Holy Joe: Hypocritical lying stealth Rethug bastard.

From ConnecticutBLOG: Holy Joe Lieberman the hypocrite: the pro-wrestling edition

It has become a holiday ritual: Joe Lieberman and family-research officials hold a well-attended press conference to decry the impact on children of excessive video game sex and violence.

And, again in 2006, Lieberman indulged in another yearly ritual: taking campaign money from the entertainment industry.

An analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found that the Connecticut Democrat, who won re-election last month as an independent, received about $73,000 from a variety of industry sources over the past two years.

Among the donors were Linda McMahon, chief executive officer of Stamford-based WWE Entertainment. McMahon said in an e-mail that she gave money to Lieberman because "I make contributions to a variety of candidates whom I respect."

If I ever said wrestlers weren't smart, I take it back. Wrestlers are probably pretty smart (how else would they learn such complicated scripts so quickly?), but the people in charge of them? DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.

Truth is, I don't like Holy Joe at all. I really don't, because he's a major threat to the one thing I do with any regularity. Granted, so is Hillary Clinton, and so are plenty of other people (like, say, total nutball Jack Thompson), but Holy Joe's the one who gets the most airtime for this garbage. He's been trying for years to censor games, and the only thing that stopped him from basically getting his wish years ago was the self-policing of the industry through the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Even with that, though, he continues to try and throw roadblocks into the path of gaming.

If it were just that, I'd hate him, but it's not just that. It's the fact that he tried, time and time again, to convince us he was a Democrat, all the while voting with the right-wingers and kissing Bush's ass. He finally gave that up, mostly because everyone was seeing right through it, but the damage was done.

The sooner people wake up to Holy Joe's hypocricy, the sooner we can be rid of him.

John Lennon: Suspect #1

From the Liberal Avenger: All You Need Is Love (and a good lawyer…)

The Justice Department and the FBI were forced to release the last ten pages of the “John Lennon Files” December 19th after the FBI and Justice were ruled against for the umteenth time by the federal courts.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The FBI has released the last 10 documents from its secret files on slain Beatle John Lennon that had been withheld for 25 years on the ground they could prompt “military retaliation” against the United States, campaigners for their release said on Wednesday.

The files turn out to contain only well known information about Lennon’s ties to left-wing leaders and antiwar groups in London in 1970 and 1971, said Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Today we can see that the national security claims the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning. The Lennon FBI file is a classic case of excessive government secrecy,” Wiener said in a statement.

I wish John Lennon were alive today. I really do, because I'd do anything to hear him talk about his feelings on the state of the world. Personally, I think George Carlin was right - the wrong two Beatles died first. (Not that I have anything against Ringo - he was the first Beatle to appear on The Simpsons, and set a great precedent in that vein.)

One only wonders what other secrets this administration is keeping.

Fremont Stewart: Portrait of a Kook

Ah, the Journal-Gazette. According to the right-wingers I've heard
around here, you're apparently the most liberal thing published in
America since old Tom Paine tried to get people to use some common
sense.
Something troubles me, though - if you're so liberal, why do you
almost constantly publish letters that are anything but liberal, such
as the continually misinformed screeds of Mr. Fremont Stewart ("Iraq
Study Group's findings wrong-headed", 12/15/2006)?
Mr. Stewart's letter is, to put it bluntly, the worst kind of
fact-free fluff I've had the misfortune of reading in some time. He
declares the Iraq Study Group's findings to be "wrong-headed",
according to the title of his letter, and refers to the ISG as
"liberal". This belief is posited despite the fact that the ISG was a
bipartisan group consisting of an equal number of members from both
sides of the aisle. Mrt. Stewart, like so many other right-wingers,
uses "liberal" as a smear roughly equal to "does not tailor facts to
my beliefs".
Furthermore, Mr. Stewart's letter claims that "The Iraq Study Group
says that giving Iran the green light to build nuclear weapons is a
small price to pay for peace in our time." At no point does it state
this, or anything like this. Mr. Stewart is, to put it simply, lying
to advance his agenda.
Perhaps, if Mr. Stewart has some brilliant plan for how to fix
everything, he could suggest it to the administration - after all, he
does seem to have all the answers. Too bad he didn't actually study
to get them.

Michael Crichton: "HACK HACK HACKY HACK", Critic: "Crichton, you're a dumbass."

Global warming denier and failure of natural selection Michael Crichton responds to a critic by basically implying he's a pedophile and a shill.

Crichton's a hack, no doubt, but turns out his critic, Michael Crowley, has more than a match for him: He has a sense of humor. (Oh, and if the site pesters you to register, go here.)

Crichton, being a schmuck with no real talent for anything other than enthralling slack-jawed idiots and coming up with childish ways to circumvent libel laws, will probably have no real response to this. Maybe this character of his will return in the next book, perhaps? Of course, this comes as no great surprise to me, that someone with the sheel cranial density to deny the oncoming (if not already-occuring) threat of global warming would respond childishly - isn't that what they've been doing for some time?

And, for all the time he took to make an ass of himself, Crichton has already won an award of sorts: Keith Olbermann named him The World Person in the World on his show. Congrats, hack-boy:

Saudis == Terrorist Supporters. Wingnuts probably don't care.

From the AP via Yahoo!News: Saudis reportedly funding Iraqi Sunnis

CAIRO, Egypt - Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in
Iraq and much of the money is used to buy weapons, including shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, according to key Iraqi officials and others familiar with the flow of cash.

Saudi government officials deny that any money from their country is being sent to Iraqis fighting the government and the U.S.-led coalition.

But the U.S. Iraq Study Group report said Saudis are a source of funding for Sunni Arab insurgents. Several truck drivers interviewed by The Associated Press described carrying boxes of cash from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, money they said was headed for insurgents.

Thanks to The Liberal Avenger for pointing this out. Why is this not surprising to me?

Journal-Gazette: The New Gray Lady?

Ah, the Journal-Gazette. The paper all the right-wing blowhards of the area tell me is the most liberal paper they've ever read.

So what's with all the letters that are anything but?

Just wonderin'.

Coolest kid ever? Maybe.

You seen this? This 8-year-old girl gives a speech (obviously not her own words) that slams Loofah O'Reilly for his ignorant, mindless views.

Naturally, O'Lielly overreacts in his usual silly manner: on his radio circle-jerk, he says that this is "the worst kind of child abuse" and expresses his opinion that this girl should be taken away from her parents. And the right-wing morons who slavishly follow Falafel's every word, no matter how uninformed, ignorant, or downright WRONG, are parroting this trash. Just check the comments on the video.

Bernie Goldberg: Pointy-Headed Loser

From Crooks and Liars: Bernard Goldberg likens “The View” to a Klan meeting.

I hope to the god I don't believe in that people take this asshole as a warning of how seriously deranged the wingnuts are. This idiotic Faux News right-wing circle-jerk is more proof that they've completely lost it.

And note the fact that:

1) Bitch-Boy Bernie keeps saying that he's never been to a Klan meeting, repeatedly (a sign of guilty conscience), and
2) Bitch-Boy uses the N word twice during the interview.

Explaining myself.

Yes, I know I've been lax in updating.

It's mostly because I've been too busy working, eating, and playing what might be one of the best video games I've ever, EVER played.

That, and there's not that much that's really arousing my ire. Maybe I just get soft this time of year.

UCLA student tasered by glorified security guards for... well, nothing

You want to know what's worse? There are actually assholes trying to DEFEND this. Check the comments at the Crooks and Liars article or on the YouTube page. Then try not to throw up too hard.

Gingrich ca. 1994: "Democrats bad! Must smear!"

From Crooks and Liars: Newt in ‘94 vowed to investigate Clinton for 2 years as his platform

C&L brings you this CBS/NBC report from 1994. Gingrich went nuts over Clinton and his new-found subpoena power, yet if Democrats want to hold hearings on oversight and Iraq war profiteering that's supposed to hurt them.

The beginning of the twelve years of filthy lies of the right. Gingrich was a disgusting, hateful, corrupt, shameless pig, and his lies inspired a generation of wingnut pundits and politicos with no morals to lower the bar until they had to dig long, narrow holes to place the bar in.

And yet Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House (and damn do I love saying the phrase, "Speaker Pelosi"), won't investigate Bush's crony circus. Most will call that a good idea, a way of not alienating moderates, the "high road", but we know for a fact that they wouldn't (hell, DIDN'T) do that if they had a chance. I say, investigate the Smirking Killer, impeach him, remove him from office, and send him on his way to notoriety.

We have the power now. It's time we use it.

