Hard To Wring Activity Out Of A Beer-Fridge, Pizza, and Suvivor on the Plasma Screen

There appeared today this long and very earnest comment on ThinkProgress today which ends with the following:

…Nancy Pelosi can talk about saving the planet all she wants to: her duty, however, is to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution. And that is also the job of every single American citizen. Unfortunately, most of us are no better at doing our job than Pelosi is at doing hers.

I replied:

What I, modestly, would call ‘nobly empty rhetoric.’ Sound and fury, bombast, sentiment, righteousness, all the right notes.
Falls apart for me at the ‘bootstrap’ level. I have learned to almost instinctively distrust folks who haul out that ol’ trusty bootstrap metaphor.

Have you ever tried that? It’s tricky
Physics gets in the way. Turns out it’s damn near impossible. Archimedes, or somebody, gets in the way.

Ya gotta have a place from which to apply force and ya gotta have a lever.

Through a near-century-long program of taught ignorance and helplessness, the Govt/Entertainment/Propaganda machine has ground down the public education of the citizen from mere competence to near imbecility. “school” has grown expert at churning out waves of earnest, willing, uncritical, unwary consumers–that became their job, around 1970, after it became obvious that the students rebelling in the streets had learned the lesson of liberty all too well…

No one schooled outside the privileged class has had the kind of education I took for granted in my youth. I could and did read critically in the 8th grade (circa 1958/59), a competence you will visit thousands of contemporary classrooms vainly before you once encounter it in Murkin schools today (except for the schools of the wealthy/privileged.)

The “people” have been schooled in passivity, ennui, and television. It’s really hard to expect much out of ‘m when they’ve got a plasma screen, survivor, bud in the fridge and the pizza guy at the door…

The Crazed, Killer Cracker In Tennessee Was Strung-Out On Neo-con "Hate & Rage"™

That pathetic, moronic, rage-headed fucking loser who opened fire on the congregation of the UUC church in Knoxville on Sunday had dosed himself up on "Neo-Con Hate & Rage"™ from Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Michael Savage before setting out on his murderous mission. Via RawStory:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday.

A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson's small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, "he hated the liberal movement" and was upset with "liberals in general as well as gays."
(...)
Adkisson "stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of the major media outlets," Investigator Steve Still wrote.

A later story reported that "officers investigating the killer's home found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly."

"It appears that church had received some publicity regarding its liberal stance," the chief said. The church has a "gays welcome" sign and regularly runs announcements in the News Sentinel about meetings of the Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays meetings at the church.

Owen said Adkisson's stated hatred of the liberal movement was not necessarily connected to any hostility toward Christianity or religion per say, but rather the political advocacy of the church.

The church's Web site states that it has worked for "desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women's rights and gay rights" since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian high-schoolers."

Funny there's been no mention of the cum-stained rightard, flying-monkey library in any of the stories about the incident on the SCUM, innit?

This guy Adkisson is the complete "apotheosis" of the loser-cracker paradigm, the green-toothed, unskilled, poor, benighted trailer-trash who are the loyal constituents of O'Reilly, Hannity, "Savage" (Weiner), and the like: Enlisted in the Army, promoted, then busted and disciplined, probably for booze; itinerant, unskilled, he's a white guy, with all the benefits thereunto accruing in the South, and he STILL couldn't get or hold a job or a life...Do you have any idea how much of a complete LEWSER you hafta be, to be a white man in the South, and be fallen so far? He couldn't even look down on Knee-grows anymore, was how bad it was.

Just outta curiousity, when was the last time an atheistic, godless "liberal" opened up on innocents with a shot-gun on a bunch of people in church, just to relieve her/his feelings of inferiority? Oh, yeah...never...

Dick Cheney's DNA?? Oh Ewwkie! Tooo GROSS!!!

Repair the Country? Pfffft! You Freakin' WISH!
John Amato, at Crooks and Liars, was reviling the rumor that vile GOP harpy Ann Veneman might be under consideration as Obama's VP pick, summarizing thusly:

And if Obama does win the election, the Republicans will try to block every piece of legislation that comes by. Their plan is to then blame Democrats for not fixing all of Bush’s screw ups in two years and run on that platform in 2010. He will need a tough VP to go in there and help move the agenda along. And nobody can repair the damage that the conservatives have done to our country in two years.

