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....

It sure looks like poor, ol' coastal Looseyana's gonna get whacked again

Here's a great storm-tracking link to follow the unfolding disaster. From the projected track, I'd guess Morgan City or Lake Charles could bear the brunt of the storm.

Via the Sydney (AU) Morning Herald (Sept. 1):

HURRICANE Gustav strengthened to a "dangerous" category four storm that threatens to strike US oil and natural-gas producers andfiners harder than hurricanes Katrina and Rita did three years ago.

Gustav may become a category five storm as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico.
It has already shut three-quarters of oil output in the region and refineries operated by Valero Energy, the nation's largest refiner, and Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded oil company.

The hurricane prompted a special trading session on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"This storm will prove to be a worst-case scenario for the production region," said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist for Planalytics.com. "This storm will be more dangerous than Katrina."

The National Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch as Gustav's winds were estimated at 240kmh as it made landfall in western Cuba and was forecast to pass into the Gulf overnight.

BP, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's largest oil company, led producers shutting wells and whisking staff ashore.

About 77 per cent of Gulf oil output and 37 per cent of natural-gas production was shut, the US Minerals Management Service said in a statement yesterday.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the nation's largest crude-oil terminal, closed yesterday.

Fields in the Gulf produce 1.3 million barrels a day of oil, about a quarter of US production, and 200 million cubic metres a day of natural gas, 14 per cent of the total, government data show. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 closed 95 per cent of regional offshore output and, along with Hurricane Rita, idled about 19 per cent of US refining capacity.

Exxon Mobil is shutting its Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery.

Non-essential employees have been released so they can evacuate as requested by local officials, Exxon Mobil said in a notice posted on its website yesterday.

The refinery, which can process 192,000 barrels a day, is run by Chalmette Refining, a joint venture between Exxon and state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Marathon Oil Corp began closing its 256,000-barrel-a-day Garyville, Louisiana, refinery yesterday, according to a statement posted on its website. Meanwhile, Valero was shutting its St Charles refinery west of New Orleans and may decide today whether to shut its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, spokesman Bill Day said in an emailed message.

Three Louisiana parishes with refineries have ordered mandatory evacuations.

Refinery production slowed at some complexes owned by Shell and Motiva Enterprises LLC, its venture with Saudi Arabian Oil, Shell said in a statement on its website. "The big question for the market is going to be how quickly after Gustav passes will the industry be able to recover and get back online," said Andy Lipow, president of Houston company Lipow Oil Associates.

Enbridge, Canada's largest pipeline company, and its US affiliate closed conduits capable of bringing ashore 189 cubic metres a day of natural gas. Evacuation of Terrebonne Parish shut the flow of 15 million cubic metres a day of gas into the 16,900-kilometre Transco line to the US north-east, owner Williams Cos said in a statement.

Exxon Mobil said yesterday it had shut platforms producing 5000 barrels of oil and 1.4 million cubic metres of natural gas. BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, said it shut production in the Gulf of Mexico and evacuated all staff by noon local time yesterday. Its normal production is equivalent to 290,000 barrels a day from the region. Anadarko Petroleum, the second-largest US independent oil producer, said in a statement on its website yesterday that it had shut the equivalent of 105,000 barrels a day of production, with all of it to be closed tomorrow night.

Shell said it would shut daily production equivalent to 510,000 barrels of oil yesterday. Marathon Oil Corp and Conoco Phillips said they have shut and evacuated all Gulf production platforms. Workers from 45 rigs and 223 production platforms were evacuated as of 12.30pm yesterday, the Minerals Management Service said in a statement on its website. About 998,000 barrels of daily oil production have been shut down in preparation for the storm, as well as 70 million cubic metres of gas.

Crude oil futures on the Nymex fell 13 cents to $115.46 a barrel on August 29 on speculation supplies will be adequate to meet demand after the storm passes. Natural gas futures fell 10.7 cents to $7.943 per million British thermal units. Most US financial markets are closed until September 2 for the Labor Day holiday. Nymex said in an August 29 statement that electronic trading will begin at 2.30pm New York time tomorrow with trades dated September 2.

What We HAD Here Was A Failure of Imagination

Ten signs that the disasters and catastrophes of the last 8 years should have surprised NO ONE (I wrote this in December, 2000).

What if:
The self-declared "winner" of a closely contested, vital, national election LOST the national total popular vote, but "was declared the winner" based on some old colonial/imperial/racist holdover from the nation's pre-democracic and un-integrated past...

