I'm quite serious. For here is another example of the right wing spitting on our troops, who have been fighting a war only the right wing wanted.
SMYRNA, Tenn. -- Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.
The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church members cars' down a highway, waving flags and screaming "God bless America."
"My husband is over there, so I'm here to show my support," 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. "To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are."
The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.
The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."
About 10 church members protested near Smyrna United Methodist Church and nearly 20 stood outside the National Guard Armory in Ashland City. Members have demonstrated at other soldier funerals across the nation.
The funerals were for Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn II, 35, in Smyrna and Spc. Gary Reese Jr., 22, in Ashland City. Both were members of the Tennessee National Guard.
Not even grateful for our troops' sacrifice, but always ready to invoke said sacrifice to beat those against the war about the head & neck with. Why is that?
I really believe these people are not just another political faction. They are psychotic fascists, and we can only be thankful that their ideology is so incoherent and overtly vile. They don't stand much of a chance of sweet-talking any of us anymore, not even the reds among us.
It's not an issue of liberal vs. conservative anymore in this country. It has, judging from the evil, desperate shit the right has been spewing out this year against Americans who believe in what America stands for, become the right wing versus the rest of us, liberal, moderate or conservative.
And what unites us in the face of that is greater than the trivial shit that the right tries to divide us all with. Listen, red America--us they marginalize. You they lie to. They take your children and kill them with those lies. Why do you not realize they care even less about you than us?
Labels: politics
¶ August 28, 2005 0 Comments
I've slagged New York Times columnist John Tierney many times here(not to mention the cowardly, disingenuous Times itself), so it's probably only fair that I point out when he doesn't say something worthless and stupid to attempt to help America back to sleep.
So I wanna point out that today he says some extremely blunt(you'll excuse the expression) words in favor of the legalization of medical marijuana, and they're words I wholeheartedly agree with. So give it a read.
A particularly pointed sample:
Critics of medical marijuana say that it's unnecessary because patients can obtain the benefits of its active ingredient, THC, through a drug that's already available, Marinol. But many patients say it doesn't work as well. They point to the case of the writer Peter McWilliams, who said smoking marijuana was the only way to control the nausea brought on by the mix of drugs he took for AIDS and cancer.
He was forced to switch to Marinol after a D.E.A. investigation led to his conviction for violating federal laws against marijuana. In 2000, several weeks before he was to be sentenced, he was found dead in his bathroom. He had choked on his own vomit.
Labels: politics
¶ August 27, 2005 0 Comments
In other news, sun comes up in east.
But no, Ann Coulter saying that New Yorkers would immediately surrender if attacked--well, that's pretty funny, if unholy and untrue.
Consider, Fraulein Coulter, that New Yorkers were attacked. You may remember the fucking date. Your president certainly repeats it enough.
But this is typical, just like how the government claims that the deaths of 9/11 justified attacking Iraq while demanding the survivors, and the families of the dead, be ignored, or saying that the deaths in Iraq already justify even more such deaths but ignoring what is said to the contrary by soldiers who have been there, or are there, or their families once they've died.
Be a good little sacrifice and shut up so we can use you how we like. That's how much honor the Republicans place on those who suffer from terrorism.
Labels: politics
¶ August 27, 2005 0 Comments
What was I just saying?
Labels: politics
¶ August 26, 2005 0 Comments
The religious right, thanks to whom I will never run out of material, now wants to have an amendment to the Constitution banning divorce.
Uh, yeah...Some hope of that gaining traction in the red states. Down south they seem to get divorced twice for every marriage.
These folks really need good psychotherapeutic help. These are not beliefs they hold, but delusions which should not be encouraged.
Labels: politics
¶ August 26, 2005 0 Comments
Compare Eileen Barker's checklist of the characteristics of a cult to those of the radical right following Bush:
1. A movement that separates itself from society, either geographically or socially;
2. Adherents who become increasingly dependent on the movement for their view on reality;
3. Important decisions in the lives of the adherents are made by others;
4. Making sharp distinctions between us and them, divine and satanic, good and evil, etc. that are not open for discussion;
5. Leader who claim divine authority for their deeds and for their orders to their followers;
6. Leader and movements who are unequivocally focused on achieving a certain goal.
Labels: politics
¶ August 26, 2005 0 Comments
When even an apologist like David Frum believes the president is completely "disconnected from reality," you know he's in trouble. Also be sure to read the numerous examples of highly disgruntled conservative reader mail disgusted with Bush on the same page; Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the like aside, conservatives too are disgusted with this fool they backed as their president. (whereas people like me at least can say "Told you so" as we were never fooled to begin with)
Supporters of the war can argue that the public is mistaken, overly influenced by biased news reporting. Yes, yes. But mistaken public opinion is just as powerful as sound public opinion.
