Crisis? Yeah, Right. Sure.

If this were a "real" crisis, and the legislation proposed were actually designed to meet it--as opposed, say, to a carefully engineered plan to drown social spending in a bathtub, e.g.--there would be a major (and fiercely disputed) provision in the 'corrective' legislation to undo, or to repair, the circumstances or conditions that LED to such a "crisis."

In the current case, this would mean repealing Gramm/Leach/Bliley, restoring the old Glass-Steagall regulations, and returning to the stock-purchase leverage requirements which obtained PRIOR to Raygun/Greenspan/Clenis et al.

To the extent that there is no such provision in any such legislation, you may judge the seriousness of either the "crisis" or the "legislation" as accordingly deficient.

That's the bottom line. Anything else is Kabuki, designed to distract and amuse the rubes...

Here's part of a recent Kevin Phillips' (April) 'phillipic' on the subject:

For this discussion, I would like to concentrate on a central part of my thesis: the argument that a fair part of the U.S. peril stems from the tandem evolution since the 1980s of 1) a massive growth in public and private debt from $10 trillion to nearly $50 trillion; 2) the replacement of manufacturing by finance (by 2003 some 20-21% of U.S. GDP) as the dominant sector of the U.S. economy; 3) the use of debt by the financial sector - private financial debt soared more than any other category - to massively leverage its economic emergence speculation and wealth; and 4) the underwriting of financial sector emergence by Washington through roughly a dozen bail-outs since the early 1980s and the waves of liquidity provided by Alan Greenspan and now Bernanke.

Wholly Shit--Sept. 29

Well somebody's gotta do it: From C&L/Mikes' Blog Round-up (he does it well, so you don't have to).

HOLY CRAP: Muslim children gassed after “Obsession” DVD hits Dhio…Three more Texas polygamists indicted…Donohue defends Palin because witchcraft is real…They need this miraculous spray…Lying hypocrite to teach religion at Yale…Evangelist arrested in child porn case…Continuing cynical manipulation of religious voters, but ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ looks like a dud…Pastor Badass…Creationists left out of Vatican evolution conference…Short takes…Being Religulous…Distinguishing between Religion and Fundamentalism…Travolta’s attack on BBC…Evangelicals for Obama car magnets…

Muchas gracias, Mike...

Why Didn't Obama Demand Bombin' Johnnie's Medical Records?

There's more than 1,000 pages of 'em, and more added almost daily, one suspects. And it's not like they're irrelevant. He wants to be installed as the President of the USofA...

His cancer is the real 'elephant' (or "moose?") in the room. Realistically, he's got no more than 30-36 months to live. He's on final approach, as they say in the zoomies, and likely he knows it. Prob'ly it's why he's so desperate to become Preznint: his last chance to exceed/surpass the accomplishments of his father, the Admiral, and become the "highest ranking McCain EVAH!!! Kneel, peasants, and respect his AUTHORI-TAY!"
(Tell me he doesn't make you think of Cartmann? John McCartmann...that could go viral with the right illustrations...) "

And if he's gonna last that long, it's gonna entail courses of many-months-long radiation and chemo therapies which are debilitating in the extreme. He'll be incapable of carrying out his responsibilities, if he starts therapy again. They don't even keep survival statistics past 4 years, for what's got him. If he's inaugurated, he'll have to place his hand on the 25th Amendment.

Which probably accounts for the scrutiny being accorded to his designated replacement, the troglodytic MILF, Sarah Palin (am I the only one who thinks that name should belong to a Tolkien dwarf?) I'd say she's a 75% chance to inherit the Office. (And if she ever needs to get real work, she can get a job moving earth with that jaw. Sucker's GOTTA be half-a yard.)

We know why Lehrer didn't/wouldn't/can/t ask (though in a 'real' democracy we might have expected it)...I mean apart from the fact that he's become a pathological butt-wipe and coward.

The way the press has been reconfigured under the regime of corpoRatist consolidation over the last 40 years (yes, it has been going on and been obvious that long), the toadies and bootlickers in the SCUM (So-Called Unbiased Media) are not permitted to mention even the most glaringly obvious contradictions or raise uncomfortable questions if doing so challenges the celebrity/candidate's own (propagandized) 'narratives.'

Only another 'candidate' or 'surrogate' may do that...Which effectively shuts off discussion if the opponent is a weak, 'polite' shuffler...

So, why didn't Obama demand McCancer release his records?

Or "The Trollop's" financials, for that matter?

Under the pertinent rules, apparently, he's the only one who can...

Department Of Really Righteous Schadenfreude: "Tony Alamo," Xian Pedophile Busted

Would You Send Your Child To Sunday School With This Man?

(CNN) -- Evangelist "Tony Alamo" was arrested Thursday in Flagstaff, Arizona, on charges related to a child porn investigation, an FBI spokesman said.

The 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was arrested without incident at 2:45 p.m. (4:45 p.m. ET) as he was departing the Little America Hotel with his wife, said Manuel Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Phoenix, Arizona.

The FBI, the Flagstaff Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety were involved in the arrest, he said.

Alamo was charged under a federal statute with having knowingly transported a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity, Johnson said.

Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, was taken to Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff, where he is to have an initial appearance Friday in federal magistrate court, Johnson said.

Over the weekend, about 100 federal and state agents authorities raided Alamo's 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas, and took six children into temporary custody.

The children were interviewed as part of a two-year investigation into Tony Alamo Christian Ministries to determine whether they were physically or sexually abused, said Bill Sadler of the Arkansas State Police.

Alamo, reached by phone Saturday in Los Angeles, California, denied any wrongdoing.

"It's a hoax," Alamo said. "They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will."

Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ.

"Why were they after Jesus?" he asked. "It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me."

And of course, Jesus transported little kids across state lines to fuck them, too. As for background, read:

# Evangelist: 'Puberty' is age of sexual consent
# Children taken in raid to remain in state custody
# Evangelist's compound raided in child abuse case.

Personally, I am very interested in the idea that some aged, drooling, dick-waving, Babbit-like horn-dog can redefine the age of consent at his whim, if he's got a "Christian" ministry...

