Liberal Laughing Place

Gay Day at Falwell's Liberty University...

2005-04-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

Heh, that poor old bigot Falwell...his students are nice, and aren't the ranting homophobes he is...how funny...

Dozens of students at conservative Liberty University greeted members of a gay and lesbian organization with open arms on Monday despite contempt from the school's founder, the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Fifty-five members of Soulforce, a Lynchburg, Va.-based gay rights group, met with Liberty students to discuss academic freedom issues at the campus and the treatment of gays and lesbians. Liberty students went out of their way to welcome the Soulforce members with cookies, bottled water, and lots of friendly dialogue.

Falwell's response?

"Contrary to rumors, this is not 'Gay Day' at Liberty University," said Falwell, urging Liberty students not to accept any literature from the group. The university had no comment beyond Falwell's message, and Falwell did not meet with Soulforce members.

Sorry you fat old fuck, it IS GAY DAY at your Christian college!

good times, eh? Link.

2005-04-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...all three of my readers must be wondering if my blog is dead. Well, no, it's not dead exactly but I've been doing other things.

I got my website up at www.sticker-shock.org, displaying most of the stickers I sell on cafepress. Some nice person should go check it out and buy about a thousand stickers for you and a couple of friends.

The question for me is whether to continute this separate blog, or try to integrate a blog with the website, or try to make a separate blog more closely aligned by name and layout with the sticker site. I'm leaning towards the second or third options, so the days of this blog are probably numbered...though I'll have to wait until I have time to set up new stuff before I can actually get it squared away. Here's a sample sticker available at the sticker-shock.org site:

no title...

2005-03-29T05:05:00.000-08:00

Always a bit of fun reading the hate mail that whitehouse.org gets. They get two types...angry hate mail about their site from pissed off right-wing nuts, and hate mail directed at the Bush administration, by those unfortunate souls who are too dumb to realize that the whitehouse.org site is a parody site. (The scary thing about these IQ-challenged ones, is that they may not be all that dumb, they may just be prescient, because that parody site is pretty representative of how a lot of people in the religious right actually think.) Anyway, here is a little gem by a guy who thinks he is writing to Dubya:

On this easter mornining, I suggest you shove an egg up you ass and give a 21 fart salute to the 1500 dead Americans of your oil war in Iraq. Since I am out of work and with no health care, I hope you contract the worst case of cancer known to mankind. Fuck you and your goddamn family. Fuck you, Fuck you , Fuck you-,may you rot in Hell for all enertity.

All I can say is Go, Go, Go!!! Work on the spelling, but Go!

The Culture of Life...

2005-03-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, since it has been decided that the federal government has the right to get involved in the personal decisions of a family, even AFTER many courts have gone back and forth over the issue, then this is what I'd like to know...right now Mrs. Schiavo is being cared for at no cost by the hospice, but if that should ever change, is it the responsibility of the
state to keep her body alive, potentially for decades?

I think I am going to be calling some Republican senators and congressmen on Monday morning and throughout the week, because I am glad they believe in their 'culture of life'. So I'd like to know, does their compassion extend to me? I do not have the luxury of a million dollar settlement or anything like that, but since Republicans believe in a CULTURE OF LIFE, that shouldn't matter. If I wind up an indigent vegetable, will the federal government force somebody, somewhere, to take care of me? Because if it's good enough for Mrs. Schiavo, it is good enough for me. I'm glad the federales will want to pay to keep me alive for the rest of my vegetative life.

And what about homeless people, who wind up vegetables? Drug addicts? Car accident victims? Alzheimer's patients? The mentally ill? Illegal immigrants? Criminals? And any senior citizen who cannot care for themselves and requires long-term, managed care.

Since Republicans believe in a CULTURE OF LIFE, it seems like it is morally wrong to let any of these people die, under any circumstances, when we might keep them alive because we believe in a culture of life. And the state will have to pay for it, and it will be a moral responsibility not to deny people care.

This sounds like a pretty good argument for a universal health care system, seeing as how we believe in a CULTURE OF LIFE and all...

I think we ought to ask all our caring, loving, Christian Republicans how their CULTURE OF LIFE applies when we are talking about people who do not have health care, seniors who cannot afford their medical needs, people who lose their insurance and
then have a medical emergency.

Is the federal government going to get involved? Is the CULTURE OF LIFE going to step in and save those people? Because that sounds quite nice, so as long as these hypocritical Republicans are going to spout off about their bullshit culture of life, we ought to make them put their money where their mouths are, and ask them to REALLY define this culture of life, and why it applies to Mrs. Schiavo, who by all accounts can't

feel or experience anything, but not to poor senior citizens without health care, who can and do experience all the agony and suffering that such a situation brings.

CULTURE OF LIFE, my good Republican friends in the government? Ok, fine...let's turn it around on them and ask them WHY the culture of life applies in this case, but not in EVERY SINGLE OTHER CASE IN THE COUNTRY THAT WE CAN DIG UP.

"Dear Senator, I am writing about my distant cousin, who is 78 years old and has no health care. She requires around the clock care and attention in a professional care facility. I am so glad to know that the Republican Party believes in a culture of life.

Please arrange for the federal government to step in and get her the proper care, and arrange for the state to pay for it, because her family has no money, but it's all about the CULTURE OF LIFE, right? And if you choose not to, please explain WHY the CULTURE OF LIFE does not apply in her case. Thank you..."

Get the idea?

This CULTURE OF LIFE claptrap may be the best framing of the need for universal health care we could ever hope for...it has that nice moral ring to it, without

the clinical overtones of 'universal health care'. And by framing the issue of UHC this way, we will be turning the words of Republicans against them, making it doubly hard for them to weasel away from it...

Democrats, are you listening? Here is a campaign slogan, applicable all around the country: "We stand for a CULTURE OF LIFE for EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN...and since it is good enough for one citizen, it is good enough for us all.

We can make this issue our own, and force THEM to explain why they are against the 'culture of life' for any ordinary American. That's how we take the
offensive on this thing."

sigh....wingnuttery...

2005-03-16T04:37:00.000-08:00

So I frequent WorldNetDaily, a right-wing and Christian 'news-site' that thinks very highly of itself, and nobody there things more highly of it than it's founder and editor, Joseph Farah. He inflicts his columns upon his readers, and after spending nearly a year reading that site and posting on its message board, I can really only feel sorry for them. (To be fair to Farah, every once in a great while he has a pretty good column that nails whatever it is he is trying to nail, but most of the time his columns are just a wheelbarrow full of rotting shit, rolling along on a flat tire.) Here is a little bit of his latest:

Think about it. This is not about the law. This is not about rights. This is not about the Constitution, with the ACLU. This is about perversion. This is about diseased minds that can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. This is about evil ideologues who actually defend the pedophiles and child rapists at NAMBLA while relentlessly attacking the Boy Scouts as if it was the most feared and hated organization in the world.

This is the ACLU.

It's never going to change, which means it must be destroyed.

That is a common theme among right-wingers, by the way, that the ACLU is so evil that it must be destroyed in some kind of McCarthyist fire of righteous wrath. Hard to explain how much these people disgust me. Anyway, here is the link.

Time to burn all cartoons!

2005-03-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

Move over Tinky Winky and SpongeBob SquarePants.

When Marshall Field's employed a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme for its 2004 holiday festivities, the Chicago-born retailer received some complaints that it was promoting the homosexual lifestyle, an executive said recently.

The concerned citizens divined that there was a "hidden gay agenda" in Field's theme "because seven men were living together," Gregory Clark, vice president of creative services for Field's in Minneapolis, recounted last month at a Retail Advertising & Marketing Association conference in Chicago.

Hard to do much but laugh about this. So now the classic fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is 'promoting the gay agenda'. Jesus. Of course, I suppose they aren't called 'fairy' tales for nothing, but when is this all going to stop? It's only a matter of time before one of these religious nuts watches some old Warner Bros. cartoons and discovers that Bugs Bunny cross-dressed all the time, and so did Wile E. Coyote (to catch the sexually-ambiguous Roadrunner), and most of the other cartoon characters as well.

And guess what--a lot of those cartoons with such offensive gayness were made during the fifties, that time that all these religious conservatives regard as the ideal to strive for.

And isn't there just something a little bit GAY about cartoons in general? About cute animals dressing up like people and talking and bouncing around doing cartoony stuff? It's hard to say definitively that they are gay, but you know John Wayne didn't watch cartoons, and that's one of the other idols of these people.

All I can say is: Thank God for South Park, and other happily subversive cartoons.

these people are so weird...

2005-03-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

from Yahoo:

"For a single judge to rule there is no conceivable purpose for preserving marriage as one man and one woman is mind-boggling," said Liberty Counsel President Mathew Staver, whose group represents the Campaign for California Families, one of two organizations that joined the state's attorney general's office in defending California's existing laws."

So, gay-marriage advocates have won a small battle in the long war. But, the anti-gay forces are of course marshalling their comeback, but they rely on such a basic piece of illogic that it just boggles the mind. Ok, so they interpret this ruling to mean that "there is no conceivable purpose for preserving marriage as one man and one woman," which is not at all what the judge said.

The basic and obvious question that is never answered by these people (and I have emailed questions to several of these groups and never gotten a response) is this: "How is marriage harmed by gay people getting married? How do gay people getting married prevent heterosexual people from getting married?"

It's such a damned obvious question...I wish some reporter or some media outlet would just ask it of these flat-earthers...

Don't eat the brownies!