Again, supporters of the war can do our bit to try to change minds. But the biggest megaphone in the country belongs to President Bush - and much depends on whether he uses it well or badly.
He is using it very badly indeed...
Again and again during the Bush presidency - and yesterday most recently - the president will agree to give what is advertised in advance as a major speech. An important venue will be chosen. A crowd of thousands will be gathered. The networks will all be invited. And after these elaborate preparations, the president says ... nothing that he has not said a hundred times before.If a president continues to do that, he is himself teaching the public and the media to ignore him - especially when the words seem (as his speech yesterday to the VFW seemed) utterly to ignore the past three months of real-world events.
Labels: fatboy mcfascist, politics
¶ August 26, 2005 0 Comments
It's come to this.
I hope this is somehow a joke or con.
Labels: politics
¶ August 26, 2005 0 Comments
Fucking, fucking bastards. And they now hide behind a false cloak of "journalistic ethics." Sheep's clothing, folks. Under which are nothing even so fearsome as wolves. No, more like egg-sucking weasels.
I'm talking about Time, of course.
From Editor & Publisher:
The article details conversations involving Karl Rove, “Scooter” Libby, Matt Cooper and Robert Novak. But near its conclusion it raises an emerging issue, promoted by Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair, among others: If Time magazine had gone public about Rove’s conversations with Cooper it might have had some impact on the Bush-Kerry race for the White House last year.My advice? First of all, boycott Time and all connected with them. Well, if it was possibe to do that without living under a rock nowadays. They're liars, bastards and aiders and abettors of fascism. They are to the press what a cuckoo is to a bird's nest.
Not until this summer did Cooper ask Rove for a waiver to talk to the grand jury, and ultimately the public, about their conversation. The L.A. Times article today notes that he did not do this before “because his lawyer advised against it.” But the reporters add that in addition “Time editors were concerned about becoming part of such an explosive story in an election year.”
The story concludes: "The result was that Cooper's testimony was delayed nearly a year, well after Bush's reelection.”
If we have a press anymore; as opposed to what I think we have now instead-- a bunch of courtiers with Blackberries who have pleasant lunches with those they are supposed to be watching for us; who value their jobs, celeberity and material comfort more than the lives or liberty of any American citizen; who suck government cock each day and then spit it into our eyes on a 24-hour cycle.
Now, briefly back to the subject, a thought: what does this mean, then, as regards Judith Miller and the New York Times?
Let her rot. Let the Times fall apart. Let them decay till we cannot deny the stink anymore.
Labels: politics
¶ August 25, 2005 0 Comments
One hell of a thorough (read; long) and detailed story on Plamegate at the LA Times.
Also, those idiots you may have seen on the news doing the anti-Sheehan protests? The protests that seemed so spontaneous, underscored by its representatives, when interviewed on the news, looking amazingly badly-prepared and apparently only able to repeat "She don't reprahzent me, ah don' respek that kind o' person"?
Yeah. Well, it was put together by a PR firm. It's nothing but another artificial construction created to confuse by the GOP noise machine.
Several partisan Web sites reported that the anti-antiwar group Move America Forward was not quite as grassrootsy a response to Sheehan as it first seemed, that it had, in fact, been launched by a Sacramento public relations firm with strong connections to the Republican Party.
Those Web sites are right. While the online evidence has been scrubbed that the PR firm Russo, Marsh, and Rogers actually put up the Move America Forward Web site, Move America Forward still lists as its chief strategist and one of its board members Sal Russo of the PR firm Russo, Marsh, and Rogers.
And the Move America Forward fax number in that area code is 441-6057, while the Russo, Marsh, and Rogers fax number in that area code is 441-6057.
Always listen to their accusations. Their accusations are in fact projection. What they attribute to their opposition is what they themselves are doing.
Labels: fatboy mcfascist, politics
¶ August 25, 2005 0 Comments
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson apologized Wednesday for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, only hours after he denied saying Chavez should be killed.
"Is it right to call for assassination?" Robertson said. "No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."
Labels: politics
¶ August 24, 2005 0 Comments
A very interesting interview in which Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski spills the beans on whether Abu Ghraib was just some soldiers being individually bastards, or if this was on orders from the top.
A little from column A, and a lot from Column B.
MC: You wrote in an e-mail: "The techniques are a clear departure from what soldiers are taught and understand, the techniques that were directed by the highest level of this Administration." By that, you mean all the way up to the Oval Office?
