ErrPort-77

Saturday Shuffle

2011-02-12T10:13:00.002-05:00

Let The Music Play - Shannon
Walk Away - Tom Waits
(She's) Sexy + 17 - Stray Cats
Smash It Up (Part 2) - The Damned
Taki Rari - Yma Sumac
All I Know - Basement Jaxx
Salvation (live) - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Maybe I'll Catch Fire (live) - Alkaline Trio
Justify My Love - Madonna
Valerie - Amy Winehouse

Maybe I'll Catch Fire

This house is full of ears,
But I can't talk to anyone.
They've heard this one a thousand times.
Most exciting thing I do,
Hang half way out a third floor window,
Maybe throw lit cigarettes down.

And maybe I'll catch fire.
Something warm to hold me,
Something pure to burn away the darkness that hides inside my mind.
All that evil shit's not hard to find.
I guess I only claim to be nice.

This house is full of eyes,
But I can't look at anyone.
They've seen this face a thousand times.
Most relaxing thing I do,
Hang half way out a third floor window,
And look at rocks if I fall out.

Well maybe I'll fall hard.
Something tough to break me,
Something sharp to rip into my insides and bleed out all that pain.
Sorry I don't even know your name.
I guess for me it's easy this way.

Maybe I'll catch fire.
Something warm to hold me,
Something pure to burn away the darkness that hides inside my mind.
All that evil shit's not hard to find.
I guess I only claim to be nice.

Rep. Steve King: Delusional racists are the president's problem

2011-02-10T23:28:00.011-05:00

In the aftermath of Bill O'Reilly's ~~superbowl interview~~ childish badgering of Barack Obama, Rep. Steve King took to the Lawrence O'Donnell show to discuss his Republican constituents who still cling to the paranoid fantasy that the president is a secret Muslim. King, quite comfortable with egging on the Birthers who think the President isn't a citizen or going on the radio to smear him as a racist apparently draws the line at calling Obama a Muslim, but blames him for the misconception, anyway...only to have O'Donnell promptly punch him in the mouth:

"Do you have any doubt about whether [Obama] is a Christian?" he asked King. "I take him at his word," King said.

"Are you a Christian?" O'Donnell asked. "Yes," King said.

"Should I take you at your word or should I maybe suspect you are Muslim?" O'Donnell said. "Do you have a Christian ID you can show me?"

King said that the misconception about Obama's religion among many Republicans is "not a Republican problem, this is the president's problem." O'Donnell asked,"if Republicans believe the world is flat, is that a Republican problem or a geography problem?"

Saturday Shuffle

2011-02-05T10:13:00.031-05:00

Trees - Dr. Octagon
Yesterday - The Beatles
In or Out (live) - Ani DiFranco
Rico's Blues - Jan Hammer
21st Century (Digital Boy) ('90 version) - Bad Religion
Words (For Love) - Paul Oakenfold
Severed (live) - Kittie
Guitar Date - The 5.6.7.8.'s
Behind My Camel - The Police
Harold of the Rocks (live) - Primus

In or Out

Guess there's something wrong with me
Guess I don't fit in
No one wants to touch it
No one knows where to begin
I've got more than one membership
To more than one club
And I owe my life
To the people that I love

He looks me up and down
Like he knows what time it is
Like he's got my number
Like he thinks it's his
He says,
Call me, Miss DiFranco,
If there's anything I can do
I say,
It's Mr. DiFranco to you

Somedays the line I walk
Turns out to be straight
Other days the line tends to deviate
I've got no criteria for sex or race
I just want to hear your voice
I just want to see your face

She looks me up and down
Like she thinks that I'll mature
Like she's got my number
Like it belongs to her
She says,
Call me, Ms. DiFranco
If there's anything I can do
I say, I've got spots
I've got stripes, too

Their eyes are all asking
Are you in, or are you out
And I think, oh man,
What is this about?
Tonight you can't put me
Up on any shelf

'Cause I came here alone
I'm gonna leave by myself

I just want to show you
The way that I feel
And when I get tired
You can take the wheel to me
What's more important
Is the person that I bring
Not just getting to the same restaraunt
And eating the same thing

Guess there's something wrong with me
Guess I don't fit in
No one wants to touch it
No one knows where to begin
I've more than one membership
To more than one club
And I owe my life to the people that I love

At the intersection of bigotry and tech savvy

2011-02-03T22:40:00.018-05:00

Tech savvy comes up with a nice "gotcha."

Great story of code beating codified hate, here. The Prop (H)8-supporting National Organization for Marriage decided to decorate their anti-gay marriage blog with a cartoon from the website Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal without doing much research into the creator's (Zach Weiner) actual opinions about their social aims.

They compounded their error by hotlinking the image directly from Mr. Weiner's database. (C'mon NOMers, you've never heard of photobucket or imageshack?) In addition to this being, well, stealing, it also afforded him the opportunity to alter the image that was being accessed from--and thus posted to--NOM's website. A little bit of HTML-fu later, this was the result:

Why did Thomas Jefferson hate traditional marriage so much?

What I wouldn't give to have had a few of the NOMers' reactions captured, Philly school district spycam-style...

GOP: "Well, there's "raped" and then there's REALLY raped.

2011-02-01T22:26:00.007-05:00

At least that's the plan outlined by the new GOP House majority, In yet another not-remotely-job-related legislative offering from the allegedly job-focused Republicans on the Hill, we're gifted with this abomination:

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion.

...The term "forcible rape" is not defined in the federal criminal code, and the bill's authors don't offer their own definition. In some states, there is no legal definition of "forcible rape," making it unclear whether any abortions would be covered by the rape exemption in those jurisdictions.

Classy, eh?

If you're poor, you better make sure your attacker not only rapes you, but beats the living hell out of you in the process. If not, you need to pay for--or live with and raise--his consequences.

If you were drugged, incapacitated, unconscious, or molested by a non-relative, you weren't raped enough according to John Boehner. Which is perversely appropriate, since they're more than willing to violate you all over again with laws like this one.

Once again, the conservative movement is working, tirelessly, to shrink government until it's just small enough to fit into every woman's uterus.

Cut out the middleman, Huck...

2011-02-01T21:37:00.002-05:00

Mike Huckabee (Likud-AR)

And just run for the Knesset instead of the White House. It's becoming increasingly clear which nation is at the forefront of Huckabee's mind when contemplating "national interests."

Mike Huckabee, on his 15th trip to Israel, weighs in on the situation in Egypt -- and essentially comes out against the pro-democracy protesters:
"[T]he events of the past few days in Egypt have created a very tenuous situation, not just for Egypt, not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world, and the destabilization of that nation has the potential of cascading across the globe."
According to another Israeli newspaper, Huckabee also told the Knesset, "the situation could threaten the world and all those who seek peace and security."

I never realized that threatening the Israeli government with (further) regional isolation is equivalent to "threatening the world." Speaks volumes that the Huckster, a legitimate contender for the Presidency of the United States, views them as one and the same. Better for the U.S. to throw its lot in with a despot who jails his opposition--while it occupies and/or bombs several other Muslim nations--than risk nervousness in a nuclear regime with he most sophisticated military in the region.

What could go wrong?

Totally not a dictator

2011-01-29T14:43:00.051-05:00

The internet in Egypt is out. No, not some sites. Not a ISP issue, like the one that ruins your day by keeping you from Netflix-ing the last season of The Office. The whole. Damn. Thing.

(But remember, “they" hate us for our freedom, not our billions in aid to repressive regimes with a foot firmly planted on “their” necks).

Ever wonder what an entire country's internet traffic getting shut off looks like? Well, wonder no longer:

If you'll consult your programs, this is our "very responsible" ally whom Vice President Biden "would not refer to as a dictator." Call me crazy, but responding to political protests against you by blacking out the internet, SMS messaging, and cellular service strikes me as a decidedly dictator-y thing to do.

At least it couldn't happen, here, though. I mean, that would take a law vesting the White House with the power to declare some sort of "cyber emergency" and exert control without any judicial review or oversight.

Uh oh.

Portions of the Lieberman-Collins bill, which was not uniformly well-received when it became public in June 2010, became even more restrictive when a Senate committee approved a modified version on December 15. The full Senate did not act on the measure.

The revised version includes new language saying that the federal government's designation of vital Internet or other computer systems "shall not be subject to judicial review." Another addition expanded the definition of critical infrastructure to include "provider of information technology," and a third authorized the submission of "classified" reports on security vulnerabilities.

How long until this Connecticut asshat retires, again?

Saturday Shuffle

2011-01-29T10:13:00.017-05:00

Death Dealer's Descent - Renholder
Take It Off - The Donnas
Extraordinary Girl - Green Day
Generation - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
TV II - Ministry
Come and Get Some of This - House of Pain
Man With A Mission (live) - Bad Religion
Clavicle (live) - Alkaline Trio
Tick - Ween
Right Between The Eyes - Garbage

This is not the "democracy" you are looking for...

2011-01-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

Move along.

"Obama’s praise for the Tunisian revolution and declaration that the United States “supports the democratic aspirations of all people” is particularly relevant in the face of the massive pro-democracy protest movement that has erupted in Egypt over the past week, timed to coincide with the anniversary of Egyptian police revolting against their British colonizers.

...One nation that has been mostly silent during these demonstrations is the United States. This is particularly important given that the United States is a close economic, political, and military ally to the Egyptian government, which receives nearly $2 billion annually in aid from the United States."

All of which ignores the Mubarek regime's support position as the United States' most favored regional figleaf with their status as Israel's Chief Arab Ally™

Personally, I can't see us standing with the Egyptians the same way we are with the ~~Tatooinians~~ Tunisians. The United States sure does love it some democracy...until the democratized masses start casting ballots for people we don't like so much. It's pretty clear that we "support democratic aspirations" only so far as they institute governments that we can coerce, control, or are otherwise in lockstep with our policy objectives.

Not-quite-live blogging the SOTU

2011-01-25T23:55:00.045-05:00

First of all, could John Boehner have looked any more put out at having to be there? He's the Speaker of the House for god's sake; one of the most powerful men in the country and he looked like my buddy's eight year-old when he finds out the restaurant is out of chicken fingers. His level of engagement went no further than spending the better part of an hour practicing his "withering contempt for the black man" expression, Zoolander-style.

Secondly, I'm not sure how you spend the first half of your speech talking about all the innovations you want to support and fund and then turn around and say, "by the way, we're also freezing domestic spending for five years" just weeks after putting the country in a $900,000,000,000 (deeper) hole with that deal-with-the-GOP-devil extending G-Dubs' tax cuts. I'm a big fan of high-speed rail, clean energy, education, etc., but what's going to get cut? That's a lot of the oft-discussed, yet never-detailed, "waste and inefficiency" to pare away.

Thirdly: Salmon? Most bizarre laugh line I've ever heard in one of these things.

At the end of the day, it was all worth it for the gift of Michelle Bachmann's Teabagger rebuttal. What the hell was she looking at? She came off like a deranged weather girl, one who can't pronounce "Iwo Jima."

Compromise, capitulation; To-may-to, to-mah-to, really.

2011-01-25T18:44:00.047-05:00

As the President prepares to present his state of the union address to Congress, Senate Minority Leader (and noted human/turtle hybrid) Mitch McConnell took the opportunity to remind us what the GOP envisions when they think of "bipartisan compromise" over the next two years. (Here's a hint: It looks quite a bit like Barack Obama pretending that it was John McCain and not he who was elected back in 2008 and then governing accordingly).

MCCONNELL: If the president is willing to do what I and my members would do anyway, we’re not going to say no and –

ALLEN: But that’s not much of a concession. That’s not bargaining, to just give you what you want.

MCCONNELL: Um, I like to think I’m a pretty good negotiator.

Can a dozen and a half "incidents" still be "isolated?"

2011-01-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

Digby, a true standard-bearer of bloggering fortitude and perseverance if ever there was one, has been discussing the farce that is the "isolated incident" of anti-left/anti-goverment terrorism since well before the recent events in Tucson. I'd considered reprinting her list of these few-and-far-between happenings (that just keep happening and happening and happening) but then I saw that she picked up the spot-on work from Dave Neiwert at Crooks & Liars.

And while pictures are worth a thousand words...

I highly advise people to check out the words.

Saturday Shuffle

2011-01-22T10:15:00.019-05:00

Murder She Wrote - Chaka Demus (feat. Pliers)
Say Goodbye Hollywood - Eminem
Albatross - Corrosion of Conformity
I Go Crazy - Flesh For Lulu
The Ocean - Led Zeppelin
777 - Danzig
Supernaut - 1000 Homo DJs
Pleasure, Little Treasure - Depeche Mode
I Wrote a Song About Your Car - Mike Doughty
My Philosophy - Boogie Down Productions

Countdown...and out

2011-01-21T23:57:00.010-05:00

Well, there it is. Keith Olbermann and Countdown are gone from MSNBC. There's far too much money at stake for this to be a firing as you or I would experience it, but, effectively, that's pretty much what it is. According to the network, "MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract." Conan O'Brien can tell you exactly what that means: the network canned you and is paying through the nose to do so. Though clearly not at a "Tonight Show" level buyout, I'm not going to weep for Olbermann; he's got more than enough fans to land on his feet, elsewhere, and, at this point, more than enough padding in his wallet if his feet aren't what hit the ground first.