2005-03-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Back after a break from Internets-addiction...and found this slimy story:

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho Mar 9, 2005 — A teenager has agreed to admit to three counts of disturbing the peace after anonymously sending semen-frosted brownies to a fellow student. The recipient shared the treat with two other teens, police said.

They said the 17-year-old Coeur d'Alene High School student was upset after a prank in which the other student put peanut butter in his cheese sandwich days before. He told a school resource officer that "he hated peanut butter and it made him more mad than he could explain," according to the police report.

How could anybody hate something like PEANUT BUTTER, of all things?

New pain gun...long distance...great...

2005-03-04T00:33:00.000-08:00

The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture.

Lovely, and how long before this is used against peaceful protestors who 'riot' by carrying signs around and chanting? Reagan tear-gassed protestors from helicopters...he ought to be smiling from Hell about this...

It will never cease...

2005-03-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 - The United States on Wednesday dropped its contentious demand for a change in a centerpiece document of a United Nations conference on equality that had plunged the gathering of 6,000 women and government ministers into conflict. The meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women was called to review progress since its world conference 10 years ago in Beijing. The document was a one-page statement that delegates had prepared to reaffirm the closing declaration of the 1995 meeting.

But the United States proposed an amendment with wording saying it would agree to the principles in the declaration only after "reaffirming that they do not create any new international human rights, and that they do not include the right to abortion."

Sigh...what an embarrassment to thinking people around the world America must be at this time...

Nice to be loved....

2005-03-03T03:57:00.000-08:00

"WICHITA, Kan. - The pastor of the church whose leaders include the suspect in the BTK serial killings talked to Dennis Rader in jail Wednesday and told him he will continue to be a part of the congregation."

Aw...Christians are such nice, sweet, compassionate people. Being a serial killer isn't enough to get kicked out of the church. Lucky for Mr. Rader, he's not a GAY serial killer, or there'd be hell to pay...

Can't say that, or that, or that either...

2005-03-03T03:48:00.000-08:00

This is pretty funny. Apparently you can order personalized jerseys from the NFL online. But, you can't request bad things on your new jersey, and the website has been programmed to recognize all the bad things you might think to put on a jersey. That means that a roomful of people were hired by the NFL to come up with every offensive thing they could think of, and write them all down, just so they could be programmed for rejection in the NFL website. Why doesn't anybody ever call me for these cushy jobs? Shit...

Anyway, a few of the things you can't get on an NFL jersey, aside from obvious ones like ASS FUCKER and CUNT FUCK:

BREAST FUCKER
CUMQUAT (?)
HERPES
I LOVE BEER
JESUS CHRIST
K MART

Kmart? I guess I haven't been keeping up on my slang...what's so nasty about Kmart? Anyway, the full list is here, and it's mildly funny...

"We see you when you're sleeping..."

2005-03-02T20:04:00.000-08:00

Man, this country's getting fucking weird, and not in a good way. From NPR:

The Department of Homeland Security is experimenting with a controversial new method to keep better track of immigrants who are applying to remain in the United States. It is requiring aliens in eight cities to wear electronic monitors 24 hours a day.
The ankle bracelets are the same monitors that some rapists and other convicted criminals have to wear on parole. But the government's pilot project is putting monitors on aliens who have never been accused of a crime.

Why waste the money on the bracelets? Why not just make them swear allegience to the Fuhrer and shoot them if they try to run? Let's just cut to the chase, shall we? Besides, they're going to need those bracelets when it comes time to keep track of dissenters.

Movie Quote from Bubba Ho-tep:

Elvis: "You nasty thing from beyond the dead, no matter what you think or do, good things will never come to you. And if evil is your black design, you can bet the goodness of the Light Ones...will kick your bad behind"?

Elvis: "That's it? That's the chant against evil from the "Book of Souls"? Oh yeah, right, boss. And what kind of decoder ring comes with that, man? Shit, it don't even rhyme well!"

Oh, it's a TEST...I love tests...

2005-03-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

If you go to the Worldview Weekend's website, you can take a test to see what your worldview is. Here are the categories you can be part of:

Strong Biblical Worldview Thinker
Moderate Biblical Worldview Thinker
Secular Humanist Worldview Thinker
Socialist Worldview Thinker
Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Secular Humanist Worldview Thinker

Look at that last category...it's like they grabbed everything they hate and lumped it into the fast ticket to Hell category. I'm not making this up, it is off their website. The test is 35-45 minutes long (they claim) and maybe someday when I'm on an anonymous computer I'll take it for fun. Really, we can't be too careful these days. If we don't win this fight against these types in the next few decades, they may well be the people who execute us, after a period of fine Christian torturing that they will swear never happens.

Oh, and in the fine print is this creepy little missive, in case your Christian teacher asked you to take this test:

Enter the group code you were given by your group leader if you are taking this as part of a group activity: By typing in the group code your teacher, pastor or administrator has given you; your test results will be available for that individual to view. By typing in the code you are agreeing to allow us to provide your test results to him/her.

So your teacher will know if you aren't a true-blue Nazi. And of course, what would training be if you don't give the dog a treat afterwards:

For those of you scoring the highest score possible, Biblical Theism, you will be REWARDED with a beautiful, professional looking certificate. This certificate will certify that you took the test and scored as a Strong Biblical Worldview Thinker. You can print out your certificate at the end of the test, but it will also be emailed to you so you may save it or print it out on beautiful parchiment paper. This certificate would look great on your wall and would also be very rewarding for students who take this test.

I can't wait.

The other terrorists...

2005-03-01T02:15:00.000-08:00

This is about the 'Weekend Worldview' conferences held by the dominionists. This article is actually from 2002, posted on Americans United for Separation of Church and State's website, but they are even stronger today than they were before. This little section is from Marshall Foster, who founded the 'Mayflower Institute'. Here's what he has to say:

"Covenant keepers win, and covenant breakers lose. You just have to stick around long enough to see the end of the story.... That isn't theory. It has been proven time and again. Stick your finger in God's eye and you and your family will suffer the consequences for generations."

"That's what the children need they need a biblical worldview from dad. Do you want political dominion over America? I do.... If that's going to take place, it will be when the Christian families of America know God, so we elect only those who know God, are godly and will rule according to the word of God."

"Civil government must return to its relationship under God and only doing what God tells it to.... So don't tell me we shouldn't be involved in politics!...We can take dominion over America through godly service. If we would only do it right, the church of Jesus Christ is the most powerful force in America."

But all hope is not lost, Foster remarked. He told the crowd that during the 17th and 18th centuries, England returned to Christianity. (Although Foster did not say so directly, he apparently equates England's drift away from Christianity with the periods it officially favored Catholicism.) In the United States, he cited the Puritans as a model, saying they established the proper line-up of family, church and government.

Exiting to wild applause, Foster then yielded the stage to Anderson for his "biblical economics" lesson. Anderson blasted the United States for its social safety net, dismissing government programs designed to help the poor as socialism. "We have socialism in the United States of America," he said. "It's never called socialism, it's called compassion."

Hmmm...so if they get their way, I wonder what happens to hungry people? Convert, or you don't eat? And I wonder what happens to the people who simply won't accept their strange view of the world? I think we've seen that movie before.

And it's not as funny as this one:

"The Inquisition (what a show)
The Inquisition (here we go)
We know you're wishin' that we'd go away.
But the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!"

Padilla news...

2005-02-28T23:13:00.000-08:00

From Yahoo:
WASHINGTON - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration Monday to either charge terrorism suspect Jose Padilla with a crime or release him after more than 2 1/2 years in custody.

U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd in Spartanburg, S.C., said the government can not hold Padilla indefinitely as an "enemy combatant," a designation President Bush (news - web sites) gave him in 2002. "The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold petitioner as an enemy combatant," Floyd wrote in a 23-page opinion that was a stern rebuke to the government. He gave the administration 45 days to take action.

"We think that this is a wonderful decision," said Padilla's attorney, Andy Patel, as Padilla waited on another line. "It is one of those moments that all Americans should be proud of."

We should be PROUD of this, he tells us...that after two and a half years of being held without charge or trial, a lot of it without access to a lawyer, a judge has finally figured out that a president is not God, a king, or a dictator, and that a prisoner has basic rights guaranteed him by the U.S. Constitution, even if he did go try to enlist in some foreign terrorist organization. Two and a half years to figure out that the rights in the Constitution are non-negotiable. Well, I suppose it's a small victory for the good guys, but certainly not something to be proud of, but rather expected and required.

Ah, Phelps asks Dean for job!

2005-02-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

This is rich. Lunatic gay-hating religious nut thinks he'll be the right man to voice the concerns of religious Americans to Howard Dean, as a member of his Executive Committee:

"As an old-time Democrat of Al Gore and his campaign workers (hunh?) and as an old-time Bible-believing Christian--(one who naturally therefore believes that abortion and sodomy are monstrous sins against God that will take the practitioners to Hell)--I am glad to hear of your doctrine of inclusion.

"Please accept this letter as a formal request that you appoint me to your new Executive Committee. Millions of American voters fervently believe that homosexuality and abortion are grievous sins (blah, blah, blah...)

"I will be their voice--their representative--in your inner councils. Appointing me will be a powerful signal to the nation that you are now in truth a party of inclusion!

With kindest personal regards and best wishes, I remain,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fred Phelps, Pastor

Uh...thanks Fred. We'll uh...give you a call someday, when all the fags and people who've had abortions call up from Hell and report that everything's frozen down there and they are having a figure skating tournament. Jeez...where DO these people come from?

God hates Phelps...