JK: I mean all the way up to Cheney. I don't know the workings of how it gets up there. But I would think that, very similar to any other big corporation or the military, that if you have a deputy - or a Vice President, in this case - and he is making decisions or approvals, then maybe by default you will say, "If I didn't know, I should have known," or "I did know." Because he's your Vice President. Or he is the Vice President. Or he is the Secretary of Defense. I don't know what they are telling the President. And I don't care. He's the President, and he's supposed to know what's going on in this Administration, and honestly, sometimes it doesn't seem like he does.
¶ August 24, 2005 0 Comments
I know they live in the past, but they should become acquainted at the very least with the technology of the 20th century. Then they'd realize outright lying only compounds the mess.
Like this lie, here.
Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson, whose remarks on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier in the week sparked a media maelstrom, insisted that what appeared to be a call to assassinate the Latin American leader was misinterpreted."I said our special forces should, quote, 'take him out,' and 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping," Robertson, 75, said Wednesday on his television show, "The 700 Club," broadcast from his headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
"There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him," he said, insisting his remarks had been "misinterpreted."
Pat Robertson today
"I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.Now how can that be misinterpreted? Well, for one thing, if you take that as suggesting anything besides assassination--that would be a misinterpretation, as he specifically called for it. On TV, in front of...well, thousands or less, I guess.
Pat Robertson two days ago
But that's one more commandment he broke. I guess he forgot about bearing false witness. He really should read them sometime. There's only ten of them, and I'm sure there's a large-print version somewhere. I understand that Christians have little use for the Bible, but still...
Ronald Reagan's daughter has a few choice words about this today.
Also, you may have noticed that Robertson seems to be following a trend of homicidal fantasizing among the right wing.
Labels: hate war, politics, right wing
¶ August 24, 2005 0 Comments
The Pentagon should be ashamed of themselves for desecrating the gravestones of our dead with this bullshit.
Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.
"I was a little taken aback," Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he first saw the operation name on Patrick's tombstone. "They certainly didn't ask my wife; they didn't ask me." He said Patrick's widow told him she had not been asked either.
"In one way, I feel it's taking advantage to a small degree," McCaffrey said. "Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact."
The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.
"It just seems a little brazen that that's put on stones," said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. "It seems like it might be connected to politics."
Labels: dubya, politics, propaganda, war
¶ August 24, 2005 0 Comments
Various very negative editorial reactions to Bush's pathetic--and oddly outdated--speech justifying the increasingly unpopular war at the VFW.
He doesn't understand that he can't scare us by invoking 9/11 anymore. It must be disconcerting, given things have been made so easy till now. I still suspect a new surprise this September to keep us quiet the rest of his term, but I'll bet even that won't help him now.
"President Bush probably breathed a sigh of relief when he landed in Idaho last night," the Washington Post quotes Laura McCarthy, whose son Gavin is serving in Iraq, as saying at a protest in Boise this week. "But no matter where he goes, he's going to find a Cindy Sheehan in every community across the United States. The name is going to be different, but the message is going to be the same."
Labels: politics
¶ August 24, 2005 0 Comments
"Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
Former First Lady Barbara Bush on the war in Iraq, Good Morning America,
"I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."
You Know Who, Aug. 15, 2005
Labels: politics
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
And now the embarrassed US government is showing you an even bigger one.
But...I mean...this quote is funny:
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied that the Pentagon has considered assassinating Chavez. "Our department doesn't do that type of thing," Rumsfeld said.
Labels: politics
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
Seriously. Before you look at these hideous images of what's really happening in Iraq.
A warning: this is one of the least revolting.
And this is the guy who asked them to "Bring it on."
Labels: politics
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
My age and Bush's current approval rating.
The difference is, of course, that in my case the number is likely to increase.
| Bush job approval | Approve | Disapprove | Undecided |
| Aug 2005 | 36% | 58% | 6% |
| July 2005 | 42% | 52% | 6% |
| Jun 2005 | 42% | 53% | 5% |
| May 2005 | 43% | 51% | 6% |
| Apr 2005 | 44% | 50% | 6% |
| Mar 2005 | 47% | 48% | 5% |
| Feb 2005 | 49% | 45% | 6% |
| Jan 2005 | 51% | 44% | 5% |
| Dec 2004 | 50% | 45% | 5% |
| Nov 2004 | 51% | 43% | 6% |
| Oct 2004 | 45% | 47% | 8% |
| Sep 2004 | 45% | 48% | 7% |
| Aug 2004 | 43% | 50% | 7% |
Labels: politics
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
Theofascism on the march once more. From Political Wire:
In a front page story, the Los Angeles Times reports that evangelical programs on Capitol Hill attempt "to mold a new generation of leaders who will answer not to voters, but to God."
"Nearly every Monday for six months, as many as a dozen congressional aides -- many of them aspiring politicians -- have gathered over takeout dinners to mine the Bible for ancient wisdom on modern policy debates about tax rates, foreign aid, education, cloning and the Central American Free Trade Agreement."