AND 2. The self-declared "winner's" "victory" turned on disputed votes cast--or preventded from being cast--in a province infamous for political chicanery, fraud, and abuse, and which is governed by the "victor's" brother...

AND 3. The self-declared "winner" was the son of the defeated, rejected (and humiliated!) former prime minister; AND the defeated, humiliated father/former prime minister was himself the former long-time member and later chief of that nation's secret police, international terrorist, assassination, and political dirty tricks squad, where he was still held in high regard, had impeccable connections, and was still owed a few favors...

AND 4. An overwhelming majority of members of that nation's most despised caste of former slaves, servants, and sexual playthings, fearing for their lives/livelihoods and the return of their oppression, turned out in record numbers to vote in near-universal opposition to the self-declared "winner's" candidacy...

AND 5. Hundreds of members of that most-despised caste were intercepted on their way to the polls by state police, operating under the authority of the self-declared "winner's" brother...

AND 6. There were internationally wide-spread, but locally ignored, allegations that ballots delivered to polling places of the members of the despised caste in the disputed districts were of the kind known for years to result in large numbers of "disqualified" ballots, AND which ballots may already have been 'pre-marked' so that they might be discarded later as bearing multiple voter's marks (source: London TIMES, NY TIMES, etc)...

AND 7. Poorly designed ballots and faulty machines in several voting districts -- especially those heavily favoring the OPPONENT of the self-declared "winner," in districts where the likely voters were preponderantly members of that despised class -- directly led to thousands of voters voting AGAINST their expressly preferred candidate, while many of those who noticed and requested new ballots were denied...

AND 8. While six million people voted in the disputed province, the self-declared "winner's" margin of "victory" was only 327 notes -- fewer, by far, certainly, than the vote-counting machines' margin of error...

AND 9. The self-declared "winner" and his political cronies opposed -- indeed, declared to be "criminal" and "dishonest" -- a more careful, by-hand inspection and re-counting of the ballots in the disputed province, or in its most hotly disputed districts...

AND ...10. the self-declared "winner," who himself was a governor of a major province -- which province had the worst human-rights record of any province in his nation, and led the nation in executions -- had recently signed legislation in his own province that REQUIRED such a "criminal" recount...

Would the estimable forces of (corporate) freedom and (financial) right in 4th estate of the USofA turn a blind eye upon all this, and urge a speedy resolution of the disputes and installation of the 'victor"?

I doubt it... unless, of course, he were an "authoritarian" leader dedicated to "free" markets and the suppression of dissent.

New Meme? Whaddaya Call Federal Workers Hired For Partisan Loyalty, Not Practical Competence?

"Goodlings"

Named for Monica Goodling, the blonde, brainless bimbo with a "law degree" from a religious diploma mill hired by the Bushevik "Justice" department to vet new career employee hires, and who notoriously used her position to ensure the ideological purity of prospective employees.

Here's how Wiki describes her qualifications:

Goodling, a conservative Christian, was a 1991 graduate of Northeastern High School in Manchester, Pennsylvania, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995 from Messiah College. After completing her bachelor's degree, Goodling continued her education at American University,[2] but she then transfered to the Regent University Law School, where she received her Juris Doctor degree in 1999. Regent University was founded by Pat Robertson, and it advertises itself as "America's Preeminent Christian University".

From "Messiah" College (WTF izzat?), she tried a real school (*American U.), but couldn't cut it and retreated to "Regency" University for here 'gimme' JD?

I, for one, am certain there were "Monica Goodlings" embedded by the Busheviks in every department of the government. And I am equally certain that while there, these fascist 'moles' hired deeply committed, neo-con cells, and installed them in every department, office, and bureau of Government today. For the foreseeable future, these 'moles' will oppose, interfere with, and try to stymie any and effort at liberalizing Government for the next 30 years, if not purged, handily and forthwith by an Obama regime, should he be installed in the ShiteHouse.

If 'elected,' the first thing Obama needs to do is set up a team to cull the records of every Bushevik hire since 2001 for the "Goodlings." Then fire them, all, summarily. Turn in your keys and your hard-discs, pack your crosses, rosaries, holy water vials, and get the fuck outta Dodge...

(This post appeared originally on The Pond. It will eventually find its way to MLW, to WWL, to PFF, and Station Charon.)

A Bridge Too Far?

There's this guy searching for proof of the Divine, and one day at the beach he encounters an angel, or anyway somebody who says he's one.

Of course, the guy's skeptical, but he gives the self-described angel a task to prove he's working for the Lord: the guy's a surfer, and he loves Hawaii, but he lives in California. So he tells the angel he wants the Lord to build a bridge from LA to Honolulu. That'd be definitive proof, he figgers.

