DHS Goons Rifle, Pillage Travellers' Laptops

That's right. Jis' like them goddamn slant-eyed, Komminist Chinee are doing in Beijing!

Without any explicit legal authority, the US "Heimattssicherheitsamp" (DHS/TSA) has issued a ruling which gives the assorted, ill-kempt, slovenly, obese, drooling knuckle-draggers, morons, and sniffling mouth-breathers--who's job it is to make your travel experience as absolutely SHITTY as possible--a new weapon in their arsenal of petty annoyances and bull-shit instigations: They claim the authority to force travelers to open their laptops, share the data thereupon recorded and to relinquish them at demand. (Never heard of the fucking 4th Amendment, I guess. What 4th Amendment, you ask? Oh yeah, FISA, I forgot...)

This, it seems to me, is an effort--which is working, as all such efforts these last 8 years have succeeded--to criminalize information, to institute and reify a class of thought-crimes. It is phenomenally dangerous to intellectual freedom, because it conflates "unapproved" information with contraband.

"The new DHS policies say that customs agents can, "absent individualized suspicion," seize electronic gear: "Documents and electronic media, or copies thereof, may be detained for further review, either on-site at the place of detention or at an off-site location, including a location associated with a demand for assistance from an outside agency or entity."

Outside entity presumably refers to government contractors, the FBI, and National Security Agency, which can also be asked to provide "decryption assistance." Seized information will supposedly be destroyed unless customs claims there's a good reason to keep it.

An electronic device is defined as "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form" including hard drives, compact discs, DVDs, flash drives, portable music players, cell phones, pagers, beepers, and videotapes.

There are some counter-measures, the best of which is full-encryption. But if DHS/TSA can just abscond with the machine, and there is no promise of it EVER being returned to you, there is no protection whatsoever afforded the innocent citizen. I volunteer to make a test-case of it, if I can get a guarantee of complete, full-appeal support from the ACLU or some such other guarantor of liberty and free speech.

Sen. Feingold's on the case, but Skeletor Chertoff says the DHS doesn't have to make public all it's rulings. And the Busheviks' notorious scorn and contempt for ANY Congressional oversight makes me think it will be in vain to pursue it. Also, I expect any new regime to stay with the existing policies, St. Barry, or Bombin' John. They won't easily relinquish such valuable perqs...

Gay-ron-FUUKIN-TEED, cher...

"And That's Just The Fuuking BEGINNING..."

From comments on Crooks & Liars today:

And that’s just the beginning (of the catalog of Bushevik crimes and excesses). Plamegate, the Libby pardon, the Abramoff affair, doctoring scientific reports, the end of habeas corpus, detainee torture, the politically-motivated firings of U.S. attorneys, illegal domestic surveillance, the theory of the unitary executive and the unprecedented assertion of executive privilege all show a President committed to doing neither what is legal nor right. And then, of course, there’s Iraq.

To say, say I, nothing of the blights of which we yet have no knowledge.

Example: 8 or 9 US Attys were fired for having too scant enthusiasm to loyally serve their local political masters. There are (or were) around 100. Eight or 9 were fired for, essentially, having a shred of integrity. Is anybody even asking: What about the rest?

So, what fell, diabolical, destructive, anti-democratic, fascistic deeds have those US Attys done to inoculate themselves against dismissal by this most partisan, most politicizing Regime since the rise of European fascism? To what kinds of mischief and miscreance have they been up? Is anybody even looking? These guys have their scalpels on the aorta of freedom...

The Siegelman case in Alabama hints at the depths of the skullduggery in which they are capable, skilled, and eager to engage. As we get closer to the actual, putative ‘election,’ what worries me is what invisible mischiefs have these US Attys been up to, of the kind that permitted them to keep their jobs, when the 8 or nine who were not enthusiastic enough tools of their local political patrons were fired?

And THAT’s just the beginning.

The busheviks have planted bureaucratic and administrative bombs throughout every branch, bureau, department, or office of government, from top to bottom, through and through. And they're not just policies and practices. The personnel they cannot fire might still have 25-year careers ahead of them, protected ironically by the very rules that were violated to get them into those positions. They’re in the infra-structure, inside the wall, so to speak. You’d have to bolt the doors and raze the buildings to clean ‘em all out.

Don’t be surprised when, if Obama does get in (it could happen...), the GOPhawks suddenly seem to become a lot less truculent, less enthusiastic about the war, and all its expense and loss of life, and to distance themselves from what they’ll swiftly and surely implant in the public mind through the instrument of their lapdog media, the idea of “Obama’s War.”

And if he follows his announced plan, not to end US military adventurism in central Asia, but to relocate the nexi of their energies, it will surely and inevitably become what the Pukes will be calling it at every occasion…Obama’s pledge to get the “combat troops” out of Iraq in 18 months only means he plans to redeploy them to Afghanistan…

Probably–but not certainly, certainly–Obama would not attack Iran, under most circumstances; far better is the possibility that Bombin’ John would…

That's pretty thin gruel in the ‘choice’/'change’ menu, even for the USofA (the United Stores of MickeyDs...).

"Just As With FISA, Obama Folded Like A Cheap Valise!" "No? Really? No..."

Yup, really.

Bent over like an old dollar bill and took off-shore and ANWR drilling right up the ass: "ST. PETERSBURG — Barack Obama said Friday for the first time that he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that’s what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources."

And he seemed to smile all the while.

Mebbe you can't blame him, I dunno. The rightards always have an advantage in arguments like this.

They can aim for the dumbest matherfockers in the room. There’s always damn near a majority of ‘em around, drooling and picking their asses with side-arms. That cracker Adkisson was one. Tim McVey? There’s millions more. And they don’t do nuance.

"Way ain' got 'nuff awl. Way need more awl. Awl cums outtn the ground, dunnit? Ere's more down thar, innit? So drill more fucking holes and fill MAH TAINK!"

I get so sick of newscasts, commentators, pundits, the whole class who let the oil drilling canards pass right on by without comment.

Two things will bring down the price of gas: More gas, or less demand.

That problem will not be solved by drilling more holes, nor by selling more leases, however. Those expedients just benefit the Big Oil Combines--Exxon/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP, and Shell, mainly.

The problem, and the reason –in scare quotes– for the high price is that demand outstrips supply. Not the demand for "oil." The demand for gasoline and other refined products.

Actually, there’s really quite a bit of it still out there, above ground, but not refined.

But there is not enough refinery capacity to crack all the petroleum we’ve already pumped.

Nobody’s gonna build any more refineries because (according to T Boone Pickens, anyway) world oil production PEAKED at least three years ago, in 2005, and there’s not really enough oil left to amortize the costs of new capacity, no matter the prices at which it is sold. So that’s nagahapun.

The politics of "energy" has become pure political demagoguery, and the goddamn gutless, brain-dead, captive CorpoRat newsreaders should be saying so…

But of course, in the Corporate State, corporate media are State media.

Murkins Jist Don't Dew teh NUANCE:

And mainly, the people don't notice.

That's because, for the last nearly 40 years, critical thinking has been steadfastly and studiously ignored in Murkin schools, despite the fact that it became something of a 'buzz-phrase' in the '90s. They talked about it it a lot, but at the same time, the School Bidness was selling 'testing,' which cannot measure and does not even acknowledge the existence of truly Critical Thinking.