That said, it's just remarkable how little it apparently takes to make a left-of-center personality unemployable, while sending stalkers after people you don't like or accusing the President of hating white people is worthy of ongoing, multi-million dollar contracts.

At any rate, here's Olbermann's farewell, which, by his own account, was allowed to be a bit more heartfelt than his exit from ESPN:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A short ride off into the sunset

2011-01-20T19:20:00.008-05:00

Looks like Rape Gurney Joe is calling it a (Senate) career. It doesn't sound as if there are too many of his constituents who will be too broken up at the prospect of no longer being represented by G-Dubs' favorite-est bipartisan figleaf.

Another friend burned up her iPad tonight when I asked her to enumerate why she hates Joe Lieberman. She ticked off a half-dozen reasons and then said, "The thing is, I did not come up with most of these myself. They come from many rounds of playing the peculiar Connecticut liberal cocktail party game 'I hated Joe Lieberman before you hated Joe Lieberman.'"

Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin, however, look to be getting positively misty at the prospect of a Senate without one of their most loyal sources of taxpayer-funded profiteering:

Defense industry says Sen. Lieberman will be ‘hard to replace’

“He is a giant of the Senate, to me just as important on national security as [Sen. Edward] Kennedy [D-Mass.] was on health or [Sen. Bill] Bradley [D-N.J.] on finance or [Sen. Pete] Domenici [R-N.M.] on the deficit,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a national security analyst at the Brookings Institution. “In that regard he is very, very hard to replace."

...Lieberman cemented his favorable reputation with defense firms when he advocated for more models of combat systems like the Lockheed Martin-made F-22 fighter and the Boeing-built C-17 air lifter even when Air Force and Pentagon officials argued against them.

...Lieberman has at times teamed up with conservative Republicans like Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri in fights to maintain weapon programs that the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama wanted to terminate or overhaul.

That's Joe Lieberman: an "advocate" and a "fighter." If he can strongarm billions for defense contractors, just imagine what he can do for the average person...and keep imagining, 'cause you don't want to be in the position of having to find out:

Lieberman said he believes hospitals that refuse to give contraceptives to rape victims for "principled reasons" shouldn’t be forced to do so. "In Connecticut, it shouldn’t take more than a short ride to get to another hospital," he said.

For those keeping score: in LieberLand, the Boeings of the world won't have to worry about losing a contract just because the military doesn't want it, and violated women shouldn't worry about little things like having their rapist's baby, since it's a just a "short ride" to go hospital shopping so they can find emergency contraception. After all, what's a little road trip after a few hours of being examined, scraped, swabbed and questioned by the police? If it was really that big a deal, then maybe survivors groups should've had the foresight to pony up $140,000 in donations like United Technologies, so ol' Joe would know how concerned they are.

No wars too big to support, no victims too small to throw under the bus to pander to your cross-over GOP voters.

Don't let the door hit you, Senator.

Patron Saint of Kiddie Diddlers

2011-01-19T00:42:00.040-05:00

A rather revolting juxtaposition emerging this week as the announcement that Pope John Paul II's bid for sainthood is proceeding at a record pace is followed, days later, with the revelation that, under his papacy, the Vatican actively discouraged Irish bishops' mandatory reporting of the sexual abuse of children.

A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police — a disclosure that victims' groups described as "the smoking gun" needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.

...The 1997 letter, signed by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, Pope John Paul II's diplomat to Ireland, instructs Irish bishops that their new policy of making the reporting of suspected crimes mandatory "gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature."

Storero wrote that canon law, which required abuse allegations and punishments to be handled within the church, "must be meticulously followed." Any bishops who tried to impose punishments outside the confines of canon law would face the "highly embarrassing" position of having their actions overturned on appeal in Rome, he wrote.

While I might not agree with him on every issue, I've long admired John Paul II's intellectual consistency in his formulation of the "Culture of Life" which was subsequently co-opted--and corrupted--by the far right in the United States (who conveniently tossed aside respect for life when that particular underpinning of their anti-choice rhetoric interfered with their eager, bloody embrace of capital punishment and pre-emptive war). That said, I have a pretty tough time admiring someone with any connection to or knowledge of this freakish deference to "canon law" when children were being assaulted. Again, the comparison is as striking as it is disturbing: It's a truly bizarre set of institutional priorities that permits casually waiving rules to get someone canonized at an unprecedented pace, but insists that they are "meticulously followed" when trying to keep abusive priests away from their prey. Meticulousness is fine when it keeps you from using the wrong fork at a formal dinner, but not so much so when it keeps molesters off the justice system's radar.

I don't care how many French nuns you heal, running interference for kiddie rapers takes you completely out of the sainthood sweepstakes. We'll just have to wait and see if the Church of Rome agrees...

Whack-a-psycho

2011-01-17T15:28:00.000-05:00

If one thing is true of every tragedy or disaster, it is that said event will be immediately followed by all manner of fear-driven, reactionary plans to ensure that This Thing Never Happens Again. Without fail, these plans, themselves, have two things in common: a painfully narrow focus on the unique details over broader issues (shoe-bomber, anyone?), paired with a Magoo-like myopia as to the consequences.

Wasting no time, The New Republic, came up with a solution to help Tuscon-proof the rest of the Union (via Literata):

"The problem is that state and national laws are too narrow to catch dangerous individuals like Loughner. When Congress returns, one of the legislative changes it should consider is passing a law that would require all public entities, as well as all organizations that receive public funds, to file a report on any affiliated individuals (e.g., employees or students) that they deem to be public mental health concerns. These confidential reports (which would be provided to the person in question) would then be entered into the Brady database, called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and serve as grounds to prohibit immediate firearms purchases. People would ultimately have the opportunity to prove their mental stability and have the reports revoked in a timely manner—but, until then, or if unable to prove stability, they could not walk into a gun store and buy a weapon. Period."

The TNR crisis response center

What could possibly go wrong with mandating that a bunch of amateurs file assessments on whatever they deem a "mental health concern" and then compiling all their guesswork and supposition into a national database? Once you apply a legal mandate, you're just asking to get filings on every slightly twitchy, disagreeable, odd, or otherwise sketchy individual these entities come into contact with. If someone thinks there is legal--and perhaps funding-related--accountability, the lowest threshold will be applied. After all, who's going to take the chance of not reporting anyone who seems even remotely out of the ordinary if they think that if he/she does go off the deep-end, they will be neck-deep in wrongful death lawsuits from grieving family members?

And with such widely-cast nets come all the people getting caught within them.

If you do end up on the no-gun list, who can afford not to take the "opportunity to prove their mental stability?" Anyone want to wager their next job, loan, or credit application on the belief that this information will only come up if you try to buy a gun? And while you can't afford the consequences of ignoring it, how are people going to afford the finances of addressing it? Barring the establishment of a government office dedicated to proving mental stability, that's a lot of pricey psychological assessments and evaluations. (Not to mention a steadily growing government database of psychological profiles of citizens who've done nothing wrong and committed no crime. Nope, nothing creepy about that, no-sir-ee).

When will TNR and our knee-jerk legislators realize that, regardless of what we do about these situations, there will always be a "next time?" The crazies are out there and they will find a way, eventually. The sooner they accept that, the sooner we can apply common sense solutions to minimize future danger instead of engaging in this game of legislative whack-a-mole, instituting staggeringly impractical policy tailored to stop what's already happened.

Making the Rounds after the Globes?

2011-01-16T23:45:00.056-05:00

Very nice to see non-Hollywood faces like Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross take home the Golden Globe for Best Score for their atmospheric work from The Social Network. With any luck, the newfound notoriety will help the long-unreleased (and as-yet-untitled) third album from Ross' band, 12 Rounds, see the light of day. I saw them open for Marylin Manson on the "Mechanical Animals" tour back in 1998 and bought their sophomore effort, My Big Hero, the same night. Then, they dropped off the face of the Earth. After some label wrangling (they were signed to Reznor's lawsuit-riven Interscope vanity imprint "Nothing Records") Ross and his wife/12 Rounds singer, Claudia Sarne, got their rights to the material restored. They're definitely worth checking out:

Shorter 2011 GOP legislative agenda

2011-01-15T19:02:00.001-05:00

The Republican party has been accused of many things. Being subtle has never appeared on the list.

They were more than open about the fact that their top legislative priority over the next two years is not homeland security, the economy, or jobs, but engineering the defeat of President Obama in the 2012 election.

Then they blatantly held the middle class over a barrel until they got tax breaks extended for the wealthiest of Americans.

Their tax cut "compromise" having been so successful, they've wasted no time in unveiling their strategy for the new year (via Political Wire):

"It's a leverage moment for Republicans. The president needs us. There are things we were elected to do. Let's accomplish those if the president needs us to clean up the old mess."

-- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), quoted by the Washington Post, saying Republicans will insist on their own agenda items in return for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling.

They might not be driving the car, but they have no problem jerking the wheel into oncoming traffic.

(Click here for your own ransom note-generating fun).

Saturday Shuffle

2011-01-15T10:13:00.018-05:00

Flowers In The Attic - Christopher Young
The Eternal - Joy Division
Whistle Down The Wind (For Tom Jans) - Tom Waits
Soldier Blue [Extended Cut] - The Cult
I Fought The Law (live) - The Clash
One More - Medicine
Pow - Beastie Boys
Elephants - Them Crooked Vultures
Destined For Nothing - Bad Religion
New Girl - The Suicide Machines

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Priebus

2011-01-14T22:36:00.006-05:00

I have to say, I'd kind of prefer "Prince Bierus," myself. He could be the emcee of Oktoberfest, which sounds like a more plumb gig than this one:

Wisconsin Republican party chairman Reince Priebus won a protracted fight for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee today, replacing his one-time ally Michael Steele at the helm of the committee.

Priebus led on every ballot but picked up momentum once Steele exited the contest after the fourth round of voting.

For all the shit Barack Obama took for his name and how American it was or wasn't, I'll say this, it's not fodder for a round of "American Political Figure or Hogwarts Wizard."

Shocking poll: The wealthy happy despite recession

2011-01-13T21:31:00.001-05:00

The wealthy are happy.

Truly stunning, I know. But the numbers don't lie: as it happens, nearly 71% of the 1900 households surveyed (average income of $235,000/year) report being happy, a huge increase over the 40% who felt that way back in 2007.

Why the sudden explosion of satisfaction and contentment? I wondered that, myself. Unfortunately, I'm only able to relay what I found now, after being forced to seek immediate medical attention to repair the detached retina caused by the spastic, involuntary eye roll that occurred as I read further into the NYT's story:

"Interest in luxury is trending up, but this interest is qualitatively different from the unbridled enthusiasm that characterized ... the mid-2000s," said Jim Taylor, Harrison Group's vice chairman. "People take pride in the way they have managed their finances and family through the recession."

And this pride had led to happiness among the rich, with 71 percent saying they are happy, up from 40 percent in 2007.

"It's because they didn't know they could survive something this bad," Taylor told the Luxury Marketing Council of New York on Wednesday. "They have got competent, they have gotten close to their family, they have self-esteem from their ability to handle a crisis."

"Happiness is now the abiding object of affluent American life, not success," he said. "They're really happy with their ability to operate under pressure."

It's like seeing the lessons of my father brought to life--the intrinsic reward of personal accomplishment and satisfaction in a job well done. Think about it: it has to be incredibly self-affirming to find out you can still "survive" and "handle a crisis" scraping by on--on average--only about a quarter-million dollars per year. The men and women who were able to successfully shepherd their families through that living hell of domestic vacations, non-touch iPods, and C-Class Mercedes should be proud--dammit--cut, as they are, from the same hardy cloth as our pioneering forefathers.

Like so many before them, they've weathered the storm and come out the other side the better for it; voyaging, now, into their futures, sustained by the knowledge that they can rely on themselves, come hell or high water. (Possibly even come "still" over "sparking.") The light from their example of fortitude shines far, even reaching the America that the other 90% of us occupy.

And now for something completely different....

2011-01-13T00:22:00.001-05:00

Enough about guns, political pinheads, and bombastic bloviating.

A belated "Happy Marriage" to author Neil Gaiman and punk-cabaret songstress extraordinaire, Amanda Fucking Palmer.

For those unfamiliar, Mr. Gaiman is the noted wordsmith behind more than a few excellent novels, including Coraline, American Gods and Neverwhere, as well as the acclaimed Sandman comic series published by DC/Vertigo.