The angel, understandably tries to get out of it, first complaining of the raw materials, then berating the guy for being selfish, for wanting to drive to Hawaii. The 'angel' asks the guy if he doesn't have a more doable, mebbe a more noble, thing that the angel could accomplish to prove his relation with God.

So the fella stops and thinks, and after a minute, tells the angel that, yeah, okay, he'll give up on the idea of the bridge. What he really wants is to understand women, he says.

The angel considers the request, and after a minute he sez: 'So this bridge? You want two or four lanes?'

Karl Rove only WISHES he'd thought of this...

Given the disaffection of such a (allegedly) large fraction of Hilary supporters (approaching 30%, according to some stories and polls), Bombin John, the POW PukeStain, could quite handily win both the battle of the snark and probably the 'election,' too, by naming Condi as his Veep.
She’d have strong appeal. “White” voters could vote for the PukeStain and at the same time assuage their ‘racial fairness’ paradoxes: they wouldn't "really" be voting for either a woman or a person of color, but they'd have a rat-fuck at the expense of the 'libruls.' Women, pissed (agree or not) at Obama, might also flock to the PukeStain ticket with the notable woman Veep candidate, figgering (rightly) "only a heartbeat, and he’s an old man…"

It would be an enormous propaganda coup for the GOP for it to happen that the first woman AND the first non-White preznint were both the SAME--incompetent, fatuous, shallow, bumbling, coproRat 'ho--Condi Rice, a Republican, innit???

Like I said, Karl Rove only WISHES he’d thought of it…

(This post originated on The Pond, where there's a coupla relevant illustrations. Likely it will also find its way onto MLW, WWL, & PFF. I am an equal opportunity offender.)

From "Screwed" To "Fucked": No, Virginia, You CANNOT Be President When You Grow Up. Fuggeddaboudit!

Rick MacArthur, president of Harper's Inc has a new book out: "You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America."

MacArthur, on Democracy Now yesterday (transcript) with Amy Goodman, says among other things (watch/listen here), that the popular notion that any American can become president only reinforces the “destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America.” To assume that, he says, is equal to believing that Santa Claus exists. (Not unlike believing in "God": It may be comforting, but it is wholly irrelevant with respect to 'reality,' effect, or consequences.)

Friends, things are really, truly, completely, wholly, totally fucked up (yo!) if the members of the actual 'ruling class' (to which class MacArthur indisputably belongs) are dismayed by the catapulting propaganda.

Someone remarked on one of the other blogs--Drum?, S!N.?, TP,? (I fergit)--the other day that the Conventions reminded them of an annual corporate stockholders' meeting-cum-trade expo. Which is just about right: The Dims this week, and the Pukes next week, have brought together in the same place all the important functionaries of the apparatus where they can collect corporate largesse, schmooze with the Fat Cats, and feel like they're part of some 'movement.' It's where the Fat Cats can select from the array of potential sycophants, purchase the ones they want, and jam broomsticks into the spokes of party satraps who are not sufficiently friendly to the bipartisan, CorpoRat Agenda. Plus it is a terriffic propaganda show, now become truly a "pseudo-event," a 'thing' that only exists so that it should be reported on (Boorstin, 1961).

Matt Taibbi has made a similar point, on the Rolling Stone blog:

The truth is that the campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain are being inundated with cash from more or less exactly the same gorgons of the corporate scene. From Wall Street to the Big Oil powerhouses to the military-industrial complex, America's fat-cat business leaders know that the Animal House-style party of the last eight years that made almost all of them rich with bonuses, government contracts and bubble profits is about to come to an end, and someone is going to have to pay to clean up the mess. They want that someone to be you, not them, and they've spared no expense to make sure both presidential candidates will be there to bail them out next year.

They're succeeding. Both would-be presidents have already sold us out. They've taken the money and run — completing the cyclical transformation of the American political narrative from one of monopolistic Republican iniquity to an even more depressing tale about the overweening power of corporate money and the essentially fictitious nature of our two-party system.

In layman's terms, we've gone from being screwed to being fucked. Who knows — maybe Barack Obama will surprise us if he wins the election. But if you look at the money, it doesn't look good.

We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO fucked, people. "We" Murkins have made the classic mistake: Believing our own promotional material, forgetting the spin imparted to make it plausible to the ignorant, and/or the terminally delusional.