Freeper is terrorist; nobody surprised

Remember this story? Remember the wingnuts saying that Olbermann was some kind of pansy for fearing for his life because someone sent him fake anthrax?

Well, turns out they seem to have found the guy - and lo and behold, it's an insane Freeper!

I'm wondering if this guy will get tried on the charges he should be brought up on - terrorism.

Won't somebody please think of the wingnuts?

In light of the fact that Democrats now control a majority of governorships, the House, and the Senate, and both Rumsfeld and Bolton are jumping ship, I have been ecstatic about what could happen. I've been happier than I've been in some time.

But there's something that's not funny about all this. You see, our resident wingnuts, both commenters and bloggers alike, are probably very unhappy right now. I, for one, am worried about their mental health in this time of turmoil for them. The shock of seeing their one-branch dictatorship falling apart before them, and the very real possibility of hearings on the war, dismantling of corporate cronyism, and an effective plan for fixing these screw-ups that Bush and his gang have committed, may drive them to do something rash.

That's why I'm sponsoring a new initiative for left-wing bloggers: Wingnut Watch 2006. Adopt a wingnut blogger, or a wingnut troll on your own site, and monitor them for signs of severe depression. Together we can be sure that our favorite pains-in-the-ass don't disappear.

A bit of magnanimity.

I'm not gonna lord this over anyone.

I'm not gonna be as much of a dick as they've been.

But I am gonna gloat.

Gloat gloat gloaty gloat gloat.

Results coming in.

Indiana results:

House: Souder keeps his seat. This will be his seventh term, despite the fact that he said he would only serve twelve years. Another Souder lie exposed, I guess.

Senate: Lugar stays.

Illinois governor race: Blagojevich keeps the office.

Nationwide: Man-on-Dog Santorum LOSES!
Lie-berman keeping his seat. Figures - one of the worst people in Washington keeps his job, despite the fact that he should be jobless, penniless, on the street, sucking dick for spare change.
Sherrod Brown triumphs over Mike DeWine.

I'll try to update these as the night goes on.

The dirty tricks begin.

Shameless wingnut harpy bitch Laura Ingraham encourages her listeners to jam the DNC voter protection hotline.

The GOP is making robocalls telling people that they are on the voter rolls as out-of-state residents, and if they show up to vote, they'll be arrested.

Republican candidates uses the Emergency Alert System to transmit a political ad, thus forcing it onto the air.

These people are shameless scum, and they need to go to jail for this kind of voter suppression. This is the exact reason WHY we need accountability - the GOP thinks they can get away with anything, and as long as they control every branch of government, they can.

It's time to turn the rascals out!

Go vote!

You!

Vote!

NOW!

I did!

Saddam sentenced to hang

From CNN.com: Iraqis react with joy, anger to Hussein death sentence

Saddam Hussein is being sentenced to hang for his crimes. I didn't think anyone did that anymore.

It's not that I'm not happy at this - this is one of the few people I think REALLY needs to die - but it's kinda odd this happens only two days before the elections, hmm?

Besides, if Saddam can be sentenced to hang for being responsible for the deaths of 200-300 thousand Iraqis over twenty years, one wonders how our leaders and troops could be held culpable for killing over 600,000 in about three.

Let's hope we're not next. And let's hope that Saddam's loyalists don't come after us next, either. That's about the last goddamn thing we need.

A few words re: political ads.

Let nobody say our local TV stations aren't conservative.

I see Souder's lie-filled "ZOMGZ TEH DEATH TAX!!1" ad nearly every commercial break. Hayhurst's ads? Maybe once an hour.

Liberal media my fat white ass.

Get out that crystal ball.

So it's about a week before the election.

Any predictions?

I'm seeing a Democratic victory once again squashed by mysterious vote tampering that nobody will investigate. We'll win, they'll say we lose, and nothing will come of it because everyone who protests will be marginalized.

But that's just me.

Voting Machine Code Delivered Anonymously to Voting Machine Critic

From CBS News: New Questions Over Electronic Voting;
Mailing Of Disks Containing Maryland's Voting Machine Software Raises Concerns Over Security

Disks containing what appears to be software code used in Maryland's touch-screen voting machines for the 2004 election were delivered anonymously to a former state legislator, prompting election officials to contact the FBI and raising new concerns about the reliability of the voting system.

The disks were delivered with an unsigned note to former Democratic Delegate Cheryl Kagan, an outspoken critic of the paperless electronic voting machines. The note said the disks had been "accidentally picked up" in the state election board offices.

So lemme get this straight. Someone "finds" the disks with the code for Delacroy'sDiebold's voting machines and sends them to someone who has the good sense to be against having unsecured code tallying the votes.

This isn't a matter of "you misplaced these and I'm returning them", this is a matter of "you're fucking right these things are unsecured". Hell, a monkey can crack the damn things.

I'm hoping that I don't have to vote using these pieces of crap.

The War of the Words

The War of the Words: The Story of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders.

Anything that makes fun of loser chickenhawks is fine with me. Plus it's a Ken Burns parody, so it's hilarious on an intelligent level.

I am literally crying right now, I really am.

...

America is dead. Long live the Fascist States of Bush.

Olbermann, as usual, gets it right. Hell, he'd make me laugh if I was in ANY kind of laughing mood right now. The right-wing media continues to cover other things, and we'll never hear a thing about this outside of the few voices that dare to speak up.

Speak up. NOW. Before we lose everything.

Wondering About: October Surprise

What're the Grand Old Pedophile-Protectors gonna pull out of their collective ass this year? My guess is they'll come out with another Osama tape at the end of the month.

Interesting thought from other folks: Maybe North Korea was it - they knew this was gonna happen and they let it happen to try and boost their numbers.

I'm not so sure about that, but you never know.

What I haven't been saying.

I could have gone on long diatribes this past week or two about Foley and North Korea and the elections and the fact that the GOP is desperate to regain the position they never earned.

But I haven't. You wanna know why? Because everyone says it better than I can.

"You again? I've had enough of you!"

From WaPo: Ga. Mother Seeks Harry Potter Ban

ATLANTA -- A suburban county that sparked a public outcry when its libraries temporarily eliminated funding for Spanish-language fiction is now being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools.

Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction books are an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion.

Yes, it's this same dumb bitch.

I cannot believe the kind of bullshit this whore of a false god spews when she opens her filthy wordhole. How much you wanna bet she's never even cracked a book that didn't have a picture of a hatemongering Republican or Jesus on it? I've got some bucks in the bank I can put at stake; what about you?

Seriously, this is what happens when stupid people get a voice: They lie, they say stupid things, they speak out against that which they don't comprehend. If she knew what she were talking about, maybe she wouldn't come off so stupid; sadly, she's repeating the lies of the Bible-thumping hatemongers who have the ear of the NASCAR-watching, Wal-Mart patronizing pseudo-masses. Makes me wanna puke.

I suggest everyone, especially this idiotic bint, read a link left in my first entry about this: J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter by Dr. Jerram Barrs

Faux News: "Anyone bad must be a Democrat even if they're not"

From Crooks and Liars: Bill O’Reilly labels Rep. Foley a Democrat

I can understand if FOX and The Factor made an error the first time, but to post it repeatedly should be a firing offense, The most watched show on FOX News has now labeled the former Republican Congressman Mark Foley, who is in the middle of a sexual predator scandal that has Hastert's career on the ropes —a Democrat. Was it an error or done by choice? I report–you decide.

Truth is, it's no error. Those graphics are kept stored for whenever they need them, and this show was taped and left with the mistake still in.

Remember how the wingnuts got all up in arms when CNN accidentally overlaid an X on video of Cheney? Remember them saying it was an evil subliminal message showing their bias? I wonder when the deafening silence from their quarter on this matter will hit?

Write your editor and point this out - don't let Faux News get away with yet another lie.

A random thought.

It's just a thought, but will this be the case come the election?



I'm just wondering, is all.

No updates for a little while.

I'm going to be at BotCon from tomorrow until Sunday, and I'll probably be on the road all day that day, so no updates from me, most likely.

The truth, from an unexpected source.

From Tuesday's Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette: Jailing journalists hurts your rights, too

Source confidentiality is the cornerstone of good journalism, particularly journalism that makes a difference; once journalists start selling out their sources because the authorities wave jail time at them, the notion of a free press is as dead as Elvis.

We might as well all change our names to Fox News, throw the First Amendment on the fire and toast marshmallows over it.
(...)
That’s fine. I get that. I even get the argument, though I’m not sure I buy it, that sometimes national security outweighs the canons of a free press. My problem with that is, a lot of times “national security” can best be translated as “I’m doing something that’s six kinds of illegal and I don’t want anyone to know about it.”