On Monday, Alamo spoke of the allegations with a mix of denial and defiance, saying that he never promoted sexual abuse but that he believes there's a mandate from the Bible for young girls to marry.

"In the Bible, it happened. But girls today, I don't marry 'em if they want to at 14, 15 years old. Because we won't do it, even though I believe it's OK," Alamo said.

On Saturday, he had said that for girls having sex, "consent is puberty."

On Monday, he bristled at descriptions of his organization as a cult, saying enemies want to cast him as a "weirdo for preaching what the Bible says."

People who have left Alamo's organization say they have witnessed older men marrying girls who just reached puberty.

Apparently the so-called "Alamo" (nee, Hoffman, a self-described "fulfilled Jew") has not heard Molly Ivin's recitation on the three most over-rated things in the world: the FBI, Mack trucks, and young pussy...

Fearless Prediction: More Suicide "Warnings" Coming Soon To Karachi

Pakistani troops fire on US helicopters at border

By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 34 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan - Pakistani troops fired at American reconnaissance helicopters near the Afghan-Pakistan border Thursday, and ground troops then exchanged fire, the U.S. military said.

No injuries were reported, but the incident heightened tensions as the U.S. steps up cross-border operations in a volatile region known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Two American OH-58 reconnaissance helicopters, known as Kiowas, were on a routine afternoon patrol in the eastern province of Khost when they received small-arms fire from a Pakistani border post, said Tech Sgt. Kevin Wallace, a U.S. military spokesman. There was no damage to aircraft or crew, officials said.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith said Pakistan and American ground troops exchanged fire after Pakistani forces shot at the helicopters.

He said a joint patrol of Americans and Afghan border police was moving about a mile and a half inside Afghanistan with the helicopters above them. The ground troops reported that Pakistani forces fired toward the helicopters and when they saw that happen, they fired off suppression rounds toward the hilltop.

They did so, Smith said from Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., "to make certain that they (the Pakistanis) realized they should stop shooting."

The Pakistani border patrol forces then shot back down on the joint location of the U.S.-Afghan patrol. "The whole thing lasted five minutes," Smith said.

The Pakistani military, however, said its troops fired warning shots after the helicopters crossed "well within" Pakistani territory.

"On this, the helicopters returned fire and flew back," the Pakistani military said in an English-language statement.

And in New York, Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, said his military fired only "flares" at foreign helicopters that he claimed strayed across the border from Afghanistan.

Zardari said his forces fired only as a way "to make sure that they know that they crossed the border line."

This does not bode well for less violence in Pakistan. The bombing of the Marriott last week in Karachi STILL hasn't been "claimed" by anybody; which should lead anybody with a brain to conclude it's probably (80% certainty) a CIA black op...

Has "Socialist" Bernie Sanders Lost His Fucking Mind???

Or is he going senile? What the fuck? He just characterized the discourse of Larry Kudlow and the Bail Here, Bail Now crowd as "socialists." See if he didn't:

In the comments over at C&L, where the vid's up, I posted:

Oh, bernie, you illiterate ass, shut the fuck up.

You’re giving socialism a bad name.

These fucks aren’t advocating socialism. Socialism always aims for an egalitarian distribution of resources, wealth and responsibility.

This is sheer, pure Corporatism, whereby the state arm of the corporation preserves the ‘bidness’ arm with whatsoever resources it can appropriate from the commons.

If you’ of all people, are gonna use the term, fucking use it fucking correctly, fuckwit…

To which someone took umbrage (without, of course addressing the substance of my complaint about Brainless Bernies 'bon mot':

You know, Sanders is one of the few politicians who actually takes an interest in the workers in the field, people like you and me. Why the “fuck” are you going after him with such venom? And btw, the man is hardly illiterate.

To which i was then constrained to reply, as delicately as possible, understanding both teh apparent weakness of the intellect (or comprhension skills, at any rate) with which I was dealing, and that the person was, probably, politically semi-sympathetic:

Because he’s the only “socialist” in Congress.

And when he calls Kudlow and his ilk “socialists” too, he tarnishes his own ‘luster’ as well as that of anyone else who takes the principles of ’socialism’ seriously by putting himself–and the rest of us, and it–in the same class as these predatory scum…It’s both stupid and ignorant, and I do NOT know why anyone with a fucking brain would do it…

What a fucking turd-for-brain!

I mean: What the fuck is he DOING, using the label--socialist--that he wears with apparent pride in his district--and with which I and thousands more identify their political and economic philosophies--to malign Kudlow et al for their bail-out mentality? By calling them "socialists," he actually attacks his own relevance. Doesn't he see that by doing that, he only underwrites the same ANTI-SOCIALIST narrative/rhetoric that has plagued us for a century or more. In his 'ribbing' Kudlow, he buys into the myth that socialism is "something-for-nothing" scheme, nothing than which could be further from the truth. Fuck, Bernie. Just FUCK!

These guys--Kudlow, et al--aren't 'socialists' in any WAY that would be recognized by, say Michael Harrington, the man more or less permanently associated with SPA, albeit hes been deceased for 20 years. (His 1972 book, "Socialism," should b required reading anywhere anybody talks about "market" economies.)

No. Kudlow, et al., are unalloyed Corporatists. They're agents of the CorpoRat State, frantically trying to prevent the dissolution of their cabal, and the revelations that would stream like shit from ruptured septic tank if the breech becomes too big or too enduring.

With "socialist" friends like Babbling Bernie, we do not need opponents...

Bombin' Johnnie & The Keating Five: RAWK AWN!!!

The history of a scandal in 97 seconds...

Let's viralize this bitch!
It can't hurt, though it may not help at all, given the decision's already inside the electronic voting machines...

How About Mandatory Vasectomization For ANY Male

who fathers more than one child outside wedlock?

Metairie legislator proposes sterilization for poor women

04:35 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Associated Press

State Representative John LaBruzzo of Metairie (LA) said many of his constituents are tired of paying for children from poor families and that is why he is considering proposing legislation that would pay women on government assistance $1,000 if they choose to be sterilized.

“You have these people who are just fed up with working their buns off to try to provide for their own family and being forced by the government o provide for others’ families who just want to have unlimited kids,” he said.