FIFTY THOUSAND HITS!!!!! Wooooo-HOOOOO!!! 50K!@!@!@

Today, August 25, 2008, the sum/total of hits on "Woody's Associated Blogs"™ lurched in typical, ungainly fashion past the 50,000-hit milestone. Much "Hoopla" attended the event. Jollity ensued, universally. You had to be there...The small screen doesn't do it justice, you know?

The visitor who logged the 50,000 hit linked in from Los Angeles, on AT&T, at 7:49 pm, looking for this image, from almost 8 years ago, even then known as the Brooks' Brothers Rebellion, when hired GOPuke staffers rioted in the Elections Office of Miami-Dade County and forced the suspension of the recount which should have spared us the ensuing 8 years of mal- and misfeasance. A fair number of these little fucknozzles and shitwhistles ended up in the Bushevik Apparat, some in career jobs, some in patronage positions. If you know any of them, see if they commute anytime through the Metro at Columbus Circle. The escalators there are very long and amazingly steep.

Fantasies aside, if this notawble visitor will contact me through the The Pond, where the hit happened, and confirm their name and ISP, I'll be sending that person a 2 lb bag of New Mexico Pinon-roasted coffee, a package of Chimayo red (ground) chile and a package of blue-corn tortilla/pancake mix.

Squirt & Gulp: Obama, McCain Gleefuly Fellate Xian Flying Monkeys' Guru

That thing last weekend, with St. Randy of the Meg-Bux holding court and grilling the presidential candidates about their sectarian bona fides made me physically ill. I wanted to hurl, either my lunch, or handy, palm-sized stones.

Yet ANOTHER fucking "Faith-based blowjob" for the "faithful." The candidates got on their knees and sucked and swallowed the Kingdom Cum with downright disgusting enthusiasm...

Is it sweeter for it emanating from the Holy Scrote?

What a shameful performance! I never believed either Obama or McShame, but now I never shall respect them, either.

Squirt & gulp: The sound of Democracy cravenly collapsing before the false altar of theodicy...

Racism 101

I used to have to deliver this lecture--or one very much like it--once per semester in every class I taught in graduate and undergraduate teacher education programs, both in Oklahoma and Louisiana. It was depressingly necessary, because the perfusion of the specious, spurious claims by whites of being 'victims' of 'reverse racism' by blacks or other minorities on white folks.

I now find it necessary to pull it out about once every six months on the blogs, too, where--one could only hope--there might be a slightly higher level of critical acuity, given that so many bloggers are actually adults, in responsible positions. But, alas:

Racism is NEVER merely a matter of individual acts of bias or bigotry

(The following was occasioned by an exchange on MLW, part of which constitutes the first, italicized paragraph. One commentor had remarked that a couple of Southern states were in play for Obama this year because there were serious efforts underway to register an estimated half- to three/quarters of a million hitherto unregistered voters in those places.)

Are you saying that Black voters are racists? That they will vote for the Black candidate without thinking? That their only question is whether obama is Black enough?

Are you saying blacks are, in general, worse off today than in 1965 because of 'liberal' politics, affirmative action, voting rights, and the like? That seems a risible assertion. Perhaps because of racist reaction to traditional liberal notions of advocating for racial justice and social equity, I suppose that case might be made. But that's clearly a case of blaming the victims who have been historically deprived of equity and justice.

A black voting GOP, as JC Watts' daddy said during his campaign (which I worked on; though he wasn't the first person to say it, he was the first person I ever heard say it) for Labor Commissioner in Oklahoma in '98, is like a chicken voting for the Colonel...

Racism is not an "individual" fault. It is societal. The Japanese practice racism against the Ainu and Koreans, as well as all other 'gaijin.' In northern New Mexico until fairly recently (and still in the more remote villages and towns) Chicano 'racism' did occur, where it would be difficult for a Native Amreican, or an Anglo to get the good, county jobs, for example, because they were not part of the dominant Chicano culture of the area. Racism is the institutionalization of notions of racial superiority. Racism is prejudice PLUS power to enact prejudice to the detriment of the allegedly, customarily, 'inferior' group.

So the answer is No, they are not 'racists' for preferring Obama. They would be 'voting their best interests.' Their choice would, to me be about as anti-racist as any vote could be, because they would be voting against the (defacto) racist GOP a party which has only flourished these last 40 years because of their wholesale adoption of racism as the organizing principle of their Southern Strategy...