Critical Thinking is a pretty advanced skill, and I'd bet 95% of all high-school students are not called upon to understand nuance. Mostly, they havent been since Nixon’s regime. His people changed the character of the ‘education’ establishment, fundamentally. The regime saw that the kids in the streets, opposing them, were pretty well educated. They could think. They’d been taught how in school.

The hegemons were determined to undermine that, and they did. I taught in colleges of education, taught students who were ostensibly, anyway, pretending to be wanting to become teachers, all of whom were born and schooled (I refuse to call what Murkins do in school "education") since 1970. I'd bet a months' SS, that not one 20 of them had ever had a critical thought. I taught 14 years.

I could even now go back and at least name from pictures the students I taught at LSU and Oklahoma who had actually practiced recursive, reflective THOUGHT. Probably not more than even one in four or five graduate students. It was terrible: People going into teaching who not only cannot/do not think critically, but who actually despise the effort. Unfortunately, I couldn’t flunk them all…

By the way, it might help, too, if there were some real disincentives to price-jacking speculation in these markets. I like the way the Chinese treat crooked speculators in vital materiel: Make 'em dig a hole, strip 'em to their underwear, kneel 'em in front of their hole, put two small-caliber slugs in the brain, tip the carcass int the hole, and cover with quick-lime.

I don't know what deterrent effect this has, but it sure as hell stops recidivism.

PS: There is ONE drilling proposal I'd defend, a law which authorized drilling for oil or gas in US off-shore waters or other protected venues, stipulating that ALL oil and gas recovered from those sites be refined in US refineries and sold to USer users.

Yeah, I know. It'd never get through Congress, and if by a fluke it did, the Chimp'd veto it. But that would make the necessary point, nest paw: "This aint no fuukin way about the USer consumer, assholes; it's about more obscene PROFITS for BIG OIL, and donchew fergit it."

John McCunt: Viral Video (funny) NSFW

JOOC(JustOutOfCuriosity) why DOESN'T anybody ask Bombin' Johnnie if he still refers to his rich, young, tarty trophy-frau a "Cunt, painted up like a trollope?"
When we heard so much about Jesse Jackson talking about "cutting the niggers balls off," why is McCunt's comment off-limits?

Previews: The Hormuz Express

Sy Hersch alleged in an interview with one of the ThinkProgress guys that Cheney's brain trust tried to cook up a causus belli with Iran by getting US Navy Seals dressed up as Iranians to drive boats, built in the us, to simulate an attack on a USer Carrier group in or near the Straits of Hormuz, to which the Murkins would respons and initiate hostilities. The Gulf of Tonkin came immediately to mind, and I thought "It's not a fucking game, motherfuckers." But I'm old.

Then a TP poster, Bobwurst, picked up the ball:

I think the plan is for the pretend Iranians to “attack” a US warship and then have the warship “defend” itself by blowing up the navy seals. To what extent the seals or the warship would be in on the true intention of the “attack” questionable. I could see this administration telling the seals that they’re just going to be filmed “attacking” and that there will be live fire but they wouldn’t be targeted, and then the administration would not tell the warship, who would blow up the unsuspecting seals thinking they were really under attack. This would eliminate witnesses to bush/cheney’s treason, and would make the testimony of the captain and crew more believable: they wouldn’t have to act because they would have believed they were really under attack.

I though this was just freaking/farking/farouking brilliant and I posted back:
I give you "Hormuz Express," starring Harrison Ford as the Carrier commander and Bruce Willis leading the Seals…awesome, dood!
Bobwurst replied, getting right into the swing:

Except that Willis, alone, would have to survive, and swim home on the back of a shark to America bent on revenge. He’d shark-surf up the Potomac, climb the fence to the Whitehouse and sneak into President Biff Stoneman’s (D) bedroom (Fred Thompson);..who would spill the beans just before a bullet fired through the window by the Russian Mafia (sent by the Evil VP, played by Brian Denehy) hits him in the head and splatters his brains on the protrait of Bush43 over the bed. Willis again barely escapes, after a bloody and explosive chase through the streets of Washington.

After escaping by hailing his shark, and swimming through the sewers to Annapolis, he sneaks his way onto Harrison Ford’s ship and they decide to save America from the evil Democrat party. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but it involves Denehey being impaled on one of the spikes on the headdress of the statue of liberty.

I've already sent a Bobwurst a contract, and I'm starting the 'treatment' today!

Fuck the Constitution: Small Video Cams Are Your Best Protection Vs. Uniformed Thugs

Via RawStory:

A New York City police officer has been placed behind a desk after being caught on tape deliberately pushing a man off of his bike during a Friday Critical Mass event in Times Square.

22-year-old rookie Patrick Pogan, former football offensive lineman and son of a retired NYPD detective, claimed in court documents that 29-year-old Christopher Long of Bloomfield, New Jersey was "forcing multiple vehicles to stop abruptly or change their direction to avoid hitting the defendant." Pogan also alleged that Long knocked him to the ground after deliberately aiming the bicycle towards him.

Video uploaded to YouTube appears to contradict that claim, showing Pogan moving in front of Long as he attempted to ride past the line of officers, and shoving Long to the ground. The footage, the New York Daily News noted, "clearly shows Long trying to dodge Pogan, who appears to have remained upright the entire time."

"The police officer looked to see who he was going to pick off," said witness 54-year-old Craig Radhuber. "All of a sudden the cop picked this kid out and bodychecked him...I couldn't believe what was going on."

Cops will ALWAYS support one another's versions of events, whether they have to lie to do it or not. They all bleed blue.

So the only recourse must be to have your own, irrebuttable account of events. Never trust cops to be on your side, no matter what. They are the official, mortal arm of the State. Watch it:

Busheviks Lower Bar for Workplace Safety; ChairWoMan Chao Fastracks Rule Change

WaPo sez:

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.

The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title. (Emphasis supplied)

Via Grist:

It's Us Against Chem
Feds rush to weaken workplace safety rules on toxics before term ends

The Bush administration is trying to push through a new workplace safety rule to weaken workers' protections against toxic chemicals before it leaves office, according to The Washington Post.

The rule, which has not technically been made public but was leaked, would mandate a reevaluation of the methods used to measure risks to workers from toxic exposure in the workplace. The rule would also require the U.S. Department of Labor to entertain additional challenges to its risk assessments before establishing new limits on exposure to chemicals.

So far, work on the proposal has reportedly been fast-tracked and has been conducted largely in secret, drawing sharp criticism from worker advocates.

"This is a guarantee to keep any more worker safety regulation from ever coming out of [the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration]," said workplace safety professor David Michaels. "This is being done in secrecy, to be sprung before President Bush leaves office, to cripple the next administration." Once it's published, the rule will be open to public comment for 30 days.

May someone please shove Elaine Chao up Mitch McConnell's ass, please, and let her suffocate there.