LaBruzzo said he is studying voluntary sterilization for women whose sole financial support comes from the government in the form of welfare or other public assistance. His idea would be to give the women $1,000 if they had their tubes tied.

His proposal has come under harsh criticism by some civil rights groups.

The ACLU called it a misguided and mean-spirited attempt to eliminate poverty by eliminating the poor.

I was probably shooting blanks my whole life. I mean, I've had sexual relations with scores, mebbe hundreds, of women and NEVER heard I'd impregnated even one of 'em. But nevertheless, I went to the vet in '82 (age 36), to be sure.


Just sayin'...

Next Time Somebody Expostulates In Utter Astonishment At Some Fresh GOPhascist Hell

(e.g.) "Who could ever possibly have imagined THIS?@?@?@?@?"

I hope there is a chorus of : "Well, Naomi Klein DID talk about something that looks JUST LIKE this newest outrage..."

Cuz she did. In "The Shock Doctrine," she has assembled, analyzed, and aptly characterized the evidence of the unchanging, invariant, predatory practices of 'capitalism' en route to its becoming the default, global, hegemonic discursive 'formation' of the past 200 years. Consider this, from Monday, which was up at HuffPost:

Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
By Naomi Klein - September 22nd, 2008
I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).

The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to "return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms." In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow "competition" (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling.

It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the right's ability to use this crisis -- created by deregulation and privatization -- to demand more of the same. Don't forget that Newt Gingrich's 527 organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future, is still riding the wave of success from its offshore drilling campaign, "Drill Here, Drill Now!" Just four months ago, offshore drilling was not even on the political radar and now the U.S. House of Representatives has passed supportive legislation. Gingrich is holding an event this Saturday, September 27 that will be broadcast on satellite television to shore up public support for these controversial policies.

I am loathe to put up more, lest I encroach on the spirit of Fair Use. Read the rest here. And read the post, also from her blog, accompanying that remarkable photo-montage, which I boldly stole and posted yestiddy...and which is, coincidentally, just below on the scroll.

Alons, mes Enfants! Aux l'Barricades! The time is NOW!

I (HEART) Naomi Klein

Free Market Ideology is Far from Finished
(By Naomi Klein - September 19th, 2008)
Whatever the events of this week mean, nobody should believe the overblown claims that the market crisis signals the death of "free market" ideology. Free market ideology has always been a servant to the interests of capital, and its presence ebbs and flows depending on its usefulness to those interests.

During boom times, it's profitable to preach laissez faire, because an absentee government allows speculative bubbles to inflate. When those bubbles burst, the ideology becomes a hindrance, and it goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue. But rest assured: the ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep cuts to social programs, and for a renewed push to privatize what is left of the public sector. We will also be told that our hopes for a green future are, sadly, too costly.

So the piece, originally in the Guardian, begins. Succeeding grafs flesh out the argument, warn against the inevitable re-colonization of the economy by predatory interests, and dabbles in the idea of nationalizing the energy industry (a REALLY GOOD idea, btw). It concludes on a hopeful but hortatory note:

...what is really being called into question by the crisis is the unquestioned commitment to growth at all costs. Where this crisis should lead us is to a radically different way for our societies to measure health and progress.

None of this, however, will happen without huge public pressure placed on politicians in this key period. And not polite lobbying but a return to the streets and the kind of direct action that ushered in the New Deal in the 1930s. Without it, there will be superficial changes and a return, as quickly as possible, to business as usual.

Alons, mes amis. Aux l'barricades. Now is the time!

(Mosaic of Ms Klein used without permission, albeit with the sincerest admiration of the talents of both the artist and the subject: NAOMI KLEIN mosaico.tiff Tutti i diritti riservati Maurizio Galimberti - vietata la riproduzione Dispensa me...)

Resolved: Barack Obama Represents The Apotheosis Of "Tokenism."

Posed as a debate topic. I'll take the affirmative, and start with the definition of terms as they always tell you to do in 'forensics':

Tokenism:

refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, or vice versa) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Instead, their difference may be overemphasized or made "exotic" and glamorous.

The "Affirmative" rests. Any questions?

This is NOT to suggest Obama supporters are anything other than sincere. They are devoted to the idea of his candicacy, mebbe even the reality of it.

But it seems to me they are blind to the historical situation.

MIDDULL Murka--the great unwashed, white, ill-educated, ill-informed, ill-paid, overworked, overtaxed, un-resourced (savings? health?) working-class--does NOT want as ITS "Preznint" some smart-ass, really young (nearly juvenile-looking) BLACK dude with BEEG ears and "Who-sane" for a middle name. And THEY are not gonna elect him.

They're satisfied--well, no, they're really freaked right the fuck out and uneasy, but they can live--with the fact that Obama's got the nomination.

As long as it doesn't go any further.

That alone, they reckon, should be enough to still all those (pesky, naggingly true) complaints from all them furriners about endemic, systemic USer racism. Their logic: Would a really racist country nominate a Kneegrow for the highest office in the land? (Rhetorical answer to rhetorical question: Of course it would--see "tokenism", above...)

Who's got the "Negative?"

Write A Letter (Then sharpen your old pitchfork, pluck a chicken and heat up the tar...)

The toadies, lickspittles, asswipes, and assorted other sycophants in the Congress ,and the ShiteHouse whosae tongues are stiff and coated with shit from laving the prostates of the Bosses/Owners of the Country, have apparently cobbled together another "disaster/chaos Kapitalism" exercise with which to capitalize on the Credit Crisis.

Think "THE PATRIOT ACT" of Bail-outs.

The following letter, drafted at DKOS, afaik, addresses the problems and seeks redress.

Dear Senator XXXXXX:

I am writing in very deep concern over the Wall Street Bailout Act, currently entitled as “LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS”.

This is, to say the least, a deeply troubling bill. Specifically:

There is little to no oversight. Furthermore, section 8 ensures that any oversight is crippled from the start, as it states, and I quote from the text of the act: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

The floating amount controlled by the Secretary of the Treasury is $700B is effectively a blank check as there is no hard limit.

It appears that the power of the Secretary extends to no-bid contracts.