What the FUCK? That last sentence leaves me speechless.

NOBODY will EVER 'repair' the damages caused by the fascist GOPhucquers in their full-scale assault on the country. Inflicting irreparable damage on the possibility of popular sovereignty was their JOB! They have undermined, subverted, and rendered impotent any and every institution and instrument of popular sovereignty to which the People could appeal to frustrate or thwart the wholesale diminishment, reduction or elimination of individual liberties and the transfwer of sovereignnty tot the Corporation. It was why they were installed in the first place. No BODY--not Obama, not his VP, not the Congress (because finally they agree with the fascists)--will be able to stem the flow, prevent the continued erosion of rights, and liberties, even if they wanted to (a dubious proposition at best).

The GOPhucques have salted every Department, every Bureau, every Office in Govt with anti-democratic moles, and they have all planted bureaucratic and administrative bombs throughout their reach. Perhaps not to the visible extent that they have polluted the DoJ, but the Busheviks HAVE politicized EVERY single aspect of Federal regulation, oversight, and assistance. To repeat a phrase: They shit on everything they touched.

The first thing any serious president should do would be to order the IMMEDIATE review of every single US Govt. hire--and of every administrative ruling--since Jan, 2001. In particular, they should eye every hire for their academic credentials. Anyone and everyone who 'graduated' from any of those sleazy, lightweight, rightard, Flying-Monkey/Xian diploma mills--Liberty, Regents, Bob Jones, Oral Roberts, Hillsdale, Westmont, etc (any "school" ratified by the so-called "Council on Postsecondary Christian Education")-- should immediately be required to turn in their keys and their hard-drives, and pay back their salaries. Any and every judge belonging to the Federalist Society should be forced to resign, and burn their robes, publically...(or be shot; their choice...).

Meantime, every Bushevik "Executive Order," directive, instruction and memo should be immediately suspended, every signing statement repudiated, every appointment withdrawn, and every thing the grimy fuckers touched should be burned.

And replace the carpet in the Oval Office, if not the whole WhiteHouse... You could wash Clenis' cum-stains out of the rug with a steam-cleaner. But the amount of blood and shit that's been spilled in there for the last 8 years will require the total replacement. Indeed, it's probably necessary to complete raze the whole place.

Could YOU live where BOTH George Bush and Dick Cheney shed DNA???

Totally Eewwwwwky!

Buddha on Belief

According to the Lord Buddha:

"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true."

-- Buddha - Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

He blinded me with SCIENCE!

Baltasar Gracián y Morales, "Village" Pundit

Scott Horton over on Harper's No Comment blog is one of the most interesting thinkers, best-read commentators, and eclectic minds going around. I am (probably tied for) his biggest fan. In his latest offering, he graces us with the original Spanish and the English translation of a piece on civility by the Spanish courtly writer, Gracian, that--except for its grace and elegance--could have sprung from the pen of Bill Safire or David Brooks/Frum:

Culture and Elegance. Man is born a barbarian and raises himself above the beastly by means of culture. Culture therefore makes the man; the more a man, the higher. Thanks to it, Greece could call the rest of the world barbarians. Ignorance is very raw; nothing contributes so much to culture as knowledge. But even knowledge is coarse if without elegance. Not alone must our intelligence be elegant, but our desires, and above all our conversation. Some men are naturally elegant in their internal and external qualities, in their thoughts, in their address, in their dress, which is the rind of the soul, and in their talent, which is its fruit. There are others, on the other hand, who are so crude that everything about them, even their excellences, is tarnished by an intolerable and barbaric disorder.

Christ! Murkins are FUCKING Morons!

And McCain, Clinton, and Obama, Boehner, Hoyer, Reid, Pelosi, and the whole reeking, corrupt, bought-and-paid-for bunch of cowards and crooks ought to have their mouths washed out with drilling mud for perpetuating the fiction that drilling for more oil will/would reduce the price at the pump (PATP) for Murkin voters.