My problem this time around is, Barry Bonds isn’t threatening to fly the red-eye out of L.A. into a skyscraper.

There’s no national security issue here, no shadowy plot to take down the republic (unless you consider the Tampa Bay Devil Rays a plot to undermine national confidence in one of our bulwark institutions). There’s only two reporters doing their jobs, an administration hostile to reporters doing their jobs, and prosecutors who want to take the easy way out.

Normally, I expect the sports page to be simplistic and vaguely conservative. When I opened the Tuesday paper at work, I found this instead - an editorial by FWJG sports reporter Ben Smith saying that the jailing of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the two San Francisco Chronicle writers who blew open the Barry Bonds-BALCO debacle, is harmful to the nation as a whole because it is, quite frankly, stifling the free press.

Even moreso, it includes a few nuggets of wisdom you rarely see on the sports beat - most notably, the outright hostility of the administration towards investigative journalism and the invocation of "national security" as a way of trying to keep anyone from knowing what's really going on. Considering the flap that's been made lately over things being kept under wraps because of, you guessed it, "national security", it's pretty hard not to agree with Smith's assessments.

NYPost: "Olbermann is a wuss because he feared for his life"

From Crooks and Liars: Olbermann death threat powered letter made fun of by Murdoch’s NY Post

What would the conservative media be saying if Limbaugh was sent a letter like this? The NY Post: "POWDER PUFF SPOOKS KEITH"

Keith Olbermann flipped out when he opened his home mail yesterday. The acerbic host of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" was terrified when he opened a suspicious-looking letter with a California postmark and a batch of white powder poured out. A note inside warned Olbermann, who’s a frequent critic of President Bush’s policies, that it was payback for some of his on-air shtick. The caustic commentator panicked and frantically called 911 at about 12:30 a.m., sources told The Post’s Philip Messing. An NYPD HazMat unit rushed to Olbermann’s pad on Central Park South, but preliminary tests indicated the substance was harmless soap powder. However, that wasn’t enough to satisfy Olbermann, who insisted on a checkup. He asked to be taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, where doctors looked him over and sent him home. Whether they gave him a lollipop on the way out isn’t known. Olbermann had no comment.

The Post, for those unaware, is owned by right-wing conglom-o-crat Rupert Murdoch, owner of Faux News. And it shows, too, in garbage like this. If this letter were sent to some right-wing blowhard like Pigman Limpdick or Parrot-Boy Hannity, it'd be front-page news getting coverage on every network and in every newspaper. But because it happened to Keith Olbermann, someone who opens his mouth and unleashes a deluge of utter fucking truth, they turn it into a smear campaign and a massive joke.

Now that this story has broken, I'm waiting to hear what Olbermann has to say on it. I bet there's gonna be some sore asses at the Post real soon!

Oh, and if you'd like to talk some sense into the cock who decided to make fun of a man who thought he might be in danger, here's her address: paula.froelich@nypost.com. Make sure to show that you've got more of a spine than her - be civil if you speak up.

LIBERAL MEDIA MY FAT WHITE ASS!

UPDATE, 9/28/2006 11:39: Olbermann responds to the lying bitch at the Post.

Clinton: "YOUR ASS IS MINE WINGNUT BOY"

I think this says pretty much everything. Well, it doesn't tell you about the whiny wingnuts screaming "WAH WAH CLINTON FLEW OFF TEH HANDLE HE ATTACK CHRIS WALLACE WAH WAH BOO HOO WE GOT OWNED WAH". You notice they're not attacking anything he said, just the way he said it? More proof of being devoid of facts.

Pumping us full of lies! LIES!

Yes, I'm well aware gas prices are "low" now.

I'm one of the many who thinks it's a big scam by you-know-who. Hey, they're all in cahoots, so why not make one of the largest complaints disappear?

Let's not fool ourselves into thinking these prices are "cheap", though. As my roommate pointed out, there was a point when $2 a gallon was considered highway robbery. Oddly enough, who was President then? Just asking.

The definition of "double standard"

Hugo Chavez refers to Bush as "el Diablo": Entire right wing and much of the left gets up in arms, screaming about how inappropriate the remarks are.

Hate-mongering asshole and suer of well-known wheel-chair bound men Jerry Falwell calls Hillary Clinton the Devil: Nothing.

Of course, Falwell has immediately started calling his comments "tongue-in-cheek" (the usual wingnut response when they say something idiotic - "I was just kidding! Really!"), never mind the fact that he knows that's a filthy-ass lie.

Even worse, ABC (which has shown itself in recent days to be a hardcore Republican shill) did not offer any counterpoint to the hateful words of Falwell and Tony Perkins, a known cohort of the KKK.

Liberal media my fat white ass!

(Completely random sidenote: This is why I love the concept of a weblog - I can make serious points while I'm still in my underwear.)

For anyone wondering why I'm pro-choice and pro-emergency contraception...

...this is why. From The Den of the Biting Beaver: Morality clauses, EC, and broken condoms

I'm stunned. I'm utterly, completely stunned. I'm shaky and anxious and shocked beyond belief. I live in rural Ohio and I have been denied EC.

Two months ago I stopped taking birth control. My body finally decided that it was fed up and the cycle of side-effects began again as they have every time I've taken hormonal contraception since I was a teenager.

(...)

Folks, the condom broke Friday night and I searched all weekend for someone who could prescribe me EC. It is now Monday and I have to report that I have been unable to find anyone who will write me a fucking prescription for EC. None of the hospitals in the surrounding counties would write it for me. I stopped my search at about 100 miles from my home because my telephone book wouldn't take me out any further than that.

I have been asked about my sexual practices. Whether I'm 'monogamous' or 'in a relationship' if I'm married, if I have kids, how many kids I have, if I was raped or 'traumatized' but there wasn’t' ONE question about my health. Not one. The few places that said that they had a doctor who would occasionally write prescriptions for EC told me that I had to ask for that doctor specifically and then they proceeded to tell me that I would be 'interviewed' to see if I meet that doctors 'criteria' and then they proceeded to ask me all the above questions before telling me that I should 'try anyway' and I 'might be able to talk him into it'.

I cannot fucking believe this. Where is the fucking morality in denying someone something that is their ONLY OPTION just because you're an uptight fuckwater?! You ask her humiliating questions about if she has kids, if she is in a relationship, if she's married, if she's been raped, but you don't once ask about her FUCKING HEALTH? This woman's in serious trouble and you've got the gall, the nerve, the utter fucking temerity to say that morality enters into your decision to deny her emergency contraception because OH NOES SHE IS NOT TEH MARRIED OR RAPED? You call it morality to basically decide that, since she's not shackled at the wrists and ankles to a man by law and church, and hasn't been raped, she must obviously be OH NOES TEH SLUT and you're not going to help her?

BULL-FUCKING-JESUS-TITTYFUCKING-CHRIST-
ASSHOLE-COCKMONGLER-STREISAND-SHIT!

You living fucking violation of the Hippocratic Oath! Turn in your license to practice, you are NOT DESERVING!

"And now for something completely different."

Attention, people who think 9/11 was a conspiracy:

You're wrong and unscientific.

Look up the phrase "ad hoc hypothesis" and compare it to your argument. Then shut your filthy mouths.

I hate Nancy Grace.

From Crooks and Liars: Nancy Grace

Remember her interview with Elizabeth Smart? Now comes this:

Two weeks after telling police that her son had been snatched from his crib, Melinda Duckett found herself reeling in an interview with TV’s famously prosecutorial Nancy Grace. Before it was over, Grace was pounding her desk and loudly demanding to know: "Where were you? Why aren’t you telling us where you were that day?" A day after the taping, Duckett, 21, shot herself to death, deepening the mystery of what happened to the boy.

Here’s the transcript of the show.

...

And that dumbass Glenn Beck has the nerve to call Cindy Sheehan a tragedy whore, when he shares the primetime lineup of Headline News with the worst one on this fucking planet?!

Another sad milestone.

From Huffington Post via Yahoo!News: RJ Eskow: DARK MILESTONE: More Americans Have Now Died In Iraq Than Died On 9/11

While President Bush and other Republican politicians spent the day exploiting the memory of those we lost five years ago, the nation overlooked a grim milestone: More Americans have now died in Iraq than died on 9/11. Iraq didn't attack us on that day, and our misguided policy there has now taken more American lives than Al Qaeda.

I wondered what I'd say on the day this happened. I knew it would come, and I wondered what would be the right thing to say.

All I can say is, why? Why are so many Americans not coming home? Why are so many families without members? Why are so many lives being lost for nothing?