Unfortunately, because of racism among whites (which is the only kind there is in most of the USofA)--that is, the systematic, quasi-official, socially embedded exploitation of white prejudice, bias, and bigotry against blacks and other people of color to keep them in positions of degraded citizenship, economic adversity, and social repression (in 1950, the majority of convicts in US prisons outside the South were white; today, because the carceral system has been appropriated as a tool of racial control, the vast majority everywhere are 'minorities')--Obama is being forced by the white racist establishment--to foresake the traditional liberal positions advocating for racial justice and social equity to allay the fears that he won't turn the tables...

I used to assign readings by Tim Wise. This piece was published in 2000:

The most unfortunate thing about all of this is that by neglecting to address institutional racism and other forms of structural inequity, it becomes all the more difficult to adequately confront the individual-level attitudinal biases about which we hear so much. Put simply, so long as our society is one in which certain folks-say, white, heterosexual men-are disproportionately found in prominent decision-making positions, and certain other folks-say people of color, women of all colors, and gays and lesbians-are disproportionately found in subordinate positions, it will be seen by many as quite obvious (or perhaps not thought of at all, but simply internalized) that those straight white guys must be smarter, or harder working than the rest, and thus, deserve their position, while those without power must likewise deserve their subjugation thanks to one or another genetic, cultural or moral flaw. This is how the myth of meritocracy works with regard to class, and it works just as well with race, gender, or sexual orientation: inculcating the mindset that the winners won because the losers are, well, losers.

So long as identifiable inequity is allowed to exist to any significant degree between socially-constructed and classified groups, this stratification-alongside the subjective propaganda which holds that individual initiative is the key to success or failure-will continue to produce racists: those like John Rocker, and those like the millions of other folks who frankly agreed with what he said, differing only on the style of delivery. It's time we got busy addressing the problem itself, rather than merely its occasional, highly public, symptomatic manifestations. Sound advice: and you didn't even have to check yourself in for therapy to get it.

Or check this out:

Amy Alkon "Hearts" Woody!!!

Verbatim from her pathetic "advice" blog, here's "trannie Amy" herself, regarding yours truly. You can tell she's really hot for me, but is trying to conceal it:

Here's the blog of tiny little fascist Woody, who apparently is a 62-year-old man posting cracks like this --

"I had you as a trannie, but going the other way... no WAY that hair's 'real.' and that jaw! O, yeah, bite me, puh-leasze!!!!

-- on my blog.

His e-mail: konopelli@yahoo.com -- which is how I found his blog, posted without his name, of course, so still anonymous despite the e-mail address.

Here's his profile: http://www.blogger.com/profile/09205896988142798901

See, here's the deal, Woody. You are hiding under the cloak of anonymity. I'm guessing you're a tiny-dicked loser. I mean, what kind of 62-year-old man posts anonymous attack comments about a woman's looks on her website? Is this "progressive" behavior, trying to punish and intimidate me for speaking freely?

I don't post stuff I wouldn't say to somebody in person. It's uncivil to attack somebody about their looks. Also, I can't imagine somebody who posts anonymous attack remarks such as this having the balls to ever speak to me in public.

You are probably typical of the people Sadly Pathetic is sending over here. And you know my name, as I have the balls you couldn't dream of having to post under it, with my picture right there, because I stand behind what I write.

You might try it sometime, cowardly loser.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at August 16, 2008 7:05 AM

His blog is: http://walled-in-pond.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Amy Alkon Author Profile Page at August 16, 2008 7:06 AM

Gotta figger that crack about her hair and/or jaw got in there a little, hunh? But looka that JAWLINE! She could load sand with that thing. That's a half-yard bucket, at minimum!

Amy, in her inimitable way, had attracted the attention of the left-b/sphere for a column in which she said, in effect, that an innocent woman (a black mother of several ("a litter") children by different fathers), who had been killed by the cops during a drug-raid, had had it coming.

Such commentary, of course, immediately obviates any necessity for subsequent commentors to be in any way nice, polite, or kind.

Bwahahahahahahaha...Consume your own feces and expire, babe...

Light Posting Day: Hollywood Calling

Gonna be on a set today, a TeeVee show called "Easy Money."

I'm supposed to portray a grizzled, old, cowboy-type guy patronizing a titty-bar.

Damn, type-cast again.

I should also say, here, that the recent 'surge' in hits on my blogs, prompted by random mention in different blogs (S,N!, C&L) for several unrelated causes, suggests to me that the date of my blogs surpassing 50,000 hits (not huge, I know, but significant in my little world) will be sooner than I'd anticipated, and in fact probably will occur before Sept. 1. If you are the 50,000th visitor, I am prepared to supply you with a New Mexico "Care" package, including pinon-roasted coffee, and an assortment of yummy chile products.