The truth is that you could slaughter every wild critter in the arctic, bring in all the exploration and drilling equipment in the world, set it up every and anywhere in the ANWR, and nothing would happen to the PATP.

NOTHING.

Because it will take at the absolute minimum at LEAST two-three years to pull up the first drop of oil.

Which will already have been sold to the Chinese, Indians, or the Japanese.

Because the refinery capacity of the USofA is ALREADY maxed out, and the oil companies are NOT building any more. EVER. Cuz there's not enough money in it to justify the expense, not enough oil left to recoup the investment.

These are the inconvenient facts. So why, when these matters are discussed, is there NEVER any mention of them in the SCUM (SoCalledUnbiasedMedia)in the context of the political discussions? Too complicating? Too ambiguous? Against the natrrative? What the FUCK is wrong with these fucknozzles--YES NPR, I am talking to you, you lazy, feckless fux.

NOBODY demagoging OIL for political gain should ever be allowed to finish without acknowledging those realities; e.g.: "Senator, will what you are proposing have any effect on the prices paid for gas at the pump in the immediate or even the short term? No? Then Senator, please have an aide get you a nice, fresh bottle of "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

You cannot spell RePublicaN without NPR...

An Old Chestnut: Cui Bono

It's getting to be that time of year again, and the questions just never seem to abate, do they?

Today, on PFF, another version of the query appeared. As the blogger indicated, the first question is--must be-- Cui Bono: Who Benefits from a "War on Terrorism"?

Obviously, the Bushies, first, because on Sept 10, 2001, you may remember, the country was slowly awakening to the sick, demented tragi-comedy that was Bushism and the 2nd Bush Administration. It was a shambles, a wreck, a joke-in-waiting. Leno and Letterman BOTH were delivering nightly, sarcastic, satirical broadsides. There were all manner of 'death-watches' on prominent regime figures to be jettisoned if their approval ratings fell much further. It had become obvious that The 'leaders' were a laggard, dullard,vacuous, vapid, but insatiably vicious band of sad-sacks, morons, idiots, wastrels, dolts, and incompetent drooling fools.

All that changed on Sept 11.

Well, no, none of that changed on Sept. 11. They were still--evidently--all those things...BUT they were now all those things, AT WAR, with the support of the terrified, pant-shitting populace.

Big Oil, certainly. The maps that Cheney's band of merry mercenary murderers consulted at their secret, global energy-plan meetings in Feb and March, 2001, indicated their desires, and their plans and their designs. Remember they told the Taliban, they were gonna build the pipeline, and the Talibs could enjoy it from a carpet of gold or one of blood?

But the big, BIG, BEEEG winner was the MIC/National Security State. (Cf: the late, unlamented PNAC). Nothing could better have advanced their interests in corporate, supervisory authoritarianism and reducing popular sovereignty to an antic anachronism more adeptly, more completely and more 'innocently' than a "TERRORIST ATTACK On NYC!!!!!" (Oh MY GAWD!!! The BROWN PEOPLE!!! They're gonna kill us in our BEDS!!!) One need only look at the fate of the Constitution in the aftermath. 1st Amendment? Ruined (Faith-based). 4th Amendment? Gone! (FISA/Spying). 5th Amendment? Gone! (Torture); and the rest aren't far behind.

And none of those institutions which benefited would have scrupled an instant at the death and destruction of 9/11 if they thought it would advance their agendas the way the events unfolding did. Three thousand people dead? They kill that many every month, somewhere in the world.

I'm of the LIHOP ("Let It Happen On Purpose") persuasion. From the PDB that the incredibly, amazingly, unbelievably evil, calculating bint Condi Rice read in August, 2001, at the ranch, which famously announced Bin Laden's plans to strike the US inside the US, they knew something was coming. And they let it. I think the Busheviks knew everything about the plans except the date and flight numbers. They let it go, hoping it wouldn't be too bad. All in all, it wasn't (unless of course you or one of yours was among the victims). It was an incredibly small price to pay for all the benefits that have accrued to the passive perpetrators in war profits and presidential power. The whole idea of a 'Unitary Executive," for example, would have been laughing-stock, pre-9/11. Now it's almost a foregone conclusion.