2005-02-28T21:56:00.000-08:00

Remember Fred Phelps and the God Hates Fags gang, most of whom are his extended family? Apparently they are going to be protesting John Edwards when he visits Topeka, Kansas on Friday.

"God Almighty warned John Edwards by killing his son, but he hardened his heart and stiffened his neck, embracing the filthy fag agenda for political expediency. Thus he demonstrated that he in fact hates his wife and kids--and is determined to take them to Hell with him."

That's from the "Westboro Baptist Church" flyer, available in all its glory here.

In the newspaper clipping included in the flyer, it also happens to say this:

Edwards, who will open an anti-poverty center in North Carolina, has said that poverty is one of the great moral issues facing the nation.

Yeah, John Edwards, what a rotten guy. It's funny sometimes how the American people, if they are so determined to see the world in good guy vs. bad guy terms, keep siding with the bad guys in elections. Although to be at least a bit fair to Republicans, I doubt that even most of them want people like Phelps and his brood as poster children for their morality crusade.

Reid gets it...

2005-02-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

and Dean gets it too...

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has predicted that no Democratic senators will back Bush's plan, said yesterday: "Now that it's clear that the Republican privatization plan actually makes matters worse. . . . it's no wonder that so many Republican politicians are running away from it as fast as they can."

Both Reid and Dean seem to understand the ground game that Republicans figured out a while ago. You can't just wait for the enemy to put forth his game, and then criticize it. You have to attack before the enemy has put out his game, so that the criticism is there, waiting like a drawn arrow to strike. Reid clearly understands: Even before there are any details of the Bush 'plan', we know that the 'Republican privatization plan actually makes matters worse' and that Republicans are running away from it.

I may be premature, but to me these are little signs that the Democrats are finally starting to wake up to the new rules of the game.

Mexican Simpsons on strike

2005-02-24T02:57:00.000-08:00

The actors in Mexico who dub the Simpsons into Spanish are on strike because they say their wages are too low. The company, Grabaciones y Doblajes Internationales, is threatening to bring in non-union actors.

The actors normally start recording their parts in January but negotiations between the union and the company have broken down. The company has said it is struggling to remain competitive because of the union's actions.

"With attitudes like these, our country has lost ground for dubbing in Latin America," the company said. Humberto Velez, the voice of Homer Simpson, has said he earns about 600 pesos ($54, £28) per episode and felt obliged to stand up for his union.

Ok, the guy who voices Homer makes $54 per episode. Seems pretty recent that the actors in Hollywood who voice the Simpsons went on strike also (or almost did, I forget the details.) They were irritated because they were each only getting about $125,000 per episode, and they wanted more than $300,000 per episode. I'm not saying that the most popular cartoon in the country isn't making enough money to pay the actors a fortune, but fucking come on!

So this Mexican company is paying their actors a measly fifty-four bucks? And says they'll go broke if they pay any more? Either the company is doing something very wrong, or else it is ripping off its talent in a big way. Mexico ain't that poor. In any case, even if the Mexican version of the Simpsons IS struggling financially, don't we have enough of an interest in our neighbor that if they want to dub the Simpsons, we could kick down a few grand to at least pay the actors a decent wage? If our actors are making enough per WEEK during the season to buy a house, or a good chunk of a house, one would think that they are making enough loot to share with their Mexican counterparts...full article here.

My head will surely explode...

2005-02-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

if I have to keep hearing this crap every time the Chimper opens his fucking mouth.

Speaking to about 3,000 U.S. troops and their families at Wiesbaden Air Base, Bush called the U.S.-led invasion that created tensions with many European allies "a decisive moment in the history of freedom." "One of the key lessons of Sept. 11th is that we must confront threats before they fully materialize," Bush said. "In Iraq we found a threat to the entire world."

Drives me up the fucking wall. A threat to the entire world? Global warming is a threat to the entire world. America could be a threat to the entire world. Russia or China could be a threat to the entire world. Religious extremism could be a threat to the entire world. The fucking Death Star would be a threat to the entire world.

But Iraq? Impoverished, its air space patrolled 24/7, no air force, no navy, no army to speak of, no WMD's...is somehow a threat to...THE ENTIRE WORLD.

What an incredibly embarrassing time to be an American, day after day.

Psychologically speaking...

2005-02-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

Buzzflash has an interesting interview with Mark Crispin Miller, author of Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order and The Bush Dyslexicon.

It's very worth reading.

Movie quote of the day:

O'Brien: If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.

Winston Smith: Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death. I have committed even before setting pen to paper the essential crime that contains all others unto itself.

Hunter goes boom!

2005-02-22T21:26:00.000-08:00

"I believe he wanted to be shot out of a cannon," friend Troy Hooper told AFP.

"I understand it's in his will," said Hooper, associate editor of the Aspen Daily News, based near the Colorado home where Thompson, 67, apparently shot himself on Sunday.

"That's Hunter's style. That's how he would want it. He was a big fan of bonfires and explosions and anything that went bang and I'm sure he'd like to go bang as well," he said.

link

Hunter S. Thompson

2005-02-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

in the words of Ralph Steadman.

Wingnut patrol...

2005-02-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

On the wingnut website I post at, there are the ultra-religious wingnuts, then there are the ones who think everybody but them is a filthy commie, and then there are a few who are a little more reasonable despite being wingnuts. One of the ultra-religious ones put up a long Bible-quoting post that said on the one hand, homosexuals and all who approve of them should be put to death (actually, to be fair, I think it said we 'deserve death', without actually calling for our murder directly.) He ended the post with the familiar 'Love thy Neighbor' quotation (from Romans). So which is it, are we to be killed or loved? Hell, I don't know.

Anyway, in another province of the wingnut kingdom, we have Agape Press, and news from the Canadian wingnuts. They aren't as loud down here, but gay marriage seems pretty likely up there, and they aren't happy about it at all:

(AgapePress) - A Canadian pro-family activist says if the homosexual movement succeeds in redefining marriage in his country, the destruction to society there will be unimaginable to most people.

Debate began last week in Canada's Parliament on Bill C-38 which, opponents say, would render the legal definition of marriage "meaningless" and threaten the human rights of religious leaders and religious organizations that oppose that new definition. Proponents counter that argument saying that in much of Canada, the lawful union of two people of the same gender in civil marriage is already the law of the land. The issue, they say, is whether rights that have been granted are to be taken away. A vote is expected by June.

Unimaginable destruction to society. Those rotten, despicable gay people! Ah, the agony of having to listen to these people all the time...

Yahoo is on ether, a web portal on ether is the most untrustworthy, demented thing in the world...

2005-02-21T05:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, the state of the news...

I was online all night tonight (it's 4:52am now) finishing an article, which is now done except for a final check. You know how Yahoo puts "1 hour, twenty minutes ago" (or whatever) at the top of its stories so you can tell how old they are, more or less? While I've been working, I've been flipping back to Yahoo to see the new news, and each time I've looked at the Hunter S. Thompson story again. I actually caught it a minute after it posted, then about forty minutes later, and the latest re-version reads '1 hour, 38 minutes ago. But, there is a big difference between this version and the version I read a few hours ago. The version up right at this moment says this:

"Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and once said Richard Nixon represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character." "

A few hours ago, the story used the exact same quote, but said that Nixon had said that about THOMPSON.

Fucking crappy media.

But the funny thing is that when you think about it, both readings are true. Weird.

Freedom-fried Bush...

2005-02-21T01:03:00.000-08:00

From AP:

"Bush began a five-day European trip in Brussels, home to both the European Union and NATO. He also planned to dine privately here with French President Jacques Chirac, one of his most outspoken critics on the Iraq war."

Aides conceded that much work needed to be done. But the president's words were clearly conciliatory. And his advisers said it was hoped they would lead to greater, and cooler, dialogue.

"As past debates fade, and great duties become clear, let us begin a new era of trans-Atlantic unity," Bush said in a prepared speech.

I believe I can predict the French response, and cleverly couch it in today's Movie quote(s):

"I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of silly persons!"

"How you say, I one more time-a unclog my nose in your direction, sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly knees-bent running about in dancing behavior! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you heaving lot of second hand electric donkey bottom biters!"

This bodes well for us...

2005-02-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

Stole this from Kos, who stole it from Digby:

"Americans want Democrats to stand up to Bush," the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports. "Fully 60%, including one-fourth of Republicans, say Democrats in Congress should make sure Bush and his party 'don't go too far.' Just 34% want Democrats to 'work in a bipartisan way' to help pass the president's priorities."

The House in 2006, or the Senate. Either one. The Democrats have effective weapons to use against this administration...they just need to figure out how to point them all at the same place, and pull the triggers at the same time. Republicans want to destroy Social Security, Democrats will protect it. Republicans hate old people. Republicans are the Lex Luthor of our country, the crazed batshit uncle who lives upstairs. Democrats must attack, not respond. And apparently the people want them to, though of course, it's just one poll. Come on, Democrats, fight, fight, fight.

shit.

2005-02-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

DENVER - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

Guess he's on his savage journey someplace else now...

An interesting idea...

2005-02-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

Dan Savage, the very gay, widely syndicated sex columnist who will quite literally leave no sex-related subject untouched, no matter how strange, disgusting, or just plain wrong, has a piece in the NYT today about Alan Keyes' daughter making her big "Hey Daddy I'm gay and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!" speech. Here is Savage:

Learning that a prominent conservative like Mr. Keyes (or Randall Terry, the anti-abortion-turned-antigay-rights crusader whose son revealed last spring he is gay) has a gay relative is nothing new. Newt Gingrich, for instance, has a lesbian half-sister. But for gays and lesbians there's something particularly satisfying about watching a prominent antigay conservative learn that his or her own child is homosexual. It smacks of cosmic retribution: Mr. Keyes now has to choose between his antigay "pro-family" rhetoric and a member of his own family.