I'd cry, but I can't. I don't want to. It won't help anything.

We need resolve. We need action. We need to get out of there.

Maybe we will.

Hopefully.

Still going.

I know I haven't updated much lately. It's mostly because I've been working a lot.

Today is 9/11/06. Five years. Five years since the attacks. Five long, hard years of being told that having our freedoms taken away is patriotic. Five years of being told to shut up and comply. Five years of watching good people die for no good reason. Five years of watching liars lie about the reason we're at war with someone who didn't attack us. Five years of being told that I'm some kind of traitor for speaking my mind. Five years of fear being used as a dead weight to beat us. Five years of being distracted from the mistakes of the bunglers in office by a complicit media.

Five years have passed. I feel no more safe from terrorist attacks. And I feel a lot more fearful of a government that is being given free reign to destroy what once defined our country.

Five years of being fucking miserable because of this shit. I'm tired of it.

Crazy satirical wingnut blogger: "Survival is treason"... and actual 'nuts are falling for it.

From Jon Swift's weblog: Kidnapped Fox Newsmen Let Us Down By Not Dying

One of the reasons Fox News is the only news that can be trusted is because of the high caliber of the people who work there. Unfortunately, the two Fox journalists who were recently kidnapped, Steven Centanni and Olaf Wiig, did not live up to the high standards of Fox News while they were in captivity. Many in the conservative blogosphere believe that by surviving their captivity, they let us down.

Yes, this is satire.

Yes, this is what some wingnuts actually believe - that the fact that the two captured Faux News cameramen weren't tortured and killed proves not that the people doing these kind of things aren't all as brutal and evil as the wingnuts lead us to believe, but that anyone who comes back alive is obviously a traitor. That's the wingnut mindset - "either prove our hatred to be grounded in fact or we'll say you're a terrorist!". Fucking SAD.

Oh, and read the comments while you're at it - those are some shining examples of wingnut psychosis. They believe this shit! Makes me bloody sick. Makes me sad I share a part of the web with these kind of nutjobs.

Oh, and just so you'll know...

I was right.

Karr is just a whacked-out pedophile who thinks he killed Ramsey. You may heap your praise upon me.

Sad part is, the networks of the Right Wing Spin Machine are still covering this psycho's every move when there's more important things to cover. The Iraq Quagmire is still going on. New Orleans is still in a shambles. The Bush Administration is still lying and conflating. Hell, I'm more concerned about the fact that they caught that cult-leading psycho Warren Jeffs than about Karr.

So what are they covering on the news? Well, yeah, they're covering Jeffs' capture, but mostly it's "Karr didn't do it, but we're still gonna give him infamy!"

And people wonder why I keep talking shit about the media. Could it be because they have their collective head up their collective ass?

Three words.

Isikoff is LYING.

I think I've made myself clear.

Distracted yet?

You've probably heard the constant hyping being done by the Right Wing Spin Machine. You've seen the constant news coverage of the whacked-out pedophile who's so obsessed with the JonBenet Ramsey case that he thinks he committed the crime. You've seen this ten-year-old case being dredged up.

So are you paying attention to it? No? Good, because you shouldn't be. It's a distraction, a wzy fo trying to keep us from seeing the real news - the continued death of our soldiers, the assassination of our freedoms, the downfall of the American Dream.

It's the "fear" part of the GOP's "Fear, Smears, and Queers" Campaign Redux. And people are, unfortunately, falling for it.

I'm afraid, all right.

Dubya: "9/11 != Iraq"

White House Press Conference

Now, look, part of the reason we went into Iraq was -- the main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn't, but he had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction. But I also talked about the human suffering in Iraq, and I also talked the need to advance a freedom agenda. And so my question -- my answer to your question is, is that, imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein was there, stirring up even more trouble in a part of the world that had so much resentment and so much hatred that people came and killed 3,000 of our citizens.

You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center?

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing, except for it's part of -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. I have suggested, however, that resentment and the lack of hope create the breeding grounds for terrorists who are willing to use suiciders to kill to achieve an objective. I have made that case.

Y'hear that, wingnuts? He admits that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So you can stop trying to push that lie, hear? Or are you going to ignore this as "flip-flopping" and keep lying? Geez, we already figured that one out - it only took him, what, about 5 years to catch on to the fact that nobody but the total nutballs believed him?

And yet, even when he tells the truth, he has to lie (see the bold sections of the quote). Note that, even though he admit there was no link between Saddam and 9/11, he STILL conflates it (the italicized part).

Still, this offers me a little hope. Can't speak for y'all, though.

And now for something less serious.

From Huffington Post: What Right-Wingers See When They Read the NY Times.

As the kids these days say, "I LOL'd".

Judge: "Warrantless wiretaps aren't constitutional"

From CNN.com: NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.

So, I'm taking bets on how long it'll be before the right's talking heads start screaming about "judicial activism" and "legislating from the bench".

But never mind that. I admit, I was right when I called these acts criminal before, and I'm still right, but it'd be very wrong of me to gloat about it.

Hell with it, I'm gonna gloat anyhow. Gloat gloat gloaty gloat.

EDIT, 15:17 08/17/2006: Guess I forgot that some of the talking heads will scream about "they want TEH TERRISTS to win!". Thank you, Ailingmoron, for reminding me.

THIS IS FOR YOUR PROTECTION.

So by now you've probably heard about yet another "terror plot" being "foiled", this one involving liquids and iPods or some shit like that. I don't care, really, because it all sounds like a bunch of shit to me. It doesn't make any sense to me how banning liquids is going to prevent anything else like this. This is also why I don't think making people take off their shoes works - you think they're gonna try the same thing twice? DUH, we'd be expecting that!

I know I'm not the only one who's noticed that these plots always seem to pop up and get stopped right around the times that the administration's golden boys seem to be out of favor.

Do I think it's some kind of conspiracy? No.
Do I think there was a plot? Certainly, I don't doubt that at all.
Do I think that they're just using this as an excuse to push up the "terror alert" level again? Hell yes.
Do I think this is yet another way to justify the insane security measures involved in air travel these days? No doubt.
Do I think that this is going to be what the Rethugs flog this election as the "fear" part of their usual "fear, smears, and queers" strategy? You bet your sweet ass.

Mel's little goof.

I'm sure most of you have heard about Mel Gibson's DUI arrest and the anti-Semitic comments he made to the police. The right's anti-Semites are coming out of the woodwork to defend Mel's statements, despite the fact that he has already apologized for them.

Truth is, I think this shows a side of the right's most extreme elements we're not used to seeing too often - their latent hatred of the Jewish people. They condemn any action against Israel, they scream "Jew-hater!" at anyone who criticizes Israel, but, ultimately, they see the entire Jewish population of the world as a stepping-stone to Armageddon, and nothing more. It's fucking creepy. Even worse is the REAL nutballs who try to push the tinfoil-hat garbage memes about Jews being in control of everything. And what worse than that is that I think there are people who actually BELIEVE that slop!

So what's my point, you might be asking? To put it simply, there are some crazy folks out there who are saying that Mel's comments are okay and/or that he apologized, so everything's okay.

Just remember: In vino, veritas.

You gotta move it!

If I don't post very much, if at all, for several days, don't worry - that's because I'm moving and am quite busy.

Washington Supreme court's Unelected Black-Robed Activist Judges Rule Against Equal Rights

From Morons.org: WA Supreme Court Justifies Anti-Gay Law with Tortured Reasoning

Black-robe-wearing judicial activists on the Washington Supreme Court have upheld an anti-gay ban on same-sex marriage in that state, employing some of the same tortured reasoning we saw in the recent case in New York and in other cases where the court has deferred to the legislature rather than have the courage to confront the real civil rights issue.

You might want to go read the whole thing; Nick makes good points.

I'm not surprised by this - despite the right's hatred of the courts and screeding about "judicial activists" and "unelected black-robed activist judges" whenever courts decide to rule in favor of people's rights, many courts still rule against the public interest and in favor of far-right hatred.

One wonders how these kind of courts would have framed other decisions on civil rights, like segregation.

Bush Vetoes Lifesaving Research Funding Bill in Secret

From CNN.com: Bush vetoes embryonic stem-cell bill

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush used his veto power Wednesday for the first time since taking office 5 1/2 years ago, saying that an embryonic stem-cell research bill "crossed a moral boundary."

I'd like to know what crosses more of a moral boundary: not funding research that could save thousands of lives and possibly cure horrible diseases, or saving clumps of cells that will be disposed of anyway?