BTW: I still think McCain'll put Condi on the GOPuke Ticket. And Ahmad Chalabi will be the eventual Iraqi strongman.

(Foto: NYTimes)

Insurance Rulez! the Calvin-Ball Factor

Via Crooks & Liars:

UPDATE: John Amato: Progressives fire back at insurers

Health Care for America Now announced Friday that it plans a news conference and a rally next week to counter the insurance industry’s Campaign for an American Solution, which launches in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday with a roundtable discussion among uninsured locals.

“They’re pretending that the health industry represents the American public, and we need to make it really clear to them and the public that all they represent are their own profits,” said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for.

On Tuesday, the group plans to rally about 300 supporters outside the Columbus YWCA, where America’s Health Insurance Plans will hold its roundtable.

The $40 million it plans to spend by year’s end will put 100 organizers in 45 states to hold town hall meetings, go door to door, staff phone banks and take action outside insurance offices. Already, the group has aired television spots in an extensive adverting campaign.

Howard Zinn on Empire & Its Discontents

Including himself...

Only 3 Percent

Only three percent of those people taking this political 'test' answered all 12 questions correctly. The average score is 50%ile, around 6 correct.

I dont know the 'n' of the study. There's a results page but it's very generic.

There was really only one truly 'trivial' question, the answer to which was (SPOILER ALERT) "Oprah Winfrey."

Maybe it doesn't matter if you know the name of the chairman of the Fed, or the president of Venezuela, or the US Secretary of State. It isn't 'essential' knowledge, like programming a tevo or an i-pod. None of the individual factoids, taken singularly, betokens a window through which one's responsible political participation may be safely assessed. But it seems remarkable to me that a sample drawn from this medium would yield scores so low.

Could this be an early manifestation of the televisionization of the toobs?

Or is it that, even in cyber-blogo-netspace, there really are only a very small number of folks to whom the process is actually important.

Let McCain Be McCain, You Cunt!

The net-roots have been abuzz with reports on this indelicacy some years ago:

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?

When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’

John McCaint's taste for sexist jokes does not end with his amusement with rape and bestiality, apparently. Kim Gandy of NOW was polite:

"Some people can't tell the difference between a joke that is really off color and one that is off-the-charts offensive, and clearly some of John McCain's 'jokes' fall into that category," she said.

Outside the contested rape joke, the most notorious of McCain's gags about women's looks came in 1998, when Chelsea Clinton was 18.

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" he asked guests at a Senate Republican fundraiser. "Because her father is Janet Reno."

McCain's other jokes don't induce cringes quite as widespread, but Gandy said they were still likely to alienate women.

"The French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it," McCain told Fox News a few years ago.

And earlier this year, McCain responded to a question with the line, "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago," provoking a round of tut-tutting for his reference to the old classic example of a leading question.

Women are far from his only target. Another favorite has been the elderly. He has recalled groveling for forgiveness when, during his 1986 campaign, he referred to a retirement community called "Leisure World" as "Seizure World."

See, he was a Navy pilot, you see, a regular "Tail-hook" kinda guy. (Anybody'd try to land a jet on a carrier is a crazy motherfucker. McCaint' wasn't even very good at that, but that didn't mean he wasn't--and isn't, still--a crazy motherfucker.) He was critical of the Navy later, during the investigation, but mainly for getting caught. Likely he attended no small number of Tail-hook "gatherings." (Perhaps he took his trollop/cunt wife along as a party favor?)

But Bombin' John's not one o'them 'poh-liti-kalee koh-reck' kinda guys, unnerstan'. Don't care he offends. You piss him off, you fuck widdim, he'll ram a fucking 500-pounder up your tailpipe, pussy...