The inimitable Ms. Palmer was/is half of the "Brechtian Punk Cabaret" duo, The Dresden Dolls, before branching out into a solo career that will astonish, amaze, and totally reinvent how you think about Radiohead and ukuleles.

And yes, if you must ask, I nicked one of their wedding photos for this post from Facebook. I doubt either would mind, much, as such behavior is only creepy if I had previously dated one or both of them. Since A.) I can't very well do Neil's writing much justice with an excerpt and B.) I don't want to wait until next October to post it, here's a clip of the reconstituted Dresden Dolls at Irving Plaza in NYC (courtesy BrooklynVegan) this past Halloween...

Andrew Breitbart in lead at the Summer's Eve invitational

2011-01-12T21:53:00.000-05:00

Always up for a challenge, when ~~Right-wing blogger~~ raving, utterly discredited, con-man Andrew Breitbart found himself with the opportunity to face Sarah Palin in a contest to see which one of them could cram his/her foot further into his/her mendacious, truth-averse pie-hole, he didn't flinch. Even when the Quitter led off by responding to the recent assassination-spawned controversy over her militant rhetoric and gunsight imagery by not merely playing the victim, herself, but by invoking the anti-Semitic smear of "blood libel" to do it, Andy knew he could still do better. Summoning heretofore unseen levels of tone-deafness, staggering ignorance, and the most casually exploitative view of other people's pain and human suffering, he took to his Twitter account and went straight-up Kobayashi in this competitive eating contest of moronitude (h/t Feministe):

"I used ‘blood libel’ because I thought using analogy of lefties at pinball machine in Jodie Foster film ‘The Accused’ was too obscure."

Now, to clear up the "obscurity": The Accused earned Ms. Foster an Oscar for her portrayal of a woman who was--wait for it--thrown up against a pinball machine, beaten, and gang-raped by a bunch of drunks. (Such a wit, that Andy; always ready with the perfect 160 character bòn mót.) Because, really, when you think about it, what could be more similar to violent sexual assault than having people criticize your choice of words as having a negative effect and suggest that you tone it down a bit?

My question is this: If Mr. Breitbart is of the opinion that what Sarah Palin has gone through is on par with rape, exactly what does he think about what happened to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, or Judge John Roll, or Christina Taylor Green? If questions that one can parry with safe, one-sided, unchallenged video releases are akin to a fundamental violation of one's body and dignity, what analogy would he use for what the nine year-old Green's parents and family are now going through?

At least Mr. Breitbart has answered the riddle of where he comes up with his views and provided the solution in an equally cinematic bit of framing: the As Good As It Gets rule: You think of a man...and take away reason, accountability, and every last shred of human decency.

Outsmarting the conscientious assassins

2011-01-11T13:45:00.001-05:00

How to look busy while doing nothing:

"Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, is planning to introduce legislation that would make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official, according to a person familiar with the congressman's intentions.

...It is already illegal in the U.S. to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. King's legislation to make it illegal to knowingly carry a gun within 1,000 feet of the president, vice president, members of Congress or judges of the Federal Judiciary, would offer government officials the same protection."

Setting aside the unintentional humor in headlining this as "strict" legislation, from what sort of imaginary offender would this protect anyone? It's some interesting pathology, indeed, that would find someone with murder on the mind hesitating at the prospect of a weapons charge, wouldn't you say?

"Y'know, I'm prepared to face the gas chamber, but those fines are *really* steep."

What's next, Pete, a bill forbidding unicorn grazing on public lands?

The only people this will affect--hilariously, if you ask me--are the gun-toting Teabaggers who would no longer be able to show up at town halls and constituent meetings while packing heat. The larger rallys would be even more fascinating. When the Michelle Bachmanns of the world showed up somewhere to address their embittered, ill-informed minions, would organizers clearly mark the 1,000 foot line so as not to cramp anyone's Second Amendment style? Maybe a nice velvet rope dividing the "strapped" section from "non-strapped" section?

The Gray Lady goes 1 for 2 on Tucson shooting

2011-01-10T16:53:00.003-05:00

Credit where credit is due, the Times' editorial department remembered that it can do more than produce birdcage liner following the tragic shooting of US. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords this past weekend. Ignoring the inevitable pushback from the usual suspects dothing their deflective best to protest too much, the NYT stepped up to the plate, albeit with mixed results.

First came the triple:

"It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman's act directly to Republicans or Tea Party members. But it is legitimate to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge. Many on the right have exploited the arguments of division, reaping political power by demonizing immigrants, or welfare recipients, or bureaucrats. They seem to have persuaded many Americans that the government is not just misguided, but the enemy of the people."

Unfortunately, they followed up with a one-hopper back to the mound:

"(Arizona's) gun laws are among the most lenient, allowing even a disturbed man like Mr. Loughner to buy a pistol and carry it concealed without a special permit. That was before the Tucson rampage. Now, having seen first hand the horror of political violence, Arizona should lead the nation in quieting the voices of intolerance, demanding an end to the temptations of bloodshed, and imposing sensible controls on its instruments."

Arizona's gun laws, however an appealing target they may seem right now, weren't the problem, here. First off, as foolish as such a law may seem on its face, the fact that Arizona doesn't require a permit for concealed carry is beyond irrelevant. Does anyone really believe that if a permit were necessary, Loughner would've cursed its inconvenience and A.) scrapped his plan, or B.) decided that, while he is still down with the whole "assassination" thing, he'll carefully observe the local gun laws in the meantime and proceed to the supermarket event, openly be-Glocked, for all of the world and law enforcement to see?

Secondly, while plenty of anecdotes have emerged to show just how disturbed Loughner was/is, what was the actual paper trail? He wasn't a felon. He hadn't been committed. He wasn't the object of a personal protection order. Beyond his bizarre YouTube videos, he flunked a military enlistment drug screen and got himself suspended--and later withdrew--from a community college. What sort of background check would've caught any of that?

In this post-Heller America, any gun regulation is going to be an uphill slog. And as much as Jared Loughner might look like the perfect poster-boy to rally people to make that climb, even a cursory review of the facts should've shown the NYT editors that his is a narrative that doesn't have a chance of holding up to the scrutiny it would surely face.

Filed under "G"

2011-01-09T22:10:00.001-05:00

For either "Gee, I wonder..." or "Guantanamo."

Take your pick, really. Michael Moore with the Tweet of the Day:

The Courage of Your Redactions

2011-01-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

Way to take a stand:

A senior Republican senator, speaking anonymously in order to freely discuss the tragedy, told POLITICO that the Giffords shooting should be taken as a “cautionary tale” by Republicans.

“There is a need for some reflection here - what is too far now?” said the senator. “What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and talk radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.”

The vast majority of tea party activists, this senator said, ought not be impugned.

“They’re talking about things most mainstream Americans are talking about, like spending and debt,” the Republican said, before adding that politicians of all stripes need to emphasize in the coming days that “tone matters.”

“And the Republican Party in particular needs to reinforce that,” the senator said.

It really speaks volumes that, even in the wake of an attempted assassination, a sitting U.S. Senator won't make calm, measured comments about "reflection" and "tone" on the record out of fear of the political consequences of being perceived as blaming the hysterical fearmongering of the Becks, Palins, and Limbaughs.

The "too far" that Sen. X (R-Witness Protection Program) is talking about isn't far at all; it's clearly in control of the Republican Party.

Sarah, Sharon, & the Shooter

2011-01-09T14:44:00.002-05:00

Remember, "Don't retreat, RELOAD:"

And who can forget:

"I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

"Well it's to defend ourselves. And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems."

And if it's not, Sharon?

Those individuals--like noted Red State turd-in-chief Erick Erickson--who are now bristling at the the notion of teabagger rhetoric being discussed in the context of yesterday's atrocity in Tuscon or claiming progressives are "playing politics" are, as is so often the case, missing the point, entirely.

None of this is about "political advantage." It's frustration at the possibility that this tragedy was foreseeable and perhaps avoidable.

You tell people long enough, not that your ideas are better, but that your opponents hate America and are actively trying to destroy it, accuse them of "palling around with terrorists" and sympathizing with dictators and despots and lie about people wanting to take your rights and put grandma to death, it's going to have an effect. If you further stoke those fears with aggressive, militant rhetoric and talk of "second amendment remedies," it doesn't take a genius to see what can happen. Unequivocally, the responsibility lies with the shooter, but the hysterical climate is a contributing influence.

Pretending that one of the clear sources of this rage-filled, violent milieu is just some sort of inconsequential triviality transcends simple ignorance; it's a cowardly avoidance of accountability.

Jared Lee Loughner is clearly a nut who went around the bend. That said, how much easier is it to take that step when you have, not just other beady-eyed trolls on the internet reinforcing your paranoia, but mainstream political figures claiming that elected officials are conspiring to destroy the country, kill grandma, and planting the seeds for looking to bullets when you lose on the ballots?

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Shot At Arizona Event

2011-01-08T17:33:00.004-05:00

Horrific.

TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and at least 17 others were shot Saturday morning when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents.

Six of the victims died, among them John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for Arizona, and a 9-year-old girl, the Pima County sheriff, Clarence W. Dupnik, said.

Ms. Giffords, 40, whom the authorities called the target of the attack, was in critical condition Sunday morning at the University Medical Center in Tucson, where she was operated on by a team of neurosurgeons on Saturday. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital’s trauma and critical care unit, said Saturday that she had been shot once in the head, “through and through,” with the bullet going through her brain.

Investigators identified the gunman as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, and said that he was refusing to cooperate with the authorities and had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. Mr. Loughner was in custody with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday night, the Pima Country sheriff’s office said.

After everything we've heard and seen for the past two years, is anyone remotely surprised?

Saturday Shuffle

2011-01-08T10:13:00.018-05:00

Gladiator - The Jesus Lizard
King Without a Crown (live) - Matisyahu
You Were The Fool - Ween
Wall Flower - Switchblade Symphony
Fantasy - Lush
Into The Night - Julee Cruise
Break Ya Neck - Busta Rhymes
Repetition (live) - Helmet
Phone Call - Los Lobos
Colombia - Jan Hammer

Saturday Shuffle

2011-01-01T10:13:00.019-05:00

New Year's Day Edition

Some Kinda Hate/Radio (live) - Alkaline Trio
Palace of the Brine - Pixies
Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth - GZA
Unyielding Conditioning - Fishbone
Burning Hell - R.E.M.
Platinum - Orgy
Hey Ya - Richard Cheese
Love Spreads - The Stone Roses
Closer (live) - Nine Inch Nails
Don't Stay Home - 311

Saturday Shuffle

2010-07-10T10:13:00.001-04:00

The Dark Half - Christopher Young
Into the Hollow - Queens of the Stone Age
Dollhouse (live) - Switchblade Symphony
I Like You - Morrissey
Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit - Wu-Tang Clan
Viginti Tres - Tool
Junkhead - Alice In Chains
Miami Vice Theme - Jan Hammer
More Human Than Human - White Zombie
Happy Birthday - The Birthday Party

The Rule of Law: Ruling some more than others

2010-07-06T20:08:00.017-04:00

Glenn Greenwald breaks it all down--as he usually does--now that the Obama DOJ has levied 50+ years worth of charges against an Army private alleged to have supplied information to the organizers of the WikiLeaks website.

* If you torture people or eavesdrop on Americans without the warrants required by the criminal law, you receive Look-Forward Imperial Immunity.

* If you shoot and kill unarmed rescuers of the wounded while occupying their country and severely wound their unarmed children sitting in a van -- or if you authorize that conduct -- your actions are commended.

* If you help wreck the world economy with fraud and cause hundreds of millions of people untold suffering, you collect tens of millions of dollars in bonuses.

* If you disclose to the world evidence of war crimes, government lawbreaking, or serious corruption, or otherwise embarrass the U.S., you will be swiftly prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and face decades in prison.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-07-03T10:13:00.016-04:00

Them Bones (live) - Alice In Chains
When You Sleep - My Bloody Valentine
Double Team - Tenacious D
I Turned Into A Martian - The Misfits
Sweet Cycle - Tito & Tarantula
Letter To Memphis - Pixies
You and Whose Army - Radiohead
Detachable Penis - King Missile
San Francisco Days - Chris Isaak
Spanish Blue - Aqua Velvets

At the corner of Mendacity and Hysteria...

2010-07-02T17:34:00.000-04:00

...lies Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.

After signing off on an immigration law that allows police to stop anyone ~~brown enough~~ that they "reasonably suspect" to be in the country illegally, she realized that she had to make the case to her constituents--as well as the country, at large--that the Arizona immigration problem outweighs the burden this will undoubtedly cause on U.S. citizens whose appearance is now just a bit too illegal-y. To that end, she devised a strategy:

Lie.

And lie, shamelessly, at that.

