped six instances over the past two-and-a-half years in which lunatics committed violent acts, or were thwarted before they could act, later said they were inspired to violence after intense exposure to propaganda from Fox and Glenn Beck:

...

But you can't tie the Arizona shooter to the conservatives!

So what?

Digby thinks something's gonna change once the Wikileaks documents on the tax cheats come out. They're rich people, they'll get a bailout or a waiver.

...

The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.

...

The beginning of the 21st Century is just like the end of the nineteenth. The robber barons don't pay for their crimes ... ever.

Quote of the Day

Blue Texan:

Wonder how many wingnuts will claim MLK was a Republican?

Ratfucking 101 ...

If Obama falls for this ... What do I mean if? Wouldn't surprise me if he did.

...

Conservative and "centrist" (corporate) calls for President Obama to go after Social Security at the same time they are warning Republicans not to are nothing more than a trap. If the President calls for cutting Social Security you will see ad after ad after ad after ad after ad after ad blasting President Obama and Democrats in general for cutting Social Security and devastating seniors ...

The Stupid ...

It burns.

Update:

More stupid.

Headline of the Day

Tucson Shooting Survivor: “It Looks Like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the Rest Got Their First Target”

The Right Wing Can't Survive Without Stoking Anger

Stephen Pizzo

If you have been a student of the new Right you understand that the gains they've made in American politics have come in direct proportion to a rising level of anger. Some of that anger was there just waiting for affirmation, but much more of it has been ginned up by rightwing talkers like Limbaugh, Beck and FOX News.

What I expect to see and hear in the days and weeks just ahead is a new -- and frankly jarring -- argument from the Right; civility in politics is a liberal plot. A plot against who? Well against the Right, of course. There's nothing a zealot likes more than to claim the cloak of persecution. It's always the last refuge of scoundrels, be it demagogic politicians or Christians, Jews, Muslims or Scientologists. Call them on their nonsense and they scream "persecution."

In this case the Right is going to be forced to take a position that unmasks them once and for all. Without their patented violent, hate-inciting rhetoric, the Right has nothing to offer America. Nothing.

Which explains why they're going to fight -- not for civility -- bit for more incivility.

They have to keep the peasants stirred up - and more importantly, the media which faithfully relays most of the stirring up - and distracted with lies and distortions so they won't question anything real or the right is toast.

A good massacre once in a while is important so they can say what victims they are.

No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords

Daddy Frank on the imminent return of no change in the tone our national discourse.

For the sake of this discussion, let’s stipulate that Loughner was a “lone nutjob” who had never listened to Glenn Beck or been a card-carrying member of either the Tea or Communist parties. Let’s also face another tragedy: The only two civic reforms that might have actually stopped him — tighter gun control and an effective mental health safety net — won’t materialize even now.

As the president said in Tucson, we lack not just civil discourse, but honest discourse. Much of last week’s televised bloviation was dishonest, dedicated to the pious, feel-good sentiment that both sides are equally culpable for the rage of the past two years. To construct this false equivalency, every left-leaning Web site and Democratic politician’s record was dutifully culled for incendiary invective. If that’s the standard, then both sides are equally at fault — rhetoric can indeed be as violent on the left as on the right.

I have never killed or injured anyone with my keyboard. I seriously doubt that anything I have ever written has shoved some loon off the edge to where he went out and killed people.

Give me a forum like FOXPAC or Hate Radio and maybe that would change. Can you see everyone in the country getting fired up over due process and holding those in power accountable for their crimes and and taking to the streets over liberty and justice for all?

Neither can I. Maybe one or two crazed guys with unicorn horns.

Hate and fear work so much better.

There ya go ...

So you want to have a reasonable debate about gun laws and safety? Ain't happening as long as these idiots have as big a following as they do:

...

Six days after a gunman attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others in a mass shooting, the National Rifle Association (NRA) broke its silence, pledging to fight off any and all attempts to impose harsher regulations on guns and high-capacity magazines.

An unattributed statement posted on the NRA website late Friday, written in the rhetorical style the powerful association has come to be known for, dubbed gun control supporters "gun ban advocates" and the proposals mentioned in the wake of the mass shooting "schemes."

...

And as long as so many gun owners share that knee-jerk reaction every time even the most innocuous sort of safety proposal gets floated, nothing will change and probably get worse.

And just a note to all those who say they need their guns to keep the government in check: If the Feds want your guns, they're gonna come get them, regardless of the armory you have in your basement (there will just be a more spectacular explosion when they lob a grenade in there). They'll "pry them out of your cold dead hands" if they have to. Let's see how long you "Armchair Rambos" have the stomach for the fight you all itch for when people are actually shooting back at you. Have another beer, you idiotic dickless wonders.

And another note: There is a place where the gun industry is unfettered and every swinging dick who wants one can open carry an AK-47 or even an RPG if they want. It's not called Nirvana, it's called Afghanistan. Good luck with that.

Dear People from Maine ...

While you have a beautiful state, and I've enjoyed some good times there, I will not visit your state, or spend money at businesses based in your state, until you clean up your act (the same pledge I made to Arizona).

Regards,

Fixer

Thunder on the Mountain

This is from Bob Dylan's 2006 CD "Modern Times". Me like!

Music video by Bob Dylan performing Thunder On The Mountain.

Thanks to BobDylanVEVO.