What The SCUM** Really Do

The job of the SCUM (**So Called Unbiased Media**) is to focus on the political "horse-race," to make enough noise so as to make it seem tightly contested enough that at the end it can plausibly be stolen, and the outcome be manipulated through fraud, theft, and extortion--the usual--if that is the wish of our CorpoRat owners and paymasters. This year, I'm not sure they've decided yet. The choices are BOTH alluring. 1) They can let Obama be installed in the WhiteHouse, and then laugh hysterically from the wings as he fails utterly in ANY "promised" reform efforts--all/any of which will be stymied automatically by what-ever number of GOPukes remain in Congress and their Bush/Blue-dog allies. By so doing, th Bosses will manage with a single stroke to destroy the Dims (irrelevance, impotence), and to also remove forever the possibility that ANY OTHER 'minority" will ever assume power. Because Obama will NOT be able to overcome the fascist inertia. WIN/Win...

Sounds pretty good, hunh?

But get a load of the other option: McStain. By putting him in, they don't have to do ANYTHING. They just let things go along as they have been. This has advantages: They don't have the inconvenience of the 4-year interregnum, the slowing of tax breaks, grants, and other federal munificences. They won't have to move their war. They won't have to pretend to care about--or spend any money on-- the climate or the planet.

Oh, yeah, the people suffer a little. But as long as you can keep 'em in front of the TeeVee (60", plasma), watching American Idol or Survivor, with a 30-pak of industrial beer-sludge ("Bud") in the fridge, and the Pizza-guy at the door, the people won't move anywhere, far less rise against their oppressors.

By the way, and despite the Obama-nation, I am pretty sure that, come Jan 20 next year, McStain's gonna be the one standing up there on the reviewing stand, hand on the Bible, lying in his fucking teeth about "protecting the Constitution."

I hope I'm wrong...if I'm not, it will mean either that the Murkin people have finally succumbed to the rightard, genetic mutation to which they have long been susceptible and which I always knew lay dormant, or that the final, silent Fascist propaganda triumph has passed unnoticed and unmarked into the history books.

Pete Domenici Is A Drooling, Senescent, Brain-dead Dick-head

The Pukes won't pass anything to aid the poor unless there's provisions to start off-shore, and ANWR oil drilling. The fuckers cannot be happy unless they're fucking up something precious for the profits of their mothercheneying oil-company paymasters. Domenici's already losing his mind, but I hope he stays 'compos mentos' long enough to know he can't even wipe his own ass...
Via RawStory

Senate Republicans block heating aid bill
Associated Press
Published: Sunday July 27, 2008

WASHINGTON - Republicans on Saturday blocked the Senate from considering a bill next week that would nearly double federal aid to help the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills.

Although a dozen Senate Republicans support the measure, most voted with GOP leaders who would rather spend the time trumpeting their call to expand offshore oil drilling before Congress takes six weeks off for vacation and the presidential nominating conventions.

"The American resources on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts contain 14 billion barrels at a minimum ... more than we have imported from the Persian Gulf in the last 15 years," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

Democrats needed 60 votes to substitute the measure on heating and air-conditioning aid in place of the debate on an expansion of offshore drilling championed by President Bush and GOP presidential candidate John McCain. They got 50 votes Saturday, with 35 Republicans voting against changing the topic.

"Do we vote to keep the old, the sick and kids alive when the weather gets cold or very, very hot, or do we spend money on people who make huge campaign contributions? That is part of what this debate is about," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

The government is devoting $2.6 billion in subsidies for helping people with low incomes pay heating and air-conditioning bills this year. Sanders' bill would nearly double that to $5.1 billion.

While Senate Democrats said they hoped to pass it next week, Democrats in the House were looking at the popular subsidies for anchoring a second economic aid bill they want to push in September, closer to the November election.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is vehemently against letting the House vote on offshore drilling. She and Democratic leaders in the Senate also have shut down normal summer work on spending bills to prevent offshore drilling from getting a legislative footing in the appropriations committees.

Five point one BILLION dollars??? To help those least able to help themselves get through the worst of the year's weather. Why, that's outrageous. For that money, the US Occupation of Iraq could be extended by over a WEEK.

As for Domenici, well, I guess you gotta understand he's only got a couple of months left in which to fatten the wallets and finance the yachts of his numerous benefactors in the energy and defense industries for which he's so studiously and assiduously carried buckets of runny legislative shit since Reagan, anyway.

Oh, and did I mention, I hope Pete Domenici forgets how to wipe his own ass?

Disciplining Children: To Spank or Not To Spank

My normally gentle friend, Laurell, the East Mountain vet, sent this:

Spanking children

Many Americans have come to think it's improper to spank children. The other day I was talking to one of my younger associates about methods used to discipline children. He provided me with some interesting ideas.

We talked about "time outs", grounding, holding back "rewards" until the child displayed desired behavior etc. One of the things we discussed was the act of spanking and my friend explained that no, he NEVER spanks any of his children.

What he does, he said, is to take the misbehaving child out for a ride in the car and talk. By removing the child, in this case his son, from the immediate situation and providing a change of scenery, the child is allowed to focus on something different. Once the child has the opportunity to change perspective, things get better quickly and the child has better understanding of his place within the family and begins to understand the family's concept of acceptable behavior.

He said that usually this works and that the child calms down fairly quickly and really doesn't take too much time.

He kindly shared a picture of the process which I share with you now (scroll down).

World To McCain: C'Mon, Fucknozzle, Just Withdraw

--"E-fucking-NUFF, Already"--

Michael Berube, via TPM:

EARTH, July 25, 2008 -- The entire world drafted an open letter to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) today, asking him to drop out of the U.S. presidential race and concede the presidency to Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois).

"Ordinarily we do not interfere in America's internal affairs," said a spokesman for the rest of the planet, "even when it has become clear, as in recent years, that American voters are about to elect ignorant, incoherent buffoons who will add immeasurably to our immiseration. But this time is different. We didn't think it was worth our while to step up for your Carter or Mondale or Dukakis or Gore or Kerry -- besides, we'd only be bombed or invaded for our trouble. But this time, I mean, come on -- you've got to be kidding me, right? Please tell me you're kidding."

More

"We'll Do It Live"!

Via Crooks & Liars: This is funny. Satirical, too. Go figger...


http://view.break.com/542113 - Watch more free videos
That green-screen glitch is gonna keep on being raw meat for the leftroots for a LONG time...

Don't You Wish Obama Had the Stones?

Sadly,No! offered this:

I don’t really like to play the “just-imagine-the- wingnut-outrage” game, but this is, I think, a perfect opportunity to do it. John McCain went on the attack and said this about Obama:

I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

This loathsome little effort at reading Obama’s mind, of course, elicited a round of huzzahs from the usual suspects, including the pretend pirates pirate at Pirate’s Cove.

But suppose that Obama had said this:

I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than spill more American blood. It seems to me that Senator McCain would rather spill more American blood in order to win a political campaign.

They’d still be scraping pieces of John Hinderaker’s skull from the ceiling in his office

I'd loan 'em my wallboard knives. Hell, if Obama--or any-fuuking-body-- had the guts to say anything LIKE that, I'd go door to door for 'em.

A Story About A LOTTA Bull

My pal, Laurell, the Vet in the East Mountains c&p'd this to me the other day, and I just now found it. I've performed one obvious edit, the rest should be self-evident from that. I think this might be the literal joke equivalent of "filking' a song.

So this Department of Water Resources Homeland Security representative stops at a Texas ranch and talks with an old rancher. He tells the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for the border fence."