In the seminars, the students "learn that serving country means first and always serving Christ. They learn to view every vote as a religious duty, and to consider compromise a sin."
Labels: politics
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
"I'm weary of even having to express sympathy... we all lose things.”
Rush Limbaugh on Cindy Sheehan
Labels: fatboy mcfascist, politics
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
Perhaps Pat Robertson, as he tries to make the Ten Commandments law, might try reading it sometime before he starts asking for the assassination of Hugo Chavez.
"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."You read that right. A preacher is openly advising the government to murder the legitimately elected president of Venezuela. But then, he's been openly asking God to kill Supreme Court justices, so his fixation on murder may just be a symptom of a broader pathology.
Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."Now imagine if anyone not on the right had ever suggested blowing up the State department. They'd be getting raped in Gitmo with a broom handle right now.
It's time for Christians to clean their own house, starting with this bastard. Because they are not right until they do right, and till their leaders are no longer psychopaths and rapists, they are doing no right.
Labels: politics, religion, right wing
¶ August 23, 2005 0 Comments
That's it, President Bush. Show your own people you won't submit to the intimidation of their will.
That's the privilege of princes.
Labels: politics
¶ August 20, 2005 0 Comments
(CNN) --
A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.
"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."
Wilkerson is one of several insiders interviewed for the CNN Presents documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown." The program, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, pieces together the events leading up to the mistaken WMD intelligence that was presented to the public. A presidential commission that investigated the pre-war WMD intelligence found much of it to be "dead wrong."
Powell's speech, delivered on February 5, 2003, made the case for the war by presenting U.S. intelligence that purported to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Wilkerson says the information in Powell's presentation initially came from a document he described as "sort of a Chinese menu" that was provided by the White House.
"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."
Labels: politics
¶ August 20, 2005 0 Comments
The vigils multiply in Crawford.
Labels: politics
¶ August 18, 2005 0 Comments
From the August 15 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left.
Huh?
This reminds me of the waning days of the 1992 election when Bush 41, who as you may recall took as much credit as he could steal for the end of the Cold War, tried to claim Clinton was a communist spy.
Is he honestly suggesting that Casey Sheehan did not die in Iraq? Perhaps that he didn't exist? What the hell is he thinking? More to the point, are dittoheads actually so stupid that he can expect them to believe this obvious, easily disproven bullshit?
Is this kind of desperate lie all the Republicans are left with to save themselves from Cindy Sheehan?
In other news, while some of Bush's Crawford neighbors have been trying to get Sheehan legally enjoined from protesting, another has given her and the other protesters use of their land. Good to know there are some who have sense left.
Given that yesterday one fine Texan fired into the air (saying he was "hunting doves") and another plowed his truck through a bunch of crosses bearing the names of fallen soldiers, she probably needs the additional protection of private property. This is Texas, after all. Even the babies are armed.
Plowing down the names of fallen soldiers out of loyalty to Bush. That really says it all about his followers, doesn't it? They have no minds, no hearts, and no viewpoint worth listening to. They're just assholes. Violent, childish, sub-mental assholes.
Bush's supporters are making it more obvious that their cultish support of Bush, against liberals, against the armed forces and the mothers of soldiers, against the country itself and its best interests, has nothing whatsoever to do with patriotism, and everything to do with, for want of a better phrase, bullying rights. They just want to see all them smartasses put in their place. Who cares how many die? Who cares if our systems of government and election are eaten hollow? Who cares if everything become lies and the lies no longer even matter? Who cares what happens to the country? Who cares about the mothers of the fallen? If you don't support Bush, you're not to be considered credible.
Never mind that none of his supporters can tell the truth and point to a positive accomplishment of Bush's in five years at the same time. I challenge any Bush supporter to name one true achievement of his; just one. To date all I've seen are excuses, easily proven lies, and attacks on the critics to distract the discussions from their main point.
Bullshit can only win for so long. And the supporters of this failed regime can attack those who see the truth--and have all along--as much as they like. They'll still be the ones on the wrong side of history, and they'll still be the ones left with nothing but humiliation and discredit once he no longer matters.
Labels: fatboy mcfascist, politics
¶ August 16, 2005 0 Comments
In this month of the fourth anniversary of Bush ignoring a warning that might have saved innumerable lives at home and abroad, it seems appropriate that all of you get to read it. Here you go. (click memo to enlarge)
Labels: politics
¶ August 16, 2005 0 Comments
Christopher "Yes I was against Vietnam, but this is different because I have access to power now" Hitchens completes his journey to the neocon dark side and hops on the Smear Sheehan bandwagon. He calls her protest "dreary sentimental nonsense," and even cheaply accuses Cindy Sheehan, out of nowhere, of antisemitism because she used the word "neocon"; Hitchens, in your besotted paranoia, you may think the rest of us use that word as code for "Jew," but I promise we do not.