It provides no restoration of the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, modernized or otherwise, that were stripped away by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

In other words, it does absolutely nothing to change the fundamental problems that led us to this situation. But it DOES tie the hands of any subsequent Administration with respect to creating effective, imaginative new approaches to the crisis and the inevitable after-shocks that will follow, thanks to the abdication of responsibility by the Congress at the behest of Congress's most generous benefactors.

I strongly urge you to vote against this bill--though on your record, I am not optimistic..

I know that we need to prevent the complete disintegration of our economy, but this is not the solution. This is a blank check to the executive; it is the abdication of the financial powers granted to the legislative branch in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.

Sincerely,

Cut and paste, edit if you like, and don't actually expect it to make a fucking bit of difference.

Wholly Shit

Because it is such a useful tool for keeping abreast of the latest in EvangiE/Fundie dominionist, theocratic crapola, I have appropriated the whole of a weekly entry from Mike's Blog Round-Up today, links and all. If this shit doesn't make you wanna burn a bible for Jaysus, there's probably no hope for you outside the theocracy, rising.

HOLY CRAP: Poll shows support for torture among Southern evangelicals…Faith of the Abomination…Values Voters Summit…Those wacky Muslims…Christian music superstar comes out…In other News…Tackling masturbation. Here’s the modern solution, and here’s the Biblical solution…Worldnutdaily: World to End in 2013…Bishops vs. Catholic politicians…The pastor who clashed with Palin…Fundies say the darndest things…The No Sin Zone…Pray for Pipeline…The politicized pulpit…GOP subpoenas God…Sarah Palin’s Hard Rain…

Rude Pundit: McC(umst)ain "Sounds Like A Cheap Coke-whore..."

"Christ, McCain sounds like a cheap coke whore wandering a bar looking for one more cock to suck so she can afford some rock.

Amid a diatribe about McC(umst)ain's continued harping on The Mocha Commander's unwillingness to parade around the country in Bombin' Johnnie's wake engaging in fake debates at "Town Hall Meetings." (I confess, I believe a person could do a whole blog repeating the (vulgar, crass, funny) insights of Rude Pundit and Jesus' (manly) General.)

Rude, continued:

John McCain and his lackeys keep bringing up the idea that Barack Obama should tour with McCain on a series of town hall meetings, and that it is Obama's refusal to do so that has made the campaigns go negative. McCain brought it up Monday on Morning Joe on MSNBC, saying to Morning Mika while accusing her of being Obama's bitch, "I still say to you, and I know you're a supporter of Senator Obama, if you would urge him -- if you would urge him to come and do town hall meetings with me as I've asked him to do time after time, the whole tenor of the campaign would change." Rudy "My Relevance Is Back Where It Should Have Always Been" Giuliani said on Meet the Press regarding negative ads, "I think the main reason for that is that Senator Obama has refused to debate in these town hall meetings every week with Senator McCain."

At a speech Monday in Orlando, McCain was downright pathetic in begging Obama to town hall it with him: "I have urged Senator Obama on time after time after time, why don't you come down here with me, why don't you come with me and we'll both do town hall meetings together and we'll pick whatever audience that anybody can take. And let's do the town hall meetings. A lot of the people don't like the tenor of this campaign and a lot of the back and forth. I guarantee you, I know that if you stand on the same stage with your opponent and you hear from the American people and the American people hear from you, a lot of that negative stuff disappears. So the next time you run into one of your Democrat friends, would you say, look, why don't you urge Senator Obama. We've got a long time to go...So why don't we do that, Senator Obama? Why don't we stand together on the stage around this country. I'll even pay for the airplane. And I promise not to fly it, but I'll pay for it."

Christ, McCain sounds like a cheap coke whore wandering a bar looking for one more cock to suck so she can afford some rock.

So what the McCain campaign is saying is that they'd stop the negative ads if Obama would give in to McCain's demands. And that it's Obama's fault because he won't say yes. Well, that's very Republican, isn't it? Blaming the victim? Luckily, Obama's not playing. He gave in to the stalking that Bill O'Reilly did for an interview, and that got him nowhere.

McC(umst)ain's a desperate coke-whoring slag? Yeah, that's about right.

(Credit: Driftglass, the incomparable Photo-shop master for the Illustration.)

Is The Election Theft Of 2008 Already Underway? You Betcher Sweet Ass!

Former U.S. attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, with former U.S. attorney Carol S. Lam of San Diego, testifies on Capitol Hill. Photo Credit: By Lauren Victoria Burke -- Associated Press Photo

Of course it is...

What on earth do you suppose those 90 (mas o menos) US Attorneys who WEREN'T fired by Fredo and the Chimp in 2006--for insufficient partisan fervor--have been doing to protect their jobs? Fucking knitting? NO, they've been busy, busy boys and girls, friends. They been fucking things up with abandon. Likely we won't know the extent of their predations until after the fact: Nov 4, '08...

Take a look at what those who were fired were fired for not doing.

The rest, numbering 93 in all---and all Chimperor loyalists (aka "Goodlings")--have had 8 years to perfect their slimy, illegal tactics. There's a particularly perceptive and comprehensive review of the preparations underway now on "The Palestine Chronicles", which at first struck me as a semi-strange source. Upon reading it, I found it persuasive.

The GOPukes have been busy already at their tried-and-true tricks of trying to suppress the votes in predominantly, or predictably, Dim precincts. They're aggressively caging voters using public records of foreclosure notices, and they're challenging new voter registrations everywhere. We may anticipate the usual shenanigans regarding tampering with or mis-preparing certain districts for high turn-out, or failures supplying voting materials and resources to those locations.

This summary from the Palestine Chronicle site, comes at the end of a distressingly long list of about a dozen recent incidents of clearly unethical and arguably illegal GOPuk interference:

This is all adding up to a concerted campaign by McCain-Palin to undermine the progress Obama-Biden have made in registering voters. How many hundreds of thousands of voters will be intimidated by these actions, challenged on Election Day or prevented from voting? Will the Republicans be able to de-register voters faster than the Democrats register them?