The old rancher says, "Okay, but don't go in that field over there."

The DHS guy gets real huffy and says, "Mister, I have the authority of President Bush with me. See this card? This card means I am allowed to go WHEREVER I WISH on any border land. No questions asked or answered. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?"

The old rancher nods politely and goes about his chores.

A couple of minutes pass, and pretty soon the old rancher hears loud screams and spies the DHS guy running for his life and close behind is the rancher's bull. The bull is gaining with every step. The DHS fella is terrified, yelling at the top of his lungs to the rancher for help. Right away, the old rancher throws down his tools, hobbles to the fence, and yells at the top of his lungs.....

"Your card, man! Your CARD! Show him your FUCKING card!"

I highlighted the first edit, and rely on your acumen to recognize the rest.

There will not be a test.

Hit & Run!@ Close the Book

Isn't Novakula in Jail YET?

Beloved right-wing lying sleaze-bag and scum-sucking water-carrier for the GOP for too many years to count, Bob Novak had an unfortunate encounter with a pedestrian on a Washington D.C. street earlier today, after which encounter the pedestrian was injured and the vehicle, a distinctive black Corvette, sped away. Followed by a shouting bicyclist, Novak stopped a block or so away...
Might one be forgiven for being curious who's hands were on which shifter in the cab of that hot black 'Vette as it wheeled recklessly through thick DC pedestrian traffic? Who did Novakula not want to be known as an associate of that he'd risk a felony conviction (umm, that's what you or I would face for Hit & Run, leaving the scene, whatever) for running away?
Karma, beyotch!

War Crimes--Killing for peace

Today, the US Military starts a kangaroo war-crimes trial at Gitmo, trying to hasten the execution of the Ha'mdi, their first "terr'ist," to illustrate the GOP grand narrative--more fear, more war, more war-fare--in time for the impending electoral kabuki, the outcome of which is already moot. Missing entirely, of course, is any sense that ALL the wrong people are on trial for the crimes that were indisputably committed.

(Slate's) Dahlia Lithwick, reporting on NPR, wasn't exactly scornfully astonished by the way the fix had been put in--the Military Commissions fix, post SCROTUS, is still nothing but a "fix"----but she never raised any explicit objections to it. Dahlia tries to sound outraged, a little, I guess, but to me just sounds flabbergasted. (the audio usually comes up at 3 pm EDT.). Which is, I suppose, an improvement over the normal tones of ennui or childish, wide-eyed wonder, with which NPR greets and reports upon matters pertaining to the crimes of their pay-masters...

Remember, folks, you cannot spell "RePublicaN" without NPR.

Shocking

Shoddy installation, faulty materials, and careless work are contributing to the electrocutions, and other electrical injuries, of US troops in Iraq.

No. Really. It's true. Dozens of soldiers and even some civilians have been electrocuted taking showers in military installations in Iraq. Really. Via RawStory:

Among the seemingly innumerable scandal-worthy stories which have so marked the war in Iraq is one growing tragedy which has been largely ignored: shoddy electrical work by U.S. contractors at military bases leading to numerous electrical fires, troops receiving painful shocks, and even death by electrocution.

Search electrocution iraq: 212 THOUSAND hits on teh Google.

And you know the corporate culprit?

Nah, g'wan, take a guess. Rhymes with "Sellout, Clown, and Shoot." Usta be part of Dich Cheney's corporate empire. Good friends with the whole Bushevik establishment. Home of 'CuteJuice'-R-US! Yay-ass, I am talking about KBR, a fully spun-off Haliburton subsidiary, connected only at the ummm boards of directors...

10 More Years

AlGore made a contentious statement the other day. He said the USofA had no more than 10 years to achieve a carbon-free--not carbon-neutral, but carbon-free--energy system. And that, without exaggeration or hyperbole, the very fate of humanity on the planet would depend on it.

"I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years," Gore told thousands of people who packed into a conference hall near the White House to hear the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner speak.

The shift to new energy sources was needed to ensure "the survival of the United States of America as we know it," Gore said.

"Even more, the future of human civilization is at risk," he told the crowd, who punctuated his speech with cheers and applause.

Notwithstanding the survival of the USofA "as we know it" is of utterly NO concern to the people who own and operate the machineries of our world, the call seems to me to raise some troubling possibilities.

Estimates of the cost/price-tag for the project are counted in the multi-digit TRILLIONS, in the ranges of 20-30% GNP (even in the corrupt, deceptive, dishonest way that misleading index is configured and disseminated). SO, realistically, ya gotta ask, "Where ya gonna get that kind of cash?"

It's a really good question. And the answer is, probably, devastating. Because, without a doubt, no matter who's the occupant of the Oval office, it's gonna come from social programs.

It's not gonna come from taxes on the wealthy.

It's not gonna come from reductions in military spending, or on the Nazional/Heimatssicherheitsamt. Obama long ago declared he would enlarge the Army and the Marines. The Border Patrol? More Fences! ICE? More agents. And he'll NEVER cut the defense budget, because it would hand a huge cudgel to the rightards who are already portraying him as 'weak' on defense.

It's not going to come from subsidies to big energy companies, whose cooperation and compliance will be crucial if the project is to have ANY hope of success--unless the GOvt is willing to try to nationalize the industry (which really is the only rational solution, but will never happen).

And all that, of course, assumes there is a good-faith undertaking, not just the usual propaganda/slash-and-burn job...

So, if the USofA does commit to the 10-year program to totally ween itself--ourselves--from fossil fuels, it probably means that Universal Health Care will not materialize, for example. And there will be reductions in other social services. And they'll use this as a pretext to finally loot Social Security. And even then it's likely to fail.

Even to save the planet, it seems, you have to compromise with the forces that don't care if it is destroyed, as long as they're rich when it happens. In the worst case scenario as well as in the best, they're secure: absent a disaster, their safety is secured by their wealth; in one, everybody's going anyway, and they go out on top...

Actually, thinking long-term, it seems altogether possible to me that the quest to "save humanity" becomes the casus belli in the next onslaught of authoritarianism.

But I'm a pessimist.


(Photo: AFP/Tim Sloan)

One Way To Keep Karl Rove From Walking Away From His Subpoena? Jelly His Knees

Rove to Congress:

Bloggers answer: Send Rove To Jail!

Rove's Perp March?

It's nagahapun, of course. But it'd be nice if it were even possible.

The US has the highest number of imprisoned people in the world, as well as the highest per capita rate of incarceration, supervision and parole. People are dying in prison for having possessed marijuana. And yet this murderous shitwhistle gets to thumb his nose at the Congress?

Somebody, please, haze that fat, dew-lapped, flap-jowled, jiggly, little fuckstick my way. I gotta baseball bat and a cattle prod. Bet I can get a confession out of his reeking, feculent, shit-dribbling mouth...

By the way, I posted this as my comment with the petition:

I got arrested for saying "What the fuck" to a security guard. Karl Rove is saying "Fuck YOU!!!" to the WHOLE CONGRESS of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. You wouldn't let ME ignore a subpoena. Karl Rove isn't fit to tongue-lave my crusty prostate. If you cannot find it in yourselves to go after this rogue GOP operative, then resign and let somebody be appointed who will.