Which made me wonder something. To find a list of famous or well-known gay people, all one has to do is google for it and up come a bunch of lists, no pun intended. But it's funny how it seems fairly often that we find out that a son or daughter of one of these prominent family values conservative shitheads is gay. It's almost like the more nutty the right-winger, the more likely they are to have a gay child.

Why is that? Is there a pattern here? And which came first, the conservatism and morals crap, or the gay offspring? Perhaps we need a chart to figure out how many conservative parents have openly gay children. I'd forgotten about ol' Randall Terry, the old Operation Rescue guy, and his gay son...he even wrote an agonizing article about his evil gay son pushing his evil gayness on his parents at the cruel whim of the evil gay magazine (Out) run by evil gay people.

Consider: since the anti-gay folks all swear by the claim that being gay is a matter of choice (as though they'd know anything about it), that means that in their minds, their child has chosen to be gay. Purposely. Which reflects back squarely on that conservative upbringing....as in, did you beat the poor child with the Jesus statue so much that in retaliation your child decided to become gay? Were you really that bad a parent? I wonder how deeply these conservative wingnuts suffer guilt over the failure of themselves as parents...obviously, if you fear and hate gay people and believe they are an abomination and surely going to Hell...there can be NO worse failure as a parent than to have failed your responsibility to your child SO BADLY that your child chooses the worst thing you can possibly conceive of, to become gay.

It's worse than drugs, it's worse than running away, it's worse than burning down the family home or running off to Vegas with the family checkbook and blowing it all at the craps table. No, you have failed as a parent so badly that your child has CHOSEN to punish you by becoming gay. That means your child will never join you in heaven at the feet of the Lord, and you will know for all eternity that your child is burning in Hell while you are living the good life with your halo and wings. Must be tough on these conservative wing-bats. If you believe it's a choice, then when your child comes out, you have only yourself to blame.

And so what did you do that was so bad? It must have been something in your conservative ideology that caused him or her to decide to be gay. Something in the strict, conservative, church-filled upbringing made your child be gay. And that too is something that conservative wingnuts with gay children have to live with. I wonder what it must be like for them...

Oh well, enough of all that...let them suffer. It's not like they don't make us all suffer with their non-stop religious crap. But it would be very interesting if some rabid statistically-minded person actually documented all the most outspoken religious conservatives out there and charted how many of them have gay offspring...just as a curious little footnote in the culture wars.

Last word from Mr. Savage:

But I can't enjoy this news about Maya Keyes as much as most gays and lesbians. As a parent, you see, I feel Alan Keyes's pain - and Randall Terry's too. I can empathize with their desire not to see their children grow up to be one of us because I live in mortal fear of my child growing up to be one of them.

Today's quote comes from Will and Grace:

Jack: For your information, most people who meet me do not know that I am gay.
Will: Jack, blind and deaf people know you're gay. Dead people know you're gay.
Jack: Grace, when you first met me, did you know I was gay?
Grace: My dog knew.

No, Rummy, it certainly isn't your business to do intelligent work...

2005-02-17T15:12:00.000-08:00

Deep in WaPo, in an article talking about how Rumsfeld is sarcastically telling the Senate Armed Services Committee to fuck off because they can't seem to understand that this is a dictatorship and they are being far too presumptuous if they think they have the right to ask questions of Mr. High and Mighty himself, we find this delicious little mis-speak:

When the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.), asked about the number of insurgents in Iraq, the secretary said, "I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my business to do intelligent work." (He presumably meant to say "intelligence.") Ultimately, Rumsfeld admitted he had estimates at his fingertips. "I've got two in front of me," he said.

"Could you share those with us?" Skelton inquired.

Not just now, Rumsfeld said. "They're classified."

It's not Rumsfeld's business to do intelligent work. Well, we all knew that. No surprise there.

The real question...

2005-02-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine just emailed me this important question, which has been skimming around the edges of the blogosphere since this whole Gannon/Guckert thing started, but which I don't think anyone has yet asked directly in a blunt, obvious way.

You know the real question that we all need to ask about "Jeff Gannon" is whose dick did he suck and when did he suck it?

It's an obvious question, and if this were a tale of a FEMALE hooker who'd gotten this strange unprecedented access with no real credentials and a very questionable background, speculation would be rampant over whose bed she'd been in, and how many people in the White House staff she'd slept with in order to get preferential treatment and a cushy inside job.

Just because this is a case of a MALE prostitute, the question is being somewhat avoided, perhaps because the idea of a woman sleeping her way to the top is a well-known stereotype and our minds would go there easily and automatically. Because Mr. Guckert is male (unless he has yet more secrets to divulge) we don't make the same assumptions as easily. But those questions SHOULD be asked, definitely. Was he bedding Scott McClellan, or the people issuing the credentials, or the background checkers perhaps? Was he the resident party boy of the Bush campaign?

So yes, whose dick did he suck and when did he suck it? Who WERE his $200 an hour customers inside the Bush administration?

Daily Show on the new Gannon Tilt-a-Whirl amusement park ride...

2005-02-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

If you haven't yet watched this clip of Jon Stewart talking about Gannon, blogging, and journalism, it's really damn funny, and you should go watch it. It's about ten minutes long and it's hilarious.

Clip

Ms. Dowd dives into Lake Gannon...

2005-02-17T00:24:00.000-08:00

I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon.

How often does an enterprising young man, heralded in press reports as both a reporter and a contributor to such sites as Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts .com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and Meetlocalmen.com, get to question the president of the United States?

Who knew that a hotmilitarystud wanting to meetlocalmen could so easily get to be face2face with the commander in chief?

I never know if Maureen Dowd is relevant, and sometimes she's too obviously full of herself to even read. But I know that the right-wingers hate her guts, and that's good enough for me. She takes a whack at Jim Guckert/Gannon's very tired behind.

I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?

Well Maureen, they DO hate you, after all.

A cover letter for Gannon's old job...

2005-02-17T00:20:00.000-08:00

This is funny.

The only thing it is missing is an offer to be the WH butt-boy when he is not dreaming up easy questions for Chimpy...

It's a brand-new baby...sticker?

2005-02-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Awhile back I mentioned that this blog serves a dual purpose. One is to join my little voice to the many thousands of voices out there, and in so doing, contribute to the cacophony of protest against this nightmare demonspawn that is the Republican party and the religious right in this country. The other is to occasionally showcase a bumpersticker or two that I make in my shop over on cafepress.com. This is NOT going to be a 'buy my stuff' blog, but rather a sometimes outlet for my stickers, so they don't have to get swallowed among the thousands of other shops on cafepress, but can have their own spot in the sun every so often. So on that note, here is one of them:

If you see pixelization around the letters on your screen, don't worry about it. It's a screen/jpeg issue and doesn't show up in print. Wanna see my other ones? Ok, that's the end of my huckstering for the day.

Today's movie dialogue, from Galaxy Quest:

Gwen DeMarco: What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?
Jason Nesmith: 'Cause it's on the television show.
Gwen DeMarco: Well forget it, I'm not doing it! This episode was badly written!

From the mouths of the religious right...

2005-02-16T03:02:00.000-08:00

We need a good name for these people. 'Fundamentalists' doesn't convey their evil nature well enough. 'American Taliban' is too silly and easily dismissed. And the 'Religious Right' is too overused and misunderstood. I have been reading some of the goals and tactics of these people, chronicled at Theocracywatch.org, and while it's not the first time I've read these things, every time I happen upon them I am appalled all over again. Here are a few choice quotes from a 'training manual' that they have been working from for more than twenty years. Judging from the state of the country today, they have been pretty successful, and are very far along in their goals. So...

"Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions."

and

"We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment's rest. We will endeavor to prove that the Left does not deserve to hold sway over the heart and mind of a single American. We will offer constant reminders that there is an alternative, there is a better way. When people have had enough of the sickness and decay of today's American culture, they will be embraced by and welcomed into the New Traditionalist movement. The rejection of the existing society by the people will thus be accomplished by pushing them and pulling them simultaneously."

and

"We must create a countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left at intimidating people and institutions that are used as tools of left-wing activism but are not ideologically committed, such as Hollywood celebrities, multinational corporations, and university administrators. We must be feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths."

and

"We will be results-oriented rather than good intentions-oriented. Making a good-faith effort and being ideologically sound will be less important than advancing the goals of the movement."

and

"We need more people with fire in the belly, and we need a message that attracts those kinds of people. We must reframe this struggle as a moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good and evil. And we must be prepared to explain why this is so. We must provide the evidence needed to prove this using images and simple terms."

These people are pure evil. They are the Puritans and Calvinists, recreated and reformed in modern times. Any movie you have seen, where some dipshit travels to an ancient, forgotten tomb to bring some kind of huge evil demon back to life because he worships that demon....well, these people ARE that demon. And all of us, in our own small ways, are the rag-tag group of heroes and ne'er-do-wells that must organize and fight to put this demon back in its tomb. Where did this demon in our midst come from? It has been here all along, apparently our own Damien, our own demonseed.

Howard Dean is my new hero...

2005-02-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

Flipping around the articles at truthout.org, I found this quote by Dean in an article by Ronald Brownstein of the LA Times, from last Friday.

Dean previewed the pugnacious tone he was likely to set in his new job at a recent party forum in New York when he declared, "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."