Then there's the still very prominent problem of so many votes being cast on unaccountable, electronic voting machines. More than 30 states STILL use electronic voting machines without paper-trails or hard ballots which could be recovered for manual recount.

The Chimp 'won' in '04 with about a 3-million-vote margin. Which was one-in-ten of the votes cast electronically, without recount access past the original electronic records. The percentage was larger in certain locations. Greg Palast's documented the correlation between the Chimp's margin of victory in close states and the number of bad, or unrecountable, ballots...

I'd say, probably, it's already a done deal, what with the Corporat Press and their corpoRat cousins, the 'independent' polling orgs, colluding in proclaiming loudly how close it is and is gonna be...Gotta keep those ratings up. The drama of the 'horse race' makes 'em piles of effectively unearned money, plus there's the political implication of a dramatic 'race':

It'll be just close enough to 'legitimately' steal...

As the floodwaters recede, "investors" from all over the world are descending

...on the people of Ike-devastated south Texas with buckets of cash.

They resemble nothing so much as flies drawn to a corpse.

They are there, primarily, to take advantage of people still in shock over their losses, and to use the tragedy and the attendant shock to leverage valuable property away from its owners at prices far below the actual value of that property was and likely will be again.

So I have a question:

What IS the difference--if any--between someone who uses the cover of a natural disaster to enter unoccupied stores and remove usable merchandise and those 'investors' who hang around those disaster areas to try to manipulate the survivors into 'giving' their property away for a song?

Seems to me the term "looter" fits both cases quite nicely...

We shoot looters, don't we?

Help John McCain Keep America Safe For Sexual Predators

Via Sadly, No!

Maxi-Kudos. Ya gotta hitt'em widda chair! An'den kick'em wenday down. Agin and agin. Mak'em whimper.

Scorn, mockery, humiliation, and derision are your BEST friends in a political knife-fight

Cheney's Brain, David Addington, Forged "Fredo's" Imprimatur To Re-Authorize Spying

Via ThinkProgress, Cheney's 'conscience', the poisonous David "Puff" Addington has been naughty, again/still:

(I)n the Washington Post today, Barton Gellman reports that Vice President Cheney’s lawyer, David Addington, actually signed then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales’s name to the document:

Addington opened the code-word-classified file on his computer. He had a presidential directive to rewrite.

It has been widely reported that Bush executed the March 11 order with a blank space over the attorney general’s signature line. That is not correct [15]. For reasons both symbolic and practical, the vice president’s lawyer could not tolerate an empty spot where a mutinous subordinate should have signed. Addington typed a substitute signature line: “Alberto R. Gonzales.”

Who honestly believes these fuckers deserve to survive their crimes?

I know some of you will say my suggestions are extreme, but dire situations require dire solutions, and this case, it seems to me, calls for the "Chinese Civic Justice" for officials who betray their responsibilities and get caught: Once a malefactor is identified as being a threat to (the legitimacy of) the State, there's a show-trial, and a pro forma conviction, after which, the condemned is given a shovel and a place to dig a hole. Then they're stripped to their underwear and told to kneel in the hole they dug, whereupon a couple of small-caliber bullets are fired into the brain at point-blank range. The corpse is then covered in quick-lime, and the hole covered.

The Right always stresses the 'deterrence' power of such (oh, yes, old man, veddy) "capital" solutions. I dunno, but it might be worth a shot (or two). And even if deterrence doesn't work, it'd sure cut into any recidivism issues that might otherwise occur.

Addendum: Doonesbury nails it, albeit a bit less finally than my idea...

Rude Pundit Rules! "Palin is Frankenstein's monster in a JC Penney executive skirt"

You just cannot touch this:

"You can bet that somewhere, in some office in DC or elsewhere, while trying to figure out which non-Lieberman to pick for VP, some Republican operative said something like, "Hey, get a load of this crazy bitch. Seriously, this Alaska bitch is the looniest bitch we could find, the kind of bitch who'll fuck the whole football team and then say she's still got time for the lacrosse guys to run a train on her and then find Jesus a week later. Motherfuckers at Obama Central won't know what to do with this bitch. The awesome thing about our bitch is the way we can say we love all the bitches. And we'll trick bitches into actually voting for this bitch." That may not be verbatim, but it's probably pretty fuckin' close.
(...)
Palin exists as a candidate to offer another narrative in order to take the focus off Obama as insurgent. As a cyncial political move, as the Rude Pundit's said, it's rather brilliant. And it shows a depth of power-mongering in John McCain that'd make Attila the Hun go, "Whoa, there, old man, that's a bit too far." Because even barbarians know that you don't do shit that'll come back and bite you in the ass. Palin is Frankenstein's monster in a JC Penney executive skirt. Obama has to stop trying to reclaim the old narrative and create a new one.

In other words, don't wait til November to renew your passport. Do it now, and avoid the rush...

Top Ten Myths About Muslim/Islamo-Fascist Terrorism

Sarah Robinson, over on OurFuture/ CAP, debunks:

The (Top) Ten Conservative Myths About National Security

1. * "Islamofascism" is our biggest national security threat.
2. * We're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here.
3. * Military solutions are the only effective national security solutions.
4. * What we're doing is working; we haven't had another 9/11.
5. * "Law enforcement" approaches to terrorism don't work.
6. * We don't need allies; we can do this on our own.
7. * You don't negotiate with dictators.
8. * National security spending is different from pork-barrel spending on other programs.
9. * Airport security is critical to our anti-terrorism effort.
10. * It's always necessary to give up our civil liberties in a time of war.

But, NO! None of that is even REMOTELY true. Indeed, they are ALL pernicious lies told to enslave credulous, sedulous Murkins to the regime of fear.

Quoth Ms. Robinson:

...What I was really afraid of was that too many of my fellow Americans would forget the lessons of their own history—that they'd lose track of who we are and where we've been and what we're made of. I knew there was a real possibility that this time, we'd fail to live up to our reputation for cool, calm clarity in the face of crisis, and instead be goaded into taking counsel of our fears. I feared the bad choices that would inevitably follow if we stampeded down that road. And I dreaded that it would be the soul death of the country I loved.