Naturally, the pro-death, pro-hate, anti-choice culture fostered by the Bush-Leaguers and their Christofascist friends says it's more important to save the clumps. People aren't important unless they're not alive. They're especially unimportant if they're poor and/or brown-skinned. If Bunnypants gave two squirts of piss about life, he wouldn't be sending our citizens to die in Iraq, nor would he be supporting the killing of civilians for the actions of other people. "Life", to Bush and his ilk, means "white upper-class people, clumps of cells, and brain-dead people", and nothing more.

"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush said Wednesday afternoon. "It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So I vetoed it."

And this right here is proof that Bunnypants knows shit-all about any of this, and he's just pandering to the anti-choice, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-life segments of his hatemonger base - they aren't alive, they aren't ever going to be, and you're just a filthy fucking LIAR.

Even worse, Bunnypants didn't make much out of vetoing the bill - he did so practically in secret. Why? Because he knows that this is going to alienate him even more from his party, which has many people who are actually in favor of funding the research, and from the country at large, of which 66% support stem cell research.

Quite frankly, it's garbage like this that's going to result in a massive backlash in the next two elections. People are sick of it. We're all sick of the lies, the spying, the death, the war, the hate, the heartlessness.

UPDATE, 9:30 PM: Hell, even the kids these days realize how wrong this guy is!

Bush to Kill Thousands With Veto

From the Associated Press: Senate Stem Cell Bill to Prompt Bush Veto

Debating science, ethics, morality and humanity, the Senate prepared Tuesday to send a bill expanding federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to an unreceptive President Bush.

Despite a White House statement reaffirming Bush's veto threat, supporters said the pressure of public opinion eventually will push the government toward funding. They argue that research into stem cell treatments holds the promise of cures for a host of debilitating diseases afflicting millions of people.

One veto.

Bush has not yet vetoed even one bill in his whole time as the unelected President. This will be his first. And he's using that first veto to essentially kill thousands who could benefit from this research. All to pander to the so-called "pro-life" lobby.

So what's so goddamn pro-life about destroying the possibly of cures for horrible diseases? Nothing, that's what - pro-life is the most incorrect label possible for these people. They're pro-suffering, pro-death, pro-hate, pro-disease.

And even worse, since they know the public supports the research, the Greedy Old Prats and resorting to their favorite way of spinning things - making shit up:

"I've got — one, two, three more articles. These are just a summation, peer-reviewed articles. They form tumors. That's the problem with embryonic stem cells. So while the senator from California, the senator from Michigan, from Iowa, from Pennsylvania, other places saying we want cures, I want cures.

"The research is saying, embryonic stem cells form tu tumors. You put them into individuals, they form tumors. And while we may, we hope, at some point in time something positive happens, the problem is they form tumors."

Sen. Sam Brownback, everyone. He's saying that stem cells cause tumors. Where's the proof, Sammy? Well, I'll tell you where - it's where he pulled that so-called fact from: UP HIS ASS.

"The greater the lie, the greater the chance it will be believed." I'm not gonna come out and say who said that, but let's just say it's someone that the extreme elements of the Right idolize, and that Bush's ancestors had some relations with.

God damn, this makes me wanna throw up.

Reality 1, Kook 0

From Reverent and Free: Andrew Kaduk vs. Reality

Craig at R&F covers Andrew the Kook's - oops, I mean Andrew Kaduk's - need to childishly attack me because I think justice should be done about the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity. Andrew, for those who don't know, is the one who send Trollpig (I mean Hellpig) and Dim Tank (I mean "Tim Zank" - gee, I'm bad with names today) after me because he can't stand it that someone's out there showing how very, very WRONG people like Kook really are.

The crazy mirror world that Kook lives in must be a sad place today.

Bush Unplugged - Album Coming Soon

From Crooks and Liars: Bush Unplugged at the G8 over Middle East Conflict

Mr Bush was caught saying that a key to defusing the Middle East crisis was for "Hizbollah to stop doing this s**t". "What they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this s**t, and it’s over," Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a leaders’ lunch at the Group of Eight industrial countries gathering here. The President was on camera but apparently unaware that his words were being captured by a microphone.

Okay, now that's pretty funny. I needed that.

Truth is, I'd alomst be more inclined to side with him if he were like this all the time. Not so much the "we gotta make sure all them bad folks is wiped out" part or the "Kofi Annan is a pansy-ass because he doesn't wanna blow shit up" part, but the "stop doing this shit" part. We need more of Dubya just talking straight. No mincing words, no diplomacy (like he even knows what that word means), just him telling folks to cut the shit out. Either he'd get run out of Washington on a rail, or he'd actually get something worthwhile done. Either way, we all win, y'know?

Wilson and Plame suing leakers

From CNN.com: Former CIA officer sues Cheney, Libby, Rove over leak

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.

Now, of course, the right-wing trolls will come out of the woodwork on this, trying to say that this lawsuit is frivolous and that Plame wasn't undercover.

It's still bullshit no matter how many times they repeat it. If she wasn't undercover and leaking her identity wasn't a crime, why did the CIA refer the matter to the DoJ, and why has the DoJ pursued a case that's supposed to not be a case? If it's so obviously not an issue, why is it... well, such an issue?

Is anything going to come of this? Probably not - the scumbags of the administration will come off scot-free, as always. But it's a refreshing change to see someone stand up for themselves against these criminal acts being perpetrated.

Middle East blowing up all over

I've been seeing the news today about the trading of blows between Hezbollah and Israel. Part of me couldn't possibly care less, since this has been going on for years and will eventually result in the two parties wiping each other out. Most of me, though, is wondering how this is going to play out.

I can tell you one thing: the right-wing blowhards and Christofascist end-timers will be rooting Israel on, hoping to "wipe dem ebil brown folks out and get JAAAAYYYYZUS to come back so alls them evil non-Christians will burn in HAYL!" (Oddly enough, that would include the Jewish people of the world. Whom, by the way, the right-wingers hate because they're not Christian and are usually pretty level-headed. Go fig.)

Ultimately, I would hope that one of these days, they'll stop all this bullshit and at least TRY to get along. Not Hezbollah, at any rate - they ain't nice folks. I'm talking about the entire Muslim and Jewish peoples.

Novak: "Rove done did it"

From the Assocaited Press via Yahoo!News: Novak: Rove was a source in outing Plame

WASHINGTON - Now that Karl Rove won't be indicted, now that the president won't fire him, now that it really doesn't matter anymore, more details of the Valerie Plame leak investigation trickle out.

In his latest syndicated column released Wednesday, columnist Robert Novak revealed his side of the story in the Plame affair, saying Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer, underscoring Rove's role in a leak President Bush once promised to punish.

The columnist said he learned of Plame's CIA employment from a source he still refuses to publicly identify, and then confirmed with Rove and then-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, whose roles in talking to Novak have been previously reported.

What a surprise. We were right the whole time, and nothing comes of it. These criminals will never see punsihment unless we get some accountability into Washington - that's why we need to vote in people who aren't surgically attached to Bush's ass by their silicone-injected lips.

Good gravy, I really hate these people sometimes.

Enron Chief Thief Lay Dead

From CNN.com: Enron founder Ken Lay dies

Kenneth Lay, who rose from a poor preacher's son to become a millionaire before being convicted of corporate fraud, died early Wednesday in Aspen, Colo., a family spokeswoman said.

Lay, 64, was awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of conspiracy and fraud in the Enron trial in May.

In a statement, spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said, "The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate, and out of respect for the family we will release further details at a later time."

Lay "suffered a massive coronary and died," according to his pastor, Dr. Steve Wende of Houston's First United Methodist Church. "Apparently, his heart simply gave out."

What heart? This guy was one of Dubya's closest friends and a massive thief who screwed his employees over by torpedoing his company after getting as much as he and his rich-boy buddies could out of it.

Well, I guess it was either this, or he spend no time in jail and be pardoned by his good friend, President Bunnypants, when Bunnypants was on his way out of office. This way, it seems a little like justice.

Bush Ordered Leaking of Plame's Identity

From the National Journal: Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.

Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

Where is the outrage? There's your leak, right-wingers - there's your compromise of national security. Not the New York Times, which, by the way, was reporting something that the Wall Street Journal was told by the administration to report and hasn't seen these whiny cries of "TEH TREASON OH NOES". I know you'll try to spin this. You'll say Bush has the power to compel his staffers to do that, and that by letting it be leaked, it was declassified. Except that's not the truth, and you know it.

Bush himself said that anyone in his administration who was leaking information would be found and removed. What's he gonna do now that we know it was him?

SCOTUS: "Gerrymandering is okay"

From the New York Times: Justices Back Most G.O.P. Changes to Texas Districts

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld most of the Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay but threw out part, saying some of the new boundaries failed to protect minority voting rights.