My kind of guy...I don't think we have to worry a bit about him turning into a smarmy little worm, as has been known to happen to Democrats occasionally. He is clear, he is vocal, and he isn't afraid to speak his mind about these assholes who have taken over this country and imposed some kind of backward, monstrous religious nightmare on us just when we need to be looking forward and solving problems.

There are times to parley and compromise, and times to say fuck you and fight, and this is clearly one of those latter times, and Dean knows it.

Quote of the Day: "Stopped they must be; on this all depends. Only a fully-trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor."--Yoda

If we think of Dean's Scream as analogous to Luke's disastrous battle with Vader in the bowels of the Cloud City, then perhaps this is the return of Dean as a tougher, battle-scarred Jedi. Let's hope so.

The Republican Zone

2005-02-16T02:14:00.000-08:00

Tom Tomorrow takes a page from Rod Serling and gives us a look at The Republican Zone

Quoting Rudepundit on Gannonorama-palooza-gate

2005-02-16T01:41:00.000-08:00

For $1200, you could spend the weekend with Guckert, who, ya know, has got a nice body although he's got an odd, clumpy penis/balls combination. For $200, you could have an hour. And one imagines that getting access to the President of the United States would make one's price go up. Guckert could now put out an ad wherein you could pay $350 to shove your dick in the mouth that asked Bush a question. For an extra $50, you can slap him around and call him an "enabling little bitch."

Heh. Rude Pundit nails it...

Gannon, more than we ever wanted...

2005-02-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

The Jeff Gannon saga just keeps getting sweeter, almost burying the news of Alan Keyes' daughter speaking publicly about being a liberal lesbian growing up in the home of one of America's nuttiest politicians/religious loons. For the past couple of days, there have been X-rated pictures, lots of them, and pretty disgusting.

In one ad, he says he's an "Aggressive, verbal, dominant Top. I don't leave marks, only impressions." That's great, Jeff. The next line of questions should be whether you are really ex-military or if that is just a fake as well...

The Washington Post is now writing it up again (in more than just Froomkin) and the Gannon-profile is growing and growing. Our fine Democratic Senators and Republicans are backing away, and that's too bad, but it means that they are afraid they went too far in backing the latest blogger-driven thing, and might wind up with egg on their faces if the whole thing turns out to be no big deal. People, just think of what they did to Clinton. Nothing against gay hookers in general, but if we can tie a gay hooker (who also claimed to teach P.E. in a school at some point) to this psycho White House, and nail it to them with the CRIME of outing Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, by all means, we need to.

Of course I'm one of those people who think that naked men should never be seen in public, and certainly not on the internets where straight guys might have to see them. But, I know I'm in the minority on that one. But for the record, ewwwww.....

Anyway, those sites that Gannon/Guckert said he set up for 'clients' got unearthed thanks to tips and hard work by those over at Americablog, among others, and now Gannon has stopped talking to the media. Well, it took less than what, three days, to prove him a liar? And those pictures are...nasty. It's pretty fun watching the White House doing its usual act of ignoring something that's exploding right under its nose, though. I wonder what Gannon's up to these days? Hiding under the bed? Getting drunk? Servicing a Republican customer and ensuring he leaves 'no marks, only impressions'? Oi...

Movie quote of the day: "Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here."--Annie Hall, 1977.

Right-wing lunacy...

2005-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

I post on a right-wing message board, on a conservative Christian website. I've actually made a friend there, but most of those people are just plain nuts. Here is something one of the nuttier ones said to me today:

"Once again, I do not hold Bush in hero worship, only GOD and Jesus. Bush is doing the right thing in the war we face with Islam but he is not going far enough. All Muslims should be deported from all non Muslim countries back to Muslim countries and quarantined there. Sooner or later they will have to be removed from the worlds people, permanently."

I asked him when he was going to deliver his Final Solution speech. But yeah, these people are out there, calling themselves Americans in the most religiously righteous ways they can find, and they are Bush's ignorant, religious base. Not all are as bad as this specimen, but this guy is representative of many just like him. Just more little bits of evidence that IT CAN HAPPEN HERE.

Oh Lordy...

2005-02-14T03:24:00.000-08:00

So Alan Keyes has a gay daughter? That is just too fucking funny. Alan Keyes, religious nut, moral crusader for some kind of strange Inquisition-like moral code, failed presidential candidate, failed Senate candidate how many times? And this guy has a GAY DAUGHTER. This almost makes me believe in God, because only a god with a rich sense of humor would gift some lunatic like Alan Keyes with a gay daughter.

Unfortunately, he has apparently disowned her, which is sad. I guess old Alan puts the 'compassionate' in compassionate conservative. She's only 19 years old. And she is liberal, which is probably almost as great a crime in Alan's mind as being gay. But, on the plus side, she is not pulling a Mary Cheney and disappearing into the woodwork of her psycho father's campaign. She is going to be speaking out and asserting herself as her own person based on who she is, not on who those pathetic fucks who claim to be so 'moral' tell her she is. Good for her.

Heh...I just love it when the meanness of those who claim to be so moral and godly is exposed for what it is...just an intolerant, unpleasant, ugly-as-hell meanness towards everyone who disagrees with them, even when it's their own offspring.

Well Alan, you lost a daughter. Why don't you go screw your wife, if you're able, and make another and pray to your god that she doesn't turn out gay as well...you poor fucked up hypocrite, you...

2005-02-12T03:04:00.000-08:00

President Bush, in his budget plan released Monday, is proposing to cut farm subsidies by 5 percent this year, cap them at $250,000 per farm and reduce overall spending by about one-third over across the next decade.

"In many farm states that helped re-elect Bush in November after never hearing any campaign talk about cutting their payments, there is a sense of betrayal.

"I'm not happy. I voted for George Bush." said cotton grower John Rife of Ferriday, La."

That's because you are a FUCKING IDIOT!!!. That's because YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR HEAD FROM A FUCKING RANCID HOLE IN THE GROUND!! That's because you are TOO FUCKING STUPID TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE ISSUES AND FIGURE OUT WHO IS REALLY ON YOUR SIDE, YOU DUMB FUCK!!!

If you want to know what's going on, read Thomas Frank's What's the matter with Kansas, and learn from there. Jesus fucking Christ...and you just know this fucking moron voted for Bush becasue he was against gay marriage....and now he finds himself fucked by the budget of the man he voted for. Well, fuck him...I hope his children starve....Jesus H, Fucking Christ...

Thank god, underwear is saved!

2005-02-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

"RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia lawmakers dropped their droopy-pants bill Thursday after the whole thing became just too embarrassing.

The bill, which would have slapped a $50 fine on people who wear their pants so low that their underwear is visible in ``a lewd or indecent manner,'' passed the state House on Tuesday but was killed by a Senate committee two days later in a unanimous vote."

Nasty old Virginia lawmen...

I claim victory over the forces of moral prudishness everywhere! Damn, aren't there just more important things to worry about? I mean, really...get your priorities straight...

Oh, no, Condi didn't lie, did she? Oh no!

2005-02-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

From yahoo:

Nearly half of the Federal Aviation Administration's daily intelligence reports in the months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks mentioned Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, according to newly released documents.

A report by the 9/11 Commission adds new details to long-standing concerns by the commission that the FAA did not respond aggressively enough in 2001 to intelligence suggesting al-Qaeda was planning an attack.

Over fifty daily intel reports mentioned Al Qaeda or Osama in the months before 9/11. Yet during the 9/11 Commission hearings, Condoleeza Rice claimed that she'd heard nothing about any attack using airplanes. She couldn't imagine they'd use planes. So this means one of two things: Either she is a huge fucking liar, and she did know, or else she is just incredibly incompetent--what was she doing up in her fancy National Security Advisor offices all day every day, diddling herself and dreaming of Dubya? Fucking-A. What's wrong with these people?

And of course, this report was available before the election, but it was held back for political reasons. 'National Security' my ass. Their political security is all that matters to them, and it's all that ever has.

Would this kind of news have changed 50,000 votes in Ohio? I suspect it might have.

I guess we're not sick of polls yet...

2005-02-11T12:07:00.000-08:00

"Adults were evenly divided on Bush's job performance in January, but now 54 percent disapprove and 45 percent approve. The number who think the country is headed down the wrong track increased from 51 percent to 58 percent in the past month." from Yahoo.

So more than half the country 'disapproves' and almost sixty percent think we are headed down the wrong path, yet we somehow re-elected this guy? And he thinks he has some kind of man-date to do whatever he wants?

Just kind of amazing and hard to believe. Did they vote for the devil they knew but didn't like, and shy away from the devil they didn't know in John Kerry? Maybe. We really have to get at least one house of Congress back in Democratic hands. There is simply no power to do anything, learn anything, investigate anything in a way that people can see and hear and understand. The Republicans squelch it all.

crazy...

2005-02-11T01:48:00.000-08:00

From the BBC:

German postal staff ensured a postcard to Adolf Hitler sent from England got to its destination, despite the Nazi leader being dead for 60 years. It was sent to "Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, Reichstag, German Parliament, Berlin, Germany", from an undisclosed address. Link

Non-Gannon quote of the week...

2005-02-11T01:01:00.000-08:00

From WaPo:

"Asked this week whether he worried about Dean as party chairman, Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council, said: "The job of party chair is different from party nominee. The party chair needs to be an ardent partisan. You can't send a vegetarian to do a red-meat job.""

Sounds like a ringing endorsement to me.

Just when we need the values crowd, they are no-shows...