I hate having been right about this, though I can hardly blame average citizens for succumbing to the sirens of chaos. Americans trying to make correct sense of the new reality found their efforts stymied everywhere they turned. With the White House distorting intelligence to sell a war, corporate opportunists fanning the coals of panic to heat up vast new business opportunities, media editors milking the drama to keep their ratings high, and terrified hordes quick to shout "treason" whenever anyone dared to question the path we were taking, it was hard for even thoughtful Americans to locate the truth of the matter. And as long as confusion reigned, the terrorists really did keep winning.

Craven Dims Supplicate GOPhascist Fux On Off-Shore/ANWR Oil Drilling/Lease Issues

WASHINGTON - AP/Yahoo

Democrats sought on Saturday to drum up support for compromise legislation on offshore drilling, challenging Republicans to break from Bush administration policies that neglect development of alternative energy sources.
(...)
The Senate next week will consider at least three proposals that call for an expansion of offshore drilling — one being developed by Democrats, another by Republicans and a third by a bipartisan group. All are expected to have some expansion of offshore drilling, but doubts remains as whether any of the proposals being considered will garner the needed 60 votes required to overcome a certain filibuster (threat)...

A Sure-fire Winner
There is one 'sure-fire' expedient by which the Dims--if they had the stones for it--could "win" on the hot-button energy issue of opening new oil wells off-shore and in ANWR. That would be: in the enabling legislation, Congress should stipulate that, since it is AMERICA's energy shortage, and AMERICA's resources, on or near incomparable and irreplaceable AMERICAN sea-coasts and wilderness--which the exploration and drilling would compromise and could easily destroy--and because it would be AMERICANS who would bear ALL the risk, every last drop of oil, every single btu of gas, every therm of any kind recovered from those reserves, at that potentially catastrophic expense, MUST be sold to and used by AMERICAN 'consumers.

Puke heads all over the world would explode, from the top of Exxon/Mobil all the way to the enate Energy Committee. Of course, the oil people would then, and swiftly, scuttle ANY such law. But in doing so, there would be the revelation that it was N0T now, and NEVER WAS, the project to free America from the tyranny of foreign oil but is NOW, and ALWAYS WAS a scheme to increase corporate power and profits...

That's because oil, like money, is 'fungible.' Once it enters the system, there's really no way to specify which resources belong to whom, except by the tanker holds it's in. So the Oil/energy mavens and their paid lackeys in Congress would have no choice but to oppose the "America First" conditions, because--as a result of the globalization of energy resources--it would be physically impossible for them to comply with such regulations. Of course, they could not--and would not WANT to--guarantee that all "American" oil went just to "Americans," or that none of it went to the Chinese or the Indians, for example...

This approach has a triply exponential value: It seems both reasonable and PATRIOTIC! And It rat-fucks the CorpoRats.

American Resources for Americans!!!!: The America's Exceptional Resources for Ordinary Americans Act.


Ewe Ess Ayy!!! Ewe Ess Ayy!!! Ewe Ess Ayy!!!

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
Edward Abbey

"Patriot Day?" What the FUCK? "Patriot Day?" How about "PNAC/Pearl Harbor Day?" Why not "PATRIOT ACT Day"? Why not skip to the chase and call it "Jingoism Day"? Or "Bomb-A-Brown-Person" Day. Or, at it's gentlest, "Americans Suffer Most Exceptionally Day"? Cuz, for one thing, there are already at least four OTHER commemorative/holidays on which Americans (exceptionally) celebrate their exceptionally patriotic 'patriotism': Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's day, and Flag Day. That's GOT to be plenty, doesn't it? Exceptional, right?

The events the day is supposed to demarcate were tragic, violent, and unexpected. But what has "patriotism" to do with this date, anyway? What was 'patriotic' about it? It might as well --and would far more honestly-- be named "Propaganda Day!"

Or "National Poultry Day," since, indeed, it was (as Ward Churchill was so mercilessly and unjustly pilloried for correctly pointing out) just a few of "Murka's" toxic, violent, imperialistic, neo-colonial chickens--of the hundreds of thousands which had marauded across the globe with apparent impunity for over 50 years--coming "home to roost." America had mostly been spared repayment-in-kind for the pains it had inflicted, until that day.

The loss of life that day was shocking and tragic. But whose "patriotism" do we celebrate?

Not the dead in those planes or the Towers. They had no intention or expectation of dying for "America" that day, or any day. They did not "die for their Country." They went to work. The died, if truth were told, for their salaries.

Nor the selfless and heroic 'first responders,' many of whom also died that day, but for whom "the Fatherland" could scarcely have been a consideration as they went about their desperate, doomed work.

And then, if we are to collectively, nationally, mourn the victims who died that morning, of what are we culpable if we ignore--or worse, if we dismiss as irrelevant (or as the mere 'cost of doing bidness,' as 'collateral damage')--the desperate forgotten fates all those, in the Middle East, but in Southeast Asia, too, whose victimization at "our" hands for at least half-a-century planted and fertilized (albeit unheeding) the seeds of the attacks which we "commemorate" today? It's not a rhetorical question.

This is NOT a day on which we celebrate "patriotism." It's a day we remark utter failure. The philosopher, Santyana, observed: "A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world." It is precisely because our eyes did NOT survey the world, did not record our own complicity, that the events of seven years ago occurred.

Malcolm X reminded us: "You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." What this day should remind us of is our popular and cultural blindness to the real-life consequences of our 'acts' as a power in the world. To the extent we forget, we merely invite more of our foul/fowl to return the favor.

Here are some notable opinions on the subject of "patriotism." Think, if you can, of how the spirit invoked by the memorials today compares:

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -how passionately I hate them!” Albert Einstein

“Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen.” -- Ambrose Bierce

“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” -- Oscar Wilde

“Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.” -- James Bryce

“Patriotism is the religion of hell” -- James Branch Cabell

"Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them.” -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.” -- Guy de Maupassant

“Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.” -- George Jean Nathan

"Patriotic societies seem to think that the way to educate school children in a democracy is to stage bigger and better flag-saluting." -- S.I. Hayakawa

"He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland." -- Harry Emerson Fosdick

"If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident." -- Montesquieu

"It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." -- Voltaire

“The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?” -- Pablo Casals

(As usual, this first appeared on The Pond, where there's a nifty foto to accompany the thing. It's also up at Station CharonM, and will go up on WWL in a few.)