I will post the ISP of the 50,000th visitor, and request that the winner contact me THROUGH THE BLOGS to claim their prizes...

Break a leg...

Murkuns Say: "Too Much About The Knee-grow!"

According to a Pew poll last week, about 48% of people/voters polled (just over 50% of Independents, 75% Pukes, and 35% Dims) reported they thought they were hearing 'too much,' about St. Change.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama may be the fresh face in this year's presidential election, but nearly half say they're already tired of hearing about him, a poll says.

With Election Day still three months away, 48 percent said they're hearing too much about the Democratic candidate, according to a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Just 26 percent said the same about his Republican rival, John McCain.

Obama, the 47-year-old Illinois senator who would become the first black president, has dominated political news coverage much of the year. According to an ongoing Pew study, Obama has appeared in more news stories this year and more people say they have heard more about him than McCain, the longtime Arizona senator who also ran for president in 2000.

Two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents said they've heard too much about Obama, as did a third of Democrats, a significant number.

At the same time, nearly four in 10 said they've been hearing too little about McCain — about four times the number who said so about Obama. About half of Republicans, four in 10 independents and even a quarter of Democrats said they've not heard enough about the GOP candidate.

The poll was conducted from Aug. 1-4 and involved telephone interviews with 1,004 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

I read this as further evidence of my thesis that Murkuns will be content to let Obama's nomination redeem them from the specter of socially embedded racism, withOUT they actually have to vote for him for President. McSame is probably gonna be #44, and by a pretty large margin--5-8 percent, @ 53-46. Their strategy, such as it is, is to provide EVERY WHITE VOTER with at least one (yeah, they're specious and spurious, but they possess plausible deniability) 'reason' not to vote for Obama. The same folks (amounting to over about a third of Dims) who are now asaying they're hearing too much about Obama will NOT vote for him when the curtain in the poll closes...It jis' ainta gonna happen, folks...

McGrampy's Campaigners Trash Social Security Birthday Cake

This story's on a bunch of National blogs this morning. It's the most notoriety poor, old "too far ftom Heaven, too close to Texas" New Mexico's gotten from the chattering class since the David Iglesias/Pajama Pete imbroglio in 2006.

However, there's no evidence that the local fish-wrap, The Albuquerque Urinal, had anything about this story. Nor did ANY of the Local Bleeding Leders have any film on the nightly broadcasts. I cannot understand why not, can you?

Albuquerque, NM- (Yesterday), the Democratic Party of New Mexico were joined by Patsy Trujillo, the Deputy Secretary of Aging and Long Term Care as well as Victor Raigoza, State Senate District 10 Candidate to attempt to sing Happy 73rd Birthday to Social Security outside the McCain headquarters office, only to have the birthday cake thrown in the trash by the campaign.

While McCain supporters screamed, "Obama sleeps with a Teddy Bear and a night light," staffers approached the Democratic group, yelling, took the 20 inch sheet cake that said "Happy Birthday Social Security" and threw it away.

"The McCain campaign is so out of touch instead of taking the cake to a homeless shelter or giving it volunteers, they just threw it in the garbage," said Conchita Cruz, Press Secretary for the Democratic Party of New Mexico. "What a perfect metaphor for why we can't trust John McCain with our social security, the campaign was literally throwing money in the trash."

I don't watch the local chuckleheads much. Did anybody hear about this BEFOREhand? Did anybody get video of the Pukes trashing the Social Security cake?

I was not surprised, of course, that there should be no attention paid. The local media are ALL 'CorpoRat SCUM," owned and directed from power-bases in distant cities. One must NEVER forget: In the Corporate State, corporate media--even local outlets--are the official State Media...

The Assassination Of The Arky Dim Party Chair

points to a growing, and to some an alarming, trend: Flying Monkey/Rightard nutcases, inspired --inflamed?-- by the 'eliminationist' rhetoric of most of the most prominent Rightard pundits--Coulter, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Savage, etc. (yick, I feel the need to bathe just naming the slimey fucktards)--are taking the "law" into their own hands: "If the voters won't throw 'em out, then I have the right to kill 'em."

The killer allegedly had just lost his job. Why go to the Dim party offices? Cuz the Rightard/Flying Monkey pundits blame all the economic ills on Dims...It is NOT unlikely that this is, indeed, more of the Rightard/flying monkey, eliminationist rhetoric coming home to roost.

Recent events have strengthened my opinion that, should there occur another, bloody terra attack in the USofA, the knuckle-draggers and the mouth-breathers will be coming for anyone they regard as liberal with guns and ropes and dogs, because "we" prevented the Boooosh from protecting them, with our dissent on torture and spying...