Now that her "drug mule" scare-mongering has blown up in her face, she's decided on a new tactic:

Avoid criticizing feds who might take umbrage at looking incompetent, and make sure the fear factor is even more outlandishly pants-filling:

Arizona governor says immigration leads to beheadings

In an interview with Fox News, Brewer said, "We cannot afford all this illegal immigration and everything that comes with it, everything from the crime and to the drugs and the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings."

"Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded," she added.

You can't put more "peril" into the Brown Peril than conjuring up images of crazed (and, most likely, drug mule-ing) illegal immigrants rampaging through the countryside, lopping off people's heads, right?

Surely, the gruesome threat of imminent, violent, non-English speaking death will provide more than ample justification for even the most bleeding of hearts who might currently object to everyone darker than John Boehner having to carry proof of citizenship lest they find themselves detained by the police...

You can guess what happened next, can't you?

County coroners can't back Brewer beheadings claim

Officials with six county medical examiners offices in the state, including four from counties that border Mexico, say they have never heard of such attacks.

The Arizona Guardian contacted the coroners' offices in Yuma, Pima, Pinal, Maricopa, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties. All of them said they'd never investigated an immigration-related crime in which someone's head had been head cut off within their respective jurisdictions.

The way I see it, the reality-challenged governor has gone so far around the bend, so quickly, that she has left herself with very few options for her next step in this insanity arms race. Her choices:

Undocumented workers A.) are a known cause of cancer, or B.) are, in fact, zombies.

My money is on zombies. Don't disappoint me, Jan.

The Teabagger movement: STILL nothing to do with race

2010-07-02T15:40:00.001-04:00

And you are the one playing the race card if you say different. Via firedoglake:

Those who embrace the Tea Party movement are much less likely than others to see discrimination as a threat to the nation’s future and a hurdle for minorities. More than three in four say racial minorities have equal job opportunities; half of non-Tea Party supporters agree. They overwhelmingly reject the notion that economic disparities between blacks and whites are mainly the result of discrimination.

Nearly half say blacks lag in jobs, income and housing “because most African Americans just don’t have the motivation or willpower to pull themselves up out of poverty.”

See?

"We're not racists, we just think a lot of blacks are lazy, complacent, and weak-willed."

And in further startling revelations:

So, as the numbers indicate, the respondents are clearly speaking--not from any racially based prejudices or stereotypes--but from their intimate, personal knowledge of lower-income minority populations and their life circumstances and beliefs.

The heartbreak of end-stage Foot In Mouth disease

2010-07-02T14:59:00.002-04:00

Did I say "heartbreak?" I meant "humor." Oopsie:

RNC chair Michael Steele suggested history stands against the U.S. in the war in Afghanistan, a gaffe caught on camera during a fundraiser last night in CT.

"This was a war of Obama's choosing," Steele says in remarks captured on what appears to be a hidden camera. Steele blasted Obama for "demonizing Iraq while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan."

"If he's such a student of history has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Because everyone who's tried, over a thousand years of history has failed," Steele says.

Would that have been a war of Illinois State Senator Obama's choosing, Mikey?

It must be, because, last I checked, the Afghan war--land and otherwise--began back in 2001. What an intoxicating amount of power that body must have, able to mobilize billions of dollars for an international war effort. No wonder Chicago politics is such a contact sport.

Steele's had a bullseye on his back ever since he became a heretic to the Church of Limbaugh. That transgression demanded nothing less than public groveling and kissing the pillpopper's ring. Now he dares to speak ill of one of our concurrent Glorious Wars of Freedomizing and De-Islamofascistification? He might as well demand free medical marijuana, gay marriage, and abortions on demand for 13 year-olds while he's at it.

This won't end well and the sharks are already circling:

I ask you to consider, over this July 4 weekend, doing an act of service for the country you love: Resign as chairman of the Republican party.

Needless to say, the war in Afghanistan was not "a war of Obama’s choosing." It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort. Indeed, as the DNC Communications Director (of all people) has said, your statement "puts [you] at odds with about 100 percent of the Republican Party."

Best clean up that resume of yours, Mr. Steele. Looks like our new unemployment filings may be increasing by one in the very near future, and if you thought your GOP buddies were cruel to you now, wait until you see their interpretation of compassion for the jobless.

Profiles in casual depravity

2010-06-29T22:41:00.000-04:00

Sharon Angle's primary win is the gift that keeps on giving to Harry Reid. Now she comes out as a stalwart defender of rapists' rights:

MANDERS: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

ANGLE: Not in my book.

MANDERS: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

ANGLE: You know, I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

And I thought pandering to her teabagger constituents by off-handedly sympathizing with the desire for "Second Amendment remedies" (read: violent uprising) for losses at the ballot box was bad.

In Angle's world, women have no right to control their reproductive lives, but their rapists' have the right to see their children born.

I dare Angle to look a rape or incest victim in the face and tell her that she shouldn't worry about being forced to carry her attackers' child because she just needs to "have a little faith" that her violation is all part of a divine plan.

In that case, Six-Gun Sharon better hope she's got a "second amendment remedy" of her own, handy, because I think that's about all that would save her from the woman in question.

If people have suffered through something awful and want to comfort themselves with the idea that "everything happens for a purpose," then that's one thing. For some self-righteous monster to offer that subjective worldview as a reason why women should be victimized all over again is beyond the pale.

That strange, mysterious land

2010-06-29T09:31:00.001-04:00

they call "Hawaii":

"Obama is detached form the American experience. He just doesn't identify with the average American because of his own background. Indonesia and Hawaii." - Former Sen. Rick Santorum

Like others before him, I guess Man-on-dog Santorum thinks that some states are more American than others.

Be intertesting for Ricky and the Quitter to explain what makes one "average" or "real" considering Hawaii makes up a larger percentage of the U.S. population than the--presumably--average and real Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, or Wyoming.

Oh well, since places like New York (when it's not being blown up), Masschusetts (when it doesn't vote for Scott Brown), and California (24/7/365) clearly aren't "average America," either, in these folks' estimation, what's marginalizing one more state in the interests of pandering to the xenophobes--and, let's be honest, racists--in the constituency?

Problem not scary enough? Lie.

2010-06-27T18:55:00.057-04:00

Governor Papers Please has apparently decided that her state's immigration problems aren't inducing the proper level of panic among her constituency, both locally, and those whom she's pandering to in the national news. After what could charitably be called a minimal amount of thought, she's hit upon a novel solution: simply make shit up:

"Well, we all know that the majority of the people that are coming to Arizona and trespassing are now becoming drug mules," (Governor Jan) Brewer said. "They're coming across our borders in huge numbers. The drug cartels have taken control of the immigration.

"So they are criminals. They're breaking the law when they are trespassing and they're criminals when they pack the marijuana and the drugs on their backs."

Now, I don't claim to be an expert on lying as a politician, but it seems to me there are probably a few guidelines to follow. Near the top of the list: when selecting the basis for your fabrication, don't pick a scenario that has an entire government agency dedicated to dealing with it. Agencies like those tend to have employees who just might take issue with your attempt to make them look like they're doing an already nearly impossible task even more poorly:

T.J. Bonner of the National Border Patrol Council told CNN that Brewer's claims were "clearly not the case." Bonner said that some undocumented immigrants caught by border patrol agents have drugs on them, and that they sometimes blame pressure from the drug cartels.

But, he said, those claims have little credibility because drug smugglers are typically transporting much larger quantities of drugs. And besides, he said, if what Brewer said were true, there would be many more prosecutions for drug smuggling.

Brewer's comments, Bonner said, don't "comport with reality -- that's the nicest way to put it."

But, in the grand scheme of things, if Iraqi WMD, death panels, and the president being a commu-islamo-socialist sleeper agent didn't "comport with reality" why start being straight about the brown people you're using to terrify the electorate?

Saturday Shuffle

2010-06-26T10:13:00.017-04:00

Cure For Pain (live) - Morphine
Kiss Me Deadly - Reel Big Fish
To Have And To Hold - Depeche Mode
I Awake - Soundgarden
All Apologies - Nirvana
Regulate - Warren G & Nate Dogg
Still Suspicion Holds You Tight - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Rabbit In Your Headlights - U.N.K.L.E.
If 666 Was '96 - DXT
You Can Never Hold Back Spring - Tom Waits

Pawns in Obama's ten dimensional chess game

2010-06-22T17:27:00.012-04:00

Quoth John from AMERICAblog (who's already disproved ten dimensional chess):

Justice Dept to file suit against Arizona immigration law next week

At first blush, this is great. But what worries me is that the Latinos are being played the same way the gays have been played. Rather than pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, as promised, the administration is weighing in on a high-profile case that, heinous as it is, only affects one state. It's an easy to way score points on immigration without doing the heavy lifting of trying to pass real national reform.

The way that I see it, there's little point in worrying about things that are set.

There's no "if" about it. There is no doubt in my mind that Latinos/as are being played, just like the LGBT community and the Unions before them. For all its sound and fury on the stump, this administration has clearly taken close note of the last eight years and begun to treat its various constituencies the same way that the GOP has treated the Evangeliban:

You're the audience of choice on the campaign trail. You get focused speeches and carefully tailored rhetoric at every turn in order to get you to the polls, only to become the crazy aunt they try to hide in the attic once the election is over.

At least in the GOP's case, they simply ignore the Christian Right. The Obama machine actively attacks and marginalizes those whose support it figures it won't need for awhile.

Say whatever else you might about them, the number of Fundies--sick of getting red meat speechifying and little else--and who've gone teabagger, attacking incumbents of both stripes, make the progressive presidential apologists look all the more whipped.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-06-19T10:13:00.011-04:00

I Alone (live) - Live
Rhythm of the Night - DeBarge
Telegram Sam - Bauhaus
Generation Landslide - Alice Cooper
Blackened - Metallica
Janie's Got A Gun - Aerosmith
Omegaman - The Police
Beetles - Aphex Twin
Starling - Tori Amos
The Pet Semetary - Elliot Goldenthal

Lying in the bed we made

2010-06-17T15:17:00.002-04:00

From CNN:

Mothers of detained U.S. hikers urge Iran to prosecute or free them

The mothers of U.S. hikers urged the Iranian government to either prosecute or free the three held since last year after reportedly crossing the border into the country while hiking in Iraq.

..."Shane, Sarah and Josh have been detained in Iran without due process for almost 11 months, in continued violation of Iranian and international law," the mothers said.

"To continue to detain our children without regard for their legal and human rights reinforces suspicions that they are being held in a cynical attempt by Iran to exert leverage with the United States. Iran has no legitimate reason at this stage not to release them or move forward with a fair trial in which our children can openly answer any allegations against them."

When I first saw the abbreviated "latest news" headline on the front page--"Iran told to prosecute or free hikers"--I had to wonder what politican had the guts to get in front of a microphone and try and take that position with a straight face. Unfortunately, at this point, their mothers are about the only ones who *can* credibly advance this argument.

And it's a good thing they're out there, trying.

Because again and again and again, our government has shown that it no longer occupies the moral high ground necessary to honestly make a similar appeal on their behalf (though that pesky little detail hasn't stopped us in the past).

Now Iran isn't doing this because of the administration's stance on detainees at Gitmo and Bagram; it's a childish provocation in the interests of gamesmanship in the two nations' nuclear enrichment standoff. But it absolutely highlights the fact that we can't expect, much less dictate, that other nations behave according to standards that we repeatedly refuse to apply to ourselves.

Abandoning the dogwhistle

2010-06-15T20:01:00.091-04:00

First it was Blubberin' Becky claiming that the President has "a deep seated hatred for white people." Now Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has decided to throw his pointy white hood into the ring:

"I'm offended by Eric Holder and the president also, their posture," said King, 61. "It looks like Eric Holder said that white people in America are cowards when it comes to race."

King continued: "The president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race on the side that favors the black person in the case of professor Gates and officer Crowley."

And exactly what is your problem with their "posture," Stevie? A little too uppity for your taste, perhaps?

Now Beck is nothing more than a demagogic shit-stirrer, concerned with little else than keeping his slack-jawed viewers frothing for his ratings and advertising dollars (and selling his dreadful novel, of course). As such, he's pretty much held to no standards, whatsoever, be they for objectivity, truth, or even rationality.

King, however, is an elected official trying to make political hay by claiming the attorney general is somehow hostile to whites and the President is a blatant racist. To that end, he simply lies. And since King has such a track record of asinine statements, the most shocking thing about all of this was seeing the writer actually call him out on his horseshit:

Holder, in a 2009 speech, did not suggest that whites are more cowardly than blacks when discussing race, as King indicated in the radio interview.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot," Holder said, "in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."

While I might've placed those 'grafs higher in the piece to serve as a more immediate exposure of King's mendacity, that it's there at all is wonder unto itself. Rather than uncritically repeating every claim as if it's a legitimate point of view that must be weighed by the reader--as is standard practice in the pursuit of "balance"--the writer actually fact checked.