An "Inside" Joke

Discussions throughout the netroots have focussed on the New Yorker magazine cover. The discussions reminded me of something I decided upon many, many years ago on the nature of "jokes."

People experience "jokes" from one of two perspectives: 1) inside and 2) outside. An "inside" joke is almost a redundancy: from the outside, it is not--it cannot be--a 'joke.'

This realization once led me to the following conclusion: There IS no such thing as an "outside" joke. To be one, a joke and its interpreters MUST be "inside," in a kind of hermeneutic relationship of mutually interpretable discursive practices. The "humor" of the joke--its 'Joke-ness'-- depends on a person's location in relation to the discourse in which the joke itself is constructed. That's what makes 'humor' so unpredictable. Look at Adam Sandler, fer chrissakes? Does ANYONE think Adam Sandler is funny? Really?

With regard to the problematic cover in question, I'd say this: In order to think the cartoon was not funny, on some level you'd have to believe the 'truths' implied in the half-truths which comprise the substance of the images, wouncha?

Therefore, it's probably funny if you do not take seriously the 'veiled' accusations, don't think Obama's any of those things; it's probably NOT 'funny' if you do...

Seewaddamean?

BTW: I would have been very glad to have had Angela Davis in the White House in ANY capacity.

Bushevik Crime Syndicate Will NEVER, EVER, Be Held "Accountable" For ANYTHING -- Gay-Ron-TEED, Chers!

No President, of any party, persuasion, or predilection, will EVER set the precedent of prosecuting her/his predecessor, no matter what crimes, mal- and misfeasances in office scum-sucking fuckweeds did commit.

NAGAHAPPUN! NEVAH!!! EVAH!!!!!!!!!!!

To quote another former Bushevik preznint: "Just wouldn't be prudent."

This is the most frighteningly prescient scene in recent film-making

Robert Redford and Cliff Robertson, in Sidney Pollack's "3 Days of the Condor."

Remember the year?

1975

Military Recruiters Lower Bar For "Bad" Civilian Records: Criminals In Uniform

Suspect Soldiers: Did Crimes in US Foretell Violence in Iraq?

Via TruthOutDotOrg:
Russell Carollo reports for The Sacramento Bee:

"A yearlong examination of military and civilian records by The Sacramento Bee involving hundreds of troops who entered the services since the Iraq war began identified 120 cases of people whose backgrounds should have raised the suspicions of military recruiters, including felony convictions and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems. Of those, 70 later were involved in controversial or criminal incidents in Iraq.
(...)
From 2003 to 2007, the percentage of Army recruits receiving so-called "moral conduct" waivers more than doubled, from 4.6 percent to 11.2 percent. Others, The Bee found, were able to enlist because they had no official criminal record of arrests or convictions, their records were overlooked or prosecutors suspended charges in lieu of military service - akin to a now-defunct Vietnam-era practice in which judges gave defendants a choice between prison and the military.

John McCaint's Very, Terribly, Pretty, Miserably, Horrifically Awful Week

The blogosphere is jumpin' today with narratives about how Bombin' Johnnie's campaign was taking on water faster than the Forrestal when he tried to sink her.

The array of McCaint mis-steps, gaffes, blunders, mis-statements, reversals, and outright lies would have sunk a Democrat, without a trace. Add to that, the revelations in the LATimes that when McCaint divorced his first wife, Carol, the mother of his children, who kept the home fires burning the whole time of his imprisonment, his inappropriate behavior--he had been boffing Cindy quite publically for months, and already had a new marriage license when his divorce came through--Dem's Sum Ballews-- proved too much for even the scenescent Samurai of Palos Verdes, and his 'bride,' the former blow-job queen of MGM. Thus explaining the latter's perfunctory endorsement of Bombin' Johnnie, the jolly baby-killer.

But what all this does, more than anything else, is to re-inforce in me the dread, fearful notion that, indeed, this lying, vain, enraged, psychotic asswipe is going to be the next occupant of the ShiteHouse.

Which Of These People Was Once Reported

to give the 'best blow-job' in Hollywood???

According to Kitty Kelley's biography, Nancy Reagan "was renowned in Hollywood for performing oral sex." Just-say-yes Nancy--in the days when she was Nancy Davis--was known to give the best blowjob in town, "not only in the evening but in offices. [T]hat was one of the reasons that she was very popular on the MGM lot." It must have made her very popular with Ronnie as well.

Reckon she'd still give a decent hummer, take her teeth out...

Bombin' John, on the other hand, looks like he never swallowed...

Enthusiastic McCaint Partisans Rally To Support Their Hero/Candidate

The excitement is almost palpable. You can FEEL the thrill. The room just throbbed with energy!

Fafblog Weighs In On The VEEP-Stakes

And hilarity ensueth, as Faf examins the pros and cons of Joe Biden, Jim Webb, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton and Galacticus, Destroyer of Worlds. Galacticus comes off surprising well, ceteris paribus. I mean, yeah, he wants to devour your world. But he's not hiding his agenda. You know where he stands.

One sample: JOHN EDWARDS:

Pros: who could be more qualified to potentially succeed the president than the man whose sole qualification for the presidency was losing the previous race for the vice-presidency?
Cons: phony aura of fighting populism may conflict with campaign's preferred phony aura of sunny togetherness.

Merciless. Faf's often in a league by himself. But, as the comments illustrate, on this matter, at least, it is an open field.

The Pond Ranks In Top 10 Google Hits For "Stump Broke"

# 8 among 1,500,000 pages.

Another feather in our "Eli's-Google-Obsession" cap.

I am particularly proud that the cite includes reference to Mike Huckabee.

Walled-In Pond: Was Huckleberry's First Piece of Ass A Stump-broke ...
Jan 16, 2008 ... Was Huckleberry's First Piece of Ass A Stump-broke Hinny? Iirc, conservatard pundit Neil Horsley claimed that, down below the M/D ...
walled-in-pond.blogspot.com/2008/01/was-huckleberrys-first-piece-of-ass.html - 84k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Dept. of Nobody Ever Could Have Anticipated This Shit, For Sure...

Social Security Reform is back in play in the campaign.

McCaint sez he's fer it. Sez it's unfair to younger workers. It might be, too, if you thought the whole system was going to hell in a handbasket and/or your money was somewhere else.

Nothing better to guarantee the failure of a mutual assurance community than to tell the young they'll never have the benefits they pay for for the old.

There is another alternative. Take the old out on the glacier, strip 'em, and leave 'em. Freezing's not a bad way to go, I hear..

The only reason you wouldn't want to see to the well-being of your elders is that you don't think you'll ever live to old age, I reckon. If that's true, we're in deep shit.

In the short-to-mid-term, here's what's at stake. Social Security represents the biggest single pool of un-stolen, un-traded, un-exploited (for private profit) capital in the whole United States of America. Social Security is to cash for these vicious parasites what the trans-Caucasus is to the vicious parasites who speculate in energy. It's THAT big.

The bidness/banker/broker underwriters of both Parties wanna get their hands on that huge pool of cash.

They need a malleable President and a supine, whipped Congress to do the deed. Sometime after the 2010 election...

When you're playing no-limit, you only win when you have all the money. These guys are tinhorns, but they've got the biggest stack by far.

What Shall We Call The GOPuke Candidate?