I guess one will say anything when the GOP picks up your liquor tab. But it's funny listening to a man who has never fought in any way harsher than an intramural squabble among British Marxist intelligensia have the nerve to say this of the mother of a dead soldier:
I distrust anyone who claims to speak for the fallen, and I distrust even more the hysterical noncombatants who exploit the grief of those who have to bury them.Then shut the fuck up, Hitchens.
___________________
Labels: Christopher Hitchens, politics
¶ August 16, 2005 0 Comments
Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1968 as our soldiers were being slaughtered in Vietnam because of stupid decisions he made and approved.
George W. Bush as our soldiers are being slaughtered in Iraq because of stupid decisions he made and approved.
The other thing that's starting to break through is the president's cluelessness and callousness, his tin ear when it comes to the war and to Cindy Sheehan's appeal. Bush is such a polarizing force in American politics that it's hard to objectively describe either his personal political assets or his flaws. Most of his opponents can't even imagine his appeal to his supporters – the regular Texan, the man's man, the guy you'd prefer to have a beer with over John Kerry -- and of course his admirers can't see what enrages his detractors, the smirking shiftless bully behind the regular-guy veneer.Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it felt to me as if with Bush's latest remarks about Sheehan over the weekend, the clownish lightweight his critics know and despise was beginning to shine through for all to see. If you haven't already, take a moment to ponder what he told Cox News about why he could find time for a bike ride on Saturday but not to meet with Sheehan:
"I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."
You don't have to be Cindy Sheehan to think that yammering on about "staying healthy" and living a "balanced life" while so many are suffering and dying in Iraq is unthinkably cruel, as well as unbelievably politically tone deaf. When I read Bush's quote -- I read it over and over -- I found myself wondering not just about his character but his fundamental emotional health. It's as if he's confessing he couldn't stay "balanced" if he had to confront Sheehan's grief, and even worse, her questions about why her son died.
Labels: politics
¶ August 15, 2005 0 Comments
Oh, Tucker, Tucker, Tucker. Is being bumped in favor of a former Fox celebrity interviewbunny not enough to teach you what the public hates? Do you need more?
Why, then, by all means say you approve of something violent and vicious that France did.
I guess being put opposite Jon Stewart wasn't enough punishment for him.
Labels: politics
¶ August 15, 2005 0 Comments
Why won't he meet with Cindy Sheehan? Simple, really. He doesn't care. Not about her, you, or any U.S. citizen--not while he's on vacation, dude.
"There's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job. And I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say."But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so.''
Unlike a whole lot of soldiers since the war began, of course, not to mention Iraqis, not to mention people who worked in the WTC.
This goes a long way toward explaining why he ignored that briefing that was labelled "Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S." So if you're planning a major terrorist attack, it's good to know August is a prime month, isn't it? The president's off the clock.
As Jon Stewart said, "I gotta run for president. I need the rest."
Labels: politics
¶ August 15, 2005 0 Comments
The ancestors of those that now watch Fox.
Labels: politics
¶ August 14, 2005 0 Comments
When Bush's black sport utility vehicle carried him past the site to a Republican fund-raiser, the protest leader, Cindy Sheehan, whose son was one of the nearly 1,850 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, held up a sign that said: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"
Labels: politics
¶ August 12, 2005 0 Comments
Are you, Dubya? I guess that depends on what the definition of "human" is.
I don't usually post links to anything Michelle Malkin gibbers, any more than I'd share with you what the local homeless schizo said to me on the street, because the less the infection she calls her blog is spread the better. But I have to this time because of what that little sneering, snickering, bullying bitch, who's never seen a second of combat and has nothing in her vacuum of a skull but whatever talking points the GOP faxed to her that morning, had the nerve to say on the O'Reilly Factor about Casey Sheehan, the dead GI son of Cindy Sheehan:
“I can’t imagine that Casey Sheehan would approve of such behavior.”Can't you? How fucking dare you even say anything about this woman, you rotten little overprivileged chickenhawk.
Well, Mrs. Sheehan, who knew her son, unlike Malkin, who never fucking met him, had this to say about that:
I didn’t know Casey knew Michelle Malkin…I’m Casey’s mother and I knew him better than anybody else in the world…I can’t bring Casey back, but I wonder how often Michelle Malkin sobbed on his grave. Did she go to his funeral? Did she sit up with him when he was sick when he was a baby?