2005-02-10T23:53:00.000-08:00

One day, you are a right-wing hack reporter popping easy questions to Chimpy at the press conference, content in the knowledge that nobody really knows who you are, but with your nose crammed so firmly into the crack of the Bush folks, your future is probably quite assured. The next thing you know, you have a few thousand bloggers digging into your background and pulling out your juicy details like hot intestines from a speared gazelle. The day after that, your intestines are hanging from every editor's desk from the New York Times to CNN to the Washington Post to the halls of Congress. Must be a rough week for anybody. From the Times piece:

"The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame..."

This is the conservative fake reporter in the White House press corps, who has been found to (apparently) have links to gay military prostitution, and who resigned yesterday.

The leftie bloggers have been researching like a million crazed bees--and they're certainly excited, after all, they broke the story so they're suffering from a little bit of euphoria, who can blame them? Conservative news sites have been deleting Gannon's stories from their archives like they're tainted with leprosy, or even worse, homosexuality! The entire Right has been pretty silent, for the most part, and the White House has done what it usually does with news that might incriminate it in something bad--pretend pretend pretend like it doesn't exist and isn't happening.

Oh well, I guess the moral family values people just don't care that much about links to gay military prostitution...which means pimping out strapping young soldiers to people willing to pay for their bedroom services. Of course...it IS capitalism...so maybe it's okay with them.

Can we all say, "Yes, sir!"
How about "USA! USA! USA!"
How about "SEMPER FI, you sexy beast!"
How about "Can you do that in leather?"

No?

Oh well, I guess it's just not that important to the Right. It's only the military, prostitution, and a fake reporter now linked to the outing of a CIA agent, a White House mystery which it has steadfastly refused to cooperate in solving.

I guess moral values aren't really important to the Right in this country after all.

I guess honesty isn't a moral value, and prostitution of our soldiers is okay...judging by the level of absolute non-interest shown by the conservatives in addressing this story that is becoming huger by the hour.

Now if he had had a "wardrobe malfunction" the wingnutters would be all over this like flies on shit, but military prostitution, some kind of involvement in the Plame affair, and some kind of wink-wink-nudge-nudgery to get his press pass in the first place, all are no big deal.

Ah well, life in the fast lane.

And it grows...

2005-02-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

CNN is covering what's being called Gannon-gate by some, or even funnier, Gannonarama.

Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter has sent a letter to Dubya's place to ask what is going on with all the propaganda that spews from this White House, and who this fake reporter was and what he was doing with White House press passes when he couldn't qualify for Congressional ones. From her letter:

"has been regularly called upon in White House press briefings by your Press Secretary Scott McClellan, despite the fact evidence shows that "Mr. Gannon" is a Republican political operative, uses a false name, has phony or questionable journalistic credentials, is known for plagiarizing much of the "news" he reports, and according to several web reports, may have ties to the promotion of the prostitution of military personnel."

You go, girl!

And now Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) has sent a letter to Scotty McClellan asking for any and all info about the White House gay military prostitute links. Just kidding. He wants information on Gannon/Guckert and his press credentials. Or maybe not. Who knows what those warlike repressed Republicans get up to in their private parties? It could be positively Roman...

DOGPILE! Just like the first grade...that same giddy sense of abandoned mob glee, without the frightening realization that you are the one under the pile. Unless you're Gannon/Guckert, that is.

If you're just coming in...

2005-02-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

and somehow haven't heard about the sudden resignation of Jeff Gannon, a.k.a James D. Guckert, possibly a.k.a the White House Press Corps reporter for Talon news who also registered sites like www.HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com, and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com, well, you're missing the big story of the week.

Why you would happen upon my tiny little new blog first, I have no idea, but all the news on it can be found at Americablog, DailyKos, Atrios, Buzzflash, and many, many other blogs by now. If you want to see what those crazy freepers are saying about this takedown of one of their own, Pam Spaulding dove into the muck and came up with a big slimy handful of their quotes which make fun reading (scroll down).

And, it's gone into the MSM: NewYorkDailyNews, WaPo (Froomkin), NPR and a few others.

What is it about the Right in this country, that they all preach that moral values crap on us during the day, and at some point their creepy skeletons come rattling out of the closet for all to see. Bill Bennett ("Book of Virtures")--high-rolling gambler. Rush Limbaugh--drug addiction, two divorces, or is it three? Newt Gingrich is on his third wife, having left the first one when he found out she had cancer. Rep. Henry Hyde was having an affair as he was leading the fight to have Clinton impeached for doing the same thing. And of course, we could go on and on building this list. Anyway...

Movie quote of the day: "For god's sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You... put on music. Now you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won't be home for hours."

Would have loved to come up with a quote more relevant to the current story, but let's face it, there aren't any movies about pimping out gay military boys, at least none that I'm aware of, fortunately. Perhaps this is more appropriate:

"Nobody on this planet wants their religion and their pornography together."--The People vs. Larry Flynt.

way to go, Senator Kerry...

2005-02-10T02:38:00.000-08:00

From WaPo: Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) said, "If the numbers don't add up for Medicare, how can we be sure they will add up for Social Security?"

That's the kind of polite, ineffective, barely-critical crap that we endured throughout the long election, and probably ultimately caused you to lose the election. If you think the Bushies' plan stinks, as it surely does, then come out and say, "This plan stinks, and is nothing more than a charade designed to destroy Social Security and make anyone under fifty eat cat food when they are old and grey."

I grew to like and respect John Kerry, I really did, but at the same time there were big things I didn't like about him, and his overly-polite responses to the assholes running against him were one of them. Pray to all the gods that he doesn't run in '08. He had his chance, we were behind him, but (Ohio voting shenanigans aside) he lost, and it's time to move aside. The Republicans, encouraged by Bush, will probably run someone even further to the Right than he is, and we will need someone running on our side who can take the gloves off and go mano-a-mano to the mat. Not someone who, when the Medicare bill turns about to be somewhere between $720 billion and $1.2 trillion, after the righties swore up and down it wouldn't be over $400 billion, can't just call them liars or even close to that, but instead asks a nearly rhetorical question. That is no way to fight.

"If the numbers don't add up for Medicare, how can we be sure they will add up for Social Security?"--yeah, gee John, I don't know. Let's all sit around and think about it for awhile--tick, tick, tick, tick...tick...tick, how CAN we be sure? It's sure a conundrum, ain't it? PLEASE DO NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN. YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE.

Watch out for the underwear patrol!

2005-02-09T21:38:00.000-08:00

Apparently, this is not a joke. From the Moonie Times:

RICHMOND — Virginia lawmakers to the state's youth: Pull up your pants or pay the price.
Delegate Algie T. Howell Jr. doesn't want to see underwear hanging out of the back of your pants, and most lawmakers yesterday agreed with him. The House voted 60-34 for his bill, which would impose a $50 fine on anyone whose boxers, briefs or thongs peek above their pants or skirts.
"It's not an attack on baggy pants," said Mr. Howell, Norfolk Democrat. "To vote for this bill would be a vote for character, to uplift your community and to do something good not only for the state of Virginia, but for this entire country."

And who are these idiot Democrats coming up with something this stupid? And does this apply to plumbers and construction workers too? Of course, they don't wear boxers, so I hope they included language in the bill about ass cracks! And fat women who wear tight clothes, and old women who wear too much perfume! Gotta ticket them old broads. And men of any age walking around with no shirts on. What makes you think I want to see your naked chest, sir? Officer, ticket that man!

In fact, I've got a great idea, even though I don't live in Virginia. (fashion morality knows NO borders!) I have some excellent suggestions for all kinds of fashion disasters and disgusting things I don't like to see, and the Virginia legislature can help me ban them. Tattoos on the small of the back (been done to death--ban it), white suburban brats listening to hiphop and thinking they're cool--ban that dishonest practice now! And what is it about southern Christian women and their big hair? Ban those big-hairs, they are a road hazard to anyone driving behind them! Old men in shorts? Ban 'em. Hippies? Banned on general principles. Rednecks? The same. Oh yeah, I feel empowered!

If you want to feel empowered, and offer some suggestions to members of the Virginia legislature on all the many things they should ban (like themselves), here are a few phone numbers and email addresses:

Delegate Algie T. Howell, Jr. (D)--Phone: (804)698-1090
Fax: (804)786-6310
Constituent Viewpoint: (800)-889-0229 (oooh...a toll-free number...)
Email: Del_AHowell@house.state.va.us

Delegate John S. Reid (R)--""Underwear is called underwear for a reason — because it is normally worn under your clothes," Mr. Reid said." (or on the head of Iraqi prisoners? --ed.)
(804) 741-2927 (home district)
(804) 698-1072 (in session)
email: Del_Reid@house.state.va.us

Those are the two mentioned in the article, but the bill passed 60-34, with many Democrats supporting it. Time to laugh at Virginia, I guess. If you are an invalid with a lonely cell phone, or really, really bored, or if for some reason this issue strikes you as supremely important and requiring immediate action (as was apparently the case in Virginia) the names of the other delegates who voted Yea on something this ridiculous can be found here.

Two points for Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader...

2005-02-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Angered by Republican criticism, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday suggested President Bush's calls for unity are proving "absolutely false."

"I want the boys at the White House, the girls at the White House, the men and women at the White House, everyone to understand, I haven't lost one wink of sleep over the attack yesterday," Reid said.

"They're not going to frighten me. You know, they call me an obstructionist -- they're destructionists." Link

Good boy, after Daschle's loss of his seat because of Republican attacks, Reid knows he can't take any shit from these people and can't let anything slide. And, between him, Barbara Boxer, and with Howard Dean as head of the DNC, we seem to have people who know that it's not enough to defend ourselves, we must fight back and call these assholes what they are. Still waiting for Pelosi to come on board in a significant way. And John Kerry, don't know about him. He sends out emails asking to join the fight to save children, or something, but it's really unclear what he intends to do with his national face-recognition, or even whether he is a positive or negative these days.