Separated at Birth? You Decide.

In a war of ideologies, where facts are irrelevant, contempt, derision, mockery, ridicule, and scorn are your best friends.

In the Corporate State, 'corporate' media are State Media..

I am constantly and continually A-fuuking-MAZED that otherwise seemingly intelligent, observant, critical people regard the behavior of the USer Media with such apparent confusion and futile consternation. They profess ASTONISHMENT that certain perspectives, candidates, positions in public debates ALWAYS seem to gain the approbation of the 'press,' while others cannot gain any attention at all.

"The Media doesn't treat us FAIR," they whine. "They ALWAYS favor the right-wing candidate/issue position. Why can't they be FAIR?"

Why? Isn't it obvious?

Because they are CORPORATE MEDIA, people!!!

Chuy!!!

They are, always, no matter what else they seem to do or be, the private, unaccountable, unregulated, highly profitable instruments, outlets, sources for the propaganda of the CORPORATE STATE. That is their only function: to make a profit off propaganda. And they are incredibly successful at it.
As such, they CANNOT, by definition, be "unbiased." They will ALWAYS be biased in favor of the status quo, ante. Because the only way the Corporate State CAN communicate with its constituents is through propagandas (plural: agit-prop against enemies, thorazine-prop against dissent).

The BEST you could EVER have hoped for would have been that their bias would be for the "people."

This was truer--more possible--the farther back into the history of the institution of 'media' you go. The decline in the interest of the press for the affairs and needs of the common folks maps directly on the Corporatization of the industry.

This phrase occupies a prominent place on this blog: In the Corporate State, corporate media ARE State Media. As such, they are indistinguishable in their propaganda function from all the other Institutional State Apparati (Althusser, 1977), such as the schools, and 'entertainment' and public relations industries. The modern, industrial/post-industrial state cannot have 'personal' relations with its constituents. Every transaction must be 'mediated.' Every mediation is approached as a propaganda transaction. Everywhere the State must touch the people, there will you find a corporate intermediary to interpret (spin? propagandize!) for the State interest (Ellul, 1961/66).

Nobody anymore believes the interests of the Corporate State intersect with the needs or interests of the constituent, real, mortal people, other than by accident or coincidence.

There is no meaningful difference between propaganda and advertizing or public relations. Anyone who believes there is any difference in substance between Coke and Pepsi, Ford and GM, Coors and Bud, Burger King and McDonalds, United and American, Democrat and Republican, is a propaganda success story.

"Woody's Affiliated Blogs"™ Announces the Arrival of Our Latest Member

Fresh from our 50,000th hit, please, join in the festivities welcoming the arrival the latest whelp in my bloggie litter, "Have a GREAT Day!"

On the new Blog, the effect I'm going for is "It Goes Without Saying." Or, as the lawyers say, "Res Ipsa Loquitur."

The rubric, obviously (I hope), is the transience of smug satisfaction. Schadenfreude is a wonderful thing.

I'm not going to headline anything, and I shall post no text that is not in the image or the vid presented.

I will happily publish images/vids sent in by contributors, who will be acknowledged by a "Doff Of The Old Fedora" (DOTOF™) under submissions that are posted.

So, welcome to the latest emanation of my fevered imagination. Please, play!

Brain-Food for the Post-Festival (Folk/Football) Fury Feast

Did any of you get to The General's Page today? If not, get thee hence, thereupon to discover, in fact, despite what certain deluded romantics seem to think, according The Holy Handgrenade of Left-bloggiedom, there is a compelling argument why, contra 'Si, se puedes," there are lots and lots of reasons why No, no puedes ustedes! (No, You Can't!), and whereever it was you thought you could, the sky wasn't EVER blue...A sobering read...The Ginr'l nails it in his customary, straightforward way, understated way.

A taste:

No, you can't assume that we'll ever tell the truth, the whole truth, or nothing but the truth, not even under oath (assuming you can get us there), and not even when the truth is clearly good enough to stand on its own. We'll lie about little things like teleprompters and big things like our own records. We'll even tell obvious lies because we don't respect you enough to think you'll notice or care. Lying well takes practice, and if we stop we might get sloppy — not that you'd notice anyway.

It's their utter contempt for even the niceties of simply pretending to be trying to conceal their depredations that worries me the most. They just do not give a fuck, anymore, and it seems to me there's only, really, one reason: the fix is in.

Either the owners have decided there's still enough time before the eventual final collapse of 'civilization that it will be profitable (the expenses are amortizable) to destroy the last shreds of progressive/liberal/inclusionary politics by installing Obama in a doomed quest to correct, or even to arrest, the impetus toward entropy which the Busheviks recklessly accelerated--but the Clenis and Raygun also significantly abetted, reasoning--correctly, according to my theorem on the matter--that the press will press the blame for failure not on the intractability of the problem but on the race and character of the "black librul with the funny name," who (predictably) couldn't handle the responsibility, thereby demonstrating the unfitness of any but wealthy white males to wielld the might that is America's godly wrath!

This strategy has a couple of drawbacks, "depending," as McShitstain's nurse would say. One is that it occupies a couple of years to see through to fruition, would cost them perhaps some new taxes, and certainly the loss of some of their more egregious benefits; and the owners may figure that there's just not enough time to recoup the expense before the hammer falls.
So, they may have decided just to skip to the chase and install Bombin Johnnie and Annie Oakley to preside over the undiminished robbery of the treasury, including Social Security this time, the final extinction of humans' competitor species, and the onset of the food and water wars....

Either way, the outcome does not seem to matter to the McShitstain crew at all...And that speaks volumes to me.

(A shorter version of this post appeared on The Pond a little earlier today. It arose from a comment on Pharyngula. This version is also up at MLW.)

Light Posting Through Sunday: !Viva La Fiesta!

Zozobra, aka "Old Man Gloom" awaits his fiery fate, on the first night of Fiestas De Santa Fe.

Fiestas de Santa Fe is a festival held every autumn in Santa Fe, New Mexico, usually during the second week of September.