The fractured decision was a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democratic incumbents out of office.

Small victory? Hell no, this is a massive defeat, not for us, but for justice.

At issue was the shifting of 100,000 Hispanics out of a district represented by a Republican incumbent and into a new, oddly shaped district. Foes of the plan had argued that that was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights.

On a different issue, the court ruled that state legislators may draw new maps as often as they like -- not just once a decade as Texas Democrats claimed. That means Democratic and Republican state lawmakers can push through new maps anytime there is a power shift at a state capital.

This decision is going to encourage more corrupt GOP bastards like Tom Moral-Decay to redraw maps for themselves so they can screw the public over even more. Shame on you, Supreme Court, for allowing this miscarriage of justice to occur.

A thought on recent events: NYT and right-wing hatred thereof

The right is bleating endlessly about how EEEVIL and TREEEEASONOUS the New York Times is because they reported on a program that Dubya had talked about many times.

Where was this hue and cry when they had Judith Miller reporting about the identities of undercover operatives? Where was it when they outed an undercover operative and put national security actually at risk?

Where was it, you liars? WHERE WAS IT?

"Family" Research Council: "Cancer is good!"

From truthout.org: Religion Running Roughshod Over Cancer Science

The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel approved a vaccine for the human papilloma virus (HPV) last week. The vaccine appears to be 100% effective at protecting against the most prevalent viruses that cause cervical cancer. While public health professionals view the vaccine as miraculous, many conservative organizations oppose it on the grounds that it might encourage promiscuity among adolescent girls. Now that the FDA has approved the vaccine, conservatives are already working feverishly [http://feministing.com/archives/005183.html] to limit or even prevent its use.

(...)

Despite the benefits of the vaccine, conservative organizations began to rally against it last year. One of the most vocal opponents was the Family Research Council. The council, according to its mission statement, "promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society." Last October the council's president, Tony Perkins, spoke against the vaccine. "Our concern," he said, "is that this vaccine will be marketed to a segment of the population that should be getting a message about abstinence. It sends the wrong message." He went on to say that he would not vaccinate his 13-year-old daughter.

What a surprise - another hyper-"Christian" neo-con organization that wants to punish women for having sex. Even worse, they're trying to wrap their hatred in yet another "Biblical" messages, throwing in a lot of utterly false claims about it being some kind of "sexual license" for teenagers. Maybe if they were to think for two seconds they'd figure out what those of us with functioning cerebellums already got: Cancer is bad, and having something to prevent it is good.

The truth is, these organizations don't really care about the science behind things like this, or the positive effects - they only believe that the world should follow their twisted ideas of "God says don't fuck, so don't or you'll DIE!" Worse yet, organizations like these often have the ear of the administration. So far, I've not seen evidence that they're having any effect on the folks in Washington regarding this, but you never know. Maybe the Bush-Leaguers will get a spine in dealing with these folks and say, "Cancer bad, vaccine good, you stupid" at long last.

The Lips of the Media and Where They're Glued

I'm given little choice in watching CNN. It's on the TV in the lobby at work. It's either that, or I sit there and worry about work constantly.

Anyway, I've seen some dumb shit on there. Worst of all was yesterday, when I sat there and watched the liar Cheney continue his lies, belligerence, and conflation. Several times, he conflated 9/11 and Iraq, and the reporter, like everyone else in the ass-kissing press, didn't say word one about it.

I'm not surprised. Ever since the "killing" of al-Zarqawi, the media's been kissing Bush's ass all day, every day. It's the same shit they pulled in '04 - all of a sudden, the scandals disappear, and we have all these "victories" for these shameless liars. And when people start seeing through that, how much ya wanna bet they start up the "fear/smear/queer" machine again?

Party of ideas, my ass!

Add Louisiana to the list.

From Reuters via Yahoo! News: Louisiana gov. signs law that would ban abortions

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a ban on most abortions, which would be triggered if the
U.S. Supreme Court overturns its 1973 ruling legalizing the procedure, a spokesman said on Saturday.

The ban would apply to all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, except when the mother's life is threatened. It is similar to a South Dakota law that has become the latest focus of the abortion battle.

Even when you've got a decent Democrat in office, it's no indication they'll be worth a crap. All this law is is yet another ham-fisted attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. The anti-choice lobby knows that the court has been stacked in their favor by Bush, and now they're trying to screw the whole country over.

I'm half-convinced it's because they hate women, but I'm sure they have other reasons.

Malkin: They're doing what I think should be done to foreign people! Boo-freakin'-hoo!

From blubbering right-wing whore Michelle Malkin: The Camp Pendleton 8

My column this week calls attention to the Camp Pendleton 8--7 Marines and Navy corpsman being held in shackles with no charges against them as higher-ups investigate an alleged murder of an Iraqi man earlier this spring in Hamandiya. Excerpt:

Did you know there are seven young Marines and a Navy corpsman sitting in a military brig right now in leg and wrist shackles -- despite the fact that they've not been charged with any crime?

Well, boo-freakin'hoo, Malkin. Remember saying that? Besides, it's like a resort over there - they get treated better than I do.

Maybe if you had some sense, you'd realize that you're saying the very same things we say about Gitmo. The only difference is, you're whining about 8 people, while we're sticking up for about 450. What's more pressing? Oh, but you don't care about those people in Gitmo - they're just filthy brown people with funny names, after all, not Good Christian White American Men, so the Gitmo "detainees" don't count to you.

How does it feel to have no heart? Does it hurt?

Rove not being charged for role in security leak

From CNN.com: Lawyer: Rove won't be charged in CIA leak case

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House senior adviser Karl Rove has been told by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that he will not be charged in the CIA leak case, according to Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer.

"In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation," Luskin said in a written statement Tuesday. "We believe that the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct."

Okay, so he's not being charged with anything. Big deal, I say - I know the guy's a dirt-eating snake, and that's all I need.

I know there's probably a lot of right-wingers out there dancing around, calling guys like me stupid. That's what they do every day, I admit, but this time they're doing it with some kind of reason. Personally, I don't recall ever saying Rove definitely had something to do with it (but I'm probably wrong - I had to have said it somewhere other than here). I'm just waiting for someone to uncover Rove's links to other crimes committed in the course of setting up this criminal organization we call the Bush Administration.

Political news in brief, 6/9/2006

Ann C**ter's new book is out. And once again, the right-wing media machine is giving her time to spew her hatred of everything that's not just like her. She's getting decimated by lots of folks, even Bill O'Reilly, and she's just not stopping. I think it's time that someone finally arrest her for her frauds - the voting fraud she committed, and the fact that she's passed herself off as a woman for years.

Al-Zarqawi supposedly dead. Isn't this the third time we've killed him so far? And honestly, how is it we drop 500 lb. bombs on a man and he's totally intact. They gotta scrape our soldiers off the sides of their tanks with spatulas when they get blown up, and this guy's intact? Either something's fishy, or that was one well-built building and it was the collapse (or possibly suffocation) that actually killed him. Just a thought.

Senate votes down the repeal of the estate tax and the Homobigotry Bill. Hey, whaddya know, there's some folks out there with their heads on straight!

The House Republicans voted to destroy net neutrality. Surprise. Hope you like your favorite small sites to run like molasses. Tell your Senators to vote against the bill!

I think that should cover it.

Indiana's BMVs are choosing for us.

BMV approves ‘Choose Life’ license plate

INDIANAPOLIS – Hoosier drivers might be able to purchase a “Choose Life” license plate next year with the majority of the proceeds going to benefit crisis pregnancy centers around the state.

The Bureau of Motor Vehicles said Thursday it has approved 10 new specialty license plates for 2007 – one of which was requested by the Indiana Association of Pregnancy Centers Inc.

Now this is just disgusting. I'm sure you're not going to see any "Choose Choice" license plates anywhere around here, but this? Oh, of COURSE we're going to offer that! And even worse, the idiots who actually get these things are giving money to so-called "crisis pregnancy centers", which are just outlets of the anti-choice misogynist movement. Our money is, once again, going to scaring and lying women into things they don't want to do.

I really hate this state sometimes.

Glenn Beck: Idiot or Dumbass?

At work, the TV in the lobby is always turned to Headline News. Now, that wouldn't be so bad if Headline News, like its parent channel CNN, weren't trying to copy the Fox News "offend-and-annoy" model. A good example of how bad this change in HN's lineup is is reflected in the main reasons I'm making this post: Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck.