I wonder if the GOP's little attack poodles ever feel any guilt, or indeed anything human, about the pain they inflict for their petty purposes upon the innocent in the cause of Bush. I wonder, if they claim to be so very religious, if they think God intends to let them into Heaven. I wonder if Rush Limbaugh was ever anything but disingenuous when he repeated like mantras through the Clinton years "Actions have consequences" and "Words mean things."
But Malkin is the intellectual equivalent of a Heather, so I doubt it occurs to her that Bush will not be her president forever. Or if anything occurs to her at all. I probably shouldn't get so angry at a parrot, but rather the bastard whose shoulder she perches upon. Malkin isn't saying what she believes. I doubt she has anything you'd dignify with the word "belief." She has allied herself to power and that is all that motivates what she says. If other weapons were available to her, she'd use them instead, but what she has is words and so that's the form her poison takes.
Damn, but I miss Goldwater. I miss conservatives who speak the truth.
Fortunately most Americans understand the truth and aren't as stupid as Malkin and her fellow Red State Guard like to believe. For instance, we understand now that Bush doesn't give a damn about anyone who's died in his service. To the sheltered Little Prince Dubya the First, they're all just trash, not unlike so much used toilet paper, that he'd rather forget about:
"The O'Reilly Factor":Sheehan: "He wouldn't look at the pictures of [my son] Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, 'So who are we honoring here?' He didn't even know Casey's name. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one.' Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party."
...
Kesterson: So actually, you know, it did come about. They put me into a cubicle by myself, took everything away from me. I also came prepared with a letter to give to the president about how I felt about the war and, you know, the loss of my son, my only child for a cause that I thought, you know, was not worthwhile at that point in time.
And so president Bush came marching in, to make a long story short, came marching in to the room, got right in my face, eyeball-to-eyeball, nose-to-nose this close, toe-to-toe and he said, "I'm George Bush, President of the United States, and I understand you have something to say to me privately." And I said, 'Yes, I do respect the office of the presidency of the United States, but I want to tell you how it feels to lose your only child in a cause that you don't believe in, in an unnecessary war. And, you know, we talked about it from there just like you and I are talking about.
O'Reilly: Was he respectful to you?
Kesterson: Yes, yes was. But he did, you know, come at me a few times with trotting out, 'Delores, do you realize we've been attacked on 9/11?' Who doesn't [realize that]?
O'Reilly: He hugged you at the end, did he not?
Kesterson: Well, yes, he asked if he could hug me and I said, 'Well, that's a human thing, you know, I'm human.' And I agreed to it. But my personal feeling is that he really doesn't have a conscience about all this death and destruction. That was the essence I took away after looking him in the eyes and meeting with him—there's just no conscience there.
Labels: fatboy mcfascist, politics
¶ August 11, 2005 0 Comments
Looks like trouble has returned for DeLay. Or rather, culminated.
Labels: politics
¶ August 11, 2005 0 Comments
The mother of slain GI Casey Sheehan is still awaiting meeting Bush in Crawford, but Bush just can't be bothered to take five minutes out of his vacation.
Well, of course he can't. He's a selfish, stupid, evil pig and he doesn't give a shit about any American citizen, whether it be their lives or that of their families, and certainly not the lives of the soldiers who have died for him. To him, that would be like meeting with the janitor's mom.
But if Bush thinks others are ignoring this as he is, he's in for a rude awakening.
Labels: politics
¶ August 11, 2005 0 Comments
Jesus, it's going to be fun watching justice slap this asshole down:
Just last year, the [Valerie Plame] investigation was a laughing matter for Novak. He appeared onstage at the annual dinner at the Gridiron Club, the exclusive inner circle of the Washington press corps, of which he is a long-standing member. As a gag, Novak was attired as former diplomat Wilson, wearing top hat and cutaway coat, singing to the tune of "Once I Had a Secret Love": "Novak had a secret source who lived within the great White House ... so he outed a girl spy the way princes of darkness do ... Now John Ashcroft asks Bob who and how, could be headed to the old hoosegow." He belted out his last line with panache: "Cross the right wing you may try, Bob Novak's coming after you." The press corps hooted and clapped. They loved that Bob.
Labels: politics
¶ August 11, 2005 0 Comments
The other night, after eulogizing Peter Jennings, the only honest man left in broadcast journalism, Keith Olbermann, related his own cancer scare(from a cigar/pipe-caused tumor he had removed years ago from the roof of his mouth) and, with the words, "It's a lot harder to quit smoking once you know you have cancer," urged viewers to quit smoking, and now is devoting a portion of Countdown each night to practical suggestions as to how.
I'm a smoker but I'm glad Keith is doing this. It might even help me quit. You'd think MSNBC would consider such a thing laudable, a public service, and a proper tribute to the memory of the great Mr. Jennings.