History

Fiestas de Santa Fe has been held annually since 1712 to celebrate the "peaceful retaking" of the city in 1692 by Spanish colonists led by General Don Diego de Vargas (1643-1704). The Spanish were earlier expelled from the city by neighboring Pueblo people during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and spent the next 12 years in exile in El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez, Mexico).
The King of Spain appointed de Vargas to lead the exiled colonists in their reoccupation of Santa Fe, which he accomplished without bloodshed--in Santa Fe, anyway; elsewhere the story was different--on September 14, 1692. Eight years after de Vargas' death, a proclamation was signed to establish an annual commemoration of the resettlement.[1]

Festival Highlights

The start of Fiestas is marked by the burning of Zozobra, also known as "Old Man Gloom", a 50ft/15.2m tall marionette that symbolizes the hardships and despair of the past year. The tradition is not ancient, though, having begun in around 1928, by a group of "gringo" artists called "Los Cincos Pintores," led by Will Schuster. This is followed by 3 days of celebration that includes a reenactment of Don Diego de Vargas' return to the city, a children's pet parade, the Historical/Hysterical Parade, the Fiesta Ball and Roman Catholic masses of thanksgiving. During the festival, the Santa Fe Plaza is filled with arts & crafts and food booths, and mariachis play throughout the city. Fiestas concludes with twilight mass at St. Francis Cathedral followed by a candlelight procession to the Cross of the Martyrs.

"Fiestas" are not uniformly loved in Santa Fe, which still is home to a substantial population of 'native' Americans, both in the city and on near-by pueblos. The Native folks do not 'celebrate' the reconquest, howsoever allegedly peaceful it was. They are far more inclined to celebrate the Pueblo Revolt, which was just about the only successful rebellion of indigenous peoples against European colonial expansion anywhere in the New World. It began in 1680, and the reconquest, which Fiestas commemorates, occured in 1692.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no community festival of the same size and duration to commemorate the Pueblos' successful rising against the Spanish. However, the putative leader of the revolt, a cacique named Po'pay, from the pueblo of Okeh-Owingeh (formerly called "San Juan?") is commemorated locally.

"Palin-fully Honest"

I frequent the personals sections of the Toobz. Sara Palin, in her speech and demeanor, reminds me of one of those gals who, in their personals, proclaim themselves to be “painfully honest.” This, of course, means “painfully honest” only about YOU; watch it if you essay a similar honesty about her. She'll cut your nuts off...and, then, because of her gender, she’ll claim a free pass: any criticism of her will be portrayed and perceived as either 'bullying' or ’sexism.’ Win/Win!

Despite what anyone with a single scintilla of intelligence may think, Palin is the perfect nominee for purposes of drawing the “undecided” (really, the working-class, white, so-called 'low info,' resentful, dog-shit dumb) ‘Mid-dull Murkin’ demographic. She's stunningly obnoxious, and confrontational, condescending as only a "Christian" ("not perfect, saved") can be; but as a ‘woman’ in a "man's world" (politics isn't genteel), she’ll claim an exemption from being subject to the same shit she'll so enthusiastically spread.

Democrats?
Fuuuuck…
Stick your own fork in your asses.
You’re done.

Why? The problem with the opinionating in the left-b/sphere is that you/we are WAY too well informed. We don’t have that shallow, paltry, indifferent, unalterable, rock-ribbed-STUPID understanding of the world that is shared among the dog-shit dumb who possess little inclination or curiosity--to say nothing of understanding--to discover the conditions of their own oppression. We have nuance, and details, and critique. They have “Fuck You!”

“Fuck you” defeats nuance every fuuking time,…

Oh, I’m still gonna ‘vote’ for the Great Mocha Hope…because I would rather chop off a hand than use it to cast a ballot for ANY GOPhascist.
But the game’s over…the pukes may not even have to cheat too much this time…

Which is a shame for the Dims, a party that should be ahead 20 points at this period of the campaign

(This post also appeared on MLW today. Thanks to MSOC for the tew kewl graphic/gif.)

Did I Mention Sara Palin's The Holy Plunger-Handle of the Lord?

So sayeth Dr. Myers:

This is a terrifying video. It's Sarah Palin going on and on in front of her Assembly of God church, talking about the war in Iraq as "a task that is from God", promising the congregants the gift of prophecy, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…it ought to make any rational human being ill.

Who among you would want to be led to a fucking TARGET store for toilet-paper by this raving, cretinous, god-blighted moronic fuckwit?
(H/t: PZ Myers/Pharyngula)

Sarah Palin: The GOP's Plunger-Handle-Up-The-Ass of "the People."

Sarah Palin's nomination marks the lowest point yet in the decline of the American polis. Witness (via ThinkProgress):

"In 2006, the Eagle Forum Alaska sent a questionnaire to all the state’s gubernatorial candidates, including Sarah Palin (R). Palin replied. From Palin’s response about the Pledge of Allegiance:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance."

However, as Hunter points out, the words “Under God” didn’t appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954; the founding fathers had nothing to do with them. The Pledge itself, in fact, wasn’t even written until 1892."

Are You Fucking SHITTING ME??? ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME?

YOU ARE FUCKING SHITTING ME, RIGHT?

Jesus. H. Fucking Christ. Jesus. H. Fucking Christ. Jesus. H. Fucking Christ.

Does anyone else suspect this bible-babbling bint would echo the Texas teacher who figgered if English was good enough for God to write the BIBLE, it was good enough for school?

The nomination by McShitstain of this dismal, empty-headed, god-blighted fucking cunt Sarah Palin signals the final demise of any relevance of the USer electoral process to anything cursorily related or even adjacent to "reality," as well as the ultimate rejection of the idea of government for "all" the people.

Nobody, I mean NOBODY, who seriously holds such views is qualified to suck runny shit through a flavo-straw, much less to stand a mere heart-beat (or a couple of squamous cells) from the presidency. She is appallingly ill-qualified... which is, you understand, of course, the point. This is the final "Fuck You, America" from the GOPhascist Phuques as they rescind the Republic, the thumb in your eye, the plunger handle up the ass....