Congratulations AP; now Journalism trails Stenography by only ten touchdowns, or so.

Courting the unhinged

2010-06-15T19:22:00.000-04:00

In the wake of her win over Sue "Chickens for Checkups" Lowden in the GOP Senate primary in Nevada, it appears that Teabagger darling, Sharon Angle, suffers from a similar case of foot-in-mouth disease. Unfortunately, Angle's fantasies appear to be far more disturbing than pipe dreams of bartering for breast exams:

Asked by the host, Lars Larson of Portland, Oregon, where she stands on Second Amendment issues, Angle replied:
"You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years.

I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

"What can we do?"

How about voting?

Your inability to succeed at the ballot box is not a justification for violence. (And make no mistake, based on now our system functions, that's exactly what she's saying).

Note to Swamp Fox Sharon: As has always been the case, Congress is "going the way it is" because more people supported the legislators of the majority party than their opponents.

If it "keeps going" it's not due to tyranny, it's due to the fact that you and the GOP aren't winning elections. Period.

So when you say that you "hope we're not going to have armed rebellion, but..." it necessarily follows that the "but" that opens the door to violence is "if we keep losing."

Saturday Shuffle

2010-06-12T10:13:00.011-04:00

Whistle Down The Wind (For Tom Jams) - Tom Waits
By Demons Be Driven - Pantera
The History of Mill House - Humphrey Searle
Tangled Up In Plaid - Queens Of The Stone Age
Lover's Rock - The Clash
Skinned - Blind Melon
Under My Thumb - The Rolling Stones
I Hate Morning - The Exceptions
Steamer Trunk - Alkaline Trio
Mary Jane - Tori Amos

Admin to Unions: "Know your role and shut your mouth."

2010-06-09T20:05:00.054-04:00

(As if taking management advice from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was actually going to pan out...)

After Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) managed to squeak by challenger Bill Halter in the runoff of her Senate primary, despite voting away the support of the unions (and having them flood Halter's coffers with $10M in funding) there were a couple different lessons one could take away.

One would be that politicians need to remember that, every now and again, people actually cast their votes based on more than the letter that follows the name on the ballot. When elected to support peoples' interests, you occasionally need to give that support.

Another would be the White House's interpretation:

A senior White House official just called me (Politico's Ben Smith) with a very pointed message for the administration's sometime allies in organized labor, who invested heavily in beating Blanche Lincoln, Obama's candidate, in Arkansas.

"Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise," the official said. "If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November."

...Another senior Democrat (who also would not be quoted by name) echoed the point in an exchange with the Huffington Post. "Labor is humiliated," the source said. "$10 million flushed down the toilet at a time when Democrats across the country are fighting for their lives, they look like absolute idiots."

Setting aside the abject cowardice of the anonymity-insisting worm who floated this garbage (not to mention the pointless granting of anonymity by Smith and Huffington Post for little more than smears) is it possible for an administration/party to be more entitled?

It speaks volumes that the administration has abandoned thinking it must work to earn peoples' votes in favor of chastising supporters as "idiots" when they don't spend their own money according to DNC/DSCC priorities. With all the anti-incumbent furor sweeping the country, it's breathtaking that they think they can attack national groups of reliable allies for insufficient fealty.

There are only so many times you can take a group for granted and stiff them on the support they (thought they) bought with their votes and donations.

At this rate, who will be left in November, much less 2012?

Actions: Still having consequences...

2010-06-07T16:54:00.001-04:00

How much "not racist" can you really buy with $250K?

Arizona finds itself at the vortex of an immigration debate that is increasingly bitter and, figures on both sides say, increasingly unwinnable. Opinions are split, with fear of harassment rising among Hispanics and worry about an economic boycott growing among the state's leaders.

Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has appointed a committee and allocated $250,000 to re-brand the state's image, while 13 Arizona chamber of commerce executives appealed to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to keep the 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix after he faced pressure to change locations. They said it would preserve jobs for "innocent citizens, including our Hispanic community."

Musical performers such as Sonic Youth, Kanye West and Rage Against the Machine have said they will boycott the state. Phoenix City Hall calculates that Arizona has lost nearly $100 million in convention commitments. Meanwhile, supporters and opponents of the immigration law are taking to the streets weekly.

$100M sounds like a pretty good start, and the monetary hemorrhaging is likely to only continue once the law goes into effect and the "existing while brown" questionings and arrests begin to occur.

Further, Bud Selig needs to recognize that this is win-win for him. He can finally realize his pipe dream of making the All-Star Game "count" if he simply shows the spine to move this otherwise meaningless spectacle, elsewhere. It's a chance to both do the right thing as well as put his product center-stage not just on ESPN, but on every news network across in the nation, both at the time of the announcement, as well as next year when, "The 2011 baseball All-Star Game, originally scheduled to be held in Arizona..." will be obligatory lead-in material.

If he doesn't, hopefully the players of hispanic and latin american ancestry will take the decision out of his hands and do a little boycotting of their own.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-06-05T10:13:00.011-04:00

Liquid Swords - GZA
Severed - Kittie
The Fly - U2
Just Like I Picture It - Medeski, Martin & Wood
Seen The Light Alone - Medicine
Lick a Shot - Cypress Hill
Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn) - Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie
Outlaw (Alternate Mix) - The Cult
Waltz in the 4th Dimension - Michael Andrews
To Defy The Laws of Tradition - Primus

Saturday Shuffle

2010-05-29T10:13:00.014-04:00

One Hundred Stories - Alkaline Trio
Triad - Tool
Dead & Bloated - Stone Temple Pilots
Circles (live) - Soul Coughing
No Excuses - Alice in Chains
Gotta Know The Rules - Social Distortion
Anything, Anything (I'll Give You) - Dramarama
Norwegian Wood - The Beatles
Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble
Phenomena - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Saturday Shuffle

2010-05-22T10:13:00.000-04:00

Harvest Moon - Bedlam
Half-State - Black Rebel Motorcycle CLub
Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat - Dr. Dre
Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors - Radiohead
10,000 Days (Wings Part 2) - Tool
Through The Fire - Larry Greene
It's The Morning - Dr. Octagon
Sick of Me - Ani DiFranco
Let It Be Me (live) - Social Distortion
Senses Working Overtime - xtc

Bad Religion 1980 - ????

2010-05-18T00:00:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe these guys have been around for three decades, now. Simple longevity aside, it's even more to their credit that they still haven't run out of things to say. (A challenge the Lady Gagas and Justin Biebers of the world will never have to address).

The new--not to mention free--30th anniversary live album starts going out, today, via download link. Get yours, here.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-05-15T10:13:00.012-04:00

Beautiful Day - U2
She Rides - Danzig
Help Me - Johnny Cash
Rough Justice - Trans Am
Mononucleosis (live) - Ween
Teenage Mojo Workout - The 5.6.7.8's
That Great Love Sound - The Raveonettes
Flying Saucer Dudes (live) - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
Misery Loves Company - Mike Ness
Dreams Reoccurring - Hüsker Dü

Pastor Dick loves his silver linings

2010-05-14T15:54:00.000-04:00

Instaputz caught this gem of a ~~Tweet~~ Twat of the Day candidate from Obama's anti-same sex marriage BFF, Rick Warren:

KIDS WIN in Recession! In 2009 a MILLION more moms (vs 1986) stayed home with small kids instead of hiring daycare.

Some things really just can't be properly responded to without using the phrase "shit-for-brains," can they?

No word, yet, from ol' Pastor Ricky on how kids "win" when their moms are staying home because they've lost their jobs, or had to quit them, halving (or worse) the household income because the family can no longer afford daycare.

Of course, think about all the time the kids can spend with mom waiting in overcrowded waiting rooms for food stamps and other public assistance programs.

And what brings a family together more than all having to stay in a relative's spare bedroom (if not their car, more cozy, yet, eh?)--after mom got evicted for not paying rent after she "stayed home?"

Winners all around, Rick.

Winners all around.

Where molesters warrant more sympathy than mothers

2010-05-13T12:21:00.001-04:00

In case you were wondering who they will kick out:

A Roman Catholic school in Massachusetts has “withdrawn its acceptance of an 8-year-old boy with lesbian parents, saying their relationship was ‘in discord’ with church teachings.”

Looks like some things are more "in discord" than others, I guess.

I'm sure they'll be getting around to booting those children of divorced parents any day, now.

Yep...any day now...

Bay Buchanan dies in tragic, stone-related, glass house collapse

2010-05-11T18:11:00.072-04:00

This is rich:

Conservative commentator Bay Buchanan said on "Larry King Live" on Monday that Obama's choice of Sonia Sotomayor to fill a Supreme Court vacancy last year, and now Elena Kagan are signs that the President has "dummied down the Supreme Court."

"What makes her qualified?" Buchanan asked, referring to Kagan. "She has -- being a president of Harvard makes you qualified? It does not. What he's done is dummy down. He has dummied down the Supreme Court. He has given two of the best appointments of his administration to people who are not the best and the brightest. That's unfortunate."

So, in case you're scoring at home, the math-majoring high school teacher and sometimes accountant--whose current "career" as a tee vee talking head was launched from her work for GOP PACs and being rewarded with a two-year patronage appointment as Treasurer for her loyal service to the Reagan campaigns--thinks that this woman:

Sonia Sotomayor

Judicial Career
• U.S. Appeals Court judge, 2nd Circuit, 1998-2009
• U.S. District Court judge, 1992-1998
• Nominated to federal bench by Bush in 1991, Clinton in 1997

Government/Legal Career
• Former N.Y. County Assistant District Attorney, 1979-1984
• Former private practice attorney, Pavia & Harcourt, New York, 1984-1992

Education
• J.D., Yale Law School, 1979
• B.A., Princeton, 1976 (summa cum laude)

and this woman:

Elena Kagan

1981: Princeton University (B.A.)
1983: Oxford University (M.Phil.)
1986: Harvard Law School (J.D.)

1986-87: Clerk for Judge Abner Mikva, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
1987-88: Clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court
1989-91: Associate in Private Practice, Williams & Connolly
1991-97: Assistant Professor and Professor, University of Chicago Law School (1991-94 as assistant professor)
1995-96: Associate White House Counsel
1997-99: Deputy Assistant to the President, Domestic Policy Council
1999-01: Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
2001-03: Professor, Harvard Law School
2003-09: Dean of Harvard Law School
2009-10: Solicitor General of the United States

not only don't qualify as being "the best and brightest," but, in fact, "dummy down" the Supreme Court with their very presence.

If only Sotomayor and Kagan had curriculum vitae highlights like captaining *their* brother's three disastrous presidential bids onto the rocks...

Saturday Shuffle

2010-05-08T10:13:00.014-04:00

Rollo (live) - Helmet
Sleeping Beauty - A Perfect Circle
Bankshot - Operation Ivy
Sanity - Bad Religion
Over and Out - Alkaline Trio
Wanted Dead or Alive - The Slackers
Offbeat Bare Ass - 311
Fiberglass Jungle - The Crossfires
Mirror's Eyes - Drain S.T.H.
(No More) Luxuries - The Jim Carroll Band

Well, that didn't take long...

2010-05-04T12:23:00.013-04:00

A couple hours, at most, in fact.

Like clockwork, the GOP are up in arms over the notion that a U.S. citizen arrested on U.S. soil would be treated like, well, a U.S. citizen:

“I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still,” (Rep. Peter) King said."

And leave it to our good friend and former Maverick, Johnnie Mac, to immediately go all in, embarrassing himself by wiping his ass with the Constitution in an effort to go full Pander Bear for his primary voters:

It would have been a serious mistake to have read the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing his Miranda rights, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday.

"Obviously that would be a serious mistake...at least until we find out as much information we have," McCain said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" when asked whether the suspect, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan.

"Don't give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it's all about," McCain added during an appearance on the Imus show, which is broadcast by the Fox Business Network.

Remember those who pooh-poohed the idea that gulag-ing non-citizens is a slippery slope?

"Well, these are terrorists on the battlefield, they don't have the rights of a citizen."

Now our citizens don't have the rights of citizens.

You'd think catching a terrorist would be a good thing

2010-05-04T08:54:00.008-04:00

Authorities arrested a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen in connection with last weekend's attempted car bombing in Times Square. This is the part that caught my eye, though:

...he was expected to be charged Tuesday in federal court.

Cue the right wing outrage over not Gitmo-ing this guy without trial or charge in 5...4...3...2...

Quote of the Day

2010-05-03T16:59:00.001-04:00

Rush Limbaugh on the Gulf oil spill, presumably from his customary vantage point, deep within his own rectum:

"I'm not advocating don't care about it hitting the shore or coast and whatever you can do to keep it out of there is fine and dandy, but the ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and was left out there," Limbaugh said. "It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is.