You'd be wrong. Apparently they're more concerned with hyping their newest import from Fox News, the mushmouthed, sleazy, dim and repulsive sub-Current Affair trash-interviewer Rita Cosby:
I hear that MSNBC staffers in the Secaucus newsroom-studio watched in horror Monday night as the volatile Kaplan, the president of the cable outlet, publicly laced into the eccentric Olbermann, anchor of the 8 p.m. show "Countdown," after the latter eulogized lung-cancer victim Peter Jennings with a graphic rant about his own cancer scare.This wouldn't be the first time Olbermann has run afoul of his bosses; quite notoriously his straightforwardness got him bounced from Fox ages ago. (And I'm convinced the disguised voice of a former Fox staffer that you hear a number of times in Outfoxed is him--it's hard to disguise his tones) But it's Olbermann caring about his viewers that's angering his bosses, who'd rather shove more Michael Jackson(the oh-so-very important topic of Cosby's premiere) in our faces than take one evening to remember Jennings.Olbermann - a former pipe and cigar smoker - is said to have looked stunned as Kaplan raced onto the set and shouted at him after he signed off.
Olbermann had urged viewers to quit smoking and repeatedly mentioned "spitting blood" and "spitting globs of myself into a garbage can" while discussing his bout with a benign tumor in in his mouth.
I'm told that Kaplan erupted angrily and at length, calling Olbermann "out of control" and "not to be trusted," and accusing him of driving away viewers from the 9 p.m. debut of Kaplan hire Rita Cosby's show, "Live and Direct.
For its own part, MSNBC, which lacks much defining character except that it's not Fox, is apparently trying to erase that distinction, judging by its schedule. What with Cosby and Scarborough back to back and Chris Matthews trending more rightward all the time, Olbermann must seem quite a sore thumb to Kaplan. I really hope this doesn't develop the way it looks it will.
But it does underscore just what died with Jennings, doesn't it?
Labels: politics
¶ August 10, 2005 2 Comments
...and nothing has changed, nothing has gotten better.
How many would be alive now if George Bush had never been president?
"Bring 'em on."--Your president, 2003.
Labels: politics
¶ August 10, 2005 0 Comments
You do the math.
Less than half of Americans now say they think President Bush is honest, according to an AP-Ipsos poll...The percentage of people who say they consider Bush honest has dropped slightly from the start of the year. In January, 53 percent described him that way in the AP-Ipsos poll, while 45 percent said they did not believe he was honest. Now, people are just about evenly split — 48 percent saying he's honest and 50 percent saying he's not.
"Whether you agree or disagree with him, the president has taken a pounding on perceptions of his honesty," said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. She cited as one example the administration's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but none have been found.
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Posse Comitatus
Act of 1878SEC. 15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this section And any person willfully violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding two years or by both such fine and imprisonment.
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Pentagon plans response for homeland attacks
The U.S. military has developed war plans to counter terrorist attacks in the United States in shift from the Pentagon's reluctance to engage in domestic operations, The Washington Post reported on Monday. The documents lay out plans for handling 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipate simultaneous strikes in different parts of the country, the newspaper said, citing officers who drafted the plans. Quick-reaction forces of as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack would be deployed initially to respond and their numbers could grow, depending on the extent of the damage, the newspaper said. The Post said the possible scenarios envisioned range from low end, such as crowd control, to high end, disaster management after catastrophic attacks. The war plans represent a historic shift for the Pentagon, which is restricted by law from using troops in domestic law enforcement, according to the Post.
Labels: politics
¶ August 09, 2005 0 Comments
(click to enlarge)
...that we chased Richard Nixon away.
It's been going in & out of style,
But it's guaranteed to raise a smile!
Labels: politics
¶ August 08, 2005 0 Comments
The left rarely murders others for disagreeing with them:
It happened at Floyd County flea market on Thursday, when two friends, who were firearms vendors there, drew guns after quarreling about the war. Douglas Moore, 65, of Martin, who supports the war, shot and killed Harold Wayne Smith, 56, of Manchester, who opposed it, according to investigators.
Moore was released without being charged after he convinced police he had acted in self-defense. Commonwealth's Attorney Brent Turner said the episode might mark the first death in the U.S. due to a dispute over the war. One witness, Sam Hamman of Prestonsburg, told a newspaper, "Harold was talking about the 14 people that were killed in Iraq the other day and Doug said that just as many people were killed on the highways here.
This quickly escalated into an argument, then to a scuffle, and finally both men drew pistols outside a snack shed.
Labels: politics
¶ August 08, 2005 0 Comments
The only network anchorman I've had any respect for, or trust in, since Cronkite retired, Peter Jennings of ABC, has died of lung cancer at the age of 67, just a few months after he announced he was sick. I'm quite sad about this. Jennings was a man of wit, insight, and decency, and the networks' slow slide downward will no doubt continue unabated with him gone.