I Vote for "McCaint"!

I liked McStain, and McShame, and McBush, and my own innovation, "Bombin' John," but nothing captures the utter futility the act of actually 'electing' the murderous maggot than "McCaint." It completely encapsulates the whole critique of the Right. They won't fix anything, cuz they McCaint see anything wrong.

Eli's Google Obsession: "But Humping"

It is with fitting and due humility that I may here tonight announce that, of approximately 1,950,000 pages Teh Google surveyed for the text-string "but humping," Walled-In Pond was #1. This is huge.

Walled-In Pond: Fuck Sen. Ben Nelson, Butt-Humping, Shitwhistling ...
Jul 15, 2007 ... Ben Nelson, Butt-Humping, Shitwhistling, Turncoat Fucknozzle, Par Excellence! Via Truthout.Org. (So-Called) Democrat Nelson Restores Funding ...
walled-in-pond.blogspot.com/2007/07/fuck-sen-ben-nelson-butt-humping.html - 86k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

The President of the United States of America Struggles With One of His Many Pressing Dilemmas

In this case, it's how he managed to Velcro his shoes together.
It takes a village...

Is "Waterboarding" Torture?

Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens "volunteered" to test whether 'waterboarding' is torture. His conclusion? You betcher FUUKING life it is.Waterboarding--but all torture really--is and always has been nothing more than a way for threatened autocrats and hierarchs, fearful to protect their power, to extract 'required' confessions from officially identified 'suspects,' and justify their suppression or extinction. It was EVER thus.
Duh...

THE BIGGEST, WORSTEST, TERRIBLEST, HORRIBLEST, SCARIEST THREAT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD???

(Dept. Of Hyar Come De New Bahss)
According to Barry O's top foreign policy advisor, and former Clintoon globalist and free-trader flunky extraordinaire, Anthony Lake

...(T)he biggest threat facing the world...
BIGGER than global climate change.
BIGGER than poverty and disease.
BIGGER than sky-rocketing energy and food prices and coming foods/energy shortages.
BIGGER than Russia re-arming.
BIGGER than growing conflicts over shrinking resources.
BIGGER than terrorism (which was the last greatest biggest threat facing the world).
BIGGER than organized crime.
BIGGER than accidental nuclear proliferation.
BIGGER than the Terror War operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and Somalia, which continue to spawn so much death, ruin, extremism and economic turmoil.
BIGGER THAN ALL OF THESE-- and all other threats facing the world -- is...What IS IT???
It's too awful to contemplate. It's incomprehensible!It's...
Yes, that's right!!!
IT's the prospect that Iran might, in Lake's words, "get on the edge of developing a nuclear weapon."

Hope all y'all like this war-economy, cuz NEITHER of the likely next incumbents in the US Shite-House is gonna do a shitting thing to alter one thread of it...

Barry O's response?

Barack Obama has hammered home the point even more forcefully: "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon -- everything."

You may have noticed in these last 7-and-some years that virtually EVERYTHING is "in the power" of the President to do. I do not take this as an encouraging sign of "change" or "new leadership."

Sorry.

I just don't.

Now HERE'S What I'd Call A "Co-Incidence!"

Bombin' John McCain was down in Colombia today, just passing through, campaigning in a South American country, when out of the juncle came a column of Colombian troops with a bunch of hostages, including an American, just freed from the FARC.

What LUCK! I thought to myself. WOW. Just WOW. How could anyone have EVER anticipated something like that?

And then, guess what, guess what??? It turns out the release had been choreographed with both the McCain campaign and the Busheviks in DC.

I mean, you could have knocked me over with a feather, I was THAT astonished.

Soooo-Prise, Sooooo-Prise: Obama Will Boost Bush FBI

(Dept. of I Fuukin Toldja So, Dumbfux)
That's "Faith-Based Initiatives" (via AP):

Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs
By JENNIFER LOVEN – 22 minutes ago
CHICAGO (AP) — Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

Change??? Hell, yess!
Leadership??? Fuck Yes!!!
Courage??? Shit yeah...

Go on, admit it.
You REALLY thought Obama Was gonna restore the Constitution, dincha?
Yeah, you did...
Here's Arthur Silber: "Maybe a new slogan, to replace the already exhausted hopey, changey thing: "Barack will fuck you over -- and he'll make you LOVE it!"
Or as I remarked the other day: "They're both gonna fuck us. But Obama may apply foreplay, while Bombin' John'll just climb aboard and start humpin."

John MCCain: War Criminal, Collaborator, Liar and Coward

Not everyone who served in Nam was a "baby-killer."

But Bombin' Johnnie was.

He conducted indiscriminate bombing raids on civilian population centers and infrastructure 23 times.

He got shot down on the 23 mission.

His A-4 crashed into a lake near Hanoi.

He was rescued from the wreck and from drowning by the very people he had been trying to kill.

For years he's lied about being tortured in captivity. His injuries were incurred in the plane crash and the rescue, for which there apparently wasn't much extra time for gentleness.

He was operated on to treat the injuries, without anaesthesia. But there wasn't much anaesthesia in Hanoi in 1967. They used most of it on the victims of Bombin' Johnnie and his buddies.

On the other hand, they could--and arguably should--have let him die.

Later, he collaborated with the North Vietnamese propaganda machine. Probably, he betrayed his shipmates by enumerating the ship off which he flew, his squadron, their capabilities, and their casualties. All that is documented.

Bombin' Johnnie's not a hero, folks. There was nothing remotely "honorable" or "heroic" about anything ANY American soldier, sailor, marine or airman did in Nam.

Pop-Quiz: At What "Price/Gal" Does War Become "Affordable"?

What's the "Price-at-the-Pump" that will motivate "Murkins" to approve a strike against Iran, or other oil-bearing 'adversary,' when the Busheviks inevitably launch one to prop up Bombin' Johnny's campaign. $5? $6? $7? $8...

How high does the price have to go before "No War For Oil" becomes anachronistic and idealistic? At what price do Murkins say: "Okay, fuck it. Get Me More Oil!"?

Remember the last scene of 3 Days of the Condor?

Fascism Has Arrived When Information Can Be Seized As "Contraband"

How the fuck can anyone believe there still persists even the fucking possibility for freedoms under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments?

Seizing Laptops and Cameras Without Cause
A controversial customs practice creates a legal backlash
By Alex Kingsbury
Posted June 24, 2008

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan's luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop," says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics.

Shaken by the encounter, Hogan says he left the airport and examined his bags, finding that the agents had also removed and inspected the memory card from his digital camera. "It was fortunate that I didn't use that machine for work or I would have had to call up all my sources and tell them that the government had just seized their information," he said. When customs offered to return the machine nearly two weeks later, Hogan told them to ship it to his lawyer.

The extent of the program to confiscate electronics at customs points is unclear. A hearing Wednesday before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on the Constitution hopes to learn more about the extent of the program and safeguards to traveler's privacy. Lawsuits have also been filed, challenging how the program selects travelers for inspection. Citing those lawsuits, Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, refuses to say exactly how common the practice is, how many computers, portable storage drives, and BlackBerries have been inspected and confiscated, or what happens to the devices once they are seized.