Quote of the Day: "We must fight or die! Is dying better?" -- The Kanutu Woman from the Original Star Trek series.

Eight-ball whirlwind (image)

2005-02-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

I am testing ways to post images, since I want to occasionally display the evil liberal bumperstickers I make, so I can buy a cup of coffee and help save the world from Republicans in my itty bitty way. In the meantime, if you like the image of the floating 8-balls, take it. It's yours.

Introducing Chairman Rove, as in Karl...

2005-02-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

DETROIT (Reuters) - President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, will take on a wider role in developing and coordinating policy in the president's second term, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Rove, who was Bush's top political strategist during his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, will become a deputy White House chief of staff in charge of coordinating policy between the White House Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council.

Translation: Rove is basically running the country. "Coordinating policy" means that he is the go-to guy that anybody on these councils has to ask permission from to do anything (to make sure it's 'coordinated'). So he is the spider at the intersection of the WH councils of Domestic Policy, National Economic, National Security, and Homeland Security. Think about that for a moment, and the power that this one man, never elected by anybody, wields right now in his doughy white hands.

The Republican Party is the horse, Bush is the saddle, and Karl Rove is the rider.

One less Republican stooge...

2005-02-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

"Jeff Gannon, ace reporter..."

Ooops! So, you're a strapping right-wing reporter with a semi-wandering and pointless background, but you hook in with the right people, take a two-day journalism seminar taught by right-wingers, and BAM, you're suddenly the Washington Bureau chief of a wingnut news organization called Talon News, which may or may not be a real organization with a real staff.

So now you get a White House press pass every day, and you get to go to press briefings with all the real reporters, from real newspapers, most of whom went to real colleges to get real journalism degrees. You get to ask Scott McClellan (Bush's media filter/press secretary) questions just like the big guys do. But, since you're a right-winger and a big brown-noser, you ask nice easy questions that make Democrats look bad, like: "Scott, how is the president going to get important legislation passed with obstructionist Democrats standing in the way of progress?" This lets you: a) sound important, b) besmirch the evil Democrats, c) suck up to your leaders, and most importantly, d) let Scott use you to bail out of answering tougher questions about the war and the deficit and what grandma is going to eat when there is no more Social Security. You are a happy right-winger with an important job.

There is just one problem: when you started turning yourself into a little organization, you started registering all kinds of domain names to puff up your importance, using the same business name as some of your more, uh, private matters. And eventually, it came to light and you have to quit your important job. Gee, you think later, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to register domain names like www.hotmilitarystud.com, or www.militaryescorts.com, and especially, www.militaryescortsm4m.com (men4men, get it?) Yeah, you think, as you watch your dreams of living large with the people who want to impose their narrow cultural views on America disappearing in a puff of hypocrisy...maybe it wasn't such a good idea to keep your private attempts to pimp out gay military guys connected in any way to your public asskissing of the anti-gay homophobes.

Because you knew the lefties would find out someday, and then they'd tell everybody. Spoilsport lefties...you didn't mean any harm, you were just bringing the Word of God to lonely gay men with military fetishes, that's all. Perfectly harmless.

Now, this may not be the exact story, but it is shaping up to be something similar, largely due to the investigative efforts of the people over at Kos and Atrios, and an excellent rundown of this guy by World O'Crap.

The upshot is, Jeff Gannon, possibly a.k.a. James D. Guckert, has apparently resigned suddenly due to the rabid attention suddenly devoted to what appear to be links to male prostitution, which is kind of a big no-no when you wanna be part of the Nazi....er, right-wingers. Another slimy right-winger with a seamy, sore-covered underbelly. No big surprise, really...they all seem to have something to hide.

I wonder who will be asking Scott McClellan all those ridiculously easy questions, now? Wanna see Jeffrey's goodbye message to the world? Go here.

more right-wing nuttery...

2005-02-08T16:45:00.002-08:00

Joseph Farah, editor of the right-wing 'news' site WorldNetDaily and a few other right-wing outlets, including a radio show, has this to say in his editorial today:

"Today, we can see America hangs in the balance as we enter into what is often characterized as a "post-Christian society." Marriage is the final domino. When it falls, so does Western Civilization, so does the concept of self-government, so does the concept of liberty. It's about to fall."

So gay people getting married are going to cause the end of Western Civilization. I think one of the hardest things for liberals and progressives (and educated people around the world) to understand is that these people actually BELIEVE this crock of stinking shit. And, as someone who has been posting on a right-wing religious message board for the past year, I can testify that they really, really BELIEVE it, and deeply. Civilization is coming to an end, and it's all the fault of gay people and liberals. Pretty fucking amazing, how twisted they are. The concept of liberty goes away when gay people get married? What fucking sense does that make? The concept of self-government goes away when gay people get married? What fucking sense does THAT make?

Anyone wanting to read the rest of Farah's ridiculous example of how fucked up these homophobic monsters are can go here.

Krugman explains it all...

2005-02-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

...as usual. Thank god we have one economist who is also a good and influential writer, who can explain the Bushies' attempts to destroy Social Security without sounding like a perfesser...

He's not the only one, but he's the best and has the best pulpit...

Link.

Focus on the Family Hate Group...

2005-02-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

James Dobson and his Focus on the Family Hate Group are now fucking with Canada's internal matters. God forbid those nasty gay people get married up there...hopefully those sensible Canadians will tell American lunatic religious groups like Dobson's to just fuck off. From a Canadian blog:

James Dobson, the charismatic founder of Focus on the Family who has been described as one of the most influential Christian figures in the United States, personally waded into the debate two weeks ago in a radio show taped in Colorado Springs, Colo., and transmitted as a paid broadcast to 130 stations in Canada.

"It is clear here in the United States that the American people do not want same-sex marriage. I would hope that Canadians who also do not want same-sex marriage would be encouraged by what has happened down here."

Mr. Dobson also attacked Paul Martin for refusing Cabinet ministers a free vote. "Your Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has recently done things to subvert the will of the people," he said.

Funny how religious nuts seem to think that whatever they happen to believe is automatically the 'will of the people'. Fuck these people.

If you are new to this war...

2005-02-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Alternet has an excellent article detailing the right-wing takeover of our media and country, beginning back in the early 1970's, and culminating in the near total control they enjoy now. It also gives some reason for hope, despite the tendings of conservatives towards dictatorship. But we will all need to work hard these coming years to take these people down...

As veteran investigative reporter Robert Parry argues, Bush's electoral victory proved that the conservatives have achieved dominance over the flow of information to the American people - so much so that even a well-run Democratic campaign stands virtually no chance for national success without major changes in the media system. "The outcome of Election 2004 highlights perhaps the greatest failure of the Democratic/liberal side in American politics: a refusal to invest in the development of a comparable system for distributing information that can counter the Right's potent media infrastructure," according to Parry. "Democrats and liberals have refused to learn from the lessons of the Republican/conservative success."

But we're learning now.

Movie quote of the day: "We just carved up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound.....fine?"

Springtime, for Hitler...

2005-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe not yet. Still it's pretty creepy when the editor of The American Conservative pens an article called 'Hunger for Dictatorship' and says this:

"But Rockwell (and Roberts and Raimondo) is correct in drawing attention to a mood among some conservatives that is at least latently fascist. Rockwell describes a populist Right website that originally rallied for the impeachment of Bill Clinton as “hate-filled ... advocating nuclear holocaust and mass bloodshed for more than a year now.” One of the biggest right-wing talk-radio hosts regularly calls for the mass destruction of Arab cities. Letters that come to this magazine from the pro-war Right leave no doubt that their writers would welcome the jailing of dissidents."

and this:

"I don’t think there are yet real fascists in the administration, but there is certainly now a constituency for them —hungry to bomb foreigners and smash those Americans who might object. And when there are constituencies, leaders may not be far behind. They could be propelled into power by a populace ever more frustrated that the imperialist war it has supported—generally for the most banal of patriotic reasons—cannot possibly end in victory. And so scapegoats are sought, and if we can’t bomb Arabs into submission, or the French, domestic critics of Bush will serve."

Pretty creepy to imagine what might come AFTER Bush...one of the few bright spots in the darkness of this government is that these people, while frighteningly efficient in some ways, are blatantly incompetent in others. We have to thank them for this, because how much worse would it be if they were actually more able to accomplish their aims? What if the next one in line can do this? Scary.

Quote of the day: "How fortunate for leaders that men do not think."--Adolf Hitler

Good God...

2005-02-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe how some of these people could have possibly gone through life and lived into adulthood, to commit acts of this nature. Bet they voted for Bush...

" A Florida couple accused of torturing and starving five of their seven children were taken into custody Friday night in Utah after detectives were able to track their cell phone signals, authorities said.

The Dollars (John and Linda, 58 and 51) face charges in Citrus County, where they lived in Beverly Hills, on one count of aggravated child abuse/torture for all five children.

The accusations include pulling out the children's toenails with pliers and keeping them so malnourished they "looked like pictures from Auschwitz," authorities said.

According to Florida law, aggravated child abuse is a first-degree felony punishable upon conviction by a term of 30 years to life in prison.

The case came to authorities' attention two weeks ago when paramedics responding to a 911 call from the home in Beverly Hills took a 16-year-old boy to a hospital in nearby Crystal River, Tierney said.