I am armed, and trained in the use of my weapons (one good thing about being a vet, along with the GI Bill). They'll likely get me, but it'll cost 'em...

Obama Won't--Can't--Help With "Minority" Civil/Human Rights

Barack Obama’s no liberal. But he carries that mantle, for no other reason than his ("obvious" and certainly inevitable) popular association with issues important to “people-of-color” and with “minority interests” in general, which are defacto regarded as part of a “liberal” politics. Half black, half white, still he is taken as an avatar of black, and not white, America.

Way back, right at the beginning of this, I suggested all over the place that Obama’s candidacy wouldn’t be an unalloyed plus for so-called ‘minority/human interests,’ because it couldn't be, without alienating white voters wholesale. I guessed then that he would be forced to eschew interest in ‘fairness,’ or ‘equitability,’ or any other idea that makes it seem that that’s what WHITE folks haven’t been "fair," and that the distribution of wealth in Murka has been anything but "equitable," or have somehow been remiss in these departments. Just as Hilary Clinton would have been required to disavow any sympathy for "womens' issues," or "choice," because--though not a "feminist" per se--her gender destines her to 'represent' women. By some quirk of patriarchic hierarchicalizing, only white men are allowed to represent 'everybody.'

Therefore it does not strike me as particularly paradoxical that Obama would be called upon by the white, Village punditocracy to prove his electability by requiring him to to actually reject, and work to diminish, or overturn, minority “entitlements,’ in order to prove--to whites--that he would be “fair” to all.

Everybody knows that Obama's prominence, his presumptive position at the top of a major-party, national ticket, alone and by itself itself, proves that Murka has gone "past-racial." Racism is no longer relevant. Obama killed it. Now he must cut off the ears and the tail.

Of course, that means throwing “minorities” to the sharks, by explicitly rejecting anything that reminds Whites that they have had anything at all to do with the oppression of African-Americans and other communities of color.

Which side will he come down on?

Me? I wouldn't want to have anything really important riding on his candidacy, once he's forced by 'conventional wisdom' to wink and smile and ass-fuck his base constituency...

An Immodest Proposal

Probably, Chinese "Women's Gymnastics" is a misnomer.

Probably, it should be called the "Chinese Girl's Gymnastics," maybe even Chinese Little Girls' Gymnastics. They are accused of using under-age competitors, exploiting the physical advantages that little girls enjoy over more mature ones in the areas of flexibility, absence of mass, and lack of fear. The Chinese "women," except their one leader--who won over-all gold--have no tits, no hips, no asses, nothing to suggest they are, in fact "women."

The Chinese say their competitors are ALL at least 16 years old, the official minimum age for women's gymnastics competition. They say the children's passports prove it.

But it's easy enough to phony up a passport if the issuing agency is complicit with the fraud.

So I have a suggestion. If it is, indeed, "women's" gymnastics that is being contested, every competitor ought to be required to provide evidence that the competitor has had menses. Give the IOC a tampon or a pad with menstrual fluid, and a dna sample for comparison.

Most US Corporations Pay NO Taxes--No, really!

You hear almost hourly how the poor, afflicted USer corpoRats labor and slave under the heel of Federal taxes.

You'll not be surprised that the fuckers are lying:

Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called "S" corporations pay taxes under individual tax codes.

"Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code," Edwards said.

The GAO study did not investigate why corporations weren't paying federal income taxes or corporate taxes and it did not identify any corporations by name. It said companies may escape paying such taxes due to operating losses or because of tax credits.

More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.

The GAO said it analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the U.S.

Dorgan and Levin have complained about companies abusing transfer prices — amounts charged on transactions between companies in a group, such as a parent and subsidiary. In some cases, multinational companies can manipulate transfer prices to shift income from higher to lower tax jurisdictions, cutting their tax liabilities. The GAO did not suggest which companies might be doing this.

"It's time for the big corporations to pay their fair share," Dorgan said.
(By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer)

"I Was A Stooge For The FBI.": Gerald Ford (Dec.)

Apparently, pretty much throughout his whole career, former football-player, stumblebum, and pardonner of Tricky Dick Nixon, Gerald Ford was an active stooge and flunky for J. Edgar Hoover.

From AP, via RawStory:

Former President Ford secretly advised the FBI that two of his fellow members on the Warren Commission doubted the FBI's conclusion that John F. Kennedy was shot from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository in Dallas, according to newly released records from Ford's FBI files.