"Well, the turtles may take a hit for a while, but so what? So do we!" Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh the Hutt's so-called "rationale" stems from a scientist telling him that oil naturally seeps from the sea floor at a cumulative rate similar to 5,000 barrels per day...across the Gulf's 600,000 square miles.

While the flaw in his non-thinking is too obvious to merit any serious response, I wonder how the corpulent gasbag would feel about testing his theory...say, for example, with single-dose ingestion of average lifetime ammounts of lead, arsenic, radiation, etc.

After all, "it's natural."

Christianists and the lack of "civic courage"

2010-05-02T16:25:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been following more of Andrew Sullivan's "Daily Dish" from The Atlantic. The other day I ran across this bit of coverage on oral arguments before the SCOTUS which finds Antonin Scalia on the same side of the street as gay rights supporters.

The crux of the case, Doe v. Reed, is that the supporters of an effort to repeal a Washington state domestic partnership law don't want people to know they signed petitions designed to get the measure on the ballot.

As Sullivan rightly notes, these individuals are the most craven of cowards, eager to use the political process and the force of law to foist their subjective beliefs onto other people's households, yet wanting to insulate themselves from any accountability for this imposition with a veil of anonymity.

Big Tony lets them have it with both barrels:

Working himself into an Originalist froth, Scalia notes that "for the first century of our existence, even voting was public—you either did it raising your hand or by voice," and then scolds that "running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage. And the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate."

Justice John Paul Stevens, the model of civility, breaks in to ask the money question: "Wouldn't it be legitimate public interest to say, I would like to know who signed the petition, because I would like to try to persuade them that their views should be modified?" He adds, "Is there public interest in encouraging debate on the underlying issue?" Bopp replies: "It's possible, but we think this information is marginal."

This leads Scalia to bring down the house with: "What about just wanting to know their names so you can criticize them?" Scalia notes that the disclosure of your name is "so you can be out there and be responsible for the positions you have taken."

Powerful words, there: "Civic courage."

Can't think of too many things more pathetic than the lack of it. If you are going to attack peoples' very families--especially over something that has nothing to do with you, personally--the least you can do is own up to your actions. If standing up for your faith is that important to you, it's more than a little curious that you'd object to actually having to stand up to the people who are affected by what you're doing.

The elefante in the living room

2010-05-02T14:05:00.000-04:00

As Arizona surges forward with their new "Papers, please" law which essentially forces every Hispanic resident to carry proof of citizenship with him/her, in case they find themselves "reasonably suspected" of being in the country illegally, I ran across this recent tidbit from the Brookings Institution (via Andrew Sullivan):

Yet there is an important demographic nuance to this growth—providing context to the white backlash in Arizona in ways that could play out else where. It is the fact that the state’s swift Hispanic growth has been concentrated in young adults and children, creating a “cultural generation gap” with largely white baby boomers and older populations, the same demographic that predominates in the recent Tea Party protests. A shorthand measure for this cultural generation gap in a state is the disparity between children and seniors in their white population shares. Arizona leads the nation on this gap at 40 (where 43 percent of its child population is white compared with 83 percent for seniors). But the states of Nevada, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Florida are not that far behind.

...Nationally this gap is 25 percentage points.

Of course, a good number of the pro-SB 1070 folks will decry any mention of these facts as an attempt to label all of them as racists. "Illegal is illegal," we'll hear, "it has nothing to do with race."

Illegal is illegal.

But it's preposterous to think that this cultural generational gap plays no part in people convincing themselves that it's perfectly fine to leave 30% of the--very much legal--population subject to harassment and constantly having to be able to provide proof, not only of identity, but of origin if they want to avoid being detained or arrested.

Whenever there is a rising tide of "the other," it's extremely easy for members of the in-group to minimize the impact any decision might have on the members of the out-group. And these days, it's all about who's in and who's out.

As egalitarian as we believe ourselves to be, as Americans, can we even go more than a day or so without hearing someone talk about wanting "their" country back? They try to dress up that (intensely irritating) formulation as star-spangled patriotism, but the implicit corollary is that, if you're one of the ones who disagrees with them, this isn't your country.

Similarly, aging Arizonans are watching the citizenry undergo a massive demographic shift towards a population that is distinctly "not them." And if it's not "their country" what's the problem with playing fast and loose with "their" rights?

Quote Tweet of the Day

2010-05-01T16:18:00.000-04:00

"Better late then never" edition:

Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup duty -- Bill Maher

Saturday Shuffle

2010-05-01T10:13:00.013-04:00

Summer Babe (Winter Version) - Pavement
From Out of Nowhere - Faith No More
We'll Let You Know - Morrissey
Puke & Cry - Dinosaur Jr.
Crawl (BBC version) - Alkaline Trio
Cayenne - Solex
Fully Retractable - Soul Coughing
Suture Up Your Future - Queens of the Stone Age
The One Rose (That's Left in My Heart) - Johnny Cash
Movement of Fear - Tones On Tail

Post-partisan Poseur

2010-04-30T17:41:00.042-04:00

It's what he does:

Obama seems to be coming very close to endorsing the view that the liberal courts of the 1960s and 1970s overreached by engaging in judicial activism. The Times describes this as the “most sympathetic statement by a sitting Democratic president about the conservative view” of the liberal courts.

...Given Obama’s previous public statements, it seems highly unlikely that he actually believes that the liberal courts overreached or that there’s an equivalence between left and right on energy issues. But Obama nonetheless feels the need to stake out a “non-ideological” middle ground on many issues for rhetorical and political purposes.

But what purposes are those? That's what makes this "need" of Obama's so thoroughly inexplicable, if not downright maddening: the utter absence of any tangible benefits from indulging it.

One of the commenters on this story offered the suggestion that this predilection is a product of Obama’s coming into adulthood during a time when antagonism towards conservatism was detrimental to one's prospects. While learned tendencies are certainly powerful, I don’t think they sufficiently explain someone persisting with a course of action that consistently fails. Again and again, Obama kisses his opponents’ rings while his supporters get a thumb in the eye.

The result?

His opponents never stop attacking while his allies’ frustration grows and their engagement wanes. The only significant policy “victories” that he can claim come, neither from bridging a partisan divide nor from going to the mat for commitments made to constituents. They came from indulging the Blue Dog prima donnas in his own caucus and counting on the rest of his Congressional majority to hold its collective nose while it voted to "win" by passing something, whatever it might be.

For him to think his approach is working of policy or public relations signifies he’s either staggeringly stupid or utterly cynical…and even the most bootlicking-est of his ~~apologists~~ supporters can’t say that’s what they voted for.

:( SRY OILZ N UR WTR KLLN UR ANMLS KTHXBYE

2010-04-30T16:15:00.003-04:00

OMG.

Still can't make this stuff up:

At 10:40AM ET on Friday, Sarah Palin made her first comment on the oil spill, posting the following on Twitter:

"Having worked/lived thru Exxon oil spill,my family&I understand Gulf residents' fears.Our prayers r w/u.All industry efforts must b employed"

Nothing more touching than knowing someone's "prayers r w/u," am I right?

Arizona's Next Top Boogeyman

2010-04-30T16:07:00.002-04:00

Arizona takes their national embarrassment status to Defcon 2 as the state Senate leaps into action to save the citizenry from the horror of the Tract Home of Dr. Moreau:

Arizona legislature targets 'human-animal hybrids'

The Arizona state Senate on Thursday passed a bill making it illegal for a person to "intentionally or knowingly creating a human-animal hybrid."

The bill, which passed 16 to 12, would prohibit anyone in the state from "creating or attempting to create an in vitro human embryo by any means other than fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm."

The measure would also outlaw "transferring or attempting to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb," "transferring or attempting to transfer a nonhuman embryo into a human womb" and "transporting or receiving for any purpose a human-animal hybrid."

You really can't make this shit up.

I was wondering what Arizona might do for an encore after turning every Hispanic-looking citizen's life into the stuff of a bad, eastern-bloc police state nightmare, but this thoroughly exceeded my expectations. If hard cases make bad law, then hysterical pandering to an anti-intellectual, science-fearing base makes useless law. Not sure if you could come up with a better illustrative example of a solution in search of a problem.

No word yet on what would constitute "reasonable suspicion" for police to take manbearpig into custody.

Drill, Baby, Drill Burn, Baby, Burn

2010-04-28T23:33:00.001-04:00

This is just getting better and better:

A new oil leak was discovered at the site in the Gulf of Mexico where a drilling rig exploded and sank, and experts now estimate that five times more has been spilling into the water a day than previously believed, the Coast Guard said late Wednesday.

However, an official from BP PLC, which leases the rig, said he did not believe the newly discovered leak has increased the amount of oil spilling into the water beyond earlier estimates. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry disagreed with his statement at a news conference and said she was relying on a new estimate from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

She said NOAA experts now estimate that 5,000 barrels a day of oil are spilling into the gulf. Officials had estimated the leak for days at 1,000 barrels a day.

And now they're trying to contain and burn off the slicks:

Think the President might want this one back?

Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time

3/30/2010 — The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

Ode to Jan Brewer

2010-04-27T20:58:00.009-04:00

In honor of Gov. Papers Please's "~~driving~~ ~~walking~~ ~~shopping~~ existing while brown" law:

Papers, please...

2010-04-26T21:12:00.028-04:00

Stay classy, Arizona:

Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed the nation’s toughest bill on illegal immigration into law on Friday. Its aim is to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants.

...The law, which proponents and critics alike said was the broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

...It requires police officers, “when practicable,” to detain people they reasonably suspect are in the country without authorization and to verify their status with federal officials, unless doing so would hinder an investigation or emergency medical treatment.

It also makes it a state crime — a misdemeanor — to not carry immigration papers. In addition, it allows people to sue local government or agencies if they believe federal or state immigration law is not being enforced.

Gee, I wonder what sort of visible evidence might elicit "reasonable" suspicion of being in the country illegally?

Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA): "They will look at the kind of dress you wear, there’s different type of attire, there’s different type of—right down to the shoes, right down to the clothes. But mostly by behavior it’s mostly behavior, just as the law enforcement people here in Washington, DC does it based on certain criminal activity there is behavior things that professionals are trained in across the board and this group shouldn’t be exempt from those observations as much as anybody else."

Yep, those illegal-y looking shoes; always a dead giveaway.

And I can't help but wonder how highly "speaking Spanish" ranks on the list of "behaviors" authorities would be trained to look for?

I'm hoping for a pop-up book, myself

2010-04-25T23:14:00.000-04:00

The over/under on the page count of this bit of piercing insight should be about 150:

Levi Johnston Writing Book on Palin

In a forthcoming New York magazine article on the Sarah Palin brand, Levi Johnston tells author Gabriel Sherman that "he is working on a memoir that would air the true story of the Palin household."

Although, if I were little more than a pop culture footnote at age 20...by virtue of nothing more than my sperm donorship...and living in rural Alaska...I might be looking for a book deal, too.

A Teabagger, in any other hue, would look dangerous

2010-04-25T22:10:00.001-04:00

Read it:

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Of course, it took all of about five commenters before accuse the author of "playing the race card"...which is nothing more than a convenient way of copping out and refusing to do what was asked at the outset:

The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white.

Because to do so with any degree of honesty, whatsoever, would be intensely uncomfortable, forcing the acknowledgment that the teabaggers' displays of "patriotism"--while legal--would not be accepted, much less cheered, coming from any other group in America's spectrum.

514 chickens seems a bit steep for a colonoscopy

2010-04-24T18:51:00.000-04:00

This is what I'm talking about (via AmericaBlog):

If senate hopefuls want to offer hallucinatory Green Acres fever dreams when attacking health care reform, there needs to be some pushback.

The fine print is my favorite part:

Your doctor may require more chickens than specified. For your convenience, we recommend bringing at least 20% more chickens than specified to any doctor's appointment. For that matter, you should have at least 1500 chickens per passenger in your car in the event of an accident, so you could just use those if you're a little short on chickens, but then be extra careful driving home from the doctor because you will have used up some of your accident chickens. Do not mail your medical chickens as payment. Please barter medical chickens in person. Chickens should be secured in your trunk or truckbed if possible. Any chickens riding in the passenger compartment on the way to the doctor must wear seat belts. Chickens should not drive you to the doctor, if you are unable to drive you should dial 911 for an ambulance. Ambulances may not accept chickens for payment, you should have at least 4 goats or an adult pig for such cases.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-04-24T10:13:00.015-04:00

Stuck in the Middle With You - Stealer's Wheel
The Order of Death - Public Image Ltd.
Breathe - The Cult
Selected readings from Oak Mot, part III - Crispin Hellion Glover
I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen
Fatman - The Southern Death Cult
Velouria - The Pixies
Once - Pearl Jam
Take Me to the Backseat - The Donnas
Isn't She Lovely - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Your nightmare is WellPoint's profit

2010-04-23T18:53:00.055-04:00

This is the picture that keeps women awake at night:

And for 192,000 women every year, it's not just a bad dream.