Ali, at ThinkProgress, posted this illuminating explanation, by the campaign for the murderous, malignant McCaint's sexist lapses. It proves he's "authentic."

the campaign insisted these offensive jokes proved McCain was “authentic” and showed “McCain being McCain”:

“He’s long said that he’s said and done things in the past that he regrets,” [McCain spokesman Brian] Rogers said. “You’ve just got to move on and be yourself — that’s what people want. They want somebody who’s authentic, and this kind of stuff is a good example of McCain being McCain.“

(Yeah, everybody loves an authentic asshole. Ed. Note) The mainstream media has also gushed over McCain’s “trademark wit,” declaring that a joke about blowing up Jon Stewart with an IED “makes him seem much more accessible” because “everybody likes a guy with a good sense of humor.”

It's interesting to read McCaint on the issue of accountability. Here's Bombin' Johnnie on the fate of Admiral Kelso, on whose watch the Tailhook scandal occurred:

"...one of the problems today in America, in our government, not just in the military, is that people in charge say, "I'm responsible," and then bear no responsibility."

Atomic Zygote

On this day, early on the morning of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project came to fruition with the detonation, at the "Trininty" site on what would later become the White Sands Missile range, of the first human-made nuclear explosion.

On or about this day, that day, my dad--on leave from his ship in the Pacific for the first time in about 20 months--and my mom combined in a bedroom in an adobe house in Santa Fe, about 150 miles north of the Trinity site, to create me. The timing's about right. I was born 4/20/46, about 270 days subsequent.

John Lee Hooker's the "Hootchie Kootchie Man." I'm the "Atomic Zygote," one of the first humans to be conceived in the residue of the flash of a nuclear detonation.

BOOM!

What Do White Folks Really, REALLY Like?

What we really REALLY like is prominent black folks who tell other black folks that white folks ain't really responsible for the desolate conditions and desperate situations which plague so many black communities, black people, black families.

Whitey's fault? Slavery, Jim Crow, Apartheid? Nope. Not at ALL. Absent (imprisoned?) black fathers is the problem. Not doing homework! Lack of RE-spon-siBIL-itay!

White folks get all giddy when they can find a reliable Negro, one who won't blame them at all for anything unpleasant. It just makes everything so much easier for everyone involved if the matters like reparations, or lynchings, or Greenwood, OK (e.g.) don't come up. Heck, most white folks great grand-parents didn't even own one slave. ("It was almost 150 years ago. Get OVER it, already!")

White folks just go all squishy in their shorts over black folks who do that. If it doesn't have a name already, we could call it cultural Cosbyism.

Guess who insisted, to the NAACP yesterday, that "blacks must show greater responsibility for improving their own lives."

No, g'wan, guess. It's okay...I bet you can do it, easily:

The man who could become the first black president urged Washington to provide more education and economic assistance. He called on corporate America to exercise greater social responsibility. But he also received his most lusty applause as he urged blacks to demand more of themselves.

"If we're serious about reclaiming that dream, we have to do more in our own lives. There's nothing wrong with saying that," Obama told a crowd estimated at 3,000. "But with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV set and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework, setting a good example. That's what everybody's got to do."

I imagine the NAACP might have been a bit reserved in their responses, but the white folks LOVED it.

Which was, after all, the point.

Everybody's Gotta Believe In Something...

Me ?? I believe I'll have another drink--scotch, please--and roll a fat spliff...

PZ Myers,that irreverent, blasphemous, scientific scamp of a biology professor and fiercely rational blogger, offers a little more fully developed version of a Credo...

An atheist's creed

I believe in time,
matter, and energy,
which make up the whole of the world.

I believe in reason, evidence and the human mind,
the only tools we have;
they are the product of natural forces
in a majestic but impersonal universe,
grander and richer than we can imagine,
a source of endless opportunities for discovery.

I believe in the power of doubt;
I do not seek out reassurances,
but embrace the question,
and strive to challenge my own beliefs.

I accept human mortality.

We have but one life,
brief and full of struggle,
leavened with love and community,
learning and exploration,
beauty and the creation of
new life, new art, and new ideas.

I rejoice in this life that I have,
and in the grandeur of a world that preceded me,
and an earth that will abide without me.

When Is A Political Calculation NOT A "Political" Calculation? When "I" Do It!