May he rest in peace.
And I suspect at this point that Cronkite is going to bury them all.
Labels: broadcast news, politics
¶ August 07, 2005 0 Comments
I really don't know what is more emblematic of the general character of Fox than that News Corporation is waging a campaign to cripple A.C. Neilsen. And why? Because Fox's ratings are down.
I mean, that just about says it all.
Labels: politics
¶ August 07, 2005 0 Comments
Bush can run off to Crawford but that doesn't necessarily help anymore. Today a mother whose son was killed in Bush's Iraq war led a protest right to his ranch's very front door, forcing officials--but of course, not the little prince himself--to meet with them.
The very fact that they even bothered to talk to them means they're starting to understand the American people are hating them for this war, and that eventually that matters. Like when it starts to appear the GOP will lose Congress over it. You tell me what a 39% approval(and dropping precipitously) approval rating for Bush--and all so far this year, at best a third that for Congress in general--portends for the 2006 elections.
But all they could manage to choke out of their dry, reptilian throats was:
"We mourn the loss of every life and Americans deeply appreciate those who have made the supreme sacrifice. The way to honor that sacrifice is to complete the mission so that their lives were not lost in vain."They were lost in vain. Don't think that by placing troops in harm's way for no reason you have therefore justified furthering the mistake. The war was for nothing, not even oil. Iraq is not democratic--it's in a civil war that we caused and are strengthening. Thousands of civilians and soldiers have died just holding on to the place. We are far more despised in the world because of it than at any other time in history, which will, for a very long time, only make things harder for us, and to prove how committed we are to our stupidity, we then send a John Bolton to the U.N. Our president dared the Iraqis to murder our troops, and they have. Bush has only made everything worse for everyone, and mortally wounded the morale--and numbers--of the armed forces when we really do need them for other, more important, and most of all necessary endeavors. What good has any of this done? Then you think prolonging what cannot be viewed as other than a mistake is a matter of honor?
Vietnam had more justification than this. So much goddamn waste and we let it happen.
The other day it was reported that two jurors from the recent Michael Jackson child molestation trial are now pitching tell-all books about the trial. One of these was an old woman who was much shown in the news following the acquittal, who said at the time that she voted to acquit because she didn't like the way the mother of the victim snapped her fingers at her. I didn't like that woman at all. Now these same jurors are saying they thought he was guilty. And they also--during the trial--had contact with Jackson's mother. The aforementioned woman winked at her many times.
But let's focus on the core thing here, and for a moment leave aside that this is a reflection of the lazy, repulsive corruption driven by weary apathy that is threaded through almost everything these days, from the moribund unoriginality our pop culture is stuck in to the increasing pointlessness and retardation of the press all the way up to how we have an administration that has committed crimes up to and including treason and no one has the balls to punish them for it.
On second thought, let's not leave that aside. It's relevant.
The point is, you would think that being guilty of child molestation would be enough to even send Michael Jackson to jail. But though the jurors thought he was guilty, he walked out a free man. Similarly, last year Bush's poll rating were appalling for a first-term incumbent president. He dicked around through three debates as though he didn't even care that he was up for election(perhaps he knew something about, oh, the voting machines that we don't), and no one who watched thought he looked like anything more than a complete asshole. He has murdered thousands upon thousands since taking office. He didn't bother to take any steps to prevent 9/11--or do anything while it was happening, not even scrambling the Air Force, except hide among a bunch of children--and forced us into a completely wasteful war over it when Iraq had nothing to do with it, and done nothing about terrorism, and squandered so very much of our national treasure on this and so much else. He has not once looked anything like a president. He doesn't care what the American people think and seems to make a point of making this clear. And he has never told us anything but insulting, cynical lies and we know all this is true. And we knew it before November of 2004.
You would have thought any one of these things would be enough to guarantee a speedy exit from office even with a feckless bore like Kerry against him. Hell, you'd think the bore would look like a relief over the preening asshole.
But just like guilt equaled innocence for Michael Jackson, failure meant success and crime meant reward for Bush. I would wonder what the hell is wrong with us. I suspect, on a cultural level, we're just all too tired to fight anymore. But we aren't worth the sacrifices our ancestors made to make this the country it used to be. There's no longer even a convincing pretense that there's anything special about America. We're just a big and stupid bunch of jerks now, as corrupt as any Indonesian bureacratic office.
And cause and effect in our country has become about as relevant a law as one against leaving your donkey hatless on a Sunday.
We'll miss it someday.
Labels: politics
¶ August 06, 2005 0 Comments