But it's also what keeps the beancounters for the soulless monsters at WellPoint working overtime.

WellPoint Routinely Targets Breast Cancer Patients

The women paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, neither had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.

They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.

...The investigation last year by the House Energy and Commerce Committee determined that WellPoint and two of the nation's other largest insurance companies -- UnitedHealth Group Inc and Assurant Health, part of Assurant Inc -- made at least $300 million by improperly rescinding more than 19,000 policyholders over one five-year period.

WellPoint itself profited by more than $128 million from the practice, and the committee suggested that the figure might be largely understated because the company refused to provide information about cancellations by several subsidiaries.

And people think that the government can't be trusted with health care?

Incompetent or not, by definition, any alternative is more trustworthy than a business that makes the calculated decision to stab loyal customers in the back after years of cashing their premium checks.

The anti-reformers moan, over and over again, how the majority of Americans are happy with their existing health coverage. While that clearly doesn't count the tens of millions of citizens lacking any coverage with which to be happy, it also overlooks the tens of thousands who will have their coverage canceled, but just don't know it yet. I don't know for certain that Yenny Hsu and Patricia Reilling counted themselves among the 70% who thought their coverage was good or excellent, but I know this: neither one thought her diagnosis would end with her collecting food stamps.

While recovering, Reilling started having trouble with her insurance. Her medication after the surgery cost $4,446 a month. But Anthem would only pay for 10 days and then no more, she recalled in an interview.

...In June 2009, she was informed that her insurance was being canceled -- just before she was about to undergo another reconstructive surgery, which she was forced to postpone. She has now gone 16 months without the necessary surgery.

As a result, she is severely disabled. The pain and discomfort often only allow her to be able to stand for 20 or 30 minutes a day, sometimes even less.

Contrary to what Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sarah Palin (R-North Batshittia) think, the Death Panels are already here. And they had 300,000,000+ reasons to pass their lethal judgment on any one of us.

Who needs health care reform when you have poultry?

2010-04-21T17:37:00.034-04:00

Sue Lowden, the prospective GOP challenger for Harry Reid's Senate seat, is certifiably insane:

"I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor, they would say I’ll paint your house. I mean, that’s the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system."

How do you "not back down" from a system that doesn't exist?

It's unbelievable that, in 2010, a serious contender for national office is responding to a broken healthcare system that must deal with tens of millions of people with hokey fantasies of rural life from 70 or 80 years ago.

The scarier thing is, she could very well win.

Reid needs to get in front of the cameras with a bag of oats in one hand, and two beaver pelts in the other and challenge people to do the same with their doctors and see how far it gets them. The fact that she's leading in all the polling proves that this folksy asininity can work unless it's exposed for the weapons grade craziness that it is.

Anti-immigration zealots want Lindsay Graham to admit he's someONE they hate...

2010-04-20T23:30:00.001-04:00

...just so they can be sure he's not being blackmailed into doing things they hate:

"US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham's constituents do not," said William Gheen President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). "I personally do not care about Graham's private life, but in this situation his desire to keep this a secret may explain why he is doing a lot of political dirty work for others who have the power to reveal his secrets. Senator Graham needs to come out of the closet inside that log cabin so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret."

He is the lone Republican who's trying to work with Democrats on immigration reform this year.

Gheen is trying to maximize the fallout from his despicable "I need to figure out why you're trying to sell out your own countrymen and I need to make sure you being gay isn't it" attack that he launched while pandering to the Teabagging bobbleheads this weekend.

Careful what you wish for, GOP. The torches and pitchforks you're gleefully handing out can be turned on you, too.

The Tea Party has nothing to do with racism, Part ∞

2010-04-19T19:48:00.003-04:00

Teabagging Tom Tancredo is at it, again:

[Tancredo] said Americans have reached the point where "we're going to have to pray that we can hold on to this country."

As for Obama, Tancredo said, "If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?"

Send him back to Africa?

Guess Tancredo's wistful recollection of Jim Crow voting practices was too "coded" for some people.

No, not all these folks are racists, but there's only one reason garbage like this resonates with anyone....and it sure as hell isn't anger over tax policy.

Sarah Barracuda? More like Sarah Bait n' Switch

2010-04-19T16:39:00.001-04:00

SarahPAC -- Great at raising funds; distributing them, not so much:

Sarah Palin's House Hit List: No Money to Favored Candidates So Far

Sarah Palin put the bull's-eye on 20 U.S. House races on her Facebook page last month, but didn't donate to favored candidates in those districts during the first quarter of the year.

Although her SarahPAC took in $400,000 in the first quarter and had more than $900,000 in the bank, it gave only $7,500 to candidates between January and the end of March, plus an additional $2,000 to two other PACs. None went to Republicans in the races she targeted.

A fairly classic move. Ring the alarm, ratchet up the hysteria, then forget all about it--not to mention whoever responded. Sounds exactly like what the GOP does to the reigious right every other November and, in this case, there's probably a healthy amount of overlap in the people getting punked for their dollars.

None of which is to say that the Quitta from Wasilla is averse to parting with that cash, oh heavens, no:

"According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, SarahPAC spent $402,460 in the first quarter of 2010.

Almost $243,000 went to consultants...

More than $42,000 went to travel, including more than $7,300 to de-ice private planes...

The PAC spent more than $31,780 on postage and more than $25,000 on Internet fundraising.

Even photographer Shaelah Craighead (Laura Bush's White House photographer) took in more money than Sarah PAC gave to candidates, earning $11,596 for photography."

Looks like Bailin' Palin's PAC is all about "political acion," all right.

Her own.

G.I. Jokes on parade

2010-04-18T23:31:00.000-04:00

Oy.

Almond plans to have his pistol loaded and openly carried, his rifle unloaded and slung to the rear, a bandoleer of magazines containing ammunition draped over his polo-shirted shoulder. The Atlanta area real estate agent organized the rally because he is upset about health-care reform, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws and what he sees as President Obama's insistence on and the Democratic Congress's capitulation to a "totalitarian socialism" that tramples individual rights.

Because health, environmental, and financial policy reasonably require a demonstration of armed force, right? These Barcalounger Bravehearts wear their cluelessness like a badge:

Those coming to the "Restore the Constitution" rally give Obama no quarter for signing the law that permits them to bring their guns to Fort Hunt, run by the National Park Service, and to Gravelly Point on the banks of the Potomac River. Nor are they comforted by a broad expansion of gun rights in several states since his election.

Yup, rights so thoroughly trampled that their present extent didn't even exist before the current "totalitarian" administration.

It's laughable that people who claim to be such patriotic Americans can look at their government functioning, as intended: a majority of majority-elected officials passing legislative priorities of a majority-elected president; and seeing despotism that must be confronted with a display of guns, not seven months prior to their next opportunity to elect those officials.

The brandishing of weapons is "not just an important symbol" but "a reminder of who we are," said Almond.

Indeed, it is: Morons.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-04-17T10:13:00.013-04:00

Lonesome Highway - Shane MacGowan and the Popes
Burn (Matt's Demo) - Alkaline Trio
Back Off Bitch - Guns N' Roses
Rumble in Brighton - The Stray Cats
Latin Soul Square Dance - Joe Bataan
How Does It Feel To Feel - Ride
Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
Revolution - The Cult
Shoot You Down - The Stone Roses
Adagio (from Alien 3) - Eliot Goldenthal

Black No. 1

2010-04-15T20:53:00.006-04:00

Peter Steele (1962-2010)

Quote of the Day -- Tax Day Edition

2010-04-15T00:00:00.001-04:00

I fully recognize that I've totally pillaged this NYT report of their Teabagger poll, but it really is the gift that keeps on giving as far as exposing the thoughts and motivations of the Teabagger masses. The "mind-numbing inconsistencies" part was too good to leave out:

(I)n follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Prison-bound Pontiff?

2010-04-14T23:03:00.001-04:00

Can't say I'd be too upset:

Richard Dawkins calls for arrest of Pope Benedict XVI

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.

One would think that someone so concerned with the "good of the universal church" that he would punt on the defrocking of a convicted child molester would see the current value in his own resignation.

(For further reading, see "The Great Happy Vatican Death Spiral")

The Teabaggers are...pretty much who we all thought they were

2010-04-14T21:49:00.002-04:00

The New York Times releases the most unsurprising poll, ever. The highlights please, Carnac:

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.

They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as “very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.”

And while most Republicans say they are “dissatisfied” with Washington, Tea Party supporters are more likely to classify themselves as “angry.”

Must be tough going, for these folks...

Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.”

Tea Party supporters over all are more likely than the general public to say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good.

Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class

Or not. Not a bad spot to be in, I guess. Wonder what happened to all that "Taxed Enough Already" business?

Anger is a pretty strong emotion, though. Wonder what it could be...

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

Older, wealthier white men are incensed over the belief that policies may be overly beneficial to the poor and favor blacks, whose problems have been exaggerated (can't forget that part) all despite having no inordinate concern about losing their own economic status.

But remember, it's all about taxes and spending. Don't you dare suggest that there's anything else at work...

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says."

Oops.

Precisely what direction would that be, Kathy? I wish she could enlighten us as to what tax bracket situation she's referring to.

Bachmann jumps on the Failure train

2010-04-14T14:03:00.001-04:00

Noted Minnesotan hysteric, Rep. Michele Bachmann, joins the pill-popper in explicitly hoping the Obama administration fails:

BACHMANN: We're, we're, we're hoping that President Obama's policies don't succeed, exactly as you said. And of course, David Axelrod unfortunately seems to be wanting to smear people who disagree with the president.

At least Limbaugh the Hutt made the (weak) attempt to spin his statement as supporting personal failure for the President. The Teabagger Queen specifically wants to see his policies, themselves, fail. Her bizarre attempt to claim this is about "disagreement" shows that she doesn't even understand the words coming out of her own mouth.

In her hurry to pander to the derangement of the far-right Bachmann, like Limbaugh before her, ignores the fact that policies are implemented with, y'know, "goals" in mind...goals that are intended to help American families.

Economic recovery, finance reform, health care reform.

Contrary to Bachmann's ignorance, these aren't points in a game that Obama, alone, will win or lose.

What she wants to see--explicitly--is American families bankrupted by continued economic decline, 30,000,000+ unable to get health care, and banks and insurance companies making money on the backs of all of them.

That's not spin and that's not smear.

It's just stupid.

Oklahoma Teabaggers, GOP spoiling to fight the Feds

2010-04-13T17:37:00.024-04:00

The Recliner Revolutionaries are getting crazier by the day:

The Associated Press reports that Oklahoma tea party leaders, “frustrated by recent political setbacks,” are working with right-wing Republicans in the Oklahoma legislature to create a new “volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.”

The founding fathers “were not referring to a turkey shoot or a quail hunt. They really weren’t even talking about us having the ability to protect ourselves against each other,” (Okla. State Senator Randy) Brogdon said. “The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government.”

"Frustrated by political setbacks," their reaction is, not to vote, but to grab guns.

And, precisely, how does an armed militia "defend" or "protect" anything? Picket signs? Letter writing campaigns?

These lunatics are doing nothing less than threatening federal employees with violence if they attempt to enforce laws with which they disagree. And GOP officials are on the record, meeting with and supporting these efforts.

Having failed at the ballot box, they want to try their hand at being the bloodthirsty heroes they pretend to be in their chatrooms and letters to the editor. That's who's steering the GOP ship: Overgrown children with artillery.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-04-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

Spy in the Cab - Bauhaus
Reason to Believe - Bruce Springsteen
Back to the House That Love Built - Tito & Tarantula
Fuel - Lo Pro
Maniac - Michael Sembello
It Must Look Pretty Appealing - Bad Religion
Anthem - Leonard Cohen
Girls, Girls, Girls (Unplugged, w/ The Roots) - Jay-Z
Hand in My Pocket - Alanis Morissette
Cool Jerk (live) - Bootsy Collins

Who would Jesus ban and deport?

2010-04-09T19:57:00.000-04:00

For an organization whose pride in their Christian and biblical bona fides makes a Billy Mays infomercial seem understated, the American Family Association has developed a rather interesting take on core Christ-professed concepts like compassion:

The most compassionate thing we can do for Americans is to bring a halt to the immigration of Muslims into the U.S. This will protect our national security and preserve our national identity, culture, ideals and values. Muslims, by custom and religion, are simply unwilling to integrate into cultures with Western values and it is folly to pretend otherwise.

The most compassionate thing we can do for Muslims who have already immigrated here is to help repatriate them back to Muslim countries.

In other words, simple Judeo-Christian compassion dictates a restriction and repatriation policy with regard to Muslim immigration into the U.S.

"Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -- Mohandas Gandhi

Profiles in Turdage

2010-04-09T18:44:00.001-04:00

Plum Line's Greg Sargent elicits George Stephanopoulos' response to criticism over his questioning the President about comments made by Sarah Palin that compared his nuclear policy to a child asking to be beaten up:

"Whatever you think of Sarah Palin, she’s a former VP candidate — and a potential challenger to President Obama — with a strong following in the GOP. She made a pointed critique of a new Presidential policy. By getting the President’s response, I was doing my job."

First of all, here's the "pointed critique" in question:

"It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'"

That is what Stephonopoulos, when finding himself in a one-on-one interview with the most powerful man in the world, decided to put on the short list of matters to be addressed.

Think about that:

It is Stephanopoulos' stated understanding that it is his job (as a "journalist," presumably) to solicit the President of the United States' response to what can be charitably described as an ignorant, juvenile attack from an individual with no background, whatsoever, on the policy issues at hand.

And the worst part is, he's probably right.

It is no longer the journalist's job to take a public figure's statements, see how they comport with objective facts, and follow up for an explanation if they fail to do so. The "journalist's" job is simply to pass claims along, uncritically, and, when given the opportunity (as Stephanopoulos was here) to effectively become one of the kids on Palin's imaginary playground, breathlessly sharing overheard insults in the hopes of instigating a fight.

Stephanopoulos--and Sargent, alike--justify this decision in the same, profoundly cowardly way: Palin is popular, therefore her views matter. No effort, whatsoever, is made to claim that this line of questioning was acceptable because she has relevant policy experience or even that her observation is correct, and for good reason: she doesn't and it's not.

While their "popular = newsworthy" argument might explain repeating Palin's childish attacks, it's the unspoken--but clearly evident--way that rule actually works in practice that's far more damaging: Popularity isn't just a standard, it's the only standard, utterly supplanting things like "accuracy." In the field of stenographic journalism, as practiced by Stephanopoulos and defended by Sargent, no matter how asinine or factually bereft the claim, it's presented as if it merits equal weight to the opposing view.

It's this shoulder-shrugging "What can you do? Some say this, some say that?" mentality and the resultant abdication of journalistic responsibility that keeps the decayed corpses of discredited zombie memes (Death Panels, Socialist takeovers, etc.) shambling their way through our public discourse.

Quote of the Day

2010-04-08T23:49:00.011-04:00

"I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues."

"If the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin." -- President Barack Obama, when asked to respond to Sarah Palin's comparison of U.S. nuclear policy to a child asking to be punched in the face on the playground.

State-sanctioned murder we can believe in

2010-04-07T21:11:00.001-04:00

No hypotheticals, no reserving rights for possible scenarios, it's now official:

U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

The headlines are nothing short of breathtaking.

Obama Administration Approves Killing Of Muslim American Cleric‎

Barack Obama orders killing of US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki

US Authorizes Killing of American Cleric

US approves killing US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki

Reports: US OKs radical US-born cleric for death

Muslim cleric Aulaqi is 1st U.S. citizen on list of those CIA is allowed to kill

Words like "Muslim cleric" tend to muddy peoples' thinking, but there being no way to describing this individual without eliciting knee-jerk reactions from a certain segment of the populace, I prefer the final headline, taken from the Washington Post. It's about as unambiguous as it gets:

The government can now kill a United States citizen, born right here in New Mexico, without arrest, charge, or trial, based on nothing more than what unaccountable government sources suspect him of having done.

Story after story calls it "unusual," "unprecedented," "extraordinary," etc., but no one seems to ask the crucial question:

"How?"

By what authority is the President of the United States allowed to essentially cite secret evidence and unilaterally declare that a U.S. citizen is to be killed? What statute supersedes not just some, but every, last protection this man has under the law? What legal basis exists for stripping the basic rights that this government affords to murderers, spies, assassins, and, yes, terrorists?

Consider this quote, dutifully regurgitated without the slightest analysis or question by the WaPo:

"He's recently become an operational figure for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," said a second U.S. official. "He's working actively to kill Americans, so it's both lawful and sensible to try to stop him." The official stressed that there are "careful procedures our government follows in these kinds of cases, but U.S. citizenship hardly gives you blanket protection overseas to plot the murder of your fellow citizens."

"Lawful?"

According to which one?

"Careful procedures?

What are they? Who decides?

"U.S. citizenship hardly gives you blanket protection?"

Not even against being summarily executed by your own government?

The questions are so obvious that their absence should be as shocking as this revelation, itself. And yet they will remain absent and unspoken, both by Obama's reversal-embracing apologists, as well as his deranged group of detractors who see the conscious destruction of this nation's values in his every decision...until confronted with this choice that does just that.

This assassination doctrine means that we, as a nation, have not only not changed course from the last eight years, but we've followed it right off the map.

And where that leaves us is anyone's guess.

Healthcare reform brings out the domestic terrorists

2010-04-07T17:27:00.000-04:00

(Updated and bumped)

The public frenzy that's been carefully cultivated over the last year by the opponents of the health care reform bill is continuing its--completely predictable--arc into increasingly frightening derangement following the bill's passage this week.

What began with angry confrontations and shouting down elected officials at public appearances has degenerated into open threats of violence against lawmakers and even their families:

Bart Stupak (D-MI) receives threatening phone calls and letters: “You’re dead; we know where you live; we’ll get you.”

Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-VA) brother has a gas line tampered with after a blogger mistakenly posted his home address as the Congressman's, inviting other Teabaggers to "drop by" and confront him over his health care vote.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) received a message threatening to shoot the children of lawmakers who voted "yes" on health care reform.

Updated 3.27.10

Since there's simply no indication that these lunatics are going to abandon their embrace of threats and vandalism, I'm just adding and bumping the post as the incidents continue to pile up.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is forced to shut down his office after receiving a written threat and an unknown white powder.

Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) received multiple death threats and warnings to "watch his back" as anonymous callers advocated bombing his office.

Updated 4.6.10

A Washington man is arrested for threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) for voting for the healthcare reform bill.

Updated 4.7.10

A man in California is arrested by the FBI after making dozens of threatening calls to Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), including listing her home address and exhorting her to withdraw her support if she wanted to ever see it again.

Easter comes and goes, but the Vatican is still on its cross

2010-04-06T12:52:00.000-04:00

Utterly shameless:

Vatican: There's anti-Catholic 'hate' campaign

Senior cardinals in Rome are decrying what they depict as an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign that they say is related to the fact that Benedict is leading church opposition to same-sex marriage.

Vatican Radio on today quoted Italian Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, a Holy See official, as saying the church must pardon its attackers for what he called "hatred against the Catholic church."

People: There's an anti-molester 'accountability' campaign

There, fixed it for you.

The Catholic Church's martyr pose is getting more nauseating by the day. Not content with their already outrageous indulgence of their persecution complex, now they're laying the blame for their problems, not with the child rapists they concealed and shuffled from parish to parish for several decades, but at the feet of bitter gays and their friends.

Who, as good Catholics, they are obligated to forgive for their "hatred."

Unbelievable. Such preening self-righteousness I have never seen.

The fact that these people can permit the systematic abuse of thousands of children and, not only play the victim when criticized for their horrific actions, but make a show of moral superiority in calling attention to their forgiveness of their hateful "attackers" is beyond the pale.

Monsters.

Surging right down the drain

2010-04-04T22:59:00.041-04:00

Ugh:

In a stark assessment of shootings of locals by US troops at checkpoints in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in little-noticed comments last month that during his time as commander there, "We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

The comments came during a virtual town hall with troops in Afghanistan after one asked McChrystal to comment on the "escalation of force" problem. The general responded that, in the nine months he had been in charge, none of the cases in which "we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it."

So.

Wonder if this is filed away under the winning of hearts, or minds?

It speaks volumes that it's "little noticed" when a theatre commander can admit that (through whatever sort of scenario) U.S. forces have a bad habit of shooting and killing people who were were not hostile in an area where we're desperate to keep the citizenry from siding with the enemy.

Given that the aim of this surge is to put a check on the Taliban's momentum, this sort of situation has to be considered, not just unfortunate, but an absolute failure.

Considering the type of enemy we're fighting, this isn't collateral damage or any other bloodless status report euphemism; it's nothing less than a Taliban membership drive.

Saturday Shuffle

2010-04-03T10:13:00.014-04:00

Metal Time - This Frequency Five
Sad But True - Metallica
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
Bang and Blame - R.E.M.
Wilma's Rainbow - Helmet
Bad Medicine - Bon Jovi
Badd - Richard Cheese
Down Here - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Seamless - Grade
She's Crafty - Beastie Boys

Anna Paquin: Sookie Stackhouse a Bisexual Bombshell!

2010-04-02T23:22:00.000-04:00

All rightey: show me your hits.

Ok. Here's my experiment for the week.

The other day, after publishing a post that characterized WH press secretary Robert Gibbs' handing of John McCain's "no cooperation" temper tantrum as "a spanking," I got bizarre hits from Norway, Germany, and even China thanks to people searching "spanking."

Given that "True Blood" starlet, Sookie Stacked-house has managed to crash websites with her bisexual revelation, I'm frankly curious about exploring the power of keywords.

Maybe this way I can lure a few folks into reading about events of actual consequence.

Will keep you posted, Dear readers...

A simple "no" wouldn't suffice?

2010-04-02T16:23:00.001-04:00

Red State's resident ranting rectum, Erick Erickson, continues to show why he's such an incredible addition to CNN's "Best Political Team."

"I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door." -- on being asked to participate in the Census' supplemental American Community Survey

But we're not advocating violence, heavens no. We just like talking about it.

Constantly.

And for the slightest provocation.

These are the things I think back on when people try to excuse the current torrent of violent rhetoric spewing forth from the right wing with dismissive talk of being able to find "extreme statements" on both sides.

It's a questionnaire for god's sake. Who thinks it's A.) reasonable, or B.) funny to fantasize about pulling a shotgun on someone over such a thing? I know CNN is hurting for ratings, but is it worth pandering to the beady-eyed, gun-clutching masses who think crap like this is sensible?

What's next, a designated Hutaree correspondent?

ErrPort-77

Saturday Shuffle

Rep. Steve King: Delusional racists are the president's problem

Saturday Shuffle

At the intersection of bigotry and tech savvy

GOP: "Well, there's "raped" and then there's REALLY raped.

Cut out the middleman, Huck...

*Totally* not a dictator

Saturday Shuffle

This is not the "democracy" you are looking for...

Not-quite-live blogging the SOTU

Compromise, capitulation; To-may-to, to-mah-to, really.

Can a dozen and a half "incidents" still be "isolated?"

Saturday Shuffle

Countdown...and out

A short ride off into the sunset

Patron Saint of Kiddie Diddlers

Whack-a-psycho

Making the Rounds after the Globes?

Shorter 2011 GOP legislative agenda

Saturday Shuffle

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Priebus

Shocking poll: The wealthy happy despite recession

And now for something completely different....

Andrew Breitbart in lead at the Summer's Eve invitational

Outsmarting the conscientious assassins

The Gray Lady goes 1 for 2 on Tucson shooting

Filed under "G"

The Courage of Your Redactions

Sarah, Sharon, & the Shooter

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Shot At Arizona Event

Saturday Shuffle

Saturday Shuffle

Saturday Shuffle

The Rule of Law: Ruling some more than others

Saturday Shuffle

At the corner of Mendacity and Hysteria...

The Teabagger movement: STILL nothing to do with race

The heartbreak of end-stage Foot In Mouth disease

Profiles in casual depravity

That strange, mysterious land

Problem not scary enough? Lie.

Saturday Shuffle

Pawns in Obama's ten dimensional chess game

Saturday Shuffle

Lying in the bed we made

Abandoning the dogwhistle

Courting the unhinged

Saturday Shuffle

Admin to Unions: "Know your role and shut your mouth."

Actions: *Still* having consequences...

Saturday Shuffle

Saturday Shuffle

Saturday Shuffle

Bad Religion 1980 - ????

Saturday Shuffle

Pastor Dick loves his silver linings

Where molesters warrant more sympathy than mothers

Bay Buchanan dies in tragic, stone-related, glass house collapse

Saturday Shuffle

Well, that didn't take long...

You'd think catching a terrorist would be a good thing

Quote of the Day

Christianists and the lack of "civic courage"

The elefante in the living room

Quote Tweet of the Day

Saturday Shuffle

Post-partisan Poseur

:( SRY OILZ N UR WTR KLLN UR ANMLS KTHXBYE

Arizona's Next Top Boogeyman

Drill, Baby, Drill Burn, Baby, Burn

Ode to Jan Brewer

Papers, please...

I'm hoping for a pop-up book, myself

A Teabagger, in any other hue, would look dangerous

514 chickens seems a bit steep for a colonoscopy

Saturday Shuffle

Your nightmare is WellPoint's profit

Who needs health care reform when you have poultry?

Anti-immigration zealots want Lindsay Graham to admit he's someONE they hate...

Totally not a dictator

Actions: Still having consequences...