From the NYTimes, via Arthur Silber

To the Editor:

The analogy between Senator Barack Obama’s yea vote on Wednesday for the FISA amendment act and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s yea vote in October 2002 for the Iraq resolution is not to be missed or understated.

Mr. Obama did not want to hand John McCain a cudgel with which he could be attacked as soft on terrorism during the presidential campaign. But is that not precisely the reason Mrs. Clinton, who at the time still had not decided whether to run against the incumbent George W. Bush in 2004, voted for the authorization of military force in Iraq?

In each case, passage of the bill was a foregone conclusion, so the only effect of a negative vote would have been potential harm to an imminent presidential bid.

Is Mr. Obama now ready to concede that Mrs. Clinton, rather than showing poor foresight, was just exercising good political judgment?

James Tocco
Cincinnati, July 10, 2008

Arthur, as is his wont, has something more to say on the matter, to wit:

(As explained in many essays here, I emphasize that while the crudest of political calculations was involved in both instances, calculations which are almost invariably in error, it is also the case that Obama and Clinton positively believed in their votes. As is true of Democrats generally, they both support an authoritarian-corporatist state at home and aggressive interventionism abroad. It is a matter of considerable astonishment to me that, even at this late date and as even a brief survey of leading "progressive" blogs reveals, most Democratic partisans are incapable of grasping the glaringly obvious: the Democrats act as they do because they want to. If these self-blinded Democratic supporters ever wish to regain a tenuous foothold in reality, they would be well advised to give up their desperate grasping at straws and face the truth. It doesn't hurt all that badly, and only for a few years.

Barry-O and The Lib/Left: A "Romance"

THe "left" really has no place to go, as Barry's own demeanor lately in the Senate, and his own web-site itself implies.

So, there is really only one question about Obama's relations with the Left/Lib constituency of his base:

Will he fuck 'em gently, with some foreplay, some lube and a rubber?

Or will he just toss a handful of roofies into the punch and take his chances...

Which do YOU think it will be?

Can A Citizen "Trespass" on Public Property?

Ask the chubby, officious, pushy little McCaint operative/motherfucker who's making the objection and trying to shut 61-year-old librarian Caror Kreck up as she waited in line to attend an allegedly public McCaint "town meeting." The chubby little fuck told her she couldn't carry a hand-lettered sign that read "McCain = Bush."

I wouldn't vote for that murderous maggot, McCaint, to suck runny dog-shit through a flavo-straw--if that were a public, rather than a corporate (VP for Corporate Accountability) office...



Carol Kreck for Congress! Fuck you, you fascist assholes. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you! Tell us, tell the fucking country, what the fuck did Carol Kreck to be unceremoniously ejected from a public function in public space by the fucking POLICE??? They were being 'nice,' but if she'd sat down, they'd have busted her like a crack whore...

Oh, I HATE COPS!!! I HATE COPS!!! You CANNOT tell me the cops don't drill to the official Fascist Pig March. We learned this in the '60s: Cops = Pigs. They work for the Regime, always...

Oh, yeah, I dunno if it got mentioned in the vid, but this happened in someplace called Denver. You ever hear of Denver, before? Seems I oughta recollect....Ummmm, durn, well...yep, I got it. Them Democrats're gonna hold their Convention i n Denver this summer. I knew there's sumpin I was fergettin...

Obama's Plane Had "Controlability" Issues

Candidate Barack Obama's Campaign plane had "Controlability" issues, and was forced to make an 'unplanned' landing yesterday in St Louis.

"Controlability" Issues? Yeah! The fucker just kept on turning to the Right?

Bernard Chazelle, over at TinyRevolution dot com, quotes impeccable lefty, Robert Dreyfuss, in The Nation, of all places, to chart the "left-wing" candidate's dexterous gyrations:

In The Nation, Robert Dreyfuss lays out Obama's neocon credentials. They are impressive.

The US has no military enemy: only a ragtag band of losers hiding in the caves of Baluchistan. Consequently,

Obama's foreign policy team uniformly dismisses the idea that the Pentagon's bloated budget can be cut, even though, not counting spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, it has nearly doubled since 2000 and is roughly equal to the military spending of all other countries combined.