The boy was bleeding from a laceration on his head and had red marks on his neck. He weighed 59 pounds, she said.

"That was just the start of the alarming parts of this case," she said in a telephone interview.

Tierney said investigators believe John Dollar grabbed the boy by his neck, raising him off his feet, and then dropped him. The boy struck his head on a fireplace, causing the laceration to his head, she said.

Authorities went to the home in Beverly Hills, about 85 miles north of Tampa, and interviewed the other children, including twin 14-year-old boys who were so malnourished they weighed 36 and 38 pounds apiece, Tierney said.

The Dollars are accused of forcing the five children to sleep in a closet in the master bedroom with a "wind chime affixed to the door so that the Dollars would know if they tried to get out of the closet," Tierney said.

In addition, they are accused of using a cattle prod or some sort of stun gun to shock the children, securing them to spots in the house with chains, striking their feet with hammers and pulling out the children's toenails with pliers.

"There was evidence of damage or missing toenails of these children," Tierney said. There was no evidence of sexual abuse, she said.

"To look at the photos I saw, it was just extremely unnerving," Tierney said. "They looked like pictures from Auschwitz."

Holy crap.

the Christian left...

2005-02-05T03:24:00.000-08:00

I've been wondering for a long time where the Christian Left went to in this country. Did they get lost on the way to political power, or buried in a hole somewhere? Why don't they speak out? Why don't they challenge their nutty comrades on the Right about some of the politics of hate that the Religious Right regularly espouse? The Christian Left is slowly discovering their voice, though they are very quiet of yet, but they are there.

A good place to find them is at Sojourners, a magazine that addresses progressive politics from a Christian point of view, and seems to be as outraged as anybody at the nightmare that has devolved from the Bushies and the Christian Right. Sometimes it's just hard to believe that such assholes are running this country...Christ on a fucking popsicle stick...where did these monsters come from?

Attack of the gay people...

2005-02-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

Those threatening gay people are at it again, attacking the laws that god-fearing Christian TRUE Americans claim as their own. Gay marriage is alive again in New York, at least for the time being, and the nutty religiosos don't much like it. What an insufferable bunch of assholes the religious right are in this country. Why are we cursed with these people, O Lord? Why did you create these people with a four-foot stick crammed up their asses? O Lord, pray tell us why!

Matthew D. Staver, president and lawyer for a lunatic right-wing group called Liberty Counsel, says the state "has an obvious interest in preserving traditional marriage and in promoting the best family arrangement – one with a mom and a dad – for our children and society."

Aww, that's so cute...we don't want to ruin marriage for happy little mommies and daddies and kiddies by letting mean awful nasty GAY people do it. That would just somehow wreck it for everybody, though they can't seem to ever explain how or why. It's sort of amazing that a question like this can have such an enduring lifespan, and may even have helped swing the election to the Chimp-in-Chief. What's wrong with our legal system when these nitwits get to enter all these court cases with the argument that we must 'protect' hetero marriage, without ever having to state, clearly and specifically for the record, what BAD things will happen to everybody's marriage if we allow gay people to marry? Doesn't make any sense. But, that's the Repulsive Right...

Oh, and don't forget, Feb. 14th is the second annual 'Day of Purity' (how nice...) when:

"this nation's youth can make a public demonstration of their commitment to remain sexually pure, in mind and actions. In today’s culture, students are bombarded with the message that they should become sexually active at a young age and to experiment with their sexual preferences. The Day of Purity offers the youth who strive for sexual purity an opportunity to stand in opposition to a culture of moral decline."

So be sure to experiment with your sexual preferences on Feb. 14th, and by all means, go out and get laid, even if you're not a 'youth' or a student. Take one for the team.

Modified Movie quote of the Day: "We are the Religious Right. Lower your shields and prepare to be assimilated. We shall add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your systems shall adapt to service us. We are the Religious Right. Resistance is futile."

from the Moscow Times...

2005-02-04T01:21:00.000-08:00

What happened at Auschwitz? How did it happen? How did the German people let it happen? A columnist at the Moscow Times (the Russian capital, not the college town in Idaho) spells it out for us:

"Well, here's what happened: Government leaders ordered the murder and torture of innocent people in the defense of "the Homeland" and the superior "moral values" of their culture. They produced copious justifications for their actions, including legal rulings from top government attorneys, while concealing the actual operational details from public knowledge in the name of "national security." When faced with undeniable evidence of atrocity, they blamed "bad apples" in the lower ranks."

Sounds pretty familiar to certain grim things that have been going on in this country, eh? The rest of the article can be found here.

That picture of the baby giving the finger to the camera has been updated into an anti-Bush poster by some clever person over at the Free Speech Zone. Other artwork by the same person is also quite good, and is offered freely available for use.

those sexy altar boy trucks...

2005-02-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Gotta love 'em, and love 'em, and take them into the confessional and...heh...

(AP) - "Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday yanked a planned Super Bowl advertisement that depicts a clergyman tempted by a new pickup truck after some victims of clergy sex abuse complained it made light of their trauma. The company wants to keep the focus on its new truck model rather than any controversy, said Sara Tatchio, spokeswoman for Ford's Lincoln division." --Full truck sex story here...

So what would the controversy be? The possibility of priests molesting Tonka trucks? A Fisher-Price fetish? Those remote controls can do some pretty amazing things these days...lots of buttons and features...heh.

Light-weight dinosaurs...

2005-02-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Playing with the creationistas, who are insisting that the earth is flat, I find that they are building a creationist museum out in Kentucky, to show all we poor misguided subscribers to the theory of evolution how wrong we are, and why we are wrong and should instead believe in their holy book. They have a newsletter and pointers on how to argue their point with evil people like me. I don't know why they bother, since according to their book we are all going to hell. Anyway, they also have a lot of information about dinosaurs...like since dinosaurs lived in Biblical times, they must have been around during the Flood, right? So one of each kind of dinosaur must have been aboard Noah's Ark, right? So what was the Ark, a bloody aircraft carrier? I can just picture it sailing through the mighty waves of the Flood, with brachiosaurs stomping about on deck. They must have had some mighty tough wood in those days. And what about the King Lizard, the ravenous Tyrannosaurus Rex? Was it stalking the corridors of the ship too, looking for food? What did these things eat during the three-hundred plus days Noah's Ark was supposed to be afloat and looking for land? The creationista site claims that these multi-ton lizards must have been teenagers (smoking pot and listening to heavy metal?) and therefore not as heavy as adult dinosaurs. Ok, whatever. I'd love these people if they weren't so bloody dangerous. To play around and look at the creationistas museum, go here.

Movie quote of the day: "What, you think I'm funny? I amuse you? You think I'm like a clown or something? What the fuck do you mean, I'm funny. What is so fucking funny about me?"

It's a rhyming time...

2005-02-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

Over at Buzzflash, they've got a link to an Atrios post about the Ridiculous Right:

"Republicans reportedly will sport purple ink on their fingers tonight, taking credit for the Iraqi vote.
They ought to try red, and take credit for all the dead."

Nice little rhyme, intentional or not.

It's been awhile since I've heard about any poetry rearing its head in defiance of this administration. There was that flap just before the war, that started Poets Against the War, but since then poetry seems to have disappeared. I guess Raging Poet Hordes are not scary enough to rouse the faithful against as easily as Raging Gay Hordes. Maybe we need Raging Gay Poets to take a stand, and that will get the attention of the people running this catastrophe. Or even better, how about Raging Gay Cartoon Poets? The Bushies and the religious wingnuts would have to declare martial law to stop that threat from destroying the country and converting us all into gay cartoon poets.

It turns out Poets Against the War is still around. Here's a poem I found over there by Jefferson Carter, age 61, who claims to have lived in Tucson, Arizona for fifty years. Poor guy.

Civilians

Nobody wants the Osama bin Bush
T-shirts. I can't even give away
the Ashamed To Be American trucker caps.
The al-Qaida Hearts My Gas Hog
bumper stickers? Another flop.
I have to sneak around at night
& superglue them to the neighbors' SUVs.
Officially, the invasion killed 1500 civilians,
give or take 500. The woman I approach
outside Safeway says that's ok. She's wearing
her sequined Bring 'em On bustier
& her Uncle Sam's Got Balls jester cap.
Yes, she's sure she doesn't want some God
Forgive America hard hats for the kids.
(end)

I feel for the people living in red states, I really do. It must be tough as hell to be surrounded by ignorance all the time. Amusing poem, though. I hope he really does glue those stickers to his neighbors' SUVs.

State of the Onion...

2005-02-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

Today's the day, ain't it? In today's State of the Union, we will be hearing about Bush's plan to destroy Social Security in order to fix it, just like Iraq, and putting forward a crisis that doesn't exist, just like the WMDs. Recent news indicates that the spinmeisters over at the First Dog House are dropping the word 'crisis' because polls show that the public doesn't really believe there is a real 'crisis'. This is good news for liberals and progressives, because it shows that we have been effective in getting the "There is NO crisis" message out to the public, and forcing the Empire to change its language. Time to watch and see what new language they will be couching this demon child in.

Movie quote of the day: "Run?! Running ain't a plan--running's what you do when a plan fails!"

The best beginning...

2005-02-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

I think the best way to begin something as common as a blog, as random as a bug on a beach, and as utterly uninfluential as the first post of any blog, is with a movie quote, to wit:

"Well, are you going to do something or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?"

You know the movie, or if you don't, you should. (think Kurt Russell and Billy Bob Thornton)

It's an important question these days, for Democrats, for the American Army in Iraq, and for anybody living under the despotism of today's Republican Party in the Divided States of America.