Ford, still a congressman at the time, also told a senior FBI official about internal panel disputes over hiring staff, Chief Justice Earl Warren's timetable for completing the final report on the assassination and what panel members said about the FBI.

In turn, Assistant FBI Director Cartha "Deke" DeLoach confidentially advised Ford of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's position on panel disputes; discussed where leaks were coming from; and, with Hoover's personal approval, loaned him a bureau briefcase with a lock so he could securely take the FBI report on the 1963 assassination with him on a ski trip.

The new details were included in 500 pages of the FBI's large file on Ford, released in part this past week in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act that The Associated Press and others made on the day Ford died in December 2006. The FBI intends to release additional documents about Ford in several batches, all with parts censored for law enforcement and privacy reasons.

That Ford served as the FBI's eyes and ears inside the commission has been known for years. Long ago, the government released a 1963 FBI memo that said Ford, then a Republican congressman from Michigan, had volunteered to keep the FBI informed about the panel's private deliberations, but only if that relationship remained confidential. The bureau agreed.

It was also well-known Ford was an outspoken proponent of the bureau's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy acting alone.

A newly released memorandum provides more details about Ford's role as the FBI's informant. DeLoach wrote on Dec. 17, 1963, to outline what Ford told him in the congressman's office about the commission meeting the day before.

"Two members of the commission brought up the fact that they still were not convinced that the President had been shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas Book Depository," DeLoach wrote. "These members failed to understand the trajectory of the slugs that killed the President. He stated he felt this point would be discussed further but, of course, would represent no problem."

There was no explanation of what Ford meant by "no problem."

Warren Commission records released in 1997 revealed that in the final report Ford changed the staff's original description of one of Kennedy's wounds. Ford said then he only made the description more precise. Skeptics said Ford's wording falsely made the wound seem higher on the body to make the panel's conclusion that one bullet hit both Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally more plausible.

Gerry Ford was always a reliable guardian of the "myth."

One Day Soon...

The WGG-Blog Empire--Walled-In Pond, Well-Armed Lamb, Woody Guthrie's Guitar, & A Chinchilla of Hope--are at this exact moment just under 1,150 hits away from the minor landmark, 50K HITS!!!.

That's right, some time in the next month or so (depending on how busy it gets), Site-Meter will record the 50,000th hit on my blogs.

I am prepared to recognize and congratulate the person who creates that landmark hit with assorted New Mexico goodies--including chili powder, blue-corn masa, an assortment of salsa, and some NM pinon-roasted coffee beans, a package worth at least $25, plus shipping--to the lucky 50,000th visitor. To claim your prize, when appropriate, send me your ISP that I may compare it to the Site-Meter record. If you are, indeed, the one, I'll contact you within a day or so, to arrange shipping details...

Pulitzer Winner Suskind: "Bushistas Told Premeditated Lies About WMD In Iraq"

I was shocked to hear it.

No, really I was. Nobody could have EVER anticipated that a regime infiltrated with and mainly 'elected' by a "bloodless," rightwing, fascistic, international militarist, petro-corp coup d'etat would misrepresent "Intelligence" in order to drag an unwilling Nation into a vainglorious, and neo-colonialist war of aggression to 'win' access to Iraq's oil.

Ah never would have guessed that could happen, not in the Yew-Nited Stets...Unnnnn-possible...

Listen to Suskind get the incredulous 'bidness' from NPR/ME's whiney, querelous, putz-in-residence, Squeak Inskeep...That tone of bemused disbelief NEVER shows up when he's tongue-laving the prostates of the Regime's toadies and satraps.

Fearless Prediction: Labor Day Is DOOMED!

Get with the Holiday Spirit! Coming Soon, to end YOUR SUMMER!

Labor Day’s toast anyway. Fuggeddabottit!

Probably in 2011, for the 10th Marathon Lachrymosary of the “Terra Attacks of Nine Eleven” (mebbe get Jerry Lewis as host), whomsoever is president, knowing how hard the Allied Chambers of Commerce would oppose creating a NEW National Holiday--and under a barrage of right-wing breast-beating and self-congratulatory, hagiographic hoopla to acknowledge the Martyred Murkin Heroes of that day--will declare the substitution of “National Patriots’ Day”–or some such jingoistic crapola–-for poor, old, (long-doomed) Labor Day as the ‘end-of-summer’ holiday.

And why not?

Nobody giffsafok about Labor anymore anyway.

Yeah, baby, we’re ALL middle class now. Yeah!

Ewe Ess Ayy Ewe Ess Ayy Ewe Ess Ayy Ewe Ess Ayy