First off, Glenn Beck. If you've been reading Media Matters for America, then you know how bad this guy is: he's a gibbering moron tryong to follow the "shout 'em down, bully 'em out" model of such right-wing blowhards as Loofah O'Reilly and Pigman Limbaugh. Don't believe me? Take some examples of what he's said, both on his show on HN and his radio hate-fest:

• Illegal immigrants are "trying to conquer our culture", and Iranian prez Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "sounded ... a lot like Michael Moore" in a letter.


• On Iran: "I say we nuke the bastards (...) In fact, it doesn't have to be Iran, it can be everywhere, anyplace that disagrees with me."


• On New School graduation speaker Jean Rohe, who said that the decision to have the new, more Christofascist John McCain speak at the graduation ceremony was done against the interests of the students: "Shut up! Shut up! Shut Up! I can't take her!"


• On Moussaoui: "In 30 years, I think this guy could become the next 'Tookie' Williams," agreeing with a caller of similar non-mind stating that "the Left" would make a "celebrity" out of Moussaoui.


• His famous hatred for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the families of 9/11 victims: "And that's all we're hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we're seeing on television are the scumbags(.)" "[W]hen I see a 9-11 victim family on TV or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up!' I'm just so sick of them because they're always complaining."...


• And, of course, like all vacuous right-wing windbags, he has to take a simple-minded, ham-fisted shot at Cindy Sheehan and her personal tragedy and drive to see justice done: "Cindy Sheehan. That's a pretty big prostitute there, you know what I mean? [...] Pretty hard to beat prostituting your son's death. Don't you think?"

And it's not just the fact that he says this disgusting shit that bothers me; it's the fact that CNN's commercials try to tout this jackass as a "normal guy". Yeah, normal guys make it a point to want to nuke whole countries if they don't kiss his lily-white ass. Normal guys call grieving mothers prostitutes. Normal guys hate tragedy victims. If that's what normal guys do, then by God, I'm abnormal.

Second, my hatred of Nancy Grace. This is a minor point, but one I have to get out: this woman is a big red herring. Every night, her show is the source of more Missing/Dead Pretty White Woman stories. She does NOTHING ELSE, far as I've seen. Her only point is to distract people from the real stories, the real problems of this world, by filling them with fear that their Pretty White Women may be next.

At least I don't have to pay too much attention to the TV there. I can always just keep working.

So there is justice.

From CNN.com: Lay and Skilling's day of reckoning

Enron former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay were both found guilty Thursday of conspiracy and fraud in the granddaddy of all corporate fraud cases.

On the sixth day of deliberations, a jury of eight women and four men convicted the former executives of misleading the public about the true financial health of Enron, whose collapse in late 2001 symbolized the wave of corporate fraud that swept the United States early this decade.

Skilling was found guilty on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud, false statements and insider trading. He was found not guilty on nine counts of insider trading.

Lay was found guilty on all six counts of conspiracy and fraud. In a separate bench trial, Judge Sim Lake ruled Lay was guilty of four counts of fraud and false statements.

I guess there is some small measure of justice in this world. Bunnypants will probably pardon them in his last days in office, if he gets the chance (read: doesn't get thrown out on his ass), but for now, I'd say this at least shown that there's accountability for being a greedy bastard.

DeLay Misses the Point

From Think Progress: Desperate for Supporters, DeLay Turns to Stephen Colbert

A good sign that Tom DeLay doesn’t have the facts on his side: the top source for his latest defense against his critics is Stephen Colbert.

This morning, DeLay’s legal defense fund sent out a mass email criticizing the movie “The Big Buy: Tom DeLay’s Stolen Congress,” by “Outfoxed” creator Robert Greenwald.

The email features a “one-pager on the truth behind Liberal Hollywood’s the Big Buy,” and the lead item is Colbert’s interview with Greenwald on Comedy Central (where Colbert plays a faux-conservative, O’Reilly-esque character). The headline of the “fact sheet”:

Hollywood Pulls Michael Moore Antics on Tom DeLay
Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the Movie

DeLay thinks Colbert is so persuasive, he’s now featuring the full video of the interview at the top of the legal fund’s website. And why not? According to the email, Greenwald “crashed and burned” under the pressure of Colbert’s hard-hitting questions, like “Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?”

Apparently the people at DeLay’s legal fund think that Colbert is actually a conservative. Or maybe they’re just that desperate for supporters.

Okay, I'll admit I thought being a corrupt, shameless, lying, cheating, scheming, duplicitous, hypocritical, heartless right-wing bastard was stupid, but I'd say that we've found a new low point to which the Bugman has sunk. That, or they're just so lacking in senses of humor that they though Colbert is serious. Either way, it's still pretty damn stupid.

Is this how desperate the right is for support, that they'll say they're supported by someone who's obviously acting like he supports them? I'm not really surprised, though - the right has plenty of scumbags who, when called on their insane, stupid, or just plain evil statements, say, "But I'm just playing a character!" The difference here is, Colbert isn't trying to be taken seriously. Anyone with two brain cells to fire a synapse between can realize he's just having fun.

No matter what, though, this one's going into the record books as one of the stupidest things I've ever heard outside of the video game community.

Life makes fools of us.

I'm sad to say it's too late. My brother has gone.

I do wish I had been there, but... well, one cannot do much when one has no time.

Poisoning the well, so to speak.

From Bush v. Choice: Conference on STDs gets bullied into abstinence-only hell

Because politics are clearly more important than people’s health.
The 2006 National STD Prevention Conference, which is government-sponsored, has been changed up (screwed up) after an abstinence-only-loving congressman made a stink.

An aide to Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.), sent an e-mail
April 26 to the Department of Health and Human Services raising questions about a panel titled "Are Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs a Threat to Public Health?"

"Just the title alone was enough to cause us concern," said Martin Green, Souder's spokesman. But the congressman also was alarmed because one of the speakers was focusing on a report produced by the office of Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) that was critical of abstinence programs, and because no one would be speaking in support of such programs.

Right. Because no one who cares about public health would support these programs.

In response to Souder’s objections the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main conference organizer, changed the name of the panel to “Public Health Strategies of Abstinence Programs for Youth” and removed the panelist set to discuss the Waxman report. Take a wild guess who replaced the original speaker. Not one, but two abstinence-only panelists: Eric Walsh of Loma Linda University in California and Patricia Sulak of Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Texas, founder Worth the Wait.

Why am I not surprised by this? Quite frankly, Souder is a moron. He's a Christofascist piece of human filth who tries to inject his sick brand of self-hatred into everything that crosses his line of sight. I'm ashamed to say he's supposed to represent the state of Indiana.

You know, the plain facts are that abstinence-only programs just don't work. And the stupid "virginity pledges" that many of these programs (which are based almost solely on "GAWD SAYS DON'T FUCK" mentalities) tout don't work, and actually result in more sex that's less safe. And if you don't believe that, ask Rep. Waxman.

Instead of beating teens with a Bible and screaming that sex is evil, why not teach that there's something called a condom? And how to use it? Believe it or not, it doesn't make them want to have sex - no, being a teen does that all on its own.

Every time something goes right, life bites me in the ass.

Well, gang, this isn't good. My brother, the one who's usually in the hospital, is back in.

This time, they don't think he's making it back out. I'm hopefully going home to see him before anything else goes wrong.

This is just not good.

Bush plunges further into black hole.

From USA Today: Bush approval rating hits new low

WASHINGTON — President Bush's approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections.

The survey of 1,013 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, shows Bush's standing down by 3 percentage points in a single week. His disapproval rating also reached a record: 65%. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.

31%?! It's a sad day when the President is doing worse with the country than I do playing Yu-Gi-Oh. But I'm not surprised. Bunnypants just can't stop dropping the ball.

"It is a challenging political environment," acknowledges Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, "but we are confident that ultimately voters in November will recognize that a Democrat Congress would simply not be equipped to ensure either economic or national security for our nation."

Oh, you mean like how you ensured our security by trying to sell our ports to foreign interests, or trying to prevent inspections of incoming material, or sending our National Guard to a foreign country to die, or outing a covert CIA agent who was investigating a country that hates us? And economic interests? Don't make me laugh - there has NEVER been a president until now who actually cut taxes (much less cut taxes for the rich only) during a war. Not until now. Nobody else was that short-sighted. The fact that anyone could keep a straight face while saying that garbage is nothing short of spectacular. Give that woman a freakin' Oscar, she deserves it for that kind of acting!

I know this is getting bad, because I've seen fairly staunch Bush supporters turning on their heels and saying they think he's a terrible president. They're even doing it in the media. They're revolting in Congress against what he wants. This is the American equivalent of the "vote of no confidence" in parliamentary governments.