Customs agents have the authority to search the contents of lap-tops, on the same theory that permits 'em to search brief-cases. A brief-case might hold some piece of physical, material contraband: jewelry, drugs, food. A lap-top holds only bits and byts. No physical danger there, only ideas, thoughts. Didn't they settle that with allegedly pornographic literature imports in the '50s? If Customs fuckers can seize, inspect, and confiscate electronic information storage gear, it makes a complete, cocked-up mockery of the citizen's liberties guaranteed by the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments.

Typical Murking reply: "Fascism? Hunh? Where? I don' see no 'fascism.' There's no li'l guy in a funny moustache...You're just making shit up, you Dirty Fucking Hippy! You jis hate the Preznint..."

I'll Know The SCUM* Are Playing Hardball W/GOPukes When...

(Another in an irregular series of Konopelli "non-Diaries" on MLW, also on WWL)

Me?

I await with bated breath and wrestless anticipation, the "New Russert," who will ask:

"Senator, McCain, when did you STOP calling your rich, blonde, young trophy wife a C*NT? Do you believe she STILL dresses like a trollop (an anachron for "whore")?

*SCUM: SoCalledUnbiasedMedia

Bombin' Johnnie Thinks "We" Need a "Psychological Boost." Here's one:

So he thinks we should drill ANWAR and the coastal zones. It's the patriotic thing to do, and the people need symbolic guidance. It won't impprove the energy picture, but it would have 'a psychological impact' which might drive down Prices-At-The-Pump.

So, Johnnie, you feckless criminal, here's a scenario to play wit: The guy on the right, here, with the wattle fat enough to refloat the fucking Titanic, is Lee Raymond, former CEO of Exxon/Mobil and arguably one of the richest and most successful oil speculators in the world. If oil and energy are actually 'national security matters,' Raymond is one of a couple of hundred men and women who have manipulated the price of this vital national security resource for their own personal gain. That, my friends, is a hanging offense.

So, just think of the psychological impact of the following: On National Television (Faux?), we see the weeping Raymond dragged from a cell, wearing a sign that reads "OIL PROFITEER;" he's then forced to dig his own grave, then stripped to his skivvies, when he is knelt at the brink of his hole, where an un-smiling police official puts a couple of .22 cal slugs in the back of his head, and kicks the gelatinous corpse out of sight. Talk about psychological impact!

That's the way the Chinese do it...Mebbe the deterrence angle is a little weak, but it cuts hell outta recidivism...

Sound-biting The Chimp, NPR Audio- Stenography Drives Another Nail Into My Skull

Their headlines on the 11 am, MDT newscast led with the faux-earnestness of The Chimp extolling the virtues of drilling off-shore and in ANWAR as, at least implicitly, rational responses and prophylactics to the current price of petroleum products. Then they moved on.

And I am afraid I must have terrified the dogs, all the dogs in the neighborhood by the piercing shrillness of my keening for the death of the truth.

It is not a matter of anyone's "opinion" that allowing even the immediate and exhaustive exploration, drilling and exploitation of every inch of the 50 United States, their territories and tributaries, starting at noon today will NOT have ANY discernible impact on the current price of oil, will not lower the price paid at the pump--the PPATP--a single, coppery cent, not a sheckel, keine pfennig, nary a peso. NOT to have made any such reference is, in effect, becoming complicit in a lie: "catapulting the propaganda," as the Chimp let slip one day.

It would have been an act of truth--of nobility, of honor, of conscience--had the NPR news-reader rejoined the Preznint's patent falsehood with a terse remark, to the effect that oil which cannot get to market until 2020 CANNOT effect the PATP TODAY, for the love of screaming Jeezis and his pederastic acolytes!

But no, it the moment passed, unremarked. Mebbe the programmers there figger NPR listeners are sufficiently discriminating to be able to infer an implied subtext.

But I'm not so sure. These are, after all, the same people who claim to admire Scott Simon, and send in submissions to "This I Believe."

In Oil, but throughout the so-called 'energy sector,' we have a commodity whose production is easily manipulated for gain, along with a pliant, amorphous mythology of markets, and huge technological barriers to real understanding, embedded with the indices of international politics and economics at work creating and maintaining the "value" of oil. The price--and hence the ultimate cost--of USer/Western Civ reliance on petroleum has not even begun to be felt. USer economic macro-theory socializes cost, privatizes profit. That may be the immanent contradiction which finally undoes the whole wobbly, corrupt, feculent affair.

Raving Mikey Reagan (Yeah, That Reagan) Wants To Kill People

Not just anyone, of course. Not, for instance, the fascist fux who have trod the Constitution onto the shit-muck under their boots from DC to Bagdhad. Not "Shooter" Cheney, whose demise would set off celestial fireworks like the Second Going. Nope. It may surprise you to learn that Michael Reagan, adopted 'son' of the former but now deceased and rotting Gipper, wants to kill AMERICANS.

No, wait! That's wrong. I malign this fine man. Sorry.

He doesn't want to kill Americans himself. He wants someone else to do it for him (sound familiar?), while he buys the ammunition. Via Huffpost:

Right Wing Talk Host Michael Reagan Calls for Murder of Anti War Activists

On June 13, talk radio host Michael Reagan, the adopted son of former president Ronald Reagan and occasional guest anchor on Fox News, called for the murder of anti-war activists who, according to Reagan, are sending letters to U.S. soldiers arguing that the U.S. government had a role in 9/11.

Reagan told his nationally-syndicated radio audience:

"Take em out and shoot em. . . . You take em out, they are traitors to this country, and shoot them. . . . Anybody who would do that doesn't deserve to live. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that's what they are. And you shoot em dead. I'll pay for the bullets."

And no, Mikey, you poltroon, you cowardly piece of shit, you got it all wrong. "Traitors" is what you call fux who negotiate with foreign powers when they are NOT elected officials of the Country.

I want more than anything else before I die to shit in the mouth of one of your feculent family. Will it be you? Open wide...

Addendum (@ 9:15 am, MDT, posted on Digby): "If I were to say I thought it appropriate to have Cheney and Bush dig holes, strip to their skivvies, kneel down in the holes, and take two 9mm each to the pan, it would be considered excessive, I bet, and might even get stricken, and myself banned? And I don't even have a national radio broadcast...Go fuukin figger..."

Where's The Candidate?

The Dim Bosses--Pelosi, Hoyer, Rodrigues in the House, Rockefeller, and others in the Senate--have made a total sell-out deal with the Busheviks on "retro-active immunity tor the complicit telecoms which broke the law to assist the fascist fux in th ShiteHouse.

Poorman:

The bill. EFF doesn’t like it. The ACLU doesn’t like it. Greenwald has more round-up. Kagro X games it out. The Dodd is opposed; Feingold is opposed; Dodd and Feingold are opposed (we do note that the word ‘filibuster’ does not appear); while Barack Obama, #1 Democrat, is silent.

The point of telecom immunity is to protect the Bush administration - and those in Congress who enabled them - from having to answer for what they have done. There’s no other good reason for it.

if Obama seems reticent about restraining the powers of the President, is it only cuz he wants to hold onto the "get-out-of-jail" option for himself?

St. Potato-Head? A FAIR Assessment

HERE. It's lengthy.