Echoing Richard Perle,

Obama promises to increase Pentagon spending, boost the size of the Army and Marines, bolster the Special Forces, expand intelligence agencies and maintain the hundreds of US military bases that dot the globe.

Wars don't fight themselves, you know. They make heavy demands on nations: they demand lies, deception, greed, blood lust, paranoia, and, most important, cannon fodder. Wars might take us out of our economic doldrums. Did you know that French unemployment went down by 1.7 million in WWI? Yep, that's how many of the unemployed were killed on the battlefield.

There's plenty more, and it's all damning, as far as the predictable synonymy of "Dim" and "GOP" foreign policy matters at all.

The New York Times Celebrates Limbaugh's 20 Years On-Air With Prostate Tongue-Laving

A feature in the NYT "Magazine" today honors the famously gutless, scum-sucking, chickenshit chickenhawk/warrior by implanting reporter Zev Chafets deep inside the Pilonidal Pundit's reeking anus, where he can apply his felicitous tongue to Slimeball's notoriously crusty prostate.

Question, though: Where did Rush get that enormous black schlong that's hanging out of his face?

Question 2: What does it matter that his friends say he's funny and warm, when he's pimping his cleaning lady to get him drugs, and holidaying with little Dominican boys?

Any "Earth-First-ers" Out There?

The Busheviks are really trying hard now, with a mere 200 more days in which to ensure their 'legacy' is irrevocable, to turn whatever remains of the surviving 'commons'--you know, the forests, lakes, rivers, shit like that--over to private ownership while they can still turn a profit.

There's "a big deal now in the offing to do exactly that.

I, of course, would NEVER, EVER endorse any potentially violent solutions to such depredations. That would be wrong, probably tortuous. But it does occur to me that somebody'd need to 'spike' only one or two trees in a hundred--drive thick nails deep into the wood of the tree, not injuring it, but making it immune from industrial cutting--to make logging so dangerous it would keep all but the most fool-hardy the loggers out of those woods.

As for the Plum Creek Timber's other developments? Fire is the great leveler. All's I'm gonna say.

Our Barry-O Stepped Right In It On "Choice."

The other day he announced his 'nuanced' position on his previously widely hyped and admired stand as member of the pro-choice camp.

"Nuanced," in this case, meaning "flip-flopped," or perhaps "betrayed," as with FISA, the death penalty for rape, etc...

He still believes a woman should be able to get an abortion (at a sufficiently early stage of pregnancy, at least), but he has gone on record as regarding the "woman's emotional health" to be insufficient threat to health to permit such a procedure to occur. Via RawStory:

"Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says "mental distress" should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights.

In an interview this week with "Relevant," a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain "a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother."

Obama then added: "Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term."

Last year, after the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on late-term abortions, Obama said he "strongly disagreed" with the ruling because it "dramatically departs form previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women."

The health care exception is crucial to abortion rights advocates and is considered a legal loophole by abortion opponents. By limiting the health exception to a "serious physical issue," Obama set himself apart from other abortion rights proponents.

The official position of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group that endorsed Obama in May, states: "A health exception must also account for the mental health problems that may occur in pregnancy. Severe fetal anomalies, for example, can exact a tremendous emotional toll on a pregnant woman and her family."

So I've got a question for men--like Barry-O--who want to withhold permission for a woman to have an abortion (well, okay, I've already got a problem there; but let me continue) because the reason for seeking the procedure is as "trivial" as emotional distress.
The question is:
Do the women in your lives know with what transparent distaste and revulsion you regard them as moral creatures? Do your wives, mistresses, daughters, mothers, sisters, etc. realize that you regard them--all of them potentially--as casual murderesses, Medeas-in-waiting, plotting to kill off their progeny out of some immoral motive (Medea's was revenge, but boredom apparently will serve)? Do they know how much you detest, distrust, and devalue them?

Or do they just not see it? Do you select for bovine reproductivity and docility?

How can they not know the extent of your revulsion?

Bombin' Johnnie's A Lying, Fascist Maggot

Crawling out of the corpse of the Constitution, the shit-soaked parasite says: "Patriotism is putting Country first."