This November, the people are going to show these liars and thieves just how they really feel - they're going to turn the rascals out, like they did in the good old days.

Moussaoui to rot in prison, not in grave

From CNN: Moussaoui gets life in prison.

I know people, especially the Freepers, are bitching about this. I know they're saying he's an evil person and he should die, but revenge has no place in justice. Further to that, he can't be considered a martyr this way. He'll spend his life in solitary in a Supermax prison, most likely, wasting away devoid of contact and the attention he craved.

Would those of you wanting him dead rather he die quickly and with a minimum of pain, or would you rather he be forced to live out his miserable life in prison? In all honesty, which sounds worse? And don't try to keep the blood from your hands by saying he'll be killed by other inmates - as I said, it will be more than likely he'll be left in solitary confinement. If you honestly believe that killing a man is justice, then be expeditious about expressing your feelings. Own up to it, grow a pair, get some hair on your chest. Tell me you think he should have been a martyr, tell me you think he should have gotten exactly what he wanted - a "glorious death" at the hands of "The Great Satan".

Security Breach in Sector One.

From Raw Story: MSNBC confirms: Outed CIA agent was working on Iran

On Chris Matthews' Hardball Monday evening, just moments ago, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster confirmed what RAW STORY first reported in February: that outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed.

RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna broke the story earlier this year, which went unnoticed by the mainstream media.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Congrats, you filthy criminal bastards in Washington, you may very well have compromised the security you've been looking for. I hope every single one of you gets tried for treason.

But I know the right-wing's talking heads will be playing this down or trying to distract us. Once they exhaust their excuses (which will come up first - "she wasn't undercover" or "everyone knew"?), they'll try to run more distractions - new Osama videos, coverage of Missing Pretty White Women, or another payoff.

I know one thing: the criminal scum who perpetrated this travesty of security will never see any punishment. That's why we need to vote in Democrats in this election - a Democrat Congress will be able to make the liars and scumbags accountable for their innumerable crimes.

This is their solution?

From CNN.com: Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Most American taxpayers would get $100 rebate checks to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

However, the GOP energy package may face tough sledding because it also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, which most Democrats and some moderate Republicans oppose.

Yes, this is their solution to the fact that Bush's oil-man buddies are gouging people - kickbacks to the people. The oil companies pay off the legislators, and the legislators pay off the citizens.

You know what'd be a better solution? Telling the oil companies to either stop gouging people or get fined. And while they're at it, they can break up that whole "near-monopoly" thing they've got going. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd almost think the oil companies were making sure there was no actual competition.

"Our plan would give taxpayers a hundred dollar gas tax holiday rebate check to help ease the pain that they're feeling at the pump," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced Thursday. "It also includes strong federal anti-price gouging protection to protect consumers against anti-competitive behavior by oil companies or other suppliers of gasoline. Our free market system works, but it works best when there's full accountability and full transparency."

Why don't I believe him on this? Then again, this is the man who lied about an essentially-dead woman's condition because he was shilling to the anti-choice, pro-torture lobby.

And lemme tell you something, you hack: The free market isn't working. The free market causes shit like this when it's not regulated, and right now, the market's a hyperactive kid without a parent.

"A lot of these other things we're talking about today, supply, like ANWR, have had Democrats oppose them in the past, when gas was $1.25, $1.50. Gas is now $3," said John Thune, R-South Dakota. "I would expect that there would be a lot more bipartisan support for proposals that would increase supply in this country."

Yeah, because we're going to support something that's not going to help at all simply because your masters are trying to extort every cent from us. How dumb do you think we are?

People, this just isn't an idea. This is a distraction. "Party of ideas", my fat white ass.

New cards drawn, April 27, 2006

Robert Rouse of Left of Centrist left a comment on my last "card-draw" entry, and added a link to LHP on his site. It's only fair, only fitting, and a damn good idea, to add his card to my hand.

New cards drawn, April 26, 2006

Added Torpor Indy to the left hand. Rather smart stuff.

The "Snow Job" jokes can't come fast enough.

From CNN: Fox anchor named Bush press secretary

Snow replaces McClellan as White House continues makeover

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Acknowledging the challenges ahead, former Fox News anchor and talk show host Tony Snow began his second stint at the White House on Wednesday, this time as press secretary.

President Bush appeared with Snow in the White House briefing room to announce his choice 15 years after the commentator was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.

So he's going to be parroting the lies of the Bush Crime Family upon command. And this is different from his old job how, again?

Come meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Fake abortion clinics, or "It's okay to lie to the impressionable and scared!"

From Bush v. Choice: Fake clinics—and you’re paying for them!

Oh dear. Apparently an anti-choice group in Indiana is not only posing as a fake abortion clinic, but is also waging a war of intimidation against a teenage girl.

From SaveRoe:

One such center in Indiana shares a parking lot with a real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them. Recently, people from the fake "clinic" waged a campaign of intimidation and harassment against a 17-year-old girl who, with her mother and boyfriend, came to what she thought was our clinic for an abortion. Over the following days, the anti-choice extremists called the police to say the girl was being forced to have an abortion, showed up at her home, called her father's workplace, and even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.

Wow.

Alternet’s PEEK points out that there are more fake clinics than actual abortion provides in the US (what?!) and that we’re footing the bill: “They receive tens of millions in government grants.”

Great. To find out more about anti-choice "Crisis Pregnancy Centers," click here.

(Emphasis in original document.)

I really do not know what to say about this. The fact that these bastards will deceive scared women is bad enough, but that they will violate someone's privacy and essentially put them in danger like that is too goddamn much. These people, and I hesitate to call them that, are inhuman. They're exploiting the fear of women in need to further their misogynistic, oppressive views.

And they get federal money for this? Oh no, not in my fucking state, they don't. Tell your legislator that you oppose federal money going to deception and harassment. Even better, join the campaign at SaveRoe.

Illinois House pushing for impeachment.

From the Chicago Sun-Times: Resolution to push Bush impeachment

SPRINGFIELD -- Leave it to the Democratic-controlled state Legislature to find an obscure way to attempt to oust President Bush.

State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has sponsored a resolution calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings.

It would be the first state legislature to pass such a resolution, though the measure faces a dim future in a Republican-controlled Congress.

My old state rocks. The Bush-leaguers infesting the Indiana congress would NEVER do anything like this.

I'll admit that for a midwestern state, Illinois balances out to be fairly liberal - there are a few really big cities (like a certain one you might have heard of, it's called Chicago) that are decent strongholds of, well, decency. The more rural areas are, unfortunately, conservative (damn if I know why), so that gives some sense of balance.

Yarbrough is hoping to get the U.S. House's attention through her grass-roots effort. She already has picked up two co-sponsors to her legislation, Democratic state Representatives Eddie Washington (Waukegan) and Sara Feigenholtz (Chicago).

According to the resolution, Bush has "willfully violated his oath of office" by manipulating intelligence to start the war in Iraq, leaking classified national secrets and authorizing illegal spying on American citizens.

"This president has acted like an emperor," Yarbrough said.

And here come the conservatives, chanting "we're at war, we're at war, we're at war, 9/11 9/11 9/11 terror terror terror!" I sincerely hope that this gets some kind of deep thought before the right assassinates it and smears everyone involved.

If you really want to be sickened, read the article. It smacks of right-wing bias. Liberal media my fat white ass.

Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 242 - Yikes!

From Democratic Undeground via The Liberal Avenger: The Top 10 Conservative Iidots #242

Go to DU and take a look at this. Specifically, look at #2. Can you believe this garbage? This is what these people do!

I heard the guy who took those photos, Mother Jones reporter Stephen Elliott, talking on The Majority Report about how goddamn creepy that was to watch. How shameless can that woman be?

Then again, she was one of the engineers of the Florida election fraud, so she doesn't have any shame at all. Guess that answers that question.

New cards drawn!

Today, added Eschaton and Media Matters for America. They, like all the other "cards in the left hand", can be "played" by clicking on them in the list on the right-hand side (irony).

Sex and candy, minus the candy.

From the Anderson, GA Independent-Mail: Bill would make sale of sex toys illegal in South Carolina

COLUMBIA — Lucy’s Love Shop employee Wanda Gillespie said she was flabbergasted that South Carolina’s Legislature is considering outlawing sex toys.

But banning the sale of sex toys is actually quite common in some Southern states.

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

And just WHY do they allow laws like this to even be proposed? Surely these people would be flabbergasted if someone came by and started rooting through their private stuff. Surely they don't think that they're doing anything beneficial by destroying people's rights to do what they want in their own damn bedrooms?

My guess? They're "good Christians".