Shorter (un)FAIR eulogy: Russert was a sold-out hack who loyally followed the diktats of his bosses, fondly laving the prostates of the GOPricks and the GOPowerful with his calloused, working-class tongue.

They loved the appearance of toughness, and, luckily, he didn't seem to mind the taste of their shit. Perfect parasitism!

I Smell A Contest

Recently Bombin' John made an appearance at which, behind him, was a green screen.

As soon as I saw this, , I thought, Gee, Judy, why don't we have a contest? I do NOT recommend that anybody actually watch the thing.

Stephen Colbert--or one of his writers--had the same idea, issuing one the infamous "Green Screen" challenges. Many many many entrants clog and congest YouTube. Nor have bloggers been immune.

Both SadlyNo nor The Poorman were immune to temptation. This one: Is very good...

Somebody over on MLW the other day was knocking the assertion by somebody else that the blogs, but this whole new-wave vid/pod/phone culture was creating at least the conditions of possiblity for a new wave "revolution." I think that, as long as the corporate hegemons don't close down the portals, having such a reservoir of talent, much of it the equal of Thomas Nast for character assasination, might level the playing field.

I started a new blog: A Chinchilla of Hope

There I shall be recounting and chronicling as much, and as honestly, as possible my baby Lila's (and my) battle with her cancer. There's a couple of posts there now. Don't focus on any one post, please; they're an evolving body of knowledge...

There's a bunch of research that suggests writing about stuff actually contributes to measurable amelioration of cewrtain kinds of difficulties. When I usta teach writing, it was on the basis that I, at least, needed to write in order to learn what I knew and how I knew it. I approach this with the same spirit.

I'm gonna try to be as real throughout this as I can be, but I might not get everything "right." This is a pretty emotional topic for me. Feelings can obtrude.

Lila (she's a fuukin ROCK) and I (a bit less so) would both be grateful if you bent your positive thoughts and good vibes her way. She's my bright, shining light.

And if anybody knows how I can stick a chinchilla image into the flag atop the blog, I'd be appreciative of the hint...

(NB: Chinchilla sketch by KDAVIES; used without permission)

National Press Club Grants Imprimatur To Obama Slurs

From FDL: A video has been circulating the internet showing a man, Larry Sinclair, speaking to camera making slanderous claims about Senator Barack Obama. These claims are demonstratably false, and don't bear repeating here, or in any venue. Which is why it is shocking that the National Press Club is offering a him a spot on the national stage on June 18.

Please take a moment to ask the National Press Club to check the facts before giving Larry Sinclair a bully pulpit. Also, if you have a moment please consider calling the National Press Club at 202-662-7500, and politely but firmly petition them verbally.

Follow the link to the page, and sign the petition. as i commented on with my signature:

I more than half suspect that if some beat-up ol' hippie/freak vet showed up claiming to have been bombin' John's butt-baby in the Saigon Hilton, that individual would not be able to tell us his story under the (implicit) imprimatur of the National Press Club without some serious vetting, first, would he?

Do your own thing!

Climate Restoration 'R Us

Jon Schwarz's lapidary musings at "A Tiny Revolution dot com," on the appropriate replies and strategies by citizens, collectives, communities, and other local civil authorities to answer the challenges occasioned by fierce and untrammeled, global and domestic energy consumption, and the thread along with it are worth your attention today.

My contribution:

I agree with putting gardens atop all the tall, flat-roofed buildings.

At the same time, i think we should apply a coat of white "paint"--mebbe some kind of insulating material--to every PITCHED roof in the country, and on every parking lot, every street, and any other otherwise unused horizontal surface of human manufacture to reflect light/heat and surrogate for the disappearing ice on the poles.

I also think the State (state/fed, machts nichts) should underwrite the process of installing some kind of photo-thermal or photo-voltaic collector on all that roof-space, too. This will spawn new industries in the manufacture and installation of such devices, which would offset the losses in employment in the traditional energy fields. EVERY responsible economist agrees with this assessment. Plus, making individuals CONTRIBUTORS to the community energy pool, and not just consumers from it, will i think be crucial to any even remotely successful efforts to garner BEEG public support for the changes that are coming. It is NOT inappropriate that the "state" should underwrite much of this expense, since it is no less than the commonweal which is at stake...

In any kind of disinterested calculus (the inter-planetary ethnologist, e.g.), humanity does not have the right to exterminate any and all but its own, domesticated animals in the exploitation of the planet's energy resources, but that is almost certain to happen unless there are specific infrastructural prohibitions against it. So the preservation of bio-diversity must be non-negotiable, for either moral or practical reasons, whichEVER is most persuasive.

Ps: I took down the "Lila" post. My girl objected that it (that i'd) violated her privacy, and she's right (tho not, too, sorta). Any objective observer would have recognized that the post was an act of major self-pity, as much as anything, which is embarrassing, in flagrante delicto...
still, thank you for your replies, your consolations.

White Folk Don't Trust One Another (For Good Reaason), So Obama Scares 'Em

Obama's nomination will be cast by many whites as 'reparations' enough. People hereabouts (left-blogoville) mostly have more sense and sensibility than the 'herd,' and thus may properly excuse themselves from my characterizations, but there's this:

Nobody
ever lost an election by over-estimating the reluctance of Murkin "Whites" to put their collective fates in the hands of a black person. In view of the horrors Mary Scott recounted, (and which are surprisingly well known away from the places where they occurred--e.g., Tulsa, OK), this is, perhaps, in the meanest terms, "understandable." "We" have a LOT for which we are--or, at least, in a universal calculus, ought to be--accountable. The history of oppression, repression, and suppression by "White" Murkins of non-white people under their domain is one of unexampled, unexamined brutality. Most "White" folks, somewhere in their commerce-soaked consciences, know that it is true, and they tremble. "Slave Rebellion" is STILL the worst thing that can/could happen. If they were to be treated as they treated the victims of the regime that enabled their privilege???

Because:
There is not a person of color in the USofA who has not experienced the stinging scourge of racism--by which I do NOT intend the casual biases and bigotries. But I mean, rather, the system of abuses and excuses which was built and perpetually conspired to inflict 400 years of indignity, pain and suffering upon its victims; to which they were, for all intents an purposes, powerless to reply or seek redress. It is not the bias and bigotry that makes USer culture "racist." There is bias and bigotry everywhere cultures intersect. It is the culture which tolerates, amplifies, exploits, and reifies bias and bigotry, and which rewards it.

Conversely
--and this is the hard part--there is not a "White" person alive today in the USofA (me, e.g.), male or female--and there never has been one who EVER lived here--who has NOT benefited from racism (within the same caveat), whether they know and/or acknowledge it or not. You got a job, or didn't get a ticket, or didn't get hassled because--and only because--you are/were "white."

They don't call it 'privilege' for nothing...

Poll-watching

I have spent the day today as an election judge in a smallish precinct where 75 Dims and about 25 Pukes showed up (out of about 450 eligible voters) to name their candidates for the NM General Election.

Based on what is, admittedly, not actually scentific data but rather is mostly anecdote, probably 35-40 percent of my fellow (NM) citizens do NOT have the mental capacity to cast a knowledgeable ballot.

That that percentage of the population which would have to relinquish their 'smart' seats on the bus to a box of fucking rocks renders the whole ideal of an informed electorate a mad, impossible delusion