NO! Goddamn it! It ISN'T!

That way lies the totalitarian State, you vapid, clueless fucknozzle, you babbling, drooling shitwhistle, you psychopathic, murderous pig.

NO!

In the USofA, "patriots" put the Constitution first. Without the Constitution, we HAVE no "country." Certainly not one worth fighting and possibly dying for.

Rhetorical bullshit like this is the kind of crap that to me automatically disqualifies the speaker from ANY consideration of support. It frankly makes me want to hurl chunks. And it worries me that there are people in the country who will read that shit and think, imagine, believe, they're moved by it.

These are, likely, the same people who "love" Wal-Mart.

Here's An Anomaly: Good News On The Planet Preservation Front

Via GRIST, an invaluable source/resource. They do GOOD WORK, with sound research and good humor. Read the whole thing, or SCROLL DOWN til you get to this:

That Holds No Water
Mayors resolve to phase out city spending on bottled water

The U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution last week to phase out city spending on bottled water. "Cities are sending the wrong message about the quality of public water when we spend taxpayer dollars on water in disposable containers from a private corporation," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, adding, "The fact is, our tap water is more highly regulated than what's in the bottle." Millions of barrels of oil go into plastic-bottle manufacturing, and cities spend some $70 million annually on bottle disposal. Though the new resolution is not binding, it received strong support, and more than 60 mayors across the country have already canceled bottled-water contracts. The American Beverage Association is entirely unamused by the trend. "We believe that common sense will prevail when mayors return to their communities," says the ABA's Kevin Keane, "as most recognize more pressing challenges are facing their communities than concerns about a healthy water beverage."

Albuquerque's Mayor, Martin Chavez, has been a leading proponent of weaning the public off its throw-away, plastic bottles of water, the purity of which is LESS carefully monitored than municipal sources. Bottled water is the ultimate in obsessive consumption. It is a HUGE industry. The Grist newsletter describes a new program at Home Depot stores to collect and recycle extinguished mini-fluorescent light bulbs; a great idea.
Next?
Wal-Mart and Costco should collect and recycle the plastic water bottles they sell by the skid-full.

I cannot afford to send much in support to non-profits, but Grist gets some when I have it.

Another Murderous, Racist, Fascist, Rightard Fuckwit Freed In Texas

Plus, if you read the story closely, he's a LYING, murderous, racist piece of shit.

Texas man cleared of shooting suspected burglars

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press, Tue Jul 1, 5:14 AM ET

HOUSTON - Ever since he fatally shot two men he suspected of burglarizing his next-door neighbor's home, 62-year-old Joe Horn has been both praised and vilified for his actions.
(Ed note: Compare this version of the story...)
Horn called 911 and told the dispatcher he had a shotgun and was going to kill the intruders. The dispatcher pleaded with him not to go outside, but a defiant Horn confronted the men with a 12-gauge shotgun and shot both in the back.

Some community activists wanted Horn to face charges for the deaths. Supporters of the retired grandfather said what he did was justified under the law.

After listening to evidence in the case, including testimony from Horn himself, a grand jury on Monday cleared him of the shootings.

"He wasn't acting like a vigilante. He didn't want to do it," said Tom Lambright, Horn's attorney.

Lambright said Horn was not a "wild cowboy" who took the law into his own hands after he saw the two suspected burglars, with bags in hand, crawling out of windows from his neighbor's home on Nov. 14 in the Houston suburb of Pasadena. The neighbor was out of town at the time.
(Ed note: Compared with this version)
Instead, Horn was a frightened retiree who tried to defend his neighbor's property and when the two men came onto his yard and threatened him, Horn defended himself, Lambright said.

"He was scared. He was in fear of his life," he said.

HORSESHIT!!!!

He called the cops to tell 'em he was gonna go outside and kill a couple of mexicans/negroes. Then he shot 'em in the back.

Another murderous, gun-happy, rightard (you doubt it?) cracker goes free in Texas...

The only problem with living in New Mexico is that to go anywhere east, one just about HAS to go through Texas.